THEWILL FEB 20 - 26 EDITION

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NNPCGroundsNigeriatoaHalt •Imported Dirty Fuel Still On Sale •Nigerians Keep Vigil At Filling Stations •Petrol Sells for N300 per litre •Commuters Groan Over Increased Fares •Businesses Count Losses

Delinquent Debtors Roll: AMCON Back-pedals, Battles N500m Asset-Tracing Suit

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COVER

NNPC Grounds Nigeria to a Halt •Imported Dirty Fuel Still On Sale • Nigerians Keep Vigil At Filling Stations • Petrol Sells for N300 per litre • Commuters Groan Over Increased Fares • Businesses Count Losses

BY AMOS ESELE WITH REPORTS FROM SAM DIALA, UKANDI ODEY, UDEME UTIP, AMOS OKIOMA, SEGUN AYINDE, KAJO MARTINS, JOY ONUORAH AND BASSEY ANIEKAN

A

t a time that Nigeria’s flat economy, for the first time in many years, is expected to benefit from the rising price of crude oil in the international market, currently about $95 per barrel, the country is transfixed in agony over a resurgent fuel crisis caused by a large quantity of dirty fuel imported into the country under the supervision of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC. Since February 10, 2022 when the news broke and the NNPC named the culprits as Oando, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium, MRS, Duke Oil (its international subsidiary), though the first two marketers have exonerated themselves and blamed the NNPC for being the sole importer of petroleum, Nigerians have been going through pain and distress, following the disruptions of their economic activities in view of the centrality of the fuel supply chain to the economy.

By the time these social and economic disruptions are checked, the expected accruable revenue from increased oil price, however minimal, would have been eroded as the damage caused by the imported bad fuel would have wiped out any gains.

Throughout last week, during which the NNPC promised to ensure regular supply of petrol at various filling stations across the country, Nigerians have and will continue to keep vigil at the stations to buy fuel at rising costs, with the attendant multiplier effect on their economy.

Although adequate data, as usual, is unavailable, there are palpable facts that Nigerians are counting their losses in all areas of their lives.

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Apart from the black market prices that now range between N500 and N1,000 per litre, some petrol stations were jerking their prices from the prevailing price of N162 per litre to between N175, N200 and N300 per litre, according to findings by our correspondents across the country.

Except at the NNPC mini or mega filling stations at Sapele Road, Benin-City, Edo State; Abeokuta in Ogun State; Olusegun Obasanjo Way, Zone 1 in Abuja and at Ikoyi, Lagos State, for example, where petrol still sells at the prevailing N162 per litre, many other stations have capitalised on the situation to increase the price of the commodity with different strategies.

At the Oando filling station on Ekoro Road, AbuleEgba, Lagos, petrol was sold for N300 per litre last Friday morning. At the Mobil filling station on LagosAbeokuta Expressway, Abule-Egba, it was sold at the usual N162 per litre, but black marketers fronting for some of the station attendants sold in jerry cans at N250 per litre within the premises.

The price of petrol at Dahaush and Cynai filling stations in the Igando area of Lagos, was N200 per litre, while at Enyo, which is situated in the same neighbourhood, the price was N250 throughout last week.

At Alak filling station in Rounda, Abeokuta, Ogun State, petrol sold for N200 per litre throughout last week. In most filling stations in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the price of petrol stands at N175 per litre. In Calabar, the Cross Rivers State capital, fuel is available, but it is mostly of the ‘dirty’ type causing problems in the country.

Taxi drivers and car owners, Mike Essien and Odey Silas, lamented that though they found fuel to buy, their vehicles had been damaged before they knew the problem was caused by bad fuel bought at filling stations

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within the municipality.

“My vehicle got bad and I was told by the mechanic who serviced it that it was bad petrol that caused the damage.

“It’s a vehicle I have driven in the last six years. I noticed that the sound of the engine was different that fateful morning after I fueled the car in one of the filling stations here,” Silas told THEWILL. Essien said he had been buying petrol from some filling stations in Calabar Municipality, but he noticed that when he bought fuel at Calabar South, his car developed a problem and was not firing properly.

He said that after fixing the problem, it kept recurring until he refuelled outside Calabar South.

HARDSHIP FOR NIGERIANS Businesses that depend on generators for power in the face of epileptic electricity supply are counting their losses. Frozen foods sellers, barbing salons, football viewing centres, provision stores, beer parlours, have all fallen on bad times.

To perpetuate their crime, some of the filling stations monitored across states in the country have resorted to selling petrol at 6 am. They stop selling between 7am and 8 am. Others start selling at 1 pm and stop within a few hours, while some only sell at night.

By the end of the week, those business owners that managed to get fuel at high costs started passing some of the costs, especially of perishable food items, to consumers.

Also, the heavy traffic caused by queuing vehicles on busy main roads in the bid to get fuel have created an avenue for accidents and pickpockets and street fights PAGE 5

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COVER by those struggling to get fuel. Some people wake up as early as 4: am to queue at a petrol station just to increase their chances of getting fuel.

Respondents who spoke to THEWILL in Makurdi, capital of Benue State, have decried the negative effect of the fuel crisis on their families and businesses.

A check at some fuel filling stations on the busy Otukpo Road in Makurdi shows that only the AP filling stations along George Akume Road were selling as of Friday last week with only one out of eight pumps dispensing fuel.

P.Kura Oil and Gas Ltd, along Otukpo road, Makurdi and Total Filling station, opposite Federal Road Safety Commission, were closed to customers. Motorists queued up as early as 5.am but could only get rationed fuel to buy at high costs.

Commenting on the situation, a commercial motorcycle operator, Shater Alom, said that since he bought petrol at an abnormal price, he was forced to increase his fare from N100 to N200 so as to remain in business, while a commuter, Dooshima Agba, lamented that she boarded a vehicle from Makurdi to Vandeikya at the cost of N2,200 instead of N1,500.

The Vice President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists Zone D, Comrade Kris Atsaka, described the development as unfortunate and regrettable, coming at a time when there is so much hardship in the country.

“For a long time, the Federal Government ensured that petroleum products were available, though at a higher price than expected. Nevertheless, the ongoing scarcity is excruciating. The Federal Government should do something about it so as to save the people from unnecessary hardship,”Atsaka said.

He appealed to dealers and marketers of petroleum products to be more circumspect and honestly move to stop the fuel crisis immediately.

In an interview with THEWILL, the station manager of Jenny Investment Nigeria Limited, Makurdi, Mr Otajele Onuh, said the filling station had continued to sell fuel from 8am to 6pm daily since last Monday.

A federal civil servant, Mrs Toryina Kator, said the Federal Government and the NNPC should be held responsible for the ongoing fuel crisis in the county.

Surprisingly, in Akwa Ibom State, where there is no scarcity of petrol, the commercial interests are similar to what is playing out in other parts of the country, in terms of exploitation of the people. There are no queues at filling stations as independent petroleum products marketers are selling their products though at higher prices.

A survey by THEWILL correspondent in Uyo, the state capital, showed that Independent marketers determine the pump price of the product. As of last Thursday, petrol sold for N175,00, leaving motorists, especially commercial bus drivers, to complain bitterly about the increase which they claimed was a daily occurence.

Meanwhile NNPC, Oando, Total, Mobil filling stations in the state remain closed.

An independent marketing station manager along Aka Road, Uyo, Eyo Brown, blamed the hike in the price of the products to the high price at which the major marketers sold the product to them.

“It is how we buy. We have to make some profit, at least. That is why some others have closed their filling stations. That is how it is and we don’t know if it will not get to N200 per litre because the suppliers always increase their rates.”

In Ogun State, commercial drivers have resorted to spending nights at filling stations to buy fuel at N200 PAGE 6

NNPC Grounds Nigeria

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Taxi drivers are now sleeping over at the filling station to buy fuel because of the scarcity. if the Federal Government wants to increase the pump price of petrol, let them tell us because this suffering is too much

per litre. There, commercial taxi drivers, commercial motorcycle and tricycle operators, popularly called Okada riders, have continued to experience difficulty in filling their vehicles with petrol.

As of the time of filing this report, most petrol filling stations in Abeokuta had suspended their operations.

Only Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Fatgbems filling stations were selling petrol to motorists at N162 and N165, respectively.

A taxi driver, Wasiu Lemboye, complained bitterly that “Taxi drivers are now sleeping over at the filling station to buy fuel because of the scarcity. If the Federal Government wants to increase the pump price of petrol, let them tell us because this suffering is too much.”

For tolerating the suffering and because he wants to remain in business, Lamboye said he has to pass on the cost of lost man hours to the commuters.

He said, “People are even finding it difficult to afford the fare we charge them. Before the scarcity, the fare from NNPC junction to Iyana-Mortuary was N50, but now we charge N200 to make ends meet.”

A tricycle operator, Waheed Lawal, who recounted how he took his toothbrush, a sachet of pure water and a piece of cloth to pass the night at a petrol station, said that he and his colleagues now charge N150 from Lafenwa to Olomore, which stood at N100 before the crisis.

“This scarcity of fuel is really affecting our business. I slept in a filling station on Monday. I had to tell my wife about it. I took my toothbrush, a sachet of pure water, a loincloth and packed them into my tricycle. It was the next morning (Tuesday) that I bought fuel at N200 per litre at the Alak patrol station in Rounda in Abeokuta.

“In fact passengers are complaining about the money we charge them. Before the scarcity we usually charged N100 from Lafenwa to Olomore Bus Stop. Now the fare is N150. We are begging the government to please find a solution to this problem,” he noted.

An Okada rider, Femi Samuel, said that he had to travel over a long distance to a village in Igbogila to buy fuel at N200 per litre because the long queue at different filling stations in the capital was time consuming. To make up for that, he said he had to raise the Lafenwa to Oke-Ilewo fare from N200 to N300 from Lafenwa to Oke-Ilewo.

In Jos, the Plateau State capital, Mr Alex Omeje of Open Plan Design Ltd, a firm of consulting engineers, summed up the general situation by saying, “It is not the first time”, but as usual it is “very unpleasant and unpleasurable”.

He said it is unfortunate that for a struggling economy, people are spending a lot of man-hours sleeping at filling stations, in spite of all the promises for the fiscal process of 2022.

Omeje holds the government responsible for the “unnecessary hardship” underscoring the development as “disappointing and unforgivable” and wonders why Nigeria should continue to import fuel after 61 years of Independence.

“It is very sad” is simply how a Managing Partner at Solomon Iroagba and Co, a chartered accounting firm, Solomon Iroagba, summed up his experience with the subsisting fuel palaver. He recalled that this government came with a lot of promises, including a downward review of the pump price of petrol. Now, he noted, fuel is selling at N162.50 and whenever the government wants to remove the subsidy on petrol, it will create artificial scarcity. But again, he contended, “Why must we continue to import fuel?”

THE PROBLEM AND REAL CULPRIT After the exchange of accusations and denials between NNPC, Oando and MRS, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, has since issued an apology to Nigerians on the ‘dirty’ fuel saga and promised to remedy the situation by last weekend.

Nonetheless, Kyari’s choice of words in his explanation on the fuel crisis during an appearance before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) last Wednesday has shed more light on the source of the problem.

Arguing that the supply followed normal regulation and specification, which made it difficult for the company to discover the problem, Kyari stated: “On the basis of those contracts, our suppliers bring products to us and reconcile with them regularly. Part of those supply arrangements is to give specifications to your suppliers.

“These specifications are bound by regulation and the latest that we are using is the one that is in place since 2006. All our partners were given those specifications and on the basis of this, those imports were made.

“In the case of all the problems we have seen, five of the cargoes that are particularly in question today met all these criteria on arrival and that was why they were allowed to discharge into terminals and conveyed into ships.

“There was simply no way, based on the current specification, that you will know this PMS contains methanol. It is not part of their requirements at the load port. So, we did not ask them to declare whether it contained methanol because it is not part of our specification.”

The key words in his statement are specifications and regulations. Apart from the NNPC, which, judging by Kyari’s statement, has admitted the error, identified the problem, isolated and recalled the bad product, the other organisation that ought to ensure standards are not compromised in such a situation is the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) according to investigation

by THEWILL. Surprisingly, that organisation that is charged with ensuring that imported and exported goods meet standards that are uniform globally, washed its hands off the fuel saga.

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COVER four idle refineries consume huge amounts of money in personnel and “maintenance” costs.

to a Halt Head of Public Relations of SON, Mr Bola Fashina, told THEWILL that though the organisation has since reached out to the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and offered support in areas of testing, it cannot be implicated in the current problem.

He said, “Since 2011 when SON was asked to leave the ports, we can only check products at the ports if we are invited to do so. So SON cannot be involved in this problem.

“Given the question you asked about standard and regulation, yes, we can test to meet standards. That is why we issued a statement in January 2022, saying that we want to help meet standards in the oil industry. We have been in touch with the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to support their capacity to conduct such testing and see how we can work together.”

When asked whether the set standards were working, he said there are four ways to know whether standards are working or not.

“They are through observation of what is going on, through consumer activity, through reports from industry players informing us about new innovations and through market surveys by our offices nationwide to see if products made in Nigeria or coming from abroad meet the requirements to enable us trace products to source in order to ensure that regulation is appropriate.”

He said that since the NNPC GMD had named the marketers involved in the importation of the ‘dirty’ fuel, SON could in no way be implicated or held responsible.

WHAT WENT WRONG Further investigation by THEWILL showed that the problem might have been complicated by the poor governance structure in the industry.

According to an NNPC official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, what has been referred to as toxic fuel is actually a misnomer and that the ‘dirty’ fuel may have been coming from the same Belgium before now.

Explaining that the current situation is different from the mixed or adulterated fuel saga in 2006, the official said, “This particular one is that ordinarily we do not import fuel with methanol content. Even so, you can still use the fuel. What happened is that it got mixed with water.

Normally, after discharge, the fuel is allowed to settle, then float before it is pumped out for sale. But when you have methanol mixed with water, it is intolerable. After all, some marketers got the same fuel and are selling it.

How? They discharged into tanks that had no water. They did not mix their stock with water. So what the NNPC boss meant with specification and standard is that we do not allow importation of fuel with methanol content and the companies involved know that specification.”

THE NNPC CONNECTION The NNPC has been seen as a cesspool of corruption in the affairs of government. From skewed appointments to non-remittance of required revenue to the Federation Account, the organisation has remained in the public eye over the poor management of the nation’s collective wealth.

The price Nigerians pay for the poor management of the nation’s oil wealth is unimaginable. Every year, the THEWILLNIGERIA

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC Limited) recently disclosed that its three refineries recorded a combined operational deficit of N11.77 billion in three months. In its Monthly Financial Reports released on February 13, 2022, the refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna did not process crude oil during the period due to ongoing rehabilitation. A breakdown of the losses incurred showed that the three refineries lost N4.01 billion in August, N3.37 billion in July and N4.01 billion in June 2021.

An audit report published by the NNPC in June 2020, showed that three of Nigeria’s four refineries gulped N1.64 trillion in cumulative losses recorded in their operations since 2014. Two of these refineries are the 210,000 barrels per day capacity Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited and 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited.

The audit reports showed that combined losses from the two refineries were N208.6 billion in 2014; N252.8 billion in 2015; N290.6 billion in 2016; N412 billion in 2017, and N475 billion in 2018. Further reports revealed that cumulative losses from the operations of the four refineries in 2017 and 2018 stood at about N412.8 billion.

In September 2021, the oil company reported that workers at the four government-owned refineries were paid a total of N69.07 billion in 2020. The plants generated zero revenue as they did not process a single barrel of crude oil.

The refineries suffered a combined loss of N108.29 billion in 2020, compared to N162.22 billion in the previous year, according to data collated from their audited financial statements.

As if driving on all lanes towards systematic destruction of the oil-dependent economy, the continued importation of petrol for which a humongous amount is paid as subsidy remains an Achilles heel in Nigeria’s political leadership.

Commenting on the huge cost of imported contaminated petrol, Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Olu Fasan, said, “We must recognise that Nigeria is in this pickle, in this mess, because it is utterly dependent on the importation of refined fuel. Despite being a major crude oil producer and exporter, Nigeria lacks the capacity to produce refined petroleum. Its four refineries are completely moribund. So, to meet its fuel needs and avoid long fuel queues at petrol stations, it has to import refined petroleum mainly from Europe.

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No matter how you think of it, as some political scientists theorised, disorder has been instrumentalised to the extent that elite groups deliberately create crises in order to feather their own nests, not giving a damn for the sufferings of the hapless majority

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“Then, there is the impact of climate change. Last year, at the United Nations climate change conference, COP26, Nigeria made a commitment to reach net zero carbon by 2060 and the government has since signed a climate change act into law. But how would Nigeria reach net zero carbon unless it stops importing dirty fuels and unless it introduces electric cars?

“With respect to the current problem of contaminated fuel, the government must investigate why the regulatory authority failed to prevent the importation of the fuel.

Surely, unless the contaminated fuel was smuggled into the country, it must have entered the market through the normal trade channels. So who dropped the ball must be held accountable for the mess.”

Fasan, a London-based lawyer and political economist, told THEWILL in a note that there is a need to compensate Nigerians, who suffered through long fuel queues where many man-hours were lost, and those who have suffered other economic losses.

“Let us face it, this is negligence, indeed recklessness, on the part of the government. But, in the long run, the question is how Nigeria can stop being dependent on the importation of dirty fuels and how it can move into climate-friendly energy sources, such as renewables and electric vehicles,” he said.

According to Prof Ayo Olukotun, the fuel saga speaks volumes about all that is bad about the country.

According to the professor of political science and media expert; “It is hard to believe that contaminated fuel with high methanol content could escape the rigorous quality reassurance both at the source, in this case, Belgium, and here in Nigeria where all the marketing companies reportedly have their own vetting mechanisms.

“The statement by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, naming four companies as the source of the problem read like an afterthought and lame justification in a context where the NNPC is the sole importer of petroleum, a fact pointed out to it by three of the companies named.

“The so-called explanation also begs several questions and issues, especially the one concerning how Premium Motor Spirit that is so badly contaminated circumvented all the inspection procedures that are meant to discover and ferret out toxicity.

“No matter how you think of it, as some political scientists theorised, disorder has been instrumentalised to the extent that elite groups deliberately create crises in order to feather their own nests, not giving a damn for the sufferings of the hapless majority.”

WAY FORWARD Expectation is rife among stakeholders that a huge refinery, like the upcoming Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company, alongside refurbished refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna undergoing turnaround maintenance and the modular refineries operating in Edo, Imo and Rivers States will, hopefully, turn things around.

“They will take care of local consumption. Costs like freighting and insurance associated with importation will be taken care of. Additionally, since we will not import again, there will be no talk of exchange rate determining our products,” said Mr Victor Ononokpono, erstwhile Treasurer of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG. Until then, Nigerians may continue to endure avoidable pain and suffering, which is often the product of an appalling disregard for due process and accountability in the country.

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NEWS Civic Society Groups Boost Youth Participation in Governance

BY JOY ONUORAH ive leading civic society groups in the country have concluded plans for a nationwide project geared towards sensitising the Nigerian youth towards greater participation in governance.

This was disclosed in a joint statement signed by Prince Rwang Pam Jnr, spokesman of the Southern and Middle Belt Alliance (SAMBA), on behalf of the five organisations.

Themed, ‘Towards Increased Youth Participation in Governance’, the project will commence in the South-East with a ‘Nigerian Youth Conference and Debate Tournament’ scheduled to take place between March 23 and 26, 2022 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in Anambra State.

The organisers of the youth conference include the Online Publishers Association of Nigeria (OPAN), The Nigeria Citizens Initiative (TNCI), Society for Women Mentoring and Advancement (SWOMAAD), and the Southern and Middle Belt Alliance (SAMBA) in collaboration with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Debate Club (NAUDC), a chapter of the Nigeria Debating Community (NDC).

The SAMBA spokesman stated that the four-day event will feature debate contests among 400 students from major Nigeria Universities and award of prizes.

In a statement issued ahead of the programme, the organisers said, “There will also be seminars with guest speakers, including politicians, community and religious leaders, captains of industry and the academic community.”

“The aim of the conference is to transform our youths from being mere spectators on the side-lines of politics to an enlightened and competent group of stakeholders prepared for leadership responsibilities.

“The youth, not oil, will be Nigeria’s greatest assets by 2030. So the primary aim of this event is to uplift the Nigerian youth from the fringes of leadership to an educated and distinct social demographic of a competent body of young people prepared for leadership.

“We expect at least 1,000 youths from Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, drawn from the 36 States of the federation, to attend the event".

According to the group, other issues to be explored include addressing the challenge of youth and political apathy, rotational presidency and Nigeria's democracy, addressing political inequality and imbalance through zoning of political offices, women inclusiveness and gender balance in governance, as well as the role of the media in ensuring political equity.

The organisers of the conference also said the groups are serious about ensuring that the Nigerian youths participate actively in the next general election because the future of the country lies in their hands.

“We want the youth to understand that the future is in their hands. So they must participate effectively as the country seeks to elect a president with a proven track record of job and wealth creation from the private sector,” Pam Jnr said.

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Long queue at BOA petrol filling station as fuel scarcity persists in Ota, Ogun State on February 18, 2022.

PHOTO: Peace Udugba.

We Don’t Need This Fraudulent Subsidy On Petrol Continued from Back Page

suspended as the investigation continues.

The important take-home from this grace to grass tragedy is one that should force a countrywide soul-searching because of the deeper implications that it bears for the kind of country that we all aspire to belong to. Far from glossing over the individual case of a police officer gone rogue, we need to ask ourselves very cogent questions as to why a cop with as much promise and prospects as Kyari had going for him would decide to throw it all away for 25 kilogrammes of cocaine? What will possess the most celebrated policeman to flush down the drain all the goodwill that he painstakingly gained overtime? What will induce a decorated officer considered to be the face of contemporary Nigerian policing to sacrifice his future on the altar of crime and easy money?

Perhaps, if we give these questions considerable thought and try to reach for fact-based answers and possibly more questions, we will begin to piece together a realisation that deeply entrenched in our contemporary psyche as a country is a mentality that must be exorcised, if we are to make progress realisable as a country any time soon. What demons will possess the crime-busting head of the intelligence unit of the police force, famed for ending the criminality of the notorious Abiodun Ogunjob-led robbery gang, Godogodo, in 2013, which had held sway in South-West Nigeria for 14 unbroken years to take to crime himself? Why will the mind that orchestrated the arrest of kidnapping gangs in the South-East and Rivers State that was led by Henry Chibueze (fearsomely known as Vampire) in March 2017, the apprehension of Chukwudi Onuamadike, the notorious billionaire kidnap suspect, popularly called Evans and Taraba’s wanted kidnap kingpin, Hamisu Wadume, consider a turn to the life of the underworld?

Kyari had the media at his behest and the country at his feet. In April 2016, the DCP was honoured with the Presidential Medal for Courage and two years later, he was declared 2018 Africa’s Best Detective, while the Silverbird Group conferred on him the accolade of Best Officer of the Decade.

In recognition of the distinction with which he was carrying himself and the honour he had brought to his home state, a street in his hometown of Maiduguri was named after him.

There was more to come.

Kyari received a standing ovation at a session of the House of Representatives in June 2020 for his exceptional work in the fight against criminality. No other police officer had ever come close to receiving such an honour. He was marked for the top and he was going places hitherto believed to be implausible for the corrupt cadre of the Nigerian Police Force. Perhaps to underscore the “Police is your friend” tag, he took an increasingly ostentatious posture on social media, consistently uploading pictures of himself in regular settings with common folks,

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which gradually became grandiose.

He demonstrated a flair for high society and loved to be seen with celebrities and those with enough money to throw around. That was how he became a familiar face associated with Ramon Abbas, more popularly known as “Hushpuppi”.

Until Hushpuppi’s arrest by the Dubai Police in June 2020 and subsequent extradition to the United States to face criminal charges, the Nigerian Instagram celebrity allegedly laundered money obtained from business email compromise frauds and other scams, including schemes that defrauded a US law firm of about $40 million, illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution and targeted to steal $124 million from an English football club.

It was involvement with such dubious characters that resulted in the first chink in Kyari’s pristine armour as an exemplary cop. Linked with Hushpuppi, based on acquired confessions from the fraudster, Kyari’s initial attempts to defend himself did not measure up and before long, he was suspended by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, pending investigations into his involvement in Hushpuppi’s criminal activities. He was still under suspension when the NDLEA net trapped him with audiovisual evidence that presented a watertight case against him.

The fact we cannot escape in this narrative is that there is a fundamental flaw which has ruptured the moral fabric of our society. For an individual of such standing and prospects to seek an alliance with the underworld of criminality, against which he had so courageously battled, boggles the mind to no end.

Was he seeking to secure a retirement plan? Was he looking to guarantee a life of grandeur for himself and posterity, which he felt was not certain within the framework of his government post? Were there no character safeguards in his upbringing that could have kept him going on the straight and narrow path and keeping him from losing sight of which side of the law he stood and represented?

As with such queries, there is often a direct link to be drawn to upbringing, nurturing and family.

As the basic unit of society, the health of the family can be used as a barometer to check the health of the society. Vice versa, the despoilation of the society is a most obvious pointer to the desecration of the family as a bed for nurturing the values that will help society maintain values of honesty, accountability, responsibility and forthrightness in the face of all odds.

The takeaway from the sorry tale of Kyari’s unfortunate turn must be for all of us to look inwards and ask ourselves some of these questions that challenge us to think of the deep moral and existential issues we all must face today, as individuals and as a country, as we strive to be the type of people we want to associate with in the type of country we want to live in.

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ARTS

Victor Ehikhamenor’s New Work “Still Standing” on Show at St Paul’s Cathedral in London Still Standing has been commissioned and curated by Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at University of Oxford and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum and Simon Carter, Head of Collections at St Paul’s Cathedral. The installation responds to a brass memorial panel to Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson (1843-1910) installed in the Nelson Chamber of the Cathedral’s Crypt in 1913. As the panel notes, Rawson had a long career in the Royal Navy, which culminated in his commanding the Benin Expedition of 1897, 125 years ago.

St Paul’s is a national landmark and the cathedral church for the Diocese of London. It houses over 200 monuments to significant figures throughout the ages, many made by the finest sculptors of the day and installed by the public. Among the people represented on memorials around the cathedral are giants of the arts, sciences, politics and military, from Admiral Nelson to Florence Nightingale. The memorials and sculptures were made by some of the finest artists of the day from John Flaxman to Augustus Rodin.

BY ONYEMA DIKE

S

t. Paul’s Cathedral, London, has today unveiled the bold new artwork Still Standing by Nigerianborn artist, Victor Ehikhamenor, on display in the crypt from 17 February to 14 May 2022. The speciallycommissioned mixed-media work which has been has been acquired by the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, forms part of 50 Monuments in 50 Voices, a partnership between St Paul’s Cathedral and the Department of History of Art at the University of York to invite contemporary artists, poets, musicians, theologians, performers and academics to showcase their individual responses to 50 historic monuments across the Cathedral.

Based in Lagos, Nigeria, and Maryland, USA, Ehikhamenor is renowned for his broad practice comprising painting, sculpture, photography, and unique works on paper. His richly-patterned works use symbolism from both traditional Edo religion and Catholicism, reflecting on the confluence of African and Western cultures. Still Standing combines rosary beads and Benin bronze hip ornament masks to depict an Oba (King) of Benin.

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50 Monuments in 50 Voices launched on 1 December 2021 to present a weekly series of audio, visual and musical works responding to the Cathedral’s monuments from 1796 to 1916. Encompassing the Napoleonic wars up to the First World War, the series features memorials of eminent Victorian philanthropist Maria Hackett, the Duke of Wellington, and polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, amongst others.

“

History never sleeps nor slumbers.

For me to be responding to the memorial brass of Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson who led British troops in the sacking of the Benin Kingdom 125 years ago is a testament to this

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Forthcoming voices include comedian Frank Skinner, and musician and presenter Cerys Matthews, alongside a range of participants from different creative, intellectual, social, cultural, political, and theological backgrounds.

The Dean of St Paul’s, the Very Reverend Dr David Ison says, “When they visit St Paul’s, many people are struck by the vast number of monuments and memorials to past figures. The 50 Monuments in 50 Voices project invites responses to these memorials and the people they commemorate, from an array of different perspectives. As part of that project, the installation of Victor Ehikhamenor’s artwork contributes to the ongoing task of understanding the complexities of these monuments in 21st-century Britain.”

Artist Victor Ehikhamenor says “History never sleeps nor slumbers. For me to be responding to the memorial brass of Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson who led British troops in the sacking of the Benin Kingdom 125 years ago is a testament to this. The installation Still Standing was inspired by the resolute Oba Ovonramwen who was the reigning king of Benin Kingdom at the time of the expedition, but the artwork also memorializes the citizens and unknown gallant Benin soldiers who lost their lives in 1897 as well as the vibrant continuity of the kingdom till this day. I hope that we, the descendants of innumerable uncomfortable thorny pasts, will begin to have meaningful and balanced conversations through projects such as 50 Monuments in 50 Voices.”

Professor Dan Hicks, co-curator of the installation, said, “Installed on the 125th anniversary of the attack on Benin City, this specially-commissioned work opens up a unique space for remembrance and reflection. Still Standing reminds us of the ongoing nature of the rich artistic traditions of Benin, of the enduring legacies and losses of colonial war, and of the ability of art to help us reconcile the past and the present.”

Professor Jason Edwards from the University of York and project lead on the Pantheons project says, “As well as detailing Rawson’s involvement in some of the most controversial military campaigns of the Nineteenth Century, including the Second Opium War in China and the destruction of Benin City in Benin in 1897, his bronze, brass, enamel, and marble memorial, by the little-known Army and Navy Company, is a significant artwork in its own right. Examined closely, its complex iconography includes English oak leaves and acorns, raven heads, Arabic script, a fort with a moat, Corinthian pilasters, dolphins, the Royal Humane Society silver medal, a jaunty naval officer, and a kangaroo, indicating Rawson’s last post as Governor of New South Wales.

But, as the Pantheons project and Cathedral recognise, the monument only partially tells a difficult story, which must, today, be supplemented with other voices, other key perspectives”.

Specially commissioned for this installation at St Paul’s, with generous support from Art Fund, Still Standing will find a permanent home at the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, which holds one of the most significant collections of Benin royal artworks.

For more information and to view the weekly contributions to 50 Monuments in 50 Voices, including Still Standing by Victor Ehikhamenor, visit the Pantheons project website at https://pantheons-st-pauls.york. ac.uk/ and on the Pantheons project Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels.

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WHO IS AFRAID OF GODWIN EMEFIELE?

HE’S NOT EVEN SNEEZING AND THEY ARE CATCHING THE COLD! PAGE 10

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EDITORIAL

Moribund Paper Mills And Industrialisation Plan

N

igeria spends about N60 billion annually on importation of paper, according to data from the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC).

The papers constitute raw materials that boost production in the real sector to grow the gross domestic product (GDP). These include the manufacturing, packaging and publishing businesses. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) also engage in the consumption of the commodity, including light industry for paper conversion.

NNMC was producing international standard newsprint which was exported to the United States of America, Canada, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and many other countries.

The company reduced Nigeria’s importation of newsprint up to 12.5 percent in 1987.

attention to the paper mills industry.

Nigeria prints over 1.2 million books annually. Experts estimate that the country loses about N800 billion every year when smuggling and finished paper products imported in the form of books, electoral materials and packaging are taken into account.

economy in the coming decades.

Earlier national development plans recognised the potential of the manufacturing sector, not only as a major source of economic growth, but also an important driver of concentric economic diversification and structural change.

However, by 2002, the three mills had stopped working. They were killed by mismanagement and corruption – the main virus that attacks governmentowned enterprises. Compounded by shortage of funds to import raw materials, machinery parts and pay workers’ salaries, the facilities began to collapse until they eventually turned into liabilities.

The Plan acknowledged that Nigeria’s manufacturing sector is among the largest in Africa, with numerous opportunities. However, the sector had continuously faced several structural challenges, which had caused many manufacturing firms to shut down, limiting growth and investment inflows into the industry.

Nigeria used to have vibrant paper mills. As part of its strategic plan for pulp and paper production for domestic and export markets, past governments commissioned the Nigeria Paper Mill, Jebba, Kwara State, in 1969; Iwopin Pulp and Paper Company (IPPC), Ogun State in 1975 and the Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) in Oku-Iboku, Akwa Ibom in 1986.

In a bid to revive the ailing companies, the Federal Government made moves to privatise them through the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), starting from the mid-2000s. But the exercise ended in a failure.

The NDP and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) offer opportunities to embark on a strategy for a robust paper mills industry.

We therefore urge the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for the revival of the paper mills. This includes a critical review of the post-privatisation status of the old paper mills towards rehabilitating those that can still be salvaged or open another vista that will attract competent investors.

The original plan was for the three pulp and paper mills to provide tonnes of different papers in their thousands every year. The overall performance of the paper mills was encouraging.

For instance, the government sold 90 percent of Oku-Iboku’s shares to Negris Holding Ltd, an indigenous engineering company and affiliate of the Energy Company of Nigeria (ENCO) in 2008. The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) eventually took over the facility of Negris, which was heavily indebted to a Nigerian deposit money bank.

As of 1985, the Jebba mill was producing 65,000 tonnes of kraft paper, liner and chipboards, sack kraft, and corrugated cartons per annum. The Iwopin facility, which was billed to produce 38,000 metric tonnes of bleached short fibres and 65, 000 metric tonnes of fine writing, printing papers annually, performed above 96 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE).

Similarly, the BPE formally handed over the Iwopin mill to Beulah Technical Company Ltd (BETCO) as the core-investor in March 2014, offering it 100 per cent of the company’s shares. It turned out that the privatisation process was faulty and it failed to yield the desired results. The companies that acquired the facilities were accused of engaging in asset stripping without government intervention.

Likewise, the Oku-Iboku factory, which had an installed capacity of 100,000 metric tonnes of newsprint per annum, produced an average of 25,440.5 metric tonnes between 1988 and 1992. During these years, the

The National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025 recently inaugurated

by President Muhammadu Buhari, which is meant to launch Nigeria into the league of highly industrialised nations of the world, calls for urgent

Indeed, the Plan submits that issues, such as power supply, logistics bottlenecks, limited credit availability and scarcity of foreign exchange have all affected the sector’s performance over time. As a result, the growth of the manufacturing sector has been stagnant (average of -0.6 percent between 2015 and 2019), while capacity utilisation has remained unimpressive.

Manufacturing is critical to Nigeria’s industrialisation and advancement towards becoming a leading global

The earlier success story of the now moribund paper mills attests to Nigeria’s huge opportunity for paper mill business. A revival of the paper mills will enhance exporters’ capacity to access specific export markets in the EU, US, Asia and Africa

There will be enormous business opportunities in printing, publishing, packaging, conversion, pulp and paper making. The various government intervention programmes towards empowering the SME operators would involve high consumption of paper, especially for export.

The earlier success story of the now moribund paper mills attests to Nigeria’s huge opportunity for paper mill business. A revival of the paper mills will enhance exporters’ capacity to access specific export markets in the EU, US, Asia and Africa.

We urge the National Assembly and the Senate’s Committee on Privatisation to hasten action on the investigation into the activities and operations of the paper mills and advise the government accordingly.

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) should engage appropriate stakeholders for the same purpose.

Depending entirely on imported paper to grow the economy will not only aggravate costs, but also hinder the objective of the nation’s industrialisation plan.

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Austyn Ogannah Editor – Olaolu Olusina Deputy Editor – Amos Esele Politics Editor – Ayo Esan Business Editor – Sam Diala Copy Editor – Chux Ohai Cartoon Editor – Victor Asowata Entertainment/Society Editor – Ivory Ukonu Photo Editor – Peace Udugba Head, Graphics – Tosin Yusuph Circulation Manager – Victor Nwokoh 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 [Letters/Opinions: opinion.letters@thewillnigeria.com]

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OPI N ION

Nigeria 2023: The Politician And Sheikh Rochas

BY PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON

I

am not a candidate of rotation or zoning, I am a candidate of justice, maybe the South-East or the South has not been able to present their matter very well before the rest of Nigeria. I am sure that if you say to a Muslim, a northerner and say to him remember, my friend, that the principal cardinal point upon which Islam is built is justice. Prophet Muhammed acknowledges the fact that in the Koran, Chapter 16 verse 90 says, verily God commands justice and fairness.

It is for the reason that I think Nigerians may not know that at this crucial point when zones have ascended the presidency of Nigeria and when it feels like it is the turn of the South-East, a northerner or a brother from the SouthWest will come out. It is simply saying to the Igbo who are you? We must never do that so that children yet unborn may not feel they are not part of this country. It is for the sake of justice that I speak of the need to give the Igbo a sense of belonging. t I appeal to my party the APC to allow a level playing ground. The Igbo must understand that power is not given; it is taken. You must go out and reach out to people as you speak and negotiate power because no one will give you power. But let justice reign.

When all this is done, ladies and gentlemen, as I declare to run for the office of the president of the federal republic of Nigeria come 2023.

-Sheikh Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha And the crowd cheered on…

Last month while writing on ‘Nigeria 2023: Candidates wey no sabi’ I had promised that for the next 12 months, I would once a month X-ray the issues around the forthcoming general election in the world’s largest black country and democracy. I am not a politician that feels that all is figured out…and I am not one of

the owners of Nigeria that determines who gets what at their disposal. But this is number two and there are 10 more articles to go.

While I ask the reader to meditate on the words of ‘Sheikh Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha,’ let me tell you a story. When I was a kid, I remember my maternal grandfather would tell us to get a lamb for slaughter. Often it meant that an occasion was going to be celebrated. The lambs were on our farm. The farm itself was on a steep hill and as we tried to pick one, all of them would run helter-skelter. On some occasions, some of the lambs ran to their deaths. Grandpa would say to us, “If you must run, never run like a lamb. Run like a wolf.” He meant that we should have a direction and not run like a lamb!

These men who want to be president of Nigeria, do they realise that the nation has ticked most of the boxes of a failing state? Are they aware that currently nonstate actors in many ungoverned spaces are almost as powerful or more powerful? Do they understand that Nigeria as a state is nowhere near justice or fairness and that everyone feels undone?

Do we have candidates that know the direction towards cohesion? Are they all about running like lambs? Are those that want to be president men of character or simply actors cheered on by hallelujah boys, while they quote copiously from religious texts? Why are they so desperate to govern or administer a nation at a low ebb?

Do we have any candidate that is bent on changing the narrative without playing the ethnic or religious card?

Is it not scary that about 92 per cent of the 2022 budget will go into debt servicing and IMF projects, with no solutions in sight? Men who do not know to move

the country forward are all talking about justice and fairness.

Is there any of the candidates that possess a workable blueprint on the cancerous hand of ‘villagepeople’ on our education, especially the ASUU brouhaha. Men that are hardly better than the average commercial sex worker move from one party to the other. Are they looking at the cost of leadership? Or is it just about that insatiable greed for power and wealth, without any semblance of justice and fairness geared towards addressing the gaps in our systems and structures?

When the sheikhs and pastors among them speak without direction, I wonder how they feel seeing a nation so touted to be the heaven of all manner of potentials suffer in the hands of a select few who refer to themselves as politicians and leaders.

I am not an unrepentant pessimist or see no-good critic.

Politics is dirty, but then there is principle and integrity.

In Nigeria we have suitcase carrying politicians who have neither plan nor focus except a strong objective to loot. They sing all manners of spiritual songs, preach all kinds of homilies as 2023 beckons, but like a man who was born in Lagos, grew up in Lagos, works in Lagos and is elected into office, the next thing he does is to embark on a familiarisation tour of his own backyard.

Nigeria is a country where the players in the power game are magical people because the more you look, the less you see. They serve you deceit as an appetiser, lies as the main course and magic as dessert. Now they are quoting the Koran, talking justice and fairness and acting their scripts while Nigeria burns with no direction. How long will this continue? Only time will tell.

Two Years of Excellence in Education Reforms in Lagos

BY JIDE OMOJOLOMOJU he acronym EKOEXCEL stands for excellence in child education and learning. It is an education transformation initiative of the Lagos State Government aimed at repositioning basic education in the state. It is also intended to enhance teacher effectiveness by leveraging technology to support, train and motivate teachers to improve children learning outcome at the primary school level.

EKOEXCEL also has more supportive learning environments and more positive behavioral expectations compared to non EKOEXCEL schools.

The classrooms are 85 per cent more likely to set positive behaviour expectations and 45 per cent more likely to have a supportive learning environment.

Under the initiative, some improvement has been recorded in school activities, including the enrollment of over 418,000 public primary school pupils; pupils’ attendance has improved from 37 per cent to 74 per cent; teachers’ attendance also improved by 90 per cent; while the pupils’ are reading an average of 311 per cent more correct words per minute and 87 per cent of parents confirm that children have improved since the commencement of the initiative in Lagos public primary school.

Also, EKOEXCEL classrooms were rated high on two critical determinants of classroom culture: Supportive Learning Environment and Positive Behavioral Expectations.

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EKOEXCEL was co-authored by The Education Partnership Centre, in partnership with the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB).

It has dramatically accelerated student literacy and numeracy performance, showing statistically significant differences between student performances in EKOEXCEL schools versus their peers in traditional schools.

Pupils studying under the programme have advanced in numeracy two times as fast as the pupils in traditional schools. In literacy, the contrast was even greater, with EKOEXCEL pupils progressing three times as fast as their peers in comparable schools.

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EKOEXCEL girls were more likely to attend school than girls in status quo classrooms; while attendance for boys across programme and status quo schools was similarly strong at 92 and 93 per cent, respectively.

EKOEXCEL also has Self- Study Activity Packets (SSAP), which are scientifically-based, to help pupils studying at home, practice and learn core concepts from the Nigerian syllabus.

The SSAPs include sufficient practice problems, comprehension passages and other activities that help pupils progress through the core topics of the Lagos curriculum.

Each week, new EKOEXCEL@Home SSAPs are available for each grade level to be accessed free online. Pupils can also access past daily activity packets for additional practice and revision.

The SSAPs are available for kindergarten, nursery 1 and 2 and primary 1 to 5. Not only that, they are parentfriendly, with adequate audio learning materials.

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As it is with every government initiatives, there have been criticisms trailing the initiative. However, despite the attending criticism of the initiative, parents of EKOEXCEL pupils, a critical stakeholder segment, have nothing but praises for the initiative.

The Sanwo-Olu-led administration has insisted that it will not adopt or embark on an education system that does not ensure the delivery of 21st century benefits of a modern-day primary education system.

Findings revealed that the programme was designed in line with the National Curriculum on Education, with the lessons fully aligned to the Lagos State Scheme of Work, which is by extension aligned to the National Curriculum.

Speaking on the main challenges of the initiative, the Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, Wahab Alawiye-King, a former member of the Lagos State House of Assembly and the current Dean of the Forum of SUBEB Chairmen in Nigeria, said that some of the initial challenges of the EKOEXCEL initiative included “technical glitches, comparison of traditional methods of teaching with the new methods, lesson completion rate,” among others.

He however assured that the programme is doing excellently well, adding that a lot of teething issues have been addressed.

•Omojolomoju is a Journalist and Public Affairs Commentator based in Ibadan.

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SHOTS OF THE WEEK PHOTO EDITOR: PEACE UDUGBA [08033050729]

L-R:Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Lamido Yuguda; Director General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Ms. Patience Oniha; Managing Director/CEO, Central Securities and Clearing System Plc (CSCS), Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri; Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), Mr. Temi Popoola, and Director, Financial Markets Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Angela Sere-Ejembi, during a strategic meeting with the DMO and other market stakeholders at Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos on February 17, 2022.

L-R:Head of Service, Lagos State, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Special Adviser, Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, Lagos State, Mrs. Solape Hammond; Managing Director, Environmental Science Hygiene, Nigeria, Mrs. Shola Adebowale; Chief Executive Officer, Environmental Science Hygiene, Nigeria, Mr. Sam Awolesi, and Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN, at the launch of PalmTree Hygiene, Africa’s first allnatural foaming hand sanitizer in Lagos on February 15, 2022.

The Assistant-Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Yinka Adeleke, (2nd right) and others officers, decorating Speaker, House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (right) and Chief of Party, National Democratic Institute newly-promoted Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bode Ojajuni with his new rank at Zone2 HQ, Onikan Lagos on (NDI), USA, Dr. Stephen Snook, after a courtesy visit to the Speaker by NDI team at the National Assembly on February 16, 2022.

February 14, 2022.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Surendran Chemmenkotil (right), presenting a gift L-R:Bishop of Ekiti Anglican Diocese, Most Rev’d. C.T. Omotunde; his wife, Mrs Margaret Omotunde; Ekiti State to the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM) of the Nigerian Communications Commission Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Archbishop, Metropolitan & Primate of All Nigeria, The Most Rev’d Henry Ndukuba, (NCC), Mr. Adeleke Adewolu, at Airtel Head Office in Lagos on February 7, 2022. and his wife, Mrs Angela Ndukuba, during a visit to the Governor's office, Ado-Ekiti on February 14, 2022.

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Tinubu

Aregbesola

POLITICS

Is Tinubu’s Political Dynasty Crumbling?

BY AYO ESAN

W

hat seemed initially like a cold war between former Osun State Governor and Minister of Interior, Rafiu Aregbesola and his estranged political godfather and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, assumed another dimension last week when Aregbesola ridiculed Tinubu during a meeting of the APC leadership in Osun held at Ijebu-Ijesha on Monday, February 14, 2022, ahead of the party’s governorship primary in the state.

Political analysts and watchers of political developments in the country had earlier noticed that Aregbesola’s refusal to visit Tinubu in London, where he went for medical attention last year, had put a strain on their relationship.

Although Tinubu received many visitors, including President Muhammadu Buhari, while recuperating in his private home in London, most of his godsons including, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), who succeeded him as Lagos State governor; and Aregbesola did not travel to London nor did they visit him when he returned to Nigeria.

Aregbesola openly accused Tinubu, who is also aspiring to contest in the 2023 presidential election, of attempting to control the politics of Osun State by backing Governor Gboyega Oyetola for a second term in office.

Addressing party faithful and stakeholders in Ijebu-Ijesha, Aregbesola said, “Honestly, we followed and served this leader with all our might.

Our loyalty to him had caused some people to start wondering if we were no longer Muslims. But we served him with sincerity and loyalty.

If you regard anyone as your principal, you must serve him wholeheartedly. Sadly we didn’t know that while we wished him well, he didn’t think well of us.

“Because we placed him higher than where he ordinarily should be, he started to think that he is our god. Unfortunately for him, we had sworn that we would beg God to bring down whoever compared himself to Him.” Tinubu’s decision to join the race for the presidency conflicts with Vice President Osinbajo’s aspiration to the same office and this has contributed to the collapse of the former’s political dynasty.

One of the members of Tinubu’s political dynasty, who is currently serving in the Office of the Vice President as Special Adviser on Politics to the President, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has recently declared that he is not in support of Tinubu’s presidential ambition.

Ojudu didn’t stop at that; he further stated that contrary to insinuations making the rounds, Tinubu did not make him successful as he was alTHEWILLNIGERIA

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“

Our loyalty to him had caused some people to start wondering if we were no longer Muslims. But we served him with sincerity and loyalty. If you regard anyone as your principal, you must serve him wholeheartedly. Sadly we didn’t know that while we wished him well, he didn’t think well of us

ready an accomplished publisher before meeting the former Lagos State governor.

The former lawmaker said this in a statement titled, ‘Principled Political Choices are not Betrayal.’

Ojudu, who is currently leading Osinbajo’s presidential campaign team, said he would continue to follow his conscience.

He said, “The idea that everyone who has related with Tinubu and disagrees with him on this presidential bid is a traitor and a betrayer is puerile. Many of us, his associates, were not made by him as you also want the world to believe.

He said Tinubu told him in 2018, while handing Oyetola to him as his successor, that he would uphold his legacies in Osun.

He stressed that when Oyetola reneged on his promises to be loyal and walk with him, the person, who handed him (Oyetola) over to him failed to draw the governor’s attention to his mistakes.

Aregbesola went on to declare war against his erstwhile political associates who had decided to throw their weight behind Oyetola for a second term, including Tinubu and ex-Osun State governor, Bisi Akande.

“With suffering, pain and perseverance, we nurtured this party to the stage where it is. After we served for eight years, it wasn’t only party members that benefitted from our administration, the entire state did. I went everywhere in Osun with projects.

“However, by the time my successor was handed over to me around May or July 2018, I was told, ‘Rauf, this is the ideal successor that will stand by you. He will further showcase your efforts. He will not betray you and he will not dim the light of your glory.’

“That was what the person, who handed him over to me said. If the person is listening to me, it will resonate with him, if he said so or not.

But, did he do as he was vouched for?

“And when he reneged on these promises, did the person, who handed him over to me draw his attention to these failings?

Aregbesola said that he begged Oyetola not to destroy the APC in Osun for two years, but the governor refused to listen.

“We were already made before meeting him and in the course of relating, we gave one another a helping hand. As far back as 1992 when I came to know him, I was already one of the editors of a popular news magazine with a good standing too in the civil society.”

While addressing a crowd of supporters in Ikire, Irewole Local Government Area of Osun State, last Thursday, Aregbesola said he knew that the implication of weakening the APC ahead of the election was grave, not only for Osun but for Nigeria.

Ojudu, who represented Ekiti Central Senatorial District between 2011 and 2015, said he could not in good conscience support Tinubu for the Presidency.

He said that having failed to perform to the satisfaction of the people of Osun, there was nothing wrong if the people removed him from office.

So following Ojudu’s footstep in daring Tinubu, Aregbesola showed his political colour last week by openly declaring that he would not support Governor Gboyega Oyetola, Tinubu’s nephew, in the APC governorship primary election in Osun State, which was held last Saturday.

He stated those who were not well informed about the situation of the party in Osun could go ahead to castigate him, adding that Oyetola’s failure to provide good governance and his denigration of the achievements of eight years in just four years was enough to make the common man angry.

Instead, the minister declared support for the former Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti in the primary election.

Aregbesola claimed that the Gboyega Oyetola administration had deviated from the true tenets of the APC.

Aregbesola continued, “I worked very hard to ensure Oyetola’s election. It was a rude shock when he got into office and started a grand witch-hunt against me. We campaigned for Oyetola through thick and

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POLITICS/INTERVIEW

We Need to Review Akwa Ibom’s Development Plan – Iniama A governorship aspirant in Cross River State, James Iniama, speaks with UDEME UTIP about his ambition to contest in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary in the state and what he plans to achieve if he eventually wins the governorship election in 2023. Excerpts:

Whenever it rains just step out to any local government area of this state and you will see that the immediate PAGE 34

Iniama

H

ow well do you know Akwa Ibom State?

What are the areas in need of attention that you intend to give priority when you become governor of the state?

Akwa Ibom State was created in 1987. And we have grown to hear that “Rome was not built in a day” Don’t forget Uyo was a local government headquarters. I came to Uyo on 21st February, 1985. And I can say confidently that Uyo; though a local government headquarters, was still an Urban Village. Most of what we see in Uyo today were not there .So, if you take from the day Governor Tunde Ogbeha (the first Military Governor of the state) was received from Okpokom River boundary between Cross River and Akwa Ibom state, until today, when you come to Uyo , you are faced with the challenge of turning the urban village into a state capital suddenly. At one time, we had the University of Cross River State, now there is University of Uyo. Thank God, we had Cross River Television Station. Now we have Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation ( AKBC). Also we had Champion Breweries, Plasto Crown, Auto Park and Qua Steel Company in Eket . Other companies in the state were: Quality Ceramics at Itu, Sunshine Batteries, Ikot Ekpene, Biscuit, Cement Factory, Asbestonit and Palm Oil Mill Industries in Abak Local Government Area. But these were only foundational industries that could help us to evolve. Since the administrative headquarter of the state has been settled with befitting edifices. Tunde Ogbeha, Godwin Abbe, Obong Akpan Isemin found themselves in that realm of development.

And then came Obong Victor Attah. Attah said, come we need to have orderliness in the state through a Master Plan. Then he introduced a Master Plan that defined the nature of development in the state. That is the template of which I believe every administration in the state can ride on. But you see, if you talk of a Master Plan, it is dynamic .We have come to a point where that Master Plan of development of our dear state should be revised.

Now, comes Governor Udom Emmanuel. Udom came and initiated the cluster industrial development. I thank God we are now going to have the Free Trade Zone , Deep Sea Port, etc. Obong Victor Attah started the airport; Governor Udom Emmanuel has brought Ibom Air. We are still at the development stage of our state.

challenge facing us is flooding. We still need to develop the infrastructure of this state. So what are we going to do? We will address that immediate need through the preparation of an Auto Photo Map of the state. The map will simply tell us the exact layout of the entire state so as to ensure an integrated development plan. With the rate at which this state is growing, very soon we shall have a one-city state. Everything will be well planned and laid down in such a way that there would be no chaos when we commence to the development of the state. There is more to be done. So we must prepare to step into the shoes of our past leaders who have laid this foundation with commitment and patriotism to the people.

How would you improve on the unemployment status of the state?

Thank God, Governor Udom Emmanuel has come up with an industrialisation policy. I am worried about the sustenance of these industries. Why am I worried?

A former governor of Cross River State, Dr Clement

Isong, built nine Industries within four years of his tenure, but none of those companies is producing today.

They are moribund. I can count them on the tips of my fingers. They are Quality Ceramics, Peacock Paints, Sunshine Batteries, Qua Steel and International Biscuit factory, etc. When Akwa Ibom State was created in 1987, one of the committees set up by the government was the Asset Committee, which was later changed to Committee for Reactivation of Ailing Industries in the state. We would privatise these companies to employ the teeming population of Akwa Ibom.

The Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources was penultimate Sunday endorsed by Governor Udom Emmanuel as his preferred successor in 2023.

What is your reaction to this development, in view of your aspiration to become governor in 2023?

I have told you that I have been a private person all my life. As a young person, I sold groundnuts, palm oil and cigarettes during the Nigerian Civil War. I never saw a THEWILLNIGERIA

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POLITICS/INTERVIEW child who carries groundnut or banana and you told the child to call another groundnut seller for you. The child obviously wants to trade in her own wares. What I am saying is that, I am focused on my conviction, which is aspiring to be the governor of Akwa Ibom State. We are looking forward to the party primaries and the time when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will announce the timetable. For the time being, I am staying focused. I am deaf to destruction. I am pursuing the cause for which I have consulted members my family and they have wholeheartedly approved my ambition and declared support for it. I have consulted my friends, professional colleagues, political supporters, too. So I want to appeal that we stay focused and avoid distractions in the guise of endorsement.

I have my own agenda. Don’t tell me to leave my own game and join another person. So, let us stay focused on what James Iniama is riding toward 2023. I am preparing for the governorship primaries in Akwa Ibom, waiting for when INEC will announce the timetable and we should be guided by it. I believe we should be having consultations, which should be at a very quiet level and in line with the rules and regulations. I am staying focused on my own agenda. I am not pursuing any other person’s agenda in the name of endorsement.

What will you bring to the table that will meet the needs of the teeming Akwa Ibom people?

I have said that I am aspiring to serve the agenda of approximately 8 million people. That is my aspiration.

Therefore, I bring to the table the issues that I know will satisfy their needs. If you ask me what is critical to my mind, I would say topmost in my mind today is education of the people. There is so much that is undone in our education sector. We want to build an Akwa Ibom State of educated sons and daughters, not a state for illiterate or half-educated people. We are looking at introducing the kind of education that would make our sons and daughters as competitive as possible.

We are looking at 2023 .The world is moving and it is completely digitised. We have to look at improving the men and women who teach and impact knowledge to our children.

We will need quality teachers to teach our children, teachers who are specialised because there are schools where Physics graduates are teaching Mathematics without specialisation. We need to train our teachers.

We used to have teachers whose main duty was to teach Hand and Craft where we learned how to weave baskets, make brooms, etc, but today such specialised teachers are no longer in our school system.

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We still need to develop the infrastructure of this state. So what are we going to do? We will address that immediate need through the preparation of an Auto Photo Map of the state.

The map will simply tell us the exact layout of the entire state so as to ensure an integrated development plan.

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I am also looking at building infrastructure and creating a healthy learning environment in schools.

I am not talking of paying lip service to this state. I come from a village. Sometimes, I clean the primary school in my village. So we will improve the school infrastructure.

When we talk, we are not resting our discussion on information. We would undertake a database of available infrastructure in our educational institutions. We call it in my profession ‘Inventory of the Asset.’ That will give us what we call the schedule of repairs and dilapidation.

Apart from education, we shall embark on agriculture to deal with insufficient food supply in the state. I am looking at planning a good policy on agriculture. We shall encourage subsistence farming so that every family will have enough food to eat. In 2007, when I contested the governorship of this state, we had enough documents that would have served as a blueprint for the implementation of agricultural programmes. Let us make agriculture commercial despite its challenges, such as access to land, lack of modern agricultural tools and lack of access to modern agricultural methods.

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Is Tinubu’s Political Dynasty Crumbling?

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thin to make him governor. It was surprising to see how he was behaving to me when he assumed office.

“When he started doing it, I sent emissaries and started begging him.

This went on for two years. I continued to send emissaries to him and to appeal to him.

“He said I did not support him to become governor. I appealed to him that he may not even like me, but he should not tarnish my image or destroy my legacies and that of our party, the true progressives in Osun politics. He did not listen. He was bent on destroying me and that is what he has done.

“After two years, genuine party leaders gathered together with the sole aim of rescuing our party from these marauders. That is what we are here to do. We were the ones who worked hard for the progress and success our party has achieved. We brought the former party Chairman, (Famodun) from the PDP. It is time to send them packing.”

Aregbesola, Osun State Governor from 2010 to 2018, and Oyetola, who is seeking re-election, have been at loggerheads over the control of APC organs in the state. Both politicians belong to the governing APC and Oyetola was Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff during his eightyear tenure as governor.

Aregbesola served as Commissioner for Works in Lagos State under Tinubu between 1999 and 2006. Thereafter, he went to Osun, his home state, to contest the governorship election in 2007, but did not win. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the PDP was governor of the state at the time.

With Tinubu’s backing and the help of a battery of senior lawyers hired to prove that the election was rigged, the Appeal Court in Ibadan nullified Oyinlola’s election on November 26, 2010. The following day, Aregbesola was sworn in and governed Osun for eight years It would be recalled that the genesis of the crisis between Governor Oyetola and Aregbesola was the reversal of most of the latter’s educational policies, such as the single uniform policy, mixed schools, 4-5-3-4 system, among others.

But speaking after the educational reversal was announced, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ismail Omipidan, noted that speculation around the policy being a jab at the former administration was not correct. He said the new policies were the state government’s response to the yearning of the people.

Similarly, the Commissioner for Political Affairs and Inter-governmental Relations, Taiwo Akeju, has said that the reversal of some education policies introduced by Aregbesola was not aimed at destroying his legacies.

Akeju, who described the immediate past governor and minister of interior as his leader and brother from Ijeshaland, explained that the policy reversal in the education sector had nothing to do with administration vendetta.

In a meeting with journalists in his office, the commissioner described the policy reversal as yielding to the yearning of the people of the state.

He said that during a thank you tour by Oyetola in 2019, the people requested the governor to look into the policies as they had impacted negatively on the lives of the students.

“The policy in 2018 became a talking point in the state. Opposition parties castigated the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress and now the governor, Gboyega Oyetola, for it and he said that if it was the wish of the people to reverse it, he would do that.

“After the 2019 polls, the governor went round the state for his thank you tour and asked people what they wanted him to do for them. It is on record that over 99 per cent of the people requested policy reversal in the education sector.

“More so, the Department for International Development (DFID) after carrying out a survey across the state, recommended a review of the then education policies to the governor.

“After that, we realised that this is a consensus of the people.,” he said.

He said the present administration is committed to upholding, consolidating and sustaining the legacies of the immediate past administration led by Aregbesola.

“What I will tell those insinuating that there is a crisis between Aregbesola and Oyetola is that they should desist from doing so. Both leaders talk several times a day and they both discuss how to make Osun great,” Akeju said.

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POLITICS of opposition and alternative opinion in favour of a culture of yesmanship and subservience as the party ethos and modus operandi.

Eventually, the party primaries for the election of candidates for the LG polls were merely so called: a brazen sham that captured acute miscarriage of democracy which preceded the most controversial local government polls on October 10, 2021.

The Plateau State APC is yet to recover from the exercise - and it arguable whether the party will ever recover and outlive the contraption which trauma is subsisting intraparty litigations and animosities with even Lalong himself gasping for breath and a breather in Langtang North local government area.

Lalong

Not even the emergence of a state executive for the party bears some semblance of reprieve and quietude for the party. Rather, the last state Congress was bungled by Governor Lalong as leader of the party, he superintended over an acute emasculation of the exercise begining with making nomination forms artificially unavailable to getting the ‘anointed’ to fill their nomination forms after their affirmation by voice vote in a captive Congress.

Lalong and Time’s Revenge UKANDI ODEY writes on how the forces contending against Governor Simon Lalong in Plateau State arose from his own indiscretions and tactlessness

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ime and bad conditions, they say, do not favour beauty. That is how Governor Simon Lalong’s political seductiveness has withered and diminished, to the effect that, like Joshua Dariye and Jonah David Jang, low rating, public anger and a choking negative perception of his stewardship will be his lot as his tenure runs out.

In the same period under review in 2015, the then Governor Jonah Jang, irrespective of his achievements in infrastructural development and good governance in the state, lost face with the irascible organised labour and civil servants due to a backlog of unpaid salaries and emoluments that ran into several months at a stretch.

As a matter of fact, in connivance with civil servants, organised labour leaked vital documents and classified information from government records to the opposition and did everything conceivable - including blackmail and cheap name calling, to humiliate and hound his administration out of power.

With the emergence of the late Senator GNS Pwajok as the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate with a huge prospect of succeeding Jang, the fires stoke further, enlarged their coast and scope to the state’s entire geographical definition and the name “Jang” became a seeming and seething anathema in the sociology of Plateau. The conspiracy was so profound that organised labour literally started arranging a transition and inauguration programme with the opposition and proceeded on an industrial action never to resume till after the new administration was ushered in on May 29, 2015.

The same gullible and manipulable labour who had played the same card against Joshua Dariye to woo in PAGE 36

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The same gullible and manipulable labour who had played the same card against Joshua Dariye to woo in Jang in 2007, used the same old fashioned pettiness to seduce Lalong in 2015, and proceeded to brand him curiously and imprecisely as “governor alert Jang in 2007, used the same old fashioned pettiness to seduce Lalong in 2015, and proceeded to brand him curiously and imprecisely as “governor alert”.

With barely a year to go, the season is certain, and it is like the old bottle is back with the old wine too. As usual, organized labour is playing the agent provocateur,, in a political drammatis personae and cast this time that includes hiccups incurred from the mileage and travelogue of Lalong’s own vicious politics and convulsive governance.

As Governor and leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Plateau State, the party has veritably expired in his hands, austere of hope and bereft of electoral value. Having entered the ring with a grabbing and greedy mentality of winner takes all, and with a manacled electoral body, PLASIEC,as a puppet enabler, Lalong used the opportunity of party nomination and primaries for candidates for the local councils polls to entrench himself and dismember the party and scamper its followership and potential.

Ostensibly, the process of diminishing the party was set in motion. The framing, humiliation, and sentencing of the then APC Chairman in the State, Latep Dabang, was mostly to intimidate and extinguish a tradition

While the animosities and I’ll feelings of having been coerced and oppressed in the name of a state Congress was yet to abate, uncommon audacity by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Abok Ayuba, engendered new grounds of belligerence and Lalong’s executive bullishness that has left the House and the business of making laws fire the good governance in indeterminate and anomalous status up to this day.

The contraptions and lack of space and intolerance to alternative aspirations that characterized the primary for the emergence of a candidate for the Jos North/ Bassa Federal Constituency by-election, culminating in an embarrassing stalemate or inconclusive election, is an elixir that has extirpated the process of decay and receivership in the APC. The rerun of the primary two days later on February 4 at the Prestige Events Centre, Bassa, did assuage the rage of emotions. It was boycotted by delegates mostly from Jos North, and the aggrieved aspirant who claims he won the primary in the first ballot, Suleiman Yahaya Kwande, said so pungently in his petition to the National Secretariat in which he dismissed the rerun and accused the national electoral officers of compromise and cunning conduct.

Besides, it should be more than instructive for Lalong that for his former Commissioner for information, Nazif Ahmed, addressed a deflected press conference on February 9 in reaction to the stalemated primary is a serious indication that market momentum has dropped, and both buyer and seller are deploying desperate strategies .

Last Tuesday’s ‘Great Movement’s event in Langtang North in which a former Chairman of the APC, former House of Assembly members, and whopping 12,000 others defected and collapsed into the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the State is not complementary of Lalong’s posturing and handling of affairs of the APC in the State. A General who feels comfortable loosing troops on the eve of war is a General without strategy. With the huge number of gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of the APC, more sensitivities will grind with more sentiments with a propensity to knock the party’s electoral engine and leave it’s already cracked chassis more vulnerable.

With reports of owed salaries, not only have the alerts ceased, organized labour is booting, the anger and bitterness around the state are worsening, and more are going to ambush Lalong on different platforms on his way out. What goes around, comes around is a line and verse in time’s revenge.

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w w w. t hew i llni g eri a. c om VOL .2 N O.0 8

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Delinquent Debtors Roll: AMCON Backpedals, Battles N500m Asset-Tracing Suit

BY SAM DIALA

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espite the directive from the National Assembly, persistent threats and what appeared unyielding moves to ‘name and shame’, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) failed to publish the names of the 7,912 delinquent debtors alleged to owe a total sum of N4.4 trillion. It had vowed to take the action at the end of its 30-day ultimatum to the debtors if they failed to regularise their debt status. The ultimatum expired on January 5, 2022. But the publication was not made.

The Senate had in April 2021 passed the AMCON Amendment Bill, meant to strengthen the corporation’s loan recovery. The bill, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2021, empowers AMCON to, amongst others, take possession, manage or sell all properties traced to debtors, whether or not such assets or property are used as security/collateral for obtaining the loan in particular. The amended bill also extended the life of AMCON by five years.

In a bid to fire from all cylinders, AMCON had also submitted a list of its top 1,000 debtors to the members of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency at a retreat of the lawmakers in Lagos in November 2021. The House Committee chairman, Mr Victor Nwokolo, was quoted as saying that the committee

Identity as New Battleground of Cyberthreats

BY ANTHONY AWUNOR

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early every aspect of modern life depends on industrial control systems (ICS) operating as expected. As ICS devices become increasingly connected, they also become increasingly vulnerable.

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In Nigeria for instance, it has been observed that cyberthreats are on the rise, even as businesses lack strong identity protection, according to Mohamed El Nemr, Modern

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Continues on page 38 THEWILLNIGERIA

had called for the list so that the National Assembly would know “those holding the country to ransom.”

He said this would enable the lawmakers to meet with relevant agencies of the federal government on how to further deal with the debtors to ensure the realisation of AMCON’s mandate in the overall interest of the Nigerian economy. Nwokolo also said that the National Assembly was considering punitive measures in dealing with those whose names made the top 1,000 AMCON debtors list.

The AMCON’s spokesperson, Mr Jude Nwauzor, had said that debtors who were yet to provide a repayment proposal risked having their details published in the media after the 30-day grace period given by the National Assembly. He added that the corporation had no choice but to obey the directive of the National Assembly asking it to publish the names of debtors who have refused to repay their loans.

“AMCON has taken the decision to publish already. The decision has been taken already. It is a directive from the National Assembly. As a responsible corporate citizen, this was why we published an advertorial to warn all the entities concerned that their names will be published at the expiration of the ultimatum. The one month grace

MORE INSIDE Ogun Targets 40,000 Farmers For Food Security, Job Creation PAGE 40

Equity Market Records 1.7bn Shares in Weekly Trading PAGE 40

Continues on page 38

Cadbury Nigeria Certified As Top Employer in Africa

BY SAM DIALA adbury Nigeria Plc, a part of Mondelez International, has been recognised as a Top Employer in Africa by the Amsterdam-based Top Employers Institute.

The company also won the Top Employer in Nigeria award for the second year running.

The Institute’s programme certifies leading organisations around the world, based on

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TELECOM/FINANCE Delinquent Debtors Roll: AMCON Back-pedals, Battles N500m Asset-Tracing Suit

Continued from Page 37

Continued from Page 37

El Nemr

Identity as New Battleground of Cyberthreats

Workplace and Security Business Group Lead for Microsoft Middle East and Africa Emerging Markets.

Also Microsoft’s threat and data research shows that just 22 percent of Cloud Identity Solution and Azure Active Directory users have implemented strong identity authentication protection.

According to the research, the average price for 1,000 stolen username password pairs is around $0.97. It means that securing 400 million username and password combinations in bulk will earn a cybercriminal around $150.

It added ‘there can be little doubt, cybercriminals have our passwords in their sights. This is particularly the case in Africa where businesses are often more prone to cyberattacks than companies anywhere else in the world’.

According to one report, Nigeria ranked third in Africa, experiencing 16.7 million cyberattacks.

South Africa ranked first with 32 million attacks, followed by Kenya at 28.3 million.

It also added that ‘with weak passwords, password spraying, and phishing the entry point for most attacks, identity is the new battleground of cyberthreats. And for organisations looking to protect themselves, preventing an identity from being misused or stolen, is now the highest priority’.

‘As part of the first edition of, Cyber Signals, Microsoft’s new quarterly cyberthreat intelligence brief, we take a closer look at the dangers of the rising mismatch in scale of identity-focused attacks in relation to levels of organisational preparedness’ The brief, which offers an expert perspective into the current threat landscape, aims to be a valuable resource to Chief Information Security Officers in Nigeria, as they navigate the constantly changing threat landscape.

The newly released research shows that though threats have been rising fast over the past two years, there has been low adoption of strong identity authentication, such as multifactor authentication and passwordless solutions. In fact, just 22 percent of Microsoft’s Cloud Identity Solution, Azure Active Directory, users had implemented strong identity authentication protection as of December 2021.

Recognising the danger that comes with remote work and increased digitization, another 75 percent of companies in MEA are actively investing in identity and access management.

The right multifactor authentication (MFA) and passwordless solutions can go a long way in preventing a variety of threats. In fact, according to Cyber Signals, basic security hygiene still

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protects against 98 percent of attacks.

Key recommendations by the research for organisations looking to increase their level of security include: Implement Zero Trust To Reduce Risk Nation-states play the long game and have the funding, will, and scale to develop new attack strategies and techniques. Your security team should prioritise implementing zero-trust practices like MFA and passwordless upgrades as part of a security baseline. They can begin with privileged accounts to gain protection quickly, then expand from there.

Prevent Passwords Falling Into The Wrong Hands Enabling MFA is an important weapon in fighting back. By doing so, your organisation mitigates the risk of passwords falling into the wrong hands. You can take this a step further by eliminating passwords altogether and, at the same time, eliminating administrative privileges through passwordless MFA. Although passwords are a prime target for attacks, they have long been the most important layer of security for everything in our digital lives. People are expected to create complex and unique passwords, remember them, and change them frequently, but this is highly inconvenient, and nobody likes doing that. Ultimately, a passwordless future is a safer future.

Review Account Privileges Regularly Privileged-access accounts, if hijacked, become a powerful weapon attackers can use to gain greater access to networks and resources.

Your security teams should be auditing access privileges frequently, using the principle of least-privilege granted to enable employees to get jobs done.

Constantly Verify The Authenticity of Users And Activities Another fundamental aspect of your security hygiene should be to thoroughly review all tenant administrator users or accounts tied to delegated administrative privileges. This will help your organisation verify the authenticity of users and activities. Your security team should then disable or remove any unused delegated administrative privileges.

Attackers are constantly raising the bar. But leading with identity -focused solutions, including enforcing MFA, adopting passwordless solutions, and creating conditional access policies for all users dramatically improves protection for your devices and data. If identity is the new battle ground, then zero trust is the must-have weapon for fighting back.

period will be expiring on January 5, 2021,” Nwuzor was quoted as saying.

But, why did AMCON fail to publish the list? THEWILL learnt that the corporation had to bow to pressure from entities close to the government urging AMCON to suspend the action. Reliable sources who are familiar with the matter told THEWILL that some powerful persons and groups had threatened to take actions that could embarrass both the government and AMCON if their identities were made public in the planned ‘name and shame’ course of action.

“AMCON has suspended the publication of the so-called delinquent debtors contrary to its earlier threat, and may not publish the names. There is pressure from highly placed entities who could rock the boat should their identities be so exposed”, a reliable source said. Furthermore, given the controversial nature of some of the debts, AMCON cannot but back-pedal this time, because some debts will never be recovered given their origin, the source added.

AMCON was contacted but did not offer an explanation on why the corporation failed to publish the list of the delinquent debtors in January, 2022.

ASSET-TRACING SUIT Meanwhile, an indigenous firm, Fieldreams Estate Limited, has dragged AMCON to court for allegedly failing to honour the terms of an asset-tracing contract executed with it.

The case was registered for adjudication in July 2021.

THEWILL findings showed that AMCON through its Lawyers, Aluko & Oyebode, hired the services of Fieldreams, to trace eligible bank assets of Tanzilla Petroleum Co. Limited and AlKahf Resources Limited. The owner of these firms, Alhaji Segun Gbadamosi, was said to be indebted to AMCON to the tune of over N29 billion. The debt accrued from facilities granted to Gbadamosi by the defunct Intercontinental Bank, defunct Oceanic Bank and GT Bank, which AMCON eventually bought over.

In order to trace the debtor’s assets for confiscation, AMCON hired the services of the assettracing firm, Fieldreams, owned

by Mr Ifeanyi Nweke.

THEWILL learnt that AMCON agreed to pay Fieldreams the sum of N500 million should it successfully trace the debtor’s eligible bank assets valued at the threshold sum of over N51 billion. This newspaper further learnt that Fieldreams was able to trace a major eligible bank asset, Okaba Coal Mine, to the THEWILLNIGERIA

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An indigenous firm, Fieldreams Estate Limited, has dragged AMCON to court for allegedly failing to honour the terms of an asset-tracing contract executed with it

same Alhaji Gbadamosi. The asset, valued at US$50 billion, is located in Kogi state.

Consequently, Fieldreams, through its Lawyers, Victor Ukutt & Co, argued that having successfully carried out the job in accordance with the terms of the contract, Fieldreams was entitled to the full value of the agreed fee. The coal mine is presently warehoused under Aura Integrated Energy Resources Limited which, our source said, was allegedly meant to conceal the true ownership of the facility.

THEWILL was told that following Fieldreams AssetTracing Report to AMCON on the discovery of Okaba Coal Mine, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was contacted who went after the debtor and he paid N100 million as part of the debt. AMCON paid Fieldreams the sum of N5 million as part-payment of the asset-tracing contract fee.

This newspaper learnt that following AMCON’s failure to pay the agreed contract fee, Fieldreams dragged the commission to court praying that AMCON be ordered to comply with the terms of the asset-tracing contract executed through its Lawyers, Aluko & Oyebode, who are also AMCON’s Receiver/Managers.

Consequently, Justice K. A. Ajose of Lagos High Court sitting at Osborne II, Ikoyi, Lagos, on January 22, 2022 dismissed AMCON’s prayer that the trial be stopped and the matter referred to an Arbitration Court as the contract contained an arbitration clause. The court ruled that AMCON should pay Fieldreams the agreed contract fee having fulfilled the terms of the contract regarding the asset-tracing clause.

When the matter, registered as Suit No. LD/4289CM/2021, came up for hearing on Wednesday, February 16, 2022, AMCON through its lawyers, Aluko and Oyebode, brought up a motion for stay of execution of the January 22, 2022 Ruling. The case has been adjourned.

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MONETARY POLICY

CBN’s Intervention in Healthcare as Critical Juncture quoted as describing the fund as commendable, noting that the CBN offered pharmaceutical companies and medical practitioners low-interest-rate loans up to N100 billion from March 2020 as an intervention to improve local manufacturing and increase their capacities to combat COVID 19 pandemic and other related health challenges.

BY SAM DIALA

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he Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention in healthcare comes across as a critical juncture in the effort to fast-track Nigeria’s socioeconomic advancement. Of the bank’s 37 intervention schemes, amounting to N4.2 trillion (both executed and outstanding), the healthcare intervention programme stands out. It serves the dual purpose of addressing the health and empowerment challenge, which the World Bank has repeatedly advised the Federal Government to tackle.

Also, a Consultant Pharmacist and Medical Director, Merit Healthcare, Dr Olu Ojo, stated: “I know some big companies that got the money. Many companies have offers but funds were released late. Although there were challenges, the intervention fund has made a huge impact.”

The healthcare intervention fund was created amid clamour for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to flood the market with foreign currencies and force the exchange rate down for the naira to be at par with the US dollar.

But Mr Godwin Emefiele, has proven to see beyond the Utopian space. He targets policies with potential to launch Nigeria into the league of the world’s leading economies where production and health are ranked twin national priorities. The scheme is working and results are made.

Living Testimonials A major fallout of the CBN healthcare intervention scheme is the role in reducing the scope of medical tourism which has become a huge source of foreign exchange leakage.

For instance, the Marcelle Ruth Cancer Centre (MRCC) and Specialist Hospital in Lagos was largely funded through the healthcare scheme.

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the CBN in May 2020 introduced the Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme (HSRDIS). It was aimed to help strengthen the public healthcare system with innovative financing of research and development (R&D) in new and improved drugs, vaccines and diagnostics of infectious diseases in Nigeria.

According to the scheme’s guideline, the HSRDIS is designed to trigger intense national R&D activities to develop a Nigerian vaccine, drugs and herbal medicines against the spread of COVID-19 and any other communicable or non-communicable diseases. The scheme would therefore facilitate the provision of grants to biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies.

Others are institutions, researchers, and research institutes for the research and development of drugs, herbal medicines and vaccines for the control, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

The scheme is also intended to boost domestic manufacturing of critical drugs and vaccines to ensure their sustainable domestic supply and reduce the bulk manufacturing costs of the drugs, herbal medicines and vaccines in Nigeria.

The President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, applauded the CBN healthcare intervention scheme.

“The funds represent a boost to the healthcare manufacturing sector which is fashioned to enhance the wellbeing of Nigerians, boost productivity and enhance employment through expansion of production lines,” Ohuabunwa said in November 2020, while speaking in a virtual lecture organized by the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), with the theme, ‘Nigeria manufacturing sector and CBN N100 billion Healthcare intervention fund, opportunities, challenges and post Covid-19 expectations’.

“The Emefiele-led CBN has looked beyond the quagmire of worsening exchange rate and moving to ban certain items to save the naira, while the environment remains challenging for manufacturing firms and those who engage in commodity export to boost non-oil revenue. Despite the obvious challenges, the healthcare intervention is highly commendable. It is a wonderful initiative of the bank under Emefiele”, said Dr Akin Ofolabi, a medical doctor.

At the last count, the intervention has financed 110 healthcare projects, of which 23 were pharmaceuticals, 77 hospitals and six other healthcare service projects, valued at N103.02 billion. It has also supported the acquisition and installation of over 45 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs) machines by hospitals; 36 Computed Tomography (CT) scanners; and expansion of production lines in various pharmaceutical companies across the country.

Similarly, the sum of N232.54 million was disbursed to 5 beneficiaries under the CBN Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention (Grant) Scheme (HSRDIS) THEWILLNIGERIA

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Emefiele

The stitch that saved nine

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Nigeria loses over N576 billion yearly to medical tourism. According to a review of the Central Bank’s balance of payment, Nigerians spent the sum of $11.01 billion on health-related services abroad in 10 years, as at first quarter of 2021, recording the highest in 2019 with $2.56 billion foreign health expenses, and the least in 2016 at $17 million. for the development of testing kits and devices for COVID-19 and Lassa Fever. Recipients of these facilities have contributed meaningfully to the GDP. Other policy measures also include mobilisation of key stakeholders in the Nigerian economy through the Coalition against COVID-19 (CACOVID), which led to the provision of over N28.0 billion in relief materials to affected households, and the set-up of 39 isolation centers across the country.

Stakeholders in the health sector confirmed that most local pharmaceutical industries, with the help of the fund, boosted their production capacities to manufacture facemasks, personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitisers, gloves, antiviral drugs, ventilators, medical supplies and vaccines.

Media reports quoted the Chairman, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), Dr Fidelis Ayabae as confirming that every company that met the loan requirement received the facility.

“We are happy with the CBN for the initiative and the way it was implemented. Members that are yet to access it are working with the commercial banks with whom they have a relationship to close up documentation gaps before moving on to CBN. Overall it is a successful intervention. Some of the impacts can already be seen in the financial performance of the early recipients of the loans”, he was quoted as saying.

The President of, Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi was also

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At the inauguration of the facility in May 2021, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, who was special guest of honour, stated that MRCC “is the first-of-kind, world-class, multipurpose-built and one-stop centre for the comprehensive treatment of specific cancers namely: breast, gynaecological, prostate, colorectal, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which are the most common cancers in Nigeria.”

Part of the strategy for establishing the hospital in Nigeria, he observed, was to halt the fast-entrenching medical tourism among Nigerians, many of who travel overseas for the treatment of life-threatening ailments due to dearth of good facilities in the country, and incurring substantial financial and emotional costs. Averagely, 500 Nigerians are reported to travel abroad monthly to seek medical treatment while about $1.3 billion annually is lost in foreign exchange.”

The Duchess International Hospital in Ikeja Lagos, is another highbrow facility that benefited from the CBN healthcare intervention scheme.

At the commissioning of the hospital in October 2021, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, commended the Emefiele-led CBN intervention programme through which the hospital was funded.

“Today is one of those days that one is extra proud of being a Nigerian. It is one of those days when your belief is affirmed that this is a country of world-class talent, worldclass ideas, and world-class execution of ideas,” he said.

Osinbajo stated that The Duchess International Hospital, by both medical and aesthetic standards, is comparable to the best hospitals in the world and that its proprietors should be proud of the facility.

Noting that the investment, which was facilitated by the CBN healthcare intervention scheme, would reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standards of care, using the most advanced technology and treatments to provide the fastest, most convenient access to the best medical expertise available anywhere in the world.

“There is a good reason to do so. This hospital has serious bragging rights. It comes from the Reddington family, a clinical health brand that has earned a strong reputation for high standards in healthcare, top-notch international personnel including many highly reputed Nigerian doctors in diaspora, and best of all, it is all Nigerian.

“The opening of this state-of-the-art facility also celebrates some other facts. First, that we have all it takes to become the place of choice for even medical tourists from developed countries looking to jump long queues for specialized procedures at home or simply shopping for more affordable fees for first-class healthcare,”the Vice President said.

Noting further that Nigeria by far has the largest number of middle-to-low-income communities and individuals in sub-Saharan Africa who require affordable, high-quality healthcare, The Duchess could not have come at a better time.

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FEBRUARY 20 - FEBRUARY 26, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

BUSINESS NEWS Ogun Targets 40,000 Farmers For Food Security, Job Creation FROM, SEGUN AYINDE, ABEOKUTA

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bout 40,000 smallholder farmers, including women and youths, will be engaged in the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project (OGSTEP) to boost agricultural production, food security and job creation in the state.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Dotun Sorunke, disclosed this while addressing participants at a stakeholders’ engagement forum on Agricultural Value Chain Development Process.

Sorunke said that smallholder farmers through OGSTEP, a public-private partnership World Bank-assisted initiative created by the Ogun State Government, would achieve more success in agricultural production.

He said the Dapo Abiodun administration had set in motion the mandate to increase private sector participation in the state’s economy by improving the agricultural production and L-R: Category Manager Coffee, Gbenga Alabi; Managing Director, Wassim Elhusseini, and Commercial Manager, Khaled Ramadan (all of Nestlé Nigeria PLC) productivity of smallholder farmers. at the launch of the new NESCAFÉ Malty 3in1 in Lagos on February 14, 2022.

Speaking at the forum, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Agriculture, Dr Angel Adelaja-Kuye, stated that the project would achieve a gender balance with the inclusion of women and youths, as well as key players across various value-chains for farmers’ engagement.

The Project Coordinator, Mrs Mosun OwoContinued from page 39 Continued from page 37 Odunsi, represented by a technical and vocational education and training specialist, “With investments like these, seeking medical tourism. According to a review their participation and outcomes of their Mr Fatai Osunsanya, emphasised the need to high-quality medical personnel, we of the Central Bank’s balance of payment, HR Best Practices Survey that covers six boost agriculture through a business-friendly environment. can even reverse the trend of doctors Nigerians spent the sum of $11.01 billion domains. voting with their feet. The reasons for on health-related services abroad in The Acting Project Manager, OGSTEP, Dr The areas include: people strategy, talent Oluseyi Olugbire, said that OGSTEP would voting with their feet are obvious, better 10 years, as at the first quarter of 2021, acquisition, learning, work environment, operate on farmer per hectare basis, with remuneration, better facilities. But again, recording the highest in 2019 with $2.56 well-being, and diversity and inclusion. the government providing funding and only serious private sector investment in billion foreign health expenses, and the amenities on road, irrigation high-quality healthcare services offering least in 2016 at $17 million.

Cadbury Nigeria’s performance in all these infrastructural system, electrification and storage facilities top compensation for its personnel could listed domains was judged outstanding.

It is important to emphasise this because for them. possibly create an attractive proposition of the huge capital flight involved which The Managing Director, Cadbury Nigeria, to reverse the trend. The only way we impacts on the nation’s foreign reserve Oyeyimika Adeboye, said in a statement, can ensure that people stay is to reward and, eventually, the value of the local their services. I think this is a good way “We are excited that our company has been currency in the foreign exchange market. to start. recognised as a Top Employer beyond the Looking at the broad objectives, CBN shores of Nigeria. This shows our people’s “So here at Duchess, we celebrate the Healthcare shows that the health sector is policies and practices are world-class. convergence of so many possibilities total turnover of 1.713 billion shares bound to register the intervention of the We will continue to put our people first and such great promise. I am extremely worth N30.764 billion in 24,767 deals apex bank’s leadership in addressing the and delight our consumers with the right proud to be a part of this phenomenal was traded last week by investors on lingering challenge of medical tourism in achievement and the great future that it snacks made the right way.” the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a Nigeria. portends not just for healthcare services of 1.331 billion shares valued at N22.700 Also Cadbury Nigeria’s Human Resources total in Nigeria, but also for the general billion that exchanged hands the previous Director, Wole Odubayo, said, “Our business environment. If you can believe The objectives include: week in 27,822 deals. certification as a Top Employer for the enough in the economy, to invest in 15 second year consecutively in Nigeria, and The Financial Services Industry (measured different places, then certainly you must •Supporting capacity of relevant health ranking as one of the Top 3 companies by volume) led the activity chart with 1.064 be doing something right and there must agencies towards attaining WHO shares valued at N12.201 billion traded in Nigeria, further emphasise our billion be something right about the economy Maturity Level 3, a prerequisite for in 11,708 deals; thus contributing 62.14% and manufacturing of vaccines in Nigeria; also.” commitment to best-in-class people 39.66% to the total equity turnover volume practices, and a strong mindset of and value respectively. The Consumer Goods •Facilitating partnership between continuous improvement.

Industry followed with 156.077 million shares academia (researchers, research The Emefiele Master Stroke institutes and universities) and industry “It is also my pleasure to note that our Top worth N5.004 billion in 4,877 deals. The third Writing on ‘Implications of Outbound into the research and development of Employer certification for this year is not place was The Conglomerates Industry, with a turnover of 113.554 million shares worth Medical Tourism on Public Health Care drugs, phytomedicines and vaccines for just for Nigeria, but we have been certified N309.833 million in 1,062 deals.

Development in Nigeria’ in European the control, prevention and as a Top Employer in Africa as well, and Scientific Journal, 14(30), 353-370, treatment of infectious diseases in this serves to enhance our appeal as the Trading in the top three equities namely 2018, Ibrahim Orekoya and Omobola Nigeria; and Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding employer of choice that we truly are.”

Oduyoye, observed that outbound Company Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, medical tourism is a phenomenon in •Reducing dependence on imported According to the statement, which (measured by volume) accounted for 500.778 Nigeria that contribute to the growth of drug products (synthetic and herbal) was issued by Frederick Mordi, the million shares worth N7.455 billion in 3,603 the healthcare industry in destination and vaccines for the control, prevention Company’s Corporate Communications deals, contributing 29.23% and 24.23% to and treatment of infectious diseases in countries. and Government Affairs Manager for the total equity turnover volume and value Nigeria.

They stated that medical tourism, which West Africa, Cadbury Nigeria won 12 respectively. is the practice of patients travelling out of Activities eligible for consideration under HR awards from the Chartered Institute The NGX All-Share Index and Market their country of origin or residence for the the Scheme shall include: of Personnel Management (CIPM), and Capitalization depreciated by 0.13% and purpose of getting access to medical care Research and development of candidate HR People Magazine last year, for its 0.12% to close the week at 47,140.48 and services abroad is a common trend in drugs, herbal medicines and vaccines outstanding people-related strategies and N25.406 trillion respectively.

Nigeria. They assert that huge investment validated by relevant health authorities initiatives deployed to support business However, all other indices finished higher in the health sector can drastically reduce for the control, prevention and treatment excellence and its employees. with the exception of NGX Premium, NGX outbound medical tourism, make health of infectious diseases; NGX AFR Bank value, NGX Oil care services affordable to all Nigerians Some of the awards include Employer Banking, & Gas and NGX Industrial Goods which of drugs, herbal and utilizing foreign exchange to develop Manufacturing of Choice; Best Training, Learning and depreciated by 0.29%, 0.74%, 0.86%, 3.45%, other relevant sectors of the Nigerian medicines and vaccines validated by Development Strategy; Outstanding Talent and 0.32% respectively while the NGX Main relevant health authorities for the control, economy.

Management Strategy; and Outstanding Board, NGX Asem, NGX Growth and NGX prevention and treatment of infectious Employee Engagement Strategy.

Sovereign Bond Indices closed flat.

Nigeria loses over N576 billion yearly to diseases.

CBN’s Intervention in Healthcare as Critical Juncture

Cadbury Nigeria Certified As Top Employer in Africa

Equity Market Records 1.7bn Shares in Weekly Trading

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FEBRUARY 20 20 - FEBRUARY FEBRUARY - FEBRUARY26, 26,2022 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E RT H• Ewww.thewillnigeria.com WILL NEWSPAPER • www.thewillnigeria.com

CUTE ABIOLA

Officer In Comic World THEWILLNIGERIA

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Abdulgafar Abiola, popularly known as Cute Abiola, is a popular Instagram comedian, who combines his craft with his job as an officer in the Nigerian Navy. In this interview with Shade Wesley-Metibogun, he talks about his foray into skit presentation and other issues.

Abiola

FOR ME, COMEDY HAS BEEN FULFILLING – ABDULGAFAR ABIOLA L

ooking back to 2021, how would you describe it?

2021 was filled with mixed emotions. I actually made a lot of important decisions. Although most of my dreams were not fulfilled, I am grateful for what I was able to achieve. Once there is life, there is hope.

Can you share some of the dreams that were fulfilled and the ones you are hoping will come true this year?

I set some targets for myself last year. One of them is the sum of money I wished to make and God helped me to achieve that target.

For the ones that I have not been able to fulfill, I believe it will come to pass by the middle of this year. I am really hopeful by God’s grace.

How did your journey into skit making start?

I started using my cell phone to take video-selfies in 2011 and uploaded them on Facebook. In 2016, I rebranded and started making use of a camera. I would upload the videos and photographs on Facebook and people started appreciating them. That was how I fell in love with skits. I can say that I have a passion for it and I can do anything to step up my game. You know, everyone has a childhood dream. Mine was to become a lawyer. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet the JAMB cut-off mark. So I couldn’t study law. My post-UME result wasn’t good enough. I had to change from university to a polytechnic. That was how I decided to forget my childhood dream.

I attended Kwara State Polytechnic where I studied Marketing. I had to think of the next thing that came naturally to me, something that could easily replace my desire to study law. The only thing that really came to mind was acting. That gave birth to skit presentation.

Although I started comedy in secondary school, my first performance was in 2009. I couldn’t get help when I started, but the social media helped me to showcase my talent.

Looking back now, would you say the journey was worth the while?

I am grateful to God. It is fulfilling and I can say it was worth the while too. I have no regrets not ending up as a lawyer. Anyway, I am a lawyer in my skits, so I am not missing out totally.

What was your parents’ reaction when you told them that you wanted to go into comedy?

I didn’t even tell them about it. I just started pursuing my dream and they noticed what I was doing. You know it is normal for parents to ask questions. They asked me what the whole thing was all about and I told them that it was something that I loved to do. It is normal for parents to disagree with their children, especially when it comes to choosing a career. I had to talk to them about it. They had no other choice than to go along with it.

There was a time you were interested in setting up a Fuji music band, but nothing came out of it. What really happened?

Yes, there was a time I spoke about it. I got so busy that I almost forgot about it. I needed a consistent drummer, but it was quite expensive for me then. I had to take a break and get back to work so that I could have enough to take care of that aspect of my dream. The dream is still valid. I will still achieve it very soon.

What are the challenges of being an Instagram comedian?

The challenges for me have to do with the people I invite to take part in my skits. You invite some people for a shoot and you have to wait

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endlessly for them turn up, even as you have other things to do. But you have no choice than to wait till they show up. Also, when the videographer refuses to release your videos as soon as possible, those are the things I can call challenges.

How much does it cost to shoot a skit?

It was not as expensive as it is now. It is very expensive. Sometimes, I spend up to N300, 000 to shoot a skit. When you invite people, you definitely have to pay them. I give them something for their transport and other stuff. If I use a large cast, I spend more. There are some people that I don’t pay. They are the people that are very close to me.

Some of my colleagues fall into that category. There are some people that I have to pay for their appearance in my skit. The videographer is paid, too.

What is the process of making a skit?

When I come up with an idea, a concept, I write it down. I used to pay script writers, but now I love to deliver my story myself. That is why I write the script myself. I will call my production manager and share the idea of the whole concept with him. I will then choose the cast for the shoot and speak with them about the concept. After shooting it, I wait for the editor to deliver the video. Then it will be uploaded.

Beyond comedy, what is your long-term plan in the entertainment industry?

I am planning to go into movie production in the nearest future.

If I am going to do any other business, it will definitely be in the entertainment industry.

What is your advice to anyone who aspires to make skits?

They should be different. They can do their skits without copying anyone’s concept. They should be creative. When they are creative, a lot of people will embrace what they do. People will definitely love them for who they are. They have to be patient, too. It takes a lot of effort and hard work to break even. Once they don’t give up on their dreams, the sky is their limit. Skit making requires persistence. They should just keep at it. They will be known very soon and they will start reaping the reward of their hard work.

Where will you say you got your funny nature from?

I got it from my father. My dad is extremely funny. He is funny to a fault. So, I got the funny side of him.

What is your opinion about skit makers putting out shallow content?

A lot of people are into comedy for so many reasons. I would say that I am in comedy because I have a passion for it. When I started, it wasn’t for the money. I was doing it for the passion and love, but as time passed, I made some progress. People started requesting my bank account number in appreciation of what I do. I can’t deny that the prospect of money lures many into comedy. Some are there because it is trending and the path that many people have followed, especially with the inordinate statistics of unemployment. That is why some people are producing shallow contents. They lack passion and just want to make money. They don’t care about professionalism.

What was growing up like as an only child of your parents?

My growing up was very interesting. I lived with my parents for 22

years. I got a lot of parental love from them. As a child, I felt so much love around me. I was pampered as an only child. My parents didn’t have much to sponsor me to the level they wanted, but I had a lot of special moments with them. They made up for that with the love they showered on me.

You have featured your wife in some of your skits. Was it an attempt to introduce her into the entertainment industry or was it just for the fun of it?

She had the talent and I felt she could showcase what she had to the world. She had also been telling me that she wanted to appear in some of my skits. That was why she made some appearances in it. I didn’t believe she could do it at first, but she kept on talking about it.

So, we gave it a trial and she put in her best. She has appeared in two of my skits.

What is your relationship with Instagram influencer, Adedamola Adewale Rukayat otherwise known as Adeherself? A lot was said about both of you some time ago?

She is my sister.

You no longer work together like you used to before. What happened?

We are still going to work together. We have some great plans that will be unveiled very soon.

A lot of your fans believed that you were going to get married to her. The impression they had was that you two were dating?

I can’t really remember what happened. I have forgotten about it.

And I don’t think there is anything to remember about it, in the first place. The only thing I can say is that she is my sister. Like I told you earlier, we are still going to work together. The fact that fans have not seen anything from us does not make us enemies. No, that is not true.

I appreciate my fans and I am grateful for their support. They should be on the lookout for the work that we will soon put out.

You married at a young age. Were you pressured to marry early?

Do you know my age? The thing is that, if I actually had a younger brother or sister, by the time you see the person, you will know that I am not as young as people think. I used to tell people that maybe because I am an only child that is why I look very young. I like the fact that people are confused about my age. Don’t you think it is a very good thing? That is how I will continue to look young forever.

By the time I am 50, some people will think I am still in my thirties.

That is actually very unique and I love it. I am enjoying it. I married at the age that a young man should marry. I was ripe for marriage before I ventured into it. Let me keep them guessing then. Thank God, my wife is taking good care of me. I will continue to look young and keep getting them confused.

What are your plans for 2022?

I have stopped telling people about my plan before I execute them. It is better for them to wait and see what will come out from my stables.

Things don’t work out for me when I broadcast it to everyone. They should just wait and see the positive vibes from ‘Lawyer Kunle’ this year. I just want to shock my fans. They should keep their hands crossed.

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FEBRUARY 20 - FEBRUARY 26, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY IVORY UKONU

Tuokpe Shades Ex-Husband Reno Omokri

HOW PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT FOR ALIKO DANGOTE COST HADIZA BALA-USMAN HER NPA JOB

Bala-Usman

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The panel was also directed to examine and investigate compliance with communication channels, as obtained in the public service; and to examine and investigate the procurement of contracts from 2016 to about a few weeks ago.

THEWILL had exclusively reported that the panel found Bala-Usman culpable after its investigation and the Ministry of Transportation promptly issued her a query which she responded to, denying all allegations and insisting that she was innocent of all that she was being accused of, while also outlining reasons why she took certain decisions. Unfortunately, her response did very little to change the next course of action, which was to quickly replace her with Bello-Koko who was in acting capacity already.

It is instructive to note that Bello-Koko is no stranger to Amaechi. Their paths crossed over 10 years ago when he was a senior staff of Zenith Bank.

He was the accounts officer for all of Rivers State Government’s bank accounts domiciled in the bank when Amaechi was governor.

While the duo has obviously enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship, the same cannot be said of both Dangote and Bala-Usman. Through Bala-Usman, Dangote’s business has enjoyed a tremendous boost, but he has been unable to come through for her during her ordeal – from her suspension to being issued a query and her outright sacking.

Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State is the only high ranking politician who, THEWILL reliably gathered, openly defended BalaUsman, his former chief of staff. He did not mince words describing her suspension, investigation and sacking as a witch-hunt while vouching for her as a woman of integrity. But his intervention did nothing to help her case.

Bala-Usman who is a card carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, is probably gnashing her teeth somewhere and regretting some of her actions at the helm of the NPA. Given a second chance, Dangote would most likely never again feature in any of her consideration list.

he end of a long and torturous road finally came during the week for embattled Hadiza Bala-Usman, the suspended Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority. For about eight months, the lady made frantic efforts to be reinstated to her former position, but in vain. She has since been replaced by Mohammed Bello-Kolo, a member of the board of NPA. Bala-Usman’s many ‘sins’ which earned her a suspension by the presidency on the recommendation of her supervising minister, Rotimi Amaechi, in May 2021 include but not limited to undermining Amaechi’s authority, particularly over the manner she was re-appointed for a second term of five years, without recourse to due process; failing to remit N165 billion operating surpluses to the federation account; issuing exemptions, granting waivers, rebates and tariffs without requisite approval and acting beyond her authority.

Some of these waivers were granted to NECONDE Energy owned by Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi; Port and Terminal Operators, despite an outstanding debt, which the company owed NPA in the sum of $100,985,846.83, and

giving an import waiver to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

THEWILL gathered that the waiver granted Dangote generated the most furore and this may perhaps, not be unconnected to the fact that the Kano-born businessman had enjoyed an unprecedented number of waivers from government over the years, thereby giving him an edge over his business competitors.

In 2019, Bala-Usman unilaterally granted a waiver to Dangote Cement Plc on applicable tariff for the export of cement/clinkers. The waiver was said to be discriminatory in nature as it did not apply to other players in the industry. It wasn’t until two years after, that a waiver was extended to other companies involved in the export of clinkers. To further investigate her fiveyear tenure, which is believed to have been fraught with unprofessional conduct, Amaechi set up an 11-man panel charged with specifically examining and investigating the circumstances that led to the termination of other NPA contracts and confirming compliance with the terms of the respective contracts, court ruling and presidential directives.

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to protect his interest. Owotuga’s acquired over seven percent of the nomination has since been ratified bank’s shares making him the biggest by the CBN. Until his appointment, equity holder, which further gave him he was the Deputy Chief Executive the power to nominate candidates to Officer of Geregu Power Plc, a firm the boards of First Bank Ltd and First acquired by Otedola in 2019 after Bank Holdings, the lender’s parent investing about $1 billion in it. company.

Prior to that, Owotuga was the Group Executive Director Finance and Risk Management of Forte Oil Plc, now Ardova Plc. So, it is safe to say that Owotuga is Otedola’s ‘man Friday.’

Otedola, who obviously likes to steer things from behind the scene, had punctured insinuations that he was gunning to become chairman of First Bank or the Holding Company. He has reiterated that he is simply an investor who moved fast enough to take advantage of the opportunity First Bank provided through the investments he has made.

Otedola Recall that late last year, he

Femi Otedola Consolidates Hold On First Bank arely two months after he emerged the single largest shareholder of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, following a long-drawn board room battle between him and the Chairman of First Bank Limited, Tunde Hassan-Odukale, Femi Otedola is now consolidating his hold on the oldest banking institution with a new nomination. This long-drawn battle coupled with the stench, rot and corruption that has pervaded the system, prompted technocrat, Remi Babalola to resign his position as chairman of FBN Holdings. Babalola who was there for only nine months, replaced Oba Otudeko who was removed by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria for alleged sharp practices.

Unable to effect the needed change he desired, within the highest hierarchy of First Bank/FBN Holdings, Otedola has settled with fixing Julius Omodayo-Owotuga as a non-executive director in the bank THEWILLNIGERIA

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Akinruntan

OBA AKINRUNTAN GIVES OUT FIRST DAUGHTER IN MARRIAGE A SECOND TIME

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lamboyant monarch, the Olugbo of Ugboland and founder of OBAT oil, Oba Obateru Akinruntan is known for not sparing any cost to ensure that his children get the best out of life. Their constant happiness is always his priority and anything that may want to cut short their joy, he gives no room for it to thrive. Little wonder when his first daughter, Omobolanle decided to give marriage another trial with her lover, Olaniyi, the monarch jumped on board and pulled all the necessary resources to make it happen. He didn’t hesitate to travel down to Lagos from his royal palace in Ondo when his daughter hinted that she would prefer the wedding holds in Lagos. His very special royal seat was specially brought in to Lagos from Ondo State for that purpose. The lavish wedding which held last weekend at Osborne Foreshore Recreational Centre, Ikoyi, had close friends of the couple, celebrities, business tycoons, politicians, high net-worth individuals and some of the Olugbo’s fellow monarchs in attendance.

The respected oil mogul feted guests to mouth watering delicacies and choice wines and spirits.

Omobolanle used to be married to Ayodeji Fanawopo but the union ended with both citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the marriage packing up. For almost ten years, Ayodeji was in and out of the courts in Nigeria and London, fighting for the custody of his two children with Omobolanle. The custody battle lingered that long because according to the ex-husband, Omobolanle used every means possible, including her father’s connection to frustrate his efforts at getting custody of his two children.

he may have chosen to remain quiet in the face of the massive betrayal from her erstwhile husband, former presidential aide, Reno Omokri but it looks like Tuokpe Omokri is done keeping sealed lips and is all out to drag her former husband by his white beards.

The mother of three, who seems to have been infused with a new verve at life, has become unusually active on social media. She recently took to her social media to throw subtle shades at her ex.

First she posted a cryptic message saying, “Don’t talk to me about loyalty, I’m still here holding secrets for people who are throwing dirt on my name.

I’m assured with the fact that no matter how far falsehood travels, it will always be over taken by the truth.”

Two weeks after, she put up a picture quote that says, “Life is too short to think that you are unlovable because someone didn’t know how to love you.”

Exactly a week later, she posted another quote that reads, “The same red flags you ignore in the beginning will be the same reason it all ends.”

Apparently, the latter quote is directed at Reno’s new Londonbased Ethiopian wife, Hanna.

Recall that THEWILL had exclusively reported in May 2021, how Reno, who likes to project a pious lifestyle even when his own personal life is the direct opposite of what he preaches, abandoned Tuokpe who is a school teacher and his three children in Antioch, a small town in northern California, USA where he lived with them and relocated to London about three years ago to be with his side chick, Hanna. Still legally married to Tuokpe whom he conducted traditional marriage rites on as well as a church wedding before they both relocated to the US, Reno refers to Hanna as his wife. Reno, who claims

to be a pastor/preacher, has fathered a child, Ebele with Hanna. The child is named after former president Goodluck Jonathan. The controversial former aide, abandoned his family for reasons best known to him and until recently, allegedly refused to contribute to the upkeep of his family, one of whom is a special needs child.

A control freak, he allegedly subjected his estranged wife to emotional abuse for the better part of the 14 years they lived together, which may explain why Tuokpe chose to remain in her cocoon without the boldness to take on Reno. But going by the new Tuokpe who has emerged from her shell, it is safe to say that she is taking no prisoners. Barely a month after THEWILL’s exclusive story, Reno was AWOL on his first daughter, Tsola’s birthday on May 30th. Reno, who has always been an advocate of raising a well-rounded and healthy family, shut out his daughter and deliberately didn’t turn up for the poor girl’s 16th birthday celebration, one of the most important days in the life of a teenager.

Tsola who desperately craved her father’s presence for the celebration, spent it with trips to the SeaWorld in San Diego in Southern California and another to Las Vegas which coincided with Memorial Day in honour of US fallen soldiers, in the company of her two brothers and mother who has allegedly been responsible for their upkeep all by herself since Reno absconded. In 2020, while he only managed to wish her a happy birthday, he was nowhere physically present for her 15th birthday as he had abandoned his family the year before. Till date, Reno has refused to acknowledge that he abandoned his wife, Tuokpe and his children to start another family in London.

Omokri

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FEBRUARY 20 - FEBRUARY 26, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY IVORY UKONU

Uploading Sex Tape on Social Media Attracts N7m Fine, 3-Year Jail Sentence

FRANCIS ATUCHE’S INCARCERATION AFFECTS FORTUNES OF HUBMART STORES T

The Atuches

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efore ex-bank chief, Francis Atuche’s incarceration, Hubmart chain of stores was the go-to supermarket for the upper middle class due to the top-notch service it provided and the quality of goods for sale.

The success of the flagship store on Adeola Odeku prompted Atuche and his wife, Elizabeth, to replicate the store in other parts of the Lagos metropolis, such as Lekki Phase 1, Ojodu and Ikeja GRA. From making shopping a pleasurable experience to its tasty meals and fast food, which competed favourably with some of the best food outlets in Lagos, Hubmart was the brand to beat.

But all that is now in the past as it has since lost the spark that got people trooping to its various branches to shop. Shoppers now leave disappointed unable to purchase items as shelves are now empty, food sold there is reportedly stale and there is palpable low morale among the workers. Hubmart’s flagship store on Adeola Odeku Road is the worst hit as passersby have been heard telling anyone who plans to drive in to shop, to avoid the place like a plague.

No doubt, this development has largely being caused by lack of attention from the promoters, who seemed to have focused more on emerging victorious in a long-drawn fraud case instituted against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Unfortunately, they lost the case and Francis Atuche is currently serving a six-year jail sentence for appropriating the sum of N56 billion.

Considered a wizard when it comes to banking, Francis would later rise to the peak of his career

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as the managing director of Bank PHB now Keystone Bank.

With position came influence and then money which he had full access to. Not only was he well respected in the banking industry, Atuche and his wife also courted the limelight. They were the quintessential couple who never failed to light up any social event they stepped into together. While Francis was always dressed in some of the best designer silk suits, his wife was no less different. From high street apparels to jewelries made from different precious stones, Elizabeth was always drenched in them. Gracing newspaper and magazine covers was like breathing to them. But what many didn’t know was that the couple was involved in money laundering, using depositors’ funds. In 2011, they were arrested gestapo style by the EFCC in their palatial Ikoyi home for laundering N8.6 billion. Atuche was also accused of using his wife’s company, Ghazali Yakubu Investment Ltd, to steal depositors’ funds totaling over N100 million. He was arraigned on two separate charges before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos State High Court for allegedly conspiring with Funmi Ademosu, a director in the bank, to steal N4.2 billion, which was part of the proceeds from the sale of 241,579,284 units of Afribank shares and joint property of Caverton Helicopters Ltd and Bank PHB. In the second charge, Atuche allegedly conspired with another bank director, Lekan Kasali, to steal N7.2 billion, which they fraudulently described as loans

to Cogipar Nigeria Limited. His wife, Elizabeth was arraigned before another judge, Lateefah Okunnu, on a three-count charge of conspiracy and stealing N11.4 billion being property of Bank PHB Plc by fraudulently converting the proceeds of several illegal loans for the acquisition of 337,500, 000 units of Bank PHB Plc shares on behalf of Ghazali Yakubu Investment Ltd. and AFCO Associates Limited. The following month after they were arrested, the EFCC amended the charges against the Atuches and re-arraigned them before Justice Okunnu on a 27-count charge bothering on conspiracy to commit felony and stealing of N25.7 billion belonging to the bank. The amended charges alleged that Atuche, his wife, and Ugo Anyanwu, a former chief financial officer of Bank PHB, used some of the stolen funds to purchase 140,625,000 units of Bank PHB shares on behalf of Guesstrade Services and Clearville Business Support.

They also allegedly used part of the money to purchase 112,500,000 units of Bank PHB share. The trial which began in July 2011 lasted 10 years.

Witness after witness testified to Francis Atuche’s corrupt practices, from crediting a customer’s account unknowingly with a N10.9 billion loan to granting N14.3 billion loans to some companies without the approval of the bank’s board and releasing the sums of N35 million and N10 million as tithes to St. Monica Catholic Church and St. Augustine Catholic Church, both in Delta State.

From initially discharging and acquitting Atuche, who fought to halt the trial in his favour, to dismissing the case due to lack of jurisdiction, to eventual reopening of the case after a Supreme Court ruling, the case was finally concluded in June 2021. Shortly before he was sentenced to six years imprisonment by Justice Okunnu, Francis who had formerly boasted that as a Catholic who was baptised in the church and one who takes the Holy Communion every day, he could not possibly be a thief because God has been gracious to him, suddenly began to plead for leniency.

“As a professional banker and chartered accountant, I don’t want to become a convict. I pray that God will place in your heart to be kind. I plead from the bottom of my heart. I’m extremely sorry, today will be a turning point in my life, I’m very sorry,” he told Okunnu.

he craving for publicity and more attention among entertainers via making of sex tapes and uploading same on social media has become a worrisome trend that must be addressed. Most of these attention seeking entertainers are unaware of the implication of exposing their genitals in the public domain and later claiming it was all a mistake.

Well, all that is about to stop if a new law on it is anything to go by and if the Federal Government takes the necessary steps toward ending this bizarre practice. Not only is the obscene display of nude pictures and the sharing of sex tapes on the Internet capable of causing damage to public decency and national morality, it is a criminal act punishable by law. Under the Cybercrimes Act of 2015 applicable in all states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, Section 24 of the Act provides that any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be so sent;… commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7 million or three years imprisonment or both.

In the past few months, nude pictures and videos of entertainers has dominated the social media space as a notorious means to garner attention. From Big Brother Naija alumni, Ikechukwu Sunday Cross Okonkwo, who took a video of his full frontal, erect while in a shower and posting same on Snapchat to sultry singer, Tiwa Savage’s sex tape floating around the social media space, even

Savage finding a place on Pornhub, to the most recent one by singer Ikuforiji Abdulrahman, otherwise known as Oxlade, who alledgedly uploaded several versions of his sex tape on social media.

Others who have knowingly or unknowingly uploaded their sex tape include Kannywood actress, Maryam Hiyana, whose boyfriend, Usman Bobo, leaked her sex tape in 2007. Another actress, Maryam Booth’s three-second sex video was leaked in 2020 by her ex-boyfriend, Ibrahim Ahmad Rufai, otherwise known as Deezell. A former beauty queen, Chidinma Okeke, was video recorded during sex with another lady. The list also includes BBNaija

alumni, Rebecca Nengi Hampson, whose sex tape was allegedly leaked by her ex-boyfriend who goes by the name Naughty Kay. Others are Nollywood actress and model Ronke Tiamiyu, who claimed she mistakenly shared a video that showed her masturbating on Snapchat; Adekunle Temitope, aka Small Doctor, who was caught on camera masturbating and claimed his phone was hacked and Oluwatobi Wande Ojosipe, aka Wande Coal, who was actually the first Nigerian entertainer to have his nude image shared online some 11 years ago. He was pictured naked sleeping in bed by one of his many female groupies.

How Otunba Niyi Adewunmi Waltzed Into 70s Club

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Adewunmi

ast week, Otunba Niyi Adewunmi waltzed into the 70s club without any fanfare. The Octogenarian who is a close pal of Globacom chairman, Otunba Mike Adenuga preferred to usher in his new age with prayers and a breakfast thanksgiving session at his Lekki phase one home. In attendance were very close friends and family members as well as pastors from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David parish, led by the senior pastor in charge, Idowu Iluyomade.

It was a small and solemn gathering, which was very unlike how he shut the city of Lagos down with fanfare,

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years ago when he gave out his daughter, Shola Adewunmi in marriage.

Conspicuosluy absent was his close friend, Adenuga who is hardly ever seen attending events put together by his close circle of friends. A graduate of London City Polytechnic where he obtained a Higher National Diploma in Business Administration in 1978, Otunba Niyi for many years was a nonExecutive Director of the former Equitorial Trust Bank Limited. He is currently the Managing Director of Worldspan Holdings Limited as well as a director Globacom both companies owned by Adenuga.

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FEBRUARY 20 - FEBRUARY 26, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY SHADE WESLEY-METIBOGUN

Taiwo Afolabi Bags Eminent Personality Award

FORMER BBA HOUSEMATE, KEVIN PAM, WIFE PART WAYS

Pam & Gupta

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evin Chuwang Pam, winner of Big Brother Africa, Season 4, and his Tanzanian wife, Elizabeth Gupta, have parted ways.

The two, who met and fell in love during the reality show, are no longer a married couple. In 2009 when Kevin started a relationship with Elizabeth many criticised them, saying they had no future together after the reality show. But they proved the naysayers wrong.

Kevin proposed to Elizabeth and they got married in 2011 at a ceremony held in Abuja. The couple lived in Abuja for a while before relocating to Jos, Kevin’s place of birth. They moved to Jos so as to invest part of the $200,000 prize

money that he won in the reality show.

In Jos, Elizabeth opened a restaurant called ‘Gupsy Delight’ where she sold intercontinental, Tanzanian and other African dishes. The husband pursued his passion in entertainment and youth development tagged, ‘Jos Bring It On’. He also created awareness for the youths to change their outlook on life and political matters.

The couple had a robust relationship for the first five years of their marriage, but quietly called it quits thereafter. The handwriting was already written on the wall before their union packed up. In some statements that she shared on

social media, Elizabeth complained of being tired of her role as a wife and mother. Many wondered if she was indirectly talking about personal struggles in her marriage or if she was just ranting about the worrisome burden of being a mother and wife. Not long after most of her troubled posts, she left her husband and relocated abroad.

One of the issues that allegedly wrecked the marriage was the fact that her husband wasn’t as financially buoyant as he used to be after he won the reality show.

Their business also wasn’t going as smooth as planned and Elizabeth got tired of the marriage. They broke up in such a mature way that many still do not know that they are no longer married. Some of their fans noticed the crack in their relationship last year after Kevin kept on posting pictures of only himself and his children without their mother. Some fans even challenged him by asking after his wife. He only sent them her Instagram handle and kept sealed lips.

The two are very active on social media, but they keep a distance from each other. They don’t congratulate each other for their achievements or special celebrations. Elizabeth is back in Tanzania with her children and she is doing just fine. She completed a course at the Precision Air Training Centre in December, 2021 as a certified air hostess. Kevin on his part has continued with his job as an entertainer in music and acting in Plateau State.

LTV Workers Kick Against Siju Alabi’s Re-Appointment as General Manager

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hen a former Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, approved the appointment of Siju Alabi as General Manager of Lagos Television, many were excited that a change in leadership would translate to a new phase for the television station. However, four days after her appointment, the workers are already praying that the incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu will not re-appoint Alabi to the position.

THEWILL gathered that as Alabi’s four-year tenure approaches its end, she is already lobbying for a re-appointment. Although she has an intimidating resume as an ace broadcaster, elocution coach and trainer with international broadcasting experience in reputable broadcast stations abroad, the few years she has spent at LTV did not reflect in the status and image of the TV station. The station has been living in its past glory as a reputable government-owned broadcast medium in Lagos State.

According to sources, some allegations leveled against the LTV GM have put her competence to question. It is alleged that she has no administrative skills despite her rating as an excellent and seasoned THEWILLNIGERIA

broadcaster. It is also alleged that immediate action in order to boost under her watch the workers’ the performance of the broadcast pensions have not been remitted station. to the appropriate pension fund The Lagos State Government at administrators since 2020, contracts a point also shunned the station and procurements were allegedly and chose to patronise MITV for awarded to incompetent contractors some of its E-learning educational without following due process, she programmes. It shows how drastically stalled the career progression of the rating of the TV station has some workers in the station and dropped. It is alleged that Alabi’s some staff were allegedly transferred administration has fallen short of the to departments where they were standards set by her predecessors, rendered redundant.

Jimi Odumosu, Lekan Ogunbanwo Alabi was alleged to have reversed and Funke Moore, in terms of content the cashless policy of the TV station; and staff welfare. collecting cash directly for pay-in programmes and failing to pay the salaries of the Blue Roof contract staff in the last nine months. Some of the structures of the over 40-yearold TV station have also been allegedly left unattended to.

A few months ago, when some members of the House of Representative led by Okanlawon Sanni paid a visit to the TV station, they also expressed their dissatisfaction with the state of the buildings. Sanni urged Alabi to scale up efforts by going the extra mile to present the station’s challenges through the Commissioner of Information to Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu, for Alabi THEWILLNG

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Heman-Ackah

MEET KEMI ADETIBA’S FIANCÉ, OSCAR HEMAN-ACKAH

illionaire businessman and SIFAX Group boss, Taiwo Olayinka has bagged the Eminent Personality Award for his entrepreneurship, philanthropy and humanitarian services. The award was bestowed on him by KRM communications concept, publishers of The Message International magazine. It was put together to celebrate those who have excelled in their chosen careers and have contributed directly or indirectly to the development of Nigeria in no small measure.

While receiving the award with a medal at his Apapa office, the influential entrepreneur thanked the organisers for recognising his contribution in the business world. A business magnate and lawyer, Afolabi’s conglomerate deals in maritime,

aviation, haulage, hospitality, financial services and oil and gas. He is the face of Lagos Marriot Hotel. Being a seasoned maritime consultant and a fellow of many professional bodies, he is renowned for his business acumen. He has also established a reputation as a public -spirited individual.

His wealth of experience, organisational prudence and business ingenuity has remained invaluable assets to his company and the maritime industry. His philanthropic philosophy has driven him to give hope and support to many public causes. The major focus of his philanthropic initiative is education. Many schools from primary to tertiary level have received immense support and assistance.

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ne of Nigeria’s top-rated movie makers, Kemi Adetiba got engaged last week to her friend of many years, Oscar HemanAckah. After the two love birds announced their engagement, many of their fans became interested in knowing the identity of the man who swept the talented movie maker off her feet.

Oscar and Kemi have been together for quite a while now. He is a music producer, songwriter, sound designer, vocal instructor and media solutionist.

He has functioned in widely varying facets of the music industry from composing orchestral music, coordinating choirs and providing scores and soundtrack for movies.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of Soltracka Productions, a creative marketing, advertising, media agency, music label and production company.

Oscar was born to a Ghanaian father and Nigerian mother. His father, Apostle Dave Heman-Ackah is the founder and Senior Pastor of Rainbow Christian Assembly, Warri, Delta State, while his mother, Pastor Rhoda Heman-Ackah assists her husband with ministerial duties. Both parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary two years ago in a grand way at their church in Delta State. The event was the talk of town for a very long time because of the display of elegance and wealth.

Oscar has lent his musical ingenuity mostly to multi-national companies and corporate bodies by creating jingles and adverts for them. As a music producer of repute, he has worked with the likes of Simi, Omawumi, 2baba, Praiz, Bez, Adekunle Gold, Darey Art-Alade and hosts of other music act. In 2011, he reached a publishing partnership with Buvision, which gave him the opportunity to work with Defjam\ Buvision. The deal launched his career in the international scene. And he has worked with international artists such as Akon, Miranda Brooks, Chris Brown, Skylar Gray, Leona Lewis, Marian Mereba, Ludacris, and Rihanna.

Afolabi

Samuel Adedoyin’s Daughter, Olori Sola Alao, Dedicates Twins

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ba Francis Alao, the Olugbon of Orile Igbon in Oyo state and his delectable wife,Olori Sola Alao have dedicated their twin babies.

The event took place last week at Pastor Ituah Ighodalo’s Trinity House in Lagos State. The event was attended by royal fathers, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu, friends and families of the couple. The traditional ruler, who couldn’t hide his joy, dedicated his children to God. He stated that he and his wife are privileged to be loved

by God as it is not by expertise, but the grace of God that made them parents. Oba Francis Alao added that whenever he sees his wife breast feeding their twins

The Alaos

with one breast, all he does is to praise God for his kindness over his household. The children were dedicated and anointed by Pastor Ituah Ighodalo who showered blessings on them.

Recall that Olori Sola Alao welcomed her set of twins six years after her marriage to the royal father in 2015 and almost 20 years after having her first son.

She gave birth to her children at Shady Grove Medical Centre in Maryland, USA. The daughter of foremost industrialist, Chief Samuel Adedoyin, battled a series of unfortunate events in her life.

She battled breast cancer and had to seek medical intervention abroad. Not long after she returned to Nigeria, she became a constant visitor at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for a fraud allegedly committed in her family bank, First City Bank. She was later kicked out as the Managing Director of the bank and it became liquidated. Her son was also diagnosed with brain cancer, which almost claimed his life.

She later got married to Francis Alao in 2015 before he became the traditional ruler of Orile-Igbon, Oyo State in 2017.

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FEBRUARY 20 - FEBRUARY 26, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY SHADE WESLEY-METIBOGUN

Criticism Trails Adesua Etomi’s Music Career

TCHIDI CHIKERE FINDS LOVE AGAIN AFTER TWO FAILED MARRIAGES N

ollywood movie director and actor, Tchidi Chikere, has obviously moved on after his marriage to Nuella Njubigbo crashed. He appears to have found love again in the arms of another beautiful actress, Kenechukwu Ezeh Stephanie.

Tchidi took to his Instagram story to celebrate his new love on Valentine’s Day. In the shared video, he refuses to show her face but professed his undying love for her. It was gathered that he has always been an item with Stephanie, even when he was still married to Nuella. The actor is known for changing women like nappies. When he was married to his first wife, Sophia Williams, he was secretly dating Nuella Njubigbo. His love for women was one of the reasons his first marriage to Sophia crashed. He then made his relationship with Nuella official in an elaborate wedding, but continued with his promiscuous act which eventually contributed to the crash of his second marriage.

Tchidi’s newest lover is also

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a model and hairstylist. She won the hearts of men because of her craft as a barber. She coowns and runs ‘The Gap Barber shop’, a barbing salon with her elder sister, Chinelo Ezeh at Ekulu Close, Enugu State. Kenechukwu graduated from the Enugu State University of Ezeh & Chikere Science and Technology where of Love, A Trip to Ghana and a host she studied Cooperative and of other Nollywood movies.

Rural Development. She is Tchidi’s first marriage to Sophie probably known and celebrated Williams ended in a messy way more for her craft than her acting in 2012. The couple went their career. She was once celebrated separate ways after spending nine by foremost telecommunication years together and birthing three company, MTN, for her impeccable and extraordinary gift children, all boys. A few years after dumping Sophia, Nuella became as a female barber. the love of his life. Their short The beautiful actress has lived wedding produced a child. appeared in many Nollywood The marriage packed up in 2021 movies, such as Posh Girl, The due to allegations of infidelity and Tycoon, My Love My Life, The domestic violence.

Redeemer, The King’s Wish, Feast

Maria Benjamin Allegedly Engaged to Lover, Kevin Anene

ollywood actress, Adesua Etomi recently joined the league of actresses who have added music to their resume. The mother of one took a bold step towards pursuing her passion for music with a single titled So Natural. This is coming after she featured in her husband’s music videos, Made for you, Final say and Jo. The actress decided to test the waters after stating that she was willing to try her hands in music.

Adesua’s debut, So Natural, is an ode to the love she shares with her husband, Bankole Wellington, also known as Banky W. The lyrics show that the love she shares with her husband is natural and magical. And the song is a cross between a mid-tempo RnB and Reggae.

It was produced by Cobhams Asuquo and written by her husband, Banky W. Reality star Bisola Aiyeola and actress Jemima Osunde made cameo appearances while Bank W worked behind the scenes.

However, criticism has since been trailing the song after it was released. Many of her fans believe the actress, who has made her mark and won awards in the movie industry, should not have ventured into music. According to them, she would be better off paying more attention to and doing more for

Etomi the industry that has brought her fame. Some of her fans described the production quality of the video as poor, while others advised her not to make any more attempt recording music. Her song was compared to advertisement jingles used for detergents and her attempt at singing reggae was also questioned.

Adesua Etomi is not the first

Allegations of Infidelity Rock Mide Martins And Afeez Owo’s Marriage

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ollywood couple, Afeez Abiodun, also known as Afeez Owo, and his wife, Mide Martins, may have been married for almost 20 years, but their marriage is not without its fair share of scandals bordering on infidelity, which have threatened its very foundation.

A few years ago, Mide and Afeez parted ways and the beautiful mother of two moved out of her matrimonial home. She was allegedly involved with a real estate magnate. The man in question was said to be the husband of one of her friends.

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few months ago, Big Brother Naija former housemate, Maria Benjamin found love in the arms of Dubai-based entrepreneur, Kelvin Anene, who was still married at the time they started dating. She was exposed by night life entrepreneur, Pascal Chibuke Okechukwu, also known as Cubana Chief Priest, who accused her of wrecking ‘his sister’ Maryanne’s home.

It seems both Maria and Kelvin have decided to consolidate their love affair and make it official. The reality star now wears a ring which she has been flaunting on social media excitedly, which means they are probably engaged. Many of her fans have been congratulating her and making inquiries to know when the wedding will take place.

actress to try her hands at music.

Several Nollywood stars have tried their luck and delved into the music industry in the past.

Genevieve Nnaji released her debut album One Logologo Line, a mix of RnB, hip pop and urban music. Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Shan George, Stella Damasus, Tonto Dikeh and Uche Elendu have all tried their hands in the music industry.

The Abioduns THEWILLNIGERIA

Sources claimed that she travelled with the man to South Africa and spent a few days there with him.

While on the trip, the man allegedly facilitated a profitable endorsement deal for her.

The actress was so heartbroken when her marriage crumbled. As a result, friends and relatives of the couple had to intervene. They appealed to Afeez to forgive her. While they were separated, Afeez flirted with one of his old flames. The lady had left her marriage and decided to take advantage of the crack in Mide and Afeez’s home to rekindle her love for him. However, the affair was shortlived.

Afeez also allegedly cheated on his wife again with her close friend, Zanzee Bolatito, a clothes vendor, when she was still a spinster. Their love affair allegedly packed up after the two disagreed over a piece of land that she sold to him. She allegedly sold the land for N4 million based on their relationship. Afeez allegedly paid 2 million naira and leveraged their relationship to make full payment at his convenience.

Long after Afeez’s initial deposit, the piece of land appreciated to N10 million and Zanzee compromised after allegedly getting a better bargain. The act of betrayal did not go down well with Afeez, who got angry and allegedly parted ways with his lover. He also warned his wife, who was a brand ambassador with Zanzee, not to have anything to do with her again, based on the disagreement they had over the land. A few months after Afeez allegedly broke up with his lover, tale bearers again came up with his wife’s extra-marital affairs. This time around, she was alleged to be dating a younger lover, Kiki Bakare, an actor she met on location.

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SportsLive Samuel Ikpefan: Cross-country Winter Olympics Pioneer Inspiring Next Generation relaunch his career as a cross-country skier as a result of his decision to represent Nigeria.

BY JUDE OBAFEMI

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s Samuel Ikpefan cruised along the icy, chilly terrain of the cross-country event at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China, the very import of his historic feat must have played back in his head as the landscape vanished in his pace. He was going where no Nigerian had ever ventured before and in a competition that previously only a unit of female bobsleigh athletes from Nigeria had challenged in.

When people saw his Nigerian costume at FIS races and the Alpine Cup, they were intrigued. But, when he began to perform, though, they were quickly convinced of his ability.

Ikpefan was one of two Africans running in the crosscountry world championships a few weeks later. It was a huge honour for him, and it validated his determination to persevere in the face of adversity and sacrifice.

The athlete, who grew up in a family of athletes, including a rugby-playing brother named Daniel, now hopes that his journey can inspire a new generation as he works hard to help others follow in his footsteps to Milano Cortina 2026, where he has been named captain of a team of three young skiers who, like him, are Nigerians who live in other countries.

The Olympian was featuring in the Games for a tropical country for whom snow was a feature from the movies and pictures of temperate regions and for whom the closest one came to needing warm clothing consisted of the dry chill of a harsh harmattan period or the inclement drop in temperature that follows a thunderous downpour. Neither of these come within the sub-zero conditions that attend to a wintry season obtainable in temperate zones and give testimony as to why Nigerians are notoriously challenging for honours at the Summer Olympics while giving the Winter Games a respectable berth.

Ikpefan

The foregoing was why Ikpefan's representation of the tropical West African "Giant of Africa" drew as much interest at home in Nigeria as it did in media circles across the world.

Aside the political gymnastics that Western countries were playing in their diplomatic boycott of the Games, where they refused to send government representatives alongside their athletes to register their discontent with human rights conditions in China, Ikpefan's story was one of the most interesting aspects of news reporting on the Games. It was an interesting story of determination in the face of odds buoyed by a resolute will to achieve set goals amidst obstacles and impediments. It was a tale of making the best of the hand one was dealt and forging ahead with steely willpower and the strength of character as to become an inspiration to others.

That is Ikpefan's story and THEWILL tells it to, like the Olympian himself, inspire a new generation of sports men and women, who are ready to defy the odds and go beyond the limits of their forebears to venture into uncharted waters and make a name for themselves.

It began 29 years ago, long before Ikpefan's exploits at Beijing and long before he became the first-ever Nigerian skier to participate in the Olympic Winter Games. A Frenchman by birth, the former native of Annemasse in the Alps of France was conditioned for the chilly climate by nurturing, as he grew up in these conditions. After his first skiing experience at the age of six, the desire that drove him to pursuing a professional career in skiing was ingrained and the young Ikpefan could dream of nothing else but to spend the required man hours training and perfecting the craft to become that which he dreamed of, night and day.

However, right from the commencement of his dream-chasing, he had to contend against obstacles.

Ikpefan had progressed through the French youth system and emerged as a sprint champion at the age-range youth competition. It was the most encouraging springboard that was going to shoot him from near obscurity to knocking on the door of stardom and a solid foundation towards his goal of a professional career in ice skiing.

Just as he was on the brink of his big break at the senior level, he was unable to make the cut and did not make the French skiing team. This shutout in 2011 appeared to have sounded the death knell to all his pursuits of a professional career cruising at heartracing speeds while in the Spandex of an athlete representing his country and taking pride in his accomplishments. For no less than five years, Ikpefan, who put his Olympic pursuit on hold, was in the limbo of disappointment and near despair as he tried to hold on to the dying embers of what was once a fierce flame of desire and passion.

When it looked as if the dark clouds of disappointment were going to consume his dreams, piercing light shone through to rekindle his hope. Ikpefan came across the possibility that his THEWILLNIGERIA

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“

We are really in pain about what happened this morning (Tuesday).

It was unfortunate that he had to lose out of the medal contest. This is the first time for Nigeria and whoever has been to the winter Olympics knows what it is dual citizenship presented him to challenge for honours as a Nigerian, because of his father's ancestry. The Pays Rochois skier did some more digging and, to his utter consternation, found that Nigeria actually had its own Ski Federation. Not for the first nor the last time, the skier was faced with a challenge after making contact with the federation. The vice-president of the Federation wanted to put this French-born skier to the test, so he invited him to travel to Nigeria with his roller skis and participate in a demonstration. Again, Ikpefan rose to the occasion and arrived in Nigeria for the first time in his life.

It turned into an emotional rollercoaster for the athlete and he described it himself: "It was huge, it touched me. I saw my father again for the first time in a year as he moved there for his retirement. When I walked on Nigerian soil, I started to get emotional. Some tears came to my eyes."

Following a pre-arrangement, Ikpefan was met by a large throng when he arrived in Nigeria, and when it was time for him to meet the vice-president of the Nigerian Skiing federation, the media was there at hand to cover the event. The demonstration, which was shown live on national television, took place in the 60,000-seat Abuja National Stadium, which also hosts the Nigerian football team whenever they play at the country's capital city. The athlete gained the right to represent Nigeria in international tournaments after putting on a convincing display of his abilities. The native of Annemasse in the French Alps, on the other hand, had to wait until 2018 to begin his quest, when he got a Nigerian passport and, with it, the ability to represent his father's homeland. It enabled the French youth sprint champion to strengthen his bond with a culture that has always played an important role in his life in France. He was able to

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Simultaneously, he aims to capitalise on the hype around his participation in the Olympic Winter Games to popularise roller skiing in Nigeria, particularly among a segment of the population already engaged in rollerblading. If Ikpefan has his way, these are already candidates for inclusion in any Nigerian delegation to the World Summer Roller Ski Championships, and they can be prepared to compete in international tournaments, as he is determined to do after his achievements in Beijing. Nigeria has a strong foundation that will hopefully allow them to compete in the Olympic Winter Games for many editions to come, with a population of over 250 million people, a young demographic, and trailblazers like Ikpefan showing them the way.

He is a living testimony of Nigeria's growing interest in the Winter Olympics, since he is the country's second representative at the Chilly Olympics. His appearance in Beijing comes four years after the country's female athletes competed in skeleton and bobsleigh in PyeongChang 2018 in South Korea. Just like the determination of Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere, Akuoma and Simidele Adeagbo, who flew Nigeria's flag in the 2018, to put Nigeria on the participating countries list, the landmark achievement of these Olympians will be relevant for years to come. They have set the ball rolling for the men's and women's competitions and done so in three different competitive events, skeleton, bobsleigh and cross-country, to inspire another generation of Nigerians to pick up the gauntlet and keep the hope of reaching a podium finish to establish the country as a bona fide challenger both in the Summer and Winter Games. This is because, while the mark of participating has been planted, reaching the medal places has been a bar too high for now.

In the cross-country skiing event, Ikepfan was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Men's Sprint Free as the 30-year-old finished 73rd out of 88 competitors with a timing of 3:09.57s.

The reaction of the National Organising Committee was the type of positive line that can make for better performance in the future. The NOC's spokesperson, Phemmy Adetula, said the Olympic organisation will assess his performance and see what it could do to assist him better for the next Olympics. In his words: “We are really in pain about what happened this morning (Tuesday). It was unfortunate that he had to lose out of the medal contest. This is the first time for Nigeria and whoever has been to the winter Olympics knows what it is. It is not always easy, though we are not happy about what happened because we were not praying for this. Nigerians back home are very in pain that he lost out, but since he has participated at the Olympics he is now an Olympian and we will take it up from there to see what can be done to improve toward the next Olympics.”

The future appears to be bright for more of Nigeria's participation in upcoming Winter Games with Ikpefan playing a major role in it. He is already captain of the team to heading for Milano Cortina 2026 and, with as much support as he and his teammates can get, he looks set to keep up his inspirational journey, to fly the country's flag, to put Nigeria's name on the Winter Olympics horizon and inspire the next generation to move the needle of milestone achievements in much the same way as he has in Beijing.

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We Don’t Need This Fraudulent Subsidy On Petrol

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hen in January 2016, the then Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, who was on a four-day official visit to Nigeria, urged the Federal Government to cancel its petrol subsidy programme, saying, “..Not only do they harm the planet, but also rarely help the poor,” she knew exactly what she was saying about the ultimate beneficiaries of what can only be described as the greatest scam in Nigeria’s history.

As with many other well-intentioned relief programmes in the country, the ambitious attempt to ameliorate the effect of rising prices of crude oil and by extension, fuel products, through a subsidy regime, has metamorphosed into what is today a ridiculous absurdity that is draining the national coffers of trillions of naira.

It is an unsustainable regime that has gone on far longer than necessary and the twin issues of nonfunctional refineries and contaminated fuel in circulation only serve to bring this vexatious debate on the removal of the oil subsidy back to the front burner of national discourse. Well, it should because as the country begins to engage in a conversation on where to pitch the tent of political leadership for the coming years through next year’s election, it must be made abundantly obvious where the front liners stand in this debate.

Any candidate(s) wishing to perpetuate this mindless hemorrhaging of the nation’s scarce finances through these continuous subsidies must be given neither audience nor votes. Anyone who will not hit the brakes on a regime that siphons upwards of N 3 trillion of monies which could have been used to improve the welfare of the average Nigerian must be an enemy of the state.

As to how we arrived at such a bloated subsidy regime, we need to briefly take a look at oil revenue history. In the 1970s, global oil supply chains suffered the knock-on effect of two specific events in the Middle East, namely the Yom-Kippur War of 1973 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. These two events effectively disrupted oil supplies from the region, thereby creating difficulties for the nations that relied on energy exports from the Middle East. The immediate consequence was that across wide swathes of geographical space and across the borders of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Western Europe and Japan, there were large shortages in petroleum supplies. As a result, the prices of the commodity rose astronomically.

Nigeria was not exempt. As the costs of petroleum products continued to rise, the strain on the common man’s pocket only worsened. The continued use of international rates for petrol, as was the common practice in the majority of countries around the world, left Nigerians having to increasingly pay more with the rising international rates.

To offset the impact on the finances of the average Nigerian, the government felt compelled to discard the international rates and regulate local prices for all energy products. This was officially made formal with the enactment of a decree in 1977, by the General Olusegun Obasanjo military regime, which effectively institutionalised the oil subsidy regime in Nigeria. It was nobly intended to lessen the burden or cost of refined petroleum products, on the one hand, and to offer citizens some level of financial support from the government, on the other.

It seemed to have achieved these lofty ideals for a period of time. As a form of indirect subsidy, it saw petroleum products being bought below market rates and the government paying the difference to maintain a fixed rate, regardless of fluctuating international rates of oil prices. Yet, acute lack of openness in the very vague modus operandi of Nigeria’s oil company, the NNPC, meant that it was relatively easy for corrupt officials to seize the opportunity to fleece the country under the aegis of a subsidy regime, in collusion with certain elements on the corridors of power.

Stealthily and steadily, the figures were cooked to re-

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quire more millions to keep the subsidy going to the point of absurdity. It was not long before questions began to be asked about the wisdom of continuing with the scheme.

At the turn of the millennium, we were told that taxpayers needed to cough out about $2 billion annually to keep operating this wasteful subsidy scheme.

Yet, when the then Olusegun Obasanjo administration (1999-2007) removed oil subsidies, there was such hue and cry from activists, labour and trade union leaders and a large section of the Nigerian population whipped into a frenzy by the immediate consequences that the removal would undoubtedly evoke. President Umaru Yar’Adua, Obasanjo’s successor, reinstated the subsidy regime, following protests by labour unions and civil society groups. These and similar protests have effectively delayed what appears to be an inevitable move in the near or remote future.

Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who became president after Yar’Adua’s death in office, also faced widespread protests for daring to remove the subsidy based on international market realities in 2012. Instead he was forced to settle for a marginal increase of pump prices from NGN65 to NGN141.

As the costs of petroleum products continued to rise, the strain on the common man’s pocket only worsened. The continued use of international rates for petrol, as was the common practice in the majority of countries around the world, left Nigerians having to increasingly pay more with the rising international rates Then, the incumbent administration made a bold move by removing the subsidy on petrol from the 2016 budget, only to restore it even without appropriation for it by the National Assembly.

Except for a brief period in 2016 and 2020, from March to November, when the worldwide price of crude oil fell and pump prices were reduced from N145 to N125 per litre, Nigerians have had to pay more for fuel. The price again rose to N165 in 2021 as a result of a rise in the price of crude oil in the international market. The real amount spent on the wasteful petrol import subsidies in 2021, which was not appropriated by the National Assembly, is unknown to the general public.

What is known, however, is that between February and September, the government spent an estimated N864 billion. This “financial flow” is incompatible with the realities of an economically distressed country and a federal government with an ever-increasing debt profile (N29.46 trillion as of June 2021), as well as a snowballing

budget deficit (N5.6 trillion in 2020 and N6.62 trillion in 2022, as envisaged).

It is clear that we cannot continue to protest against the cancellation of this subsidy scheme, especially after Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, accurately labeled it “unsustainable” in the summer of 2021, based on the fact that the subsidy scheme cost USD7 billion to operate.

I believe that the government must come to terms with the widespread corruption that has bedevilled the subsidy regime, where its own 2019 audit of the NNPC’s books by the Accountant-General and Auditor-General of the Federation discovered that in the year under review, NNPC lifted a total of 107.24 million barrels as domestic crude, out of which it could only account for 2.76 million barrels, with as much as 97.4 per cent (104.48 million barrels valued at NGN2.112 trillion) of the total domestic crude lifted and paid for were unaccounted for.

Without delving too far and regurgitating other instances of the scam that is oil subsidy in Nigeria, like the Malabu scandal and the USD 26 billion that were sunk into the nonfunctional oil refineries in the country, what should be completely unambiguous now is that only the ignorant will back any instance of this subsidy regime as it presently operates. If the majority, who protest politically-calculated moves to remove subsidies, had an inkling of the overwhelmingly corrupt background and inner workings of the subsidy scam, they would be leading a campaign to get it scrapped and removed entirely.

Yet, who can blame them? The average man is the one who feels the pain anytime there is a fuel crisis, just as it is currently the case across the country.

That is why, in my opinion, a more direct course of alleviation for the masses must be charted so that those who are going to be most affected by any impact from the removal of oil subsidy will benefit, instead of cartels, shady government officials and cloaked vested interests.

For a more focussed alleviation project, the government should unburden the taxation of those who pay payroll tax. This will go directly to the pockets of the common man in a way that will be felt. Similarly, by reducing Value Added Tax (VAT) from 7.5 per cent to 7 or 6 per cent, the government will be putting money back into the pockets of Nigerians.

Providing effective, yet cheaper means of mass transit, is another way to ease the effect of the removal of oil subsidy. These are viable options for the government to reach those who need its attention most. By removing crippling stumps like road tax and offering tax holidays, while reducing or eliminating taxes on goods and services that the average man was struggling to afford, the government will definitely demonstrate that it is serious about lifting the burden of oil subsidy removal from the shoulders of those who will bear the most brunt.

An enlightening programme of why this is necessary to end the oil subsidy scam, will bring the light of knowledge to the majority of Nigerians to keep them from returning to the streets in protest while clear plans are made for the trillions of naira freed up with the removal to be ploughed back into the economy to facilitate economic growth and provide employment.

Why Did DCP Abba Kyari Throw It All Away?

Anyone still living in denial of the existential and fundamental problem that Nigeria is currently facing needs none other than the alleged drug bust involving the countrys most celebrated policeman, Abba Kyari. As the story goes, the Deputy Commissioner of Police was arrested on Monday by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on charges of assisting a drug cartel operating on the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria route.

Since the news broke, two more police officers, who were working under Kyari in the Special Police Unit, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sunday Ubua and Assistant Superintendent of Police, James Bawa, have been •Continues on page 8

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