THEWILL JAN 09 - 15 EDITION

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Buhari’s Refusal to Sign Electoral Act Amendment Bill Embarrassing, Disgraceful – Sowunmi

2022 Budget: Doubts Over Capacity to Lift Economy

LEKAN OLALEYE

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WITH EYES ON 2023 PRESIDENTIAL POLL

APC,PDP Battle for Supremacy in Ekiti, Osun Gov. Elections

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COVER With Eyes On 2023 Presidential Poll

APC, PDP Battle for Supremacy in Ekiti, Osun Gov. Elections

BY DEPUTY EDITOR, AMOS ESELE AND POLITICS EDITOR, AYO ESAN

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he stage is set for a battle royale between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti and Osun States as the two major parties trade tackles in the struggle for the soul of the two South West States ahead of the governorship elections in June in Ekiti and July in Osun and the presidential election slated for February 18, 2023.

This is coming as real politicking begins in a year in which politicians and political parties are expected to plan, scheme, outsmart one another in a bid to win the most votes on election day.

According to the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the year 2022 sets the tone for the upcoming political contest among the 18 political parties, particularly the APC and the main opposition PDP; with two off-season polls coming up on June 18 and July 16 in Ekiti and Osun States, respectively.

Both the PDP and APC currently have mixed fortunes.

While the PDP has successfully conducted its national convention, leading to the emergence of a new National Working Committee led by former Senate President, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, the date for the ruling APC’s national convention is still hanging as the party is yet to come out of the various crises plaguing it across state chapters.

As usual, the two dominant parties are ruling newspaper headlines: The APC has long indicated its interest to retain power after eight years of governing the country, while the PDP, which ruled for 16 unbroken years, is pulling all the strings to return.

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A fierce battle between both political parties has started in two states in the South-West geo-political zone where five out of the six states there are dominated by the APC, with the conspicuous presence of the PDP in Oyo State.

Also, four formidable presidential aspirants reside in this geo-political zone whose equation in the national political calculations carries considerable weight to determine what next to follow.

In 2014, APC, just a year old, used the governorship election in Osun to test its strength ahead of the general election in February 2015, which it won. In 2018, it was the turn of a repackaged PDP, whose governorship candidate narrowly lost by 400 votes, sufficient to register its comeback bid for the presidency.

The three aspirants are former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the outgoing governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi. All three are from the APC. The fourth, following his above-the-board performance and as acclaimed leader of the PDP in the zone, is Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State. Others outside the zone, but with a keen interest in the politicking there in the coming months, particularly after the local stakeholders have determined the emergence of candidates to grab the attention of party big wigs for campaigns, are other prominent aspirants, such as former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Governors Aminu Tambuwal and Nyesom Wike of Sokoto and Rivers States, respectively; the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former Senate Presidents; Anyim Pius Anyim, and Dr Bukola Saraki.

But for the aspirants from the Southwest, they all share a common principle. So far, not one of them has

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openly declared his ambition. But their body language gives them out. Until Tinubu, last week, said he would consider it if stakeholders called on him to contest, he has never denied any group that has been busy planting campaign coordinators around the country. Osinbajo has always issued statements to deny any report putting words in his mouth about his ambition, but campaign groups are mushrooming all over the place in his name, even with the official reception of one of them in Abuja by the party’s National Executive Committee in Abuja last August. For Fayemi, whose ‘anointing’ by Sultan Said Abubakar III, as “one of our sons,” after the former delivered the Arewa 50th anniversary lecture two years ago, set tongues wagging about, “Kayode Fayemi for 2023.”

Then, last Thursday, things became clearer. Governor Fayemi issued a statement claiming that certain politicians were trying to cause crisis in Ekiti State ahead of the June governorship poll and mount a smear campaign against him across the country’s six geo-political zones.

The governor said, “The plot, as uncovered, is to use some faceless political groups and political jobbers from different parts of the country to defame the Ekiti State Governor.

“Specifically, the plan is to use the faceless groups to discredit Governor Fayemi and portray him as unacceptable to the generality of the people across the six geo-political zones of the country. This plot is part of their game plan for the 2023 presidential contest.”

He cited a national television interview where he expressly said, “Dr Fayemi has not told anyone that he is in the race for the Presidency.” Then he continued, “Some entrenched interests within the ruling All Progressives

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COVER

APC, PDP Battle for Supremacy in Ekiti, Osun Gov. Elections Congress, however, seem uncomfortable with the rising profile of the NGF Chairman and they have resorted to cheap blackmail aimed at de-marketing him, ” before concluding: “The Nigerian Constitution states clearly the qualifications for the position of the President of the country. Every qualified adult has the right to aspire to the number one position. Therefore, we do not believe it is proper, decent or strategic for any aspirant to think his campaign can only gather momentum when he destroys the reputation of a fellow citizen who is perceived as a possible opponent.”

Is this politics of 2023 or oration? For the APC presidential aspirants in the South-West, APC’s promise to zone the presidency to the South has had the effect of fueling an already combustible contest in the zone.

Makinde is the eye of the PDP in the South-West.

Along with his Rivers State and Adamawa counterparts, namely, Governor Nyesom Wike and Governor Umaru Fintiri, Makinde has become a key figure and mover of PDP’s fortune since the leadership crisis where the three orchestrated the controversial exit of the then PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus and the eventual emergence of Dr Iyorcha Ayu as his replacement.

Makinde successfully battled former Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose, to concede leadership of the party in the zone to him.

These heavy weights are deploying their arsenals in the contest in Ekiti and Osun where the success of proxy candidates is key to scaling up their ambition.

So the outcome of the elections in Ekiti and Osun this year will have grave political implications not only for the PDP and the APC, but also for the presidential aspirants in the two political parties. The party that produces the governors in the two states will automatically have the financial resources, political power and leverage above over their rivals. Also, in the same party, any aspirant that his candidate emerged as governor would have an advantage over his rivals in terms of party delegates from such states.

INEC GIVES ELECTION DATES According to the timetable released by INEC, the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections will hold on June 18 and July 16, 2022, respectively.

In announcing the date for the Ekiti election, INEC said the tenure of the incumbent governor of the state, Dr Kayode Fayemi, would end on October 15, 2022.

The timetable for the election, which was extracted from the INEC website, also revealed that the conduct of primaries by political parties, including the resolution of disputes arising from the primaries, the publication of personal particulars of candidates and withdrawal of candidates/replacement, as well publication of final lists of candidates will hold between January 4 and March 11, 2022.

Political parties, according to INEC, will begin public campaign on March 20, 2022, while the last date for campaign by political parties and their candidates has been given as June 26, 2022. This will, however, be preceded by the final list of publication of nominated candidates by the Commission in May 2022.

Fayemi, who is from the APC, is on his second and last term as stipulated by the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The fact that he is not eligible to contest the forthcoming election has thrown the race open to eligible members of

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The governor said, “The plot, as uncovered, is to use some faceless political groups and political jobbers from different parts of the country to defame the Ekiti State Governora

Mr Semiu Okalawon, a former Special Adviser to Governor Aregebsola and chieftain of the APC in the state, sums up the fears, anxiety and concerns of members about the fate of the party in the upcoming polls, in a brief interview with THEWILL. Okanlawon said, “Our national leadership has not been proactive to bring critical attention to the crisis in the party in Osun. I do not know why the leaders have not shown concern, except in the last six months, to the crisis that has hemorrhaged the party for more than three years.

Their last minute intervention is a tall order. Who is the aggressor? If they had asked this question at least one year ago, they would have been able to call everybody to order.”

the party and they have started expressing their intentions to their party members and the people of the state.

The leader of TOP, Lowo Adebiyi, told THEWILL that the Osun crisis is traceable to the “unfairness, injustice and inequity in the party under the leadership of the present governor.” He said the group had already submitted a report to the party and expressed hope that the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led dispute resolution committee appointed by the party’s NWC, which is currently on a tour of the South-West states, will resolve the crisis when it arrives in Osun on Saturday, January 7, 2023.

For the Osun election, the conduct of party primaries, including the resolution of disputes arising from the primaries, will take place between February 16 and March 12, 2022, while the last day for withdrawal by candidates /replacement of withdrawn candidates by political parties will end by April 8, 2022.

Okalawon’s fear may not be unfounded, if you recall that Oyetola won the first election with a margin of 400 votes and until his victory was affirmed by a Supreme Court ruling, his administration was almost a lame duck as most civil servants and teachers, who voted massively against the party, held their loyalty in check.

Campaign by the political parties and their candidates will start on April 17, 2022 and end on July 14, 2022.

Adebiyi is cautious about victory. “Well, if the crisis is well managed, the party will triumph easily,” he said.

THE BATTLES WITHIN Intrigues and preparations for Osun and Ekiti governorship primaries

Asked for her reaction, the Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, dismissed everything in two words: “Terrible lie,” she told THEWILL.

OSUN APC In Osun, where the APC has fixed its governorship primary for March 5, 2022, the conflict is making strange bedfellows out of former comrades. Aspirants for the Osun governorship election, other than the incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola, on the platform of the party include former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Lasun Yusuff; former Speaker of Osun House of Assembly, Hon. Folasayo Salaam and former Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti.

But the lukewarm attitude of the national leadership of the party to the crisis, is not unconnected with the patent and sustained interest of President Muhammadu Buhari’s men to see the back of Tinubu as presidential aspirant on the platform of the party since the routing of his men from office, to a speculation that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was planning to make him face trial for alleged financial crimes, based on a petition written by a former Managing Director of Alpha Beta Consulting Firm. For his persecutors, after Osun is lost with Oyo in PDP’s firm grip, Ekiti in Fayemi’s hand, Ogun for Osinbajo and Ondo uncertain, Tinubu won’t stand a chance in a real contest with no home base as real politics is local.

The three aspirants, Yusuff, Salaam and Adeoti, are loyal to former governor of the state and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola and his group, The Osun Progressive (TOP) as opposed to the governor’s Ileri Oluwa. So determined is this group that the three aspirants have also reached an agreement to pick a consensus candidate among themselves in their bid to defeat the incumbent governor in the July 2022 governorship election. It is a face-off between Aregbesola, Chairman, Board of Trustees of the group and Tinubu, Governor Oyetola’s major supporter.

The cracks in the party that followed the disagreements over the emergence of the governor, who was Chief of Staff to Aregbesola, have been widened by an open confrontation between the minister and the governor, with loyalists lining behind the combatants. It got so bad that when the state celebrated its 30thanniversary last August, only Aregebsola, among all the past governors of the state, was not invited. The resulting conflict and fight among loyalists to hold on to their battlegrounds, in addition to the uncertain public image of the government, may have the impact of allowing the PDP a smooth ride to Government House.

OSUN PDP The PDP has fixed Monday March 7, 2022 as the date for its governorship primary in Osun State. A former governorship candidate of the party in Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, is among those jostling to carry the banner of the party. He is leading five others in the race for the governorship position. They are Dr Akin Ogunbiyi, Hon Sanya Omirin, Prince Dotun Babayemi, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade and Mr Dele Adeleke, who is Ademola Adeleke’s nephew.

The younger and better educated Dele Adeleke is a technocrat who, THEWILL gathered, is the favourite for the ticket, having received the backing of the South West leader of the party and governor of Oyo State, Engr Seyi Makinde. The governor, who has been scheming to expand the influence of the party in the zone and consolidate his position, is said to be making strong representation of Adeleke to the party and ready to assist him clinch the ticket. With expected support from his comrades-in-arm, Wike and Fintiri, Makinde may bag THEWILLNIGERIA

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COVER the Osun ticket and get ready to exploit the widening cracks in the ruling APC for gains.

Atiku is yet to pitch in for any candidate, but Osun is his wife’s home state. In the 2019 presidential election, the former VP gave Buhari a run for his money. Incumbent President Buhari won in 18 local government areas and polled 347, 674 to defeat Abubakar, the candidate of the PDP, who scored 337, 377 and won in 12 local government areas.

EKITI APC The APC Governorship primary has been fixed for January 22, 2022 and the aspirants are battle ready.

Leading aspirants include Femi Bamisile, who is the Chairman, House of Reps Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA); Bamidele Faparusi who also contested in 2018; Mr Dayo Adeyeye, National Coordinator of SWAGA; Chief Abiola Aluko; Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Biodun Oyebanji, the immediate past Secretary to Ekiti State Government, who hails from Ikogosi; Chief Reuben Famuyibo; Kayode Ojo and Demola Popoola, an aviation expert from Oye Ekiti.

Of all these aspirants, two stand out. They are Senator Opeyemi Bamidele who had also represented Ekiti in the House of Representatives and Oyebanji who is said to have received the blessings of the incumbent governor, Fayemi.

The race may be a bad one for the SWAGA Group because they openly canvassed Tinubu’s presidential ambition, leading to alienation from the party during its ward and state congresses. In fact, members of SWAGA are not convinced that they stand a chance in the APC primary. Investigation shows that apart from Adeyeye, who has obtained APC governorship form, the group plans to plant a candidate in another party to contest the governorship.

Fayemi is said to be interested in anointing a candidate that will succeed him. Also, though, he has not openly come out to express interest in the 2023 presidential race, his body language is to that effect.

He and Bamidele therefore see any person supporting Tinubu’s 2023 Presidential ambition as their enemy.

As of now, there are claims of marginalisation of SWAGA members in the party while some of them are said to have been suspended from the party.

In Ekiti APC, for instance, the battle line has since been drawn between Fayemi and the SWAGA group, who are working for Tinubu’s presidential ambition.

Fayemi currently has an upper hand. Apart from being the incumbent governor with enormous resources to deploy, he has the establishment to back him at the wards, local government and state executive of the party, which he controlled in the recent party congresses in the state.

If his candidate wins the governorship election in June and the party adopts indirect primary at its presidential primary, he will have large delegates from Ekiti State on his side. If SWAGA group, which has already lost out in the congresses and would most probably lose out in the governorship election falls short, then Tinubu will have little or no support from the state.

Mr Segun Dipe, publicity Secretary of the party in the state, however told THEWILL that the party has waded into the SWAGA crisis in the state in a bid to restore a sense of belonging.

“We believe in bringing everyone of our member under the same roof. Anybody who has any form of tension and conflict will be listened to. We have an internal mechanism for resolving our differences. SWAGA is not totally wrong and the other side is not totally right,” he said.

Dipe disclosed that the issue is about leadership at the

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ward and local government levels, which, he said, was being addressed with the “meeting of the exco this week and a planned tour of all the wards and local government areas in the state to resolve the crisis.”

For Dipe, Governor Fayemi has never told “anybody he has a preferred candidate and who to vote for, even though it is his legitimate right to have one. So until we have our primaries this will be at the level of rumour. We have about seven aspirants for now.”

He was optimistic that the APC would win the coming governorship election in the state.

“I can bet that the APC will win the election. Ekiti is an APC state. We do not have the kind of crisis the PDP has, with Governor Makinde and former Governor Ayo Fayose and Chief Adebutu from Ogun State engaged in a supremacy battle over control of party structures and former Governor Segun Oni and Senator Biodun Olujimi factions bickering over membership and supporters.

When THEWILL probed Fayemi’s cry over an alleged plot to malign his character across the country, a government source affirmed that “there are security reports to it.” He said that a certain party chieftain has been uncomfortable because he thinks the governor is “too close to President Buhari since he was re-elected as Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum for which efforts were made to stop him. So the best thing now is to consider reducing him to a political neophyte. The issue of perceived zoning of the presidency to the SouthWest has added a national dimension to this otherwise localised election.”

Significantly, Fayemi’s clam that there was a plot to blackmail him ahead of the 2023 campaign came hours after President Muhammadu Buhari in a Channels television interview on Wednesday claimed that he would not disclose his preference for a successor because he or she might be eliminated.

EKITI PDP In Ekiti State, where the PDP has fixed January 26 for the governorship primary, nine females and eight males have shown interest in the governorship position before the deadline for Sales of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms expired last September.

The female aspirants are the former Senate Minority Leader, Biodun Olujimi; Olumide Ojo, Olukemi Olubunmi, Adekemi Adewunmi, Modupe Asaolu, Deborah Alo and Titilayo Akerele.

Their male counterparts include the immediate past deputy governor of the state and the 2018 PDP governorship candidate, Olusola Eleka; former Governor Segun Oni; Kayode Adaramodu, Bisi Kolawole, Aribisala Adewale, Ayodeji Ogunsakin and Albert Adaramodu.

Ekiti State is used to rotating its governors between two main parties since the inception of the current democratic dispensation in 1999. The parties are Alliance

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A grassroots politician in Ekiti State said anonymously that the country might have the first female governor from Ekiti in the person of Senator Olujimi

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for Democracy which later metamorphosed into Action Congress and later, Action Congress of Nigeria, which is now the APC, and the PDP. As the preparation for the primary is in top gear, PDP has set in motion measures to reconcile interest groups within its ranks in a bid to forge a common front.

The Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee of the PDP recently gathered all the 17 governorship aspirants and stakeholders, including former Governors Ayo Fayose and Segun Oni, as well as former deputy governor, Senator Biodun Olujimi, in Abuja for a meeting with a committee set up to reconcile them ahead of the election.

Speaking on the effort, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, said the NWC will go the whole distance to ensure unity among its stakeholders and members in the state.

He said, “All stakeholders agreed to work together in the process. We have agreed that the parties that are involved in it should get back to Ekiti and apply an Ekiti formula for the resolution of the issues, meaning they will go back and meet privately, discuss all issues that were raised at the meeting and then report back to the NWC.” Also, the South-West zonal executive of the PDP has resolved to take practical steps to woo aggrieved leaders in the zone.

The zonal spokesman, Chief Sanya Afofarati, said the executive already set up committees that will woo aggrieved members back.

He said the new South-West Vice Chairman, Chief Soji Adagunodo’s agenda is unification across the states in the zone.

It was gathered that among the governorship aspirants, the leading ones are Oni, Olujimi and Eleka. A grassroots politician in Ekiti State said anonymously that the country might have the first female governor from Ekiti in the person of Senator Olujimi. Sources said Olujimi is rated high because of her role in the activities of the party, especially in 2018, which led to Fayose’s second term. Governor Fayemi is said to be watching events in the rival party in his state closely and trying to bestride both rival parties for strategic reasons. He is said to be discreetly sympathetic to an Olujimi candidacy in line with their understanding years back, which helped her to reclaim her senatorial mandate from Mr Dayo Adeyeye, the National Coordinator of SWAGA, through the court of law.

Speaking with THEWILL, the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Setonji Koshoedo, said that crisis is normal in politics, adding that the party will resolve the crisis in both Ekiti and Osun and ensure it wins the elections in both states.

But he added cautiously, “The electorate are waiting for us. They are fed up with APC government, but that does not mean we don’t have a part to play. I’m confident that PDP will win these elections if we plan and execute our plans well.”

With developments still unfolding, it may be hard to say who will win or lose which state. What is certain for now is that the prevailing crisis and intrigues can swing victory either way. President Buhari, in his answer to the effect of the prevailing crisis in his party on future elections, during an interview with federal government operated Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Abuja on Thursday night, told the anchor, Cyril Stober: “I have told my party if they do not resolve their crisis, the opposition will take over.”

He may have spoken for both rival political parties who are plagued with one form of crisis or the other and the presidential aspirants, whose stake may rise or sink with the outcomes in both states.

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JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

NEWS Nigerians Await Benue’s Lead In Rescue Mission Project – Commissioner

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R-L: President Muhammadu Buhari receives a letter from Minister of Territorial Administration/Special Envoy of President of the Transition of the Republic of Mali, Colonel Adboulaye Maiga during an audience in State House Abuja on January 6, 2022.

Declare Miyeti Allah, FUNAM Terrorist Group, Ortom Tells Buhari FROM KAJO MARTINS, MAKURDI

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overnor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has commended the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for heeding calls to designate bandits wreaking havoc on citizens across the country as terrorists.

The governor, who noted that such action was not enough, called on the President to go a step further and declare Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) as terrorist organisations, just as it has done to other groups.

The governor, who was reacting to the interview President Buhari granted Channels Television on Wednesday, January 5, 2022, insisted that the step taken by the Federal Government now would go a long way to contain the atrocities of the criminals and give citizens opportunities to go about their legitimate businesses unmolested.

“Even though the Federal Government’s measures on bandits now seems strong, the security challenges will only be adequately addressed, if a similar hard position is taken on Miyetti Allah

FROM UKANDI ODEY, JOS Kautal Hore, MACBAN and the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM), who have vowed to continue to cause mayhem in Benue State and other parts of the country because of the antigrazing laws,” he said.

The governor, who insisted that the law had come to stay in Benue State and it is irrevocable, also maintained that Benue State had no grazing routes, reserves or areas, saying the law was enacted in good faith for peace and order in the state.

“The law was enacted among other things to end the incessant farmers/ herdsmen clashes in the state,” he said.

Ortom also challenged President Buhari to do all that is necessary to revamp the ailing economy and save Nigerians from poverty, adding that Nigerians had endured enough hunger and misery under the APC dominated government.

He dismissed the President’s tagging of the PDP as a failure, insisting that as a critical stakeholder in the PDP project, it is completely false. “If anyone has failed, it is the APC dominated Federal Government that has failed by taking Nigeria from the top to bottom.”

Ogun Businessman Mourns Olowu FROM SEGUN AYINDE, ABEOKUTA

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business mogul, Otunba Adejare Adegbenro, has commiserated with the people of Owu Kingdom, Abeokuta, Ogun State, over the demise of their monarch, Oba Adegboyega Dosunmu.

of Owuland at home and in the Diaspora.

He stated this in a condolence message made available to journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital.

“As we mourn the glorious passage of our Royal father Oba Adegboyega Olusanya Dosunmu, I wish to send my heartfelt condolences to his family, chiefs friends and associates and also commiserate with my fellow good people of Owu both home and abroad.

Adegbenro, who described the Olowu as a unique royal father, noted that he would be greatly missed by the his family, chiefs, friends and associates as well as the people

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Traditional Ruler Dies in Plateau While Negotiating Ransom

He added that he would always remember the late king for honouring him with the chieftaincy title of first Otunba Laje of Owu Kingdom and his idea that birthed the Otunba Adejare Adegbenro Foundation.

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traditional ruler in Plateau State, the Mishkam Mwagavul, Da Nelson Andak Bakfur, died on December 28, 2021, while negotiating with the abductors of another monarch, the Sum Pyem of Gindiri, Charles Mayo Dakat, on the ransom to be paid for his release.

THEWILL was informed at the palace of the late Mishkam Mwagavul last Friday that he was in touch with the kidnappers, who had demanded a ransom of N500 million in exchange for their victim’s freedom.

According to a source at the palace, the Mishkam Mwagavul had urged the kidnappers to reduce the ransom, insisting that both he and the abducted monarch had nobody that could mobilise the sum demanded for his release.

Unknown to the Mishkam Mwagavul and others around, the kidnappers had a mole and informant in the palace, who was reporting developments around the palace in relation to the negotiation to the kidnappers in their hideout.

Death came via a phone call to the Mishkam after a sympathiser donated an undisclosed sum of money to the ransom project and left.

According to the source, the kidnappers called the Mishkam and told him how much he received as donation, noting that the sum received as one person’s contribution contradicted the Mishkam’s claim that he and the abducted Sum Pyem were not worth #500m.

Angrily the criminals told the Mishkam that the negotiation had collapsed and the next line of action was to kidnap the Mishkam himself and eliminate him.

At this point, the source said, the Mishkam, who had his heart related health challenges and was billed for routine and programmed checkup early this year, broke down and all efforts to revive him failed and he passed away.

enue State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Mr David Olofu, has said the entire country is keenly waiting for the people of the state to take the lead in the mission to rescue them from the maladministration of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government.

The commissioner made the disclosure in Makurdi while playing host to the Benue State representative at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Technical Committee on electronic registration, Mr David Mzer and members of his team.

Olofu said he was ready to support the exercise in terms of logistics and training, noting that since the party entrusted its national chairmanship position to Benue and the central role Governor Samuel Ortom was playing in the party in particular and country in general, all eyes would be on the state for the actualisation of the ‘rescue mission,’ hence the need for all stakeholders to support the exercise.

While urging Benue people to embrace the e-registration exercise of the party, the commissioner also encouraged yhem to register and obtain the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) in other to prepare to vote the APC government out of power at the centre in 2023.

Earlier, while enumerating the importance of the exercise, Mzer disclosed that the party decided to digitalise its membership for a proper database, due to its size, reach and to move with time.

Magashi, Shehu, Hussaini Condole With Tofa’s Family FROM MUSA DISO, KANO

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he Minister of Defence, MajorGeneral Bashir Salihi Magashi (retd.) has described the death of Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa as a great loss not only to his family but also to the entire North and beyond.

A former presidential aspirant of the defunct National Republican Congress (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa, according to the minister, was an embodiment of righteousness, discipline, hard work, commitment, patriotism and perfect example to emulate.

The minister, who led a delegation from the Presidency to condole with the Tofa family, described Tofa as an individual who always thought what is good for the country and noted that Tofa would always be remembered.

In his condolence message, the Senior Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu also described Tofa as a true patriotic and compassionate Nigerian who extended a hand to those at the bottom and pull them up.

According to him, Tofa had left a legacy of selfless struggle for a just and egalitarian society where the welfare of the Nigerians is paramount. Shehu noted that the entire nation would always remember his efforts and outstanding contribution to the lives of individuals and the community.

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NASS And The Electoral Reform Amendment He said his decision was based on informed advice by the relevant ministries, departments and agencies of the government, as well as a careful review of the bill in the light of the current realities in the country.

In their reaction, lawmakers in the House of Representatives could not immediately take an action, but they said they would adequately address the matter in January.

During a plenary held in December, Gbajabiamila had explained that the time was short to address such a sensitive issue.

The Senate also resolved to consult with the House of Representatives in January when both chambers would be in session.

Speaking on the development in his end of the year speech, Gbajabiamila said the parliament would decide the way forward on the bill in 2022.

He noted that there would be no need to throw away the baby with the bathwater.

Buhari

“As it is, it falls on the parliament to decide the way forward. When we resume next year, we will decide it together. We must not throw the baby away with the bathwater,” Gbajabiamila said.

BY AYO ESAN

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he National Assembly will resume on January 26, 2022 after a six-week Christmas/New Year holiday. One issue that the lawmakers need to give urgent attention to is the Electoral Reform Amendment Bill, which was returned to it by President Muhammadu Buhari after he refused to give his assent.

The President in an interview broadcast on network television last Wednesday stated that he was ready to sign the Electoral Reform Amendment Bill as soon as the National Assembly makes the necessary adjustments.

He, however, said such changes must include the addition of consensus candidates and the indirect primary as the modes for selecting candidates for elections by political parties, as against direct primary.

“All I said is that there should be options.We must not insist that it has to be direct; it should be consensus and indirect,” the President said.

Asked if he would sign if the lawmakers effect the change in that direction, he affirmed, “Yes, I will! I will sign. There should be options. You can’t dictate to people and say you are practising democracy. Give them other options so they can make a choice.”

President Buhari had withheld his assent to the bill, citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political actors as some of the reasons for his decision.

The rejection was conveyed in letters read in the two chambers of the National Assembly by the Senate President Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

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Two options are open to the members of the National Assembly upon their resumption. It is either they override the President, veto the bill and pass it into law or amend it to suit the Buhari’s position and resend it to him for his assent.

The amendment as proposed is a violation of the underlying spirit of democracy, which is characterised by freedom of choices of which political party membership is a voluntary exercise of the constitutional right of freedom of association

It would also be recalled that some members of the National Assembly had vowed that if the President refused to give assent, they would veto the bill.

The bill was transmitted to the President on November 19, 2021.

“For me, it does not make sense that these people do not have a voice in who represents them. It is part of being used and I don’t like that. Most of us are reformers and one of the ways to reform the system is to make it more accountable and to make the people have a voice in who represents them as opposed to a few people sitting in the four corners of a wall and writing results.

In a lengthy letter read by Mr Gbajabiamila, Buhari explained why he declined assent to the bill. He cited financial, security and legal consequences for rejecting the bill.

He argued that the bill would infringe on the rights of Nigerians to participate in governance and democracy.

“The amendment as proposed is a violation of the underlying spirit of democracy, which is characterised by freedom of choices of which political party membership is a voluntary exercise of the constitutional right of freedom of association,” the statement reads in part.

President Buhari noted that the existing constitution of the parties already registered with the INEC permits direct, indirect and consensus primaries.

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However speaking while inaugurating some projects in Lagos recently, Gbajabiamila said the National Assembly may remove the clause of direct primaries for political parties upon resumption.

“If you follow the history of the amendment of the direct and indirect primary, I initiated that amendment for a good reason and it is for people to participate in elections. These are the people you see around when you campaign every four years.

“There is a process. When we come back from recess, as I said, the house will look at those amendments. We will sit as the National Assembly, look at the reasons and at that point, consider removing that clause and pass the bill so that we do not throw away the baby with the bathwater.

“But then, it is not my decision to make. It is the decision of the National Assembly. if they determine that the reasons are not good enough, then, there is a process prescribed by the Constitution.”

•Continues on page 12

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Buhari’s Refusal To Sign Electoral Act Amendment Bill Embarrassing, Disgraceful – Sowunmi Segun Sowunmi is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and spokesperson of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. In this interview with SEGUN AYINDE, he speaks on the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Reform Amendment Bill and sundry issues. Excerpts:

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I ask myself if democracy empowers one person, I mean one individual, which is the President, to say no, even when every other person is saying yes. The second is that people are fixated on the laws they want. It is one law today and another tomorrow. But I think that election will not have integrity on the basis of law. Why do we need so many laws as if we are going to rob the bank? The third issue is that in the buildup to the 2019 general election, all efforts to improve the electoral act was rebuffed by President Muhammadu Buhari. We are now in 2022 and we are still dilly-dallying on the presidential assent to an Electoral Act. Is it his own personal conviction that he does not believe that we should improve the electoral process?

When you look at it comprehensively, you have to ask what are the specific things in that Act that would guarantee peace or integrity. You will not be able to create the type of electoral law that will befit Nigeria until the people of this country understand that election is not war. You want to do electronic transfer of results, why should any human being not be interested in the process that reduces the appearance of human beings in the election, if it is something a machine can do to make it easy for everybody? Why should anybody need to be begged to do that? How can a political party like APC that has majority governors, majority representatives, majority senators and the President fail to recognise an opportunity for far reaching reforms that this absolute majority gives them if only they will be sincere?

My party, the PDP, was in government for 16 years. We

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Sowunmi

hat is your take on President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Reform Amendment Bill?

A lot of people have commented on this bill. Four things bother me. The first is whether democracy is designed in such a manner that one individual can go against the collective will of the majority. I know that there is a constitutional provision that gives the President the power to veto. Looking at the previous National Assembly and the present one, I have not seen any legislature that asserts its independence in a manner that shows they are the representatives of the people.

tried to carry out some reforms .We were always willing improve on it. Yar’Adua won an election and he declared that the election that brought him in was not the best.

He set up a commission to look at it. Jonathan passed an electoral act and improved on it before he left, but Buhari wants to leave power and he has refused to sign the bill.

The President has no excuse. Is it out of place for the presidency to have a joint session with the senate with a view to strengthen our elections? Why should we be spending about N305bn to vote and we are not even sure that the process has integrity. It is beyond offensive.

It is unfortunate that in democracy the people have to bear some responsibilities. President Buhari is busy borrowing from foreign countries, people are dying anyhow, the economy is not growing, poverty is very heavy in the land, inflation is crazy, almost 90 percent of our revenue will be used to service debt and you know the funniest thing because of this annoying concept of democracy?

There is nothing anybody can do about it until the next election. So if the people who are supposed to be players in that process are now careless, we are going to have a terrible situation in our hands.

For me, the inability of the President to do what is reasonable is a reflection of the fact that he sees Nigeria only from the eyes of the few people who will be telling

him that if you do it like this, this man will get advantage over you. Why should any President want to teleguide an electoral process to such a point that it no longer makes sense? It is disgraceful. All the members of the APC should be ashamed of themselves. Can you imagine the discordant tune from that party. The state governors are saying one thing, the ones who have the power to make the laws are saying one thing and the president is saying another thing. So everybody in the country is being taken for a ride. It is most unfortunate. I pray Nigerians understand that their civil responsibility is to endure this madness until another opportunity comes to select a new leader that will do the right thing.

What do you think about the Senate’s plan to override Buhari’s veto on his refusal to sign the bill?

The fact that the President did not sign the bill is embarrassing and disgraceful. In the last six years that he was in charge, he never made an attempt to improve the electoral process. it will be a threat to the independence of the present Senate if they cannot do what the Constitution allows them to do. But I doubt it because they do not look to me like the kind of men who have the courage to override the President’s veto. They should veto him if they need to do so. The President cannot be bigger than democracy. I doubt if the present Senate will be able to do that. If it were the Bukola Saraki-led 8th National THEWILLNIGERIA

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bondage, he cannot do snything. It doesn’t matter if he stays in that condition for 10 years or more, the day he stands up is the day he will be liberated. Maybe the North is about to be liberated.

The fact that the President did not sign the bill is embarrassing and disgraceful. In the last six years that he was in charge, he never made an attempt to improve the electoral process

I expected the youth in the North to quarrel not only about insecurity, but also about excruciating poverty, unemployment and the wide gap between the rich and the poor. Maybe they will become more vocal, like their counterparts in the South or their leaders will have a rethink. There is no reason why southern Nigerian should be doing better than the North. The latter have resources and a higher population than the South. If the people will apply the little that the Federal Government is giving to all of them every month, the way they are supposed to apply it, the situation in the North will not be what it is today. If they will apply orientation, embrace education by sending their children to school, the North will not be the way it is. If they embrace self reliance, the North will be a lot better. So if they are standing up to say the North is bleeding, we have been screaming for a long time that, indeed, it is bleeding.

If we are talking of terrorism, we should be worried about the active connivance of the people in that part of the country. Where do terrorists get the water they are drinking? Where do they get the food that they are eating?

Where do they get the matches they use to cook? Where do they get salt? Who is supplying them fuel? Where do they get these materials? These are questions that require answers. Until we say that enough is enough, we will not get out of the present situation in the country. Thank God that our brothers in the North are saying enough now. I join them to say, indeed the North is bleeding.

It is rumoured that the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, intends to run for presidency in 2023. What is your take on this?

As far as I am concerned, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has not declared his intention. He is a Nigerian like any other person and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees anybody that desires to be President of Nigeria the right to contest. When I look at Bola Tinubu and the way people have been going about this issue, sometimes I used to say he is a phenomenon. People talk about him nonstop. What exactly has he done other than install some people in Lagos State. So why should he be the problem of the people in Anambra, Kano why and Ogun States? Why should Tinubu be our problem? If he wants to run for president, he is welcome. It is his right. He should go out there and contest and let Nigerians decide on who is the best to lead the country. Nobody should be bullied and denied his right. As far as I am concerned anybody Nigerians choose should be their leader.

Assembly, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

What does that say about Buhari and his desire for political reforms?

I do not know why President Muhammadu Buhari’s advisers seem to be determined to let him go down in history as a failure. There is no need for that. I don’t expect him to ignore the signing of the bill. He didn’t sign it in 2018 and 2019. I think he is going to go down in history as one who came into power with a lot of goodwill and he is leaving with none.

What is the way forward?

The law says they should bring the bill to the President and it allows the President to either sign it or withhold his veto. If you don’t want to sign that bill, did you have to wait till the last day? If he had good intentions, he could have returned it to the National Assembly with a clause for adjustment.

The youth in the North recently protested the worsening insecurity in the region. What is your reaction to this?

The day a man knows realises that he is in bondage is the day he will stand up and fight for freedom. No matter how long you tell a man to change his ways or or stand up for his right, if he does not see himself as living in THEWILLNIGERIA

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With Atiku eyeing presidential seat once more, people are asking if power should go to the North again?

We the Yoruba need to be very careful and stop pretending as if the South is divided into three parts and the North is one. You know for sure that the North is also divided into three parts, just like the South. There is the South-West, South-east and South-South, ju st as there is North-West, North-East and North-Central. So, when you say power can’t go to the North again, what are you saying? Are you saying the whole of the South is made up of only Yoruba.

Why are the Igbo agitating for the presidency and why are the Yoruba also thinking that they have the right to contest for president? The North-West is producing the president now. They still have North-Central and NorthEast. Don’t subsume them with your. Obasanjo has been president for two terms and he is Yoruba. Jonathan has served the country first as Vice President and later as President. He is from the South-South. Osinbajo is now the Vice President and he has been in power for two terms. He is Yoruba. Tell me, why do the Yoruba think they deserve to produce the next president? Are you the only ones in the South? If you want to be doing rotation, then there are only three zones in the country that are legitimate. So maybe the advantage of 2023 will be to allow a Nigerian that comes from anywhere, who the people likes and trusts, to come and lead us.

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Lalong Lacks Spirit Of A Democrat - Golu UKANDI ODEY, JOS

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gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Plateau State, Hon. Timothy Golu, has described Governor Simon Lalong as a politician that is lacking in the spirit of a democrat and austere of the basic tenets of democracy.

Golu said the tenure of Simon Lalong as the governor of Plateau State has disconnected the state and its people with their age-long aspirations and struggles, noting that it’s even more regrettable that Lalong’s tenure stagnated growth of public infrastructure which was orchestrated by the immediate past regime of Senator Jonah David Jang.

According to Golu, a former member of the House of Representatives representing Panlshin/Kamke/Kanam Federal Constituency, the growth of democracy under Lalong suffered acute set back, citing his lack of respect for the rule of law and the constitutional contraption he is sponsoring in Langtang North to forcefully remove the PDP elected chairman from office as cases in point.

Thus, Golu said he is out to restore true democratic governance on the Plateau because “that is the essential ingredient lacking under the present administration”.

Golu, who is also a one-time member representing Kamke State Constituency in the State House of Assembly, made the disclosure when he was on a business visit to the party’s executive at its secretariat in Jos to formerly announce his gubernatorial ambition.

According to him, “true democratic governance stopped with the administration of David Jonah Jang. Since the present administration took over in 2015, there is no more justice, there is no rule of law, and impunity has become the order of the day”.

He said further that “this is what I am coming to correct. I will return the state to the path of progress, equity, and justice”

I’m Best Positioned to Succeed Ortom - Ex - CoS FROM KAJO MARTINS, MAKURDI

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Governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Benue State, Pastor Terwase Orbunde has said that his political experience in life has placed him in an advantage position to take over where governor Samuel Ortom will stop in May, 2023.

Orbunde who is the immediate past Chief of Staff to Governor Samuel Ortom said, he has learnt much from Ortom’s administration in the areas of security, economy, agriculture, and industrialization and would replicate this if elected as governor of the state in 2023.

According to the former federal lawmaker, he said he intends to employ what he referred to as ‘micro defence’ security system to avert series of attacks on Benue communities by suspected Fulani terrorist groups; promising to introduce resettlement and cluster partners in the state.

An Architect, Orbunde stated that the only way to end the Internally Displaced Persons in camps in Benue state is to design layouts where they will be relocated and provide them with water, medical centres and security post to guarantee their safety while waiting for federal government’s intervention.

The PDP chieftain explained that the law prohibiting open grazing in Benue state was the best option the Ortom administration will be remembered for after he would have left office; promising to remodel it to provide ranching across the state.

Responding to a question, the defeated governorship contender under the defunct National Democratic Party (NDP), disclosed that he would develop a policy that would encourage women participation in politics, while ailing sporting facilities at Aper Aku stadium will be upgraded with the reintroduction of governor’s cup competition to hunt hidden talents at the grassroots.

He called on Benue people to scrutinize those aspiring to be governor of the state so as not to fall prey of others with nothing to offer them.

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POLITICS NASS And The Electoral Reform Amendment Bill •Continued from page 9

Bayelsa Govt Extends Tenure of CDC Caretaker Committee

BY AMOS OKIOMA, YENAGOA

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he Bayelsa State Government has extended the tenure of the Peretorugbene Community Development Committee (CDC) Caretaker Committee by three weeks as part of efforts to amicably resolve the misunderstanding in the community.

The Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, disclosed this at a meeting with the Amananaowei of Peretorugbene, the CDC Caretaker Committee, the President of the Peretorugbene Welfare Association, and other critical stakeholders at his office in Government House, Yenagoa.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Doubara Atasi, the Deputy Governor assured that government would do everything possible to ensure the conduct of a new election in no distant time to usher in a substantive CDC in the community.

To this end, he urged the leaders and the entire people of Peretorugbene in Ekeremor Local Government Area to work cooperatively with government to achieve a peaceful CDC election, unity and progress.

According to Senator Ewhrudjakpo, lasting peace cannot be achieved in a place where feuding parties to a conflict refuse to make necessary sacrifices in the interest of the community they are struggling to lead.

Lawan

He noted with concern that Peretorugbene had over time earned a reputation for endless leadership tussles, which militate against its unity and development as a strategic community in the state.

Many Nigerians are of the view that the present National Assembly is too weak to confront President Buhari over the bill. They believe that the lawmakers will simply amend the bill and send it back to the President.

Speaking with THEWILL, a chieftain of the APC and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, said Buhari had not thrown away the baby with the bathwater by specifically pointing to areas that require amendment. He said it is up to the National Assembly to look into the President’s demands and amend the bill accordingly.

“I am a supporter of direct primary as it is better in expanding the frontiers of democracy. However one cannot ignore the issues raised by Mr President in his response to the National Assembly. All I can say is that I am happy that the President did not throw away the baby with the bathwater. That is why I made this statement somewhere.

“Yes, some compatriots have canvassed the full package of electronic transmission of results and direct primary as the mode of electing candidates by all political parties, which was submitted to the National Assembly for the President’s assent.

“President Buhari did not assent to the bill as presented, but he has clearly marshaled out his points of departure, which, as usual in liberal democracy, did not go down well with some people and went down well with others, especially state governors.

“It is my candid view that the Christmas gift is that the baby, the core item and the most treasured free and fairer election enabler in the bill - electronic transmission of results - and other valuable items are preserved, retained and endorsed by the President, National Assembly and Independent National Electoral Commission. Their being on the same page is the Christmas gift.

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“My dear Compatriots, please go through the bill. The President’s letter to National Assembly and INEC’s endorsement of BVAS is the vaccine for vote rigging.”

Also speaking with THEWILL, a public affairs commentator, Paul Okoye, said the President did well to point out the areas he was not comfortable with in the bill.

“He has said if the bill is amended, he will sign the electoral act bill. That is a positive development and I think the National Assembly upon resumption should do the needful and send the bill back to him for his assent.

“I think for the sake of electronic voting and electronic transmission of election results, the members of the National Assembly should cooperate with the President and sign the bill into law. That bill will help prevent rigging and it will be the best for our country. So no sacrifice will be too much,” he said.

Also, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Mr Segun Sowunmi, while speaking with THEWILL said, “The fact that the President did not sign the bill is embarrassing and disgraceful because he waited till the last day. He could have brought up his concern early enough for the National Assembly to adjust the bill. In the last six years, that he has been in office, he never made an attempt to improve the electoral process. Having said that, it will be a salute to the independence of this senate, if they can do what the constitution allows them to do, but I doubt it. The lawmakers do not look to me like the kind of men who have the courage to override the President’s veto. They should veto him if they need to do so. The President cannot be bigger than democracy. I doubt if the present Senate will be able to do that. If it were the Bukola Saraki-led 8th Senate, we wouldn’t be in this situation before having the bill signed into law.”

The Deputy Governor, therefore, called on all aggrieved parties to put the collective interest of the community above their personal interests and sheathe their swords for enduring peace to reign.

His words “Let me once again use this opportunity to call on all the parties not to allow themselves to be judged on the dark side of history, but to make every necessary sacrifice as leaders and stakeholders to ensure that the CDC Election is conducted peacefully in the best interest of the Peretorugbene people.”

He pointed out that although the tenure of CDC Caretaker Committee had elapsed, it was expedient to allow them work closely with the Amananaowei and the Peretorugbene Welfare Association to oversee the election process.

The Deputy Governor, however, cautioned the Chairman and members of the caretaker committee not to dabble into any form of agreement or contract with any multinational company during the three weeks extension period.

In his remarks, the Amananaowei of Peretorugbene, His Royal Highness Timi Odikeme, said the community had witnessed some level of peace following the state government’s intervention into the lingering leadership issue.

While thanking government, he pledged to maintain neutrality in the election and expressed his readiness to work with whoever emerges as Chairman, adding that the three weeks period was good enough to produce a new CDC body in the community.

On his part, the President of the Peretorugbene Welfare Association, Hon. Famous Daunemughan, expressed gratitude to the Deputy Governor and assured that the community was ready to key into the peace initiatives of the government.

Also speaking, the Caretaker CDC Chairman, Deacon Calabar Patrick Dimaro, said he and his committee members were prepared to give government a supporting hand to achieve its plans for Peretorugbene Community.

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PERSPECTIVE

Bolaji Akinyemi @80: They Don’t Come This Good Any More

BY MAGNUS ONYIBE

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The reversal in the fortunes of our beloved country is evidenced by a yawning gap between the way and manner our country is currently perceived Internationally, compared to the days when a well grounded technocrat like Akinyemi was at the helm of affairs in foreign policy formulation desk, first as Director General of the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and later as Minister of External Affairs where he was turning out superlative policies that rankled the super powers and which made them hold Nigeria in awe due to the brilliant ideas emanating from our technocrats, such as Akinyemi.

ven at 80, Prof Bolaji Akinwande Akinyemi still sparkles. He does so in many ways, especially with the programme that he hosts and broadcasts on YouTube every Thursday, which is aptly titled, ‘ThruMYeyes with Professor Bolaji Akinyemi.’

For the information of those who are yet to become devotees/ enthusiasts of the programme, it is an interactive forum with a menu of current issues on international relations and foreign policy, which the mercurial professor dishes out to his audience as the chief chef. That is in addition to the fact that he was deputy chairman of the National Confab held in 2014, whose far reaching recommendations have the capacity to change Nigeria for good.

Because some of our public office holders like Prof Akinyemi were so well versed in their areas of primary assignments, they made international media headlines through their dynamic and ground breaking ideas and concepts.

The import of his active presence in the foreign relations space, where he remains a towering figure, is magnified by the fact that he exited the position of Nigeria’s Minister of External Affairs in excess of 35 years ago (1985-87).

Such sagacity conferred on Nigeria not just the prestige of being the leader of Africa, but also a formidable force on the global stage.

How can it be forgotten that based on the potency of the pioneering work done by the likes of professor Akinyemi in positioning our country as a bastion of hope for Africa, with people bristling with bright ideals that could change the worst, Nigeria was tipped to be a part of BRICS, a group of countries, including Brazil, Russia, India and China, identified by Goldman Sachs economist, Jim O’Neal in 2001 as destined to dominate the world economy by 2050.

Yet Akinyemi is still a force to be reckoned with at home by virtue of the critical role that he played during the 2014 National Confab and in 2007 , as a member of the Justice Mohamed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee set up by late President Umar Yar’Adua and abroad where his footprints in his chosen field of law and diplomacy remains larger than life .

Arising from the above , I can state without fear of contradiction that Prof Akinyemi’s bones are ingrained with matters relating to international relations and affairs which by now must be a major component of his DNA since that is a space in which he has been both as a student and a practitioner for more or less 60 years of his 80 years sojourn on planet earth .

Is it not amazing that at the youthful age of 27, the intellectual powerhouse was already a professor? That is owed to his acquisition of outstanding academic laurels from some of the best educational institutions in north America -the prestigious Fletcher school of Law and Diplomacy, Boston, USA , where he obtained a masters degree and the highly acclaimed University of Oxford, England where he received his PhD. With the hefty academic laurels in his kitty between 1975 to 1983 he was the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA-a foreign policy think tank which was a natural fit for him to head for five years before having a stint as a professor of political science at the university of lagos from 1983-85.

Subsequently, the military government that was not partisan, but rather keen on finding round pegs for round holes, did not hesitate in appointing him minister at 33. Although, he served for a relatively short period of two (2) years (1985-87), he made such a positive impact that his work has continued to shape our country’s foreign policy some 35 years after his eventful tenure.

the leadership of such a novel and positively disruptive initiative to Nigeria.

As a result of what l would like to term miasma of despair on the part of the potential beneficiaries of the concept in the developing world and the Western world, the tendency to collaborate with their neighbours and allies to exploit the underdeveloped world, particularly Africans, the otherwise excellent idea propounded by the erudite professor suffered atrophy.

Unknown to the naysayers, Akinyemi was well ahead of his time. It is worth pointing out that the intendments of Akinyemi’s policy proposal to birth the Concept of Medium Powers, was later realised through the emergence of China in the global scene as a formidable force that has been playing a countervailing role which has had a moderating effect of diluting the suffocating influence of Europe and North America over global trade and politics, an agenda which the visionary Akinyemi was pursuing through the concert of medium powers an idea which he first propounded way back in 1987.

Apart from the Technical Aids Corps (TAC), which was conceived and implemented under his watch to render assistance to fellow Africans free of charge and in the process bolster Nigeria’s leadership influence across the continent, Akinyemi is also the architect of the Concert of Medium Powers, which is a trade and political bloc of medium power countries with regional influence that were being positioned to counterbalance, via collective bargaining, the over bearing activities of the then super powers – the USA and Russian – over less powerful countries worldwide.

Without any iota of doubt, such a globally positively disruptive policy could not have sprang forth from no less an intellectual mind than that of Prof Akinyemi who has drank from the fountains of knowledge in both the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts university, from where he obtained his masters degree way back in 1966, barely a couple of years after l was born. It is note worthy that the Fletcher School is an institution of learning that owes its establishment to World War ll. This is because it was after the war that the compelling need to set up an institution with specialisation in global affairs to mitigate a future breakout of global war was addressed with the birth of the Fletcher School. It is also significant that Akinyemi, the man being celebrated is also a product of the university of Oxford, which is the flagship citadel of learning in Europe renowned for being the training ground for some of the world’s greatest thinkers.

But European and other medium powers, most especially the likes of Sweden, failed to buy into the concept, probably because it was not propounded by one of their own and perhaps owing to a contrived superiority complex that Europeans tend to assume that they have over Africans. They could not yield to

Regrettably, Nigerian policy makers or public office holders are no longer as grounded as they used to be as reflected by the impeccable intellectual pedigree of Akinyemi, simply because the criteria for public office is no longer based on merit but on nepotism or partisanship.

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But following a series of political miscalculations that have bedeviled our country, not limited to, but particularly stemming from the failure of former military president lbrahim Badamasi Babangida, to keep to his promise to hand over political power to civilians in 1993 after MKO Abiola was believed to have won the presidential election held on June 12 of that year and instead a more tyrannical military dictator, Sani Abacha, seized power and became military head of state.

His ascension was preceded by his ouster of Ernest Shonekan as interim head of state, after IBB stepped aside, and the consequence of the upheaval was our country’s loss of the opportunity of joining that exclusive club of emerging economic and political power bloc famously known as BRIC at that time.

Remarkably, Nigeria’s loss was South Africa’s gain, as it was the S in South Africa, that got incorporated into the acronym to form BRICS. That is simply because it was within the same period that the obnoxious apartheid policy that scourged the conscience of the world was killed and therefore a precursor to the emergence of the late civil rights struggle icon, Nelson Mandela, who got released from prison to become president of South Africa in 1994 after a long period of oppression of black majority by a white minority.

Thus instead of BRINC with N, if Nigeria had been chosen over South Africa, we dropped out of the league.

Since then, owing to the sordid image of our country, both at home and abroad, the nation’s fortune has been on a downward spiral.

This is underscored by the fact that these days, Nigeria is only mentioned in the global media for the wrong reasons. As a person of impeccable character and pristine pedigree, one cannot celebrate Prof Akinyemi without referencing his incorruptibility.

So as a breathe of fresh air in the fouled sociopolitical atmosphere prevailing in our country, whereby the malfeasance of public office holders, stinking to the high heavens, is the new normal; Bolaji Akinyemi’s public service record can be an elixir of sorts. His story,(history) is guaranteed to bring back the feelings of nostalgia about the brilliance and high voltage intellectualism that were once the hallmark of our public servants.

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EDITORIAL

That Jigawa Death Penalty on Rapists

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fortnight ago, the Jigawa State Government enacted the child protection law, which prescribes the death penalty for rape with an option of fine.

In another instance, the law includes a provision that rules out any option for rapists of the girl child below 10 years.

The law is contained in the Child Rights Act, which the state government has passed.

It says that anyone convicted of raping a child below the age of 10 shall be sentenced to death with no other option.

This distinction, well thought out in our consideration, gives a human face to an otherwise drastic law for a disturbing menace that has been stalking Nigerian women in various disguises in recent times Explaining the details in Dutse, the Commissioner for Justice and the Attorney General of Jigawa State, Dr Musa Adamu, said that Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar signed the Violence Against Prohibition Bill, which prescribes the death penalty for rapists but with the option of life imprisonment.

But recently the government also signed the child protection law which prescribed the death penalty for anyone that raped a child below the age of 10.

According to him, before

the passage of both laws, the ministry received a total number of 196 case diaries, while 178 pieces of legal advice were prepared in respect of the case diaries, received in the year 2021.

He said, “Out of the total number of case diaries, 90 were rape cases; 27 culpable homicides; sodomy has 31; kidnapping and abduction have a total number of 18 cases; incest two; two acts of gross indecency; 20 armed robberies, while road traffic offences have two cases.”

Clearly, the law could not have come at a better time. Apart from being on top of crimes committed in the state in a year, cases of rape were more likely to continue to be on the rise unless addressed frontally. That is what we think the Jigawa State Government has done with this new law. We salute the government for this radical effort, particularly in that part of the country where the girl child goes through early emotional challenges because of the prevailing culture that puts her in the family way quite early in life.

There is more. Given the cultural stereotypes and stigmatisation that forces a culture of silence on most victims, as well as the low level of prosecution of reported cases, lack of referential data in the country, we can hazard a guess that the Jigawa rape figure, high as it is in comparison with other

type of crimes committed in the state, could be higher. Therefore, drastic action needs to be taken to deal with the dangerous trend.

Indeed, in a report unveiled on November 2021, Amnesty International, disclosed that 11,000 cases of rape were reported across the country in 2020 and that of these cases less than 10 per cent were prosecuted while the others met a hostile justice system that paid no attention.

We hope that the state government will avert itself to this lacuna in the justice system, if it is not already within its purview, so that it can ensure that the beautiful law it enacted

The sanctity of the family is usually violated when violent crimes are perpetrated with impunity without chances of legal redress by the victims

in praiseworthy effort does not suffer neglect on the shelf.

Enlightenment of the citizenry combined with enforcement of the law to the letter would have the double effect of breaking the culture of silence among victims and serve as a deterrent among would-be perpetrators.

We call on other states that are yet to sign either the Child Rights Act or enact a law against gender-based violence to follow in the footsteps of the Jigawa government.

The sanctity of the family is usually violated when violent crimes are perpetrated with impunity without chances of legal redress by the victims.

It is a sad commentary on our commitment to the protection of the so- called future leaders of tomorrow when only 25 states have passed the Child Rights Act since it was enacted in 2003, almost two decades ago.

Since the family unit is the foundation of society, nurturing and breeding values of change from generations to generations, it is vital that any action that would support and sustain it in giving the child a brighter future ahead should be encouraged.

More so for a country that is currently reeling from the lack, if not absence of values, in all facets of human life and suffering the consequences with the ongoing senseless killings, mistrust and violence ravaging all parts of the country.

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

Fighting Insecurity Same Way We Fought COVID-19 (3)

BY MAGNUS ONYIBE

I

n my view, it is about time we as a nation pivoted the apparently intractable crisis of insecurity that has obviously overwhelmed the military and government from the exclusive realm of politicians to a multi prong, multi sectoral and departmental effort involving both military and non military expertise.

The military has already co-opted vigilante groups, such as the ‘Civilian JTF’ in the North, Amotekun in the South-West and Ebubeagu in the South-East, into its operations. But it appears to me as if they are just being used for guard jobs and perhaps inadvertently as canon fodders , particularly around the numerous IDP camps in the north. They have also suffered significant number of fatalities, which may be unsustainable for a longer period .

Another group that has been co-opted by the military are hunters. They too have basically served as compass for the military in the forests where they are more at home. l have tried to give context to the effort that the military has made in expanding the execution of the war against terrorism beyond its horizon, in order to prove that it recognises that it has been overwhelmed by the dynamic shapes and forms in which the war on terrorism has evolved over the past decade. Again, the aim is to validate the need to expand the scope of government agencies and departments that are engaged in the war, which has turned out to be the greatest threat to the continued corporate existence of our country, from solely a public sector function into a public/private sector challenge that it truly is.

After all, is it not often said by top secuity functionaries that security is not the duty of government alone?

At a recent lecture held in commemoration of the 60th birthday of Akin Osuntokun, Prof Anya O Anya, an erudite scholar and one-time chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, pointed out that as a nation we have passed the stage of blaming our leaders for our woes. According to him, what we should be doing right now is to ask: What do we do?

I align with the elder statesman’s position. We as a people can do something by setting up a task force with a specific mandate to end insecurity in the country in the manner that the Presidential Task Force to end the COVID-19 pandemic was set up in 2019

by President Buhari and headed by Boss Mustafa, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, with active participation by the private sector and driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

It needs no repeating that the founding of CACOVID, a coalition of captains of industry or club of multi billionaires who injected not only billions of naira in funding, but also came up with strategies and implementation methodologies in the fight against COVID-19, contributed a great deal in checking the spread of the deadly disease in the country.

There may be a need and justification for the current standing COVID-19 public /private sector Task Force to be transformed into a National Security Task Force to address the twin monster of terrorism and secessionism that have the capacity to and is fast ripping our country apart. In the USA, there is a law called the Patriot Act, which empowers government to compel corporations to yield or their facilities towards producing war armaments. The law was recently invoked to fight COVID-19 pandemic by former President Donald Trump. Although that is not what l am advocating, corporate Nigeria had voluntarily yielded their financial resources towards the battle against the pandemic here.

The CACOVID team is not only a collection of billionaires, but also a formidable repository of the best strategists in Nigeria.

They may not be a repository of military skills, but war is about strategies and successful business men/women are basically proven strategists, hence they are able to come into the humongous wealth that they control. While the military prosecute the war , the CACOVID team of wise men/women can look at other ways (including negotiations) of restoring sanity and sanctity into our beleaguered polity and highly distressed society.

It is a plus that private sector involvement in security is not novel in Nigeria. The Lagos State Government’s partnership with the private sector, (especially the financial services sector) to enforce security in the bustling city of Lagos, is instructive. It is therefore a model that could be adopted because it is largely responsible for the relatively high level of security of lives and properties in the state, the reason Lagos seems to be insulated from the current bedlam.

Now, if COVID-19 pandemic posed enough threat to lives, such that it warranted the setting up of CACOVID to mitigate the risk to human capital(essential for the sustenance of businesses), then insecurity of lives and properties, which would constrain growth and also hobble the inflow of foreign direct investment that could have direct negative impact on the fortunes of the billionaire club members, must be a compelling reason for the team that made CACOVID a game changer in the war against COVID-19 pandemic, to join in the war against terrorism that has driven our country to the point of tipping her over, unless extraordinary measures are adopted.

I am not unaware that the private sector may loathe the idea of being involved in such a highly combustible matter of joining in the fight to save our country from collapse, owing to the onslaught of religious insurgents and secessionists. Whereas the concern that corporate sector involvement in national security has the tendency to trigger negative backlash, which may be consequential to brand image is real, the potential benefits of winning the peace in our country in the long run outweigh the risk.

Comparatively, helping to save lives through strategic interventions via contribution of financial resources and strategy, is less contentious because it will rub off positively on the brand simply because doing good can be categorised as a cause related marketing strategy, which evinces empathy that can be converted into brand love and loyalty.

Helping to save the country is one of the hard choices that the corporate world or billionaires’ clubs will have to make. And choosing to save their businesses, which will not thrive in an atmosphere of anarchy that our country is fast descending to, is clearly one of those difficult, but necessary choices that they must make.

Hopefully, it will be a New Year gift to Nigerians when the critical stakeholders highlighted earlier join in the struggle to pull our country back from the brink.

•ONYIBE, a public policy analyst and former commissioner in Delta State, contributed this article from Lagos.

Concluded.

What Soludo’s Emergence as Governor-Elect Means to South-East

BY IKE CHIOKE

O

n November 6, 2021, the people of Anambra State set high standards for their neighbours in the South-East geopolitical zone and beyond when they voted a professor of Economics and former Governor of the Central Band of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, into office as their governor.

The whole country had waited with bated breath during the campaign. The question on everyone’s mind was this: Would merit finally overwhelm mediocrity in Nigerian politics?

But Soludo’s landslide victory has raised hopes of better days for Nigeria, more so, for the South-East, which is afflicted by a crippling vacuum in political leadership for decades.

Indeed, since the demise of the Owelle of Onitsha, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the South-East has grappled with the weight of uninspiring political leadership, which lacks the strength of character to awaken the people. The cost of this prolonged leadership vacuum has been high in economics and blood.

It is understandable that Soludo’s victory should raise hope that tenacity would always pay off; the Nigerian society has a capacity to redeem itself and hope that given the right conditions, the best among us might get a chance to lead us.

A sense of justice pervades Soludo’s emergence. In 2009, he lost his first stab at becoming a governor to succeed Peter Obi. Unfazed by that experience, he had re-launched his bid for governorship in 2013, but was disqualified by the All Progressives Grand Alliance screening committee. He did not allow the experience to shake his loyalty to the party.

On March 31, 2021, Soludo survived the greatest obstacle to his dream of becoming governor when he escaped, unhurt, from a violent attack by gunmen who disrupted his engagement with the youths of his Isuofia hometown. A faint-hearted candidate would have ended the journey that day, but Soludo trudged on.

The underlying lesson here is that if the force of our dream is not strong enough to survive the fire of adversity, we fall by the wayside.

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Soludo is not alone. Igboland has a long line of bright minds, who have shown a great deal of interest in providing political leadership to the people. Before Soludo’s success, Prof Barth Nnaji had made a silent bid to lead Enugu State, but was discouraged by the blood and gore that marked the politics of the state at the time.

Nnaji is extraordinary. He is cited as the first black man in American history to become a distinguished professor of Engineering, the first African to become director of the United States National Science Foundation, and the first Nigerian to win the Baker Distinguished Research Award, which is widely considered as the Nobel Prize for Industrial Engineering. Beyond these, Nnaji is renowned for his expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He shied away from Enugu politics and never looked back. What a loss!

Yet, it is one loss that has worsened the pathetic state of political leadership in the region. In the absence of candidates with outstanding profiles, the South-East has suffered in the hands of career politicians and professional power-mongers, who have no imagination to engage the future. At a time the region needs first class thinkers to wipe out the consequences of the indifference of the Federal Government to its plight, successive state governors in the South-East have shown a regrettably poor grasp of nuance and utter lack of imagination to chart a new course. They have largely resorted to playing the victim where they should have played the revolutionary and opted for self-serving stratagems where conscionable populism would have served a greater purpose.

Since everyone is aware of a deliberate attempt by the Federal Government to deny the South-East its fair share of investments, the challenge is for the leadership to wend its way around the neglect to negotiate new frontiers of excellence.

At the moment, only Willie Obiano of Anambra State and Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State have demonstrated that, with a wise and competent management of resources, the South-East can erase her infrastructural deficits.

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Unfortunately, Obiano and Umahi are oases in a desert of crippling incompetence.

Regrettably, the lack of inspirational leaders has laid the region bare to hotheads and anarchists to rob the people of peaceful sleep. The growing insecurity in the South-East has crippled economies and wrenched food off dining tables. The results were telling last Christmas. Igboland was a shadow of itself. The footprints into the region had decreased. Most village squares were empty. The streets lacked vigour. The unknown gunmen have driven the final nail in the economic coffin of the SouthEast under the watch of our political leaders!

Soludo’s emergence is, therefore, the proverbial trumpet call.

Igboland has lived in denial. Our destiny is in our hands. We are the change we seek. The time of pointing fingers at imaginary enemies is over. We must accept responsibility for our current situation and think our way out of it. We must roll up our sleeves to enthrone a new order of reality. Again, APGA offers us a creative window to change the game.

Here is a party that has resolved to give a chance to Nigeria’s best and brightest. Here is a party that has chosen to cast its net beyond the career politicians. Governor Obiano came to office as a technocrat. Soludo will take over as an academic and highflying public intellectual with an impressive record of service. That is inspiring!

The word on the street is that Soludo is the trigger that will ignite a revolution in South-East politics and the search for regenerated leadership. It is hoped that the former CBN governor is fully aware that as the next leader of APGA, he has a historic obligation to finally build the party into a formidable political movement. The current political temperature of the region is amenable to change. A re-invigorated and re-focused APGA is a major component of that change. This is the unconsidered meaning of Soludo’s emergence as governor-elect of Anambra.

• CHIOKE, the Managing Director of Afrinvest, wrote in from Lagos.

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•

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

Buhari

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2022 Budget: Doubts Over Capacity to Lift Economy

BY SAM DIALA

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 2021 signed into law the 2022 budget of N17.12 trillion passed by the National Assembly. The lawmakers had jerked up the budget by N731 billion from the N16.39 trillion originally presented by the executive. The budget is not only huge but the largest in Nigeria’s history. It is also 182.5 percent over the 2016 budget of N6.06 trillion – the first under the Buhari-led administration, and 17.58 percent over the 2021 figure of N14.5 trillion.

Christened ‘Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability’, it is doubtful if the budget will tread that path. The reasons are obvious. First, Nigeria’s budgets play a little role in stimulating the economy as they are rarely private sectororiented. The agencies that play critical roles in boosting the economy have little linkage with the private sector. Thus, small and medium enterprises (SME), the engine of the economy, are rarely impacted by the budget.

Secondly, the budgets place priority on personnel cost, which constitutes the bulk of the recurrent expenditure – the largest part of the budget. For 2022, non-debt recurrent expenditure of N6.83 trillion is the largest expense item, with 60 percent relating to personnel costs at N4.11 trillion. This is 18.50 percent higher than the non-debt recurrent expenditure of

New Airlines, Aircraft Deals, Concession to Shape Aviation in 2022 2021 was an eventful year in the aviation sector. In this report, ANTHONY AWUNOR previews industry activities that will shape 2022

F

rom all indications, 2022 will be quite exciting for aviation in Nigeria, with expected new entrants in the airline business, massive

PAGE 16

investments in aircraft purchase, aerodromes and other critical areas of the industry.

Stakeholders in the aviation Continues on page 33

N5.76 trillion in 2021.

This implies that a small fraction of the population consumes 60 percent of the nation’s budget, thereby elevating inefficiency, waste and corruption to national priority.

Data from the Budget Office shows that non-debt recurrent expenditure, incorporating personnel cost, is usually executed 100 percent as against capital and other expense items. This is tied to Nigeria having one of the world’s highest costs of governance.

Thirdly, corruption, mismanagement and abuse of process reign supreme in our government business. While the federal lawmakers were considering the 2022 budget, the AuditorGeneral of the Federation (AuGF), Adolphus Aghughu, was issuing queries to various organs of the government over irregularities in public financial management.

The Office of the AuGF last December issued queries to the management of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Service Commission for carrying out unexplained expenditures totalling N9.424 billion in the 2019 financial year.

The AuGF’s office also queried the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for spending a total sum of N3.809bn on the suspended Rural Grazing Area scheme without a presidential

MORE INSIDE Cloud-Based Technology Critical To Economic Recovery – Williams PAGE 41

ABCON Asks CBN To De-risk BDCs Operations PAGE 41

Continues on page 33

FCMB Partners Ogun On Subscribers’ Loan For Housing Schemes FROM SEGUN AYINDE, ABEOKUTA

F

irst City Monument Bank has concluded plans to partner with the Ogun State Government to provide loans for interested subscribers in the state’s housing schemes.

The Group Chief Executive of the bank, Mr Ladi Balogun, disclosed this when he led the management of the bank on a courtesy visit to Governor Dapo Abiodun at his office in OkeMosan, Abeokuta, the state capital.

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AVIATION/ECONOMY New Airlines, Aircraft Deals, Concession to Shape Aviation in 2022

2022 Budget: Doubts Over Capacity to Lift Economy Continued from Page 16

Continued from Page 16

Sirika

industry have already projected 2022 to be a good year in the industry because of the policies and projects to be executed by the Federal Government. According to them, such government policies, if implemented, will no doubt stimulate growth, development and competition among operators.

New Airlines To stimulate more activities in the industry, the Federal Government through the minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, announced February and April 2022 as take-off dates of the national carrier christened Nigeria Air and the concession of four major airports, respectively.

Sirika had in November 2021, while announcing that the airline would come to life in April 2022, disclosed that the government would hold a five per cent stake, Nigerian entrepreneurs will holding 46 per cent, while the remaining 49 per cent will be reserved for yet-to-be assigned strategic equity partners, including foreign investors.

In addition, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has concluded plans to set up Nigerian Eagle Airline to replace Arik Air, which has been under its receivership since 2018. Aside the AMCON-backed Nigeria Eagle, the year will see other airlines, such as Green Africa, Cally Air and others, flourish. Another three airlines are already on the verge of being awarded the all-important Air Operators Certificates (AOC) as early as January to commence services.

AIRCRAFT INVESTMENTS This year looks like one that aircraft deals will take shape and mature. It is a period whereby carriers could begin to see their multi-billion naira aircraft acquisition projects begin to take shape in terms of delivery and new leases that would help them enhance their operations.

For instance, Ibom Air had in November 2021 sealed a deal with European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, to buy 10 A220 jets.

Similarly, at the same Dubai Airshow, Overland Airways placed orders for three new E175 E-Jets, plus three purchase- right aircraft worth $299.4 million at list price, with all options exercised.

On the other hand, Nigerian start-up carrier, Green Africa Airways, is aiming to increase its fleet of ATR turboprops to as many as 15 aircraft in 2022. Air Peace took delivery of its fifth Embraer 196-E2 aircraft. The fifth Embraer 196-E2 aircraft is among the 13 ordered from the Brazilian aerospace conglomerate, Embraer, in 2019. Eight planes remain to be delivered by THEWILLNIGERIA

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2022.

AIRPORT CONCESSION For many years, the Federal Government proposed the concession of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Port-Harcourt International Airport, Port-Harcourt and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.

Although little progress has been made in the process, 2022 seems to be the defining year as it is already at the critical stage. Already, there are great expectations as many would-be investors are already jostling to win as preferred bidders for the four most viable airports.

Advising on the airport concession plan, the Acting Director of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Mr. Michael Ohiani, says private sector investment in airport concession is the way to go in infrastructure development in the industry.

“We don’t want portfolio investors. We want those who will bring value to the concession processes, let the private sector bring in their experts, their own money and enhance it and at the end of the day take back our assets”.

STAKEHOLDERS’ VIEWS Speaking on Aviation in 2022, President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Dr Gabriel Olowo, urged Nigerians to positively look forward to 2022 with hope that the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus will not metamorphose into another variant or another plague that will impact life as negatively as COVID-19.

Advising the Federal Government on how to attract investment in the aviation industry, he said it should continue to address insecurity and its adverse effect on the country’s risk assessment. According to him, the country’s risk assessment speaks volume on the economic index measurement, such as in exchange rates, insurance premiums, pricing, inflation and others.

On whether the government can achieve national carrier status by April 2022 as claimed, Olowo added, “I am not worried about time of entry or exit of any carrier, my earnest desire is to see the emergence of a strong, efficient and globally competitive Nigerian flag carriers.

The weight thrown by the government on Air Peace/ Emirate commercial negotiations in UAE disagreement is a confirmation that Nigeria has already endorsed that flag Carrier.

A commendable aero politics indeed.” *Continues online at www. thewillnigeria.com THEWILLNIGERIA

approval or National Assembly appropriation.

“The squandering of public funds appropriated in the budget is one reason the economy is in a bad shape. When you are not investing but consuming the little resources at your disposal, you cannot achieve growth or sustainability,” said Dr Leonard Ikeagwu, an economist.

A London-based lawyer and political economist, Dr Olu Fasan, said it would be futile to expect any meaningful development in 2022 as the years of lost opportunity were gone. “First of all, it is futile to expect any significant improvements from President Buhari’s administration this year. This is the president’s final full year in office and it is also the pre-election year. The truth is politicking will trump everything else, including the economy.”

“Think about it. Foreign investors will not suddenly rush to Nigeria this year. Nigeria’s abysmally low non-oil exports will not suddenly grow this year. And local industry, particularly the manufacturing sector, which has, for years, been plummeted by bad policies, such as distortions in the forex market, will not miraculously be transformed this year,” he said.

Nigeria is immersed in debt of a frightening dimension. Our debt stock, which was about N12 trillion in 2015 is now about N32 trillion, with over 70 percent of revenue spent on debt servicing.

“You can see the contradiction in the government’s claim that Nigeria’s challenge is not debt but revenue. You are not producing.

You are not exporting. You are borrowing massively and paying heaving to service your debts. Yet, you are not frugal. This is why the economy is on life support with a huge budget deficit every year,” said Ikeagwu in a telephone chat with THEWILL. The 2022 budget has a deficit of about N6.26 trillion, approximately 3.39 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This is slightly above the three percent ceiling set by the Fiscal responsibility Act 2007 (FRA).

The President alluded that the expenditure level was necessary to assist with overcoming current security challenges and accelerate post-recession growth, insisting that Nigeria only has a revenue challenge and not a debt sustainability problem.

Interestingly, the Federal Government has realised the need to adopt the private-partnership model in infrastructure development which it has failed to embrace over the years. “In 2022, the Government will further strengthen the frameworks for concessions and public private partnerships (PPPs).

Capital projects that are good candidates for PPP by their nature will be developed for private sector participation”, Buhari said in his budget speech.

“

The way forward is to reduce the cost of governance significantly, by about 50 per cent. To do this, the government must merge the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). It must reduce the cost of running the Presidency In line with the government plan to accompany annual budgets with Finance Bills, partly to support the realisation of fiscal projections, current tax and fiscal laws are being reviewed to produce a draft Finance Bill 2022. The implication is that Nigerians should be prepared to pay more tax.

“Now, the government’s plans to increase taxes, tariffs and levies are as the result of low revenue intake. All over the world, tax increases are a product of economic growth. When the economy is growing and jobs are being created, governments generate more revenue through corporation and income taxes. But when the economy has collapsed and millions of people are jobless or are in low-paid jobs, tax revenues will naturally fall.

“Trying to increase taxes in those circumstances would make businesses uncompetitive, resulting in higher unemployment.

Furthermore, such tax hikes would penalise households by depleting their disposable incomes, a situation that becomes even worse when the cost of living is too high because of rising inflation.

“So, the planned tax increases are a product of the Buhari administration’s failure to grow the economy and broaden the tax base. It is better to broaden a country’s tax base and spread taxes thinly across many payers than to have a narrow tax base and put unbearable tax burdens on a relatively small number of businesses and citizens. All over the world, low taxes are associated with economic growth and better living standards,” Fasan, a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics told THEWILL in a note.

Data from various reports showed that investment inflow has sharply dwindled since the beginning of 2021. The first wailing voice was raised by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

The agency in a report published in July 2021, revealed that investment announcements in Nigeria declined by a whopping 80 percent in the second quarter.

According to NIPC, investment inflow fell to $1.69 billion in the second quarter from $8.41bn in the first quarter.

Continues on page 41

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ECONOMY

Transport Poverty: Livelihood, Business And Economic Consequences

BY TIMI OLUBIYI

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very country, regardless of the size of its population, level of development and industrial capacity, can benefit from an efficient transportation network, be it road, waterways, rail, or air transport. But on the contrary, transport poverty exist where inefficiency in all transportation modes is prevalent within an economy.

Such is the case in many African countries and cities, including Benin Republic, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Lusaka, Zambia and a host of others.

In many developed countries, transportation plays a significant role in the ease of doing business and the government plays an integral role in the implementation and administration. A recent visit to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) strongly indicated that, where there is efficient transportation and fewer traffic congestions, the economy and businesses are positively impacted.

From my observation in the two countries, public transportation, which includes buses, taxis, water ferries, trains, trams and the metros, is regulated adequately by the government and not completely private-sector driven, making it so efficient and reliable. Apparently as noted, where private companies are involved in the operations, it is usually on an agreed model, such as the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

Ironically, across many African cities, particularly in Nigeria, the unreliability of the transport system has continued to limit access to services, business, trade facilitation, the attraction of foreign direct investments and also in the revenue drive of the government. The pilot region of observation is Lagos State, the economic centre of Nigeria, where transport operation is largely run informally by private individuals. This makes the services undesirable because of the inefficiencies that exist due to under-regulation.

For instance, car reliance keeps compounding in the state because of poor demand responsiveness of public transport, commuters then tend to avoid the long queues and waiting hours at bus stops and the associated risk of using public minibuses called ‘Danfo’. But the result is usually wastage of productive hours by many commuters in traffic congestions. Sometimes motorcycle taxis, which are usually referred to as Okadas, are considered for mobility. Although this trend depicts transport poverty, it is largely heightened by the informality of the public transport, widespread unemployment, lack of worthiness of the available transportations, lack of adequate maintenance system, giving rise to the high traffic congestion on the roads and expensive transport fares.

Basically, the over-reliance on one mode- road transport and over-exposure to informality are the issues that are mainly slowing down growth in the sector. As widely noted, private participation, with little or no government entry barrier promotes informality, such as the operations of the non-conventional ferry on the waterways, motorised tricycles and the Okadas and Danfos within the hinterlands. Sadly, these are the only affordable services to the poor, despite the widespread insecurity and risks.

In the United Kingdom, particularly in London, a mobile application (app) offers most of the information about the public transport system and regulations in the city, including fares, routes and time of arrivals and departures. That means if you must operate, the government has to know. This proceedure reduces informality. In both UK and the United Arab Emirates, the logistics and business supply chains are effective because they rely on the transportation infrastructures and strict regulations available and that reduces the cost of business operations.

For most public transportation, closed-circuit television (CCTV) is installed for safety and security businesses.

Transport cards are also used on most of these public transports for ease of payment, this offers a hassle-free environment for the populace, visitors and tourists.

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Simple things like getting to work, school, meetings, appointments, trade facilitation, transacting, moving cargoes, travels, and even delivery of social services such as rescues during emergencies can become extremely difficult with poor transportation

Strict regulations also avail the government the opportunity to monitor many of these services, ensure accountability on the part of the operators and monitor service trends. For instance, in the UAE just in a year, there were around 600 million rides on public transport (in a city of 3 million people). This is an indication of the rate of conversion to the public system by visitors and residents in a region that used to be primarily private vehicle-driven.

This is an indication that individuals move with ease and travel on public transportation because they are timely, affordable and adequately available. With such a system in place, businesses can make projections and enjoy a reliable supply chain, with no uncontrollable logistic issues. With this experience, I have a strong conviction that there is a direct relationship between the development of the transport system and the ease of doing business in any country.

roads, overstressed railways, underutilisation of the waterways, long hours of waiting to have access, inadequate infrastructure, there should be a concerted effort to raise the percentage of public transportation, expand the modes and offer a stricter regulatory regime.

For safety and security reasons the ease of entry into the sector by informal transport operators need to be reviewed because it appears that is majorly the issue.

Government entry barriers are obstacles that can make it difficult for an individual or business to operate in the sector, such as what is available in the aviation industry.

It is important to improve policies and regulations in transport services, expand transportation networks to achieve large-scale economic growth and modernisation. Although it can be argued, effective transportation can alleviate the level of poverty in the country because the current chaotic congestions on the roads and in the ports are essentially aiding market failures and hindering the ease of doing business in the country which are enablers of business closures and impoverishment. Hence when transportation is effective and efficient, businesses will be able to make adequate projections, improve production, produce faster, reach consumers faster, attend business meetings promptly and all these stimulate the economy, create jobs, and can reduce poverty.

Truthfully, the transportation sector can offer the needed diversification of the revenue generation drive of the government. I am aware that the current public debt of the country is around 38 trillion Naira according to figures released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) and this is mainly due to revenue challenges.

In my opinion, an effectively regulated and efficient transportation system can be revenue-yielding for the government.

In fact, without a doubt, it is easy to conclude that transportation can be a useful criterion for measuring development in a country. If it is made efficient, it must impact positively on the economic development of a country and also improve the performance of businesses in that country. It is no brainer or magic that such a system can happen in Nigeria, with improved regulation, reduction of informality with sufficient investments in the sector.

In conclusion, it is also important to note that an improved transportation mode, whether air, rail or water networks, and the expansion of road networks can increase economic productivity, cut the cost of production and enhance the ease of doing business in the country. For thinkers, the issues mentioned above can adequately present mind-blowing opportunities, particularly for investors and businesses. To this end, businesses and individuals can have better mobility, access and livelihood. Good luck.

Even though in Nigeria it has been a situation of hectic traffic congestion even at the ports, poorly maintained

•Dr Timi Olubiyi is an Entrepreneurship and Business Management expert

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LEKAN OLALEYE

ROOTED IN CULTURE, LANGUAGE PAGE 35-40

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Olalekan Olaleye, also known as Lekan King Kong, is a content creator, actor and serial entrepreneur.

He speaks with SHADE METIBOGUN about his foray into entertainment and his love for Yoruba language Olaleye

MY MISSION IS TO PROMOTE YORUBA LANGUAGE, CULTURE – LEKAN OLALEYE Y

ou planned to release a movie on Netflix in 2021, but did not. What happened to that dream?

I intend to complete the production of the movie this month. Last year I had a lot of challenges. That was why I couldn’t do anything about the project. It will be an amazing project. The movie will be produced in English and Yoruba languages. The script is very brilliant and full of suspense. All hands are on deck and there is a lot to look forward to.

You graduated with a first class degree in Business Administration. How come you took up skit making as a career?

What I do is beyond just comedy. It is a fact that I graduated top of my class with a first class in Business Administration. I have always been passionate about business. Whatever I do, I try to be the best. So far, I will say that I have been able to achieve that, which is my primary assignment in life. What made me to go into skit making and entertainment generally is passion. I love to create stuff. I love to see people happy. I love to share my experience because I am a person that loves to learn a lot. I love to know something about everything. I am a creative person. When I started as an entertainer, I was able to incorporate my business knowledge into it. The Internet has been the biggest medium for a while now. If you haven’t promoted your business on the Internet, you are still joking. When I create content, it brings me more valve and more clients. I don’t think I would love to do any other thing apart from entertainment. I am also an entrepreneur and I have a few business interests. I own a farm and I am into oil and gas business with my brother. Creating content has been very profitable for me. The return on advert is a lot. So I am enjoying it.

Your are quite fluent in Yoruba. It was even rumoured at a time that you studied Yoruba in school. How come you understand and speak the language so well?

Yoruba language is very important to my brand innovation.

You will find me speaking the language in 99.9 percent

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of everything that I do. I am comfortable with my mother tongue; it is my logo. It is what made me who l am today. It is my foundation. I have always spoken Yoruba with confidence, no matter who I am talking to and no matter Olaleye where I am.

Yoruba language is dying. It is even being referred to as vernacular. When I started creating content, it was in Yoruba. If it were English language, I might be accused of making errors. It is easy for me to create content in Yoruba.

In doing so, I am preaching and appealing to people who have given up on the language. Some people don’t even teach their children the language any more.

The beauty of Yoruba language is far beyond communication. It is such a beautiful language. I was born in Ogbomosho, Oyo State and my local language is Yoruba while my dialect is core Ogbomosho. I started learning English Language when I was around six years-old in primary school. My parents started speaking Yoruba to me from home. All my siblings and grandparent spoke Yoruba language to me. I was born into the language and I was a very inquisitive child. When you say something in Yoruba that I don’t understand, I would ask to know what you are saying. And I never forgot such words or phrase.

Most of your voice-overs are done in Yoruba language, but you are based in South Africa. Does it mean that South Africans are not part of your target audience?

I live in South Africa, but my content is universal. My target audience is the Yorubas. My plan is to entice people to love what is already there. I am not trying to gather an English speaking audience. For instance, South Africa has 11 local languages, but I am not targeting nor enticing them to come and learn my language. I hope someone is doing what I am doing with their language, too. South Africans don’t joke about their language and culture. They love their culture so much. My target is the Yorubas and I want them to understand that their language is beautiful. I don’t expect

Europeans to show interest in Yoruba or desire to speak it fluently. I want them to be interested in their culture and language and be able to speak it fluently, too. But, they can also enjoy the fun in my language. The people I want to bring back to the core are the Yoruba who are lost and don’t care about the culture or value of their language anymore, people who don’t teach their children the language anymore. My target is not just to do or put content out there, which everybody can enjoy because they understand it. I want something for my people. I might be sentimental about it, but that is what I really have in mind.

Your skits are quite unique. You make use of real life situations as your concept. How do you get those videos and concepts you use?

I don’t come up with those videos myself. By the time I wake up in the morning, I would have received about 900 videos that my family wants me to do a voice-over for.

When I say family, I mean my fans. But I don’t call them fans anymore; I call them family. When l wake up in the morning, content is already waiting for me. I go through as many as I can, but most times I don’t see all of them. I just make sure I go through as many as possible and select 10 videos for the day. The selected ones may not most people’s favourites. I try my best to satisfy as many people as possible. I go through the videos and create a script as the video speaks to me. I don’t want to say it is easy or difficult to know how to turn the videos into a voiceover, but I believe that whatever you put your mind to do is achievable. More so, it is what I enjoy doing. Viewers’ comments make it funnier than the video itself. The way people talk about it makes me want to do more.

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Yoruba language is dying. It is even being referred to as vernacular. When I started creating content, it was in Yoruba. If it were English language, I might be accused of making errors. It is easy for me to create content in Yoruba.

In doing so, I am preaching and appealing to people who have given up on the language in South Africa as a top model. When I arrived in the country, we both thought of what we could do together. So we started a fashion company. We brought a tailor from Nigeria and started making ready-to-wear clothes. That was going on until he participated in the Big Brother Africa reality TV show. After he exited the show, we moved to Nigeria together. We thought of the market in Nigeria and decided to do business there as well. But later, I ventured into entertainment fully.

Is your wife South African or Nigerian?

She is South African, but I don’t want to focus on her. That is my happy place. I try as much as possible to keep it as private as I can. Let us focus on me because I always try to keep conversations about my family short.

What challenges do you usually encounter in the process of making skits?

Space and time are some of the challenges. If I video call you now, you will notice that I am inside my garage. The whole family is present and so, the house is full. I will have to leave the noisy place to speak with you. Also, I want to spend quality time with my child. I start work in the early hours of the day, but I have been spending time with him since he was born. There are challenges in everything you do in life. I try as much as possible to make every challenge my source of strength. I don’t let it weaken or weigh me down. Whatever be the challenge, I try to tackle it. Some people face challenges of acceptance. It takes a lot to create contents and put it out there for people. You have to think of the people that will accept you and those who will criticise your work and talk down to you. No matter how hard you try, they just want to bring you down. But most of them don’t know that behind the camera, you need confidence, time and even morale. Sometimes you just don’t want to do anything. Such are some of the challenges. If I realise that anything wants to weigh me down and discourage me from meeting up with my schedule, I try to face it and tackle it.

That is my approach to challenges and life generally.

When exactly did you move to South Africa?

I have been living in South Africa since 2013. I moved to the country two days after my mother passed on. At first, I just wanted to travel for a while and clear my head. I had lost my dad in 2005 and then my mother followed. I felt empty and decided to have a change of environment and maybe, start a new life. My friend, Tayo Faniran, was living in South Africa at that time. He was already established THEWILLNIGERIA

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You seem to be a lover of animals as you also use them to create contents?

It is true that I love animals a lot. I love monkeys. If I am allowed to own up to seven of them in South Africa, I will gladly do so. I love animals, but I don’t play with other people’s dogs. I feel that there is so much about animals that we don’t know. I feel that they do communicate among themselves and we just don’t understand them. But there are some animals that dare not move close to. There was a skit I created about a lion. I visited a place where lions were kept. I was a bit frightened as I stood so close to one of them. I couldn’t move around, but I managed to do the voice-over. Anyway, it was fun, which is one of the attractions of South Africa. Those lions were cubs and the oldest was seven months-old. They were raised like cats.

They were taken from their mother when they were mere kittens and raised domestically, with feeding bottles. That is why they are able to move freely among humans. After like a year, they take them to places where you can only drive to see them. By then, they would have been caged properly.

Their handlers believe that they might still get wild as they grow so they don’t allow them to mingle with humans again.

You are an entertainer, farmer, businessman, father and husband rolled in one. How do you combine these multiple roles with skit-making?

When it comes to my business, I delegate roles to other people. My brother manages one of my businesses, for instance. I co-own one other business with one of my brothers. My farm is in Nigeria. It comprises several hectares of land where I have planted cashew trees. One part of it is for animal husbandry. I have a fish pond, a few cows and I also plant crops, such as cassava, yam and maize, depending on the season. The cashew trees were planted about four years ago. It takes about five or six years before you can start to harvest them. Soon I will become a major exporter of cashew nuts. I have not really said a lot about it. I guess this is the first time that I am

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Olaleye

talking about my farm. I co-own the oil and gas company with my brother. We have a gas station in Odo- Oba in Ogbomosho, Oyo State and there is another plant under construction now. My focus is on content creation. I don’t like it when people call me a comedian. I don’t see myself as a comedian. I create contents that are funny. There is more to being a comedian than creating contents. Content creation is my passion. I love it and I enjoy doing it. I coown a movie production company with Daniel Akinlolu, he is a brother to Beautiful Nubia. When I started the social media thing, he approached me and we have been doing movie business together. I shot my first and second movie with him. He is a great script writer, director and cinematographer and he is going to handle the next movie we are planning to shoot.

Do you have any plan to go into stand-up comedy?

I am a ‘sit-down’ comedian for now, but you can never tell. Let me tell you a secret about myself. I hate to stand up in front of people to make them laugh. We all have our individual fears. I have never tried it before. Maybe when we get there, I will cross the bridge. Although I anchor events occasionally, I don’t make a lot of jokes. I can seat among people and make them laugh, but standing and facing a crowd as a comedian is what I have not tried before. It is a bridge I am yet to cross. Maybe when I get here, I will be able to cross it and make it my comfort zone as well.

What about the fashion business you started with Tayo Faniran? Did you guys call it quit at a point?

A lot of things happened businesswise and we fell apart. I don’t want to go into a lot of details.

Are you still friends?

Yes, we are still cool together.

What was growing up like for you?

I was born in Ogbomosho Oyo State. I am the last child in my family. I have eight brothers and two sisters. I attended Adisa Memorial Nursery and Primary School, Federal Government College, Ogbomosho and the University of Ilorin. For about three or four years, I studied Linguistics at UNILORIN before moving to Ajayi Crowther University in 2008 and graduated with a first class in Business Administration.

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STORIES BY IVORY UKONU

How Buhari Financed Tunde Bakare’s Citadel Church

BIODUN OLUJIMI, ADEKEMI ADEWUNMI A BATTLE OVER EKITI GOVERNORSHIP POSITION

Adewunmi & Olujimi

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t doesn’t look like there is an end in sight to the rancour that has enveloped 14 contenders, eight of who are women, over who finally occupies the Ekiti Government House sometime this year.

About two months ago, THEWILL exclusively reported that one of those eyeing the government house, socialite and philanthropist, Princess Adekemi Adewunmi, was being threatened. Adekemi, the president of Soroptimist International and the Women Initiative for Advocacy, Social Justice and Empowerment, among many other organizations and groups that she heads, is the widow of a former Chief of Air Staff, late Air Vice Marshal Ibrahim Alfa.

THEWILL had reported that the mother of two had been receiving death threats from different quarters since she announced her governorship ambition. One of those issuing threats to her is her distant cousin, who is also in the race for the governorship position.

This cousin of hers allegedly has the full backing and support of a controversial former governor of the state. Joining the fray of recent, to allegedly discredit and threaten her, is Senator Biodun Olujimi, the senator currently representing Ekiti South Senatorial District and Minority Leader in the Senate.

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According to Adekemi, Olujimi called her several times on January 1, 2022 to issue fresh threats to her, but when she refused to answer the calls, aware of the caller’s intentions and not desiring to start the New Year on a negative note, Olujimi allegedly reached out to their mutual friend and allegedly asked the mutual friend to warn Adekemi to behave herself or she would allegedly go both physical and spiritual with her. Olujimi allegedly referred to herself as a python that swallows her meal (Adekemi).

But Adekemi has refused to be threatened, referring to herself as an anaconda that plays by the rule. She accused Olujimi of hating her with passion and only mouthing support for women in Ekiti. She described Olujimi as the only woman from Ekiti State who plays politics at the national level, placing her own children and immediate relations in multinational companies and leaving those who are not related to her by blood to rot for all she cares.

Adekemi inferred that Olujimi often pretends to empower women usually and reluctantly with the party’s money allocated to her and never with her personal funds. She accused Olujimi of building palatial mansions

all over Abuja and Lagos for herself and giving handouts to members of her constituency in order to pave the way for an automatic ticket of another four years in the Senate. A bargain, Adekemi called it.

Adekemi claimed to have been in politics as far back as the first tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and was even instrumental to dousing the tension between Obasanjo and this controversial former governor of the state, when he first indicated interest in occupying the Government House. While she refers to herself as a staunch and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, she referred to Olujimi as a politician without principles, who not only jumped ship from another party to meet her in PDP, but also worked against the party in the state in the 2019 general election.

How did the relationship between both women become so bad? Apparently, according to Adekemi, Olujimi allegedly arrogated powers to herself and insisted on determining who takes what position in Ekiti State, including who will emerge the consensus candidate at the PDP primaries, scheduled for January 26, to eventually occupy Ekiti Government House. Olujimi allegedly boasted that Ekiti State belongs to herself and this former controversal governor and that anyone, who fails to fall in line with her, will have themselves to blame as they will see nothing to hold on to allegedly, not even crumbs.

Well, the battle line is drawn.

Adekemi has vowed that she won’t be caged, frustrated or hounded out of Ekiti State. She insists that Ekiti State does not belong to anyone’s pockets and that the same set of people, who have been in office since 2003, need to move out of the way for others. She has also vowed to unlock that cage and set Ekiti State free from bondage, in or out of office.

bout two weeks ago, the media was awash with news of Wema Bank breathing down Pastor Tunde Bakare’s neck for refusing to service an uncollateralised N4.5 billion loan he took from the bank to build his Citadel Church edifice formerly known as the Latter Rain Assembly, in Lagos. His inability to service the loan allegedly caused it to balloon to N9 billion.

Bakare, who is also a politician, was said to have allegedly exploited his robust relationship with the then Managing Director and CEO, Segun Oloketuyi, to secure the loan. Bakare allegedly resorted to borrowing the money to build the edifice, hoping that the bigger the church grew, the more populous and prosperous it would become and the easier it would be to pay off the loan.

Unfortunately, he did not foresee the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fortunes of many churches, including his church, via offerings and donations.

WEMA Bank attempted to debunk the report. While reassuring its

shareholders and customers that it was operating with the highest level of corporate governance, following all rules, policies and procedures, the bank’s current managing director and chief executive officer, Ademola Adebisi, said the customer (Bakare) had maintained a credible relationship with the bank and there was therefore no basis to contemplate any action to humiliate him. He did not however confirm if Bakare was owing the bank and how much he is owing.

In a curious twist, Bakare revealed that the Citadel Church Bakare was financed by five banks.

He said that of the five, loans now pay back in installments lasting received from Unity Bank and UBA five years. He, however, made a were paid off, while loan from the revelation that there was no donation third bank, Fidelity Bank, is currently from the Federal Government towards being serviced. The remaining two banks, which he didn’t mention, have the construction of the edifice, save restructured the payment plan for the the N5 million given to him by loan he got from them, so that instead President Muhammadu Buhari, ironically, a government official. of paying back in two years, he will

Nimi Nwofor Rejoices As Husband’s SAN Title is Restored

Nwofor

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he best news that anyone can wish for himself /herself is what socialite and luxury brand Nwofor influencer, Nimi Nwofor, got and can’t stop thanking God for. The light-complexioned mother of six recounted how she was grieved in her spirit after her husband, Beluolisa Emmanuel Ikechukwu Nwofor, was stripped of his Senior Advocate of Nigeria title, which he earned in 2004, and how she petitioned God to intervene through prayers.

Apparently God heard Nimi’s cries and her husband’s SAN’s title was eventually restored after four years of shame and reproach. For this, she has not stopped expressing her gratitude to God and has enjoined her social media followers to continue to give thanks to God on her behalf.

In 2017, Nwofor was stripped of his SAN title over acts alleged to be unbefitting of a holder of the title by the Nigerian Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee. He was

representing Ali Modu Sheriff in a suit at the appeal court, seeking the declaration of Jimoh Ibrahim as the authentic PDP candidate in the Ondo State governorship election of November 2016.

Nwofor accused the panel of justices presiding over the case of bribery and bias, and asked the panel to withdraw from the matter. Following the allegations, the court suspended its hearing until the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to do so. However, things turned against him when he received a letter from Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, informing him of the withdrawal of his title of SAN on June 23, 2017.

A petition had been written against him by the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria to the legal practitioners’ committee. The petition stated that he conducted himself in a rude and unruly manner before the court and also made the Justices of the appellate court parties in their personal capacities in his applications to the Supreme Court filed on November 17, 2016, thereby altering the course of litigation.

Nwofor was therefore advised to desist from parading himself as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. He didn’t take their decision lightly and he commenced legal moves to recover his lost title. He approached the Abuja High Court seeking the order of court to nullify the decision of the LPPC on the basis that his fundamental human rights were infringed upon. He also asked the THEWILLNIGERIA

court to nullify the withdrawal of the title of SAN from him as contained in the letter served him on June 23, 2017 and sought damages in the sum of N5 billion and a public apology to be published by major newspapers in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, Nwofor’s suit was dismissed for lacking in merit. Not deterred, he forged on. In a letter to former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi, in December 2017, he chronicled what transpired at the panel, stating that throughout the proceedings at the Court of Appeal, he acted professionally and was never cited for contempt of court.

He argued that there is nowhere in the letter given to him where it was written, exactly what he did that amounted to unruly and contemptuous conduct or speaking and acting rudely to the court. He claimed that despite paying N3 million each to the three Justices of the Court of Appeal as directed by the Supreme Court, his rank of SAN was still withdrawn, adding that he was denied fair hearing by the disciplinary panel in breach of his constitutional rights.

He also alleged bias against his person. After a lot of back and forth argument on the matter, Nwofor’s SAN’s title was eventually restored four year after he was stripped of it. The Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of LPPC, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, in a notification letter, said that Nwofor satisfied the conditions for the restoration of his SAN title, but warned him to desist from any future act or conduct that would run foul of the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct of Legal Practitioners, which may attract a stiffer sanction against him.

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How Nanny Facilitated Fani-Kayode’s Meeting With Current Girlfriend

DESMOND ELLIOT IN ALLEGED ROMANCE WITH GHANAIAN ACTRESS N

Forson

ollywood star turned politician, Desmond Elliot, is allegedly in a relationship with Ghanaian actress, Lydia Forson. Although he is happily married to Victoria Elliot and blessed with four children, he does not seem to be satisfied with the marriage.

The lawmaker, who celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary recently, is allegedly footing the bills for Lydia’s flamboyant lifestyle. Sources claim that he sponsored her trips abroad a couple of times and each time, paid for her accommodation in choice hotels.

Desmond, the same sources note, has almost allegedly, abandoned his responsibilities and financial obligations to his immediate family since started dating the actress.

The alleged relationship has caused Victoria, who once caught Desmond and his lover in their romantic hideout, emotional trauma.

Elliot

How Former Kwara First Lady, Omolewa Ahmed, Celebrated 50th Birthday

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ecember 31, 2021 was an auspicious day, one that Omolewa Ahmed, the immediate past First lady of Kwara State will not forget in a hurry. It was the day she clocked 50. However, unlike her peers, who will not hesitate to roll out the drums in lavish celebration of such a milestone, she chose to thank God for keeping her well and alive to witness her golden jubilee.

One other reason why she chose to thank God instead of throwing a party was because she was delivered of a baby boy in the previous year at the age of 49, at a time when most would have given up on child

bearing.

Omolewa celebrated by hosting a seven-day praise and worship concert, which ended on her birthday. About 14 gospel music artistes, led by Sola Allyson, were contracted for the event which was a virtual experience. Despite being married to a devoted Muslim, she is a Christian evangelist and an ordained deaconess.

A staunch advocate for cancer care, she runs the LEAH Foundation, an initiative that implements strategies to deal with socio-economic, health and education issues mitigating against the development of Youth and Women.

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Charles

MARY CHARLES EMERGES POSBAN PRESIDENT

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would eventually lead to their separation had already started appearing. It remains to be seen whether the meeting was a coincidence or planned visit by Nerita and her elder sister. But it wasn’t too long after Precious was kicked out of the house that Fani-Kayode began to publicly flaunt Nerita.

Nerita is a graduate of Economics from ISM Adonai University, Cotonou, Republic of Benin.

She was the Most Beautiful Girl in Abuja Face of Dolce in 2016/2017 and contested for and won the Queen of Aso International in 2019/2020. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Nerita Luxury, a company that deals in beddings, perfumes, accessories and clothing. She also owns Nerita Homes and Interiors, providing unique interiors for residential and commercial spaces.

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ocialite and skincare expert, Dr Mary Charles, has been elected President of Practitioners of Spa and Beauty Association of Nigeria (POSBAN) and was duly sworn into her new role about two weeks ago.

The 57 year-old single mother has promised a four-point agenda for the association, which includes regularising the beauty business, taxation and creating ease of payment, creating a platform where beauty business owners, practitioners and their workforce can verify businesses, staff and vendors, creating and harnessing local and international opportunities for registered members and creating free staff training programmes for registered practitioners.

Trained at Tinny’s Beauty School in New York, the Edo-born entrepreneur has been practicsng for over two decades. She relocated from the United States to Nigeria and expose himself to danger. In and set up a boutique, but later 2020 when he turned 40, both his ex-wife and his then girlfriend, diversified into body beautification now wife, Turah clashed on social via Twinkul Skincare and Laser Treatment. Her clientele comprises media as both tried to outshine people who call the shots in the each other while trying to wish Yomi a happy birthday. Unhappy society. With branches in Ikeja, Lekki and Switzerland, Mary has at the turn of events, his ex-wife cursed Turah and another woman scored a few first in her beauty named Ameenat who she said and spa business. She pioneered took Yomi from her after she permanent make-up and body suffered with him for years and tattoos before it became an allbore him two children. Well, comers’ affairs. She introduced judging by the pictures and micro-blading, a semi-permanent videos from his wedding, Yomi technique for enhancing the seems happy and obviously has appearance of the eyebrow which no regrets giving love a second includes microstrokes and shading. chance.

Yomi Gold Gives Love Second Chance, Marries Younger Lady ctor Yomi Gold took a bold step two weekends to marry a younger lady after ending his troubled first marriage of 14 years with the mother of his two children, Victoria Ige. The actor, who now resides in America, married his new wife in a quiet ceremony. In 2018, Yomi walked out of his marriage after he said he could no longer endure the mental torture of being married to Victoria. He had accused his ex-wife of refusing to allow him to be the man in the marriage and that it was better to quit the relationship than to let the matter get out of hand

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t is no longer news that controversial politician and former aviation minister, Femi Fani Kayode, has moved on from his fourth ‘wife,’ Precious Chikwendu, over allegations of infidelity and domestic violence, to his latest love interest, Nerita Ezenwa, who is also a former beauty queen.

Although Nerita is not the only person in Fani-Kayode’s life, she is his current companion and the one he is most smitten with.

However, the big news is that both lovebirds alledgedly met through Nerita’s older sister, one of the nannies employed to take care of Fani-Kayode’s four children with Precious.

The two alledgedly met for the first time on one of the days Nerita went visiting her sister.

At the time, Precious was still very much the madam of the house, though the cracks that

Ezenwa & Fani-Kayode

Alex Duduyemi Moves Into Ikoyi Mansion

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bout nine months after losing his precious wife of 58 years, Chief Mrs Stella Shola to the cold hands of death and six months after her 80th birthday, business mogul and the Asiwaju of Ife, Chief Oyekunle Alex-Duduyemi is getting back his groove which culminated into the opening of his mansion in Ikoyi Lagos on January 1st.

The house warming devoid of any major fanfare due to the prevalence of Covid19, saw a few of his close friends, associates and family members, take out time to rejoice with him. Despite having offices for his various business endeavours in Lagos Island, the octogenarian lived most of his adult life in Apapa.

His plan to move to Lagos Island began a few years ago. The Ikoyi home was supposed to serve as his and his wife’s retirement home but when he lost her, he took a pause to mourn his dearly departed with whom he shared very memorable times with.

Having thought that his late wife would have wanted him to move on, work on the project resumed just in time to play host to guests in the new year and to usher in new beginnings. A sprawling edifice, some parts of the house is a bungalow due to his age and a portion, a storey building.

Duduyemi

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STORIES BY SHADE METIBOGUN

CONTROVERSY TRAILS EMERGENCE OF SENATOR LEKAN BALOGUN AS OLUBADAN-ELECT

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ollowing the death of Oba Saliu Adetunji, the 41st Olubadan of Ibadan last week, Lekan Balogun, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadan who is the highest in the hierarchy of Ibadan Chiefs has been touted to be the one to step into the late Olubadan’s shoes. A businessman, Balogun sits on the boards of several companies with interests in oil and gas, distributive trade, management consulting, mechanized farming and export of non-oil items as well as travel and tourism. He is a former Presidential aspirant who contested for the position on the platform of Social Democratic Party of Nigeria during the aborted third republic. He represented Oyo State senatorial district between 1991 and 2003 under the platform of Alliance for Democracy, AD. During his tenure as a senator, he was the chairman of the Senate Committee on National Planning.

He was also a member of other committees such as appropriation and security, Police Affairs and Defense. He was a research fellow with Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and also former director with the defunct Triumph Newspaper, Kano. He was the Editor of the monthly magazine, The Nigerian Pathfinder as well as a management consultant for multinational organizations such as Leyland, Exiat Battery and Nigeria Breweries.

However, despite his pedigree in politics and the business world, Balogun is considered controversial and some of the controversies he courted in the past has now put to question his eventual emergence or otherwise as the new Olubadan.

In 2018, he in connivance with some other Ibadan high chiefs battled the late Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji.

They accused him of running a one-man-show and disregarding the Olubadan-in-Council. Balogun and his colleagues accused the monarch of appointing family heads (Mogajis) and Baales (village heads) without

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consulting the council. Balogun specifically accused the Olubadan of destroying the system that enthroned him, adding that the king didn’t recognize the Olubadan-in Council’s position but conferred the duties of the entire council on one of his wives who ruled by proxy. He also participated in the battle against Oba Adetunji over the elevation of some chiefs as Obas by the former governor of Oyo State, late Abiola Ajimobi.

As the highest-ranking chief among the Olubadan-in-Council, he was the most vocal and he instigated the crisis between the chiefs who deserted the Olubadan palace and the king. That is one of the reasons the Baale of Ekotedo in Oyo State, Dr Tayo Ayorinde advised him to apologize to the people of Oyo State and the Yoruba people in general over his role in the 2018 litigation over the kingship. Also, last year, there were allegations that Balogun was at loggerheads with the Oyo State governor and led other chiefs against the number one citizen of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde.

Balogun had castigated the state of insecurity within Oyo State and its metropolis during a meeting with the high chiefs in Oyo State, an act which many considered a knock on the capabilities of the state government led by the Seyi Makinde administration.

But Balogun was swift to debunk having an issue with the state governor. He revealed that the views aired at the Oyo State traditional council were not personal but the general views of council members. He also added that the Ibadan Traditional Council holds no grudges with the state governor.

His controversy extends to the former Oyo State governor, Chief Rasheed Ladoja. The former governor of Oyo State, who is also the Osi Olubadan of Ibadan land, was initially the only chief against the installation of Balogun as the new Olubadan of Ibadanland.

He was the only high chief who turned down the Obaship title the administration of late governor

On Toyin Abraham’s Generous Disposition N

Balogun of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, conferred on others chiefs. He and the late Olubadan of Ibadan challenged the case in court and won but Balogun and his new kings challenged the judgment which is still pending in court.

This is why Ladoja was not present at the meeting that took place in Ali Iwo home of High Chief Balogun to decide the next line of action following the demise of Oba Adetunji. The pending case in court led the former AttorneyGeneral of Oyo State, Michael Lana to write to Makinde, insisting that Lekan Balogun is unfit to be crowned as the next Olubadan.

According to him, because there is an existing legal case, this might affect the eligibility of the Otun Olubadan of Ibadan. He stated that the installation of Balogun would amount to an aberration and illegality and advised the state governor not to be in a hurry to appoint Balogun as the next Olubadan of Ibadan.

But by the evening of Thursday January 7, Ladoja made a U-turn.

He has now joined other Ibadan high chiefs to stand in solidarity with Balogun and announce him as the next in line, the Olubadan designate despite the many controversies that surround him.

While speaking on behalf of the kingmakers, Otunba Balogun of Olubadan, Tajudeen Ajibola stated that Lekan Balogun has not done anything wrong and that is why he is being endorsed by the kingmakers adding that no court case can stop Balogun from emerging the Olubadan. He revealed that three months ago, the court concluded it’s hearing of the case and that it is now left for the judge to deliver the judgment.

While Balogun has enjoined all to discard rumors and insinuations capable of disturbing the peace of Ibadanland irrespective of the quarters from which they emanated from, the state governor is yet to make up his mind on whether to ratify his appointment or not. And until Makinde ratifies his appointment, the saga continues.

ollywood actress, Toyin Abraham-Ajeyemi, has given out millions of naira in the last one month in support of her colleagues in the industry. In an industry full of hate and envy, the mother of one has shown that she is of a different breed, never hesitating to give her colleagues her shoulder to lean on during their trying times, as well as in celebration of special moments.

A few weeks ago when actress, Iyabo Ojo staged the final burial ceremony of her late mother, Mrs Olubunmi Fetuga, Toyin spared no cost in buying bags of habanero pepper, also known as ‘ata rodo’ which she shared as souvenirs to guests at the event.

The actress spent thousands of naira ensuring each guest didn’t go home empty handed. The mother of one also contributed to the success story of her junior colleague and god daughter, Adebimpe Oyebade’s star studded wedding which took place three weeks ago. She paid millions of naira for the flamboyant wedding gown made by celebrity stylist, Toyin Lawani which Bimpe wore for her Nikai wedding ceremony.

Toyin Lawani was randomly discussing with the designer when she mentioned that she was the one designing Bimpe’s

Abraham wedding dress. The actress gladly paid for the service on behalf of her god daughter.

Actress Bukunni Oluwasina is another person who has enjoyed the benevolence of mummy Ire as she is fondly called. She launched her new song Happy Girls Sing Sad Songs which she sang with American singer, Titiana Manaois.

The actress cum singer had posted about the launch of her latest single when Toyin saw it and supported her with N500,000.

Well-endowed actress, Nkechi

Blessing who celebrated her birthday earlier in February got a two-tier money cake and other beautiful gifts items worth thousands of naira from Toyin Also when Eniola Badmus celebrated her 20 years as an entertainer, Toyin made a pledge of N250,000 as the actress launched her book, Delayed not denied. She was among the few who supported Eniola Badmus.

Fans of Toyin across her social media handles have also benefited from her generosity too.

Davido, Nengi Part Ways

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bout two months ago, music star, Davido (David Adeleke) and former Big Brother Naija housemate, Rebecca Nengi Hampson, were reportedly involved in a secret romance. Simply known as

Nengi, the beautiful reality TV star was said to have played a part in the alleged breakup between Davido and his baby mama, Chioma Avil. Her affair with Davido remained a secret until they were spotted together in Dubai late last year.

Nengi was named on the list of people who donated a large sum of money to Davido when he called for donations from his friends.

She reportedly

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donated N1 million and Davido acknowledged her generosity.

However, the two have allegedly parted ways. Their relationship hit the rocks while they were still in Dubai.

They had camped in the same hotel to enjoy each other’s company, but Davido ended up embarrassing Nengi. One night he went clubbing and returned to the hotel in the company of five strange ladies and threw Nengi out of their hotel room.

According to reports, Davido didn’t show remorse for his action. Nengi couldn’t secure another room in the same hotel that day but was taken to another hotel by Davido’s crew who had accompanied him to Dubai. The issue led to a fight and the hotel management had to send all the parties packing.

The drama resulted in a rift between Nengi and Davido. They have not been on speaking terms since then. They even recently unfollowed each other on the social media, thus bringing their relationship to an end.

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BUSINESS NEWS Cloud-Based Technology Critical To Economic Recovery – Williams

BY ANTHONY AWUNOR

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loud-based technology has been described as a critical tool for economic recovery.

According to Microsoft Country Manager for Nigeria, Ola Williams, cloud-based technology will play a critical role in enabling inclusive economic recovery, with SMBs able to innovate far quicker and more securely at a much lower cost.

The Future of Business Resilience report, released by Microsoft in 2020, notes that investing in the latest technology (which includes cloud computing) results in 20 to 30 percent higher workforce productivity, and 40 to 50 percent faster speed to market amongst some of the benefits.

L-R: Executive Director, IT, Access Bank Plc, Ade Bajomo; Convener, CIO Awards, Abiola Laseinde; Group Head, Human Resources, CWG Plc, Atinuke Adeyemi and Chief Executive Officer, Chapel Hill Denham, Bolaji Balogun, during the CIO 2021 Awards in Lagos recently.

FCMB Partners Ogun On Subscribers’ Loan For Housing Schemes

Continued from page 16

Balogun said the financial institution was ready to support the state government through its Corporate Social Responsibility by providing credit facilities to residents who desire houses of their own.

Abiodun called for a more robust relationship between his administration and the management of the bank in its quest to make more people become landlords.

He described 2021 as a difficult year for everyone, explaining that the meeting with the governor was aimed at opening a channel of engagement that would promote the quality of lives of the people to owning a home

He divulged that despite his administration’s efforts at providing over 1,000 homes in the last 30 months, the effort seemed not enough as people have continued buying faster than what is currently on ground.

While lauding the state government for its giant strides, especially in the areas of infrastructure, the bank’s CEO said the institution was prepared to lay a solid foundation for the state in order to achieve its future dreams.

“We are willing to do more with the present administration in the state in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. The bank is focused on how it can elevate the quality of lives of the people they serve and work with”, he added.

The governor stated that efforts to make homes available to the people through direct labour had created employment for artisans, thereby reducing criminal activities among youthS in the state.

“The direct labour programme is part of our economic sustainability plan to engage youths and build affordable houses for the people. The plan, no doubt, has made it more difficult for most of our youths to delve into crimes as they are busy working to earn their wages through the direct labour programme.

ABCON Asks CBN To De-risk BDCs Operations

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he Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), an umbrella body for over 5,3000 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-licenced Bureaux De Change (BDCs) has advised the apex bank to de-risk BDCs operations to allow operators access foreign exchange (forex) from autonomous market in 2022 and beyond.

In a statement released at the weekend, ABCON President, Alhaji (Dr) Aminu Gwadabe said the BDC sector is becoming comatose since July 2021 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting where the CBN suspended weekly dollar interventions to BDCs. He said that while BDCs are licensed to offer retail forex sales, across the counter forex transactions, they equally contribute to Nigeria’s economic development.

The BDCs, he added, are ensuring THEWILLNIGERIA

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order and confidence in the forex market, providing data for monetary policy, channels for CBN Intervention in Retail forex market and creation of over 15,000 jobs, among others.

According to Gwadabe, over N1 trillion annual transaction volume by the BDCs sector is under threat while huge capital investment in the sector is becoming redundant, gradually being eroded and winding up.

He therefore advised that just like the apex bank de-risked the agricultural sector, making it easier for agriculturalists to access cheaper loans at single digit from banks, the CBN can also de-risk the BDCs operations to be able to receive diaspora remittances through the International Money Supply Operators (IMTOs) and deepen foreign capital flows to the economy.

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com THEWILLNIGERIA

2022 Budget: Doubts Over Capacity to Lift Economy Continued from page 33

In another report, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that investment into Nigeria slumped to the lowest level in four years as of the first six months of 2021.

The statistics bureau in its report entitled ‘Nigerian Capital Importation (Q1 & Q2 2021)’ released in July 2021, showed that the total amount of foreign investment in the nation’s economy was $2.78 billion in the review period. This was against $7.15 billion recorded in the corresponding period (second half) of 2020, a shortfall of 62 percent.

While the first quarter of 2021 recorded total investment inflow of $1.905 billion, the figure dropped to mere $875 million in the second quarter representing a decrease of 54.06 percent when compared with the first quarter of 2021. It also represents 32.38 percent decrease as against the second quarter of 2020 when $1.29 billion investment came to the economy.

It will be difficult for the budget to deliver on target without two critical actions: revenue diversification and engagement of the private sector in infrastructure development; these should be considered as a priority.

According to Fasan, “The way forward is to reduce the cost of governance significantly, by about 50 per cent. To do this, the government must merge the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). It must reduce the cost of running the Presidency. The cost of running the two arms of the National Assembly must also be reduced drastically. State governments should also streamline their bureaucracies!

“For me, if President Buhari really wants to leave a legacy in the remaining one-anda-half years that he has left in office, he must focus on just two things: security and restructuring. Even if he cannot achieve full restructuring before he leaves office, he must lay solid foundations that his successor would find difficult to reverse.

This includes significantly reducing the size of the Federal Government.

“Let’s face it, 2022 will be challenging because politics and politicking will dominate everything else.”

Williams noted, “This is the enabling environment that we should be nurturing for SMBs and new start-ups alike if our economies are to successfully rebound postpandemic. There is no doubt that economic recovery will be buoyed by the success of our start-ups and small businesses.

“This is because, across the Middle East and Africa, an estimated 90 per cent of all businesses fall into the small-to-mediumsized (SMB) category, highlighting the economic importance of these entrepreneurial enterprises.

Explaining further, he said, “The lesson thrust upon us by the pandemic is that building resilience is key to ensuring business continuity in ever-changing market conditions in which many SMBs are operating on tighter budgets.

“The required resilience is rooted in digital transformation, allowing businesses to streamline operations and evolve to better meet current needs while developing the agility that will enable quick pivots in response to future changes.”

Williams continued, “Cloud adoption amongst SMBs is a critical first step in their pursuit of resilience on their digital transformation journey. Beyond this first step, conducting business in the cloud in the long term is also the best bet for futureproofing operations in a global digital economy.

BUA Foods Lists 18bn Ordinary Shares on NGX Main Board

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he Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has announced the listing by introduction of BUA Foods Plc on the Main Board of The Exchange on Wednesday, 5 January 2022. A total of 18 billion ordinary shares of BUA Foods were listed at N40.00 per share under the Consumer Goods sector of NGX, with the trading symbol, BUAFOODS. The listing of BUA Foods’ shares has added N720,000,000,000 to the market capitalization of NGX, further boosting liquidity in the Nigerian capital market and providing opportunities for wealth creation. It is expected that this listing will also increase the visibility of the food manufacturing, processing, and distribution company, BUA Foods, to investors on the African continent and across the globe.

NGX facilitated over N7 trillion worth of capital raises across several asset classes for both public and private corporations in 2021. As a multi-asset Exchange, NGX is strategically positioned to be the preferred listing and investment destination connecting Nigeria, Africa and the world.

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Mama Roz’s Chronicles

Eleanor, The Miracle Baby: A Mother’s Labour of Love revive her child. When they could do no more, they let her into the room to say goodbye but Peace could not accept that she was gone. She was nine months old and had come through such a difficult journey; she was a miracle baby and couldn’t possibly die.

There is no emotion as strong and influential as a mother’s love for her child. According to Mary Ellen Christy, “very early in pregnancy, maternal love makes its presence known as a strong and instinctive force which creates a lifelong bond for mother and child”. From the beginning of time, mothers have made incredible sacrifices and have travelled selfless “journeys” to protect or save their children from danger. And so it was for Peace, who demonstrated an overwhelming and unconditional love for her “miracle baby” who was born prematurely and travelled an uncommon journey through life.

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Peace’s Story eace peered through the glass at her tiny baby who had been delivered less than 24 hours before. She couldn’t believe that a human being could be that small. The baby was the height of a pen and weighed 570 grams (same as a small bottle of Heinz salad cream). Her fingers and toes were still slightly webbed. Born at 7 months, her daughter whom she had named Eleanor, meaning ‘bright shining light” or “God is my light”, was a premature baby. She had several tubes connected to her through which she breathed and was fed. Peace watched her baby like she was watching a fascinating movie. She watched her slight attempts to raise her tiny hand and her chest rising and falling as she laboured to breathe.

She thought of the events leading up to her arrival at the hospital in Atlanta. It had all been quite dramatic. Was it all for nothing?

Following a comedy of errors at the Nigerian hospital where she was receiving antenatal care, Peace had been hurriedly bundled into a plane and flown to the United States. Her husband, Michael and her close friends had executed an amazing rapid fund-raising exercise for the trip in less than 48 hours. She had arrived under the threat of pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening condition for pregnant women and was whisked through the airport and loaded onto a ‘screaming’ ambulance which transported her at breakneck speed to the hospital. Within hours of her arrival, she was in the theatre and was successfully delivered of her baby. Indeed, Peace’s survival in itself had been the first miracle.

Now as she stared sadly at her baby, Peace was convinced that Eleanor could not survive.

She mourned her loss and then turned to the nurse and said “you can switch the system off now”.

The doctor in charge looked at Peace and smiled compassionately. He invited Peace to his office and showed her pictures of a child who had been born as tiny as Eleanor. She had the same alien look and webbed feet.

Then he showed her a picture of a young 26-year-old woman dressed in her graduation outfit. Her name was Melanie and she had just completed a Master’s degree.

“She was my first miracle baby who I delivered at the beginning of my career. I didn’t think she could make it either, but here she is a beautiful 26-year-old woman at her graduation”. He smiled at Peace again.

“Don’t give up just yet. If there is even a 1% chance that Eleanor could make it, we’ll explore it”.

So, with renewed hope, Peace returned to her own ward and began the long journey of survival.

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Three days later, Peace was discharged from the hospital. She had to leave without her baby and was counselled to exercise patience as everything would unfold “one day at a time”. Sad and introspective, she moved into a friend’s house and visited Eleanor every day from there. The funds she arrived with covered her trip and initial hospital expenses but she was financially unprepared for the cost of a long hospital stay. Even the daily transport to and from the hospital was a huge expense for Peace. One day on her way to the hospital, she broke down in the cab and wept at the frustration of it all. The driver was a kind Nigerian fellow. “What’s going on?” he asked. She told him her story and from that day he covered all her trips at half the price.

In time Eleanor was moved to a hospital where Peace could stay with her which helped her avoid the high transport costs.

The government provided free food vouchers for new mothers to encourage breastfeeding so that was another cost avoided. But the health challenges were still there. Eleanor had 10 different diseases or conditions associated with premature babies. It was expected that most of them would correct themselves in due course. She had a hole in her heart which was expected to close by itself

“

After seven long months in the hospital, Peace took her baby home with the feeding and oxygen tubes still attached to her.

They were still in and out of hospital with one crisis after another but each time Eleanor conquered them all and the journey continued

She called family members and asked them to pray with her so that her child would rise again. She sat there holding her baby, refusing to let the attendants take her to the mortuary. Optimistic as ever, she still felt there was hope, even at this point. Surely, if Eleanor could survive all she had, then she could survive this too. Eventually the baby was prised gently from her arms and taken away to the mortuary.

over time. She also had chronic lung disease and a host of other conditions.

Eleanor was a little fighter and she overcame most of them.

After seven long months in the hospital, Peace took her baby home with the feeding and oxygen tubes still attached to her. They were still in and out of hospital with one crisis after another but each time Eleanor conquered them all and the journey continued.

At seven months, Eleanor had started making some sounds which were a bit gurgled because her vocal cords were obstructed by the feeding tubes. Her voice was like music to Peace’s ears.

As Eleanor grew and she interacted with her baby, Peace was amazed at their journey and her baby’s incredible fighting spirit. Eleanor whose parents were both from the Niger Delta, demonstrated the resilience and strong warrior spirit she had inherited from her ancestors.

Eleanor loved to watch cartoons; her favourites were Mickey Mouse and Peppa Pig, particularly the big balloon episode. She always smiled when she watched the television and she was learning how to sit. Even though she was seven months old, in some aspects she had the development of a 4-month-old baby. But her character was forming which endeared her to her mother. Sometimes she would pretend to cry to get attention and at other times she would cry out of anger or frustration when she could not communicate effectively. Her sight and sense of smell were well developed and her weight was increasing every day; she was doing well and she smiled a lot. Mother and daughter were happy.

Christmas came and passed and Eleanor had lots of gifts from Santa.

It was January 2016 and Peace was happy to discover after a recent visit from Michael, that she was pregnant again. She looked forward to giving Eleanor a sibling. Perhaps a baby brother who would ginger her and

make her recovery more rapid. She dreamt of the things they would all do together as a family when the new baby arrived. By then hopefully Eleanor would be tube free and more mobile.

Things were definitely looking up for their family and then suddenly out of nowhere, tragedy struck.

One day Eleanor had a running stomach and had been stooling all day.

Peace decided to watch her for a day to see if it would subside as it wasn’t the first time. By the next day the stooling had reduced considerably but, in her restlessness, Eleanor had pulled out her feeding tube. A visit to the hospital rectified this and the doctors promptly sent her home afterwards. Peace had wanted to stay in the hospital for at least one more day but the doctor insisted that Eleanor would be fine. It was a public holiday weekend and it was snowing, the doctor really needed some rest so he sent them home.

The doctors had over the months, advised Peace to give her baby a heavy feed in the evenings so that she would sleep soundly through the night instead of waking up for a feed. So, before they went to bed that night, Peace fed her more than usual and put her to bed.

At 5am the next morning Peace woke up and noticed that her bed was wet.

She put on the light and stared in shock at her child. She seemed to have lost tons of weight in just one night. She was emaciated and weak and was barely breathing. Checking her diaper, Peace realised that Eleanor had been stooling all night. The ambulance was called but by the time they came she had a very faint pulse. At the hospital the doctors tried to resuscitate her to no avail; beautiful Eleanor, the miracle baby was gone.

Peace cried and screamed as she watched them try unsuccessfully to

In her anguish Peace totally lost touch with reality. The next day she called the mortuary attendants and asked them to cover Eleanor with a blanket because it was winter and she would be cold. Every day she called them with new instructions for Eleanor’s care. Understanding her pain, they did not argue but quietly accepted her directives. The doctors, worried about her mental state, sent counsellors and a support team to help her with her loss but Peace was inconsolable.

Eleanor was buried a week later. So many people had been following her story since she was born and they all shared in Peace’s grief when she died. Her friend Nneka, who was also traumatized by Eleanor’s departure, made all the arrangements for the funeral. Peace went through it like she was in a trance.

She didn’t know half of the people who showed up at the funeral. There were people from the Nigerian community in Atlanta, Nigerian students, nurses and doctors from the various hospitals they had stayed at and even the Nigerian Ambassador to the US. Everyone had been rooting for Eleanor, the miracle baby and now sadly, she was gone.

Peace thinks about Eleanor a lot and still mourns her loss despite having three more children now. The lost promise of the person she could have been and the love they might have shared as a family often occupies her thoughts.

She has come to terms with the loss of her child and sometimes tries to make sense of it. “Perhaps there was a reason all those events conspired to make this happen; the long public holiday weekend, the snow and the tired doctor or perhaps God just took her because He didn’t want her to suffer any more” she said as she talked about her first child.

Eleanor, the miracle baby will never be forgotten by the one person who loved and fought with her through her short life journey, her mother.

Peace lives happily in Abuja now with her husband and three lovely children. In memory of her daughter, she founded and runs an NGO which empowers the girl child.

Roz Amechi © 2021. No part of the story/documentary may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the author, Roz Amechi.

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JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

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

L-R: (Front Row), Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Mr Rauf Olaniyan; former President Olusegun Obasanjo; SSG, Oyo State, Mrs. Olubamiwo Adeosun; former Oyo SSG, Chief Layiwola Olakojo; Oyo Head of Service, Alhaja Ololade Agboola and others, during, Obasanjo’s courtesy visit to OYSG over the death of Soun of Ogbomosho and Olubadan, of Ibadan on January 6, 2022.

L-R: Ex-Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. (Mrs) Oluranti Adebule; Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) National Reconciliation Committee, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu during a courtesy visit to the Governor by APC National Reconciliation Committee in government House, Marina on January 6, 2022.

L-R: Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Kennedy Ibe; Imo State Deputy Governor, Prof. Placid Njoku; L-R: Governor of Ekiti State Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Commissioner for Information and Values Orientation, Hon. Akin Governor of Imo State Hope Uzodinma and Founder, Zinox Computers/Chairman of the occasion, Chief Leo-Stan at Omole and the Head of Service, Mrs Peju Babafemi, during the Governor’s unscheduled visit to the state secretariat Imo State Stakeholders meeting in Owerri on January 5, 2022. complex, Ado-Ekiti on January 5, 2022.

L-R: Chairman, Amuwo Odofin Local Council Development Area, Mr. Valentine Buraimoh; Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Zonal Manager, South West, Mr. Akintola Olagbemiro; Managing Director, FHA, Sen. Gbenga Ashafa; President, FESTAC Town Residents Association, Mr. Shola Fakorede and Mr. Adebayo Badmus, during the stakeholders meeting in Lagos on January 6, 2022.

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L-R: Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani; Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr. Fidet Okhiria and Board Chairman, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Alhaji Musa Ibrahim during the handing over of operational Vehicles to the MD, NRC, at Idu Railway Station in Abuja on January 6, 2022.

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JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

FEATURE Finally Justice, Freedom for Teenage Victims of Domestic Abuse

BY ADENIYI OLUGBEMI

J

oy Emmanuel and Jibrin Aliyu were both victims of man’s inhumanity to man.

courtesy of the Kebbi State Government.

In his narration, the Chief Medical Director and Permanent Secretary in charge of Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Dr Aminu Haliru Bunza, said, “Over 20 medical specialists attended to Jibrin while living in the hospital.

Twelve-year-old Joy was confined in a disused refrigerator and kept in a zinc house by her aunt, Esther Emmanuel, in collusion with her husband, Bassey Emmanuel. Claiming that she was mentally unstable, the couple, who lives in Sokoto North Local Area of Sokoto State, left the girl in that condition and half-starved for eight months until the Sokoto State Government intervened through the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and rescued her.

“The boy is now well rehabilitated and the state government, apart from taking good care of him, would sustain the relationship and assistance to the boy, as part of plans to continue to take care of his health and well-being.

Jibrin Aliyu’s case was more dehumanising. He was chained and forced to eat animal fodder and his own faeces for survival in his home at Badariya quarters, Birnin Kebbi in Kebbi State for almost two years, with the knowledge of his biological father and three of his stepmothers.

“We are today handing over Jibrin to his parents, after staying with us from August 10, 2020 to date. When he was brought in, about 15 months to Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, he was in a pathetic situation.

“During the course of his stay at the hospital, we were able to rehabilitate him, take good care of him, physically, nutritiously and mentally. While in the hospital, he was seen by over 20 different medical specialists of different medical backgrounds, those who work here and some that came from the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Lagos University Teaching Hospital and other facilities outside the country to ensure that he is in a good health condition. A team of medical specialists will be visiting him in his new home to monitor him and see how he is doing.”

The Special Adviser to Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State on Women Affairs, Hajiya Zara’u Wali, who described Jibrin’s condition, prior to his rescue, as unfortunate and shocking, said the matter was reported on Sunday, August 9, 2020.

She said, “We received information that an 11-year-old boy named Jibrin Aliyu had been chained at their home for almost two years. We mobilised our men and rushed to their residence where we confirmed the claim as being true. He was rescued and taken to a psychiatric hospital in Birnin Kebbi for medication.

In furtherance of the support, Governor Bagudu, who shouldered the responsibility for the boy’s medical care, had also mandated the Kebbi State Health Insurance Agency to provide health insurance cover to Jibrin to enable him enjoy free medical services.

A child rights advocate, Serah Bashimi, attributed the situation to non-domestication of the child right law in some states since it was enacted by the Federal Government 18 years ago.

She said, “Children in Sokoto, Kebbi and other states where the Child Right Act is yet to be domesticated, face numerous challenges to their rights and well-being, including lack of access to education, adequate primary healthcare, good nutrition and protection from violence, all of which must be addressed.

Aliyu

“What we discovered is that he had a pre-existing health condition. The ignorant father saw the boy experiencing a mental health condition and after trying his best, subjected him to an inhuman and degrading treatment.”

She said, “Under this administration, there is no room for assault and violation of any kind in the state. The government is committed to fighting such evil acts.’’

“It is quite retrogressive that since the adoption of the Child Right Act (2003) by the Federal Government under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, some states have yet to domesticate the law mostly due to cultural and religious differences.”

Joy was the cynosure of all eyes at a recent party organised for children at the Sokoto State Orphanage by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

It turned out that Joy’s aunt and her husband the truth when they both claimed she was mentally unstable. Their claim was later proved to be false by the police.

The Akwa Ibom-born victim of domestic abuse, dressed in a skirt and blouse with a black hijab, seems to have forgotten the maltreatment she suffered in the hands of her aunt and her husband.

One of Joy’s neighbours, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said some people had decided to invite the police when they noticed the dehumanising manner the girl was being treated.

Asked about her aunt, she said, “I don’t know anything about her. I have left her house and I am happy, enjoying in my new home. I am happy with my new friends. I will like to go back to Makaranta (school) and learn tailoring because I like fashion.”

The neighbour said, “Immediately, the police rescued the girl, the Sokoto State Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs, Hajiya Kulu Sifawa, in company with the state Police Commissioner, Kamaldeen Okunlola, and officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons visited the crime scene to get firsthand information.”

Upon completion of investigation and the subsequent arraignment of the couple in court, Bassey Emmanuel and his wife, Esther, were sentenced by the Sokoto Magistrates’ court to three years imprisonment with N175,000 fine for confining their 12-year-old niece in an disused refrigerator for eight months.

The spokesman for the state police command, ASP Sanusi Abubakar, said the girl was rescued and the suspects arrested and detained at the Dadin Kowa Police Station.

Delivering his judgement, Chief Magistrate Shu’aibu Ahmad fined the couple N25,000 or six months jail term for criminal conspiracy

Abubakar said, “They kept the girl in a cage in their compound and starved her food for eight months. When our men broke the door of the cage, the girl was too frail to walk because she was emaciated. We met her in a horrible situation, urinating and excreting inside the cage. The girl was taken to the State Specialist Hospital for treatment.’’

He also fined them N50,000 for wrongful confinement and in default, they would spend 12 months in prison.

When she visited the emaciated girl at the State Specialist Hospital where she was being given medical attention, Sifawa said, “The state government has taken responsibility for the girl’s treatment and it will ensure that she is properly recuperated.’’

Ahmad noted that they would serve the sentences concurrently.

Reading the riot act, Sifawa called for proper investigation into the matter and the prosecution of the suspects to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to engage in similar acts.

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He stated that the couple were found guilty of cruelty to a child and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with N100,000 fine.

In default, they would spend three years in prison.

He however granted their two children, Goodness Emmanuel and Happiness Emmanuel, bail in the sum of N500,000 and one surety each in the like sum.

Penultimate Thursday was a day of reunion for Jibrin Aliyu and his parents, after spending 15 months undergoing healthcare,

From the Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Birnin Kebbi, Jibrin and his parents moved into a two-bedroom flat donated by the state government at Badariya quarters. At their new home, Hajiya Zara Wali presented the sum of N50,000 donated by the wife of the governor, Dr Zainab Bagudu, to Jibrin’s family as monthly allowance for the upkeep of the boy.

Narrating how the boy’s ordeal started, Jibrin’s father, Aliyu Umar, said, “He was born hale and hearty like every normal child until he started exhibiting some traits about three years ago, which I considered abnormal.

“Tried as much I could to rescuscitate him, his condition did not get better. He became a source of concern to the entire family.

“The reason why I decided to keep him permanently indoors, was to hide him from the public, due to his deteriorating health condition and save the family from public embarrassment.”

An elated Umar thanked Governor Bagudu and his wife for their compassion and magnanimity to his son and the entire family.

“We can only say, may Allah bless the Governor and his family abundantly,” he prayed.

It would recalled that Sokoto State on November 18, 2021, joined other states who had domesticated the Child Right Act. The Act is to protect the rights of the Nigerian child in tandem with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State described the law as a major landmark achievement of his administration and commended the key actors that ensured it suited and conformed with states that enshrined cultural and religious concerns.

Tambuwal said the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law was also signed by his administration, which showed commitment to end all forms of gender-based violence, sexual abuse and related abnormalities in society.

“We have the best child protection Llaw and VAPP law that conforms with the character concerns of the people of Sokoto State.

The bill was possible through the efforts and commitment of the Sultanate Council, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Suleiman Usman (SAN), the Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs and others,” the governor said.

The states that are yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi,Yobe and Zamfara.

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JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

FEATURE

Selection of New Och’idoma: Idoma Elite, Benue Govt Trade Blame nies on the Idoma people,” the group said and called on all Idoma sons and daughters to remain calm and law abiding.

Pastor John Elaigwu Odogbo has been elected to replace late Och’idoma, Elias Ikoyi Obekpa.

KAJO MARTINS writes on the intrigues, politics and disquiet resulting from the selection exercise

In a swift reaction, the state government denied involvement in the alleged imposition of the newly elected Och’idoma, John Odogbo.

A statement signed by Nathaniel Ikyur, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Samuel Ortom, said the governor had no hand in the selection of any traditional ruler or chiefs, either in Idoma or Tiv Traditional Area Councils.

S

ometime in October 2021, the traditional stool of Idoma Kingdom in Benue South Senatorial District became vacant, following the death of the Och’idoma, His Royal Majesty, Elias Ikoyi Obekpa,. With the development and in accordance with the Benue State Council of Chiefs and Traditional Councils Law 2016, a first class chief, Chief George Ede, was appointed to take charge of the throne for three months, during which a substantive Och’idoma would be elected.

Presenting the Och’Idoma-elect to Governor Samuel Ortom at the Benue People’s House, Makurdi, Chief Ogbu described the election process as transparent and peaceful.

“Out of the three contestants that went to the final stage, the Och’Idoma-elect polled a total of 19 votes to defeat his closest rival, Architect Sunday Echono, Permanent Secretary, Federal ministry of Education who scored 8 votes while Chief Andrew Idakwu got 1 vote out of the overall 28 votes cast. One contestant withdrew in the course of the election while another did not secure nomination from the electoral college,” Ogbu said.

However, a group acting under the aegis of Idoma Socio-Cultural Organisation and known locally as Ochetoha K’Idoma National Forum, rejected what it described as the “imposition” of Chief John Elaigwu Odogbo as the new Och’Idoma.

The group, in a statement signed by its President, Air Vice Marshal Toni Adokwu (Retd.) and made available to journalists in Makurdi, described the selection process as a ‘sham’ and alleged that traditional rulers who formed the selection committee were threatened with sack if they failed to vote for a preferred candidate of the Benue State Government.

The group claimed that it had earlier expressed the fear that the

Odogbo

In the foregoing, a selection committee headed by Chief Ekpe Ogbu, Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, was inaugurated and given the mandate to conduct an election on December 30, 2021. The election took place at the Idoma Traditional Council Hall in Oturkpo.

The statements reads, “We have read a news report credited to Ochetoha K’Idoma National Forum and signed by Retired AVM Toni Adokwu wherein he levelled spurious and unfounded allegations against Governor Samuel Ortom for interfering in the selection of the Och’Idoma-elect, His Royal Majesty, Dr John Elaigwu Odogbo.

selection of a new Och’Idoma might be compromised.

It said,”We also deposed that a new traditional ruler would likely be imposed on the Idoma nation by some powers that be by using the name of Governor Samuel Ortom.

“In the public statement, we categorically affirmed that a number of traditional rulers, who would be members of the Selection Committee, were invited to Makurdi on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 ostensibly by the governor and instructed to vote for a particular candidate or be sacked.”

The group also alleged that the ‘foreign interference’ became glaring when the parties outside the Idoma nation came up strong in support of the candidate said to have been selected.

“The actions of government officials who superintended over the ‘sham’ and the traditional rulers’ fear of sack for failing to comply with the alleged instruction from Governor Ortom affirmed our doubts.

“In view of this glaring evidence, Ochetoha K’Idoma hereby, totally rejects the entire process and declares it a charade by misguided persons with intent to impose themselves and their cro-

Bayelsa Deputy Governor Embarks on Fishing Expedition

BY AMOS OKIOMA,YENAGOA

I

t was a sort of carnival, full of excitement and fanfare that took place on Sunday, January 2, 2022, when the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, led his children on a novelty fishing expedition to River Fircados at Ofoni in Sagbama Local Government Area of the state.

Leveraging his old fishing skills, Ewhrudjakpo caught a tilapia and two silver fishes, while his children also caught a river catfish and two other species of fish.

Sharing his experience at the close of the fun-filled expedition, the deputy governor said fishing was one of the main traditional occupations and activities he grew up doing in the community.

He said that he decided to bring his children to the river to coach them on how to fish using a fishing pole, line and hook, since they had not had the experience before.

Ewhrudjakpo encouraged parents to make it a point of duty to teach their children farming and fishing, besides providing them with Western education.

He cautioned that as a people, the Ijaws should not allow their tradition to die or fade away through neglect and abandonment.

The deputy governor explained that the outing offered him a rare opportunity to reminisce on the good old days when he and his contemporaries would spend whole days angling for fish in the river.

He seized the opportunity to advise leaders at all levels to always come down to the grassroots and identify with their people so as to sustain their relevance and acceptance.

Senator Ewhrudjakpo noted that he loved spending valuable time THEWILLNIGERIA

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with his people, interacting and sharing views on a wide range of issues with them, which gives him joy and a sense of satisfaction.

He said, “These are the things we grew up with. It is difficult to leave them. You know, one cannot unlearn old tricks. I just decided to bring my children to have this experience because they did not experience it before.

“I wanted them to look a bit local, to have a feel of life in the village because it is not too good to bring up our children solely on western education. We should also give them our own traditional education.

“This was one of the things we used to do to eke out a living and contribute to the welfare of our families. That is the lesson I’m teaching them. By the grace of God, we were able to get some catch.

“We are all excited. We have a tilapia and others, including the river catfish. My daughter caught the catfish, while my son caught two silver fishes. I caught the tilapia and others, but it is so painful that I lost the gold fish.

“My message to all leaders is that they should bond with their people because North, South, East and West, there is no place like home. For me, I feel at home whenever I’m in my community because it makes me to have a feel of my people and to reminisce on the old days.

“If I stay away from my people, when my remains come someday in the future, it will be a stranger to them. That is why I always find time to come and relax with them. And I enjoy doing so. It gives me the feeling that I’m still being loved by my people.

“So, leaders should try and get in touch with their people from time to time because that is the only way to remain relevant even when you are dead.”

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“At no time did the governor invite any traditional ruler of Idoma extraction or wheresoever to Government House for the purposes connected to or related to the selection of a new traditional ruler for the Idoma nation. The selection of the new Och’Idoma was based on the legal procedure as enshrined in the legal instruments of the Chieftaincy laws of Benue State.”

It said that due process was followed in the selection exercise as provided by the Benue State Council of Chiefs and Traditional Councils Law 2016 which highlight indicates that, “the Och’Idoma shall be chosen rotationally by a Selection Committee from amongst the components of Agatu and Apa; Otukpo and Ohimini; Ado Enone (Ado, Ogbadibo and Okpokwu); Igede (Oju and Obi). And from the history as narrated by members of the Selection, it was the turn of Agatu and Apa to produce the next Och’Idoma.”

The statement said the selection committee consisted of four First Class chiefs, nine Second Class chiefs and 18 Third Class Chiefs in Idoma Area Traditional Council, totaling 32.

It added that out of the 32 members, 28 were present at the selection exercise and formed a quorum, which is two-thirds of the membership of the committee.

According to the committee report, five persons presented themselves for the selection exercise; four nominated while in the course of dialogue for a consensus candidate, one person stepped down and three persons went into the election/selection. After the voting process was concluded, one candidate polled one vote, another polled eight votes and the winner polled 19 votes.

“This shows that the selection process was very transparent, fair and free. At least nine voters did not vote for the winner and none of them can prove that he was victimised. The allegations by the Ochetoha K’Idoma against Governor Ortom is therefore, baseless, unfounded and unnecessary.”

According to Ikyur, the tone of the press statement as signed

by AVM Adokwu, a retired senior military officer, who should know the implications of endangering the public peace after such a transparent process had been concluded, was not only set in derogatory language against Governor Ortom, but also deliberately crafted to cast aspersions on his government.

“The statement is also intended to cause strife, destroy and pitch the Tiv against their Idoma brothers. It should not be tolerated.

“It also beats our imagination how AVM Adokwu and his cotravellers tried to belittle the Benue State House of Assembly that included the full compliments of all Idoma representatives.

The state legislature followed due process, including the public hearing that produced the Benue State Chieftaincy Law 2006, which introduced the unified new first-class, second-class and third-class chiefs in the state,” he said.

Ikyur said it should be known to Adokwu and his sponsors that the Benue State Chieftaincy Law is not the creation of Governor Ortom or designed to humiliate and subjugate Idoma people as all traditional rulers and elites in Idoma land, including members of the State House of Assembly, who are aware of the provisions of the amended chieftaincy law, which was also used in the selection of other chiefs in Idoma land and is still being used to select chiefs to fill some vacant stools in Idoma land.

He noted that no traditional ruler outside of Idoma land participated in the selection process of the new Och’Idoma, pointing out that the campaign of calumny and prejudicial name calling of Governor Ortom is vexatious, callous and uncalled for and should be discountenanced.

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JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

ARTS Give Us Art This Day, Our Father told THEWILL. “I had a good time as an artist not as a cartoonist alone at Daily Times of Nigeria limited.”

That may or may not have been the prayer of the four children of Josy Ajiboye, veteran cartoonist, graphic artist, painter and sculptor. If it ever was, their prayer request was answered as all of them have followed father’s professional footstep, thus making them the first single nuclear family in Nigeria in the same métier. MICHAEL JIMOH reports…

Younger artists these days avail themselves of modern gadgets like sketch pads and even laptops to help their creative process. There was nothing of such when Ajiboye began his career at Daily Times. He is not against using them, though. “Sketch pads and laptops are material aids for creative productions,” he said. But for him, “I still use my heart, my head for the creative work I do whether painting, illustrating or graphic art.”

Many a Sunday mornings, devotees of the Sunday Times saw many of those works. A typical Ajiboye cartoon could be just about anything – serious or not. Most often, they lampoon overbearing and unconscionable bosses. One, for example, shows the horrifying spectacle of a superior scolding a subordinate who came late to work. It didn’t matter to the unconcerned Oga that the junior staff just had an accident, blindingly obvious from the bandages swaddling almost half his body.

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t is rare to have members of the same family in the same profession, that is, father, mother and their wards becoming doctors, say, engineers or teachers. True, there is the Dafinones, a family of qualified accountants who entered the Guinness Book of Record in 1999.

Starting with the patriarch, David Omueya Dafinone, businessman and onetime senator from 1979 – 83, all his five children read accounting in university and qualified as members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in London. That was how they made the Guinness Book of Record as a single family – sans their mother though - with the highest number of accountants anywhere in the world.

With the Ajiboyes however, father, mother and their four children are all professional artists. All of them went to Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. The sibs (Olusegun, Oluwayemisi, Rotimi and Oluronke) also attended Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, where they obtained degrees in Fine & Applied Art up to Masters. Their mother Christiana Aduni is a tie-dye and batik designer.

But the most famous of them, of course, is the patriarch, Josy Ajiboye, veteran cartoonist, graphic artist, painter and sculptor, whose cartoon strips ran for decades mostly in Sunday Times, a title of Daily Times Publications.

Nigerians of a certain generation remember very well the must-see strips on the cover of ST. Bylined Josy Ajiboye on Sunday, thousands of pairs of eyes followed his drawings religiously from the seventies through the eighties to the nineties. At the time, ST alone circulated more than half a million copies. So, even without the advantage of the internet/ social media, Ajiboye reached hundreds of thousands of readers every week.

EARLY BEGINNING At about five or so when he started to draw, Ajiboye had no idea he was laying the foundation of what would become a family profession. In his words, the veteran cartoonist, graphic artist, painter and sculptor began to draw “from the time I knew how to write alphabets.”

Born to Chief Obanla of Erinmope Ekiti in Moba Local Council in Ekiti state, the youngster had human and nonhuman models to perfect his drawing skills: masquerades.

Like one who has discovered his sweet spot, Ajiboye limned more as he grew older. His métier was pretty much carved out for him from then on. It was no surprise when he proceeded to Yaba College of Technology to study Art. By the time he joined Daily Times as Editorial Artist in 1971, no one was surprised, least of all himself.

“Cartooning is just a fraction of my artistic ability,” Ajiboye told THEWILL via WhatsApp recently. “I am a general artist apart from sculpture.” For him, his strong attraction to drawing has not waned over the years, insisting that “even now when I am writing, I feel I am drawing.”

He would remain with the Daily Times Group of Companies for nearly three decades and his cartoons were constant features on the cover page of the newspaper. Between 1971 and 2000 when he finally retired, he let it be known twice he would quit his job. His request was denied on both occasions.

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Another is remarkable for its gallows humour. In this cartoon, a robber is lassoed to the stake ready for execution.

The condemned criminal tells the priest administering the last rites that he has no complaint except that census people will miss him.

“

With the Ajiboyes however, father, mother and their four children are all professional artists. All of them went to Yaba College of Technology. The sibs (Olusegun, Oluwayemisi, Rotimi and Oluronke) also attended Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, where they obtained degrees in Fine & Applied Art up to Masters

The first, as he recounted it to this paper, was when Alhaji Babatunde Jose was MD. “I worked for one month and resigned,” he said of his botched resignation. “Alhaji Babatunde Jose is somebody I respected so much. After he spoke to me he said I should withdraw my resignation if I respected him and I did.”

The second came much later when Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo helmed the establishment. It wasn’t a resignation as such but retirement. “I never resigned when Onukaba AdinoyiOjo came on board. It was after his first meeting with the Editorial. I was introduced to him and he said he was very happy to meet me personally and asked me to see him in his office. He said he was informed that I would soon go on retirement. He said: ‘You are not going anywhere yet.’ The following week I received two letters from the personnel office. One congratulated me on retirement with full benefits and the second one a contract appointment.”

But after two years as a contract staff, Ajiboye finally quit in 2000 “because I was eager to go back to my easel to paint.”

And that is what he has done ever since, working assiduously in his studio, painting and drawing despite his advanced years. (Ajiboye is in his late seventies.)

Has he had a good run as an artist? Yes, of course, Ajiboye

On their own, most of the cartoons are risible enough even without the accompanying texts. But the texts drive home the message more. A particular one has a waiter offering a client a tray-full of coins – the diner’s change - balanced on one hand, with the text: “Here is your change sir, we are shot of notes.”

They could also be commentaries on social issues. One of the most risible is of a local taking off at the sight of a postman whom he mistakes for a tax collector. “I am a postman not a tax collector,” the startled postman tells the fleeing tax dodger. The cartoon itself is a subtle dig at people in rural communities who routinely mistake uniformed government officials for tax collectors. Each time they sight any, they take to their heels.

Working for a government-owned newspaper like DT would have gotten the artist into trouble, especially with military regimes. He sure did get into one, on account of which he was denied a passport to travel to Europe for the first time because of a cartoon he drew. Ajiboye admitted as much to THEWILL but wouldn’t give the details of what really happened. “It was an interesting story,” he recalled, “but that is not for immediate comment. That will be done later, not now.”

For sure, we may never know under what circumstances he was denied or who even ordered it. What we do know for now about his family of artists is certainly more interesting.

Marrying Aduni, a woman in the same profession is something to marvel at. His first child, Segun, born in 1968, attended Methodist Primary School, Mushin and Eko Boys High School both in Mushin. He then proceeded to Yaba Tech for a National Diploma General Arts before obtaining a BA Painting from OAU in 1993 and an MFA from the same institution in 2000.

His younger sib, Rotimi, followed the same educational trajectory, starting off at Methodist Primary School through Eko Boys High Yaba Tech and then OAU. Their sisters, Yemisi and Ronke, found their way to Yaba Tech and Ife, as well, graduating in the same department as if driven by the secret hand of fate in their career choices.

Did father in any way influence their course of study? It is doubtful. But what is clearly not in doubt any more is that the Ajiboyes remain the only single nuclear family in Nigeria with the highest number of artists in one household, perhaps, rivalling, if not surpassing, the Dafinones.

Does that qualify them for the Guinness Book of Record?

Time will tell.

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JANUARY 9 - JANUARY 15, 2022 T H E W I L L N E W S P A P E R • www.thewillnigeria.com

SportsLive

What AFCON Can Learn From VAR Controversy at home and pundits on TV do. Still, somewhere between what evidence the referee sees by himself and what VAR tells the referee about a call, a final decision is made that sometimes is a departure from the fact with the potential to completely and unfairly change the outcome of the game.

BY JUDE OBAFEMI n Wednesday, July 10, 2019, history was made in African football when the quarter-final clash between Senegal and Benin at the June 30 Stadium in Cairo, Egypt, became the first-ever game on the continent to employ the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. The system was being tested by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for evaluation, pending a decision to fully engage the technology for officiating all matches and tournaments at the continental level. Hence, in Egypt in 2019, VAR was only employed from the quarter-finals of the competitions after the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and world soccer governing body, FIFA, approved the use of the technology.

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That historic use of VAR on the continent was preceded by a swathe of mock runs dating back to the CAF Super Cup clash between Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco and TP Mazembe of DR Congo in Casablanca in February 2018. It was followed by the final matches of the CAF inter-club competitions in 2018 and another mock usage during the African Nations Championship in Morocco in the same year. After these mock runs and pleased with the progress made, CAF employed the technology at the AFCON in Egypt with the green light given the usage by football bodies, IFAB and FIFA. Yet, the novelty of the system meant that two European referees, Paulinus Van Boekel from the Netherlands and Benoit Millot from France, were brought on board to support the VAR system based on their experience and familiarity with the technology and to avoid hiccups that could be inimical to the smooth-running of the football matches.

History is about to be made again with the confirmation from CAF that all 52 matches to be played at the 24-teamed 33rd edition of the continental football showpiece, tagged the TotalEnergies 2021 AFCON for sponsorship purposes, will apply the VAR technology in all the stadiums in Cameroon.

This step elevates the level of officiating and game management of football on the continent to match levels obtainable in other football Associations, Confederations and Federations across the globe, where the technology is becoming mainstream.

As a system, which applies video footage and headphone communication to assist the match officials and head referee examine decisions made so as to reduce human errors that can bear a significant impact on match results, it has been a welcome development for football match officiating. Many a football player had perfected the art of simulation to fool unassisted referees into awarding free-kicks, penalty kicks, yellow and red cards when the reality of the play did not actually warrant any of those as replays often revealed. It was to curtail the human errors that inevitably creeped into significant and result-altering refereeing decisions that formed part of the rationale for the introduction of VAR. As the TotalEnergies 2021 AFCON kicks off with the full complement of VAR backing up the decisions of the head match official, the question to ask is whether the technology has lived up to the idealistic objective of its adherents in eliminating the errors that impeded the fair officiating of football games and unfairly gave the advantage to one side or the other. The English Premier League, where VAR has been in use for the second straight full season, is as good as any place to apply as an example in the determination of the pros and cons of the technology.

If the furore that the officiating and game management in the 2021/2022 season and the debates to rethink how VAR is employed for the betterment of the officiating is anything to go by, then there is a lot that the VAR match referees at AFCON can learn from England.

To begin with controversies, on the first day of the New Year, a Premier League tie between Arsenal and Manchester City finished 2-1 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s side, but the spotlight was directly trained on the officiating and use of VAR. The query was hinged on the apparent lack of consistency as both sides had a player brought down in the box. But, while THEWILLNIGERIA

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Take the case of Harry Kane’s challenge against Liverpool’s Andy Robertson, in which Kane had his studs up as he slid into the Scotland captain. Luckily for Robertson, he jumped high enough to avoid full contact from Kane’s studs. Regardless of the fact that Robertson, who only returned from a hamstring injury while playing for Scotland in the November international window, must have been playing for caution and avoiding another lengthy injury spell, Kane ought to have been dealt the penalty for such a reckless challenge that had the potential of causing grave harm. Robertson’s contribution in that game was enough to give Liverpool a 2-all draw. If those studs had caught him, the result would have been different.

Also, a red card for Kane had the potential to change the final score because he contributed immensely to the Spurs’ score sheet. However, when Robertson slid to stop Emerson Royal, he was red-carded. Again, similar acts, same game, different refereeing decisions.

one infringement was reviewed on the pitch-side monitor to the point of overturning an initial “no penalty” decision and awarding a penalty, the other was not, thus questioning the purpose of video refereeing when the match official is not making use of the available technology to make both informed and evidence-based decisions that are fair to both teams.

In another match, Watford lost by a lone goal to Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur. The match was a continuation of the latter’s impressive form under Conte, but the first-half dominance rarely looked like opening up a resolute home side.

In the end, it took a rare moment of quality to finally unlock Watford, as Son Heung-Min’s late free-kick put the ball on a plate for Davinson Sanchez’s winner. But, 10 minutes earlier, Watford’s Joao Pedro’s penalty shout was waved off when there was something of Hugo Lloris’s challenge on the substitute as he raced towards putting his side ahead. VAR looked through the same video footage that fans and pundits saw and still could not call the referee to check and possibly review his initial decision to allow play continue. That provided the basis for Spurs to claim all three points with a late goal.

The following day, Chelsea played a 2-all draw against Liverpool with a tightly-contested first half of the tabletopping clash of the second and third clubs in the EPL. Two early Liverpool goals were cancelled out by an energetic Chelsea comeback in a game that petered out in the final stages of the second period. But the talking point centered around an incident that took place after just 15 seconds into the fixture. Sadio Mane left a shiner on César Azpilicueta’s face with his forearm, that was still visibly red even after the match, when the Spaniard as delivering post-match comments. The referee reached into his pocket and where a red could have been issued for the blatant blow to the face, Mane got off with just a cautionary yellow.

It is for tough but clear-cut decisions such as these, which can completely change the outcome of these ties and keep the players within the rules of the game, that VAR was considered necessary. Yet, where the technology is supposed to make a difference, penalty calls and red card infringements, examples such as these, and some more, leave many players, managers and fans scratching their heads. This is because the benefit of looking at replays in slow motion and from different angles provides enough material for the VAR to correctly advise the referee on the right call to make in the same way that viewers

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Of the few decisions that have been egregious when it comes to officiating, Newcastle will feel most aggrieved given that they do not have enough wiggle room down in the relegation battle and need every bleeding point they can muster. Every decision that goes against them drags them deeper into the mire of the red zone that they are battling to stay out of it.

Yet, against Liverpool, with midfielder Isaac Hayden flat out on the turf from a head injury, inside the box, the referee and VAR still allowed Diogo Jota to score in the 21st minute of their December 16 fixture. Newcastle went on to lose 3-1, with penalty appeals turned down after midfielder Ryan Fraser went down under a challenge from Trent AlexanderArnold, who went on to score the final, third goal. It is left to the imagination what the final scoreline could have been had the any penalty been awarded to Newcastle and AlexanderArnold penalised as a result.

The consequences of these poor calls are fully borne by the victims and the clubs unfairly punished by bad officiating. In December, the Premier League authorities notified West Ham that two controversial decisions made against them by referees in recent games were incorrect. When Dwight McNeil took down Craig Dawson in the box during the 0-0 draw with Burnley at Turf Moor on December 12, the Hammers were aggrieved not to get a penalty. Three days later, during the Irons’ 2-0 loss to Arsenal, Vladimir Coufal was awarded a red card for a tackle on Alexandre Lacazette in which replays revealed he got the ball first. The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), a committee founded in 2001 to “improve refereeing standards in the United Kingdom,” has informed West Ham that both of those major decisions were incorrect, but the results stand, the points are lost and the Hammers bear the brunt.

For now, teams have no means of knowing which instances were examined by the VAR panel and how much of their contribution leads to the final decision of the referee. This has only fuelled more bad blood between the officiating and game management and the clubs. Following the group stage of the world cup in 2018, FIFA referees committee head Pierluigi Collina held a news conference where he revealed footage of the decision-making process as well as audio of the exchanges between VAR officials and the referees. Collina responded warmly when asked whether the audio could be made public, as it is in rugby and cricket, but cautioned that it might still be too early. That may help to make the decision-making process some quality of transparency and go a long way to make it reliable.

That is the lesson that AFCON must take from what has so far transpired with VAR in the EPL as the historic continental competition kicks off on Sunday to ensure that poor officiating does not impede the smooth flow of games at the tournament in Cameroon.

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