Sunday 26th June 2016 by THISDAY Newspapers Ltd

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016

SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016

JUNE 26, 2016 • T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

SUNDAY COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE: ISSUES IN TENURE ABROGATION

The president’s directive on the tenure policy is ill-advised

he federal government, last week, suspended the policy which set four-year tenure, renewable only once, for permanent secretaries in the Federal Civil Service. In a circular to all ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs), the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, said President Muhammadu Buhari had “directed the suspension of tenure policy with immediate effect and all concerned are to comply accordingly.” With that, the eight-year tenure ceiling approved by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, along with other far-reaching reforms, was abrogated. While we do not query the prerogative of the president to issue a counter-directive on the tenure of civil servants, we fear that, all factors considered, he was not From the original well-advised on this issue. memo approved by He threw away a policy the late president, that was not only wellthe logic behind the conceived but has helped to tenure policy was restore a measure of sanity to pave the way for in the overall profile and career progression, performance of the Federal fresh capacities and Civil Service. genuine national According to the cumuladevelopment tive years of service chart anchored on the by the Federal Civil Service deployment of Commission, an officer is skills that would supposed to spend three otherwise be wasted years each from grade level by stagnation and (GL) 08 to GL13, making attrition 15 years. An officer is also supposed to spend four years each from GL14 to GL16, making a total of 27 years. Finally, an officer is expected to spend the remaining eight years of service on GL17. This calculation is based on extant regulation, which has prescribed a maximum of 35 years of service for mandatory retirement. But that is not what has happened in Nigeria over the years. The real bad news from the current presidential directive is the widespread impression that there is a strong and deliberate ethnic ring to it. But it need not be so. From the original memo approved by the late president, the logic behind the tenure policy was to pave the way for career progression, fresh capacities and genuine national development anchored on the deployment of skills that would otherwise be wasted by stagnation and attrition. The ridiculous claim that the original policy was

Letters to the Editor

targeted at a section of the country falls flat on its face for several reasons. First, while the then Head of Service who initiated it (Mr. Steve Oronsaye) is indeed a southerner, he had neither executive powers nor was he in a position to implement or enforce anything not approved by the highest authority in the country. Second, the policy was hailed at the time as one of the most progressive and well- thought out policy initiatives of the federal government, against the background of massive unemployment in the country and career abuses in the civil service.

S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR TOKUNBO ADEDOJA DEPUTY EDITORS VINCENT OBIA, FESTUS AKANBI MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, EMMANUEL EFENI, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR OLUFEMI ABOROWA DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS PETER IWEGBU, FIDELIS ELEMA, MBAYILAN ANDOAKA, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS HENRY NWACHOKOR, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI GENERAL MANAGER PATRICK EIMIUHI GROUP HEAD FEMI TOLUFASHE ART DIRECTOR OCHI OGBUAKU II DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

art of the concern, which informed the decision by the late President Yar’Adua, remains the inability of the Federal Civil Service to renew. The chronic lack of vacancies, especially at the top, even with subordinates retiring ahead of their superiors, only fanned a pervading loss of morale in a large number of officers. Those who were long overdue for promotion stagnated, with no indications or assurances of career advancement. Indeed, the policy that President Buhari has now reversed was designed to also remedy the cumulative negative effects of the general suspension of promotion and employment into the service between 1984 and 1989. This is in addition to voiding the damage arising from the abuse of the provisions of Decree 43 of 1988 (The Dotun Philips Reform), through which many officers were recruited or transferred (from their states’ civil service) into the officer cadre in the Federal Civil Service and placed on unmerited grade levels. In addition, the manipulation of records of officers, especially by particularly age falsification, resulting in the continued retention of those who are overdue for retirement, was addressed by the now reversed policy. Therefore, a nation with high unemployment rates and a frightening youth bulge like Nigeria cannot afford to return to a situation where some directors and permanent secretaries, after spending a decade or more in their respective offices, still have over five years to retirement. That can neither be deemed fair nor sustainable in a system awash with hardworking and effective, but stagnating officers who cannot be promoted due to lack of vacancies. Given the foregoing, the directive of President Buhari on the tenure policy is not only retrogressive, it is likely to undermine morale and the overall performance of the Federal Civil Service.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (950- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

BUHARI’S CERTIFICATE SAGA AND THE CORRUPTION WAR

t is necessary to start this discourse by stating the obvious and that is that the contents of the media interview by Mr. Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe on Buhari’s certificate suit were based on the proclamations made by the Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR) in 2015, that the Army could not find Buhari’s Secondary School Certificate in his personal military file. Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe’s media interview had nothing to do with the case he filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, insisting that Buhari was not qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election. When, therefore, Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media Affairs claimed that Nwokocha Ahaaiwe’s two-page interview in a national newspaper amounted to “media trial” or pronouncing Buhari “guilty” on a matter he (Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe)

filed in the court, he was simply being clever by half in a dubious attempt to muddy the waters. (See “Buhari’s Certificate Suit: Presidency Accuses Lawyer of Overreaching the Court”, THISDAY, June 20, 2016, P.11).The point is that rather that threatening Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe with legal prosecution, Garba Shehu should muster the courage to advise Buhari to raise a competent legal team to defend him (Buhari) in the substantive matter before the court. The attempt to use the threat of legal prosecution or NBA sanctions to frighten or intimidate NwokochaAhaaiwe into abandoning his suit against Buhari or stopping him from granting interviews expressing his views on the matter, will not work because we are in a democratic polity. As far as decent minds are concerned, Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe’s media interview did not breach any legal ethics and, therefore, the Nigerian

Bar Association (NBA) has no need to slam sanctions on anybody. As a matter of fact, Buhari should immediately actualise his threat to sue Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe over the contents of his media interview. At least, that will be another opportunity, outside the case already in court, for Nigerians to know whether Buhari was actually qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election. If the presidency cannot sue the army for claiming that Buhari has no Secondary School Certificate in 2015, it would be interesting to know the grounds on which Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe will be sued for merely premising his interview on the proceedings of a press conference granted by the military. It is not enough for Garba Shehu to insist that “the litigant’s unabashed claim that he was a card-carrying member of the opposition PDP which lost power in the last election clearly indicates a scheme that seeks power

by circumventing the democratic process of elections”. The issue is not about Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe’s membership of the PDP or the objective of his suit which is to get federal power back to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. After all, it was not Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe who advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) to allegedly field an unqualified Buhari as its candidate in the 2015 presidential election. If Garba Shehu and his media team cannot articulate a convincing response to the contents of Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe’s media interview, the least that is expected of him is to keep quiet and not insult the intelligence of Nigerians with his threat to sue on the trumped up charge of “media trial” and abuse of free speech. Perhaps, this is the time for Buhari to take another look at the quality of the men leading his media team. It is either Garba Shehu is incompetent to defend Buhari on issues of national

and international importance or he is out for mischief or both. If Mr. Shehu’s long-term associate, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has openly called for the restructuring of Nigeria, a position antithetical to that of Buhari, no one needs a prophet to know that Shehu may be working for an interest that wants Buhari’s image and integrity rubbished and diminished before the 2019 presidential election. Buhari must therefore not allow those who will be on a hunting expedition with him, and all of sudden, begin to grunt that he (Buhari) looks more like the same animal they are hunting to kill, to still be part of his presidential team for the governance of Nigeria. As Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe pointed out in his interview under review, he had no intentions of commenting on the substantive case before the court. ––Dr. Abel O.Ezenwa, abelokpechi@gmail.com

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

SUNDAYNEWS

News Editor Abimbola Akosile E-mail: abimbola.akosile@thisdaylive.com, 08023117639 (sms only)

Closure of NERFUND May Truncate Recovery of over N7bn Olaseni Durojaiye

ROTARY FORUM L-R: District 9110 Rotary International District Governor, Pat Ikheloa; World President, Rotary International Representative to the 2016 Annual District 9110 rotary International District 9110 Conference, Frank Devlyn; former Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; Current District 9110 Governor, Otunba Bola Onabadejo (KJW), and past District 9110 Governor, Michael Olawale Cole; at the 2016 Annual Conference of District 9110 at the Christ Ogunbanjo Conference Centre, Erunwon, Ogun State...recently

Why AMCON May Settle Out of Court with NICON Investment, By Ibrahim

Kunle Aderinokun and Olaseni Durojaiye

Days after a Federal High Court, Lagos Division granted an interim injunction retraining NICON Investment Limited (NIL), Global Fleet Oil and Gas Limited and Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim from dealing with any assets or funds belonging to NICON Investment, Global Fleet Oil and others, on the promptings of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), indications have emerged that AMCON may have acted in error even as the moves to settle out of court may have commenced. This is as ownership of some of the properties listed to be taken over have been linked with persons and companies other than Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, NIL or Global Fleet Oil and Gas. In a related development Ibrahim has disclosed that he has commenced moves to have the interim injunction vacated and denied ownership some of the assets including Grand Midwest Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Cumberland Hotel, London, England. AMCON had approached the Lagos High Court to seek the interim injunction to take possession of assets belonging to

NICON Investment Limited in a bid to recover an alleged N50 billion debt that the company owed Union Bank, and which AMCON reportedly bought over. The alleged N50 billion debt came about when NIL borrowed N16 billion from Union Bank. The collateral for the loan, according to Ibrahim, was the group’s strategic reserve savings account, which was in British Pounds Sterling. The account had 132 million pounds sterling balance at the time. According to AMCON the loan rose to N50 billion when interests are added. This is as it also became known that an earlier attempt by Union Bank to recover the loan said to be N16 billion was the subject of a litigation in which judgment was delivered against the bank. The judgment, THISDAY gathered was premised upon the discovery that NIL had a subsisting pound sterling account with bank balance far in excess of the N16 billion that the group owed Union Bank. Meanwhile, AMCON has, however, washed its hand off any other transaction between NIL and the bank outside of the N16 billion, which has now swollen to N50 billion including the interests that had accrued since the trans-

action was entered into. THISDAY investigations established that NICON Investment Limited indeed borrowed N16 billion from Union Bank and used the company’s group reserves savings in Pound Sterling account with a balance of 132 million pound sterling with the bank as collateral. It was also learnt that during the course of the transaction, Union Bank reportedly sold the Pound Sterling without authorisation from NIL, which is the owner of the pound sterling. Further findings by THISDAY also revealed that when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) bought over Union Bank and replaced the management team with another team led by Mrs. Funke Osibodu, the new team met with the management of NIL where it was agreed that the new team would study the transaction to be certain that it was in order. However, the matter took a new twist when NIL was sued to a Lagos High Court in 2010 on the allegations of indebtedness to it, to the tune of N16 billion. According to Chairman of NIL, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, “What really happened was that we had cash-for-cash lending transaction with Union Bank. We used our British Pound Sterling

(BPS) to borrow some cash. We had 132 million pound sterling in the account, we borrowed N16 billion against that account and the exchange rate at the time was N250 to a pound sterling meaning that the cash that we had in the account was far more than what we borrowed. “When we tried to pay back the borrowing with our pound sterling account, we’re told that CBN had taken over Union Bank. Then the new management led by Funke Osibodu met with us, at the meeting they told us that they’re new and needed time to study the transaction to be sure that it was in order. At that meeting we gave them our records and certificates and they didn’t deny that we had the pound sterling account with them,” Ibrahim told THISDAY in an exclusive interview. Continuing, he stressed that “The next thing we heard was that they have sold the pound sterling, without authorisation. The next thing we saw was a writ of summons. When we got to court we tendered the records of our deposits. The court looked at the records and gave judgment. The court dismissed the case against us and declared that joining me in the case was done in bad faith.

‘Crude Oil Production May Hit 2.3mbpd in Two Weeks’ • Operators’ resilience keeping production level at 1.9mbpd Chineme Okafor in Abuja

Nigeria may in the next two weeks increase the volume crude oil it produces and pumps every day from her oil fields to 2.3 million barrels (mb), a reliable official source in state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) told THISDAY yesterday. The source who spoke on the condition that his name would not be disclosed in this report, explained that the backchannel overtures initiated by Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu

to halt bombing of oil facilities and disruptions in production by militants in the Niger Delta were already yielding results. He said, based largely on the resilience of operators in the country’s oil fields, repair of vandalised facilities have been largely completed and production resumed. Although the source did not list which of the oil facilities had been repaired and from which the increase in volume was achieved, THISDAY learnt it may include Eja OML79 run by Royal Dutch Nigeria subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC) where

production of 90,000 barrels is achieved every day; Obi Obi Brass trunk line belonging to Agip ENI in Bayelsa State; Nembe 1, 2 and 3 Brass to Bonny Trunk Line belonging to Agip and Shell; as well as Chevron’s Makaraba line on the offshore Okan manifold amongst its other facilities at Abiteye, Utunana and Makaraba platforms in Warri South-west area of Delta State. According to him, operators are already ramping up their production levels and could within the second week of July hit 2.3mbpd, perhaps some few weeks ahead of Kachikwu’s

earlier projection of August as a cut-off date to restore Nigeria’s production to about 2.2mbpd. Kachikwu had last month said he hoped to in his dialogue with militants in the Delta, end the destruction of facilities; restore production and ramp up the countries volumes to insulate the 2016 budget from taking a bashing from low revenue from oil. The country had indexed its 2016 budget on price level of $38/b for oil. Currently, oil prices averaged $47/b on news of Britain’s decision to exit from the European Union after its Thursday referendum.

It would seem like top management of the Federal Ministry of Finance shot themselves in the foot as the unprecedented act of shutting down the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) indefinitely last Thursday may have truncated the recovery of over N7billion owed the agency by Micro Small and Medium scale Entrepreneurs (MSMEs). An industry source, who spoke to THISDAY in Abuja also hinted that the directive of the Minister of Finance, communicated via circular Nr. F.12891/S.3/T1/254 by the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Mahmoud Isa Dutse, may likely incense the National Assembly who may view the action of the ministry as a usurpation of the powers of the

legislature. It could be recalled that similar decision of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to order the close down of NERFUND without repealing the Act setting up the agency by the National Assembly was mentioned amongst other reasons given for the commencement of impeachment proceedings against the former President by the Hon Ghali Na’aba led House of Representatives. In the latest development, the Permanent Secretary stated that the ministry was ordering the immediate close down of the agency indefinitely while staff members are to proceed on indefinite leave, following a peaceful protest by the members of staff of NERFUND over welfare issues and the lingering merger impasse.

Kuje Jail Break: Prisons Boss Confirms Escape of Two Prisoners Dele Ogbodo in Abuja

The Controller General of Prisons Service (CGP), Mr. Ja’afaru Ahmed, yesterday confirmed that only two prison inmates at the Kuje Medium Prison escaped from their cell during a minor jail break, which occurred between 7pm and 8pm on Friday night. Ahmed also debunked initial reports that a brother of Henry Okah, jailed leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Charles Okah, escaped during the jailbreak, adding that the story was misleading. Speaking on behalf of the CGP, on telephone, the Public Relations Officer of the Prisons Service, Mr. Francis Enobore, confirmed that the jail break indeed took place on Friday evening. On the rumour that Okah has escaped, the CGP said: “It is not true. Henry Okah’s younger brother is still in custody. I have been in touch with our men in

the prison facility, and there is nothing like that Okah escaped.” He said: “As I speak with you now after going round the prison, I can confirm to you that Mr. Charles Okah, one of our high profile detainees is hale and hearty at the prison facilities.” While acknowledging that the escapees have not been found, he added that their names cannot be immediately revealed. Meanwhile, THISDAY checks at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, showed evidence of high security alert mounted by the Aviation Security Unit (AVESCE), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), security outfit. A senior FAAN official, who craved anonymity while commenting on the jail break, said FAAN is monitoring movement of passengers for both low and high profile prisoners and detainees who might want to use the airport as an escape route.

Resident Doctors Suspend Strike, Resume Work Tomorrow Paul Obi in Abuja

Following several pleas, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) yesterday suspended its ongoing nationwide indefinite strike, urging its members to resume work tomorrow, Monday, June 27. Inacommuniqueissuedatthe end of an extraordinary national executive council meeting in Abuja, NARD President, Dr. Muhammad Adamu Askira stated that the suspension of the strike was to enable the government implement the agreements reached within the stipulated time frame. While commending the role of the National Assembly in the impasse, specifically, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, NARD explained that it would review the progress of the intervention, at the July NEC scheduled for next month, July 25 - 30. “In view of the genuine intervention of the Hon. Speaker and other key stakeholders, NARD hereby suspends the ongoing nationwide indefinite strike action so as to enable government imple-

ment the agreements reached within the agreed time frame on or before July 14, 2016. Work will resume from Monday 27th June 2016 at 8:am. This is with the view to relieve the impact of the strike on average Nigerians,” the association said. They observed that “NARD has been on a nationwide strike which has been staggered from a centre-based that started on 9th of June 2016 to a full blown national strike from 20th June 2016. This was to press home our demands on issues confirmed in our earlier ultimatum released from 4th of April 2016. We assure all our members to remain calm as they resume their normal duties and that no one would be victimised for taking part in these struggles”. The association also commended stakeholders that showed that support throughout the strike period and specifically, the leadership of Nigeria Medical Association NMA), and Medical and Dental Council Association of Nigeria as well as all its branch leaders all over the country for the support, patriotism and leadership.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

SUNDAYNEWS

ALL FOR HEALTH L- R: Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Dr. Jide Idris; Director, Hygeia Group, Mrs. Fola Laoye;

Director, PharmAccess Foundation, Pieter Walhof; Country Director, PharmAccess Nigeria, Ms. Njide Ndili, and Director, Advocacy/Resource Mobilisation, Mr. Kwasi Boahene, during the Pharmaccess strategy day on Nigeria held in Lagos...recently

BENEFITS FOR KADIRI Chairman of ULO Consultants Limited, Uche Luke Okpuno; Delly Ajufo of Bidac Insurance Brokers Limit-

ed, and Mr. Isede Williams, beneficiary and father of late Peter Kadiri at the cheque presentation of ULO’s insurance staff scheme benefits to family of late Kadiri of ULO Consultants Limited in Abuja…recently

Alleged 2019 Deal With Atiku: Sheriff’s Rantings Dozie, Wigwe, Others for NiBUCAA Roundtable Baseless, Says PDP Chairman,MTNNigeriaandCo- ecutive Secretary, NiBUCAA, Mr. • Caretaker committee plans stakeholders meeting •Dismiss suspension of Edo Exco Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

As the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) continues to battle with internal rebellion, the National Caretaker Committee has dismissed the alleged fraternisation with a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar as baseless and unfounded. The committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi said yesterday that as part of efforts to bring to an end the internal disputes in the party, it will convene a stakeholders’ meeting any time from next week. The ousted national Chairman of the PDP who is still resisting his sack from office, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff had accused the Chairman National Caretaker Committee of the party, Senator Makarfi and Secretary, Senator Ben Obi of working for a chieftain of the APC with the intention of securing for him the 2019 presidential ticket.

Although, Sheriff fell short of mentioning Atiku’s name when he spoke during a solidarity visit by some members of the PDP from Plateau state last Friday in Abuja, he made clear allusions to the effect that the former Vice President may have been the one that Makarfi and his committee met. “It is on record that since they came back from the Port Harcourt Convention, they have visited the chieftain of the APC twice and this chieftain is still in APC. Nigerians Know the truth, let them not deceive the people,” he said. However, Secretary of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Senator Ben Obi has said Sheriff’s allegation is nothing but a cry of drowning man seeking for something to clutch his hands onto. “If all the organs of the party have entrusted us with the leadership of the party and Sheriff is standing as an island, what do you expect from a drowning man? He

would always come up with all sorts of permutations that are unfounded and baseless to continue to satisfy the orgy of his paymasters. “The fellow has a track record that is known to all. We are both together at the APP which later became the ANPP and everybody who were in the party at that time know what role he played. My appeal to PDP members is to remain calm and not allow Sheriff to distract them from the goals of the party,” he said. Speaking on the peace efforts and apparent stalemate in discussions with the Sheriff’s group, Obi accused the former national chairman of not being honest and of being economical with the truth. He explained that Makarfi had set up four-member peace and reconciliation team immediately after the meeting held by both parties had with the former Inspector-General of Police to hold talks with Sheriff, but that rather than meet with

the committee, Sheriff chose to “run from one court to the other seeking favourable judgment.” Obi said based on the fruitless efforts to bring Sheriff and his loyalists to negotiating table, the National Caretaker Committee will be meeting on Monday to consider summoning a stakeholders meeting to deliberate on the way forward. On the suspension order issued by Sheriff on the Edo state party executive, Obi asked party members to ignore such statement. “Let Sheriff go on and constitute his executives in Edo state and let’s see how that pans out. I think the man is only testing the waters and I believe that this adventure in Edo state should his first litmus test. The good thing is that the Edo state PDP is not factionalised. The party is together under the leadership Chief Dan Orbih from its national leaders like Chief Tony Anenih, Chief Tom Ikimi to other notable leaders in the state,” he said.

Army: Media Attacks on Buratai, an Organised Strategy to Stall War on Terror • Abubakar: Nigerian military to locate and destroy Boko Haram radio Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Leo Irabor, has described the recent allegations against the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai and his two wives, as a calculated attempt to derail the ongoing successes against Boko Haram terrorists in parts of the North-east. Irabor in a statement yesterday, described as baseless and wicked, the report by the online media about a purported petition by some officers and soldiers concerning the state of operations in the North-east. “The attention of Theatre Command, Operation Lafiya Dole has been drawn to some issues in the online publication of 24 June 2016 with a

story line on the allegation that the COAS and his wives own some properties in Dubai. “The report among other smear campaign issues, impugned that some ‘concerned officers and soldiers in the North East’ allegedly wrote a petition on the state of affairs in the Operation Lafiya Dole. What a baseless, unfounded and wicked insinuation! It is for this reason that I call you today to clear issues as they affect Operation Lafiya Dole. The other issue regarding property in Dubai is outside my purview, but has been responded to appropriately by the Acting Director Army Public Relations,” he stated. For the avoidance of doubt, he said, Buratai has since assumption of office, taken the affairs of counter-terrorism

operations to a level that showed unparalleled commitment to the operational effectiveness and good welfare of troops. The Commander recalled that between January till now, the CoAS has provided various quantities of ammunition types, vehicles and other equipment in the Theatre. He further stated: “He has equally provided uniforms and boots for all the troops in Operation Lafiya Dole. The payment of allowances and other requirements have been regular and in most cases, upfront. “The CoAS’ regular visits to the frontline are well known to all. The aggregate impact of the efforts is the huge operational successes being recorded in the Theatre. The

morale of troops has equally risen to a level that was never witnessed in the past. “The report further imputed that the motorcycles inducted into Operation Lafiya Dole and employed by the Motorcycle Battalion, were used and refurbished. What a sad tale of lies! When a report of that nature was received earlier, the CoAS instituted a high-powered investigation by Military Police. “The findings of the investigation team revealed that the motorcycles were brand new and were delivered in crates as knocked-down-parts. The technicians who fixed some of them, failed to tighten some knots firmly which was later rectified. Ever since, the motorcycles have proven useful in various operations.”

Chair, Nigerian Business Coalition Against AIDS (NiBUCAA), Dr. Pascal Dozie, and MD/CEO, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, will be leading business leaders from different organisations in the country to a special roundtable by NiBUCAA on June 29 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, by 10am. The roundtable, themed ‘Basic Nutrition: Tips for Healthy Living and Maintaining Healthy Living and Work-life Balance’ will have Technical Officer, Prevention and Mitigation, Family Health International (FHI360), Dr. Olabisi Olaogun, as keynote Speaker. In a statement released to the media in Lagos, Acting Ex-

Gbenga Alabi, said the theme of the roundtable is particularly apt with the important role healthy living plays in the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted last year by all UN member-states including Nigeria. Alabi added that members and non-members of the coalition will meet to discuss emerging and contemporary health issues germane to the Nigerian workplace at the Access Bank Plcsponsored ceremony. “We look forward to very engaging deliberations towards promoting a work-life balance for professionals in the Nigerian workplace,” he stated.

Spain Deports 11 Nigerians Chinedu Eze

Spain has deported 11 Nigerians, about two days after the United States deported 41 Nigerians, and in the last three weeks, over 100 Nigerians have been deported from different countries in Europe. A fortnight ago about 162 Nigerians voluntarily returned from Libya, some of them after waiting out to leave from there to Europe and others who were restrained by the civil war and therefore could not leave the country. According to the Spanish government, the 11 Nigerians were alleged to have committed various offences, including stay-

ing illegally in that country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the deportees, comprising 10 males and one female, arrived at the Hajj Camp area of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 7.10p.m Friday and they were receivedbyofficersoftheNigerian Immigration Service, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Lagos Airport Police Command. The spokesperson of the command, DSP Joseph Alabi, confirmed the deportation to NAN and said they were deported for allegedly committing immigration-related offences and other criminal acts in their host country.

OPLs/OMLs: House C’ttee Threatens to Arrest Firms Shunning Invitation Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the awards of Oil Prospecting Licences (OPLs) and Oil Mining Licences (OMLs) between 2005 and 2007 has threatened to issue warrants of arrests for Managing Directors of several invited firms who have continued to shun its investigative hearing. The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Gideon Gwani at the continuation of the hearing said the development is an indication that the firms do not respect the parliament, and do not consider

the hearing serious. He added that some firms which bothered to honour the invitation of the committee refused to submit the documents demanded which include memorandum, evidence of participation in bid rounds, evidence of payment of royalties and other documents. “The DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources) gave us the assurance that the ones who did not attend the two-day hearing last month would appear today. Next time we would invoke the powers granted us by the constitution, and compel them to appear,” he said.

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016

JUNE 26, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

OPINION Why Restructuring is Inevitable

Nigeria’s current structure is not working and needs reform, argues Chris Ngwodo

ecently, the presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) declared that restructuring Nigeria’s federal architecture is not a priority because of more urgent chores like fighting corruption and fixing the economy. These statements have been grossly disappointing to federalists – and also lengthen the list of campaign promises that the government has reneged on or deferred. There is a broad consensus that Nigeria’s current structure is not working and needs reform. Significantly, as far back as 2011, President Muhammadu Buhari himself called for restructuring. Cynics might conclude that politicians chant “restructuring” when in opposition and abandon it when in office. But this equivocation owes more to the temptation of power. What is at issue is “federal might” – the absolute control of economic, administrative, law enforcement, military and security institutions vested in the federal government and particularly, the presidency. Restructuring our federal architecture today would end federal might as we know it – by devolving more responsibilities to states and municipalities and allowing greater political and economic autonomy at the grassroots. Federal might is by design inherently alienating, manifestly exclusive rather than inclusive, arbitrary rather than systematic, and autocratic rather than democratic. Its directive instincts are authoritarian, even more centralising and, consequently, inclined towards what would at best be a genteel totalitarianism. While Nigerian presidents can be blamed for the terrible things that happen on their watch, these ills derive not just from the character of the presidents but from the character of the presidency itself. It is the nature of the beast. Where power is absolute, its abuse is inevitable. The present concentration of power in the federal government permits no other expression of presidential authority save that which, though occasionally benevolent, is fundamentally and habitually repressive. Restructuring would strip the presidency of its extraordinarily broad discretionary latitude over economic and coercive resources. Few politicians are willing to sacrifice federal might on the altar of progressive federalism by embracing such self-abnegation and surrendering the properties that make public office so powerful. Ironically, none of the chores which the administration highlights as priorities – fighting corruption and growing the economy – will

be truly successful without restructuring. A successful anti-corruption campaign, for instance, requires the administration to fulfill its campaign promise to grant autonomy to anti-corruption agencies. The perception of these agencies as presidential attack dogs undermines their credibility. More importantly, police reform is absolutely vital. To start with, we must repeal Section 9 of the Police Act which grants the president operational control of the police. An independent police force is indispensable to a functional law and order regime. On the economic front, the policy imperatives – diversification, decentralisation and devolution are all inextricably linked. We cannot create enough jobs without diversifying the economy and we cannot diversify the economy without the decentralisation of governance and devolution of powers to states. This requires an amendment of the exclusive legislative list which places so many tasks under federal jurisdiction that it is effectively a charter of economic and administrative tyranny. Devolution should aim to place mineral rights, value added tax and property tax under state jurisdiction and enact a phased increment of the derivation ratio by 10 per cent for five years until it reaches the 50 per cent mark which obtained under the 1963 Republican Constitution. States and municipalities rather than the federal government are the primary drivers of economic growth and they need to be unshackled from federal apron strings so that they can fulfill this role.

Restructuring is the next phase of our democratic evolution. The challenge is for governing elites to moderate these processes with reason and smart policies rather than resort to brute force. The latter approach will only further radicalise discontent, and cede the conversation to extremists, with apocalyptic consequences

Restructuring is also a national security imperative. Consider our energy and power supply sector. The ease with which terrorists and non-state actors have sabotaged our critical infrastructure highlights the utter vulnerability of highly centralised systems. Nigeria does not need a centralised national grid to cater for 160 million people, when she can liberalise the sector and allow for small and medium scale solutions to our utilities crisis. Economic and administrative logic tells us that we cannot remotely and unitarily manage the aspirations of over 160 million people – half of whom are young, hungry for economic opportunity, self-actualisation and social mobility – from Abuja. “Restructuring” often suffers from clichéd and imprecise usage by its proponents, incomprehension by the uninitiated, and intentional misunderstanding by the rent-seeking beneficiaries of the status quo. However, restructuring is already happening. Nigeria is already renegotiating itself. Beneath the histrionics of our most febrile national conversations about issues like grazing reserves and the Niger Delta lie themes of states’ rights, municipal rights, subsidiarity and subnational law enforcement authority. The state no longer has a monopoly of violence and the balance of terror is tilting ever more in favour of non-state actors. Vast swathes of the country are actually ungoverned or ungovernable spaces. Elsewhere, communities are turning to self-help through militias and vigilante groups to fill the vacuum created by an inadequate and over-centralised law enforcement apparatus. These developments stem from the state’s failure to intelligently manage dissent as well as its inability to impose order on chaos. But they are also manifestations of the organic processes of state formation and reformation. Nation-states are not cast in stone and must constantly renew and reinvent themselves. Restructuring is the next phase of our democratic evolution. The challenge is for governing elites to moderate these processes with reason and smart policies rather than resort to brute force. The latter approach will only further radicalise discontent, and cede the conversation to extremists, with apocalyptic consequences. Where pessimism perceives anarchy, creative optimism discerns opportunity. The hope is that the Buhari administration’s management of these issues will be led by creative optimists. ––Ngwodo (@chrisngwodo) is a writer, analyst and consultant

Bridges of Trust in The Niger Delta Itistimethemilitantsenteredintonegotiationwiththegovernmenttoavertanunnecessarydisaster,arguesFred Ojiegbe

he evolving peaceful stance of both government and militant agitators that torment the petroleum industry amplifies the need for the rule of engagement in restoring lasting peace to the region and building a new bridge of trust that would reposition the Niger Delta, and indeed Nigeria, as the prime destination for petroleum business investment. The shift in position comes after attempts by the government failed to stifle the militants with massive military campaigns that showed early signs of high handedness. However, that angered community leaders and earned the militants greater local support and more volunteers. With reports of human right abuses coming with troop movement, continued attacks on petroleum industry installations began to gain justification. Besides, the deployment of government troops in the region did not offer any relief to the industry but rather worsened the fate of operators as proportionate defiance from the underground groups rose against military deployment, leading to intensified sabotage on key industry facilities. Thus, despite the enhanced military presence in the area attacks on pipelines and key production facilities worsened, leading to acute fall in oil and gas output and associated revenue to the government. Chevron reported multiple attacks on its platform while Shell and Agip lost key pipelines including the strategic 48-inch Forcados export pipeline. Following the pipeline outages, many producing fields operated by different companies have been shut in while gross national oil and gas production has reportedly gone down by some 800,000 barrels per day from available capacity of 2.4 million barrels per day (2.4 mbd) to about 1.6 mbd. The move to reach peace with the militants also scores some political points for the ruling party which has been branded in some quarters as divisive, sectional and repressive to dissenting political cleavages. These political sentiments have stoked strong demand for greater petroleum industry dividends which is expressed in forms of peaceful and militant agitations. Whereas the past administrations of the federal government had provided packages of incentives to persuade the militants allow peaceful petroleum industry operations, the new government is yet to unfold any new plans for the youths who were obviously laid off from security companies whose contracts were terminated by the new government. Thus, resurgence of militancy at the onset of petroleum industry reforms by the new government is not totally unexpected following myriad of issues, fears and suspicions that trail shake ups in ministries, departments and parastatals that oversee activities in the petroleum industry. Investors in the industry are distraught. Most of them have called for resolution of the security situation in the Niger Delta as basis for resumption of operations and further investments in facility repairs and

environmental remediation, pointing at the futility of mopping the floor while the tap is still running. But evolving an enduring solution to Niger Delta crisis is as complicated as the problem itself. From initial demands for environmental responsibility by operating companies in the country, consistent mishandling of the crisis has led to expanded list of demands to include accelerated development of the region, right to industry jobs and contracts, resource control and political self determination. Executive director of Hobark International Limited, Dr Emmanuel Okoroafor, stated in an article that: “One would not fail to notice that the demands of the people have since evolved. In the days of Ken Saro Wiwa, it was all about the environmental damage and its impact on the lives of the people in the region. The militant groups that followed led by Dokubo Asari, Ateke Tom, Henry Okah and others like Tompolo were all sorted with security contracts covering maritime and pipelines. “The current group of militants plus those behind them are more interested in more financial stakes in the oil assets in their lands: local control of oil revenues. Without doubt, the people in the region will like such development. “Thus, resolving the conflict which has built huge risk premium on the Nigerian petroleum industry environment, forced multinational players to divest vulnerable assets and imposed huge commercial losses on operations requires more sophisticated approach and engagement strategies that amplify inclusive orientation. “Clearly, the old methods of resolving issues in the region, like awarding juicy security contracts to the militants will no longer work, not even with full military intervention involving warships, gunboats, fighter jets and boots on the ground.” Erstwhile Chairman of the Nigerian Council of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Mr. Emeka Ene, advocates evolution of the industry’s downstream clusters in the Niger Delta to achieve the multiple objectives of rapid infrastructural development, ancillary businesses that provide economic benefits to the host communities, creation of job opportunities as well as sundry benefits of localisation of petroleum industry activities. Traditionally, resolution of militant hostilities to the oil and gas industry operations in the Niger Delta is the toughest performance appraisal challenge that faces every in-coming Minister of Petroleum Resources; and it remains the biggest impediment to the reform process of the current minister, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, who is currently seen as stretching between the tough stance of the government on corruption and inevitable base-touching engagement with the angry agitators widely seen as enemies of government. Managing this complicated situation tends to pitch the minister in conflict with other minsters that advance sledge hammer strategies in

dealing with Niger Delta agitation. However, the minister has articulated most of the industry proposals into policy programmes that will translate to comprehensive application of investible funds and operational budgets in sustainable and structured development of Niger Delta. Part of the plans is the programme for rehabilitation of the nation’s existing refineries two of which are located in the Niger Delta. This is expected to reactivate local community participation in the operations of the refineries through the full supply chain effect. From supplies to support services and ancillary businesses, the reactivation of the refineries promises huge business and job opportunities for the local environment. Next in plan is the rolling programme for clustered refinery investments that would continuously expand crude oil and petrochemical processing and manufacturing capacity, a measure that is envisaged to create industrial corridors along the refinery clusters. According to the Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) Limited, Dr Bafred Enjugu, the government’s plan to create crude oil refining and processing clusters in the Niger Delta would not only derive optimum resource values from petroleum but also create massive downstream business opportunities that would ultimately add fillip to realisation of the aspiration for rapid industrial development of the region in particular and the nation in general. Also commenting on the need to stabilise the host industry environment to attract international investment funds, Managing Director of Frazoil Limited, and Chairman of the Oilserv Group, Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, said the new government is currently taking the right steps to draw international investment funds into the Niger Delta environment. “I believe really strongly that, like the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Kachikwu, has stated severally, they are working on it. They are looking at alternative means of funding. They are also looking at being able to draw some funds from Middle East, China and from other sources.” Given the disposition of the minister towards accelerated development of the Niger Delta, a key demand of the stakeholders in the region, good conscience dictates that the militants embrace the federal government’s olive branch by sheathing their sword and allowing for peaceful negotiations. As things stand, to continue to pursue a hard line posture, with the single objective of financially castrating the federal government, is like shooting oneself in the hip. In the end, everybody suffers. Besides, the Niger Delta militants could end up playing into the hands of detractors of Kachikwu whose sin appears to be that he is treating the militants with kid gloves. ––Ojiegbe is a member of the Federal Insignia

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

LETTERS IMMUNITY IN THE LEGISLATURE WILL CHECKMATE DICTATORSHIP

he com-

mencement of constitutional amendment by the National Assembly has thrown up a lot of issues of national importance. The proposal to give presiding officers of national and state assemblies immunity and life pension is generating ripples in the polity. Of utmost importance and worthy of discussion to this writer is the proposal for immunity for presiding officers of national and state assemblies. Under constitutional democracy, we have three arms of government— executive, legislature and the judiciary. The executive arm is made of president, vice-president, governors and deputy governors. The legislative arm comprises of the National Assembly and State Assemblies, while the Judiciary is composed of the bench and bar. Out of these three arms of government, only the leadership of the legislature as presently constituted does not have immunity protection from the constitution. Ironically, the legislature whose primary duty is to amend the constitution

Saraki

periodically has been made vulnerable by the same constitution like the proverbial potter becoming a victim of his clay. I have listened to both sides of argument with keen interest. Those against the proposal said that it would create impunity and promote corruption.

For the purpose of clarity and objectiveness, the proposed immunity for presiding officers of the legislative arm will not promote impunity as being speculated by sympathisers of the executive arm of government, rather it will entrench the principle of separation powers, checks and balances in the polity.

The legislature will live up to its constitutional roles as watchdog to the executive. The current trend where the legislative arm is being treated as extension of executive arm of government is not good for the growth of our nascent democracy. It is almost impossible to juxtapose the fact that the Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives who are third and fourth citizens of Nigeria, respectively, in hierarchy of political power, have no immunity while governors enjoy same, simply because they are part of executive arm of government. Opponents of this proposal should also remember that the 1999 Constitution was a creation of the military. Nigerians were not given the privilege to formulate a people-oriented constitution. The 1999 Constitution was handed down to us just to further entrench the interests of the military in supposed democratic dispensation. The military purposely weakened the legislature by denying it fair share of constitutional protection just to sustain the pre-1999 military structure in the political system—where

THE PARADOX OF A ‘FREE’ STATE

he United States of America prides itself as a society that is hinged on liberty - political, religious and civil liberties. Regrettably, the recent shooting at Pulse Nightclub, Orlando, which claimed the lives of 49 people and left up to three scores injured, brings to light some of the noxious aftereffect of their most cherished value, “liberty.” Liberty not only connotes the state of being able to act and speak freely but also includes the state of being free from physical, economic, social and psychological restraints. With the unabated mass shootings in the US, some citizens and visitors would become psychologically (and possibly, physically) restrained as they would not be able to move out in assurance of some measure of security as they would become uncertain as to where and when the next shooting might occur and who the victim(s) might be. Following the wanton mass shootings in recent times in the US (particularly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 which abruptly truncated the destinies of about 20 children aged six and seven years), various calls have been made to stiffen gun control laws in the US but much have not been achieved in this regard. The latest Orlando shooting must be the last straw that will break the camel’s back to spur the government into

action by tightening the gun control laws. Since the Orlando shootings, many have held divergent views on the attack as to what exactly the motive of the perpetrator, Omar Mateen, was. Some, including Donald Trump, have described it as a terrorist attack since Omar pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) while he called the emergency number, 911. To others, it might have been a hate crime against homosexuals. Even Omar’s father said he (Omar) became angry after sighting two men kissing. Whatever anyone tags the shooting - be it a terrorist attack or homophobic attack or a result of recent immigration into the US, for me, it all still boils down to the astronomical increase in the availability of firearms in the US. To show how downhill it is to obtain a gun in the US, CNN in a recent publication revealed that it is easier and faster to acquire a gun than a driver’s licence and a passport. A civilian can acquire any amount of guns he wishes and has capacity to pay for as there is no federal law which limits the number of guns a person can own. Although the federal law requires licensed gun dealers to perform background checks on prospective buyers and maintain records of all gun sales, it does not require unlicensed private sellers to do so. And surprisingly, a handful of guns are bought

from the unlicensed private sellers. It takes a few minutes if you are buying from a private seller, you do not even have to go through a background check in most states. Laughably, the Second Amendment to the US Constitution protects the right of its people to keep and bear arms. Why should such be a fundamental right? The USA is now acclaimed to have the highest mass shootings than any other country in the world - the newest addition to its many firsts. In its bid to be a liberal society, many have been handed a first class ticket to their untimely deaths. The US Government should consider the heartbreaking figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that about 31 people per day are shot to death in homicides and another 58 people each day use guns to commit murder. The US should follow the bold steps of its ally, Germany, by beefing up their gun restriction laws. In Germany, anyone applying for a gun passes through rigorous tests, must have a legitimate reason for desiring to own a gun and must wait for about a year before the request is granted. Psychiatric tests are also conducted for persons below 25 years who wish to apply for a gun licence. The US Congress should urgently pass a law making background checks compulsory in all states and also extend the scope of the background

checks to cover private sales at gun shows and over the internet. Also, all gun sale dealers must be licensed with the government. It should become a crime to sell guns without being licensed by the government to do so. Persons in need of guns must also undergo a psychiatric test to ensure they are mentally stable and undertake safety training before being licensed by the government to own one. I also suggest that certain kinds of weapons be banned from private ownership. I have always dreamed of visiting the US, but with the current spate of gun killings, I might just have a rethink and stay put in Naija, my safe haven, till they get things right. Gun ownership should be a privilege and not a right guaranteed by the constitution. I solidly stand behind Hillary Clinton who has renewed calls for stiffer gun controls and said that guns should be kept out of the hands of terrorists and other criminals. The advocates of gun rights might argue that the guns are needed for self-defence by the law-abiding citizens but the reality is that the law-keepers today might turn out to be the lawbreakers tomorrow. The government should muster the willpower to stop this bloodbath or risk making Americans prisoners of their cherished “liberty.” ––Afam Ikeakanam, University of Ibadan

president and governors lord it over other arms of government. This is one of the manifestations of hatred of the military for the legislative arm of government. This is also the major reason the legislature becomes the first victim in a military coup. Apart from the fact that the military cabal who scripted the 1999 Constitution ensured that one of its own became substantive civilian president, they ensured that similar overbearing powers of a military dictator was arrogated to the office which makes the Nigerian president the most powerful in the world. I would like to pose some thought provoking and mind-renewing questions to ardent critics of this proposed immunity for presiding officers of national and state assemblies. Is it a coincident that there is always instability in the National Assembly any time Nigeria has a former military head of state as civilian president? Is it not a factoid to believe and insinuate that the proposed immunity will create impunity in the system while absence of it has done it already? How will a weakened leadership of the legislature checkmate the all-powerful executive arm of government with all the state apparatus at its beck and call? Will

there be true separation of powers without balance of political powers? Can a sitting president in Abuja threaten a Speaker of State Assembly into instituting impeachment proceedings against supposedly disliked governor, if the Speaker has immunity against arrest and persecution? Answers to the above questions will elucidate the nitty-gritty cum merits of the proposed immunity which critics of this novel democratic proposal failed to understand. As a result of ignorance and insufferable hypocrisy of those terming this legislative masterstroke as anti-people and pro-corruption, so many Nigerians have not only unconsciously joined the bandwagon of criticising this proposal even without weighing its merits and demerits. This proposed immunity for presiding officers of the national and state assemblies, is not for Senate President Saraki, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu or House Speaker, Dogara but for survival and sustainability of our young democracy. It will not only strengthen legislative arm of government but will embolden it to perform its constitutional functions without fear of persecution from the executive. ––Nwobodo Chidiebere, Abuja

ATIKU AND THE NEED TO RESTRUCTURE

he erstwhile VicePresident of Nigeria in person of Atiku Abubakar has been hailed by many for his recent take on the need for the restructuring of the country. The media has done nothing less than glorify the former vice president for his statement just like many political commentators did. It however baffled a few on why Atiku was applauded for his statement. Does Nigeria at this point in time need to be restructured? And if yes, are we ready for it? Of course we all know Nigeria is well overdue for restructuring but Nigeria is not at all ready for it. The present form of government which many claimed is suffocating at the centre and controls too much of the nation`s resources as well as consume too much of the same resources has since been a hindrance to the country’s development, hence the need for true federalism. The restructuring is meant to enable regions control their resources which should result in rapid all round development. Now, that is for an ideal society. Nigeria which has been labelled one of the “fantastically corrupt countries” of the world is not ready for this form of government. If with this current form of government where there

are many hands at the centre, we hear large amounts in millions and billions of dollars embezzled by “the many hands”, what would be our fate when a region with fewer hands this time manages its resources by itself (bearing in mind that all the regions have produced convicted corrupt individuals)? Then we will have a level of embezzlement the world has never seen. What is most important at this time is the transformation of the political orientation and attitude of Nigerians towards occupying public offices. The mentality of “grab as much as you can” while in office needs to be erased. Its however disappointing that most political commentators never pin pointed that as a foundation for the establishment of true federalism in Nigeria. To usher Nigeria into true federalism, this beloved country of ours needs to be rid of every form of corruption. The current Buhari-led administration needs to intensify its fight against corruption and make the imprint that Nigeria is no longer a safe haven for greedy and gluttonous individuals. After this, we are battle ready for true federalism. So when next someone sneezes, know what and what not to catch. –Oduneye Solomon, beambor993@gmail.com

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

BUSINESS/MONEY

New Forex Regime: A Cautious But Promising Start Following the introduction of a flexible foreign exchange policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), trading began in earnest last Monday. Kunle Aderinokun and James Emejo report economic analysts and market watchers’ assessment of the market trend in the first week of implementation of the new forex regime

he implementation of the new guidelines for the Nigeria Interbank Foreign Exchange (NIFEX) market, by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which among others, allowed for the exchange rate of the naira to be determined by the market forces of demand and supply, took effect last Monday on a rather positive note within the first few days . With commendations from within and outside the country, the market rallied as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NSE-ASI) rose by 3.17 per cent, and market capitalisation added N279 billion to close higher at N9.579 trillion on the first day of the announcement. By the close of the week, that is, three days after, the stock market (measured by NSE-ASI) garnered a total gain of about 7.97 per cent. The CBN, which participated in the opening transaction helped clear the backlog of foreign exchange demands worth $4.2 billion to the excitement of the market and financial analysts. The naira also reportedly firmed against the dollar, although this was only transient as it subsequently weakened against the greenback and had been under pressure after the initial strengthening. However, experts have continued to assess the market since the implementation of the flexible foreign exchange policy which is expected to among others, stabilise the exchange rate and woo foreign investors into the economy. Amid the fluctuation in exchange and momentary gains and losses in the market, analysts who spoke with THISDAY see the trend as normal for take-off of any new policy. They also believed that in the long run, the objective of the flexible exchange rate policy by the CBN would be achieved. An Associate Professor of Finance and Head, Banking & Finance, Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr. Uche Uwaleke, noted that the initial setbacks should be expected. “One should expect some teething challenges with such a new policy involving a radical departure from what the players are used to,” he posited. He, however, added that, “there have been concerns about the high eligibility criteria for becoming a Primary Market Dealer. There are those who feel every form of restriction should be removed including the ban on the 41 items. Also, BDCs are complaining of being shut out. “ I think these decisions by the apex bank have been thought through and are justified. For example, a primary dealer should possess the financial muscle to engage in large trade sizes to ensure market liquidity. The forex market is more transparent now than before and has taken off well with the naira trading at a more realistic value instilling a great deal of confidence in the economy.” “As was expected, the gradual elimination of speculative activity in the parallel market is responsible for the naira appreciation in that market. In the near future, I foresee a near convergence of exchange rates between the interbank and parallel market. The CBN should closely monitor the implementation of the policy and be ready to make adjustments as occasion demands,” he pointed out. Also, Executive Director, Corporate Finance, BGL Capital Limited, Mr. Femi Ademola, said the rate should moderate within the next three months. According to him, “The flexible exchange rate is expected to be market determined hence whatever happened since Monday is what the market wanted. However, I will say that since it appears that CBN is the only supplier to meet the backlog of fx demand, the market is pricing it so high at the moment. If you check the bids

Broad street, Lagos

submitted to the CBN by banks, some were as high as N382/$. This is as requested by the customers who just want the fx to complete their trades. “With the clearing of the backlog of fx demand and the introduction of forward contracts and futures market, it is expected that future demand would be lower and even throughout the period as artificial demands moderate significantly. In addition as more fx supplies enter the market from IOCs, other exporting companies and foreign investors, the rate is expected to moderate and probably stabilise around N250/$ in the next 3 months.” Also, an economist and former acting Unity Bank Managing Director, Mr. Muhammed Rislanudenn, said it was not surprising to witness a slow-start in the implementation of the new forex policy. According to him, “Slow-start to a new policy implementation is naturally expected. It started well as we have done away with an archaic fixed exchange rate system that did nothing but accentuate inflation and unemployment, forcing the economy to near recession. You will notice that even the stock market is not yet bullish as expected as the foreign direct and portfolio investors are yet to return and bring in the much anticipated liquidity. “ Importantly, there is a report that backlog of about USD4 billion has been cleared by the CBN even at the risk of depleting our weak reserve to about USD22 billion. It will take at least 10 trading days before you begin to reasonably predict and plan on a realistic exchange rate. Naira appreciation in the BDC market is expected in view of the volatility of that segment of the market that largely thrives on speculation.” According to him, “The main concern however is if there is no commensurate liquidity in the BDC end of market and with 41 items still banned, there may be pressure on it due in part to excess demand. Government should quickly complement this policy with full implementation of the budget especially the capital aspect to reflate the economy and lift GDP growth away from recession.” In his own assessment, former Managing Director

of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Seni Adetu, stated that the Federal Government and the Central Bank had done well by finally deciding to float the Naira responsibly. “At least we are no longer chasing after scarce and seemingly unavailable dollar at N200, but readily available forex at the market price. Though the Naira is yet to stabilise and has crashed in the first two days of implementation, I am delighted to see that, first, there is a closing of the crazy gap between the so-called official and black market rates such that some unpatriotic Nigerians were smiling to the bank exploiting this loophole. “Secondly, this policy shift would eliminate the economic uncertainties of the last few months, reduce the pressure on businesses, especially players in the real sector, who are almost entirely dependent on Forex for raw materials and machinery procurement. It means the era of strict currency controls that limit the amount of foreign currency available to businesses, and its attendant mass retrenchment of staff by underperforming multinational companies and financial institutions is potentially over.” Adetu, however, pointed out that, “our biggest challenge around the currency issue was not as to whether to devalue or not devalue. It was really about being clear on the policy direction, not leaving our investors and key stakeholders in limbo.” Stating that, “this development addresses that,” he said, “at the end of the day, it is all about building and sustaining investor confidence. We have seen a bit of that returning in the last couple of days with trading activity at the capital market being re-ignited, as both volume and value traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange rose and market capitalization increased.” “Finally, following this belated but laudable move on Forex, it is now crucial for the Federal Government to fast-track the process for the diversification of our economy and break us away from the shackles of over-dependence on oil. We need to intensify the promotion of agricultural development and other value added industries with appropriate incentives,” he concluded.

However, holding a different view on the commencement of the new forex regime, Chief Executive Officer, Global Analytic Derivatives Consulting Ltd, Tope Fasua, said, “we have observed the shaky start to the new policy.” But, he added, “it was quite remarkable that the CBN was able to clear the backlog of $4billion on the first day - even though a large portion of that was cleared using forward markets of up to 60 days as reported.” “For me, we had no choice again but to go down this route. We hope the CBN will be able to achieve its aim of unpredictable and intermittent interventions because predictability is never an asset in that market. But since the market commenced 4 days ago, other market players seem to have left the supply side to the CBN, which is not the way to go,” the economist contended. Nevertheless, Fasua submitted that, “We haven’t seen any or much inflows from oil companies, exporters and disapora remittances. The black market maintains a premium of up to N50 still compared with the interbank, and banks are not cooperating with the CBN. Something needs be done urgently so that the experiment doesn’t fail. We must never return to the era of predictable weekly interventions which resulted in almost N180 premium between the official and parallel (real) market.” To the Managing Director of Dunn Loren Merrified Asset Management Ltd, Tola Odukoya, “the domestic currency should have been devalued a few years back.” “This, in my opinion, is a step in the right direction,” he said. Nevertheless, Odukoya noted that the new forex policy “cannot solely address the challenges of the domestic economic malaise, given that, in the short-to-medium term, there will be volatility in the market due to the pent up demand and the effects of speculative behaviour.” However, he expressed the belief that, “over the long run - and complemented with appropriate policies and support from the right quarters - the economy will be better off, ultimately.”

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

BUSINESS/LABOUR

Protest March over a Controversial Allowance

James Emejo, in Abuja, writes on the protest staged by members of staff of the Finance Ministry, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and Budget Office of the Ministry of Budget and Planning over unpaid Special Overtime Allowance (SOT)

rotesting staff from the Federal Ministry of Finance, joined by their counterparts from the Office of the AccountantGeneral of the Federation and the Budget Office of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning last Monday embarked on a protest over unpaid Special Overtime Allowance (SOT) which was put at N1.2 billion. The workers, in their hundreds, had shut the entrance to Ministry of Finance Headquarters in Abuja and refused the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, and other top officials from gaining access to their offices. The standoff, which lasted two days saw workers demanding that Adeosun addressed them on the issue. And with several inscriptions on placards among other things, accusing the minister of an alleged insensitivity to their plight, they further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve her of her duties. But in a swift reaction to the continued siege by the aggrieved staff, Director of Information in the ministry, Alhaji Salisu Na’Inna Dambata, described the workers demand as “unjustifiable” adding that the so-called SOT had been scrapped by the previous administration in 2014. According to him, “The payment of what the protesting staff called a Special Overtime (SOT) was stopped by the last administration in 2014 on the ground that it was not listed in any extant government Circular, Financial Regulations or the Public Service Rules. “The management wishes to state as follows: The payment of what the protesting staff called a SOT, was stopped by the last administration in 2014 on the ground that it was not listed in any extant government Circular, Financial Regulations or the Public Service Rules.” Continuing, the statement stated: “The sum of N1.2 billion computed by the staff union for payment could not have been budgeted for in 2016 in the first place, not only because of the paucity of funds, but also the fact that the SOT allowance was not part of the remuneration in the Federal Public Service; and the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Budget Office of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, do not individually or collectively, owe any of their personnel their salaries. “In view of the foregone, the management of the Federal Ministry of Finance wishes to categorically state that the protests have no justifiable grounds.” However, a seeming calm returned to the ministry Wednesday when Adeosun eventually addressed the workers at the ministry’s auditorium and reportedly agreed to look into their demand, although she complained of lack of funds to pay the whopping sum. Chairman of Joint Unions Council of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ade Olaniyi, said after the meeting with the minister last Wednesday that Adeosun promised to approve the allowances and asked the Director of Finance and Accounts to submit the files

Notably, the workers’ agitation came at a time when government is trying to implement some measure of fiscal discipline by blocking wastage and other forms of leakages in the public sector. However, it is noteworthy that the federal government has fulfilled all salary obligations to date to federal workers, and the payment of non-statutory allowance particularly the overtime is something which needed a proper review in order to forestall further uprising by workers Adeosun

to her office. “She has asked the Director of Finance and Accounts to submit all the files that relate to the allowances to her for approval.” When however reminded that the said allowances were not captured in the 2016 budget, the union leader said, “there was never a time this money is budgeted for. Federal Ministry of Finance is the mother ministry to inland revenue. We are the policymakers. We set targets. ‘’There is a target they set for FIRS. Immediately they meet it, whatever that is above, that is the excess. Out of the excess, they give them 4 per cent and out of the 4 per cent, they give one per cent to the mother ministry. “It is Inland Revenue that has been giving this money for the past 22 years; it has never been budgeted, it is just like other ministries. If you go to Foreign Affairs now, there are certain amount they are paying to their own staff.” Interestingly, in a subsequent development, Adeosun who was also believed to have read the riot act to workers, as the union pressed her harder on the matter, insisting that the era of special bonuses was gone, stressed that it was practically impossible to approach President Muhammadu Buhari with the workers’ demand. Not moved by the minister’s declaration on the lack of funds to meet workers’ controversial overtime demand, the union also further asked her to utilise the ‘below-the-line option’ by drawing from special reserves to pay them. They further issued a seven-day deadline

for their demand to be met or face a resumed protest. Notably, the workers’ agitation came at a time when government is trying to implement some measure of fiscal discipline by blocking wastage and other forms of leakages in the public sector. However, it is noteworthy that the federal government has fulfilled all salary obligations to date to federal workers, and the payment of non-statutory allowance particularly the overtime is something which needed a proper review in order to forestall further uprising by workers. This, going forward, will require that authorities categorically state whether overtime duties will continue to attract monetary incentives or if the current rate could be slashed in view of the current fiscal crisis which governments at all levels are presently batting to contain. The minister had vowed to sanitise the finance ministry which was believed to be below board in terms of fiscal discipline. According to her, “When I said at the start of my tenure that I would restore fiscal responsibility to our economy, it was no idle promise. The money we spend is not our money, it belongs to the Nigerian people. We need to justify every Naira and at a time when all Nigerians are suffering the consequences of the financial crisis inherited from previous administrations, we simply cannot afford to pay out special bonuses to civil servants. Those days are gone.” Nonetheless, a senior official of the ministry told THISDAY of the Minister’s resolve not to be distracted from her agenda of restoring fiscal responsibility and introducing the much-needed reforms

and weeding out corruption in the system. But it remains unclear whether all the workers’ overtime claims would be paid or reviewed downwards. Speaking on the need to strengthen system around the fiscal management, Adeosun had noted: “In the short period that I have been privileged to serve as Minister of Finance, I have observed that even the most basic systems and controls over the management of our resources are in dire need of strengthening. While we are regaled with and shocked by details of amounts stolen, diverted or wasted, we must face the cold reality that such acts are facilitated by weaknesses in our systems.” She added: “Even if we successfully prosecute and jail every looter, ghost worker and other economic saboteur, there is every risk that those caught will only be replaced by persons who are just as bad, or worse - unless we radically strengthen our systems and institutions.” And in a move to match word with action, the minister established the Efficiency Unit which had reviewed four years of detailed expenditure data to identify trends. Having achieved its objective in pruning personnel costs, which represented the largest cost to government as well as cleaning up the payroll system and removing more than 23,000 ghost workers through the implementation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) for federal workers, the onus is now on the minister to do away with avoidable services, which tend to defeat the overall objective of her campaign for fiscal discipline.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

BUSINESS/ INTERVIEW

‘Creative People Should Think Like Businessmen to Avoid Being Dominated’

Steve Baba-Eko is the chief executive officer of X3M Ideas, an advertising agency. Baba-Eko, who just returned from serving on the jury of the New York Advertising Festival, in this interview with Olaseni Durojaiye, shares thoughts on how his agency is revolutionising the industry and the company’s plan to do a private placement

ow important is the New York Festival in the global advertising calendar?

The festival is one of the oldest advertising festivals in the world, it started in 1957; and one thing they are very proud of is that they select the best jury and they try and select the world’s most creative advertising works. So, that was why I was so excited when I got the invitation and for me, I always tell my team that we are in Lagos doing our thing, we don’t know who is watching but we must always give our best, I don’t know anybody on the board of the New York Advertising Festival but based on our track record they were able to trace us and invited me to be on the jury of the festival. It was a fantastic and eye-opening event for me.

What is the difference between the New York Film Festival and Cannes Advertising Festival?

Cannes is like the World Cup of advertising if you could describe it in football parlance; this one is also a major event on the advertising calendar globally but Cannes is the Mecca of advertising practitioners; it is where everybody in advertising comes to for awards; while the New York Advertising Festival is also a major international advertising award but it does not necessarily involve everybody. One of the differences is that Cannes goes on for say five, six or seven days, the New York Advertising Festival holds for two days; that’s one clear distinction. Cannes is not just about giving out the awards, it is also about seminars, workshops, bringing together veterans in advertising and politicians, virtually anybody that has some perception about building brands to come and give some kind of speeches.

How do some of the creative materials that you judged compare with what the local advertising industry locally have created?

I may not be fair to do a comparison because advertising does not exist in a vacuum, it exists within a political, socio-cultural and economic worldview. The level of education in some of those countries is way ahead of ours. I judged the digital, mobile and online advertising and what they are able to do because of the advancement of their digital space we cannot do it because we don’t even have enough bandwidth to make videos play without buffering. But I give it to them; most of the works that I saw were quite interesting.

Your industry doesn’t score good in terms of knowledge share. How prepared are you to share some of the learning from the festival with your colleagues outside of your agency on the board of LAIF Awards?

I think the process has started already and it goes beyond LAIF awards. What we are doing now is one of the processes of amplifying the key learning, even beyond LAIF, we can share it with the larger public. Secondly it is easy because as vice chairman of LAIF, it is incumbent on me to pass some of the learning on to my colleagues. In fairness to the executives of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) they always ensure that knowledge are shared amongst colleagues because I know that before now, another colleague was on the Jury of Crystal Advertising Awards last year and we borrowed copiously from his experience to include in part of the processes for last year’s edition of LAIF Awards. So I don’t see an exception here; I believe I will be able to do a debrief to the team. Really, we run an industry that is over 100 years old, it’s not any different from the banks that may have been in the country for a few years longer, the banks are in the capital market, why not advertising agency! At X3M Ideas, we are thinking in that direction, we’ll probably

Baba-Eko

do a private placement as a precursor to going to the stock exchange. If you go to Nairobi, Kenya, you have an advertising agency in the stock market; so, why not here? Forget that the stock market in Nigeria is going through this schizophrenic stage where nothing is assured because of the economic headwinds that we are running against; that said when the economic indices begin to clearly show the government’s economic direction it would be a good direction for us to go.

In maritime, legal profession, through the Lagos Court of Arbitration and even the aviation sector, the country is the hub of West Africa. Is this realisable with the advertising industry?

It is part of our association’s plan and it is already happening. I can name one or two agencies with branches in two or three west African countries today and I think it’s just part of the beginning because it is part of our five year rolling plan at X3M Ideas. Our plan is that by the time we are five, we should have at least an outpost outside of Nigeria. Really, if you are busy and a major player in this market, it will be wrong of you not to think in that direction because for all the clients that you work for, that is part of their blueprint. The smart thing to do is to follow the footprint of the client; it makes eminent sense for you to head in that direction because you are there to provide service.

A few Nigerian agencies had ventured out in the west coast and closed shop within a couple of years. What makes it a profitable thing to now do?

The difference is that this is not you prospecting for business, if a client is moving into a new market and you follow suit, it is a much more sustainable business model as opposed to a scenario where you set up X3M Ideas in

Accra and then pray to God for business to come. That is my business model and if you look at what we have done, it is to dismantle the advertising model in Nigeria and come up with our own model and it has worked for us and added value to the businesses of our clients.

There is a cliché that what is not measured is not improved upon; yet a major criticism of the IMC industry has to do with measurement. How does your company measure success or otherwise of your work?

Our plan is that by the time we are five, we should have at least an outpost outside of Nigeria. Really, if you are busy and a major player in this market, it will be wrong of you not to think in that direction because for all the clients that you work for, that is part of their blueprint. The smart thing to do is to follow the footprint of the client

We are passionate about it, which is why we’ve set up a brand research outfit. It is to help us measure our work especially in the digital space which is important. Besides the client, it is in the interest of the agency itself. If I executed a brief for a client and I can justify that it worked by showing proofs that it moved the client’s brand from point A to point C, and I say to him that: for the next brief we want to work on can you just increase my fees by ABC amount?

What prepared you for the dual role – Creative Head and Business Head – that you currently play at X3M Ideas?

When I was in 141 Worldwide, my designation was business/creative director and I held that position for seven years. What I learnt as creative/business director in my former agency, three business schools couldn’t have taught me that. I had real time hands-on experience on how to successfully manage a business. Even before then, when I was in MC&A as a young trainee copy writer, I was the only person who was in the creative department who will go to finance to inquire how we were doing in terms of our billings versus forecast. I was the only person who constantly goes to finance to find out how are we doing in terms of our projections versus actual. I loved doing it because I know that if we are behind, any brief that comes to my table I have to attack it with more viciousness and bring it out and that if I bring it out and clients approve it and spend money we can cover the ground. Until most creative people start to think like businessmen, they will continue to still be subjugated. I tell my creative people that every brief that is on the table is a cheque that you either let us cash or lose; because if the most brilliant idea doesn’t meet the timing of the client, it is useless; so creative people have to think like businessmen.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

BUSINESS/ PERSPECTIVE

African Heroes and the Superpowers of Agriculture Strive Masiyiwa

two-thirds of Africans work in agriculture, the sector responsible for Africa’s food security. On a continent with our rich natural resources and human capital, it makes absolutely no sense for Africans to be importing so much of our food from elsewhere in the world. We should be supplying it to ourselves. This is a massive market and a massive opportunity. The World Bank estimates it will be worth $1 trillion by 2030! If I were going into business today, and looking at the market opportunities for African food producers and Africa’s incredible endowment of natural resources and human capital, I would choose agriculture over telecommunications. This is the goal and the inspiration for theAfrica Food Prize: When our action heroes complete their missions, every African consumer will enjoy better access to affordable, nutritious food -- grown and supplied by African farmers and African food companies. This means new job opportunities and higher incomes for rural Africa. This in turn will fuel wider economic expansion, benefiting everyone, but especially the poor. This is something boom-bust oil economies just can’t deliver.

or most people, the notion of a hero conjures up images of brave individuals risking their lives for others, or “superheroes” from comic books or films, armed with supernatural powers. But what Africa needs, each and every day, are heroes of a different sort – “action heroes” with ideas and vision, ready to respond to challenges that could determine the fate of a continent with a land mass larger than the United States, Western Europe, China and India combined. This is a lot of land, with a lot of potential. Africa’s challenges are well known: A devastating drought is destroying crops in Eastern and Southern Africa. Plummeting oil prices are undermining economic growth in exporting countries, notably Nigeria. Chronic hunger still plagues one third of our people, with deep poverty trapping almost half the families on the continent in dire hardship. There’s an urgent need for employment prospects for the 200 million between the ages of 15 and 24 who make Africa the world’s most youthful continent. Millions of African farmers still lack access to improved crop varieties that boost yields. They need mineral and organic fertilizers that revive soil. They need access to credit to purchase farm inputs. They need better information about market opportunities to justify their investments. While we can get cell phone signals to Maasai livestock herders, most African farmers still struggle to find a bag of quality seeds or a small amount of fertilizer! Where are the African action heroes who can tackle these continental challenges? In a new effort to find them, in April 2016, several organizations joined forces in Accra, Ghana to launch the new $100,000 Africa Food Prize (formerly the Yara Prize). This new Africa-based award will recognize an outstanding individual or institution which is leading efforts to change the reality of farming in Africa – from a struggle to survive, to a business that thrives! We’re looking for bold initiatives and technical innovations that can be replicated with excellence throughout the continent. We know there are African action heroes in our midst, doing extraordinary things in the extraordinary world of agriculture, which I believe holds the key to Africa´s future. We want to hear about them and recognize their work. What do I mean by extraordinary? I mean young people

Masiyiwa

like the Ugandan entrepreneur,Eric Kaduru, who founded an organization to help hundreds of out-of-school girls set up their own commercial fruit farms, or Zimbabwean agricultural expert and animal scientist Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda who heads up a policy think tank, working to ensure African agriculture figures prominently on the global agenda. I mean people such as grassroots activists working to help smallholder farmers get access to markets, agri-tech inventors and innovators linking farmers to vital information, and reformers who advocate for better agricultural policies at all levels, from state presidents to village chiefs. One Trillion Arguments for African Agriculture Why is agriculture such a critical field of action? To begin with,

A Food Prize and the Path to Prosperity Past winners like Kaduru and Sibanda are the kind of heroes Africa needs today. There are so many others. For example, last year African leaders selected Akinwumi Adesina, a 2007 Yara prize winner, to be president of the African Development Bank. A champion for “impact at scale” across Africa, Adesina served as Nigeria´s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development where, among many reforms, he introduced pioneering technology to help curb corruption and improve access to inputs for rural farmers, and especially women. A couple of years ago, a few young entrepreneurs in Nigeria launched a new series of comic books books featuring something novel: African superheroes. It’s my hope that one day soon, we will be telling the real-life stories of the “action heroes” of the Africa Food Prize, and how their amazing feats helped conquer the evils of hunger, climate change, poverty and unemployment.

–Strive Masiyiwa is the Board Chair, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Executive Chairman and Founder of Econet Wireless

Nigeria’s Toxic Trade Policy Ayinde Alaba

hatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Nigeria does not appear to be learning any lesson from the counsel of this American writer and philosopher. Otherwise, as we continue to writhe under the European Union ban on our “diseased” beans, we would not be offering an open door trade policy to similarly “ailing” food items from outside our shores. Last year the EU outlawed the export of beans from Nigeria, along with other consumable products like dried fish, melon seeds, palm oil, and meat because, according to the Europeans, they “contained a high level of unauthorised pesticide”. Now, the European authorities’ move sought to save lives, which is the primary responsibility of any well-meaning government. Their research revealed that the beans that found their way to Europe “had between 0.03mg/kg to 4.6mg/ kg of dichlorvos pesticide when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.” This is considered dangerous to human health. Tha ban on our beans was to be lifted in June 2016. But it has been extended by three years. The official journal of the EU said the new sanction came into force because Nigeria is “not doing enough” to address the pesticide content in our beans. So EU had to give Nigeria time to “implement the appropriate risk-management and provide required guarantees.” This has been a blow to Nigeria’s strategy to diversify its economy and earn good revenue from non-oil exports in the light of the dwindling returns from crude, as well as to create jobs in the agro-based sector. Another serious concern is that we haven’t been as prudent and protective of the health of the citizens of our country as EU has been. The experts and industrialists say the current shortage of fresh tomatoes in Nigeria together with our trade policy has led to a flood of imported killer tomato pastes from Asian nations. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says these products are sub-standard and deadly. The agency asserts that its findings reveal that 91% of these products from China, especially, are carcinogenic (cancer-inducing).

Minister of Trade, Enelamah

Well-known industrialist and president of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, confirmed this in a recent statement to the media. He said, “Banned colouring...dangerous for human consumption are additives in the processes for manufacturing the tomato pastes from China.” Umeofia declared: “It would be a pity for major stakeholders...to stand idly by as spectators while foreigners in collaboration with misguided and unpatriotic Nigerians continue to decimate Nigerian industries with their nefarious activities, killing our economy and killing our people...The quality of most of these food products are unwholesome as the tomato paste imports have clearly shown...It is also important to state for the records that the importers of these tomato pastes do not consume them and they cannot dare expose them for sale in Chinese and Indian markets as they will be given the death sentence.” The Federal Government of Nigeria is believed to have allowed this killer game to go on because of its policy to balance its trade relationship with China. Under this arrangement, Nigeria favours trade with the Asian giant over the growth of our local industries. This has led to the massive dumping of fake, cheap and deadly products in Nigeria. It is this policy that the unscrupulous tomato and tyre cabal has exploited to bring in toxic products into Nigeria.

Beside the harm to our health, the unbridled influx of these goods is killing the economy and retarding the growth of our industries. The production of these foods in Nigeria would save us billions of dollars in foreign reserves. This would put no stress on our lean foreign reserves. It would also give huge job opportunities to our teeming youths who are coming out in their tens of thousands from our school system. How about the massive wealth that would accrue to Nigeria when we export our tomato paste to other African nations and to Europe and Asia? We ought to expand our vision beyond the narrow prism of crude exports, now that the commodity has turned the corner and headed for the lane of diminishing returns. But we can’t do so with a trade policy “tilted heavily in favour of trade, not minding if it is in Nigeria’s favour or not.” That policy has already succeeded in halting the operations of two tyre companies in Nigeria. It was the result of a government strategy that promoted trade over the development and growth of local industries. The first serious step to take on this issue is to save lives and redeem the economy and local manufacturing sector by halting the importation of the dangerous tomatoes, the way EU stopped our beans. We must then mop up the products in the markets while launching a comprehensive enlightenment campaign to warn against patronising such goods. Of course, the greedy Nigerian businessmen engaging in bringing in these products must be sanctioned and viewed as criminals and economic saboteurs. Years ago when China found itself mired in the Melamine milk scandal that killed its babies and hospitalised about 300,000, it faced the tragedy squarely. First, as it is typical with the Chinese on such issues, the government promptly cleaned up the system by removing all the powdered milk containing the death-carrying melamine formula from the market. Next, the government prosecuted all those suspected to have been responsible for the tragedy and - guess what - those convicted of the crime were all executed! The government, thus, sent a severe signal to crooked and roguish businessmen who only thrive when their compatriots are dying from the goods they trade in. Let our government heed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice that when other nations are playing games of death with us, we must be wary not to play the same games with ourselves.

––Alaba is a writer in Lagos.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

BUSINESS/PERSPECTIVE

Can Leasing Industry Help Solve Nigeria’s Economic Problems? Abdulaziz Musa

he Nigerian economy has been under siege for a long time and financial indices about the country’s economic outlook has been dismal if not downright disheartening. Statistics from both government agencies and non-governmental organisations paint a very gloomy picture. The country has been declared to be technically in recession, given its negative growth in the last two quarters. While the government has tried several measures to kick start the economy, these measures are yet to translate into positive outcomes for the economy and for Nigerians. With the quasi-liberalisation of the foreign exchange market recently introduced by the country’s apex bank, the CBN, where the market is expected to be driven by the forces of demand and supply and the anticipated return of both domestic and foreign investors as key players in the economy, attention should be paid to other sources of growth for the Nigerian economy. This is particularly important as it has been clearly demonstrated that the Nigerian economy can no longer afford to continue to rely only on the internationally determined price of crude for growth if it is to grow, therefore the resounding call for diversification of the economy. While the government continues to make efforts to diversify the economy, one key sector, the leasing industry, which is very vital and central to the Nigerian economy has been overlooked. Leasing is vital for economic growth and poverty reduction. The link between leasing, capital investment and economic growth has been established globally. It is a given that capital investment stimulates economic growth. It is also a fact that leasing stimulates capital investment, especially in countries where it is well developed, for leasing enables businesses and even governments (at the local and national level), to acquire capital assets for production. The acquisition and use of productive assets leads to productivity, income generation as well as job creation. The whole essence of leasing therefore is to enhance the planning, improvement and development of any economy. Equipment leasing is now recognised and

established as a creative financing alternative that is being used to meet the world’s equipment needs. In the United States of America for instance, leasing remains the single most widely–used method of external finance, representing 30% of investment in capital equipment. Many developing countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Zambia, South Africa and Ghana, are equally using leasing to stimulate investment and create jobs. In these countries, leasing is at the forefront of investment in the extractive industries, transportation, agriculture, telecommunications, roads and other infrastructure. As Nigerian government and businesses continue to suffer due to scarcity of funds resulting from dwindling oil revenues, leasing can indeed facilitate easy and convenient access to the much needed capital equipment in these challenging times. Essentially, leasing can play a major role in the diversification and other developmental agenda of the government. The planned huge investment in infrastructure, agriculture, mining and job creation, creates a wider scope for leasing participation in meeting the expected demand for capital equipment. However, the capacity of the industry needs to be strengthened to enhance leasing participation and continued contribution to the economy. An appropriate legal framework is part of the pillars for a sustainable leasing development which recently crystalized in the Equipment Leasing Act 2015. It is expected that under the right legal and regulatory conditions, leasing can play an even bigger role in Nigeria’s economic development. In the past, a major problem Nigerian lessors faced was that of repossession in the event of default. The judicial process on repossession of leased assets was very slow and complex. Lessees had frequently taken advantage of the cumbersome judicial process to obtain frivolous injunctions against repossession. Given that the matter often remained unresolved for a long period, substantial financial losses were suffered by Nigerian lessors from lost income, and the continued but essentially unlawful use of the asset by the lessee. Furthermore, in the event of bankruptcy or insolvency of the lessee, the lessor stood a risk of losing his property. The Bankruptcy Act provides that immediately upon adjudication, the properties of a bankrupt shall vest in a trustee. Such properties include those assets that are legally in his possession,

including leased assets. This places onerous burden of proof task on the lessor to establish himself as a general creditor in the bankruptcy of the lessee. Another area of major concern was in sale and leaseback transactions. Lessors in the past were exposed to fraudulent multiple lease financing by lessees. This practice involved the fraudulent lessee selling the same equipment to two or more lessors and obtaining lease facilities from them. This was possible because there were no means of checking whether an asset has been encumbered or not. It was against the backdrop of the various inadequacies of the regulatory regime that stakeholders in the leasing industry clamored for enduring regulatory framework which includes the enactment of a comprehensive leasing law. It was not surprising therefore that the Equipment Leasing Act was received with much enthusiasm marking the end of a tortuous journey spear headed by the Equipment leasing Association of Nigeria (ELAN). The recently enacted Equipment Leasing Act 2015 is expected to usher a new dawn for the leasing industry by creating clarity, certainty and sanity in the practice of leasing. Also, it will encourage more investments. While Nigeria has been recognised as having great potential for leasing in Africa, foreign investors have been wary of doing business in the country due to the uncertainty in the existing operating environment. Smaller African countries have attracted foreign investors in their leasing industry by putting an appropriate, business-friendly legal framework in place. For instance, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has substantial investments in leasing companies in eleven (11) African countries including Ghana, Morocco, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The enactment of the Egyptian Leasing Law in 1995 paved way for the rapid development of the industry, and within two years 150 new leasing companies were established. The influx of foreign investors seeking partnership with the firms shows the value of an enabling legal framework and business environment. Similar effects are being experienced in Liberia, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The Equipment Leasing Act has 45 sessions and is essentially aimed at promoting the business of leasing in Nigeria by among other things, creating clarity, certainty and sanity in the practice of leasing and ensuring protective

mechanism, for both the lessor and lessee. The Explanatory memorandum of the Act states that “This Act seeks to regulate the business of equipment leasing in Nigerian so that the relationship between the lessor and the lessee and other third parties is identified and protected. The Act also seeks to establish a regulatory authority to provide for the registration of all equipment lease and the certification of equipment lessors”. The Act brings together relevant stakeholders under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement to strengthen the regulatory framework that would ensure the realisation of the developmental objectives of the law. The Ministry of Finance is a major stakeholder in this regard and empowered by the Act as the supervisory ministry for the leasing industry through a Registration Authority made up of representatives from Ministries of Finance, Justice, Trade & Investment as well as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Equipment Leasing Association of Nigeria (ELAN) and the Business Community represented by Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture (NACCIMA). The Nigerian Leasing industry, despite all the challenges facing it has remained a sustained source for growth to all sectors of the economy, facilitating easy access to capital equipment. Available statistics show an impressive 27.39% growth in leasing activities in 2015. The volume of outstanding leases grew from N869 billion in 2014 to N1.1 trillion in 2015. This perhaps can be explained based on the developmental attributes of leasing which makes it attractive whether the economy is witnessing a boom or recession as is currently the case. Many industries are relying on leasing as a creative financing alternative for capital assets and this has created increased investments from existing lessors and endeared new entrants into the leasing industry to tap into the opportunities in the market Leasing has contributed immensely to capital formation in the Nigerian economy and would further make greater impact with the Equipment Leasing Act, especially in driving the diversification policy of the Government in the focus areas of agriculture, mining, manufacturing and employment

– Abdulaziz Musa writes from Kano

The Misconception of the Role of Discos Ibrahim Aliu In Kenya recently there was a blackout across the nation for four hours and people wondered what had happened , but not for long . The power generating company KenGen issued a statement that a monkey had accidentally tripped an equipment in an hydro power plant which triggered the nationwide black out . The genco said that the monkey survived the ordeal and that Kenya had lost 183 MW during the blackout and the company apologized to consumers and promised to secure its facilities from such future power hazards that can cause unexpected blackouts . As a Nigerian and an African, I can’t help admiring the way that the power company had handled the explanation of a four hour blackout so quickly and so efficiently. Of course, most Nigerians will argue that the situation of power supply in Kenya is not comparable with that of Nigeria because power supply in Nigeria is erratic and we have more blackouts on a regular basis than regular and continuous supply as in Kenya where people are bothered by a 4- hour blackout . I will without wasting time agree with them on that score This is because the Kenyan power company has been allowed to do its public relations without any pressure and without any monkey tricks or interruption from any quarters on the source of power

Fashola failure even though a monkey has been responsible . In Nigeria however the way blackouts are explained is completely different. The regular culprit in the public mind are the DISCOS which are the distribution companies that deliver electricity to our homes and companies and bring in the electricity bills for consumers to pay. This has been reinforced

by the hostile attitude of the trade unions in the power sector in the way they mobilized consumers against the DISCOS when tariffs for electricity approved for them by the regulator of electricity in Nigeria , the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, were announced early this year. The unions went all the way to instigate even the Senate to stop the tariffs increase and NERC went to court to accuse the Senate of usurping its legitimate function as the regulator of electricity in Nigeria. The unions did not stop there, they asked workers to go on strike on the new electricity tariffs as if they are the same thing with the fuel price increase to N145 on which they called out workers on strike abortively recently. This is despite the well-known fact to Nigerians and the union leaders that DISCOS don’t generate or transmit electricity but only deliver to consumers as and when power is available and bill such consumers for electricity supplied and utilized . Stakeholders in the Nigerian electricity industry include the Nigerian Electricity Bulk Trading Company, GENCOS, DISCOS and transmission companies. How come then that the Nigerian union leaders are always pointing accusing fingers at the DISCOS whenever there is a power failure? As the Kenyan example has shown it was a GENCO that explained what happened. It was not a DISCO. In Nigeria, it is a well-known fact that pipeline vandalisation

nationwide has drastically reduced the generation and transmission of electricity not to talk of distribution of electricity which is the responsibility of the DISCOS. But then can the DISCOS distribute what they don’t have? Definitely not. Similarly, the GENCOS cannot generate when they don’t have the basic ingredients to generate power when sources of such generation have been rendered unproductive or inactive by vandals. In Kenya, the GENCO, KenGen, was lucky that it was a monkey up to its tricks that cut power for 4 hours only. In Nigeria, it is an army of vandals that are stalling electricity production on a daily and consistent basis and they have even metamorphosed into a virile terrorist group called the Avengers of the Niger Delta who are daring and taxing the federal might of the state of Nigeria . That really is the core of the matter and that is what the unions should focus on as the cause of irregular electricity supply and not the DISCOS which are at the receiving end of the poor electricity supply chain and should not be blamed by the unions like the Kenyan monkey for what is not their fault. That is a monkey trick that the unions have used so far and that should just stop immediately to enable Nigerians enjoy a much deserved right to regular electricity generation and distribution as quickly as possible .

-Aliu, an analysts, writes from Kano

SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016 T H I S D AY

CONGRESS OF NIGERIAN POLITICAL PARTY (CNPP) PLANNED ARREST, DETENTION OF SARAKI, EKWEREMADU IS INVITATION TO ANARCHY Gentlemen of the press, it is with a heavy heart that we have gathered here today to address you over the looming danger that the planned detention of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Sen. Ike Ikweremadu over a wanton allegation of forgery of the Senate rules, portends for the Nigerian democracy and national security as a whole. Like other Nigerians, we read about the planned arrest and detention of Saraki and Ikweremadu in major national dailies yesterday 24th June, 2016. To say the least, we are shocked that the idea of the arrest of the two leaders of the National Assembly was being muted at all, let alone perfected and hatched. We are reliably informed that pressure is already being mounted on Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Abuja High Court who will sit over the case of alleged forgery brought against the leadership of the Senate. We fear that if Justice Halilu caves in to this pressure, all that is remaining for the judge to be done is to slam on Monday, an ‘impossible’ bail terms on the duo of Saraki and Ikweremadu so as to pave the way for their eventual detention and the violent take-over of the leadership of the National Assembly. The Senate President and his deputy have shown on several occasions that they are law-abiding citizens of this country. The former has particularly demonstrated in practical terms his respect for the institution of the judiciary even in the face of persecution and deliberate provocation by people who are supposed to be his fellow party men. It is therefore disingenuous of anyone to want to take his maturity for a ride by clamping him and his deputy in detention for no just reason other than that they dared to respect the independence of the institution, which they superintend. It bears repeating that the essence of bail in our judicial system is not to punish an offender but to secure his attendance of court as and when due. A deliberate withholding of such or order of a punitive bail conditions in the instant case will therefore be tantamount to a poor use of judicial discretion. It will clearly be against the principles governing the grant of bail in our courts. It is no longer a secret that the AGF is acting a script of some disgruntled elements in the APC, but our priceless advice to the AGF and his sponsors is to thread with caution so as not to plunge the country into a crisis of unimaginable proportion. Any attempt to intimidate or harass the leadership of the National Assembly will be staunchly resisted. We also advise the National Assembly to take their destinies in their own hands. The era of romancing the executive or romantising their excesses should be over by now! How long would the legislators continue to buckle into the blackmails and intimidation of the executive? How long would the legislature allow their hallowed chambers to be desecrated by a sister arm that does not reciprocate the decorum and maturity that the lawmakers always offer? We implore the good people of Nigeria to see this altercation in its true colour – executive lawlessness and recklessness! What the Federal Government is doing through some of its minions is an invitation to anarchy, and we urge the well meaning Nigerians to put a final stop to the excesses of a few individuals who have been using the institutions sustained by tax payers’ money to truncate this democracy that we all laboured and fought hard for.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH Congress of Nigeria Political Party(CNPP). Kwara State chapter

SIGN BY ALHAJI ADEBAYO LAWAL Chairman

PRINCE FEMI ADELEKE Secretary General

HON. DAVID ABU IFABIYI Publicity Secretary

T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

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Gabriel Ogbechie and wife, Godfrey

GABRIEL OGBECHIE

HIS INSPIRING STORY When he wrote his first will in 1999, he was 33. His company was three years in business. Perhaps, he was acting on a premonition often touted in this clime that persons like him who rise fast in life die young. Today, Gabriel Ifeanyi Ogbechie is 50. He spoke with Nseobong Okon-Ekong and Ruky Salako on the complexities and travails accompanying a man who became his own boss at an early age

t is raining in Delta State. In fact, at this time of the year, it is raining in many parts of Nigeria. Born on May 28, in the rainy season may not be linked to why Gabriel Ifeanyi Ogbechie named his business Rainoil. Even if inadvertently, the circumstance of his birth has inspired more than a few incidents in his life. Being born during the rainy season has meant that it’s been raining on Ogbechie for the better part of his life. Safe for a couple of bad turns, which he would rather not dwell on, it’s been raining blessings. It’s raining favour. And try as hard as he does to be discreet, it’s been raining cash. To be more precise, the name, you can say, was God-sent. It actually came from his lawyer who is also a pastor. At the point of incorporating a business name, the man of God had opted for the name ‘Rain’ which he said stands for blessings. But the blessing did not come overnight. Ogbechie scratched and tinkered to get to where he is. And the discipline he acquired is what he still lives

by. Everyone in his office is expected to resume work at 8:00am and not minding that he is the boss, on the few days he gets to work at 9:00am, he tells himself that he is late. This sense of responsibility and mission, moderated by a spirit of adventure has always been with him. This can be exemplified by the choices he made during NYSC. According to him, at the completion of his tertiary education, he was posted to Cross Rivers State for his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programmme. “But I wanted to go to the North out of curiosity because I had never been there,” he said. Thus he requested to be redeployed to Kano, “which surprised the officials as every other person was trying to change their posting to Lagos.” Serving in Kano, according to Ogbechie, turned out to be a very interesting experience. “I got my first job in the State as a factory engineer, in a company called Sharada Edible Oils Ltd. I went on to live in Lagos when Price Waterhouse Coopers offered me a job and

later joined Ascon oil, where I worked for five years before I left in 1997 to start Rainoil,” he said. Undoubtedly, his proclivity towards frequent travel goes back to his father who was a personnel of the Nigeria Police. As a child in Auchi, Edo State, he started primary school around 1972. Each time his father was transferred, the family moved with him. The postings were many. Ogbechie ended up attending five different primary schools within five years in three different states of the federation. This did not at all distract him from his educational goal. He finished his primary school in 1977 at Queen of the Niger Primary School, Onitsha and went to St. Patrick’s College, Asaba till 1982. He was admitted into the University of Benin that same year to study Production Engineering. Despite his humble background, Ogbechie’s development has been fast. He left primary school at the age of 11, got into secondary school and finished at 16 and finished from university at 21. He is always

proud to tell people he never writes an examination twice. This rapid progress continued after school. He got married at age 27 and started his business at the age of 30. Had things turned out differently, perhaps he would have regretted his marriage to his heart-throb, Godfrey, whom he met in Kano, just before his 24th birthday. They have been married for 23 years and are blessed with three children: Ebele, Oge and Uche. “I tell people that I have never had a shouting match with my wife, never lifted a finger on her, it doesn’t mean that we are perfect but we have had a very wonderful relationship. She has been a blessing and has been with me every step of the way, from conceptualising the business, starting the business and growing it. She used to be a banker but left the bank about 8 years ago to focus on the business. She is our Group Executive Director, very hardworking and if I had an opportunity, I will marry her all over again, every man needs a wife who brings stability to the

T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

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Ogbechie and wife

Godfrey

home,” he said. It is just as well that his wife now works at Rainoil, as she had always been there. In 1994, my wife and I went to see my lawyer and his wife to deliberate on incorporating a company. We thought of several names including Gaboil, but my lawyer, who is also a Pastor, opted for the name ‘Rain’ which he said stands for blessings. “I felt he was right, so we merged Rain and Oil together and came up with Rainoil, but then I had to look for the magical N300,000 to start the business. Finally in 1996, we supplied our first diesel to a company in Ikeja where we thought we could make N30,000 but we made N45,000 which was exciting and we did the second and third and step by step we are where we are today.” Ogbechie worked for Ascon Oil between 1993 and 1995 on a salary of N30,000 a month. “I had a long reflection and came to the conclusion that if I make a margin of N1 per litre on 30,000 litres of diesel, I would have made N30,000 which was my salary. In other words, if I sold just one truck of diesel a month and go home to sleep for 30 days, I would have earned my Ascon’s monthly salary of N30,000. “I set out to raise money for just one truck, which was N300,000 but it took me two years to raise that money. I put proposals together, approached everyone I thought could help, but all I heard were stories. Fortunately, I had the habit of buying shares with as low as N1,000. So when I realised I couldn’t raise the money, I brought out my capital market file and started itemising all the stocks one after the other, I surprised myself because it went into two pages, with a market value N478,000. I took them to my stockbroker, who verified them, sold the ones he could and I had my N300,000.” Ogbechie launched Rainoil at the early

age of 30. It has been 20 years and he is still waxing strong. This was easy for him to achieve because he was focused. “At a time when my mates were busy clubbing, having fun and doing the normal things bachelors do, I was already married, taking care of my family and running my business. I have been taking responsibility for my staff from my early thirties, making sure they get their salaries on the 25th of every month. I was regularly traveling from Lagos to Warri and Kaduna in search of petroleum products for my customers. I took responsibility early and this has helped me,” he said. The secret of his astounding success, he disclosed, is first and foremost, hard work, dedication, and financial discipline. “You cannot run a business without financial discipline; you must be able to see money and keep your cool. I tell people that if you go to a bank and they give you a facility of N100 million and you can write a cheque of N50 million and it goes through, doesn’t mean you have money, you don’t. If you received a N100 million facility and you made a profit of N1 million and the money becomes N101 million, it is N1 million that is yours, so you have to live like a man that has less than N1 million and not N100 million,” he explained. The new generation needs to brace up, according to Ogbechie. “When we were much younger, we used to read more, we had a reading culture. I remember when I was in the university, we will go to the library and queue to read newspapers. Those days I will even buy papers and read, we used to take a topical national issue, write on it, cyclostyle and circulate it. The intellectual engagement was much robust. Today the youths are too much on the go. When you engage them, there is no depth. I interview people every day and I see young women and men who

IT IS MY WISH ACTUALLY THAT MY CHILDREN FOLLOW THIS LINE OF BUSINESS, BUT ARE THEY INTERESTED? I REALLY DO NOT KNOW. MY DAUGHTER SAYS SHE WANTS TO BE AN ARTIST; SHE LOVES TO WRITE AND DRAW. SHE WANTS TO BE AN AUTHOR AND I AM ENCOURAGING HER… MY FIRST SON HAS HIS INTERESTS TOO, SO I AM ALLOWING EVERYBODY TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES. IF THEY ULTIMATELY PICK INTEREST IN THE BUSINESS, THAT WILL BE GREAT, BUT IF THEY DON’T, OF COURSE WE ARE NOT ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON THAT

absolutely lack depth,” he lamented. According to him, “Sometime back, a graduate came for interview in my office. I asked her some basic questions which I expected her to know. She looked at me blankly. She said she is from Delta State. I needed her to at least get one question right so I asked her who the Governor of her state is. She had no idea. She said she was born in Lagos and lives in Lagos. So what? You do not have to be from Delta State to know the Governor. On a lighter note I asked her what the latest Olamide song was and she promptly answered and even knew the dance steps! “As a child in secondary school, I could tell you the names of the Head of State of each African country. We need to urgently begin to re-orientate them, I fear for the generation that is coming after now. Another thing they lack is a sense of history; they don’t know where Nigeria is coming from. We should go back and introduce history into the curriculum, we are breeding youths who do not know about Awolowo, Azikiwe or Ahmadu Bello, or the civil war and I am worried. We need to act fast,” he said. He is doing his best to leave a worthy legacy for his children. “It is my wish actually that my children follow this line of business, but are they interested? I really do not know. My daughter says she wants to be an artist; she loves to write and draw. She wants to be an author and I am encouraging her,” revealed Ogbechie. Already, his daughter has set out on the path to achieve her artistic dreams. “She is in secondary school right now and she produces cartoon books. Her school is encouraging her along those lines,” he said. “My first son has his interests too, so I am allowing everybody to express themselves. If they ultimately pick interest

T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

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Gabriel Ogbechie

company that is not dependent on Gabriel Ogbechie or his children, anybody can come in as a management trainee and years down the line, aspire to become Managing Director. Let those who own the business be sure of their dividends rather than depending on the children of the founders to be the ones who must run the business. They can own the business but not necessarily run it,” he said. What is a typical day like in the life of Mr. Ogbechie? “I wake up in the morning, say my morning prayers, when I have the time, I go for a walk within my estate, go to the office and do my work. In the evening, possibly go to the club, play tennis, gist with the boys after which I go home to my family. That is my pretty straightforward simple life,” he said. The Rainoil boss is passionate about Tennis thus he sponsors the Rainoil Tennis Tournament and Masters Cup. “Every year we bring in players and the best man wins some good money every year,” he said. If he were opportune to live his life all over again, Ogbechie wouldn’t do anything differently. “God has been very good to me, when I look back at the past 50 years, I can only give thanks to God. My growing up was actually very humbling as a kid, I really don’t know what I would have done differently. When I look back I wonder what I would have done differently and how God has been very good to me, if I had to relive my life, I would be glad to go through this route again,” he said. The oil magnate revealed that of all the world’s great figures, he wishes he had met a man like Nelson Mandela because he is a global icon. “A man who was incarcerated for more than 25 years, yet he came out, forgave those who persecuted him. An African, who was elected to be president of his country, ran for one term and said he wasn’t running for a second term. He has done things that are so un-African. So he is a man I admire. I was on a flight to Johannesburg a while ago and seated in front of me was His wife Gracia Machel,

HIS ULTIMATE GOAL, HE SAID, “IS TO RUN A VERY SUCCESSFUL DOWNSTREAM OIL AND GAS COMPANY, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO COME VERY FAR. WE CURRENTLY OWN ABOUT 40 PETROL STATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, TWO TANK FARMS IN OGHARA, DELTA STATE AND CALABAR, CROSS RIVER STATE. WE OWN A FLEET OF ABOUT 80 TANK TRUCKS TO DISTRIBUTE PETROLEUM PRODUCTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND SIX SHIPS WITH WHICH WE IMPORT PRODUCTS INTO THE COUNTRY. SOMEDAY I WISH TO BUILD A REFINERY; IT’S SOMETHING I AM LOOKING AT VERY SERIOUSLY

I went to her, greeted her and shook her hands, and for me it was the closest I could get to meet the sage himself,” he disclosed. If he were to live the life of someone else, he would gladly opt to come as Barack Obama. “I like the Barrack Obama Story, I wish I could be him for one day, I have read his books, I have followed him, that’s a man who has broken several myths and it’s just because he believes ‘Yes we can’. That regardless of what you think are your limitations, you can achieve. This is a man who was a first time senator, not enough financial resources, but he believed he could be the president of the United States, not once but twice, that is a man I would love to be for just one day,” he said. His ultimate goal, he said, “is to run a very successful downstream oil and gas company, by the grace of God, we have been able to come very far. We currently own about 40 petrol stations across the country, two tank farms in Oghara, Delta state and Calabar, Cross River state. We own a fleet of about 80 tank trucks to distribute petroleum products across the country and six ships with which we import products into the country. “Someday I wish to build a refinery; it’s something I am looking at very seriously. The crisis we have in the country today is that the demand for the dollar for importation of petroleum product accounts for more than 30 per cent of the total demand in Nigeria. So what the country needs to do as a matter of national emergency is to take that demand for dollar from the petroleum sector out of the equation because we have the crude oil. “The only reason why this is happening is because we do not have refining capacity. If we are able to refine our crude oil and meet our local demand for product, then we can have a stable Naira. We urgently need to expand our refining capacity and Rainoil is looking forward to adding its own value in the refining space soon,” he said. In his bid to give back to the society from the fortune heaven has bestowed

on him, the Rainoil boss established the Gabriel Ogbechie Foundation. “We have a lot of people on the scholarship scheme, a lot of people I do not know. We pay school fees, medical bills and all kinds of support. At the corporate level, we have an annual budget for CSR where we pay all kinds of bills and give support. As God blesses you, you must find a way of giving back to the society, it is something I am very passionate about. “I have a lot of compassion in me to help people. As you grow and as God blesses you, the more you realise that your needs are actually very little. Far more of what you make actually goes out to other people because your needs and your life are too small to be the purpose of your life. You must find a way of reaching out and helping people, assisting the elderly and weak which is what gives us a just and balanced society,” he said. The oil magnate is still struggling to come to terms with the fact that he recently clocked 50. “I have always been the youngest among my peers, going to school, getting married, starting my business and all. This is a time for me to reflect, take stock and give thanks to God for all he has done for me. I tell people that the successes we have recorded at Rainoil is only by the Grace of God. Nothing makes us different from the next man, but for the faithfulness of God. “Being 50 is a time of sober reflection because you are at the latter part of your life, take serious stock in your business and personal life. See how you have added value to your generation and work out those things that are important in life among which is family, have time for your family, do not be an absentee father, bond with your family. And for the business, it is a time to do serious scenario planning, and prepare for succession. I wrote my first will in 1999, I was 33 and already running a business. I had a wife and a son already then. You need to have a say even when you are not there,” he said.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

ON THE COUCH

FEMI OGBONTIBA (CLERGY)

How My Path Crossed with the late Bola Ige Interviewed by Funke Olaode How did you get into the pen profession? God directed my path. I had been writing from my undergraduate days in the University of Lagos. Interestingly, my articles were published on weekly basis even without the editors knowing who the writer was. I kept on writing till I left Unilag. After youth service I got a job as a press information officer with an embassy but was still in the business of writing. One of the days I visited the editor of Tribune Newspaper, Mr. Folu Olamiti, he just asked me ‘Femi, when would you start working with us’? I told him frankly that working as a journalist was not on my agenda. He insisted that I had to come in and start working. I eventually joined Tribune as a Senior Staff Writer. I left the newsroom in 1996 to serve my God. I am currently a Senior Pastor with The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

never forget about him. He was not fond of giving money to people unnecessarily. But he knew how to make you feel important. He would introduce you to anybody. I remember that I went with him to Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos when politics was about to start. All politicians of note converged on that hotel: The likes of Prof. Jerry Gana and so on. He just sent his driver to pick me that I would accompany him to Lagos. I obliged and came to Lagos with him that year. That afforded me the opportunity to meet many dignitaries in Nigeria.

Why did you choose Mass Communication? Finding satisfaction with what you do is important. I can write non-stop for 24 hours. How do you derive satisfaction from a low income profession? I have never used money as a yardstick. I remember when I joined Tribune then in Ibadan and looked at my pay slip, I just shook my head. My monthly salary was N360. This was 1992/93. I just smiled when I compared it to what I was earning in the Diplomatic Service in Lagos. But it was a question of interest and I never bothered about the money. A lot of people even envied me leaving a lucrative job to work as a journalist. The profession took me to people that matter. More than anything, in whatever profession you find yourself, be the best. How did you cope after turning your back on the vibrancy of Lagos to embrace Ibadan, a calmer environment? I know a number of people who would love to stay elsewhere, if they can escape Lagos. Even though I was born

in Lagos, staying in Ibadan has been wonderful. How did your path cross with the late Chief Bola Ige? I never knew he was reading me. There was an incident that brought him and Chief Ayo Adebanjo to The Tribune to address all the senior editorial staff members. All of a sudden, Chief Adebanjo said there is someone that has that assured them that the spirit of Awolowo was still in the paper. He mentioned my name and the managing editor of The Tribune then, Mr. Biodun Oduwole pointed at me and I stood up. That was the beginning of my

relationship with Chief Bola Ige. How did you manage the relationship considering the age difference? Chief Bola Ige was a very wonderful person. I proof-read one of his books. I also wrote a book on him ‘The Portrait of a Giant’. We were so close that when I was naming one of my children he personally came and people were surprised. He was a very good man who left a good legacy. What fond memories of Bola Ige do you have? There is a particular thing I would

How did you take his sudden exit? I had a scheduled appointment with him early in the morning before going to his hometown in Esa-Oke. I never knew something terrible had happened. But my landlord then who knew I was close to him broke the news to me. His death taught me a lot of lessons - that it is good to be good; that one must continue to be good. I am so happy about Bola Ige’s legacy of ‘Education for all’ which his two surviving children, Mrs. Funso Adegbola and her brother Arch. Muyiwa Ige have continued to propagate through the annual Bola/Atinuke Ige Scholarship Awards for pupils from humble backgrounds. About four years ago, I had the privilege to be invited by the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ) Oyo State Chapter to deliver Bola Ige Memorial Lecture under the chairmanship of Amb. Yemi Farounbi. I said it openly that it would be a good idea if we could have an institution called Bola Ige University. At what stage did you quit journalism for the pulpit? I left the news room in 1996. But I have not quit writing totally because I still write books: I write for myself, I write for others and I proof read. As a pastor, I must have a good pen and a good book to read. The profession has been a blessing to me. What other passion do you have? I have always had a passion for writing. If I hadn’t been in journalism, I would still be in the writing business.

SPOTLIGHT

A Philosophy Graduate, Makeover Artist and Trainer Jameelah Nuhu Sanda

auratu Muktar is the MD/ CEO of iLaura Makeovers, Abuja. This beautiful lady, who is a graduate of Philosophy from the University of Abuja, hails from Katsina State. While in school, she planned to practice her course of study. But upon graduation and while awaiting her NYSC call up letter, she suddenly found interest in developing her skills. She noticed she had a passion to make people look more beautiful and elegant. So she decided to go into make-up artistry. She consequently enrolled for training to horn her skills, and that kicked off her career as a Makeup Artist (MUA). Not

satisfied with just providing services for her numerous clients across the capital city, where she has her studio, Muktar decided to start a training school. Her decision to start a training school was driven by her passion to pass on the knowledge she had acquired over the years to those that might want to go into the industry. This graduate of philosophy-turned-makeup artist is very excited about the school as it gives her a platform to impact knowledge on her trainees, particularly the evolving trend in the industry and the easy techniques she had learnt so they wouldn’t have to wait a long time like she did to discover some great makeup application techniques.

Muktar

JUNE 26, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

ARTS & REVIEW\\ENCOUNTER

MARC-ANDRE SCH SO LONG, NIGERIA! The Director, Goethe Institut, Nigeria and a jolly good fellow, Marc-Andre Schmachtel says “Auf Wiedersehen’’ to Nigeria this June leaving a scintillating memory of his good deeds for arts and culture in Nigeria. Yinka Olatunbosun reports.

arc-André Schmachtel, the bespectacled striking young man at Goethe Institut has a book shelf in his office that bears a semblance of a kaleidoscope, with its books in different colours and shapes, covering cultural topics as well as historical ones. By the time you are reading this, most of these books would have found their way into different moveable cartons for easy lifting as the cultural advocate returns to Germany in July. For his impartial support for artists across the various expressions, this reporter decidedly visited him during office hours recently at the City Hall, Lagos Island. Schmachtel was born in the German town of Lübeck on July 1, 1979. His first expedition to Africa was during his school days. He finished his high school in Windhoek, Namibia and returned to Germany for higher learning. The focus on his thesis is on African cinema. Between 2008 and 2010, he worked for the Goethe-Institut in Cameroon. He is also a passionate photographer. Perhaps, the first thing that draws you to “Marc”, as he is called by his Nigerian friends, is his humility. Once, he was watching one of his subordinates struggle with the connecting cables that were meant to project a movie on the big screen at the Nigerian Film Corporation, Ikoyi. Unfortunately, one of the cables which would project the sound was missing. Apparently, the technical assistant forgot it at the Goethe office, Lagos Island. Meanwhile, the hall was already packed with audience who were expecting to see a movie that should have been showing about 30 minutes earlier. Rather than take offense, as any superior would, Marc volunteered to go to the office to retrieve the cable. That was one of the many instances where Marc had displayed the humble spirit. He is also approachable and that is one of the reasons why you may need to wait for him sometimes. People hem him in at events because he listens patiently. No doubt, he will be missed by the culture community here but the organisation that he represents is here to stay just as his numerous cultural legacies. When Marc resumed on November 1, 2010, he brought a lot of creative ideas on board. Video art exhibitions, Molue mobile museum, electro music shows featuring foreign discjockeys and workshops refined our creativesphere. He recounted the circumstances that surrounded his sojourn to Nigeria six years ago, precisely on October 30, 2010. “I was in Cameroon as a language adviser and I applied for the position here in Lagos and got the job,” he began. “I learnt about the job while I was in Germany for a break. It was a big deal for me. I started in Cameroon at a much younger age, for a two-year traineeship working in the culture department. There was no other position in other countries then. I had a colleague at the language department then who went on paternity leave so I took his position.” The director job in Lagos was a big deal for him because it came with additional respon-

Director of Goethe-Institut Lagos, Marc-Andre Schmachtel delivering the welcome address sibilities. But he assumed the role conveniently given the background that he had in his previous position. He could have suffered culture shock on arrival but Cameroun had given him a foretaste of African life and he was prepared to explore other culture terrain but not without making some little findings about Nigeria on his own. He knew that the population of Lagos was about that of the entire Cameroon and he was ready to accept a bigger job in a bigger city. “I was involved in project called NigeroonCameria,” he continued. “It was a programme for the film industry in Cameroon. You know Cameroon is a bi-lingual country. There are parts that are Anglo-phone and some parts are Francophone. I had bought their films in the street and they are not very interactive. So, the Francophones didn’t know what the Anglophones were doing. There was such dichotomy. We spoke to them about getting some Nigerians among the Nollywood filmmakers to Cameroon. So, we brought to Cameroon Teco Benson, Kunle Afolayan and resource persons like Jahman Anikulapo and Victor Ehikhamenor. That was my first encounter

with Nigerians from the film industry. It was a very interesting exchange for them. “Being in Cameroun, you’d hear a lot about Nigeria that they are dynamic people and hardworking. All my vehicle spare parts I purchased were from Nigerians. So, I had this idea that Nigeria is a big country with a lot of business people. Nigerians are very entrepreneurial. I was also in contact with my colleague here. He told me about the city, the chaos, the traffic and lots of challenges. But above all, it is full of super interesting people. I knew it would be interesting.” In an instant, a gleam of emotion surfaced on his face as he remembered something personal too. Two days after the cheering news of his new job in Lagos as Director, Goethe Institut, Nigeria, he received the shocking news of the death of his girlfriend who was under-going an internship programme at a development agency in Sierra-Leone. Though it was a long distance relationship, it was nonetheless a painful experience especially when the cause of death was

malaria. “It was a very critical time for me. Lagos was my chance to do something positive instead of mourning. It was tough trying to do my responsibility and not trying to lose myself to grief. I think it was a right thing for me to take this job. There are so many interesting people here and I think that is one of the things that make Lagos one of the best places to work. You will meet a lot of engaging people and I can say that it may not have been possible to do all that I have done here elsewhere in ten years.” Though Marc couldn’t bring back his lady, he was determined during his tenure as the director, to bring to life a lot of “dead’’ places. One of them is the Nigerian Film Corporation, where a bi-monthly screening of films from both Nigerian and German filmmakers commenced. Also, many cultural shows were activated and artists, who would have ordinarily remained invisible, came to light with their artistic expressions. Marc-Andre acknowledged the help of Nigerians who brought ideas to meet his. “Of course, I have some ideas myself,” he said.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER •JUNE 26, 2016

ARTS & REVIEW\\ART-LOGUE

INDIA ARIE SET TO HEADLINE SAX APPEAL 5 Yinka Olatunbosun

n its fifth edition, Mike Aremu’s awardwinning show, “Sax Appeal” features the US-born singersongwriter, India Arie. The show, which is billed for today from 6pm at Eko Hotel & Suites’ Expo Centre, Victoria Island, will feature the fourtime Grammy Awards winner alongside such chart-topping Nigerian musicians as Timi Dakolo and Praiz, among others. Arie, who is also a record producer has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide. Born in Denver, Colorado (USA), she was raised by her mother, a former singer and her father, a former NBA player. Both parents had encouraged her musical skills while she grew up. She would later attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah which led to a personal revelation about song-writing and performing. She was quoted to have once said, “When I started tapping into my own sensitivity, I started to understand people better. It was a direct result of writing songs”.

Arie

Arie in performance

Her debut album Acoustic Soul, released on March 27 2001, garnered positive reviews and commercial success. The album debuted at number ten on the US Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. In a matter of months, it was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling 2,180,000 copies in the US and 3,000,000 copies worldwide. The album was also certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry and platinum by Music Canada. Arie followed up on the success of her debut on September 24, 2002 with the release of Voyage to India. It debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 109,000 copies and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums with the RIAA certifying it Platinum. At the 2003 Grammy Awards, it won Best R&B Album, and the single Little Things won Best Urban/Alternative Performance. Arie has collaborated with musicians too numerous to mention including Cassandra Wilson, Stevie, Akon, Anthony David, Sezen Aksu, Keb Mo, Gramps Morgan, Musiq Soulchild, Adele, Herbie Hancock, Seal, Pink, Jeff Beck, Konono N°1, Oumou Sangare, Carlos Santana’s, Yo-Yo Ma to mention a few.

‘BREATHLESS‘LLCHANGETHINGSIN MOVIEINDUSTRY’ Jenkins Alumona, strategy expert and former editor of TheNEWS, In this interview with Clement Danbutor, talks about his movie production debut, which has delivered Breathless, a flick scheduled to premiere today

hy are you into movie making? Well, I am in it to make my little contribution to the Nigerian movie industry, which is being applauded all around the world Don’t also forget that I have been a communication person all my adult life. I was a journalist, guess I am still one; before going into marketing communications. Filmmaking is also part of communication. Essentially, I am in the same field. One of the companies in the Strategic Outcomes Group, of which I am CEO, is involved in production. It is called Flykite Productions and has made a number of acclaimed documentaries for a variety of clients. This would suggest that I have had an association with what you are talking about. Our work as a production company puts us in regular contact with movie people, something that has helped us learn how they work. So, I am in it not because I have some ideas that I believe can help movie making progress. Having said that, I am a big fan of movies, foreign and local. I own a large collection of original movie DVDs. My interest in movies has regularly provoked a desire in me to go into movie making. The desire was not activated before this time because I wanted to do it with the right people and material to work with. It was when I found the right combination that I got into the game via Breathless, which will be premiered today and will debut at the cinema on 1 July. Breathlessis a collaboration between Flykite and Creative Unit run by Charles Uwagbai, a young and brilliant movie director. Charles’ openness of mind convinced me that we could work together and make some contribution towards the growth of the movie making. Movie making in Nigeria has really grown despite what critics say. One has to look at how big Nigerian movies are around the world to understand that we have a big thing on our hands. And if our movies were crappy, as the critics suggest, they would not smash hits they are around the world. This does not suggest that we do not need to improve. However, disparagement of the efforts of those who are hobbled by a variety of institutional, financial and technological challenges come across as unfair. It indicative of absence of empathy for

the turf for some time that has seen them do great stuff on a regular basis. More than the CVs, however, it was because they were the right fit that made them to be chosen. It was not an easy task. Charles, the director and co-producer, is knows his job. So does everybody who worked on the movie. We all worked hard to deliver this beautiful movie. It wasn’t just the actors. Behind the scene, everybody put in great shifts. The movie will introduce to the Nigerian scene Brycee Bassey, a Nigerian-American actress who, along with John Njamah, Bobby Michaels and Nancy Isime, delivered memorable performances. What did it cost to produce Breathless? Money, time and mighty effort. Movies cost money to make and when you see Breathless, it’d be obvious that it has gulped a lot. I am unable to give you the exact sum because we are still spending. The film will debut at the cinemas on 1 July. The spending continues. But we’ve spent good money by Nollywood standards. We are happy that we have succeeded in getting corporate support for the premiere from governmental and non-governmental bodies. The Federal Inland Revenue Service, Tatzinger Champagne, Intercontinental Hotel, City FM and Inspiration FM. This is also an evidence that the movie is a hugely appealing one. Jenkins Alumona movie makers, who in spite of the odds, have made the world stand up and take notice of Nigerian films. What we seek to do with Breathless is to further encourage the desire for improvement in movie making. When you see the movie, you will agree that we have done that. The cast and crew of the movie consist of some of the best in the industry. The equipment deployed are top-notch, locations superb and performances terrific. How would you describe Breathless? A stunningly well made movie in all ramifications. It offers a brilliantly written story of sibling rivalry, love, lust, murder, revenge and justice, which twists and turns as it hurtles forward and features great and memorable characters. Doris Ariole, the scriptwriter, is accomplished in her field. The shots are terrific and the performances are high-end. For the performances, I guess this is what should be expected from Mike Ezuruonye, Uti

Nwachukwu and Bimbo Manuel who, by common consent, are three of the best in the game. The terrific performances delivered in Breathless have been recognised at Africa’s most prestigious movie awardsthe AfricaMagic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) and African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Uti was nominated in Best Actor in a Supporting Role category at 2016 AMAA, while Mike was nominated for Best Actor in Drama (TV Series) at the 2016 AMVCA . Even the actors admitted being mightily thrilled by the professionalism that went into making the movie.. Why did you choose Ezuruonye, Nwachukwu and Bimbo Manuel? We felt they were the most suitable for the characters they played. That was the most important factor and our decision has been proved to be correct by the nominations the film received. These gentlemen have impressive resumes having been around

What were the challenges faced during production? Oh! Many. As you’d find in movie making, we had pressure aplenty. People were stretched. In such situations, tempers are very brittle. But that goes with the territory. We also had to manage egos, time schedules, equipment and other things. I figure you’d must have witnessed situations like that in your newsroom when the pressure of production gets to you. It was a massive grind. But whatever pains we went through was soothed by the end product, which is a beautiful film; one that you’d happily watch over and over again. Are there plans to make more movies? Why not? This experience, even with its physical and mental energy-sapping demands, yielded the quality we hoped for. Charles is also itching for more and I am convinced we’ll subsequently work well together again. As a matter of fact, we have one lined up already. It is called Just Drive. But first, watch Breathless take your breath away.

SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

CICERO

Editor Vincent Obia Email vincent.obia@thisdaylive.com

IN THE ARENA

Task Before New IGP, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris The acting Inspector General of Police has a duty to make the Nigeria Police a more effective crime fighting organ, writes Vincent Obia

fter a frantic stretch of months underlined by sporadic violence and killings that shook the country to its very foundation, which the Nigeria Police had no answer to, Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, bowed out on Tuesday at the mandatory retirement age of 60. He was succeeded by Mr. Ibrahim Kpotum Idris. Appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, Idris will be heading the Nigeria Police in acting capacity until the ratification of his appointment by the Nigeria Police Council and the Senate. Idris has a duty to make the Nigeria Police a more active crime fighting organ. He has a responsibility to correct the operational and systemic anomalies that have made the otherwise main internal security organisation a mere appendage in the domestic security equation. The new IGP has promised to try. Upon assumption of duty on Wednesday, he said he would work to make the Nigeria Police more effective in the fight against corruption and criminality.“In our efforts to give a boost to the current administration’s war on corruption, the police management team will strengthen the police C-Squad units in the police commands with the deployment of thoroughly vetted, selfless and patriotic officers to tackle corruption and abuse of office within the police organisation and among the federal, state and local government levels,”Idris said. Idris also promised to reorganise the Special AntiRobbery Squad to more effectively deal with violent crimes across the country. He said the Nigeria Police under him would establish forensic laboratories in the six geopolitical zones of the country to boost the force’s capacity for crime investigation and prosecution. He promised to establish joint operation centres in all police commands for effective coordination and synergy with other security agencies to ensure prompter response to violent crimes. The Niger State-born police boss, certainly, has lofty ambitions for the Nigeria Police. But, like most government intentions in the country, the hard part is the implementation. The pleasant political and economic environment for the achievement of the IGP’s lofty intentions for his fatherland hardly exists. But he can strive to create the environment in which his ideals for the police would thrive. His capacity to do this would determine his success – or otherwise – at the end of the day. Nigeria Police has lurched from one form of inefficiency to the other due often to some structural inconsistencies. Principal here is the issue of supervisory ministry. Experts, including the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Augustine Alegeh, SAN, have suggested the categorisation of the Nigeria Police among justice sector institutions that should be permanently under the Ministry of Justice. But the Nigeria Police is currently supervised by the Ministry of Interior, as the 2016 Appropriation Act shows. Police formation and commands are captured as a subhead under the Ministry of Interior in this year’s budget. This follows the elimination of the Ministry of

Police Affairs. There is no gainsaying that the police would be more efficiently utilised in the administration of justice if it is under the Ministry of Justice – just like the prisons. But these two key justice sector organisations are separated from the justice ministry. The result has been avoidable and often ignominious delays in the court system, like the complications frequently experienced in bringing detainees to court. Reports abound about cases that were stalled simply because of the unavailability of the Black Maria to bring suspects to court. Situations like this would certainly be better handled if the police, which provides the vehicle, is under the same ministry that supervises the courts. This is one anomaly Idris should try to address in cooperation with the relevant executive and legislative institutions. Funding is another issue. The Nigeria Police needs better funding, equipment, and welfare for optimal performance. The present situation where some police officers receive as low as N10, 000 in a month after sundry – overtly and covertly compulsory – deductions does not augur well for efficient policing. Besides, the Nigeria Police budgets are almost completely spent on recurrent issues, leaving little or nothing for capital spending. In this year’s budget, N308.91 billion is budgeted for police formation and commands, out of which N292.81 billion is meant for recurrent expenditure and N16.10 billion is for capital expenditure. It has always been so. In 2015, out of a

budget of N321.32 billion, recurrent expenditure took N303.82 billion and capital expenditure took N17.5 billion. Out of N302.9 billion budgeted for the Nigeria Police in 2014, N295.56 billion went to recurrent expenditure while only N7.34 billion was for capital expenditure. Additionally, experience shows that the greater part of the Nigeria Police equipment are provided by the respective state government under some informal arrangements. Because the funding of the police, a purely federal organisation, is not the statutory duty of the states, the monetary receipts from the states and various organisations may expose the police to negative influences and tendencies. Better equipment would also help to reduce police fatalities in the line of duty. Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Mr. Mike Okiro, said last year that the police lost more than 21, 000 between 2010 and 2015 due to death, dismissal, and retirement. The new IGP should continue to apply the necessary pressure for better funding and equipment of the police. With a police to people ratio of about 1 – 457 (based on the population figure of 170 million), Nigeria is quite within the United Nations recommended ratio of 1 – 450. The ratio is set to get even better with the ongoing recruitment of 10, 000 officers by the Nigeria Police. But the high gaps in funding, equipment, and organisation need to be filled for the country to really get the best out of the available police personnel.

P O L I T I CA L N OT E S

The Shameful Army/Police Shootout in Maiduguri

Brigadier Usman, military spokesman

he exchange of gunfire on Thursday at Government House, Maiduguri, between policemen and soldiers following disagreements over food items was not only disgraceful, it marked a dangerous low in discipline and morality among those to whom Nigerians have entrusted the security of their lives and property. The authorities of the Nigeria Police and Nigerian Army have launched a

joint inquest into the fracas, which was said to have broken out after some soldiers tried to jump the queue during a Ramadan food items distribution exercise. The exercise was sponsored by the Borno State government and supervised by the police. The authorities should get to the root of the matter and bring all culpable officers to justice for the sanctity of the revered national security institutions. – Vincent Obia

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

CICERO/ENCOUNTER

Tambuwal’s Agenda for Food Sufficiency The Governor of Sokoto, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, is clear-headed about the direction he wants to take his state with agriculture and education as major pivots. Olusegun Adeniyi, who recently visited Sokoto and spoke extensively with the governor, reports on how the state is embarking on an agricultural revolution both for the empowerment of the people and for revenue generation

racking jokes as he shook hands with each of the men numbering more than a hundred who had gathered to observe the ‘Iftah’ (the breaking of fast) with him last week Friday, there was no doubt that Aminu Waziri Tambuwal was at home with his people. But the Governor of Sokoto is also realistic enough to understand that leaving a lasting legacy will require touching the lives of about eighty percent of the population of the state who reside in the rural areas. That perhaps explains why Tambuwal has been passionate about the agricultural sector, through which he intends to tackle unemployment, engender food sufficiency and enhance the economy and general wellbeing of the people of Sokoto State. In the last one year, the governor has, for instance, gone into collaboration with a Port Harcourt-based company, Prime Gold Fertilizers, for the establishment of a plant in Sokoto with a capacity to produce 100,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer aside creating about 5000 job opportunities. In the area of agriculture, there is no doubt that Tambuwal has made tremendous impact. “We have purchased about 20,000 metric tonnes of assorted fertilizers worth over N1.2 billion for this year’s cropping season. The state government has also intervened in the provision of water pumps, seedlings, drilling tube wells and machineries at the cost of N1.66 billion. Similarly, we have procured 1000 units of Tiller Machines for distribution to farmers”, said the governor as he highlighted what he has done within the agricultural sector in the last one year. In addition, a new tomato processing factory is about to be built in the state courtesy of a partnership between the government and ERISCO Foods. According to Tambuwal, he learnt a very good lesson from the “tomato crisis” when the price of the farm produce shot up astronomically. “I know many reasons have been adduced, including the one about pest, but the truth really, and I can speak for Sokoto, is that, having taken a serious beating last year from the crash in the price of onions, our farmers didn’t cultivate much tomatoes in the last season”. The governor explained that from a price of N25,000 for a 100kg sack, the price of onions crashed to as low as N1,700 because of a glut in the market. “Given that we are talking about a perishable produce, you can then imagine the loss incurred by our farmers”, said Tambuwal whose way of dealing with the problem is to establish a Commodity Board for which he has already sent a Bill to the House of Assembly. “The establishment of the commodity board will reduce excesses and wastages being suffered by farmers which ultimately affects their overall income. This is to enable them get value for their investments and to encourage more people to engage in farming to produce food for local consumption and for export,” the governor said. With that, Tambuwal believes he can achieve his aim to make agriculture commercial in his state since that is the direction he is looking not only for empowerment of the people but also for revenue generation. In pursuit of that goal, measures are being put in place for introduction of the Tractor Hiring Scheme in partnership with some agricultural firms. The governor is also working on access to funds for the local farmers but that, he said, is part of his legislative agenda for the reform of land administration in Sokoto State which is on the way. Currently, the state is enjoying a funding pool for its leather industry, outcome of a joint collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The expectation from this, as the governor explained, would be the creation of leather clusters to enhance export of the products. To underscore its seriousness to promote small and medium scale industries, the state, apart from setting aside N2billion for that purpose, recently donated

Tambuwal an office for the Bank of Industries (BOI) with which it has entered into a joint collaboration. However, as laudable as these initiatives are, Tambuwal believes that generating the requisite data is a critical step towards realising his dream of an agricultural revolution hence the idea of a Data Base Census of farmers in Sokoto State for long-term planning. “Today we lack data to identify our farmers across the state. If government, at the moment, sourced the required funds and implements for farmers, there is no any data to tell who is producing what and where and at what capacity. We will do the survey in order to know our farmers, their locations, what they produce and at what capacity. The information to be generated will guide the government as to what support and assistance individual farmer will need to be productive,” the governor added. On pastoralism that has been a burning national issue, Tambuwal reiterated what he said recently at the National Retreat on Livestock and Dairy Development organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja that his administration was also ready to provide land for commercial agriculture to any private investor willing to carry out mechanised farming in the state. His argument: “A properly-structured and well-managed grazing reserve will improve the well-being of our cattle. With it, we can monitor what they eat, and correctly estimate outputs we are likely to get from the animals. My thinking is that instead of herdsmen moving about in search of greener pasture, if we bring the green pasture to their doorsteps, I am sure they will be willing to settle down.” Tambuwal, however, believes that for the states to maximize their potentials in agriculture, the Federal government may have to allow them manage the dams in their areas. “Almost all the citizens who use the dams for irrigation and other purposes are under the care of the state governments, so it will be economically wise if FG can concession the dams and allow us to manage it,” said Tambuwal who is exploiting the irrigation works at the Goronyo Dam in Sokoto for a tomato processing factory so that farmers would have their products processed in their localities. He has also subscribed to the CBN Anchor programme on rice and wheat production for which free seedlings and water pumping machines are being subsidized for farmers in the state.

Aside agriculture, education is another area where Tambuwal’s interventions have been impactful. In the 2016 budget, the governor earmarked the sum of N34.458billion, representing about 30 per cent of the entire N174.391billion budget, for the education sector. The estimate is above the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation of 26 percent. And he has a clear roadmap for the sector. Based on the findings of a committee he established upon assuming office last year, Tambuwal said the state requires additional 9,000 teachers to meet the global standard of 1:40 teacher-pupil ratio in its classrooms at the primary school level while he would need to build 11,863 more primary school classrooms to decongest the existing ones in the efforts to create a conducive atmosphere for learning. With a total number of 1,193,760 pupils currently enrolled at basic education level for the 2015/2016 academic session, Tambuwal said the teacher-pupil/student ratio in Sokoto State presently stands at 1:66. He added that even with a large percentage of teachers with high qualifications in primary schools, over 60 per cent of them do not possess the required certification to teach at basic education level while about the same number of teachers in junior secondary schools were teaching in urban areas thus leaving rural areas understaffed. Apart from signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Teachers Institute (NTI) to train teachers in the state, one per cent levy of every contract awarded in Sokoto is now also set aside for funding education. And by way of motivating the teachers, early this year, the state commenced the building of a teacher’s village while introducing a package of special incentives for those who go to the rural areas, as well as ensuring prompt payment of the school fees of indigenes of the state studying in various institutions in Nigeria and abroad. Of course, what this means is that there are many more grounds to cover, in the governor’s quite ambitious education project. However, Tambuwal is unhappy that the Federal Government did not select Sokoto as part of the states for the school feeding system. “I am going to see the Vice President on the issue. I don’t understand the basis for excluding Sokoto while states like Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara are included”, said the governor.

However, even with his devotion to the development of education, Tambuwal has also gone ahead to tackle the issues in the other sectors of the state. For instance, Sokoto is giving the sum of N6,500 to extremely poor citizens monthly. In addition to this, less privileged members of the society do not have to pay for drugs in hospitals because the government sets aside N10 million monthly for provision of free prescribed drugs to indigent patients. The funds are kept in selected hospitals and pharmaceutical stores in different parts of the state for easy access. In addition to the provision of free drugs, government has passed legislation that has totally transformed the delivery of service in the primary healthcare sub-sector. In terms of immunization, after certifying the state polio, lassa and guinea worm free, one million children were immunized against measles in February this year alone. In the fight against malaria, Sokoto has in the last one year provided more than six million doses of anti-malaria drugs to the people. Similarly, 44,808 Artesunate injection vials were administered to patients while more than 3.3 million rapid diagnostic kits were purchased for use in hospitals and other health facilities. Another innovation of Tambuwal is the Community Contributory Health Scheme that is designed to expand access to heathcare delivery, reduce the number of those uninsured and importantly reduce medical costs at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels when it comes on stream before the end of the year. The governor has also approved the upgrade of six hospitals to premier health facilities in various parts of the state. In the area of environment, Tambuwal has signed into law a legislation which forbids the felling of trees across Sokoto State to check the menace of the peculiar winds from the nearby Sahara Desert. In fact, as part of the measures to check desert encroachment, it is now mandatory for each new building within the state to be accompanied with planting of trees around it. Perhaps because of the special relationship between him and his predecessor, not only is Sokoto State calm, Tambuwal has decided to complete all projects inherited from the last administration. I understand there are 22 of such major projects in different sectors like housing, energy and power (State IPP), roads, health, rural and community development, agriculture, water resources etc. now at the various stages of completion. The civil service is also not left out in the state. Apart from regular payment of salaries to workers and pensions to senior citizens, 300 Civil Servants have benefitted from home renovation loan guaranteed by the government and expended through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN). There is no doubt that Tambuwal is a hands-on governor whose attention to details has led to many innovative ideas on how to reposition the fortunes of the people of Sokoto State. For instance, he believes that when the people are empowered to be productive, especially using agriculture as a catalyst, it is then that they would be positioned to pay taxes for the running of the government. “We will not overburden the people but we know that once we have provided the enabling environment for them to prosper and thrive then they would also have no choice but to perform their own obligations to the state”, said Tambuwal. It is perhaps in that direction that the tariffs and rates in the state are being reviewed, hundreds of extension workers are being employed and trained with a system being put in place for cashless collection of revenues while Sokoto Geographic Information System is already doing its mappings for the land administration reforms. In all, it is evident that Tambuwal knows what he is doing and where he is going. And if he keeps his eyes on the ball, Sokoto State will be the better for it by the time his tenure was done.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

CICERO/REJOINDER

Re: Why Otti Needs to Emulate Jonathan and Congratulate Ferdinand Ekeoma

he article with the above headline written by one Eddie Onuzuruike, a renowned T.A. Orji’s Propagandist was actually scripted to denigrate the APGA Governorship candidate in the last election, Dr. Alex Otti, over his one year democracy anniversary press statement assessing the present PDP led government in Abia state. The writer probably used that caption which has almost become an anthem for the present government and their agents to draw readers attention, while focusing on Otti’s alleged criticisms of Chief Theodore Orji. After using the first two paragraphs to indulge in mudslinging against Otti, he unmasked his true face of sycophancy, as he struggled to re-write the history of the Abia Chattered Politician called T. A. Orji and his inglorious eight year tenure in Abia. Mr. Onuzuruike, like the previous writers holding brief for T.A. Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu, tried to divert attention from the real issue of governance, while at the same time giving the impression that Otti’s mention of T.A. Orji’s regime was because he didn’t secure the so called PDP’s governorship ticket. For the records, Otti never contested the governorship primaries of PDP, but quietly left the party for APGA on observing that T.A. Orji, against all democratic practices had narrowed the ticket to a particular candidate and thus was not ready to allow free and fair primaries take place in Abia. Otti didn’t stir any controversy and never resorted to negative comments against PDP, T.A. Orji or any other person, it was rather T.A. Orji who was making negative comments against Otti and on many occasions openly boasted publicly that Otti would never be the governor of the state. In the absence of independent candidacy, political parties remain the vehicles through which elective political offices are sought, this was the case with Mr. Peter Obi who was a strong member of the PDP in 2003, but left the party when internal democracy seemed a mirage, and moved to APGA where he emerged governor and later became one of the best performing governors ever in Nigeria, so it’s childish to repeatedly use Otti’s exit from PDP then and the so called won and lost governorship election as a diversionary strategy against the key issues of governance in Abia which Otti is emphasizing on. While T.A. Orji held sway, he saw the indebtedness of Abia workers as a democratic fun, while his media aides and economic oriented sycophants like Eddie Onuzuruike saw the defense of such disservice as an interesting hobby, that is why Mr. Onuzuruike is yet to show remorse for the legacies of underdevelopment, indebtedness and political sycophancy and thuggery his boss left behind by describing T.A Orji’s era as “Golden years of governance”. He went ahead to state, “The Abia workers are there to give legitimacy to their rapport with Ochendo. It is equally on record that all Abia workers got historic promotion to the next salary level and Abia paid the highest minimum wage till Ochendo left office. In that era, more permanent secretaries were appointed and special salary schemes were adopted, like the TSS and others. These officers-health workers and teachers are alive and can attest to these’’ The only Abians and Abia residents who would not shake their heads in shock and disbelief after reading the above statement credited to Eddie Onuzuruike are those who took part and are taking part in the oppression of Abia workers or those

Orji whose hearts are made of stones. Like Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel half way around the world while truth is putting on its shoes”, I want to add that the lie that travelled around the world while truth was putting on its shoes must be overtaken by truth before it gets to its destination. It is painful that the Abia workers who were relegated and owed months of accumulated salary arrears, and whose 18 thousand naira minimum wage were distorted with illegal deductions were the workers Onuzuruike claimed had good rapport with T.A. Orji. Obviously, Eddie Onuzuruike and T.A. Orji take us for fools and think we lack sense of history, else Onuzuruike wouldn’t have attempted to remind us the sad kidnapping era with positive reference to T.A. Orji. It remains a verifiable fact that kidnapping started in Abia just over two years into T.A Orji’s first tenure. While this crime swept across the length and breath of the State, leading to loss of lives and collapse of economic activities, T.A. Orji pretended he didn’t know what was happening rather vilified those who raised their voices, and called them unprintable names. On one occasion, he stage managed a mushroom group that declared Abia the most peaceful state during the period under review and at the same time alleged that those calling on Federal government to intervene were detractors who wanted to give FG a bad impression of his government and Abia. It took the kidnapping of some journalists returning from a retreat in Uyo which attracted national condemnation and awareness, and the subsequent kidnapping of school pupils at a school in Abayi-Osisoma part of Aba which attracted national and International condemnations following the report of the incident on CNN before T.A. Orji and his clueless lieutenants could admit that Abia was under the siege of kidnappers. When the Joint military task force set up by the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Ihejirika, arrived the state and uprooted the kidnappers, T.A. Orji and his men swiftly produced many sycophantic jingles praising him for a feat he never achieved. That is exactly what Eddie Onuzuruike is doing now, rewriting history with a praise on T.A. Orji for wiping the kidnappers he never admitted existed.

To Eddie Onuzuruike and the rest of media hirelings struggling with little or no facts holding brief for T.A. Orji and Co, be informed that Abians are yet to overcome the emotional trauma they passed through under the hellish regime of the Chattered Politician, so telling more lies against them amounts to adding salt to injury. Before venturing into the Abia political terrain to align with genuine Abia progressives in salvaging Abia, Alex Otti knew it wasn’t going to be a tea party, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy uprooting a formidable structure of anti democratic cabal nearing its two decades of existence, yet he never intended actualizing the Abia political freedom through brigandage and other illegitimate means. It is very unfortunate that Otti and Abians are dealing with people who hate being confronted with the truth and people who derive joy from deviating from facts to face frivolities. Under T.A. Orji, a fraudulent recruitment test was conducted in Umuahia for would-be civil servants with over 30,000 applicants paying N1,000 each, till this moment, the results of the test have not been released let alone people being employed. Under T.A. Orji, the peace and unity of the Igbo nation was carelessly threatened when he unjustifiably sacked over three thousand innocent workers from the Abia civil service under the guise that they were non indigenes. That singular act of callousness rendered many families hopeless, especially couples who worked in the civil service. Just recently, the leadership of the sacked workers union disclosed that over sixty of their members have died since the sack. The only visible project executed and commissioned by T.A. Orji in Aba in the entire 8 years of his administration was the 3 million naira worth of Iron Made Pedestrian bridge built in front of Abia poly, and the 2 kilometer substandard Obikabia road in Obingwa which collapsed few months after it was commissioned, I challenge Eddie Onuzuruike to bring media men from anywhere so that we can tour Aba and verify those Ochendo legacy projects. It is on record that T.A. Orji lost his Senatorial election in his ward thanks to his fearless and uncompromising Ibeku people led by Ochiagha B.B. Apugo who proved to him that the vice of incompetence and mediocrity can never be a virtue tolerated on the altar of clannishness in Ibeku land. There are many tragedies of T.A. Orji’s regime that cannot be analyzed here for want of space, but Eddie Onuzuruike and T.A. orji should know that facts are sacred and cannot easily be obliterated with falsehood. In spite of the senseless dedication of time towards slandering Otti and misrepresenting facts, the truth remains that he has nothing personal against T.A. Orji, and doesn’t have time discussing him because Abians have since confined him into their dustbin of sad political history. But like John Santay said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”, Abia’s recent political history cannot be discussed without reference to T.A. Orji’s regime. It doesn’t matter his desperate desire to run away from his shadows. As Eddie Onuzuruike, T.A. Orji, and other Abia PDP agents dedicate their time in fabricating more despicable lies against Otti and Abians, I leave them with the words of the legendary Mahatma Gandhi who said “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invisible, but in the end , they always fall. Think of it always” ––Ferdinand Ekeoma writes from Aba, Abia State.

Olusegun Obasanjo: Ideas, Politics and the Love for Country III Tunji Olaopa

et me restate the objective of my unending search for the core of the heroism in the Nigerian narrative and my painstaking effort to celebrate and not to denigrate those who have impacted the Nigerian socio-political unfolding, no matter how unpopular they might be in popular imagination. Odia Ofeimun says my search is in “the spirit of an almost occult pursuit of Nigeria The Beautiful”. At the risk of a boring repetition, I took the challenge for this series from Claude Ake who in the foreword to my 1997 biography of Prof. Ojetunji Aboyade said that “the country has no heroes, acknowledges none, and it devalues and derails those who could be”. As is to be expected, I have received tons of comments on this series on OBJ, with some saying, in a manner of speaking, that the only way I would have retained my reputation as an objective and seminal public intellectual in this particular series would have been for me to take the position that affirms their ‘hatred’ for OBJ. I certainly won’t say ‘I don’t give a damn to such suggestion’. Rather, I would say that I belong to the core of those who see deep meaning that is worth unearthing and interrogating in what OBJ stands for even in all its complexity, and that is what I have

utilized my being entitled to my opinion to give expression to in this 3-part serial. That said, permit me to proceed by saying that, since independence in 1960, the Nigerian state has been implicitly searching for a leader, civilian or military, with the right proportion of heroism, steely character and patriotic commitment to direct the ship of state outside of the confines of colonial limitations. All plural states, and especially those that had the unfortunate experience of colonialism, are all saddled with this leadership imperative. Singapore found Lee Kwan Yew. South Africa found Nelson Mandela. India found Mahatma Gandhi. These states share with Nigeria a profound pluralism founded around a cramped national space housing different religions, ethnicities, cultures, nations and languages. Since plural states are combustible, it becomes imperative for them to have a leader with enough charisma and sufficient national perspicacity to hold the country together and lead it to development. Nigeria has not been that lucky in the art of patriotic (re)engineering. The leadership redemption keeps getting mangled within the fissures of geo-national manoeuvrings. Clearly and indisputably, it was such manoeuvrings that frustrated the patriotic yearnings of the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, often regrettably but unarguably referred to as “the best president Nigeria never had.” Awolowo had all the

attributes of Lee Kwan Yew; a transformation disposition, charismatic aura and, most importantly, a framework for change founded on ideas, ideals, dynamics, strategies and processes. Awolowo understood governance and its politics. Yet it was that political configuration he aimed to refine for progress that constrained his presidential aspiration, among many other variables that have been documented in numerous narratives that bears no repeating. He died, as a wasted Nigerian asset of inestimable value, a tragic hero. It is this same geo-national question of nationhood and integration that threw up Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The emergence of OBJ into the Nigerian political firmament gives a new twist to the political saying that every state deserves its leaders. Nigeria deserves Obasanjo essentially because her political configuration throws up leaders who must, through the perceptive lens of political realism, explore and exploit all possible political means, negative and positive, to foist a vision of progress on the state. That is what Machiavelli counselled. It is in this sense that OBJ deserves the Machiavellian label. I made the essential point in the earlier parts of this series that no one who understands Nigeria can ever doubt the patriotic zeal of the Obasanjo. But patriotism, most time, makes a monster of those who get caught in its complexities. Call OBJ whatever you might; he was only respond-

ing to the demands of realpolitik in the Nigerian state. Take the third term agenda issue as an instance. There are so many things hidden on this issue that ordinary Nigerians may not know. I confess that I am also not privy to the confusing complex of political gamesmanship that made the issue a spectacle of the public sphere. But I can speculate. The third term agenda smacks of political messianic complex at first reading. This complex derives either from an acute awareness of one’s worth as a political leader or a delusion of grandeur, if you will. There is actually nothing wrong with patriotism transforming into a messianic complex, except that the constitution subverts it as a dangerous and anti-democratic tendency. Robert Mugabe always looms large in this regard. Yet, it was such kind of messianic ethos that Lee Kwan Yew latched onto; and it got Singapore out of the third world! It would constitute a good point of political revelation to know what OBJ thinks of LKY. There is one fact that faults the third term agenda: Those who conceive it ought to have grasped the limit of patriotism. ––Dr. Olaopa is the Executive Vice Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) [tolaopa2003@ gmail.com; tolaopa2003@yahoo.com; tolaopa@ibsgpp.com]

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

CICERO/INTERVIEW

Babalola: We Have Been Unfair to Niger Delta for Far Too Long The need for the restructuring of Nigeria has again moved to the front burner of public discourse especially now that the nation is battling to avoid sliding into recession occasioned by dwindling revenue from oil and crisis in the Niger Delta region. Femi Babalola, a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo state in 2015 election, spoke with Ademola Babalola on why PDP performed below expectations in Oyo in the last election, the current state of the party, the controversy over Governor Ajimobi’s education policy and the state of the nation. Excerpts:

he word restructuring is now on the front burner of national discourse. How do you think restructuring can take care of myriads of problems confronting the nation today? The meaning and import of the word restructuring goes beyond what some people are reading about it. It is only those that do not really understand the term restructuring, they just look at the English meaning and hold on to it. No, restructuring far outweighs such thinking and belief. It is more of let me grow at my pace, let me use what God had endowed me with to develop my people, my area and let me now contribute to the centre a certain percentage of the revenue accruing from such ventures to the centre for the development of my dear nation. That to me is what restructuring is all about. It is an idea that is capable of addressing various misgivings, perceived injustices, social and infrastructural inequalities and so on. I put it to you has Nigeria as a nation been fair to the Niger Delta people? The answer is no. If you say oil is a Nigerian endowment and so the federal government should be in charge of it. I think Nigeria is been unfair to them because when you look at this part of the country, we have rocks which we cut into granite and sell to the construction companies and we make money out of it and yet you will say the oil deposit in the Niger Delta region is a national asset which must be under the control of the federal government and must be used to take care of all Nigerians irrespective of your geographical spread or location. We use granite and other things in this part of the country for road purposes and without it, you cannot successfully build good roads. We are making money out of it. How about the man selling a plot of land for one billion in Lagos. Did he build the land? Why is the Government not taking money out of it. Restructuring will pay all of us. There is no state that does not have what it can contribute to the centre. It is either you have land mass, population, intelligence, knowledgeable people,etc., the Niger Delta has been cheated for far too long and that has to be corrected. That is my position, if the truth must be told. Yorubas today are alleging marginalization and the same goes for the entire south in the scheme of appointments under the President Buhari-led Federal Government.Whatt is your view on this? This is another reason why we need to restructure this nation. North had three geopolitical zones comprising North West, North east and North Central ditto South with South west, South south and South east. Take for instance there are six appointments to be made now, north will surely have three and the south too will be given three in tandem with the spirit and letters of true federal character but let me tell you, if all these three position for the south were given to the South west people alone there will be crisis because the other two will feel marginalised whereas, except of recent, if the same three slots is given to any of the zones in the north, you may not hear anything because Hausas have always seen themselves as one but in the south it is a different ball game altogether. You now see where the need for restructuring becomes inevitable. Back to the recent alarm raised by the eminent leaders in the Yoruba Unity Forum that so far, of all the 59 appointments so far made by President Buhari, 41 are from the North while only 18 are given to the entire south, I think in the good spirit of the federal character commission, that is unfair and there should be checks and balances in line with what the constitution preach and in the spirit of federal character. Unfortunately, those who should be talking are not talking; those saddled with the monitoring of the federal character issues and other related matters connected thereto in the act of the parliament are not talking. A body set up to checkmate such should speak up now otherwise people will continue to agitate; feel shortchanged and marginalized. The place of Public Private Partnership, PPP, in road construction going by recent experience between the Dangote group and the Federal Government, appear to be good for a developing nation like ours, as a leading and successful Construction Engineer in the country, do you think it will address a number of deplorable roads in the country if others can key into it? Not even on roads alone; even for all areas of the economy, As long as there is sincerity in it. An MOU can never be perfect but it gives confidence to the investors. There is nothing bad in PPP and as a matter of fact it is the way to go now globally. If I spend money and you have to give me tax holiday or that you ask me to put toll on it and if there is sincerity in it, there is nothing bad in it.

of quality university education here in Nigeria. But what do we have today? What if about the international examinations then that involved us and some other students abroad where we beat them on several occasions. When I was in the university, I had a classmate that came from Ireland and the parents were not here, they sent him to come and acquire knowledge from here. The corruption fight under Buhari is seen by people of your party, the PDP, as lopsided especially that those been tried so far are majorly opposition party chiefs. And this lead us to your case with the EFCC concerning professional fees you charged the government under Governor Akala which was said not to have been budgeted for and so on... First and foremost I agree there is too much of media trial in Nigeria and unfortunately too, a lot of people do pepper soup and club analysis on cases concerning corruption and trial. I want to see more cases taking into seriousness and they should be devoid of over sensationalisation. There should be due process in corruption fight. And the anti-corruption agencies should do more of investigation before arresting the suspects and not the present case of picking up a suspect and now begin to coerce the person to say what he knows about missing fund or money. Investigations should be concluded before putting people in the custody. By and large, we have all agreed that corruption kills a nation and we need to support the fight but it must not be turned to a political tool or vendetta, we need to build strong institutions around corruption fight to be successful in the long run. And so for my case, my lawyers have told me that since the case is still in Court I have no right to discuss it in the media. It is illegal, contemptuous and presumptuous. Let’s leave it there.

Babalola I recommend it to a number of other sectors in the country for the nation to be a key global player in the area of PPP. Your remarks above lead us to the ongoing altercations in Oyo state regarding the government’s move to engage PPP in running some of our public secondary schools... There are lots of misunderstanding on this issue of schools in the state. I have listened to the governor, the labour leaders, students, parents and other stakeholders and I must confess I see sincerity in what everybody is saying. But as Femi Babalola, who has lived all his life in the state including my educational career from my primary, secondary and university education in this state, maybe I wouldn’t have been educated if education was not free then. So, I have a moral burden on that and if you now talk of Femi Babalola being a businessman also, I know that global economy today is now a challenge to everybody. Why I said I have a moral burden in the first instance again is that maybe if education was not free, I wouldn’t have achieved much of what I have achieved so far today which education, ofcourse, has assisted me to be and that is why I say I have a moral burden. And on the other hand, I also have moral burden too because if I put money in people’s pocket, will they be able to pay for the education levy and that is why I support what the governor said that let us all come together to talk, maybe through such forum, we will be able to juxtapose some things and say ok, let us go this way. Let us rub minds. Let’s see if as a missionary, you want your school back, let’s see if you have a genuine and convincing reason to get it. It is important that we all come together and dialogue in a way that we can arrive at a particular idea and direction to move our education forward. It is important we do so and it becomes more compelling now than ever before to save the future of our public education. Somebody even said, the programme is right but the timing is wrong especially that Lagos state has done it successfully but Lagos state is not like Oyo state, it is not what the governor can singlehandedly sit within the comfort of his office and say this is what I want and we must embrace it hook line and sinker. No, It is a complex issue and I agree with him that everybody; the labour leaders, teachers, parents, students, and other stakeholders must come together and talk on it for the greater good of the state and for the benefit of the present generation and generations yet unborn. We will be deceiving ourselves if we say the type of education in vogue today is what we got when we were growing up, no the quality has gone and there is the need to salvage the system to bring back the good old days. When I was schooling in the University of Ibadan here, we had a number of foreign students who were with us and the quality was good that people come across the globe in search

The leadership crisis in your party, what hope for its future? I know the future of the party is very bright. We have strong presence all over the country. It is a party that is very entrenched all over the party. We also have a strong constitution which had envisaged and addressed all these issues. I joined the party in 1998, there is nothing wrong with our constitution, I have read it many times over, it is the people running it and not the party. Our party still commands respect and has cult-like following in many parts of the country till date. People going to court have no right to institute any case against the party, they were just being misled. The case of Senator Sheriff for instance shouldn’t have been in court, if he had gone through the constitution or consult his lawyers properly and they are sincere with him, he would know all his grievances can be addressed within just one hour with the constitution of the party as a guide. I commend all our PDP governors and members in the National Assembly for their efforts so far in salvaging PDP from further ruins and we can still get our power back and 2019 presents a formidable year for us to win back the presidency of this nation. And it is not a difficult thing to achieve if we are ready and sincere with ourselves. So you joined PDP since inception and you have never jumped ship to another party till date? Yes, never, honestly the PDP is a good party and I have no reason whatsoever to leave the party for another one. And as a matter of fact I am a professional who joined the party with the sole aim of contributing my quota to serve the people. It is for the service that I joined that time and that concept is what is keeping me going till date. I am not in politics to grab power, make money or what to eat, no I have my businesses here and there to the glory of God. Many people join party to get appointments and what they can grab. And with some of you who have been consistent, one expects that you ought to be in control of this state? Yes. You are right. But you see in the last election, we had this issue of wrong candidate. It has never happened anywhere in nigeria. The last election, for the first time, was our worst outing in the history of participating in any election not only in Oyo state but Nigeria as a whole. Oyo state case was the worst scenario. Check the records, it is either the PDP comes first in any local government election anywhere in the country or we trail behind in the second position. But in the last election, we came fourth! And we have apologised to the people for fielding a wrong candidate. It was a reason that was beyond us as a party in the state which Senator Ike Ekweramadu report has addressed. Senator David Mark himself had realized and said it and I am happy it came out of his mouth too.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

CICERO/ENCOUNTER

Okorocha: Buhari’s Script is an Industrialised Export-based Economy Owelle Rochas Okorocha is no doubt the APC poster boy in the Southeast both as Imo State Governor and chairman Progressive Governors’ Forum. Okorocha spoke with Nduka Nwosu inWashington DC last year as a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s team during his invitation by US President Barack Obama. In a recent update of that interview, Governor Okorocha spoke about why he is optimistic Buhari will take the nation to the Promised Land and the giant strides of infrastructure as well as institutional reforms that have become the hallmark of his administration

welle Rochas Okorocha is no doubt the poster boy of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the South east. Not because he holds the party’s flag in Imo State or because at the national level occupies the position of chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) but because he parades a track record of experience in politics resonating positively to the advantage of the ruling party. The three time Presidential candidate and founding chairman of Action Alliance (AA) has come a long way navigating the murky terrain of Nigerian politics. Add this to his millennial projects fast turning the heartland capital into the image of another Abuja; that explains why Okorocha has become a worthy ambassador of his party always ready to expound and defend its social contract with the people. Okorocha back in Washington DC last year told this reporter his explanatory footnotes on the pluses and minuses of his party should be viewed from the angle that he was one of the authors of the APC manifesto and therefore was not just defending President Muhammadu Buhari for not delivering the material and visible gains of change in just one year as expected by the masses who voted overwhelmingly for the change mantra. Okorocha further explained: every great change comes with upheaval, pain and in many instances suffering. His analogy: “Every woman wants a baby, but no woman likes a labour room but you cannot have a baby without a labour room, that’s the change, so the change of labour room is the joy of the baby that you have, but when people say change, they mean that they are going to have a baby without a labour room.” After Buhari’s one year in office, can Governor Okorocha say the change mantra should not be equated with a programme of action as Eddie Iroh, a THISDAYcolumnist opined? He shot back asserting he was neither ready to play the defensive nor go on the attack but observed the expected silver lining could not have arrived after nine months. Not even the low hanging fruits that would have calmed frayed nerves? That was earlier before Lai Muhammed admitted Buhari had delivered his promise on job creation and the celebrated achievements of one hundred days in office. While the reporter was bent on picking the issues with statistical references and performance indexes, Okorocha said he had no problems with cold statistics but insisted considering the victories achieved over Boko Haram and the war against corruption with billions of naira and dollars of looted funds coming back to national coffers, who would say the Buhari Administration was not on course delivering on promises? The dialogue progressed with the passion the APC big wig approached the issues, more like a marketing salesman of the party, but he admitted it was much more than that because his belief in the ability of the President to turn around the sick country was anchored on not just his personal and intimate knowledge of the man and his integrity quotient celebrated worldwide but also a track record of delivery that has been the hallmark of his previous assignments to the fatherland The expectation of positive change in just one year would be asking for too much given the rot on the ground and not even the best magician in the world could have done better under the circumstance, Okorocha explained. “You recall that the oil price jumped down from $110 per barrel to about$38 per barrel, the worst it has ever come down to in the history of OPEC.

Okorocha

Oil is our major source of revenue so what do you expect? Of course, we expect the people to feel this way especially with the revelation of the billions of dollars that were looted in the system.” As the dialogue progressed, Okorocha seemed to be winning the argument persuasively, so the subject revolved on recovery of looted funds and how much of this has been deployed to visible sectors of the economy. The governor lamented the fact that even when the looted funds are discovered, recovering them becomes an issue, what with a legal system that expectedly protects every suspect until you are proven guilty. It is one thing to identify those who looted these funds; it is another thing to recover them. The governor’s admonition was that although things may be getting more

The Buhari administration is out to build a solid foundation for this country, encourage the productive sector and make sure that people are gainfully employed and stop the importation of all kinds of rubbish into the country

difficult for Nigerians, they should not lose confidence on the much expected change. All hope is not lost, he admonished. “I believe what President Buhari is trying to do is to fix Nigeria once and for all. His government is not one of window dressing of an economy that has been in recession long before now. “This administration is out to build a solid foundation for this country, encourage the productive sector and make sure that people are gainfully employed and stop the importation of all kinds of rubbish into the country. People will feel the pain now but in the long run there will be positive returns.” Back in his state, the APC chieftain was sad seeing young men roaming the streets of the state capital, playing the bo-peep and act as court jesters, with vain appellations to the chief executive, some money bags and stakeholders if only some peanuts would drop from their pockets. That he summed as the posture of an idle mind, something he has largely taken care of and would be glad if it would be replicated at the national level. What Okorocha is pointing out is that politicians by hiring young men as thugs during elections and dumping them when they ride to power are breeding Frankenstein monsters who keep themselves busy the wrong way, what he calls a government of deceit that has made many Nigerians dependent on begging. How does this connect to the issue on ground regarding the long awaited promised deliverables from the APC and the chief driver? The party, he argued, is not out to deceive the people by offering them deceptive dividends that approximate to window dressing when there are fundamental and foundational issues in nation building, which is what Buhari is trying to do. Initially there will be turbulence because the old order is giving way to the new. His easy example refers to the arrival of the GSM with the network providers coming with tariffs that were initially typical of a monopolist but as the revolution unfolded and other

networks joined the MTN, the market became competitive dragging costs downwards. In the same vein, pump price of petroleum and the price of many imported goods which ultimately he insisted constitute a challenge to young men and women in the import business to reverse the habit in favour of the productive sector; ultimately this would drag prices down and make this moment something for historians to talk about, that there was a time Nigerians were challenged and they seized the momentum to re-write their history from a dependent import economy to a productive, industrialised export economy. This is the Buhari script for the emerging new corporate Nigeria. Buhari is not running a negative government, he asserted, repeating again and again that things must go up to come down. Does it not constitute an insult to the emerging generation that the naira has to be devalued to buy dollar so that we will continue to import rice and other commodities produced in other countries of the world, Okorocha queried while insisting any government that supports this trend is not only deceitful to the people but is not facing the realities of the time. This is the change APC and Buhari are talking about and it does not happen in one day, Okorocha lectured his guest. “This is hand over, that is the change we are expecting.” Back to Blair House and the Washington Mandarin Hotel when Okorocha was a part of President Buhari’s team, during his White House visit. Should we consider that visit a success story now that it has been reported the US is willing to support the Boko Haram fight with assault weapons? Okorocha said it went beyond that because Buhari was recognised and still is as a veritable salesman of the new Nigeria. Viewing the polity abroad from the lenses of those who call us a fantastically corrupt nation, Okorocha was exposed to a global community which in that visit seemed to say this who you are rather than what we think we are. The cheering news however was the celebration of a new dawn, the coming of a man who was recognised as an epitome of exemplary leadership. The mantle bestowed on Buhari has not changed and for Okorocha what is more important is that the real silver lining at the end of the tunnel is the emergence of Nigeria someday as a country whose leaders have passed through a baptism of fire to join the comity of nations with decent leaders. That is why Buhari must succeed and that is why Nigeria must not be made a laughingstock. Buhari, he acknowledged, has given the country a sense of respectability amongst the comity of nations and Nigerians must carry that script and re-write their story. “This is just what I think because sometimes people want me to assess President Buhari in terms of how many roads he has built or how many schools he has set up or renovated but for me that’s my assessment. I just cannot judge him by that, I want to judge him by the integrity he has brought back to the nation; I want to judge him as the man who has come to stabilise the country probably for subsequent leaders to build on in terms of infrastructure development. “Infrastructure development is a key securing voter confidence in our many electoral promises however, I am looking at the first things first and the integrity of this nation must be upheld and I think we have recorded some success by way global respectability, the way we are being seated among nations now tells you that our relevance is on the rise; no nation can grow above its leader as the leader decides the height of every nation.” (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

PERSPECTIVE

Executive Affront on Legislative Rights Bolaji Adebiyi

t was sometime in June 1999. The business of the Senate was just shaping up and the various party caucuses were announcing the names of their principal officers. There were three dominant parties then: the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Peoples Party and the Alliance for Democracy. There was no problem until it came to the turn of the APP to real out the names of their officers. Senator Florence Ita-Giwa rose up under a point of order directing the attention of the President of the Senate, Evan Enwerem, to a court order, restraining the Senate from considering any list of principal officers from the APP. A quarrel had arisen in the opposition party over the matter and some members had gone to court to obtain a restraining order. Kanu Agabi, learned silk and also PDP senator representing Cross River Central, raised another point of order and asked Enwerem if, under the 1999 Constitution, an arm of government can restrain another arm of government from performing its own duties or regulate its own procedure? Responding, Enwerem asked Agabi to elucidate his query. Agabi then said, “Can the judiciary, which is an arm of the Federal Government of Nigeria, validly ask the legislature, another arm of the government, not to perform its duties or regulate its own affairs?” The learned silk answered the question in the negative, citing the principles of separation of powers established by the constitution and the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act 1990 that immunises a legislator against legal processes and proceedings for acts done in the exercise of their legislative duties. He, therefore, asked the Senate to disregard the restraining order as an intrusion by the judiciary into the affairs of the legislature, which is tantamount to an abuse of its rights and privileges. Enwerem, also a senior lawyer, agreed with Agabi but advised caution, saying the legislature should not right one wrong with another wrong. “Let’s obey the order not because we are wrong, but because we must show maturity, particularly because we have a remedy,” the President of the Senate ruled. It was the turn of the executive arm of government to borrow this principle in 2009. President Umaru Yar’Adua had travelled abroad on medical leave. He had left behind a letter to be forwarded to the National Assembly in compliance with section 145 of the 1999 Constitution to enable the Vice President act. But the letter was not delivered. The Senate complained about the obvious slight and violation of the Constitution. But given the power politics in the Presidential Villa no one could explain that a powerful special adviser had decided to not to transmit the presidential communication. Asked by the Channels TV to explain the seeming breach of the Constitution, the Special Assistant to the President (Politics), Bolaji Adebiyi, argued that while it was not the

Saraki practise of the Presidency to take issues with the legislature, the opinion of the Senate on the interpretation of S 145 of the Constitution did not bind the executive arm of the government and was, therefore, not bound to accept it. In any case, he argued, that the President had the discretion on whether or not to activate the said section. In his appraisal of the standoff, Sam Amadi, a Harvard trained lawyer, agreed with Adebiyi, saying the principle of separation of powers allowed each arm of government to regulate themselves and hug their powers donated by the Constitution exclusively. In extreme legal jurisprudence, he said, it had been argued that any of the other two arms might even resist the ruling of the judiciary, which stands as an arbiter between the executive and the legislature on the one hand, and the government and the people on the other hand. So there has always been tension over the implementation of the principle of separation of powers among the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, with each of the arms jealously guarding its own jurisdiction. In the past there was maturity and understanding as every arm applied the brakes at the slightest resistance from the aggressed arm. The judiciary in particular has been careful with the exercise of its power of arbitration and has always urged restraint from interference in the internal affairs of one arm by another. Several times it has ruled against executive exercise of legislative powers and vice versa. The obvious reason for this is the need to preserve the essence of democracy, which emphasises rule under the law, without which good governance is imperilled. In the last 12 months the executive under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari has been extremely intrusive, recklessly interfering in the internal affairs of the legislature and refusing to obey valid order of courts directing it to release citizens incarcerated by its secret police and other security agencies.

After losing the leadership tussle in the legislature last year, it has refused to let up, harassing the winners with the coercive machineries of state entrusted to its care by the Constitution. First, the President would not grant audience to the President of the Senate Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. And when necessity forced him to so do, he has been antagonistic to them, refusing to understand his acts are capable of undermining the legislature, which is the symbol of democracy. When the Buhari administration is not blackmailing the legislature, accusing them of padding the budget, he is harassing them with criminal prosecution of alleged misdemeanour that it has being having extreme difficulties in proving in court. In the last 10 months it has put Saraki on trial for alleged breach of the code of conduct for public officers. Ordinarily there is nothing wrong with that for if a public officer infringes on the law he should have his day in court. But events at the Code of Conduct Tribunal of Mr. Danladi Umar has given little to cheer that justice would be dispensed as the chairman appears bent on summarily convicting Saraki. At the inception of the trial, Saraki alleged that he was before the tribunal because he became the President of the Senate against the wishes of the powers that be. And that his trial was to force a leadership change in the upper chamber of the National Assembly. As the trial progressed the conduct of the tribunal chairman tended to buttress the Senate president’s accusation that the whole thing was more political than any attempt to fight official misdemeanour. Umar’s exuberance to convict Saraki led the chairman to warn the accused’s lawyers in open court that their delay tactics would not reduce the consequences that would be meted out to their client at the end of the trial. That might have been a Freudian slip but Saraki has picked that up as the most singular evidence that he would not get justice. He is fighting that at the tribunal. Whatever the outcome of that preliminary request for Umar to recuse himself, it would end up at the higher courts. Sound lawyers say with that type of statement coming from an adjudicator, no higher court minded to do justice would not ask him to step down. Perhaps sensing that its first plan to supplant the Senate leadership was crumbling, the Buhari administration last week brought out its plan B, preferring a two-count criminal charge against Saraki, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, and two others. The charges filed by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, accused the Senate leadership of forging the Standing Rules of the Senate used for its election of 9 June, 2015. Although Saraki has approached the courts again to quash the charge, it has sparked off an executive-legislative row with the National Assembly rising up to the obvious executive excesses of the Buhari administration. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have at separate plenaries dismissed the charges as a provocative attempt to intimidate

the legislature and enforce, in the upper chamber, a leadership change that would pander to the dictates of the executive. They said it was an intolerable blatant interference in the internal affairs of the legislature and pledged to resist it. They are right. The preferment of charges against Saraki and Ekweremadu over alleged acts purportedly committed in the exercise of their legislative functions is a clear violation of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act 1990 which immunises a legislator from any legal proceedings for any action he takes in the conduct of his legislative duties. So, assuming but not conceding that they forged the rules, the law says they cannot be prosecuted. That is law. But we know that the preferment of charges arose from politics. Again it was the obstinacy of the Buhari administration that has led it to this sorry pass of persistent belligerence. The issue of alleged forgery of the Senate rules was part of the strategic plan of Buhari’s Unity Forum senators to pull down the Saraki leadership. When the matter came up at plenary, they were defeated by the Saraki forces. By the rules of the Senate, that ought to be the end of the matter. But the Unity Forum senators decided to externalise the issue, reporting to the police as well as taking a civil suit. Justice Ademola Adeniyi who heard the case preserved the right granted the legislature under the Constitution to regulate its own procedure and told the disgruntled senators that the court would not interfere in the internal affairs of the legislature. It is curious that in spite of this ruling of the court which was not appealed, the executive has now decided to activate an alleged recommendation of one of its organs, the police, which investigated the matter and submitted its report to the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice a year ago. If anyone doubts the suspicion that the action is actuated by a desire to embarrass the Senate leadership rather than law enforcement, that doubt should be cleared by the fact that Malami, the AG, was a lawyer to the disgruntled Unity Forum senators. This actually is also an abuse of office. As the legal fireworks begins on Monday it is necessary to warn that the growing intolerance of dissent by the Buhari administration and its meddlesomeness in the affairs of the legislature as well as its penchants for abuse of citizens’ rights under the guise of fighting corruption are tendencies towards dictatorship. Many social critics have actually warned that dictatorship is possible even in a democratic setting and that it is necessary for citizens to be vigilant. We think more and more Nigerians are waking up to this emerging dictatorial tendencies of the Buhari administration. And it would appear that the President and his minders are taking the calm and reflective approach of Nigerians to his regime’s systematic decimation of their social and economic wellbeing for granted. The people who have in the past wrestled military dictators to the ground should not be underestimated by an emerging democratic dictator!

EU Migrant Crisis: National Sovereignty or Migrants Rights

Solomon Leggjack he contemporary world environment appears to be increasingly less favourable to the plight of migrants generally and refugees in particular - Judging from the avalanche of reports from local and international news and electronic media regarding what is now termed Europe’s self-induced humanitarian crisis as a result of the denial of passage to over 20,000 Syrian refugees and other migrants massed at the Greeco-Macedonian border. The reports further attributed the storming of the Macedonian border fence with metal poles by desperate migrants which caused extensive damage to the heightened tension amongst these people even as they continued their sitting protest in the refugees’ camps along the two countries common border. The global concern over the plight of these migrants and refugees have drawn lamentation and indignation from affected countries. The Jordanian Monarch while speaking to a CNN news correspondent lamented that the worrisome influx of Syrian refugees into his country (put at over one million) has reached a critical stage that could occasion the “Dam to burst”. The Hungarian Prime Minister on the other hand, reportedly

opined that Brussels (i.e. EU parliament) “lacks the power to redraw Europe’s cultural and religious identity by introducing resettlement quotas for EU members without giving voters’ approval”. Similarly, the migrant crisis is believed to be the root cause of the catalytic debate now raging in the UK regarding her continued membership or otherwise of the EU (Briext) whose referendum is slated for June, 2016. Some of the affected countries have with nationalistic fervor engaged in assertive diplomacy to protect their countries sovereignty and quite correctly so in my view by either activating or retooling their respective subliminal mechanisms for frontier defence inspection or immigration control as a matter of national security imperative in tackling the migrant crisis. Some of the measures according to reports include the enactment of controversial bills (draft laws) to curtail the effect of uncontrolled influx and presence of migrants and refugees would have on their national identities and ways of life - (Denmark), erection of steel fences and stricter border control(Macedonia and Hungary) as well as recourse to voters’ approval (popular sovereignty) with respect to compliance or otherwise of the EU parliament’s mandatory quota relocation of migrants for member states - (Hungary and UK). The French government had dismantled parts of the migrants

camps in Calais over the unsanitary conditions and further ensured that the holding capacity is not more than 2000 migrant per camp. What is more - globalization has come with it, increased human mobility of migrant labour and of refugees, giving rise to the growing incidence of mixed migratory movements (i.e. migrants and refugees) through hazardous sea routes - in unprecedented numbers, evoking profound fear and public outrage in some recipient countries; including but not limited to anti-immigrant right wing demonstrations in countries like Belgium. There is therefore growing fear that EU open borders meant essentially to favour EU workers is now being linked with EU insecurity, giving rise to agitation for reform. Conversely others opine that, the refusal to grant safe passage to these refugees/migrants to their preferred destinations across Europe is at the heart of the various acts of defiance by the stranded migrants including the recent terrorists bombing in France and Belgium. The foregoing therefore accounts for the emerging tempestuous tapestry of political demagoguery where it will seem that migration is being perceived or employed as a weapon by groups, nations and state-actors. –– Solomon E. Leggjack Esq., is an Immigration Officer

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

JUNE 26, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

PERSPECTIVE

On the Rights of AGF to Institute Criminal Proceedings Chuks Okocha

he statement by the media aide to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, that the forgery charge against the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, with two others is line with the minister’s constitutional duties as the chief law officer of the federation is correct. Such prosecutorial power under the law is not in doubt. It is constitutionally guaranteed. But the question is how the AGF exercises such right without prejudice. Like Caesar’s wife, such rights must be exercised with caution, especially where personal interests seem to override national interest, or where there is conflict of interest. Or what explanation has the minister to offer to Nigerians to convince them that what he is trying to achieve is not what he failed to achieve as the attorney to the group of senators under the aegis of Senators of Unity Forum in the eighth Senate. For the avoidance of doubt, Malami was the counsel to the Senators of the Unity Forum in the suit no: FHC/ABJ/ CS/646/2015, where two judges of the Federal High Court, Justice Godwin Kolawole and Justice Adeniyi Ademola, ruled that the case of alleged forgery of the Senate Rules was an internal affair of the Senate. Ruling on the forgery case that had the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation as defendants/respondents, Justice Kolawole, as the vacation judge, urged the aggrieved senators of the unity forum to mobilise their colleagues to upturn the standing rules of the eighth senate if they were not happy with the contents. He further said that the courts would not be venturing into the case, as to do so was to infer in the duties of the parliament, unless where such alleged infractions affect the constitution. The judge went further to state that the dictates of separation of powers should be respected. Justice Kolawole said, “My view is that in relation to the instant suit, the allegation which relate to alleged forgery of the Rules of the National Assembly is not an ordinary allegation in which the court can approach with a pedantic mind-set. It is so because the issues as relating to the standing rules or standing orders are, firstly, a purely domestic legislative matter, but where the allegation of forgery is made, it is for the court to reflect deeply whether it is not an allegation which the Senate Committees on Rules and of Ethics can validly investigate and take steps within its own internal

Malami proceedings to nullify any of its standing orders found to be irregular and also sanction any of its members that may be found culpable. “One of the sanctions it may prescribe is to recommend such members or members to the defendants for prosecution. All of these are my thinking as a way to protect the integrity and independence of the National Assembly so that neither the executive arm as constituted by the defendants nor the judiciary should not be allowed to pry into a matter which the National Assembly as legislative arm of government can deal with applying its own rules and standing orders. “I am wary that a dangerous precedent is not being set for the eighth National Assembly to have its internal proceedings, being regulated, perhaps supervised by other arms of government of the federation, i.e. the executive and judicial arms. This has been the philosophy, when I reflected on the constitution as a holistic instrument of governance, that informed my cautious judicial approach

From China with Prosperity Muideen Femi Akorede

major fallout of Nigeria’s shrinking economy in view of the global oil crises has been a recognition by Governments at all levels in Nigeria to diversify the economy.Amajor component of this strategy is a renewed resolve to increase foreign investment in the country. President Muhammed Buhari demonstrated this resolve with his recent trips abroad aimed at attracting new investments, the development of Nigeria’s infrastructure among others. Perhaps the most elaborate and promising of these trips was President Buhari’s recent foray into China. Building on existing talks, the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed on June 8, 2016 also traveled to the city of Nimgbo, in East China to finalise planned investments in the state and secure fresh inflows. It was a five-day trip that took Governor Ahmed and his team to three cities through a grueling 12-hour drive. A typical day featured at least three meetings or receptions with separate sets of businessmen and government officials. These high-level meetings all ended with the Chinese parties expressing interest in investing in Kwara State for mutual benefit. The day after the team’s arrival in Ningbo, East China, our host, Mr. Shi Zengchai of Ningbo Jinsheng Star Limited, led the team to the 18th China CEEC Trade Fair which featured exhibitions from China, other parts of Asia, Europe and America on an expansive ground that covered the size of four football fields. During his three-hour stay at the Trade Fair, Governor Ahmed was particularly interested in processing equipment, diagnostic tools, and aviation training equipment stands where he exchanged ideas with the exhibitors. The following day, the schedule was no less hectic. It opened with Governor Ahmed meeting a group of Chinese investors who expressed a desire

to establish agribusiness ventures in the state. Looking at these men dressed in T-Shirts, casual shirts and trousers, it was tempting to dismiss them. That was until they opened up about their investments in other African countries and their desire to come to Kwara. Before holding further investment talks, Governor Ahmed and his team met with Mr. Wang Jianhou, Deputy Mayor of the Municipal city of Ningbo at a major hotel in the city, accompanied by party officials and other government officials. The Deputy Mayor commended Governor and the Kwara State Government for the interest in partnering Ningbo city for investment which he described as a flourishing city with GDP per capita of $16,000. Ningbo, he said, is a city of 3 million people whose history dates back 6000 years. In the last decade, according to him, the city has flourished significantly; with its port alone witnessing transactions of about $100m annually. The fact that the city alone is more populated and affluent than Kwara State was not lost on anyone at the meeting. Governor Ahmed, speaking through an interpreter, said the state government was following the path of President Buhari to meet potential investors who can take advantage of opportunities in Kwara State for mutual benefit. He said the state was looking for investors especially in the area of manufacturing. Kwara State, according to him, has a very youthful population which shows there is a strong workforce that can support industrialisation. He described the opportunities for investment in Kwara State as huge, and commended Shi, who he described as a “brother’, for his resolve to invest in the State. Any expectation that the day was over was dashed as the team marched into the hall downstairs for another engagement. This event, which will turn out the highlight of the trip, was the 18th China Zheiland Investment and Trade Symposium, had in attendance about 200 hundred investors, businessmen and Chinese officials. Kwara State was the only delegation from Africa and the only one from Nigeria for

to all of the cases which have been filed in respect of internal conflicts which the National Assembly has been bedevilled with since it was inaugurated on June 9, 2015.” Thereafter, as a vacation judge, he transferred the suit to another vacation judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola. In his ruling, Justice Ademola espoused the same views, when he cited the instance of the 1981 suit between Senator Abraham Adesanya and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Justice Ademola in his ruling urged the aggrieved senators to mobilise their colleagues to upturn the perceived portions of the standing rules that they claimed were forged, stating that in the instance any venture into the affairs of the senate is to violate the principles of separation of powers. One clear thing here is that both the AGF and the Inspector General of Police were the defendants/respondents in this instant case. Curiously, Malami was the attorney to the Senators of Unity Forum and he never advised his clients to appeal the rulings of the two learned judges of the Federal High Court. Rather, he moved as the chief law officer of the federation to criminalise what he failed to achieve in a civil suit as the Minister of Justice. Nigeria is working! A step further is in the letter by the police inviting those perceived to have forged the standing rules of the eighth Senate. The Nigeria Police on June 8, 2016, barely two weeks ago, did not mention the name of the Senate President, Saraki. The letter to the Clerk of National Assembly clearly stated those to be so invited to state their own side of the story over the perceived forgery of the rules of the senate. The then Senate President was David mark, Saraki was not. Mark was not invited. The letter clearly invited the principal officers of the seventh Senate and, indeed, the name of Saraki was not there. So, how come Saraki was among those charged to court through the Attorney General in exercise of his constitutional duties? This is another curious explanation begging for answers. Or is it a case of crucify him, crucify him at all cost. The Attorney General of the Federation as the chief law officer of the country is constitutionally empowered to do his duties, but it must be done within the ambit of the law, which he swore to protect. Indeed, no one is above the law. The Attorney General should tell Nigerians his interest in this suit to which he was a counsel as a private legal practitioner and as the chief law officer of Nigeria. Is he not using his official powers to achieve what he could not do as a private lawyer? Nigeria can only move forward when we do what is right irrespective of our opinions. ––Okocha is Special Assistant, Print Media, to the Senate President.

Ahmed the ceremony which was designed to formalise agreements for government back investments within China and abroad. Specifically, the Ningbo Major Investments Signing Ceremony was organised by Ningbo Municipal People’s Government to provide incentives for Chinese companies to invest in other parts of the country and overseas. In all, a total 31 projects worth $3.7bn were consummated at the event. Of the amount, $1.42bn was outbound, including the Kwara investment. The Kwara State Government inked an agreement with the Ningbo Jinsheng Star Import and Export Company for the establishment of the $56m Kwara Chetex Textile Park in the state. During the short segment, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed signed for the state while Zengchao signed for Ningbo Jinsheng. Amidst congratulatory hand pumping and back thumping, an elated Governor Ahmed said he was pleased the deal had finally been signed. He emphasised the fact the textile factory and park were expected to create 3,000 direct jobs and transform the

Irepodun/Edu LG axis of the state. For him, the factory and other infrastructure projects planned for the area will stimulate growth and jobs in the area as part of his admiration’s effort to develop Kwara North. This is part of an overall strategy designed to ensure even development across the state. It was the culmination of a year-long effort involving Ningbo Jinseng, Chinese Officials, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment as well as the State Public Private Partnership Office. Also speaking, Yomi Ogunsola, Chief Economic Assistant to Governor, and DG, PPP Bureau, said the State will provide up to N1bn as counterpart fund, 400 hectares of land as infrastructure support as its own contribution. The next three days will see the team undertaking a four-hour road trip to Anhui Guangxin Agric Chemical Company, another trip to Changxing City and finally to Shanghai. At every stop, the team was treated to full Chinese hospitality including neon lights welcoming Governor Ahmed and the team from Kwara State at hotels and government offices as well as the almost statutory welcome reception. In the process, Governor Ahmed and his team held talks on the establishment of an agro-allied factory and a farm in Kwara State, as well as a visit to a factory to observe the kind of technology that will be deployed at the Kwara Chetex Textile Park in the state. The presence by Synosure, a Chinese Government agency which underwrites and approves Chinese investment abroad, was a major coup for team Kwara as it signaled the company had an opportunity to conduct due diligence on the state and was likely to be more disposed to approving additional investment in Kwara state. Going by the $56m investment and other talks by the team, it was clear that a sleuth of investments are Kwara State-bound and will stimulate more growth, jobs and economic development in the state ––Dr. Akorede, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, (Media and Communication), writes from Ilorin

SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 26, 2016

GAVEL TO GAVEL

Edited by Vincent Obia Email vincent.obia@thisdaylive.com

A Week of Intrigues in the Senate

For the Senate, last week was a week of intrigues as senators moved to assert the independence of the legislature, reports Omololu Ogunmade

his last week in the Senate was full of episodes. It began with criticism of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari by the Senate over moves by the federal government to arraign Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu for alleged forgery of Senate Standing Orders 2015. The Genesis The Senate Standing Orders 2015 was alleged to have been forged by Saraki and some principal officers of the seventh Senate in alleged connivance with the management of the National Assembly ahead of June 9, 2015 elections of Senate’s presiding officers. The document was allegedly forged with the intention to change the Order for the election of presiding officers of the chamber from hitherto open ballot system to secret balloting. The alleged forgery was said to have been spurred by complaints from some senators that going by the Order on voting, they would be unable to vote for their choices of presiding officers because of party leaders who would monitor the election to know who voted for whom. The forgery was therefore allegedly done to hide the identities of senators during the elections. Against this background, Saraki, Ekweremadu, immediate past Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and incumbent Deputy Clerk, Benedict Efeturi, were charged to court for alleged forgery by the federal government. Before the charge, the Nigeria Police had in a letter addressed to the Clerk of the National Assembly, invited Ekweremadu, former Senate President David Mark, former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba, former Rules and Business Committee Chairman, Ita Enang, and the committee’s immediate Clerk, Dr. Nma Ogozy, along with Maikasuwa and Efeturi for interrogation. The letter of invitation for interrogation by the police had excluded Saraki but when the matter was eventually charged to court, Mark, Ndoma-Egba, Enang and Ogozy, were left out while Saraki who was not on the initial invitation list was charged along with Ekweremadu, Maikasuwa and Efeturi. Senate Cries Foul In a strong worded statement issued by the Chairman of Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, last Sunday, the Senate cried wolf, saying Nigerian democracy was being endangered by the attempt by the executive to muzzle the legislature and criminalise legislative processes in its desperate bid to forcefully change the leadership of the National Assembly. Sabi lamented that Nigeria had returned to the era of impunity and flagrant disrespect for due process “which we all fought to abolish.” He urged Buhari to call the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr.Abubakar Malami, to order, pointing out that Senate voted freely to elect its leadership into office “and continuing attempts to change that leadership through the wanton abuse of judicial processes cannot stand in the eyes of the world.” He added: “It is clear that theAttorney-General and party leaders behind this action either lack the understanding of the underlining principles of constitutional democracy, the concept of separation of powers, checks and balances and parliamentary convention or they just simply do not care if the present democracy in the country survives or collapses in their blinded determination to get Saraki and Ekweremadu by all means necessary, including abuse of office and sacking the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “The Nigerian people have enough economic hardship at this time requiring the full attention and cooperation of the three arms of government, instead of these attempts to distract and politicise governance. We are in a state of economic

Senat e in session

emergency such that what the NationalAssembly needs at this time are executive bills and proposals aimed at resolving the crises of unemployment, currency depreciation, inflation, crime and insecurity. What the National Assembly needs now are executive bills to build and strengthen institutions to earn revenues, fight corruption and eliminate waste. “Instead, we are getting hostile actions aimed at destabilising the National Assembly, distracting senators from their oversight functions and ensuring good and accountable governance. We must make it clear here to the individuals in the executive arm and party leadership behind these plots not to mistake the maturity and hand of co-operation being extended to the Presidency by the legislature as a sign of weakness.” Planned Arraignment Foiled Notwithstanding Senate’s criticism of the executive, the federal government proceeded with its plan to arraign the accused persons on Tuesday, June 21. But the plan was aborted as the accused persons were not found in court following claims that they had not been served any notice of arraignment. Against this background, the Judge of the Federal High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Jabi Division, gave an order for substituted service as a result of the claim of the court bailiff that he had found it difficult to serve the accused persons. Therefore, in view of the order for substituted service, the notice of arraignment was pasted on the notice board of the National Assembly on Tuesday. According to the notice, the case, with charge number CV/21916, is between the federal government as “complainant applicant” and defendants listed in the following order: Salisu Maikasuwa; Benedict Efeturi, Dr. Olubukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu. The notice read in part: “By oral application dated 21st June, 2016 moved by D.E Kaswe, Principal State Counsel FMJ in this case praying the court for an order of this Honourable court

granting leave to the complainant application to the complainant applicant to serve the criminal summons on the defendants by substituted means to wit by pasting it at the notice board of the National Assembly, Three Arms Zone and after hearing D.C. Kaswe with A.A. Kaltingo Esq counsel for the complainant/applicant moved the court orally for the above relief.” Senate Went Wild While the court process was ongoing on Tuesday, the Senate locked itself in over two hours of closed-door session where it was brainstorming on the new development and the best way to handle it. In the end, it resolved to move a volatile motion to bomb Buhari and as well summon the AGF to appear before it within the next two days to explain the rationale behind federal government’s decision to charge its presiding officers to court over alleged forgery of Senate rules. Of course, nobody was found to be better fit to move the motion other than Saraki’s fanatical loyalist, Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West). Melaye had in one forum, described Saraki as irremovable. In the motion, he said it was regrettable that the presidency had failed to be concerned about the huge crises and woes of monumental proportion confronting the nation but had instead, concentrated on chasing the shadow by seeking to overthrow the leadership of the Senate at all costs. “My respected colleagues, this very noble Senate observes further notwithstanding, the maturity and nationalistic commitment of the National Assembly to ensure the survival of our democracy and the enthronement of order and national development through bipartisan initiatives and support for the executive. There remains a grand design not only to distract the National Assembly but to also intimidate it into silence and enthrone a one man rule. My colleagues, Mr. president, this Senate notes also the lack of respect for judicial decisions and

the resolutions of the National Assembly by the executive which is beginning to arrogate itself, unifying powers of the federation. The Senate notes that the current attempt to arraign the leadership of the Senate over an internal matter of the Senate and claims spuriously a forgery that does not exist is a smokescreen for an impending attempt to overthrow the legislative arm. “This Senate notes further that the judiciary had through several rulings in a recent case suit no AFC/ABJ/CS/646/2015 on the same issue warned the executive arm from treading on the path of criminalising or interfering in the running of the internal affairs of the Senate. This Senate therefore acknowledges the grave implications of this emerging trends which pose threats to the security and continued existence, unity and survival of our dear country. This Senate is aware that the legislature is empowered subject to provisions of the constitution to regulate its own procedures as explicitly stated in Section 60 of the Nigerian constitution which we have all sworn to uphold. “Mr. president, my colleagues, the Senate is disturbed that instead of applying itself to the myriad of problems confronting the nation including the escalating cost of living, upsurge environment extremism, worsening insecurity, rising ethnic divisions, skyrocketing unemployment, declining national productivity and a nose-diving economy into recession, the executive has continued to be hell-bent on chasing rats while the federation burns,” he said. AGF Calls the Senate’s Bluff Eventually, the Senate mandated its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to summon the AGF to appear before it on Thursday, June 23 to explain why he had the effrontery to charge its principal officers to court. But the AGF, perhaps, perceiving that the summons was self-serving, out-rightly ignored the invitation and stayed away. (see concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)