WEDNESDAY 3RD JUNE 2020

N’Assembly Raises 2020 Budget Oil Price Benchmark to $28 Reduces production to 1.8mbd Okays FG's $5.53bn external loan request Deji Elumoye and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The National Assembly yesterday increased the oil price benchmark to $28 per barrel from the $25 proposed

by the executive in the revised Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) forwarded to the lawmakers for approval.

The two chambers also reduced from 1.9 million to

1.8 million barrel per day oil production target proposed by the executive in the MTEF/ FSP documents.

In addition, the lawmakers approved the $5.513 billion external loan request of the

executive to fund the budget deficit.

Preparatory to the approvals at plenary yesterday in Abuja, the Senate had considered and adopted a report of Senator Olamilekan Adeola-led

Committee on Finance that worked on the revised MTEF/ FSP documents.

Other critical parameters like the exchange rate of N360 to $1; 14.43 inflation rate; 4.42 GDP growth rate

were retained.

Other proposals approved are N5.09 trillion FGN's revenue; N10.51 trillion proposed expenditure; N4.95 Continued on page 9

FG Gives Airlines Conditions for Flight Resumption... Page 8 Wednesday 3 June, 2020 Vol 25. No 9186. Price: N250

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FG Restricts Children from Churches, Mosques, Limits Service to One Hour Deploys Gene-Xpert machines in Kogi, Cross River Worship centres remain closed in Lagos, Kaduna 812 health workers infected with COVID-19 Nigeria resumes participation in WHO’s clinical trials Virus infects 241 more, bringing total to 10,819 with 314 deaths, 3,239 discharged Segun James, Martins Ifijeh in Lagos, Olawale Ajimotokan and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja Following the lifting of restrictions on places of worship, the federal government has issued a safety advisory, which among others, restricted children from churches and Islamiyya schools in mosques, as part of measures to contain the

spread of COVID-19 during regular religious services.

The federal government has also asked governors to take charge of the enforcement of the protocols to contain the spread of the virus.

In Lagos and Kaduna states, therefore, the governments have said places of worship would remain closed.

The virus’ tally rose to 10,819 Continued on page 9

Obaseki Rules Out Defection,Vows to Contest on APC Platform

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has foreclosed defecting to another party to pursue his second term ambition, notwithstanding the groundswell of opposition to his re-election bid by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, and other chieftains from the state.

Obaseki said yesterday

in Abuja that no matter the challenges, he would contest the forthcoming governorship election on the platform of APC. The governor added that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” explaining that “the war has become very tough,” but “men would be separated from the boys.”

Continued on page 9

HOME SUPPORT...

President, Africa Development Bank, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina (left), and Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, during bank chief’s visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja…yesterday godwin omoigui

Buhari Vows Nigeria's Unflinching Support for Adesina... Page 5

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NEWS

Group News Editor Ejiofor Alike Email Ejiofor.Alike@thisdaylive.com, 08066066268

Buhari Vows Nigeria’s Unflinching Support for Adesina They want to smear my reputation, says AfDB boss Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday assured the embattled President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, of Nigeria's unwavering commitment to his second term bid.

The president, while hosting Adesina, who visited him at the State House in Abuja, said the African Union (AU) had already ratified his candidacy for re-election.

The president spoke against the backdrop of a subterranean campaign to knock out Adesina from the race with allegations of impropriety levelled against him by some AfDB officials.

Although the bank's ethics committee, in a report, already upheld by AfDB Governing Board, had cleared him of the allegations, the United States, the largest non-African shareholder, rejected the report.

The US, now supported by other non-African shareholders such as Britain, Norway, Finland, and Denmark, called for an independent panel to probe the allegations, despite the suggestion being outside the governance procedures of the continental bank.

The US' advocacy is widely regarded as a ploy by nonAfrican shareholders of the multilateral institution to deny Adesina a second term in office.

But Buhari, according to a statement by his media

adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, told Nigeria's former minister of Agriculture that if he had gladly supported Adesina when he served as a minister in the opposition party in 2015, he would do more for him now; more so that no Nigerian had faulted the support he offered him then.

He said: “In 2015, when you were to be elected for the first term, I wrote to all African leaders, recommending you for the position.

"I didn’t say because you were a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) minister and I belonged to the All Progressives Congress (APC), so I would withhold my support. I’ll remain consistent with you because no one has faulted the step I took on behalf of Nigeria.�

The president pledged Nigeria's preparedness to work with other leaders and stakeholders of AfDB to ensure Adesina's re-election in view of the record of his achievements during his first term.

The statement explained that whereas AU had already endorsed Adesina as the sole candidate for the continent, some other stakeholders wanted him to be re-investigated over some allegations, with a view to frustrating his second term bid.

The statement added that AfDB boss told Buhari that the 16 allegations raised against him were trumped up “and without facts, evidence, and

Court Orders Kalu’s Release from Prison

Davidson Iriekpen

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos State yesterday ordered the release of a former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, from prison.

Justice Mohammad Liman gave the order after Kalu’s lawyer, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), moved an application for the release of the former governor in court.

Kalu was jailed for 12 years on December 5, 2019, after he was convicted of N7.1 billion fraud alongside his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited, and a former director of finance at Abia State Government House, Mr. Jones Udeogu.

However, the Supreme Court, in a May 8, 2020 judgment, nullified the trial and conviction of Kalu and others on the grounds that the judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, who handled the case lacked jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court’s judgment followed an appeal

by Udeogu contending that Justice Idris concluded the 12-year-old trial and gave judgment after he had been elevated to the Court of Appeal

and had ceased to be a judge of the Federal High Court.

Yesterday, Fagbemi urged Justice Liman to release the exgovernor from prison custody, based on the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Udeogu’s appeal. “Our application is brought pursuant to Section 159 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act. “This is a fallout of the Supreme Court decision delivered on the 8th of May,�

Fagbemi said.

In response, the prosecuting counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said the anti-graft agency would not, in principle, oppose Fagbemi’s application for Kalu’s release. “But we are also urging the court that the order made by the Supreme Court for trial de novo (afresh) should be complied with by all parties; so that Your Lordship will give us a date when arraignment will be done. “We want the trial to go on; losing more time will be dangerous for us,� Jacobs added.

documents, as required by the rules and regulations of the bank.�

Adesina told the president that the Ethics' Committee of the bank cleared him of all the allegations, adding that calls for a fresh investigation by the US were antithetical to the rules.

He said: "My defence ran into 250 pages, and not a single line was faulted or questioned.

The law says that report of the Ethics Committee should be transmitted to the Chairman of Governors of the bank.

"It was done, and the governors upheld the recommendations.

That was the end of the matter, according to the rules.

"It was only if I was culpable that a fresh investigation could be launched.

"I was exonerated, and any

other investigation would amount to bending the rules of the bank, to arrive at a predetermined conclusion.�

Adesina explained that the motive behind the fresh call was to soil both his name and that of the bank, saying he was proud to be a Nigerian and thanked Buhari for his unflinching support. “You helped me to get elected in the first place

and you have supported me robustly all along, and the African Union unanimously endorsed my re-election,� he stated.

Adesina commiserated with Buhari over the death of his former Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, and described his replacement, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, as “a man of integrity and of global standing.�

MINISTERIAL VISIT...

L-R: Minister of Humanitarian Aairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Ms. Sadiya Farouk; Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), during a working visit by the ministers to the governor in Asaba...yesterday

Gencos: 4,159MW Now Stranded from National Grid Say power distribution averages 3,987MW daily

Chineme Okafor in Abuja A new operational report from power generation companies (Gencos) in Nigeria yesterday showed that the volume of stranded electricity – power unable to get to the national grid, has gone up to 4,159 megawatts (MW), up from the 1,030MW that was stranded when the power assets were handed over to the private sector in November 2013.

The report also showed that daily power distribution grew marginally from 3,183.51MW in 2013 to 3,987MW in April 2020.

The Gencos, under the aegis of the Association of Power Generating Companies (APGC), explained that they grew their power production capacities from 4,214.32MW in 2013 to 8,145MW in 2020, but could not supply all the volume to the national grid for distribution due to various systemic challenges.

The report stated that stranded power rose from 1,030.80MW in 2013 to 2,734.94MW in 2014; 3,010.24MW in 2015 and 3916.80MW in 2016.

It dropped to 3,372.72MW in 2017 before rising again to

3,520.12MW in 2018, 3,599MW in 2019 and 4,159MW in 2020.

According to the Gencos, stranded volumes of electricity within the first quarter of 2020 were 3,791MW in January; 3,949MW in February; 4,406MW in March and 4,489MW in April.

An average of 3,987MW was distributed across the country within the quarter. “The supply growth from the takeover date of November 1, 2013 to date shows that available generation capacity, which was 4,214.32MW, has increased by 93.27 per cent to 8,145MW (as Gencos recovered 3,930.68MW). “Due to system constraints, generated power is rejected or forced to be reduced to match the infrastructure that transmits and distributes this power to the customer. “A case in point: In Quarter 1 2020, despite an available generation capability of 8,145MW, Gencos were only allowed to generate 3,987MW, thus losing an average of 4,159MW daily,� the report said.

The Gencos explained the implication of the development on their operation, saying: “With a total available

installed generation capacity of more than 7,500MW and maximum wheeling capacity of not more than 5,500MW, there will always be a recurring instance of about 2,000MW idle generation." The report added: "Idle generation represents capital investment not able to yield revenue that will hence impact the ability of the Gencos to support efficient operations and service loans used in developing the power plants. “Out of the meagre 5,500MW of transmission wheeling capacity, the Discos have not proven to be able to distribute more than 4,500MW, continuously leaving yet another 1,000MW of generation capacity unutilised. “In total, due to the combined technical incapacitation of TCN and the Discos, the Gencos are unable to deploy a total of 3,000MW of capacity that would ensure sustainable profitable operations. If one considers the fact that the Discos have in the recent past been operating around 3,500MW or below, this figure escalates to 4,000MW of idle capacity,� they added.

Also, APGC Executive

Secretary, Dr. Joy Ogaji, said the government’s recent upward review of the Valued Added Tax (VAT) from five per cent to 7.5 per cent raised the Gencos’ gas purchase price by $0.25; from $3.465 per million standard feet (mscf) to $3.55.

Ogaji told THISDAY that Gencos such as the Geregu power “has suffered between February and now N210 million on account of the VAT increments which cannot be passed to anyone.�

She noted that the gas cost price approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in the generation tariffs of the Gencos and subsequently recognised by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) in its payment schedule was $3.30/mmscf, adding that with five per cent VAT, it was $3.465/mmscf but now $3.55/mmscf with 7.5 per cent VAT. Ogaji said: “Thermal Gencos suffer the $0.25/mmscf for every gas consumed to generate power to Nigerians; though Gencos on paper have a buffer to assist with these risks, they are in reality orphans.�

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NEWS

FG Gives Airlines Conditions for Flight Resumption Chinedu Eze The federal government has given airlines a checklist to comply with before they would be certified to resume flight operation, which has been tentatively fixed for June 21, THISDAY has learnt.

These conditions include all the protocols to prevent infection and spread of COVID-19 in flight operations in order to protect travellers; the safety of flights to ensure prevention of accidents and incidents and training requirements that must be met by technical personnel of airlines.

THISDAY learnt that while many charter and private operators have met these conditions, some of the scheduled commercial operators were yet to do so.

The General Manager, Public Affairs of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr. Sam Adurogboye, told THISDAY yesterday that the regulatory body had been working with airlines to meet the checklist before the June 21 reopening date was announced.

According to him, airlines that do not meet the directives as contained in the checklist would not be allowed to resume operations.

He said: “There is a checklist.

You must show that you have maintained your aircraft; your personnel must undergo the required training and meet the given protocols to ensure

that passengers are protected onboard your flight. “This has been an ongoing process before the date of resumption was announced and some of the airlines have met these conditions because you will notice that Air Peace is already operating special services. It means they have met the condition to operate.�

Adurogboye said the June 21 tentative date for flight resumption could be real because it would give airlines and the airports enough time to meet the requirements. “Based on the checklist, we are looking at how airlines maintain their aircraft, disinfecting them and the airports getting disinfected too. They have to acquire all that is needed. “For example, you cannot run out of sanitisers. So, you must have enough of them before you resume. On training, workshops may not be required because these are people who are already well trained and experienced. So, some of the training may be done online and this will include how the cabin crew will attend to the passengers. The training is something that can be done within a few days,� he stated.

THISDAY investigations revealed that only about 13 airlines have met the conditions given to them by NCAA and many of them are charter and private operators. “They must have to meet the

FIRS Extends Waiver Deadline on Interests, Penalties Payment James Emejo in Abuja Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has extended the deadline set to waive interests accruable to debts as well as the related penalties for defaulting taxpayers if they fully settle their indebtedness on or before May 31.

Defaulters now have till June 30 to liquidate outstanding liabilities in order to enjoy a waiver on accumulated penalties and interests.

FIRS Executive Chairman, Mr. Muhammad Nami, in a statement yesterday posted on Twitter, said the extension was part of palliative measures provided to taxpayers in order to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and the economy.

Nami urged taxpayers “having outstanding tax liabilities arising from selfassessment filing, tax audit, tax investigation, and tax review assessments as well as approved installment payment plans under VAIDS that have not been complied with or are partially complied with, to take advantage of the new window to avoid a situation whereby earlier approved incentives will be withdrawn by the service.�

FIRS chairman had earlier announced the decision to waive accumulated penalties and interests for tax defaulters.

He had also directed businesses to commence payment of their annual returns earlier than the due date, apart from their normal monthly obligations.

The moves are part of FIRS’

efforts to mobilise resources for the federal government whose fiscal power has been badly impaired by the drastic fall in global oil prices occasioned by the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

FIRS has also announced the resumption of audit, investigations, and monitoring exercises, earlier suspended as part of measures to cushion the impact of the pandemic.

Nami, in a separate statement, said the resumption was necessitated by current economic realities, which require concerted efforts towards assisting the federal government to mobilise the much-needed revenue for national development.

He said while there would be an immediate continuation of reconciliation of findings/ liabilities arising as a result of desk reviews, monitoring visits, tax audit and investigation, field visits would resume from June 30.

FIRS also warned that effective immediately, it would apply sanctions in line with extant laws against any company operating in the country which fails to keep records as well as report all its transactions for purposes in English language.

"Compliance with this directive will enable the service to perform its statutory functions effectively without any impediment resulting from the language barrier. It is also an opportunity for the affected taxpayers to be transparent in their record-keeping and reporting," Nami said.

health guidelines, licensing, and evidence that they have agreed with the passengers who had already bought tickets before the lockdown on whether to refund them or they will still use the tickets. “We are also looking at the indebtedness the airlines have with suppliers like fuel marketers, catering services, and others. We have already been doing all these before the slated date by the federal government. “Maybe, some of the airlines will become serious now that the date of resumption is out because some have been lackadaisical,� a senior official of the NCAA told THISDAY. The Chief Operating Officer of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, told THISDAY that the airline had been working hard to meet the requirements in the checklist and had met

about 80 per cent of them.

He noted that some of the requirements needed external evaluation and training, like the training that would be conducted by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to him, NCAA stipulated that NCDC would train airlines’ cabin crew on how to handle passengers to ensure that they are protected from the virus while onboard flights.

He said: “We have submitted all the documents needed to restart operations. We are 80 per cent ready. Our aircraft are airworthy. We have placed them ready for emergency flights and airlift of medical supplies. “We are being guided by the manual. Training is ongoing.

NCAA directed that we do

some training online and we have done that in the first phase and we did well. Our certification is 80 per cent completed. So we should be ready within a week or two.�

Sanusi added that NCAA directed that the Ministry of Environment would fumigate the aircraft, “but we will check whether their chemical suits the aircraft manufacturer’s requirements.� “Our aim is to ensure that passengers are protected. We are looking beyond the protocols recommended by NCAA to ensure that passengers and our staff are protected,� Sanusi said.

On the report that government has directed that airlines should carry 50 to 70 per cent of the aircraft capacity, Sanusi said there was no scientific proof that the less number of passengers you carry in the aircraft the less possibility

of their getting infected in the cabin.

He explained that what is critical is to make the cabin safe so that one passenger or 100 passengers would be safe. “Based on the recommendation by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), physical distancing in the aircraft cabin is not recommended because it is commercially unviable. “Why not make the cabin a safe place for every passenger and every staff? That is our goal, to make the cabin safe for everyone. Passengers will wear their mask and we reduce physical contact as much as possible. IATA has noted that when all the protocols are followed infection inside the aircraft is almost zero,� Sanusi added.

WELCOME ONBOARD...

L-R: Registrar/Chief Executive, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Prof. Ahmed Kumshe; ICAN President, Mrs. Onome Adewuyi; and past president, Chief Emmanuel Ijewere, during the investiture of Adewuyi as the 56th president of the institute in Lagos‌yesterday sunday adigun

FG to Earn N2.3bn from Applications for Marginal Fields Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Nigeria would rake in at least N2.3 billion from nonrefundable application fees for the ongoing marginal oilfields bid rounds, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said.

The 2020 oil bid round is coming 18 years after the first one was conducted in 2002, with the agency's Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Sarki Auwalu, promising Nigerians an open and transparent process.

The agency’s guidelines on the 2020 oil bid round indicated that payment by interested bidders shall attract non-refundable application fees of N2 million per field.

It added that the bid processing fee of N3 million per field, data prying fee of $15,000 per field, data leasing fee of $25,000 per field, competent persons report of $50,000 and $25,000 for fields specific reports would also apply.

However, the bid round is opened to indigenous companies and investors interested in participating in the exploration and production business in Nigeria.

According to the regulatory agency, in the 2020 oil bid round, a total of 57 fields located on land, swamp and shallow offshore terrains are on offer and the exercise would be conducted electronically.

It said the process would include expression of interest/

registration, pre-qualification, technical and commercial bid submission and bid evaluation.

With the above, interested bidders are expected to pay a total of $115,000 in statutory fees and another N5 million in the local currency, the agency noted.

At the official exchange rate of $360/$1, the 57 oil fields on offer gives N2,364,800,000, including the N5 million payment, DPR said.

The agency added that all application fees and processing fees are expected to be paid into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), while the signature bonuses are expected to be paid into the Federation Account.

Also, fees for data leasing, data prying, Competent Persons

Report (CPR) and Field Specific Report are to be paid into the National Data Repository (NDR) account for repayment.

According to the approved guidelines, applicants must show evidence of technical and managerial capability and must also demonstrate the ability to fully meet the objective of undertaking expeditious and efficient development of a marginal field.

DPR supervises all petroleum industry operations being carried out under licences and leases, including monitoring the industry to ensure that activities are in line with national goals and aspirations as well as processing industry applications for leases, licences, and permits.

APC NWC Denies Endorsing Akeredolu Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied endorsing Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, saying neither the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, nor any member of the party's National Working Committee (NWC) has the power to endorse any aspirant.

The party, while reacting

to a statement credited to a group, Unity Mandate Agenda, alleging that Akeredolu has been "endorsed," described the statement as a grievous falsehood intended to create disaffection among members of the party.

APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, in a statement issued yesterday, said the party was not in the business of endorsing aspirants.

He stated: "Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to a group ‘Unity Mandate Agenda,’ alleging that the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has been 'endorsed' for a second term by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, and the party's National Working Committee (NWC).

"We hereby refute this

spurious statement and wish to state unequivocally that neither the National Chairman nor any member of the party's National Working Committee (NWC) has the power to endorse any aspirant.

"The APC is not in the business of endorsing aspirants. As a progressive party, our ultimate guiding principle is strict adherence to the tenets of participatory democracy."

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PAGE NINE FG RESTRICTS CHILDREN FROM CHURCHES, MOSQUES, LIMITS SERVICE TO ONE HOUR

in the country yesterday having infected 241 more persons.

The number of deaths rose from 299 to 314 in the last 24 hours even as 3,239 persons have been discharged.

Announcing this last night, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lagos State recorded 142 new cases, Oyo 15, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) 13, Kano 12, Edo 11, Delta 10, Kaduna and Rivers nine each, Borno eight, Jigawa four, Gombe and Plateau three each, while Osun and Bauchi recorded one each.

In Kaduna, the Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, said religious activities would remain on lockdown, adding that the state government had started engagements with business, community and religious leaders to discuss and agree on the protocols for the safe re-opening of businesses, markets and resumption of congregational worship.

The decision in the case of Lagos State would be taken

by Governor Babajide SanwoOlu, who would take into consideration, the rising cases of the pandemic in the state.

The advisory to churches and mosques, which was developed in liaison with the leadership of the religious community and state governments, was reeled out yesterday by the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Control, Dr. Sani Aliyu, during the task force’s media briefing in Abuja.

He, however, insisted that it's safer for the public to worship at home because religious places are particularly recognised to have the major potential of spreading the virus among worshippers.

He said places of worship that are unable to comply with the measures should not be allowed to operate by governors.

Aliyu said the advisory was issued in the event that members of the public wanted to perform their spiritual needs and it's impossible to carry it out at home.

Some of the recommended guidelines, which PTF noted are minimum standards that mosques and churches must comply with include, the supply of running water, soaps and alcohol sanitisers at entry and exit points and in all high contact locations, including bathroom.

He added that worshippers must sanitise their hands and undergo temperature checks before entry.

The use of face masks is now mandatory in mosques and churches, while all close contacts, including shaking of hands, hugging, kissing, handling out of materials and sharing of worship items, including prayer mats, musical organs, and microphone is strongly discouraged. ''The capacity of the facility should be limited to allow for physical distancing rules to apply.

Local authorities should also be advised in terms of areas of hotspot that might require greater restriction. Volunteers should be restricted to a certain number and none of the volunteers should have an underlying condition or be above the age of 55 years,'' Aliyu said.

PTF also recommended limiting congregation time for places of worships, only opening for regular church and mosque services.

Under this proposal, churches are to open from 5.00 a.m. and close by 8.00 p.m. automatically

ruling out night vigils.

Each church service would be for a maximum of one hour with an interval of 30 minutes in between services to allow time for disinfection.

Mosques may open 15 minutes before Adhan (call to prayer) and close 10 minutes after prayer for fajr, subr and asr. Prayers are to be shortened to reduce contacts between congregants. ''The reason for this, as I said yesterday, is that there are various factors that contribute to you catching COVID-19 when you come across somebody with it.

And one of the factors is the duration with that person. The longer you stay with that person, the less protected the person is in terms of face mask - or you yourself. The closer you are to the person, the higher the likelihood of catching COVID-19,'' he said.

He added that for Friday Jummat prayers, mosques are to open 20 minutes before prayers and close 20 minutes after prayers. The duration of Friday prayers, including sermons, should not exceed an hour, he said.

Similarly, Aliyu also noted that Islamiyya schools, children’s Sunday schools and children’s activities, as well as night vigils, are to remain suspended, adding that for mosques, only five daily prayers and Friday Jummat service are permitted.

According to him, mass gatherings that make it impossible to enforce physical distancing are not allowed, while it's advised that prayer sessions should be staggered to accommodate people.

Aliyu also said church worshippers should be encouraged to sign up for

preferred service time ,while virtual worship options should be made available.

He also added that if possible places of worship should plan for separate entry and exit point.

In addition, there should be no social gathering before and after services.

He also strongly objected to operation of business outlets within churches and mosques, saying they should remain closed while people with underlying conditions, such as HIV, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and those above 55 years are advised to stay at home and consider remote participation or non-contact attendance. ''When we look at the mortality rate for people who have died from COVID-19 in Nigeria, more than half of those that died were above the age of 50.

Secondly, the case fatality rate if you are above the age of 50 is 17 per cent; if you are above the age of 60; it's 18 per cent - it is almost one in five chances of dying if you catch COVID-19 and you fall within that group.

There should be improved environmental hygiene and clear decontamination processes. For instance, places of worship should ideally be free of carpets to allow easy and regular disinfection of floors and furniture. Windows should be left open during service and preferably use non-enclosed open-air services as much as possible,'' he explained.

He reminded worshippers not to attend in person if they are experiencing common symptoms of COVID-19, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath or have had close contact with an infected person in the last

N’ASSEMBLY RAISES 2020 BUDGET OIL PRICE BENCHMARK TO $28 trillion fiscal deficit; N4.17 trillion

new borrowings (including foreign and domestic borrowing).

Others are: N398.5 billion as statutory transfers; N2.68 trillion for debt serving; N272.9 billion as a sinking fund; as well as N536.7 billion for pension and gratuities.

The Senate also retained the critical components of the proposal as presented by the executive with the adoption of N10.51 trillion as total expenditure, N4.93 trillion as total recurrent, N2.83 trillion for personnel cost and N2.23 trillion for capital expenditure.

Presenting the committee's report, Adeola said the increase effected on the oil price benchmark was as a result of the recent upward trend of the crude oil market, which yesterday stood at $38 per barrel with a strong expectation that the price would rise to $45 per barrel.

The Senate also approved the $5.513 billion external loan request of the presidency to fund the revised 2020 budget deficit.

This was sequel to the presentation of the report of the Senator Clifford Ordia-led Committee on Foreign and

Local Debts that recommended the approval of the external borrowing.

According to the Senate, the loan approval would immediately provide the much-needed liquidity to finance deficit the revised Appropriation (Amendment) Act of 2020 and enable the federal government to implement and pursue some key priority activities towards the curtailment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Flowing from this and based on clarification and information provided by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the Senate decided to accelerate the consideration for approval, a sum of $5,513,000,000, being the first component of the request in respect of the funding of the budget deficit proposed for the 2020 fiscal year.

"The approved $5.513 billion loan, which is to be sourced from multilateral institutions for funding on concessionary terms, include $3.4 billion to be borrowed from International Monetary Fund (IMF), $1.5 billion from World Bank, $500 million from African Development Bank

(AfDB) and $133 million from Islamic Development Bank (IDB)," the report said.

The Senate, however, suspended a decision on $1.5 billion loan request to fund projects in the 36 states due to the non-availability of details to back up the projects.

The Senate noted that in the absence of the required details, it would resume the consideration of the other two outstanding components of the president's external borrowing "request relating to funding of priority projects of the federal government to be captured in the budget estimates for 2021 and facilities to support states’ government to face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Speaking after the adoption of the reports, the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, urged the Senate Committee on Privatisation to liaise with the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) in ensuring that the projected N260 billion from the proceeds of privatised agencies is realised and used to fund the budget.

He frowned at some of the special accounts being kept by the executive, particularly

Natural Resources Development Accounts.

According to him, such accounts at this time of scarcity of funds to finance the budget are not necessary.

"Keeping monies in Natural Resources Development Accounts is more of waste than serving critical purposes," he said.

He adjourned sitting of the Senate till next Tuesday for consideration and possible passage of the revised N10.509 trillion 2020 budget.

Also yesterday, the House of Representatives approved $22,798,446,773 billion federal government's loan request under the 2016–2018 Medium Term External Borrowing plan.

The House approved the loan request at plenary after the Chairman of its Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Hon. Ahmed Safana, had submitted its report, which was adopted.

The House, however, urged the federal government to source funding for the Port HarcourtMaiduguri rail line in the next borrowing plan.

It said: "The House approves the under listed ongoing

14 days.

Govs to Enforce Protocols Also speaking at the briefing, the Chairman of the task force, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said the task force would continue to monitor the progress and keep the option of review of the protocols open should such needs arise.

He said while the federal government had issued so many protocols with regards to business places and places of worship, the responsibility for the enforcement is ultimately with the state governors and security agencies.

Mustapha noted that governors have the responsibility to superintend over their territory, adding that the federal government wants to see enforcement that applies to confinement of the governors' responsibility and jurisdiction. ''The governors have the responsibility to superintend over their territory. Most of the issues we want to see enforcement applied are things that attend to the confines of their responsibility and jurisdiction to ensure enforcement in those areas. ''I can assure you that I have seen some of the governors in action. I am quite satisfied with the level of enforcement that they have demonstrated. They might not all be in the same category; some have been quite decisive in dealing with this pandemic, some probably because of the numbers they have not been that decisive in the open as you will see with certain governors that are working very hard to ensure that they limit the rates as much as possible - the rate of negotiation of external borrowing in the sum of $22,798,446,773 (under the 2016–2018 Medium Term External Borrowing plan.

"World Bank - $2,854,000,000; Africa Development Bank $1,888,950,000; Islamic Development Bank (IDB)$110,000,000; JICA - $200,000,000; German Development Bank $200,000,000; China Eximbank - $17,065,496,773; and AFD$480,000,000."

The House also yesterday called on the federal government to increase the crude oil bench mark from $25 to $28 per barrel.

It also described the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as illegal, because it has no backing of the law and recommended that the account be scrapped with immediate effect. Besides, it called on the federal government to comply with sections 80 and 81 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

The House made the call after approving the report on the revised 2020–2022 MTEF and FSP laid before it by the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke.

It said the National Assembly

OBASEKI RULES OUT DEFECTION, VOWS TO CONTEST ON APC PLATFORM The Oshiomhole camp in the state chapter of the party has propped up a former Secretary to the State Government, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who recently defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to struggle with Obaseki for the party's governorship ticket.

However, some APC governors have launched a troubleshooting process to rally support for their Edo State colleague.

Towards this end, a delegation of APC governors met on Sunday in Lagos with the party's National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, and Oshiomhole on Monday to resolve the differences between the two factions of the party in the state amicably.

However, receiving members of the Obaseki Mandate Group, who visited him at Edo

Governor's Lodge in Abuja, Obaseki said someone with no track record of success in anything should not be given a chance to rule the state.

He said: "I have chosen the party that brought me in the first place, the APC. No matter the challenges, I will run on the platform of my party. And I'm sure by the grace of God, I will overcome.

"I'm not saying I won't have contestants - of course, democracy is about contestations.

"Tell me what you want to do for the people, and I will tell you what I can do. Tell me what you have done for the people and I will also tell the people what I have done for them, and the people will make a choice, that is what democracy is about; that is what our democracy should be."

The governor said while the challenges ahead were enormous, the men would be separated from the boys.

Obaseki said: "I want to assure you that the last three-and-a-half years have been like a university for us; we have been learning. “This election will now make us graduates. If you think we have achieved anything in the last three years, by the grace of God, just watch out for the next four years.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The war has become very tough, with COVID-19, the challenges ahead of us are enormous and that is when you are going to separate the men from the boys.

"If you do not have courage, if you do not have energy, particularly intellectual courage

and capacity, you may not be able to cope; that is what we are bringing to the table in this election and in the next government."

The governor noted that with COVID-19, lives would never be the same again and that the pandemic had pressed a reset button on the world, particularly Nigeria.

He said: “That is why anybody who is seeking public office today that has no track record of how he served the public good, or has no track record of success in anything else, that has no track record of having managed not even a kiosk successfully, cannot and should not be given an opportunity to serve.�

According to him, his group has been striving to remove the bad men from politics because

politics has been associated with all sorts of unpleasant things that people who have so much to offer are scared to offer their services.

Obaseki noted that he was proud of what he had done with basic and technical education in the state.

"Yes, we have not made as much noise because we have been working, we don't have time. Those who are making noise and striving and telling lies have all the time to do so because they don't have jobs. Most of them haven't done anything in a long while. Most of them don't have skills or capacity. Their skills are just to steal public funds and to lie. Today, we have almost 300,000 children in Edo State in our public school system, who are now learning," he said.

transmission into their territory.

"And now that the virus has ceded itself into parts of the country, every governor will have to take ownership of this level of driving home everything that has to do with our response to this pandemic. This is the time for the governors to stand out for their people and ensure the implementation of the guidelines,'' Mustapha said.

Nigeria Resumes Participation in WHO’s Solidarity Trials Meanwhile, Nigeria, according to PTF, has resumed her participation in the World Health Organisation (WHO)-facilitated drug trials for the cure of the virus, which was suspended last month based on the advice of the global health body.

Nigeria had suspended her participation in the clinical trials known as WHO Solidarity Trials last month following the advice by the world body.

Speaking during the media briefing, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the return to the trials was informed by the realisation that Nigeria has something to add to the body of knowledge to be generated from the trials.

"After consultation with top Nigerian scientists of the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee, I am advised that Nigeria has something to add to the body of knowledge around these trials. I have, therefore, approved the continuation of the trial, as recommended, under strong precautionary conditions to be built into it," he said.

Continued on page 38

should, as a matter of urgency, amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act to make it more responsive to present-day realities, while also calling on all agencies of government to submit their revenue performances to the National Assembly on a monthly basis.

It stated: "That the Excess Crude Account has no backing of the law. The committee therefore recommends that the account be scrapped with immediate effect and comply with sections 80 and 81 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended); "That the crude oil benchmark is recommended to be increased by $3 thereby increasing from $25 to $28 per barrel; and that the oil production output should be retained at 1.8 million per barrel."

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

Buhari, Tinubu Condemn Killing of UNIBEN Student IG directs FCID to take over investigation Chiemelie Ezeobi in Lagos, Olawale Ajimotokan and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, yesterday condemned the rape and murder of the 100-level student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Edo State, Miss Uwaila Omozuwa.

This is coming as the InspectorGeneral of Police, Mohammed Adamu, yesterday ordered the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) to take over investigation into the sexual assault and death of the late student.

The president in a tweet tasked the police to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

“I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Uwaila Omozuwa.

I expect the Nigeria Police Force to speedily and diligently investigate this case and ensure that all the culprits responsible for this barbaric act are brought to justice,” Buhari tweeted.

In a separate tweet in his

personal handle, Tinubu noted that “for far too long, women and young girls in our nation have suffered the pain, hurt and stigma of gender-based violence and abuse.

“Too many have been hurt, intimidated and bullied. Too many have died. Such violence is inexcusable. There is nothing that can defend this wrongdoing,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, the IG, Adamu, yesterday ordered the FCID to take over investigation into the sexual assault and death of the student.

The IG’s directive is sequel to the preliminary report from the team of investigators and forensic experts earlier deployed to assist the Edo State Police Command in the investigations into the unfortunate incident.

The DIG in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), DIG Anthony Ogbizi Michael, would henceforth provide direct supervision and ensure speedy and thorough investigation of the case, a Force Headquarters statement issued

Senate Confirms Dankaka’s Appointment as FCC Chairman, despite Protests Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Senate yesterday ignored protests by the Senate’s Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, and confirmed the appointment of Dr. Muheeba Dankaka, as the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) and 36 other members.

The nominees were confirmed after the upper chamber considered the report of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs.

When the Chairman of the committee, Senator Danjuma La’ah, concluded his presentation, Abaribe, drew the attention of his colleagues to the lopsidedness in the appointment of Dankaka and the Secretary of the commission.

Abaribe noted that Nigerians from the same part of the country were occupying the position of chairman and secretary of the

commission.

He said the two principal positions in the commission had always been occupied on the basis of North and South.

He argued that, over the years, northerners were being appointed as chairmen of the commission while Secretary to the Commission had always been from the south in line with section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“Appointment of Mohammed Bello Tukur from Taraba State in 2017 as Secretary of the Commission by President Muhamnadu Buhari, gave the impression that a new chairman would be from the South but the nomination of Dr. Muheeba Dankaka from Kwara State as the new chairman, violated the age-long principle.

“The Senate needs to look into this in the spirit of the principles of the federal character itself,” he said

Court Frees Melaye from Alleged Falsehood Charge Alex Enumah in Abuja An Abuja High Court yesterday set Senator Dino Melaye free from a charge filed against him for allegedly providing false information to the Nigeria Police Force.

Justice Olasumbo Goodluck of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) discharged the former senator representing Kogi-west from the two-count charge on the grounds that the prosecution was unable to prove allegations in the charge.

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), had arraigned Melaye on a two- count charge bordering on giving false information to the police.

After the prosecution closed its case, Melaye through his lawyer,

Mr Olusegun Jolaawo (SAN) had filed a no-case submission, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove anything against him.

In a ruling, the judge upheld the no-case submission and accordingly dismissed the federal government’s suit.

In count one, “there is no evidence that the defendant gave false information to any person in public service.”

She also described the evidence given by PW1 (Onoja) as “vague”.

Goodluck held that “Neither of the two witnesses elicited evidence on the status of Mohammed Abubaker Audu.”

“Hence, there is lack of evidence on the nature of the status of employment or if at all he is employed not to talk of him being engaged in public service,” she said.

in Abuja, said.

The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has ordered the immediate transfer of the ongoing investigations into the inhuman sexual assault and death of Miss Vera Uwaila Omosuwa which occurred recently in Benin, Edo State from the Police State Headquarters, Benin to the

Force headquarters, Abuja. The IGP’s directive is sequel to the preliminary report from the team of investigators and forensic experts earlier deployed to assist the Edo State Police Command in the investigations into the unfortunate incident. The DIG in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID),

DIG Anthony Ogbizi Michael, fdc will henceforth provide direct supervision and ensure speedy and thorough investigation of the case.

The IG has also ordered the immediate deployment of specialised investigators and additional investigation assets to all the gender desks offices

and the Juvenile Welfare Centres (JWC) across the country. “This is to strengthen and enhance the capacity of the units to respond to increasing challenges of sexual assaults and domestic/genderbased violence linked with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other social ills within the country”, it said.

ADVERTISING ON THEIR MINDS...

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (left), and the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mrs. Grace Isu-Gekpe, when the minister’s virtual inauguration of the Task Team on Audience Measurement in Advertising in Abuja... yesterday

House Urges AfDB Board to Reject Fresh Probe of Adesina Udora Orizu in Abuja The House of Representatives yesterday asked the board of African Development Bank (AfDB) to disregard the call for a fresh probe of the bank’s President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina.

The House made the call at the plenary yesterday following a motion moved by the Minority Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, entitled, “Attempts to Tarnish

the Image and Hard-Earned Reputation of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank on Trumped-Up Allegations.”

Adopting the motion, the lawmakers urged the federal government to call on all African leaders to intervene in the matter.

While moving the motion, Elumelu recalled that on May 8, 2015, Adesina was elected the presumptive President of the

AfDB, being the first Nigerian to hold such office.

According to him, the AfDB, under Adesina’s leadership, has been very remarkable in steering the organisation, and its presence highly visible and impactful in less than five years of his headship.

The lawmaker, however, said, “The House is concerned that recently, a group of whistleblowers petitioned Dr Adesina, accusing him of 16 breaches of the bank’s code

of conduct, some of which include private gains, impediments to efficiency, preferential treatment and involvement in political activities, which Adesina has continued to deny.

“The House is further concerned that on an investigation by the ethics committee of the board of directors, the allegations were found to be frivolous, unsubstantiated, lack merit and, therefore, exonerated Adesina on all 16 allegations.

Tribunal Summons Bayelsa Dep Gov over Alleged Certificate Forgery Alex EnumahinAbuja The BayelsaStateGovernorshipElection Petition Tribunal, sitting in Wuse area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, yesterday ordered the state’s Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, to appear before it on Thursday and produce his original NationalYouthService Corps (NYSC)

exemption certificate.

Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, made the order in a short ruling on an application by lawyer to the deputy governor.

The order is in furtherance of a subpoena earlier issued on Ewhrudjakpo to appear and produce the original of his exemption certificate issued to him in 1998

by the corps.

Candidate of the Liberation Movement (LM) party in the November 16, 2019 governorship election, Mr. Vijah Opuama is seeking the sack of Governor Douye Diri and his deputy on the grounds that the deputy was not qualified to have participated in the governorship election for allegedly

submitting a forged exemption certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election.

The petitioner who is challenging the election without his party, accordingly applied to the tribunal to issue a subpoena on Ewhrudjakpo to come and testify on the certificate matter.

FG Debunks Report of Non-compliance with OPEC Output Deal Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The federal government yesterday rejected reports in a foreign news medium alleging the Nigeria was not in compliance with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s crude oil production cut deal struck with member states in April.

The report had suggested that survey data indicated that “Nigeria and Iraq did not live up to their commitments under the massive production cut deal that promised to take 9.7 million barrels of oil production per day out of the oversupplied market.”

But in a statement he personally signed yesterday, the Minister of

State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, disputed the report, insisting that Nigeria had complied substantially. He noted that full compliance will be implemented by the end of June, stating that the reported 19 per cent compliance to the output deal was not correct.

According to Sylva, while the current compliance level is 52 per

cent, the figure released in the report erroneously calculated condensates as part of the expected reduction in the OPEC quota.

“Nigeria joined its other OPEC+ counterparts in April 2020 to bring into effect the agreement to cut 9.7 mbd that will ameliorate the current situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ikpeazu’s Two Aides Test Positive for COVID-19 Tobi Soniyi The Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, his wife, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, and all members of Abia’s first family have tested negative for COVID -19.

A statement that was personally signed by Ikpeazu reads: “Leading this battle from the front as your

governor, I and all members of the first family subjected ourselves to COVID-19 tests on Saturday, May 30, 2020, and the results came out negative yesterday.

“Unfortunately, results of two of my aides who also subjected themselves to COVID-19 tests were positive while others turned in negative results. We are confident

that within days, the currently asymptomatic positive patients who are now isolated will be successfully nursed back to good health, with God on our side.”

Ikpeazu said that the new phase of the fight against COVID-19 in Abia would require massive testing of citizens to achieve at least 10% per cent coverage of

our population at the initial stage of the exercise.

“To this end, the state epidemiologist has been directed to work out modalities for case searches using sample population size of between 30 to 250 persons, in some densely populated local government areas (LGAs) of the state.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020

MIDWEEKPOLITICS

Group Politics Editor NSEOBONG OKON-EKONG Email nseobong.okonekong@thisdaylive.com 08114495324 SMS ONLY

A N A LY S I S

As FHC Authenticates Virtual Court Sittings Davidson Iriekpen writes that the release of the ‘Practice Directions 2020 for the COVID-19 Period’ by the Federal High Court has given legitimacy to virtual court proceedings

D

espite the reservations expressed in some quarters about virtual court proceedings, the Federal High Court (FHC) recently released guidelines and practice directions authorising judges of the court to adopt the policy for cases in all its judicial divisions nationwide. In a practice direction titled: ‘Practice Directions 2020 for the COVID-19 Period,’ released by the Chief Judge of the court, Justice John Tsoho, he said the policy essentially responded to growing calls for technology to be infused in court proceedings.

“Virtual proceeding is hereby adopted for adjudication in the Federal High Court.

Virtual proceedings can be either by Zoom, Skype or any other audio-visual platform approved by the court,” he said.

Under the rules which took effect from May 18, judges of the court cannot hear more than nine cases in a day. Judge and counsel involved are also expected to wear their robes for such proceedings. The new rules can however, only be held with the consent of the parties and their counsel.

The practice directions state that cases for virtual proceedings shall be stated on the Cause List, posted on the court’s website and communicated to counsel and parties, either by e-mail, Whatsapp, test messages or any other electronic means. It also allows for Service of court processes to be effected by e-mails, WhatsApp or as may be directed by the court, and the print out of same shall be sufficient proof of service.

In keeping with federal and states COVID-19 regulations, the Chief Judge also made the wearing of face masks and maintaining of social distancing mandatory. It added that every person within the premises of the court and inside the courtroom is to observe social and physical distancing of not less than two meters (six feet) apart from each other.

The practice directions also stipulate that at any given time, there shall not be a congregation of more than 10 persons within the court premises, except for purposes of court sittings where there shall not be more than 20 persons inside the courtroom including the court staff and counsel at court sittings.

Recall that with the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country and the attendant lockdown and restriction of movements, most lawyers were feeling frustrated that they being denied the opportunity to practise their trade. This made the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to direct that cases that were time bound and urgent be heard. But lawyers could not leave their houses because of lockdowns imposed by states.

To ensure that the justice system was not grounded to a total halt, some senior lawyers wrote to the CJN to consider adoption of remote court sitting.

In one of such letters, the Justice Reform Project, in a letter dated April 14, 2020, urged the CJN “to consider issuing immediate Court Directions and Protocols to ensure the continued administration of justice in the face of the pandemic.”

This made the CJN in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to set up a 10-man committee with Justice Tsoho as a member.

The committee, headed by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, was to come up with urgent practical strategic measures to ensure courts continue to function despite the lockdown and restrictions arising from the COVID-19 challenges. The committee, which submitted its penultimate week, recommended far-reaching guidelines for the smooth running of courts during the

Muhammad

pandemic including but not limited to the use of appropriate technology for virtual or remote hearings.

Apart from Justices Rhodes-Vivour, other members of the committee included the Acting President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Monsem and Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho.

Also in the committee were President of the National Industrial Court, Justice B. B. Kanyip; Chief Judge of the FCT, Justice Ishaq Bello; Justice Kashim Zannah and Justice O. A. Ojo. Three private practising Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) were part of the committee. There were President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Paul Usoro, A. B. Mahmoud and D. D. Dodo.

The committee at the end of its assignment, among other recommendations in line with federal government’s guidelines for taming the spread of COVID-19, recommended the use for technology by of way virtual sitting in court proceedings, a decision the CJN and NJC approved.

However, some judges and lawyers were opposed to the virtual courts’ sittings, saying it was unconstitutional. It was gathered that many of the judges, particularly at the high court level and the Court of Appeal, were of the view that there are constitutional hurdles to cross before Nigeria can adopt a system of remote hearing of cases.

Some of them who spoke with THISDAY on condition of anonymity expressed reservations about the adoption of the digital platforms of hearing cases without first, amending the Constitution. They reasoned

that cases heard and determined under such arrangement were most likely to be set aside by the Supreme Court on the grounds that such hearings did not meet the constitutional thresholds for determining cases.

They hinged their position on Section 36 (3) and (4) of the Constitution provide which provide that “(3) The proceedings of a court or the proceedings of any tribunal relating to the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section (including the announcement of the decisions of the court or tribunal) shall be held in public.

(4) Whenever any person is charged with a criminal offence, he shall, unless the charge is withdrawn, be entitled to a fair hearing in public within a reasonable time by a court or tribunal…”

Citing cases already decided by the Supreme Court, the judges argued that the requirement for public hearing and determination of cases in Nigeria is mandatory as the operative word is “shall”, which means that it is compulsory.

“If you look at the authorities, I’m not sure hearing through Zoom or Skype will amount to public hearing,” one of the judges said.

The authorities appear to support the position of the judges. For instance, the Supreme Court, in the case of Edibo v. the State (2007) 13 NWLR (Pt. 1051) p. 306, set aside the conviction and sentence of the appellant and others who were charged with culpable homicide punishable by death on the ground that it was unconstitutional for the trial judge to have taken their pleas in his chambers. The apex court held that the

In keeping with federal and states COVID-19 regulations, the Chief Judge also made the wearing of face masks and maintaining of social distancing mandatory. It added that every person within the premises of the court and inside the courtroom is to observe social and physical distancing of not less than two meters (six feet) apart from each other

judge’s chambers were not a public place.

The question many judges are asking is, will a court hearing held through Zoom or Skype be considered to have been held in a public place?

Matters got to a head when the Senate penultimate week, held that until a bill is passed into, court proceedings or hearings conducted via zoom, skype, WhatsApp video or any other social media platform or technological innovation would be deemed illegal. For this reason, a bill seeking to legalise virtual court proceedings in line with present social distancing measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country passed for first reading on the floor of the chamber.

The sponsor of the bill, titled: ‘1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) Bill, 2020,’ Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, said court proceedings or hearings conducted via technological innovation would be deemed legal after the Constitution has been amended to reflect the new proposals. This according to him, endangers the results of proceedings eventually held virtually.

So many questions have since arisen from the debate trailing the lofty idea which include: Must everything be in black and white before it become operational? Can’t the judiciary on its own fashion out how to run itself through administrative policy guidelines? If the NJC approves a policy, can it be quashed or declared illegal by any court including the Supreme Court when even the Supreme Court is already adopting the guidelines for its sittings?

And finally, now that Federal High Court has issued Practice Direction 2020 for the COVID-19 Period, will they still say that virtual court proceedings are illegal?

This is why many are also wondering why the NJC, the highest judicial body in the country would approve an administrative policy to improve courts’ proceedings and some persons are expressing reservations about its legality. Not even when the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and even the Supreme Court have started implementing the policy. For instance, sincelockdown, the Supreme Court has delivered over four key judgments virtually. Even the Lagos State High Court has long adopted the policy.

It is against this backdrop many have agreed with a senior lawyer, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro SAN, who disagreed with those who feel an amendment to the Constitution is required to accommodate virtual or remote hearings before same can be adopted and conducted in Nigeria. He stated that the Senate bill for an amendment to the Constitution to make provision for remote hearings legal is not necessary. The senior advocate opined that it is not everything that should be in the Constitution black and white.

Hear him: “It is therefore not surprising that there is no provision in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) on how the executive arm of government is to hold its meetings (Federal Executive Council meetings) or for how the Senate or the House of Representatives would hold parliamentary sessions. Such issues have been easily dealt with by the rules set up by the executive and the legislative houses.

In fact, recently the Federal Executive Council held its meeting virtually with no ruse as to requirement of constitutional amendment. Why then should there be a constitutional amendment specifying how the judiciary should hold court sessions after the Constitution has specified their powers and jurisdiction. This is clearly unnecessary.”

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍąËœ 2020

COMMENT

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

ALMAJIRISATION OF IGBO LAND Militant almajiris pose a threat to Ndigbo, writes Sonnie Ekwowusi

N

ot infrequently they are loaded together with cattle in trailers and trucks and offloaded in Igbo land even under the watch of security agents and skeptical onlookers. To avert any suspicious eye in these times of inter-state lockdown, they are perfectly crated or umarudikkorized or concealed inside foodstuff containers and transported all the way from the North down to the hearts and hinterlands of Igbo land. Ndigbo are fear-stricken. First Republic elder statesman Chief Amaechi Mbazurike fears that the worst may happen to Ndigbo. As far as he is concerned, Ndigbo is under the worst siege at the moment. He ascribed the siege to the attempt to Islamize the Igbo nation by force. Like a river that has burst its bank they are pouring into Igbo land day by day. They are unstoppable. They are stubborn.

They are irrepressible. They seem to come from everywhere. It seems as if they are also coming out from the ant holes. As we speak, they are still gaining unimpeded access into Igbo land in the full glare of the fearful Igbo natives who watch helplessly as they encumber the different Igbo social strata, Igbo forests and Igbo social milieu.

Who are these unsolicited visitors? They are the Almajirai, that is, the innocent little kids from the North who do not go to school but instead loiter the streets and expressways begging for alms. I beg your pardon; they are not the beggar-Almajirai: they are the militant-Almajirai. The militant-Almajirai are different from the beggar-Almajirai. Whereas the mission of the beggar-Almajirai is to beg for alms or food in the streets in order to maintain a simple existence, but, the militant-Almajirai or the young adults being ferried to Igbo land these days are on a mission from the devil. Their only mission in Igbo land is to destroy the place or cause mayhem. By the way, it is very instructive that our 1999 Constitution guarantees freedom of movement across the country. It also guarantees freedom for any member of the Nigerian society to migrate from one tribal enclave to the other to eke out a living or search for better opportunities in life. Therefore in the light of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the Nigerian federalism, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the popular case of Shugaba Adburrahaman Daman V Minister of Internal Affairs & Others, the Almajirai from the North can exercise their rights to migrate to Igbo land to live there or beg for alms. After all, they are generations of Northerners who have been living in Igbo land for years. In the same vein, they are uncountable Igbos freely residing in most nooks and crannies of the North for years. More importantly, social displacement is inevitable.

Even at Trafalgar Square, London and other important places in many countries there are beggars loitering around the whole esplanade begging for money from passers-by. We are all members of one human family though tongues and tribes may differ. Therefore we should be our brothers’ keeper. The Almajirai, cripple, sick, mad men and women and the socially-uprooted in our midst are also human beings. The perception of our common humanity dictates that we rehabilitate them instead of expelling them from our midst.

Having said this, the militant-Almajirai or the fierce-looking armed young adults infiltrating Igbo land from Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto and other Northern States, as I earlier stated, are not the beggar-Almajirai looking

IN DIFFERENT WORLD RATING INDICES, THE NORTHERN REGION HAS PERPETUALLY BEEN RATED AS THE MOST POVERTY-STRICKEN REGION IN THE WORLD

for food or seeking rehabilitation: they are on a mission to wreak havoc in Igbo land. Last week, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Anambra Chapter, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) and other human rights groups raised the alarm over the ferrying of COVID-19 corpses and dangerous young adults from the North to Igbo land. Intersociety believes that the ferrying of the COVID-19 corpses down to Igbo land is tantamount to infecting Ndigbo with COVID-19. Again, Intersociety is worried that most of the 1,500 beggars recently repatriated from coronavirus-infected Kano State have ended up in Igbo land. Intersociety also reports that the militant Fulani herdsmen and Shuwa Arab Jihadists are now successfully occupying not less 350 communities in Igbo land. This is certainly a cause for alarm.

First, it beats the imagination that since Nigeria’s independence the Northern region has remained a backward region despite the fact that the region has produced many political leaders who have ruled the country. As Mbazurike Amaechi recently reiterated, Nigeria had experienced almost 30 years of our military interregnum. With the exception of the Obasanjo interregnum, different Northerners had ruled Nigeria in those 30 years. Yet Northern Nigeria is poverty writ large.

If, for instance, maximum dictator Sani Abacha had used half of the monies that he stole in building schools for the Almajirai their numbers on the streets would probably have reduced by now. But Abacha did not do that. Instead he was busy stealing money and stockpiling abroad. Now, think about this: President Buhari and other Northerners have been wielding the highest political power in the land in the last five years. Yet Northern Nigeria remains the poverty capital of Nigeria.

In the different world rating indices Northern region has perpetually been rated as the most poverty-stricken region in the world. I must confess that the first time I visited Sokoto State, which produced Second Republic civilian President Alhaji Shehu Shagari and other Northern leaders I was appalled by the high rate of poverty ravaging the state.

It is obvious that Northern leaders have failed (and are still failing) their people. Rather than empower their people through meaningful education to enable them escape poverty, the Northern leaders seem to take pride in relegating their people to the fringe of poverty under the veneer of religion. This is not good. Take Kano State for example.

Instead of devising ways of resettling or rehabilitating the 1,500 Kano beggars the Kano State government is repatriating them to other states.

Kano State and other Northern States should stop shirking their responsibility and repatriating anarchy and doom to other states. We are tired of the political ideologies and policies - fatalistic Fulanization, Operation Python danceration, judicial emasculation, forceful Islamization and Jihadization, election manipulation, ruganization, cattle colonization, forceful herdsmen occupation, almajirization-of the Buhari government that have brought ruin to Nigeria. This is the time to turn a new leaf. Therefore, Igbo States must unequivocally reject almajirization for it poses a great existential threat to Ndigbo. Even going by logic, if the Northern Governors Forum and Northern States as a whole have expelled the Almajirai and young militant Northerners in their midst, why should Igbo States run the risk of rehabilitating them in Igbo land?

REOPENING RELIGIOUS HOUSES IS PERILOUS Cosmas Odoemena argues that it is not yet safe to open worship centres

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ust as it filtered in that government has approved the reopening of religious houses my younger sister sent this: “COVID-19 is real. My hubby just lost one of his hometown friends. He came to my wedding with his Yoruba wife. He died at the Yaba isolation center.� “So sad. May God grant his soul rest and his family the fortitude to bear his loss.�

Honestly, the lifting of the ban on religious gatherings when the COVID-19 curve is not flattening does not seem to be well thought-out. It’s a risky step driven by emotions and not by science.

Many religious leaders have been bringing pressure to bear on government to reopen religious houses. Curiously among their requests is that government should not put a cap on the number of people that can be in attendance in any religious service. One popular pastor called social distancing in church “unbiblical� while another high-sounding pastor called it “blasphemous infidelity.� One of them even said the wearing of face masks is “unscientific�. From all this, it’s clear they will be in breach of these guidelines.

Why ever contemplate reopening now in the first place? Many of these pastors have disdain for science. But the coronavirus is not a “spiritual problem.� It’s a scientific problem. And should be confronted scientifically. I wonder where the fake prophets were when the coronavirus crept in unannounced.

Medical scientists are working hard to find a cure or vaccine. Where are the fake healers and miracle workers now? They are only concerned with tithes and offerings that are no longer coming in.

Now, how does government intend monitoring

compliance? Will it focus on the big churches or the small churches? Or the big mosques or the small mosques? Maybe at the beginning there might be monitoring, but with time government will grow weary, and monitoring will relax. But the virus does not relax!

Even during the lockdown itself, were people not moving about freely? How then would the lockdown have been effective? Are they observing the ban on interstate movement? How many are using the face masks? Even when they have the masks are they being properly worn? Many wear them at the level of their jaws. Some at the level above their upper lips. How then will the virus be contained? The irony is when these same people who won’t observe these simple measures are the same people who will be at the churches or mosques; to be “monitored� by officials who have never followed these measures themselves; and superintended by religious heads who don’t believe in the virus themselves!

Again, where is the science or even logic in allowing churches or mosques to admit any number of people while putting a cap of 20 on other places? When the number of coronavirus virus cases was below 100, religious houses were closed. Now that the number of cases has exceeded 10,000 religious houses can reopen. Why close them in the first place?

Hard as it is to accept, religious houses are not the safest of places for now.

A Catholic church that reopened in Houston, in the United States of America had to be closed again after five leaders tested positive for the virus. In Arkansas, also in the US a series of church activities resulted in many people contracting the virus with some losing their lives. There have been reports of

church-related spread of the virus in France and South Korea. German officials are now tracking down those who attended a church service in Frankfurt after 107 tested positive for coronavirus following the ease of lockdown.

Churches have been streaming their services to their members, what the Economist cynically called “Our father, who art in cyberspace.� I miss going to church. I miss the solemn service, the rituals, the Sacraments, the Holy Communion.

But I also know we are fighting a common enemy that takes advantage of our emotions.

Would I want to come back to church? Heavens yes! Would I risk the coronavirus in the belief that God will save me? Hell no! Even Jesus told the devil “Thou shall not put thy Lord thy God to the test.� To a man who did not tie his camel because he trusted in God Prophet Mohammed said “tie the camel first and then trust in God�.

It’s known that singing, and handholding that occur in churches make them fertile grounds for spreading the virus, especially via airborne droplets.

You can decide to go to a bar and sit all by yourself. Even in the markets you can try to avoid people. That will not happen in a church. Churches and mosques thrive on association.

Moreover, the virus seems to affect people 50 years and above more. In this demographic you are likely to have more people with underlying health conditions. Unfortunately these are the people more likely to go to church. Many will come to church asymptomatic so checking temperature is of little use. And the asymptomatic ones may end up spreading to those who might come down with a severe infection. Some who would otherwise be cautious might lower their guards because they believe they are in the church.

Epidemics are known to occur in waves. So if after the first waves measures to curtail the first wave are not strictly adhered to, there could be a second wave with even more devastating effect.

Even taking precautions may not suffice, as happened in a church in Georgia in the US. It reopened in late April with only 25% of members at a time, they sat six feet apart and with the church doors open so doorknobs wouldn’t be touched frequently.

Several members ended up testing positive for the virus forcing the church to shut again.

Churches are essential in people’s lives but equally essential is our love for our fellow human beings, and that’s what Jesus himself preached.

Love to fellow humans is manifested in observing what have been laid down to protect us all from the virus. Avoiding crowded places, keeping social distancing, washing our hands regularly, and wearing face masks properly, and encouraging others to observe these measures.

Prophet Muhammad again advised “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; if the plague outbreaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.�

The church itself is not the building, but the people of God united in love. Perhaps Jesus foretold of this when he said “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.� “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.� “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.�

Dr Odoemena, a medical practitioner, wrote from Lagos

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2020

EDITORIAL STILL A FRAGILE NATION The latest report on fragile states is another wake-up call

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ased on information at its disposal, the United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS) recently alerted Nigeria to a looming security danger.

Boko Haram insurgents, according to the UN agency, was planning a complex and coordinated attacks on the nation’s critical infrastructure, essentially to weaken government’s efforts and distract military attention from the decade-long war in the Northeast. This is a threat that must be taken seriously, especially against the background of the latest report on Fragile States Index (FSI) which ranked Nigeria as the 14th most fragile state in the world. Compiled by the Fund for Peace (FFP), a Washington D.C.--based organisation, the FSI focuses on weak and failing states.

The 2019 report showed that Nigeria was just a point above its unenviable 13th position in 2017, indicating that not much progress had been made in the effort to remedy the political and socio-economic conditions that have been dragging the country down the slope.

The assessment, which started 15 years ago, is an early warning system for analysing domestic threats that have the potential THE FEDERAL to escalate to major GOVERNMENT national crises with SHOULD TAKE THE international outLEAD IN INSTITUTING come. Subsequently, APPROPRIATE SOCIAL development organPOLICIES THAT WOULD isations in Europe and ENGENDER A REGIME North America saw in OF JUSTICE, A MAJOR the US 9/11 experiREQUIREMENT FOR PEACE ence, the danger AND SECURITY extremist tendencies in weak states could pose to stronger countries and the international community.

The FSI, therefore, is a predictive model for signposting trouble spots that the international community must keep in view for quick intervention in the event of outbreak of conflict. The latest report identified Nigeria as one of the states the international community must

keep in view, having scored a relatively high figure which places it in the “alert” category, trailed only by countries with long-standing political and security woes like Central African Republic, Sudan, Afghanistan and the like. Individual FSI score is usually any number from zero to 10 that depicts the intensity of the pressure exerted by each of 12 social, economic and political indicators on conditions within each of the countries on the index. The lower a country’s total score, the more stable it is. Of the 178 countries assessed this year, 164 countries were more stable than Nigeria.

N T H I S DAY

EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI DEPUTY EDITOR YEMI AJAYI, DAVIDSON IRIEKPEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE

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, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS PATRICK EIMIUHI, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO HEAD, COMPUTER DEPARTMENT PATRICIA UBAKA-ADEKOYA

igeria has remained firmly rooted in the top 20 of the weakest states in the world. When the assessment started in 2005, the country was ranked 54. That had remained the best.

She had degenerated since then, sliding to 17th in 2007, 18th in 2008, 15th in 2009 and 14th between 2010 and 2012. And there is no disputing the fact that Nigeria merits her position. With the Boko Haram devastation of the North-east, wanton kidnapping and armed robbery, the rampage of violent herdsmen in most part the Middle-Belt as well as internecine ethnic strife in several parts of the country, Nigeria has fallen so badly short of the standards set for the various political indicators. It is very clear that the Nigerian state is losing the dominance of the machinery of violence to non-state actors.

To compound the problem, the prevailing economic downturn worsened by the Coronavirus pandemic has constrained the capacity of both the state and individuals, so much so that basic necessities of life, including food, medicare and shelter have gone far beyond the reach of the majority of Nigerians. The conflicts are widening and agitations are increasing by the day.

What we need to debate now is how to apply the wedge and pull her back from the brink.

We urge introspection and ask the federal government to take the lead in instituting appropriate social policies that would engender a regime of justice, a major requirement for peace and security. The government could start with the restructuring process. It will resolve a lot of the pressures.

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A Look At The Pantami Vs Dabiri Debate

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he recent misunderstanding between the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has generated debates, accusations and counter-accusations, feminism issues and the use of Nigeria’s fault lines.

Thus, the debaters were grouped into three - supporters of Minister Pantami, supporters of DG Dabiri, and those on the middle ground.

For example, Dr. MD Aminu, an academic and a columnist with the Daily Trust and Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga, a media consultant with Atiku Media Organisation – were critical of Dabiri: Dr. Aminu was of the view that Dabiri played sexuality and gender as well as exhibited ignorance by ridiculing Pantami’s Ph.D. from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. Aminu said: “There are several wrongs with Abike Dabiri’s comments on Dr. Isa Ali Pantami. She played gender/sexuality to elicit sympathy.

Then she ridiculed the minister’s UK postgraduate degree. But by that action, she was unconsciously admitting and validating the inferiority of her own education. For instance, the minister wouldn’t have a reason to mock her postgraduate degree from Akoka. To understand Dabiri’s resistance, one only needs to study Foucault’s theorization of power which explains that when a person resists power or authority, they’re unconsciously submitting to the superiority of that which is being resisted. When you see someone from Akoka ridiculing UK education (arguably an envy of the world, with apologies to Barack Obama), they’re only submitting to

its superiority over their own education”.

On his part, Na-Allah said “Abike Dabiri disappointed me going outside the boundary of reason can defeat your argument or cause. Abike Dabiri was wrong to have introduced gender and religion into her open altercation with Communications Minister Isa Pantami. She said that an Islamic scholar shouldn’t lie and that the Minister is bullying her because she is a woman. Na Allah further stated: “These emotional arguments are totally irrelevant to the issue and shouldn’t have been introduced in the first place. The manipulation of emotions by our elites is disgusting. If the Minister had given her some contracts or her friends, or did her some lucrative favours, she wouldn’t have told the story of a “lying Islamic scholar” and a “women’s hater.” The exploitation of religion and gender to elicit sympathy is irresponsible- according to Na-Allah.

On his part, a veteran journalist, Timawus Mathias, was on Dabiri’s side, he said: “In the conflict between Abike Dabiri and Minister Pantami, I am on Abike’s side without giving Pantami a chance. Don’t say that Abike and I are NTA alumni. But what if? I blame Pantami and I don’t even know the details of the feud. He is a man and big brother. He owes it to us that we do not hear this type of crap”.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Mexico, Aminu Iyawa said: “The newspapers were awash on May 24, 2020 with a reported outburst by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in which she accused the Communications and Digital Economy Minister of blocking her and her staff entry to their new office at the NCC Annex building.

“I have watched a video on one of the social media platforms showing the Diaspora Commission CEO alleging that the Minister had “armed men blocked my staff from entry” and that her entire staff now have no office to work in and neither were they allowed to retrieve their computers and other office equipment.

As indicting as it may sound, you begin to get confused when the reports further quoted her saying that she already put up an official complaint.

If she officially complained, then why not wait for the outcome, and probably do a follow up if it is taking long? But why go to the press and embarrass the administration? Both Minister Pantami and Mrs. Debri-Erewa are senior members of this administration, and ought to know better than to go public with such administrative issue that could be amicably resolved between themselves - one-on-one or through the SGF. Both public officers are symbols of the President Buhari Government and therefore, must tread with caution and stay above board. This feud is absolutely unnecessary and the parties must seize swords and wait for the official response to the complaint filed by Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa.”

One interesting thing is; especially in the northern part of the country, the issue has become very political and emotional especially among the youth and some politicians. Dr. Pantami is a young man but a highly revered Islamic scholar who has the ears of the President, and to many enthusiasts of the politics of 2023 presidential elections– Pantami is a strong potential vice -presidential candidate from the north.

Zayyad I. Muhammad, Jimeta, Adamawa State

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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FEATURES

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Email chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com, 08038901925

Boss Mustapha Again: Restoring Sanity in Public Service Tajudeen Kareem

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s Nigerians come to terms with the rising cases of coronavirus, the polity has witnessed a rather disturbing trend in the past one month.

Between May 4 and 20, three chief executives of Federal Government agencies were removed and replaced. Change is inevitable, for a country seeking good governance and for a people yearning for quick delivery of democracy dividends.

But pause a while, an adage in Yoruba says if a cook removes, one after the other, logs under her cooking pot, ostensibly because they seemed crooked while glowing; when will the soup get properly cooked?

No one denies the power of President Muhammadu Buhari to hire and fire his appointees, especially when they are found wanting.

In a democracy, it is a fundamental right and acceptable global rule, that every offender must be heard before getting punished. Fair and transparent hearing is an inalienable rights of every citizen, more so a chief executive of a federal agency.

Now, the hallmark of the Civil Service, and by extension, Public Service, is job security or if you like, adherence to clear rules and regulations governing appointment, promotion and discipline. There are many bright, young men who left universities and shunned mouthwatering offers in the Private Sector to work in the Civil Service because they are attracted by the seeming orderliness and clear rules governing employee-employer relationship in the Public Service. This wellcherised tradition is fast being eroded by overzealous politicians -ministers and board chairmen- who often act whimsically, seeking to exercise powers not conferred either by law or tradition.

A permanent secretary who retired recently from the federal service offered an elaborate opinion on the matter, even as he wanted to remain anonymous. “The Public Service is a combination of the Civil Service and other segments of those working at the parastatals, armed forces, universities, institutions of higher learning, medical establishments and so on. The umbrella under which all of them stand is what is called the Public Service of Nigeria. The hallmark of the Public Service is security of tenure. Moreover, everybody holds his or her appointment at the pleasure of the President and he can delegate such powers. The third aspect that we should note is the legal premise. Even where a death sentence is involved, every matter is subjected to scrutiny up to the Supreme Court before a sentence is carried out. That is the principle of fair hearing. “These particular set of people we are talking about are appointees of the President and they are guided by three instruments: power derivable from the Constitution, power derivable from the laws establishing each agency and the Public Service Rules. These are rules guiding the conduct and procedures for certain actions in the service. Chapter 3 deals with discipline and procedures while Chapter 16 deals with application of Public Service rules to parastatals. “Now when you talk about issues

Mustapha

of discipline, all public officers are subject to discipline, including chief executives. The central clearing house and coordination of the appointment of all chief executives made by the President is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF. The circulars in contention are not new in respect of guidelines for end of tenure, appointment, discipline and so on. “The data-base of all political appointees resides in the office of the SGF. Parastatals are created for specific purposes, they are assigned to certain sectors overseen by certain ministries; the ministers are the political authorities for those sectors and parastatals. They can recommend who should be in a position or who should be removed from that position, but the route through which they are appointed is the OSGF. When ministers were appointed by the President, their letters of appointment were issued and signed by the SGF, just like all chief executives of agencies and parastatals. So, in my opinion, ministers do not have the powers to remove chief executives without going through established procedures.�

It is incongrous that heads of government agencies and parastatals receive their appointment letters from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, only to get sack letters through their supervising ministers. Why are ministers running to the president to file allegations against chief executives without giving the ‘accussed’ the benefit of fair hearing?

The Minister of Power has displayed some notorierity in this regard. On 24 December, 2019, the minister suspended the Managing Director of the Nigerian

Bulk Electricity Trading Company PLC, Dr. Marilyn Amobi. A few days later, this same minister announced the indefinite suspension of the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi. President Buhari, with the benefit of diligent investigation, overruled the minister on both unguarded steps.

To be sure, the Minister of Power is not alone in this display of overzealousness. Early in May, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Mangement and Social Development ran to the President to secure the sack of the Director General of NEMA. Deep throat has it that the erthswhile CEO of NEMA was sacked for ‘serious misconduct’.

That remains a conjecture if the man had no benefit of fair hearing to defend himself just like the Transmission Company of Nigeria boss. In both cases, the Public Service Rule stipulates that any act of misconduct must be subjected to due process before a submission is made to the President. “It is also important to ensure that fair hearing is allowed and that the channel through which the CEO was appointed, that is the OSGF, is reverted to in such instances. The benefit of this is institutional stability and protection of overarching public interest,� a former Head of Service of the Federation voluntered.

Let’s juxtapose the instances at NEMA and TCN with the case at National Examinations Council which had a new registrar two weeks ago upon the sack of Prof.

Charles Uwakwe who had been on suspension since May 2018. For 24 months, the Minister of Education had caused a diligent investigation of allegations against him bordering

on financial mismanagement and abuse of office. A letter by the Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education to Uwakwe, said inter alia: “After due consideration of the investigative panel on the allegation of unsatisfactory conduct levelled against you and some management staff of the council, Mr. President in exercise of his powers, has approved your removal as the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of National Examinations Council with effect from the date of your suspension from duty.�

Flowing from the above, one may ask: What does Boss Mustapha want?

A circular dated May 19, 2020, had drawn attention to the growing arbitrary removal of Heads of Government Agencies, Parastatals and Departments without recourse to established and approved disciplinary procedure. The SGF was unambigious in stating his concerns bordering on “the arbitrary removal of Chief Executive Officers and its impact on stability and service delivery.�

It is significant that Mustapha was not acting unilaterally. He said: “Mr. President has approved the following streamlined procedure for the discipline of Chief Executive Officers of Government Parastatals, Agencies and Departments in accordance with the Public Service Rules.�

In issuing the circular, was Mustapha saying anything new?

Established facts point to the contrary. He was categorical that the now contentious circular should not operate in isolation. His words: “Without prejudice to the content, it is expected that this Circular should be acted upon conjunctively with the provisions of the following extant Service Wide Circulars and publication�. He listed them as: i. Ref. SGF/OP/1/S.3/T.1/1322nd August, 1999 Guidelines on the relationship between parastatals/State owned Companies and their Supervising Ministries; ii. Ref. SGF/OP/1/S.3/T-23rd November, 2017 Re: Procedure for Appointing Chief Executives and Heads of Parastatals, Government – Owned Companies, Agencies and Institutions; iii. Ref. No. SGF.50/S.II/C.2/ 268-4th December, 2017 End of tenure processes for Heads of Extra-Ministerial Departments, Directors General/ Chief Executive Officers of Parastatals, Agencies, Commissions and Government –owned Companies and Succession Guidelines; and iv. Federal Government Publication on Guidelines to Administrative Procedures in the Federal Public Service Chapter 7.

Whatever misgiving anyone has on the tone and intendments of the Circular, one issue is paramount.

The SGF has a duty to ensure sanity in the affairs of the government he serves. More important is the argument that politicians, be they Ministers or Board Chairmen, cannot take actions officially without regard for established procedure which precedes their own appointments but also necessary to ensure sanity in governance.

-Kareem is a Public Affairs analyst in Abuja.

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Quick Takes African Alliance Launches Scholarship

STOCK-TAKING

L-R: Shareholder of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Mr. Boniface Okezie; Chief Executive Officer, SEPLAT, Mr. Austin Avuru; Chairman, Dr. A.B.C.Orjiako;andshareholder,Mr.SolomonIkeanyi,attheseventhannualgeneralmeetingofthecompanyheldinLagos...recently ETOP UKUTT

AFDB Leadership: African PR Practitioners Warn against Undue Interference Raheem Akingbolu The African Public Relations Association (APRA) has kicked against any form of undue interference in the ongoing investigation of the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina.

The group insisted that due process must be followed in the matter.

President of the association, Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, on behalf of the executive council of the association, this known in a letter to the chairperson and board of AfDB. In the letter, Badejo-Okusanya stated: “Without prejudice to previous, on-going or future investigations at the bank, we insist that they must all follow the extant rules of the bank. APRA will frown at undue influence outside the bank’s established channels. “As an African institution,

ECONOMY albeit with some non-regional stakeholders, AfDB must solve its problems within the context of Africa which is the principal stakeholder.�

It went further to state that, “the APRA as the self-appointed reputation driver for Africa, with a strong pro-Africa vision, believes that it is in our collective interest and integrity, that one of the strongest reputation assets of the continent, the AfDB, is not sacrificed on the altar of international politics.�

APRA noted that for four years running, the AfDB received tripleAAA ratings from four major global agencies, which was an incontrovertible proof that the institution was moving the continent forward and fulfilling its mandate. The letter cited, AfDB’s establishment of regional offices that has brought the Bank’s

impact closer to Africans. This it considered as being positive.

Part of the Bank’s achievements also listed by the association, was the up-shoot in its loan income from $563 million in 2015 to $803 million in 2017. APRA placed on record that these achievements were under the administration of Adesina, which it stated was a clear testament to his vision and exemplary leadership.

The letter urged the chairman to take objective decisions with a ‘keen eye on history’, while APRA continues to monitor developments at the bank.

APRA is the umbrella body for the practice of public relations in Africa with a mandate to drive the continent’s positive narrative.

The federal government recently intervened to checkmate a plot by the United States and other non-African shareholders of the AfDB to deny the multilateral agency’s President a tenure renewal.

Nigeria had rejected the US’ call, already supported by Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, for an independent panel to probe allegations of wrongdoing against Adesina by some Bank staff, after the AfDB president had been cleared by the bank’s authorities. In addition, Nigeria’s former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, had also weighed in on the issue, urging former African heads of government to intervene to save Adesina’s job.

In a letter addressed to the Chair of the Board of Governors of AfDB, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had said the fresh investigation being demanded by the US and its allies was outside the laid-down rules, procedures and governing system of the bank and its Articles as they relate to the Code of Conduct on Ethics for the president.

Nigeria Ranked 64th in Global Pension System Ebere Nwoji Nigeria has been ranked 64th position in the recent global pension system report by the Allianz Group, one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers.

Allianz, in the maiden edition of its, “Global Pension Report,� unveiled recently in which it analysed 70 countries with its proprietary pension indicator – the Allianz Pension Indicator (API) - took the pulse of pension systems around the world. “Nigeria ranks on the 64th place, especially because of the insufficient adequacy of its pension system. The coverage of the pension system is still very low and limited access to financial services hampers the build-up of sufficient private old-age savings

PENSION to cushion the lack of the public pension pillar. “With respect to sustainability, Nigeria ranks also in the bottom third. The harmonisation of the retirement ages of the various professions and adjusting the retirement age in line with future gains in life expectancy would improve the long-term sustainability of the pension system further. “Among the analysed countries, Nigeria has by far the most comfortable starting position especially due to the fact that it has one of the youngest populations worldwide. “But nevertheless, the number of people aged 65 and older is set to increase from 5.6

million today, to around 16 million in 2050. Thus, there is a need for the introduction of a pension system with a broad coverage and for further improvement of the access to financial services,� it added.

The analysis which was based on two decisive dimensions of sustainability and adequacy, covered pension systems across the world and demographic and fiscal prerequisites.

In the final result of its analysis, Allianz noted that over the next decades, the number of people in retirement age would increase markedly and this would put social security systems under severe stress.

It further noted that only a handful of countries have already made their pension system demography-proof,

citing Sweden, Belgium and Denmark, as example.

It added that in most other countries, pension systems continue to struggle with high public deficits and an uneven balance between sustainability and adequacy.

In Africa, the report noted that no African country ranks among the top-10 – as pension systems in most of these countries are still in the build-up phase.

On how the API conducted its analysis, Allianz in the report said the indicator followed a simple logic, adding that it started the analysis with the demographic and fiscal prerequisites and then continued to examine pension systems along their two decisive dimensions: sustainability and adequacy.

The African Alliance Insurance Plc has launched a scholarship initiative for young women across the country.

The initiative, named after the company’s Managing Director, Mrs. Funmi Omo, stands as the passion of the African Alliance boss.

Christened‘TheFunmiOmoInitiative(FOI),initiativeseekstosupport ďŹ ve young women with scholarships of up to N300,000 each for every academic year.

Omo explained: “These scholarships are available to Nigerian women who have gained admission or are in a public university in Nigeria. The scholarships would cover their school fees for a session, books as well as provide a personal allowance. “This initiative is close to my heart, I believe that giving young Nigerian women a chance at an excellent education will enrich their future and in turn, they can contribute positively to our society,� Omo said.

Omo, had early this year hosted 10 brilliant youths at a mentoring session tagged: ‘Brunch with FO.’ The one-on-one networking and mentoring forum was an avenue to share tips for personal and professional development. This was in addition to personal mentoring sessions she has with scores of upcoming professionals from all walks of life. “The launch of the FOI, further demonstrates her commitment to bettering the lives of young Nigerians especially women and helping them become exemplary citizens,� she added.

In his remark on the initiative, African Alliance Brand, Media and Communications Manager, Bankole Banjo, said, “These characteristics resonate with our core values as a company and we are proud to be associated with such a woman of compassion�.

He said to apply for the scholarship, qualiďŹ ed young women are to visit www.funmiomo.com to conďŹ rm eligibility and required documentations, adding that the application closes on June 22nd 2020.

Standard Bank Earnings to Drop

Standard Bank said on Monday that its half-year earnings are expected to be more than 20 per cent from the previous year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bank, Africa’s largest by assets said headline earnings per share (HEPS), the main proďŹ t measure used in South Africa, for the six-month period ending June, 30, was expected to be more than 20 per cent lower compared with HEPS of 837.4 cents in the year ago period. “There remains a high degree of uncertainty regarding the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated governmental responses will have on the economies in the markets in which the group operates, and in turn, on the group,â€? Reuters quoted the company to have said. Interim results are expected to be released on August 20.

Rain Brings Relief to Cocoa Farmers

Above-average rains last week in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoagrowing regions could boost the last stage of the April-toSeptember cocoa mid-crop, farmers said on Monday. Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is currently in its rainy season, which runs from mid-March to late October, when there are meant to be regular downpours.

According to Reuters, after a period of irregular and below-average showers, farmers were happy with the volume of rain last week. “The amount of rain is good in order to have lots of cocoa towards the end of the mid-crop,� said Alphonse Gba, who farms in the outskirts of the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa-belt.

Data collected by Reuters showed rainfall in Soubre was at 70 millimetres (mm) last week, 19.6 mm above the ďŹ ve-year average. In the southern regions of Divo and Agboville and the eastern region of Abengourou, known for the good quality of its beans, rainfall was above average. Farmers said if heavy rains continued until late July, it would encourage the next main crop to start earlier.

In the centre-western region of Daloa, which produces a quarter of Ivory Coast’s national output, farmers said plenty of young pods were appearing on trees.

“Government doesn’t even have the resources.

That is why the government has to create an enabling environment to allow the private sector to thrive so as to stimulate growth�

Co-founder, CardinalStone Partners,

Mr. Mohammed Garuba

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 •T H I S D AY

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ICAN Elects Adewuyi President Peter Uzoho The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has elected new officers to run its affairs for the next one yea, with Mrs. Onome Joy Adewuyi, emerging as the 56th President.

Her investiture took place at the institute’s secretariat in Lagos, after an election yesterday.

In her acceptance speech and inaugural address, Adewuyi promised to partner with the government to redefine national values, economic priorities and resource utilisation strategies such that the mass of the citizenry can be lifted out of avoidable poverty.

According to her, ICAN would leverage its professional expertise to support players in the informal sector, whose unsung value-creating activities will define the position of the nation on the ladder of sustainable development.

She lamented the paradox of

poverty in the midst of plenty being experienced by Nigeria, adding that the nation is at a point in its economic development where all hands must be on deck to address the ugly situation. “According to the 2019 World Bank Human Development Report, 53.5 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty line of US$1.9 a day.

I am inclined, like many analysts, to believe that the situation is even worse considering the high rate of crime and criminality all over the country. The situation is better imagined if we take cognisance of the possible effect of COVID-19 in the near term.�

On refocusing ICAN capacity building initiatives, Adewuyi explained that this year, the institute would formalise its online training and incorporate them into the annual training brochure.

She added that the Members’ Education and Training would be bolstered with cut-edge virtual

training programmes. “These would run together with the established traditional model of delivering trainings. Also, the ICAN faculties would be equipped to become centres of excellence for virtual training in the seven specialist areas of Accounting,� she expatiated.

Speaking further, the ICAN President said the lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged ICAN to redefine the values it shares, the way it relates and account for its actions and inactions. “Evidently, the proactive deployment and proficiency in the use of technology will continue to define corporate and individual success. This emerging paradigm has implications for how we relate and bond as professionals who share a common vision of working together to build a great nation with a sustainable economy driven by strong institutions,�.

Experts Highlight Role of Technology in Economic Transformation Hamid Ayodeji Experts have stressed the role of technology in the COVID-19 fight as well in economic transformation for the country.

The experts and stakeholders from various fields of the economy said this during a webinar organised by Foreign Investment Network (FIN), recently, with the theme: “Deploying Technology to Mitigate the Impact of the Pandemic.�

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim, while speaking at the online conference said the federal government remained dedicated towards implementing technology-driven initiatives that would enthrone a digital economy.

Ibrahim added: “Before the Covid-19 outbreak, I proposed

a national digital economy strategy which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari. “Currently, plans are already in place for virtual training of ministers and government personnel who would key into the use of technology. “Also, we have established collaboration with international institutions in order to launch the virtual academy at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with the mission of training and empowering Nigerian youths. “As a result of technologydriven solutions and products, virtual meetings and communications participation have been effectively executed. Thus, even after the pandemic it would be retained on a higher percentage. “Also, as part of efforts to promote digitisation we have put

in place measures to ensure the protection and safety of bio data. “Data should be protected and not compromised. So, the Nigerian Data Protection Legislation has translated from subsidiary to principal legislation, and it is being taken to the National Assembly to be passed into law.�

In his remarks, the Head, Sub-Saharan Africa GSMA, Akinwale Goodluck maintained that harnessing the potential would depend on how the stakeholders take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic and reinvigorate thinking. Goodluck added, “There is the need to use technology to boost the economical actives of the nation by implementing schemes which increase the awareness of the benefits of digital literacy, mobile money, mobile and smart phones, data and cryptocurrency.

‘Falling Oil Prices Place Pressure on Govt Finance’ Ugo Aliogo Falling oil prices in addition to weak export demand are putting pressure on federal and state governments’ finances, a report has revealed.

The report also predicted that revenue projections in the revised 2020 budget would be unmet, thereby constraining government’s ability to meet obligation such as payment of salaries and financing critical social and infrastructure

projects in the year.

The report known as Nigeria Economic Summit Group’s (NESG) ‘Impact Assessment and Optimal Policy Response,’ stated that Nigeria being a major player in the oil market faces a dual challenge of dwindling windfall from oil and economic constriction due to the pandemic. It explained that while the fragility of the economy persists, the oil market impacts the Nigeria economy through its dominant contributions to export

earnings, foreign exchange inflows, movement in external reserves and government revenue. “The combined impact of economic shocks from COVID-19 is expected to disrupt general sectoral activities. While the impact is transmitted to the economic sectors through changes in aggregate demand, constrained capacity utilisation and falling capital accumulation, government’s responses will play a significant role in dampening these impacts.�

Firm to Improve Logistics Service with Technology Omolabake Fasogbon Digital logistics platform, Kobo360, has restated its commitment to logistics service in the country using technology innovation. This is as the firm recently joined ‘Endeavor’, an organisation that is leading global movement for high-impact entrepreneurship. Endeavor is renowned for helping entrepreneurs accelerate their companies’ growth, as well as building strong entrepreneurship ecosystems in underserved markets like Nigeria, thus driving economic growth through entrepreneurship.

Both Obi Ozor and Ife Oyedele II, the co-founders of Kobo360, were selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs. According to Kobo360, the feat would further drive its effort to address logistic challenge in the country such as: finding proper truck operators for cargo, searching for trusted truck drivers and pursuing updates on delivery.

Ozor stated that the firm was out to solve the challenge for businesses by using digital platform to match cargo-owners with truck owners, while providing real-time updates on delivery process.

Also speaking, Oyedele, said, “This is a fundamental milestone

in Kobo360’s journey; our Global Logistics Operating System (GLOS) will revolutionise supply chain across emerging markets and with Endeavor’s support, we’re able to make invaluable global connections that could be leveraged for our expansion and growth�.

Commenting on achievement, Managing Director & CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria, Eloho Gihan-Mbelu said, “Fixing Africa’s supply chain is clearly important for commerce on the continent, and Kobo360’s rapid growth over the past 3 years is evidence that the company’s valuable services are in critical demand.

ELEVATING TO THE NEXT LEVEL Marie-Therese Phido

Reinvention! A New You! Do you sometimes wish you can wipe clean the slate of your past? Do you wonder how you can change the way you are perceived and start all over again? I have and many of us might have gone through that introspection at one time or the other. One person that exemplifies the question above for me is Mo Abudu.

Mo has done a fantastic job of reinventing herself and is a great motivator to many people on believing in themselves, their abilities, understanding who they want to be and taking positive and practical steps to achieving these objectives. To the best of my knowledge her media debut was with her TV talk show Moments with Mo. She later became the CEO of Ebony Life TV and is now a movie mogul, with the production of acclaimed movies to her credit. She has completely metamorphosed, changed the narrative about who she is and how she is perceived.

We all like what we see today and want to associate with it and are inspired by it. But, I can assure you that she did not achieve this reinvention and growth without a lot of hard work and focus. Many of us have the potential to achieve this same level of success and fame. The question is, what are you doing about this potential? Potential is a word filled with optimism, possibilities, fulfilment, and greatness. But, many of us do not fulfil our potential. We live our lives with unfulfilled potential. Florence Littauer, a speaker and author, in her book Silver Boxes, wrote about her father, who always wanted to be a singer but never was. She said he died with the music still inside him.

Florence’s comment about her father leaves me very sad, because many of us have potential. When asked to talk about the things we want to do, we can paint a vivid and palpable picture of what we want to do or who we want to become. Many of us have gifts we do not hone and these gifts are withering away inside of us. John Maxwell said, “not reaching your potential is like dying with the music still inside of you�.

If this article strikes a chord in you, these are pertinent questions to ask yourself and work towards answering as you start to reinvent yourself: r %P ZPV MJLF XIBU ZPV BSF EPJOH now? If yes, how can you do it better and ensure that you do it to a point that it elevates you to a level where it changes the narrative about you. If not, r 8IBU XPVME ZPV MJLF UP EP *U is important to spend time understanding what you like. Many of us are in jobs we currently are not excited about. I knew what I liked doing early in my career, which was to make things happen. Give me a blank slate, tell me what you hope to achieve and this gets me very excited and passionate. Combining the above scenario with a sales and marketing role, which was achieving targets and working with teams to achieve these targets gave me a lot of passion and energy. If you come across someone doing an assignment with passion, there is big difference. It is said, that one person with passion

is greater than ninety-nine who have only interest. r $BO ZPV EP XIBU ZPV MJLF UP EP Be honest about this, evaluate your ability. Where you fall short, consider whether you can be trained to achieve your objective. r %P ZPV LOPX XIZ ZPV XBOU to do what you would like to do?

Why you want to do what you want to do is very important because what drives you is very key to ensuring that you succeed. If your objective is superficial and not from deep within you, the reinvention drive will not succeed. Your desire to reinvent yourself must be for altruistic reasons otherwise you may not succeed. When you do things for the right reason it gives you inner strength and resolve, because reinvention takes time, can be very challenging and many issues will come up that can deviate you from your goals and objectives. Knowing you are doing it for the right reasons will keep you going and power your resolve. r %P ZPV LOPX QFPQMF XIP EP what you’d like to do? The example I used above, Mo Abudu - is a great inspiration for me, especially her intentionality and determination.

Somebody, once asked me, “why not Oprah�. Yes, Oprah is also an inspiration for some of the things I will like to do� – especially in the media space. Who is your inspiration? Who has done what you’d like to do and succeeded in it? What steps are you taking to studying and understanding what these individuals have done? r 8JMM ZPV QBZ UIF QSJDF UP EP what you want to do? Reinvention does not come easy. It involves plenty of hard work and we are usually our own worst enemies. James Thorn said, “probably the most honest self-made man that ever was, was the one we heard say, I got to the top the hard way, fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way�. John Maxwell said, “taking the steps necessary to live your dreams and do what you do want to do will cost you. You will have to work hard. You will have to make sacrifices. You will have to keep learning and growing and changing. The question is are you willing to pay the price?�

Mo has paid the price and reaped the benefits and many admire what she has achieved and who she is today.

People say there are two great days in a person’s life, the day you were born and the day you discover why.

It is possible, she has discovered why or she may be on another reinvention drive to further enhance her stature.

Let’s take a cue from Mo, there are many good examples of individuals who have reinvented themselves, but hers is one that we can see and relate with today, because it is current and happening right now.

I wish you a happy new year, Reinvention and a NEW YOU! rMarie-Therese Phido is a Sales & Mareting Strategist and Business Coach Email:mphido@elevato.com.ng Tweeter handle@osat2012 Tel: 08090158156 (text only)

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Ezeagu: Nigeria’s Stock Market Resilient, Profitable

WFH Conundrum: New Reality?

The Chairman, Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria, Chief Onywechukwu Ezeagu, in this interview speaks on the state of the Nigerian stock market and other sundry issues. Goddy Egene brings the excerpts You were quoted recently to have said that despite COVID-19 pandemic, members of Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) go about their transactions, can you validate this statement?

The pandemic has not taken away the level the market has attained in terms of technology and ability to reach out to customers. The operators have been prepared for a situation where customers are connected online real time and we have been engaging in virtual trading. Remember that in some years past we were all subjected to a rigorous set of minimum operating standards, so this period only served to put our potentials into real test and our members were equal to the task which is evident in the fact that trading was never disrupted by the lockdown.

How will you describe the attitude of investors towards investment on the Nigerian Stock Exchange so far under COVID-19?

It has been mixed in that initially, some investors did not know that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was open for business, when we let them know, it was a great relief and they started to patronise the market. It was a pleasant surprise to them and this ignited some positive sentiments towards the market.

What are the topmost concerns of ASHON’s members at this moment and the way forward?

We are concerned about the economy which has been badly affected and the ability of our customers to keep faith. Health concerns of staff and investors cannot be ignored, it is a healthy man that will invest and so we are concerned about the rate of spread and containment of the corona virus. We were equally concerned about the sustainability of our business continuity plan deployment.

What messages should securities dealers be sending to investors at this critical period?

We should be sending messages of hope, the reduction of fear and the need to keep safe by observing the directives of the authorities in handling the pandemic. Also the market is resilient and ready for investors.

Last year, you represented ASHON in some strategic foreign meetings for collaboration and professional practice of your members, any update?

We were in the ASEA Conference at Kasane, Botswana and as a major part of the African Linkage Project, we signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) of the newly formed African Stockbrokers and Securities Dealers Association (ASSDA). We were also in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire for the WACMIC conference. All these were efforts to integrate the African markets and create synergies such that Africans can trade at regional and continental levels.

As demutualisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange is drawing nearer, are there things that ASHON’s members should put in place for seamless transition?

Our members have done most of the things required of us to see the process succeed up to this point. What is required of us now is housekeeping, members are to ensure that when the shares due to them are to be credited that they have updated their account profile with the NSE registrars.

What are the likely effects on Nigeria’s economy, the current downward review of this year’s budget, following global impact of COVID-19 on businesses?

Whatever happens to the budget has a direct consequence on the economy and will be felt in all sectors. The economy will contract; we may see another recession but one can expect a concerted effort by all world economies to pull one another out since the problem is universal. Domestic borrowing may boost the local bourse and loan rescheduling would likely be the order of the day resulting from revenue shortfall of debtors.

Ezeagu Many quoted companies on The Nigerian Stock Exchange have announced their Q 1 results and they are good. But how sustainable?

In every situation, some people will come out unscathed, some of the quoted companies may be able to sustain a good run within the pandemic due to the nature of their business. For instance, we have seen a surge in the use of telecommunications services except that business linkage/multiplier effects could jeopardize the revenue projections.

The first quarter results is not likely to be sustained in the subsequent quarters as the impact of the corona virus pandemic continue to negatively affect both the demand and supply side of the economy.

As COVID-19 continues to impact on investment decision, which sectors of the economy are likely going to be least affected and why?

We still believe that primary agriculture and telecommunications will not be greatly affected as much as the tourism and hospitality industries.

The reason is that people will be mostly interested in staying alive therefore they need food and so many organizations now rely more on virtual meetings and the reduction of physical contacts will enhance telecom and ICT providers’ revenue.

Medical consumables and equipment companies would have boosted revenue.

Is it true that ASHON is supporting Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to mobilise funds to support the federal government over COVID-19?

The SEC set up a Capital Market Support Committee on COVID-19 in which one of our prominent members was appointed as chairman.

The committee reached out to the association, shared their activity budget and it is fair and proper for us to live up to our responsibilities and stand up to be counted. Note that whatever is to be done will be to the benefit of our people who are also our customers. Many of our members have contributed to the COVID-19 Support Fund.

The current pandemic is fast prompting institutions to review their business model, how will this affect ASHON’s activities, including investor education, seminar and workshop?

We are also reviewing our business model to accommodate the new normal. We have constituted a committee to advise our Council on the effect of the pandemic and part of their terms of reference is to chart a way forward for our business, therefore, it will not be right to preempt the work of the committee at this time.

Any other comments sir?

The pandemic has come to recalibrate the world and redefine humanity. It is important that we all learn to readjust to the dictates of the times by staying safe through following the directives of the experts. We should keep hope alive, do not give in to fear, help one another, look out for one’s neighbor, change the way we live, work and play to conform to the realities of the pandemic. We should also collaboration rather than competition and this should help all to overcome the new normal.

The market needs to be ready to provide funding for both the public (government) and private organisations to fund critical infrastructures.

Tosin Adefeko and Tayo Okusanya In 2013, Marrissa Meyer Yahoo’s CEO banned ‘Working from home,’ saying, “in order to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important so we all need to be working side by side. That is why it is critical we are all present in our offices.�

That was seven years ago. COVID-19 has since happened and we are positive no CEO will be making such a statement anytime soon.

The one big thing that has come out of the pandemic and the resultant lockdown experienced globally is the Work From Home (WFH) experiment. So much has been said or written about our new way of work that it is becoming a phenomenon with its own easily recognisable acronym, WFH. It took only a few months of this global pandemic for the world to change dramatically; now besides WFH, everyone is dealing with a plethora of issues ranging from the really serious which involves life and death; to the debilitating caused by hunger and increased poverty from loss of income; to the seemingly less serious that ‘only’ requires us to stay away from fellow humans for their protection and ours; down to that which a chronic hermit may tag mundane – our inability to congregate socially.

In a bid to reduce the spread of the deadly virus, we are all one way or the other caught in this conundrum that we can only hope quickly lives out its course so life can return to normal.

The question to ask though is what will normal be? Let’s focus on the world of work. Earlier this month, several technology companies (Facebook and Google amongst others) announced that ALL their employees would be allowed to WFH for the rest of this year!

The social media behemoth, Twitter, went a step ahead and said they would allow employees to WFH forever wherever it is feasible. Bringing it home, we are a people that have always done everything based on physical interaction, commuting long hours for mostly unnegotiable work hours, travelling intra and inter-state for meetings, conferences et al.

This new order and its attendant effects have created a paradigm shift that requires new thinking and new behaviors even from the most inflexible of us. Curiously, it looks like we have also adapted very fast to change such that many have questioned the rationale or need for brick and mortar offices. Apparently many companies have successfully WFH in the few months of lockdown and are reluctant to go back without interrogating the need for the return.

So in order to understand how working

professionals are adapting to WFH, we conducted a survey recently to help evaluate the pros and cons; survey findings are yet to be released, but the insights derived thus far were quite revealing. What we do know for now is that there are clear intervening variables and arguments abound for and against WFH. Some claim that WFH will encourage more women to join the workforce and stay longer since there is a drastic reduction in travel time to and from work, others say the much touted work life balance will become harder to achieve since there are a lot of distractions managing home and family demands while working from home.

What about those employees that support critical and confidential functions, others ponder?

Can they function outside of the work environment at the risk of compromising confidentiality? Some suggest if WFH is implemented correctly, there will be cost savings, convenience and productivity gains; others say home is not conducive, no power, technology becomes a cost and even space for work in the home is a challenge. Another matter to consider from the organizational perspective is how do we build company culture? What about brainstorming and or mentoring sessions? Will it require a new set of skills for managers and their team members? What investments in technology will be required at individual and organizational levels? On an individual level, have you thought about loneliness and isolation? So many questions and very few answers.

The jury is out regarding the degree to which working professionals in our market are ready to embrace WFH and we believe that the WFH survey will provide insights that will address some of the lingering questions.

Whether we like it or not, the pandemic and its aftermath will impact the way we work for years to come but in the meantime we will have to learn new ways to keep productivity high working from home whilst maintaining the right balance and boundaries between our professional and personal lives so we can be healthy mentally, emotionally and physiologically.

As a company whatever you decide must be a win-win for all stakeholders – profitability with sustainable growth, productivity with balance, employee autonomy with creative collaboration, all redefining the way we think about performance management. t"EFGFLP JT UIF 'PVOEFS .BOBHJOH 1BSUOFS "5 3FTPVSDFT -JNJUFE o $PNNVOJDBUJPOT $POTVMUBOUT XIJMF 0LVTBOZB JT BO &YFDVUJWF %JSFDUPS )$ #0/6.

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L-R: Secretary to the Government of the Federation/Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha; Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Dr Aliyu Sani after a brieďŹ ng with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja... recently PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

L-R: Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mrs. Folasade Jaji; Special Adviser on Works and Infrastructure, Mrs. Aramide Adeyoye; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat and Elegushi of Ikateland, Oba Saheed Elegushi, Kusenla III, during the ag-o of Lekki Regional Road as part of activities to commemorate the ďŹ rst year in oďŹƒce of the Sanwo-Olu administration, at Eti-Osa Local Government...recently

Director, First Child and Prisoner Care Foundation (FCPCF), Aisha Yunusa (right) and Foundation Assistant, Yunusa Yusuf, presenting a COVID-19 palliatives to the 85 year old Hafsat Abubakar, during the distributed of food items to 100 households and 50 widows by FCPCF, in Kaduna...recently

L-R: Site Engr. Subair Olajide, Director Drainage Construction, Mr. Ganiu Ajadi, Hon. Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tunji Bello, Special Adviser on Drainage Engr. Joe Igbokwe and Permanent Secretary OďŹƒce of Drainage Services Engr Lekan Shodehinde going through the layout drawing for construction of System 63 Drainage Channel, Abraham Adesanya Ajah Lagos...recently

Chief Executive of Mamman Marshal Foundation, Asia Ahmad (left) presenting COVID-19 palliatives to beneďŹ ciaries, in Giwa and Igabi Local government areas of Kaduna State...recently

L-R: (Front row): Edo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Patrick Okundia; Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State COVID-19 Technical Committee, Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu; Community Relations Manager, Azura Power, Mr. Sunny Ogbodo, and Safety and Regulatory OďŹƒcer, Azura Power, Ms. Christie Apemiye, during the donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) by Azura-Edo Power Plant to the state government in Benin City...recently

L-R: Chairman of the Gombe State COVID-19 task force, Alhaji Usman Kamara(right) and members of his team receiving drinks from Sales Executive, Nigerian Breweries Plc., Mr. Victor Adewusi (left)as part of the company’s support against COVID-19. in Gombe...recently

Secretary-General of the Nigerian Community in Republic of Botswana, Mr. Sylvester Omotosho (left) presenting N1.5 million relief materials to vulnerable persons in Botswana...recently

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EDUCATION Monarch Improves Lives of Indigent Students The Orangun of Oke-Ila Oragun, Osun State, Oba Adedokun Abolarin is redefining qualitative education with the establishment of Abolarin College in the state, for brilliant but needy students, Abolarin shared with Funmi Ogundare his vision of grooming outstanding students. Already, students of the college are winning state and national awards in creativity

T

wenty-eight students of the Abolarin College, Oke Ila-Orangun, passed the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as they all surpassed the cut-off score of 150 marks that JAMB stipulated for admission into tertiary institutions.

While 15 students scored 200 and above, 12 of them scored between 180 and 199, while one person scored 165. The highest, Master Gabriel Micheal had a total score of 266 in his subject combination, while Master Sadiq Adebayo scored 165.

It was the first public examination for which the students from the less privileged background would be sitting since the establishment of Abolarin College in September 2014.

The founder, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, delighted at the success of his students, attributed it to the Grace of God. According to him, “I don’t think we have a bad result considering that we pick our children from public schools. These were children from our neglected primary schools that we have groomed. With our total and positive maximization of our time, we ensured they studied, played and worked extremely hard to succeed. The environment is also very conducive, with no distraction.�

Abolarin College has made a deep-rooted impact in capacity building and empowerment of children from impoverished backgrounds.

The lawyer-turned monarch said he set up the tuition-free and all-boarding college to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, on the one hand, and attempting to eradicate poverty on the other side. “Since I became a monarch, I knew I had a mission, and that mission for me was to concentrate on the poor and weak. That has always been my philosophy. So the lord just directed me to this missionary work. My bible tells me that we should always satisfy the hungry and afflicted souls. “The students are given personal laptops, school uniforms and bags, prescribed textbooks, learning aids, as well as writing materials that would enhance their learning.

I am a traditional ruler and a Christian. I celebrate diversity,� he stressed.

Abolarin College allows the students to express their potential under a conducive and inspiring ambience. The traditional ruler also teaches a number of subjects at the college.

On the achievements of the students, Oba Abolarin said: “Naturally, they are gifted, resourceful and creative. They go for spelling bee and cultural and art competitions and emerge either first or second position. “They won the 41st Duro Ladipo Memorial Art Competition for schools in Osun State last year. The students won awards for the best storyline, the best producer, and Sefiu Tijani won the best male actor. They made me happy. We don’t do any other thing apart from accomplishing our stated objectives.�

He said the college is grooming a crop of students who would be change agents.

The former lecturer of the then Oyo State College of Arts and Science stated his vision: “Our vision is to bring hope to otherwise hopeless children and groom them to become leaders that would help Nigeria achieve the dreams of her heroes past. Our mission is to build a world-class institution for brilliant students from poor or broken homes. Though they may not enjoy the luxury of Ivy League institutions where money, power and influence reign, they have availed the same qualitative education, offered at astronomical costs by the elite schools, at zero cost to their parents regardless of their ethnicity and creed.�

The founder said the college ensures that the students recite its anthem every morning as a guiding principle to enable them to know that they should be ready to serve

Oba Adedokun Abolarin with his students the nation. “The school anthem is a prayer which we recite every day. They are going to be servants in all areas, wherever they find themselves and from there, they know that they can lead very well. That is our prayer, aspirations and visions for them. That is how we think they can change Nigeria. It’s not easy. We started with 35 students and to the glory of God, we have 130 students boarding.�

The school is not preparing the students for school work alone, as it tasks them to cultivate the land and grow their food. They spend at least one hour on the school farm four days a week and between 6am and 9am every Sunday. “The students grow all the food they consume and work with the kitchen staff to cook their meals. They do their laundry themselves, clean their dormitories and environment and generally take good care of the school,� the royal father said.

Asked how he gets funding for the college, he said, “I thank God for my friends. We have benefactors who believe in my commitment and passion. They often make the pledges and deliver as promised.�

THISDAY spoke with some of the teachers about the students under their care. They described them as exceptional and creative.

A Maths teacher, Mr. Ayo Arowolo said each time the college admits new students, and after spending a term and going for a holiday, their parents would call the management and teachers to pray for them.

“They usually ask us if there is any special food we are giving to them. Because of the transformation parents have seen in their wards, they will begin to rain prayers and praises on us.�

In terms of academics, he described the students as exceptional, despite their rustic educational background, saying, “they are doing very well in quiz and debates. There are some private schools around us here, once they know that our school has been invited for any competition, they develop cold feet and quit because they believe that we will be exposing their schools.�

He said the students are creative and had won awards for the best cultural and drama competitions for the state. “We have the best cultural and drama group in Osun State and have won several competitions. Two of our children represented the state at NTA/ETV Expo in Abuja on drawing and carving. They are also good in tie and dye, batik and beads,� Arowolo said.

The Housemaster, Mr. Oladele Adeyemo, charged with the task of caring for the students’ well-being and offering them support and advice, also described them as pleasant despite their poor backgrounds. “They key into the school’s core values and never complain. Although it hasn’t been easy, I give God the glory.�

During the lockdown, THISDAY met with some of the students who made the college a home away from home, and they told this reporter how their studies have improved as a result of the efforts of Oba Abolarin. They

Since I became a monarch, I knew I had a mission, and that mission for me was to concentrate on the poor and weak.That has always been my philosophy. So the lord just directed me to this missionary work. My bible tells me that we should always satisfy the hungry and afflicted souls. The students are given personal laptops, school uniforms and bags, prescribed textbooks, learning aids, as well as writing materials that would enhance their learning

now find life more enjoyable at the college.

Master Emmanuel Makinde is in JSS 1.

Although a pastor father raised him, he mixed with friends whose ways of life were not worthy of emulation. He liked the noneof-the-rule approach and attitude of some of them who are not hindered by doctrines and rigid manners. He always wished to be with them and indulge in their nefarious activities sometimes. He ran away from home to be with friends. It was while engaging in one of such events that the police arrested him and took him to a correctional centre in Osun State.

However, he was exceptional at the correctional centre, prompting his supervisor to wonder why he was brought there in the first place. Oba Abolarin discovered him at the centre and did not want him to go back to the streets. He got a scholarship into the college.

Makinde told this reporter, “I used to be a very stubborn boy, but I am happy to be at the college now because Oba Abolarin has been taking good care of me since I got here.

I am finding life at the school interesting.�

Miss Sewa Kolawole is in SSS 2, the sixth child of a family of 10. Sewa hawked pounded yam and soup in Oke-Ila Orangun before she could get food. Life dealt a cruel one on her.

Her father never cared about her education, while the earnings from her mother’s petty trading could not support her children.

However, just as she thought all hope was lost, a powerful ray of light appeared at the horizon. Abolarin College came to her rescue. She got admitted to the college and life took a turn for the better for her.

She told this reporter that she aspires to pass out of the college as the best graduating student. “I hope to study medicine in the university and become one of the best doctors Nigeria ever produced.�

The Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, Oba Victor Adesimbo Kiladejo commended Oba Abolarin for extending his benevolence to indigent students, whose parents could not afford to sponsor their education, despite their brilliance. “This is a project that time and calendar can’t obliterate. Abolarin will long be remembered for the initiative, like Thomas Jefferson who prefered to be remembered primarily of being the father of Virginia, rather than third President of the United States of America and author of the American Constitution,� he said.

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Ikpeazu Commends Buhari for Appointing Obioma as NECO Registrar Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia The appointment of Professor Godswill Obioma as the new Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the National Examinations Council (NECO) has continued to attract applauds from stakeholders and lovers of education.

Abia State Governor, Okezie Okpeazu said he received the news of Obioma’s appointment “with delight� and commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the right choice of putting a patriotic and diligent person in charge of NECO. The Abia-born Professor of Mathematics Education and Evaluation was last week named as the new CEO to pilot the affairs of NECO for the next five years at first instance.

In a message of congratulations/goodwill signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, the governor described Obioma as “a pride to Abia State and an outstanding scholar of repute who has stamped his scholarly authority in the educational sector of our country.�

Ikpeazu, who is an academic, recalled the achievements of

Obioma, noting that he became a professor of Mathematics Education and Evaluation at the age of 36 in 1991.

According to him, Obioma has for almost three decades been “a beacon of light in public service� holding top positions including Special Assistant, Policy Monitoring and Evaluation to the Military Governor of Abia State in 1994; acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Mathematical Centre in 1997.

He was also Special Assistant, Programmes and Policy to the Minister of Education in 2003; Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council in 2005 and until his new appointment, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ebonyi State.

Ikpeazu expressed confidence that Obioma would discharge the duties of his new office “with his characteristic diligence and a high sense of patriotism.�

He said the new NECO boss would bring his long years of experience in educational administration and planning to bear on the nation’s premier school certificate examination body.

Stanbic IBTC Celebrates Digital Graduate Trainees Funmi Ogundare Stanbic IBTC Group recently held its first ever digital graduation ceremony in honour of the 17th stream of Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC graduate trainees, who underwent a digital training.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, Yinka Sanni said the decision to organise a virtual graduation ceremony for the graduates was based on the COVID-19 inspired lockdown currently in place in many parts of the country.

Describing the occasion as epoch making, he advised the trainees to imbibe the values of the organisation, while also taking responsibility in various spheres of their lives. “I would like to challenge you to take responsibility on various fronts as you join Stanbic IBTC full time.

Taking responsibility means you would accept to be accountable for many things.

Take responsibility for the values, vision and mission of Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC. Try to understand them and make up your mind to live by them. Those that live by them will be very successful at the bank.�

He also charged them to take responsibility for their career development, progression and learning, adding, “you should also take responsibility for your health, knowing that whatever you do may impact the health of other people.�

Sanni further urged the graduate trainees to be good citizens of Nigeria while displaying the tenets

of innovation and creativity.

The Country Head, Human Capital, Funke Amobi, said their training kicked off physically in the classroom at the Stanbic IBTC Blue Academy, adding that when the total lockdown order was instituted in some states, the management decided to convert their classroom experience to a full digital training programme, which was historic. “The Stream 17 Stanbic IBTC graduate trainees thus became the first set to hold an online graduation ceremony, in contrast to earlier sets which had attended physical graduation ceremonies. “Today, I am excited to receive into the Stanbic IBTC workforce an exciting group of talented and highly intelligent graduates. You worked diligently to achieve this spectacular outcome. You are evidence to us that digital is real at Stanbic IBTC. We are a digital financial services organisation. The outcome of this digital learning is indeed a testament to the fact that the future of work is digital and Stanbic IBTC is ready and prepared for this future,� she stressed.

In his remarks, the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Oluseye Awojobi, congratulated the trainees on the historical occasion, while also extolling the curriculum of the Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC trainee programme, which he said aligned with the competency framework of the CIBN, thus earning the graduates exemptions in the CIBN certification process.

Queen’s College PTA Counts Gains of Online Learning Uchechukwu Nnaike The Chairman, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of Queen’s College, Lagos, Damola Adewuyi, has highlighted the benefits of the e-learning platforms introduced to minimize the impact of mental idleness and boredom among students as schools remain shut to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The chairman also commended the Principal, Mrs. Tokunbo Yakubu-Oyinloye and her management team for bringing forward the initiative to ensure that students stay engaged during the lockdown.

According to him, the lockdown provided an opportunity to bring teachers closer to students leveraging on technology, adding that the school designed and built user-friendly customised access controlled e-platforms for learning to minimise the impact of mental idleness and boredom, which is one of the perils of the lockdown on students. “Our teachers have adopted the new way of teaching through Interactive Boards and Simulated Recorded Class Environment (IBSR). During the course of this, we have discovered that our children feel more connected to their teachers’ teaching methods, hence they are delighted with the advent of e-learning initiative by the principal.�

Adewuyi said another advantage of this new dawn is the emergence of an e-library

that will serve as resource and learning aids for students now and in the future, adding that the lockdown has also opened up an avenue for resourceful parents to be in the same chat room with their children and share professional lessons in diverse fields, ranging from various subjects like Mathematics to diverse topics on Psychology: ‘Improving Academic Excellence’, ‘Mental Health Awareness’, ‘Handling Bullying and Peer Pressure’, among others. “These were handled by renowned professionals in their fields, while Dr. Gbenu Akanbi of the University of Lagos, handled the pychological mentoring, Professor Moses Akanbi (Professor of Mathematics, Lagos State University) tutored our Queens on diverse ways in improving their mathematical skills and excelling in external exams. “This lockdown has further connected our Queens with their big sisters and mothers: The Queen’s College Old Girls Association (QCOGA).

Through the association, their Youth Initiative and Technical Committee has begun plans for machine learning and artificial intelligence training. Various other mentoring projects in diverse areas are being put together for the education growth and psychological wellbeing of our Queens.�

He stressed that this period is a time of reflection, improve-

The Chairman, Queen’s College Parent Teacher Association, Mr. Damola Adewuyi ment and renaissance among management staff, parents and students of the college. “Our selfless teachers have with great zeal and optimism adopted the new technological approach to teaching and have become very familiar with technological tools via the use of Zoom, Edomodo, Google Classroom, Telegram, Whatsapp, Webex, Freeconference and other online avenues for teaching. Needless to say, their presentation skills has been enhanced due to professional and ‘self’ trainning. They have adapted and embraced the usage of Powerpoint and other interactive technological accessories.

Our students now enjoy learning from the comfort of their homes across the country. “The Parent Teacher Association hereby appeals to the Federal Ministry of Education to help schools across the country preserve knowledge using electronic means. This should proceed beyond this lockdown.

Recorded knowledge is priceless and we have come to appreciate this with COVID-19,� he said.

The PTA chairman also thanked the PTA EXCO members, parents, teachers, SBMC, old girls and the Federal Ministry of Education for embracing the initiative.

Cross River Scholarship Board Makes Case for Children The Director General, Cross River State Scholarship Board, Nuella Tessy Anyin has called on parents and guardians to teach their children lessons on virtues and good morals such as respect, honesty and love, saying that the move will prevent them from being led into vices.

Ayin, in a statement to commemorate the International Children’s Day, said it is imperative for children to be taught the dangers of drug abuse, examination malpractice and cultism. “As we do all of these, let’s remember the words of John F. Kennedy that “children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.�

She said the Children’s Day comes up every year “to remind us of the need to do all we can in supporting the rights of the children who are not just tomorrow’s leaders but also nation builders. “The day varies by date across different countries of the world. For us in Nigeria, we commemorate this day on the May 27, every year. Cross River State of course is never left out of this significant occasion of the children’s day celebration because we believe every child is worth celebrating.�

She added that the day provided an opportunity to remind Cross Riverians the need to make the fight for children’s rights and promotion of their welfare a collective fight, adding

that the domestication of the Child’s Rights Act in the state is a proof that the state supports children’s rights. “We must understand that children’s rights are not just mere rights; they are in actual sense fundamental human rights. The right to education is one of such rights which must not be toyed with. No child deserves to be out of school for whatsoever reason because an educated child is an asset to a nation,� the director general said.

She expressed the passion of the Ben Ayade administration about the education of the Cross River child, which it places priority on. “Little wonder, His Excellency thought it wise to rename the State Ministry of Education the Ministry of

Quality Education, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 which is quality education. “As director general of the state Scholarship Board, I celebrate evey Cross River State child on this year’s Children’s Day. I also wish to reiterate that no stone will be left unturned in ensuring that every child in our dear state is given the right to quality education, Ayin stressed.

She said this year’s celebration was different due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no gathering, while appealing to parents and guardians to teach their children how to stay safe as the country battles with the pandemic.

Aston Varsity Promises Scholarship to Nigerian Applicants for September Entry Aston University, UK has announced that it is still accepting applications for September 2020 Located in Birmingham, UK’s vibrant second largest city, the university is globally known to provide industry focused learning experience and employability is at the centre of what it offers to students of all backgrounds.

According to the institution’s Regional Manager for Africa, Mr. Babajide Ogundeji, other benefits of choosing Aston University are: Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF, 2017); ranked first in the UK for value-added

(Guardian University Guide 2020); Aston Business School is one of the few business schools worldwide to be triple-accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA; and it is ranked in the world top 100 for Business and Management (QS world ranking 2020).

In line with providing students with the best experience, he said the university places a huge importance on equipping students with employability skills. “The university has a dedicated team working closely with UK and international employers and partner uni-

versities to source and promote placement opportunities to Aston students, and also organise employer events and recruitment fairs on campus to bring employers and students closer together. “Students can take up paid placements of up to ÂŁ15,000, giving them the opportunity to apply what they have learnt on their course in the real world whilst gaining valuable professional and paid experience. In many master’s courses, students can take an extended work placement of up to 12 months with the Aston Global Advantage and choose to study abroad in Europe and

beyond,� Ogundeji said He added: “Aston University has a longstanding reputation for training professionals in all sectors. We are known as an enterprising university and our undergraduate students work with real life projects and undertake placements in industry, the professions or the public sector, while our postgraduate portfolio are designed in close partnership with business and industry in the UK and internationally, giving students the ideal platform from which to build their future career.�

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PERSPECTIVE

Continued Relevance of Petroleum Equalisation Fund Eniola Olakunrin

nation or its people. The federal government does not need the headache. Certainly not in this period of our development, especially with so many salient issues currently confronting the federal government.

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where anyone class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe Frederick Douglass.

Recently, there has been a stratospheric increase in strident calls for either a restructuring, merger or even an outright liquidation of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund(Management) Board, in the media.

Those pushing these views are encouraged by the depression of oil prices in the world oil market, powered primarily by the Covid-19 pandemic.

To them, the Petroleum Equalisation (Management) Board (commonly known as PEF), has either outlived its usefulness or at best, should be made to be an arm of a parastatal, under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

Some are quick to allude to the Oronsaye Report, which recommends a merger of the PEF with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (otherwise known as PPPRA).

In truth, as a measure of good faith, and in a bid to ensure that Nigerian citizens benefit from the drop in oil prices, the Buhari Administration in its wisdom, decided some two months ago, to reduce the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS or petrol), to N125 per litre (and then to N123.50 in April) from the prevalent N145 per litre).

Those calling for the tinkering with the statutes and responsibilities of the PEF are now citing the good gesture of the government as the basis of their arguments and seeking complete deregulation of petrol prices.

What makes them so sure that oil prices will forever remain depressed? What happens when prices rally, especially as the nations of the world re-open their economies as they are gradually doing now?

About three months ago (March 2020), the average price of the Brent Crude (sharing similar characteristics with Nigeria’s Bonny Light), was $32.01 per barrel.

In the successive month of April, when the pandemic was raging in some parts of Europe and the United States of America, the price of the Brent nosedived to $18.38 a barrel, on the average.

By the second week of May, the price has gained some traction at $30.07 dollars per barrel.

The world oil market is ever dynamic and that is why responsible governments the world over, do not joke with anything that can throw a clanger in the socio-economic indices of their development agenda as well as the overall well-being of their people.

It is on record that the United States subsidises her farmers to the tune of $20 billion a year. These subsidies protect farmers against fluctuations in prices, yields and even takes care of their marketing costs and research; all in a bid towards ensuring that US families are guaranteed affordable, reliable and sustainable food supply.

In Nigeria, food security is yet to be achieved and our farmers are mostly on their own. They have to bear the costs of production, transportation, preservation (for non-perishables), distribution and marketing initially, before passing them all to the final consumer.

Whilst those pushing for complete deregulation of petrol prices may have a point, it is instructive to note that countries that have gone that route, have in place, all required infrastructure to ensure hitch-free distribution of products to all the nooks and crannies of their nations.

In Nigeria, there’s a dearth of infrastructure ranging from epileptic and inadequate refineries, unworkable pipeline network, to bad roads and unsteady or non-existent power supply.

History Perhaps it is even germane to recall why the Federal Government deemed it necessary to float an ‘Equalising Entity’ for petroleum products’ prices, in the first place.

Following the upward review of civil servants’ salaries (with the adoption of the

Sylva recommendations of the Udoji Commission report in 1974) by the Gowon Administration, and the burgeoning oil prices recorded in the 70’s, the nation experienced an unprecedented buoyancy in economic activities.

Nigeria became a giant construction site.

Iconic and humongous projects such as The National Stadium, (completed in 1972), The National Theatre (completed in 1975), The Federal Secretariat, Lagos (completed in 1976) and many others of the same ilk, started springing up in frenetic fashion. More and more people started expanding their businesses, procuring vehicles and acquiring properties.

Udoji was hailed as a hero especially by public servants and in no time, inflation and other hydra- headed economic problems soon set in, but that’s a discussion for another day.

The sudden but sustained economic boom, resulted in traffic jams all over Lagos, the nation’s capital then, and that gridlock forced the Government to introduce ‘an Odd and Even’ vehicular numbering system. This ensured that vehicles whose number plates started with odd (numbers); 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, plied the major roads on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Those sporting even numbers as the first digit such as 2, 4, 6 and 8 could only get on important roads on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The answer to that for Lagosians was to procure a second car (one with an odd number registration; the other with an even number).

In effect, most families could commute every week day. It even became something of a status symbol at the time to own multiple cars. Needless to say, the policy was dead on arrival. The resultant effect of this surge in activities was the unquenchable thirst for petroleum products and in no time, queues started surfacing everywhere in the polity.

The farther away from a depot, the higher the price people pay for products, with the populace in the Northern parts of the country, mostly impacted.

The Establishment of PEF(M)B By the tail end of 1974 the petroleum products shortages had reached such a crescendo that the federal government knew it had to do something fast to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians.

It therefore set up an inter-ministerial committee comprising the then Ministries of Mines, Power and Transport, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the Nigerian Ports Authority and representatives of the Petroleum Products’ Marketers, to carve a way out of the logjam.

The committee soon came to the conclusion that the transport costs incurred by marketers, were solely responsible for the lopsided price differentials of products’ sales across Nigeria.

The inadequate local refining capacity and deficient distribution capabilities further exacerbated the problem.

The body decided to address the marketers’ transport costs lacuna head on and thus, PEF(M)B was birthed as a child of necessity and given legal teeth by Decree 9 of 1975 (as amended by Decree Number 32 of 1989 now chapter 352 of the Laws of the Federation).

It has so far proven to be one of the most enduring decisions ever taken by the federal government.

In effect, a system of price uniformity was put in place and this became sustainable via the reimbursement of marketers for losses they incur in trucking products from depots to their filling stations anywhere in Nigeria.

The funds employed in making this mechanism work effectively are sourced from the revenue pool, generated by the product marketing companies.

Along the line, the PEF kept modernising its operations. Incidences of losses and spurious claims by marketers were largely plugged through massive investments in information technology and truck tracking.

PIGB provisions for PEF(M)B The provisions of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (currently being worked on in the National Assembly) as pertains to PEF, will further deepen the activities of this all important Agency.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, is quite optimistic that the Bill, which will create one uniform law for the existential framework of entities within the oil industry, will be passed this year.

The Case against a Merger The proponents of a merger between PEF and PPPRA as a way of improving the activities of the downstream subsector, are not mindful of the longer view. The bureaucracy in most of our government offices is legendary and there is no need to over flog it here. A merger in this case will result in the creation of a behemoth, which is bound to impact proficiency and productivity in large measures.

The seamless operational methods and the relative tranquility in petroleum distribution landscape at the moment, is due largely to the success of the active schemes being implemented by the PEF. Merging two separate entities with distinct and varied functions will engender bottlenecks, create strife, slow down or/and hamper the smooth petrol distribution processes, currently in place. Once Marketers do not get their reimbursables on time, the impact is felt straight away, from Ikare to Potiskum and from Maiduguri to Nnewi. Petrol supply and distribution is so volatile, and so much so, that little disruptions in its flow, reverberates along the nation’s socio-economic corridor, not to talk of the anguish it brings to bear on the well-being and psyche of Nigerians.

Merging is clearly not in the interest of the

The Case against Disbanding PEF Earlier, in the body of this piece, a reference was made to the fact that the US subsidises it’s farmers to the tune of at least 20 billion dollars a year. Republicans are in power at the moment in that country and they are all about limited government. They love and embrace the free market to a very large degree.

But no party in power in the tates, whether Republican or Democrat, ever toys with farmers’ subsidies.

For instance, in 2018, the hike in price of bread led to the eventual ouster of the former President of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir.

No responsible government leaves pertinent economic activities to the vagaries of the market, especially if those have direct impact on the social safety nets put in place for its citizens.

In Nigeria, I will say our social safety nets are in the ‘developmental’ state as it were, so we cannot compare ourselves with countries that have deregulated every aspect of their petroleum industry. Even here, the Government is not providing the funds for the marketers’ reimbursables. It’s all worked into the template of prevailing petrol prices at every point in time.

When oil prices rebound (especially post Covid-19), the likelihood that petrol price per litre will revert to the pre-Covid level, is high.

If the prayers of those advocating for the abrogation of the law establishing the PEF are answered, what will happen to the hapless farmer trying to move his/her produce from the farm, to the main market in Jimeta, Adamawa State?

If the PEF stops its intervention, how much impact will it have on people travelling from Otukpo to Lagos or from Port Harcourt to Yobe? What about the movement of goods and services all over the nation? What will be the fate of tailors, barbers, welders, vulcanisers and other small scale business enterprises, who rely primarily on generators in running their outfits due to inadequate or non-existent power supply.

Disbanding PEF is akin to weaponising market forces in determining petrol prices.

That will be an unforced error in its entirety.

The implementation of such a policy will have untold effects on the socio-economic fabric of the nation and the people.

For sure, food will become more expensive as market sellers will pass the jump in transport fares to consumers. A lot of cottage industries may be forced to close down due to skyrocketing and unpredictable petrol prices, especially in the northern parts of the country.

Also, workers, already weighed down by the surge in high living costs, will have to look for extra means of balancing the family budget. This means less attention is paid to official responsibilities and that takes a direct hit on performance and productivity in the public and private sectors, and by extension, the economy itself. In addition, criminal activities will spike due to the vexations of those who feel ‘left behind’ by the nation’s economic planners and the poor will definitely become poorer.

Truth needs be told. The average Nigerian is overly burdened economically at the moment, especially when the Covid-19 dilemma is added to his/her malaise.

For now, the majority is struggling to survive.

Allowing free market to determine petrol prices when there are no visible infrastructure or economic palliatives in place, to cushioning its impact on the people, will result in protests of such cataclysmic proportions, of which the embers would still be smouldering, months after been put out.

I will end this piece with the words of the 11th President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, affectionately dubbed ‘The People’s President’: “In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation.�

Nothing can be truer than that. t0MBLVOSJ B %JSFDUPS PG 0BUT (MPCBM Energy and a Public Commentator, writes from Abuja

27

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍąËœ 2020

MARKET NEWS

FBN Holdings Divests from Insurance Subsidiary, Sells Firm to Sanlam Goddy Egene FBN Holdings Plc has divested its 65 per cent equity in FBN Insurance Limited to Salam (PTY) Limited, which used to hold 35 per cent stake in the insurance firm.

The financial conglomerate had in April announced its plan to divest, saying it is in line with FBN Holdings’ “strategic objectives.�

However, in a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange

(NSE), FBN Holdings Plc said it had completed the divestment. “The boards of directors of FBN Holdings and Sanlam Emerging Markets (Proprietary) wish to announce the completion of the sale and transfer of FBN Holdings’ 65 per cent shareholding in FBN Insurance Limited to Sanlam. This effectively confers full ownership of FBN Insurance and its subsidiary, FBN General Insurance Limited on Sanlam forthwith, following

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

receipt of all relevant regulatory approvals,� the group said.

Commenting on the divestment, Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc, UK Eke, said “The divestment is in line with the group’s medium to long term strategic objectives.

This will ultimately improve our shareholders’ wellbeing and deliver greater value to all the stakeholders. “Over the years we have enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership with FBNH, and

S E C U R I T I E S MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

we will continue to cooperate with them in the future. Sanlam exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire the remaining shareholding of FBNI and in line with our partnership philosophy that underpins our business model, we will introduce local shareholding at an appropriate time in the future.�

Also commenting, Chief Executive Officer, Sanlam Emerging Markets (Proprietary) Limited, Chief Executive Of-

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

ficer, Mr. Heinie Werth, said: “This transaction is evidence of our belief and confidence in the value and future of the business, as well as the skilled management team and staff. Moreover, we are committed to Nigeria and view it as a key market on the continent.�

According to FBN Holdings, this divestment has no impact on FBN Insurance Brokers Limited as it remains a wholly owned subsidiary

O F

of the group.

It said since its establishment 20 years ago, the firm has continued to provide bespoke Insurance Broking and Advisory Services to the FBN Holdings Group and its customers. The insurance business recorded gross premium written of N44.9 billion in 2019, up by 46.8 per cent as against N30.6 billion. PBT rose to N8.8 billion, showing an increase of 23 per cent from N6.8 billion.

1 6 / 0 4 / 2 0 2 0 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

28

MARKET NEWS

FMDQ Admits Flour Mills of Nigeria’s N30 Billion Commercial Paper Goddy Egene FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited has approved the quotation of the Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc N10.00 billion Series 13 and N20.00 billion Series 14 Commercial Paper (CP) notes under its N100 billion CP Issuance Programme on the exchange.

According to exchange, as most businesses across the globe continue to grapple with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, FMDQ Holdings Plc has through its subsidiary, FMDQ Exchange, sustained its efforts in the provision of required support to governments, corporates and individuals

A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager.

Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

through the delivery of innovative and dependable capital market solutions.

“The Nigerian CP market has remained a viable option for corporate entities looking to raise funds to meet shortfalls in their working capital needs, as well as other short-term expenditures. As with previous papers issued under the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg.

Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 01Jun-2020, unless otherwise stated.

programme and like all other securities listed, quoted and traded on the FMDQ Exchange platform, the Flour Mills CPs shall be availed market visibility through FMDQ Exchange’s website and systems; transparency through their inclusion in the FMDQ Daily Quotations List; governance and continuous information disclosure to

protect investor interest; amongst other benefits derived from the preferred admission to FMDQ Exchange,” the exchange said.

FMDQ said that as the economic impact of COVID-19 continues to crystallise, it remains steadfast in contributing towards the emergence of a resilient financial

market in Nigeria. “The group and its subsidiaries shall continue to engage the market and invariably, deploy innovative strategies leveraging on the unrivalled capabilities within its vertically integrated market infrastructure to promote market development and expansion,” the exchange said.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors.

Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return.

NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Afrinvest Plutus Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria International Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund 0.94 0.95 4.41% ACAP Income Funds 0.78 0.78 10.10% AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 6.51% AIICO Balanced Fund 2.64 2.70 7.15% info@anchoriaam.com ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 5.86% Anchoria Equity Fund 99.72 100.05 -2.21% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.21 1.21 5.78% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Discovery Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Ethical Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 95.55 96.22 -0.55% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 5.35% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 0.07 0.05 6.96% Paramount Equity Fund 11.50 11.90 -7.36% Women's Investment Fund 109.30 110.40 -0.95% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.20% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 106.33 106.55 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 105.64 105.89 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.15% Coronation Balanced Fund 0.91 0.92 -1.94% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.42 1.42 6.68% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,286.59 1,288.00 5.92% FBN Balanced Fund 146.84 147.93 0.01% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.11% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional 112.96 113.74 -2.06% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 113.33 114.12 -2.24% FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund 117.88 119.30 -9.41% FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy USD Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Growth Fund 3,083.67 3,119.42 3.40% Coral Income Fund 3,168.20 3,168.20 15.57% FSDH Treasury Bills Fund 100.00 100.00 5.72% GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.11% Nigeria Entertainment Fund 119.99 120.63 11.56%

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.63% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.22 2.26 1.29% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 10.35% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 143.38 143.94 -0.02% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.23 1.25 5.38% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,128.67 1,128.67 4.68% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Meristem Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.40 1.42 14.14% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.87 11.92 5.37% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 3.35% PACAM Equity Fund 1.07 1.08 PACAM EuroBond Fund 98.57 100.80 SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 119.96 123.04 -2.29% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.01 1.01 3.72% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 2,521.35 2,532.80 3.42% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 210.33 210.33 3.14% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.88 0.89 -0.56% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 273.87 273.95 3.58% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 154.92 156.64 0.67% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.44% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,674.15 7,756.30 -1.13% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.16 1.16 2.37% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 118.18 118.18 0.00% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Eurobond Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Wealth for Women Fund N/A N/A N/A QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 10.37 10.50 0.93% Zenith Ethical Fund 12.15 12.28 4.60% Zenith Income Fund 23.52 23.52 5.75% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 3.83%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

3.50 114.44 52.79

-63.85% 2.22% 1.42%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

8.89 92.33 69.78

8.99 94.22 71.02

2.10% -0.20% -5.39%

Fund Name FSDH UPDC Real Estate Investment Fund SFS Skye Shelter Fund Union Homes REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

3.06 4.26 11.69 12.01 179.93

3.10 4.34 11.79 12.21 181.93

-13.73% -27.77% -3.51% 15.46% -4.24%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

108.29

16.90%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

35

NEWS XTRA

Obaseki, Keyamo, Others Mourn as Majek Fashek Dies in New York Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki; the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo and Senator Shehu Sani, have reacted to the death of the legendary Reggae star, Majek Fashek.

The Raggae star a.k.a rain maker, died after battling with cancer for nearly a year.

His manager, Mr. Uzoma Omenka, confirmed the news of his death on the singer’s Instagram page yesterday, adding that the

Three FCT Court Officials to Face Dismissal over Judgment Sacking Ubah Alex Enumah in Abuja Three court officials in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been recommended for dismissal for allegedly manipulating court documents that led to the delivery of a judgment ordering the removal of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah as senator representing Anambra South senatorial district at the National Assembly.

Both the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division and the Supreme Court in their separate judgments had since set aside the judgment of the High Court and upheld the election of Ubah as a senator.

Ubah, who had suspected foul play over the way and manner a suit was filed against his election at an Abuja High Court, to the extent that the benefactor of the judgment was a party that did not initiate the legal action but only sought to be joined midway, petitioned some court officials to the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court.

Following receipt of the petition, the Chief Judge, Justice Ishaq Bello, constituted a seven-man panel headed by the Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR) of the FCT High Court, Mr. Madugu Alhaji to investigate the complaint by Senator Ubah against the officials.

The panel after its investigation and careful analysis of evidence adduced as well as tendered exhibits came to the conclusion that, “The entire suit contracted in CV/3044/18 was a fraud and does not exist in FCT High Court record”.

The report of the panel, sighted

by THISDAY, after establishing a case of culpability against six staff of the Abuja High Court recommended the sack of three over act of serious misconduct and the remaining for demotion over act of misconduct.

However, the committee exonerated the seventh official from the allegations against him.

The affected staff whose names are withheld, are from between grade level 6 to grade level 14.

They were found guilty of forgery and mutilation of court documents that led to the illegal sack of Ubah in January this year.

Justice Bello Kawu had on April 11, 2019, in a suit filed by one Anani Chuka nullified Ubah’s election on the premise that he allegedly used a forged National Examination Council (NECO), certificate to contest the senatorial election that brought him into office as senator.

Justice Kawu on January 17, 2020, further upheld his judgment in a ruling on Ubah’s application seeking to set aside his sack order on the grounds that the application lacked merit.

The court after sacking Ubah ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return it issued to Ubah and issue a fresh one to Dr. Obinna Uzoh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came 2nd at the election.

But the panel in the report said it discovered that the suit on which the judge based his judgment to sack Ubah was never in existence in the first place.

Buratai: Terrorists’Threat Shifting to North-central Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Tukur Buratai, yesterday disclosed that the terrorists’ threat in the country was shifting to the North-central.

He stated this at the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of 4 Special Forces Command of the Nigerian Army Barracks at Doma in Nasarawa State.

Buratai, who spoke through Nigerian Army’s Chief of Policy and Plans, Lt. Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, however said the constantly evolving nature of threats in the country underscore the need for Special Forces with requisite skills to operate under all weather, conditions and terrains to be established if the threats are to be eliminated.

To this end, the Chief of Army Staff said: “This necessitated the establishment of 4 Special Forces Command to be domiciled in Doma but covering the entire

country operationally.

“Since I assumed command as the Chief of Army Staff, I have always viewed that the Nigerian Army required force enablers and multipliers, and not just brute numbers, to effectively combat the plethora of security threats being faced

by Nigeria.

“This is why I, among other actions, pushed for the establishment of Special Forces units and formations that are motivated, empowered and resourced to go where others dare not to go and do what others thought was impossible,” he explained.

He added that with the Special Forces’ commendable performance in the field and having set up a Training School for the Special Forces, it was only natural for the Nigerian Army to establish a Formation Headquarters to administer, guide and deploy Special Forces’ assets wherever the need may arise.

Raggae Star also known as Rain Maker died at 11.45 p.m. on June 1, Nigerian time.

Omenka said the singer died in New York, where he was receiving treatment, adding that the doctors advised he should be moved close to his family, which informed his being moved to New York where his wife and three sons live.

He said contrary to insinuation that the Raggae legend died in London, he had been moved from London to New York on the advice of the doctors that he should stay close to the family.

He said Majek was separated from his family for 10 years until last year when they were reunited on the advice of his doctors that he

should be close to his family.

Majek was said to have died at age of 57 as he was born March 7, 1963.

Obaseki in a statement, said Majek Fashek’s death was saddening, as he was one of Edo State’s finest cultural exports, who through his soulful music cultivated fans across the world and brought global acclaim to his name and birthplace.

According to him, “I mourn the death of quintessential, maverick musician and Edo son, Majek Fashek.

“Fashek, who took the world by storm with his enigmatic talent, remains one of the finest cultural icons of his age and would be remembered for his disarming craft and skill.

SEALED AND DELIVERED...

Chairman of Visitation Panel on Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, Prof. Eugene Opara (left), and Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, during the submission of the panel’s report at the Government House, Owerri...yesterday

Buhari Asks DSS, Others to Provide Security for Telecoms Infrastructure Emma Okonji President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday approved the request by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, to provide security for telecoms infrastructure nationwide.

As part of the policy of the federal government, Pantami has championed efforts to identify telecommunications infrastructure

as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), with a view to protecting them from vandalisation and theft among others.

According to a statement signed by the Spokesperson to the minister, Mrs. Uwa Suleiman, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic led to a massive migration to digital platforms, and has increased the level of the importance of CNI to the sustenance of the economy and security of the country.

According to the statement, “The minister is delighted to inform stakeholders in the telecommunications industry that, President Buhari has approved and also directed that necessary physical protective measures be taken to safeguard telecommunications infrastructure deployed across the country. The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Department of State

Security Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have all been notified of the president’s directive.

“We are also working towards the reinforcement of these directives through appropriate regulatory instruments. Pantami specially appreciates the security institutions, and commends the commitment they have demonstrated in securing these infrastructures.”

Senate Canvasses Stiffer Penalty for Rape Wants state assemblies to amend criminal code Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Senate yesterday canvassed stiffer penalties for rampant rape cases as well as increasing brutality cases against the girl-child in the country.

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, disclosed this in his remarks to a motion considered to condemn the increasing cases of rape and brutality against the girl-child in Nigeria.

According to him, having

in place stiffer penalties in Nigeria’s criminal and penal code will serve as deterrent to perpetrators involved in the act.

He said: “We stand together on this, and I think we need to make the penalties for rape stiffer as a sufficient deterrent for those who are involved in this, or who even desire to be involved. We have to save our future, and these girls and women are the future of this country.”

Sponsor of the motion entitled: ‘Increasing cases of rape and

brutality against the girl child in Nigeria’, Senator Sandy Onor, noted that on May 26, 2020, a 16-year-old girl, Miss Tina Ezekwe, was hit by a bullet when a triggerhappy policeman opened fire on a bus in Lagos.

According to him, “Efforts to save Tina proved futile as she passed on two days later at a hospital.”

Citing another incident, the legislator noted that “on May 27, 2020, a first year undergraduate student of the University of

Benin, Miss Uwa Omozuwa, was brutalised and raped at her church, where she went to study in the evening of that day.”

“Brutality and rape cases against the girl-child in Nigeria are on the rise with some of these cases reported and several others admittedly unreported.”

The lawmaker, who bemoaned the lack of safety for the girl-child in Nigeria, said: “Our young girls may no longer have the confidence to live their normal lives.

House Directs Forensic Audit of NIGCOMSAT over Alleged N8bn Contract Scam Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The House of Representatives has ordered a forensic audit of the activities of the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited from inception to date, especially over an alleged contract scam of N8 billion.

The House said while the fixed satellite service business

has proven lucrative in so many countries with a worth estimate of the global space as high as N173 trillion, and 75 percent of this coming from commercial revenues, NIGCOMSAT is yet to get a slice of the pie, and has generated zero revenue.

Therefore, the House mandated “the Committees on Information Technology (ICT) and Finance to carry out a forensic audit of

the activities of the NIGCOMSAT Limited from inception to date, and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.”

The decision of the House followed the adoption of a motion on the need to investigate the alleged sleaze, misappropriation and non-profitability of the NIGCOMSAT moved by the House Minority Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, at the plenary

yesterday.

Moving the motion, Elumelu said in 2006, the federal government incorporated the NIGCOMSAT with the aim of revolutionising the information and communications technology system in Nigeria, as well as to improve national security, broadcasting, internet access, e-governance, health and the educational sectors of the country.

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWSEXTRA

NCDC Releases List of 20LGs with 60% COVID-19 Cases The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has released the list of the 20 local government areas (LGAs) that accounted for 60 per cent of the

COVID-19 cases in the country.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the

Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha yesterday disclosed at the briefing of the task force in Abuja that 20 LGAs across the country accounted for 60

FG to Reopen Lagos, Abuja, Three Other Airports Chinedu Eze The federal government has disclosed that only five airports would be operational from June 21, while the others remained closed for further assessment.

This was contained in a circular to airlines signed by the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt Musa Nuhu.

In the circular dated June 1, the regulator stressed that the country’s airspace is still closed to international flights while domestic flights could start from June 21, as announced on Monday by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

Nuhu said, “The closure of Nigerian airports to domestic flights has been extended to 2300Z on 20th June 2020.

“The gradual start of domestic

flight operations will commence on 21st June 2020 with Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport Abuja, Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano, Omagwa International Airport Port Harcourt, and Sam Mbakwe Airport Owerri.

“Other airports will be gradually added to the network after a review and assessment.”

Sanwo-Olu Delivers 1,348 New Homes to Lagos Residents in OneYear Segun James The Lagos State Government has delivered a total of 1,348 homes to Lagosians within the first year in office of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration in Lagos State.

According to the State Commissioner for Housing,

Mr. Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, the state government has completed five housing schemes located at Igando in Alimosho Local Government Area; Igbogbo in Igbogbo Baiyeku Local Council Development Authority; Igbokushu, Lekki Phase 1 and Idale in Badagry.

Akinderu-Fatai explained that the provision of decent accommodation

for Lagosians is an integral part of the transformation agenda of the present administration on housing, adding that the strategies deployed in meeting this agenda involved building affordable houses through direct budgetary allocation for the completion of existing schemes and through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).

per cent of the cases of the pandemic in Nigeria.

“It is the consideration of the PTF that while Nigeria’s confirmed cases have increased in the period under review, the following factors should inspire confidence in the response.

“The majority of the confirmed cases are in a handful of local government areas in the country as 20 out of the 774 LGAs nationwide account for 60 per cent of the cases.”

Data obtained released by the NCDC showed that 11 of the 20 Local Government Areas

are in Lagos State.

The full list of the LGAs, according to the NCDC’s Situation Report 91 include: Lagos Mainland LG with 1,274 cases in Lagos State; Abuja Municipal with 536 cases; Mushin LGA with 459 cases in Lagos State; Eti-Osa LGA with 403 cases in Lagos; Tarauni LGA with 248 cases in Kano State; Katsina LGA with 242 cases in Katsina State; Alimosho LGA with 239 cases in Lagos; Maiduguri LGA with 167 cases in Borno State; Kosofe LGA with 175 cases in Lagos;

Dutse LG with 170 cases in Jigawa State; Ikeja LG with 168 cases in Lagos; Nassarawa LG with 152 cases in Kano State; Oshodi/Isolo with 132 cases in Lagos; Apapa LGA with 131 cases, and Amuwo Odofin with 129 cases, both in Lagos.

Others are Oredo LGA with 126 cases in Edo State; Bauchi LG with 114 cases in Bauchi State; Lagos Island LGA with 111 cases; and Surulere LGA with 110 cases both in Lagos; as well as Ado Odo/Ota LGA with 107 cases in Ogun State.

Tinubu Mourns Lagos Senator, Muse The National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, has commiserated with the family of the former Senator representing Lagos Central senatorial district, Senator Muniru Adekunle Muse, who died yesterday at the age of 81 years.

Tinubu in a condolence message issued yesterday by his Media Office and signed by Mr. Tunde Rahman, said Muse was an associate who was part of his administration in Lagos State in 1999 as Chairman of Apapa Local Government Area.

According to Tinubu, “he was very committed and dedicated to the development of not only his Apapa constituency, but also of Lagos State and Nigeria. He later served diligently as Senator representing Lagos Central from 2007 to 2011.

“A loyal party man and stabilising factor in Lagos politics, his contributions to the Action Congress of Nigeria and later the All Progressives Congress (APC) were invaluable.

“Senator Muse was a devout Muslim who deployed all that he was blessed with in the

propagation of Islam. Such was his wonderful role that he was named a member of the Management Committee of Lagos central Mosque.

“I commiserate with his family, his Apapa constituency, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the government and people of Lagos State.”

Tinubu prayed God to comfort them and give them the strength to continue without their patriarch and leader, and also prayed God to forgive Muse’s shortcomings and reward his good deeds.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

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Infectious Disease Bill: House to Sue CUPP over $10m Bribery Allegation Udora Orizu in Abuja The House of Representatives at the plenary yesterday resolved to institute legal action

against the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) over the allegation it made ‘that its members collected a $10 million bribe from Bill Gates

Bill to Repeal Police Act Passes Third Reading Udora Orizu in Abuja The House of Representative at the plenary yesterday passed for third reading a bill which seeks to repeal the Police Act 2004 and enact Nigeria Police Act, 2020 to provide for the framework for the police force and ensure cooperation and partnership between the police and host communities.

Chairman of the House Committee on Police Affairs, Hon. Bello Kumo, had at the House sitting on May 12 submitted the report of his committee on the proposed bill.

The House, also at its meeting of Committee of the Whole, considered clause by clause of the report.

According to Kumo, the proposed legislation titled: ‘Bill for an Act to Repeal the Police Act, Cap. P19, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and enact Nigeria

Police Act, 2020, to Provide for the Framework for the Police Force and ensure Cooperation and Partnership between the Police and Host Communities in Maintaining Peace, Protecting lives and Properties, and for Related Matters’, will govern the operations of the Nigerian police.

He said it would also rectify issues in the 2004 Police Act to ensure efficiency, transparency, and adherence to human rights laws as well as other critical issues noted in the operations of the Nigeria Police.

In the legislative brief of the bill, it states that: “It will provide for a police force that is more responsive to the needs of the public and has entrenched in its operations the values of fairness, justice and equity; repositioning the police force to uphold and safeguard the fundamental rights of every person in Nigeria in its operations.

Oyo Assembly Passes 90 Bills, Motions in One Year Kemi Olaitan inIbadan The Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Biodun Fadeyi, yesterday said the Assembly has passed no fewer than 90 bills and motions in the last one year.

He made the disclosure yesterday while speaking with journalists at the Assembly complex in Ibadan, the state capital, immediately after its sitting.

The Deputy Speaker said prominent among the bills passed were the anti-open grazing bill; Amotekun Corps bill; Oyo State anti-corruption agency bill; bills for the creation of additional ministries such as Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Public Works, Infrastructure

and Transport, and Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion.

According to him, the anti-open grazing bill was meant to curb the excesses of herdsmen, while the Amotekun Corps law was meant to ensure the protection of lives and property in the state, disclosing that in this era of coronavirus pandemic, he was able to provide some relief materials to support his constituents in a bid to cushion the effects on the people.

The lawmaker, representing Ona Ara state constituency, denied insinuation that the Assembly is an appendage of the executive arm of government, noting that members of the Assembly would not hesitate to pass requests from the governor that would bring development to the state.

60% of Nigerians Still Use Firewood for Cooking, Says FG Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The federal government yesterday bemoaned the poor penetration of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) otherwise known as cooking gas, in the country, disclosing that at least 60 per cent of the households in Nigeria still depend on firewood.

While acknowledging, however, that the use of gas has grown from a paltry 70,000MT in 2007 to over one million MT in 2019, the government noted that the issues of cost and safety remain the most salient in increasing gas penetration in Nigeria.

Speaking during an online conference on Nigeria’s LPG Assembly, the Programme Manager of National LPG

Expansion and Implementation Plan, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Dayo Adeshina, lamented that LPG penetration in Nigeria was still just at five per cent.

While giving a further breakdown, he said 60 per cent of the population still uses firewood for cooking; 30 per cent utilises kerosene; five per cent uses charcoal while just five per cent use cooking gas.

He added that apart from household consumption, the government was also moving to increase LPG usage in areas such as agriculture, transportation and manufacturing, adding that this would enable the country to reduce carbon emissions by about 20 per cent and create about 450,000 direct jobs.

to pass the Control of Infectious Disease Bill’.

The resolution followed the consideration and approval of the report laid by the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on the bribery allegations, Hon. Henry Nwawuba.

Hon. Gibeon Goroki, standing in for Nwawuba, noted that the report is the result of a resolution of the House, as the invited party refused to show up for the investigative

hearing to substantiate his claims, stating that the matter was already under litigation.

In light of this, the committee recommends to refer the matter to the appropriate security agencies for criminal investigation and activate processes for requisite redress against CUPP spokesman, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere.

“The House to institute a legal action for criminal libel, misinformation and criminal

defamation of character with the appropriate institutions against Ugochinyere of the CUPP,” and urged media organisations to ensure due diligence in research and investigative journalism especially when dealing with matters and issues that could lead to a breach of the peace in the polity.

Meanwhile, ahead of the first anniversary of the ninth House of Representatives, The Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has

directed the committees’ chairmen of the House to submit their committees’ action plan for the ninth Assembly, as well as their committee reports on their activities and oversight reports to the office of the Speaker before June 9, 2020.

The House, thereafter, adjourned plenary till June 4, 2020, following a motion for adjournment moved by the leader of the House, Hon. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.

A BOOST TO SAFETY...

L-R: Medical Director, Ikorodu General Hospital, Lagos, Dr. Adeniyi Odubiyi; Deputy Medical Director, Dr. Abimbola Okudero; representative of Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Alhaji Ahmed Olalekan, during the presentation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by Dabiri-Erewa at the hospital’s premises, Ikorodu...recently

PDP Wants Petrol Pump Price Reduced to N70 Per Litre Chuks Okocha in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday advised the federal government to stop fleecing Nigerians with high fuel price; instead, it should immediately reduce the pump price to N70 per litre to reflect the appropriate pricing template following the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The party in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it completely rejected the N121 per litre price announced by the federal

government, which has even remained unenforced, describing it as highly provocative and a further display of the insensitivity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the plight of Nigerians, particularly as they battle the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PDP insisted that N121 per liter price amounts to fleecing Nigerians of over N50 per litre of fuel.

This, it said, is in continuation of the N55 per litre overcharge, which Nigerians had borne under the inappropriate N125 per litre,

which prevailed for months before it was brought down to N123.5 per litre, in spite of the crash in international price for crude oil.

It further stated that it rejected the unnecessary price pinching, demanding that the government should without further delay, implement the appropriate price as well as declare and account for the billions of naira accruable as overcharge since the crash in crude oil price.

According to the statement, “The failure to reduce the pump price as well as the non-

declaration of the overcharge is completely unacceptable to Nigerians, as it only points to questions of corruption in the system.”

The PDP insisted that the APC and its government have no justifiable reason to retain the pump price of fuel at over N70 per litre, declaring that it again challenged the APC administration to disprove Nigerians by immediately publishing the prevailing landing cost, depot cost, trucking cost as well as the retail outlet admin cost, and show why the pump price should be above N70 per litre.”

Court Adjourns Suit Seeking to Stop APC’s Direct Primary in Edo Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city A Federal High Court sitting in Benin-city, Edo State, yesterday reserved legal arguments on an exparte motion seeking to prevent the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress and the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, from using direct primaries to elect the state governorship candidate of the party till next week Monday.

Joined in the suit is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Factional state Deputy Chairman of the party, Pastor Kenneth Asemokhai, and a governorship aspirant of the party, Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, who approached the court, are seeking to restrain the APC from adopting the direct mode of primaries, citing the COVID-19 and the 2018 APC NEC resolution as the ground

for their action.

According to the plaintiffs, who were represented by John Odubela (SAN), APC constitution provides that the states should suggest mode of primaries to the NWC, and that they have suggested indirect primaries in which 4,000 delegates would participate with 500 delegates representing each ward.

An argument, however, ensued when defendants’ lawyers led by

H. O Ogbodu (SAN) appeared in the matter and demanded to be served the motion papers.

Consequently, the presiding Judge, Justice M.D Umar, declined to grant the exparte motion, instead, gave the defendants three days to file their papers to show cause why the injunction should not be granted, and adjourned the case till next week Monday.

COVID-19: NACCIMA Partners NGBF Fred Ojeh The Nigerian Global Business Forum (NGBF) and the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to foster mutual business initiatives and reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down businesses globally.

By this partnership, both groups would focus on salvaging their economies by supporting businesses that can drive massive industrial growth.

The objective of this historic and groundbreaking partnership, according to President of NGBF, Mr. Afolabi Andu, is to primarily establish Nigeria’s economic growth and ensure sustainability through

the strategic involvement of both the NACCIMA membership network alongside the NGBF members.

The strategic partnership between NACCIMA and NGBF is the actualisation of one of Hajiya Saratu Iya Aliyu’s cardinal objectives for her tenure as National President of NACCIMA, which is to promote and develop all matters affecting business through provision of a

network for national and international business.

Corroborating this, the second Deputy President of NACCIMA, Otunba Dele Oye, emphasised that with this partnership, there is bound to be a healthy exchange of ideas and commercial interface between both organisations which will invariably be to the country’s overall benefit.

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

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Bauchi Deputy Gov Tests Positive for COVID-19 Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Mr. Baba Tela, has tested positive for COVID-19.

This followed tests carried out on him by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) after exhibiting noticeable symptoms of the disease.

According to a statement issued yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Bala Mohammed, Mr. Mukhtar

Gidado, the deputy governor who is also the Chairman of the State Task Force on COVID-19, contracted the virus while discharging his duties.

The statement reads: “This is to inform the General public that His Excellency Senator Baba Tela, Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, who is also the Chairman, State Task Force on COVID-19, was confirmed positive of

Coronavirus.

“Consequently, His Excellency Sen. Baba Tela has gone into

self-isolation in Bauchi and health professionals are properly managing his situation.

“Similarly, samples of all his primary contacts have been taken by the NCDC for

test and they are advised to remain in isolation pending the outcome of their results.”

NDDC Confirms Positive Status of Deceased Director Peter Uzoho The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) yesterday confirmed that its late Executive Director, Mr. Ibanga Bassey Etang tested positive for COVID-19.

In a statement issued yesterday by the NDDC’s Director, Corporate Affairs, Mr.Charles Obi Odili, the commission disclosed that it has been consulting with the family of Etang who passed away in the early hours of Thursday, May 28, 2020.

According to the commission, the family has authorised it to announce that the late executive director tested positive to COVID-19.

“The Rivers State Ministry of Health has written to

the commission to also confirm the cause of death resulting from complications attributable to COVID-19.

The ministry has, therefore, directed the commission to order all management staff to go into self-isolation for a period of 14 days with effects from today, while seeking the cooperation of the organisation in tracing staff and contractors who have had close contact with the deceased. During the meeting with the family, they expressed fervent desire, that the death of the Executive Director should not be politicised, wishing to be left alone to mourn with dignity.

This also is the position of the commission,” the statement explained.

FG R ESTRICTS C HILDREN Ehanire said the leadership of the ministry had also been briefed by the Ministerial Advisory Panel of Experts yesterday.

He said the panel led by foremost virologist, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, had provided a series of very useful advisories that would be discussed and shared with Heads of Agencies and Departments of the Ministry.

Ehanire said his ministry is working with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, to finalise plans on the engagement of existing community volunteers and agents to conduct house to house sensitisation at the community level, especially in high burden local government areas of Nigeria.

He explained that about 20 local government areas account for nearly 60 per cent of Nigeria’s positive cases.

The minister said the COVID-19 burden was not evenly distributed within the country, as Kano and Lagos are currently bearing the highest burden.

He said a team from the Federal Ministry of Health led by the Executive Director of NPHCDA and comprising doctors from Departments of Family Health, Hospital Services and Public Health and NCDC has been deployed to Lagos on an appraisal visit, during which a situation analysis would be conducted.

He said the team would also visit the contiguous Ogun State on the same mission.

“The visits are in continuation of similar useful initiatives in the past to Kano, Katsina Sokoto, Jigawa, Gombe, and Borno, to share experience and ideas, align strategy and support each other.

“We continue to advocate for states to strengthen their response activities and have begun a

programme to strengthen the capacity of all federal health institutions in Nigeria to deal with COVID-19 challenges in their states by additional training, supplies, and equipment,” he said.

On the findings on the Madagascar’s herbal regiment, the minister said no timeline has been set for the agencies to submit their report.

Ehanire dismissed fears about the plan to use public school facilities as isolation centres, assuring Nigerians that the government would make sure that only schools that are on vacation are used and that they are promptly decontaminated after use.

FG to Deploy GeneXpert Machines in Kogi, Cross River Ehanire also said following recent reports on the situation at the Federal Medical Centre in Lokoja, Kogi State and University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, in Cross River State GeneXpert machines, would be deployed in the two states as soon as the test kits are validated by the Medical Laboratory Science Council, so that citizens of the state states would no longer have a shortage of opportunity to be tested.

“Our observation is that states are at varying levels of readiness and it is important to re-strategise to meet all citizens at their points of need. COVID-19 has since become a global phenomenon affecting nearly all parts of the world.

“I urge all state authorities in Nigeria to accept the reality and also work with each other and federal government, and play their part in the strategy to keep the people safe. This includes the decentralisation that requires making a minimum of 300 isolation beds ready, so that

REWARD FOR HARD WORK...

L-R: Deputy Corps Marshal, Operations, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mrs. Ojeme Ewhrudjakpor; newly decorated Assistant Corps Marshal, Mr. Bisi Kareem; and Deputy Corps Marshal, Finance and Accounts, Mr. Dauda Aliu Biu, during the decoration of Kazeem, with his new rank at FRSC Headquarters in Abuja...yesterday

Ishaku Condemns Killing of Pastor, Wife in Taraba Taraba State Governor, Mr. Darius Ishaku, yesterday, condemned the killing of Pastor Emmanuel Bileya and his wife Juliana in Donga Local Government Area of the state by gunmen.

In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Bala Dan-Abu, Ishaku

FROM

said he received the news of their murder with shock.

Pastor Emmanuel Bileya, a pastor with the CRC-N Church, Mararaba, in Donga Local Government Area was reportedly killed with his wife, Juliana by militiamen while working on their farm in Mararaba on Monday. The statement read,

“The killing of the pastor and his wife is wicked and inhuman.

“Killings of this nature have happened too often recently in Southern Taraba communities and this is unhelpful to the on-going efforts of the government to achieve lasting peace among communities in the area.

C HURCHES , M OSQUES , L IMITS S ERVICE

the national health system does not run out of COVID-19 bed spaces,” he said.

The minister added that the FCT is no longer under bed space pressure, having been well supported with assets to meet all levels of care, security, and needs.

He said there would be no reason for a COVID-19 positive person to be outside a designated isolation and treatment centre, especially with the THISDAY Dome Isolation Centre ready to take care of such cases.

Ehanire noted that THISDAY Dome Isolation/treatment facility would be headed in the introductory phase by the Medical Director of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, one of the most experienced virus disease hospitals in Nigeria.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, in his presentation, said despite the spike in the number of COVID-19 positive cases, the country was yet to reach the peak in the pandemic.

He frowned at the insinuations making rounds that the effort at curbing COVID-19 were fraudulent, adding that the wrong figures allegedly being peddled by some media outfits is very unfortunate.

NCDC boss said Nigeria currently has the third largest number of positive cases in Africa behind South Africa and Egypt.

However, NCDC’s position contradicts WHO’s claim that Nigeria recorded the secondhighest cases in Africa.

WHO reported that COVID-19 cases in Africa had risen to over 150,000 as of June 2.

WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, gave the update on its official Twitter handle @WHOAFRO. According to the report, South

Africa has 34,357 cases and 705 deaths, followed by Nigeria with 10,578 confirmed cases and 299 deaths, while Algeria has 9,513 confirmed cases and 661 deaths.

It said Ghana had 8,070 reported cases and 36 deaths, while Cameroon recorded 6,397 confirmed cases and 191 deaths.

However, Ihekweazu disclosed that 60 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in country are found in 20 local government areas of the country.

“Another number that is important is that 60 per cent of our cases are in 20 local government areas. This will now definite our engagements further,” he said.

Ihekweazu also explained that NCDC has distributed over 40,000 pieces of personal protective equipment across the country.

NCDC boss, who disclosed that the country has tested over 65,000 samples, added that there’s a need for further increase in the testing so as to completely scale down to the degree of threat of the virus.

He said about 812 health workers are presently infected with COVID-19, while eight of them working with NCDC are now receiving treatment at Idu treatment centre in Abuja.

Churches, Mosques Remain Closed in Lagos, Says Govt Meanwhile, Lagos State Government has ruled out immediate reopening of churches and mosques in the state.

Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs, Prince Anofiu Elegushi, said yesterday that Lagos being the epicentre of the pandemic would not reopen worship centres until there is a “clear coast for the state to do so.”

He said this on the sideline of the 2020 Ministerial Press

TO

“I sympathise with the surviving members of Pastor Bileya’s immediate and extended families as well as pastors and members of CRC-N in Mararaba where he served until his death.”

Ishaku prayed for the repose of the souls of the victims and others killed in violent conflicts in the past.

O NE H OUR

Briefing commemorating the first year in office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Elegushi said the state was still looking at the possibility of reopening worship centres despite the federal government’s guidelines.

According to him, “Even before the pronouncement by the federal government, we have been having meetings with the religious leaders; we even had one with safety commission, looking at the possibility of reopening of religious houses.

“We also had one with the leaders of the two faiths and I want to tell you categorically that at that meeting, the possibility of reopening religious houses was ruled out totally.

“They claimed that they cannot take such responsibility of ensuring that only 20 or 50 people are praying behind them.

“As an Imam said, he doesn’t know what is going on at the back immediately he is leading a prayer. He said if more than 20 or 50 people are staying at his back, he is not going to take responsibility for their presence. ”So, in the meeting, we ruled out in totality the issue of reopening the religious houses until we have a clear coast for us to do so. ”The federal government mentioned it, but it never ruled out the state in achieving that pronouncement.

“So, all states will have to look at the possibility of doing so in their respective states.

“We all know Lagos is still having more figures. So, definitely, that will speak to our decision.”

India Approves Remdesivir Use on Patients In a related development,

India’s highest drug controller, Central Drug Control Standard Organisation (CDCSO) has approved the emergency use of Remdesivir on COVID-19 patients, saying it reduces replication of the virus in the body.

Announcing this yesterday, the agency said it has given permission to Gilead Sciences, makers of the drug, for marketing authorisation.

It said: “Remdesivir will be available in the form of an injection and will only be sold on retail by the prescription of a doctor for hospital use. The drug has been shown to reduce the replication of COVID-19 in the body system.

“The decision was reached after consultation with an expert committee has granted the Remdesivir drug only to be given in emergencies in laboratoryconfirmed COVID-19 patients in India.”

Lagos Discharges 33 More Patients Meanwhile, Lagos State Government has discharged 33 additional COVID-19 patients from its isolation centres, bringing to 908 the number of successfully treated persons in the state.

Announcing this yesterday, the Incident Commander on COVID-19 in Lagos State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said seven of the patients are females, while 26 are males, including three Indian nationals.

He said: “21 of the patients were discharged from the Onikan Isolation Centre, nine from Eti-Osa (Landmark) Isolation Centre, two from Lekki Isolation Centre, while one was from Gbagada Isolation Centres.

“With this, the number of patients successfully managed and discharged from our Isolation facilities is now 908.”

Ëœ ÍťËœ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

39

WEDNESDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Victor Osimhen Voted Lille’s Best Player of the Year Duro Ikhazuagbe Super Eagles forward, Victor Osimhen, has been voted Player of the Season by French Ligue 1 team Lille Olympique Sporting Club (LOSC).

The Under-17 World Cup winner with Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets at Chile 2015 is presently on the wanted list of some top European clubs with Lille slamming £72million asking fee on him.

The 21-year-old lad who joined Lille from Belgian Sporting Charleroi last summer, scored 18 goals in in all 31 appearances for the French team until the Coronavirus pandemic caused the season to be halted.

Clubs from English Premier League, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga are all angling for the signature of the talented Nigerian forward.

Napoli, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are amongst some of the top clubs that have been linked to Osimhen.

Just at the weekend, another Nigerian player, Moses Simon and Osimhen were listed amongst players in contention for Best African Player in Ligue 1 in the 2019/2020 season.

The award called Prix Marc-Vivien FoĂŠ, is an award in honour of the late Cameroonian star, Marc-Vivien FoĂŠ who slumped and died during a Confederation Cup in the late 1990s.

Meanwhile, Lille President, Gerard Lopez, has now confirmed that the club has indeed received multiple offers for Osimhen and revealed that the numbers being reported in the media were accurate.

Speaking to UK’s Daily Mail, Lopez said: “There are multiple

offers (for Osimhen). “We turned down one English and one Spanish offer this January transfer window. “There is a wide array (this summer) and I wouldn’t want to give the names of the clubs

who are bidding but what I can tell you is that there are multiple (offers). “There are three championships that have clubs that have bid for him. “I am not being a sales guy

because last year people didn’t believe that we had the offers we had with (Nicolas) Pepe and it turns out we had multiple of them. “Let me tell you with Osimhen, it is the same thing,

whatever number you heard, the high number I have read is very much on the money of the offers that we have received. That’s where we are,� concludes the Lille boss.

It’s a Dream for Me to be at Man Utd, Says Ighalo Odion Ighalo has spoken of his happiness at extending his loan deal with Manchester United until January 31, 2021.

The striker’s original deal expired May 31 but he has reaped the rewards for his outstanding performances since his arrival from Shanghai Shenhua, with the Red Devils offering him fresh terms till January 31, 2021.

Despite his limited playing opportunities with only 30 minutes under his belt in the Premier League, he has still managed to register his name on the score-sheet four times in eight games across all competitions. “I’m really happy. It’s a dream for me to be here.

I’m buzzing and ready to go,� Ighalo told Manchester

United’s official website. “I feel okay. The last few days have been difficult as there have been different talks about it but now I’m really happy so I need to concentrate fully. I’m here until the end of January, so it’s good for me. “ “I decided I want to stay and I’m happy. Since the first day I arrived, I made it clear that I wanted whatever it takes to continue that work. “It was very difficult, there were some talks, but I’m happy they finally agreed and got everything done. Everything is official now.�

Ighalo became the first Nigerian-born player to wear the colours of Manchester United’s first team when he made his debut against Chelsea on February 17.

Mayweather Offers to Pay for George Floyd’s Funeral Former five-division world champion, Floyd Mayweather, has offered to cover the funeral costs for George Floyd, who died while being restrained by Minneapolis police.

Protests have been held in the US and worldwide after Floyd, an unarmed black

Floyd Mayweather... extends hand of fellowship to late George Floyd

man, died while being pinned down by white police officer Derek Chauvin.

Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck, has been charged with his murder.

Several US reports say Floyd’s family have accepted Mayweather’s offer.

A “distraught�

Mayweather, 43, will pay for funeral services in Houston - George’s hometown Minnesota and Charlotte.

His family are also looking to hold a fourth funeral, which Mayweather has also offered to cover, according to Hollywood Unlocked. “He’ll probably get mad at me for saying that, but yes, he is definitely paying for the funeral,�

Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, told ESPN. “Floyd has done these kind of things over the last 20 years.�

Victor Osimhen...voted Lille’s Best player of the 2019/20 season

Former Genk Boss, Maes, Heaps Plaudits on Ndidi Former Genk manager Peter Maes has praised Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi for his strong qualities and attributes, describing him as having “telescopic legs�.

The 56-year old tutored the Nigerian as a 19-year old who arrived from Nath Boys Academy in 2015.

He was able to blend in with the first team, making 83 competitive appearances in one season and a half before departing for Leicester City in January 2017.

Ndidi raised his ‘A’ game in East Midlands and has become one of the most consistent defensive midfielders in the Premier League. “To play in this position, you need total game discipline,�

Maes told The Athletic. “You need to work for the team. You need to do the hard work for the players who are more creative and also, your ball recovery must be good. “He is very strong and has a very good ball-recovery ability.

Ndidi has those telescopic legs he can stretch out to get the ball back. I saw this in training when he was young. “When you are young, you learn a lot. Also, he is a very smart guy who wants to learn.

He adapted very quickly to the situation. You only need to tell him one time how he

needs to defend and how he needs to play a position. He learns unbelievably quickly.�

Maes further praised Ndidi for being respectful and following instructions, which was also echoed by current Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers. “He was very respectful to his coach. He listened to everything you said and the way he wanted to go was the way his coach wanted him to go. He was very good to coach because he was hungry to learn,� Maes said. “The one thing with Wilfred is he is a world-class learner.

He wants to learn. He wants to improve and then he wants to do something about it,� Rodgers was also quoted as saying in The Athletic. “He has been absolutely brilliant since I came here. You saw how much we missed him and that is testament to the level he has played at and what he gives to this team.�

Ndidi has been widely known to play in a single pivot role in midfield for Leicester, but Rodgers is looking to improve him by adapting him in more roles which the former Liverpool boss admits is working. “It was about giving him a wider view of the game,�

Rodgers said. “He has played a lot for us in that single pivot position

where maybe before, he has played beside someone, so it is giving him that understanding of the positional sense and where to be and where to run when certain players have the ball. “We have been trying to improve the tactical element of his game so he understands not just his role without the ball but with the ball as well. “We have been working on his technique, the simple basics of the game, passing and receiving. He takes the ball now and he understands he doesn’t need to spread the ball 60 or 70 yards — he is a continuity player. He has the ball, takes the ball and passes the ball. And when he hasn’t got it, he then uses his incredible athleticism to affect the game. “From a tactical perspective, a lot of the work has gone into that with him. From a technical perspective, he has constantly worked on his touch and how he turns with a touch. Those little basic fundamentals of the game.�

Maes stated he was proud of the mark Ndidi has made in the Premier League with 130 appearances, eight goals and seven assists, and believes he is ready to play for a bigger side than Leicester who are currently third in the standings and look

guaranteed of Champions League football next season. “I am very proud to see him doing so well in the Premier League,� Maes said in The Athletic. “When you are a coach, you are not only a coach for the results but also a coach to make players better and develop them as players and people. “Ndidi can make great progress and will get an opportunity to play in an even better team than Leicester. It is very important that you have these types of players in the squad. You need protectors all the time when you don’t have the ball and he is one of the best protectors around.�

Wilfred Ndidi...gets high praises from his former coach

Premier League Clubs Given Permission to Play Friendlies The English Premier League has given clubs permission to play friendly matches, with strict restrictions, before the restart on June 17.

Top-flight sides made requests to face other teams in preparation for the league’s return, which was accepted, according to UK’s The Telegraph.

Premier League leaders Liverpool held an 11-a-side

game in training at Anfield on Monday.

Friendlies can be played at either stadiums or training grounds.

However, the Premier League has outlined a number of conditions such as negative Covid-19 tests being returned by players involved.

Measures have also been put in place ensure hygiene

and social distancing rules are adhered to which include: Championship clubs have reportedly already been approached about games and BBC Sport understands that the EFL will issue guidance to clubs on this later in the week.

Upon the resumption, some games could take place at neutral venues and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told BBC Radio 5

Live he “would love� to play their home games at Anfield. “We will not have the help from the crowd but no team will have that so where is the advantage? Whoever we play it is the same situation which is why I’m not too worried about it,� said Klopp. “We have tried to simulate the situation by training in the stadium and getting used to it.�

Wednesday June 3, 2020

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MISSILE

Obaseki to APC “I have chosen the party that brought me in the first place, the APC. No matter the challenges, I will run on the platform of my party. And I’m sure by the grace of God, I will overcome” – Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, foreclosing defecting to another party to pursue his second term ambition.

KAYODEKOMOLAFE THE HORIZON

kayode.komolafe@thisdaylive.com

0805 500 1974

A Takeaway Not to be Ignored E

xperts and non-experts now freely talk of the takeaways in the discussion of the harsh lessons that the novel coronavirus is teaching humanity.

As nations, private organisations and individuals grapple with the socio-economic consequences of the virus one of the obvious takeaways is that ultimately development is to be measured by the quality of the lives of all the human beings in any geo-political space.

You will notice if this takeaway is being ignored when you examine the priority being given to the worsening inequality in the land.

Taking a global look at this big issue before humanity recently, Nobelist Amartya Sen observed as follows: “In the policies against the present pandemic, equity has not been a particularly noticeable priority.” This, of course is characteristically a weak point of capitalist economic management anywhere in the world. In making a case for the consideration of equity in the recovery efforts, the eminent Indian economist strikes the same chord as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2020 Human Development Perspectives.

In the report, a link is established between COVID-19 and human development like this: “The pandemic was superimposed on unresolved tensions between people and technology, between people and the planet, between the haves and the have-nots. These tensions were already shaping a new generation of inequalities—pertaining to enhanced capabilities, the new necessities of the 21st century, as defined in the 2019 Human Development Report. But the response to the crisis can shape how those tensions are addressed and whether inequalities in human development are reduced.”

The approach adopted in the report is to assess the capability of poor people to be part of the development process. For instance, the report examines the ultimate impact of the current school closures on development of children from various backgrounds.

Nigeria is ranked 158th out of 189 countries surveyed in the 2019 Human Development Index.

This ranking should not be a surprise to the government and the people alike. The indices of poverty and inequality are glaring enough in the socio-economic landscape.

This crisis has certainly brought to the fore the centrality of equity to human development.

At least, one chilling fact thrown up by this crisis is that even when all “the fundamental of the economy” look fine in the eyes of the experts, the political economy remains vulnerable in the absence of policies that could bolster human development. Experts will measure progress in terms of growth rates, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ratings, and what is happening at the stock exchange. On a more insensitive note, some would even interpret recovery to mean the restoration of the conspicuous consumption of the elite – increasing the fleet of private jets and luxury cars, building more uninhabited mansions and importing more choice wines and spirits.

However, you cannot seriously talk of human development when millions of the population have no access to potable water and open defaecation is still a serious issue because elementary questions of sanitation are yet answered.

It is worrisome that the nation seems to be missing the takeaway from this crisis on a central question of development. There is the urgent need to rethink policy in respect of human development beyond tokenism. This point could be distilled into practical terms when you scrutinise the policy emphasis given to the social sector as huge

contracts are awarded for “landmark projects.”

So, the point at issue here is the prioritisation of education and health, two major components of the social sector. It has to be so if ignorance and disease are to be fought squarely in the war against poverty and crippling underdevelopment. This is the greatest project any government can ever execute in the present of context of mass poverty and misery in Nigeria. For you cannot be talking of making progress in human development in a population that includes millions of illiterate and unhealthy people.

All the aspects of the problem of the social sector should, therefore, be given attention in the current recovery efforts. Funding the sector remains an ideologically controversial issue globally.

The consequences of the budgetary neglect of universal healthcare are already on display even in the advanced capitalist countries.

In Nigeria, the coronavirus crisis is “superimposed” on the age-long crisis of the social sector, to borrow the word of UNDP. A meagre 0.3% of the country’s GDP is reportedly budgeted on health while some of the figures for education were said to be unavailable for the global survey.

The coded message of the report is that funding is crucial to provide the sorely needed infrastructure and facilities for healthcare and education as the basis of development.

However, an aspect of the problem often ignored is the condition of the engine on which the healthcare and education systems operate.

The systems cannot operate to ensure good delivery of service when the engine is increasingly threatened with knocking. Here are talking of the workforce – school teachers, professors, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, technologists, scientists, auxiliary staff administrators etc. This system simply does not care enough for the well-being of the human beings whose duty it is to operate the system for human development. There is a tinge of irony in this situation, you would probably say.

Take the intangible first. The government and the society in general do not accord enough respect to those who labour day and night to keep the system running. This is a symptom of a perverted value system. The idea of success and relevance itself is highly upended. It is not just happenstance that

the health and education professionals mentioned in the foregoing are among the greatest targets of brain drain. Countries elsewhere value the services of these workforce as gold to sustain their respective health and education systems.

Here, their labour is viewed as iron that could rust. The conditions of service in the social sector are utterly disabling.

In elementary moral terms, the very rude language of officialdom when addressing professionals who still sustain healthcare and education in Nigeria is simply unacceptable. The jobs of professors and doctors used to be viewed as exemplars of distinguished careers to inspire the youth. Not anymore! The definition of a lucrative career has since changed as the society itself gets disoriented.

If funding healthcare delivery and education is paradoxically controversial, the remuneration of the workforce in the sector is tragically treated with levity. Governors and ministers gleefully threaten the workforce in the social sector on television with mass sack. You wonder if these men wielding transient power ever remember that they were once treated by Nigerian doctors and taught by Nigerian professors.

Sheer official braggadocio is what is unfortunately offered instead of workable policies to improve the skills of the workforce with decent remuneration so that the sector would be optimally and capably staffed.

Agreements reached with the unions and professional associations in the sector are routinely ignored by governments at all levels as they claim to be “moving the nation forward.” The other day, a member of the House of Representatives, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, commendably told his fellow lawmakers the truth about the lingering dispute between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU): the government treats agreements negotiated for years with contempt. This official disposition has been at the root of the crisis bedevilling the Nigerian university for decades. The state capriciously jettisons meaningful engagements and opts for raw arrogance of power. Over a dozen ministers of education in successive administrations in the last 30 years have been talking down on university teachers.

It has hardly occurred to the ministers, many of whom are products of Nigerian universities,

that their imperial approach would not solve the problem. Yes, ASUU has committed a number of tactical errors in its legitimate strategic struggle to save the university education from total decay.

The government and its policy advisers are also right in challenging ASUU and other stakeholders in the society to be creative in answering the knotty question: how can universities be adequately and sustainably funded? Yet, the official mantra that “government cannot fund quality university education alone,” is hardly an adequate response to the crisis. A government that can budget N37 billion to renovate the parliamentary building in the midst of economic crunch while claiming that government cannot sufficiently fund university education is not on the path of human development.

Imagine N37 billion shared equally among the six oldest universities to finance specific projects to enhance academic excellence!

There is something wrong with a culture of development in which paralysing strikes in the health and education systems are no more perceived as a matter of emergency by either the government or the people. News of strikes in schools and hospitals hardly hit the headlines in the media nowadays.

This societal culture of perceiving disruptions in public hospitals and schools as normal is socially retrogressive. It is even more morally reprehensible on the part of the elite in power and outside power: they make private arrangements at home and abroad for their own healthcare and the education of their children while public health and education systems are left to collapse.

It is a feature of a selfish society. Little wonder, not a few observers of the current crisis have described coronavirus as an equaliser of sorts.

The poor and the rich are now bound to face the consequences of an abysmally neglected health sector.

The truth that those in power hate to hear is that the problem of the social sector will not be solved until those who work in the sector are happy and fulfilled When will it be said that it’s a new day for human development?

It should be a day when development is measured, among other things, by the happiness and job satisfaction of the workforce that could promote excellence in public hospitals and schools.

Back to the Basics of AfDB

Issa Aremu

Africa Development Bank Group (AfDB) or Banque Africaine de Développement , (the financial provider to African government development projects in the regional member countries (RMC), is in the news for everything but it’s primary mandate of financing development and eradicating poverty.

What with a bagful of accountability, due process and human resource allegations against the management of the Bank under its current President Nigeria’s Mr. Akinwunmi Adeshina?

Aspiration 4 of the goals and priority areas of the first ten years of Africa Union’s AGENDA 2063 envisions strengthening governance, accountability and transparency as a foundation for a peaceful Africa’.

We must therefore insist that corporate institutions such as AfDB must be accountable to its shareholders. Certainly those who manage the affairs of the pan African Institution must uphold the best corporate governance culture of

Adesina probity, incorruptibility and impartiality. Founded in 1964, AfDB, remains a successful pan- African multilateral development finance institution.

After centuries of slavery and colonialism, the founding fathers ( few mothers!) of the newly independent (23) twenty-three African nations initiated two draft charters.

One sanctions the establishment of Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) in 1963 and the other regional development bank African Development Bank (AfDB), formed a year later, precisely in August 1964, in Khartoum, Sudan. Headquartered in Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire it has financed 2,885 operations, for a total of $47.5 billion. It consistently receives an AAA rating from the major financial rating agencies.

Nigeria is the AfDB’s largest shareholder, with a little over 9% of its total capital. The objective of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction.

NOTE: This piece continues in the online edition on www.thisdayliive.com

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