FRIDAY 13TH NOVEMBER 2020

NSE Activates Rule to Arrest Surge in Share Prices Market gains N1.1trn as ASI breaks 5.2% threshold Goddy Egene The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday halted trading at the stock market for 30 minutes following an unprecedented spike in the

prices of stocks that led to a jump of over 6.2 per cent in the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) as against the set 5.0 per cent threshold.

The NSE had to halt trading at 12.55 pm, using the circuit

breaker when the NSE ASI rose beyond the set threshold of 5.0. This is the first time that the circuit breaker had been triggered since its introduction in 2016.

The exchange explained that

the circuit breaker protocol was triggered by the increase of the NSE ASI from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39. The market reopened at exactly 1:25p.m, with a 10-minute intraday auction session, before resuming

continuous trading till the close of the day at 2:30p.m. During the halt of trading, no order could be placed until trading resumed. However, existing orders could be withdrawn or cancelled but could not

be modified. Trading halts did not affect the clearing, settlement, and depository operations for matched trades, as these functioned Continued on page 9

Buhari, Akufo-Addo, Adesina, Saraki, PDP Mourn Jerry Rawlings... Page 5 Friday 13 November, 2020 Vol 25. No 9346. Price: N250

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FG, WHO Target 20% of Nigeria’s Population for COVID-19 Vaccination Cautions against trips to US, UK, others We're committed to getting vaccines, says Osinbajo Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The federal government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said that COVID-19 vaccines will first be given to 20 per cent of the country's most vulnerable population when ready.

The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said yesterday at a media briefing by the Presidential Task Force

on COVID-19 in Abuja, that the world body had entered into an agreement with over 186 countries on the funding and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also expressed the determination of Nigeria to get the vaccine, saying it's a priority of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Continued on page 9

Buhari: Nigeria’s Diversity, Youthful Population Pose Peculiar Challenges Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said Nigeria's ethnic and cultural diversities as well as youthful population pose peculiar challenges and urged the international community to explore positive advantage of the trend.

The president, while receiving letters of credence from new ambassadors of Belgium, Mauritania, Austria and Norway at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, charged the international community and Continued on page 9

A NEW BEGINNING...

L-R: Chief Judge of Edo State, Justice Esther Edigin; the Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and his wife, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, during the swearing-in of the governor for a second term in office, in Benin City... yesterday

UK Court Okays Trial of Nigeria’s $1.7bn Suit against JP Morgan...Page 8

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NEWS Buhari, Akufo-Addo, Adesina, Saraki, PDP Mourn Jerry Rawlings

Group News Editor Ejiofor Alike

Email Ejiofor.Alike@thisdaylive.com, 08066066268

Omololu Ogunmade and Chuks Okocha in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari; Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo; President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina; former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were among personages and groups that yesterday condoled with the government and people of Ghana over the passage of their former President, Jerry Rawlings.

Rawlings died earlier yesterday at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, capital of Ghana, from COVID-19-related complications.

He was 73 years old.

Rawlings had buried his mother, Mrs. Victoria Agbotui, at Dzelukope in the Volta Region on October 24, 2020, and fell ill shortly after the burial. He was hospitalised after showing symptoms of COVID-19.

It was gathered that the former president also had underlying illnesses.

A flight lieutenant of the Ghanaian Air Force, Rawlings first staged a military coup as a young revolutionary on May 15, 1979, five weeks before scheduled elections to return the country to civilian rule.

When the coup failed, he was imprisoned, publicly courtmartialled and sentenced to death.

From prison, he plotted another coup and took back control of the country on December 31, 1981 and became Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

He resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first president of the Fourth Republic in 1992.

He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.

After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian constitution, Rawlings endorsed his vice-president, Mr. John Atta

Mills, as presidential candidate in 2000.

He was until his death, the African Union envoy to Somalia.

In his condolence message, Buhari, in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the entire African continent would sorely miss the sterling qualities of the late Ghana's ex-leader.

The statement said Buhari believed that the passion, discipline and moral strength deployed by the former Ghanaian leader to reposition the country have continued to reverberate across the continent and beyond.

The president commended the unique role played by Rawlings in strengthening political institutions in his country and Africa at large.

According to him, such roles stimulated the economy for sustainable growth, adding that the late Rawlings championed the African cause by urging many leaders to work towards interdependency on the global stage, especially in areas of competitive advantage.

The statement added: "President Buhari joins family, friends and associates of the former Ghanaian leader in mourning his departure, assuring that the ideas that Rawlings postulated, particularly for development in Africa, and his sacrifices in working in various countries as an envoy for peace and democracy will always be remembered.

"The president prays that the almighty God will grant the Ghanaian leader eternal rest, and comfort all his loved ones."

Akufo-Addo, in a statement, also described Rawlings as a great tree that has fallen and expressed his condolences and sympathies to his family and Ghanaians in general.

He ordered flags around the country to be lowered to halfmast for seven days of national mourning from Friday and said

The late Rawlings he was suspending campaigning for the upcoming election in December. “A great tree has fallen, and Ghana is poorer for this loss.

“I have directed all national flags should fly at half-mast for the next seven days in all parts of the country and have declared seven days of national mourning from Friday, November 13 to Friday, November 20,� AkufoAddo said in a statement.

Adesina also yesterday tweeted that the “passing away of former President Jerry Rawlings, an illustrious son of Africa, who worked tirelessly and passionately for Africa, is very sad.�

He described his death as a big loss to Ghana and Africa. “My condolences to his dear wife Nana and family and to the Government and people of Ghana,� he tweeted.

The PDP also yesterday commiserated with the

government and people of Ghana over the death of Rawlings.

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said: "Our party received the news of Jerry Rawlings' death with rude shock and immense sadness given the roles he was playing to ensure the unity, stability and development of the African sub-region and the continent at large.

"Former President Rawlings was a courageous patriot whose policies repositioned his country to attain greater heights in critical sectors of her national life."

The PDP said Rawlings was loved not only by Ghanaians but also by Nigerians and the world for his candour, patriotism and

quest for development, equity and fairness.

"Our party commiserates with the President of Ghana, His Excellency, Nana Akufo Addo, the widow of Jerry Rawlings, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the Rawlings family as well as the people of Ghana and prays God to grant fortitude to the bereaved and eternal rest to the departed leader,� it said.

Saraki has also commiserated with the people and government of Ghana over Rawlings’ death.

In a tweet yesterday, the former Senate president said: “I just got off call with HE (His Excellency), Nana Kufo-Addo of Ghana. On the call, I conveyed my deepest condolences over the passing of the former President of Ghana, HE Jerry Rawlings.�

PROMOTING LOCAL FABRICS...

L-R: Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, with the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the launch of digital marketing of local fabric, adireogun.com, in Abeokuta... yesterday

Social Sector's Devt, Economy, Infrastructure Top Obaseki's Second Term Agenda Gov’s ADC collapses at inauguration Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, yesterday unfolded his priorities for his second term in office, which began with his inauguration along with his deputy, Philip Shaibu, in Benin City.

Obaseki, in his inaugural speech, promised to focus more on the development of the social sector, the state's economy and infrastructure as a step towards improving the living conditions of the people.

However, the inauguration was nearly marred yesterday when the Aide-de Camp (ADC), to the governor collapsed on the podium.

Obaseki said his administration would be committed to working for every Edo State citizen by ensuring that the state grows into a globally competitive economy enabled by technology for the benefit of all.

He predicted that before 2025, Edo State will develop and grow its digital economy and operate a digital government, adding that "we are building to plug into the new digital age and will ensure we deliver better and efficient services to all our citizens."

According to him, in realising this vision as reflected in the Make Edo Great Again (MEGA) manifesto, the focus will be on the social sector by improving on education, healthcare system, provision of social security and safety nets, caring for the vulnerable and the disadvantaged in the society.

He also promised to rapidly develop critical energy, housing, digital and road infrastructure, which will provide a framework to drive inclusive growth; build the economy and drive industrialisation, trade and investment, to solidify the state’s status as the choice investment destination in the country.

Obaseki said he would preserve the environment and public utilities and make the state more functional and adapt to the challenges of climate change and rural-urban migration "Our major drive will be the clean and green Edo initiative and sustaining our campaign to plant trees and restore the forest.

"Enshrine peace amongst our people and improve the general security to lives and property within the state, by working closely with all religious, traditional and community

stakeholders; "Exploit agriculture and natural resources, by tapping our God-given resources to provide food security, create wealth and improve the livelihoods of our people; "Strengthen public service, public finance and public revenue, by recalibrating our workforce for the future world of work; "Sustain law, judiciary and legal reforms, to ensure justice, equity and fairness in private and public dealings; "Promote arts and culture, to preserve the past, document the present, envision the future, and use our arts and culture as a springboard to develop tourism; "Revamp the transport sector by developing transport infrastructure to a more modern and affordable system," he added.

According to him, his administration has identified "initiatives to drive public service reforms over the next 12 months by accelerating capacity building; finding new ways of working and operationalising the civil service training centre as a centre of excellence in training public servants."

"With a target of ensuring a defined template for development

and growth in our state up till 2050, we have set the modalities for a 30-year development plan to provide government with necessary tools, guidelines and milestones for development planning," he stated.

The governor thanked traditional and religious leaders for their sustained support and prayers, adding that such support has been the major pillar of his programmes and policies in the last four years.

He also thanked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the security agencies, and President Muhammadu Buhari for upholding the constitution and allowing the will of the people to prevail.

"This victory is the prize and vindication for family values that was bequeathed to me by the Ogbeide-Oyo Obaseki and Gbinigie families.

"That I stand before you today as the re-elected governor of Edo State is a testimony to the awesome power of God Almighty and the indomitable will and determination of the great people of Edo State.

"The good people of Edo State spoke unequivocally through the

ballot on September 19th and have entrusted us with the task of steering our state for another four years.

"I am encouraged by the trust you have bestowed on us and grateful for your belief in my leadership and my capacity to continue piloting the affairs of this great state.

"The world is currently going through unprecedented challenges, which is taking its toll on our collective wellbeing and demanding so much from the socio-economic and political structures that hold us together," he said The oath of office, which was administered by the Edo State Chief Judge, Justice Esther Edigin, was witnessed by the Chairman, South-south Governors' Forum and Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; Sokoto State Governor, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State; Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, represented by his deputy, Dr. Ipalibo Harry-Banigo; South-south Vice-Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Dan Orbih; former Minister of Works, Mr. Mike

Onolemene; and former Chief of Staff to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe.

Others present at the Tennis Court of Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, venue of the swearing-in, were Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; representative of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Edobor Iyamu; Senator Matthew Urhoghide; Senator James Manager, the state Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo; Speaker of the state assembly, Hon. Marcus Onobu; his deputy, Mr. Roland Asoro; and Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide Ihama, member, representing Oredo Federal Constituency.

The event was held with provision for virtual participation in line with government’s guidelines to check the spread of COVID-19 However, the inauguration was nearly marred as the ADC to the governor collapsed on the podium.

The ADC, a Superintendent of Police, dressed in the police ceremonial uniform, stood directly behind the governor and he slumped as Obaseki was delivering his inaugural speech.

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UK Court Okays Trial of Nigeria’s $1.7bn Suit against JP Morgan Ejiofor Alike with agency reports A lawsuit filed by Nigeria against a United States bank, JP Morgan Chase, claiming over $1.7 billion for its role in the Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245 deal, will proceed to trial, London’s high court ruled yesterday.

The suit, filed in the English courts in 2017 relates to the purchase of the offshore OPL

245 oilfield in Nigeria by oil majors, Royal Dutch Shell and Eni in 2011, which is the subject of an ongoing trial in Milan.

The federal government had filed a claim against the US lender, accusing the bank of negligence in transferring funds from the disputed oilfield deal to a company controlled by a former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Dan Etete.

A spokeswoman for JP Morgan

NNPC, JV Partner Begin Oil Production in Two Blocks Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), along with its Joint Venture partner, First Exploration and Production, has begun production at Oil Mining Leases (OML) 83 and 85.

The corporation noted that the Anyala Field located in OML 83/85, is a shallow water asset discovered 42 years ago, stressing that the “remarkable milestone� will lead to an expected peak production of 60,000 barrels of oil.

NNPC tweeted yesterday that the milestone marked the introduction of hydrocarbon into the Abigail-Joseph Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessel, which was safely achieved on October 21, 2020.

It quoted the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, as saying that the corporation will henceforth devote attention to harnessing Nigeria’s gas resources to the benefit of the country.

"NNPC is committed to monetising Nigeria’s abundant oil and gas resources from all our assets. It is in our informed interest to deliver gas projects in view of the resilience gas has shown in the market since Covid-19 outbreak and the value it delivered," he said.

He added that the NNPC will continue to work with partners to deliver low-cost barrels in spite of the current market dynamics occasioned

by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We remain ever committed to delivering value to the 200 million Nigerians, who are our critical shareholders," he said.

The NNPC group and First E&P JV also operate the Madu Field, which is located in OML 85 and is expected to come on stream in 2021.

Before now, the corporation had said that the partnership would unlock over 300 million barrels of crude oil recoverable reserves and create value of over $8 billion for the federal government over the total lifespan of all phases of the project.

A total of seven development wells have been planned in Phase 1 and approved by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in the Anyala West field (OML 83), which will be developed along with the nearby Madu field in (OML 85) to be jointly produced in the Abigail-Joseph FPSO. Each field is being developed with an unmanned conductor supported platform (CSP), a novel drilling and development technology deployed in the Niger Delta.

The FPSO underwent upgrade, refurbishment and life extension works in Keppel Shipyard, Singapore, to meet specified standards and specifications and the partnership between NNPC, FIRST E&P, Yinson and Keppel Shipyard, helped to ensure the critical pre-deployment activities for the FPSO were completed in record time.

had dismissed the accusation, saying the firm “considers the allegations made in the claim to be unsubstantiated and without merit.�

At the core of the case is a $1.3 billion payment from Shell and Eni to secure the block that the lawsuit said was deposited into a federal government’s escrow account managed by JP Morgan.

The lawsuit said JP Morgan then received a request from the finance ministry to transfer more than $800 million of the funds to accounts controlled by the previous operator of the block, Malabu Oil and Gas, controlled

by Etete.

The court papers also alleged that JP Morgan transferred the funds to two accounts controlled

by Etete, without sufficient due diligence to make sure the money did not leave the accounts controlled by the federal government.

The court filing, made in London in November last year on behalf of Nigeria, said JP Morgan acted with gross

negligence by allowing the transfer of the money without further checks.

It said JP Morgan should have known that under Nigerian law, the money should never have been transferred to an outside company. “If the defendant acted with reasonable care and skill and/or conducted reasonable due diligence, it would or should have known or at least suspected ‌ that it was being asked to transfer funds to third parties who were seeking to misappropriate the funds from the claimant and/or that there was a significant risk that this was the case,â€? the court filing said.

Reuters reported that the London court yesterday ruled that the six-week London trial will start on the first available date after November 1 next year, meaning that proceedings may not begin until 2022.

JP Morgan declined to comment yesterday.

But a lawyer for the American

multinational investment bank, Rosalind Phelps, described the federal government’s suit against the bank as a claim with no real prospect of success.

The bank “had no duty to inquire into or investigate the validity or legality of the instructions it received “The only allegation that’s left is one of negligence,� Phelps, had told the court.

As part of the proceedings, JP Morgan will also have to disclose within 21 days which individuals at the bank made the final decision to transfer the funds in question. “Nigeria is pleased that JP Morgan has agreed it will now confirm all the senior figures at the bank who were involved,�

Reuters quoted a spokesman for the Nigerian government on this case, as saying. “This claim will move forward and Nigeria will hold JP Morgan accountable for its central role in the OPL 245 fraud,� the report said.

The damages sought by

Nigeria include the monies allegedly sent to Etete, around $875 million paid out in three instalments, plus interest taking the total to $1.7 billion.

The decision is also likely to compel the bank to disclose details of its internal processes.

JP Morgan sought to quash the case last year.

The Milan trial began in 2018.

In July 2020, Italian prosecutors asked a Milan court for Eni and Shell to be fined and some of their present and former executives, including Eni CEO, Claudio Descalzi, to be jailed.

They further requested Eni and Shell to be fined 900,000 euros ($1.06 million) each and sought to confiscate a total of $1.092 billion from all the defendants in the case, the equivalent of the bribes alleged to have been paid.

Final defence arguments from lawyers representing Shell, Eni and its executives are being made to the court.

The next hearing is scheduled for November 25.

CHANCE ENCOUNTER...

L-R: Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri; Minister of Women Aairs, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, and her Humanitarian Aairs, Disaster Management and Social Development counterpart, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja... yesterday

DHQ Attributes Progress in Combating Insurgency, Banditry to Intelligence Gathering 700 soldiers amputated, discharged from service, says commission Deji Elumoye and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja The military has said that it made progress in the war against insurgency and armed banditry due to intelligence gathering.

This is coming as the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) yesterday said 700 soldiers were recently discharged from service for losing their limbs while fighting Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east.

Coordinator of the Directorate of Defence Media Operations (DDMO), Major General John Enenche, told reporters yesterday in Abuja that the recent successes recorded in the military's war on terror were the result of concerted intelligence gathering.

He said the arrest of top commanders of ISWAP and Boko Haram, informants and logistics suppliers were achieved through intelligence gathering.

According to him, while troops sustained the kinetic

operations against the bandits and terrorists across theatres of operations, many collaborators and informants were apprehended through intelligence gathering.

In the North-west, Enenche, who reviewed military operations in the past one week, said troops of Operation Accord arrested bandits’ gun runners named Abubakar Mohammed and Ansi Janare at Tangaza Town in Sokoto State, based on intelligence.

He added that various arms and ammunition such as light machine gun, AK47 rifle magazines, 586 rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammunition, 100 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition and one motorcycle were recovered from the suspects.

Enenche stated that some bandits were also eliminated during air and land operations in Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna States.

In the North-east, the

coordinator said results were achieved through land and air operations conducted by the military and other security agencies during the week under review.

He said troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, through the subsidiary Operation Fire Ball, eliminated five terrorists at Buni Gari in Yobe State on November 8 and recovered cache of arms and ammunition.

He added that a woman and three children were also rescued by the troops during a fierce encounter with terrorists on same day at Miyanti in Bama Local Government Area of Borno.

According to him, the Air Task Force of OPLD neutralised some ISWAP fighters and destroyed some of their structures, including a suspected fuel storage facility at Tumbun Allura, a terrorists’ logistics hub on the fringes of Lake Chad in the Northern Borno. “The air raid was executed

on November 8, on the heels of credible intelligence reports as well as aerial surveillance missions, which led to the identification of a command post as well as a suspected fuel dump with a large number of jerry cans and barrels concealed in make shift structures within the settlement. “The attack aircraft engaged the location, scored accurate hits in the target area resulting in the destruction of the terrorists’ fuel dump. “Several ISWAP elements were also neutralised as a result of the air strike,� he said.

Also yesterday, the NCPD put the number of soldiers who were recently discharged from service for losing their limbs while fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east at 700.

The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr. James Lalu, while defending the commission's 2021 budget estimate before the Senate

committee on Special Duties, however, said NCPD had integrated the discharged military personnel.

He said: "Recently, we have had to integrate about 700 exmilitary personnel who had their limbs amputated and eventually dismissed from the service due to the Boko Haram insurgency. We have to provide artificial limbs for them to ensure they are reintegrated back to the society and live a normal life."

Lalu also pleaded for an upward review of the agency's budget to meet the increasing demand of its capital budget while explaining that there are about 31.5 million Nigerians living with disability and the number keeps increasing daily, especially with the recent challenges facing the nation.

According to him, disability is no more a charity issue as it has become a developmental issue that needs to be properly tackled.

He, therefore, warned that failure to address the issue would place serious burden on the government.

He said the budget increase would take care of education, healthcare needs and livelihood of people with disabilities, adding that many disabled persons turn to beggars when they cannot meet with their basic needs.

Lalu also said the commission in 2021 would open zonal, states and local government offices so as to reach out to all its members living in the rural areas.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, urged the commission to create a database of all its members across the country and design empowerment training for them, especially those in the rural areas.

He gave an assurance that his committee will look at the agency's budget proposal and revert.

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PAGE NINE FG, WHO TARGET 20% OF NIGERIA’S POPULATION FOR COVID-19 VACCINATION At yesterday's press briefing, the federal government also warned Nigerians against making non-essential travels to COVID-19 high-burdened countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil to mitigate the risk of worsening the spread of the virus in the country.

Mulombo, however, said an estimated $38 billion had been earmarked to support the development of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, adding that two-thirds of the amount has been mobilised while the remaining is being sourced.

He explained that under the principle agreed with the coalition working to promote development of COVID-19 vaccines, every subscribed country will get the vaccine to vaccinate 20 per cent of its most vulnerable population at the initial stage.

According to him, WHO believes that it is only by observing such a fair distribution of vaccines that the COVID-19 pandemic can be arrested.

"All the countries that subscribed understand that if there is any single country left out, it could be that country that will be the origin of another wave of infection.

"The facility needed for the vaccine development is estimated at about $38 billion and two-thirds of the amount is already mobilised while the remaining is also being sourced," he stated.

While allaying fears of possible scramble for the COVID-19 vaccines and lack of access to poor economies, Mulombo said all the 186 countries had subscribed to the principle binding the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to

ensure fair distribution to all countries.

While providing an update on vaccine development, Mulombo said at present, there are over 200 vaccine candidates, out of which 47 have undergone clinical trials.

He said 10 of the vaccines have reached advanced stages in human trials, including the one being developed

by Pfizer.

The Minster of State for Health, Senator Olunmibe Mamora, who presented an update on the COVID-19 pandemic at the briefing, corroborated Mulombo's position, saying that Nigeria will ensure that 20 per cent of the vulnerable population are vaccinated as soon the first batch of the vaccine is ready.

On his part, the Director General of the Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said Nigeria is working with the WHO-led coalition to ensure that the country gets the vaccine as soon as they are ready.

He said the federal government was making efforts to increase the doses of vaccines allocation to Nigeria.

Ihekweazu added that the NCDC is commencing sensitisation to promote acceptability of the vaccine by the population so as to avoid resistance.

He also spoke about the challenges of logistics that is associated with distributing COVID-19 vaccines.

According to him, some of the vaccines would require a refrigerator with cooling capacity of -70 degrees and -80 degrees.

"We don't know the type of vaccine we will eventually

be going with, but the only vaccine available at the moment and for which the result has been announced will require minus 70 degrees and minus 80 degrees freezers," he said.

He, however, stated that there are freezers of the required capacity to store the vaccines at the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja.

Ihekweazu further spoke on the recent outbreaks of Yellow fever and Lassa fever, saying that the country may witness an upsurge in cases of Lassa fever infection due to the dry season weather.

He blamed the resurgence of Yellow fever disease on the non-adherence to health advisories by citizens.

According to him, samples taken from Enugu and Delta states have tested positive for Yellow fever.

FG Cautions against Trips to US, UK, Others The federal government has advised Nigerians to avoid making non-essential travels to COVID-19 high burdened countries to mitigate the risk of reintroducing the virus to the country.

The Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, urged Nigerians planning to travel to pay attention to the rising number of COVID-19 cases, especially in those countries.

The PTF listed the countries aas the US, Brazil, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Mustapha, at the press conference in Abuja, said the United States, India

and Brazil accounted for 48 per cent of the world’s burden, which has crossed the 52 million mark.

He said the US has been recording over 100,000 cases daily in recent times while the rate of fatalities is increasing in the UK and other European countries. “The PTF is still monitoring situations around the world and will continue to raise the flag so that Nigerians pay adequate attention to the situation. It will particularly help in planning to or not to, embark on trips. The candid advice of the PTF still remains that non-essential trips should be totally avoided,� he added.

He urged Nigerians to take responsibility to keep the nation safe by adhering to all COVID-19 preventive measures.

Mustapha described the testing rate in the country as discouraging as it is lower than Mauritius', which has the highest tests per million (218,535). Nigeria stands at 3,605 per million.

Meanwhile, the federal government has announced it is making effort towards reopening Malam Aminu Kano Airport, Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa for international flights.

The Director General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, said during the PTF press briefing that when the two airports reopen for international flights, both the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja would be free of passenger pressure while passengers will find it much convenient getting to their

destinations.

He said the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) is also striving to resolve the issue of ICT and port health services by getting adequate number of staff to run the two airports 24 hours a day.

He added that once those two items are taken care of, both Kano and Port Harcourt airports will resume operation.

Also, the PTF National Coordinator on COVID-19, Dr. Sanni Aliyu, said more than 12,500 corps members have been tested at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps, using rapid diagnostic test and the PCR. He also charged prospective corps members coming from outside the country to do the mandatory isolation for seven days before they report to camp.

We're Committed to Getting COVID-19 Vaccines, Says Osinbajo Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also expressed the determination of Nigeria to get the vaccine, saying it's a priority of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Osinbajo spoke yesterday at the opening session of the virtual edition of the Paris Peace Forum, which featured presentations by some heads of state and government alongside international organisations, on a collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “The priorities of Nigeria in the post-COVID-19

era include improved healthcare and the economy.

First, we need to keep the virus under control. While our guards are still firmly in place, getting the COVID-19 vaccine is a matter of utmost concern “On this, we are encouraged by the efforts of WHO and other international agencies working to ensure that vaccine delivery will be equitable across all countries, regardless of the priority of orders and ability to pay.�

Speaking on the importance of prioritising interventions and investments in the healthcare system, the Osinbajo said: “We are encouraging private investment to upscale our health sector, with emphasis on improved facilities and affordable universal healthcare.�

He thanked world leaders for their prompt response and cooperation in controlling the spread of COVID-19, stressing that “the sheer scale of disruptions to our lives and livelihoods caused by COVID-19 certainly caught us all by surprise.�

The vice president restated the call for debt relief for developing countries. “The pandemic underscores the need for adequate financial buffers to cope with the ‘black swan’ events. For many developing countries, the debt burden makes this all but impossible. “We call for debt relief for these countries, and the extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) at least until the end of 2021 as well as commercial debt relief where needed,� he added.

NSE ACTIVATES RULE TO ARREST SURGE IN SHARE PRICES as normal. Furthermore, all existing orders keyed in prior to the trading halt were reactivated and were matched upon resumption of trading.

Despite the halt in trading for 30 minutes, the NSE ASI rose 6.2 per cent to close at 35,342.46, from 33,268.36 while market capitalisation gained N1.085 trillion to close higher at N18.468 trillion, up from N17.384 trillion. This implies that the market has recorded a gain of N2.261 trillion or 7.3 per cent within four trading days due to sustained high demand for stocks.

The stock had gained N1.934

trillion in October to record its best monthly gain since 2018 on the continued inflow of funds searching for real returns and positive reactions to better-than-expected third quarter (Q3) and nine months earnings.

The positive trend has been sustained in the first eight days of November, gaining N1.425 trillion or 8.9 per cent as at the close trading on Wednesday. However, demand for stocks peaked yesterday sending the NSE ASI beyond the 5.0 per cent threshold. Hence, the NSE triggered the circuit breaker.

Circuit breaker was designed to give the market an opportunity to take a break and adjust to all available information before re-opening the market. It provides protection against excessive volatility during continuous trading sessions of the market.

Circuit breakers provide the opportunity for greater information dissemination and assimilation to all market participants, including investors, to facilitate better informed investment decision making during periods of high market volatility.

The NSE in 2016 amended its circuit breaker rule, saying it will be triggered during periods of extraordinary volatility in the equities market in order to maintain an orderly market and to allow liquidity to reaggregate.

The NSE set the threshold at 5.0 per cent for the first trigger and a further 5.0 per cent for the second trigger in the same direction.

According to the exchange, the purpose is to dampen extraordinary volatility swings on market prices by providing time to restore

equilibrium between buyers and sellers. “It has the objective of dampening both market upswings and market downswings, and will complement the price limits on individual stocks already in place. "The exchange, through the Index Circuit Breaker Rule, seeks to promote just and equitable principles of trade, remove impediments to and improve the mechanism of a free and open market; and protect investors and the public interest,� the exchanged had explained.

BUHARI: NIGERIA’S DIVERSITY, YOUTHFUL POPULATION POSE PECULIAR CHALLENGES investors to take advantage of the nation's diversity in human and natural resources by investing in the country.

He added that youth development, integration and employment remained the priority of his administration.

The president, in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, said: “Nigeria is ready to pursue broader dialogue as well as enhance cooperation and collaboration on the basis of constructive mutual respect and a shared vision for our future. “As you may know, Nigeria is an ethnic and culturally diverse society with various opportunities, which we seek to creatively utilise for the benefit of our people.

We are also a country with a huge population, which is predominantly youthful. “These pose peculiar new challenges of their own. As

Nigeria relates with your countries, it is our expectation that we should leverage on the advantages that can yield positive results in youth development in our country.’’ According to Buhari, Nigeria enjoys good bilateral relations with various countries and equally collaborates with them at the multilateral level to achieve set targets by international conventions and treaties.

He congratulated the ambassadors and expressed hope that the discharge of their diplomatic responsibilities in Nigeria would further boost relations with their countries. “Allow me to offer you my sincere congratulations as you commence your diplomatic duties as defined by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

"As we celebrate its 60th anniversary, next year, it is

my hope that you will carry out your respective mandates to improve existing cordial relations between our countries consistent with the provisions of this time-honoured convention," he said.

Buhari expressed the need to enhance the cordial relations between Nigeria and their countries in the interest of the citizens and countries.

He highlighted the challenges confronting the countries and the commitment to address them, imploring the ambassadors to partner with Nigeria in these efforts.

He said: "Nigeria shares common problems of insecurity, impact of climate change and socio-economic challenges common among nations. "Notwithstanding these challenges, efforts are being made to sustain our position to overcome these difficulties. I invite you to

partner with us to address these challenges. “As a global family, we are impacted by several other common challenges like terrorism, insurgency, climate change, population explosion, human trafficking, corruption, poverty, and now the global health pandemic which Coronavirus represents considering its mayhem across the world.’’ The president added that the challenges underscored the need for the international community to make concerted efforts in resolving them in the interest of common humanity. “The survival of humanity depends on our efforts to enhance our cooperation to attain the goals of global peace and economic prosperity," he said.

The statement said that the Ambassador of Belgium, Mr Daniel Bertrand, while

speaking on behalf of his colleagues, thanked Buhari for making out time to receive the letters of credence despite the peculiar challenge posed

by COVID-19.

The envoy assured the president that all the ambassadors will make the best use of their postings to enhance relations with Nigeria in economics, commerce and socio-cultural issues. “Your Excellency, we are at your disposal to strengthen and narrow the ties, not only in economic and commercial issues, but also in cultural terms,’’ he added.

Ambassadors who presented letters of credence to Buhari along with Bertrand were Mr. Amedi Camara, Ambassador of Mauritania, Mr. Thomas Schlesinger, Ambassador of Austria and Mr. Knut Eiliv Lein, Ambassador of Norway.

It is still expected that the market will remain bullish as investors await the results of leading banks even as volume and value remain high.

Yesterday, for instance, investors traded 1.2 billion shares worth N17. 4 billion, up by 39 per cent in volume and 92 per cent in value terms compared to 858.157 million shares valued at N9.063 billion traded the previous day.

TOP GAINERS C & LEASING CADBURY CUTIX JBERGER NNFM TOP LOSERS GSPEC ETERNA MAYBAKER

NGN NGN % 0.41 4.51 10 1.00 11.00 10 0.19 2.09 10 1.75 19.25 10 0.70 7.70 10 NGN % 0.46 4.19 9.8 0.50 4.57 9.8 0.35 3.25 9.7 MORISON 0.05 0.49 9.2 REGENCY 0.02 0.24 7.6 HPE Nestle Nig Plc â‚Ś1,450.00 Volume: 1.193 million shares Value: N17.395 billion Deals: 10,704 As at yesterday 12/11/2020 See details on Page 35

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Robbers Hijack Bullion Van in Lagos, Cart away Money Tafa Balogun urges policemen to resume duties Ejiofor Alike and Chiemelie Ezeobi A bullion van belonging to a new generation bank in Lagos was yesterday evening hijacked by dare-devil armed robbers and the huge sum of money in it carted away.

This is coming as a former Inspector-General of Police (IG), Tafa Balogun, has appealed to officers and men of the Nigeria

Police Force to return to their statutory duties after they were displaced from their stations during the #EndSARS protests.

In what looked like a premeditated attack, the robbers were said to have trailed the bullion van from the cash collection point till it got to a lonely road in Ado, Ajah, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state.

On approaching the bullion

South-west Students Give FG Seven-day Ultimatum to End ASUU Strike Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

After eight months of strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), students’ unions of universities in the South-west, yesterday, gave seven-day ultimatum to the federal government to end the strike or face aggressive nationwide protests.

The student leaders gave the ultimatum while addressing reporters at the University of Ibadan yesterday.At the press conference were: Wisdom Okoko of the University of Ilorin; Olamide Olabiyi of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso; Michael Awoyemi of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye,Ogun State; Abiodun Oloyede of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAAB); Olusegun Akeju of University of Ibadan and Lekan Abbul-Azeez Soneye of Tai Solarin College of Education, Ogun State and Mayowa Opakunle of Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Oyo State.The students decried the eight months of deadlock in engagements between the federal government

and ASUU. They lamented that students were the ones bearing the brunt, and called for a compromise between the two parties to save students’ future.

Addressing reporters on behalf of others, Oloyede said: “We, the great students of the federation, hereby demand an immediate end to the incessant ASUU strike, adequate funding of the education sector and prioritising education as key to sustainable growth and development. We request an end to the ongoing strike by ASUU. The struggle of “ASUU should never be undermined as we all truly know a revitalisation and improvement in the quality of infrastructure and regulation of payment of salaries is needed.

“Ending ASUU strike by giving utmost consideration to our demands is key and a way to kick-start. Do this and secure the future of our beloved nation.

In view of the above, we hereby give the federal government an ultimatum of seven days to resolve the crisis and get us back to school; else, there would be aggressive nationwide agitations thereafter.

Fashola: FG Owes 3,504 Housing Contractors Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that over N69.909 was owed to contractors by the federal government for housing projects already executed and delivered across the country.

Fashola spoke yesterday, while defending the 2021 budgetary proposals for the Ministry of Housing before the National Assembly joint Committee on Housing.

According to the minister, prioritisation of projects by the Ministry for the 2021 fiscal year, was necessitated by the difficult situation at hand of having N76billion approved for capital projects in the coming fiscal year, a little above the N69.9billion outstanding liabilities.

The liabilities, he explained, are monies owed the various constructors handling series of capital projects for the Ministry across the country.

The former governor of Lagos

State said: “The concluding part of our 2020 report is to highlight the liabilities that we have outstanding and this is the sum of N69.9billion. So, when you look at our 2021 budget, we are almost on a very tight fix because if you we have liabilities of N69.9billion how far will a budget of N76billion then take us? However, let me point out that budget of N76 billion was based on the envelope prescription from the Ministry of (Finance), Budget and National Planning and also the financial realities at the time the budget occurred and also the price of oil” The minister further explained: “Now the big elephant in the room is the outstanding liabilities and I like to say with every sense of modesty that I think that we should be commended for bringing this out now when something can be done about it.

I say that because often times, what we end up talking about is that there are abandoned projects.”

van, the robbers were said to have opened fire at the occupants, targeting the tyres to force the vehicle to a halt.

Although the few people on the road scampered to safety once they heard the gunshots, a stray bullet reportedly hit a commercial motorcyclist, killing him on the spot.

Attempt to match the firing power of the robbers proved abortive as they overpowered the driver and Spy policeman, who accompanied the bullion van.

According to eyewitnesses, the

attack lasted for several minutes with no back-up in sight due to the continued absence of policemen from their duty posts.

Aside from vandalising the bullion van, the robbers also attacked a water tanker, injuring the driver and conductor.

Confirming the attack, the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, however said no life was lost.

Meanwhile, a former IG, Balogun, has appealed to officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to return to their statutory

duties after they were displaced from their stations during the #EndSARS protests.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ex-IG said: “I urge all members of the Nigeria Police in our country to return to their duty posts and continue to provide the much-needed security to our dear country, Nigeria; not minding the recent brutal attacks, arson, and acts of intimidation against the Police.

“The Nigeria Police remain the first line of internal security as guaranteed by the Nigerian

Constitution. Therefore, it behoves all and sundry not to betray the spirit of the Constitution.

“I sincerely appeal and urge all my brothers and sisters in the Police Force to put the past behind us as the federal and state governments, as well as the police authorities, are positively and aggressively addressing the unprecedented provocative attacks on the police institution. We all love you.

“Please, once again, I appeal to all of you to return to duty without further delay.”

HANDSHAKE ACROSS THE NIGER…

L-R:Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Drainage and Water Resources, Mr. Joe Igbokwe; Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Folashade Jaji; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Chief of Staff, Mr. Tayo Ayinde; and Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Sam Egube, during the visit of South-south and South-east indigenes in the state to the governor at the Government House, Alausa, Ikeja…recently

Falana Urges Court to Unfreeze Accounts of Alleged #EndSARS Promoters I move around the world undisturbed, says senior lawyer A Federal High Court in Abuja has been urged to lift the order it made on November 4 this year freezing the accounts of some individuals alleged to have been behind the #EndSARS protest.

The request is contained in an application filed by the law firm of Falana and Falana’s Chambers, on behalf of 16 of the 20 individuals and firms affected by the order made by Justice Ahmed Mohammed, upon an ex-parte motion by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This is coming as human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, has reacted to the report made against him at the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying that he moves around the world without any

disturbance.

It is the contention of the applicants that the freezing of their accounts, without their being heard, was unlawful and a violation of their fundamental human rights.

The applicants specifically prayed for an order, setting aside “the mandatory ex-parte order made on the 4th day of November, 2020 in this suit freezing all the identifiable and/ or traceable bank accounts of the 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,7, 8, 10 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 20th defendants/ applicants herein.”

They are Bolatito Oduala, Chima Ibebunjoh, Mary Kpengwa, Saadat Bibi, Basey Isreal, Wisdom Obi, Nicholas Osazele, Ebere Idibie, Akintomide Yusuf,

Uhuo Promise, Mosopefoluwa Odeseye, Adegoke Emmanuel, Umoh Ekanem, Babatunde Segun, Mary Oshifowora and Idunnu Williams.

The grounds of their application, includes that the the ex-parte order was made to validate an illegal act because the applicant “unlawfully froze the accounts of the defendants/ applicants before seeking and obtaining the orders of the court on November 4, 2020.

They argued that the order ex-parte was anchored on misrepresentation of material facts and based on suppression of material facts, adding that it constitutes a gross abuse of the process of the court.

The applicants also argued that the court made the ex-parte

order empowering the plaintiff/ applicant (CBN Governor) to direct the heads of the banks to freeze forthwith all transactions on the bank accounts of the defendants/applicants for a period of 90 days pending the outcome of investigation and inquiry currently being conducted by the CBN, without affording the respondents/ applicants the right of fair hearing.

Meanwhile, Falana, has reacted to the report made against him at ICC, saying that there is not cause for alarm.

Joseph Nwaegbu, a Nigerian lawyer, had had filed a criminal complaint against Falana at the ICC in Hague for his alleged role in the #EndSARS protest.

Chimamanda Adichie Wins Women’s Prize for Literature Nigerian writer and author of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been voted winner of Women’s Prize for Literature “Winner of Winners,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the organisers.

She was overwhelmingly voted as the winner for her novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. The public chose Chimamanda’s novel over a stellar-line up, including Zadie Smith, the late Andrea Levy, Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain and Maggie O’Farrell, amongst others.

This one-off award marks

the culmination of the Prize’s year-long 25 the anniversary celebrations, forming a key part of our Reading Women campaign which champions a quarter of a century of phenomenal winners.

Throughout 2020, thousands of readers embarked on a challenge to read all 25 previous winners of the Prize, joining the Prize’s digital bookclub to share their thoughts, and downloading the organisers’ newly created online reading guides and exclusive author interviews.

Over 8,500 people joined in the public vote in September.

Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s haunting novel, originally won the Women’s Prize for Fiction (then the Orange Prize) in 2007.

Set in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the novel is about the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class, race and female empowerment – and how love can complicate all of these things.

First published in 2006, it garnered critical and popular acclaim around the world and was adapted into a film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton in the lead roles and was released worldwide in

2013.

In her reaction to the prize, Chimamanda Adichie said: “I am especially moved to be voted ‘Winner of Winners’ because this is the Prize that first brought a wide readership to my work – and has also introduced me to the work of many talented writers.”

She will be presented with a silver edition of the Prize’s annual statuette, known as the ‘Bessie’, which was originally created and donated by the artist, Grizel Niven, as part of the gift of an anonymous donor.

It will be an online event on December 6, 2020.

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NNPC Denies Allegation of Non-remittance of $21bn to Federation Account Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday refuted the allegation by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that it failed to remit $21billion to the Federation Account.

The commission, in the report submitted to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts had said the NNPC spent the money without authorisation.

But the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, told journalists in Lagos, at the inauguration of logistics support vehicles to the Nigerian Navy by the national oil company that it was impossible not to pay the statutory funds or take money from the account.

While dismissing the accusation that the revenue from Nigeria Liquefied Natural

Gas (NLNG) , was unremitted, Kyari stressed that with the way the fund is structured, no organisation can refuse to pay or take money from it.

“I think it is just impossible not to remit money into the Federation Account. It is also impossible to withdraw any money illegally from any account of government.

“By the way, the NLNG accounts are Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) and domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“It is practically impossible.

We thought the accusation was very pedestrian and we didn’t bother to react to it because we know that it is impossible,’’ he stated.

Earlier, Kyari said the intervention of Operation Awatse had reduced the NNPC losses on the system 2B pipeline network by more than 50 per cent.

“It has also increased our flow from less than 800k tonnes to 2.6metric tonnes by the end of

2019. This is a huge success,” he said.

At the event, Kyari lauded the various interventions of security agencies, which he said had enabled NNPC’s seamless

operations nationwide.

He said losses from vandalism and oil theft reduced from N800 billion in 2018 to less than N82 billion, a feat he said was attributable to the clampdown on

vandals by joint security efforts.

He added that under his watch, the NNPC has stayed committed to its transparency pledge, noting the corporation is the only agency that publishes

its operations account monthly.

“We promised Nigerians that this company, our own company owned by all of us, the over 200 million Nigerians will be accountable to all.

REBUILDING THE OPPOSITION PARTY…

L-R: Former National Vice Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South-west, Chief Olabode George; Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde; former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Segun Oni, during the Southwest zonal meeting of PDP at Government House, Ibadan…yesterday

Political Bandits Opposed to APC’s Membership UK Awaits Report on Nigeria’s Investigations Registration, Says PGF DG of Police Brutality PDP: Bandits in ruling party responsible

for failure in governance Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, yesterday described those opposed to the planned membership registration and revalidation exercise by the All Progressives Congress (APC), as political bandits who were desperate to install surrogate leaders.

This is coming as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said that the fresh revelation that the APC brims with “political bandits” has further confirmed why the APC has visited the nation with so much violence, power grabbing, election malpractices, human rights abuses, unbridled looting and divisive policies under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

Lukman was reacting to threats by a group of party supporters under the aegis of Concerned APC members, to take legal action should the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee, proceed with the registration.

He insisted that nobody should be allowed to use any bullying tactics to force the party back to the old undemocratic ways of manipulating critical processes of leadership selection by undermining or corrupting the membership records.

Lukman in a statement issued yesterday said, since the reported decision to commence the process of membership registration/ verification by the APC National Caretaker Committee, there have been media reports threatening legal actions to block the committee from organising the process.

Reinstated UNILAG VC, Ogundipe Resumes Duties The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof.

Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has resumed work a=fter his reinstatement by the Visitor to the university, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ogundipe was earlier asked to ‘step aside’ by the Visitor of the university pending the outcome of an investigation over allegations of infractions and gross misconduct.

When Ogundipe resumed work yesterday, he was received by members of staff of UNILAG, including top management personnel, at the Senate Building foyer.

He urged the workers to allow peace to reign in the institution.

“Let us all be united. It is not about the academic or non-academic staff; it is about UNILAG. Let us all work together and allow peace in this institution,”

he said.

The former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos, Dr. Wale Babalakin, and Ogundipe, were directed to recuse themselves from official duties, pending the outcome of the Special Visitation Panel set up by Buhari, on August 21, 2020.

The UNILAG’s Governing Council, headed by Babalakin had removed Ogundipe at its meeting in Abuja on August 12, over allegations of infractions and gross misconduct.

The council, however, appointed Prof. Theophilus Omololu Soyombo of the Faculty of Social Sciences as the Acting Vice-Chancellor.

But Ogundipe denied the allegations and subsequently approached the court to challenge his removal.

Canada debunks granting asylum to individual applicants repatriates 32 Nigerians for immigration offences Ejiofor Alike and Chinedu Eze The United Kingdom Government and Parliament, yesterday responded to the #ENDSARS petition by some Nigerians against the federal government, saying it is awaiting the outcome of Nigeria’s investigations into reports of police brutality.

This is coming as the Canadian Government has debunked granting asylum to any Nigerian due to the EndSARS protests.

Also, about 32 Nigerians repatriated from Germany yesterday arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos from Dusseldorf Airport.

The deportees, all male arrived the country at 2.30p.m on board a chartered aircraft, Envelope Airline.

Although there were no details about the deportation, but immigration sources said the repatriation was facilitated by the German Embassy and

that all the male passengers were deported for various immigration related offences.

With about 219,702 signatures, the petition to UK seeks to implement sanctions against the Nigerian government and officials, over abuse of power by the operatives of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the alleged shooting at protestors calling for SARS disbandment.

Reacting, UK noted that it would not publicly speculate

Germany

on future sanctions designations but awaits the outcome of the various investigations by the federal government.

The reaction, which came from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, said the government was deeply concerned by violence during recent protests in Nigeria, which tragically claimed lives.

It offered the country’s condolences and sympathy to the families of all those affected by the protests and violence.

House: Members of Executive Should Reduce their Salaries Udora Orizu in Abuja The Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, yesterday said the clamor

by Nigerians for the reduction of salaries of political office holders should start with the executive arm of the government, “as they get the major percentage of the annual national budget.”

Kalu stated this in response to a question during a press briefing at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.

This is as he revealed that the various committees of the House

from next week Wednesday will start submission of budget defence reports.

The lawmaker, when asked if there’s a possibility for the legislative arm of government to disclose to the citizens how much they earn and the call for reduction of their salary, said the 0.8 percent of the national budget given to the legislature is too small, as the institution is struggling and needs to be energised more.

Kalu lamented that Nigerians are being sold the wrong narrative, saying if there’s need

to cut salaries or reduce the cost of governance, it should start with the executive arm of government.

According to him, “The 0.8 percent of the national budget for the National Assembly is not enough to run the institution. If you want to cut salaries, expenses and cost of governance, start with the executive arm of the government. That’s the truth, because the 0.8 percent you’re talking about takes care of the Senate, as people think that the money that comes to the

National Assembly is divided by members of the House of Representatives. That’s a wrong narrative being told, and that’s what Nigerians believe. ‘’That’s why my office is actually engaging in what’s called info graphics that’s going to be released very soon; it will break it down everything once members approve it, so that you would know where everything goes into, and Nigerians will be shocked that those they thought were rich are not able to meet their needs, which is the truth.”

Lawan: Nigeria’s Economy on Path of Growth Amid Challenges Deji Elumoye in Abuja President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, yesterday declared that even amid the various challenges facing Nigeria, the nation’s economy is still on the path of recovery.

He expressed optimism that Nigerian economy is being steered on the path of growth despite the prevailing challenges.

Lawan who spoke at the Nigeria/International Monetary Fund(IMF) Article lV Consultation virtual

exercise said the exercise was a “veritable platform to share our experiences on steering our economy on the path of growth, despite challenges.”

He enumerated efforts being made by the Nigerian government at promoting economic growth and reducing poverty in the country.

According to him, Nigeria had to confront the challenge of limited resources, not just because of unpredictable revenue from oil, but also because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “The problems have made us improve our efforts in the prudent management of resources, and in transparency and accountability. Our focus has been on sustaining investments in infrastructure and utilities, trusting in their capacities to stimulate economic activities, enhance growth, and thereafter improve the people’s standard of living.

“Government has continued with its anti-corruption crusade, aside a pledge to ensure discipline in the public expenditure process.

Our recent experiences call for further caution in the management of resources, just as it has been another reminder of the need to increase the drive for diversification.

“Beyond Oil, greater regard is now being paid to the steel, the mining and the agriculture sectors. The potentials in these sectors are significant for revenue generation, and for job creation. They are additionally valuable in the bid to engage critical sections of the population, especially the youth,” Lawan said.

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IMF Projects 10.4% Contraction in Global Trade, Difficult Economic Recovery Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a 10.4 per cent contraction in global trade as well as a global economic growth rate of -4.4 per cent in 2020.

In the just-released biannual World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the IMF also revealed that foreign direct investment flows as a share of global gross domestic product are well below their pre-pandemic levels, and

are expected to remain as such in the near future.

The IMF report titled: ‘World Economic Outlook 2020: A Long and Difficult Ascent’, highlighted the importance of climate action and the role that the multilateral system must play to defuse trade and technology tensions, which can enable countries to meet their emissions goals and climate change.

According to the WEO, the Fund expects “a long and difficult ascent” from the COVID-19-

induced global recession, citing the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) updated data on trade and investment trends.

The report stated that although projections are less severe than forecast in the June 2020 WEO

update, the global economy recovery will be uneven and remains uncertain, adding that whereas some regions are returning to growth more rapidly than anticipated, economic prospects in several emerging markets continue to worsen as

COVID-19 infections rise.

While reviewing global prospects, and highlighting that the recovery is prone to setbacks, the report added that global trade began recovering in June as lockdowns were eased, although the return to growth

was driven by China.

Overall, the report projected a 10.4 per cent contraction this year.

Similarly, a UNCTAD Global Trade update projected a 9 per cent fall in global trade, noting that the figure is subject to continued uncertainty.

Five Feared Dead in Edo Cult Clash Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city

No fewer than five persons have been reportedly killed in two days as a result of cult clashes in Edo State.

As gathered, the renewed cult clashes resulted from the backlash of the recent jailbreaks in Benin-city, the state capital, during the #EndSARS protests which later turned violent.

THISDAY learnt that the clash was between members suspected to belong to Eiye and Aye confraternities, who recently escaped from the Benin-city and Oko Correctional Centres in their continued war of supremacy.

The clashes, as further gathered, mostly happened in Upper Sokponba, Ogida and New Benin areas of the

ancient city.

Yesterday morning, some armed men took over some areas in Upper Sokponba Road, brandishing dangerous weapons and harassing motorists in the near-zero security presence in the state capital, robbing motorists and road users.

Two people were reportedly killed in Idogbo, headquarters of Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of the state. While one was killed close to a filling station after the Ikpoba-Okha LGA secretariat, another was killed near a popular place called Y-Junction also on the same Sokponba Road.

Two other persons, including one said to be a father of four, and another one said to be an escapee from one of the prisons, were also killed near Ogida barracks

LG Secretariat Burnt in Abia as Aspirants Jostle for PDP Ticket Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia The headquarters of Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area, Umuoba in Abia State was yesterday morning burnt down by unknown persons following the intensified jostling for the chairmanship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the council poll slated for December 18, 2020.

It is generally assumed that getting the councillorship or chairmanship ticket of the ruling party is a sure guarantee of victory in the council poll scheduled for next month.

The chairmanship primary election to choose the chairmanship candidates of the party is scheduled for

yesterday (Thursday). The councillorship primary which was conducted last Tuesday was characterised by hijacking and diversion of materials.

The state government, while confirming the arson attack at Isiala Ngwa South area, said it was carried out by “unknown arsonists,” vowing not to leave any stone unturned in order to expose and punish those behind the incident.

In a statement issued by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Chris Ezem, the state government directed law enforcement agents “to investigate, apprehend and diligently prosecute all those behind the dastardly act.

ADIEU MOTHER IN CELESTIA…

L-R: Sons of the deceased, Mr. Segun Odeleye, Mr. Muyiwa Odeleye; daughter of the deceased, Mrs. Funsho Bolawole; son-in-law, Pastor Bola Bolawole; and husband of the deceased, Mr. Ezekiel Kayode Odeleye, during the funeral service for Odeleye’s wife in Lagos…recently

Buni Proposes N107bn Budget for 2021 Michael Olugbode in Damaturu The Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Mai-Mala Buni, has presented an Appropriation Bill of N107 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2021 fiscal year.

The sum of N63.2 billion is proposed to be expended on total recurrent expenditure and N43.8 billion on total capital expenditure.

The sectoral allocation

showed that housing and property development got the lion share of N8 billion.

Other sectors with large share include works (N7.8 billion); basic and secondary education (N4.5 billion); agriculture (N4.2 billion); transport and energy (N3.5 billion), and health (N2.1 billion).

The governor, while addressing the lawmakers yesterday at the state Assembly

chamber, said the budget is tagged: ‘Budget of Recovery, Consolidation and Economic Rejuvenation’, adding that it would concentrate on the completion of all ongoing projects, create an enabling environment for youth empowerment and accelerate restoration and improvement of livelihood for the citizenry.

According to him, “We, therefore, plan to expend a total sum of N106,998,

499,776 for the execution of our various projects and programmes. This figure gave us an increase of N20, 949, 388, 672 or 17.2 percent over the 2020 budget.

“Out of the total amount, the sum of N63,184,171,776 or 59.5 percent has been earmarked for recurrent expenditure while the sum of N43,814,398,000 or 40.95 percent would be dedicated to financing of capital expenditure.”

PANDEF Rejects Akpabio’s Allocation of N15bn for East-West Road Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu in Abuja The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) yesterday rejected the decision by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to allot N15 billion of the ministry’s N19 billion total capital expenditure for 2021 to the East-West road project.

Akpabio had last Tuesday while presenting his ministry’s 2021 budget proposal to the House of Representatives

Committee on Niger Delta Affairs said N15 billion out of the N19 billion meant for capital expenditure will be used to construct the East-West Foad.

However, the Forum in a statement, entitled: ‘We are dissatisfied with your leadership’, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, said it supported the federal lawmakers in questioning the rationale behind the minister’s decision.

The PANDEF wondered why

N15 billion should be allocated to the East-West Road alone when there are several other projects of the ministry that are abandoned and begging for attention across the region.

It thereby called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on the road, and provide ‘special vote’ for the completion of the road instead of allowing the minister to deplete the paltry capital expenditure of the ministry on the road.

The statement read in part:

“Was the East-West Road planned to be constructed with the paltry capital allocations of the ministry? We understand the critical importance of that road to our people, and that is why we have continuously called for its completion. We, however, find the minister’s decision to appropriate about 80 percent of the ministry’s capital expenditure to the project bemusing and distasteful.

We are not in support of this plan by the minister. He needs to re-examine his position.

FG to Hand over Five Stadia, Others to Concessionaires in 2021 NERC Rates Ikeja Electric High on Deji Stadium, Jos; Ahmadu Bello Power Projects (NIPP) located commercialised government Elumoye in Abuja stadium in Kaduna, and Adokiye in Omotosho, Geregu and Calabar enterprises, the BPE boss Innovative Customer Solutions disclosed that over 262 The federal government will in Amiesimaka stadium in Port to core investors.

Ejiofor Alike The Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof.

James Momoh has commended Ikeja Electric, Nigeria’s largest Electricity Distribution Company, for taking the lead in keeping pace with technology, to bring about the desired change in the power sector.

Momoh, who gave the commendation during an oversight visit to the corporate Head Office of Ikeja Electric in Lagos, noted that Ikeja Electric has shown strong commitment to solving issues militating against growth of the sector through technology while also providing innovative solutions to

create better customer experience.

“You have shown yourself to be a leader and good manager of the industry, making a most profound impact on both industry and customers alike.

I have no doubt, therefore, going by technological innovation evolved by your company, that Ikeja Electric is the Disco the industry can depend on for inspiration and ideas to move the power sector forward,” he said.

He further congratulated Ikeja Electric for being at the forefront of promoting gender equality in the electricity sector and used the opportunity to restate NERC’s commitment to metering of every electricity user across the country.

2021 concession its stadia across the country, the National Arts Theatre and the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) located in Lagos.

The stadiums owned by the federal government include National Stadium, Lagos; Moshood Abiola stadium in Abuja; Jos International

Harcourt.

The Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Alex Okoh, who disclosed this yesterday, also said the government would commercialise all the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) and sell off Nigeria’s three Integrated

Okoh, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, was queried over the collection of N1 billion from the Ministry of Finance to fund the Afam and Geregu power plants without appropriation.

Commenting on state of

government enterprises had been sold since the past 30 years.

He added that only 25 percent of the enterprises are in comatose, promising to submit the monitoring and assessment of the government privatised companies to the committee.

Lagos Court Orders Forfeiture of 31 Vehicles over Traffic Offence The Lagos State Mobile Court has ordered the forfeiture of 31 vehicles to the state government over violation of a traffic rule.

The drivers of the vehicle were arraigned by the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) on one count of driving against traffic.

The offence was said to be punishable under Part (III) item

27 of the Lagos State Transport Sector Reformed Law of 2018.

Following the plea of the drivers, the court ordered the forfeiture of their vehicles to the state government.

The court also ordered 43 other drivers to pay various sums as fines to the state government for plying the BRT corridors and causing road obstruction.

Speaking on the judgment, the Chairman of the agency, Mr. Olayinka Egbeyemi, noted that only 74 drivers appeared before the court out of the 160 traffic offenders arrested.

Egbeyemi added that the agency acted in response to a series of complaints from members of the public, particularly motorists that activities of one-way drivers were

causing gridlock daily since the #EndSARS protest across the state.

“It is painful that with a high level of enlightenment campaigns and several warnings by the government, motorists, including private car owners, are still driving against traffic knowing full well that the penalty for such offence is outright forfeiture of the said vehicle to the government.”

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COMMENT

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

INSPIRING HOPE IN DELTA YOUTHS

Okowa’s town hall meetings are primed to birth hope in the hearts of the youths, writes Ray Umukoro

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he #EndSARS protests by Nigerian youths may be over but the impact lingers. In Delta State, the impact resonates in the streets, in homes and everywhere. But much more, it rings through the hallway of Government House and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has taken note. Okowa listens, always.

By the way, Okowa is one of the most youth-friendly governors in Nigeria. His cabinet is a rich mix of the old, the middleaged and the youth. Before the #EndSARS protests and attendant repercussions some of which are not worthy of recounting here, Okowa has demonstrated abiding faith in the youth. For a man who qualified as a medical doctor at a very tender age of 22 in 1981 from the University of Ibadan, he understands that the burden of leadership is never too heavy on the shoulder of a prepared youth. He understands that the youth, if given the right training and opportunity, can turn the fortunes of the nation around for the better. He has demonstrated implicit confidence in the youth of Delta State, entrusting them with responsibilities far beyond what their colleagues in other parts of the country can ever boast of.

Recently at a Town Hall meeting with representatives of #EndSARS protesters, civil society organisations, students, social groups, community youth leaders and other stakeholders in Delta North Senatorial District, the governor left no one in doubt as to the focus of his government: He is for the youth. It bears restating that Okowa is the first governor to begin direct engagement with the youth after the #EndSARS protests via Town Hall meetings.

He has shown that he is all out for development. He stands and works for a better, stronger Delta. He tells the youth he wants to bring development closer to the people. Okowa fancies a bottom-up kind of development. A situation where every part of the state no matter how remote or rural will feel the impact of his government. That’s Okowa’s approach to governance; making all the people count, all the time. But much more, making those at the bottom of the rung count as much as those on the cliff of life.

This is so because Okowa himself has been a grassroots man.

Starting out his public service career from the local government level, he understands, like British politician David Milliband, that winning small battles gives you confidence in the political process to take on bigger battles; meaning to win at the centre, you must first win at the grassroots. You must be a people’s man. Every politics is local. And every good leader is one bound to the people; not a self-conceited snob. Okowa connects with people with unforced magnetic ease. It’s the stuff of great leaders.

Unfortunately, such quality is fast losing essence among Nigerian leaders. They return to the people only when they seek their votes during election but build firewalls around themselves when victory is won at the polls. Not so for Okowa. He is at home with his people, with the youth. When some governors jet from Abuja and Lagos to Europe, the Americas and Asia in needless riotous junketing, Okowa is at home and at peace with Deltans – working!

It’s no surprise that since the fourth Republic in 1999, no Delta State governor has won governorship election with the wide margin Okowa did in the 2019 election even with the ferocious and near atrocious manner the opposition All Progressives Party (APC), fought him in the state. He proved he is the undisputed king of bottom-up politics and development; of allowing power to devolve from the people. This also reflects in the manner

OKOWA’S WEALTH CREATION POLICY IS TAILORED TO SPECIFICALLY CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE YOUTH TO EXCEL, ACQUIRE SKILLS, BECOME INNOVATORS, ENTREPRENEURS AND CREATORS OF EMPLOYMENT RATHER THAN SEEKERS OF EMPLOYMENT

he has distributed development across the state rather than concentrate them in the cities.

Now, Okowa has flipped the page. He wants to take development and governance to ward levels. Already, the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DESIEC) has begun the process of creating more wards across the state. The governor says this is to correct the imbalance in ward delineation in some local government areas. According to extant law, every local government area in the state should have a maximum of 20 wards. Okowa explains that the ongoing process of creating new wards was to correct some wrongs and create a sense of balance in ward delineation across all the 25 local governments. Whereas some local governments have hit the maximum 20 wards, some others have far less. This disequilibrium is what the latest ward delineation is set to balance.

Ward delineation may be political, to ease electoral process from voter registration to actual voting and collation of election results; but wards remain in the Nigerian context the smallest electoral unit through which distribution of wealth and sundry dividends of democracy can be channeled to the people.

Wards also help to open the door of opportunity to the youth at all levels including those in far-flung rural precincts. This is the context in which Okowa’s homily to Delta youths on the heels of the #EndSARS protests counts for much. The ongoing ward delineation is therefore not just a political balancing act, it is a development strategy intended to mainstream more communities into the state’s infrastructure and socio-economic development map.

He wants the youth to get involved in politics. As an avid promoter of youth-centric initiatives including creation of youthcentred jobs, Okowa talks from a position of experience. Delta, just like other states across the nation, has a significant youth population. The average Delta youth is courageous, inventive, and intelligent.

The Governor himself acknowledges this fact and has consistently made room for Delta youths in his cabinet and many positions of responsibility. His wealth creation policy is tailored to specifically create opportunities for the youth to excel, acquire skills, become innovators, entrepreneurs and creators of employment rather than seekers of employment.

Delta is one of the few states in Nigeria with a huge number of youths holding positions of responsibility which in other states are held by geriatrics.

Okowa’s Town Hall meeting with the youth, #EndSARS protesters and other stakeholders must be seen for what it is: A prompt response by a responsive and responsible government to birth hope in the hearts of its youth; to reassure its army of youths that the government would rather give them books than bombs. It’s a meeting of a caring and listening father with his children; of a doting, avuncular leader with his constituents.

Questions were freely asked. Opinions were expressed with unhinged liberty. And at the end, fear dissolved to faith; despair took flight for hope. The youth left the Town Hall meeting feeling a sense of deeper commitment and devotion to the cause to build a ‘Stronger Delta.’ That’s how leadership works.

Leadership must sincerely engage the people, especially the youth, in deeds and in ennobling words. Okowa is doing that post-#EndSARS. It’s a template worthy of replication even at the federal stratum of government. r6NVLPSP XSPUF GSPN 8BSSJ

APC/PDP: TIRED TOO SOON?

Yusuph Olaniyonu canvasses alternative political platforms to challenge the two dominant parties

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t is surprising the state in which the various political parties in the country are. The parties are definitely in different stages of depreciation and are so weak that their ability to serve as veritable vehicles for birthing a strong democracy is very doubtful.

From the two major ones - All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the various smaller ones that become only active during election period, the type of vibrant engagement, exchange and mobilisation that are expected at this period of national development is obviously missing.

In a democracy, political parties are not only regarded as vehicle for driving the wheel of national progress as envisioned by certain group of people who seek to form government, they are also machines for producing ideas, platform for mobilising people around certain set of ideas necessary for national development as well as a forum for debate between what is, what used to be and what ought to be.

That is why political parties have manifesto and constitution. Different parties take position on current and future issues using their manifesto as the plank to prod their argument.

It is also the reason why though the focus on national objective should be a constant factor, the approaches, ideas and beliefs by the various parties are expected to be different. The robust debate, rigorous interrogation of issues and the divergent solutions to problems not only help in forging national consensus, they also help to create viable alternatives.

And the competing alternatives create options for government, the people and society.

In recent times, Nigeria has faced difficult times in the area of security, economy, infrastructure development, anti-corruption war, erosion of national values and declining national cohesion.

All these have manifested in youth restiveness as evidenced by the #EndSARS protest, which

later degenerated to criminal activities by some hoodlums.

Obviously, the youths who protested against police brutality, extortion and inefficiency also seek the implementation of a comprehensive reform of the police to make it better in terms of training, equipment and motivation. While all these were going on, it is sad that the two leading parties and the smaller other ones remain muted. At best, they have only joined the calls on government not to crackdown on the protesters or that the government should probe the shootings by the military men deployed to the Lekki Toll Gate.

While the protest and the destruction that followed were going on, the political parties were not heard or seen creating debate or discourse around the issues at play. They were not seen or heard trying to influence the reactions of government to the protesters or moderating the views of the protesters. The parties simply failed as platforms for contestation of ideas.

And their failure to voice their opinions led to the chaos that we have continued to witness.

Compare the period of the #EndSARSProtest with the period of the gubernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo States and do a content analysis of the mass and online media. One will see how loud the parties were in one and how silent they were in the other. Their silence may have informed the slogan formulated by the protesters: Soro Soke, meaning let your voice be heard, loud and clear.

With their silence and general inability to create alternate solutions, viable ideas and credible choices in terms of how to get the nation working again, how to cure the ills plaguing the nation and how to creatively engage the youths who now form more than 60 percent of the population, the APC, PDP and the rest of the parties have simply demonstrated that they are mere power grabbing machine. And with how bad the situation of our country is

now, the citizens will be doing a disservice to themselves if they continue to tolerate political parties whose main aim is just to grab power in order to have access to the dwindling national resources.

The question continues to bother me. Why did the political parties in Nigeria get so tired this early and grow complacent? The PDP which is the older of the two mainstream parties was formed and registered only in 1998.

I remember, as the political editor of THISDAY Newspapers, how I covered various meetings that led to the formation of the party. From the meeting inside the office of a think-tank group headed by Prof. Jerry Gana in Victoria Island to the meeting of the G-17, later extended to G-34 and then the meeting in Ikoyi Hotel, Lagos and then the movement to Abuja, before the eventual announcement and registration of “the broad-based, all-inclusive� behemoth in 1998.

The formation of the rival All Peoples Party (APP) consisting of top politicians who refused to join the PDP, the young politicians who emerged during the Abacha transition programmes and those who broke out of the then emerging PDP. Top politicians from the South-West under the banner of the Afenifere fell under this latter group. The Afenifere again left APP to form the Alliance for Democracy (AD) under whose platform they contested the 1999 elections.

Today, only the PDP remains in its original form as a platform. The AD and APP have changed name and form several times before eventually merging with other parties in 2014 to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) which is now the ruling party. Thus, while PDP is 22 years old, the APC is just six years old in its present form.

If these two parties are human beings they will just be 22 and six years old respectively.

One of them will be a young man while the other will be a young boy. Why are they

showing this inertia, dementia and lethargy at this very young age? The Democratic Party in the US has remained in its present form since 1828 while the Republican Party which emerged from the ruins of the Whig Party and other smaller parties on March 20, 1854.

The India Congress Party was founded in 1885, that means it is 135 years old. The ruling party in South Africa, African National Congress (ANC) is 108 years old. The oldest party in Mexico, The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was founded in 1929 and is 81 years old. It governed the country for 71 of these years until it lost power in year 2000.

Ghana’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) was formed in 1949, banned in 1966 and relaunched in 1996 and it is still in existence in the West African country.

I have gone to this length to demonstrate that the PDP and APC have peaked too early and getting to the nadir so easily and so soon.

This assertion is justified with the way the rank of the two parties are now bedeviled with crisis. The PDP has crisis in Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Lagos, Plateau, Kogi, Borno, Bauchi and Bayelsa States. That is one-quarter of the states.

The situation in the ruling party is worse.

From its headquarters which is now controlled by a caretaker committee to the branch in Ogun, Ekiti, Edo, Rivers, Adamawa, Kwara, Zamfara and Anambra States, the party’s fiber is being torn apart. Also, though it is the ruling party, the dirty scheming among its leaders on who succeeds incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is creating tension across the country. The crises in the two major parties are occasioned by lack of internal democracy, unbridled ambition, failure of the leadership to embrace equity or inclusivity and dictatorial tendencies of some of the leaders. r0MBOJZPOV XSPUF GSPN "CVKB

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EDITORIAL

BALARABE MUSA: THE PASSING OF A PATRIOT Musa, principled politician and former Kaduna State Governor, dies at age 84

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he passage on Tuesday of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Second Republic Governor of the old Kaduna State (part of which is now Katsina) is in many respects significant. Musa was a voice of difference within the radical progressive tradition of political thinking in the country for more than four decades. His stewardship in Kaduna was brief but eventful and topical even if controversial. Although he was the first governor to be impeached in the country, his views on the politics and governance of both the North and the nation at large remained consistent. And his impeachment was not because he did anything wrong. It was simply because he would neither compromise on his ideals nor play ball with members of the State House of Assembly who were angling IN A NATION WHERE POLITICAL for executive slots he was PARTIES ARE ESTABLISHED not ready to JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF offer.

CONTESTING ELECTIONS A selfconfessed AND ASSUMING POWER leftist politiAND OFFICES WITHOUT cian, Musa’s ANY SERIOUS IDEOLOGICAL emergence as COMMITMENTS, MUSA CHOSE the governor of the state THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED that is considered the epicentre of the conservative North was a strikingly remarkable development. Against all odds and on the strength of his personal popularity, he won election under the platform of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) at a period the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) dominated the legislature in the state. So, Musa literally assumed office as a marked man in the sense that he could not expect the cooperation of both the house of assembly and the traditional interests in the state.

Although the electorate chose him to deliver the benefits of progressive governance, the powers in control of the state were uncomfortable

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with Musa’s stance. Because of that, throughout his stay in office, he was unable to form a cabinet. A man of strong convictions, Musa’s uncompromising disposition eventually cost him a job that other politicians might have managed to keep simply by being pragmatic. But he never expressed regret for the position he took.

Musa’s importance in the public space is in the context of the faint ideological hints in our political culture. The views that he held and maintained on national issues belong in the leftist radical tradition of our political spectrum.

And true to this tradition, Musa in all his private and public engagements questioned the structure of privileges as well as the ostentation and elitism of the mainstream tradition of national politics in Nigeria. Throughout his life, Musa championed progressive causes and unlike many of his peers he was Pan-Nigerian in words and deeds.

For Musa, the welfare of the downtrodden and the quest for justice and prevalence of the rule of law were essential requirements of a democratic polity. His advocacy for girl-child education, access to affordable healthcare and responsible governance united him with progressive voices in the rest of the country while consigning him to the anti-establishment pool in the North.

In a nation where political parties are established just for the purpose of contesting elections and assuming power and offices without any serious ideological commitments, Musa chose the road less travelled. His leftist ideological authenticity was enhanced by the modesty and simplicity of his lifestyle. He was never associated with any financial scandals nor was he identified with the ostentation and lavish lifestyle that has become the hallmark of our political class. He was an austere man who lived a life of contentment right to the very end.

With the passing of Balarabe Musa, the authentic Nigerian progressive movement has lost an original voice and advocate. May God comfort the family he left behind. And may He grant him Aljanah.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to speciďŹ c publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (9501000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LEKKI-EPE EXPRESSWAY

nfrastructure development is critical to achieving human capital development in any society. The economic impact that infrastructure improvement has on nation-building cannot be over-emphasised. The growth of any country’s economy hugely depends on the status of its infrastructure.

It is in view of its crucial role to achieving rapid economic growth that advanced nations of the world commit huge investment to infrastructural development. J.F. Kennedy, a former President of the United States of America, once put the relationship between infrastructure development and economic prosperity into a proper perspective when he affirmed that: “America has good roads, not because America is rich, but America is rich because it has good roads�.

Where it is readily available, infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, ease the pace of economic development and social interaction. This explains why the World Bank, since 2002, has been prioritizing the construction and rehabilitation of over 260,000km roads above other vital sectors such as education, health and social services. In truth, the sustainability of other sectors largely depends on the quality of roads in a given society.

It is in view of the indispensability of quality and accessible roads to social-economic development that the administration of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu in Lagos State has accorded road construction and rehabilitation utmost consideration in the scheme of things.

This, of course, is not surprising since a major pledge of Governor Sanwo-Olu is to attain a ‘Greater Lagos’ through infrastructure development. In realization of the strategic role of transportation as a key driver of economic development, the Sanwo-Olu administration made Traffic Management and

Transportation a foremost part of its T.H.E.M.E.S (acronyms for Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21ST Economy, Entertainment and Tourism and Governance and Security) Developmental Agenda.

Presently, the prospect of a 4th Mainland Bridge is getting brighter as eight out of the over 30 firms that expressed interest in the project have been shortlisted, while a stakeholder forum was recently held on the project. Also, the Oshodi-Abule-Egba BRT Corridor has been completed and commissioned for public use, while the Pen Cinema Bridge is nearing completion.

Similarly, the junctions’ improvement projects at Allen Avenue, Maryland, Ikotun and Lekki among others have been completed. A major highlight of our intervention in roads was the commissioning of 31 network of roads at Ojokoro area of the state. The Sanwo-Olu administration promptly moved to complete the roads in order to relieve residents of the agony brought about by perennial traffic gridlock in the area. The street lightings were resuscitated and have started making positive impact on security, night life and the local economy.

The opening of the roads has greatly helped in reducing travel time along Lagos-Abeokuta corridor.

In a bid to sustain current efforts at improving road infrastructure across the State, the Sanwo-Olu administration recently flagged-off the reconstruction and upgrade of the 40-year-old Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway. No doubt, the Lekki axis has become a major industrial and commercial hub in the State and, indeed, the country. The Lekki Free Zone, the Dangote Refinery, the Lekki Dry Seaport, to mention but a few, are all sited at the zone.

Considering economic viability of the axis, the reconstruction

of the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway would certainly aid socio-economic activities in the zone, thereby giving investors better value for their money.

That the state government is embarking on such project in spite of the economic recession, dwindling financial resources occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the most recent unwarranted violence unleashed on government infrastructure by the hoodlums during the #EndSARS protest, testifies to the unalloyed commitment of the Sanwo-Olu administration to the provision of sustainable road infrastructure throughout the state.

Speaking during the flag-off of the first phase of the road project at a ceremony held recently at the Pan African University in Eleko, Ibeju Lekki area, Governor Sanwo-Olu said that the phase, which will be completed in 20 months, covers 18.75 kilometers, stretching from Eleko to T-Junction in Epe. The road was constructed in 1981 as a single carriageway, but underwent an upgrade to a two-lane carriageway in 2006. Its condition, however, became deplorable as a result of population growth and increased vehicular traffic.

With the latest intervention by the Sanwo-Olu administration, the entire stretch of the road from Eleko to Epe would be dualised on rigid pavement, with three lanes on each side. A lane on each side will be dedicated as toll weighbridges only for heavy-duty vehicles.

As earlier affirmed, the Eti Osa-Lekki-Epe corridor is strategically important to the state’s economic prosperity, hence the completion of the project would further strengthen his administration’s commitment to inclusive development. r#PMBKJ 0EVNBEF .JOJTUSZ PG *OGPSNBUJPO BOE 4USBUFHZ "MBVTB *LFKB

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2020 ˾ T H I S DAY

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NEWS

Police Arrest Man for Alleged Murder of Girlfriend Rebecca Ejifoma The operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested 29-year-old Segun Titilayo, for allegedly killing and burying his girlfriend, Miss Oritoke Manni, aged 26, in Lekki area of the state.

Segun is a resident of Otolu town,

Lekki LCDA The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Superintendent Muyiwa Adejobi, explained that the suspect, Segun, had made a call on October 13 this year by 11a.m. to the deceased to come to his house.

Oritoke, who was a bar attendant at K.C Hotel, Apakin Town, Lekki,

was said to have gone to Segun’s house.

Adejobi said: “She could not be traced or seen afterward. Hence, the police recorded a case of missing person for the deceased.

“However, on November 7 this year, one Mr. Adegbago David of the Adron Homes and Properties,

reported to the Akodo Police Station, Lagos State, that a caterpillar exhumed a decomposing corpse while the company was excavating its site at Otolu Town.”

The PPRO said police detectives immediately swung into action and the corpse was identified by the staff of the hotel to be Oritoke’s.

He added that “the corpse was evacuated to a public morgue for autopsy.”

He said that the police placed a manhunt on the suspect that led to Segun’s arrest. “He is being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti and is giving useful information to help

the police in its investigation,” Adedoji said.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, condemned the crime and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Charge of the SCID, Mr. Yetunde Longe, to carry out thorough investigations on the matter.

Ortom Mourns Health Commissioner George Okoh in Makurdi

The Benue State Governor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, has described the death of his Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Emmanuel Saleh Ikwulono, as a devastating blow to his administration.

Ortom said that the late Ikwulono was a true professional who built a wonderful working relationship with other members of the State Executive Council (SEC) within a period of only four months he served as commissioner.

A press statement that was issued by the Governor’s

Media Aide, Mr. Terver Akase, in Makurdi and made available to THISDAY, stated that Ikwulono’s was shocking and painful experience that has created a vacuum that would be very difficult to fill.

The governor said the late commissioner would be deeply missed by the government and people of the state for his proactive efforts in tackling health challenges confronting Benue people, particularly the fight against COVID-19 pandemic disease.

He prayed that God would grant the deceased eternal rest and stenghten his family to bear the irreparable loss.

WITH DEVELOPMENT PARTNER…

L-R: Chairman of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Dr. Ambrose Ojiakor; Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma; and Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Rodger Brown, during a visit of the company’s delegation to the governor at Government House, Owerri…yesterday

Anambra Judicial Panel Group Faults Omo-Agege’s Claim on 13% Derivation Fund May Invite Ex-gov Obi over to the drumbeats of the region’s “The most strategic road in the gas flaring while our region and oppressors. region, which is the East-West environment remain polluted? They Mac-Daniel wondered why they Road, remains uncompleted and do not see the injustice and inequity group, Niger Delta SARS Brutality on Hotelier AnPeaceadvocacy and Development Advocates were trying to divert attention from abandoned. That is a federal road. in these but rather prefer to whip Udora Orizu in Abuja

David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka

The Anambra State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality, ExtraJudicial Killings and other Related Matters has said that it would invite anyone indicted by petitioners to appear before the panel.

The Chairman of the Panel, Justice Veronica Umeh, made the statement while reacting to a petitioner, Mr. Bonaventure Mokwe, who linked the former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, to the operations SARS in the state.

Mokwe, the owner of the Upper Class Hotel in Onitsha that was demolished in 2003 by the Anambra State government, was arrested and tortured by men of the SARS over an alleged involvement in kidnapping activities had filled a five-page petition to the panel and also demanding for public apology

from the state government for being branded a kidnaper and his hotel demolished, while he languished in the SARS custody for 81 days without any charge against him.

He also testified that he stayed so long in the SARS custody and witnessed most of the gruesome killings perpetuated by the police unit, and is ready to open up on their operations.

Mokwe said: “Since we are talking about the SARS and all their atrocities, I think this panel can give me the opportunity to say most of the things I saw, which happened at SARS, just to help us unravel the level of destruction they were into.

“I stayed there long enough to know the workings of the SARS and also where they derived their powers to act the way they did, especially the SARS under Mr. James Nwafor.”

Osun Judicial Panel of Inquiry Begins Sitting with Five Petitions

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Osun State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality, Human Rights Violations and Related Extra-Judicial Killings yesterday commenced hearing on the various petitions and submissions brought before it by members of the public.

The panel began the hearing with five different petitions submitted by victims of police brutality and other human rights violations.

The state Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, had on October 22, 2020, inaugurated a 13-man panel with a mandate to unravel all matters relating to police brutality,

disbanded officers and men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) among other related cases.

According to the state government, the panel has six months to entertain and complete all the findings, investigations and cases filed before it.

Delivering his inaugural sitting speech at the Council of Obas’ Chamber, Finance Building at the Government Secretariat in Osogbo, the Chairman of the panel, Justice Akin Oladimeji (rtd), said the panel had since its inauguration received five petitions and submissions from members of the public.

(NDPDA), has faulted the claim by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, that governors of the Niger Delta states were diverting the 13 per cent derivation fund.

It also said the advocacy of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta, Senator Ita Enang, for the establishment of a Derivation Commission was not in the interest of the region.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the NDPDA President, Mr. Efe Mac-Daniel, said Omo-Agege and Enang were only dancing

the failure of the federal government to address the developmental challenges of the region.

He said the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) remains under-funded by the federal government, which has virtually rendered the interventionist agency comatose.

“So, how many commissions do they want for the Niger Delta?

“What diversion is Senator OmoAgege talking about when almost all states in the Niger Delta have oil producing area development commissions?

But the Deputy Senate President and the presidential aide, two prominent sons of the region, prefer to play politics with our development because of their 2023 ambition.

“We also wonder why they are not interested in the upward review of the derivation formula when the federal government continues to shortchange our region.

“For years, the government at the centre has been taking 87 per cent of the revenue from our resources while a paltry and dubious 13 per cent is paid to oil producing states.

Who collects the royalties from

up sentiments against governors of the region.

“We already know and have identified those working against the interest of the Niger Delta. We are determined not to reward internal collaborators from the region any longer with high political offices.

At the appropriate time, we will launch a campaign against such persons,” Mac-Daniel said.

He called on the two leaders to retrace their steps, saying the people of the region were now more politically conscious and aware of their rights.

Retired Military Officers in Ekiti Beg Buhari for Pension Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

Retired military officers of Ekiti State origin, who retired voluntarily from the Nigerian Military after prosecuting the civil war of 1967 -1970, have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to commence payment of pension to their members in order to rescue them from poverty and untimely death.

They regretted that over 60 of their members, out of the 240 at the initial stage, had died due to poor medical conditions while more than 70 are suffering severe ailments without any financial help

to address their predicaments.

Addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti yesterday, under the aegis of Voluntarily Retired Military Officers (VRMO), 1978-1979, the Publicity Secretary of the Ekiti Chapter of VRMO, Mr. Bello Oseni, urged President Buhari to honour his 2015 pledge to extend payment of pension to all retired officers that took part in the civil war.

Oseni appreciated the President for remembering them in 2015 after 36 years of neglect by successive military and democratic governments.

He said that Buhari had

instructed the Military Pensions Board in 2015 to verify their documents to ensure that they were certified legitimate military officers.

“But since then, we have not heard anything again. We appeal that this pledge should be implemented in due course.

“We started this struggle with 240 members, today we are 180 with about 70 of nursing severe ailments and only praying to get over.

“We were at the battlefield for over three years. We fought for the unity of this nation. We kept

Nigeria one and we deserved to be taken care of.

“We have no regret serving our fatherland. But we are surprised that those who fought and rescued the nation from disintegration would be treated this way. Helping us at this stage will send a signal of patriotism to Nigerians because all we did was out of patriotic spirit.

“But we believe in the integrity of President Buhari. He is a retired military officer with human face.

He knew what it means for somebody to fight a civil war.

He understands the language of war.

Physiotherapists Elect New Executive Members The Nigeria Society of Physiotherapists (NSP) has elected new national executive officers with Dr. Nnenna Nina Chigbo as its president.

Chigbo, who promised to run an all-inclusive administration, will preside over the 17th executive of the umbrella body of all physiotherapists in Nigeria.

The officers were elected immediately after its 60th and maiden hybrid annual general meeting (AGM)/scientific conference of the group, with

the theme: “The 2020 Pandemic; A critical Juncture for Reversing Health Tourism.”

The scientific conference also has as sub-theme one: “Enhancing Global Competitiveness in Physiotherapy Training, Practice and Research,” and sub-theme two:“Specialisation: “A Way to Go in Curbing Health Tourism.”

At the election conducted via electronic voting, others elected into the executive body were: Dr. Felix Oyinlola

(Vice President); Dr. Usman Abba Ahmed (Secretary); Dr. Mfonobong Udoh (Assistant Secretary); Dr. Emelie Moris Anekwu, (Financial Secretary); Dr. Muhammad Aminu Shehu, (treasurer) and Dr. Ogbonna Nwajiobi Obi (Public Relations Officer).

Others were: Dr. Adejugbagbe Muyiwa Kenneth, Public Relations Officer I; Dr. Mushin Muhammad Aliyu, Public Relation Officer II; Dr. Auwal Shittu, Auditor I, Dr. Adebayo

Adesola Michael, Auditor II,while the immediate past national president and Dr. Rufai Yusuf Ahmad (Ex-Officio 1).

Speaking after her election, Chigbo promised to carry everybody along as well as take the society to the next level.

Her words: “It is my sincere intention to run an all-inclusive government, where the voices and legitimate concerns of all our members will be heard and given attention, to guide our actions as NEC.

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T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2020

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POLITICS

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

Will Owelle Run for President in 2023?

Tony Olutomiwa, an Abuja-based journalist joins the clamour for Igbo presidency in 2023, with former Imo State Governor and current senator representing Imo West, Owelle Ndigbo, Chief Rochas Okorocha as the consensus candidate

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head 2023 presidential election, there’s a groundswell of opinion that suggest the next president should necessarily be of Igbo extraction, a rational attempt at giving the south east a deserved equity in the Nigerian project. If this reasoning is heeded, therefore, such fundamental political leverage would be a fitting answer to the recurring sense of neglect and oppression by the Igbo with the valid view that the enterprising ethnic group should be given the opportunity to produce the nation’s president since other major ethnic groups in the North, West and Southsouth have all had a fair shot at the presidency.

However, there are those who believe that the Igbo president project cannot be given on a platter, that they have to “negotiate” it and even with some “conditions” as postulated by the likes of Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, who in a recent interview noted that: ”this time around, it would not be solely an Ndigbo affair, as all Nigerians would participate in selecting the most competent person among the Igbo that will fit the number one in Nigeria. He further noted that such person must “be someone that will bring about peace, justice and equality. He must be someone with the qualities of late Zik of Africa”. Similar postulations have also been offered especially that given by Mamman Daura, who though in a different dimension did not believe automatic preference for the Igbo but that the presidency should still be contested for in 2023 based on merit and competence.

Also the Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, through its spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, while not against an Igbo president in 2023, however, averred that “we will support the South East to get the presidency in 2023 provided Nigeria is restructured.” Yet the spokesman for the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Emmanuel Yawe, in a statement, said “ACF believes that it is the constitutional responsibility of political parties to produce candidates. Until they do that, the forum will not interfere in that process. We shall look at the presidential candidates when they emerge and evaluate them at that stage.” However, a chieftain of ACF, Anthony Sam, was quoted as saying that “Ndigbo has the constitutional right to field a president in 2023.”

From the above positions, it is clear that the Igbo president project is now on the front burner of national discourse, stirring multidimensional perspectives but with very relevant implication to our national essence, continuity and viability. Yes, from a political interest, one would also want to ask if the former Imo State Governor and current senator representing Imo West, Owelle Ndigbo, Chief Rochas Okorocha, would be contesting the presidency in 2023.

Will the Owelle run?

I ask this question because in the estimation of evolving political calculations, Okorocha stands shoulder high among other equally qualified Igbo aspirants who may be interested in contesting the crucial election and in particular with the important reference to the concern for merit and competence as the key issues in the race vis-à-vis who is likely to be considered. By most preferences, Owelle Rochas Okorocha is a distinguished personality who has a national spread and appeal that could eventually be most acceptable to Nigerians in the postulation of Balarabe and similar men of thought who support the Igbo on this political journey but crave substantive background and ability to make a difference in our national regeneration.

An original Kaduna boy, who lived most part of his life in the northern political capital and mixed so well with the major ethnic groups in the country till date, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has the charisma and

intellectual depth to make a good president.

He has also come a long way in thinking through the Nigerian project especially on how to make it work within the premise of ethnic co-existence and husbanding an economic model that can birth a new national economy which is modern and peculiar to our national realities and aspirations.

On the concern for national unity and

cohesion, Okorocha has been at the vanguard of national unity, one leader who is at home in any part of the country because of his avowed commitment to our oneness and happiness.

Speaking recently in Bauchi at the invitation of Sheik Dahiru Bauchi for this year’s Maulud where he was also honoured as Sarkin Yakin Talakawa (Defender of the

Ogheye Floating Market Bridges the Gap in Delta Chukwudi Abiandu, an Asaba-based journalist celebrates a novel commercial platform geared towards improving the living conditions of a riverine community in Delhi State

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omething novel has currently come on stream in Delta State. It is a floating market that the Executive Council of the government of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa recently gave the green light to commence further works that hopefully would mark its completion.

Briefing journalists at a post-Exco meeting the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu announced that government has approved the proposal for the completion of the Ogheye Ultra Modern Floating Market project that was begun by the Chief James Ibori administration, in 2007.

With the estimated completion cost of the project put at over N4billion. Aniagwu said of its importance: “The floating market will enhance the economy of the huge population of people in Warri North Local Government Area by helping them to trade in their localities without traveling long distances.”

Indeed, the market seats in Ogheye, a busy town that is snuggled at the source of the Benin River by the Atlantic Ocean. The town is strategically located at the ocean front with her fishing endowments of rich resources of seafood.

History has it that to enhance the economy of the area, the Warri North Local Government Council originally acquired the market consisting of jetties and sheds from its original owners in 1991 and rebuilt it to a floating market with pillars made of timber on a wooden platform. The Delta State Government got involved in the project with the appointment of Utimits & Mira Associates as consultants. “Based on the consultant’s submission, 20 contracts were awarded to contractors for various

aspects of the project in 2007, at a total cost of over N1billion. This was later reviewed to over N3billion; the contractors mobilized to site and executed the works to various stages of completion,” an analyst said.

He also said that the project was, however, stalled following government’s inability to consider the request of the contractors for a further upward review and the challenge of funding. So far, eight of the 20 contracts awarded have been completed, another eight are at various levels of completion, while three did not commence, because the works are located on the platform.

It is not a surprise that the State Executive Council had to approve of the proposal to complete this all important project. For it is yet in line with the avowed commitment of Governor Okowa to create his vision of a SMART and STRONGER Delta. He reiterated this much when he was declared winner of the governorship election. Okowa said that he was going to do more towards the emergence of a Stronger Delta anchored on the three pillars of prosperity, peace and progress. Okowa said: “In the next four years, I shall consolidate, strengthen and upscale our wealth creation agenda.

The focus remains to liberate the spirit of enterprise in our public…” Confronted with the challenge of Ogheye Ultra Modern Floating Market project, he saw value in it, as it accords with his vision of a SMART and Stronger Delta of prosperity for all Deltans.

He undertook to visit the site of the market to see things for himself and enable him make his assessment.

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

poor) by the Tijaniniya Islamic sect, the philanthropist noted that since other regions had taken turns to produce president, it is high time Nigeria got a president of Igbo extraction.

Owelle Okorocha who was also honoured with the title of the Garkwuwan Almajiri (Ambassador of Almajiris) further explained the foundation of his convictions for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction come 2023 thus:” The issue of Nigerian president of Igbo extraction for me is more like a competition, the north has produced a president, the south west has produced a president and the South-south has produced a president, let us see when the south east produce a president what Nigeria will look like, ” adding that “ talking about the presidency of Igbo extraction…will give everyone a sense of belonging and if everyone gets a sense of belonging, there is justice.”

Owelle Rochas Okorocha believes that the presidency should not be a title but a call to hard work, as the person at the helm of affairs must ensure that Nigerians are neither hungry nor suffering.

“But that is not the doing of the job. What I propose is a Nigerian president who will guarantee the unity of this nation irrespective of religion or tribe, a Nigerian president that will eliminate poverty, Nigerian president who will make education available and affordable for everybody. This is what we should be talking about more importantly,” he stated.

Of course, the important issues he raised above are not new to him, either having dealt with them as governor or carried out in private capacity via Rochas Foundation, a reputable entity that has over the years catered qualitatively for diverse concerns with priority on provision of free education to many underprivileged and gave equally free health and empowerment to people across the nation and the Africa continent with the huge interest in banishing poverty.

All said, Owelle Okorocha will be a respected and invaluable hand to represent the nation at the Aso villa in 2023 as president, one who is dedicated and capable to deliver the goods. He won’t be an Igbo president but a president for all Nigerians, affirming the sacred duty to national integration, unity and cohesion as we look forward to a new paradigm in our evolution as a modern nation state emboldened for greater possibilities.

Although there are vested interests on how the presidential pendulum swings in the next presidential election, one thing that is clear is the need for a critical evaluation of our union, the history and trajectory of leadership and power and the effect on national development. More importantly, I think it is time for a more realistic debate on the future of our country vis-à-vis power relations, so that we can continue to live together as a viable entity.

Invariably, we would have to reconcile with the reality of the Nigerian president of Igbo extraction. Many are really concerned that the time for this inevitable essence is now, making us a collection of wise people who know when to make a proper compromise as a factor of our unity in diversity. Yes, I should add that Owelle Rochas Okorocha looks a good fit for this compromise in our national best interest, to critically deepen our democracy and provide solid leadership and enterprise along this cherished unity we crave and aspire to have in nation building. He is tested and trusted as a patriot. Yet, Owelle Ndigbo has the last say if he would actually run or not in spite of his fitting intellectual and moral credentials.

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2020

19

PERSPECTIVE

EPISTLES of ANTHONY KILA

To Achebe, Eagle on the Iroko Analogue Solution for

Chido Nwangwu, Publisher, USAfricaonline. com, honours the memory of the giant of African literature, Chinua Achebe, best remembered for Anthony Kila suggests that the renewed effort to his classic book, Things Fall Apart regulate the social media by the Federal Government

Digital Situation

T

he great man, deservedly, regarded as the father of the 20th century African novel and literature, Chinua Achebe, would have turned 90 years old — in a few days. He was born November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, eastern Nigeria. But the man best known for the masterpiece novel ‘Things Fall Apart ‘ in 1958, died on March 21, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Prof. Achebe, Africa’s most acclaimed and fluent writer of the English Language, our pathfinder, the intellectual godfather of millions of Africans and lovers of the fine art of good writing, was only 28 years when he wrote the classic, Things Fall Apart, in 1958, long before I was born.

In 1958, Achebe’s first novel, he told the conflicted story of Okonkwo, communal life, clash of faiths, dynamics of the clash of cultures and more, set in pre-colonial and colonial Umuofia, of the Igbo nation.

To highlight the tapestry of communal life and the joyful benefits of human synergy, the author wrote: “A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”

In the assessment of US former President Barack Obama, it is “A true classic of world literature… a masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.”

I served as the moderator of the Achebe Colloquium (Governance, Security, and Peace in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown University, in Rhode Island.

Since 1958, at least five important historical benchmarks became evident: First, Achebe laid the foundation for the modern African literature. Whereby the stories and narratives about Africa and Africans hold our perspectives and values amidst the realities of a global market.

Princeton University’s professor of philosophy, Kwame Anthony Appiah, hit the proverbial nail on its head when he said that “In every English and non-English speaking country on the planet, if you ask a student to name just one African novel, it is most likely to be Things Fall Apart by Achebe. It is the beginning of the African canon. it is difficult to think of anything else without it.” Like him, I believe Achebe’s works are rich fountains of knowledge for credible and engaging understanding of African pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial history and realities.

On February 18, 2002, a distinguished jury of scholars and critics (from 13 coun-

tries of African life and literature) selected Achebe as the writer of the Best Book, ‘Things Fall Apart.’

Second, he firmed up the prologue for taking on the litany of Euro-Caucasian racist “scholars” who “objectified” Africa and African lives.

In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and other works, the centrality of Chi (God) attains an additional clarity in the Igbo cosmology. I’ve studied, lived and tried to better understand, essentially, the towering moral certainties which Achebe have employed in most of his works.

Also, it is a world which prefers a quasicapitalistic business attitude to life while taking due cognizance of the usefulness of the whole, the community. .

Bottomline: in the Achebe accurate and contextual depiction of pre-colonial Igbo life, the rewards for hardwork/farming are wealth and family!

Third, in an era of grammatical overload, obscurantism and verbosity, he entered the arena with what I commend as the yet unmatched, uniquely Achebesque style and structure of simplicity, clarity, accessibility and organic lucidity. Achebe is good!

Fourth, between 1958 and 2013, amidst a body of first rate works, he will be remembered as one of history’s great witnesses and chroniclers. Other than ‘Things Fall Apart’ (1958), some of Achebe’s other major books are ‘No Longer at Ease’ (1960), ‘Arrow of God’ (1964; rev. 1974); In 1983, Achebe wrote the often quoted pamphlet, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria.’ In the latter, he cited the litany of failures of the leaders and pointed the way forward; ‘Anthills of the Savannah’ (1987) and his notes and memoir on Biafra titled ‘There Was a Country’ (2012). Those works and his civic, moral conscience placed him on a pedestal which I characterize as the power and permanence of Chinua Achebe! Consequently, he lives in our hearts and minds as an immortal writer!

Fifth, on the critical questions regarding why Achebe became a writer; and why he wrote Things Fall Apart? He revealed: “In the end, I began to understand there is such a thing as absolute power over narrative.

Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much where, and as, they like.”

For him, there’s an organic relationship between writing as education and the building of a better society. Recall that the prolific Achebe wrote in 1975 in his work ‘Morning Yet on Creation Day’ that “The writer cannot be excused from the task of re-education and regeneration that must be done.”

I recall flying back to the U.S. (from South Africa to New York) to attend Prof.

Achebe’s 70th birthday at the historic Bard College (November 3-4, 2000) and its related conference titled, ‘Home and Exile: Achebe at 70”. Achebe was in the midst of his friends and some of the best writers in the world. He mentioned “how everyone has spoken so nicely of me, this evening….” Then, came his one sentence punchline commentary on the gross grandiosity of African leaders: “If I were a military dictator, these two days of November would have been declared national holidays!” He burst into laughter. That’s vintage Achebean sarcasm.

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

can only lead to alienation of the youths instead of a culture of dialogue and inclusion

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ear Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Today’s epistle is addressed to you by virtue of your role as a man of communication, a party leader, a main figure of the current administration and as Minister for Information and Culture. Well Mr. Minister for Information I have some information for you: your recent role as the Chief Campaigner for the regulation of the social media in Nigeria is a bad move.

I say it for the records knowing fully well that you might not heed this unsolicited advice but then and later down the line you will not be able to say that you were not told also so that posterity will not say nobody spoke. The consequences of the desire to regulate the social media space beyond what it is at the moment is easy to see for all discerning minds. It is a move that will further alienate and risk making criminals of majority of our population: The youth; yes, those ones unlucky enough to be stuck in a country where their universities are closed because the government and their lecturers cannot agree that wasting youthful years is an abomination.

Shame on the government and shame on we the teachers, all of us.

Alhaji, I am worried about the company of friends and counsellors you keep, anyone of them with the clarity of mind, the courage of voice and your interest at heart should have by now gotten into several heated arguments with you over your role in the pushing for this regulation.

It takes very little to see that your role in pushing for this regulation will drastically damage your reputation and even legacy amongst Nigerians at home and abroad as well as in the international community.

It is difficult to tell which is worse, their silence or complicity if they are mute or with you or your own stubbornness if they are against it and have warned you against a mistake you are turning into an unforced error. It is enough to remind you here that the attempt to pass this bill generated over 90,000 signatures against it in 24 hours just last year.

The quest to regulate our social media space is at best a product of the desire to curb fake news. The renewed urgency for such desire seems to be as a result of the influence of information during the #Endsars protest. Herein lies the tissues of mistakes.

You are treating an old problem like a new one and you are tempted to apply an inefficient, outdated and unpopular solution to treat it. You are choosing to complicate, dictate and alienate rather than simplify, dialogue and include.

The problem of fake news is as old as humanity itself, they remembered to prohibit it in the Bible and in the Quran, before them, Yoruba philosophers took their time to warn us that a liar is a potential thief. Rumours, misunderstanding, assumptions, speculations and outright lies are spread in bars and salons, mind you they are also rife in churches and mosques. There are more than enough laws for slander, libel and all other forms of defamation and misinformation. All you need is to remind people of the old rule: Thou shall not lie.

I have observed that many of those thinking like you tend to make the case of regulating the social media space based on the postulation that the distribution of fake

news via social media makes it peculiar or worse and hence deserves special treatment that will come from a new law. Well, there is no other way to put it but to say you are all wrong. Yes, fake news is bad for all, it can be life threating, it can create chaos and financial distress for many but the way to deal with it is not by bringing a new law. By the way, the mere fact that your reference is China for matters of freedom of expression and communication is rather worrisome.

In dealing with the social media space and the digital affairs in general, the first crucial thing to come to terms with is to understand the limit of restrictions, boundaries and other forms of limitations. The cyber space by its nature is global, flexible, atomised, interactive and with unpredictable reach and consequences but that is its beauty and seeing that as a problem rather than potential is an analogue mindset.

Rather than spend precious time on making laws to regulate, please direct your energy into improving access to the internet in our schools, homes and businesses.

Take time to inform government offices and agencies to digitalise their process and reduce their response and delivery time.

To curb fake news, no new law is needed all you need is to educate, enforce and expose.

Your office needs to educate the public and government on the dangers of spreading fake news, you can and should lead the education on the etiquette of sharing information they receive on their phones etc. Let people know it is wrong and can be dangerous to share information from unsure sources. Let us educate people to always ask for who, when and where is information coming from. In fact, let us educate people to know saying “copied as received” is crass.

The existing laws are good enough; work with your colleagues at the bar and on the bench to take seriously and to expedite cases of defamation and misinformation.

Enforcement of these laws should be done openly, speedily, convincingly and within the legal tenets of the land.

Rather trying to gag, it is enough and more efficient to expose those that fabricate and distribute false news. A good exercise would be to ask all to denounce and expose anyone that send false news and the let existing law of “Thou shall not lie” be used against liars. All liars must be prosecuted though, be it government or private liars.

-Prof Kila, Centre Director at CIAPS Lagos can be reached at @anthonykila

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FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2020 •T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ NOVEMBER 13, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OBB OVERNIGHT

A S

A T

REPO 5.70 % 6.40 %

CALL 1-MONTH 3-MONTH

3% 4% 7%

N O V E M B E R S & P INDEX INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY MONTH-TO-DATE

746.22 % -0.00 % -0.08 %

Group Business Editor Obinna Chima Email obinna.chima@thisdaylive.com 08152447875

6 , 2 0 2 0 S & P INDEX 1/4 TO DATE 19.07 % YEAR TO DATE 55.09 %

EXCHANGE RATE N379/1US DOLLAR* ̩

Quick Takes Air Peace to Operate Delhi Flight

CAPACITY BUILDING SESSION

L-R: Commissioner/CEO, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Engr. Akin Olateru; Director of Safety and Technical Policy, Federal Ministry of Aviation, Captain Talba Alkali and Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA), at the Nigerian Aviation Workforce Symposium held in Abuja...recently

Experts: Marine Pollution Hindrance to Nigeria’s Quest for Blue Economy Eromosele Abiodun Maritime expert and founder of the African Marine Environment Sustainability Initiative (AFMESI), Dr. Felicia Mogo, has called on Nigeria and other African countries to urgent tackle marine pollution so as to realize their blue economy ambition.

Mogo made this call during the second AFMESI symposium themed: “Marine Pollution Prevention and Control towards Blue Economy,” held in Lagos.

Noting that pollution was one of the major limiting factors to the blue economy in Africa, Mogo also encouraged African countries to unify their positions and make contributions on the issue to the global regulatory bodies such as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

“The BASEL Convention is a

AVIATION global convention that advocates for preventing transboundary movements of hazardous waste, among others. For example, a country may claim to have the resources to manage this and it is investigated but some others, especially African nations may go for it because of poverty and lack of understanding. They take such waste and dump it in the oceans and seas; eventually, these end up as very toxic substances,” she said.

Mogo, a former Director of Marine Environment Management at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), also called for more advocacy among African nations, their producing companies as well as communities in coastal areas.

“When country A is signatory to a convention and country B that is the neighbour is not; it simply means you can dump that toxic material in my backyard, via the ocean. Nevertheless, the ocean does not know any political boundary; it’s a problem for everyone. To address this as a continent, we should have one voice when we are defending or when we are negotiating or getting into this kind of convention on the global level. This problem of pollution is harming food production, destroying biodiversity and eroding the economic gains that should have been generated from the sector,” she posited.

Also speaking at the symposium, the Managing Director, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited and Chairman of Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance

(FBRA), Mr. Matthieu Seguin, said that an alliance with a shared concern for the environment has been formed, adding that the alliance is collaborating with all stakeholders to build a sustainable recycling economy for food and beverage packaging waste.

Seguin, who was represented by the Executive Secretary, FBRA, Agharese Onaghise, described the symposium as a great opportunity to reinforce commitment for a sustainable future, adding FBRA would partner with AFMESI to provide and implement lasting solutions to preventing and managing marine litters.

“We believe in collaboration to address climate change concerns particularly as it concerns packagContinued on page 22

‘Disagreement over Airport Concession May Hurt Aviation Industry’ Chinedu Eze The present disagreement over issues concerning the concession of airports may pit aviation workers against government, members of the trade union have warned.

Currently labour has become intransigent over the issue, insisting that there is lack of sincerity in the whole process. On the other hand, the government has said there was no going back on the matter, stressing that the initiative would protect the interest of the country, while adding value through the injection of private sector funds for the development of the airport infrastructure.

Addressing the workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) recently, Secretary General of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Ocheme

AVIATION Abba, alleged that not only that the federal government was not following any due process, but it is not even concessioning the airports to genuine investors.

He insisted that there was no protection of workers’ interest in the concession plan and reiterated that labour and workers do not support the concession plan.

Abba told THISDAY in a telephone interview on Wednesday that labour was not just fighting to protect the job of FAAN workers but it wants to save the airports for Nigerians because government officials should not be allowed to covet “our common patrimony.”

He gave example with the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) of Nigeria and noted that while the workers were properly settled, Nigerians

are still suffering the electricity hiccups, which the privatization promised to end, remarking that Nigeria should not be allowed to continue to do business that way.

“The issue is that the interest of the workers is on one side, while the interest of Nigeria is on the other side. So what will happen to the airports is a pertinent question than the narrow interest of securing severance pay for the workers of FAAN,” he added.

Abba also observed that as the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika said FAAN workers would not lose their jobs, saying, “it means that the plan to concession the airport did not have provision for the severance pay of the workers.”

According to him, the assurance that the workers would not lose their jobs was a gimmick.

“If we don’t come to agreement, FAAN workers will surely

go on strike and that means the shutting down of the airspace, which will incur huge losses, but it is better we suffer today to safe our tomorrow,” Abba told THISDAY. However, Sirika had told the House of Representatives that only 14.29 per cent of the total workforce of FAAN working at the terminal buildings, which according to him, are the items for concession would be transferred to the would-be concessionaires, but also insisted that the concession exercise would not lead to mass sack of workers as claimed by some stakeholders in the sector.

He said as new terminal building was coming up at the four major airports, which facilities would be first concessioned, more personnel would be needed.

The Minister also said the Continued on page 22

AirPeacehasannouncedaforthcomingspecialcharterflighttoDelhiinIndia.Air PeacedisclosedthattheflightisscheduledtodeparttheMurtalaMuhammed InternationalAirportLagosonNovember27thandwouldreturnthenextday.

Accordingtotheairline,personsinterestedinjoiningthecharterflightshould contactitsoffice,addingthattheEconomyticketsellsfor$1300whileBusiness Classgoesfor$1800.

“Anyone who wishes to be on the flight should make payment immediately.

PassengerscanalsopayinNairaatN478/$1”,theairlinesaid.

Meanwhiletheairline’ssaiditsattentionhasbeendrawntoastorypublished inanonlineplatformwhichcalledintoquestionthesafetyofouraircraft.

The online report was attributed statements to a lawyer who boarded Air PeaceflightP47121onNovember6,2020,Abuja-Lagosat8:45am.

The lawyer alleged that the luggage of some of the passengers were not carrieddueto‘weightrestrictionissues’.

“Wearestatingcategoricallythatallouraircraftaresafeandairworthy,and itisagloballyacceptedfactthateveryaircrafthasaweightlimit.

Fortheflightinquestion,wedidnotcarryalltheluggagebecausetheaircraft had reached its maximum weight capacity. It would have been unsafe and dangeroustodootherwise.

“Wedidtherightthing—asafetymeasurethatisknownworldwide.Airlines, all over the world, drop bags to avoid being overweight. So how does this translatetobeingunsafe?

Ethiopian Airlines Wins Award

TheEthiopianAirlinesGrouphasannouncedthatithaswonthe‘OverallExcellence forOutstandingCrisisLeadership2020Award,’oftheGlobalFinancemagazine.

Theawardrecognisescompaniesthatwentaboveandbeyondinresponding totheglobalpandemiccrisisandinassistingtheircustomers,protectingtheir employeesandprovidingcriticalsupporttosocietyatlarge.

Ethiopian Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, remarked, “We are glad to have won the ‘Overall Excellence for Outstanding Crisis Leadership 2020 Award’,whichrecognisesourdistinctcapabilitiesofsuccessfulmanagement ofmultiplecrisestakingplacesimultaneouslylikeaperfectstorm.

“DuringtheglobalspreadoftheCOVID-19pandemic,whichresultedinpanic, fearandhopelessnessintheindustry;wehavedemonstratedresilience,agility andspeedofdecision-makingandspecialcompetencyinfastredeployment oforganizationalresourcestoourcargodivisiontoairliftlife-savingCOVID-19 PPEandmedicalsupplies.

“Wehavereconfigured25passengerairplanesforcargoonlyflightsandwe alsoavailedtheremainingpassengerairplanesforrepatriationofstranded peopletoconnectwiththeirlovedonesbackhome.

“Asasociallyresponsibleairline,westoodinsolidaritywiththeworldduringthe unprecedentedcrisisandservedcommunitiesaroundtheglobetocopewith theCOVID-19pandemicchallenges. Wearereadytorepeattheremarkable andgloballyrecognizedsuccessinleadingthefastdeliveryoflife-savingPPE’s withsimilardeliveryspeedandprofessionalhandlingduringtheforthcoming globaldistributionoftheCOVID-19vaccine.”

Sub-committee on Airport Concession Created

TheHouseCommitteeonAviationhasresolvedtosetupasub-committee to interface with the Ministry of Aviation, the financial adviser, (FAD) and the project delivery team, (PDT) on the proposed airports concession by thefederalgovernment.

The sub-committee is to review the reports of the FAD and the PDT, which accordingtothechairman,Hon.NnoliNnajifellbelowexpectations.

Nnajiinhisopeningremarksemphasisedthattheinterventionofthecommittee wasnotintendedtoopposethepolicyoftheexecutivebuttomakesurethat NigeriaandNigeriansarenotshortchanged.

“Ouraimisnottounnecessarilymeddlewiththepoliciesoftheexecutivebut as the representatives of the people, we would not close our eyes to issues thatmaycreateinstabilityandunrestinthiscriticalsector.Thispromptedour earliermeetingwiththeleadershipsoftheaviationunionsandtheNigerian LabourCongress,”thechairmanstressed.

He recalled that the concerns raised by the labour unions warranted the committee’s letter to Ministry Aviation requesting for the copy of outline business case for the concession, the Chinese loan agreement for the four airportsslatedforconcession,reportoftheprojectdeliveryteam,(PDT)and thereportofthefinancialadviser,(FAD).

Also requested were the assets evaluation report of the affected airports, (AER), cash flow of the airports, (up for concession), for the last five years, copiesofallexistingconcessionsonthefourairportstheon-lendingagreement, repayment schedule and every other documents pertaining to the Airport concession.

“People have said that Nigerian airlines pay a lot as if it is peculiar to us, no. The successes or failures in airline business is a global thing” Managing Director, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA),

Capt Fola Akinkuotu

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T H I S D AY Ëž NOVEMBER 13, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

EXPERTS: MARINE POLLUTION HINDRANCE TO NIGERIA’S QUEST FOR BLUE ECONOMY

NIMASA, NSC Others Condemn Attack on NPA

ing waste and its effects in our land and marine space. As part of FBRA’s commitment to the marine clean up to promote climate change, FBRA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lagos State Government for a 3-year period to support the State program to clean up and prevent waste pollution and other packaging waste on inland waterways of Lagos. FBRA also purchased and provided 6 boats for this purpose,� he said.

On his part, the Convener of the annual Oil Trading and Logistics Africa Downstream Exhibition and Conference, Mr. Emeka Akabogu, stressed that it is high time to itemise deliberate actions that need to be taken and initiate actions to realize the potentials in the blue economy.

He added: “We should begin to focus on how to translate the blue economy gains from the good theoretical realm into actionable terms to generate revenue. In the space of the last four years, there has been so much talk about the blue economy and its numerous potentials, thus, we must be able to translate this advocacy into businesses that benefit every Nigerians.�

Akabogu, who is on the Advisory Board of AFMESI and an Honorary Secretary of the Nigerian Maritime Law Association (NMLA), also reassured stakeholders that addressing the menace of pollution would steer Nigeria in the right direction to harness the gains of a blue economy.

Heads of maritime agencies have expressed shock at the level of destruction that took place at the corporate headquarters of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in Lagos when hoodlums hijacked a nationwide peaceful protest by youths last month.

They voiced their concerns during a solidarity visit to the site of the incident.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu, condemned the assault, saying the level of destruction is monumental and constitutes a huge loss to the maritime community as a whole.

Moghalu said: “Seeing the level of destruction here first hand, we feel very sad about the turn of events. We are all in solidarity with the NPA management. This is a great loss to the entire country and we need to educate ourselves more that violence is not the best way to go about things.�

He said it was a surprise to them that NPA was singled out for attack despite its documented corporate social responsibility(CSR) and community relations initiatives, many of which were tailored to youth development.

‘DISAGREEMENT OVER AIRPORT CONCESSION MAY HURT AVIATION INDUSTRY’ concessionaires would sign agreement with service providers in the industry, like the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to ensure that efficient service is provided by these agencies. “FAAN will negotiate benefits to be paid with the unions before completion of the handover.

Traffic will increase as a result of increased efficiency and expansion, costs will reduce due to efficient operations and FAAN will be paid its own share of Passenger Service Charge (PSC) and security levy directly from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).�

Stories by Eromosele Abiodun

should be collectively protected. “Port facilities are invaluable economic assets and they are critical to national development.

It behoves us all as citizens to be custodians of this monumental infrastructure built for our collective good, �he added.

While commending Managing Director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Balla-Usman, for providing

In a similar vein, Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, regretted that the maritime industry was made to face this challenge despite still battling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said port facilities were critical national assets that

L-R: Head, Northern Operations, inq.Digital Nigeria Limited, Fred Ibia; President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Olusola Teniola; and Account Manager, inq.Digital Nigeria Limited, Babafemi Banjo, at the NTITA Awards held in Abuja... recently

Lekoil Commits to Long Term Growth Lekoil, the oil and gas exploration and production company with focus on Nigeria and West Africa, has restated its commitment to long term growth following the release of its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30, June 2020.

The company in a statement said within the period it successfully completed site survey operation on OPL 310. “While Otakikpo production averaged 5,676 bopd gross with 2,271 bopd net to Lekoil Nigeria.

The group’s share of equity crude was 408,800 barrels. Phase Two development plans at OPL 310 are underway, subject to securing funding, for the drilling of up to seven wells while the first two wells are expected to increase gross production to 10,000 bopd. With major preparatory work concluded for the Ogo appraisal drilling programme and well locations selected, funding discussions are currently underway with industry partners, “it stated.

The company also announced

that it has renewed its off-take agreement with Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited for two years, included the provision of a $3.5 million prepayment facility to aid short term liquidity.

It added that the facility, which is repayable from future crude oil liftings, has a tenor of five months and charges a market margin over LIBOR. “Despite the challenges of the first six months of the year, we have navigated this demanding period with steady production

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The federal government has launched the Central Data Management System (CDMS), a digital platform of the Nigeria Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) project which monitors power networks across the country.

The project which is being carried out in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the German government, the ministry of power stressed, had

already successfully mapped 21 states.

Added to that, the federal government stated that the platform has a satellite mapping of 350,000 settlement clusters, over 3,000 settlement clusters remotely mapped with over 2.6 million buildings identified and about 50,000 kilometres of 33 kilovolts (kV) as well as 11kV power distribution lines being tracked nationwide.

Speaking at the virtual launch of the platform, the Minister of

Power, Mr. Sale Mamman, said the CDMS will also remotely monitor mini-grids nationwide to digitally assess their performance, using an Application Programming Interface (API). “This initiative is part of our efforts to digitise the Nigerian power sector using new innovative digital technologies and processes that will help address many of the key challenges that our power sector is facing today,� the minister stated.

Capital Market Editor

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Comms/e-Business Editor

The Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGoF) has presented a total budget of N3.079 for 2021 to the National Assembly as against the amended budget of N2.812 of the office in 2020.

The government institution said that approximately N1.9 billion was for capital projects as against N1billion for 2020 and N943million for personnel cost compared to N710 million for

Emma Okonji

Senior Correspondent

Ă‹Ă’Ă?Ă?Ă— Ă•Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ĂŒĂ™Ă–Ă&#x; (Advertising) Correspondents

Ă’Ă“Ă˜Ă?ĂŽĂ&#x; äĂ? (Aviation) ĂœĂ™Ă—Ă™Ă?Ă?Ă–Ă? ĂŒĂ“Ă™ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă˜ (Maritime) James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Chineme Okafor (Energy) Ă—Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă&#x;Ă?Ă– ĂŽĂŽĂ?Ă’ (Energy) Reporters

Ă&#x;Ă—Ă? Ă•Ă?Ă‘Ă’Ă? (Money Market) Ă™Ă?Ă‹ Ă–Ă?Ă•Ă’Ă&#x;ÙÑÓĂ? (ICT) Ă?ĂžĂ?Ăœ äÙÒÙ (Energy)

and cash flow generation from Otakikpo while implementing a range of significant cost reduction initiatives across our operations. “However, net loss for the period stood at $7.9 million as against $5.2 million in the comparable period in 2019 while administrative and general expenses significantly reduced to approximately $1.0 million. Total outstanding debt financing, net of cash, stood at $15.6 million, as at 30 June 2020, � Lekan Akinyanmi, Lekoil’s

CEO noted.

According to Akinyanmi, “We are excited and encouraged by the interest received and the progress made towards raising the requisite financing to develop our high quality portfolio of assets and delivering on our drive to unlock the significant value that exists within them. We remain committed to creating value and generating attractive returns for our shareholders, our partners, employees and all our stakeholders.�

FG Maps 21 States, 2.6m Homes in Move to Automate Power Network

OSGoF Seeks Review of Survey Act

Goddy Ogene

activities of all the maritime agencies. We are just lucky that this did not stop shipping operations because this would have negatively impacted or crippled the Nigerian economy.�

In her response, Bala-Usman called the attack an assault on the maritime industry, saying the level of destruction is incomprehensible.

PROMOTING ICT

Group Business Editor

Obinna Chima

leadership at this trying time for the agency, Jamoh said the Nigerian economy would have suffered considerably if the destruction had led to suspension of port operations.

He said: “This is a sad event, especially, for our industry that is still battling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Port operations are central to the

this year as well as N225 million overhead cost against that of 2020 which was N153 million.

A statement by Head of Press and Public Relations in the office, Mr Michael Abu, also quoted the Surveyor General of the Federation (SGoF), Mr Samuel Adeniran, as calling for the legislators’ assistance in its bid to revamp its operations for optimum contribution to nation building.

Adeniran who spoke during the 2021 budget defence of agen-

cies under the Ministry of Works and Housing at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, emphasised the importance of large scale mapping that could help the federal government achieve much in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), effective policing, planning and economic development.

The statement noted that in view of the critical functions of the office, the House Committee on Works and Housing, expressed the need for the review

Describing the programme as remarkable, Mamman said that within just one year of starting the CDMS project, a lot of primary data had been gathered, classified and stored on the Nigeria SE4All web portal.

He added that the online platform, CDMS aims to offer the most accurate data and latest tools that empower data-driven electrification planning. “The platform has a satellite mapping of 350,000 settlement clusters; over 3,000 settlement

clusters remotely mapped with over 2,600,000 buildings identified; about 50,000 kilometres of 33 kilovolts (kV) and 11kV power distribution lines being tracked across 21 States and the FCT,� he noted.

According to him, the platform’s launch was to drive President Muhammadu Buhari’s power sector bison of 30:30:30, a target to deliver 30,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2030 with at least 30 per cent coming from renewable energy.

of the Survey Coordination Act of 1962.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Abubakar Bichi and members of the committee agreed that the act as it is, is already out of touch with present realities and asked Adeniran to make available necessary documents to the members of the committee for study and recommendation for proper legislation.

During the session with the SGoF, the committee observed that the office was capable of

generating huge amount of money for the country, prompting the need to mainstream surveying and mapping activities in the country.

Members of the committee also noted the need for the posting of surveyors to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government and working on all surveying and mapping components from MDAs to OSGoF for revenue generation and proper management.

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T H I S D AY ˾ NOVEMBER 13, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD

ANALYSIS

As FG Moves to Amend NCAA Act Chinedu Eze writes on the move by the federal government to amend the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority Act in order to reposition the aviation industry

A

viation stakeholders were elated 14 years ago when the 2006 Civil Aviation Act was passed into law and its implementation started.

Their elation was derived from the reality of that time that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), would become autonomous and therefore would be able to effectively regulate the airlines without interferences to ensure that they operated safely.

Then the priority was safety. Before the Act, Nigeria had experienced the most tragic period in its aviation history, the air crashes of 2005 and 2006, which industry stakeholder and Director of Engineering, Lukeman Animaseun described as the darkest period of Nigeria’s aviation industry.

So, since 2006, Nigeria has recorded less air accidents and since 2014 till date no accident involving commercial airliner has been recorded in Nigeria.

But now that has been achieved, government felt that there is need to have a more encompassing NCAA, which would effectively engage in economic regulation and also to eliminate conflicts of interest between NCAA and other aviation agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

The federal government wants the power to regulate the industry to be fully bestowed to NCAA, so FAAN would become known as the Federal Airports Administration of Nigeria.

Full Autonomy In his opening remarks during the recent public hearing for aviation agencies organised by the Senate Committee on Aviation, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika noted that the journey to the proposal for amendments of the laws establishing agencies under the Nigeria civil aviation commenced as a result of finding in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) universal Oversight Audit Program (USAOP) in 2006 as well as finding in the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category/ Certification Audit in 2010 that the establishment Acts of some of the aviation service providers contain regulatory powers, but the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should be the only authority and autonomous regulator of the civil aviation in Nigeria.

Thus, Nigeria was requested and agreed to take corrective action to address the Audit findings.

“Consequently, a committee involving the relevant stakeholders was constituted by me to review the establishment Acts is of the six aviation agencies, not only to close the audit findings by removing regulatory powers from service providers agencies, but also to bring the respective Acts up to date with development in International Civil Aviation; separate powers among agencies; give NIMET (the Nigeria Meteorological Agency) the leverage to commercialize some of its products; remove impediments into smooth running of the functions of all the agencies and ensure seamless coexistence between the agencies and encourage the agencies to initiate avenue of generating revenue among others,” the Minister said.

Conformity While addressing the Senate Committee on Aviation, the Director-General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu said that the coming into force of the Civil Aviation Act, 2006 coincided with the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) audit of Nigeria, conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) later that year.

He explained that the ICAO USOAP audit assesses the capabilities of a member state’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to carry out an effective safety oversight of its aviation sector through the level of implementation

NCAA DG, Nuhu

of the standards and recommended practices (SARPs) and the critical elements (CEs) of a State’s safety oversight system.

“Part of the findings of the ICAO Audit of Nigeria for that year was that the Establishment Acts of some of the service-provider aviation agencies, such as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Act, 1995 and the Nigerian Airspace Management Act, 1999, which gave them regulatory powers, whereas ICAO requires that the CAA of every ICAO member state (the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, in the case of Nigeria), shall be the only and autonomous regulator of civil aviation in the member state.

“ICAO Document 8335, Chapter 3, prescribes two main prerequisites for an effective aviation regulatory system, namely, the provision of a basic aviation law of the State and the establishment of an autonomous CAA with necessary powers to ensure compliance with the regulations. The above was also the finding of the United States Federal Administration (FAA) Category 1 Certification Audit of Nigeria, conducted in 2010.

“Both audits recommended that Nigeria should take corrective actions to address the finding, by amending the said Establishment Acts, to remove regulatory powers from service-provider agencies. Nigeria accepted the recommendation.

Consequently, in 2013, the Ministry of Aviation set up a committee to review the Establishment Acts of all the aviation agencies, and propose amendments, not only to close the audit findings but also to update the respective laws, including the Civil Aviation Act 2006, and bring them into conformity with new and amended ICAO SARPs, and with developments in global civil aviation,” the Director-General said.

Recommended Practices He also explained that ICAO issues SARPs for the regulation of the aviation industry.

Nigeria, as an ICAO Member State, is obliged to comply with the standards while recommended practices are desirable. Since the enactment of the Civil Aviation Act in 2006, ICAO has issued and amended a number of SARPs, such as the new Annex 19 (Safety Management), and there is the need to review Nigeria’s primary aviation legislation (the Civil Aviation Act) to incorporate these developments.

He said besides the SARPs, there are other international air law instruments, including

Conventions and Protocols, ratified by Nigeria, for example, the Montreal Protocol of 2014, which provisions needed to be incorporated into the Civil Aviation Act of Nigeria.

“Other developments in civil aviation, such as the increasing collaboration among ICAO member states through establishment of regional, interregional and other strategic partnerships, example, the Banjul Accord Group Aviation Safety Oversight Organization (BAGASOO)], and the increasing use of remotely-piloted aircraft systems (also known as drones) in Nigeria, the introduction of Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) data exchange requirements between departure and destination countries, among others, needed to be provided for in a new Civil Aviation Act. “Gaps and omissions observed in the Civil Aviation Act of 2006, for instance, the omission of Article 30 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, 1944 (the Chicago Convention) from the functions, listed in section 68(1) of the Act, which Nigeria may exchange with the aeronautical authority of another ICAO Member State pursuant to Article 83 of the Convention, needed to be filled.

Some provisions of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 lacking in clarity, and which do not satisfactorily answer some protocol questions of the ICAO USOAP Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) audit, needed to be rephrased. The above, among others, provide the basis, rationale and justification for this overdue review of the Civil Aviation Act of 2006,” Nuhu added.

Gains The Director-General of NCAA said Section 4 of the new bill emphasizes the autonomy of the NCAA, and its independence in the discharge of its safety and security oversight functions. This provision, he said, satisfies a key ICAO requirement that member states should set up autonomous Civil Aviation Authorities with necessary powers to ensure compliance with the civil aviation regulations of their States.

Section 11 of the new provisions for the appointment and tenure of office of the Director-General of the NCAA, in section 11 of the Bill, which has made removal subject to Senate confirmation, and only in accordance with the provisions of the Act, will provide stability, as well as a measure of

security of tenure, for the Director-General.

This will allow the holder of the office to concentrate on the enormous task of instituting a robust regulatory oversight system for a safe, secure, efficient and sustainable civil aviation industry in Nigeria.

Section 15 of the bill deals with the right personnel and Nuhu explained that to effectively fulfill its responsibilities as a safety oversight organisation, the NCAA must be properly staffed with qualified personnel in sufficient numbers, who are capable of accomplishing the wide range of technical duties involved in aviation safety and security oversight.

“ICAO Documents 9734A, 8335 and 9760 require that technical staff in a State’s Civil Aviation Authority should be more knowledgeable, or at least as knowledgeable, as the persons in the industry they oversight.

“In this regard, the provision of section 15 of the Bill is a welcome development, as it will allow the NCAA to bring in experts to fill the gap, while it continues the training and retraining of its regular workforce, in an effort to attain the desired technical training level, which Nigeria is yet to attain.

“Section 17 of the Bill details the sources of funding for the NCAA. It is a long list but there is actually little money in it, apart from the share of the 5 per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC).

The rest of NCAA’s funding comes from fees charged for grant of certificates, licences, permits and other authorisations.

“These fees are charged on cost-recovery basis, in line with ICAO Document 9082 and Part 1.8 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, 2015. ICAO Document 9082 require that charges for services in civil aviation be calculated on cost recovery basis, while Part 1.8 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations prescribe that fees charged for licensing, approvals and certification shall be the cost of actually rendering these services and not for revenue or profit.

A look at section 17 of the Bill shows that 17 of the sources of funding are cost recovery items. The rest are items like subventions and budgetary allocations from the government of the federation, a fund the NCAA does not receive and has never received.

Another item is fines, which is an irregular source of funds, as the NCAA prefers that operators do not violate the regulations, rather than to fine them. That leaves the 5 per cent TSC/CSC as the major source of funding for the NCAA, contributing between 85 per cent and 90 per cent of the agency’s total funds,” the Director General explained.

He also explained that from the five per cent TSC/CSC, the NCAA carries out numerous activities and responsibilities, top of which is training and re-training of aviation safety and security inspectors, and other technical staff, to become more knowledgeable than, or as knowledgeable as, those in the sector they oversight, as ICAO requires, in the interest of safety and security of civil aviation.

“Unfortunately, the capabilities for most of the mandatory technical training for NCAA safety and security inspectors are not available in Nigeria, and have to be done abroad, taking a huge chunk of the NCAA’s share of the five per cent TSC/CSC. Apart from recruiting such qualified technical personnel, the NCAA also faces the problem of retaining them. To retain personnel with the required technical knowledge, it is imperative that they are offered conditions of service and remuneration which are not only consistent with their qualification and experience but also comparable to what the operators, whose activities they oversight, offer.

In other words, the NCAA has to be a competitive employer, able to finance the initial and recurrent training of its technical staff. Doing this also takes a huge chunk of the Authority’s share of the 5 per cent TSC/CSC,” Nuhu said.

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T H I S D AY ˾ NOVEMBER 13, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD

MARITIME

Bala-Usman: NPA Will Emerge from Attacks Stronger The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman spoke to newsmen during the inspection of a section of the agency’s head office building and cars burnt by hoodlums.

Eromosele Abiodun present the excerpts:

W

in terms of recruitments, we recruit people based on the availability of needs within the organisation. We have been recruiting medical doctors, nurses, engineers, to the extent that, some of these unemployed youth within this environment that has the necessary qualifications are also employed. And if you are aware, some of the recruitments such as drivers are done specifically to local environment and we do that. We always employ within the community. When you look at the vast number of youth that are unemployed it is not something that only the Nigerian Ports Authority can single handedly take care of. And we know that, and we don’t even think that is our responsibility.

We are very mindful of that. There is a state government; there is a local government, whose priority is to ensure those people are given the attendant consideration that is required.

hat was your immediate reaction when you saw this level of damage?

It is very disheartening that we are finding ourselves in this situation. Nigerian government has invested a tremendous amount of resources in insuring that this building is conducive for personnel. We have procured vehicles that are meant for operational use and some of the vehicles that you have seen burnt down, are brand new vehicles that were recently approved by the Federal Executive Council.

We have lost out on staff busses, on items that we need to use on our operational efficiency. But as I keep saying, they are trying to pull us down but we will not go down. We are resilient, we are committed to the values and ensuring that government gets value for all its third party agreement, and we will continue to do what is required. We are in a difficult position right now because of the state of our offices and infrastructure.

But we shoulder on, that is the Nigerian spirit and we shall continue to do what is appropriate.

After seeing the extent of damage, what do you think as a Nigerian?

It is vandalism because items were looted; air-conditioners, water dispensers, printers, small tables and chairs were also catered away.

So you can see that, while there was burning on the one hand, items were also stolen. Two vehicles were stolen from here; a Hilux Van, a Prado Jeep, and motorcycles were catered away by the hoodlums.

So, there is an element of looting and an element of destruction. Those are the two elements that are evident in this attack as experienced.

We heard your office was also touched?

Yes, it was you touched. We have not determined yet if any documents were catered away, but all our documents that are critical are put in a fireproof safe. So we do have that. But yes, my office was vandalised, a lot of items were broken within the office.

It seems this was a targeted looting due to concentrated interest of attack, do you suspect any internal connivance?

Regarding the vandalism of our offices and the audit office, that office is an office where staff are. Critical documents on audits are not seated there. So the staff seats there but that is not where the depository of our audits is. As I mentioned, all our finances, payments and any critical documents on payments, or critical information on legal has not been tampered with. So it is only where staff seats. So the documentations still remains. On the issue of being targeted, definitely, critical infrastructure of the federal government, like the Nigerian ports, that is the biggest organisation of the federal government seated in Lagos. That is critically an indication that it could be targeted. We are also aware that the Marina area is also an area where you have many unemployed youth hanging around. So where we are allocated as the headquarters office in itself is a vulnerable location. Within the Marina area, our office stands out because of the way it is, the ambiance of the office, and also the notable attendance increase in vehicles that we have had. Evidently in the last few years, the Nigerian Ports Authority has increased the number of busses. So all these staff busses you see were procured under this administration. So clearly, Nigerian ports stands out in Lagos and Marina so it’s noticeable and an easy target. On the issue of security, if you notice, on Tuesday, October 20, we had an attack on Tin can Island, and one of the important things for us was to secure the ports operations, as it is the gateway to the economy. So all

Can you put a value to what was lost within this attack?

I will not be able to tell the amount of money that was lost within this period. But imagine if this level of arson was done in Tincan Island, it will not be a funny issue.

The port would have been shut for a longer period. So looking at the fact that this was attacked, and our network was shutdown for that period, it’s actually a positive horizon from the level of intended carnage that was targeted at critical infrastructure of the federal government.

Bala-Usman

efforts were deployed in the ports. And the Chief Security Officer will be able to tell better how we deployed Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Army to Tincan Island and Apapa to protect that area, because we felt that is more critical to our economy. And of course, that is where we had series of attack. The Tincan Island was attacked not once within one day. They were determined to penetrate the ports, and we prioritized that. Definitely within the Marina area, we discussed on the attended security, enhanced the need for our mobile policemen to be on the spot, we did not deploy military to the headquarters building because we did not think this is a critical area of infrastructure.

Military indeed are stretched, so we do not see the need to draw them into an area that was not considered a very highrisk area. Which is why we just have the mobile policemen. And when you look at the attack by hoodlums, we had over 300 hoodlums coming in with cutlasses, daggers, and knives, attacking numbers of security personnel. These personnel are already in a very weak state. They were demoralised, policemen were being butchered across the country, so they were in a state of weakness and demoralisation, so to them, when 300 men comes into the premises to attack, the policemen will equally run for their lives.

And that day, every policeman was at its weakest. So you do not expect the level of challenge that is expected of them to do that in that particular situation. So that was where we found ourselves. So you can imagine the huge issue it would have been if Tincan Island ports, Apapa ports, or Calabar were penetrated. And we felt that is the place where every required security should be deployed to secure the assets of citizens of Nigerians, and the whole ports economy as it were in that location.

Would it be right to say it was an oversight, considering how security was deployed?

Well, you cannot consider it as an oversight.

Because as I said, the level of security deployed to the head office, considering the vulnerability assessment of our ports infrastructure is adequate. As I said, we prioritise ports locations and infrastructure

as opposed to the headquarters building.

And to God be the glory, I believe that what happened in the headquarters, would have been more catastrophic if it had been Tincan Island or Apapa or any of our ports locations. Yes, they could have been more, bit looking at the prioritisation of security within the port operations, and port area under Nigerian ports, we felt those locations required priority consideration on deployment of security.

And as I also mentioned, police were demoralised, Nigerian military were stretched, to enable them do the necessary coverage of the area within this challenging period for the country.

What do you think is the adverse implications of this vandalism?

The impact will be huge because a lot of the items that we need to replace, we may not have the resources to do that.

As you are aware, our budget has been slashed, everything we are doing is under the COVID budget, and that is very limiting and restricted, so we will not be able to procure what is needed to replace what was lost. But what is important is that, operations remains, our ICT infrastructure was not tampered with, and this is the core of Nigerian Ports Authority. So that impact is more administrative and logistic as opposed to key and core operational.

Don’t you think the hoodlums attacked the ports out of feeling of neglect?

We do have CSR that we do within our environment and port location, and that is something that we do frequently. But is CSR sufficient for unemployed youth?

Is it something that will be able to stop a carnage that was going on in the whole of Lagos state? So we do the CSR that is required, we also recognise that we are in a location were we have more youth that are unemployed. We also have information that other government agencies within these areas were also attacked but they repelled the hoodlums to the best of their abilities.

So indeed we do our obligation to the best of our ability, but there is a limit to what government organisations can do as it relates to engagement with unemployment youth and hoodlums within the environment. And

What is the insurance cover for this incident or the level of insurance involvement, and will you be requiring assistance from the federal government to bring this place back to life?

We have engaged our insurance company, all our assets are fully insured and the insurance companies are coming in to do the necessary assessments. They are conducting an integrity test on the premise, which is an integral part of the insurance process.

We need to conclude on what insurance can cover and where the gap exists. It is that gap that we would like to seek the federal government assistance in filling, which will remain uncovered following full insurance deployment.

A contract was awarded for the rehabilitation of the head office, what has happened to that. What are the measures put in place to ensure there is no reoccurrence?

Regarding the contract on rehabilitation, that was something we inherited and it was concluded, and the contractor exited over two years ago. So there is no more lingering contract on rehabilitation that we inherited. As I mentioned we have insurance cover and that will determine the measure of coverage and measure of payment that they will make do for us to rehabilitate the premise. As you see now, we have military personnel that are guarding the port. We intend to retain as much military deployment as possible, until we determine the state of the country at large and also the state of the security in Lagos state, which will form how we will react to the necessary security deployment. All our locations and offices have been amplified with the necessary protections required. There is a directive by Mr. President to ensure that the entire federal government infrastructure is protected, which definitely prioritise the Nigerian ports, so we have all that covered.

Will you consider relocating the head office from Lagos?

Right now we are focusing on claiming insurance cover, and everything that is needed to make this place functional. The issue of relocating has not arisen, what we are doing is prioritising our operations to ensure that we replace what has been damaged.

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NEWS

Making More Nigerians Travel by Air Chinedu Eze

There are two key issues stopping more Nigerians from travelling by air. One is low purchasing power of average Nigerian and two is relatively high cost of air ticket.

Currently the number of Nigerians that travel by air is lower than one per cent of the projected 200 million population; so if five per cent of the population could travel by air, Nigeria will have very robust air travel market.

Although Nigerian airlines have not connected potential intercity markets like Warri-Port Harcourt, Kano-Enugu, Yola-Kano and other possible destinations, but the major challenge is how air ticket could be affordable to many Nigerians.

This issue was raised at the Senate Committee on Aviation public hearing on the amendment of aviation agencies Acts last week by the Managing Director of Overland Airways Limited, Captain Edward Boyo.

He complained that airfares are high because of huge taxes built into the tickets and high cost of operations, including cost of aviation fuel and others.

He criticised the proponents of the zoning and classification of airports that suggested that travellers should pay more if they use Lagos airport and pay less if they use Owerri airport, for example, saying that all airports have similar costs. “We have a population of 200 million, why can’t the common man fly in Nigeria? We talk of zoning airports; respectfully we are not zoning any airport in Nigeria.

Every airport has the same goal, with similar cost because we have a centralised airport system unless we are going to dismantle it. “Every Nigerian has a right to

Boyo

travel to his own equal cost; after phone call here is as a mobile to my

Our distinguished Senate needs to address and direct the overwhelming powers of the executive arm of government in a direction favourable to the people

Airlines Urged to Tap Development Institutions’ Loans Chinedu Eze Aviation industry stakeholders have called on airline operators and business organisations in the Nigerian aviation industry to tap into the opportunities offered by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other financial institutions in the continent to prevent going under due to economic pressures occasioned by the devastating effect of COVID-19.

They also advised airline operators to align their business plans with Safety Management System (SMS) in order to prevent early close of shop.

The stakeholders also canvassed for crowd control at accident sites, saying that this posed serious threat to rescue and gathering of data for accident investigation by investigating body.

These formed part of the communiquĂŠ issued at the Nigerian Aviation Workshop Symposium (NAWS) 2020 with the theme: ‘A Safety Management System Approach to Responses to Aviation Accidents and Incidents within

destination at all, a mobile the same price grandfather in

Nigerian Airspace,� organised

by Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) held on yesterday in Abuja.

Participants at the one day symposium said lack of SMS in most aviation orgamisations, especially the airlines led to their early death, stressing that adoption of SMS would aid survival in case such an organisation experiences crisis.

Participants also canvassed for creation of aviation information portal, which would help in tracking and ensuring accountability of airport personnel and their locations.

According to them, regular training for the emergency personnel in various organisations and consistent public awareness in partnership with local governments and communities would also go a long way in ensuring sustenance of safety in the system.

Participants further charged airline operators, service providers and others to encourage a culture of voluntary or confidential reporting system in their organisation in order to boost confidence in the sector.

Maiduguri as of today. So we must look at bringing down costs. “Our distinguished Senate needs to address and direct the overwhelming powers of the executive arm of government in a direction favourable to the people. “The laws you make will shape tomorrow and the future. Let me say this, the National Assembly is the hope of the common man. Airline operators today are suffering, that is why the Senate must ask the executive why are airlines dying in Nigeria? “Over 100 airlines, if am correct, have died in the last few years. So it is good that we are modifying the laws today. It is our hope that these new laws you are going to make will support the existence of the ordinary Nigerians not the existence of us in this room (VIPs) that can afford everything,� Boyo said.

He noted that Nigerian airlines are severely criticised by labour, aviation agencies and their proxies that other Nigerians have developed negative perception of Nigerian carriers. “The body language of this assembly has demonstrated the apathy towards airlines. They see airlines as companies that collect money and don’t remit to the agencies, to the extent that the direction this bill is going or some of the bills we have listened to is to jail airline proprietors for not paying monies that they have not even collected,� he said.

He urged that government should review charges in air transport downwards so that the cost of tickets would come down and more Nigerians would be able to travel by air. “One of the things the upper and

the lower chambers of the National Assembly have to look at is the efficiency within these agencies.

We are sponsoring and paying for their inefficiencies as well as their efficiencies, translating to bogus cost of operation of our airlines.

Without the airlines, many people will not be here today but we are here. “And what are we giving in return? Nothing. The airlines pay for the ticket five per cent charge to NCAA, we pay five per cent for VAT, we pay N2,000 on every passenger.

We pay company income tax, pay education tax, pay navigation and terminal tax, pay security tax; we pay fuel tax, we pay local government tax. The fees just keep going on,� he said.

Boyo warned that more airlines would go under if the aviation agencies and the government continue to charge the airlines high taxes and fees, noting that the founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Richard Branson who established a subsidiary in Nigeria, Virgin Nigeria Airways, had to leave the country because of unfavourable government policies. “They want to continue to charge the airlines and they are all dying.

Very soon there will be no airlines in Nigeria. Even the planned national carrier, if it is set up to operate in a hostile environment as we have today, it will not survive. Richard Branson came to Nigeria, he has been successful all over the world, but he failed in Nigeria. So there is something in the environment that is killing the airlines,� the Managing Director of Overland Airways said.

THIS WEEKEND WEEKLY MAGAZINE

NEWS METRO THISLIFE ART WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com 08038901925

A Global Force Away from Home

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COVER

A Global Force Away from Home Chiamaka Ozulumba profiled three Nigerians who recently vied for electoral positions in the 2020 United States elections and won their respective seats, thus becoming global forces worthy of reckoning

Esther Agbaje

G

lobally, Nigerians in diaspora are gradually becoming a force, especially in political matters concerning them in their environment.

Over the years, Nigerians have run for elective positions in different parts of the world.

This year, a total of nine Nigerians vied for various offices in the 2020 elections of the United States of America and three won in their various constituencies. The successful candidates, Ms. Esther Agbaje and Mr Oye Owolewa pulled a higher percentage of ballots cast while Mr Nnamdi Chukwuocha, who was unopposed got re-elected.

Esther Agbaje The 35-year-old Harvard Law Graduate, was born in St. Paul. She lived in Brainerd and did her high school in Faribault, while she studied Political Science at The George Washington University, and also earned her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania before attending Harvard Law School.

She’s an Associate with Ciresi Conlin LLP where she practices in general civil litigation and medical malpractice.

In 2019, she was part of a team that settled with the Minnesota Department of Corrections to allow inmates who qualify access to potentially life-saving Hepatitis C medication and she got awarded a 2019 Attorney of the Year.

According to her, my parents, migrated to the US for to further their education and later started a family in Minnesota.

Having attended Harvard Law School where she spent two years as a student attorney, defending tenants from eviction with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, this made her develop a passion for housing justice after seeing many of her clients live in unsafe and unhealthy buildings and paying rents they could barely afford.

But before turning to Law, Esther was a Foreign Affairs Officer with the U.S

Oye Owolewa

Department of State where she managed rule of law projects in the Middle East focusing on Egypt and the Gulf states.

She also helped facilitate exchange and scholarship projects for judges, lawyers, journalists, and students in the US. Upon graduation from The George Washington University, she received the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship which ultimately led to her career at the State Department.

Her father is a priest in the Episcopal Church while her mother had been a director of a homeless services centre over the years.

Agbaje will be representing District 59B in the 134-member House on the platform of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party, after she won by a landslide victory with 17,396 votes or 74.7 percent of the total ballots cast to defeat her closest rival, Alan Shilepsky of the Republican Party who polled 4,128 votes, representing 17.7 percent of the total.

She defeated longtime state Representative Raymond Dehn in the party’s primary in August.

She is one of four progressive greenhorns who defeated established Democratic legislators in the primary.

Agbaje has a law degree from Harvard University, a Master’s from the University of Pennsylvania, and has served in the U.S. Department of State, among others.

As a millennial, a “generation that has suffered numerous setbacks�, she seeks to bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to government. She is interested in prison reform, fighting racial discrepancies, housing among others.

As expected, her win was celebrated by Nigerians including her home state, Ekiti.

She was congratulated by Governor Fayemi in a tweet shared on his handle. �Congratulations to our Ekiti daughter and Harvard graduate for winning a landmark legislative seat into the Minnesota state assembly. I just spoke to her proud parents from Aramoko Ekiti and extended the best wishes of all our people,� he

Nnamdi Chukwuocha

tweeted.

Oye Owolewa Oye Owolewa was born in Nigeria to a father from Omu Aran in Kwara State and a mother is from Ibadan in Oyo State. He is the grandson of Phoebe C. Ajayi-Obe, a senior advocate of Nigeria.

Owolewa, a PhD holder in Pharmacy from Northeastern University, Boston is a first-generation Nigerian-American and a Democrat was elected as Shadow member of the House of Representatives from the District of Columbia.

He polled 164,026 votes to defeat incumbent Joyce Robinson-Paul with over 145,000 votes.

The 30-year-old, whose agenda includes fighting income inequality in the U.S., became the first Nigerian congressman in the country’s history and the first NigerianAmerican to occupy the seat.

Meanwhile, in 2018, he was elected commissioner of his neighborhood in SouthEast DC. As an advocate for DC statehood, he launched TaxFreeDC as a movement to combat DC’s taxation without representation. Upon completing his degree in pharmacy, he moved to Washington, DC to begin practicing pharmacy and impacting the community.

Since 2014, he has been a member of RESET, a coalition of STEM professionals who volunteer in public schools, engaging students through hands-on science experiments, his goal is to inspire young people to pursue STEM careers and become tomorrow’s scientists.

In 2018, Owolewa was elected commissioner of his neighborhood in Southeast DC. In this position, he served as the medium between the community and the local government. He worked to bring resources to the underserved by advising DC lawmakers based on continued community feedback.

Some of his most notable achievements were increasing science enrichment programs in South-east elementary schools, adding traffic safety measures and helping

bring a Senior Day Center to the neighborhood. Owolewa has dedicated his energy to educate and advocate for DC statehood and equality.

He participated in the historic March 2019 lobby day, resulting in a majority of the House of Representatives supporting DC Statehood for the first time.

Owolewa in his congratulatory message after the results were released, “Good morning. Looks like WE DID IT!!! I want to thank everyone, from family and close friends to DC residents. Because of your contributions and sacrifices, I stand before you as America’s first Nigerian American congressman. “In this role, I’m going to fight for DC statehood and bring our values to the lawmaking process. While today is day for some celebration, the hard work also follows.

Again, thanks so much for everything. I wouldnt be here without yall. With love and gratitude, Oye, congressman elect�.

Mr. Nnamdi Chukwuocha Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha is an American politician and poet. He is a Democratic member of the Delaware House of Representatives, representing District 1.

The 49 year old was first elected in 2018.

Up until his reelection, he was a member of Delaware House of Representatives from District 1 where he won 100 per cent of the votes with 7,640.

Chukwuocha, who has a bachelor’s degree in History and a master’s degree in Social work from Delaware State University, was a one-time president Pro Tempore and Chair of the Education, Youth and Families Committee on the Wilmington City Council.

While in 2019, he served as a member of the Corrections Committee, the Education Committee, the Health and Human Development Committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee as a US Army Veteran and Vice-Chair of the Transportation/Land Use and Infrastructure Committee.

He is also the current Poet Laureate of Delaware, along with his twin brother, Al Mills.

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Access Bank Backs Kunle Afolayan’s ‘Citation’

ČŠ ÂŽÂŽÂ”ÂœČąÂ?Â˜ČąÂŠÂ?Â?Â›ÂŽÂœÂœČąÂ’ÂœÂœÂžÂŽÂœČąÂ˜Â?Čą Ž¥žŠ•ǰȹ Ž—Â?Ž›ȏ ŠœŽÂ?Čą Â’Â˜Â•ÂŽÂ—ÂŒÂŽČą

L-R: Group Head, W Initiative, Access Bank PLC, Ayona Trimnell; Actor and Director, Kunle Afolayan; and Chairman, Access Bank PLC, Ajoritsedere Awosika at the screening of ‘Citation’

Stories by Mary Nnah As part of its efforts to address Sexual and GenderBased Violence (SGBV) in Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions, Access Bank PLC, has partnered award-winning film producer and director, Kunle Afolayan, on his new movie ‘Citation’.

Citation, basically seeks to address issues of sexual and gender-based violence regarding the fact that in recent years, conversations around gender equality and violence against women have become mainstays in our society.

Chairman, Access Bank PLC, Dr Ajoritsedere Awosika, stressed the importance of the Bank’s efforts towards bridging the gaps that still exist, saying, “At Access Bank, we believe in gender equality and we also believe that there is a need to make women feel safe not only in Nigeria but indeed, across the world.

“In many societies, women have been setback by issues such as sexual and genderbased violence, denied access to education, finance, and healthcare. We have therefore made it our mandate to put women where they ought to be and where possible, promote initiatives that will foster a better society for all.�

Commenting on the issue of SGBV at the private screening of the movie held at Terra Kulture, Ayona Trimnell, Group Head, W Initiative at Access Bank said, “The issue of genderbased violence reaches every corner of the world and Nigeria has indeed been plagued by this issue for too long. “With about 30 per cent of women and girls aged 15-49 having experienced sexual abuse, it is important that all stakeholders – private and public –contribute to the conversation, offer support and put in place frameworks to ensure that the scourge of gender-violence is eradi-

cated from our society.�

Expressing excitement about the partnership, Ayona Trimnell stated that, since the establishment of the Access Bank W initiative in 2014, the bank has executed countless initiatives targeted at empowering women. “We believe that women are key catalysts for change in any society. “We were very excited at the opportunity to be a part of a project that will not only spotlight some of the prevalent issues around sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria but also serves as a catalyst to address the long-term behavioural change we seek.�

The screening of ‘Citation’ marks the beginning of Access Bank’s month-long activities aimed at addressing prevalent issues on SGBV in Nigeria. As part of the activities planned, the bank has also partnered the Nigerian Governors Wives against Gender-based Violence (NGWA-GBV) to implement high-impact projects

across all geo-political zones in Nigeria.

Quizzed about his decision to partner with Access Bank on the project, Kunle Afolayan added that “I have seen and heard about the impact Access Bank has been making on the lives of women through its W Initiative, hence, it was easy to select the bank as a partner given their body of work. “Sexual harassment is an issue that is very rampant globally. ‘Citation’ wasn’t created to announce that these issues exist; rather incite conversations about the measures that need to be put in place in other to curb the menace that is sexual and gender-based violence. ‘Citation’ follows the story of Moremi, a young postgraduate student who experiences sexual harassment from a lecturer. It stars Temi Otedola in her breakout role as Moremi alongside Jimmy Jean Louis, Joke Silva, Adjetey Anang, Gabriel Afolayan, Sadiq Daba and Ini Edo.

Huawei, 24DNL Sign Partnership Agreement Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, recently signed a partnership agreement with 24 Data Networks Limited (24DNL), an innovative ICT company positioned to help companies and enterprises optimise existing technology assets, deploy and manage 21st century robust data networks for multi-modal operations.

As part of the agreement, 24DNL will become a Tier 1 Huawei Partner with the ability to market Huawei products, services, and technology.

24DNL joins Coscharis Technologies Limited and TD Africa as the third Nigerian company on this exclusive tier of operation.

24DNL will work with Huawei to build and commission data centres across Nigeria and Africa.

The first project from the

L-R:Director, Huawei Nigeria Enterprise Channel Department, Mr. Ken Zhaowenjun; Directors of 24DNL, Mr. Olanrewaju Ogun and Ms. Adaeze Anyibama; and Managing Director of Coscharis Technologies Limited, Mr. Sunday Mukoro

partnership will see 24DNL build, install, and commission a Tier IV data centre in Egbokor, Edo State for Duport Energy Park.

The increasing demand for secure cloud-based services and faster data solutions among consumers and enterprises - especially SMEs and government agencies - is

expected to drive the growth in data centres in Africa. The African data centre market is expected to cross $3 billion by 2025, and then continue to grow at over 12 per cent year-on-year.

Through its partnership with Huawei, 24DNL is uniquely positioned for growth in Nigeria, Africa’s

largest data centre market outside South Africa.

The agreement was signed on November 3, 2020 with the Director, Huawei Nigeria Enterprise Channel Department, Mr Ken Zhaowenjun and the Directors of 24DNL Adaeze Anyibama and Olanrewaju Ogun in attendance.

Upbeat Centre Springs Back with More Energy than Ever Upbeat Recreation Centre, West Africa’s first trampoline park and Lagos’ foremost destination for fitness and fun, reopened its gates fully in August welcoming fun-seeking visitors and fitness enthusiasts.

This was done after securing the Lagos State COVID-19 safety compliance certification and putting in place strict measures keeping in mind the health and safety of its guests.

The precautionary procedures include online payment and booking infrastructure that minimise human contact and interaction, in-depth training of staff on COVID-19 safety rules and guidelines, provision of hand sanitisers, hourly disinfection of the trampoline space and the reduction of admitted capacity by 50 per cent.

Guests temperatures are checked, and facemasks are mandatory prior to entry. In addition, there is an ambulance on ground during the operational hours.

Upbeat Centre offers group activities such as corporate meetings with a fun approach, team bonding, play dates for schools, themed birthday parties, social events for all ages, weddings, and catering services.

Its main attraction is the trampoline with activities such as dodge ball, slam dunk basketball, wall climbing, foam pit racing and tumble track trampolining. Other attractions include go-carting, roller skating and board skating, virtual reality tourism and games.

One of Upbeat’s core values is encouraging a healthy lifestyle, and for this, guests can enjoy various sporting activities such as football and basketball court and also have access to the FitNigeria Gym. Children are not left out as there are education programs available during every holiday. The array of activities available during programs includes gymnastics, football, and basketball trainings that run every quarter. The month of December is also dedicated to a memorable Christmas wonderland experience for children of all ages.

Upbeat’s standing as the premier location in its field was attested by Coach Ben Alonge, one of the country’s leading gymnastic coaches, who stated that “Upbeat provides one of the best facilities for trampoline and artistic gymnastics in the country and providing an environment that allows kids thrive in their chosen activity�.

Refuelling expended energy is easy as at the food court with a variety of places to choose from including; Upbeat Bites for healthy family meals or grills by the waterside, Vesta coffee for the coffee lovers and Hans and Rene to indulge your sweet cravings with mouth-watering dessert, ice cream and sorbets.

Upbeat Centre provides an avenue to tap into your inner child, have some fun and ensure you maintain a healthy lifestyle to live a more fulfilled life.

Cycology Club Donates Bicycle to Accident Victim Funmi Ogundare Tuesday September 22, 2020, will remain indelible in the heart of Mr.Sunday Otene. He works as a janitor at African Terminal, Ikoyi. At about 5 am on that fateful day, while riding on his bicycle to work, he was hit by a hit and run vehicle on Lekki link bridge, where he sustained injuries.

Fortunately help came and he was thereafter taken to Police Hospital, Falomo. While he was recuperating at the hospital, a not-for-profit organisation; Cycology Riding Club heard about his case and decided to come to aid. Aside ensuring that his hospital bill was settled, it went as far as getting the Lagos State government to track the hit and run vehicle; and also got Otene a new bicycle with protective gears.

Speaking at the brief presentation, the Captain of the club, Mr. Tunde Olaoye told THISDAY that the organisation was touched by Otene’s case.

According to him, “Otene’s case is very important to us.

We heard that somebody had been hit at the lekki link bridge and a car driver was trying to avoid paying the toll fees , so he ran through the toll gate and hit Otene who was going to work on his bicycle. “The ambulance that took him to the hospital was in that area, so we traced him and I spoke to him, asked him how he was. “We even went as far as getting Lagos State government to track the hit and run vehicle. When members of cycology heard about him that he is a commuter, and that the bicycle he had, was damaged, we decided to come together and get him a new one.�

He said the club, aside cycling every Saturday for leisure, also emback on activities that will impact the society. “We also try to encourage cycling as a means of transportation for commuters as Lagos is congested. If we allow cycling, we can reduce the amount of people driving cars, “he said.

Olaoye emphasised on the Lagos state non-motorised transport policy that would soon be passed into law saying that it will ensure that cyclist on bicycle, can ride on major roads to work.

Asked how safe is it to ride a bicycle on our major roads, the captain said, “The highway code describes road users as motor cyclist, pedestrian and motorists. With the policy that Lagos State government will pass, it will only make the roads safer and that is why we gave Otene a reflective jacket and helmet, so that when he is riding on the road, people can see him. “With the highway code, anybody can ride a bicycle on the road. Nigeria has become so used to cars which should not be.

By the time the policy is passed, it is going to give protection to non-motorised transportation. By then, the roads will be safer, you will start seeing more signs that shows that bicycle are allowed. That is what we are trying to achieve.�

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E-TRENDS

MUSIC SHOWBIZ

‌Your weekly entertainment delight

NOLLYWOOD

Review: ‘Citation’ Misses a #MeToo Moment With a star-studded cast, Vanessa Obioha writes that‘Citation’missed an opportunity to kick off a #MeToo movement

S

ince the viral disgrace of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein after a series of sexual abuse allegations in 2017, there’s been a silent clamour for a #MeToo moment in Nigeria.

Despite a few sexual abuse reports — notably, Busola Dakolo sexual allegations against Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo and more recently, Seyitan Babatayo rape accusation against singer D’banj — a #MeToo movement is yet to gain momentum in Nigeria.

Therefore, when proliďŹ c ďŹ lmmaker Kunle Afolayan announced the storyline of his new ďŹ lm ‘Citation’ last year, it was expected that the ďŹ lmmaker renowned for exploring cultural phenomena such as his 2017 ďŹ lm ‘Roti’ that explored superstitions, will bring to the fore the copious practice of student-lecturer sexual harassment on campuses and probably kick off a #MeToo movement. ‘Citation’, however, turns to be underwhelming despite its good intentions and purposes.

Written by his long time scriptwriterTunde Babalola, the ďŹ lm revolves around Moremi, a young postgraduate student whose credibility is questioned when she reported a reputable lecturer for sexual harassment.

Told in ashbacks, Moremi (Temi Otedola) drew the attention of a new Senegalese lecturer Lucien N’Dyare (Jimmy Jean-Louis) after challenging his political ideas in a class.

What started on an innocent note — a student admiration for a learned lecturer — turns out to be a tale of manipulation that juxtaposes professional reputation with naivety. On one hand is Moremi, determined to prove that the charismatic lecturer N’Dyare sexually harassed her in his home. On the other hand is N’Dyare, who is using his academic credentials to tarnish the image of Moremi.

Temi Otedola in Citation

Under the pretence that he can’t drive a manual car, N’Dyare lured Moremi into his trap. His charming charisma was the perfect veneer to hide his brutality. When he discovered that she could speak French, his admiration for her nearly became an obsession.

It was apparent to everyone that he got the hots for her except Moremi who naively believed his intentions were platonic until he made risquĂŠ statements about her sexuality.

At ďŹ rst, she waved it aside when he later offered apologies.Things got awry when he tried to rape her after a party in his home.

She, however, escaped, deploying a selfdefence tactic her boyfriend Koyejo (Gabriel Afolayan) taught her. Her rejection led the lecturer to intentionally fail her but she wouldn’t be easily defeated. She chose to present her case to the institution’s tribunal having learnt the fate of a former student who took matters into her hands by setting

Ex BBNaija Housemate Erica Lands Ambassadorial Deal with Nigerian Breweries Erica Nlewedim, model and actress who was disqualiďŹ ed from Big Brother Naija Lockdown season is the new face of Legend Extra Stout and Star Radler. “I am delighted to represent these two exciting brands.They embody the youthful exuberance, unrestricted freedom of expression, among other qualities that make them a perfect ďŹ t for me and my audience. “This partnership will no doubt be a success, and I cannot wait to be part of the execution of some of the activities we have planned,â€? said Erica at a relaunch event held recently in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Her appointment is coming on the heels of the relaunching of these two fast-selling products from Nigerian Breweries Plc. “As evidenced in the past,Nigerian Breweries is a champion of constant innovation in a bid to ensure the optimum satisfaction of our consumers and to make our brands refreshing and exciting. After a brief period of silence for both brands, we felt it was time to refresh them and re-introduce them to our loyal consumers,� remarked Portfolio Manager, National Premium Lager, Nigerian Breweries, Sarah Agha.

Star Radler which originally had a blue, silver, yellow and gold wrap when it was introduced in 2014, now comes with a new yellow and blue wrap.The brand also comes with a new variant labelled ‘Red Fruit’, signalling the brand’s afďŹ nity for diverse offerings. Red Fruit is a cocktail of berries

Erica

(red fruits) and the classic Lager, packaged with the remodelled bottle design and a touch of red replacing the silver colour for the ‘Citrus’ variant.

Legend Extra Stout on the other hand swaps the old metallic label for a more modern design, featuring the signature Legend torch and a generous complement of the colour, black.

The relaunch is in line with the company’s penchant for innovation in a bid to ensure optimum consumer satisfaction and to increase demand at wholesale, retail, and distributor level.

a trap for an abusive lecturer but ended up rusticated.

Facing the institution tribunal made up of esteemed personalities like the Chairman of First Bank Nigeria Ibukun Awosika (she acted herself) and veteran actor Sadiq Daba, both are determined to prove their innocence, giving different versions of what happened between them. The imperative question like in any court drama becomes who is telling the truth.

The ďŹ lm shows the domineering privilege prominent people have when accused of sexual abuse.

In her ďŹ ght for justice, Moremi will learn to walk the road less travelled alone. Her boyfriend who from the onset, warned her to be wary of her lecturer deserted her, her close friend Gloria Dokai (Ini Edo) will turn her back against her, working with N’Dyare whom she always lusted after. Her only companion would be her coursemate Sir Kwesi

(Adjetey Anang) and the Ajike Advocacy Centre whose representative Angela (Joke Silva) was her legal adviser. She receives notes of threats and is completely left on her own.

With the star-studded cast, one would have expected ‘Citation’ to take ight in the ďŹ rst few minutes. But it never did. Rather, it drags on unnecessarily in its two and half hours, almost bordering on ennui as characters are underdeveloped and Afolayan’s ambition to make a Pan-African ďŹ lm becomes overzealous. For instance, the visit to Senegal and Cape Verde, as well as the music concert featuring a cameo appearance of Afrobeat singer Seun Kuti, were wearyingly long.

Also, supporting characters like Koyejo didn’t come off as a boyfriend but more like an acquaintance.

Known for casting talents from other ďŹ elds, Afolayan’s choice ofTemi, a vlogger and avid traveller as a lead actress was not a good one.

She is not convincing in her character and the cinematographer did a poor job hiding her aws. A prominent aw in her acting was her uency inYoruba and French. Her French was so amateurish that the French may ďŹ nd it impardonnable.

The same cannot be said of Awosika who wore the actress toga as if she’s been doing it all her life. The star of the movie however is Jean-Louis. He embodied his character peerlessly like a sweet devil. He knew when to tease with his eyes or smile so charmingly that you may instantly forget he is a psychopath. In a way, that’s what psychopaths do. ‘Citation’ would have had a #MeToo moment if it presented other victims to tell their stories of sexual harassment from the randy lecturer, even if it was a ash. While it is set in the historical Obafemi Awolowo University, it should have told a compelling story that travels beyond the high walls.

Amb. Juli Endee Releases ‘God Wins’ Liberia’s Culture Ambassador Julie Endee has released a new music album ‘God Wins’, today, November 13.

Launching the new album aligns with her unceasing determination to recognize the goodness of God and glorify Him for his continuous blessings upon her life amid trials and tribulations.

The titular song is a deeper reection of the tumultuous events that happened in her life. Part of Endee’s ďŹ ne and unmatched skills is her ability to mobilize people for a worthy national cause. In most cases, these national endeavours are misconstrued and brazenly misinterpreted.

For instance, the unfortunate situation that erupted at the Headquarters of the Liberia Crusaders for Peace, the organisation Endee heads as Executive Director.A group of people she recruited to work on the government’s COVID-19 launched a series of attacks, protests and criticisms against her.

When COVID-19 plagued Liberia, the Liberian government through the Monrovia City Corporation sought

Endee

Endee’s intervention to aid the national prevention and awareness efforts, using her mobilisation and community engagement expertise.

In response to the request, she recruited young Liberians along with the Monrovia City government to work on the project. However, when the government delayed in its payment plan, the recruits got agitated and resorted to protests and demonstrations which led to the destruction of her facilities at the LCP headquarters.

Being a peaceful person, the traditional title holder of Chief Ochioha Nwayi of Ezeokwe Ancient Kingdom chose not to press charges against the protesters.Rather,

she allowed God to take control of the situation. “While all of these were going on, God just started revealing things to me about how I should respond to the situation. Then the thought came to me that in the midst of all, God wins. Part of this was the fact that the volunteers were demonstrating against me instead of the institutions linked to the program.� She said the song received rave locally and internationally since its release. “Just recently, the song took the Hollywood and African Prestigious Awards (HAPAWARDS) by storm as it was played repeatedly before the awards were presented,� she enthused.

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Erisco Bonpet Makes 51 Nigerians Millionaires to Mark 40th Anniversary Nume Ekeghe

It was double celebration as one of Nigeria’s foremost indigenous company, Erisco Bonpet Group transformed 51 Nigerians into instant millionaires to mark its ruby jubilee anniversary alongside one of its subsidiary, Erisco Food Limited, makers of Ric-Giko tomato paste.

While Erisco Bonpet Group started out as a motor spare parts trading ďŹ rm in Sokoto, Erisco Food Ltd recently celebrated 10 years of providing essential services in Nigeria.

To mark such a milestone, President and Chief Executive OfďŹ cer, Mr. Eric UmeoďŹ a doled out N100 million in the ďŹ rst phase of his empowerment initiative aimed at lifting members of his community, Amichi in Nnewi South Local Government of Anambra State.

Over 51 people were made instant millionaires through an open selection process, which sought to lift over 1000 Amichi indigenes from poverty with cash prices ranging from N50,000 - N100,000, while scholarship packages up to tertiary institutions were given out to over 100 youths.

Erisco Foods Limited, the manufacturers of Ric-Giko, Nagiko and other Erisco brands of tomato paste and other food products with an installed production capacity of 450,000MT of tomato paste per annum making it the largest tomato paste producer in Nigeria and the fourth largest in the world with over 2,000 direct workers,also donated food items valued at N100 million to the Nigerian Military and Internally Displaced Persons in various camps

CEO, Erisco Bonpet Group Mr. Eric UmeoďŹ a (in fez cap) with cross section of Amichi Development Union, Lagos Branch Members at the launch of the N100 million Empowerment Initiative

across the country.

They also made donations to the governments of Anambra and Lagos States during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the company’s effort to alleviate the plight of Nigerians in both states.

It was made known that about 39 ďŹ re ďŹ ghting vehicles were donated by the parent company to all states of the federation with Lagos and the FCT having an additional truck each.

After suffering setbacks that almost saw the company moving its operation outside Nigeria in 2017, that act was rescinded after the government pledged to create a level playing ground for all stakeholders in the

tomato industry.

Since then, Erisco Food Limited currently has ongoing expansion projects in Nassarawa, Kastina and Jigawa States, making it a force in the tomato industry.

The company became the ďŹ rst in Africa to develop and use state of the art technology of processing both fresh and dried tomatoes into paste, which is by far more healthy and nutritious than most imported products, after years of research. “I try to make people comfortable, no matter the circumstances they ďŹ nd themselves, people should not reject themselves because when they do, there is no hope again. “We want to restore back hope to humanity,

we just started this empowerment initiative from my community and this 40 year milestone will be celebrated even into the new year. “ I implore other well to do Nigerians like myself to join hands help rescue our nation, as the president can only do his best and the rest falls on us. “We can start by patronising only‘Made in Nigeria’ products as it is often said ‘Charity begins at home’, and help boost the country’s economyâ€?, UmeoďŹ a said.

He added,“ I started with the N100 million empowerment initiative, focusing on my community, but we have plans to make sure that before we conclude on the activities marking our 40th Anniversary, we would reveal other empowerment plans that will hit all local governments in Nigeria. “ This program did not just start and would not end anytime soon. Our idea is to use this program to help reduce poverty, armed robbery in line with President Buhari’s aim to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years and Erisco is playing its part to achieve that feat�.

Mrs Paulina Anaebue (aka Mama OfďŹ ce), one of the beneďŹ ciaries, who was ecstatic as she received one million Naira told THISDAY that she intends to put her prize money into her rice business to help it grow.

In his comment, the Chairman Amichi Development Union Lagos Branch, Mr. Kenneth Nwodike, commended UmeoďŹ a, saying: I am very happy this is happening during my tenure because to assist people

British Deputy High Commissioner Delivers Keynote Address at the Lagos Fintech Week The British Deputy High Commissioner (DHC), Ben Llewellyn-Jones, delivered a keynote address at the second edition of the Lagos Fintech Week on Wednesday themed “Setting Agenda for Cashless Lagos�.

Speaking on the benefits of a cashless system, Ben explained that electronic transactions can save time, increase business productivity, safety and tax revenue, reduce corruption and facilitate work against money laundering and terrorism.

He lauded the key role played by Lagos State in developing solutions that are helping to drive broader financial inclusion nationwide, noting that the rate of financial access and inclusion is much higher in Lagos than the rest of the country, but said more remains to be done.

He said: “If there is a silver bullet for financial inclusion, but also cashless Lagos, it is mobile money. The new payment service banks will serve people who the traditional banks regard as too poor to be of interest. Mobile money transfers are also suitable for small payments.

“Among our neighbours in WestAfrica mobile money is gaining traction In Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal and Ghana, the proportion of people with mobile money accounts ranges from 33 to 45 per cent (Ghana). In Kenya more than 80 per cent of the population has mobile money whereas it is only just starting in Nigeria. “Based on some recent modelling for UKAid the proper roll out of mobile money could add about 46 million people to the Nigerian financial system, boost GDP by 12 per cent. and create 3 million jobs in Nigeria.�

Mobile money accounts would represent the first step for many towards accessing other financial services – the transaction data would enable them get savings accounts and loans.

People can also use mobile money to pay in instalments for their solar home systems – helping the 5m solar energy connections project.

Given this, the UK is pleased to see the issuance of the first Payment Service Bank licences (officially launched in August 2020) in Nigeria

and hopes with regulator support to see services starting soon in Lagos. The expectation is that Nigeria could catch up fast with the support of the regulator, which is a key participant needed to keep consumers and the financial system safe.

We continue to encourage the Federal Government of Nigeria to lead the way with facilitating electronic payments for Government to consumer services, for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to approve applications for Payment Service Bank licences, and to set up the “Know Your Customer� arrangements e.g., Bank verification number etc., in ways that are easier for low-income Nigerians to access.

Removing the caps on digital agent fees is also an important step to ensure that agents who are in remote areas can make money while ensuring that the needs of the underserved are met. Increased demand e.g. from mobile money will lead more agents to enter the market and spur competition that would then drive prices down.

According to Ben Llewellyn-Jones, EFInA(the

UK financial inclusion entity in Nigeria) can support the regulator and provide examples of KYC for low-income earners, as well as provide best practice regulation for Fintechs. “With some more reforms building on the exciting Payment Service Bank licence issuance, there are some real strides to be made towards not just a cashless Lagos but also a connected and cashless Nigeria,� he said.

According to the Press & Public Affairs Officer , British Deputy High Commission, Lagos, Ndidiamaka Eze, Lagos Fintech Week (LFW) is an invigorating week of distinct FinTech events that delivers exciting discussions, stimulating demos and insightful debates for start-ups, technology companies, investors, financial and research institutes as well as innovation professionals Lagos Fintech Week is organised

by Fintech 1000+, the largest Fintech group in Africa comprising Regulators, Bank CEOs, Government, Investors, Insurers, Fintech firms and the media.

Disregard Water Minister’s Lobby on Rested Water Bill -Groups Tell Lawmakers The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) and the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) have described the unrelenting lobby for passage of the Water Resources Bill by the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu as an insult to the sensibilities of Nigerians who have unanimously rejected the Bill.

According to Director of Programmes, Philip Jakpor, “Media reports indicate that the Minister last Wednesday (October 28) met with the House of Representatives Committee on Water Resources to advance arguments why the Bill should be passed as it is and accused those criticising the Bill across the country as misled. “Aside AUPCTRE and CAPPA, the Bill was criticised by various pan-ethnic groups in the country including the Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) which had on October 20, 2020 alleged lopsided

applications of the mining regulations in the country. Nobel laureate and playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka, and Spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin are also vocal opponents of the Bill. “The Bill was withdrawn on Tuesday September 29, 2020 after a heated debate in the House when some lawmakers alleged a breach of House Standing Rules while working towards passing the bill into law and relied on the anomaly to ask the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila to throw it away or at best have it reworked and then represented for consideration. “Subsequently, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa said that the House would start the consideration of the Bill afresh.� But in a statement issued in Lagos, AUPCTRE and CAPPA described the minister’s ongoing lobby effort as a reflection of desperation, cautioning that Nigerians will not accept a law that does not follow the right trajectory which include consulting with, and

seeking the input of Nigerians in all the processes in the National Assembly.

AUPCTRE National President, Comrade Benjamin Anthony said: “We are now vindicated when we say the motives of the promoters of this ill-conceived Bill are suspicious. The minister must respect the popular views of Nigerians that a fresh Bill with input from Nigerians begin. “The stepped down Bill is exactly opposite of what Nigerians want and will only hand our water resources to for-profit only entities.

It is unacceptable.�

Anthony urged the minister to respect the will of Nigerians by acceding to a truly consultative process to birth a true and pro-people Water Bill, even as he added that, “No backdoor arrangement will be accepted by Nigerians now or in the future. That era is gone.�

CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “The remarks and activities of promoters of the Water Bill, especially the

Minister of Water Resources since it was stepped down in September show that there is clearly a hidden agenda that they are trying hard to make Nigerians swallow even when the dangers inherent in the Bill have been highlighted and articulated in the public space.�

Oluwafemi pointed out that, “by his words and actions the minister is subverting our democratic process because clearly he is inferring that the views of majority of Nigerians no longer count on policy development and laws that concern all. We will not accept that.

He must allow the process uninterrupted.�

Among a host of reasons, AUPCTRE and CAPPA say that Public-private partnership is portrayed as beneficial and depicted as only applying to infrastructural development of water resources in the Bill, when in actual fact there was no way private corporations would commit resources to the development of water without a measure of control and ownership.

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ART WEEKEND

‌For pure art enthusiasts

Relishing Urban Kitchen Season Four on Television Thenewseasonoftheculinaryshow,UrbanKitchenShowissettocreatively telltheAfricanstoryfromthefoodperspective,writesYinka Olatunbosun The bubbly pot of stew, fresh vegetables, assortment of African delicacies and the ever-busy chopping board inside the colourfulset of the Urban Kitchen Show are some of the usual sights inthis entertaining television series, parading A-list celebrity guests.

In its fourth season, the tempo is high: the show has secured Power Oil as lead sponsor for this season.

As it was in the previous seasons, the fourth season will have 26 episodes, run for six months and be anchored by Chinonso Arubayi as the hostess.

At a recent press briefing in Lagos, the Content Creator, Urban Kitchen Show, Mr. Omoluku Felix Daodu revealed that the 30-minute show would be broadcast simultaneously on both the terrestrial and digital television stations. “Our aim of calling this press conference is to officially launch this kitchen on November 7 on 12 channels across Nigeria. The next season will be on TVC Lagos, RSTV Port Harcourt, KwaraTV, Ilorin, NTA Ibadan, ITV Abuja, NTA Kano, NTA Kaduna, CRBC Calabar, ABS Awka, and PRTV Jos, “ he began. “This season we have a partner who shares this idea with us – Power oil they are the official oil brand and we are able to tell our stories from the food perspective.

We are deliberate in choosing what we do. We do films, TV series and whatever we do we try to see it from the angle of food because the strength that food has over us as a people and our environment is comparable to sports. “Food respects no religion or gender. We are going to bring the honourable minister of sports to talk on the show about the relationship between food and sports; and how food became the only means of survival during the COVID-19 lockdown.�

One of the highlights of the

Scene from Urban Kitchen show

show is the Bargain Power Challenge with Power Oil which is the means by which the chefs/ cooks, who participate in the show, are selected. Typically, the host introduces the show, giving the background of the cook for the day. She ushers the cook into the studio and discusses the meal of the day.

During each episode, the cook is put under financial pressure and has to negotiate his or her budget.

In the course of the programme, viewers get to watch documentary footages of the cook in the market, negotiating the purchase of ingredients for the meal of the day.

The nutritional value of the meal would be reviewed after the preparation by a top African celebrity, with good cooking culture. The appearance of the celebrity usually comes as a surprise to the cook, bringing a twist to the plot.

Opeyemi Awojobi, the Product Placement Manager and Sponsorship Head, Tolaram Group, known as the producers of Power oil, eulogises the oil brand while emphasizing that the show aims to teach Nigerians on how to prepare healthy and culinary satisfying

meals within budget. “Power oil is Nigeria’s number one cooking oil. It is known and associated with health. It is built with zero cholesterol and fat. Power oil is fortified with Vitamin A and E. The way to a man’s stomach is food but the way to a man’s heart is power oil. I’m glad that Power oil is a part of this initiative. Our target audience essentially are the women. They care for the home and most women watch women programme. Regardless, we want to pass the healthy message across to the entire family.

The programme also centred around cooking within a budget.

Power oil has the package that suits each family’s budget. Many Nigerians buy unbranded oil that they are sold in bottles. Bottles that may have been picked from the gutters, parties and there are billions of germs in those bottles.

And many cook with that. There will be lots of giveaways during the show,� he said.

The Producer Urban Kitchen, Frank Adjei and Managing Partner, Sate TV, Ejiroghene Onome Edhughoro were also present at the briefing.

Duke of Somolu Production to Stage ‘OurDuke Has Gone Mad Again’ in December Yinka Olatunbosun On the heels of successful production of six plays, namely, ‘Loud Whispers’, ‘Isale Eko’, ‘Oba Esugbayi’, ‘3some’, ‘Emotan’, and ‘Aremu’, Joseph Edgar ’s Duke of ShomoluProductions’ rich theatre tradition returns this December with ‘Our Duke Has Gone Mad Again’, a beautifully written anthology of works running the whole gamut of emotions.

This family-friendly production will run for two days, Dec 25 and 26 at the serene The Finery, Probyn Road Ikoyi, Lagos. Directed by Segun Adefila, with William Benson as Coordinating Director as well as Dr Ibiene Ogolo, MofoluwakeEdgar and Olisa Adibua co Executive Producers.

It features a cast of professional actors including Patrick

Edgar

Diabuah, Kelvin Mary Ndukwe, Kemi Bickersteth and the new kid-on-the-block, Chantal Edgar The plot centres on the life of the Duke of Shomolu, Joseph Edgar.

Although, a skeletal version was shown by Segun Adefila in his Arts Place in Bariga, recently,

audiences will be seeing it for the very first time in its robust form.

According to Edgar, this is a massively different productiontargeting the well-heeled Ikoyi neighborhood with dress code prescribed for attendees. It will be a roll call of prominent Nigerians who have supported the Duke of Shomolu and Nigerian theatre in general. “‘Our Duke Has Gone Mad Again’ is a beautifully written piecerunning the whole gamut of emotions ranging from excitement at life down to the sharp pain of sorrow occasioned by the loss of a loved one. “The monologue will serve as a soothing balm on society just emerging from the ravages of the pandemic serving as a guide and serve as an arrowhead on the way to self-reawakening. They will provide unusual entertainment while addressing issues of life and living,� he added.

SMO Contemporary Art Launches Solo Show at Wheatbaker Yinka Olatunbosun Wheatbaker Hotel Ikoyi is the home of some visually appetizing pieces in a solo exhibition of recent works by painterphilosopher Ibe Ananaba. The body of works brings solace at a time of emotional and political fatigue in this very challenging year.

Besides, the artist has demonstrated his commitment to his society in this show with the theme, “Towards the Light� with strong socio-political underpinings. “While the constraints on our lives in the midst of the corona pandemic are not relenting, and we sustain our support for Nigeria’s inspiring youth movement calling for good governance and an end to police brutality. Ananaba’s works remind us to continue to tap into the power of community, and the hope, vitality and pure creative energy of our visionary, impatient youth,� the curatorial notes revealed.

An exhibition of paintings and drawings, Towards the Light is “grounded in an avant-garde musical track, which encapsulates the rhythm of a generation seeking answers to fundamental questions about identity and equality, democracy, racism and the right to choose who leads us.�

Ananaba who built his earlier career in advertising graduated from the Institute of Management & Technology (IMT) Art School in 1999, with a distinction

in painting and spent the early part of his career life honing his technique and artistry as a fashion illustrator, designer, caricaturist, portraitist and art director, before becoming a full time studio artist.

Over the years, Ananaba’s art has provided a critical commentary to the state of global and local socio-politics. During the months of the COVID-19 lockdown, he kept busy in his studio, a safe cocoon in which music inspired each brush stroke as he painted to drown out the insecurity, the anxiety, the uncertainty, and keep the pandemic at bay.

His subjects are presented in strong contrast, with powerful sources of light, which act as sheaves of hope filtering through dark spaces.

His large canvases depict children running across his canvas with arms spread out in full flight, reminding us to give life to dreams of an equitable future. He also paints isolated figures in retreat, waiting, reading, sleeping, thinking, hoping, dreaming, some with their heads doused in furious colors, demanding more than the status quo.

He renders his subjects with deft impressionistic brushstrokes beckoning us to rediscover our internal peace, away from the rush of our noisy, complex lives. Ananaba’s work circles back to the mantra that despite the apparent darkness, we need to keep moving towards the light.The show is supported

by Louis Guntrum.

U.S. Consulate Unveils 2020 Documentary Film Festival Yinka Olatunbosun The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard, has launched the 2020 U.S. Consulate General Lagos Documentary Film Festival.

During the opening remarks for the film festival’s formalopening last Monday, Ambassador Leonard declared that the U.S. Consulate General Lagos Documentary Film Festival is an expression of the commitment of the U.S. Mission to strengthen the ties that link Nigeria and the United States of America. “We recognize that we have many common interests and concerns. We are very proud of the U.S. Government’s engagements with Nigerians in areas as diverse as health, education, trade, economic development, security assistance, and the promotion of democratic institutions. You will see exciting and inspirational stories that span entrepreneurship, women’s empowerment, education, community engagement and STEM.� “We also engage with the creative community. We especially support that community’s efforts to use the power of film, music, dance, and literature to create dialogue and find solutions to societal challenges,� Ambassador Leonard remarked.

The virtual festival which runs from November 9 till 25 will highlight five contemporary documentaries from the American Film Showcase, the premier

film diplomacy programme of the U.S. Department of State, which is produced in partnership with the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

These screenings, offering a contemporary view of American society and culture as seen by independent filmmakers, will be accompanied by panel discussions, workshops and master classes with the filmmakers and Nigerian panelists.

The opening film for the festival was The Empowerment Project, directed by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ms. Sarah Moshman.

The documentary spotlights 17 transformational women leaders across a variety of industries and seeks to inspire the next generation of women to pursue their career ambitions.

Following the screening of the documentary, Moshmanalongside other panelists, including Nigerian film director and producer, Ms. Tope Oshin, and Executive Director of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), Ms. Hansatu Adegbite, shared their impressions about the film as well as their experiences and expertise.

Other films scheduled for screening during the film festival are: Nevertheless by Sarah Moshman; Libraries Now: A Day in the Life by Juliane Dressner ; An Education by Juliane Dressnerand Make It Work by Kip & Kern Konwiser.

Ag

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Giant Strides into Six Decades of Existence Rebecca Ejifoma writes on the grand celebration of the maritime giant, Chairman, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria Advisory Council, Comrade Tony Nted, whose philanthropic works, undiluted acumen and giant strides echoed as he recently marked his 60th birthday

I

t was all sparkling white and gold in the mini marque mounted in the premises of the Corporate Estate, Festac Town Lagos on Thursday, October 1, this year. The occasion was the 60th birthday anniversary of Chairman, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria Advisory Council, Comrade Tony Nted.

Set at 11am that morning, a handful of guests began to trickle in alongside family members. Several of them were key players and business magnets in the nation’s maritime industry.

Some of them were Princess (Dr.) Vicky Haastrup as the Chairperson of the occasion; the DG of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh represented by Deputy Director, Mrs. Irene; the Founder, Centre for Values in Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi; and Staff Pastor, Nchekwube among others.

There were gists, exchange of pleasantries, hugs, handshakes, and reminiscence as the creme de la creme of the society thronged in to celebrate the maritime guru.

Expectedly, Nted was head over heels with their presence. He went from one guest to the other reminiscing about the good old days before COVID-19 came knocking. Everyone sure had something appealing to say about him. He is described as a renowned player in the maritime industry of the national economy.

With positive testaments to his leadership, there is no gainsaying then that Nted is the reflection of a man who has made giant strides in an industry fraught with industrial unrest, especially in the field of maritime labour where he has left indelible imprints in the lives and standards of thousands of Nigerian dockworkers.

For Nted, he heard of many things in his life, saw a handful of them and conquered several including education, which his father never embraced.

The comrade shared, “My father did not believe in education. He believed in fishing. He was one of the poorest men because he did not send me to school. I was seeing other children in the secondary school and in the university, but here I am being a fisherman. I said to myself, I cannot continue like this.�

One day, he recounted, I saw some boats leaving from Forcados to Warri, I just jumped into one of them in search of education and better opportunities. “I had no money, no brother and no friend. When I landed at Warri waterside, I started menial jobs and later met somebody at the waterside doing the menial jobs. “We became friends and I started living with him in one small room. Soon, I rented a place. There was no money to buy curtain, I used water proof to do curtain. I lived there and was doing the menial job, but my mind was set on going to school.�

Afterwards, Nted registered with Bristol Commercial Centre. Although he could not juggle school and work, he said “I could not do full time because I had no money.

I later got a job at K Challarams.

Soon, Nted got a job with Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) as a dockworker; loading and off-loading. From there, his career in maritime gradually got off the ground. “When we came to Lagos, that was the first time I saw Tin Can ports and Apapa Ports, we addressed the Dockworkers and went round. When we got back to Warri, we set up a caretaker committee, I was chosen as the Chairman of the committee.

That was how I started my union’s career.

When the time for elections came, they said they wanted me to contest as the zonal vice chairman. I contested the election, and by the grace of God, I won the election,� he said.

From zonal vice chairman, Nted became the district chairman of the zone. He soon attained the position of branch president of the Dockworkers branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and afterwards became the President-General of MWUN.

Chairman, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria Advisory Council, Comrade Tony Nted

At the same time, he was the Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) during the first tenure of Abdulwaheed Omar.

Nted is the immediate past PresidentGeneral of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, and former Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Born and brought up in Forcados, Warri, Delta State, Nted’s father was a proud fisherman, whom until his death was one of the richest fishermen around.

After saving some money, the comrade enrolled into another school in Warri, the Institute of Continuing Education, which he described as important.

He lent his voice, “From my experience in pursuit of education, I think the government should provide free education to every child. If the government cannot give free education to the citizens, they must subsidise the fees so that children of the poor can also get education.�

He rightly noted that “What we are seeing today does not give anything to cheer. Those we thought could offer quality education to the children of the poor, like the churches, their schools are even more expensive than the private schools who are just interested in profit maximisation�.

While describing it as excruciating, the labour leader hinted that in whatever situation, he expected the government to give free and quality education to the citizens and if they cannot, they must subsidise the fees.

He continued, “Many people run away from public schools, saying they are not functioning due to lack of infrastructure, lack of quality teachers, no chairs, among others.

Hence, they opt for the private schools. In education, which to me is the easiest way

to fight poverty and under development, the government has failed.�

For his love and belief in education, Nted said as the president-general of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, he did everything within his power to ensure that the dockworkers were educated both locally and internationally.

For the maritime guru, he has a mixed feeling sharing birthday with Nigeria. He is elated and sad. “If I say I am not happy, it will sound as if I am not grateful. The truth is that I am growing, but Nigeria is not growing. One had expected Nigeria to be growing as I am growing, but Nigeria has remained static.

I am happy that we are an independent nation, and I am happy that I was born on the day Nigeria got her independence,� he outlined.

He made a sincere confession when he said the only reason he happy is that he is alive. “For the country, what has been going on year after year does not inspire hope. Leadership has remained the bane of the country development and growth. Is it not sad that for 60 years Nigeria cannot find solution to its leadership challenge? “What it is to celebrate, a country that cannot give 12 hours of electricity to its citizens, a country that is one of the leading oil procuring countries in the world, yet imports petroleum products, a country that cannot provide motorable roads for its citizens, a country that cannot provide free and quality education to its citizens, a country that cannot feed its citizens, or a country that cannot protect its citizens?�

The sexagenarian has some questions for the nation. “Can people who have no job, no accommodation, no cheap and reliable transport system, no affordable and quality

health services, or afford the basic necessities of life celebrate? The answer is no. It is only when these things are available and affordable for the citizens and the citizens are safe, their properties are secured, that people can think of celebration.�

Nted, therefore, maintained that “we need leaders that have foresight, vision, energy, youthfulness among others. We need leaders that can on their own find out the true situations of things, what the masses are passing through and not what sycophants tell them�.

Part of his ideal suggestions are that Nigeria needs strong and able leaders. “President Muhammadu Buhari is a very good president. He is not corrupt. But we cannot say so about those working with him.

In a situation where you have people referred to as cabals who shield the president from the truth, from what the citizens are passing through and so on, there is a problem.�

For Nted, the nation needs a president that is youthful and mobile that can decide on his own to wake up in the morning and decide to visit the ports, the factories, the road projects, slums or shanties where people are living, the schools and others to see the situations of things on his own. “He can decide on his own to go and see the access roads to the ports, or go to Abakiliki, Aba, Ogoni, Southern Kaduna, Niger, Oshogbo, Isolo, industrial areas and other places to see what is happening not what sycophants tell him,� he expressed.

When the president is strong and agile, Nted highlighted, he will be able to do these things. “In all, we also need a president like Buhari who will not steal, has the interest of the nation above family interest, believes in Nigeria, not sectional, tribal or religious bigot.�

In her remarks on the heels of Nted’s heartfelt yearnings, Haastrup could not restrict herself from expressing the true reflections of Nted. “It is my joy to celebrate with my brother, Comrade Nted. The success of a man’s life is not determined by how much he has, how many children he has, his status or where he comes from, but it is by his sense of character. Tony has the sense of character. “ Comrade Nted seems to mean many things to different people, a reality that got him many pet names like “Mr. Nigeria�, Haastrup described him as a good man, a man of freedom, and a man of many parts. “In 2006, we came in contact when I started operating in the maritime sector.

Unionism is fighting for rights. He stood for the union. There is complete peace under his leadership. Nted’s cheerful acts and encouragement endeared me to him. Yes, I will give him a lot of encomium�.

While listing that the celebrant reaches out to the downtrodden children, pays for hospital bills and house rents of some members, the DG trumped comrade Nted as a man of impeccable character, who loves and loves completely.

With three charming wives by his side, Nted’s children – adults and babies – prayed endlessly for him, expressed naked love for his unflinching support, care and good equal life.

Praying for God’s strength for him, his first wife, Mrs. Callista Anthony, lauded him, “My husband, my lord, my hero. He has been a source of joy to the family. He does not allow the family to shed tears.

Before we call, he is there to help. He has been so good. No one around him goes out crying because God has planted him as a tree and as a sun that we depend on.

God will continue to empower you. You will never lose faith. The strength of God will continue to be with you.�

While she emptied her hearts of blessings on him, Nted’s second and third wives, Evangeline Anthony and Susan Anthony chorused her words in different forms.

Indeed, with an emulative philosophy to build others, Nted has built an admirable castle in his heart big enough to go round.

33 T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍąËœ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

METRO

‌Your city life in print

Keeping Up with Military Tradition at AVM Lar’s Valedictory Parade Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that the retirement of the former Commandant, Nigeria Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, AVM Lar, was an ample opportunity for the military to showcase their long standing tradition in the most colourful valedictory parade

I

f there is any institution which adheres to tradition no matter how long ago it was established, it is the military. Tradition they say never dies and that particularly holds true for the military. The Nigerian Navy, one of the tripod arms of the Nigerian Armed Forces, is not an exception.

For them, instead of tradition being deemed as archaic and outdated, these customs and traditions are seen as an anchor to their past, constantly reminding them of where they have been, where they are now and where they hope to be. It would therefore be safe to say that the very tapestry or fabrics that holds the military together is its customs and traditions.

Even though those traditions might not be understood by civilians, because of what they deem excessive regimentation, for the military, those same traditions are their heritage, even as they seek to align themselves with contemporary modern day structures and practices.

Thus, the observance of the customs and traditions of the military is an integral part of their way of life because a well defined and strong military built on past traditions is germane to its growth.

The Traditional Valedictory Parade So, it was in line with military traditions, that they recently rolled out the drums and celebrated their own and immediate past Commandant, Nigeria Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Kingsley Lar, whose 10-month tenure as commandant came to a close after having reached his pinnacle after many years in the military.

Lar who clocked 56 years on November 4 and in accordance with military rule, had to retire despite that his course would reach the mandatory 35 years on July 21, 2021.

The pulling-out-parade, which is a traditional military ceremony to mark officers’ retirement from service, is often held with pomp and pageantry. This recent one was no different.

The retirement ceremony was kick-started by a series of events beginning with a Jumaat prayer and Tennis games on Friday, October 30, a Golf Tournament; interdenominational thanksgiving service and dinner on Saturday, Sunday and Monday respectively.

The final process was the pulling/sailing out parade proper, and the quarter guard was stationed at the gate of the centre.

When Lar arrived the parade ground, a mammoth crowd had gathered to bid him farewell. He marched on to mount the Dias at the parade ground to take a salute while the band piped.

He soon went on to review and inspect the parade mounted in his honour. This soon gave way for the parade march past led by the parade commander. After which he went on to read his speech and bid farewell to officers and men of the centre.

Sojourn in the Military Overwhelmed by the outpouring of love towards him, an emotional AVM Lar in his valedictory address thanked God for bringing him to the limelight through the military from village in Pankshin, Plateau State, despite that he never wanted to join

The pulling out parade

AVM Kingsley Lar (Rtd) and Wife, Sheila at his pulling out parade

AVM IO Amao of NAFRC with the outgone commandant

the Armed Forces.

He recalled how God picked him from a village with just 21 compounds, till date, to honour him, describing his sojourn to the military as an act of divine providence.

Going down memory lane he said: “When I arrived in Lagos as a four-year-old in 1968, I never in my wildest imagination contemplated that 52 years after, God, in his infinite mercies will grant me the opportunity to end my very eventful and meritorious military career here in Lagos where I started a new life after my place of birth, Pankshin, as a little boy.

“It was on August 1, 1978, exactly 42 years, two months and fifteen days ago, that I began my military career as a soldier.

I would like to place on record that but for my dear friend, now Barr. Similola Diya, I probably will not be standing here. “I recall that in September 1982, shortly after I resumed form five in the Nigeria Military School (NMS), it was a Saturday and the day we were to write the entrance examination into the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) for the 34th Regular Course. “That morning I decided that I was not going for that exam. Even though the school

bus that was arranged to take us parked at the back of my room being the number one room in the NMS, I decided that I was not going to take the exam. “But my dear classmate, Barr. Similola Diya, came to my room and compelled me against my will to go to Kaduna to take the entrance exam that eventually got me into the Nigeria Defence Academy, as a member of the 34th Regular Combatant course in the military. “God in his infinite mercies made room for me and today to his glory, I have attained this high rank of AVM and have the opportunity to contribute my own quota to the growth and development of the Armed Forces and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “It might interest you all to know that my village, even as we speak today, has only 21 compounds. This is to tell you that I come from a very small town and yet by the grace of God, here I am being celebrated by all of you�.

Recounting how the country trained him through school, he said: “I hereby charge us to continue to love Nigeria and continue to speak good about this country.

Stop complaining about what leaders are doing or not doing. “Yes, things may not be as we want to see them. But what are we doing in our own small space to add value? Let us begin to do something from our own small corners so that together we can build a more united and greater Nigeria. “We all have a stake in this country. If Nigeria goes into chaos, we will all be consumed by that chaos. So, we must do our part to ensure Nigeria continues to wax stronger and becomes greater. “I can tell you boldly that but for Nigeria, I will not be standing here this morning. I have the privilege of going to school- from primary level, the NMS and the NDA at no cost. Nigeria has sustained me from that time until now and I am grateful,� he said.

AVM Lar appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari for alleviating the pains of retired military personnel, just as he thanked the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar for finding him, an Air Provost officer, worthy of significant and strategic appointments in the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

Pulling Out After this, another important military tradition took place. It was time to pull him out. Climbing the light green painted jeep, which has pulled out countless others before him, he and his wife, Sheila were pulled using a white thick rope.

Lined up on both sides of the road were personnel of the service who saluted and cheered Lar as he was pulled out. At his pulling out, a mammoth crowd gathered including primary school pupils, who lined the road and waved the Nigerian flag and banners.

Also present were officers and staff of centre who noted that the centre witnessed remarkable infrastructural and environmental transformation under Lar. The procession ended at the gate of the centre where he boarded his vehicle with his wife and thus he was sailed out of the military. With that, tradition was kept and adhered to.

34

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍąËœ 2020

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Otunuga: Rising Gold Prices May Support Nigeria’s Economy Ëž Ă‹ĂŁĂ? Ă“ĂŽĂ?Ă˜ËŞĂ? ĂšĂœĂ?Ă?Ă“ĂŽĂ?Ă˜Ă?ĂŁ ÙʼĂ?ĂœĂ? ÒÙÚĂ? Ă?Ă™Ăœ Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă˜ĂžĂœĂŁ Ă?ĂžĂ?Ăœ äÙÒÙ As the federal government grapples with the challenge of finding solutions to Nigeria’s current economic woes, the Senior Research Analyst at FXTM Global, Mr. Lukman Otunuga, has said the nation’s economy may receive some support from the rise in the price of gold.

Otunuga equally stated that the administration of the US President-elect, Mr. Joe Biden, could bring some hope for Nigeria and the African continent.

Presenting Nigeria’s macroeconomic outlook for 2020 and beyond during a virtual meeting with journalists, yesterday, Otunuga who spoke from the United Kingdom, based his points on some positive developments in the gold subsector of the nation’s economy. According to him, “Nigeria refined its own reserve gold bar and paid N268 million for the 12.5kg bar to start a central bank stock.�

He said the development in the gold subsector was encouraging diversification of the national economy.

He further said that the newly-

regulated gold mining subsector was expected to create about 250,000 new jobs in the country.

The FXTM analyst also stated that Nigeria may record an estimated $1.8 billion economic loss from the 12 days ENDSARS protest in the country.

On the victory of Biden and its implication for Nigeria, Otunuga, said the US presidentelect presidency could bring an improved, even stronger bilateral relations between the US and African continent.

According to him, Biden’s administration has the prospect of a more predictable policy towards Nigeria, adding that improving trade relations between both sides was beneficial for Nigeria.

He said as part of such positives for Nigeria, the dollar could weaken on fiscal package thereby supporting the naira.

He noted that Nigeria’s macroeconomic outlook for 2021 would still be influenced by trends in the oil market, saying the rebound of oil price was hinged on the hope of finding the vaccine for COVID-19.

He maintained that improving US-China trade relations may uplift global sentiment, adding

however, that the impact of lower interest rates in Nigeria could stimulate consumption in 2021.

While projecting that Nigeria’s economic growth could expand to 1.7 per cent in 2021, Otunuga stressed that economic diversification and infrastructure development were key for the transformation of the country. “Nigeria remains on an ongoing quest to diversify from oil reliance. Eradicating poverty depends on domestic production.

However, poor infrastructure hampering progress,� Otunuga said.

He also reacted to the concerns arising from the declaration by the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, that 428 agencies of the federal government may not be able to pay November salaries owing to the announcement of the N30, 000 minimum wage.

Proffering solution, the FXTM senior research analyst advised that to avoid additional hardship to the affected employees, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should find a way to assist government by making some funds available so that the workers could be paid.

NEMSA Moves to Boost Safety in Power Sector, Gets ISO Certification Ă—Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă&#x;Ă?Ă– ĂŽĂŽĂ?Ă’ Ă“Ă˜ ĂŒĂ&#x;ÔË The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) has moved to boost the quality of meters and other important electrical installations, becoming the first government agency in the power sector to acquire the Quality Management System (QSM) ISO 9001:2015 certificate in the country.

ISO 9001 is the international standard that specifies requirements for quality management system (QMS) which organisations use to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.

Speaking in Abuja during the official presentation of the international mark of quality by the leadership of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Managing Director of the organisation which is responsible for the enforcement of technical standards and regulations in the sector, Mr. Peter Ewesor, noted that the safety

of Nigerians remains of utmost concern to the body.

He stated that the agency would continue to ensure that electrical materials, equipment and instruments used in the sector, workplaces and other premises are of the right type, quality, standard and specifications.

According to him, the adoption of a quality management system ISO–9001–2015 was a strategic decision initiative which has impacted positively on its overall performance and provides a sound basis for sustainable development initiatives.

The federal government recently embarked on a meter distribution drive, including the local production of the devices, with the job of ensuring that the meters meet international standards falling on NEMSA. Ewesor stressed that the new approach which involves the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle and risk-based thinking will enable the organisation to plan its processes and enhance better satisfaction of its customers, including all the stakeholders in

the power sector value chain. “These customers the GENCOs, TCN, DISCOs, IOCs, the Academia, Certified electrical contractors, certified electricity meter installation contractors and the general public,� the Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation stated.

The MD vowed that NEMSA will continue to improve its processes, procedures and quality delivery of inspection testing and certification of all categories of electrical installations and all electricity meters in the industry.

In his comments, the Director General, SON, Mr. Farouk Salim, said the certificate will help strengthen the organisation to satisfy its customers in the power sector.

Salim, who was represented by Felix Ayado, a top management staff of the organisation, stated that the loss of lives to quacks in the power sector and use of substandard power equipment in the country makes it crucial to encourage and sustain professionals like those working with NEMSA.

Heritage Bank Rewards Customers in ‘National Pledge’Rendition Initiative Heritage Bank Plc has rewarded winners of the rendition of its October 1st ‘National Pledge in Pidgin English’ initiative which was introduced in celebration of Nigeria’s 60th Independence Anniversary.

The four Nigerians, who emerged winners were Idowu Ilesanmi (Lagos); Christiana Chukwu (Lagos); Onovo Chukwuebuka (Edo) and Paul Eze (Abuja) received cash prize of N250, 000 each. The bank had slated an online competition for customers to make videos recitation of them presenting the “National Pledge� in Pidgin

English and the four best videos were rewarded with total cash prize of N1 million.

This was to commemorate the Independence and inculcate patriotic spirit in the citizens on the importance to reflect on the past, what led them here and the bright future that awaits Nigerians. Speaking on the reasons why they participated in the online pidgin language competition, Ilesanmi, one of the winners said having being brought up in Benin City, where Pidgin English is natural to them and adopted by all and sundry hence, it was golden

opportunity to participate as a patriotic Nigerian.

He commended Heritage Bank for the initiative, as Ilesanmi disclosed that the information of the competition was sourced from a colleague’s page owing to the fact that he was never a customer to the bank. In a statement by the Divisional Head, Corporate Communications/Product Management, Fela Ibidapo said the bank considered use of Pidgin English as a marker of identity and solidarity, also as means to promote local content use of language.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JULY 2020 Money Supply (M3)

36,822,751.47

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

3,476,121.25

Money Supply (M2)

33,346,630.22

-- Quasi Money

120,764,479.02

-- Narrow Money (M1)

12,582,151.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,002,026.89

---- Demand Deposits

10,580,124.31

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,637,137.23

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

29,185,614.24

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

39,711,115.95

---- Credit to Government (Net)

19,521,851.08

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

-130,189,264.87

--Other Assets Net

3,472,017.70

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,421,827.07

--Currency in Circulation

2,395,917.03

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

11,025,910.04 317,234.17

Ëž Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? Ě‹

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

March 2018

Inter-Bank Call Rate

15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

Ëž Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂœĂŁ ÙÖÓĂ?ĂŁ Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ě‹ ͯ͹Ϲ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE Ëœ ÍŻÍŽ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $43.42 a barrel on Wednesday, compared with $41.72 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), ZaďŹ ro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

35

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍąËœ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

NSE Facilitates N1trn Capital Raise for Govts, Corporates in 10 Months Goddy Egene Governments and corporates have raised about N1 trillion across the various asset classes of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) between January and October, between January and October, the Divisional Head, Listings Business, NSE, Mr. Olumide Bolumole, has said.

He disclosed this at a webinar hosted by the exchange in collaboration with Odu’a Chambers

of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday in Lagos.

The themed: “Capital Raising in a Pandemic,� the vent was held in furtherance of the NSE’s commitment to educating business promoters on the alternative funding opportunities available in the capital market to catalyse business growth. This comes on the back of the significant reduction in major sources of revenue for key sectors of the economy occasioned by the

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R

DEALS

COVID-19 pandemic and other macroeconomic issues which have negatively impacted business across various industries and highlighted the need for capital raising opportunities.

According to Bolumole, the NSE as a platform for capital formation has products and services to support capital raising across economic sectors, adding that the NSE continues to deliver on its promise to provide a platform for issuers

S E C U R I T I E S

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

and investors to meet their financial objectives even in the most difficult times. “ For instance, despite the impact of COVID -19, the NSE has facilitated needed financing with about N1 trillion in capital raised by governments and corporates between January and October across various asset classes.

With the All Share Index as at the 9th of November appreciating by over 20 per

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

cent since the start of the year and the fixed Income market capitalisation currently over N17 trillion, the market has depth to accommodate required capital,� he said.

Also speaking, the Head of Department, Branch Network, NSE, Mr. Adeyemi Osoba, shed some more light on the NSE Growth Board as a viable option for capital raising, especially for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

O F

“The Growth Board was launched in January 2020 as part of the NSE’s initiatives to elevate the Nigerian Capital market and meet the needs of businesses at every phase of their lifecycle.

It provides a platform for fastgrowing companies to access cost-effective, long-term capital while enjoying relaxed entry criteria, reduced post-listing obligations and a wide range of value added services,� he said.

1 0 / 1 1 / 2 0 2 0 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

36

MARKET NEWS

Seplat Announces Retirement of Two Non-Executive Directors Goddy Egene Seplat

Petroleum

Development Company Plc has announced that Senior Independent Non-Executive

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

Director, Mr. Michael Alexander, and Independent Non-Executive Director, Mrs.

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 11Nov-2020, unless otherwise stated.

Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, will retire from the board effective 31 January 2021.

The company said in a statement that Alexander was appointed to the board

in June 2013 while Okauru was appointed in March 2013.

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 1.05 1.07 17.22% ACAP Income Funds 0.85 0.85 11.22% 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 3.49% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.67 3.80 50.13% ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 0.78% Anchoria Equity Fund 130.77 131.23 22.05% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.46 1.46 21.92% 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 Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Ethical Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Eurobond Fund ($) N/A N/A N/A ARM Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 125.67 126.55 30.80% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 1.89% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 2.31 2.31 22.97% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 2.26 2.30 54.76% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.61% Paramount Equity Fund 15.68 15.98 25.34% Women's Investment Fund 132.36 133.81 20.00% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 2.17% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 127.11 127.73 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 142.91 144.09 Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 107.08 107.08 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 1.81% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.12 1.13 20.26% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.74 1.74 31.23% 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 100.00 100.00 1.65% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 1.44% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,189.04 1,205.44 7.33% 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 1,481.13 1,482.64 24.70% FBN Balanced Fund 179.41 180.98 22.20% FBN Halal Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 1.98% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional 118.69 119.10 5.24% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 118.67 119.09 4.71% FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund 150.34 152.71 15.53% 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 N/A N/A N/A Coral Income Fund N/A N/A N/A FSDH Treasury Bills Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 2.61% Nigeria Entertainment Fund 127.12 127.65 18.29%

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 2.31% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.82 2.88 29.03% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 7.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 155.74 156.67 8.71% 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 1.37 1.39 21.53% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,141.56 1,141.56 9.77% 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 1.54 1.57 25.02% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 12.04 12.13 6.92% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 2.51% PACAM Equity Fund 1.41 1.42 PACAM EuroBond Fund 108.87 111.18 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 133.89 136.59 8.32% 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 8.26% 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 26.61% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 210.33 210.33 5.99% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.88 0.89 27.78% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 273.87 273.95 7.13% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 154.92 156.64 29.85% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 1.77% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,674.15 7,756.30 23.88% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.22 1.22 4.83% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 110.41 110.41 5.95% 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 1.40 1.42 16.87% United Capital Bond Fund 1.87 1.87 8.27% United Capital Equity Fund 0.86 0.89 22.12% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 2.37% United Capital Eurobond Fund 115.74 115.74 5.91% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.07 1.08 2.10% 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 12.13 12.28 18.07% Zenith Ethical Fund 13.46 13.60 15.93% Zenith Income Fund 24.83 24.83 9.28% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 2.24%

REITS NAV Per Share

Fund Name SFS Skye Shelter Fund

Yield / T-Rtn

119.50

6.47%

53.51

2.80%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

11.23 121.09 88.52

11.33 121.09 90.15

33.44% 26.82% 17.83%

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 Money Market 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

4.38 5.74 15.68 1.00 14.51 230.88

4.42 5.82 15.78 1.00 14.71 232.88

27.22% -2.94% 28.53% 1.93% 39.32% 20.92%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

107.71

13.11%

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.

FRIDAY, ÍšÍťËœ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž THISDAY

37

BACKPAGE CONTINUATION BETWEEN NIGERIA AND THE UNITED STATES come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken�

Unlike the pastors, it is the unsung President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian electorate who would bequeath an improbable positive example for America (to follow) in the art of democratic transition.This is how low, the American President, Donald Trump has sunk the acclaimed birthplace of constitutional democracy.

But we must not get ahead of ourselves. This worthy Nigerian behaviour is, of course, an aberration and the aberration has been laid bare in the nationhood and governance regression Nigeria has endured in the last five years under the stewardship of Major General Muhammadu Buhari.The Nigerian experience parallels the shocking abuse and subversion America has suffered under the presidency of Trump within the same time frame. In almost equal measure, both leadership was shot through with embarrassing incompetence, cruelty, bigotry and the arrogance of ignorance. Unlike America though, it was the preponderance of the Nigerian intelligentsia, political elite and statesmen who, in momentary fit of absent mindedness parlayed Goodluck Jonathan for Muhammadu Buhari. And who, with a little more reflection, should have known they were cutting their nose to spite the face. It was Andre Gide (or perhaps Richard Wright) who warned that Lucifer once lived in heaven

and those who have not encountered him will not recognise an angel when they see one.

It is late in the day to start crying over split milk especially against the backdrop of how the unintended consequence of Buhari’s misrule has radicalised inherent Nigerian conditions and rendered it ripe for resolution.

In his ruthless exposure of the ugliness of the Nigerian backside, Buhari has convinced the most unrepentant worshippers at the temple of quasi unitary Nigeria status quo, that, barring course reversal therein lies the road to perdition impatiently waiting around the corner. I pity Generals Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Theophilus Danjuma, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, Philip Asiodu and other post civil war dreamers of a Nigerian nationhood that they have lived to see this day. More to be pitied are Gowon and Danjuma who bleed a little whenever a middle belt community is subjected to genocidal wipeout at the hands of rogue Fulani militias.

Who would have believed that the day will come when Obasanjo, Mr Nigeria himself, will be labelled as divider in chief by an antithetical Nigerian ingrate who rewarded the national faith naively entrusted in him with a fulani rebellion and bigotry of the order never before witnessed in this country.

Trump has revealed the ugliness of America’s backside much in the same manner of his

Nigerian counterpart. In the primitive pursuit of personality cult style presidency, Trump subjected America to the worst humiliation a proud American can envisage, namely the effective reduction of America to the level of Russian puppet. From his vantage position at the apex of the awesome intelligence infrastructure of America, former Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats reportedly pondered “Coats continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump. How else to explain the president’s behaviour? Coats could see no other explanation. Coats saw how extraordinary it was for the president’s top intelligence official to harbor such deep suspicions about the president’s relationship with Putin. But he could not shake them�.

At the inception of the Trump presidency, Fareed Zakaria read from the tea leaves. “Donald Trump is different, not just because he is obnoxious, tacky and vulgar, or that his business dealings show him to be a scam artist. He is different because of what he believes. Trump’s views on policy issues, from social security to taxes, were insincere� and simply reflections of what he thinks his supporters want to hear. Trump seems to believe deeply in ethnic stereotypes and has contempt for many of the foundations

of liberal democracy,� from banning Muslims from entering America to threatening to jail his opponent if he is elected. Donald Trump is not a normal candidate. He is a cancer on American democracy,� Zakaria concluded.

Four years later, Thomas Friedman gathered enough evidence to corroborate the prescience of Zakaria. “We have just experienced four years of the most divisive and dishonest presidency in American history, which attacked the twin pillars of our democracy — truth and trust. Donald Trump has not spent a single day of his term trying to be president of all the people, and he has broken rules and trashed norms in ways that no other president ever dared — right up to Tuesday night, when he falsely claimed election fraud and summoned the Supreme Court to step in and stop the voting, as if such a thing were even remotely possible�.

As we speak, Trump is still playing the American nemesis. And his niece has warned that he may have resolved on acting out the Samson syndrome and pulled down America with him on his way to damnation. The concern for the rest of us is that what happens in America does not stay in America. We can only hope that the American military establishment is anticipating that letting loose the nuclear bomb code is not beyond a Commander in Chief of Trump’s description.

ELITE, MASSES, WAREHOUSES AND THEIR WARES familiar with the state budget. With a member of the House of Representatives confirming that their monthly allowance is N12 million, N750 million is easily the monthly allowances of sixty members of the House. As Ondo is an average State, unlike Lagos or Rivers where the security vote will run into multiples of billions, one can safely assume that N750 million is the Nigerian average. This means that the security votes of just fifteen states will exceed all the allowances of all the members of the National Assembly. The purpose of this analysis is not to seek to justify the allowances in the National Assembly, but to show that these disproportionate allowances as well as the opacity that surrounds them cut across the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and the States, sometimes characterised by an obscene display of wealth e.g a member of the House of Assembly in one of the states in the Southsouth displaying from his luxury fleet of cars a Rolls Royce Ghost (starting price $314,000) in front of his opulent mansion in his village that is a study in rural poverty.

Another example is the pensions of former governors and their deputies. In Lagos, a former Governor is entitled to 100% of his basic salary, medical treatment for himself and members of his family, six new cars every three years, 300% of annual salary as furniture allowance, 10% as maintenance allowance, 30% as car allowance, two new houses in locations of his choice, eight policemen. In Zamfara, one of the twenty six States having these pension laws, the former governor had requested for his monthly upkeep of N10 million out of his annual package of N700 million. And in the Judiciary, last year a former senior judicial officer ran into trouble on account of the N24 million he was given to undertake just one official foreign trip. Last year 30 Local Government Chairmen in Osun State were reported to have planned a trip to Dubai for a 10 –day workshop to ‘be exposed and groomed in international best practices in Local Government Administration ‘.These practices by the political elite, the public service elite cutting across the three arms and the three tiers of government are systemic institutional abuses.

This is not an issue that can be resolved by one person or one arm of government. President Buhari needs to summon a meeting of the heads of the two other arms of government with a view to ending this diversion of resources and redirecting amounts saved to building infrastructure .The Council of States, and the National Economic Council should also meet with a view to having a binding agreement on acceptable allowances in the states as well as to harmonise the allowances of all public officers elected or appointed across the three arms and three tiers of government within a range that will provide for slight variations among a group of states across the country as well as developing a blue print for the security votes based on international best practices so that the amounts saved can be redirected to build infrastructures at state and federal levels.

In addition, governments, especially at the state level must avoid misdirected or elitedriven projects such as last year’s Kano State N300 million project marrying off and buy wedding presents for 1500 couples while 3 million out-of-school children roam the streets.

The inability to afford a marriage is an obvious sign of poverty, and pushing the poor to marry and produce more children is a vicious cycle likely to create more out-of-school children. Or in Ekiti where the former PDP-led government wanted to build an airport, and the present APC-led government is now planning a cargo airport. With Akure airport less than 40 minutes from Ekiti, of what use is a cargo airport when Ekiti’s agricultural products cannot be evacuated

Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed as a result of its notoriously bad roads? Of what use is a cargo airport when there are no industrial products that can be manufactured because many parts of the state get an average of 2 to 3 hours of electricity a day?

Waste To understand waste in Nigeria, go to the federal budget (2021). You will see the proliferation of parastatals or MDAs some of which are moribund e.g Public Complaints Commission a body that has done virtually nothing since it was established 46 years ago - Budget- N5.2 billon (Personnel costs N5.2 billion). Others are either unnecessary or performing the same functions with expensive bureaucratic paraphernalia -Governing Councils, DGs, plush offices, foreign travels etc. Examples -Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission-Budget N2.9 billion (down from N4.7 billion in 2018). Apart from the fact that we have the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority -Budget–N13 billion (personnel costs N11. 9 billion) and the Energy Commission of Nigeria Budget N5.8. billion) while nuclear powers like Japan(following the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster with some residents living within a 20 kilometre radius evacuated and not able to return home for more than eight years), and France are shutting down their nuclear plants in favour of renewable energy (Germany has programmed a total shut-down of its nuclear power plants by 2022) we are still budgeting to build or regulate nuclear plants, struggling to generate and transmit electricity amid an abundance of solar energy. Who is going to permit us to generate atomic or nuclear power when we are ranked as the third most terrorised country in the world? Other examples-National Boundary Commission a body established to deal with Nigeria’s international and domestic boundary disputes (Budget N3 billion). Border Communities Development Agency a body established in respect of border communities development. (Budget N9.3 billion) National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion Abuja –Budget N 2.08 billion. National Agency

for Science and Engineering Infrastructure AbujaBudget N4.8b .Hydraulic Equipment Research Institute, Kano. National Space Research and Development Agency Abuja, Budget-N5.6 billion, Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, Toro Bauchi State, Centre for Atmospheric Research Ayingba, Kogi State. Centre for Space Transport Propulsion, Epe, Lagos State, Centre for Basic Space Science Nsuka, Advanced Space Technology Application Laboratory, Uyo. These are just a few of hundreds of unproductive or duplicated agencies constituting a drain on the nation’s resources which sadly show our lack of seriousness as a nation.

The Oransaye report recommending the scraping and/or merging of many of these agencies was published in 2015.Why has President Buhari been unable or perhaps unwilling to act for five years, so that the savings from these obvious wastes can be re-directed at investing in infrastructures, health, education, poverty alleviation and youth development all over the country? Developed and rich economies continue to reform .The UK abolished 130 and merged 18 of such institutions and agencies in 2010 and by 2012 was contemplating abolishing 204 more.

Corruption This is not the elephant in the room, but the monster in the vehicle perpetrated again by members of the political elite, the public service elite (civilian and military) again in the three arms and three tiers government . It has been estimated that about 24% of Nigeria’s GDP is lost to corruption and that the figure will rise to 37% by 2030 if nothing is done.

Nigeria’s ranking of 146 on the Transparency International CPI is below the global average and below the sub-Saharan average. This is not surprising in view of the recent weakening of the anti-corruption institutions under the Buhari administration. The Attorney General of the federation, a politician under what he called the Assets Tracing Recovery and Management Regulations in October 2019 took over some of the critical functions of the EFCC and the

ICPC effectively running them from his office.

What Nigeria needs are strong anti-corruption institutions as in Singapore and Hong Kong, not their personalisation and politicisation. There can be no meaningful development as long as corruption remains endemic and 40% of the national budget ends up in private pockets.

This is why the looters in Surulere in Lagos were saying ‘Everybody is a thief’. They know contrary to what the ministers from the South West were reported to have recommended to the President, that the solution is not about the youths undergoing orientation with the National Orientation Agency, but the elite undergoing a radical reorientation. According to a UNDP report, the lowest scoring countries on the Transparency International index, Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen and Libya are all facing intense conflicts characterised by violent insurgency and terrorism. It therefore comes as no surprise that again this year, the Global Terrorism Index a comprehensive study by the Institute for Economics and Peace ranking 163 countries covering 99.7% of the world’s population ranks Nigeria as No 3 only after Iraq and Afghanistan with Syria Pakistan and Somalia performing better than Nigeria.

President Buhari needs to reinvent his war against corruption complimented by a judiciary that is fit for purpose.

There are reports that some of the #EndSARS activists have been put on a no-fly list and have had their passports seized and accounts frozen Apart from its questionable legality and the propriety of using the judicial process for what the appears to be a punitive response –freezing activists ‘accounts behind their backs, and adjourning the case for three months, there is the moral question of whose accounts should be frozen, those of youths organising peaceful protests against extortion, or public officers who are purveyors of unexplained wealth .Peaceful protests are constitutionally protected and the present democratic dispensation over which President Buhari is presiding was made possible by peaceful protests by many Nigerians including some of us ,the Ayo Obes, the Agbakobas who in our 40s under the leadership of icons the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi ,the late Dr Beko Ransom Kuti, marched to protest against the murderous and rogue regime of Sanni Abacha. Clamping down on TV stations, seizing passports and freezing accounts will simply enrage, harden and radicalise these youths, drive them into the trenches and underground. With the military still unable to contain Boko Haram in the North East after ten years, and another flank of banditry and kidnappings opening in the North West, the last thing any government should risk is to have militants in Lagos and its environs linking up with Niger Delta militants in the South-south and IPOB in the South-east. #EndSARS was simply a catalyst seized upon by opportunistic swathes of hungry, angry and frustrated Nigerians all over the country reacting to many years of corruption and bad governance.

The government and we the elite have to be very careful and learn from history. We should address these problems frontally and honestly rather than diversionary and superficial steps and brute force which did not work with Boko Haram. The police and the military cannot police every part of 193,767 square kilometres at the same time. #EndSARS or no #EndSARS, the time bombs are still ticking. Next time If there are no Covid-19 palliatives in the warehouses.

The masses may simply take their wares from our houses. r4FOBUPS "LJOZFEF XBT JO UIF 4FOBUF GSPN 2007-2011

38

Ëœ ÍšÍťËœ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

FRIDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

AFCON 2022 QUALIFIERS

Mohammed Upsets Defending Champion Sylvester to Advance to S’final All Nigerian players test negative for Covid-19 Duro Ikhazuagbe Super Eagles will be aiming to sustain the trend of Nigeria qualifying for Africa Cup of Nations with some matches to spare when the three-time continental champions file out against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone this evening at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City.

When Franco-German Coach Gernot Rohr took charge of the team in 2016, Nigeria was just coming out of frosty relationships with coaches who were unable to build on the 2013 victory in South Africa with late Stephen Keshi in charge.

Twice Nigeria failed to make the cut for the 2015 and 2017 editions. Of course, Nigeria fumbled out of the race for

the 2017 edition before Rohr came in 2016 when the qualifiers were over. He has nonetheless succeeded in created a myth around the Eagles even as so many of our compatriots appear not comfortable with the playing pattern of the team under his watch yet.

Just like it happened in 2019 qualifiers when Nigeria booked her place in the finals in Egypt with a game to spare, the same scenario appears playing out again as Eagles are heading into the double header with the Leone Stars with the prospect of winning the ticket with two matches left to play.

A win here in Benin City this evening for Nigeria already on six points from two matches and a repeat performance in Freetown on Tuesday will leave

Nigeria v Sierra Leone @5pm

Eagles as the unassailable leaders of Group L on maximum 12 points.

Nigeria defeated Benin Republic 2-1 in Uyo before thumping Lesotho 4-2 in Maseru last November, with Victor Osimhen playing a part in all four goals for Rohr’s men.

Osimhen will be one of many attacking weapons at Rohr’s disposal with Samuel Chukwueze, Kelechi Iheanacho, Paul Onuachu, Emmanuel Dennis, Alex Iwobi and Ahmed Musa all in the Squad to line up against the visitors from Freetown.

Despite the enthusiasm in

the Nigerian camp following the All-clear-no-Covid-19 result in all the 23 players tested, the Franco-German has remained cautious, preferring not to underestimate he Leone Stars. “We are expecting a tough match because our opponent, Sierra Leone, have quality players too. It will not be an easy game because they have professional players,� Rohr insisted at the pre-match virtual press briefing yesterday. “My work is to first explain to the players that this will not be an easy game. We cannot underrate this Sierra Leone

team,� he warned further.

Sierra Leone sit bottom of the group after two rounds of fixtures having followed 1-1 draw at home to Lesotho with 1-0 defeat away to Benin Republican Match-day 2 in their most recent outing.

Coach John Keister and his crew will be boosted by the presence of defender Umaru Bangura who is currently the most capped player in his team.

Bangura is strutting his stuff for FC Zurich in Switzerland.

Similarly, he also have veteran forward Kei Kamara who expressed his delight at being

involved with the Leone Stars once again. “A year ago I made the decision to step away from our national team, and it was a decision I made with good intentions.� Kamara said in a statement. “During this year of being on the outside watching and listening, I can tell you it has not been easy. “In the past few months I have heard some wonderful conversations with newly appointed head coach John Keister about his vision for the national team, and they’re remarkable.

Nigeria, Sierra Leone Afcon Qualifiers in Numbers

Super Eagles will host their Sierra Leone counterparts today in the first of double header encounters and a win over two matches in the spate of five days will qualify Nigeria for the main tournament to be hosted by Cameroon in January of 2022. In this report, Femi Solaja takes a look at the matches in numbers.

This is the first time that Super Eagles’ camp will have the highest number of players born or raised abroad. On record, Head Coach Gernot Rohr have 10 ‘Diasporan’ players for this match. It is a gradual shift away from the blend of home and foreign-based players that started way back in 1981 when the duo of Tunji Banjo and John Chidozie were invited to play in Nigeria’s World Cup qualifying match for Spain ‘82.

It is 71 years and five days ago today that both teams first met on international stage.

The first time both teams met was on 8 October 1949 when the Nigerian side made a stopover in Freetown during their return voyage from UK. The first appointed Super Eagles’ Media Officer and now television analysts, Peterside Idah, played his last match for Nigeria on 21 April 2001 in World Cup qualifying match which Super Eagles lost in Freetown by lone goal.

The match at Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin will be the 22nd encounter between both teams. Nigeria’s Super Eagles have the upper hand, winning 14, drawing five times and losing just two.

The Nigeria versus Sierra Leone match will be the fourth time an Africa Cup of Nation qualifying match will be played in Benin City. The first time was when the then Green Eagles played a goalless outing with Morocco on 14 August 1983.

The second time was the 1-0 defeat of Madagascar on 2 June 2001 while the third was the 2-2 draw with Angola on 21 June 2003 in the qualifying round for Tunisia 2004.

Sierra Leone spelt doom for former Nigeria’s Dutch coach, Johannes Bonfrere who last handled the Super Eagles when the team lost 1-0 on 21 April 2001 in a World Cup qualifying match.

8.

The encounter this evening at Ogbemudia Stadium will be Nigeria’s 113rd Africa Cup of Nations’ qualifying match. For Sierra Leone, it will be their 74th in the qualifying series since their debut for the 1974 edition.

9.

Although Nigeria defeated Sierra Leone 2-0 when they first met 71 years ago, an own goal by Sierra Leone’s Ashman was Nigeria’s first ever international goal.

Tesilimi Balogun scored the second goal.

Super Eagles’ Assistant Coach and former Captain of the team, Joseph Yobo goes into the record book as the first player to score for both Sierra Leone and Nigeria in a competitive series. Yobo scored Nigeria’s lone goal in the 1-0 defeat of Sierra Leone in Freetown in a 7 June 2008 World Cup qualifying match.

In the reversed leg played on 11 October 2008 in Abuja, same Yobo scored an own goal in the 4-1 defeat of Sierra Leone.

Super Eagles players and oďŹƒcials in a group photograph with the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare and NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, shortly after the team’s last training before today’s clash with Sierra Leone

Korean Embassy Donates Taekwondo Equipment to Nigerian Army, Police, Others Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The Korean Cultural Centre of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Abuja will today present Taekwondo uniforms and training equipment to the Nigerian Army Taekwondo Association, Nigeria Police Taekwondo Association and FCT College of Education Sports Directorate, Zuba.

The Director of Korean Cultural Centre in Abuja, Lee Jin Su, said the donation made

in collaboration with Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation is to alleviate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on Taekwondo practitioners in Nigeria.

Other receipnts are the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Defence Taekwondo Club, Everyoung Taekwondo Club, Word Alive Centre Taekwondo Club, Guards Taekwondo Club,

Peak Taekwondo Club, GM Dbassey Kick Fit Academy, Combat Taekwondo Club and Champions Martial Academy.

The kits will be presented to the 12 organisations today at the Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria.

Lee said the applications were received last month after which the 12 Taekwondo institutions were selected following a thorough screening. The selected organisations will receive between $600 to $1,000 worth

of Taekwondo equipment and uniforms each, which are manufactured and delivered from Korea.

He said Taekwondo, which is a representative sport of Korea, promotes unity and understanding between Korea and Nigeria, adding the donation of equipment is geared towards providing support for taekwondo practioners in Nigeria as well as promoting friendliness among the peoples of Korea and Nigeria.

CBN TENNIS

Mohammed Upset Defending Champion Sylvester to Advance to S’final The 2020 edition of the Central Bank of Nigeria Senior Tennis Championship Number 7 seed, Musa Mohammed yesterday created the biggest upset in the tournament when he knockedout the men’s singles top seed and defending champion, Emmanuel Sylvester, 6-7, 4-6, 4-2 retired to cruise to today’s semi-finals.

Mohammed in a post-match interview, said his mindset, determination and hard work did the magic for him

while his victim, Emmanuel Sylvester displayed his now familiar rudeness by refusing to grant any press interview.

Also victorious was number 9 Seed, Nonso Madueke who eased past number 4 seed, Thomas Otu 6-2, 6-4 to set up a semi-finals clash with the giant killer, Musa Mohammed.

Mohammed said vengeance was on his mind against Nonso Madueke who defeated him in the competition last year.

Also through to today’s

semi-finals is the CBN Senior Tennis Women’s top seed and defending champion, Oyinlomo Quadri who earned a 6-1, 6-1 victory over unseeded Jesutoyosi to come face to face with twotime former champion, Sara Adegoke in the battle of ‘titans’ that could also be described as the final before the final of the women’s singles category.

Adegoke dismissed tournament Number 3 seed, Aanu Aiyegbusi 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the semi-finals

while unseeded Omolade Aderemi was sent packing by tournament seed 8, Osariemen Airhunwunde who defeated her 6-2, 6-3.

Meanwhile, both the men and women’s doubles as well as wheelchair events finals will be decided today ahead of Saturday’s grand finale holding at the Package ‘B’ of the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja with only the men and women’s singles events on the card.

39

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FridaySports AFCON 2022 QUALIFIERS....AFCON 2022 QUALIFIERS...AFCON 2022 QUALIFIERS....

Impressive Indomitable Lions Devour Mozambique in Douala Cameroon thumped Mozambique 4-1 in a 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier at the Stade de la RĂŠunification in Douala on Thursday evening.

The emphatic victory moved the Indomitable Lions top of Group F, while Mozambique’s Mambas moved down to second spot on the standings.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa scored in Cameroon’s 4-1 victory against Mozambique

The Indomitable Lions pushed for an early goal with Turkey-based marksman Vincent Aboubakar spearheading the attack for António Conceicao’s side. However, the Mambas, who came into the clash undefeated in five matches, were able to contain the hosts in the opening stages of the encounter.

Cameroon continued to push for the opening goal and it finally came eight minutes after the half-hour mark. Aboubakar was the man who broke the deadlock to make it 1-0 to Cameroon after Mozambique failed to clear their lines.

Cameroon, who have already qualified for the 2022 Afcon finals by virtue of being the tournament hosts duly carried a 1-0 lead into the halftime break.

The Indomitable Lions continued to dominate the match after the restart and they

managed to double their lead through Aboubakar in the 47th minute. The Besiktas JK player hit the back of the net with a decent finish to make it 2-0 to Cameroon with the Mozambican defence exposed once again.

It was 3-0 to the hosts soon

after as the Mambas struggled to contain the five-time African champions. This time it was Fulham FC central midfielder AndrĂŠ-Frank Zambo Anguissa who beat Mozambique goalkeeper Julio Franque just before the hour-mark.

Mozambique pushed forward and they managed to pull a goal back through Kevin Cumbane, who is better known as Kamo Kamo, to make it 3-1 with 16 minutes of regulation time remaining.

However, the goal proved to

be a mere consolation as Clinton N’Jie sealed Cameroon’s 4-1 win over Mozambique in the closing stages after being set up by Anguissa.

The two teams will meet again in the reverse fixture on Tuesday, November 17.

Togo Looking for Upset Win Against Egypt in Cairo Togo will chase an upset away win over Egypt when the teams meet in a Group G clash in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, set for the Cairo International Stadium on Saturday. Kick-off is at 8pm.

Togo head into the clash at the bottom of the standings, having picked up just one point after they were beaten 1-0 at home

by Comoros and drew 1-1 away to Kenya in their opening two matches, both played in

November 2019.

Head coach Claude Le Roy – who has led the likes of Senegal, Cameroon, DR Congo, Congo, Ghana and Togo at Afcon tournaments – is focusing on the processes, rather than the results, in order to bring the Sparrow Hawks back to their peak of 2006 when they played at the World Cup. “A new generation has come through, and my objective is to continue working with this group of players,� he explained.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, Formally known and Addressed as ADEKILE DAVID OLABISI, Now wish to be known and addressed as OLOMU SIMON DAVID. All former documents remain valid. The general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as EZIKE MARY OGOCHUKWU, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS OKWOULISA MARY OGOCHUKWU. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I, Formally known and Addressed as GLORY MAYEN EDGAR, Now wish to be known and addressed as EZEKIELETIM GLORY MAYEN. All former documents remain valid.

The general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MUSA DAURA MUSAH, now wish to be known and addressed as ABDUL-GANIYU ISIAKA MUSA AFOLARIN. All former documents remain valid.

The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as YETUNDE AYISAT PRECIOUS SANUSI, now wish to be known and addressed as YETUNDE AYISAT SANUSI. All former documents remain valid.

The general public should please take note.

I, Formally known and Addressed as COMFORT ASULU, Now wish to be known and addressed as COMFORT IBRAHIM. All former documents remain valid. The general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MISS FRANCISCA CHIZOBA NNA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS FRANCISCA CHIZOBA ONYIRIMBA. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as OKAFOR AZUKA JULIANAH, now wish to be known and addressed as OGEDENGBE AZUKA JULIANAH. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I, Formally known and Addressed as LOVELYN EWOMA GOODNESS IYADE, Now wish to be known and addressed as LOVELYN EWOMA GOODNESS ADETOLAOYELEWU. All former documents remain valid. The general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as OYEOKU CHIOMA OKARO, now wish to be known and addressed as NGWOBIA CHIOMA OKARO - IDIKA. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as KOSUOWEI DAUBIYE PREYE, now wish to be known and addressed as ATTI DAUBIYE STEPHANIEN. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

Andre Ayew scored the two goals as the Black Stars of Ghana defeat South Sudan 2-0 yesterday evening

Ayew-inspired Black Stars of Ghana Coast to Victory against S’Sudan Ghana secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sudan in a 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier at the Cape Coast Stadium on Thursday evening.

Victory moves the Black Stars six points clear atop Group C, while the Falcons of Jediane remain third on the standings.

Ghana started the match brightly with the Ayew brothers, Andre and Jordan, combining well up front for the home side.

The hosts carved out their first chance in the 13th minute

as Andre Ayew cut in from the left before firing a dangerous ball across goal, and he was unlucky to watch his effort fly inches wide.

However, the versatile attacker did get the goal he had been looking for five minutes later. The Black Stars captain beat Sudan goalkeeper Ali Abdallah Abu-Eshrein with a powerful shot from a free-kick to make it 1-0 to Ghana.

Abu-Eshrein was then called into action in the 29th minute and he pulled off a great save

to deny Samuel Owusu as the Black Stars looked to double their lead.

Andre Ayew thought he had grabbed his brace on the stroke of halftime, but the goal was disallowed for a foul and the score subsequently remained 1-0 ato the hosts as they headed for the tunnel at halftime.

It was the Falcons of Jediane who saw most of the ball after the restart with Mohamed Al-Rasheed pulling the strings in midfield for the visitors.

However, try as they might,

Sudan were unable to beat Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Richard Ofori in the Ghana goal.

The hosts doubled their lead with nine minutes left on the clock with what was a brilliant individual goal by Swansea City star Andre Ayew. The 30-yearold went on a solo run: beating two Sudan defenders before unleashing a thunderous shot which beat Abu-Eshrein hands down to make it 2-0 to Ghana.

The two teams will meet in the reverse fixture on Tuesday.

GOV WIKE PRE-SEASON

Lobi Seek S’final Ticket Against Ottasolo Lobi Stars will be out to secure at least a point that will secure their qualifications for the final four of the ongoing Governor Wike PreSeason Football Championships in Port Harcourt when they file

out against Ottasolo FC in their final group game today.

A draw in the game will take Lobi to unassailable eight points as host team, Rivers United are currently on seven points after

their 2-0 defeat of Cynosure FC yesterday.

MFM FC became the first team of the competition to secure their qualifications to the final four of the tournament as Abia Warriors were eliminated.

The top of the bill cracker between the Lagos-based side and Abia Warriors ended goalless allowing MFM to top their group with eight points from four games followed by Bayelsa United on seven points with Abia Warriors third with six points.

Meanwhiile, MFM midfielder, Tunde Azeez, who suffered a head collision with Abia Warriors’ Nzube Anaezemba, is now off the intensive care unit of an undisclosed hospital in Port Harcourt.

Azzez collided with Anaezemba in the first half of of the game and it took the quick intervention of the medical team provided

by the organisers of the Championships to revive the player before he was rushed to the hospital where he was put in an intensive care unit.

Speaking yesterday, MFM coach, Tony Bolus, praised the prompt response of the medical team while revealing that the player has been taken out of the ICU and now in a stable condition. “He is now better but he will have to take a scan on his head to ascertain the level of the injury,� the coach said.

The CEO of one of the teams playing at the Championships, Ottasolo FC, Gabriel Davies, was on a courtesy visit to Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Boma Iyaye, at his office.

The commissioner showerdd praises on the chairman and encouraged private sectors to emulate Ottasolo while also promising to partner the club.

Friday November 13, 2020

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Price: N250

MISSILE

Atedo Peterside to FG “Why refuse everybody else and allow only one company (Dangote)?

This is why some of us argue that the Nigerian economy is rigged in favour of a handful of well-connected persons.” – President and founder of Anap Foundation, Atedo Peterside, reacting to news that the federal government has granted Dangote Cement a waiver to export cement through the closed land borders.

AKINOSUNTOKUN Between Nigeria and the United States T DIALOGUE WITH NIGERIA

his season, I mean the Covid-19 pandemic season, has been emotionally draining for me, as it is probably the case with many others. I started out trivialising its onset and laughed at the Asians who, before any other demographic, cultivated the culture of wearing masks in the city of Oxford. Considering the headstart of China in the apprehension of its medical ramifications, it is logical that diaspora Chinese and neighbouring Asian countries would cotton on to the emergency proportions earlier than the rest of us. Despite myself, when I had the opportunity to make a prayer request on a coincidental tourist visit to a 15th century church relic, I entered the impersonal prayer that God should shield and heal the world of Covid-19. A few days later, the reality hit all of us when Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined the preventive global initiative and shut down the United Kingdom. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history. The emotional roller coaster exacted by the crisis gathered momentum with a level of aggressive credulous behaviour in Nigeria and America that beggars the imagination. Social engagement was put to the utmost stress test of debating the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates was the evil genius behind the eruption of the coronavirus plague. The problem here was that this sort of delusional proposition was being canvassed by those that cannot be readily dismissed as inhabitants of the lunatic fringe. In the height of tragic irony, here were Nigerians demonising an international do gooder who had spent tens of dollars in combating and eradicating one scourge or

Trump another in Nigeria. And potentially stands to exercise the same philanthropy in boosting accessibility to the Covid-19 vaccine when it becomes available.

At the vanguard of the dissemination of this asinine conspiracy theory were two avant garde new age Pentecostal influencers-the two Chrises, Pastors Chris Okotie and Chris Oyakhilome. Given what we now know, they have deservedly earned the reputation

akin.osuntokun@thisdaylive.com

of false prophets. According to Okotie “the Covid-19 pandemic was a bizarre project conceived by the billionaire, in association with some powerful elements in the multilateral institutions, supported by key leaders of governments around the world to achieve sinister objectives... the satanic objectives for the “bizarre project” include: “a systematic reduction of the world population through the increasing Covid-19 deaths; enforcement of a global lockdown to ruin the economies of nations and impoverish the people and frustrate true worship of the Living God.” In valiant jockeying to outdo one another in the propagation of falsehood, Oyakhilome upped the ante: “In Nigeria for example, the federal government intervened and shut down Abuja and Lagos.The federal government was pushed to lockdown Abuja and Lagos specifically. Why? Because of 5G in Abuja and Lagos. That’s the reason the federal government had to lockdown Abuja and Lagos. So the 5G could be installed. I have said before, what killed people in Wuhan, China was not the virus, it was the 5G. What is the reason for social distancing? It is not because of infection.

That is the easiest way to prevent protests.

So we don’t communicate (speaks in tongue).

They carry photos from China, or from Italy, or Spain and show to the Americans, show to the British. You see things like “oh this is really happening,” but it’s not. They do not tell what’s killing the people. Two things are killing the people. The first one is where those 5G signals are being tested and have been turned on. A lot of people

died. This is real. Number two, where are the people that normally got sick with the flu?

Where are they? Nobody is talking about the flu right now”.

In doctrinal genealogy and vocational orientation, these pastors are the proteges of the dubious heritage of the morally purblind American evangelical Christians who have become notorious for the mercenary role they played in the enabling of Donald Trump. It is uncanny how the great tragic distortions and infodemic disinformation in human experience tend to find legitimacy in the wilful demagoguery of the sham religious fundamentalists of each era. It was so during the age of inquisition and the bubonic plague; the era of the slave trade and slavery; and the Second World War followed suit when the Pope and the Catholic church looked the other way as Hitler unleashed the monstrosity of the holocaust. And so it seems this history is presently repeating itself in the acceptance and encouragement Trump finds in the bosom of the evangelical Christians. What bothers me is that the culprits who repeatedly traffic in lethal conspiracy theories feel no remorse nor chastened when they are categorically disproved and revealed for the fraud they are. As the scriptures warned “Today we warn you that there are false prophets and false teachers arising;. And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not Continued on page 37

SOLAAKINYEDE GUEST COLUMNIST

Elite, Masses, Warehouses and Their Wares W

ith the #EndSARS protests and the ensuing unfortunate destruction, the looting and the raiding of warehouses housing Covid-19 palliatives and other food items, it has become obvious that the second of a cluster of ticking time bombs had detonated. That time bomb is youth unemployment and poverty resulting from the failure of successive governments at all levels to invest heavily in infrastructures such as power, roads that would have accelerated the growth of agro-allied and other industries.

The first time bomb - extreme poverty, low level of education resulted in terrorism and violent insurgency in the North East, and banditry and kidnapping in the North West as a result of the failure of successive State governments in those zones to invest in education and in poverty alleviation. These failures had come back to haunt us as a result of which according to the World Bank, we have the highest number of extremely poor people (87million) in the world, more than India with a population of 1.38 billion. For the Northern Governors calling for the censorship of Social Media because of the protests, are the insurgency, banditry and

the kidnappings in the North attributable to the Social Media?

The federal government in trying to reduce the rage and frustration that had come to a boil has launched a N25 billion Youth Fund to ‘support and actualize youths’ innovative and entrepreneurial ideas in growing their businesses and become self-reliant ‘. It also launched a N75 billion Youth Investment Fund with an interest rate of 5% to cater for youth -owned businesses and investment needs. Though well-intentioned, with a youth population of about 120 million, the total of N100 billion comes to just N833 per youth.

In the past 20 years, there have been about ten major government-driven youth empowerment programmes -SURE-P, You Win, N-Power, Youth Entrepreneurs Support Programme, Youth Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture, Graduate Internship Scheme, Youth Empowerment and Development Initiative and a few others with not much impact. With the way the Covid 19 school feeding programme was undertaken with no verifiable database of recipients amid allegations of fraud, the present initiative is likely to go the way of

others- a basket of leakages, fraud, nepotism and other vices by those entrusted with the responsibility of administering them. Apart from gross inadequacy of the amount, youths, and indeed most Nigerians are unlikely to actualize their innovative and entrepreneurial potentials or develop their skills and put them to use without the necessary infrastructure.

If a youth is given a loan to engage in mechanized farming, how will he evacuate and sell his produce without good roads? How will a youth given a loan to start a tailoring business prosper if he has to buy and fuel a generator, and with no industries because there is no electricity, how will the army of the unemployed be able to patronise him?

Government will need a massive investment in infrastructure. With the collapse of oil prices arising from the Covid 19 pandemic, where will all the money come from?

Institutional Abuses Nigeria’s socio-political economy runs in a system in which we the elite- political, public service and private sector divert or participate in

the diversion to ourselves of a disproportionate amount of the nation’s resources under the auspices of, or using the instrumentality of our offices and positions. The easiest and most visible example cited are the allowances paid to members of the National Assembly. The percentage of the federal budget allocated to the National Assembly has usually been less than 1%. It is N128 billion out of the 2021 budget of N13 trillion. What then is happening with the 99%?

Just before the recently concluded Ondo State gubernatorial election, the Governor stated that his Deputy Governor was the highest paid Deputy Governor in Nigeria with a monthly allowance of N13 million. The Deputy retorted that it was N12 million and not N13 million, but added that the Governor’s monthly security vote was N750 million. An aide to the Governor denied it but did not state the amount. In the absence of a figure from the Governor’s office, it safe to conclude that the Deputy who had worked with the governor for more than three years would be Continued on page 37

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