FRIDAY 25TH MARCH 2022

THISDAY: Wike Not a Man of Integrity, Unreliable Says governor's various public statements open his character to question Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt yesterday watched video clips tendered

by THISDAY as evidence in defense of a libel suit against

the newspaper by the State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

In the video clips presented by the defense witness, Jude Igbanoi and played in the courtroom as evidence to the said report, Igbanoi in a heated

argument informed the court that Wike's various public statements open his character and integrity to public scrutiny and fair comments.

He further stressed that Wike's character since coming into

public office had shown him to be such that he would say certain things about someone one day and turn 360 degrees a few months or years later to say the contrary.

The governor had filed a N7

billion suit against THISDAY and three of its staff, claiming that the newspaper publication of June 23, 2020, with caption: " With a Friend Like Wike, Obaseki Meets His PDP’s Waterloo; Almost,” was intended to damage

his character.

The governor claimed during his appearance in court that the publication portrayed him as deceitful, untrustworthy person.

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Consensus: Again, Saraki, Tambuwal, Bala Meet in Abuja... Page 50

Riding on National Mood, Peter Obi Joins Presidential Race Promises to lift country out of poverty He’s in politics out of sacrifice, says Babangida Aliyu David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka A former governor of Anambra State and vice presidential

candidate on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, yesterday, joined the 2023

presidential race with a promise to lift the country out of poverty.

Obi declared his intention to run for the presidency at the

Anambra State Government House, during a meeting with traditional rulers of the state.

However, a former governor of

Niger State, Mu’azu Babangida went into politics to make the Aliyu, has said Obi, an already society better. accomplished corporate leader Continued on page 5 and successful businessman, only

In Deft Political Move, Buhari’s Men Set to Dominate Incoming APC NWC Abdulahi Adamu, chair; Ifeoluwa Oyedele, secretary; Ken Nnamani, deputy chair, south; Waziri Bulama, organising secretary CPC elements adopt Afikuyomi Sule: consensus will conform to Electoral Act President, Osinbajo, Lawan, See story on page 5 others to grace party conference today

PRESIDENT HOSTS APC FOUNDING FATHERS TO DINNER...

L-R: Senator Rochas Okorocha, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, Senator Aliyu Wammako, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Chief Bisi Akande, Bola Tinubu, President Muhammadu Buhari, Mai Mala Buni; Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha; Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari; Gov. Aminu Bello Masari. and Governor Nasir el-Rufai, during a meeting with APC founding fathers ahead of SUNDAY AGHAEZE the Party's national convention held at the State House Abuja…yesterday

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Fuel Scarcity: We Have I.6bn Litres of PMS in Stock, Says Mele Kyari Sunday Aborisade, Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has said it has over 1.6 billion litres of the petrol in stock for the consumption of Nigerians nationwide.

The Group Managing Director of the agency, Mr. Mele Kyari disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday.

He spoke at the unveiling of the Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products in the nation's capital.

Kyari was represented at the

occasion by the Chief Executive Officer Downstream, NNPC Tower, Mr. Adeyemi Adetunji, He said, "NNPC as of today has 1.6 billion litres of PMS which is about 27 days sufficiency.

"This is to assure Nigerians again that there is adequate supply of PMS and it is getting to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. We will continue to ensure that we facilitate the availability of PMS. "I appreciate all Nigerians for all the patience and cooperation as we get back to normalcy in terms of petroleum products

distribution in the country.

"After the challenge we had in January and the global environment for energy got worsened with the crisis in Ukraine and Russia, NNPC will do its best alleviate the plight of Nigerians."

He explained that the company has been working with all stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to provide palliatives.

He also expressed the company’s readiness to continue to ensure that there was free flow of petroleum motor spirit in all

areas of the country.

He said, "We are working with the authority, we are working with Nigerian Association of Transport Owners and Petroleum Tanker Drivers. Right now, we are going to work with ADITOP to ensure we create normalcy to the situation."

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, also on the occasion, called on stakeholders in the Industry to make petroleum products available for citizens.

Sylva was represented by the

Director Human Resources in the ministry, Mr. Famous Asiegbu.

He said the ministry would continue to offer the association, the needed support.

President of the ADITOP, Alhaji Lawan Dan-Zaki said the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) if implemented properly and selflessly, could serve as a standard for national resource management.

He said, "Nigeria has a wealth of natural resources, with petroleum playing a major role in the economy. Unfortunately, in the

Nigerian economy, the distribution of petroleum products is plagued by complex issues resulting in product outages, inflated costs, and disagreements over the product's pump price."

He added that ADITOP was poised toward working with all key players in the industry to tackle the challenges.

The President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Chinedu Okoronkwo, said the unveiling of the association was a new road map for the oil and gas industry.

as Deputy National Chairman (South), effectively closing the door against some South-east governors, who had been pushing other interests.

Likewise, Alhaji Waziri Bulama, a former acting national secretary of the party from Borno State, according to sources, has secured the blessing of the president to emerge National Organsing Secretary of the party, representing the North-east geo-political zone.

Although not in the original letter, which contained the names of the other four signed off by the president, THISDAY gathered from other inside sources that Alhaji Adamu Farouk from Jigawa State had been positioned for the office of Deputy National Chairman (North), having also allegedly received the president’s blessing.

THISDAY also gathered that the CPC arm of APC had positioned Afikuyomi to emerge as National Vice Chairman, South-west. With this development, the CPC tendency in APC is fast establishing its dominance in the South-west and other geopolitical zones in the south.

Sources told THISDAY that since Afikuyomi had always had a relationship with most of the CPC elements, especially, from his days in the senate, coupled with his involvement in the activities of

the for Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before the merger, it was easier going with the current flow of party alignment and realignment.

Afikuyomi’s aspiration to be national vice chairman elicited some interests recently, when news went viral that his friend, a former governor of Lagos State and presidential hopeful, Bola Tinubu, was against his ambition and instead, preferred another position to be micro-zoned to Lagos State, to protect his presidential aspiration.

The development, which THISDAY reported on Monday, had caused division among some of Tinubu’s loyalists, who thought the decision of the APC national leader amounted to betrayal of friendship and trust.

Afikuyomi was, thus, forced to now pitch tent with the CPC elements in the APC and by implication, enhance the president’s hold on the party as the 2023 succession battle peaks.

Already, some of the other stakeholders in the south, who did not like how their leaders managed their aspirations, THISDAY learnt, had also started to enlist for the CPC, picking signals that the president was now awake to certain realities that might inform his choices in the next general election.

a courtesy visit to the former Niger State governor in Minna, stated that Obi, passionate about societal development, joined politics and became a governor, so as to make positive impacts in the society.

According to him, Obi was someone whose track record of success in governance showed how committed he was to nation building.

Aliyu, therefore, commended members of the party for their unity and for pursuing the democratic ideals for which a society should be known, adding that the whole essence of governance was service to the people.

He, however, lamented the

state of poor governance in the country as manifested in high level of insecurity, high cost of living, high inflation, high unemployment rate, and so on.

But he assured the people that the PDP would rescue Nigeria from further collapse and transform the nation, when given power in 2023.

In his remarks, Chairman of the PDP in Niger State, Tanko Beji, wished Obi well in his political journey, and reassured him of their commitment to ensuring that the party wins the 2023 elections both at the state and federal levels.

Responding, Obi noted that Niger State contributed greatly to Nigeria's development and

would do more if supported by the government.

"Niger State has a landmass of 76km2, twice the size of Netherlands, which has 33,500km2. Their income from their agricultural exports is over $100 billion. Government can support small scale farmers in Niger State to produce more.

"The rice farmers at Baddegi area, Mambe and Doko Axis, Gbanchitagi and Kusotachi axis can be empowered by the government to be more productive. Same goes for the yam farmers at Shiroro, Munya and Kuta areas of Niger State. All these offer us great opportunity for development of the nation," he said.

examination, Emmanuel Ukala and interviews.

(SAN), lead counsel for the Igbanoi also told the court that claimant, told the p publication had no intention the defendant ant to damage the COVID-19: FG Seeks to Crimin alise Non-wear w i t n e s s image of the ing of Face Ma sks (Igbanoi) that hat governor but the publication on was only was intended ed doing being to smear the professional. he p APC Governors integrity of He added Meet Buhari, Ize -Iyamu Emerges Party’s Candidate the governor. that Wike r. th But in has always n h With a Friend defense, thee been a friend b Li Meets His PDP’ ke Wike, Obaseki witness stated and wondered d an s Port Harcourt cour W at er lo t restr o; ains A Edo gove lmost others refuse Part y extends date for rnor, talks continue One aspirant that the story how he would y ho sale of nomination step forms for Ondo depus down, ty gov was gathered want to hurt a d wa f r o m friend. fri speeches However, made by after about three afte Wike from hours of hearing hou different the matter, the occasions of judge jjudg g adjourned campaign till today to

continue with cross examination of the first defence witness.

Igbanoi denied strongly that THISDAY was out to libel the claimant, Wike.

He stressed that the newspaper was only fulfilling its constitutional duty of informing the public and making a fair comment on the situation during the Edo State governorship election in the said publication.

While responding to some of the questions during the cross-examination, he further pointed out to the court, that Wike has been a public servant in the past two decades.

That his life therefore was an open book that is open to members of the public and therefore the media was free to comment on his utterances

and actions, whether positive or perceived negative. He cited examples of his televised statements as the Director General of the Rotimi Amaechi's Campaign Organisation where he praised Amaechi to high heavens and turned round a few years after to lampoon, castigate and lambast him at every given occasion.

He also pointed out that Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki whose campaign organisation he chaired is now his number one enemy to the dismay of the public.

That he has since been apologising to the former Edo State Governor and former APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole openly in the media.

After several hours the court adjourned the case to today.

IN DEFT POLITICAL MOVE, BUHARI’S MEN SET TO DOMINATE INCOMING APC NWC Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja In a demonstration of deft skill and intriguing art of political manoeuvring, President Muhammadu Buhari’s men appear to have stamped their authority on the incoming National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Buhari has, apparently, appropriated some of the key offices ahead of the party’s national convention coming up tomorrow, Saturday, March 26, in Abuja.

In a similar vein, THISDAY gathered that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) elements in APC had adopted Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi as their nominee for the office of National Vice Chairman, South-west. With this, the CPC leg of the APC merger, Buhari’s original group, seem to be establishing a foothold in the South-west and other zones in the south.

Ahead of tomorrow’s convention of the ruling party, Nasarawa State Governor and Chairman of the Media Committee of the national convention, Abudulahi Sule, assured that the consensus arrangement that would be adopted tomorrow in choosing candidates for the party offices conformed to the 2022 Electoral Act. Sule spoke yesterday at a press conference in Abuja.

Beyond the convention, APC will today hold a policy conference in preparation for the post-Buhari era. Secretary of the committee and Director General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while addressing a preconvention conference, with the theme, "Consolidating Democracy: Scorecard, Impact and the Road Ahead.”

That was as Buhari hosted the founding fathers of the ruling party to dinner at his official residence at the State House, Abuja, yesterday.

The president, who had watched the APC crisis peak a couple of weeks ago, before stepping in, began to stamp his authority on some of major offices with a message that clearly dismissed insinuations he would sit by and watch others do it or allow things take shape without lifting a finger.

First, before the president left for London on a short medical trip some weeks ago, he had hinted at his choice for the national chairmanship of the party, a move that unsettled all initial permutations. It also sent other stakeholders, particularly, the APC governors, back to the drawing board. The governors tried to rally and pushback on the president's decision. For a while, it seemed they were succeeding.

But with the crisis not abating, Buhari showed his hand again, albeit in a different way, when he ordered the sack of Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, and his replacement with Niger State Governor Abubakar Bello. Bello acted in Buni’s stead and took far-reaching decisions within a week that he was in office.

However, when the legal implications of Buhari’s rather hasty directive were evaluated, and a warning was served by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which declined to recognise Bello, Buhari rescinded some of his decisions. Though the former national secretary of the party, John Akpanudoedehe, was sacrificed in the process.

Since his return, Buhari had taken

some deft political decisions meant to shape the outcome of tomorrow’s national convention. These include establishing that consensus was the way to go at the convention, meaning there would be a unity list, particularly, of the core prospective NWC members Besides, the president had long hinted at the possibility of consensus, when sometime back, he told his party members that APC had always embraced the consensus approach since inception, citing the emergence of Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and Adams Oshiomhole as examples to buttress his point.

In quick turns, therefore, the president on Wednesday met with the APC governors at State House, Abuja, after which he also met with the contenders for the post of national chairman of the party. Some members of the party claimed it was part of moves to further show his hand and interest in some of the key NWC positions.

Thus, in another letter this March, the president had, allegedly, signed off four NWC offices with preferred aspirants that would not be challenged, as other stakeholders perfected the “unity list” to fill other positions.

The NWC offices include the

national chairman, the national secretary, organising secretary, and deputy national chairman, south, of the party.

Interestingly, the president, who sources claimed did not ask or interfere with what other stakeholders in the party were doing with the non-NWC offices, moved beyond his influence in the north, to now exert same influence in the south.

For instance, for the national chairmanship of the party, Buhari had so far indicated interest in a former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, a man, who was not even in the race some months ago, but was only appointed to reconcile some of the aggrieved members of the party.

Up until some hours ago, the notion was that the South-west wing of the APC had settled for Senator Iyiola Omisore, from Osun State, as the candidate for the office of national secretary. But there were some last minute developments, which showed that the president had signed off on Mr. Ifeoluwa Oyedele, a 2020 governorship aspirant of the party in Ondo State.

Similarly, news doing the rounds had it that the president had included in his list of choice candidates a former president of the Senate, Senator Ken Nnamani, from Enugu State,

Continued on page 49

RIDING ON NATIONAL MOOD, PETER OBI JOINS PRESIDENTIAL RACE Speaking on his declaration, Obi said, he decided to declare his intention to run for president, while also calling for prayers and support from the monarchs.

The former banker said, "I am talking to the traditional rulers, because if somebody begins any journey, he must first tell his fathers. I am telling you as my fathers that I am coming out to contest the position of the President of Nigeria.

"If I am voted as the president, I will secure Nigeria, create jobs for the teeming youths of the country and pull Nigeria out of poverty. Everything I have done regarding resources, I have manage them proudly. I want to move this country forward.

I'm a Nigerian, I believe in one united Nigeria, and I want it secured.

"I am not just aspiring for political position but to serve and move the country forward.

I have all it takes to be president and move the country forward.

You know me and you know how Nigeria is today. In 2019, I went with Atiku as the vice presidential candidate but today I want to come out on my own.

"I just came to seek your blessing as traditional rulers of the state. I am here to tell you as my own fathers that, I am aspiring for the president of Nigeria," Obi told the monarchs.

But Aliyu, who remarked on the Obi presidency when he paid

THISDAY: WIKE NOT A MAN OF INTEGRITY, UNRELIABLE Wike also claimed that THISDAY accused him of undemocratically exerting influence on the primaries process of PDP in Edo State in aid of his ally, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, who was the beneficiary of the court order restraining Obaseki from participating in the PDP primaries.

Wike had also told the court that the defendants denigrated him before the entire world as a fake democrat, who engages in meddling in the internal affairs of All Progressives Congress, in order to get at his political enemy, the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi.

The matter was registered in suit No. PHC/1505/CS/2020. The court presided over by Justice Adolphus Enebeli, yesterday,

watched some of the video clips where Wike was speaking relating to the alleged reports in THISDAY. In the video clips presented

by Igbanoi and played in the courtroom as evidence to the said report, Wike was sighted in a campaign speaking about Obaseki as televised on Channels and TVC News.

The court also watched a video clip during an interview with the Governor televised by Arise News titled, "The politics and issues in PDP." A video clip of Wike praising Amaechi over his performance in Rivers State, when he was the Acting Director of Amaechi Campaign Organisation was also played.

However, during cross

Pushes for law to punish viol ators

Olawale Ajimotok Onyebuchi Ezigbo,an, Adedayo of fresh COVID-19 Akinwale in in the country, cases Chinedu EzeAbuja and the federal face masks. government in Lagos The federal embrace non-pha advocated ways yesterday advocacy governm With the uptick , which entails ent's ways of combatinrmaceutical followin to in the number a criminal offence for make it enacting laws state The federal g the virus. virus g the spread of the anyone to punish in the country reaching governm to take not to wear citizens, is in furtheran errant in the last three weeks, ent, spread level. a community for thepersonal responsibility ce of determination protectio has to get people its called on Nigerian to the fight s to own of It warned that in the absence lives by wholly n of their drugs against COVIDnon-pharmaceuti embracing 19, treatment or vaccine for the of cal methods or preventio combating COVID-1 n of the disease, people 9 such would have

675 new cases

push tally to

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ECOWAS End orses OkonjoIweala’s Nom ination as WTO Director Gen eral...Page 5 Continued on

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Omololu Ogunma Okocha, Adedayo de, Chuks yesterday to save the party in Abuja, Ernest Akinwale from the multiple of the Port Harcourt Chinwo in has been plunged crises it ForumProgressive Governo rs' Emenyonu in and Adibe Other member into by State (PGF) and the Kebbi the contests Benin for power among s of the Governor, delegation were its top officials Senator Abubaka the Chairman confirmed THISDAY All Progress exclusive national levels. at state and President r Bagudu, met of Northern Governor report last week ives Congres s' Forum planning (APC) governo and Plateau Muhammadu that they were the party's National s A delegatio Chairman State Buhari to seek rs moved Mr. governors, led n of the proffer his intervention and Mr. Simon Lalong,Governor, the party to move in to save his Adams Oshiomhole, , from by and the ward in Edo

by Chairma n party. ways forward for the Governor of Jigawa The simmeri collapse.

State, and Alhaji Abubaka State, the ng crisis in stripped him of his party worsene duties and privilege The APC r Badaru. s as party chair.

His suspensi governors' week as the Court of d last Appeal on was the affirmed the suspension of Continued

party organs

Party members protest, call for dissolution of NWC

on page 9

Davidson Iriekpen in Lagos, Chuks Okocha Harcourt-based Adibe Emenyo in Abuja and court that granted the nu in Benin order stopping the political foes Perhaps, Edo Governor, Mr. of Rivers State Nyesom Mr. Godwin State Governor, led by his predeces Wike, Obaseki, may have to go back sor, the to Nigeria's Hon. Rotimi Amaech school of governan i, ce to learn laying claims to the from the practical acting national chairman rudiments Nigerian Politics ship of the of 101 - which All Progressives Congres teaches you that 'the political (APC) - a move s enemy of your that assisted Adams friend, is not Oshiomh necessarily embattled National ole, the your Yesterday, a friend'.

Chairman court sitting of the ruling APC, in Port Harcour and t granted frustrated Amaechi an injunctio in his bid to n stopping governor from the national take control of the in the oppositiparticipating ahead structure of the party, of the 2023 on Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) election, which hepresidential primaries, slated is said to be intereste d in. . to pick its for Thursday, Amaechi's governorship protege, Chief candidate.

Victor Giadom, was stopped It was another Port

Southern Leade IN THE QUE Alleged Breach of rs Sue Buhari over L-R: ST FOR PEAC Federal Character... SenatorGoverno r of Plateau, E...

Mr. Simon Lalong; Atiku Bagudu, Page 6 Chairman of as well as after Continued on

page 8

a meeting with

Progressives Governo Governors’ Forum President Muhamm r of Jigawa State, Alhaji Muhamm (PGF) and Kebbi adu Buhari on ad Badaru, briefing the crises in State Governo APC, in Abuja State House r, ...yesterday correspondents godwin omoigui

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NEWS

Group News Editor: Goddy Egene Email: Goddy.egene@thisdaylive.com, 0803 350 6821, 0809 7777 322

LASU'S 25TH CONVOCATION CEREMONY...

L-R: Chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Gbolahan Elias; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Business mogul, Mr. Goodie Ibru conferred with an honorary doctorate degree, his wife, Emuobor; Vice Chancellor, LASU, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello and Olorogun Oscar Ibru, during the 25th convocation ceremony of LASU, at the Buba Marwa Complex, the School campus, Ojo,... yesterday

Oil Theft: NUPRC Meets with Oil Producers, Pushes for Accurate Data on Stolen Crude Commission says menace poses threat to Nigeria’s survival as losses hit $3.27bn in 13 months It’s organised crime, stakeholders insist

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) yesterday met with Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), the groups that form the core of companies drilling oil in Nigeria, as part of efforts to halt the massive oil theft in the country.

Describing the phenomenon as a national disaster, the Chief Executive of the commission, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, told the groups that the meeting was to share information as to the actual number of crude oil losses confronted by the entities.

Although during a presentation at the event, the commission stressed that Nigeria may have lost as much as $3.27 billion to vandalism between January 2021 and February 2022, a period of 13 months, it noted that the industry figures needed to be reconciled.

In addition, it put the average monthly value lost during the period at $233.99 million, while on the average, it estimated that the country may have lost as much as $7.72 million on a daily basis.

However, Komolafe stressed that the issue of oil theft had become very critical to have divergent data on the menace, announcing that the reason for the meeting was to get all stakeholders’ view so as to confront the challenge using a common front.

“This is a one-agenda meeting and it centres on the issue of crude oil theft. The issue of oil theft has become a very worrisome one to the nation, to the government and I believe to you as investors in OPTS and IPPG, even as it is to us as your regulators.

“So, this is for us to sit at a roundtable and hear each other and share information. More worrisome, is that in recent times, we have had conflicting positions as to what is really happening in the upstream. As a responsible

regulator, there’s need for us to agree on the way forward and to hear your perspective.

“We need to have accurate figures. As a government we cannot continue to use abstract or inaccurate figures in a matter as important as crude oil theft.

We have set up a crack team to be able to have the information we need,” he stated.

Komolafe maintained that the challenge remained a disincentive to investment at a time Nigeria was in dire need of foreign exchange, assuring that the government was determined to make the industry more attractive for investors.

While promising positive change, Komolafe stated that no aspect of the value chain would be unattended to, saying President Muhammadu Buhari, had directed that Nigeria must be rid of the menace.

Komolafe said the government was determined to end the menace so that the country can benefit from the rising price of oil and also be able to protect the environment from oil spills.

“The concern of the government is to increase our national oil production. Basically, we are an oil economy and when the upstream is sick, it affects the wellbeing and the health of the country.

“The situation that is happening in the upstream is getting to the level of threat to the existence and wellbeing of Nigeria. As a responsible regulator, we are very concerned about it. We have been doing a lot and we are not relenting.

“We will do everything possible to increase oil production in a manner that will make the nation benefit from the upward swing in the international price of crude oil,” he noted.

Similarly, during the presentation, the commission disclosed that most of the crude oil losses came from Bonny Terminal Network, Forcados Terminal as well as Brass Terminal.

It listed factors aiding the criminal activities as: economic challenges, inadequate security, poor surveillance, poor community engagements, exposed facilities and stakeholder compromises.

The commission stated that due to the high level of theft, the country had been unable to meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production quota.

Also speaking, Senior Technical Adviser to the CEO, Abel NSA, said that the impacts of the phenomenon include loss of value-a situation where government revenue is adversely affected, increased costs-due to frequent repairs of damaged facilities and environmental degradation due to spillages by the activities of saboteurs.

On actions taken to mitigate the challenge, he said work teams had been set up to deliberate on workable solutions, identify various responsible parties and propose improvement areas.

In addition, he noted that a public, private approach was being adopted while the implementation of the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was ongoing.

He noted that on the community side, the outlook was to engage, carry out awareness campaigns as well as ensure prompt payment of community contractors, while the installation of check meters, engagement of competent entities for pipelines surveillance and pipelines integrity assessment were being envisaged.

Also speaking, Chairman/ Managing Director of ExxonMobil,

Richard Laing who represented OPTS, maintained that the issue had grown beyond mere theft to what he described as, “organised criminality” involving sophisticated operations.

“As an industry, I know how hard my colleagues work to produce products that we need and to suffer the level of theft that we have is disheartening. But more importantly it is a threat to investments, a threat to the health of the industry and wealth of the nation “It is important that the stakeholders integrate their activities and their thoughts.

As OPTS we have met with a number of stakeholders over the last several months and we want to make sure that whatever we do is joined up and effective.

“The language is very important and I think we use theft rather quickly. I don’t think this is theft, this is organised criminal activity.

“The level of sophistication in terms of tapping into the pipelines, the distributions, efforts required to move hundreds of thousands of barrels a day isn’t some guy coming along and tapping into a pipeline and taking container crude oil. It is organised criminality,” he insisted.

Also commenting, the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) represented by the Managing Director of Waltersmith Petroman, Chikezie Nwosu, disclosed that about 82 per cent of its members' production was stolen in the month of February 2022.

Osinbajo: FG Spent N80bn on Health Sector Re-equipment Initiative Dangote seeks more PPP in sector Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said the federal government made strident effort to improve the health of Nigerians, including committing over N80 billion to equip health institutions across the country.

He said this yesterday, while declaring open a two-day summit on Primary HealthCare Development in Nigeria holding in Abuja.

In addition, Osinbajo said the federal government had also set up special fund under the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund to help address high cost of healthcare for the poor.

Osinbajo's explanation came just as the Chairman of the Dangote Group of companies,

Alhaji Aliko Dangote advised the federal government to prioritise the promotion of public private partnerships in the area of pharmaceutical manufacturing, investments in technology, training of health workers and improving Primary Healthcare Care (PHC) infrastructure.

While speaking on funding expectations, Executive Director of the National Primary HealthCare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib said that Nigeria would require about N2. 7 trillion over a 10-year period to get to the right PHC standards.

Also, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire said the government was determined to revitalise facilities and services at the various healthcare centres at designated communities.

He proposed that subnational governments should consider supporting the federal government's one percent of consolidated federal revenue (CFR ) to Basic Health Care Provision Fund with equal matching grants for their own states and for Local Government Areas, respectively.

Speaking further, Osinbajo said the government had initiated measures to contain the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing the Economic Sustainability Programme and establishing Health Sector Intervention Fund.

According to Osinbajo, the government has so far spent about N80 billion to finance the acquisition and installation of critical medical equipment in the hospitals. " I think it is appropriate that

we should reflect more on the state of Primary HealthCare in Nigeria, especially tracking the progress made in the key components of the Primary HealthCare such as public education, immunisation, clean water, and sanitation, maternal and child healthcare and drug provision," he said.

Osinbajo further said the federal government was pursuing the initiative of collaborating with the private sector to enhance the development and operations of the health sector.

On his part, Ehanire said the federal government's target was to have at least one functional PHC per ward, along with an adequate complement of human resources for health, comprising at the least of nurses, skilled birth attendants and other staff for basic healthcare.

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NEWS

PERFORMING CLASSIC MUSIC...

L-R: U.S. Ambassador, Mary Beth Leonard; U.S. Arts Envoy and classical pianist, Pauline Yang; with Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama, shortly after Pauline's opening performance in Abuja...recently.

CBN Adopts Measures to Mitigate Looming Food Crisis FX demand management policy has stabilised naira, says Emefiele Eromosele Abiodun, James Emejo and Nume Ekeghe in Akure and John Shiklam in Kaduna The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has adopted measures to mitigate the impending food crisis occasioned by the crisis in Russia and Ukraine.

Governor of the CBN, Dr. Godwin Emefiele disclosed this in Kaduna, yesterday, during the unveiling of the second maize pyramids under the CBN/Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

Also yesterday, Emefiele said the bank’s foreign exchange (FX) demand management policy had stabilised the naira at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window.

Speaking further in Kaduna, Emefiele said the volume of maize pyramids in Kaduna was intended to serve as stock for the Strategic Maize Reserve (SMR) to be released immediately to major millers.

Emefiele who was represented

by CBN Director, Development Finance Department, Mr. Philip Yila Yusuf, said the apex bank was committed to financing 600,000 hectres as the farming season approaches.

He explained: “Our strategy is hinged on improving productivity by providing more funding for the anchors to enable them to utilise high quality inputs and good agronomic practices to boost output.

“Bringing recent happenings globally into perspective, two of the top ten exporters of maize (Argentina and Brazil) experienced droughts in 2021, while another two (Ukraine and Russia) are at war.

“This will certainly impact on maize supply globally and drive prices northwards. Consequently, we have planned a more robust and timely wet season to commence in April 2022 for maize and other key commodities like rice, wheat, cassava, sorghum and soyabeans to mitigate the impending food crisis occasioned by the crisis in Russia and Ukraine”.

Emefiele said prior to the CBN’s initiation of the maize revolution under the ABP, growth of maize production in Nigeria used to be largely due to the increase in hectares of cultivated land and not yields per hectares.

He said: “The yield prior to 2016/2017 in Nigeria was as low as 1.8MT/Ha, considered as the lowest among the top 10 maize producers in Africa, behind countries such as Egypt and South Africa where the yields are 7.7 MT/ Ha and 5.3MT/Ha, respectively.”

The CBN governor explained further that, this low yield resulted in the country's inability to meet the domestic and industrial maize demand.

He said in order to address the challenge of low yield, the apex bank had developed a framework for the participation of some seed companies in the 2021 wet season farming under the ABP to produce hybrid seeds that would guarantee high yield for farmers.

Emefiele said further that the CBN was partnering with Flour Mills in Nigeria and technical experts to introduce Good Agronomic Practices (GAP) through practical farm demonstration to farmers and extension workers, aimed at improving the yield of maize per hectare from an average of 2.5 tonnes per hectare to six tonnes per hectare.

“It is gratifying to note that the nation’s maize production as at date, is 12.2 million metric tonnes from 10.5 million metric tonnes in 2015 when the anchor borrowers’ programme commenced.

“This increased production is taken from the farmers as repayment for the loans and put in a strategic maize reserve.

“The Strategic Maize Reserve (SMR) which was established in December 2020 as a short-term measure pending the revitalisation of the Nigeria Commodity Exchange is meant to moderate the price of maize in the country through strategic and phased releases to millers and poultry farmers.

“This was in line with the Banks’ mandate of ensuring price stability and sustainable supply of maize to high demand industries,” the CBN governor said.

He said the CBN remained committed to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy. This, according to him could be attested to by the numerous development finance interventions deployed to reduce the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and households.

Also speaking the President of MAAN, Dr. Abubakar Bello, thank the CBN governor for providing the enabling environment for smallholder farmers.

He said the event demonstrated the capacity of MAAN in mobilising Nigerian farmers to produce, “what can sustain us and even export

over a period of time.”

He said the official unveiling of the pyramids was a genuine feedback to the present administration's determination to lift many Nigerians out of extreme poverty and position agriculture as a business.

“There are 21 pyramids each constructed with between 30 - 79 trucks of maize.

“Despite the challenges and bearing in mind that money given for this farming is a loan, the resilient Nigerian maize farmers were able to produce what is being unveiled today,” he said.

Also in a keynote address, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Mohammed Abubakar, who was represented by the North West Zonal Director of Agriculture, Dr. Timkat Vontav, said the CBN ABP has been able to close the gap

between supply of maize grains and its demand by domestic and industrial users.

He said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) would also continue to support smallholder farmers as they have been identified as the engine room for the achievement of sufficient food production in Nigeria.

Demand Management FX Policy Has Stabilised Naira, Says Emefiele Meanwhile, Emefiele has said the bank’s foreign exchange demand management policy had stabilised the naira at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window.

He said the stability was particularly achieved followed the

discontinuation of FX allocation to Bureau De Change operators along with the convergence between the CBN and the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) rates.

Emefiele, also said the three-year bilateral currency swap agreement of $2.5 billion, equivalent to ¥15.0 billion or N720.0 billion between the CBN and the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC.) was already yielding positive results, and has helped to address supply gaps in forex administration.

He said the swap was part of the bank’s sustained efforts to reduce foreign exchange demand pressure and facilitate investment.

He added, “It is heartening to note that these policies are yielding positive results in terms of meeting genuine demand for foreign exchange and exchange rate stability.”

House Invites Kyari, Emefiele, Ahmed, Sylva, Others over State of Refineries Fix refineries with current oil windfall, Adeyemi tells FG Sunday Aborisade and Udora Orizu in Abuja The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating the state of refineries in the country has invited the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari; the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, to appear before the lawmakers on Thursday, March 31, to give account of the true state of refineries and what was needed to be done to function at maximum refining capacity.

The Committee also extended the invitation to other relevant key government stakeholders including

the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Auditor-General of the Federation, the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority, the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC), the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (WRPC), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila had on January, 2022, constituted the adhoc Committee to determine the state of refineries in the country and what was needed to bring them back to maximum refining capacity.

The Committee was mandated to work with the NNPC, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, and other relevant stakeholders to obtain the needed information in order to carry out the assignment.

The Committee therefore, on February 24, 2022, requested the GMD of the NNPC for a status report on the nation's refineries. The lawmakers specifically requested the GMD to provide, "Appraisal of the current state of refineries in the country, from year 2012 to date, copies of annual budgets on rehabilitation by the refineries from year 2012 to date, list of approvals/ fund releases for rehabilitation of refineries from year 2012 to date, the list of all contracts awarded for rehabilitation of refineries and award

letters issued to service providers and contractors from year 2012 to date, the actual cost of projects (contracts) and review (if any) stated in naira, work completion certificates issued on rehabilitation projects carried out on refineries from year 2012 to date, evidence of payments made for all such contracts awarded from year 2012 to date, list of service providers and contractors that handled the rehabilitation of refineries from year 2012 to date and any other relevant information to assist the Committee in the course of this assignment."

The lawmakers, while appreciating the response of the NNPC to their request and acknowledged receipt of their submissions and information so far provided, however pointed out that the submission made by the NNPC did not adequately provide answers to most of the request made to them by the letter.

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FOR A PARTNERSHIP ON CANCER… L-R: Programme Management Officer for Nigeria at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Dr. Mickel Edward; Chairman, Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Prof. Yusuf A. Ahmed; Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu and Director of Technical Cooperation for Africa at the IAEA, Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak, during a visit by IAEA and NAEC to Medicaid Cancer Foundation for a partnership on cancer in Abuja ...recently

Tinubu Donates N1bn for LASU Leadership Development Centre Sanwo-Olu inaugurates 60-bed hospital as Lagos varsity holds 25th convocation Funmi Ogundare Former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday, donated the sum of N1 billion for the establishment of a Centre of Leadership Development at the Lagos State University.

The Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, who represented Tinubu, also delivered the institution’s 25th convocation lecture, titled, 'Global Trends: The Rightful Place of Nigeria in the World.'

In the lecture, Tinubu asked if Nigerians love each other enough to construct a better political, social and economic home by building a dynamic and firm structure of building blocks never before seen in the country.

According to him, the society cannot thrive in an air of mistrust and acrimony, adding that to flourish, there must be a full understanding that every

Nigerian, regardless of place or social circumstance, was equally entitled to the fundamental good things all human beings deserve and desire.

"Let us not befool ourselves.

History is patient, yet not forever lenient regarding negligent folly.

There comes a time when there is no time. Either action is taken, and the urgent word said or precious chance slips away, lost forever.

“Our nation approaches such a moment. We have boasted of enormous potential for decades, consoling our discomfort by saying that potential will be realised tomorrow. But something disappointing seems to happen when tomorrow becomes today.

Years and decades have passed; yet greatness remains elusive. " He said Nigeria should be among the greatest nations in human history if greatness came merely by speaking of it, but expressed concern that the

Nile Varsity Appoints Shehu of Borno Chancellor, Dogo as VC Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Nile University of Nigeria has appointed the Shehu of Borno, His Royal Highness, Dr Abubakar Garbai, as Chancellor of the institution.

The Proprietor and Board of Trustees of the university, in a statement, explained that the move was to strengthen capacity and enhance academic excellence in the university.

In addition, the school stated that Prof. Dilli Dogo, the erstwhile Provost, College of Health Sciences, Nile University of Nigeria, has been selected as the new Vice-Chancellor of the university.

According to the institution, the school made the key changes and appointments within its governance structure, in line with the its strategic plan to reposition and realign itself to meet global standards.

Furthermore, it stated that this would help achieve the goals and objectives of "Honoris United Universities," the first and largest Pan-African private higher education network, which acquired Nile University in 2020.

"The board is pleased to announce the appointment of His Royal Highness, Dr. Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai EL-Kanemi CFR, the Shehu

of Borno Emirate, as the Chancellor of the University.

"The appointment of His Royal Highness was in recognition of his renowned contributions to the educational and economic development of Nigeria, his laudable achievements, and outstanding landmarks, especially during his distinguished career as Permanent Secretary in the Ministries of Finance, Works and Housing, and Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

"Furthermore, His Royal Highness has been an exemplary and sacrificial father and friend to all irrespective of tribe or religion," the statement from the university added.

It explained that this was illustrated through his contributions and continuous interest in poverty alleviation, care for widows and orphans, youth development, and empowerment since his ascension to the over 1,200-year-old throne of the Borno empire.

As Chancellor of the University, the statement said the new appointee would be the honorary head of the university and represent the university occasionally in a ceremonial and ambassadorial capacity as well as take precedence before all other members of the university while presiding at meetings of convocation.

country remained an economy unjustly designed to export raw material and import increasingly expensive finished products.

"We must be truthful enough to acknowledge this lapse, bold enough to correct it, and tolerant enough not to endlessly vilify each other for causing it. We are all both cause and hopefully solution, "Tinubu said, adding that “we must all join hands to reform the nation.”

In her remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Bello, said the convocation lecture, was timely and relevant.

She said the institution's choice of Tinubu as the convocation lecturer was informed by his pedigree as an outstanding and visionary leader who has significantly contributed to Nigeria's trajectory as a nation, especially the survival and enrichment of our democracy, even in the face of personal sacrifice.

"Asiwaju has committed himself to learning and perfecting the act of sound leadership, ultimately for the benefit of the people of Lagos, his primary constituency, the South West, his wider constituency and the nation as a whole,” she added.

With a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.97 over a scale of 5.0, Benjamin Damilare Olowu became the overall Best Graduating Student at the 25th

convocation of the Lagos State University (LASU) in Ojo. The valedictorian, who hails from Epe Local Government Area of the State, finished from the Department of Mechanical Engineering with the highest grade point in the faculty’s record.

Also, 111 others graduated with a First Class across the 10 faculties in the school. The graduands were awarded the degrees at the convocation held at the campus yesterday.

The Visitor to the school, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, applauded the feat attained by the university, stressing that the school had sustained the established culture of excellence and quality tertiary education.

The Ojo campus of the school was agog with activities, as dignitaries from various parts of the country trooped to the campus for the ceremony.

Sanwo-Olu, in his address, said LASU had evolved from its humble beginnings to attain a world-class status, noting that the quality of graduates churned out by the school testified to LASU’s tenacity of purpose, teamwork, drive for innovation in teaching, learning and research.

With Lagos ranked the fifth largest economy in Africa, the governor said the state offered

possibilities that could support the graduands’ creativity and entrepreneurial dreams.

He said: “Lagos State University has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1984 to its current world-class status. Our administration is proud of the great heights the institution has attained. I congratulate the management team, staff, students and other members of the university community for continually striving for excellence.

Feats achieved by today’s graduands are testimonies of LASU’s tenacity of purpose, teamwork, and drive for innovation in teaching, learning and research, which are in line with the vision of the founding fathers of the university.

“As a government, we will continue to provide the enabling environment for our youths to engage in meaningful educational and economic activities to add value to themselves, while also contributing meaningfully to the rising profile of Lagos as the economic and industrial hub of Nigeria and Africa.

“We have the market, as well as the population, that offer possibilities to support creativity of young people and their entrepreneurial ideas. Lagos, which is the 5th largest economy in our continent, is the place to be, to dream big and to implement even bigger ideas.”

Sanwo-Olu reminded the graduands that the contemporary world of work had changed, stressing that the graduates’ future would be defined by their ability to constantly adapt to ever-changing realities.

The governor reiterated his administration’s commitment to provide requisite support for all state-owned institutions to allow for growth, academic excellence, and to enable them compete well with their peers in any part of the world.

Sanwo-Olu disclosed that the state government had awarded the contract for the construction of the first-ever LASU Technology hub as a measure to achieve the vision for sustainable education and technology in line with his administration’s development agenda.

He said: “We have commenced the installation of LED Double Combo Renewable Energy Street Lighting of about 6.6km perimeter spots across the LASU main campus to ensure safety and security of lives of our students and workers during the day and at night. Also, the construction of six blocks of Hall of Residence, which will give 8,272 bed spaces, is on-going. This Public Private Partnership (PPP) project will soon be completed and commissioned for our students’ use.

FG Partners UNICEF, Microsoft, GPE to Reach 12m Learners by 2025 Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The federal government has envisioned to reach 12 million learners in the country by 2025 following its partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Microsoft and Global Partnership for Education (GPE) under the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) initiative.

This was as the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said to ensure continuity of learning for all children, the country must change and reimagine the education sector.

Osinbajo stated this at the official launch of the programme in Abuja, yesterday.

The NLP which is an online, mobile, and soon–to–be offline platform that would allow continuous access to quality

education, aims at reaching three million learners by 2022 and 12 million learners in the country by 2025.

It was designed for pre-primary, primary and secondary school learning, providing access for children, youths and teachers to access a digitalised curriculum with learning materials in all core subjects for primary one to six, and all all junior and secondary school classes.

Osinbajo, who was represented at the event by the Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said there has been significant improvement in the sector but access to learning remains a big challenge.

"Over the last decade, Nigeria has made great strides in improving access to education. In the last

five years, pre-primary school participation increased from 45 per cent to 61 per cent, primary enrollment increased by five million. The rate of out-of-school children decreased by 10 per cent, from 42 per cent to 32 per cent.

"These are phenomenal achievements but access to school does not equate to learning. Nigeria is facing learning crisis. Millions of children and young people are not developing even the basic skills they need to break out of poverty due to destruction to schooling and learning by incessant security, COVID-19 as well as more recent attacks.

"To ensure continuity of learning for all children and the resilience of education systems to future shocks, we must change and reimagine the education sector.”

He added: "Deploying innovations that rethink the current methodologies, including new approaches to delivering education in ways that defy the digital divide, and ensuring learning continuity in emergencies, has become imperative.

"This launch set the foundation for creating a system of education where digital technology will be used to transform the way that learning is provide and meet the need of every child. The NLP is an effective tool to ensure the continuity of learning through access to curriculum."

On his part, the UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Hawkins, said the platform could be quickly deployed, customised and scaled-up nationally, including in low connectivity areas.

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POLITICS

APC’s National Chair and the Ballyhoo in North Central Zone Judge Jackson, Supreme Court, Blacks and Booker Chido Nwangwu recounts his understanding of how the first African- American Supreme Court Judge may impact on America

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watched U.S Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, in the early evening of March 23, 2022, speak like a soulful and inspired evangelist, manifestly awash in a spiritual efferves-

ence.

His full-throated appreciation of this ebony beauty woman of grace and intellect that he called “My Sister!” reverberated with his vibrant personality. With his bulging, piercing eye balls, history-rich mind and prayers and blessings, Brother Booker brought Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson (KBJ) to tears.

Senator Booker’s impassioned speech also highlighted the plight of Black Americans especially Black women. He connected the efforts of their forebears and parents which made it possible for him, the 4th Black man elected Senator in the U.S, and Judge Jackson to sit together in the same Senate hearing room.

“It’s hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom. Not to see my cousins, one of them who had to come here and sit behind you. She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours,” Booker soared. “But don’t worry, my Sister. Don’t worry. God has got you. And how do I know that? You’re here, and I know what it’s taken for you to sit

in that seat…. You have earned this spot….

You are worthy. You are a great American.”

The young Senator Booker, born April 27, 1969, dug deep into our African/AfricanAmerican history to recall the names of a couple of distinguished Blacks on whose shoulders and examples Judge Jackson, Booker and many others have risen! Especially, the slave abolitionist Harriet Tubman who fought for her own freedom and freed many slaves: “I thought about her. And how she looked up, she kept looking up no matter what they did to her she never stopped looking up. And that star was a harbinger of hope…. Today, you’re my star. You are my harbinger of hope. This country’s getting better and better and better.

And when that final vote happens, and you ascend on to the highest court in the land, I’m going to rejoice.”

Many in the room were moved to tears.

Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions who watched on television, were touched deeply by Booker’s authentic, honest, emotional, heartfelt comments about KBJ. He held up “Our Sister” beyond the choking malice and pettifogging by five or six Republican Senators.

The truth is that Senator Booker’s spiritfilled oratory and rendering of the unfolding waves of history and the power of the momentous movement of history via KBJ made me tear up, too.

“Oratory is good only if it has the qualities of fitness for the occasion, propriety of style, and originality of treatment….” Those fitting words and contextualization of speech and oratorical flourish were said by Isocrates (not Socrates). He was one of ancient Greece’s top rhetorician.

-Dr. Nwangwu serves as Founder & Publisher of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline. com NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

The Only Way Out is to Restructure Nigeria Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko revisits the issue of the urgent need to restructure Nigeria

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he 2023 general election isn’t the most pressing and urgent need Nigeria has today.

Saving the country through a consensual restructuring of the polity, is the most urgent need.

For the next several months, struggle for political power, relevance and dominance of the political space, will rule the airwaves, media space, our souls and spirit and even our sociocultural world.

Party congresses, primaries, candidates, and election of friends, allies and relatives will occupy our every breath, world and activities.

Political power at the state and federal level certainly ensures patronage flow our way.

Our dreams are taken care of. We are stupendously empowered by our political friends and associates in power and we cross over to the billionaire club, where we eat well, party well and travel all over the world in first class.

An opportunity to sustain our lavish lifestyle and maintain a stranglehold on the polity and ensure we are covered.

Covered as we milk the country dry, covered from prosecution as we align with the power base.

Covered as we live our dream life.

Presently, nocturnal meetings, fierce rivalry, betrayal, decamping and high wire intrigue of all shades rule.

Scheming and plotting for power dominates our consciousness for the next eleven months.

Folks husbanding huge war chests in safe Bank vaults abroad, surreptitiously ferry in the hard currency in tranches to fight the elections.

Cash flows around. Excitement fills the air.

All kinds of amorphous and hardly existent groups and organisations are hurriedly formed to issue press releases and also pay solidarity visits up and down.

-Ugochukwu-Uko is the Founder: Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) and Secretary: Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA) NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

SufuyanOjeifoarguesthatotherregionsofthecountry have as much stake in the national chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress

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he race for the position of the national chair of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) has been understandably intriguing: whoever steps in the saddle looks good to produce the winner of the forthcoming presidential election. This, of course, is assuming the APC gets its act together and presents a sellable and winning candidate from the southern part of the country.

Remarkably, since the party’s leadership guard ceded the position to the northern part of the country, there had been no let up in the jostle by political gladiators from the three geo-political zones for the significant position, until recently when the party defused regional tension by microzoning the position to the north central zone, thus causing ballyhoo in the zone.

Nasarawa and Niger States have the majority of the aspirants. Both states have two aspirants apiece. Benue and Kwara States have one aspirant each. Interestingly, it is in Nasarawa that the contest for the position has become more intense, more rambunctious as two former governors of the State who are both incumbent senators, to wit: Abdullahi Adamu and Tanko Al-Makura have either directly or through proxies taken on each other over the position. These are clearly two formidable forces that have their respective spheres of control in the state The state governor, Abdullahi Sule, controls the machinery of governance with which he can weigh in some substantial influence in the politics of the state. He can somewhat determine where the pendulum swings between Adamu and Al-Makura.

And, although, he had openly said that the state had endorsed Al-Makura, yet there were suggestions in some circles that the purported endorsement was not neither here nor there. Although, Governor Sule is believed to be closer to Al-Makura than he is to Adamu, the question is whether or not this closeness counts for something in the consummation of the chairmanship race.

Remarkably, the purported endorsement of Adamu by President Buhari had caused serious disquiets in Nasarawa until Adamu reportedly declared that the President had not endorsed him.

For instance, both camps had resorted to circulating purported lists wherein Buhari “endorsed” both Adamu and Al-Makura for the same position of national chairman. It was quite apparent that some shenanigans bordering on desperation had crept in to embarrass the presidency. The process was turned into a comic tragedy, almost devoid of the characteristic solemnity that would have ultimately benefitted from the halo of presidential approbation.

This (approbation), of course, would have come after some layers of critical party stakeholders, for instance, the APC governors from the zone would have sat together to shortlist maybe two or three aspirants for the president to make a pick.

That is one way of doing it. The other way would have been to arrive on a consensus candidate agreeable to the governors and the aspirants themselves who would then be presented to the president for his acceptance and or endorsement.

But, as it is, APC will be working straight into the eye of the storm if some forces insist on arm-twisting the president into adopting anyone in Nasarawa for the position of national chairman. Two power centres would have been created if that happens: the governor and the national chairman.

The protection of their respective political interests will create avoidable tension. The tension and subsequent crisis can, indeed, be avoided by taking the position of national chairman to a state without an APC governor. Niger State does not qualify for consideration because an APC governor is in the saddle there. Although Kwara has an aspirant-Salisu Mustapha- yet an APC governor is in the saddle there. The only state in the north central zone that qualifies for such consideration is Benue where incidentally a former two-term governor of the state, three-term senator and current Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, George Akume, is the only aspirant.

Analysts, in fact, contend that the APC will be pushing its luck too far if it decides to settle for the national chairman from either Niger or Nasarawa State. Add Kwara

State to the list. Their argument is that the party has enough problems that are already confronting it to now add the mischief of picking and pitching a national chairman against a sitting governor, especially in Nasarawa and Kwara States where the governors are serving the first term of office. Even in Niger, where the governor is serving out his second term, there may be conflict of interest in the choice of a successor.

None of the scenarios supra can happen between now and 2023 general elections in Benue State. This should be factored into the overall consideration by the owners of the party in determining the consensus candidate for the position of national chairman, whose choice will be validated on March 26 at the national convention scheduled to hold at the Eagle Square.

As I had proposed in some previous articles on the same subject matter, I hereby restate my proposition to the party apparatchiks that they would be doing the party a world of good if they steer it away from the eye of the storm by going to a state without the potentialities for leadership conflict or conflict of political interests by sundry power centres to pick the party’s consensus candidate. The only state and aspirant that are not problematic in this instance are Benue and Akume. Benue has a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor in place and Akume is the only aspirant from Benue State jostling for APC’s national chair.

Significantly, Akume is expected to bring his political sagacity to bear on the running of the party. He can be trusted to provide a just leadership. He would bring to the table the gravitas of political accommodation anchored on the imperativeness of conciliation. Akume’s leadership will run on the philosophy of mutual respect for the leaders and members of the party alike. He would know how to relate with governors because he was once a governor; he would do the same with legislators because he was once a senator; he would understand leaders in the executive arm of the federal government, including ministers, because he wears the minister ’s shoe presently.

Akume can disarm the most rambunctious forces or political elements with the magnitude of his calmness. His charismatic persona and penetrative intelligence will always be deployed in bolstering the image of the party at the level of national and international conversations around the manifestoes of the APC and the philosophies of the federal government that the party is advantageously set to produce in 2023.

A Christian Tiv, time and socio-political interactions have shown that Akume’s religious and ethnic pedigrees resonate well with the people of the entire northern region. He is not known to discriminate on the basis of religion and ethnicity. He has seamlessly, through his eleemosynary acts, cemented the bond of brotherhood and camaraderie with political associates and traditional institution across the country.

A man who has been so selfless, and quiet about it (selflessness) cannot suddenly become overbearing, dictatorial and acting askance once he becomes national chairman.

Without a doubt, he will continue to sustain his antecedents of solid socio-cultural and political goodwill on the platform of APC’s national chairmanship. Since this may be my last intervention before the emergence of a consensus candidate and the national convention, I restate my proposition that the APC should try out Akume for size in terms of quality, transparent, just and accommodating leadership.

-Mr Ojeifo contributed this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com

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FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022 • T H I S D AY

BANKING The Rise and Rise of Access Bank Oluchi Chibuzor writes on the impressive full year 2021 financial statement recently released

by Access Bank Plc and how the financial institution has been position for greater profitability

A

ccess Bank Plc recently announced its financial statement for the full year 2021, which showed that the bank is not willing to rest on its oars.

In the results presented on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited(NGX), the bank which on March 22, 2022, celebrated 20 years after its acquisition by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and Herbert Wigwe, announced a 40 per cent increase in its audited financial statement for period ended December 31, 2021, to N176.7 billion from the N125.9 billion reported as of December 31, 2020.

Similarly, the lender grew its profit for the year by 51 per cent to N160.2 billion from N106 billion in 2020 financial year. The bank’s gross earnings also rose by 27 per cent to N971.9billion in 2021, up from the N764.7 billion reported in 2020, with interest and non-interest income contributing 62 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.

Additionally, the group’s assets base remained strong and resilient with total assets of N11.7 trillion as at December 2021, which was a growth of 35 per cent compared with the N8.7 trillion posted at the end of 2020.

The results also showed that Access Bank’s customer deposits jumped to N7 trillion in 2021, higher than the N5.6 trillion reported in 2020, while net loans and advances totaled at N4.4 trillion in 2021, up from the N3.6 trillion reported in 2020.

Shedding more light on the stellar performance, the Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, explained that the diversified business model yielded positive sustainable results, guided by a robust risk management framework, as we grew the business cautiously and recorded sound prudential ratios.

According to Wigwe, the 2021 full year results reinforced the financial institution’s resolve to generate sustainable returns despite challenging market conditions.

“The Group achieved a 27 per cent yearon-year growth in gross earnings to N971.9 billion (FY 2020: N764.7 billion), leading to an improvement in the profit after tax to N160.2 billion (FY 2020: N106.0billion). Consequently, our Return on Average Equity (ROAE) stood at 17.8 per cent, tracking in line with our commitment to stakeholders.

“We sustained robust capital and liquidity positions, well above regulatory levels with a Basel II Capital Adequacy Ratio of 24.5per cent and a liquidity ratio of 51 per cent,” Wigwe added.

This, according to him, positions Access Bank to support its customers across various markets and adequately execute its expansion strategy.

“To actualise our vision of becoming the world’s most respected African Bank and Africa’s Payment Gateway, we have taken strategic strides to create indelible footprints across the African continent.

“These include our most recent additions in South Africa, Botswana, and Guinea We also strengthened our business in Mozambique and Zambia, with noticeable improvement in rankings and market share.

“In the year, we successfully issued the first Additional Tier 1 (AT1) Eurobond out of Nigeria. The $500 million instrument enhances our capital ratios and provides significant headroom for growth and the execution of our strategic objectives.

“We also issued a $500 million Senior Unsecured Eurobond during the period, elongating the duration of our forex balance sheet and strengthening our liquidity. 2022 is pivotal for our franchise, as we conclude our 2018-2022 corporate strategic plan. In the year, we will focus on a disciplined implementation of our strategy to drive efficiency and operational excellence across all segments, expand revenue and increase profitability, with enhanced focus on risk

Wigwe

management practices and a disciplined cost containment structure,” Wigwe added.

He added that: “As we go into our next 5-year strategy cycle, we are realigning the franchise for growth, by transitioning into a Holding Company (HoldCo). This will enable us to unlock and capture available non-banking opportunities in the market, that would lead to the diversification of our earnings, drive efficiency, and grow scale while maintaining our moderate risk management approach.

“Having met regulatory requirements and obtained the Court Sanction, we expect the HoldCo to become operational is the first half (H1) of 2022. This will lead to the delisting of Access Bank Plc’s shares on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) and listing of Access HoldCo shares.”

The HoldCo banking model is expected to enable the bank diversify its revenue and remain competitive in the financial market. Previously, FBN Holdings, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and FCMB Group, were the three financial institutions operating Holdco structures until last year when the central bank recently granted approval

“The approach would always be that in the country we wish to go to, that we have the right skills. We would not just be a drop in the country in which we are present, we would make sure that we have an impactful presence in each of the major countries in which we are present”

to Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank and Sterling Bank and, to convert their operations to Holdco.

A Holdco is a company set up for the purpose of making and managing (for its own account) equity investment in two or more companies, being its subsidiaries, engaged in the provision of financial services, one of which must be a bank.

The HoldCo will enable Access Bank prioritise value creation, agility to create a self-reinforcing ecosystem. While Access Holdco would be the parent company in the new structure, the subsidiaries to be created under the new structure are: Access Bank Group; Access Payco Group; Access Lendco; Access Insureco; Access Real Estate, and Others (e.g., ecommerce).

Precisely, there are five reasons the bank is transitioning towards a holdco and it includes value creation – to maximise revenue and value by establishing ecosystems; Agility – to enable the corporation to rapidly respond to a consistently changing market environment while maintaining oversight; to Leverage scale – that is to capture opportunities from local and global positioning to drive top and bottom-line growth; Best-in-class talent – to create an environment that would enable the corporation to hire the best and invest in innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership development, as well as to pool resources – by promote resource sharing and maximise synergies.

The bank is also using the wider banking model to build a self-reinforcing ecosystem that would be embedded in consumers’ lives. It strongly believes that the new structure would lead to great ambitions for the institution supported by selected strong partnerships and enablers to scale and among other things, it would see the institution move from a local bank to a global brand; from banking only, to an institution that is beyond banking; from one that connects Nigeria, to one that connects the world.

In addition, the HoldCo structure would enable Access Bank move from

just touching consumers to becoming an institution that is embedded in consumers’ life and from a situation where one in every two Nigerians have accounts with the bank, to one where one in every three Africans are its customers and also from being limited by the sovereign to one that is piercing the sovereign ceiling.

The Chairman of the bank, Dr. Ajoritsedere Awosika, believes that the HoldCo structure would create strategic flexibility and diversification of the group’s revenues.

Awosika said the restructuring would result in shareholders holding shares in the Holdco in the same proportion as their current holdings in the bank and the bank’s shares being held wholly by the Holdco.

On the justification for the restructuring, Awosika said the transition to a financial holding company was in line with considerations such as regulatory compliance, facilitation of growth and expansion in banking across Africa, diversification into permissible financial services and risk management.

Awosika explained that the structure would unburden the bank from oversight functions and responsibilities of managing the subsidiaries.

Beyond the HoldCo, Access Bank which has operations in 16 countries, plans to strengthen operations in nations with stronger currencies to stabilize earnings in its home market.

The lender targets deepening its services in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and Ghana to lead growth among the subsidiaries owing to either the size of the economies or strength of their currencies.

In the string of expansion across the African continent – including Cameroon (operating license), Kenya (Transnational Bank), Zambia (Cavmont Bank), among others, the bank had said it intends to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) to expand its footprint to 20 countries across the continent.

According to Wigwe, across Africa, there is an opportunity for the bank to expand to high-potential markets, leveraging the benefits of AfCFTA. He had said AfCFTA, among other benefits, would expand intra-Africa trade and provide real opportunities for Africa.

Wigwe said the bank would use its office in London to expand representative offices in India, Lebanon and China.

He stated that the plan is for the bank to establish its presence in 22 African countries so as to diversify its earnings and take advantage of growth opportunities in Africa.

According to him, Africa has enormous potential and there are opportunities for an African bank that is well run, that understands compliance and has the capacity to support trade and the right technology infrastructure to support payments and remittances, without taking incremental risks.

“We believe that we are best positioned to basically do all of that. Our focus is to become an aggregator in Africa and we are building a global payment gateway and providing trade finance support and correspondent banking across the continent. We are focusing on the key markets.

“The approach would always be that in the country we wish to go to, that we have the right skills. We would not just be a drop in the country in which we are present, we would make sure that we have an impactful presence in each of the major countries in which we are present.

“In doing this, we are also mindful of the country we are going to so as to make sure that it is of benefit to the bank. As we do this, we are working with our friends and partners,” he added.

Clearly, Access Bank is diversifying its earnings away from volatile markets as well positioning for increased profitability and higher value for shareholders.

20

FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 •T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022

21

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET

A S

REPO

A T

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Email oriarehu.eromosele@thisdaylive.com

08056356325

M A R C H

S & P INDEX

2 4 , 2 0 2 2

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EXCHANGE RATE

OBB

9.00%

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N413.03/ 1 US DOLLAR*

OVERNIGHT

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At Twilight of His Administration, Buhari Moves to Complete Developmental Projects in Aviation Sector Chinedu Eze There are indications that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is determined to bring to completion the projects he set out to execute in the aviation industry, which include the establishment of national carrier, the establishment of aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) facility, aircraft leasing company, aerospace university and construction of second runway at

the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Although industry stakeholders can feel the urgency with which the administration is striving to complete these projects, many of them wonder why it waited till the twilight of his administration, which is about a year from now, to accelerate efforts to complete the projects.

During the inauguration of the new international terminal at the MurtalaMuhammed Airport, Lagos

on Tuesday, President Buhari directed the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning to make funds available for the building of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

He stated that the building of the new terminals dovetailed with the government’s aviation roadmap, which was developed in 2016, for the purposes of establishing critical infrastructure.

The infrastructure include a national

carrier, maintenance, repairs and overhaul centre and improved airports terminals through concession, to boost aviation practice and take the industry to the next level, to reflect global standards.

The Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, reiterated during the unveiling of the new terminal at the Lagos airport that the aviation roadmap was developed and approved by President Buhari on October 18, 2016.

He also assured Nigerians that the airport concession project (including the newly commissioned terminals) had reached advanced stage, adding that the Ministry of Aviation will conclude the Request for Proposal (RFP) to the shortlisted firms before the end of March.

“We expect to announce a partner in second quarter 2022 and handover by fourth quarter 2022,” Sirika said.

But stakeholders who spoke to THISDAY said they were

not optimistic about the federal government promises and wondered why it waited till the twilight of the administration before it woke up to begin the projects.

THISDAY has been informed about the efforts being made by the executioners of aviation road map to ensure that the national carrier begins operation in July 2021. They argued that the process was delayed Continued on page 22

L-R; Mr. Francis Nwaogwugu Mune; Mr. Samuel Animashaun; Nollywood Actor, Alex Okubo;Chairman Cubana Group, Mr. Obinna Iyiegbu (Obi Cubana); Nollywood Actor, Zubby Michael; Freedom Okpetoritse; and member Cubana Group, Mr. Ike Iyiegbu, at the official unveiling and launch of Odogwu Bitters in Lagos… recently

NIMASA: Collaboration Responsible for Decline in Piracy on Nigerian Waters Eromosele Abiodun The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Bashir Jamoh has ascribed the decline of piracy on Nigerian waters and the Gulf of

Guinea (GoG) to collaboration among various organs of government in Nigeria, the region and stakeholders from within and outside the country.

Jamoh, who stated this while receiving the Management of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA

Channel 10 in Lagos, noted that the success in fighting piracy in Nigeria is a combination of many factors, which has seen the entire gamut of security architecture working together to achieve a common goal.

“Our joy is that Nigeria has exited

the piracy list and the progress is steady. No single organization can lay total claim for the success. The Presidency is playing a major role by providing direction, the Armed forces are playing their role as enshrined in the constitution, and NIMASA is

playing its role by being an effective Maritime Administration with the Deep Blue Project as a focal tool. The National Assembly who gave us the SPOMO Act and the Judiciary who have now ensured maritime crimes are punished in Nigeria should also

get credit, ”he said.

Jamoh also acknowledged the support from the international maritime stakeholders as key to the success in the fight against piracy in Continued on page 22

M A R K E T D ATA A S AT T H U R S D AY, M A R C H 2 4 , 2 0 2 2 BILLS

BONDS DESCRIPTION 12.75 27-APR2023 14.20 14-MAR2024 13.53 23-MAR2025 12.50 22-JAN2026 16.2884 17MAR-2027

Price

Yield

108.82 4.51 112.69 7.23 112.30 8.79 107.44 10.11 123.58 10.16

Change Updated Time (%) 18, -0.02 March 2022 18, -0.01 March 2022 March 18, 0.00 2022 March 18, 0.00 2022 March 18, 0.00 2022

OTC F X F U T U R E S

C Ps

MATURITY

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Yield Change Updated Time (%)

NTB 28-Apr22 NTB 12May-22 NTB 9-Jun22 NTB 14-Jul22

3.07

3.08

0.00

March 18, 2022

3.13

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1.88

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NTB 11Aug-22

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UNCP CP VI 2-MAY-22 NEVE CP I 24-MAY-22 DANC CP II 25-MAY-22 TRBH CP V 26-JUL-22 FSDH CP VI 1-AUG-22

8.76

8.86

-0.01

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15.80

16.27 -0.01

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8.18

-0.01

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10.61

11.03 -0.22

March 18, 2022

7.31

7.51

March 18, 2022

-0.24

CONTRACT TENOR Contract (MONTH) NGUS MAR 30 1 2022 NGUS APR 27 2 2022 NGUS MAY 25 3 2022 NGUS JUN 29 4 2022 NGUS JUL 27 5 2022

Current Rate ($/₦)

Updated Time

427.24

March 18, 2022

428.93

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430.63

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432.32

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FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Price: We Understand Our Customers’ Interests, Help Structure Right Products to Support Their Businesses Standard Chartered Bank’s Regional Head of Financial Markets for Africa and the Middle East, Mark Price, in this interview with Eromosele Abiodun speaks on the complexities of the financial market and global economic growth. He also explores how Nigeria can attract portfolio investments to grow the Nation’s economy. worldwide are under pressure, particularly with what is happening with Russia and Ukraine. So, it is currently not easy to raise money except in certain places worldwide. I guess it is why Nigeria announced a change of plans for the Eurobond. They understand that the high-interest rates will accrue a significant debt burden for the country at this point.

You lead the Financial Markets business in one of the world’s biggest emerging markets.

What was the journey like before you joined Standard Chartered Bank? efore I joined Standard Chartered Bank, I had been to about 50 countries worldwide.

I lived most of my life in the United Kingdom, worked in Sydney, New York, Singapore and Dubai. The vast experience and viewpoints that I garnered from all those years and locations have played a massive part in my role in Standard Chartered Bank.

Standard Chartered Bank reported its highest operating profit since 2015 in Africa and the Middle East region. How did the company achieve such a remarkable feat?

Our record financial performance also establishes the progress made in the execution of our strategy.

That record shows the hard work, commitment, and continued cost discipline of the good people of Standard Chartered Bank. This has ensured that investments continue through the cycle.

B

There has been global inflation. How do you think that is playing out for the Nigerian economy?

Inflation is quite interesting because I think it impacts countries differently based on the drivers of the economy. Nigeria is an oil-based economy.

The increase in oil price has been a significant driver of inflation in oil-importing countries Oil. But you would imagine that the case would be different in Nigeria because of the production here. However, we are not necessarily seeing all the benefits with the rise of the price flow through the Nigerian economy. The Central Bank is doing its best to tame the inflation effects, and we hope they can see so that there is an ease of pressure from the Nigerian economy.

We also observed massive contraction of GDP activity in almost all countries in 2020. Thankfully, we saw a bounce back in 2021. We are hopeful to see that continue throughout 2022.

I will like you to talk about portfolio investment. How can a country like Nigeria attract portfolio investments?

A few things make attracting investments difficult in terms of the mechanics of the investment.

There are good places to put money to work in Nigeria. There are good yields to be earned and reasonable access to buy. My concern is what we have seen in terms of the reduced inflows. So, a prospective investor’s concerns are not about “How can I get my money in?” but “How do I get my money out, and how long will that take?” That space is more beneficial to longer-term investors. And that perhaps narrows the fields of

How is Standard Chartered Bank committed to promoting sustainable financing?

Standard Chartered Bank is a leading sustainable finance bank in the world. We have three broad commitments. The first is reaching net zero as a bank by 2030 and helping our customers get there by 2050. The second commitment is lifting participation and financial inclusion in the emerging markets by raising financial literacy or access to financial products. We have made tremendous progress broadening participation and financial inclusion across the under-banked communities where we operate in Africa and the Middle East.

We have done lots of work already around digital banking, making free banking available to a much broader population as long as they have a small phone. We have also done a lot of what we call ‘Resetting Globalization’ to help improve trade flows around the globe, and we have seen many new trade corridors open in the last ten years.

There is also a lot of work internally around the carbon footprint of our building. We are aiming to be carbon neutral negative by 2030 as a bank.

There are also actions regarding the investments we have been structuring with partners in the public and private sectors.

Price people that want to invest for the amount of money that comes in.

Also, the CBN is more focused on making dollars available to the domestic economy, and they have done quite well in making dollars available to those who want to repatriate.

However, there has to be a balance at this point because portfolio investors have to wait a bit longer, so whatever they have made in terms of returns gets eroded. Potential foreign investors will have to weigh all the possible scenarios that will look negative, so coming into Nigeria, for now, is possibly not happening. There are surely structural impediments that need to be straightened out.

What role does interest rate play in attracting portfolio investments and unlocking interest rates?

Interest rate means returns on investments.

A high-interest rate means that there are higher yields and higher remuneration.

When you have high-interest rates, you see currency depreciation; a mathematical formula links those two things. In a free-flow exchange rate environment, there will be arbitrage potentials, which means you can earn 10 per cent in interest rates beyond depreciation in your currency. However, in a more controlled exchange rate environment, control mechanisms are at play, which is very attractive to potential investors.

Do you think the current external conditions are favourable for Nigeria to access the Eurobond?

At the moment, all new issue bond markets are struggling. Many other capital markets

The CCIB section of your bank plays a crucial role in corporate and large organisations.

Kindly share how that works.

The bank’s CCIB (Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking) part is meant to cover corporates. By that, we mean large global corporates and multinationals and what we term the international corporates and the big domestic players, and our institutional plans like sovereign funds, the significant money funds.

Standard Chartered Bank is very corporate and institutionally focused. That helps us connect the people who typically need money with the people who have money. Whatever the side, capital raising, financing, or risk-taking, we sit there as the partner that helps balance the equation. The intent is to ensure that we have a very healthy corporate handling institutional franchise. We understand our customers’ interests and help structure the right products to support their businesses. We ultimately help them get to the next level.

NIMASA: COLLABORATION RESPONSIBLE FOR DECLINE IN PIRACY ON NIGERIAN WATERS the Gulf of Guinea”. According to him, the international conglomerates, including the major oil marketers, International Tanker owners, INTERTANKO, and the International Cargo Owners, INTERCARGO amongst others who are part of the joint industry-working group, which has now metamorphosed into the SHADE Gulf of Guinea, also deserve some credit.

Furthermore, the NIMASA

helmsman disclosed that two of the Agency’s Global Maritime Distress Safety System, GMDSS, located at the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, RMRCC in Kirikiri Lagos and Takwa Bay are now fully functional. ”We have greatly enhanced the safety of navigation of vessels on our waters, every vessel within the Nigerian territorial waters and even beyond can easily access our

GMDSS. The ones in Takwa Bay and Kirikiri are now fully functional, while the other three stations located in Oron, Bonny and Escravos are almost ready to commence full operations. These are some gaps identified in the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency by the IMO during its last IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) and we are closing these gaps, ”He said.

Commenting on the Suppression

of Piracy and other Maritime Related Offences SPOMO Act, which now serves as a model for other countries in the Region, Jamoh noted the need for harmonization of laws to ensure uniformity of purpose in prosecuting maritime offences within the region.

He added, “Other countries in our region are now in the process of enacting laws similar to our SPOMO Act. This is the time for us to ensure

harmonized Maritime Laws in the Gulf of Guinea to ensure criminalities in the maritime sector are prosecuted easily within the region, thus no safe haven for criminals in the region”.

Jamoh also noted that NIMASA decided to engage the Naval Dockyard to repair the Agency’s patrol boats as part of efforts to deepen inter-Agency collaboration with the Nigerian Navy.

Earlier, leader of the delegation

and the General Manager, NTA Channel 10, Olusegun Osinowo commended the efforts of the Jamoh-led administration in its quest to realise a robust maritime sector, while also pledging the continuous support of the media in educating the public on the activities of the Agency. “With this feat, it is evident that President Buhari did not make a mistake in his choice of appointing the DG of NIMASA, ”he said.

AT TWILIGHT OF HIS ADMINISTRATION, BUHARI MOVES TO COMPLETE DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS IN AVIATION SECTOR

by COVID-19 lockdown and the 2019 elections.

“But we have advanced in the programme of realisng the project and we have recruited 10 highly skilled industry experts who are heading different departments in the planned airline to speed its realisation. Some of these experts have been deployed in the areas of sourcing for the operational fleet, operational offices, pushing the process of obtaining operational certificate and other critical areas.

The request for bidding of the core investor was published in local and international media and the response was huge,” an informed source told THISDAY.

The source also disclosed that the whole process would be midwifed by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), stressing that government would only have five per cent of the stakes, while 95 per cent would go to private investors and core investor, which would be part of the 95 per cent would only have 49 per cent.

The core investor, THISDAY gathered would have capital structure needed to kick-start the airline and this was spelt out on the Outline Business Care (OBC) of the privatization process.

“The new airline will start operation in July, 2022 with three aircraft but it is expected to start

growing from there. It will start with domestic operation and we are projecting that we will create 7, 000 jobs in the next five years from all the businesses in the aviation road map, the national carrier, MRO and the leasing company. There is not enough capacity right now in Nigeria, so there is a niche and the national carrier will close that gap.

We are following the regulations strictly and we are compliant with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). We will provide absolute level playing field so there will be competition in the domestic travel market,” the source told THISDAY.

However, the General Secretary of Aviation Round Table (ART) and the former Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), told THISDAY that the traffic at the Abuja airport does not require a second runway.

“I have repeated it many times that our annual air traffic does not require two runways in Lagos nor Abuja. All we need is to extend each runway by a third of the present length and ensure periodic maintenance programme are adhere to it. What has been the traffic benefit of Lagos Airport when the second runway has only been available just for 12 hours operation for over

13 years when it has no runway lightings? It is not a second runway that is necessary but maintenance culture; this has been a problem not only in aviation but generally in our infrastructures of economic importance.

Reacting to the delivering of the aforementioned projects in the aviation roadmap before end of the Buhari administration, the Managing Director of Flights and Logistics Solutions Limited, Amos Akpan, expressed doubt that they would be completed before the next election.

“By standard operating procedure you cannot get Air Operating Certificate (AOC) in less than

nine months. What stage are they now for the national carrier? On the maintenance organisation, what concrete agreement have they done with major organisations? Their promises are not backed up by the substantiation of what is on ground.

There is no commensurate activity that will convince anyone that those projects will be realised before the administration winds down. But governance is a continuum. This government should actually start the projects; if they don’t finish them, the next government will complete them. But they can install lighting on the second runway of the Lagos airport. That will be a credit to this administration,” he said.

T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022

23

BUSINESSWORLD

AIR WATCH

NiMet DG Seeks Synergy among A I R Govt Agencies to Minimise Risks WATCH Chinedu Eze

The Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Mansur Matazu, has called for synergy among government agencies, especially, disaster managers in order to minimise risks associated with weather disasters.

Speaking on the occasion of World Meteorological Day 2022 in Abuja on Wednesday, he said the synergy would assist in better national prevention and response strategies.

“To reduce risks associated with weather related disasters, both Nigeria Meteorological (NiMet) and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) services and Disaster Managers such as National EmergencyManagement Agency (NEMA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) must work in synergy.

This will assist in better national prevention, preparedness, and response strategies,” he said.

He noted that in the recent decades, incidences of extreme weather events such as tropical

cyclones, devastating hurricanes, ferocious wildfires, floods, heat waves, drought, landslides, etc. have been on the increase with attendant socio-economic impacts that have threatened food security, safety of lives and properties, livelihoods, human security, nutrition, and health.

He however noted that though the economic value of the 2012 losses due to flood had proved difficult to forget, losses attributed to weather, and climate related event has been on the decline.

“In 2021, a lot of ‘first’ recorded events took place in terms of rainfall amount but losses have been minimal. This is a direct result of investment in meteorological service to be better positioned to issue timely, accurate and reliable weather prediction,” he added.

According to Matazu, in the last one year, which also marked his one year in office as the Director General/ CEO of NiMet and Permanent Representative of Nigeria with World Meteorological Organisation(WMO), “We have decided not only to wait for buy-in of stakeholders but also to improve on our infrastructure and creatively disseminate to as many

Nigerians as possible. Our products (e.g., High Impact Weather, Heavy Rainfall Forecast etc.), have found their way to the highest decisionmaking body of Nigeria, the Federal Executive Council.

“During the public presentation of the 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction, we did not just present the forecast as was our usual practice, but with concerted effort, we presented the translated versions, SCP summary for Policy Makers, Agrometeorological Bulletin, Climate and Health Bulletin, Marine bulletin, and first of its kind SCP mobile app,” he said.

He further said that in recognition of the importance of the seasonal climate predictions and other Early Warning products and services, the Agency has gone into partnership with government ministries, departments and agencies such as Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and non-governmental organisations such as HEDA, APPEALS, IFAD VCDP and LIFE-ND, State Airports such as Asaba and Anambra Airports, and host of others.

Dana Air Introduces Roving Check-in Agents, Announces New Deals Chinedu Eze Dana Air has introduced a marketing tool aimed at enhancing passenger facilitation, called, Roving Check-in Agents.

This is cutting edge innovation, which will supplement the self-checkin kiosk at the airport and will aid speedy check-in for passengers travelling with just hand luggage.

“What we are offering in roving agents is an immense value addition for our guests. Though these roving agents mainly cater to passengers with hand baggage, they also issue boarding passes to customers with check-in luggage. They do this strapped with two mobile devices, a palmtop to punch in the PNR number and a mini printer that prints the boarding passes; walk around the check-in counter

issuing our customers their boarding passes instantly,’’ the airline said in a statement.

Media and Communications Manager of Dana Air, Kingsley Ezenwa, said: “We will continue to invest in technology for ease of reservation, booking and check-in for our guests. We introduced the self-check-in kiosk some years back and now roving. We’re slowly moving away from dedicated check-in counters for passengers with hand luggage, to more innovative methods.”

Similarly, Dana Air has announced exclusive cash plus miles deals for members of its loyalty program called Dana Miles Club.

Speaking on the new deals for Dana Miles Club members, The Deputy CEO of the airline, Sukhjiner Mann said, ‘’Our customers have

actually been through a lot with the ongoing scarcity and hike in cost of jet A1 and we remain sincerely sorry for the inconveniences these recent issues may have caused, but these are exciting times for our frequent flyers and intending members of the Dana Miles Club. ‘’With one mile selling for N3.00, members can now buy miles and part-pay for ticket using miles plus cash. Existing members get 20% discount when they buy miles to pay for tickets while new members get 3,600 bonus miles when they buy 14,400 miles to get an economy ticket. ‘’This is surely the best time to be a member of Dana Miles as your accrued miles is now the game changer and if you are a new member, its time to buy miles to get instant economy or business.”

Green Africa Announces Obi Mbanuzuo as Chief Commercial Officer Green Africa, Nigeria’s Lagos-based value airline has announced the appointment of Obiukwu (Obi) Mbanuzuo as Chief Commercial Officer(CCO) and a member of the Company’s senior leadership team effectivefrom March 2022.

Obi is an industry veteran with two decades of global industry experience and a unique understanding of the Nigerian and African markets.

Prior to joining Green Africa, Obi was the COO, CCO and Accountable Manager of Dana Airlines where he provided overall leadership for the day-to-day management of the Company and

was the airline’s officer responsible to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Speaking on the development, Founder and CEO of Green Africa, Babawande Afolabi said: “I am delighted to welcome Obi to Green Africa. His track record, depth of commercial aviation knowledge and experience across various markets make him an ideal senior leader to steer Green Africa to commercial success as the Company scales.”

Obi launched his aviation career at Virgin Atlantic where he served as a member of the revenue management and network planning team.

He was later seconded to Nigeria to help get Virgin Nigeria off the ground and build the commercial team.

Speaking on his appointment, Obi said: “I believe Green Africa has a great business model and a qualified team across disciplines to positively impact aviation and air travel in Nigeria. As the industry evolves and the business scales, now is the time to further explore and establish Green Africa’s position as the preferred carrier for safe, reliable, and affordable air travel. I am pleased to join the gTeam and excited about the future ahead.”

Quidax Unveils Africa’s Biggest Music Producers as Brand Ambassador Nosa Alekhuogie Quidax, a Fintech company that enables Fintech players to provide cryptocurrency-related services to their customers, has unveiled one of Africa’s biggest music producer, Micheal Collins, popularly known as Don Jazzy, as its brand ambassador.

At the unveiling of its brand ambassador in Lagos this week, Quidax, an African-founded cryptocurrency exchange, said the choice for Don Jazzy, was based on his popularity in the music industry, and his simplicity that has attracted

millions of followers to his social media handles.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Quidax, Mr. Buchi Okoro, said: “Don Jazzy has been such a great personality and is someone that I have looked up to for a long time.

He has been able to build a record label when it seemed impossible.

But the best part is that Don Jazzy is passionate about crypto and also owns crypto assets.”

Don Jazzy is the CEO and founder of Mavin records which can be said to be the powerhouse of music in Africa with artistes like Rema and

Ayra Starr. Don Jazzy has more than 18 million followers across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Quidax, a crypto start-up had launched an online campaign last week with #TheQuidaxCall. The campaign which started on Tuesday, 15th March saw Quidax reveal celebrities like; Diane Russet and Bisola Aiyeola, both of whom are actresses and are former reality stars of Big Brother Naija. They also unveiled popular actor Timini Egbuson and celebrity Chef, Gbubemi Fregene aka Chef Fregz as well as award winning Jude Abaga better known as M.I Abaga.

Need for Critical Infrastructure to Develop Nigeria’s Economy Chinedu Eze With the role played by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) in the realisation of four international terminals at the nation’s major airports and the provision of infrastructural projects in Nigeria by Chinese companies in collaboration with the federal government, the Ambassador of People’s Republic of China to Nigeria, His Excellency, Cui Jianchun, has said Nigeria needs critical infrastructure to achieve a giant leap.

On the impact of the new international terminal at the Lagos airport, which was unveiled on Tuesday, he said, “We have done some evaluations and assessments about this project. It is very important for Nigeria because Lagos is a metropolitan city. So we have built this to international standards. With this state-of-the-art terminal, I believe we can attract more passengers to Nigeria. After COVID-19, countries are opening and people would like to come to Nigeria and travel out of Nigeria and they will do that through this gateway. Through this terminal, we can access the international community and people will benefit from this. This is a flagship project for China and Nigeria.”

The Ambassador explained that Nigeria is currently planning a huge railway project and it is working with China to realise it but that it needs funding and sourcing the funds is a big challenge.

“If we have a railway, it would be easy for people to travel and we are working on the pipeline. The challenge however is how we can get the money. How can we get reliable and reasonable terms of the finance? This is the challenge for us.

But we are working hard and we are talking with the banks to do this for us.

The banks are using their professional language. They are calculating the risks and how they can get the money back because we are in a difficult situation now. We are looking at how we can lift people out of poverty,” Jianchun said.

The Ambassador added: “During my speech at the commissioning of the terminal, I told the President that whatever the project, plan, policy, partners, the most important thing is the political support. So this is very important. The two countries from the top levels, from business levels, from people to people, from party to party, we need to work hard to build this trust. This will benefit the economy, security and international relationships.”

Jianchun told THISDAY that he understood Nigeria and what it needs; stressing that Nigeria needs a comprehensive, sustainable and systematic approach to development, adding that railway, highway, airports are key to movement of people from place to place both locally and internationally.

“People cannot afford to buy tickets if there is no migration. How can we be productive by ourselves? There are five goals for two countries (China and Nigeria) to work together. Political consonance, economic cooperation and international correlation, security and military collaborations and people to people communications. We are currently engaged in infrastructure development. The second is Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

We need the digital economy, we need the 5G technology and also we need a value added industry,” Jianchun said.

“That means we can produce more commodities not only consumed by Nigerians but we can export to China.

We need a value added industry to create jobs and to give people an income. We need to know how we can attract more

Jianchun foreign investment to Nigeria. We need to invest in agriculture, oil and gas industries amongst others. Foreign investments only rely on our domestic resources. So, we have to think of not only infrastructure but we have to think in a holistic way, which also involves the five goals. These include security, structures, speed, synergy and supervision. Nigeria has huge human and natural resources, which is not what every country can possess. So we need the technology to aid production,” the Ambassador said.

In the area of power, the Ambassador said that it was really very disappointing that Nigeria does not have steady power supply but stated that with political will and commitment, such challenges could be overcome.

“I got up by 5: 00 am this morning and we tried to get a small airplane from Abuja to Lagos. We also booked a helicopter from the airport to Lekki. I could not fly there because there was no electricity. Power is the biggest challenge for Nigeria. This is very important for Nigeria. So, I am working hard to see what we can do. I am talking with the Ministry about nuclear power. Nuclear power is not just about power. It is also about young people and technology. So, we have solar energy and oil and gas. We are working hard to bring some of these China investments here but we need a policy to support this because it is a long-term investment. If we have this policy like we had in China, it will give us the time. But now, if we can only rely on domestic resources, we cannot make rapid progress. I have four generators in the embassy,” he said.

He also acknowledged that Chinese companies were making a foray into hospitality industry, noting that Nigeria has everything that is required to grow and become one of the best in the world.

“Nigeria is a beautiful country, with a nice landscape. People deserve to travel to a lot of places in Nigeria. We want to travel freely. Every year, we have 103 million people travelling out of China. I have talked to the Ministry of Information and Culture to see if we can get only one per cent of that number to visit Nigeria. That would mean 1.3 million people from China could visit Nigeria yearly. This is possible. In the coming years, if security changes, tourism will boost in Nigeria. The Chinese love to visit Africa. We need investments to build tourism in Nigeria,” the Ambassador said.

24

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

AVIATION

Bleak Future for Domestic Airlines?

With rising price of aviation fuel, depreciating naira and high airfares, which has depleted passenger traffic, experts fear that some Nigerian carriers may go aground, writes Chinedu Eze

M

any airlines that went under in Nigeria did so at operational crisis point, and this could happen during scarcity of aviation fuel, high exchange rate, some inimical government policies that attracted massive criticism and low passenger traffic.

But there was always a predecessor to these factors. It may be maladministration of the airline, mismanagement of operational funds or some other unfavourable internal or external factor.

These factors are present in the industry now.

For the first time in several years, price of aviation fuel rose beyond N190 per litre and climbed to maximum N700 per litre as at Monday. The naria had nosedived in value, depreciating to the extent that parallel market is now about N600/$. No succour is coming from government, so the airlines are on their own,sourcing foreign currency from the parallel market.

This degenerating situation has prompted the former CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi to warn that some airlines may go under before the end of this year. To make the matter worse, per capita income has drastically depleted that with hike in airfares, fewer people now travel by air because of the hike in airfares. But such hike by airlines is inevitable due to the rising price of aviation fuel and the exchange rate.

LACK OF OPERATIONAL FUNDS

Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) said they have been subsidizing flight ticket with base fare at N50, 000 for one hour flight and expressed fear that airlines might stop operating if no action is taken to put a check on the rising price of aviation fuel, which they demanded should go back to N200 per litre.

Non-availability and high cost of aviation fuel exacerbated flight delays and cancellation and operators fear that if this continues some airlines would be forced to suspend their operations.

THISDAY learnt that landing cost of aviation fuel rose from N590 to N615-N620 and when fuel charges of N3.50k per litre is added to the cost by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), it would rise to about N622.50 in Lagos, N700.00 in Abuja and N750.00 in Kano.

Sanusi who is also former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), told THISDAY that due to the scarcity and high cost of aviation fuel, fuel marketers are now giving airlines new conditions before they sell the products to them.

The marketers have insisted that airlines must pay before the product would be supplied to them, a practice that is not the standard in the industry, which is globally known for payment after purchase of the product.

Sanusi said, “You pay for fuel in advance, which

is not done in the aviation industry. It will make operations very difficult and lead to more delays and cancellations. You cannot deposit money before you buy fuel.

“If nothing is done urgently, this may lead to the beginning of airlines going down because they cannot continue operating like this, so the federal government should urgently look for the solution of the problem,” he said.

Sanusi said government must intervene by doing away with the middlemen but allow marketers to import the product and sell directly to the airlines.

“These middle men don’t understand aviation. The marketers are part of the industry whose operations are approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Ideally the airlines can buy from the marketers who will issue them invoice and they pay in 24 to 48 hours. This is the way it is done. You cannot even deposit money with the marketers because if you do, they may not even have the product at the time you want it because of uncertainty and volatility in the supply of the product.

If care is not taken, Nigerian airlines may go down,” Sanusiwarned.

CARTEL

Oil marketers were also accused of forming cartels and fixing prices of the products. Reports also indicate that they prefer to sell fuel to foreign airlines while holding back from selling to domestic operators. Allegation is also rife that the marketers create artificial scarcity in order to hike the prices.

But during the meeting with House of Representatives and airline operators, the Chairman/CEO of Nepal Oil and Gas Services Limited, Ngozi Ekeoma debunked the insinuation that aviation fuel marketers have become a cartel, saying the parameters for determining the price remain unambiguous.

“Aviation fuel is not a cartel based product.

The parameters for determining prices are there.

As of today, a vessel costs $25,000 per day at the port. There is the marine cost; we have problems even loading the ATK (the jet fuel).

We use trucks that run on diesel. This also adds to the costs. We will have to put all of these costs. For every litre, I am paying FAAN N3: 50k.”

The fuel marketers also said that they give priority to foreign airlines as against local airlines because the foreign carriers pay for aviation fuel in dollars, so most marketers quickly sell to them to get dollars to import more. They also said that they sell to domestic airlines according to existing business relationship, adding that they are

more inclined to sell when they are paid cash.

RIGHT PRICING AND SAFETY

At the meeting with the House of Representatives recently, the airline operators requested that the price of aviation fuel should go back to N200 per litre and noted that selling the product at such exorbitant would threaten air safety because it costs so much money to sustain high standard of safety of the aircraft, but if all the operating funds are used to fund aviation fuel the airlines would have no money to maintain their aircraft.

The Vice President of AON and the Chairman/ CEO of Air Peace Airline who spoke on behalf of the operators said, “AON is making an appeal to bring down the cost of aviation fuel to N200 per liter. We cannot last the next 72 hours. We didn’t ground our operation because we didn’t want political actors to make a capital out of it. Our DG (Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu) has said it succinctly that safety was at stake. Two days ago we held a meeting.

Aviation fuel price moved from N180 per liter some weeks ago it became N405, N415, N450 per litre. With due respect to DG, fuel takes 30 percent cost of operation all over the world, but here in Nigeria, the cost of operation is about 70 per cent even before this increase.

The oil marketers were changing the prices of the product anytime over the years but what happened in the last two weeks is unbelievable.

We thought that was very alarming at N450 per litre only for us to wake up two days ago it became N599. The following morning it became N670 per litre.

“We cannot operate this way. What we would have done was to shut down. But when we looked back, with benefit of hindsight, what the legislature did for airlines, what the Presidency did for airlines, we decided to sacrifice for this country. On this table you find true Nigerian patriots (airline operators) because we are subsidizing what Nigerians are using in flying, but we cannot continue because we cannot last the next 72 hours doing that because we are indebted. We don’t want AMCON to come after us. It is a lot. It has gone above 150 per cent of our cost,” AON said.

The operators noted that with the outrageous increase in the cost of aviation fuel not only that safety is threatened but the airlines have reduced the number of flights.

“The DG was talking about safety. He was talking about the maintenance of those planes.

It is capital intensive to maintain those planes.

Airline business does not reward you profitably but it is a business that drives your passion.

We are doing this for the sake of our country.

When we look at the faces of thousands of Nigerians we have given employment, we don’t want to shut down but the truth is that that is the right thing to do. But after we have looked at these factors we have decided to pay a price. We have cut our flights down to about 60 per cent and what we are flying now is about 30 per cent because the product is not even available. Nigerians know that this product is scarce. The delays and cancellations that are happening now are unimaginable. Sometimes you fly 2:00 am, 3:00 am whenever you get the fuel,” Onyema said on behalf of the operators.

SOURCING THE PRODUCT

The airlines in one of the meeting had decided that they would want to start importing the products themselves but industry observers noted that it might not be the solution to the problem because the airlines may not have storage facilities and would not buy the product cheaper than the marketers.

The Secretary General of Aviation Round Table (ART) and former Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd) said, “More crisis loom when import licence is issued to the airlines as requested; where would their depot be or where would their storage be at the airports? How would they transport the fuel from the port to the airports and who pays for the transportation? Are they considering these as additional costs or they’ll go back again to government for intervention? Getting licence to import side by side is not what the airlines need. First, remove the monopoly of the NNPC alone importing fuel and bring back Total, Mobil, AP, MRS and Conoil. Secondly, repair the pipeline bridging the supply of fuel from Ejigbo to the airport.

The solution to these two will reduce the fuel cost by minimum 30 per cent,” he said.

Ojikutu also noted that no foreign airline would buy fuel from the domestic airlines’ market but from their traditional marketers at home that have same market here.

However, former Director of Operations, Nigerian Aviation Handing Company (NAHCO), Mr. Hurbert Odika told newsmen that the hike in airfares was due to airlines’ running cost. Odika explained, that the industry would never have witnessed the current economic predicament caused by shortage of aviation fuel if the refineries were working “We will refine here at chapter labour cost, no ocean freight to bring back the finished product, no charges in foreign currency for refining the PMS or AGO to return them back to the country. Nigeria at the moment is cheating itself” he said, regretting that till today no one had explained why the refineries were not up and running, adding that the oil boom was time bound as renewable energy has come to stay while the West is working seriously to ensure that by 2040, renewable energy in Europe would form 80 – 90 percent of their energy consumption.

FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 • T H I S D AY

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FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 •T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY FRIDAY MARCH 20222022 Friday 2525, March, Vol 27. No 9845 TR

See page 28 THE BATTLE FOR ABIA STATE Okezie Ikpeazu should choose his successor wisely, writes BONIFACE NWUFO

See page 28 TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION AND PREVALENCE OF SMOKING LANRE ODUSILE canvasses the need to switch to reduced-risk alternatives as a public health strategy See page 29 IS SECTION 84(12) OF THE ELECTORAL ACT CONSTITUTIONAL? Yes, it is constitutionally valid, argues FESTUS OGUN

See page 29 EDITORIAL THE UNGA DECLARATION ON PASTORALISTS See page 30

& RE A S O

N

opinion@thisdaylive.com

www.thisdaylive.com

PREMIUM MOTOR SPIRIT, SUBSIDY AND SCARCITY KANYA WILLIAMS writes that petrol scarcity and subsidy are intertwined with the country’s economy

UT H

Glaring underperformance has dumbfounded Buhari administration’s image dry-cleaner, writes BOLAJI ADEBIYI

EVEN THE LOQUACIOUS IS QUIET Someone observed during the week that despite the debilitating crises in the energy and education sectors, Lai Mohammed, the talkative minister of Information and Culture, has gone mute. “Really? What would he have said anyway?” somebody asked. “But he should have, at least said something. Even if it will be his usual wares,” another said. “Oh, so you would say he is lying again. What do you Nigerians really want? He talks, you say he lies; he is quiet, you say he is mute,” the other one responded.

True, it is unusual for Mohammed to be silent at times like these when both the Muhammadu Buhari administration and its All Progressives Congress have come under intense attacks for their obvious underperformance. In his absence, Femi Adesina, the presidential media aide stepped in. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, he said, was taking advantage of the persistent fuel shortage to attempt the destabilisation of the country. Not an XQIDPLOLDU OLQH WKDW VKRXOG EH GLJQLÀHG ZLWK D response, you might say. Nevertheless, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s fresh spokesman replied that his administration and the APC had run out of lies to deodorise its spectacular failings.

At the 4th Annual Lecture of the online news portal, Freedom Online, in Lagos on Wednesday, Mohammed was billed as the guest speaker. The topic could not have been more apt, Nigeria’s Political Indices: Bright or Bleak Future? All, but one, other persons LQYLWHG *EHQJD 'DQLHO $KPHG 0DNDUÀ DQG Peter Obi, all former governors; Dakuku Peterside, former director-general of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency; Akin Onigbinde, erudite scholar; and Gani Adams, Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, were present. Olabode George, an acerbic critic of Buhari, didn’t show up but sent Othman Shodipe, legendry wordsmith of the journalism profession.

All the speakers were sober in their presentations as they analysed the state of the nation, concluding that the situation was extremely bad even as they apprehended bad leadership as the bane of the nation. The bad leadership, it was conceded, had grown worse today with all indices of human and economic development heading south. And as speakers took turns to reel out factual evidence of the underperformance of the prevailing administration that Nigerians had hoped would deliver change from the iniquities of the past, one mischievous commentator from the esteemed audience of largely senior journalists of the online media said Mohammed, aware of the versatility of the speakers, actually ran away from the event.

If that was true, it was nothing but playing the ostrich as the pangs of the moment had turned even the most astute conservative into a radical critic of the Buhari administration.

Who would not?

The past few months have been hell on earth for Nigerians as the incoherence of the last seven years comes to a head. It began with fuel stations running dry. Initially, the government said the scarcity arose from the importation of dirty fuel into the country and that the recall of the toxic petrol had caused the hitch in supply. When the scarcity persisted, marketers were blamed for hoarding the product. Then panic-buying became the culprit. Bottom line, no fuel to date.

Next, electricity blackout joined to worsen the plight of Nigerians. The government said WKH QDWLRQDO JULG FROODSVHG DQG WKDW HͿRUWV were being made to bring it back to life. The collapse was the 126th in Buhari’s seven years. In the past, if there was no electricity supply Nigerians would switch over to their JHQHUDWRUV 7KDW LV QR ORQJHU DQ DͿRUGDEOH luxury as the scarcity of petrol and diesel has pushed prices up to the neighbourhood of N350 and N800 per litre respectively. Not a cheery experience in a dry season that has never been this hot.

Meanwhile, the strike industry is thriving.

For two months or thereabouts, university

It is unusual for Mohammed to be silent at times like these when both the Muhammadu Buhari administration and its All Progressives Congress have come under intense attacks for their obvious underperformance

teachers have been sitting at home over the habitual refusal of the federal government to honour agreements that it freely entered into many years ago. The teachers have made it clear that they have no intention to return to work until the government fully implements its undertakings with them. The government on its part said it would not succumb to blackmail. The stalemate has left students and their parents stranded, practically caught LQ D FURVVÀUH WKDW SURPLVHV WR EHFRPH PRUH intense.

Obviously convinced that the government understands no other language than strife, anonymous constables in the police force issued a strike notice some time ago.

The threat is scheduled to be carried out tomorrow. The police high command’s initial response was to threaten the other ranks with a charge of mutiny if they proceeded with the protest. Already on the ground, therefore, fearing no fall, the evidently hungry and angry lower ranks told their superiors to take their threat seriously or face a consequential embarrassment.

Of course, the presidency that stood akimbo all the while intervened, warning the top brass of the police of the dire consequences of the proposed strike. The usual followed.

A promise of the payment of the enhanced salary that the president approved more than a year ago. But the aggrieved have taken the pledge with a pinch of salt, saying like the university teachers that seeing is believing. :KLOH WRPRUURZ ZLOO WHOO ZKHWKHU WKH ÀUVW ever police strike will hold, a more interesting battle lies ahead of the Buhari administration.

Anonymous correctional centre other ranks have also proposed to sit at home shortly if their pay is not enhanced. This promises to be an interesting one. As it is habitual with the government, it has not said anything that ZRXOG DSSHDVH WKH DJJULHYHG R΀FLDOV PDQ\ weeks after they laid open their complaints.

Someone said Rauf Aregbesola, the minister of Interior, whose brief it is to take care of the warders is still recovering from his routing in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State, where he was worsted in a recent political duel with the governor, Gboyega Oyetola.

But Aregbesola is not the only one distracted.

The entire administration is. Buhari, its head, just came back from a two-week trip abroad where he went to attend to his health. He has since his return been putting out the inferno in the house of APC that his long years of aloofness helped to ignite. Maybe when he is done with that tomorrow at the party meet at Eagle Square, Abuja he would attend to the urgent matters of fuel and electricity scarcity.

So, what, in all fairness, could anyone have expected Mohammed to say?

Adebiyi, the managing editor of THISDAY Newspapers, writes from bolaji.adebiyi@ thisdaylive.com

2 28

T H I S D AY FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022

KANYA WILLIAMS writes that petrol scarcity and subsidy are intertwined with the country’s economy

Okezie Ikpeazu should choose his successor wisely, writes BONIFACE NWUFO

PREMIUM MOTOR SPIRIT, SUBSIDY AND SCARCITY

THE BATTLE FOR ABIA STATE

Petroleum scarcity and subsidy have been the major malfeasants plaguing the Nigeria PMS market since it began. However, in the past few years, the scorch of scarcity abated only to resurface somewhere in the dying days of December 2021 and has now entrenched itself to the pre-calm years. These and many other problems including endless queues, low FDSDFLW\ XWLOL]DWLRQ RI UHÀQLQJ DFWLYLWLHV DW WKH QDWLRQ·V UHÀQHULHV UDPSDQW ÀUH DFFLGHQWV as a result of mishandling of products and products adulteration, pipelines vandalism and extensive smuggling due to unfavourable borders’ prices with the neighbouring countries and slapdash petroleum pricing GHÀQH WKH NLQG RI SHWUROHXP PDUNHW 1LJHULD has.

By 1974, problems of haphazard pricing of petroleum products by marketers had reached unbearable level with constant and endless queues impairing the market. The problem was traced to inequality in transportation of the products from supply bases to consumption outlets nationwide. The concept of uniform petroleum products pricing throughout the nation was recognized as the key to solving the entire problem, hence the establishment of Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) in 1975

by Decree No. 9. The decree as amended by Decree No. 32 of 1989 charges PEF with the sole responsibility of reimbursing petroleum marketing companies for all losses incurred exclusively as a result of sale of lifted products at uniform prices.

7R HͿHFWLYHO\ DFKLHYH LWV PDQGDWH WKH Fund divides the country into nine zones and receives N2.99 per litre inbuilt transportation cost from consumers, in this case, PMS consumers irrespective of the zone of lifting and discharging. PMS marketers serve as agents of PEF in collecting the inbuilt charge and transferring same to the Fund for the purpose of equalisation. These nine zones comprise depots, districts and further down to sub-districts.

PEF explains that the nine zones are depots divided into 50 km radius covering a total 450 km radius and use for the determination of petroleum products dispensing outlets.

7KH )XQG IXUWKHU FODULÀHV WKDW HDFK RXWOHW nationwide is attached to a depot.

A critical look at the PEF operational manual reveals that receipt of the inbuilt transport FRVW DͿHFWV RQO\ RSHUDWRUV LQ ]RQHV RQH DQG two whose transportation cost is below the threshold known as National Transportation Average (NTA). Therefore, operators in these two zones remit the excess inbuilt charges to the Fund. Operators in areas exceeding 100km from depots are paid – according to the distance ² WKH GLͿHUHQFH EHWZHHQ WKH DFWXDO FRVW SHU zone and NTA called Zonal Transportation 'LͿHUHQWLDO $VLGH WKH 1 SHU OLWUH LQEXLOW transportation cost, the operational manual of the fund indicates that N6.00 per litre bridging allowance is incorporated into the pump price to contribute to the fund. %\ WKH ÀUVW \HDU RI WKLV FXUUHQW GHPRFUDWLF rule, the petroleum market in Nigeria had become a pain to everyone rather than a system of delivering the most critical energy commodity – petrol. This led to the establishment of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) which WRRN HͿHFW LQ 0D\ DIWHU DFFHQW WR WKH Bill by the President Olusegun Obasanjo as a complete government institution with core mandate to determine the pricing policy of PMS and other petroleum products. The agency also has the mandate to regulate the supply and distribution of the same products while ensuring reasonable returns to market

operators. A key objective in its mandate is the stabilization of petroleum products domestic prices against volatility in the international crudes and products prices. In a drive to meet the key objective of domestic prices of petroleum products, a Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) was created in 2006 under the purview of PPPRA. The PSF is a pool of IXQG ZLWK LQÁRZ VWUHDPV IURP RQH IHGHUDO government oil receipt with contributions from the three tiers of government and two, from the net balance of accruals from RXWÁRZV SDLG WR PRGHUDWH LQWHUQDWLRQDO SULFHV above benchmark of domestic prices in any accounting period.

Then came the complete madness in 2011driven by an explosive growth of subsidy payment. Government responded by an attempt to remove the subsidy. This was estimated to increase pump price by 117 per cent. Consequently, is was resisted by two weeks strike that resulted to a shutdown of the economy and loss of human lives in several quarters of the country. The government was forced to rescale the increase to N97 (US$0.60) that is 40% over its end-2011 level.

The fourth and contemporary regime is the 2015 to 2016. Even with the decrease in price of international crudes from a lofty US$160 per barrel in 2012 to just about US$65 per barrel in 2015, subsidy payments continued to H[HUW SUHVVXUH RQ WKH ÀVFDO SURÀOH RI 1LJHULD·V government. The pump price of N97 (U$0.49) per litre could not be sustained. Government had to stretch the price to N145 per litre but QRW ZLWKRXW D ÀJKW IURP WKH SXEOLF 7R MXVWLI\ the increase, Osinbajo (2017) the Vice President of the country reported that the government then saved N15.4 billion (US$50.33 million) monthly. Dr. Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum then stated that prior to the removal, the government was paying N1.2 trillion (US$3.96 billion) on petroleum subsidy yearly. IMF (2013) case study states that by 2011, subsidy payments had exploded to a whopping N1.761 trillion (US$9.1billion).

In each of the regimes, various programmes KDYH DOZD\V EHHQ RXWOLQHG WR PLWLJDWH WKH HͿHFW of subsidy removal. The third regime had the most hyped programme for safety nets called Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). This SURE-P was all encompassing capturing health, transport, works and human capital development as its targeted deliverables. Monies accruable from the subsidy removal were to be channelled to create urban mass transit, maternal and child health services, public works and vocational training.

In this review, can we say that the problems of petroleum scarcity, subsidy, queues at ÀOOLQJ VWDWLRQV KDSKD]DUG SURGXFW SULFHV ORZ FDSDFLW\ XWLOL]DWLRQ RI UHÀQHULHV SURGXFW adulteration, smuggling that have infested the Nigerian economy for these 48 years have in DQ\ GHJUHH EHHQ VROYHG" &DQ ZH DOVR SRLQW to any results of the lofty programmes and schemes that followed every subsidy regime FKDQJH" ,I IRU \HDUV DQG ZLWK GHSOR\PHQW of institutions, schemes and programmes such as PPPRA, PEF, PSF, Sure-P, etc., these elements cling tenaciously to the Nigerian PMS market, is there any doubt that nothing short of declaration of state of emergency in the PMS market should be thought of as only DYDLODEOH RSWLRQ" 7KH RYHUDUFKLQJ TXHVWLRQ RQ the tongue of discernible and conscientious 1LJHULDQV LV WKDW ZK\ DUH ZH ZHUH ZH DUH"

Dr Williams, a Petroleum Economics, writes from United

The political history of Nigeria and Abia State in particular is replete with manoeuvrings by key players towards foisting their acolytes - sometimes friends and relations into strategic political positions. This scheming is usually as a UHVXOW RI VRPH LQH[SOLFDEOH VHOÀVK DJHQGD but certainly not altruistic or in the interest of the vast majority of the people.

In the case of present day Abia State and with the upcoming change of guards in 2023, we are beginning to witness an uptick in consultations as to who will succeed the incumbent Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. This

God’s own state, and Governor Ikpeazu must seize the moment by leading people to the Promised Land. Professor Gregory Ibe as an expert in entrepreneurship is the perfect person to drive the industrial growth of Abia State and bring the Enyimba Economic City to reality.

Therefore in choosing the next governor of the state, Governor Ikpeazu should lead the charge, be the head and not the tail as posterity will hold him accountable for helping to push the Abia boulder uphill or downhill.

In this discourse we need to appraise Senator Abaribe’s aspiration to be the next governor and compare it with his several years representation of the Abia South senatorial Zone at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.

Regrettably, his representation has fallen below standard bearing in mind that infrastructural facilities which can make life more meaningful for the people such as roads, water, power, university, polytechnic, industries are lacking in his area of representation, especially in Aba which is the pride of Igboland.

Again with the numerous challenges confronting the state it will be imprudent on the part of the governor to throw his support behind a man who is close to 70 years as a governor. The state needs a young, vibrant, forward-looking and information technology savvy man who then leads to the question of who will likely can navigate the business world and emerge as the governor’s choice for the LQWHUQDWLRQDO FRPPXQLW\ IRU WKH EHQHÀW FRYHWHG R΀FH" of Abia people. Governor Ikpeazu To properly appraise such individual should avoid the mistake of being led within the context of the numerous socio- by the nose by so-called stakeholders political challenges facing the once vibrant who perceive politics as an enterprise for state, there is a compelling reason for dispensing favours. These are unusual the present governor as a consummate times in our history, and the sociointellectual and administrator to take into economic challenges facing the people consideration the pedigree of the likely can only be solved by a governor with successor, viz a viz, the legacies that Okezie global vision and knowledge.

Ikpeazu hold dear to his chest. The legacies Therefore as the search for the next ranging from the Enyimba Economic city, $ELD 6WDWH KHOPVPDQ LQWHQVLÀHV educational development of the state, Governor Ikpeazu holds the aces and industrialization and durable infrastructure, to avoid muddling the political space there is the need to follow the example it is better to narrow down to Prof. Ibe of former Governor Willie Obiano, who as he possesses the requisite ability to supported a well-known technocrat in the steer the ship of Abia State. One reason person of Professor Charles Chukwuma why this is a plausible argument is that Soludo to succeed him. By doing so, the he already has a stake in the state with former governor has made it easy for his the numerous investments he has in the legacies to be taken to the next level. state, and it will propel him to work for In the same vein in the search for Governor the interest of all Abians. It is therefore Okezie’s successor, prime consideration logical for the Abia stakeholders led by must be given to the aspirant who has a the Abia State governor to look in the global reach and well positioned to continue direction of a man with pedigree, and the visionary projects and ideals of the whose love for his people is unmatched. present governor. For example, the signature Prof. Ibe is on record to have received projects of Governor Ikpeazu which for recognitions for his outstanding obvious reasons were not completed would leadership and entrepreneurial qualities. require the emergence of an aspirant with They include ECOWAS, United Nations, the requisite knowledge and ability to bring World Bank, and if given the opportunity them to fruition. he will also replicate the Songhai-Agric ,Q P\ PLQG 3URIHVVRU *UHJRU\ ,EH ÀWV initiative in Cotonou in Abia State and into the picture of such a governor in the help to attract foreign investments making. For a man who has a private to the state. Also considering the sector background, and had a vision to paucity of funds in the country and the pioneer the development of Abia State with economic challenges, Abia State in the the establishment of the famous Gregory next dispensation must focus on nonUniversity in Uturu, there is no doubt that oil earnings to stimulate the economy, he stands in a good stead to take the present and Gregory Ibe has the wherewithal to governor’s development strides a notch realise these lofty objectives. higher.

Abia State is at a crossroads, and the HOHFWLRQV ZLOO DͿRUG WKH SHRSOH DQ Nwufo opportunity to rewrite the history of the writes from Aba

329

T H I S D AY FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022

LANRE ODUSILE canvasses the need to switch to reduced-risk alternatives as a public health strategy

TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION AND PREVALENCE OF SMOKING In many countries, cigarette packs now come with both graphic and text health warnings to smokers on the health risks associated with their consumption. However, have these warnings deterred smoking?

For people who smoke, quitting remains the best option to avoid the health risks associated with tobacco consumption and non-smokers are advised to never pick up the habit.

The health risks that smokers face come from the many toxic substances contained in cigarette smoke when the cigarettes are burned and not the nicotine that they crave from the cigarette. This is why the scientist Michael Russell famously quoted that “people smoke for nicotine but die from the tar.”

An understanding of the need to reduce the health impact of inhaling the noxious fumes contained in burning tobacco and the pragmatic acceptance of providing reduced risk alternatives for those who cannot quit are some of the raisons d’être for the concept of tobacco harm reduction (THR).

Science has also continued to lend credence WR 7+5 DV DQ HͿHFWLYH PHDQV RI UHGXFLQJ WKH health impact of tobacco consumption and several countries now have science-backed policies for the regulation of reduced risks or alternative tobacco products.

In October 2021, 100 specialists in nicotine science, policy and practice came together to call on the 182 parties (countries) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to take a more positive stance on tobacco harm reduction. The letter which was a push back against WHO’s drive for the prohibition or excessive regulation and taxation of vaping products, heated and smokeless tobacco products, was signed by the 100 experts as reported by The Counterfactual by Clive Bates.

While developing and less developed economies seem more aligned with this WHO stand, developed economies have taken the science-led approach. For example, the United States of America’s food and drug administration (FDA) has licensed VRPH DOWHUQDWLYH SURGXFWV DV ´PRGLÀHG ULVN tobacco products” in acceptance of the science DQG HPSLULFDO HYLGHQFH RI WKHLU H΀FDF\ 7KLV science-based approach to THR, is a public health strategy to reduce the health impact of consuming combustible tobacco products.

In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which issues evidence-based

JXLGDQFH RQ WKH PRVW HͿHFWLYH PHWKRGV of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and ill health, has since published a guidance on tobacco harm reduction. The guidance supports the use of licensed nicotine containing products (NCPs) to help smokers not currently able to quit to switch to a less harmful option but instructively recognizes that quitting smoking is always the best option for smokers. As a public health strategy, in December 2021, the Daily Mail published UHSRUWV IURP WKH 2΀FH RI 1DWLRQDO 6WDWLVWLFV that showed smoking rates in Britain dropped by 1.3%, from 15.8% in 2019 to 14.5% in 2020.

The introduction of alternative products and acceptance of THR have also driven down smoking rates in Japan by up to 34% as reported by Frost & Sullivan in a December

2020 report.

The Canadian Public Health Association DOVR LQ UHFRJQLWLRQ RI WKH H΀FDF\ RI 7+5 LQ 2018 issued statements that acknowledge that alternative nicotine delivery products are less risky than combustible tobacco.

Health Canada has issued science-backed statements such as “Completely replacing cigarette smoking with vaping will reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals” among several others to drive the adoption of alternative products by smokers.

In New Zealand, the ministry of health launched a website called Vaping Facts to educate citizens on the facts about vaping with the objective to help smokers quit. The website encourages smokers to vape as a means to quit and has widely published content that indicates that vaping is less risky than smoking.

In Nigeria however and across the west and central Africa region, the knowledge and acceptance of tobacco harm reduction as a public health strategy is remarkably low.

If Nigeria opts for a rigorous sciencebased approach to the adoption of THR and proceeds to foster an environment where SURSHU NQRZOHGJH RI WKH KHDOWK EHQHÀWV of switching to reduced-risk alternatives is consciously and str ategically made available to current smokers, the country will invariably experience a drop in smoking rates.

The logic holds true that so long as the alternative products from THR separate tobacco consumers from the source of risk, then they not only reduce the risk of harm but also reduce the smoking rates.

Odusile is a public health communication specialist

Yes, it is constitutionally valid, argues FESTUS OGUN

IS SECTION 84(12) OF THE ELECTORAL ACT CONSTITUTIONAL? The Electoral Act, 2022 was recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

One of the newly introduced clauses in the new Electoral Act is Section 84(12) which provides WKDW DQ\RQH KROGLQJ D SROLWLFDO R΀FH ² PLQLVWHUV FRPPLVVLRQHUV VSHFLDO DGYLVHUV DQG RWKHUV ² PXVW relinquish the position before they can be eligible to participate in the electoral process either as a candidate or as a delegate.

Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022 provides thus:

“No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election”.

The implication of the above is that political appointees who intend to be voting delegates or stand as aspirants for an elective positions in D SULPDU\ HOHFWLRQ VKDOO ÀUVW RI DOO UHVLJQ WKHLU appointments. For a political appointee, the failure to resign appointment before voting as a delegate or standing as an aspirant in a primary election is a violation of the Electoral Act and further renders the primary election null and void and illegal.

Section 84(13) further provides that “where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of this Act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for the election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue”.

Thus, where a political party violates the provision of the Electoral Act in respect of political appointees in primaries, the party’s candidate shall be excluded from the general election for which the primary election was conducted. Put simply, where a party allows a substantive political appointee to vote as delegate or participate as an aspirant in a primary election, the party shall have no candidate at all in the election for which the primary was held.

Political parties must therefore be thorough in the screening process of delegates and aspirants, by ensuring that all political appointees participating in any primary election show credible evidence that they have resigned their position. Should a political party be negligent enough to allow a political appointee participate in primaries, it could cost them a chance to contest in the general election and where they manage to scale through the electioneering process and subsequently ZLQ LW FRXOG EH D JURXQG IRU QXOOLÀFDWLRQ RI WKH election; which gives the political party with the second highest vote cast an opportunity to emerge as lawful candidate. APC & ORS V. KARFI & ORS (2017) LPELR- 47024 SC There have been contentious positions as regards the constitutionality of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022. In fact, President Muhammadu Buhari protested the constitutionality of this controversial provision when making public presentation of the newly assented electoral law.

Those opposed to its retention have argued that

it violates the provisions of Sections 40, 42, 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(g) and 182(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended (hereinafter referred to as the 1999 Constitution). %\ WKH FRPELQHG HͿHFW RI 6HFWLRQV I 107(1)(f), 137(1)(g) and 182(1)(g) of the 1999 &RQVWLWXWLRQ D SHUVRQ VKDOO QRW EH TXDOLÀHG for election in Nigeria if the candidate is a person employed in the civil or public service of the Federation or of any state and has not resigned, withdrawn or retired from the employment at least 30 days before the date of the election. The simple interpretation of the above constitutional provision is that any employed civil servant or public servant intending to contest an election in Nigeria must have relinquished his or her position at least 30 days before the date of election.

The questions that follow therefore are: what is public service and who are public servants? Are “political appointees” public servants envisaged under the 30 days rule?

Section 318(1) of the 1999 Constitution GHÀQHV SXEOLF VHUYLFH RI WKH )HGHUDWLRQ WR mean the service of the federation in any capacity in respect of the Government of the )HGHUDWLRQ DQG LQFOXGHV &OHUN RI RWKHU VWDͿ RI the National Assembly or of each House of the National Assembly; 0HPEHU RI VWDͿ RI WKH 6XSUHPH &RXUW WKH Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or other courts established for the Federation by this Constitution and by an Act of the National Assembly; 0HPEHU RI VWDͿ RI DQ\ FRPPLVVLRQ RU authority established for the Federation by this Constitution or by an Act of the National Assembly; 6WDͿ RI DQ\ DUHD &RXQFLO 6WDͿ RI DQ\ statutory Corporation established by an Act of the National Assembly; 6WDͿ RI DQ\ HGXFDWLRQDO LQVWLWXWLRQ HVWDEOLVKHG RU ÀQDQFHG SULQFLSDOO\ E\ WKH Government of the Federation; 6WDͿ RI DQ\ FRPSDQ\ RU HQWHUSULVH LQ which the Government of the Federation or its agency owns controlling shares or interest; and 0HPEHUV RU R΀FHUV RI WKH DUPHG IRUFHV RI WKH Federation or the Nigeria Police Force or other government security agencies established by law.

There is equally a similar provision for Public Service of a State under the same Section. From the above, it can be deduced that the constitution is clear on who falls under the category of public service of the federation or of a state. Political appointees are not included. And the law is settled, like the water of Babylon, that in a constitutional provision, the express mention of one person or thing is the exclusion of another or the inclusion of one is the exclusion of another; respectively as contained in the Latin maxims: expression unius personae vel rei, est exclusion alterius or inclusion unius est exclusion alterius. See: MILITARY GOVERNOR OF ONDO STATE V. ADEWUNMI (1988) 3 NWLR (PT. 82) 280 AND ATTORNEY-GENERAL BENDEL STATE V. AIDEYAN (1989) 4 NWLR (PT. 118) 646.

OGUN is a constitutional lawyer and Managing Partner at Lagos Law Firm, FOLEGAL, festusogunlaw@gmail.com

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T H I S D AY FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022

EDITORIAL

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

THE UNGA DECLARATION ON PASTORALISTS Pastoralists play a vital role in food security, and in maintaining biodiversity

L

ast week, the United Nations GeneralAssembly (UNGA) declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), following petitions from the government of Mongolia and other pressure groups around the world. Pastoralists are the herder communities and rangelands are their preferred grazing areas. As at the time of the UNGA declaration, 103 governments supported the resolution co-sponsored by 61 countries. Nigeria is not one of the participating countries listed in the document.

The objective of celebrating IYRP 2026 is twofold: Focus world attention on the role that pastoralists play in food security, poverty eradication, environmental services, and sustainable natural resource use— thereby increasing global understanding and action to support pastoralists and deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ,W LV DOVR WR HQKDQFH GLDORJXH DPRQJ GLͿHUHQW DFWRUV DQG not least, to support pastoralists in collaborating with others and making themselves seen, heard, and included in policymaking, especially because of the role they play in food security. Their activities enrich the rangelands and reduce the impact of climate change through carbon sequestration.

Sustainable rangelands and pastoralism are sorely needed more so now in a world facing an unpredictable and changing climate, where already over 700 million people – DOPRVW RQH WHQWK RI WKH ZRUOG SRSXODWLRQ ² DUH VXͿHULQJ hunger, and where one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. UNGA estimates that in the last 100 years, pastoralists have endured numerous injustices such as dispossession of their traditional grazing areas and blocking of their migration routes. Yet these communities continue to survive and apply knowledge and skills that make them strong allies in sustainable development in the face of increasing uncertainty. Pastoralists are stewards of the rangelands, so they play a vital role in maintaining and increasing biodiversity and providing ecosystem services. :KHUHDV LQGXVWULDO FRQÀQHG LQWHQVLYH OLYHVWRFN

production has a big carbon and water footprint, the IRRWSULQW RI SDVWRUDO V\VWHPV KDV EHHQ VFLHQWLÀFDOO\ SURYHQ to be next to zero. Rangelands sustained by pastoralism form the largest carbon sink on the planet and managing them under sustainable grazing practices is essential for climate change mitigation. Pastoralism is a production system that requires little fossil-fuel energy. It relies primarily on self-generating natural pastures. It also helps WR SUHYHQW ZLOGÀUHV VLQFH JUD]LQJ FRQVXPHV PXFK RI WKH ground level vegetation that could provide the fuel to burn. Thus, pastoralism can be a nature-friendly livestock production system that optimises the dynamic balance between production and sustainability under highly variable and changing conditions.

The IYRP aims to UDLVH DZDUHQHVV DQG ÀOO knowledge gaps globally about the considerable EHQHÀWV SURYLGHG E\ healthy rangelands and sustainable pastoralism. It will also advocate for strengthening the capacity of the pastoral livestock sector and for increasing responsible investment in this sector. The goal is to make rangelands and pastoralists prominent in policy debates around everything from confronting climate crises to reducing poverty, managing threats to biodiversity, developing sustainable food systems, and helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Meanwhile, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) did not directly address the herder-farmer FRQÁLFW LQ VRPH FRXQWULHV SDUWLFXODUO\ 1LJHULD ZKHQ DVNHG to comment on the impact the IYRP 2026 would have on the FRXQWU\ ,Q -XQH WKH ,QVWLWXWH SURͿHUHG KD\ FXOWLYDWLRQ and preservation as solution to reduction in migration of livestock in search of food which has been linked to security threats in Nigeria and some parts of West Africa.

7KH ,/5, 1LJHULD FRXQWU\ R΀FH VDLG LW KDV VXFFHVVIXOO\ tested, perfected and proven that the production of quality and nutritious hay is possible in Southwest Nigeria which can be preserved all year round to cater for livestock needs, emphasising its impact in reducing migration of herder FRPPXQLWLHV IDPLOLHV WR DYRLG FRQÁLFWV

The goal is to make rangelands and pastoralists prominent in policy debates - from confronting climate crises to reducing poverty, managing threats to biodiversity, and developing sustainable food systems T H I S D AY EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITORS WALE OLALEYE, OBINNA CHIMA MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR ISRAEL IWEGBU CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI THE OMBUDSMAN KAYODE KOMOLAFE

T H I S D AY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS SHAKA MOMODU, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR PATRICK EIMIUHI CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

Letters to the Editor Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-300 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 (750- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with photograph, email address and phone numbers of the writer.

LETTERS OBIANO AND THE SHORT END OF THE STICK For former Anambra State Governor Mr. Willie Obiano, the last seven days have been extremely eventful. On March 17,2022, he had had to leave the exalted position of Anambra State Governor having handed over to Mr. Charles Chukwuma Soludo.

On that day, while he sat stock still, he had to endure the public humiliation that followed his wife`s unsightly altercation with Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, wife of former Biafran warlord Mr. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

The former governor left the venue shell-shocked following the altercation which has since gone viral, drawing wave after wave of bad publicity for the IRUPHU ÀUVW IDPLO\ RI $QDPEUD 6WDWH He was soon to endure more humiliation when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission picked him up Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos just as he was about to depart to Houston Texas, USA, with his family.

Months before his exit from power in Anambra State, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had reportedly placed Mr. Obiano on its watch list. With time having taken its toll on his immunity as governor, the EFCC swooped to take him into custody for questioning.

Mr. Willie Obiano`s questioning or grilling by the EFCC as the case may be was going well away from the prying eyes of the public and the elephantine memory of the social media until a certain video shot just under 12 seconds went viral.

The video showed the former governor sat in the custody of the EFCC, clad in shorts and drinking a bottle of water. If the video was meant to be funny or to draw plaudits for the EFCC for putting the former Anambra State governor on the hot seat on allegations of frittering away billions from WKH FRͿHUV RI $QDPEUD 6WDWH ZKLOH KH ZDV JRYHUQRU LW KDV VSHFWDFXODUO\ EDFNÀUHG The chorus of condemnation for the EFCC has been loud and lacerating, with many fashioning sticks out of the video with which they have poked the ribs of the EFCC while mercilessly reminding it of its predilection for media trial.

The video has also seen many allude to Nigeria`s lurid romance with ethnicism in alleging that the video was circulated to humiliate the former Anambra State governor and strip him of his dignity given that he comes from the southeast region of the country that has held the short end of the stick.

Under a tidal wave of condemnation, the EFCC has come out to say it KDV LGHQWLÀHG LWV VWDͿ ZKR OHDNHG WKH YLGHR DQG FRPPHQFHG GLVFLSOLQDU\ actions against him.

Like many others like him who governed states in Nigeria, Mr. Obiano OHIW R΀FH ZLWK D PL[HG OHJDF\ 5HSRUWV RI TXLHW DFKLHYHPHQW LQ WUDQVIRUPLQJ $QDPEUD 6WDWH ZHUH TXLFNO\ RͿVHW E\ DOOHJDWLRQV RI H[WUDYDJDQW VSHQGLQJ RI the state`s resources and even debauchery.

Yet, that a video which should have drawn mirth from Nigerians has instead drawn opprobrium for the EFCC shows that it must do more to shake RͿ LWV SHUFHLYHG REVHVVLRQ ZLWK PHGLD WULDO 7KH &RPPLVVLRQ KDV VLQFH VFUDPEOHG WR FRQWDLQ WKH HͿHFWV RI WKH YLGHR DQG UHLWHUDWH WKDW 0U :LOOLH Obiano`s predicament at the hands of the Commission is not politically motivated. But the Commission must do more.

The world is under unprecedented scrutiny from the social media and every day, many people and events are always just a click away from going viral and being vaulted into the valley of embarrassment. Because the internet does not forget, once a clip goes viral, damage limitation is mostly like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

In a month where the EFCC announced that within the last one year it had recovered N152 billlion, $386 million and recorded 2,220 convictions, what the Commission is doing well and what it needs to improve is clear for all to see.

Pervasive corruption remains endemic in Nigeria and as the country VFUDPEOHV WR ÀJKW WKH VFRXUJH WKH ERGLHV UHVSRQVLEOH FDQ GR ZLWKRXW WKH GLVWUDFWLRQ RFFDVLRQHG ZKHQ VRPH RI LWV URJXH VWDͿ JR RQ D IUROLF RI WKHLU own to indulge the wild unpredictability of the social media.

Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com

THIS WEEKEND TR

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WEEKLY MAGAZINE

NEWS METRO THISLIFE ART WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com 07010510430

Princess Omolola Adewoyin: Preserving Yoruba Culture, Rebranding Traditional Ceremonies

T H I S D AY ˾ Ͱͳ, ͰͮͰͰ

32

COVER

Princess Omolola Adewoyin: Preserving Yoruba Culture, Rebranding Traditional Ceremonies These days, couples try to find ground-breaking ways to blend old traditions with modernity in a way their guests would appreciate.

But this isn’t entirely in their hands to deliver. They have to trust the Alaga Iduro and Alaga Ijoko who are generally referred to as Alaga, to do a great job. The Alaga is theYoruba traditional compere who plays a major part in coordinating traditional marriage proceedings. She is a professional custodian of theYoruba marriage tradition, who through years of hard work and innovation defines and improves how marriages begin. Princess Omolola Adewoyin, a journalist for many years, turned Alaga has been doing this for decades. She talks about the intrigues and excitement involved in the trade of adding pomp and pageantry to traditional marriages and the joy she derives in carrying out her duty in this interview with MARY NNAH

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you properly and you will be proud that you have not wasted your money on this Alaga.

hat do you do presently?

I have been a journalist all my life. At a point, I ventured into training consultancy. I spent five years there and later moved on to another thing entirely and for five years now I have been a professional Yoruba traditional wedding compere, what is popularly called “Alaga Iduro” and “Alaga Ijoko”, in Yoruba language. That is what I do now to earn a living.

Tell us how your journey into the business of “Alaga” started.

I finished school in 1993 and went for service.

I completed service in 1995. So while waiting for employment and could not get it, I didn’t want to stay idle and while busy looking for what I could be doing, somebody invited me to a wedding and there I saw the Alaga and what she was doing.

From there I started telling people that I can do Alaga. Fortunately for me, one woman believed in me and invited me to compere her son’s traditional marriage. I didn’t know what to do even when I had already told them that I am an Alaga. But I was very lucky because my elder sister does Alaga but not professionally, she does it for members of her husband’s family whenever they want to marry a wife. So, I quickly travelled to Abeokuta to meet with her, I asked her so many questions on what to do and how to do them as an Alaga.

She gave me over 30 minutes’ tutelage and that is what I have been building on up till now.

How was your first experience as Alaga?

It was like my heart would jump out through my mouth. I was so scared. The ‘Alaga Ijoko’ was very experienced and I was scared she might ask me questions I would not be able to answer. But at the end of the day, I did well. In fact, the family I represented was so impressed and since then there has been no looking back.

What is the difference between the “Alaga Iduro” and “Alaga Ijoko”?

The Alaga Iduro is the compere that represents the groom’s family while the “Alaga Ikojo” represents the bride’s family. So sometimes I do either of those or I do them together. Some families prefer that one compere is hired to represent both families.

How long have you been doing this professionally?

As a side hustle, I have been doing it for 22 years now but professionally it’s about five years, although I have always been in it. When I went for my Masters, I was still in it. When I went for Diploma in Development Journalism at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, my team members held sendforth for me at home, and immediately I came back, I continued. So, it has always been a side hustle because it’s a weekend job.

What is it like to be an Alaga? What does it take?

It is like practicing any other profession. Like journalism which has been my life, I can compare this to it. You have passion for something, you enjoy doing it and at the end of the day you get paid for it. So I am so passionate about it.

I am always happy doing it. I love dancing and singing; I love dressing beautifully. I am really very happy with it.

For an Alaga to do a great job, she requires great attention to detail, first to understand what a couple wants and to find appropriate ways to blend it with what customs demand. She’s trendy, yet humble enough to ensure that as much as attention is focused on her, she always guides the flow of the conversation during the ceremony back to the couple.

Being a good Alaga, takes more than the ability to talk, dance or sing or be well dressed. It takes a lot of emotional intelligence for you to be able to know what to say, how to say it where, and when to say it. It is very important for you to know when you should continue singing and when you should stop; when for you to elongate the event and when to shorten it.

Princess Adewoyin and partner,Deaconess Bolanle Ajayi What’s the most challenging job you have done in this field?

for me and more appreciative by the family I represent.

That should be when I just started. Like the very first job I did, that I said my heart was palpitating since then nothing of such.

Which is the most memorable function you have compered so far?

There is a spectacular one. Last year I started a second-generation wedding for a particular family. I was the compere for all their first generation, the last year I started with the second generation. I was the compere for the mother of the groom and last year the groom got married and I was also the compere. In fact, it was very remarkable and memorable for me.

How important is the job of an Alaga to a Yoruba traditional marriage?

It is very important. It is as important as the “Eru iyawo” (bride price list or dowry list). It is one thing to have money to buy items agreed upon for the groom to buy for the bride’s family and it is another thing for them to be well presented. If you don’t have a capable Alaga, the value of what you have spent, your cost may not really show. It is the Alaga that will present your family and also answer the questions from the Alaga Ijoko (compare for the bride’s family). Alaga is something that has come to stay in the Yoruba tradition. It is the Alaga that adds pomp and pageantry to the Yoruba traditional wedding, especially if you are able to get an a that knows her onions.

Alaga is a tradition that has been on the ground. How would you compare what is done today to what was done at a Yoruba wedding?

They are incomparable. When I got married, for instance, the pomp and pageantry weren’t there. My Alaga didn’t even come with a drummer, she only came, ask the Alaga Iduro questions, she answered and then presented what my husband’s family brought and that was it but now there are lots of celebration attached to it.

On a normal day, what does it entails for you to have a successful outing?

First is my standard drummer and then a lot of rehearsals. The first step is to find out information about the family I am representing – the family background and all specialties about them. This information makes the job easier and more interesting

What does it take to hire you?

I have a fee I charge and it is very affordable.

One good thing is that I don’t say no to my client. Sometimes I even ask them what they can afford – you know, the joy is in going there, representing them and doing it so well as it is expected. Not all Alaga is able to do this job. It saddens my heart when an Alaga who does not know the job is invited and at the end of the day destroys a memorable event. So, I won’t allow that to happen. As long as they get in touch with me, I won’t turn any client down.

How large is your scope of operation? I mean how far can you go geographically to do this job?

Since it became my only hustle in the last five years, I can travel as far as possible. I can go to any part of Nigeria and even any part of the world.

Like every other profession, there are competitors, what makes you stand out?

I speak good English. And I speak good Yoruba too. If you are not able to master the art of speaking, for instance, you will say some things that you were not supposed to say at a point in time and that might cause trouble.

So I have mastered the usage of the English Language and Yoruba Language. I am also conversant with the Koran and Bible. Whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, I will represent

“I have mastered the usage of the English Language and Yoruba Language. I am also conversant with the Koran and Bible. Whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, I will represent you properly and you will be proud that you have not wasted your money on this Alaga”

Tell us a bit about your journey as a journalist.

Getting into journalism wasn’t a mistake for me.

I set out from the world go to be a journalist. I read Mass Communication up to the HND level at Ogun State Polytechnic, now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic. Later I went to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication for a Diploma in Development Journalism.

When I came back from India, I went to the University of Ibadan for my Masters in Communication and Language Art, which are about communication and also all related to Journalism.

Even the Alaga job that I have found myself in now is all about communication – knowing what to say when to say it, and how to say it. I spoke about emotional intelligence earlier; it also includes how you dress. For instance, if I am invited to an event, I try to find out the financial capability of my client, so that I am not overdressed or underdressed for the occasion and God has been helping.

Now, talking about my journey in journalism, I started with Comet Newspapers. I spent three years with the Comet and from there I moved to THISDAY Newspapers, where I spent nine years.

I left as the Chief Sub-editor. After that, I have been doing a bit of freelancing for people. You know you cannot leave journalism entirely and journalism doesn’t ever leave you. I tell people that I have been a journalist all my life and I am going to die a journalist.

Was your break away from core journalism your choice?

To be frank with you, I got a better offer then. The job came with an official car and a driver attached while in journalism I drove my personal car. And the salary was much higher than what journalism paid me. But I have never left journalism; I have always been in its corridors while I have now launched fully into my Alaga brand, Iyawodunloshingin.

It means marriage is sweet when you are young.

Oshingin means fresh and young, it is good when you are young but that doesn’t mean you cannot marry when you are older.

What vision do you have for your brand, Iyawodunloshingin?

I see the brand as being known all over Nigeria and the world. There are Nigerians all over the world and they get married. So I see the brand representing families all over the world – wherever Yoruba traditional wedding is being conducted. And I am grooming a group of young people to take over in the future because I know I will not be this strong in years to come.

I also have a partner, Deaconess Bolanle Ajayi, who is also in the same age bracket and we are most likely to retire at the same time. She retired from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics more than 10 years ago, she was a secretary in the organisation for 35 years and we have been running this together.

But I have my younger daughter; she studied Mass Communication too at the University of Lagos. She is expecting to go for National Youth Service any time from now and she is already an Alaga. Her own brand is an offshoot of Iyawodunloshingin. She is Tide Alaga. That is the future.

What advice do you have for young people who want to toe this line?

The motive shouldn’t be money. What attracts you to being Alaga shouldn’t be the pomp and pageantry; first passion and then emotional intelligence. Learn the ropes; be emotionally intelligent because the best you can get is just one representation, so if you go there and mess up, they won’t call you again. And words of mouth spread faster than where your legs can reach. They should respect elders and learn from elders. There is no limitation in age, anybody can do it but you must have the passion for it first and then the money will start coming. I have trained many young people in the past 10 years and many of them are now on their own. They have spread all over and are enjoying this job.

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NEWS

Aboderin Raises Concern Over the Present State of Nigeria t1SFTFOUT 4FMG UP 3FTDVF /JHFSJB

Stories by Mary Nnah Moyosere of Yorubaland and Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Guru Magazine, High Chief Abimbola Aboderin has raised concern over the deplorable socio-economic and political condition of Nigeria.

Aboderin, who said he is greatly saddened by the present situation of the nation, lamented that many are unable to afford three square meals as the situation of the country has become so agonising for many citizens.

He said however that the root cause of the problem in the country is not actually a result of failed leadership but that it has its root in the old age corruption which has been in the system for a long time.

The multiple award-winning philanthropist said this during a media parley on the topic, “Dissecting Critically the Current State our Nation Nigeria”, recently in Lagos.

He said further that he was ready to present himself to rescue Nigeria from its present woes if given the chance to run as president in the forthcoming elections.

“I come out to say it boldly that if Nigerians globally are ready to contribute to my presidential aspirations I am ready to salvage Nigeria with my wealth of experience and international connections.

“I am ready to help salvage Nigeria, but I will only put myself foreword if Nigerians are ready to contribute towards my being their president and

salvage them from the present unbearable state we have found ourselves”, he said.

While advising Nigerians to shun money politics come 2023, the politician who claimed his love for the country was beyond financial gains, said, “All I have done for Nigeria because of my love for her cannot be overemphasised.

“ If I have done it in the past for Nigeria, I can still do it again because I have God on my side and the connection globally to help Nigeria and to emancipate her from her present state.”

The business tycoon per excellence, who also used the opportunity to unveil his latest book, titled, “Democracy and Untold story of June 12”,

prompted all and sundry that the book is not written to praise or castigate anyone but only aimed at producing the truth and full details of what transpired before, during and after the historical June 12 presidential election so that others can learn from the past mistakes and reunite as one great Nigeria.

Aboderin

the product as a way of further strengthening family bonds, by removing the stress pounding yam, manually, could cause in the family.

According to him, one of the unique features of the machine is that besides being fully automated, it can also prepare other local delicacies such as Semovita, Yam Flour, Eba, and rice, among others.

The Texas-based surgeon expressed the hope that the machine, developed over a period of 15 years, would go a long way in further boosting the nation’s economy by providing jobs for many Nigerians, desirous of market-

ing the products.

“Besides being an instrument to further deepen family bonds, the unveiling of the smart Yam Pounder Plus, also provides us the opportunity to make our own contribution to the growth of the nation’s economy,” he noted.

Also speaking at the unveiling, the Chief Executive Officer of Fuller Yield Venture, the sole distributor of the product in Nigeria, Mr. Steve Olayinka, assured trade partners of the readiness of the company to support them in the sales and marketing processes of the new offering.

He also disclosed plans by

the company to offer an attractive 15 per cent discount per unit sales to every of its trade partners, as part of the incentives.

Olayinka also disclosed that the team had also secured a partnership with one of the nation’s frontline financial institutions, Zenith Bank International, that would provide financial guidance, and loan facilities to SMEs, desirous of marketing the product.

He expressed optimism that the new invention would become a big hit in the market since it is coming to fill a yawning gap in the market.

NGO Promotes Value for Human Lives through Maiden Conference in April Rebecca Ejifoma A non-for-profit organisation, Virtues for Life Foundation, is promoting more values for human lives and sanctity through its maiden Value for Life conference billed for Monday April 11 this year at Marriott Hotel in Victoria Island area of Lagos State.

This was the thrust of the press conference to launch the foundation in Lagos where the president and convener passionately registered their goal.

The President of Virtues Life Foundation and convener, Alexander Faranpojo, said they are propelling values for

Female enthusiast and philanthropist extraordinaire, Funke Felix-Adejumo has taken the challenges of African women to the global centre stage stressing the need for more realistic gender inclusion.

In a press release made available to THISDAY, it was revealed that the author of the celebrated book, “More Than A Woman”, was at the Funke Felix-Adejumo with recently concluded Com- her award monwealth Africa Initiative which held in London, England, where she extolled the virtues of African women and raised other issues affecting the productivity of women among which is gender inequality.

During the Plenary Session 6: Commonwealth women in Leadership During The COVID-19 role in building back better, Felix-Adejumo, alongside leading African voices such as Southern Africa’s Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Founder/Executive director of Advocacy For Humanity, Fatimah Mohammed Habib, advocated for a more inclusive policy that will engender women participation in policymaking, religious circles, health, education, among other critical subjects.

“Let’s bring more seats and tables to involve more women in policy-making, education, religion, health and in all areas that God has empowered women to contribute to the socioeconomic development of Africa,” Felix-Adejumo said.

Her commitment to promoting values and issues stifling the socio-economic development of women was again brought to bear when the renowned reverend stressed that over the years, women have been made to sometimes feel inferior by various institutions, saying women’s self-esteem has been bruised and subdued by forces beyond her immediate control.

She referenced her own personal experiences where she suffered prejudice and bias as a woman, and how she was able to break through with support from a rich community of other women and men to be where she is today.

She encouraged women that are placed in positions of leadership by God to not pay attention to noise-making because

DREAMWORKS MAKES ZUBBY MICHAEL BRAND AMBASSADOR

Bendall Innovation, Fuller Yield Venture Unveil Digital Yam Pounder United States-based firm, Bendall Innovation, and Nigerian Fuller Yield Ventures recently unveiled Omnismart Yam Pounder Plus, a digital yam pounding machine, also capable of preparing other local swallows, effortlessly.

The machine, which is fully automated, according to the innovators, is designed to ease the stress associated with preparing local dishes, in this part of the world.

Speaking at the unveiling, witnessed by the companies’ distributors, and select media, the Chief Executive Officer of Bendall Innovations, Dr. Gregson Oghafua, described

FUNKE FELIX-ADEJUMO SHINES AT COMMONWEALTH AFRICA SUMMIT, ADVOCATES FOR GENDER INCLUSION

human existence and better treatment.

He insisted that it was crucial to actively integrate respect for lives in all facets of policy making and implementation if the country is to make appreciable progress in attaining its corporate goals.

“We aren’t here to cast aspersions. We are saying whatever has happened in the past is gone. Henceforth, can we start demonstrating values for human lives?,” he requested.

Faranpojo, however, noted that a conscious look at all data of violent deaths in Nigeria, it is clear this is indeed an emergency which must be confronted frontally.

He went ahead to cite SBM Intelligence, a socio-economic research firm, that at least 10,300 Nigerians died last year which represented a 47 per cent increase over 2020’s figure of 7,063. Highlighting the countless lives lost to insurgency and the herdsmen-farmer clashes in the north central, the president bemoaned that it remains dark spots in her national conscience and consciousness.

“The rise in cases of ritual killings, especially for the purpose of acquiring wealth and fame in Nigeria is a trend that we are all aware of.

“We also have the unchecked actions of kidnappers, bandits, terrorists and countless other

non-state actors all involved in what has now become the business of arbitrary taking of human life,” Faranpojo, a pastor, listed.

As people, he continued, we need to put in place mechanisms that educate and enlighten our citizens on more value of human lives.

It is in line with its call that the Value For Life Conference will be impacting and to make a louder clarion call to anyone with whom this idea resonates.

Speaking also, the Assistant President of Virtues for Life Foundation, Mrs. Funmilola Faranpojo, recalled that in the past, they had shown care and love to over 3,000 lives.

Dreamworks Integrated System Limited, a leading Information, and Communications Technology retail and distribution firm in Nigeria, has appointed renowned Nollywood actor and film producer,Azubuike Michael Egwu popularly known as Zubby Michael, as its brand ambassador.

Henceforth Zubby Michael will be driving the company’s expansion programme.

Speaking during the signing of the partnership in Lagos, Brand Manager, Dreamworks, Aylor Chinyere, said the intention is to use the popularity of Zubby Michael as a well-known Nigerian film actor and as a youth influencer with a very large followership to drive the firm’s expansion plans.

According to her, “Having Mr. Azubuike as our brand ambassador is a very interesting partnership for us because we understand that he has a very beautiful relationship with younger demographic which is part of our target audience.

“We like authentic relationships, and if you ever come in contact with the brand itself, we are very customer-centric, so we will like to put our customers forward.”

She explained further that the company’s partnership with Azubuike is a full partnership, where he would be representing the brand, while the company will be looking out for his wellbeing.

Speaking further she said, “Dreamworks has been in existence for almost 18 years now, we do service customers across Africa because we do a lot of distribution and also retail but in the most recent year, we have been expanding into more retail that is through business to customer relationship.

“We are doing a lot of expansion into the retail business through our E-commerce platform to our retail stores across the six geographical regions of the country. At present, we have 14 stores – in Lagos, Abuja, and Ibadan, and we are also working on launching new ones in Port Harcourt and Asaba.

“Dreamworks is known for its solid relationship over the year with Lintel, HP, and we have the support of these brands and that is why we are doing our expansion in terms of reaching out to more and more customers and also growing our consumer base.”

In response, Zubby Michael thanked the company for choosing him as its brand ambassador and promised to do his best to ensure that the brand receive the needed boost.

“I’m so excited to be part of this partnership. When it comes to accepting the position of ambassador of a brand, I don’t just accept it for acceptance’s sake.

“I first of all look at the brand and the owners of the brand, the people behind the brand, their integrity, and the history of the brand; I take a holistic look at the brand before accepting to represent them.

“In the case of Dreamworks, that is the same thing I did before accepting the offer. I will do my best, and God on our side, our dreams will work because “Dreamworks.”

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T H I S D AY ˾ Ͱͳ, ͰͮͰͰ

POLSCOPE

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So, What Battles Has Buhari Won For Us?

M

any of those-- including this reporter-- who rooted for General Muhammadu Buhari in 2014 and then again in 2019, had the belief that he was coming to clean the Augean stable. The Goodluck Jonathan administration was perceived to be weak and unassertive. He was in the palace but not on the throne. He did not seem to know enough what was happening in his government.

Matters were not helped with the wholesome abduction of the Chibok girls from their school hostel. The Jonathan administration did not immediately know of the incident. It even tried to dismiss or deny it, until clearer clarion calls began to confirm the abduction. That was like some three or so days after. That was in April 2014. The presidential election was just months away. The Jonathan government did not seem to know what to do. It somewhat wringed its hands in helplessness.

And many thought, rightly and wrongly, that the emerging security challenges facing the country would simply get worse under the leadership of a “bloody civilian” president who appeared blank on military warfare.

Standing a breath away was a touted no nonsense retired army general, reputed for fierce hatred for corruption and lousiness.

And many Nigerians thought he was the messiah: the square peg in the empty square hole. And pronto, he got voted for massively.

He won.

And after he assumed office, it took six months to assemble his team. That was the first sign on the horizon that all that glitters is not gold.

If Charles Dickens lived in our time and age, he sure would have written another version of Great Expectations.

Some of us tried to argue that President Buhari was like a heavy duty truck that revs its engine for a long time before all its cylinders get fired up for a distant journey.

But seven years after, we cannot quite tell whether the engine is still revving or whether the cylinders refused to be fired up. The expected long journey to the redemption ground has practically not started.

As politicians are wont to do, President Buhari was somewhat trim in his projected promises. He said his government would stand on the tripod of: anticorruption war, economic rejuvenation and tackling security challenges, with all the other socio-metrics of good life in-between.

With just about a year to go, when I take a look at the score card, I am bemused as I can’t see which of the wars he has fought and won for us as a country.

Let’s look at them one by one.

Anti-corruption fight: Let me be the first to admit that the name of Buhari commanded fear and compelled propriety at the beginning. Many people feared that the days of “any-how” were over. That it was surely not going to be business as usual anymore, with Buhari on the saddle. Many were still awe-struck with the memories of the 1983/84 fierce Buhari—the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) days. It did not take long for those understudying him to realise that the General was now a mere Biblical Ichabod---one whose glory had long departed. He was not even the typical toothless bull dog who could bark and not bite. This one was neither barking nor biting. He was just there. The fear of him vanished. We practically returned to our old ways. Stealing of public funds increased, most times with vexatious audacity, so much that a young lady in JAMB office would claim that snake, yes, snake swallowed N36 million.

Bizzare! That was in 2018. Till today, we do not know what happened to that matter.

If corruption was mere monster before, it has long grown horn under Buhari’s administration.

Little wonder the EFCC, itself a bouquet of corruption, has been having a rich harvest of arresting corruption suspects. It recently celebrated achieving 978 convictions in one year, just as it recovered N150 billion from the various suspects. Great? Yes, perhaps. But I guess a serious government should not just celebrate the conviction of that large swathe of “bad guys” in the land, but should worry more about a system that is so easily exploited and manipulated by crooks to feather their own nests. What is worse, many of them slip out of detention either because of light fines and punishment or they just ‘settle’ their ways out. There is perhaps nothing more ridiculous than seeing people who had been indicted by the courts, jailed and many are out and now strutting to become the nation’s

over N650 per litre, even the remaining big companies are gasping for breath. Our debt profile has hit N35.5 trillion! At a glance, it would seem like nothing is working in the country. Everything points to the fact that we are in a depressed economy. Didn’t they say we have come out of recession? But are we progressing right now, if we aint still receding?

Unfortunately, the attention of the federal government does not seem focused on how to solve these myriad of problems, but on how to conduct the next election. Tomorrow, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) will be having its national convention to elect its national officers. After that, it would be the holding of party primaries to elect flagbearers.

Governance is on suspension.

Almost all the other political parties including the PDP are also busy preparing for the next contest.

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has issued an alarm of the impending economic doom if things continue the way they are.

Hunger arising from high cost of food items is threatening, essentially because of inability of farmers to go to their farms. And that takes us to the next promise point of Mr President.

Buhari

president. Cry Beloved Country!

For most of 2020 into 2021, we were suffused with the talks about forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

After what looked like eternity, the report of the audit was released showing astounding records and cases of deep malfeasance: 13,777 projects “compromised” (whatever that means), just as the commission was said to have had and operated 362 bank accounts! That was in September last year. Three months later, last December, Mr President, in Akwa Ibom, boasted that he would “recover every kobo stolen from NDDC”. Three months after, not a whiff of that promise has been activated.

Has anybody wondered why street lighting projects (in every year’s federal budget) across the country is the exclusive preserve of federal lawmakers? Yet the streets are darker than the pathway to hell.

Yes, corruption is endemic among us, what seems to have remarkably changed is the “smartness” to steal and not be caught.

The corruption index has just been climbing faithfully and courageously.

The other concern is that of the Economy.

Gash! It is crushing so much that even the rich are not just crying, they are wailing.

The poor are groaning. Ours is an importdependent economy. The balance of trade of the country is skewed against Nigeria.

That means that we are importing more than we are exporting. That explains why the Nigerian Customs Service generates over a trillion naira per year (despite the sharp practices).

Our exports have largely been reduced to the oil and gas resources. Even at that, when we import refined petroleum products, whatever gain we should have made from exporting crude oil, is wiped off. While other OPEC countries are happy that the price of crude in the international market is rising, and so making more money, we are crying because we are burning more money importing the products. Suddenly, our oil and gas has become our liability.

What a country!

Matters are not helped with the huge manipulations of the number of litres of petrol NNPC and PPMC claim we consume in the country. Because of the illicit deal the operators get from this importation (in the name of petroleum subsidy), they ensure that the refineries are never going to work, no matter how many tons of dollars we pour into its servicing. And Mr President is the substantive Petroleum minister!

So, for an import dependent economy to have the United States Dollars exchanging for $1 to N580, something is clearly wrong with the managers of such economy. Inflation is heading to 16% How much progress can we make on such a path? Yet, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics says our GDP grew by 3 per cent or so last year. But government organs hardly talk about the huge debt profile mounting up for Nigeria.

Housewives are complaining badly about sustaining the homestead. Now they go to market with a basket full of money and come back with a pocket full of items. It was the other way round few years ago.

Perhaps the worst indicator of our weak economy is the number of unemployed persons that has continued to be on the rise.

The Buhari administration had promised the creation of three million jobs per year, in 2015. But more than that amount of jobs has been lost each year because of several factors, chief of which is our huge import-inclination. COVID-19 only helped to worsen an already bad situation.

Many companies have shut down, sacking their workforce. That is why the urge to leave the country by the old and the young is highest in recent years.

Today, we are losing our youth population to the twin malaise of drug addiction and internet/fetish fraud aka ‘yahoo-yahoo’.

Life has become tougher and even brutish.

The frequent collapse of electricity grid has only helped to worsen the woes of many Nigerians. It is practically snuffing off life from the SMEs. With the cost of diesel

“He said his government would stand on the tripod of: anti corruption war, economic rejuvenation and tackling security challenges, with all the other socio-metrics of good life in-between. With just about a year to go, when I take a look at the score card, I am bemused as I can’t see which of the wars he has fought and won for us as a country”

Security Issues This was a cardinal issue that not only swept former President Jonathan off the stool, but brought President Buhari into office. With his military background, one famed for being a no-nonsense army General, many, including this reporter, assumed that dealing with the Boko Haram and other terrorist threats in the country would be a work-over. But alas, here we are, insecurity has not only been maximally escalated across board, it has threatened every facet of the Nigerian economy. The insecurity challenge has simply quadrupled.

It was as if the terrorists were pouting their lips at us when we believed President Buhari would soon smoke them out and crush them all, saying “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.

It was just the abduction of Chibok girls and the Dapchi school girls, in 2014, and then we voted Jonathan out, accusing him of incompetence and being clueless. But under President Buhari we have gone ahead to have an all round abduction from nearly everywhere, including the Kankara Boys abduction in Katsina (near Mr President’s Daura town) , the Kagara abduction in Niger State, Salihu Tanko Islamic School pupils abduction (including minors) in Niger State, the Greenfield University abduction in Kaduna State, the daredevil abduction at Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna; the abduction of 30 students at Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, just to mention but a few. In many of the cases, there were deaths, just as parents paid huge sums of money running into hundreds of millions of Naira as ransom to get their children released. Some are still in captivity.

Eight years after, Leah Sharibu, the Dapchi girl who refused to denounce her Christian faith is still in captivity, with unconfirmed stories of her being mother of two children now, even as some Chibok girls are yet to be seen or heard.

In Borno, 43 rice farmers were beheaded by Boko Haram terrorists, for daring to come to the farm. In some Niger State communities, they contribute money on daily basis to “settle” bandits and kidnappers to enable them gain access to their farms.

Zamfara State has long become the daily playground of bandits and wild terrorists as they kill and burn villages and communities.

The Killings and abductions in Kaduna State are beyond measure. Benue State was a theatre of the absurd with Fulani herdsmen and local farmers frequently clashing and the latter being killed. Just everywhere, we are over whelmed with the plague of terrorism in a manner we had never seen it. Journeying from Abuja to Kaduna has since become a suicide mission, ditto many other highways in the country, especially in the northern part. We are simply perplexed at what has befallen us under President Buhari.

So, looking back and round, in which area can we clap for Mr President? I am not less patriotic in holding this view. And I am not unaware of the feats being recorded in infrastructure development: the tarring of many roads in the country (though through tax credits), the gigantic rail projects across the country (from huge Chinese loans), the soon-to be commissioned second Niger bridge, the building of the first Deep sea port in Nigeria etc., …. yet let me remind those who think I am less patriotic that trains, ports and bridges are only useful for the living.

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FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 • T H I S D AY

39

40

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ Ͱͳ˜ 2022

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Chartered Institute for Securities Tasks Women in Nigerian Capital Market Kayode Tokede Nigerian women in the capital market havebeen urged tocontribute more values towards achievementoforganisational goals in order to bridge inequality gap between them and their male counterparts.

Some women in the Nigerian Capital Market have distinguished themselves in different capacities, including provision of exceptional leadership. But women should generally exhibit strong level of self-confidence to reinforce their skills for enhanced competitive edge.

In a paper entitled: “ Supporting Equity for the next Generation: Women in NigerinCapital Market, “Assistant Director, Global Business Development, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), Helena Wilson, explained that gender

equity contributedto economic growth, expanded stock of human capital and bring diversity of thought.Wilson noted that women should aspire to serve at senior level and maintain professional balancing in the workplace.

“Move from equality to equity.

Buy in at senior level. We must support mentoring, work in a hybrid place, ensue flexibility, reduce banter and recognise that we need to tackle earlier in careers, ”said Wilson.

Corroborating her, a panelist and the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Securities, Mrs Nkoli Edoka highlighted the need for women to have self-confidence in order to compete with the male counterparts. Edoka also advocated fairness in the type of workSchedule allocated to women by considering the

uniqueness of a woman. She argued that given an enabling environment, women will be at par with men in performance.

Another Panelist and Executive Director, Teakwood Advisory Partners, Mrs Florence Umoh advised women to challenge themselves on the value they can bring that will have multiplier effects on the corporate objectives.

According to her, this will lead to paradigm shift for women. She emphasized the need for women to engage in personal development to be on top of changes in the operating environment.

In his closing remarks, CISI Country Director in Nigeria, Dr John Osuoha noted that many CISIS members in Nigeria had not taken huge advantages which the Qualifications provide for the members at the global level.

L-R: Executive Director, Commercial and Institutional Banking, Sterling Bank, Mr. Tunde Adeola, Chief Executive Officer, Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe, Odenusi Olawale, Digital Marketing Communications Lead, Rite Foods, Chief Olumide Ilumo Oniru, Olopon of Iru Kingdom & the Otunba of Ilashe, General Manager, Corporate and Investment Banking, Sterling Bank, Mrs. Mojisola Bakare during a cleaning exercise at Oniru Beach to mark the World Recycling Day in Lagos... recently.

Sterling Bank Harps on Cleaner Nigeria Nume Ekeghe As part of its commitment to create a cleaner and safer environment for the citizenry and aquatic life under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative known as Sterling Bank Environmental Makeover (STEM), the bank has carried out environmental cleaning exercises in 23 states across Nigeria.

The cleaning up exercises involved cleaning of markets, roads and beaches to commemorate the World Recycling Day, which held recently in every country in the world. The exercises were simultaneously held in Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara, Ondo, Ekiti, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Abuja,

Delta, Anambra, Edo, Abia, Imo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina and Lagos. Speaking at the beach cleaning exercise at Oniru Beach, Lagos, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, Managing Director and CEO of Sterling Bank, said the bank embarked on cleaning exercises in 21 states out of the 24 states it is partnering with across the country.

The CEO who was represented

by Mr. Tunde Adeola, Executive Director of Commercial and Institutional Banking at Sterling Bank remarked that, “We have been on this journey for more than 10 years. Every time, this happens, we have a cleaner and healthier environment.”

Also speaking, General Manager, Corporate and Investment Banking with Sterling Bank , Mrs. Mojisola Bakare said, Sterling Bank is about impactful banking adding that the bank believe that there is no way they will live on this earth without impacting on the environment.

Commissioner for Ministry of Tourism in Lagos State, Mrs. Uzamat Yussuf said, “We are aware that Lagos is a place of aquatic splendour. If we have water that is not well protected and sustained, it is better we don’t have any of it at all and that is why it is important for us to sensitise the citizens of Lagos on the proper way to dispose wastes properly.”

FG Releases 142.6m to Mineral, Metal Sector Kasim Sumaina ÓØ ÌßÔË The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, has stated that the federal government through the Ministry has released the sum of N142.6M for the purpose of research development in the Mineral and Metal Sector.

Adegbite stated this in Abuja, Tuesday, on the occasion of the stakeholders Validation Exercise for the Research Development and Collaboration with some Nigeria Tertiary Institutions.

Adegbite named the institutions as; University of Ibadan, University of Port-Harcourt, University of Lagos, University of Jos, Ebonyi State University, Nasarawa State University, Federal University of Technology, The Kaduna Polytechnic, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida

University amongst others.

He added that these Tertiary Institutions, after due diligence, were carefully selected by independent faculty of five (5) erudite Professors of proven integrity who have contributed to the growth of the sector.

“The research covers areas of Mining Engineering, Metallurgy and Mineral Processing, Geological Mapping, Industrial and Minerals Utilization/Exports and Energy Minerals.”

The Permanent Secretary, Dr. Oluwatoyin Akinlade, who was represented by the Director Special Duties, Mr. Yisau Adepoju, said in the ministry’s effort to rejuvenate the mining sector it finds it crucial to collaborate with this reputable institutions to

carry out this research in specific areas which is intended to open up new frontiers in the Mining sector by providing the much needed data on the Nigerian Solid Mineral sector endorsement. Akinlade added that it is gratifying that these reputable institutions have completed their works. For their findings to be acceptable, it is customary, like in any other piece of research work it remains only an academic exercise until critical stakeholders come together to give it life so as to pave the way towards its acceptance and implementations.

This is what gave rise to this validation exercise by eminent stakeholders.

She stated that the validation of the research findings by all the stakeholders will unlock the potentials and add value to the mining and mineral sector.

ITF Empowers 3,905 Youths Nationwide Hammed Shittu ÓØ ÖÙÜÓØ The Director-General/Chief Executive of the Industrial Training Fund, (ITF) Mr. Joseph N. Ari, has said that the agency has empowered 3,905 youths nationwide including100 youths in Kwara State during its 2021 National Industrial Skills Development Programme(NISDP).

Ari made the disclosure in Ilorin, Kwara state capital on Wednesday during the closing ceremony/graduation of the trainees. Represented at the

event by the Area Manager, ITF, Ilorin Area Office, Mrs.Temitayo Quadri, Mr. Ari said, “The NISDP was initiated in 2016 to not only facilitate the achievement of the Federal Government policy on job and wealth creation and breed a new generation of entrepreneurs to transform the economic landscape of the country but above all drive the achievement of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

“The programme, which the closing ceremony is taking place today, commenced in the third

quarter of 2021. The training lasted for three months. In all, at least 3905 Nigerians were equipped with skills in two trade areas namely, Catering and Event Management and Plumbing. In this Kwara State, 100 youths were trained in 50 Catering and Event and Plumbing and Pipefitting. We believe that given the intensity and the very practical nature of the training, they were equipped with the necessary skills and attitudes for them to thrive as employees or asnentrepreneurs.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JANUARY 2021 Money Supply (M3)

38,779,455.43

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

1,039,129.55

Money Supply (M2)

37,740,325.88

-- Quasi Money

21,779,302.69

-- Narrow Money (M1)

15,961,023.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,364,871.13

---- Demand Deposits

13,596,152.06

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,414,275.50

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

31,365,179.93

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

42,916,586.63

---- Credit to Government (Net)

12,304,773.44

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

30,611,813.19

--Other Assets Net

3,892,112.74

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,264,585.14

--Currency in Circulation

2,831,167.19

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

10,433,417.96 317,234.17

˾ ÙßÜÍÏ ̋

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

˾ ÙØÏÞËÜã ÙÖÓÍã ËÞÏ ̋ ͯͱϱ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (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).

41

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ Ͱͳ˜ ͰͮͰͰ

SEC Assures Staff of Industrial Peace, Harmony Amid Protest in Abuja Kayode Tokede The Management of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has assured staff of the Commission of its commitment to ensure industrial peace and harmony.

Executive Commissioner Corporate Services of the SEC, Mr. Ibrahim Boyi stated this while addressing protesting members of staff of the SEC at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Staff had expressed

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

dismay over issues ranging from delay in the conduct of promotion exercise as well as appointment of Directors in the Commission.

Boyi assured the staff of Management’s readiness to dialogue with the staff in a bid to ensuring

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

QUANTITY TRADED

industrial harmony in the Commission.

He said “The Board of the Commission is currently meeting to approve the appointment of qualified senior staff as directors and we believe this process will be concluded very soon”.

T R A D E D

VALUE TRADED ( N )

MAIN BOARD

A S

He assured that the Management has listened to the demands of the staff and as a responsive Team, they will do everything within their capabilities to ensure that all grievances are promptly addressed.

“We are already in

O F

2 4

discussions with the staff representatives as we speak, and we hope that at the end of today we will come out with agreements that would be beneficial to all and help to ensure peace and industrial harmony in the SEC” he added.

/ 0 3 / 2 0 2 2 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

42

T H I S D AY • FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022

Friday, March 25, 2022 Thisday 40Index Indexfell down 1.1% Thisday Afrinvest Afrinvest 40 by 14bps The Afrinvest 40 declined 1.1% to 1,994.40 index The Thisday dŚŝƐĚĂLJ ĨƌŝŶǀĞƐƚ ϰϬ /ŶĚĞdž ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ ďLJ ϭϰďƉƐ ƚŽ ƐĞƩůĞ

THISDAY AFRINVEST 40 INDEX

points driven by sell-ŽīƐ ŽŶ MTNN (-0.7%), GTCO(-0.6%), (at 1,674.89 points due to sell-pressure on ZENITH 1.3%), and ZENITH (-ϭ͘ϭйͿ͘ ƵŵƵůĂƟǀĞůLJ͕ ƚŚĞƐĞ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ WAPCO (-1.3%), and UBA (-0.7%). These stocks cumula-

Fundamental Performance Metrics for THISDAY AFRINVEST 40 Index

account for 19.6% of the index. ƟǀĞůLJ ĂĐĐŽƵŶƚ ĨŽƌ ϭϯ͘Ϯй͘

Current Price

Ticker

WƌŽĮƚ-dĂŬŝŶŐ hƐŚĞƌƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĞĂƌƐ͘​͘​͘ ^/ ĚŽǁŶ Ϭ͘ϰй ASI up 11bps as DANGCEM Gains 3.3% zĞƐƚĞƌĚĂLJ͕ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŐŝŶĂů ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞŵĞŶƚ ŝŶ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŽƌ WƌĞǀŝŽƵƐ ĚĂLJ͕ ƉƌŝĐĞ ƵƉƟĐŬ ŝŶ ,KEz&>KhZ ƐĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ͕ ƚŚĞ ůŽĐĂů ďŽƵƌƐĞ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƌĞĚ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ (+9.8%), E' D ;нϯ͘ϯйͿ͕ ĂŶĚ & E, (+0.7%) bolƉƌŽĮƚ-taking on GTCO (-1.3%), MTNN (-0.7%), and ZENstered ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ŽŶ the local bourse as the AllITH (-ϭ͘ϭйͿ ĂƐ ƚŚĞ E'y-ASI shed 0.4% to close at Share index rose by ϰϲ͕ϵϲϬ͘Ϯϵ ƉŽŝŶƚƐ͘ ŽŶƐĞƋƵĞŶƚůLJ͕ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĐĂƉŝƚĂůŝƐĂƟŽŶ 11bps to 39,550.36 points. ŽŶƐĞƋƵĞŶƚůLJ͕ zd ůŽƐƐ ŝŵͲ declined ʬ109.8bn to ʬϮϱ͘ϯƚŶ ǁŚŝůĞ zd ƌĞƚƵƌŶ ƌĞĚƵĐĞĚ proved to -1.8% while ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĐĂƉŝƚĂůŝƐĂƟŽŶ ƌŽƐĞ ďLJ ƚŽ ϵ͘ϵй ;ƉƌĞǀŝŽƵƐůLJ ϭϬ͘ϰйͿ͘ DĞĂŶǁŚŝůĞ͕ ǀŽůƵŵĞ ĂŶĚ ǀĂůͲ േϮϯ͘ϰďŶ ƚŽ േϮϬ͘ϲƚŶ͘ dƌĂĚŝŶŐ ĂĐƟǀŝƚLJ ǁĂƐ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂƐ ǀŽůƵŵĞ ƵĞ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ĚĞĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ ďLJ ϭϵ͘ϳй ĂŶĚ ϭϴ͘ϰй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ƚŽ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ ďLJ Ϯϭ͘ϲй ƚŽ ϭϭϬ͘ϴŵ ƵŶŝƚƐ ǁŚŝůĞ value Ϯϭϰ͘ϳŵ ƵŶŝƚƐ ĂŶĚ ʬϮ͘ϲďŶ͘ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ƌŽƐĞ ďLJ ϴϴ͘ϱй ƚŽ േϯ͘ϭďŶ͘ The most traded stocks

by volume were dZ E^ KZW ;ϭϭ͘ϵŵ ƵŶŝƚƐͿ͕ & E, (11.1m Mixed Sector Performance ƵŶŝƚƐͿ͕ ĂŶĚ K E K ;ϳ͘ϯŵ ƵŶŝƚƐͿ ǁŚŝůĞ E ^d> ;േϮ͘ϮďŶͿ͕ Across our coverage sectors, performance was mixed as E' D ;േϭϰϱ͘ϬŵͿ͕ ĂŶĚ 'd K ;േϭϯϰ͘ϴŵͿ ůĞĚ ďLJ ǀĂůƵĞ͘ Ϯ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ŐĂŝŶĞĚ͕ ϯ ůŽƐƚ͕ ǁŚŝůĞ ƚŚĞ Industrial Goods index

ĐůŽƐĞĚ ŇĂƚ ͘ dŚĞ Oil & Gas and Insurance indices gained Bearish Sector Performance Ϭ͘ϵй ĂŶĚ Ϭ͘ϳй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ŽŶ ĂĐĐŽƵŶƚ ŽĨ ďƵLJŝŶŐ ŝŶƚĞƌͲ Across sectors under our coverage, performance was ĞƐƚ ŝŶ K E K ;нϲ͘ϰйͿ͕ // K ;нϲ͘ϭйͿ͕ ĂŶĚ s Z/d ^< W bearish as 4 indices lost, 1 index gained ǁŚŝůĞ ƚŚĞ &Z-/ d ;нϵ͘ϱйͿ͘ KŶ ƚŚĞ ŇŝƉ ƐŝĚĞ͕ ƚŚĞ AFR-ICT index led the losŝŶĚĞdž ƌĞŵĂŝŶĞĚ ŇĂƚ͘ dŽƉƉŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ůĂŐŐĂƌĚƐ ĂƌĞ ƚŚĞ ŽŶƐƵŵͲ ĞƌƐΖ ĐŚĂƌƚ͕ ĚŽǁŶ Ϭ͘ϯй ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ƉƌŽĮƚ-ƚĂŬŝŶŐ ŝŶ DdEE ;er 'ŽŽĚƐ ĂŶĚtheInsurance indices, downGoods 4.6%indiand 0.7%).

Trailing, ĂŶŬŝŶŐ and Consumer ϭ͘Ϯй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ďĂĐŬ ŽĨ ƉƌŽĮƚ-ƚĂŬŝŶŐ ŝŶ E ^d> (ĐĞƐ ĨĞůů Ϭ͘ϭй ĂƉŝĞĐĞ ĚƌŝǀĞŶ ďLJ ƐĞůůŽīƐ ŝŶ E/d, ;-1.1%), 9.1%), hE/> s Z (-3.5%), >/E< ^^hZ (-6.4%), ^d Z>E E< ;-ϯ͘ϴйͿ͕ ĂŶĚ &>KhZD/>> ;-3.1%). and D E^ Z (-Ϯ͘ϮйͿ͘ ^ŝŵŝůĂƌůLJ͕ ƚŚĞ Kŝů Θ 'ĂƐ ĂŶĚ ĂŶŬͲ

ing indices fell by Ϭ͘Ϯй ĂŶĚ ϮďƉƐ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ƐĞůůOutlook ŽīƐ ŝŶ K E K (-0.8%), E/d, (-Ϭ͘ϮйͿ͕ ĂŶĚ 'd K ;-Ϭ͘ϮйͿ͘ Investor ƐĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ͕ ĂƐ ŵĞĂƐƵƌĞĚ ďLJ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ďƌĞĂĚƚŚ͕ ŽŶǀĞƌƐĞůLJ͕ improved toƚŚĞ /ŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů 'ŽŽĚƐ ŝŶĚĞdž ǁĂƐ ƚŚĞ ůŽŶĞ ŐĂŝŶͲ 0.03x from 0.00x recorded previously as 16 er, up 1.8% driven by price appreciastocks gained, 14 lost and 75 were unchanged. In the ƟŽŶ in E' D (+3.3%). ĮŶĂů ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ƐĞƐƐŝŽŶ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ͕ ǁĞ ĂŶƟĐŝƉĂƚĞ Ă ƌĞͲ

bound in market performance as opportunity for bargain /ŶǀĞƐƚŽƌ ^ĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ ^ƚƌĞŶŐƚŚĞŶƐ ŚƵŶƟŶŐ ƉĞƌƐŝƐƚƐ͘ /ŶǀĞƐƚŽƌƐ ƐĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ͕ ĂƐ ŵĞĂƐƵƌĞĚ ďLJ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ďƌĞĂĚƚŚ

Corporate Disclosure ;ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞͬĚĞĐůŝŶĞ ƌĂƟŽͿ͕ ƐƚƌĞŶŐƚŚĞŶĞĚ͕ ƐĞƩůŝŶŐ Ăƚ 1.6x DĞĂŶǁŚŝůĞ͕ ƚŚĞ E'y ;ΗƚŚĞ džĐŚĂŶŐĞΗͿ ƐƵƐƉĞŶĚĞĚ ƚƌĂĚͲ ĨƌŽŵ ϭ͘ϯdž ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ůĂƐƚ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ƐĞƐƐŝŽŶ ĂƐ Ϯϰ stocks ŝŶŐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƐŚĂƌĞƐ ŽĨ ĐĐĞƐƐ ĂŶŬ WůĐ ;Η ĐĐĞƐƐΗ Žƌ ΗƚŚĞ advanced while 15 stocks declined. MRS (+9.9%), MAY-

THISDAY AFRINVEST 40

3 BUA Cement Plc 4 Guaranty Trust Holding Co PLC 5 Zenith Bank PLC 6 Dangote Cement PLC 7 Nestle Nigeria PLC 8 FBN Holdings Plc 9 Lafarge Africa PLC 10 Access Bank PLC 11 United Bank for Africa PLC 12 Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC 13 Nigerian Brew eries PLC 14 SEPLAT Energy PLC 15 Ecobank Transnational Inc 16 International Brew eries PLC 17 Okomu Oil Palm PLC 18 Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC 19 Fidelity Bank PLC 20 AXA Mansard Insurance PLC 21 Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC 22 FCMB Group Plc 23 United Capital PLC 24 Guinness Nigeria PLC 25 Transnational Corp of Nigeria 26 Presco PLC

STOCK (-4.8%) led losers. Previous day, we expect the ĚĞůŝƐƟŶŐ ŽĨ ĐĐĞƐƐ ĨƌŽŵ E'yΖƐ ĂŝůLJ KĸĐŝĂů >ŝƐƚ ĂŶĚ ƐƵďͲ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ƐĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ ƚŽ ƌĞŵĂŝŶ ŵŝdžĞĚ͕ ĂƐ earnings season ƐĞƋƵĞŶƚ ůŝƐƟŶŐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ,ŽůĚŝŶŐ ŽŵƉĂŶLJ͕ ĐĐĞƐƐ ,ŽůĚŝŶŐƐ gradually winds up.

WůĐ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ džĐŚĂŶŐĞ͘

7.5%

99.4%

31.9%

31.9%

15.0%

ROA

P/E

3.5%

5.3x

Divindend Earnings Yield Yield

P/BV

0.8x

1,260.00

0.0%

204.00

-0.7%

8.1%

3.6%

3.6%

134.7%

14.1%

13.9x

21.4x

70.75

0.0%

6.9%

5.5%

5.5%

19.1%

11.2%

34.0x

6.4x

23.00

-1.3%

5.5%

-11.5%

-11.5%

20.7%

3.3%

3.7x

38.6%

5.7%

17.2%

1.5% 5.1%

7.2%

0.8x

12.9%

26.8% 29.3%

2.9%

26.60

-1.1%

6.0%

5.8%

5.8%

20.4%

2.7%

3.4x

0.7x

11.6%

273.50

0.0%

4.5%

6.4%

6.4%

39.2%

16.3%

12.9x

4.8x

7.3%

7.8%

1,395.00

0.0%

3.0%

-10.4%

-10.4%

106.8%

15.6%

27.1x

31.8x

3.6%

3.7%

12.05

0.4%

3.4%

5.7%

5.7%

8.4%

0.8%

7.1x

0.6x

3.8%

14.1%

23.85

0.0%

3.1%

-0.4%

-0.4%

11.6%

8.4%

8.9x

1.0x

8.5%

11.2%

9.95

0.0%

2.8%

7.0%

7.0%

17.9%

1.6%

2.2x

0.3x

10.1%

46.0%

7.60

-0.7%

2.0%

-5.6%

-5.6%

15.8%

1.4%

2.2x

0.3x

13.2%

44.6% 12.8%

34.80

0.0%

1.5%

-3.3%

-3.3%

15.1%

2.1%

7.8x

1.2x

11.7%

44.50

0.0%

1.4%

-11.0%

-11.0%

7.6%

2.7%

27.9x

2.1x

3.7%

3.6%

930.00

0.0%

2.2%

43.1%

43.1%

8.7%

4.1%

8.5x

0.7x

4.4%

11.8%

-10.3%

-3.9%

11.40

0.0%

1.7%

31.0%

31.0%

4.95

0.0%

1.1%

0.0%

0.0%

2.6x

38.2% 0.9x

143.50

0.0%

1.1%

1.1%

1.1%

36.5%

23.3%

9.7x

3.2x

31.00

-3.1%

1.0%

9.3%

9.3%

15.9%

4.5%

4.7x

0.7x

-11.5% 10.3% 5.3%

21.1% 40.0%

3.29

1.5%

0.8%

29.0%

29.0%

13.3%

1.3%

2.5x

0.3x

6.8%

2.15

0.0%

0.5%

-7.3%

-7.3%

9.3%

3.0%

6.6x

0.6x

10.1%

15.1%

16.00

0.6%

0.4%

-8.0%

-8.0%

17.4%

6.9%

8.8x

1.5x

6.3%

11.3%

10.3%

1.1%

3.60

7.5%

0.5%

20.4%

20.4%

12.45

0.0%

0.5%

25.8%

25.8%

70.00

0.0%

0.6%

79.5%

79.5%

13.3%

6.0%

14.7x

1.8x

0.6%

6.8%

1.10

0.0%

0.4%

14.6%

14.6%

11.1%

2.3%

5.8x

0.6x

0.9%

17.1%

0.3x

4.2%

2.4x

12.0%

133.00

0.0%

0.4%

51.5%

51.5%

2.8x

0.8%

13.10

0.0%

0.3%

-0.8%

-0.8%

21.3%

6.9%

12.3x

2.5x

3.1%

8.1%

0.70

6.1%

0.2%

0.0%

0.0%

7.2%

1.1%

388.9x

0.7x

29 TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeri 30 Custodian and Allied Insurance

264.90

0.0%

0.3%

19.4%

19.4%

48.0%

9.5%

5.4x

2.2x

1.6%

18.6%

0.3%

7.50

7.1%

0.2%

-5.1%

-5.1%

19.5%

5.5%

4.4x

0.8x

6.7%

22.7%

31 Vitafoam Nigeria PLC 32 Unilever Nigeria PLC

22.30

0.0%

0.2%

-0.9%

-0.9%

38.7%

16.0%

5.7x

2.0x

6.7%

17.5%

13.30

0.0%

0.1%

-8.3%

-8.3%

7.8%

4.9%

29.5x

1.2x

33 Julius Berger Nigeria PLC 34 Union Bank of Nigeria PLC

26.50

0.0%

0.2%

18.6%

18.6%

18.9%

2.4%

4.0x

0.8x

1.5%

25.0%

3.8%

35 Oando PLC 36 Wema Bank PLC 37 NEM Insurance PLC 38 Sterling Bank PLC 39 Notore Chemical Industries Ltd 40 Transcorp Hotels Plc

6.50

5.7%

0.1%

10.2%

10.2%

7.1%

0.8%

7.3x

0.7x

5.00

6.4%

0.1%

13.1%

13.1%

14.5%

2.6%

2.2x

0.3x

T ic k er

0.0%

0.0%

27.8%

27.8%

14.1%

0.8%

4.0x

0.5x

4.3%

25.0%

0.0%

0.1%

-9.6%

-9.6%

35.6%

18.5%

6.3x

1.0x

4.6%

15.8%

2.0x

0.3x

3.3%

1.52

-3.8%

0.1%

0.7%

0.7%

9.4%

0.9%

62.50

0.0%

0.1%

0.0%

0.0%

-28.3%

-6.1%

5.31

0.0%

0.0%

-1.3%

-1.3%

0.23

2.4x 0.9x

1.3%

T o p 10 T r a d e s b y V o l u m e

P ric e C hg %

T ic k er

Vo lum e

P ric e C hg %

9.5%

F ID ELIT YB K

48.3

1.5%

26.1

-1.3%

FCM B

3.60

7.5%

C UST OD IA N

7.50

7.1%

Z EN IT H B A N K

20.2

-1.1%

18.3

-0.7%

OA N D O

5.00

6.4%

UB A

A IIC O

0.70

6.1%

C UST OD IA N

17.5

7.1%

UB N

6.50

5.7%

FB NH

17.5

0.4%

C H A M P ION

2.15

5.4%

A IIC O

8.1

6.1%

F T N C OC OA

0.33

3.1%

UC A P

6.8

0.0%

F ID SON

8.15

3.0%

3.29

1.5%

SOVR EN IN S

5.4

0.0%

ST ER LN B A N K

4.4

-3.8%

T o p 10 T r a d e s b y V a l u e

T o p 10 L o s e r s T ic k er

P ric e

P ric e C hg %

R T B R ISC OE

0.65

-9.7%

C H IP LC

0.60

-9.1%

ST ER LN B A N K F LOUR M ILL

1.52

-3.8%

31.00

-3.1%

J A IZ B A N K

0.66

-2.9%

C UT IX

2.30

-2.1%

N GXGR OUP

0.50

GT C O

-2.0%

23.00

-1.9%

1.25

-1.6%

23.00

-1.3%

R OYA LEX

Brokerage

50.4% -13.8%

GT C O

F ID ELIT YB K

13.6% 46.5%

0.92

P ric e

VER IT A SKA P

3.4%

4.07

T o p 10 G a in e r s

LIN KA SSUR E

Afrinvest West Africa Limited

-1.12%

ROE

27 NASCON Allied Industries PLC 28 AIICO Insurance PLC

BAKER (+9.8%), and HONYFLOUR (+9.8%) led gainers ďĂŶŬΗͿ ƚŽĚĂLJ͘ dŚĞ ƐƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶ ǁĂƐ ŶĞĐĞƐƐĂƌLJ ƚŽ ƉƌĞǀĞŶƚ while ABCTRANS (-8.3%), LASACO (-6.7%), and LIVEƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ďĂŶŬΖƐ ƐŚĂƌĞƐ ŝŶ ƉƌĞƉĂƌĂƟŽŶ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ

1994.40

1 Airtel Africa PLC 2 MTN Nigeria Communications PLC

Price Previous Price Current Change Price Change Weighting Index to Change YTD Date

T ic k er

Value

P ric e C hg %

GT C O

606.9

-1.3%

Z EN IT H B A N K

540.4

-1.1%

FB NH

210.0

0.4%

F ID ELIT YB K

157.3

1.5%

M TNN

152.3

-0.7%

UB A

139.7

-0.7%

C UST OD IA N

125.2

7.1%

A IR T ELA F R I

124.8

0.0%

GUIN N ESS

92.6

0.0%

N GXGR OUP

90.1

-1.9%

Asset Management

Investment Research

Adedoyin Allen | aallen@afrinvest.com Robert Omotunde | romotunde@afrinvest.com

Abiodun Keripe | AKeripe@afrinvest.com

Taiwo Ogundipe | togundipe@afrinvest.com

Damilare Asimiyu | dasimiyu@afrinvest.com

Christopher Omoh | comoh@afrinvest.com

43

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022 • T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS 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

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 23Mar-2022, unless otherwise stated.

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 Afrinvest Dollar Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 8.29% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.51 3.57 -0.91% 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 6.83% Anchoria Equity Fund 142.65 144.31 2.58% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.21 1.21 5.78% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com info@anchoriaam.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 21.01 21.65 3.59% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 478.95 493.39 6.16% ARM Ethical Fund 39.82 41.02 2.21% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.06 1.06 -2.12% ARM Fixed Income Fund 1.03 1.03 1.61% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 7.02% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com; Tel 08069294653 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 109.03 109.03 7.20% AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Naira 1,088.05 1,088.05 8.81% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA Mansard Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) N/A N/A N/A CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund 1.03 1.03 1.99% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.54% Paramount Equity Fund 18.29 18.63 8.72% Women's Investment Fund 145.23 147.00 4.48% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.10% Cordros Milestone Fund 139.46 140.38 5.50% Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 111.64 111.64 4.78% CORONATION ASSETS MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com, Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Coronation Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A Coronation Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A EMERGING AFRICA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@emergingafricafroup.com Web:www.emergingafricagroup.com/emerging-africa-asset-management-limited/, Tel: 08039492594 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Emerging Africa Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 8.57% Emerging Africa Bond Fund 1.02 1.02 5.85% Emerging Africa Balanced Diversity Fund 1.04 1.04 14.04% Emerging Africa Eurobond Fund 101.65 101.65 3.59% FBNQUEST ASSETS MANAGEMENT LIMITED 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 1,429.25 1,429.25 10.55% FBN Balanced Fund 186.25 187.67 6.27% FBN Halal Fund 117.85 117.85 8.22% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.77% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Money Market Fund Legacy Debt Fund Legacy Equity Fund Legacy USD Bond Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Balanced Fund Coral Income Fund Coral Money Market Fund

123.14 156.85

123.14 4.04% 158.99 3.93% fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com

Bid Price N/A N/A N/A N/A

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price N/A N/A N/A

Offer Price N/A N/A N/A

Yield / T-Rtn N/A N/A N/A

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 N/A N/A N/A Vantage Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) N/A N/A N/A Vantage Equity Income Fund (VEIF) - June Year End N/A N/A N/A Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End N/A N/A N/A 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 1.49 1.51 3.21% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,163.73 1,163.73 2.35% 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 12.49 12.59 5.99% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 8.29% NORRENBERGER INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED enquiries@norrenberger.com Web: www.norrenberger.com, Tel: +234 (0) 908 781 2026 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Norrenberger Islamic Fund (NIF) 103.53 103.53 9.39% Norrenberger Money Market Fund (NMMF) 100.00 100.00 8.81% 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 1.64 1.67 2.12% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.66 11.66 4.22% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 7.18% PACAM Equity Fund 1.48 1.49 2.33% PACAM EuroBond Fund 113.95 116.50 -1.05% 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 129.91 132.16 7.43% 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 1.02 1.02 9.49% 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 N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD unitedcapitalplcgroup.com Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Equity Fund 0.99 1.01 6.07% United Capital Balanced Fund 1.43 1.46 5.27% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.16 1.17 6.16% United Capital Sukuk Fund 1.09 1.09 1.70% United Capital Fixed Income Fund 1.99 1.99 1.66% United Capital Eurobond Fund 123.80 123.80 1.19% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 6.02% 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 Balanced Strategy Fund 13.50 13.63 2.41% Zenith ESG Impact Fund 15.56 15.73 6.49% Zenith Income Fund 22.37 22.37 1.68% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 5.91%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

122.07 53.16

1.55% 0.82%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

14.14 135.40 106.99 20.44 22.22

14.24 138.79 109.35 20.54 22.32

1.21% 2.88% 3.26% 0.00% 0.00%

Fund Name SFS REIT Union Homes REIT

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

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

4.34 5.59 18.56 1.00 21.07 168.97

4.44 5.69 18.76 1.00 21.27 170.97

15.25% 9.82% 7.96% 6.88% 8.60% 7.06%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND

Fund Name NAV Per Share Yield / T-Rtn Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund 107.28 10.80% 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.

FSDH Dollar Fund

44

FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 •T H I S D AY

45

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022 ˾ T H I S D AY

FOREIGN DESK

COMPILED BY BAYO AKINLOYE

Ukraine Asks for More Help to Fight Russia

US President Joe Biden said Thursday NATO would bolster its defence capabilities after his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called on NATO leaders to provide more weaponry to his country “without limitations” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its second month.

Zelenskyy’s appeal came as Biden met with NATO leaders Thursday in Brussels to discuss their short- and long-term response to Russia’s month-old invasion of Ukraine, Biden’s first of three urgent meetings in Europe with world leaders.

Addressing the summit via video, Zelenskyy said his military needed fighter jets, tanks, and improved air and sea defence systems. He warned Russia would attack NATO members in Poland and other eastern European countries.

“Russia has no intention of stopping in Ukraine,” he declared. “It wants to go further. Against eastern members of NATO. The Baltic states. Poland, for sure.”

In a statement released by the White House, Biden said, “Between now and the NATO summit in June, we will develop plans for additional forces and capabilities to strengthen NATO’s defences.”

‘Russian Journalists at Channel One Scared’ Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who protested Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by bursting onto the set of a flagship television news show, says her colleagues at Kremlin-controlled TV Channel One are scared.

Ovsyannikova added that she did not regret her action.

The 43-year-old television journalist last week held up a banner behind the news anchor during a live broadcast denouncing the aggression in Ukraine and shouted, “stop the war.” On the banner, she wrote: “No War” and “They are lying to you here.”

“My colleagues are scared,” Ovsyannikova told VOA. “The heads of Channel One forbade them to discuss this incident.

Several colleagues quit, the rest — continue to work. They need to feed their families; they cannot find other work in such a difficult time. Because of Western sanctions, people have become real hostages of the difficult economic situation in Russia,” she added.

Chinese Companies in Dilemma over Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Chinese enterprises are caught between the high reputational risk of remaining in Russia during its war on Ukraine and the pro-Moscow sentiment that dominates China’s state-controlled media. So far, most have chosen to remain silent.

According to the Yale School of Management, more than 400 companies have announced their withdrawal from Russia’s economy since Putin launched the war on February 24. Most are based in the US, European Union, Japan and South Korea.

Salvatore Babones, an associate professor at the University of Sydney with expertise in the political economy of the Indo-Pacific region, said that for companies outside China, the desire to maintain a positive public image prompted their withdrawal from Russia.

“The risk of remaining in Russia is reputational,” he told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview. “Russia is a relatively small market, and there’s a huge public reaction against Russia right now. They (the companies) are responding to consumer pressure.”

Russia’s imports from China totalled about $54.9 billion in 2020. China is the largest source, followed by Germany, at $23.4 billion, and the United States, with just over $13.2 billion, according to the website Trading Economics, which uses figures from the United Nations COMTRADE database. By comparison, the site reports that China’s exports to

and Buea are located, chaired at least three crisis meetings on Wednesday.

Bilai said a shortage of clean drinking water caused the cholera outbreak in western towns and villages provoked by the long dry season, and civilians should desist from drinking open stream water. He said the disease spread fast because cattle and people defecate in the open and rivers.

the US in 2020 totalled $452.6 billion.

Dan Harris, a trade lawyer who specializes in doing business in emerging markets and co-authors the China Law Blog, said the business calculus has changed because of the sanctions imposed on Russia.

A spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement, which follows a visit by the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, to the capital of Addis Ababa this week.

North Korea Launches First ICBM Since 2017 North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday, the United States and its allies in the region concluded, Pyongyang’s first long-range launch since 2017.

The launch significantly raised tension on the Korean Peninsula. Just two hours later, South Korea fired five of its own missiles, in what it called a “demonstration of our ability and willingness to respond immediately and impose punishment.”

The North Korean missile flew for over 70 minutes, at a lofted trajectory, before landing just 170 kilometres west of Japan’s Aomori Prefecture, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defence.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking from Brussels, where he is attending a G-7 summit, called the move “an outrage that cannot be forgiven.”

The missile appeared to be a new type of ICBM, Japanese officials added, saying it reached an altitude of 6,000 kilometres and had a range of 1,100 kilometres.

Chinese, Russian Officials Visit Taliban-ruled Afghanistan Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has made a surprise one-day visit to Afghanistan, where officials said he held wide-ranging talks with Taliban rulers and renewed China’s opposition to international sanctions against the war-torn country.

Wang’s unannounced visit Thursday, his first since the Taliban takeover of the country last August, came a week before Beijing hosts neighbours of Afghanistan for a meeting on how to help the country tackle its worsening humanitarian crisis and economic upheaval.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will also represent Kabul at the meeting, scheduled for March 30 to 31, and brief participants on the latest situation in Afghanistan.

Shortly after the chief Chinese diplomat ended the trip to Kabul, a senior delegation from Russia landed in the Afghan capital under the leadership of Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan.

Ethiopia Declares Unilateral Truce to Allow Aid into Tigray Ethiopia’s government on Thursday declared an immediate, unilateral truce in its conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces to allow aid into the northern province, although it was not clear how it would enforce it.

“The government of Ethiopia hopes that this truce will substantially improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and pave the way for resolving the conflict in northern Ethiopia without further bloodshed,” the government said in a statement.

The United Nations has said more than 90% of the 5.5 million Tigrayans need food aid.

The 16-month-old conflict has pitted Tigray’s rulers – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – against the central government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The US State Department welcomed the news and said it strongly supported Ethiopia’s commitment to work with humanitarian organizations “to expedite the unimpeded delivery of assistance to all those in need.”

Cameroon’s Hospitals Overwhelmed with Cholera Patients Cameroon’s public health ministry says a cholera outbreak is sweeping across the towns of Limbe, Buea and Tiko, near the border with Nigeria.

The government says 12 of the 600 patients rushed to hospitals in those towns died within the past 72 hours.

Nyenti Annereke, director of the Limbe government hospital, said the facility, which has a capacity of 200 beds, has received more than 240 cholera patients.

“We built three tents in Limbe hospital yesterday because patients were at the veranda, in the corridors of the wards,” he said. “All the beds were full. The Tiko district hospital, the capacity also is overpowered. The hospital in Bota is another crisis zone.”

To cope with the overflow, humanitarian workers are helping to erect tents at the hospitals in Limbe and Buea.

Still, The government says many families are rushing their sick relatives to surrounding towns, including Mutengene and Douala, a commercial hub on the Atlantic coast.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the South West region where Limbe, Tiko

Vietnamese Journalist Sentenced to Five Years in Prison A court in Hanoi has handed down sentences to a journalist and a relative who tried to hide him from authorities.

Le Van Dung, an activist and independent journalist who publishes to Facebook and YouTube, was sentenced to five years in prison and five years’ probation for “propaganda against the state.”

The court handed Dung’s 66-year-old uncle Nguyen Van Son an 18-month suspended sentence for helping the journalist hide from police.

Dung denies the charges, according to his lawyers and family.

Ha Huy Son, one of the lawyers representing Dung, described the court’s decision as an “unjust verdict, with no basis.” He added that they would appeal.

Dung, a 51-year-old journalist, also known as Le Dung Vova, was arrested for his reporting in June 2021.

He posted videos and articles to social media about corruption and land confiscations and commented on political and social issues.

An indictment cited by state media alleged that Dung “made and posted to the internet 12 video clips” between March 2017 and September 2018 that included propaganda against the state, defamed the government, spread false news, caused confusion, and were insulted the “honour and prestige of the Party and State leaders.”

WHO: Increased Funding Can End Global TB Epidemic The World Health Organisation warns that the fight against tuberculosis is critical. It says the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed gains made since 2000 in saving lives from infectious disease.

For the first time in over a decade, the WHO says TB deaths increased in 2020.

It says around 1.5 million people died of TB during that pandemic year because of disruptions in services and lack of resources. Most deaths have occurred in developing countries, with conflict-affected countries across Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East at greatest risk.

The director of the WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Program, Tereza Kaseva, says an extra $1.1 billion a year is needed to develop new tools, especially new vaccines, to achieve the goal of ending TB by 2030.

She says investing in the fight against tuberculosis is a no-brainer given the benefits gained for each dollar spent.

“For every one dollar invested to end TB, 43 is returned as the benefits of a healthier, functioning society…Ending TB by 2030 can lead to avoiding 23.8 million tuberculosis deaths and almost $13 trillion in economic losses.”

The WHO says extra funding would allow the world to treat 50 million people with TB, including 3.7 million children and 2.2 million with drug-resistant TB. WHO officials say that would be particularly beneficial for children and young adults who lag adults in accessing TB prevention and care.

The team leader of vulnerable populations in the WHO’s global TB programme, Kerri Viney, says 1.1 million children and young adolescents become ill with tuberculosis every year.

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NEWS

HERE IS OUR POSITION...

L-R: President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan; Chairman, APC Caretaker Extra-ordinary National Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni and Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu, ENOCK REUBEN briefing the press after the meeting at APC national headquarters in Abuja ...yesterday

For Second Month Running, NNPC Fails to Make Remittance to Federation Account Paid N219.7bn as fuel subsidy in February, set to deduct N328bn next month

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Again, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd., failed to remit its statutory funding of the Federation Account, a joint pool collectively operated by the federal, state and local governments in February.

The situation portrays a deepening inability of the national oil company to meet its obligations to its biggest stakeholder, the federation, with the planned N328 billion deduction scheduled for next month, arguably the highest since it began the payment of petrol subsidy.

In addition, the document detailing the National Oil Company's (NOC) presentation to the Federation Account

Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Tuesday, indicated that it had so far exceeded its subsidy budget

by N356.3 billion to hit N430.165 billion in January and February.

While the initial projection of subsidy payment for the month was N36.893 billion and annual disbursement of N442.7 billion, since the federal government had planned to withdraw the under-recovery payments by June, however, data from the NNPC indicated that it almost exhausted its entire budget for the whole year in the first two months of 2022.

Whereas the NNPC was supposed to have paid the federation about N351.9 billion this year, it had only succeeded in remitting zero naira to the three tiers of government at

February, according to the March presentation.

It also did not fund many of its hitherto mandatory cost centres, during the month under review, including the non-functional refineries, which it spends close to N10 billion on every month, the Nigeria/Morocco pipeline, frontier exploration services, among others.

“The value shortfall of N219,783,148,011.13 was charged for the month which comprises of N195,975,376,910.12 for January 2022 plus part of the November 2021 spot cargo arrears of N23,807,771,101.00.

“The estimated value shortfall of N328,004,248,900.01 (consisting of N253,004,248,900.01 for February 2022 recovery plus balance of November 2021 spot

Electoral Act: House Insists Section 84(12) Still Alive, Heads to Court Next Week

Says Buhari wasn't coerced to sign bill into law Kalu asks appointees to steer clear off APC convention

Udora Orizu in Abuja The House of Representatives yesterday said the Electoral Act recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari was still alive pending the Supreme Court decision on its appeal to a judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia that asked the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) to delete section 84(12) from the Act. The House spokesman, Hon. Benjamin Kalu who stated this while briefing journalists, disclosed that the parliament would be heading to court next week to appeal the judgement.

He said, "One thing I want Nigerians to know is that the Electoral Act is alive and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is working with the Act. There is no impediment on the Act until our right of appeal has been fully exercised.

“Are we waiting for 90 days to appeal? No, if possible, by next week, we will be in court. If we

miss it by tomorrow, by next week, we will be in court. So, exercise no fear, the Act is alive. A difference should be made between who is a public servant and a political appointee knowing fully well what the provision of 84(12) was not addressing publis servants. It was addressing political appointees.

"The principle of the supremacy of the constitution must be considered at all times in the course of enacting legislations so as to establish that there is no offence at all times. Granted that the constitution remains supreme as the ground norms.

“But where there is a lacuna, which has not been captured, the legislature has the mandate to legislate on those issues and that is exactly what we did. We discovered that political appointees were not covered by the drafters of our constitution and so, we decided to legislate on that based on the various engagement we had."

Speaking further, Kalu stressed that contrary to reports, President Muhammadu Buhari was not coerced to sign the bill into law, rather he signed it because he

saw the benefits.

According to him, "Mr. President was not coerced into signing the bill into law and was not compelled. He saw the benefits of the electoral reforms and wanted to leave a legacy by cleaning up the space. That was why he signed the bill into law.

“As Commander in chief of the Armed Forces, who has raised an issue, such an issue should not be swept under the carpet.

He decided to refer his concern not to the law court, but the parliament and that is how it ought to be in the spirit of the doctrine of separation of power where everyone know where his power lies. He did not refer it to the Attorney General.

“Mr. President was a better judge than what we just experienced recently where the principles that is reserved for the parliament was, in an over reaching Consequential order was passed to the Executive which ought not to be so if we must maintain checks and balance. That is what played out recently in the judgement given in Umuahia."

cargo arrears of N75,000,000,000.00 is to be recovered from the March 2022 proceed due for sharing at the April, 2022 FAAC meeting,” NNPC stated in the document.

Despite the rising international prices of oil, in January also, the NNPC in the same manner failed to remit its usual funding to the joint account.

This would be the third time in less than a year that the company would be unable to deliver a kobo to the joint account, following the same occurrence in April last year, when the firm announced zero remittance for the month.

In January, the NOC expended a whopping N210.38 billion on petrol subsidy during the month, although the 328 billion planned for next month remains the hugest amount yet.

THISDAY recalls that with a deficit of approximately N2 trillion out of its projected N2.511 trillion, the NNPC was unable to remit roughly 80 per cent of its projected contribution to the Federation Account in 2021.

For the entire 12 months of last year, the NNPC disbursed just N542 billion as against the

budgeted N2.511 trillion, given a monthly contribution forecast of N209.3 billion.

The N542 billion represented about 21. 6 per cent of the total expected contribution of the company to the joint account.

The development underscored how a combination of factors, including declining oil production, rising subsidy payments and high oil production costs, have hobbled the organisation's performance, despite the increasing oil prices which almost hit $140 per barrel a few days ago.

Earlier in the year, President Muhammadu Buhari backtracked on the planned full deregulation of the downstream sector, including the wholesale removal of petrol subsidy, citing the negative impact it would have on the poor in the country.

For decades, Nigeria's attempt to fully free the downstream oil and gas industry has met with a brick wall. The latest effort has also been pushed forward by about 18 months, effectively exempting the current administration which will exit

by May 2023 of any subsidy removal burden.

A THISDAY’s analysis in January 2022 had shown that total deductions for petrol subsidy or what the government terms under-recovery was about N1.43 trillion for 2021.

However, the latest data from the FAAC meeting further stated that the overall NNPC crude oil lifting stood at 9.94 million barrels for export and domestic crude, a 22.26 per cent increase relative to the 8.13 million barrels lifted the previous month.

In addition, the NNPC document showed that Nigeria recorded 1.39 million bpd oil production during the month as crude oil export revenue received in February 2022 amounted to $2.73 million.

Furthermore, domestic gas receipts in the month was N13.

10 billion, while feedstock gas receipt was nil.

Also, the sum of $15.42 million, being miscellaneous receipts, gas and ullage fees and interest income was received in February 2022, while the sum of N266,527,887,255.56 was the gross domestic crude oil and gas revenue for the month of February , 2022.

Tambuwal: Merit Not Zone Should Determine Nigeria's Next President Laleye Dipo in Minna The Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has stressed that merit and not the zone a person comes from should determine who becomes Nigeria's president in 2023.

Tambuwal also emphatically said the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) would not zone the presidency to any part of the country.

The Sokoto state governor said these in Minna, Niger state on Wednesday, after holding private audiences with two former Nigerian leaders, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar at their residences.

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives claimed that zoning the presidency had never been

the main issue in any political party in Nigeria since 1979, arguing that "the main issue has been that political parties will throw up candidates and allow Nigerians to decide who to expect as their president."

According to him, zoning of the presidency to the southwest in 1999 was a deliberate action by the political class to assuage the region following the annulment of the June 12 presidential election believed to have been won by late Chief MKO Abiola from the region in 1993.

The Sokoto state governor maintained that what was paramount to the opposition PDP was how to win the presidential election in 2023, adding that the party would not dissipate its energy on zoning the presidency to any

part of the country.

"What this country needs now is a competent leader, a person with capacity not a regional leader," he declared, saying he would give Nigeria the desired leadership for social economic growth if elected president.

Details of the meeting between Tambuwal and the duo of General Ibrahim Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar were not known, but it was believed the Sokoto state governor briefed them of his presidential asparagus Tambuwal was accompanied to Minna by a former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attaihiru Bafarawa and a former deputy governor of the state Alhaji Muktar Shehu Shagari as well as a former publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh.

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NEWSXTRA

FOR A FREE, FAIR AND CREDIBLE EDSIEC...

L-R: Chairman, Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC), Hon. Justice James Oyomire (Rtd.); Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki; his deputy, Philip Shaibu; Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie and member, EDSIEC, Mrs. Gladys Idahor, during the inauguration of the commission, at Benin City... yesterday

Governors Express Concern over State of Security, Economy Chuks Okocha in Abuja Rising from its third virtual meeting this year, governors in the country yesterday expressed concern over the rising insecurity in Nigeria as well as the country’s socio-economic development In a communique after the governors’ meeting signed by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, they expressed concern, "about the impact of the state of insecurity on citizens’ safety, means of livelihood and the exercise of the rights of Nigerians, particularly the right to life, right

to movement, and ultimately the country’s socio-economic development.”

They added: "The Forum will consequently see that all states design and operationalise an action plan to strengthen inter-ministerial coordination on peace and security, including the establishment of peace building agencies and a multi-level policing framework to combat the threat of insecurity in the country."

It revealed that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kyari, briefed the governors, highlighting the

PENGASSAN Seeks Improved Access to Forex Calls for fiscal, monetary policy harmonisation Ugo Aliogo Worried about the recent developments in the downstream sector and the myriads of issues plaguing the Nigerian economy, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, (PENGASSAN) has stated that the non-availability of forex was largely responsible for the recent fuel scarcity experienced in the country.

The union said stakeholders in the supply and distribution valuechain of the industry should take urgent steps and double their efforts to put an end incessant queues for fuel in order to ensure that citizens pay the approved price of petrol in all parts of the country.

PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, said this during a media briefing in Lagos, on the state of the economy.

He attributed the fuel scarcity to the non-availability of forex while urging the CBN to stabilise the exchange rate and work towards fiscal and monetary policy harmony.

According to him, the margin between the official exchange and the parallel market continues to widen as manufacturers continuously patronise the foreign exchange speculators thereby increasing cost of production.

Osifo advised the federal government to remove all barriers in forms of taxes and levies from the

importation of petroleum products.

“Although the increase in the price of crude oil in the international market is partly responsible for the surge, from our findings, the non-availability of foreign exchange (FX) at Central Bank of Nigeria rate to marketers is largely responsible for the increase as they source FX from the parallel market.

“This is without prejudice to the activities of unscrupulous marketers that are bent on milking Nigerians dry while he called for the Nigeria Liquefied and Natural Gas and other gas producers to be mandated to focus more on domestic gas production.

“Efforts should be intensified to fast-track the current rate of rehabilitation of the nation’s four refineries to guarantee energy security; while on the short term, make FX available to the importers at the official rate.

“Should this abnormality and distortion continue, it has the ability to drive the country into another round of recession and further impoverish the already battered citizens,” Osifo said.

Speaking on the increased electricity tariffs amidst the drop in power generation, Osifo affirmed that the Disco staff had deliberately frustrated the attempt by consumers to acquire prepaid meters such that they engage in the old practices that encourage fraud.

impact of the heightened spate of crude oil theft and losses in the Niger Delta.

According to the communique, the governors said they received an update on the implementation of the World Bank Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme – an emergency programme to support statelevel response to and recovery from the COVID-induced socio-economic crisis – from the Task Team Leader for the World Bank programme, Prof.

Foluso Okunmadewa, in the company of the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri.

"Governors in response conveyed their commitment

to secure and increase budget provisions that target the economic and social shocks in their states including social transfers, basic services, and livelihood support to poor and vulnerable households; food security and safe functioning of food supply chains; and the recovery of micro and small business enterprises," it added.

The communique noted that following a briefing by Dr Osagie Emmanuel Ehanire, Minister of Health, on the federal government’s plan to develop 100 oxygen generation plants and rehabilitate general hospitals in order to guarantee access to oxygen in all primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in the country, governors resolved to

interface with the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure oxygen sufficiency for all PHCs in the country.

On the implementation of the States’ Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme a presentation by Mr. Olanrewaju Ajogbasile, Senior Programme Manager of the NGF HelpDesk, dwelt specifically on the progress made by state governments in terms of the deployment of e-procurement and contract award publication using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) format, the Forum resolved to deepen its current collaboration with Ernst & Young (EY) and the World Bank to strengthen

the procurement plans and transaction implementation strategies of State governments.

According to the communique of the meeting, the governors received a briefing on the economy from Dr. Doyin Salami, the Chief Economic Adviser to Mr. President, after which a consensus was reached to intensify economic diversification and food security initiatives, including support for large scale all-season commercial farming; strengthening fiscal sustainability by crowding in private investment; promoting the development of regional corridors and infrastructure plans; as well as curtailing the uncertainty associated with the oil and gas industry.

IN DEFT POLITICAL MOVE, BUHARI’S MEN SET TO DOMINATE INCOMING APC NWC Besides, they were said to have concluded that since the office Afikuyomi wanted to vie for was a national office, they would mobilise effectively across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to ensure that the former senator for both Lagos Central and West emerged victorious tomorrow.

Sule: APC Consensus Will Conform to Electoral Act The Nasarawa State Governor and Chairman of the APC Media Committee for the national convention, Abudulahi Sule, assured that the consensus arrangement to be adopted tomorrow would conform to the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act, as amended.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, Sule noted that the party was being driven towards a consensus arrangement in order to have a peaceful convention.

He said, "As I mentioned earlier, we have been driven towards a consensus arrangement so that we can have a very peaceful convention, after which most of the political activities will begin, which will lead into the success of the party at most of the elections that we are going to have next year, by the grace of God." Sule stressed, "We will not do anything whatsoever as a political party that is going to be in violation of the law, because as the ruling party, we will not carry out something that is going

to be detrimental to our law in this country, so that we do not give bad example. You can rest assured that whatever we are going to do is going to be in line with the Electoral Act. "What our party has that others don't have is the fact that we have a political leader and father that everyone, who is truly a member of this party, respects and that is President Muhammadu Buhari. We strongly believe that he will not do something just for selfish reasons, for greed or for anything that will be against the interest of the party. He is interested in ensuring the unity of the party. So, he's not doing anything for his personal benefit.

"That is the kind of leader we have. That is why each time he speaks, everyone listens, because they know he is not doing it for any personal benefit. That is his request and I am telling you his request will be honoured, because we know he is doing it sincerely for the benefit of the party.”

On the issue of refund to other aspirants, Sule was of the opinion that the president only made an appeal, which he believed the leadership of the party agreed with.

According to the governor, "This was an appeal made by Mr. President in order to show leadership. He said once we agreed on the consensus, it is only fair that what they paid be returned back to them. It was a request actually made

by Mr. President to the leadership of the party and the leadership was there. So, I will say that the

leadership of the party also agreed."

Sule noted that the total number of delegates expected at the convention would be determined by the party and revealed that the major caucuses of the party had been meeting in order to discuss most of the grey areas and resolve them.

He added that the meeting of the APC governors with the president on Wednesday provided them with the opportunity to resolve some of the contentious issues, noting that the governors are now more united, and the ruling party would go as a united front into the convention.

Buhari, Osinbajo, Lawan, Others to Grace APC Conference Today APC will today hold a policy conference in preparation for the post-Muhammadu Buhari era. Secretary of the committee and Director General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while addressing a preconvention conference, with the theme, "Consolidating Democracy: Scorecard, Impact and the Road Ahead”.

Those expected at the conference include President Buhari; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawn; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; Chairman and Members of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), and governors,

among others.

Abari stressed that the overall objective of the APC policy conference was to position leaders of thoughts of the party and sector experts to deliberate on the current and future policy direction of the party. He said it would also provide a reform agenda, which the party would drive over the next phase of its administration, building on the current achievements, including the outcomes for state and local governments.

Abari said, "It will seek to address various segments around governance, economy and social environment with the aim to rekindle investors’ confidence in the Nigerian economy."

PDP Charges INEC Not to Attend APC National Convention The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to attend, monitor or supervise tomorrow’s national convention of the APC, saying it is a jamboree being organised by the ruling party. PDP forewarned that INEC would be going outside its statutory mandate under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as emended) and the Electoral Act 2022 by attending or monitoring the APC national convention.

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NEWSXTRA

LAUNCH OF FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK...

L-R: Zonal Administrator, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Garba Hayatu; Chief Executive Officer, MainOne, Funke Opeke; Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Free Zone, Dinesh Rathi and Chief Technical Officer, Anil Verma, during the official launch of MainOne's fibre optic network at the Lagos Free Zone

Consensus: Again, Saraki, Tambuwal, Bala Meet in Abuja Ayu: PDP has a history of zoning

Chuks Okocha in Abuja For the second time in about a week, former Senate President and erstwhile Kwara State governor, Bukola Saraki, the Governors of Sokoto and Bauchi States, Aminu Tambuwal and Bala Mohammed – all presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – met again yesterday to continue their discussion on possible consensus candidate for the 2023 presidential bout.

This comes as the national chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, has acknowledged that the party has a history and tradition of zoning as contained in the PDP constitution However, speaking after their meeting attended by other stakeholders from Sokoto, Kwara and Bauchi States, Saraki said he wanted Nigerians to know that the party and its members were in good discussions and that the discussions was an ongoing process.

He said they believed that only PDP has the real solutions to help Nigeria get out of the problems she was facing and that, “once we unite as PDP, we will lay the foundation for a strong party that will help in delivering Nigerians from the challenges they are facing now and prepare the country to become stronger.”

Continuing, Saraki further stated, “In continuation of our meeting in Bauchi, we agreed on

Sunday that we’ll come and meet here in Abuja. The next meeting we are going to have will be in Sokoto, where the governor will host. This informs Nigerians that we’re are in good discussions; this is an ongoing process.

The more we meet, the more we’ll continue to share our views about the importance of the unity of our party. We believe that it is only PDP that has the real solutions to help us get out of the problems we are in today.

We decided to reach out to other aspirants, we have identified senior leaders and stakeholders, some of them former colleagues and governors.

“We want all to be part of the process of bringing us together and uniting the party ahead. The major message we want to put across to Nigerians is that the country is larger and bigger.

“We believe that once we unite as PDP, we will lay the foundation for a strong party that will help in delivering Nigerians from the challenges they are facing now and prepare the country to become stronger.

“This is a process. We will continue to carry you along, keep you informed. All we are doing is for the interest of the party and for the interest of Nigeria,” Saraki stated.

However, addressing the zoning challenge, Ayu cautioned against bitter rivalry over the debate over the zoning of the

PDP residential ticket, and urged party leaders to eschew bitterness while debating the issue.

Ayu spoke while inaugurating the 37-member committee set up to address the zoning of the party’s presidential ticket.

The committee, has already appointed the Benue State, Samuel Ortom as chairman, while the House of Representatives Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, was made the deputy chairman and the PDP appointed a staff of the party, Emmanuel Ekpe, as the secretary.

According to Ayu, “At the beginning, we pushed the presidency to the south. I was one of those who took that decision. And there are many others here in this hall. After general Obasanjo, we voluntarily

sent it to Katsina, faith played a fast one on us. But in the same spirit, after late Umaru Yar'dua, we sent it to Bayelsa.

“So, PDP has a history of rotating our offices. Anybody, who doesn't get it this time should wait after the tenure of whoever will be our next president. We believe PDP is going to produce the next president once we start this journey this time. We will ensure it goes round. And it will go round with justice, fairness and the interests of the Nigeria.

"We talk, we don't fight; we resolve issues. There is no issue that is too difficult or too important for the PDP to resolve than the spirit of the party. Therefore, I urge all of you to discuss this matter.

The National Economic Council (NEC) at its monthly meeting in Abuja, yesterday, was informed that unresolved issues of Right of Way (RoW) stalled some 32 power transmission projects worth $137 million spread across the country.

Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, who briefed newsmen yesterday evening at the end of the virtual NEC meeting presided over by the Vice

President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, briefed FEC on the power situation in the country especially on the on-grid power generation which also resulted in grid collapses on March 14 and March 15.

Yahaya said: “A key observation came up that need urgent attention is the issues ROW that has hampered billions of Naira of Transmission projects that are meant to strengthen and expand the grid.

bitterness, whoever wins, we will rally round the person and then the party will win election next year. And there will be something for everybody; for every constituency in this country.”

Ayu, therefore, urged party leaders not to lose sight of ensuring unity, which carried the PDP through the last convention.

“So, there should be no rancour whatsoever. Remain focused on the bigger picture, because that is what we want.

I believe by the time we have the big prize in our hands, we will share it; we will rotate it the way we want. If we had not been interrupted on this journey, about six years ago, we’d have started the same process,” he added.

INEC Defers Decision on Umahi, Igwe, Others Due to Conflicting Court Orders Chuks Okocha in Abuja The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said it has suspended taking further action on the court ruling on the defection of the Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi and his deputy, Eric Igwe due to multiple court

orders and conflicting actions.

The Commission in a statement by its National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voters’ Education, Festus Okoye said: "Since then, the Commission has been served yet more court processes on the same matter, bringing the total to 12.

Power Outage: $132m Projects Stalled By Right of Way Issues, Minister Tells NEC Deji Elumoye in Abuja

“With the same spirit that you discuss at NEC, because most of you are members of NEC, you knew what happened and you are free to advance your arguments. Let us not have any rancour whatsoever and at the end of the day, remain focused on the main goal.

“That main goal is for us to win power next year. And how do we win power? We can only win power by uniting, by working together, because even if you are from Ebonyi or Anambra and you fight to be the president of our country through the PDP platform, and you pursue it with rancour, even if you win party nomination, other people will not vote for you. They will not be willing to work for you.

“But if you pursue it without

“Most of these projects are stalled or delayed because of gaps in implementation of RoW resolutions that state governments are responsible for.

“Currently, there are 32 projects across multiple states stalled or that have been unable to begin post approval.

“The projects account for an investment of 137 million dollars that the Nigerian public is unable to realise value from due to these intractable issues,’’ he said.

The governor said NEC was

urged to review the situation with a view to having the issues addressed by the affected states.

He added that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, presented an update to the council on federation accounts.

According to him, as of March 22, the Excess Crude Account stood at 33.8 million dollars; Stabilisation Account, N31.2 billion; Development of Natural Resources Account, N55.5 billion.

"The Commission deliberated extensively on these cases and decided to further suspend action on the defection of the governor and deputy governor of Ebonyi State and 16 members of the State House of Assembly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the light of the conflicting judgements and orders served on it from Courts of coordinate jurisdiction. " He said that the Commission also considered it prudent to stay action on the conflicting judgements and orders being aware of the pendency of appeals and motions for stay of execution of some of the judgements before various divisions of the Court of Appeal.

Okoye also said INEC deliberated on a wide range of issues, including preparations for the Osun State Governorship election.

According to Okoye, INEC would meet today to publish in its state and local government offices in Osun State, the list and personal particulars of the candidates that political parties propose to sponsor at the election.

He said the aspirants must be those who emerged from valid primaries in line with Section 29 of the Electoral Act 2022.

The Commission said it would publish the list and personal particulars of the candidates of 15 out of the 18 parties that conducted primaries.

According to INEC, the nominations of the Action Alliance (AA); African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) would not be published due to their failure to comply with the Commission’s Guidelines on Political Party Operations (2018) or the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

INEC explained that the AA did not submit a nomination jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the party while the ADC and APGA nominated candidates that did not meet the age requirements for the office of Deputy Governor as enshrined in the Constitution.

The Commission, Okoye said had already communicated its position on the matter to the affected political parties.

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2023: Anyim, Bala Mohammed, Tambuwal Pick Presidential Nomination Forms Chuks Okocha inAbuja

Former Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal and his Bauchi State counterpart Bala Mohammed yesterday paid N40 million each for the presidential nomination forms.

The Anyim presidential nomination form was paid for by over 400 support groups consisting of women, youths and professional groups.

The Anyim groups proceeded to his campaign office in Garki Abuja where they handed over the presidential nomination form to him.

The former senate president while receiving the presidential nomination form said that his pedigree equipped him to contest for the office of the president as his experience has put him above all to right the ship of Nigeria and berth it to right of place in terms of economic development Anyim told the gathering that God has placed him in a better position for challenges ahead and assured Nigerians of better days ahead Speaking later, the leader of the Anyim support group, Comrade Mayor Samuel said: “We did not obtain the forms on behalf of Sen.

Anyim, we purchased the forms for Sen. Anyim to demonstrate our unshaken confidence in his capacity and suitability to lead Nigeria at this point in our history.”

“If by 2023, Nigeria fails to get the leadership question right, the future will be very bleak. We have therefore, decided to throw our hats in the ring by getting

directly involved in the process of choosing who will be the candidate of the PDP, the Party Nigerians are hanging their hopes on for a secure, peaceful, united and prosperous Nigeria come 29th of May 2023,” he added.

According to Samuel, in order to ensure Nigeria gets it right this time, that they have decided to

lead other support groups and partners of Sen. Anyim to purchase the forms for him to contest in the PDP presidential primary election.

“We took this step because we are convinced that Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, has the capacity, competence, experience, exposure, temperament and humility to provide the quality of leadership

Nigeria needs now to pull our country back from the brinks.

“Sen. Anyim understands Nigeria, the peculiar challenges we are presently facing and has the capacity to find solutions to those challenges.

“We are glad that he has offered to lead the charge to rebuild, reunite and reposition

Nigeria. We therefore call on all Nigerians of goodwill to rise to the challenge and join hands together to ensure that Sen. Anyim wins the presidential primary of the PDP and ultimately becomes the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the 29th of May, 2023 by the special grace of God”, he said.

ACCOUNTING TO SHAREHOLDERS…

L-R: Non-executive Director, Africa Prudential Plc, Mr. Sam Nwanze; Non-executive Director, Mr. Emmanuel Nnorom; Managing Director/CEO, Obong Idiong, Chairman, Chief (Mrs.) Eniola Fadayomi; Company Secretary, Joseph Jibunoh; Independent Non-executive Director, Mrs. Zubaida Rasheed; Non-executive Directors, Mr. Peter Elumelu, and Peter Ashade, at the 9th Annual General Meeting of the company held in Abuja...yesterday

Former Kwara PDP Women Makarfi Condemns Kaduna Killings Leader Berates FG over Non-performance John Shiklam in Kaduna

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin A Former Women Leader of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, and Senatorial Aspirant for Kwara Central Senatorial District Ms. Sarat Adebayo, has berated the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government over its alleged failure to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians since assumption of office.

Adebay,o however, said that the PDP is committed to return the country to its lost glory if given the chance again to lead the nation.

Speaking in Ilorin yesterday while submitting her letter of intent to contest the Kwara Central Senatorial District in

2023 elections to the State Chairman of the PDP, Hon. Babatunde Mohammed, at the state secretariat, Ilorin, the PDP chieftain said that “the Nigerians will never forget the hardship and pains the APC led government has bequeathed on the people since the emergence of APC government in the country.”

She said that “it is disheartening that most families in the country today cannot afford three days meals in view of the APC’s bad governance.

“The situation has made Nigerians to turn into beggars and this is not what the APC led government promised the people while campaigning to lead the country during the 2015 general elections.”

Former Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi, has condemned the killings and destruction of houses by terrorists in communities in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna state.

On Sunday bandits invaded four communities in Kaura LGA, killing 38 people while over 200 houses were destroyed.

In a statement in Kaduna yesterday, Makarfi, described the killings as “horrible, obnoxious

and unacceptable.”

He said the barbaric acts must be condemned by all people of decency and urged that everything must be done to put a stop to the wanton descent into animalism.

He said: “News of a resurgent wave of attacks and violence leading to loss of lives of innocent people around the Jema’a-KauraZangon Kataf Local Governments axis of Kaduna State, is as horrible, obnoxious as it is unacceptable.

“These callous acts must be condemned by all people of

decency as we must all come together, irrespective of whatever differences, to do whatever it takes to put a stop to this wanton descent into animalism.

“I am appalled at the descent to the gutter, by some elements, to whom human life has become so worthless that they waste it at the slightest (in fact, sometimes no) provocation.

“I condemn these callous and cowardly acts and appeal to the people of the communities and indeed all people of the state to remain calm, peaceful and law

abiding, as well as resist the temptation of taking the law into their hands.”

The former governor urged security agencies to ensure that no stone is left unturned in efforts to fish out and bring perpetrators of the dastardly acts to justice.

Makarfi expressed his heartfelt condolences to families of the deceaseds, other victims of the violence, as well as government and all people of Kaduna state and earnestly pray for the quick return of peace and normalcy to the affected areas.

2023: A’Ibom N’ Assembly Caucus Endorses Pastor Umo Eno for Gov Okon Bassey in Uyo The Akwa Ibom State Caucus in the National Assembly has endorsed an aspirant for the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno as their sole candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries and the 2023 governorship election.

A motion for the adoption of governor Udom Emmanuel’s preferred governorship candidate was moved by the member representing Itu/ Ibiono Federal Constituency, Hon Dr Henry Archibong and seconded by the member representing Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency, Rt Hon Nsikak Ekong.

The lawmakers said their decision to support Umo Eno is premised on his integrity, entrepreneurial accomplishments and strong belief in inter-governmental collaboration and partnership to complete ongoing projects of Governor Udom Emmanuel and sustain the much need peace and serenity in the State.

A statement by the Head National Media of the Maintain Peace Movement (MPM) and Umo Eno Campaign Organisation, Mr. Anietie Usen, yesterday said the endorsement took place at a parley held at the Abuja residence of the Senator representing Eket Senatorial District, Senator Akon Eyakenyi.

January 24, 2022 and also burnt his remains along with those of other victims.

The accused are: Abiodun Sanyaolu; Lukman Azeez; Fatai Ramon; Adeniyi Samuel Akinjiyan; Femi Adeniyi and Monsuru Ramon.

Others are: Ojo Olatidebe; Segun Akinjiyan; Adewale Odunayo; Oladele Idowu; Saheed Ramon, and Ajinbosin Gbeminiyi.

The prosecuting Counsel Saheed Yinusa ,while requesting for the remand of the accused at the Oba Correctional facility, said there was an application before the court dated 24th day of March, 2022 and filed on the same day.

The prosecutor quoted Section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Ogun State, which granted that they should be remanded in the Nigeria

Correctional Centre for 60 days at the first instance pending the legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutor, and arraignment before a court of competent jurisdiction.

He supported his prayers with 16 paragraph affidavit, deposed to

by Sergeant Ogunkunle Samuel, and annexed it with 20 exhibits, also attached with four paragraphs of verifying affidavits deposed to by the same.

Buhari Mourns US First Female Secretary of State, Albright 12 Suspected Killers of Ogun Monarch Arraigned Deji Elumoye inAbuja President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with President Joe Biden of United States of America, the Albright family and the global diplomatic community over the demise of United States first female Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

The president in a statement released by his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, recalled his meeting with the international diplomat at Washington in 2015, and the warmth and savvy of a woman who excelled in a turf hitherto considered the exclusive preserve of men.

“She helped shape and steer Western foreign policy after the Cold War. She will be sorely missed,” Buhari said.

Recounting the exploits of the woman who first served as US

Ambassador to the UN under President Bill Clinton, and later as Secretary of State, the president said it was to her eternal credit that she championed human rights and democracy round the world, raised funds for Democratic presidential hopefuls, and Cochaired the Independent Global Commission on Justice, Security and Governance, along with Nigeria’s Professor Ibrahim Gambari, in what is known as Albright-Gambari Independent Commission, and was also Convener of the Aspen Ministerial Forum of former Foreign Ministers drawn from all over the world, among others.

Buhari hailed the mentoring Albright gave younger diplomats, who are now at the peak of their careers, and prayed that her soul would rest in peace, even as America and the world continue to relish her services to humanity.

James SowoleinAbeokuta Twelve suspected killers of Olu of Agodo, a town in Ewekoro local government area of Ogun State, Oba Olajide Odetola were yesterday arraigned before an Ogun State Magistrate Court in Itori, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The suspects were alleged to have killed the monarch on

Ekiti 2022: Yiaga Africa Preaches against Vote Buying ictor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti A Nigerian frontline Election Monitoring Group, Yiaga Africa, would deploy 541 elections observers to monitor the June 18 governorship poll in Ekiti State.

Addressing journalists

yesterday during a media round table discussion in Ado Ekiti, a Board Member of Yiaga, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu, said the high number of personnel deployment is to ensure that the votes of the electorate count.

Nwagwu noted that

Yiaga would be introduce a novel approach tagged “Watch The Votes Initiative (WTV),” to ensure that the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) and other state actors, would align with international best practices in conducting the much awaited

poll.

The Yiaga boss said that Ekiti is unique because of its history and for having the highest number of educated people in the country, adding that Nigerians would be expecting high ethical conduct from them in this election.

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DHQ: 47,975 Terrorists Surrender as 17 Others, 35 Bandits Fall to Troops’ Firepower Kingsley Nwezeh ÓØ ÌßÔË The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), yesterday, said a total of 47,975 terrorists and their families have so far surrendered to troops of Operation Hadin Kai in the North east from September 2021 till date.

It also said 17 top terror commanders and 35 armed bandits were killed even as naval troops of Operation Delta Safe, operating in the Niger Delta region, discovered and deactivated 49 illegal refineries and arrested 22 vessels involved in illegal fishing.

At a media briefing in Abuja, the Director, Defence Media Operations (DDMO), Maj. Gen. Bernard Onyeuko, who spoke while giving an update on military operations between March 10 and March 24, said 7,000 fighters of Boko Haram and the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) surrendered to troops with members of their families bringing the number of insurgents, who have laid down their arms to 47,975.

Onyeuko said 17 terrorists and 35 bandits were killed while 35 were arrested just as 34 AK 47 rifles, five dane guns and nine locally made guns were recovered.

He stated that 7,000 Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram

terrorists from different locations surrendered while troops rescued 27 civilians in the last two weeks.

“The surrendered terrorists have been profiled, while rescued civilians and recovered items were handed over to appropriate authorities for further action,” he said.

In Operation Hadarin Daji, Onyeuko said the air component carried out air strikes on March 14 at Unguwar Adam village in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina State, killing more than 27 bandits.

He said the air interdiction was sequel to an intelligence report about the gathering of more than 50 terrorists for meeting with their key commanders and leaders.

He added that one Malam Sule, a brother to a notorious bandit, Lalbi Ginshima, was among those killed in the air raid, which according to him was a major setback for the group.

The Defence spokesman said scores of terrorists were also killed in another air interdiction carried out at a terrorist enclave at Magaba in Kaduna State, adding that those fleeing were trailed and mopped up by ground troops.

He said troops also neutralised eight bandits, arrested seven, rescued 56 victims and recovered arms and other equipment in other operations during the

period.

On operations in the Niger Delta region, he said troops of Operation Delta Safe in the last two weeks intensified operations against oil thieves and other economic saboteurs in different communities, towns, villages and creeks in Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa

and Abia States.

“During the operations, troops also discovered and destroyed 49 illegal refineries, 275 polythene bags containing illegal refined AGO, 146 ovens, 145 receivers, four boilers, 125 metal storage tanks, 8 GP tanks, 19 drums, 6,950 litres jerry cans,

81 galvanised pipes, 85 dugout pits, five warehouses and pots containing illegal refined AGO. “Cumulatively, troops within the period under review neutralised one militant, recovered 6,679,000 litres of illegal refined AGO, 4,436,000 litres of stolen crude oil, one

gun boat, one BMG gun, one AK 47 rifle, five MCs, several rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, 12 motorcycles, 20 wooden boats, 15 pumping machines, two trucks, one ford, three speedboats, five engines, one keke and five vehicles,” he said.

AKWA IBOMITES, HERE I COME…

Akwa Ibom State Governorship Aspirant, Pastor Umo Eno(left),and National Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Samuel Anyanwu, after Eno purchased his Expression of Interest and Nomination Form in Abuja…yesterday

Citing Lack of Locus, Ibadan Nigeria at Disadvantage in Artificial Intelligence $15trn Global Economy Court Dismisses Suit Seeking Deletion of Section 84 (12) Igbawase Ukumba ÓØ ËÐÓË

Alex Enumah ÓØ ÌßÔË

Justice U. N. Agomoh of the Ibadan Division of the Federal High Court has dismissed a suit seeking the deletion of Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act which bars serving political appointees from participating in the convention of political parties for want of jurisdiction.

Justice Agomoh dismissed the suit while delivering ruling on the issue of locus Standi / Jurisdiction raised by the court.

The suit was dismissed on March 17, a day before another Federal High Court in Umuhia, Abia State, presided by Justice Evelyn Anyadike struck down the same Section 84 (12) for violating the 1999 Constitution.

The Ibadan suit was filed by

Nigerian citizen, who also claimed to be a registered voter, Chief Oyewole Bolanle.

He had approached the court for an order striking down the said section for allegedly running contrary to constitutional provisions.

The suit marked: FHC/IB/ CS/32/2022 has the Attorney General of the Federation as sole defendant.

Amongst reliefs he sought from the court in the Originating Summons filed by his lawyer, Mr O. J. Dare include a determination whether by the combined effect of Sections 1(3), 6(6)(a) and (b), 66(1)(f), 137(1)g) and 182(1)g) of the Constitution, the provisions of Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act, 2022 can validly limit, remove, abrogate, disenfranchise, disqualify.

As Artificial Intelligence(AI) forecast to add $15 trillion to global economy by 2030, Nigeria may stand at disadvantage with the current limited capacity and access training in AI related fields.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, disclosed this yesterday at the maiden Nigeria Computer Society Summit held in Lafia,Nasarawa State.

The minister added that an insight of government activities readiness index of 2020 saw Nigeria at 138th position in the world, and 25th in Africa.

Pantami, who was represented

by Yau Isa Garba, noted that the above highlight showed that much needed to be done in the country for the corrections and adoption of AI innovations.

“However, with national digital economic policy and strategy in place, and other initiatives like

the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, we are ready to change the status quo and make progress.

“In fact, the effort of government in this direction is already yielding results. Nigeria now rose to 113th position in the world and 10th in Africa. Through summits like this, one opportunity can be created for our industries experts, academia and technical system,” Pantami maintained.

Declaring the maiden Nigeria

Artitifial Intelligence Summit open, Governor Abdulallahi Sule assured that Nasarawa State would key into the programmes of the Computer Society of Nigeria.

Sule, who was represented by his deputy, Emmanuel Akabe, said with the dynamics of the changing world, Nasarawa would want to plead with the computer society to extend its training to staff of the state, particularly on artificial intelligence.

WHO Laments Decline in Tackling Tuberculosis Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, to impeding efforts to reduce the She noted that: “Increased Michael Olugbode ÓØ ÌßÔË World Health Organisation (WHO) has lamented that funding on fighting tuberculosis (TB) has receded, revealing that in 2020, global spending on the disease services fell to US$5.3 billion, and funding for research was US$901 million.

A message on Thursday by WHO Regional Director for

mark the World Tuberculosis Day, said while national strategic plans and accompanying budgets for tuberculosis have grown in ambition, mobilization of funding has not kept pace.

Moeti said in Africa, governments contribute only 22% of the resources required to deliver adequate TB services, with 44% going unfunded, seriously

TB burden.

She said: “South Africa and Zambia are the best examples of high TB burden countries that have steadily increased domestic funding specifically allocated for TB. In 2020, South Africa provided 81% of domestic funding to support TB activities.

Zambia has increased its domestic funding seven-fold since 2015.”

funding from domestic sources and international donors is urgently needed if we are to counteract a reversal of the significant gains made against TB in the past decades. At the current rate of progress, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of ending the TB epidemic by 2030 will not be achievable.”

The federal government has reassured Nigerians that the on going construction of the Second Niger bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway would be completed before the end of this year.

Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, made this known yesterday, while featuring on the weekly Ministerial Briefing, organised by the Presidential

He also stressed that the initial February 2022, projected completion date for the Second Niger Bridge failed due to the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown and EndSARS protests, adding that the project was already at 91 per cent completion stage.

While putting the cost of three major Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) projects

Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway (375km): N797 billion, Second Niger Bridge (11.59km): N206 billion and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (127km): N310 billion.

On when the projects would be completed, Fashola said the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way and Second Niger Bridge are on course for completion in year 2022, while the main Carriageway

completion by Q2 2023.

He listed the Second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan and the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria expressways as the main projects being executed through the PIDF adding that two of the projects would be completed this year while the Abuja to Kano Road would be completed next year.

Group Condemns Razing FG: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge Ready This Year Communication Team, at the at N1.3 trillion, the minister of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Deji Elumoye ÓØ ÌßÔË of Obiozor’s House State House, Abuja. listed the projects to include expressway is scheduled for The IGBONINE Socio-Cultural Organisation has condemned the razing of the Awo-Omamma Imo State residence of Prof. George Obiozor President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide.

In a release signed by the association Secretary General Dr. Dubas Agbasi, the organisation stated that it was a tragedy of immense dimension for such a fate to befall Prof. Obiozor after his many years of dedicated service to the Igbo nation and Nigeria as Director General of Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Nigerian Ambassador to Isreal and the United States of America and currently serving as President General of the apex Igbo Organisation.

The association said that a few years ago, the Ukehe, Enugu State residence of Prof. Obiozor’s

predecessor, Chief Nnia Nwodo, was similarly torched by miscreants and wondered if public service in Igboland should be abandoned by brilliant and intelligent minds in the society and left to who they described as “criminals never do wells and dregs of the society”.

The organisation suggested that funds should be contributed or donated by Ndigbo all over the world to refurbish the burnt residence of Prof. Obiozor “an old man in his 80’s, in order to assure him that his many years of labour for the Nigerian Nation were in not vain.

IGBONNIE called on the security agencies to carry out thorough investigation into the dastardly act and bring the culprits of the arson to book.

Sanwo-Olu Celebrates Women Impacting Lagos Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has recognised the enduring impact of women in the progressive development of the state in a continuation celebration of International Women’s Month.

Spotlighting their contributions to the narrative of ‘A Greater Lagos, the governor said the

initiative is in its third year running, having commenced in March 2020.

The programme theme: ‘Eko Women 100’, identifies and honours the women who are blazing the trail in their fields and contributing to the growth of the state as well as inspiring

the next generation.

Some of the women honoured this year included the state First Lady, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu; Ibukun Awosika; media mogul, Mo Abudu; elder stateswoman, Mrs. Kofoworola BucknorAkerele; Fidelity Bank Managing Director, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe;

Managing Director, GTCO, Miriam Olusanya; CEO, NorthWest Petroleum, Dame Winifred Akpani, among others.

Speaking about the initiative, Governor Sanwo-Olu said: “The Women of Lagos are powerful, visionary and represent our great state at the highest level globally.

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2023 Presidency: Pressure on Emefiele to Run Won’t Distract CBN Governor, Says Group Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba As the Emefiele-for-President campaign continues to gather momentum across the country, the organisers of the campaign have allayed fears in certain quarters that the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Ifeanyichukwu Emefiele, could be distracted from his job.

The convener of The Green Alliance, organisers of the campaign, Mr. Wale Fapohonde, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Asaba, when the group stormed the Delta State capital as part of its efforts to persuade more Nigerians to key into the cause or movement.

Thousands of placard-bearing men and women, mostly youths, joined the procession through some major streets of Asaba “to prompt, beg and persuade,” the CBN governor to run in 2023.

Fapohonde stressed that Emefiele was too professionally equipped, experienced and versatile to be distracted from his primary assignment in the nation’s economic and monetary sector. He said their

CHANGE OF NAME I formerly known and addressed as OLLEY ANNET now wish to be known and addressed as ADEGUN ANNET ABIMBOLA. All documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as ABDULKADIRI OSHOMAH NURUDEEN, now wish to be known and address as KADIRI OSHOMAH NURUDEEN. All former documents remain valid.

The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MARGARETH ENIMIEH ILAMAH, now wish to be known and address as KADIRI ENIMIEH MARGARETH. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MISS NDIDI JOY ONYINYE, now wish to be known and address as MRS UTIOME JOY ONYINYE. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

call was genuine, describing it as an important national, albeit political, cause.

He argued that the record of excellent performance by the CBN governor in all the vital aspects of the economy was

there for all to see, noting that the fact that numerous countries were still grappling with the far-reaching negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic while Nigeria was safely out of recession speaks volumes about

the smartness of Emefiele as an astute economic and financial manager.

Flanked by Angela Ajufo and Akin Osomo, who are the Woman Leader and Legal counsel of The Green Alliance,

respectively, the Convener of the campaign gave further reasons why the group was rooting for the CBN Governor.

Fapohonde said, “We believe he (Emefiele) is the one who can continue the legacy of this

administration and we can’t afford to leave the nation to grope because of indefinite leadership.

“He has not declared his intention to run, but you and I can see how people are clamouring for him to run.

SMART DRINKING SESSION…

L-R: Company Secretary/General Counsel, International Breweries Plc, Mr. Muyiwa Ayojimi; Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA),Lagos State Branch, Dr Adetunji Adenekan; Keynote Speaker and Vice Chancellor, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi; Managing Director, International Breweries Plc, Hugo Rocha, and Chairman Advisory Board, International Breweries Foundation (IBF), Mr. Peter Bamkole, at the company’s “Smart Drinking Roundtable Session” held in in Lagos...yesterday

CHANGE OF NAME I formerly known and addressed as TEMIDAYO ADETUNJI now wish to be known and addressed as ALAILEDOYE TEMIDAYO ADETUNJI. All documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MISS. MICHAEL ROSEMARY AMARACHI, now wish to be known and address as MRS. EKEH ROSEMARY AMARACHI. All former documents remain valid.

The general public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as NKANUNYE COSMOS OZURU now want add my grandfather’s surname (DOUGLAS). Now I want to be known and addressed as NKANUNYE COSMOS OZURU-DOUGLAS. All former documents remain valid, General public kindly take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MISS ESEOGHENE TONIA OJEFIA, now wish to be known and address as MRS ESEOGHENE TONIA IKON. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

Customs Warns Smugglers of Petroleum Products in Kano Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano The Kano/Jigawa State Command of the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) has warned smugglers of petroleum products to desist from the illegal act, as anyone caught would face the full wrath of the law.

The newly appointed Comptroller for the Area Command, Muhammad Abubakar Umar, gave the

warning while addressing journalists on the activities of the command in Kano yesterday.

The warning was coming on the heels of speculations that petroleum product is allegedly being smuggled out of the country from Kano State following the lingering petrol scarcity.

Umar said the command under his leadership would not rest on its oars until it

stamps out smuggling in all its ramifications.

He said the command had from January 2022 to date collected N10.18 billion revenue which is higher than N7.6 billion collected last year.

Umar disclosed that within the same period under review, the command had seized contraband goods with N498.6 million Duty Paid Value (DPV).

The comptroller said items seized included bales of

second hand clothes, foreign rice, spaghetti, foreign shoes, donkey skin among others He said no fewer than four suspects were arrested in connection with the smuggling of donkey skin.

Umar said the command would continue to engage other sister security agencies and stakeholders on a regular basis with a view to checking the activities of smugglers in the Area Command.

FCT Community Protests Incessant Kidnappings Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja Residents of Chukuku community in Kuje Local Government Area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over unrestrained kidnappings and abductions in the community.

The residents barricaded the Kuje-Gwagwalada road yesterday morning during the protest.

The protest followed the raid yesterday on Chukuku

community by armed kidnappers said to number over 20.

Two men and a woman were abducted by the kidnappers, who shot sporadically to scare the residents during the raid.

A resident estimated that more than 30 persons have been kidnapped in the area since January. He said one person was killed during a previous raid while farmers were also kidnapped from the field by

some of the invaders.

On Tuesday a pastor of ECWA Church, Rev Yohanna Joshua and two sons of the former Secretary of Kuje Area Council Local Education Authority, Danladi Bulus- Felix and Victor-were abducted Gudoji community in Kuje.

The protesting residents were demanding the setting up of a military checkpoint along Chukuku road to Kwali, to

ward off the kidnappers using the road as the entry point to commit notorious act.

They also pointedly accused government of failing to commission the already constructed Police station in Chukuku. They pointed accusing fingers at the Police patrol team of refusing to heed warnings from local vigilance group last night about an impending raid on the community.

Coalition Calls for Recovery of Stolen Assets The Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) has called for the implementation of the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR) by the Heads of Government and Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa.

The Coalition will also strengthen the systems for the detection and identification of African assets in foreign jurisdictions towards recovering the assets.

The Technical Adviser of CoDA,

Oladipo Johnson, stated this at the 5th Annual General Assembly of the Network of National AntiCorruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA), in Abuja.

CoDA is the Secretariat of the African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa also known as the Thabo Mbeki Panel.

Johnson disclosed that CAPAR was a crucial policy instrument that would be implemented under a number of pillars to achieve the required support for it at all levels.

He said: “We remain committed to advocating for the implementation of the CAPAR by all relevant stakeholders which include the various anti-corruption agencies here present. It is a crucial policy instrument which is to be implemented under a number of pillars and achieving this requires support for it at all levels.

“This is why the continental and global awareness campaign for the CAPAR has been agreed as the fundamental first step towards its implementation. Consequent key

steps will include the strengthening of systems for the detection and identification of African assets in foreign jurisdictions and the development of frameworks to manage these assets after they are recovered.

The CoDA Technical Adviser further noted that the recovery of assets and artefacts diverted from the continent would ensure more money are available for the provision of clean water, health, education, and other critical infrastructure.

NCF Makesfoundation Casestatedfor Conservation of Vultures that the

Ugo Aliogo

The Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) has organised community engagement within identified communities hosting the remnant vulture population in eastern Nigeria especially in Enugu and Anambra States respectively.

A statement by the

workshop was aimed at selecting, improving and enhancing the capabilities and skills of interested vulture population monitoring and habitat protection volunteers within two “Vulture Save Zone” (VSZ) in Southeastern Nigeria –Anambra and Enugu.

The statement also noted that the workshop also

helped to raise awareness on the conservation need of vulture within targeted VSZ communities in southeastern Nigerian, leveraging on social networks such as market women association, youth groups and as well communities’ leadership to bring about protection of these endangered species in the last habitat they are existing.

The statement added that

a total of 35 community individuals from seven villages of Awka Etiti, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra state were sensitised on the need to conserve existing vultures within their communities.

While adding that 38 community individuals were also trained at Ihe community, Awgu LGA of Enugu.

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FRIDAY MARCH 25, 2022 •T H I S D AY

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FRIDAY, ͺͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺͺ ˾ T H I S D AY

FRIDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor: Duro Ikhazuagbe Email: duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Ghana v Nigeria: Who Wins the JollofDerby in Kumasi?

Femi Solaja with agency report The much anticipated clash of West Africa’s two heavyweights between Ghana and Nigeria is perhaps, the talking point of the first leg of the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs this evening in Kumasi.

It's their first meeting in 11 years and their first in a World Cup qualifier since 2001.

The rivalry between both countries goes a notch higher today as it is not only pride that is at stake. The Qatar 2022 ticket at stake in this two-legged clashes between Ghana and Nigeria has sort of created a kind of tension amongst the fans of both countries.

And today’s game at the 40,000-capacity Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi is not an end. It is a match that may show where the ticket to Qatar will swing when the second and final leg is played next Tuesday in Abuja. Plenty fireworks should be expected between these eternal rivals!

Smarting from their recent unimpressive outing at the 2021 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations in, the two countries are keen on winning back the support of their fans by qualifying for Qatar to banish the disappointment of last month’s tournament in Cameroon.

The Black Stars had the country’s worst ever outing at the AFCON as they were only able to secure just one point at the group stage with their plight exacerbated by the humiliating 3-2 defeat to lowly Comoros.

The Super Eagles on the other hand, had a better showing in the competition as they topped their group before they were surprisingly defeated 1-0 in the Round of 16 by Tunisia, which halted their six-game unbeaten streak.

Since the tournament, Ghana overhauled their technical staff by sacking Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac, who was blamed for the team’s unimpressive showing in Cameroon.

Former international player Otto Addo, one of the second team coaches at German side Borussia Dortmund, was appointed to take charge and he will be aided by former Newcastle manager Chris Hughton who will work as the technical advisor for the two matches.

Nigeria also shoved aside German gaffer, Gernot Rohr whose five years stint failed to create any discerning playing pattern for the Super Eagles brimming with youthful talented players.

Instead, ex international, Augustine Eguavoen was drafted in on interim basis. Although much changes have been noticed since leading Eagles to Last 16 finish at the AFCON 2021 in Cameroon. Former Barcelona forward, Emmanuel Amuneke was drafted into the team for fresh ideas.

The Black Stars have also boosted their squad as several players who missed the tournament in Cameroon for various reasons are present for the game against Nigeria.

Ajax Amsterdam playmaker Mohammed Kudus and Germanybased Kwesi Wriedt return for the Black Stars while AS Roma youngster Felix Afena-Gyan, Fulham defender Denis Odoi and Hearts of Oak ace Dennis Korsah have been handed their debut call-ups.

But the Black Stars will miss captain Andre Ayew who is suspended while Rennes talented winger Kamaldeen Sulemana is absent from the squad because of injury.

In the absence of the substantive captain the Black Stars will turn to Arsenal superstar Thomas Partey for inspiration as they seek an emphatic home victory over their arch-rivals and coach Addo believes the Black Stars can defeat the Super Eagles.

“We all expect Ghana to qualify for the FIFA World Cup (Qatar 2022) but that won’t be easy as we need to do our best to make it to this tournament,” the former Ghana international winger Addo said.

GHANA v NIGERIA WORLD CUP FLAKES West African Rivals in Winner-Takes-All Battle Although both nations have recorded more encounters against each other more than any country on the African continent, this is the first time both nations will go head -to-head for final qualification ticket to the Mundial. Their first World Cup qualifying match was on 28th August 1960 which Ghana won 4-1 in Accra while the reversed encounter ended 2-2 with Ghana moving to the next phase on better goals deference. They last met in the qualifying tournament in 2001.

A goalless outing on 11th March 2001 was followed by a resounding 3-0 bashing of Black Stars on 29th July 2001 in Port Harcourt for Super Eagles to qualify for the Korea/ Japan 2002 tournament.

generated a lot of conversation on social media.

'Unacceptable' Boarding Ramp at Kumasi Airport Ahead of tonight’s epic clash at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, the expected mind game by the host FA may have played itself out when the Nigerian contingent arrived the ancient city yesterday morning. Reason, the ramp provided to the Nigerian team to disembark from the chartered Air Peace flight at the Kumasi airport was ‘sub-standard’. Players and officials had to jump or limp from the craft onto the first step of the ramp. The ‘unfriendly scene’

Waiting for Kumasi Magic to Work for Ghana Tonight Since the rejection of the Cape Coast Stadium to stage tonight’s epic clash before finally settling for Baba Yara stadium in Kumasi, Black Stars have taken solace that Kumasi has become their slaughter ground.

Ghana claimed a memorable 6-1 win against Pharaohs of Egypt in the crucial qualifying match towards 2014 World Cup. Ghana had earlier defeated Lesotho 7-0 and Ethiopia 5-0 before reaching the finals of AFCON 2021 in Cameroon.

-Compiledby Femi Solaja

Ghana’s Mind Game After a disastrous performance at the last AFCON tournament in Cameroon where the Four-time African champions placed last in Group C, the preparation of the team for this all-important clash against Nigeria became a debate in the Parliament and thereafter the conventional norm of making public the team list for matches was jettison until last Monday. Like most Ghanaian media outlet reported last week that the technical crew in collaboration with the FA are playing mind game with Nigeria.

The next few hours will justify whether the strategy will work or not.

2022 WORLD CUP PLAYOFF “Matches between Ghana and Nigeria are always difficult but we believe in our players, we believe in our strategies, and we believe in the unflinching support of all Ghanaians as we go into these two matches."

Super Eagles on the other hand, have been boosted by the return of dreaded strikers Victor Osimhen of Napoli and Saudi Arabia-based Odion Ighalo as both of them missed the AFCON. Former England youth striker

Ademola Lookman switched allegiance in time for the game to boost the attacking line up that also includes Kelechi Iheanacho.

Midfielder Wildfred Ndidi and goalkeeper Maduka Okoye have been ruled out of the match because of various health reasons but Nigeria coach Eguavoen admits it would be a difficult match but insists Nigeria has got the player to help them defeat their opponents.

"It’s a very crucial match, a lot is at stake,” the former Super Eagles

defender who is now the coach of the side Eguavoen said ahead of the first-leg game in Kumasi “The most important thing is to qualify for the World Cup. We have a strong squad and a large pool of players to choose from.

“The boys are sharp and ready to go. We have to win well against Ghana to get over the line. We will do the talking on the pitch.”

Even though Ghana has the head-to-head advantage having won 25 of their 56 previous clashes with 19 ending in draws, the Super Eagles are counting on their current form to give them the leverage over

TODAY DR Congo v Morocco Cameroon v Algeria Mali v Tunisia Egypt v Senegal Ghana v Nigeria the Black Stars.

Eagles have won three of their past five matches and drawn one with the other ending in a defeat while their opponent on Friday lost three games, drew one and won one.

Super Eagles players have vowed to win the first leg of the playoffs tonight in Kumasi

What The Coaches Are Saying Eguavoen: Going to Be Difficult Game But Nigeria Will Win

Augustine Eguavoen admits it would be a difficult match but insists Nigeria has got the player to

help them defeat their opponents.

"It’s a very crucial match, a lot is at stake,” the former Super Eagles defender who is now the coach of the side Eguavoen said ahead of the first-leg game in Kumasi “The most important thing is

to qualify for the World Cup. We have a strong squad and a large pool of players to choose from.

“The boys are sharp and ready to go. We have to win well against Ghana to get over the line. We will do the talking on the pitch.”

Ghana appointed Otto Addo (left) after the Africa Cup of Nations, while Nigeria retained Augustine Eguavoen

Otto Addo: I Know Fans Are Sceptical But Black Stars Will Qualify

Head Coach of Ghana’s Black Stars, Otto Addo, is confident his boys will secure a place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The Black Stars are hoping to make a return to the mundial after missing out four years ago in Russia.

Despite the enormity of the task before his team, the former defender is upbeat they can beat the Super Eagles to the World Cup ticket.

“I know people are skeptical of the team because of the last tournament (AFCON) but we have a plan and we will work hard to put that plan into use and try to qualify,” Addo announced yesterday in Kumasi.

“There’s never enough time to train national teams but I believe the players have trained well and are in good shape.”

Nigeria, Ghana Rekindled Rivalry Live on StarTimes The Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Black Stars of Ghana Will rekindle their rivalry in an epic 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier showing live on StarTimes today at 8:30 pm.

The first leg holds at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi and will be broadcast on NTA channels on StarTimes.

The die is cast and the Black Stars will look to put behind their

disappointing run at AFCON 2021 and try to secure the World Cup ticket.

Nigeria and Ghana will face off in a two-legged affair with the winner on aggregates qualifying for the soccer fiesta in Qatar later in the year.

Nigeria landed in Kumasi on Thursday morning. They are scheduled to return to Abuja immediately after the game in

Ghana ahead of the second-leg scheduled for Tuesday.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has approved a 100 percent capacity for the Baba Yara Stadium and more than 20,000 tickets have already been sold as at Thursday.

The Ghana vs Nigeria football rivalry is among the oldest and most proliferate rivalries in African football.

It reflects the long-standing socio-economic rivalry between the two nations which are two of the five Anglophone nations in West Africa and home to the largest populations in the region.

Historically, the Black Stars have defeated the Super Eagles 25 times in the 56 meetings while their rivals have claimed wins on 12 occasions. 19 games have ended in draws.

Friday March 25, 2022

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MISSILE ASUU to Federal Government “The government said there is no money but they have money for elections. Between education and election, which one is much more important? They constructed a railway from Kaduna to Niger Republic, is that more important than education? They claim there is no money, but the President increased the duty tour allowance and you see them travelling from one country to another…” –ASUU National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, rejecting government’s claim that there is no money to meet their demands.

PATUTOMI GUEST COLUMNIST

On the Third Force I

have read with considerable interest the columns by both Waziri Adio and Simon Kolawole on a phenomenon called the Third Force, that is, the possibility for another way that could liberate Nigerians from the miseries of now, in disrupting the status quo which is seemingly dominated by two Political Parties, the PDP and APC. Decades of familiarity with the fecundity of the intellect of both of these talented writers I was not much disposed to questioning the veracity of the conclusions arrived at by their analysis.

I would have just passed on the questions of Waziri’s pessimism about possibilities of redemption and Simon’s cautious optimism.

The good thing is they both capture the desperate yearning of the people for a clean sweep from and out of power of the dominant actors that have made our fourth Republic the years the locust have visited.

What I found most interesting in the columns was that the considerations in both excursions into the frustrations of the Nigerian condition was that they forgot aspects of our history,, on one hand, and the extraordinary existential crisis of now, on the other hand. Can we be both a historical and ignoring of the forces of the moment at the same time? Awkward but possible. Waziri and Simon seem to have managed both.

The trouble is basing analysis on a collection of stereotypes about how things seem to work.

Let us begin with history. Has Nigeria’s politics ever been about two dominant parties?

Not true at all.

From Nationalist times in colonial Nigeria we had a contestation for the North by NPC of Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano’s NEPU and Joseph Tarka’s MBC. At the National level we had the forces of the alliances from the big three of NPC, NCNC and Action Group.

In the second republic, from Waziri Ibrahim’s GNPP and NPP through UPN and NPN we had modified reincarnations of the First Republic order. We clearly did not have a two Party Structure.

The sociopolitical engineers of military rule ttried to paper over the cleavages by creating the two party view of a little to the right and a little to the left. Whatever the ambitions of these engineering efforts, the biggest effect of Buhari era nepotism is a fracturing of those efforts, including the explosion of the myth of a monolithic Hausa-Fulani people.

These effects of the Buhari legacy call for new reflection on Larry Diamonds thesis in his journey through ethnicity Class and Political Parties in Nigeria.

I have raised this a historical dimension of dominant two party system presumed in the analysis offered, to show that the myth of people being stuck with a two Party view of live is fundamentally inaccurate.

Why did a personality clash between Agbalajobi and Sarunmi in Machine politics Lagos allow Sir Michael Otedola to emerge as Governor of Lagos? He did it with hardly any money, against the moneybags.

I first ran for President in 2007 , when some of us Concerned Professionals, who challenged military rule, realized we had

Buhari

erred in choosing to leave the space, in 1998 when the Military beat a hasty retreat, in hope traditional politicians would return.

But the politicians were not sure they could trust the withdrawal motives of the soldiers and only few stepped up. The bagmen of the soldiers moved in and seized the space.

By 2001 it was clear we had found a new way of spelling disaster through the kind of people in power. So we decided to redeem our misjudgment by my being prodded to run. Our strategy was to take advantage of the fractures to reset course. .In our calculations none of the main parties could win the 2007 elections.

If we had elections in 2007 no one could have won. Parts of the country would have gone to Atiku Abubakar, significant parts would have gone to Umaru Yaradua , and other parts would have gone to Mohammadu Buhari. With endorsements from Professors Wole Soyinka, Sam Aluko and others I expected to take the votes of the intellectuals, Professionals and youth.

A deadlocked election in which we would have been the thinking candidate offering clear directions would lead to our setting the agenda in the deal making process. Unfortunately, those elections were hopelessly manipulated to produce the Yaradua presidency. President Yaradua was fully aware of that and was pricked, in conscience, to move to reform the process.

A number of changes have taken place since 2007. The electoral laws have grown up a little. Popular consciousness has evolved some, and people have witnessed enough atrocious government to begin to desire something different.

We lost the opportunity to be a swing factor as we had hoped in 2007 by the wholesale manipulation of the 2007 as the eminent international elections observers stated clearly.

The point here is that the myth of Nigeria as a two dominant party political culture is just that, a myth. In ways both analysis offered by Simon and Waziri continue the

process of the reflection of that myth. They pay much more respect than is deserved by two machine politics tools at different stages of a process of implosion, APC and PDP. The real story to tell here is that suggesting Nigerians will continue to tolerate a political class that unrepentantly uses state capture to suck live out of the Leviathan; to dehumanise the people, misgovern them and steal from the state to a point of public penury with no effort to seek change, beyond reshuffling themselves, is to underestimate the possibilities of the human spirit.

As I write, Lagos state officials are clamping down on an event Centre where jerrycans of petrol were given as Partypack gifts. The desperation for petrol with long queues at stations has made it attractive to give petrol as a gift. Electric power announces its importance with its non-availability even as diesel that helps the relatively better off spell relief, has been priced out of reach. Inflation is torturing those lucky enough to have a job that fetched income. The people risk much because the Armed Robbers and bandits own the high ways, so the people turn to the trains and planes, but they may need to take their jerrycans of Diesel in case the train runs out of fuel on route or they spend the day in delays at the Airport as the Airlines scavenge for Aviation kerosene even in the face of ticket prices that have gone through the roof. As the misery index chases those so inclined to flee where Visa Barriers will allow them, the streets are are hotbeds of anger but the lifestyle of those in power, living at the expense of the state, are showcased in newspapers with their Dubai and London mansions and hopping on the Aeroplane anytime a headache is suspected.

In all of this the people hear that there is no bothering at the top because Nigerians are used to suffering. Even with being used to suffering they do not know how to navigate bandits, insurgents, unknown gunmen and herdsmen in this harvest of anarchy and insecurity that now define us as another AASU strike pushes back on learning and makes living in our country a true Hobbesian state of nature. Live is truly brutish and short around our climes.

For citizens to live in this and not organize to take back their country seems like a condescending view of human nature. We must avoid that trap.

I was myself purged of this underestimating of the will of Nigerians and the construction of reality from stereotypes by an experience from the 2007 campaigns.

On the Campaign rounds the candidate typically calls on the Governor and Traditional Ruler in the State Capitals they visit. We did this in Gombe expecting the usual polite courtesies of a few nice words. But I was taken aback by the remarks of the Emir of Gombe.

He said to me: I am not suggesting you will not win this election. It would be great for Nigeria if you win But just in case you do not win promise me you will keep running because Nigeria will not make progress until you or someone like you becomes President.

The Emir then went on to describe how our traditional professional politicians act in

office which make progress unlikely.

I was still reeling from the comments of the Emir when we arrived the home of former MD of Afribank and Chairman of the Emirate’s Elders Council, Alhaji Yerima Abdulahi.

When I told him what I was still trying to recover from, he said the Emir knew what he was talking about because he had been a Permanent Secretary The point is that the crisis of political class replacement in Nigeria is existential one. I truly cannot imagine eight more years with a class in which character is so suspect at the helm. I doubt that Nigeria will survive it.

As the motto of Government Secondary School , Owerri, teaches: when weath is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something Iis lost. When character is lost, all is lost.

The absence of character in many of those who determine how things run in the big two Parties has run us into a collapse of culture.

To save Nigeria there is a citizens imperative of working for a new order to emerge in a Joseph Schumpeter type creative destruction. Exciting Nigerians to save themselves and save their country will create new voters that are many more than those who currently vote because they are part of the current order, profit from the mercantile buying and selling of votes or are positioned to make blood money from incumbents and so feign neutrality when a combination of incompetence, non-chalance and greed makes misery the shadow of our way. We learnt long ago from Dante’s Inferno that the hottest part of hell is reserved for those who in the face of a moral crisis take refuge in neutrality. The current Nigerian condition is a grave moral crisis and the complicit middle, which include some of our business elite and Newspaper columnists do not have to read Archbishop Fulton Sheen to recognize that the refusal to take sides on a great moral issue is a decision and that it is a ‘better silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction’ The naked truth to me is that given the performance of the Parties in question it should be evident that democratically the extinction of the current order should be as simple as calling people out to vote.

We do not need Fulton Sheen reminding us of what Machiavelli wrote 500 years earlier about the challenge of bringing about a new order of things because those who profit from the old order will do everything to prevent a new order from coming about, and the majority who should profit from the coming order do not do enough to make it come about.

The year 2023 is a defining one for Nigeria.

The options are between a Democratic revolution and Robert Kaplan’s projection of a coming anarchy.

•Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, Political Economist, and Professor of Entrepreneurship , is Chairman of NCFront, member of the Steering committee of RNP and Convener of the New Fabian Society of the Concerned Professionals

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