FRIDAY 19TH JUNE 2020

Malami Writes President, Seeks Removal of Magu Accuses EFCC boss of diversion of recovered loot, insubordination Says Magu reckless, liability to anti-corruption war Dike Onwuamaeze The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN),

has recommend to President Muhammadu Buhari the sacking of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu.

Malami, in a memorandum to the president, anchored his recommendation on several grounds "raging from diversion of recovered loot to insubordination

and misconduct" by Magu, THISDAY has learnt.

Multiple sources told THISDAY yesterday that Malami included a short list of three candidates for

consideration to replace Magu.

But Magu is fighting back and his supporters within the Presidency say " removing Magu at this time when he has given muscle to Buhari's

anti-corruption fight would be a mistake."

"It is painful that the EFCC boss is facing certain powerful Continued on page 12

CBN to Create Non-interest Window for Intervention Funds... Page 5 Friday 19 June, 2020 Vol 25. No 9202. Price: N250

www.thisdaylive.com TR

UT H

& RE A S O

N

PDP Shifts Edo Governorship Primary for Obaseki Edo gov to formally join opposition today, says party Court renews order for Giadom to act as APC chair Chuks Okocha, Alex Enumah, Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday announced a

three-day delay in its primary in Edo State, apparently to pave the way for the Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, to pursue his re-election bid on its platform.

The PDP, which has held a

series of meetings with Obaseki since his disqualification from the race for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket last week, and subsequent resignation from the party on Tuesday,

shifted its primary to June 23. It was initially billed to hold between tomorrow and Sunday.

Obaseki will now join three other aspirants to vie for the PDP's governorship ticket for

the September 22 election in the state.

THISDAY learnt that Obaseki would formally defect to the PDP at a ceremony billed for Benin City today.

However, the leadership

crisis in the APC, triggered by the Court of Appeal judgment that affirmed the suspension of its National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, festered Continued on page 10

Buhari Reprimands Security Chiefs, Says No More Excuses for Insecurity President: Your best not good enough Deji Elumoye and Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday moved to restore public confidence in his administration's capability to protect lives and property, as he pointedly told security chiefs to up their game.

The president, at a meeting yesterday with the security chiefs, warned that he would no longer condone further deteriorating security condition in the country.

At a security council meeting attended by all heads of the armed forces and other security agencies as well as the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, in the State House, Buhari who told the service chiefs that they might seem to be doing their best, did not mince words to say "their best was not enough."

He demanded an immediate reversal of the current security crisis ravaging the country.

The meeting held against the backdrop of the growing disenchantment with the worsening insecurity in the country, especially in the North.

The disenchantment reached a head in the last few weeks when people from the president's home state of Katsina poured onto the streets to protest the rising wave of banditry and kidnappings in the state.

A massive protest, organised by the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), rocked Katsina, the state capital on Tuesday, prompting the president to dispatch security chiefs, led by the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Mungono (rtd), to the state on Wednesday, Continued on page 10

IN THE LINE OF FIRE...

L- R: Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd) and the Director General, State Security Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, at a press conference after a security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja...yesterday

Okonjo-Iweala Remains Nigeria’s Candidate for WTO Headship, FG Insists... Page 8

2

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

3

4

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

5

FRIDAY, ͚Π˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWS

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

CBN to Create Non-interest Window for Intervention Funds Earmarks N432bn for farming season

James Emejo in Abuja The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it is finalising works on a framework to integrate non-interest window for all its financing intervention programmes, particularly the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) and the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) to boost support for households and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will also advance over N432 billion through commercial banks to farmers for the 2020 wet season.

CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, and his counterpart in the Development Finance Department, Mr. Yila Yusuf, told reporters yesterday in Abuja that the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had already directed the Development Finance Department to create the noninterest window, especially for the North-west and North-east.

They spoke to the reporters during an engagement session with rice, maize and cotton farmers as well as private anchors. Okoroafor said the apex bank would soon develop a framework for operation and integration of non-interest banking in all the bank's programmes, including the ABP. He noted that the bank was determined to push the economy to ensure Nigeria does not experience consecutive quarters of negative growth.

He added that to refloat the economy, Emefiele had directed the Development Finance Department of the bank and the NIRSAL Micro-Finance Bank (NMFB) to fast-track the approval process of loans, to help restore businesses and livelihoods.

Okoroafor explained that the

CBN believed that if the problem of food is addressed, the rising prices, which have continued to fuel inflation, will be curtailed.

He added that the CBN is working to address factors of instability in the economy and is determined to ensure that agriculture is given the impetus required to lift the country out of recession He said: "The 2020 agricultural wet season is particularly critical to the nation for several reasons. First, there's been a lot of lull in production because of the lockdown as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

"Secondly, there has been predictions that the global economy will go into a recession and there had been predictions that the Nigerian economy cannot escape recession.

"At the CBN, we realise that recession is actually knocking on the doors of Nigeria, but it can still be averted or at least reduced since recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

"What it means is that if we are able to stave off a negative growth in one of the quarters, it means we have escaped a recession.

"And the target of the CBN governor and which informs the aggressive nature in which he is trying to ramp up support for agriculture and small-scale businesses, is that we need to aggressively push the economy to avert that recession.

"Aggressive development finance policy is what is required and this is the aim of this wet season programme to ensure that our economy does not slide into recession."

Similarly, Yusuf said the apex bank had received correspondences from concerned citizens over the need for a noninterest window, particularly for the COVID-19 funds, the ABP

and other CBN intervention support schemes.

He said: "We are working on that and in the weeks to come, you will see some policies that we will be rolling out on noninterest facilities. The work had been completed."

He said the N432 billion financing, which is a loan facility, would be deployed across nine different commodities, such as rice, maize, cotton, oil palm, cowpea, livestock poultry and fish.

He described the 2020 wet season as the largest Anchor Borrower Programme since 2015, adding that over 1.1 million farmers are expected to farm on over a million hectares of land with a projected combined output of 8.32 million metric tonnes for the nine different commodities.

"This is quite significant if

you look at what is happening globally, where traditional large producing country like Vietnam and Thailand for rice are closing their silos and closing borders.

"So, we expect to produce every single thing we need to eat, basic things like rice, cassava, cotton and maize locally.

"In 2015 when we took over rice, we have moved the yield for rice; presently we do four metric tonnes per hectare, which used to be between one hectare and 1.5 metric tonnes per hectare. And so you can see the significant leap.

"One very important thing we are also doing this year is the focus on yield to ensure that we incentivise the farmers to go back to the farm.

"I take cotton for instance, traditional yields used to be about 0.3 -0.4 metric tonnes per hectare, but with improved seeds we provided in 2019 and

we will be providing in 2020, we have moved that to about two metric tonnes per hectare and so that's an incentive for farmers.

"Most of the farmers who farmed cotton last year did very well and had enough money to pay their loans and embark on other activities," he stated.

At the meeting, the Presidents of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Alhaji Alhaji Aminu Goronyo; National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), Mr. Anibe Achimugu; Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), Alhaji Bello Abubakar, and the Maize Growers, Processors, and Marketers Association of Nigeria (MAGPMAN), Dr. Edwin Uche, attested to the success of the ABP, which they noted has enhanced the value chains of their respective commodities.

While pledging their support to the continued implementation of the ABP to generate employment and create wealth, they promised to ensure that the loans collected by farmers are promptly recovered in order to sustain the programme.

Goronyo said at a period when major countries have shut their borders, Nigeria's neighbours looked to the country for their feeding.

He said the ABP had become a blessing to this country.

"I have been in the business for 40 years and I have never seen any time Nigeria had gotten it right like this.

"We have to give support to anchor borrower programme otherwise; if we scuttle ABP, only God knows where we would be.

All stakeholders must commit to ensuring success," Goronyo added.

SAY NO TO RAPE...

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mrs. Grace Isu-Gekpe; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; and the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Tony Ojukwu, when the commission visited the minister, in Abuja‌ yesterday

NCAA Suspends Planned Resumption of Domestic Flight Senate asks FG not to reopen five airports No prisoner infected with COVID-19, says FG WHO declares Nigeria polio-free Deji Elumoye, Olawale Ajimotokan, Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja, Chinedu Eze and Martins IďŹ jeh in Lagos The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the planned resumption of domestic flights tentatively scheduled for Sunday, citing the continued restriction on interstate movements as reason.

The agency said there was no way domestic airlines could resume operations if people would not be able to move freely from one state to another.

The Senate also urged the federal government not to reopen five out of the airports shut in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, saying it will be suicidal to do so.

At a press briefing yesterday in Abuja by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said NCAA would only commence local flights when it was safe to do so.

Sirika, represented by the Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, added

that to force the resumption of flights when the agency is least prepared, could lead to a dangerous outcome for the industry, aside from enabling the spike in COVID-19 infections. ''To do otherwise, will be disastrous for us. If we open the flight when we are not ready and we are guilty of spreading coronavirus, God forbid, we have any incident, I believe the governors will come hard on us and it is going to be counter-productive and even will be disastrous for the industry,'' he said.

According to him, NCAA will need more time to ensure that it is ready to start work.

He explained that the civil aviation regulator recently had a virtual meeting, attended by five stakeholders, to consider feedbacks from the industry and to respond to their concerns.

He added that the NCAA has been receiving inputs from international organisations such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which ensures the standards and recommended practices

for the aviation industry. ''The airports also have their high level task force on COVID-19, which also played a significant part. We have to adopt all this and you can be rest assured that the NCAA will only give the go-ahead when we are ready, nothing before then,'' he added.

According to him, the resumption of domestic flights may now be towards the end of June.

Also speaking yesterday at Webinar session tagged, ‘Nigeria’s Aviation Industry: Changing Times, Changing Strategies’, organised by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC), Nuhu, who was represented by the Director of consumer Protection, NCAA, Adamu Abdullahi, said there would not be resumption of domestic flights without the relaxation of the interstate lockdown.

No Prisoner Infected with COVID-19, Says FG Minister of Aviation, Mr. Rauf

Aregbesola, has said no inmate and officers were infected by the virus in any of the custodial centres across the country.

He said the men and officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service deserved encomiums for their high sense of service and diligence and for succeeding in preventing any outbreak of the virus in spite of the congestion in the correctional facilities.

Senate Urges FG Not to Reopen Five Airports The Senate yesterday advised the federal government not to reopen five of the airports shut in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

The Senate Committee on Aviation, after an emergency meeting with leaders of the unions in the sector, led by the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, said it would be disastrous to reopen the airports now.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Smart Adeyemi, said based on serious issues raised by stakeholders in the sector

as regards safety and security, the planned unlocking of the aviation sector should be postponed.

FG Worried over Violation of COVID-19 Protocols Also speaking at the briefing, the National Coordinator of the PTF on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, said the task force was concerned about the flouting of its guidelines and safety protocols by organisations and individuals.

Aliyu added that the risk of contracting COVID-19 is higher now than it was five weeks ago.

On his part, the Chairman of the PTF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, warned that the relaxation of lockdown should not be interpreted to mean otherwise, warning that the surge in new cases in China and USA should put all on the alert.

WHO Declares Nigeria Polio-free WHO

has

also

declared

Nigeria polio-free, leaving the devastating disease endemic in only two countries of the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, a renowned virologist and Chairman, Expert Review Committee on Poliomyelitis Eradication and Routine Immunisation, Prof.

Oyewale Tomori has said the country must continue to vaccinate children against the virus until the remaining two affected countries in the world are declared free.

In a tweet to announce the feat yesterday, the WHO Nigeria @WHONigeria, said the country had completed documentation for wild polio virus-free status, and that the documentation has been accepted by the African Regional Certification Commission for polio eradication.

Sharing his thoughts on the feat, Tomori, who has been one of the scientists at the forefront of addressing the disease in Nigeria, said: “As long as there are other countries of the world with the virus, Nigerians must continue to vaccinate our children."

6

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

7

8

FRIDAY, ͚Π˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWS

Okonjo-Iweala Remains Nigeria’s Candidate for WTO Headship, FG Insists Rejects opinion by AU Legal Counsel Says ex-minister’s replacement of Agah not fresh submission Obinna Chima Nigeria has said that former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, remains its candidate for the position of the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

According to it, Nigeria, like other sovereign states, reserves the right to nominate, withdraw or replace a candidate for any position, especially when a consensus has not been agreed to endorse a single candidate.

The federal government made its position known in a Note Verbale dated June 18, 2020, that was addressed to the African Union Commission, Members of the Ministerial Committee on Candidatures, among others.

The Note Verbale is a response to an earlier statement that was attributed to the Office of the Legal Counsel (OLC) of the African Union, which had earlier faulted the nomination of the former minister.

The OLC had stated that the nomination of OkonjoIweala was against the rules of procedure and the decision by the AU Executive Council.

A document from the office of the OLC stated that OkonjoIweala’s nomination violated Rule (11), 1, 2 and 3, Rule 12 and Rule 15(3) of the rules of procedure of the committee on candidatures within the International System of the AU. However, Nigeria in the diplomatic document, rejected the judgment of the OLC in a June 15, 2020, Note Verbale by the Legal Counsel, saying it, “failed all parameters of objectivity, academic rigour and unbiased submission, a high standard for which the African Union is to be held.�

The document stated that the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would not be a party to any propaganda and/ or actions that supplant the vision and objectives of the African Union, by supporting a willful, obviously partisan and outlandish interpretation of rules and decisions. “For the avoidance of doubt, the central objective of Note No. 150/2020 dated 8th June, 2020 from the Mission of Nigeria, is anchored on a request for a simple and uncomplicated clarification, that is, an express proclamation by the OLC, where Decision EX-1090 foreclosed the substitution/ replacement of candidates by any of the three AU member states. “Truth be told, the long, winding and tortuous opinion demonstrated in Note No. BC/OLC/24/5056.20 of 15th June, 2020 from the OLC, is a classic case of red herring – a demonstration of unsolicited and unguarded submission under the guise of a legal opinion. “This is because, at no time should our minds and attention be moved away from the grundnorm, as to do so amounts to willful and deliberate acquiesce to re-writing the rules, in obvious

contravention of our noble Constitutive Act,� it added.

The federal government noted that the OLC had the opportunity to set the records straight, by admitting its obvious error in the advisory opinion provided to the Candidatures Committee at the latter’s meeting on June 4, 2020.

It said: “Neither individuals nor institutions are immune to mistakes,� adding that, “the challenge only comes when we become defensive in admitting errors made inadvertently, by attempting to wish away or covering it with effusively lame, egregious and outlandish display of words and misinterpretation of rules and decision.�

It added: ‘It is obvious that the OLC is stubbornly trapped to the unfounded notion that the candidature of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a fresh submission and cleverly refraining from recognising it as replacement for Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah, an earlier submission, duly made in line with all known rules. “By the same token of illogic, does it then mean that a country whose candidate steps down as a result of natural causes or act of force majeure becomes ineligible to replacing such candidate according to OLC? “Such conclusion is not just patently wrong, but worrisome and grossly uninformed.�

According to the Permanent Mission of Nigeria, the Rules of Procedure referred to in the Note Verbal by OLC, relates fundamentally, to the submission of a new candidature for a position and not “by any shred of imagination, a substitution/ replacement of an earlier submission duly made in line with all rules.� “Hence, Nigeria’s substitution/replacement of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah with Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala as candidate for DGWTO cannot be treated as fresh nomination for the position, and as such cannot be said, or even imagined “not to conform� with Rules 11 (1,2,3,4,5), 12 or indeed any of the Rules of Procedure deliberately highlighted by OLC to mislead. “To state that the same submission is not in line with Executive Council Decisions EX 1072 and 1090 of July, 2019 and February, 2020 is an aberration, as none of these decisions preclude any member state from substituting its candidate, especially given that a sacrosanct decision was yet to be taken by the executive council to endorse one particular candidate in this instance. “That neither the stated decisions of the executive council nor any of the AU Rules of Procedure on candidatures, expressly or impliedly, forbids the substitution/replacement of candidates by any memberstate,� it said.

In addition, the federal government explained that to state that “Nigeria is latching on its sovereign right to change existing rules of procedure and

relevant decisions of executive council as well as decisions of other policy organs,� was unbecoming, unfortunate and a gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of facts from an office established to be dispassionate, neutral and professional. “Nigeria, like other sovereign states, reserves the right to nominate, withdraw or replace a candidate for any position, especially when a consensus has not been agreed to endorse a single candidate. “It is in the spirit of the stated Assembly Decision 795(XXXIII) of February, 2020, as well as other relevant decisions, that after due consultations, the Republic of Benin stepped down her candidate in total support of Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for DG-WTO;

and, “That the WTO has acted upon the withdrawal of the nomination of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah and accepted and processed the nomination of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as appropriate. “In view of the highlights provided above, it is demonstrably clear that the OLC has substantially failed to substantiate how the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in exercising her sovereign right, flouted any of the said decisions or rules of procedure, as none of them categorically precludes the substitution of a candidate by the member-states. “In this regard, the Federal Republic of Nigeria wishes to put on record that only advisory opinion that does not neutralise the time-honoured practice of

respecting the sovereign right of member states to nominate, withdraw or replace candidates, as applicable will be respected. “Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is, and remains, the candidate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the position of DG – WTO," the Note Verbale stated.

It thanked the Republic of Benin and other AU member states for supporting the Nigerian nominee.

Meanwhile, in a June 15, 2020, Note Verbale, the country had explained that it was true that the Executive Council, through Decision EX.CL/ Dec.1072 (XXXV) of July 2019, called on all AU memberstates to consider presenting competent candidates to the AU Ministerial Committee on Candidatures in the International System for the

position of DG-WTO by 30th November, 2019, with a view to endorsing one candidate during the February, 2020 36th Ordinary Session.

However, no single candidate was endorsed at the 36th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council. Rather, the executive council, through Decision EX.CL/Dec. 1090 (XXXVI) of February, 2020, “endorsed� the candidatures of Benin, Egypt and Nigeria, as a shortlist.

Nigeria explained that the council further requested the Ministerial Committee on African Candidatures within the International System to consider the matter and report to the executive council at its 37th Ordinary session, with a view to agreeing on a single African candidate.�

IMPROVING SOCIAL INTERACTION...

L-R: Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Sam Egube; Chief Operating OďŹƒcer, Softcom, Mr. Seindemi Olobayo; the Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and Softcom Chief Executive OďŹƒcer, Mr. Yomi Adedeji, during the launch of www.helpnow.ng, a social intervention platform, in Lagos... yesterday

Buhari Approves N19.67bn for Completion of East-West Road Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the immediate release of N19.67 billion to fast-track the completion of sections I-IV of the East-West Road project by 2021.

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, at a meeting yesterday in Abuja with contractors handling different sections of the road project, said the presidential directive was part of efforts to address infrastructure deficit in the Niger Delta region and boost the economy of the region.

The minister explained that the road, which was conceived in 2006 by the Obasanjo administration, was to have been completed in 2010. He, however, attributed the delay principally to paucity of funds.

A statement issued by the Director in charge of Press and

Public Relations in the ministry, Mrs. Deworitshe Patricia, said the minister noted that in April 2009, the project was transferred to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs with the mandate of fast-tracking its completion.

Akpabio said this could not also be realised due to inflexible terms prescribed by financial institutions.

Despite the chequered history of the project, which may not require less than N102 billion for its completion, Akpabio said the president, in line with the determination of his administration to address the issue of infrastructure deficit in the country, had ordered that issues surrounding the delay in the completion of the project should be addressed.

According to him, the presidential directive mandated that the project should be completed by 2021.

Akpabio said: “The project,

which starts from the Delta Steel Company Roundabout in Delta State, transverses through Kaiama in Bayelsa State, goes through Ahoada in Port Harcourt in Rivers State, down to Eket and from Eket to Oron in Akwa Ibom State, is to complete the Section I-IV being part of the two sections that had previously been completed.

Section–V, which covers 23km from Oron to Calabar, is still under process.

"Considering the disposition of the region to the stability of Nigeria’s economy, the project will not only redress infrastructural deficit in the region, its completion would assist the oil industry in terms of moving goods that will facilitate oil production, movement within the area, restiveness and boast the economic life of the people and the nation at large.�

The Buhari administration,

he said, had undertaken more infrastructural development projects than any other government, adding that the East-West road would be one of the legacy projects of this administration.

He thanked the contractors for being committed to ensuring that the presidential mandate is achieved by re-mobilising back to site even when funds have not been made available and assured them of the people’s cooperation.

The Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Omotayo Alasoadura, in his remarks, appealed to the contractors to work hard to fulfill the president's mandate.

On their part, the contractors thanked Akpabio for giving them the opportunity to work with the ministry and reiterated their readiness to return to site immediately to meet the 2021 completion target.

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

9

10

FRIDAY, ͚Π˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

PAGE TEN BUHARI REPRIMANDS SECURITY CHIEFS, SAYS NO MORE EXCUSES FOR INSECURITY to find solutions to the security crisis. The delegation was also in Sokoto, which is in the throes of banditry.

Also, in the North-east, there has been a resurgence in Boko Haram attacks, the worst in recent times occured in Faduma Kolomdi, a village in Gubio Local Government Area of Borno State in which 81 people were killed in one day.

Bandits also killed over 70 people in Sokoto, also in one day, while Southern Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger, Plateau and Benue States have become the hotbeds of insecurity.

In one of the protests in Katsina, marchers destroyed billboards of Buhari in expression of their anger against his perceived inability to provide security for the country.

Besides, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, CNG and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) have condemned escalating security crisis and told the president to get his act together.

However, notwithstanding the apparent inability of the security chiefs to protect lives and property, Buhari has rebuffed persistent calls for their sacking.

Briefing State House reporters after the meeting, Monguno said Buhari expressed grave concern over the high degree of insecurity in the country, saying the president "was extremely unhappy" with the current security crisis .

According to Monguno, Buhari reminded the heads of the security agencies that prior to his election, fight against insecurity was one of his campaign promises, drawing their attention to the implications of making him to preside over an insecure country.

Monguno said the president reminded the security chiefs that their appointments were not based on recommendations but rather unilaterally made by him, adding that it was up to them to justify such appointments and stop disappointing the people.

He said the president told them to address the issue of proliferation of small and light arms as well as drugs, noting that such issues fuel banditry in the North-west and terrorism in the North-east.

"A meeting was just concluded between Mr. President and heads of the security agencies, that is the operational heads consisting minister of defence, the service chiefs and on the other hand, the intelligence components that is consisting of myself and the intelligence heads.

"Today’s meeting basically focused on recent developments.

Mr. President has expressed great concern over the declining security situation in the country.

He is extremely unhappy about what is happening and he feels that, even though the security agencies are doing their best, their best is not good enough for him and wants and immediate reversal of the current trend and immediate reversal of our misfortune in all their dimensions.

"Mr. President also told us clearly in no uncertain terms that he, and indeed the administration, campaigned to power on the platform of three issues - fighting insecurity, overcoming our economic difficulties and dealing with the scourge of corruption. Moreso, he noted that it takes common sense for anyone to understand that without security, the pursuit of the other two will just be an exercise in futility.

"He, therefore, warned the security agencies to take into consideration the wider implication of the gradual decline of the security of this country; he is not going to accept any further escalation of the security situation.

"He stated that no one was forced on him. He selected everyone individually based on what he felt their records had revealed and therefore, it is up to individual organisations to live up to the expectations. "Again, Mr. President has also said that it is extremely important that we in the security agencies ensure that we justify the leadership by not disappointing the populace.

"He also pointed out the immediate areas of concern and these areas are also interlinked and we must find a way out, especially the issue of proliferation of drugs, small arms and light weapons. These two issues also go hand in hand with the major issues of criminality in this country, be they banditry

on one hand on the North-west of Nigeria or terrorism in the North-east," he said.

Monguno added that the meeting expressed concern about the use of unregistered SIM cards, noting that insecurity will not be overcome until that matter is promptly checked.

The NSA, who also said he would call a meeting of security chiefs with governors of states threatened by insecurity, explained that the president had asked him to work with the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Pantami, to address the issue of unregistered SIM cards.

"Now, added to this, another area which raises concern is the use of unregistered SIM cards.

In my own brief, I dwelt on that issue and I raised concern that whatever we intend to achieve, we will not be able to get to the promised land unless we wrestle this issue of unrestrained acquisition of unregistered SIM cards.

"Mr. President has directed that I, as the national security adviser, should link up with the honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to workout a blueprint to ensure the end of the irresponsible use of any SIM card. Of course, I urged my colleagues, the Inspector General of Police and Director General of Department of State Services to help on this issue.

"Again, my office is going to call on certain governors, starting with the governors of the North-west zone, including the governor of Niger State, to come over to Abuja, so that I meet with them and my colleagues in intelligence and security," he stated.

The NSA also spoke on lack of coordination among security agencies, noting that the matter will have to be decisively addressed with the creation of a platform for the coordination of all security operations.

He said the president's warning yesterday was a strong signal to all of them in the security sector that they have to sit up, adding that he understood that there has be an issue of loss of confidence and loss of trust in them by the people.

Monguno said the matter would have to be jointly addressed by political authorities, security agencies and the judiciary.

He said: "Finally, the issue of lack of synergy within the security sector has to be addressed also and has left us in no doubt that unless we address this issue and form a single front, the convergence of efforts, the confluence of all ideas be they operational or intelligence, must be achieved.

We must have a central platform to coordinate all the efforts, all operations and security.

"In the final analysis, Mr. President has said everyone is doing his best but his best is not good enough, that should send a signal to all of us. But again, it is also incumbent on the wider Nigerian population to key into whatever the security agencies are doing, understanding that there has been an issue of loss of confidence, loss of trust, abuse or whatever.

"These issues will have to be addressed by a discussion between security agencies and the political leadership and of course, the judiciary will come in. I, the national security adviser, want to reassure Nigerians that each and every department or agency or component, will redouble its efforts and ensure that we reverse our dwindling fortune for the betterment of this country in the remaining period they have in the life time of this administration."

Asked if the acknowledgment of underperformance of security chiefs by the president yesterday would eventually culminate in the replacement of the service chiefs, Monguno said only the president can take the decision.

Beside Monguno and Adamu, other security chiefs at the meeting were the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.

Others were the Minister of Defence Brig-Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.); Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; Director General

of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency, Air Vice Marshal Mohammded Sani Usman; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, and Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.

Police Arrest Students over Fresh Protest in Katsina The police have arrested many students in Katsina following another wave of protest in the president's home state over insecurity.

It was learnt that yesterday's protest, coming on the heels of a similar one on Tuesday, was carried out by students drawn from tertiary institutions in the state, who called for the resignation of some top government officials.

The state police spokesman, Gambo Isah, a Superintendent of Police (SP), confirmed the arrest.

He said: “They came out on the streets saying the Secretary to the State Government must go; so we don’t know who is the brain behind this politicallymotivated demonstration in Katsina. “It is very unlawful and instigating members of the public against government, so it is a crime and we are not going to leave it. “We will prosecute them in court. We will charge them for inciting disturbance, breach of peace amongst others.

Afenifere Demands Sacking of Security Chiefs The Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has urged the president to go beyond scolding them over their inability to address the security challenges facing the nation and relieve them of their duties.

Its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, in a reaction to the meeting between Buhari and the security chiefs, told THISDAY that it was high time the military top brass were sacked.

He said: "Now that the whole

world is lamenting the insecurity in Nigeria, will the president do the needful beyond scolding his ineffective chiefs?"

According to him, it is unfortunate that it has taken street protests in his home state for the president to realise that his security chiefs are failures.

"Patriotic Nigerians have shouted hoarse over the years that there was no reason to keep these people in office except for personal power consideration," Odumakin said.

PANDEF Asks Buhari to Sack Security Chiefs The apex socio-cultural of the Niger Delta region, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), also told Buhari to sack all the security chiefs for failing to protect lives and property.

PANDEF, in a statement entitled "Insecurity: Warning Service Chiefs, Not Enough", issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, said warning the security chiefs was not enough.

It added that it was sad and unfortunate that the president has again failed to be decisive and frontal in addressing the nation’s security challenges.

"We, therefore, call on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently replace the service chiefs, in the best interest of the country. The present service chiefs cannot do more than they are currently doing, and their best would never be good enough. They have outlived their usefulness; some of whom Mr. President extended their tenures," it added.

According to the group, the president’s meeting with the service chiefs should have been a valedictory meeting for them.

"The government and security agencies cannot continue in the extant lackadaisical manner they are handling issues of insecurity, while criminals and terrorists perpetuate atrocious activities, with wanton destruction of property and killings of innocent people, virtually unfettered. A situation where citizens, constantly live in fear of their lives and property, is unacceptable," PANDEF stated.

PDP SHIFTS EDO GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARY FOR OBASEKI yesterday as the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) renewed a March order for the party's Deputy National Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, to act for Oshiomhole.

The APC National Working Committee (NWC), shortly after the Court of Appeal judgment, had named one of Oshiomhole's zonal deputies, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, as the interim national chairman.

But Giadom, on Wednesday, kicked, contending with Ajimobi for the leadership of the party, based on the March order he had earlier secured. Few hours after Giadom declared himself the interim national chairman, the NWC met and reaffirmed the choice of Ajimobi as the acting national chairman. The party organ also suspended Giadom for alleged anti-party activities.

However, THISDAY gathered yesterday that based on the understanding reached with Obaseki to allow him compete for the PDP's ticket with the three other aspirants that were earlier cleared for the race, the party has written the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), notifying the commission of its intention to shift the primary.

National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, confirmed the shift of the party’s primary via his Twitter handle.

He tweeted: “@OfficialPDPNig has postponed its primary election in Edo State to Tuesday,

June 23, 2020."

But THISDAY gathered that the postponement of the gubernatorial primary was to enable the party to finalise negotiations with Obaseki and accommodate him in the election.

A source close to the party said the shift in the date of the primary election was to give Obaseki and his deputy, Hon. Philip Shaibu, a soft landing so as to participate in the party’s screening and primary election.

The source added that the PDP will give Obaseki and Shaibu a waiver to enable them to contest the governorship primary on the new date.

The source said if things go as planned, Obaseki would be affirmed by the delegates on June 23.

However, the source added that if the other aspirants, Gideon Ikhine, Kenneth Immasuagbon and Omoregie Ihama, insists, they would be allowed to contest.

The source explained that the new date for the governorship primary falls within the June 2 and June 27 deadline given by INEC for all parties to conduct their primaries.

PDP, in a statement, elaborated more on the shift in the date for the primary.

It said: "The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has postponed the Edo State governorship primary election earlier scheduled for

Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20, 2020 to a new date of Tuesday, June 23, 2020.

"This decision is predicated on exigencies of party activities.

"All governorship aspirants, critical stakeholders, party faithful and our teeming supporters, particularly in Edo state, are to take note accordingly," the statement, signed by Ologbondiyan said.

Ologbondiyan also told THISDAY that the PDP NWC was waiting for Obaseki to formally join the party by registering his membership at his Ward 4 in the Oredo Local Government Area in Edo State.

Also, the Chairman of PDP in Edo State, Hon. Tony Aziegbemi, told THISDAY that Obaseki was being awaited in Benin from his trip to Abuja to register as a member of the PDP. The South-south National Vice Chairman of the PDP, Chief Emmanuel Ogidi, also confirmed yesterday in Benin City, that Obaseki will formally join the party today.

Court Renews Order for Giadom to act as APC National Chair The crisis rocking the ruling APC deepened yesterday as a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) reaffirmed Giadom as the acting national chairman of the party.

The court also ruled that

the National Vice-Chairman North-east, Mr. Mustapha Salihu, should act as the national secretary.

The rulings of the court yesterday were sequel to ex-parte motions filed by Salihu.

Justice S. U. Bature held that his ruling would subsist pending the time the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) convenes and takes a decision or the determination of the suit.

Justice Bature was the same judge who made an order allowing Giadom to act as the party’s national chairman when a court ordered the suspension of Oshiomhole in March.

However, Salihu has dissociated himself from the purported interim court order for him to act as the national secretary of the party.

Salihu said he was not a party to the suit, adding that it is not in his character to play dirty politics, especially when the party is going through trying times.

Salihu, in a telephone interview with journalists yesterday, said there was no way he would have been part of the interim order when he was at a meeting of the party’s stakeholders from the North-east when the decision was reached to nominate and endorse Waziri Bulama as the acting national secretary of the party.

Court Validated

Ajimobi’s Appointment into NWC, Says APC Legal Adviser National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Babatunde Ogala, has debunked the claim by Giadom that Ajimobi was not duly appointed into the NWC of the party.

Ogala told Channels Television yesterday that Giadom was brought into the NWC the same way Ajimobi was appointed.

He said: “When the position of the deputy national secretary was vacant, the zonal congress of the party leadership nominated a replacement. That was how Victor Giadom got into the NWC. So, he who comes into equity must come with clean hands.�

Ogala, however, said the Federal High Court on March 13 affirmed the appointment of Ajimobi as the deputy national chairman.

He said: “How can you (Giadom) who claimed to be an Acting Secretary now go to another court to say there was nobody in office? The order of March 13 was served on me; the order of March 16 in which the process filed is against me and the party, Publicity Secretary and National Secretary are yet to be served on us till today.

The orders they (Giadom and others) are parading on social

media are yet to be served on the party as we speak."

INEC: Court will Determine Who to Recognise as APC Continued on page 12

TOP GAINERS NGN NGN % C & I LEASING 0.40 4.60 9.5 AIICO 0.08 0.97 8.9 MBENEFIT 0.01 0.22 4.7 OANDO 0.10 2.55 4.0 MAYBAKER 0.04 3.00 1.3 TOP LOSERS NGN % FIDSON 0.33 3.07 9.7 NEIMETH 0.18 1.71 9.5 NIGBREW 4.00 38.00 9.5 JAIZBANK 0.06 0.61 8.9 NPFMFB 0.11 1.40 7.2 HPE Nestle Nig Plc â‚Ś1,094.00 Volume: 171.208 million shares Value: N2.211 billion Deals: 3,315 As at yesterday 18/6/2020 See details on Page 29

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

11

12

FRIDAY, ͚Π˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWS

Court Orders AMCON to Take over Doggi Group’s Assets Dike Onwuamaeze The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) yesterday announced that it had taken over properties belonging to Alhaji Umaru Baba Abdullahi, the Chief Promoter of Doggi Group Limited over an indebtedness of over N440 million.

The takeover is in compliance with the order of Justice A.I. Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja division.

The Head of Corporate

Communications Department of AMCON, Mr. Jude Nwauzor, said in a statement yesterday that Justice Chikere gave the order on June 5.

According to the statement, AMCON yesterday took possession of two properties, through its receiver, Mrs. Juliet Benson of Benson Reeds Legal Practitioners.

The buildings are situated at Plot 3810, Cadastral Zone A04, Asokoro District, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and Plot 1274, Cadastral Zone

B07, Katampe Hills, Katampe District, Abuja.

The case of Doggi Group Limited and its promoter has been a protracted issue because the loan was purchased during the first phase of Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) purchase from Union Bank Plc in 2011, it added.

Since then, AMCON said it had offered the obligor opportunities and explored all avenues to resolve the matter amicably, but the obligor, and his company, Doggi Group Limited, have remained recalcitrant and

unwilling to repay the debt.

Shedding more light on the development, Nwauzor said: “Yes, we enforced on the properties today as ordered by Justice Chikere’s court, and are grateful to the Federal High Court for working on behalf of Nigerians to recover some of the debts owed the country by a few individuals despite the challenges posed by the dreaded Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to institutions, including the judiciary. “Like we have always said in

the past, our priority at AMCON has never been to take over anybody’s properties or assets - our mandate is to recover Nigeria’s money in the hands of these obligors. Overtime, however, we have observed that the obligors enjoy hiding under some legal technicalities to delay even the repayment arrangement they negotiated and signed. “When you have held several meetings and arrived at an agreement but the obligor decided to make a U-turn by

reneging, it leaves AMCON with no other option than to approach the court. In the case of Doggi Group Limited and its promoter, AMCON did everything any responsible and law-abiding organistaion ought to do to help the promoter and his business continue to no avail,�

President Muhammadu Buhari last year signed the 2019 Amended AMCON Act into law, which gives AMCON additional powers to go after all obligors of the corporation who for years had refused to repay their debt.

China, Not Nigeria’s Major Source of Funding, Says DMO Puts loan portfolio at 3.94% of $79.303bn total debt Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja The Debt Management Office (DMO) has said that China is not a major source of funding for the federal government as the total borrowing from China was only $3.121 billion (N1.126.68 trillion) at an exchange rate of $1/N361 as at March 31.

The amount represents 3.94 per cent of Nigeria’s total public debt of $79.303 billion or N28,628.49 trillion, even as loans from China accounted for 11.28 per cent of the external debt stock of $27.67 billion as at the reference date.

The DMO, in a statement yesterday and captioned 'Facts about Chinese Loans to Nigeria,' said: "This amount represents only 3.94 per cent of Nigeria’s total public debt of $79.303 billion (N28,628.49 billion at $/N361) as at March 31, 2020.

Similarly, in terms of external sources of funds, loans from China accounted for 11.28 per cent of the external debt stock of $27.67 billion at the same date.

"These data show that China

is not a major source of funding for the Nigerian Government."

It explained that the total borrowings from China of $3.121 billion as at March 31, 2020, are concessional loans with interest rates of 2.50 per cent per annum, 20 years tenor and seven years grace period (moratorium).

The statement added that the terms and other details of the loans are available the DMO website.

DMO said the terms were compliant with the provisions of Section 41 (1a) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007.

"In addition, the low interest rate reduces the interest cost to government while the long tenor enables the repayment of the principal sum of the loans over many years. These two benefits make the provisions for debt service in the annual budget lower than they would otherwise have been if the loans were on commercial terms.

"The $3.121 billion loans are project-tied loans. The projects (eleven – 11 in number as at

March 31, 2020), include: Nigerian Railway Modernisation Project (Idu-Kaduna section), Abuja Light Rail Project, Nigerian Four Airport Terminals Expansion Project (Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt), Nigerian Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos--Ibadan section) and rehabilitation and upgrading of Abuja–Keffi--Makurdi Road Project," it stated.

According to DMO, the impact of these loans is not only evident but visible, adding for instance, that the Idu–Kaduna rail line has become a major source of transportation between Abuja and Kaduna.

It stated that the new international airport in Abuja has improved air transportation for the populace, while the Lagos-Ibadan rail line, when completed, will ease traffic on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

"The projects also have the added benefits of job creation, not only by themselves but through direct and indirect service providers, a number of

which are small and medium enterprises.

"It is widely accepted that investment in infrastructure is one of the most effective tools for countries to achieve economic growth and development. Using loans from China to finance infrastructure is thus in alignment with this position," the DMO said.

On the process by which the loans were obtained, the agency noted that the principal process and requirements for borrowing by the government are expressly stated in the Debt Management Office Establishment (ETC) Act, 2003 (DMO Act) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

According to the statement, Section 21 (1) of the DMO Act provides that “no external loan shall be approved or obtained by the minister unless its terms and conditions shall have been laid before the National Assembly and approved by its resolution."

It also cited Section 41 (1a) of the FRA that states that “government at all tiers shall only borrow for capital expenditure

and human development, provided that, such borrowing shall be on concessional terms with low interest rate and with a reasonable long amortisation period subject to the approval of the appropriate legislative body where necessary.�

According to the statement, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning works with the MDAs under whose portfolio a proposed loan is secured.

"Thereafter, the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is sought. It is only after the approval by FEC that His Excellency requests for the approval of the National Assembly as required by Section 41 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. More importantly, it is only after the approval of National Assembly that the loans are taken and Nigeria begins to drawdown on the loans.

"In summary, borrowing is a joint activity between the Executive (FEC) and the legislative arms of government,"

the DMO said.

Providing further insight into how rigorous the loan documentation could be, the DMO stated that loan agreements are reviewed by legal officers of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the legal opinion of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is obtained before any external loan agreement is signed.

On the question of whether or not China can take possession of the projects financed by them if Nigeria defaults in the servicing of the loans, the DMO noted that in the first place, Nigeria explicitly provides for debt service on its external and domestic debt in its annual budgets, adding that in effect, this means that debt service is recognised and payment is planned for.

"In addition, a number of the projects being (and to be) financed by the loans are either revenue generating or have the potential to generate revenue," it said.

insubordination to him as supervising minister of the EFCC." According to the source, Malami claimed that most of the recovered assets by the EFCC were allegedly sold by Magu without the knowledge of anyone. “But it is unfortunate that this claim is at variance with the public auction of assets by the EFCC,“ the source added.

It will be recalled that many efforts have been made in the past to make the president to drop Magu, since his appointment as EFCC acting

chairman on November 9, 2015.

The plot for his removal twice stalled his confirmation by the Eighth Senate, prompting him to remain the interim head of the nation's foremost anti-graft agency.

However, when the presidency insisted on Magu being confirmed, the previous Senate demanded the reversal of a damning security report on the EFCC boss from the Department of State Services (DSS), which it had cited as the reason for his non-confirmation.

Many groups and individuals had also gone to court to

challenge the continued stay of Magu as the acting chairman of the commission.

But Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment delivered in 2019 over consolidated suits on Magu status, had held that there was no time limit in the law establishing the commission for him to act as the EFCC boss.

The judge further held that Buhari is holding the proverbial “yam and knife� on Magu, adding that the president should do the needful by sending the name of Magu to the Senate for confirmation.

He noted that the only way he could have come back is if the NWC transmits a letter back to his zone.

But in a swift reaction, Giadom described his suspension as a cheap propaganda.

He added: "My brother, the court order is in the public domain. You should read it.

The order still subsists.

On his purported suspension, he said, "All cheap propaganda.

Tell them to show you a copy of my letter of resignation�.

Federal High Court restraining the APC from conducting the June 22 governorship primary using direct method.

On June 8, the Federal High Court in Benin, presided by Justice Mohammed Umar, had restrained the APC from conducting the primary in Edo State using direct method.

But Justice Morenike Ogunwomiju who headed the three-man Appeal Justices set aside the order by the lower court, saying the trial judge gave a problematic order that was not sought by the parties.

In the lead judgment in the suit by APC, delivered

by Justice Ogunwomiju and backed by Justice Oseji, she said: "The trial judge (Justice Umar) gave a problematic order that was not sought

by the parties to the suit. As at the date (June 8) the order was given, the political party (APC in Edo State) had 14 days to organise its governorship primary election. Every judge must be a democrat.

"The appellant (APC) was not given an opportunity to be heard by the trial court.

The injunctive order of the trial court of June 8 is hereby set aside. The administrative orders subsist and the issue of jurisdiction should be determined by the trial court."

In his dissenting judgment in the APC's suit however, Justice Adume declared that the injunctive order of FHC ought not to have been set aside, insisting that the appeal was interlocutory, incompetent and should be struck out.

MALAMI WRITES PRESIDENT, SEEKS REMOVAL OF MAGU forces who have decided to remove him in spite of his remarkable achievements," sources stated.

But sources said given the weight of Malami's allegations against Magu, the president may be inclined "to set up a probe panel that will look into the veracity of the allegations and make necessary recommendations."

One of the sources told select journalists that “I can authoritatively tell you that though Magu has survived previous plots to remove him, the AGF’s legal opinion remains

the deadliest plot to get Magu out of the EFCC as AGF’s letter to the president contained 22 weighty allegations that require Buhari’s decision on whether or not to send Magu’s name to the Senate for confirmation or replace him..... This is because the office of the AGF is the supervising ministry of the EFCC and so his legal opinion cannot be treated with levity. “For example, Malami alleged accounting gaps or discrepancies of figures concerning the recovered assets, claiming that Magu was not transparent enough in the management of

recovered assets..."

A Magu supporter said:" It will interest you to note that Malami accused the EFCC boss of disclosing a total naira recovery of N504 billion but lodged N543 billion in the Recovery Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Incidentally, this exceeded the disclosed figures by N39 billion.�

According to the supporter of the EFCC boss, what should be a point of commendation is now being used against Magu.

Others said: "Malami also accused Magu of blatant display of arrogance and

PDP SHIFTS EDO GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARY FOR OBASEKI

Chair The INEC has said it is aware of the leadership crisis in the APC and will rely on the orders of the court to determine the authentic chairman of the ruling party.

Answering a question from THISDAY on whom it will recognise as the substantive acting national chairman in view of the conflicting claims

by Giadom and Ajimobi, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Information, Festus Okoye, said: "The commission will also apply for and obtain the Certified True Copy of the rulings, judgments and orders made in the various suits in court.

"The commission will study the constitution of the party and its regulations and guidelines

relating to the conduct of party primaries."

He, however, warned parties not to allow any the crisis to affect the dates for the conclusion of their primaries.

APC Inaugurates Edo Guber Primary Election Committee The APC yesterday inaugurated both the primary election and appeal committees of the Edo state Governorship primary scheduled for June 22.

The Acting National Chairman of the party, Mr. Hilliard Eta, said that the inauguration marked the commencement of the process of the Edo primary.

Eta noted that the job of the committees is to carry out

the process of selecting the candidate of the party in Edo State, adding that if there are concerns or disagreements after the exercise, the Election Appeal Committee would be on ground to deal with it.

Chairman of the Election Committee, and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, said he was honoured for the rare confidence reposed in the committee by the party.

Eta later told journalists that the process for the replacement of Giadom, who has been suspended from the party, has commenced.

Eta said there was no way a member of the party or NWC would contest any election without resigning from his office, according to the dictates of the constitution of the party.

A’Court Sets Aside Order Restraining APC from Direct Primary The Court of Appeal in Benin has set aside the order of the

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

13

14

T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍˇËœ 2020

COMMENT

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

SANWO-OLU’S MARCH TOWARDS A‘GREATER LAGOS’ Lagos needs the support of everyone to achieve greatness, writes Joshua Agbalajobi

T

he year 2020 will go down in history as the year the Covid 19 shut down people, businesses and government across the globe. The pandemic which started in Wuhan, China has brought out both the worst and best in humans. For leaders, it has been the surprise that has tested their crisis management ability.

Lagos, where Nigeria’s index coronavirus case was detected, also has the most number of cases in the country at over 7, 000 presently. As the state hurriedly battled the unseen enemy with medicine and care, it also stretched a hand to residents in the form of palliatives. Governance however, continued, even if most became virtual and the administration, led by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the 15th Lagos State governor, celebrated its one year in office on May 29. And to celebrate Democracy Day on June 12, Sanwo-Olu in a speech, themed, ‘GREAT LEAP TOWARDS A GREATER LAGOS’ reiterated his willingness to serve. “For me, it remains a humbling privilege to be the leader of a government that you freely and massively elected into office,� he said. “I remain truly grateful for your trust and confidence.�

Technically, Sanwo-Olu’s one- year report card is of 10 months’ work as during April and May 2020, the world was practically shut down. Sanwo-Olu had campaigned under the slogan, THEMES (Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21ST Economy, Entertainment and Tourism and Governance and Security).

But assuming office in May 2019, the challenges started. The rains poured and conditions were not favourable for tackling road repairs.

Nevertheless, the Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) started rehabilitation work on inner roads. And by December 2019, the government commissioned 31 roads in Ojokoro, Sanwo-Olu stated. The governor also announced that: “The Oshodi-Abule- Egba BRT Corridor, the Pen Cinema Bridge, the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the AgricIshawo Road� would soon be ready for use. And to ensure a freer flow of traffic, Sanwo-Olu said that several roundabouts in traffic-prone areas like Allen Avenue, Maryland, Ikotun and Lekki are being re-designed and would be ready soon.

It is particularly joyful to note that work on the Lagos-Badagry expressway which was abandoned by the previous administration has resumed. Also, late last year, the elevated sea-crossing track of the Blue Line Mass transit project, at Marina, Lagos, was completed while work has begun on the final phase of the scheme. And recently, Lagos shortlisted eight firms out of 30 for the contract of the 4th Mainland Bridge.

In the area of public transportation, Sanwo-Olu stated that some completed projects that are ready for commissioning include the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) for Bus Reform Scheme at Ikeja and Oshodi Bus Terminals, Oyingbo Bus Terminal. Others are a concrete jetty with shoreline protection and waiting shelter at Baiyeku, Ikorodu LG, Fadipe/Salami/Eyiowuawi/Odubanjo streets in Shomolu LGA, Alhaji Akinwunmi Street, Mushin LGA and Adagun-Imeke-Iworo-Ajido-Epeme Road, Badagry LGA. On February 4, 2020, Sanwo-Olu expanded the LAGFERRY services and commissioned eight new ferries to take advantage of Lagos’ waters.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC WHICH JOLTED EVERYONE, THE STATE IS FOCUSED ON ACHIEVING JUST ONE THING – GREATNESS

With these moves, commuters will easily access by water, areas like Ikorodu, Ajah, Ikoyi, Badagry and Mile 2. This will complement the usually chaotic Lagos roads. Furthermore, knowing the pivotal role played by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) in the state, the governor said that allowances of officials of the agency were boosted by 100 per cent while it also recruited 1,017 officers.

To cater for healthcare, the government has commissioned two Mother and Child Centers (MCCs) at Eti-Osa and Igando and the governor said that: “In the next couple of weeks, the Badagry and Epe MCCs will also be ready for public use.� Sanwo-Olu also noted that within its first 200 days as governor, the government, in collaboration with “BOSKOH Health Mission International and the Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation, delivered diverse free medical interventions to over 250,000 Lagosians across several locations in the State.�

Understanding that education is the bedrock of society, the state invested in school buildings and Sanwo-Olu listed school projects that are ready for commissioning to include: “18 Classroom Blocks at Muslim Junior College, Egbe, 18 Classroom Blocks at Maya Secondary School, Ikorodu, 18 Classroom Blocks at Eva Adelaja Junior Secondary School, Bariga, Block of 20 Classrooms at Bashua Military School Primary School, Shomolu, 13 Classrooms at Saviour Primary School, Ifako-Ijaiye LGA, Block of 20 Classrooms at Ayanleye Memorial Primary School, Ifako-Ijaiye LGA and Block of 6 Classrooms at Ansar Ur Deen, Ibonwon, Epe.�

And knowing the impact of technology in today’s world, Sanwo-Olu disclosed that over 3,000 primary school teachers in the state have been taught how to deploy technology in teaching via the EKO EXCEL training initiative. Surely, this move will be impactful on the children.

The state also set up the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC), with start-up funds in excess of $600,000. This investment is poised to transform Lagos to an urban technology hub, driving creativity, innovation and commerce and attracting domestic and foreign investment.

And in a move to further open up and decongest the Apapa and Tin Can Ports, the government signed a $629m financing facility to complete the Lekki Deep Seaport project. “When that project is completed,� Sanwo-Olu stated, “Lagos will have one of the most modern and capable Ports not just in Africa but in the world.� The gains of that move cannot be overstated.

In regards to providing shelter, the governor declared that four housing projects are ready for commissioning. They are: LagosHoms, Igbogbo Scheme with 360 home units comprising 120 1-bedroom, 120 2-bedroom and 120 3-bedroom apartments; Lagos State Affordable Public Housing Scheme, Topo, Badagry with 252 2-bedroom apartments; Courtland Villas, Behind Alhaji Femi Okunnu Estate, Igbohushu, Lekki with 120 units of 4-bedroom Maisonettes and BQs; and Lekki Apartments, Ikate-Elegushi, Lekki. And on January 30, 2020, the administration handed over apartment keys to 492 beneficiaries in its maiden rent-to-own housing scheme at the Lateef Kayode Jakande Housing Estate, Igando. “More housing schemes will be delivered in the coming months,�

Sanwo-Olu said.

FAREWELL RAUFUYUSUF Ă”Ă“ĂŒĂ™Ă–Ă‹ Ă–Ă‹ĂŁĂ“Ă˜Ă•Ă‹ Ă‹ĂŁĂ? ĂœĂ“ĂŒĂ&#x;ĂžĂ? Ă™ ÙÙÎ Ă‹Ă˜Ëœ Raufu Yusuf “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away; and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earthâ€? – Acts 8 verse 33. e died unsung, unloved, unmourned. It matters little if this tribute was not written and there is a remote possibility that any of his relations will ever come across this article. It has taken months of vacillation to approach the keyboard and bow to daily memories of a friend, beyond a friend, indeed a benefactor who played his role in my upbringing without waiting to profit from his action. He was God-sent.

Inalende Ibadan was a crucible of a sort in mid-seventies with mud houses clustered window to window. The panoramic view accommodated Ode-Olo, a typical Ibadan market servicing the local community. It was a natural atmosphere for peer gathering especially for young boys and girls mostly living with parents and guardians to develop into birds of the same feathers and soul mates.

That was the setup when I arrived Ibadan to commence work in Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) where I was employed as a result of my Uncle’s influence as a cleaner. For me it was a sudden transformation into a white-collar status after I have lived on the street for years eventually becoming a jack of all trade. Bricklaying, log ferrying, pushy carting, baking, hawking various stuff and endless odd jobs found their ways into my profile of painful growth.

I was living with my Uncle and his family, sharing his modest accommodation and Alhaji Yusuf, Raufu’s father was our landlord. Alhaji as we all called him, made his fortune as a contractor in Bida Niger State.

H

He was a man of mean, tough mien and grit visage who came to Ibadan during Muslim festivities. Alhaji was also the eldest amongst his siblings who had their houses contiguous to his, probably as a result of common ownership of the land. This explained why his nephews and nieces milled around our house especially in the evenings to exchange jokes and played under the moon light. His former wife had four children for him, namely, Bisi the eldest, Raufu, Sule and the youngest, a girl I cannot now recollect her name. Alhaji married another woman and the family moved on without much fuss.

However, tragedy found its way into the calendar of every member of Alhaji’s family. Such painful tragedies that made the community to shudder.

While he was held in high regard and respect by the community, everyone could see pains etched double marks on his face. He spoke with belligerence and rarely smiled, this countenance could be of nothing but sorrow of heart from life’s vicissitudes. Beside the modest house, the reward of his diligence in business was seen in a four-story modern building on the main road which brighten the sky even till today. The size and quality of the finishing of the edifice attracted corporate tenants who raised the profile of the building. But the sheer magnitude of serial tragedies visited on the family dwarfed his achievements.

In due time, Bisi the eldest got married to her heartthrob with plumb and pageantry and settled down with a good job to butt. Along the line some marital issues plucked her out of the peace of her home and she returned to her father’s house. While the entire compound was awaiting the resolution of quarrel with the husband, she started manifesting signs of insanity. Unfortunately with the mother

banished from Alhaji’s house, there was little care from relations for her mental problem. With time her case degenerated into full madness and she left home for the streets, scavenging for survival with no help in sight. She had harrowing experience and went on this journey without return while those who knew her regaled with tales of sorrow about Bisi living as a mad woman. The last I heard was that she was presumed dead after no one could trace her whereabouts in a long time. May she find peace and rest in the bosom of her Maker.

Sule went on to complete his secondary education and eventually learnt electrical/electronic trade.

Armed with his certificate, he relocated to Abuja and started a family with decent earnings. Such a lovely gentleman and complete contrast to his father, I recall our social escapades and occasional Fuji dance in Alhaji’s parlour. Very sad, Sule succumbed to a sudden but premature death and left a young family and blossoming career.

The youngest of their mother’s siblings, a girl went blind as a teenager and your guess is as good as mine on how far she can make progress in life.

She became by default a gory sight and caricature, which triggered endless emotion each time she was led around the compound. How the two eyes went blind remained an unresolved mystery to everyone.

Lord have mercy!

And now to the man in focus, RAUFU a.k.a.

AJAGA. Except for a light pigment in complexion, he was every bit a chip off the old block as his father was written all over him. Energetic, brash, loud and self-conceited, he had a swagger around him and springboard on his steps as he moved about without any apology. When Raufu was in the house, both young and old must be conscious of his presence. He

held no prisoner and his personal interests became law, overriding other considerations. A few mundane things held his attraction such as reveling over Lam Adesina (former governor of Oyo State, now late), his principal at Lagelu Grammar School. For him, Lam as he was fondly eulogized could have emanated from another planet and it suited him nobody challenged his judgment. He was also fond of the iconic Apala musician, late Ayinla Omowura, egun magaji and the ‘lord’ of motor parks. His concentration, singing and dancing to Omowura was legendary and woe betide anyone who disturbed his pleasure. Another interest was his uncanny love for the military and his preference for force. This story was a few years before democracy returned to Nigeria in 1979. A handful of us who admired him were hoping he would pursue his military love by enlisting in the army and settle down to a career.

His only place of regular visit was Sabo in Mokola where he fraternized with the Hausa community; the squint in his eyes hinted if he had a choice, he would have come into this world as a Fulani or Hausa man. Only Lukman and yours truly were in his kitchen cabinet and he would calm down when provoked at our intervention. And then came my big break. A management staff in my office who has always been a source of encouragement bought Wesley College form for my academic progress. I passed the entrance exams and interviews and got admitted to train as a Grade 2 Teacher. The story of that academic journey is better told on another day.

There was a tradition of scrambling for the GCE O Level form in the second year in order to obtain qualification for university admission.

Olayinka, a former chief executive of a public company, wrote from Lagos

15

T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2020

EDITORIAL DOCTORS’ STRIKE AMID COVID-19 Doctors should consider the interest of their patients

T

he frequent face-off between health workers and the federal government has not only left an indelible stain on the image of the public health care system in Nigeria, it has also brought untold hardship to many Nigerians. On Monday, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) began another indefinite strike to press home their demand for better welfare. This is despite the fact that Nigeria is currently in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic that keeps claiming lives. We consider this development to be very unfortunate even as we call on the federal government to move in quickly to resolve whatever the issues are.

Healthcare delivery is critical to the well-being of any society. Yet if the authorities in Nigeria understand this, they have not demonstrated it given the manner in which they have over the years dealt with this issue.

To be clear, resident doctors are demanding that the federal government provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all healthcare workers attending to COVID-19 patients and patients with other ailments; immediate reversal of the disengagement of all 26 resident doctors in Jos INCESSANT STRIKES University Teaching ARE HUGELY INIMICAL Hospital and payTO THE HEALTH OF THE ment of all salaries ECONOMY AND, IN MANY owed medical doctors WAYS, DISRUPTIVE OF THE in the country. They are also asking that SOCIAL ORDER the federal government should include universal implementation of the Medical Residency Training Act in all public hospitals; ensure pay parity among doctors of equal cadre; implement the revised hazard allowance and payment of the COVID-19 inducement allowance as agreed with by the government and healthcare workers three months ago. They also want the federal government to provide funding for Medical Residency Training in the 2021 Appropriation Bill and pay all arrears owed its

members in federal and states tertiary health institutions arising from the consequential adjustment of the national minimum wage.

T

T H I S DAY EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI DEPUTY EDITOR YEMI AJAYI, DAVIDSON IRIEKPEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS PATRICK EIMIUHI, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO HEAD, COMPUTER DEPARTMENT PATRICIA UBAKA-ADEKOYA

hese are legitimate demands that should compel action, especially at a time like this.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), for every qualified COVID-19 doctors unable to treat patients, not less than 600 patients will be affected. This no doubt will play out when doctors treating COVID-19 patients down their tools, a luxury we cannot afford. While the federal government has said the strike amounts to insensitivity, the demands outlined by the doctors do not appear unreasonable.

They should be urgently looked into so that the doctors can go back to work.

Already, patients requiring healthcare in most government hospitals across the country are being turned back as doctors are not on ground to attend to them. Many who may require emergency services and without enough funds to seek healthcare in private hospitals could unfortunately lose their lives. Should this strike persist for the next two weeks, and doctors attending to COVID-19 patients join their colleagues, it would mean the fight against the pandemic would suffer. The federal government must therefore find a way to put an end to incessant strikes that take heavy toll on human lives.

Notwithstanding a federal government that has proved incapable of keeping to agreements, we can only appeal to the doctors to consider the interest of their suffering patients. After all, their Hippocratic Oath obligates them to save the several lives that are now being lost due to the prevailing dispute. But the time has also come for the government to overhaul its collective bargaining machinery with a view to ensuring effective implementation of agreements it freely entered. Incessant strikes are hugely inimical to the health of the economy and, in many ways, disruptive of the social order. There is an urgent need to stem this ugly trend.

TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

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

Letters to the Editor

BUNI: Trending Figure Across Yobe

A

cross Yobe’s major towns and urban centers, people often watch helplessly as their streets – and neighbourhoods – regularly sink under flood waters during the rainy season. For many, the rainy season is, therefore, paradoxically a tipping point between the prospects and joys of a return to the farms and the spectre of inconvenience and even health challenges caused by flooded streets.

For the people of Buni-Yadi, Babbangida, Damagum, and Jajimaji towns in Gujba, Tarmuwa, Fune, and Karasuwa local government areas of the state respectively, however, the story could be – or perhaps has to be – different this time around.

It is all thanks to a township renewal and development programme currently being executed by the Buni administration. Within his first year in office, Governor Mai Mala Buni, teaming up with the respective local government councils, has ensured that these four major towns are kitted with new roads and concrete drains. On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, the governor commissioned roads and drains in Damagum and Jajimaji towns.

As a government of ‘continuity and consolidation’, the Buni administration is effectively poised to ‘innovate’ to effect. It is a concept that syncs – and builds – on the robust road development programme of the immediate past Gaidam administration. This was a decade-long programme in which the towns of Damaturu, Potiskum, Gaidam, Gashu’a, and Nguru, amongst others, had seen their fortunes improve with billions of naira in road and drainage investments.

These are investments that have paid – and will continue to pay – in full. When people can move freely and conduct their businesses easily, it redounds to their capacity to be more productive. The roads and drainage lines in Yobe’s major towns also have a direct impact on people’s health because they potentially reduce the prospect of flooded waters becoming the breeding locales for mosquitos and other disease-causing parasites.

But steadily changing the face of Yobe’s urban centers is not the only plank of Governor Buni’s road development initiative. As the governor commissions the township roads in Damagum on Tuesday, for example, he will also flag-off the construction of Damagum-Gubana road on the same day and, on Wednesday, Nguru-Balanguwa road.

These are key agriculture-enhancing projects. Both of them will connect communities that are already connected culturally but that are literally separated by terrains that are difficult to navigate.

The Damagum-Gubana and the Nguru-Balanguwa road projects will bind the transformative extension of the road development revolution that was underway in Yobe over the last decade. In the coming weeks and months, the Buni administration will also commence the construction of the Gujba-Ngalda road, a major project that would be a game-changer for the agricultural communities that straddle the vast swathe of land along the project’s trajectory.

All of these fit together in Governor Buni’s overarching development strategy, a strategy that says to develop Yobe State, you have to re-engineer and retrofit its education and agriculture sectors. To make both work for the people and become sustainable over the long haul,

you have to provide a modern road infrastructure as a necessary next step because roads are signifiers of mobility, not just of people but of economies as well.

And although the nation’s economy is teetering under the weight of global oil shutdowns and coronavirus lockdowns – and an ensuing global economic recession seems poised to make matters a little more dismal, Governor Buni’s projects and programmes over the course of his first year in office show that Yobe is set in the direction of progress.

It is true that there could be difficult days ahead if the economy does not rebound quickly, and a rebound will have to come with many costs and difficult choices. But even with the meagre resources at the disposal of government, I am confident that a future of hope and possibility is within Yobe’s grasp.

A future of hope and possibility – as always – has to be a shared mission between the government and the people. To paraphrase Dr King, socio-economic development is not – and will never be – an either/or proposition. It is a both/and proposition. It takes both the government and the people, working together, to bring about change. It takes both the government and the people, working together, to bring about peace and progress.

With the people’s support, as demonstrated during the course of the war against Boko Haram insurgency, the Buni administration will fulfil its mission and Yobe will go farther along over the next three years and, certainly, over the next seven and beyond.

Abdullahi Bego, Commissioner of Home Affairs, Information and Culture, Yobe State

T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020

16

POLITICS

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

Insecurity Challenges in Nigeria and the 9TH Senate Wale Bakare, Special assistant to the Senate President on Electronic and Broadcast Media commends the efforts of the Dr. Ahmad Lawan-led Senate at tackling the wide range of security challenges in the country

I

nsecurity in Nigeria has recently assumed an alarming rate affecting every facet of Nigerian life with no end in sight. Successive government have had to battle with one form of insecurity or the other which continues to claim the lives of children, women and men especially, and has led to the mass displacement of people from their ancestral lands within the rural communities. With these recent attacks, it is evident that the current security architecture has not achieved its desired aim of putting an end or curbing to its barest minimum – kidnapping, communal clashes and banditry.

The main point of departure is the way the social menace is managed.

Unarguably, insecurity has heightened leading to severe unimaginable social consequences which has further blighted the socio-economic pursuit of an average Nigerian. This implies that threat to human life does not only emanate from situation of violent conflicts such as Boko Haram or Fulani herdsmen activities but also from other non-conflict sources. These security challenges are not peculiar to a particular region, it cuts across the six geopolitical zones, but more particularly in the North-East, North Central and South-South. Residents in these regions now sleep with one eye open while government grapples with the best possible solutions to protect lives and properties of every Nigerian as guaranteed in the constitution.

In his inaugural speech at the inception of the 9th Senate, the Chairman of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan had expressed his growing concerns about the current security situation in the country. He pledged to work closely with his colleagues in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and with the other arms of government through collaborations and a robust legislation to end rural and highway banditry; interethnic conflicts; herdsmen and farmer conflicts, cattle rustling; kidnapping and all other forms of criminality in the country. On the 29th of January 2020, the Senate moved to restructure, review and organize the current security architecture by setting up an ad hoc committee to engage security agencies to assess the insecurity level in the country. The report of the committee chaired by the Senate Leader, Dr. Yahaya Abdullahi has since been submitted to the Senate and the recommendations is expected to be adopted by the executive arm of government.

On the 17th of May, 2020 17 people were reportedly killed in Gajiagan, Magimeri local government and another thirty-three lives were lost in a similar attack in Nganzai local government in Borno State. More recently, a total of Ninety deaths were recorded in Foduma Kolum village of Gubio local government of Borno State. The activities of Boko Haram insurgents and bandits in parts of the country has necessitated the need to implement the various reports of the Senate ad hoc committees set up on the rising security challenges in Nigeria. Part of the resolution reached on Thursday, 11th June at the red chamber was the urgent need to beef up and deploy personnel and equipment in and around the Lake chad shores as well as a joint meeting with Mr. President of the heads of the red and green chambers.

In reiterating his commitment towards ending the security challenges

currently being faced, Dr Ahmad Lawan, at a press briefing prior to Senate’s resumption from its six-weekrecess sought restructuring of the security apparatus in the fight against insecurity in the country. Lawan noted

that the entire security architecture should be restructured as the present system did not appear to give Nigeria the type of outcome that was needed.

“Whether it is the federal, state or local government; even the traditional rulers

As Diri Takes Bayelsa on a Journey to Prosperity Ifeanyi Oduah, a public affairs analyst notes a couple of the game changing initiatives by Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State

W

hen the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri took over the mantle of leadership on the 14th of February, 2020, he was received with mixed feelings and fumes on faces of many Bayelsans, because of the political events which heralded what many described as a divine emergence which earned him the appellation, “miracle governor”.

Coming from a relatively small community of Sampou, in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area at the bank of River Nun in the Niger Delta. Governor Diri’s story can be likened to the biblical Nazareth where people wondered if anything good could come out of the small community of Nazereth.

Eventually, like Jesus Christ who came to change the narrative of Nazereth his birth place with prophetic fulfilment of his divine mandate; Douye Diri’s emergence as governor of the State. The miracle governor who has indeed changed the narrative of Sampou community has set a new tone for the sustainable development of the State.

Besides evolving a new frame of mind to enthrone all inclusive government regardless of political affiliation, for the building of a secured and prosperous State; governor Douye Diri has made it loud and clear to whoever cares to listen that he has a covenant with God and the people over the task of steering the State to the path of prosperity.

Armed with the cardinal objective of governance in line with his electoral mandate; governor Douye Diri believes in the long tested postulations of great philosophers from Plato, Aristotle and John Locke to contemporary thinkers like John Dewey and Harold Laski, that the business of statecraft is all about placing premium on security, welfare and survival of its citizens.

Unlike the average politicians in this part of the world where political rhetorics is a

common denominator, governor Douye Diri had said it time without number that he would not play politics the development agenda he has set for himself and for the people of Bayelsa State.

To this end, he promptly inaugurated the twin council of Bayelsa Security Council and the Community Policing Council to squarely address the security challenges in the State with a conviction that no meaningful development can take place in an atmosphere of insecurity.

The twin Security Councils are unique Security architecture in response to contemporary clarion call for home grown system rooted in grassroots galvanisation.

On the issue of welfare, workers and retires in the State are recounting the blessings of the administration because of the importance the governor places on them.

It is no overstatement that in the past ten years, retires have not fared well. They have suffered one neglect or the other in terms of delay in payment of monthly pensions to that of outright non-payment of gratuity.

This has led to untimely death of some of them arising from frustrations. According to one Ebisuobo Maclean, a retiree; “I went to the bank to receive my monthly pension in May as early as 25th of March.

After collecting the pension, the cashier drew my attention to my account balance of N2 million. On hearing the amount I told the accounts officer that they should return the money to whoever that mistakenly paid it to my account. The accounts officer insisted that it was my gratuity paid by governor Douye Diri administration. I couldn’t believe it, that a gratuity which successive administrations have forgotten to pay me and Governor Diri paid within his three months in office” NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

or others, the most important thing is to secure the lives and property of Nigerians and we will do that. The legislature and the executive must be forthright in the fight against insecurity in the country as there are so many happenings destabilizing communities across the country”. He said.

Speaking further, the Senate President stated that “the system is not working effectively and efficiently as it should” and as elected officials, they owe Nigerians the responsibility to intervene, to work with the other tiers of government, to ensure a quick change in the way and manner security issues are being approached the country.

Similarly, in a bid to further address the security challenges, the Senate identified that one of the local root causes of conflicts and social unrest is the diffusion of illegal arms and weapons in the wrong hands and subsequently moved to establish the National Commission against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light weapons. This Bill, presently in its second reading has been referred to the Committee on National Security and Intelligence for further legislative input. In less than a year, the 9th Senate has interfaced with head of security agencies through its standing committees to understudy the challenges they face and propose the best possible ways the Senate can assist them with interventions and legislations to tackle these challenges. These bold steps taken through constant collaboration and engagement with the executive arm has ensured that the working budgets of security agencies like the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police Force are adequately reviewed and new provisions were made in the 2020 Budget to allocate more funding to address the existential issues of underfunding. This will enable the security agencies to recruit and train more personnel, acquire state-of-theart machineries and equipment to effectively discharge their duties.

As it stands, the upper chamber has passed quite a number of peopleoriented bills and the Senate is set to begin the presentation of reports on oversight of the executive arm during the plenary session in order to improve the oversight function being carried out by the various legislative committees. The Ahmad-Lawan led Senate is determined to ensure that only bills that directly impact on the lives and improve the living condition of the people are given a top priority in the 9th Senate. An environment with a volatile security challenges cannot attract the right kind of business investment needed to drive an economic growth hub that Nigeria currently desires; this is why the Senate President has urged the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, implement the recommendations contained in the report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Nigeria Security challenges. Recall also, that an overwhelming majority of the Senators had earlier called on the Presidency to declare a national emergency on security, this, they reckon will enable the government tackle the root cause of insecurity and impose policies geared towards ensuring lasting solutions.

In the coming weeks, the Senate is expected to continue to build on the solid foundation laid thus far, by carrying out more security sector reforms and supporting the executive in promoting democratic norms and the principle of good governance.

T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020

17

PERSPECTIVE VIEW FROM

AMERICA

chido@usafricaonline.com@Chido247

Do African Lives Really Matter?

Chido Nwangwu, Founder and Publisher of USAfrica highlights the lessons from the horrendous genocide in Rwanda over two decades ago

T

his week, 26 years ago, will remain another collective memorial of the 1994 Rwanda genocide by the same country’s Hutu zealots who viciously set upon Rwanda’s 1 million Tutsis for the most brutal decimation of an ethnic group within 100 hours.

Do African lives matter, enough?

On Wednesday April 7, 2004, Rwandan President Paul Kagame underlined his country’s catastrophe by telling the world “Rwanda should be a good example to learn a lesson.”

The first, key lesson of the Rwanda Hutu-imposed genocide is that we have all seen the face of evil; sometimes, they reside among us. The Rwanda genocide was the zone where next door neighbors and teenagers used knives and machettes and dane guns and assault rifles to kill those they played soccer with and fetched water from the same stream only a few hours earlier. Hutus set Tutsi houses on fire to destroy the lives of those who sang and played at the churches and village squares.

The slaughter of women and children and all moving objects with any and all available weapons marked a new low in the depravity of malice and prejudice.

The Rwandans have been for decades almost 92% Christians (57% Catholic).

There are almost 14 million Rwandans.

Demographically, the Hutus (Bantu) form 84% of the population while the endangered Tutsis (Hamitic) constitute only 13%. There are the Twas (Pygmy) who form 1.4% A third lesson of the domestic slaughter in 1994 in Rwanda is the highlight of the wider bloody history of annual violent bigotry inside Africa by Africans, what I call Africans-on- Africans- violence. They remind me of an interview the Voice of America (VOA) international service on September 11, 2002 where I said that: “The armies of bigotry, and murderous hatefulness have left a very severe and deadly impact on Africa.” Those armies, to be sure, are both external and local.

Which leads to the second lesson; coming as two questions: when will the blame everything on the “white manwhite person” and “colonialists and colonialism” end?

When will millions of Africans think beyond the instinct to hold external factors entirely responsible for the continent’s problems?

I must note, frankly, that for all the divide and conquer and arbitrary mapping and lumping of dissimilar ethnic nationalities into awkward countries,

for all the despoliation and degradation and exploitation of our African continent, “White people” did not compel the Hutus to express such primitive, medieval hateful, mechanized malice against their compatriots, the Tutsis.

Third, reflecting on the crises of 1994, Gen. Romeo Dallaire, the UN Commander whose call for reinforcements was ignored said recently: “The international community didn’t give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance.” Bill Clinton was the President of the United States at the time.

The fourth lesson of the Rwanda genocide is the fact it, again, revealed the nakedness of one of the dirty secrets of African leaderships over the past 60 years: the weak-kneed clause of “non-interference” into the “sovereign” issues in other “member states” of the defunct organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union. They strive to protect their priviledged ponds of opulence and umbrellas of dictatorship and autocracy.

It is important to note that long before 1994 Rwanda, it is to the eternal credit of the late, great sage and President of Tanzania, Dr. Julius Nyerere that he tore the veil off the tawdry noninterference/ sovereignty in the face of human catastrophe when he interfered progressively against Nigeria’s starvation policies against then Biafrans (Igbos, Ibibios, Annangs, Efiks, and 13 million other South eastern Nigerians during their 1967-1970 war for survival and independence from the rest of Nigeria).

After Biafra, Nyerere stood up against the dictator Idi Amin of Uganda in 1979, forcing Amin’s regime to fall.

The fifth lesson derives from another question: long before and 15 years after the bloody genocide in Rwanda, millions of people still wonder when the looters and dealers masquerading as African leaders will be responsive and sensitive to providing the basic, fundamental justification for the creation of these countries/nations/ states?

Why are Africans and other parts of the world held in some of these corrupt cages, sorry countries, by very corrupt leaders?

Who would have believed that for all his sanctimonious animations, holierthan- thou dramatics and posturing as Nigeria’s morality high-priest, retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the country’s two-time president may have soiled his hands in the Halliburton indecent monetary transaction?

The sixth lesson demands that the problems are not 100% local. Political economy fact is that the Western world and colonialist Europe, especially, have some responsibility for sowing the festering seeds to some of these problems by cobbling ethnic nations arbitrarily.

Some of the countries have been hampered through neocolonialist financial structures and wealth transfers, predatory actions which fuel their collapse as another of bankrupt African economies and geo-politically failed states.

The seventh lesson is that humankind overcomes evil, over time. Today, Rwandans are healing and rebuilding their infrastructure but the question remains. When will Africans, their leaders and all of the world’s leaders aggressively defend the lives of all people as a stand for the common thread of our shared humanity?

On Revised Conditions of Service for NASS Bureaucracy Ayuba Ahmed, a Kaduna Based Public Analyst draws attention to the unsettling situation among staff of the National Assembly

T

he Nigerian parliament, the National Assembly, NASS, is once again in the news for the bad reasons. The gusto this time, is the one being generated by feuding factions of the legislature’s workforce along the divides of those in support and those against the revised condition of service for staff.

The controversial piece of amendment, was passed in the wee hours of the lifespan of the 8th National Assembly by unanimous votes of the two chambers and has since been gazetted and effective from May, 2019. The essential grain of the revised conditions of service is the increase in the retirement age of NASS workers from sixty years to sixty five years and forty, instead of thirty five years in service.

Four of the thirteen-member officials of the NASS branch of the Parliamentary Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PASSAN, have been in the lead of those up in arms against the new condition of service. There is also, the ubiquitous, faceless group with the telling name of, “Next Level Due Process Group”.

Members of the shadowy group give the impression of backing from Aso Rock Villa.

The two groups have been making a flurry of press statements and writing of petitions to the presidency, the leadership of the NASS, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and, lately, the newly inaugurated National Assembly Service Commission, NASC, among sundry other institutions.

Their main grouse against the revised condition of service include the allegation that, the five year increment to the workers years of retirement, “was smuggled through the back door” into the original body of proposals made to the then NASC, by majority of the workers’ representatives. In their view, architects of the surreptitious act were the Clerk to the National Assembly, CNA, Alhaji Muhammed Sani Omolori in cahoots with some members of his Management team, as well as, the leadership of the two Chambers of the 8th National Assembly.

Also advanced against the revised NASS workers conditions of service is the argument over its legality or constitutionality. According to its adversaries, the extension is not only a violation of the provisions in the public service sector, the “Bill” is as well, ultra vires, on account of its lacking a presidential assent that legalizes new laws or, amendments to all extant Acts of Parliament.

The Revised Conditions of service however, appears to be very popular with the vast majority of the over four thousand strong workforce of the National Assembly.

It has also been embraced, adopted and domesticated by the bureaucracies of most legislatures in states of the federation. While enthusiasm of the workers is obviously due to the fact that they are beneficiaries of the “largesse”, however, cogent and rational arguments have been canvassed in support of the reform.

In a letter to the Senate President and the Speaker, House of Representatives, the Forum of Concerned Staff of NASS and state Houses of Assembly warned against reversal of the new conditions of service. The group debunked the notion that the clause on the elongation of retirement years of service and age was smuggled into the review of service conditions was done via a bill that needed Presidential assent. Rather, “it was a motion ably and properly moved and passed by majority of votes on the floors of the two chambers.”

The Forum of Concerned Staff of the national Parliament also assailed the opinion that the clause “was smuggled through the backdoor: “It is a blatant falsification of the facts, mischief and treachery hatched by enemies of the workers and those motivated by their narrow and self-centered objective of getting at specific members of the present management by all means.”

Going beyond the veneer of the narratives from the two contending groups, it comes as

perplexing the reasons behind the sudden resurrection of an issue that was laid to rest more than a year ago and ideally, ought to have become a done deal? There are two or three explanations to it, the first being the legality or constitutionality of the legislators’ action. Were the legislators in the upper and lower chambers within their constitutional turf in tinkering with the Assembly’s conditions of service for its bureaucracy?

The answer is: to the extent that the revised conditions of service was delivered through a motion passed by the legislators and NOT, by way of a Bill, to that extent was the action legal and constitutional. No two ways about that.

Yes, in a democratic system that upholds the doctrine of separation of powers between the three arms of government, each of the arms however enjoys a high degree of latitude and autonomy to regulate its internal operational rules and guidelines without recourse to the other. While a law or an Act cannot be legal, without going through the constitutional process of passage by the legislature followed by a presidential assent, motions passed by the legislature do not have to go to the President for them to be authoritative and binding.

In looking at the issue in contention, we can draw from the Nigerian Judiciary which has increased the age of retirement for Judges and, the Executive’s action of extending the age of retirement for Professors. In the two instances, recourse was not made to the legislature essentially because, the two arms acted within their constitutional powers.

Why then the hues and cries about a similar decision of the law makers in a matter that is strictly internal?

Also germane to the debate should be a probing of the benefits or otherwise that the increase in the retirement years for legislative bureaucracy confers on the entire system.

Simply the one vital defining feature that differentiates representative democracy from autocracy or dictatorship of any form, the legislature is a unique institution that demands specialized training for its effective operation.

As it is, the Nigerian experience with that important aspect of democratic governance has not evolved and matured along with the judiciary and executive components due to the long years of military dictatorship in the nation’s political history.

The groups that hinge their position on the necessity for a presidential assent appear to consist of people suffering from the hangover of military despotism. They demonstrate a mindset of a command hierarchy of political authority where a Commander-in-Chief/ Head of State gives an order or decrees that are obeyed down the line by all arms, institutions and agencies of government. On the other hand, the posture of the groups insisting that they Executive or the Presidency has nothing to do with the conditions of service for workers in the Legislative Arm, is clearly, one that seeks to assert the universal doctrine of separation of powers, the independence and in fact, the superiority of the elected representatives of the people.

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

18

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

19

T H I S D AY ˾ JUNE 19, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OBB OVERNIGHT

A S

A T

REPO 8.83 % 9.83 %

CALL 1-MONTH 3-MONTH

8.50 % 8.5 % 20 %

J U N E

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

1 1 , 2 0 2 0

S & P INDEX INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY MONTH-TO-DATE

518.85 % -0.62 % 0.18 %

S & P INDEX 1/4 TO DATE 11.42 % YEAR TO DATE 7.83 %

EXCHANGE RATE N361/1US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes AIB Partners NAF

STOCK-TAKING

L-R: Managing Director/ CEO, Development Bank Nigeria (DBN), Tony Okpanachi; Chairman, Dr. Shehu Yahaya; Non-Executive Director, Uche Orji, and Company Secretary, Shofola Osho at DBN’s third Annual General Meeting held in Abuja…recently

Domestic Airlines Yet to Meet Requirements for Flight Resumption Chinedu Eze There are strong indications that the June 21, 2020 date slated for resumption of domestic flights may not be feasible as none of the local carriers has met the conditions given to them by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Also the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) it was gathered, was yet to meet the requirements as stipulated

by NCAA to get the airports ready for flight operations.

This was disclosed by the NCAA during a web meeting with industry stakeholders recently.

The checklist includes airworthiness of operational aircraft, currency of airline flight crew, readiness of the airlines to abide by COVID-19 preventive protocols, essential preventive gears and training of

AVIATION airline personnel on handling of passengers to protect them and other conditions.

THISDAY learnt that almost all the airlines that are interested in resuming flight operations have submitted their documentation to the regulatory authority and some of them have met some of the condition, but NCAA was yet to get back to the airlines.

An official of NCAA told THISDAY that the agency has been working with the airlines and FAAN, prompting them to strive and meet the checklist.

“If they don’t meet the given date for resumption we may shift it because the date is not sacrosanct; although one or two of the airlines might be ready before then and anyone that is ready we work with.

“FAAN has not met the checklist. We are looking at improvement of airport facilities and the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 is working with us and monitoring what we are doing,” the NCAA official said.

The Director of Flight Operations, Air Peace, Captain Victor Egonu, told THISDAY that airlines might not be the cause of the delays because FAAN wasn’t ready with the airports.

He said Air Peace submitted all the requirements on May 22 and had been waiting for feedback from NCAA, noting that it is when the airline gets feedback from the regulatory authority it would then know the next action to take.

“We are yet to get feedback from NCAA but our understanding is that even the airports are yet to meet the requirements.

The airport authority staff and

Port Health are yet to procure Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

“I think that will also cause the delay. Recently Air Peace procured equipment from China; it was not flown, it was shipped and it was delivered about three weeks ago. We expect that the agencies could have done the same since commercial flights stopped on March 23, 2020 “So, to say the airlines are yet to meet the requirements may not be the correct representation because the airports are not also ready.

“We have submitted everything, including procedures. We are in the dark now because we don’t know whether our application has been accepted.

I am also aware that they are very busy, to be fair to them at NCAA, but the ball is in the court of the authorities,” Captain Egonu said.

Seafarers Lament Marginalisation by LNG, Foreign Shipping Companies Eromosele Abiodun Seafarers in the country have decried what they described as marginalisation by the Nigeria LNG Limited and foreign ship owners in preference for their counterpart in other countries with less qualification.

This, they said, was despite the massive investment in seafarers’ manpower development by the federal government championed by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

According to them, the discrimination, which is allegedly common among foreign companies has become evident in Nigeria with several indigenous companies including the Nigeria LNG

MARITIME Limited (NLNG), a liquefied natural gas (LNG) producing company with the Nigerian government as a shareholder.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, a Seafarer, Daniel Ikueyemi, posited that the poor feedback mechanism at NIMASA has deprived the agency of the true impact of the investment in seafarers’ development.

Speaking during an interview on a television programme monitored in Lagos, Ikueyemi lamented that most seafarers trained under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) are on the verge of having their Certificates of Competence (CoC) expire,

“yet many have no resources to renew it because they never had an opportunity of going on board vessels even for a single day.”

“NLNG rejects seafarers with Nigerian CoCs. NLNG is a company in which the nation has shares. If this certificate doesn’t have value in our country and organisations like NLNG reject it, there is no need talking about acceptability of this certificate around the globe.

There is no point wasting our time on that.”

Ikueyemi, proposed that NIMASA should create a seafarers’ desk at the agency with the objective of receiving valuable information and experiences of seafarers especially on practices onboard

vessels.

According to him, this can be an avenue to enable the agency resolve the numerous problems associated with seafaring, “as NIMASA would better capture seafarers’ experiences.

“NIMASA shouldn’t allow their resources waste away because that is what happens when the seafarers aren’t engaged. The duration of CoC is five years and it becomes useless if one doesn’t utilize it during that timeframe.

“Imagine the millions of dollars that has been spent on NSDP already. Nevertheless, NIMASA can’t give account of the number of cadets they have trained so far. A lot of people have left the system unnoticed,” he said.

TheAccidentInvestigationBureau,Nigeria(AIB)hascalledforacollaborative effortwiththeNigeriaAirForce(NAF)formutualsupportandbenefitsin theareasofcommoninterest.

TheCommissioner/CEOoftheBureau,AkinOlaterumadethecallatthe Bureau’sheadquarterinAbujarecentlyduringacourtesyvisitbytheAbuja InternationalAirportCommandant,GroupCapt.N.S.Hassan.

Olateru,expressedoptimismintheabilityoftheNigeriaAirForcetoworkin collaborationwiththeBureautosecurematerialevidencearoundaircraft crashsitesfrombeingtamperedwithduringairmishaps.Headdedthat tamperingwithmaterialevidenceinhibitsaccuracyoftheinvestigation.

The Commissioner also called on the Nigeria Air force to patronise the agency’sFlightSafetyLaboratory,equippedwiththestateoftheartfacilities andwell-trainedpersonnelforeffectivedownloadofmostCockpitVoice Recorders(CVR)andFlightDataRecorders(FDR)foundonmodernaircraft.

Olateru further stressed that the laboratory offers the Bureau cheaper andfasterconductofaccidentinvestigationofaircraftcrash,otherthan takingtheCVRandFDRabroadfordownload.

Inhisresponse,Hassan,thankedtheCommissionerandhistopmanagement teamforhavinghiminhisoffice.HeassuredtheagencyoftheNigeriaAir Force’ssupportandcollaborationinareasofcommoninterestsandmutual benefitsintheoneroustaskofensuringaviationsafetyandsecuritywhen theneedarises.

TheCommandant’svisitcameontheheelsoftherecentrelocationofthe Bureau’s corporate office to Abuja in line with government’s directive.

Mixta Scheme Subscribers Get Houses

Mixta Africa has announced that it has handed over the first unit of Beechwood Park estate to its owners. The homeowners, the company saidinastatement,arethefirstbeneficiariesoftheMixtaFlexpayment scheme,launchedinthe4thquarterof2019.

Thethreebedroomsemi-detachedbungalowunit,itstated,waspresented tothehomeownersinthepresenceoftheManagingDirector,MixtaNigeria, MrKolaAshiru-Balogun,ManagingDirector,CitycodeMortgageBank,Mr EbilateMac-Yoroki,andrepresentativesoftheFederalMortgageBank.

Speakingattheoccasion,Ashiru-Balogunsaid,“MixtaFlexisaconvenient paymentschemedevisedbyMixtatoeasetheburdenofhomeacquisition.

“Inthisregard,MixtaFlexoffersaconvenienthouseownershippayment schemeleveragingdynamicpaymentsolutionallowinghomeownersto make an initial 10 per cent down payment and pay the remaining 90 per centthroughmonthlydeductionsoveranextendedperiodoftime.“Mixta, throughitspartnershipwithselectprimarymortgageinstitutionsisthen abletofacilitatetheprocessingoftheNationalHousingFundloanswhich makes-upthebalanceof90percentpaymentoftheproperty.

“This marks a major milestone for us since the launch of Mixta Flex, we arepleasedtohandoverthefirstunitofmany.”

“Theapplicationprocesswasseamless,propertitledocumentationwas availableandcustomerservicewasprofessionalthroughouttheprocess.

They have really kept to their brand promise,” said Mr and Mrs Akpata, thehomeowners.

Alsospeaking,ManagingDirector,CitycodeMortgageBank,MrEbilate Mac-Yoroki said, “We are very impressed with what we have seen here today at Beechwood Park Estate and we are looking forward to having theestateatfullcapacitythroughmorebeneficiariesofourmortgage.”

Delta Adds 1,000 Flights

DeltaAirLineshasannouncedthatitwilladd1,000flightsinJulytoboost itsserviceandnon-stopconnectivitytopopularsummerdestinationsand majorbusinessmarkets.

The airline noted that as economies reopen and border restrictions are lifted,Deltawouldaddalmost1,000flightssystem-wideinJuly,boosting service and non-stop connectivity to popular summer destinations and majorbusinessmarkets.

Customerstravelingorconsideringtravelthissummercanfeelconfidentin asafeexperiencethroughoutthejourney,fromcheck-intobaggageclaim.

Deltahasimplementedseveralmeasurestoencourageextraspaceand providepeaceofmindattheairport,aswellascommittedtocappingcabin seating at 60 per cent in main cabin, 50 per cent in first class as well as blockingmiddleseatsthroughSeptember30,2020.

Pending a lift on border restrictions, Delta said it would resume service to customer favorite summer destinations – four-times weekly service fromNewYork-JFKtoLisbonanddailyservicefromJFKtoAthens.Deltais alsoexpandingitsfocusonhub-to-hubflyingtocoastalmarketsbyadding four-timesweeklyservicefromBostontoAmsterdamanddailyservice fromSeattletoAmsterdam.

“As much as government would encourage the operation and growth of all operators in the aviation industry, it would not condone actions that undermine government policies” Minister of Aviation,

Senator Hadi Sirika

20

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

21

22

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

23

T H I S D AY ˾ JUNE 19, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD

MARITIME

Winning War against Pirates Eromosele Abiodun writes on efforts by the country to reduce incessant attacks on ships by pirates

B

y the middle of last year when the Nigerian government announced the gradual deployment of the $195 million maritime security equipment it acquired to fight piracy and insecurity in the Niger delta, a not very cheery news broke about the increasing pirates attacks on Nigeria’s territorial waters.

Put simply, Nigeria was rated number one in pirates attack in the Gulf of Guinea by the International Maritime bureau (IMB).

The IMB is a specialised department of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The IMB’s responsibilities include in fighting crimes related to maritime trade and transportation, particularly piracy and commercial fraud, and in protecting the crews of ocean-going vessels.

IMB in a report said Nigeria led the table of pirate attacks with 21 recorded incidents between January and June 2019, as against 31 for the period of 2018, thereby beating Indonesia, which recorded 11 attacks, Venezuela six attacks and Peru with four attacks in six months. The IMB is part of ICC Commercial Crime Services whose other divisions include The Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau, The Financial Investigation Bureau.

According to the report, Gulf of Guinea saw 73 per cent of all kidnappings at sea, and 92 per cent of hostage takings. Pirates kidnapped 27 crewmembers in the first half of 2019 and 25 in the same period in 2018.

Also, two chemical tankers were hijacked, as well as a tug that was then used in another attack. Of the nine vessels fired upon, eight were off the coast of Nigeria. These attacks took place on average 65 nautical miles off the coast.

According to the report, the four locations contributed 55 per cent to the total 77 attacks reported in the period as against 75 per cent of 106 attacks reported in 2018.

IMB said pirates and sea robbers are often well armed, violent and have attacked, hijacked, robbed ships, kidnapped crew along far from the coasts, rivers, anchorages, ports and surrounding waters.

While six country namely: Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Venezuela featured on that pirate attack chart in 2018, Nigeria and three other countries with Peru coming in as a new entrant on the chart.

It added that all kind of weapons such as guns, knives and other dangerous material were deployed to carry out attacks on vessels, a development that led to some seafarers being injured and kidnapped.

The report read in part, “In the past, incidents reported up to about 170 Nautical Miles from the coast. In many past incidents pirates hijacked the vessels for several days and ransacked the vessels and stole part of the cargo usually gas oil.

“A number of crewmembers were also injured and kidnapped in these incidents.

Generally, all waters in and off Nigeria remain risky. Vessels are advised to be vigilant, as many incidents may have gone unreported.

Incident continues to rise substantially especially kidnapping of crews for ransom. Vessels are advised to take additional measures in the high-risk waters.

“Although, there was a reduction in the number of attacks in the African region, Nigeria still led the continent all through 2018 and first half of this year. In first six months of 2018, 39 bulk carriers were attacked as against 20 in 2019. For container vessels, nine were attacked in 2019 while six attacks were reported in 2018 as against crude oil tanker that reported 9 in 2018 and 12 in 2019.

“For Chemical tankers and offshore tug vessels, 30 and 3 vessels were reported in 2019 while 22 and 2 attacks were reported in 2019. Vessels carrying Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) had no reported cases in 2018, but had one of such vessels attacked in 2019.”

Reversing the Trend Following the IMB report, Nigeria stepped up its fight against pirates, a move that is

Jamoh yielding the desired results.

Two weeks ago, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) handed over 10 pirates arrested by the Nigerian Navy for prosecution.

The 10 pirates had on May 15 attacked and boarded a Chinese vessel, MV HAILUFANG II, off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire and directed it towards Nigerian waters. They were arrested by the Nigerian Navy, which dispatched a ship to intercept the vessel after it got an alert.

The prosecution of the pirates would be the first trial of bandits arrested in international waters under the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act signed into law in June last year by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The law made Nigeria the first in West and Central Africa to have a distinct antipiracy legislation.

Speaking at the occasion, the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh attributed the successful operation that led to the arrest of the pirates and rescue of the ship and its crew to collaboration between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy.

We have just witnessed the handover of pirates. This is as a result of the robust collaboration between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy. There has been a lot of synergy between NIMASA and the Navy with regard to the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Act

He said the agency would continue to work with relevant security agencies in order to achieve its goal of eradicating piracy and all forms of illegality on the Nigerian waters.

“We have just witnessed the hand-over of pirates. This is as a result of the robust collaboration between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy. There has been a lot of synergy between NIMASA and the Navy with regard to the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Act. “I also want to seize the opportunity to thank Mr. President for signing the anti-piracy law, which would facilitate sufficient prosecution of these pirates.”

Jamoh, who was represented by the agency’s Head of Legal Services, Mr. Victor Egejuru, assured stakeholders that with the anti-piracy law, there was ample legal framework to prosecute pirates and other perpetrators of maritime offences in the country to bring the menace to the barest minimum.

Commander of Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Beecroft, Commodore Ibrahim Shettima, who gave details of the naval operation, said the vessel had 18 crew members comprising Chinese, Ghanaians, and Ivorians.

Shettima said: “On interception of the vessel about 140nm south of Lagos Fairway Buoy, the pirates had refused to comply with the orders of the Navy ship, hence the Nigerian Navy had to conduct an opposed boarding of the vessel. All ship crew were safely rescued, while the 10 pirates were also arrested.”

He stressed the need for increased regional cooperation and information sharing, disclosing that the arrest of the pirates was due to a tip-off by the Beninoise Navy. Shettima warned criminal elements to stay away from Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea, saying the Navy has the capability to deal with such threats.

Jamoh has said the current management of NIMASA will focus on three main areas, namely, Maritime Security, Safety, and Shipping Development, in pursuit of a robust maritime domain for the country.

FG hand over Vessel In another plus for Nigeria, the federal government recently handed over a fishing vessel, ‘Marine 707,’suspected to be carrying out illegal activities in the Gulf of Guinea to the Ghanian authorities for further investigation and possible prosecution.

Nigeria also handed over 51 crew members, including 48 Ghanians and three South Korea nationals to the government of Ghana and Korea respectively.

The vessel which had authorisation to fish in Ghana and Benin waters, was arrested by the Nigerian Navy around Lagos waters.The Automatic Identification System (AIS) was switched off after being suspected to be used for piracy or being used as a mother ship to conduct piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

While speaking during the official hand-over of the Ghanaian-flagged vessel and the crew to the respective authorities, Jamoh said the partnership between the Navy and NIMASA, which is now hinged on intelligence, has put Nigeria on a pedestal of winning the war against piracy and other illegal acts at sea.

Jamoh who was represented by the agency’s Commander, Maritime Guard Command, Commodore Aniete Ibok disclosed that though preliminary investigations could not establish that the vessel and her crew were directly linked to piracy, he argued that the vessel still ran afoul of international laws for shutting down its Automatic Identification System (AIS) 36 times in the last six months, three of which were done in the Nigerian waters.

According to him “we are handing over this vessel to the Ghanaian authorities in the spirit of bilateral cooperation between both countries enjoy. We have done our preliminary investigations and we are yet to establish any concrete evidence against the vessel but again, we would not know what she would be doing whenever she turns off her AIS, which occurred 36 times without being logged in her record book in line with international protocols and three of these were in our domain. “However in the spirit of brotherhood that Ghana and Nigeria enjoys we are handing over the vessel to Ghana for further investigations.”

IMO Commends NIMASA Following the successes recorded by Nigeria, the specialised shipping regulatory agency of the United Nations, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), praised Nigeria’s effort to stem piracy in its waters and the Gulf of Guinea stressing that the country is sending a “strong and valuable message” to the global community.

The Secretary-General of the IMO, Kitack Lim, made this known in a letter addressed to the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh.

Lim said he was impressed by Nigeria’s efforts, “to address maritime security threats in the region,” adding that Jamoh’s “leadership and proactive response” to maritime security issues were laudable.

Jamoh had told the IMO Secretary-General at a previous virtual meeting following the arrest of some pirates by the Nigerian Navy, in partnership with NIMASA, that piracy in the region was being sustained by powerful foreign collaboration. He appealed for support from the international community to complement the steps being taken by Nigeria towards ridding the country’s waters of maritime crimes.

“I would also like to reiterate my congratulations to the Nigerian Navy on the successful capture and arrest of pirates from the fishing trawler Hailufeng II, and more recently on the rescue of the crewmembers of the containership Tommi Ritscher, ”Lim stated in the letter.

“Those actions, together with all the other initiatives you highlighted in our meeting, including progress with the Deep Blue Project, send a strong and valuable message to the international community with respect to the considerable efforts your Government is making to curb piracy and armed robbery against ships in the Gulf of Guinea,” he added.

The IMO Secretary-General reiterated the organisation’s readiness to assist NIMASA in the training of personnel and technical assistance, and also declared his willingness to talk to other member countries to assist in that respect.

He said IMO would help to deal with the issue of synergy in laws regarding piracy with other neighbouring countries.

24

T H I S D AY ˾ JUNE 19, 2020

BUSINESSWORLD

PERSPECTIVE

Innovation and Nigeria’s Downstream Petroleum Supply Challenges

Ugbebor

Toyin Afilaka

I

n a country where off grid power supply to homes through gas, diesel, and petrol generators accounts for as high as 20 gigawatts of total power, innovation is needed to provide convenience and highest delivery standard.

Bringing that innovation into the last mile of the downstream oil and gas supply chain is Zee Oil & Gas which is an outfit of Zee Innovative Development Limited.

The Lagos-based firm operates a permit by the Department of Petroleum Resources for the haulage of petroleum products and deploys monitoring devices across clients’ nodes - diesel tanks located in the premises of clients – to keep a tab on daily consumption and supply.

The company also tracks all its trucks in real-time as they move petroleum products from the depots to its clients. Clients which could be corporate or residential estates that own diesel storage tanks with capacity of 5000 liters and above can request for diesel supply and monitor oil usage from the convenience of bespoke app which the firms calls MobileZee. From this vantage point, it is easier to note short-supply by fraudulent suppliers.

Better still, it is easier to place order for fresh supplies to save the embarrassment of power outage in a country that is yet to make 24-hour electricity available to its teeming population.

Speaking about this innovation, Ekene Ugbebor, the Founder and Lead Innovator for Zee Oil & Gas explained, “tackling everyday challenges demands a new approach which technology provides, as a firm we are constantly in search of innovative ways to solve everyday challenges”.

“The technology deployed by our firm to monitor and gauge supply creates a loop where our clients can measure how diesel purchased to power their generators or businesses are being used. The advantages are huge.

“Among them are the assurance of highest delivery standard that nullifies the possibility of being underserved; in additions to that it provides the volume of diesel available in the clients storage tank in real time which can be accessed on the app from any in the world ”, Ugbebor added.

Across the Lekki-axis of Lagos alone, the oil and gas firm supplies diesel to close to one-third of the residential estates in the axis. The business case emerging from this strategic approach is akin to popular road-to-market tactic often deployed by firms entering new markets.

Carving out compelling competitive advantage, in a highly competitive market, will demand a strong positioning which could be had through roll out of new service or innovative product benefits.

The network of closely monitored tanks and on-demand fueling services via the smartphone avoid time-wasting trips to gas stations. This rising mastery of the petroleum downstream supply chain from depot to delivery in residential estates and corporate

offices emphasise the startup narrative in Africa’s largest market.

It sounds more like invoking the enterprise ingenuity behind Amazon’s services, among which are smart doorbells operated from smartphones.

Deeper internet penetration, standing presently at 65.1 per cent as a share of the overall Nigeria population, according to statistic portal, Statista, and the availability of more affordable smartphones in the tech market have combined to incentivise digital innovations that serve as core solutions to everyday challenges across industries.

The United Nations had said in 2017 that digital innovation is key to Africa’s economic renaissance. From agriculture to financial services, startups are adapting technology to matching the dynamics of everyday challenges. Precisely, for that reason, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Egypt, and Tunisia are fast turning into a breeding ground for inspiring digital innovation.

Apart from providing employments for a growing African youth population, the startups are providing the platform for the continent to keep pace with the EU, North America and Asia’s bourgeoning startup ecosystem.

Venture capital and philantgropic funds are pouring from every corner to support those startups ecosystem. For instance the French Development Agency’s (FDA) €65million fund aims to support African Union Agenda 2063 to eradicate the frustration encountered by young entrepreneurs striving to turn their ideas into worthwhile enterprise that could scale up to reasonable socioeconomic impact.

The opportunity to start, the incentive to continue, and the market to lap up every attempt to scale will push bright African youths into pursuing the African digital future. Considering the success of startups in California, Sweden, Qatar and Kenya, Nigerian young entrepreneurs will stop at nothing to come up with bold ideas to meet the needs of a section of the total 200 million population.

Ekene Ugbebor joins the rank of those young entrepreneurs seizing the new opportunity to deploy technological innovations in select sectors.

The founder of Zee Oil & Gas started his career at Guaranty Trust Bank IT division and later worked in FirstBank Nigeria IT department where he was a part of the IT Governance Team in those organizations.

That sectoral experience serves as the foundation of deeper insights into how to turnaround businesses and scale them to max their comparative advantage.

That experience is apt to drive the downstream sector out of a rut. Although global oil demand for 2020 was expected to hit 101.5 million barrel per day, according to the IEA’s Oil Market Report released last year, the pandemic and rising switch to solar energy to power homes are proving a challenge for players in the downstream sector.

As renewable energy, for instance solar panel, becomes more affordable households in major cities are making the trade-off. To a large extent, this is a welcome development for environmental activists.

But a section of the market still finds solar energy expensive and inefficient for private economy. According to Greenmatch, a UK watchdog for the energy industry, the form of energy is awaiting potential advancement in quantum physics and nonotechnology to fully take off. Such advancement will help the industry to scale to a point where it can truly penetrate the market further. For now though, solar panel firms such as Zola, Rubitec, and PSC are strategically exploring new pricing and product-tailoring strategy to reach the middle-and-low socioeconomic class.

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

Pedro: Transparent, Innovative Leaders Needed for Nigeria’s Transformation Dike Onwuamaeze

N

igeria needs a set of transformative, competent, visionary and transparent leaders who are willing to play according to the rules of wealth creation to revive the country.

This assertion was made by the former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Femi Pedro when he spoke about his new book: “The Formula for Wealth: My Thoughts on Wealth, Entrepreneurship and Leadership,” at a THISDAY Life Forum that held online.

Pedro said the rules of wealth creation demand disciplined savings and investments in a transparent and ethically-driven manner, to create wealth and avoid the illusion of money that has buried many talented people and resourceful nations in poverty trap.

He averred that Nigeria would witness significant economic turnaround that could usher in prosperity if the country would emulate the level of corporate governance that was observed in the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), when it was established.

“I can tell you today that anyone who can run a successful company over a long period of time and create real wealth can also run a country.

“Let me say this, and I am not boosting, in the years I spent in the GTB from 1990 to 1997, the bank performed very well and the reason for its exceptional success was that the leadership of the bank were transformative, competent, visionary and transparent.

“If Nigeria is governed the way we ran that bank in its first eight years Nigeria will transform. Trust me on this. So, there is a direct correlation between good leadership and good enterprise,” Pedro said.

He shared the opinion that Nigeria has been absolutely mismanaged because the country has not imbibed the culture and rules of wealth creation since, “the same reasons why people do not run businesses well are the same reasons the country is not growing.”

The former Lagos deputy governor also asked Nigerians to free themselves from money illusion and embrace wealth, which he described as income from one’s investment assets that could live from one generation to another.

His rule number one for wealth creation is that money is not wealth, but an illusion that diminishes in value while wealth is lasting and lives for many generations.

He also warned that money would disappear from those who lacked the knowledge of wealth creation.

He also averred that good education, intelligent and talent were not passports to wealth if one lacked the knowledge of wealth creation.

“Many people do not understand the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and therefore struggle with their businesses because they do not understand the rules of wealth,” he said, adding that power, political connection might lead you to financial ruin without knowledge of wealth creation.

He emphasised that character and integrity are essential for wealth creation, noting that the root cause of corporate ruin is lack of character.

According to him, “Nigeria will become great if it learns the rules of wealth. A nation without leaders with character and integrity will hardly prosper.

“This COVID-19 has exposed our vulnerabilities and showed that many of us are truly in poverty trap. We locked down for three months and people, businesses and the country were struggling for survival.

“But countries that withstood the chock and even paid palliatives to the citizens are those that saved and invested wisely.”

Pedro talked from personal experience and said: “The first wealth I made in my life was my N200,000 investment in the GTB in 1989. I was also employed as a senior

Pedro

manager of the bank.

“The bank went from a private bank to public quoted company after its first six years and my N200,000 became hundreds of million naira. This is from one investment. I left the bank in 1997.

“In 1998, I teamed up with others to acquire Comet Bank (that we transformed to First Atlantic Bank). I owned 17 per cent and became its managing director. What is more entrepreneurship than that? So, I was already financially secured by the time I became deputy governor of Lagos State.

“The essence of wealth creation is that your money works for you. My investment position shrunk within the four years I spent as deputy governor by over 40 per cent because I didn’t have time to focus on it. I didn’t make a dime from public office. Not even a piece of land,” Pedro said.

He also advised Nigerians to shun network marketing schemes that promised to offer returns that are far above market rate and embrace sound investment principles under the guidance of competent investment advisors.

Pedro, who was also former managing director of the First Atlantic Bank, warned: “Trust me, network marketers are setting people up to fail. Yes, it looks sweet and doing well but the day of reckoning will come because the people behind it are not regulated. They are not transparent and nobody is going to hold them responsible.”

He advised investors in the stock market to go for the blue chip companies in order to protect their investments, adding that “people that lose money in the capital market do so because they do not use experts. They tried to do it alone. You need an investment adviser. Between 1988 and 2002, I had two investment advisers that I relied on.

“If you want to hedge your risks your investment adviser will tell you. Some stocks are called bluechips because they have been around for a long time and survived hard times and are still thriving. That is why they are blue chips and their stocks are high. You are not likely to lose your investments with them.”

He also asked those that are averse to equity stocks in the stock exchange to look for private placements in firms that are not yet quoted in the stock market.

“In 2001, I was opportune to be part of a consortium that took over the then Ikoyi Hotel and converted it to Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotel. That is private equity and the return on it is far more than I could have received if I had put my money in the stock exchange.

“There is risk everywhere. There are years of prosperity and years of losses. But the people that ride in this market are people who stay through this period. The problem with most of us is that we go in, see a little problem and ran away. Investors do lose money but if they persist they will definitely win more than they will lose.”

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

THIS WEEKEND WEEKLY MAGAZINE

Cenotaph for a Sacrificial Nun

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

Late Sister Henrietta Ebosiogwe Alokha

26

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍˇËœ 2020

COVER

Cenotaph for a SacriďŹ cial Nun CHIEMELIE EZEOBI writes on the notable gesture by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, who recently dedicated a cenotaph and a building to the memory of a sacrificial nun, the Principal of Bethlehem College, Abule-Ado suburb in Lagos, Late Sister Henrietta Ebosiogwe Alokha, who while ensuring her students escaped to safety during the March 15, 2020 deadly explosion that claimed 23 lives, injured 25 and destroyed over 300 houses, paid the ultimate price with her life

Thecenotaph

F

The 500-capacity assembly hall at 041 NAF Communications Depot, Shasha, Lagos dedicated to her

For the late Principal of Bethlehem College, Abule-Ado, Sister Henrietta Ebosiogwe Alokha, her favourite saying was “anything worth doing is worth well�. This creed was what she lived by even

until death.

That fateful day, nothing gave the residents of Abule-Ado in Amuwo Odofin Local Government area of Lagos State an inkling that their world as they knew it was about to crumble like a pack of badly stacked cards. Some were on their way to church, some were already in church and others at home when the loud explosion occurred at about 9am.

The explosion tore down houses, destroyed cars and even killed 23 people including a family of four, a newly married couple and a pregnant woman. The explosion which was heard as far as Agege, Yaba, Ejigbo and even Okota, was first thought to be bomb blast, gas explosion and then pipeline explosion.

When the explosion occurred, bedlam ensued and the first thought of almost everyone was to run to safety; everyone but the deceased. She had the opportunity to run but she did not. She made sure all her students were evacuated to safety and none of them lost their lives, but in her bravery, she paid the ultimate price.

Honour by NAF In recognition of the supreme sacrifice she paid, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) recently named a newly built 500-capacity assembly hall after the deceased. The service also built a cenotaph for her by the entrance to the hall located at the 041 NAF Communications Depot, Shasha, Lagos.

The idea which was floated by the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, was because the deceased was found worthy of celebration over her selfless nature as she exemplified the ‘Good Shepherd’ who put the protection and safety of her flocks well above hers.

Unveiling the cenotaph and the name, CAS said a hall in a school where character was moulded deserved to be named after a worthy Nigerian who has distinguished herself in the service to humanity.

CAS who was represented by the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Lawal Alao said Alokha’s

bravery that day saw that no student of the school died in the disaster, adding that she ensured they were all saved but her.

He said: “I am hopeful that naming this assembly hall after Rev.Sr. Henrietta Alokha will not only be symbolic but will continually keep her memory fresh in our hearts. I am convinced that the stories of her heroic act that day will continue to remind our younger ones the values of selfless service to humanity. The sacrifice should also serve as motivation for Airmen and Air Women of the NAF who are presently deployed to various theatre of operations in our country.�

In his welcome address, the Commander 041 Communications Depot Shasha, Air Commodore Nkem Aguiyi, noted that there were similarities between Bethlehem Girls’ College and AFSS, Shasha. “They are both institutions growing future generations and should therefore serve as repositories of the intrinsic qualities demonstrated

by Sister Alokha. Her name deserves a place in the sands of time as she chose to put humanity before self�, he said.

He pointed out that one of key drivers of CAS’ Vision, which is to “promote and inculcate the core values of integrity, excellence and service delivery�, closely aligns with Rev Sister Alokha’s actions.

Eulogy At the event were the Superior General, Congregation of Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SSH), Sr. Monica Rowland; Sr. Felicitas Osunde; Director, Education Services, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Messenger Jerome Oduntan and members of Sr. Alokha’s family.

Appreciating the NAF for the gesture, Sr. Rowland hoped that her death would be a lesson for leaders to be ready to make sacrifices for the led, adding that the Catholic Church in Nigeria has set up an endowment fund in the deceased’s honour called the Sr. Henrietta Alokha Endowment Fund to be made available for indigent children between the ages of six and 17, who are very intelligent but cannot fund their education due to financial constraints.

Disclosing that the Catholic Church in Nigeria has set up an endowment fund in the deceased’s honour she said: “It is called the Sr. Henrietta Alokha Endowment Fund. This fund is to be

made available for indigent children between the ages of six and 17, who are very intelligent but cannot fund their education due to financial constraints. This is just the first step the church is taking. We are planning to do more things to immortalise Sr. Henrietta Alokha.�

Messenger Oduntan described Sr. Alokha as a quiet but forthright woman who loved those who were under her care and paid the most precious price for them, adding that one could only buy imagine the number of mothers that would have been weeping for their children but instead of them weeping, she volunteered her life as the school was razed down.

Earlier on, one of the sisters in SSH eulogised the deceased in a moving tribute. According to her, the deceased displayed exemplary behaviour as she exhibited selflessness and was never swayed by material things.

She said: “Bethlehem Girls College was made up of students from all ethnic groups in the country. For each of these students, Sister gave her life. She was an emblem of love, unity and peace. Therefore, the best way to keep her legacy alive is for all to work for sacrificial love, peace, and unity. Sister lived a happy and fulfilled religious life. “A life of love and dedicated service to God and humanity in the helm of education, within her religious institute and in the church. She was very simple and humble. She was a role model per excellence because she believed in excellence. Her slogan is ‘Anything worth doing is worth doing well‘.“ On her love for children which saw her give her life she said, “She loved children as well as her profession as a teacher. That may explain why she went back to look for the two lost sheep of hers even after she was already saved in the first instance. “Sr. Henrietta was not a mere hireling. She loved and had passion for her students whom she took as her own children. That was why even though she had the opportunity to run and leave the children under her care, she did not because like the Good Shepherd, she was concerned about them. She paid the ultimate prize by giving up her life. “ Life and Times of Late Rev Sr. Henrietta Alokha But who was Late Rev Sr. Henrietta Alokha?

She was many things to different people; a sister,

daughter, friend, administrator, spiritual leader and counselor.

Born in Agenebode In Emko East Local Govemment Area of Edo State on May 11, 1967 to Late Chief Vincent Dodah Alokha and Late Mrs. Julianne Alokha, she was the fourth of six children.

She started her primary school education in 1975 at Egbadu Primary School Agenebode and proceeded to St. Peters Grammar School Agenebode for her secondary school education.

Having grown up in an environment rooted in discipline, respect and strong Catholic faith, towards the end of her secondary school education, she expressed interest in becoming a nun and commenced her religious vocation in the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SSH) on November 17, 1983 as a Postulant.

Having expressed the desire to continue In the religious life, she was received into the Novitiate on April 13, 1985 and on August 23, 1987, she made her Profession of Temporary Vows at the Sacred Heart Navittate Chapel, Atani-Uromi, Ede. Right after her profession, she was assigned to teach at the Brother Pius Nursery/Primary School Akenzua Street, Benin City.

On June 11, 1989, in the company of her classmate Sr. Rowland, she left for further studies at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin USA where she obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree In Personnel Management and Psychology on May 16, 1993.

Having witnessed her ardent dedication to the Lord and commitment to the Charism of the Congregation of the SSH of Jesus, she took her Perpetual Profession of Vows on November 12, 1995 at St. Benedict Catholic Church Ubiaja, Edo State. On November 3, 2012, she celebrated her Silver Jubilee with her only surviving classmate in the Congregation, Sr. Monica Omowumi Rowland.

In 1996, she furthered her studies at the University of Port Harcourt where she obtained her Post Graduate Diploma in Education. She further attended the University of Benin where she later obtained a Masters’ Degree in 2005 and Doctorate Degree in 2016 both in Educational Administration.

27

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍˇËœ 2020

PERSPECTIVE

Frank Ileogben: Creative Videos Can Help Push the Message of Sustainable Development When he is not engaging colleagues on how best to produce excellent audio-visual content at the energy conglomerate, Sahara Group, Frank Ileogben applies his creative prowess to editing and producing great content for his social media platforms. Ileogben who intends to deploy his videos as tools for shaping positive agenda for sustainable development, especially in Africa, speaks about how working at Sahara Group inspires him to be the best, among other issues in this interview with CHIAMAKA OZULUMBA How do you get your inspiration for editing videos?

Inspiration for me comes from a multitude of sources. Firstly, I am a firm believer that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven; God is the ultimate source of all things creative. Sometimes, an idea pops up in my head and I take a mental note or write it down and then execute later.

Other times, I look through social media and I get inspired by the creative works of other amazing editors.

Are there people you admire their work in video editing and how have they influenced your productions?

O yes! There are tons of creative editors that in my opinion create amazing content on social media. First on my list is Zach King, an American content creator, popular for his ‘magic editing’.

His work is amazing; a combination of magic and wit - brilliant. Next is Edem Victor, a Nigerian cinematographer. He edits majority of the short skits we see by popular Instagram comedians. What is inspiring to me is how he combines sound and cinematography to tell really compelling short stories. Lastly, I really admire Lasisi Elenu’s simple yet creative editing. He is a Nigerian comedian whose stories are relatable, witty and creative. He is a genius How did you prepare for the bopbdaddy challenge?

Participating in the BOP Daddy challenge wasn’t part of my plans going into the lockdown. I was minding my business when my friend sent me one of the BOP Daddy videos and it got my attention. I thought it was really creative and I was inspired to create mine. One Saturday morning after my morning workout routine, I went into my wardrobe, pulled out some clothes and went to work. 3 hours later, the magic was ready, and I shared it on my Instagram page – handle is @iamitom How did you take the news of emerging as one of the winners?

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be announced as one of the winners.

Frankly, I had no idea that the challenge had a monetary value attached to it. Here I was taking a nap on a hot Saturday afternoon, with some acoustic covers playing in the background when I woke up to tons of messages and tags.

I saw DM (direct message) from Falz the Bahd Guy stating that I had emerged as one of the winners of the challenge and I was in complete disbelief. I was both shocked and excited at the same time.

What message do you think the challenge passes on at this time?

The BOP Daddy challenge really inspired a lot of creativity. It witnessed such a huge influx of creative approaches and editing skills. Personally, I think the challenge fostered unity especially during this season of isolation and lockdown. People had to call up their friends and loved ones to come up with really cool ideas on how to make

Frank

interesting transition videos for the challenge. Various groups participated in the challenge, from friends, to family members, health workers, law enforcement agents etc.

You recently started live workout sessions on Instagram. what’s inspired this?

Fitness has been a major part of my life for the longest time. I used to be a professional dancer and inadvertently had exercising built into my being. At Sahara Group, where I work, the physical wellbeing of employees is given top priority. I am part of a team responsible for ensuring that our colleagues are encouraged to use the office gym, to keep fit. We came up with several ideas which includes fitness classes and workout sessions. I facilitate some of the classes and during the lockdown, we continued to have weekly sessions via online video conferencing.

After the BOP Daddy challenge, I had posted some dance videos and I had people asking me to have a dance workout session on Instagram. I conducted a survey with my followers and decided to have the first class on Saturday, the 26th of May. We had over 200 people participate.

How do you source your clothes, as you must need a gat wardrobe for what you do?

I get my clothes from various sources,

mostly locally for custom-made suits and native attires and then, when I go shopping abroad or if I have a friend coming from “the abroad�.

How do you combine your online activities with your role as visual content manager at Sahara Group?

Working as a visual content manager at Sahara Group has provided me with the platform to continually learn, evolve and perfect the craft of editing and visual story telling. Sahara encourages and promotes the lifestyle of its employees outside of the working environment and this is really encouraging; knowing that the organization encourages me to be the best at my job and everywhere else.

During my past time, it becomes easy for me to come up with ideas and then edit.

Sahara’s colours are quite dynamic and expressive. What informs the strategy deployed in the brand’s audio-visual outlook The vibrancy of Sahara’s brand colours evoke a feeling of youthful, warm and energetic. The audio-visual contents produced by the brand covey the same message – bringing energy to life. We are conscious of the fact that we are telling an African success story to a multitude of audience globally.

How has being part of Sahara contributed to your experience?

The culture of Sahara Group is one

that encourages the productivity of its employees outside of the office. Working with such an amazing organization has pushed me to learn, grow and thrive beyond my comfort zone. One amazing thing is that I work with young and dynamic professionals who aren’t just the best at what they do but also skilled in the art of “living free�.

How can what you do be used as a vehicle for promoting sustainable development in Africa?

Story-telling and content creation is powerful tool in shaping mindsets, altering moods and communicating effectively. I strongly believe that with compelling, creative and innovative content, the sustainable development goals can be effectively communicated, understood and imbibed.

How do you intend to give back to the society considering your growing status as a social media influencer?

Currently, I am curating specific contents that help will help individuals and businesses learn basic editing skills that will help improve the quality of their personal and business brand image.

This is available for free on my channel Youtube channel (Frank iTom). In the future, I hope to be able to teach many young people, especially those who can’t afford it, skills on editing and content creation to galvanize them into becoming successful film makers.

28

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍˇËœ 2020

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Farmers Pledge to Support FG to Boost Food Production Hammed Shittu Ă“Ă˜ Ă–Ă™ĂœĂ“Ă˜ Farmers across the nation are poised to complement the federal government’s efforts in boosting food production and also discouraging food importation in the country.

The Chairman, Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Kwara State Chapter, Mr. Ayo Obisesan stated this in Ilorin on Wednesday during the official commencement of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)/Maize Anchor Borrowers Programme.

The programme allowed 114 maize farmers to benefit from farm inputs like fertilizers, chemicals, one bag processed maize, tractors for cultivation among others.

According to him, farmers in the country have potential to boost the socio economic growth

of the nation if they are seriously backing with sufficient resources to move the sector forward�.

He said, “the agricultural sector remains the only way to provide food security for the people of the nation and that is why the present government has been leaving no stone unturned at supporting the teeming farmers through various interventions so as to add values to the socio well-being of the populace.�

Obisesan added that, agriculture interventions would go a long way in assisting farmers to produce in large quantities, thereby accelerating socio- economic growth in the country.

Furthermore, Obisesan said the programme was designed to assist farmers to have access to farm inputs and seedlings that would be sponsored by the CBN. He said about 114 maize farmers would benefit from

the programme, adding that the affected farmers would be provided with the farm inputs like fertilizers, tractors, among others that would be given them in form of loans to boost their output.

Obisesan said that, “after the harvest of the farm produce, the off-takers that will buy the yields are already available with approved price and pay back whatever might be the loans taken. “I want to say that this is not a national cake as the loan taken will be paid back to the CBN so as to allow others to benefit from such gesture in the future. “The package is such that there is a standby buyer for our product after harvest, so it is a complete success package.

There is no problem of where to sell and all that. The off-takers are already on standby.

MARKET INDICATORS

NLNG Donates $300,000 Medical Equipment to Lagos Peter Uzoho Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has donated medical equipment worth $300,000 to the Lagos State government as part of its contribution to the US$30 million Oil and Gas Industry Collaborative Initiative, spearheaded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to fight the COVID-19.

The donation made yesterday

by NLNG’s Managing Director, Mr. Tony Attah, who was represented by the company’s General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Eyono Fatayi-Williams, was received by the Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Prof. Emmanuel Akinola Abayomi.

The donation was part of the

company’s $1.25 million donations to six states of the federation in contribution towards the NNPCled Oil Industry COVID-19 Intervention fund.

NLNG said the donation would go a long way in supporting the COVID-19 response at the Lagos Mainland Hospital.

The equipment include Mindray SV300 ventilators, infusion pumps, Surgicare patient monitor, hospital cart, Mindray haematology analyser, stat analyser, stat reagent, cartridge and automated chemistry analyser.

Other items included medical infusion pump, blood warmers, arterior blood gas analyser, perfusor compact, automated haematology analyser, AED/ Defibrillators ICU patient beds with remote controls, PVC

mattress covers, Visco elastic mattresses, Desco hospital pillows, overbed tables and bedside cabinet combination units.

In his remarks, Attah said the donations were part of the industry’s ongoing contribution to states to help push back the pandemic, noting that the virus still remained a huge threat to the country’s socio-economic wellbeing which will require concerted efforts and sacrifices from everyone in the country to fight.

He said the interventions signified NLNG’s resolve to stand with both the federal and state governments during these trying times and to reciprocate the goodwill and support to the company over the years.

LAPO Pays N1.8bn Insurance Claims to Customers in Five Years Sunday Ehigiator The Managing Director, LAPO Microfinance Bank, Dr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe has revealed that the company paid about N1.882 billion to its customers within a period of five years.

He made this revelation through a statement made available to THISDAY yesterday, while also revealing that the bank provides insurance cover for all its clients “Beyond loans and deposits, we provide insurance cover for all our clients to protect their investments, businesses and savings from damages, financial

loss or any unfortunate situation beyond their control. “In 2019, our clients received claims worth N483, 163,562.20.

For the period 2014 to 2019, the claims paid to our clients was N1, 881,522,440.59. “At LAPO MFB, all our loan products and savings account packages are insured with the NDIC (National Deposit Insurance Corporation). “The importance of safeguarding the properties, assets, lives and investments of our clients cannot be overemphasized. Small business owners are most vulnerable to disruptions in cash flow

and business operations that can arise due to theft, fire outbreaks or poor health conditions of the owners. “Therefore, it is important to create a mechanism to compensate clients when unfortunate events occur. We have developed insurance policies that are cost efficient and cover various incidents such as burglary, fire and disability. “The bank ensures that insurance claims are paid in time and policy holders receive adequate compensation to cover losses incurred during any unfortunate incident covered in the insurance policy.�

UnionBank,TEDxLagosCollaborateonLeadershipForum Union Bank, recently partnered with the organisers of TEDxLagos to host entrepreneurs, social advocates, innovators and thought leaders at the virtual TEDxLagos event tagged ‘Upside’.

TEDx is a global platform created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth sharing�.

A statement explained that the virtual gathering was a celebration of brilliant ideas and inspiring talks from an interesting line-up of speakers which included Medical

Practitioner, Folakemi Ezenwanne; Venture Capitalist, Chika Nwobi; and Environmental and Climate Governance guru, Chukwumerije Okereke. Top on-air-personality, BellaRose Iyere-Okojie was also on hand to entertain the audience in her role as event host, while music sensation, Di’Ja thrilled participants with a musical performance.

Speaking on the Bank’s partnership with TEDxLagos, the Head of Corporate Communications

and Marketing at Union Bank, Ogochukwu Ekezie-Ekaidem said: “Union Bank is pleased to partner with TEDxLagos for the third consecutive year. Now, more than ever before, we believe that great ideas and collaboration are key to moving Nigeria, and indeed, our world forward. Therefore, this partnership with TEDx, a platform known to unravel and amplify brilliant ideas, is one we have identified as a worthy cause, especially in these times.�

MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

SEPTEMBER 2019 Money Supply (M3)

35,029,779.72

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

7,374,356.91

Money Supply (M2)

27,655,422.82

-- Quasi Money

116,533,891.21

-- Narrow Money (M1)

11,121,531.60

---- Currency Outside Banks

1,625,047.69

---- Demand Deposits

9,496,483.91

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

13,911,335.83

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

21,118,443.89

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

35,918,179.45

---- Credit to Government (Net)

10,452,199.38

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

11,007,422.79

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

25,465,980.07

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

-14,799,735.56

--Other Assets Net

7,000,253.07

Reserve Money (Base Money

2,005,600.83

--Currency in Circulation

4,677,530.81

--Banks Reserves

317,121.43

Ëž Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? Ě‹

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month Inter-Bank Call Rate

March 2018 15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

Ëž Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂœĂŁ ÙÖÓĂ?ĂŁ Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ě‹ ͯ͹Ϲ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE Ëœ ÍŻÍľ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $37.59 a barrel on Wednesday, compared with $36.75 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), ZaďŹ ro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

29

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍˇËœ 2020

MARKET NEWS

Recapitalisation: NEM Insurance Reassures Shareholders on Compliance Goddy Egene The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, NEM Insurance Plc, Mr. Tope Smart, has reassured shareholders that the company is working very hard to ensure compliance with the recapitalisation deadline for insurance companies.

Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Lagos, Smart said: “During the year(2019), our regulator,

National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) increased the minimum paid up capital of all Insurance and Reinsurance companies and were initially given up to June 30, 2020 to comply. “This period was subsequently changed to December 31, 2020.

We are working hard to ensure compliance before the due date.

Our associate in Ghana, Regency NEM Insurance is equally going through a recapitalisation process as directed by the National

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

Insurance Commission, Ghana.

However, they have up to June 2021 to comply and we are working towards complying with this new capital regime also.�

Smart said the net claims paid by the company in 2019 financial year rose by 54 per cent to N3.9 billion from N2.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2018, explaining that the huge claims paid had a negative impact on its bottom line as profit before tax stood at N1.9 billion from

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

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

N2.6 billion in 2018. “However, profit after tax increased to N2.4 billion from N2 billion, an increase of 18 per cent due to deferred tax asset.

From our associate in Ghana, we achieved one per cent increase in profit from N21.2 million in 2018 to N21.4 million in 2019.

We are confident of improving on this next year,� he added. A dividend of 15 kobo per share was paid to the shareholders.

In his address, the chair-

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

man of the company said the company had adopted prudent policies to grow market share by leveraging extensively on its robust technology infrastructure in spite of COVID-19 pandemic. “Since the outbreak of the novel strain of Coronavirus, specifically identified as “COVID-19� in December 2019, governments worldwide have enacted emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus.

NEM is also actively assessing

O F

and responding where possible to its potential impact on the Company’s business.The focus has been on the safety of our personnel, ensuring the continuity of access to our products by our clients and also efficient service delivery. As the situation continues to be very dynamic, the company has been working diligently to assess the potential risks posed

by COVID-19 to its business on an ongoing basis and to realign its strategies accordingly,� he said.

1 6 / 0 6 / 2 0 2 0 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

30

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

31

32

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

33

34

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 •T H I S D AY

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 • T H I S D AY

35

36

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

OPEC Gives Nigeria, Three Others Monday Deadline to Submit Production Compensation Plan Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday gave Nigeria and three other countries Monday deadline to submit a schedule of the oil production cut compensation plan , following their failure to fully comply with an April deal aimed at cumulatively reducing production by about 9.7 million barrels daily.

The three other countries yet to submit their plans include Angola, Gabon and Azerbaijan, while Iraq and Kazakhstan, have taken steps to fulfill their obligations to the cartel.

A statement issued yesterday after the 19th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which was held via videoconference, under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Prince Abdul

Aziz Bin Salman,, and co-Chair, Mr. Alexander Novak, who is the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, noted that sticking with the cuts as promised was not only the fair thing to do, but also an equitable move.

The committee said it reviewed the monthly report prepared by the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) and recent developments in the global oil market, as well as immediate prospects for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021.

It mandated the OPEC secretariat to reach out to countries that are still defaulting to extract a commitment from them that their product cut plan was still active.

“The committee emphasised the critical importance of adhering to full conformity and compensating the overproduced volumes in the months of May and June, during the months of

July, August and September 2020, in accordance with the statement of the 11th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting of the DoC (June 6, 2020), in particular with reference to the five elements agreed.

“The committee would like to thank those participants, namely Iraq and Kazakhstan, which have already submitted their compensation schedules, and agreed to give other underperforming participants, which have not yet submitted final plans, until next Monday,

June 22, 2020 to submit their schedules for compensation to the OPEC Secretariat.

“Furthermore, the committee mandated the secretariat to reach out to all the underperforming participating countries to submit their schedules for compensation by the above mentioned date” OPEC said.

It stressed that the attainment of 100 per cent conformity from all participating countries was not only fair and equitable, but vital for the ongoing and timely rebalancing efforts and helping

deliver a sustainable oil market stability.

It reiterated its earlier position to extend the first phase of the production adjustments by a further month, now till July 31, 2020, and subscribing to the concept of compensation by those countries who were unable to reach full conformity (100 per cent) in May and June.

OPEC added: “Thee committee took note of the overall conformity of 87 per cent for the month of May 2020. It

also observed individual country conformity levels and reiterated the critical importance that all participating countries achieve their 100 per cent level.

“They will also make up for any monthly shortfalls in the months of July, August and September. It welcomed the expressed commitments from those countries below the 100 per cent May conformity level and specific compensation plans highlighting how this will be accommodated, and delivered, between July and September”

Nigeria Records 745 New Cases of COVID-19 Martins Ifijeh Nigeria has recorded 745 new cases of COVID-19, bringing to 18,480 the number of confirmed cases in the country.

Announcing this yesterday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lagos recorded 280 new cases; Oyo, 103; Ebonyi, 72; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 60;

Imo, 46; Edo, 34; Delta, 33; Rivers, 25; Kaduna, 23; Ondo, 16; Katsina, 12; Kano, 10; Bauchi, eight; Borno, seven; Kwara, five; Gombe, four; Sokoto, and Enugu two each, while Yobe, Osun and Nasarawa had one each.

NCDC said: “Nigeria has recorded 18,480 cases of COVID-19. 6,307 persons have been discharged, while 475 persons have died.”

Military Kills 53 Terrorists, Loses Two Soldiers Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole have killed 53 terrorists during clashes that spanned one week, including the counter attack in Monguno, Borno State while jet fighters eliminated scores of insurgents in Garin Maloma on the fringes of Sambisa Forest in a subsidiary operation tagged “Long Reach”.

However, two soldiers were killed during the fierce Monguno encounter.

Military authorities said troops carried out several aggressive clearance operation at various locations within the theatre, including a daring

counter-attack on Boko Haram terrorists who attempted to infiltrate Monguno town.

The counter attack by own troops at Monguno resulted in the neutralisation of 51 terrorists and the recovery of a large cache of arms, ammunition and equipment, as well as the rescue of 33 captives, amongst others.

On the Garin Maloma air strikes, the military said the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation Lafiya Dole destroyed a compound housing some highvalue Boko Haram Terrorist (BHT) leaders and neutralised some of their fighters at Garin Maloma on the fringes of the Sambisa Forest in Borno State.

Police Arrest Spokesperson of CUPP, Ugochinyere Udora Orizu in Abuja The spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Mr. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, was yesterday evening arrested by the Police.

Ugochinyere’s legal team in a statement issued last night by his counsel, Chibuzor Ezike said they were reliably informed that he was arrested in a commando style and was manhandled, assaulted and whisked away by the men against his will.

The coalition alleged that they were told he was arrested based on the instigation by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

The statement read in part: ‘’The legal team of Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, the spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has been notified of the arrest of our client by men of the Nigeria Police Force from the Force Headquarters at about 5:30p.m this evening. ‘’We have been reliably informed by citizens who witnessed the commandostyle arrest that our client was manhandled, assaulted and whisked away by the men against his will. We were informed that he was eventually told that they were to arrest him based on the instigation by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.’’

RECEIVING SPECIAL ENVOY...

L-R: Special Envoy of Ghana’s President/Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mrs. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway; President Muhammadu Buhari; and Minister of State for Foreign affairs, Amb. Zubariu Dada, during an audience at the State House, Abuja STATE HOUSE

Concern Mounts over Ajimobi’s Health There was anxiety yesterday over the health of a former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, following reports on the social media that he was dead.

But his daughter, Mrs. Fatima Ganduje-Ajimobi, has debunked reports of his death, saying the

Acting National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), is alive.

Ganduje-Ajimobi, in a tweet last night, said: “Thank you for all the messages but our father is still alive, alhamdulillah. When it is our time we will all die so

wait first…”

Also reacting, Ajimobi’s Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, said his principal was alive and responding to treatment.

In a post on his social media handles, Tunji urged Nigerians

to pray for the recovery of the APC chieftain.

Ajimobi was appointed Acting National chairman of the party on Tuesday following the suspension of the substantive National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.

Windstorm Kills Six Persons, Destroys 600 Houses in Kano Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano The Executive Secretary of Kano State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Sale Jili, has said six persons were killed while more than 600 houses were destroyed as a result of the recent windstorm in four local government areas of the state last Sunday.

Jili said the windstorm which was accompanied with downpour had rendered over

1, 752 people homeless, who are currently taking refuge at the houses of their relations in the affected villages.

Speaking with THISDAY yesterday in Kano, Jili added that one person was electrocuted in Ja’in area while the remaining five were trapped in a rubble of a collapsed building all in Gwale Local Government Area following the downpour.

The SEMA boss also listed the five affected local government

areas as Gwale, Gwarzo, Kibiya and Rimingado.

According to him, “It was based on the reports that we visited Kibiya and Rimingado Local Government Areas, where we presented relief materials to the victims as an interim measure to alleviate their sufferings.”

He said the agency was still expecting reports of the disaster from officials of other local government areas in the state

as the rainstorm had affected many people across the 44 local government areas of the state.

Jili said items donated to the victims in two local government areas included food items, cement, roofing sheet, nylon mates, blankets and clothing materials.

He warned residents of the state, especially those living in flood-prone areas, to desist from dumping refuse in water ways.

Insecurity: Afenifere Wants Buhari to Sack Service Chiefs Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has told President Muhammadu Buhari to go beyond scolding the security chiefs over their inability to address the security challenges facing the country and relieve

them of their duties.

Afenifere’s spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, in a reaction to yesterday’s meeting between Buhari and the service chiefs during which the president expressed his disappointment with the performance of the service chiefs, told THISDAY

that it was high time the military top brass were sacked. “Now that the whole world is lamenting the insecurity in Nigeria, will the President do the needful beyond scolding his ineffective chiefs?”

According to him, it is unfortunate that it has taken street protests in his home

state, Katsina, for the President to now realise that his service chiefs have failed.

“Patriotic Nigerians have shouted hoarse over the years that there was no reason to keep these people in office except for personal power consideration”, Odumakin further said.

FG to Establish Special Court for Speedy Trial of Rapists, Others Alex Enumah in Abuja The federal government had declared a zero tolerance to the issue of incessant rape in the country with a directive to the police to arrest all alleged culprits of rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence on the girl-child in the country.

The government in partnership with the judiciary is also to set up a special court that would ensure speedy and seamless trial of rape/gender-

based violence offences in the country.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), made the declaration yesterday at a joint press briefing on modalities of eradication of gender-based violence in Nigeria, held in Abuja.The AGF noted that outside the police, President Muhammadu Buhari has also directed all relevant government agencies to scale up support

for victims of rape and ensure that those who engaged in the act, “face the full weight of the law”.

Malami said, “to tackle this hydra-headed menace headlong, my office (the Federal Ministry of Justice) is currently engaging with the respective Heads of Courts, for the establishment of specialised courts for the speedy and seamless trial of rape/Gender-Based Violence offences in Nigeria.

“The aforestated specialised

Court when established will necessarily create a timely/ speedy trial of all pending and incoming rape and other related gender-based cases and facilitate their conclusion within record time.

The minister disclosed that his ministry has also commenced the review of all existing laws and policy instruments relating to offences of rape, child defilement and gender-based violence in Nigeria.

37

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS XTRA

Jabi Lake Mall Board Denies Authorising Naira Marley Concert Peter uzoho The senior management and the Board of Directors of the Jabi Lake Mall Development Company have expressed shock and disappointment over what they described as the unauthorised Naira Marley concert that took place in the outdoor parking last weekend.

THISDAY gathered that the board has condemned this illegal action in the strongest terms, clarifying that the event took against express instructions given to the property manager, Broll , not to host any special events without their consent , during this COVID -19 pandemic period.

It was learnt that at a recent virtual meeting, the Jabi Mall management team had been reminded to continue the excellent work of ensuring a safe environment for both its tenants and customers as part of compliance with the NCDC guidelines and the FCTA regulations.

According to a source close to the shareholders, “Jabi Lake Mall was built in 2015 with the vision of creating a beautiful lakeside property that allowed the residents of Abuja to shop, relax, network and have fun.

The mall was also designed to invigorate the local economy and provide a safe and comfortable location for retailers to sell their goods.

“As is typical for large properties like this, the shareholders selected a property manager who was paid to manage the property - Broll Property Services. Broll is one of Africa’s leading commercial property services company with operations in Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Swaziland, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. They are well known in the industry and we selected them on the basis of their stellar reputation,” the source explained.

The source disclosed that the shareholders have made special efforts during this COVID-19 pandemic period and donated to help support the building of isolation and treatment centres as well as in the education sector.

According to him, the shareholders were shocked to learn that a middle-level employee of Broll Management Company, for unknown reasons ignored express directives and the laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

This employee, it was learnt, took the illegal decision to host the event on the property without informing their superiors at Broll, and the shareholders only found out about this concert after the fact via social media.

“This event should never have happened and an an independent investigation has

PDP Condemns Arrest of Organisers of Protests against Insecurity in Katsina Chuks Okocha in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday kicked against the arrest by the All Progressives Congress (APC)led government of organizers of a peaceful protest against the unchecked mass killing by bandits and insurgents in Katsina State and other parts of the country, particularly in the North.

The PDP described as absurd, but revealing, that the APC-led government would arrest, harass and detain victims of the bandits, but chose to negotiate and hobnob with and even pay money to the assailants.

The arrest, the National

are involved and cooperates fully with the prosecution.

Shareholders intend to cooperate fully with FCT in taking all legal actions against the event organizers and sponsors,” the source said.

“Shareholders of Jabi Lake Mall are fully cooperating with the FCT Ministry and support any and all governmental action against all those who orchestrated this irresponsible that has marred

the reputation of the Mall that has to date fully ensured a safe and healthy business environment for both the tenants and customers.

Shareholders main concern at this time is for the tenants -- survival of their businesses and the employees’ welfare ---as well as the comfort and convenience of their customers.

Knowing that Jabi Lake Mall has pharmacies, grocery stores, food outlets and other essential

services, they are working hard to get these stores reopened so the residents of Abuja are not inconvenienced. Knowing that the current financial climate has already been a blow to businesses, they are working hard to get the mall reopened so that these businesses can continue to service their customers, generate revenue, pay their staff and pay their taxes,” the source added

MANAGING INTERNAL CRISIS...

L-R: National Treasurer, All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adamu Panda; National Vice Chairman, South-south, Mr. Hilard Etagbo Eta; and Acting National Secretary, Mr. Bulama Waziri, during the meeting of APC National Working Committee (NWC) at the party’s secretariat in Abuja...yesterday ENOCK REUBEN

FG to Engage Intellectual Property Owners Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja

The federal government has promised to engage intellectual property owners in the country’s organised private sector in order Publicity Secretary of the party, to help commercialise their Kola Ologbondiyan, said further research results and inventions. raises the demand for the APC and its governors, particularly, those who openly confessed to have had contacts, negotiations Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti and financial dealing with the bandits, to come clean on their Former Governor of Ekiti State, alleged links with insurgents and Ayodele Fayose, has described marauders. the crisis raging in the All “Such actions by the APC Progressives Congress (APC) administration, in addition to as a sign that God is angry utterances of its leaders, have with the ruling party. continued to dishearten Nigerians Fayose said the war of while emboldening bandits and attrition in the party vividly insurgents to continue to pillage indicated God’s anger against our communities, hold towns to the party for its role and that of ransom and visit all manner of its government in impoverishing violence on vulnerable Nigerians Nigerians, promoting election in various parts of the country,” the main opposition party said.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, made the promise when he received the board of IP First Group, made up of outstanding key players in the various fields of intellectual property in Nigeria, which paid him a courtesy call in his office in Abuja.

A statement made available to journalists and signed by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Mr. Abdulganiyu Aminu, quoted Onu as urging researchers, innovators and scientists to ensure that they patent and protect their research outputs because investors prefer

research results that are patented.

According to Onu, intellectual property is the best criterion to measure the creativity and inventiveness of a nation, adding that Nigerians must be encouraged to protect their intellectual properties by getting them patented.

Fayose Mocks APC, Says God is Angry with Ruling Party

Court Jails Borno Judiciary Officer 16 Years for Defrauding 194 Widows Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court has sentenced an ex-state judiciary officer, Ramat Mohammed (alias Gaddafi), to 16 years imprisonment on a-two count amended charge for defrauding 194 widows to the tune of N781, 800.00. The Maiduguri Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the convict before Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court on two-count charges bordering on obtaining by false pretence and Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud-related offences.

The convict forged and sold a food collection card in the name of a non- governmental organisation (NGO) to his victims, 194 widows,

been launched to gather all the facts,” he said.

THISDAY has confirmed that the shareholders have moved swiftly and called an emergency meeting on Sunday and summoned the management company for a meeting on Monday. “Depending on the outcome of the investigation, Broll is likely to be fired as property manager unless it dismisses all its staff that

to the tune of N781, 800, 000 and failed to deliver food items to them, leading to his arrest and arraignment in court.

Count one of the charge read: “That you, Ramat Mohammed (alias Gaddafi), sometime in December 2018 in Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this court with intent to defraud obtained the gross sum of N520,000.00 from 40 women (mostly widows) of Fissabi-lillah Islamic School, under the false pretence that the entire sum represented payments for registration/eligibility for a programme by an NGO, Action Against Hunger (A.A.H), at Auno Town of Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State.

rigging and looking the other way while Nigerians are being killed in their thousands.

The former, who was reacting to the APC crisis in which three party chieftains are claiming to be the acting national chairman, said: “The party has been displaying power arrogance and treating Nigerians with contempt. This is just the beginning; their matter will be made worse with time.”

In a statement issued yesterday

by his Spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, the former governor said for Nigeria to return to the path of progress, the way it was before the APC took over power, “more confusion will still hit the party till it goes into oblivion.”

He pointed out that no one can validly lay claim to the office of the APC national chairman in whatever capacity, adding that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be mindful of being seen

as helping the APC to uphold its illegalities.

Fayose, who lamented the killings by bandits in the North, especially in Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and Sokoto States, added that “God will never be happy with a party that its government is doing nothing to stop the bloodshed, raping of women, including children, and the destruction of people’s sources of livelihood, which are going on in the country.”

Young Professionals Lament APC Crisis

Sunday Okobi A group of young professionals under the auspices of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday expressed deep concern over the current state of internal democracy within the party.

They decried a reoccurring situation, “where certain interests within the party have stood in the way of internal democracy

on several occasions in the party.”

In a statement issued and available to THISDAY yesterday after their discussion on a webinar, which was organised to strengthen democratic practices across political parties in Africa, the Founding member and Secretary of Young Professionals in Politics, Jide Adeyeni, expressed great dissatisfaction with the manner in which the

APC has conducted its affairs internally.

According to him, “The lack of internal democracy had cost us the election in Zamfara, Rivers and Bayelsa States and may now even cost us Edo State.

We cannot continue to tow this line as a party that wants to remain in government.”

Speaking further in the statement, Jide, a former banker and now a real estate

consultant, said: “The party is even lucky that the former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, and the Senator representing Lagos East, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, were strong believers in the party supremacy, and refused to take the party to court owing to the shady primary elections that were conducted. If they did, the APC could also have lost Lagos.

NIMASA to Generate N12bn Annually from Floating Dock Yard Eromosele Abiodun The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh has stated that the N50 billion floating dock acquired

by NIMASA is expected to generate N1 billion monthly or N12 billion annually when

work on it is concluded.

The multi-billion naira floating dock was acquired by the agency in 2018 as part of its efforts to reposition the nation’s maritime industry to international standard and boost revenue.

Speaking with maritime journalists in Lagos yesterday, as part of stakeholders’ engagement to mark his 100 days in office,

Jamoh said the high-profile equipment would generate N1 billion monthly by the time it starts operation.

The NIMASA boss said he was impressed by the projects the agency had facilitated in recent times, adding that the Floating Dock acquired by NIMASA remained a viable project that would generate lots of jobs and

revenue for the country.

NIMASA, Jamoh revealed, is partnering the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to get a permanent place for the platform, adding that when it is fully operational it would amount to a very huge revenue earner for Nigeria, “because a lot of vessels would be able to dry-dock in the country.”

38

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

24 HOURS...

24 HOURS...

N700m Fraud: Court Adjourns Hearing on Corruption Charges against Ize-Iyamu, Four Others Adibe Emenyonu in Benin

A Federal High Court sitting in Benin City, yesterday, adjourned hearing on corruption charges against a governorship aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and four others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The other four defendants in the suit are former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Mr.

Lucky Imasuen; immediate past chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Chief Dan Orbih; current state Chairman of PDP, Mr. Tony Aziegbemi; and Efe Erimuoghae.

During the hearing, the presiding Judge, Justice M. G. Umar ruled that the charges filed by the EFCC against the defendants were not defective.

The prosecution counsel, Mr. Francis Jibro, told the court that the matter was for ruling on the competence of the

eight-count charges preferred against the defendants, who had at the court’s last sitting challenged the charges because they contained the name of Chief Tony Anenih, who is now deceased.

After the ruling, counsel to the first defendant, Mr.

proceedings,” he said. The same position was canvassed by counsels to the other defendants.

However, Jibro told the court that based on the ruling of the court which found the charges not defective, the next thing was for the defendants

to take their pleas.

Mr. Ferdinand Orbih (SAN), who is counsel to Dan Orbih said he was not challenging the ruling of the court but the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to hear the matter.

Justice Umar adjourned the case to July 2.

Gunmen Murder Octogenarian in Edo Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city

EFCC Searches for Victims of Hushpuppi’s $35m Scam

An Orthopedic Surgeon, Prof.

Christopher Ogiehor, 80, has been reportedly murdered in Benin-city, the capital of Edo State.

Professor Ogiehor was the father in-law to one of the disqualified aspirants of the All Progressives

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said that it has commenced investigation to identify all those that were allegedly defrauded

by Ramoni Igbalode, aka Ray Hushpuppi.

The EFCC said in a statement by its Spokesman, My. Dele Oyewale, that Hushpuppy, who is known for his lavish lifestyle, is Nigeria’s most wanted hacker.

The commission further stated that many Internet frauds in Nigeria had been traced to Hushpuppy. The EFCC said the suspected fraudster was arrested on June 10, 2020 in United Arab Emirates in connection with

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Presco Plc., a leading vegetable oils and fats producer in Nigeria, has delivered palliatives to its host communities in Edo and Delta States to bring relief to the most vulnerable persons against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is coming after the company had earlier sent 3,000 of five-litre jerry cans of Presco vegetable oil as palliatives to Edo and Delta State Governments.

Leaders in each of the host

$35m ventilator scam.

The ventilators were meant for Covid-19 patients.

The statement read in part, “Nigeria’s most-wanted hacker, Ramoni Igbalode, alias Ray hushpuppy, recently arrested by the International Police and the FBI, has considerable cases of cyber crimes being investigated by the EFCC. “The commission is engaging with the FBI in tracing victims of his fraudulent transactions and other fraudsters having direct involvement with him. Local cyber criminals with money laundering networks with him are also being investigated.”

Charles Edosomwan (SAN), told the court that he has filed a motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court.

“In spite of the ruling, we have a motion dated June 1, 2020, challenging the jurisdiction of this honourable court to entertain

Congress (APC), Mr. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen.

The octogenarian was said to have been found dead in his house at No 13, Egbor Anenne Street, off Benoni in GRA, Benin-city in the early hours of yesterday with hands tied and broken head.

Reacting to the incident, the Edo State Police Command

confirmed the murder of Ogiehor, saying the police have commenced investigation into the gruesome murder. The command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, said the police officers within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in charge of homicide have been dispatched to

Presco Distributes Palliatives to Host Communities communities, who took delivery of the items, expressed their gratitude for the goodwill gesture, adding that it will further grow and strengthen their support and cooperation with the company.

In Ekosa community, Obaretin estate, in Delta State, a community leader who was so pleased with the company’s assistance, noted that “Presco Plc. has shown itself as a company that cares for its host communities.”

Twenty-two host communities benefitted from the gesture,

which are Agbonmoba, Ekosa, Uroho, Owanoba, Obagie-Nokenkporo and Obayantor communities around Obaretin Estate; Ologbo, Ikara, Imasabor, Oghobaye, Evbuekpen and Iyanomon communities around the company’s Ologbo Estate among other communities in Delta State, while in Edo State, they are Orogho, Owuo, Obagie-Nunuamen, Iwevbo, Obanakhoro, Ekigbe, Ugbigun communities around Sakponba Estate, all benefitted from the palliatives.

the deceased residence for investigation.

Until his death, Ogiehor was at a time the Registrar of St. Mary Orthopedic Hospital, Ireland; Registrar, Birmingham Accident Hospital; Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon, Central Hospital, Benin-city; Chief of ER/Orthopedic, Aflaj General Hospital, Saudi Arabia, and Director/CEO, City Clinic in Benin-city till date.

CHANGE OF NAME I formerly known and addressed as MISS HELEN CHINWE EBIRINGA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS HELEN CHINWE CHARLES. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as KENNETH DICKSON now wish to be known and addressed as ENYINNAYA DICKS. All documents remain valid. The general public to take note

Ëœ ͚Π˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

39

FRIDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Solskjaer Hopes Ighalo Continues Good Run as Premiership Restarts

Duro Ikhazuagbe After he succeeded in convincing his parent club, Shanghai Shenhua to extend his stay at Old Trafford, Odion Ighalo will from today have another chance to prove

why Manager Ole Gunnnar Solskjaer did not make a mistake signing him on loan last January.

Ighalo will be an integral part of Manchester United today to begin push for a Top Four finish and a ticket to

Edo 2020: Dare Receives National Sports Festival Committee Report The Edo 2020 Sports Festival Committee set up to review Edo State’s readiness to host the event in the wake of the postponement due to the outbreak of Covid-19 has submitted its report to Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare.

Speaking while submitting its report to the Minister on Thursday in Abuja, Chairman of the Committee Mr. Tonobok Okowa said the committee had done a thorough job which would help the government decide on the best possible date to host the Games.

According to the Minister, “ Exactly a month ago this committee was set up, I

thank you for keeping to the schedule of your mandate.

We shall study your report, sit down with relevant agencies of government to examine the recomendations there-in. The Ministry is properly guided

by Covid-19 protocol and will not shy away from taking decisions based on the reality on the ground.�

Dare further said: “This is a milestone to determine when to start sporting activities, but we would not jeorpadise the health and wellbeing of our sportsmen and women.�

The commiitee had made several recommendations which would be scrutinized before a final decision is taken on the hosting of the festival.

Serie A: Inter, Atalanta Continue UCL Ticket Pursuit Live On DStv, GOtv Inter Milan and Atalanta, who are both fighting to clinch a UEFA Champions League spot as the Italian Serie A returns from lockdown since March, will be aired live to football fans this weekend on SuperSport.

The games, scheduled to hold from 20-21 June, will be broadcast live on SuperSport 9 to DStv Premium. Compact Plus and Compact subscribers, and SuperSport Select 2 and SuperSport Select 5 to GOtv Jolli and GOtv Max subscribers.

The league’s first game is on Saturday as Torino welcome Parma to Turin’s Olympic Stadium. The game will kick-off at 6:30pm and will be broadcast live on SuperSport 9 and SuperSport Select 5.

Torino will be desperate to break a six-game losing streak which has seen them slip down the relegation zone. Parma will, however, look to Ivorian star Gervinho for inspiration as they seek to climb from ninth place and challenge for a spot in Europe next season.

Also on Saturday, Hellas Verona will play host to Cagliari at Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi. The match will air live at 8:45pm on SuperSport 9 and SuperSport Select 5. Torino won just once in their last five Serie A matches before the break, but that’s plenty better than Cagliari, who are yet to taste victory in a match in any competition in 2020.

On Sunday, Atalanta will host Sassuolo at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo. The

match will be broadcast live at 6:30pm on SuperSport 9 and SuperSport Select 2 and 5. Atalanta have been one of the most entertaining team in Serie A this season, and manager Gian Piero Gasperini will be hoping his team can pick up where they left off back in March.

The biggest game of the weekend sees Inter Milan host Sampdoria at the San Siro on Sunday. The match kicks off at 8:45pm and will be broadcast on SuperSport 9 and SuperSport Select 5. Inter’s bid to win the league title has taken a nosedive, though victory in this game in hand will bring them back to within six points of table toppers, Juventus.

After the four catch-up games, the 27th round of action will be played with matches scheduled from Monday, 22nd to Wednesday, 24th June 2020.

The first match of the day will be an encounter between Lecce and AC Milan on Monday 22 at 6:30 pm. The match will air live on DStv SuperSport 8 and SuperSport Select 5 on GOtv. Later that evening, Champions Juventus will have a face-off with Bologna on Monday 22 at 8:45pm live on SuperSport 8 on DStv and SuperSport Select 5 on GOtv. On Tuesday 23 will feature two matches, one between Verona vs Napoli at 6:30pm on SuperSport 8 on DStv and SuperSport Select 5 on GOtv and final match for the day between Genoa and Parma at 8:45pm.

the lucrative UEFA Champions League next season when they file out against Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur.

Before the suspension of the English topflight last March, the AFCON 2019 top scorer had logged in four goal for United from eight outings.

His performance shamed even pundits who had criticized

OGS for bringing Ighalo to Old Trafford on a loan spell.

Speaking ahead of today’s restart game against Spurs, Solskjaer said: “He (Ighalo) gives us another option up front, he is a goalscorer and what he does in and around the dressing room as well is great. I hope he’s going to continue and finish off what

he has started.�

The Norwegian is extremely delighted to see Ighalo prove his judgement right in bringing him to United and also getting him to extend his stay till January. “We’re delighted Odion is staying with us. We had a good conversation with his club and Odion’s made a great impact

when he came, so that’s very pleasing,� concludes the United Boss.

Ighalo, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Wednesday has proven to be a shrewd signing for the Premier League giants after arriving on loan from Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai Shenhua on transfer deadline day.

Odion Ighalo (left) and Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer strategizing ahead of tonight’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur

Dosu Urges Nigerians to Stand with Super Eagles Goalkeepers Uzoho returns to training after recovering from injury

With no permanent shirt holder to stand between the sticks for Nigeria since the exit of Vincent Enyeama and Carl Ikeme, former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, has urged football fans in the country to believe in the present goalkeepers in the national team.

The Atlanta ‘96 gold winning goalkeeper with Nigeria, in an interview with www.bsnsports. comadvised that mistake is part of life and goalkeepers should not be discarded but encouraged when they make mistake even

in crucial matches.

The former Julius Berger FC safest hand said, “after Carl Ikeme left due to illness, we will keep producing good goalkeepers in this country. We have (Daniel) Akpeyi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Francis Uzoho and the new chap from Germany Maduka Okoye too. All we need to do is to have confidence in them and allow them to do their jobs. “Goalkeepers make mistakes that doesn’t mean they are bad.

Mistake is part of life. Let us keep believing in them whenever

they are in goal,� he remarked.

Dosu appealed to the coaching crew of the team to give them time to be rated among the best in Africa. “Enyeama ruled Africa for more than ten years. So, let’s do the same thing with these young ones, let’s give them chances to grow,� he concluded.

Meanwhile, after spending close to seven months taking treatment for his injuries, Super Eagles first choice keeper to the last World Cup in Russia, Francis Uzoho, has finally resumed

training.

Uzoho had sustained a ligament injury in November last year in an international friendly match involving Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Brazil in Singapore which ended 1-1.

Apart from not been able to represent Nigeria, he was also missing in action for Cyprus club Omonia Nicosia where he was on a loan spell.

The Deportivo La Coruna goalkeeper resumed training on Wednesday with his personal trainer ahead of the new season.

Rivers Has Facilities to Host International Sports Events, Says Iyaye Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Hon Boma Iyaye, has said that the state has facilities to host international sporting events due to the commitment and determination of Governor Nyesom Wike.

He stated this on Tuesday in Port Harcourt when he received the President of Cycling Federation of Nigeria, Chief

Giadomenico Massari at his office on a courtesy visit.

Iyaye stressed that despite the restrictions occasioned by the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, the state received Giadomenico to underline the importance attached to sports.

According to him, the Rivers State government holds sports in high esteem, hence the hosting

of several local, national and international competitions aimed at discovering and nurturing talents.

The sports boss added that the Real Madrid Academy being built in the state by Governor Wike-led administration is of world-class standard and a testimony of his commitment to developing sports.

R-L: Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Hon. Boma Iyaye, Cycling Federation of Nigeria President, Chief Giadomenico Massari and Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Sir Honour Sirawoo during the courtesy visit to Iyaye

He particularly commended Giadomenico for his efforts and doggedness in promoting cycling as a sport, which he says has brought awakened interest and participation by increasing the number of cyclists. “Government alone cannot bring about sports development without the active participation of committed individuals and companies, hence the need for more involvement. “Let me task the cycling federation president to work with the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Sir Honour Sirawoo, on the possibility of hosting a national or international cycling event in Port Harcourt,� he stated.

Giadomenico Massari had earlier commended Iyaye for his return as sports commissioner and Honour Sirawoo, over his appointment as permanent secretary in the Ministry.

He was particularly impressed with the quality of road networks being undertaken in Port Harcourt by Governor Wike, saying it is a perfect setting for cycling to thrive.

Friday June 19, 2020

TR

UT H

& RE A SO

N

Price: N250

MISSILE

CSO to Buhari

“The president needs to show leadership and stop arresting those criticising him. We are in democracy and this system of government gives the citizens the right and freedom to hold elected public officials accountable. If the president can’t tolerate dissents, then, he should be courageous enough to resign” – A civil society organisation, Concerned Nigerians, condemning the arrest of the Chairman of the BoT of the Coalition of Northern Groups, Mr. Nastura Sharif for leading a protest against insecurity in the North.

AKINOSUNTOKUN DIALOGUE WITH NIGERIA

akin.osuntokun@thisdaylive.com

Open Letter to Abubakar Umar “O ne of the swiftest ways of destroying a kingdom is to give preference of one particular tribe over another or show favour to one group of people rather than another. And to draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near,” Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio.

As a professional communicator, one of the enduring lessons I gathered from this pandemic season is the proclivity of humanity to lapse into a logic absconding mode. Does it pass the smell test of kindergarten logic to believe that Bill Gates contrived the coronavirus plague in order to foster a global market for a ready made vaccine antidote?

To believe this requires the assumption that he has the unfettered capacity to subject and subordinate the entire victims of coronavirus, that is the entire world, put together, to his will and whom. What is, otherwise, so clear cut and glaringly discernible, are wilfully reprocessed and made out to be the exact opposite of what was intended.

You see people deliberately recoil from the evidence of their eyes and withdraw fanatically into a fantasy spinning mode.

You see highly intelligent people begin to persuade themselves that two plus two has become anything but four.

Conspiracy theories shouldn’t be an excuse for this order of crass infantilism. Bill Gates has spent upwards of two billion dollars towards the cause of the eradication of polio in Nigeria, more than the ten annual budgets of the Nigerian government put together and how do Nigerians pay him back? By branding him the foretold anti-Christ set to subject Africa to continental genocide.

This mindless affectation has escalated and correlates to the emergence of Donald Trump, the patron saint of perverted and pathological political leadership. Some may not want to qualify Nigeria’s leadership in exactly the same measure but we are no less perplexed at the demonstrable capacity for political irrationality in full apprehension of its predictable consequences; the tendency to embrace wrongdoing and turn our backs on potential solutions (to chronic fundamental challenges) hiding in plain sight.

Maybe it is in our DNA as seems awfully indicated in the pathogenesis of Nigeria’s political debility. Right from the beginning, the seriousness of the amalgamation enterprise of 1914 was belied by the levity with which the British arrived at the conclusion of creating Nigeria. How do you commit millions of people to a perilous future for no more reason than administrative expediency? And then reinforce the cruelty by deliberately implanting seeds of disharmony and discord amongst them?

There must be something fatally seductive about Nigeria, like being infatuated and fatally attracted to a notorious street prostitute. Given the pride of place reserved

Umar

for them in Nigeria, one can understand why, despite their strindent disavowal and unhappiness at cohabiting with Southern Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Ahmadu Bello, opted for Nigeria. But how do we account for the salivating exuberance of Nnamdi Azikiwe for a unitary Nigeria prompting the rebuke and rejection of Ahmadu Bello? ‘Let us forget our differences’, exuded the great Zik of Africa, only to be snubbed and requested to wake up and smell the coffee by the arrogant Fulani aristocrat, with the retort, ‘let us learn to understand our differences’.

In full knowledge of the circumstances of how he came to be a tenant at Calabar prisons, Obafemi Awolowo, returned from prison to put his prodigious capacity for public service delivery at the service of a more bloody minded Nigeria, presided over by those who dispatched him to jail.

Over and over again, in the death wish metaphor of choosing to stay in a violent and abusive marriage, you find rational decision makers making the choice to bet against the evidence staring them in the face-with consequences that are readily predictable.

If, God forbid, Nigeria were to accelerate the present momentum and careen into hobbesian disintegration, would any reasonable person claim he was sufficiently warned? Would any party to the 1914 amalgamation find amiss that, unrestrained by colonialism, Nigeria wasted no time imploding into civil war six years after independence? At his departure from Nigeria, a high ranking British colonial official noted “Shortly before leaving Lagos, I had walked in the garden of Nigeria’s Director of Broadcasting, Richmond Postgate, who was a friend. There was thick bush alongside the garden and as we peered into it, Richmond said prophetically, “I have a sense of evil things going to happen, some kind of cataclysm...” Did Anthony Kirk Green not concluded that “the tragedy of 1967 is that many of its seeds were not, as is often claimed, sown in October or even

July 1966, but in the 1950s or, as some see it, in 1914 or maybe in 1900 itself.”. Just as it is presently the case, the premonitions have always been there.

The first symbolic notice and indication of how the presidency of Major General Muhammadu Buhari may pan out, specifically, in the aspect of his scorched earth nepotism, was the falsity behind the infamous quote at his inauguration in May 2015. It turned out that the quote ‘I belong to nobody and belong to everybody’ was a fraudulent plagiarism of an American presidential address. His stewardship has been an embodiment of that fraud.

My understanding of Abubakar Umar’s mild rebuke of Buhari is the futility of making sense of the political mismanagement of Nigeria by President Buhari. Professor Wole Soyinka recently attributed the trademark leadership incapacity of the President to some kind of absent minded dereliction but no one can be in a state of suspended animation all the time or picking one’s teeth from dawn to dusk. Which leaves room, in those rare moments of lucidity, to apply himself to the cause of minimal redress and rectitude. In remembrance of Soyinka’s admonition to the Buhari military dictatorship in 1984, that counselling Buhari is synonymous with talking to the deaf, Umar’s objective does not go beyond wanting to be on record against the day the cookie finally crumbles.

Unpalatable as it may sound, the problem is not so much about being biased in favour of the North. It is the character of the bias that is the biggest problem. There is the bias that can be exercised to create and foster mini Aliko Dangotes from Kano, Katsina and the other Northern redoubt.

There is also the bias that can degenerate into the virtual Northern take over of the NNPC (now renamed Northern Nigeria Petroleum Corporation). There is another in which certified mistresses are empowered with the distributorship of billions of raw cash for ostensible distribution to the less fortunate Nigerians under a supposed policy dispensation of cashless economy.

The spectre of the lady minister before the National Assembly committee the other day was nothing short of the ridiculous. Here the lady revealed that civil servants in her ministry have not been paid their salaries for the past three months yet these are the medium through which unaccountable billions in raw cash are being distributed.

I have long iterated the realpolitik position that so called Northern hegemony is not so much the issue as its primitive abuse. What government was more Fulani hegemonic than Buhari’s military dictatorship of 1984/85.

And regardless of this drawback, were the merits of relative integrity and reformist zeal he displayed not selling points for his candidacy in 2015?

The real problem Nigerians are confronted with is the near total lack of requisite patriotic political management which this government tends to personify. Confronted

with nation-threatening challenges, what a country requires to overcome those challenges are, first and foremost, the social and political mobilisation of the citizenry.

The failure of this government is, precisely, the self-inflicted incapacity to request this commitment from Nigerians. It was what President John Kennedy paraphrased as ‘ask what you can do for your country and not what your country can do for you’.

So here again are the options.The most viable and realistic is restructuring- which translates into the interpretation that those things we cannot achieve jointly, we can do so with sub national sacrificial exertions (which is what federalism is all about). If, only, Nigeria will dare, there is no section of this country that will not feel challenged to succeed and thrive. And it is to that extent that the singularly killer poison of corruption will abate. Under a massive regional pressure for the maximisation of scarce resources, who is that local government chairman, for instance, who reduces his job to a once in a month show up to convert the occasion of the monthly allocation into a looting spree?

Rather than become excuses for one another’s failure, wouldn’t we all accept the challenge of seizing the initiative to make a positive difference of what, validly, has become our decentralised and localised responsibility? And then the returns from all these decentralised capabilities would be pooled and add up to a strong and viable Nigeria. What we are presently harvesting as individual components of Nigeria are weaknesses which add up to the anaemic Nigeria of today. The sum of weaknesses can only produce a gigantic collective weakness in the same manner that value added strength will be harnessed to produce a strong and vibrant nation.

The other potential but not so realistic option is for Buhari to suddenly become a charismatic Nigerian patriarch sending for someone like me to go and get an urgent development task sorted out in Funtua and plan to celebrate the Christmas break with Chief Emeka Anyaoku at Obosi. And reinforce it with the resuscitation of the Attah of Okene cosmopolitan formula who entrusted his children to the care and mentoring of his brother monarchs all over Nigeria, while reciprocally hosting and raising their children in return. Hence the late Judith Attah grew up in Ondo at the Osemawe palace. Other children like Mahmud Attah, Adamu Attah, Ado Ibrahim and Abdulaziz Attah were similarly embedded. Was it any wonder that Abdulaziz was at a time the secretary to the Eastern regional government? You can of course contrast this to the ethnic chauvinism of grandees like the late Mallam Adamu Ciroma (may his soul rest in peace) who hounded Olowolaiyemo from Maiduguri with one of his vintage acerbic one liners that ‘the Yoruba secretary to the Borno government should pack his bags and hurry home’.

Printed and Published in Lagos by THISDAY Newspapers Limited. Lagos: 35 Creek Road, Apapa, Lagos. Abuja: Plot 1, Sector Centre B, Jabi Business District, Solomon Lar Way, Jabi North East, Abuja .

All Correspondence to POBox 54749, Ikoyi, Lagos. EMAIL: editor@thisdaylive.com, info@thisdaylive.com. TELEPHONE Lagos: 0802 2924721-2, 08022924485. Abuja: Tel: 08155555292, 08155555929 24/7 ADVERTISING HOT LINES: 0811 181 3085 0811 181 3086, 0811 181 3087, 0811 181 3088, 0811 181 3089, 0811 181 3090. ENQUIRIES & BOOKING: adsbooking@thisdaylive.com