THISDAY STYLE MAGAZINE 4TH JULY 2021 by THISDAY Newspapers Ltd

Tompolo: There’s Fear, Tension in N’Delta over NDDC Board Crisis Says govt must be sincere in handling the issues Sylvester Idowu in Warri A former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo

otherwise known as Tompolo, has warned the federal government over palpable tension and fear in the region, following the inability of the government to constitute a substantive board for the

Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Tompolo, who has continued to appeal to the agitators and stakeholders in the region to sustain the existing peace in the region,

said it was important for the federal government to quickly accede to their request as well as handle issues of development in the region with sincerity. Tompolo, the Ibe-Ebidouwei

of Ijaw Nation, who made the appeal on Friday night in a statement he personally signed, however, accused multinational oil companies of conspiracies with the federal government.

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had promised stakeholders and agitators in the region that President Continued on page 10

Girl, 14, Killed as Lagos Mega Rally Turns Bloody… Page 5 Sunday 4 July, 2021 Vol 26. No 9582

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Zamfara Gov’s Defection Stirs Leadership Crisis in State APC Marafa: Buni’s chairmanship illegal, threatens court action Kyari: Matawalle can’t be our leader, Buni lacks power to dissolve EXCO PDP says defector gov’s statement confirms APC is behind insecurity Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Sylvester Idowu in Warri Last week’s defection of

Governor Bello Matawalle from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC)

has set off a new leadership struggle in Zamfara State as Senator Kabiru Marafa and former Governor Abdul-Aziz

Yari have opposed a directive that the defector governor has automatically become the leader of APC in the state.

Senator Kabir Marafa contended that the APC constitution in section 17(4) forbade Governor Mai Mala

Buni from being the chairman of APC. Continued on page 5

New Draft Electoral Law Bars Electronic Transfer of Results Lawmakers set for showdown this week

Deji Elumoye and Chuks Okocha in Abuja A new Electoral Act Amendment Bill which provides for total ban of electronic transmission of votes is to be introduced at the Senate next Tuesday. The provision forms part of the 121-page document to be laid before the upper legislative chamber at plenary by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Kabir Gaya. The proposed piece of legislation is titled "A Bill for an Act to repeal the Electoral Act No 6, 2010 and enact the Electoral Act 2021, to regulate the conduct of Federal, State and Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory elections, and for related matters". But this current draft, which is said to be at variance with what was earlier agreed to

by the committees of the two chambers of the legislature, THISDAY gathered, might result in a showdown amongst the lawmakers, when the draft is tabled for debate this week. This is as the Senate Committee chaired by Senator Kabiru Gaya was said to have concluded plans to clear Ms. Laureate Onochie as an INEC national commissioner. The bill, which has 153 sections, is divided into eight parts including Establishment and function, etc of INEC, Staff of the Commission, National register of Voters and Voters' education and procedure at election. Other parts of the bill are political parties, Electoral Offences, determination of election petitions arising from election petitions and Miscellaneous. The draft bill, a copy of which was sighted by Continued on page 8

CORONATION OF THE EMIR OF KANO... L-R: Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo (SAN); Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero; and Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, at the coronation of the Emir of Kano, held at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano State...yesterday

Macron Meets Adenuga, Dangote, Samad, Wigwe in Paris... Pages 19 & 20

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Girl, 14, Killed as Lagos Mega Rally Turns Bloody Segun James The scheduled Lagos mega rally by Yoruba nation agitators turned bloody yesterday as a 14-year-old girl was killed, apparently, by stray bullet from the Nigeria Police. The rally could not hold on a large scale as planned because of heavy police presence at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, a situation that led to a confrontation between the agitators and security agents. The rally was planned by Yoruba activist, Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho. But barely 24 hours before it was due to commence, the police denied the planners a permit. The police claimed the timing of the rally was wrong, as the state was still in pains following the huge destruction suffered during the last #EndSARS protests. The girl, a yoghurt seller simply identified as Jumoke, was said to be running following gunshots by the police to disperse the protesters, when she was hit by stray bullet from the back. It was gathered that the girl was not part of the protest and efforts to speak to a man, who said he was the father of the girl, failed, as he declined speaking to the press. The State Police Command is yet to react to the development. The Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, did not come to the rally due to the refusal of the police to grant the marchers a permit. Despite the unfavourable disposition of the Nigeria Police to the agitation for Oduduwa Republic, protesters in Lagos and others from outside the state were able to gather at Ojota for the rally, dressed in traditional attires, with some decorated with charms. They voiced their position and declared they were tired of the Nigerian union. The protesters, who initially appeared to be

nowhere near the venue of the rally, Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, suddenly started gathering close to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, as he addressed newsmen on reasons the state government was opposed to the rally. THISDAY checks revealed that policemen and soldiers were drafted to the venue of the rally since Friday night, and there was reinforcement Saturday morning. Over 25 trucks belonging to the Nigeria Police, Nigerian Army, and members of the Lagos State security outfit, Rapid Response Service (RRS) were seen stationed at the park and around it. Policemen and soldiers stood at strategic positions, cuddling their guns as the service lane from Ketu to Ojota was cordoned off to prevent people coming close to the venue. At Berger Bus Stop, policemen embarked on a stop and search exercise, even as operatives of the joint military patrol, Operation MESA, were drafted to patrol Berger, Ojota, Maryland, Ikeja and parts of Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, an exercise that created a heavy gridlock on the road. Some of the protesters, who spoke with newsmen, complained about the high level of insecurity and injustice in the country, saying they are tired and ready to leave Nigeria for Oduduwa Republic. One of the agitators, Mr. Taiwo Abiodun Obanla, who rolled on the ground in frustration as he spoke, said, "We are not going home, we want Yoruba Nation, we are no more Nigerians. We don't want Nigeria, we are suffering, we don't want to die." A leader of the rally, simply identified as Opeoluwa, who led a group of Osun worshippers to the march, was seen approaching some police officers at the venue with a letter to the Inspector-General, Baba Alkali, as he appealed to them to cooperate with the

protesters and let them hold their peaceful rally. Opeoluwa said the protesters were men and women of peace. He said, “I have a letter

for the IG. We don't have anything against the police, we don't have anything against the army, we don't have anything against the

security agencies. We want you to protect us. “We want to hold a peaceful rally. We are for peace; we are men and women of peace.

Please, cooperate with us; we are not here to fight you.” Police used water cannons and fired gunshots to try to disperse the protesters.

PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY... Former US Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate, Mrs Hillary Clinton (left), and President, African Development Bank, Mr Akinwunmi Adesina, at a Forum on Gender Equality in Paris...recently

ZAMFARA GOV’S DEFECTION STIRS LEADERSHIP CRISIS IN STATE APC He also said he had told President Muhammadu Buhari of the banana peel on the path of Buni as chairman of APC, threatening legal actions for his continued stay in office as APC Chairman. According to Marafa, "You see, let me tell you something that is likely to happen, as far as I'm concerned. APC should let the sleeping dog lie. Mai Mala Buni, the chairman, doesn't have the powers under the constitution to make certain pronouncements and that is number one. "Number two, issues will come up and we are going to challenge even the legality of his being a chairman of APC. When you look at our APC Constitution, sections 17 sub 4 in particular forbids Mai Mala from being the chairman of the party. I have warned. "I have alerted Mr President a long time ago that, we should be very wary of these banana peels, because if things are pushed to their limits, there will be consequences. Now when you push a man to the

wall, definitely he is going to fight back. So, we are going to ask these fundamental questions, when the need arises to do so," he said. Specifically, Marafa said there was no APC in Zamfara and no governor for the state now. Speaking on Arise TV network, Marafa, who had earlier taken APC to court, resulting in the disqualification of the party in the 2019 governorship election said, "We don’t have any governor for now," insisting that Matawalle’s defection violated the 2019 Supreme Court Judgement. On his part, Yari too has rejected Mataealle as the leader of APC in the state. Featuring on BBC Hausa Service, Yari rejected Buni’s declaration, saying Matawalle was not the leader of the party. Speaking after a meeting with the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir ElRufai, Yari said; “It’s one thing that we are challenging which is the declaration by Governor

Mai Mala. His declaration was not part of what we discussed with six governors before he (Matawalle) defected. “What we all agreed during our meeting with the six governors was that Matawalle should be received into our fold and afterwards we should discuss how to integrate both his people and ours. But during the defection, we were told that the party executives should be dissolved. You just don’t dissolve executives of a party, because nobody has the power to do so,” Yari said. Corroborating this, Marafa said the declaration of Matawalle as the leader of the party in the state was tantamount to deception, insisting that they would not accept it. “We said for proper integration, there should be a meeting for proper consultations but all of a sudden, announcement was made that the party executives had been dissolved and someone was named as leader of our party. This is

incorrect,” he maintained. Meanwhile, the PDP has said the claim by Matawalle, that he joined the APC in order to get the federal government to end insecurity in his state, reinforced public’s stance that the APC and its government were responsible for the banditry, terrorism and kidnapping ravaging the state. According to the PDP, stating that now that he has finally joined the APC, he would “have the full backing of the federal government to fight insecurity”, further exposed that the APC was never committed to fighting insecurity but apparently fueling it for political gains. PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said, the statement by Governor Matawalle further confirmed that the APC has been promoting insecurity particularly, terrorism and kidnapping for ransom, in various parts of the country as a way to create an emergency situation to cover their atrocities, siphon public

funds as well as intimidate and coerce state governors elected on the platform of other political parties to join their fold. The PDP recalled how Matawalle had been under pressure by the APC-led federal government with the imposition of no flight as well as threats of state of emergency in the state. "Nigerians now know those behind the violent abductions, kidnapping and other acts of terrorism in the state and other parts of the country as well as why the situation has continued to escalate under the APC. "It is indeed atrocious and most unpardonable that the APC is using the blood of innocent and helpless Nigerians for its political gains as well as to create a gory merchandise for its leaders and cronies," he said. PDP held that by this claim, it was clear that Matawalle did not defect to the APC, because the party has any democratic credential as

erroneously claimed by the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, but only surrendered to intimidation and cowardly joined those behind the killings and acts of violence in Nigeria. "Of course, the APC as a party of political bandits, does not have any democratic credential to attract wellmeaning and patriotic Nigerians. "Governor Matawalle must, however, note that joining such individuals, who have brought so much anguish and pain to his people, is an unpardonable act of betrayal which will continue to act as an albatross particularly, against the backdrop of his own vows,” the PDP said. On the reclaiming of the governorship mandate, the PDP described Matawalle’s boast as the feeble kick of a disoriented and confused deserter, stressing that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear on the Continued on page 12

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LEADING LADIES NETWORK ANNIVERSARY... L-R: Founder and Director of Leading Ladies Network, Yawa Hansen-Quao; Special Advicer to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Ease of Doing Business, Dr Jumoke Oduwole; Chief of staﬀ to President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, Hon. Akosua Frema Osei-Opare; Member of Parliament for the Klottey-Korle Constituency, Ghana, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings; and Managing Director Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala Usman at the Leading Ladies Network 11th Anniversary Conference in Accra Ghana...recently

Lawan Laments Misunderstanding of Legislature’s Role Says legislators overburdened with constituents’ personal problems Deji Elumoye in Abuja President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has lamented what he calls the lack of understanding of the legislature’s role by constituents and the general public, who slur legislators based on wrong assumptions. Lawan said legislators at all levels in the country were often overburdened with personal requests from constituents. The senate president spoke on Saturday in Abuja in a keynote address at the opening of the Conference of Presiding Officers of the Nigerian Legislature. He said the legislature at the federal and state levels was the core institution for the sustenance of democracy and the polity. Speaking against the

backdrop of insinuations about the recent leakage of the roof of the National Assembly complex, Lawan said it was unfair to assume that legislators embezzled money budgeted for the rehabilitation of the complex. He said the money for the repair was actually domiciled in the Federal Capital Territory budget. According to the senate president, “This is one demonstration and testimony of misperception of the legislature. As I speak, this is still going through the procurement process. But you know what, when there was leakage, some of these critics and haters and traducers of the National Assembly said the National Assembly had spent the money. ‘They have finished the rehabilitation. Look at what

is happening.’ “They didn't even care to find out what really happened. So they went to town. "Without this legislature, there is no democracy. The National Assembly and legislature across the country are people's institutions. Not members of the National Assembly's institution or state Assembly members' institution. It’s the public. It's the people. “So, I will always advise that members of the public, especially those minority who have access to media, should, please, help our democracy prosper. Tell the true story. Inform correctly. Publicise rightly. We welcome criticisms.” Lamenting excessive financial pressure from constituents, Lawan said, “I'm going to marry, somebody will call

you. My wife is pregnant; he will look for you – either state Assembly member or National Assembly. My son is sick. My son is going to school. "Everything is about the legislator. This is the role that the legislator performs informally because these are not supposed to be our roles but we do them so well and more than anybody else. I believe it's something that we have to live with but it's something that we need to continue to enlighten the people." Lawan also advised outspoken members of the public to give credit to the legislature when necessary. He said, "When it comes to giving the National Assembly or the legislature credit, those who have access to media are

either too economical with their ratings or even too blind to see very good performances by the National Assembly and the legislature across the country. "This is one National Assembly that has broken so many jinxes. Last year, when we had to pass an amendment on the Deep Offshore Production Sharing Contract Act, Nigeria was earning only 216 million dollars before the amendment. With that singular amendment, Nigeria will earn two billion dollars. And that is something that could have been done 20 years ago but each time it came to the National Assembly, something happened. "It is only in this Ninth National Assembly that we defeated the demons last year and we defeated them

yesterday (Thursday). These demons are people but majority of Nigerians are happy with what their legislatures across the country are doing." The senate president said the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passed on Thursday by the upper chamber was central to the Nigerian economy and the lives of the people, particularly, the host communities in the oil producing states. He applauded the cooperation between the legislature and executive, which facilitated the passage of the bill. Lawan also said, "There are many Nigerians who are honest but they are misled into believing that the National Assembly, for example, every month the National Assembly members are given N150 million.

the committee level. They have been playing hide and seek on the matter. "For all I know and other committee members can bear me witness, the issue of ban on electronic transfer of votes was not part of the report we wrote. So, that means the committee Chairman is culpable and owes the committee members an explanation over the strange insertion". The bill, which has been in the works for some time would be laid before the Senate next Tuesday by Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Gaya. THISDAY learnt that the bill would then be scheduled for debate on Wednesday with the former governor of Kano State and committee Chairman, Senator Gaya, leading the debate by summarising the provisions

of the bill. However, the bill may run into crisis as there are plans by some Senators especially, members of the Senate Committee on INEC to oppose the strange clause included in the draft. THISDAY gathered at the weekend that the Senators had already begun to reach out to their colleagues, explaining that they were not part of the inserted clause. They have, therefore, pledged to resist the clause banning electronic transmission of votes cast during the general debate of the bill this Wednesday. In a related development, despite the protests against the person of Ms Onochie, the source claimed the Senator Gaya-led committee has concluded plans to approve her appointment as an INEC national commissioner.

NEW DRAFT ELECTORAL LAW BARS ELECTRONIC TRANSFER OF RESULTS THISDAY,

allowed for electronic voting by secret ballot but ruled out electronic transmission of the votes cast at the poling units. This is contained on Page 25 of the document and subtitled procedure at election under Section 50(2) of bill which states: "Voting at an election under this bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission (INEC) which may include electronic voting provided that the Commission shall not transmit results of election by electronic means". According to section. 50 (2) of the new draft, "Voting at an election under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission, which may include electronic voting, PROVIDED that the Commission shall not transmit results of election by electronic

means". The draft bill further stated that, "Voting at an election under this Bill shall be by open secret ballot" and that "A voter on receiving a ballot paper shall mark it in the manner prescribed by the Commission. "All ballots at an election under this Bill at any polling station shall be deposited in the ballot box in the open view of the public. "No voter shall vote for more than one candidate or record more than one vote in favour of any candidate at any one election. (2)Where the number of votes cast at an election in any polling unit exceeds the number of accredited voters in that polling unit, the Presiding Officer shall cancel the result of the election in that polling unit. "Where the result of an election is cancelled in

accordance with subsection (2), there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit.(4)Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (2) and (3), the Commission may, if satisfied that the result of the election will not substantially be affected by voting in the area where the election is cancelled, direct that a return of the election be made. "Where a voter makes any writing or mark on a ballot paper by which he or she may be identified, such ballot paper shall be rejected provided that any print resulting from the staining of the thumb of the voter in the voting compartment shall not be or be deemed to be a mark of identification under this section. “The Commission shall use indelible ink for any thumb mark

by voters on ballot papers", the draft bill stated. THISDAY findings revealed that this clause was sneaked into the draft bill by some leaders of the legislature without the knowledge of the committee members. A ranking Senator and member of the Senate committee on INEC, upon enquiry, told THISDAY that at no time was that provision discussed at the committee level talk less of inserting it in the draft bill. The Senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, he now understood why the delay in presenting the bill after the committee had long concluded its work. His words: "This is not funny at all. I now know why the presentation of the report had been delayed this long after we finished our work at

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El-Rufai Wants Carpet Bombing of Forests to Eliminate Bandits in North-west Says bandits plotting to kidnap his children Insists they will not get a penny from the state, they will get bullets instead Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has declared that the military must launch a grand offensive against armed bandits in the North-west in order to free the region of the scourge of kidnapping perpetrated by bandits. He said though the military had sustained the decimation of the criminal elements using air strikes and ground troops, insufficient attack aircraft and troops had derailed a final clearance operation. This is coming as the Kaduna State chief security officer raised the alarm that bandits were planning to attack his children's school and kidnap them. Speaking in an interview with the British Broadcasting Service (BBC), el-Rufai said a military-led offensive must be initiated to eliminate once and for all bandits operating in North-west forests. "We must kill all the bandits who must go to the forest and carpet bomb and kill everyone there. This has been our position for the past two years. I'm happy to say that this is being done, not in the coordinated manner that I wanted, because I wanted this to happen at the same time in all seven states of the North-west. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough planes. We don't have enough soldiers. We don't have enough to do this simultaneously. So it's been done gradually, but there has been a lot of degradation of the bandits", he said. "I assure you we are killing them. We are wiping out their camps, and the military and the the the air force particularly and the Nigerian army with special forces have been doing a great job. "Many people don't know how many attempted kidnaps we have foiled many people don't know because we don't talk about it. They only know the ones that have succeeded", he said. Meanwhile, the Kaduna State chief executive has withdrawn his children from Kaduna Capital School following security reports of a plot by bandits to attack the school and kidnap his children.

Seven killed in Chikun, Kajuru, Giwa LGAs

He told BBC that available security reports revealed that three bandit groups were planning to abduct his son from the school, a situation which he also noted would expose other children to danger. The governor, had, in a bid to revamp public education in the state enrolled two of his children, Abubakar Sadiq and his younger sister, Nasrine. "My son is registered in the school because his sister also became six years of age and we registered her in the school but we’ve had to temporarily withdraw them for the security of the school because we got intercept from at least two groups that are planning to attack the school to kidnap my son. “I don’t think they will succeed because there will be enough security there to prevent it but other children may be placed in danger. We have no idea what weapons they will come with,” he said. The governor said the children, who had taken to home study, were withdrawn from school following security reports made available to him. Governor el-Rufai said the state government had maintained its position against payment of ransom to kidnappers. The governor had disclosed in an earlier media interview that the plot to abduct his children was designed to see if he would not pay ransom. "We have a feeling that the renewed attacks in Kaduna are not unconnected to the position that we have taken as a government that we will not negotiate with criminals. “We will not give them any money and they will not make any profit from Kaduna. Anyone that comes to Kaduna will not get a penny from the state government, except he will get a bullet instead.”

State, an official of the state said last night According to him, the developments were reported to the Kaduna State Government by security agencies on yesterday. The source said the bandits shot four kidnapped citizens at the outskirts of Tsohon Gayan general area of Chikun LGA. “Two were identified as Solomon Bamaiyi and Francis Moses from Kakau village of

the same LGA. The third was identified as being from Kachia town and the fourth remains unidentified. “In I Station, Kajuru LGA, two citizens, Reuben Tanko and Sani Jibrin were also shot dead by a group of armed bandits. “One Danjuma Alhaji, a native of Tsohon Farakwai of Igabi LGA was similarly killed by bandits at the outskirts of Galadima general area of Giwa

LGA”, he added. Governor Nasir El-Rufai was said to have sent condolences to their families and prayed for the repose of their souls. “Furthermore, security agencies have carried out confidence building visit to Iri Station, where some citizens were killed and an unspecified number kidnapped. “The Commissioner Internal Security and Home Affairs,

Samuel Aruwan, who led the delegation assured the community of government's commitment to the security and peace of the general area”, the official explained. He also said that collaboration between communities and security agencies is critical and must be cultivated towards enhancing security in areas that are difficult to access across the state.

Seven killed in Chikun, Kajuru, Giwa LGAs In a related development yesterday, armed bandits reportedly killed seven persons within the last 72 hours in Chikun, Kajuru and Giwa local government areas of Kaduna

Dangote Symphatises with Aig-Imoukhuede...

Alhaji Aliko Dangote sympathises with Aigboje Aig-Inoukhuede on the passing of his mom, Pastor Emily Aig-Imoukhuede in Lagos

Tompolo: There’s Fear, Tension in N’Delta over NDDC Board Crisis Muhammadu Buhari would inaugurate a new board for the interventionist agency in June. The promise by Akpabio on behalf of the federal government was not kept as at June ending thereby fueling tension in the now relatively peaceful Niger Delta region. However, in spite of government’s failure, Tompolo appealed to the people of the region to exercise patience, adding that the people of the region must avoid a renewed crisis. He lamented that the people of the region were suffering as a result of government’s failure to cater tothe welfare of her citizens, noting that the situation was not different in other parts of the country,where government had also failed them. The Gbaramatu-born chief, in the statement titled: “Niger Delta Agitators’ Ultimatum to the Federal Government of Nigeria: A Call for Restrain”

reiterated his call for the urgent constitution of the board of the commission to arrest looming crisis in the region. He noted that since the expiration of his ultimatum, he had been in constant touch with agitators and relevant stakeholders in the region on the need to keep the existing peace in the oil-rich region. “It has become expedient that I speak on the above subject matter. It could be recalled that I issued ultimatum to the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, the National Assembly and President Muhammadu Buhari to do the needful on the issue of the NDDC board by constituting the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as an urgent matter of public importance and interest to avoid a breakdown of law and order in the region, sometime ago. “My ultimatum led to a

consultative meeting between major stakeholders from the region and Senator Godswill Akpabio in Oporoza town, where a truce was reached, as the Minister profusely pleaded that he should be allowed to start and fast-track the process of constituting the board within the month of June, 2021. “June 2021 has come to an end. The people of the region are yet to see any tangible move towards the constitution of the NDDC board by the federal government. The people are seriously agitated. There is palpable fear and tension in the region. “I wish to reiterate my earlier position that, the government should as a matter of urgency, constitute the substantive board of the NDDC to avoid unnecessary bickering and crisis in the region. “Since I reluctantly accepted the outcome of the consultative meeting, I have done so much to

keep peace in the region which some major stakeholders in the security circle are aware of. “I have been in constant touch with my fellow agitators in the region to give peace a chance, knowing full well that there cannot be any meaningful development in an atmosphere of rancor and acrimony. “As it stands now, the one thing the government must do in this issue is to be courageous enough to constitute the NDDC board. Government must be sincere in handling developmental issues in the Niger Delta region as the people have suffered enough, being neglected for several decades. “The truth of the matter is that there is so much bitterness in the land owing to the lackadaisical attitude of this government in handling matters of great importance to its citizens,” Tompolo said. While prevailing on his colleagues to maintain the

prevailing peace in the region, Tompolo declared:“As for my follow agitators, please permit me to borrow the biblical words of Jesus Christ, that we should be wise as serpent and gentle as dove to continue our agitation for a better living for our people. “We must avoid anything that may throw the only relatively peaceful region in the country now into chaos, because of government’s nonchalant attitude towards the security and welfare of its citizenry as constitutionally provided. “The average Nigerian citizen is a government of his or her own as the citizens provide everything for themselves today. The government is unfair to a greater number of its citizens. The Nigerian Government must create an enabling environment for the citizens to live a prosperous and peaceful life.” The former MEND leader further accused multinational

oil companies operating in the region of alleged conspiracy to further impoverished the people of oil-bearing communities by not performing their obligation to their hosts. “Multinational oil companies operating in the Niger delta region are not left out in the troubles of the region. They are clearly part of the conspiracy in the marginalisation of the region. They must perform their statutory obligations to the people of the region by promptly delivering cooperate social responsivities to the people. “Most of the companies are operating under the cover of the Nigerian Military, which has further exacerbated the relationship between Multinationals and their host communities. They must do their business in a most friendly atmosphere, and not to set neighbouring host communities against one another”, Tompolo wrote in the statement.

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Nigerian Surgeons Seek Increased Funding for Health Institutions Seriki Adinoyi in Jos The Nigerian section of the International College of Surgeons (ICS) has urged the federal government to increase funding for healthcare across the board and fix dilapidated infrastructure in health institutions across the country. The group made the call at its 54th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference held in Jos. The surgeons recommended that action be expedited on the completion and implementation

of a surgical health plan for the country. In a communiqué signed by the president and secretary of the college, Gen. Maurice Ezeoke and Professor Lucky Onotai, respectively, the surgeons commended the efforts of the current and past governments of Nigeria to provide healthcare for the citizenry. But they observed that the efforts were not farreaching enough to deliver optimal healthcare in the country. Although the college

acknowledged the drop in the revenue generating capacity of the country, it believed that Nigeria had the capacity to do more for the health of its citizens. The immediate past president of the college, Professor Yawale Iliyasu, who gave account of his stewardship in the past two years during the conference, lamented the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health sector. Iliyasu said the pandemic claimed the lives of some members of the college.

Iliyasu stated, “The COVID-19 pandemic did not only truncate the 2020 meeting, it also stalled the work of the building committee. Now that the world has come to terms with the coronavirus and learnt to live with it, the committee has been reinvigorated and mandated to start work immediately.” In a keynote address titled, “Surgery and Global Health,” Professor Ndu Eke identified insecurity as one of the leading causes of global ill health. Eke said there were different causes

of insecurity, namely, natural causes, such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and volcanoes; and contrived causes, like wars, riots, genocide, and mass trauma from accidents, which he said were by far more disconnecting. On solution to the problem of insecurity, which he said had taken a heavy toll on global health, Eke said, “Every political entity, whether as a community, a country, a nation, a region or a continent, should strive and be seen to strive to achieve the development goals regarding

health.” He advocated deliberate effort to maintain a high standard of training for doctors, especially surgeons, and equip hospitals, adding that COVID-19 exposed an embarrassing lack of basic necessities, such as oxygen, in hospitals at all levels. Eke said, “Food sufficiency should be the cardinal objective of any governing entity. There is massive arable land, sufficient water from rains and rivers, and hardworking people. So, there should be no reason for food scarcity.”

SOLEMNISATION OF HOLY MATRIMONY... L-R: Bride's parents, Pastor (Mrs.) Mary Akem-Vingir, and Maj General (rtd) Pat Akem-Vingir; Groom, Daniel Osuoji; Bride, Olive Vingir; Groom's Parents, Mrs. Augusta Osuoji and her husband, Associate Prof. Rowland Osuoji, during the solemnisation of Holy Matrimony between Olive and Daniel Osuoji at the Redeemed Christian Church of God Jesus Embassy, Abuja at the weekend

Ganduje Presents Staff of Army Chief Appoints Principal Office to 15th Kano Fulani Emir Officers, Field Commanders

Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, on Saturday presented staff of office to the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero. Bayero is the 15th Emir of Kano from the Fulani Sullubawa clan. He ascended the throne on March 9, 2020 following the deposition of his nephew, Muhammad Sanusi II, by Ganduje. The colourful ceremony at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano, the state capital, attracted the who’s who of politics and business in Nigeria. They included the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari. The traditional rulers present included the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar Sa'ad III; Shehu of Bornu, Shehu

Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi; Obi of Onitsha, His Royal Majesty, Igwe Alfred Achebe; Oni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II; and Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo N'Oba N'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II. The senate president, Ahmad Lawan, and a good number of senators graced the occasion. Minister of Niger Delta, Goodwill Akpabio, led a delegation of ministers to the event, which was attended by about nine governors across party and regional divides. Ganduje, in a speech shortly after the presentation of the staff of office, advised the emir to steer clear of partisan politics and focus on his duties. The governor, who described Aminu Ado Bayero as a man of the masses, urged him to ensure the development of his domain like his late father. Ganduje said God had used him to appoint Emir Ado and

rewrite the history of Kano by creating four additional emirates, which would go a long way in developing the entire state. The governor also advised the emir to stay away from anything that could tarnish the image of the traditional institution. In his acceptance speech, Aminu Ado Bayero said it was Allah's sympathy on his forefathers that brought him to this notable level. He commended Ganduje for making it possible for him to inherit the throne of his forefathers and promised to be fair to all in the discharge of his duties. The emir charged traditional rulers in his domain to be vigilant, security conscious and report suspicious faces to the relevant authorities. Bayero advised those in positions of authority to fear God in all their dealings, saying everyone shall give account of his stewardship in the hereafter.

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Maj. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, yesterday approved the appointment of Principal Staff Officers (PSOs), field commanders and other key staff expected to provide the much needed vigour in his command of the Nigerian Army (NA). A statement issued by Army Spokesman, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, said the posting was released by the office of the military secretary were designed to rejig the army leadership for efficiency in command and administration. Details of the deployments showed that the army chief approved the appointment of the Commandant Nigerian Army Armoured School, Maj. Gen. BO Sawyer as the new Director Defence Information while the Chief of Operations Army, Maj. Gen. IM Yusuf becomes the Commandant Nigerian Defence

Academy. The statement said Maj. Gen. TA Gagariga will move from Army Headquarters Department of Policy and Plans to Nigerian Army Artillery Corps as Corps Commander Artillery and Maj Gen VO Ezugwu of Training and Doctrine Command becomes the Commander Infantry Corps. Maj Gen MA Yekini is the new Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Maj Gen MS Yusuf will take over as Chief of Defence Standard and Evaluation, while the Chief of Civil - Military Affairs, Maj Gen AB Omozoje will take over as the Chief of Policy and Plans at the Army Headquarters. Equally, Maj Gen SO Olabanji becomes the Commander Training and Doctrine Command, Maj Gen OA Akintade is the new Chief of Army Logistics, Maj Gen OT Akinjobi takes over as Chief of Operations (Army), Maj Gen JA Ataguba becomes the Chief of Army Standard and

Evaluation while Maj Gens KI Mukhtar and C Ofoche are the new Chief of Administration and Chief of Transformation and Innovation respectively. The Army Headquarters statement said Maj Gen AB Ibrahim is appointed as Chief of Training (Army). Among the new field commanders are Maj Gen AK Ibrahim who takes over as the Force Commander, Multi National Joint Task Force, N'Djamena and Maj Gen IS Ali who becomes the General Officer Commanding 3 Division and will double as the Commander Special Task Force Operation Safe Haven. The army chief also approved the appointment of commanders, commandants of Nigerian Army institutions, directors and other key appointments at both defence and army headquarters levels. The army statement said the appointments take immediate effect.

due to insecurity occasioned by the activities of marauding killer herdsmen, bandit and kidnappers, which is currently ravaging every facet of our national life. “Instead of looking for ways to salvage the situation, politicians from both the ruling party APC and the opposition

PDP are busy crisscrossing between political parties like political prostitutes” Onuesoke stated. The former governorship aspirant called on politicians to wake up and face the reality of tackling the problems facing the country instead of pursuing their selfish and personal interest.

ZAMFARA GOV’S DEFECTION STIRS LEADERSHIP CRISIS IN STATE APC responsibilities of a deputy governor that finds himself under an absconding governor like Matawalle. In Delta State, a former governorship aspirant of the PDP, Chief Sunny Onuesoke said yesterday that defection was no solution to the myriads of problems confronting the nation

at the moment. Onuesoke, who spoke while reacting to the series of defections across party lines by political office holders said those doing so with prevailing social and security problems across the country were callous and wicked. "Defection is no solution to

the myriads of problems facing the country at the moment, Nigerians are hungry. For the past five, six years, Nigerians have been subjected to untold hardship and hunger due to the incompetent handling of governance by those entrusted with such responsibilities, instead of increase in living standard,

Nigerians are experiencing massive decrease, Prices of basic commodities have shot astronomically high from what was obtainable in the past. “There have been lots of job losses with firms either downsizing or folding up completely. Nigerians cannot sleep with their two eyes closed

SUNDAY JULY 4, 2021 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

OPINION

NEW BIAFRANS AND THE BURDEN OF HISTORY Ike Okonta writes that in spite of the painful past, majority of the Igbo people are more interested in building their lives in a united Nigeria

“We cannot escape our history.” -President Abraham Lincoln

am from Asaba, an Igbo town in Delta State. I was only four years old when the Biafran war began. Although we were living in our hometown then, I was born in Funtua, present Katsina State. My father was a businessman in the town, running a chain of petrol-filling stations. It was the massacre of Igbos and other easterners in May and September 1966 that forced my father to gather his young family together and flee back to Asaba, abandoning his business and all his property. He had to begin life all over again. My family had not recovered from the trauma of the massacre of Igbos in the north in 1966 when the civil war broke over our heads like a thunderstorm. My father had learnt his lesson from what had happened to us in the north. He knew what he had to do. He gathered his family once again and crossed the River Niger bridge into the Biafra heartland. Barely a few weeks after we fled Asaba, Federal troops of the Second Division under the command of Brigadier Murtala Muhammed entered the town, rounded up all the adult males they found and machine-gunned them to death. Had my father not fled Asaba before the Federal troops arrived, he too would have died a grisly death. As the civil war raged and Federal troops took Biafran town after town, my father took his family and retreated together with retreating Biafran troops. We were refugees in Biafra. The only clothes we had were the clothes on our backs. We were homeless. We made do with staying in open school halls and church yards. When the rain fell it fell on us. There was no food. The Red Cross and Caritas tried to feed us with food they managed to get into Biafra in spite of the food blockade imposed by the Nigerian government on Biafra but it was never enough. We foraged for lizards for meat and ate cassava leaves. Millions of children died of Kwashiokor and other malnutrition-related diseases. It was terrible. It was an unending nightmare. The war finally ended in January 1970 and my family re-

turned to Asaba, broken and impoverished. Asaba itself was in ruins. Federal troops, not content with murdering an estimated one thousand adult males in cold blood in a single day, had ravished the women folk and looted property. Asaba in 1970 was a sad and broken town. My father had some money in the bank when the war broke out and he fled with us into Biafra. With the war over, he thought he could re-start his business with this money. When he went to the bank to cash it, he was told that the Federal Government had ordered that all the money former Biafrans had in the bank be forfeited and that they be given only twenty pounds no matter how much they had in their accounts previously. My father was shocked; he was broken. He gave up his hope of beginning again as a businessman. It took several years before he dusted up his school certificate and began all over as a teacher. I write all these things because I believe firmly that the personal is the political. What happens to us during our life’s journey informs our political choices. It is however significant that my father did not consciously set out to bring I and my siblings up as embittered Nigerians after the end of the civil war. Until he died in 1995 he did not utter a single word in lament of what had happened to us in Biafra and criticizing the Nigeria which we had been forced to re-embrace following Biafra’s defeat in 1970. My siblings and I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s as fully-integrated Nigerians. We read about Biafra and what had happened to the Igbo, but we did so as a matter of intellectual exercise. When I began my working life as a journalist in 1989 I did so as an ardent Nigerian, praising and criticizing my country when the need arose. The resurgent demand for the return of Biafra that emerged with the birth of the Movement For the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in 1999 led by Raph

When the governors of the SouthEastern States and Ohaneze Ndigbo gathered in Enugu two weeks ago and re-asserted that all Igbo were ardent Nigerians they said what was in the heart of most Igbo

Uwazurike was not born because the conditions that birthed the first Biafra in 1967 had re-emerged. No. MASSOB was born because young Igbos in their twenties and thirties were frustrated that Nigeria was not living up to its promise and giving them jobs and security. They were frustrated that life in Nigeria had become nasty and short. The corrupt and visionless governments of General Babangida and General Abacha had drummed home this fact. These new Biafrans wanted to begin all over again by returning to an imagined country where life would be better. That imagined country was Biafra. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that split from MASSOB is powered by the same politics of frustration and bitterness against a failed Nigeria. However, it is important to state that the overwhelming majority of the Igbo do not want to return to Biafra and indeed see IPOB as a nuisance. The Igbo still remember what Nigerians had done to them during the civil war with anger but are more interested in building their lives in a united Nigeria no matter how flawed and battered that Nigeria might be. When the governors of the South-Eastern States and Ohaneze Ndigbo gathered in Enugu two weeks ago and reasserted that all Igbo were ardent Nigerians they said what was in the heart of most Igbo. It was President Muhammadu Buhari that made it appear that IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu had substantial support in the southeast when he proscribed what was really an insignificant secessionist organization and jailed its leader. Nnamdi Kanu may have a loud mouth but the majority of the Igbo do not take him seriously. Nigeria is presently a failed state and that is why the Nnamdi Kanus and Sunday Igbohos have gained prominence. The situation is not helped by an incompetent President Buhari who sees every little molehill as a threatening mountain to be conquered. Hence his intemperate language directed against IPOB and the Igbo generally three weeks ago. Biafra is bitter history for the Igbo. But so far they have managed this bitter history with wisdom and pragmatism by re-embracing Nigeria. May that wisdom and pragmatism survive Buhari. oo%S 0LPOUB XBT VOUJM SFDFOUMZ -FWFSIVMNF &BSMZ $BSFFS 'FMMPX JO UIF %FQBSUNFOU PG 1PMJUJDT 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 0YGPSE )F MJWFT JO "CVKB

IS IT TOO LATE TO RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA? Nigeria can no longer guarantee life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, writes Babs Onabanjo

ope deferred makes the heart sick,” so says the Holy Book in Proverbs chapter 13 verse 12. When a heart is sick, it means ones patience, endurance, fortitude, and tolerance have been exhausted. In view of the myriad of challenges bedeviling Nigeria at the moment, it is certain that Nigerians are suffering from the deferment of hope and all efforts to fix the nation have been exhausted. The Nigerian people are sick and tired of a failed Nigerian State where nothing works. Nigeria has a constitution that symbolizes a promise to guarantee equality, fairness, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, Nigeria has not lived up to the tenet of this sacred declaration. Consequently, the constitution is nothing but a fraud designed to empower certain groups at the expense of the other Nigerian groups and entities. The promise enshrined in the constitution has not been realized. Instead the government is attempting to suppress and oppress those who are demanding change not only for themselves but for a better nation. The 1999 constitution must be abolished and be replaced by the original constitution that affirmed federalism and regional autonomy. Nigeria is a failed state operating a unitary system and claiming to be the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the same time. What an irony! The time has come to stop the deceit, restructure or break up the country into regions or nations. My hypothesis is that it is too late for restructuring. I hope I am wrong in my assumption because at the moment, Nigeria can no longer guarantee life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. Citizens are being killed, raped, kidnapped, and robbed on a daily basis. The government has lost control and inept. The international communities refer to Nigeria as a failed state waiting to collapse and disintegrate sooner than later. There are agitations from the Southeast, Southwest, South-south, and Northcentral which have fallen on deaf ears for so long. Instead of the government responding to the voices of the people, they have used brutal force to suppress the will and agitations of the people. Understandably, the people are prepared to resist the brutal force by peaceful means, non-cooperation, and civil disobedience. Regrettably, the government is determined to use force, intimidation, and state-sponsored attacks to subdue any lawful protests and

demand for systemic change. Nigeria is at a crossroads whereby the people are willing and ready to peacefully resist the brutal attack by the government and at the same time defend themselves if attacked. The problem with Nigeria is rooted in tribalism, corruption, nepotism, radical sharia Islamization agenda, and a lopsided fraudulent constitution. The promise of equity and safety has not reached all Nigerians, only a segment enjoys the safety while the majority are not safe and are marginalized by a small group who hijacked the apparatus of the government control and all security institutions. There is no justice, the police are corrupt, and the command structure is controlled by one ethnic group loyal to the President of Nigeria. The people are sick, tired, and fed up and may result in violence as the only option, God forbid. Yet, the oppressed Nigerian people are committed to peaceful demonstrations and protests but the government continues to use brutal force as in the case of #EndSARS and many other instances with no accountability or consequences. There are many cases of state-sponsored killings, arbitrary arrests, and many atrocities that go unabated all across the nation. The assault on Sunday Adeyemo’s house is reckless, dangerous and a declaration of war against the Yoruba tribe and nationhood. Likewise, the abduction and arrest of Nnamdi Kalu, if not handled carefully may be the beginning of the total disintegration of Nigeria. It is time for dialogue and diplomacy and international condemnation of the Nigerian government. Civil disobedience, protests, and many peaceful expressions of the right to protest must continue until positive change, civility and restructuring can be achieved. Furthermore, perhaps the hope of the people lies in the hands of the impartial judicial system and the legislative branch of the government. We must not discount their influence. We believe that in good conscience, fairness, and pursuit of the truth, they will rise to the occasion by listening to the voice and understanding the mind of the people and hopefully prevent Nigeria from disintegration. The culture of Fulani domination is no longer acceptable, the institutions must rid themselves of the Fulani marginalization, nepotism, corruption, violation of human rights, abuse of power, inept officers of the law, arbitrary detention, state-sponsored killings, kidnapping, rapes, and other vices. Nigeria needs economic growth and development through

investment in agriculture, technical education, and entrepreneurship. These activities cannot take place in the environment of insecurities caused by the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and kidnapping spearheaded and dominated by the Northern Fulani ethnic group. These criminals have been aided and allowed mostly freehand to run rampage across the country ever since the government of Buhari came into power. Sunday Adeyemo and others clearly understood the awesome challenges to protect their people at the expense of their own safety. The agreement is the basis of power. The constitution is an agreement and it sets the foundation for the Nigerian state however, there was no agreement by the people for the 1999 constitution which was forced upon Nigeria by those whose intentions are to hijack the nation for their self-interest. Nigeria is in denial. It is time to address the structural problem and change the constitution. We can no longer pretend that all is well when the nation is on fire. The nation must be restructured with regional autonomy or go its separate ways, peacefully. There are lots of broken hearts at home in Nigeria and in the diaspora. We have a lot of broken hearts to heal through open dialogue and conversation on how to heal the nation. However, healing the nation requires trust, trust requires vulnerability, transparency, and seeking the truth. Are we ready to change the system, commit to the truth and build a new nation? We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and to teach history in our educational system about events and our people. Knowledge is power! Dr. Martin Luther King stated that there is nothing more dangerous than ignorance and conscientious stupidity whether it is willful or cultural ignorance. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and to educate those who oppress us. Nonviolence is a powerful catalyst for transformation, substantive change, and moral conscience. Grace, humility, empathy, understanding, knowledge, and truth are the foundation for moral courage and social change. The bible says perfect love casts out fears. We must approach our problem with love because God is love. t 1SPG 0OBCBOKP JT 1SFTJEFOU /JHFSJBO "MMJBODF GPS %FNPDSBDZ BOE 1SFTJEFOU "% ,JOH 'PVOEBUJPO 64"

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY4, 2021

LETTERS

CONGOS AND CIVIL SOCIETY ENGAGEMENTS

n 2010, comrades who were inspired by the quest for an egalitarian social order, came together to deepen the space of civil society in Edo State. In the special meeting of the Board of Trustees and the General Assembly of CONGOs which held February 25, 2021, the Conference of NonGovernmental Organisations was formally adopted as a national organ of civil society collaboration. In other words, drawing from the resolution of that meeting, the constitution was reviewed to accommodate the new identity of CONGOs – Conference of NonGovernmental Organisations of Nigeria. For us this change in identity comes with monumental challenges. Beginning from this premise, engenders our conscious awakening to the responsibilities that underpin our swearing in and formal inauguration as the 6th Executive Council of the Conference of Non-

Governmental Organisations of Nigeria. We assure all who have given us the mandate to provide leadership for CONGOs that we will not disappoint their expectations in all spheres of our engagement. We assure all members of conference that this leadership will be guided by the cardinal points of the CONGOs identity. This includes our commitment to transparency, integrity, honesty, among others. We assure member organisations of our commitment to broadening opportunities for all further to specific areas of their thematic focus. We will grow internal harmony as a cardinal to strengthening CONGOs as an institution. To that effect, we will call for a new narrative on the way we are organised and our approach to duties and responsibilities. In those areas where our expression as an institution has

been underplayed or undermined, we will evolve a change of perspective. Resonating in our elevated identity as CONGOs of Nigeria, the level of thought and sophistication in the organisation is expected to attain a new octave. We implore member organisations to always ensure that they inspire, motivate and provide mentorship for those who we are bringing into the house. To that effect, the morality of our individual persons and organisations must enrich the moral endowment of CONGOs. In our conduct, we must uplift the moral content that drives CONGOs to high grounds at the octave of propriety. For those of us who have been here for three years and beyond serving in various capacities, while we have, no doubt, traded high credentials of positive contributions to the conference, we have not been perfect in all our ways. To that effect, we offer a humble apology

for all our faults. They could be oversights, they could be situations we could not help, they could have arisen from deliberate negligence. We are not dwelling on the reason why. We appreciate that as human beings, we have our own limitations. With the broadening of our membership and the new dimension of engagement it offers, the scope of discussions and interventions are definitely going to be enlarged. So also, will the rules of engagement of the organisation become more expressive, strict and insisted upon. In all of these, the interest of the organisation must underpin every aspect of our conduct. Borrowing from our guiding vision, in the next three years, we will ensure that the innards that define strong and coherent institutions are emphasised for CONGOs. The recourse to interpersonal relationship in dealing with institutional matters must give way

EPE AND THE GREATER LAGOS TRAIN

his is an exciting time for the indigenes and residents of Epe. The ancient town is having its share of inclusive development in the state, courtesy of a well thought-out developmental agenda. The Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration is not only taking steps towards the development of the Epe axis, but it is as well creating an enabling environment to foster a symbiotic relationship with the private sector players, especially the Dangote Group. The approach of Governor Sanwo-Olu has been to rise above all the odds and give reality to the state’s Greater Lagos aspiration. As a government that seeks to make Lagos a 21st century economy, the administration is getting it right by expanding broadband access to every part of the state. It is making deliberate efforts to create more metropolitan centres to redistribute the state population and increase hub of economic activities. Infrastructure service is one of the instruments being deployed to improve the citizenry’s welfare and address social equity. There is, to be sure, evidence of the government’s presence across all the local governments in the state. Despite daunting challenges since the inception of the administration, the Sanwo-Olu led government is engaging in the massive provision of public

infrastructure in roads, health, education, tourism, environment and security among others. Recently, the Greater Lagos train berthed in Lagos Island, heralding the commencement of the Lagos Island Area North Action Plan aimed at regenerating that axis of the state. It is laudable that the residents of Epe division are having their turn to jubilate. In particular, two strategic projects aimed at saving lives and securing property recently launched have reinforced Governor Sanwo-Olu’s philosophy of inclusive governance, which is anchored on bringing development to every part of the state. The commissioning of the fully equipped 110-bed Maternal and Child Centre (MCC) and the inauguration of the Emergency and Security Regional Dispatch Centre for a swift response to emergencies and the effective management of disasters is the news making wave in Epe at the moment. The four-storey Epe MCC makes it the fourth to be delivered in two years by the SanwoOlu administration. Others are located in Eti-Osa, Alimosho and Badagry. Opening the maternity hospital, Sanwo-Olu said the overarching goal of his administration’s investment in the provision of healthcare infrastructure was to eradicate infant and child mortality in Lagos by creating quality care for pregnant women.

Gov. Sanwo-Olu The governor said the Epe MCC would not be the last, stressing that his government had an objective to build more maternal child centres across the state, thereby improving access to quality care for expectant mothers in pre- and post-natal management. Health is a major pillar of the administration’s T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda, which focuses on improving quality and access. The Epe MCC, which is a secondary public health facility, will provide services related to reproductive issues, including obstetrics, gynecology, Paediatrics, family planning, immunisation, laboratory services and radiology. The Chairman of Epe LGA, Hon. Adedoyin Adesanya, who hailed Sanwo-Olu for the projects, properly captured one of the benefits of the project when he said, pregnant women seeking comprehensive care would no longer go to the Lagos State University Teaching

Hospital (LASUTH) and the Lagos Island General Hospital. Also inaugurated is the Emergency and Security Regional Dispatch Centre for a swift response to emergencies and the effective management of disasters. The emergency infrastructure will raise the capability of the government in responding to emergencies in the eastern part of the state. The emergencies hub will serve as a one-stop facility for agencies such as the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services Agency (LSFS), Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), Lagos State Ambulance Services, Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences (TASKFORCE) Unit and the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). The facility also houses two Magistrate Courts built by the Ministry of Justice to strengthen the administration of justice in the division. The commissioning of the Regional Emergency and Security Dispatch Centre reinforces the commitment of Governor Sanwo-Olu to the provision of effortless and efficient safety, security and emergency management approach in Lagos. Rasak Musbau, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

to true professionalism. We will keep the empowerment trainings of the organisation in continuing implementation. We will implement programmes that enhances the mental upliftment of members as well as their entrepreneurial capabilities. Like I said in my manifestoes, we will escalate the dimension of civil society engagement in the social space. We will insist on good governance and work with government in strengthening governance as

an institution. We will engage intervening development institutions with the vision of appropriately contextualising their programmes in consonance with the idioms of our sociocultural space. In all of these, we count on our collective strength to deliver. We assure us all that we will deliver on the mandate of a better organised and more focused CONGOs. Comrade Abiola Daisy Igaga, President of Conference of NonGovernmental Organisations, Edo State

HOW MIGRANTS ABROAD FINANCE SUSTAINABLE FAMILIES

amily remittances help sustain an estimated one billion people around the world. They are understood to be funds transferred from migrants, who mostly work in highincome countries, to their family or communities in low to middle-income countries. One out of every seven people are directly impacted by these inflows and are able to use funds to supplement their personal income. There is evidence that remittances alleviate poverty and that 75% of remittances received go towards meeting immediate needs like access to food, health care, education and business capital. As such this inflow is a source of sustenance. The value of global remittances annually surpasses both official development assistance and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), making remittances a key source of development finance and extremely valuable in low and middle-income countries as they serve in a counter-cyclical capacity during periods of economic downturn. During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were concerns that the global value of remittances might decline. However, a May 2021 report by the World Bank revealed that remittances stayed nearly flat, registering a total figure of $540 billion in 2020. This illustrates the resilience of remittances and the migrants who send them. Over 200 million migrants in the world make continuous contributions to the well-being of their families and help to improve developmental outcomes. The growth of remittances is dependent on global economic forces, which could spur or hinder the growth of inflows. Economic policies also play a critical role in encouraging remittances into a country from overseas. We have already begun to see encouraging policies in Nigeria - the largest recipient of remittances in sub-Saharan Africa - receiving nearly

half of all remittances sent to the region in 2019. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in March, enacted a ‘Naira-4-dollar’ scheme in an effort to incentivize dollar remittances through formal banking channels that allows the CBN to capture such inflows to boost the liquidity of the forex market and ensure the stability of the Naira. The scheme offers recipients of diaspora remittances NGN5 for every USD 1 received through International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) and commercial banks - WorldRemit’s customers are eligible to receive this incentive. It was introduced to support the economy and can have the added effect of increasing access to finance and deepening financial inclusion. Digital channels serve as one of the most effective solutions to many financial access challenges - this is why WorldRemit is designed as a fully digital platform through which users can transfer funds conveniently, quickly and safely. There continues to be an improvement in the number of people embracing digital financial solutions. According to EFInA’s Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 survey, the number of people who own mobile phones increased from 85% to 89%, active digital financial services users grew from 16% to 28% while remittances through digital financial channels grew from 22% to 25% between 2018 and 2020. By incentivizing migrants in the diaspora to make money transfers using digital channels, countries can record higher inflows of remittances and a deeper level of financial inclusion can be achieved, as recipients of remittances will also be incentivised to set up formal banking channels. - Gbenga Okejimi, Country Manager for Nigeria and Ghana, WorldRemit Read the full article online www.thisdaylive.com

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

EDITORIAL

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

DEALING WITH THE SEPARATISTS The authorities must step back and think about how they could do things diﬀerently

n a week in which Mr Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was arrested abroad and repatriated to Nigeria to continue his trial for terrorism, treasonable felony, unlawful possession of ﬁrearms, among other charges, Mr Sunday Igboho, leader of ‘Oodua Nation’, is also on the run, after an attack on his Ibadan residence by agents of the Department of State Services (DSS). While we condemn the promoters of these groups that seem determined to disturb the peace of the country, we do not believe that the highhanded approach of the authorities is also helpful. Against the background of the death of an innocent girl yesterday during the civil protest in Lagos, we enjoin the security agencies to always ensure that minimum force is used to disperse protesters. However, as we have also stated several times on this page, these ethnic agitators must understand that nobody is above the law. Whatever may be their legitimate political grievances, such can be channelled through their representatives in the National Assembly. But in as much as we condemn the recourse to blackmail as a weapon for seeking political or economic goals, it is troubling that security agencies are unwittingly escalating violence by their mode of operations. The primary role of the security agencies is to carefully demarcate between democratic freedom and a clear descent into chaos that threatens us all. Since no responsible authority would tolerate a threat to national security, the DSS is right to go against individuals whose actions and utterances

We need a new conduct of leadership that is even-handed and inclusive so that citizens begin to hold government accountable for the things that unite us—education, health, employment, infrastructure, reasonable economic livelihood

Letters to the Editor

could breach the peace. While democracy entitles citizens to freedoms of expression and association, it is also true that every democracy has an obligation to mediate and modulate these freedoms to ensure the survival of the nation itself. Individuals or groups who fan ethno-religious tension should be dealt with in accordance to the law. While we understand that building an inclusive and egalitarian society in a federal arrangement is always a work-in-progress, the security agencies—whose primary responsibility is the protection of national security through managing and deterring threats to the unity and peaceful co-existence of the country—are also becoming part of the problem. Not only do they discriminate in the choice of culprits in moments of crisis, but they are also never even-handed in the application of the law. Besides, in dealing with some of these deviant behaviours, agents of state cannot behave like licensed thugs. Invading a residence at night and shooting to kill cannot be a civilised way of restoring law and order in a democracy.

S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITORS OLAWALE OLALEYE, TOBI SONIYI 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 DIRECTOR PATRICK EIMIUHI CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO HEAD, COMPUTER DEPARTMENT PATRICIA UBAKA-ADEKOYA TO SEND EMAIL: ﬁrst name.surname@thisdaylive.com

t is also important for the DSS to understand that some of these separatist agitations are not always selfdriven. They sometimes erupt when signals in the political space dredge up buried subliminal impulses. In many ways therefore, the recent ﬂourish of hateful and divisive utterances is primarily political. Certain subliminal impulses have been energised by the choices of this administration. Key federal appointments have followed a parochial track while the body language at the apex of power unfortunately reﬂects a basic reluctance to relate to Nigeria as a constitutional republic. Political jobbers all over the country have since taken the cue and hijacked the narratives. And we now have nearly as many separatist groups as there are known zones of discontent in the country. To deal with the current challenge will go beyond the arrest and detention of some of these troublemakers. We also need a new conduct of leadership that is even-handed and inclusive so that citizens begin to hold government accountable for the things that unite us—education, health, employment, infrastructure, reasonable economic livelihood. It is the failure of governance and the irresponsibility of lazy politics that are at issue in the epidemic of hate and divisiveness currently on shameful display in Nigeria. The presidency must also begin to deal with these.

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

ANAMBRA FEMALE GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANTS AND SOCIAL MORES

nambra State is one of the states that make up the Southeast geopolitical zone. The Southeast, which lies in the tropical rainforest area, is chiefly peopled by the Igbo people. As the Southeast area of Nigeria suffered colonialism, so did the rest of Nigeria; however, colonialism failed to obliterate the Igbo people’s culture. So, now, the Igbo people’s ways of doing things are a brew of western lifestyle and African traditional practices. This brew has entrenched patriarchy in the Southeast area of Nigeria, the homeland of the Igbo people. For example, in the traditional Igbo society, the man is regarded as the head of the family.

He imposes his decisions and will on his immediate nuclear family. And if his wife has a dissenting or contrary view, it is perceived as impertinence. However, the embrace as well as the acquisition of western education by a great number of women in Nigeria has shaken the root of patriarchy in our country. But patriarchy is still alive and kicking in Igbo land. There are many instances or examples that prove that patriarchy exists in Igbo land. In the Southeast of Nigeria, inheritance of properties by children of a deceased man is patrilineal rather than matrilineal. And, in spite of the Nigeria’s apex court ruling that female children are as entitled to inheriting their father’s properties and belongings as the male children, the

patrilineal way of inheritance still subsists there. More so, in Igbo land, we have the provincial mindset and perception that women are like chattel, which can be sold off to the highest bidder. Consequently, based on our wrong assumption and misconception of women, we show utter contempt and disdain for ladies on the shelf. Middle-aged spinsters or old maids are believed to be under ancestral curse, which is responsible for their long spinsterhood. We feel, albeit wrongly, that every lady must get married to a man, and bring herself under the authority and subjection of her husband. So, marriage in Igbo land has remained a tool for entrenching patriarchy in today’s Igbo land. Again, the Christian religion

to which almost every Igbo person subscribes endorses patriarchy. The Bible, which is the holy book of Christians, contains innumerable scriptural passages, which are explicitly supportive of patriarchy. Like Christianity, other Abrahamic religious faiths are explicitly supportive of patriarchy, too. So, you can see that the forces and factors that cause the deepening and blossoming of patriarchy here are deep-seated. So, not unexpectedly, the men outnumber the women in many undertakings and professions but teaching and the civil service. Teachers and civil servants’ remunerations, we all know, are paltry, meager, and discouraging. In the area of political leadership, women are few and far between. They can be counted on the fingertips, which necessitated the enunciation, formulation, and implementa-

tion of the 35% affirmative action to guarantee women places in both elective and appointive political positions in our country. But we have female political gladiators, who had won legislative elections to become members of states’ assemblies and the National Assembly. But they are disproportionate in number when compared to the number of men in both states’ assemblies and National Assembly. More so, to see a female governor in Nigeria is a rarity, now, although few had become governors of their states by political default, and not by securing thumping governorship victories at the polls. In Anambra State, we still remember the circumstances that threw up Dame Virgy Etiaba as the governor of Anambra State. Now, the next Anambra State governorship election is getting

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

BUSINESS

Buhari

Sylva

Editor: Kunle Aderinokun 08033204315, 08111813084 Email:kunle.aderinokun@thisdaylive.com

Lawan

PIB: Light at the End of Tunnel? Last Thursday, the National AssemEly finally passed the much-talked-aEout Petroleum Industry Bill, after a tortuous two decade-lonJ sojourn Emmanuel Addeh asks if the Eill, now awaitinJ the assent of President 0uhammadu Buhari, after harmonisation Ey the lawmakers, would see the liJht of the day

rom all indications, it appears that the Petroleum Industry Bill PIB may Ànally see the liJht of day and eventually serve as the framework for operations in the oil and Jas industry, havinJ suͿered several setEacks for close to 20 years, from the period the entire process Àrst started $lthouJh, in the past, there had Eeen several attempts to pass the law, such moves, in the end, have always ended in utter failure (ven in some cases when the national assemEly succeeded in passinJ it, the president wouldn·t Jive his assent But this time, it appears that thinJs are diͿerent 6ince the Eill is emanatinJ directly from the e[ecutive arm, it is e[pected that President 0uhammadu Buhari, would have no Tualms siJninJ it into law this time History and Hurdles $rJuaEly the piece of leJislation with the most tortuous Mourney in the nation·s history, the PIB has faced many impediments in its lonJ walk to fruition as the parties seeminJly almost always stuck to their old riJid positions in the process For instance, durinJ a two-day puElic hearinJ at the 1ational $ssemEly recently to deliEerate on the Eill which has Eeen descriEed as pivotal to the lonJ-term overall survival of the oil and Jas industry, tempers were so hiJh that Elows were physically e[chanJed Eetween dissentinJ parties 6uch was the tension the Eill Jenerated Indeed, so complicated was the process that Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, once said that some ´demonsµ were Eehind its non-passaJe, promisinJ to put them to shame once and for all 2n 7hursday, he said the demons had Eeen Ànally conTuered LookinJ Eack, on SeptemEer 2 , 2020, President 0uhammadu Buhari, like some of his predecessors, sent the PIB to the 1ational AssemEly for consideration But that would not Ee the Àrst time the must talked aEout Eill would Jet to the level of the e[ecutive and the leJislature in the country Indeed, it had Eeen a lonJ time cominJ An oͿshoot of the 2il and *as Sector 5eform Implementation &ommittee 2*I& , which was inauJurated on 2 April 2000 under the chairmanship of 'r 5ilwanu Lukman, the then the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and (nerJy, the oriJinal Eody was charJed with the task of makinJ recommendations for a far-reachinJ restructurinJ

of 1iJeria·s oil and Jas industry At the time, the recommendations of 2*I& included a proposal to separate the commercial institutions within the industry from the reJulatory institutions Seven years later, the Jovernment introduced the 1ational 2il and *as Policy and further reconstituted 2*I& to make recommendations towards the emerJence of a new institutional framework to Jovern the operations of the oil and Jas industry 7hat framework was also e[pected to oversee the emerJence of a new national oil company, new reJulatory Eodies and a new national directorate, for a more eͿective policy formulation for the industry In 200 , the discussions that ensued on ways to strenJthen the 2*I& produced the Lukman 5eport which recommended a new reJulatory and institutional framework that, when implemented, would Juarantee Jreater transparency and accountaEility (ventually, the report formed the Easis of the Àrst PIB that was suEmitted in 200 as an ([ecutive Bill under the Late President 8mar <ar·Adua Since then the Eill had hit several roadElocks as vested interests attempted to Jet their full slices +avinJ underJone numerous revisions and divisive deEates, on the th of -uly 20 2, the then President *oodluck -onathan presented a new version of the PIB to the seventh session of the national assemEly for consideration and enactment, further throwinJ it into the front Eurner of national discourse 7he PIB has underJone several evolutions, includinJ a split which was done durinJ the th national assemEly, followinJ the inaEility of stakeholders to aJree on certain clauses At a point it was separated into Petroleum Industry *overnance Bill PI*B , Petroleum Industry Administration Bill (PIAB), Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill (PIFB) and Petroleum Host &ommunity Bill (PH&B) AlthouJh the PI*B was approved Ey the national assemEly at one point, Eut it couldn·t sail throuJh the presidential assent and was thereafter returned to the leJislature for further work Sore Points Key stakeholders mostly rejected its provisions on host communities· eTuity share holdinJ and investment prospects 7he percentaJe to Ee allocated to host communities was larJely responsiEle for the delay in the passaJe of PIB since 200 Late President 8mar 0usa <ar·Adua proposed 0 per cent, Eut was rejected Ey lawmakers pre-

dominantly from the north in the th 1ational AssemEly 2n his part, -onathan retained the same 0 per cent, Eut was aJain rejected Ey the 1ational AssemEly In the th Senate led Ey Saraki, it was ErouJht down to per cent, Eut couldn·t Ee passed into law due to diverJence of opinions In the latest attempt to discuss the Eill Eefore this point, the Host &ommunities of 1iJeria ProducinJ 2il and *as (H2S7&20) at a puElic hearinJ at the Senate, on the reviewed PIB, made it clear that nothinJ short of 0 per cent would Ee acceptaEle to them Aside the arJument over 0 per cent, the host communities stressed that after 60 years of what it descriEed as marJinalisation and EearinJ the Erunt of the neJative impacts of e[ploration and e[ploitation, it would Ee illoJical to deprive them the riJht to eTuity shareholdinJ in Eoth the estaElishment of the NNPC Limited, the Commission, the Authority and the Boards which are now parts of the new Eill 2il Producers 7rade Section (2P7S) led Ey 0ike SanJer, had also on its part, made a stronJ case aJainst the Eill for not makinJ serious provisions for investment in the oil and Jas sector AccordinJ to 2P7S, the lack of competitiveness was caused in part Ey the hiJh cost of doinJ Eusiness in NiJeria, with overall project costs and operations costs EeinJ 6 per cent and 2 per cent hiJher than the JloEal averaJe respectively ´A PIB which safeJuards e[istinJ projects and introduces competitive terms, is required to fully utilise the country·s resources for the EeneÀt of all NiJerians,µ it suEmitted In a recent forum, Shell NiJeria ([ploration and Production Company (SN(PCo) voiced its opposition to the passaJe of the proposed leJislation, sayinJ it could throw the Jas sector into more crisis than currently oEtains and further stunt the Jrowth of the sector 0anaJinJ 'irector of SN(PCo, 0r Bayo 2julari, maintained that the PIB was not enaElinJ enouJh and not fully aliJned with the direction that NiJeria has articulated around the ´'ecade of *asµ as propaJated Ey the current administration He maintained that with the condition set for e[portation of Jas resources Ey companies operatinJ in the sector, the proposed petroleum Jovernance Eill, will stiÁe competition ´7he terms and prices of Jas development, especially for deep non-associated Jas need to Ee more competitive 7oday, it is actually lookinJ worse than it is in the current environment and that·s

an area that has not enjoyed a level of emphasis “Today, the PIB does not do any justice or to help to unlock the huJe potential that we have in the non-associated Jas environments :ith the potential of Jas to power our economy, focus should Ee more on competitive discuss that will stimulate Jas “Currently, the version of the PIB that we have is not su΀cient and will not enaEle us incentivise investors to unlock the huJe non-associated Jas that we have,µ he arJued Lost Ground, Renewed Hope :hile close oEservers Eelieve that the law should have Eeen passed several decades aJo, there seems to have appeared some liJht at the end of the tunnel for the NiJerian oil and Jas industry The passaJe of the Eill Ey the national assemEly has rekindled hope that althouJh late in cominJ, some part of the losses, Ey one estimate, e[ceedinJ 200 Eillion, may Ee recouped Eefore EiJ oil Joes into e[tinction For instance, the NiJeria ([tractive Industries Transparency Initiative (N(ITI), while hailinJ the passaJe of the Eill, stressed that over 200 Eillion was lost to a clear framework for the sector ([ecutive Secretary of N(ITI 'r 2JEonnaya 2rji, while commendinJ all stakeholders, arJued that the staJnation of investment opportunities in the petroleum industry was as a result of the aEsence of a new law for the sector “This has led to huJe revenue losses to the tune of over 200Eillion 5evenue losses were as a result of investments withheld or diverted Ey investors to other more predictaEle jurisdictions,µ the initiative stated In addition, the e[ecutive secretary disclosed that over 0 Eillion and N Eillion were lost throuJh under-remittances, ine΀ciencies, theft or aEsence of a clear Jovernance framework for the industry “The N(ITI e[ecutive secretary is optimistic that with the new Jovernance law for the industry, these huJe revenue losses to the nation as a result of process lapses and outriJht stealinJ will Ee strictly checked if not eliminated,µ the orJanisation stressed (arlier, in a forum, the federal Jovernment had said that when passed, the PIB will resolve most of the knotty issues that have curtailed the development of the oil and Jas sector in the country since the 0s 0inister of State, Petroleum 5esources, Chief Timipre Sylva, arJued that NiJeria had Eeen JoinJ in the wronJ direction since the discovery of oil and Jas in the country

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

BUSINESS

At GTBank, Tayo Aderinokun Lives on Raheem Akingbolu

ne major attribute of super brands is that they are led by purpose-driven leaders, who are not just about building a business, but also shaping society for good. Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank sure falls in this category. GTBank as it is popularly called today was founded by thoroughbred bankers and business leaders –Fola Adeola and the late Tayo Aderinokun. After the death of Aderinokun, another purpose-driven leader, Segun Agbaje, took over and sustained the tempo. From the beginning, the promoters of the GTBank brand shared the same dream to build an enviable brand, supported by a recognisable value proposition. First, they got it right by having an iconic brand trademark and visual identity Last week, the management of the bank took the bull by the horn to immortalise Tayo Aderinokun. As a man of value, the bank reasoned that the best way to remember the banking guru would be to identify his name with something dynamic and progressive, hence the commissioning of a training centre in his honour. Location was Abeokuta, home state of the late banker and the date was Friday, 25th June. It was 10 years after the death of the bank’s late managing director, and the inauguration of GTBank Training Complex, named; “Tayo’s Plaza.” The Abeokuta eight-storey training complex, contains 105 en-suite residential rooms, lecture halls, two fully equipped libraries, an amphitheatre and a banking hall with 24 teller terminals amongst other facilities. It was designed as a training ground for all new entrants of the bank to undergo intensive screening and programme on how to deliver the best customer experience in Ànancial services. On the opening of Tayo’s Plaza, GTBank Managing Director and Chief Executive O΀cer, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said, “Through our new training complex, we

Aderinokun

will continue to nurture and empower young people to think critically and break new grounds in excellence.” Tayo Aderinokun was one of the most inÁuential and respected bankers the nation has produced in the last 30 years. An astute and erudite gentleman, his dedication to hard work, honesty and a thirst to always improve the status quo were a mix that had a colossal impact on the Nigerian Ànancial scene, especially after the inception of Guaranty Trust Bank. These traits and the simple lifestyle he maintained, led to his becoming a mentor and friend to the vast number of people who knew Tayo Aderinokun began his banking career at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Calabar, where he underwent the mandatory one year national service programme (NYSC) in 1977/78. He went on to work for Chase Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited (later Continental Merchant Bank) between 1981 and 1988. In 1988, Tayo moved to Prime Merchant Bank as an Assistant General

Tayo’s Plaza, the new Guaranty Trust Traini ... Tayo Aderinokun, co-founder of the bank.

Manager and Head, Financial Services. He resigned this appointment in 1989 to start First Marina Trust Limited a non-bank Ànancial institution which he oversaw until co-founding Guaranty Trust Bank with his close friend, Fola Adeola in 1990. At the inception of Guaranty Trust Bank, Tayo Aderinokun assumed the mantle of Deputy Managing Director, a position he was to hold for the next 12

years. During this time, he was involved in the supervision of the Bank’s operations with direct responsibility for asset management and liability generation. His experience, commitment, and contributions during this period were fundamental to the impact the bank had on the Nigerian economy over the last few years, which included the introduction of a more customer friendly form of banking that has now become the industry norm.

transform the oil industry without transforming the communities in whose backyard the industry is exploited.

Others are to ensure strict environmental implementation of policies, laws and regulations for midstream and downstream petroleum operations; and to develop and enforce a framework on tariͿ and pricing for natural gas and petroleum products. All monies received from gas Áaring, will in the new bill be channelled for the purpose of environmental remediation and relief of the host communities as against the development of infrastructure in midstream gas operations. The senate also approved the ownership of all shares in NNPC Limited to be vested in the government at incorporation and held by the ministry of Ànance incorporated on behalf of the government. The bill which has Àve chapters, the senate said, deals with creating e΀cient and eͿective governing institutions with clear and separate roles for the petroleum industry and promoting transparency and accountability in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria. The bill also seeks to separate the NNPC into three: Nigerian National Petroleum Authority, Nigerian National Petroleum Commission and NNPC Limited (now to become a limited liability).

PIB: Light at the End of Tunnel? “One thing is very clear, that we went in the wrong direction in the oil and gas business since the 50s and it’s not too late from all that has been said, to as usual try to trade blames, as to who was responsible,” he said. Sylva posited that the government had bent over backwards on a lot of provisions in its engagement with investors. In its assessment of the industry, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC) had also indicated that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry was losing as much as $15 billion in investments annually due to the delayed passage of the PIB. FDC noted that even if passed today, the country has already lost several investment opportunities due to the lack of urgency attached to the passage of the legislation which was Àrst transmitted to the lawmakers over 14 years ago. “Its delay has sparked a great deal of uncertainty and led to an estimated loss of over $15bn annually in lost investments to Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. With the global shift from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy picking up pace, the passage of the PIB may just be too little, too late,” an FDC reported indicated. Controversies Still, controversies surrounding the bill won’t just disappear. For example, some persons have questioned the rationale behind allocating a paltry 3 per cent to the oil producing communities which bear the brunt, while 30 per cent of all PSCs was allocated for Ànding oil in the frontier basins, which is literally interpreted as the northern area. But Chairman of the Joint Committee, Mohammed Sabo, said the senate approved the funding mechanism of 30 per cent because it recognised the need for the country to urgently and aggressively explore and develop its Frontier Basins to

take advantage of the foreseeable threats to the funding of fossil fuel projects across the world due to speedy shift from fossil fuel to other alternative energy sources. “To this end, the committee recommends funding mechanism of 30 per cent of NNPC Limited’s proÀt oil and proÀt gas as in the production sharing, proÀt sharing, and risk service contracts to fund exploration of frontier basins,” he said. Added to that controversy, a House of Representatives member, Sergius Ogun, had in a shocking revelation, argued that some members did not have copies of the bill during the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill to make informed decisions before the legislation was passed. He stated: “We didn’t have enough copies. We were told to pick up copies at a particular room yesterday, my aide went there, and they were not available, we went there again this morning, they were not there. “If whatever we have gone through is diͿerent from what was presented, I cannot just go ahead and agree to everything, I just wanted to have a copy and Áip through. “That is why I went to protest to the chairman who was surprised that we all do not have copies and the deputy chairman told us that within Àve minutes from when we started, we will all have copies but that did not happen.” But while noting that an imperfect bill would be far better than none, he commended the leadership of the house, the minister of state for petroleum and the NNPC for their commitment to the passage of the bill. Also, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) expressed reservations over the 3 per cent approval for the development of host communities, with the National Publicity Secretary of the organisation, Ken Robinson, arguing that the government cannot

Highlights Among others, the bill has ratiÀed the establishment if the Upstream Regulatory Commission to oversee upstream petroleum operations, including technical, operational and commercial activities and ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations governing upstream petroleum operations. In addition, the commission to be set up, will ensure that wastages are minimised, government revenues are optimised; promotion of healthy, safe, e΀cient and eͿective conduct of upstream petroleum operations, among others. The new bill when assented to by the president will also see the transformation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into a proÀt-oriented company devoid of political interferences. It also sees the expansion of the deÀnition of host communities, which is no longer restricted to the oil-producing areas alone, but now include communities where pipelines pass through. Clause 29 of the bill also approved the establishment of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority which would be responsible for the technical and commercial regulation of midstream and downstream petroleum operations in the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Its function include implementing government’s policies for midstream and downstream petroleum operations as directed by the minister; and to promote, establish and develop a positive environment for international and domestic investment in midstream and downstream petroleum operations.

Waiting for Buhari With the expected harmonisation between the copies passed by the senate and the house of assembly, which should be concluded in less than two, the ball now shifts to the court of the president. However, it would be strange if the president declines assent again, with the bill having emanated from the executive and the consultations for the fresh bill being obviously more intense than the previous. Hopefully, Nigeria may just be able to make some hay under the dimming fossil fuel sun.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

FOCUS

When Adenuga, Dangote, Wigwe Converged on Paris as Macron Honoured Rabiu Aimed at attracting foreign investments to France, the Choose France Summit held in 9ersailles, June 28, was of a diͿerent hue this time. It saw the inauguration of the French Nigeria Business Council to facilitate business cooperation between both countries as President Emmanuel Macron appointed BUA Group Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, the inaugural president of the council. But that is not the story. There were other scenes at the summit generating talking points in the African business circuit. ChieÁy, the attendance of Globacom chairman, Mike Adenuga Jnr, his obvious great stature and healthier look, and the reunion of otherwise sworn enemies, billionaires Aliko Dangote and Abdul Samad Rabiu, attracted people’s interests. Lanre Alfred writes The Bull in Paris

t has been a while since the outside world saw him. Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr, the chairman of Globacom, is one of those patently reclusive billionaires that would rather be heard about than being seen, a cloak of mystery that has come to deÀne his persona and accomplishments in business and philanthropy. In recent years, there had been conjectures and speculations as to why he has completely shunned public outings, not that he was ever a social butterÁy even as a younger man with all the appurtenances of fame and fortune at his beck and call. Being unobtrusive and unseen had been his style since he worked his way to the acme of prosperity and prominence. Even before the outbreak of CO9ID-19, Adenuga had completely given the limelight a wide berth, thrusting his adorable daughter, Bella, to the forefront of his businesses and other activities that require posing or smiling for the cameras. Thus, his appearance in 9ersailles, Paris, for the Choose France Summit last Monday, June 28, occasioned gapes and gasps. Spotting a greying but well-trimmed beard, Dr. Adenuga looked the picture of health and well-being in his bespoke suit than many had known him to be. He wore his trademark toothy smile as he hobnobbed with other frontline Nigerian businessmen like Tony Elumelu of Heirs Holdings, Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote Group and Abdul Samad Rabiu of BUAGroup. For a lot of discerning Nigerians, they were not surprised to see Adenuga at the French summit. His relationship with France and its youthful president, Emmanuel Macron, was consecrated long ago. Adenuga and the French Connection According to the multi billionaire, “Our relationship with French business has been a long and extremely beneÀcial one,” he says. “The genesis and bedrock of that relationship was the energy team at the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paris o΀ce, led by Guillaume Leenhardt. A great deal of our early success can be attributed to the professionalism, customer orientation and creativity of that team,” says Adenuga. “We worked extremely hard and well together to meet some ridiculously tight deadlines – working through the night till 6am only to resume work again at 8am after a quick nap and shower Those are days I remember with a lot of fondness.” “Soon after the award of our telecommunications license in 2003, our relationship with another prominent French company, Alcatel, led at the time by Serge Tchuruk, enabled us to fast-track the roll-out of our infrastructure and close the gap on the competition, which had had a 15-month head start,” says Adenuga. According to AfricaReport, another key relationship for Adenuga is with French oil major TotalEnergies. “We won the concession to an oͿshore block in which we then discovered substantial amounts of oil and

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr Herbert Wigwe, President Emmanuel Macron, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr. and Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu

gas resources, with certiÀed gas resources in excess of eight trillion cubic feet. TotalEnergies subsequently farmed into that asset,” he says. “This is a strategic relationship; we intend to commence production with a Áoating liqueÀed natural gas facility soon.” Interestingly however, back in 2017, the French government, in homage toAdenuga’s humanity and relentless strides at rewriting the African business narrative, invested him with a Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Legion d Honneur), the highest French decoration and one of the most famous in the world. Dr. Adenuga is the only and Àrst-ever Nigerian to have received the award since inception. He was honoured for his “remarkable contribution to the development of the French-Nigerian relations and appreciation of the French culture.” Adenuga would later prove that the honour was not misplaced as he relocated and rebuilt the Alliance Française, located in Yaba, Lagos, for several decades. TheAlliance Française, committed to promoting French culture and teaching French as a second language worldwide, was relocated to a new home in Ikoyi that has been aptly named the Mike Adenuga Centre. Since its opening to the public in 2019, the centre has commanded commendations from far and near. Unapologetically modern, the centre’s white exterior spews elegance without recourse to obscenity and has an interior ornamented with pristine decor. Everywhere is spick-and-span and has the halo of an improvised Eden on earth.Apart from

a spacious car park, the venue oͿers facilities such as a world-class art gallery, a French restaurant with a bakery, a state-of-the-art cinema, artists’ studios, an outdoor amphitheatre, a library and e-library, nine fully-equipped French language classrooms, translation and interpretation service, Campus France branch, o΀ces and much more. Every house has something of the owner’s personality in it, a hint of the people behind the design; no wonder the centre has the touch of a billionaire with a taste for all things exotic and exquisite. Its beauty has been inspiring gawks and double-takes, and odes and appreciation to Dr. Adenuga, whose love for the arts spurred him to create this hub of cross-cultural immersion to make an exciting and impactful contribution to the arts scene in Nigeria. While inaugurating the centre during a visit to Lagos, President Macron said the centre to foster friendship between Nigeria and France, saying, “Lagos is one of the challenges of, not only Nigeria but Africa. This huge city is a tremendous challenge about how to make people live together in peace and better society; I want France to be part of this story. I do want my country and citizens to be part of this experience, which means sharing the same values, cultures, languages, literature, music, movies and common economic projects, among others.” He added that the Alliance Française is a commitment aimed at making the friendship between both countries, which have diͿerent

but vivid and vibrant cultures and lifting barriers that have existed between both cultures. “The common space we have is not linked to language or country. We are diͿerent people, but we share the same values, and it is precisely these common values we want to convey,” Macron said. Coincidentally, it was at the hallowed hall of the Alliance Française that Bella, one of Adenuga’s daughters and the executive vice-chairman of Globacom, was honoured with the ‘Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (the Order of Arts and Letters). It is an award given by the French government to recognise eminent artists and writers and people who have contributed signiÀcantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. The award is given at three levels: Commandeur (Commander), O΀cier (O΀cer), and Chevalier (Knight). Bella got the Chevalier (Knight), which comes with a medallion worn on ribbon on the left breast in 2019. According to the representative of the President of France, Bella was honoured for having shown an abiding commitment to important social issues and her “signiÀcant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance.” Bella thanked the French government, particularly President Macron, for bestowing her honour, saying it was the fulÀlment of a dream. Aliko Dangote, Abdul Samad Rabiu Reunite? Beneath the plastic smiles and photo ops,

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

FOCUS When Adenuga, Dangote, Wigwe Converged on Paris as Macron Honoured Rabiu there is a deep-seated animosity between Alhaji Aliko Dangote and the chairman of BUAGroup, Abdul Samad Rabiu. Aside from their Kano kinship, BUA Group and Dangote group are leading players in the fast-moving consumer goods and cement sectors. And while Dangote is the richest African and black man in the world, Rabiu is the eighth richest African with an estimated $3.13 billion fortune. They are also two of Africa’s biggest philanthropists, donating signiÀcant chunks of their wealth to various humanitarian causes. But that is as far as the parallels go. As relationships go, however, the Áames of mutual respect and kindred love have petered out. Early this year, Dangote and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc chairman John Coumantaros petitioned the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo that the establishment of a new sugar reÀnery plant in the country posed a threat to the attainment of the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) and the sustainability of the country’s local sugar industry. They also argued that the country currently had enough reÀning capacity to meet national demand and protested the recent commissioning of a sugar reÀnery in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, owned by BUA International, a major operator in the sugar industry. They urged Adebayo to prevail on the Nigeria Customs Service and the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure that the provisions of the NSMP were enforced and that no additional allocation of quota should be given for raw or reÀned sugar for the sugar reÀnery in Port Harcourt for local market production. Among other recommendations, they said no allocations should be issued or applications considered for quota intended for re-exporting sugar as this would be di΀cult to monitor and may be open to abuse. Reacting, the BUA Group chairman said that his investment in Port Harcourt did not in any way pose a threat to the country’s sugar policy. Rather, he said that it would checkmate arbitrary price increase by the major players, among other beneÀts to Nigeria. MinisterAdebayo then issued a directive prohibiting the importation of sugar. However, according to credible sources, Adebayo was instructed to respect the rule of law and play fair. Later, a penitent Adebayo wrote to the Ànance minister, rescinding his earlier directive while asking every agency of government concerned to maintain the status quo on the matter. Both Dangote and Rabiu had not been seen together since then until they surfaced in Paris. Are they back on good terms? Time will tell. About the Choose France Summit The Choose France Summit aims to showcase and promote France’s economic appeal while also encouraging foreign investments in French local areas. Over 120 global CEOS from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, NetÁix, Microsoft, Ali Baba, and Google, among others, converged on the historic city of Versailles for the summit. There was, however, a special event that brought together leading Nigerian and French industrialists to underscore President Macron’s a΀nity for Nigeria. Nigeria was the only country to receive such preferential treatment at the summit: a sign of how important France’s economic diplomacy in Nigeria is to President Macron. For perspective, Macron spent some formative years in Nigeria, which signalled the beginning of his relationship with Africa. In 2002, he spent six months as an intern at the French embassy in Abuja and discovered. He would later say, a country with little in common with more familiar francophone countries like Abidjan, Dakar or Libreville. He said recently, “Nigerians have no inferiority complex about France because the country is not on their radar. I was very happy in Nigeria. There was so much to do, with extremely entrepreneurial people, very creative, with whom I was able to have a relationship of equals in a very spontaneous and natural way.” Before that time, President Macron told The Africa Report, “40 years ago, France occupied a prominent position in Nigeria. Major French companies occupied leading positions in the construction, manufacturing, and logistics industries. More than 10,000 French nationals used to live in Nigeria at that time.” By the early 2000s, however, French companies lost their way. The President’s mission, therefore, is to plug

Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr Tony Elumelu

According to AfricaReport, Axens is not the only French company Rabiu is working with. He is also partnering with St-Gobain to deliver a plasterboard factory in Ogun State, where there is a plentiful supply of silica (quartz). “Currently, we import all our plasterboard – around 350,000 tonnes, so this is a real opportunity,” says Rabiu. The new venture, which will cost in the tens of millions of dollars, will have a capacity of around 250,000 to 300,000tonnes.“I have to commend President [Emmanuel] Macron for the engagement he is paying to Nigeria,” says Rabiu.

Mr. Tony Elumelu and Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr

French companies back into Nigeria. The mission didn’t start today. After Macron’s 2018 presidential tour of Nigeria, which included a trip to the Afrika Shrine, owned by Femi Kuti, multiple-Grammy nominee and scion of the iconoclastic Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a FrancoNigerian Business Dialogue was held in Lagos. But on the return leg to France, French business leaders were reluctant to meet visiting Nigerian CEOs. “Not one French CEO came,” Macron lamented. However, Abdul Samad signed a contract with Axens, a French company, to construct a reÀnery. BUAGroup is also signing with French group St-Gobain to build a plasterboard factory. Similarly, Access Bank has been working on acquiring a French banking licence as part of the plan to become the ‘Citibank of Africa’, and help plug the gaps in the global Ànancial architecture that have left African companies shut out of Ànancial markets. President Rabiu of France Nigeria Business Council The French Nigeria Business Council, a private sector initiative to facilitate business cooperation between both countries, was launched on the margins of the Choose France summit at Versailles on June 28. Rabiu was Àttingly appointed as the inaugural President of the Council by President Macron. Other Nigerian members of the council are Gilbert Chagoury (Chagoury Group), Mike Adenuga (Globacom/Conoil), Aliko Dangote (Dangote Industries), Tony Elumelu (Heirs

Holdings/UBA/TEF), and Herbert Wigwe (Access Bank). Also on the council are more than a dozen CEOS from some of the biggest French companies, including TotalEnergies, Axens, Danone, and Dassault. Last April, Macron had also appointed Rabiu as chairman of the France Nigeria Investment Club, commending his commitment to the development of French and Nigerian businesses. The BUAGroup chairman thanked President Macron for “his vision in creating the French Nigeria Business Council which has led to a reset in the business relationship between Nigeria and France and has created a viable platform for business from both countries to partner and improve business ties.” Rabiu said, “Nigeria is blessed with numerous potentials for French companies to do business across diͿerent areas, notably solid minerals, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, associated equipment, power, food processing, and even in the business of associated equipment or infrastructure for the value chains of these sectors. “Where French businesses have formerly been risk-averse or outrightly unable to do business with Africa’s largest economy, they can now be assured of a platform through which they can penetrate and mutually grow the market. Nigerian companies had not seen French companies or the French market as a viable destination due to a lack of information. They can now be sure of a platform to facilitate this. This is all thanks to President Macron’s foresight and vision.”

Herbert Wigwe… The Miracle Working Banker Who knew France could dazzle with Nigerian gems? Who knew the garden city of Versailles could pulse and list to the weight of Africa’s Ànest moguls and super bankers? Yes, Herbert Wigwe, the ebullient Managing Director of Access Bank, was also there. Indeed, Herbert has charted a radical path for one of Africa’s largest and most inÁuential banks. His leadership is authentic and in the cutthroat terrain of Nigerian banking, he rides the tides of the industry thus dictating the pace of change and inÁuencing the thought of his time. There is no gainsaying, therefore, that he would command the epochs that follow and impress his name on eternity by his dazzling strides. However, he was the centre of attraction that day as he bowled everyone over at the event with his infectious candor and charisma. People who know him well never got tired of purring odes about him on his account of his humility. His oratorical prowess and his well-groomed intelligence was overwhelming enough to elicit never-ending admiration from everyone. He talked so well about banking and Ànance. He cheered rapturously in victory. AfricaReport reports that Wigwe has been working on acquiring a French banking licence. It is all part of the plan to become the ‘Citibank of Africa’, and help plug the gaps in the global Ànancial architecture that have left African companies shut out of Ànancial markets. Access Bank has pan-African ambitions. “We want to be the Citibank or the JPMorgan of Africa ” says Wigwe. Is there enough intraAfrican trade to justify that? Wigwe points to the gap left by international banking groups in recent years as Basel III and other regulations make compliance more costly for global banks. “There is no point in waiting for other banks from other continents to come and serve you. You must create your own,” says Wigwe. The African Continental Free TradeArea oͿers proof, he says, that intra-African trade is set to increase through formal channels. Intra-African payments are also on the rise – Nigerian parents paying school fees in Ghana, for example – while there are also investments and remittances worth billions of dollars. “And we want all of that to be coming through our franchise,” says Wigwe. To beef up its correspondent-banking links, Access Bank has an o΀ce in London that will soon be joined by a new banking operation in France.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

E-BUSINESS

The Rise and Rise of FinTechs

The global new normal that has compelled all businesses, including commerce and banking to go online, has opened vista of opportunities for FinTech companies who develop the apps that connect businesses to the internet, writes Emma Okonji

n the days of physical transactions, where gigantic structures were built for the ease of trading, not much was known about Ànancial technology (FinTech) players, whose profession is about developing software applications (apps) for online transactions.

As new technologies emerge, people began to see the need to transact online businesses via the internet, without physical contact, which automatically removed the risk of carrying physical cash from one location to another, while transacting a single or multiple businesses. It also removed the risk of traveling long distance by road, sea or air, just to conclude business deals that ordinarily would have been transacted within minutes from the comfort of homes and o΀ces, using online technology. The FinTech players saw the need to develop payment apps that will ease business transactions, but not many merchants and business owners, including the banks, saw the need for such apps initially, until the COVID-19 pandemic struck and spread across globe, and locked down economies in 2020. The devastating eͿect of the pandemic, gave rise to a new normal where keeping of social distance became the norm, and that was the turning point for fast thinking FinTech players to begin to develop more Ànancial transaction apps that enable people to trade seamlessly, without physical contact, via the internet. The situation forced businesses to go online and it became a boom for FinTech players to rise endlessly in bid to sustain online transactions that have cut across all sectors of the Nigerian economy. FinTechs as Game-Changers FinTechs have changed the narrative in the Ànancial sector by digitally transforming all banking transactions to a level, where bank customers do not have need to stay in long queues, just to get access to Ànancial transactions. With the multiple apps developed for Ànancial transactions by FinTech players, customers can now transact seamlessly from their mobile devices, through downloaded apps that support such transactions. Developing payment apps has become a lucrative business for FinTech players, since they oͿer services to small, medium, and enterprise businesses, including individuals, who are bank customers. It becomes more lucrative, since it is a knowledge-based business that has nothing to do with huge investments in physical facilities. As a knowledge-based business, the starting capital is minimal, but the return on investment is huge and rapid, since the majority of businesses have gone online and people need apps to access online businesses and to trade on them. Founder of Interswitch, a FinTech company that plays in the payment space, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, said opportunities abound for FinTech players, and they do not need big capital to begin. “It’s about a knowledge-based economy that requires skills and little capital that grows into large Ànancial base over short period of time. FinTech is only a payment aspect of the general start-up ecosystem, since diversiÀcation in the start-up ecosystem has led to the development of solutions that are addressing challenges in sectors of the economy, using the same technology skill in diͿerent ways,” Elegbe said. Pointing out that FinTechs are fast changing the banking sector and the Nigerian economy, the Co-founder and CEO of Appzone, a FinTech company, Mr. Obi Emetarom, said: “FinTech is transforming the way Ànancial services work in Nigeria and is expected to completely replace brick and mortar operations within years. FinTech platforms will signiÀcantly reduce the cost of delivering Ànancial services to the extent that micro, consumer and SME customer segments that were previously unproÀtable to service will become attractive targets for innovative new oͿerings.” According to him, access to Ànance would

Elegbe

Eniolorunda

Mracajac

become ubiquitous, consumer spending power would increase through access to loans, velocity of money will accelerate through digital payments and idle funds within the economy would be captured more eͿectively through savings. “The increased e΀ciency in deployment of latent wealth towards productive activities will inject new funds into the productive economy and eͿectively stimulate economic growth,” Emetarom said. Founder and CEO of TeamApt, Mr. Tosin Eniolorunda, said people would Ànd it easier, faster and cheaper to do digital banking transactions from mobile devices, and that would make the services of FinTech players valid and acceptable to many. “The development speaks volume of the activities of FinTech players in the Ànancial services sector. The digital trend in the Ànancial services sector, makes Ànancial transactions easier and cheaper for people, and FinTechs are driving that revolution. Nigerian FinTechs are building the economics of scale in the Ànancial sector by expanding their solutions and services to outside of the country,” Eniolorunda said.

FinTech players are using emerging technologies like ArtiÀcial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics in addressing societal challenges in the Ànancial industry. “At Paga, we are driven by a massive transformative purpose, to make it simple for a billion people to access and use their money. We are using technology in making life possible for our customers by building the Square/PayTM for Nigeria, making it easy for individuals to perform digital transactions and sellers to collect payments. In solving the societal challenge of cash use, Paga has developed a home-grown solution, which customers can now download to link their bank cards or accounts, or fund the account at agents, and transact digitally,” Oviosu said. Those who have multiple bank accounts can transact from one place with money in any of their accounts. Those who are not banked can leverage Paga’s agent network to come into a digital world. Shops can use Paga’s application to collect payments digitally and reduce the acceptance of cash, and thus reduce theft, he said. Founder, PhastMoney, Mr. Dotun AdeÀoye, whose company plays in the lending space of the Nigerian FinTech community, said they have developed solutions that address unique approach to lending and growing the Ànances of small and medium size companies in Nigeria. “FinTech community, especially the payment industry, is making remarkable progress, and at the same time driving the nation’s economy big time,” AdeÀoye said, adding that most of them were being acquired for huge sums of money, running into billions of dollars, while some go into merger to form a robust and viable FinTech company. Managing Partner, Pelse Consulting, Mr. Boboye Oluwafemi, who runs a FinTech company said: “Emerging technology has made the world a global village. Any company that will succeed, must embrace technology and infuse technology into the business.”According to him, technology would reduce overhead cost and would help businesses to scale fast. It is the same technology that is driving FinTech businesses all over the world and Nigerian FinTech companies are taking advantage of the technology to develop innovative solutions and creating ideas that are driving development in the country and beyond.

Oviosu, who called for collaboration in the growth of FinTech players, said: “There is signiÀcant collaboration behind the scenes. Paga has opened up all its APIs for not just other FinTech players but the entire technology community. Now any business can leverage Paga’s APIs on Paga.dev to innovate, without worrying about payment infrastructure. Two great examples are Flutterwave’s partnership with Paga to allow for consumers to pay with their Paga accounts; and Visa’s partnership with Paga to drive contactless payments. We are also seeing traditional banks want to partner more deeply with us to leverage our retail distribution and access to the last mile.”

Resilience Factor The Chief Executive O΀cer, 9PSB, one of the licensed payment service banks, and a major player in the FinTech space, Ms. Branka Mracajac, is of the view that FinTechs are playing major role in Ànancial transaction space, and have grown tall in Ànancial service provisioning. She listed three major things that have made FinTechs thick and resilient in the Ànancial service space as: the right blend of domain knowledge in Ànance; domain knowledge of technology and the less tangible of the other two domains, entrepreneurial talent, which is the ability to identify commercial opportunities and bring together resources required to materialise those ideas. According to her, 9PSB is at the intersection/sweet spot between banking/Ànancial services, mobile telephony, and FinTech. 9PSB is combining knowledge of Ànancial service and mobile telephony to realise and bring Ànancial services with convenience and speed to largely the underserved and unbanked demographic in the society. Mracajac however said the resilient factor among FinTechs must be sustained by responsive and supportive regulations along with an enabling environment to encourage funding/ investments and training in tech and Ànance. She said so long as brands would keep a Ànger on the pulse of the consumers and respond with iterative technology solutions, the future would see sustained tempo in the sector. Also, giving his views as to why FinTechs have suddenly become the players to look out for, the Founder/CEO of Paga, a fast-growing FinTech company in Nigeria, Tayo Oviosu, said

Collaboration In spite of the remarkable progress being made by FinTech players, industry stakeholders have called for collaboration among the operators in order to sustain the tempo. According to them, collaboration would make FinTechs to reason alike and become more innovative in driving Ànancial transactions and addressing the challenges of Ànancial inclusiveness that could pose threat to digital transformation, which the federal government is currently driving to achieve across the country.

Challenges Although the coast is clear for FinTech players to explore endless possibilities in the payment system, but their success is not without some challenges. In May this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria raised the capital base for payment service providers to N250 million from the initial N100 million. The new CBN framework also reviewed downward, the capital requirements for licensing of payment solution services (PSSs) to N100 million from N250 million. However, capital requirement for the switching and processing licence remains unchanged at N2 billion, including mobile money operator licence, which was retained at N2 billion. In December 2020, CBN had approved a new licence categorisation for payment service providers and other Ànancial institutions in Nigeria in a bid to promote a strong and credible payment system, before introducing the new framework for capital base and licensing of payment solution services providers in May this year. Reacting to the new framework, Mracajac of 9PSB, said: “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the minimum capital requirement for payment solutions service providers (PSSPs) to N250 million from N100 million. According to the capital requirements, the payment Àrms must have an escrow of refundable value in the CBN PSP share capital deposit account. Escrowed funds were invested in treasury bills, which would be refunded accordingly. This is mainly to avoid volatility and help shield participants in payment solution services from the risk of a loss due to economic collapse of the providers.” Speaking on the sustainability of the new CBN framework, Mracajac said: “The thrust of our business is to provide our customers with an experience that is reciprocal to the trust that they have place in us; the Ànancial services sector bears an expectation to deliver a stable and secure product for the consumer. As such, the regulator decision to provide these checks and balances is to protect the consumers andaͿordmainlycompetentandviableproviders to play in the industry.”

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

ENERGY

Much Ado about NNPC’s 20% 6WDNH LQ 'DQJRWH 5HÀQHU\ The pleasant news of the Petroleum Industry Bill passage by the National Assembly almost drowned the continued concerns and discourse being generated over the propriety or otherwise of the move by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation’s acquisition of 20per cent stake in Dangote ReÀnery and Petrochemicals. Regardless of the heat this historic downstream deal is generating, the share purchase move by NNPC may be a good sign that it is ready and equipped to play in the PIB space. &KULV 3DXO reports

he week ended on two positive notes: the passing of the PIB by both chambers of the National Assembly and the signing of the term sheet between NNPC and Dangote ReÀnery. Since the PIB is a process that may actually kick-start in the medium term, the NNPC-Dangote deal is of immediate concern and therefore, the major focus of this story. Nigerian state oil company NNPC, on Tuesday, signed the term sheet with Dangote Group to buy a 20per cent stake in the company’s oil reÀnery under construction in Lagos. According to the NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari, NNPC is talking with banks to borrow on the back of its cash Áow to buy the stake in the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) reÀnery. Worth an estimated $19 billion, Dangote Group had previously revealed NNPC and three other Àrms had approached it regarding a stake purchase. For Kyari, having a stake in what would be the largest oil reÀnery in Africa is worth the cost. However, the deal is still a proposition that is subject to cabinet approval. Constrained by gasoline price caps, NNPC which is the sole importer of fuel in the country is being forced to sell the product at a loss. That was why he raised the alarm about its revenue security and warned government that its remittances to the government could drop to zero, due to fuel subsidy costs. Although, it has not yet deliberated on it, union groupsinNigeria,suchasNigeriaLaborCongress (NLC) have fought against any price increases. Although Kyari is hopeful of a deal to shed the subsidy costs within the coming months, he admitted, “The reality is that we can’t aͿord it.” “Butifyoudon’tdosomethingsmart,youcould end up with prices that Nigerians can’t aͿord,” he added. Of course, there is a lot of sense in the NNPC GMD’s blunt look at the issue, given that as at 2016, Nigeria had spent N4.69trillion on petrol import, demurrage per annum. Representing the main source of export value, Nigeria’s oil sector contributes about nine percent of the country’s GDP. Nigeria, the Àrst to discover hydrocarbon in the whole African continent, is the eleventh largest oil producer worldwide. Immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said 20 million metric tonnesofPremiumMotorSpirit(PMS)alsoknown as petrol, valued at N3.35 trillion was imported into Nigeria from January to December 2016. Between January and March 2021, the import of petrol into Nigeria amounted to N688 billion. In the last three quarters, import value of oil experienced slight increase. But the highest value was recorded in the third quarter of 2018, when an estimated N855 billion Naira of petrol were exported to Nigeria. Desperate for solutions to save N4.69 trillion yearly from massive importation of petroleum products and be delivered of the reÀneries challenge, NNPC had planned to formally engage a pool of Ànanciers after cost estimates were Àrmed up in June, 2019. As indicated in a document detailing federal government’s plans to rehabilitate the reÀneries, Nigeria spent N1.34 trillion yearly due to shipping and demurrage caused by inadequate port receipt facilities. Obviously, federal government’s plans to make NNPC a net exporter by end of 2019, is not happening; for now. Plans by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for the nation’s downstream sector kicked oͿ, in its Àrst few months in power. InaJune,2017,videopodcast,theformerMinister of State, Kachikwu told Nigerians that NNPC

Dangote Reﬁnery and Petrochemical complex

had taken up the responsibility of a last-resort importer producing petroleum products in an unstable environment as prices continue to take a big hit. “The country’s target is to cease the importation ofpetroleumproductsby2019andgetadvantages in terms of foreign exchange conservation, job creation and stabilise the market place in terms of pricing. “On our reÀneries, we are currently seeking Ànancing,andnotconcessionnorsaleofthereÀneries for it’s absolutely important to do whatever is needful in order to get the country’s reÀneries upgraded, enhanced, and get the GreenÀeld reÀnery builders supported, and especially get any individual to co-location reÀnery ownership interest,” Kachikwu added. The Petroleum Ministry also promised creation of an enabling environment for private sector-led ReÀneries. In other words, its plans to have all the four reÀneries working as a major route to making Nigeria self-su΀cient in domestic production and supply of Petroleum products in 2019 have collapsed. Supporting and creating an enabling environment for the private sector-led ReÀneries initiative, isthemajorsurvivingpartofitsdownstreamplans; for which Dangote ReÀnery has become a highly visible beacon and poster boy. By the time it becomes operational, the reÀnery alone will out produce Nigeria’s three major reÀneries – the Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt reÀneries with a combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 bpd. The locally reÀned petroleum products will not serve only the Nigerian market (thus reducing the forex expended on importation of these products). Beyond serving and supplying the fuel and forex needs of the country, the Lekki-based reÀnery will also serve international markets, earning more forex for the nation. The state of health of the forex soul of Nigeria would be greatly enhanced in the shortest term

possible once the 650,000 barrels per day ReÀnery facility begins to work. Economic experts have positedthatinamatterofmonths,DangoteReÀnery could crash the dollar, so dramatically; it is not impossible that the dollar falls to $1-N100. Barringanyunforeseencircumstances,Dangote reÀnerymaybeNigeria’smostimpactfulprojectin the short term. Owned by the Dangote Group, the DangoteReÀneryisanoilreÀnery,withthecapacity to process about 650,000 barrels per day of crude oil, making it the largest single-train reÀnery in the world. Having invested over $7 billion, which is justover60percentofhistotalnetworth,theGroup Chairman, Aliko Dangote is currently valued at $11.6 billion, according to Forbes. Followed by Egypt’s Bashandyoil fossil crude oil reÀnery, which produces 300,000 barrels per day, in terms of production capacity, the Dangote reÀnery is the largest in Africa. Incidentally, both facilities are under construction. Dangote comes a distant second to Paraguana ReÀnery, South America’s largest reÀnery. Considered the world’s third-largest reÀnery and located in Venezuela, its production capacity is 956,000 barrels per day. Using the Nigerian parallel market rate of N500 to $1, Dangote ReÀnery $19 billion investment represents N9.5 trillion. Representing approximately 48percentofthevalue,thevalueofDangotereÀnery is almost half of the equity market capitalisation; when weighed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange equity market capitalization crucible. Although altogether they are more valuable, the reÀnery takes up 72per cent of the total value of the Stocks Worth Over One Trillion (SWOOT); which includes Nestle Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Dangote Cement, BUACement and MTN have a current valuation as of the close of last days of June market at 13.3 trillion. Dangote reÀnery is bigger than the market capitalisation of all the top banks put together; represented by the acronym “FUGA=”, which includes First Bank of Nigeria, United Bank of Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and =enith Bank, by 389per cent.

Ranked 30 and displacing OMV, an Austrian multinationalintegratedoil,gasandpetrochemical company,DangotereÀneryisthelargestoilandgas companyinAfricawithSouthAfrica’sSasolcoming in at second position with a market capitalization of$9.75billion.Accordingtocompaniesmarketcap. com, Sasol is ranked 44th in the world. Outperforming all major reÀneries belonging to well-knownOilcompanieslikeExxonMobil,OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Total S.Aand Vitol; in Europe, Dangote ReÀnery comes next to JSC Antipinsky ReÀnery,theonlyreÀneryinRussia.Itoutperforms the Dangote reÀnery with a capacity of 896,500 barrels per day. At 345,000 barrels per day, only the Chinese Sinopec =henhai ReÀnery comes close to the capacity of the Dangote reÀnery. TheproductioncapacityoftheDangotereÀnery also outperforms big OPEC nations’ reÀneries like Saudi Arabia. Ras Tanura ReÀnery, Saudi Arabia’s largest reÀnery; controlled byAramco, with a production capacity of 550,000 barrels per day is still lower than Dangote’s ReÀnery. But, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Dangote reÀnery’s capacity is also second to the Ruwais ReÀnery (Abu Dhabi Oil ReÀning Company),whichproduces817,000barrelsperday. In Iran, the Dangote reÀnery is higher than Abadan ReÀnery, which has the largest capacity in that country with 450,000 barrels per day. Producing at only 605,000 barrels per day, the ExxonMobil Jurong Island ReÀnery, which is the largest in the Singapore, is lower in terms of production capacity. InNorthandCentralAmerica,Dangote’sreÀnery outperforms all major reÀneries on the continent, even in big oil states like Texas. Owned by Motiva Enterprises, an American company that operates as a fully owned afÀliate of Saudi Aramco, Port Arthur ReÀnery is the reÀnery that comes close to the capacity of Dangote’s ReÀnery, in Texas; with a capacity of 636,500 barrels per day.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

THE EXECUTIVE FIDET OKHIRIA Govt Has PPP Policy to Allow Private Sector Participate in Rail Devt His reappointment by President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC)was not a surprise to many who know about rail project development. From backend to front end, hardware to software, Mr. Fidet Okhiria has mastered the command of every sensitive and strategic sector of rail development; powered by over 34 years of experience. He is one of the many unsung right picks of Buhari in the development of infrastructure Nigeria. He speaks with Kunle Aderinokun and Chris Paul on how the country’s rail system evolved, highlighting the challenges and prospects, particularly addressing pertinent questions on the Lagos-Ibadan Railway, Abuja-Kaduna Railway and Itakpe-Warri Railway

ow did your journey in Nigeria’s rail sector begin? I joined the Railway Corporation in 1987 as an engineer. We had our training for two years and within the two years, we were taken round the system from Lagos to Enugu, to Kaduna, Zaria, Minna, Kafanchan and then to Ibadan, where I had my Àrst responsibility as a senior electrical engineer. I was in Ibadan for a very long time and I was in charge of electrical and mechanical aspect of the station. In short, I became the district engineer supervising the station: the coaches, the locomotives, power supply, house infrastructure, etc. In Ibadan, we were controlling operations from Lagos to Minna. Although, the headquarters o΀ce was here and it was in charge of workshops. Later, I was transferred to Enugu as a district engineer. After two years, I was brought back to Ibadan. At Ibadan, my supervision was not only limited to the West, but the nation as a whole; in charge of coaches and wagons. It was my responsibility to ensure that coaches and wagons that were due for maintenance are recalled and serviced, as scheduled. In 1999, I was then, appointed as a district manager for the North, with the headquarters in Zaria. I did not stay long there. When democracy returned, there was a re-arrangement and I was asked to return to the headquarters in Lagos; Àrst, as a chief engineer in charge of carriage and wagons. Later, I became the project manager in charge of the Romania Project. During the military regime of President Buhari with Tam David West as Petroleum Minister, Romania was owing Nigeria from crude oil purchase. So, they asked Romania to pay back and in the end it was translated into a barter trade. As pay back, the Romanians supplied lots of equipment and wagons. As project manager, my duty was to ensure those equipment were installed. Unfortunately, when they brought the equipment, there was no budget for installation. From that assignment, I was appointed, again, as the district manager for Lagos. From district manager, I was appointed as director and from director, I became the MD in 2016. I was appointed in February, but conÀrmed in October. It has not been easy, but patience and persistence in doing my duty diligently regardless of the challenges has brought me to where I am now.At a point, we were not getting salaries for as long as nine months. Sometimes, we will go on strike and nobody will discuss with us. We will return to work on our own; because you are bored staying at home. During the Sani Abacha regime, he tried to bring back the railway. He contacted the Chinese; they were to develop the infrastructure; I believe we all know what happened. He died. Luckily, democracy came in. The corporation continued to struggle. At a point, the management went as far as Flour Mill to borrow money to pay salaries. At the last minute, the civilian regime came up with the intention to modernise the railway. They had a 25-year rolling plan, divided into four stages. The Àrst phase of the plan was to retain what was on ground at the time, while the second was to build an entirely new, but modernised railway, stabilise it. The last phase was to throw it open to the private sector, through the public private partnership, either through concessioning or invite the private sector to come in. This happened in 2001. I told you the policy plan was for a 25-year period. Now, we have done 20 years out of it. In 2006, a contract was awarded to the Chinese for a standard gauge, double line from Lagos to Kano for which the groundbreaking took place in Kajola. Eventually, that regime left. The late Yar’Adua regime came, went into further discussion with the contractor and they said they couldn’t do it. They later agreed to do it in stages and they were to do Abuja-Kaduna. This regime came and decided to do Lagos-Ibadan, dusted up ItakpeWarri; completed it and it’s running now. We are not carrying only passengers there, we are also carrying freight. We are carrying pipes and hopefully, in August, we will start moving Iron ore; because the company has already approached us saying they will start mining in August and they want to go by rail. We have just commissioned Lagos-Ibadan. So, as it has turned out now, the rail project has turned from being

Okhiria

a weeping baby to now, the golden child.

For a project that was hatched in 2006 only to become a reality on your watch. How does this make you feel? I can say I am a blessed child. That it is happening in my own time. More importantly, we have a president, who is desperate to ensure Nigerians have access to good infrastructure. We have a minister, who is passionately committed to accomplishing President Buhari’s vision of providing rail system not just for the comfort and convenience of rail transport for Nigerians, but to energise and wire the economy for ease of movement of heavy duty goods across the country. This is in no way meant to discountenance the eͿorts of past governments. They had their plans and did the best they could. The diͿerence, here is the level of commitment and the selÁessness required to achieve the goal in good time. That is what the President Buhari has demonstrated in the actualisation of the project, within six years. When you came here on Monday, I was here and you left at 7pm or thereabouts. I could have closed by 4pm and decide to go to the club to do other things. I have to stay extra hours to ensure all is going well. If you go to Abuja, you will see the minister still working at late hours in his o΀ce. When we are discussing the work, even if I have any interest, since my leaders are not making request, I will be scared to make such request. On a broader note, when you are not making any demands from your contractor, they will have no choice, but to deliver a good job. But once you compromise yourself and the system, it becomes di΀cult to accomplish these things. We recall that the Lagos-Ibadan was supposed to have been commissioned last year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. We also recall the frustration you experienced during those times. Thankfully, it has Ànally become a reality, one year later. Can you please share your experience during those times? You will observed that when we went on inspection back then, we don’t come back before 1am. Another minister would have said, it’s 4pm and I don’t want to return to Lagos in the night. Get me a hotel and things like that, but he insisted, each time that we continue, because he wanted to feel what Nigerians will feel or experience under such situations. So, he didn’t mind going through the bushes and waters. That is part of the selÁessness I am talking about. So, we come back and resume the next day.

When, as the client, you display such commitment to the job, the contractor cannot do any less. Sometimes some of my Chinese friends murmur that they have never seen this type of close and purposeful supervision before in Nigeria. And you can’t blame them because they are probably used to people giving them jobs and going to sleep without thorough checks and monitoring to ensure they are doing the work on time and as scheduled. Well, our able and honourable Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has shown them that this is new dawn. He has the drive and determination to get the job done and delivered as promised. He will tell them ‘ I am a politician and I am accountable to the Nigerian people. What do I tell them? I can’t give them excuses. All they need is to see is a functioning and modernised rail system and that is what I have sworn to deliver to them.’ So,hedirectedthatoperationsshouldcommencefromIjutoAbeokuta, while they are sorting out other issues concerning the project. When they saw we have started Iju-Abeokuta, they knew it was no longer a joking matter. In no time, they delivered Lagos-Ibadan. We had challenges with Lagos because of its metropolitan nature. We had pipes, structures on the right of way and so forth. We ensured we overcome them and pay the appropriate compensation. Even those, who trespassed on the rail land, the minister ensured they got something. The policy is that rail and road should never cross. We had to deliver the tracks while we worked on the overheads. There 21 rail bridges and 27 overheads. We had 47 underpasses and drainages. You know Lagos is below sea level and so they had to get the design right. To get it right, the Costain bridge had to be lifted, because the new standard gauge had to have enough head room to accommodate the electric device since the plan is to eventually upgrade to electric trains, when we eventually have su΀cient power supply. We wanted to avoid a situation, whereby when we are ready to roll out the electric trains, issues of appropriate headroom provision would become an impediment to the movement of the trains. So, Costain bridge was too low and it was demolished and rebuilt. Plans are under way now to commence work on Fadeyi/Jibowu. You know there is bridge from Jibowu to Yaba. The arrangement now is to have a Áyover come from Mosalashi on Agege motor road to connect to the Yaba road. So, there are 27 of those bridges. Some have been built. Some are land acquisition where you have pillars etc. and work is ongoing. Those are the things that will come on later. Why am I saying this? We are commissioned to run trains because the track is in place. All the auxiliary works, the overpasses etc., the contractor will provide them.

These underpasses and overheads were not originally part of the plan? Yes. They were not. The minister was able to pursue it. Took it to Federal Executive Council (FEC) and everybody supported it. He got it approved. You may call it an additional work to done; just like the Apapa Wharf was not part of it. The minister insisted and the president supported it. The point was that you cannot install a rail system without linking it to the Seaports; while connecting it to the Dry Port. The designers are putting heads together with our men to know the appropriate routes for the project to take that will make engineering sense in terms of cost and ensuring it doesn’t aͿect the commercial activities of the area. All those are being looked into now. We hope by November we should be able to go into the ports fully. We don’t want to start on the standard gauge, then stop, because there are some areas we need to work on within and outside of Apapa Port. We are not likely to start freight movement on the standard gauge until November. However, we are moving the narrow gauge. So, when we commission, the contractor will still need to stay with us for the next Àve years, because there is service-labour agreement for our men to be trained. Now that you are up and running especially with the KadunaAbuja and now Lagos-Ibadan phases of the project. Why are you having issues with Ticketing? When you are providing infrastructure, ticketing is an operational issue. The e-ticketing is another cost element. It’s not just using the online payment method that captures all that concerns e-ticketing, there are essentially security issues. See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

MONEY

EBENEZER ONYEAGWU:

Taking Zenith Bank to the Zenith

Regardless of the challenging macroeconomic environment brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic among others, Zenith Bank under the leadership of its Group Managing Director, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, has maintained its leadership position, writes Oluchi Chibuzor

ast month made it two years since Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu assumed the position of Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc. Despite the very challenging macroeconomic environment brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a signiÀcant deleterious impact on businesses globally, Onyeagwu has demonstrated that he has a midas touch considering the strong Ànancial performance the bank continues to churn out. Rated on key parameters such as asset quality, proÀtability and return to investors, Zenith Bank’s track record has been impressive. The bank is a clear market leader, growing its total assets and net income by an annual average of 15.7 per cent and 15.5 per cent, respectively, over the last Àve years, according to the latest banking report released by Coronation Merchant Bank. Obviously, those who doubted his competence when he was appointed now have a rethink as his performance in the last two years has shown clearly that he is a square peg in a square hole. This has continued to reÁect in the performance of the bank which has maintained its leadership position. Also, in the area of corporate governance which is a vital ingredient in ensuring the sustainability of any institution, Zenith Bank under Onyeagwu has maintained a positive rating as can be seen from the recent assessment by the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NG;) hence the Ànancial institution’s listing on the Premium Board of the Exchange. The bank places a premium on its core business strategy anchored on people, technology and service, to create value for its numerous clientele. With a team of dedicated professionals, the bank leverages its robust Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to provide cutting-edge solutions and products through its network of branches and electronic/digital channels. Zenith Bank under Onyeagwu’s watch has remained committed to sustaining the legacy of its visionary Founder and Chairman, Mr. Jim Ovia, whose pioneering and foundational role in building the structures and laying the foundation ensured an enduring and very successful institution. As a testament to the aforementioned and in recognition of its track record of excellent performance, Zenith Bank was last week ranked the number one bank in Nigeria by tier-1 capital in the 2021 Top 1000 World Banks’ Ranking published by The Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times Group of the United Kingdom. The bank, with a tier-1 capital of $2.64 billion, retained its ranking as the number one tier-1 bank in Nigeria for the third consecutive year. It, however, emerged as the 454th bank globally and the only Nigerian bank in the top 500. The ranking which was published in July 2021 edition of the magazine, was based on the 2020 year-end tier-1 capital of banks globally. Zenith Bank’s Ànancial performance for the year was underpinned by an eight per cent growth in non-interest income, with an improved market share in both retail and corporate sectors despite a challenging macroeconomic environment exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tier-1 capital describes capital adequacy, and it is the core measure of a bank’s Ànancial strength from a regulator’s point of view. According to the ranking, tier-1 capital, as deÀned by the latest Bank for Interna-

Onyeagwu

tional Settlements (BIS) guidelines, includes loss-absorbing capital, i.e. common stock, disclosed reserves, retained earnings and minority interests in the equity of subsidiaries that are less than wholly owned. Speaking on the ranking, Onyeagwu, said it was a demonstration of the bank’s resilience and doggedness as an institution given the very challenging macroeconomic environment brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a signiÀcant deleterious impact on businesses globally. He said it was also an a΀rmation of Zenith Bank’s commitment to delighting and creating value for our customers through a broad range of superior product oͿerings, best-in-class service and top-of-the-range technology. He thanked the bank’s customers for making Zenith Bank their choice. This award was the latest amongst many awards and recognitions that the bank has received in recent times for its track record of excellent performance and commitment to global best practices. For instance, Zenith Bank under Onyeagwu’s leadership had also been voted as Bank of the Year (Nigeria) in The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2020; Best Bank in Nigeria in the Global Finance World’s Best Banks Awards 2020 and 2021; and Best Corporate Governance ‘Financial Services’ Africa 2020 and 2021 by the Ethical Boardroom. In a clear demonstration of its resilience, the bank’s recently announced unaudited results for the Àrst quarter ended 31st March 2021, showed that its proÀt after tax (PAT) rose to N53.1 billion, from N50.5 billion recorded in March 2020. This was despite a very challenging macroeconomic environment aggravated

by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the bank’s unaudited statement of account for the Àrst quarter of 2021, the Group’s proÀt before tax also grew from N58.8 billion to N61 billion in the same period. The proÀtability was driven by the optimisation of the cost of funds and improvement in non-interest income. In addition, the bank’s cost of funds reduced signiÀcantly from 2.6 per cent in March 2020, to 1.1 per cent in March 2021. This also reÁected in interest expense which dropped by 45 per cent from N32.8 billion to N18 billion over the same period. Also, in its audited results for the full year ended December 31, 2020, it recorded signiÀcant earnings’ growth. For instance, the bank’s net interest stood at N299.682 billion, up from N267.031 billion in 2019, while net fee and commission income was N79.332 billion as against N100.106 billion in 2019. Its proÀt before tax grew from N243.294 billion to N255.861 billion, just as proÀt after tax (PAT) rose by 10.4 per cent to N230.565 billion from N208.843 billion in 2019. Loans and advances improved from N2.306 trillion to N2.779 trillion, while customers’ deposits rose from N4.262 trillion to N5.339 trillion. Total assets rose from N6.347 trillion to N8.481 trillion in 2020. The chief executive o΀cer has continued to assure investors and stakeholders that the commercial bank will continue to accelerate its retail and digital banking initiatives in order to sustain its positive performance. He also pointed out that even though the tier-1 bank has over the years grown organically, it might go into a business combination deal whenever it sees value. Providing insights into the bank’s 2020 Ànancial results, Onyeagwu had explained

that Zenith is the biggest bank in the country and given its size, it is important to maintain certain optimal level of cash balances to meet the transactions and the needs of its customers. “Again, you need to understand that the cash balance you see today is not what you will see tomorrow. You may end with N55 billion at the reporting time and you move in the next day, that balance may come down to N20 billion or even N10 billion, depending on the transaction Áow. “So, essentially, as a big bank, with our asset size and huge liquidity position, we need to keep a level of cash holding to meet our daily needs.” Responding to a question on the likely drivers of the bank’s operating expenses, Onyeagwu said it was a combination of so many things. “Of course, we are scaling up in terms of our cyber-security initiative because as we continue to grow in our digital expansion programme. “It is also important that we make adequate provision to deal with the downside eͿect of implementing a digital banking regime, which has also seen a rising case of cybercrime. “So, we are also up scaling our investment in terms of what we have, to contend with the ever-increasing risks we see in the environment. That in a nutshell explains the rise in our digital banking initiative,” added. While highlighting the eͿects of high cost of doing business in Nigeria on Zenith Bank, he also pointed out that regulatory costs, such as the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) premium as well as the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) charge, place heavy burden on Ànancial institutions. “When you are looking at cost of doing business, you also need to look at in total, how businesses are being conducted. If I set up a branch today, I would need to provide my infrastructure, I need to provide power, water and in some cases we even construct road to provide access to the branch location. “We also have things like regulatory cost. A bank like Zenith, given our size, the burden of regulatory cost on us is heavy. By regulatory cost here, I am referring to NDIC premium and AMCON charge. “So, because of our size, if you look at the numbers, you will see that this regulatory cost accounts for a whopping 28 per cent of our overhead. So, all of them come together to add to the cost of doing business for us as a banking institution in the country,” he added. He urged Nigerians, especial operators of SMEs to take advantage of the various intervention funds that had been created by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Responding to a question on the bank’s acquisition plan, Onyeagwu said: “First is to say that Zenith Bank has grown organically, we are disciplined, we are focused and we look for where to extract value. “However, we would not do a deal or a corporate action just for the sake of doing it. If we Ànd a deal that Àts into our proÀle, of course we would do a deal. It has to be something that Àts into our proÀle. “Until we Ànd such, we would continue to grow organically. We are already in Ghana, we are in Sierra Leone, Gambia, UK and by no means that is not to say that we cannot expand beyond this location. It depends on what we see as events continue to unfold.” Clearly, with Onyeagwu still on the driving seat, it is expected that Zenith Bank will maintain its industry leadership position while also remaining as one of the healthiest Ànancial institution in the continent.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

BUSINESS PERSONALITY HERBERT WIGWE:

Enthroning Value-driven Leadership, Excellence Culture Herbert Wigwe is positioning Access Bank Plc to become a Ànancial powerhouse with the capacity to aͿect the Africa positively, writes Hamid Ayodeji

or his stellar leadership in the market expansion of one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest bank despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group Managing Director/CEO ofAccess Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, was recently adjudged the ‘African Banker of theYear’ at the 2021 edition of theAfrican BankerAwards. Awinner of one of the most-prized categories at the awards ceremony for the second consecutive year, Wigwe was recognised for his aggressive expansion of the Access Bank brand in the continent. According to organisers of the awards, over the last 12 months, Access Bank has established a presence in South Africa, a major Ànancial hub in the continent, following the bank’s acquisition of Grobank. Accepting the award, Wigwe saidAccess Bank was focused on promoting corporate discipline, adding that the bank wants to be in key markets on the continent, building a payment gateway and providing trade Ànance support. “We want to be seen as the best bank supporting the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA). In terms of diaspora remittances, we are present in key areas in the continent,” he said. The African Banker Awards is among the most respected and recognised industry events celebrating African banking achievements. The organisers this year, put emphasis on recognising and rewarding institutions that contributed to the real economy which has suͿered from the impact of Covid-19 as well as contributed to women empowerment on the continent. Commenting on the award, Group Publisher ofAfrican Banker and Chair of theAwards Committee, Omar Ben Yedder, said, “Herbert is one of the most respected bankers on the continent, without a shadow of a doubt. “The bank has gone from a lower ranked Nigerian bank when he joined the group as Deputy CEO to become one of Africa’s leading Ànancial services groups. He has shown a relentless pursuit for growth, but has done so in a measured and calculated manner. What he and his team have done at Access Bank is nothing short of remarkable.” In line with Yedder’s comment, Wigwe, who is also the Chairman of Body of Banks’ Chief Executive O΀cers, has deployed his value-driven leadership to support the industry regulators in designing initiatives to support Nigerians as well in ensuring stability in the banking system. Wigwe is also positioning the bank to take advantage of the opportunities which theAfCFTA presents in the continent. TheAfCFTAagreement is expected to create the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating. The pact connects 1.3 billion people across 55 countrieswithacombinedgrossdomesticproduct (GDP) valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, but achieving its full potential will depend on putting in place signiÀcant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures. In fact, it is expected that full implementation of AfCFTAwould reshape markets and economies across the region and boost output in the services, manufacturing and natural resources sectors. These opportunities will provide competition within the industry and therefore banks that position themselves appropriately, will beneÀt enormously.

Wigwe

Indeed, these opportunities informed Wigwe’s recent visit to the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, as the bank eyes further continental expansion. Access Bank recently unfolded plans to expand to more African countries as part of a strategy to support trade and Ànance in the continent and take advantage of the AfCFTA. According to Wigwe, across Africa, there is an opportunity for the bank to expand to highpotential markets, leveraging the beneÀts of AfCFTA. He saidAfCFTA, among other beneÀts, would expand intra-Africa trade and provide real opportunities for Africa. He stated that the plan was for the bank to establish its presence in 22 African countries so as to diversify its earnings and take advantage of growth opportunities in the continent. According to him, Africa has enormous potential and there are opportunities for an African bank that is well run, that understands compliance and has the capacity to support trade and the right technology infrastructure to support payments and remittances, without taking incremental risks. “We believe that we are best positioned to basically do all of that. Our focus is to become an aggregator inAfrica and we are building a global payment gateway and providing trade Ànance support and correspondent banking across the continent. We are focusing on the key markets. “The approach would always be that in the country we wish to go to, that we have the right skills. We would not just be a drop in the country in which we are present, we would make sure that we have an impactful presence in each of

the major countries in which we are present. “In doing this, we are also mindful of the country we are going to so as to make sure that it is of beneÀt to the bank. As we do this, we are working with our friends and partners. “We are diversifying our earnings away from volatile markets as well and we are orchestrating our operations from the global payments gateway and ensuring that using Access Bank UK, providing corresponding services from digital platforms, the overall proÀtability of our franchise,” he explained. Commenting further, on AfCFTA, he said the bank would use its digital framework to beneÀt from the continental agreement. Access Bank,Africa’s largest retail bank, serves more than 36 million customers across a network of 677 branches. The bank whose brand visibility has been on the upswing since its acquisition of former Diamond Bank has remained supportive of micro, small and medium scale enterprises in the country. For instance, in the wake of the pandemic, the Wigwe-led Access Bank had unfolded various forms of support for operators of such businesses, through the $50 million loan support the bank secured from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Wigwe had said the bank was committed to helping Nigerian businesses weather COVID-19 pandemic and set a course for recovery. According to him, the funds has helped the bank increase liquidity to several Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises navigating the economic challenges of COVID-19.

“In Nigeria, SMEs contribute over 45 percent of national GDP, account for about 96 percent of businesses and 84 per cent of employment. “Access Bank, therefore, recognises the importance of SMEs to economic stability and is going the extra mile to ensure that such businesses are adequately Ànanced to weather these testing times,” he said. According to him, the IFC’s funding has not only enabled the bank to extend Ànancial relief to clients across all sectors during the pandemic, but beyond the COVID-19 crisis as well. In line with its drive to support entrepreneurial spirit in the country, the bank recently rewarded serving members of the Nigeria Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with over N15 million in the third edition of the bank’s youth business challenge competition, Accessprenuer. The scheme was designed to train corps members on business plan writing, after which a competition will be held to select the top winners with bright and feasible business ideas within the mandatory 21-day Camp orientation exercise. Similarly, the bank recently launched what it termed the ‘Diamond Business Advantage (DBA) lite’ as part of eͿorts to increase its digital loans and enhance access to Ànance for young entrepreneurs. The bank said the product which is targeted at the youths was designed to add value to micro, small and medium scale enterprises. The DBA Lite is a product of the erstwhile Diamond bank via the Diamond BusinessAccount and that was one of the best products in the market but after the merger, it was renamed DBA. Access Bank accounts for over 50 per cent of digital loans in the industry because it is gives such loans at an average of N18, 000-N20, 000 daily. Last year, four million people accessed N100 billion through the bank. In addition, the bank has through its ‘W’ initiative continues to support female entrepreneurs. The bank had unveiled the ‘W’ initiative to accelerate its support for women. In addition to Ànancial inclusion, the initiative also focuses on women empowerment oͿerings. Some of these include mentoring, capacity building, maternal health services, access to loans and credit facilities. In line with its support for female entrepreneurs, the bank under the leadership of Wigwe also introduced the third edition of its Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa programme. The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa programme was designed to provide female- owned businesses acrossAfrica an opportunity to access Ànance, world-class business trainings as well as mentoring opportunities. The programme was designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Commenting on these interventions, Wigwe said: “For us at Access Bank, supporting and empowering women is truly at the heart of our strategy and other things we have to do as far as sustainability is concerned. “In the last couple of years, we have made signiÀcant progress as a bank and there have been several things that have been done in terms of supporting women. “The ‘W’ initiative is supposed to inspire and empowerwomenaswellasfemaleentrepreneurs. When we started doing it, some people thought it was a joke.” “Through our W session- in-branch and W Business Hubs, we provide you a platform to meet with industry experts on how to come-up with a compelling business plan.” See concluding part on www. thisdaylive.com

ͼ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R

MARKET NEWS A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager. Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return. An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg. Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 01Jul-2021, unless otherwise stated.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors. Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return. NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 154.53 156.06 -4.48% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 4.48% Nigeria International Debt Fund 317.92 317.92 -21.20% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 111.21 111.21 -0.79% ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A ACAP Income Funds N/A N/A N/A AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 6.28% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.24 3.40 -4.72% info@anchoriaam.com ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market N/A N/A N/A Anchoria Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Anchoria Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 19.22 19.79 5.95% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 419.53 432.17 4.78% ARM Ethical Fund 38.00 39.15 12.73% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.08 1.09 -1.28% ARM Fixed Income Fund 0.96 0.97 -8.21% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 5.78% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 104.94 104.94 3.18% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 131.12 131.78 3.84% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 9.33% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) N/A N/A N/A mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com ; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund N/A N/A N/A CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 6.83% Paramount Equity Fund 16.18 16.48 1.18% Women's Investment Fund 134.57 136.11 1.11% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.94% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 116.48 117.25 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 N/A N/A Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 107.02 107.02 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.79% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.18 1.19 -1.67% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.37 1.37 -13.47% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A 100.00 100.00 3.06% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 2.69% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,137.51 1,147.12 -0.59% FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Balanced Fund 188.35 189.65 0.36% FBN Halal Fund 110.85 110.85 6.64% FBN Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Money Market Fund Legacy Debt Fund Legacy Equity Fund Legacy USD Bond Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Balanced Fund Coral Income Fund Coral Money Market Fund

125.84 157.30

125.84 3.42% 159.47 4.05% fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com

Bid Price 1.00 3.95 1.57 1.18

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 1.00 4.18% 3.95 2.18% 1.60 2.95% 1.18 3.59% coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price 3,664.78 3,358.16 100.00

Offer Price 3,715.99 3,358.16 100.00

Yield / T-Rtn -2.14% 2.50% 5.57%

GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria Entertainment Fund N/A N/A N/A GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.28% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.85 2.92 -0.09% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 4.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 150.97 151.24 -2.91% Vantage Equity Income Fund (VEIF) - June Year End 1.26 1.30 -0.14% Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End 1.09 1.09 0.00% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD ﬁncon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.40 1.42 2.78% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,149.18 1,149.18 4.01% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 11.12 11.1617 6.14% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 7.23% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.65 1.67 7.22% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.49 11.53 -5.34% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 3.65% PACAM Equity Fund 1.62 1.63 2.15% PACAM EuroBond Fund 111.33 113.00 1.28% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 126.13 128.43 4.69% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.01 1.01 3.41% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Eurobond Fund N/A N/A N/A United Capital Wealth for Women Fund N/A N/A N/A United capital Sukuk Fund N/A N/A N/A QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 12.88 12.99 8.52% Zenith Ethical Fund 14.09 14.21 15.33% Zenith Income Fund 24.14 24.14 0.69% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 6.23%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

124.09 51.54

2.77% -1.64%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

13.13 124.08 98.05 17.80 17.92

13.23 127.03 100.11 17.90 18.02

-0.64% 3.13% -1.22%

Fund Name SFS REIT Union Homes REIT

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

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

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

107.52

13.11%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

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

SUNDAY JULY 4, 2021 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

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WEEKLY PULL-OUT

4.7.2021

FOLORUNSHO COKER A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK Whether by genetic design or the handiwork of Providence, each passing day sees the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Folorunsho Coker, exhibiting the admirable qualities his father possessed, Vanessa Obioha writes ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

COVER

The Bold, Brilliant Son of Baba Eto of Lagos

COKER

Folorunsho with late father, Pa Folarin Coker

nyone who has had an encounter with the late Folarin Coker, on meeting his son, Folorunsho, would likely conclude that he is a chip off the old block. It is a compliment that is often paid to the younger Coker, and each time he hears those words, he feels fulfilled.

Coker’s life is like a page borrowed from his father’s book of life in more ways than one. Like his father, he is also in the public service for more than two decades. The late Coker was a public servant who retired as a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Tourism before his death last year. The younger Coker is working in the same industry. Presently, he oversees the

affairs of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), an office he has occupied since 2017. Before he was appointed the Director-General of the agency, he was the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture for Lagos State. Whether by genetic design or the handiwork of Providence, each passing day sees Coker exhibiting the admirable qualities his father possessed. The Lagos Motor Boat Club, Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, is a favourite place of gratification to him. It is where many of his fantasies are brought together. Even if he cannot speed away in a boat to a picturesque beach resort, he has the satisfaction of watching the traffic on the water as they move back and forth. This particular Sunday morning, all the mixes that promote water sports were present; a bright and sunny day and happy groups of people-scantily dressed and chatting away as they got ready to sail away. Since he resumed work at Abuja, he looks forward to these occasional visits to Lagos and the opportunity to come close to a natural body of water. His relocation to Abuja did not water down his love for water-based recreation, cultivated over 30 years ago when he owned his first beach house and became a Lagos Motor Boat Club member. Not a few times, old buddies paused his conversation with this reporter to exchange pleasantries with him. One commented on his long absence from the club. Both men laughed heartily as they advanced the commonplace excuse of COVID-19 restrictions and protocols, which have redefined human interactions everywhere. They bumped each other’s elbow before excusing themselves-in the new manner of greeting- to return to their individual engagement. Of course, the interruptionseither by a phone call or brief stop-andgreet- to our conversation continued with unchoreographed frequency throughout my stay. He shared his late father’s memory, who was sociable and wore many traditional garlands in his lifetime, notable among them the Baba Eto of Lagos and Yorubaland. “I feel fulfilled when people say I’m a chip off the old block. It’s a thing of pride. I happen to also be professionally in public service and the same industry as him. I think I’m very fortunate to have had him for so long, to have had his counsel for so long. The prayer is that our children should do much more than we did. And that is the prayer I live with,” he said. From his voice’s emotional tone, it was evident that Coker shared a special kind of bond with his father. He didn’t attempt to hide his grief over the loss of his father. It was punctuated in each word he spoke about him. “I have very many fond memories of him. If you are the child of an old school colonial-era public servant, you will know what I’m talking about. My father had sterling values. He was a lawyer by profession. He was the principal secretary to the Sultan of Sokoto, so he speaks Hausa to an extent. My father was one of the most detribalised Nigerian I ever knew, and I have always tried to emulate that side of him. He was deeply religious. Some describe him as a socialite,” he paused for a moment. “I miss him,” he continued. “I miss the words of wisdom, the advice, the historical content of a 97-year-old man going away in just one day, something that I, at 56... I have known him for 56 years. It’s something that I deal with every day. I remember him every day, and I think I will for the rest of my life.” Coker will turn 56 in July and has an avuncular charm. He is the type of uncle you would want to hang out with all the time, not only because of his geniality but also for his wisdom. At his age, he has done well past some of his contemporaries. Born and raised in Ikoyi, he is an alumnus of Corona School, Ikoyi, where he obtained his first school leaving certificate. He attended St. Gregory’s college for his secondary education. He proceeded to St Bees School, Cumbria, the UK, in 1982 and holds a bachelor’s degree in combined studies, Economics, and Geography from Manchester University. Coker also has a postgraduate degree in diplomacy, international trade, and finance from the University of Westminster, where he finished with distinctions. Coker was among the first employees of the present democratic regime in Lagos State. In 1999, former governor of Lagos State and

national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed him as his personal assistant, and in 2003, he was appointed deputy chief of staff to the Lagos government. He would later become the managing director of the Number Plate Production Authority of the state for 10 years. In 2014, he was appointed Special Adviser on the Central Business District of Lagos to Raji Babatunde Fashola (SAN), then governor of Lagos State. Despite the different capacities he has served in government, the industry that has always kept him in the public eye is Tourism. He lives and breathes tourism. He is so passionate about it that he did not miss a beat when discussing the problems bedevilling the industry. He reeled out ideas on how the industry can grow beyond its current state, emphasising investing in specific tourism infrastructure and promoting domestic tourism. “It’s about the structure, the foundation. Without foundation, nothing is going to happen. For tourism, it’s the legislation that governs it. Without legislation, the oil industry, the telecom industry, and the banking industry would not have developed. The legal framework is the foundation that allows people to invest, to grow, modify the industry to now have a more commercial outlook that people can see. Tourism is a business and is a business worth investing in. It’s human capital development. It is mental capital development,” he explained. “We’ve got to reimagine our events, so much in terms of natural assets that we’ve got to invest even in little things like a toilet in a place where people have a festival to avoid them defecating in the field. If there’s no power, you can give them solar power. There’s no water; give them that. At least, give people some semblance of comfort that will make them come in there. “We don’t know how long this pandemic is going to last, but life changes. It doesn’t stop. We have to reimagine how we want to do the normal things that we do in life, focusing on staying alive. We need to reimagine how we do our events. Our festivals, such as the Ofala Festival, Ojude Oba Festival, Calabar Festival, need to be reimagined with social distancing in mind. Every penny spent on water waves, rails is an investment in tourism. Certain tourism-specific things need to be done. “For example, from our embassies, the foreign traveller’s approach has to be good experience, to the visa policy, to the airport experience, to the commonality of purpose between customs, immigration, police, etc. That has to be welcoming, whether it is local or international. Then you’ve got to look at our hotels. We must standardise our hotels. We must grade our hotels. A hotel in Lagos and a hotel in Zamfara cannot charge the same price and occupy the same rate. I’m not disparaging the community. I’m just saying we have to have grading standardisation so that people can get a sense of value for money. Funding is also fundamental. You must invest in certain tourism specific infrastructure.” It is no news that the tourism industry was adversely affected by the pandemic. In Coker’s view, the most marketable tourism product to emerge from the pandemic will be domestic tourism. More people will be sceptical about spending more money on travels and quarantine hassles before they can move about their businesses. One aspect of tourism that the public servant is passionate about is food. Calling himself a foodie, he spoke with relish about Nigerian food and flavours. Having organised food festivals in Lagos and Abuja, his gusto is understandable. Coker has been intrigued by the influences on Nigerian food over the years by flavours from other countries such as China, India, European and other West African countries. He has seen how professional chefs render home services and fine dining restaurants beyond just a place in a hotel to eat. He’s been amazed by the marriage of these flavours to create an incredible culinary experience. And like our film, art and music, he believes food can promote tourism. However, his understanding of Nigerian flavour was instructive. He added: “The Nigerian flavour is not just food. It’s how you dress. It’s how you worship, how you drink, what you’re wearing, all of those things. When I look at food, I see it as a form of transportation to convey more of the flavours of Nigeria to people.” Though he has experience managing restaurants, he hinted at the possibility of retiring as a consultant for a seafood restaurant in Lagos.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ULY 4, 2021

INSIGHT

Sanwo-Olu’s 56th Birthday: A Reporter’s Diary By Gbenga Omotoso

he last of the itinerary drummers has disappeared. Gone are the ordinary folks who formed a massive human barricade at the gate in a desperate battle to get a piece of whatever action they thought was on behind the tall walls of the sprawling compound. Gone are the caterers and the dee jays, with their muffled equipment (the celebrator wouldn’t allow a carnival). Gone are the pastors, their hymn books and sacred texts tucked under their arms. Gone also are the venerable who bore gifts and the vulnerable, who came to try their luck. So are the ethnic groups who turned out in colourful native dresses in a rare show of glamour that kept many asking: Is it Christmas? They are all gone. The massive tent has given way and the stifled lawn has regained its breath, its freshness, lushness and sheer greenery. Back are the ornamental birds that stroll arrogantly in the compound; they must have been wondering why the sudden violation of their space. Now, it is fit and proper to revisit it all, its essence, its sense and sensibility. I speak of the 56th birthday of Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State, on June 25. It was to be a quiet day of prayers and reflections. That’s all he wanted. No revelry. No jamboree. No jollification. Mr Sanwo-Olu won’t ever embrace self-glorification. Neither will he be found in the company of professional praise-singers. Members of the State Executive Council, among who this reporter is numbered, had a somehow different plan - to throw some parties on that day. We did – at various orphanages. So, off to Ginti on the outskirts of Ikorodu, deep in the heart of Ijede, where Mr Sanwo-Olu had on June 9 opened a four-lane 6.05km road, where I headed with my cabinet colleagues Bisola Olusanya, Commissioner for Agriculture and Idris Salako, Commissioner for Physical Planning. A small mail bill posted on the wall of the home, a modest one-storey building with few neighbours, announced our mission. “Divine Heritage welcomes Governor Bababjide Sanwo-Olu on his birthday.” The kids were away in school. We waited for about an hour for them to return and put on in the T-shirts made specially for this special ceremony. How beautiful they turned out! The ceremony got off with the National Anthem. The children sang the two stanzas with so much ease and recited the National Pledge flawlessly. Sevenyear old Akeem Ajao said the opening prayer. He did an amazing job of it, attracting applause from his mates who were screaming: “Pastor!”. Akeem took it all in his stride as he went back to his seat quietly. He must have been doing that for a while, this reporter thought. Bisola spoke of our mission. She said: “As you all know, Mr Governor is a very simple and humble person. He always prefers low key celebration on his birthday and would rather celebrate with the vulnerable in the society as a mark of service to humanity and a heart full of gratitude to the Almighty for His Grace on his life. This is why we are here today to fulfill Mr Governor’s wishes on this occasion of his 56th birthday. Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu would have loved to be here in person, but we, members of the Executive Council, are here representing him… He is deeply concerned about your welfare and wellbeing and has asked us to celebrate with you. You are always in his prayers that the Almighty will continue to protect and guide you.” We had gifts for the home and for all the kids. Their excitement was indescribable. They kept on smiling and clapping, jumping off their seats and applauding every action meant to cheer up the gathering. They sang from their hearts. “A happy birthday; that’s all we wish you.

A happy birthday; that’s all we wish you. Many many happy returns. … O yeah, we wish you happy birthday. Huuu yeah, many many happy returns

Gift items presented at the Ajah Team-Peculiar Saints Orphanage for children with CPS/Autism

Many many happy returns. … O yeah, we wish you happy birthday. Huuu yeah, many many happy returns.” It was as if they actually rehearsed the songs. More songs: Baba o, baba o, Oluwa da Baba si fun wa, Baba o, baba o, Oluwa da Baba si fun wa (May the Lord keep our daddy alive for us) You could feel the sincerity of the prayers in the innocence of their voice and the seriousness with which they sang and danced. The visitors were so moved that they joined the singing and dancing. One of the kids, Jeremiah Jonathan, recited a “special” poem for Mr Governor. He displayed talent, his voice perfectly modulated. No stage fright. And when he got stuck and one of the visitors suggested that he should just say “happy birthday, Mr Governor” and end it all, he declined. Jeremiah whipped out of the pocket of his trousers a small sheet of paper. He read on to complete the poem. Happiness you do bring to those who love you If we could give you anything, we want you to know, we wish you much happiness for you in everything you do We love and appreciate everything you have done for us We pray may all your wishes come through this Year Because to us, you are so DEAR. This birthday wishes is just for you, I hope it come soon. BBe yourself, we love and appreciate you. IImagine and achieve all you can be RRelax this day and celebrate another year TTake time to look after you, You are so DEAR. HHumor, never loose your sense of Humor. DDetermination, You do have that Great qual ity. AAttitude, Yours is Positive and felt by others. YYesterday is gone, Tomorrow is not here, live today and enjoy the year. We then presented gifts to the children. As we handed out the bags one after each waited patiently for his or her turn. It was, no doubt, a reflection of the discipline that reigns in the home. Nobody jumped the long queue for ice cream and popcorn. The dancing competition was electrifying, with the last two competitors displaying remarkable skills and expending so much energy that only such youthful bodies could summon. They kept all of us clapping. Mrs Ebun Idowu, an ordained priest, spoke of a vision in 2000 that heralded the founding of the home – “to contribute to the development of the child to enable him obtain his God-given potential”. Besides, she had a dream in which she was instructed to found the home, which was dedicated in 2003. It took off with nine workers, but the first baby did not come until 2003 when the Ministry of Youth and Social Development brought a one-month old boy, David Idowu. She said she looked out of her office window one day

and saw a young girl rummaging through a dustbin and feeding from its contents. She went down from the office to ask the girl why she wasn’t in school and why she was feeding from the dust bin. The girl replied that her parents could not afford to feed her. Mrs Idowu visited her home to meet her parents, and assisted them to start life anew. Today, many children have made the Idowus proud, passing through the home and becoming its good ambassadors. Mr Idowu proudly announced that one is due to enter the University of Benin after excelling at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination. She is one of more than 40 children, being nurtured in the home “to fear God and live a meaningful life”. The home houses a library for the children. The public also has access to it. The shelves brought back memories of this reporter’s secondary school days when we had Tin Tin, Beagles and others on the shelf. There was Ben Carson’s Think Big; there was World Book, as well as many other volumes, including some on foreign languages, on the shelves at Divine Heritage. Unknown to Mr Governor, his birthday afforded the members of his Cabinet an opportunity to reflect on life and living in an age in which strange things have become so ordinary and many are asking: Isn’t this the end predicted by the holy book?” Many children of the rich and the powerful are suffering depression, but here are underprivileged children, full of cheer and hope that life holds the best for them. Among them are children from various backgrounds, possessing various talents, nursing various dreams and displaying various traits. Yet they harbour no animosity against one another in a world that is full of bitterness and deadly competition for everything. They are orderly in a society in which elders find it hard to take their turn to queue up for services. They do not see themselves as Igbo or Hausa or Yoruba or Efik or Fulani; they are just Nigerians, in a country where ethnic champions are rising by the day, stirring things up. They dream of becoming lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, pastors, musicians and more. The birthday party was not confined to Ikorodu. At Bab-Es Salam Orphanage in Ikeja, it was all fun. So it was at Bethesda Home for the Blind in Surulere, Hephzibah Homes Orphanage, Badagry and Peculiar Saints Orphanage, Ajah. When Mr Sanwo-Olu learnt about the visits later in the evening, he was deeply touched. A man in whom passion – for the development of the society, especially the youth – and compassion have become defining attributes, the Governor prayed for members of his Cabinet for such a thoughtful gesture on reading one of the letters from the various homes. “This is the kind of thing we should all be doing,” the Governor said, nodding.

COVER 2 A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

4.7.2021

OLIVE SULOLA ADEJOBI HOW MY HUSBAND AND I TOOK THE ALADURA CHURCH ACROSS AFRICA AND EUROPE At 94, she is the pillar behind a movement, a man of many firsts who took the gospel across Nigeria to Europe and America — born in Iporo-Ake in Abeokuta, Reverend Mother Olive Sulola Adejobi, wife of the late Primate Emmanuel Owoade Adeleke Adejobi, of the Church of the Lord (Aladura). Even in death, 30 years after, she is ardent of her husband’s calling, purposeful life, clarity of his prophetic declarations. With imprints of nostalgia, she tells Emileo Castrol about her life’s episodes ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

COVER

30 Years of My Husband’s Undying Memories

A very young and adorable Sulola Adejobi

Primate Emmanuel Owoade Adeleke Adejobi and wife Revd Mother Olive Sulola Adejobi

Primate Adeleke Adejobi and some board members of the World Council of Churches in Geneva

verend Mother Olive Sulola Adejobi, a nonagenarian, was married to the second Primate of the Church of the Lord (Aladura), Adeleke Adejobi. On September 26, 1927, she was born in Iporo-Ake, Abeokuta, to a father who dealt in cocoa and palm kernel and a mother in the tie and dye business. She was fondly called Iya Alaaro. Young Sulola started primary school at Iporo-Ake Anglican Church School, then Ake Primary School, where Prof. Wole Soyinka’s father was the headmaster. Reminiscing on her journey through life, she says, “I came to Lagos to stay with my late brother, Mr Ibikunle John, who lived in Oko -Awo. I attended the prestigious Queens College in Yaba, Lagos. It is very instructive to note that I joined my late elder brother in attending the Church of the Lord (Aladura) whilst I stayed with his family. It was on one of such visits to the church at 3, Adams, street, Lagos that my sister introduced me to my late husband.” Taking the reporter down memory lane, Reverend Mother Sulola Adejobi said,” Then, when your family sees anyone they’d like you to marry, they just introduce you to them, and that’s it. So, that was my case too. I was working in one of the Post office Savings Banks. Remember, I used to go with them to church. That was when I met this very young and handsome man. And then, we were introduced to each other. After that, I simply stayed because that was what my brother and sister wanted me to do then.’” She added, “To the glory of God, we got married on April 29 1948, at Roger with Baba

Oshitelu officiating. We travelled to SierraLeone on the ship MV Oriel. From 1948 to 1960, we lived at 37 Williams Street, Freetown. Back in SierraLeone, there were many ruckuses due to the lack of knowledge and tolerance of the locals for the white garment church. This pushed us to extreme patience, love and understanding. By the time we were leaving for the UK, the people have come to accept the church and even dubbed it the ‘Adejobi Church.’” Speaking on raising her children in the cause of the missionary work, she said, “From there, we travelled to other parts of the world. Our children lived with us and attended schools in Freetown until we relocated to the UK, where other branches of the Church of the Lord ( Aladura) churches were pioneered. In this journey, my husband attended Bible Training Institute in Glasgow, where he was awarded a diploma in Theology. I attended Institute for Bible Training for a year.” Raising eight children with a church planter for a husband wasn’t a walk in the park, but young Sulola had her mother and sister to fall back on. With the husband out of Lagos pioneering churches in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries across the continent, she had to carve out the path for her children to tow with the help of her husband, who comes in from time to time. With time, the children grew, and her schedule loosened up a little when the girls went to the boarding house, leaving her with the boys. She could go back to Sierra Leone to be with her husband again, and together they made other children. Like nomads, they left Sierra Leone off to London to continue pioneering Aladura Church. Some of their

pioneering members were Reverend Yaw Baokye, Deaconess Margaret Edet, Reverend Samuel Olusanya and Late Reverend Enang. Love and grace were the wheels on which their ministry ran. While in London, she had another son. Planting churches across countries on different continents thus takes its toll, even for the wife of a prophet of over 50 years. Being a primate of the church for 24 years meant a lot of work and hard sacrifice. Together with her husband, they founded Aladura Comprehensive High School, Aladura Theological Seminary in Anthony Village. “When Primate Oshitelu pronounced my husband his successor and primate on the mount of Ogere in August 1945,” recalled the nonagenarian, “he told the church on August 22 after the diving revelation on the 18th that Adejobi’s light is the sun, Oshitelu’s light is the star. We saw the magnificence of a new dawn with my husband firmly planting the Church of the Lord (Aladura) on the map of the world. Shortly after Oshitelu’s death, my husband was anointed primate in 1967 by Primate (Dr.) S. A. A. Somoye of the Church of Lord Israel.” She added, “Taking the likes of Desmond Tutu to WCC, dining with kings and presidents like President Tolbert of Liberia, Siaka Steven and John Momoh of Sierra Leone, the Ashante Ehene of Ghana, the Alaafin of Oyo, and Ooni Sijuwade, not leaving former attorney general Adetokunbo Ademola, HO Davies, Mobolaji Johnson, amongst others were some of the many firsts of my husband,” she enthused. Leaving Africa for Europe was an experience she can’t forget. As the saying of the baobab seed growing into a shade that will cover many people from far and wide, the UK branch of the church started in a Ghanian convert’s flat in the person of Mr Odonkor who lived in 8 Shipka road, Ballam in South West London. The foreign church moved to rented spaces across London before establishing its headquarters at 25 Surrey square in SE London. It was made possible by the donation of the late Reverend Emmanuel Oyedele Ashamu. With her husband, they established other branches in Tooting and Battersea in South West London; Caledonian Road in North London; West Borneo Park in West London, Erith in Kent and Liverpool. Until then, no African or foreigner had done that in the UK before. She further stated, “He was a prophet of God from 1940 till his death in 1991, more than 50 years and the primate of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) for 24 years.” In 1935, 1939 and 1940, there had been apostolic missions of the church to Lagos, but no church was established until 1943 when Primate Olunowo Ositelu sent Adejobi to Lagos. In June that same year, Adejobi opened the first branch of the church in Pa Ogun’s house at 49 Lagos Street, Ebute Meta. After that, the Carter church. The church at Offin Road (Elegbata) and Agege followed in 1944, Yaba and Lafiaji in 1945 and then Sogunle (1946) and Ikeja (1967). There was also Mushin in 1968 and Anthony Village in 1970. He founded churches outside Lagos too – from Sapele (Delta) in 1945, Zaria in 1965, Ilorin in 1968, Ifo (Osun) also in 1968, Asaba in 1971, Okok (Oyo) in 1974, Igbetti and Iseyin in 1977, Ipapo (Oyo) in 1978, Lokoja in May 1978, Ijero-Ekiti in 1986 and Umunede (Edo) in 1987. He was an evangelist, a preacher. He always called himself ‘God’s donkey,’ for Christ to ride wherever he wished.

“Before we got married, my husband, after receiving a divine message at the end of 1946, had taken leave from Baba Ositelu to go to Sierra Leone. He arrived in Freetown on March 21, 1947, and had spent about a year pioneering the church in Sierra Leone,” explained the nonagenarian. “In fact, the church Adejobi pioneered at 8 Queen Street, Freetown on April 6, 1947, was the first branch of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) to be pioneered outside Nigeria. The next day April 7, he inaugurated the second branch at a bigger location, at Dove Cot on Guard Street. It was from Dove Cot that we moved to the permanent site of the church at O’Neil Street on June 28, where the church still stands now. After that, he moved to the interior for evangelical missions to Bonthe, Kwellu, Banya, Karibundu, Segbwema, Koindu, Pendembu and the church building at Njama. The temple at Oke Murray, Freetown, was dedicated by his mentor, Ositelu himself, on October 26, 1952,” she recollected. At the same time that Adejobi was planting churches in Sierra Leone, Apostle Oduwole was also planting churches in Liberia, so the church expanded beyond the borders of Nigeria to first to Sierra Leone, then to Liberia, and from there to Ghana, Togo and the rest of the world. In 1952, Adejobi left for Ghana. He pioneered the first branch of the church in Ghana at 14, North Suntresu, Kumasi, on April 6, 1953. He expanded to Sekondi - Takoradi and other parts. Oduwole also established the church in Accra, and so the church prospered all over Ghana. After the Sierra Leone and Ghana missions, “my husband decided that he needed a more intellectual grounding in the Word, due to his interactions with a higher number and more diverse quality of membership now in the church.” She broached her husband’s prediction of having a female president before Nigeria’s leadership crisis can end. “That was far back as 1984,” she disclosed. “I am not in a place to say yes or no because God moves wonderfully to fulfil his promise. What we need to do is to continue to pray because prayer doesn’t go up in vain. We are also to teach our children that the will of God is the best for our lives. We should also pray for the peace of Nigeria for the will of God be done,” she explained. Her belief in the efficacy of prayer is second to none. Everything in life demands divine intervention, even the polity and economics of the world are not left out. Apart from prayer, the nonagenarian enjoys a sound sleep which has been the secret of her good health for an active woman who will be 94 on September 24. Rev. Mother Sulola’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and the many churches planted across the world keep her busy even after May 17, 1991, when her husband died. “I remember him a lot,” she admitted. “But God has given me other things to take care of. The beautiful thing about our union was our refusal to let any misunderstanding or grudge linger unto the next day.” She recounted how the family remembers the great prophet with an annual lecture series held in his honour through Adeleke Adejobi Foundation. The global pandemic has stopped the lecture, but it will return in full swing as soon as COVID-19 is out of the picture. For this year, which is the 30th anniversary, there will be a befitting thanksgiving service in the church at Anthony Village, in his honour. Attendance will be restricted to close family members in Lagos. The event will be streamed live on Zoom. Rev. Mother Sulola is an ardent believer of her husband’s calling. She’s still a part of the sub-international headquarters at Anthony Village, Lagos, as the spiritual head. She prays, counsels and ministers to members of the church. If given another opportunity to start again, she would have loved to be a nurse. Her dream workplace is Massey Children’s Hospital. She also told a story about the Nigerian Postal Office Savings Bank at Igbosere, where she tended to ledgers and dockets. To the youths, she said, “Pray and keep still. God is here.” Reflecting on her marriage, she noted, “Our time was way different. Why I say so is that there was a lot of discipline and training by parents. I am from Abeokuta, and my late husband was from Osogbo, but through God’s grace, we met each other. They trained us to listen to and watch our parents. Parents were very particular about their children’s upbringing. Our parents played with and were firm with us.”

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

HighLife Queen of Bespoke Style Utibe Rone Serenades Hubby on Birthday

...Amazing lifestyles of Nigeria’s rich and famous

Who is After Timi Alaibe? The untimely demise of Super TV boss Michael Usifo Ataga has landed several people in a quagmire that is not easily shaken off. Due to the circumstances surrounding the businessman’s death, some of these people are having a hard time breathing without another session of asphyxiation from rumours that are both burdensome and borderline bizarre. One of these folks is Timi Alaibe, former MD of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). How Timi Alaibe came to be tied to the wagon of the Atagas is beyond logic, but he was. And the meat of the allegation is that the former NDDC MD is the secret paramour of Brenda Ataga, the widow of the deceased Super TV boss. Moreover, Alaibe was featured in the story of the Atagas as the man that started the chain reaction that led to a supposed chink in the Ataga matrimony, forcing Michael Ataga to confront him (Alaibe, that is), and eventually pushing Michael Ataga into the arms of the 21-year-old girl that reportedly killed him. To be sure, the source of the rumours did not spare ink in describing Alaibe’s

part in the Ataga crisis. Before now, the prevailing thought on social media was that Michael Usifo Ataga had been gutted by Chidinma Ojukwu, a 21-year-old student of the University of Lagos, after something of a ‘romantic tussle’. Ms Ojukwu, the main suspect, reportedly confessed to killing Ataga after a disagreement and even tapping into his funds after the event. Who knew that Alaibe’s induction to the sordid affair was just around the corner and would surpass Ms Ojukwu’s confession in notoriety? Timi Alaibe, for those who have forgotten, is a technocrat, businessman and politician. He was the face of NDDC between 2001 and 2009, serving as a director in its finance and administration department for the first six years and its MD for the latter two. Nevertheless, he left NDDC in multi-coloured robes, with cheers and recommendations following behind him. Then came this stint. The question folks are asking is how Alaibe came to be tied to Brenda Ataga. Is it all smoke and mirrors, or is something else in the pipelines for or against Timi Alaibe?

Alaibe

Man with Midas Touch: Herbert Wigwe’s Great Exploits in Banking Sector

Rone

Julius and Utibe Rone are the king and Queen of lifestyle - there really is no softer way to say it. One minute they are honeymooning for the umpteenth time, the next, Julius is taking over oil blocs and signing contracts with Japanese companies. Another blink, and Yutee is celebrating her birthday. Nevertheless, there is always something to celebrate in the house of Julius and Yutee Rone. This time, it is Julius Rone himself, and Lady Yutee is dragging the entire elite society of Nigerians along with her for the celebratory ride. It is the season of celebration for the household of Julius and Yutee Rone, power couple and envy of all and sundry. Julius Rone just clocked 47, and the accolades from his wife, Yutee, are enough to sink the Titanic. This is to be expected considering that it is her husband, the great love and music of her life, the celebrant. In the past, Rone never made much of a big deal out of his birthdays. For example, the Niger Delta jewel celebrated his 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th and 46th birthdays with the underprivileged, sometimes taking the entire feast to them, and other times, sending along a truck of goodies. This time, Yutee has refused to let things flow so quietly and has instead taken control of the reins herself. There is no doubt what Julius would have done were he in Yutee’s shoes—he has been doing it since he married her: he would do the needful with the underprivileged and still invite the world out on an evening of drinks, dance and song. A well-lit soirée, one might say. So how could Yutee do any less? In times like these, one is reminded that love underlies the majority of the greatest transactions in this world. Thus, boss Julius, a big-man oil contractor, is still only just the spoilt husband of the super stylish Yutee (who is only just the spoilt wife) at home.

with KAYODE ALFRED ͮͶͯͯʹ͵ͳͷͶͮ͵˜ E-mail: kayﬂex2@yahoo.com

Wigwe

It seems as if it is not enough for Herbert Wigwe to manage a banking

institution that has jumped out of the limits of national banking to become a continental entity. The man is positively seizing the fortunes of his peers and colleagues at every turn. The latest development in this regard is his recognition as African Banker of the Year at the 2021 edition of the African Banker Awards. The African Banker Awards ceremony was recently held virtually during the Annual meetings of the African Development Bank. The point of the Award was to recognise the most accomplished corporate leader in banking on the African continent, especially since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent effects on the corporate corridor. Thus, Wigwe’s ascension to the top of the African bankers’ food chain was not a decision made without due deliberations. As the CEO and Group MD of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe is impressive. As the captain currently steering the Access Bank ship into

‘collecting’ other banks across the African continent, Herbert Wigwe is super impressive. As a winner of the African Banker of the Year Awards for the second consecutive time, there is no scale to measure Wigwe’s impressiveness. A few months ago, the entire African bloc of banking stood still at Wigwe’s sheer guts as he acquired a Mozambique-based institution, African Banking Corporation, and coloured it with Access Bank’s colours. Moreover, because this was the fifth acquisition across the continent in four short years, Wigwe’s prestige roared to the high heavens and proved the man a paragon at his craft. Without much analysis, the chips are already down in Wigwe’s favour: he is a legend for stretching the bounds of Access Bank and transforming it into a massive whale of a banking institution, one on par with the entire banking sector of some nations. But that is a master for you: sharp, shining and in perpetual motion.

Pastor Sam Adeyemi Celebrates Father at 85 “Look to the rock from which you were cut and the quarry from which you were hewn.” These opening lines of the song of the Jewish prophet Isaiah speak to Pastor Sam Adeyemi, renowned pastor, author, motivational speaker, and development and leadership expert. Even though he has climbed to the apex, he has not forgotten his roots and continues to celebrate them. This he did recently on the birthday of his father, Chief Stephen Adeyemi. On his father’s 85th birthday, Pastor Sam Adeyemi did not spare any words to demonstrate his filial love. For one, this was towards the man who nurtured him along with his younger brother, Pastor Victor Adeyemi, and set them on the path of instruction and inspiration. Thus, Pastor Sam invited his vast following to celebrate his father with him. It is proof of common sense to realise that Chief Stephen Adeyemi cannot be an ordinary person. Nobody who was able to guide and guard one as frustratingly brilliant and effective as Pastor Sam

Adeyemi can be explained away as ordinary—regardless of how far the word is stretched. To those who know Pastor Sam Adeyemi as only the Senior Pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, Lagos, the man is an effective communicator, the kind that can get to the meat of the matter without ruffling the furs of his listeners. Nevertheless, his disciplined personality shows him to be the kind of leader who is both hard and soft—the kind that Niyi Osundare described as being “a little bit of a lion, a little bit of a lamb.” Pastor Sam’s prestige has surpassed the bounds of Nigeria, earning him a top position among development (self, community and nation) and leadership speakers on the globe. But before Sam Adeyemi became the luminary he is today, before his beloved wife, Nike, and his lovely children, before he arrived Lagos for the first time with nothing but plans in his head and hope in his heart, there was Elder Stephen B. Adeyemi, his proud father.

Adeyemi

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

HIGHLIFE

Wike Versus Dakuku: Brain Versus Brawn

Dakuku

The road is narrow for one’s enemies. Whether this Chinese saying is more appropriate for Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State or his committed critic, Dakuku Peterside, remains to be seen. What is all too

obvious at this point is that neither Wike nor Peterside is letting the other ride over their head. It has been a very interesting week starting with the publication of Ovation boss Chief Dele Momodu on his ‘Close Encounters with Gov Nyesom Wike.’ A riveting litany of observations, to be sure, but chances are that even Chief Momodu did not expect the fierce responses he got, particularly from the immediate past DG/CEO of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside. In his rejoinder, the former NIMASA boss argued that Momodu had been deceived on all counts. He borrowed statistics from domestic and international sources to show that Wike has done less than nothing by way of commendable projects in Rivers and has only mastered the art of splashing his name on projects that former administrations almost completed. Peterside practically punctured a hole in every thumbs-

up that Momodu has raised to Wike. However, even he underestimated the momentum from Wike’s camp lying in wait for him. The first person to respond to Peterside’s article, outside Dele Momodu, was Paulinus Nsirim, Rivers Commissioner for Information. He had an article of his own titled ‘Dakuku Peterside: The Tragedy of a Misguided Intellectual,’ slashing at Peterside with sharp barbs to “properly locate Dakuku Peterside within the ambit of his present hibernation and the torpor that ultimately invokes misguided hubris on his suffocating inertia.” Then came a well-known critic of Peterside, Igo Aguma, and he let the former NIMASA boss have it. Then Wike got personally involved, dragging the coverage of NTA and AIT behind him to offload a dump of figurative spittle on Peterside. As some folks have concluded, Wike has resorted to using brawns while Peterside sticks with his intellectual guns. Who will knock the other out? Who else will join the party? We’ll see.

Nigeria’s Biggest Philanthropist Femi Otedola Celebrates Akin Akinfemiwa Nigeria’s biggest philanthropist Femi Otedola has ladled accolades on the plate of Akin Akinfemiwa, the CEO of Geregu Power Plc. Otedola, known for writing heavy cheques for strangers in distress, did not hold back his praises on the latter’s birthday and even added indefatigable to the name of the CEO. To have a boss, mentor and friend like Femi Otedola is the fortune of many lifetimes. This is a privilege that so few know, with Akin Akinfemiwa topping that list. He celebrated his birthday recently, and Otedola was one of the many who spared little as they complimented him. There is something of a long history between Otedola and Akinfemiwa. Both of them were notable characters in the past tenure of Forte Oil, with Otedola as the Chairman and Akinfemiwa as the Group CEO. And then Otedola

sold his shares, left Forte Oil for Geregu Power Plc, and took up the Chairman position. Not long after, Akinfemiwa also resigned from Forte Oil and—mother of all surprises—became the CEO of Geregu Power Plc. Talk about a glitch in the system. But keeping up with Otedola requires much more than intellect. The demand for dedication and devotion to the business is all too high. Fortunately, this is not an excessive burden on Akinfemiwa, who is just as committed to his duties as Otedola is to his. No wonder he is Mr Indefatigable. Akin Akinfemiwa is accomplished in his own right. He is a man of a multi-coloured academic background with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ibadan, a Master’s degree in Business Administration (Information Technology) from the University of Lincolnshire and

Akinfemiwa.

Humberside, United Kingdom, and glowing many-paged recommendations from Said Business School, University of Oxford. Subsequently, Akinfemiwa has walked the length of the corporate corridor, from banking to oil, taking up both technical and managerial positions. By all counts, the man is truly an indefatigable character.

Peter Ikenga Doing Yeoman’s Service At Transcorp Energy Nigeria is a place with many talents. In recent months, the innovativeness of the Nigerian crop of young MDs and CEOs has crushed the conventional boundaries of achievements, introducing a new kind of acumen to business sectors. Peter Ikenga, CEO of Transcorp Energy is one of these CEOs with fresh perspectives and approach to work. Peter Ikenga is one of the fierce Transcorp-ers pushing the frontiers on the conglomerate’s expanding network of business interests. As the man in charge of Transcorp Energy, the division that represents Transcorp on the upstream petroleum energy sector, Ikenga’s role requires him to be both original and ingenious or risk falling behind the other Transcorp divisions (Transcorp Hotels and Transcorp Power) in impact. The most recent move of Ikenga to this effect is the proposal to the

Federal Government to offer alternative energy sources. Ikenga’s Transcorp Energy is pushing towards building nuclear power plants via the use of the OPEN100 model, the latest trend in power plant construction that is both inexpensive and reliable. Once actualised, the problem of power fluctuations (and the many varied forms of power inadequacies) will be resolved once and for all. The energy sector is one that underlies several others. Thus innovations in this sector are often met with excitement and expectations, particularly when the originators of these innovations are reliable. And both Ikenga and his Transcorp Energy Ltd. are reliable. The Nigerian Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, has said as much, and also has butterflies in the stomach regarding the near future. Recall that Peter Ikenga was only

Ikenga

appointed to the MD/CEO position at Transcorp Energy in January 2021. His near-boundless familiarity with the oil and gas industry earned him the role. His targets at the moment include developing multi-billiondollar plans and projects, ensuring Transcorp’s international and global partnerships redefine the frontiers of the energy sector, and helping to tackle problems that have plagued development experts in the sector.

Haske

Abdullahi Haske: The New Oil and Gas Whizkid To say that wonders will never cease is a cliché best left alone. But there is no other cliché that comes close in summarising how Abdullahi Haske, renowned entrepreneur, private investor, and founder and group MD of AA&R Investments, an expanding chain of oil-industries companies, got his ownership signature onto 51% of the oil blocs recently repossessed from Addax Petroleum. It’s magic or craft or influence—that’s how Haske managed the seemingly impossible. To those who know one or two things about Abdullahi Haske, the 37-year-old man is a humble businessman, one of those young ‘uns that have only begun to tread the path of making a name for themselves. He has some connection to the political powers that be, but certainly not enough to bruise anybody, correct? Wrong! Perhaps the only truth in the former assertion is that Haske is 37 and humble. All else is up for debate, particularly after Haske smashed the expectation of folks by artfully taking over a little more than half of the oil blocs reclaimed from Addax. It made news when the Nigerian government revoked four licences (OML 123, 124, 126, and 137) formerly controlled by Addax Petroleum. The gist was that Addax had failed to perform its end of the deal, and the government would be returning the licenses to the original Chinese owners. Well, reports claim that only the first part of this report is true—but the government did not return any licence to any Chinese company. Instead, 49% was sold to two indigenous companies, Emeka Offor’s Kaztec Engineering (20%) and ABC Orjiakor’s Salvic Petroleum Resources (29%). Of course, the surprise of all surprises was that the remaining 51% reportedly went to esteemed Abdullahi Haske. According to reports, Haske has now become a champion of politics and business, particularly in Abuja. Far-seeing folks have begun to send him greeting gifts to befriend him. It will not come as a surprise if he gets a dozen marriage proposals soon enough. A smart and influential man is indeed a person worth befriending. And who is Abdullahi Haske if not a smart and influential man? And a man who reportedly owns 51% of a profitable set of oil blocs!

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

LOUD WHISPERS

with JOSEPH EDGAR (09095325791)

My Sad, Dark Birthday Today is my birthday, and I am sad. It was this time last year that she called me. It was Erelu Joseph Sampson Edgar, and she said she had a headache. I said calm down, drink water and rest. Too much Zee World and chopping my money is doing you. She said, “No, Duke, I feel something is wrong.” I said, “OK, go to the pharmacy and get something. I am coming.” She said OK. She later called that she had to escape cos she was feeling faint and didn’t want anybody to rush her to the isolation centre. This was the peak of COVID-19. I laughed; still not taking her seriously. It was my birthday. This woman should not distract me abeg as I was in strong pursuit of hedonistic pleasure. ‘That is how she will be doing and be distracting me,’ I said to myself. Well, after my revelry, I went home and met my worst nightmare. She was on the floor with little or no breath in her.

I cuddled her, trying to be a man and said it would be OK: ‘the Duke got you.’ My people, I threw her into Nigeria’s healthcare system – the best place she could be under the condition- was what the mumu medical director of one of the most prestigious Nigerian hospitals told me. Two weeks after, I buried her. They have said, “Edgar, it’s one year, move on.” But my people, he hard, especially when I look at her son, Alvin. At 13, he lost his mother, the only person that will jump into fire for him. We went to her grave during the week, and he stood there with heads bowed and tears in his eyes, and I gave him space. He needed to cry out his heart. Meself, I could not hold it. I broke down, and we wept. She was a blessing, beautiful and troublesome. She knew how to handle me, and that is why she stayed with me till death. I can’t bring myself to celebrate

any stupid birthday, not even in the least interested. I will sit under the tree in front of my house and eat afang and drink Yemi Shodimu’s palm wine, switch off my phone and wallow in the darkness that has enveloped me. On July 25, I will drop the first-ofits-kind tribute for her. I will move 200 of her closest friends into Tera Kulture and get the ever beautiful Yinka Davies to sing her favourite songs; them plenty. Then, Segun Adefila, talented writerdirector who directed my play, ‘Our Duke Has Gone Mad Again,’ will reprise the graveside scene of that explosive play. Yes, I reburied Erelu in that play. We will show it again to the wonderful songs of a 50-man choir. After it all, attendees should just walk away: don’t come near me. Don’t hug me. Don’t talk to me, just go. Thanks for reading this. I am sorry for belabouring you guys with my sadness. But how else can I exhale?

NNAMDI KANU – ‘ANONYMOUS NIPPLES’ FOR THE MAN What is my own with all these hullabaloos? My own na to sell book. As I see this bro, be like say he go tey inside the gulag and with all that time in his hands and his reported love for ‘woman’, I feel I should gift him with this my new book. It has over 100 well taken and salacious pictures that he will love. Since he no go fit do the real thing again na, he can be looking the picture and be reading one page per day and start all over again and read the whole book over 1,000 times. For me, this was just a sad waste. This man is brilliant, a genius. A man with no structures but a strong gift of the garb, a powerful mobilization capacity and a strong understanding of the fine art of manipulation and cohesion now decided to take all that talent to cause mayhem, violence and even attempt a dismemberment of a great nation like this. We have been regaled with so many stories of how he was rendered – for those of you wey no know these things na sophisticated way of saying captured. The whole thing is looking like a James Bond movie complete with woman matter and designer wears with black hood to make the whole thing Nollywood worthy. My own is that never should we allow this kind of thing. Bad leadership, inept, shallow and nepotistic leadership breeds these kinds of things. This is a sad report on the kind of leadership that we have had in this country because it breeds fertile soil for the rise of this kind of madness. Never again, we should all scream, never again. NIGERIA – THE LEADER NEXT TIME

I had the pleasure to sit with one of the most cerebral leaders in this country, and he asked me – ‘Edgar, what kind of leader do we look for come 2023, and how are we going to get that leader?’ I look the bro, and I tell am very candidly that we need a ‘calming leader’. Then he asked how will that leader emerge in 2023? Will he just drop from the sky and I say, bro I no know o. Just give me the money for tickets to my play Aremu and Awo make I dey go. But before I left, he took me through a very powerful exposition on leadership, our historical trajectory, the role of foreign powers and the need for us to wake up from this slumber and ended it with a beautiful exhortation that he has no Plan B and would end up in his village in a loincloth. I loved him and gave him a 20 per cent discount on the tickets. My sentiments, essentially. We are faced with the most challenging leadership ever since 1914, and our only reaction to this na Nnamdi Kanu and Igboho? Are we mad as a people? Something must really be wrong with this our country. This generation of 30 to 60, na we no get sense. The older generation fought to keep us together even though they are the ones who have caused and still are instrumental to this fire we are in. Our reaction as the bridge generation is to be jumping and be shouting Plan B or separation. Look, when Duchess catch me with woman (plenty woman sef not only one) she say she no do again. It was tough o. She say, she want separation and I must buy her house as compensation – this one was watching too many American films. House with my N70,000 Magnum Trust Bank salary? Mbok, no let me laugh

for this serious matter. We went to so many counsellors and pastors and as we were entering, I gave terms of reference. Divorce or separation is not an option. Every other thing I will do. Even one ‘woli’ they take us to said he will flog me seven strokes with the cane Yoruba people call atori so that my thing will only stand for Duchess. I say oya and the baba flog me o. One craze prophet o for Agege, he truly flog me o. But some of us are born polygamist, no cure for it. The point here is that once you commit, you commit. You don’t run away at the slightest challenges. That is the sacrifice of leadership we should be looking for in 2023. We should say never again. We should as a nation begin the search for credible calming leadership anywhere he comes from. Me I will vote Fulani or Tiv or even Igbira if I see the qualities. We are 200 million vibrant, colourful, characters. We are the cynosure of the world; a gathering of Nigerians is usually admired anywhere. Our clothes, our food, our women, our culture, our attitudes, everything: we are unique and wonderfully made. Mbok, see me dey sound like Pastor Adefarasin before he see vision of Plan B. That one sef, when he want to run, he should sha let me come and collect his kaftan o, dey can fine. Let’s get serious, no time.

Ataga Kanu

CHIDINMA AND ATAGA – THE WAGES OF SIN Mbok, where was I when the news first hit? I can remember, but I will not say abeg before I join the statistics. As I read the news, I turn and look who dey beside me: same profile, same area of residence, same colour and same characteristics. I stand up, I not tell am anything. I say please switch off your phone.

Chidinma

Edgar

She say daddy why. I say just switch off your phone before she go read the story of how a 21-year-old stab a 50-year-old man to death. I cannot be a statistic. My epitaph must-read – here lies a patriotic and passionate Nigerian - not here lies the Duke strangled with condoms. I am a man of history. When she off the phone, I say I am coming. She say where are you going? I say I want to greet someone outside. That is how I land in Shomolu o. Enter my room, lock the door and start to fear. My people, forget the hypocrites. Try and get a hotel room in Lekki on a Friday evening. You will see that the real pandemic is not COVID-19 but this thing. I tell you. The economic deprivations, insecurity of middle age and general fall in morality are fueling this cradle snatching. Drugs, immoral behaviour and erosion of our cultural ethos are the bane of society today. I will not comment more than this because a police investigation is ongoing. All I will say is that as a 50-year-old, afang-eating, porn-loving Nigerian middle-aged man, he go hard for a 21-year-old no matter the size of her hips to neutralise me. I will use my last power, grab her throat with my left hand and raise her from the ground while screaming and use my right hand to pull the knife away from my scrotum and throw her outside of the window, making sure she lands on the Lekki bridge and Lagos state people will collect their toll gate fee before her body land inside the lagoon. I tell you. But seriously, this is sad for society in general and sadder for the families on both sides involved. It’s time we all woke up and smelt the coffee. The level of

Abubakar

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

LOUD WHISPERS decadence is crazy. Really crazy. Kai. PDP – WHERE’S MY MONEY? When I watched this footage, I almost choked on the morsel of fufu I was eating. I had gone to Jevnik to eat my afang. Those ones, their food can kill you. The sheer size of the bowl, the sheer size of the soup with fish the size of Oshiomhole’s head and the meat even bigger than Obaseki’s head, you will just weak. In fact, after eating na sleep straight. I will just see myself in Shomolu. That is how the video hit my phone, and I saw this Igbo man who contested the primaries of the PDP asking for his money back. He had paid N26 million, and according to him, they were about 16 people. These PDP people should list their party on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Even listed companies do not generate these kinds of revenues, I tell you. But the ironic thing is that this is exactly the way to go if we are going to reduce corruption and avarice. So you don’t fund political parties through government sources but through independent and voluntary donations. So if you want to use the platform to actualise your ambitions, you buy the forms, pay the necessary fees, and mobilise your followers to contribute and donate through regulated means. Not like we see here where the sitting governor is so powerful in the process cos of his control of the state purse, and he will just be using that to wield influence. That is why you will be hearing godfather and godson, and after the election, they will now be pulling each other’s balls and be showing us dirty scabies in their buttocks. So, in a sense, PDP is trying to do the right thing because they are not in power. But I am sure because the process of choosing a candidate according to daddy was fraught with irregularities hence the man wanting his money back. Can’t we even just do the right thing end to end? I am sure if the baba didn’t feel cheated or humiliated, he would be happy to work with the true victor. But as usual, magomago has entered, and breeze has blown open the fowl yansh. This our Nigeria at times, it will be hard to be optimistic about its chances. Please give the man back his money, that is if the money has not flown to Dubai already. He no dey hard. ATIKU ABUBAKAR – WHAT A BETRAYAL! I have read the news that my lord and sometimes master has found his way back to the warm and loving arms of his first wife, Titi. Well, according to the report, they say after taking his Moroccan wife, his erstwhile favourite, the cerebral Jennifer vexed and left the coop. So daddy reeling from that affront is said to have gone back to the first love. The one that follow him hawk bread and pure water before the money start to come. Well, this is a very poor advice Mr. Atiku is giving we the young polygamist. How can you now want to turn back to the first? Is there not a reason why we went for the second, third and fourth? Has the reason suddenly disappeared? Now, what can the first do during those cold viagra-driven nights, na to dey watch Zee world? My lord, whoever gave you this advice should be sacked. If you had come to me for advice after Jennifers’ departure, I would have asked you small question – shebi you dey enter plane well? If the plane suddenly runs into turbulence, does the plane slow down or turn back? NO. The plane will go full speed ahead. Mbok, marry many more wives. The money is there. You have the capacity, and when the capacity fails, take viagra but not overdose oh. I did not send you that one. You have a Moroccan wife, an Igbo wife. Come to Shomolu. I give you six from each street. No retreat, no surrender is the mantra in this game. You don’t know what you will see when you go back o. They can just flog you with atori o. our Nigerian women are very beautiful, but they never forgive, I should know. The Duchess has sent me to the couch in the upstairs room with no interaction as punishment for the last four years. But na her business because I still dey do

Hisbah

my business on WhatsApp. That is why I dey look this Lai Mohammed and his Twitter ban. He should not just try it with Whatsapp. That one, he will see a naked Duke protest in front of his office. So my elder in the game looks like we may have to suspend you for anti-party activities. My father-in-law, the great David Olude and one of the legends of our time in this business, had said, “Joe you are a mad man.” I say yes, sir, I know. He say, dem no dey take woman play. In search of the ultimate pleasure and peace of mind while you are at it, remove all emotions because you cannot be emotional in a polygamous setting. They will turn you to roast beef. Secondly, never let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Be like say Chief Atiku na the advice I will give you today, free of charge. Thank you, my lord. Lol. KANO HISBAH – THE MANNEQUINS BAN You see how people will be pushing you. Edgar won’t you say something about these Hisbah people, she said in her sweet voice. I look into her beautiful eyes and ask: why, am I a tailor? She said it is not fair. I said you will not learn to mind your business. Are you a tailor? Do you live in Kano? Why should the Hisbah move against mannequins disturb you? Those ones know how the thing used to turn them on and disturb them so they ban the thing; I should now come and sit down in Shomolu and be crying more than the bereaved? You think I have bottom for someone to come and flog 26 strokes of the cane for saying what I am not supposed to say. Who will beg for me? My mama has died. My papa has died. Erelu has died? Who will fight for

am’. I call and Sunday came on the line. Instant respect o. Sir, you can proceed. By this time the whole base know say very important man don come see oga. Come and see salute. Regret say I know wear my Duke regalia. I wear the trouser they use to call ‘sofe.’ When I reach Makinde office, come and see salute and respect for me. I almost cry. This was my primary and secondary school mate doing the nation proud. This was the boy, I used to knock on the head. This was the boy that we used to run around in Ipaja picking fruits and doing things boys our age used to do. See him now in the commanding heights of the armed forces. He was gentle with me. He smiled and regaled me. He asked after my family, and we talked this and that, and it was time to leave. Come and see the Odunuga convoy, I said, ‘Sunday come and go make me? I see how dem go salute you and blow Mbok, they can go ahead and ban trumpet.’ I stood there in amazement and mannequins. While they are at it sef, tears as I watched my friend and brother they should even ban tailors taking being driven away by a coterie of armed measurements of their clients, especially airmen, and I said, ‘ you continue to make of the opposite sex. That is where the me proud. You, Emeka, Obadina, Benbella problem is. The other day, I saw one tailor and the rest of you who sacrifice for this our taking a measurement of Duchess when nation. My own contribution to national we were about to sew cloth for my mama cohesion. I am still crying sef as I write. burial. I almost slap the boy o. I swear. I will be hosting the marshal to the very That is where Hisbah should look into not best of Afang at his appointed time. I have only mannequins. Mbok, let me eat my told him to come with all the soldiers he can afang in peace o. Na unemployment cause muster. I must say thank you to all of them. all this one. It will be the Afang Summit to end all afang summits. Afang for our boys in uniform. AIR VICE-MARSHAL SUNDAY MAKINDE – SALUTE TO SERVICE ARINOLA ODUNUGA – NEW KID ON THE Look, I went to Command Secondary BLOCK School Ipaja, and as such, I have a lot of I went in to see my friend, the great mates that have hit the General mark in businessman and lover of the Duke – Mr the forces. People like Sunday Obadina Harry Ebohon and I was shocked. I say in the Navy, Emeka Okonkwo in the Harry, wetin happen. You look like Idris Army also. I am very proud of these boys, Elber even though you still short. Your especially how they have carried their tummy don go down, you look very duties and diligently served the country. healthy. He say na one new nutritionist he They have not disgraced me. They have made me dey use o. hold my head up high. That is how I say I should That if I wait small, I will see her as she go and visit one of them, air vice-marshal Sunday was bringing a new menu for him. That Makinde, the newAir Officer Commanding at the is how the gazelle work in o. The lady is Ikeja base.As I drive towards the gate, the air force beautiful. Come and see her legs, her hair man shout- wait. Stop. and her gait. But some of these Nigerian Those ones can be doing gragra. I don’t know girls can dey fine sha. I say are you the one why. He say, identify yourself. I say, lord Ini, who is making my friend look like Michael Duke of Shomolu and Joseph Edgar. He Jackson, she smiled. step back, he don see bandit. Remain to cock She is a serious professional and I saw gun o. He say what is your mission? I say I it. She spoke very eloquently about her have a meeting with Air Marshall Makinde. work and the need for us to keep healthy He no believe. and fit. So for those of us who are in He must have said to himself, what will our middle ages, our meals and fitness this crazy man wey no comb him hair regimen must be up to par. I agree come dey do with our oga. Maybe with her and ask for my menu plan but na Mami market he come. He say, ‘call warned that any menu that did not have afang is dead on arrival. Simple. Brilliant lady.

BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIR Shebi, you will not invite us to party now o. It is not to be wearing a bowtie and be working around looking for cameras or whatever by the toll gate. You have clocked another year now, and we are not hearing any sound of merriment. I’m not surprised, it’s your style, but the thing is that despite this, you remain one of my favourite leaders. Even though you cannot play football cos the last time I watched you play when you were still Governor, you were playing like

Fashola

those people in Shomolu we used to call ‘Otun.’ Anyways, happy birthday, my lord. I retain my tremendous respect for you and for what you stand for. You will remain the kind of leader that I wish for this country. Forthright and visionary. What are your plans post-Buhari? Let us know on time, so we know how to position. I seriously think you should play a role post-2023: my thoughts and the thoughts of a lot of like minds. Keep us posted, my lord.

FEMI TEJUOSO – LET ME JUST HAIL You see, anytime I see my friend and brother Femi, I always sha remember how we met. It was my other brother Okupe who gave us the meeting. Lami and I were looking for investors for one client, and Okupe said, let’s meet up with Femi and see if he would be interested and if not, he will refer us. That is how Femi said we should meet at Yellow Chilli. For those of you who know food in Lagos, Yellow Chilli is the place. My friend owns it, and the man will say, ‘Edgar, if you cannot wait for 30minutes for your food to be prepared, you are not my customer’. I will laugh and say, baba by that time, All Share Index go don fall o. So we met up with Femi, and there was Fuyi on the train, and I ate two plates of fisherman soup and did not get to ask him for the investments but found a friend. This bro throws at me the kind of support you will not believe that I am Akwa Ibom, and he is an Egba prince. He will say, Edgar, have you spoken to X? Edgar call Y. I just called him. Oh, you met Olumide Oyediran, he is my brother, hold let me call him. Olumide, I hear you are speaking to Edgar. He is my brother o, do him well. I will just be standing and looking at Femi and be wondering what is going on. He is an in-law to my other great true friend and primary school mate Dr Mudasiru - as I no dey fit spell the first name well and he go dey vex so I leave am out. Just to say a big thank you. With brothers like this on your side, you just cannot fail. God bless you, sir.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

Hajara Fola Adeola’s Giant Strides

Adebayo

US-based Nigerian Businessman Kenny Adebayo’s Leap of Faith

Hajara Adeola, CEO of Lotus Capital Limited, Nigeria’s pioneer firm in Shari’ahcompliant asset management, private wealth management advisory services, and financial advisory services, has made a remarkable stride in the finance business in Nigeria. Though a billionaire’s wife and very successful in her own rights and efforts, her modest way of life is not in doubt. Like her husband, Fola Adeola, whose contributions to Nigeria’s banking industry are well documented, especially as he co-established GTBank in the late 80s when he was in his 30s, Hajara, his adorable wife, has jumped into his corner. With over 20 years’ experience working in top-tier global investment banks in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, Hajara has stepped up the plate with the coming of her Lotus Bank Limited, which secured a non-interest banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last week. Hajara’s Lotus Bank is the first non-interest bank to commence

Adeola

time to look after her husband and their six lovely children, who are all doing well in their various careers.

Ex-Nigerian Law School Deputy DG Bob Osamor Glides into 61

f the United States-based Nigerian businessman Kenny Adebayo, CEO of Global Ultra Logistics, LCC, had envisioned he would thrive well in the freight forwarding and logistics business, it could be taken for granted that it was a clear vision. If he had probably consulted a cleric and advised to go into the business, he should thank his stars that he heeded the advice. Many years after he took that leap of faith, he is now reaping bountifully from his efforts. Society Watch gathered that he started the business on a shoestring capital in a twobedroom apartment in Newark, New Jersey, which also served as his residence. Some people in the US sneered at him at the time, while many told him to his face that he could not survive in the already saturated business environment. He was turned down by some potential clients whom he had approached for patronage. But rather than give up on his beautiful dreams, he kept the faith during the storm. Mercifully, his commitment and hard work later earned him the trust of many around him. “The beginning, especially the first five years, wasn’t that easy. It was very frustrating. But as a man driven by a hunger for success, I resolved to pursue my dream without looking back,” he said. Exactly 10 years after establishing the business, he has now become a popular brand and one of the most sought-after in the industry. In him, many have come to realise that you don’t need millions of Naira to become a successful entrepreneur or an employer of labour; it is all about vision. He has now expanded the business, with many flourishing branches in the US and Nigeria.

operations from South-West Nigeria with a focus to serve people of all faiths. This follows the bank’s determination to deliver alternative options to interest-based banking and cater to the needs of the banked, unbanked, and underbanked population. Already, industry stakeholders have reportedly received the news with indescribable pleasure, given her pedigree as a top industry expert in Islamic fund management in Nigeria. Before founding Lotus Capital, Hajara had worked with Arthur Anderson Consulting (now Accenture), UBS Warburg, BNP Paribas, and ARM Investment Managers. With solid academic qualifications, including MSc Finance (Durham University); MBA International Management (Exeter University), and BSc Pharmacology (King’s College, London), Hajara has been instrumental to the development of Islamic finance products in the capital market and the issuance of the Sukuk bond in Nigeria. Despite her busy schedule as a financial big shot, Kogi State-born Hajara (nee Atta) still has

Osamor

Ask any lawyer who knows his onions about Bob Osamor, ex-deputy director-general of Nigerian Law School in Enugu, you will definitely receive a deluge of interesting testimonials about him. Silently, as the political wind of the next governorship election in Rivers blows, one name on the lips of many is Dumo Owukori Lulu Briggs, a lawyer. Hunky, dark, and handsome, Dumo is an achiever by all standards and one of the role models in the Niger Delta. A law graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a master’s degree holder from the University of London, Dumo has turned around his late dad’s ailing oil company, Moni Pulo Ltd, hitherto under expatriate management back, into profitability and prominence. Lulu Briggs, described as a rare breed, had nursed the ambition of becoming the number one citizen of his state in 2019 on the platform of the Accord Party. In the build-up to the last governorship election in the state, he had flooded the state with his posters. But his dream was cut short by the incumbent Nyesom Wike. But if you think that the chairman of Platform Petroleum has entombed his dream of ruling the state, you are wrong. A source disclosed that he is prepared to give it

Many would surely have good stories to tell about him because it is a fact that Osamor eats and drinks law; he knows the law like the back of his hands. Society Watch gathered that until he relocated to the United Kingdom for more studies and research, he had held several other positions such as head of academics, Nigerian Law School, Abuja for five years, and head of coordinators. Although he is living in the UK and has dedicated his time to more research, his expertise in the Nigerian legal field is still useful. No wonder he is still being consulted by some of his colleagues. On Friday, July 2, he turned 61. It was gathered that the event was lowkey, particularly because he loathes loud celebrations. Rather than roll out the drums, he celebrated his birthday with his beautiful

High-ﬂying Oil Magnate Dumo LuluBriggs Reignites Governorship Ambition

Lulu-Briggs

another try. It was revealed that he had vowed to give it what it takes to achieve his dream come

Osinbajo, Marwa Honour ‘Silent Baron’ Premiere Penultimate Friday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, led some top government functionaries and celebrities to the Silverbird Entertainment Centre, Abuja, for the private screening of the action-packed thriller, The Silent Baron, produced by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in collaboration with Ekwe Nche Entertainment Limited. At the screening of the movie, NDLEA chair Buba Marwa, who welcomed Osinbajo and his team to the event, thanked the guests for attending the screening held as part of activities to mark the United Nations’ Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking 2021.

wife Chinelo Bob-Osamor, a brilliant lawyer, their children, and some select friends at his Birmingham residence. He also held a thanksgiving, praise, and worship session in accordance with his Anglican faith. He is the author of many books, including ‘Fundamentals of Criminal Procedure Laws in Nigeria,’ ‘Criminal Procedure Laws and Litigation Practices’ and journals in law, including ‘Conditions for Patentability – Nigerian Law and Practice Journal,’ ‘The Unbridled Powers of Attorneys General: Threat to Democracy?’ ‘Journal of Private & Commercial Law - University of AdoEkiti, Nigeria’ as well as ‘Features and Salient Penal provisions of NAPTIP Act as amended - Journal of Private & Commercial Law - University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.’

Ifeanyi Ukaeru, producer and writer of The Silent Baron, described the screening of the movie as an emotional moment for him. The film features Nollywood veterans such as Ejike Asiegbu, Sani Muazu, Ngozi Nwosu, and high-in-demand starlets like Nancy Isime, Enyinna Nwigwe, Anthony Munjaro, and Doris Ifeka. “This is not just a movie. It is a call for surveillance that Nigerians should take responsibility and be vigilant in the fight against drug trafficking and illicit drug abuse. We want people to understand that this war on drugs is something everyone needs to own,” he said.

2023 when the incumbent governor has served out his constitutional two terms. The source added that Lulu Briggs, who eschews politics with bitterness, moves his political train around the state, receiving blessings of elders and those who matter in the scheme of things. A source divulged that his GRA, Port Harcourt office is fast coming alive and becoming a mecca. No day passes that political groups and associates do not visit seeking alliance and promising support for his candidacy. Lulu Briggs, a Kalabari, runs a couple of profitable companies, and his investments range from oil and gas, marine, entertainment, and properties. He has proved his mettle as a technocrat. For a few years, he was the board chairman of the National Maritime Authority, Oron, and about to end his tenure as the chairman of the governing council of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri. The film shows how drug pushers operate and how they sometimes deceive and use innocent people. It also shows the strength and passion of the NDLEA in fighting the menace on land, air, sea, and at the borders. Other dignitaries at the screening included the member representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Ishaku Abbo, member representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani), Director-General of the National Council For Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, ex-EFCC chairperson Farida Waziri and NDLEA’s secretary. Shedrack Haruna.

J ͼ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

INTERNATIONAL Buhariplomacy of Abductions and Killing Nigeria Softly: from Diplomatic Bagaging to Invasion Diplomacy

MB is governing Nigeria as a military dictator, often forgetting that he was elected, and therefore compelled to always seek the understanding of democratic implications of whatever policy decisions he takes in international relations. His attitudinal disposition in Nigeria’s foreign policy is what we have always called buhariplomacy and this dates back to 1984 when he was a military Head of State, following his ousting of elected President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, on 31 December 1983. PMB identified Alhaji Umaru Abdulrahman Dikko, who was Minister ofTransport under Alhaji Shehu Shagari, as having stolen one billion US dollars (625 million pounds Sterling). Umaru Dikko fled to the United Kingdom to escape arrest, but PMB also decided to engage the policy hot pursuit in arresting him. In doing this, he engaged the services of some Israelis, in particular, an Israeli anaesthetist, Alexander Barak, who was a former Mossad agent, to lead the kidnap team.The team included a Nigerian intelligence officer, Major MohammedYusufu and two other Israeli nationals, Felix Abitbol and Dr Lev-Arie Shapiro, who had the responsibility to inject Alhaji Dikko with an anaesthetic. The diplomatic kidnapping took place during summer time in 1984 when Umaru Dikko was walking out of his front door in an upmarket neighbourhood of Bayswater in London. He was crated like a material commodity and taken to the Stansted Airport where the Nigeria Airways aircraft 707 was waiting for him as a special diplomatic baggage. For various reasons, including the refusal of the Nigeria High Commission to respect some basic protocolar processes, one young Customs officer, Charles Morrow, suspected a foul play with the type of baggages brought to be exported.There was one baggage containing Umaru Dikko and there was another one containing the anaesthetist/kidnapper who were meant to ensure that Dikko did not die en route. Charles Morrow’s call to the British Foreign Ministry drew public attention to the diplomatic baggaging, which succeeded in its preparation but failed in its diplomatic handling.Thus, since 1984, Buhariplomacy has been largely predicated on a manu militari approach in addressing national questions. In 2021, buhariplomacy has shifted from abduction by manu militari to abduction by invasion diplomacy.The cases of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho are exemplary and their international dimensions are not far-fetched.

InvasionDiplomacy Nnamdi Kanu is a shorter name for Nwanenyi Nnamdi Ngozichukwu Okwu-Kanu. It is the name of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who was born in Afaraukwu in Abia State on 25 September, 1967 and by so doing, he is an indigene of not only Abia State by ius sanguinis and ius soli, but also a bonafide citizen of Nigeria per excellence. More important, Mazi Kanu is apparently an acquiesced true leader of the Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria.This observation is made against the background of his May 29, 2021 instruction to all Igbo people in the South East to stay in-door on that day and this was religiously adhered to, in spite of having not been elected as their leader.The political class in the South East appear to be against him but the people are in his support. Sunday Igboho is theYoruba equivalent of Nnamdi Kanu. He is an advocate of Oduduwa Republic, and what is said about Mazi Kanu is also true of Sunday Igboho who is championingYoruba agenda for self-determination along with Professor Stephen Adebanji Akintoye, an accomplished historian ofYoruba history, who has been going about Oduduwa Republic through a peaceful agitation. Both Kanu and Igboho are championing secession from corporate Nigeria and PMB sees them as terrorists who should be neutralised to ensure indivisibility and indissolubility of Nigeria. However, but most unfortunately, they have a large following. People easily comply with their directives. For example, compliance with Kanu’s instruction and the people’s support for Sunday Igboho can be explained in two ways: need to avoid violent attacks or support for the Biafran Republic agenda, on the one hand, and strong belief in the exemplary leadership of and commitment toYoruba autonomy, on the other hand. As regards fear of being hurt or killed in the prevailing situation of insecurity in the country, the compliance is nothing more than imbibing the cautionary principle of ‘prevention is better than cure.’In other words, it may not be because the Igbo people necessarily believe in the secessionist agenda that Nnamdi Kanu is championing.The adherence is therefore for self-survival. Concerning the Biafran project, the compliance can, lato sensu, be truly a resultant of Nnamdi Kanu’s directive, meaning that the Igbo people seriously believe in Nnamdi Kanu’s Biafran struggle. By implication, an attack on, or any arrest of, Nnamdi Kanu is also necessarily seen as an attack on and arrest of all those who believe in his cause. It is within this frame of thinking that the re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu has many international dimensions: situation of arrest, location and modality of

VIE INTERNATIONALE

is how to address the people’s support for him. An attack on him is an attack on the people and their support.This is one major reason why re-arresting and invading serve as catalytic agents of national disintegration and why PMB will need to make haste slowly in ensuring national security that destroys and disunites.

with

TheInternationalDimensions

Bola A. Akinterinwa Telephone : 0807-688-2846

e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com

Buhari arrest, nationality and diplomatic protection, fair trial, etc. As for Sunday Igboho, when his people were recklessly killed by Fulani herdsmen with impunity, he defended his people in Ibarapa to the delight of his people, hence his acquiescence as an unelected leader. His agenda for Oduduwa Republic is also and generally supported at home and abroad byYoruba in the Diaspora.Thus, the re-arrest and the invasion of Sunday Igboho is, stricto sensu, not for the aforesaid individuals, but a direct assault on the right of self-projection, self-determination, right of association and of opposition, and most disturbingly, the right of people they represent, all of which threaten national unity. The re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu and invasion of Sunday Igboho’s residence are catalytic agents of disintegration of Nigeria.They raise issues of major concerns for the more powerful countries of the world, as well as for many leading students of Nigerian politics. He was first arrested on 14 October 2015 on the basis of an 11-count charge, largely predicated on terrorism and treasonable offences. Charges were brought against him in the court in June 2016 but was admitted to bail on 25 April, 2017 in the sum of One hundred million naira and three sureties in like sum, and one of the sureties must be a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe served as his surety. Nnamdi Kanu jumped bail when he felt that he was to be killed by government soldiers, a situation which led to the court’s decision not only to revoke the bail in March 2019, but also to issue a bench warrant on him in November 2019. However, last weekTuesday, 29 June, he was presented to the Nigerian public as having been re-arrested and made ready to continue with his trial. How was he arrested or intercepted or abducted this time? Buhariplomacy will sooner than later tell. Regarding the invasion of Igboho’s house, the Department of State Services (DSS) gave a press briefing on a joint security operation on 1st July, 2021 on the attack. Many people were killed in the house, some people were arrested, while one DSS officer was wounded. As noted in the DSS press statement,‘the gun duel which lasted for an hour offered Igboho the chance to escape. Sunday Igboho is now on the run. Igboho may run as far as he can. He may hide as long as he wants. He might have attacked security operatives as his strength carried him. But this will be the end of his shenanigans. Soon, he will not have a hiding place. His strength will surely fail. And the law will catch up with him.The law may be slow but it will be steady.’ As good and promising this statement can be, the critical challenge

Withoutscintillaofgainsaying,themotherofalldynamicsofinsecurityunderPMBinthepastsixyearsishisartofpoliticalgovernanceby braggadocioandinabilitytorespondtopublicconcernsbyaddressingsymptomsratherthanthemorecriticalissues.PMBisfrequently accused of nepotism in his political appointments, Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda, fighting corruption selectively, etc. He never responds to them to accept or deny and, by so doing, not only further deepening institutional corruption, but also becoming a Fulani, ratherthanaNigerian,President.PMBmuststopgoverningasamilitarydictatorunderademocracy,becauseheisanelectedPresident. And true enough, Nnamdi Kanu was apparently abducted while he was travelling with a British passport, without any prior request for extradition or deportation order, which clearly lends credence to his abduction rather than a case of interception on a Kenyan territory. In essence, the abduction of Mazi Kanu, though a Nigerian by blood descent, should not have been forcibly arrested outside of Nigeria, not necessarily because of illegality, but because he does not claim Nigerian nationality anymore by fighting for Biafran nationality. He is simply a British. PMB’s subjection of the rule of law to national security interest can hold in Nigeria but not in a civilised world of deepening democracy. Consequently, PMB must stop killing Nigeria softly.

The global dimensions are necessarily an offshoot of the domestic aspects. At the domestic level, opinion about the re-arrest and rearraignment of Nnamdi Kanu and invasion of Igboho’s house is not only mixed but unnecessarily reflects a North-South divide.The Southerners are signalling the need for caution as they doubt any likely fairness in the trial. Northerners are praising the re-arrest and insisting on referendum on the future of the South East as part of Nigeria. And true, the invasion of Igboho’s house was brutal, people were killed, but he escaped being arrested. In spite of the invasion, theYoruba insisted that their rally scheduled for Saturday, 3rd July, 2021 in support of the struggle for self-determination, would still be held contrary to government’s ban.This is a situation of order versus counter order amounting to disorder. First, questions are being raised as to how the Federal Government and its security agencies were able to swiftly‘intercept’Nnamdi Kanu and the same Government has not been able to intercept any of those terrorising Nigeria for more than ten years. In the thinking of observers, President Muhammadu Buhari has partisan interests when it comes to northern questions, especially when Fulani matters are at stake. On the contrary, when the issues deal with Igbo questions, his attitude always speaks different volumes.This attitudinal animosity vis-a-vis selfdeterminists cannot but generate international concerns and reactions. Secondly, while Ohanaeze NdigboWorldwide‘calls for calm and cautions Igbos to desist from any form of protests and processions that will bring more catastrophe for south eastern Nigeria,’the leader of theYoruba Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, simply noted that Nigerians are awaiting the charges for which Nnamdi Kanu will be charged. Put differently, he does not subscribe to the official 11-count charge levied against him by the Federal Government: terrorism, treasonable felony, management of an unlawful group, defamatory publications, possession of illegal firearms, improper importation of goods, instigating violence in the southeast, etc. In the words of Chief Adebanjo,‘we await what he will be charged for. They cannot kill him. He will be defended. It is an unfortunate thing that he was caught after being granted an asylum. He is a freedom fighter. The British government ought not to have sent him back because he is a freedom fighter.The same thing they did for Anthony Enahoro and he was extradited back to Nigeria, while we were in asylum in Ghana.’This observation also raises one important international aspect, which is nonreliability of the British government which‘ought not to have sent him back’because he is a freedom fighter.This is one major angle that also has the potential to attract global intervention in the trial of the case. In fact, the position of the Niger Delta Congress is particularly noteworthy:‘we most importantly take note of the time and resources that have been expended to arrest and extradite Nnamdi Kanu who was miles away from Nigeria; this is while Islamic terror groups are freely attacking military and civilian targets, having large open air meetings, and. forming terror pacts against the rest of the country within the boundaries of Nigeria - with even more freedom than so-called free citizens can boast of in sections of this country.’This is an indictment of the PMB administration that can be easily capitalised upon by the international community if and when Nigeria’s international responsibility is raised. And true enough again, the Acting Spokesperson of the Niger Delta Congress, Ovunda C. Eni, put it more bluntly thus:‘it begs the question of why the people of Southern Nigeria are always the target when important socio-political conversations are brought up, in a bid to muddy the waters of the discourse.We remember vividly similar treatment meted out to Obafemi Awolowo immediately after independence, and to Ken SaroWiwa, which eventually led to his extrajudicial murder by the government in 1995’(vide the NDC Statement no. NDC/PS/011/2021 of June 30, 2021.With this recollection of historical facts to suggest the poor attitude of government in cases like this, PMB must begin to factor into his strategic calculations the implications of the international dimensions Thirdly, namdi Kanu is a Nigerian by ius sanguinis but has also acquired British nationality.The first implication of this is that, in the event of need for his diplomatic protection under private international law, there cannot but be competing nationality protection at the level of Nigeria and Britain, and by so doing, raising which nationality should be more effective and applicable, for instance, in the context of responsibility and prosecution.This point is interesting from the perspective of his arrest and re-arrest. More significantly, the mere fact that Nnamdi Kanu jumped bail necessarily makes him a fugitive. But perhaps most importantly, the jumping of bail was compelled by the fear of impending aggression by government security agents. How do we then explain a situation in which one is granted a court bail and the government is still disregarding the rights and privileges inherent in the bail? And true enough, a bail may not be synonymous with total freedom. It often has a conditionality. His father’s house was attacked and many people were reportedly killed in the process. This means that the issue of jumping bail has to be understood in context. In fact, when government’s prosecuting counsel told the court that Mazi Kanu not only jumped bail but also fled out of the country, Mazi Kanu’s reply was swift:‘My Lord, my house was invaded and people were killed. I would have been killed too if I had not hidden myself.That was why I have been unable to attend court. I would have been killed the way others were killed when my house was invaded.’ Read full article online - www.thisdaylive.com

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

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hen Ifeanyi, son of the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, tied the nuptial knots with Nnena, Mr. Chiedozie Osigwe’s daughter, top politicians and bureaucrats joined the couple’s families in celebration. The solemnization ceremony which took place at National Ecumenical Centre, was followed with a reception at International Conference Centre, both in Abuja. Photos: Julius Atoi

Newly weded: Mr Ifeanyi Isigwe and wife Mrs Nnenna Isigwe

Brides Parents, Mr and Mrs Chiedozie Isigwe

Parents of the groom Dr and Dr (Mrs) Orji Ogbonnaya Orji

Former Governor of Imo State Emeka Ihedioha and wife

Former Senate President Senator Anyiam Piius Anyiam; Chairman of the occasion, Dr Uche Orji and wife Mrs Orji

L-R, Senator Orji Uzo Kalu; Senator Enyinaya Abaribe and Abike Dabiri-Erewa

L_R Senator Theodore Orji; Mrs Ngozi Ugwueke and Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji

L-R Minister of State Enviroment, Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and Husband Alh Shamsuna Ahmed

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

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Mr Emmanuel Igbo and wife Ada

Prof Benjamin Marire and wife Mary

Sir Godfrey Ohuabuwa and wife Lady Angela

Prince Ciafam Anene and wife Lady Ogo

Senator Theodore Orji

L-R, Sir Chikwe Udensi and Hon Nnadozie Udensi

Dr Michael Ugwueke and wife Ngozi

Prof Eddie Floyd Igbo and wife Rosemary

L-R, Ugo Okorafor and Senator Mao Ohuabuwa

L-R , Mazi Jideofor Kanu and Barr sika Chukwuma

L-R: Sunny Nwosueke and Mrs Ude Umo

Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi

Anthony Okoroafor and wife Uju

SUNDAY JULY 4, 2021 • T H I S D AY

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JUNE 24 2012

ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

04.07.2021

ENGAGINGDAMOLAADEYEMOANDTHE EVOLVINGSTITCHESOFHISMEMORIES From evolving a peculiar representational art style that seems to be stitched together from a mosaic of several oval shapes, Damola Adeyemo has etched his name in the local exhibition circuit as one of its promising younger generation artists. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

ith a riveting title like “Little Children Have Dreams Too”, Damola Adeyemo’s acrylic on canvas painting concerns itself less with reprising the timeworn aphorism alluding to children as the leaders of tomorrow. Rather, the painting depicting a baby in a blue tunic, curled up in a foetal position against a blue backdrop, cautions against discriminating against children or discouraging their ambitions. To the artist, every child is imbued with the potential to accomplish great things and nourishes within it dreams that continue to grow as it matures. This could be his life’s story in a nutshell. When exactly, or how, he began to show early signs of becoming an artist may have been lost in the mist of time. Nonetheless, he could, from his faint childhood reminiscences, stitch together coherent vignettes. First, there was this childish propensity to draw, doodle or sketch on every available surface. Of course, this activity displeased the teachers enough to have him punished. Meanwhile, his proficiency became so evident that his apparent play with colours ended up passing for credible compositions. Then, whenever he ran out of papers to draw on, he would resort to drawing on the ground. Because the drawings were wiped away whenever people walked over them, he was often frustrated. It took the counsel of a discerning neighbour to get his mother to buy him an exercise book.“That boy would be happy seeing his drawings every day,”he recalls the neighbour telling his mother. But it would be many years later when Adeyemo was a Senior Secondary 2 student at King’s Will Secondary School in Ile-Ife that fate steered his path towards choosing art as a career. It was his then literature teacher – a lady he remembers as Mrs Mary Ann – who upon seeing his drawing on the school’s noticeboard lauded his artistic talent and urged him to understudy professional artists to make his studying art in a tertiary institution easier. This was how, after an arduous search, he had ended up beginning a period of tutelage under the painter Oyebanji Banjo in 2010 and later became the apprentice of the scrap metal sculptor and a painter called Dotun Popoola from 2012, after his Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations, to 2016. Inspired by a painting, titled“Aso Ebi”, by Jonathan Imafidor at the Obafemi Awolowo University’s Master Studio, the Oyo State-born artist began to think about creating his own peculiar style of painting. “I loved his style of painting so much that I started thinking about creating my own style,” he says. This was how his patented representational art style that seems to be stitched together from a mosaic of several oval shapes evolves. Of course, he continues to finetune this style as he matures.“We are now in an era where the art industry accepts and appreciates the uniqueness of the individual artist,”he explains.“This fact encourages me to stick to this style and, most importantly, it seems to resonate with most people who engage my paintings.” As this style evolved, he also found himself becoming partial to painting with acrylic. Because this medium is a fast-drying and odourless one, he found it best suited to his style of painting. Not that his first experience with it was anywhere near encouraging. In fact, he even experienced doubts at a stage as to whether he could ever master it enough to a level expected of a professional artist. But with his persistence, he became more emboldened and defter with it. This Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife diploma in fine and applied arts holder is currently concluding his final year studies as a student of fine and applied arts in the same university. Nonetheless, making this career’s choice was no cake walk. His parents had other ideas about the course he ought to be studying. While his mother preferred his studying medicine, his father (a farmer) thought he should have chosen an agriculture-related course or economics. It took the intervention of Popoola to convince his parents to accept their son’s preference for the visual arts. Popoola remained his motivator, whose encouraging words helped him stay the course. Just in a few years, Adeyemo familiarised himself with the local exhibition circuit and has been featured in several exhibitions and competitions. Among these were the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 editions of Ifectivity, an annual departmental exhibition for the Obafemi Awolowo University’s fine and applied arts students; the annual Life in My City Art Festival in Enugu, in which

Adeyemo

Little Children Have Dreams Too, acrylic on canvas, by Damola consistently featured among the top-100 artists and the 2015 annual National Art Competition organised by African Artists’Foundation, among others. For the 29-year award-winning artist, life as an artist has been exciting. Since his drawing “I Will Hold Your Hand through This” graced the Arts & Review section of THISDAY (on Sunday, April 19, 2020), the artist has continued to worm his way into the art industry’s consciousness.Talking about that drawing, it was featured in a 14-day challenge, during which each participating artist was expected to produce an artwork for each day of the initial 14 days of the federal

Stars Align to the Birth of Vision, pen on paper, by Damola government-imposed lockdown, which began on Monday, March 30. That challenge, tagged“The Artist Ladder 14-Day Art Diary”, was curated by an art promoter Blessing Azubike. That work, he recalls, was conceived when fatigue from sleepless nights and discouragement had crept in on him on the 12th day of the challenge.“I had to encourage and motivate myself by remembering why I started it in the first place. Just as an eagle renews its strength, I got up and started to work.” The 14 x 18 inches pen on chipboard drawing depicts two ladies in a warm embrace.

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

ARTS & REVIEW\\EXHIBITION

ACOMPASSFORTHEMURKYWATERSOFPOLITICS Monday Philips Ekpe

accepted this role for three major reasons. First, the author is well known to me as someone who is focused, passionate and thorough. Second, even though this book is largely set in the Nigeria of 2006, its thematic immediacy or relevance is clearly not in doubt. And, third, having spent over three decades working in the media and also now teaching same, I humbly say that I am very much at home with the contents. Prefaced with quotations from the eternal words of Jesus Christ and one of the enduring expressions of the 17th Century English thinker, Thomas Hobbes, The Singularity Clause makes no pretence about the rationale for its presentations, arguments and submissions. In one breath, the reader sees divine guidance and dictates in the affairs of mortals. At the same time, he or she - like Hobbes - is bound to make enquiries that relate to the real reasons for governments, their indispensability or otherwise to our corporate survival, the appropriate modes of interactions and transactions betweengovernmentsandthepopulace,thetruesource of authority, and the very essence of political power. Sincerely, the first time I saw the title of this book, my mind went to syntax, the branch of linguistics which bothers itself with how words are brought together to construct excellent phrases, clauses and sentences. Remember what your primary school teacher taught you about singular nouns, how they must go with fitting verbs for a clause or sentence to make sense? Luckily, two dictionary definitions of‘singularity’came to my rescue. One: “unusual or distinctive manner or behaviour (peculiarity).”Two:“a point or region of infinite mass density at which space and time are infinitely distorted by gravitational forces and which is held to be the final state of matter falling into a black hole.”The latter depiction of the word, singularity, especially, is indeed ominous. If you are eager to further break down the‘singularity’ riddle, you may go straight to Chapter 4 of Book One, The Quest for Power. And just in case you need a whetting of your appetite, listen to this statement by, you guessed right, Nicolo Machiavelli in his classic, The Prince, as captured in this section. According to him, “The prince ought to read history and study the actions of eminent men, see how they acted in warfare, examine the causes of their victories and defeats in order to imitate the former and avoid the latter.” A noble counsel, you may say, but then how many Nigerian leaders at all levels of government today are sober enough to engage themselves with such non-mundane matters? What we see oftentimes are men and women in official positions who act as if the future does not exist; as if they hold special keys that determine fate; as if the privileges of the moment will never end; as if they can decide what the people would do with their bungled legacies tomorrow. In short, as if they have received assurances from the Almighty that they will escape from the consequences of deliberate abuse of public trust. Thankfully, however, the writer’s intention is not to frighten his readers or paint a picture of despair and irredeemable collective destruction. Rather, he provides in lucid language, informed accounts of some events thatthreatenedtheveryfoundationsofthethennascent Nigerian democracy, notably the failed efforts of former PresidentOlusegunObasanjotoprolonghisstayinoffice. The core strengths of this treatise include adequate illustrationsfromthevariouspartsofthecountry,spotlight on equally nationally spread personalities, painstakingly

The Singularity clause researched facts, appropriately acknowledged referencing, and well blended and applied quotes. Above all, this book is written in liquid prose instead of the rigid style that subject matters of this nature are often presented in. All these attributes make The Singularity Clause a compelling read. A fast reader can actually be through with the 105-page publication in one or two hours. In a world that is increasingly a victim of self-inflicted rush, the brevity and compact expressiveness demonstrated here are, in my opinion, among its key selling points. The ten chapters here, each with a catchy title, are concise and frank. “The Human Society” that opens the book draws its validity from the creation story as recorded in the Holy Bible. Nigeria’s perennial monster calledcorruptionappearsherealongsideadomineering figure in the Book of Genesis named Nimrod.“The Need for Good Governance”looks at what critics label as the fallacy upon which our constitution stands, that is,“We thepeople…”Dr.Enyiokoisoftheviewthatirresponsible

or incompetent administrations inevitably breed chaos. Most parts of the country are now theatres of fear or violence or both. But while the present government should not bear the whole blame for this season of anomie, excuses are also not acceptable at this point. Calls for separation are growing louder and the author seems to directly address the ethic agitators in our midst. As he puts it, “For the pro-balkanization groups, there are no agreed lines on how to split Nigeria. Some would prefer a rip along religious lines, while others along ethnic or economically homogenous lines. This hope would be kept alive from generation to generation without realization for the pro-dismemberment groups, and simultaneouslyforgeaclosebandofunityinthemajority of citizens, who have come to see a great strength in the dictum, ‘unity in diversity.’” Lovers of ‘One Nigeria’ may now shout, Amen!Those words written many years ago have become even more critical now.

VISUAL ARTS

Race Begins for 2021 Access Bank Art X Prize Yinka Olatunbosun

he race for the 2021 Access Bank Art X Prize has kicked off to attract and reward emerging artists in Nigeria. Created to bolster the careers of contemporary Nigerian artists who have demonstrated a commitment to working as professional visual artists, the Access Bank ART X Prize is sponsored by Access Bank, in partnership with Gasworks. The coveted prize provides a N1.8 million grant, a solo presentation at ART X Lagos, a three-month Residency at Gasworks, London and an ongoing mentorship and support. This edition will be supervised by a distinguished panel of jurors namely Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, Dexter Wimberly, Ndidi Dike, Ugoma Adegoke, Marie-Ann Yemsi, and Alessio Antoniolli, with curation by the renowned artist and performer, Wura-Natasha Ogunji. For an artist to be eligible to contest, he or she must be a practising visual artist of three years or more, not currently be enrolled as a student; and be a Nigerian citizen, living and working in

Nigeria. An artist is expected to submit a 500-word bio to describe him or herself, provide an artist statement and back them up with a CV. In 2019, the Prize was renamed The Access Bank ART X Prize and now provides funding, tailored mentoring support, and a residency opportunity in collaboration with Gasworks, to exceptional emerging artists, enabling them to complete compelling, ambitious projects that will further their careers and challenge the expectations of local and global audiences. The Prize has been judged each year by a jury of esteemed artists, and previous jurors include Yinka Shonibare CBE, Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, Ibrahim Mahama, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Emeka Ogboh, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya and more. The 2019 winner Etinosa Yvonne got a grant of N1,500,000 towards an ambitious project, a three-month residency at Gasworks, London in 2021, and a solo presentation at ART X Lagos in 2021. Previous winners of the Prize are Bolatito AderemiIbitola (2018), Habeeb Andu (2017) and Patrick Akpojotor (2016).

Peterside

“Democratic Institutions” starts with 10 rhetorical questions and proceeds to matters relating to constitutional amendment. “The Essence of Party Politics” presents a historical run from pre-independence Nigeria to contemporary times. Readers can also obtain useful information about the functions of political parties. “Ideology in Perspective” begins with five profound rhetorical questions and moves on to shed light on Dr. Enyioko’s conviction that any politics rooted in ideologies naturally proceeds with the productive involvement of the citizenry. He is certain that when the people participate fully on the basis of their political philosophies, in his words, “The epoch of charlatans, political nitwits and vampires’involvement in politics strictly for what they would get out of the system, would be gone forever.”This sounds like a very tall dream to me. The poser is, when will that day come? At the moment, from what the eyes of most Nigerians can see, it will take a miracle to achieve a reversal of the current downward spiral of the moral fabric of our longsuffering polity. The chapter titled,“Funding”provides an insight into legitimate and surer ways political parties can fund their programmes and also thrive.“Electoral Umpire”x-rays the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which was led by Prof. Maurice Iwu at the time. “The Electorate”visualises the power possessed by the voting public beyond balloting.The writer thinks that even after elections, people can force the government to address their grievances through protests, for instance.The role ofTransnational Corporation of Nigeria PLC (Transcorp) in Obasanjo’s plot for a third term in power also appears here. Against decorum, good judgement and the codes of the private sector, some of its leading actors listed in this section pulled their clouts and resources together in support of the inglorious agenda. Similarly, there is a roll call of the National Assembly members belonging to the 2007 Movement who withstood that conspiracy. The last chapter, aptly captioned “Profiling Result Oriented Politicians”, is garnished with quotes from Robert Greene’sThe 48 Laws of Power. It is the author’s hall of national models that parades former governors, senators, other politicians, technocrats and business titans. I wonder if Dr. Enyioko is still proud of all of them 15 years after. My little quarrel with this book borders on the structure. Two quick examples will suffice. One, I do not see the need to further break this modest volume into three books. If the author had allowed the work to flow as a long essay, the purpose would still have been accomplished. This particular exercise is, therefore, at best, redundant.Two, after earning a place on the front cover,‘TheTranscorp Phenomenon’is brutally buried in Chapter Five of Book Two and denied a well-deserved prominence. That is unfair. I must quickly add that none of these perceived flaws robs The Singularity Clause of its importance and pertinence. At a time when centrifugal forces are on the loose in our beloved country, nationalist efforts like this one should be appreciated and promoted. The author is precise about his mission as declared in the Introduction:“The Singularity Clause is a compass to help politicians navigate through the murky waters of Nigerian politics. It is a self-help manual that will arm its readers with the requisite theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to compete robustly.” I believe he has kept faith with that goal. ––DrEkpereadthisreviewofthebook,TheSingularity Clause:Obasanjo’s3rdTerm,theTranscorpPhenomenon & Deep Political Discourse, written by Dr. Elvis C. Enyioko, at Merit House, Maitama, Abuja, on June 24, 2021

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

CICERO

Editor:Olawale Olaleye mail:wale.olaleye@thisdaylive.com, SMS: 08116759819

IN THE ARENA

Implications, New Calculations of Caging Nnamdi Kanu By caging the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, President Buhari might have unwittingly removed for the Igbo intellectual-political elite ‘an irritant’ threatening them as a class and undermining the legitimate political struggle at the heart of their politics and engagements, writes Louis Achi

t a joint press conference with the State Security Services (SSS) on Tuesday, June 29, in Abuja, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), announced that international collaborative efforts with security agencies led to the re-arrest and repatriation to Nigeria of leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. His words: “Self-acclaimed leader of the proscribed secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has been intercepted through the collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and Security Services. He has been brought back to Nigeria, in order to continue facing trial after disappearing, while on bail regarding 11-count charge against him.” Fleshing out Malami’s narrative, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, told journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, that Nigeria’s security intelligence trailed Kanu for two years. He said: “It will interest Nigerians to know that for over two years, our security and intelligence agencies were on the trail of the proscribed IPOB leader as he lived a five-star life across several countries, travelling on chartered private jets, living in luxury apartments and turning out in designer clothes and shoes. “Of course, as we all saw, he was wearing an attire made by Fendi, a luxury Italian fashion brand, when he was arrested. We can tell you that the forensic investigation carried out so far has revealed a treasure trove of information on the proscribed IPOB leader and his collaborators.” On September 20, 2017, Justice Abdu Kafarati, then Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja, made the order proscribing the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and designating it a terrorist group upon an ex parte application by the AGF, Malami. But IPOB contended in a motion it filed before the same judge on September 22, 2017, that the proscription order was unconstitutional. In January 2018, Justice Kafarati, resolved all the three formulated issues against the group and held that the September 20, 2017 proscription order of the court was validly issued, hence dismissing the contention of IPOB’s lawyer, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor. Kanu was arrested in 2015, on several charges, including treason. He was released on bail in 2017 and fled the country in September of the same year following an invasion of his country home by the Nigerian Army in Afaraukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State. The re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu spawns several posers. Did the mode of his re-arrest conform to international diplomatic protocols? What are the implications of his repatriation and re-arraignment in Nigeria for the Igbo and other secessionist activists? Does the single-minded energy invested in the re-arrest project reinforce perceptions of Buhari’s alleged visceral Igbophobia and anti-Biafra stance? More – will IPOB regroup and reorganise in the absence of its leader just as Boko Haram appear to be doing post-Yusuf and Shekau? How will the unfolding scenario impact the Igbo intellectual and political elite’s engagements? Will it measurably douse secessionist impulses across board? What manner of justice will be served? According to Professor Moses Ochonu, the IPOB leader, Kanu, had become a disruptive factor for the South East region’s justifiable resentment of President Buhari’s Igbophobia, mirrored in his administration’s blunt marginalisation of the zone. Ochonu, academician, author and Professor of African history at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee and who has been the Vanderbily Cornelius Chair in history since 2017, believes that, “Before his re-arrest, Kanu had become a complicating factor for the Igbo’s justifiable resentment of Buhari’s Igbophobia, and their equally justified sense that they’ve been excluded and marginalised since the civil war.

Kanu when brought back home “Nnamdi Kanu not only threatened to delegitimise and scuttle the legitimate struggle of the Igbo people for “recognition and redistribution,” to borrow Philosopher Axel Honneth’s words; he also attracted unfair hostility to innocent Igbo people, especially, in Northern Nigeria.” Pushing a novel insight, Ochonu feels strongly that by caging Kanu, Buhari has eliminated the disruptive strident symphony the IPOB leader has playing and the new theoretical calm could supply a more stable engagement atmosphere for Igbo leaders to make their case in a more acceptable manner. Hear him: “What Buhari has done for the Igbo struggle with the arrest of Kanu is to refocus the struggle on the main issue of undeniable marginalisation and exclusion of the Igbo, self-determination,

and the necessity of remedial measures, including the muchdiscussed restructuring. “Buhari has cut the distracting and disruptive noise of Kanu out and has, by so doing, sent the IPOB wing of the Igbo struggle, which was gaining ascendancy and slowly entering the mainstream, back to where it belongs: the fringe. “Conversely, he has re-empowered the Igbo struggle’s mainstream, including the intelligent, peaceful, less adversarial, less insular, and less rhetorically hateful agitation for a territorial or non-territorial Biafra.” Debatably, taking Kanu and his alleged extreme activism out of the equation should refocus the conversation on the abhorrent way the Igbo have been treated since the civil war, and the inexplicably Igbophobic underpinnings of the Buhari regime’s political actions and rhetoric. It is hardly debatable that beyond the huffing and puffing of the federal government, the re-arrest and re-arraignment of Kanu does not mean the end of IPOB. IPOB diehards will continue to rally round Kanu even in jail and find inspiration and vindication for their cause in the treatment Kanu may receive. “Most Igbo people will be relieved that the nihilistically violent approach of Kanu and his IPOB has at least been rendered a bit voiceless and headless,” Ochonu further opined. This, because, while Kanu was at large and in command of the IPOB’s non-terrestrial, very influential media infrastructure and platforms, he put the Igbo elite in a bind – such that they could not openly oppose the group without paying a political price. The initial scenario also ensured they could not get their moderate messages out or articulate an alternative ideology and strategy for addressing the grievances of the Igbo. According to a former US Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, if the Nigerian government botches Kanu’s trial and the atmospherics around it, it risks further inflaming separatism, noting that Kanu appears to have some degree of popular support. The hazy process of Kanu’s capture also raises issues of whether it conformed to international diplomatic protocols? The British High Commission in Nigeria has said it is “in the process of seeking clarifications” from the federal government over the arrest of Kanu. Spokesperson of the British High Commission, Dean Hurlock, disclosed this in a message sent to the media on Wednesday. Kanu is also a British citizen.

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

For APC, It’s Saturation Bombing!

Buni

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to be on an offensive membership drive – concerned more about the numbers than the quality of persons and the implications of sharing space with certain individuals – given its principles and philosophy. Indeed, 2023 is a critical one for the politicians and the political parties as well. But the drive towards a monoparty state is subtly and disturbingly creeping in, eliciting genuine concerns especially, about how people were allegedly being “muscled” into the APC – either through blackmail or harassment. In war, saturation bombing is critical term that leaves nothing to chance. It is the bombardment of a very large area in one stretch instead of aiming specific targets. It is an idea that ensures no survivor in the engagement of an enemy or a people so considered. Another name for it is carpet bombing – a sweeping decimation.

This, precisely, is what the APC is doing in engaging the opposition in the battle for 2023. It is not leaving room for survival of the opposition much less the consequences of ending up with a oneparty system. Politics, the APC seems to maintain, is a game of numbers, and in gathering its numbers, there’s no cherry-picking. Much as this holds true to the tricks of the game of politics, it however, undermines the tenets of democracy, which recognises the place of the opposition as well as the people and accords them their right to choice. As it is, the APC is the party of the moment – enjoying all the attentions and increasing in numbers through ‘saturation bombing’ of the political space. But does this not have its downsides too? It sure does, but that’s a question solely for time to respond to. APC can only enjoy the moments!

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

BRIEFINGNOTES Who Contests Election in Nigeria: Party or Candidate? If the Supreme Court in its wisdom annulled the votes of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 elections in Zamfara State and declared the Peoples Democratic Party winners in the polls, can Governor Bello Matawalle give back the mandate to the APC? This is the question the PDP would seek to ask the courts if its threats to challenge the defection of the governor is carried out. Davidson Iriekpen writes

fter months of speculations and denials, Governor Bello Muhammed Matawalle of Zamfara State,last Tuesday, formally defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). As it is usually the case, the governor took with him to the ruling party, some members of the state and federal legislators. As at last count, THISDAY gathered that all but one member of the state House of Assembly, all senators and six of the seven members of House of Representatives from the state, went with him. Kabiru Yahaya, representing Talata Mafara/Anka federal constituency, is the only state lawmaker, who did not leave the PDP. The state’s deputy governor, Mahdi Aliyu, also did not join the APC, saying his father brought the party to Zamfara and the family had never belonged to any other party. While Matawalle’s defection to the APC has brought another round of crisis to the state chapter of the party, the PDP on the other hand whose mandate he ran away with, is calling for his resignation as governor and threatening him with litigation. The new crisis began at the defection ceremony when the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the APC and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, announced the dissolution of the executive council of the party in Zamfara and declared Matawalle as the new leader of the party in the state. “As of today, Governor Bello Mohammed is the official leader of the party in the state…From now on, Governor Matawalle is the leader of our great party Matawalle in Zamfara State. You will await further arrangements for new party structure from him,” Buni said as he announced The apex court further ordered the Independent National the dissolution of the state executive of the party. Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the votes secured But 24 hours after, former Governor Abdul’aziz Yari and by the APC in all the elections and decide the new a former senator, Kabiru Marafa, said Buni’s pronouncewinners from the remaining valid votes. ment of Matawalle as APC leader in the state was not part Trouble started, when the faction led by Yari conducted of the agreement reached before his defection. They said primaries for the nomination of the party’s candidates his declaration as their leader in the APC could not stand. for the 1999 general election, the faction of Yari went to Marafa said: “One thing that we didn’t accept is the court to challenge the process. statement from Buni that Matawalle is the APC leader The court eventually decided that the process was in Zamfara, because that was not part of the agreement invalid. Although APC later presented candidates after the reached with the APC governors.” Court of Appeal offered it a brief reprieve, the Supreme The former senator said pronouncing the governor Court eventually dashed the party’s hope by declaring its as APC leader in Zamfara is dubious and unacceptable, participation in the elections as invalid. revealing that it took the intervention of APC governors, The apex court specifically held that having not through Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, for Yari conducted valid primaries, in the face of the law, it did to attend the defection ceremony. He said they were told not participate in the 2019 elections, where it swept the that the event was meant to end every dispute. presidential, governorship and all the federal and state “We were only pleaded with by the APC to allow for the legislative seats, beating PDP candidates to a distant defection ceremony in Gusau to hold, for us to become second position. one. Afterwards, there would be further meetings and It is for this reason that the PDP has threatened to go negotiations. But for someone from Abuja to say he to court to challenge the defection of Matewalle, stating dissolved the APC executives in Zamfara, that cannot that the electoral mandate was given to the party and happen,” the former lawmaker said. not to Matawalle himself. With Matawalle’s defection, it appears that the old PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan, specifically stated adversaries have now found a common enemy. Ironically, that the Supreme Court judgment upon which Matawalle the events that culminated in the governor inheriting assumed office was clear and unambiguous that it the APC victory at the poll were based on the intractable is party that contests election in Nigeria and not the dispute between then governor, Yari and Senator Marafa. candidate. Matawalle was declared governor on May 24, 2019, afHis words: “No law allows him to cross over to any other ter the Supreme Court disqualified all the APC candidates party with the governorship mandate statutorily given to over the failure of the APC to conduct valid primaries. the PDP through the ballot box, as already established

by the provision of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the standing judgment of the Supreme Court. “A combined reading of Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution as the pronouncements of the Supreme Court in Faleke v. INEC (2016) is clear in holding that it is the political party that stands for election, that votes scored in election belong to the political party and that the candidate nominated to contest at an election by his party acts only as the agent of his party. The PDP hopes that Bello Matawalle as well as members of the National and State Assembly from Zamfara State will note that.” Having earlier lost Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and Ben Ayade of Cross River State to to the APC without batting an eyelid, many observers have reasoned that what makes the Matawalle case peculiar is that the Supreme Court in its judgment while installing him as governor, having disqualified the APC, specifically held that “the parties that came second in the elections” should be declared the winners of the elections. They wonder that if the apex court in its wisdom could hold that the APC did not take part in the 2018 elections, why would the governor make the party benefit from the election it was held it didn’t partake in? The Falake vs INEC case has a precedence in the Amaechi v INEC (2007), where the Supreme Court first cleared the air on who contests elections in Nigeria between a political party and the candidate. In the lead judgment delivered in the case in October 2007, Justice George Oguntade while giving reasons for Chibuike Amaechi victory, said without a political party in Nigeria, a candidate cannot contest an election. He held that a good or bad candidate might enhance or diminish the prospect of his party in winning an election but that at the end of the day it is the party that wins or loses an election. The judge noted: “Without a political party, a candidate cannot contest. The primary method of contest for elective offices is therefore between parties. If as provided in Section 221, it is only a party that canvasses for votes, it follows that it is a party that wins an election. A good or bad candidate may enhance or diminish the prospect of his party in winning but at the end of the day, it is the party that wins or loses an election.” Justice Pius Olayiwola Aderemi, while concurring the verdict, equally referred to the same section 221, saying: “No association other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election. Flowing from the above provision of the constitution, it is my view that it is the political parties that the electorate do vote for at election time.” Even though since the judgment was delivered, many Nigerians do not agree with it, arguing that the correct position should be that both the candidate and his political party jointly win or lose an election, so far, the apex court has not reversed itself, making its position the law today.

NOTES FOR FILE

Between One Nigeria and Secession

Buhari

ThereactionsofNigerianstolastweek’sarrestofNnamdi Kanu,the‘SupremeLeader’oftheIndigenousPeopleofBiafra (IPOB)andthesubsequentraidofthehomeofanothersecessionistagitator,thistimefromtheSouth-west,Mr.Sunday Igbohowereareassuranceofthefactthatamajorityofthe Nigerian people, irrespective of creed, tribe and religion, wouldrathertheywereoneindivisiblepeopleforaslong as the country treated everyone fairly within their rights andfreedomasestablishedintheconstitutionoftheland. Although there are still a few still sentiment to the obnoxiouscauseofseceding,evenwhentheagitatorshave noclearcutideawhattheywantoradistinctdefinitionof their own independent geographical entity, their voices often pale into insignificance anytime the real debate on

what they really want is set off. Yet,there’saninstructivetakeawayfromthecurrentstate ofplayanditisthefactthatthere’sanabsenceofgenuine leadership – a patriotic one with fatherly disposition and onenotpanningtothesentiments,whimsandcapricesof anyoneethnicnationality.This,nodoubt,iswhytheagitationsforsecessionseemedtohavebecomepopular,even whenthepercentageofthoseinthisspaceislargelytrifling. Truthis,eventhoughthegovernmentofthedayappears tohavethesupportofamajorityofthepeoplesidingwithone Nigeria,thenationandtheleadershipcannotalsocontinue to live a lie, because it is not sustainable. Addressing the basis of contention with all the seriousness it deserves is the way to go.

There’s evident injustice in the land. Marginalisation is an open trade.The economy is in a bad shape. Insecurity is currently the order of the day. Corruption has suddenly attained a new height, even though government is not doingbadlywiththeongoinginfrastructurerenewal.But, there’saneed–anurgentone–toaddressthecoreofthe concerns. Byandlarge,whilekeepingNigeriaasoneisonlyIMPERATIVEasthefactscurrentlyspeaktotheissues,ensuringequity, justiceandfairnessasmandatedbytheconstitutionwithin therightsofeveryoneirrespectiveofwheretheycomefrom, what language they speak or the religion they practice, is equallysacrosanct.Nigeriacannotaffordtorunonthelaws andtermsofGeorgeOrwell’sAnimalFarm.Itwillneverwork!

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

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Giving Feminism a New Identity: The Fayemi Model From inception, there had been a seeming misconception that feminism was about rivalry between male and female genders. But Ekiti State First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi thinks otherwise, writes Victor Ogunje

ost appalling has been the fact that most of the proponents of feminism on the African continent, had painted an erroneous impression that it was a muscle-flexing game between the two opposing sexes and a desperate contrivance to bring men under control and suppress their chauvinistic posturing. But, for Erelu Bisi Fayemi, the First Lady of Ekiti State, her brand of feminism negates this belligerent disposition and invidious perception. This connotes women’s emancipation efforts bereft of venomous hatred for the male gender purposely, because of age-long patriarchal advantage they enjoyed. “Feminism is not the same as misandry, they should not be conflated. A Misandrist is not necessarily a Feminist and a Feminist is not a Misandrist”, the First Lady clarified. Recently, Mrs Fayemi was engaged by some globally renowned academia and interviewers, led by Prof Toyin Falola. The interaction was far more revealing and rewrote the wrong perception that had been woven around feminism. Also paraded in the star-studded interview session, was the Chairman, THISDAY Newspapers’ Editorial Board, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, Prof Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Mrs Bamidele Oladele Olateju, an upcoming gender wizkid, Idaniloju Sotunsa, among other distinguished academics, who participated in the highly didactic and intellectual programme. In the two hours and 45 minutes stormy and exciting session, the first lady espoused her views on broadbased backgrounds covering feminism, politics and governance and how they complement one another to curb societal crises. She drew a refined conclusion after speaking elucidatively on these broad areas that the trio were intertwined and should be means to promote humanity in all facets, rather than being weaponised to ignite gender war. Her thoughts gave pointers and clear signal that a new identity needed to be devised for feminism to imbue and bolster its acceptability . The First Lady, being an insider, gave a startling disclosure that feminists, old and young are very angry these days. She said older feminists are angry with institutional systems of oppression, which remains impervious to change, while younger feminists are angry, because of the expectation that they too should conform to the systems of oppression their mothers and grandmothers had to endure. “If our societies are seeking development and progress, it is unbelievable that people will expect power relations to remain the same. I think the anger is a good thing. It propels action and change. Negative anger of course brings disastrous results so I am not advocating for that”, she clearly stated. The globally reverred gender activist believed the philosophy behind feminism was targeted chiefly at dismantling the partrichal norms among Africans, where girl child’s voice was being freely subjugated and rights brazenly abridged without her blinking an eyelid due to agelong, twisted and well entrenched culture and norms. There is no misgiving for the fact the First lady, as a co-founder of African Women Development Fund (AWDF), a body, whose exploits, had reverberated positivities in terms of women empowerment, emancipation and liberation from cultural, political and economic shackles across 42 countries in Africa, had etched her name in gold in humanitarian services. Whatever she says in this aspect could be taken as law and the view of a well grounded gender expert. She was blunt in her averment that her own belief of the phenomenon is one that promotes girl child education, facilitates political emancipation for women, career progression for female gender and freedom from knotty cultural practices feterring women’s hands from advancing in a society, where male has gained unbridled control, dominance, and recognition. The First Lady agreed with the fact that the reason feminism was eliciting a lot of hoopla was the fact that radicalism has crept into it. In her view, radicalism came to the fore, because the protagonists, had to be forceful while trying to dismantle the well permeated

Mrs.Fayemi evil practices, citing female genital mutilation, to buttress her point. She said: “I learnt early on, the importance of naming in feminist politics. I grew up with the different debates around feminist naming, and the so-called baggage it comes with. To me, feminism is a global struggle against all forms of patriarchal oppression. This means addressing the political, economic, educational, social, religious, cultural and technological institutions that patriarchy rests on and from which it draws its strength. “I believe that by naming myself a feminist, I am taking a clear position on my understanding of Patriarchy and how this affects women’s lives throughout their life cycle and focus on the tasks every feminist has to understand what Patriarchy means, which is reform or transform. I have done this as a theorist, writer, activist, mobiliser, non-profit specialist and politician. This has, of course, made me come across as too radical for certain spaces for example in the political context. “My current work on Gender Based Violence is an example of challenging years of oppression and impunity and what that entails. That might come across as too radical. I have, however, learnt that this is not work that can be done in isolation of those who control the levers of power at political or community level. I have had to learn how to speak that language in order to get my message across. This then comes across as being ‘Too conservative for the radicals’. “Gendered power relations in many African communities are complex and nuanced and we need to have an understanding of that. Context and how they aid or restrict platforms has been something I have always had to consider over the years”. The First Lady perceived education as a right and not a privilege. However, she bemoaned that the issue of geometric increase in number of school dropouts among girls came to the fore for global discussion at Beijing Conference in 1995, and that poor enough, it is still an issue staring the African citizens in the face and constituting a huge clog in the wheel of progress even in 2021. She submitted that the challenges comfronting feminism have manifested in multifaceted forms like increased Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), disruption of the education of girls due to conflicts and insurgencies, the resistance to women’s leadership, the undervaluing of educated women, the gaslighting of young women, to the more extreme of using sex toys as replacement for women,socially and sexually.

Espousing her views on education and its link and relevance to a girl child’s future, the first lady averred: “Education is a right and not a privilege. During my husband’s first term (2010-2014), there were some researches that were done by a wellrespected national NGO, which showed that Ekiti State had a high teenage pregnancy rate. This was very alarming. We had wanted to address this during a second term, but that did not come till 2018. “When we were campaigning in 2018, I saw girls, who couldn’t have been older than 15 running around either pregnant or with babies on their backs. I go around giving out kits to maternal health centers and it breaks my heart to see so many young girls there. If you are from a poor family in a predominantly rural State like Ekiti, and you get pregnant in school, that is the end of the road for you. “There are up to 15m out of school children in Nigeria and 60% of them are girls. Granted majority of them are in Northern Nigeria due to the insurgencies and conflict there and restrictions on girls accessing education, but every state also shares in this burden due to the high attrition rate of girls,who drop out due to poverty or sexual exploitation. “With the Child Rights Act (2006) and VAPP Law (2019) in place, the minimum age of consent and marriage in Ekiti State is 18. Anyone, who has intercourse with someone under 18 is guilty of Statutory Rape. “If the girls get pregnant, they can go back to school after they have had their babies or even stay on in school while they are pregnant if that is their choice. African feminists fought to get Girl-Child issues on to the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. Now, 26 years later we no longer have to make a case for girls to go to school, but we have to make a case to keep them in school”. The Chairperson, Nigeria’s Governors’Wives forum, regretted that 26 years after going all the way to Beijing, that the issue of sexual abuse still form part of the societal bane the people are still grappling to eradicate the monstrous scourge pillaging our society. She revealed that two major concepts have always been important to her in feminism, which are the ‘Voice and Space’. She said feminists use their voices to raise issue of concern, make themselves visible, refuse to be silenced and tell their own stories not minding whose ox is gored. She added that the spaces they have created, either in the academia, community or online are used for learning, solidarity, mobilisation and common action to help the fight. “In this context, as far as I am concerned, every woman is entitled to a voice and space across all

the lines that usually divide us. Second, a feminist agenda has to envisage workable solutions, at least as far as African feminists are concerned. We have done a great job of developing a body of thought and knowledge and how we experience multiple layers of oppression as African feminists. “This knowledge we have built will not serve its purpose if it is not applied to workable solutions that will lift the burden off the backs of the vast majority of women, for example, through addressing the feminisation of poverty, lack of access to decision-making, freedom from violence and abuse and so on. “This is why I am so invested in policy advocacy. I can also be impatient and irate, as a matter of fact,I believe my age and years of work give me permission to do so. I also know that social change is painfully slow, and we have to leverage on the agency of everyone, sometimes whether we agree with them or not. “Third, context matters but I believe that women’s rights are inalienable and universal. Culture, tradition or religion cannot be used as an excuse to perpetuate discrimination against women”, she insisted. Preaching the need for the African society to exhibit generosity and kindness in view of pervasive poverty and other challenges confronting women, Mrs Fayemi, said her new scholastic literary exploit, being a book she wrote and titled: “My wrapper” taught a lesson that the populace should bring out their wrappers for those who are worthy of support. She advocated that women in leadership, who have the right values and who will not do business as usual like the men should exhibit this tendency to improve women’s recognition in the scheme of things. “If a woman in leadership has been indicted by a competent court of law, then, she has been found to be a criminal and must face the consequences. We should, however, not indulge the media frenzy that always consumes women in leadership differently from the way it deals with men”. She was of the opinion that ranking men and women as equals in a political race was a sinister devise to put the women in a disadvantaged position in the political arena. “Right now, we are playing the political game as if we are all peers with men, starting a race from the same point on the field. That is an illusion. The men are always mid-field by the time a political race starts. “We need to have a stronger voice in the key political parties; we need strong women’s wings and we need a critical mass of women voters, who can ask the right questions and make those the basis of their demands. We also need the backing of laws and policies, because we cannot continue to rely on goodwill and discretion”. She maintained that for the fight against gender equality to come to fruition, it has to be institutionalised, that is, being backed with policies and legal condiments that are almost irreversible. She said Governor Kayode Fayemi strategically located the Funmi Olayinka Development Centre and Moremi Clinic within the premises of the Ekiti University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) to ensure continuity. “There is a budget for the running of these institutions through EKSUTH and the Ministry of Health and Human Services. The Transit Home is managed by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. There is a budget for facility management, welfare of the survivors and a GBV Survivor Fund to enable the survivors rebuild their lives. “The GBV Law of Ekiti State makes provision for an inter-ministerial GBV Management Committee responsible for the implementation of the law. This is known as the GBV State Coordinating Mechanism. It is supposed to be functional regardless of the government in power”. Charting a way through which transactional sex in institutions of higher learning could be routed, Mrs. Fayemi advised authorities to exhibit a zero-tolerance culture for sexual harassment and GBV, initiate mandatory anti-Sexual harassment/ SGBV Policies, a transparent grievance procedure that does not victmise victims, appropriate accommodation for students as well as introducing Anti-GBV clubs in every tertiary institution. As daunting and knotty as the challenges were, the first lady, an incurable optimist, had a good prognosis that the female gender shall overcome. She suggested that Africa shall be better off, if its enormous female resources, with intellectual acumen, moral and physical endowments that can turn things around, are harnessed optimally. She aptly concluded that it would be dangerous to still measure women with that opprobrious and barbaric scale that they are only good as mothers and remain child-bearing machinery. The First Lady said in clear terms that those era were gone and should be allowed to remain in the past.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

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Kanu: Fate of a Secessionist Agitator Last week’s re-arrest of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, might have re-ordered his struggle for the Southeast agenda, writes Amby Uneze

igerians and the world woke up to the news of the re-arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, last Tuesday, with believability questions. Even when it was constantly shown on the television, many still felt it was their normal gimmick, because it had no current picture of Nnamdi Kalu. However, as events leading to his re-arrest unfolded, it then dawned on those who had doubted earlier to believe the story. Even so, there were mixed feelings as some expressed dismay and sadness over the re-arrest of the person they refered to as an activist and fighter for his people, many othersapplauded the federal government’s efforts in apprehending the fugitive. Whatever is the case, the re-arrest of the IPOB leader may portend many things not only for the Igbo nation but Nigeria as whole. This is so, because of what Nnamdi Kalu seems to represent to the Igbo race. He is largely seen as a true symbol of the Igbo struggle, even though that might not be completely true. First Republic Minister of Aviation, and elderstatesman, Chief Amaechi Mbazulike said, “Nnamdi Kanu’s case should be handled with caution. His fundamental human rights should not be tempered with, because he has not been convicted for any offence by any reputable court anywhere in the world. He should have access to his lawyers and should not be manhandled for whatever reason”. On reasons for jumping bail in 2017, when he was granted one by a Federal High Court in Abuja,presided over by Justice Binta Nyako, Kanu addressed the court on Tuesday, when he was brought before the court that his life was threatened by the Nigerian security and was on the verge of being killed before he escaped. Kanu who was blindfolded and escorted into the courtroom by agents of Directorate of Security Services (DSS) in handcuffs and with his legs chained asked the presiding judge for permission to address the court and present his side of the story. He told the court that his house had been unlawfully invaded by Nigerian security personnel and that his life had been seriously threatened. He maintained that he and others would have been killed on the day of the invasion if it hadn’t been for his foresight in fleeing the country. However, on the same Tuesday, before Kanu was brought to court, the Attorney General of the Federal and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had announced in a press conference that Kanu had been intercepted by Nigerian security intelligence operatives. He went ahead to say the Nigerian government charged Kanu with terrorism, money laundering, treason, and other charges on October 14, 2015. Notably, the Nigerian government kept Kanu in DSS detention for several months until he was given a bail condition, which was fulfilled. Justice Nyako revoked his bail conditions on March 28, 2019. But his re-arrest has continued to attract reactions. A former media aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri in a tweet said: “Nnamdi Kanu is not the problem. He is a symptom of the problem. The nepotism of President Buhari and his clique/cabal is the problem. Until you address that problem, you will arrest one Nnamdi Kanu, and 10 may arise in his place. Deal with the problem. Treat Nigerians equally”. According to Omokri, Nigeria has fought the Boko Haram ideology for 13 years. Today, it is stronger than in 2009. If Buhari can’t defeat an ideology on his doorstep, is it Biafra he will defeat? Asking the president to learn from history, he said ideas are not defeated militarily, but only by justice. Also reacting, a group known as Igbo National Council (INC) said it read with rude shock, the news of the arrest of Kanu the leader of IPOB, and its extradition to Nigeria. INC President, Chilos Godsent, in a statement in Owerri, capital of Imo State said, “We wish to advise the Federal Government of Nigeria to tread with caution as the arrest and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is capable of heightening the tension in Nigeria in view of the fragile state of the Nigeria State. The arrest may trigger heavy protest in many parts of Nigeria if care is not taken in handling the issue. “INC, therefore, advises the federal government to seek a more peaceful means to resolve the root causes of the agitations by the various component ethnic nationalities in Nigeria seeking proper structuring of

Kanu the country and grant of rights to self-determination.” On its part, the World Igbo Congress (WIC) has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to apply rules and international conventions that guarantee the rights and personal safety on dealings with Kalu, who is in her custody. The group also observed that Kanu, a British citizen, was abducted in a country other than the United Kingdom to which he travelled on British passport, which consequently raises the specter of illegal abduction and international gangsterism that violates the spirit of the process of extradition. In a statement by Prof. Anthony Ejiofor (Chairman) and Basil Onwukwe (Public Relations Officer), WIC on Wednesday, urged the Nigerian Government to ensure that Nnamdi Kanu was treated in accordance with the rules and international conventions that guaranteed that his rights and personal safety were protected. While calling on the British government to stand up and defend the right of her citizen, the statement challenged the UK government to investigate the collusion of any other country or party in this saga. “The government of the US, the UN and the international community should take note of the ongoing abuse of human rights in Nigeria including this matter of abduction of Nnamdi Kanu. “The Igbo at home and abroad should see this as a continuation of the different strokes for different folks, which have characterised the approach of the current administration of the Federal Government of Nigeria in dealing with national issues. The world has taken notice of the disparity in the treatment of Boko Haram insurgents and the Fulani herdsmen, who have been designated as terrorists by known international agencies. “These killers are routinely arrested, compensated, released and oftentimes absorbed into the Nigerian security services. On the other hand, the Igbo have been subjected to massive shoot-on-sight order, arrests and abduction. We would like to emphasise that no government in the world or any international security agency has designated IPOB as a terrorist organisation and Nnamdi Kanu is not on any terrorist watch list anywhere in the world”, the group noted. The group, however, urged all Igbo worldwide to remain calm, and assured them that the rights of the Igbo must be protected and the Igbo could not be subjugated forever. Another Diasporan organisation, comprising the

Igbo–British Lawyers resident in the United Kingdom, has described as illegal the arrest and detention of Kanu by the Nigerian government. The legal practitioners under the auspices of the Coalition of Igbo-British Lawyers condemned the Kenyan government for arresting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, who is also a British citizen, and handing him over to the Nigerian government. The group revealed this in a statement signed by Barrister Ebuka Okoroafor and made available to SaharaReporters on Wednesday. According to the lawyers, the Kenyan government has violated the human rights of Kanu, who possesses both Nigerian and British passports. “Coalition of Igbo-British lawyers condemns the illegal detention and subsequent handing over of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to the Nigerian government by the Kenyan Government. “It is worthy of note to mention that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu entered Kenya with his British passport, and the Kenyan government is fully aware of his citizenship status but still went ahead to perpetrate their illegal act, which does not only breach the personal human rights of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu but also undermine the sovereignty of the British government,” the statement read in part. In the same vein, Senator Shehu Sani has asked the federal government to treat Kanu with Justice and according to the rule of law. He noted that he is aware of the fact that the federal government has longawaited the arrest of the IPOB leader. He pleaded with the government to deal with him with Justice and not with sentiments or as a bigot. Sani noticed that the Northerners were very happy over the arrest of the Igbo freedom fighter andasked the government to try him with Justice and according to the rule of law. “The fundamental rights of Nnamdi Kanu should be respected in compliance with the relevant articles of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His trial should be guided by justice, fairness and the rule of law and not sentiments, prejudice, hate, ill feelings, vengeance or bigotry”, Senator Shehu pleaded. Nnamdi Kanu’s family has also revealed where and how he was apprehended by the Nigerian Government. Kingsley Kanu, brother of the IPOB claimed that his brother was detained in Kenya.

“Kenyan officials detained my brother until security operatives transported him to Nigeria”, Kanu stated in a statement on Wednesday. “My brother Nnamdi Kanu is calling for Biafra’s right to self- determination. The right to self- determination is a cornerstone of the United Nations. My brother has now been subjected to the most egregious violations of international law, because Biafrans back Nnamdi Kanu’ s desire for Biafran self-determination. “Kenya and Nigeria have kidnapped my brother and held him in captivity. They have broken the rule of law’s most fundamental precepts. One of the most serious crimes a state may commit is extraordinary rendition. Nigeria and Kenya must both be held accountable. Nnamdi Kanu, my brother, deserves justice. “The British High Commission in Nigeria must demand that my brother be released immediately. They must ensure that he is protected and secure. Nnamdi Kanu must be restored to his wife and sons in the United Kingdom. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, must make it clear to Nigerian authorities that wrongful imprisonment of British citizens will not be tolerated, and that the UK government condemns Nigerians and Kenyans for undermining the rule of law. Raab, as Foreign Secretary, must be forthright. Those who use extraordinary rendition will face the consequences. The British government must insist on Nnamdi Kanu’ s justice,” he stated. Reacting, IPOB has openly warned the federal government that nothing should happen to their leader, Kanu. The group claimed that Kanu was kidnapped by unknown government officials. Spokesman of IPOB, Emma Powerful in a statement said, “We the global movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, confirm his abduction by the Nigerian Government and her security operatives. “This evil crime of kidnapping was masterminded by the Nigeria Government in collaboration with all those that view IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu as stumbling block against their bid to hold Biafra in perpetual slavery. We, therefore, enjoin every IPOB member both at home and in the Diaspora and all Biafrans to remain calm because this is not the end of the road. At the moment, British government has denied that Nnamdi Kanu, her citizen, was abducted in the UK and promised to approach the matter with interest.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 4, 2021

SUNDAY INTERVIEW

Tunde Adeniran:

Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial Will Test Our Concept of Law and Justice Prof. Tunde Adeniran, a former Minister of Education and the immediate past National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), has served Nigeria in diverse capacities between 1985 when he was part of the Nigerian delegation to the 40th Session of the United Nations and 2020, when he announced his disengagement from partisan politics. In this interview with Gboyega Akinsanmi, Adeniran spoke extensively about hydra-headed challenges undermining Nigeria’s unity and proposed multi-tiered solutions to pull the federation from the brink

n September 2020, you resigned as the National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP) and announced your retirement from partisan politics. What informed these decisions? I disengaged from partisan politics precisely on September 29, 2020. As I stated in the press release that I issued on that day, I joined active and partisan politics some years ago to pursue and advance the vision of my generation of Nigeria as a humane and progressive society, a nation where no man is oppressed, one built on brotherhood despite the many differences and divides, an egalitarian society that meets the aspirations of its citizens and serves as a beacon for the rest of Africa. I still cherish that vision even though it has become elusive by the year 2020. And, although I am an irrepressible patriot committed to the belief that democracy can only be consolidated in Nigeria through a liberating and uplifting ideology that serves as a guide for action and democratic institutions with their supporting structures, especially, a workable constitution with appropriate legal and party systems, the prevailing environment was no longer conducive to my effective participation in pursuit of my vision. Age was also not on my side with extra energy and strength to extract from. So, I decided to disengage while encouraging the youths with similar ideological leanings to carry on. As a foundation member, you defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a critical stage before the 2019 election. What actually went wrong? So many things went wrong. And actually, it was long before the 2019 elections. Anybody interested in knowing some of what went wrong should go and read chapter six of my book “SERVING MY FATHERLAND”. It is titled “The PDP phenomenon”. But for the purpose of this interview, the party had by then been hijacked by those who either did not understand the ramifications of the mission and vision of the party or simply did not believe in them. It wasn’t difficult for them to get the party into a reverse wave, damaging the prospects and future of democracy through the erosion of past gains and the sabotaging of opportunities for change and democratic consolidation through the party process. I couldn’t imagine myself staying any longer, knowing so well that the simple responsibility of genuine mobilisation and broadening the base of political participation was being abdicated. I could see the PDP complicating the existing problems of democratisation, nation-building and political development. This was in the face of increased demand for political participation by increasing numbers of politically inclined people and the demand for internal party democracy, due process and justice in the affairs of the party. Nigeria is going through its toughest time since 1999. But the decision of the National Assembly to review the 1999 Constitution offered a fresh opportunity to correct some institutional and structural anomalies that threaten Nigeria’s unity. Do you agree with those who described the constitution review as effort in futility? What we need is a new constitution for the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In a political setting and system in which people are not self-seeking and self-serving, it should be possible to have a National Assembly that would facilitate a new constitution. Those who see the on-going exercise as an effort in futility know so well that the orientation, disposition and aspirations of the majority of those in the National Assembly are such that cannot promote a new constitution for the Nigerian people. Rather, they would consolidate the legal framework and absurd constitutional loopholes whose benefits they presently enjoy while Nigeria wallows in national disorientation and dysfunction. The committed reformers and progressives among them are in the minority. Can you imagine that the simple clamour by the generality of Nigerians to make some people-oriented basic provisions regarding fundamental principles of state policy contained in Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution justifiable is being vigorously resisted by some members of the National Assembly? And the Constitution remains the legal framework through which the goals and wellbeing of the Nigerian people can be achieved.

codes show what would seem to be the universal tendency of the socio-economic, religio-cultural, moral and ethical system of a society to produce a legal order to enforce its ethical and social mandates. I have no doubt that the Federal Ministry of Justice will be well guided.

Do you agree with those who have recommended dialogue as an approach to restore peace and security not just in the South-east, but also in other parts of the federation with deep feelings of injustice and unfairness? I have said it before. The government and the people must continue to talk. The various groups and people must also continue to talk among themselves. Dialogue provides a much-needed opportunity for people to understand themselves and the contending issues of concern to them. Opportunities for dialogue must never be missed in appropriate situations and circumstances. The value of dialogue on such occasions is that, apart from throwing light that could lead to a proper resolution of some issues at hand, it could lead to exposing some hidden grievances or misconceptions that could precipitate future crises.

Adeniran At a time like this, how should the stakeholders across the political divides respond to divisive forces undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence? Dialogue – through dialogue! There is so much to gain by all if and when they put all the cards on the table, discuss and agree on the way forward. And there is so much to lose when they are either avoiding themselves or shouting at one another. Nigeria is so endowed by God with human and material resources that there is simply no need for us to allow the forces that divide our dear country and people to linger or prevail. Those conscious of the dangers ahead must wake up those living in denial before we all bear the consequences. The stakeholders should by now be remorseful, realising that by unduly politicising most issues and mischievously weaponising some differences among Nigerians, especially, ethnicity and religion, they have landed our dear country, Africa’s beacon of hope and the pride of the Black race, at a precipice. The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was re-arrested last Sunday. Does Kanu’s re-arrest signal peace and security as Ohaneze Ndigbo claimed? Nnamdi Kanu’s rearrest is a signal to whatever we want it to be. I believe that the federal government will handle it with magnanimity and a deep sense of national security as well as in the interest of peace and justice. It is time yet to strengthen the bonds of nationhood among Nigerians and move ahead united in tackling the challenges of poverty, insecurity and the trust deficits. The laws of the land are to guide action. Nigerians expect due process to be followed, just as the rules of conduct that are followed in any organized and civilized society. With the prevailing circumstances, I believe it will be handled appropriately as it could well turn out to test our concepts of law and justice. The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation had concluded plan to charge the IPOB leader with multiple murder, among others. Will this approach address the root causes of the agitation for separation in the South-east or aggravate it? My expectation is that the federal government’s approach will be dictated by the need for lasting peace and security along with national unity, stability and development. As a layman, I assume that from the early law systems to be found in the codes of Hammurabi, the laws of Manu and the Mosaic code up to the modern legal systems, the

The laws of the land are to guide action. Nigerians expect due process to be followed, just as the rules of conduct that are followed in any organized and civilized society.With the prevailing circumstances, I believe it will be handled appropriately as it could well turn out to test our concepts of law and justice… I have no doubt that the Federal Ministry of Justice will be well guided

Despite the Asaba Declaration that prohibited open grazing in the South, the practice has not stopped. What should all the state governments do to further put an end to the practice of open grazing within their territories both legally and politically? To me, I don’t see the Asaba Declaration beyond what it was – a declaration, a public announcement, a proclamation, which could even be interpreted as a manifesto. What the state governments should do to effectively put an end to the practice of open grazing in the south is to take relevant bills to their State Assemblies. After the passage of the relevant laws, they would need to faithfully implement, promote ranching in their States and also encourage their northern counterparts to do the same. Ranching is a business that should lead to competition among various states and communities. Unfortunately, it is presently being viewed by some people and states as punishment. It is a misconception that must change. Before the 2019 elections, the National Assembly amended the 2010 Electoral Act and transmitted it to the president for assent. But the president withheld his assent. About one and half years to the 2023 elections, diverse questions around the electoral law are yet to be resolved? Is there any hope for credible elections in 2023? It is possible to have credible elections in 2023. We only need to be serious about it and be committed to it as a national objective and goal. Firstly, beyond the electoral law and amendment issue that has remained unresolved; the entire Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria needs a rebirth to make any elections meaningful in 2023. Secondly, the Independent National Electoral Commission and Nigeria’s security machineries would need to creatively address the challenges posed by the prevailing atmosphere in the country. There is no way present processes and procedures would yield an electoral outcome that could be considered credible. At this point, what are the areas of concerns in the 2010 Electoral Act and what should the National Assembly do about it before it is too late? The areas of concern are many but I wish to restrict myself to three. One is the need to get Nigerians in the diaspora to vote, the second is how to give adequate opportunity for people with disabilities to vote. The third, of course, has been the most contentious and at the centre of contentions – electronic voting. How this is handled will substantially determine the credibility of future elections. Again, AFRICOM became a subject of debate, when President Muhammadu Buhari asked the US Secretary of State to consider Nigeria as the base of the Command to fight insecurity. As Nigeria’s leading international relations scholar, is Buhari’s request in Nigeria’s core and strategic interests? President Muhammadu Buhari was certainly being strategic in his move to have Nigeria serve as the base of AFRICOM. I commended him then for the request on the assumption that Nigeria would take full advantage of it while containing likely negative consequences. On this issue, perception and intuition come to play, especially, within the context of the technologically less developed world’s security predicaments. Against the backdrop of information and technological revolutions and the tectonic shifts in world politics, by now we ought to have acquired sufficient skill for dealing with great spymasters, be acquainted with advancement in intelligence capabilities and effectively relate for strategic value. There is terror and crisis all around us. Many of the transformative geopolitical trends of our time are being fuelled by exponential advances in technology. Nigeria would benefit from such an arrangement in an increasingly interdependent and complex world.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

THE ALTERNATIVE

with RenoOmokri

Destroying Age-Old Myths About The Yoruba

here are many myths circulated by various ethnic nationalities about the Yoruba people of the Southwest, and a personal experience with a non-Yoruba provoked me to address some of these myths using historical facts. Please bear with me, this is a long read. Myth one: The Yoruba are betrayers A lot of this angst, which has refused to fade away decades after the dramatis personae exited this world, is centred around a supposed betrayal of Emeka Ojukwu and the Igbo by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. And sadly, this has now become an emotive issue, where fiction has been fed to many young people as fact. The truth is that Chief Awolowo went on a peace meeting to Enugu, to try to persuade Igbo leaders to adopt a peaceful way out of the crisis that had unfolded in Nigeria after the January 15, 1966 coup and the July 29, 1966 counter coup. Awolowo met with the leaders of the Eastern Region for two days from May 6-7, 1967. THERE IS A TRANSCRIPT OF THAT MEETING, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED WHEN BOTH AWOLOWO AND OJUKWU WERE ALIVE. Please note that this transcript was taken from a tape recorded by then Colonel Ojukwu’s own recorder. I encourage those who are still bitterly accusing Chief Awolowo, and by extension all Yoruba, of betrayal, to please read that transcript. At the time, Emeka Ojukwu wanted Chief Awolowo to follow his lead by announcing the secession of the Western Region after his own declaration of secession of the Southeast, there were tens of thousands of armed Northern troops all over the West. It does not take a genius to guess what would have happened if Awolowo had gone that route. Moreover, unlike Ojukwu, Chief Awolowo had no control over any troops. He was also not the Governor of the Western Region (Adeyinka Adebayo was then the military Governor). As a result, he had no executive powers. Whatever powers he had were at best residual and persuasive. Chief Awolowo had earlier called a meeting of Yoruba officers of the Nigerian army, and key officers of Yoruba stock refused to attend, with one of them sending a message to him that he was a Nigerian soldier, not a Yoruba soldier. So given all of that, it was rather naive for anybody to have expected him to declare the secession of the Western Region from Nigeria. It would have been like expecting Nnamdi Azikiwe to usurp Ojukwu’s powers as Governor of the Eastern Region, and announce the secession of Eastern Nigeria, and the creation of a new Biafran nation. The Ojukwu we know may have even arrested, and probably executed Zik if he had done that. If the grudge against Chief Awolowo is founded on the £20 pounds payment to persons of Igbo origin, then I can understand it. But even that grudge is also not well founded. Because the £20 policy only affected those whose bank records could not be verified. I hazard a guess that if another person other than Awolowo was on that seat, the payment may have been £0. But to hold a grudge against the Yoruba stemming from that Enugu

Awolowo meeting is in my view an injustice to a man who only went there to seek a way to avoid bloodletting. In any case, have those who hold this view ever considered that the man, Emeka Ojukwu, for whom they hold this torch, after his return to Nigeria on May 18, 1982, joined the National Party of Nigeria, the very same party that was peopled, sponsored and supported by the very same people who prosecuted the Nigerian Civil War against him and Eastern Nigeria? The NPN was a Northern Party that did not win a single state in Western, Midwestern (Bendel) and the Igbo states of Eastern Nigeria. The same people who founded the NPN were the very same people who advised and perhaps tele-guided Gowon. In fact, the first National Leader of the NPN was Makaman Bida, a former member of the inner caucus of Ahmadu Bello’s Northern Peoples Congress. This is the party that Ojukwu joined, contested for election into the Senate (and lost), and campaigned for during the 1983 Presidential election. Taking all of this into consideration, there is no way the myth of Chief Awolowo, and all Yoruba being betrayers, can stand. Myth two: The Yoruba Are Cowards The late Sani Abacha was the most brutal dictator in Nigeria’s history. I do not need to elaborate. His rule was a dark era in our history, and the nationwide spontaneous celebration of his death is enough shame

THE PUBLIC SPHERE with Chido Nwakanma

on his memory and his family and survivors. Having said that, Nigerians may want to recall that a certain Moshood Kashimawo Abiola stood up to the bully that was Abacha, and rightfully declared himself President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on June 11, 1994. That took guts! That was not the act of a coward. It was a display of bravery. Chief Abiola was arrested on June 23, 1994, and taken to Abuja. While there, he met with General Abacha, and told Abacha to his face that he was Abacha’s boss and Abacha should show him respect. That is more than guts. That is what is called Command Presence in the military. Audacity if you will. On August 5, 1994, Chief Abiola was offered freedom, via a bail, with certain conditions, including that he “stay away from politics”. Abiola’s response was terse. It was given by his wife, Kudirat Abiola, who said “Chief Abiola is not interested.” That is bravery to the point of self-sacrifice. Bear in mind that this was a multimillionaire in US dollars, with access to private jets, and all the modern conveniences money could buy, yet he inconvenienced himself by refusing to betray his mandate. And after Abacha died (I never call him General. It is an insult to call the world’s biggest political thief, who is still coughing up billions 23 years after his death, a General of the Nigerian Army), Chief Abiola refused to give up his mandate, and probably died because of his principled stand. It is therefore ridiculous for anybody to call an ethnic nationality that produced such a personality cowards. And this is not a recent phenomenon. Whereas the Fulani jihadist army completely defeated the Hausa, they could not defeat the Yoruba. A Yoruba regiment from present-day Ibadan, and led by Balogun Oderinlo, routed the Fulani army and drove them out of Oshogbo in 1840, and eventually from Yoruba land. In the process, they captured four Fulani Generals. The popular case of Ilorin was not a military defeat, it was a case of over ambition by a rogue Yoruba, Afonja. And it was isolated to the Ilorin area. I just hope history will not repeat itself in Lagos. During the Nigerian Civil War, Murtala Mohammed was an unmitigated military disaster. The Biafrans defeated him soundly at Abagana and almost captured him. If not for the Yoruba-led Third Marine Commando, Nigeria would not have defeated Biafra at the time it did. In the history of Nigeria, only two men have returned to Nigeria to face almost certain death even when they had the option of a very comfortable political asylum abroad. Both of them are Yoruba. In 1985, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida toppled the Buhari regime while Major General Tunde Idiagbon (mixed Yoruba/Fulani) was at Mecca yet Idiagbon returned. In 1995, Olusegun Obasanjo (pure Owu Yoruba) was accused of planning a coup by the blood-thirsty tyrant, Abacha (if you do not like that truthful description of Abacha or if you believe that ‘Abacha did not loot’, you can go and join him where he is) while he was away in Copenhagen.

@ChidoNigeria https://www.facebook.com/chido.nwakanma

Mobilising Ndigbo for voter registration2

NEC has commenced voter registration for the 2023 elections beginning 28 June 2021 until August. It comes against the backdrop of some confusion in the South East concerning its political future given recent events. INEC planned the voters’roll initially for February 2021, and this column noted that it would play a critical role towards 2023. I called on the Igbo Nation to organise for it. I repeat the call I made in November 2020 concerning this matter. No excuse would suffice anymore for failing to mobilise Ndigbo to register. Where are the South-East Governors Forum, the Local Governments and the political parties? Where are the socio-cultural and political groups of the region? Oruo la na omume. No one should plead distraction because of the arrest and trial of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu. The strategic game is to ensure full participation wherever the dice rolls. The Igbo Elite Consensus is to continue with one Nigeria, seek restructuring and pursue the Presidency. Voter numbers are critical. I invite you to factor in this exercise. INEC records show that 42 000 citizens registered in the first two days of opening the portal. More than any other region, the South-East needs to ensure that its citizens register in the required numbers and at the right places. In the 2019 exercise, the South-East posted a minor voter registration of 10.05m or 11.97 per cent. It was lower than even the distressed and war-torn North East that posted 11.2m or 13.4%. The North West posted 20.13m or 24%, and the South West 16.29m or 19%. The breakdown for the South East shows Abia, 1, 932, 892; Anambra, 2, 447, 996; Ebonyi, 1, 459, 933; Enugu, 1, 944, 016 and Imo, 2, 272, 293. The states and the entire region can do much better than what these numbers tell. Numbers are a critical index in politics as in business. The South East prides itself on its understanding of numbers in business. However, it fails to do so in the critical arena of the struggle for acquisition, control and utilisation of state power, otherwise called politics. The region must now understand the numbers

game in politics. The South East seeks, deservedly, an opportunity to run the country with its own as President come 2023. The ground game is critical for this aspiration to count and for others to take it seriously. The ground game starts now with mobilisation for voter registration. Adequate numbers will serve as a bargaining chip in the hardnosed negotiations ahead for both the Presidency and reckoning in other areas in the country. Many factors account for the region’s deficient registration, and most of it is self-inflicted. Groups who have confused young people over the past few years, canvassing against registration for the census and voting caused part of it, while a large population of the region’s people live outside. A breakdown of the numbers would probably show a 60-40 or even 50-50 split between those who live at home and citizens outside the homeland. South-Easterners contributed to the numbers in the South West, North Central and the North West, and the South-South. In 2023, that rationalisation will not count. The region can minimise the numbers outside and create bulk. Then there is the matter of voter apathy by persons from the region. There is much lamentation on the trending village square of the mobile age, WhatsApp, but not much else. Citizens do not register, attend political events, or show interest in their previously engaged citizenship activities within their towns unions. They are yet to transfer participation in village developmental activities to the political arena of parties and elected governments of legislature and executive. The elite and the middle class are worse as they represent all bluster and no muster. The call is on the political class of the South East, the immediate beneficiaries of the political permutations if they turn out aright. The various Igbo socio-cultural and political associations should now step up to the plate. They range from Ohanaeze through Aka Ikenga, Nzuko Umunna, Igbo Bu Igbo, the Society of Igbo Professionals and many others. Mobilise Ndigbo for voter registration. The mobilisation must be total. Mobilise the people emotionally,

intellectually, physically and fiscally. Ndigbo must replicate in July and August 2021 the mass return to the homeland in December and August. They have to move from the major cities outside and return to the motherland to register for voting. These groups can and should organise and sponsor transportation for willing citizens from the major hubs. Consider Lagos and Ibadan as take off for persons in the South West. Abuja would serve persons in the FCT and neighbouring states. The NorthWest should use Kaduna and Sokoto. Then Jos and Maiduguri for the North East. The arrest of the Bete Noire of the elite, Nnamdi Kanu, provides the opportunity for them to show relevance by mobilising citizens to register for voting. The advantages will accrue mainly to the political class. Those advantages will count for whatever be the consensus of the region on a political direction. It is time to stop the play-acting by the elite, the middle class, and the political class. These groups need to put their money in support of their mouth and ambitions. They should pay for the mass return of our citizens to register for voting. No, it will not suffice to call on citizens to come home. Incentivise them. Leadership involves paying the price on behalf of the many and leading the way. Leaders should earn their pips. The cost should not be a deterrent, and it is not much. We are looking at about 120-150 luxury buses over a month. Others could also sponsor PJs! Citizens should prepare to take a one-week break for this exercise. The calculation takes two days of travel and at least two days to ensure that the registration happens. Allow for bureaucratic hiccups or inertia. Then return to your base. The Ohanaeze Strategy Team should link with socio-cultural groups and the secretariats of all the political parties in the region. The parties should be at the forefront. Citizen mobilisation for voting is one of the primary functions of political parties. The time is now to do so.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

ENGAGEMENTS

China’s Communist Party At 100: Heralding The Age Of China

t the age of 27, young Mao Tse Tung travelled the long route from his native Hunan province to attend the inaugural Congress of the Communist Party in Shanghai. The date was July 23rd ,1921. From this week and for the next couple of days, the world will witness a series of events to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of China’s Communist Party. One factor justifies the elaborate ceremonies and pageants of self adulation. Here is a political party that has birthed the world’s only emerging super power in the 21st century. With a membership of less than 95 million in a nation of 1.389 billion people, the party has the distinction of having been in absolute control of China’s state and society for a century. On the scale of the age of parties, hundred years places the Communist Party in the middle age of great parties of the world. Here is the select ranking: America’s Democratic Party(193 yrs), the Republican Party (167 yrs), UK’s Tory Party(186 yrs), the Labour Party(121 yrs), India’s Bharatiya Janata Party(41 yrs) and South Africa’s African National Congress (109 yrs). Therefore, as the fireworks light up the skies over Beijing and other Chinese cities this week in commemoration of the Centennial of the Communist Party, it is only proper that we reflect on the significance of the survival and achievements of the oldest communist party in the world. By a curious ruse and practical intent, the world is strolling into what we may describe as the ‘age of China’. The nation that is the undisputed source of the Corona Virus also happens to be the dominant force in the world’s material culture. Nearly everything that supports our daily life - computers, cell phones, textiles, television sets and processed food items- has significant Chinese input. Worldwide, relations with China dominate political discourse. Trade with China is now the prime preoccupation of the World Trade Organization just as the Chinese threat is the most important long term strategic preoccupation of major military powers from the US to Russia and even the United Kingdom. The influx of Chinese students has become a key feature of campus life in leading universities across the world. In the developing world especially Africa, China’s presence is fast replacing the that of other parts of the world. For the first time in human history, Mandarin is the single most sought after new language in the curriculum of schools and colleges. Nearly all the indices of great power emergence are on display in the rise of China. Not only has the Communist Party endured for a century, it has largely maintained its cohesiveness and identity. It has in tandem been running the affairs of the world’s largest nation and most consequential autocracy. In China’s Leninist one-party polity, the party is the state and the state is the source and repository of all power and authority. It has regulated and controlled the pattern of political representation, the discipline and code of conduct of public officials as well as the pattern of social life of the citizenry. The Communist Party must be credited with China’s current success streak in its totalitarian grip and control of the Chinese state and society. With a predominantly Leninist socialist ideology, the Communist party dictates everything. It decides and controls everything from national defense and security to foreign and domestic affairs, science and technology policy and even the size of families and the limits of free speech and individual freedom. The Communist Party has succeeded as China’s engine of political control and policy warehouse. A nation that addresses itself and the world in Mandarin has come to dominate discourse of world affairs in nearly every language. The just concluded G7 Summit in the United Kingdom as well as the NATO Summit in Brussels were dominated by the threat of China as the looming rival of every significant power bloc. In less than a century, China has emerged from relative obscurity to the pinnacle of global pre-eminence. From a predominantly peasant economy with a huge population of people living in abject poverty in a disease infested environment, China has become the home of the fastest growing middle class in human history and sea of prosperity. It has become the world’s second largest economy with far too many technological and scientific firsts and dominance of nearly every sphere of national attainment. While the age of miracles used to feature more in the zone of biblical fairy tales, today’s real life achievements of China in a relatively short space of time approximates the realm of miracles. It is the triumph of human will and focused governance over the predicaments that daunt other great nations and hold our common humanity hostage. As we speak, China’s economy has grown by an unbelievable average of 18% in the first half of 2021 in the immediate post-Covid period. A fortnight ago, China recorded the vaccination of 1 billion citizens against the Covid-19 virus. It has recorded the miraculous feat of migrating an annual average of 79 million of its citizens from poverty, having freed 790 million from poverty in 10 years. China has a foreign reserve of 3.3 trillion US dollars and the largest standing army (2.2 million active and 500,000 reservists) in the world. China’s huge manufacturing and export power has placed it in the forefront of world trade which it uses to advance its diplomatic interests around the world. All this is in addition to a phenomenal spate of infrastructure transformations. Thousands of kilometers of state of the art highways and railroads have crisscrossed all parts of China just as high speed trains carry millions of passengers around the expanse of this large country. New airports in major cities have sprang up to connect most parts of mainland China with cities in the rest of the country and elsewhere in the world. Rows of multi modern apartment blocks have sprang up to house millions of former rural and slum dwellers in sparkling new cities where slums used to hold people hostage

Xi Jinping

in miserable dwellings. A massive industrialization revolution has meant the mass migration of people from the rural to urban areas to fill industrial jobs in factories owned mostly by global multinationals attracted initially by China’s initial low cost labour. China’s phenomenal growth has translated into a global influence that is now hard to ignore. Over and above Russia which poses mostly a strategy military threat to the West, China presents a total threat that cuts across the military, economic, diplomatic and even cultural spheres. While superintending this phenomenal development frenzy, the Communist Party has itself withstood challenges and internal turbulence without losing its internal coherence and firm hold on the machinery of government and the dynamics of society. It has thus traced the entire trajectory of the history of China, weathering crises and turbulence from the revolution to the era of unbridled communist rule. It has supervised the various post -Mao reforms and guided the nation up to the present era of state controlled free market regime ethos. Through all of these, the Communist party has survived as a stabilizing political force, constantly course correcting along China’s historic path. It has guided the process of nation building, the moulding of a distinctive national identity and the formulation of policies to adapt China to changing circumstances in the world. To have kept over a billion people faithful to its communist ideology in spite of massive economic prosperity and diversification of perspectives and powerful external influences is in itself a measure of the strength and resilience of the Party and the succession of governments it has continued to inspire and guide. It has not all been a smooth easy ride. There have been anxious moments and trying chapters. The Communist Party has itself been buffeted by winds of corruption and dissidence from within. But the party survived and ensured that China also survived. It weathered the storm of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of international socialism with its own communist identity in tact. Even so, the party also had the onerous task of managing China’s survival of the turbulence of the post –Mao era with the purges and trials of the Gang of Four. Faced with the challenge of the triumph of the liberal international order and global capitalism, the Communist Party had the resilience to oversee the transformation of China from a pure form centrally planned communist economy to a free market state controlled economy with all the implicit systemic contradictions. Ordinarily, that world historic transformation would have led to a dilution of the communist ideology of the party and a weakening of the strict one party control of the Communist Party. The Soviet Communist Party did not survive the chaotic experience of multi party democracy in the wake of Gorbachev’s reforms. The result was the demise of the Soviet Union and the independence of its multiple component republics. China was saved this plight by largely homogenous ethnic and national character and the rigidity of its peculiar Leninist order. Intriguingly, China has managed to remain under strict communist rule in spite of its astronomical economic success and the emergence of an affluent middle class. Ordinarily, economic prosperity should lead to pressure for greater freedom and political liberty. Such pressure, though muted, is evident but has not translated into a mass popular democratic movement. This is precisely because the prevailing communist order is able to guarantee a relatively good life to a fairly even spread of citizens. Above all, it remains ready to crush even the faintest stirrings of popular revolt. Ideological rigidity and pervasive control contain China’s major weakness. Observers in the liberal democratic West have consistently criticized China’s draconian limitations of individual freedoms of expression and liberty. The general routine crackdowns on dissidents, opposition politicians and intellectuals as well as the suppression of the rights of ethnic minorities have remained the butt of global criticism of China’s human rights record. For a long time, China’s propaganda machinery has struggled under the burden of Western insistence that China could crumble

under its internal autocracy. Of recent, however, major embarrassing episodes such as the Trump inspired January 6th 2021 invasion of the US Capitol have equipped the Chinese propaganda machinery to retort that it is the West and its liberal order that are actually in foreseeable decline. However, the existence of a free and democratic Hong Kong and a semi autonomous Taiwan pose major challenges to the resilience of the Communist Party. With the peculiar historical origins of these two outposts, the Communist Party has to learn how to balance the Communist ethos of mainland China with two wealthy, powerful and semi autonomous outposts under its sovereign control. Even on this celebratory occasion, China’s hilarious mood cannot be total. It now has an ageing population with the attendant high costs of healthcare and old age benefits. Foreign manufacturers initially attracted by low labour costs are beginning to exit as workers demand higher wages. Unemployment in urban areas is increasing. Prosperity has emboldened more freedom of expression and therefore political dissidence. The Communist Party has its work well cut out in the years ahead. If indeed China was beginning to soften under the pressure of the international liberal order, that trend has recently been reversed with the emergence of Xi Jiping as leader. Under the inscrutable Xi, China is witnessing a major resurgence as a techno-autocratic state. Xi has returned to Maoist orthodoxy anchored on a feeling that China is constantly besieged by internal and external enemies. He has returned to a national fixation with secrecy and a desire to regulate everything. He is embarking on a new spate of endless re-education and rectification and an insistence that the ‘party controls the gun’. Xi has renewed the Communist Party’s belief that you do not get the best of people when you allow them unlimited freedom. Instead, almost every aspect of human life requires oversight and intervention. In his steely fascination with control, Xi is readying China for a global role but as a strong world power. He has signaled this role by removing the term limit on his tenure. His speech a few days ago to mark the CCP centenary celebrations is a clear indication of this new direction. China under the Communist Party has recorded impressive development in the last hundred years. The next hundred years may be defined by the struggle to manage the precarious consequences of prosperity and global pre eminence. China’s emergence as a global power is not coming in a vacuum. The United States remains the world’s pre-eminent super power and will do everything to remain on top. This means that henceforth, China’s every move in strategic spheres will be marked. That is already happening in the military and economic spheres. China’s military presence in the Asia Pacific region has become a challenge to the US’s prior strategic advantages in the Asia Pacific region. Specifically, the increasing expansion of Chinese Influence in the South China Sea, including the building of a military base and forward operational air base island, has become a major strategic concern for Washington in recent years. Similarly, China’s relations with its neighbors especially India has come under greater scrutiny and could inspire an alliance of nations bound by the perception of China as a common enemy. Similarly, trade and tariff policies targeted at curtailing China’s advantages will increase among the United States and its allies including the European Union and Japan. Clearly, then, the next hundred years will see China struggling with the consequences of great power arrival, contest and global importance. In its newfound prosperity and economic eminence, China has found a new voice and unique stature in the world and is forging ahead to press its advantages in many regions of the world. In Africa, for instance, China has become the source of new credits mostly for infrastructure development. This development is coming at a time when aid and support from the West have become severely constrained. Chinese credit and investment in Africa may be coming at concessionary rates but the long term drawbacks have begun to show up in the inability of some African countries to abide by the small prints of some of these agreements. Overall, China is relentlessly pushing ahead to position itself as a friend of Africa. The most illustrious testimony of this public relations stunt is China’s donation of the new headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, an edifice that has however been serving as a listening post for Chinese intelligence on Africa’s diplomatic communications. For us in Nigeria, the relevance of the looming Age of China resides in our increasing national weakness and vulnerability to decisions made elsewhere in the world. Although we may not want to be directly concerned with what happens in China, the decisions that are taken in the chambers of China’s Communist Party in Beijing are likely to fundamentally affect the lives and livelihood of Nigerians who find their government increasingly entangled with seductive loans from China for railroad and airport development and expansion. More directly, the critical questions that ought to worry us as we felicitate with the Chinese on the centennial of the Communist Party are deeply embedded in our own quirky political party system. Irrespective of ideology, can we develop a democracy through the vehicle of our ‘seasonal’ political parties? Can political parties with brief life spans be vehicles for lasting national development? Can parties that define themselves in terms of limited personal ambitions, narrow group interests and transient objectives be relied upon to build a nation in perpetuity or achieve inclusive development? China’s Communist Party is older than the modern Chinese state. Is there any Nigerian political party that is half the age of the Nigerian nation state?

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

WORLD OF SCIENCE

with Kofo Babalola twitter: @KofoBabalola

The Drive to Success

wo main events have struck a chord in me: a tell-all interview that Meghan Markle had with Oprah Winfrey and the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to be on top of the podium in Formula 1. These two events may seem to be complete polar opposites, but one thing that rings harmony between the two is the ability to be victorious amidst chaos. Although many may scream that the tell-all interview was nothing but noise, as many argue that it was full of whines and groans, those who seem to make this comment do not listen to the bigger message. It’s a message that seeks to uplift rather than create divisions as she explains the battles that she had within her mind fuelled by the hostile and cruel environment in which she had become a hostage. She reiterated the message of overcoming all that despite all odds. This message parallels Lewis Hamilton’s words of wisdom that give him the drive to be the best that he is today, using all the negativity from those looking to pull him down as fuel to propel him to the top. This is his drive, and although it seems that Meghan Markle gave up and left, she still weathered the storm whilst she was still there, making a great impact within such a short space of time. It is also key to remember that she was not the one to make the last call to leave. These two stories have many similarities. Although, in Hamilton’s career, you don’t often see his falls, as he is a very private person. He goes through many battles in his mind daily as he navigates through the fast-paced environment of Formula 1. He has mastered something that has not only allowed him to survive all that takes place in this ever-changing environment but to always come out on top. He has trained his brain to work always to succeed despite the jabs and thorns thrown his way. It is clear in every Grand Prix that racing is more of a mental battle than a physical one. It is all to do with the mind, as the minute you are defeated in the mind, it is automatically seen in the results. The mind is a very active place that could break or make one, depending on how one can control the thoughts that run wild within the confined boundaries of the brain. The neurological activities that happen in the brain, which control the thoughts generated by electrical signals transmitted through neurones to different parts of the brain, are ultimately to blame for the flood of emotions felt. The brain is very complex in structure. It is impossible to understand what is fully going on beyond the walls that

Lewis Hamilton harbour the structure as there is continuous research still going on to help better understand the most complex organ of the human body. Even though it may seem that we lack control over this powerful force that dictate our emotions, one should remember that what happens within the periphery of the brain is fuelled by our external environment. This means that what goes on in our brain is a product of what we watch, read and listen to. This means that what we feed our eyes, ears, and other parts of our body will be reflected through emotions. It is rare that one could find themselves in a bad situation but still come out of it unfazed by the event. However, it is possible to train the brain to interpret the negativity to act as a fuel in driving success. It is easier said than done, but when one can see someone doing it time and time again, it may just about seem to be within one’s reach. This can be seen in Hamilton, as he not only manages to be the only one of his kind in the fast-paced sport of Formula 1 but has been able to dominate

it for seven years. His talent for the sport is undeniable, but he has shown that one can transfer negative feelings into achieving something great. He has chosen to not only outperform the best at this sport but has been consistent with his skills in each race. This can only be possible with a sound mind and determination. He has added something else as he fosters all the anger he may have bottled up into the “beast” in his own words that you see on the track. Many praise his driving skills, but there is a whole structure that he has put in place behind each performance. This is a structure full of intensive training of the body and mind, as he practices each turn to memorise each track inside out. Hamilton’s discipline is immaculate and plays a big role in his ability to keep a sound mind. His ability to look into perfecting the way he thinks and reasons has enabled him to control his emotional frustration as he puts it into better use on the track, channelling his anger into positive energy. Despite the complexities of the network of neurones in the brain, he has shown that it is possible to change a negative thought into a positive one. He does this by simply taking charge of his thoughts and by not allowing what takes place outside of the walls of his brain and body to dictate his emotions. The skill of succeeding can be seen through the lens of those at the top of their game or even better still through those at the very bottom trying to make their way to the top. Often, those overlooked and looked down on have the drive to work harder and strive to be the best they possibly can be. It is these same people that push to break boundaries despite adversities that may come their way. The obstacles they face as they embark on this journey make up the lines of a compelling story. It is rare to come across a changemaker who is without a story to tell. Many come to mind, and the list goes on, but one thing that resounds with each changemaker is their constant desire to do more to perfect their craft. They keep moving with the times, adapting their every move to suit the environment they occupy. They are eager to learn and understand more about the different countries and continents that make up planet Earth to broaden the way they think and reason. Knowledge and information rarely bore them. Instead, it ignites a flame in their neurological systems producing more pathways for the electrical signals to run through. There is continuous expansion and strengthening of the networks in their brains simply by learning new things. This is the power of knowledge.

EVENTS Recently at the just concluded 5th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) themed “Restarting Tourism in Nigeria: A New Template” held at the Ibom Icon Hotel in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State L-R: Secretary to the State Government, Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Emmanuel Ekwuwen; Hon. Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Orman Esin and President NATOP Hajiya Bilikisu Abdul during the Association’s AGM.

L-R: CEO, Desicon Engineering Nigeria Limited, Mr. Akanimo Udoﬁa; Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture, Princess Adedoyin Ajayi; President NATOP Hajiya Bilikisu Abdul; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Dr. (Mrs.) Ifoma Adora Anyanwutaku; Former Minister of Tourism, Ghana, Hon. Catherine Afeku, and National Vice President, NATOP, Mrs Ime Udo during the presentation of Award of Excellence to Lagos State

L-R: Coordinator NATOP South South and Managing Director Travel Lab Nuf Ltd, Mrs. Shalom Asuquo; National Vice President NATOP and Managing Director Leadway Tours, Mrs. Ime Udo and Staﬀ member of Ministry of Tourism, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Tony IsongUyo during the NATOP 5th AGM event.

L-R : Former Minister of Tourism, Ghana, Hon. Catherine Afeku; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Dr. (Mrs) Ifoma Adora Anyanwutaku and Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Emmanuel Ekwuwen

Awardees and Dignitaries at NATOP Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Uyo, Akwa Ibom.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

NEWS Senior Advocates Disagree over Constitutionality of Governors’ Defection

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Cross-carpeting breaches constitution, judicial precedents, say Daudu, Falana Ozekhome disagrees, says any governor can cross-carpet to another party Gboyega Akinsanmi

Senior lawyers yesterday disagreed over the constitutionality of the decision of some governors, who defected from the political party that nominated them for elections to another political party, citing different judicial precedents and sections of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) to buttress their positions. While a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Joseph Daudu (SAN) and Nigeria’s foremost human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) argued that the decision of the governors breached the country’s extant laws, another fiery human rights lawyer, Dr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN) claimed that they did not contravene any law for dumping their parties. In separate interviews with THISDAY yesterday, the senior lawyers canvassed these divergent positions, though unanimously described the decisions of the governors that dumped their parties as ethically and morally wrong. Three governors, who were elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last seven months, citing divergent reasons to justify their decisions.

The governors are Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Dave Umahi who defected to the APC on December 7, 2020; Cross Rivers State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, who dumped the PDP on June 1 and Zamfara State Governor, Alhaji Bello Matawalle, who officially joined the ruling APC on June 29. Matawalle’s decision had stoked stern consternation in the rank of the PDP stalwarts. As a result, the highest hierarchy of the main opposition party had concluded a plan to challenge the constitutionality of Matawalle’s decision before a court of competent jurisdiction. In response to THISDAY’s inquiries, Daudu provided a basis for the illegality of the decisions of some governors to defect from the political party that nominated them for election to another political party. Daudu, first, pointed out that it “is a political party that contests for an elective office in Nigeria. Ordinarily, the political parties sponsor candidates so as to contest for an elective office, i.e., presidency and vice presidency, governor and deputy governor, federal and state legislators etc. “This position has been settled by section 221 of the Constitution and in the decision of the Supreme Court in the Rotimi Amaechi and James Faleke cases,” he said.

Consequently, the senior advocate said: “We can safely say that it is a political party that can in the context of the question lay claim to an elective office. “One can add as a rider that in the context of a challenge to a return made by INEC at the close of an election, both the candidate and political party are entitled to challenge or defend the result of the election.”

He, therefore, said: “I do not see any provision of the law that allows cross-carpet or defection by winners of elective offices as designated by the 1999 Constitution or any other statute. “A thorough examination of the 1999 Constitution will show that defection from one political party to another in the course of the tenure of such political office is not within

the contemplation of our legal system for the following reasons. “Firstly, the law expressly stipulates that it is a political party that contests an election in Nigeria and not a candidate. Secondly, the electorate chose the candidate at the election through the logo of the party. “Thirdly, the determination or claim of victory at an election accrues to the party

and not the candidate, thus it is said that Party ‘A’ is in power and Party ‘B’ is in opposition.” On these grounds, the senior advocate argued that if an occupant of elective office “defects from his original party, the consequences can be far-reaching (devastating) and have the effect of giving power to a party or group in a manner not contemplated by the Constitution.

REUNION OF MEDIA LEADERS . . . L-R: A seasoned public relations consultant, Aramide Tola-Noibi and the Publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, Uncle Sam Amuka-Penu at the naming of Ryker Oritseyindede held at Amuka’s Mende, Maryland Estate Residence in Lagos… Thursday.

Shinkaﬁ Seeks Expulsion of Yari, Marafa for Violating APC Constitution A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Sani Shinkafi has called on the leadership of the party to immediately expel a former Zamfara State governor, Abdulazeez Yari and Senator Kabiru Marafa for contravening the party’s constitution. Shinkafi, who joined the APC last week alongside Zamfara State governor, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, accused Yari, Marafa and their supporters of flouting the directives of the party’s national leadership.

Shinkafi, the immediate past national secretary of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), said stringent action must be taken against Yari and Marafa to serve as a deterrent to others. He said: “The actions of Abdul’Aziz Yari and Senator Kabiru Marafa clearly violated Article 21 (a), (iii) and (iv) of the Constitution of All Progressives Congress, 2014 as amended. “Article 21 of the APC Constitution provides for the powers to discipline party

members. The section says that ‘The power shall be exercised on behalf of the party by the respective Executive Committee of the Party at all levels. “Specifically, Article 21 (a) prescribes that ‘Offences against the party shall include the following: i. A breach of any provision of this Constitution. ii. Anti-Party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute. iii.

Disobedience or negligence in carrying out lawful directives of the party.” Shinkafi spoke against the backdrop of the meeting held by Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Yari, Marafa and others in Kaduna after the official defection of governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle and his supporters to the APC last Tuesday. He described the meeting held in Kaduna by Yari, Marafa and their supporters where they denounced

the directives of the national leadership of the party on the dissolution of the party’s executives at all levels in the state as a slap on the face of President Muhammadu Buhari and the entire national leadership of the party. Shinkafi said Yari, Marafa and their supporters should note that nobody is above the law therefore the directive by the chairman of the national caretaker committee, Mai Mala Buni dissolving the

state party’s executives from the ward, local government and state levels and also the appointment of governor Matawalle as the leader of APC in Zamfara remained sacrosanct. “As from 29th June 2021, governor Matawalle has been bestowed with the position of APC leader in Zamfara state, as such, any action taken by any member of the party was a violation of the party’s constitution.

Lai Mohammed: I Raised N150m to Fund 2019 Elections in Kwara Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed yesterday disclosed that he raised the funds with which All Progressives Congress (APC) fought the 2019 general election in his home state of Kwara. Mohammed denied allegations of diversion of APC campaign funds in the state. The minister gave this figure at a meeting with members of APC at its new state secretariat

in GRA, Ilorin yesterday, denying allegations of diversion of APC campaign funds in the state. Kwara State Governor, Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq had alleged that a cabal within the party had received hundreds of millions of naira in donations for the 2019 general election in Kwara State but did not deliver any money to him as the state’s APC leader. The governor had also alleged his non-involvement in the composition of a campaign

structure he was asked to fund. But at the meeting yesterday, the minister denied the allegations, noting that the last APC membership registration and revalidation in the state was a charade. He added that no congress would take place in the state until all members are duly registered. Mohammed said he got that assurance from acting National Chairman of APC Mai Mala Buni. Mohammed said: “I never di-

verted All Progressives Congress (APC) 2019 general elections funds for my personal use as alleged by Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. “By the grace of God, I singlehandedly, with the support of friends, politicians, and family, raised all the monies for the Oke-Ero/Isin/Ekiti/Irepodun Federal Constituency bye-election of November 2019 that brought Hon Tunji Olawuyi to the House of Representatives. “I challenge anybody here

to say he gave the party one penny apart from what I gave them. I challenge anybody here to say he gave logistics support to the party. I did that, by the grace of God, I distributed 500 motorcycles and 20 vehicles. And many of the beneficiaries are here today. “I want them to explain to Nigerians what happened to the N70 million that Hon Abduraheem Tunji Ajuloopin kept that the governor refused to give us during the bye-election.

But for the grace of God and some friends there would be no election in November 2018, because when we raised money we gave them but two days before the election we could not reach them through their phones again. “I had to go to friends to raise another N150 million to prosecute that election. I remember very well that there are 42 wards in that constituency. We thank God today that was the beginning of our success.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ Ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

NEWSXTRA Adeniran: Credible Elections Unlikely Until Nigeria Gets a New Constitution Recommends adoption of e-voting, diaspora participation Supports relocation of AFRICOM to Nigeria Gboyega Akinsanmi Amid controversies trailing the review of the 1999 Constitution and amendment to the 2010 Electoral Act, a former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran has said Nigeria will need a new constitution to guarantee credible elections in 2023. Adeniran, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Germany, has equally justified the request of President Muhammadu Buhari that the United States should consider relocating the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) from Stuttgart, Germany to Africa. He made these remarks during an exclusive interview with THISDAY on Friday, pointing out diverse reasons Nigeria should produce a new constitution before the conduct of the 2023 general election. On December 7, 2018, Buhari rejected the Electoral Amendment Bill that could have transformed the country’s electoral system positively on the ground that it could affect the 2019 elections contrary to his campaign promises. Buhari, in a letter to the National Assembly, had justified his decision to decline assent on the ground that signing the bill into law could create uncertainty and confusion during the forthcoming

elections. Almost three years after the president rejected the Electoral Amendment Bill, the National Assembly has not reviewed and sent it back to him for his assent to avoid the scenario that spurred Buhari to reject the bill in 2018. Despite the failure of the National Assembly to complete the process of passing the Electoral Amendment Bill, Adeniran said Nigeria could still have credible elections in 2023 if the political leaders were committed to it as a national objective. Adeniran said: “It is possible to have credible elections in 2023. But we only need to be serious about it and be committed to it as a national objective and goal.” Beyond the electoral law and amendment issue yet to be resolved, Adeniran suggested that the entire Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would need “a rebirth to make any elections meaningful in 2023.” He also suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Nigeria’s security machinery would need to creatively address the challenges posed by the prevailing atmosphere in the country. He explained that there “is

Jamaica Lauds Nigeria as Envoy Presents Letter of Credence Michael Olugbode

Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamina Johnson-Smith has commended Nigeria for initiating the Technical Aid Corps, (TAC), Scheme where professionals in different fields are sent to some developing nations. Johnson-Smith gave the commendation when the Nigerian High commissioner to Jamaica, Ambassador Dr Maureen Tamuno, presented her Letter of Credence to her and the GovernorGeneral of Jamaica, His Excellency, Patrick Allen. The minister noted that TAC had contributed to the development and growth of other countries. Johnson-Smith applauded the

bilateral relations between Jamaica and Nigeria and described the TAC assistance by Nigerian Government to Jamaica as highly rewarding. She called for a review of the agreements between the two nations in the areas of air transport, trade, culture and tourism. In her response, Tamuno noted that Nigeria remained a great investment destination with her large landmass, human and natural resources among other endowments. She called for cultural exchange programmes between the two countries. Similarly, the envoy visited the Jamaican Senate on the invitation of the President of the Senate, Hon. Thomas Tavares-Finson.

Why NATFORCE Needs Legislative Backing to Operate A retired Deputy Comptroller of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Alhaji Aminu Soro has provided justifications for seeking legislative backing for the National Taskforce on the Prohibition of Illegal Importation/Smuggling of Arms, Ammunition and Light Weapons (NATFORCE). Soro, one of NATFORCE’s promoters, said legislative backing to properly define the responsibilities of the taskforce and set legal guidelines for its operations across the federation. He gave this clarification at a session with journalists in Abuja on Friday, asking the National Assembly to look at

the merits of the taskforce and give it legislative backing. For the taskforce to work seamlessly, according to NSCDC’s retired deputy comptroller, we need the legal rule and regulation as legal teeth to back it. Against that background, Soro noted that the DirectorGeneral of NATFORCE, Dr. Baba Mohammed “is working assiduously to ensure that they get these legal teeth.” He explained the DG’s efforts to garner legislative backing for the task force, noting that a bill towards that effected “has been tabled before the National Assembly, both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

no way present processes and procedures would yield an electoral outcome that could be considered credible. The areas of concern are many but I wish to restrict myself to three. “One is the need to get Nigerians in the diaspora to vote. The second is how to give adequate opportunity for people with disabilities to vote. The third, of course, has been the most contentious and at the centre of contentious electronic

voting. “How this is handled will substantially determine the credibility of future elections. What we need is a new c o n s t i t u t i o n f o r the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “In a political system i n w h i c h p e o p l e a re not self-seeking and self-serving, it should be possible to have a National Assembly that would facilitate a new constitution.

“Those who see the on-going exercise as an effort in futility know so well that the orientation, disposition and aspirations of the majority of those in the National Assembly are such that cannot promote a new constitution for the Nigerian people. “Rather, they would consolidate the legal framework and absurd constitutional loopholes whose benefits they presently enjoy while Nigeria wallows in national disorientation and dysfunction.

The committed reformers and progressives among them are in the minority,” the professor observed with grave concern. Adeniran, the immediate past National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), justified Buhari’s request that AFRICOM should be relocated from Stuttgart in Germany to Africa, saying the president was certainly being strategic in his move to have Nigeria serve as the base of AFRICOM.

IN HONOUR OF USMAN. . . LR: Chief Executive Oﬃcer, Adriano Properties, Dr. Adrian Ogun; UFC World Champion, Kamaru Usman and Chairmann, River Park Estate, Mr. Paul Odili at a reception in honour of Kamaru Usman at River Park Estate, Airport Road, Abuja... recently

Igboho Demands Apology, N500m from FG over House Invasion Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo (aka Sunday Igboho) yesterday demanded an apology from the federal government over the invasion of his residence by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) in the early hours of Thursday. Igboho, also, demanded N500 million compensation

due to damage to his exotic cars that include Mercedes Benz G-Class and 2019 Lexus Car. He made these demands in a statement by his counsel, Chief Yomi Aliyu (SAN), describing invasion of Igboho’s residence as grossly illegal and unconstitutional. Aliyu, in the statement, asked the federal government to investigate the actions of the various

security operatives led by DSS that raided Igboho’s house with a view to sanctioning them and release all the innocent people arrested and compensate the families of those murdered. He added that Igboho should be paid #500million as reparation for damage to his exotic cars that include Mercedes Benz G-Class and 2019 Lexus Car. He also demanded a public apology. He said: “Trampling of our

client’s fundamental rights including tagging him as a criminal by exhibiting DSS guns as his should stop forthwith. “In any case as admirers of this government and one Nigeria, we personally implore all the governors in the Southwest to know the yearnings of their people and Igboho’s large followership to wade in before it becomes hydra-headed security problems in all their domains.”

FG Laments Loss of Citizens to Substandard Products Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

The federal government has disclosed that Nigeria has lost thousands of its citizens to substandard products, saying the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has been empowered to arrest, confiscate and prosecute any person with substandard products. The apex government, therefore, urged the SON, Nigeria’s sole statutory body

vested with the responsibility of standardising and regulating the quality of all products, to work out strategies that will rid Nigeria of counterfeit goods. The Minister of Industry, Trade & Investments, Chief Niyi Adebayo expressed this concern at the inauguration of the new SON office in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital Friday. Adebayo, a former governor of Ekiti State, inaugurated the new SON Office alongside the

state’s governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, among others. Speaking at the inauguration, the former governor noted that the event marked another milestone in the quest “to build a country free from substandard products being imported or manufactured locally here in Ekiti or across the federation. “Before now, you all agree with me that hundreds of

thousands of Nigerian lives have been cut short as a result of substandard and life-threatening products like: Steel and roofing sheets, adulterated lubricants and explosions from continuous usage of old and expired liquefied petroleum gas. “Others include Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, Fires from substandard electric cables and road accidents from expired and re-threaded vehicular tyres.

Media Executive Seeks Special Insurance for Families of Policemen The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Graphic Newspaper, Mr. Dayo Thomas, has urged relevant authorities to put in place a special welfare program for the families of serving policemen in the country. He made this plea during an advocacy visit by the Integrity Forum to his office in Lokoja, Kogi State, at the weekend. Led by the President, Blessing Ogbe, the group lamented the rate at which policemen are

being violently killed and their families hunted and attacked by criminals. According to her, over 50 policemen have been killed in the country in the last one year while the families of many of the officers are being attacked daily. She stated that the ongoing armed conflict, insecurity, lack of state protection, and recurring humanitarian crises had further exposed police officers and their family to serious abuse.

She cited the ordeal of one such victim, Inspector Tuesday Oluwasegun Osagbemi , a native of Ponyan in Kogi state, who was killed in front of his office in Ibadan, Oyo State leaving behind a wife and children. She said: “You would recall that the wife of the immediate elder brother of the deceased who is also a police officer and presently out of the country, Mrs Oluwafunmilayo Esther Ayodele alleged threats to her

life and that of her children which was reported to the police and also published in newspapers. “ According to newspaper reports, Mrs Ayodele had alleged threats to her life and that of her children. Their house was burgled without anything removed and she was assaulted and sustained injuries which almost cost her her life as she is an asthma patient.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JULY 4, 2021

SUNDAYSPORTS

Edited by: Duro Ikhazuagbe email:Duro.Ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

EURO 2020... EURO 2020... EURO 2020...

England Hammer Ukraine 4-0 to Set XS 6·ÀQDO &ODVK ZLWK 'HQPDUN Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report

ngland continued their Àfth successive clean sheet last night as the Three Lions hammered Ukraine 4-0 in Rome to book their Euro 2020 semi Ànal ticket against Denmark at Wembley on Wednesday night. After his sluggish opening start of the Championships, Harry Kane returned to his predatory best with a brace last night. He followed up his goal against Germany by poking home a superb pass from Raheem Sterling after only four minutes yesterday. Manager Gareth Southgate’s side followed up the landmark victory over Germany in the last 16 by producing a performance of composure and the highest quality to continue their impressive progress in this tournament. Ukraine barely threatened and England - having reached the last four at the 2018 World Cup - were on their way to a second successive semi-Ànal when Harry Maguire powered home a header from Luke Shaw’s free-kick seconds after the break.

And the outstanding Shaw was the creator once more four minutes later with a perfect cross that was headed in from six yards by Kane. England were so impressive as they simply overpowered Ukraine with substitute Jordan Henderson getting the fourth - his Àrst international goal, in his 62nd appearance - when he arrived with perfect timing to head in Mason Mount’s corner. To add to England and Southgate’s satisfaction, they kept their Àfth successive clean sheet to maintain their record of not conceding a goal at Euro 2020. They will now meet Denmark in the last four at Wembley on Wednesday (20:00 BST kick-oͿ). England manager Southgate never wavered for a second in his belief that captain Kane would have a signiÀcant impact on Euro 2020, even when he looked oͿ the pace and out of sorts when failing to score in group games against Croatia, Scotland and the Czech Republic. Southgate’s faith was rewarded when Kane got oͿ the mark with England’s crucial second in the 2-0 win over Germany. It was the catalyst for the real Kane to come alive in the tournament - and he punished Ukraine in trademark style. Kane pounced for his Àrst, rose to power in a second for his 47th

England’s Three Lions celebrating their 4-0 crushing of Ukraine to book a semi ﬁnal place against Denmark...yesterday

England goal and almost completed a hat-trick in spectacular fashion with a left-foot volley that was turned on to the post by Ukraine keeper Georgi Bushchan.

He was a constant threat, his link with Sterling increasingly impressive, and has timed his return to peak form perfectly as England now stand only 90 minutes away from

their Àrst major Ànal since they won the World Cup in 1966. Kane is the man defences fear - and even the in-form Danes will regard this display as ominous.

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Denmark reached the Euro 2020 semi-Ànals on the back of an unbreakable bond generated by Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest in the early stages of the tournament, coach Kasper Hjulmand said after defeating Czech Republic 2-1 yesterday evening. MidÀelder Eriksen collapsed during their opening 1-0 defeat by Finland on June 12 and is recovering after an on-pitch life-saving intervention by team mates and medical staͿ before he was rushed to a nearby hospital. “I still think about Christian every single day and that he should have been here,” Hjulmand told a news conference after the Danes booked a semi-Ànal clash with England at Wembley on Wednesday.

“We are happy that he survived and we carried him in our hearts all the way to this match and to Wembley. The fundamental values of football came through in those seconds and those days and we all remembered why we started to play football. “Christian has been a part of the team for a long time as this is not something we’ve built overnight and he is a big part of this result.” MidÀelder Delaney, man of the match after scoring Denmark’s opener against the Czechs with a thumping header, added: “Christian said last night how proud he was of us. He’s been our best player for many years and we carry him in our hearts.

Making him proud is something that makes me feel happy.” Italy will meet Spain in the other semi-Ànal on Tuesday at Wembley, with the Ànal set for the same venue on July 11. The Danes dominated the Àrst half and were two up at the break after Kasper Dolberg added a superb second before Patrik Schick netted for the Czechs early in the second period and set up a tense Ànish in Baku. Hjulmand conceded his team were on the back foot in the second half but lauded the players for soaking up the Czech pressure in the closing stages. “We have an intense style of play based on attacking football which we are very proud of,” he said. “I think we lacked some

of that intensity today and we suͿered at the end but what a great way to suͿer.” Delaney stressed that Denmark were Àred up to match past generations, namely the side that played some spectacular football at the 1986 World Cup and the team that were European champions in 1992. “My generation grew up admiring the history of Denmark’s ’86 and ’92 sides and we are overjoyed that we have been able to give our fans a gift,” he said. “Being in the semi-Ànals means we are in great company now. We have a goal and we don’t care who we play next, we’re going to Wembley and what an amazing journey it’s been.”

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Duro Ikhazuagbe

In his determination to give respect to the domestic topÁight league, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has warned that henceforth there will be no transfer of Nigerian players to mushroom leagues in the backwaters of Europe. President of the NFF, Amaju Pinnick told the Home-based Super Eagles shortly before they played Mexico early hours of Sunday in Los Angeles, USAthat the federation will no longer issue Transfer CertiÀcates to those seeking greener pasture in lowly leagues abroad. “We want to see our players go to

such clubs as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal or even teams like Lyon and other big clubs. We don’t want to be allowing our players to go to Belarus, Cyprus, Malta and other leagues our NPFLis better than,” observed Pinnick in an Instagram post last night. WhileurgingtheHome-basedEagles to seize the opportunity provided by their selection for the friendly against Mexico , Pinnick insisted that the NFF has sealed another friendly for Nigeria in USA in October. “Wehavesealedanotherfriendlyhere inUSAinOctober.Wearestilldiscussing with Ghana, Cameroon and possibly Canada for a friendly. The essence of

this friendly is for our players to have the chance to show the stuͿ they are oͿ in addition to keeping them busy.” Just last month, the Super Falcons were involved in the four-nation Summer Series in the USA. Before Falcons trip to USA, the Super Eagles utilized the FIFA window to Play two friendlies with Cameroon in Austria. The same facility in Austria is to play host to Falcons as they begin preparations for their World Cup qualiÀers. TheAishaBuhariInvitationalTournament scheduled to hold in Nigeria in September is part of the plans by the NFF to keep Falcons busy.

NFF President, Amaju Pinnick (left) and Super Eagles Head Coach Gernot Rohr

Eight-timechampionRogerFederer needed all of his quality and resilience to dash British number two Cameron Norrie’s hopes of causing a big upset in the Wimbledon third round. Federer, 39, has had little court time over the past 16 months but played well enough to win 6-4 6-4 5-7 6-4. One of the form players in 2021, Norrie could not Ànd a sustained high level against the 20-time major champion. The Swiss goes on to face Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego in the last 16. Sonego,seeded23rd,hadneverwon a main-draw match at Wimbledon until this year, but reached the fourth roundbybeatingunseededAustralian James Duckworth in straight sets. Following exits for Andy Murray and Dan Evans on Friday, Norrie’s defeat means there will be no British playersinthesecondweekofthemen’s singles. The home nation’s last remaining hope in the singles is 18-year-old wildcard Emma Raducanu,who continued her dream run by beating Romania’s Sorana Cirstea. While much of Federer’s legacy of greatness has been built at the All England Club, there was a suspicion among many that this year could be the one where time could catch up with him. The Swiss turns 40 next month and hasonlyplayedÀvetournamentsover the past 16 months following two knee surgeries.

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We Keep Missing the Point

’ve been reliably informed that I irritated a number of people in two recent articles, one titled “True Federalism and Other Fallacies” and the other “Restructuring and the 1963 Constitution”. I can understand the frustration of many southerners: they feel trapped in a country with people they would rather not live with. The events surrounding the ascension and descension of President Jonathan left many hurt, bitter and angry. The campaign for restructuring and balkanisation has been heightened since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power: many southerners insist he has not painted himself in glory with his pattern of appointments and pronouncements. In those articles, I did not say people should not campaign for restructuring. That’s above my paygrade. My plea is simple: stick to the facts and stop lying to children. Many Nigerians have been misled with falsehoods and fallacies. In one article, I argued that “true federalism” is a fallacy, that what we have are variants of federalism as no two countries practise the system the same way. Each federal constitution decides how powers are shared — with currency, diplomacy and military usually centrally controlled. I pointed out that fiscal federalism does not mean resource control. To the contrary, it is a theory about fiscally balancing the federation so that poorer parts don’t suffer. In my other article, I compounded things by quoting a section of the famous 1963 Constitution to debunk the fallacy that regions were granted resource control in the first republic. Mines and minerals, including oilfields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas, were all on the Exclusive Legislative List and squarely under the jurisdiction of the federal government. I also noted that the economic mainstays of the regions were cocoa, groundnuts and palm produce — which were agricultural products, not mineral resources. I argued that under the 1999 Constitution, states are still allowed to repeat the agricultural feats of 1963 without having to worry about derivation. Perhaps, more annoyingly, I recalled the position of a professor of law and senior advocate of Nigeria who said the 13 percent derivation on “revenue” under 1999 Constitution is bigger than the 50 percent derivation on “rents and royalties” under the 1963 Constitution. Although I am still carrying out further research to verify the professor’s assertion (it’s been difficult getting data on revenues from royalties and rents in 1963-66 but I will not give up), I did argue that royalty is just a fraction of the revenue that the Nigerian federation earns from oil. I listed other oil revenue items under today’s expansive taxation regime which was not in place in 1963 when petrodollar was little. I did also say that the biggest income for the federation today is from sale of oil and gas, not rents or royalties. Rents are paid to the federation for the land on which oil is being drilled. Royalties, on the other hand, are usually tied to thresholds. For instance, the current offshore royalty for fields producing less than 15,000bpd is 10 percent, while price-based royalties are only paid if oil sells above $35/barrel. The national assembly is trying to reduce offshore royalties to 7.5 percent and raise the price threshold to $50/barrel. This will further reduce income from royalties. Conversely, 13 percent derivation is a direct and flat charge on revenue from oil produced in a particular state. In my series of articles over the years, my aim has always been to make certain points which we keep missing in the campaign for the restructuring of Nigeria. One, we keep blaming the 1999 Constitution for what is clearly the failing of its operators. Chapter II says that “national integration shall be actively encouraged, whilst discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association

Buhari or ties shall be prohibited” and that the state shall “control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity”. Is this bad? The constitution further provides that the sanctity of the human person shall be recognised and human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced; that governmental actions shall be humane; and that exploitation of human or natural resources in any form whatsoever for reasons, other than the good of the community, shall be prevented. Pray, how on earth can anybody deride the ENTIRE document, falsely claiming that it was not written by “We the People”? Was it written by “We the Goats”? What else can the all-knowing “We the People” write that will re-invent the wheel? If there are loopholes, why not fix them? Is that not why a constitution is a living document? Two, there are so many opportunities provided by the 1999 Constitution which we have conveniently ignored because we are obsessed with desecrating and discrediting it. I pointed out a few things last week. As we all know, agriculture is on the concurrent list, which means the federal government and states are free to make policies on it for the benefit of the citizens. In the pre-Independence era and the first republic, cocoa, palm produce and groundnuts — along with tax revenue — were what Dr Michael Okpara, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief SL Akintola and Chief Obafemi Awolowo utilised to develop their regions. It is an open fact, I suppose. Under the 1999 Constitution, there is no single provision stopping states from promoting agriculture and industry with smart policies. As Fela would say, “Ground no dey shake; na your leg weak.” States can use rice, pineapple, cassava, tomato, sorghum, cocoa, oil palm, cotton, groundnuts, ginger and sesame to drive economic growth and development but some would rather resort to work avoidance by pursuing the narrow argument that the 1999 Constitution was not written by “We, the Only Wise” and it is antipeople and anti-federalism and only fit for the shredder. It is so easy for politicians to blind the people with ethnic and sectional emotions just to paper over incompetence. I have gone to great lengths in recent years to explain how states can get value from agriculture, which has nothing to do with derivation or Abuja. In my previous article, I briefly touched on what states can do to diversify their revenue base. South-west states, under the DAWN Commission, got a telecoms licence for O’Net in 2002. Does anyone still remember? Telecoms is on the exclusive

list, by the way. This shows us what is possible under the 1999 Constitution. In fact, under the constitution, Osun or Benue or any other state can incorporate an oil company and start competing for oil blocks with Shell and Aramco anywhere in the world. All we know to do, unfortunately, is moan and whine. Three, even the items that are on the exclusive list, what exactly is the problem? Railway is on the list but Lagos is building a rail line. Heaven has not fallen. Rivers was undertaking a light rail project years ago. Kano state is planning one. Aviation is on the exclusive list but only God knows how many states have or are building airports today. Power is on the exclusive list but many states are into power projects. The one built by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as governor of Lagos state between 1999 and 2007 is the one sustaining many factories in Lagos today. All these achieved under the 1999 Constitution! So, what exactly is our problem? Why do we keep heating up Nigeria for nothing? Four, we have this thinking that more allocation means more development. By all means, the oilproducing areas deserve to enjoy the benefits of being the region where Nigeria’s biggest source of public revenue and forex is mined. If I had my way, I would even ask them to keep 100 percent of the oil revenue. It is their luck that they have oil in the bellies of their lands. But we keep making the mistake that more derivation revenue will translate to more development. This is partly driving the agitation for restructuring and the so-called fiscal federalism. From experience, more revenue has not translated to more competence or more development. But we just keep missing the point. Finally, let me ruffle feathers again. Awo is being used as the poster boy of the “restructuring” campaign. He is always quoted to have said: “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression.” Sorry, but this a clever manipulation of Awo’s thoughts on page 48 of his book, ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’. Under the chapter, ‘Towards Federal Union’, this is the full context: “If rapid political progress is to be made in Nigeria, it is high time we were realistic in tackling its constitutional problems. Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English’, ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French’.” And this was in 1947! In truth, what Awo was advocating was nation-building. He was not asking for Oduduwa Republic. By 1968, he had this to say about the Nigerian project: “It is incontestable that the British not only made Nigeria, but also [handed] it to us whole on their surrender of power. But the Nigeria which they handed over to us had in it the forces of its own disintegration. It is up to contemporary Nigerian leaders to neutralise these forces, preserve the Nigerian inheritance, and make all our people free, forward-looking and prosperous.” He had, obviously, moved beyond the federalism debate he wrote about in 1947, but people make it look like he campaigned for federalism all his life. Actually, Awo twice contested to be president — in 1979 and 1983 — under the “military” 1979 Constitution, which is the same document we updated and renamed 1999 Constitution. Were Awo to be president of Nigeria today using the same 1999 Constitution, you can bet he would do well. But we have been tuned to think it is constitutions that develop a society. Constitutions can NEVER take the place of visionary, competent and patriotic leadership. That is why virtually all systems deliver economic progress: liberal democracy, dictatorship, presidentialism, parliamentarism, federalism, unitary system, name it. But I accept that it is too hard for some people to understand.

And Four Other Things… YORUNA NATION After the destruction brought upon Lagos state in the wake of the End SARS protests in October 2020, it is now glaring that the police have developed a morbid fear for public protests in the nation’s commercial capital. Otherwise, I see no reason for the show of force in the state yesterday to prevent Chief Sunday Igboho’s rally for Yoruba “nay-son” from holding. There is something we still need to get clearly: Nigerians have a fundamental right to demonstrate and agitate, as long as it is peaceful and no laws are broken. The police should not become so hysterical that public demonstration will become criminalised. The emphasis should be on law and order. Civil. KANU CONUNDRUM When news broke that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), had been re-arrested and brought back to the country to continue his trial for treason, I was not particularly excited. Things are so delicate, politically, in Nigeria today that we do not need anything that would complicate the fragility. But I agree that the Nigerian state has to assert its sovereignty and not show weakness. Legitimate questions are being asked about how and where he was re-arrested, and if any international laws were indeed broken. Whatever the case may be, we should now be demanding due process, respect for his dignity and fair judicial process. Justice. HOPE RISING? Months ago, it was as if Nigeria was about to melt into hell. Some men of God had already lost faith and started preaching “Plan B” to the children of God. So many of my friends, some of them diehard optimists, called me and said it was looking gloomy and they were planning to leave the country. The insecurity has apparently reduced a bit, even if not signiﬁcant enough to rekindle wholesale optimism. At least, we have some breathing space. The death of Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram leader, and the reduction in attacks on police stations and prisons in the south-east are big wins, but we would feel much more relieved if the bandits and criminal herders are reined in. Progress. POUNDED PDP Governor Bello Mutawalle of Zamfara has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). From controlling 31 states as of June 2007, the PDP has been reduced to having just 13 states today — with more of its governors expected to jump fence in the weeks and months ahead. How are the mighty fallen! This was a party that once prided itself as the biggest in Africa, with an arrogant promise to rule Nigeria for 60 years. APC is the beneﬁciary and I can smell their own arrogance all over the place. For those of us on the sidelines, this is normal service. APC is PDP and PDP is APC. Politicians will never stop jumping back and forth. Opportunists.

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