WEDNESDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 2020

Emefiele Urges Banks to Raise Agric Lending to 10% FG promises strong economic recovery amidst COVID-19 James Emejo, Folalumi Alaran in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, yesterday

tasked the banking sector to consider an increase in the percentage of loans to the agriculture sector from the current four per cent to 10 per cent by 2024.

This is coming as the

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, yesterday expressed confidence that the Nigerian economy "will bounce back strongly within the near term with the right

policy responses to the multidimensional crises" caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of the 13th Annual Banking and

Finance Conference, themed: “Facilitating a Sustainable Future: the Role of Banking and Finance,” which was organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja, Emefiele

also disclosed that the sum of N69 billion had so far been disbursed to over N140,000 beneficiaries from the N100 billion CBN COVID-19 support Continued on page 10

Soyinka Backs Obasanjo, Says Nigeria Divided under Buhari...Page 5 Wednesday 16 September, 2020 Vol 25. No 9290. Price: N250

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Dousing Tension, Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu, Others Commit to Peaceful Election Tinubu urges electorate to reject Edo gov We will win, Atiku, PDP reply Chuks Okocha in Abuja, Peter Uzoho in Lagos and Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City Ahead of the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, all the political parties and their candidates, particularly the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Godwin Obaseki, and the All Progressives

Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, yesterday signed a peace accord to ensure peaceful conduct before, during and after the election.

The peace deal signed in Benin City, Edo State capital, which seeks to douse the rising pre-election tension was brokered by the Nigeria Peace Committee (NPC), led by a former Head of State, Gen. Continued on page 9

Buhari: I Borrow to Fix Infrastructure, Attract Investments Advisory council lists measures to lift 100m from poverty Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja For the first time yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari defended borrowing by his administration, saying he borrows to fix roads, rail and attract investments.

Speaking at a virtual meeting with members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), Buhari said his government was borrowing money in the interest of the country

to address the infrastructure deficit.

After the meeting, the council listed steps the government needs to take in its vision to lift 100 million Nigerians from poverty.

The council Chairman, Professor Doyin Salami, while speaking on behalf of his colleagues, said they would come up with a policy paper to assist the government in Continued on page 10

THE CONVERSATION...ON ARISE NEWS, MORNING SHOW Edo State Governor and Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mr. Godwin Obaseki (left), and his All Progressives Congress counterpart, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, feature on ARISE NEWS Channel’s The Morning Show…today

FG, Labour Talks on Petrol Price Rise End in Stalemate...Page 5

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

FG, Labour Talks on Petrol Price Rise End in Stalemate

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The talks between the federal government and the organised labour on the removal of petrol subsidy and the increase in electricity tariffs ended in a stalemate yesterday without the parties fixing any date to continue the negotiations.

While welcoming the labour leaders to the meeting held at the Bouquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said that there was an urgent need for all stakeholders in the country to join hands to fashion out how the country can survive the economic challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the meeting is "a bilateral dialogue between us as Nigerians to consider the state of the economy and events that have necessitated recent increases in electricity tariff and the price of petrol."

Ngige said the federal government would be ready to take advice and positions canvassed by the organised labour but would not be able to reverse the new increases in the petrol price and electricity tariffs.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, said the meeting

was not meant to buy time or to deceive the labour unions but a passionate attempt to seek their input in finding ways to salvage the country.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, urged the labour to show more understanding with the government over the policies.

While making a presentation during the meeting, Sylva said Nigeria lost an average of N1 billion daily between 2016 and 2019 as a result of fuel subsidy and N3.74 billion daily before 2016.

He also said that Nigeria lost N10.4 trillion to fuel subsidy between 2016 and 2019 According to him, every successive administration in the country had realised that subsidy is not good for the economy but that having the political will to implement deregulation policy was the problem.

The minister suggested that committees should be set up to look into the issues raised by the labour. “There are a lot of issues to discuss; from 10 o'clock we haven't been able to trash out all the things; I think it will be right to set committees to further deliberate and resolve them," he said.

But the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),

FG, LASG Stop Barge Operations along Marina Coastline

Segun James

The Lagos Marina is set to regain its beauty and serenity, with the planned stoppage of barge operations along the coastline, according to a statement issued yesterday by the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso.

The federal government, in conjunction with Lagos State Government (LASG), yesterday ordered the stoppage of all such operations, which have desecrated the once beautiful and peaceful Marina coastline.

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is to revoke barge approvals granted some companies operating in Lagos.

The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, and the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who defied the early morning downpour to inspect activities around the Marina coastline, made the stop-work order during an unscheduled visit to the Marina.

They went around the coastline, seeing the long row of trucks and containers that have constituted health and security hazards on the Marina.

Amaechi and Sanwo-Olu kept on shaking their heads on seeing the devastation of the coastline that used to be the pride of the state, attracting crowds of visitors.

Amaechi and Sanwo-Olu found the “unwholesome� activities on the coastline “shocking� and “unacceptable.�

The minister spoke of an urgent need to sanitise the entire Marina coastline and restore its

tranquility and beauty.

He ordered that trucks must immediately stop coming to Marina to load.

Amaechi said the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) did not grant anyone the permission to carry out barging operations, insisting that all such activities must stop immediately. “The Federal Ministry of Transport has agreed with Lagos State Government to ensure that whoever is making use of Marina coastline should stop. We have agreed with Commissioner of Police to stop those using the roads and we have agreed with NPA to cancel all barge permits pending when each person will come back to NPA, NIWA and Lagos State Government to renew such approval,� he said.

Sanwo-Olu directed the Lagos State Commissioner of Police to arrest and prosecute anyone who flouts the order to stop unauthorised activities on the Marina.

He said the state government would do everything to bring sanity to the coastline. “We are also talking to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing because we understand that some of the approvals were from the Federal Ministry of Works. So, we are also taking up that responsibility and we would do what we need to do,� the governor said.

Also at the inspection were the Managing Director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, and representatives of NIWA, Ministries of Works and Waterfront as well as the Police.

Mr. Ayuba Wabba, argued that the recent hike in cost of fuel and electricity tariffs further aggravated the economic hardship facing Nigerians.

He said Nigerian workers who have lost their jobs and means of livelihoods due to COVID-19 -imposed challenges are being forced to make further sacrifices through an unbearable increase in prices of fuel and electricity tariff.

Wabba said the action of the government was widely criticised because the government did not consult enough before going ahead with implementation.

Wabba insisted that the federal government should put the implementation of the new fuel price and electricity tariffs on hold to enable it to put some things in order.

Wabba said the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should ensure that power sector firms, especially the distribution companies (Discos) improve on their efficiency.

"Those issues that constitute the price are part of the inefficiency in the system which government hitherto has been paying and christened subsidy. The government cannot transfer the inefficiency to the people. Nigeria should refine its products," he said, adding: "At this point, what do you have on the table to cushion the effects on workers - their families because they have been pushed to the wall and already at the edge.

Do you have anything for us?

So that we can now say that despite these challenges, this is

what I have for Nigerian workers that they can be able to have something that can cushion this effect for them.�

According to him, "Already the value of minimum wage had been eroded. The purchasing power parity, when you compare with all West African countries, we are already on the ground. “That is the reality. In Ghana, compare their minimum wage with our own; in all West Africa countries, including Niger Republic that has just started refining recently, they are now serving us with products. That is not how we ought to be."

The President of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Quadri Olaleye, kicked against what he described as an attempt by the government’s negotiating team to shift the discussion from the

labour’s concerns over fuel price and electricity tariffs hike to the sliding economy.

He said workers are presently losing about 15 per cent of their wages as a result of the various price hikes.

Olaleye said that the union still maintained its position contained in the seven-day ultimatum it gave the federal government on Monday to reverse the policies on fuel price and electricity tariffs.

Olaleye wondered why the federal government has found it auspicious now to seek dialogue with organised labour now that the economy is in bad shape when it never did so since it came into office in 2015.

The meeting ended with no agreement reached, while no date was fixed to continue the talks.

FINAL RALLY...

L-R: National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus; Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki; his wife, Betsy; Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal; and Edo State Deputy Governor, Hon. Philip Shaibu, during the PDP’s ďŹ nal campaign rally for Saturday’s governorship election in Benin...yesterday

Soyinka Backs Obasanjo, Says Nigeria Divided under Buhari Ejiofor Alike Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has thrown his weight behind President Olusegun Obasanjo’s criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as heading Nigeria towards state failure, insisting that the country is more divided as never before.

Soyinka in a statement issued yesterday from his Autonomous Residence of Ijegba, Idi-Aba Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State, said though he is not a fan of Obasanjo, he embraced any accurate reading of the country as a contraption teetering on the edge of total collapse.

Soyinka’s statement was titled, “Between ‘Dividers-in-chief’ and Dividers-in-law.�

Obasanjo had said the country was slowly becoming a failed state and more divided under the Buhari administration.

But the presidency countered the former president’s claim, describing the ex-president as a ‘Divider-in-chief.�

However, Soyinka threw his weight behind the former Nigerian leader, saying, “I am notoriously no fan of Olusegun Obasanjo, General, twice former president and co-architect with other past leaders of the crumbling edifice that is still generously called Nigeria. I have no reasons to change my stance on his record. Nonetheless, I embrace the responsibility of calling attention to any accurate reading of this nation from whatever source, as a contraption teetering on the very edge of total collapse. “We are close to extinction as a viable comity of peoples, supposedly bound together under an equitable set of protocols of cohabitation, capable of producing its own means of existence, and devoid of a culture of sectarian privilege and will to dominate,�

Soyinka explained.

Soyinka recalled that on Africa Day, May 2019, organised by the United Bank for Africa, he similarly directed the attention of the present administration to

warnings by the ‘Otta farmer’ over the self-destruct turn that the country had taken, urging the wisdom of heeding the message, even while remaining chary of the messenger. “That advice appears to have fallen on deaf ears. In place of reasoned response and openness to some serious dialogue, what this nation has been obliged to endure has been insolent distractions from garrulous and coarsened functionaries, apologists and sectarian opportunists. “The nation is divided as never before, and this ripping division has taken place under the policies and conduct of none other than President Buhari; does that claim belong in the realms of speculation? Does anyone deny that it was this president who went to sleep while communities were consistently ravaged by cattle marauders, were raped and displaced in their thousands and turned into beggars all over the landscape? Was it a different president who, on being finally persuaded to visit a scene of

carnage, had nothing more authoritative to offer than to advise the traumatised victims to learn to live peacefully with their violators? And what happened to the Police Chief who had defied orders from his Commander-in-Chief to relocate fully to the trouble spot – he came, saw, and bolted, leaving the ‘natives’ to their own devices.

Any disciplinary action taken against ‘countryman’? Was it a spokesman for some ghost president who chortled in those early, yet controllable stages of now systematised mayhem, gleefully dismissed the mass burial of victims in Benue State as a “staged show� for international entertainment? “Did the other half of the presidential megaphone system not follow up – or was it, precede? – with the wisdom that they, the brutalised citizenry, should learn to bow under the yoke and negotiate, since “only the living� can enjoy the dividends of legal rights?�

Soyinka queried.

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Analysts Seek Subsidy on Food Production, FX Liquidity Inflation rises to 13.22% James Emejo in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos Analysts yesterday advised the federal government to subsidise food production in the short term and ameliorate the pressure on the foreign exchange (FX) as inflation sustained its upward trajectory to 13.22 per cent in August from 12.82 per cent in the preceding month.

The analysts noted that the current inflationary pressures were mainly cost-push due to scarcity of FX, increases in food, petrol and electricity prices as well as the general effects of the lockdown of the economy to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They said the way forward to curb inflation was for the government to tackle insecurity so that farmers could return to their farms, adding that a deliberate policy was also required to promote large-scale mechanised agriculture.

The Consumer Price Index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 13.22 per cent (year-on-year) in August compared to 12.82 per cent in the preceding month, according to the report released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

This is 0.40 per cent points increase was attributed to increases in all the parameters that determine the headline index.

According to the CPI figures for August on a month-on-month basis, inflation increased by 1.34 per cent in the review period, representing 0.09 per cent rise compared to 1.25 per cent in July Food inflation rose by 16 per cent in August compared to 15.48 per cent in July, representing a month-on-month increase of 1.67 per cent from 1.52 per cent recorded in the preceding month.

The NBS stated that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, fruits, oils and fats and vegetables.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 10.52 per cent in August compared with 10.10 per cent recorded in July.

The core sub-index increased by 1.05 per cent in August compared with 0.75 per cent recorded in the month under review with the highest price increases in passenger transport by air, hospital services, medical services, pharmaceutical products, maintenance

and repair of personal transport equipment, vehicle spare parts, motor cars, passenger transport by road, miscellaneous services relating to the dwindling, repair of furniture and paramedical services.

However, commenting on the inflation outcome, Prof. Uche Uwaleke of the Nasarawa State University said a recent increase in the pump price of fuel presented further downside risks to inflation.

He added that the uptick in the headline index was expected and will likely continue till the harvest season sets in.

He said: "This is particularly so given the fact that the inflationary pressure is coming more from the food component which increased by as much as 16 per cent.

It is not difficult to see where the pressure is coming from.

"The economy is still reeling from the negative impact of COVID-19 on the food supply chain. This situation is compounded by the border closure, increase in VAT, electricity tariffs, stamp duties and upward exchange rates adjustment by the CBN in order to ease the pressure on the forex market."

According to the former Imo State Commissioner for Finance, "There is also the insecurity challenge affecting the food belts of the country which partly explains the high rate of food inflation, at over 20 per cent, in a state like Kogi.

"The way forward to rein-in inflation is for the government to tackle insecurity so that farmers can return to the farms and put in place a deliberate policy to promote large scale mechanised agriculture.

This will involve scaling up interventions in agriculture including through recapitalising development finance institutions such as the Bank of Agriculture."

On his part, former Director-General, Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu also warned of the ripple effect of the sustained rise in inflation as this had already adversely affected prices of goods and services, creating cost-push inflation.

He told THISDAY:"I am not surprised that the inflation rate has risen up to 13.22 per cent before the end of Q3. This development is arising from the high exchange rate of the Naira to other currencies. The ripple effect of this has adversely affected the prices of goods

and services and creating cost-push inflation.

He said the way forward was for the CBN to use all necessary monetary policy tools within its powers to ameliorate the pressure on foreign exchange and force down the rate.

Head of Research Investment Management, Sigma Pensions, Mr. Wale Okunriboye said food prices could be higher in the months ahead and push inflation to as much as 14 per cent in September.

According to him, "Agricultural output over the harvest period in Q4 2020 is likely to be below trend levels," adding that, "higher

electricity tariffs, increased fuel prices, continued naira weakness and inadequate food harvest in September" could further accelerate inflation towards 14 per cent levels.

Managing Director/ Chief Executive, Credent Investment Managers Limited, Mr. Ibrahim Shelleng, told THISDAY that the continued inflationary pressure could increase the cost of living, given that salaries/wages had not also adjusted to the headline increase.

He said this could further lead to a reduction in disposable and investible income because inflation

erodes spending power.

"The inability to import food will certainly have adverse effects in the short term until local production is able to meet up with demand. The government will need to subsidize in the short term with food especially."

Moreover, the Head of Research at United Capital, Mr. Wale Olusi said food inflation was likely to worsen in September amid recent directive for the CBN to stop sales of FX to food importers coupled with the existing border closure.

He said: "The coreinflation sub-index will track northwards following

the hike in electricity and the move towards full deregulation of the downstream oil sector. It must be noted that despite the recent resumption of FX intervention sales by the CBN at the spot and futures market, liquidity remains a challenge in the currency market amid worsening trade deficit, a huge backlog of FX demand by FPIs and capital rationing. Bearing the above in mind, month on month inflation rate for September-2020 is unlikely to drop below 1.3 per cent.

Thus, our headline inflation rate projection is estimated to come in at 13.51 per year on year."

NO MORE BERGES...

L-R: Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; and Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, during a visit to Marina coastline in Lagos‌yesterday

UK Threatens Sanctions against Violence Sponsors in Edo, Ondo Polls Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The United Kingdom yesterday said it would deploy observers in Edo and Ondo States to monitor the governorship elections, and threatened sanction, including a travel ban to the United Kingdom, against sponsors of violence in the two elections.

The UK said the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, had met with the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The decisions of the

UK Government were contained in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by the High Commission to Nigeria.

The statement said: “As a friend and partner of Nigeria, we are closely following the lead up to the off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states scheduled for September 19 and October 10, respectively. “These elections are important, both as an essential element of effective governance within both states and an indicator of the strength of Nigeria’s democratic institutions. “Our High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing,

has held meetings with leaders of the two main political parties, the APC and PDP. “The discussions focused on the need for the parties’ leaders to prevail on supporters to avoid violence before and after the elections and we welcome the Edo candidates’ signatures of the National Peace Committee and INEC convened a peace accord yesterday. “We will be deploying observation missions to both the Edo and Ondo elections and supporting civil society led observation. “The UK takes a strong stand against electionrelated violence and, just

as we did in the general election in 2019, will continue to take action against individuals we identify as being responsible for violence during the elections. “This could include restrictions on their eligibility to travel to the UK, restrictions on access to UK based assets or prosecution under international law. “The UK will continue to provide support and engagement as we move towards these elections. We urge INEC, the Police and all other agencies involved to work together to deliver free, fair and credible elections.�

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PAGE NINE DOUSING TENSION, OBASEKI, IZE-IYAMU, OTHERS COMMIT TO PEACEFUL ELECTION Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd); and supported by the Kukah Centre for Faith, Leadership and Public Policy, headed by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah.

The peace deal occurred on the day Obaseki and the PDP berated the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, for his campaign against the Edo State governor.

The former Lagos State governor had in a viral video called on the people of Edo State to reject Obaseki in the state’s governorship election holding this weekend.

Promising to abide by the peace agreement, Obaseki said he is fully committed to a peaceful election.

The Edo governor, however, appealed to the NPC to also reach out to other political actors in the election who have an influence on the polity so as to get full assurance that the process is sacrosanct.

He said: “I want to say on behalf of myself, as a candidate of the party and my party, the PDP, that we are fully committed to ensuring that we have a peaceful election. I have no choice because, in addition to being a candidate, I am also the governor and the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the state. “I want to commit publicly, once again, that I will live by the letter and spirit of the accord that has just been signed.�

Ize-Iyamu, also promised an unwavering commitment to the peace accord.

"Let me reaffirm our commitment to what has been signed and to assure Nigerians and particularly our people in Edo State, that we will talk to all our supporters and we will conduct ourselves peacefully.

We will do our best to ensure that the election is peaceful.

We support free, fair and credible election. We believe that is the only way that we can sustain our democracy,� he said, adding: "We want to assure all our dignitaries that, by the grace of God, the election is going to be very peaceful. We thank you and we are grateful."

Abdulsalami said the essence of the accord was to ensure a peaceful atmosphere before, during and after the election.

He noted that it is not just for the candidates to sign the peace accord but to also accept the outcome of the election by telling their supporters to eschew violence.

He said: "We want a situation where voters will come out on Election Day without fear of harassment and intimidation. We urge all the stakeholders and key people to be committed to the Peace Accord and ensure that peace reigns during and after the election.

"As you are all aware since 1999, democratic elections in Nigeria have been conducted with varying degrees of violence." He said the tension and anxiety around elections necessitated the setting up of the National Peace Committee whose mandate is to support peaceful election processes and cultivate a culture of peace.

The former Head of State stressed that in 2014,

the committee commenced efforts to support free, fair and credible elections and to ensure a peaceful transition, adding that the intervention of the committee contributed immensely to the success of the 2015 election.

He further stated that since that time, NPC has successfully intervened in elections to ensure a peaceful outcome right after the just past 2019 general election.

"The gubernatorial election in Edo State is just a few days away and having peace during and after the election is a priority which must be done,� he said, adding: “We as a people should aspire to see a Nigeria where people feel safe to come out of their homes to cast their votes without any fear.�

Abdulsalami explained that election could not hold in the absence of a peaceful atmosphere and said disharmony among political parties was responsible for the tensions usually witnessed during elections. “Therefore, all contesting parties need to adopt a code of conduct that will remove confrontation among them,� he said.

Earlier, the InspectorGeneral of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, represented by Deputy Inspector General Adeleye Oyebade, assured the peacemakers that the police would ensure that there is peace and tranquillity and promised that citizens who want to vote will do so freely.

Also in his remarks, Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, thanked conveners of the meeting especially for what they had done, particularly for coming to Benin to assist in preaching peace and tranquility before, during and after the election.

The Oba, who was represented by the Esogban of Benin, Chief David Edebiri, also said he has been doing his best to see that the prediction of violence and bloodshed does not come to pass, pointing out that elections in Edo State have never produced such acrimony since the history of participatory election.

He said the candidates of the two major political parties are descendants of people who have ruled Edo in peace.

Present at the epochmaking event were the INEC National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, among others.

The parties that signed the peace accord are APM, APP, APGA, LP, NRM, NNPP, YPP, APC, PDP and SDP

Reject Obaseki, Tinubu Urges Edo Electorate Meanwhile, Tinubu has called on the people of Edo State to reject Obaseki in the state’s governorship election holding this weekend.

Tinubu made the call yesterday in a televised broadcast programme, whose short video clip was circulated online.

He said he was making the appeal as a committed democrat and the leader of all democrats in the country regardless of political parties.

The former Lagos State governor said he had suffered along with

many others to bring the democratic regime being enjoyed by everyone in the country today, stressing that Obaseki did not participate in any aspect of the struggle to enshrine democracy in the country, and so could not understand the value and the pains that were associated with the democratic struggle.

The former governor of Lagos State said Obaseki prevented 14 of the 24 elected state lawmakers from being inaugurated.

He said the governor refused to take the advice of the National Assembly and the Attorney-General of the Federation to let the 14 members of the House of Assembly to be inaugurated.

Tinubu said rather than let them be inaugurated, Obaseki supervised the destruction of the House of Assembly complex all in a bid to prevent them from being sworn-in.

He, therefore, called on the people of Edo State to punish the governor. “He demonstrated the act of dictatorship, lack of respect for rule of law, lack of respect for you the people who voted for those legislators prevented from being sworn-in. Today, he now comes back as a democrat wanting you to vote for him. Please, I appeal to you, reject him,� he said.

We Will Win, Atiku, PDP Reply But in a swift response, Obaseki, in a press statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, told Tinubu that he could not extend his political empire to Edo State.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the PDP also replied Tinubu saying he was labouring in vain as the party would win the election.

"I urge all duly registered voters of conscience and who truly care about the wellbeing of Edo to turn out en masse to cast and defend their vote for Governor Obaseki," Atiku said on his verified Twitter handle yesterday.

In the statement titled: ‘You can’t extend your political empire to our state – Edo govt tells Tinubu,’ Obaseki said Edo people were determined to end godfatherism in the state.

Obaseki said: “It has become obvious that the spirited fight which Edo people have put up against godfatherism has sent tremors beyond the shores of Edo to the likes of Tinubu, who has for years sustained a stranglehold on Lagos and other states in South-Western Nigeria, hence this desperate, last-ditch effort to rescue the unproductive political instrument, now popularly referred to as godfatherism, with which he has feathered his nest and built his political empire at the expense of the people. “Tinubu knows clearly that come September 19, when godfatherism would have been dismantled in Edo State, the people of Lagos may just have found the recipe and the formula for removing the chokehold placed on their collective destinies for decades by Tinubu, hence the inciting

television broadcast.�

Obaseki described the allegation that he prevented the inauguration of lawmakers in the state as false.

Also, reacting to the issue, the PDP, which rounded off its governorship campaign yesterday, said that it was amused by what it described as the amateur video released by Tinubu, in which “he arrogated to himself supremacy powers, lord over the people of Edo State and dictate their choice of leadership.�

The party said Tinubu was labouring in vain because its candidate would win the election soundly.

The PDP said that it is indeed pathetic and derisory that “Tinubu is claiming to be the leader of all democrats in Nigeria, which obviously he is not, while at the same time violating the fundamental of democracy, which is allowing people to freely choose their leaders without confrontations with lies, coercion, mudslinging, slanders and beguiling as exhibited in his amateur video.�

The National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a statement in Abuja: “It smacks of unpardonable hypocrisy that an individual who claims to be a democrat will at the same time choose to sit in the comfort of his residence to insult the people of Edo State over their manifest choice of Governor Godwin Obaseki as their preferred leader, for another term of four years, due to his sterling democratic qualities and performance in office.

"We know that Asiwaju is desperate to re-launch himself into relevance but can someone who wants the nation to believe that he is a democrat be campaigning alongside self-confessed liar, who has been rejected by his kinsmen and suspended as national chairman of his party, all in the quest to install a stooge in office?"

The spokesman of the PDP reminded the former Lagos State governor that Edo State is not part of his fiefdom “and that the needless sanctimonious pomposity, which he displayed in the broadcast, will never sway the people.�

Play by Rules Atiku, Saraki, Tambuwal Task Politicians Meanwhile, as the world yesterday marked the International World Democracy Day, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki; and the Governor of Sokoto State, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, said democracy would grow in Nigeria when politicians play by the rules.

The Sokoto State governor has also insisted that any electoral victory obtained through means other than the legitimate votes of the people is nothing short of a coup d’Êtat.

Atiku said the democracy that Nigerians are enjoying today was procured at a great price.

He said: "We can only deepen and sustain it (democracy) by respecting

the sanctity of the ballot and necessary review of our electoral processes.

"As the great people of Edo State go to the polls to elect their governor this weekend, they need to be provided with a secured environment to cast their votes and be assured that their votes will count.

"I urge all duly registered voters of conscience and who truly care about the wellbeing of Edo to turn out en masse to cast and defend their vote for Governor Obaseki."

Saraki also spoke in Abuja yesterday at a ceremony to mark World Democracy Day organised by the Centre for the Advancement of Civil Liberties.

According to him, "It is also important to stress that democracy can only grow if those of us who are politicians get ready to play by the rules at all times.

"Politicians must stop the mentality of electoral victory at all cost. The stability of the nation’s democracy and peace of the nation are definitely higher goals than the personal aspiration of individual politicians.

"Politicians must learn to always act in a manner that gives confidence to the people that truly, elections still provide the best process for sourcing leaders and kicking out those that are not wanted by the people."

He called on political actors to sometimes suppress the desire for power and take sides with the survival of the system.

"When I argue that politicians should learn to accept election results and demonstrate patriotism even in the face of naked provocation, it is based on my experience. The lives of our people, the stability of our democracy and the peace of the society are more important than our personal interest or the inflated egos of the leaders," he said.

The former senate president charged members of the National Assembly to make haste to commence the process of amending the electoral act, explaining that the Edo and Ondo States governorship elections should have been the starting point for the reforms.

Saraki said: "This should be a starting point for our demand for a credible electoral process. Whilst we wait for the new Electoral Bill to be passed, we can begin to demand that the right things are done by all stakeholders in these elections.

"Led by President Muhammadu Buhari, we can ensure that these two elections signpost his desire to leave for Nigeria and Africa a legacy of true democracy and clean electoral process. President Buhari must use the Edo and Ondo elections to demonstrate ECOWAS commitment to a credible electoral process.

"The President must put his feet down and ensure that the security agencies will, and must, not be misused to influence the results of the elections in Edo and Ondo States. Also, the electoral commission should be made to be truly immune from manipulations by individuals, no matter

how highly placed."

In a statement titled: “Tambuwal: Rigging is coup d’Êtat,â€? which he signed and issued to commemorate the 2020 edition of United Nations International Day of Democracy, the Sokoto State governor argued that the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States are test cases of the country’s preparedness for a rulebased and consent-enabled governance.

Tambuwal who is also the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum said: “It has become imperative to rethink the role of not just the electoral umpire but also the activities of various security agencies in our electoral process in such a manner as to instill in them the culture of inflexible support for democracy and its practice. “Any electoral victory obtained other than through the legitimate votes of the people is nothing short of a coup d’Êtat.â€?

While quoting the preamble of the UN resolution to buttress his point, the governor said â€œâ€ŚWhile democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy and that democracy does not belong to any country or region‌ democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life.â€?

The governor appealed to the National Assembly to immediately conclude the long-overdue amendments to the Electoral Act to entrench provisions that make it impossible for rigging and manipulation of elections taking into cognisance the nation’s recent experiences.

While making a case for electronic voting, Tambuwal said provisions should be made for a test run before the 2023 general election.

In a veiled reference to the failures of the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari, he said: “It bears repeating to say that good governance anchored on a sound economy and corruptfree progressive social, cultural, and infrastructural development is a sine qua non for sustainable democracy.�

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10

WEDNESDAY, ͚͞˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWS

Deal on Azura-Edo Power Plant Remains Intact, Says Actis Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Actis, the majority shareholder in the Azura-Edo power plant located in Edo State, has said that its deal with the power generation company remains intact despite challenges over foreign exchange scarcity in the country.

A source close to the operations of the company, told THISDAY that reports that current dollar shortage in Nigeria may threaten the smooth operations of the power plant, was not totally correct as the loans

taken by the company will not be due until November this year.

Azura-Edo provides a tenth of the country’s power needs and the $900 million independent power plant was reported to have been unable to source dollars through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has restricted access to the greenback in an effort to support the local naira currency.

However, the source noted that the fears were unjustified as the international company continues to work with

Azura-Edo to sort out all the bottlenecks to its smooth operation.

Azura which produces roughly 460MW of power is backed by the London-based private equity firm Actis, as well as by the CDC, the UK government’s development investment arm and has been applauded as a model for how international investment could be deployed to fix the mass power shortages in Nigeria.

Nigeria has the capacity to deliver 4,000MW of the roughly 13,000MW of power it produces, a far cry from

the quantum of electricity needed by the approximately 200 million citizens of the country.

However, a representative of the company told THISDAY that the power plant will keep producing, noting that all the parties involved in the deal are working together to ensure that there’s no default by November.

He added that for now, it’s merely a “technical default� which does not in anyway affect the smooth running of the plant. “What’s going on is that

there’s been a technical default as opposed to default on the loan. The technical part being that there’s an issue with foreign exchange in that region. The debt isn’t due until November, so there’s plenty of time to proffer solutions as it were. “And the lenders are fully involved. So, the power plant will keep producing power in that respect. Everything is going on well and we will keep producing power as is.

But for now, everything is going on well with all parties involved� the source who declined to be named said.

Actis says it's a leading investor in growth markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America which delivers consistent, competitive returns responsibly, through insights gained from trusted relationships, local knowledge and deep sector expertise.

It was founded in 2004, and boasts that it has since then raised about $19 billion since inception and employed 300 people, including a team of 120 investment professionals, working across 17 offices globally.

necessities including ensuring sufficient liquidity, in part to support government programmes for saving lives and livelihoods, maintain the stability of the financial system, ensuring the continued delivery of financial services to the public and shore up confidence and cushion economic activity.

Ahmed said the banking system remained a critical component of the financial sector, which is not immune to the potential impact of the current economic situation as banks have had to restructure potentially bad loans in every sector of the economy.

She, however, urged the banking industry to strengthen their risk management framework and enhance good governance in order to boost their resilience to future challenges.

"Accordingly, the core of resilient banks is made up of good governance, effective risk management and compliance culture.

This is not to say that Nigerian banks do not have sound governance and risk management systems in place.

"There is always scope for improvement and these are the areas that need greater attention going forward.

The banking sector has a responsible role to play not only as a facilitator of growth of the economy but also to improve its profitability," the

minister said.

She further pointed out that bankers and fund managers can partner with the government in its efforts to diversify the economy and reposition the country for a sustainable future.

Ahmed, therefore, charged the banks to redouble their efforts, mobilise domestic resources and attract foreign investment to create quality job opportunities for the teeming youths as well as lift people out of poverty.

While expressing hope that the current partial lifting of the lockdown measures had provided positive indications that some businesses were getting back to pre-pandemic levels, the president, however, expressed worry that the uncertainty over the duration and intensity of the pandemic as well as its impact on the economy continued to be a cause for concern.

She added that in the wake of COVID-19, the government in concert with regulatory authorities had stepped forward with various liquidity, monetary, prudential and supervisory measures in the form of interest rate cuts, higher structural and durable liquidity, and a moratorium on debt servicing and forbearances on asset provisioning.

Ahmed said: "This framework is a wellthought-out decision taken in consultation with

stakeholders and is aimed at striking a balance between protecting the interest of depositors and maintaining financial stability on one hand, and preserving the economic value of viable businesses by providing durable relief to businesses, as well as individuals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, on the other.

"We expect the efficient and diligent implementation of the restructuring measures by banks, keeping the above objectives in mind. While the moratorium on loans was a temporary solution in the context of the lockdown; the restructuring framework is expected to give durable relief to borrowers facing COVID-19 related distress.

It is expected that postCOVID-19, the financial sector should return to normal functioning without relying on the regulatory relaxations and other measures as the new norm."

Also addressing the gathering via video conferencing, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, urged the banking sector to support economic recovery and growth as well as the social well-being of Nigerians.

He said the sector must make use of the lessons from the pandemic to invest in digitisation, technology and innovation to remain dynamic and globally competitive.

the chairman and members of the council "for their patriotism and service to the nation, pledging to continue to draw from their wisdom, knowledge and experiences as the nation deals with challenging economic times.

It also said Salami had in his earlier presentation highlighted the council's recommendations on poverty reduction and stimulation of non-debt investment inflows, as promised at the last meeting.

It said the council recommended steps for effective implementation of the government’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, as well as measures to address inequality in Nigeria.

The statement added: "The

council promised to set out a full policy paper that would, in the first instance, stop more Nigerians from falling into poverty and, thereafter, further plans on reducing the poverty headcount in the country.

"The PEAC also outlined a number of measures aimed at aggressively increasing the country’s non-debt investment inflow, including measures to improve investor perception of the country and the proposed establishment of a $5 billion – $10 billion investment and growth fund to invest in.

"The PEAC used the opportunity of the meeting to express support and solidarity with the administration on its recent policies.�

EMEFIELE URGES BANKS TO RAISE AGRIC LENDING TO 10% loans for households and MSMEs. He said till date, about N255 billion had been disbursed to manufacturers from the N1 trillion intervention fund to the manufacturing sector to help stimulate economic activities to douse the impact of the pandemic in output.

He added that the sum of N45 billion had also been disbursed to pharmaceutical companies out of the N100 billion intervention fund for the health sector.

The CBN governor said banks should explore opportunities in the agricultural sector by addressing some of the existing gaps in the value chains, particularly storage centres, transport logistics, and technology platforms that can enable rural farmers to sell their produce directly to the markets.

He said: “If measures had not been taken earlier to improve cultivation and processing of staple crops in Nigeria prior to the onset of the pandemic, we would have had to deal with a major food crisis in the country. The banking sector, therefore, has a significant role to play as a facilitator of growth through its intermediation function. “Over the next four years, the banking sector should consider ways under which it could increase its loans to the agriculture sector from four per cent to 10 per cent

by 2024."

Emefiele said the agric sector also offers significant opportunity for the nation to earn foreign exchange through the exports of processed agricultural products, stressing that with declining forex earnings from crude oil, banks should consider supporting agroprocessing companies that are export-oriented.

According to him, "These measures would help to improve the productivity of farmers, increase our foreign exchange earnings, reduce post-harvest losses, increase access to finance for farmers while supporting the growth of other sectors of our economy such as manufacturing, and transportation."

The CBN governor further observed that while COVID-19 had brought on several challenges to the economy as well as the banking sector, it offers a unique opportunity for the country to build a more resilient economy that is better able to contain external shocks, while supporting growth and wealth creation in key sectors of our economy.

He said proactive steps on the part of stakeholders in the banking and financial system in supporting the growth of agriculture, ICT and infrastructure will strengthen the country's ability to deal with the

challenges brought on by the pandemic and stimulate the growth of the economy.

Emefiele said while the news of the continued growth in the banking and finance sector in the second quarter of the year was encouraging, the ultimate strength of the financial system would depend on three pillars.

He said these include ensuring that banks have adequate capital buffers to withstand similar pandemics; developing adequate internal controls that will be able to identify potential risks and putting in place measures to contain that risk as well as being able to adapt your business model to changes taking place in the business environment.

Ahmed, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the occasion, expressed confidence that the Nigerian economy will bounce back strongly within the near term with the right policy responses to the multidimensional crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said the federal government had steadfastly formulated and implemented appropriate policies in order to tackle the challenges head-on.

The minister said so far, the federal government had implemented a wide range of fiscal, prudential and monetary measures that squarely address four key

BUHARI: I BORROW TO FIX INFRASTRUCTURE, ATTRACT INVESTMENTS achieving the goals.

A statement by a presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said the president told the meeting that the country must fix roads and save lives from perishing in road accidents. “We have so many challenges with infrastructure.

We just have to take loans to do roads, rail and power, so that investors will find us attractive and come here to put their money,’’ he was quoted as saying.

According to the statement, Buhari noted that the country's failure to provide infrastructure for effective transportation had robbed the country of its well-deserved status as well as the West African hub for air cargo transportation and trans-

shipment of goods.

It also said Buhari spoke on economic challenges caused by the collapse of the oil market and how the country was left with no option than to abide by the reduced oil production quota as allocated by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

He said the developments had put Nigeria in a difficult situation because the reduced oil production quota had also reduced earnings. “We have to accept that decision; otherwise they (Middle-East producers) can flood the market and make the product unviable.

So, we have cooperated with what we get. With oil, we are in a difficult situation.

The politics of oil is that the

less you produce, the less you earn,� he said.

Buhari also spoke on the output of investment in agriculture, pointing out that it has reduced the level of joblessness and poverty. “For us to bounce back to productivity, especially in agriculture, the unemployed with many of them uneducated had to be persuaded to go into agriculture. ‘‘If we hadn’t gone back to the lands, we would have been in trouble by now.

That is why we virtually stopped the importation of food thereby saving jobs and foreign exchange," he said.

Shehu said the president narrated how the outbreak of COVID-19 led to the government's policies which

hiked electricity tariff and removed fuel subsidy.

He said the president noted that the federal government took such decisions to underscore its preparedness to place the country above politics.

He said COVID-19 had placed Nigeria at par with developed countries, but agriculture had come to the rescue. “COVID has reduced us to the same level as developed countries. ‘‘We are lucky we went back to the land. We eat what we produce. We are doing our best to secure the country and provide infrastructure for investment to be viable in the country,� he said.

The statement added that the president commended

11

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

Kidnappers Kill DSS Officer in Katsina after Collecting N5m Ransom Repentant bandits surrender 700 firearms

Francis Sardauna in Katsina A 33-year-old operative of the Department of State Services (DSS), Sadiq Abdullahi Bindawa, has been killed by his suspected abductors after receiving the sum of N5 million as ransom.

The deceased, who until his

death, worked with the intelligence department of the service in Abuja, was kidnapped on Saturday at his residence behind the Federal Secretariat in Katsina metropolis.

Bindawa alongside his fouryear-old son, according to credible family sources, were in Katsina to spend the weekend with their

relatives when the gory incident occurred.

The assailants in a commandostyle operation, stormed the residence of the victim at about 10.30p.m and whisked him away to an unknown destination.

A family member, who craved anonymity, told THISDAY yesterday that the hoodlums demanded a ransom barely 48 hours after his abduction.

The source said the kidnappers earlier demanded N13 million as

ransom, but after negotiations, they agreed to collect N5 million for his freedom.

He said: “He was about entering his residence behind the Federal Secretariat on Saturday night at about 10.30p.m after returning

from our family house when the kidnappers forcefully removed him from his car after beating his security guard to comma.

We reported the incident to Batagarawa police station but nothing was done.

Gunmen Kill Ex-US Soldier, Abduct One Person in Ekiti Victor OgunjeinAdoEkiti One person was yesterday killed in Ijan Ekiti in Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State, just as a retired United States of America army officer, Major Jide Ijadare, and one other person were kidnapped in the town.

Ijadare, a native of Ijan Ekiti, was kidnapped at his palm oil production factory located on Ijan-Ise Ekiti road.

Confirming the incident, a resident of the community revealed that the criminal numbering seven had invaded the factory, where they shot a staff in the course of trying to kidnap the retired army officer and other victim.

He said: “They came into the factory with guns and started shooting sporadically. They shot and killed one of the staff of the factory.

“They thereafter dragged Major Ijadare and the other staff into the car and zoomed off.”

The source stated that the abductors escaped through Ise Ekiti road.

Meanwhile, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Sunday Abutu, confirmed that one person was killed during the abduction.

“We can confirm to you that a retired US soldier was kidnapped around 2:00p.m. today (Tuesday) along with one other person.

“One person was also killed during the attack on a factory in Ijan Ekiti, where the two persons were also kidnapped.

“The state police commissioner has drafted policemen to the place, and we are combing the bushes where they escaped into.

“The police are now working with local hunters to ensure that these kidnappers are arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

Nigeria’s COVID-19 Cases Rise By 90 to 56,478 Martins Ifijeh Nigeria has recorded 90 new cases of COVID-19, bringing to 56,478 the number of confirmed cases in the country.

It also recorded five COVID-19 related deaths within the last 24 hours, raising the tally from 1,083 to 1,088 in a single day.

Announcing this yesterday,

the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lagos recorded 33 new cases; Plateau, 27; Kaduna, 17; Ogun, six; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), four; while Anambra, Ekiti and Nasarawa recorded one case each.

It said: “Nigeria has so far recorded 56,478 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 44,430 patients have been discharged, while 1,088 persons have died.”

Military Clashes with Gana’s Militia, Kill Two, Arrest Five Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja Troops of Operation Whirl Stroke deployed in the North Central part of the country yesterday clashed with members of a militia group in Benue State, killing two while five others were arrested.

The group is linked to a militia leader, Terwase Akwaza, who was killed by soldiers last week on his way to Markurdi after embracing the amnesty programme of the Benue State Government.

The state government had expressed shock at the manner of his killing after he surrendered with some of his fighters, but the military authorities said he was killed in a shootout with the troops.

His death sparked fears of reprisal from members of his group in Benue and Taraba States axis where they allegedly operated.

A military update issued by the Directorate of Defence Media Operations (DDMO) said following actionable intelligence on

the possible hideout of remnants of late Gana’s militia elements around Adu general area in Chanchanji council ward of Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State, troops of Sector 2 deployed in Gbise in Katsina Ala Local Government Area of Benue State in conjunction with troops of Sector 4 conducted a joint dawn raid operation on the identified hideout at Adu. “In the course of the operation, troops had contact with the armed militias who fired at troops as they closed in on their position.

“The gallant troops swiftly responded with superior fire forcing the bandits to flee the camp in disarray into the surrounding forest. In the course of the encounter, two armed militia were neutralised,” it said.

The update, which was signed by the Coordinator of DDMO, Major General John Enenche, said two locally made pistols were recovered from the militia.

WE COMMIT TO PEACEFUL ELECTION...

L-R: Head of Kukah Centre for Faith, Leadership and Public Policy, and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah; governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu; Chairman of Nigeria Peace Committee (NPC) and former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd); and the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, during the signing of the peace accord by political parties and their candidates in the September 19 governorship election, in Benin City, Edo State...yesterday

Kidnappers Free Four FRSC Officers, Keep Six Others The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has confirmed that four of its personnel who were abducted by bandits on Monday had been rescued with the help of other security agencies.

FRSC’s Public Education Officer, ACM Bisi Kazeem, disclosed this yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Twenty-six personnel of FRSC were reportedly attacked while

traveling from Sokoto and Kebbi states Command of the corps for a training programme at FRSC Academy, Udi on Monday.

Two were killed, 10 were unaccounted for, eight escaped unhurt, while six were injured.

Kazeem, however, said that seven of the attacked personnel were currently receiving treatment in Abuja, adding that six were still abducted.

According to him, out of the 26

attacked on Monday, four have been rescued with the help of security agencies while six were still abducted.

“Two died on Monday.

Presently, seven officers are receiving treatment in Abuja,” he said.

Kazeem said the deceased will be buried according to their religion, adding that necessary arrangements had been made concerning their funerals.

The FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, expressed sympathy over the death of the two personnel of the corps that were killed.

He expressed shock over the loss, describing the incident as an unfortunate occurrence.

He urged the staff not to be deterred by the loss, but be propelled to put in extra effort in selfless service to the nation as a mark of honour to the deceased.

Osinbajo Departs for Ghana, to Meet Nigerian Community Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo will today hold a meeting with the representatives of the Nigerian community in the Ghana as part of the efforts to resolve the issues arising from the $1million levy imposed by the Ghanian authorities on traders from Nigeria.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement, issued yesterday morning, said Osinbajo would be representing President Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), at

an Extraordinary Summit of the Economic Community of West African States on the situation in Mali.

In the statement titled “Osinbajo departs Abuja for Accra to attend ECOWAS extraordinary summit on Mali,” Akande said Osinbajo would also be meeting the Nigerians “to discuss issues bothering on their wellbeing in the West African country.”

The statement read, “Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN),leaves Abuja this morning

for Accra, Ghana to attend an Extraordinary Summit of the Economic Community of West African States on the situation in Mali.

“Prof.

Osinbajo who is representing President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, at the summit will join other leaders in the sub-region to discuss the political crisis in Mali and the security situation in the sub-region at large.

“The Accra meeting will form part of several efforts by leaders

in the sub region to resolve Mali’s political crisis.

“While in Accra, the Vice President will also meet with representatives of the Nigerian community in Ghana to discuss issues bothering on their wellbeing in the West African country.

“Accompanying the Vice President is the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb Zubairu Dada.

“Prof Osinbajo is expected back in Abuja today at the end of his engagements in Ghana.”

Ogun Workers Declare Strike over Minimum Wage, Other Grievances Workers in Ogun State have commenced a one-week warning strike over the failure of the government to implement the new minimum wage.

The state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Emmanuel Bankole, declared the strike yesterday after a three-hour closed-door meeting between the leadership of organised labour and the state government officials, which ended deadlock.

The workers had given the state government a 14-day ultimatum to commence the payment of new minimum wage failure of which they vowed to embark on the strike.

The ultimatum expired last Wednesday.

The workers had earlier yesterday stormed the governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta to protest against the failure of the government to begin payment of the new minimum wage and pension reform bill among others.

The leadership of the organised labour which comprises NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council later went into a closed-door meeting with the government.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Bankole said the meeting between the labour and government had ended in

a deadlock, stressing that the unions have decided to embark on a one-week strike.

According to Bankole, some of the demands included the abolition of the pension reform bill, the payment of gratuities, payment of an outstanding six years leave allowances, three years promotion and 134 months unpaid pension.

Bankole said, “Unfortunately the negotiation ended in a deadlock.

And so the one-week warning strike will commence 12 midnight tomorrow (Wednesday).

“With the facts before us, Ogun state is not the poorest in South-West. So, we are saying no, all their excuses are unacceptable

to us.

“The position of the government is unacceptable to us. What they said was that minimum wage will have to be delayed so that they can do certain things and we said no, enough is enough.”

Reacting, the Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Public Affairs, Remmy Hazzan, expressed shock over the warning strike.

Hazzan insisted that the financial status of the state is too weak to implement the minimum wage.

He pledged that the state government would continue to engage the workers in order to resolve the issue.

12

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 •T H I S D AY

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14

T H I S D AY Ëž Ë&#x153; ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; 2020

COMMENT

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

BUHARI, TRUMP AND NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS Sonnie Ekwowusi argues that the killing of anyone is unjustifiable

S

peaking at the First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat in Abuja last Tuesday, President Buhari reminisced how he met President Trump at the White House in April 2018, and, how Trump looked at him in the face and asked: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why are you killing Christians in Nigeria?â&#x20AC;? President Buhari said that he tried to defend himself before Trump by telling him that the killing of Christians had no ethnicity or religious colouration. In his words, â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Ś I wonder if you were the person how you will react.

I hope what I was feeling inside did not betray my emotion.

So, I told him that the problem between the cattle rearers and stagnant farmers I know is older than me, not to talk of him (Trump)â&#x20AC;Ś With climate change and population growth and the culture of cattle rearers, if you have 50 cows and they eat grass, any route to your water point, they will follow it, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter whose farm it wasâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;?

The concern of the Trump administration over the killing of Christians in Nigeria is indeed a genuine concern. The concern is not predicated on hearsay or speculations: It is based on factual tragic killings of Christians in Northern Nigerian especially in Southern Kaduna. In any case, America has insiders in Nigeria reporting day by day the manner and pattern of the killings in Northern Nigerian. So Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s question, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why are you killing Christians in Nigeria?â&#x20AC;? was not unfounded.

As far as the U.S is concerned, Nigeria is the killing field of defenseless Christians. Over 11,500 Christians have reportedly been murdered in Nigeria since June 2015. So far, about four to five million Christians are said to have been displaced. Last week, barely 24 hours after the Southern Kaduna Peace Summit in Kafanchan, some killers attacked the Zango Kataf Local government Area, killing two persons and setting many houses ablaze. So, when Trump looked Buhari in the face and queried, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why are you killing Christians in Nigeria?â&#x20AC;? he (Trump) was not just acting a drama; he queried Buhari from the available facts on the consistent killing of Christians and anti-Christians attacks in Northern Nigeria.

It must be noted that President Buhari didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deny before Trump that Christians are being killed in Nigeria. He only tries to rationalize the killing. He tries to explain to Trump the circumstances, peculiar problems and the need of the cattle rearers warranting the killing of the Christians. He argues that cows are cows and they must eat grass and must find their route to drink water no matter whose farm it is. With the greatest respect, this pseudo-rationalization is fundamentally flawed. To begin with, in our Presidential democracy, President Buhari is constitutionally empowered to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians, be they Christians, Muslims, free thinkers, pagans or not. President Buhari was elected to protect all Nigerians: he was not elected to pass the buck or to tell Trump that the killing of Christians is older than Trump himself. More importantly, in both his pre and post-election speeches, Buhari has been reassuring Nigerians that he would defeat Boko Haram insurgents.

The pertinent question: Are they signs that Boko Haram will

NO RATIONALISATION CAN PACIFY THE CONSCIENCE THAT IT IS OKAY TO KILL HUMAN BEINGS IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE LIFE OF COWS

be defeated by this government? No. Instead of seeing such signs, we are experiencing, inter alia, the massacre of Northern Christians. Of course, the persistent calls on the president by the House of Representatives and others to replace the current military Service Chiefs with new ones have not yielded any fruit. Consequently the massacre has continued unabated.

President Buhari says the massacre has no religious or ethnic colouration. Of course, it has. One example will suffice. A Seminarian of the Good Shepherded, Seminary, Kaduna who survived the sporadic shooting unleashed on the Seminary

by Boko Haram insurgents on January 8, 2020 recounted how he met Rev. Timothy Lawan Andimi, the then Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), for the Michika area, shortly before he (Rev Lawan) was beaded. On Wednesday January 8, 2020 at 10.27 p.m., he says, he goes to the room of his friend and classmate called Michael Nnadi. Suddenly there were gun shots all over the Seminary followed by the following command in Hausa language: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ja su waje, Alsaabiunâ&#x20AC;Ś Kafirai, Ja su wa je! Alsaabiunâ&#x20AC;ŚKafirai !! (Drag them outâ&#x20AC;Ś infidels!, Drag them outâ&#x20AC;Śinfidels!!). Thereafter two heavilyarmed men in military uniform entered the room where he and Michael were lying flat on the floor in trepidation. After collecting their laptops and other personal belongings, the two men wasted no time in whisking them away to a waiting vehicle where Michael was later killed.

One of the tragedies that had befallen Nigeria in recent years is the loss of sense of value for human life. In most countries when a citizen is illegally murdered the whole country will be thrown into mourning. The president delivers a national broadcast regretting the murder as well as directing the state security operatives to ensure that the culprits are arrested and prosecuted. But unfortunately in Nigeria, hundreds of innocent citizens can be illegally murdered in one day without any remorse or regret from our public office holders. President Buhari told Trump that cows must â&#x20AC;&#x153;eat grass, any route to your water point, they will follow it, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter whose farm it wasâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? Please, no blood of cow is worth the blood of any single human being. President Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aforesaid assertion before Trump is reminiscent of a similar assertion by Miyetti Allah in the aftermath of the 2018 Plateau crisis which claimed the lives of about 200 Nigerians.

Immediately after the killings, the Miyetti Allah quickly issued a statement accepting responsibility for the killings. Instead of regretting that many precious human lives had been wasted on the Plateau, the Miyetti Allah regretted that they had lost about 300 cows. According to the then Chairman of the North Central zone of Miyetti Allah Danladi Ciroma, the killing of about 200 Nigerians on the Plateau was in retaliation for the loss of their cows. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We lost 300 cows, no one should expect peace in Plateauâ&#x20AC;?, he said. Till date, Miyetti Allah has not been proscribed as a terrorist organization. And no Miyetti Allah murderer has been arrested let alone prosecuted in a law court.

YOBE: 29 YEARS ON

Yobe State has made much progress, reckons Abdullahi Bego

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t is argued that democracy is the best system of government ever invented by man. As a government of, for, and by the people, democracy offers a chance for us all to freely elect our leaders, to demand that those leaders do right by our votes, to hold our leaders to account, and to make our voices heard.

Democracy provides an opportunity for us to belong in different political parties and associations, and hold different, even opposing political viewpoints. In this sense, democracy is a contest of ideas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a contest for how to make society a much better place and the different means to get there. And although it does not require uniformity, as noted by a former US president, democracy does require some basic sense of solidarity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the idea that for all our outward differences, for all the contests for political space, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all in this together; that we rise or fall as one people, as one nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

This is the point to which I want to turn my attention â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how democracy has worked for us here in Yobe since the state was created 29 years ago, and how we might work, as citizens, to make our democracy work even better, and make it more enduring, more resilient, and more reflective of our collective aspirations as a people. I note the word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; because, as former US President Barack Obama once noted, the most important title in a democracy is the title of citizen. It is the first and necessary ladder on which to ascend to any and all summits in the democratic system.

In a farewell speech at the end of his presidency, Obama told the American people â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and this does apply to us here as well I believe: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracyâ&#x20AC;Ś Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: Citizen. Ultimately, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetimeâ&#x20AC;?.

Here in Yobe State, as in other parts of the country, we practice representative, as opposed

to participatory, democracy. I know all of you are fairly well informed about the subject, so I do not have to delve into the theoretical framework for what constitutes representative democracy and what equates participatory democracy. But each time we reach for the ballot and elect a local government chairman, say, or a member of the state assembly, or a governor, conferring on them the mandate to make decisions on our behalf according to the constitution as we regularly do every four years since 1999, then it is representative democracy in action.

But donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get me wrong: Representative and participatory democracy are not mutually exclusive. In so far as it refers to the participation of people in the political, democratic process and in civic engagement, participatory democracy can exist side by side with representative democracy. Through public hearings as occasionally called for by the legislature, and through rallies, and protests, and through the media, for example, citizens always have the opportunity to crowdsource their opinions for elected officials and contribute directly to the decisions that affect their lives. That is participatory democracy!

Looking back, it is now 21 years since the return of democratic rule in the country â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 years of continuous opportunity to regularly renew our trust in our leaders. There is no question: Democracy has worked for us fairly well here in Yobe State over these two decades.

The institutions of our democracy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the legislature, the judiciary, media, law enforcement, civil society; all these are fully deployed in the service of the people. On its part, the executive branch of the government continues to work even harder to provide basic social services that the people need and that make the society grow stronger, including clean water, affordable healthcare, education, support for agriculture and food production, and security. This is true across all civilian administrations in the state.

Governor Mai Mala Buni has now taken this to a whole new level. The governor is not only making our democratic institutions grow

stronger; he is not only opening new frontiers in social service delivery; he is, significantly, opening up the democratic space to more young people than ever before, youths that were largely disaffiliated from a chance to discover and deploy their fullest potential in the service of society.

Today, thanks to Governor Buniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effort, the Yobe State Government is buzzing and humming with a young and active middle management team, which is doing the state proud with its energy, its enthusiasm, its talent, and its drive for excellence. From the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to the State Scholarships Board, to the SPHCMB, to a slew of other new agencies, such as the focal office for the NEDC created to more positively impact the lives of the people, these young, active individuals are helping to write a new chapter in the annals of Yobeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public service.

These are significant markers of progress.

These are significant milestones for how our democracy has fared over the recent period.

Subject to data and statistics, I dare say that the Buni administration has opened up the political space to more young people than any other state administration in the current dispensation in this part of the country.

But there is still more work to be done, as the room for improvement is the biggest space in the world. More work to do for the schoolgirl in Dokshi and the schoolboy in Dapchi who dream to become a doctor or a nurse practitioner, a teacher, or an engineer and is so blissfully excited about what life has to offer.

More to do for the young electronics vendor at the Bayan Tasha market or the local GSM Market and hundreds more like him who have the energy and the drive and the will to make a difference in their own lives but needed just a little push to turn their dreams into reality.

Our governments here in Yobe have always strove to provide this opportunity. Governor Mai Buni is currently striving hard to do more and to expand opportunities. Each moment in our history has its twists and turns. Each

moment comes with challenges to meet and opportunities to seize. But for over 21 years now, our long democratic journey, in my opinion, has been a story of steady upward movement.

As citizens, we all have obligations to make this journey a little livelier, a little more spirited.

As civil society, your first obligation is to continue to work to ensure that we have a well-informed electorate because a wellinformed electorate speaks to the capacity of people to exercise their franchise more beneficially. Walter Cronkite, a celebrated journalist, once said that â&#x20AC;&#x153;our democracy cannot function without a reasonably well-informed electorateâ&#x20AC;?.

To consolidate the progress that we desire, we must work with the government and its agencies to get more people to take their civic responsibilities more seriously. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, and they get engaged, and they come together to demand itâ&#x20AC;?, Obama once noted.

The media has a special obligation in this respect. It is to report the news fairly and accurately. Getting the story right is particularly important. In the age of social media when most people get their news online from the comfort of their phones, we have to especially work to avoid trumpeting stories that are unverified or that are outrightly false. Fake news fuels conflicts. We must continue to contribute to the quest for peace and security by avoiding it.

Second, remember that famous line from John F. Kennedy, â&#x20AC;&#x153;donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your countryâ&#x20AC;?? Yes, I know many of you do. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a call to action, a call to citizenship. For if we want our democracy to work as well as it should, each of us must dig in and roll up our sleeves. We must participate in the political process and live up to our civic responsibilities â&#x20AC;&#x201C; our responsibility to be registered as voters, our responsibility to vote during an election for example.

Bego is Commissioner for Information, Yobe State

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ë&#x153; ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; 2020

EDITORIAL

TIME TO REOPEN THE ECONOMY To continue to put the economy in fetters is counter-productive

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y most standards, Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Covid-19 infection and mortality rates are low. The threat of a worse picture has dwindled.

The measures put in place by the federal government would seem to have helped create a safe enough situation for the economy to fully reopen. While the threat remains for as long as there is neither a proven vaccine nor a universal therapeutic regimen, there is a compelling case for a gradual return to normalcy.

Although the existing preventive and public safety measures would seem to guarantee a high level of protection for the populace, at least for now, the discussion about opening the economy should be broad and diverse. It should be accompanied with increase in providing protective devices for medical staff in case reported incidents of new wave of contamination being reported in Spain, IN VIEW OF THE PAIN MANY France and Britain NIGERIANS ARE GOING are authentic and THROUGH, IT HURTS MORE also hit Nigeria. It is also important TO KEEP THE ECONOMY to departments of UNDER LOCK economics in our public universities to calculate the costs incurred so far to different segments of our society.

However, in view of the pain many Nigerians are going through, it hurts more to keep the economy under lock. What the situation requires now is a sustenance of public awareness on the existing preventive measures as well as a fortification of healthcare facilities already in place.

For now, the imperative is to fully reopen the economy while remaining eternally vigilant. The alternative is to allow the economy to continue bleeding with the attendant existential threats to national security and survival.

For the past few weeks, many stakeholders have called for the return of a measure of normalcy. The call appears justified because of a relatively low rate of COVID-19 infections compared with most countries, largely due to luck than through any concrete measures. There

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is still widespread scepticism about COVID-19 which has resulted in the low willingness to obey the protocol put in place to fight it. But in reopening the economy, government can transfer the onus of ensuring safety measures to corporate and social organisations as well as individuals.

The call to give the economy a new lease of life has become more compelling now than ever. All the macroeconomic fundamentals are in the negative territory. For instance, in the second quarter of 2020, the economy contracted by 6.1 per cent, while inflation rate rose by 12.82 per cent (year-on-year) in July, the highest rate recorded in 27 months since March 2018 when headline inflation stood at 13.34 per cent. There was also a spike in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unemployment rate from 23.1 per cent posted in the third quarter of 2018 to 27.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020.

The World Bank had in July raised the alarm that the coronavirus pandemic exerted enormous economic challenges on Nigeria, with 42 per cent of people who were engaged prior to March 2020 (especially those in the hospitality industry), now out of employment. That Nigeria would slide into another wave of recession is no longer in doubt, so the main concern should be how to narrow the margin of such contraction in order to ensure that the country does not suffer protracted negative growth. To continue to put the economy in fetters under such situation is counter-productive.

It is gratifying that Nigeria is gradually opening its airspace to allow international flights in and out of the country. This is particularly important for a country that largely depends on imports. Analysts have recommended policy options that can help mitigate the effects of the current crisis and lay the foundation for a strong economic recovery, generating more jobs and improving employment. They posit that the speed, quality and sustainability of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic recovery will be determined by the effectiveness of its governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s response. Reopening the economy is strategic in this regard.

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

SAMUEL ORTOMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CALL TO ARM

f President Muhammadu Buhari really said what he recalled he told President Donald Trump of the US in the privacy of the Oval Office, then this has given justification to the call by Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State, for every adult of Benue State to apply for eligibility to bear arms as a measure of self-defence.

Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s posturing was a very simplistic and banal explanation for the killing of settled Christian agrarian folks across Nigeria and our president seems to consider that this killing progression is, well, normal because of â&#x20AC;&#x153;population growth and climate change.â&#x20AC;? What elementary baloney! Whatever this â&#x20AC;&#x153;population growth and climate changeâ&#x20AC;? line of thinking is, a decent investment in modern ranching techniques would stop the killer horde of Fulani tribesmen from roving from place to place and have their herd of cattle â&#x20AC;&#x153;enter farms and destroy crops,â&#x20AC;? if one may attempt to quote our president. Well, then, given this circumstance, and knowing that the constitution recognises the right to life for Nigerians, it follows without much ado that the best course of action to take to ensure this right to life and liberty as enshrined in this aforementioned

constitution is to take preventive measures to push back against armed marauders cutting you and your folks down to pieces. Thus, every Nigerian adult should be entitled to bear arms for self defence and deterrence purposes and anyone found to use these arms to commit premediated murder should be subjected to the capital punishment provision. Benue State should provide a lead in this regard by having its House of Assembly promulgate germane legislation to this effect. For the rural folks of Benue State, it is going to be especially tough now that the leader of the militia that has helped served as a deterrent force to keep killer Fulani at bay, Terwase â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ganaâ&#x20AC;? Akwase, was lured out of his sanctuary and summarily executed in cold blood. The governors who have served in Borno State could have done same with Abubakar Shekau but none chose that route. Gana was demonised as a vicious gangster but he never captured any soldier or other Nigerian servicemen and slaughtered them before video cameras and he did not do terror to promote his faith. He was the checkmate to Fulani aggression.

Could not a sitting governor simply end the carnage in Southern Kaduna?

Instead this governor and his posse have conned the people by having a national Christian pilgrim affairs board call a â&#x20AC;&#x153;peaceâ&#x20AC;? parley with the object of demonising the leaders of Southern Kaduna further. In Nigeria, truly, the problems of Christians are compounded by other Christians. Just give some Christians the assurance of the cool comfort of Abuja connections, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d just as easily vituperate other Christians who bear the brunt of daily oppression and face the risk of death.

See how the Muslim community of Nigeria came out hard in support of Nasir el-Rufai because the NBA chided him for administrative incompetence.

For the whispered assurance of senate seats in 2023, â&#x20AC;&#x153;higher forcesâ&#x20AC;? are pulling the strings of the governors of Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, and other gullible Christian-majority states so as to emasculate their push for a more coherent security apparatus that does not look too good for invading foreign Fulani herdsmen.

Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State

ROCHAS OKOROCHA FOR PRESIDENT

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fter wide consultation with stakeholders, the Coalition of Arewa Professionals hereby endorses Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha for the office of the President come 2023.

We have witnessed his antecedent as a bridge builder, a patriotic Nigerian who has contributed immensely to the development of the nation economically and politically.

Indeed, Owelle Rochas Okorocha is a man of the people who has invested considerably on the masses for more than two decades.

Rochas Okorocha is an astute administrator, a philanthropist, dogged fighter, tenacious and sagacious politician that has spread his tentacles of good will across the country irrespective of tribe and religion. The endorsement comes as a result of his enviable track record as non-tribalistic personality, a lover of peace, belief in fairness, unity and tranquility. On this note the coalition of Arewa Professionals supports and endorses Senator Okorocha for this clarion call for national cohesion, unity, development, wealth creation, and justice for all as he is a bridge builder and accepted by all.

Barr Umar Magaji, Abuja

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WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢T H I S D AY

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

MIDWEEKPOLITICS

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

Karibi-Whyte Takes a Final Bow Nseobong Okon-Ekong writes on the life and times of the renowned jurist Justice Adolphus Godwin Karibi-Whyte, whose many stellar roles on national and international assignments, includes Chairman of the Nigerian Constitutional Conference of 1994-1995

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omorrow, Thursday, September 17, the final home journey of the eminent jurist, Hon. Justice Adolphus Godwin KaribiWhyte who passed away on May 22 at the age of 88, begins with an evening of hymns, songs and tributes at the Church of Nativity, Pakview Estate in Ikoyi-Lagos. In keeping with health protocols of the times occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic, the family has announced compulsory use of hand sanitizers and face masks for mourners.

As much as possible, friendly embrace will be avoided. In its place will be the new manner of greeting-an elbow strike or a bump of fists.

The funeral formalities will continue in his ancestral, Abonema in Rivers State on Thursday, September 25, as distinguished relatives, friends and professional colleagues honour the memory of a man in his whose able hands the conduct of many judicial and administrative commissions and tribunals of inquiry were entrusted. In his tribute at the demise of the late Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari celebrated his historic role in “Nigeria’s legal system, strengthening democratic institutions and shaping the policy direction of many governments and international agencies, as he served as Chairman, Nigerian Constitutional Conference, 1994-1995, Counterfeit Currency Tribunal, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities, and Judge and Vice-President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague.”

Among his many stellar roles on national and international assignments, Karibi-Whyte will be remembered as Chairman of the Nigerian Constitutional Conference of 1994-1995. It must have been a very tough choice for the jurist who staked his well-earned reputation to lend his influence and legitimacy to the regime of the military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha who was trying to transmute into a civilian president. Though notable Nigerians and civil society groups canvassed a boycott of the confab, it still attracted a good attendance and participation from persons and associations of high character, largely owing to the personality of the chairman of the conference, Justice Karibi-Whyte, who has a long and respected history of judicial activism. Unfortunately, the overwhelming extreme dislike of Abacha and everything his government represented may have affected the collective decisions of the forum because the recommendations of the Justice Adolphous Karibi-Whyte led Constitutional Conference was not implemented.

This regrettable episode in his distinguished service record does not subtract from the esteem which the bar, the bench, litigants and scholars in the entire judiciary spectrum held him.

The brilliance of his pronouncements saved many appellants whose case were considered hopeless, while lawyers and law students continue to benefit from the vividness of his submissions on a variety of subjects.

His inclination to use the instrument of the law to serve the cause of the underdog may have developed from the humble beginning of his working life as a court clerk between 1951 and 1957.

Serving in that capacity cultivated his admiration for the law profession and especially for judges, while firing his ambition to study law in the university.

He was admitted to the University of Hull, England in 1957 at 19 years, where

Karibi-Whyte he obtained LL.B Degree, Upper Division in 1960. He was called to the Bar in the Middle Temple one year afterwards, and in September, 1962, obtained LL.M Degree of the University of London, and also Ph.D of University of Lagos in 1970.

He joined the Rivers State Ministry of Justice as a Draftsman in 1973, and later became the Solicitor-General in Rivers State. He was also an Associate-Professor of Law at the University of Lagos. His illustrious judicial career later took him to the then Federal Revenue Court (now Federal High Court, 1976-1980); Court of Appeal (1980-1984); and the Supreme Court of Nigeria (1984-2002). Karibi-

Whyte retired from the Supreme Court in 2002, having attained the mandatory constitutional retirement age of 70.

To his credit, the legal icon was the author of 13 law books and 55 academic papers. There is little wonder that very kind and profound statements are being rendered in celebration of the quintessence of this jurist. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome noted that, “Karibi-Whyte is reputed to have delivered very powerful seminar dissenting judgements, which greatly rattled majority decisions, and formed the cornerstone of future judicial reviews and a shift by the apex court from

Among his many stellar roles on national and international assignments, Karibi-Whyte will be remembered as Chairman of the Nigerian Constitutional Conference of 1994-1995. It must have been a very tough choice for the jurist who staked his well-earned reputation to lend his influence and legitimacy to the regime of the military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha who was trying to transmute into a civilian president.

Though notable Nigerians and civil society groups canvassed a boycott of the confab, it still attracted a good attendance and participation from persons and associations of high character, largely owing to the personality of the chairman of the conference, Justice Karibi-Whyte, who has a long and respected history of judicial activism

earlier positions. The reasons behind his powerful dissenting opinions were deep, profound, luminous, resonating and courageous.”

Another senior lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa said, “He was full of wits, wisdom and judicial stamina to tackle most cases that he participated in, either in writing the leading judgment, supporting judgment or dissenting judgment.

He rendered very profound explanations behind the reasonings contained in his judgments, all of which have helped to shape the course of judicial history in Nigeria. He deployed his knowledge and experience garnered from private legal practice, up to the Bench as a judge of the then Revenue Court, now known as the Federal High Court, up to the Supreme Court, in the practical application of the determination of cases brought. His book on the practice and procedure of the Federal High Court is always a delight for judges, lawyers, law teachers and law students alike.”

A former Chairman of the Ikorodu Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Adedotun Adetunji described the late Justice Karibi-Whyte as an epitome of knowledge and a Professor of Law whose judgment could only be described as sound and classic. “His Lordship was a fine jurist with penetrating and lucid reasoning in his judgments.

Significantly, His Lordship was courageous to dissent with majority views while he was in the Supreme Court.”

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege said in his condolence, “He lived a long, highly productive life but even upon his exit at 88, the retired Justice of the Supreme Court and Professor of Law, Justice Adolphus Godwin Karibi-Whyte, profoundly impacted Rivers State, Nigeria and the global community with cerebral contributions in his chosen field. It could be easier for many to remember his very significant contributions as a Justice of the Supreme Court and as Judge and Vice-President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague but his noble impact pre-dated those assignments. Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN), a former Secretary General of the NBA accords some of Karibi-Whyte’s decisions as a Justice of the Supreme Court as the Loci Classici. He said, “It was in this court that he rendered most of the judgments which have not only stood the test of time, but some of which have also become locus classicus on the issues of law determined by the court. As a Justice of the Supreme Court, His Lordship contributed in no small measure, to the development of our laws, both through his majority and dissenting judgments. Even when his position appeared to be unpopular, he would nonetheless, marshal his reasoning in the most eloquent and professional manner. His judgments were always well researched, and he never failed to decide momentous issues of law, according to his belief and depth of knowledge. He would not hesitate to render dissenting judgment whenever his erudition, his research, his depth of knowledge, his conscience and his understanding of the issues of facts and law involved in the matter, dictated to him the imperative need and necessity to depart from the reasoning of his colleagues.”

Born on the 29th of January, 1932 in Abonnema, Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, his service to the nation was rewarded with deserving national honours including the Commander of the Order of the Niger and Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

POLITICS

Yiaga Africa Report Indicate Prevalence of Small Arms in Edo

GOVERNANCE IN PHOTOS

Chuks Okocha evaluates the report of leading election monitoring group, Yiaga Africa, which indicates a strong likelihood of violence during the approaching governorship election in Edo State on Saturday September 19

Itodo

Y

iaga Africa has presented a voter analysis that compared elections in Edo state since 2011. In the report, it said that Edo governorship election in 2011 recorded 38.4percent voter turnout in the Presidential election. In the 2016 governorship election, turnout was 32percent, while in the 2019 general election turnout was 28percent for the Presidential election and 32.8percent for the state assembly election.

Specifically, it said that the top five local governments with the highest turnout in the 2019 presidential election were Etsako Central, Etsako East, Owan West, Owan East, and Akoko Edo in Edo North senatorial district. While in 2016, seven LGAs, recorded the highest voter turnout; Oredo, Ikpoba/ Okha, Egor, Ovia North East, Orhionmwon in Edo South senatorial district and Akoko Edo, Etsako West in Edo North. The report posits that Edo South senatorial district determines majority of votes in Edo elections.

In the 2019 elections, 47percent of valid votes came from Edo South, 34.4percent from Edo North and 18.2percent from Edo Central.

While in the 2016 governorship election, the highest number of votes cast came from Edo South senatorial district (49percent) compared to Edo North and Edo Central senatorial districts (32percent and 19percent respectively). Six LGAs (Oredo, Ikpoba/Okha and Egor in Edo South senatorial district and Etsako West, Akoko Edo, and Owan East in Edo North senatorial district) accounted for half of total votes cast (50percent). In addition to the LGAs listed above, Owan West, Esan West and Esan central LGA are considered battleground in the impending Edo governorship election.

As published in the previous pre-election report released by Yiaga Africa, these LGAs have recorded incidence of pre-election violence during political campaigns as both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) battle to win the highest number of votes in these LGAs. In addition to campaigns, Yiaga Africa observed a spike in voter education activities

by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and information on Voter Code of Conduct for voting amidst COVID-19.

The political parties have however failed to complement the efforts of INEC, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and civil society organizations (CSOs) to promote voter education and issue-based discussion.

Yiaga Africa has drawn the attention of stakeholders to the constitutional requirements for declaring a candidate winner of a governorship election. Under Section 179 (2) of the Constitution, a political party/

candidate must win majority of lawful votes in the election and garnered at least 25percent (one-quarter) of the total votes cast in two-thirds of the LGA in the state. In the case of Edo with 18 LGAs, a candidate must score majority of lawful votes and 25percent of total votes cast in 12 LGAs. To stem any incidence of violence, Yiaga counseled candidates and political parties to enlighten their supporters on these two critical thresholds as experience has shown that party supporters only focus on the first condition of securing majority of votes cast.

The group said that it was deeply concerned that despite entreaties by the Oba of Benin urging the major candidates to deescalate the palpable tension in Edo by refraining from inflammatory speech and violence, cases of pre-election violence and hate speech still persists. Yiaga Africa explained that reports received so far indicate that there are small arms and light weapons buildup in Igueben, Oredo and Ikpoba/Okha LGAs. The report point to increasing violent physical and verbal attacks during any political party rallies/meetings/campaigns Yiaga Africa Long Term Observers (LTOs) reported physical and verbal attacks during political party rallies and meetings in Oredo, Ikpoba/Okha, Egor, Owan West, Esan West, Igueben, Etsako West, Akoko Edo and Esan Central LGAs. This is expected given the battleground nature of the LGAs. Political party supporters refused to grant supporters of opposing parties access to some part of the Apana community of Etsako West LGA, during a campaign rally. A similar incident was reported in Ekpe, Akoko Edo LGA on August 28, as supporters and members of the APC and PDP clashed during their campaign rallies.

The report said that there confirmed cases of vandalism or the destruction of property belonging to a candidate or his/her supporters. Most of the properties affected were personal cars and campaign vehicles.

For instance, on August 30, the car of one of the dominant political party supporters was destroyed in Imiegiele, Etsako LGA. The report suggested that there are likelihood vote buying during the September 19 election. Inducement of voters through the distribution of money and gift items is gaining weight against issue-based campaigns across the state. Distribution of monies and gifts were mostly done during campaigns and rallies.

Yiaga Africa findings show a surge in preparatory activities undertaken by INEC for the election. These include recruitment and training of election officials, meetings or consultations with stakeholders (traditional rulers, religious groups, civil societies/ observers’ groups, political parties, and candidates) as well as voter education programmes.

Yiaga Africa also tracked activities geared towards sensitization of citizens on the COVID-19 by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), CSOs, NOA and political parties. Majority (92percent) of Yiaga Africa LTOs reported having been exposed to or heard of COVID-19 prevention messaging from NCDC and more than a half (54percent) reported having been exposed to or heard of COVID-19 prevention messaging from CSOs. According to the report, although, political parties are the most critical stakeholders in the election, only 12percent of the Yiaga Africa LTOs were exposed or heard of COVID-19 prevention messaging from political parties. Thirty-three percent were exposed to or heard of COVID-19 prevention messaging from NOA.

From left;House of Representatives member representing Irewole Isokan and Ayedaade Federal Constituency, Hon.Taiwo Oluga; Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul Rasheed Adewale; Governor of the State of Osun, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola; Olowu of Owu Kuta, Oba Hameed Adekunle Oyelude Makama; Chief of Army Staff; Lt, General Tukur Yusuf Brutai and Deputy Governor of Osun, Mr Benedict Alabi, during the commissioning of the New Olowu of Owu Kuta Palace and the Kuta-Ikoyi- Ede Bridge, at Kuta in Ayedire Local Government

From left to right: Oba Richard Ogunsanya (Olubeshe of Ibeshe Land), Oba Adbulsemiu Kasali(Adeboruwa of Igbogbo Land), Mr Tokunbo Abiru,”(APC Lagos East Senatorial Candidate), Oba Kabiru Shotobi Ayangunren of Ikorudu and Oba Babatunde Ogunlaja( Aladeshoyin of Odo Noforija) during the flagbearer’s visit to monarchs.

From Left; Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi State, First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed with Mrs Esther Ahmed, Chairperson of the Bauchi State Action Committee on Sexual and Gender Based Violence during an advocacy visit to the Governor led by the First Lady

From left; Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State with Christian and Muslim leaders after the inauguration of ‘Kaduna House Family’

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

20

FEATURES

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

Reaching the Grassroots through CACOVID The Coalition Against COVID-19, a private sector-led initiative, has over the past few months been reaching out to the grassroots with the much needed intervention to fight the pandemic in Nigeria. Rebecca Ejifoma writes

S

ince the first confirmed case of the COVID-19 was reported in Nigeria on February 27, 2020, the highest level of public health state of emergency operation was activated in the country by the federal and state governments, led by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

Seven months after, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 56,177 from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Out of the confirmed cases, 1,078 have died while 44, 088 have recovered.

While the government at all levels is making efforts to curtail the rapid spread of the pandemic in the country, most Nigerians in the rural and semi-urban communities have unfortunately, ignored prescribed safety protocols as they wrongly believe the disease affects only the wealthy and influential people in the society.

CACOVID Grassroot Drive Seeing the enormous task before the government to stop the spread of the disease in the country, the private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CA-COVID) in June embarked on a grassroots awareness campaign to help forestall further spread of the disease in the suburbs and other rural communities in Lagos, Rivers, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory among other places.

CA-COVID just recently launched the second phase of the grassroots campaign to further reinforce the importance of wearing face masks, social distancing as well as strictly adhering to prescribed safety protocols. Added to the fresh campaign is the distribution of palliatives to the neediest people according to local government.

Zouera Youssoufou, the managing director and chief executive officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, who is leading the fresh charge speaks on the second phase of the campaign, the strategies employed to ensure success and the experiences and lessons of the first phase of the campaign.

Background of Grassroots Campaign On this she said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are going into the different neighborhoods in Lagos and raising awareness about how to protect ourselves against COVID-19. As you may know, there is this misconception that the COVID-19 disease was really attacking rich people and wealthy people who have travelled. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But the truth is that community transmission is already happening, so we need to wear our face masks properly, constantly sanitise and wash our hands and to also try to keep social distancing as much as possible. So part of this campaign is also distributing masks to people on the streets. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With the vans that you see, our teams will be driving through the different neighborhoods handing out face masks and also talking to people on how to protect themselves from being infected with the COVID-19 disease. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is what we are doing in addition to the palliatives that we are going to start distributing food packs in the coming week across all the states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.â&#x20AC;?

Distribution Area of palliatives On the area of distribution she said:Every single state in the federation, that is the 36 states and the FCT and we are targeting 10 million people, 1.7 million families.

When we flag-off the distribution of the palliatives, we will start distributing in the LGAs down to the ward level and as you can imagine, it is hard to do this all at one time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The country is big and there has never been such a massive effort ever before now to distribute food to this many people in

Zouera

Nigeria. It requires a huge investment in logistics and human factors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our aim is to reach the neediest, and so we are putting appropriate logistics in place to make sure we get the palliatives to the people who are the neediest that's why it is taking us this long to do this, so part of this campaign is to help raise awareness and also share masks and make sure we encourage people to wear them and to really protect themselves against this virus.â&#x20AC;?

Target BeneďŹ ciaries On this she said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;For us at CA-COVID, we define a family as a household in Nigeria consisting of six people. Our target is to reach 1.7million families of six people.

Each family unit would get a 10kg bag of rice, they will get a five kg bag of either garri, semovita or maize flour depending on where they live, they get one carton of pasta, two cartons of noodles, five kilos of sugar and one kilo of salt, so that is what everybody will get.â&#x20AC;?

Identifying the Neediest Families â&#x20AC;?Every single state has communities where there is a concentration of vulnerable families, people who are most vulnerable. so the work is to Identify those families and to ensure that we are giving it to the families that have been identified because most of these people are disabled, widowed, people who live in really poor condition. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We all know where they are, so if we look at, in Lagos, we are not going to be doing food distribution in Victoria Island or in Lekki as that is not going to make sense even if we said we are going to be

doing it evenly across the country. We are not going to give the food palliatives to people who are wealthy as they are even the ones contributing to the effort. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is really about reaching down into the local government level and down to the wards and we are doing this in conjunction with the state because they are the ones who have the list and know where the people are. It is with them and the local government, making sure that they know because every local government chairman knows who the poor people are in their constituency,â&#x20AC;? Zouera disclosed.

Partnership with the States On partnership she said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are collaborating and working hand in hand with the states, so when we hand over to the states, it formally becomes a donation that CACOVID has given to the state. when it comes to doing the distribution, we have a monitoring and evaluation team making sure that the distribution gets down to the individual families, we have a communication team that follows that to make sure that it is done because the biggest worry that has come to us is that how do you know where it is going to end up if you are just giving? â&#x20AC;&#x153;So we have to make sure we follow it all the way down to the family unit. We are not the ones doing the actual distribution but we have teams to be involved in the committees that are doing the distribution and we have a monitoring and evaluation team that follows all the distribution across every state in the country and so that is how we will be accountable to the CACOVID members who contributed all

this money. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have to be able to tell them what we did with their money, where did they go, here is the picture, here is the film, here are the people who got it. we have to be able to tell them that.â&#x20AC;?

Successes Recorded â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are different ways to count success, are people aware? Can we see people wearing nose masks? Are we seeing a reduction in the rate of transmission?

That is the ultimate test. Are people not getting coronavirus any more? Yes, people are still getting infected by the disease, it is not over yet, but if you notice, you will see that the numbers are either falling down or becoming steady. We can not afford to stay complacent because, when everybody relaxes then, we all will be finished. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So far, we have recorded enormous gains with the grassroots awareness campaign though there is still more work to be done. Currently, when you go to different places, even here in Lagos, most people are not wearing their masks correctly. It is either they are wearing them around their neck or on their chin and we therefore realise that we have to further reinforce the campaign to bring it to top of mind that people can relate with and recall in their day to day activities. People that we expect to take their personal safety seriously have joined the bandwagon of naysayers so every available opportunity must be used to reinforce the message that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Coro is real and we must take our personal responsibility seriously to win the fight against COVID-19â&#x20AC;?.â&#x20AC;?

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T H I S D AY Ëž SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

FEATURES

Tackling Flooding in Osun Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo writes on the measures put in place by the Osun State government to tackle the menace of perennial flooding in the state

T

he degree of ecstacy and enthusiasm that greets the public appearance of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the State of Osun is becoming both interesting and thought-provoking. Recently, it was at the project to curb the menace of flooding in some parts of the state.

The governor recently commissioned massive dredging of waterways and rivers across the state, and expectedly, he stepped out on a tour to inspect how far the work had gone. It was just a tour of duty as his reflective jacket said, yet, a random observer would easily have mistaken the occasion for a carnival, giving the large crowd of the old and young that trooped out, dancing and singing at the site of the inspection to appreciate the governor. Even the sun was out, after days of unusual cold weather, as if in agreement with the celebrators.

So, what is so special about the dredging of waterways that could have necessitated so many gongs and drums and turn out of citizens? A cursory glance at history provides evidence that the State of Osun, and Osogbo in particular, had experienced painful flooding in the past that wrecked havoc, destroyed homes and even claimed many lives. These sad instances were fallouts of inadequate river channels, poor drainage system, indiscriminate and unsafe waste disposal practice among residents.

Heart-breaking and nerve-wracking episodes such as the drowning of two primary schools pupils at the Okoko stream after a heavy downpour on July 7, 2010, is one of the tragedies that the people will never forget. There were also reports of a woman who had lost two of her children to flood, which left the poor woman a mental wreck. Also unpleasant was the report about an infant that was swept away by flood on the day he was to be christened.

Governor Adegboyega Oyetola has had enough. His government is determined not to document any tales of horror produced and directed by flood. It will be recalled that Osun is one of the few states warned recently by the officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to prepare for an imminent flood between the month of August and October this year.

According to the NEMA Director of Operations in charge of Osun, Ekiti and Ondo States, Mr. Olusegun Afolayan, 28 states and 102 Local Government Areas in the country risked being flooded due to expected heavy rainfall in the country.

Oyetola needed no other soothsaying

Governor Oyetola inspecting some of the ďŹ&#x201A;ood-prone areas to give marching orders to the relevant managers in his team do everything necessary to nip a potential disaster in the bud.

And the governor himself was willing to march beside his Commissioner and Special Adviser on Environment and Sanitation, Hon Sola Oladepo and Hon Rufus Oyegbile respectively. In fact, to show

that he was serious about this dredging project, Oyetola was in his T-shirt, jean, boots and safety helmet.

For the eyes of the people of Osun never to behold evil again, the entire body parts must spring a quick reaction. For the state to be rid of the groaning that flooding brings along with it, a proactive intervention is required, and that is exactly

what Oyetola did.

The river that passes through the Rasco area of Oke-fia in Osogbo, the state capital, which was the first point of call during the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unscheduled visit, was dredged to remove debris preventing the free flow of water. With about 1.3meters depth attained through the exercise, the water flowed seamlessly again. Imagine the turn of events had there been a heavy downpour, with the river in its former state?

History also furnished us with the fact that Rasco area of the state capital has always been prone to flooding over the years, with a spotlight on 2009, 2010 and 2015, when many buildings were submerged, lives were lost and properties worth millions of naira were washed away by the devastating flood of those years.

Besides the Rasco bridge area, Oke-Ijetu, Lake 264 and about 17 other rivers, streams and canals across the state are also currently being dredged and channelised to prevent the fury of the floods.

From the inception of his administration, Oyetola had been unequivocal about his desire to protect citizens of the state from both actual and potential threats.

His interventions across different sectors continue to validate his declaration and further establishes that with Oyetola, all lives matter.

Ending Malnutrition through Women Empowerment Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that the recently held Protein Challenge webinar was targeted at breaking the cycle of malnutrition in Nigeria through women empowerment

W

omen empowerment has been identified as one of the major keys to ending malnutrition in Nigeria.

Harping this recently at the Protein Challenge webinar, stakeholders noted that peace, security and humanitarian action were shaped by womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leadership and participation.

The webinar, which had the theme: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Empowering Women to Break the Cycle of Malnutrition in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; featured experts in the medical and nutrition sectors.

Delivering her keynote address, Ibiyemi Olayiwola, Professor of Human Nutrition at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, said when women are economically empowered, it leads to the advancement of the health, education and economic security of their families.

She said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Women are fundamental to development. In Nigeria, there is overconcentration of power in the hands of men,

including greater access to the resources of the country. For this reason, women are left with poor decision-making powers in their homes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Women empowerment benefits the nation, especially in terms of the nutritional status of all Nigerians. Women empowerment will reduce poverty, improve national economic performance and nutrition.â&#x20AC;?

Professor Olayiwola also revealed that female-headed households (which constitute about 16 per cent of total households in Nigeria) usually have lower poverty levels, higher education and higher income.

One of the panelists, Dr. Adepeju Adeniran, a clinical physician and public health expert, stated that protein malnutrition can be expensive to both individuals and society.

She revealed that protein-energy malnutrition in children has been linked to a higher risk of non-communicable diseases in adulthood, loss of direct and indirect income, acute illnesses and failure to reach

absolute growth potential.

Adeniran noted that because women are the domestic implementers in the homes, the choices they make determine the nutrition status of their families.

She said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The choices they make are determined by literacy, income and available choices, adding up to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bargain shoppingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; which is getting the most value for household feeding.â&#x20AC;?

Mrs. Josephine Mensah Chukwunweike, a nutritionist, who was also a panelist, encouraged women to work and obtain money to support their families. She urged women to be more adventurous in preparing family meals.

She said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is important to look beyond beans, meat and fish as the only proteins available in Nigeria. Many of our whole grains and legumes are packed with proteins â&#x20AC;&#x201C; soybeans, groundnuts, wara (local cheese), egusi (pumpkin seeds), okpa (steamed Bambara nut pudding),

ukwa (African breadfruit porridge), etc.

Also, women must learn to prepare their food in such a way that they are sure about the hygienic conditionsâ&#x20AC;?.

She urged women to eat adequately and breastfeed exclusively,noting that healthy complementary foods should be introduced in the right proportion to children, after exclusive breastfeeding.

The webinar was moderated by Mrs. Lilian Ekong, a professional cuisine chef and CEO, Lilyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chops.

Protein Challenge is a media campaign designed to create awareness about the prevalence and dimensions of the challenge of Protein Deficiency in Nigeria, and to galvanise all relevant stakeholders to collaborate in providing solutions to the problem, so that `Nigerians can live healthier and more productive livesâ&#x20AC;?.

It is a protein pull media campaign supported by the United States Soybean Export Council (USSEC) and other partners.

22

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢T H I S D AY

23

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; 2020

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OVERNIGHT OBB

A S

REPO 2.25 1.63

CALL 1-MONTH 3-MONTH

3.67 5.08 6.17

A T

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

S E P T E M B E R

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

588.78% -0.35% -0.01%

S & P INDEX 1/4 TO DATE YEAR TO DATE

4 , 4.61% 22.37%

2 0 2 0 EXCHANGE RATE N379/1US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes Agusto & Co Rates Wapic â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bbbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Agusto & Co. has assigned a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bbbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rating to Wapic Insurance Plc.The rating reďŹ&#x201A;ectsWapicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good solvency level, good liquidity proďŹ le and experienced management team.

However, it noted that oďŹ&#x20AC;setting the rating is the Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relatively high-cost proďŹ le and low investment returns, â&#x20AC;&#x153;which have continued to suppress proďŹ tability.â&#x20AC;?

In addition, it stated that the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s related-party concentration in the investment portfolio was also a rating constraint. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the insurance industry in Nigeria and Ghana is incorporated in our outlook for the Group. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whilst we expect the impact of the pandemic to limit growth opportunities in the non-life business lines, we believe performance will be sustained by prospects in life insurance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theearlycompliancewiththeregulatory-inducedrecapitalisationalso provides adequate room for growth and buďŹ&#x20AC;ers to absorb possible losses. On this basis, we have attached a stable outlook to the rating assigned to Wapic Insurance Plc, which will be closely monitored to reďŹ&#x201A;ect material changes in the operating terrain as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds,â&#x20AC;? it stated.

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CENTRE

L- R: Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; Board Chairman, Prof. Adeolu Akande; Minister of Communications and Digital Economy; Dr. Isa Pantami and Governor, Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, during the inauguration of NCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s EmergencyCommunicationsCentre,ImoStateâ&#x20AC;Śrecently

Report: Lagos Loses N300m to Drop in Demand for Co-working Space Peter Uzoho

ECONOMY

Lagos State lost an estimated N300 million in revenue as of March 2020, due to decline in demand for Co-working spaces, as work from home (WFH) has become the new normal among organisations, a report by Northcourt Real Estate Research, has revealed.

Lagos State has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and has lost a lot in revenues due to the stringent lockdown and restrictions imposed on it to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

However, the report stated that working from the office (WFO) has quickly switched to WFH and this has reduced the use of office space, with corporate head

offices mandating that as much of 90 per cent of their staff work from home, a situation, it said, would influence future demand.

The Real Estate Market Review for first quarter of 2020, presented by the Chief Operating Officer, Northcourt Real Estate Research, Ayo Ibaru, stated that the spread of COVID-19 has forced companies to adjust their operations to protect their workers and stay in business.

It stated that the introduction of hygiene protocols has become mandatory, adding that co-working has been crippled by lockdown restrictions, social distancing rules adopted to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lagos, with the largest concentration of co-working spaces in Nigeria (over 60 per cent) and a leading part of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s co-working sector, is estimated to have lost N300million in revenue as of March 2020,â&#x20AC;? the report said.

The report stressed that digital networking events has taken over the place of physical meetings, adding that the focus has shifted to providing more support for members over the standard space and physical resources.

According to the report, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Co-working spaces will face challenging seasons ahead as the world conforms to the new conditions for doing business.

Corporate Nigeria has kicked the execution of remote working strategies into high gear â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with

some head office complexes emptied of 80 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 90 per cent of their staff. Corporations will be looking for flexible solutions that further employee health and wellbeing best practices. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As large organisations optimise their operations postCOVID, co-working spaces will serve as a welcome alternative.

The adoption of remote working post-pandemic is likely to increase, encouraging work from close-to-home co-working spaces where residences are not conducive enough. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Co-working spaces would need to attract and keep larger, more established clients looking to optimize administrative costs.

Companies will set up a more Continued on page 23

Experts Warn FG against Debt Trap Raheem Akingbolu Some experts in bilateral businesses have called on federal government to consider other options in addressing Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s infrastructural deficit, instead of the high appetite for infrastructure loans from China.

The experts who gave the warning during a one-day Webinar titled: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Are Chinese Infrastructure Loans Putting Nigeria on the Debt Trap Express,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; organised by the US- Nigeria Trade Council, warned Nigeria strongly against the loans; arguing that the terms are hidden â&#x20AC;&#x153;debt trapsâ&#x20AC;? for the country.

In his presentation, the Managing Partner & CEO, Berkham Capital UK, Joseph Oyediran, kicked against the China infrastructure loans; arguing that

ECONOMY Nigeria at the moment is clearly exhibiting the symptoms of a country that will default payment.

According to Oyediran, the revenue streams for Nigeria to repay the loans within the specified period are not there; especially in the face of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

While stressing that with a debt profile put at about $65 billion, Nigeria was not looking healthy enough to repay the China loans, he described the loan as a debt trap for Nigeria, adding, that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the revenue source to pay back is just not thereâ&#x20AC;?, he said.

He said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Data obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO) shows that between 2010 and March 31, 2020, eleven loan

facilities have been obtained from China Exim Bank. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The loans which come with a seven year grace period, 20 years tenor were obtained at 2.5 per cent interest rate. While the pricing of the China loans looks cheap; there are serious concern they could be debt traps for Nigeria and many other African countries. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The biggest fear however was the Caveat in the Chinese Loan agreement which requires a borrower to pledge its sovereignty status, sovereignty guarantee and all its sovereign assets as well as waive its immunity in any arbitration to China. The caveat is stated here in: the borrower (i.e. the State of Nigeria) hereby irrevocably waives any arbitration proceeding pursuant to Article 8(5) thereof with the enforcement

of any arbitral award pursuant there; except for the military assets and diplomatic assets,â&#x20AC;? he stated.

Oyediran warned that Nigeria should not be carried away by the pricing mechanism of the loans dangled by China, but wary of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;wicked clauseâ&#x20AC;? that submits its sovereignty to China should it default.

He said Nigeria should learn from the experience of defaulting countries like Zambia and Sri Lanka where China has taken over assets belonging to the countries.

He, however, advised Nigeria to completely shun borrowing; set up a special energy fund from which it can finance its infrastructure.

Also speaking, the Managing Continued on page 23

Firm Partners 9mobile, MTN

A new gaming platform namedTYLgames has partnered with MTN and 9monile to oďŹ&#x20AC;er unique gaming proposition in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lottery industry. According to a statement,TYLgames is a gaming (Lottery) platformdesignedtopositivelytouchgamerslivesonegameatatime.

It explained that the focus is on gamers rather than on the gaming platform; placing in their hands the power to transform lives with each game they play hence the acronym â&#x20AC;&#x153;TYLâ&#x20AC;?. â&#x20AC;&#x153;TYL is an Instant Play, InstantWin, Instant Cash-out game played on SMS, USSD, and MobileWeb platforms with the short code 33088. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are currently two games available to choose from, an instant numbers game tagged â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;SHOKIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;SHAFFLEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; which is a daily raďŹ&#x201E;e game. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With N100 game cost, a player can win up to N100,000 instantly and up to N1,000,000 in 24 hours by dialing or texting to 33088 or *33088# for USSD respectively. â&#x20AC;&#x153;TYL brings ďŹ nancial relief to the masses by providing the avenue to win instant cash to cover dayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to-day living costs. With just N100, a player can win and cash out a minimum of N1,000 instantly, several times a day. The best part of it is that a player can do this privately and conďŹ dentially, 24 hours of the day,â&#x20AC;? the statement explained.

To deliver dynamic and superior gaming experience, diďŹ&#x20AC;erent from other available gaming or betting platforms in a transparent manner to the masses, Humber Lottery, promoter ofTYLgames decided to collaborate with 9Mobile and MTN to touch as many lives, reinforce the brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authenticity, and to deliver its promises.

Founder and CEO of Humber Lottery, Mr. Andrew Humber-OsoďŹ san, while speaking on the initiative, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;TYLgames is committed to ensuring that people play responsibly and that they are rewarded accordingly.â&#x20AC;?

FG Lauds AbdulRazaq

The federal government has commended Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq over the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social investment programme. The government also hailed the state governor for pushing through the safety net with appreciable improvements on the model that was understudied from the presidency.

Already,nofewerthan21,623pettytradersinthestatehavebeneďŹ ted free interest loan to upscale their businesses in the state.

ChiefOperatingOďŹ&#x192;ceroftheGovernmentEnterpriseEmpowerment Programme(GEEP),Mr.UzomaNwagba,statedthisinacommendation letter sent to Abdulrazaq, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Ilorin, the state capital.

He said that he was glad that AbdulRazaq administration followed through on the programme â&#x20AC;&#x201D; barely one year after he visited the headquarters of GEEP in Abuja.

GEEP, which comprises MarketMoni, TraderMoni, FarmerMoni, is a component of President Muhammadu Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Social InvestmentProgramme(NSIP)thatseekstoempowersmallbusinesses and lift as many people as possible out of poverty line.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I must also commend the efforts of CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who has brought his astute leadership to bear in the running of CACOVID with Aliko Dangote and other members of the CA-COVID Chairman, BUA Group

Abdul Samad Rabiu

24

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; 2020

BUSINESSWORLD REPORT: LAGOS LOSES N300M TO DROP IN DEMAND FOR COWORKING SPACE distributed workforce to better manage employees working from different locations. But research from the American Psychological Association posits that mental health issues are likely to rise.â&#x20AC;?

For the industrial sector, the report revealed that the rise in demand for warehousing and logistics since the lockdown had only bolstered investor interest, predicting that PostCOVID, e-commerce, demand and supply chain disruptions would continue to support this rise.

It stated that the extended lockdown measures, export and travel bans had resulted in declining utilisation rates.

It said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Residential real estate remains the mainstay of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s real estate market.

Land is also in demand and may remain the real estate investment that is recessionproof. Still, the inability to carry out online title verification and registration hinders the growth in transaction volume.â&#x20AC;?

EXPERTS WARN FG AGAINST DEBT TRAP

Director/CEO of Cowry Assets Management, Johnson Chukwu supported the establishment of a special fund to finance infrastructure.

Chukwu, however, called for a radical change in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current infrastructure financing model; which he said was no longer sustainable.

He called for a legal and fiscal framework that would encourage the private sector invest in critical infrastructure such as roads and the airports.

He said the legal/fiscal framework must be tailored in a manner that would ensure the concessions are not arbitrarily revoked without recourse to the National Assembly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have enough revenue stream to fund infrastructure. Government is building infrastructure from borrowed fund. We cannot continue to fund infrastructure from budgetary allocation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need to come up with a legal and fiscal framework that will allow private sector participation,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Group Business Editor

Obinna Chima

Capital Market Editor

Goddy Egene

NEWS

SMEDAN, NIDCOM to Empower 1,397 MSMEs Nume Ekeghe The Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr. Dikko Radda has reiterated the federal governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support towards empowering micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide in the agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s empowerment program targeted at photographers and fashion designers nationwide.

The director general said this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national business skills development initiative (NBSDI) was in collaboration with the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) to empower disenfranchised returnee Nigerians.

A total of 1,397 photographers and fashion designers were simultaneously trained with entrepreneurship skills, vocational skills and empowerment materials in 11 states, recently.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony for NBSDI in Lagos, Radda said the SMEDAN initiative was a practical way to reduce the unemployment gap in Nigeria, saying that at the end, photographers would be empowered with digital cameras while fashion designers would be empowered with sewing machine to support their businesses.

He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;NBSDI is a programme designed to provide entrepreneurship skills, vocational skills and provision of empowerment materials (equipment) to fill the capacity gap of the youths. The NBSDI enhances youth engagement in productive ventures, thereby ensuring they earn income through filling the artisanal gap in Nigeria. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The initiative is designed to ensure that more professional services will be provided by local and well-trained young artisans leading to reduction in job losses to immigrants from neighbouring countries. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It seeks to pursue a drastic reduction in

dependency poverty as most of the out of school youths who still rely on stipends from parent are empowered to become self-reliant.â&#x20AC;?

He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The programme is being implemented in eleven States of Katsina, Rivers, Delta, Ebonyi, Adamawa, Niger, Lagos, Kwara, Bauchi, Zamfara and Ekiti, where a total of 1,397 entrepreneurs will be impacted with entrepreneurship skills, vocational skills and empowerment materials. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As at date the programme have been concluded in three States of Ebonyi, Niger and Adamawa. The programme is

commencing in Lagos today with other States starting today subsequently.â&#x20AC;?

According to him, the programme would improve business management practice, improve service provision by trained artisans and increased access to finance, equipment and other business resource.

He further added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It would also Increase in the number of formalised artisanal businesses, improved market support services by MDAs and responsible stakeholders to MSMEs, improved satisfaction level of customers of artisans through improved service delivery and

increase patronage of Nigerian artisans.

Speaking on the collaboration, he said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We did this today in collaboration with Nigeria in Diaspora and beneficiaries are some who came from outside Nigeria because of one reason or the other and do not have businesses to do as the federal Government is eager to support MSMEs across the country in this COVID-19 pandemic era and beyond.â&#x20AC;?

The photographers would get digital camera that would help improve their business. While the tailors or fashion designers would get a tailoring machine.

Yomi-Ajayi Appointed into US EXIMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Africa Advisory Committee The CEO of the United Bank for Africa (UBA)â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations in the United States, Ms. Sola Yomi-Ajayi,has been appointed to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US EXIM) Committee on Sub-Saharan Africa for 2020/2021.

Established by the US Congress, the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee provides guidance and advice regarding US EXIM policies and programmes designed to support the expansion of financing for US manufactured goods and services in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The committee is composed of prominent members of the US business community and YomiAjayi is the sole representative of an African institution.

According to a statement, UBA USA is the only Sub-Saharan African deposit-taking institution regulated in the United States and provides a unique portfolio of banking solutions to corporates, governments, multilaterals, and development organisations transacting with Africa.

The financial institution can assist in trade finance, treasury, foreign exchange, transaction

management and lending, drawing on UBAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seventy-year heritage and unique pan-African network. UBAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Group Chairman, Mr. Tony Elumelu, stated that the appointment was recognition of the role the pan-African bank has played over decades in promoting and supporting large and small businesses in all its 20 countries of operations in Africa. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The appointment of Sola, as a member of the US EXIM Advisory Committee for Sub-Saharan Africa is welcome news. UBAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global network of offices in New York, London

and Paris, permits us to be the preferred financial intermediary between Africa and the rest of the world. Our mission at UBA is fully aligned with the objectives of the US EXIM,â&#x20AC;? he said.

The EXIM President and Chairman, Kimberly Reed, who congratulated Yomi-Ajayi and the other appointees said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;With six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world and more than one billion consumers, Africa is poised to play a pivotal role in the global economy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Supporting US exports to sub-Saharan Africa is one of our top priorities at EXIM,

and my deepest congratulations goes to the new members of the EXIM Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committeeâ&#x20AC;?.

Some others appointed into the committee are Daniel Runde, who chairs the committee; Derek Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Energy and Natural Resource Security, Inc; Scott Eisner, Senior Vice President, African Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Rebecca Enonchong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer AppsTech; Lori Helmers, Executive Director/ Americas Export Finance Head, JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Allianz Nigeria Creates Awareness against Cybercrime Ebere Nwoji Allianz Nigeria has carried out a sensitisation exercise to help businesses mitigate guard against cyber risks.

The company recently featured four industry experts in an interactive webinar titled: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Ever Increasing Impact of Cyber Attacks: A case for Cyber Insurance.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; During the online forum, it was revealed that 71 per cent of security professionals had reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the start of

the virus. The experts identified cyber risk trends likely to affect organisations to include Phishing (55%), malicious websites (32), malware 28 per cent, and ransomware (19%).

They also highlighted the need for organisations to focus not only on cyber security, but more on cyber resilience. This entails a fusion of information security and business continuity strategies.

In other words, cyber resilience is the ability of an organisation to withstand attacks or failures and in such instance re-establish itself quickly back to operational

mode.

To achieve this, a seven fold approach which includes being strategic, building capacity, strengthening the process, automate inform and transform, measure and monitor, cyber insurance and collaboration was recommended.

Speakers at the session noted that in an era of unprecedented security risks, companies should determine more pragmatically how they intend to curb these risks and build capacity termed as â&#x20AC;&#x153;human fire wallâ&#x20AC;?.

It was also pointed out that

organisations should create awareness internally, train and educate staff members as a way to minimise the ability of intruders to compromise their information security.

Organisations were also advised to strengthen their cyber security posture across all levels and that layer of access down to the seemingly unnecessary layer should be tightened as a way to discourage attackers.

In addition, organisations were also advised on the need to conduct regular analysis so as to determine the level of exposure

and strength. The speakers noted that cyber-attacks as it stands is dynamic and companies stand a risk of being vulnerable either accidentally or deliberately through its people, processes or the type of technology adopted.

On how to mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks, Senior Cyber and Liability Underwriter at Allianz Global & Corporate Specialty, South Africa, Santho Mohapeloa, emphasised the need for insurance and the importance of complying with Cyber Best Practices in preventing and mitigating losses.

Comms/e-Business Editor

Emma Okonji

Expert Highlights Potential in Tourism Sector

Senior Correspondent

Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2014; Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x; (Advertising) Correspondents

Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x; äĂ? (Aviation) Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2122;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă? Ă&#x152;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC; (Maritime) James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Chineme Okafor (Energy) Emmanuel Addeh (Energy) Reporters

Ă&#x;Ă&#x2014;Ă? Ă&#x2022;Ă?Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2019;Ă? (Money Market) Ă&#x2122;Ă?Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x201C;Ă? (ICT) Peter Uzoho (Energy)

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo The Founder of MicCom Cable Company, Mr. Michael Ponle has described tourism as a sector which has a great tendency of stimulating economic activities in the country.

Ponle, therefore urged governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at all levels to pay greater attention to the sector.

He made this known when the Special Adviser to Osun State

Governor on Civic Engagement, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye led the team of Ministry of Information (Civic Engagement) to his country home, Ada, Osun state for an interactive session. Ponle, the owner of MicCom Golf and Hotels located in Ada, Osun State, also noted that, if the tourist centres are developed like other sectors, it would in no small measure improve internally generated revenue,

facilitate employment, boost the national image and equally drive development of other untapped sectors being a critical component of the general economy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tourism is a composite sector which will facilitate good road networks, stable power supply, and human development among others in a country and as such, government must tap into it for the benefit of the Commonwealth,â&#x20AC;? he added.

The industrialist, specifically charged Osun State Governor, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, to use the zeal with which he is drastically developing the health, infrastructure, education and security sectors, to also support tourism sector and give tourists centres such as the Osun groove, Erin-Ijesa waterfall, among others, a facelift.

He said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Indeed, his effort in developing osun health sector

is commendable as every small community has proximate opportunity to fully equipped health centres without having to travel a long distance like before. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Despite the paucity of funds in the state, Oyetola is wondrously delivering in the infrastructure sector for every community has at least, one road being constructed or fully completed by his administration.

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25

Tackling Challenge of Unclaimed Dividends Goddy Egene writes on how the issue of unclaimed dividends in the capital market can be tackled for the market to be more attractive

W

hen investors stake their funds in the capital market they expect returns. The returns can be in form dividends, which is what companies share among shareholders from their profits. The return can also be in form capital growth, which is realised when a stock appreciates above it purchase price.

While companies have been declaring dividends and investors enjoying the returns on their investments, the issue of unclaimed dividends has also been a big challenge in the market.

In fact, it is cited as one of the factors discouraging investors from patronsing the market. Market operators said some investors always complain that there is no need to invest when they do cannot receive their dividends.

The value of unclaimed dividends is put at over N100 billion.

However, as part of efforts to reduce unclaimed dividends in the market, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) launched Electronic Mandate Management System (E-DMMS) platform.

BeneďŹ ts of E-dividend platform The platform allows shareholders to receive dividends directly into their bank accounts.

When the EDDMS was introduced, SEC had explained that the platform would address the lingering problem of unclaimed dividend, which the market had sought solution for the past 20 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The era of stale dividends and huge unclaimed dividends in the market will be a thing of the past with the launch of e-dividend payment platform. We are determined to see the full implementation of the system to facilitate effective payment of dividends to investors,â&#x20AC;? SEC said.

According to the commission, the platform, would allow direct payment of dividends into investorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; accounts once the mandate form was completed appropriately.

It said investors would supply bank account number, registrars shareholders account number, clearing house account number and bank verification number in the mandate form to facilitate payment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The portal would also accept payment of dividends into dormant accounts, adding that an investor could only withdraw the money after revalidating the account. The registrars have been mandated to provide online access of the mandate forms to investors in Diaspora for efficient implementation of the e-dividend payment platform,â&#x20AC;? it said.

Renewed SECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts Since the introduction of the platform, SEC has been encouraging investors to register for e-dividend instead of waiting for dividend warrants and a significant number of shareholders have embraced the EDMMS. But the challenge remains and the DirectorGeneral of SEC, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, recently spoke on renewed efforts to solve the problem of unclaimed dividends.

He said the issue of unclaimed dividends is something that we are actually looking at very carefully, stressing that the problem is in two folds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One is that we have the existing stock of unclaimed dividends, and the second is to prevent the accumulation of the unclaimed dividend in the future. Now we have the e-dividend and the mandate at the moment which substantially takes care of the accumulation of the unclaimed dividends in the future. Even though it is not working perfectly but substantially it has reduced the accumulation of unclaimed dividends. But the task now is to work with the registrars, to make it easy for shareholders on boarded onto the system,â&#x20AC;? he said.

According to him, although there have been some complains in the capital market that the shareholders are finding it difficult to key in and most probably the registrars are not working really quick enough to get investors on boarded, they we are going to tackle these issues.

Yuguda He added that the commission is equally adopting identity management strategy using stockbrokersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; know your customer (KYC) process.

He said to Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and Central Securities Clearing Systems Plc (CSCS) have done some significant jobs in identity management, disclosing that they need to look at the entire issue. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At the moment I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what the stockbrokers have been able to collect from their clients but I think we need to look at it from an industrial wide issue. This is something that is really at the fore front, as we have been discussing it, we have the National Identity Number, the BVN, all capital market transactions start off from a banking accounts and end in a banking account and so on. On the issue of information, the stockbrokers have on their clients is something that we will also need to look at. A lot has been done and more will still continue to be done. The stockbroking community and the Association of Stockbroking Houses (ASHON) working with the CSCS and the Registrars. We are all working together to get this issue resolved,â&#x20AC;? he said.

The SEC boss said there is a backlog and the commission is working to ensure that it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t keep accumulating, saying that everybody has a part to play. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Clients should give their details including the bank number, so that the registrars can promptly credit them. And on the issue of backlog as you are well aware the commission directed, to a good extent, the registrars complied, by making repeated publications, having information readily available on the website of the offices, encouraging clients even with multiple subscriptions. I am aware in the time past that the commission had to give about two extensions, allowing multiple subscriptions to be unified so that all these things can be captured. We will continue to make sure that the unclaimed dividends issue gets reduced. Whether it is the issue of unclaimed dividends or the issue of multiple applications, all the issues are around the issue of identity management, and the commission is really working to see that the issue of identity management is resolved. There is a committee that has been set up, which is working with other stakeholders, to come up with a single form to be used by all the capital market operators and once that is done, the issue of unclaimed dividends will

be an issue of the past. The legacy issue is also connected with this issue of multiple subscriptions and there are a lot of investors who used different accounts and some of them cannot even remember the name they used in applying for shares is the issue. The other issue is in respect of the new issue, so what the commission has done is that the commission has given the directives to all stockbroking firm to get their clients update information in respect to BVN and account number,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Speaking to THISDAY, the managing director of a leading registrar, said but for the efforts of the SEC and other key stakeholders, the unclaimed dividends in the market would have been much higher. According to him, companies declare dividends every year and some shareholders do not receive their dividends due to one reason or the other and such dividends would become unclaimed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So we will continue to record unclaimed dividends. However, the e-dividend platform introduced by SEC, supported by registrars and other stakeholders have really assisted to curtail the growth of unclaimed dividends, â&#x20AC;&#x153; he said.

Shareholders suggest way out Commenting on how the issue can be tackled, the National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Anthony Omojola, said a lot need to be done by all and sundry.

He explained that as long as companies continue to declare dividends, the unclaimed dividends will be rising, however itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rising should be seasonal as to the periods when most companies declare them. â&#x20AC;&#x153; A lot still need to be done by all and sundry. The registrars should be updating their records from time to time and be willing to release the dividends as and when due.

The surveillance unit of SEC should step up their checks on the registrars for compliance. Some registrars still take up to two to three weeks before effecting payments of outstanding dividends after receiving completed e-mandate forms. Companies should also be advised to direct their registrars to print a readable list of outstanding dividends not only displayed on their website and that of their registrars, the list must be printed and made available to notable Shareholders groups and big stockbroking outfits,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Omojola added that each company, especially

those with outsourced company secretaries, must have investorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; relations units manned by competent officers to liaise between the companies and their registrars to quicken the process of dispute resolutions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Another area is the issue of administration of the estate of deceased. What the registrars are charging for verification of legal documents and processing is exorbitant and should be looked into to ease the process of probate etc.

On the longer solution, many shareholders are not investors. Such shareholders buy between two to 10 units in order to attend annual general meetings (AGMs) and collect gifts for themselves and members of their families. They do not bother about the meagre dividends coming to them because the small number of shares they have. For these set of people unless and until a reasonable units of shares is declared as the minimum they can buy and hold there will be no end to unclaimed dividends,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Also speaking, a member of ISAN, Mr. Moses Igbrude, said to address this issue holistically , each stakeholder in the value chain must and should genuinely carry out their individual roles effectively and efficiently. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That is, the stockbrokers, the CSCS, registrars, the banks, regulators. The stockbrokers are the key people to make sure they collect the signature of investors and transmits same to other parties in value chain and registrars should develop and deploy modern technology in their system that can recognise and sycronise similar features as its concern human identification,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Igbrude added that the companies should engage SEC and develop ways to identify and trace their shareholders or their families who may have changed location because of exigencies of life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After all, there is a regulation which states that all unclaimed dividends should be in a dedicated account and managed outside of the company, the interest realised on this funds should be used in the tracking and tracing the owner shareholders instead of the company just claiming the interest. I am appealing to the regulator and companies to work out ways round this concept it is easier now to trace and locate people than ever,â&#x20AC;? he said.

In her opinion, Mrs. Bisi Bakare of Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), said SEC should monitor the activities of the registrars, by knowing how many e-dividend mandate forms signed for in a particular period, check the names on the forms and find out if such names are still among unclaimed dividends. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If such names still exist, SEC should ask why that is so. Also, the government still need to look into minimum stock to purchase through secondary market to check the activities of some people who buy small shares and do not bother about the dividends,â&#x20AC;? she said.

On his part, Chairman, Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association, Mr. Eric Akinduro, said the whole process needed an overhauling, saying when you look at it from banks to registrars, it is not working as expected. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many bank officials will just collect the forms from investors and they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t process as expected and the shareholders will be waiting endlessly.

Also feedback to investors is very poor. There should be timely response to why e-mandate was not processed. As at now many shareholders have submitted their mandate forms without any response,â&#x20AC;? he said.

He added that standardisation of registrars services is very important, stressing that whatever that is applicable to registrar A should be applicable to registrar B. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Investors with small units should be given leverage to get their dividend paid. Some of these people are very old and you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect them to have regular signatures after many years of purchase. Aside signature, we have other means of identifying shareholders such as BVN and bank details if this could be allowed it will help to reduce it. Regulators should set up a dedicated line and email addresses to handle issues on unclaimed dividends where investors can escalate any problem related to unclaimed dividends,â&#x20AC;? Akinduro said.

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T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

Bridging the Maize Supply Gap Oluchi Chibuzor and Maduabuchi Ubani write on the recent decision by the federal government to grant four companies approval for maize importation

T

he recent decision by the federal government to grant four companies approval for maize importation has continued to attract mixed reactions.

While some farmers believe the new policy would help bridge the supply gap currently being experienced in the country, others have argued it is a sign of policy inconsistency in the country.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) recently confirmed that four companies have been given the Central Bank of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (CBN) emergency approval to imports 262,000 tons of maize into Nigeria.

The companies are Wacot Limited, Chi farms Limited, Crown Flour Mills Limited and Premier Feeds Company Limited. This was disclosed in a memo with reference number: NCS/T&T/I&E/021/S.93/VOL on Thursday evening signed by the Deputy Comptroller General, T.M ISA and seen by Nairametrics.

The letter explained: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In line with the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policy on food security, sufficiency and striking a balance between food imports and local production capacities to meet anticipated shortfall, the Central Bank of Nigeria has granted approval for the underlisted companies to import maize in the quantities stated below.â&#x20AC;?

While Wacot Limited got approval to import 60,000 tons; Chi Farms Limited - 60,000 tons; Crown Flour Mills - 22,000; and Premier Feeds Company Limited - 120,000 tons.

The four companies have combined feed milling capacity of over 130,000 mt monthly with sites in Lagos, Ibadan, Calabar, Onitsha, Ilorin, Kaduna, Kano and Sapele. In addition to providing feed they are also directly providing maize to 30-50 other members of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN).

The development came few days after President Muhammadu Buhari announced the federal governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan to release 30,000 tons of maize from the national reserves to animal feed producers to deal with the high cost of poultry production after the ban on maize imports.

The president had said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are very mindful of the challenge of high food prices, at a time

when the economy is already in a slowdown caused by the global coronavirus situation, and are doing everything in our power to bring down the prices of food items across the country.â&#x20AC;?

Clearly, the foregoing shows the imbalance in the demand and supply of maize in the country, which could have negative impact on the economy if the resent intervention by the federal government is done.

Without the crop, the production of poultry and fishery in particular, piggery and other livestock in general would be endangered.

But production of the commodity in Nigeria is in short supply.

That is not to imply that Nigerian maize farmers are not making earnest effort to grow maize.

In fact, Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest producer is Nigeria with over 33 million tons, followed by South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia.

Africa imports 28 per cent of its required maize grain from countries outside the continent as most of the maize production in Africa is done under rain-fed conditions and irregular rainfall can trigger shortages and famines during occasional droughts.

We are very mindful of the challenge of high food prices, at a time when the economy is already in a slowdown caused by the global coronavirus situation, and are doing everything in our power to bring down the prices of food items across the country

According to FAO (2017) the total maize harvest in Africa was estimated at 40 million hectares, with Nigeria being the top producer (16%).

In 2019, maize production for Nigeria was 11,000 thousand tonnes. Maize production of Nigeria increased from 1,310 thousand tonnes in 1970 to 11,000 thousand tonnes in 2019 growing at an average annual rate of 6.89 per cent, according to the World Data Atlas.

In Nigeria, the largest volumes of maize are produced in the northern region, particularly in Kaduna, Borno, Niger, and Taraba and in the South-western states including in Ogun, Ondo and Oyo, according to a report by Sahel Capital Partners.

Cropping systems differ from north to south.

Northern farmers typically do not practice intercropping. While, in the south, maize is usually inter-cropped with yam, cassava, guinea corn, rice, cowpea, groundnut, and soybeans, the report by Sahel Capital Partners added.

The production season of maize differs in the north and south. The main season in the north is Mayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;October, while the main season in the south is March to August. There is usually a second season (Augustâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;January) which is rain-fed in the South and irrigated in the north. Harvest is usually done three months after planting. However, the cycles have been affected in recent years by changing weather patterns.

During the growing season the price of dry maize, locally referred to as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;old maize,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; increases significantly due to growing demand by processors. Grain merchants in northern Nigeria store the maize during the peak of availability and sell at higher prices in offseason periods to food processors and feed mill operators. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maize has become indispensable for food security in Nigeria. Much of the maize produced is consumed in a range of commercial sectors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;About 50 per cent of the maize produced is consumed by the animal feed sector, with poultry claiming as much as 98 per cent of the total feed produced in Nigeria,â&#x20AC;? the report added.

Stakeholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Reactions Some operators have welcomed the decision to grant approval to the four companies for the emergency maize importation.

This, according to them is because they have adequate storage capacity in or around the ports of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Sapele and Calabar to manage the quick off-load from vessel and storage, and the handling, bagging and distribution of the maize to different parts of the country within the next 45 to 60 days.

Shipments were received at dedicated ports to ensure a speedy and distributed impact into the market with traceability.

Another reason why they welcomed the choice of these companies is that they collectively represent over 50 per cent of the organised feed milling sector of Nigeria and therefore will keep the supply of feed flowing during this critical period.

The Director Animalcare, one of the largest egg producers based in Ogere, Ogun state, Asaba in Delta state and Kano, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, while speaking about maize importation licensing, noted that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the ones that were imported are already available even though there were some complaints that it was only foreign companies that were given the licence to import, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m of a different opinion. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Did any of the local operators or local stakeholders apply and the company was not given? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m definitely not aware of any. Then do we have any that has the capacity to bring in a shipload? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think so. Do they have the handling facility? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think so. The major players would have still ended up getting the license to import.â&#x20AC;?

Also, the Managing Director of Sapele-based Rainbow Feeds, Mr. Frank Ikemefune, in reacting to the development said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We buy from those that have been allowed to import, mainly multinationals, they have the money and we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have, they also have the facilities to import and receive and they are selling to us.â&#x20AC;?

Similarly, the Managing Director of Hybrid CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

27

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

Nanono

Feeds, Kaduna, Dr. Alayande Leye, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;for now the maize imports have been highly impactful because at a point before the importation, there was a drastic drop in supply and a high demand gap from feed millers and it really made the price of feed to skyrocket. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The imported maize that came, although it came at a time when the local maize was not available, gave a lot of respite, I tell you a lot of respite. If not for that maize, some farms would have been shut down by now, some farmers would have been out of business and the part of the protein requirement in diets would have been unavailable, so that saved us seriously.â&#x20AC;?

He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our company accessed from Wacot and that has brought our production back to full capacity of 1,000mt per day in all our plants. Before that we dropped to about 600mt. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let me be frank to all intents and purposes that imported maize was a saving grace and it is still a saving grace, because if not for that a lot of farms would have been downtoned and that would have caused a lot of unemployment. It would also have paved the way for imported chicken to come in, which we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pray for.â&#x20AC;?

In the same vein, the Chairman of Premium Farms, Alhaji Mahey Rasheed, argued that the intervention by the federal government to grant licenses to the four firms has brought back life to a sector and a value chain that was near total collapse.

According to him, about one-third of the poultry farms have already closed down as well as some companies that use maize to produce foods like Semovita, leading to a substantial loss of jobs.

However, despite the intervention, there are concerns that the country could still witness same challenge in the near-term, if capacity is not ramped up and also if rising cases of insecurity and ethno-religious crisis in some parts of the country are not addressed.

To the Managing Director of Sunchi Farms and Hatchery, Enugu and National Treasurer of Poultry Association of Nigeria, Mr. Sunday Ezeobiora, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The scarcity in my simple analysis will repeat next year, because of the issues of Boko Haram, banditry and restriction of movement due to COVID-19 and there was a fake fertilizer that circulated during the farming season and you can see from some peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s farms that the maize they planted are not doing well, you can also see army worms attacking the maize, so there is every indication that next year will be like this year.â&#x20AC;?

Also, the chairman of Agro Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Africanfarmer Mogaji, said the climate condition last year occasioned by heavy rainfall created a deficit for 2020.

He also said the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted the global supply chain also contributed to the deficit.

He pointed out that most of the multinationals

Buhari

that use maize use 100 per cent local maize, thus creating high demand and low supply for the Nigerian market.

Mogaji said the kind of seeds that would produce enough to meet Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minimal demand are not present in Nigeria. He added that besides shortage of seeds, the issue of bad weather, which the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) alerted on, was not put into consideration. He said the government had good intentions, but was given bad advice by banning the importation of maize.

He, however, praised the federal government for allowing the recent importation waiver because the alternative would be a grounding of the industry. He also praised the government for the specific importers they licensed as they would most likely maintain quality control.

He advised the government to allow importation until they can get the right kind of seeds and fertilizers to properly empower local farmers to produce to the extent of meeting local demand.

The National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;It takes more than the government to take decisions on what needs to be done. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The poultry industry itself should be able to come up with its total requirement of feed and other inputs. And since it is a business concern, it should know whether it is able to meet those needs from in-country and where it discovers that there is a shortfall in the country, it should make it very obvious to the government that all these things are not available, this quantum is not available, so the government can allow guided importation if need be to meet that shortfall. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But when we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the data, then it is only when something happens that we rush to find a solution, the poultry industry has not been forthcoming in telling the whole country that this is what the shortfall will be.â&#x20AC;?

It will help for the industrial consumers of maize to collate and know their consumption quota to help guide producers, because you cannot just produce without knowing your market, you must have an off-taker to validate your valueproposition

EmeďŹ ele

He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a former president of the poultry farmers association of Nigeria, I know that there is a very serious competition for maize consumed by humans and poultry.

Nobody knows the total maize consumption of human beings and that of poultry and so, even the maize growers cannot tell the exact quantity required, because there is no helpful data on consumption. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is impossible to plan when there is no data, so even if the government has a fault, we the farmers also have a fault. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There should be an information synergy between the industrial consumers, the growers and the government and we are working out modalities to establish this kind of working relationship which is vital to the survival and success of these sectors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is why we say that every agricultural association should come under AFAN to make data acquisition straightforward and enable the growth of a more efficient sector. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It will help for the industrial consumers of maize to collate and know their consumption quota to help guide producers, because you cannot just produce without knowing your market, you must have an off-taker to validate your value-proposition. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every business must have a business plan and that includes agribusiness, we must properly target our market. It is not just about making noise we must project what we intend to do and how to do it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This also affects the government because without precise data, even the interventions of government could fall short of targeted objectives, for example 5000mt tonnes was released to the poultry association as a whole when many individual members utilise about 10,000mt monthly.â&#x20AC;?

In addition, the timeliness of the intervention is notable, as it took only one month from the July 2020 date of approval by the CBN for the imported maize to land the country and pushed out to feed mills.

Premier feeds for example has been commended by the poultry association for their concerted efforts in providing succour to the poultry during the crisis to the sector For their support to the poultry industry development and agriculture in general, Premier Feeds is considered an integral team player in the sector.

Their efforts recognised by poultry owners in the country include the crucial role played in keeping the industry afloat through the importation of maize.

Demonstrable commitment to the industry by forfeiting their share of the 5000mt FG intervention to the sector. This was to help smaller scale farmers to benefit.

Premier Feeds has so far supported feed millers, intergrators & farms across Ogere, Enugu, Ibadan, Sapele, Jos, Abuja and Ogun with 6,301 Mt of maize Animal Feed Sub-sector Clearly, Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s animal feed sector remains

underdeveloped, largely due to high production costs.

It is interesting to note that 70 per cent of the operational costs of most poultry, aquaculture, and other livestock operations go to feed.

The animal feed sector, estimated at more than $2 billion, continues to attract significant local and foreign investment in large-scale feed mill operations.

Indeed, about 60 per cent of production goes to animal feed, especially for poultry. Other commodities utilised in lesser amounts in feed manufacture include groundnut, sorghum, other cereals, and fats and oils.

The current year has witnessed the highest recorded cost of maize/corn in the history of Nigeria (in the region of N180, 000 to N200, 000 per metric tonne (mt).

This increase came from a pre-COVID price of N80, 000 to N90, 000 per metric tonnnes in March this year, which coincided with the conclusion of the harvest.

The recent dramatic rise in maize price necessitated a one-off emergency supply of maize to supply the poultry and fish industries.

Nearly 60 per cent of feed inputs come from maize/corn and both industries are facing a challenge of near collapse due to scarcity and high cost of maize.

Many feed millers have significantly cut back or stopped production for lack of this commodity.

Nigeria is currently experiencing stock exhaustion from 2019 in the grain markets.

Necessitating urgent intervention initiatives to close the supply gap, stave off millions of job losses across the value-chain and prop up an economy that has already been impacted by the current pandemic.

The resultant effect of the latter initiative which is the only one in process for now, has pulled the sector back from the brinks of comatose and an unavoidable return to the era of imported and smuggled frozen poultry products.

Therefore, the urgent intervention by the CBN is significant and timely as poultry and fish farmers must make commercial decisions today on whether to continue growing their poultry and fish stock which have gestation periods between 60-180 days to maturity leading to the end of year period which is a peak sales season.

The animal protein and feed sectors in Nigeria employ millions all over the country largely in the form of MSME. By making this one-off, emergency supply, organised poultry and fish sectors will continue to be supplied with raw materials until harvest season when supply will become abundant and prices moderates.

This measure takes the pressure off the demand for maize, secures the survival of the poultry, fish and feed industries and ensures continuous nutrition of the populace.

It is also of such restricted quantity and amount that it will not negatively impact the harvest price for farmers.

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BUSINESSWORLD

ANALYSIS

Combating Fraud in Banking Industry Dike Onwuamaeze writes on efforts by banks to protect customers from the activities of fraudsters in the financial system who are on the prowl

M

any years ago, most transactions were carried out with both parties meeting physically. Money and goods were exchanged directly and everyone went their way. It was hard to attempt to swindle anyone.

However, we are now in the digital age and the world has evolved.

People can now order and pay for goods and services from the comfort of their homes.

Both parties â&#x20AC;&#x201C; buyer and seller â&#x20AC;&#x201C; donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even have to meet for transactions to be carried out.

Thanks to online banking, paying for goods and services is much easier than ever before.

This technological evolution, however, has increased the number of fraudsters lurking in the shadows, eager to hoodwink unsuspecting people and rob them of their monies.

In recent times, the activities of fraudsters have increased and the banking sector is grappling with efforts to tackle this menace headlong.

The Director, Payment System Management at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sam Okojere, had at the Access Bank Anti-Fraud Week forum held in Lagos last year, assured that the apex bank would come out with guidelines for the operation of financial technology (FinTech) companies and payment service banks (PSBs) in order to prevent fraud and make the financial system safer for all.

In order to realise this, the CBN recently unveiled the regulatory framework for sandbox operations that will help control how new tech-based financial products/services are launched into the Nigerian market.

In a 16-paged circular that was sent to all deposit money banks and fintech firms the CBN had explained that the regulatory sandbox would serve as, â&#x20AC;&#x153;a formal process for firms to conduct live tests of new, innovative products, services, delivery channels, or business models in a controlled environment, with regulatory oversight subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards.â&#x20AC;?

This is also intended to make it possible for the apex bank to adequately keep up with the latest innovations by banks and fintechs, whilst ultimately engendering a reliable, safe, and efficient payment system in the country.

Okojere had said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;A new BVN guideline should be coming out any moment from now.

When the exposure draft is released, I will encourage you to make a suggestion regarding your area of concern. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The risk-based supervision framework that will actually take care of Fintechs and PSBs is in the offing, very soon there will be a very clear guideline on that,â&#x20AC;? Okojere said.

Also, the Group Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, had said the workshop was the bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s avenue of reaching out to members of the community on issues around fraud, risk and cybersecurity through close engagement.

In Nigeria, he said customers are culturally not attuned to security issues around digital transactions, even well-educated people run the risk of falling victim to social engineering and identity theft traps. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We must go beyond educating customers on the protection of crucial information to actual data protection and integrity amongst operators and stakeholders,â&#x20AC;? Wigwe said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am a great believer in collaboration to solve problems. Our collaborative efforts in data protection and customer education are required in countering security threats in Digital payments,â&#x20AC;? he said further.

In line with this, the CBN and the Bankersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Committee recently launched a cyber-security and fraud awareness campaign, called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Moni Sense,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; to educate members of the public on the benefits of protecting their bank and other related transaction details.

The group stressed that as the year gradually comes to an end, comprehensive fraud and cyber security awareness was important in ensuring members of the public are informed on their role in protecting their banking information from fraudulent activities.

Earlier in April this year, the CBN also issued a fraud alert about the activities of cyber-criminals who are taking advantage of

Wigwe

the current coronavirus pandemic to defraud citizens.

CBNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor, said that cyber-criminals are taking advantage of COVID-19 pandemic to defraud citizens, steal sensitive information, or gain unauthorised access to computers or mobile devices using different techniques.

The apex bank admitted that the trend is not peculiar to Nigeria, as there has been a rise in COVID-19 related cyber-criminal activities all over the world. However, it is the priority of the apex bank to ensure that Nigerian bank customers are made aware of the current trend to prevent them from falling victims.

Access Bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Effort Access Bank Plc has been proactive in ensuring that its customers are safe from fraudulent activities as it asked customers to be on the lookout for fraudsters who are using new scam methods to rip people off by preying on the distress that comes with the nation-wide lockdown.

The bank said fraudsters contact their potential victim either via mail, phone call or text to request for sensitive banking details with the promise of crediting their account, after which they proceed to withdraw the money in the victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bank account.

It added that they often come under the guise of government officials, social advocates and false NGOs allocated to share the relief fund that was promised by the government.

This, unfortunately, is a fraudulent scheme and given the current state of affairs, an easy

scam to fall for.

According to the Executive Director of Retail Banking, Access Bank, Victor Etuokwu, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Access Bank is imploring its customers to be wary of any message, demanding their personal or bank details. Customers must remember that the Bank will never ask for their BVN, full card PAN, PIN, mobile app activation code, OTP or password as most of this information is readily available to the Bank via its database.

Any call, email and text message, claiming to be from Access Bank and demanding for any of these details is certainly a scam. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Also, customers are advised to refrain from sharing user-generated codes when migrating from the old mobile applications to the Access More app. With knowledge of this pin, these fraudsters can gain entry to your bank app, and from there have access to the money in your account,â&#x20AC;? he added.

Because of the peculiar nature of the lockdown situation, people are exposed to all sorts of threats including financial ones that may sometimes come in different and unusual formats. As a result of this, Etuokwu noted that everyone should remain vigilant at all times and report all suspicious activities to the appropriate authorities.

New game The bank, a few weeks ago, also identified that the Nigerian banking industry is currently witnessing increased regulatory scrutiny due to the impact of COVID-19, and customers have not been spared from the whims of fraudsters.

To this end, the bank urged customers to remain vigilant and beware of the common tricks used by fraudsters to rob them of their monies.

Etuokwu expressed concern about the growing number of fraud cases being reported. He implored customers to take more responsibility in safeguarding their funds and offered reassurance of the bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to providing information relevant to identifying and fending off fraudsters. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Over the last few months, the number of reported fraud cases has spiked considerably.

This is not unexpected as the current economic hardships experienced due to COVID-19 have caused many to be vulnerable. â&#x20AC;&#x153;However, this trend has become very disturbing, while we urge customers to become more aware of the tactics employed by fraudsters.

Access Bank will continue to educate customers on how to avoid falling victims as well as

deploy resources to ensure the security of customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; funds.â&#x20AC;? Etuokwu said â&#x20AC;&#x153;The bank has identified smishing, phishing, social engineering, and identity theft as the most common methods used by fraudsters.

To aid the fight against this common enemy, we have put more power in the hands of our customers, through the *901*911# USSD code. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have provided a platform through which customers can immediately deactivate their USSD profile by dialling *901*911# from any phone in the event their mobile devices get lost or stolen,â&#x20AC;? he added.

Through the years, Access Bank said it remains committed to educating its customers, informing and protecting them from fraudsters.

The bank has created dedicated pages on its official website that constantly educate customers on the schemes and tricks employed by fraudsters.

Responding to queries made by customers saying the fraudsters approached them disguising as the bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s staff, Etuokwu added that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Customers should be on alert as the bank will never ask for personal information such PIN, BVN, 16-digit card number, CVV, Password, OTP or Authentication Code for the mobile banking app. We urge our customers to ignore such calls, text messages or emails.â&#x20AC;?

Summarily, however talented a fraudster is, their real power is the access that customers give them. It is unknown to many that no fraudster can withdraw money from an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s account using only the BVN or account number. Hence, the recent panic by many on social media highlights the need for continuous customer education.

Access Bank has advised that customers should not enter their card details in an unsecured Website, never reply an email or text requesting for their card details, protect their PIN, check their bank statements often, amongst others.

Financial analysts and security experts believe that banks and security agencies such as the anti-fraud department of the Nigerian Police, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) work together to tame fraud monsters.

Stephen Iloba, a Lagos based financial expert, is of the opinion that all hands must be on deck before fraud and fraudulent activities in banks are tamed.

He said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Banks alone cannot fight this battle.

The battle can only be won if all stakeholders like the CBN, the Police and EFCC work together with banks. The fintech space should also be involved.â&#x20AC;?

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ T H I S D AY

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WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢T H I S D AY

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IMAGES

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; 2020

Photo Editor Ă&#x152;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039; Email Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC;Ë&#x203A;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039;ĚśĂ&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁĂ&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă Ă?Ë&#x203A;Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;

Senator Florence Ita-Giwa (left), presenting a souvenir to the ďŹ rst female Vice Chancellor-Elect of University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Banku-Obi in Calabar...recently

Minister of Women AďŹ&#x20AC;airs, Dame Pauline Tallen (2nd left) supported by oďŹ&#x192;cials of Adamawa government, during the inauguration of the National Cooking Gas and Tree Planting Exercise in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa...recently

L- R: Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; Board Chairman, NCC, Prof. Adeolu Akande; Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami; and Governor, Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, during the commissioning of NCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Emergency Communications Centre in Imo State...recently

L-R: Member of inductee, Association of Business Managers and Administrations of Nigeria(ABMAN), Mrs. Monica Mumonwu; Inductee Member, ABMAN, Barr. Ndayako Muhammed; Registrar, ABMAN, Ike Christopher; Chief Executive Director, Tredan Nigeria Ltd, (Inductee) Engr. Danjuma Sale and Inductee member, Mrs. Gbadamosi Esther, during the ABMAN conferment of Awards, Fellowship and Honors to his members in Abuja... recently PHOTO: ENOCK REUBEN

L-R: Ogun State Commissioner for Transport , Engr.Gbenga Dairo ,Secretary to Ogun State Government ,Mr. Tokunbo Talabi and Mr.Femi Thomas during the ďŹ&#x201A;agging oďŹ&#x20AC; the FT Cycle Care project in Abeokuta...recently

L-R: National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Coordinator of Plateau, Caroline Embu; Representative of the Executive Secretary, Plateau Universal Basic Education Board, Gyang Shom; Representative of the Chairman of Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau, Abel Sholom; and NYSC member, Ihuoma Melody Sarah (Service Number PL/19C/359), during the inauguration of LEA Primary School renovated by the corps member as her personal Community Development Project, in Nding Loh village, Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau...recently

L-R: Acting Regional Sales Manager, North, 9mobile, Mr. Sarafa Olapade; Managing Director, Allensar InďŹ nity Company Limited, Mr. Edward Nnamdi Emeanuo; Chief Executive OďŹ&#x192;cer, 9mobile, Mr Alan SinďŹ eld; Director, Sales, 9mobile, Mr. Tosin Olulana and Head, Regional Sales, 9mobile, Mr. Kabir Kazaure during 9mobileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visit to Allensar InďŹ nity Company Limited in Abuja...recently

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L-R; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ad Abubakar III; and Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Mera, during the meeting of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 with Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Healthcare Delivery in Abuja...recently

L-R; Team Lead, Non Maximum Demand Metering, Ikeja Electric, Fidelis Okosi; Executive Chairman, Shomolu Local Government, Hon. Abdul Hameed Salawu; Business Manager, Shomolu Business Unit, Ikeja Electric, Engr. Olanrewaju Yusuf and Head Admin/Council Manager, Shomolu LG, Mr Lai Giwa during the presentation of medical materials to the Hon. Chairman, Shomolu LG, Lagos recently

Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagu (R), and Special Assistant to the President on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in OďŹ&#x192;ce of the Vice President, Mr Tola Johnson, during a press conference to inaugurate the Implementation of Survival Fund and Guaranteed oďŹ&#x20AC;-take Stimulus schemes for MSMEs in Abuja...recently

Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration, Mrs Doris Braimah(left) handing over to Comptroller Ahmed Aliyu Bauchi(right)as the new Comptroller in charge of Nigeria Immigration Service, Lagos State Command in Lagos...recently

Rivers State Governor,. Nyesom Wike(left) and Deputy Goverrnor Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, during the inauguration of the Implementation Committee on Executive Council Decision in Port Harcourt...recently

R-L: President Muhammadu Buhari, SCOP Amb Lawal Kazaure and NSA MajnGen Babagana Monguno during the National Food Security Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House, Abuja....recently PHOTO; STATE HOUSE

L-R: Executive Director/COO, Re-ignite Public AďŹ&#x20AC;airs, Franklyn Ginger-Eke and Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, during the presentation of Re-ignite Public AďŹ&#x20AC;airs National Dialogue Series Plague to the Minister in Abuja....recently

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NEWS

MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2012 ˾ T H I S D AY

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L-R; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ad Abubakar III; and Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Mera, during the meeting of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 with Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Healthcare Delivery in Abuja...recently

L-R; Team Lead, Non Maximum Demand Metering, Ikeja Electric, Fidelis Okosi; Executive Chairman, Shomolu Local Government, Hon. Abdul Hameed Salawu; Business Manager, Shomolu Business Unit, Ikeja Electric, Engr. Olanrewaju Yusuf and Head Admin/Council Manager, Shomolu LG, Mr Lai Giwa during the presentation of medical materials to the Hon. Chairman, Shomolu LG, Lagos recently

Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagu (R), and Special Assistant to the President on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in OďŹ&#x192;ce of the Vice President, Mr Tola Johnson, during a press conference to inaugurate the Implementation of Survival Fund and Guaranteed oďŹ&#x20AC;-take Stimulus schemes for MSMEs in Abuja...recently

Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration, Mrs Doris Braimah(left) handing over to Comptroller Ahmed Aliyu Bauchi(right)as the new Comptroller in charge of Nigeria Immigration Service, Lagos State Command in Lagos...recently

Rivers State Governor,. Nyesom Wike(left) and Deputy Goverrnor Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, during the inauguration of the Implementation Committee on Executive Council Decision in Port Harcourt...recently

R-L: President Muhammadu Buhari, SCOP Amb Lawal Kazaure and NSA MajnGen Babagana Monguno during the National Food Security Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House, Abuja....recently PHOTO; STATE HOUSE

L-R: Executive Director/COO, Re-ignite Public AďŹ&#x20AC;airs, Franklyn Ginger-Eke and Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, during the presentation of Re-ignite Public AďŹ&#x20AC;airs National Dialogue Series Plague to the Minister in Abuja....recently

Founder, Rare Gems Jewelry, Mrs. Talatu Ogunlana(second left), ďŹ&#x201A;anked by her management team, marking the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 20th anniversary with a foundation laying ceremony of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposed factory in Epe, Lagos...recently

34

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´, 2020

EDUCATION Corruption: AAU VC, Council Chairman Trade Accusations In this exclusive report, Sunday Ehigiator highlights the lingering crisis between the ViceChancellor, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Prof. Ignatius Onimawo and the Chairman, Governing Council of the institution, Chief Lawson Omokhodion, which is capable of hampering the peace of the institution if Governor Godwin Obaseki remains silent over all allegations raised

A

s people of Edo State prepare to decide who will lead them for the next four years, there is a growing corruption concerns among the leadership of the state owned university, Ambrose Alli University (AAU), as the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ignatius Onimawo and the Chairman, Governing Council, Chief Lawson Omokhodion are at loggerheads over allegations of corruption and flaunting of due process In a recent interview with THISDAY, the Vice-Chancellor accused Omokhodion of buying a supposed official car, Land-cruiser Prado, worth N61 million (inclusive of delivery cost) in his name, instead of that of the university, and compelled the school to pay for it, with an ultimatum, threat and corresponding notice from Governor Godwin Obaseki. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We (the management and council of the school) paid a visit to the governor and during that visit, I informed the governor that the chairman of the council wants a car, and he said the university was in a position to buy a car for the governing council chairman, but in a joking manner. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After that visit, the matter never came up again, until one day that the chairman of council reached me by text message, and later followed with an email that the governor had said we should buy him a car. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On its own, there was no problem with it because the university can buy the governing council chairman a car if the money is available.

But he gave a deadline that the car must be bought before June 30, 2019. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He quoted the specifications, Land-cruiser Prado of certain year and other specifications, and said anything short of that, he will not take it. To us, that was strange because I have a Prado and the type of Prado that I have, as at the time we bought it, was about N33 million, and that was what we had in mind. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But when we got the specifications and the three quotations he got from the car dealers, which he also sent to us, the prices ranged from N55 million to N63 million. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He told us that the one that reached that particular specification was the one that was around N57 million. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Since he had written that the governor said we should buy him a car, and he gave us a deadline, and even threatened that if by that June 30, the vehicle was not delivered to his house in Lagos, both me and the bursar would be queried, and we would hear from the governor. So if you are in my position, with that kind of threat, would you do otherwise? â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I told bursar that we were in trouble, what should we do; we had to meet Fidelity Bank, we begged the bank to give us facility to get the car and repay in installments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So, when you talk about the normal due process, which I know, if a purchase is to be made, we can do selective tendering, whereby we call contractors who have delivered similar projects before, we give them the opportunity to bid, interact with them, before you would chose one and occupy that one to go ahead to deliver it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In this case, that did not happen. This was a direct directive all the way from the governor, and we cannot disobey the governor.

Onimawo added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The chairman bought the Land-cruiser Prado himself, registered it in his name and sent a bill of N61 million to the school to pay. He bought the vehicle for N57 million, but other handling charges took the cost to N61 million.â&#x20AC;?

Reacting to the allegation, Omokhodion when contacted by THISDAY denied buying the vehicle or registering it in his name.

According to him, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Governor of Edo State authorised for a car to be bought for me by the university. Quotations were obtained and the

Omokhodion

Onimawo

least price of N53.5 million was recommended. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The university paid for the car by transferring the money to Inehmic Autos in VI Lagos. The documents are all in the name of the university.

The governing council approved the purchase of the car. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everything was done according to due process. The university obtained a lease facility from the bank to finance the car purchase.

The VC and bursar couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make money on the purchase and so they are angry,â&#x20AC;? he said.

He also provided a picture of the vehicle registration details to this reporter.

The document showed that the vehicle, a Black Toyota Land Cruiser, was licensed under the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Lagos State Vehicle Licenseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;private carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on July 3, 2020.

It was issued a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;government plate numberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with the registration name, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Pro-Chancellorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Ambrose Alli University, PMB 14, Ekpoma Edo Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, as registered address.

The chairman further accused the vicechancellor of several financial misconducts and breach of due process, and named the Bursar, Prof. Lawrence Esene as an accomplice.

In a petition document addressed to Governor Obaseki by a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;coalition of members of concerned staffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of the institution, titled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Call to Investigate the VC and His Two Personal Staff over Corrupt Practices at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpomaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, also made available to THISDAY by the council chairman, the vice-chancellor, his personal staff, Mr. Chris Omo-lribhogbe and Mr. Eugene Eraikhuemen were accused of corruption, money laundering and diversion of university resources for private use.

The group called on the governor to investigate already investigated findings by the governing council and take necessary steps in other to block leakages of funds in the university and â&#x20AC;&#x153;correct past misdeeds by the Commissioner for Education, Mr. Jimoh Ijegbai, who was said to be on the VCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s payroll.

Among several other allegations listed in the petition, the group accused the VC of having â&#x20AC;&#x153;made the deans and heads of departments to pay monies into Omo-lribhogbeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s account during accreditation exercises in 2017 and 2018. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The VC without recourse to the chairman of council or the Governor of Edo State or the Education Commissioner, authorized the disbursement of over N5 billion from TETFund and needs assessment programmes. The EXCO of ASUU in the university will confirm this to you.â&#x20AC;?

Reacting to the allegation of financial misconducts and allegations of making â&#x20AC;&#x153;heads of departments to pay monies into his personal staffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accountâ&#x20AC;? as petitioned by some concerned staff and also operating a Treasury Single Account (TSA) introduced for the school by the council, Onimawo denied all.

According to him, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we have never operated a TSA before. What we met on ground was that every department, every faculty we collect their dues, we run their departments and faculty with their dues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We discovered that the process was not transparent. You cannot know how much of dues students are paying; faculties just run affairs without control or process of check and balance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So we brought the idea of budgetary control, not TSA. What we did was having central budgetary control. Every dean of faculty would come and defend the budget. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For instance, English Department, the Dean of Faculty of Arts would come and defend it, the students in the department are maybe 300, each of them pay N1,000 as total charges which could include journals, dues, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For each department, we allow you to raise N1.5 million at inception. So what do you want to do with it is the next question. So they come to defend their budget by stating all they intend to do for the session, and maybe all they want to do could amount to N1 million.

We then disburse them money according to their budget. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This was not happening before, we started it. And things were moving very well, there was no issue. So when this chairman came, he said he wants TSA. That he wants all the money to come into a central account. That it was inappropriate to have plenty signatories. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He complained about the dean and HoD being a signatory to the account, that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only the VC and the bursar that are recognised signatory to the school account, and that was how we started the TSA. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We did not oppose it. And we said we have to put a system in place to ensure that there is no delay in disbursing the money. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because, if for instance we created a different account where all those monies were been paid into, and also be separated into faculties and departments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So if Dean of Faculty of Agric is hoping for money, we look at how much do we have in their account and if their request is above what they have, we advice them. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Like what you have is just N200,000, you cannot be asking for N250,000. That created delay in both accreditation and disbursement of money. So several applications were written to reverse the system, that the system was full of delays, and council said no. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And there was no time I opposed it. But surprisingly, recently, students who were at the receiving end were now complaining that, even though they have paid their dues and all that, because of the delays in the release of funds, they are now levied to pay extra money, like N500, N300, to be able to provide

tools for their practicals. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When we were using the former system, once they pay, the HOD would buy the reagents they need for practicals and give them. Now, since the money is not being released as it used to be, there is a problem that students are now charged twice. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They have already paid their N1,000 due, now for every day of practicals, they will ask students to pay N200, N300 to buy things needed for practicals. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So we met with council that they should review the TSA system. When deans wrote, it was turned down. Even the Faculty of Education wrote because of its teachers registration and teaching practice, they said they should allow them keep the old structure because when they come to do their inductions, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where they would handle the whole thing, they were turned down. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Medical College also wrote, they were turned down. Me I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have problem with such things. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When the Student Union now wrote and you know students with the way they do their things with the whole threats of unrest, in his wisdom, the chairman of council wrote to them, and said we have abolished the TSA, that we should go back to the other system, and the management should monitor it closely. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how that now became a problem to the chairman. I supported him from the beginning up till the point he wrote to reverse it. That is the true situation.â&#x20AC;?

Responding to the allegation that he the council chairman always imposed specific person on him, to be posted to certain offices, the VC confirmed it.

According to him, â&#x20AC;&#x153;at the beginning of the chairmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenure, I think we disagreed on some issues and they led to the governor insisting that we have a three day retreat in Benin, where we brought a seasoned professor who has been a vice-chancellor before and a member of the governing council, so he can talk to us on the allocation of powers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After that retreat, it was reestablished that the council is a body that makes policies; the administrators implement those policies. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But we found a situation where the chairman of council makes policies and wants to implement those policies. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And this is where we have our disagreements. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a personal matter. I have nothing personal against him. So the question on him telling me to remove somebody and replace with somebody, is true. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sometimes some candidates wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be functioning properly in some areas and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll replace them, he would say return the person and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll obey because if I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t obey, it would seems as if Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m looking for a fight. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But in few cases Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll say no and tell him â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I know this person more than you, this person can do this jobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, he would say no. That occasion of roles is a problem.â&#x20AC;?

Also speaking on the major reasons for the animosity since he became VC, despite being close to the climax of his tenure, Onimawo said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a long story. In an apartment, we have different camps. We have a lot of candidates when I was about becoming the VC, we were about nine candidates, but I think I can identify about four different camps. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One camp that was in support of Prof.

Alamiere to become the VC, another camp favours Prof. Akwele, one camp in my favour to be the VC, and the other camp, though not very loud, was in support of Badaki. These were the four main camps, and there was also a fifth camp.

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

35

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´, 2020

EDUCATION

Koiki: Learning Will COVID-19: Experts Canvass Human be Hybrid When Capacity Building for TVET Schools Physically Reopen Funmi Ogundare

Uchechukwu Nnaike The CEO of Greensprings School, Lagos, Mrs. Lai Koiki has stated that the school will run a blended system of virtual and on-site learning when schools finally reopen this September.

She said this in an interview following the announced physical reopening of schools by the Lagos State government.

When asked what the school has put in place to ensure a safe physical resumption, she said Greensprings School will strictly follow the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reopening guidelines, adding that the school has developed some internal policies to complement the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposition. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have started working on ensuring that our facilities, staff and students adhere to the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidelines on school reopening. Our classrooms have been remapped to allow social distancing of two meters from one seat to another. We have disinfected the classrooms and other areas in our school, and this will continue regularly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;More hand-washing areas and sanitizer dispenser stations have been installed, and these have been done in all four

campuses, including Anthos House (our special needs school). As recommended in the guidelines, break time will be staggered, restrooms will be cleaned hourly, and our staff and students will wear a face mask at all times, except during the required outdoor mask-break period,â&#x20AC;? she said.

On the hybrid learning system, Koiki stated that the school plans to have not more than half of its student population in physical attendance on school days. By this, some students will come to school twice a week, while some will come three times a week. Students staying at home on a particular day will learn the same thing as those in school through the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online learning platforms, and this will ensure there are no learning gaps across all learning categories.

She said the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan will also ensure that students who are members of the same family will be scheduled to be in school (on-site) on the same day, as well as have virtual classes on the same day. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Provisions will also be made to continue virtual learning via the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online channels, for parents who do not want their children to resume physically for now.â&#x20AC;?

Stakeholders drawn from the Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) sector recently converged for a Zoom webinar aimed at creating a forum for TVE managers to seek ways of building human capacity for the development of the country.

The programme themed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;LASTVEB - Practical Skills Development in TVET pPost COVID-19â&#x20AC;&#x2122;, saw participants emphasising on the importance of practicals in TVE, while maintaining governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s safety guidelines amidst COVID-19 pandemic; having a public/private synergy to build skills and ensuring that students are equipped with the required skills to compete effectively in the outside world.

Other issues they dwelt on included: training teachers and facilitators on the new normal; boosting the curriculum to meet with the changing times; ensuring that government increase its investment in infrastructure and that policy on health and safety becomes a law, among others.

In her remarks, the Executive Secretary, Lagos State

Vocational and Technical Education Board (LASTVEB), Ms. Ronke Azeez said COVID-19 has brought about a change from what people used to do, as many things taken for granted in institutions are no longer tenable.

She said she was concerned about the readiness of stakeholders of vocational and technical institutions as schools prepare to resume. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have read and heard that institutions are going to resume soon, but are vocational and technical institutions and their stakeholders ready? â&#x20AC;&#x153;What does ready mean to us? Does ready mean investing in more workshops, laboratories, tools, to ensure that quality learning continues when following COVID-19 guidelines?

Does it mean taking on fewer learners at a point in time? Can we carry out apprenticeship on-line? Can all our skills development take place on-line. What would be the implication of all these and many more for the technical and vocational education providers and for the learners?â&#x20AC;?

The Head of Department,

TVE, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Dr. Jaiyeola Onipede stressed the importance of TVE to the development of the country, adding that efforts must be put in place to train students and youths in skills acquisition. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The new normal means that things will not be as it used to, we must take up the challenge. Skills development needs hands-on which means we must work with machines and tools, and be on site to impart knowledge.â&#x20AC;?

He highlighted new approaches to skills development to include e-learning, blended learning, formalising the informal apprenticeship and ensuring a public/ private partnership to build a skills bridge. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How do we ensure this type of learning? Every TVET personnel must accept a change and have a positive attitude towards the new normal. We must also update our training, facilities and develop new course materials,â&#x20AC;? he said.

A representative of West African Vocational Education Academy (WAVE), Ms. Ruth David said with the changing reality, there is

need for curriculum upgrade and retraining of teachers and facilitators on the health implications of being in the classroom and ensuring that there is social distancing among students.

The Chief Executive Officer, Automedics, Mr. Kunle Sonaike emphasised need for trainees to be how taught how to interact with the outside world while keeping to governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidelines. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some of the things we have taught our trainees is how to interact with customers because they will be going to the field for practicals, we have taught them that before they get into any vehicle, it must be sanitised. You have to prepare them for the outside world aside being safe in the classroom.â&#x20AC;?

The Dean, Universal Learn Direct Academia (ULDA), Mr. Babatunde Faleye called for the upgrade of the Work Base Learning (WBL) structure, adding that once students resume, they could come in batches and with tools made readily available to them for use. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Anytime a trainee uses any tool, we must sanitise the tools,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Lagos to Reward Deserving Teachers The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu has expressed his administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s readiness to reward excellence in the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teaching service, by pledging 20 cars to deserving teachers across the six education districts.

Sanwo-olu, who disclosed this during a virtual training of teachers tagged â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Eko Educators Webinar Performance Series 3.3â&#x20AC;&#x2122;, described teachers as key change agents who will be remembered for shaping future generation of leaders.

He adviced them to embrace technology to improve the quality of their teaching, adding that this will ultimately make them great teachers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is the era of technology and it is working well for us.

Technology has become a very strong tool that we cannot do away with in our everyday lives.

With technology, we can think locally and act globally.â&#x20AC;?

He said great teachers are always remembered for the lives they shape, deriving satisfaction in their students becoming role models to be proud of.

The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo said the quality of teaching and learning is critical to the success of any school system, this she said is exhibited in the quality of teachers with a multiplier effect on the children.

She thanked the teachers for their continual self development in addition to governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts in their development.

The commissioner commended the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) board

for the training, saying that it was doing well for the progress of education sector in the state. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Teachers are expected as locus paretic, to put in their best in bringing up the children who might have gone through different degree of trauma during the pandemic.â&#x20AC;?

The Chairman, TESCOM, Mrs. Elizabeth Ariyo said the webinar was a conscious effort of the commission to improve teaching styles, optimise the profession, turn around the life of children, and ultimately, impact on the future.

She noted that the webinar has empowered secondary school teachers to be prepared and proactive in teaching and learning to meet the challenges of the new normal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The platform portends to address teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; wellness and wellbeing, update them with trending facts to update their teaching skill, and has had notable distinguished personalities of interest in the public service and society at large to discuss issues.â&#x20AC;?

The Permanent Secretary, TESCOM, Mrs. Toyin Awoseyi, while applauding the presence of the governor on the webinar, said it was an attestation to the priority placed on teachers and the education sector.

The facilitator, and Chief Executive Officer, Gemstone Group, Mr. Fela Durotoye, who focused on the topic, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Making of a Great Teacher in the Centre of Excellenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, emphasised the importance of striving to become great teachers.

From left: Children of Modupe Cole Memorial Home, with their teacher, Mr. Kareem, receiving items from the Chairperson, Society of Women in Taxation (SWIT), Lagos, Dr. Titilayo Fowokan; and General Secretary, SWIT National, Dr. Odunayo Ani, during the visit of SWIT Lagos Chapter to the school to distribute nose masks and enlightenment materials, in Lagos... recently

MUSON Scholars Share Music Business Survival Tips MTN Foundation, the social investment vehicle of MTN Nigeria, recently hosted the fourth edition of its Business of the Art series.

Young Nigerians gathered online for a three-hour session aimed at guiding upcoming artistes and music enthusiasts to make informed decisions when navigating the converging lines of business and arts in the music industry.

The programme had twopanel sessions involving industry titans - VicePresident, International Strategy and Operations,

Warner Music Group, Temi Adeniji and Country Manager, ViacomCBS Network Africa, Bada AkintundeJohnson.

Others are: founder and CEO, Now Muzik, Efe Omorogbe; founder and CEO, BHM Group, Ayeni Adekunle; CEO MusicTime, Oye Akideinde; and Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Irancell, Larry Annetts, who was the keynote speaker.

Annetts stressed the need for a good marketing strategy to sustain a viable musical career, saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;your distribu-

tion will only be as good as your marketing plan.â&#x20AC;?

Omorogbe focused on elements required to build a successful career. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The focus should be primarily on the music - the quality; the brand positioning; the type of market targeted; the structure behind the talent.â&#x20AC;?

Ayeni shed light on the science of communication and relationship-building for young musicians, saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;it is beyond the music: the purpose of PR is building a relationship with your most important stakeholders on a continuous basis.â&#x20AC;?

While explaining the key factor in ideation and production of good music videos, Akintunde-Johnson stated that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the most critical factor is the storytelling.

The story is the most powerful.â&#x20AC;?

On his part, Adeniji pointed out that for preservation and value of talent and creativity the government has a pivotal role to play in music protection education. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a need to enable platforms that will allow access to music through legal means,â&#x20AC;? he said.

36

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´, 2020

EDUCATION

Digital Technology: Equip Adult Literacy Centres, Govt Told Funmi Ogundare A senior lecturer in the Department of Adult Literacy Education, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr. Blessing Anyikwa has called on the government to invest more in, and equip adult and youth literacy centres with the infrastructure and technologies needed to adapt to a digital environment.

She said efforts must also be made towards providing facilitators and learners with the skills to function well.

Anyikwa made this known during a virtual commemoration of the International Literacy Day with the theme â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Literacy Teaching and Learning in the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond Especially the Role of Educators and New Pedagogiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, organised by Lagos State Agency for Mass Education.

She said facilitators need re-training, and learners need to know how to use online space while embracing learning anywhere and anytime. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Virtual learning should be a habit on a daily bases for both facilitators and learners.

Digital skills are now central, a new sort of basic skills, deeply intertwined with digital learning. These skills need to

be learned by facilitators and then the learners over time.â&#x20AC;?

The don said the COVID-19 crisis has been a wake-up call for stakeholders of adult and youth literacy education and has shown what can be done with technology.

She said it has also accelerated the reality of trends that were already in place to help the youths and adults in the teaching/learning process as well as labour market transformation to the digital economy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Without a doubt, COVID-19 has come to shake the world.

Now it will be a question of analysing the lessons that have been learned during this time and determining what will have to change beginning now,â&#x20AC;? Anyikwa stressed.

The Director of the agency, Mrs. Kemi Kalesanwo said her office, with basic components such as mass literacy, continuing remedial education and vocational/skill acquisition, is saddled with the responsibility of reducing illiteracy rate to the barest minimum in the state.

The COVID-19 crisis, she noted, has been a stark reminder of the existing gap between policy discourse and reality. â&#x20AC;&#x153;During COVID-19 in many countries, adult literacy

programmes were absent in the initial education response plans, so most adult literacy programmes were suspended.

However in Lagos State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is passionate about adult literacy, approved literacy by radio programme (Mooko Mooka), which is aired on Radio Lagos every Wednesday and Saturday.â&#x20AC;?

The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab said the International Literacy Day was aimed at highlighting and promoting the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights to individuals, communities and societies, as well as advancing literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society.

He noted that the forum will provide an opportunity to reflect on and discuss how innovation and effective pedagogies can be used in youths and adult literacy programmes to face the pandemic and beyond. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It will also give an opportunity to analyse the role of facilitators, as well as formulate effective policies, systems, governance and measures that can support facilitators and learning.â&#x20AC;?

In her paper titled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bridging the Gap between Policy and Reality in Adult Teaching and Learning in COVID-19 Crisisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the Chief Lecturer, Continuing Education, Literacy Education and Community Development, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Dr. Joke Ajayi said the importance of literacy to sustainable development goals of any nation cannot be overemphasized, considering the need to sustain the achivements made.

She suggested strategies for bridging the gap between the government policy on adult literacy and the reality of COVID-19 crisis to include distance learning through radio and television, small group learning, self family learning, each one teach one, learning with a facilitator on the phone.

Another way, she noted is sponsoring the creation of apps to aid the teaching and learning of adults at the least cost and convenience. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While it is believed that COVID-19 will not remain with us forever, it is expected that the government should do all that is required to ensure that the gains already made in adult literacy in Lagos State are sustained during the subsisting COVID-19 crisis.â&#x20AC;?

KEHINDE OMORU www.kayomoru.com

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;WASH YOUR HANDS, COVER YOUR FACE, MAKE SPACEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Wash your hands, cover your face, make spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is currently one of the lines in a radio station jingle here. For some strange reason, I found myself reďŹ&#x201A;ecting, out of context, on this public health promotional cry. As you must already know, in context it is reminding one and all of the main strategies to avert contracting COVID-19.

Lifting things out their context canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be strange to you. Being human is one of the many survival techniques human beings use to live their lives in ways they deem as best possible. It however can be positively as well as negatively used. I believe you must have a wealth of experiences of extra-contextual use of phenomenon.

At times in life, in the best interest of your wellbeing, you may have to consciously take control of your essence (your person) by resolutely coming out of ungainly situations; ceremoniously washing your hands from all involvement. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m referring to a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;leavingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that may warrant your physical exit (for example: resignation or dissociation); akin to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cover your faceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in our jingle.

Your self-disconnection automatically will â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;make spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Making space in itself is necessary for progress, change and evolution.

Have you noticed how the phrase connotes a conscious, continuing and eďŹ&#x20AC;orts full requirement on an individual.

You could be making space for fresh new idea, perspective, ideology, belief or value. Whatever it is youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re making space for, make it an informed, well-thought through and inexpensive move.

The following are some things people have made space for since COVID-19 gained ground around the world in March this year: Ëž Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x2DC;Ă?ĂĄ Ă?Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ë&#x203A; Ëž Ă&#x;ĘľĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ ʨĂ&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ë&#x203A; Ëž Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x161;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x161;Ă?Ă&#x153; Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ë&#x203A; Ëž âĂ?Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁË&#x203A; Ëž Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă? Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ëž Ă&#x2039;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁĂ?Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă?Ă&#x2022;Ă? Ëž Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x;ĘľĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2039; ËŠĂ&#x2014;Ă?ËŞ Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă? Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁ Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153; Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2013;Ă? indulgences regularly. Ëž Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁ ĂĄĂ&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ë&#x203A; Ëž Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă? Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă? Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ë&#x203A; Ëž Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17D;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă? Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă Ă?Ă&#x153;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018;Ë&#x203A; Ëž Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ă&#x161;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x2122;Ă? Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x161; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018;Ë&#x203A; Ëž Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă Ă? Ă&#x152;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă?Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; decisions and actions I would take. Ëž Ă?Ă Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă? Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x153; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; Ă?Ă&#x;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x153; development. Ëž Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă? Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x2022;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; my neighbourhood. Ëž Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;ĂĄĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x161;Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2013;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2022;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x153; Ă&#x2122;ĂĄĂ&#x2DC; Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2022;Ă?Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2DC; Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x2014; rather than playing â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rescuers â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;all the time. Ëž Ă?Ă Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁ Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2018;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă? Ă?Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;Ă? Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁË&#x203A; Ëž Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2014;ĂŁ Ă&#x2122;ĂĄĂ&#x2DC; Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2013;Ă?ĘľĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă? Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x161; Ă&#x2014;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2122;Ë&#x203A;

Mrs Kehinde Omoru writes from the UK

Representatives of Daniel Ogechi Memorial Foundation (DOAM), during the donation of food items and hand-washing kits to the less privileged in Lagos... recently

REEL Young Writers Challenge Produces Winners Peter Uzoho REEL Foundation, a notfor-profit humanitarian organisation focused on childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning and development, has unveiled winners of the maiden edition of its Young Writers Challenge.

The Young Writers Challenge is a special programme organised for children within the ages of seven to 13 years, with the aim of celebrating them, their imagination and creativity, irrespective of where they live.

The maiden edition was competed by children from 345 applications received from over 20 states in Nigeria and five children emerged winners from the ages seven to nine

category while 10 best children emerged from that of ages 10 to 13 category.

At a press conference last weekend where the winners were unveiled, the first, second and third best contestants for the seven to nine years category received cash prizes of N20,000, N15,000 and N10,000 respectively, in addition to free NaijaKids activity books, and scholarship to attend iREAD Writersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Camp holding next month.

The fourth and fifth best in that category also received N5,000 and the activity book only.

In the ages 10-13 category, the first, second and third best contestants went home with cash prizes of N50,000, N30,000 and N15,000 respec-

tively, in addition to one tablet each.

Also, the last seven in that category went home with N10,000 cash prize.

Speaking at the event, the founder of REEL Foundation, Ajoke Omawore, described the maiden Young Writers Challenge as a success.

She said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Young Writers Challenge has been in the pipeline in the last two years, but this year provided an opportunity for us to test the new normal that we are in. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For instance, technology is something that has been greatly used this year, and we thought about how do we reach out to children irrespective of their background, to engage them, make sure

they are learning, and that was why we decided to do the challenge this year and focus on children telling stories about COVID-19.â&#x20AC;?

Going forward, Omawore said the foundation would be publishing an anthology of the first 15 entries for the two categories. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are going to put all of their stories into an anthology and publish it on our social media platforms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Like we said, we want other people to also enjoy the stories that this brilliant children wrote. Beyond that, we believe this is going to be an annual event.

Subsequently, we also want to reach out to corporate organisations who can continue to sponsor us,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Soludo Endows Funds in UNIZIK, Ojukwu Varsity for Best Economics Graduates David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has endowed funds for the best graduating students in the Departments of Economics, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State.

The funds were endowed on his behalf by a group, All Soludo Support Group, a coalition of groups seeking his emergence as governor of Anambra State.

The Leader of the group, Mr. Jude Emecheta, who presented a cheque of N1 million to the Vice- Chancellors of the two universities, said best graduating students from the two universities will get N100,000 for the next five years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are donating this N1 million to Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam,

as an endowment fund for the Prof. Chukwuma Soludo Prize for the Best Economics Student. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A prize of N100,000 will be won by the best graduating student in the Economics Department of each of the universities for the next five years.â&#x20AC;?

Receiving the cheque, the Vice- Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Professor Charles Esimone, and his Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University counterpart, Professor Greg Nwakoby, thanked the group for the gesture, saying that the ex-CBN Governor was a role model to be celebrated.

Esimone said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Soludo is one person youths should look up to because he had a very humble background and rose through sheer hard work and Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grace to become what he is today. When he became the CBN governor, the wonderful transformations he carried out were very evident.â&#x20AC;?

37

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´, 2020

Gombe Inaugurates Obi, an Amazon as UNICALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s First Committee on Schools Female VC Devt, Teachers Rationalisation Paul Obi

Segun Awofadeji in Gombe Determined to ensure that the education sector is placed on the path of progressive development, the Gombe State Government has inaugurated a seven-man committee on schools development and teachers rationalisation in the state.

The committee is to among other areas of concern, lay the foundation for the decongestion of over- populated schools and ensure equitable posting of teachers to schools within the state.

Inaugurating the committee recently, the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Hon. Babaji Babadidi said the action became necessary in view of the disparity in the number of teachers and students in schools across the state, particularly in Gombe Local Government Area.

He said the current administration of Governor Muhammadu Yahaya is desirous of bequeathing an educational system that can be compared to what obtains in advanced nations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can see for yourselves that in the last one year the Governor Yahaya-led administration has done

the unexpected in building the capacity of teachers and constructing hundreds of blocks of classrooms across the state.â&#x20AC;?

The SUBEB chairman said the inauguration of the committee was part of measures put in place by the state government through the board to demystify the state of emergency earlier declared by the governor on the education sector.

He charged members of the committee to be firm and decisive in the discharge of their assignment, which he said is aimed at repositioning the education sector for effective and efficient service delivery.

The Chairman of the committee, Dr. Abubakar Kumo assured the state of membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; readiness to deliver on the mandate given to them, adding that the inauguration could not have come at a better time than now when the state government is gaining grounds towards repositioning the education sector.

Kumo, who is a full-time member ll of SUBEB, thanked the government for giving them the opportunity to serve on the committee.

The seven-man committee has one week to complete its assignment.

Oyetola Backs Planned Establishment of Girls Military School Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola has said that the state is well positioned to host one of the six Girls Military Schools, which the Nigerian Army plans to establish across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

This is also as the governor named the ancient town of Ede in particular as the most suitable community to host the school.

Oyetola disclosed this while receiving an eight-man delegation of high-ranking officers of the Nigerian Army, led by the Chief of Standard and Evaluation, Major General Francis Azinta, during a courtesy visit in his office at the Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Secretariat, Abeere, Osogbo.

It was gathered that the delegation was on an inspection tour of the state.

Oyetola, who described Ede as a secure and peaceful community, with friendly and accommodating people, maintained that the government would not have to go through the stress of looking out for a virgin land to site the school, adding that the Command School in Ede town would be a good host.

While addressing the delegation, Oyetola said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to thank the Nigerian Army for counting our state worthy of hosting one of such great institutions being planned

to be established across the geopolitical zones in Nigeria. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We appreciate the gesture.

We are very eager, ready and willing to support this noble project. The government will particularly be willing to support this gesture because it is good to encourage women as part of the nation architecture for development.â&#x20AC;?

In his remarks, Azinta, who described Osun as the most peaceful state in the country, said the six schools would be spread across the zones. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In 2017, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Buratai established the Women Corps. This year, he mulled the idea of establishing the girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; military schools which will combine academic and military trainings for young women, particularly for those aspiring to take up career in the military. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There will be six across geopolitical zones and the Army has resolved that at least, 60 per cent of annual enrolment will be from the political zone. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are considering the establishment in the existing Command Schools. We are also open to the option of the provision of a virgin land, provided the state is ready to partner with the military. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The site of the school must not be in a remote part of the state so that it can be accessible to students from different parts of the country, since it is a national school,â&#x20AC;? Azinta stated.

The year 2020 will remain in the annals of history as an unpredictable, turbulent and awesome year. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a year historians will crack their brains trying to figure out the origin of its many troubles and even mystique powers, brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic. Beyond the eerie mood of the year, pundits would also be free to tag 2020, the year of women. The year, gender equality advocacy took a turn for the better. In the coastal town of Calabar, where University of Calabar is located, history has also been made with the appointment of the first female vice-chancellor of the ivory tower by the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Governing Council after 45 years of its existence.

The pronouncement by the University of Calabar â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Governing Council that it has appointed Prof.

Florence Obi as the 11th and first female Vice-Chancellor of the university was received with great aplomb and celebration. Specifically, it was not a mean feat. A peep into the screening and interview conducted for the 11 candidates, indicated that Prof. Obi came top in the exercise.

Obi, an educationist by training has ascended the vice-chancellor position upturning history and shattering societal limitations that often obstructed women from rising.

Obiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trajectory in teaching, public service and university administration comes with full pack experience and the knowhow that will assist her to navigate and run the University of Calabar, repositioning the institution to a global one. From being the Dean of Faculty of Education, to Deputy Vice- Chancellor, Commissionerfor Women Affairs in Cross River State and a UNESCO Chief Consultant, she comes into the job as a VC with all the trappings of a good fit and technocrat ready to deliver on day one.

With degrees from the Universities of Jos, Calabar; University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, she has the requisite knowledge and capacity to lead the university to its anticipated glory land.

As a bonafide indigene of Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State,

Prof. Florence Obi

Obi will be stepping into the plum post of VC that had been occupied by another Boki erudite scholar, Prof. Kelvin Etta. Not only that, Obiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appointment will surely be a triumph that even late Boki illustrious sons and daughters like Prof. Sr Theresa Abang- Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first Professor of Special Education, Rev. Fr Dr. Nicholas Obi, AIG Dr. Rose Abang Wushishi, Chief Michael Etta Ogon, Chief. M.T. Mbu and others will be applauding her even in their graves.

Beyond that, the onerous task of overseeing University of Calabar is never going to be a tea party or a walk in the park.

It comes with great responsibilities that Prof. Obi must painstakingly thread carefully. In an era when vice-chancellors in Nigerian universities move around with some gusto and as demigod, Prof. Obiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target and agenda should only be fixated on the golden crown.

The University of Calabar under her watch should strive to join the league of Universities of Cape Town, Ibadan, Nsukka and Lagos as African best. Given the strategic location of the university, in the Gulf of Guinea, with students from Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, the University of Calabar has the potential of becoming a global institution in Strategic Studies, Maritime and many other areas.

There is also the urgency to do away

with the comatose university system and embrace new technologies and digitization in the running of the university. The in-coming VC must do everything within her capacity to end the blood-sucking and fatalistic activities of cultists. Within that axis, the quality of girl-child and female education has regrettably been deteriorating.

There are fears that in the nearest future, there will no longer be women that have stood the test of time like the late sage, Margaret Ekpo; Late Sen. Rose Oko; Eno Traore, Cecilia Onor, and even the present crop of women leaders like Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, former first ladies, Mrs. Obioma Liyel Imoke, Mrs. Onari Duke, former Head of Sevice of the Federation (HOSF), Winifred Oyo-Ita, current Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Tina Agbor, among others. The gap in girl-child education is one critical area the University of Calabar can explore for improvement so that young girls can tomorrow measure up to the afore-mentioned amazons and women leaders.

Just as the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing h Council, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu stated during the announcement of the new VC, what is expected of Obi is for her to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;an integrative agent,â&#x20AC;? bringing to bear her experience and motherly touch to â&#x20AC;&#x153;motivate staff and

students.â&#x20AC;? It is therefore incumbent on her to be a team player in all ramifications.

Where others have ran the university as a personal and clannish enterprise, let Obi pursue inclusiveness. Where others have focused more on peepshow and window-dressing, let her template be altruistic and peopleoriented. Where others have been consumed by the paraphernalia of the VCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, let her be humble, chasing the stars, glory and networking with the alumni to make the university great.

By this very appointment and feat, University of Calabar and Cross River State appear to be pushing the frontiers of history beyond the scope of ordinary. To say the least, the appointment amounts to a charm offensive against the vagaries of inequality in whatever form and tenor. It fittingly underscores the broad thinking expected in a university environment. More fundamentally, Obi needs to go beyond the grip-and-grin of the appointment and display her astute qualities. The optics of her legacy as the 11th and first female Vice-Chancellor of University of Calabar should be the one that Nostradamus, the great French astrologer would be excavated to document for the benefit of all. Wish you well and may your God guide you.

Congratulations!

-Obi, a journalist, wrote from Abuja

38

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´, 2020

CITYSTRINGS

Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă&#x161; Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă? Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ë? Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă? äĂ?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x201C; Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013; Ă?Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ë&#x203A;Ă?äĂ?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x201C;ĚśĂ&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁĂ&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă Ă?Ë&#x203A;Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ë&#x153; Í&#x2018;Í&#x2122;Í&#x2019;Í&#x2013;Í&#x201C;Í&#x201C;Í&#x2013;Í&#x201C;Í&#x201D;Í&#x201C;Í&#x2013;

Improving Quality of Air across Lagos Metropolis The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency has put machinery in motion to accelerate policies and action plans aimed at improving air quality in the state through the deployment of Air Quality Monitoring Stations at strategic locations to enable government measure criteria air pollutants on a 24-hour, real-time basis. Chiemelie Ezeobi writes

N

igeria has the highest burden of fatalities from air pollution in Africa and ranks fourth globally. According to report, the air people breathe in Nigeria is more likely to cause harm than the air in any other country in Africa because Nigeria currently has the highest burden of fatalities from air pollution in Africa and fourth highest in the world with 150 deaths per 100,000 people attributable to pollution. Perhaps, this explains why air pollution has been defined as the silent rage of death.

Causes According to 2012 released annual State of the Global Air Report published by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), air quality in Nigeria and at least 10 other countries is among the deadliest anywhere on earth with higher than ambient air pollution death rates as a result of the environmental hazards combined with extreme pollution sources like generator fumes, vehicle emissions and crop burning among others.

Other common causes of air pollution included burning of fossil fuels, industrial emission, indoor air pollution, wildfires, microbial decaying process, transportation, open burning of garbage waste, as well as construction and demolition.

Effects Long-term health effects from air pollution include heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases such as emphysema. Air pollution can also cause long-term damage to people's nerves, brain, kidneys, liver, and other organs.

Short term effects on the other hand include global warming, climate change, acid rain, smog effects, deterioration of fields (Contaminated water and gases seep into the earth, changing the composition of soils. That directly affects agriculture, changing crop cycles and the composition of the food we all eat), chemical sensitivity, deterioration in building materials and skin damage.

Global Statistics The HEI chart notes that there were 150 deaths per age-standardised deaths per 100,000 people attributable to air pollution in Nigeria in 2016 (the latest year of available data), compared to high industrialised countries like China, 117 deaths per 100,000 people; Russia, 62 deaths per 100,000 people; Germany, 22 deaths per 100,000 people; United Kingdom, 21 deaths per 100,000 people; the United States, 21 deaths per 100,000 people; Japan 13 deaths per 100,000 people and Canada, 12 deaths per 100,000 people.

Only Afghanistan with 406; Pakistan, 207, and India, 195 deaths per 100,000 people per country, exceed the Nigerian figure. The chart showcases a striking gap between the most and least polluted air around the world. While developed countries have experienced success in reducing emissions and air pollution levels, poorer nations have fallen behind, although it should be noted that tougher pollution controls are being introduced in some of the countries. In 1990, 3.5 billion people were exposed to it and that has now fallen to 2.4 billion despite an increase in the global population.

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Air Quality Bringing it home, according to a 2016 World Health Organisation report, Onitsha, Kaduna, Aba and Umuahia were among four of the 20 African cities with the worst air quality in the world. The WHO

Thus, to mitigate the health risk associated with air pollution, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the agency will also be carrying out a public air quality awareness campaign particularly in exposed communities such as people living in areas with high vehicular movement and industrial activities. This campaign will target high risk communities with high prevalence of avoidable high risk behaviours,â&#x20AC;? the general manager added.

On the level of preparedness of the state government to cope with environmental challenges that will accompany increasing population and industrial growth of the state, Dr. Fasawe stated that with consistent advocacy, adequate incentive and full engagement of the private sector as well as government relevant stakeholders such as LAMATA and Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources, the use of public transport by the populace can be significantly increased, so as to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and lessen the air pollution burden on the environment.

The facilitators during the recent webinar on Clean Air for a Healthy and Sustainable Environment in Lagos (Fantasy or Reality) measured air quality by examining the annual mean concentration of particulate matter in nearly 3,000 cities across the world with populations of at least 100,000.

Onitshaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s average annual PM10 was 594 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; nearly 30 times greater than the WHO-recommended annual level of 20.

Kaduna, Aba, and Umuahia cities were ranked among the top 20 worst cities measured by PM10, ranking 8th, 9th, and 19th, respectively The Lagos Example Lagos, which is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, is not left out.

Having been identified as one of the fastest growing megacities, this means the concentration might be many times higher than the thresholds recommended by the WHO. Given the urban nature of the state and its rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, this has contributed to the exposure of people to ecological problems and changing climate conditions, with its attendant negative effect on human health.

In Lagos for instance, an estimated seven million people died from diseases related to indoor and outdoor air pollution in 2012 according to the WHO. Part of the problem is that environmental regulations and enforcement are lax; people are more exposed to air pollution but less able to protect themselves from exposure either in the open, in the workplace or at home.

Measures by LASEPA Although the above statistics for Lagos was in 2012, the present General Manager of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Dr. Dolapo Fasawe, is bent on changing that narrative and turn Lagos into a clean city in line with best global standards.

How does she intend to do this? The environmental Amazon hopes to put policies and action plans in place to improve air quality in the state. Beyond rhetorics, she has moved on to put plans in motion to accelerate interventions targeted at reducing mortality associated with air pollution.

Making public her plans in a recent webinar session themed â&#x20AC;&#x153;Clean Air for

A Healthy and Sustainable Environment in Lagos (Fantasy or Reality)â&#x20AC;?, in commemoration of the First International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, she said the state government, under the leadership of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has put machinery in motion to accelerate policies and action plans aimed at improving air quality in the state.

While highlighting the emergence of air pollution as the number one public health risk associated with millions of death worldwide, she said the statistics calls for serious attention, adding that â&#x20AC;&#x153;we should be worried about air pollution as the World Health Organisation (WHO) attributes over 4 million deaths to ambient air pollution globally, with the majority being respiratory and Cardio-Vascular diseases. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some studies have associated areas with poor air quality with higher risk of COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality. Although these studies are not conclusive, they give an indication of the danger posed by poor air quality and the need to address same urgentlyâ&#x20AC;?.

According to her, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation of Lagos has contributed to the exposure of people to ecological problems and changing climate conditions, with its attendant negative effect on human health.

Reiterating that the development is a wake-up call to accelerate interventions and policies aimed at improving air quality, in order to increase the chances of preventing mortality associated with air pollution, she listed vehicular and industrial emissions as major sources of air pollution in the state, noting that the metropolis observed and enjoyed very good Air Quality Index (AQI) during the period of the nation-wide lockdown as a result of the restrictions placed on both human and industrial activities.

She said the state government is committed to the deployment of Air Quality Monitoring Stations at strategic locations in Lagos to enable the government measure criteria air pollutants on a 24-hour, realtime basis, to serve as foundation for developing informed policies and actions towards improvement of air quality.

Risks Associated with Air Pollution In his presentation, Prof. Gregory E. Erhabor, Consultant Pulmonologist & Professor of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, analysed the risk of air pollution on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. According to him, the World Health organization (WHO) reported in 2016 that 91 per cent of the world populations were living in places where the air quality guidelines levels were not met.

Professor Erhabor revealed that Particulate Matter (PM), Ozone (03), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) are major pollutant with adverse effect on human health. He listed the effect of exposure to air pollutants on humans to include respiratory, cardiovascular, dermal and neurological diseases, especially in countries with high industrialisation and lax air quality legislation. He therefore called for strict legislations to protect the lives of people in polluted industrial areas.

The Role of SDGs The Special Assistant, Office of the Special Assistant to the President on SDGS, Ms Rose Keffas highlighted that the Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2.3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 respectively addresses the threat of air pollution to human development, with their strong focus on poverty reduction and promotion of healthy living.

Noting that it is disheartening to lose four million people annually to traditional pollutants especially due to poverty-related factors, Ms Keffas said, achieving Sustainable Global Development requires strong action, such as reduction of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exposure to traditional environmental pollutions linked to poverty, such as household air pollution and unsafe water sources. Promoting cleaner alternatives including the use of improved cook stoves and modern fuels can drastically reduce air pollution.

With the global statistics stating that Nigeria has the highest burden of fatalities from air pollution in Africa and ranks fourth globally, the government must put tougher pollution controls if it hopes to effectively combat air pollution by producing safer and more environmentally friendly alternatives.

This they can do by increasing the public awareness of air pollution and the burden of diseases that it imposes on people. Also, the role of workable policies should not be left out in making viable changes.

39

T H I S D AY Ëž SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

CRIME&SECURITY

Police Trust Fund Chair Tours Barracks, Vows to Demolish Distressed Quarters Stories by Chiemelie Ezeobi

T

he Chairman, Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), Suleiman Abba, during his recent tour of police barracks in Ijeh and Police College in Lagos, said the trust fund will not hesitate to demolish police barracks that are in distress and below habitable standard for policemen nationwide.

During his assessment of Ijeh Barrack on the Lagos Island, he said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;What I am seeing today is a dilapidated barracks...if not that I don't have where to put them today, I would have relocated them (policemen), knocking down one or two and rebuild the barracks to a human habitable status.â&#x20AC;?

Bemoaning lack of water, leaking roofs in almost all the barracks, he equally promised to "renovate the barracks that are still good to a human habitable status, with the provision of modern toilets, flowing water, safe roofs where water will no longer leak into rooms, safe electricity... that's what a policeman deserves".

The erstwhile Inspector General of Police who had the following officers in his entourage; the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, CP. Hakeem Odumosu; Commissioner of Police in charge of Works, Department of Logistics and Supply; CP. Aliyu Abubakar; Area Commander, Area 'A' Lion Building, ACP. Bode Ojajuni and others, evaluated the state of dilapitation of Ije Barracks at Obalende area, Mopol 20 Police Barracks and

The Chairman, Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), Suleiman Abba ďŹ&#x201A;anked by Lagos Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu and others

the Police College at Ikeja.

He further emphasised that the present President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has deemed

it fit to unprecedentedly initiate the trust fund in order to improve and place the Nigeria Police ahead of her global counterparts especially

in the areas of trainings, welfare, logistics and a host of others, for a more efficient security service in the country.

GOC 81 Division Visits AIG Zone 2, Pledges Collaboration

The GOC and AIG during the courtesy call

The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division Nigerian Army, Major General Godwin Umelo has pledged to sustain the collaboration

between the army and police in combating security challenges within area of operational responsibility covering Lagos and Ogun States.

He made this declaration to the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 2 Command, AIG Illiyasu Ahmed, during a courtesy visit to the

latter.

According to the acting Deputy Director Army Public Relations Officer, Major Adeniyi Osoba, the courtesy visit by the GOC was in furtherance of the synergy and collaboration between Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police in ensuring the security and protection of lives and property.

The GOC noted that the two sister serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roles are interwoven hence the need to sustain synergy and collaboration to close gaps that may arise from time to time between the two services.

In his remarks, the AIG lauded the existing synergy and collaboration between the two services and reiterated on the commitment and readiness of the zonal command to continue to partner the Nigerian Army in combating crime and criminality towards ensuring security of life and property.

Some of the highlights of the courtesy visit include the inspection of quarter guard by the GOC mounted by men of the Headquarters Nigeria Police Zone 2 Command Onikan, Lagos and exchange of souvenoirs by the GOC and AIG.

Railway Crossing: FRSC Cautions Motorists against Impatience The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Lagos State has cautioned motorists against impatience and rush at various railway level crossings in the state to forestall unnecessary crashes involving trains and vehicles.

The Lagos Sector Commander of FRSC, Corps Commander, Olusegun Ogungbemide gave this caution in a statement on Monday in Lagos signed by the Sector Public Education Officer, Route Commander Olabisi Sonusi, following the crash between a train and a passenger vehicle at

PWD level crossing.

He said motorists should note that the federal government in recent times is embracing the multi-modal means of transportation with the construction of railway tracks that interface with the road which should be applauded.

He said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Therefore, motorists are enjoined to be mindful of railway level crossing where trains uses to connect with road network.â&#x20AC;?

Ogungbemide , who decried the crash, said motorists should always

know that trains have the right of way at all level crossings.

"The incident where a train collided with a passenger motor was most unfortunate, regrettable and saddened. It was published last week that Lagos-Ogun Mass Transit Trains would commence today which was well published, we expect all motorists should live in this consciousness.â&#x20AC;?

He stressed that motorists should always obey traffic rules and regulations to prevent unnecessary injuries

and fatalities.

"We need patience because a moving trains cannot be put to a halt immediately. So, road users including pedestrians must wait for train to pass. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We sincerely condole with the families of the deceased and wish the injured quick recovery," Ogungbemide said.

The sector commander cautioned all motorists to always avoid distracted driving like phone use while driving and excessive speed.

d e n g n t f l s

40

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; 2020

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

InfraCredit Completes Drawdown of AfDBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s $10m Facility Goddy Egene InfraCredit, a specialised infrastructure credit guarantee institution, has announced that its drawdown of a $10 million subordinated unsecured 10-year facility has been completed under the Subordinated Loan Agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s director of Financial Sector Development, Stefan Nalletamby, said in a statement that at the time of the boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approval of the facility, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support will strengthen the capital base of InfraCredit, underpinning the expansion of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core business of guaranteeing of bonds issued to fund infrastructure projects.â&#x20AC;?

It added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;This adds to the bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing initiatives to mobilise domestic institutional savings and stimulate non-sovereign local debt capital

market development in Nigeria. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This ultimately helps to increase private sector financing for critical infrastructure projects in key sectors including energy, agriculture, water, health and education, through local capital markets.â&#x20AC;?

Specifically, this facility will help to increase private sector financing for critical infrastructural projects in sectors such as power, renewable energy, telecommunications, healthcare, transportation, agriculture, amongst others.

The investment by AfDB, according to the statement, demonstrates the strong investor confidence in the fundamentals of InfraCreditâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business and would promote the deepening of the local debt capital market.

Pursuant to the drawdown, InfraCreditâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital base would increase to $146 million (about

N58.5 billion).

Commenting on the development, the Chief Executive Officer of InfraCredit, Chinua Azubike, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Despite the impact of COVID-19, and changes to macro-economic assumptions, we are pleased to have reached yet another milestone in our pursuit to strengthen our robust balance sheet and guarantee issuing capacity. Notwithstanding challenging market conditions, we have continued to demonstrate our strong fundamentals, solid underlying portfolio performance, proven track record and profitability. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With the admission of AfDB to our capital structure, we are confident of our continuing ability to deepen market penetration and support access to long term domestic credit for the growing pipeline of infrastructure projects that will create jobs and support local economic growth.â&#x20AC;?

R

MARKET INDICATORS

FirstBank CEO, Adeduntan Bags Forbes Award First Bank of Nigeria Limited has announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, has been honoured with the Forbes Best of Africa Award.

The award presentation held recently during a virtual event

by Forbes in conjunction with the Foreign Investment Network (FIN). The online roundtable discussion themed â&#x20AC;&#x153;Harnessing the financial resources and social capital of philanthropy to making a lasting impact,â&#x20AC;? was supported by the World Philanthropy Network and featured a keynote address by former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

According to a statement from the bank, other award honourees were Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo, CEO of Ocean Marine Security Ltd; Mahmood Ahmadu, Founder and Executive Chairman of Online Integrated Solutions Ltd, among others.

Commenting on the award, Adeduntan said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am truly humbled to receive the Forbes Best of Africa Award and I am grateful to the Forbes team for this coveted recognition and award.

I owe profound gratitude to our customers; and to the Board, Management and Staff of First Bank of Nigeria Limited and all our Subsidiaries, for their cooperation in delivering the best

to our esteemed customers and shareholders, and ensuring that we give back to the society in which we have sustained our business for over 126 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This Forbes Best of Africa award is an incentive to do more in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability as Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bank of first choice. Therefore, I dedicate this award to my colleagues at FirstBank and its Subsidiaries who are fully committed to our quest to remain truly beyond comparison â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a haven of resilience, trust, safety, security, excellent corporate governance, entrepreneurship, professionalism, innovation and customer-centricity.â&#x20AC;?

LCCI Gets ISO Certification Dike Onwuamaeze The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) was yesterday presented with the International Standard Organisation (ISO) 9001: 2015 Certification by the Bureau Veritas, in Lagos.

The President of the LCCI, Mrs. Toki Mabogunje, said the certification was in line with the vision of the LCCI, â&#x20AC;&#x153;to remain the foremost chamber of commerce and industry and role model for others in the promotion of sound business ethics and delivery of qualitative services.â&#x20AC;?

Mabogunje said the certification was possible after several months of hard work and preparation and reflected the chamberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to consistently ensure that our quality management systems align with global best

practices.

She said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It demonstrates our commitment to continuous improvement, excellence in our service delivery, value proposition to members and the business community in general.â&#x20AC;?

The Director General of the LCCI, Dr. Muda Yusuf, described the certification as very important in terms of repositioning and enhancing the chamberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capacity to operate in line with global best practices.

Yusuf said the LCCI have a number of core mandates that include advocacy, trade promotions and business development and added that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the better the capacity of the chamber to deliver the better for the economy and the investment environment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So, this ISO Certification is about embedding global

best practices within the LCCI as an organisation so that we can deliver much value to the government in our advocacy partnership, to businesses in terms of business development and to trade in terms of promoting trades both within and outside the country.â&#x20AC;?

The Managing Director of the Bureau Veritas, Mr. Ohioze Unuigwe, explained that the ISO certification help companies to grow and embrace global standards and practices.

Ohioze said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;What the ISO Certification does is that it gives you a quality management system that is globally accepted and accredited. It also helps companies to position themselves for growth. It brings cost saving, profitability and efficiency in the operations and management of a company.

Nigerian Risk Summit Holds Thursday Maduabuchi Ubani The issues, challenges and styles concerning leadership and followership risks will form the core of discussion at the fifth edition of the Nigerian Risks Summit and Awards scheduled to hold tomorrow.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Conrad Clark Nigeria Limited, Joachim Adebayo Adenusi.

According to him, the summit is important because of the need to effectively examine the leadership strategies and tactics of government bureaucrats, political and business leaders alongside civil society groups.

Adenusi, who also doubles as the Founder â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Nigerian Risk and Leadership Summit, also stressed that strategic risk management and its effective use has become an essential skill for successful leaders today, adding that the future

to address existential challenges that could move the nation from dependency to capacity, and from responsibility lodged in authority to responsibility shared by a community. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Almost every nation, business and organisation is currently struggling with the impact of COVID 19 on the relationship between leaders and followers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Organisations or nations with historic leadership crises will be put to the test in an unimaginable wayâ&#x20AC;?.

MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JULY 2020 Money Supply (M3)

36,822,751.47

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

3,476,121.25

Money Supply (M2)

33,346,630.22

-- Quasi Money

120,764,479.02

-- Narrow Money (M1)

12,582,151.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,002,026.89

---- Demand Deposits

10,580,124.31

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,637,137.23

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

29,185,614.24

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

39,711,115.95

---- Credit to Government (Net)

19,521,851.08

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

0.00

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

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

-130,189,264.87

--Other Assets Net

3,472,017.70

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,421,827.07

--Currency in Circulation

2,395,917.03

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

11,025,910.04 317,234.17

Ëž Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă? Ě&#x2039;

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

March 2018

Inter-Bank Call Rate

15.16

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

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

Ëž Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;ĂŁ Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă?ĂŁ Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă? Ě&#x2039; ͯ͹Ϲ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE Ë&#x153; ͯͲ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $38.96 a barrel on Monday, compared with $39.37 the previous Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

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

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

41

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ´Ë&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

Equities Market Declines as Investor Sentiment Weakens Goddy Egene The equities market returned to negative territory yesterday after opening the week on a positive note the previous day.

The market had gained 0.1 per cent on Monday as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) rose to 25,605.59, while market capitalisation added N7.1 billion to close at N3.32 trillion.

However, the positive mo-

mentum could not be sustained yesterday as most investors waited to digest the news of inflation that hit 13.22 per cent in August, the highest reading in 28 months.

At the close of trade the NSE ASI depreciated by 0.03 per cent to be at 25,597.96, while market capitalisation shed N4 billion to close at N13.354 trillion. The bears accounted for 15 price losers as against the 13 stocks that appreciated in price.

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

NPF Microfinance Bank Plc led the price losers with 9.4 per cent, trailed by Union Diagnostic and Clinical Services Plc with 7.4 per cent. Redstar Express Plc and NAHCO Aviance Plc shed 6.1 per cent apiece.

Oando Plc went down by 5.4 per cent, just as AXA Mansard Insurance Plc shed 2.1 per cent.

FBN Holdings Plc and Wema Bank Plc were also among the losers, depreciating by 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent

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

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

respectively.

On the positive side, Ikeja Hotel Plc led the price gainers with 9.5 per cent, followed by UACN Property Development Company Plc 9.2 per cent gain.

Cornerstone Insurance Plc appreciated by 6.4 per cent, just as Japaul and Lafarge Africa Plc added 5.0 per cent and 3.4 per cent in that order.

Other top price gainers included: Transcorp Plc (1.6 per cent); CAP Plc (1.1 per

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

cent); Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (1.0 per cent) and FCMB Group Plc (0.9 per cent).

Meanwhile, volume and value traded decreased 4.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively to 245.1 million shares and N3.0 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were FBN Holdings Plc (51.4 million shares), Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (46.3 million shares) and Zenith Bank Plc (18.8 million shares) while GTBank (N1.2 bil-

O F

lion), Stanbic IBTC Holdings (N630.0 million) and Zenith Bank (N322.4 million) led by value.

In terms of Sector performance was mixed. The NSE Oil & Gas and Banking indices led laggards, down 1.2 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively. The NSE Consumer Goods Index fell 0.1 per cent.

On the other hand, the NSE Insurance and NSE Industrial Goods indices gained 0.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent in that order.

1 5 / 0 9 / 2 0 2 0 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

˾ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

42

ଂ

ଂ

ଂ

ଂ

ଂ

ଂ

7 R S 7 U D G H V E \ 9 R O X P H

7 R S * D L Q H U V P ric e

P ric e C hg %

T ic k er

Vo lum e

P ric e C hg %

IKEJ A H OT EL

0.92

9.5%

FB NH

51.4

-2.0%

UA C -P R OP

0.95

9.2%

GUA R A N T Y

46.3

0.2%

C OR N ER ST

0.66

6.5%

Z EN IT H B A N K

18.8

-0.3%

J A P A ULOIL

0.21

5.0%

ST A N B IC

15.9

0.0%

14.2

0.0%

14.2

0.0%

T ic k er

3.4%

A C C ESS

0.61

1.7%

ELLA H LA KES

CA P

17.00

1.2%

M B EN EF IT

8.9

0.0%

H ON YF LOUR

0.96

1.1%

UB A

8.1

-0.8%

FCM B

2.05

1.0%

F ID ELIT YB K

6.9

-1.1%

1.16

0.9%

LA SA C O

5.7

0.0%

WA P C O

13.50

T R A N SC OR P

ST ER LN B A N K

7 R S / R V H U V T ic k er

P ric e

P ric e C hg %

T ic k er

Value

NP FM CRFB K

1.25

-9.4%

GUA R A N T Y

1159.9

0.2%

UN ION D A C

0.25

-7.4%

ST A N B IC

630.0

0.0%

P ric e C hg %

R ED ST A R EX

3.52

-6.1%

Z EN IT H B A N K

322.4

-0.3%

NA HCO

2.00

-6.1%

FB NH

257.4

-2.0%

OA N D O

2.25

-5.5%

A C C ESS

95.8

0.0%

1.81

-2.2%

ELLA H LA KES

60.4

0.0%

FB NH

5.00

-2.0%

SEP LA T

55.0

-1.3%

WEM A B A N K

0.52

-1.9%

A IR T ELA F R I

50.8

0.0%

J A IZ B A N K

0.59

-1.7%

UB A

50.1

-0.8%

385.00

-1.3%

D A N GSUGA R

43.4

-1.2%

M A N SA R D

SEP LA T

Afrinvest West Africa Limited

7 R S 7 U D G H V E \ 9 D O X H

Brokerage

Asset Management

Investment Research

Ayodeji Ebo | aebo@afrinvest.com

Ola Belgore | obelgore@afrinvest.com

Abiodun Keripe | AKeripe@afrinvest.com

Adedoyin Allen | aallen@afrinvest.com Florence Warikam | fwarikam@afrinvest.com

Adedayo Bakare | abakare@afrinvest.com

43

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

AIICO Insurance Shifts Annual General Meeting to December Goddy Egene AIICO Insurance Plc has shifted its annual

general meeting (AGM) from September 30 to December 8, 2020. The underwriting firm disclosed the change in the date of

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

the AGM in a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday.

“This change in date is occasioned

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 14Sep-2020, unless otherwise stated.

by the delay in concluding a number of transactions earmarked as conditions precedent to the AGM. One of the

conditions is(but not limited to)the conclusion of rights issue to the shareholders of the company which although has now

commenced, was delayed majorly because of the issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said.

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

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

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

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Afrinvest Plutus Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria International Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund 0.93 0.94 3.10% ACAP Income Funds 0.79 0.79 10.31% 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 5.58% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.00 3.09 22.26% ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 2.35% Anchoria Equity Fund 100.64 100.98 -1.28% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.29 1.29 11.63% 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 14.53 14.97 -5.12% ARM Discovery Fund 342.72 353.05 -0.78% ARM Ethical Fund 30.59 31.52 5.20% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.16 1.16 15.91% ARM Fixed Income Fund 1.08 1.09 8.65% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.20% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 97.44 98.12 1.41% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.18% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 2.18 2.18 19.24% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 1.86 1.89 7.94% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.07% Paramount Equity Fund 11.62 11.82 -7.21% Women's Investment Fund 111.47 112.44 0.95% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.60% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 106.09 106.43 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 119.54 119.86 Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 103.59 103.59 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 3.40% Coronation Balanced Fund 0.96 0.97 3.19% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.58 1.58 19.16% 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 3.86% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 2.61% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,172.77 1,185.50 5.77% FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,411.38 1,412.93 15.59% FBN Balanced Fund 153.56 154.60 4.59% FBN Halal Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.50% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 121.17 121.67 4.31% FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund 115.23 117.01 -11.45% FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 3.11% Legacy Debt Fund 3.82 3.82 4.54% Legacy Equity Fund 1.15 1.17 1.85% Legacy USD Bond Fund 1.12 1.12 3.53% FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Growth Fund 3,177.36 3,212.96 4.49% Coral Income Fund 3,195.08 3,195.08 3.88% FSDH Treasury Bills Fund 100.00 100.00 3.99% GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.99% Nigeria Entertainment Fund 113.51 120.75 8.56%

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.93% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.32 2.36 5.98% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 8.33% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 150.70 151.45 5.14% 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 1.26 1.28 7.93% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,136.12 1,136.12 7.29% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Meristem Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.32 1.35 8.75% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.89 11.96 5.63% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 3.29% PACAM Equity Fund 1.07 1.08 PACAM EuroBond Fund 108.10 110.63 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 115.52 117.82 -3.88% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.02 1.02 6.62% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 2,521.35 2,532.80 6.29% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 210.33 210.33 5.08% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.88 0.89 0.56% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 273.87 273.95 5.89% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 154.92 156.64 4.77% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.60% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,674.15 7,756.30 -2.72% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.21 1.21 3.90% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 109.38 109.38 4.96% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.16 1.18 -2.77% United Capital Bond Fund 1.85 1.85 7.10% United Capital Equity Fund 0.67 0.69 -5.17% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.26% United Capital Eurobond Fund 114.63 114.63 4.92% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.03 1.03 -2.01% 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 N/A N/A N/A Zenith Ethical Fund N/A N/A N/A Zenith Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Zenith Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A

REITS NAV Per Share

Fund Name SFS Skye Shelter Fund

Yield / T-Rtn

117.93

5.15%

53.40

2.59%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

9.18 85.76 66.91

9.28 87.62 68.14

5.42% -9.21% -10.94%

Union Homes REIT

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

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

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

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

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

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

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

108.03

15.02%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

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

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NEWSXTRA

CBN Releases Framework for N200bn Housing Fund Nume Ekeghe The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released the framework for the implementation of Family Homes Financing Initiative (FHFI), which is targeted at providing 300,000 homes across the 36 states of the country.

The initiative is also expected to create more than 1.5 million direct jobs in five years with a N200 billion funding.

According to the framework posted on the CBN’s website, the facility will enable Family Homes Funds Limited (FHFL), which is the only eligible

obligor to implement the federal government’s Social Housing programme as part of the Economic Sustainability Plan 2020.

The framework was also designed to utilise at least 90 per cent locally manufactured inputs and as a result conserve foreign exchange. It would be funded at an interest rate that does not exceed five per cent per annum.

It stated that the programme deliberately aims to revitalise local manufacture of construction materials including doors and windows, ironmongery, sanitary fittings, concrete products, tiles, glass, electrical fittings/fixtures and

FG Releases Guidelines for Solar Power Operations EU commits €150m to Nigeria’s power sector Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The federal government yesterday released a new set of guidelines for operators within the country’s solar mini-grid system to ensure strict compliance to local and international standards as well as ensure safety in the sub-sector.

The new rules came as the European Union (EU) , said it had in recent times devoted at least €150 million to assist in the country’s search for stable and reliable power supply.

The Minister of State for Power , Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba, who unveiled the manual containing the guidelines in Abuja, noted that the move was to sanitise the industry and ensure that standards are met by the operators within the industry.

“The importance of this

programme cannot be overemphasised. It aims to address the proliferation of substandard renewable energy materials and equipment, poor designs and construction practices.

“It also tackles the lack of standardisation and uniformity in renewable energy projects and schemes put in place for electricity generation and its sustainability in line with requirements for the existing standards, technical standards and codes.

“It will also serve as a guide to renewable energy installation, contracting and practices. The guidelines with strengthen the enforcement of technical standards and requirements in renewable energy installation especially solar mini-grid installation,” the minister said.

bricks. It is also estimated that the programme would require up to 1.7 million doors, seven million door hinges and locks etc.

Most of those to be directly impacted by the project it stated currently live in informal

is particularly rigorous and, each year, progressively attracts exceptional talent with potential for great achievement. We are pleased to announce this new cohort of five women and one man, and honoured to support their commitment to public service.”

The statement noted that AIG has awarded at least five scholarships to talented West Africans from all academic backgrounds to pursue the Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford every year, since 2017.

AIG had signed a partnership with the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford in June 2016 based on a shared vision of improving the world through good governance and public leadership. AIG also awards the AIG Fellowships at the School, to outstanding senior public service officials from West Africa. To date, 25 men and

The Society for Forensic Accounting and Fraud Prevention (SFAFP) has expressed readiness to recover N1.2 trillion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) unremitted by 122 federal government Agencies.

Also, the society will support 12 bankrupt States with forensic revenue monitoring to eliminate fraud.

The Chairman of SFAFP, Iliyasu Gashinbaki made these known at the graduation ceremony of the 3rd batch of Professional Forensic Accountants held recently at the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Keffi, Nasarawa State.

“We are aware that there are 122 Federal Ministries,

Transit organised by the Nkanu East Legislative Council at the local government headquarters, Amagunze.

Nwobodo, who was represented by the Secretary to the Council, Hon. Cajetan Anichukwu, lauded the legislative initiative, which he said was in line with the rural development drive of the Government of Enugu State as well as the efforts of the Council to lift the leaving

Term loan which would enable FHF finance the construction of social housing units for people on low income, will have a tenor of three years from date of disbursement and an interest rate of five per cent.

Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that have not remitted their operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund”, Gashinbaki said.

“We have decided that giving the opportunity, we would like to work with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) and Federal Ministry of Finance to ensure that there is a proper forensic audit of the MDAs to ensure that the funds trapped in there are remitted. If that is done, it will fund 10 per cent of the2020budget, which is about 10 trillion” .According to him, the Society is also planning to support “12 bankrupt states with forensic revenue monitoring to eliminate

fraud and block revenue leakages to enhance their fiscal sustainability” as well as working “hand –in- hand with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), to conduct an efficient and transparent forensic audit of stamp duty Assessments, Collections and Accounting”. “With our professional support, the Federal government can triple the current collections of Stamp Duties.” .Gashinbaki said the Society will continue to engage the nation to contribute its quota to national development. 31 Certified Forensic Accountants received their certificates, seals and forensic tool kits at the occasion while 163 Associates

were inducted online.

Exuding joy on receiving her certificate, Margaret Akoje said: “I feel excited, overwhelmed and fulfilled as a certified Forensic Accountant. It has given me an in-depth knowledge on financial issues”.

On his part, Babale Mohammed simply said: “I feel great. I will just fly and the sky is the beginning of my career”. So far the Society has produced 80 Certified Forensic Accountants and 450 Associates.

SFAFP, which is a creation of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), came on board on 9th April, 2011 with Registration at the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC.

Nigerian Law School Calls 1,785 Graduates to Bar Alex Enumah in Abuja A total of 1, 785 successful graduates of the Nigerian Law School were yesterday called to the Nigerian Bar. They emerged successful at the January Bar examination, just as a total of 736 were said to have failed the examination.

Giving a breakdown of the result at the Call-to-Bar ceremony held at the Eagle Square in Abuja, the Director-General of the

women have benefited from AIG Scholarships and Fellowships.

The AIG scholars, usually people who are passionate about the public sector, are expected to return to their home country upon graduation and apply their learning experience as change agents in their country’s public sector. For the fourth round, the fully funded scholarships were awarded to Adejoke Are, Murjanatu Mohammed Audu, Uchechukwu Nwokediuko, Chioma Oparadike, Folasade Osho and Victoria Udom.

Commenting on the award, one of the 2020 AIG Scholars and a first-class graduate of Law from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Murjanatu Mohammed Audu said, “I am beyond grateful for the opportunity that AIG has given me. I have a passion for public service and believe in my ability to lead transformations in the public sector.

Enugu LG Moves to Establish Mass Transit Company The Nkanu East Local Government Council in Enugu State, has pledged to give all necessary support to legislative initiatives aimed at boosting the rural economy, internally generated revenue, and the overall development of the local government area.

The Chairman of Council, Hon. Uchenna Nwobodo, stated this on Tuesday during a public hearing on a Bill for the Establishment of Nkanu East Mass

FHF on project basis subject to the cumulative maximum limit of N200 billion. A project is defined as cluster of homes in the same geographical location and covered with the same title documents and approvals.”

Forensic Accounting Body Pledges to Recover N1.2tn for FG

AIG Announces New Scholarship Recipients Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG), a not-for-profit organisation founded to inspire the transformation of Africa’s public sector, has announced the recipients of the 2020/2021 round of its scholarships for young, outstanding West Africans with a passion for public service.

In a statement issued yesterday by the organisation in Lagos, Founder and Chairman of AIG, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said, “AIG has a vision of a public sector in Africa that is effective, values-driven, service-oriented and results-focused.”

He said, “To support the attainment of this vision, we are proud to invest in the development of a critical mass of transformation champions who can lead this transformation process.”

In her comments, the Chief Executive Officer of AIG, Ms. Chienye Ogwo said, “The AIG Scholarships selection process

settlements with shared facilities in unsanitary environments as the project is targeted towards people on low income level across the country.

The framework added: “Funds would be released to

standards of the people.

“The Bill, when passed into a by-law will definitely give the Council the added impetus to expand the frontiers of infrastructural development agenda through the provision of Nkanu East Mass Transit. It will offer us desired opportunity to create more dividends of democracy for the greatest majority of the people of Nkanu East,” he said.

Nigerian Law School, Professor Isa Hayatu (SAN), stated that a total of 2, 515 students sat for the examination but only a total of 1, 779 were successful.

He said out of the figure, five candidates made First Class; 76 made Second Class Upper; 633 graduated with Second Class Lower Division, while 1, 065 came out with pass.

The DG added that the candidates successfully completed the vocational training at the Nigerian Law School as prescribed by the Legal Education Act, and had also taken the prescribed examinations and the dining terms, and met all other required

conditions set by the Council of Legal Education.

“I am happy to affirm that they all exhibited good manners and decorum during their training.

They have also been groomed in the best ethics and ethos of our noble profession,” he said.

The school DG, however, congratulated the ‘new wigs’ for their hard work, dedication and steadfastness.

In his remarks, Chairman, Body of Benchers, Onueze C Okocha (SAN), noted that since inception in 1962, the Council of Legal Education, through the Nigerian Law School, has continued to ensure that all

candidates for admission into the legal profession in Nigeria are equipped with requisite knowledge and skill to enable them practice as legal practitioners.

He, therefore, charged the new lawyers to be of good character and uphold honesty and integrity, which he said are the hallmarks of the legal profession.

According to him, the Body of Benchers has the power to enforce discipline and decorum at the Bar, and that the exercise of the power is done through the instrumentality of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), which is a standing committee of the Body of Benchers.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

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24 HOURS...

24 HOURS...

Wike, Tambuwal, Okowa, Obi Rally Support for Obaseki Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city The Governor of Rivers State and Chairman, Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council, Nyesom Wike; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, and other governors from the South-south and South-east states yesterday graced the grand finale rally of the PDP and its Edo State candidate, Governor Godwin Obaseki, and his Deputy, Philip Shaibu, at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin-city, the state capital.

The governors, in their separate speeches, charged the electorate to vote and protect their votes.

Speaking at the rally, Wike said Obaseki has done his best in going round the 192 wards to solicit for their votes and that the large number of persons who

have turned out at the rally was a clear attestation that he has done greatly for the state.

He said going by the crowd at the rally, the governor has already won the election and that the electorate must compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remain a fair umpire in the election.

Wike urged the electorate to cast their votes for Obaseki in order to end godfatherism in the state, noting that Edo State must be a starting point to end godfatherism in Nigeria.

On his own, the Sokoto State Governor, Tambuwa, called on the Edo people to rise up and protect their votes and should not be intimidated or allowed themselves to be enticed by money to sell their votes.

According to him, “I hear that somebody is coming here with

a bullion van. Do not sell your vote. Do not be intimidated; vote and let it be counted. Vote for continuity.”

While speaking also, Okowa commended Obaseki for his zealousness in taking his

campaigns round the 192 wards, a feat he said had not been done in the country before.

The Delta State governor said those who are calling him an outsider trying to dabble into Edo State politics should have

a rethink because he is part and parcel of the state, noting that his grandmother and father In-law are from Igbanke in Orhiomwon Local Government Area of Edo State.

In his remark, former Governor

of Anambra State and the PDP vice-presidential candidate in the 2019 general election, Peter Obi, said voting Obaseki for second time in the state would guarantee them and their unborn children a brighter future.

Afenifere, PANDEF, PDP PROTECTING THE MARKET...

L-R: Member of Capital Market Solicitors Association (CMSA), Mr. Kehinde Daodu; Chairperson of Planning Committee of CMSA 2020 Welcome USVisa Ban on Annual Business Luncheon, Mrs. Efeomo Olotu; Chairman of CMSA, Mr. Benjamin Obidegwu; Partner, George Etomi and Partners, Riggers of Bayelsa, Kogi Polls Virtual Edefe Ojomo; and member of Planning Committee of CMSA 2020 Virtual Annual Business Luncheon, Mr. Adeleke Alex-Adedipe, at the Deji Elumoye and Chuks Okocha in Abuja The pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere; its Niger Delta counterpart, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF); and the Peoples Democratic Party have applauded the United States for placing a visa ban on politicians that rigged the November, 2019 gubernatorial polls in Kogi and Bayelsa states.

The groups also called on the international community to emulate the US government by meeting out stiffer penalties against identified election triggers in Nigeria.

Afenifere expressed happiness that the anti -democratic tendencies of Nigerian politicians are no longer tolerated by the US, which practises the best democracy in the world.

National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, told THISDAY ysterday evening that “we doff our hats for the US for taking such a bold action against anti-democratic elements in Nigeria. If the election triggers

CMSA 2020 virtual annual business luncheon in Lagos...yesterday

are shielded with impunity within our system they now know there are consequences abroad. “We thank the US,” he explained.

In its reaction, PANDEF in welcoming the visa ban, stated that the decision of the United States government clearly shows its commitment to the strengthening of democracy in Nigeria.

It, however, considered the US action not stringent enough, because previous visa bans did not deter the politicians from continuing with their shameful acts.

PANDEF in a statement by its spokesman, Hon. Ken Robinson, stressed that though the United States government did not reveal the identities of the individuals affected by this latest visa ban, “those who have continued to distort the nation’s electoral processes, are known to Nigerians”.

It further appealed to all democratic nations in the world, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union, to also impose similar restrictions on election riggers in Nigeria.

Akpabio: I Didn’t Accuse N’Assembly Members of Being NDDC Contractors Udora Orizu in Abuja The Minister for the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has denied accusing members of the National Assembly of being contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Addressing journalists yesterday after a closed- door meeting with Acting Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Amos Olatunde-Ojo, Akpabio said he was at the National Assembly to seek harmonious working relationship between his ministry and the lawmakers.

The minister, who has been in a running battle with the two Chambers over investigation into issues of corruption in the NDDC, said the misunderstanding was caused by mischief makers.

On whether he had conformed with challenge by the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila to present

proof of allegation that 60 per cent of lawmakers of the lawmakers execute NDDC contracts, he said: “No, no, no, you are wrong. That was not what the Honourable Speaker demanded.

“The Speaker wanted to know whether there was undue influence from any section of the National Assembly in respect of contracts in the NDDC. “He did not say whether they were contractors so I’m hearing it from you” On the reason for his visit, he said: “I am here to congratulate the acting CNA for his elevation and of course to solicit the continuous cooperation of the National Assembly towards the development of the Niger Delta region.

“In any case, I am a senator, so seeing me in the National Assembly should not be a surprise; as a former Minority Leader of the Senate and a distinguished senator, I believe I am a senator for life.

SUNDAY ADIGUN

NIMASA DG Appoints Renowned Public Speaker, Essien, Special Assistant Peter Uzoho The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, has appointed a renowned professional speaker and motivator, Mr. Ubong Essien, as his Special Assistant on Communications and Strategy.

Jamoh was quoted in a statement yesterday to have announced the

appointment on his verified Twitter handle, saying, “Welcome Aboard.

Glad to announce the appointment of Ubong Essien as my Special Assistant on Communications and Strategy”.

According to the statement, Essien has already assumed duty at the Apapa, Lagos, headquarters of NIMASA. Described by the legendary Brian Tracy as ‘one of the very best speakers in the world today,’

Essien is currently the only Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) in West and Central Africa.

He is a renowned motivator, Publisher of The Achievers Journal and also the Dean of the School of Eloquence, the public speaking training centre with offices in Lagos and London.

Essien has been involved in human capacity building since 1999 and has worked as a speaker, trainer, facilitator

and consultant to a variety of Nigerian organizations in both private and public sectors, including Total Nigeria, DHL, and Lafarge Africa.

Others were: Multichoice Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria, AIICO Insurance, Fidelity Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, Nigeria LNG, May and Baker Nigeria, First Registrars, Vitafoam, NIMASA, NPA, Nigerian Shippers Council, Learn Africa, and Nigerian Tribune.

Falana-led Coalition Set for September 23 National Protest The Alliance for the Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond, (ASCAB) has asked Nigerians to participate in the September 23 Day of Action set by the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

ASCAB said it would mobilise civil society to join the protest tagged “Enough is Enough,” in support of working people and poor Nigerians who face the daily agony of survival.

ASCAB took the position

yesterday in a statement made available to THISDAY. It said the event is to show public discontentment against fuel price and electricity tariffs hike, which continues to push many Nigerians to the edge of frustration and desperation.

In the statement signed by ASCAB Chairman and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), the coalition said it had mobilised millions of Nigerians

to stage a day of action against government’s horrendous economic policies Falana said the civil society has joined in setting aside September 23 as a “warning shot” ahead of more popular actions that will be taken to protest the country’s economic hardship.

At the last general meeting of ASCAB, the TUC leadership had briefed the coalition on the decision of its NEC that fixed

September 23 as a day of action.

ASACAB said it would go along with the TUC while waiting for the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) to join after its Wednesday meeting.

ASCAB said on that day, workers will show national solidarity and speak with one voice against the repressive policies of the federal and state governments.

INEC Prosecutes Three Lecturers over Electoral Malpractices The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dragged three university lecturers to court in Akwa Ibom State for their alleged involvement in electoral malpractices during the 2019 general election.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Mike Igini, disclosed this yesterday while addressing reporters at the commission’s headquarters

in Uyo. Igini also revealed that three staff of the commission the ICT unit have been sacked for their involvement in electoral malpractices.

He said the commission had to take the action because of the unsustainable belief by some members of the public that the commission does not sanction persons involved in electoral malpractices during

elections.

He said, “We must have an institution that has the integrity to protect the will of the people in any election.

This will serve as a lesson and a clear message to those who will be engaged in INEC job in the future in this state particularly those playing the role of supervising presiding officers as a very important link, as the last set of people

in charge of election materials particularly the ballot papers and result sheets.”

He regretted that, despite the training given to the electoral officers and staff of the commission, they went a different way in involving themselves in unethical conduct by manipulating and falsifying election results thereby producing outcomes that were contrary to the will of the people.

Lagos APC Berates PDP, Obaseki over Rigging Allegation The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has chided the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, accusing them of chasing shadows with their baseless allegations against the party and its National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu.

According to the party’s

chairman, Alhaji Tunde Balogun, Obaseki is the architect of his own imminent defeat in Saturday’s governorship election.

The PDP and Obaseki had alleged that the APC and Tinubu were planning to rig the election and that the party had sourced N300 million from local councils in the state for the purpose.

Reacting to the allegation,

Balogun said: “Overwhelmed by the prospects of grim failure in this weekend’s governorship election in Edo, the Peoples Democratic Party and its mercenary candidate, Godwin Obaseki, have resorted to chasing their own dark shadows. The governor is casting false accusation and blame at everybody for his imminent defeat. “However, the person

he should blame the most is the person to whom he dare not admit the truth - himself. “He has been the chief architect of his own defeat to conceal this reality he has dedicated himself to construct an edifice the foundation of which is made of fiction and the floors of which are the stuff of malice and lies.

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WEDNESDAYSPORTS Sports Set to Return from Covid-19 Lockdown, Says Dare

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Duro Ikhazuagbe Plans for sports to return fully from the Covid-19 lockdown appear to have started with arrangements to open camps for athletes in Akure (Ondo State), Abuja (FCT) and Pankshin (Plateau State).

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, gave this hint

in Lagos yesterday when fielding questions from sportswriters at the venue of the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Total E&P Nigeria and the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).

Dare said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In another two weeks, we hope to open camps in Akure, Abuja and Pankshin in Plateau State, to help our athletes get over the rustiness of the Covid-19

Total E&P Commits N150m to Basketball Leagues in Nigeria Duro Ikhazuagbe The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has secured a five-year contract worth N150million from Total E&P Nigeria for the sponsorship of its Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Divisions 1 and 2 basketball leagues.

This new deal signed at a ceremony in Lagos yesterday is a follow up to the initial two-year contract the federation entered into with the oil major in 2018.

According to a breakdown of the fresh contract expected to run until 2024, the two menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leagues are to get N15million each annually to organise and run their affairs for the next five years.

Speaking at the event which had the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare in attendance, NBBF President, Musa Kida, described the sponsorship by Total E&P which is the first ever partnership with the lower levels of basketball as a new vista in the corporate sponsorship of sports in Nigeria. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Being satisfied with the concept and organization of the leagues in the past two years, we are very elated that Total E&P Nigeria Limited has now committed to extend their sponsorship arrangement with the NBBF for both competitions under the same framework for another five years.â&#x20AC;?

Kida thanked Total E&P Nigeria for the confidence reposed in the NBBF by extending the sponsorship of the Divisions One and Two leagues for another five years as it underscores the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to develop Nigerian youths in

all facets of life through their Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.

The NBBF President revealed further that apart from the latest sponsorship, Total E&P has also uplifted the NBBF in many spheres since this present board was inaugurated in 2017. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For example, in addition to financial and related support to the NBBF, Total was the first corporate body to receive Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s men and women teams after their 2017 Afrobasket heroics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is also on record that Total contributed to Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Tigers becoming the first country in the world to qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China after which Nigeria hosted two windows during the qualifiers,â&#x20AC;? stressed Kida.

He promised the federationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to play its part in enhancing the success of the mutual beneficial partnership.

MD/CEO of Total E&P Nigeria, Mike Sangster, noted that their continued interest in developing sports and empowering youths in Nigeria coupled with the continued growth of basketball made the decision for the renewed partnership easier. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The growth trajectory of Nigerian basketball since the initial agreement was signed two years ago, has proved to us that our decision to identify with the body was not misplaced. Indeed, we are particularly proud that one driver of the successes that has given Nigerian basketball the magnetic appeal it has today, is our Deputy Managing Director (Deepwater), Engineer AhmaduKidaâ&#x20AC;?.

pandemic lockdown. It is going to be a two weeks event whereby all our athletes will be in different centres and we are going to pay for everything,â&#x20AC;? observed the minister when replying to a question on whether the 20th National Sports Festival will still take place this year.

He said it is the desire of the Sports Ministry under his watch for the festival to still take place in Benin City, Edo State despite the the damage the Covid-19 pandemic has caused to sports all over the world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is our desire to have the

National Sports Festival which I called the Nigeria Olympic Games to take place this year.

We have shown commitment, we already set up a team and through their reports, they already suggested October (for the NSF to hold).

The minister stressed that based on the Covid-19 prevention rate and other indices like Covid-19 protocols â&#x20AC;&#x153;we have been working with the PTF, NCDC, the Federal Ministry of Health. The Sports Ministry will be properly guided when the numbers are right. We are certainly going to have that festival and it is

going to have both contact and non-contact sports.â&#x20AC;?

Dare gave examples of countries around the world where sports have returned fully, stressing that Nigeria can also emulate such countries if we do the right things to prevent the spread of the virus. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The world already started both contacts and non-contacts sports. There are protocols in place. If we repeat the same thing here, we are going to get our lives back also. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For all the sports returning, we are having discussions and just in a matter weeks, sports will be back.

He admitted to have provided all the necessary things, documents and preparation plans to reopen sports. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two months ago, we submitted documents that have to do with Covid-19 protocols, that have to do with contact and non-contact sports, with a particular section dedicated to football. So we are all set and I think in a couple of weeks. We are on the same page with the PTF and the Health Ministry. I can assure you that in a couple of weeks sports will return in Nigeria.

President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Ahmadu Musa Kida (left) receiving the dummy cheque of the N150million sponsorship fee from Managing Director/CEO of Total E&P Nigeria, Mike Sangster during the MoU signing ceremony in Lagos...yesterday

Aubameyang Signs New Arsenal Deal Arsenal have confirmed striker and Captain, PierreEmerick Aubameyang, has signed a new three-year deal with the club.

Gabonese Aubameyang was the Gunnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; star performer throughout the 2019/20 season, being named their player of the season. His 22 goals in the Premier League fired his side to an eighth placed finish, while he was at the double in the FA Cup final against Chelsea and also scored in their Community Shield triumph.

There were serious doubts over his contract situation,

with his previous deal set to expire next year, and the Gabon international was hesitant to face questions on the negotiation impasse soon after that FA Cup final.

However, Arsenal have now confirmed the news all fans of the north London club have been eager to hear.

UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newspaper, The Athletic claimed that the new deal will make Aubameyang the Gunnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; top earner.

Manager Mikel Arteta is thought to have played a large role in convincing the former Borussia Dortmund star to stay.

Contract talks initially began last year - when Unai Emery was still in charge - before reaching an impasse.

However, discussions in the past few months have been positive, with the progress made by Arsenal on the pitch one such plus point.

Aubameyang had got Arsenal fans pretty hot and bothered by tweeting an hourglass emoji in mid August, hinting at imminent contract news.

He then tweeted the same emoji on Tuesday before Arsenalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s official

announcement, which all in all was a little odd.

Aubameyang brought Alexandre Lacazette into an Instagram video recorded live at the Emirates, before club legend Ian Wright joined the party.

Arsenal previously confirmed the permanent signings of Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares in August, while Willian was brought in after his contract at Chelsea expired.

Central defender Gabriel Magalhaes was also bought from Lille for a fee around ÂŁ23m.

Koemanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Barcelona List 12 Players for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Saleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

GRASSROOTS DEVELOPMENT...

L-R: CEO of Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foremost Stadium construction company, Monimichelle Limited, Ebi Egbe and FIFA Goal Project Supervisor, Charity Kadiri, shortly after the duo signed the contract for the FIFA Goal Project facility at Ogborodo-Escravos, Delta State...yesterday in Abuja

Financially troubled Barcelona have put 12 players up for sale. The potential exits include Luis Suarez, Martin Braithwaite and Samuel Umtiti. This is part of the mass clear out that the new coach, Ronald Koeman has embarked on in other to transform the club.

Last season saw how badly exposed many first-team players were after an 8-2 demolition from Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

It saw Quique Setien lose his job and Koeman is not prepared to go the same way.

As a result, he is looking to axe up to 12 players in the remaining weeks of the transfer window and bring

in his own personnel.

According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona also need to free up their extortionate wage bill â&#x20AC;&#x201C; though Messi takes up a huge chunk of that.

But with the 33-year-old now staying, other cuts now must be made.

Suarez is the most highprofile of potential departures and a move to Juventus was in the pipeline only for a late bid from Atletico Madrid to scupper the transfer.

It is believed the Uruguay international is keen on staying in Spain, where he is settled with his family.

Also included on the exit list are Braithwaite, Umtiti,

Jean-Clair Todibo, Nelson Semedo, Arturo Vidal and Rafinha.

Todibo has attracted attention from Premier League clubs Everton and Leicester while Leeds United are a surprise side eyeing Rafinha.

Inter Milan are on the verge of signing Vidal, with Antonio Conte a massive fan of the Chilean having worked with him at Juventus.

Mundo Deportivo also further report that Umtiti was keen on staying at the Nou Camp.

However, Koeman told the defender that his future does not lie at Barcelona and former club Lyon could snap him up

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Price: N250

MISSILE

Obaseki to Tinubu

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tinubu knows clearly that come September 19, when godfatherism would have been dismantled in Edo State, the people of Lagos may just have found the recipe and formula for removing the chokehold placed on their collective destinies for decades by Tinubu, hence the inciting television broadcastâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, asking the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Bola Tinubu to stay away from Edo politics.

KAYODEKOMOLAFE THE HORIZON

kayode.komolafe@thisdaylive.com

0805 500 1974

Offensive Against the Wrong Target I n his closing remarks at the ministerial retreat last week, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered members of his administration to â&#x20AC;&#x153;go on the offensiveâ&#x20AC;&#x153; against â&#x20AC;&#x153;irresponsible and politically motivated activists.â&#x20AC;?

Pray, has Buhari lost patience with the critics of his administration?

The President proudly listed the â&#x20AC;&#x153;achievementsâ&#x20AC;? of his government which he said should be stoutly defended.

The tactical (if not strategic) error of this official response to the present condition of Nigeria is that the ordered offensive is wrongly targeted.

In a crisis situation, the leader should launch an offensive on the enemies instead of attacking the forces that should be rather mobilised effectively to fight the war.

Those who are harshly critical of the Buhari administration have legitimate class, ethnic, regional and other interests to protect within the system.

They are hard on the government because they feel these interests are threatened given the way the country is being governed.

The enemies of Nigeria are not those the President has described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;irresponsible.â&#x20AC;? The real enemies in the present situation are poverty, inequality, insecurity, social injustice, divisiveness etc.

These perennial enemies, strengthened by the cumulative effects of decades of incompetent governance, have found reinforcement in natural factors such as COVID-19, floods, erosion, desertification and environmental degradation and other problems.

Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s debilitating enemies which have conspired to make the country increasingly miserable for its people should be the targets of any offensive that Buhari wishes to launch even at a rhetorical level.

If the offensive is correctly targeted on the real enemies and the condition of the people is thereby improved in different dimensions, the critics would have fewer holes to pick in the governance process.

What the situation requires now is not facile self-congratulation amidst the misery and anguish of the people.

The administration should be keenly suggestible rather than being insular.

It is in the supreme interest of the government to listen carefully to the voices of dissent so as to know the useful points the various societal forces are making to resolve the crisis.

Some of those voices have been loud and clear in recent times. In some cases they give expressions to the agendas of factions of the respective power blocs in Nigeria.

At the weekend, a group of socio-cultural and political organisations issued a communique at the end of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;consultative dialogue,â&#x20AC;? pinpointing â&#x20AC;&#x153;the primacy of pulling Nigeria back from the brink.â&#x20AC;?

Participants at the significant dialogue were leaders of the southwest group, Afenifere; Middle Belt Forum; Northern Eldersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Forum; the southeast organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo; and the Pan Niger Delta Forum.

The group plans to organise experts to make recommendations on devolution of power, fiscal federalism, judicial reforms, security, electoral reforms etc.

The dialogue was facilitated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who set the tone of the unprecedented conversation by observing that Nigeria â&#x20AC;&#x153;is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state.â&#x20AC;?

The elements of the crisis isolated by the group are certainly undeniable - insecurity, threats to national cohesion and communal harmony, socio-economic underdevelopment, the less

Buhari than satisfactory economic management, lack of trust of the leadership, poor quality of the democratic process etc.

As Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka rightly suggested yesterday, the focus now should be on the message regardless of the political revulsion the messenger may generate in some quarters. For example, the fact that Obasanjo squandered the rare eight- year opportunity to recast the Nigerian political economy on the path of progress should not disqualify him from performing a patriotic duty now in find a way out of the crisis.

Official publicists seem to be implementing the order to go on the offensive already given the responses to the foregoing patriotic calls and several others.

Some of the statements from Abuja are reminiscent of policy missteps in another era of arrogance of power some years ago which prompted a noteworthy remark from the radical historian Bala Yusufu Usman. He said that people in power often assumed that they were â&#x20AC;&#x153;writing the last chapter of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history.â&#x20AC;? According to Usman, their haughty policy statements would mostly end up as â&#x20AC;&#x153;historical footnotes.â&#x20AC;?

The President should summon the national spirit (some may even say it has even vanished!) in mobilising all the human and material resources for progress rather than talk down on compatriots.

The mood of offensive should be tempered in Abuja. It would be rational to do so given the magnitude of the counterpoise - the mood of widespread anger in the land already plagued by terrorism, banditry, armed robbery, kidnapping and COVID-19.

The anger has found expressions in crippling strikes in the health and the education sectors as well as threats of national protests against rising energy prices and other costs of living.

The Alliance for the Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) has fixed next Wednesday for a national protest to say â&#x20AC;&#x153;Enough is Enoughâ&#x20AC;?!

However, if the administration shelves arrogance of power and embraces meaningful engagement, it could be easy to point out to the critics that the recommendations of past conferences especially the most recent one, the 2014 conference, could be tapped into in finding solutions to some of the problems. So, the nation may not really need another conference. The executive and legislature could put into effect the workable recommendations of some existing documents.

Besides, the administration lacks a moral basis to lose patience for dialogue and engagement on the socio- economic issues. Before he was first elected in 2015, Buhari himself said it was a â&#x20AC;&#x153;fraudâ&#x20AC;? to talk of petroleum subsidy. He challenged the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to prove that subsidy actually existed. Five years later, trillions of naira have been â&#x20AC;&#x153;spentâ&#x20AC;? on subsidy under Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watch.

Now, the government says the subsidy regime is no more sustainable.

Yet, no creative improvement has been made on the so-called deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry launched by Obasanjo almost 20 years ago.

The new situation, therefore, calls for sobriety to dialogue on the part of government.

Incidentally, dialogue is precisely what the Nigerian Working Group on Peacebuilding and Governance has also recommended to the government in the circumstance. The group urged in a position paper that the government should build trust of the people and put an end to the reign of impunity in the land. On the question

of insecurity, the statement also calls for the replacement of service chiefs and police reforms.

Among the eminent patriots who signed the statement were a former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan; a former Chief of Defence Staff, General Martin Luther Agwai (rtd.) and a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and political scientist, Professor Attahiru Jega.

However, official statements are not sufficiently nuanced to demonstrate that the government is conscious of the gravity of the socio-economic situation: the untold suffering of the poorest segment of the society. It is not clearly demonstrated that the sacrifice that the government officials arrogantly ask people to make are proportionately shared in this patently inequitable system.

Ironically, the President spoke for the poor in the problematic speech: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We aim to gradually close the gap between the different classes to bring joy to greater number of the citizensâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;?

It is only the efficacy of policy instruments that would prove this proclamation in material terms.

The reality on ground suggests the opposite of that objective. While the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experts technically talk of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;shrinking economy,â&#x20AC;? the popular saying on the street is that poverty is widening. The government has failed abysmally to engage the people robustly in dealing with this dissonance in reading the national horizon.

This should not happen to the Buhari administration. Generally, Buhari has never been a favourite of the elite for power. His base has always been the poor majority who trusted him as maigakisya (the honest leader) who could run a government that would improve their lot.

Those in charge of policymaking for the administration should always remember the state of mind of the multitude that thronged to the typical Buhari rallies. The treatment for their condition is not in abstract economic indices and misdirected offensive against critics. The answer should be delivered in the form of security, food, potable water, sanitation, quality education, healthcare, social housing, mass transit etc.

Given the tone and tenor of the Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement, it is hoped that the sense of foreboding the speech has engendered is misplaced. Otherwise, future historians may look back at the occasion as an unsavoury turning point in Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time in power.

Amuta, Kukah and the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Politics of Moral Consequenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Jideofor Adibe Dr Chidi Amutaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s elegantly entitled article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;2023: Igbos and the Politics of Moral Consequenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (THISDAY, August 23 2020) and Bishop Kukahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rejoinder, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Of Igbos, 2023 and Politics of Moral Consequenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (THISDAY, September 2 2020) have perhaps opened up the space for robust, unemotional conversations not just about the current clamour for a President of Igbo extraction in 2023 but also for the whole project of nationbuilding in the country.

Dr Amutaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basic argument over which geopolitical zone should produce a successor to President Buhari in 2023 is that â&#x20AC;&#x153;national history has a moral arcâ&#x20AC;?, which bends inexorably in â&#x20AC;&#x153;the direction of justice no matter how long it takesâ&#x20AC;?. He called it the â&#x20AC;&#x153;politics of moral consequenceâ&#x20AC;?, which he defined as â&#x20AC;&#x153;politics in the service of the higher meaning of democracy when democratic outcomes redress injustices.â&#x20AC;?

He contended that the aim of such form of politics is to â&#x20AC;&#x153;avert the dire consequences of a nation sustained on systemic injustice.â&#x20AC;? Based

on this he argued that the agitation for a shift of the locus of presidential power to the South East is â&#x20AC;&#x153;rooted in the general history of nationsâ&#x20AC;? and mentioned a number of countries where he felt such had been used effectively to redress historical injustices. He also identified several obstacles to the Igbo quest for the presidency including (a) â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Igbo political elite has to reduce the habitual fears and nervousness of the competing political elite of other factions in the countryâ&#x20AC;?; (b) â&#x20AC;&#x153;Internally, the Igbo political elite must strike a consensus to avoid presenting Nigeria with multiple candidatesâ&#x20AC;? and (c) â&#x20AC;&#x153;there is a disturbing pride, arrogance and noisy ebullience in the Igbo character that can unsettle competitors.â&#x20AC;? He advised that in â&#x20AC;&#x153;the long run, the best way the Igbo can attain self-actualization is to â&#x20AC;&#x153;lose themselves in the Nigerian market place.â&#x20AC;?

Bishop Kukah, while commending Dr Amuta for his â&#x20AC;&#x153;elegant turn of phrase and sheer depth of thoughtful analysisâ&#x20AC;?, did a very robust critique of the piece, especially on Amutaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analyses of what he sees as the constraints militating

against the country having a President of Igbo extraction.

Both Dr Amutaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essay and Bishop Kukahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commentary raised fundamental issues: One, while I enjoyed reading Dr Amutaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theses of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;moral arcâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;moral consequencesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in his very riveting article, I found myself agreeing substantially with Bishop Kukahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eloquent critique of both the premise of the article and its recommendations to the Igbo. Additionally I feel that Dr Amutaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;moral arcâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;moral consequenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; theses assumed, not very correctly in my opinion, that politics is driven only by the fear of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;moral consequencesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of injustice. t+JEFPGPS "EJCF JT 1SPGFTTPS PG 1PMJUJDBM 4DJFODF BOE *OUFSOBUJPOBM 3FMBUJPOT BU /BTBSBXB 4UBUF 6OJWFSTJUZ ,FGm BOE QVCMJTIFS PG "EPOJT "CCFZ 1VCMJTIFST B -POEPO BOE "CVKB CBTFE QVCMJTIFS PG QSPGFTTJPOBM CPPLT BOE QFFS SFWJFXFE BOE JOEFYFE BDBEFNJD KPVSOBMT NOTE: This piece continues in the online edition on www.thisdayliive.com

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