MISSING SCHOOL GIRLS: We're close to abductors— DHQTRS

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62131

ROYAL VISIT—From left: The Crown Prince of Benin, Amb. Eheneden Erediauwa; President Goodluck Jonathan and Capt. Hosa Okunbo, when the Crown Prince delivered a Special Message from his father, the Oba of Benin, Omo N’oba N’edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Erediauwa, to the President, weekend, at the State House, Abuja.

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MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

BOOK SERIAL Why are southern Nigeria ethnic nationalities disunited? How can the age-long divisive socio-economic, political and cultural factors; poor intra and inter-ethnic relations especially between the dominant Yoruba and Igbo nationalities be managed for the good of the affected groups and Nigeria? ....Find out in our irresistible and exclusive book serials begininng tomorrow.

MISSING SCHOOL GIRLS:

2nd Niger Bridge'll be completed on schedule— FG

We're close to abductors— DHQTRS •Northern Delegates welcome US, UK intervention •37 Reps plan motion to impeach Jonathan P.7

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BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, KINGSLEY OMONOBI & NDAHI MARAMA

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AIDUGURI— THE military disclosed, yesterday, that its troops have succeeded in their major offensive to rescue the remaining 190 abducted students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State as Continues on Page 5

COLUMNISTS: Nigeria's rise to the bottom

•P.48

The shame of Mur tala Nyako •P.53

Mr & Mrs

SAINTHOOD—Pope Francis greets the crowd from his popemobile after the canonisation mass of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, two influential popes who helped shape 20th century history, on St Peter's Square (inset) at the Vatican, yesterday.

AFP Photos

Uncertainty over electricity workers as contract expires 8

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

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4 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

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POCKET CARTOON at Army headquarters in Abuja to formulate strategies on how to rescue the abducted girls.

Major General Ahmed Mohammed was summoned to Abuja to be part of the strategic meeting.

Women to stage one millionwomen-march for the release of Chibok school girls

AWARD: Former Executive-Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ernest Ndukwe (left), presenting to Globacom's Group Chief Operating Officer, Mohammed Jameel the Best Telecom Company of the Year Award won by Glo at the Beacon of ICT Awards held on Saturday night at Eko Hotels, Lagos.

MISSING GIRLS: We're close to abductors — DHQTRS Continues from page 1 they have moved closer to the abductors’ den.

The Director of Defence Information, Maj.Gen. Chris Olukolade, who spoke with newsmen, yesterday, on the sideline of media tour of military operations in Maiduguri, said the military was satisfied with the ongoing operations in Borno.

He said the troops had sustained momentum in

terms of the offensive against the terrorists, notwithstanding the reactions from the insurgents.

He said: “The bases we visited are part of the responses to the terrorist offensive and that is an achievement; the military had moved close to where the insurgents are. It shows that the military had taken over the land. The morale of the soldiers was high, and we are expecting to see more successes from

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may even see farther than the giant himself.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

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E don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us — Marcel Proust It’s said that one day, Frederick the Great of Prussia was walking on the outskirts of Berlin when he encountered a very old man walking ramrodstraight in the opposite direction.

“Who are you?” Frederick asked his subject.

“I am a king,” replied the old man.

“A king!” laughed Frederick. “Over what kingdom do you reign?”

“Over myself,” was the proud old man’s reply.

Dr. Maxwell, a motivational writer surmises beautifully how to cultivate a higher standard in leading ourselves better, for each of us is “monarch” over our own lives. We are responsible for ruling our actions and decisions. To make consistently good decisions, to take the right action at the right time and to refrain from the wrong actions requires character and self-discipline. To do otherwise is to lose control of ourselves—to do or say things we regret, to miss opportunities we are given, to spend ourselves into debt. When we are foolish, we want to conquer the world. When we are wise, we want to conquer ourselves. This begins when we do what we should, no matter how we feel about it.

the troops”.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who was on the media tour, reports that the group visited military camps in and around Maiduguri.

The group visited 7 Division Headquarters of the Nigerian Army, 7 Division Garrison, military check points in and around Maiduguri, among others. At the camp in the outskirts of Bulanbuli, the soldiers were seen carrying out their duties as expected.

Maj.-Gen. Ahmed Mohammed, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, who was also on the tour of the formations, told the troops that the Federal Government was happy with their operations.

“That is why we are here to say a big thank you and to convey the appreciation of the whole country. I wish to say big thanks for your courage and dedication.”, he said The journalists were also taken on night patrols by the troops which lasted from 9 p. m. to 12.30 a.m. around Maiduguri and its environ. The essence of the tour, according to Olukolade, is to have a first-hand information on the operations of the troops.

Senior military officers from the Army and the Air Force had earlier held a strategic meeting

Meanwhile, women all over the country will on Wednesday stage a onemillion-women protest march in Abuja to press for the release of the abducted girls.

Prof. Hauwa Abdu Biu disclosed this, yesterday, during an emergency meeting convened by the First Lady of Borno State, Hajiya Nana Kashim Shettima on the way forward for the release of the school girls.

She spoke last week on behalf of coalitions of Borno women during which they called for the release of the school girls and offered to go to the Sambisa Forest in search of the girls.

Prof Biu said that the one million march tagged “Free our girls” will involve women all over the country and called for the mobilization of Borno women to Abuja for the rally.

“The last time, we were in black but this time around the colour for the Abuja rally is red; so we should all be prepared and mobilize ourselves for the rally”, she added.

Earlier, the First Lady, while addressing the meeting, called on the wives of the security chiefs to assist in mounting pressures on their husbands to intensify efforts towards rescuing the abducted school girls.

“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to wives of security chiefs at the national and state levels to mount pressures on their spouses to intensify effort to rescue our dear children. However, I feel it is necessary to call on all women in Borno to come up with their resolutions and harmonize them,” she said.

“Let us all put our differences aside irrespective of our faith, or ethnicity, let us all join hands together to rescue these girls, I know that we can do it, Almighty Allah is with us, He knows our intention”, Hajia Nana

Shettima said amid sobs.

According to her: “I am sure for now we are not on our own, I am happy to inform you that the wife of the president called me two days ago, I believe that she is also with us, let us all join hands together irrespective of political affiliations.”

Most of the women who spoke at the meeting called on the Federal Government and the security agencies to intensify efforts towards rescuing the kidnapped school girls.

They also called for prayers and fasting in Mosques and Churches so that God can touch the heart of the insurgents to release the girls.

Aisha Wakil, who has been in the forefront of calling on the insurgents to lay down their arms and embrace dialogue, cautioned against the use of force in rescuing the girls.

The meeting had in attendance wives of security chiefs in the state, non-governmental organizations, women professional bodies, representatives of Federation of Muslims Women Associations (FOMWAN), Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), among others.

Northern delegates welcome intervention by US, UK In a related development, northern delegates to the ongoing National Conference have welcomed the intervention of the United States and the United Kingdom in the move to rescue the remaining school girls abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State.

While slamming the federal and state authorities for what they described as their belated response to the security situation in the

country, the Northern delegates said that the news of the agreement between the president and governors to join forces to defeat the insurgency came to them as a surprise.

The delegates in a statement issued by their spokesman, Mr. Anthony AZ Sanni nevertheless called on the Boko Haram Islamic insurgents to release the girls, saying it was irrational to hold women or girls as victims in any conflict.

Sani in a statement made available to Vanguard said that the Northern Delegates Forum is “happy to read reports that U S A and UK have decided to lend Nigeria their helping hands in the spirited efforts to rescue the abducted girls.

That is how it should be, since terrorism transcends national boundaries.”

While calling on the abductors to release the girls, the forum said: “This is because there is no conflict in the world, be it secular or religious, that allows women and children to be victims.

More so that violence has never resolved any perceived grievance. Only constructive dialogue does. So let us embrace civilized way of resolving perceived differences rather than resort to violence that is often unhelpful because it offends many people's sense of justice.”

Welcoming the news of the agreement between the president and the governors, the forum said: “The recent reports that Mr. President and state governors have resolved to come together to put an end to security challenges across the country, though heartening, have come to Nigerians and northern delegates as a surprise. A surprise in the sense that it took them so long to realize that the primary responsibility of government is to protect lives and property of the people."

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Rainstorm kills one, destroys houses in Agbor community

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

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GBOR — RAINSTORM, weekend, killed one person while houses, including a secondary school and other property, were destroyed as it ravaged Alisimie community in Agbor, Ika South Local Government area of Delta State.

The dead, a female student of Alisimie Mixed Secondary School identified as Miss Perpetual Giweze was said to have been writing her Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) when the tragedy occurred.

The downpour destroyed private and public infrastructure in the community, including a poultry farm, electricity poles and part of Alisimie Mixed Secondary School.

Since the rainstorm, the people of Alisimie community have been thrown into darkness as the community has been cut off from public source of power supply.

Reacting to the development, Chairman of Alisimie Idumuitenei Central Executive Committee, Mr. Augustine Uwagwu, who lamented the devastating effect of the rainstorm, appealed to the authorities of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) to restore power supply to the community as quickly as possible.

Uwagwu said the rainstorm had adversely affected the socio-economic life of the people in the agrarian community and called on BEDC to, as a matter of necessity, replace all the 20 damaged wooden poles with concrete ones.

He equally implored the state government to renovate the damaged school buildings in Alisimie Mixed Secondary School so as not to disrupt normal teaching and learning process in the school.

8-yr-old girl found unconscious in Mobile policeman’s apartment •How I was almost killed— Girl •Residents suspect ritual purpose •Suspect on the run as Police react

BY EVELYN USMAN

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AGOS — AGGRIEVED youths, weekend, attempted to set a Mobile Policeman’s apartment on Olufowobi Street in Ikosi area of Ketu, Lagos ablaze following the discovery of an eightyear-old missing girl in his room.

The girl identified as Amarachi, who was unconscious, had her hands, legs and mouth tied. She also had a deep cut on her skull when she was rescued.

Vanguard gathered that Amarachi was last seen at about 4pm on Thursday, after going on an errand for the Mobile Policeman identified as Corporal Gbuchenge Augustine, with Force number 400823. The Policeman lives in the same compound with parents of the girl at 1, Olufowobi Street.

But apprehension set in after her father, Mr Patrick Abakwan, returned at about 7.30pm and requested to see his daughter.

Speaking with Vanguard, Abakwan said: “The first person I sought after when I came back was Amarachi. I was told she had gone to sleep. But when I went inside, I did not see her. I only met her mother who was with a visitor.

"At that point, we went outside to look for her in the midst of other children who were playing.

One of them told me that olopa (policeman) sent her to buy akara (beans cake).

"One of the children even said he saw olopa carrying my daughter while she was asleep into hi s room. I peeped into Augustine’s room and also placed my mouth on the key hole and shouted my child’s name but there was no response.

“At that point, he came out and said my child was not there. I thereafter, went round the neigbourhood in search of her.

Amarachi When I came back, I was told olopa left the room in anger after my wife confronted him to tell her all he knew about our missing daughter.

"They said he angrily left the compound, saying he was going to report at the station that he was being accused of kidnap.”

Girl found

"At that point, some curious residents were said to have peeped through the room, where to their amazement, they saw someone bound in both legs and hands, struggling to free herself.

"Policemen from Ketu were reportedly contacted following which the door of the mobile policeman’s apartment was forced open only to find the girl in the pool of her blood.

“When we went inside the room with the policemen, Amarachi’s body was under the bed. Only her legs were

Gbuchenge Augustine, the suspect outside and she was still struggling slowly to free herself. She could not talk.

“The policeman had twisted her neck and used an object to break her skull thinking she would die in the process but God saved her. We rushed her to Dafe Medical Hospital where they refused to admit her before taking her to the Island General Hospital."

How I was almost killed— Girl

When Vanguard visited the hospital, Amarachi was seen with a plaster on her head and a neck crest.

According to her, “he first sent me to buy him akara and later recharge card. When I came back, he asked me to wait a while. Later I heard my father calling me. I told him I was going to meet my father and collect what he bought for me from work.

"But he grabbed me and laid me on the floor, saying he would

Police kill three suspected robbers, arrest herbalist, two others

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BY OUR REPORTER

BEOKUTA — THE Ogun State Police Command, yesterday, said it had killed three suspected robbers and arrested a herbalist and two others in two robbery operations in the state.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement, men of the Ogun State Command’s Special Anti Robbery Squad led by Inspector Adeyemi Akeem on Friday, April 25 burst a gang of robbers that specialised in snatching cars, at toll gate in Otta, Ogun State around 6pm, killing two of the robbers and arrested one Yusuf

Ahmed.

He said: “The robbers had snatched one Mercedes Benz ML 320 SUV with number plate LND 779 AQ from the owner at Dalemo area of Ota on Thursday, April 24 around 2pm and the team had since then put them under surveillance before the arrest.

“The syndicate had been on the wanted list of the command for the past one year, having been involved in robbries within and outside Ogun State.

“The suspect,Yusuf Ahmed, 21, is from Oja Oba in Ibadan, Oyo State but resides in Temidire area of Ota in Ogun State. He is an

alumnus of the Command Secondary School, Ibadan 2010 set and had been before now sentenced to imprisonment at Ikoyi Prison, Lagos State for a similar offence where he spent nine months before he was released.

“In the same vein,the same SARS team encountered another syndicate that specialised in highway robberies in the state.

“During the encounter, one of the robbers was shot and later died while two of them, who were fatally injured, were arrested with one pump action

gun, three locally made guns and 30 rounds of ammunition.

“One of the suspects is Obong Imeh, 37, an Efik man from Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, who resides at Ikenne Remo, Ogun State. He is a father of three and has been in the dirty business for years, according to him.

“He is a strong man (spiritually) as he used to disappear whenever he encountered security operatives except his blood touches the ground before he could be arrested. So he was arrested when the police bullet hit him and his blood touched the ground.

kill me if I shouted. He tied my mouth with a cloth and also tied my neck. He later brought a knife and hit me severalty on the head.

That is all I remembered until I woke up and found myself in the hospital.”

Ritual purpose suspected

Residents of the area accused the fleeing Mobile policeman of being a ritualist. Their accusation followed the discovery of several children’s clothes and shoes reportedly found under his bed.

One of the residents said: “He packed into the compound four years ago. Since then, he has always been travelling every time.

He has four cars. Most nights, we usually saw him carrying a Ghana Must go into his jeep, only to return at about 4 a.m.

"He just came back from one of the trips on Thursday. We suspect he intended using the girl for ritual because a Ghana must Go bag with which he wanted to put the butchered body was found in the room.”

Police react

Contacted, spokeswoman for the Lagos State Police Command, Ngozi Braide, said: "I heard about the wicked act and we have started investigation.

"I have contacted the Commander in charge of Mopol 22 which is where the complainant alleged the suspect is working.

The Commander said there was no such name or identity in his squadron.

"Meanwhile, we have sent signals to other police departments and stations to ascertain if this man is actually a serving policeman.

The act is inhuman and whoever did that will never go unpunished."

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 —7

Kolawole, ex-THISDAY editor launches online newspaper

VISIT: From left— Wife of the Vice President, Amina Sambo; Vice President Namadi Sambo and President G o o d l u c k Jonathan, during the President's condolence visit over the death of the Vice President's y o u n g e r brother, Captain Sabo Sambo, in a car accident on Airport Road A b u j a , y e s t e r d a y.

STATE HOUSE PHOTOS.

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How Ribadu was poisoned — OBASANJO

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor

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RSTWHILE chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was once poisoned in the course of his duties as anti-corruption czar, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed.

Obasanjo, who spoke at an international forum on 3rd Tana High Level Forum on Security in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday, also disclosed that Ribadu created enemies for him because of the ruthlessness with which he carried out his responsibilities of tackling corruption in Nigeria.

Obasanjo, who spoke from the floor following a presentation on Illicit Financial Flow and Governance of Natural

Resources made by Ribadu, affirmed that he had known from experience that the fight against corruption attracts a lot of enemies.

The former President declared that he has no fear of anyone still living in Nigeria, adding “it is rather them that fear me.”

Saying that Ribadu took on a lot of highly connected persons in his fight against corruption, Obasanjo said that the former anticorruption chief was once poisoned, causing a scare among concerned quarters.

“It was a matter of life and death,” the former president said, though further details of the incidence were not given.

Obasanjo said that once Ribadu was appointed, he gave him a free hand and that Ribadu investigated him, his late wife and several persons close to him at that time.

He also narrated a story of

how a serving minister, who was his senior in secondary school, was indicted and prosecuted by the EFCC, adding that when the minister was found wanting “there was no issue of seniority again.”

On leadership

Obasanjo, who is also the chairperson of the Tana Forum, re-echoed Ribadu’s submission that at the centre of anti-corruption fight there was the need for willing political leadership at the highest level.

He, however, added that the leader also needs relevant legislations to work with, narrating his experience with the bill establishing ICPC which, he said, was whittled down by lawmakers, who felt they could be victims of the law.

In his remarks, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, thanked Ribadu for his presentation, which, he said,

highlighted many good things about Nigeria different from what is portrayed in the media.

In his presentation, Ribadu offered measures African countries can take to tackle illicit financial flow and repatriate money already illegally taken out of the African countries.

He said what Africa needs is honest and committed leaders who will set examples with themselves by eschewing corruption and close avenues of illicit financial flow.

According to him, it is the seriousness and commitment showed by the political leadership that will convince other foreign countries to work with them towards recovering looted monies stashed abroad.

Ribadu also emphasised the need for concerted effort among countries and a synergy between law enforcement agencies so that looters could be caught.

ORMER Editor of T H I S D A Y newspaper, Mr. Simon Kolawole, will tomorrow unveil his online newspaper, TheCable (www.thecable.ng), in Lagos, with a panel discussion on Nigeria@100: Reflections on the Future.

The launch will be chaired by General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd.), former head of state. Discussants are Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President and CEO of the Dangote Group; Senator Chris Anyanwu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy; Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, CEO of Airtel Networks, and Mr. John Momoh, Founder and CEO of Channels TV. The discussion, to be moderated by Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, THISDAY Media Group and ARISE TV Networks, will precede the largescreen unveiling of the website by Kolawole.

In a statement yesterday, Kolawole, who is the Founder & CEO of Cable Newspaper Ltd, said TheCable is mandated to “to deliver knowledge-driven journalism in the pursuit of Nigeria’s progress.

“Our aim is to make TheCable the online newspaper of choice for leaders in politics and business, and youths. We are taking online journalism to another level.”

37 former PDP Reps to present impeachment motion against Jonathan

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

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BUJA—THE battle for political supremacy in the House of Representatives is set to be rekindled with the plan by 37 former members of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to present an impeachment motion against President Goodluck Jonathan.

The legislators, who are allegedly acting in concert with their governors who defected with them to All Progressives Congress, APC, are also following up their plans with

a high profile sensitisation campaign against alleged misdeeds of the administration.

The plan to present the impeachment motion Vanguard learnt is, however, being seriously opposed by Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and some PDP loyalists in the House who have warned the 37 members that the plan could worsen their precarious position.

The impeachment notice, which has been articulated into 30 points according to sources in the camp of the legislators, is a narrative of alleged

misdeeds of the administration including financial misappropriation, unaccountability, extrabudgetary spending, among others.

The legislators are also threatening to drag the President before the International Court of Justice at The Hague for genocide in the North-East and crime against humanity via a petition to be submitted to all embassies and international organisations.

The legislators have also

lined up a series of high level consultations with some of the nation’s past leaders, including Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Mohammadu Buhari, Shehu Shagari, Atiku Abubakar and Alex Ekwueme.

“The 37 of us are going to pay visits to all former presidents and vice presidents concerning the issue and to explain why we are taking this position,” one of the legislators disclosed at the weekend.

The legislators also plan a

demonstration at the ECOWAS Parliament where the lawmakers will present the list of the alleged crimes of the President and the impeachment notice.

The demonstration will then move to the United States, British, Canadian and French embassies, as well as all other European Union countries.

He said: ”Since the President does not want peace and he is going for our jugular, it’s a fight to finish this time around and he stands to lose more at the end of the day.”

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

2nd Niger Bridge 'll be completed on schedule—FG

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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HE Julius Berger-Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, consortium, the contractors handling the 2nd Niger Bridge, has promised to complete the project on schedule.

This position was contained in a statement signed by the Managing Directors of Julius Berger and the NSIA, Messrs Wolfgang Goetsch and Uche Orji, respectively, in Abuja, yesterday.

The duo described as untrue reports that there were plans to abandon the project, which was launched by President Goodluck Jonathan recently.

They denied reports that work on the project was suspended due to non-compliance with environmental laws .

The statement read: “Julius Berger-NSIA consortium wishes to clarify that reports suggesting that work on the bridge has been suspended due to non-compliance of environmental laws represent inaccurate and misconstrued information.

“Contrary to recent reports, work on the second River Niger Bridge project continue to progress according to schedule, to ensure timely completion of the bridge, which is set to be executed under the Public Private Partnership, PPP, arrangement for a concessional period of 25 years through the Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer, DBFOT, model.

“The consortium also highlights that compliance with Nigerian Environmental Laws continue to be deemed a paramount priority and that Environment Impact Assessment, EIA, is an intrinsic part of the project, which is carried out in compliance with the environmental laws that govern Nigeria and in collaboration with the relevant ministries.”

Cost

The cost of the project was negotiated down from N138,530,896,346.72 to N117,860,700,741.82 (VAT inclusive) and certified by Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP. Of this amount, the Federal Government will be contributing N30 billion as its equity participation in the project.

In one of the reports on the suspension of the bridge, Mr. Osita Okechukwu had told delegates during All Progressives Congress, APC, Enugu State, congress that the 2nd Niger Bridge had been suspended.

Okechukwu, who is the spokesman of APC South-East, had stated that the 2nd Niger

Bridge was a strategy by President Jonathan to deceive the Igbo community.

He had reportedly said: “Now that the 2nd Niger Bridge has been suspended, we call for international competitive bidding and due process to govern the award of the contract.

“This is why the Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, in line with due process and best international practices has exposed the grand deception by refusing to issue certificate to resume work, because there is no Environmental Impact Assessment Report.”

It would be recalled that the poor state of the bridge, constructed in 1963, had been a major concern of Nigerians from the South-East.

This is because the bridge, which is the main link between the South-West and South-East, and connects two large cities, Onitsha in

Anambra State and Asaba in Delta State, had been in a bad state.

The bridge, which forms part of the Arterial Route A232; Enugu-Onitsha-Asaba-BeninShagamu, is 1,590m in length and located 1.7km downstream of the existing bridge on a new alignment.

UBA AGM: From left— Mrs Rose Okwechime, Board Vice-Chairman; Mr. Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director/ CEO; and Board Chairman, Ambassador Joe Keshi, all of United Bank for Africa, UBA, Plc, during the bank's 52nd Annual General Meeting in Lagos.

Uncertainty over electricity workers' fate as 6-month contract expires

BY CLARA NWACHUKWU

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HERE is now a high sense of uncertainty over the fate of the remaining electricity workers inherited from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, by successor companies, as their six months contracts expire this week.

The workers’ contracts were drawn to assist the new owners of the successor companies assess staff performances to help them determine the quality and quantity of staff required to run their respective operations.

The implication of the contract expiration gives liberty to the core investors to decide who stays and who leaves and on what terms.

Since the disbandment of the Transition Committees appointed by the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, for the successor companies, the core investors have constituted their owns managements and boards to take decisions

for their operations.

Of the 18 successor companies, only Afam Power Station and the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company still have Transition Committees, which were appointed in February.

This is because of the late conclusion of the assets sale on account of delays in the payment of the mandatory fees by the core investors to enable them acquire the assets.

During the committees’ appointment, the DirectorGeneral, Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, had noted that the tenure of the committee could be between one and six months before they can gain full management controls.

With the assumption of management control and expiration of the workers contracts, the core investors can now hire and fire and right-size their respective companies as they deemed fit.

Labour threatens

However, workers unions in the power sector vow to resist any attempt by the new asset owners to disengage the

workers without proper negotiations.

Rather than being disengaged, the unions are instead calling for increase in wages to enhance their new status as private sector workers.

Although there are no official comments from the BPE as its spokesman, Mr. Chigbue Anichebe refused to respond to calls or text messages.

‘No grounds for negotiations’

But a top management officer of the Bureau, who spoke in confidence, maintained that the workers have no grounds for fresh negotiations.

He said: “By now, the core investors must have concluded their postprivatisation due diligence, and done their cost benefit analysis.

“So they are now in a better position to determine what staff they need to do what.”

In his opinion, the successor companies need more of technical staff, especially in the areas of

engineering and marketing, and less of administrative staff.

He said: “Generation, distribution and transmission are highly technical, and there is no way, for instance, that you can have more administrative staff in an oil company than engineers.

“The reverse is the case with the power companies, where a non-technical unit of one DISCO has about 72 workers and 20 of them are drivers.

The question is what are they all doing in just one unit?”

He argued that there is no way there will not be more job losses in the current power work force, noting that after the concessioning of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, the workforce nosedived from over 10,000 workers to about 4,000.

On the unions’ insistence that the workers be retained, the BPE source queried: “Retain all for what? After paying over $300 million to acquire these assets and paying as much as N10 million every month as interest on bank loans (not the principal), the unions can no longer dictate terms and condition.”

Vanguard , MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2014— 9

Pope Francis declares John Paul II, John XXIII saints H

ISTORY was made yesterday when Pope Francis yesterday proclaimed John Paul II and John XXIII the Catholic Church’s newest saints at a festive ceremony attended by thousands of pilgrims who came to watch the sainthood of two pontiffs who helped to shape 20th-century transformation of the church.

The event, which was attended by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who made a rare public appearance since he resigned from office last year, was the first time two popes were cannonised on the same day and two living popes held and said mass together. .

Expectedly, Pope Francis embraced him warmly at the ceremony and co-celebrated the mass with the 87-year-old Benedict and hundreds of bishops and cardinals.

“We declare and define as saints the blessed John XXII and John Paul II,” the Catholic leader said in a Latin prayer, as pilgrims and foreign dignitaries massed in St Peter ’s Square applauded and chanted: “Amen!” In his homily, Francis praised them as “men of courage” who worked “in renewing and updating the Church”.

“They were priests, bishops and popes of the 20th century. They lived through the tragic events of that century but they were not

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FORUM: Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (left), being welcomed by the Managing Director and Global Head of Emerging Markets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mr. Bernard Mensah (middle)and the Senior Director/ Head of CEEMEA Corporate Credit Research and Global Research, Merrill Lynch International , Tolu Alamutu, during the Governor’s Special Interactive Forum with Emerging Markets Investors on the state’s focus areas of Power, Agriculture,Transportation and Housing (PATH) held at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch , King Edward Street , London on Friday. overwhelmed by them.

Over 800,000 people followed the event which was dubbed “four-pope day ”, including 500,000 in and around St Peter’s Square.

Thousands watched the ceremony on giant screens set up in picturesque spots of Rome, witnessing an unprecedented event seen as a way of uniting conservative and reformist wings of Catholicism.

NDE tackles graduate unemployment, launches scheme

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

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AG O S — N AT I O N A L Directorate of Employment, NDE, weekend in Lagos, began a major practical step at combating graduate unemployment, with the launch of Graduate Coaching Scheme, GCS. It is aimed at providing transient employment for unemployed graduates (with particular emphasis on professional teachers) with building a strong foundation towards guaranteeing secondary school students a more permanent employment opportunity in the future.

According to NDE, the scheme will reduce the size of future unemployable persons into the labour market, noting that the strategy involves creating a data base of unemployed, mainly graduates with qualifications in education and National Certificate of Education, NCE, and their areas of specialisation.

This is then matched with

Ekiti guber poll: Olubolade backs Fayose

specific areas of deficiency of prospective WASC, JAMB and NECO candidates, deficient school leavers and drop-outs in different locations across the country with the aim of qualifying them for admission into tertiary institutions of learning.

Speaking at the launch, NDE’s Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, said the event marked another significant milestone in the fight against unemployment which threatened the aspirations of thousands of youths, and more disturbingly, graduates of tertiary institutions.

Mohammed, who was represented by Lagos State Coordinator, NDE, Mr. Joseph Modey, said unemployment was a cankerworm eating deep into the fabric of all nations such that governments all over the world were devoting a substantial part of their resources to combat the scourge.

According to him, “the effect of unemployment manifests in various forms such as youth’s restiveness, kidnapping, armed robbery, prostitution, etc, which tend to stall our development and progress as a nation.”

Why they were made saints The sainthood process usually begins at least five years after a person’s death, however the window was moved up for Mother Theresa and John Paul II, who were both tremendously popular figures around the world.

Amid calls of “Santo Subito” — meaning “sainthood now” — Pope Benedict XVI opened up the process weeks after his predecessor died.

Pope John XXIII, who helped bring the church into the modern era with Vatican II, and Pope John Paul II, the charismatic leader, who is credited with helping end Communism in Eastern Europe, are set to join the Catholic church’s most holy hall of fame.

John reigned from 1958-

1963 and is a hero to liberal Catholics for having convened the Second Vatican Council. Many faithful waved the red-and-white flags from John Paul II’s native Poland and some wore Polish folk costumes, while one pilgrim held a banner reading: “Two pope saints in heaven, two in St Peter’s Square”. “For them, God was more powerful,” he said.

Being declared a saint is one of the Vatican’s highest honors — but sainthood is hardly a tenured position.

The Catholic Church removed 93 saints from the universal calendar and revoked their feast days in 1969, when Pope Paul VI revised the canon of saints and determined that some of the names had only ever been alive as legends or not enough was known about them to determine their status.

IBB, Jakande, others for launch of NUJ: A History of Nigeria Press

BY CHINYEREABAZIEM

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AGOS—FORMER military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) will be the chief launcher, while former Lagos State governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande will be the chief host, Wednesday at the launch of the book titled; “NUJ: A History of Nigeria Press.”

The book is authored by Mr. Jola Ogunlusi, the pioneer secretary of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ. At a briefing by the author weekend at the Lagos State’s NUJ secretariat, he said the launch would take place at the

Oranmiyan Hall of Airport Hotel, Ikeja.

According to Mr Ogunlusi; ''it is essential that the history of any organisation be known, especially by its members. As such ”the 530-page and 20chapter book is on the formation of NUJ, the Nigeria Guild of Editors NGE, the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria NPAN, the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria BON, the Nigeria Press Organisation NPO, the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, NIPR and the Association of Advertisers Practitioners of Nigeria, AAPN, now AAAN.

ORMER Minister of Police Affairs, retired Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade, yesterday declared support for the candidature of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, flag bearer in Ekiti, Mr Ayo Fayose, in the forthcoming election.

Olubolade, who played host to the PDP candidate at a campaign rally in IpotiEkiti, Ijero Local Government Area of the state, said he was not a desperate politician.

“I decided to forget the past and work for the party’s candidate as a mark of respect to President Goodluck Jonathan and for the overall interest of the party,'' he said.

Leadership confab, awards postponed

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HE annual conference and awards ceremony by L E A D E R S H I P Conferences Limited a subsidiary of LEADERSHIP Group, earlier scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, has been postponed.

The postponement, according to a statement by the management, was as a result of recent security challenges in the country, especially in Abuja, where the event is scheduled to hold.

“Many of our distinguished guests have expressed concern that the security challenges coinciding with the World Economic Forum would create serious logistic problems for a major event like the LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards,” the statement said.

Institute graduates 42

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HE Victory Institute of Catering and Hotel Management will next month graduate 42 students of the institute with Diplomas, while 59 students will also be matriculated.

The graduation is billed to hold on May 1, 2014 at the school premises, Ikeja, Lagos.

10— Vanguard , MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2014

Osun releases N1bn for pensioners' arrears

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO—OSUN State Government has released N1 billion for the settlement of outstanding pension arrears of retired public workers who left the service in December 2012 due to the new contributory pension scheme.

The retirees had on two occasions this year protested in Osogbo to press home their demands.

A statement by the Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, weekend, said the government had commenced the immediate payment to the affected retirees.

According to Bolorunduro, “The State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in continuation of the fulfillment of his resolve to improve on the welfare of the citizens, particularly to the senior citizens, has approved that N1 billion be released immediately to the retirees that were forced to retire by the last administration.

The payment has thus commenced as the state holds the welfare of its senior citizens as one of its topmost priorities.''

FG awards 60% of crude lifting contracts to indigenous companies — MINISTER

BY CHRIS OCHAYI

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BUJA—THE Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said that the recent award of contracts for crude lifting to indigenous companies was part of the Federal Government’s objective to encourage effective local participation in the oil and gas industry.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke, who is also the Chairman, Board of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, noted that over 60 per cent of the 2014 to 2015 annual term contracts for the lifting of Nigeria’s crude oil was awarded to local firms after a painstaking pre-qualification process.

The minister, who spoke weekend in Abuja, said the balance was shared among some international trading companies,

refineries and some countries with bilateral trade agreements with Nigeria.

She said, “When we unveiled the Nigerian content law a few years back, the overriding principle was to grow indigenous capacity in an aggressive manner and I am happy to report that today, in the oil and gas sector, Nigerian content has been placed on the path of irreversible progress.”

Mrs. Alison-Madueke noted that the award to local players is in line with the aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan for effective transformation of the petroleum industry.

She said the advent of the Nigerian content law has encouraged indigenous investment in critical infrastructure.

“We have seen robust indigenous investments in

Marine vessels of various categories and wholly owned Nigerian vessels have increased astronomically through the years.

These vessels are the Category

APC’s appeal committee denies report on Amosun’s congresses

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B E O K U TA — T H E Appeal Committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State weekend denied media reports quoting it as saying the congresses by the faction loyal to Governor Ibikunle Amosun complied substantially with the guidelines of the party.

Chairman and Secretary of the committee, Messrs Ikra Bilbis and Udochukwu Ezekwe, respectively, told Vanguard that the report was

PDP accuses Amosun of spending N15m on APC congresses B E O K U T A — T h e …It’s not true, PDP is idle — APC

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Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State, yesterday, accused Governor Ibikunle Amosun of squandering N15 million to induce delegates during the state congresses of the All Progressives Congress, APC, held on Saturday.

The PDP made the allegation during a reception organised for 2,500 former members of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP,

led by the governorship candidate in the state during the 2011 elections, Chief Yomi Omosanya that defected to its fold in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area.

But in a swift reaction, the APC factional Publicity Secretary in the state loyal to the governor, Sola Lawal denied the allegation, describing the claim by the PDP as a figment of its imagination, saying

one and Category two types.

Investments in reception, storage and distribution facilities such as jetties, depots, trucks, vessels and modern retail outlets have more than doubled over the past few years, and this has helped to increase the nation’s sufficiency level in petrol,” she said.

“Members of the party were not induced.

“Nobody was induced with money. T h e p e o p l e h a v e passion for the party, the people that attended the congress yesterday were there because of the passion they have for our party. It is a statement of imagination, it is an idle talk. It does not deserve the same treatment.

It is not true.”

untrue, declaring that the report did not emanate from the committee.

According to them, the Chairman, state congress committee, Mr. Ope Salami had no authority to disclose the content of the report of the appeal committee which he did not even see.

There had been media reports that the appeal panel set up by the national leadership of the APC to adjudicate in the petition by some members of the party in Ogun State had given pass mark to the State Congress Committee on the conduct of the April 5th and 12th Ward and Local governments congresses.

The report also quoted the appeal committee to have submitted that the Congress Committee headed by Mr. Salami provided 98 per cent evidence to show that the congress held across the state.

But in their reactions, both Chairman and Secretary of the committee said Salami was a party in the matter and could not have been the best person to represent either the appeal committee or national leadership to disclose the content of the report.

APC, Omisore trade words over plot to disrupt Osun guber polls

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO—AHEAD of the August 9, governorship election in Osun State, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, alongside its gubernatorial candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, yesterday traded words over alleged plot to import thugs to disrupt a peaceful conduct of the election.

While APC claimed the PDP and Omisore had perfected plans to bring thugs to disrupt the peace in the state through violent protest in major towns in the state, Omisore alleged that APC was noted for violence and had only revealed what it planned to do in Osun before the election.

Speaking through its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, APC said “these senseless and unwarranted protests are intended to manipulate the populace, the electorate and the electoral system in their favour. Plans are said to have been concluded by both Omisore and the PDP to create a virtual state of confusion before August 9 believing that if the plan works, it would facilitate an easier manipulation of the electoral process and their rigging exercise.”

But Omisore in his reaction, through the Director of Communications and Strategy of his campaign organisation, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, said “the APC is fond of allegation and by now we expect them to have moved from allegations to issues.''

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 11

Police raise alarm over recruitment scam in Bayelsa

Amaechi hails orderly conduct of APC congress

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORTT HARCOURT—GOVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has lauded the orderly manner the state congress of All Progressives Congress, APC, was conducted in the state, weekend, in Port Harcourt.

Amaechi, who spoke through his deputy, Engr Tele Ikuru, said the party had continued to set democratic standards in the country. He said: “Again, Rivers State has set the pace. The success of this congress is because of you, the delegates. You came in here, conducted yourselves, voted your candidates, specifically to deliver the party.”

VP Sambo's brother dies in car crash

BY BEN AGANDE

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ICE President Nama di Sambo, yesterday, lost his younger brother, Capt. Yusuf Sabo Sambo, in a car accident along the airport road in Abuja.

A statement by the senior special assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Sani Umar, said until his death Captain Sambo was a pilot who worked with the former Nigerian Airways and the Presidential Air Fleet before his retirement.

Late Capt. Sambo was born in 1956, and died at the age of 58. He is survived by his wife, three daughters and 10 brothers and sisters. Among the early callers at the official residence of the Vice President were President Goodluck Jonathan accompanied by his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, and other principal aides.

President Jonathan urged his vice to take solace in the fact that all humans are mortals. The president who said Nigeria will miss the late captain for his contribution to national development as one of the finest pilots the country has ever produced, noted, “I was in Yenegoa and came back today to hear the sad news of fatal accident which took the life of Captain Sambo.

I was shocked. The vice president was in Tanzania representing me at the 58th anniversary of their independence."

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APC RIVERS STATE CONGRESS: From left: Secretary to Rivers State Government, Feyii George; Rivers State deputy governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru; Mr. Dakuku Peterside, member, House of Representatives; Dr. Sam Sam Jaja; Chief Davies Ibiamu, former Interim State Chairman, APC, Rivers State and Hon Asita O. Asita, member, House of Representatives, at the APC Rivers State Congress in Port Harcourt, weekend. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke.

Oil spill: Bayelsa elders allege invasion of community by armed Agip contractors ...write protest letter to Jonathan, Dickson

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

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ENAGOA—AGGRIEVED elders and youths of the coastal town of Okoroba in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have sent a protest letter to President Goodluck Jonathan and the state governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, over alleged invasion of their community by contractors hired by Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, to clean-up the massive oil spillage in the area.

According to the aggrieved indigenes, the contractor hired by the oil company allegedly arrived the community with over 50 youths and 20 armed men brandishing AK47 and doublebarrel guns to harass their youths and chiefs that visited the site to protest and ask the contractor to leave pending the resolution of contentious issues on the spillage, cleanup and compensation.

Protest letter

In the protest letter, the aggrieved indigenes, through their spokesman, Mr. Gift Douglas, said that the action of Agip Oil Company has added a sad and dangerous dimension to the oil spillage that occurred on February 16, along the Brass/Ogoda pipeline within pillar 14 and 16 which impacted adjoining land within pillar 17 -27 in Okoroba Kingdom.

According to the statement, though the Okoroba community has hosted Nigerian Agip Oil Company based on the acquisition of the massive hectares of land around 1971/72 by the multi-national, the relationship has always been that of a master and servant -based on the company operational policy with the peo-

ple of Okoroba.

“The company has demonstrated total contempt and disregard for the various memoranda of understanding it entered into with the community.

The most recent spill is as a result of equipment failure and has occasioned untold hardship to the people of Okoroba and their environment.

Looming hunger and diseases

“Our envir o n m e n t which is the only source of our survival is now rendered impotent and hunger and water-borne diseases are looming in our various fishing settlements. We totally condemn the deployment of double standard and the introduction of the divide and rule tactics in the resolution of the issues that are associated with the spill.

“We wish to state that NAOC will fail in its mission to ignite communal crisis with our brothers (Agrisaba).

We want a life of peace and harmony with our neighbours regardless of their unprovoked deployment of the instrument of violence and death."

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

ENAGOA—THE Bayelsa State Police Command, weekend, raised alarm over the existence of a police and vigilante recruitment scam operated by some suspected criminals in the state, which obtains N2,000 for processing recruitment forms into nonexistent Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, positions in the Nigeria Police Force Though Police Service Commission, PSC, is the institution saddled with the responsibility of advertising for recruitment into cadet ASP and Inspector cadres, the suspected recruitment scam group has been selling the forms and collecting money from gullible candidates for the fake recruitment exercise.

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Why I invited UN to assess me —Uduaghan

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

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SABA—DELTA State governor, Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has challenged leaders not to be afraid of allowing independent assessors to take critical look at their activities while in office, saying that same was why he took what he described as a “bold step” by inviting the United Nations, UN, to assess his administration.

Speaking at a preparatory workshop for the UN assessment of key sectors of the Delta State economy in Asaba, the governor said that such assessments will enable leaders to know their achievements, challenges and areas they can improve upon.

He said: “We have taken a bold and courageous step to invite the United Nations to assess us on how far we have gone in our policies and programmes in bringing development to the people.

“There is the need to assess how far we have gone because this assessment will help us in moving forward in devel-

opmental indices. It will also show us how to achieve desired goals, especially the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.” In his goodwill message at the workshop, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Daouda Toure, noted with delight the decision of the state govern-

ment as the first in the country to subject its performance in key sectors: health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, for assessment with regard to the attainment of the MDGs by the global body.

Represented by Ambassador Louise Sethswaelo, who

is the Head of Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, in Nigeria, Toure said: “Monitoring performance and progress of development is one powerful tool which leads to positive transformation and provision of evidence-based planning in a state or nation.”

Transformation in Edo consistent with Oshiomhole’s antecedents —IBB

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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ENIN—FORMER Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.), has said that he was not surprised by the rapid transformation in Edo State under Governor Adams Oshiomhole, adding that it was consistent with the governor’s antecedents.

Also, former governor of Lagos State, and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said that the Edo State governor had im-

pacted positively on the development of the state beyond empty rhetorics.

Speaking at Igueben, weekend, where he was Chairman of a ceremony to mark the 70th birthday of Chief Tom Ikimi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Babangida, said; “I want to pay special homage to my governor, Oshiomhole, who has been doing so much to transform Edo State.

“As a regular visitor to Edo State, I could feel and inhale the impact of good governance not only on the faces of the people, but also on infrastructure. I saw several red roofed schools on my way here. I saw well cultivated lawns, walk-ways and beautiful road networks. I saw expansions on roads that were hitherto narrow. In fact, the feeling of a transformed Edo State is palpa-

ble.

“I am not surprised that all these are happening in Edo State given the antecedents of Oshiomhole. With courage and strong political will, coupled with the support of political leaders like Ikimi, it is understandable why the infrastructural architecture of Edo State has assumed this enviable height.”

Asiwaju Tinubu also praised Oshiomhole for concentrating on development rather than dancing Azonto in the face of developmental challenges.

On Chief Tom Ikimi, Babangida said: “Celebrating Tom, to me, is a celebration of a man of humble beginning and of many parts, each part assuming a whole subject matter with anecdotes that explain his rich experience in politics, governance and foreign policy. His love for Nigeria, his country, is not in doubt. His commitment to national unity more often defines the rationale for his undertaking rather than any selfish consideration.

He carries with him a style that distinctively distinguished him as a man of class.”

APC now rooted in Rivers —Abe …lauds state congress

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ENATOR Magnus Abe has described the orderly conduct of the Rivers State congress of the All Progressives Congress, APC, which was well attended, as monumental.

Abe, representing Rivers South-East in the National Assembly, shortly after participating in the party’s state congress in Port Harcourt, said the comportment and peace witnessed during the exercise was a clear indication that APC was now rooted in Rivers State.

“With the development, I am convinced that APC has penetrated the grassroots in Rivers State and will emerge victorious in the 2015 general elections,” Abe said.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) urged the delegates, as ambassadors of the party, to replicate same commitment in their drive towards making the party greater.

He said: “APC has come to change the old ways of doing government business. The party is determined to chase out impunity, insecurity and injustice. Nigerians need change, Nigerians want their country back and APC is the answer.”

He congratulated the newly elected chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya and the Secretary, Emeka Bekee as well as other party officials on their victory at the congress.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 13

C M Y K

14—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

CHIEF TOM IKIMI CELEBRATES 70TH BIRTHDAY

Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd), former Nigerian Head of State; Chief Tom Ikimi, the celebrant; Gen. Ibrahim.Babangida (rtd), former Military President; Chief Igbinedion; ComFrom left, Hon. Mike Onolememen, Minister of Works; Chief Gabriel rade Adams Oshiomhole, Edo State Governor; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice PresiIgbinedion, and wife dent; Chief Bisi Akande, Acting APC National Chairman, cutting the cake, during Chief Tom Ikimi's 70th birthday ceremony, at St. Stephens Catholic Church, Igueben, Edo State.

Photos: Barnabas Uzosike

From left, President J.J. Rawlings, former President of Gha- Professor Osariemen Osunbor (left), and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. na; Chief Tom Ikimi and wife.

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Cultural troupes

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014—15

No right thinking Nigerian 'll accuse his President of genocide — Kalu

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BY DANIEL ETEGHE

AGOS — FORMER governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, yesterday said no right thinking Nigerian would accuse his President of genocide.

Orji was reacting to a memo written by Governor Murtala Nyako of Adawama State to Northern Governors’ Forum, alleging genocide against President Goodluck Jonathan, in view of the Federal Government’s war on terror.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed International Air-

port, MMIA, Lagos, Kalu also called on the Federal Government to seek help from foreign countries such as the United States of America, Germany and others, in rescuing the over 200 female students abducted by members of Boko Haram sect from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

The former governor said he could not ascertain why President Jonathan would want to kill the people he was ruling, stressing that the problem of Boko Haram was also affecting the President.

Cautioning Governor Nyako, Kalu said Nigerians should be

mindful about whatever they say as some allegations were far too weighty to be joked with.

He said: “I have a lot of respect for Admiral Nyako but no right thinking Nigerian should be accusing his President of genocide.

“Why does he want to kill people that he is ruling, the president is weigh down by the problems. If you know where I live, the president is my neighbour and I know people don’t leave those compounds sometimes 3 am, sometimes 4 am. I think as politicians we should have restrain in what we say and what we don’t say.”

Rep to Jonathan: Dismantle democratic structures in 3 North-East states now

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

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BUJA — DEPUTYChairman, House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Uzoma NkemAbonta, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to dismantle all democratic structures in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in the North Eastern part of Nigeria where there is currently a state of emergency.

Nkem-Abonta, who spoke to House Press Corps, said the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency must be checkmated now by ensuring that the present democratic structures are dismantled .

The legislator, who represents Ukwa East/West in the House, said it would

amount to duplicity of role to have a military commander and a civilian administration in place in the affected states at this critical time.

He said the state of emergency was an abnormality and to restore normalcy you need to surrender power to one common military commander.

He said: ”A situation whereby you have two captains in one ship is what we are seeing in the troubled states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.”

He explained further that “we should not fight insecurity with kid gloves. It should be a concern to everybody. If you run into a stop and search patrol team, whether you are in a hurry or not, you must stop and be searched, we must see everybody as a suspect."

Confab: I did not abandon my duties —Delegate

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BUJA— A member of the National Conference currently ongoing in Abuja, Mrs Bola Ogunrinade, has dismissed reports that she abandoned her duties at the parley without permission.

Ogunrinade, whose clarification was contained in a statement issued, weekend, said she took permission from chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, before travelling out of Abuja to attend to some urgent domestic matters.

She said: “I wish to correct the erroneous impression that I took leave without permission. I had earlier written to the chairman of the conference for permission to travel to sort out urgent domestic matters from April 16 to 23, 2014.

“The permission was granted. I returned to join the committee on Thursday, April 24 2014 and has since taken active part in the discussions relating to youths’ empowerment and leadership training.

“It is not true that I was persistently absent from the conference. I am a product of the University of Ibadan, the London School of Economics and the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru.

“I have a positive orientation to work having served in both public and private sectors in senior management positions."

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16— Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 OUR governments adopt the easiest approaches to the malaria scourge – talk about it, prescribe more use of mosquito nets. Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, announced in 2012 that more than 90 per cent of Nigeria’s population about 150.3 million people - is at risk of malaria infection.

The Minister summarised the malaria scourge hiding its devastation. “ Malaria is a major public problem in Nigeria; Nigeria contributes a quarter of malaria burden in Africa. Over 90 per cent of the country’s 167 million people are at risk. It contributes 30 per cent to childhood mortality in the country and contributes 11 per cent of maternal mortality. I must add that it reduces Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product by one per cent annually. It is estimated that malaria-related illnesses and mortality cost Africa’s economy about $12 billion annually.”

How can malaria be this dangerous and we wait for April 26, the annual

Malaria: Away From Depressing Statistics World Malaria Day, to advertise mosquito nets to Nigerians?

The 2010 Malaria Indicator Survey Nigeria showed that about 52 per cent of children aged six months to five years tested positive to malaria.

According to experts, if these children survive, their physical and mental growth would be adversely affected. A combination of malaria with poor nutrition ensures many of those children would have stunted growth and poor mental development. The 2013 World Malaria Report rates Nigeria as 100 per cent territory for malaria

transmission.

“The total private direct cost of treatment is N375.48 billion, total private direct protection cost is N446.07 billion and total private indirect cost is N1.4billion. The total cost of malaria illness in Nigeria was estimated to be about N2.23 trillion representing 7.3 percent of the GDP in 2011,” a report in the 2013 Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, by Nigeria's Olalekan Musa Salihu and Nurudeen Ayodeji Sanni, found.

They recommended, “ that government should expand the

provision of free and highly subsidised insecticide treated mosquito nets.”

Dependence on foreign initiatives on malaria will not work. The World Health Organisation, WHO, formally proposed malaria eradication in 1955.

Malaria is claiming more territories.

With climate change, some parts of Europe and North America may breed the harmful mosquitoes.

Malaria is not a global challenge.

Nigeria bears a huge part of the malaria burden. Nigeria needs to commit resources to researches on malaria vaccine. Our Ministries of Environment should work with health authorities to institute practices that would free the environment of mosquito breeding grounds. The world’s interest is more in selling mosquito nets and pharmaceuticals than in fighting malaria.

Our governments should be more practically committed to eliminating malaria; reciting statistics, no matter how depressing, is an ineffective step.

OPINION

BY ADEDOYIN ADEWUMI

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N the electronic media the spokesperson of the Department of State Service, DSS/SSS, Marilyn Ogar comes across as a tough security officer who speaks firmly and authoritatively on issues concerning the operations of her agency.

Since enlisting in the Service in 1988 as intelligence officer, after obtaining a degree in Languages from the University of Calabar, Ogar has held several positions and served in various state commands and training institutions.

She has participated in several capacity building programmes at home and abroad, including her participation in the pioneer class of the Advance Intelligence Management Course, AIMC, in 2008 which was held at the Institute of Security Studies, ISS. Since 2009 when she was deployed to spearhead the restructuring of the Open Source Intelligence Department, the PR arm of SSS in the Office of the Director General, she has demonstrated her skills in PR practice in projecting the image of the agency to the world. She is currently a member of several committees, including the Presidential Committee on Public Awareness and Civic Responsibility, Joint Security Information Committee, Strategic Action Plan for Public Information Management and Forum of Spokespersons in Security and Response Agencies.

Behind the media screen, at private level, she has a softer side, the woman-instinct, motherly care. She shed away the toga of her toughness to crack humorous jokes in lively interactions.

Ogar's emergency response to social media At a recent private media interaction hosted by the Forum of Spokespersons on Security and Response Agencies, FOSSRA, that softer side was further manifested when her lively countenance and joking demeanour gave way to her emotional side.

She was asked if the attempted jail break at the SSS Headquarters was staged by the operatives(as reported on social media) as a cover to execute hardened terrorists in custody.

Her smiling face changed suddenly as if overcame by emotion. With reddened eyes, but in firm, though quivering voice, she said that as a mother with grown up children, she could not imagine how a respected institution like the SSS would stage-manage a show in a sensitive area just to kill people. With a ball of tear rolling down her cheek, she swore that if the accusation is true, may the Almighty God judge her, but if it isn’t, may the accusers be judged accordingly.

After calming down from her emotional outburst a moment later, she told the bewildered audience how SSS operatives have sacrificed their lives in different operations nationwide to protect the citizens from terrorists and criminal elements but yet the agency is unnecessarily attacked mostly on social media.

This raises salient issues from the recent attempted jail break by insurgents in managing crisis or disaster through information management in the age of social media. The emergence of the social media has reduced the obsession over traditional media. Gone were the days when you have to wait for the traditional media

as the social media has triggered a need for quick response. The news of the attack with pictorial evidence first broke on twitter with different theories being thrown all over in the dark on what was really happening.

More so, realising how the news travel fast on mostly twitter on that Sunday morning when people should be enjoying the weekend or worshipping in the church, Ogar issued the first brief press release at about noon, disclosing that it was an attempted jailbreak to debunk the rumours of ‘coup plot,’ and ‘terrorist invasion’. The first message allayed the fear of citizens and the international community. A spokesperson can’t wait for the damage to be done before setting things right.

In a similar vein, gone were the days where one needed to invite and gather journalist together for briefing. The rise of the social media has given way to a spontaneous response on various social platforms from the comfort of offices of spokespersons. While the first release was issued, updates were provided by Ogar and her team on social media.

Thus, social media monitoring and measurement should be a top priority of any spokesperson or press secretary. You don’t need to buy all the papers or watch all the television channels. You only need to google the latest on the issue to track what are being reported. Probably in a response to such demands, Ogar issued three press releases in less than six hours to provide further updates to correct erroneous impressions and attend to enquiries.

More so, it is imperative that one responds to emergencies and other things that may come up, but at the same time, one must put at the back of one’s mind that the social media isn’t as ethical as the traditional media. Rules and ethics guide the traditional media, unlike the social media where everyone is a “journalist” and there are always unscrupulous elements that are bent on being mischievous. No matter the imperfection, spokespersons should discharge their responsibilities without fear or favour.

In a nutshell, while one must commend effort of the SSS to douse the tension by providing information when it is needed, Ogar as professional PR person surely has constraint on what to say, how to say it and when to say it because national security has various approval chains, including clearing from the Real Oga at the Top. We may blame spokesperson for not being forthcoming, we can only encourage them to know that in a democratic setting, there shouldn’t be too much secrecy when it comes to security because the citizens want to be adequately informed they are indeed “securely safe.”

Keeping information from people makes them wary and suspicious. As much as possible, security agencies should endeavour to give out as much information as they can.

*Ms Adewumi, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Abuja.

APRIL 28, 2014

TOUR: From Left; Managing Director, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Engr. Saleh Dunoma; Director General NCAA, Mr Benedict Adeyileka (behind); Supervising Minister of Aviation, Dr Samuel Ortom and; Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Managament Authirity (NAMA), Mr Ibrahim Abdulsalam, during an inspection tour of Kaduna Airport after a fire incident at the control tower.

SMEs in developing world need N320trn — IFC

BY OMOH GABRIEL, Business Editor

T

HE International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group has estimated the financial needs of small and medium scale enterprises in Africa and other developing countries at more than $2 trillion (about N320 trillion). This huge financial gap if met, will enable these small and medium enterprises create jobs and help end the high level of unemployment in Africa.

At the 2014 Spring Meetings of the IMF/World Bank Group, participants at the seminar on Digital Finance and Financial Inclusion organised by IFC, World Bank Group disclosed that more C M Y K

than 2.5 billion people globally do not have access to formal financial services. They have no access to bank services as they operate without any bank account. Of the 2.5 billion, Nigeria accounts for 130 million of those without bank accounts. “With a rapidly growing population of over 160 million people, Nigeria remains largely ‘un-banked’ with only 21 per cent of the adult population (11,060,000) having a bank account, while 79 per cent or 128,940,000 have no bank account.

According to data supplied by the IFC, more than three-quarters of the world’s poor lack a formal bank account, mainly because of the costs involved, travel distances and the often-burdensome requirements to

open an account.

IFC research findings showed that about 200 million formal and informal micro, small and medium enterprises in Africa and other developing countries lack the financing they need to grow. That is half of all businesses in these countries. Their unmet financing needs are estimated to be more than $2 trillion. It is the view of some Africa experts that delivering financial services through technological innovations, including mobile money, can be a catalyst for the provision and use of a diverse set of financial services – including credit, insurance, savings and financial education.

Worried by this trend and its implication for the growing global

poverty; World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim during the 2013 annual Meetings called for a concerted global effort to achieve universal financial access by year 2020. He emphasized that universal access to financial services is within reach, thanks to new technologies, transformative business models and ambitious reforms.

Digital finance involves the use of “mobile money” and other innovative financial tools to expand poor people’s access to basic services and utilities.

The opportunity for impact is high: nearly 50 per cent of people own a mobile phone in the developing world, with close to 70 per cent having access to one. Estimates project that an additional 130 million people will start using mobile phones across the developing world each year by 2017.

The mobile money industry continues to grow: with 219 mobile money services in 84 countries, mobile money is now available in most developing and emerging markets. The majority of mobile money services are in SubSaharan Africa.

Digital solutions and new technologies offer great potential to overcome massive development

Continues on page 18

207.0

-5.45

2,943.00

-25.00

17.11

-0.01

109.55 -0.78 100.82 -1.12 CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI

RIYA KRONA SDR

154.73 155.23 155.73 259.8845 260.7243 261.5641 213.9606 214.652 215.3434 175.291 175.8582 176.4246 1.5103 1.5152 1.5201 0.3074 0.3174 0.3274 239.1355 239.9082 240.681 24.7583 24.8387 24.9192 41.2569 41.3903 41.5236 28.6505 28.7431 28.8357 239.6768 240.4513 241.2258

CBN Exchange rate as at 25/04/2014

18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Cover Story

Business Enterprise is the Answer for Change in Nigeria Part 1

*From left: Mr Robert Ajiamah, General Manager, FSDH Merchant Bank Ltd; Mr Rilwan Belo-Osagie, Managing Director and Ms Olufunsho Olusanya, Executive Director, Treasury at the Pre-AGM briefing of FSDH Merchant Bank Ltd in Lagos on Thursday. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele

SMEs in developing world need N320trn — IFC challenges and will contribute toward the World Bank Group achieving the goal of universal access to financial services by 2020, according to several speakers at a seminar at the 2014 Spring Meetings. With 2.5 billion people in developing countries deprived of access to formal financial services and more than 200 million small businesses lacking access to the financing, they need to grow, expanding access to finance remains a challenge.

“The benefits of digital finance extend well beyond conventional financial services: This can also be a powerful tool and an engine for job creation in developing countries,” said Jin-Yong Cai, International Finance Corporation executive vicepresident and CEO, as he opened the forum, cosponsored by IFC, World Bank, and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).

The forum, moderated by CGAP director and CEO, Tilman Ehrbeck, showcased companies that are implementing innovations in digital finance and was followed by a panel of private sector leaders and government representatives who discussed how these innovations can be taken to scale in developing countries.

Innovators from such firms as bKash, Airtel MoneyAfrica, and Mobisol described how their businesses are tackling major development challenges by deploying C M Y K

various approaches to digital finance. “As millions of poor people use mobile money, like bKash, the poor contribute directly to generating many multiplier effects of the value which can be used in productive activities like funding businesses. This way, digital money allows common people to contribute in the nation-building efforts and in the macroeconomics of the nation,” said Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash.

Delivering financial services through technological innovations,

development for Mobisol.

“Paying for solar power in small installments through mobile money is not a ‘fancy option,’ it’s already the norm for commercial transactions by those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

Digital finance also has an important role to play for small businesses. It not only provides them with access to financing but also to electronic payment systems, secure financial products and a chance to build a financial history. Arjuna Costa, partner of Omidyar

,

Continued from page 17

The benefits of digital finance extend well beyond conventional financial services; this can also be a powerful tool and an engine for job creation in developing countries

including mobile money, can be a catalyst for the provision and use of a diverse set of other financial services – including credit, insurance, savings, and financial education. Those who are now excluded can enjoy expanded access to moneytransfer services, microloans, and insurance.

“The buzzword ‘digital finance’ is already an everyday reality for our Tanzanian, Kenyan, and Rwandan customers who are using Mobisol Solar Home Systems,” said Thomas Duveau, who leads business

,

Network, underscored the importance of digital finance in terms of building the credit history and transactional data of individuals and firms for lenders.

Sandhya Rani, Postmaster- General of Andhra Pradesh State in India, emphasized the huge potential of digital finance on rural development and the role the India Post has played.

“With over 155,000 post offices, most of which are in

Continues on page 19

ground for entrepreneurial and managerial talent, the critical shortage of which is often a great handicap to economic development, among others.

Besides, technology has taken the entire world by storm and is also linking the world together. An entrepreneur can acquire a client in the US and make more money than if they were to do business with other Nigerians. That is U.S. money coming into the Nigerian economy because a Nigerian business owner broke the borders and stretched their legs. Fortunately, this is occurring more and more and the government, as well as the people, want to see more of it.

This is the answer for change

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usiness enterprise is the answer for change in Nigeria, so why aren’t there more businesses popping up all over the country? Part of this is due to a number of reasons.

However, there have been new policies put in place in Nigeria that guide both education and technology so that Nigerians can reach educational goals and use the completion of those goals to take the step. The next step is in starting a business that will increase individual income and will also produce jobs.

As it stands now, Nigeria is considered a ‘’Third World Giant” with the potential to become an emerging economic giant. This is because the education is there and the government has provided means for individuals to acquire an education. The Nigerian Economic Policy 1999-2003 cleared the way for all Nigerians to have equal opportunity to acquire the education they need to pull themselves out of poverty.

The emerging technology sector has also opened up a few doors because many of the new businesses and business endeavours revolve around technology.

Many economies, developed and developing, have come to realise the value of small businesses. They are seen to be characterised by dynamism, witty innovations, efficiency, and their small size allows for faster decision-making process.

Governments all over the world have realised the importance of this category of companies and have formulated comprehensive public policies to encourage, support and fund the establishment of SMEs. Developments in small and medium enterprise are a sine quo non for employment generation, solid entrepreneurial base and encouragement for the use of local raw materials and technology.

Small business operations are propelled by the dynamic theory, which makes them efficient and prone to constant changes which generate employment, increase job growth, and induce change, innovation and competition.

The benefits of SMEs to any economy are easily noticeable, they include: contribution to the economy in terms of output of goods and services; creation of jobs at relatively low capital cost, especially in the fast growing service sector; provision of a vehicle for reducing income disparities; development of a pool of skilled and semi-skilled workers as a basis for the future industrial expansion; improvement of forward and backward linkages between economically, socially and geographically diverse sectors of the economy; provision of opportunities for developing and adapting appropriate technological approaches; offering an excellent breeding

As it stands now, Nigeria is considered a ‘’Third World Giant” with the potential to become an emerging economic giant

,

in Nigeria. It is all in business enterprise.

The Dilemma However, there is a dilemma.

Nigeria has seen incredible economic decline that started in the 1980s. This decline has made the environment unfavourable for entrepreneurs to succeed. In other words, there is a degree of fear involved. The infrastructure of Nigeria can also make the road a difficult one to travel, despite the policies that have been put in place. Policies do not take time, but the government must inform those ambitious and hopeful for a better future that the doors are there.

Couple this with the fact that the country has abundance of many other natural resources and has good port facilities and you might think that international businesses would be fighting for a piece of the action in Nigeria.

With enough motivation, even if that means selfmotivation, obtaining venture capital through foundations, trusts, and non-governmental organisations can be possible, corruption and greed within the government can be conquered, the lack of enforcement in patent laws can be overcome, and women can be business owners too.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 19

challenges are daunting and beyond the capacity of those in charge, they call for help.

The present set-up in the military is not trained to fight terror. They probably know only conventional war. War on

Nigeria needs help from within and outside terror globally is more of intelligence gathering, information sharing and effective communication of position of the suspected enemies of the state through effective monitoring. As it stands, intelligence gathering machinery of the military, police and DSS seem very weak. War on terror is not about the superior weapons used by the enemy, it is the element of surprise in the attack that makes the difference.

This administration should swallow its pride and arrogance as it needs men and women with the requisite expertise in intelligence gathering, as well as experts in communication to help and teach Nigerian security forces.

Here is where the reserve army is needed. There are Nigerians who were patriotic enough to help keep Nigeria one during the civil war. Some of those military experts are still alive, there are those who are retired but not tired who can help. The benefit of the wisdom and experience of these retired generals who see Nigeria as an entity is needed now.

Nigeria, however, does not need the services of retired generals like Murtala Nyako who is retired and tired. All what these tired people like Governor Nyako see is doom and sectionalism. Boko Haram is not a phantom thing, it is real. The families that have been affected by the

insurgency cut across tribe, religion, state and region.

Boko Haram is not just a North-East problem, it is a Nigerian problem. We need men and women who think in Nigeria to help solve this problem. It is not a matter of playing the blame game, it is not a party affair, and Nigerians must rise above this parochial thinking to tackle the evil that has befallen the nation.

The President must take the

first step by calling those who can help to a round table and seek their cooperation. This is the time for the President to be firm and show that he is in charge and has the capacity to defend the rights of every Nigerian no matter where he comes from. The President must call for sober reflection on what has been happening and put his finger on where he has not acted as a President. The President must

,

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igeria is a country blessed with intelligent people. It is a country where every man and woman likes to express himself or herself loud and clear. Nigerians anywhere in the world like to hold their heads high. That was when the economy was booming.

But even now, Nigerians despite the economic situation are the same, proud and always assertive.

The nation is besieged by a murderous group from within and outside, further compounding the already bad economic situation in the country.

The security challenges facing the nation have relegated the need for more focus and attention on the economy to the background. It is about how to secure the country. While Boko Haram has taken hold of the North-East, kidnappings and other heinous crimes have taken hold of the South-South and South-East. Ritual killings is now rampant in the South-West and in the Middle Belt, communal clashes and rampaging Fulani herdsmen have combined to bring about a reign of terror on the people.

In all of these, untimely death is visited on the ordinary Nigerians. Those in position to stop these messengers of death are engaged daily on blame games.

Many are feeling that the government is not doing enough to curtail the situation. No responsible individual in power who sees the kind of carnage, the kind of macabre murders taking place in Nigeria will be mindless not to care. This situation has overwhelmed the capacity, the thinking faculty, ability and experience of top security personnel. They indeed need help and the support of those who understand the present circumstance.

Nations face challenges every so often. Whenever such

Nations face challenges every so often; whenever such challenges are daunting and beyond the capacity of those in charge, they call for help.

The present set-up in the military is not trained to fight terror, they probably know only conventional war. War on terror globally is more of intelligence-gathering, information sharing and effective communication of position of the suspected enemies of the state through effective monitoring

,

muster courage to face whoever stands in the way of progress in the country. He must as a man, look at every woman who is doing the wrong thing in the face and say stop or get fired and if such a woman refuses, should be fired.

Developed democracies are where they are today because leaders in those countries are accountable. They stand to say no to evil. They stand and allow institutions to fish out criminals and punish them.

When people know that if they do wrong they will get caught and duly punished, crime and criminality will reduce.

The reasons in democratic practice why majority surrender their sovereignty to a few elected officials is that government is responsible for the safety and welfare of citizens and any time the citizens are being killed or their welfare is being abused, government must take some kind of action. What is happening now in Nigeria has gone beyond the stage of blaming government and politicians. Some Nigerians have come to believe that Boko Haram is politically-motivated, some say it is religiouslymotivated; the question is, if it is religious, why should Muslims be killing Muslims and not just Christians and non-Muslims?

Nigerians must now realise that “Boko Haram is now out to prove that it can kill and get away with it. It has gone beyond religion, politics and ideology. It is a belief: ‘I can kill people and I can get away with it and let me show you I can do it.’ That is what it is now”. Nigerians must rise up to the occasion and face this one challenge in unison.

Cover Story SMEs in developing world need N320trn — IFC Continued from page 18 rural areas, we are poised to play a critical role in enhancing financial inclusion, as we are able to effectively deliver a variety of financial services, including banking, insurance, and remittances even in the most remote areas of the country,” she said.

Walt Macnee, President of the MasterCard Centre for Inclusive Growth, pointed out that innovations in electronic payment technology like mobile and prepaid enable people to live more secure, empowered and included lives

and that digital money will be the only way to achieve universal access to finance by year 2020.

Chidi Okpala, Director and Head, Airtel Money Africa said: “Leveraging a network of about 140,000 agent

locations in 15 countries, Airtel Money is currently leading the charge for massive scale financial

'Heineken house initiative yielding positive results'

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he management of Nigeria Breweries, NB Plc, said things are looking up for the Heineken, a brand from the stable of Nigerian Breweries, as a result of the benefit football enthusiasts are deriving from Heineken House located in Lagos.

According to findings, the viewing experience consumers are getting from the house is deepening the

relationship between the brand and its patrons.

Feelers from the company revealed that the house has suddenly become a positioning tool to further connect with consumers.

Meanwhile, football lovers were said to have positively readjusted to the relocation of the house from Victoria Island to Ikoyi.

Football fans and guests were recently invited to the

upscale Heineken House Lagos in Ikoyi to experience the ambience of the new environment and watch the UEFA Champions League.

The grand opening of the house was done by the Marketing Director ,Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Walter Drenth, who addressed the media and promised that the brand will continue to look for ways to satisfy consumers.

inclusion, creating entire cashless payments ecosystems and reducing financial transaction costs across Africa. In less than 30 months, we have expanded the service to 15 countries, achieved an active base of five million customers, with over one million daily transactions. Our aspiration is to ensure 100 million Africans have access to financial services by 2020 via Airtel Money.”

Concluding the session, panelists all agreed that for this type of innovation to be taken to scale, close publicprivate cooperation is a key factor in removing such barriers as cost, distance and regulatory complexities.

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20 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Business & Economy

FAO proffers solution to climate change

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he Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, has urged countries to shift to more sustainable food systems and step up action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

The Director-General of the organisation, José Graziano da Silva, made the call at the 7th Forum on Agriculture in Morocco.

He said: “Everything we do needs to take climate change into consideration and the time is now. We cannot afford to wait.” He added that climate change had the potential to reconfigure the planet’s food production scenario ``because it reintroduces an element of uncertainty.

“After decades in which hunger was caused more by a lack of access to the means to produce or purchase food, rather than insufficient supplies globally, the world’s poorest are particularly vulnerable.

Nigeria – Danish chamber holds breakfast meeting

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igeria – Danish chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture will holds its Annual Business Breakfast Meeting titled: “Power Sector Reform: Overcoming Institutional and Regulatory Challenges in an Era of Liberalization.”

It will hold this week Wednesday at Lagos Sheraton Hotels & Towers, Ikeja.

In a statement, the chamber said the breakfast meeting is to create a forum for business networking and garner knowledge and strategies on issues affecting our national life.

Ambassador Godknows B. Igali, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power is the main guest speaker. Other guests of honour are: Mr. Benjamin Dikki, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Dr. Ransome Owan, Electricity Utility Consultant, Crane Infrastructure Company Limited, Mr. Victor Gbolade Osibodu, Chairman/CEO, Vigeo Power Limited, Mr. Olajuwon Olaleye, Special Assistant to Minister of Power and Mr. John Momoh, Chairman, Channels Television .

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AGM: Diamond Bank Plc has held its 23rd Annual General Meeting. Above, at the occassion, from left are GMD/CEO, Dr. Alex Otti, Chairman, HRM Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, and Mrs. Nkechi Nwosu, Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, at the bank’s 23rd Annual General Meeting held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

EU/ECOWAS agreement harmful to Nigerian economy — Committee

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he National Technical Committee on the European Union/ ECOWAS Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiation on Thursday said Nigeria might lose its fiscal revenue by endorsing the agreement. Vice-Chairman of the committee, Prof. Ademola Oyejide, made this known at the opening of the committee’s meeting in Abuja.

Oyejide said that the meeting was geared towards re-examining the consequences and advantages of endorsing the agreement and deciding whether to go into direct agreement with the EU or not.

While giving an overview of the agreement, he said, West African countries would have an exclusion list of 25 per cent of their total imports from the EU. According to him, those products will not be subjected to liberalization. He said that ECOWAS countries were free to impose import duties on the imports under the 25 per cent, while the remaining 75 per cent would be subject to liberalization.

He, however, identified loss of Nigeria’s fiscal revenue as part of the 10 reasons the nation was opposing the agreement. The vice-chairman listed other reasons as not offering enough protection in the Nigeria perspective to ensure continuous existence of

its industries. He said that the agreement did not address the issue of reimbursement of the fiscal loss estimated to be about $1.3 trillion.

Oyejide said that the negotiation of the agreement, which started 12 years ago, was concluded in January, adding that every ECOWAS country had been given October 1 to append its signature in acceptance of the

agreement. “The negotiation between EU and West African countries on this agreement started 12 years ago, but the agreement deals with trade relations between ECOWAS member countries and the EU member countries.

“The basic idea is that the relationship will be structured in such a way that on the first day of the agreement, EU will open its markets to goods

exported from West African countries 100 per cent.

“Secondly, all the goods that West African countries will export to the EU member states will be able to enter without being subjected to import tariffs. And in exchange, the West Africa countries will open their markets to products imported from EU countries and the opening will not be as full as that of the EU, ‘’ he said.

Oyejide explained that one of the consequences of not entering into the agreement was inability to have common external tariffs with other ECOWAS countries. He, however, explained that inability to operate common external tariffs could encourage a lot of smuggling within ECOWAS countries. “If we stay outside that agreement Nigeria’s access to ECOWAS market as well as the access of our colleagues in ECOWAS countries to Nigeria market will be lost,” he said.

FAO urges more sustainable food systems to mitigate, adapt effects of climate change The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has urged countries to shift to more sustainable food systems and step up action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. The DirectorGeneral of the organization, José Graziano da Silva, made the call at the 7th Forum on Agriculture in Morocco on Thursday.

He said “everything we do needs to take climate change into consideration and the time is now. We cannot afford to wait.” He added that climate change had the potential to reconfigure the planet’s food production scenario “because it reintroduces an element of uncertainty.

Aiteo to build 100,000bpd refinery, increase upstream activities

BY MICHAEL EBOH

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ndigenous oil company, Aiteo has the technical know how to play in the upstream and is set to fully diversify into the upstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry and is also planning to develop a 100,000 barrels per day Greenfield refinery, which is expected to come on stream by 2017.

According to oil industry sources the company’s refinery project is presently at the conceptualization stages and it aims to fast track the development and construction of the refinery so that actual production from the refinery can commence.

The company it was learnt after having harnessed and

mastered the downstream business, is now strategically moving into the upstream sector to consolidate its hold on the Nigerian energy sector.

The company participated in the bidding process for the acquisition of oil blocks belonging to Shell, where it emerged winner. “Each of the bidders was given equal opportunity to bid for the oil blocks, so it is unnecessary, unfair and irresponsible for people to start casting aspersions on the quality and experience of Aiteo,” a source told Vanguard in reaction to controversies surrounding the bidding process.

The source disclosed that Aiteo, which is one of the fastest growing energy companies in Nigeria, has

proven its capacity in the oil sector, given its track record since over 15 years ago.

Continuing, the source said, “Aiteo is wholly a Nigerian company; to cast aspersion on its managerial capacity is more or less like saying that Nigerians are not competent to compete globally.

“The current Shell bid won by Aiteo is an opportunity to place another Nigerian integrated energy company on the global scene.

The company is a full service energy group, offering expert capabilities in various areas of the energy value chain, such as bulk petroleum products storage, petroleum products marketing, supply and trading and retail service station network.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 21

Business & Economy

Obiano outlines plans to industrialise Anambra State EMMA UJAH

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overnor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has identified four pillars upon which he would prosecute his accelerated development agenda, namely: agriculture, special vocation centres, energy, as well as commerce.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, he said that he was in a hurry to industrialise the state and would, therefore, not spare any step necessary to achieve his objective.

His words: “For us, industrialisation is key. It will feed directly from the other pillars such as agriculture, oil & gas and electric power, special vocational centres and commerce, upon which our state’s economy will be based.

These areas will transform Anambra into an economic giant because it will engage the youths, reduce unemployment in the state and it will also help in solving permanently, the issue of insecurity.

“Among the economic enablers that we have identified, we are going to have immense security because if I can get security fully in my pocket, get electric power supply 24 hours in the industrial clusters, people will begin to believe in what we are saying. They will begin to come back to Anambra for investment purposes. So, we have started the process of checkmating kidnapping, armed robbery and other forms of criminality in Anambra State.

“In this regard, I have inaugurated the Joint Task Force consisting of the Police, the DSS, the Army, the Navy, NDLEA and some other groups. We also started a review of the existing Vigilante Trust that we have, with a view to revamping, retraining and re-equipping this security apparatus. I am on the ground running because I am in a hurry to get some of the things sorted out. That is the thrust, so that the people that are working with me will know where we are heading.”

Giving further details, the governor who has been in office for just 11 days said that oil and gas will play a critical role in the development agenda of the state’s economy, as according to him, his administration would create the enabling environment for investors to massively move into the state to develop its hydrocarbon

resources. He said that both upstream and downstream activities in the oil and gas sector would receive attention with a view to significantly changing the economic status of his state.

“The only oil and gas company in Anambra - Orient which is almost 60 per cent completed will be supported by my administration in providing the necessary environment. In less than

nine months and one year, I believe that the refinery will be set up. You understand the by-products of refining are many and all these things will attract petrochemical companies to the state and provide job opportunities for the youths in the state through which we will boost our revenue profile.”

On agriculture, the new governor said: “Anambra is blessed with almost 100 per

cent arable land. Therefore, to show you what we want to do, if one football field of arable land has been cultivated in the history of Anambra, we will cultivate 100 football fields, just to show what we want to do in mechanized agriculture. “We also want to take advantage of the rain, so that we don’t miss this planting season. We are giving emphasis to mainly, cassava, maize and rice."

*BRIEFING - From left: Eunice Ekwenugo, Group General Manager, Future Concerns Safety Centre; Engr.Tony Oguike, MD/CEO, Future Concerns Group; Colin Oliver, MD-SubSahara Africa Region and; Haley Arness, Director,Costumer Loyalty & Distribution, at the media briefing on grand opening ceremony of Future Concerns Safety Centre, held in Lagos

A m a z o n ’ s r e v e n u e increases in Q1 Amazon.com Inc’s revenue grew more than expected for the first quarter, largely offset by a sharp increase in spending on technology, content and new warehouses as the e-commerce company branches into new businesses.

Amazon’s international unit, which accounts for 40 percent of sales, continued to be a drag as sales growth slowed to 18 percent during the quarter.

Global unit sales, a closely watched measure of how many items Amazon has sold, also decelerated, rising only 23 percent.

The company is investing heavily in new markets abroad, particularly China, where it faces tough competition with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.

“A lot of the things that we’ve done - making sure that we have the right pricing in place on behalf of the customers, making sure that our service levels are where we need them to be - those are the things we continue to work on in China,” Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said during a conference call.

“Is it a large investment? Yes, it is. And that investment has increased over the past several years.”Szkutak added that Amazon was “encouraged” by the weekly growth in Prime users, even after the company increased the price of the service by $20 last month.

Shareholders condemn banks’ contributions to AMCON fund Nokia completes

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hareholders of banks have condemned banks’ contribution to the sinking fund operated by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

Known as the Resolution Cost Fund, the sinking fund was set up to assist AMCON to meet its goals and also ensure that government will not bear the cost of financial crisis in future.

Each bank is required to contribute 0.5 percent of total assets and 0.5 percent of 33 percent of their off balance sheet items to the sinking fund.

Sir Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, however described the contribution has a waste of shareholders money.

Speaking at the 2013 annual general meeting of Diamond Bank in Lagos last week, Nwosu said, “The question here is of what benefit is AMCON ? AMCON is robbing shareholders of benefits that ought to have come to the seed providers.

So I want to know what benefit we are getting. Is it the benefit of the

cheap assets they have taken from us or is it the continuous waste on that side”.

Similarly, Mr. Boniface Okezie, President of the Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, criticised banks’ contributions to AMCON. He said AMCON is not a friend of shareholders, and if it cannot survive without collecting money from banks, it better wind up. AMCON should not be taking from us. I don’t see what they are doing.

In his response, Managing Director/ Chief Executive of Diamond Bank, Mr. Alex Otti, said he agreed with the views expressed by the shareholders on banks’ contributions to the AMCON sinking fund. He said he opposed the idea when it was initiated at the Bankers Committee, but his opposition was ignored.

Meanwhile shareholders of the bank approved the dividend of 30 kobo per share proposed by the board of the bank. Otti assured the shareholders that the dividend is the least the bank would pay assuring that going forward the bank would pay dividend every year.

sale of handset to Microsoft Nokia on Friday said the sale of its once-dominant handset business to Microsoft has been closed after the companies agreed to leave two factories in India and Korea out of the deal.

The company said that it now expected the final sales price to rise slightly above the previously announced 5.44 billion euros ($7.52 billion).

Nokia said that due to an ongoing tax dispute with Indian authorities, it would operate the Chennai factory as a contract manufacturing unit for Microsoft.

It also said it will close a plant in Masan, Korea, which about 200 staff.

Nokia added its board of directors was due to meet early this week in relation to the company’s strategy assessment.

C M Y

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Banking & Finance

AfDB provides $50m trade finance for African banks

A

frican Development Bank (AfDB) has entered into partnership with the Commercial International Bank (Egypt) S.A.E. (CIB) to provide $50 million fund to banks across Africa to finance trade in critical sectors.

In a statement announcing the fund, Bank Group said, “The facility will help address critical market demand for trade finance in Africa by providing support for trade in vital economic sectors such as agribusiness and manufacturing. Moreover, it will foster financial sector development and regional integration , and contribute to government revenue generation.

“The majority of African banks have small capital bases which constrain their ability to obtain adequate trade limits from international confirming banks and to undertake sizeable transactions that have significant development impact.

FirstBank commences seminar for SMEs

A

s part of its support for the sustained development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sectors of the Nigerian Economy, FirstBank through its SMEConnect platform has created Open Seminars which will take place in various parts of the country. The first edition would be held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State next month.

The seminar series with an overriding theme of “We can help with that”, is a one-day workshop also scheduled to take place in Kaduna, Abuja, Enugu, Ibadan, Kano, Jos and Lagos in subsequent months.

It is designed to provide practical help on relevant challenges faced by small businesses and will focus on capacity building, business plan writing, marketing products and services as well as accessing bank loans and documentation.

According to the Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, at FirstBank, we believe that the SMEs are at the heart of national development, contributing greatly to the gross domestic product of our country.

C M Y K

External reserves up $180m as Naira rises in interbank market

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

T

he nation’s external reserves gained another $180 million dollars last week rising to $38.10 billion at the close of business on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the naira appreciated by 135 kobo at the interbank foreign exchange market, following dollar sales by some oil firms.

According to the data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its website, the external reserves rose from $37.92 billion on Thursday April 17th to $38.10 billion last week Thursday. The reserves had been rising since April 4th, when it recorded the last decline for the year. It rose by $230 million between April 4th and April 24th.

It would be recalled that the external reserves declined persistently in the first quarter of the year. From $43.61 billion as at December 31st 2013, the nation’s external reserves consistently declined to $37.83 billion

by March 31 st .

In January the reserves fell by 1.4 percent to $42.99 billion, while it fell by 7.1 percent to $40.12 billion in February. As at March

31st, the external reserves had fallen by 5.8 percent in March.

The decline in external reserves was caused by the decision to sell foreign exchange to defend the value of the naira against the dollar.

But since April 1st, the apex bank has been reducing the amount of foreign exchange sold, an indication of reduced demand for foreign exchange.

For example last week, the amount of foreign exchange sold at the bi-weekly auction dropped marginally to $632.94 million from $654.79 million the previous week.

The reduction in dollar sales was facilitated by dollar sales by oil firms into the market last week. In addition to this was dollar inflow from offshore investors for investment in government

securities.

This prompted the naira to appreciate by 135 kobo in the interbank foreign exchange market last week. Data from Financial Market Dealers Quote (FMDQ) show that the interbank foreign exchange rate dropped to N160.97 per dollar at the close of business on Friday from N162.32 per dollar the previous week.

AWARD - From left: Director, Corporate Relations, Mr. Sesan Sobowale; Managing Director, Mr. Seni Adetu, both of Guinness Nigeria; Publisher, Mr John Ajayi; Marketing Manager, Mr. Aniete Udoh and Editor, Mr. Wale Okoya, all of Marketing Edge Magazine at the presentation of Marketing Edge ‘Brand Personality of the Decade Award’ on Wednesday, April 16th at Guinness office, Ikeja.

FSDH Merchant Bank declares N2.62bn profit

BY MICHAEL EBOH

F

SDH Merchant Bank Limited has announced a profit after tax of N2.62 billion for the 2013 financial year.

Speaking at a pre- annual general meeting (AGM) press conference in Lagos, Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Rilwan Belo-Osagie, disclosed that the after-tax profit was 17.9 per cent decline from N3.19 billion recorded in the 2012 financial year.

The bank recorded profit before tax of N2.066 billion for the year ended December 31, 2013, representing 8.9 per cent decline from N2.27 billion recorded in 2012.

Belo-Osagie blamed the decline in the bank’s profit on start up challenges, increase in operational expenses and the tight monetary policy stance of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. He explained that for the most part of the first and second quarters of 2013, it operated more as a discount house despite the fact that it officially started operations as a merchant bank on January 15, 2013.

He said, “This was because once we got the merchant banking licence, we had to subsequently apply to the CBN for a foreign exchange dealership licence. Approval for this was received in April and we then started dealing in foreign exchange in May 2013.

“Furthermore, we had to open foreign correspondent banking accounts. This process can be rather lengthy due

to the enhanced due diligence that is carried out by foreign banks before commencing business relationships with banks in frontier markets.”

In spite of the decline in profitability, the bank proposed N978.18 million dividends, representing appreciation of 40 per cent increase, from the N698.7 million dividend declared in 2012. This translates to a dividend of 35 kobo per share, an improvement of 10 kobo per share from the 25 kobo dividend per share declared in 2012.

Belo-Osagie said the company is already beginning to see the benefits of investment made in the previous year namely restructuring, new recruitment, marketing efforts and diversification.

He further stated that, “Our new banking licence opened a wider array of business opportunities for us. We were able to support our customers in the area of import trade finance, enter into new correspondent banking relationships, foreign exchange and through lending activities, supported our growing indigenous upstream oil and gas clientele.

“Our ultimate goal is to create a niche market for ourselves in carefully selected industries where we can add value to our clients’ business venture.

“We will continue to maintain our conservative stance and exercise great caution so as not to rush into creating risk assets that can be detrimental to our growth in the future.

Our strategy is to ensure that we build a portfolio of risk assets that would stand the test of time.”

Capital Market P.E. Oil and Gas and Products Petroleum Prod ucts Capital Oil Plc 1st fTier Securities AGRICULTURE Crop Production FTN Cocoa Processors Plc 50.00 Okomu Oil Palm Plc 2.77 Presco Plc 4.37 Livestock/Animal Specialities Livestock Feeds Plc 15.00 CONGLOMERATES Diversified Industries A.G. Levents Nigeria Plc 5.18 Chellarams Plc 20.74 John Holt Plc 0.00 SCOA Nigeria Plc 15.77 Transnational Corporation 3.64 UACN Plc 4.14 CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction/Structure ARBICO Plc Constain (WA) Plc CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Non-Building/Heavy Construction Julius Berger Nig Plc 10.11 Roads Nigeria Plc 2.26 Real Estate Development UACN Property Development Real Estate Investment Trusts Skye Shelter Funds Union Homes Real Estate Investment CONSUMER GOODS Automobile/Auto Parts DN Tyres & Rubber Plc 0.00 Beverages-Brewers/Distillers Champion Breweries Plc 0.00 Guinness Nigeria Plc 19.98 International Breweries Plc 16.29 Nigerian Brew Plc 22.22 Premier Breweries Plc 0.00 Beverages-Non-Alcoholic 7-UP Bottling Company Plc 13.92

Food Products-- Diversified Cadbury Nigeria Plc 27.61 Nestle Nigeria Plc 32.84 Household Durables Nigerian Enamelware Plc 2.44 Vitafoam Nig. Plc 7.07 Vono Products Plc 0.00 Personal/Household Products PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc 4.39 Unilever Nigeria Plc 32.91

0.50

Opening Price N

Closing Price

Quantity

0.50

100

Year 0.50

Year 0.50

0.09

0.50

0.50

3,000

0.50

0.50

0.10

36.33

35.03

470,533

24.58

14.53

7.33

43.00

43.00

104,130

8.30

6.40

2.75

3.15

3.30

2,364,471

0.66

0.48

0.11

1.56

1.56

54,886

2.54

1.45

0.16

3.86

3.95

4,500

7.60

6.43

0.31

1.21

1.21

360

8.82

5.89

0.00

5.06

5.06

20,454

8.28

5.52

0.35

3.64

3.64

14,124,130

1.82

0.50

0.24

59.01

59.00

87,746

42.50

28.70

6.89

5.30 1.26

5.30 1.31

31,443 1,032,132

4 2,720,390.38

20

69.90

69.90

49,035

62.26

32.96

4.11

8.46

8.46

4,750

8.28

3.01

4.73

25.00

24.85

416,293

20.15

11.59

1.69

7.33

100.00 47.59

100.00 47.59

200 70

100.00 -

97.00 -

11.75 -

8.51 -

0.50

840

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.50

13.79

13.79

20

4.63

2.23

0.00

190.00

190.00

91,823

255.00

186.00

9.95

26.01

26.00

2,676,867

7.10

5.23

0.41

148.00

148.08

1,899,899

100.00

72.50

5.08

0.77

0.77

10,000

1.01

0.93

0.00

90.00

90.00

15,027

51.49

,39.00

8.08

129,924

19.90

4.31

0.00

9.26

9.35

5,090,077

16.20

4.02

0.91

67.35

68.00

297,594

95.00

57.00

4.09

4.00

4.00

1,582,941

6.60

2.31

0.39

11.51

11.51

304,790

6.70

3.80

1.01

0.53

0.53

30,501

0.88

0.50

79.00

79.00

37,447

37.27

8.33

1.35

1,100.00

1,100.00

147,833

840.10

400.00

25.43

32.27

32.27

60

36.19

33.96

13.89

4.01

4.00

497,028

5.54

2.91

0.61

1.66

1.66

11,000

2.88

2.88

0.00

36.00

37.00

702,307

41.02

21.02

0.82

47.15

47.04

4,039,725

47.39

27.60

1.44

8.87

8.44

5,985,843

12.39

4.70

1.42

Diamond Bank Nigeria Plc

6.15

6.14

5,175,243

7.51

1.92

0.90

13.60

13.60

1,612,230

14.04

9.90

2.81

2.00

1.95

16,194,454

3.47

1.13

0.43

Skye Bank Plc 9.15 Sterling Bank Plc 5.43 UBA Plc 11.19 Union Bank Nig. Plc 0.00 Unity Bank Plc 0.00 Wema Bank Plc 0.43 Zenith Bank Plc 10.24 Insurance Carriers, Brokers and Sector African Alliance Insurance

4.75

4.75

27.33

27.30

3.60

3.70

12.39

Other Financial Institutions Africa Prudential Plc 9.16 Crusader (Nigeria) Plc 0.00 Deap Capital Management & Trust Plc FBN Holdings Plc 9.85 Nigeria Energy Sector Fund 43.55 Royal Exchange Assurance 6.00 Sim Capital Alliance Plc 9.71 Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc 18.03 UBA Capital Plc 6.71

1.13

FINANCIAL SERVICES Banking Access Bank Plc

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated 5.00 Fidelity Bank Plc 7.93 First City Monument Bank Plc 0.00 Guaranty Trust Bank Plc

Microfinance Banks Fortis Micro-Finance Bank Plc 150.00 0.92 Mortgage Carrier, Broker and Sector Abbey Building SOC Aso Savings and Loans Plc Resort Savings & Loans Plc 0.00 Union Homes Savings Plc 0.00

2.69

8.08

865,336

5.70

2.90

0.00

5,511,190

26.09

13.02

2.10

89,785,819

6.50

2.65

0.71

2.35

2.35

14,424,763

3.05

0.80

0.54

6.85

6.91

10,320,255

7.69

1.64

0.67

10.19

10.19

139,682

10.60

2.34

0.00

0.50

0.50

656,850

1.22

0.50

0.00

1.00

0.99

3,058,521

1.75

0.52

1.34

23.50

22.35

14,449,490

21.49

11.96

2.09

0.50

0.50

100

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.00 AIICO Insurance Plc 22.20 Continental Reinsurance Plc 6.79 Cornerstone Insurance Company 27.30 Consolidated Hallmark Insurance 10.00 Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc 7.43 Equity Assurance Plc 50.00 Goldlink Insurance Plc 0.00 Great (Nig) Insurance Plc 16.67 Guinea Insurance Plc 50.00 International Energy Insurance Plc 0.00 Investment and Allied Assurance 25.00 LASACO Assurance Plc 0.00 Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc 0.00 Linkage Assurance Plc 16.67 Mansard Insurance Plc Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc 0.00 NEM Insurance Co. (Nig) Ltd 2.19 Niger Insurance Co. Plc 26.00 OASIS Insurance Plc. 16.67 Prestige Assurance Co. Plc 15.50 Regency Alliance Insurance 12.50 Sovereign Trust Insurance 5.65 Staco Insurance Plc 0.00 Standard Alliance Insurance 0.00 UNIC Insurance Plc 0.00 Unity Kapital Plc 25.00 Universal Insurance Plc 0.00 Wapic Insurance Plc 15.43

8.73 8.34

HEALTHCARE Medical Supplies Morison Industries Plc 0.00 Healthcare Providers Union Diagnostics & Clinicals Services 0.00 Pharmaceuticals Ekocorp Plc 88.50 Evans Medical Plc 0.00 Fidson Healthcare Plc 3.07 Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nig May & Baker Nigeria Plc 9.05 Neimeth International Pharm 14.13 Nigeria-German Chemicals Plc 0.00 Pharma-Deko Plc 0.00 ICT Computer Based Systems Courteville Investment Plc 10.00 Computers and Peripherals Omatek Ventures Plc 12.50 IT Services NCR (Nig) Plc 1.43 Tripple Gee and Company Plc 0.00 Processing Systems Chams Plc ICT Telecommunications Starcomms Plc 0.00 INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials Ashaka Cement Plc 7.86 Berger Paints Plc 4.97 CAP Plc 8.88

Closing Price N

Quantity Traded

as at Friday, April 25, 2014 Year High

Year Low

E.P.S

0.78

0.79

708,243

1.11

0.50

0.50

0.95

0.97

245,313

1.03

0.58

0.14

0.51

0.50

64,800

0.54

0.50

0.02

0.50

0.50

150

0.50

0.50

0.50

2.00

2.06

9,054,578

2.44

1.08

0.28

0.50

0.50

1,500

0.50

0.50

0.01

0.50

0.50

93,000

0.68

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

2,750

0.50

0.50

0.03

0.50

0.50

2,200

0.50

0.50

0.01

0.55

0.53

798,191

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

1,670,890

0.50

0.50

0.02

0.50

0.50

70

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

3,200

0.60

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

151,500

0.50

0.50

0.03

2.31 0.50

2.39 0.50

535,623 1,000

2.59 0.54

1.06 0.50

0.16 0.00

0.76

0.76

1,884,500

0.81

0.50

0.37

0.50

0.50

10,000

0.61

0.50

0.02

0.51

0.53

2,168,000

0.50

0.50

0.03

0.58

0.60

306,005

1.01

0.50

0.06

0.50

0.50

200

0.50

0.50

0.04

0.50

0.50

2,000

0.56

0.50

0.09

0.50

0.50

1,000

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

30,000

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

1,000

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

1,500

0.50

0.50

0.02

0.50

0.50

300

0.50

0.50

0.00

0.72

0.72

5,237,258

1.08

0.50

0.07

6.27 NPF Micro-Finance Bank Plc 10.56

6.27 0.84

1,000 0.88

6.00 31,000

0.00 1.18

0.04 0.92

1.35 0.50 0.50

1.35 0.50 0.50

500 185,447 20,000,000

1.57 0.50 0.50

1.37 0.50 0.50

0.19 0.02 0.00

0.50

0.50

109,000

0.50

0.50

0.00

3.08

2.94

1,291,600

0.75

0.00

0.50

0.50

22,000

0.50

0.50

0.99 12.21

0.99 13.19

500 26,837,828

2.02 20.00

2.02 8.57

552.20

552.20

250

0.62

0.62

103.50

103.50

54,022

22.75

23.00

2.29

2.29

1.91

2.23

785

0.50

0.50

60,250

3.72

3.72

162

552.20

P.E Ratio

16.19

47.6 7 25.00

0.19 0.00 0.00 2.03

0.00

12.68

0.78

0.50

103.50

103.50

10.56

0.13

338,929

15.69

10.64

0.87

3,888,925

1.41

0.03

0.21

10.54

9.52

0.00

0.50

0.50

0.00

5.31

5.31

2.20

2.20

19,622

1.45

0.70

0.19

2.88

2.88

115,553

3.20

0.83

0.44

70.00 1.78

70.00 1.78

81,175 166,892

23.11 5.61

2.58 3.61

2.62 0.20

1.14

1.19

580,408

1.96

0.95

0.09

7.36

7.36

2,150

12.91

0.95

0.00

1.57

1.57

500

200

4.28

0.00

0.67

0.70

2,764,100

0.52

0.50

0.10

0.50

0.50

2,600

0.50

0.50

0.00

15.99

16.83

5,098

9.31

3.25

0.00

1.97

1.97

9,361

3.59

3.25

0.01

0.50

0.50

7,000

50,000

0.50

0.50

4,000

1.47

0.50

16.80

16.65

743,420

30.00

12.00

8.90

8.90

29,427

12.57

8.10

1.09

42.00

40.26

300,164

43.98

15.16

2.28

0.00

2.14

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 23

Food Products Dangote Flour Mills Plc 16.91 Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc 14.38 Flour Mills Nigeria Plc 16.89 Honeywell Flour Mill Plc 16.92 National Salt Co. Nig Plc 5.75 UTC Nigeria Plc 8.83

Opening Price

Daily Stock Market Report

C M Y K

24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Corporate Finance

FMDQ set to raise governance practice in NIBOR process

F

MDQ OTC Plc, FMDQ, has announced the commencement of the Nigerian Inter-bank Offered Rate (NIBOR) in compliance with the principles for financial benchmarks of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The reform is centred on enhancing and formalising the NIBOR process towards strengthening its credibility as a money market benchmark.

FMDQ said in a statement that the reform will ensure NIBOR, over phased approaches, complies with the 19 principles of IOSCO, which have been internationally adopted as the standards for financial benchmarks.

“Having taken over as the administrator of the three Nigerian over-the-counter, OTC, financial market fixings: Nigerian Inter-bank Offered Rate (NIBOR), the Nigerian Inter-bank Foreign Exchange Fixing (NIFEX) and the Nigerian Inter-bank Treasury Bills’ True Yields (NITTY) from the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) in 2013, FMDQ is poised to ensure the benchmarks comply with the new governance expectations,” FMDQ said in the statement.

Berger Paints opens shop in Lekki or accessibility, Berger Paints Nigeria Plc, paints F and allied products

manufacturer, has opened a new Colour World Centre in Lekki, Lagos, in a bid save its customers the stress of coming to the mainland to meet their products requirements.

Addressing stakeholders in the construction industry at the media inauguration, Mr. Tor Nygard, Managing Director of the company, said the new centre would enhance accessibility, visibility and availability of its products to its customers living in the Lekki axis of Lagos.

Nygard said the centre would also serve as a channel for distributing the whole range of Berger ’s products as well as produce variety of colors to customers’ specifications with its tinting machine facility, remarking that, “It is a ‘one stop shop’ for all painting needs.

He said that also available at the Lekki Colour World Centre are Berger’s well-known brands such as Luxol, Clinstay, Super Star, Classic among others which continued to enjoy extreme popularity across Nigeria.

C M Y K

Diamond Bank disburses N15m to entrepreneurs

BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

D

iamond Banks p o n s o r e d B u i l d i n g Entrepreneurs Today, BET programme, has presented N15 million to five entrepreneurs who distinguished themselves in the entrepreneurial development programme of the bank.

The entrepreneurs were presented with a seedmoney of N3million each, which heralded the end of the third season of the e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l development programme in Lagos.

Mr. Uzoma Dozie, Executive Director, Retail Banking, Diamond Bank Plc, said that the programme is informed by current realities of importance of entrepreneurs as the drivers of the economy and hence Diamond Bank’s decision to support them.

According to Dozie, “Diamond Bank is empowering entrepreneurs with the tools to succeed and build sustainable businesses.

Many good business ideas fail because the managers are not well equipped. We realise that by helping businesses build capacity, their chances of survival are higher and they will be better positioned to continue to provide employment for future generations. At Diamond Bank, we believe that training entrepreneurs is an economic value addition to the society.”

Mrs. Nneka Okekearu, Deputy Director, Enterprise Development Centre, PanAtlantic University, described the programme as a seed fertilisation process.

She said, “The beneficiaries are impassioned people that want exponential growth for their businesses. Fifty candidates were trained for five months in functional areas such as taxation, human resources, leadership, customer services, sales and marketing, and ethics. After the training, the top 15 were selected for another five months of consulting where their strategy, business and marketing plans were finetuned. It is a year long journey and the 50 selected, out of thousands of applicants, showed they had valid ideas.”

One of the beneficiaries, Tessy Uyah, noted that the

BET training is, “an eexperience unmatched by all my previous training. It was also an opportunity to network and meet with similar minded people from across Nigeria. It really changed my mindset and approach to business strategy.

“I am glad to be one of the

selected winners. It means that my business is viable and I am challenged to give it my best. I aim to play on the global stage.”

Another winner, Oba Ilobaa, a laundromat owner in the University of Lagos, said, “I plan to replicate my laundromat in other universities across West

Africa. I completed NYSC in 2012 and had no formal work experience before I started the business. I used to feel selfdefeated but the BET has opened my mind and I am now confident that I will succeed.

I am deeply grateful to Diamond Bank Plc for its commitment to building entrepreneurs in Nigeria.”

BRIEFING - From left: Deputy Managing Director, Synthesis Communications Limited, Agbo Agbo; Research and Publication Officer, Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, Oyanna Ofuje; Executive Director, Institute of Communication and Corporate Studies, Dr Austin Tam-George and; Chief Executive Officer, International Style Weeks Limited, Bassey Essien, at the 2014 Tourism Development Workshop Press briefing in Lagos.

Seplat will earn Nigerians dividend from oil sector – FutureView MD

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

T

he Chief Executive Officer, FutureView Financial Services Limited, Elizabeth Ebi, has declared that earnings accruable from Nigeria’s lucrative oil exploration and production sector will no longer elude the local investors following the listing of Seplat Plc’s shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE. Speaking against the backdrop of the company’s listing on the NSE and London Stock Exchange, LSE, after a successful global Initial Public Offering (IPO) of $500 million, Ebi stated that the listing will act as a barrier breaker.

FutureView Financial Services Limited acted as one of the co-managers and local receiving agents for the Seplat Initial Public Offering.

Affirming Ebi’s position, analysts at FutureView Securities Limited, a subsidiary of FutureView Financial Services Limited, revealed in a research note that listing of the indigenous oil exploration and Production Company on the NSE will yield bountiful dividends and also create wealth for discerning Nigerians, while urging local investors to acquire the shares from the floor of the Exchange.

“The decision of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, an oil exploration and production firm, to list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on 14 April 2014, has opened a new vista of opportunity that was formerly unavailable to local investors in the Nigerian capital market. Before now, oil exploration and production companies

including those also promoted

by Nigerians preferred listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and London Stock Exchange (LSE) denying local investors in the capital market dividend earning, as well as capital appreciation opportunities,” said Ebi. Commenting further on the Seplat IPO, Ebi stated that Seplat remains a thrilling prospect and has been trending as the prime topic in local and international investment circles.

“There has been no IPO comparable to Seplat on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in terms of niche, sophistication and scale. It was not your everyday Initial Public Offer that was open to all investors.

It was for highly sophisticated and discerning investors with a good understanding of the complexities involved in oil exploration and production.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 25

Corporate Finance

UBA splits operations into two-Africa, Nigeria

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n pursuit of its Project Alpha plans, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc announced key appointments to drive its quest for industry leadership by 2015 at a press conference addressed by its Group Managing Director Mr. Phillip Oduoza.

According to Oduoza, UBA’s Project Alpha is a 3year road map of key transformation initiatives, designed to reinforce the Group’s strategic positioning and leverage its huge Africa presence to fully exploit the burgeoning opportunities in Africa ’s economic renaissance. He said that in order to accelerate the level

of achievement of the Project Alpha objectives, the Group has spilt its operations into two broad divisions, UBA Africa and UBA Nigeria. The UBA Africa Division will be made up of the 18 African country subsidiaries of the UBA Group outside Nigeria.

UBA Africa will have a CEO supported by two Deputies along the Bank’s two core product lines.

He said that Kennedy Uzoka, Deputy Managing Director, has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer, UBA Africa while Emeke Iweriebor, an Executive Director, has been appointed UBA Africa Deputy CEO, Retail Bank; and Oliver

Alawuba is now UBA Africa Deputy CEO, Wholesale Bank.

According to Phillips Oduoza, “the newly created UBA Africa Division will grow and deepen the bank’s presence in member countries, optimise the synergies within the network, deepen service delivery excellence, and promote cultural integration and a high level of motivation in UBA staff in the different countries to foster one UBA Family”.

Also, the new UBA Nigeria Division of the Group will be managed by Mr. Apollos Ikpobe, Deputy Managing Director, DMD,

AGM - From left: Chairman, Mansard Insurance Plc, Mr. Victor Gbolade Osibodu; Company Secretary, Mrs. Omowumi Mabel Adewusi and; Director, Mr. Olusola Adeeyo, during the company’s 22nd Annual General Meeting in Lagos.

Domestic Bank. This arm of the bank will consolidate all of UBA’s Nigerian businesses into a single division and will comprise all the Regional Banks in Nigeria, Corporate Bank, Energy Bank, and UBA Pensions.

The Nigeria division will intensify the bank’s focus on the Nigerian market, with the aim of expanding its market share, while deepening UBA’s wallet share of existing businesses.

Also in the announcement, Ms. Obi Ibekwe, formerly Executive Director, Human Resources and Customer Service is now the Executive Director, Resources overseeing Human Resources, Customer Service, Corporate Services and Procurement.

“These changes will have a strategic impact on our business as we take critical steps to fast track our Project Alpha initiatives and transformation process.

Stakeholders will no doubt see significant results from the organisational and human capital repositioning we are making to enhance value creation in the Group’s operations” Oduoza said.

United Bank for Africa Plc is one of Africa ‘s leading financial institutions offering banking services to more than 7 million customers across 700 branches in 19 African countries. With presence in New York, London and Paris, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross border payments, trade finance and investment banking.

...shareholders approve N16.491bn dividend payment

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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hareholders of United Bank for Africa, UBA Plc, have given the Board of Directors a nod to go ahead with payment of N16.491 billion dividend recommended for the year ending December 31, 2013.

The dividend so approved amounted to 50 kobo per ordinary share of 50kobo each and will be payable to shareholder whose names appeared on the register of members as at April 7th, 2014.

The dividend will be paid on Monday, April 28th, 2014.

Speaking on behalf of other shareholders at the 52nd Annual

General Meeting, AGM, in Lagos, trio of Farouk Umar, Bisi Bakare and Sir Sunny Nwosu, commended the bank for sustaining its profitability and for the 50 kobo dividend declared.

“We are all happy with the result. We are aware of the regulatory challenges the banking sector is facing. In the last few years, CBN has come out with so many regulations that are not favourable to banks; there is increase in cash reserve ratio, CRR, and AMCON has also increased their charges on banks, but you did well despite all these,” said Farouk Umar, one of the shareholders.

“The board and management should be commended for the way they handled last year’s

operations of the bank, they have done well and we look forward to a better dividend next year,” added Sir Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, ISAN. Addressing shareholders at the meeting, the chairman, AMB Joseph Keshi, said the bank braced the odds in the banking industry in 2013 and was able to deliver value to the shareholders, due to its resilience business model.

He said that the bank has adequately resourced and realigned its structures to optimise emerging opportunities across all regional blocs, while also adopting appropriate risk

management frameworks to mitigate likely exposures in its operations both within the local and global environment.

Speaking on the bank’s financial performance, Keshi said the Group recorded gross earnings of N264.7 billion, 20 percent increase over N22.1 billion posted in 2012, adding that headline performance was majorly buoyed by growth in interest income and non-interest revenue.

“Loan growth and improved pricing boosted interest income, which grew by 24 percent, whilst non-interest income grew by a modest 15 percent, affected by reduction in Commission on Turnover, CoT, charges.

US stocks drop amid earnings

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S stocks declined, with the Standard & Poor ’s 500 Index erasing a weekly gain, as results from Amazon.com Inc. to Visa Inc. disappointed and tension escalated over Ukraine.

Amazon.com dropped 9.1 percent after predicting an operating loss in the current quarter. Visa sank 3.8 percent after revenue missed analyst targets. Ford Motor Co. slipped 3.1 percent after posting earnings that trailed analysts’ estimates. Microsoft Corp. climbed 0.5 percent as profit exceeded projections.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.7 percent to 1,865.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 133.94 points, or 0.8 percent, to 16,381.27. Visa is the biggest member of the Dow. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 6.4 percent above the 30-day average at this time of day.

“Russian troops are massing up at the Ukrainian border, which is enough to make people nervous about anybody with business activities in Europe,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which manages about $10 billion, said by phone.

Etisalat revamps EasyWallet

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tisalat Nigeria has announced the launch of a new and comprehensive smartphone app that will enable customers access their mobile money services faster and easily. The introduction of the innovative app expands the company ’s mobile banking offerings to customers. The Easywallet Smartphone app is available for free download from various online app stores.

Since September 2012, Etisalat has been partnering with international and regional banks including GTBank, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, First Bank Nigeira, as well as Paga to allow Etisalat Nigeria customers to conveniently access mobile commerce & banking services through their mobile phones. Till date, the service has successfully registered over 15 million SIM ‘Tool Kit’ application downloads on consumer SIM cards.

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26 —Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Homes & Housing Finance

World Bank set to hold 6th housing finance confab

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he World Bank Group will hold its 6th Global Housing Finance Conferenceon May 28-29, 2014. Jointly hosted by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the underlying theme of the conference is on “How to Expand Affordable Housing for All”. The conference will explore and, in some instances, showcase new and innovative ideas on how to finance affordable housing development and how to ensure homeowners can access adequate finance to meet their housing needs.

“Expanding access to housing will require full participation of the private and public sector, with each playing complementary roles.

This is why our program this year incorporates robust discussions relevant to both public and private sector participants,” the Group stated.

The conference will attract an audience of officials and practitioners from the developed countries and emerging markets. The principal aim of the Conference is to exchange views and experiences and derive the key operational conclusions for policy makers and housing finance practitioners. The conference creates awareness of the major challenges in developing or strengthening the housing finance markets and seeks cooperation for better solutions.

Saudi Arabia’s 1km tower to become world’s tallest building ubai’s iconic Burj D Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, could be stripped of its Guinness title if Saudi Arabia succeeds in its plans to construct the even larger Kingdom Tower in Jeddah - a prospect looking more likely as work begins next week, according to Construction Weekly.

Consultants Advanced Construction Technology Services have recently announced testing materials to build the 3,280-feet (1 kilometer) skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa stands at 2,716 feet or 827 meters). The Kingdom Tower, estimated to cost $1.23 billion, would have 200 floors and overlook the Red Sea. Building it will require about 5.7 million square feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel, according to the Saudi Gazette.

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NMRC: Mortgage rates’ll depend on monetary policy have is a model that from day one, is sustainable and that is why we wanted something that to a certain extent is market driven,” he explained.

On the seeming delay in the take-off of the NMRC since its launching in January, Ayere noted: “Since the launch, the company has embarked on its capital raising, we have also concluded the tier 2 loan from the World Bank and I can say that the tier 1 capital raising was successful. We are expecting to operationalise by the end of June, that’s the promise we gave to the Nigerian public and that was given by the Minister (of Finance). We are on track to achieve that, the board has been constituted, there’s been several board committee meetings etc., so there’s a lot going on,” he said.

The NMRC boss noted that though the company may Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia …set to become world’s not be able to tallest building eradicate the huge housing deficit in television programme. He the country, it Stories by asserted that the hope of would help significantly. “As YINKA KOLAWOLE many Nigerians for single you know, there are other digit mortgage rates will issues that need to be he mortgage rate depend largely on the resolved, foreclosure regime when the monetary policy going tightening, etc. We are Nigerian Mortgage forward. working on that,” he added.

Refinance Company “If for instance, MPR rates Nigeria’s housing deficit is (NMRC) eventually go down to six percent like it currently estimated at about becomes operational will was before it took that dramatic 17 million units and is adding depend substantially on rise, if it goes back to six to that at the rate of two to prevailing monetary policy percent, then you can expect three million units a year. The rates. mortgages will fall within the World Bank estimates the cost Mr. Sonnie Ayere, CEO of single digits. As you know, of bridging that gap to be NMRC, stated this in an subsidies are not very N59.9 trillion. interview on a cable sustainable. What we want to The NMRC was launched in

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LASIEC disburses N13.7m housing loans to staff A total sum of N13, 700,000 own houses, adding that the

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agos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has disbursed N13.7 million as housing loans to some members of its staff.

Chairman of the Commission, Hon. Justice Afolabi Abdulfatai Adeyinka, said while presenting cheques for housing and car refurbishment loans to 34 members of the Commission staff, that the gesture was to enable them fulfill their dreams of becoming house owners.

(Thirteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira) was disbursed to the first batch of beneficiaries. The amount represents the first part payment of the total amount approved for each of the beneficiaries of the housing loan while the balance would be paid later.

Adeyinka acknowledged that the amount may not be sufficient for each of the beneficiaries to buy or build a house. He however noted that it would go a long way in assisting them to achieve their dreams of owning their

loans would serve as catalyst to fulfilling their purpose.

The LASIEC chairman, therefore, enjoined the first batch of beneficiaries of the loan scheme “to see the loan as a seed which they must nurture to enable it germinate and produce fruit for their own benefit”. He also commended the Lagos State Government for approving the loan scheme for implementation for the staff of the Commission to give them a sense of belonging and motivate them for higher productivity.

January by the Federal Government to create access to cheap funds by housing finance lenders. It is expected to boost Nigeria’s current housing stock by raising mortgages from an annual average of 20,000 mortgages to at least 200,000 in the next three years.

According to terms of operation, the company will provide low interest housing loans to middle income earners in the country to enable them own their own homes.

Nigerians urged to invest in Ghana’s real estate

BY ONOZURE DANIA igerian investors have N been advised to invest in the Ghanaian real estate

market, with a promise of lucrative returns.

Ifelanwa Osundolire, Head of Marketing Team, Goth Real Estate, a Ghanaian property development firm, said the company has embarked on a marketing drive in the country to convince Nigerians of the enormous opportunities that exist in investing in properties in Ghana.

He said some of the accruable benefits of investing in property in Ghana include: income of up to $12,000 per annum; asset just one hour flight from Nigeria; diversifying investment in a safe environment and; possibility of paying for the property over a period of one year.

“We are here to market to people who would like to buy properties for their business in Ghana or parents who have children schooling in Ghana and are paying rent. But if they buy the property as an investment, when their children are done with schooling, they can either sell it or rent it out instead of them to be paying rent in Ghana, rather they would own the property there. An average house in Ghana is well built and better finished in Ghana, than in Nigeria, this is a fact because I am a Nigerian and I have seen the way houses are built here in Nigeria and I can tell you that houses in Ghana are better finished.

“We are not anti- Nigeria but proudly Nigeria, we are selling Ghanaian properties and portfolio as an investment option for Nigerians because we know that in West Africa, Ghana too has started. They are not where Nigeria is, but they have started to grow and the property is in capital appreciation. So as a wise property investor, I’ll rather put my money in a place that has high good potential,” he stated.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 27

People in Business

BY EBELE ORAKPO

D

r. Fidelis Ndeh-Che is the Managing Partner at Quanteq Technology Services Limited, an information technology (IT) consulting and systems integration firm with headquarters in Abuja.

An Assistant ProfessorSchool of Information Technology & Computing at the American University of Nigeria, Ndeh-Che, who is particularly interested in social entrepreneurship, is a technology consultant with a flare for finding innovative solutions to seemingly intractable problems. He speaks on Quanteq and doing business in Nigeria.

Excerpts:

Ours is purely an intellectual business — Fidelis Ndeh-Che organisation. We offer infrastructure solutions so in areas where an organisation is to put in a data centre or connectivity, or a platform like the paging systems such as windows and active directory or Linux and other server platforms, or database platforms, we can help them deploy that. We also do IT training and support."

He noted that although the headquarters is in Abuja, they

doing business in Nigeria are numerous.

Infrastructure: "To start a business, you need accommodation but most times, the standard of accommodation you get is subpar and they are priced through the roof and you are expected to pay two years rent. That will kill almost any start-up business, plus legal commissions, agreement fees etc."

Background: After obtaining his undergraduate degree in Electrical Electronics Engineering and PhD in Electrical Electronics and Information Engineering from City University, London in 1996, Dr. Fidelis Ndeh-Che, a Camerounian, moved to the US to work until 2001 when he decided to start Quanteq.

Then in 2003, he moved the company to Nigeria with headquarters in Abuja.

"I worked for a consulting firm in California but that time, I was also involved in projects in Asia, Africa and North America. In 2001, I decided to stop and start Quanteq in California," he told Vanguard.

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*Dr. Fidelis Ndeh-Che have staff in more than 15 states of the federation.

Clients: Ndeh-Che said the clients cut across local and international/public and private sectors. "We have a strong reputation for our ability to deliver on clients’ projects established over time.

Our clients include the EFCC, Office of the AccountantGeneral, Federal Ministry of Finance, Pensions Commission, state governments, financial institutions, UNIDO, EU etc.

"Our track record of delivery speaks for itself. In most cases, when clients have really difficult and challenging problems, they come and talk to us. We get a lot of referrals from clients who have done work with us and recognise our professionalism, integrity, the fact that we are innovative with the solutions that we provide and the fact that our solutions actually make an impact. So rather than outsource projects to other countries, it is better to keep the expertise and experience here and reduce cost."

Challenges: He said the challenges of

,

What we do: "In 2003, I moved the company over to Abuja, primarily providing consulting systems integration services to clients both in the public and private sectors. Our mission is really to solve difficult and challenging problems for businesses and organisations using information and communications technology (ICT). We introduced four specific areas of ICT. On the consulting side, we do IT advisory, we help clients look at the challenges that their businesses face and see how IT can assist them.

"We do IT project management in the event that we know what IT solutions they need, we can help them select the vendors by developing requirements and specifications, helping them manage the procurement process and also the project once the vendors have been selected. If we are not the project managers or the consultants, we also do the systems integration which usually falls under either software where we can do custom software development in Oracle, Java, or any language that is most suited for the project. We do packaged software implementation to manage documents, performance, or the finances within an

We spend almost every single day in the company training people and the biggest challenge is that once people are trained, they leave

,

Power: "On a monthly basis, we spend between N450,000 and N600,000 on diesel alone. We use about 3,000 litres of diesel just to get by most months and most times, it is not sufficient. We still get electricity bills of N180,000 – N200,000 each month so the fixed cost is quite high."

Regulatory agencies: "Many regulatory agencies are coming up all of a sudden and want to get a share of everybody’s business. FIRS was the only tax agency before now, but now, we have Industrial Trust Fund, Abuja Municipal Agency, National Housing Fund, Contributory Pensions etc., so at the end of

each month, a significant amount of the revenue that the organisation could use to strengthen itself and compete globally, is spent on regulatory compliance issues."

Coprruption: "We all know this but tend to avoid it. The most competent firms don’t always get the job. In some cases, we are the second or third partner in the project we are working on; we are often the technical partner delivering the project for a small fraction of the actual project cost because the project had been awarded to a prime partner who is just a business partner so a significant amount of the project revenue usually tend to disappear."

Skills: "The last but not the least is skills. You will never over-emphasise the importance of skills in a business like ours. Ours is purely an intellectual business. We do not sell any hardware, we do not build anything, we solve problems which means we need smart, intelligent and hardworking people who are willing to learn, develop their expertise and experience. For the large part, we spend almost every single day in the company training people and the biggest challenge is that once people are trained, they leave. We have been in business for 10 years, and today, we have 80 people on staff and over 400 ex-Quanteq people in various places. So we spend a lot of time, effort and energy training people, sometimes even expensive international training in South Africa and India but immediately they come back, they get an offer that is double what we are paying them. These people lacked the skills and the expertise and nobody was willing to invest in them but when we made the investment, they left and if we didn’t invest, they stayed and contributed nothing, so our philosophy is to continue to invest."

GradUP Programme: "We run what we call unemployed graduate assistance programme. We have trained many unemployed graduates and hired some of them in Edo, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom states and in Gombe State where we worked in partnership with Jewel Development Foundation. We advertise and get unemployed graduates, we give them two-three months rigorous training on ICT, leadership, basic English, Arithmetic, writing and presentation/communication skills, but mostly on ICT and

job readiness skills. We identify places where they could go for internship including Quantec where we take the majority as interns.

After three months of internship, we pick the best.

The graduates get into these programmes free of charge," he said.

Stakeholders warn against moving Police Pension savings from PFAs

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takeholders in the Nigeria Police Force have warned the Federal Government (FG) over the danger of moving N285 billion Police pension savings from Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), saying that it is against the Pension Reform Act, PRA. The FG had recently revealed plans to transfer the police pension savings from professional PFAs to a new PFA to be known as NPF PFA and be managed by the Nigeria Police.

Professional PFAs operating in the country currently have and manage police pension funds, which are meant to settle men and officers of the NPF upon retirement in line with the Pension Reform Act of 2004.

But industry analysts and stakeholders said that going ahead with the policy will demoralize the men and women of the Force and is capable of negatively impacting on their performance.

They added that given the recent happenings relating to the embezzlement of Police pensions outside the PFAs, taking away the funds in the custody of existing professional PFAs to Police will spell doom for their future.

According to some analysts, who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity, taking away the pensions from the PFAs does not only jeopardise their future but it is also against the provision of PRA. “We have heard and seen how Police pension funds outside the management of the PFAs have been embezzled. Those embezzled funds are gone and nothing is being done to recover them. Now, the funds under the management of the PFAs are being targeted in the form of setting up a new NPF PFA to manage the funds. This will amount to entrusting the future of Nigeria police men and women to the hands of few individuals. It is not only risky, but it will also dampen the moral of officers and men of the NPF,” said an analyst.

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28 —Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Homes & Housing Finance

OPIC targe ts N20bn re or Ogun Stat e targets revvenue ffor State ARM unveils Nigeria’s first golf estate

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igeria’s asset management group, Assets & Resource Management Company Limited, ARM, is unveiling its iconic Lakowe Lakes on May 1, 2014.

The Lagos New town development project has been modeled after other globally successful urban development projects. With the plan to fully integrate a self sustaining municipality that will incorporate first class infrastructure, Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate, a 308 Hectare development overlooking a 55 hectare manmade lake is designed as an exclusive, secure and serene haven to provide a new destination, high-end residential neighborhood located on the Lekki-Epe Axis, some 25 minutes outside the bustling city of Lagos. It features a pristine 18-hole beautifully manicured golf course designed by PGA Professional and golf course architect, Robert O’Friel, with a complete clubhouse that affords a luxury and secured gated community with other sports facilities such as a swimming pool, squash, tennis and badminton courts.

Barclays, US housing regulators in $280m settlement

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arclays agreed to a $280 million (£167 million) settlement with the US Federal Housing and Finance Authority (FHFA).

The agreement settles claims by the FHFA that Barclays misled US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the housing crisis. The settlement involves two separate suits brought by the FHFA. “We are pleased to have resolved this matter,” said Barclays in a statement, adding that the settlement will not impact its earnings.

The FHFA has filed a total of 18 lawsuits over $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold during the height of the housing bubble.

It has settled 13 of those lawsuits, most notably with Bank of America, which agreed to pay $9 billion, and with JP Morgan Chase, which agreed to a $4 billion settlement.

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Stories by YINKA KOLAWOLE, with agency reports

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gun State Property I n v e s t m e n t Corporation, OPIC, is targeting to generate a total of N20 billion into the coffers of Ogun State government through its activities.

Babajide Odusolu, Managing Director, Ogun State Property Investment

Corporation, OPIC, who disclosed this to journalists in Abeokuta, said this will mark a departure from what used to happen in the state. “This will be the first time OPIC will be remitting something to the State.

Before this administration came in, they were not doing that. There were lots of gaps in the system and they were not generating that much revenue,” he revealed.

Odusolu added that in pursuance of the urban renewal programme of the Ibikunle administration, four new estates with 600 housing units are being developed across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

Odusolu, who is also Special Adviser on Trade and Investment, disclosed that OPIC is working hand-inhand with other relevant government agencies and

•Private estate development in Lagos

Resort Savings intensifies effort on affordable housing R

esort savings and loans (RSL) Plc says it plans to intensify efforts to ensure more Nigerians have access to affordable housing.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the mortgage bank, Mr. Abimbola Olayinka, in a statement, confirmed that the bank has been able to bridge the gap in the housing deficit nationwide a little by creating over 4,000 housing units in recent times. He said there are plans by the bank to further improve on this in order to put smiles on the faces of more Nigerian families.

Olayinka said RSL, in the first half of 2014, plans to make available over 2,753 housing units in the Lagos and Ogun States axis through mortgages. These, according to him, include the current development of the Resort Estate Ofada, with over 400 housing units, tastefully finished 2 and 3 bedroom terrace bungalows, which

Nigerians will be able to access at affordable prices. He added that work is also ongoing at the Resort Pearl Garden in Sangotedo, which will have at least 80 housing units.

The RSL boss stated further that in the bank’s bid to strengthen its position in the housing sector, it is partnering with a lot of developers in either financing their projects or providing mortgage facilities to the off-takers at affordable interest rates.

Giving an insight into the existing and on-going projects and partnership with developers, Olayinka added: “Some of these estates include the Teju Royal Garden Estate in Okokomaiko, which has over 600 housing units of one and two bedroom terrace bungalow, three bedrooms semi-detached and three bedrooms fully detached bungalows. Apart from the accessibility of the estate due to the current development of the Lagos-Badagry Express

Road as well as the proposed Rail track to link Marina Lagos end, the price of the houses are very affordable.”

He said other projects that the bank is involved in include: Dreamville Estate, Owode –Ibese road, Ikorodu, which has over 120 housing units in various stages of development; Dabis Royal Estate off Allen Avenue, Ikeja; South-drift in Lekki; Gracious Gardens, among others.

Other ongoing projects in the other parts of the country, according to him, are: Jedo Mass Housing Estate, in Ushafa Bwari area council, with over 1,000 housing units under construction; Mahfas Sunshine Estate, Kurudu, Abuja, with over 500 housing units completed and over 1,000 units in various stages of completion. Others are Resort Court, Karu; Kubusa Gardens Estate; Orchards Estate, Lokogoma; Von Garden City Estate and; Shelter view, Maraba in Abuja.

ministries including Bureau of Lands and Survey, State Housing Corporation and the Ministry of Housing.

He explained that about 170 hectares of service plots have been opened up in Kobape area of Abeokuta while New Makun City in Sagamu area has over 750 hectares of both housing and service plots. In Plain Field in Abeokuta township, Odusolu explained that about 120 housing units of affordable housing units were reaching completion while in Orange Valley also in Abeokuta 140 housing units will soon be ready for use.

The OPIC boss said the government has also embarked on 200 cheaper and affordable housing units at Workers Community estate, Laderin in Abeokuta while 100 units of bungalows are also on-going inside Agbara Estate, also known as New Agbara Estate.

According to him, all the on-going projects are to be delivered within the 12 to 18 months maximum window.

“In New Makun Estate in Sagamu, we are going to be doing minimum of 100 units in the first phase. We should be starting in the second half of this year. Those are going to be a hybrid because of people that may want to relocate from Lagos. We have a medium term plan for this year, we are going to be doing 100 units cumulative and every year we are expected to be doing multiples of that,” Odusolu stated.

On the activities of the land grabbers in the state, Odusolu said the government has been able to claw-back over 300 hectares of land in the in Agbara area, adding that, the major focus of the Corporation is to create an enabling environment for investors who will return back through tariff and taxes.

“In Agbara when I took over, what they told me was that we had just 200 hectares out of 3000 hectares, in one of the prime locations in Agbara, Area 4. I was told that all we had left was about 2 hectares. As of today, in Area 4, we have over 20 hectares claw-backs, in Area 8, I was told we had about 20 hectares available, in that area we have over 150 hectares claw-backs. People were not stealing, but inefficiency, negligence and lack of understanding because lands were being reserved for people when the affected people have even forgotten having a property in the area”.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 29

Banking & Finance STORIES BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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anks will begin to issue Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to customers next month through 1000 branches in Lagos.

Assistant Director and Head of External Communications Division, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Isaac Okoroafor disclosed this in Lagos last week.

The Bank Verification Numbers based on biometric identity of the customers was launched February 14 this year with a pilot phase involving banks’ staff in 48 branches across the country.

Okoroafor, who spoke alongside members of the publicity subcommittee for the project, said, “The process started the day the scheme was launched. By 1st of March the platform was deployed to all the head offices of banks.

We also said by April we would start enrolling banks’ staff, and this is on. It has been extended to 42 of the 48 branches designated in the pilot phase. By end of May, we would begin to enrol members of the public on the programme. This is how it would start, like we did for the cashless programme, we

Issuance of Bank Verification Numbers takes off next month intend to start the public rollout here in Lagos with 1000 banks’ branches. Lagos has about 1401 branches; we are starting with at least 1000 branches. We would start the enrolment of account holders, look at the challenges, how we can tackle them, and the wisdom we get from there will help us in planning how to roll out outside Lagos.

On his part, Mr. Oluseyi Adenmosun, Head of the Biometric Project, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr. Oluseyi Adenmosun said that the purpose of the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) is to provide unique identity to each bank customer. He said, “We want to be able to identify account holders across the industry. Today we do not know if Oluseyi Adenosun who banks with First Bank is the same person that is called Seyi or Oluwaseyi, or Oluwaseyi Johnson Adenosun that banks with FCMB. So Seyi can bank with ten banks but the way he has been profiled in these

banks will be different and as far as each bank is concerned they are dealing with a different person. There is nothing overarching that says this Seyi that is in this place is the same Seyi that is in that place. So the Bankers

Committee felt it was necessary, given the spate of frauds, given the cashless policy, given the idealistic direction that CBN was going, to find something that would hold everything together. You cannot be doing electronic

transactions, cashless transactions, and we can’t identify you, we can’t trace you. So this project was introduced to provide uniqueness.

LAUNCH - From Right;Bekeme Masade, Executive Director, CSR-in-Action; Prof Juan Elegido, Vice Chancellor, Pan Atlantic University with Ms Yemisi Ransome Kuti, Chairman of the occasion, at the launch of the CSR-in-Action Corporate citizenship index and collective social investment report in Lagos.Photo By Akeem Salau

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International Business news

Vitol to supply Argentina with first Nigerian light crude import — sources

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rgentina’s state-run oil company YPF awarded a tender to buy a 1 million-barrel cargo of Nigerian Bonny Light crude to trading firm Vitol, sources close to the transaction told Reuters weekend. This marks the first time the South American country, which produces 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil according to the U.S.

Energy Information Administration, has agreed to buy Nigerian crude since it lifted restrictions on crude imports in January.

The measure was taken to buy cheaper crudes instead of importing more expensive finished fuels, the government said. “The cargo will be delivered in the second week of May at Bahia

Blanca port and then the crude will be distributed

by Enarsa to several Argentine refineries, including Campana, La Plata and Buenos Aires,” one of the sources said. Enarsa, another Argentine staterun oil company, will be in charge of receiving the cargo and will deliver the crude to refining companies.

Axion Energy’s 90,000

bpd Campana refinery, the country ’s fourthlargest, is undergoing a planned major maintenance.

YPF declined to comment and Vitol was not immediately available.

Traders expect the state-run company to keep buying light crudes to combine with local output of heavy and medium grades.

While Argentina’s oil output becomes heavier, as is the case in the rest of Latin America, it can now access cheap West African light crudes to feed domestic refineries and produce a larger volume of finished fuels such as gasoline and diesel.

Nigeria’s Bonny Light is a sweet crude with a density of 35 API degrees, produced by several foreign companies at the Niger Delta basin, including U.S. oil company Chevron Corp and

Anglo-Dutch Shell. West African countries including Nigeria are looking for new markets for their crudes since the growing domestic oil output in the United States reduced North American demand for light sweet crudes.

Switching from importing gasoline and another fuels to buying light crude would also save millions of dollars for Argentina, while its domestic crude production falls. In 2013, the country spent $14 billion on fuel imports, mostly liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Earlier this month, YPF launched two tenders to buy up to three 50,000 metric ton cargoes (some 375,000 barrels) of fuel oil to be delivered to Argentina’s electric market administrator for thermoelectrical production.

African Bank in talks to offer loans to Edcon’s customers African Bank Investments Ltd. (ABL) , South Africa’s largest provider of unsecured loans, said it’s in talks with Edcon Ltd. to offer loans to the retailer ’s clients.

“Credit to Edcon customers would be granted subject to African Bank’s credit criteria,” the Johannesburg-based bank said in a statement today. The preliminary agreement is part of a “long-term strategic relationship,” it said.

African Bank, which owns unprofitable furniture business Ellerine, said in January it was in talks with a retailer to widen its distribution network.

The deal would provide South Africa’s largest clothing retailer with an alternative credit provider to Barclays Plc’s Absa Bank unit, which bought Edcon’s private-label store cards business in 2012.

“This suits Edcon by not being dependent on Absa,” Mark Hodgson, a Cape Town-based analyst at Avior Research Ltd., said in a phone interview. “For African Bank, it helps them go more upmarket in the customers it could attract.”

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Micro Finance

We haven't embraced entrepreneurial skills as a nation —Oloyede M

s Laura Oloyede is the

Chief Operating Officer of C u t l e r Communications, an integrated marketing communications agency. She has about twenty years work experience across the economic sector. She's done banking, real estate, had first degree in estate management. Also, she has been into FMCG from where she moved to services sector.

In this interview with PROVIDENCE OBUH, she talks about Nigerians, especially youth attitude towards embracing entrepreneurship, while stating that women have a need to be focused.

Excerpts:

Laura Oloyede ...My advice to women is to stay focused providing solution.

You have a passion for what you are doing, what do you think should drive passion for that woman out there?

Focus! I hear women asking the question, “Can women have it all,” when I hear such things I interpret it differently.

The question is, “What can we have all?” I started with talking about focus, whether you are in your tertiary education or you are serving or a young employee, what ever you are in life, if you are focused that is what will push you to where you will be tomor row. My advice to women is to stay focused.

Do you have a kind of initiative for women or a kind of product that is targeted at women like your new initiative called Promoting Entrepreneurial Education (PEE) We are passionate about PEE. It is about promoting entrepreneurial education. It cuts across gender, races, religion, social belief. It cuts across almost everything. We don’t want to streamline it and say it is a women initiative. It is a national call.

Do we want to call the women at some point? It could be considered. It can happen but we are very careful about how we position this so that people out there do not feel it is a clarion call for women to stay focused and then you must promote entrepreneurial education. It is a national call because we have identified issues and that is what I am talking about, problems would always happen. The problem with us in Nigeria today is that there are many problems and we are not going to have one solution to tackle everything. Part of the problems we have is unemployment among the youths. We all need to

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What attracted you into marketing communication?

I am not looking at it that I must be here. I am actually looking at politics, that is what I see. I used to say to people that you may be talking to the first female president of Nigeria. Sometimes when I say it, I laugh at myself but I am very serious about it. I think that has been the drive.

I remember when I used to be with American Tobacco, that was where I got grounded in marketing and I struggled to describe myself as a public relations practitioner. I would say that I was a solution provider. I identify solutions.

I will be doing injustice if I put myself in a marketing box or in a PR box because I am a combination of both. Call me a strategist, I think I would be comfortable with that and I see myself growing passionately about the country and I think that is what has drawn me into where I am today and it is not a full stop. It is a journey. I must recognize my mentor, where I started from and that was the first taste that I had with public relations in 2004.

What has been your challenges treading this path?

There are challenges every where. I am not going to say a challenge is peculiar. It is a function of the other. It's just to identify that what you may be facing or what you are going through is nothing peculiar. It is not because of you, it is because of life.

When things like that happen, you look back and look at the people you are leading and then you proffer solutions, not for you to say I need to get certain things in place first. You must work towards solution. They don’t come easily. Sometimes it takes years to get solution.

Life is a journey, you will always fall down but pick yourself up and go, as long as you are focused and

Every time you deep your hand into your pocket to give money, you are not doing that person any good

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understand what it means to be an entrepreneur because that is why you are going to have the life span of a company outlive its founders.

That is why you are going to have existing companies continue to grow and that is why you are going to have the opportunity to birth in your company. We have not embraced entrepreneurial skill as a nation and we are piggy riding what the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, said about the pathway to sustainable economy in Nigeria being entrepreneurial skill. It is not government's responsibility but everybody’s responsibility to come together. Parents must teach their children at home, teachers must teach it at schools and companies must adopt it as well. Look at our attitude in Nigeria, we say it's not my business, let me just go to work. You are killing that company. Who says your child cannot work in a company you’ve worked before. My father worked in Nigeria Tobacco for 30 years.

What is it with us in Nigeria that we cannot embrace entrepreneurship education?

That is what cutler communications has set out to address. The sad thing today is that we sit down and point at government that they must provide jobs. There are 40 million employable but unemployed Nigerians today.

In the world, people say there are 107 billion people.

In Africa alone, you have one billion, in Sub-Saharan Africa where you have about 17 countries, Nigeria being one of them, you have 800 million people. Out of the 800 million people, 500 million of them which is about 45 percent are under the age of 30. These are the youths we are talking about. When you look at 500 million people, 220 million of these youths are either jobless or they are not learned or they are still in school. Out of the 220, 40 million Nigerians are unemployed and we sit back pointing at the government that it should provide jobs. It is not government's responsibility to provide jobs but enabling environment.

These things take a while. It could be ten years. Iweala did not say people should embrace job creation, she said we need to embrace and promote entrepreneurial education and that the private sector should embrace or support us. When she talks there is a tendency to feel she is part of government and does not deserve being listened to. So, we have taken on that responsibility and looking forward to the support of companies here in Nigeria who will be able to channel their corporate responsibility programmes to supporting this call.

When you talk of entrepreneurship education, how do you correct this perception that without financ,esuccessful entrepreneurship is not fe asible?

That question is apt, let me use a case study of a foreign company, I can’t remember the name of the founder but he is the founder of a fast food. Many years ago, this guy wanted to go to school but he had no money and so he went to meet his rich uncle and told the uncle to give him money so he can go to school.

But the uncle said, I will give you money but first, tell me what you are passionate about. And he said, he wanted to go into fast food business. The uncle said, I will give you money to start that business, the profit you realise you would use to educate yourself. Today we have their franchises all over the world. When people don’t have information they will perish. There are some people who are currently employed and they have money but you know something, they are sitting down because they are

comfortable. For example, some people in the oil and gas industry, banking and finance and FMCG, who have at least three million in their bank accounts, are sitting down doing nothing and every month their nephews or cousins who have graduated since two or three years come to them and demand for money and they give them. Every time you deep your hand into your pocket to give money, you are not doing that person any good. Part of the enabling environment that government should serve should ideally be access to finance but because it is a process that is not going to happen tomorrow, there are people that have the money, they should think of a business.

Look at the bloggers of today, the make-up artists. Why are we all not sitting down and saying we are waiting for financial access from the government. If you have three million naira in your bank account, don’t give it to your cousin to spend but ask him what he wants to do with it and if its agriculture, let him go for a six month training to understudy that and come up with something. That is what the campaign is all about.

Even if you don’t have money, you have cooperative in your organization, you can get a loan and then begin to channel and train that person you have put in charge of your business. We cannot all continue to sit and be screaming there is no money.

It cannot happen.

How do you bring these ideas to the target group?

That is why we are calling on private organisations to support. If we have companies who see or recognise the need to embrace this initiative and support us, we will be able to increase our awareness campaign. Do you know some people are jobless but they have access to money, they have money in their accounts, maybe from rich daddy or uncle and they are telling you, I don’t know what to do. That is what we need to push out there, push out information into the minds of people. Let uncles and aunties stop giving money to their relatives; empower them by setting up businesses.

What has given rise to the entrepreneurship campaign in recent times?

People are not blind, times have changed and they have realised that it is either you put your house in order or your house is going to breakdown. Look at the CBN cash requirement ratio, last year it was reduced to 50 percent and this year 75 percent. I read in one of the dailies that banks are fidgeting and they are going to cut down cost of operation.

Youshould begin to do things differently otherwise you will be swept away.

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International Business news

From Left;Ms Evelyn Oputu,Managing Director Bank Of Industry/Guest Speaker;Mr Paul Andrew;Chairman of the occasion ;Apostle[Dr] Hayford Alile Chairman;The Hayford Alile Foundation[thaf] with Deaconess Pat Alile,Director.At the 2014 The Hayford Alile Foundation[thaf]National Entrepreneurial Lecture held Julius Berger Hall University Of Lagos Akoka Lagos.

PHOTO BY AKEEM SALAU.

Apple, Google to pay $324 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit

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our major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin.

Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011, alleging they conspired to refrain from soliciting one another’s employees in order to avert a salary war. They planned to ask for $3 billion in damages at trial, according to court filings. That could have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law.

The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley’s elite. The case was based largely on emails in which Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other ’s prized engineers.

In one email exchange after a Google recruiter solicited an Apple employee, Schmidt told Jobs that the recruiter would be fired, court documents show. Jobs then forwarded Schmidt’s note to a top Apple human resources executive with a smiley face. Another exchange shows Google’s human C M Y K

resources director asking Schmidt about sharing its no-cold call agreements with competitors. Schmidt, now the company ’s executive chairman, advised discretion.

“Schmidt responded that he preferred it be shared ‘verbally, since I don’t want to create a paper trail over which we can be sued later?’” he said, according to a court filing. The HR director agreed. The companies had acknowledged entering into some nohire agreements but

disputed the allegation that they had conspired to drive down wages.

Moreover, they argued that the employees should not be allowed to sue as a group. Rich Gray, a Silicon Valley antitrust expert in private practice, said the companies had an incentive to avoid trial because their executives’ emails would make them look extremely unsympathetic to a jury.

However, the plaintiff attorneys risked an appeals court saying the engineers could not sue as a group at all.

Nigeria’s cheaper-than-Ghana stocks lure bargain hunters

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igerian stocks are rebounding from the worst selloff in more than two years as valuations cheaper than South Africa, Kenya and Ghana lure investors from Investec Plc to Renaissance Asset Management.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index has gained 4.7 percent since sinking 10 percent in the first 11 weeks of the year, part of the worst quarterly drop since 2011. The Nigerian gauge is trading at 11 times future earnings, compared with 15 for South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All-Share Index (JALSH) and Ghana’s equities benchmark and 12 times for the Nairobi Securities Exchange AllShare Index.

Nigerian stocks are trading at their biggest discount to their Kenyan peers in a month after falling to the cheapest levels in almost 14 months against South

African securities on March 31.

Stock investors are returning to Africa’s biggest economy after central bankers spent the most reserves in the foreign-exchange market since 2010 this year to shore up the naira, quelling speculation that they’d let it keep tumbling from a record low reached in late February.

The suspension that month of central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi had jolted investors, sparking the currency selloff and turning Nigeria into Africa’s worst-performing stock market after Zimbabwe.

“Nigeria is our top pick at present,” Sven Richter, who oversees about $260 million as the Johannesburg-based managing director of frontier markets at Renaissance Asset Management, said in an e-mailed response to questions April 17.

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Commodity index April 18 - April 24, 2014

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Tax Matters

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or self-assessment filers, the “due date of payment� is determined as follows: For companies with accounting st year ending on 31 December, the due date of payment is 30th June of the succeeding year; For companies with accounting year ending on 30th September, the due date of st payment is 31 March of the succeeding year; For companies with accounting year ending any time between 1st January and 30th June, the due date of payment is 1st January of the succeeding year; and For all other cases the due date of payment is six (6) months after the accounting year end.

Under the self-assessment system, a corporate taxpayer is expected to attach a draft/ cheque for the tax payable to the returns filed. However, under the provisions of the Act, it has up to two months from the due date of payment within which to settle the assessment. This latter arrangement applies to lump sum payments only. Selfassessment filers who file their assessments promptly and attach drafts/cheques may be granted, on application, the concession to pay the remaining tax due in not more than five monthly instalments commencing from the month immediately following the due date of payment. Such payments may not extend beyond 30th November of the year the assessment and the tax payable relate.

Undisputed Government Assessment: Governmentassessed tax will continue to be payable within two months from the date of the assessment. However, the two-month period expires after the 14th December, tax must be paid not later than that date.

Example 1: ABC Limited st was assessed on 1 July 1992 for 1992 current assessment for N500,000.00 Comment: The assessment is expected to be paid between 1st July, 1992 and st 31 August, 1992 and not by th 14 December, 1992.

Example 2: ABC Limited st was assessed on 1 December, 1992 for 1992 current assessment for N1m Comment: The company has two months within which to pay the assessment but since the two-month period expires th after 14 December, 1992, the last date for the payment of th the tax should be 14 December, 1992.

Disputed Assessment: An amount payable in connection with a determined formal objection or appeal must be

Tax collection procedure (1)

Acting FIRS Chairman, Kabir Mashi settled within one month from the date on the notice of amended assessment, but where the one month period expires after the 14th December; such tax must be paid not later than that date.

Terms of Payment: Lump sum Payment; All assessments and the provisional tax are payable in one lump sum.

Instalment Payments:

A taxpayer may arrange with the Service the payment of the current self-assessment by instalments. The maximum number of six monthly instalment payments may be enjoyed by a self-assessment filer provided the taxpayer remits at least one instalment with the self-assessment tax return. However, where the period of the instalment payments expires after the 30th November of the year of assessment, the balance of the payments must be paid not later than that date otherwise interest at commercial rate is payable on the balance.

Government Assessment:

Government assessments are payable in one lump sum only except where interest at commercial rate is payable for deferment of payment.

Qualification for Instalment Concession: Granting instalment payment concessions is not automatic.

It is at the discretion of the Service. It must be applied for

of filing or having filed, fails to pay on the due date of payment, will be required to Under the pay the provisional tax self-assessment together with the statutory penalty. system, a Interest: The interest is to corporate compensate the government taxpayer is for the use, by the taxpayers, of the funds that legally expected to belong to it. It is also to attach a draft/ prevent the creation of an unfair financial advantage for cheque for the those who do not pay their tax payable to taxes as and when due. the returns Interest will therefore accrue filed. However, fewer than two conditions: Where penalty is payable (i.e. under the where the payment of provisions of government assessment, self -assessment or provisional tax the Act, it has is late); and Where the up to two taxpayer has the formal months from approval of the Service to the due date of defer the payment of the tax. the first case, the interest payment within In is charged together with the penalty for late payment. In which to settle the second case, only the the assessment interest is chargeable for the period of the deferment.

Reckoning of Interest: Interest is due from the 1/7/89 31/12/89 -6 months date of reckoning. The 1989 100,000 at 10% for 6 months 5,000 date of reckoning is 1990 50,000 at 10% for 1 year 5,000 determined as follows: Self Assessment; The 1991 50,000 at 10% for 1 year 5,000 reckoning of interest 1992 50,000 at l0% for 6 months 2,500 starts from a day after the due date of Total penalty due on 30th June, 1992 17,500 payment.

Government Assessment: Self Assessment, Provisional provisional tax. However, a The reckoning of interest Tax and Penalty: A self- company that is so exempted would start a day after the assessment filer is exempted but fails to file the self- date the assessment was from the payment of assessment on the due date issued.

and approved in writing. To qualify for the grant, a company must prove to the satisfaction of the Service that the payment of the tax due in one lump sum will impose financial hardship on its operations. In other words, the company should convince the Service that it is unable to pay the whole tax due in one lump sum. The application must also be lodged with the relevant office of the Service the due date payment.

Additionally, anapplication for instalment payments not backed up with at least the first instalment as evidence of cooperation may not be considered.

Example 3: ABC Limited st was assessed N100,000 on 1 July 1989 for 1989 year of assessment. 50% was paid at the end of that year and the balance remained unpaid till th 30 June, 1992.

Comment: Penalty starts to count from the date the notice of assessment was issued.

,

Self Assessment:

,

"

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Aviation

Minister rules out sabotage in Kaduna airport fire

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

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he Supervising Minster of Aviation, Dr. Samuel Ortom has ruled out sabotage as the likely cause of the fire incident at the control tower of the Kaduna airport. Dr. Ortom made this disclosure after undertaking an inspection tour of the airport and the debris of the control tower.

Mr Yakubu Dati, Coordinating Spokesman, Aviation Parastatals, who accompanied the minister on the inspection tour said the minister “ explained that preliminary investigations revealed the unlikelihood of sabotage as the cause of the fire in view of the tight security at the airport.”

“However, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and other relevant agencies have commenced investigations to identify the remote and immediate cause of the accident. The airport has commenced operations following the deployment of a mobile emergency control tower from Abuja.”

Dati further said the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, Engr Ibrahim Abdulsalam while conducting the minister round the burnt

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

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LAUNCH - From Left: Mrs. Chioma Afe, Marketing Manager, DStv; Mr. Martin Mabutho, General Manager, Marketing and Retention, MultiChoice Nigeria; Mrs. Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, Regional Manager, Mnet Africa and Ms. Caroline Oghuma, Public Relations, MultiChoice Nigeria during the Media launch of DStv Boxoffice and Catchup held in Lagos. tower assured the “ minister that all hands are on deck to return the situation to normalcy.”

The Minister who was accompanied by Directors from the ministry and Heads of parastatals also inspected the

on-going remodeling projects. The MD of FAAN Engr. Saleh Dunoma while conducting the minister round the terminal building said a new terminal is being rebuilt to serve the ever growing economy of the

IATA advocates stiffer legislations againts unruly behaviour

By DANIEL ETEGHE

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he International Air Transport Association ,IATA, is calling on governments to ratify important changes to the Tokyo Convention 1963 which were agreed at a diplomatic conference in Montreal last week. The Tokyo Convention provides the legal framework for dealing with passengers whose unruly or disruptive behaviour leads to physical assault or poses a threat to the safety of a flight.

“This agreement is good news for everybody who flies—passengers and crew alike. The changes, along with the measures already being taken by airlines, will provide an effective deterrent for unacceptable behavior on board aircraft.

But governments must now follow-up on the success of the diplomatic conference and ratify the new protocol. With some 300 incidents of unruly behavior being reported each week, we urge governments to move quickly,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

NAHCO aviance emerges Air Cargo Company of the Year, 2013

Some 100 governments attended the diplomatic conference that agreed the changes, which will come into force when 22 states ratify the protocol to the Tokyo Convention. The International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, has driven the process through from initial proposal to a new treaty in five years, a relatively short length of time for a new protocol to be agreed.

By extending the jurisdiction from the country of aircraft registration to the destination country, the protocol closes a loophole which allowed many serious offences to escape legal action.

The agreed changes give greater clarity to the definition of unruly behavior, such as the threat of or actual physical assault, or refusal to follow safety-related instructions.

There are also new provisions to deal with the recovery of significant costs arising from unruly behavior.

“Unruly passengers are a ver y small minority. But unacceptable behavior on board an aircraft can have serious consequences for the safety of all on board. The goal is to effectively deter such behavior and ensure safe

flights for all by making the consequences of such behavior clear and enforceable,” said Tyler.

vibrant state.

The minister gave a directive for the speedy completion of the project because of the strategic location of Kaduna as a former regional capital.

The supervising minister was also accompanied on the inspection by Engr.

Benedict Adeyileka, Acting Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt Sam Caulcrick, Rector of Nigeria College of Aviation Technology.

he Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, NAHCO aviance has been awarded the “Cargo Company of the Year 2013 award” at the 6th Nigeria Aviation (NIGAV) Conference, Exhibition and Awards held at the Tinapa Resort, Cross Rivers State.

With the latest award, NAHCO aviance has become a two- time back-to- back winner of the NIGAV Awards, having won the “Handling Company of the Year award” at the 2012 edition.

The annual event is organized by by FCI International Limited and it seeks to recognise companies, organisations and individuals for best practices and outstanding contributions towards developing the aviation industry and related activities.

According to Mr Waheed Adebiyi, Head, Media Relations, NAHCO aviance “some of the achievements that qualified the company for the award include its strong and exceptional corporate governance, broad working knowledge of the nation’s aviation industry, certification and membership of various international aviation bodies, quality service delivery, impressive clientele base and ownership and operation of the largest warehouse in subSahara Africa.”

Flight MH370: Foundation advocates installation of aircraft monitoring equipment

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light Safety Foundation, FSF, has called on airline operators and Civil Aviation Authorities, CAAs, around the world to incorporate practical in-flight aircraft monitoring and communications systems to enhance location tracking.

The foundation believes that the installation of the tracking equipment on airplanes will ensure easy location of aircraft in case of an incident or accident, arguing that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 would have been located by searchers if it had the system onboard.

It would be recalled that the erstwhile Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren had advocated for

the installation of the equipment on all Nigerian registered airplanes. The aircraft tracker, which was commissioned in April 2011, was reportedly acquired at N50m by the agency.

Demuren had said that “the system was a state-of-the-art, high technology software driven system, which was presently used by the United States of America Federal Aviation Administration, USFAA, for flight safety reporting and monitoring.”

Demuren noted that if the new equipment had been in place before the unfortunate accident of Wings Aviation Airline aircraft Beechcraft 1900D of March 15, 2008, the aircraft together with the crew would had been located and possibly rescued alive by the

technical personnel in the sector.

He said; “With the aircraft tracking system, we can know that a particular aircraft is flying in our airspace, it is taxing on the runway; we know it is on the ground; even if you switch off everything, we will still see the aircraft as it is packed in the apron. It is a leading-edge technical solution to enhance NCAA’s safety oversight in Nigerian controlled airspace.”

The Chairman, FSF Board of Governors, David McMillan also said the aircraft tracking system could help unlock mysteries, leading to timely safety improvements and more focused search and rescue missions, while avoiding some of the pain and anguish felt by victims’ loved ones in the wake of a tragedy.

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ack in January this year, as members of the National Assembly, NASS, returned to their duties, at the Three Arms Zone, I made the point that this year’s budget would be the fifteenth to be prepared for execution by elected officials.

I also predicted that we would be fortunate to have a budget signed by the President by the end of April.

Well, blessed are those who expect the worst, under circumstances such as these, because they can never be disappointed.

It was not surprising, therefore, when the NASS, Senate and House of Representatives, after a great deal of neglect of the 2014 Budget hurriedly passed the budget before proceeding on their Easter break. They did not want to be accused of withholding the budget until May. That might be clever politics; but, it demonstrates deficit of statesmanship.

Certainly, the Federal legislators know from experience, that after the amendments they have made to the budget, the President was not going to automatically sign the proposed Appropriation Bill into law. He and his economic advisers will take a look at the proposals from the NASS to determine whether or not they can execute what had been sent to them. That will take some time; sufficient time to

Budget 2014 hostage to hostile politics send the approval forward into May. From all indications, that was precisely what some of the legislators wanted. They have laid the trap that will make it possible for them to blame the President for not executing the budget 100 per cent – without acknowledging that they contributed to, or, indeed, made failure inevitable.

By contrast, for years, under the various military regimes, the military Head of State announced the following year’s budget on New Year’s Eve. I know because I undertook the budget analysis for VANGUARD from 1990 till the last one in 1999.

Furthermore, a week, or so after the Head of State had spoken, the Federal Minister of Finance would provide the details, the regime of tariffs, taxes, investments, grants and financial package designed to achieve the clearly defined budget thrusts. A few days after that, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, would announce the complementary monetary policies which would aim to achieve the goals stated without disrupting the exchange and interest rates regimes.

They didn’t always attain success. But, everybody was aware of what was promised for the year and there was a basis for assessment of results.

Everything moved like clockwork. But, it is not only

military regimes which accord annual budgets the seriousness they deserve. All the leading economies in the world, including those we have surpassed when our GDP was rebased, treat annual budgets as sacrosanct.

Between the Executive and the legislative branches, the budget must be determined by a certain date or there would be strong political backlash.

Not here in Nigeria.

,

“You burn the house to roast the pig. It was the only way mankind always roasted pig.”

Saul Bellow.

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS 219)

are packing their bags for the Christmas vacation. So nothing happens until the second week in January. In the interim, a national disaster or a major scandal would have occurred – polarizing the nation and providing opportunity for hostile politics.

When NASS resumes, the budget would have been pushed off the top of the year’s agenda. The national calamity (these days it is Boko

Well, blessed are those who expect the worst, under circumstances such as these, because they can never be disappointed.

V

President Yar’Adua was the only President to acknowledge that the budgets passed during his tenure of office had not been fully executed. That was in 2009; and, he promised to do better.

Death, unfortunately, claimed him. So we will never know if he would have redeemed his pledge. From 2010 till now, the pattern had been the same. The Executive branch presents the budget later than the time stipulated by law.

Invariably, it lands in the NASS just as the lawmakers

,

Haram) or the scandal (this year the scandals were bullet proof cars and $20-47m missing from NNPC; and two private jets) were the hot items which called for the reorder of priorities. And, it was not until they ran out of steam on those three issues that it occurred to Senate President, David Mark and Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, that they owed the nation a duty to pass the budget. Is that anyway to manage an economy with annual GDP of $510m per annum?

Now that the buck had been passed to the President’s table, will it stop there or will he pass it back to the NASS, as he did last year and brought the country almost to a halt by refusing to sign the budget passed by the NASS? If he does, the nation might be held in suspense for another month while they sort out their differences – which are mostly politically motivated. That means the actual budget and the allocations to each sector might not be known until June. How on earth does anybody expect the budget to be fully executed by year end when the implementation does not start until July?

Meanwhile, rebasing our economy, as a result of which we now have annual GDP of $510 billion, has called into question the adequacy of our annual budgets. Countries with large GDPs generally also operate with huge expenditures for power, infrastructure, education, health, transport, security etc.

Is it not possible that we have been under-budgeting for an economy so large and consequently creating a situation in which the vast majority of our people, not just the political opposition simply refuse to believe the new GDP attributed to the country?

V i s i t : www.delesobowale.com or Visit: www.facebook.com/ biolasobowale

Business & Economy

Samsung unveils wireless laser printer series S

amsung Electronics has unveiled assorted series of new smart wireless printers in Nigeria.

Professor of political economy and technology enthusiast, Prof Pat Utomi and Managing Director, Cosharis Technologies, Mukoro Emomine, witnessed the media launch which was held at Samsung corporate office in Lagos.

The Samsung wireless printers which are designed to make smart phones work smarter has differentiating features which includes WIFI direct printing and NFC printing capabilities making printing hassle free. The NFC technology enables users to tap and print directly to and from mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) WI-FI direct allows users to

print directly from any smart device such as smart phones and tablets straight from their smart phones to the printer without a need to connect to an access point.

The mobile options allows printing in various printing formats and different types of documents such as gallery images, office, PDF, web pages, mail, Google docs , Twitter and Facebook content. With the Samsung MobilePrint app users can scan documents directly from the multifunction models straight to their mobile phones, this free app also enable users to send pc fax from their smart devices.

The Google print option adds to the exciting features of this “smart printer” series.

User is enabled to printer directly from Google account

with Google print, print emails, photos, PDF files and social media contents wirelessly from anywhere and anytime.

User experience is enhanced right from installation which happens in three quick and easy processes easy to use features. With the wireless printers, users can both access and print files/ documents from any mobile device installed with Samsung’s MobilePrint application.

While conventional PIN methods require a 10-step set up procedure on a wireless network, Samsung’s onetouch wireless feature (WPS button on the device) enables users to be connected with the printer through an access point/

router in just 2 minutes for users desiring wireless protected setup print.

The entry level wireless mono laser printer ML2165W is suitable for cost conscious users to lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of printers. These devices allow cost-effective printing via Samsung’s Easy Eco Driver and Easy Print Manager, allowing users to closely monitor their printer usage.

Speaking at the launch, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Brovo Kim, said “As costs in almost every sector continuously increases and managing maintenance expenses becomes more vital in emerging markets, we – as one of the leading A4 laser printer manufacturers

and an integrated solution provider – listened closely to the growing needs of users.

With an overall TCO efficient solution that offers worryfree experiences from set-up to actual printing, the ML2165W series best represents our goal of enriching the lives of our customers”.

By effectively using the Easy Eco Driver, user can save up to 75 percent on paper usage and 50 percent on energy*.

While holding a standard 150-A4 sheet capacity with 20ppm printing speed, the ML-2165W laser printer series is 22 percent smaller than conventional 150-sheet A4 laser printers. This compact design provides an efficient and elegant space saving solution for any environment.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 43

Appointment & Promotions vicahiyoung@yahoo.com 08033348923

Asiru, Ero now FCMB board members

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HE Board of Directors of FCMB Group Plc, has announced the appointment of Oluwatoyin A s h i r u a n d D r. G r e g o r y Omosigho Ero as NonExecutive Directors.

The appointment is with immediate effect.

Professor Ashiru is an accomplished Materials and Metallurgical Engineer with over 30 years of comprehensive professional experience in academia, entrepreneurship, management engineering, technologies invention, and consulting for the enhancement of productivity in major industries across the world.

Ashiru who is also highly skilled on strategic planning, budget controls and problem solving with extensive international experience in the UK, USA, Canada, the Far East and Asia, has served on Joint Ve n t u r e a n d C o n s o r t i u m Executive Committees and has participated directly in claims negotiations and settlement agreements in excess of US$100 million.

His wealth of experience also includes membership on several Governing Boards responsible for strategic and operational decisions.

He has served worldwide on

various governmental multidisciplinary task forces and technical committees.

Professor Ashiru holds the USA, British, European, Brazilian, and other international patents for products and systems that he invented. He is also a recipient of several merit awards both locally and internationally.

Similarly, Dr. Ero, a Petroleum Engineer, is a graduate of the University of Ibadan and Imperial College, London.

He also studied in Ivy League colleges including University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, University of Columbia, New Yo r k a n d t h e I n s t i t u t e o f Management Development, Lausanne Switzerland.

Ero began his career as a

he Bank of Industry, BOI, has now an acting Managing Director, MD, in the person of Mr. Waheed Olagunju.

Olagunju, who was appointed, acting MD, pending the announcement of a substantive Managing Director, is the most senior Executive Director of the bank. The Acting MD assured stakeholders that BoI would continue to build on the solid foundation that had been laid under Ms. Oputu’s transformative leadership style.

While extolling Oputu’s outstanding performance in office, Olagunju stressed that the institution would continue to operate in line with best practices to enable it to contribute effectively to the successful implementation of NIRP and NEDEP. The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, on behalf of the Federal Government, also commended Oputu for her brilliant performance in office, especially her able leadership qualities, which had brought

S

•Ladi Balogun, MD, FCMB Venture with Bechtel of the United States.

He was equally honoured by the Nigerian Petroleum Golden Jubilee Board in recognition of his excellent leadership qualities, meritorious service and contributions to the development of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry.

CBN confirms Dikko as Unity Bank Chairman

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has confirmed the appointment of Alhaji Lamis Dikko as the Chairman, Board of Directors of Unity Bank Plc. The approval, according to a statement is contained in a letter from CBN dated April 22.

The statement said that the letter was signed by the CBN’s Director, Banking Supervision,

Olagunju appointed Bank of Industry acting MD

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Petroleum Engineer in the Lagos Office of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, where he was later posted to Warri, Delta State as Head, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

He spent much of his career in the Public Service, where he served in many capacities spanning three decades in the petroleum industry at NNPC. He also served on the Boards of many Federal Government Parastatals.

D r. E r o h a s b e e n w i d e l y recognised for his sterling professional qualities, one of which was from the former US Secretary of State, George Schultz, for his outstanding work as Managing Director of NETCO, an NNPC Joint

about the rapid transformation of BOI into a first class Development Finance Institution, and wished her the best of luck in her future endeavours.

Olagunju will be required to ensure continuity with respect to the ongoing diligent implementation of NIRP and NEDEP in line with BOI’s mandate.

Mrs Tokunbo Martins.

The letter also conveyed the approval of Mr Thomas Etuh as the pioneer Vice Chairman of the Bank.

The board of directors of the bank on March 27, forwarded the names of Dikko and Etuh to the CBN, following the resignation of the former Chairman, Alhaji Numan Barau Danbatta.

While awaiting the approval, Etuh had been serving as interim Chairman.

The statement said, “Dikko is a seasoned banker with extensive banking experience and a strong background in the financial services sector.”

He was also an intricate part in the consolidation process that led to the establishment of the bank in 2006.

Dikko holds a B.Sc economics from Queen

•Lamis Dikko Mary’s College, University of London.

He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School for Management Development and is currently the Chairman of Infrastructure Bank and a Director of Legacy Pensions, amongst others.

weet Sensation, a quick service restaurant, QSR, in partnership with Airtel Nigeria, has said it will make airtime recharge cards available at every of its outlet.

The service which is called, ‘Refresh and Recharge’ was officially unveiled at the Head Office of Sweet Sensation in Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos.

Speaking at the occasion, the Managing Director, Sweet Sensation, Olatunji Kamson, Executive Director of Sweet Sensation Confectionary expressed his delight in the partnership between the QSR company and Airtel Nigeria, saying the relationship would definitely engender value added services for the two companies.

According to him,: “The strategic alliance between these two leading brands is definitely a drive towards delivery of quality and excellent services to Nigerians as it prioritises the need of customers of both Airtel and Sweet Sensation.”

Also Speaking, the Lagos Regional Operations Director for Airtel, Mr. Adebayo Osinowo, noted that the company conceived the ‘Refresh & Recharge’ package for its customers as an addition to the numerous convenient channels available for access to recharging their lines and purchasing data bundles.

He said, “The service, which is first of its kind in telecommunications products and services in Nigeria, was borne out of the need to give customers of Airtel Nigeria quality service as well as convenience and value.

Each time Airtel customers walk into any Sweet Sensation outlet to get their meals, they can also top up their lines with Airtel Easy Recharge, which is a convenient, time-saving and secure way to get airtime without scratching cards.”

Njokanma now LASU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor

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•Waheed Olagunju

Sweet Sensation, Airtel Nigeria form alliance

HE Senate of the Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, has elected Professor Fidelis Njokanma a s t h e n e w D e p u t y Vi c e Chancellor (Administration) of the institution.Mr Kayode Sutton, Public Relation O ff i c e r, P R O , o f t h e institution, said in a statement that Njokanma was elected Tuesday, last weekAccording to Sutton, Njokanma polled 33 votes while his cocontestant, Prof. Olatunji Abanikannda of the Faculty of Science, scored 30 votes in the election.He said that of the 139 members of the senate, 83 signed the

attendance register, while 77 members took part in the election.Sutton said 14 votes were declared void.Njokanma was formerly the Dean, Faculty of Clinical Services and also a former Deputy Provost, Lagos State University College of Medicine, LASUCOM.The PRO said that the senate would determine the date of the inauguration ceremony.The position of the DVC became vacant since December 8, 2013 while the management announced the vacancy and called for applications from interested professors and Heads of

Academic Unit on April 7.Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, of the institution had staged a peaceful protest before the election, raising some questions on the nomination process.They said that the university senate had to approve the nominees before the election and claimed the procedure was not followed.The Registrar of the institution, Mr. Lateef Animashaun, had, h o w e v e r, i n t e r v e n e d a n d summoned a senate meeting to approve the nominees before the election was eventually held.

44 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

E- Commerce

Konga intensifies education on marketplace, partners Lenovo

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n a bid to sustain the confidence in online shopping growing among Nigerians, Nigeria’s online mall and marketplace, Konga.com has intensified education of the general public on the benefits and ease of shopping online.

The retailer is partnering with the producers of dusnumberries, a show that airs on Cool Fm radio station every Monday and Friday mornings for a special section called “the Konga Marketplace”. This show provides listeners with the opportunity to win shopping vouchers in fun and informational games like tongue twisters while also getting online shopping tips and exclusive discounts available on Konga.com.

The retailer has also entered into a partnership with a global computer maker, Lenovo, to launch a new range of mobile phones and tablets. The Lenovo S650 phone and Lenovo A516 phone come in fair prices for the Nigerian market.

Kaymu, WHO, Global Oceon unite to combat malaria

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n solidarity with the global efforts against malaria, Nigeria’s online marketplace Kaymu.com.ng has partnered World Health Organisation, Global Oceon and the Lagos State Ministry of Health to donate mosquito nets to Itedo Community in Lekki Area of Lagos state.

The mosquito nets were distributed within the community during a health walk Against Malaria to mark this year’s World Malaria Day. In a statement, Kaymu’s Managing Director and cofounder, Massimiliano Spalazzi stated that malaria is a life-threatening disease and all efforts must be intensified by the government and corporate organizations to eradicate the disease.

He said it was to this end that Kaymu has partnered with Global Oceon to spread awareness about the cause of malaria and preventive measures to residents of the Itedo Village in Lekki Area of Lagos State.

HONOUR - From left, President/Chairman in Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Mr. Segun Aina, Past President of CIBN and Celebrant, His Royal Highness, Eze Prof.

Green Nwankwo, his wife, Elizabeth and 2nd Vice-President, CIBN, Dr. Segun Ajibola, during the 80th Birthday celebration in honour of Prof. Green Nwankwo organised by CIBN held in Lagos.

How online retailers can leverage effective email strategies STORIES BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

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nternet retailers cannot underestimate the value of email marketing. A recent study has predicted that the total number of email users worldwide will grow to more than 2.7 billion before the end of 2017, with revenue hitting $20.4 billion. This growing marketing channel is considerably inexpensive and provides a great opportunity for retailers trying to acquire and retain customers, increase conversions or generate awareness. After using this channel for a while, however, it can be easy for retailers to fall into just a marketing routine. When this happens, it is important for retailers to freshen up their campaigns by re-evaluating their current strategies and testing out

some new ones. Below are some strategies that they may consider.

The first is recovering abandoned carts. Recovering abandoned shopping carts through email is one of the best ways for online retailers to increase conversions via email. After all, if a visitor spends time browsing through an online catalog and takes the effort to add

products to his shopping cart, he probably has a pretty strong intent to purchase.

Experts say, the trick is to make sure they don’t lose the purchase to a competitor.

When visitors do leave websites without making purchases, retailers can leverage email to retarget them and recover abandoned shopping carts.

They however argue that it

Etisalat unveils automated recharge, data purchase options

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i g e r i a ’ s telecommunication service provider, Etisalat has announced the introduction of automated recharge, instant and mandate options, to enable customers recharge their phones or buy data

electronically.

The automated recharge mandate service allows Etisalat subscribers who have bank accounts and are registered on the internet banking platform to leave an instruction with their banks

Fashion designers urged to embrace e-commerce

BY ABIODUN ALADE

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peakers at the just concluded Fashion Business Workshop held in Lagos have called on designers in the country to take advantage of the opportunities provided by online marketing to enhance their business. The one day event was organized by an ecommerce platform, YSGhubs in partnership with Harmony Fashion Designer Association and the Lagos State Tailors and Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria, LASTFADAN. Mrs. Nkiru Amadi, the marketing manager of

is important to note that retailers implementing a shopping cart recovery campaign should consider using incentives such as free shipping, free gifts or discounts to entice their customers to convert.

Another effective strategy is to use the email to promote slow sellers. Every product is not and can never be best seller. The implication is that retailers need to spend a little more time generating brand awareness for the products that their customer base might not be familiar with.

Identifying these products just requires a quick look at analytics, as slow sellers won’t have as many conversions or page views as a retailer ’s best-selling inventory.

The email can also be used to drive traffic to other channels. You have committed resources into building a presence in a certain channel, so it is important to take the time to promote that presence.

One of the best ways to spread the word, of course, is with email. For instance, if a retailer wants to drive more activity to their Facebook page, he or she could create an email campaign promoting the page and teasing a special exclusive sneak peek at new inventory for its Facebook followers. Then the retailer can create a board that features the new inventory a week before promoting it on any other channel.

YSGhubs said that online marketing is the best and cheapest way to do business in the modern world, stressing that the days of conventional marketing are over. She noted that Nigeria is blessed with talented designers but lack of appropriate marketing and distribution channels hinder most of them in making profit from the business.

“Fashion is trending and everybody is cautious of what they wear. Nigeria is blessed with talented fashion designers but sadly most of them do not know the best way in marketing and distributing their wares. In

fact, very few of them do have the means to get a shop. With YSGhubs’ reach all over Nigeria and neighbouring African countries, we are providing the platform for them to market and distribute their products through us instead of the conventional show rooms which are limited,” she said.

On his part, Mr. Godwin Essien, the Creative Director of Godwin Green Coulture, who spoke on ‘designing with global appeal’, urged fashion designers to be up to date with trending styles. He said fashion designers should not be limited in their thinking, imagination and creativity.

for their Etisalat line or lines to be credited with the desired amount of airtime on specific dates or once a certain airtimecredit level is reached.

Customers can also buy credit for themselves, family and friends with the automated recharge instant option, by filling in the details on the Etisalat transaction page provided on their bank’s internet banking platform.

Director, Business Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Lucas Dada, explained that these offerings have the backing of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to ensure safety. Dada said “Etisalat has launched these innovative recharge solutions to ensure that our customers never worry about running out of credit again. These options offer customers simple and convenient means of buying airtime and data bundles, as well as making postpaid bill payments directly from their bank accounts through internet banking.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 45

46 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Agric

Women researchers call for gender friendly policies

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omen researchers a v e called for policies that would enable them to further their education while keeping their jobs and taking care of their babies.

This call was made by the female researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) , Ibadan recently.

But the Director General, IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga said increasing the quota of women in research transcends the clamour for gender mainstreaming as it is all about improving productivity and efficiency.

One of the IITA scientists, Mrs Kafilat Odesola, said who said they need to further our education, emphasised that such opportunities would not compromise research, “because women can multitask and do a hundred things at the same time.” h

NDDC supports agric in Niger Delta with N1.92bn

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r Godspower Amadi, Director, Agriculture and Fisheries, Niger Delta Development Commission, says the commission has released $12 million to International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support agriculture in Niger Delta.

Amadi disclosed this at the 15th IFAD/NDDC/FGN Supervision Mission organised by IFAD in Port Harcourt. He said IFAD designed a CommunityBased Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP) to empower at least 400,000 households in the rural communities through agriculture.

He said the Commission, as partners in the project, was expected to release $15 million to support the progamme. “NDDC is to release $15 million for the programme, so far we have released more than $12 million, so we are almost through with our payments.

By my assessment, IFAD has achieved 75 per cent of its target and most rural dwellers are now integrated into agricultural entrepreneurship.”

FAO calls for preventive measures against banana disease

BY JIMOH BABATUNDE

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he Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has called on countries to restrict movement of infected soil and planting materials into and out of farms, as the world’s most destructive banana diseases, Fusarium wilt TR4, is spreading from Asia to Africa and the Middle East.

The disease is soil-borne and the fungus can remain viable for decades. Once the disease is present in a field, it cannot be fully controlled by currently available practices and fungicides. The best way to fight the disease is to prevent its spread, which includes avoiding movement of diseased plant materials and infected soil particles.

In its warning to countries on how to step up monitoring, reporting and prevention of the disease, FAO said the TR4 race of the disease, which is also known as Panama disease, is posing a serious threat to production and export of the popular fruit, with serious repercussions for the banana value chain and livelihoods.

Banana is the eighth most important food crop in the world and the fourth most important food crop among the world’s least-developed countries, according to FAOSTAT , the UN agency’ s data-gathering and analysis service.

“Any disease or constraint that affects bananas is striking at an important source of food, livelihoods, employment and government revenues in many tropical countries,” said Gianluca Gondolini, Secretary of the World Banana Forum.

“The spread of Fusarium wilt banana disease could have a significant impact on growers, traders and families who depend on the banana industry,” Fazil Dusunceli, a plant pathologist at FAO, said. “Countries need to act now if we are to avoid the worst-case scenario, which is massive destruction of much of the world’s banana crop,” said Dusunceli.

“We need to raise awareness of this threat, coordinate efforts among countries and institutions for effective implementation of appropriate quarantine measures, and also work with

banana producers, traders, plantation employees and smallholder farmers to help to minimize the spread of the disease,” Dusunceli said.

He also highlighted the importance of research in better understanding the disease and developing alternative varieties that are disease resistant.

On its recommended action at country level, FAO advised that awareness level should be raised; adoption of appropriate risk assessment, surveillance and early warning systems; preventive measures, including quarantines, and the use of disease-free planting materials.

FAO also advised that there should be capacity building in National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPO) in planning, extension and research, including the use of rapid and accurate diagnostic tools as well as training of technical officers, producers and farm workers in disease

A cross section of widows during the presentation agric support fund by Appolus Chu Foundation in Eleme, Rivers State identification, prevention and management under field conditions.

While other races of the disease have existed for many years, TR4 has caused significant losses in banana plantations in Southeast Asia over the last two decades, and has recently been reported in

Mozambique and Jordan.

TR4 infects the Cavendish banana varieties, which dominate global trade, as well as other susceptible varieties used for local consumption and markets. Despite damage to the banana plant and to production, the fruit itself remains edible.

Foundation disburses agricultural support fund to 215 widows

BY ETOP EKANEM

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ver 200 widows of Okori in Eleme, River States, were given N20, 000 each by the Appolus Chu Foundation to hire farmlands for cultivation this season.

The Coordinator of the Foundation, Mr. Ngbala Okpabi, said the programme was conceived considering the fact that the cost of hiring a piece of farmland in the community costs N5,000 and so the Foundation decided to give each of the beneficiaries, N20,000.00, which will enable them acquire two pieces of farmlands for farming and then use the balance of N10,000.00 for cultivating of the farmlands.

Okpabi, who said the disbursement of agricultural funds was part of the second phase of the Foundation’s programmes where over 500 youths, women and men are to benefit from various skills and community development schemes, noted: “This is a farming session and we want to give them some funds with which they would use in hiring farmlands on which they would engage in farming.”

It is believed that by so doing, the Foundation is not only providing food security to Eleme but also to the entire state and the nation as a whole.

While advising the widows not misuse the funds nor put it into any other use apart from that which it was given, Okpabi said they hope that if they hire the farmlands and cultivate the farms successfully, they would be able to feed themselves and also take care of their other needs from the harvests.

Beneficiaries express gratitude

A widow and a woman’s leader in Alode, a community in Okori-Eleme, Mrs. Comfort Saka could not hide her excitement as she burst into joyous dance when she was given the money. “Today is a wonderful day for the widows in the Okori community and we are most grateful to the founder of HRH Chief Appolus Chu Foundation, who has done so many things for us. And now he has made me to feel free to carry out my farming business this season without bothering myself with so much thoughts and anxiety.

“In Eleme here, if you do not have a husband, nobody gives you a farmland and even when you struggle to get one, you get a fresh farm where you have to look for someone to clear the bush before you could plant your crops and as a widow, this takes a lot of struggles. But today, I can do my farming confidently without bothering my head so much on how the work will be carried out.

Appolus Chu has made things easy for us and so we have made up our minds not to disappoint him.”

The President, Widows’ Association of Eleme, Mrs. Elizabeth Mba-Ngei, expressed gratitude to Chief Appolus for deeming it right to alleviate the suffering of the widows.

She said: “We give God the glory for what He has done through our son, Chief Appolus Chu”, she said, adding that widows face a lot of challenges in the society.”

Speaking further, Mba-Ngei said, “Wealth is from God and it is not a sin, but failure to assist others with your wealth is a sin."

48 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Email:lesleba@lesleba.com, lesleba@gmail.com Blog page:www.lesleba.com/blog2 Website: www.lesleba.com Tel:0805 220 1997

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his week, I invite you to consider the following excerpts from Toyin Dawodu’s response to Forbes’ (a foremost international business magazine) conclusions from its interview with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria’s Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.

Dawodu is Managing Partner of Capital Investment Group in the United States, and he wrote as follows: “I saw a headline last night on one of my favourite websites, Forbes.com; it reads “Nigeria Rising: The Woman behind the Nation’s Economic Turnaround.”

The headline captured Forbes’ conclusion after its interview with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Nigeria Rising. What economic miracle is this? Is it the 170 million Nigerians that live in darkness? Is it the 50% unemployment rate amongst Nigeria’s 40 million youths? Incidentally, a remnant of youths are now earning their living by kidnapping members from well-off families and holding them for ransom. Is that fact included as part of this economic miracle? ”Maybe it’s the estimated 8% inflation rate which the average citizen feels as more like 15%? ”Is it the fact that there is no potable water in most parts of Nigeria, where only a handful of paved roads

Nigeria’s rise to the bottom exist, where traffic officers double as unauthorized toll collectors and freely shake down poor citizens? Is it the fact that a country that was rid of a huge debt burden just a few years ago now has a growing domestic debt at oppressive interest rates? Moreover, who is looking into these claims that the same banks being used to warehouse government’s money for free, turn around and charge 12-14% interest

,

BY TOYIN DAWODU

economy.

In spite of prevailing alleged systemic surplus cash, Nigeria’s domestic debt has also risen from $35bn to $44.3bn since the honourable minister came into office.

Over $12bn was expended for fuel subsidy under the watchful eyes of Madam Minister, yet Nigerians cannot seem to get their hands on petrol for their automobiles or kerosene to cook their food; Nigeria is ranked 120th out of 148 countries in Global Competitiveness Index; according to the World Bank, increasingly, over 70% of Nigerians live in absolute destitution.

According to the Nigerian Custom’s Director-General, Nigeria lost over $9bn to controversial import waivers granted by the office of the honourable minister between 2011 and 2013. ”Nigeria’s economic saboteurs disguise themselves as industrialists and rake in big bucks, while exploiting the people. Nigerians are struggling. It seems to me that the true beneficiaries of Nigeria’s huge markets are foreign exploiters, the banks, and a handful of wellprotected Nigerian cohorts, who do not care whether or not their investments created any real jobs, stability, infrastructure or long-term growth. The above piece by Toyin Dawodu may not be agreeable to some Nigerians, but there can be no doubt that ironically, Nigerians and our economy have become poorer despite increasing revenue over the years. Surely, this is not the way it should be!

competition? ”Wonder of wonders, how do you create sustainable jobs in a country where businesses barely get two hours of electricity a day? Most businesses spend, on average, 20% of their revenue generating power and producing their own water. I am curious to know how much research Mr. Forbes actually conducted on the Honourable Minister before Okaying this headline

Nigeria’s economic saboteurs disguise themselves as industrialists and rake in big bucks, while exploiting the people. Nigerians are struggling. It seems to me that the true beneficiaries of Nigeria’s huge markets are foreign exploiters, the banks, and a handful of wellprotected Nigerian cohorts

whenever government borrows money? ”Nigerian citizens, Nigeria’s National Assembly and civil society groups have all come forward to challenge Nigeria’s economic minister, demanding she provide proof of all the jobs she claimed to have created since she became minister.

So far, the only proof offered by the minister is her propaganda across the globe, of 27,000 jobs created since 2012, by doling out free money to a few lucky winners of a b u s i n e s s

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for publication. ”For the sake of argument, let’s say Nigeria is rising. Is Nigeria rising for foreign investors who make a killing on Nigerian’s sovereign bills and bonds in a stock market led by the same banks that warehouse government funds at zero percent cost, only for government to return thereafter to borrow at phenomenally high interest rates?

In Nigeria, banks bask in the richness of their profits, yet refuse to lend to businesses in the private

sector, leaving Nigerian companies to languish and toil for years without ever having the opportunity to positively impact the economy by creating real jobs. Here are some real facts about the Nigerian economy since Dr. Okonjo-Iweala took over the management of Nigeria’s economy in 2010: Unemployment has increased year on year, and currently stands at about 23%; Interest rate for business loans has remained at 20-35% for the last four years; Nigeria’s electricity supply has decreased from 4,000 megawatts to about 2,800, in a country of 170 million people. Nigeria has spent more than $9bn to generate electricity for an average of about two hours of power a day, and yet, curiously, sold most of the existing assets of PHCN for about $3.3bn (N530bn), and still ended up with almost N400bn debt after privatization; According to the recently suspended Central Bank governor, between $10bn, or is it $20bn went missing from the treasury under Madam Minister ’s watch. How do you siphon $10bn from a pocketbook and your Head of Finance cannot say where it went?; Nigeria’s debt service charges have quickly risen to almost 20% of budget, since the Honourable Minister took over the management and coordination of Nigeria’s

Business & Economy

Learn Africa sustains gr owth, sales hit N1 .4bn gro N1.4bn

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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he Chairman of Learn Africa Plc, Mr. Segun Oladipo, has said that the company has made significant progress in 2013 financial year despite divestment of Pearson Education’s stake in the previous year.

Pearson Education Limited and Longman Group (Overseas Holdings) Limited, the two majority shareholders in former Longman Nigeria Plc, had in the first quarter of 2012 divested their 51 percent holdings in Longman on the basis of mutually acceptable terms.

Following the divestment, the company went through a re-branding process, where it adopted Learn Africa as a brand name.

Addressing shareholders at

the annual general meeting in Lagos, Oladipo said that the company achieved exponential growth in open market sales with the value of sales growing to N1.4 billion in 2013 from N800 million in 2011. He attributed the progress made within the period to a solid capital base, resourcefulness of the employees, high quality management team and efforts of ‘the visionary Board’.

He noted that the company has broadened the range of its product portfolio in order to meet the increasing needs of its customers.

Oladipo also stated that new titles have been introduced into the Nigerian market as replacements for some of the Pearson Education titles that were withdrawn from its list following divestment by later.

He explained that as a result of resolve to broaden its coverage area, the sales team

was expanded from 61 before Pearson’s divestment to 137 sales people within one year, adding that it concluded restructuring of the entire sales and marketing department for optimum utilisation and efficiency to enable it to meet the current challenges of contemporary book business.

“Concerning sales and marketing, this company has been able to execute significant bulk book supply contracts from Ogun and Katsina States just to mention a few. We consider this impressive patronage by individual and corporate customers as a clear indication of the confidence that they have in the continuous growth and prosperity of the company,” he said. He assured that Learn Africa is committed to implementing the best

practices and standards of corporate governance, saying, “We recognise that corporate governance standards and

practices must be balanced to protect the interest of the shareholders and the company.”

Omoh Gabriel Babajide Komolafe Clara Nwachukwu Peter Egwuatu Yinka Kolawole Favour Nnabugwu Godwin Oritse Godfrey Bivbere Michael Eboh Franklin Alli Ebele Orakpo Ifeyinwa Obi Rosemary Onuoha

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Group Business Editor Deputy Business Editor Energy Editor Asst. Business Editor Snr Bus. Correspondent Insurance Correspondent Maritime Correspondent Maritime Correspondent Energy Reporter Industry/Agric. Reporter Energy Reporter Maritime Reporter Insurance Reporter

CONTRIBUTORS Princewill Ekwujuru Nkiruka Nnorom Jonah Nwokpoku Naomi Uzor Providence Obuh LAYOUT

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Media/Marketing Capital Market E-Commerce Industry Micro Finance Graphics Department

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 49

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50 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014—51

SERVICE OF SONGS FOR LATE HIGH CHIEF ABEL UBEKU

Mr. Goodie Ibru (left), and Chief Felix Ohiwerei, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc.

From left, Mrs. Christine Kanu, wife of former Lagos & Imo states' military administrator; Mrs. Cecilia Cliyton (USA), and Mrs. Farida Waziri, former Economic and Financial Crimes Commissioin, EFCC, Chairman.

From left, Gen. Chris Alli (rtd), former Chief of Army Staff; Chief Betty Ubeku, wife of late High Chief Abel Ubeku (former Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Presidential Aspirant, Social Democratic Party, SDP), and Chief Okpra Benson, during the Service of Songs of late High Chief Ubeku, at Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos.

Photo: Diran Oshe

Mrs. Emily Aig-Imoukhuede (left), and Mrs. Amb. George Obiozor, former Nigerian am- Emuobo Ibru bassador to the United States, and wife.

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52 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

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Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014—53

S

OMETIME in September 2006, I was in the Aso Drive, Abuja residence of Prof. Jibril Aminu, the Senator representing Adamawa Central in the Senate, conducting an interview for his biography. It was a sunny Friday morning. The interview was disrupted by the arrival of an important guest. When this rather frail looking elderly gentleman was ushered into the study where we were sitting, I saw he was a vaguely familiar figure, wearing a grey-tinged beard.

“I am sure you know Admiral Nyako”, our host said, holding Nyako’s hand, “and in sha Allah the next governor of Adamawa State”. I was shocked. In the first place, Prof had equally given me the name of a different person for the same post. Perhaps, it did not work out between them? In the second place, why Admiral Murtala Hamman-YeroNyako (GCON, CFR, rcds, D.(Agric), a

The shame of Mur tala Ny ak o Murtala Nyak ako Adamawa State) went to Nyako’s farm and literally plucked him out to stand as their trusted candidate for PDP governor of Adamawa State to succeed Atiku’s flunkey, Governor Bonnie Haruna.

No sooner had Aminu done with the introduction than Nyako launched a most effusive glorification of the Professor of Medicine, calling him the “leader

Obasanjo and Aminu should apologise to Nigerians for excavating and imposing him on the people of Adamawa State to cause trouble for Nigerians

,

man who had been military governor, member of the Supreme Military Council and Chief of Naval Staff? Was he also being exhumed from retirement just like Obasanjo? Well, I never knew he was also into partisan politics.

It turned out that he was not.

He had gone big time into mango farming. In fact, he was widely known as Baban Mangwaro in the Yola locality where he operates his farms. Nyako was not thinking of politics, let alone being elected into the office of governor. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his friend of many decades, Prof. Aminu, had joined hands to shuffle former Vice President Atiku Abubakar out of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to prevent Atiku from running for president on its platform. In the same manner that Obasanjo handpicked Governors Umaru Yar ’ Adua as presidential candidate of the PDP and Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate, the President and Senator Aminu(who had been given full charge of the PDP in

of our Party in Adamawa, a great intellectual of international repute and a source of inspiration to all Nigerians”. Listening to Nyako, I was a little bit afraid for Aminu.

He sounded too glib, but who was I to complain since the Professor seemed quite gratified by the Admiral’s grandiloquent exaltation of him.

It was not up to six months after Nyako took over the reins of Governor of Adamawa State that I heard that yawa don gas between him and his “Party Leader ”. Things had fallen hopelessly apart between them.

This godfather thing never really works. Nyako had taken steps to assert his independence, including snatching the reins of the PDP from Aminu and his supporters. He used his Chief of Staff, Alhaji Tukur Bello, to stiffarm Aminu. Bello is now occupying Aminu’s former seat at the Senate. Not only that, Nyako fully intended to hand over power to one of his sons after his eight years.

That did not go down well

BY PRINCE ABUGO

C

,

ONSIDERING the achievements of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, the debate in Delta State now is who succeeds him.

The 1999 Constitution limits the tenure of Governors and President to two terms of four years each. So by 2015, Uduaghan must vacate office in obedience to the constitution. His successor must be assessed; he must not be someone who indulgies in profligacy but someone who understands the state and is ready to work to add value to his predecessor’s deeds. Governor Uduaghan needs spiritual guidance because if he fails, it will be like a stigma that will haunt the state.

He, therefore, has a difficult task ahead because this is the season of deceit when chameleons, moles, sycophants, jesters, masquerades and all shades of characters use deceptive steps to achieve their desires.

Uduaghan should avoid the pitfalls of 1997; he should carry critical stake holders of the party and engage his choice to sell himself independently, while providing guidance and support. Such a choice must not display the toga of a “crown Prince” before other aspirants so as not to cause party discord. As leader of the State he has the inalienable right to democratically make a choice that can add value to his legacy.

However, several factors may determine the next governor of the state: (1) The President will never endorse a mole, someone who may be a threat to his political aspirations or any

because, as rumour had it, Aminu also had the same ambition for one of his sons, and so did Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who eventually was sponsored by President Goodluck Jonathan to become the National Chairman of the PDP. The circumstances that led to Nyako’s departure from the PDP to the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) was traced to the irreconcilable differences between Nyako’s hunger to impose his son with his power of gubernatorial incumbency on the one hand, and Alhaji Tukur ’s unbending resolve to use his position as National Chairman of the Party to crown his own son. Aminu had long been rendered a virtual bystander in the whole matter.

That is a taste of Adamawa politics for you. In Adamawa politics, just like that of Anambra, dog eats dog, and there is never really a permanent winner or loser, since the wheel of political fortune is always turning. But just like in Anambra politics, in spite of the sound and fury, you never easily get to hear about political assassinations, which is more rampant in South West Nigerian politics.

N

yako moved to APC, some say, because he was denied the opportunity to use the PDP for his purpose. But it remains to be seen if Atiku, a much savvier politician with deeper roots in the game will let him use the APC. He may climb down from his high governorship office and find no other alternative than to return to his farm from where he was picked by Obasanjo and Aminu.

Since Nyako went into APC, he has turned too viral for his own

good, the good of people around him and the good of the country at large. Remember when, a few months ago, he snivelled that he is afraid of being “poisoned” by his colleague, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State, whom he has always sat next to due to the alphabetical order of seating in the Council of State meetings.

That accusation, as shocking and lowly as it was, came from the blue and gave an insight into the quality of mental and psychological make-up of this retired naval officer. Poison you for what! A Niger Deltan was once told, at a public function: “please don’t kidnap me!” There was laughter in the hall. He nimbly replied his heckler: “But you have no kidnap value”. There was applause. Need I say more?

Nyako’s recent poisonous letter to his fellow governors of Northern Nigeria accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of using the prolonged emergency rule in the North East (including his Adamawa State) to perpetrate “genocide” with a view to “depopulating” the North was politics of bitterness taken too far.

Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, the apostle of “politics without bitterness” and a Nigerian legend from the North East, must have turned several times in his grave when this letter made its ugly way into the public arena. It was a lunatic rant, and the only people I saw applauding it were the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), an equally rabid and frustrated outfit made up of expired former public office holders who believe that Nigeria is a colony of Northern Nigeria being illegally ruled by a Niger Delta impostor, President Jonathan.

OPINION Who succeeds Uduaghan in 2015 person who has a case with anti-corruption agencies or under investigation. (2) Dr. Uduaghan may not support any aspirant he does not trust because he needs someone he can be at peace with after he leaves office, and (3) The fellow cannot afford to ignore the irrepressible Edwin Clark who is father to the President and confidant of Uduaghan as doing so will be at his own peril.

Like a fiesta, the army of aspirants represents all shades of interests: the drunk and monsters, traitors and sycophants, jesters and robots, committed and unprincipled, decisive and indecisive, liars and the frank as well as power shift crusaders. The race is becoming comical and entertaining; Uduaghan must spare a thought on his successor.

Those who want Uduaghan’s political shoes come with different intentions: some for political appointments, to negotiate “settlement” when stepping down, and few like mosquitoes buzzing the ears of their master’s opponents that sponsor them are rusty distractions. Others negotiate for candidates of the state House of Assembly, House of Reps and Senate before stepping down.

Unfortunately the good aspirants don’t have the Father Christmas gesture of fortune tellers and ‘Ewedu and Amala’ mob in the state.

When the Biblical apostles wanted to replace Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ, they

laid down conditions for a would-be successor; without prejudice they proposed fundamental reasons that entrenched continuity in the body of Christ. Who succeeds Uduaghan cannot be an exception. He must have been with the PDP from the beginning and contributed to progress in the state without soiling his hands.

Somebody with a listening ear, humble, accessible and has respect for elders of the state.

Fashola is a protégé of Tinubu as Obiano is of Obi. If Gov. Uduaghan is not worried about who succeeds him, he is merely postponing the evil day but those who want Uduaghan’s shoes without sweat, tears and commitment are jokers; they must bring their own shoe sizes and embrace attributes that endeared Uduaghan to Deltans.

A successor must address the interests of E. K. Clark which is tied to the President and Uduaghan’s worry which is tied to a cluster of interests to win their confidence. Clark's influence in the state and at the national level is not debatable, everybody needs him.

Governor Uduaghan also is a bridge between his disciples and adherents of Ibori; any successor must note this. The choice of who rules the state must not be restricted to one senatorial district because doing so is encouraging division above the good of the state. Competence must be cherished because any aspirant putting on the garland of power

Nyako’s letter is not just unbecoming of a retired Admiral of the Nigerian Navy; it just does not make sense, which is why I called it a lunatic rant. Boko Haram terrorists were created by failed political leaders of Arewa, such as Nyako. They are Arewa citizens of Nigeria, in cahoots with their relations, friends, associates and hirelings from across the border, killing, maiming, burning, looting, annihilating, abducting and slaughtering innocent Nigerians who are mostly Arewa Muslims like themselves in a core Arewa enclave. Because they are our countrymen marauding a part of our country, President Jonathan mobilised the armed forces to flush them out. It is his constitutionally bounded duty to do so. If he fails to do it we will send him out of Aso Villa.

J

onathan has handled the crisis, as some say, with kid gloves, perhaps mindful of the inciting blackmail that the likes of Nyako are ready to bandy. Jonathan started with police action, then limited military action, before he recently sent in a combined military operation. Perhaps, his major fault is his refusal to sack the democratic structures headed by governors, some of whom have been reported to be Boko Haram funders. Nyako obviously knows all about genocides, because he was part and parcel of the Nigerian armed forces that massacred defenceless Igbo civilians in the North in the aftermath of the 1966 coups and also murdered many more inside Biafra. So he can talk.

But the good thing is that every decent Nigerian has condemned the shame of Murtala Nyako, a man sent to Dartmouth Royal Naval Academy, Englandin 1962 to become an officer and gentleman. Quite obviously, the training did not go beyond the surface of his skin. How could such a character have attained the highest rank in the Nigerian Navy – an Admiral – without being seen for whom he really was?

Obasanjo and Aminu should apologise to Nigerians for excavating and imposing him on the people of Adamawa State to cause trouble for Nigerians.

shift is dehydrated, bereft of ideas. We need aspirants with ideas on how to move the state forward, give blue print that cuts across the nooks and crannies of the state, aspirants with pedigree who are ethnically blind.

We need a leader not a ruler, a successor who sees every part of the state as home; someone who consolidates the gains of past, the present with vision for the future, to sustain and unite the state as Uduaghan had done. Power shift debate is a distraction. Some believe that because Ibori from Delta Central and Uduaghan from Delta South had been elected Governors, 2015 should be the turn of Delta North. The fact is the primaries that produced Ibori and Uduaghan in their two terms were not restricted to aspirants of one senatorial zone. Another group recently defined power shift as the governorship seat rotation among the five ethnic groups of Itsekiri, Urhobo, Ijaw, Isoko and the Igbo. Is this not promoting anarchy above unity and competence in a diverse state like ours? Delta North is not strictly Igbo; there are other distinct ethnic nationalities like Ndokwa, Ika and others. We must not judge any aspirant by ethnicity or place of birth but competence.

We need leaders in the mould of Uduaghan and not aspirants whose ideas are stale and tied to retrogressive emotions. Let’s pray for Uduaghan as he navigates us through this critical decision making process. *Mr. Abugo, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Uzere, Delta State.

54—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

remember I called it infrastructure terrorism.

Government has also moved to secure our critical national infrastructures. For us in the power sector, plans are underway to secure electricity infrastructures nationwide through certain initiatives. This will soon be unfolded.

Some observers believe Borno PDP is dead. How will you react to this?

That viewpoint is wrong and unfounded .

Pdp in the state is alife and kicking. We have issues no doubt. But it is an exaggeration to say pdp is dead in Borno.

Issues we had before had to do with focus and leadership.

Boko Haram, our Borno and our future—Wakil, Minister of State (Power) •How infrastructure terrorism is crippling power supply ALHAJI Mohammed Wakil, Minister of State for Power was the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Following a recent tour of his native Borno State, the minister, in an interview, responded to questions on the insurgency led by the Boko Haram sect, the administration’s power reform agenda and the moves to consolidate the PDP in Borno State. Excerpts:

BY NDAHI MARAMA

W

HAT were your impressions from your

tour?

I will say positive. Borno is passing through very difficult moments. In our thousands of years of civilisation, our people have never witnessed this level of suffering. It is nothing but man’s inhumanity to man.

Imagine the continued abduction of innocent people, particularly the school girls in Chibok and killing of innocent civilians. This is the height of insensitivity and inhumanity. The pain cannot be described in words. But these trials have not cowed my people.

His Majesty that the president is personally committed to combating this insurgency. Of course, I explained the many ongoing federal projects in the state despite the insurgency. The visit afforded me the opportunity to officially list the many initiatives of the Federal Government. I will take the messages of my people to Mr. President in Abuja.

How challenging was it for you to enter the insurgents’ stronghold?

Nothing unusual. You know this is my state. These are my people. I visited the inner parts of Maiduguri. I met top leaders.

I feel fulfilled as the visit allowed

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Within Borno, the insurgents are no longer able to attack hard targets; they now kill defenceless citizens

Despite the very difficult situation, our people are making the best out of the situation. I commend the resilience of leaders and people of Borno State. Borno has not and will not surrender to terrorists.

Let me also say this - the security agencies are doing their best to restore peace . I met the security chiefs in the state. I was at Maimalari barracks. I met our troops and their commander. Our service personnel are committed.

I think they need our support rather than condemnation. The civilian JTF are also fantastic. So I am optimistic that this trial shall come to pass.

The Shehu raised some issues bordering on security, Chad Basin.

Yes, I took full notes of what our royal father told me. I assured

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me to know the extent of devastation done to the city and what the state is passing through.

I also know what to look for to help my people in line with the president’s agenda for peace and security. At the hospital, I wept at the many injured victims of Boko Haram. From the General to the Specialist hospitals, we saw the real victims of the insurgency- women, kids.

The situation is pathetic.

So what is the way out of the conflict?

Dialogue, development and unity and these are what Mr. President is pursuing. But we must agree that security is everybody’s business. It’s no longer about Federal Government as many commentators often say. The anti terror campaign is about states,

State of the party

•Wakil: We can defeat Boko Haram religious institutions, royal fathers, civil society, professional groups alongside the security agencies. It will be unfair to blame President Jonathan for the insurgency or for the lingering conflict.

The Federal Government with support of other stakeholders has curtailed the insurgency to a large extent. Within Borno, the insurgents are no longer able to attack hard targets; they now kill defenceless citizens.

One fact is also clear-terrorism is a global issue. We have a transnational conflict at hand. Like I said earlier, Nigeria will overcome but we must all rally round Mr. President in this fight.

What was your impression following your meeting with the security chiefs?

I may not want to disclose details of my meetings with the security chiefs. But as to the state of readiness of our security agencies, I believe they are prepared and ready. You are fighting a guerrilla war, it’s a totally new form of combat. You are facing unknown, unseen enemies. So we should learn to be supportive of our servicemen.

Whatever shortcoming, we may notice in the anti-terror war, we should stand by our troops. We

should criticize them constructively and avoid utterances and actions capable of thwarting their gallant effort.

Nigerians are worried about poor power supply after privatisation. What exactly is the problem?

I will answer your question by appealing to Nigerians to be patient with the administration.

We are passing through a transition from public to private sector based electricity system.

Structural transformation We are undergoing a fundamental structural transformation of the energy sector. We cannot pass this stage without hiccups here and there.

I plead with Nigerians to remember what happened in the telecom sector. It started roughly but today we have made great advances.

The power supply situation is facing challenges because of some transitional issues. We have to supply adequate gas to fire the power plants. Efforts are on in that direction. We have issues with vandalism of gas and transmission lines. You

Those problem are off now,the PDP is experiencing great revival. let me give you an example. During the North East rally held in Bauchi,Borno overtook many other states in term of mobilization. Despite insurgency,Borno PDP was acknowledged by many leaders. Before the rally ,we had a meeting to review the state of the party and plan ahead.

Also you witnessed the stakeholders meeting held .

Leaders from across the 27 local governments attended. So tell those who think pdp is dead that we are alife and ready to win future elections.

But there are reports of mass defections?

In politics, people are free to move if they feel like. We also know political prostitutes who move around for economic reasons. But the fact is real PDP members don’t move around.

They are forever loyal to the party. So in Borno, real PDP members are on ground. For those who defect, we will welcome them when they return. So to answer your question, reports of mass defection is false. We have one or two here and there. Even those ones are pleading to return to the party now.

So what are you doing to rebuild the party in the state?

Well, I am leading other leaders to give direction to the party. First is to ensure strong leadership.

Second is to pursue reconciliation. Three is to rebuild the party structures. We are doing all the above.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014—55

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

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Free and fair primaries While the governor and his supporters are in favour of zoning to ensure fairness, the stakeholders are against zoning and want free and fair primaries open to all aspirants at all levels.

They are now threatening court action, if any qualified member of the party is excluded from the primaries.

The cracks and fissures on the walls of the Akwa Ibom PDP manifested penultimate week after the governor rounded off his town hall meetings in the 10 federal constituencies of the state in furtherance of his participatory governance approach, the need to brief the people on his administration’s achievements so far and get feedback.

The town hall meetings started at Eket Federal Constituency on March 5, 2014 and ended at Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency on April 4, 2014. The town hall meetings were preceded by on going commissioning of about 5000 ‘lives-touching’ projects executed in 2013/2014 in the 31 local councils of the state.

Power shift theory: Some monarchs and leaders, while commending the governor, threw their weight behind his “power shift theory” and promised to back his Ikot Ekpene senatorial ambition.

Alleged to have anointed the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Obong Emmanuel Udom, from Eket, as his successor, Akpabio’s critics in the PDP are also not happy that

•Akpabio: God's will, will be done again in 2015

Akwa Ibom 2015:

•Umana: We don't deserve what we're witnessing now

It's PDP vs PDP

•Stakeholders oppose zoning, threaten litigation •Let God’s will be done again — Akpabio he is angling to occupy the Ikot Ekpene senatorial seat in 2015, which they argued should be occupied by the Abak Federal Constituency.

PDP stakeholders move against candidate imposition A week after the governor’s town hall meetings, some elders and stakeholders of the PDP, drawn from the 10 federal constituencies of the state, which included founders of the party in Akwa Ibom and the three serving senators, pooh poohed the town hall meetings and opposed Governor Akpabio’s alleged plan to impose his anointed candidate on the party in the name of zoning or power shift.

A, that they dubbed “the real town hall meeting’, which was chaired by former Environment Minister, Dr Ime Okopido, leaders, who spoke included Senator Effiong Bob, who was represented by Dr. Chris Ekong; Sen. Ita Enang, who was represented by Engr Uwem Umoh; Otueknong Sunny Jackson; former Member House of Representatives, Bernard Udoh; Former Member House of Reps, Emmanuel Obot; Wife of former Governor, Chief (Mrs.) Imo Isemin and former Secretary to the State Government and governorship aspirant, Umana O Umana.

Others are former AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Victor Iyanam; former Deputy Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Uwem Udoma; Chief Ukata Akpan; Obong Okon Uwah; Enefiok Ekefre; former Speaker Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, Nelson Effiong; and Chief Sunny Udom.

The allegations of the elders against Governor Akpabio are as follows: his long-term scheme to anoint a successor made him unilaterally pick current ward, local government and state

executive committees in 2012; he withdrew his friend, Mr. Paul Ekpo from the state cabinet and made him the PDP chairman; he also made his younger brother, Barr Ibanga Akpabio the state PDP secretary; his special assistant on Youth Mobilisation, Mr. Emmanuel Ekpenyong became the youth leader; crucial party matters are now handled by the Akpabio brothers-Emem, Ibanga, Nsetip and Prince; he relocated state party secretariat to Ibanga’s private residence; and excluded critical stakeholders from his town hall meetings, which was meant to endorse his anointed candidate.

Consequently, the elders said contrary to the claims of the governor, the PDP runs the risk of disastrous outing during the 2015 general elections, if the internal crises in the party were not resolved. Urging the PDP national leadership to “rescue our party from imminent collapse”, they warned that “it will be at the party’s peril if our leaders take for granted the fact that Akwa Ibom has been a PDP state by failing to forestall Governor Akpabio’s attempt to destroy the party at the end of his tenure.

Founding fathers Therefore, they urged the national arm of the party and President Goodluck Jonathan, whose re-election they unanimously endorsed, to “take necessary steps to rescue the party in Akwa Ibom from the stranglehold of Akpabio, his brothers and cronies and hand same back to our elders and founding fathers whose input should be paramount in the running and administration of the party.”

Rising from the meeting, the

elders and stakeholders, in a communiqué signed by 100 persons, also condemned alleged resurgence of insecurity and threats to life in the state and called on the Inspector General (IG) of Police and the Director General of the State Security Service (SSS), to investigate cases of threat to life, kidnapping and politically-motivated murders in Akwa Ibom State.

They called on all aspirants to different political offices to carry on their activities with dignity and respect for others, while disavowing violence in any form or utterances that can cause disunity in the party and Akwa

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ITH virtually all electoral slots from the wards, the state and the national levels in the kitty of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akwa Ibom State can arguably be described as a core and complete PDP state.

And with the massive achievements of Governor Godswill Akpabio in the state, which he has dubbed ‘uncommon transformation,’ the PDP, ordinarily, is not expected to have problems retaining its electoral laurels. At least, not from the opposition parties, which have a very high hurdle to scale, if they were to make any appreciable inroad into the state christened ‘Land of Promise.’

However, the PDP may not have it easy, if the brewing intraparty squabble is not amicably resolved ahead of the election.

Currently, what is panning out as PDP versus PDP electoral battle may present the opposition with an unexpected electoral gift.

Currently, some elders, stakeholders and founders of the PDP in Akwa Ibom are at daggers drawn with Governor Akpabio over the control of the PDP structure and zoning of electoral offices ahead of the election.

to decide for the people of Akwa Ibom state. “I want to say that we should go back to our glorious past. I was a commissioner in the administration of Obong Victor Attah and we never met as a college of commissioners to decide for the people of Akwa Ibom state who should be the governor. Even if the governor then had a preference for a particular candidate he did not come out to harass or intimidate the people of Akwa Ibom state.

In Akwa Ibom of today, we don’t deserve what we are witnessing.

Today if you don’t agree with the governor on certain issues nobody serving under the present government is ready to take your call or have anything to do with you.”

Where my successor comes from is immaterial, let God’s will be done —Akpabio As if mindful of the grievances of the elders, Governor Akpabio had answered some of their questions and allegations at the town hall meetings especially at Uyo and Ikot Ekpene.

Stating that where his successor comes from was not his headache, Akpabio, who said he had actualised operation zero pothole on roads in Uyo, which he started in 2007, said the challenges before him and Akwa Ibom citizenry were to “protect what we have done and ensure we do not lose our legacy. In 2015, I want my legacy to be protected by my successor. 2015 is very crucial. We must do everything to ensure social cohesion. Look at what is happening in other states, where they are having crises; ethnic harmony is the key. There is no price we should not pay for peace.

Currently, what is panning out as PDP versus PDP electoral battle may present the opposition with an unexpected electoral gift

Ibom in general.

They vowed to collectively uphold and defend the dignity and the sanctity of PDP Constitution (along with its manifesto and programmes), the country’s electoral laws, and the extant constitutional provisions.

Speaking at the meeting, Umana O Umana charged other aspirants who are presently in government to stop hiding under the governor’s shadow and come out openly to tell the people that they are interested in the 2015 governorship polls and their plans for the state, if elected.

Umana said: “I am contesting for the office of the governor in 2015 and I have come out to tell the people of Akwa Ibom State that I am interested. Other people should also come out, whether they are in government or not, to tell Akwa Ibom people that they are contesting.

He recalled that as Commissioner under exgovernor Victor Attah, members of the state executives never met

,

I don’t have interest where my successor comes from. Uyo can produce the governor; Ikot Ekpene can produce the governor; Eket can produce the governor but we must discuss and reassess the agreement we had in 2007. In 2007, we said let God’s will be done in Akwa Ibom.

In 2011, we said let God’s will be done again. In 2015, God’s will, will be done again.”

He also admitted that due to dwindling resources, some of the promises he made cannot be fulfilled by May 29, 2015 when he would be leaving.

We need binoculars to look for my successor He wondered why many governorship aspirants are not on the prowl, recalling that in 2007 when he ran for his first term they were 58 aspirants.

He also defended himself against allegations that he did not build industries as he claimed that 14 industrial projects were being built.

56 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

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58 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

V anguard Vanguard anguard,, MONDAY, APRIL 28 , 2014 — 59

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Confirmation of Name

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S/Africa marks 20 years of freedom S

OUTH Africa marked two decades of multiracial democracy on Sunday, still feeling the loss of Nelson Mandela and in sombre mood just 10 days before elections which are expected to keep the African National Congress (ANC) party in power.

Sunday’s celebrations held a special poignancy as this is the first “Freedom Day” since the passing of Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon who died in December at the age of 95.

His name was evoked several times by South Af-

rica’s current president Jacob Zuma during a ceremony attended by around 5,000 people under bright autumn skies outside of the ornate Union Buildings, the seat of government.

“Our country continues to contribute to building a better Africa and a better world, building on Madiba’s legacy,” Zuma said, referring to Mandela by his clan name.

The ANC under Zuma has seen its star fade since the heady days of the liberation struggle against white domination and the

one term in office served by Mandela, who devoted his formidable charisma and charm to the cause of racial reconciliation.

A cartoon in the Sunday Independent newspaper depicted a black female voter happily putting a check mark on Mandela’s picture in 1994 next to the letters ANC. In 2014, the same woman angrily marks an X over Zuma’s picture.

Critics say graft is widespread and that many ANC politicians are more interested in self-enrichment than service.

Abbas calls Holocaust “most heinous crime” against humanity

P

ALESTINIAN Pres ident Mahmoud Abbas called the Nazi Holocaust “the most heinous crime” against humanity in modern times, in an apparent bid to build bridges with Israel days after troubled peace talks collapsed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the overture yesterday, saying Abbas’s Palestinian power-sharing deal with Hamas, which led Israel to suspend the negotiations on Thursday, put him in partner-

•Abbas Mahmoud ship with an Islamist group that denies the Holocaust and seeks the Jewish state’s destruc-

S/Korea PM quits over sunken ferry

S

OUTH Korea’s prime minister resigned yesterday over the government’s handling of a ferry sinking that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing, blaming “deep-rooted evils” in society for the tragedy.

South Korean executive power is largely concentrated in the president, so Chung Hong-won’s resignation appears to be symbolic. Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said President Park Geun-hye would accept the resignation, but did not say when Chung would leave office.

Chung’s resignation comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims’ relatives that the government did not do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones. Most of the dead and missing were high school students on a school trip.

Officials have taken into

custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry Sewol, which sank April 16.

tion.

“What I say to him very simply is this: President Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas,” Netanyahu said on the CBS news program Face the Nation.

Abbas’s message, published in Arabic and English by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, coincided with Israel’s annual remembrance day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and included an expression of sympathy for the families of the victims.

“What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era,” WAFA quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting a week ago with an American rabbi.

More Muslims leave CAR capital

H

EAVILY armed peacekeepers escorted some of the last remaining Muslims out of Central African Republic’s volatile capital on Sunday, trucking more than 1,300 people who for months had been trapped by violent Christian militants.

Within minutes of the convoy’s departure, an angry swarm of neighbors descended upon the mosque in a scene of total anarchy.

Tools in hand, they swiftly dismantled and stole the loudspeaker once used for the call to prayer and soon stripped the house

of worship of even its ceiling fan blades.

One man quickly scrawled “Youth Center” in black marker across the front of the mosque. Others mockingly swept the dirt from the ground in front of the building with brooms and shouted “We have cleaned Central African Republic of the Muslims!”

“We didn’t want the Muslims here and we don’t want their mosque here anymore either,” said Guy Richard, 36, who loads baggage onto trucks for a living, as he and his friends made off with pieces of the mosque.

60 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Nigeria women 4x400m shine at Penn Relays

BY BEN EFE

N

IGERIA women 4x400m squad have staked a claim for a medal at up coming World Relays Championships next month in Nassau, Bahamas when they ran 3.27.16 seconds to place second behind the United States at last weekend’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia, USA. The team featuring Folashade Abugan, Omolara Omotosho, Bukola Abogunloko and Regina George made an improvement on the 3.28.78, they did at the Mt Sac relays in California.

With their latest timing, the Nigeria women can push for a medal at the World relays, they also look good to give the British and the Jamaican teams a run for their money at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. They are most likely to retain the title they won in Porto Novo

2012, at the 2014 African championships in Morocco.

At the Penn Relays, the USA team was propped by Dee Dee Trotter and Jessica Beard who did 50.78 seconds and 50.46seconds respectively in their laps.

The US team did 3.25.62.

George was Nigeria’s

strongest leg, she did 50.49 in her lap. The Jamaican team anchored by Shericka Williams was third with 3.27.32.

The Nigerian men 4x400m were placed fifth in their race which was timed at 3.05. 05. Anchor man Ameachi Morton posted 45.50 in his lap, while Isah

Salihu, Orukpe Erayokan and Noah Akwu did 46.29 respectively. The Bahamas, sensationally beat the United States to the second spot in the race, the hosts of the maiden world relays won at 3.00.78seconds, while the USA finished at 3.03.01 and Brazil was third with 3.03.32.

Okpekpe is now a home of sports — Okpekpe monarch

H

IS Royal Highness(HRH) Apa Peter Abalume Osigbemeh, the Onwueweko of Okpekpe kingdom has expressed happiness over the global recognition given to the land arising from the successful hosing of the Okpekpe 10 kilometres Road Race last year.

Revealing this to media men in Okpekpe on Sunday morning, Osigbemeh stated that: “Am a fulfilled traditional ruler, the road race has put Okpekpe in the world map. Last year it was good, this second edi-

ARS football clinic kicks off in Rwanda

S

Nigerian female athletes rejoice after winning in an international meet

IX most outstanding Nigerian talents discovered during the 2013 edition of the Airtel Rising Stars U-17

Airtel joins Lagos Mandela Commonwealth Nations, America Unifying Championship SWAN Cup

L

EADING telecoms company, Airtel, has joined the list of sponsors and partners to raise the groove of the Lagos SWAN Cup and in its continued demonstration of support for and advancement of sports journalism and the welfare of the practitioners.

Lagos SWAN Chairman, Fred Edoreh, revealed over the weekend that following a meeting with officials of Airtel on Wednesday last week, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Lagos SWAN cup on Thursday, the telecoms company promptly responded with a confirmation of its readiness to partner with Lagos SWAN to ensure a successful and exciting SWAN Cup competition which is the highpoint of the Lagos SWAN Week.

Speaking on the gesture, Emeka Oparah, Airtel director of corporate communications and CSR, explained that it only makes sense for corporate organisations involved in sports to support the programmes and projects of sports journalists in appreciation of their role in promoting sports and sports development in the country.

tion will be better. We are ready to host the world, preparation is on top gear. We are looking forward to host the world. I feel highly elated to be the host because is my kingdom.

The only challenges is that, we don’t have hotels where they will lodge. So, the total benefits of this event will share with other communities. ”Now that is annual event , am appealing to investors to come and invest in our community, we also have tourism potentials here."

Stevie Wonder leads stars to Nigeria, as Ultimate Commander begins camping ia’s Osita Offor, also

A

MERICAN music superstar, Stevie Wonder, is among the top stars expected in Nigeria for the country’s leg of the Nelson Mandela Commonwealth Nations and America Unifying Wrestling Championship, which will also hold in South Africa, the United States and Britain.

According to the Project Coordinator, ace musician, Tee Mac Itseli, the multi-talented Grammy Award winning star, will lead a strong cast of stars from the United States, Britain and South Africa, who will join Nigerians (musicians and comedians) to spice up the wrestling carnival in honour of the late Mandela.

According to Tee Mac, “we have some interesting stars coming for the event, but I think the coming of Stevie Wonder for the event further testifies to the power of Mandela name to draw the best in all areas even in death.

“Soon, we will come out with the list of all the

participants in the championship, which is a collaboration of the South African High Commission, American embassy and the Ultimate Wres-

tling and Charity Organization (TUWCO).

Meanwhile, Universal Professional Wrestling Federation’s (UPWF) world champion, Niger-

known as De Ultimate Commander, has gone into camp to prepare for the championship, which will see him facing some of the top wrestlers in the profession.

L-R. The General Manager, Unmissable Incentives Limited, organisers of the Nigerian Sports Award, Kayode Idowu;Award Panelist, Mr. Mitchel Obi, General Manager, Supersports West Africa, Felix Awogu, Award Panelist Ejiro Omonode and the Managing Director Keskese Limited Mr. Tade Adekunle during a courtesy visit by the Nigerian Sports Award panel members to Supersports in Lagos of Friday.

Martins MLS Goal of the Week

N

IGERIA striker Obafemi Martins has won the MLS Week 7 Goal of the Week.

The former Levante of

Spain striker became the second Seattle Sounders player to claim the AT&T MLS Goal of the Week award this season after

narrowly beating out Real Salt Lake’s Ned Grabavoy.

Martins earned a little more than 32 percent of the vote.

National Championship departed the country for Rwanda at the weekend to participate in a week-long football clinic featuring academy coaches and a club legend from Arsenal FC of England.

The six players, who will fly Nigeria’s flag at the one-week soccer clinic, include Rilwan Adeleke (Best Goal Keeper, Male), Olu Gabriel (Highest Goal Scorer, Male) and Wisdom Uforo (Most Valuable Player, Male).

Others are Augustina Boniface (Best Goal Keeper, Female), Falegon Joy (Highest Goal Scorer, Female) and Kafayat Shittu (MVP, Female).

The Arsenal Soccer Clinic will run from Monday, April 28 to Friday, May 2nd, 2014.

The Nigerian contingent will be joined at the football clinic by their counterparts from Ghana, Zambia, Uganda and the host country, Rwanda. While in Rwanda, they will be tutored by a team of UEFA-licenced coaches and football experts from the Arsenal youth development system who are expected to transfer their rich experience to the players.

Speaking about his prospects at the Clinic, Olu Gabriel, who incidentally will be travelling out of the country for the first time said the clinic will offer him the much needed exposure to improve as a player.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 61

C M Y K

62 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014 — 63

St Thomas Basic Schl. Edo wins NNPC/ Shell Cup Balogun Stadium, the 20 players pocketing

BY SOLOMON NWOKE

S

AINT Thomas Basic Secondary School Benin, Edo State has emerged the champions of the 2014 All Nigeria Secondary Schools Football Championship (NNPC/ Shell Cup).

The Edo state representative claimed the title they won last in 2003 after defeating their counterparts from Brightville College Ibadan, Oyo State by 43 via penalty shootout after playing a 2-2 draw in the regulation time in the final match played yesterday at the Teslim

Lagos St Thomas opened scores through Moses kalu in the 60th minute before Onyeji Abiye of Brightville College Ibadan equalized in the 72nd minute and took the lead four minute later through Eghosa Osaze. Edo state leveled scores in the 77th minute while Oyo state lost a controversial penalty that could have given them the victory at the dot of time.

St Thomas won the star prize of N2.5million as each of the 20 players got a cash prize of N50,000 while the runners-up got N1.5million with each of

Chelsea Continues from BP Steven Gerrard’s slip and Willian capped the win with a breakaway goal in stoppage time.

The result ends Liverpool’s 16-match unbeaten streak that had seen them march to the top of the table and means the title is no longer in their control.

Manchester City can draw level with them if they win their games in hand, while Chelsea are two points behind, within

touching distance should Brendan Rodgers’ side slip up again.

Blues boss Jose Mourinho had threatened to field a weakened team at Anfield ahead of his side’s Champions League semi-final second leg with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday but, helped by a disjointed Liverpool display, he produced another tactical masterclass to earn the points.

Oliseh Continues from BP plan well. We leave the planning ’until it is late,” Oliseh said.

Oliseh insisted that for his prediction to come true, “Africans need to learn how to start pressurizing the opponents.

Football has changed now. It’s no longer football where you pick individuals and expect them to do well.

“Now it’s more about team work, team dynamics, team schemes, things that are planned out like how to look at the opponent, how to bring about antidotes to the opponent’s playing star.

“When it comes to physical strength and bursts of speed, you can’t beat an African.

But what is lacking now is just that technical C M Y K

and tactical know-how.

Then we’ll get it,” observed the former Cologne and Borussia Dortmund player.

Oliseh who is a member of FIFA’s Study Group, believes that the Nigerian senior national team, the Super Eagles will do well at Brazil 2014 although would not be drawn into predicting if the team led by former teammate, Stephen Keshi, will win the cup.

He admitted that his 1994 Super Eagles generation was blessed with so many individually talented stars.

Oliseh’s World Cup days may be long past after retiring from the game in 2006, but come June and July he will be watching events in Brazil with avid interest.

N45,000.

Government Model School, Kontagora , Niger State placed third while, Dangogo Secondary School , Bungudu, Zamfara State finished fourth.

10 students from the participating schools were awarded scholarships for distinguishing themselves in the tourney.

Among the beneficiaries were Lucky Johnson from Niger State,Sheriff kazeem from Oyo, Abdul Abdulmuminu, Niger state, Emmanuel Ode, Zamfara and Sadiq Tajudeen from Oyo. The rest were ;Eghosa Osaze, Suleiman Mohammed, kehinde Kehinde, Oyo; Bashiru Shehu, Zamfara anmd Moses Kalu from Edo state.

•Mourinho

Afcon 2015 Continues from BP the 17th of January to the 8th of February 2015, and the four groups will be based in Marrakech, Agadir, Rabat and Tangier.

South Africa were drawn from Pot Two in the draw, alongside Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde, Togo, Egypt and Cameroon.

Pot One was made up of Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Tunisia.

Pot Three included the DRC, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Senegal and Sudan.

The seven teams for Pot Four first have to make it through a preliminary round, which was also drawn on the day.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014

EPL Top Five No. Team 1 Liverpool 2 Chelsea 3 Man City 4 Arsenal 5 Everton

GP 36 36 35 35 36

W 25 24 24 21 20

D 5 6 5 7 9

L 6 6 6 7 7

GF 96 69 93 62 57

GA 46 26 35 41 36

GD 50 43 58 21 21

PTS 80 78 77 70 69

England - Premier League

Africa can win World Cup —Oliseh

Hellas Verona Caglian Livorno Sampdoria Torino

4-0 0-2 0-2

Augsburg Schalke 04

Cardiff City Chelsea Manchester City

Italy - Serie A 4-0 1-0 0-2 2-1 2-0

Spain

Espanyol Valencia

F

ORMER Nigeria international, Sunday Oliseh has predicted that an African country will eventually win the FIFA World Cup if the right things like preparation and execution of plans are right.

Speaking on Cable News Network (CNN’s) Human to Hero series, the 39-year-old ex midfielder, said that poor and late preparations for the football showpiece has always been problems for teams from the continent.

“I think an African country will eventually win the World Cup. What is lacking now, it’s simple to say … what is wrong is that we don’t Continued on Page 63

Sunderland Liverpool Crystal Palace

1-2 0-1

Catania Parma Lazio Chievo Verona Udinese Almeria Atletico Madrid

Germany - Bundesliga 3-1 0-0

Hamburger SV Monchengladbach

Afcon 2015 qualifiers:

Super Eagles draw Bafana, Sudan

T

BLUE HEAVEN: John Obi Mikel celebrates in front of the Liverpool supporters after Demba Ba’s first half opener yesterday

HE Super Eagles have been drawn against perennial rivals Bafana Bafana of South Africa in Group A of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

One of Namibia, Congo Brazzaville, CHAN champions Libya, or Rwanda, will join them

Chelsea win dents Liverpool title hope C

HELSEA blew open the race for the Premier League title

by ending leaders Liverpool’s 11-game winning streak with a

deserved victory at Anfield.

Demba Ba gave the

Blues the lead at the end of the first half after Continued on Page 63

in Group A, with the top two teams in each group going to the Finals.

The six group games will be played between September 5 and November 19, 2014.

The draw for the final round of qualifiers for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations - Morocco 2015 was held on Sunday afternoon at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo.

The Finals, in Morocco, will be played from Continued on Page 63

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS DOWN 4 Fun (5) 1 Evaluate (6) 7 Hit (6) 2 Colonnade (6) 9 Dog (3) 3 Deed (3) 10 Number (3) 4 Certain (4) 12 Firearm (5) 5 Conceit (5) 13 Cheese (4) 6 Demote (8) 15 Sat (5) 8 Retained (4) 17 Percolate (6) 11 Silent (9) 19 Border (4) 14 Object (4) 20 View (5) 16 Aperture (4) 22 Drunkard (3) 18 Observed (4) 24 Erased (7) 21 Stuck (8) 27 Nothing (3) 23 Rip (4) 28 Helped (5) 25 Ancestry (4) 31 Muddle (4) 26 Expired (4) 33 Closer (6) 29 Forced (6) 35 Ridge (5) 30 Shortage (6) 37 Prima-donna (4) 32 Fragment (5) 38 Stock (5) 34 Particle (4) 39 Broadcast (3) 36 Repose (4) 41 Serpent (3) 40 Gained (3) 42 Pester (6) 43 Skilful (5)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Better 5, Sudden 8, Endanger 9, Rate 10, His 12, Wedge 15, Rat 17, Pea 18, Axe 19, Ire 20, Treat 21, All 22, Arc 23, End 24, Tor 26, Human 29, Yap 33, Idle 34, Thorough 35, Crater 36, Temper.

DOWN: 2, Ennui 3, Team 4, Rogue 5, Sprig 6, Dirt 7, Extra 10, Hoist 11, Spear 12, Watch 13, Dream 14, Eaten 15, Ready 16, Tulip 25, Order 27, Utter 28, About 30, Angle 31, Sent 32, Room.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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