FG Apologises to Nigerians over Poor Power Supply, Blames Vandals

Transcription

Adeosun at Customs, Laments Poor State of Equipment
N20 billion needed for overhaul, says Comptroller-General
Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
The federal government is
to embark on total overhaul
of equipment being used by
the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS) at the nation’s airports
as part of efforts to enhance
its performance and increase
revenue generation.
Minister of Finance, Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun, made the
pledge yesterday during a
one-day inspection of Customs
facilities at the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport, Abuja.
Adeosun noted that the
reduction in revenue generated
by the Customs was due to
the use of outdated equipment.
She also faulted the absence
of modern container scanning
equipment at the nation’s
airports, seaports and land
borders, pointing out that
one of the major means of
detecting contraband goods
at these borders was through
the deployment of container
scanners.
The minister, who was accompanied by the Comptroller
General of Customs, Col.
Hammed Ali (rtd), restated
federal government’s determination to boost revenue through
the provision of enabling tools
and equipment that will aid
the various revenue agencies
in the discharge of their duties.
According to her, the use of
obsolete equipment negatively
impacts revenue collected by
the agencies and promotes inefficiency, and pledged to ensure
that all outdated equipment
Continued on page 8
Saraki Challenges Powers of Tribunal, Attorney General to Try Him ...Page 8
Saturday 12 March, 2016
Vol 21. No 7626 Price: N150
www.thisdaylive.com
TR
UT H
& RE A S O
N
Army Kills Another Most Wanted Boko Haram Member
Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The military has killed another
wanted Boko Haram member
on the list of the 100 terrorists’ leaders wanted by the
Nigerian army and other
security agencies in the ongoing
counter-terrorism and counterinsurgency operations in the
North-east.
The Director of Army Public
Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, confirmed the development
in a statement yesterday, saying
the troops shot the suspect
during exchange of gunfire
in Baga axis of Borno State.
Usman said: “The troops of
7 Multinational Joint Task Force
(MNJTF) Brigade Quick Response Group (QRG) stationed
in Baga and 118 Task Force
Battalion, sprang an ambush
along Daban Masara axis used
by Boko Haram terrorists to
convey logistics.
“One of the wanted Boko
Haram terrorists’ leaders who
is on the first Nigerian Army
wanted list of 100 Boko Haram
terrorists’ leaders (serial number
95) was fatally wounded in the
exchange of fire.
He said that the suspect
later gave up while receiving
medical attention at the base,
while other members of his team
escaped with gunshot wounds.
The troops recovered seven Jerri
cans of 30 litres containing 210
liters of Premium Motor Spirit
(PMS), motorcycles and food
stuff in addition to arms and
ammunitions.
The Chief of Army Staff
(COAS), Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai,
had two weeks ago in Damboa,
Borno State, released another
list of 100 suspected members
of the terrorist sect, wanted for
various act of terrorism in the
country.
This was a follow up to
the first set of 100 suspected
members of the sect, wanted
by the Nigerian state, which
was published last year.
Buratai had appealed to
the public to come out with
information that would assist
in the arrest of terrorists, adding that many terrorists in the
first list of 100 wanted were
identified and arrested.
He also said that the new list
of 100 suspected terrorists is
for the members of the public
to identify and report their
whereabouts so that they could
be brought to justice.
FG Apologises to Nigerians over
Poor Power Supply, Blames Vandals
KAVITA CHELLARAMS
The Secret of My
Ageless Look
Iyobosa Uwugiaren in Abuja
The federal government has
apologised to Nigerians for
the hardship, which the poor
power situation in the country
has imposed on them in the
last few months, blaming the
prevailing situation on gas
failure, sabotage and vandalisation of power infrastructure.
In a statement issued in
Abuja yesterday, the Minister
of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said
all efforts were being made to
rectify the situation and ensure
a gradual improvement in the
power situation.
''There will be a decent
improvement in the power
situation from this weekend,
thanks to on-going remedial
efforts that will double the current power supply to 4,000WM.
Getting back to the 5,074MW
all-time high that was reached
earlier will take a few more
weeks,'' he said.
Mohammed said the routine
maintenance by the Nigeria Gas
Company had affected the supply of gas to power stations,
forcing down power supply
Continued on page 8
SuperSaturday pg. 6
FLORENCE ITA-GIWA
I'm Still Hoping to Find the
Right Man to Spend the
Rest of My Life With
Plus pg. 17
YOU HAVE OUR FULL SUPPORT...
R-L: President Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Envoy of Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
(SADR), Muhamed Salem Envoy Ould Salek and Ambassador of SADR to Nigeria, Mr. Oubi Bachir during an audience at
the State House, Abuja ...yesterday
State House
2
SATURDAY MARCH 12, 2016 T H I S D AY
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T H I S D AY SATURDAY MARCH 12, 2016
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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • MARCH 12, 2016
SUPER SATURDAY
Kavita Chellarams
The Secret of My Ageless Look
Her taste for arts is top-notch – vintage. She thinks global and acts local. Hard-working, passionate and astute,
she has turned Nigeria’s modest arts collection into a money-spinning enterprise that raked in at least N1 billion
in the last eight years. That is no mean feat. A collector of artworks for almost 40 decades, Kavita Chellarams
stuns in beauty, brain and brand. Her personal art items are both exciting and exotic and she brings that exquisite
taste to her exhibitions and auctions. Kavita exudes class and a rich sense of simplicity; a graceful grandmother,
studious and energetic. With her charms, Mrs. Chellarams has brought global acclaim to Nigeria’s uniquely rich
arts. In this interview with Omolola Itayemi, she reveals Nigeria’s robust depth of artistry and the wizardry of
Nigerian artists; Kavita also talks about the buzz Nigerian artworks are generating home and abroad and the
growing desire of people towards arts. With sparkles in her ageless face, she also speaks on the happiness of
being a grandmother for the first time and the delight of being with her grandchildren
I Was Very Excited to Become a Grandmother
I Started Arts Collection as a Hobby in 1977
A
s the CEO of Arthouse,
what is one of your main
achievements?
We have brought the
world’s attention to the
Nigerian art market and as
an organisation we have
sold more than N1 billion
worth of artworks in the last eight years.
It is not an easy task to achieve this figure
in a country where more than half of its
population lives on less than two dollars
a day.
Your journey into art collection, can
it be described as a happenstance?
Not exactly; it started as a hobby in 1977
shortly before I got married. I went for
an exhibition and was awed by the sheer
beauty of the pieces she saw. Thereafter,
my taste for art collection grew till I had
more than a handful of artworks from
different artists. Yes, it has been a journey.
We had built this wall and we have had
to fill it up with paintings and that is how
the whole thing started. We first started
by bringing it here, then when the values
went up we started collecting after that.
In those days, we went to shows, artist’s
studios; they had exhibitions and we
brought works straight from the studios.
At the time, there wasn’t enough showcasing of arts in Nigeria. So, that was how it
came about setting up an art house.
So issues you had with different
prices of the works you wanted to
acquire led you to start a pioneer
auction house in Nigeria?
You go to one gallery; there is a different
price from the other. They didn’t really
know what the value was. What the
auction did was to establish a value for
each artist. The catalogues that we produce
are like a journey which has the estimated
price of the artist. The auction determines
what the true value is, depending on how
many you want to build; what they feel
the value is. So, there is a benchmark now.
Now you can confidently tell someone
what your price is. It encourages the artist
to work harder, to do better works and to
achieve better prices.
Kavita
What’s the vision behind the establishment of Arthouse?
Contemporary art is to have a platform
where African arts can be seen worldwide.
We have the Internet, the computer, where
we can expose African art to the world,
which has not been done before. So, it
is really the first time that Nigerian art
was put on an international platform and
offered to an international audience. Also,
a transparency price and getting artists
aware that there is a medium they can
sell through. We originally started off with
a very small secondary market but with
the added interest of prices going up.
The secondary market woke up and said
I have got some value for my work and
there was a platform where you can sell it.
I have discovered over the years that when
you have a work and you do not like it
anymore (want to dispose it) and want to
buy something else you need only to go
to the gallery where you can buy modern
art and there was no platform where you
could sell it. So, this is creating a platform
where there is value to a work and you
could sell it. What you bought for N500 is
now worth a million Naira or more.
Is it safe to describe your interest in
African art as modern and contemporary?
Modern, basically, because the art scene
has only been in this country for about 100
years; otherwise art was basically tribal,
sculptures. Paintings were done on wall
dwelling of homes. This was the first time
that they used canvas as a medium, which
was broadened by the British. Art especially in auctions thrive on authenticity.
Is it practised here?
There is authenticity, in the sense that
you always know somebody who knows
the artist. We located an old artist, his
families, his immediate families; they can
say what their father did and what he
didn’t do. We can get authentication from
the family. You know that you don’t have
fake and have a lot of people that can
assist you. It is more international for tribal
art, am not a professional but I love it and
am buying a lot of it now.
Your private collection boasts of
more than 400 works; do you have any
favourites?
Among the collection, my favourites
are many. The modern artists have been
doing good jobs. For modern, it is Chris
Anyanwu; for contemporary, Professor
Kolade Oshinowo. We are having a show
in February next year that will include
Uche Okeke and Kolade Oshinowo. I have
had great times with them. We represent
African artists in diaspora at Arthouse.
How easy is it sourcing for art
consignments for the auction?
It has not been easy. We like to have a
nice mix between modern and contempo-
7
SUPER SATURDAY
My Arthouse Has Brought Global Attention to Nigeria’s Art Market...
Kavita Chellarams with her grand-children
Kavita
rary. We always look at the best work of every artist. A lot
come through the selection process. We have a jury who
sit down and choose for the next auction. If we don’t have
the right mix, we know we have to look for a better one
or an old artist. We get few masterpieces: 10, 15 or 20 and
get the rest of the works. Now, artists want them resold
by collectors. There are a lot of works that are coming
to us to be resold. Works of 1950s, 1960s and 1980s are
recycled. Some people have not heard of the collection. It
could be that the value of the works has gone up and so,
people get tempted by the money. The artists also come
with their bet works to show. So, we are really getting a
lot more.
What are the challenges?
The challenges have been finding the right location,
traffic, especially modern and contemporary as you want
to start on time and you find it difficult because of traffic.
Otherwise, everyone has been very helpful. Everyone has
been very active. They have been able to find us works,
show us works. We are really lucky in this. I have had
wonderful assistance right from the beginning. We work
a lot as a team and we have team efforts. We are all
dedicated to the work and it is exciting.
Do you have any expansion for now?
Lagos is a medium. A lot of people are here and more
of the collectors are here as well than in Port Harcourt
or Abuja. We have been thinking of Abuja. Maybe next
year, we can do it. We get across to people interested
in the works online. We are on a lot of websites. We
send catalogues to our clients. So, it is open. We go to
organisations that do advertisements for people. You can
do it through telephones. We are thinking of going online.
Next auction we will go online and it will give us a larger
audience. So that people can open the computer anywhere
and see it. We have a lot of our clients abroad.
So more people are coming into the Nigerian art
space, making it possible for more interesting exhibitions to hold?
It is just an idea that we have to showcase artists and
there weren’t many spaces. But now, a lot of people
have opened up. There were five shows that opened on
a single Friday last year. I couldn’t believe Lagos had
such incredible, vibrant art spaces. The more people are
growing into it, the better. I think this is a way and a
means of showcasing one artist. In the auction we have so
many that we do. This way we have various works and
we are going to be representing them. Our first is George
Oshodi, who is a very renowned photographer. Here we
show five or six of his works, so that people can get to
see and understand the kind of works that he does. This
is to show (what) we had done in Lagos, Calabar. We had
huge turnout, we had many people at the exhibition. We
had three prints and it’s a photograph; an edition of three,
five or 10.
One of them, we sold all three and all five. After this,
there can’t be another one. If he does, it’s a different angle
and a different work. We don’t have a permanent space.
We use a pop-up space, which are large showrooms with
a lot of spaces. A lot of people stop to see the works.
People are used to buying painting. There are so many
African photographers and Ojekure is one of the old
photographers we featured; he died last year and Malik.
It is quite a recognised medium abroad and we are
showcasing work of art and make people know this is a
medium that is used now and people are valuing it much
as the others.
What is the next step for Arthouse?
We did Art 14 this year. Next year we plan to do it
(again) but we are not sure where we want to do it. Most
probably in the UK. We have got a line-up of shows. A
documentary, we have got many artists to do that. It is
important to first brand oneself here and have the market
here. We need to grow and expand here before going
abroad.
Are you looking at increasing the frequency and
why is it twice a year?
No. It is six months’ gaps and it takes us that long
to find the works. It is a way to prepare for it. We do
write-ups and we do the catalogues. All works must have
come to us a month before the auction. We have the time
to get the catalogues.
How is the local market?
Every month we get a lot. Some old ones cleave and
new ones come. There are a lot of people that now realise
that art is an investment. You can buy works and three to
five years later and the value can double. It gives you joy
as it is increasing in value. So, it is an investment. You can
sell it when you want to and get a large price. You can
keep it for years. You can see your money growing.
Using the works as collateral to get loans from
banks is not something done. So, with your relationship with Standard Chartered Bank, do you intend to
educate them?
No, we haven’t looked at that as being collateral. Health
insurance scheme is what we are trying to do, which has
been on in Nigeria today. We are looking at selling works
and putting some of the proceeds into health insurance
scheme. We have a couple of meetings and it is in progress. So, next year, we hope this comes to light.
Do you think collectors can use their collections as
collateral to get loans?
I think you can do it abroad but here, what you can do
is collecting and selling. I am not sure what the banks will
feel on that angle. Maybe in the future, it could be done.
What is the secret behind your ageless look?
Being happy; keeping busy; working hard and living
healthy. I drink juice every day, which gives me all the
vegetables I need.
How are you faring with your grandchildren?
It has been fantastic. I don’t have to wake up in the
morning, worrying about school and looking after them.
This is a job that’s pleasurable and seeing them gives me
that joy. Also, spending time with them gives me joy and
hope that what I give them are words of wisdom, love
and confidence.
How did you feel when you heard news of the
birth of your first grandchild?
I was in London and I felt very excited. I was there
with her. She was about 35 or 34 years old. It is a new
dimension but I realise how one’s roles in life change
but one remains the same person. First, one is a girl; one
grows up to become a woman and then a wife; a mother
and then a grandmother, then a great-grandmother. The
role changes each time but one remains the same person.
How do you relax?
I read; I go to the beach and I rest my body. I love
listening to music, reading and exercising. Being with my
family and children are the most pleasurable time I spend.
Eating good food too is very relaxing for me.
Though Now a Grandmother, My
Personality Has Not Changed
T H I S D AY, T H E S AT U R D AY N E W S PA P E R •SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2016
8
PAGE EIGHT
Saraki Challenges Powers of Tribunal, Attorney General
to Try Him
Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Senate President, Bukola
Saraki, facing trial for alleged
false assets declaration while
in office as governor of Kwara
State has filed a new motion
challenging the jurisdiction of
the court to hear the matter
and the power of the Attorney
General of the Federation to
initiate the charge.
At the resumed trial at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal
(CCT) sitting in Abuja, Saraki’s
new counsel, Kanu Agabi
SAN told the tribunal that
he had filed a new motion
and that the motion should
be heard and determined by
the tribunal before going to
the main business of the day.
He submitted that “a party
is entitled to be heard no
matter how weak or feeble
his argument may be.”
According to him, the
defence had earlier served
the Ministry of Justice with
the notice of the motion and
it was pertinent for the motion to be heard first before
anything else.
However, counsel to the
federal government, Rotimi
Jacobs SAN objected saying he
was not aware of the motion,
adding that the defence did
not serve him. He therefore
urged the court to proceed
with the day’s business.
While stating that the
move was aimed at scuttling
the trial so that the matter
would not go on as planned,
Jacobs told the tribunal that
a motion was earlier filed by
the defence challenging the
jurisdiction of the tribunal and
was resolved at the Supreme
Court which upheld the ruling
of the tribunal.
He stated that counsel to
the defendant was aware that
he was the prosecutor in the
matter but did not serve him
and went ahead to serve the
Ministry of Justice.
Jacobs claimed that when
the defence counsel sought
for an adjournment from 10
to 11 March for the trial of
the case, they served him and
wondered why they refused
to serve him with the motion.
Jacobs insisted that he would
have to make an enquiry from
the ministry to authenticate
the claims of the defence and
urged the tribunal to carry
on with the day’s business.
“Until there is a proof of
service, the motion is not ripe
for hearing. We can continue
with the business of the day,”
argued Jacobs.
Responding, Agabi apologised to the prosecution for
failing to serve him with
the notice claiming that the
mistake was due to the fact
that he was new to the case.
However, he urged the court
to hear the motion claiming
that the ministry was not only
served but received the notice
from the defence, which was
a proof of service.
The tribunal however accepted the motion and after
due consultation with counsel,
the trial judge, Justice Umar
Danladi adjourned till March18
to rule on the motion as well
as the commencement of the
substantive suit.
Nollywood Star, Ibinabo Loses Appeal against 5-Year
Jail Sentence for Manslaughter
Davidson Iriekpen
Nollywood actress, Ibinabo
Fiberesima was yesterday
arrested following the dismissal
of her appeal by the Court
of Appeal Lagos Division
challenging the judgment of
a Lagos High Court which
sentenced her to five years
imprisonment for the death
of one Dr. Giwa Suraj.
The embattled actress and
former beauty queen was
sentenced to five years imprisonment by Justice Deborah
Oluwayemi for reckless driving
which caused the death of one
Dr. Giwa Suraj in an auto
accident along the Lekki-Epe
expressway, Lagos.
The deceased was a staff of
one of Lagos state’s hospitals.
Dissatisfied, Fiberesima in
her amended appellant brief
filed by her lawyer, Nnaemeka
Amaechina urged the court to
set aside the five year sentence
and restore the decision of the
Magistrate Court.
But, delivering judgment
yesterday, the appellate court
dismissed the appeal and
affirmed the decision of the
Lagos High Court.
In a unanimous decision
delivered by Justice Jamilu
Yammama Tukur, the court
held that the trial Magistrate
Court lacked the discretion to
grant Ibinabo option of fine
having been convicted.
The court further held that
the appeal lacks merit and
thereby dismissed it accordingly.
Other members of the panel
are Justice U.I. Ndukwe-Anyanwu (presiding) and Justice
Tijani Abubakar respectively.
Immediately, the judgment
was delivered, Ibinabo who was
visibly apprehensive throughout
the proceeding burst into tears
and wept profusely.
The court had earlier ordered
that the appellant, Fiberesima, to
appear before it when judgment
would be delivered.
Speaking on the judgment, her lawyer, Nnaemeka
Amaechina, said the judgment
would be challenged at the
Supreme Court adding that
a notice of appeal had been
filed already.
Fiberesima had earlier been
awarded a N100,000 fine by an
Igbosere Magistrate’s Court, but
the then Lagos State AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner of
justice, Supo Shasore (SAN), felt
unsatisfied with the judgment.
This prompted the state
government to take its case
to the Lagos High Court.
At the Lagos high court,
Justice Oluwayemi set aside
the option of fine imposed
by the Magistrate’s Court
and sentenced Fiberesima to
five years imprisonment for
dangerous and reckless driving.
In her judgment, Justice
Oluwayemi held that the trial
Magistrate exercised judicial
recklessness when he gave
the convict an option of fine.
The court held that the
option of N100,000 given to
the convict did not serve the
purpose of justice in the matter
and subsequently ordered that
the N100,000 should be returned
to Ibinabo Fiberesima.
The court added that Section
28 of the Road Traffic Law
clearly provides that where
a reckless and dangerous
driving has caused the death
of a person, the accused person
shall be guilty of an offence
and is liable on conviction to
imprisonment of seven years.
Dissatisfied, Fiberesima in
her amended appellant brief
filed by her lawyer, Nnaemeka
Amaechina before the Court
of Appeal urged the court to
set aside the five year sentence
and restore the decision of the
Magistrate Court.
Amaechina had argued that
the Magistrate’s Court exercised
its discretion properly and there
was no ground to review it by
the high court.
He submitted that by virtue
of the Notice of Increased in
Jurisdiction of Magistrates, No.
7 of 2006, the trial Magistrate
could only impose a maximum
of seven years imprisonment
or N100,000 fine.
He added that N100,000 fine
is the maximum limit the trial
Magistrate can impose as fine
and that was what it imposed
on the appellant.
In her response, counsel
to Lagos State, Rotimi Odutola (Mrs.) argued that the
law creating the offence of
dangerous driving causing
death has provided for a term
of imprisonment as punishment for anyone convicted
under section 28 hence the
trial Magistrate ought not to
exercise such arbitrary discretion
to impose N100,000 as fine.
Odutola further submitted
that the children of the deceased
have been permanently deprived of the ‘’measureless
contributions’’ of their father
to their lives as a result of his
death caused by the appellant.
She urged the court to
uphold the judgment of the
Lagos High Court and dismiss
the appeal. The Commissioner
of Police, Lagos State Command had in 2005 charged the
ex-beauty queen (Fiberesima)
to the magistrate court on a
two-count charge of dangerous
and reckless driving along Epe
Expressway, Lagos which
resulted to the death of Dr.
Giwa Suraj.
Agatu: Mark Escapes Death as Fulani Herdsmen Ambush Convoy
Death toll exaggerated -IGP
George Okoh in Makurdi
and Laleye dipo Minna
Former Senate President, David
Mark, still smarting from victory
at the rerun polls yesterday
escaped death during a visit to
Agatu Local Government Area
of Benue State currently under
siege by Fulani herdsmen where
he went to ascertain the level of
destruction caused by the recent
attack by the herdsmen almost
turned sour as his convoy was
greeted with a hail of bullets.
Mark who was in company of
the former minister of Interior,
Comrade Abba Moro, member
House of Representatives
Ohimini/Otukpo, Honourable
Ezekiel Adaji, security aides,
newsmen and party supporters
were however unhurt as a rapid
response from security men on
the convoy warded off the attack
in Akwu community.
The incident caused a huge
commotion as the herdsmen
were seen taking off with their
ALL FOR WOMEN...
L-R: Former Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan; Chairperson, Better Life
Programme, Hajiya Aisha Babangida; Chief Executive Officer, Internet Solution, Mr. Olusola
Teniola; and APC South-west Woman Leader, Chief Mrs. Kemi Nelson, at the International
Women's Day held at Civic Centre, Lagos ...recently
herds while members of the
convoy disembarked and
headed in the other direction
before the intervention.
However, Senator Mark went
through the eight communities
affected including Aila, Akwu,
Okokolo, Adagbo, Akwu,
Ogboju and Odugbeho which
are completely destroyed by
Fulani herdsmen.
Mark who regretted the
level of carnage assured the
people that he would ensure
such situations did not occur
again.
He called on the people to go
about their businesses peacefully,
adding that the perpetrators
of the act would be brought
to book through legal means
One of the youth leaders,
Michael who spoke at Aila
lamented the porous security
in Agatu local government and
angrily told the former senate
president to tell the president
to remove the soldiers as “we
are competent now to defend
ourselves”.
Also the youths in all the
communities accused the Benue
FG APOLOGISES TO NIGERIANS OVER POOR POWER SUPPLY; BLAMES VANDALS
from an all-time high of 5,074
MW to about 4,000MW and
that a combination of unsavoury
incidents further crashed the
power supply to about half
that figure.
He added: ''The vandalisation
of the Forcados export pipelines
forced oil companies to shut
down, making it impossible
for them to produce gas. Then,
workers at the Ikeja Discos, who
were protesting the disengage-
ment of some of their colleagues
after they failed the company's
competency test, apparently
colluded with the National
Transmission Station in Osogbo
to shut down transmission.
''Finally, the unfortunate strike
by the unions at the NNPC,
over the restructuring of the
Corporation, shut down the
Itarogun Power Station, the
biggest in the country. Due to
these factors, only 13 out of the
24 power stations in the country
are currently functioning. It is
this same kind of unsavoury
situation that has affected fuel
supply and subjected Nigerians
to untold hardship,'' he said.
The minister strongly condemned the situation in which
some Nigerians, under the guise
of the various unions in the oil
and gas sector or sheer vandalisation, would continuously
sabotage the country's power
infrastructure.
''The bitter truth is that for as
long as these groups of Nigerians continue to sabotage the
power infrastructure, Nigerians
cannot enjoy a decent level of
power supply. We therefore
admonish all Nigerians who
may be agitating for their rights
in whatever form to refrain from
any action that will further hurt
the same people they claim to
be protecting,'' he said.
State Governor, Chief Samuel
Ortom and the Inspector General
of Police Solomon Arase of not
visiting the affected areas to see
things for themselves adding
that when the deputy governor,
Mr. Benson Abounu visited, he
only stopped at Apa where the
displaced persons were camped.
But Mark appealed to the
youths to maintain peace and be
law abiding as he promised to
convey what he had seen to the
government for prompt action
Inspector General of Police,
Solomon Arase has said that the
number of people said to have
been killed during the recent
clash between the Agatu’s of
Benue State and their Fulani
counterparts had been over
exaggerated.
In the clash the Agatus had
claimed that 300 of their people
including children and pregnant
women were killed by the Fulani
herdsmen. 7,000 others were
said to have been displaced.
The battle between the Fulanis
and the Agatus was said to have
started after 10,000 heads of
cattle belonging to the Fulanis
were reportedly killed.
Addressing Stakeholders
during a visit to Minna, the
Niger state capital, the Mr. Arase
said "I was around, I travelled
to Makurdi, I did not see where
300 people were buried."
"If you kill, you don't just
bury; you must take the corpse
to the Police station before you
bury, we don't have that number
of people". He however did not
give the official casualty figure.
Mr. Arase said the Police
High command had completed
arrangements to check the
incidence of cattle rustling
around the country, adding
that the Police would next
week start what he called
'Metro patrol' designed to
arrest cattle rustlers.
Under the programme motorized policemen would patrol
the nook and crannies of the
country purposely to fish out
cattle rustlers and apprehend
and prosecute them.
ADEOSUN AT CUSTOMS, LAMENTS POOR STATE OF EQUIPMENT
currently being used by the
Customs were overhauled and
modern ones deployed in line
with international best practices.
She said the use of modern
equipment would promote
trade facilitation and increase
the revenue generating capacity
of Customs.
In his remarks, Ali said the
equipment needed for the
nation’s international airports
would cost N20 billion.
He said the Customs will
soon meet with the minister
to discuss the funding requirement of the NCS in details and
expressed the hope that with
the support of the minister, the
problem would be addressed.
The NCS had recorded a
revenue shortfall of N44 billion
in the first nine months of 2015.
It was revealed that the
Customs
generated
approximately N668.97 billion
as revenue between January
and September 2015 as against
N713 billion generated within
the same period 2014.
9
MARCH 12, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER
RingTrue
Yemi
Adebowale
Playing Politics with Treasury Single Account
07013940521 [email protected]
T
he decision of the Buhari
administration to commence
the implementation of the
Treasury Single Account
(TSA) is commendable. The
Jonathan administration that
initiated the project could not
fully implement it until it left
office. The TSA is intended to effectively
and efficiently monitor the revenue and
expenditures of ministries, departments
and agencies of the federal government
and reduce corruption. It is also meant to
prevent the MDAs from spending money
on ludicrous projects. According to the
Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, transfers
into the TSA, as at last week Thursday
had peaked at about N2.9 trillion. She also
disclosed that the federal government
had only recently opened up the TSA for
agencies’ access, and that the universities
are yet to have access to their monies in the
account. The federal government has been
celebrating this. As laudable as the implementation is, it has had its drawback. I have
strong reservations about the implementation of the TSA so far. I think Nigerians are
being deceived to think that padlocking
the money is progress. They tell those who
don’t understand the technicalities of the
TSA that the nation now has such a huge
amount of money in the TSA. Money remitted into the TSA is not operating profits of
the MDAs and should not be locked up.
The MDAs are expected to use their money
in the TSA to fund their operations. Many
even take grants from the government
to augment this revenue. Of course, with
strict monitoring, some of them will end up
with surplus at the end of the financial year.
It is only such surplus that is transferred to
the federation account. This is what can be
regarded as operating profit, to be shared
by all tiers of government.
Ordinarily, the TSA is never steady, as
money goes in and out of it for the daily
operations of the MDAs. But what this
administration did for many months was
to completely deny the MDAs access to
the TSA. The money in the TSA is rising
while the economy suffers. As a result of
the restriction on the TSA, activities of most
departments and agencies have almost
been grounded. For example, because of
the restrictions, the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Federal Airport Authority of
Nigeria are struggling to maintain their
facilities. The federal government-owned
Much as I agree that
the TSA will help to
curb corruption in
the MDAs, it should
not be used to
strangulate them.
There is an urgent
need to judiciously
free the trillions in
the TSA to reflate our
economy
Adeosun
higher institutions are also badly affected
as the schools struggle to function properly.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is also struggling with the
importation of petroleum products because
of the TSA restrictions.
The truth that must be told is that over
4000 MDAs are gasping for breath because
of the restrictions on their revenue in
the TSA. This policy that was adopted
ostensibly to ensure transparency and
avoid misapplication of public funds, now
constitutes a clog in the wheel of progress
of these MDAs. With a collapse of many
department and agencies imminent, what
the government did last week was to allow
the MDAs limited access to their money in
the TSA. As at the time of going to press,
federal universities, polytechnics and
colleges of education still don’t have access
to their funds in the TSA. These institutions
are wringing. They are finding it difficult
discharging their core responsibilities of
teaching and research. Just as the Academic
Staff Union of Universities pointed out
recently, our higher institutions have no
business with TSA. It will only compound
the woes of these tattered schools. Dr Nasir
Isa, President of ASUU recently stated:
“TSA has made it difficult for the universi-
MTNN and the War against Boko Haram
I still can’t understand how President
Buhari came about his recent conclusion
that MTN Nigeria was fueling the Boko
Haram sect. He did not back this statement with any empirical evidence other
than alleging that the company failed to
disconnect unregistered subscribers. On
the contrary, this telecoms firm has been
an ally in the war against Boko Haram.
The Nigerian military can testify to the
co-operation of MTN in this regard. At a
point, MTNN had to disable its masts and
base stations in many parts of the Northeast in conformity with the directives of
the military to curb the terrorists’ activities. MTNN subsequently suffered severe
setback on its infrastructure occasioned
by reprisal attacks by the sect. The firm
lost huge revenue but still viewed it as
a worthy sacrifice required to support a
much weightier cause- the sanctity of life
and security of the Nigerian people.
A country in search of foreign investors
should not go about maligning a key investor that has persistently demonstrated
a strong commitment to the Nigerian
nation. That was what our president did
this week. I hope this dispute with MTNN
will be laid to rest in a couple of days. Our
economy can’t afford this unnecessary
bickering. MTNN has been a very good
corporate citizen of Nigeria in terms of
payment of taxes, job creation and respect
for our laws. The facts are all over Nigeria.
The More Kachikwu Talks, the Less We Understand
Our Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, Ibe Kachikwu should do less
of talking and more of action. The more
he talks, the less we understand and the
more the negative outcome. Nigerians are
going through hell at petrol stations across
the country. This crisis is becoming too
frequent. Kachikwu should sit down and
spend quality time addressing this crisis.
The last two weeks have been horrendous
and we are tired of his stories. The other
day, he was all over celebrating the so-called
resumption of production by the refineries. Suddenly, everything crashed. The
ordinary Nigerians have no business with
his so-called restructuring of the NNPC.
We are not interested in his trips abroad to
lobby Arab countries for production cuts.
We simply want to drive into petrol stations,
buy fuel and face our businesses.
ties to discharge their duties, especially
in research. TSA is incompatible with the
autonomy of universities.”
What has been the impact of the TSA on
the economy? What has been the impact
of this huge amount of money locked up?
The truth is that it has exacerbated our
economic woes. The money that should
be used to reflate our battered economy
is locked up in the vault of the Central
Bank of Nigeria. This is one of the many
reasons our economy is bleeding. Just
imagine the multiplier effect of about
N3 trillion on the economy if the MDAS
are operating maximally with their money
in the TSA. Our MDAs are failing and all
nonsensical restrictions on the TSA must be
removed so that they can operate optimally.
This talk about so much money in the TSA
is bogus and must stop. It is just like a man
whose family is struggling to get a meal a
day, but goes about bragging that he has
millions of Naira in the bank. Much as I
agree that the TSA will help to curb corruption in the MDAs, it should not be used to
strangulate them. There is an urgent need
to judiciously free the trillions in the TSA to
reflate our economy.
That Invasion of Ekiti Assembly
There is an urgent need to curb the
excesses of the Department of State
Services (DSS) in the interest of our
democracy. The recent invasion of
the Ekiti State House of Assembly
and abduction of four lawmakers is a
monstrosity that must be condemned
by all lovers of democracy. The lawgivers were abducted and ferried to
Abuja like criminals. Nine days after
the arrest, the DSS is yet to tell the
nation the offences committed by the
abducted lawmakers. They have also
been held beyond the legally allowed
48 hours, without being charged. This
gives credence to speculations that the
intention of the DSS is to intimidate
the abducted legislators into moving
against Governor Ayodele Fayose
who has been very critical of the
Buhari administration. That was how
this same DSS forced its way into the
Akwa Ibom State Government House
last year in search of God knows
what. I am worried by the silence of
President Muhammadu Buhari on this
Ekiti DSS debacle. Is the DSS acting
out a script? Tyranny has no place
in a democracy. Ours must not be an
exception. Lawal Daura and his DSS
must not be allowed to make a mess
of our democracy. They must learn to
operate within the ambit of the rule
of law. They must realise that this is a
democracy and that some people laid
down their lives for the democracy we
are enjoying today. Just as Kola Oluwawole pointed out last week, “Nigeria is
not a banana republic that can be ruled
anyhow by anyone and Daura and his
men, who are playing exactly the same
role played between 1984 and 1985 by
the National Security Organisation
(NSO) under Lawal Rafindadi should
know that this reign of brute force over
Fayose
constitutional democracy will fail. This is
because we have seen them operate before
and here they are now, trying to take us
back to that inglorious era of dictatorship
and barbarism where the then NSO was
used to oppress Nigerians, throwing them
in jail without trial.”
Constitutional lawyer and human rights
activist, Mike Ozekhome added: “The
invasion is more curious and detestable,
happening as it did, in Ekiti State where
the governor has been a well-known critic
of President Buhari, his government and
his party. The impression must not be
given that the present government, which
rode on the crest of popular opposition
and critical dissent, is muzzling opposition or browbeating and intimidating
those who hold different opinions. Power
itself is ephemeral. Its wielders should
always act with discretion, respect for the
constitution and extant laws.” This is food
for thought for all of us today.
10
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER •MARCH 12, 2016
NEWS
News Editor Ahamefula Ogbu
08116759810 (sms only) Email [email protected]
Collapsed Building: Court Orders Lekki
Gardens MD, Contractor Remanded
Davidson Iriekpen
An Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrate Court yesterday granted the
request of the Lagos State Police
Command seeking to keep the
Managing Director of Lekki
Gardens, Mr. Richard Nyong in
custody pending the conclusion of
on-going investigation into collapse
of a five-storey building under
construction on Kushenla Road,
Ikate Elegushi area of the state
which killed no fewer than 35
persons.
The court also ordered one
of the contractors handling the
project, Odofin Taiwo Henry
to be kept in police custody at
Panti alongside Nyong for the
next 30 days.
Magistrate Folashade Botoku,
who granted the remand order,
held that same was in the interest
of justice and public safety.
34-year-old Nyong was
apprehended on Thursday,
while Odofin was arrested on
Wednesday.
The building had crumbled
around 3a.m on Tuesday with
several workers trapped in the
rubble.
The state government had
sealed the building, which
was originally designed to be
a three-storey structure but in
a brazen act of defiance and
impunity, the owners of the
building, Messrs Lekki Worldwide
Estate Limited, the promoters of
Lekki Gardens, were said to have
criminally unsealed the property
and continued building beyond
the approved floors until the
unfortunate incident.
Nyong and Odofin were
brought to court at about 1pm
in a black Range Rover Sports
Utility Vehicle with registration
number (Abuja) KWL 682 CN.
When the case was called,
police prosecutor, Godwin Osuji
informed Magistrate Botoku of
an ex-parte application seeking to
remand the defendants beyond the
constitutionally prescribed period,
saying the application was brought
in the interest of justice, public
safety, public order and morality.
He said in view of the circumstances of the case, it was
impossible for the police to
conclude the investigation within
two days, hence the need for the
application.
According to Osuji, as at Thursday, 24 bodies were recovered from
the scene of the incident, while
others were still being recovered.
He added that some of the
relatives of the victims were still
making efforts to identify their
dead bodies, while autopsy is
yet to be conducted.
He said: "In view of the
circumstances of this matter, it
will be impracticable for us to
conclude investigation in two days
as there are so many agencies
A NEWVENTURE...
L-R: Rev Father. Michael Onwughale; Team Leader, Nigeria National Petroleum (NNPC), Mrs. Tessy Oghieakhe; Chairman/CEO, Pinnacle Oil
and Gas Limited, Mr. Peter Mbah; Regional Director, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mrs. Bukola Smith, during the inauguration of Ultra
-Modern Pinnacle Mega Service Station, at Lekki, Lagos......recently
KOLA OLASUPO
involved and so we have come
to court in order not to run foul
of the law." He, therefore, urged
the court to grant the request to
keep the defendants in custody of
the Police Criminal Investigation
Department pending conclusion
of investigation.
Responding, counsel to the
defendants, Bode Olanipekun
orally applied for the bail of
his clients.
Olanipekun, in the alternative,
urged the court to order that the
police should release his clients but
that they should make themselves
available to police when needed.
However, Osuji, in response,
said it was trite law that an
application for bail could only
be filed after the defendants
must have been arraigned on a
criminal charge.
He said at the moment, the
police was yet to file any charge
against the defendants and as such
the application for bail was not
yet ripe.
Rivers, Zamfara State
Nigeria Stands with Breakaway Western Sahara, Says Buhari
Governors Visit Buratai over
Cultism, Cattle Rustling
Tobi Soniyiin Abuja
Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Governor of Rivers State,
Chief Nyesom Wike and his
Zamfara State counterpart, Alhaji Abdualaziz Yari Abubakar,
who is also the Chairman of
Nigerian Governors’ Forum
have variously visited the
Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu
Buratai in his office at the
Army Headquarters (AHQ) to
discuss security issues in their
respective States this week.
The Director of Army Public
Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, in a statement yesterday,
said that the duo of Wike and
Yari, were concerned by the
deteriorating security situations
in their respective states.
According to Usman, the
Rivers State Governor stated
that he was at the AHQ to
discuss security issues in the
state that bordered on growing
cult related clashes and killings by some individuals in
the State which had security
implications, while preparations for the election was in
progress.
He said Wike "expressed
concern over the atmosphere
of security in the state".
The COAS, he said, equally
expressed concern on the
security situation in the state
especially on the utterances of
some prominent individuals
in the state that had serious
security implications.
He stated: "The visit of the
Rivers State Governor has
underscored the need to draw
the attention of all political
interest groups in Rivers State
that the Nigerian Army will
remain neutral and apolitical
but will not spare anyone in
the discharge of its security
duty and the maintenance of
peace.
"The Army had long been
called out to assist the Nigeria
Police in internal security
duties. We shall continue to
perform this constitutional
duty professionally without
bias in conjunction with other
security agencies. "
In a similar visit, Usman
noted, the Zamfara State
Governor, drew the attention of
Buratai to the menace of cattle
rustlers and armed banditry
that was bedeviling some parts
of the state and called on the
Nigerian Army to assist.
Yari, he remarked, assured
that the state would support
the Army in clearing the
rustlers and other criminals
from the state.
In his response, Usman said
the Army chief had assured
the Governor that the Nigerian
Army had been working in
conjunction with other security
agencies to rout out cattle
rustlers and other criminals
not only in the Zamfara State,
but the entire North West
geo-political zone where it
was more prevalent.
President Muhammadu Buhari
has said that Nigeria would
stand with the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic (SADR)
in line with several resolutions
of the African Union (AU) on the
right of the Sahrawi people to selfdetermination and independence.
A statement issued yesterday
by the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity,
Mr. Femi Adesina said Buhari
spoke while receiving Mohammed Salem Ould Salek, Minister
of Foreign Affairs of SADR at the
State House, Abuja on Friday.
Buhari assured him that
outstanding issues on selfdetermination for the country
would be scrupulously attended
to.
"The issue first came up when
I was in office as military head
of state. After I left government,
Nigeria remained steadfast on it.
"In my maiden outing at
the UN General Assembly last
September, the issue of Sahrawi
was in my speech. You have no
cause to doubt our commitment.
We stand with our African Union
colleagues on this issue.
"Nigeria will maintain focus
till everything is finally resolved
positively,” Buhari told Salek, who
visited Abuja as Special Envoy of
President Mohammed Abdelaziz
of SADR.
Salek said his country would
never forget the role Nigeria
and its then military head of
state, General Muhammadu
Buhari played in recognising his
country in 1984, when it sought
self-determination from Morocco.
“It paved the way for the UN
to adopt several key resolutions
on Western Sahara, elaborating
a peace plan. History is now
repeating itself, as you are the
President of Nigeria at a time
the Sahrawi issue is being put
on the front burner again’’, he
pointed out.
The Special Envoy told Buhari
that his country needed a special
push from Nigeria again, as it
received in 1984, “to accelerate
matters”.
He said that Nigeria helped a
lot of African countries achieve
independence, noting that SADR
was the only pending matter on
the continent.
Since its inception, the SADR
has been recognised by over 80
countries around the world, and
in 1984 it became a full member
of the OAU and is a founding
member of the AU.
Chatham House Attack: Okorocha Can't Support IPOB, Says Imo Govt
Amby Uneze in Owerri
Imo State government has
declared that there was no
way the Governor of the state,
Chief Rochas Okorocha who was
heckled by an alleged Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) at the
Chatham House in London,
Wednesday, could support the
agitation of Biafra.
"It was very unreasonable on
the part of the IPOB members
to think that a man like Governor Okorocha who has built
schools across the nation as his
own contribution to the Unity
of Nigeria and had in the past
also sought to be the president
of the country would come out
to support IPOB or any other
pro-Biafra group campaigning
for sovereignty", it said.
In reaction to the incident,
the Governor in London by
some progressives that claim
to believe in justice and good
governance, the spokesperson of
the governor, Sam Onwuemeodo
said that the government noted
with disdain the unfortunate
and embarrassing action of the
members of the Indigenous People
of Biafra, IPOB, on Wednesday,
March 9, 2016, when they had
undertaken to disrupt Governor
Rochas Okorocha’s speech at the
Chatham House London which
he was invited to deliver.
According to him, the IPOB
members on that disturbing
mission said they acted that way,
because Governor Okorocha had
not supported their actions or the
actions of any other pro-Biafra
group.
"As a government, we do not
hesitate to commend the high level
of maturity which the governor
and few of the senior government
functionaries who made the trip
with him had exhibited in the
face of such unprovoked and
ill-advised action of the IPOB
members at Chatham House.
"It is even worrisome that
members of a group like IPOB
that have always given the impression that they are fighting for
the course of Igbos would decide
to storm the Chatham House to
cause trouble at an event one of
the best in Igboland was invited
to deliver a speech on the way
forward for our society.
"Indeed, if IPOB apostles would
undertake to embarrass an Igbo
leader of Governor Okorocha’s
status in London, then, their
claim that they are fighting or
agitating in the interest of Ndigbo
should be taken with a pinch of
salt by those who had hitherto,
believed them.
"All over the world, groups
fighting for one reason or the
other presumably for their people,
do not lose sight of what certain
leaders in the areas represent and
accord them the needed respect
no matter what they hold against
such leaders", it insisted.
The release further said "we
appropriate the liberty to take
exception to the action of the
IPOB members on Wednesday
at Chatham House. Igbos are wise
people who do not act anyhow in
situations or circumstances. The
IPOB action at Chatham House
was not only embarrassing to
Governor Okorocha as an Igbo
leader, but also to Ndigbo in
general both at home and in
diaspora and indeed to all men
and women of goodwill".
11
NEWS
In Brief
Kidney Transplant Costs Nigerians $500m
TheJulieDonli KidneyFoundation,aNon-GovernmentalOrganisation(NGO),
hasbemoanedhugespendingonkidneytransplantanddialysistreatmentby
Nigerians in India every year.The foundation therefore advised the federal
governmenttoimprovethecapacityofgovernmenthospitalswithregardsto
treatmentofkidneyinfections.Founderoftheorganisation,JulieDonligave
the remark yesterday in Abuja, during an awareness walk to the National
Assembly (NASS) to mark World Kidney Day. She said patients struggling
withkidneydiseasespendabout$500millionforkidneytransplantannually
inIndia.She notedthattheNGOhadsponsoredabout17peopleondialysis
treatmentwhileabout220peoplewillbescreenedatoneoftheIDPcentres
inAbuja.Theyhaveconcludedplanstoembarkonfreekidneytestinschools,
market places and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. According to
her, kidney failure occurs when an individual’s kidneys stop functioning well
enough to live without dialysis or a kidney transplant, while dialysis is the
artificialprocessofeliminatingwasteandunwantedwaterfromtheblood.
Prisons Officers Redeployed
FOR PEACE AND SAFETY...
State Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Anambra State Command, Momodu Sule,; the Commissioner of
Police, Nigeria Police Force, Anambra State Command, H.H. Karma with other security chiefs in Anambra State during the Security
Awareness Workshop for Religious Organisations in Awka recently
UNTH Carries Out 130
Open Heart Surgeries
Warns 5 per cent Nigerians have Heart Diseases
Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu
The University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital (UNTH), Enugu says it
has successfully carried out Open
Heart Surgeries (OHS) on at least 130
persons since the recommencement
of the programme in the hospital
in March 2013.
This is coming as the hospital
raised the alarm that over five per
cent of the nation's population may
be living with Surgically Amenable
Conditions and asked governments
at all levels to map out resources to
arrest the situation before it degenerates to an unmanageable level.
Briefing newsmen at the hospital
on the resumption of the 12th session of the programme where 22
patients are expected to benefit from,
the UNTH Chief Medical Director,
Dr. Chris Amah said another vital
facility to the open heart surgery, the
Cardiac Catheterization laboratory
had been acquired and installed in
the hospital with about 15 patients
already benefitting from it.
Amah noted that the hospital
would want to carry out at least
100 open heart surgeries annually
if enabled by funding, noting that
because of the huge financial involvement in carrying out the exercise
coupled with the fact that most
people with heart related diseases
were poor, most people were yet
to take advantage of the exercise
in the hospital.
"I can tell, you that if we have
improved funding, we can even
handle 200 cases per annum and
this will save this country huge sums
of money that ordinarily would have
left the country through capital flight,"
he said.
According to him, out of the 22
patients slated to be operated upon,
two persons received sponsorship
from the National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS), another patient
received sponsorship from the Office of the Head of Service of the
Federation, while their partners from
the VOOM Foundation led by Dr.
Vincent Ohaju are taking care of two
indigent persons.
While explaining that the new
facility, the Cardiac Catheterization
Machine which came through the
University of Nigeria Education
Trust fund would help to reduce
the number of people that would
go through the process of open heart
surgery as it helps in accurately detecting the state of hearts of patients,
Amah said improved funding had
become imperative.
"This machine is very important
for the accurate evaluation of patients
before surgery. It helps to reduce
number of people that would go
through open heart surgery. If you
have just the blockade of pulmonary
artery, the machine will easily detect
it and is something that can just be
handled.
Like I said earlier already 15
patients with various heart-related
ailments have passed through the
laboratory and successfully too.
Indeed, the UNTH cardiac centre of
excellence has come to stay," he said.
10 Feared Dead As Blast
Rocks CBN in Calabar
Women Lawyers Tackle Ndume over Call
on Saraki, Men to Marry More Wives
BasseyInyangin Calabar
Tobi Soniyi inAbuja
The Acting Inspector General of
Police, Zone 6, Calabar, Baba-Adisa
Bolanta, has stated that the explosion
which , on Friday , rocked, the Calabar
branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) located along Calabar Road
may have been caused by a gas leakage from the central air-conditioning
unit of the bank.
Although the number of casualties
has not been officially confirmed, eye
witnesses had it that no fewer than
10 people were killed, and about 30
others critically injured by the blast
which rocked the main building of
the bank at about 12 noon.
The AIG who spoke shortly after
inspecting the scene of the explosion
said he saw some cylinders at the
scene, suggesting that the blast may be
linked to possible defect in the central
air-conditioning system of the bank.
Responding to questions from
journalists after he inspected the
scene, Bolanta , however , said the
real cause of the blast would be
ascertained after the completion of
investigations on it.
“This is just an initial assessment,
and it is not confirmed yet. It is when
a final result has been given that we
will confirm what really happened,”
Bolanta said.
It was not clear whether the explosion was triggered by a detonated
bomb or not, but sources who
pleaded not to be mentioned said
smoke was noticed billowing out
from a spot within the CBN building,
for about 30 minutes, before a loud
explosion followed.
Aside from the dead and the
injured, parts of the main building
of the CBN were also shattered,
while surrounding buildings, in the
area which host many banks, were
shaken as a result of the impact of
the explosion.
Some people in Etim Edem Motor
Park and Watt Market located about
300 metres from the CBN branch
said they heard the loud explosion
and were visibly shaken.
The premises of the CBN and the
area between Calabar Road by Mary
Slessor Road and Calabar Road by
Barracks Road, in the heart of the
Calabar, the Cross River State capital ,
had been condoned off by the police
and other security personnel.
International Federation of Women
Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria is outraged
by Senate Leader, Ali Ndume's call
on Senate President, Bukola Saraki
and others to marry second wives
describing the call as 'disparaging and
meant to demean Nigerian women'.
In a statement issued yesterday
by FIDA Country Vice President/
National President, Mrs. Inime Aguma,
the lawyers said they were outraged
by Ndume's utterances on the floor of
the hallowed chambers of the Senate.
According to them, the remarks
portrayed women as 'sex objects',
whose clamour for gender equality
could be realised by being married
off by men.
The statement reads: "May we
remind the Senator that Nigeria is
a signatory to the Convention on
the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) and his
utterances negate the provisions
of Article No 16 that 'State parties
shall take all appropriate measures
to eliminate discrimination against
women in all matters relating to
marriage and family relations' and
the General Recommendation in
Article No 21 which states that
'polygamous marriage contravenes
a woman’s right to equality with men,
and can have such serious emotional
and financial consequences for her
and her dependents that such marriage ought to be discouraged and
prohibited.'"
FIDA also stated the Marriage
Act which defines monogamous
marriage and Sections 33, 39, 45, 46
and 47 which prescribe punishments
for polygamy for persons married
under the Act.
The women lawyers said: "The Holy
Bible which Senator Ndume referred
to does not recognise polygamy as
the wording of Mathew 19: 4-6 refers
to the union of one man and woman
to the exclusion of any other being.
"FIDA Nigeria states that on March
8, 2016, men all around the world
adopted policies to accelerate gender
equality in support of the theme,
'planet 50-50 by 2030:Step it up for
Gender Equity.'
"We urge Senator Ndume and
other distinguished senators to pledge
for gender parity and not trivialise
the role of women in the society."
TheControllerGeneralofPrisons,Dr.PeterEkpendu,hasapprovedtheposting
ofACGMDNata'Alah,asthenewCommandantofthePrisonsStaffCollege,
Barnawa Kaduna. He takes over from ACG NWGwali, who proceeds to the
National Headquarters, Abuja to take charge of the Directorate of Finance
and Account as Deputy Controller-General covering duties. UA Saraki,
who hitherto covered the Directorate as a DCG proceeds on retirement.
The posting instruction, in a release signed by the Prison's Spokesperson,
DCP Francis Enobore, also has ACG AA Ashafa, Zone G Coordinator taking
over as ACG Welfare at the National Headquarters, Abuja from A A Falke,
who proceeds on retirement. CP NC Aham-Neze (Dr.) is to cover duties as
ACGMedicalfollowingtheretirementofACGDr.EUdom. OthersincludeCP
SanusiKunlefromzoneDMinna toZoneGBeninCityasZonal coordinator;
CPJENtia, NationalHeadquarters,AbujatoZonalHeadquartersOwerri;CP
Uche Nwobi, Zonal Headquarters Owerri to National Headquarters, Abuja
as CP Promotion.
CCT for 45,000 IDPs in Nigeria
The United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) in collaboration with
NationalEmergencyManagementAgency(NEMA),haslaunchedaConditional
CashTransfer(CCT)programmefortheInternallyDisplacedPersons(IDPs)
in Maiduguri, Borno State, as a result of Boko Haram terrorism. The Zonal
InformationOfficer,NEMANorthEast,Mr.AbdulkadirIbrahim,whodisclosed
thisinastatementyesterday,saidthattheprogrammeis"targeting45,000
householdsamongthe1.2millionIDPsresidinginhostcommunitiesacross
the metropolis". According to Ibrahim, the Executive Director, UNWFP, Mr.
ErtharinCousin,NigerianAmbassadortoRome,Amb.YayaOlaiton,andother
officials visited Maiduguri during the week to launch the CCT programme.
He noted that the UNWFP has been a major partner of NEMA especially
in providing technical support to the Agency in managing Disaster across
the country.
Olu of Warri Visits Lagos
TheOluofWarri,OgiameIkenwoli,willtodayarriveinLagosforathank-you
visittotheLagosStateGovernor,Mr.AkinwumiAmbode;NationalLeaderof
theAllProgressivesCongress(APC),AsiwajuBolaTinubuandObaofLagos,
RilwanuAkiolu.TheItsekirimonarch,whowouldbereceivedbyItsekirisons
and daughters resident in the state, would be hosted by all Iwere indigenes
afterthevisitsatRitaloriHotelsinSurulereonMondayevening.Itwasequally
gatheredthatthereveredtraditionalrulerfromDeltaStateisprimarilycoming
to appreciate the support rendered by the above-mentioned leaders duringthedemiseofhispredecessorandhisascensiontothethrone.Thevisit,
accordingtotheorganisers,wouldfurtherstrengthenthetiesbetweenthe
Yoruba and the Itsekiri nations.
Enugu Workers back Ugwuanyi
Workers of Enugu State, under the aegis of the Trade Union Congress of
Nigeria (TUC), have lent their support to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s economic revolution agenda aimed at job creation and boosting of the state’s
revenue.The CongressthroughastatementsignedbyitsstateChairmanand
Secretary, Comrade Igbokwe Chukwuma Igbokwe and Comrade Benneth
Asogwa commended Gov. Ugwuanyi for reconstituting the committees
on Enugu State Council on Commercialisation and Privatisation and the
EnuguStateTechnicalCommitteeonPrivatisationandCommercialisation
saddledwiththeresponsibilityofrevitalisingailingstategovernment-owned
enterprises, saying that it was a right decision in a right direction. TUC also
notedthatthegovernor’sboldinitiativewasademonstrationof“hiszealand
commitment towards job creation, industrial development and improved
revenue for the state”.
LCCI, PwC to Discuss Economy
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has partnered with
PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC)Nigeria,toorganiseastakeholders’forum
onthestateoftheNigerianeconomy.Theobjectiveistoproffersolutionsto
thelingeringeconomicchallengesinthecountry,byidentifyingandpresenting
alternativesourcesofrevenuetogovernment.TheStakeholders’forum,which
isbilledtoholdonMarch17,2016by9:30amatFourPointsbySheraton,off
Lekki-EpeExpressway,VictoriaIsland,Lagos,isexpectedtobringtogether
key government agencies and major players in the various sectors of the
economy,especiallythenon-oilsector.Thisistoenablebusinessesalignwiththe
economicdiversificationandlongtermsustainabilityoftheNigerianeconomy.
Pa Egbe Dies at 94
The family of Ambassador Preston A. Egbe has announced his transition
on the 20th day of March 2016 at the age of 94years. He attended King’s
College,Lagos(1936-1941),wherehewasthefirstHouseCaptainofHamman’s
House and one time captain of the cricket and hockey teams. He qualified
as a medical doctor from the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin in 1958 and
laterspecialisedinpediatrics. HewasChiefMedicalOfficerand Secretary
totheStateHealthManagementBoardofthedefunctMid-WesternState.
HewasalsoNigeria’sHighCommissionertoUganda(1987-1991). Hewillbe
buried inWarri on the 18th day of March 2016.
12
COMMENTARY
WHEN THE OIL SECTOR OVERHEATS THE POLITY
The recent strike by oil workers is misguided, argues Emma Agu
N
igerians woke up few days ago to an escalation of the fuel
shortage that had ravaged the country recently even as the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) rose
stoutly to defuse the situation. This new twist to an already
abating saga was allegedly caused by an ill-informed directive by the
leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers
(NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria
(PENGASSAN) asking their members to down tools in protest against the
unbundling of the corporation by the current management led by Minister
of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu who also doubles as group
managing director of the corporation.
News reports indicate that the grouse of the leadership of the unions
is Kachikwu’s alleged failure to follow due process in the unbundling
exercise. Given that one is not apprised of the procedure for effecting
changes to government corporations, I shall preoccupy myself with
how the action exacerbates the hardship Nigerians are passing through
and why the protagonists may not win the support of the people.
To put it mildly, the action of both unions is ill-timed. Viewed
seriously, it translates to a very unfair blow to commuters, transporters
and all those who use fuel for their businesses. Coming in the wake
of the concerted efforts by the NNPC and the Muhammadu Buhari
administration to ameliorate the biting fuel shortages, one wonders
what other clandestine motives could have ignited this unconscionable
firestorm by the union executives.
Granted that unionists have historically acted as a watchdog against
institutional oppression and corporate injustice, it will appear that in
the instant case, the unionists decided to hit the NNPC below the
belt at a time that widespread misgivings over the internecine fuel
shortages is beginning to paint the Buhari administration in bad light.
Do we therefore conclude that there is more that meets the eyes to this
strike than the protection of the rights of workers?
Let us even concede that nothing more than the interest of labour
is at the root of this ill-timed strike. Does that mean that the people
are not entitled to debating the merits and demerits of both sides to
the unbundling argument? To be sure, the dialectics of unbundling in
Nigeria call for painstaking introspection and astute gate-keeping. For,
as we are all aware, it does not seem that the unbundling of the former
Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has ended satisfactorily
or brought about the expected improvement in power supply. But as
we are all aware, extraneous issues have often been played destabilising roles in these corporations. Yet, any patriotic Nigerian will vote
for complete unbundling or privatisation of most of the government
companies if only to minimise graft, reduce inefficiency and eliminate
nepotism.
While it is admitted that the unbundling of PHCN may not
have been an unqualified success, the same cannot be said of the
privatisation of the telecoms sector in spite of the setback suffered in
the unbundling of NITEL. Besides, further unbundling exercises are
bound to learn from the mistakes of the past. That, to me, is what the
leadership of the oil workers’ unions should advocate. But to shut
down the ministry, corporation and ancillary agencies and to subject
Nigerians to prolonged hardship smacks of excessive selfishness and
FOR LACK OF A BETTER PHRASE, THIS COUNTRY
IS STRIKE WEARY. UNFORTUNATELY, WE SEEM
TO PAY SCANT ATTENTION TO THE SYSTEMATIC
DESPOLIATION OF VIRTUALLY EVERY NATIONAL
INSTITUTION: EDUCATION, HEALTH, TRANSPORT AND
AVIATION, ENERGY AND POWER, ETC., BY YEARS OF
AVOIDABLE INDUSTRIAL ACTIONS AND DISGUISED
SABOTAGE
crass immorality.
If we may ask, where were these union leaders when those saddled
with the responsibility of steering the affairs of the oil industry engaged
in less than honorable conduct thereby imperilling our economy and
mortgaging the future of our country? Where were the union leaders,
over the years that our refineries have functioned in the breach in spite
of huge sums of money voted for periodic turn around maintenance
(TAM)? Where were the union leaders when highly respected oil
industry technocrats were turned into pawns on the chessboard of
political expediency; when, in some cases, dubious experts took over
strategic functions and turned our common patrimony into an avenue
for political patronage? Where were the union leaders when importation of fuel was accorded priority over establishment of local refineries
that would have increased fuel supply, reduced the haemorrhage of
our foreign exchange, boosted the downstream sector of our economy,
generated huge employment and promoted capacity building? What
has been their role in the fuel subsidy jamboree? Where were they?
It is difficult to rationalise the misgivings of the leaderships of both
PENGASSAN and NUPENG against the background of the new
corporate environment being enthroned by Ibe Kachikwu. Or can it
be said that the union leaderships are miffed by the new culture of
transparency that has won the NNPC accolades from NEITI and other
industry stakeholders? Or is it likely that this inexcusable affront to
public welfare, corporate re-engineering and integrity is the handiwork
of middlemen and political jobbers who had, hitherto, exploited the
badly flawed system to rob the nation of huge revenue?
At the risk of sounding anti-labour, let us not forget that there
are moments when national survival overrides even certain liberties
and demand that labour rethinks its traditional approach to problem
solving. One approach that deserves to be sparingly used at a period
like this is the strike weapon. For lack of a better phrase, this country
is strike weary. Unfortunately, we seem to pay scant attention to the
systematic despoliation of virtually every national institution: education, health, transport and aviation, energy and power, etc., by years of
avoidable industrial actions and disguised sabotage.
To some Nigerians, it is still politics as usual. That is tragic indeed.
Those who can’t make a distinction between a real pistol and a toy
gun stand the risk of being harmed by the former. Nigeria is passing
through an economic emergency, a declared war and a national psyche
badly damaged by the economic downturn and impunity. This is not
the time for politics as usual, whether it is labour politics or party
politics. What labour is doing is akin to riding the back of the tiger; we
could all end up inside its stomach.
If oil industry workers are sincere, if they are acting in the greater
interest of the people, if they are not being instigated by aggrieved
business and political interests, then they should call this strike off
immediately and engage the leadership of NNPC in an honest
dialogue to accommodate their concerns and pull the country out of
this dangerous quagmire. On its part, the leadership of NNPC, no
matter its justification, should listen to the workers. That, in my view,
is the stakeholder approach which averts overheating the polity by the
oil sector.
ROAD CARNAGE AND THE WORTHLESS NIGERIAN LIFE
R
ecently, a truck conveying people from the
North to Lagos was reported to have fallen
off the “long bridge” on the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway. Dozens of people were killed in
that disaster. Months ago, a truck which was reportedly “driving against traffic” on the Benin-Sagamu
expressway had run into a bus conveying students of
the Onabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State, killing
them all. A few years ago, as a result of the traffic
snarl caused by the barricade which police officers
had set up on a highway in order to extort money
from drivers, the brakes of an oncoming petrol tanker
failed. It rammed into the long queue of vehicles and
exploded, setting dozens of cars and their occupants
ablaze. Only last weekend, there is a report of the
death of a minister in yet another road mishap.
In one picture, you see the gory remains of
human beings strewn across the expressway. In
another, you see beside the wreckage of vehicles,
blood-soaked corpses on the roadside. Sometimes
the famed “good Samaritans” cover the faces of
such corpses with rags or even leaves.
This is the curious story of Nigeria, where life
appears to be worth nothing, judging by the nature
and frequency of road traffic accidents and indeed
accidents of any nature including those from lowhanging electric cables that fall ever so often and
electrocute human beings. But even more curious
is the fact that these incidents do not seem to rouse
the authorities in any way. If the victims are lucky, a
governor or VIP passing by may make a quick stop
at the scene, with his publicity team ensuring that
good photos of the VIP assisting accident victims are
taken. Or as in our present circumstances, sundry
eulogies that suggest that the victim was the best
thing to have happened to mankind are mouthed
by VIPs. Tragically, that is typically where the story
Calixthus Okoruwa charges the relevant authorities to be alive to their responsibilities
ends, until the next tragedy.
The only real tangible attempt to address the
issue of road carnage in Nigeria on a national
scale was that of the regime of Ibrahim Babangida
who in the late 1980s, set up the Federal Roads
Safety Commission (FRSC) modelled after a similar
programme by the second republic governor of
Oyo State, Bola Ige. Bola Ige’s programme had
reportedly been very successful at reducing road
carnage in Oyo State, largely on account of the zeal
and innovativeness of Wole Soyinka who led it.
Not unexpectedly, therefore, in setting up the FRSC,
Babangida appointed Wole Soyinka as Chairman.
Under Soyinka’s oversight, the FRSC got to work
very quickly and in a short while, began to tangibly
entrench road safety awareness and practices in
Nigeria. The FRSC officials themselves seemed to
be in perpetual patrols and Nigeria’s perpetually
over-speeding drivers would instinctively slow
down on sighting them. Also remarkable was that
Soyinka’s FRSC recruited hundreds of road safety
volunteers whom it called “Special Marshalls.”
These Marshalls synergised the efforts of the regular
FRSC officials and were to be seen all over the
country, flagging down over-speeding vehicles or
even controlling traffic at notorious bedlams. All of
this was done pro bono by these marshalls, many
of whom were professionals ordinarily engaged in
different activities in sundry spheres of life.
Even though there is hardly any data to support
this, empirical evidence would suggest that the
FRSC was very impactful in its early days and very
visibly so. The master-stroke of recruiting “Special
Marshalls” from the populace enhanced the social
appeal and credibility of road safety consciousness
and consequently buy-in by the public.
But as with most things Nigerian, the FRSC has
over the years tended to have lost focus. A few
years ago, it decreed that all vehicle owners in
Nigeria must buy reflective stickers and paste same
on the rear of their vehicles. It refused to heed any
alternative argument that today, vehicle rear lights
come with reflectors anyway, making the reflective
stickers superfluous and even grossly unsightly
on vehicles. If I recall, it took the intervention of
a minister to make the FRSC back down on this
ridiculous “decree”. It later turned out that people
with connection to the FRSC top echelon had imported container loads of these stickers and the new
“all vehicles must use reflective stickers” directive
by FRSC had simply been a ploy by the FRSC to
help their friends dispose of these stickers profitably.
Recently, the FRSC again decreed that vehicle
number plates needed to be compulsorily changed
across the country. Owners of motor vehicles would
need to discard their number plates and pay afresh
for new number plates, which it claimed would
now come with “special security features.” As it
turned out, the only difference between the old
number plates and FRSC’s new plates was that
the “new” ones had a map of Nigeria on them.
Thankfully a court of law has since come to the aid
of Nigeria’s hapless motorists by ruling that there is
nothing wrong or illegal with using the old number
plates. Today, rather than patrol our roads and help
ensure that motorists adhere to the tenets of safe
motoring including driving only at safe speeds,
FRSC officials are more likely to be seen in street
corners, obstructing the free flow of traffic under
the guise of apprehending defaulting motorists. You
are likely to see parked nearby, their weather-beaten
pick-up trucks which appear worse than many of
the vehicles they apprehend, one of the many tragic
ironies of this once laudable institution.
Yes, road carnage in Nigeria is often a fallout of
sundry factors including bad and unlit roads as well
as the typical lackadaisical attitude by Nigerians to
safety and maintenance in general. But it doesn’t
take genius to realise that the bulk of road traffic
accidents arise from over-speeding. The average
Nigerian driver appears to have a tendency to turn
any stretch of smooth road, wherever it is located, to
a race track. Again, tragically, government convoys
are the worst offenders in this regard, driving as if
they literally own the roads.
Road carnage is at its peak today and our
governments owe us a duty to address it squarely.
It needs to very aggressively redress our attitudes to
road safety and inculcate a new mindset that alerts
Nigerians to the imperative of safety on our roads.
Doing so will also mean that stiff penalties including
jail terms should be paid where people wilfully risk
the lives of other road users by driving badly or
driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol,
among others. The federal government would also
need to integrate road patrolling into its tolling
programme for federal roads. Such patrolling should
address road safety as well as road security.
There is an imperative to re-awaken and
aggressively reorganise the FRSC which seems to
have gone the way of the typical rotten Nigerian
behemoth. But while we await the effort of the
federal government in this regard, nothing stops
the various states from implementing something
similar in their domains. Apart from saving the
dozens of lives that are ordinarily lost daily, such
initiatives will also help ensure that scarce resources
including manpower in hospitals across the country
are deployed to more pressing areas than victims of
needless carnage on our roads.
Okoruwa is a business executive in Lagos
13
INSIGHT
Yet another collapsed building...
FGN and MTN: A Time for Truce
W
hen I read through the Editorial of
THISDAY on Monday , March 7,
2016 with the above title, the questions that came to mind were – Who
made THISDAY the mouthpiece of MTN? What
is THIS DAY’s interest in this matter? The MTN
that THISDAY is pleading for, are they repentant?
When the company was fined N1.04 trillion in
October and to pay before December they pleaded
for reduction in fine. One would think they were
ready to play ball if the amount was reduced.
What did they do after the fine was reduced? The
company headed for court. Imagine!
According to a Yoruba proverb “you do not
stay too long prostrating or kneeling when
you know you are guilty of an offence”. The
reverse is the case with MTN. In an attempt
“to plead innocence, they are almost running
out of saliva”. MTN failed to fully accept guilt
over the matter and it is rather unfortunate.
Personally, am not surprised and you are free
to ask why. The way South African companies
have been treating Nigeria and Nigerians is
not the best. Sometime last year, Multi Choice
(DSTV) decided to increase their subscription
rates for the different bouquets without taking
their customers into consideration and for no
apparent reason. Nigerians kicked against it and
somebody even took the matter to court. To
everyone’s surprise Multi Choice went ahead
to implement the new rates not minding whose
ox was gored. To them, the subscribers might as
well go to hell and possibly remain there. As we
speak the increased rates still stand.
Coming back to the issue at hand, if MTN
knew they would go to court why beg for
downward review of the fine? They headed for
court as soon as the fine was reduced, which to
me was mischievous. After dilly-dallying, the
company finally paid a paltry N50 billion and
decided to withdraw the case from court. What
a crafty way of doing things. Maybe they think
Nigeria government will pat them on the back
and say” go in peace, your sins are forgiven”. If
that is their thought, is it reasonable? Probably
MTN was thinking delay tactics, foot-dragging
and arm-twisting combined will do the trick.
They forgot to realise it is no longer business as
usual. This government is a serious government
and is for real. PMB is in charge and a no
nonsense man for that matter. The time for
change is now.
The issue must have long been resolved if
MTN had shown some humility, tread softly
Governor Shettima’s Post-war Development Model
and come down their high horse. THISDAY is
asking for a “sensible negotiation that should
lead to a further downward review of the hefty
fine”. To me this should be directed at MTN.
If Nigeria is to pick lessons from Google and
British government episode then describing
Nigeria’s action as “unnecessary drama and
muscle flexing” is uncharitable. To me MTN
is the one that has been overdramatising and
flexing muscle as if we owe them. Another question: “who” dragged the issue on for months”?
This question is begging for answer.
When Obasanjo closed down BP’s
investments in Nigeria in the late 70s heavens
did not fall. Let’s call a spade a spade. A foreign
company should not come to Nigeria and be
doing “boju boju” for us – a South African
company for that matter. I pray President Jacob
Zuma’s visit will present an opportunity to
resolve the lingering issue and put an end to the
matter. The point I have been trying to make is
that foreign companies (especially South African)
should stop taking Nigeria and Nigerians for a
ride.
Ologun B. Freeman, Utako, Abuja
T
here are enormous challenges for
governors in the northeastern states torn
by Boko Haram senseless war. In Borno,
Yobe, Adamawa and some parts of
Gombe and Bauchi States, there are widespread
human movement of internally displaced
persons (IDPs), destroyed infrastructure and
inaccessible land for subsistent agriculture. In
addition, Boko Haram war has led to the painful destruction of schools and worship centres.
Thus the education and agriculture problems
in the northeast have become different from
that of the rest of the country. Parents in the
Northeast are also facing the problem of fear to
send their wards to schools.
The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima
has developed excellent and feasible post-war
programmes and projects with a comprehensive model that is fast-tracking the healing of
scars of the war, restoring basic infrastructure
and local economies, including returning
communities to their pre-war peaceful and
productive status. Governor Kashim is
achieving this milestone through the newly
T H E S AT U R DAY N E W S PA P E R
EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU
DEPUTY EDITOR YEMI ADEBOWALE
MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO
DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE
CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI
EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN
T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA
GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE,
ISRAEL IWEGBU, EMMANUEL EFENI, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU
GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR OLUFEMI ABOROWA
DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS PETER IWEGBU, FIDELIS ELEMA,
MBAYILAN ANDOAKA, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE
DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI
SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH
ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS HENRY NWACHOKOR, SAHEED ADEYEMO
CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI
GENERAL MANAGER PATRICK EIMIUHI
GROUP HEAD FEMI TOLUFASHE
ART DIRECTOR OCHI OGBUAKU II
DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO
TO SEND EMAIL: first [email protected]
created ministry charged with reconstruction,
rehabilitation and resettlement of communities
affected by Boko Haram insurgency and other
pre-war development programmes.
Shettima’s effort in the reconstruction,
rehabilitation and resettlement of communities
affected by Boko Haram insurgency is highly
commendable because it is a multi-faceted
approach which will help with restoration of
basic infrastructure, integration of lives and
livelihood of thousands of people, the quick
rehabilitation of agricultural land; the local
economy; places of worship, health-centres,
bridges, schools including the creation of
productive employment for the teeming
unemployed citizens. Kashim’s effort is fast
healing the scars of war in all the affected
local government areas of Borno State as well
as complements the security restoration and
peace building by the military. The Borno
State government’s 2016 budget is christened
‘Budget of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation
and Resettlement’. Education, with the
priority to reconstruct schools got the highest
allocation of N27billion while the continued
reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement
of destroyed communities got N10 billion.
Women, especially widows, empowerment,
the massive construction of new houses,
IDPs resettlement, construction of trenches in
vulnerable communities and the reopening of
public schools are some aspects of Kashim’s
pre-war development programmes that touch
the lives of the ordinary people.
As the military is winning the war, the
governors of the five northeast states should
adopt Kashim’s model. Such a model will
tackle the original factors that facilitated
the growth of Boko Haram and helped the
group in its recruitments and indoctrinations - abject poverty, illiteracy and the
absence of employment opportunities in these
states. Governor Kashim’s model should be
adopted by the federal government in its
effort to reconstruct, rehabilitate and resettle
the communities ravaged by Boko Haram
senseless war; it will fast track the healing of
the scars of war, restore basic infrastructure
and local economies, including returning
these communities to their pre-war or even
better conditions.
Zayyad I. Muhammad, Jimeta, Adamawa
State
14
POLSCOPE
with Eddy Odivwri
[email protected] 08053069356
Endless Politics of Bloodletting in Rivers
I
t may be a familiar incident to them but to
the rest of the nation and indeed the world,
it is strange and even bizarre that political
thugs can attack the home of an opponent,
kill him, his wife and son and still go ahead
to severe the head of the man and go away
with it. It sounds gory and shocking, but that
was exactly what happened in Omoku town,
the headquarters of ONELGA (Ogba/Egbema/
Ndoni Local Government Area) of Rivers State.
That incident took place last Saturday.
The killing interlude experienced in the last
seven months is apparently over, just because all
the three senatorial districts of the state are getting
ready for a re-run election to the senate next
Saturday, March 19.
Ten days earlier, the frequency and number of
killings in the state got to a height prompting the
state governor, Mr Nyesom Wike to personally
visit the area and appealed to the youths to
sheathe their swords. The validity of the appeal, it
appears, lasted for just about a dozen days.
It must be stated that the governor himself
may have set the tone for the violence rocking his
state when about a month ago, while addressing
his party supporters in the wake of the Supreme
court verdict that affirmed his victory, had warned
those coming to conduct the re-run election
to be wary. He had threatened that “anyone
coming to rig election, must first write his/her
will before embarking on the journey”. This is
seen as approving the culture of violence and
extermination which is now engulfing the state. Is
any mandate worth the blood of the people?
Last Saturday, at about 9.00pm, assailants, nay,
political thugs visited the home of the Ward 4
chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
in Omoku, Franklin Obi, and after shooting him
and his wife, Iheoma, dead, they dragged out his
son, Bestman, from where he was hiding with
his sister and also shot him dead. They then went
ahead to cut off the head of Mr Obi and left with it.
Gosh, it reeks with a chilling shock!
It is not certain what Obi’s crime is, but it cannot
be far from the fact that he is not only an APC
chieftain, he is indeed the ward 4 chairman of the
party. That is the same ward where the PDP state
chairman, Chief Felix Obuah is from.
About a year ago, in the same Omoku, a former
PDP chieftain who decamped from the party
and joined the APC, was visited by political thugs
same night and got wiped off along with his
family. Nobody was arrested.
Not long ago, gunmen went on the rampage
in Obrikom in the same ONELGA and killed
Chief Adube, a traditional ruler and APC chieftain
in the area along with his children and seven
others. The hoodlums further moved to Oboh,
a neighbouring community and destroyed the
house of Vincent Ogbuagu, an APC House of
Assembly aspirant.
It is difficult not to connect all the killings to
politics seeing that all the victims are members
of APC. If APC members are constantly the
victims of this onslaught, are the aggressors and
perpetrators of the violence not discernable even
outside the clinical room of forensic enquiry?
In fact, the APC gubernatorial candidate in the
state in the last election, Dr Dakuku Peterside, had
lamented the killing spree when, during the week,
he chronicled the litany of killings in the state
“Four APC persons were killed in Obibi, Etche
properties of political opponents were burnt
during the last election.
However, unlike in past murders, the police,
this time, announced that they have arrested
two persons, one each for the murder of Obi in
Omoku and Amachree in Buguma. Good as
the news is, Nigerians are waiting to see what
happens hereafter.
I dare say it is because the Police and all relevant
security agencies have merely stood aside and
looked in Rivers while the people are being
mowed down in their dozens, that the crime of
human killings have become so common-placed
that it does not mean much anymore.
But more worrisome is the fact that with the
Nwike
senatorial re-run election just a week away, more
killings will take place. And this is the point some
LGA in the last 48 hours. Gabriel Cookey was
clubbed to death in Opobo, Opobo/Nkoro LGA of us had made in the past when the Supreme
Court ignored the avalanche of killings and
by suspected cultists.
electoral violence that characterized the Rivers
“Only his morning, in Buguma , Ofinjite
elections and ruled in favour of the PDP which
Amachree, an APC member was set ablaze by
is believed to have sponsored all the political
thugs who are members of PDP”.
violence at the time. I had maintained in previous
“In fact, in the last two weeks, over 30 APC
write-ups that the verdict of the apex court seems
members have been killed in different parts of
to encourage electoral violence in a way that
Rivers State. We are tired of this bloodbath; this
goads desperate politicians to do anything they
is why we are calling on the federal government
can to wrest victory and then settle down to do a
and Nigerians generally to come to our aid”.
On Monday this week, while Nigerians are yet judicial defence of their victory later. The Supreme
trying to digest the bestiality of the Omoku killing, Court’s verdict seems to suggest that whether
you breach the procedure or not, the outcome
yet another such bizarre murder takes place in
of the election is what is core; a sort of “the endBuguma in Akoku Toru LGA, where Ofinjite
justifies-the-means syndrome. But truth is that
Amachree was murdered .
when the procedure is breached, the product is
Reports say, Ofinjite was first beaten to pulp
compromised.
by his attackers before he was killed and then set
How much blood more will be required to
ablaze. Ofinijite was also a member of the APC
appease the vampire called Rivers politics?
It was in that same Buguma that houses and
NDDC: Daily Trust Got it Wrong
L
ast Tuesday, March 8, Daily Trust
ran an editorial that seemed to
x-ray the rot in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Although I agree with some of the
points the editorial made, I strongly
disagree with its conclusion that if
the Niger Delta ministry and the
commission cannot justify their continued existence
and overcome its propensity for corruption then
they should be scrapped.
It is clear the paper, with all due respect, wrote
from the prism of ignorance.
I will be deceiving myself and misleading my
readers if I write that I am proud of all that has
taken place in the commission.
While I do not have statistical facts to counter
whatever the Office of the Auditor General of the
Fderation has said, I must say that it is not true that
the commission has not achieved anything since
its creation.
Yes, a lot of financial malfeasance has taken
place under various leaderships of the commission, it remains a fact that the NDDC has impacted
on the lives of the people of the Niger Delta.
I believe that those who have mismanaged the
resources of the commission can be made to account for them. The laws of the land are sufficient
to prosecute them.
With several major and rural roads constructed
to interlink various communities; thousands of
water projects in several communities; several
health programmes carried out to treat the aged
and the weak in the region, and several rural electrification projects in all nine states, mass transit
programmes, plus an avalanche of educational
programmes and projects which has seen many
scholarships awarded to deserving sons and
daughters of the region, and the over eight big
hostels built in various institutions of higher learning in the region which is currently accommodating over 16,000 students etc., it is preposterous to
declare that nothing has been achieved.
It must also be clarified that contrary to the misleading opinion of the editorial that the Ministry
of Niger Delta was created out of the frustration
of the NDDC, let it be said that the late President
Yar’Adua created the ministry to complement and
accelerate the development needs of the region.
It will also interest the newspaper to know that
contrary to the impression that the “Niger Delta
leaders” are behind the failure of contracts, that
contractors in the commission are spread across
the country, including even the northern regions.
While agreeing that the commission could have
achieved more, I will rather see its contributions
as being swallowed by the depth of decay and
neglect which the region had suffered over the
years.
Yet, it is even more damaging and mischievous
to suggest that because neither the ministry nor
the commission has met the full aspiration of the
people, they should be scrapped. If scrapping of
institutions is the next logical step when they fail,
then there would be no Nigeria itself. Pray, how
many communities have access to potable water in
Seminitari
Nigeria, despite the fact that the Ministry of Water
product of commendable mental rigour on crisis
Resources has existed for over 40 years in this
resolution.
country? Has Daily Trust called for the scrapping
Yes, the commission needs a re-jig, as is being
of that ministry?
witnessed now by the Mrs Ibim Seminitari-led
I believe that the suggestion of scrapping both
administration, but all monies owed the comthe commission and the ministry is likened to
administering a drug that will kill both the disease mission by the federal government and the oil
companies must be released so the resources to
and the patient.
radically develop the region are made available,
If the newspaper understands the background
of the creation of the interventionist agency/minis- knowing that the commission is responsible
for the development of nine states across three
try, scrapping them can never be a solution.
geo-political regions of the country.
Indeed, such totalitarian suggestion is hardly a
Islamic Coalition and the Anti-Terrorism Fight
D
Buhari
uring the week, one of
the major issues that
trended in the social
media is the rumour(?) that
Nigeria is now a member
of the Organisation of
Islamic Community (OIC),
a phenomenon that sparked
students’ riots in the 90’s.
The issue arose from the interview
President Muhammadu Buhari granted Al
Jazera TV where he agreed that Nigeria was a
member of the Coalition of Islamic Countries
against terrorism. It was one of the outcomes
of his recent tour of the middle east countries.
Given the pounding Nigeria has received
from terror gangs led by the notorious Boko
Haram, one will be tempted to say that
whatever and however the Islamic terrorists
will be exterminated, not just “degraded”,
should be supported and encouraged.
This is especially as the Boko Haram has
operated without deference to religious affinity. Both Muslims and Christians have been at
the receiving end of their attacks.
However, it is curious that Mr President not
only unilaterally took Nigeria into such a coalition without recourse to even the National
Assembly, the identity and nomenclature of
the coalition is suspect.
Yes, I can reason that the said countries
are just concerned on how to deal with the
menace of terrorism across the globe, yet I
worry that it is only Islamic countries that
are in such a coalition. Why are non-Islamic
countries who have also been victims of terror
attacks not members of the coalition?
The Foreign Affairs minister, Godfrey
Onyema had explained that it has nothing
to do with religion, stressing that the Islamic
countries are worried about their image
since terrorism is being perceived as a part of
Islam, hence they are determined to fight it
and prove that they have nothing to do with
terrorism.
But the mere appendage of the coalition as
being that of “Islamic Countries” suggests
that Nigeria is an Islamic country, if Nigeria
belongs to the coalition. And that is the sore
point. Mr Honourable minister, Is Nigeria
an Islamic country as to warrant being in a
coalition so described for whatever purpose?
Many of those who opposed Buhari’s
presidency during the elections had claimed
at the time that he would take Nigeria into
the OIC. Even though the said coalition is
not OIC, many Christian faithfuls see the
membership of the coalition as not only a
prelude to joining the OIC, but only a breath
away. Belonging to such a coalition generates
fears and anxiety among non-muslims in
the country and Mr President cannot really
dismiss the fears as unwarranted.
Religion is such a sensitive issue in Nigeria.
No leader can treat it without requisite
circumspect.
15
INSIGHT
Brief History of The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
I
Jon West
n the early 1980s, I started work as a
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)
member at the Falomo, Lagos headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), having been earlier
recruited at an interview overseas. Brandishing a freshly minted post graduate
degree in engineering, I was quite glad to
come home to serve my country which paid for
my search for the Golden Fleece.. As I ascended
the stairs of the rather shabby headquarters
building of the National Oil Company(NOC) of
Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil producer and
OPEC kingpin, I knew something was amiss.
How could this shabby building, alive with noisy
humanity be the head office of the NNPC? Alas,
it was and I instinctively knew that by accepting
to work in this place, I may have made a grave
career mistake. However, as an altruistic young
man, ready to learn and help grow his country, I
decided to weather the storm and forge ahead
like most of the other engineers I saw milling
listlessly in overcrowded offices. It did not take
much to realize that this was a dysfunctional
organization peopled by the best brains the
country had produced. The irony of this situation
is that it subsisted for the next several decades and
till this day.
Sometime in the next year, having been fully
absorbed into the Corporation after completing
the mandatory one year NYSC service( I was
below 30 and therefore had to do the NYSC
before I could be absorbed even though I had a
letter of employment), I fortuitously accompanied the top brass of NNPC to a meeting with the
PresidentialAdviser on Petroleum Matters,Alhaji
Yahaya Dikko at the dingy offices of the Federal
Ministry of PetroleumResources , located at the
dysfunctional Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi. What
transpired at that meeting wounded my young
soul and made me take a difficult decision a few
years later.
At the meeting with Dikko, the NNPC top
brass comprising the then General Managers(
equivalent of the current Executive Directors) and
theActing Managing Director , informed Dikko
that NNPC was returning about $250 million
unspent budget for the previous operational year.
Dikko was livid. He asked the delegation why
they had to return unspent money, when NNPC
had no new development projects - refineries,
petrochemical plants, Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) etc. He was obviously disappointed with
these people who had no idea of what to do with
money, no investment culture . I was shocked that
these were my mentors and that my future will be
determined by these obviously under equipped
men, who had been entrusted with the economic
backbone of the country. They left Dikko’s office
thoroughly perplexed , but I was not, because I
was on the same page with Dikko ( May his soul
rest in peace). Having interacted with officials
ofADNOC(Abu Dhabi), NIOC (Iran), PDVSA
(Venezuela), Pertamina(Indonesia) and Petronas
(Malaysia) ,I was quite disappointed to see that
the leaders of NNPC were not the entrepreneurial
type and on further enquiry the reason for this
state of affairs dawned on me.
All these Executive Directors of NNPC,
including the CEO, were physics graduates of
the University of Ibadan. Physics graduate civil
servants were hired to set up the NNPC in a
country awash with engineers and earth sciences
graduates and experts . No wonder Dikko had to
teach them business.
In the early 1990s, a short-tenured Petroleum
Minister, in order to ingratiate himself with the
military dictator of the time, revealed to the
dictator, the fact of a horde of cash in excess of 1
billion dollars in the coffers of NNPC. The grateful
dictator promptly “borrowed” about $800
million from this stash of cash and that was the
beginning of the end of financial independence
of NNPC and it’s uncontrolled descent to the
current sorry pass. The dictator’s “loan” ended
the financial independence of NNPC, but one
is constrained to ask why an Organisation with
very few assets at the time ,was sitting on a
hoard of cash which attracted the interest of the
rapacious military regimes like bees to honey. The
management of NNPC had always been challenged to emulate theirAsian, SouthAmerican
andArab counterparts. Unfortunately, it appears
Kachikwu
that they did not have the mettle for this challenge
and failed woefully in their role as the guardians
of the national hydrocarbon resources.
The disaster that NNPC has become started
in 1972, when a physicist was preferred to an
engineer, as CEO, at the inception of the Nigerian
National Oil Company(NNOC) , the precursor
to the NNPC, because of the post civil war politics
of war booty and the divine right of the victorious
soldiers of the Nigerian army. Engineer Odor,
a Kalabari citizen of Rivers State , appointed by
General Yakubu Gowon as the first Managing
Director of NNOC, was brushed aside by the
booty politics of the Supreme Military Council
and instead, an Ibadan-trained physicist in the
person of Chief. Festus Marinho, a favoured son
of the times, was appointed to replace him, a few
weeks after he was named the Managing Director. This sad situation of injustice and dysfunction
heralded the birth of NNOC/NNPC and the
Corporation has not recovered till this day. In
1977, the NNPC was fully incorporated by the
merger of the Directorate Division of the Ministry
of Mines and Steel and the NNOC.
Since the foregoing inauspicious beginning,
the NNPC has staggered from one unfortunate
scandal to another; from the N2.8 billion scandal
( when the Naira was worth nearly $2) to the
Strategic Reserves, Bunkering, Halliburton,
Willbross and more recently the serial subsidy
and “missing money” scandals. The trouble
with NNPC is the trouble with Nigeria, pure and
simple. The Corporation has always been run like
Nigeria is run and has ended up like Nigeria, a
perennially underachieving business.
Whenever I hear people comparing the NNPC
with other National Oil Companies, I can’t help
but wonder about the naïveté of the Nigerian,
either as a commentator or journalist.Apeople
get the National Oil Company that they deserve,
just as they get the leaders and politicians that
they deserve. The trouble with the perennially
underachieving NNPC is that the rapacious
politicians and their comprador allies in the
“private sector”( there is really no such a thing
as the private sector in Nigeria, as everybody is
feeding off the oil revenue streams using rentier
enterprises) cannot let the Corporation be.
The former Minister of Petroleum Resources ,
OPEC chairman and nowAmayanabo of Twon
Brass, Dr Edmund Daukoru, once wondered at
a meeting of the Group Executive Committee of
NNPC , why Nigerian politicians, unlike their
counterparts in other oil producing countries, do
not allow their National Oil Company (NOC)
operational independence, which will enhance
the economic prospects of both the Corporation and the nation at large.According to the
bewildered Daukoru, who himself was earlier
indicted for corruption with Funso Kupolokun, a
former Group Executive Director and later Group
Managing Director of NNPC , the politicians in
Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Venezuela etc., allow
their NOC independence unlike the Nigerian
situation where NNPC is the President’s and
politicians’ source of slush funds.
It is ironic that in spite of the terrible years of the
Red Terror in Ethiopia, under the brutal regime
of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam , the national airline, EthiopianAirlines , was given total
operational and financial independence by the
dictator and even his successors till this day. Is it
then any wonder that EthiopianAirlines isAfrica’s
premier airline while NigeriaAirways,Air Nigeria
etc have since become historical relics. NNPC is
therefore on the road to becoming the petroleum
industry equivalent of NigeriaAirways,Air
Nigeria,Nigerian National Shipping Lines etc
unless a long- delayed rescue mission is devised by
the Nigerian people(not the politicians).
NNPC is the only NOC still involved in
Joint-Venture contracts production regime
with International Oil Companies such as Shell,
ChevronTexaco,Total and ExxonMobil.All other
major NOCs have since graduated to running
their NOCs as pseudo private Corporations,
hence the business successes of Petrobras(Brazil),
Pertamina(Indonesia), Petronas( Malaysia),
PDVSA(Venezuela) and even the newcomer
Sonangol ofAngola which was set up a little more
than a decade ago, after the devastatingAngolan
civil war.
Sonangol has operating concessions in Brazil,
Iraqi Kurdistan and even Nigeria, but NNPC
does not exist outside of Nigeria after 40 years of
existence!! This is a crying shame for a pioneer of
the petroleum business on theAfrican continent.
Even little EGPetrol of Equatorial Guinea is rated
ahead of NNPC in management and business
culture . How low can you get as a Corporation?
An interesting result of this state of affairs, is the
fact that while Petronas of Malaysia has a global
staff strength of over 150,000 on the basis of the
production of 600,000 barrels per day of oil in
Malaysia alone and Liquefied Natural Gas and a
myriad of global business ventures, NNPC which
manages the production of over 2.7 million barrels
per day in Nigeria only and also has an LNG
business, only has a staff strength of below 10,000
in total.
The inability to progress the Joint VentureAgreements to a more nationalistic and entrepreneurial
arrangement is the result of the economic rentseeking mentality of the Nigerian operators of the
oil and gas business and the low business intellect
of successive NNPC management. The Joint
VentureArrangements entered into in the 1970s
allows NNPC to operate the Joint Ventures after
about 20 years , but till date NNPC has made no
effort to operate any of the the Joint Ventures, even
though it operates it’s wholly-owned upstream
company , the NPDC, however, with very limited
efficiency, due again to political interference.
Local Sole Risk producers( most of whom
received NPDC assets and reserves as gifts from
the military dictator Babangida), wholly owned
and managed by Nigerians, have been reasonably
successful in the running of the upstream business
with examples of Seplat ofAustinAvuru and
ABC Orjiako, Consolidated Oil of MikeAdenuga,
the marginal fields producers etc., so why is it
difficult for the 40 year old NNPC to run the 2.8
million barrels per day Joint ventures operations?
The reason is embedded in a lack of political will,
ambition and hedonistic rentseeking behavior
of Government and the intellectually challenged
management of NNPC.
NNPC’s past and present woes derive from
a mixture of continuos and debilitating Government interference and a non entrepreneurial
management with a servile political and business
culture. There is a saying that nobody gives you
power, you grab it if you want it badly. NNPC
management has most of the time been filled with
political CEOs who are grateful to be appointed to
the position and will never rock the boat or have an
opinion that will upset the Minister or President.
Unlike his counterparts in other NOCs who
have security of tenure, the Group Managing
Director of NNPC can be sacked with ignominy
and impunity, and in reality owes his position to
the whims and caprices of either the Minister of
Petroleum or the President. However, no NNPC
CEO has dared rock the boat even when it is
obvious that compliance and genuflection to the
powers -that -be cannot guarantee survival. The
bottom line is that NNPC GMDs have almost
always been wimps, not deserving of the exalted
office of the CEO of the the biggest oil producing
company on theAfrican continent. The result of
all this is a torpid organization, where form takes
precedence over substance and there is an inverse
relationship between effort and reward.
This situation has gotten so bad that in recent
times, a particularly servile GMD of NNPC has
been photographed carrying the hand bag of
a female Minister at a foreign airport , helping
to arrange the Minister’s birthday party and
genuflecting before a former GMD at a public
function. How can such a CEO do anything useful to lift the fortunes of the Corporation? How
can he afford to surround himself with the best
people who can drive a positive development
agenda for the Corporation?
The current subsidy and missing funds public
relations disaster has further exposed the near
absence of intellectual capital in the Corporation.
It is so easy to explain the subsidy issue and the
“missing “ funds , because NNPC here is a victim
being painted as the villain. However, the poor
quality management of the Corporation have
found the simple task to be very daunting and
have instead preferred to dabble in the dangerous and banal waters of Nigerian politics.
As a former NNPC insider and veteran
of battles with the rent-seeking cabals in the
NationalAssembly, I am aware that NNPC is
mostly innocent of the accusations against it,
as perhaps, the result of the forensic audit has
shown , but the Corporation needs an intellectually articulate and confident management
to take on the rapacious wolves in the National
Assembly and the doubting, perhaps envious
public(why is NNPC the preferred choice of
almost all job seekers ?). It is really a simple
matter, but you can’t give what you don’t have.
That is a basic principle in law and in life also,
and unfortunately, the people who ran and are
running NNPC did not and still do not have
much to give. That is the Nigerian tragedy!!!!
Epilogue
In 2015, under theAPC Government, enter Dr
Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu, as the new GMD of
NNPC. Suave,well educated and experienced
in the legal aspects and murky politics of the
Nigerian oil industry, and formerly Executive
Vice President of ExxonMobilAfrica, he exudes
confidence, panache and intellect. However, like
all the past GMDs of NNPC, he was appointed
by a political and interfering President, who
to make matters worse, also doubles as the
Petroleum Minister, on the strength of previous
disastrous stints in the petroleum industry. Kachikwu is a good showman, but the petroleum
industry is not run successfully by showmen.
There is a long way between Hollywood and the
oil patches of Texas and Oklahoma, between the
mirage of the opulent NNPC Towers inAbuja
and the reality of the dying Oredo and Oziengbe
fields in Edo State. One deals in dreams and
fantasies, while the other always has to confront
reality. Perception is reality, and reality drives
perception.
This week, Kachikwu, who doubles as the
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, a patent illegality under the PetroleumAct, finally announced the long expected(over three decades)
and perpetually postponed restructuring of the
NNPC behemoth into 5 major businesses and 30
subsidiaries. This is good news for the beleaguered petroleum sector, but since the NNPC is
still under the total control of Government, this
restructuring will remain cosmetic, even if it is,
admittedly, a step forward. The real potential of
the petroleum industry will be unleashed when
these businesses are partially or totally privatised
like the Great Leap Forward in the telecommunications and power sectors. However, looking
at the antecedents of the powers- that- be and
Nigeria’s sociopolitical and economic realities,
this coming restructuring may not be worth the
paper on which it is printed. The new President
is an unrepentant advocate of the command and
control economy and does not hide his aversion
to the free market and attendant deregulation
and privatisation.
Who will appoint the management and staff of
these emerging entities? Obviously the Government; so we can forget efficiency and quality and
key in Nepotism, Federal Character(read quota
system) and sundry stereotypes . However, this
is still a step in the right direction, but show business, petroleum law and IOC experience will not
help Kachikwu in his new endeavour and the
President, like the proverbial leopard, will never
change his political and economic philosophy
spots. So, the beat goes on? Perhaps the emerging
economic depression will encourage a change of
direction? Fingers crossed.
–– Jon West, Benin City.
16
Plus
INTERIOR
AUTO
GLOBAL SOCCER
FAIRGOUND
FITNESS
FASHION FILE
pg. 21
pg. 26
pg. 29
pg. 36
pg. 40
pg. 41
Florence Ita-Giwa
I’m Still Hoping to
Find the Right Man to
Spend the Rest of My
Life With
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER MARCH 12, 2016
18
Plus
My Relationship with Obasanjo
Didn’t Start off Well
Powerful, prominent, prosperous and philanthropic, she exudes a larger than life aura. Gracefully rotund, her gait is endearing. The
flickering smile on her face is enchanting. Tastefully decked in luxurious ornaments, her superlative sense of dress and grooming
is legendary. Nimble-footed, quick-witted and down-to-earth, she is perhaps one of the most powerful women in Nigeria. A onetime medical professional now politician, she is reputed with the struggle of Bakassi people. Yes, she is Mama Bakassi; she is a
quintessential Nigerian decorated with the honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). An engaging politician – both at
the grassroots and the centre stage – wealthy and philanthropic, she wines with the rich and dines with the less privileged. Even
at 70, her age-defying beauty and youthfulness are superlative. Senator Florence Ita-Giwa is a robust personality; an Amazon. In
this interview with Oge Ezeliora, Ita-Giwa speaks about her desire not to remain single for the rest of her life and why she has not
remarried. She also talks about how she has excelled as a woman in politics and the age-old secret to her ageless beauty
H
ow do you feel at 70?
I feel much fulfilled and
I give glory to God that I
am celebrating 70 and by
the grace of God in good
health, both physically and
mentally; I feel very settled
in my mind. The most
interesting thing is that I am very certain
that I am in the right place that I should be.
I feel much fulfilled with my family, with
my work, with my charity and the position
I rose to in my career as a politician.
You hardly look 70; any secret?
I think the answer I always give first is
that probably because the year runs so fast;
the number of the years you are carrying or
you have attained doesn’t allow your body
to adjust to the time. However, naturally
in my family, we age gracefully and from
where I come from as an Efik woman –
from the time you come into this world as a
female you are made to appreciate the fact
that it is beautiful to be a female. Whatever
your aspirations are, whether you aspire to
be the president of a country or a medical
doctor, the number one thing is, don’t lose
your femininity. As a Calabar woman
one is taught how to look after oneself; so
we age gracefully. The idea is not to look
young. I don’t want to be young – the
idea is to age gracefully. So for that reason,
knowing that my body is very receptive to
food, I have a tendency to be fat, all my life,
I have battled with weight gain leading
me always to watch what I eat and it has
turned out well. I made it a routine at the
end of every day to find at least one hour
where I relax my mind and my body. At
the end of the day I enjoy a good dinner,
listen to news, watch TV, listen to music
and then before I go to bed, I give myself
some 30 minutes of pampering.
What would you say are your
achievements so far?
I think it will be very immodest to start
outlining my achievements but to be very
modest, I think my greatest achievement
is bringing up the children of Bakassi and
turning them to normal human beings
and seeing the children grow; putting
them in the best schools and giving them
as much exposure as possible, nationally,
internationally and seeing them develop
confidence in themselves; and seeing them
speak well and seeing them excel in school.
That is my number one achievement – the
success story of my children of Bakassi.
Besides that, my children have done well
and my family is tremendously successful
by the grace of God. In politics too, I have
been successful, rising to the pinnacle of
my career which in a country as big as Nigeria not many women can attain. I was a
member of the House of Representatives. I
have done two conferences: constitutional
and national; I have won election to the
senate twice. I have been advisers to two
presidents; two very successful presidents.
So I feel that I have done well in my chosen
field. Even before I went into politics, I did
well in my medical profession.
Why did you venture into politics?
I went into politics because I needed a
platform to address the issue of Bakassi
people and to also use that same platform
to help the underprivileged; to speak for
those who have been trampled upon.
I think I did not go into politics for the
Ita-Giwa
purpose of contesting and winning elections. I went to use the platform and today
I am celebrating my 10 years of service to
humanity. I work round the clock which
means that is a wonderful platform for me
to address issues of the downtrodden and
also take part in the development of my
country. So it is a fantastic platform.
What do you think about the current
state of the PDP?
It calls for people to learn a lesson. That,
first of all, if you have been in power for so
many years you should never take power
for granted. For the past 25 years that I
won election into the House of Representatives, I have not stopped working. You
can never take people for granted. We had
a very good man and perhaps, if he had
been given a second term, he could have
completed all his projects. Nobody ever
does well in the first term until the second
term for you to learn well on the job as the
president. But then the party itself didn’t
strategise well. We sat down and watched
people leave the party in anger without
trying to massage their ego to bring them
back. It is democracy. You cannot do
politics through dictatorship. Some people
including governors became terrorists and
bullies. Unfortunately, politics is about
who is the crowd puller. If you watch the
crowd pullers leave the party, how can you
win? We thought we could perform magic;
politics is spiritual. We don’t take it for
granted; if you play with power, God can
take that power away from you. Power is
spiritual.
Do you sometimes feel intimidated
by men?
I look at myself as a human being and I
don’t allow myself to be intimidated and
I don’t go out of my way to intimidate
people. I just know that all of us are in the
business of nation building. It is for you to
show your political strength.
Some see you as being tough; are
you?
It depends on their definition of ‘tough’.
But if there is anything as reincarnation,
I want to come back as a woman because
there is nothing as amazing and as sweet
as being a woman. Therefore, whether
you have to be a tough woman to survive
is what I don’t know. I know that I am a
good strategist; I strategise a lot on how to
survive in a country like Nigeria. If that is
called being tough, so be it.
What are your regrets in life?
Absolutely, no regrets. I thank God for
every good thing and every bad thing that
has happened to me. But I am very grateful
because God has compensated me with
good things for the bad things that happened to me. If I come back, I will still do it
the same way. I have enjoyed everything
that came along with what I chose to be in
life. From my career as a nurse to venturing into politics, I have enjoyed everything.
I have enjoyed it up to the point of still
dancing in the street at age 70. It’s all part
of it because politics is liberating and so I
can dance in front of a crowd of one million
people because it is my work. I am totally
liberated.
How was your growing up like?
I was born in Calabar Maternity Hospital. You know Calabar is very civilised
and the whole of that area – and from what
I was told, my mother was actually in an
evening dress at some annual ballroom
dance when she went into labour and was
taken to a hospital at Ikot- Ekpene and
from there to Calabar Maternity Hospital
as a result of complications arising from
blood loss during delivery where she had
me. My arrival into the world was very
eventful. When I grew up and started
my medical equipment business, the first
thing I did was to visit that hospital and
donated blood bank. I am from a very
hardworking family. My mother was a
journalist; she was a trader; she was also
a dressmaker in order to make ends meet.
My father was a civil servant; he used to
be a policeman, then a traditional ruler.
My younger brother is Yoruba so even in
the family we have Yoruba grandchildren.
The family is very Nigerian. It’s a family
where you have Calabar, Rivers, Igbo, and
Yoruba: every tribe is in the family. My
brother is an extremely quiet person. I am
trying my best to see to it that my brother’s
children do not grow up to be as quiet as
he is. My daughter, Koko, is very hardworking, very aggressive and well-driven
though quiet by nature. She is Efik and
her husband is Igbo. He too is also a very
serious young man; well brought up from
a decent family.
Why have you remained single since
the demise of your husband?
I remained single because I live by
example. I have brought up children that
as soon as they graduated from school,
they got married and have their own
children. If your environment is rough,
when you change partners then your
children are likely to grow up rough and to
change partners and as such I didn’t want
to take a risk of changing partners. However, I am a human being, there is need for
me to have a relationship but I decided
that at one point I have to be sure. I don’t
want to say that I didn’t see anybody that
was worth it but I am still sifting through
so that I don’t ever change partners. At
this stage of my life, if ever there will be a
partner, that partner would be my partner
for life. Secondly, I live a very busy life and
for most part of my life in the last 10 years,
I have done some very serious things that
I didn’t need that distraction. I had to take
care of my business and my service to
humanity. I did a lot of things that I was
not sure that I could have found a man that
will buy into that vision and again there
19
Plus
is issue of men feeling intimidated by successful career women and there is no way I
would have negotiated my career because
I have children. Though I do not intend to
ever change my name which has become a
brand I am not guaranteeing that I would
remain single.
I have amazing friends; I am socially
very busy as well but I have friends that
respect me and will not take advantage of
that friendship. I have very civilised male
friends who do not want to take advantage. So if I want to go for dinner I have
friends both Nigerian and non-Nigerians
that will take me out. I have friends that
will travel with me; we have very excellent
and decent relationship. However, I cannot
guarantee that I would remain single for
the rest of my life.
You had a successful working
relationship with former President
Olusegun Obasanjo and perhaps,
ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua. What
did you learn from them?
I think with Obasanjo, initially, we didn’t
take off well. While I was at the Senate and
he was the President, I think in the course
of my struggle for separation of powers
I joined the Okadigbo group to fight
for separation of powers. To be candid,
Obasanjo was a straightforward military
man and his desire to get things done at
the appropriate time is not negotiable.
Eventually, we became very good friends
with due respect; because today he is my
friend, my father and my mentor. I like
him tremendously. I still do not know any
human being who is more committed to
the success of this democracy and development of this country than Obasanjo. For the
four years I worked with him, he refused to
go to sleep and I saw that. It was pleasantly
and excitingly tiring, because he worked
round the clock, and I got to know my
country; so that is what he did to my life. I
got to know my country and got to know
Nigerians. I could make a good president
because of what I learnt from him.
Obasanjo believes in speed, efficiency and
superior arguments and I think till today I
am very impatient with anybody that does
not apply speed to the things they do.
What’s your advice for women in
managing life as they age?
One of the great facts of life is that age
is inevitable. I don’t see the big thing
about aging. That is basically why you
have what is called the evolution of life.
The young must grow and the old must
continue to grow as well. First of all, try
and imbibe the culture of looking after
yourself and eating healthy as early as
possible in life. One does not have to be
very rich to live in a healthy environment
and most important, it is necessary to
always have a clear mind. Do not keep
malice. If anybody offends you, you take
the person on. Have your arguments
and get things sorted out and maybe at
the end of the day, a superior argument
will win. Also know that in life as long as
one believes in God, there is no problem
without a solution. Whatever problems
one might face, always know that there
is a solution to that problem. Don’t just
live your life worrying about what you
shouldn’t worry about because I don’t. I
try to simplify life. Women must not be
scared of age. Whatever you aspire to be,
just plan it, put it in prayers and get rid of
fear. Go out and get it done.
I always tell people that I am a Calabar
woman and we are very civilised people
from beginning. There is nothing you can
do about age except to manage age and
not to allow age control your life. I don’t
do young things because I don’t want to be
young. I can’t remember the last time I did
young things because of my life has been
full of very profound responsibilities and
I was brought up by my mother to think
like an adult, to always take responsibility.
I do not dress young because I have grown
up children but I do not negotiate and will
never negotiate ageing beautifully and
gracefully. I will not negotiate aging with
my waistline in place so that I can get into
my pants, my jeans and my nice dresses.
That is non-negotiable. I have always
looked up to women like Jane Fonda,
Meryl Streep and Tina Turner. Those are
the women that inspire me because they
have always looked very good despite
their age. After looking at them, I don’t
want to be young; I just need to appreciate
myself.
How can a woman position herself
for achievements in Nigeria?
Generally, women always have the ability to manage the home and manage work.
I believe it is a natural thing with being a
woman especially being a good woman.
The fact that you are a woman does not
mean you shouldn’t have a career and also
does not mean that if you have a career that
you would not be able to run your home.
My mother was a very busy journalist but
she was an incredible mother and a fantastic housewife. As a matter of fact, I used to
see her do her report while cooking. I think
women naturally have that capacity to
manage the stress of running the home, the
children and their career.
Why do women find it hard to be
successful in politics?
I think it is not only in this part of the
world but generally everywhere. The rise
of women can be very meteoric because it
has been so. You know women were seen
as the weaker sex, as people that came into
the world to have children but that has
changed tremendously and it can change
a lot more if women conquer fear and
develop more confidence in themselves
because it is for you to develop the confidence and say yes I can do it. It is very
rough especially in the terrain of politics
and as long as a woman is in the terrain of
politics, there is a lot of antagonism and
so a woman will have to put in a hundred
times more than her male counterpart to be
able to succeed in politics and so it just for a
woman to develop that inner strength.
What has kept you going?
I think my inspiration comes from the
environment in which I grew up. I grew up
in an environment of very strong women. I
grew up amongst my mother and even my
father’s mother. Also, my terms of responsibility helped me. I grew up knowing
that I don’t have a choice than to do what
I have to do just like the Americans would
always say. That alone gives me a lot of
strength and courage. In addition, looking
at a lot of people that look up to me really
inspires me. There a lot of people that next
to God looks up to me. That again is indeed
inspiring; that is very energising.
What are your expectations with
younger women’s ability to adapt to a
just and moral life?
First of all, they have to appreciate the
fact that being a role model they have to
live by example. You must understand
and have to know that whatever you do in
life, people are watching you and they are
looking up to you and also they want to be
like you; which means that you would not
want to let them do what is not right. That
takes a lot of sacrifice for you to live up to
that expectation.
How much more are you planning
to dedicate to God and humanity for
charity?
For as long as I am alive and for as long
as I can walk which is what I pray to God
for. If it gets to a point that I cannot walk
from my bed I will be involved in charity
even though that will not happen because I
believe that by the grace of God I will live a
healthy life till the day I will go (die).
When would you call your best moments growing into womanhood?
(Laughs) Do you mean growing into
womanhood as a baby? My best moment in life was discovering myself as
a woman, discovering those things that
make a woman and discovering what
aspects of career I wanted to pursue at
the beginning of my own independence.
Also, meeting my husband, falling in love
and getting married, having children and
most recently would be adopting children
who today are doing amazingly well and
remaining my source of pride. Anytime I
look at them, I feel many inches taller than
I am. All these are the things that make
growing up get really exciting.
I Can Be a Good
President for Nigeria
Ita-Giwa
20
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • March 12, 2016
Loud Whispers
with JOSEPH EDGAR (09095325791)
Agiliti Riots
A lot of people do not know Agiliti in
Lagos. It is a suburb after Mile 12 market.
During one of my underground moves,
I used to pursue a pretty damsel to the
place. Those days, you will park your
car under the Mile 12 bridge, take a bike
up to a point, and jump into a canoe and
then another bike before finally getting
to Toyin’s house. After all the stress, I
will get there and see another man who
had left his house at 4am to get there
before noon. I will just sit down on the
staircase and cry. What kind of suffering
be this for a woman, even though she
was the prettiest in all Agiliti. Luckily, she
relocated to America and my sojourn to
Agiliti stopped. But sometime last week,
on my way back from Ikorodu, I decided
to take a visit there to greet her mum who
was still in Agiliti and who used to give
me a shoulder to cry on, whenever Toyin
decided to deal with me. The road was
well built this time, a new bridge had been
constructed and I could not believe that
this was where I used to hire rain boots and
risked drowning to come to see my Toyin
‘tomato.’But as I drove by I noticed a huge
concentration of our northern brothers and
remembered that it crossed my mind just
how easy the evil ones could infiltrate this
obviously hardworking people to cause
mayhem. Even at that, I still marveled
at the seeming co-existence between our
brothers from the north who brought in the
much needed pepper my Yoruba brothers
need for their staple stew. So I was really
taken aback when the news of the riots
broke. I hear a lot of people lost their lives
on both sides and it once again threw the
issue of ethnic and religious intolerance to
the front burner. I beg our leaders, this time
spiritual leaders to jump in and ensure that
we all begin to tolerate one another, live
peacefully especially at this time when the
hardship we face as Nigerians does not
respect any ethnic or religious divide. As
for Toyin and Agiliti, I say thank you, no
more visits from me. I don try.
Folly Coker’s Amala Joint
I have eaten so many times at Folly
Coker’s lounge in VI aptly named Browns
Cafe but never for once believed that
I could eat Amala at the place. Last
weekend, I got a call from my new friend,
an investment banker and serial entrepreneur. He had just finished reading Loud
Whispers and thought ever so strongly
that he had to reward me with a meal for
such beautiful writing. You see why some
people will remain great, others read, call
me and laugh but never offer me food.
Olisa Metuh, Ita-Giwa, Ben Bruce please
take note. Anyways, he said I should meet
him at Browns and I wondered if he was
going to give me meat pie to eat. Well, I
carried myself there and met one of the
best prepared Amala in this Lagos. Kai, I
counted 13 pieces of meat and the bowl
that it was served in was something else.
Jacob screamed immediately his own came
and I started salivating immediately I saw
his own. Kai, my people as a Calabar man,
I drank the food o. Ate all the meat and
thanked Jacob profusely for this experience. He just smiled. This Folly Coker, I
have tried to befriend him for sometime
now and he never even mentioned this
Amala, well thanks to him, I have discovered it and will be going there only on
salary day or better still I connive with his
driver who will hint me anytime his Oga is
there so I just use style and branch and get
the Amala for free. He you are the man o.
Adams Oshiomhole: ‘Dino
Malaye is a Lunatic with No
Matrimonial........
Ok here is my take. Baba
Oshiomhole went too far with this
response. Dino is a Senator of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and as
such cannot be a lunatic. I personally know this because I once saw
him somewhere in Ikoyi and he
greeted me well not like a lunatic
would. He was wearing a very fine
T-shirt with beautiful loafers though
not made in Nigeria sha. He walked
spritely and did not show any
sign of mental illness. So I do not
agree with this remark. But some
times people provoke others and
bring upon themselves this kind of
abuse. Of all the examples to use
to illustrate a position, it is that of
the very beautiful and I must say
exotic First Lady of Edo State. You
see beauty transcends boundaries
and forex. I would gladly buy all
the dollars at whatever rate to have
such a damsel in my house, so
my brother Dino something’s are
exempted from the ban list. Just
check the CBN list of embargoed
products and you will see the
exemption granted by the Government allowing the importation of
Ese Oruru - My Position
To me this was a love
story we just had
to spoil. The two
young people met
and fell in love.
The fact that she
was underage
did not deter
them and they
decided to do the
next best thing,
elope. Young
innocent love
knowing no ethnic or
religious boundaries. To
me the only issue here is her
age. But for that age, she had no business
falling in love, eloping or being abducted.
She should still be within the comfort of
her loving environment, being schooled
and prepared for an eventful adulthood.
They say she refused to leave her Romeo,
they say she was forcefully converted to
Islam, they say she was violated and today
she is pregnant with a lifetime of experiences. After reading various versions I
still don’t know the true position all I am
seeing are different stakeholders twisting
the story to cover their incompetence.
From the police both Bayelsa and Kano to
the Emir to the respective State Governments, to the ‘groom’s’ parents and most
of all her own parents. It’s sad, cause the
issues of religion and ethnic bigotry have
tainted this otherwise sweet story if only
she was of age. If only she was 18 and she
truly fell in love with her Muslim Romeo
beautiful mermaids not only from
Cape Verde but from all over the
world. Now this brings me to the
issue at hand, should bride price be
paid in forex or localised and this
is what I think the real issue is and
not whether someone is a lunatic
or not. I paid my dowry in Naira in
Shomolu and I am regretting. I paid
N2,000 at the time when the Naira
was exchanging for less than N100.
But you see that was not a very
good investment because 20 years
later the 2,000 is now almost worth
less than N50.00k But imagine if
I had gone the Oshiomhole way
to pay in forex at these exchange
rates, I would have begged my wife
to agree to a divorce so I can get
a refund. She would have accepted
because I would have given her a
small commission. So my people, an
expatriate wife is not only a good
thing but also a store of value. At
N300 to the dollar, you marry a
Rwandan or even an Afgain, after
12 months you divorce her and ask
for a refund by that time you will
be threatening the Forbes list. I tell
you.
and willingly converted to Islam to be
with him, defying all resistance from her
shallow minded people and both of them
standing strong in love resisting all wahala
from both sides. It would have been such
a sweet sweet story, like my own. You
know my people offered to commit
mass suicide if I went ahead to marry
my Yoruba princess and we both
eloped to Shomolu Local Government to have a secret wedding with
no Calabar or Yoruba people present.
Today, we have three very lovely
‘half caste’ kids after paving the way
for another two inter-tribal marriages
in my small family. So let’s go out there
and inter-marry as a solution to all this
religious and ethnic bigotry that is killing
this nation.
Buhari, School Fees, Forex and My Joy
My wife has given me an ultimatum.
My first son, Joseph Olusola Edgar, must
attend Yale. She gave this pronouncement
as soon as she stood up she was delivered
of the boy at the Onikan Health Centre. I
swallowed spittle and agreed. My people
as the guy is progressing, my fear is
increasing. Where will I see this school
fees. With the kind of salary I am earning,
how can I afford the forex laden school
fees. To make matters worse, everybody
around me have children schooling
abroad, even those according to her that
are ‘not up to me’. So you see my joy when
our great President announced gleefully
that the country can no longer afford to
fund the demand for international school
fees. I used style to drop the paper care-
lessly on the kitchen for her to see. She read
it and used the paper to wrap dry fish and
continued with her plan for Yale. I am in
trouble because now my wahala is almost
double as I would be exposed to the parallel market where the rate is as volatile as
my father-in-law’s temper. So the solution
for this is to push for a total ban on international studies( please don’t show my wife
this write up o, otherwise na couch I go
dey sleep with other deprivations) Buhari,
please let’s ban this thing jo after all we
have great schools here na. Schools that
produced your Vice President and other
prominent Nigerians. Let’s redirect these
funds into rebuilding and building great
schools locally again and we will be the
better for it. My wife must not see this o.
Cowardice wan kill me.
Femi Fani Kayode and the conspiracy
theories
Let me first congratulate this Egbon for
the birth of his son. God will allow him
grow in a united and prosperous Nigeria.
I just finished reading your treatise as
published on a Linda Ikeji Blog on the
Futa Jallon people or something like that.
As usual, the write up was reeking with
highly concentrated and accurate historical facts that made me clearly understand
the thinking and sociology of the Fulani
people especially their herdsmen. But here
is the thing , the conclusions as reached
in that write up remains in the realm of
theory at best conspiracy theory that
would in no way assist in resolving the
many issues that pervade our corporate
existence. My take is that with your growing influence, boldness and unparalleled
courage you should lead a pragmatic push
at democratically reclaiming power with
a view to harnessing the full potentials
of this country to the betterment of all
Nigerians. These theories only serve to
enlighten and educate us if at all while
the schisms continue to eat deep into the
fabric of our society. Is it the Futa Jallon
people who made PDP go choose that
kind of baggage as their chairman? Is it
the Fulani herdsmen that cause all the
distrust amongst even the Yorubas or the
Fulani herdsmen that is making Wike and
Amaechi to be at each other’s throats like
nursery school children? If the Fulani as
stated in your well written write up are a
cohesive people who think in collectives
and the betterment of their people as a
whole why won’t they rule and is it their
fault that we are saddled with selfish and
imbecilic leadership this side of the River
Niger? For me, I’d rather be in perpetual
servitude of the Fulani herdsman if the
chances of my children living a better life
is assured than being under a selfish and
clueless leadership like the last dispensation simply because they were bowler hat
or agbada, my take.
21
March 12 , 2016 • THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER
INTERIORS
5
Inexpensive Upgrades
That Boost Your
Home’s Value
22
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • March 12 , 2016
InterIors
5 Inexpensive Upgrades
I’ve just spent the last week doing up an apartment for a client who is looking to sell and as expected, is
trying to get the best value for the property. With property prices on the way down, now is a great time to
snap up that new pad you’ve been looking for and to start designing your dream home décor. For existing
property owners, however, the value of property right now could be a cause for concern, especially for
those looking to get the best possible deal for their bricks and mortar
I
f you’re feeling money minded at the
moment, you may be considering how
you can maximise the value of your
home – whether you simply want to
invest in sprucing up the place in a
way which makes a positive financial
difference, or are looking to sell up and
move onto pastures new. Applying a
fresh coat of paint and giving the place
a very thorough clean throughout are
definitely no-brainers. But what else can
you do to enhance the value of your home
without breaking the bank? To offer a
helping hand, we’ve put together a few
key interior design upgrades you can make
which will help to boost your home’s
value, inexpensively and quickly.
1. Choose “the Right Path”
First impressions count, and a warm
welcome is always well received. That’s
why one of the best ways to inexpensively
improve the look, feel and value of your
home is to update or install your walkway
to your front door. A clean, clear and
cared for pathway to the entrance to
your home instantly makes it feel more
inviting, helping to put potential buyers
in a positive mindset before they’ve even
crossed the threshold. Whether you choose
tile, gravel, brick or an alternative surface,
choose to decorate with pretty planting
or not – expend a little care on creating
“the right path” to boost the value of your
home.
2. Revamp your Front Door
By the same token, a smart front door
can work wonders for the perception,
desirability, welcome and therefore value
of your property. Exposed to the elements
24/7, our home’s exteriors can quickly
start to deteriorate and can begin to look
less than lovely before we’ve had a chance
to notice. From giving your front door a
simple fresh lick of a paint in a neutral
shade and giving your windows a hearty
clean, to replacing doors which have
suffered damage over time, investing in
your front door can add value to your
home quickly and easily.
3. Choose Tile
If you find yourself with a little extra
cash to spend on a bathroom or kitchen
update – choose tiling as your ideal flooring. Beautiful to look at, easy to maintain
and incredibly durable, buyers love tiled
floors and tiled areas will add instant value
to your home.
4. Upgrade Utility Items
It can be tempting to overlook the
everyday objects in your home and instead
focus on creating a more luxurious feel
with fixtures and fittings, but upgrading
the more practical, less glamorous items in
your home is far smarter when you’re keen
to boost its value. From toilets to taps, a
home which is made up of clean, modern,
well-made and long-lasting practical items
will always impress potential buyers.
5. Add Some Quick Fixes
If you are really strapped for time or
funds, or want to make a few finishing
touches, updating your fixtures is one of
the fastest and most affordable ways to
make a difference to the appearance and
value of your home, boosting its quality.
Focus on light fittings, handles and plumbing fixtures for a cheap, fast upgrade.
OMON
ANENIH-MORDI
For questions, comments, feedback and
help with your design dilemmas send an
email to [email protected]
We would love to hear from you
23
PEOPLE/INTERVIEW
Dozie Nwankwo
A Unique Philanthropist in the House
Chike Okeke
S
ome analysis and historians
see politics as a dirty game.
This is as a result of the
blackmail, kidnapping, and
killings of political opponents
and other negative activities
of politicians. The activities
of this category of people
therefore make politics a dirty game. In
contrast, there are a good number of people,
decent people who are in politics to improve
the lot of their people. They are not in politics
to make money and do not see it as a do or
die affair.
One such decent mind in politics is
Honourable Dozie Ferdinand Nwankwo
who was sworn in a few weeks ago as a
Member of the House of Representatives for
Njikoka, Anaocha and Dunukofia Federal
Constituency.
A native of Enugwu Ukwu in Njikoka
Local Government Area of Anambra State,
he bagged his BSc degree in Accounting
from the University of Port Harcourt Rivers
State and he is currently studying for his
MSc in Business Administration (Leadership
Option) in the University of the Liverpool
UK. His quest for professionalism and
specialisation routed him to many trainings,
conferences, and exhibitions around the
world including value world conference in
Amsterdam, value engineering exhibition
in China, Buffaloes fire-fighting equipment
exhibition in the USA, oil and gas exhibition
in Germany, Chemical spill cleanup pump
exhibition in Sweden etc. The giant strides
towards excellence have earned him series
of awards including the Peace Ambassador
Nwankwo
Award from Port Harcourt Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, Award of Excellence from rotary club Port Harcourt Igbo
Youth Corpers Awards etc.
It is in the area of Philanthropy and
human capital development that Nwankwo
has made his mark, leaving indelible
footprints. His Dozie Nwankwo Foundation, established just a few years ago
with the motto: Service to Humanity is a
household name all over Anambra State for
the far-reaching medical and educational
touch on the citizens. From the records of
the Foundation, over 44,000 people from 22
communities in Anambra Central Senatorial Zone have benefited from the various
programmes of the Foundation. A breakdown of the beneficiaries indicates that over
3000 widows have been assisted through
the poverty alleviation scheme, 500 people
have undergone eye surgery while over
1000 others have been treated for various
eye related illness and another 2000 given
medicated eye glasses. Over 50,000 exercise
books have been given to secondary school
students. The Foundation has so far drilled 3
boreholes spread within the 3 local government areas comprising the Federal Constituency. It is said that when the righteous are in
power, the people rejoice. So it is with Dozie
Nwankwo ala Onyendozi.
Nwankwo has been a man of the people
since he joined the murky waters of politics.
In 2011, he contested for the same Federal
Constituency seat under the banner of the
former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
and clearly won the election, but the usual
abracadabra of politics of Anambra State
could not allow the people will to prevail.
He persevered and continued with his
programmes of assistance to humanity.
Again, he won convincingly in the 2015
elections, this time under the banner of All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). The
forces of intimidation, power connection
at the highest level of government in the
country and in the electoral body could
not allow his victory to prevail despite
winning at all the polling booths. But since
the Almighty God is the overall winner in
every contest, the denial of his victory could
not be pulled through this time around. The
convincing victory was confirmed by the
Election Petition Tribunal and affirmed by
the Court of Appeal in Enugu.
Nwankwo has the Youth Empowerment
and Assistance to small scale enterprises
as his main focus. He believes that establishment of ICT centers in the various
communities will assists the youths acquire
knowledge to be on their own while skill acquisition in soap production and other small
scale businesses will keep some youths busy.
He sees the problem of erosion as a major
one in his constituency and believes it needs
serious federal government attention. He is
of the view that APGA is the party to beat in
Anambra state since it derives its appeal and
mass following from the grass roots. He is
very confident that Chief Victor Umeh will
emerge victorious in the Anambra Central
rerun election when it is held. He is full of
praises for the administration of Governor
Willie Obiano. Having tackled the serious
problem of security and made our people
to return home for celebrations without fear
of kidnapping, he has indeed revived the
former motto of the state Home for All and
Investors are now coming into state in their
numbers.
On his relationship with Prince Arthur
Eze, the scion of the Eze family whose
cousin he defeated in the election, he says
that the prince has always been his political
mentor and one of the giants of industry and
commerce in the state.
Nwankwo is a rising star in the firmament
of Anambra state and will definitely make
an impact in the politics of the state both at
present and in the future. A gold fish has no
hiding place.
–– Okeke is a political analyst
Kashamu: Government Should Not Fund Political Parties
Senator representing Ogun East District at the National Assembly, Prince Buruji Kashamu believes that President
MuhammaduBuharihasallittakestostemtheriseofcorruptioninthecountry.Healsospeaksonthecurrentfuelscarcity
aswellastheForexcrisisinNigeriainaninterviewwithjournalistsinLagos.OlaoluwakitanBabatundewasthere. Excerpts:
I
t has been said that the anticorruption war of President Buhari
is targeted at members of the PDP.
What is your view on this?
I am shocked and embarrassed by
comments that the trial of the people
who allegedly misappropriated money
that was meant to buy weapons in the
war against insurgency is a political witch-hunt
of members of my party, the PDP. The master
minds of that crime wanted the war to escalate
and if that had happened unchecked, the
insurgency would have spread to other regions
of the federation. The insurgents were already
violating the peace of Abuja with tragic bombings and it would have been just a matter of time
for states like Kogi, Edo, Ondo and Ekiti states,
that are just a couple of hours away from Abuja,
to be affected. The energy dissipated on undue
criticisms and media bashing could be channelled into proffering alternative solutions to the
issues affecting us as a nation. As at today, our
security agencies have succeeded in weakening
and pushing back the Boko Haram elements.
President Buhari has his work clearly cut
out for him because this ongoing fight against
corruption must be valiantly and consistently
fought until Nigeria is free from the menace of
corruption. This fight must be fought at all cost
because it is the fight for the soul and future
of our great country. It is a fight for the dignity
of the citizen who is vulnerable at the point of
rendering his patriotic duty just like some of
the people who have been implicated in this
unfortunate arms money scandal.
Political parties continually engage in fund
raising and it is difficult to know the difference
between money that was raised from such an
exercise and money that was stolen from the
treasury. Only those in government knew the
true sources of the funds that they disbursed.
And now, our great party, the PDP, is being
stigmatized. The PDP is a good party that, like
any other human organization, got infested
with bad people. As a matter of fact, many high
net worth individuals in the party and outside
donated money for the last elections.
But the money was not managed by the PDP.
It was mostly members of the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) that managed campaign funds
in their various states. Thus, any party man
sent to pick up campaign funds from them will
simply assume that he was going to pick up
money the party got from its fund raising and
not misappropriated government money.
Are you saying parties should not be
funded by government?
The culture that makes it possible for the
party in power to be financed with public funds
should be completely eradicated. It is high time
parties looked for creative ways to fund their
activities. Members should make donations
and pay dues to their parties. Party administrators should rise above mere sloganeering and
find a way to implement this. We should get
to the point that parties will stop laying claims
to public resources simply because their flag
bearers won the elections. In fact, independent
candidates should be encouraged to contest
elections, and it will be catastrophic if they
too decide to treat public resources like their
personal estate.
Do you think the political class cares
about the people?
The cry of the suffering masses is palpable
and nothing should be left undone in the quest
to alleviate the level of poverty and despondency in our nation. Whenever I remember
how uncomfortable some top public officials
were with a few days’ delay in the payment of
salaries, I wonder about what it is like for lessprivileged Nigerians across the states whose
salaries have not been paid for months.
This is not the time for grandstanding and
Kashamu
patronizing before the very same people that
the political class is destroying. I have repeatedly said that we are done with the campaign
and this is the time to knuckle down in unity
and work for the people who voted us in. Let
us all save the partisan arguments for the next
campaign. Now, we all must team up with
the President. We must at this time mobilize
support for the Federal Government from the
masses in our various constituencies because,
God forbids, if anything untoward happens
to the Federal Government, it will affect all the
other national and state institutions, and more
importantly, the masses.
This counsel is the moral obligation I owe to
my people and should not be misconstrued as
an attempt to switch from my party, the PDP, to
the APC. When the elections come again, I will
be a war horse for my party. But, right now, I am
pitching in to contribute my quota to national
reconstruction.
Nigeria is experiencing another round of
fuel scarcity. How can we put this behind
us?
First, it should be noted that the fall in the
price of oil is a global phenomenon. And for
a nation that generates over 80 percent of its
revenue from oil, the fall in price was bound
to affect us, especially when we failed to save
for a rainy day. Let us all be realistic instead
of playing on the intelligence of the masses.
Nigeria is experiencing the consequences of
the destructive tendencies and policies of past
administrations that failed to act responsibly
by dangerously creating the impression that
Nigeria was making progress. The writing was
visible on the wall and it would have just been a
matter of time before Nigeria fell flat on its face
without the current intervention.
The current attempts to revamp the sector are
being sabotaged by remnants of that clique at
the NNPC and its depots who are determined
to continue selling products above approved official rates. While Mr. President and the Minister
of State for Petroleum Resources are working
hard to reposition the oil sector, there is a clique
that is hell-bent on frustrating their efforts. They
ask the oil marketers to pay the official rate
of N75 per litre into the officially-designated
accounts and then ask them to pay a difference
of between N30 and N35 per litre into a private
account or bring it in cash. It is only those who
cooperate with them that they allocate products.
When the difference is added to the official rate,
it shoots the price up to over N100 per litre.
To solve this problem, I think the allocation of
petroleum products should be centralised, and
the EFCC should be empowered to investigate
transactions between the depots and oil
marketers and scrutinize their finances in a bid
to fish out unjustifiable funds. Henceforth, there
should be a verifiable census of all marketers
who are eligible for allocations and such
allocations should be made from the office of
the Minister in Abuja. This will be a replication
of the BVN in the oil sector.
Continued online www.thisdaylive.com
24
EXPRESSION
MEDIAGAFFES
BY
In A Shambles
T
HISDAY Front Page of February 27 contained two blunders:
“…they also have reason to
mourn a sad news that filtered
in from the Supreme Court.”
‘News’ is uncountable. So,
mourn sad news that….
“He also said the first five
counts against Ezeugo was (were) for
attempted murder which carried a penalty
of 20 years (years’) imprisonment….”
“But we must join hands together to fight
this corruption in Nigeria because….” Do
we join hands separately? ‘Join together’ is
Abrahamic English conservatively explicated in the Bible!
“For me, what is happening now in a few
years (years’) time every one (everyone) will
be thanking God for this President.”
“Life returning back to parts of Borno State
as security stabilises” Yank off ‘back’, which
is implied in ‘returning’ to avoid padding.
“Air Force bursts job recruitment (jobrecruitment) syndicate”
“NDLEA seize (seizes) N5m cannabis in
Kogi”
Still on THISDAY under reference: “How
does he convince Rivers people that the
insecurity that stares them on (in) the face
daily is a choice they made?”
“The payment process, she said, has (had)
been automated for the convenience of
pensioners.”
“…asks if Emenike can catch (cash) in on
his loan spell….”
“After two weeks (weeks’) break due to
the English FA Cup….”
“NFF reappoints Siasia as Eagles (Eagles’)
coach”
“Fire guts late (the late) Audu’s office
complex, vehicles destroyed”
From City News of February 29 comes the
next goof: “Why I threw seven-year-old boy
in (into) septic tank”
“We’ll commission (inaugurate) new
facility next month”
“…was a giant Iroko in the forest of
contemporary African and Nigerian art.”
There is no lilliputian Iroko! Therefore, the
amplification is unnecessary. The man was
an Iroko…conveys the same message.
“It is even more worrisome that while
the economy is already in shambles (a
shambles) and insecurity pervades the
land….”
NATIONAL MIRROR of March 3 offered
readers improprieties right from its front
page: “National Assembly, NASS, yesterday
said it has (had) scheduled March 17 to pass
the Appropriation Bill of N6.08 trillion.”
“Bello assures on resolving Kogi, Anambra oil dispute” Who did he assure?
The Guardian on Saturday of March 5
nurtured two infelicities: “Southeast bound
(Southeast-bound) passengers stranded at
Lagos Airport”
“JTF says Kano not under any threat, as
it deploys armoured vehicles on (to) major
streets”
NATIONAL MIRROR of March 7 contributed the next six infelicities: “Facilities at
AOCOED excites (why?) NCCE team”
“I had it rough at (in) the beginning—Proprietress, Carol School”
“CAF mourns late Somalia FA boss” A
rewrite: CAF mourns Somali FA boss. Do we
mourn someone who is alive?
“CSR: Between philantropy and palliatives” Brands and marketing: philanthropy”
“...Toure’s kids’ gloves treatment of the
Tuareg rebels (rebels’) insurgence as its main
reason to....” All the facts, all the sides: kid
gloves
THE NATION ON SUNDAY of March 6
contained a catalogue of solecisms: “Woman
arrested for killing mum” It is obvious
that the sub-editor who treated this story
has never heard of ‘matricide’! So, woman
arrested for matricide.
“The elevation of some police officers
and retirement of 13 Assistant Inspectors
General has (have) led to some bad blood
(delete the word preceding bad blood) in
the force....” Elevation and retirement are
distinct milestones that cannot be collapsed
into singularity!
“When Hafeez Ringim, then an Assistant
Inspector General (a comma) was elevated
to the rank of Inspector General (another
comma) all his seniors (DIGs) had to retire.”
No truth: they were retired to pave way for
the Ringim ultimate disaster!
“Your ability to work out (answer/do)
knotty political puzzles...makes you”
“...so he could not have seen fire and tell
(told) me to put my hand.” Alternatively, he
cannot see fire and tell me to put my hand.
“...the APGA governorship candidate in
Abia State at (in) the April 2015 elections....”
“Why change your wardrobe every five
minutes while all it takes is a different accessories.” All it takes are different accessories.
“Singapore jails senior civil servants over
(for) corruption”
“ANA postponements (sic) (postpones)
February reading”
“Peugeot plans to inject $7.26b on (into)
research, development”
“South African Airways celebrates 80
years (years’ or 80th year) anniversary”
“LASU Management re-opens (reopens)
the university”
“You lived well and you have gone to
EBERE
WABARA
[email protected], 08055001948
(preferably for) a well deserved (welldeserved) rest. Rest in perfect peace.”
(Full-page advertorial) Except for graveyard
peace, ‘peace’ is an absolute and does not
need inflection, intensification or adumbration. So, rest in peace (R.I.P—not R.I.P.P)!
Finally from the Back Page of THE
GUARDIAN under review: “One has
witnessed at different occasions dissenting
opinions of doctors as regards prescriptions
for patient’s (a patient’s) ailment.” The
Guardian youth speak: on different occasions.
Next is DAILY TRUST of February 2:
“Alhaji Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar spoke
at his palace in Sokoto….” Does the Sultan
of Sokoto have another palace elsewhere?
Let us think as we report.
“Heritage Bank plans listing in (on) capital
market”
“Pact with China conducive for peace,
says Taiwan (Taiwan’s or Taiwanese)
president”
“Otherwise, there is no point we engage
in importing that much on yearly (a yearly)
basis.”
“…he said though the institute has (had)
developed 62 rice varieties for farmers,
five most prominent varieties are (were) in
circulation and are (were) doing very good
(well).”
“NEMA, stakeholders meets over
displaced persons” You can readily identify
the boyish slip-up.
“With the LG polls now fixed for next
week Tuesday….” Either next Tuesday or
Tuesday, next week
PEOPLE2PEOPLE...with Oke Epia
Rainbow Rises for Nigeria, South Africa
A
two-day state visit to Nigeria this week by Jacob
Zuma, President of SouthAfrica marks a watershed in bilateral relations between both countries.
Like the title of this article ambitiously suggests, it
symbolizes a romantic rapprochement between
two countries that have often seen themselves as
continental rivals instead of partners in progress.
But it may yet be a new day forAfrica if the historic
visit is seen as a burgeoning partnership between leading lights of a
beleagued continent.As Zuma himself put it when he addressed a
joint session of the NationalAssembly of Nigeria, the visit “tells a story
of the need for our two sister countries to partner together not only to
strengthen bilateral relations but also to partner together in pursuit of
the continental integration, peace, security and development.”
An important event which headlined the visit is Zuma’s address
to the parliament of Nigeria. In diplomatic relations, the gesture of a
visiting Head of State/Government to address the legislature of the
host country signifies respect and regard if not reverence for the foreign
nation.As Zuma acknowledged in his speech, “this gesture indicates
the seriousness with which the relations between SouthAfrica and
Nigeria are taken by this House.” Because the parliament comprises
elected representatives of the people, addressing a session is tantamount to speaking directly to citizens. It is a reserved public diplomacy
opportunity to achieve foreign policy objectives.
This was not lost on Zuma and so when he mounted the platform
to address Nigeria’s 109 senators and 360 members of the House of
Representatives, he took the opportunity to speak to the sentiments and
reasoning of most Nigerians. Perhaps for the first time since the Nelson
Mandela presidency, a SouthAfrican leader lavishly acknowledged
and praised the contributions of Nigeria to the liberation of his country
from the stranglehold of apartheid. There had always been attempts
by the SouthernAfrican country to downplay the sterling roles Nigeria
played in the war against white supremacy. Recall the displeasure
and muffled protests in Nigeria when in 2014 at Zuma’s inauguration
for second term, the WestAfrican nation was barely acknowledged;
ex-president Goodluck Jonathan simply made the numbers as one of
the 20 Heads of State who graced the occasion. To make matters worse,
the Chibok abduction episode in which over 200 girls were seized in the
night by Boko Haram terrorists, overshadowed Jonathan’s presence at
the event.
And then Nigeria’s $15million arms cash smuggled into South
Africa on a private jet and was seized by the authorities in 2014 further
strained relations between both countries. On another level, the
frequent ill-treatment of Nigerians living in SouthAfrica, especially
the reprehensible 2014 xenophobic attacks badly tainted the rainbow
nation. That particular episode touched directly on the nerves of
Nigerians many of whom called for stringent action against South
Africa and compensation for victims. To underscore the level of public
grievance over the issue, Nigeria’s students’ body had warned Zuma
to stay away from Buhari’s presidential inauguration in May 2015
PEOPLE2PEOPLE
WITH
OKE EPIA
Telephone (sms only): 07059850016
Email: [email protected].
Twitter: @resourceme
L–R: President Jacob Zuma of South Africa ; President Muhammadu Buhari ; Senate President , Senator Bukola Saraki and the Speaker , Houser
of Representative , Yakubu Dagara during the President Zuma’s Address
to the joint session of the National Assembly ...recently
because of his perceived shoddy handling of the organized attacks on
Nigerians. Incidentally, the recent killing of a Nigerian boy- Timothy
Chinedu- under extra-judicial circumstances was another sad reminder
that citizens ofAfrica’s biggest black nation were not safe in the rainbow
nation. Notably, this recent event had attracted the attention of Nigeria’s
parliament barely a week before Zuma came calling. On the economic
front, bilateral relations also went awry. The $5.2billion penalty imposed
on MTN, SouthAfrica’s multi-national telecoms firm, by Nigerian
regulators for failure to register SIMs of its subscribers underscored this
point.
These sore points formed the context of Zuma’s visit. Fortunately,
he was smart to have addressed some of them before the National
Assembly. He appealed to emotions and reason alike. “National
Legislatures have come to play a pivotal role in the enhancement of
bilateral relations between countries, evolving from their traditional
roles of oversight of the executive and passage of legislation,” he told
the lawmakers, adding: “We are convinced that relations between the
NationalAssembly of Nigeria and the Parliament of SouthAfrica will
grow into a cooperation that will enhance people-to-people exchanges.” It was as if the visiting leader was re-echoing a position canvassed
by Nigeria’s House of Representatives a week before. Nnena Elendu
Ukeje, Chairperson of the House Committee on ForeignAffairs, had
stressed the need to strengthen people-to-people ties between Nigeria
and SouthAfrica through inter-parliamentary engagements. Speaking
on the killing of the Nigerian lad at a hearing with some stakeholders
inAbuja, she envisaged a situation “where our parliament engages the
parliament of SouthAfrica in a constructive way to show to them what
Nigeria has done to promote brotherliness amongAfrican people.”
Such engagement according to the ranking parliamentarian addresses
the undesirable situation where “as our governments are getting closer,
it will seem that the citizens are getting farther apart.”
Good enough, Zuma sufficiently played on that point in his oratory
as the president tried to sell his country’s battered brand to the hearts
and minds of Nigerians. He spoke glowingly of Nigeria’s roles in the
anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles in SouthernAfrica; Nigeria’s
smooth and exemplary political transition in May 2015; and the increasing investment/trade relations between the nations; among others. In a
clever stunt, he spoke of how “Nigerian civil servants had a “Mandela
Tax” deducted directly from their monthly salaries to support our
struggle for liberation. This was a real selfless contribution to the cause
of freedom and an end to apartheid colonialism in SouthAfrica.” Zuma
espoused pan-Africanism and inspired hope in better bilateral relations
when he declared that “SouthAfrica and Nigeria are strategic partners
in the pursuance of theAfricanAgenda, South-South Cooperation and
in the promotion of a rules-based International System. Both countries
share a common vision on issues of political and economic integration
inAfrica and on the need for a sustainable conflict resolution mechanism inAfrica that is primarily driven byAfricans.”
He went on: “Nigeria and SouthAfrica must forge a strong strategic
partnership. We need to strengthen our political, economic social and
cultural cooperation. Let the citizens ofAfrica march together to defeat
all those forces that bring harm and suffering. Let the citizens of the
continent march together towards a brighter future, a future filled with
prosperity and happiness. SouthAfrica and Nigeria, acting together in
unity, must play a key role towards the achievement of these goals.”
Zuma surely deserved the thunderous applause he received at the
end of his address to Nigeria’s lawmakers. But beyond the fine rhetoric,
Nigeria and SouthAfrica must put the decades-long rivalry between
them behind and embrace collaboration for continental benefits. This
is the path Zuma must thread. It is trite to say that better relations must
be evident in better treatment for Nigerians living in SouthAfrica; those
seeking consular services; and Nigerian businesses in SouthAfrica
must be allowed to thrive competitively and fairly. The list can be longer.
As Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives, said in his vote
of thanks at the joint session, Nigeria looks “forward to better reciprocal
treatment of our citizens in SouthAfrica.” Indeed, now is the time for
Zuma to walk the talk and get the rest of his rainbow nation to strut
along.
Follow writer onTwitter @resourceme
25
March 12, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER
FAMILY HEALTH
Multiple Births In Assisted
Conception
A
ssisted conception, is a general
term to describe all the methods
used to help a woman achieve
a pregnancy when she is having
difficulty conceiving. The world’s
first test-tube baby Louise Brown,
was born in the UK in 1978. Her
birth offered hope to infertile
couples across the world. Since then thousands
of couples have made use of in vitro fertilisation
(IVF) and other assisted conception techniques.
The success rates of these treatments continue
to improve with advances in technology. IVF
treatment is available all over the world, the
quality and value you get vary from one centre
to another.
Today, assisted conception treatments are
tailored to individual patients’ unique conditions. These procedures are usually paired with
more conventional therapies such as fertility
drugs to increase success rates. On average one
in five couples who use assisted conception
techniques gives birth to a baby or in some
cases twins or even triplets depending on the
technique.
The three most common reasons for assisted
conception are that:
• the woman’s ovaries are not producing eggs,
• her fallopian tubes (tubes from the uterus
to the ovary) are damaged or,
• that the man’s sperm are too few or unhea
These reasons
lthy.
account for about 90 per cent of all cases. Treatments are available for both male and female
fertility problems.
Treatment options could vary from simple
use of Fertility drugs, then graduating to artificial insemination, and if this fails, there is the
more advanced option of assisted conception
techniques.
In looking for a baby, there are other numbers to
consider in your quest to have a baby. Increased
use of assisted reproduction technologies has
contributed to an increase in multiple births.
And while many couples may welcome a set
of twins, the prospect of triplets, quadruplets
or even quintuplets can be daunting to say the
least. Some physicians implant three to five
embryos to maximise the chance of success. As
evidenced by the much-publicised mother that
gave birth to eight babies post IVF treatment,
Octomom, , some fertility specialists have been
known to go to greater lengths. As a result,
worldwide, 45% of IVF babies are high-order
pregnancies (three or more fetuses). Multiple
pregnancies carry with them associated risks
including a higher incidence of mortality, birth
defects, premature delivery and low birth weight.
The incidence of multiple births come about
mainly because of the effect of the fertility drugs
used to cause super ovulation of the ovaries.
Ovulation induction is also the first stage of
preparation for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), which
is the treatment needed by most women whose
tubes are damaged.
Three hormones are used:
• one to suppress the ovaries.
• one to stimulate several eggs to develop
simultaneously and
• one to ripen the eggs.
We can see here , that there is the possibility
of the numerous eggs produced, by induced
effect on the ovaries, can further on lead to the
incidence of multiple births.
What then are the possibilities of multiple
pregnancy ?
Multiple gestations, especially triplet and
higher order pregnancy, is not the desired
consequence of assisted conception technologies since it increases the risk of complications for both mother and baby. The goal of
any reproductive technology is the birth of
a single healthy child and the conception of
twins or higher is considered a complication.
Ovulation induction increases the chances of
having a multiple pregnancy (twins, triplets
etc). The rate of multiple pregnancy is increased
compared to spontaneous conception. Unlike
In looking for a
baby, there are
other numbers to
consider in your
quest to have a
baby. Increased
use of assisted
reproduction
technologies
has contributed
to an increase
in multiple
births. And while
many couples
may welcome
a set of twins,
the prospect
of triplets,
quadruplets or
even quintuplets
can be daunting
to say the least.
Some physicians
implant three
to five embryos
to maximise
the chance of
success. As
evidenced by the
much-publicised
mother that
gave birth to
eight babies post
IVF treatment,
Octomom, ,
some fertility
specialists have
been known to
go to greater
lengths
natural conception where the chance of having
a multiple birth is relatively low (1 in every 65
pregnancies), assisted conception brings with
it a high chance of a multiple birth (roughly
one in four IVF deliveries is of twins i.e. the
chance of twins is approximately 20 to 25 per
cent.). Although most twins are born healthy, the
chance of complications during pregnancy and
delivery is much greater than with a singleton.
The high incidence of multiple births following
IVF is largely due to the super ovulation, and
the fact that more than one embryo is usually
transferred to the woman’s womb during an
IVF cycle. This is done to increase the chances
of conception.
Multiple pregnancy is the most common
adverse outcome of assisted reproduction
technologies (ART)
and reflects the standard practice of replacing
multiple embryos in the uterus during in vitro
fertilisation (IVF) treatment.
A study carried out in the UK, showed the
response to concerns about the high numbers
of twin and triplet pregnancies arising from
ART. It was proposed that One child at a time
identified the significant risks to the health of
the offspring that result from twin and triplet
gestation compared with singleton pregnancies.
Risks
The risks are higher at all stages of pregnancy
and include
• miscarriage,
• gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia,
• impaired fetal growth and stillbirth, and
• problems during labour ,
• increased need for elective and emergency
caesarean section.
Most significantly in terms of morbidity, mortality and cost, twin pregnancy carries a five- to
six-fold increase in the risk of preterm birth.
Preterm birth is often followed by a prolonged
stay in neonatal ntensive care. This leads in
turn to an increased risk of long-term mental
and physical handicap Including cerebral palsy,
mental disability, long-term learning difficulties
and chronic lung disease.
Some clinics in our own locality, in Nigeria,
in order to strive to maintain a high position in
the success rate , and desperate couples, whose
desire to maximise the chance of pregnancy
far outweighs the fear of adverse outcomes
of a treatment they believe may be an apparently ideal outcome and may allow them to
achieve a family more quickly and cheaply if
they conceive a twin pregnancy. It remains the
case that the pregnancy rate is higher following
replacement of two embryos rather than one
embryo, and this single fact is a powerful driver.
Couples desperate to have a child may fail,
with
BOBO
BODE -KAYODE
[email protected], .Cel,
08053372356
either consciously or unconsciously, to consider
fully the devastating consequences of having
one or more children affected by cerebral palsy,
neuro developmental delay or other serious
long-term medical conditions.
Another consideration is the financial status
of the patients. Those that are barely able to
afford to pay for this expensive procedures,
would want as many embryos as possible, put
back. Those who have to pay often large sums
from their own resources unsurprisingly seek
to complete their family as cheaply as possible.
What then can be done ? The patient has the
right to discuss with their doctor, the need to
work towards the possibility of a singleton
pregnancy.
Incidentally, IVF can actually be used
to achieve this by looking at the following
procedures, all made possible by the selected
laboratory technique employed in your treatment procedure. :
Employing IVF to REDUCE the chance for a
multiple birth
Ironically, IVF – the very procedure that has
played a part in the rise of multiple births – is
playing an important new role in reducing
them, thanks to innovative technology and
techniques:
• Blastocyst Culture and Transfer – Clinicians
grow the embryos in a nutrient-rich media for
five days instead of the conventional three. This
enables them to select the healthiest, promising
embryos for implantation. Fewer need to be
implanted, and the remainder can be frozen
for future use, if needed.
• Elective Single Embryo Transfer (eSET)
– Studies show that implanting multiple embryos in women under 35 doesn’t improve the
pregnancy rate, it just increases the chance of
a multiple birth. With eSET, a single embryo,
usually a blastocyst, is transferred. In some
countries , they recommend a single embryo
in women under 35 – two in those with an
unfavorable prognosis.
• Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)
– Microscopic evaluation of early-stage (3-day)
embryos identify those with the best development characteristics.
• Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH)
– This new screening technique examines the
5-day blastocyst, allowing analysis of all 23
pairs of chromosomes to identify those with
abnormalities thought to be responsible for
implantation failure.
There is no limit to how far or well you can
go with your treatment procedure. the bottom
line is for you to have in mind that the risks far
outweighs the desire to have multiple births
from your treatment procedure.
26
Auto
As FRSC Prepares to Enforce
Speed Limiter Policy
A
s the Federal Road Safety Commission
(FRSC)preparestoimplementthepolicy
that compels all commercial vehicle
owners to install speed limiting devices
in their vehicles, a crucial question being
asked is whether some accidents could have
been less deadly if a speed limiting device had
been installed.
This is same question that is being asked
of all the high-profile casualties and of other
unmarked deaths that had over-speeding as
contributory factor.
In Nigeria, the speed regulation approves limits
for specific vehicle types for designated areas:
Cars have speed limit of of 50 KmH in built-up
areas; Highways, 80 KmH; Express, 100 KmH;
Taxi and Buses, 50; 80; and 90 KmH; Tankers/
Trailers, 45; 50; and 60 KmH.
Speed thrills but it definitely kills. Regular
drivers would say nobody plans to drive over
100kmH but once the road is smooth, windows
are up and the vehicle settles into and grips the
road and leaps at the touch of the throttle, then
the temptation sets in to give it more fuel. It is
like feeding an insatiable beast.
The thrill could be cut short either by a corider’s warning, if there is one or by an obstacle
ahead or by the driver’s own nagging thoughts
that the s/he is going too fast or if something
happens that leads to other consequences; one
of them death.
Statistics show that speed is a key risk factor
in road traffic injuries and it influences both the
risk of a road crash as well as the severity of the
injuries that result from crashes. Speed increases
driver’s response time to objects and increases
risk of collision. It reduces the driver’s ability
to steer safely and around curves and objects
on the roads, as well as extends the distance
necessary to stop a vehicle. It also increases the
distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts
to a dangerous situation.
Drivers always plan to have a smooth journey,
even when they take off late and want to arrive
at their destinations early. They usually set the
speed limit, in their minds, and this hardly goes
beyond the recommended 100KmH or 120KmH,
maximum.
Regrettably, very few drivers keep this promise,
which is why it is important to have a device that
can remind them that they are going off limit.
Next month, the Federal Road Safety Commis-
Commercial buses getting ready for long journeys
sion (FRSC) intends to enforce the installation of
speed limiting device on commercial vehicles
and, then the enforcement would move to private
vehicles.
Some people have kicked against the cost of
the device and the threshold for installation,
but not against its function or its importance to
the wellbeing of drivers and their co-travellers.
Ahead of this enforcement date, drivers of
diverscommercialtransportcompaniesinJibowu,
Yaba, Ojota, Ijora and Oyingbo, all in Lagos,
understand the importance of speed limiting
devices in their vehicles but want the period
of installation extended and the cost reduced.
Interestingly, all of them said they liked it and
would like their principals to install them in their
vehicles. A driver with Efex said they already
had in their vehicles, explaining that it checks
the speed of drivers on the fleet. “Once you hear
the bell ring then you know you have to slow
down until it stops,” he said.
However, drivers of three transport companies
at Oyingbo, Ijora and Ojota, respectively said they
wanted it but that it was too expensive, adding
that it would increase their operational costs.
According to a driver,Adamu Maina who said
he goes to Zaria through Kaduna, “the device is
good, but it is expensive. Let them give us and
we pay in installments.
He also recommended that the sellers of the
device should relate with their union.
Speed Limiting Device…
Speed limiting device also called speed limiter
or governor is used to limit the top speed of a
vehicle by not allowing the vehicle to accelerate
beyond pre-set speed limit.
Implementing the speed limit device policy
will have socio-economic advantages besides
saving lives.
It has been known that lower speed results in
less fuel consumption by vehicles. Lower speed
also cuts down vehicle maintenance cost and
slows down depreciation value thus vehicle last
longer. It will significantly impact positively in
changing the individual driving behaviour, which
has been hard to achieve over the years. It will
reduce the speed of vehicle to pre-set limit thus
reducing overall crash risk and likely to lessen
severity of crash. It will equally engender good
monitoring mechanism for vehicle owners’/
fleet operators.Also, it will engender compliance
with the ECOWAS mandate, fulfillment of the
Corps statutory functions through good practice.
Kia to Utilise Over 90% Local
Content in Made-in-Nigeria Car
Production
K
ia Motors Nigeria has said it plans
to utilise over 90 per cent of locally
sourced content in its production of
made-in-Nigeria cars.
The company said in statement that,
“The trajectory growth of the locally assembled
KIA cars and its top-notch quality built to the
exacting standard of the global brand has galvanised the company to explore local content
in its assembling chain and influenced its plan
to reach a 90% local content utilisation in the
production of its cars,” the company said in
a statement.
Kia said its ultra-high-tech and state of the art
plant in Lagos had produced over 4500 units
of cars since its launch in the first half of 2015.
“The plant produces all 9 models in its plant,
worthy of note within its foray of the made
in Nigeria Kia car is the 2016 Kia Sorento.”
Kia’s gritty and unwavering commitment
in the production of made-in-Nigeria cars has
continuously been at the fore of the management of Kia Motors Nigeria.
Outside Korea, the birth country of Kia, the
automobile company has a long history of
building locally to meet the specific needs of
local customers with assembly operations, using
‘car kits’ sourced locally and from other parts
of the world. “Aligning with this practice and
geared towards advancing Nigeria’s economy
to compete favourably among comity of Nations, Kia Motors Nigeria plans to have over
90% local content utilisation in Nigeria in its
assembling process.”
In a statement by the Chief Commercial
officer, Kia Motors Nigeria, Mr. Sandeep
Malhotra said, “Nigeria remains an emerging and growing economy in the world with
vast potentials for growth, despite its myriad
of challenges the country promises a large
economy of scale, hence it’s incumbent upon us
as a local investor to help her realise its goals.
As a company with an unswerving interest
on the advancement of the nation’s economy,
we have a plan to utilise 90% local content in
our assembly process to help strengthen the
economy. Buoyed by our increased acceptability among our valued customers in the
last decade, we are now looking at further
strengthening our foothold and expanding
our reach in the localisation of our assembly
plant.”
He said with its built-from-scratch assembly
chain firmly in place and over a year of SKD
production phase under its belt, Kia Motors
Nigeria is now focus on the local content
utilisation in its made in Nigeria Kia cars.
The plant in Lagos is progressing on schedule
for the utilisation of local contents in its assembling process and currently sourced some
of its parts including refrigerant, lubricant,
and workshop consumables amongst others
locally. The plant has a capacity to build up to
27,000 vehicles annually on flexible assembly
lines that can manufacture several different
models simultaneously to adapt to changes
in buying trends.
Meanwhile, Kia Motors said it posted global
Production of Kia in at a local plant
sales of 214,219 vehicles in February 2016 for
export sales, domestic sales and sales from
overseas plants for passenger cars, recreational
vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles, recording a total of 214,219 units sold.
This figure represents 2.6% year-on-year
growth compared to the same month of 2015.
In February, Kia posted year-on-year sales
increases in North America (12.2% growth with
54,118 units sold), Europe (11.0% growth with
43,216 units sold) and the domestic Korean
market (10.5% growth with 39,110 units sold).
Cumulatively through the first two months
of 2016, Kia’s global sales totaled 418,881 units
for a year-on-year decrease of 0.5%. Korea
(77,615 units sold), Europe (81,662 units
sold) and North America (96,024 units sold)
have seen a 7.7%, 6.7% and 6.4% rise in sales,
respectively.
Kia’s bestselling model in overseas markets
during February 2016 was the B-segment Rio
(known as ‘K2’ in China) with 33,552 units sold.
The Sportage compact CUV was the second
best seller with 32,052 units sold, while the
C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ or ‘K3’ in
some markets), Optima D-segment sedan and
Soul urban crossover followed with 22,452,
19,548 and 14,761 units sold, respectively.
27
Auto
SAFE
DRIVING
JONAS AGWU
with
(Asst Corps Marshal)
Zonal Commanding Officer
Zone RS7 Abua
phone 08077690700
FRSC TOLL FREE NO 122
Email:[email protected]
Danger in Your Tyres: You May
Be Facing Blowout Soon
I
2017 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Cabriolet
Nissan Teases X-Trail with New
Design Cues, Practicalities
Stories by Bennett Oghifo
T
he Nissan X-Trail has
undergone a fundamental
makeover,
departing from the
utilitarian vertical styling and off-road bias of old to
Nissan’s contemporary DNA
co-developed with Renault to
give the more than a decade
old SUV a car-like structure
with curvy body and accurate
cross-over styling.
Redesigned from ground up
toaccommodatesevenseats,the
new model crossover X-Trail
replaces not only its predecessor
but also the Qashqai+2, which
somewhat describes how
important Nissan feels about
its new offering.
The new X-Trail now looks
more sophisticated with exceptional high tech-savvy and
quality cabin with a large body
that delivers decent space too.
While the radical departure
from conservative body SUV
shape and utilitarian feel may
spark contention among a few
previous generation fans, this
new package would no doubt
appeal to a broader spectrum
of buyers.
The new X-Trail continues
Nissan’s fondness for building
family-friendly crossovers and
her concerted effort to challenge
rivals such as Toyota RAV4,
Honda CRV, Kia Sorento and
HyundaiSantaFeamongothers.
The seven-seat option also
means the X-Trail is a viable
alternative to the likes of the
Hyundai Santa Fe given its
incrediblenewcurves,economy
and kits.
Nissan says the arrival of this
newX-Trailvariantwhichshares
common basic architecture with
theQashqaiisintendedtofillout
Nissan’s crossover range and sit
triumphantly at the summit of
the Crossover – SUV segment
where the Qashqai had until
lately stand out.
Compared to the old X-Trail,
the new model is much more
focused on road performance
than off-road prowess and it
sharesplatform(Renault-Nissan
common module) with the Qa-
shqai though has extra ground
clearance to glide over bumps
effortlessly.
AlsoaddedisthenewX-Trail’s
all-wheel drive set-up which is
an adaptive 4X4 system that can
switchbetweenfuel-savingfront
wheel drive, automatic mode,
andsenddrivetotherearwheels
under hard acceleration or in
slippery road conditions, or in
4X4 lock mode which is ideal for
the worst weather and off-road
situations.
AndunliketheQashqaiwhich
comes with a simple torsion
beam rear axle in two wheel
drive guise and a multi-link set
up on the 4X4, the al new X-Trail
modesgetsasophisticatedmultilink rear suspension.
Hyundai Unveils Class-Leading, Tech Savvy Tucson SUV
H
yundaiMotorsNigeria,
manufacturers and
distributors of Hyundai automobiles today
joinedworldrenowned
Hyundaidealershipsasitunveiled
the all new third-generation 2016
Tucson SUV that successfully
mixes value and practicality.
The visually striking 4WD
Tucson replaces iX35 as Korean
automaker’s rival for lackluster
best sellers like Honda CR-V,
Toyota RAV-4, Nissan Qashqai,
Kia Sportage, Skoda Yeti, Renault
Duster, Ford Escape and Mazda
CX3.
Redesigned from ground up
with a brand new chassis, the
Tucson is another step up from
its predecessor and it offers distinctive styling and tremendous
features that make a distinction
from competitors in the mid-size
SUV crowd.
Hyundai has styled the Tucson to
look like a mini Santa-Fe – striking
characteristic competitors would
havetocontendwithinsuccessive
Hyundai Tucson
years to oust this nicely styled
car that has all the trappings of
a luxury.
The Tucson is no doubt an inspiringlybeautifulSUVwithattractive
features, fantastic build quality,
efficientenginesandastrongsuite
of safety kits backed by Hyundai
ambitiousfiveyearsor100,000km
warranty.
The squared-off wheel arches for
instance and the Z-shaped shoulder crease on the car flanks give
impression the Tucson is moving
even while it’s stationary. This is
in addition to the smart rounded
rear end and the rear light clusters
that are similar to some Hyundai’s
models.
Coupled with this is the evidently
inspiring gasping chrome grille in
the front that links up to the headlights and stretched backwards on
to the front wings.
Nissan SA Managing Director Mike Whitfield Elected President of NAAMSA
N
issan South Africa’s
Managing Director
Mike Whitfield has
been elected President
oftheNationalAssociationofAutomobileManufacturers
of South Africa (NAAMSA) for
2016.
A 38 member association,
NAAMSA is the umbrella body
of new vehicle manufacturers,
importersanddistributorsinSouth
Africa. NAAMSA also compiles
data on auto industry activity,
most importantly monthly new
car sales, which are considered a
key economic indicator.
Whitfieldbringsawealthofexperi-
ence to his new role.As managing
director of Nissan South Africa,
he leads Nissan’s Africa South
regional business unit, which
includes the key South African
market, and countries in Sub
Saharan Africa. He has gained a
deep understanding of the South
Africanmotorindustryduringa35-
year career in various positions of
increasingresponsibilityatNissan.
“Mr Whitfield has a long association with our organisation
and over that time has made
great contribution to promote
the interests of the auto industry
in South Africa,” said NAAMSA
director Nico Vermeulen.
f you run a check on you tyre pressures now with a quality tyre
pressure gauge (not the abused/ overused road side vulcanizers
gauge), you will appreciate why the above alarm is sounded. Such
a check may reveal that at least one of your tyres is incorrectly
inflated. Very few vehicles, if any, will pass this test. Incorrect
tyre pressure is the No. 1 cause of tyre blow-outs, sudden tyre failures
and premature tyre wear. Incorrect tyre pressure is an invitation to
disaster even if the tyres are brand new! It is a time bomb waiting
for the right time to explode. The implication is that each time such
a vehicle is driving; the occupants are facing grave danger without
being aware of it. Flip through any of our daily newspapers and you
will be shocked with news of ghastly motor accidents as a result of
tyre blowouts. Top military officers, top government functionaries,
top business executives as well as ordinary people have lost their
lives. Who would be next? No one knows, but may it never be you.
Types of incorrect tyre inflation
There are two types of incorrect tyre pressure. These are over inflation and under inflation. Lets take a look at how they can affect your
tyres and cause disaster and what could be done to maintain a proper
pressure for your tyres and so prevent or drastically minimize blowout
and other forms of tyre failures.
Blowouts; under-inflation is the cause
Under-inflation is the major cause of tyre blowouts. When a tyre is
underinflated,itincreaseswhatisknownastheROLLINGRESISTANCE
(RR) as the vehicles move. RR generates a tremendous amount of heat
that could make your tyre explode like a bomb. Such an explosion
(blowout) will destabilise the balance leading to a crash and disaster.
Other types of tyre failures; over inflation is the cause
When over inflated, a tyre becomes stiff. This can make it puncture
easily. The internal materials used in making the tyre are also subjected
to undue strain. This would make them snap, leading to bulges or
swells. As the tyre hits a pot hole or bumps, it can easily cut and have
a sudden deflation that could cause a crash. Over-inflation also leads
to partial contact of the tyres with road surface. This reduces traction
and can easily lead to loss of control when one is on high speed, wet
surface, cornering or breaking. Each of these conditions can easily
lead to a crash and disaster.
Prevention
There are two very effective options to prevention or drastic reduction
of blowouts and other form of tyre failures.
Option 1: own a quality tyre pressure gauge. As already pointed
out, incorrect tyre pressure is the major cause of blowouts and sudden
tyre failure. So, correct tyre pressure is a must for any safety conscious
motorist. But the big question is, how do you ensure that what the
vulcaniser pumped into your tyre is the correct pressure? Only a quality
tyre pressure gauge will tell you. Aquality gauge will also enable you
to gauge your tyres at the right time and to ensure that all the tyres
maintain correct pressure before the vehicle is driven out for the day.
This is particularly important if you are in the transport business or if
you are travelling. Never rely on the road side vulcanisers’ gauge. Most
of their gauges are outright inferior, have been over used or abused
over time and may have improper measuring units. In fairness to the
vulcanizers, however, they may not be aware of these shortcomings
with their gauges.
Option 2: install a high profile automatic tyre monitors. This is a
state of the art device that use sensors and a wireless monitor to monitor
your tyres on a 24hours basis. It alerts the driver well in advance about
an impending tyre blowout or failure. It pinpoints the exact tyre so that
the driver will take appropriate measure to deal with the situation. It
also effectively takes care of premature tyre wear.
What is your vehicle’s correct tyre pressure?
By the end of the driver’s door of your vehicle, or in the vehicles’
manual, you will see specification that shows size of tyre for your vehicle
and the inflation pressure for the tyre in psi (pounds per square inch)
religiously stick to that specification. Do not allow anyone (especially
the vulcaniser) tell you otherwise unless you want to gamble with your
life. It is instructive to note here that it is not the tyre manufacturer that
determines the pressure for your tyre, but the vehicle manufacturer.
It is the vehicle manufacturer that specifies the size of tyres and the
pressure to be given the tyre. He has taken into consideration the
weight, speed, number of passenger, artificial inflation by the heat
and other factors to determine what the proper inflation pressure
should be. The specification you see on the tyres are to enable you
match the specification of the vehicles’ manufacturer. In this light, it
is equally dangerous to use tyre sizes different from what the vehicles
manufacturer specified for the vehicle.
Gauge and pump tyres at the right time
The right time to gauge /pump is when the tyres are cold. Mornings
are most ideal. Before you drive out, gauge the tyres and if there is need
to pump, slowly drive to the nearest vulcaniser. If you are the type that
leaves home very early, weekends maybe the most convenient time
for you. When hot, the tyre pressure increases. Any action (gauge,
pump) you take when the tyres are hot will be misleading and could
be fatal. On fortunately, most people gauge and pump tyres when
the tyres are hot. Never do so. If tyres are hot, leave them for about
three hours to cool down.
28
TRAVEL&LEISURE
by OMOLOLA ITAYEMI
[email protected]
08054699602
‘British Airways Has a Distinguished
History in Nigeria’
Italian-born Paolo De Renzis is the Head of Middle East, Africa and Central Asia Sales for British Airways
area. Having joined British Airways in 1988, where he entered the sales department after having
successfully finished his university studies of law, business and commerce. Over roast lamb and British
rice pudding at Gordon Ramsey’s Restaurant, Grill ParkWalk, Chelsea, London, he reveals some details to
Omolola Itayemi about BA’s 80 years operation in Nigeria and its new 787 First Class cabin
B
ritish Airways has been in Nigeria for 80
years. Isn’t that a long history?
A very long and rich history indeed. Eighty
years ago, a largely unreported event took place
which could help pave way for modern air services between Nigeria and the rest of the world.
On 9 Febuary 1936, the Weekly Imperial Airways
flight from London to Khartoum connected with
another fight to Kano, heralding the start of services to Nigeria.
These pioneering flights carried air mail rather than passengers,
but apparently the initiative was successful because by October
the same service was extended to Lagos. The limited records
available showed that there was great enthusiasm shown everywhere the first service landed. According to Imperial Airways’
staff newsletter from 3 March 1936. “The captain of Daedalus
(the name of the aircraft) was entertained by Sultans, Shehus
and Emirs enroute.” There were plenty of opportunities to
celebrate the new service as De Haviland DH86A biplane took
seven days to complete the journey. Today, Imperial Airways’
successor British Airways operates daily, direct Boeing 747 and
777 services to Abuja and Lagos. It’s amazing to think that in
just 80 years, we were operating biplanes that could carry seven
passengers and it would take a week to complete the journey.
Today’s aircraft can carry between 226 and 299 customers and
you can be in London five and half hours after leaving Lagos
or Abuja. The onboard experience has also evolved beyond all
recognition. We have a distinguished history in Nigeria and
eighty years on we are proud to still serve it, connecting Africa’s
largest economy to the rest of the world. We have been a pretty
successful airline. I cannot tell what will happen in the next
eighty years but we are very strong in products and operations
and will definite keep on growing and adjusting our capacity to
profit the whole demand
Is there anything new, say medium, long term?
We have quite a lot of premium capacity increase. We have
new Boeing 747 with additional Club World seats, Business
class. We have quite a lot of them to Riyadd, Kuwait, Dubai.y
week to Tehran from London.
Is there anything specific on the West African, Nigerian
route in terms of new products?
At the moment, we operate a mix of B747 and B777 to Lagos
and Abuja. We keep on reviewing our work as network changes.
We operate B777 in Abuja and B747 and B777 in Nigeria.
Tell us about your operations in terms of capacity and
market share?
Unfortunately, I cannot share commercial sensitive information when it comes to market share. We have been operating
to Nigeria for 80 years. That means that our operation is strong
but I cannot be specific when it comes to commercial sensitive
figures.
How will the rate your market in West Africa includingNigeria, Middle East, and North Africa?
In Africa, we have a very strong position in particular in
Nigeria. As I said, Africa is one of the most important markets;
particularly South Africa and Nigeria are some of the biggest
markets.
In the course of your explanation, you talked about
bringing in B777 to replace the B747 . Will you still have
the first class configuration on that airplane? What
informed this decision? Could it be as a result of shrinking market?
Absolutely, the B777 operates to Nigeria with First Class both
to Lagos and Abuja. The First Class is a very important market
for us. We keep on reviewing our capacity and we have been
quite flexible with our capacity. We keep on operating B747; now
but we will be reviewing this in the week.
Does the economic crisis in Nigeria have any impact on
British Airways especially in terms of passenger volume?
We are aware of challenging times in Nigeria. Load factors are
very strong but cannot be more the statistics. Our operation is
very strong and Nigeria remains our very strong market. We are
still very positive about Nigeria.
Nigerian airlines are very weak and fragmented. Is
your operations to other destinations in Nigeria?
At the moment, it is no. But we should ask you that question.
There is a big issue in Nigeria about multiple designation and
the local airlines are raising eye brow. We are guided by the
agreement between Nigeria and the UK which is the Bilateral
Air Services Agreement (BASA). No matter how you like,
you can’t just say you want Port-Harcourt, if it is not in the
agreement, you cannot go there. If it is not in the agreement you
cannot do it no matter if we want it until Nigerian and British
government come together and we are designated to do that.
So, we may really like Port Harcourt because we have a lot
of customers there, but we are guided by the law that exists
between the two countries.
British Airways used to have a lot of CSR projects. In
80 years, can you list some of the projects you have done
as a gift to the communities?
Paolo
there is anything BA has to assist Nigerian carriers?
This is a question for AIG. I cannot answer this question. This
is something I cannot comment on. Strategic decision is taking
up with our company because they take strategic decision on
airline partnership.
BA will be 80 years very soon. What are you going to
give to Nigerians in terms of fare?
I am not going to reveal what we are going to do in Nigeria for
our 80 years. When it comes to fares, our fares are very competitive and we keep on reviewing our price.
Just last months, foreign airlines had problem repatriating their huge fund. Has that been resolved? What is
the collaboration between your airline and the Nigerian
government in view of foreign exchange policy?
As you know, there are some challenges at the moment with
the Nigerian government. At the moment we are working on it.
There are ways things are resolved. A partnership of 80 years, if
you don’t have the understanding at 80 years of being together,
you will never have. We are constantly working with the
arms of government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of
Finance, IATA to ensure that we can get support. We are getting
support from government. The matter will be resolved in a
matter of time.
Operating in an economy for 80 years means something is unique. What is that uniqueness that has kept BA
going?
I will say the people. We have a very strong base of loyal
customers. Some spanning four/five generations of particular
families. In Nigeria, whatever you sell, you are good to go. We
have the population. By our sheer population, we are very
strong market for any product. When you take our product
which is airline, we continue to be the bridge to bring people
from Nigeria into the world, connecting investors from the
world back into Nigeria. It is the number and loyalty we have
enjoyed over these years. We have a strong position of point to
point.
How would you describe the Nigerian market to British
Airways and how can the government help to grow the
sector?
From this point of view, the Nigerian market is not different
from many other markets globally. There is a lot of competition,
challenges with the economy, but again, this is similar to many
of the markets am responsible for in Saudi Arabia Kuwait and
Abu Dhabi. But we are very dynamic company; we adjust our
products and aircraft among demands. Nigeria is a very strong
market and still a strong market and will be strong for another
80 years.
Apart from Lagos to Abuja, are you planning to extend
There are lots of things we are doing in that area. I remember
the Kuje school in Abuja. The support is on-going. I was in Kuje
late last year to look at the computer class that we started. If you
know the history-that was a school in which people study under
the tree. BA actually rebuilt the school, provided portable water.
Last year, we were involved in Leaders of Tomorrow project.
Some of you were involved where we identified six promising
Nigeria students in aviation and tried to get them ready for
the future. That was phase one. It was a fantastic programme.
We brought them to London. They spent a week in a place in
Lagos before we brought them to London where they spent
one month themselves in different areas of the airline including
mentorship from our CEO, Keith Williams to get experience on
civil engineering side of the operations. We like to continue that
and roll out the second phase. Those students were from the
Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria and
Aviation school in Ilorin, Kwara State. I suspect that the second
phase will be better and bigger than the phase one. The Britishness stops us from making too much noise. Even the Leaders of
Tomorrow, you just want to impact on lives without making too
much of publicity stunt. We impact on lives and want them to be
the ones talking. We are also in partnership with Comet relief to
ensure that people’s lives are impacted.
Is British Airways going to deploy its A380 to Nigeria
in spite of Nigeria’s infrastructural challenge at the
moment?
We constantly review our aircraft deployment globally. If
there will be opportunity, there will be no doubt that we will do
it. At the moment, we have one A380 flying into Africa, Johannesburg. We daily deploy A380 to Johannesburg. We will keep
on reviewing our A380 operations globally. We deploy them to
Singapore, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco etc.
There are constant changes.
What are BA’s challenges operating in Nigeria and
Africa?
Everywhere is challenging. In fact competition is challenging.
The fact that you have competition is challenging. As far as you
to deal with some common issues, it is challenging. What we
are trying to do is to as a company, what we are trying to do is
to rise above the challenges by making our operations safe and
successful. If we have been there for 80 years, it means we can
master challenges.
BA has been accused of selecting a particular set of
aircraft that operate to Nigeria. How true is this?
Do you believe it? The aircraft you flew, do you like it? I
know that you like it. The aircraft look the same. Aircraft have
registration. If you want to check, you can do that with Nigerian
Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for the registration.
It does not make sense to keep aircraft on ground. They are
made to be flying; you don’t even to ask us. We came in London
yesterday at 4.30am and there would be 8amflight to New York
or 10am to Atlanta. They will roaster that aircraft that came
from Lagos to first destination within that period that you operate with B747. They won’t wait for that aircraft to be returned to
Lagos. Let me give you a tip. If you go to the toilet, right in front
of you right opposite the door, you will see the registration. We
have a lot of B747 but the registration will be different. That is
why if you look at the seats, the numbers are different. We will
not take bad aircraft to one of our biggest markets. As a matter of
fact, we do not have bad aircraft.
GLOBAL
SOCCER
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • JUNE 16, 2011
A
WEEKLY PULL-OUT
FA Cup Takes Centre Stage
PAGE. 29
12.03.2016
Olanrewaju
Durodola
From Motor Park
Tout to World
Champion
30
GLOBaL SOccEr
Durodola out punches Dmitri
From Motor Park Tout to World Champion
how Olanrewaju Durodola embraced boxing was not only interesting but dramatic. Before
becoming a boxer, he was comfortable with life as a mwotor park tout, collecting money from
commercial bus drivers for a union in Lagos. he was effectively using his huge body frame to
bully bus drivers and conductors. One fateful day, he encountered a stubborn conductor who
was not ready to play ball. a fight ensued and before Durodola realised it, the conductor had
floored him and went away without paying a dime. Durodola later got to know that the guy
in question was a boxer. That was what prompted the current World Boxing council (Silver
cruiserweight) champion to take to boxing. Kunle Adewale caught up with him during one of his
training sessions at the Lagos Boxing hall of Fame’s gymnasium
S
tanding at six feet, nine
inches, Olanrewaju Durodola
in his short time as a professional boxer had already
caused one of the greatest
upsets in the history of the
sport after beating Russian
knockout terror, Dmitry
Kudryashov in the second round to the
surprise of the boxing world.
Russians were so devastated after the
fight that they accused Durodola of spicing
his system with illegal drugs before the
fight but he was later given a clean bill of
health after an investigation carried out by
WBC officials.
“His (Kudryashov) camp was very
shocked and embarrassed after I knocked
him out in round two and they tried
everything to ensure that I did not return
to Nigeria with the belt. That was why they
came up with the claim that I had enhanced
my system with drug, with the hope that
I will be barred and he would still hold on
to the belt. But after investigation by the
WBC, I was cleared. I don’t use drugs; I use
the strength God gave me. That’s why I am
called God’s Power. I have to admit that
I never knew it would be that quick, but I
was ready for him. I had studied him. He is
a big puncher but so I am,” Durodola said.
His victory against Kudryashov in Kazan, Russia to win the vacant WBC Silver
Cruiserweight title did not go unnoticed as
he was in January honoured by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari rewarded him with N1.5 million
for his success in the ring at a reception
held in the State House for distinguished
sportsmen and women.
“It came to me as a big surprise when I
was told by my coach, Adefemi Babafemi,
that I would be honoured by the President
in Abuja. My joy knew no bounds that day
and it is my proudest moment in life so far,
and the honour would motivate me in my
future fights,”the Nigerian boxer added.
Though he is based in the United States,
the Beijing 2008 Olympian trained for his
fight against the Russian at the Lagos Hall
of Fame boxing gym, which of course cannot be compared with most boxing gyms
abroad in terms of equipment and trainers.
“Since I started my boxing career in
Nigeria, I’m used to shabby facilities. The
Lagos Hall of Fame boxing gym is good.
The only thing that is lacking in the gym is
speed balls and speed bags. But then, what
I need mostly are good sparring partners.
Fortunately, some boxers had just returned
from the All African Games and I engaged
about 10 of them as training partners. With
the initial training I had back in America
and coupled with the video clips of my
opponent that I had watched and studied
with my coach, I was in good shape for the
fight with the Russian and the outcome
was a testimony to it,” he noted.
In spite of being a world champion, he
says he is not getting any support from
government or the boxing federation, except
from the Nigerian Police.
“The only support I’ve been getting is
from the Nigerian Police; most especially
the Inspector-General of Police who also
ensured I was promoted to the rank of an
Assistant Superintendent of Police. He has
done virtually everything for me. Aside
from this, there is no other support coming
from anywhere. I was also not expecting
the promotion from the Inspector-General. I
will always appreciate the IG and the entire
police force. Without the police support I
would not have achieved what I have today
in boxing.
“After my amateur career was over, the
police employed me and it was through
their boxing platform that I was able to fight
Jamal Woods in Bartle Hall, Kansas City,
Missouri, USA for my professional debut in
2011,” the police ASP noted.
The Olympian lamented the state of
Nigerian boxing just as he condemned
the game’s administrators, saying, “The
Olympics qualifier is just around the corner
and our boxers are still not yet in camp
while boxers from other countries have been
in camp long before now. Having the talent
is not enough. At the end of the day, the
country will go to the Olympics and return
empty handed not because we don’t have
good athletes but because they are not well
prepared for the competition.”
Popularly known as God’s Power by
admirers because of the natural strength
he possesses, Durodola who made
his professional debut in 2011 also
holds the WBC Continental Americas
cruiserweight, World Boxing CouncilAfrican Boxing Union (WBC-ABU)
cruiserweight title and is currently
ranked second by the WBC with a
professional record of 22 wins (20
K0s) and two losses.
The 35-year old boxer was discovered by Coach Adefemi Babafemi,
who was then the chief coach of Lagos
State at a boxing club in Lagos Island.
“I discovered the talent and
potential in him and I encouraged
him and even devoting extra days
with him. From then on, he went to
represent Lagos State at the National
Sports Festival in Abuja. That was
where he got his first recognition
after winning gold and he was then
invited to the national camp, after
which he represented Nigeria at the
All Africa Games, Commonwealth
Games and the Olympics before
turning professional in 2011. And
since then, there was no turning back
for him,”Babafemi said.
Durodola, who is expecting his
first child very soon, said he would
encourage his children to take to
boxing because he loves the sport so
much. “If I had to reincarnate, I would
still be a boxer,” he said.
31
GLOBAL SOCCER
Nigeria Professional Football League…
Football Tops as
Etisalat’s Cliqfest
Berths at UNIUYO
Enugu Rangers player outpaces a Heartland of Owerri player
Amapakabo Wants End to Rangers
Title Drought
Enugu Rangers head coach, Imama
Amapakabo is keen to land the club’s
first major silverware in 32 years.
The Flying Antelopes currently occupy the summit of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) standings
with 10 points after five games.
Rangers are undefeated in their last
four games following their moraleshattering opening day defeat away to
four-time NPFL champions Kano Pillars.
“We were not clinical enough and
made too many mistakes against Kano
Pillars.
“If we had taken our chances in that
game, we would have buried them.
“The good thing is that we recovered
well enough after that painful defeat
and have distinguished ourselves in the
next four games we played after that,”
Amapakabo told supersport.com. The
youthful trainer was also quick to add
that despite emerging as the season’s
pacesetters, it is still too early to refer to
his side as one of the favourites for the
title.
“There are still 33 more matches to
play and it is still very early days in the
season.
“However, the objective is clear to
everyone involved with this club that
we are gunning for the big prize (title).
“From the players to the coaches to
the fans everyone knows that this is one
of the few remaining traditional clubs in
the country.
“We want to win the title but we
know it will require a lot of hard work,”
he said.
Rangers next face Abia Warriors
in NPFL action on Sunday and
Amapakabo expects a stern test.
“They are the only unbeaten side in
G LO B A L S O C C E R
ASSISTANT EDITOR
KUNLE ADEWALE
LAYOUT DESIGNER
WAHAB AKINTUNDE
THISDAY ON SATURDAY
EDITOR
SHAKA MOMODU
DEPUTY EDITOR
YEMI ADEBOWALE
THISDAY NEWSPAPERS
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN
NDUKA OBAIGBENA
MANAGING DIRECTOR
ENIOLA BELLO
DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR
KAYODE KOMOLAFE
the league right now and they have a
very good coach in Kennedy Boboye.
“We know it will not be easy as they
will have massive support from their
fans too.
“The good thing is that we will play
our way, which is to attack. We create
numerous chances in all our games and
if our strikers finish those opportunities,
I am sure we will not lose,” he submitted.
Meanwhile, Abia Warriors striker,
Chisom Chikatara has said he will
dutifully campaign against oriental
neighbours, Enugu Rangers in Sunday’s
clash at the Umuahia Township
Stadium.
The 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) sensation, who is among
the Super Eagles sweating it out under
caretaker coach, Samson Siasia for the
2017 Africa Cup of Nations double take
against the Pharaohs of Egypt on March
25 in Kaduna and 29 in Alexandria
respectively recently completed a switch
to the Moroccan side, Wydad Athletic
Club (WAC). The lanky goal poacher
was handed jersey number 10 at the
Brotola Moroccan league leaders.
Chikatara boasted that his side
will puncture the Coal City side
stellar performance in the five-week old
Nigerian top league.
“Of course, I will be heading home
to Umuahia right from the Super Eagles
camp to play in the oriental derby
against Enugu Rangers on Sunday.
“Yes, I have completed my move to
the Moroccan side, Wydad Casablanca
but will wait to July to commence
league action with the North African
side.
“Part of the contract deals is that I
will continue to play for Abia Warriors
until I finally join Wydad so you will
see me in Abia Warriors colours against
Enugu Rangers on Sunday.
“Well, Enugu Rangers have done
creditably well for themselves in the
five-week old league but come on
Sunday I think they will be there at
Umuahia merely to honour the league
clash as we will turn them back
empty-handed.
“It’s a local derby largely to be
difficult as expected but we will come
out top from the derby.
“We must win the three points at
stake to chance claiming the top spot so
the three points are not negotiable,” said
Chikatara to supersport.com.
Abia Warriors have nine points in
their kitty one behind opponents and
leaders, Enugu Rangers in the five-week
old league.
The Abia Warriors versus Enugu
Rangers match will kick off at 4:15pm
local time.
Week 5 Fixtures
Nasarawa Utd
Giwa FC
Ifeanyiubah
MFM
Enyimba
Lobi Stars
Akwa Utd
Abia Warriors
Wikki
Tornadoes
Warri Wolves
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
Nigeria Premier League Table
Rangers
Pillars
MFM
Lobi
Rivers Utd
Abia
Wolves
Wikki
Ifeanyiubah
Plateau
3SC
Ikorodu Utd
Heartland
Akwa Utd
Tornadoes
Giwa
Enyimba
El-Kanemi
Sunshine
Nasarawa
P
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
4
5
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
4
3
W
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
D
1
1
1
0
0
3
2
1
1
1
0
2
2
1
1
1
0
0
2
0
L
1
1
1
2
2
0
1
2
1
2
2
1
2
1
3
2
2
3
2
3
Pts
7
7
6
6
6
5
3
5
5
6
6
2
2
5
5
4
1
3
4
1
GF
4
5
6
3
4
3
2
3
4
9
5
2
3
5
6
5
3
6
6
5
3SC
Sunshine Stars
Ikorodu Utd
El-Kanemi
Heartland
Kano Pillars
Plateau Utd
Rangers
Warri Wolves
Rivers Utd
N. Tornadoes
GA
3
2
0
3
2
2
1
2
1
-3
1
0
-1
0
-1
-1
-2
-3
-2
-4
GD
10
10
10
9
9
9
8
7
7
7
6
5
5
4
4
4
3
3
2
0
Football took centre stage as Nigeria’s leading innovative
and youth centric brand, Etisalat Nigeria stepped up its
strategic engagement with Nigerian youth, as it kicked off
the 2016 edition of its pan-Nigeria multi-campus youthcentric initiative, Cliqfest which berthed at the University of
Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The two day event was a mixture of fun and excitement
and featured a five a side football tournament, of four
teams; Team Black (Midnight callers), Team Blue (Unlimited SMS), Team White(Free midnight calls) and Team
Green (Bonus on Incoming calls).
In an exciting contest, Midnight callers edged out Bonus
on Incoming calls 3-2 in a pulsating game while Unlimited
SMS knocked out Free midnight calls 4-1 in a one sided
affair which set them up to meet Midnight callers while
Bonus on Incoming calls slugged it out with Free midnight
calls for third place. At the end of the contest Team Black
(Midnight callers) ran home with the trophy after coming
from behind to beat Team Blue (Unlimited SMS) 2-1 while
Team White(Free midnight calls) won the third place
match. All the teams went home with phones and Etisalat
branded gift items.
The high point of the two day activation was the
emergence of Daniel Nfon Bassey, a 100 level student of
Bio-Chemistry as the winner of the star prize, a brand new
Hyundai i10.
The campus activation which focuses on education,
sports and entertainment began with a motivational session
anchored by Niyi Adesanya who spoke on the theme:
“Activate your Dreams” .The students were also treated to
a concert featuring the ALAGA IBILE rapper Reminisce,
the EGBERI PAPA master Timaya and Nigerian Idol 4 & 5
winners, Evelle and K-Peace who delighted the students
with wonderful renditions of their songs.
Speaking on the campus initiative, Michael Nwoseh,
Specialist, Youth Segment said “We want our youths to be
balanced, connected and in touch with the ever-changing
career turns, social trends and lifestyles, and Cliqfest connects with our core values of care and optimism expressed
in an innovative, yet simple manner," he said.
UK -Based Nigerian
Boxers to Meet House
of Reps
Leading British Sports agency, World Class Athletes Ltd, are
bringing the two best Nigerian boxers in the world back to
Nigeria.
The boxers are former Olympian, and World title challenger,
Ajose Olusegun, and current undefeated African Champion,
Larry Ekundayo. They will be accompanied by Head of World
Class Athletes, Ben Gray and the boxers Special Advisor, Bimbo
Folayan, Executive Director of the Nigerian Diaspora Direct
Investment Summit and former head of the Central Association
of Nigerians in the UK who has been mobilising the Nigerian
Community and Government to get behind the boxers.
The Boxers have got a busy schedule ahead of them which
includes a workout session with some of Nigerian boxers and
donating some boxing equipment to the Nigerian Olympic
Team from their sponsors Bullet Energy Drinks and Arik
Air. Next they will be heading to Abuja, where they will be
presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, while also in
Abuja they will be appointed as investment representatives for
the country and will conduct high level meetings on how they,
with the support of the government and leading businesses, can
help deliver sporting glory to Nigeria with the specific aim of
helping to improve the country’s image overseas through their
sporting achievements.
Finally, they will return to their home town Lagos to meet
Lagos State officials and discuss how they can support the
states aim of becoming a leading destination for sporting events.
In helping deliver sporting glory, via winning World titles,
for Nigeria the boxers aim at reigniting the country’s passion for
the sport, as boxing is one that they have had a long and proud
history in. World class athletes strongly believe that Nigeria can
rule the world at this internationally respected sport, in a very
short space of time, with the correct support.
The plan is not only to deliver Nigerian world champions
but also positive trade ambassadors for the country, to help
improve trade between the UK and the USA, this will be
achieved through the international media attention a world
champion attains. The boxers will also encourage Nigerians
to not only support their own athletes but also their own
businesses whenever they can. To this end the boxers have been
invited to represent the Nigerian Diaspora Direct Investment
Summit in June, in London, where the two boxers will mobilise
the Diaspora and other investors to invest in Nigeria.
The boxers’ success in the ring would also provide the opportunity for the some of the country’s major cities to stage big
sporting events, as Las Vegas in the US and Macau in China do.
These events will attract visitors from around the world with
the staging of a high profile boxing event being used as a back
drop to encourage investment into Nigeria. It will also serve to
help create jobs in the sports and the hospitality industry and
to help inspire the countries youth, whilst also encouraging
them with discipline and health through boxing, a sport which
Nigeria, with the correct support, can go on to dominate the
world at.
32
GLOBaL SOccEr
Arsenal celebrate winning the 2014 FA Cup
Premiership Big Guns Shift Fans
Attention to FA Cup
The flow of the English Premier League would be distorted slightly this weekend and fans
attention shifted to the Fa cup due to the involvement of Premiership big guns-Manchester
United, arsenal and chelsea. This has forced the postponement of most league matches.
Therefore, fans of the most watched league in the world have to make do with games involving
potential winners-Tottenham and Leicester on Sunday and Monday respectively
A
fter been ousted from
the UEFA Champions
League by Paris St
Germain on Wednesday, the only realistic
chance for a trophy this
season left for Guus
Hiddink led side is the
FA Cup and that why their visit to
Goodison Park against Everton in the
FA Cup quarterfinals today will be
very interesting.
"My opinion is that Chelsea is now
in a transitional period. They have to
see how to go on and try to regain the
lost terrain where Chelsea used to be.
It's difficult to get into fourth position," Hiddink told reporters.
Meanwhile, Diego Costa and
Eden Hazard both sustained injuries
against Paris Saint-Germain. Costa
hobbled off while Hazard left the
fray late on with a hip injury and was
booed by a small number of Chelsea
fans as he made his way over to the
touchline to be replaced by Oscar.
"We'll see if there is big damage
tomorrow (Thursday). Diego was
desperate to play today, although he's
not 100 per cent fit. I don't know if it
became worse. I don't hope (think)
that it's worse than it was before the
Stoke game. Because in two days we
have to play another game against
Everton in the FA Cup," said Hiddink
of Costa.
However, Tom Cleverley has
declared himself fit for the clash.The
midfielder missed the Toffees' last
two Premier League games through
illness but has returned to training
this week ahead of the visit of Hiddink's side.
Cleverley played in last year's final
at Wembley for Aston Villa, where
they were thumped 4-0 by Arsenal,
and the former Manchester United
man is determined to make amends
in an Everton shirt this season.
"It's important we get to Wembley
and give the club a lift and give our
fans something to shout about," he
told evertontv.
"I have been training fully and I'm
ready for this weekend. I will do
everything I can to help the team get
through to Wembley."
On Sunday, two teams from both
ends of the table, bottom-dwelling
squad Aston Villa and top contender
Tottenham Hotspur, are scheduled
to face each other at the White Hart
Lane .
Aston Villa continued its struggles
in the English top flight this season as
they remain in the cellar of the overall
standings with its fourth straight loss
and fifth one in their last six outings.
Meanwhile, Tottenham settled for a
2-2 draw against third-running team
Arsenal FC at the White Hart Lane
also last Saturday
Interestingly, a hair's breadth
separated Leicester City and Newcastle United at the end of the relegation battle last season but a 36-point
chasm and a gulf in confidence exists
between the sides ahead of Monday's
Premier League clash.
With Leicester's title challenge
showing no sign of wilting as the
inevitable pressure of the run-in
continues to mount, Newcastle's
season is seemingly skidding towards
the abyss.
It is by no means certain that Newcastle manager Steve McClaren will
still be in the dugout for the game at
33
GLOBAL SOCCER
Spanish La Liga Fixtures
TODAY
Barcelona
Celta Vigo
Atletico
Vallecano
v
v
v
v
Getafe15:00
Sociedad
Deportivo
Eibar
17:15
19:30
21:05
SUNDAY
Levante
Sevilla
Bilbao
Las Palmas
v
v
v
v
Valencia
illarreal
Betis
Madrid
11:00
15:00
17:15
19:30
MONDAY
Granada
v
Espanyol
19:30
Bundesliga Fixtures
TODAY
Hot Shots
Premiership Table
Jamie Vardy
Leicester
19
Romelu Lukaku
Everton
18
Harry Kane
Tottenham
17
Sergio Aguero
Man City
16
Riyad Mahrez
Leicester
15
Odion Ighalo
Watford
14
Olivier Giroud
Azrsenal
12
Jermain Defoe
Sunderland
11
Diego Costa
Chelsea
11
Georginio Wijnaldum Newcastle
9
Marko Amoutovic
Stoke
9
Hoffenheim
v
Wolfsburg
14:30
Andre Ayew
Swansea
8
M'gladbach
v
Frankfurt
14:30
Ingolstadt
v
Stuttgart
14:30
Ross Barkley
Everton
8
Hannover
v
Cologne
14:30
Troy Deeney
Watford
8
Darmstadt
v
Augsburg
14:30
Roberto
Fimino
8
Bayern
v
Bremen
17:30
Dimitri Payet
West Ham
8
v
v
Hamburger
Mainz
14:30
16:30
Gyifi Sigurdsson
Swansea
8
SUNDAY
Leverkusen
Dortmund
Premiership
Serie A Fixtures
TODAY
Verona
Napoli
v
v
Sampdoria
Chievo
17:00
19:45
SUNDAY
Torino
Atalanta
Bologna
Frosinone
Genoa
Sassuolo
Inter
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
Lazio
Juventus
Carpi
Udinese
Empoli
Milan
Palermo
11:30
14:00
14:00
14:00
14:00
14:00
19:45
TODAY
Tottenham
Chelsea
Everton
Man City
Newcastle
Southampton
Swansea
Watford
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
SUNDAY
Crystal Palace v
West Brom
v
Arsenal
Stoke
West Ham
Aston Villa
Bournemouth
Sunderland
Norwich
Leicester
12:45
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
17:30
Liverpool
Man Utd
13:30
16:00
Leicester
Tottenham
Arsenal
Man City
West Ham
Man Utd
Liverpool
Stoke
Southampton
Chelsea
West Brom
Everton
Watford
Bournemouth
Crystal Palace
Swansea
Sunderland
Norwich
Newcastle
Aston Villa
Seria A
Juventus
Napoli
Roma
Fiorentina
Inter
Milan
Sassuolo
Lazio
Bologna
Chievo
Empoli
Torino
Sampdoria
Genoa
Atalanta
Udinese
Palermo
Frosinone
Carpi
Verona
29
29
29
28
29
29
28
29
29
29
29
28
29
29
29
29
29
29
28
29
21
27
16
21
12
10
6
-3
7
4
-6
12
-1
-10
-7
-9
-19
-23
-25
-33
60
55
52
50
49
47
44
43
41
40
39
38
37
35
33
33
25
24
24
16
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
35
35
30
18
11
9
5
-2
-2
-6
-8
-1
-4
-4
-7
-18
-22
-25
-20
-24
64
61
56
53
51
47
44
38
36
34
34
33
31
31
30
30
27
26
22
18
La Liga
Barcelona
Atletico
Madrid
Villarreal
Sevilla
Bilbao
Celta Vigo
Eibar
Sociedad
Betis
Valencia
Málaga
Deportivo
Espanyol
Las Palmas
Getafe
Vallecano
Granada
Sporting
Levante
Bundesliga
Bayern
Dortmund
Hertha
Schalke
Mainz
M'gladbach
Wolfsburg
Leverkusen
Ingolstadt
Hamburger
Stuttgart
Köln
Bremen
Augsburg
Darmstadt
Frankfurt
Hoffenheim
Hannover
"We'll see if there is big damage tomorrow.
Diego was desperate to play today, although
he's not 100 per cent fit. I don't know if it
became worse. I don't hope (think) that it's
worse than it was before the Stoke game.
Because in two days we have to play another
game against Everton in the FA Cup"
Leicester's King Power Stadium
with his immediate future up in the
air.
A scheduled meeting with managing director Lee Charnley did not
take place on Wednesday, according to media reports, with former
Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez strongly
linked to the role should the club
decide to end McClaren's stay at St
James' Park.
Despite spending heavily in the
transfer window, Newcastle are 19th
in the table having been in the bottom three for 146 days this season.
On paper they should be little
more than cannon fodder for Claudio Ranieri's Leicester, who have
won five of the last seven to open
a five-point lead at the summit as
their more-fancied rivals have all
stumbled.
Confounding their doubters
on a weekly basis, Leicester, who
finished 14th and two points above
Newcastle last season, are looking
more like champions every match
they play.
They came through a testing
February when they played Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal
and now need only to keep their heads
over the final nine games to claim one
of the most remarkable title triumphs
in English football history.
They could find their lead cut to
two points, however, by the time they
take the field against Newcastle as
second-placed Tottenham Hotspur
visit doomed bottom club Aston Villa
on Sunday.
Spurs, who face a testing trip to
Borussia Dortmund in the Europa
League on Thursday, needed to get
back to winning ways swiftly if they
are to maintain their pursuit, having
taken just one point from their last two
games. It is a similar story for Manchester City, whose fading title hopes
probably could not survive a defeat at
Norwich City today.
City bounced back from a 3-0 defeat
by Liverpool with a thumping 4-0 victory over Villa, but still trail Leicester
by 10 points, although they do have a
game in hand.
Third-placed Arsenal, whose challenge has fallen away in recent weeks
after three games without a victory, are
likely to drop further behind as they
play Watford in the FA Cup quarterfi-
FA Cup is Chelsea's only realistic chance at winning a trophy this season
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
56
30
54
14
10
8
-11
0
-2
-10
0
-1
-2
-26
-10
-18
-22
-24
-20
-26
46
34
7
5
4
8
6
3
-7
-4
-9
-7
-13
-8
-13
-12
-16
-24
72
64
60
53
45
44
42
36
35
34
34
33
33
31
30
27
26
26
24
21
63
58
42
41
40
39
37
36
32
31
31
30
27
26
26
24
21
17
34
GLOBaL SOccEr\\OThEr SPOrTS
L-R: Public Relations Manager, GOtv, Efe Obiomah; Managing Director, Flykite Productions, Jenkins Alumona;
Vice President, South East, Nigerian Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C), Dr. Chike Ilukwe and General Secretary NBB of C, Remi Aboderin at a press conference to announce the sixth edition of GOtv Boxing Night, at the
National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos
Sharapova's
Nadal Shocked by Sharapova's
Failed Drugs Test
Rafael Nadal has denied
he has ever used a banned
substance to gain an edge or
to speed up recovery from
injury.
Nadal spoke out in the
wake of Maria Sharapova's
failed drug test which has
rocked the world of tennis.
The 14-time Grand Slam
winner said former world
No 1 Sharapova "should
be punished" before using
the opportunity to scotch
unfounded allegations that
he had used performanceenhancing drugs.
"I have never had the
temptation of doing some-
thing wrong. I am very far
from that, doping," said the
Spaniard, who has been hard
hit in recent years by injury.
"I am a completely clean
guy. I worked so hard during
my career that when I get
injured I never take nothing
to be back quicker."
The 29-year-old left-hander
has been periodically dogged
by whispers of doping during
his trophy-laden career.
"I heard it a few times again
about doping," said Nadal. "I
am a little bit tired with that.
"I believe in the sport and
the values of the sport. The
sport is an example for society.
It is an example for the kids
and if I am doing something
that goes against that, I will
be lying to myself, not lying
to my opponents."
Nadal said over the course
of his career he has taken
advantage of some new treatments for his knee problems,
like stem-cell therapy and
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)
therapy, often known as blood
spinning.
"I have been open all my
career. I never tried to hide
nothing that I did," Nadal
said. "I did PRP and then I
did stem cells.
"The first time with PRP
it worked fantastic and the
second time it was bad. I
had to stop playing tennis
for seven months.
"And with stem cells I used
it two times on my knees and
it worked very well. "I am not
doing, never did, and never
going to do something wrong."
Nadal added there is a
Spanish team doctor who
monitors what medication
the players are taking to
make sure it is safe.
"He has been the doctor
for all the Spanish players for
a number of years. I would
never take nothing that he
doesn't know about," he said.
GOtv Boxing Night 6
All Eyes on Fijabi, Afonja Warrior, Joe Boy
Fast rising middleweight
boxer, Abolaji "Afonja Warrior " Rasheed will have
the chance to win the West
African middleweight title
when he takes Ghana's Adjei
Sowah at the sixth edition of
GOtv Boxing Night, which is
billed to hold on Good Friday,
March 25, at the Indoor Sports
Hall of the National Stadium,
Lagos.
This was disclosed by the
organisers at a press conference to announce the fight
line-up in Lagos on Tuesday.
Speaking at the occasion,
Jenkins Alumona, Managing
Director of Flykite Produc-
tions, promoters of the event,
said he is delighted at the
progress boxing has made in
the last one and half years,
the evidence of which is
visible in improved purse,
insurance package, N1 million
cash prize for the best boxer
and frequency of fights.
Another big fight at the
event will see national light
welterweight
champion,
Olaide Fijabi, make a bid for
the West African title when he
takes on Republic of Benin's
Djamiou Ekekpo.
Fijabi, winner of the
N1million cash prize at the
second edition of the event,
will, as with other boxers, bid
to win the cash prize and the
Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial
Trophy for the best boxer.
In the lightweight division,
the explosive Oto Joseph will
slug it out with Hogan Jimoh
Jnr., first son of boxing legend,
Hogan Jimoh.
The three remaining fights
on the night will feature five
young boxers discovered at
the recently concluded GOtv
Boxing NextGen Search.
Michael Rolland and Nwoye
Prince, both products of the
search, will face each other
in a national lightweight
challenge.
Two other graduates of
the GOtv Boxing NextGen
Search-Saidi Lawal and
Samuel Elegbede-will slug
it out in a national super
middleweight challenge duel.
Matthew Obinna, yet
another graduate, will take
on Yusuf Moshood in another
super middleweight contest.
The event, which will be
broadcast live by SuperSport
in 47 African countries, is
sponsored by GOtv and
supported by MultiChoice,
Paragonis Multimedia Limited,
KSquare Security, Newsbreak.
ng, Bond FM, Complete Sports
and Brila FM.
Tough Time Awaits Fijaborn, Warns Beninois Opponent
Djamiou Ekekpo, the Beninois
boxer, billed to fight Nigeria's
Olaide "Fijaborn" Fijabi for the
West African light welterweight
title, has vowed to reduce
his yet unbeaten opponent
to pulp when they meet on
25 March at the GOtv Boxing
Night, holding at the Indoor
Sports of the National Stadium
in Lagos.
The event is a six-fight
professional boxing tourney
featuring established stars
and five graduates of the GOtv
Boxing NextGen Search.
Speaking in Lagos on
Wednesday, Ekekpo, who was
accompanied by his manager,
said everybody at the venue
of will enjoy the fight except
Fijabi, who will be beaten like
a baby.
"He has not been beaten
because he hasn't met me yet.
He will be beaten at the GOtv
Boxing Night on Good Friday
and will remember that day
as bad Friday because I will
walk away with the belt after
giving him the beating of his
life. I beat people for fun. Tell
him I said so," boasted Ekekpo.
Responding , Fijabi, the reigning national light welterweight
champion and a former winner
of the best boxer prize at the
GOtv Boxing Night, described
Djamiou's boasts as impotent.
"If he said what has been
attributed to him, it means he
doesn't understand that people
with thick facial marks, like
I have, were taught to inflict
pain from childhood when we
our faces were marked. I will
inflict the kind of pain he has
never experienced.
"I will give him facial marks
with punches and make him
return to his country crying,"
raved Fijabi.
Afonja Warrior’ll See Double, Brags Ghanaian Challenger
Adjei Sowah, the Ghanaian
opponent of Abolaji "Afonja
Warrior" Rasheed in the
forthcoming West African
middleweight boxing title
duel, has vowed to punch
the Nigerian until he starts
seeing double in the ring.
The encounter, which headlines
the sixth edition of GOtv Boxing Night is viewed by Sowah
as an opportunity to avenge
the loss of compatriot Alfred
"Ahwor" Quaye to Nigeria's
Waidi Usman at the third
edition of the GOtv Boxing
Night.
Sowah, who spoke from
his base in Accra, said: "I'm
coming to show the guy who
calls himself warrior that he
is nothing but a pussy cat. I
will avenge the loss of Quaye
to Skoro and show the world
that Nigeria still trails Ghana
in boxing. He calls himself a
warrior, but when he sees war
in the ring, he will become a
pussy cat. I will punch him
until he starts seeing double."
The Ghanaian claimed to have
been watching the fights of
his Nigerian opponent and
concluded that he is still way
below the standards of his
previous opponents, whom
he defeated.
"Ordinarily, he won't go beyond three rounds. But I want
the fans to enjoy the bout. I
will prolong the punishment
and punch him sufficiently
to make him see double," he
bragged.
ABU Hosts First American Football
Game in W’Africa
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) has yet again imprinted
its name in the history books by being the first to host an
American football match in the entire West African sub-region.
The historic match which pitted the Lagos Marines against
hosts ABU saw the more experienced home team devour the
visitors 26-14 in the highly entertaining encounter last weekend.
Being the first time, oganisers were not anticipating the
unprecedented large turn-out of spectators that thronged the
ABU Sports Complex to catch a glimpse of the gladiators in
the historic game.
Fans of American football who were attracted from all over
the country were excited all through the encounter, presenting
Nigerians with another pulsating option to the regular football.
Speaking in an interview after the encounter, President of
the Nigerian Institute of American Football, Professor Adamu
Ahmed said that he was impressed by the impact the first
outing had on the spectators.
“We are really thrilled with the huge followership this first
game has generated,” he noted with excited.
He explained that the thought of ABU hosting the match
was first muted in 2012 during the 50th anniversary celebration
of the institution, a decision all stakeholders are today very
proud of.
“Through a network of alumni of ABU led by NBA star,
Ejike Ugboaja, we were able to bring coaches to Nigeria to
lecture in seminars. We then started the national secretariat at
the ABU Faculty of Agriculture,” explained Professor Ahmed.
He said that the vice chancellor of the university contributed
tremendously in the development of the game so far by providing
moral and financial support.
“The vice chancellor was magnanimous in starting a certificate
course in American Football which will in no time transform
into a diploma course,” he revealed.
The Nigerian Institute of American Football has coaches
Oliver B. Johnson, Daryl Hayes, and Ricardo Dickerson as
members. ABU alumni, Ejike Ugboaja is also a board member.
‘Every Minute Made of Black’
Promo: Football Enthusiasts Laud
Guinness
As more winners continue to emerge in the on-going Guinness
‘Every Minute Made of Black’ Promo, continuous accolade
have been trailing the unique football promo from many
Nigerians and lovers of football including winners who have
emerged and are being rewarded by Guinness.
Dubbed the biggest football promotion so far in recent times,
every minute made of black promo has continued to reward
and thrill consumers with so much excitement, while also
gaining more acceptance and relevance especially amongst
football fans nationwide.
Ace Sports Pundit and CEO, Elev8 Sports, Mr. Abiola
Kazeem who was present at the Headquarters of Guinness
Nigeria Plc. during one of the cheque presentations described
the promo as the biggest part of the Barclays Premier League
this season as thousands of football fans have been super
excited at this first of its kind promo.
“As a sport analyst, I can boldly say that the promo has
generated lots of interesting moments and excitement as fans
are eager to follow the game through to the end, awaiting
the possibility of a win at every minute of the game. The BPL
season has been fun with lots of actions on the field of play
and EMMOB promo makes it much more engaging with huge
participation and winnings.”
Many of the winners who have already received their instant
airtime and cash noted that Guinness has fulfilled its promise
to provide more exciting football experiences for its consumers
at every minute of each BPL game.
One of the lucky ‘one hundred thousand naira winners’,
who recently received his cheque, Mr. Onifade Oluwashola
shared his experience on how he won saying “I was at a party
and was served Guinness big stout, I initially threw the crown
cork on the floor but my friend told me about the promo,
insisting that it is real. When I got home I opened the crown
cork and sent the code with my team name, Arsenal to 1759. I
was reimbursed immediately with #250 naira airtime and also
got a message that I have entered the weekly draw. After one
week, I got a call that I should show up at Guinness office that
I’ve won #100,000, I didn’t believe it till I got the winning code
to collect the money on my phone.
35
236
JUNETHE
16, 2011
• THISDAY,
THE SATURDAY
NEWSPAPER
THISDAY,
SATURDAY
NEWSPAPER
• MARCH
12, 2016
FAIRGROUND
Magical Night of
AMVCA 2016
with
AZUKA
OGUJIUBA
[email protected]
A
ll over the world, everyone
who’s interested in and
loves the African movie
industry knows that the
Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice
Awards (AMVCAs) and the
AMAAs are the two major
award nights that appreciate and celebrate
budding and top players of the African
movie industry. Actors, producers, directors,
fashion lovers and movie buffs are glued to
their TV to watch these events- especially if
they are not invited.
And of course, the players in the movie
industries and invitees are already working
with designers, fashion buyers, stylists and
clothiers on what outfit to rock on that day–
no blasphemy of Jesus Christ intended, but
in the calendar of Nigerian showbiz- this is
our Christmas.
Well, I for one started planning late this
year, but my magic wand didn’t disappoint
me; the notice was too short for my designer
to fix a dress for me. And the thought of
withdrawing any amount of money above
N50,000 from my account to buy a new dress
scared the living daylight out of me. A truth
you may be shocked to hear. And if l wanted
any designer friend of mine to give me a
dress or lend me a dress to wear, I could call
one or two of them. I was not in the mood,
and I hate to shine in borrowed garments.
So, I went back to my wardrobe, ransacked it
like I was looking for all my life savings, then
I saw this polythene bag that had two similar
skirts, meant for me and a friend, with a bold
face of Marilyn Manroe printed on it. What if
I turn this to a dress? I soliloquized. I dashed
back to my tailor, I told her I wanted to
experiment something. I told her what to do
with the two skirts and it came out appealing
to me. I don’t know about the next person’s
opinion and it is not like I really care anyway.
I decided to rock the two skirts-turned to-adress to the African movie ‘OSCARs’. And
that is the enigmatic story behind my outfit
this year to the AMVCA. I swirled in my two
skirt in one dress, walked majestically on the
red carpet before entering the venue, I was
not only loving my dress, I was so confident
in my skin.
That night, for me, Mercy Aigbe Gentry,
Funke Akindele, Toyin Aimakhu stood
out. These Yoruba actresses are not joking
anymore, l liked their presentation and,
of course, who rocks the green better than
Rita Dominic? Nobody! Only Rita rocks her
green loving world. Fairground would be
publishing Efemena Tommy Adabamu’s
Uberstyle best dressed and worst dressed list
for the 2016 AMVCA. Enjoy!
AMVCA TOP WINNERS
Recently, the best minds behind African
cinematic experience gathered for a night of
excitement, entertainment and red carpet
glam as the African Magic in association
with MultiChoice Africa and, proud sponsor, Amstel Malta, announced the winners of
the 2016 edition of the Africa Magic Viewers’
Choice Awards (AMVCAs).
The show, which was broadcast live on all
Africa Magic channels on DStv and GOtv,
began with exciting displays on the red
carpet, culminating in a spectacular night
for African cinema replete with exciting
musical performances, comedic displays
and emotional speeches.
The event, hosted by the brilliant duo of
IK Osakioduwa and South African TV host
Minnie Dhlamini, featured excellent performances by artistes, Flavour, Yemi Alade and
Zonke, as well as brilliant comic displays by
Ugandan humourist, Salvador, and Thomas
Gumede from South Africa. A highlight of
the evening was the receiving of the 2016 Industry Merit Award by Nollywood legends
Sadiq Daba and Bukky Ajayi. An emotional
Bukky Ajayi received a standing ovation
from the audience who acknowledged her
contributions to African film and cinema
spanning over 50 years. But I wondered why
no gift or monetary packaged was attached
Adesua Etomi, Daniel K. Daniel Stephanie Okereke Linus, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, Yolisa Phahle(CEO M-NET) & Kemi Lala Akindoju
Bukky Ajayi
John Ugbe (Multichoice MD) and Rita Dominic
Mercy Aigbe Gentry
to the Merit Award, because I feel these
veterans are either retired or partially retired
and might not be getting juicy roles anymore
to sustain their livelihood. The AMVCA
should take a peep into that.
Another big winner of the night was
Daniel K. Daniel took home the award for
the best actor in a drama category for his role
in ‘A Soldier’s Story’. Screen starlet, Adesua
Etomi took home the prize for best actress in
a drama for her role in ‘Falling’.
A visibly excited Kemi ‘Lala’ Akindoju
won the 2016 trailblazer award, and was
given a prize of an SUV from JAC Motors.
showed us how it’s really done on the red
carpet while some made up for their red
carpet mishaps last year and some failed
us this year and made a serious transition,
which took them from 100 to 0 in a flash.
Without so much long talks, let us take you
on a style story from this year’s winners. So,
kicking it off with the female, we present you
with UBERSTYLE’s best-dressed women at
the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards
2016.
Year in, year out, Rita Dominic stays slaying like she dresses for a living. The screen
goddess and last night’s presenter turned
heads when she arrived oozing so much
sexiness as always a green sleeveless dress
by Elvira Jude with an embellished cinched
waist. She added minimal jewelry, black
purse and metallic strappy heels that not
only finish her look but also added so much
oomph to her “light up the room” smile.
Once a beauty queen, always a queen!
Osas Ajibade, looked like a real beauty
queen in a pink symmetrical cut strapless
ball gown by Toju Foyeh. Silver and black
earrings, tiny clutch, with her hair swept to
the side. She finished the look with her most
beautiful accessory, Mr. Gbenro Ajibade.
And she was simply flawless.
She didn’t only do well as a host for the
night, but Minnie Dlamini also showed
off her smoldering shoulders and shinny
skin in this pearl detailed dress by South
African designer, Gert Johan Coetzee. This is
definitely topping our best-dressed list. The
media personality and host for the night did
justice to this piece, showing just the right
amount of skin, minimal make up by Bimpe
UBERSTYLE Best Dressed List for
AMVCA 2016
Every year, the AMVCA is one event that
every movie lover and fashion enthusiast
looks forward to. For obvious reasons and
the fact that it’s one of the biggest red carpets
that brings together our favorite A-list
celebrities from all over Africa.
The prestigious awards, which held on
March 5, 2016 at the Eko Hotel and Suites,
Lagos, witnessed an amazing and glamorous series of red carpet stunners. Some
TOP 5
Mercy Aigbe Gentry brought to the red
carpet “old Hollywood glamour”, wearing
a silver dress with beaded embellishment
from House of Luminee. For her hair, the star
had side up hairdo, silver chandelier earrings and a red purse to finish up this look.
This was one look that got everyone talking
on social media. She is the best-dressed
woman on the carpet without an iota of
doubt. From hair, make up with dark lips to
dress colour, “hey boy” singer, Toni Tones
showed us how it’s done in this amazing
pink peplum piece made by Yemi Shoyemi
couture.
37
FAIRGROUND
Magical Night of AMVCA 2016
added silver chandelier earrings to complete
her look.
R&B musician, Mocheddah slayed in this
blush pink ensemble, bringing back the 70’s
look to the red carpet and she killed it. She
finished up her look with silver studded
earrings, perfect ponytail, and metallic ball
purse.
Other celebrities that rocked the red carpet
included; Nancy Isime who was also a
stunner on the red carpet, in her nude mono
strap rosette detailed dress; thigh-high slit
gave it that wow look. She perfected her look
with gold earrings, gold embellished purse
and strappy sandals.
Rukky Sanda opted for a white lacy dress
she designed herself with deep plunging
neck line and finished her look with blue
purse and silver studded earrings.
Red carpet host for the night, Eku Eduwor,
was a stunner in a black off shoulder dress by
Tsemaye Binite. She kept it all simple opting
for black fringe earrings, and this makes her
top our best-dressed list.
Lilian Esoro Franklin surely made heads
turn in her canary yellow cape dress, paired
with gold cuffs and gold purse. She sure
knows how to rock a maternity look, we love
her AMVCA style.
Though not our best red carpet look of her,
Genevieve Nnaji arrived the red carpet in a
simple floor length number by Tope FnR that
features a deep cowl back line detail which
was the best part of the dress for us. She
finished up with silver accessories.
Beverly Naya wore a green dress with
pearl details made by sisiano; the train of this
dress was everything. She opted for very
minimal jewelry and her hairdo was perfect
for the entire look, and this made her one of
our best dressed.
Nollywood actress, Adesua Etomi won the
award for “Best Actress” at the AMVCAs
and she also wins a spot on our Best Dressed
list in this green custom design by April by
Kunbi. She truly looked like a star on the red
carpet.
Toke Makinwa is pictured gold-perfect in
a ballroom gown and we love how she shine
through the carpet and owned it.
Celebrity columnist with Thisday Newspapers, Azuka Ogujiuba was printastic in a
bottle green double layer floor length gown
with bold faces of Marilyn Monroe. She
finished her look with short pixie cut which
was a bit risky but she made it work.
Though we wished Caroline Danjuma had
swapped this dress with the cobalt blue one
she wore at her premier, we still liked how
this dress accentuated her curves in the right
places.
Though Sonia Morales Ogbonna’s dress
was an imitation of Beyonce’s 2014 Grammy
award stunner, the way she rocked this look
made her look so international. She looked
so perfect in this figure-hugging lace cutout
gown.
There were a whole bunch of winners
and losers at the AMVCA’s, and we’re not
just talking about those who took home
an award and those who didn’t. The red
carpet saw its own share of hits and misses.
African television’s biggest stars carefully
selected their designer duds and proudly
pranced down the red carpet with pundits
from television hosts to fashion magazines
to style bloggers giving their two cents on
the choices the stars made. We do not know
what exactly these celebrities were thinking
but we suggest, just like Beyoncé, they fire
their stylist or basically just try to go with
looks that sit well on them.
UBERSTYLE AMVCA Red Carpet
Misses
While we are not interested in what their
fans will say, here’s our list of the red carpet
misses at the 2016 AMVCA’s.
Funke Akindele wore a dress by Enthyst
collection. There was just something about
the color and the details of this dress we
just didn’t understand. We have seen better
looks on the star; this didn’t do it well for
us. The dress looked too busy for the star,
which is why we’re surprised she deviated
from fitting gowns form to this gown that is
a size too snug, spoiling the impact of that
funky plush train. Since the debut edition
of the AMVCA’s Susan Peters has, year in,
year out, topped our worst dressed list. And
Cont’d from Pg. 36
Joro Olumofin
Funke Akindele
Kemi Adetiba
Flavour
this year, she is ringing the bell again in this
cheap-looking blue and white ill-fitting ball
gown.
Tonye Garrick has been known to have
nice red carpet moments but not this time.
Although this dress was far better than the
disaster she had on last year but she did not
do the red carpet justice this year in this dress
from Peridot. The side details on the dress
were just not sitting right; the total look from
head to toe looked like a mistake.
Fade Ogunro made us sad on the red
carpet with this black lacy dress from
Weizdhurm Franklyn. We are not sure what
the plan was, but it totally failed. As there is
nothing sexy showing under boobs on the
carpet. The dress is so young, fresh and sexy.
It screams date rape!
Dakore Egbuson, who is usually flawless,
picked a very different, April by Kunbi gown
for the AMVCA’s. Her outfit this year came
as a shocker, her dress looked like it was
made in a rush. It did not sit well on her and
the colours were not so nice as well. This
is just the exact opposite of the yellow and
purple dress which she wore last year.
I think I should just leave Kemi Adetiba on
the best-dressed men’s list. This is heinous. It
somehow manages to be dowdy and tacky
at the same time. There is no way Shade
Ladipo would have liked this, had it been
paraded in front of her glam squad fashion
critic show. All we can say is: “fashion critic”
as she has called herself, heal thyself.
Last year, Alexx Ekubo brought the
rainbow with him to the carpet and it gave
us mixed feelings. This year, the actor came
looking like one of those church ushers
always standing at the back of a Pentecostal
church.
This isn’t Kemi Lala Akindoju’s first
rodeo. So, she should know better than to
wear something this huge, ill-fitting and
potentially wrinkly to the biggest fashion
PR opportunity of the year. Somewhere, her
stylist is crying, “I told her to live this dress
on the hanger two days before the big show!
Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?”
You know you’re ending up on the “Worst
Dressed” list when people are already
making memes about your dress before you
finish walking the red carpet. Sorry, Ini Edo.
The public has spoken. When will these
people realise that they’re not walking up the
aisle: they’re going to an award ceremony.
Darey is normally so well dressed, but this
ensemble plus “that” sneakers is just kinda
too “Let me rush quickly to Dbanj’s crib” for
such an A-list event like the AMVCA’s.
There was just about the right amount of
lighting at the AMVCA’s for anyone to take
the perfect selfie. But Chigozie Atuanya
clearly didn’t get the memo. Hence he
arrived in so much red to bring more light
and colour to the already “red carpet.”
Uche Jombo’s flowing black sheer creation
missed the mark when it came to red carpet
glamour. The floor-length gown was a
‘what do you expect when a comedy role
have gone deep into your personal style’.
Mr. Ibu was a huge joke just like he was on
stage presenting the award for best actor in
comedy.
Beverly Osu manages to have her gorgeous features overshadowed by a slightly
confusing dress that has all the excitement of
a restaurant napkin.
The boobs aren’t so big, but if there was
ever a dress which was going to make people
accuse you of having ‘child bearing hips’,
Cool Fm’s Lolo 1 is wearing it. She could
be forgiven if the dress was well arranged
on her but maybe she brought her comedic
side to the carpet. But she’s almost forgotten
because of the gown’s lack of shape and
distracting sleeves. Please hire a stylist!
Femi Jacobs, a.k.a, Mr. “M” from the
award winning movie last year, “The
Meeting” didn’t impress this year. In fact,
Buffalo Bill seems to have been Emma
Nyra’s delightful hair, face and flattering top
half makes the bottom half of her red dress
look like the fun just sort of stopped.
There’s no other way around it: Jesse Jagz’s
suit is just ugly. Kudos, for we’re not sure if
big brother Africa contestant, Melvin Oduah
is on his way to a rave or just parachuted in,
but he looks happy, which is really proving
that good intentions don’t always yield good
results. Kehinde Bankole’s replica of Zuhair
Murad couture gown worn by model,
chanel Iman somehow feels too busy and a
little unfinished. Epic fail!
We applaud Helen Paul’s effort to be
fashion-forward with that hair. However,
that pink satin get-up has got to go! It’s
frumpy, lumpy and it. We hate shapeless,
unflattering gowns that make otherwise
beautiful women look like sacks of potatoes.
Enough said about Tomi Odunsi.
Ibinabo Fiberesima wore possibly the
worst outfit so far! Take it away! How Van
Vicker packed his bag, flew from Ghana into
Nigeria knowing that this is what he’d be
wearing for the AMVCA’s still shocks me.
Colour me purple… That’s all.
Do we really need to write anything about
this Bolanle Ninalowo’s look? Nobody
needs glasses to see what’s wrong with it; do
they? The Kunle Remmy’s Balmain inspired
blazer looks like it was sewn together by the
killer from “Silence of the Lambs”.
The Full list of Winners
CATEGORY
WINNER
BEST OVERALL MOVIE (AFRICA)
DRY
STEPHANIE LINUS
BEST WRITER OF A MOVIE/TV
SERIES
Ayanda
TRISH MALONE
BEST COSTUME
DRY
UCHE NANCY
BEST MAKEUP
Ayanda
LOUIZA CAROLE
BEST LIGHTING
COMMON MAN
STANLEY OHIKHUARE
BEST DIRECTOR
TELL ME SWEET SOMETHING
AKIN OMOTOSHO
BEST PICTURE EDITOR
Rebecca
SHIRLEY FRIMPONG - MANSO
BEST DOCUMENTARY
FAAJI AGBA
REMI VAUGHAN - RICHARDS
BEST ART DIRECTOR (MOVIE/TV
SERIES)
THE REFUGEES
FRANK RAJA ARASE
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
TELL ME SWEET SOMETHING
PAUL MICHAELSON
38
March 12, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER
39
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER •March 12, 2016
40
FITNESS FILE
Why Interval Training
Is a HIIT
W
anna know why your
gut still jiggles despite
hours of exercise? It’s
all that tedious, boring
jogging. If you want
to go shirtless and cut
your workout time in
half, say good-bye to
five-mile runs and hello to high-intensity
interval training or HIIT.
The concept behind HIIT is simple:
Exercise as hard as you can for a few
minutes, recover just long enough to stop
sucking wind, and repeat. This spikes your
metabolism and builds muscle quickly.
And unlike those leisurely treadmill
sessions, it burns calories both during a
workout and (here’s the beautiful part) for
up to 24 hours afterward.
In order to erase the body’s oxygen debt,
fatty acids are released and used as fuel
for recovery. This all happens in the time
after a workout is complete. You will not
receive this great benefit simply doing low
intensity exercise. You need to be working
out in your anaerobic zone at maximal
heart rates to really see that added fat loss
effect. The regiment is brutal but quick.
You’ll be done with the whole thing in
twenty to thirty sweat-filled (and swearfilled) minutes.
The key is to pick exercises that use the
majority of muscle groups. Using HIIT
for isolation exercises will be ineffective.
However, using them for full body
exercises like sprinting, squats, deadlifts,
and plyometrics will really kick your fat
loss into high gear. These exercises are all
functional moves
Functional Training was originally
employed by physical therapists and
rehabilitation staff in order to restore
strength and response to the body after
accidents. However functional training has
found a new lease of life in assisting with
a variety of different day-to-day activities
through increasing the range of motion,
strength and ability for the individual
through a variety of different tasks.
Things such as lifting, bending and
back strength benefit enormously from
HIIT workouts. Whilst most people with
a keen interest in fitness are usually quite
flexible and fit, even the healthiest person
can discover problems or have difficulty
participating in these types of activities,
especially later in life. Functional moves
prepare the body for these forms of activity
common in our daily lives.
The exercises within HIIT have a high
focus on the strengthening of abdominal
muscles and back muscles. Through
strengthening these muscles overall, your
strength and balance will create more
efficient movement patterns which lead
to better core strength and less injuries.
But strength is not the only benefit.
Coordination improves through training
or retraining the muscles to work together
and the joints are also stabilized and the
range of motion is increased.
For example, a squat is a functional
exercise because it trains the muscles
used when you rise up and down from a
chair or pick up low objects. By training
your muscles to work the way they do in
everyday tasks, you prepare your body
to perform well in a variety of common
situations.
HIIT tends to consist of multijoint,
multimuscle exercises. Instead of only
moving the elbows, for example, a functional exercise might involve the elbows,
shoulders, spine, hips, knees and ankles.
This type of training, properly applied,
can make everyday activities easier,
reduce your risk of injury and improve
your quality of life. This type of training
may be especially beneficial as part of a
comprehensive program for older adults
to improve balance, agility and muscle
strength, and reduce the risk of falls.
Don’t think of fitness as something that
is done only in a gym. By simply taking
advantage of your every day movements
you can turn your office or home into an
effective HIIT area! It’s about conditioning
your body to function correctly during
day-to-day activities, whether that means
lifting your kids or carrying a laundry
basket up a long set of stairs. Although
it’s been a trendy exercise topic for
years, tailoring your workout to include
functional fitness exercises is more than
just throwing around a buzzword.
The key is to do a full body exercise
for a certain period of time, and follow it
up with a short rest interval, and then get
right back into it. Yes, you are going to
be breathing hard and not fully recovered
before you start your next working set, but
that’s what makes HIIT so effective. Your
goal is to be able to work out at a high
intensity for a longer period of time with
less and less rest between intervals.
To progress with HIIT, you are going
to want to vary your interval times. Try
lowering the amount of rest time between
high intensity intervals, or try jogging
instead of walking. Try shaving just 5
seconds off of every rest interval each
time you work out. Eventually, you will
be sprinting at a higher speed for a longer
period of time than when you started.
Fueling Your Workout
Fueling your exercise routines requires
quality carbohydrates, lean
protein, heart-healthy fats, and
fluids. Your muscles rely
on carbohydrate foods
like breads, cereals,
pasta, rice, fruits,
and vegetables for
a quick energy
source. Protein is
needed to build
and maintain
muscles and for
healthy blood
cells. Blood
cells deliver
nutrients
and
ox-
The Edenlifestyle corner
with
MAJE AYIDA
[email protected]
www.edenlifenigeria.com, 07062614551
ygen to working muscles. Basically, foods
provide the petrol to the body’s engine,
and fluids provide the water to your
body’s radiator. Without these crucial fuels
and fluids, your body will have a hard
time performing at its best.
The pre-workout meal is not the time
to get adventurous and try a new food. A
grilled chicken sandwich or a handful of
nuts might fit the pre-game meal description, but stay clear of the fried, oily food
and soft drinks.
HIIT is intense exercise, it’s therefore
not advisable to workout on an empty
stomach. Eat some
easy-to-digest
carbs (a slice
of toast,
half a plain bagel, a banana, or cup of
fruit cocktail washed down with a glass
of water) to help provide fuel. If you’re a
morning person, then be aware that after
sleeping, the overnight fast can deplete
your liver stores of carbohydrate, so a
quick boost of carbs before longer exercise
is recommended.
Muscles need protein for recovery
and growth, and the best time to deliver
protein appears to be right after exercise.
Providing high-quality protein after
exercise gives your muscles the fuel
and the building blocks needed for both
repair and for growth. Protein shakes and
powders are effective, but your muscles
don’t care if the protein comes from a
hard-boiled egg, glass of chocolate milk or
whey protein shake. Whatever you choose,
more isn’t better, only 10 to 20 grams of
protein is needed to provide amino acids
(the building blocks of protein) to muscles.
It’s also important to stay hydrated. Not
only does being well hydrated improve
your performance, it can save your
life. Water acts as your body’s cooling
system; without sufficient water during
exercise your body temperature can reach
dangerously high levels. The best way to
stay hydrated is to drink plenty of fluids
with meals and drink about two glasses of
water two hours before exercise.
From competitive edge through to long
lasting health and fitness benefits received,
HIIT offers a practical, useful and important type of exercise with a proven track
record in improving a person’s
quality of life. It literally
affects every area of
your life.
41
FASHION FILE
Nkeiruka-Fruche
SS16 Collection
42
FASHION FILE
By Azuka Ogujiuba
[email protected]
Nkeiruka-Fruche SS16
Collection
F
or Spring/Summer 2016, Nigerian
fashion brand Fruche is inspired by
the human pursuit of happiness. The
collection is named after the creative
director’s mother, Lilian Nkeiruka Aghuno.
In Igbo culture and socialisation, we pray
for life, children, good harvest and most important happiness. The name ‘Nkeiruka’ is
an Igbo name that means ‘what is to come is
greater’ which reminds us of what rainbow
signifies. It was important for the brand to
incorporate the colours of the rainbow in
the colour palette of this collection as they
exude happiness.
We all aspire to be happy. According to
the great philosopher Aristotle, “Happiness
depends on ourselves.” More than anybody
else, Aristotle enshrines happiness as a
central purpose of human life itself. As a
result, he devotes more space to the topic
of happiness than any thinker prior to the
modern era. For Aristotle, happiness is
a final end or goal that encompasses the
totality of ones’ life. He was convinced
that a genuinely happy life required the
fulfillment of a broad range of conditions,
including physical as well as mental
well-being. it is more like the ultimate value
of your life as lived up to this moment,
measuring how well you have lived up to
your full potential as a human being.
The designer draws inspiration for
naming this collection from a line in the
1960 film- psycho. “A boy’s best friend is
his mother”, spoken by Anthony Perkins
playing the character of a shy but homicidal
schizophrenic, Norman Bates. A woman
named Marion Crane played by Janet Leigh
stops running from the law for a night at a
quaint little motel- The Bates Motel. She sits
down for a bite to eat with the gentle innkeeper, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).
He’s a good boy, managing the motel of his
mother. Sure, Mother seems a bit overbearing (Marion heard her screaming earlier),
but Norman Loves her. When Marion asks
Norman if he ever goes out with friends, he
says, “A boy’s best friend is his mother”.
“My mother was a fashion designer back
in the day and I have watched her all my
life. I would sneak pieces of fabric from
her work area into my room and create
things that nobody could really even wear
and put them on my sister, Nkem. After a
while, she saw me doing this and randomly
started giving me her ankara head-ties to
make whatever it was I wanted to create.
My mother is one of my biggest sources of
inspiration and happiness. She helped a lot
with me juggling, creating this collection
for Lagos Fashion and Design Week and my
final exams. Lagos fashion and design week
has done a lot for the brand and for myself
through the fashion focus programme as
well as fayrouz and I’m forever grateful.
My journey has just begun, I have a whole
lot more to learn, I see growth and that, of
course, makes me very happy.” - Frank
Our SS16 collection is also 70s inspired, as
the early 70s were referred to as the hippie
days. A hippie is one who embraces life to
the fullest, promotes peace, love and happiness, but as well sticks up for what they
believe in. There’s a hippie-chic vibe with
flared pants and sleeves, running shorts
and tanks, culottes and short skirt. We have
incorporated our signature thigh-high slit
once again, swarovski crystal applique,
stucture, sashes that mimic an ikpele and
shapes. There’s also a strong androgynous
vibe with the collars and sleek pants for womenswear and organza jacquard shirts and
high-waist pants for menswear. We used
crepe chiffon, crepe Georgette, duchess,
mesh, wool and cotton fabrics in colours of
red, orange, blue, green, wine, purple, pink,
champagne, grey, and black.
Once again, we collaborated with the
creative director’s twin Fred Aghuno
on the set design for this lookbook. The
background basically mirrors the collection
in the sense that it’s about reflection and
finding happiness in making old things
new again.
43
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER •march 12, 2016
MARKET PLACE
L-R: Chief of Staff to Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission,NCC,Usman Malah;
Director,Public Affairs, NCC,Tony Ojobo; Executive Vice Chairman, NCC,Prof. Umar G.Danbatta; Acting DG, Bureau
of Public Procurement (BPP),Engr.Ahmed Abdu;Director, Finance and Management Services BPP,Dr.Chris Iwuagwu
; and Director Human Capital and Infrastructure Group, NCC,Mrs Marham Bayi during the courtesy visit to the BPP
recently.
L-R: Biodun Shobanjo, Chairman, Troyka Group; Oba Sikiru K Adetona, The Awujale of Ijebuland, and Dr Segun Oshin, Pro Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University during the World Press Conference on the endowment of a professorial chair in governance at the University held at the Oba’s Palace, Ijebu-Ode, recently.
Market Survey Reveals Nigerians Appetite for Foreign Products
Despite the move by the government to encourage
patronage and consumption of locally made
goods and services to save the dwindling Naira
and ultimately grow the economy, consumers
have not stopped the crave for imported items.
When THISDAY engaged some shop owners
and shoppers in a chat, not too many seemed to
believe in Nigerian products despite widespread
campaign to promote made-in-Nigeria goods
According to Lola Agbaje, a boutique owner
in Ogba, Lagos, “I have never sold Nigerian
products in my store, not because I don’t value
them but because my customers won’t even
look at them twice; customers are foreign wears
crazy and we have no option than to dance to
Subscribers, Group
Move against Proposed
Phone Call Tax
Nigerians have kicked against the Federal
Government’s proposed communications
service tax which they described as another
way of exploiting the struggling consumers.
Angry subscribers who said they were yet
to agree with the government on the newly
introduced charges on bank transactions in
its bid to generate more revenue due to the
prevailing economic situations called on the
National Assembly quash the proposal.
The new Communication Service Tax Bill
seeks to impose, charge and collect Communication Service Tax (CST) and will be levied
on service fees payable by users of electronic
communication services which will be borne
by the customers. The categories of communication services liable to the tax include voice
calls, SMS, MMS, Data and Pay TV.
Abimbola Akanbi,a subscriber described
the development as one which sought to stifle
communications and impose further hardship
on poor subscribers.
Akanbi who urged the government to seek
other alternative ways to generate revenue
said such bills if passed into law may bring
about double taxation as the phone companies would hike their charges as a result of
the cost they would incur in complying with
the law and filing returns.
Another subscriber chidi Obinna, said the
government had indirectly chosen another
way to revive the social media bill.
“The implication of this is that Nigerians
will have to pay more for communications
services including data bundle to access social
media. Should we pay more for these services, then there will be limit to how we visit
these platforms because of fear of exorbitant
charges.” Also reacting, The Association of
Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria
(ATCON) said the bill should not be made to
stand considering the inconvenience it would
foist on subscribers.
According to Executive Secretary of ATCON, Ajibola Olude “Already, Nigerians are
complaining of economy hardship, imposing
another tax on them will add to their burden
and in effect, reduce communications growth.
“As far as we acknowledge that it is a
trying period for the economy, that is not to
say that we should transfer the burden on
consumers who are also strongly affected by
the harsh economy status. Already, subscribers are already paying high for telecommunications services compared to what is
obtainable in other countries. Asides this,
telecommunicaton business will be largely
affected because subscribers will reduce their
interaction with telecommunications services
and in turn affect the overall profits of service
providers.” Olude noted.
their tune. Even now that they are shouting buy
Naija here and there, customers attitude have not
changed, in fact, the demand for foreign wears
increases the more on a daily basis.”
A visit to the children section of Eko Idumota
market further justifies Nigerians’ growing love
for foreign goods as most consumers would not
stop by until they sight a store where imported
products are displayed.
A shop owner who did not want to be named
told THISDAY that the trend in the market had
always been the demand for UK or US products
no matter how expensive they are because of
the Forex challenge and for them as traders,
the only way to remain relevant in the market
was to stock their stores with over 80 per cent
of imported items and few Nigerian wares for
the purpose of the low income earners.
To Ifedayo Oni, a shopper at one of the chain
stores in Ikeja, said she had never tasted a
made-in-Nigeria rice and did not see any reason
why she should do so.
“I’m a Nigerian, though I’ve lived most of
my life outside the country, I’m scared of made
in Nigeria products because I don’t trust the
source. Besides, that is the culture in my home.
Right from time, it has always been foreign rice
or none,” she said.
According to the outcome of a market survey
carried out by the National Association of
with
OMOLABAKE
FASHOGBON
08033621009
Visafone Hosts Subscribers to a Thank You Party
As a way to appreciate loyalty and commitment, Nigeria’s leading Code Division
and Multiple Access (CDMA) operator,
Visafone Communications Limited has
engaged its teeming customers to a
courtesy reception in Lagos.
The party which held at the prestigious
Red Restaurant, Eko Hotels and Suites saw
some of the brand’s selected customers
wine and dine with the officials of the
company in a relaxed atmosphere .
According to Head, Brands and
Corporate Communications, Mr. Joseph
Ushigiale, the company acknowledged the
importance of subscribers to its relevance,
the reason why they had chosen to
celebrate and appreciate them for always
being there.
He said: “We are Nigeria’s foremost
CDMA Company and we realise the role
of our subscribers in taking us to the top.
We organised this dinner for our esteemed
customers just to say thank you to them
for their support to the Visafone brand
through the years.”
While stressing that the event would
provide an opportunity for Customers to
engage the brand. He added that the company would continue to focus not only
on providing top notch CDMA products
and services, but also activities that would
enhance the lifestyle of its customers.
“Apart from providing our customers
with a daily free transaction that uses the
network to meet the daily voice and data
services needs of our subscribers, we also
care about their lifestyles. We understand
that they deserve to relax and unwind once
in a while and we choose a perfect day to
say thank you to them,” Ushigiale said.
An elated customer and one of the
beneficiaries of Visafone super treat, Mrs.
Adeyemi, expressed her joy for being one
of the lucky chosen while she also promised to remain committed to the brand.
“When I got the call inviting me, I
initially thought it was a scam. On a
second thought I decided to give it a trial.
Now that am here, I am very happy to say
that Visafone has given my husband and
I the perfect treat, we will forever remain
loyal to the company, ” she said.
ICT Growth: Telecoms Operators Express
Optimism Over FG Policy
The Association of Telecommunications
Companies of Nigeria (ATCON),an umbrella
Association for all telecommunications companies in Nigeria has expressed confidence in
the eight-point agenda of telecom regulatory
body, Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC) which is aimed at overall growth and
development of the sector.
According to First Vice-President of ATCON,
Olusola Teniola, effective implementation of
the recently published agenda for the period
of 2015-2020 would enhance the realisation of
pervasive and ubiquitous broadband which the
country had been longing for.
The agenda which was unveiled by the
Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof.
Umar Garba Danbatta at an international press
conference in Lagos include: facilitating of
broadband penetration; improvement in quality
of service; optimising usage and benefits of
spectrum; promoting ICT innovation and
investment opportunities; facilitating strategic
collaboration and partnership; protecting
and empowering consumers; promoting
fair competition and inclusive growth, and
ensuring regulatory excellence and operational
efficiency.
Teniola also endorsed National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
commitment at ensuring compliance to
local content guidelines by all Information
Communication Technology (ICT) companies.
According to him, the creation of office of
Nigerian content under NITDA was a right
step in the right direction.
The association’s First Vice-President also
pleaded with the Ministry of Communications
and NCC to go easy on the embattled telecommunication company, MTN over imposed
fine, admitting that the association being a
forward looking organisation had always been
playing supportive roles to policy formulation
and implementation which had done no little
in shaping the ICT sector and would continue
to play a major role in the development of
Nigerian ICT sector.
Nigerian Traders, NANT, over 98.7 per cent of
goods sold in chain stores across the country
are foreign made .This implies that only 1.3 per
cent of Nigerian made products are being sold
in these stores.
The President of the association, Ken Ukaoha
who expressed disappointment over the development noted that government campaign against
Nigeria’s excessive flair for foreign products was
yet to produce the expected effects.
Ukaoha added that if government actually
meant business to change Nigerian’s interest
from foreign goods, it needed to review the
country trade policy which had since been
redundant as a result of negligence.
Enugu Investment
Summit to Market
State’s Potential
The Enugu State Investment Summit
scheduled for April 12 – 14, 2016 will
highlight the strengths and investment
opportunities in the Coal City amidst
other events.
The summit themed “Beyond Oil:
Fostering Inclusive Economic Growth
and Sustainable Development and
christened “Oganiru” will bring together
local and international business leaders,
investors, bankers, financiers, diplomatic
community and academia to discuss
way forward on the state’s economy the
entire South-East region across various
sectors including agriculture, solid
minerals, trade and tourism.
The Director-General of Oganiru, Ike
Chioke, noted “Now more than ever
before, with the decrease in federal
allocation to states due to dwindling oil
revenue, there is a paramount need for
government to look at alternative revenue
sources that would ensure sustainable
economic growth. Oganiru seeks to
highlight Enugu’s prospects as a business
destination while exploring the state’s
potential in a wide range of industries.”
“Key outcomes of the summit will
include opportunities for joint venture
or outright acquisition through publicprivate-partnership, privatisation and
commercialisation of state-owned
enterprises including Hotel Presidential,
Nike Lake Resort, Ada Rice, Sunrise
Flour Mills, and many more. There will
also be opportunities to boost trade and
commerce in the region through coinvestment in a Free Trade Zone,” Chioke
disclosed.
Set up by the State Governor, Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi, the investment summit is an
initiative of the Enugu State Economic
Advisory Committee which also seek to
highlight how the state intends to partner
with the private sector to leverage its
competitive advantage for inclusive
growth and development and proffer
hints on the best economic policies that
would help to engender sustainable
economic growth.
The Ugwuanyi administration has
mandated a four-point agenda for
development of the state to include
employment generation, social services
and good governance, rural development
and security & justice.
44
SHOWBIZFLAIR
Tosin Clegg
07062816737 e-mail: [email protected]
JOE EL
Back Then, I Hawked Pure
Water at the Airport
Joel Amadi, popularly known as Joe EL recently
released his debut album, after his many years
in the music industry. Joe EL, who is seen as a
lookalike of Tuface, tells Tosin Clegg about his
career, growing up and more…
I
I have always believed in myself…
It got to a point that after God and my
mother, I was the only one who believed
in me. My father didn’t believe. Those
days, I would go to Aminu Kano International Airport to sell ‘pure water’ and
see people driving expensive cars. I said to
myself then that one day I would be like this.
I have friends that I left in Kano who have
fallen from grace to grass, but I didn’t give
up on my dreams. I looked at people then
and said to myself that they didn’t have two
heads; though it is all about destiny. There
is just that particular guardian angel that
will always stand as an encouragement and
positive force to drive one towards success.
My sojourn in showbiz…
If music has not been paying my bills or
putting smile on my face, I would probably have been thinking of something else
right now. Considering the passion I have
for music, I am glad I am getting something
from it. I used to tell people that music is a
living thing. You have to be very certain of
what you want from music before you get
something from it.
It has been massive…
The initial plan was to release videos and
singles like other artistes to actually create
awareness. But I am surprised that after eight
months without a video and just a single,
people were still anticipating my album.
I even thought someone was somewhere
praying for me and God answered.
The love is too much and I appreciate
everyone who believes in my talent. It is
not easy because I am not doing anything
extraordinary to sell my brand. The turnout
for the album launch was massive too. I
expected to see a place filled with people,
but it turned out to be like a carnival.
Why my album was delayed…
It was on purpose, because the era of dropping a single or two before you eventually
release an album has passed. Now, it is all
about social media and that has affected the
commercial value of albums. We all know
that people can actually download songs on
the Internet now and since they download
songs for free, it makes no sense to get an
album in the market again.
So, we now decided to say that instead of
rushing to release an album, we should take
our time and make sure we increase our fan
base. I am glad that my manager just called
me that the first set of CDs we released sold
out and we just requested for the third set.
That is what I want to hear.
About the album’s title–Timeless?
If I tell you my story, then you would agree
that I am a conqueror. There’ve been many
times people who thought I won’t come
out of a situation and I did. The El in my
name, Joe EL, stands for “Everlasting.” I
gave myself that name because everything
about me has been evergreen.
There could be delays, but I smile at the
end of the tunnel. When we were looking
for names to give the album, Mr. Kenny
Ogungbe was just staring at us. He said, “Joe
EL, have you forgotten your story? From
the whole story you’ve shared with me, I
have decided to name the album Timeless.”
Leaving Home…
I left home when I was 17 years old but
returned later. I then finally left when I was
22 years old. When I said I left home, it
doesn’t mean I did that without my parents’
consent. It is necessary for me to clarify that
so as not to mislead the younger ones. I
made them to know that I love them, but I
was leaving to chase my dream.
The support is now massive…
Though my mother has always been supportive from day one but my father had issues
with me playing music and I understood.
Being the only son, they wanted certain
things for me. I have two sisters. I give thanks
to God that I didn’t bring
him shame.
I am glad that he tells people
I am his
son and he is now proud of
what I do.
Why I have 19 tracks on my album…
When I wanted to do 19 tracks, somebody
said I should look at P-Square (Paul and
Peter), who don’t do more than 10 tracks
or so. I asked him if my name was P-Square
or Wizkid? I am Joe EL and PSquare are
stars today because they do their things in
a unique way.
We also know Tuface for his unique legendary movement, so Joe EL is Joe EL. I have
decided to come out with 19 tracks for myself
and my fans. I thank God today that it has
not stopped people from buying the album.
Songs on my album…
I like all, but my best right now is track six,
Blown Away, featuring B Howard. It is one
of the songs I listen to on the album and I
hear a different Joe EL. I listen to that song
like a fan, not like an artiste who sang it.
Pressures to deliver music…
There are times one goes to the studio and
the inspiration refuses to come because of
one or two things you are going through
in the family circle or elsewhere. A record
label cannot understand that you are battling
such situations. I might be unhappy today
and Baba Keke is in a cheerful mood; so we
are having different experiences. I try to
put myself in the right mood so I can work.
What’s next…?
We are not too much in a hurry to forget
the album because it is doing well in the
market. I have not even started my own
strategies on how and where I want the
album to be distributed in Nigeria and
worldwide. I am still working on that and
I will be shooting more videos on the album.
I told my manager that artistes these days
believe that you don’t release an album for
Amadi
commercial gains, but I am trying to change
that mind-set.
Kennis Music used to be everywhere…
You are right to say activities have reduced
in the label, but that is not it actually. Tuface
and P-Square used to be everywhere if that
is the case. You can only make a hit once,
then you sustain it and that is what artistes
like Tuface, P-Square and others are doing.
You have to pave the way for others.
No matter how sweet a particular food is,
it is only fresh when it is newly prepared.
Kennis Music has promoted superstars, so
they are sustaining it. The label won’t be
producing someone like me if you think
they are not relevant anymore.
It is a blessing in disguise…
I don’t blame people who confront me and
say I am trying to imitate Tuface because it
is obviously the truth. Whether people like
it or not, it is a selling point for me. When
you see me, you see someone who looks
like Tuface and when you hear my songs it
reminds you of Tuface. So, there is nothing
they see other than I am behaving like Tuface.
I just hope God blesses me because He has
created me this way and He will bless people
who talk good or bad about me.
About my sense of fashion…
My philosophy about style is that I would
rather impress with simplicity than disappoint you with glamour.
I would rather go to a professional and say
I don’t know how to combine colours than
doing it myself. I like black much because
I believe you cannot go wrong with black.
I just like to keep it simple and if I want to
go higher I talk to professionals to keep me
in shape.
45
SHOWBIZFLAIR
MY
STORY
MUSIC PRODUCER, SPELLZ TIES THE KNOT
YINKA RYTHMZ
I am Looking Forward to
a Collabo with Olamide
Music producer,
Benjamin Obaze, well
known as Spellz got
married recently, to
his beautiful beau,
Hadiza. The
glamorous and well
attended ceremony
was held at Oriental
Hotel, Victoria Island,
Lagos.
It was a big and
colourfully-themed
event as both power
houses weighed in
so much to give it the
celebrity wedding it
was.
DJ Spinall, Skales, Ice
Berg Slim, DJ Xclusive
and so many other
celebrities attended
the most talked about
wedding in February.
Adeyinka Adeola Hazzan, popularly known as
Yinka Rythmz, Omo Mr. Somebody, Mr. Gbas
Gbos is a US-based artiste who has music
running in his blood and he is awesomely
experienced. He is well equipped and
surrounded by the best in the game and he is
quite energetic. In this chat with Tosin Clegg,
he talks about his career and more…
‘CHAP CHAP’ BY ABOUDIA’ AT ART TWENTY ONE
Art Twenty One is pleased
to present a solo exhibition of
Ivorian artist, Aboudia, entitled
Chap Chap, in collaboration with
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan.
This exhibition follows the artist’s
continued interest in exploring the urbanity of Abidjan’s
cityscape and the culture of the
“Nouchi”, a pidgin language that
emerged in the Ivory Coast in the
early 1980s.
Aboudia is best known for
expressive paintings executed
in a spontaneous manner akin
to street art and graffiti. As a
social commentator, Aboudia’s
works explore his experiences as
a cosmopolitan artist as he moves
between spaces and cultures.
Included in this exhibition are the
artist’s iconic large scale canvases,
depicting amorphous characters
and visages.
Executed in a simplistic yet
emotional manner, the figures
are created with crude brush
strokes, protruded facial features
and elemental forms.
The exhibition also includes
mixed media works, appropriat-
ing photographic images from
magazines and newspapers.
Layered with marks, sketches and
texts, these works depict diverse
cultural references, spanning the
historical archive, the tradition
of masks and wood sculpture.
Aboudia compares this crossreference of styles to the organic
formation of the“Nouchi”dialect
in Ivory Coast, a mix between the
French language and several local
languages.
The overlapping planes of images, symbols and paint create
an ambiguous visual imaginary,
highlighting the complex relationship between tradition and
modernity that defines the ethos
of the “Nouchi” culture.
As a malleable language, one
must keep up with the newest expressions and trends of the Nouchis, as the language constantly
develops, which spans popular
culture and music. The exhibition title, Chap Chap, meaning
“fast”or“rapid”in Nouchi, reflects
the fast-paced environment and
wired connectivity of a globalised
culture.
SUPERSTORY, WAPTV, NNENNA & FRIENDS WIN AWARDS
Wale Adenuga Productions (WAP) has started
2016 on a very good note,
as the renowned Entertainment Company dominated the 6th edition of
the Nigerian Broadcasters
Merit Awards (NBMA) by
winning three awards
at the prestigious event,
which took place recently
in Abuja.
After several weeks
of voting by millions of
TV audience across the
country via SMS and
Social Media, Superstory,
WAPTV and Nnenna &
Friends were awarded
Best TV Series, Best
Entertainment Channel
and Best Kiddies/Youth
Programme of the Year,
respectively, due to
their outstanding performances in 2015.
Wale Adenuga Jnr.,
Managing Director of
WAP, said, “We appreciate all our viewers
nationwide because it is
due to their continued
loyalty that WAP has
remained the number
one name in Family
Entertainment in Nigeria over the years. While
our other content: Papa
Ajasco & Company TV
Comedy and THISLIFE
TV Drama are also at the
top of the ratings. We still
have many surprises
this year that will even
exceed what we accomplished in 2015.”
H
ow long have you been in music and
what’s your genre?
I have been in music since I was little. Music is in
my gene because it runs in my family but I started
singing professionally in 2002. My style of music
can be described as classical Afro Hip Fuji dynamic style. I
compose and fuse hip-hop, trado fuji, juju, Highlife, naija
R&B and jazz into my style and that makes it unique among
my peers.
What are your biggest challenges as an artiste?
My biggest challenge is the shoe I am trying to fill, which
is my dad’s footsteps. And I am trying to blend my daily life
activities with the hectic schedule in the entertainment
industry.
Who have you worked with so far and who are
the acts you intend to work with?
In the past, I have worked with the who is who in the
industry like late Dr. Sikiru, Ayinde Barrister, Alhaji Kollington
Ayinla, Alhaji K1 de Ultimate, Abass Akande Obesere, Saheed
Osupa, Sir Shina Peters, Rasheed Ayinde, Mike Okri, Dele
Taiwo and many other US-based live band artistes. But I am
looking forward to a collabo with Olamide, Iyanya, Niniola,
Reekado and Wizkid.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Having an empire of my own; being able to make my
movement a worldwide household theme- “I Am Somebody” -and most important bringing back the organising
of concerts like Jazz festival.
46
THISDAY, THe SATurDAY NewSpAper • MARCH 12, 2016
PERSPECTIVE
Enugu CJ and Imperatives of Cleansing the Judiciary
T
Nick Ikeme
he last time the Enugu State
judiciary was enmeshed in
high magnitude controversy
was during the impeachment
of the former Deputy
Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi,
ostensibly for rearing poultry in
the Government House.
A statement by the Enugu Rescue Group,
condemned in the strongest terms the composition of the Investigation Panel by the State
Chief Judge, CJ, Justice Innocent Umezulike.
It condemned is strong terms what it termed
clear partisan attitudes of the panel, especially
its insistence, against medical advice, that the
deputy governor return to trial immediately,
even on a wheel chair, after he fainted before
the panel during trial. Why the hurry since the
panel constitutionally had three whole months
to complete its assignment?
The other anger was over the secret trial
of Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi. The press and
members of the public were barred from the
hearing. This secret trial was one of the major
grounds the impeachment was subsequently
quashed by the court.
Today, the State judiciary is in the news
again for the wrong reasons and Justice
Umezulike is at the centre of the storm, but this
time, on allegations of misconduct and forgery
against him and the Director of Litigation and
Court Division.
According to media reports, the National
Judicial Council, NJC, in a letter with Ref No.
NJC/S.14/HC.EN/1/IV/327, queried Justice
Umezulike over an allegation that he accepted
N10 million donations from a litigant before
his court.
This was sequel to a petition by an Enugubased lawyer, Mr. Peter Eze, who alleged that
the CJ invited a litigant who was a plaintiff
before him to the launching of a book he
wrote, and accepted a donation of N10 million
from the litigant.
In the petition with Ref No. MSC/23/2016
dated February 19, 2016, the petitioner also
alleged that the CJ “altered a court order, for
the purposes of assisting a judgment creditor to
gain possession of a parcel of land in dispute.”
Citing many instances of misconduct against
the CJ, Eze said he had earlier forwarded
two petitions dated October 27, 2014, with
reference No. MISC/45/2015, and another one
on December 9, 2014, to the NJC, noting that
the CJ issued a warrant of arrest against him
allegedly not unconnected with his criticism
of the N10 million donation and request for
Ugwuanyi
the CJ to transfer the case for conflict of interest.
Describing the order for his arrest as a gross
abuse of judicial power and his fundamental
rights, Mr. Eze told the NJC it was meant to
intimidate and cow him for complaining about
the earlier misconduct of Justice Umezulike.
In addition, he said has been harassed by
the police sent on exile, while his legal practice
has virtually ground to a halt all because he
pointed out to Justice Umezulike that it was
wrong for a judge to invite a litigant who is a
plaintiff in his court, to a launching of a book
written by him (Umezulike), and accept a
donation of N10 million from the litigant.
Noting that his previous petitions against
the CJ were not given proper attention, the
petitioner added: “It is my fervent prayer that
this time, my complaints are seen to be grave
enough to warrant a panel of enquiry being set
up to investigate Hon. Justice Umezulike”.
Before the latest report, media was also rife
with reports of the directive by the Attorney
General and Minister of Justice directing the
NJC and the Inspector-General of Police to
investigate alleged forgery of a Judgment Order
by the CJ and the Director of Litigation and
High Court Services in Enugu State.
This was consequent upon a petition dated
25th November 2015 by Mr. Eze. According
to the reports, on 25th June 1985, Justice P. K.
Nwokedi, the Chief Judge of Anambra State
(who later became a Justice of the Supreme
Court of Nigeria) delivered a judgment in Suit
No. E/170/76: Nnaji & Ors. V. Nwugwu Ors
awarding the Umunneshi Family of Umunaji
Ngene, Amechi Uwani (plaintiffs), title to a
parcel of land known as “Agbirigba UmuNeshi.
However, in 2009, Mr. Aneke and the
Chief Judge of Enugu State allegedly forged
a Judgment Order in the said suit, in which
Justice Umezulike claimed that he heard the
said suit in 1985 and delivered judgment in
the suit without mentioning that the suit was
heard by Hon Justice P. K. Nwokedi. The
Order was issued under the hand of Hon.
Justice Umezulike dated 25th June 1985 and
also supposedly signed by Mr. Vin Aneke,
Director, Litigation and Courts Division.
Surprisingly, Hon. Justice Umezulike was
called to the Nigerian Bar in 1980 and was
only elevated to the Bench in 1993. In other
words, the CJ was neither a judge nor in the
High Court in 1985. He was not even a High
Court Judge in old Anambra State in the first
place.
Mr. Vincent Aneke, on the other hand, was
called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002. He was
neither a lawyer in 1985 nor the Director of
Litigation and Courts Division, in the High
Court of Anambra State in 1985.
To worsen the whole scenario, Mr. Eze has
also flaunted purported Deed of Gift showing
how Mr. Aneke got gratification in parcels of
land from those who took possession of the
land in question vide Warrant of Possession
(beneficiaries of the alleged forged Judgment
Order) as well as a receipt showing how
Aneke sold two plots of the land (plots 42
and 44) on 26th November 2010 at the cost of
N1 million to one Mr. Ndubuisi Stephen of
Umunnukwu, Amechi-Uwani, Awkunanaw,
Enugu State.
Meanwhile, the CJ and the Nigeria Bar
Association, NBA, Enugu Branch are having
running battle such that the Chairman of the
Enugu Bar, Dr. Osita Nnamani Ogbu, was
prevented from rendering his address in the
tradition of the Bar and Bench during the
opening of the 2015-2016 Legal Year in Enugu
State. But for protests, a junior lawyer outside
Enugu Bar would have spoken for Senior
Advocates within the jurisdiction, whereas
there were many SANs to do that.
In a recent open letter to the CJ published
in national dailies, the Enugu Bar lamented
the deterioration of Enugu judiciary, including
exorbitant and unreceipted fees, difficulty in
securing transfer of cases, retention of a retired
officer (Mr. Vin Aneke) as the Director of
Litigation and high Court Services, delay in
the assignment of cases, delay in disposal of
cases, delay in obtaining of court records, lack
of guidelines for the appointment of judges
of lower courts, paucity of bailiffs, and high
charges by bailiffs, among others.
While I don’t support the singling out of the
judiciary for crucifixion as any corruption/misconduct therein is a reflection of the rot within the
larger Nigerian society, it needs be stressed that
like Caesar’s wife, Nigerians expect members
of our judiciary, especially their Lordships, to be
above board. In fact, if the judiciary sanitises itself
such that there cannot be pervasion of justice no
matter the affluence and influence of the persons
involved, corruption and abuse of power in
the other arms of government and society will
drastically reduce.
The Justice Umezulike saga also seems to
justify the advocacy that serving judicial officers
should not be members of the NJC. Umezulike
is a serving member of the NJC, occupying one
of the few seats allocated to the states. Could
this explain why the previous petitions by the
petitioner and others never saw the light of the
day? Also, just as it is difficult for a Minister of
Justice and Attorney General to charge his fellow
cabinet Ministers to court over any crime, how
easy is it for the NJC to sanction one of their
own?
We must also de-politicise the appointment of
judges and magistrates. Experience, competence,
and integrity should be the watchword. The
appointment of Justice Umezulike as the CJ in
2004 was enmeshed in controversy. Whereas
the Hon. Justice Ralph Agbo was the most
senior serving judge in Enugu State at the time,
former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani was
said to be uncomfortable with him. Justice Agbo
was, therefore, moved to the Court of Appeal,
allegedly to pave way for Umezulike.
In fact, he was allegedly appointed a judge
in the first place after a mere 13 years at the Bar.
Even at that, allegation making the round is that
he didn’t have deep legal practice and had no
known personal law office where he practiced
law before his appointment into the bench. Citing
the many criticisms of his judgment by the Court
of Appeal, they insist that but for that fact that
he served as the Personal Assistant to the former
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the
Federation, Clement Akpamgbo, he wouldn’t
have been considered ahead of other more
qualified persons.
While nobody should jump into conclusions
yet, let nothing be swept under the carpet also.
Did Umezulike invite a litigant to book presentation and accept N10 donation? Did he forge a
Judgment Order? Did Aneke take gratification?
Only a thorough and swift disposal of this matter
can give more credibility and momentum to the
anti-corruption crusade of the present administration.
Ikeme is a public affairs analyst
INEC Should Deliver Integrity Elections
T
Eddie Mbadiwe
hese are integrity times. It is
proper therefore to start with a
confession. I was one of those
that congratulated Professor
Jega and the Independent
National Electoral Commission at the conclusion of the
2015 polls. That congratulation
was however qualified contextually vis-à-vis
earlier elections. In our recent history (Pre
2015) it is fact that a few governors were
thumb-printed, results written and elections
won before the actual voting. Such governors
served out their terms in spite of tribunals
and courts.
Massive rigging, thuggery and brigandage which unfortunately are integral parts
of the Nigeria electoral cycle also played out
in 2015. Any movement to transparent elections must have truth as the foundation. Any
other premise will be self-denial and chasing
shadows. Nigerians must look at ourselves
eyeball to eyeball and say it is as it is.
Nigeria must worry about the long-term
prospects for democracy in our land. True
democracy involves the unfettered freedom
by eligible voters to get into polling booths
and cast their votes in the firm belief that
their votes will decide who rules them. In
the same vein, it is worrying that people
can blatantly commit election crimes, then
perjury in court and openly boast about it, ‘O’
rule of law why have you abandoned us?
There is trepidation in the land and hence
this clarion call to INEC to do all that is
humanly possible to stop this electoral rut.
Forces of evil seem to be in the ascendency
fighting to eclipse the good people of Nigeria.
When wise people withdraw and fail to
speak up, evil blossoms as nature abhors a
vacuum.
Mr. President in his recent visit to London
in an interactive session appealed to
Nigerians resident in the U.K to come home.
This must have pleased David Cameron for
there are millions of our countrymen living
permanently in Britain. Mr. President, they
heard you loud and clear but let me save you
the stress. The simple response is that they
will not come. Abike Dabiri-Erewa who you
recently appointed SSAwith duties including
Diaspora will confirm this. Many of these
are hard-nosed professionals and business
people are among the brightest and best in
the world in their chosen professions. Afew
who dared to join the political train here were
frustrated by the reinforced brick-wall placed
as a barrier by their home resident peers.
Penetration was impossible and majority
hurried back with red eyes and bloody nose.
They would rather forget the expense and
have their peace of mind.
The other reason is that a number of
Nigerian elite do not have the liver to fight
and effect meaningful change. Every change
comes with sacrifice and a price and many are
not prepared to pay the price. Their comfort
zone is much more enjoyable and it is easier to
be arm-chair critics and all-knowing pundits.
To ensure that politics does not get
entrenched as it is at the moment, we have
to do serious re-thinking and do a re-jig of
the salaries, perks and allowances of political
office holders. Politics must be and also be
seen as an avenue for service to humanity. It
does not have to be the only business in town
as people are now saying.
As long as these fundamental issues are not
addressed and sorted, elections will continue
to be fights to the finish in which the winner
takes all. The whole election cycle has become
a circus and one huge joke as an American visitor recently put it. Even in this change agenda
with a 2016 padded yet to be passed budget,
there are loud rumblings about staccato
distribution of major projects. Is it all doom
and gloom? Far from it: Nigerians are ranked
among the happiest people in the world who
will never accept a state of anomie. Most of
us are incurable optimists and Fela captured
the mood of the nation graphically when he
composed “Suffering and Smiling” na so e be
my compatriots.
An attitudinal change similar to what
obtains in the North with comparatively
few election petitions because everything is
interpreted as ‘the will of God’ will help keep
hope alive.
The National Assembly owes Nigerians
an urgent duty to dissect, revamp and put
together a new Electoral Act. The current
one has so many lacunae which trigger the
numerous and unnecessary election petitions and court cases. INEC spends billions
unnecessarily in legal fees.
The Judiciary will also have to brush up
its act for different judgements for similar
cases cannot build confidence. An example
is Senator Uche Ekwunife in Anambra State
and Governor Ishaku in Taraba State and
Uche seems to have gotten the rough end of
the stick. The more important function of the
Judiciary which is concerned with creation
and maintenance of a just Society is being
neglected and pushed to the back burner.
The recent vituperations against the Judiciary
must be condemned for the day we destroy
the judiciary, it is nunc dimitis and to thy tents
‘O’ Nigerians.
Until these issues are addressed and rectified and INEC produces results that have the
public trust, politicians will stupidly continue
to create many SAN lawyer billionaires with
the plethora of court cases.
Mbadiwe was the Deputy Chairman,
National Security (7th Assembly)
47
PERSPECTIVE
The President’s Message to all Nigerians
Collins Obibi
I
t is the month of March and some
cities and states have recorded the
first heavy rain. With this drop
of rain, the very strategic Igbe
road in Igbogbo area of Ikorodu
in Lagos is as usual condemned
till sometime in November or
December when the dry season
will set in again.
Governor Akinwumi Ambode who
has given signs that he can be trusted
to govern Lagos perhaps needs to
be reminded that Ikorodu with its
landmass and phenomenal population
growth in the recent past can no longer
be treated as just any local government
area. Did Lagos State officials see
the state of the roads leading to the
Babington Seminary School where three
schoolgirls were kidnapped a few days
ago? Ambode was in Agric area of the
town last month and must have seen
how vast this part of Lagos is. Truth
is that Lagos with all the aura has
many rural communities begging for
infrastructural attention.
This piece is rather devoted to farming, indeed to President Mohammadu
Buhari’s statement that agricultural
revolution is a considered option out of
the economic difficulties of the present.
That statement requires a breakdown,
just as is done after his budget presentation, without padding, to enable a
layman’s understanding. The layman
must understand and key into it if we
must begin to scratch the challenges
Nigeria faces today, because things are
really bad.
Prices of goods have in the past three
months risen so swiftly, frighteningly
and unabatedly, engendering fear of the
worst. In many cases they have jerked
as high as 50 per cent while some have
even doubled. The Naira continues the
dangerous slide in the exchange market
due to low foreign currency inflow.
Gradually, the high hope of better days
following the swearing in of the new
administration is giving way to despair.
What is agricultural revolution? If it
will hinge on government action or inaction then it has already failed. In fact,
government does not lead a revolution,
the people do. The touted national
economic summit will also end up a
jamboree, a gathering of the elite for a
harvest of big grammar, fat allowances
and production of bound documents
that we will be paying constantly to
warehouse and clean of dust.
A quick response to the hunger in
the land today is for every Nigerian
who has a parcel of land or small space
even in his yard, front or back, to clear
Buhari
it and as the rains drop plant any
crop of their choice. This should
cut across - public servants, businessmen, private sector employers
and employees, professional farm-
InAbujaandhighbrowareas
ofLagosinparticularand
someGRAsinsomeother
cities,theelitecompeteto
showoffintheircompounds
shrubsandtreeswithonly
aestheticvalue.Yetthese
stilllitterthecompounds
withdryleavesjustasother
economicallyviableyet
aestheticallypricedtreeslike
mango,orange,guava,pear,
paw-paw,andotherswhich
theyshouldhaveplanted.
Thearchitectsofthemake
Abujagreenprogramme
willfullyignoredtheeconomic
benefitsandemphasisedthe
environmentalbeautification
aspects
ers, youth, job applicants and students.
Everyone should maintain a farm no
matter how small. Anyone that needs
fertilizer should but it in the open
market. Any policy that will return
the country to fertilizer allocation by
the government must be resisted at all
cost.
This should appeal more to public
servants who in many states are being
owed arrears of salaries even when
their governors who now behave
as sole administrators are property
developers and merchants, indeed
living in unimaginable affluence. To
federal civil servants, this may serve
as an immediate bail out from blocked
avenues for extra income occasioned
by the introduction of the Single
Treasury Account (TSA) while they
perfect strategies to circumvent it.
How do I mean? How, for instance,
did over 23,000 ghost workers who
received salaries worth billions of naira
find their way into the payroll of the
federal government after the biometric
capturing exercise which cost a fortune
and which we were assured would nip
such cases in the bud?
The maize you drop in the ground
today will in three months become a
cob of thousands that provide variety
of nourishing meals, just as melon
and okro. Yam can be harvested from
the sixth month and cassava in nine
months; rice and wheat from the
fourth month. The plantain sucker you
detach from the mother and plant in
another location this month will fruit
around December. The head part of the
yam that house wives usually throw
into the dustbin can turn to a big yam
tuber some months later if buried in
the soil at the backyard.
Take maize and plantain. If you
consider what it takes to produce
these two and the rich harvest from
them you weep for the country. Corn
of all varieties is among the healthiest
foods in the world. It can be boiled or
roasted for meal, indeed be used to
produce a variety of nourishing dishes.
It is used by industries to produce
flour, malt drink, cornflakes, syrup,
animal feeds, beer, starch and others.
With all the arable corn friendly land
in every state, good weather and high
population, Nigeria is not mentioned
among the top ten maize producers. The United States remains the
unbeaten largest maize producer with
over 40 per cent of the world’s output.
Even the backyard neighbor, South
Africa is ahead of Nigeria in maize
production. Yet, what it takes is to
drop maize in a shallow ground, cover
it with sand, weed at least once if you
care, and in three months go for the
rich harvest. Plantain does not even
require fertilizer for good harvest,
just warm temperature, bright soil
and good moisture.
This modest, simplistic proposition
can in the next three months and beyond help to address food shortages
in the country, while we wait for the
‘revolution’. And when you remove
hunger as the adage goes, you have
broken poverty’s backbone. This
will also reduce the pressure on the
foreign exchange market.
In Abuja and high brow areas
of Lagos in particular and some
GRAs in some other cities, the elite
compete to show off in their compounds shrubs and trees with only
aesthetic value. Yet these still litter
the compounds with dry leaves just
as other economically viable yet
aesthetically priced trees like mango,
orange, guava, pear, paw-paw, and
others which they should have
planted. The architects of the make
Abuja green programme willfully
ignored the economic benefits and
emphasised the environmental
beautification aspects.
The so called experts disparagingly call this subsistent or local
farming. But it fed our fathers and
mothers and paid their children’s
school fees. The commercial, mechanised, inorganic driven method they
have been propagating for many
decades now is still test-running in
the face of ravaging hunger because
it is one of the prototype universal
models that do not have a blend of
indigenisation.
Nigeria’s hope for food security and national development still
depends on mechanised farming
and industrialisation. We can begin
to pursue and achieve this if we
adopt right policies and attitudes.
In fact, government stranglehold on
virtually all sectors of the economy
including land ownership must
abate for private businesses to step
in and make the desired impact.
This is still in the realm of aspiration.
The reality is that there is an
emergency and some contingent
measures must be adopted. The
slight increases in crude oil prices
do not still translate to anything
yet since the amount of imports
(toothpick and others) is unbearable.
All should wake up to this reality.
This is the President’s message to all
Nigerians.
––– Obibi is a Lagos-based
media practitioner
POLITY
NILS Clocks 5, Unveils New Strategies
T
he National Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS is poised to
take development of capacity
building and legislative effectiveness to a new level. The
Director-General of the institute,
Dr. Ladi Hamalai made this
declaration during the recent
celebration of NILS’ fifth anniversary in Abuja.
In her words, “NILS is determined to take
the legislature by storm through innovative
ideas, fresh thinking and dynamic strategies
in the areas of training, development and
legislative support services.”
The DG, who disclosed that the
institute has been charged by its Governing Council to provide services that are
consumable and reflect the daily needs
and activities of the legislators in the
chambers, noted that, NILS consequently
restructured its work process by
reorganising research activities and
focusing on producing resources that
will be very handy and user friendly
in the day to day business of the
legislature.
“The institute has reviewed its
work strategies to ensure that the staff
remained focused on achieving target
deadlines within timeframes”. She
assured that, “every challenge is surmountable through staff re-orientation,
determination and discipline”.
While announcing the commencement of the institute’s On-line PostGraduate Diploma (PGD) programme
in Legislative Drafting, Dr. Ladi Hamalai affirmed that when the permanent
site is completed, the institute would be
able to conveniently, host some Foreign
University programmes.
The occasion which was attended by
some founding fathers of the institute
including former deputy senate
president, Ibrahim Mantu, Senator
Umaru Dahiru, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on National
Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang
and Prof. Chudi Uwazuruike, provided
an opportunity for useful exchange of
ideas on how the Institute can enhance
the legislative dexterity of National
Assembly members and achieve greater
goals.
Earlier, while congratulating the
Institute for outstanding contributions
towards legislative efficiency, guests
took turns to commend the Director
General for purposeful and value-added
leadership in the past five years.
Hamalai
48
MediA & MARketing
with
Peak Moments’ Celebration
of Motherhood
M
others play unique
roles in the family.
They are the burden
bearers. From
conception through
all of life’s journeys
mothers have been
there. They love,
care, protect and clear the mess. For
these reasons and many more, the
global community sets aside two
days in the year - third Sunday of lent
which comes up every March (UK
and Anglicans) and second Sunday of
May (US and Catholics) - to honour
and celebrate mothers as well as
thank them for the enormous sacrifices they make raising their children.
The day is used to shower love,
gratitude and appreciation to mothers
for their love and sacrifice in building
their homes. The day is marked by
special church services, such acts of
kindness as giving of gifts to mothers
and general merry making. Evang.
Ken Nwodika says that Mother’s Day
is a date one has to look into one’s
life, adding, ‘see what your mother
has done in your life and show her
love.’
While the Anglican Communion,
Church of England and some others
join the age old tradition of UK and
Ireland since the 16th century of
celebrating Mothering Sunday every
fourth Sunday in Lent, many other
countries including the Catholic
Church follow the US and celebrate
Mother’s Day on the second Sunday
in May.
Mothering Sunday was originally a
day set aside to honour Virgin Mary,
mother of Jesus Christ. During such
celebrations, children who work far
away from their homes are required
to visit their ‘mother’ or local
churches to reunite with their families
and share happy moments with their
mothers. With the spread of Christianity throughout Europe in the 16th
century, the scope of celebrations to
an occasion of appreciating mothers
and thereby firmly putting Mothering
Sunday on the global calendar.
In Nigeria, Mother’s Day has
become a very important day in our
annual events calendar making it one
of the most celebrated after Christmas
and Easter.
The day has also become a day to
celebrate some outstanding mothers
who have distinguished themselves
in the service of God and humanity.
One of such outstanding women
honoured by her church, St. James
Anglican Church,Abagana in Njikoka
Local Government Area of Anambra
State on Mothers’ Day was 79 year old
Madam Comfort Ify Okonkwo. The
vicar’s wife, who is also the women
leader of the church, Mrs. Obioma
Ezedinobi explained that Madam
Okonkwo was overwhelmingly
endorsed by the church because of
her selfless service to the community.
She said that even in retirement,
Madam Okonkwo who is a midwife
and Senior Health Extension Worker
still attends to women and children
most of the time free of all charges. In
addition, she has shown uncommon
commitment to the things of God
irrespective of her age.
The occasion also served the dual
purpose of raising fund for the
church’s building and growth. Activities on the day included drama, bible
quiz, carol, fund raising, dancing
and singing completion among many
other activities.
Across Nigeria, children used the
occasion to shower their mothers with
gifts in demonstration of how much
they are valued. Husbands also gave
their wives treats in different kinds of
ways in the spirit of the day.
Women and children-centric brand
owners also engaged in different
activities to bond with Nigerian
mothers on their day.
One of such brands that has bonded
with mothers from generation to
generation is Peak milk. To make the
day particularly special, Peak milk
launched a television commercial
tagged “Mmama Oyoyo.
The commercial starred artistes
like Yemi Alade, Inyanya, Selebobo,
Olamide and Tekno. According to
Senior Brand Manager, Peak Milk,
Miss Oluwaseyi Ayesa, the commercial was informed by the need to
celebrate mothers who are central to
the family.
She said: “We came up with this
new song for our brand’s television
campaign as a way of making the
society appreciate mothers and what
mothers do in the lives individuals
and nations.”
KASIE
ABONE
08057511558 (sms only)
Madam Comfort Okonkwo
The brand took a step further in celebrating mothers by introducing into
the market a special limited edition
packs for its products emblazoned
with affectionate and emotive words
like “Love You”, “Thank You” and
“Sweet Mother”. With the innovative
packages Peak Milk is set to delight
mothers with special milk treat that
offers them nutritious alternative gift
offering even as they continue to take
care of their families.
Like mothers, Peak milk has been
there for generations to generation
caring for the nutritional needs of
Nigerian families.
From 1954, when the first consignment of Peak full cream evaporated
milk arrived in Nigeria from Holland,
by itinerant traders, Peak has always
catered for the nutritional needs from
one generation of Nigerian families to
another generation.
Two elements in Peak’s pack, the
twin palm trees and the mountain
attest to Peak are clear symbolism of
Peak milk’s positing as the brand for
the family.
Positioned as the brand that provides nutritional needs for family
growth, energy and strength, like
mothers from generation to generation, Peak milk has always been there
even as it has advanced its formulation advanced to cater for various
categories of Nigerian consumers.
Entry Still Open for Promasidor Quill Awards
E
ntry for 2016 edition of
Promasidor Quill Awards is
still open. The Quill Awards
is a platform through
which professionalism and
excellence are rewarded
in journalism profession
in Nigeria. Prospective
applicants have up to April 14, 2016 to
submit their entries, according to the
organisers.
Seven categories will be contested
for. They include Brand Advocate of the
Year, Best CSR and Industry Report of
the Year, Best Photo Story of the Year,
Best Report on Children and Nutrition,
Education Reporter of the Year, Future
Writer of the Year, and Best Online
Reporter of the Year.
Published works between May 1,
2015 and April 14, 2016 are eligible to be
submitted. More details can be obtained
from the following website: http://quillawards.promasidor-ng.com.
R-L: So Klin Brand Manager, Tony Obaro; Euro Mega Atlantic General Manager, Manny Uy; Euro Mega Managing Director, Ben Pattinuel and Eko Supreme Resources
Marketing Manager, Mrs. Abimbola Alabi at a media parley on 20 years of So Klin in Nigeria held in Lagos… recently
49
50
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • March 12, 20 16
ENGINEERING DISASTER
Lekki Gardens’ Building Collapse
The Pain, the Controversy and the Remand
Occupants of the sprawling Lekki Gardens have been urged not to panic, following the collapse of a 5
storey building under construction that killed 34 persons, report Bennett Oghifo and Chiemelie Ezeobi
L
ekki Worldwide Estate Limited,
the owners of Lekki Gardens,
the high-profile estate where an ongoing construction project failed,
have resolved to perform integrity
test on all their buildings to ensure
they are fit for habitation, once the
dust clears.
The company is also seeking the public’s
assistance in its bid to identify the victims
of the collapsed building, whom they claim
were not their staff.
They are also alarmed and embarrassed by
the reaction of the police that promptly put
their Chief Executive Officer in handcuffs like
a common criminal, regardless of the fact that
he voluntarily went to the station.
The company, as is done in the construction
industry, hired a contractor that set up his
team of engineers and other building sector
professionals. So, in situations like this, it is
the contractor that should bear the brunt and
not the owner of the project who hired the
contractor.
People are wondering why the police acted
so fast to put handcuffs on the CEO when
they did not do the same to Pastor TB Joshua
when the guest house building at the Church
of All Nations collapsed last year. Also,
nobody was put in cuffs when a block of flats
in Jakande estate collapsed last year.
Why, for instance, did the government
not hold a Coroner’s inquest like that of the
Synagogue disaster, which claimed over 100
lives? Why the rush to remand the owner
of the project, who is not a contractor, for 30
days.
Besides, competent sources revealed that
the victims were squatters who left their
shanties during the heavy down pour that
morning to take shelter in the uncompleted
building where work had been suspended
for a while now. According to available
information, the police are having a difficulty
identifying the victims of the collapsed building, who are believed to be mainly illegal
immigrants from neighbouring countries.
Unfortunately for the owners of the property, the information being released appear to
be deliberately skewed against them to give
an impression that workers were on site when
the building collapsed.
Company’s reaction…
Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited/ Lekki
Gardens Estate, in a statement last night,
signed by Steve Agbiboa, commiserated
“with the families of all who lost their lives
on Tuesday March 8, 2016 as a result of the
unfortunate incident that took place at one of
our residential estate projects in Lekki, which
is still under construction. The building
collapsed at about 4am in the morning.
“We regret the loss of lives as a result of
this incident and are making every effort to
provide adequate medical care and attention
to the survivors. We are also contacting the
next of kin of the bereaved.
“Lekki Gardens Estate is working in collaboration with all the appropriate authorities
and will not leave any stone unturned, to find
out the exact cause of this incident. We would
like to seize this opportunity to earnestly commend the timely intervention of the Lagos
State Emergency Authority (LASEMA), the
Lagos State Fire Service, Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), Red Cross,
National Emergency Agency (NEMA), the
Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and the Lagos
State Building Control Agency (LSBCA).”
The statement described Lekki Gardens
Estate as “a reputable organisation that is
very conscious and mindful of safety. To date,
we have constructed over 6000 housing units
across the country.
“As is our current practice, we will ensure
full compliance with all applicable safety
standards and procedures. We are fully
committed to putting in place all necessary
measures and procedures to forestall a repeat
of this unfortunate incident. Every life is
important to us.”
The collapse and rescue operation…
The time was 5.56pm on Tuesday, March 8,
2016. At that time, the sun was about to set in
the South.
The rescue workers at the site of the
collapsed five-storey building belonging to
Lekki Garden, at Chisco Bus stop, opposite
Oando Filling Station, at the Ikate area of
Lekki, Lagos, were all tired and hungry after
14 hours of laborious work trying to excavate
and rescue construction workers and their
families who were buried under the rubble of
the collapsed structure. As at 5pm, they had
already rescued 12 people and recovered 18
bodies.
Suddenly, the excavating machines
stopped and in the silence that ensued, a voice
was heard calling for help. It was the voice
of 27-year-old Tunde Busari calling for help.
It was a miracle. He was buried under the
rubble for over 14 hours and, as fate would
have it, he was the last person to be brought
out alive.
He was quickly rushed to the standby
ambulance belonging to the Lagos State
Government where he was given initial firstaid treatment whilst they ran a quick check
on him. After he was sedated, the 27-year-old
welder from Ibadan, was diagnosed with
spinal cord injuries.
Still lucid, albeit weak, he gave THISDAY
an insight into what happened. According to
him, they were all sleeping when the building
collapsed on them. He said, “I was buried
under the collapsed building. I almost gave
up hope but I kept hearing the sound of the
machine and I knew they have not forgotten
me. I don’t know what else to say. It’s God
that saved my life because I was on the
ground floor.”
According to him, when they noticed
that the building was faulty three months
ago, they drew the attention of the engineer,
simply identified as Taiwo, to the bent beams.
He said the engineer had fixed the bent beams
by double piling it and they had gone back
to work without further hassles until the
building collapsed.
Like Busari, scores of other survivors of the
collapse, were brought out from the rubble,
some with minor bruises and others with
major ones, necessitating their movement
to the hospital. One of those rescued was
Hassan, an indigene of Kaduna State, who
was heard shouting ‘God is Great’ when he
was finally dug out.
One of the survivors, Frank Ogoli, an iron
bender, said, “We usually sleep outside but
that day, we all went inside because it rained
heavily. We sleep in the building because they
hardly pay us.”
One of the survivors, who was simply
identified as Femi said, “They are still owing
me for the job I did for them. When I came to
the site on Monday, it was with the hope of
getting my money. Initially when we started
the work, we were paid N3,000 daily but
later it was changed to N3,500 weekly. Now, I
didn’t just get my money, I also have a wound
on the head to show for it.”
The construction of the five-storey building,
which is one of the two buildings undergoing
construction in the same compound, started
about four months ago and each of these
structures had 30 flats. THISDAY gathered
that the building collapsed at about 4.30am,
following a heavy thunderstorm, accompanied by a heavy downpour.
Aftermath of the Collapse…
Similar to the collapse of the guest house
of the Synagogue Church of All Nations,
the five-storey building belonging to Lekki
Gardens fell like a pile of badly stacked cards
and, on the first day being Tuesday, no fewer
than 15 persons, including a woman, her baby
and 13 adults were killed.
At the same time, 12 persons were rescued
but with varying degree of injuries, even as
scores were still feared trapped under the
debris. That same Tuesday afternoon, the
casualty rate was 15, which was the total
figure of deceased persons brought out from
the debris of the collapsed building as at
4.41pm.
Immediately news of the incident filtered
out, emergency responders drawn from the
National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Federal and State
Fire Service, the Police stormed the area. The
emergency workers with the help of local
rescue team, were at first able to recover one
body and rescued four survivors from the
debris at 7.30 am.
At 7.49 am, two more bodies were brought
out, even as the figure of survivors remained
at four. At 8.08 am, another dead body was
brought out, and another rescued, increasing
the casualty and survivors rate to four and
five respectively. Another person was rescued
at about 8.48am, and at about 1.11am, the total
figure of casualties and survivors remained at
seven each.
The figure later stood at eight survivors and
seven dead as at 1.20pm and later rose to nine
51
THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • march 12, 2014
ENGINEERING DISASTER
How Lekki Gardens’ Building Collapse Killed 34 Persons
Scene of the disaster
survivors and seven dead at 2.27pm before it
again rose to 10 casualties at 3.11pm. At about
3.40pm, the death toll had risen to 11 persons
and at 4pm, the body of a middle-aged
woman, clutching her infant son was brought
out amidst tears by onlookers. At exactly
4.30pm, two other persons were brought out
alive but before they could be taken to the
standby ambulance, they breathed their last.
In an interview with THISDAY, NEMA
South-west spokesperson, Mr. Ibrahim
Farinloye said rescue operations would
continue the next day until they get to the
ground floor.
He said, “Those rescued alive were first
treated by medical personnel attached
to the Lagos State Ambulance Service
(LASAMBUS) before they were moved to
Lagos General Hospital. The bodies of the
dead ones have since been deposited at the
mortuary.”
On those still trapped underneath the
building, the leader of the Hausa community
in the area, Babangida Bello, said they have
been able to identify those that were still
trapped. He said, “I was informed that the
building my brother works in collapsed and
so I rushed to the scene. We have been able to
identify the names and number of those that
were trapped under the rubbles. They are
Umar, Ado, Alu, Muhammed, Jemilu, Sabiu
and Saminu.”
While the injured persons were taken to the
Lagos State General Hospital, where they are
currently being treated, policemen from Ajah
were deployed to secure lives and properties
at the site. Also at the scene was the Commander, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Tunde
Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police,
who alongside his men provided security.
They were assisted by other security personnel drawn from the Nigerian Security and
Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC), Lagos State
Traffic Management Authority ( LASTMA)
and the neighbourhood watch.
On Wednesday, the death toll had risen to
34, owing to the recovery of 17 more bodies
that day. As at Tuesday night, the total official
figure of casualties and survivors stood
at 18 and 13, respectively but the casualty
rate steadily climbed to 31 as at 4.56pm. At
the site, emergency responders on ground
were officials of the National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA), their state
counterpart at the Lagos State Emergency
Management Agency (LASEMA), as well
as fire service officials from both the federal
state services.
Speaking to THISDAY, the South-west
Zonal Spokesperson for the National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA),
Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said the additional
17 corpses were recovered between 7am and
5pm.
He said, “It has been a team effort down
there. We have all been working since
Tuesday morning to get all those trapped out.
It was a feeling of elation when some of them
were brought out alive from under the debris
yesterday. We have not given up hope and
we will not stop until we reach ground zero
to make sure everyone under the rubble is
brought out.”
Also, LASEMA’s General Manager,
work at the site and ordered the Lagos State
Police Command to cordon it off as it is now a
crime scene.
“The state government directed integrity
tests to be carried out on every other construction project which has or is currently being
handled by Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate
Limited in the interest of public safety.”
Meanwhile, the Eti-Osa Local Government
Area Executive Secretary, Hon. Alaba Ajayi
and the Special Adviser to the Lagos State
Government on Transportation, Prince
Olarenwaju Elegushi said all machinery of
government were deployed to fast-track the
rescue work.
One of the rescued victims
Michael Akindele said the deceased persons
were taken away by the State Environmental
Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) to the
mortuary. He said rescue operation would
continue with the three excavators deployed,
as well as other search and rescue equipment.
This is just as health workers from the Lagos
State Ministry of Health carried away the
bodies of the deceased to the morgue, where
they will kept until they are identified by
relations.
That same Wednesday, rescue operations
ended at 7:20pm with a joint press conference
from LASEMA, NEMA, Police and NSCDC.
LASEMA’s boss, Michael Akindele said
that 95 per cent of the victims are foreigners,
adding that their greatest challenge was in
calming their relatives down on Tuesday.
He said: “As we speak now, the time is
7:20pm. Search and rescue exercise on the
collapsed five-storey building of 12 blocks
of flats is hereby concluded and the physical
record we have is 13 lives rescued and 34
dead bodies. We had full complement of
all responders on board to ensure smooth
response and recovery. It is a sad story, but
notwithstanding, our job as responders is to
ensure that we mitigate such that all necessary actions and sanctions shall be taking by
the state government.
“The greatest challenge we had was on
Tuesday and it was because the families of
the deceased and those rescued, 95 percent
of them are aliens. We have people from the
north and east, but majorly, those that we saw
in this complex were not Nigerians. Some
are Togolese and others Beninnois. Hence,
the understanding and the emotions carried
over, as if they can do better, which they will
not do. The state government will address the
public on the situation of the foreign victims.
Today (Wednesday), we had a very smooth
operation. I must commend the Nigeria
Police, RRS, Civil Defence, Red Cross, NEMA,
LASAMBUS and all others for a diligent job.”
In his remark, NEMA’s boss, Yakubu Sulaimon said rescuers were initially denied access
on Tuesday morning but security operatives
brought the situation under control. We do
not have a list of occupants in the building.
The state government will take appropriate
action on the other buildings marked.”
Lagos State Government Reacts
In a preliminary report, the Lagos State
Government said it had duly served the owners of the building a contravention notice for
exceeding the approved floors. Thus, the state
government asked the owner of the building,
Messrs. Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited, to
suspend the construction of Lekki Gardens
and report to the State Police Command
within 24 hours.
The Commissioner for Information and
Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, who disclosed
this in a statement said, “It has been discovered that in a brazen act of defiance and
impunity the owner of the building criminally
unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors until the
unfortunate incident of Tuesday which has
led to loss of lives.”
He said the state government would no
longer tolerate the action of unscrupulous
owners and builders who challenge its supervisory control thereby endangering the lives
of Lagosian, adding that the state government
“has consequently directed the suspension of
Police Arrest Contractor, MD
Also, the Lagos State Police had on Wednesday arrested the major contractor in charge
of the said structure. The contractor who
was identified as Taiwo Odofin was arrested
based on the confessions and statement of the
construction workers, who testified that they
alerted him about the structural defects but he
chose to simply double pile the beams.
When contacted, the Lagos State Public
Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, a Superintendent of Police confirmed the arrest. She
said, “Yes we have arrested the major contractor. He was arrested and taken into custody.
The owner of the building ran away but we
are also on his trail.”
The MD reported to the police, following
the directive by the Lagos State Governor,
Akinwunmi Ambode.
Although details of his arrest were still
sketchy, THISDAY gathered that he was
arrested on Thursday evening.
SON, LASBCA, Safety Commission Acts
Meanwhile, the Standard Organisation of
Nigeria (SON) stormed the site to collect material samples for testing. THISDAY gathered
that the Director, Inspection and Compliance,
Mr. Bebe Obayi, who led a team from the organisation ordered that some of the building
materials be collected for inspection. He said,
“They will be subjected to material testing.
This is to ascertain if the engineers adhered to
the proper building standards.”
Also speaking on the cause of the collapse,
the General Manager Lagos State Building
Control Agency (LASBCA), Mr. Shola
Adeigbe blamed it on structural defect. He
said, “I learned that there was an approval
for the building from the district officer. The
materials used for the construction was poor
materials. It was a foundation failure because
it sank before collapsing. We will subject the
entire building to structural stability test.
The only thing for us is to ensure that they
construct with quality materials.”
After LASBCA’s Adeigbe left, the agency
and the Lagos State Safety Commission
marked all other uncompleted buildings
round the collapsed structure. The agency did
not just mark the building, they pasted a ‘stop
work’ notice, as well as demolition notice on
two other five-storey uncompleted buildings. The notice by the safety commission
read, “Sealed. This premises has been sealed
following the breach of safety law. This seal
must not be broken.”
52
53
POLITY/IMAGES
ChimonsBossChallengesFGonDiversification
T
he Federal Government
has been advised to take
advantage of the crash in
oil price to begin an aggressive diversification of the
economy.
Mr. Chibuike Achigbu, an
engineer and chief executive
of Chimons Ltd, a top oil and gas player,
who gave the advise at a breakfast meeting
with select entrepreneurs in Lagos, said
successive governments refused to do the
needful because of the oil windfall noting
that the country is paying dearly for those
economic management lapses due to the
crash in crude oil prices.
The failure to leverage the gains of the oil
windfall in the past to build a virile manufacturing based economy, he said, had
made the Nigerian economy less resilient to
the shocks of a unpredictable oil market.
He said the situation was likely to get
worse as most developed economies of
the world are fast developing alternative
energy sources.
Instead of engaging in endless blame
game, the government, he said, should
of necessity and priority, think out of the
box and creatively engage the economic
challenges by deploying the expertise of
the best brains in economic re-engineering
that are in abundance in Nigeria.
Achigbu said that even with the fall in oil
price, the sector was not a closed shop “but
unfortunately, the investment choices in
that sector has not allowed the potential to
be fully developed and tapped in order to
shore up the earnings from the oil and gas
sector of the economy.”
He said that the emphasis on oil exploration and crude marketing narrowed down
the value chain of that sector. “A country
like Russia makes a fortune gas which is
endlessly flared to waste in Nigeria with
the environmental impact challenges.
What level of attention has this received,”
he queried.
According to him, “Nigeria has what it
takes to be a major international player in
tourism and Agriculture. What practical
steps beyond talk shops have been taken
to drive agriculture as a business and what
have we done to develop and explore the
huge opportunities in the tourism and
entertainment sector. The questions are
endless but this is time to walk the talk and
do less of procrastination.
“It’s unfortunate and obviously a lazy
man’s approach when governments
feel that improved internally generated
revenue (IGR) approximates to heavy taxes
on citizens and businesses. A lot needs to be
done to shore up the productive sector and
heavy taxes without corresponding activities in the economy may force investors to
look elsewhere within the sub-region.
“Government must cultivate and secure
the buy in of local investors most of who
enjoy the confidence of these foreign
investors we waste time and resources to woo
from abroad. Charity begins at home, the local
investors should be turned into viable development partners because they understand the
operating environment better, they are most
likely to appreciate the challenges, imperatives
and how best to walk around them to develop
the country.”
Achigbu argued that though the investment
climate is gloomy and the conditions tough,
it is the business of a thinking government to
institutionalize the enablement’s that would
strengthen investor confidence.
According to him, the key to diversification
of the economy does not lie in the number of
workshops, or economic diplomatic shuttles
held abroad but in having a robust interface
with local or indigenous investors if any
meaningful head way can be made in this direction. “The solution to the current economic
challenges can easily be found here if the right
policies and programmes are in place and the
right steps taken, “he said.
Adeleke Thanks Aregbesola for Creating New LG
S
enator Isiaka Adeleke has described the
creation of an additional Local Government
for Edeland from the existing Ede-South Local
Government Area as a welcome development, coming has it were, as an avenue for
accelerated development of the units comprising the new Ede-East Local Government Area.
This was contained in a press release issued
by his Media Adviser, Alhaj Olumide Lawal.
Adeleke, while thanking Aregbesola for this magnanimous
show of love for Ede people, called the attention of the
government to the need to give the present Ede-North Local
Government Area, an additional full-fledged local government area, instead of an administrative area office, created
for it presently. Ede-North Local Government Area, Adeleke
stated, has more than 125 polling units, “a situation that
qualifies it to be so split into two
Adeleke also thanked the speaker, Osun State House of
Assembly, Najeem Salam for doing the needful, by immediately rectifying the anomalies that arose from the erroneous
“ceeding” of some parts of Ede-North Local Government
Area to Osogbo-South Local Government. The action of
the speaker, was seen by Adeleke, as “that of a leader with
listening ears, when Ede people robustly complained to him
over the anomalies.”
The Senator said: “The issuance of a white paper by the
government, within 24 hours to correct the stated anomalies
has gone a long way to assuage the pains of Ede people over
the matter.” Senator Adeleke also thanked His Royal Majesty,
The Timi of Edeland, Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal, Laminisa I, the Timi-in-council and indeed, the entire indigenes of
Ede at home and in diaspora, for maintaining absolute peace,
L-R: Acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Civil Service, Muritala Suleiman; Founder, LEAP Africa, Ndidi
Nwuneli; former Minister of Information, Frank Nweke Junior; and the Executive Director, LEAP Africa,
Iyadunni Olubode, at the LEAP Africa E-Integrity launch at Ford Foundation, Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday
L-R: Chairman, CIG Motors Limited, Ms. Diana Chen; winner Trail, Blazer Award, Kemi Lala Akindoju; Head,
PR and Talent Mnet, Africa Magic, Mr. Efosa Aiyevbomwan; and Executive Director, CIG motors Limited, Mrs.
Khadijah Junaid, during the presentation of cars to the winners of African Magic Viewer’s Choice Award
(AMVCA), in Lagos...yesterday
Photo:Kola Olasupo
calm and restraint, at the face of extreme provocation, associated
with the exercise as it concerned the alleged but already rectified
issue of part of Ede-North Local Government Area being ceded
to Osogbo-South Local Government Area.
He enjoined the good people of Edeland, to continue to
be pace setters, as far as civility and absolute decorum are
concerned in addressing issues that might agitate their minds
from time to time.
The Asiwaju of Edeland, also thanked Aregbesola, for naming
of Ejigbo Campus of Bola Ige University after him. This he said,
is a great honour that he would cherish for the rest of his life.
He promised, to continue to do all within his power to give
full support to the upliftment of Osun State and her people,
by joining hands with all stakeholders to foster peace, love and
unity amongst the various groups of people that constitute the
state.
L-R: Chairman, We are The Future of Our Nation (WATFON), 2016, Sir Newton Jibunoh; Wife of Minister of
Power, Works and Housing, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola; and the Convener, We are The Future of Our Nation,
Mrs. Yinka Ogunde, during the WATFON 2016 in Lagos
Photo:Sunday Adigun
Miss Oluwamayowa Famuyiwa (middle) flanked by her parents, Alhaji Kunle Lasisi - Famuyiwa and
Mrs Folashade Famuyiwa, after she was inducted by the College of Medicine, University of Lagos,
along with other newly graduated pharmacists, yesterday
54
newsXTRA
Human Rights Group Calls for
Commutal of Rev King's Sentence
Chiemelie Ezeobi
REWARDING EXCELLENCE...
L-R: Senior Brand Manager-Lager, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Sina Ajiboye; presenting Birthday Card and Gifts to Dubic Beer Ambassador, Chief
Pete Edochie; Celebrants family member, Esther Okoro, and Divisional Sales Manager, East Division, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Dennis Ebeye;
looks on during the 69th birthday of the brand ambassador at his Hillview street home in Enugu ... recently
NNPC Continues Restructuring Exercise
with New Postings, Engagements
Chineme Okaforin Abuja
The on-going restructuring of state
oil company, the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on
Friday continued with the approval
of appointment of new persons
and redeployment of some of the
corporation’s top level management
staff to new posts.
The new development followed
last Tuesday’s appointments of heads
of the corporation’s restructured
divisions made up five core businessfocused divisions and two service
oriented divisions.
In the new posting, the corporation’s former spokesman and Group
General Manager (GGM), Group
Public Affairs Division, Ohi Alegbe
was redeployed to now head the
Corporate Social Responsibility Division as its Group General Manager.
Alegbe was replaced with
Mohammed Deen Garba, who is
the current President of the Nigerian
Guild of Editors.
Other appointments are GGMs
Strategy and Execution who an official
circular from the corporation said
would be supporting the GEDs/
COOs of the newly reviewed
divisions.
They include: Downstream, Surajdeen Afolabi; Refineries, Ugochukwu
Afamefuna Vitalis; Gas and Power,
Yusuf Matashi; Ventures, Ladipo
Fagbola; Finance and Accounts,
Ahmadu Sambo; Corporate Services,
Modupe Bammake.
27 Shipping Bodies Get FG’s
Nod to Operate in Nigeria
John Iwori
No fewer than 27 shipping associations have gotten the Federal
Government approval to operate in
the country, the Executive Secretary
Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC),
Mr. Hassan Bello has said.
Expressing delight at the development, Bello stated that the
establishment of these associations
had become formidable bodies for
cargo protection across the country.
NSC helmsman who disclosed
this at a two day national shippers
day celebration in Lagos stressed the
need for shippers to join forces to
protect cargoes whether they were
exports or imports.
His words: "Shippers should
endeavor to channel efforts into
exportation of value adding non-oil
exports to generate revenue. The
Council is still committed to protecting the cargo interest of Nigeria
and also enjoined you to remain
compliant to both national and
international rules guiding global
trade practices. The SALS have been
very active, I must commend them
for their doggedness and laudable
ideas and I hope they continue”.
Bello, represented by Deputy
Director, NSC Consumer Affairs
Department, Mrs. Okam Ada, said
that shippers in the country needed
to sustain the momentum.
President of SALS, Reverend
Jonathan Nicole said the theme of
this year's celebration “Approaching a New Dawn in the Maritime
Sector.” was the beginning of the
process to get rid of poverty from
Nigeria's port system.
Nicole said this event marked the
beginning of the amalgamation of a
very viral maritime institution that
would eventually metamorphose
into the Federation of Shippers’
Association in Nigeria (FONSA).
Nicole said that Shippers across
Nigeria must come together and
fight the economic challenges of
the country.
“With a powerful institution such
as FONSA, Nigeria will dominate
the Maritime Industry and even
surprise our Trade partners. The
period of isolation is gone. Now
cooperative and coordination will
save us with the massive changes
ahead of us.
Our Government will be happy
to have such well co-ordinated
institutions behind it”, he said
Nicole called on the Federal
Government to extend some leverage to the operators in the
maritime industry to improve on
existing facilities, remove the dead
infrastructures and give the well
tested individuals in the Sector the
opportunities to help in nation
building.
There are also Strategic Business
Unit Heads and they include for:
Upstream, MD IDSL, Roland
Ewubare; Downstream, MD Retail,
Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue; MD Nigeria
Petroleum Marketing, Ahmed Farouk,
and GGM Marine Logistics, Dalhatu
Makama;
For Refineries, it is: MD Port
Harcourt Refineries Company
(PHRC), Bafred Enjugu; MD Warri
Refining and Petrochemical Company
(WRPC), Adewale Ladenegan;
and MD Kaduna Refining and
Petrochemical Company (KRPC),
Idi Mukhtar.
In Gas and Power, it is: MD Gas
and Power Investments, Samuel
Ndukwe; MD NGMC, Mazadu Bako;
MD NGPTC, Babatunde Bakare.
Ventures has: MD Properties,
Danny Sokari George;
MD
Shipping, Saidu Abdulkadir; MD
NETCO, Aliyu Sikiru; MD NOFS,
Lawrencia Ndupu; GGM RED/
Frontier Exploration Services, Rabiu
Suleiman; GGM Medicals, Oyetunde
Olubunmi Oyekan.
In the GMD’s Office, there is:
MD Trading, Inuwa Waya; GGM
Crude Oil Marketing Department
(COMD), Mele Kyari; Corporate
Services Unit Heads, Finance and
Accounts, Financial Controller, Mike
Balami; GGM Treasury, Dapo Segun;
GGM Liabilities Management,
Godwin Okonkwo; NNPC Capital,
Aliyu Zubair Sambo; MD Pensions,
Danbello Naadiyalle; GM Insurance,
Mrs. Izilen Okosun.
Following the death penalty
judgement to be executed on the
General Overseer of Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Chukwuemeka
Ezeugo a.k.a Rev. King, a human
rights group, Integrated Coalition for
Human Rights, weekend called for
commuting of the sentence.
The group, while reacting to the
death sentence, said it was a travesty
of justice and not in tune with modern
day trials.
The Coalition in a statement
signed by Dr. Raphel Umoren said
the trial, prosecution and the eventual
conviction by the Supreme Court
of Nigerian fell short of all known
legal procedure which warrant death
sentence and called on the powers
that be to commute the sentence
without delay.
They noted that from the first
day, the arrest of King after the ugly
incident in 2006, was fraught with
excessive power and indiscretion by
the police.
Umoren said, "We will lose sense
of history if we fail to record the
misdemeanor and abuse of power
by the police from day one
"It is on record that the SARS team
that invaded his house after the allegation made away with over N5.5m
church harvest without warrant.
"Even after he was arraigned at the
magistrate court on a 2-count charge
of conspiracy, attempted murder of
seven members of his church, one
of the female prosecution witnesses
conspired with police and slammed
an assault suit against him inside the
court room.
"While another witness said on
oath that Rev. King never poured
fuel on anybody and that was why
she was not used at the trial in the
high court.
“It is also on record that some of
the witnesses told the medical doctor
at the clinic where they were rushed
to after the incident that the deceased
sustained the injury through generator
accident.
"However, this was ignored by the
trial judge who hinged his judgment
on fabricated fallacies even when the
deceased maintained in her statement
that Dr. King was not at the scene
of the incident.
"One of the interested parties in
the case who earlier claimed that
Kings abducted his wife is on record
as the first person that visited the
deceased in the hospital begging her
to implicate Dr. King promising to fly
her overseas for medical treatment
yet she declined.
"However, after her death, her two
statements in police letter-headed
papers disappeared mysteriously
and in its place, a foolscap sheet was
used to fabricate what was said to
be her statement.
This is in spite of the fact that no
police station recorded any case of
murder against Dr. King.
“One of the witnesses was coerced
to testify against Dr. King for her
freedom but after that, she came to
Ikoyi prison where Dr. Kings was
being detained to beg for forgiveness.
"All these salient but weighty
points were tabled before those
that adjudicated in the case yet they
ignored them and sentenced the Rev
to death at various stages of his trial.
CHANGE OF NAME
I formerly known and addressed
as
AMUSAN
ADEKUNLE
OLUWASEGUN, now wish to be
known and addressed as AJAYI
THANKGOD OLUWASEUN. All
former documents remain valid.
The general public should
please take note.
I Formerly Known And Addressed
As AMUSAN DANIEL FEMI.
Now Wish To Be Known And
Addressed As
OGUNNIYI
OLUWAFEMI
GABRIEL. All
former Document Remain Valid
First Bank Plc and The General
Public Should Please Take Note.
as MISS OLAOSEBIKAN GRACE
OLAMIDE (OGO), now wish
to be known and addressed as
MRS AWE OLAMIDE GRACE.
All former documents remain
valid. The general public should
please take note.
as MISS ROSEMARY ENOH
RUFOUS, now wish to be known
and addressed as MRS ROSEMARY
OMOTAYO OLORUNNAIKE. All
The general public should
please take note.
as MR OMOTAYO SUNDAY
OGUNNAIKE, now wish to be known
and addressed as MR OMOTAYO
SUNDAY OLORUNNAIKE. All
The general public should please
take note.
as ONYINYECHI GIFT AMADI,
now wish to be known and
addressed as ONYINYECHI GIFT
OKAFOR. All former documents
remain valid. The general public
should please take note.
as ISA ILIYA MAJALISA, now
wish to be known and addressed
as ISA ILIYA GAGA. All former
documents remain valid. The
general public should please
take note.
55
newsXTRA
35 Suspects Nabbed by Joint
Security Operation in Delta
Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
A combined team of the Nigeria
security agencies including the
Nigerian Army, Navy, Airforce,
the Nigeria Police and Department
of States Security personnel, have
nabbed a total of 35 suspected
criminals in Ekpan and neighbouring
communities in Effurun in Uvwie
Local Government Area of Delta
State
This is sequel to the worrisome
rate of criminal activities and
proliferation of illegal arms in the
locality in recent time, a situation
that prompted a joint security
operation leading to the arrest of
suspects believed to be kingpins
behind the series of crisis that have
rocked the area.
The joint operation, code-named
“Operation Yankari” also recovered a
63 loaded rifles and live ammunition
from the house of a prominent chief
alleged to sponsor recent sporadic
shooting in the local government
area.
Briefing journalists on the outcome
of the raid, Commander, 4 Brigade of
the Nigerian Army Benin, Edo State,
Brigadier-General Faroque Yahaya,
Commander, 61 NAF, Delta, Air
Commodore Sani Zakari and the
Delta State Commissioner of Police,
Mr. Alkali Baba Usman, described
the exercise as successful.
Parading the suspects, on Friday
at the 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army,
Effurun, Brig-Gen Farouk Yahaya,
Commander 4th Brigade said the
security agencies were determined
to rid Delta of illicit arms.
Uvwie Local Government Area in
recent times had recorded alarming
crime rate with youths of the area
known to be parading sophisticated
illegal weapons, which they used in
terrorising and molesting residents.
Brigadier-General Yahaya
disclosed that the exercise would
be a continuous one until criminal
elements especially in Ekpan and
Effurun communities were flushed
out, noting that security agencies
in the state would not fold their
hands and allow hoodlums make
the area unhabitable.
He said, "In the early hours
of this morning. A joint operation
codenamed “operation Yankari” was
conducted by the military comprising
elements from the Nigerian army,
Nigerian navy, Nigerian Airforce,
police and elements from state
security service. It was a successful
operation to check the spread of
small arms in our means. Ammunitions were recovered and suspects
were arrested.
"I just want reiterate that the
security in Delta State are determined
to rid our communities of illicit arms
that are being used to terrorise law
abiding citizens in the state. Those
arrested will be investigated. The
operation would be continuous as
we continue to gather information.
We advise those trafficking illicit
arms to peacefully surround them
Danfoss to Fight Fakes,
Invests in Nigeria
Rebecca Ejifoma
A Swedish firm, Danfoss, has
decided to invest in Nigeria through
manufacturing indoor and outdoor
equipment as well as help combat the
scourge of fakes as part of efforts to
boosts Nigeria's economy. According
to Business Development Manager,
Danfoss TMA, Mr. Omoleye Kolawole,
the firm had decided to do business
in Nigeria because it believed in the
economy of the country. "Nigeria is
a home to some of the continent’s
biggest and busiest markets as well
as the most important emerging and
developed market. We are focusing on
Nigeria. We have a clear agenda and
strategy for investing and increasing
our presence and footprints in order
to explore the untapped potentials in
this country." Meanwhile, Danfoss,
which affirmed its quest recently in
Lagos, noted that it was bringing stateof-the-art products, solutions and latest
technology of Cold Chain, HVAC
sector, food & beverage industries, oil
& gas and as well invest in Nigerians
to meet the growing commercial and
residential demands for a secured
and sustainable tomorrow for the
country.
But having observed the presence
of counterfeit products of this division
in Nigeria, he affirmed, "We believe a
lot of installers are being cheated by
the looks which can be deceptive, low
quality and sometimes refurbished
products." Hence, Kolawole emphasised Danfoss' commitment to combat
fake products to a standstill using
two-fold methods: training installers
and legal approach.
“We believe a lot of installers are
being cheated by the looks which
can be deceptive, low quality and
sometimes refurbished products. In
this case, we are providing to the
market the right tools to identify fake
products and educate the installers
on the consequences of using such
products.”
Meanwhile, the out-going President,
Turkey, Middle-East and Africa, Mr.
Leif Floigaard, explained that Danfoss
had a strong intellectual property
rights team, which takes such cases to
the judiciary and relevant authorities
much more now that the Nigeria
government is presently fighting
against such fake products. Through
its project, 'Engineering Nigeria for a
better tomorrow' the firm disclosed
that it was committed to supporting
Nigeria's current growth trajectory
and the vision of the government.
Abia Seeks N1bn Agric Loan
from CBN, hosts EDC for S’East
Emmanuel Ugwu inUmuahia
SEE WHAT WE HAVE HERE...
L-R: Rev. Ogunyemi, a religious leader, Mr. Sean Fang, general manager of CWAY Group, Dr. Musa Lance Elakamah, chairman of OAK Group,
makers of Lasena artesian water, and Dr. John Nana, an alternative medicine practitioner, during the facility tour of the OAK Group premises
in Isheri, Ogun State...during the week.
EU Ambassador Hails Nigeria’s Growing Democracy
Impressed with the conduct
of the 2015 general elections, the
European Union Ambassador to
Nigeria, Ambassador Michel Arrion has commended the growing
democratic culture in Nigeria noting
that unlike several African countries,
Nigeria did not have the problem
of political leaders always wanting
to over-stay their mandates.
He gave his approval rating
during an interview with the
Executive Producer of Urban and
marketing Trends in Africa, ( a TV
documentary), Mr. Robert Opara,
in Abuja.
Ambassador Arrion who complimented the overall democratic
quest in most African countries
noted that the 2015 elections in
Nigeria placed the country in good
stead as the conduct passed for a
well-organised poll.
He however expressed concern
over the number of voters who
participated in the exercise, noting
that the process still lacked inclusivity.
According to him, “One has to
understand that formal or institutional democracy is not enough
and that credible elections means
also that there are credible number
of voters. This is also an issue for
me, because in Nigeria for instance,
what is missing is probably more
inclusiveness in the number of voters.
At the end of this relatively good
process that took place last year,
only about 20 million people voted”
He further canvassed for greater
voters’ education in subsequent
elections stressing that it was the
awareness of voters that enable
them to make informed choices
at the polls.
“If you look at your methods,
it may be an issue, but I want to
insist on one thing – there is no
democracy without education! It’s
absolutely clear; if everybody can
vote and if one man or one woman
equals one vote, then those people
must be in a position to decide, on
the basis of a minimum criteria that
they do understand.
“To proffer the answer, you
must understand the question, so
to understand the question, you
have to be educated. So if 90%
of the population is illiterate, how
can you have genuine democracy?
How can they really choose on
relatively rational basis, on using
their minds, their intelligence to
vote?”, he queried.
Ambassador Arrien who
explained that his mandate in
Nigeria was to facilitate the works
and functions of the various EU
ambassadors in the country, stressed
that unlike in the past, the EU had
gone beyond a mere development
agency to becoming a diplomatic
mission determined to foster diplomatic co-operation between the
EU and host countries.
other relevant organisations.
Shortly after arrival the refugees,
who were eager not to be identified,
left the Lagos airport to their homes
or other destinations.
Immigration source said the
deportees were returned to the
country for overstaying their visas
in Libya in addition to committing
other immigration offences in the
North African country.
The source said, “What I can tell
you is that some Nigerians were
deported today (yesterday) for immigration offences. Most of those
brought overstayed Libya.
One of the deportees, who simply
identified himself as Chris claimed
that he travelled out of Nigeria about
two years ago in search of greener
pastures. He however insisted that
he didn’t commit any crime in Libya
that would warrant his deportation
back to Nigeriam
Since the political crisis in Libya,
THISDAY learnt life has been difficult
for most residents in Libya.
Deportation of Nigerians has been
an ongoing thing as about 76 Nigerians
were deported from three European
countries including United Kingdom
last November.
Libya Deports 172 Nigerians
Chinedu Eze
The Libyan government yesterday
deported 172 Nigerians over several
immigration irregularities.
The deportees arrived the hajj camp
area of the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport around 7:00
am comprising 166 males and six
females. They wore dreadful faces,
frustrated and despondent and we're
hostile to anyone that made enquiries
about them.
Head of Public Relations, Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS) Mr. Ekpedeme King confirmed the deportation
with on telephone.
The registration number of the
aircraft that brought them into the
country was not known but Libya
might have hired a private aircraft
as it national carrier, Afrikiya had
remained grounded.
This was confirmed by aviation
workers who were on hand when
the flight landed.
The returnees were received by
various agencies such as Immigration that checked their identities to
ascertain their nationalities, Police,
National Agency for Protection and
Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and
Abia State government has taken
steps to secure a N1 billion loan
from the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN)
to boost agricultural
production.
State commissioner for information and strategy, Mr. Bonnie Iwuoha
made this known yesterday while
briefing journalists on the outcome
of the weekly meeting of the state
executive council, saying that the
loan would be strictly applied for
the development of agriculture.
“It is going to be purely for
genuine farmers; it is not going
to be used for political patronage.
It is not going to be used to settle
kiths and kin of political office
holders,” he said.
Iwuoha said that the need to
secure the agricultural loan had
become necessary because of
the new thinking by the present
government to engender agriculture
revolution in the state, adding that
the ministry of agriculture had been
directed to come up with a blue
print for the programme.
He explained that the plan to
revolutionalise agriculture in Abia
state was to ensure food security
for all citizens, engender youth
employment in the agricultural
sector and the attendant economic
empowerment.
The information commissioner
assured that two moribund industries - Golden Guinea Breweries,
Umuahia and International Glass
Industry, Aba – were set to bounce
back to life.
Meanwhile Abia State government has entered into a tripartite
agreement with the CBN and the
international Centre for Development Affairs (ICDA) for the
establishment of Entrepreneurial
Development Centre (EDC) for
the South East zone with Abia
as the host.
Multiple Auto Crash Claims 13
Lives on Asaba-OgwashiUku Road
Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
No fewer than 13 persons
including an Anglican Priest, lost
their lives in a fatal accident which
occurred on Thursday at Ibusa
on the Asaba-Ibusa-Ogwashi Uku
Road in Delta State. on Thursday
has left 13 persons including an .
The dead priest was identified
as Rev. Stanley Ejiniwe, said to
be a popular figure in the Asaba
Diocese of the Church of Nigeria
(Anglican Communion), which
has been thrown into mourning.
However, four survivors of the
crash are receiving treatment at St.
Joseph Catholic Hospital and St.
Rebecca Hospital both in Asaba,
the state capital, while the dead
made up of 11 males and two
females were deposited at the
General Hospital morgue, Ibusa.
The accident occurred on
the deplorable sloppy portion
of the road leading into Ibusa
area about 200 meters from the
military checkpoint from Asaba
the Asaba end.
The vehicles involved include a
black Ford Bus, marked GWK 684
XA belonging to Christ Anglican
Church, Ibusa, a Mitsubishi L300
with a Lagos registration number
BJ 831 AKD, a commercial bus
painted in Delta State colours as
well as a Honda car numbered
BEN 413 CF.
Eyewitness accounts said that
the driver of the commercial bus
and his wife reportedly died in
the crash, adding that the cleric
who was recently transferred to
Christ Anglican Church, Ibusa,
was alone in the Ford bus belonging to his parish.
The eye witness further said
the priest was descending the
hills from Ibusa end while the
fully loaded commercial bus
was ascending before a head
on collision.
Saturday, March 12, 2016
TR
UT H
& RE A S O
N
Price: N150
MISSILE
Civil Societies’ Coalition to Aregbesola
“Why should a state like Osun that is not viable financially create more
area councils? This is a misplacement of priority when the current
constitutionally-recognised local government areas of the state could not function
and compete very well with her counterpart in other states of the federation
– The Civil Societies’ Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS)
chastising Governor Rauf Aregbesola over his newly created Local Council
Development Areas (LCDA),
PENDULUM
Dele Momodu
[email protected]
President Buhari, Don’t Offend Those Kids
“Let the little children come to me and do not
hinder them,
For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven…”
Matthew 19:14
“Your wealth and your children are only a trial,
whereas God, with Him is a great reward (Paradise).”
Quran 64: 15
F
ellow Nigerians, the holy books are
replete with anecdotes of the importance
of little ones. The Prophets actually
frown at anyone trampling on the
rights of children. They are considered
innocent as they did not come to the world
of their free volition. This is why children are
treated as delicately as eggs. They can do no
wrong and cannot be punished like we do to
adults. Even in war situations, everything is
usually done to protect them. Every May 27
is dedicated by nations the world over as a
public holiday to celebrate children.
Nigerian children are exceptionally brilliant
and gifted. They are also very ambitious and
adventurous. They excel in every field of human
endeavour. Anywhere you go, you must find
one or more Nigerians at the top. The secret
is simple and straightforward. Our craving for
knowledge is unassailable. Education is thus the
master-key that unlocks the door of prosperity.
That is why our parents say the best inheritance
that a child can be given is education. I certainly
grew up with that aphorism and I also saw
the practical side with my mother sacrificing
all pleasures to pay for my education at one
of the best secondary and tertiary institutions
of the time.
Nigerians have been travelling abroad for
studies as far back as the 19th century. An
Egba man from Abeokuta was recorded to have
travelled to England where he graduated and
qualified as a Medical Doctor in London. On
November 17, 1879, Christopher Alexander Sapara
Williams was called to the English Bar. Same
with Herbert Macaulay. They both returned
home to become influential in Nigerian politics.
Since then too many Nigerians have travelled by
sea and air in search of the proverbial Golden
Fleece. Even long after the University of Ibadan,
Nigeria’s premier institution of higher learning,
was established in 1948, it was still the dream
of many young Nigerians to travel abroad. And
the various Governments of the day supported
their ambitions by granting many scholarships to
allow them to fulfil their dreams and return to
contribute their quota to national development.
The reason and purpose of my sermon today
is predicated on one major controversy, the
debate over whether to cancel the concessionary
allocation of foreign exchange at official rates
to Nigerian students abroad. As a matter of
fact the speech and body language of President
Muhammadu Buhari has shown unequivocally
that he does not consider those schooling outside
Nigeria the priority of his government. I beg to
disagree Sir. We should stretch the argument
and logic by all means. When asked why he
sent his own kids abroad, our people’s General
retorted that he could afford it. But I wish to
and better than encouraging our children to
rule their world by exposing them to global
experience. Those encouraging the President
to take anti-people decisions are doing him no
good. This government can step on powerful
toes but it should not invite the wrath of the
younger generation who are not the cause of
our backwardness.
Are we saying students who are already in
schools all over the world should return home
because they campaigned and supported APC
in their collective wisdom or stupidity? When
some of them went out of their ways to vote
for change I’m sure it was not to make their
situation worse but they would have expected
some marked improvements in their lives. It
is not their fault that our economy has taken
a cataclysmic fall. We should not punish them
for the recklessness and rascality of the elders.
No matter how bad the condition of our nation
is today, the kids should remain under our
firm protection. They should not be made to
regret their support for the change movement.
Some may argue that Nigeria cannot afford
this and that harsh decisions have to be taken
in the face of our really despondent situation.
However, education should not be on the
blacklist of banned items because brains are
not commensurate to goods. Nigeria alone has
not been able to provide jobs for our army
Buhari
of unemployed. Most of them are naturally
unemployable within and outside for various
say categorically that education should never reasons. Nigerian universities are not highly
be the exclusive preserve of those who can rated and the certificates are not well regarded.
afford it. Poor people have sacrificed to send The few jobs available at home are thus reserved
their children to the best schools and being for those who have been to good schools while
assisted by Government to do so is not a bad many of those who studied abroad often get
idea. Why does this administration not want employed in a jiffy by blue chip companies.
to be different by demonstrating its vision of Why do we want to deprive our kids such
transforming Nigeria through quality education? opportunities when we have nothing good to
Indeed, the debate negates President Buhari’s offer them right away?
much-appreciated and advertised credentials
Our foreign exchange basket is leaking not
as a friend of the poor.
because of school fees but largely because of the
Education is the ultimate leveller. The best profligacy of various governments of the past,
schools in the world are not likely to admit including the present, and the terrible lack of
anyone based on your bank statement. The fiscal discipline. For many decades, a country that
students still have to undergo very intensive is supposed to be secular has spent its resources
and rigorous examination, interview and general on sending pilgrims to Mecca and Jerusalem.
screening exercise. I cannot over-emphasise that There is no doubt that religious obligations
it is the dream of every reasonable and loving are important but education cannot be treated
parent to send their children to the best schools less so. Indeed, if there is a choice between
all over the world whether they can afford government support of religious pilgrimages
it or not. It ought to be the dream of every and education, I am sure even the sensible
responsible government to help its youths attend pilgrims will choose education.
Ivy League schools and donate them to the
It is important to guide our kids and encourage
academic world. Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, them to work and study hard if they wish to enjoy
Buchi Emecheta, Ben Okri, Chimamanda Adichie government loans, subventions and scholarships.
and others would probably have remained local This can be activated simultaneously with the
champions if their talents had been limited and rehabilitation of our campus infrastructure
restricted to Nigeria. I’m not sure they were and the reactivation of our school curricula to
all born with silver-spoon.
meet international standards. We cannot cancel
It is wrong to say those who cannot afford something for nothing but should replace nothing
school fees should return home. What it means with something. That should be our goal. Nigeria
is that the children of the rich and those of desperately needs its best brains to germinate
privileged government operatives would and blossom all over the world. Nothing should
be the only ones remaining to attend great be done to discourage and frustrate them. We
institutions. No government should encourage should make the necessary sacrifices for them
such disparity. I quite understand the frustrations and not the other way round. Nigeria would
of this government and sincerely sympathise be greater and thankful for it sooner rather
with our President but no investment is bigger than later.
Even when we have something in the form
of good educational institutions, we must not
be parochial, insular or myopic especially when
the world has become a global village. It will
take a long time before we can come anywhere
near our desired destination of good schools for
our children. If we eventually breed a decent
crop of teachers, where are the physical and
material resources that will complement them
and provide sound thorough education the
kind of which we received many years ago?
In those halcyon times, no Government ever
toyed with the idea of effectively outlawing
foreign education for the middle and lower
class or even the wealthy upper class! Every
Nigerian, rich or poor, has a right to education
wherever they choose, based on the suffering
they are prepared to endure and Government
must assist and not scupper this choice.
As if to buttress my views, I met a young
Nigerian two days ago who rekindled my hope
in the unlimited possibilities available to some
of our youths. The story of Ayodele Daniel
Dada of the University of Lagos has been a
celebrated one in the media both traditional
and social. We were requested and challenged
by many youths to find and promote the
academic exploits of this prodigiously gifted
genius who had a 5.0 grade point average in
Psychology. The Ovation Media Group took
up the challenge and we assigned The Boss
newspaper, our online publication, to locate
and invite Ayodele over. It was a most difficult
task which yielded fruits after a few days of
camping around University of Lagos, Akoka.
I was surprised when Ayodele walked into
our offices. The first thing that struck us was
his mild manner. He was simple, modest and
humble. We asked him a couple of questions
and he came across as someone who truly
knows his onions. We asked about his future
plans and he revealed his dream of travelling
out to the United States of America to study
at Yale and hopefully meet his academic idol,
Professor Robert Sternberg. I asked if he has
any scholarship yet and he said No.
Life is indeed very strange just as God is
very merciful. Ayodele arrived at a time a
good friend of ours, who wishes to remain
anonymous, was also visiting. Our friend listened
to Ayodele’s trajectory with rapt attention and
immediately got hooked. The good news is
that our wonderful friend has offered to help
Ayodele realise his dream of attending Yale.
The offer came when I asked how he would
feel if the foreign exchange debacle renders his
plans useless and he said he would be totally
disappointed and heartbroken. I’m sure there
are many Ayodeles carrying their dreams around
the way Jesus carried His cross in Calvary.
No one should be subjected to such pain and
anguish at this time and age for God’s sake.
According to a Yoruba adage: “if the Gods
cannot make our lives better, then they should
please leave us the way they met us.“
True, President Buhari should do nothing to
aggravate the agony of his core supporters, the
Nigerian youths. They are already suffering
enough under the weight of the economic
crunch. This is my kobo advice Sir.
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FG Apologises to Nigerians over Poor Power Supply, Blames Vandals

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