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BUSINESS DAY<br />

BDSUNDAY<br />

2019 Watch:<br />

Boko Haram:<br />

??<br />

Shekarau, the<br />

The benevolence of a mathematical politician<br />

vampire p. 10-11 p. 27-29<br />

p. 40-41 p.<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> Vol 1, No. 212 N300<br />

Market & Commodities Monitor<br />

Brent Oil<br />

5yr Bond<br />

$67.37<br />

0.00<br />

13.50%<br />

Gold<br />

10yr Bond<br />

US 1,335.20<br />

0.00<br />

13.64%<br />

Cocoa<br />

US 2,448.00<br />

inside<br />

20yr Bond<br />

0.00<br />

13.56%<br />

Mantu’s confession:<br />

INEC should<br />

deregister PDP, APC,<br />

SDP – Agoro<br />

p. 6<br />

Charlatans in control of<br />

Nigeria - Balarabe Musa<br />

ZEBULON AGOMUO<br />

Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, a former<br />

governor of Old Kaduna State, elected<br />

in 1979 on the platform of the People’s<br />

Redemption Party (PRP), a party<br />

founded by late Mallam Aminu Kano,<br />

has described the political actors of today as a band<br />

of charlatans and thieves who seek public office<br />

for personal gain.<br />

Musa, who spoke exclusively to BDSUNDAY,<br />

said that those masquerading as leaders were<br />

It is sad to talk<br />

about what Nigeria<br />

has become. We<br />

didn’t have it like<br />

this before. What<br />

we have now are<br />

charlatans, thieves<br />

and not leaders<br />

charlatans who did not understand the raison d’être of<br />

leadership.<br />

“It is sad to talk about what Nigeria has become. We<br />

didn’t have it like this before. What we have now are<br />

charlatans, thieves and not leaders. That is why a lot of<br />

things are going wrong in the country. People kill others<br />

because of this same corruption; some people sponsor<br />

others for some selfish reasons, but everything boils<br />

down to corruption,” Musa said.<br />

Comparing the Second Republic brand of politics with<br />

what is being played now, he said the difference is what<br />

p.4<br />

‘For 2019, Governor<br />

Emmanuel’s good<br />

work will set him<br />

apart’<br />

p. 24-25<br />

‘Many so-called<br />

church leaders<br />

today are<br />

answering the call<br />

of their belly, not<br />

the call of God’<br />

p. 30<br />

L-R: Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs; Yemi Osinbajo, vice president, and Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of industry, trade and investment, at the launch of Nigerian<br />

Economic Diplomacy Initiative (NEDI), a concept developed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment. The event held<br />

at the Presidential Villa was attended by state governors, ministers, heads of MDAs, Nollywood and Hollywood stars, youth leaders and other government functionaries.<br />

Libya returnees in Edo want to go back<br />

…over government’s failure to live up to promises<br />

The Edo State government said it has<br />

welcomed 3,155 Libya returnees<br />

into the state since October 2017<br />

and is making efforts to resettle the<br />

deportees. CHINWE AGBEZE, BDSUNDAY<br />

investigative reporter, spent six days at Motel<br />

Plaza in Benin where all the returnees are<br />

sheltered before they are unleashed on the<br />

society. Her findings show that the government’s<br />

effort amounts to mere window<br />

dressing. In their frustration, many of the<br />

returnees are still eager to make a return<br />

journey to Libya not minding the torture and<br />

the hardship they had to face there.<br />

P. 16-18


2<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

PhotoSplash<br />

L-R: Abayomi Kasali, convener, Greater Nigeria Pastors Conference; Victor Adelakun, chairman, Oyo State<br />

Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Abiola Ajimobi, governor, Oyo State, during<br />

the Greater Nigeria Pastors conference in Ibadan. NAN<br />

L-R: Fola Rogers-Saliu, Executive Director, Human Resources and Administration, SIFAX Group; Dr. Taiwo Afolabi,<br />

Group Executive Vice Chairman, SIFAX Group; Kennedy Iyeh, Season 4 Winner, The Next Titan Entrepreneurial<br />

Reality TV Show and Mr. Mide Kunle-Akinlaja, Executive Producer, The Next Titan Entrepreneurial Reality TV<br />

Show during an appreciation visit to SIFAX Group Head Office for its support towards the successful hosting of<br />

the show’s Season 4.<br />

L-R: John Anyanwu, associate director, Technology Advisory, KPMG Nigeria; Ighoakpo Eduje, senior manager,<br />

Access Bank; Adeyemi Ademiluyi, cyber security manager, Inlaks; Favour Femi-Oyewole, chief information security<br />

officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange; Femi Dakobiri, manager, enterprise IT & Command Centre, Rack Centre, and<br />

Harrison Nnaji, head, security engineering, First Bank, during West Africa Cyber Security Summit titled ‘Building<br />

Cyber Resilient Digital Platform’ in Lagos.<br />

L-R: Henry Ajoh, general manager, SIFAX Shipping Company Limited; Geoffrey Onyema, minister of foreign<br />

affairs, and Joshua Auta, head of operations, SIFAX Shipping, Abuja, at the UNICEF Legends for Child Project<br />

gala night in Abuja where SIFAX Group and donors raised funds to help UNICEF fund public school development<br />

across the country.<br />

David Mark, former Senate President, , teeing-off during the Pro-Am Golf Tournament to celebrate his 70th birthday<br />

at the Otukpo Golf and Country Club in Otukpo, Benue. NAN<br />

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, governor of Kebbi State (l), and Kofo Akinkugbe, managing director/chief executive officer,<br />

SecureID Limited, during a visit by the governor to SecureID Limited’s Smartcard Manufacturing Plant in Lagos.<br />

L-R: Achese Igwe, president of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG; Ipalibo Harry<br />

–Banigo, deputy governor of Rivers State, and Nyesom Wike, governor, Rivers State, during the ground breaking<br />

of NUPENG Utra-Modern Tanker Park at Ejama in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers. NAN<br />

L-R: Ado Sanusi, chief executive officer, Aero contractor Airline; Hadi Sirika, minister of state for aviation; Isa Bashir,<br />

deputy chairman, committee on aviation, and Saleh Dunoma, managing director, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria<br />

(FAAN), during the unveiling of ACI Africa Nigeria <strong>2018</strong> Business transformation for Sustainable Development of<br />

Africa Airport at the 4th Aviation stakeholders forum in Abuja.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

BD SUNDAY 3


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

4 BDSUNDAY<br />

Cover<br />

Charlatans in control of Nigeria...<br />

Continued from Page 1<br />

Musa<br />

exists between light and darkness. While<br />

describing political actors of yesteryear<br />

as saints, he said that majority of those in<br />

politics today are devils.<br />

“The difference is clear. When we were<br />

in government, it was the time when<br />

saints were in politics, now it is the time<br />

of the devils. Today, they have introduced<br />

corruption in the system. The system is<br />

being corrupted. Everybody going into<br />

politics now is talking about money, not<br />

service. There is nothing like serving others,<br />

it is about self. So, the comparison<br />

is that of saint and devil. The quality of<br />

leadership is gone,” he stated further.<br />

Decrying the elevation of money power<br />

and imposition of candidates in the nation’s<br />

politics, he said: “PRP is the only political<br />

party that has existed right from the<br />

Second Republic. It produced two governors<br />

and won 45 legislative positions at<br />

that time. But after 2003, it became very<br />

difficult for PRP to win any election in<br />

Nigeria. You know why? Because of the<br />

money power in politics.<br />

“The introduction of money politics has<br />

destroyed the system. You know it is only<br />

a few parties that can muster huge sums<br />

of money that can participate actively<br />

in politics these days. There is too much<br />

emphasis on money. Even at local level of<br />

politics, they have introduced corruption.<br />

In some places, people are being asked<br />

to pay N2million to contest for chairmanship;<br />

whereas the minimum wage is<br />

very low. The money politics has ruined<br />

everything. Look at how difficult it is and<br />

we are talking about grassroots politics.<br />

There is also this imposition of candidates<br />

where unpopular persons are foisted on<br />

the people. These are the issues that have<br />

made it difficult for good people to take<br />

part in the political process.”<br />

Assessing the performance of the current<br />

government from 2015, the octogenarian<br />

said it was a continuation of the<br />

corruption and poor leadership that has<br />

been entrenched since 1999.<br />

“It is not better than those before it; it is<br />

an extension of the rot that has become<br />

part of the system. Nigeria has made no<br />

progress. Quality of leadership has drastically<br />

gone down. Quality of life of citizens<br />

has gone seriously bad. The security situation<br />

of the country has also worsened. In<br />

fact, every aspect of the nation’s life has<br />

collapsed. It appears there is no government<br />

in the country. Things have gone<br />

from bad to worse,” he noted.<br />

Musa, who also described the Buhari<br />

administration as “disappointing; quite<br />

disappointing”, told BDSUNDAY that<br />

the administration “has made peace impossible.”<br />

According to him, “Quality of leadership<br />

is very low and it brings about a situation<br />

where no one knows the next thing that<br />

can happen in Nigeria. What we are seeing<br />

now is quite disheartening.”<br />

Describing as charlatan some politicians<br />

masquerading as leaders and some<br />

of those seeking the highest office in the<br />

land, the former presidential candidate<br />

said: “If you compare what happened in<br />

1978 and what is happening now, you<br />

will agree with me that things have gone<br />

very badly. In the Second Republic when<br />

we had the likes of Aminu Kano, Zik and<br />

Awolowo, there was discipline and you<br />

could feel the presence of quality leadership.<br />

There was a sense of discipline.<br />

“At that time, you could see presidential<br />

materials who were qualified in every<br />

sense of the word, so much that if you<br />

voted for any one of them, you would not<br />

say you made a mistake. This is because<br />

each of them was more than qualified to<br />

occupy the seat. But today, we are saddled<br />

with a president that lacks discipline and<br />

does not understand the burden of leadership<br />

and governance. Today, you see<br />

many people coming out that they want<br />

to contest for the post of president, and<br />

they have not the discipline and you see<br />

they do not possess what it takes to be0<br />

leaders. This is the tragedy of Nigeria.”<br />

He challenged President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari to take advantage of the provisions<br />

in the Constitution as the Commanderin-chief<br />

of the Armed Forces of Nigeria;<br />

Chief security officer of the country and<br />

controller of the resources of Nigeria, to<br />

better the lives of Nigerians.<br />

“He must realise that he was elected<br />

for the good of every citizen of Nigeria,<br />

and so he must ensure that fairness and<br />

justice must come into play in all that he<br />

does. But we are not seeing that,” he said.<br />

Urging the Nigerian electorate to make<br />

an informed choice in 2019 in terms of<br />

choosing credible leaders, Musa also<br />

tasked the Independent National Electoral<br />

Commission (INEC) on fair play.<br />

“As the next election is coming, we must<br />

see how we can have a better leadership<br />

and how it is possible to keep these people<br />

away from coming back to power. Again,<br />

my advice to the INEC is to ensure that<br />

by all means there is credible election that<br />

will produce the choice of the people,”<br />

he said.<br />

Mantu’s mantra and the culture of impunity<br />

Ayo Oyoze Baje<br />

The recurring ugly decimal of rigging<br />

of elections in Nigeria is one salient<br />

reason behind the emergence of the<br />

people’s enemies into the country’s<br />

most sensitive plum political positions. Giventhe<br />

high cost of accessing power, the door-die<br />

battle to win elections, the obscenely<br />

high and attractive pay packageone is not<br />

surprised about the recent confessions of<br />

the former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim<br />

Mantu that he rigged election for the People’s<br />

Democratic Party (PDP).<br />

Mantu, a member of the Board of Trustees of<br />

the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had in a<br />

television chat with Channels TV on March 30,<br />

<strong>2018</strong> openly admitted to have rigged elections<br />

for the party through bribing electoral officials,<br />

security agencies and party agents. Though the<br />

confession came like a bolt out of the blues to<br />

millions of Nigerians, it did not to others who<br />

have known the truth all along.<br />

The pain in it all is that after all the hue and<br />

cry, Mantu’s issue will suffer the Doppler<br />

effect and he will still walk our streets as a<br />

free man! Truth be said, he belongs to the<br />

untouchables. Like several allegedly corrupt<br />

former governors and politicians, even if the<br />

case goes to court, it would be subjected to a<br />

long-winding judicial process that at the end<br />

of the day would amount to nothing!<br />

What do you expect in a country where<br />

we are not equal before the law of the land?<br />

Where the very reprehensible idea of amnesty<br />

for the blood-sucking Boko Haram extremists<br />

is even given flicker of thought in the<br />

high corridors of power! Where court orders<br />

are disregarded even by those who swore<br />

allegiance to the oath of office to protect the<br />

ethos of our statutory books. That is Nigeria<br />

for you. And, sad to say, that of course, is the<br />

self-decimating culture of impunity that some<br />

of us have repeatedly decried over the years.<br />

As expected, the PDP in a statement issued<br />

by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola<br />

Ologbondiyan, in Abuja said Mantu’s claim<br />

has nothing to do with the party. He said the<br />

PDP had never directed any of its members<br />

to rig election on its behalf at any point since<br />

its formation. “Individuals run their elections<br />

on the platform of political parties once they<br />

emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates<br />

are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct<br />

containing the basic rules of electioneering<br />

engagements. There is nowhere in these<br />

rules of engagement where candidates or<br />

party members are directed to rig elections<br />

on behalf of the party,” Ologbondiyan said.<br />

Well said, one would say. Or, some other<br />

critics would tell him to tell that to the marines.<br />

As expected, going for the jugular, the All<br />

Progressives Congress (APC) is trying to<br />

make a political capital out of it. But truth be<br />

said, election rigging has no political colours.<br />

Not because one Doyin Okupe said so but the<br />

electoral crime has become the rule rather<br />

than the exception. So, who is to blame?<br />

What about the compelling centripetal attraction<br />

of well-paying political offices, with<br />

all the apparatchik of office attached? This has<br />

contributed in no small measure to all manner<br />

of electoral malfeasance here in Nigeria. It<br />

Yakubu<br />

would however, be foolhardy for the nationstate<br />

with a vision to right the many wrongs<br />

of the past to continue to habour, tolerate or<br />

out rightly encourage what has brought the<br />

country to this sorry political pass. Something<br />

has to be done and speedily too.<br />

That feeling prompted me to make a similar<br />

post on Facebook, decrying the odious fact<br />

that Mantu is still a free man. This triggered the<br />

instant responses from concerned Nigerians.<br />

Dipo Olayokun, an analyst has this to say: “Mr.<br />

Ayo Baje, if Mantu is picked up today, they<br />

would say that Buhari has continued with the<br />

persecution of PDP members. And is Mantu<br />

telling us anything new?<br />

Not done he went down memory lane:<br />

“A member of BoT of PDP, Chris Uba under<br />

Obasanjo addressed a world press conference<br />

in Enugu where he told the world that<br />

he rigged the 2003 election for Ngige. Let me<br />

quote him: ‘When I was bribing INEC officials<br />

and security agents to rig elections for him<br />

to become the governor of Anambra State,<br />

where was he? Did he know how I did it?’”<br />

Furthermore, Olayokun added the clincher:<br />

“Instead of Obasanjo arresting Chris Uba he<br />

was made a member of the BoT. And now you<br />

want security agents to arrest Mantu. And<br />

they will start telling the world that Buhari is<br />

a dictator who wants to kill opposition”.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY<br />

5<br />

News<br />

Abia APC crisis: Nwankpa says<br />

‘I am still in charge’<br />

Niger Delta militants endorse<br />

Dokubo, new Amnesty boss<br />

…Urge FG to give him all needed support to succeed<br />

UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia<br />

Do n a t u s<br />

Nwankpa,<br />

embattled<br />

chairman of<br />

the All Progressives<br />

Congress (APC)<br />

in Abia has said that he was<br />

still the helmsman of the<br />

party in the state.<br />

Nwankpa warned the<br />

opposition party in the state<br />

not to celebrate over the<br />

current dispute in the party,<br />

as disagreement does not<br />

mean disintegration.<br />

It would be recalled that<br />

an Abia High Court sitting<br />

at Okpuala Ngwa and presided<br />

over by Hon. Justice<br />

C.U. Okoroafor sacked the<br />

executive members of the<br />

APC led by Nwankpa.<br />

The court order asked<br />

APC, John Odigie-Oyegun,<br />

Mai Mala Bunu and Muiz<br />

Banire to stop dealing with<br />

Nwankpa and Menyechi<br />

Onuoha and other members<br />

of the Abia executive committee<br />

pending the hearing<br />

and determination of the<br />

substantive suit filed by a<br />

faction of the party in the<br />

state.<br />

Speaking with journalists<br />

at the party’s secretariat,<br />

Umuahia, Nwankpa said:<br />

“For some time now, various<br />

media have been awash<br />

with some comments with<br />

regards to the leadership of<br />

the party in the state. Yes, we<br />

must be honest to ourselves,<br />

there was a court action, an<br />

order was given by the court<br />

Donatus Nwankpa<br />

at Okpuala Ngwa in Isiala<br />

Ngwa North L.G.A presided<br />

by Justice C.U. Okoroafor.<br />

“In spite of the irregularities,<br />

abuse of process<br />

and other illegal impunity<br />

that almost characterised<br />

the system which got to<br />

a level of judicial rascality,<br />

but because the party is<br />

law-abiding and because we<br />

believe that the judge may<br />

have been misinformed,<br />

knowing the pedigree of<br />

Justice Okoroafor, we took<br />

the process accordingly and<br />

that was by approaching the<br />

same court, appealing to the<br />

same court to not only vacate<br />

the order, even though<br />

we are going to raise some<br />

criminal charges in respect<br />

to some forgery and some<br />

documentations that were<br />

placed there inappropriately.”<br />

“But the party being a lawabiding<br />

party, we immediately<br />

appealed to the court,<br />

because the order that was<br />

given to us; that was brought<br />

before the court was not<br />

an exparte motion. It was<br />

motion on notice and since<br />

it was a motion on notice,<br />

all steps of service and all<br />

processes must have been<br />

followed, unfortunately the<br />

court was deceived,” he<br />

further explained.<br />

Nwankpa disclosed that<br />

the present APC government<br />

deals with credibility,<br />

transparency and discipline.<br />

“So for that we as a party<br />

will not tolerate anything<br />

that has to abuse or undermine<br />

the strength, the position<br />

and role of judiciary in<br />

a democratic system that<br />

ensures checks and balances<br />

rooted in the culture<br />

of separation of power. So<br />

having appealed to that by<br />

the virtue of the constitution<br />

of the APC and every other<br />

thing, an order is said to be<br />

suspended when there is an<br />

appeal, until that appeal is<br />

dispensed with,” he said.<br />

On who represented<br />

Abia APC during the party’s<br />

most recent NEC meeting,<br />

Nwankpa said he represented<br />

the state, adding, “There<br />

is no tussle, there is no controversy,<br />

there is no question<br />

in respect to the true leadership<br />

of the APC in Abia State.<br />

So there is no dispute on it. I<br />

am still the chairman of the<br />

party until the congress reelects<br />

me or removes me”.<br />

On the controversy that<br />

surrounded the alleged suspension<br />

of Ikechi Emenike,<br />

he said: “Ikechi Emenike was<br />

duly suspended in his ward<br />

on the 23rd of January, <strong>2018</strong><br />

based on his anti-party activities,<br />

and because he is<br />

not an official of the party,<br />

he is neither a member of<br />

BoT, member of NEC, SEC,<br />

ZEC or even local government<br />

executive committee,<br />

for that his matter starts and<br />

ends at the ward level. What<br />

the state did was to acknowledge<br />

the suspension letter<br />

earlier written by his ward.”<br />

Ignatius Chukwu<br />

The Joint Revolutionary<br />

Council<br />

(JRC) said to be a<br />

coalition of key and<br />

leading agitating groups<br />

in the Niger Delta which<br />

include the Movement for<br />

the Emancipation of the<br />

Niger Delta, the Niger Delta<br />

People’s Volunteer Force<br />

and a few others, have commended<br />

the Presidency for<br />

the appointment of Charles<br />

Quaker Dokubo, a professor,<br />

as Amnesty boss.<br />

In a statement emailed<br />

to media houses on Friday,<br />

the group led by Cynthia<br />

White said Dokubo was a<br />

leading African researcher in<br />

Peace Studies, Nuclear Proliferation<br />

and International<br />

Diplomacy, saying his appointment<br />

as Coordinator<br />

of the Presidential Amnesty<br />

Programme & Special Adviser<br />

to the President on<br />

Niger Delta was welcome.<br />

“As an Ijaw from the Kalabari<br />

clan, Dokubo comes<br />

to the table with a deeplyrooted<br />

traditional pedigree,”<br />

the group said.<br />

“As a Professor of Peace<br />

Studies who has led many<br />

studies on Peace in the Niger<br />

Delta, Dokubo understands<br />

the true strategic value of<br />

peace in the Niger Delta<br />

and its effect on Nigeria,<br />

Africa and beyond. As a nonpartisan<br />

intellectual and<br />

neutral player, Professor<br />

Charles Quaker Dokubo understands<br />

the need to make<br />

new friends for President<br />

Buhari in the Niger Delta.<br />

Why many believe his appointment<br />

was a political<br />

masterstroke by the Buhari<br />

administration, we believe<br />

that in itself, is not Enough,”<br />

it said.<br />

“For the Niger Delta region<br />

to experience healing<br />

and development, the<br />

Buhari Presidency must go<br />

beyond just the appointment<br />

a globally recognised<br />

researcher and Professor<br />

of Peace and Defense Studies<br />

and ensure that he is<br />

provided with the support<br />

required for the effective<br />

deployment of peace and<br />

development strategies<br />

and efforts in the Niger<br />

Delta.<br />

Why Middle Belt people want Nigeria restructured – Lekwot<br />

David Ejiohuo<br />

When half of Nigeria<br />

recently<br />

gathered in<br />

Goodluck Jonathan’s<br />

home state, Bayelsa,<br />

to press for restructuring as<br />

the only way to go before<br />

solving other national problems,<br />

the Middle Belt people<br />

who are now apparently being<br />

annihilated, were there<br />

too to join the South-South,<br />

Ohanaeze and the Afenifere.<br />

They spoke in one voice;<br />

restructure Nigeria.<br />

The Middle Belt people<br />

say they believe in a restructured<br />

Nigeria because only<br />

such a country could ensure<br />

the much needed economic<br />

transformation, ethnic cohesion<br />

and the unity of the<br />

country.<br />

These views were articulated<br />

by the representatives<br />

of the zone to the just concluded<br />

restructuring rally<br />

attended by the people of<br />

South-South, South-West,<br />

South-East and the Middle<br />

Belt forums at Yanagoa.<br />

Speaking with Business-<br />

Day at the Port Harcourt<br />

International Airport, Omagwa,<br />

in an exclusive interview,<br />

the leader of the Middle Belt<br />

delegation, Zamani Letwort,<br />

a retired army general and a<br />

onetime military governor<br />

of old Rivers State, said the<br />

middle Belt believes that only<br />

Lekwot<br />

a restructured Nigeria could<br />

get the country out of the serious<br />

problem of population<br />

explosion that had put pressure<br />

on the system, making<br />

things not to work.<br />

According to Lekwot,<br />

who was surrounded by others<br />

such as onetime military<br />

governor, an air commodore,<br />

Dan Sulaman, and a retired<br />

police commissioner Dabub,<br />

the people calling for restructuring<br />

are saying it to solve<br />

these problems. “They are<br />

saying there were needs to<br />

review what the structure<br />

because the permanent thing<br />

about life is change. If the<br />

structure cannot carry the<br />

weight, what is more?”<br />

The centralisation of administration<br />

or power had<br />

made the states redundant<br />

and turned them into beggars.<br />

This has suppressed<br />

their potentials, he said,<br />

pointing out that the devolution<br />

of power is all about<br />

decongesting the centre.<br />

Lekwot traced the genesis<br />

of the present problem to the<br />

military coup that dissolved<br />

the regions and made Nigeria<br />

a unitary state and abolished<br />

their functions, pointing out<br />

that the centralisation had<br />

caused so much disadvantages<br />

that those who believe<br />

in restructuring are saying<br />

that the country must be decongested<br />

in order to share<br />

power, including revenue generation<br />

because all the states<br />

in Nigeria have potentials and<br />

solid minerals, agriculture, and<br />

human resources<br />

According to the Middle<br />

Belt group, the best road map<br />

to restructure Nigeria is in the<br />

2014 National Conference<br />

Report where everything<br />

was dissected, pointing out<br />

that the only further thing<br />

that was required in the report<br />

was for the Executive<br />

to take it to the National Assembly<br />

to perfect the report<br />

and start the implementation<br />

systematically.<br />

Dokubo<br />

Cleric in philanthropic gesture, distributes<br />

fertilizers to boost food production<br />

In a bid to boost food<br />

production in his Community,<br />

Emeka Nwankpa,<br />

a bishop and general<br />

overseer of Chapel of Faith<br />

Bible Assembly International,<br />

Onitsha, Anambra State<br />

has distributed over 200<br />

bags of fertilizers to farmers<br />

in Umuopara, Ntigha<br />

Umukalu in Isiala Ngwa<br />

North Local Government<br />

of Abia state.<br />

Nwankpa distributed the<br />

fertilizers during the official<br />

grand opening of his new<br />

mansion christened “Yahweh’s<br />

Villa.<br />

He said that if God blesses<br />

one, one should equally bless<br />

others; hence, his philanthropic<br />

gesture in floating<br />

Ben Foundation.<br />

He disclosed that as a true<br />

son of Ngwa land his Foundation<br />

in the past eight years<br />

had provided street lights<br />

as well as boreholes for his<br />

people.<br />

He further hinted that he<br />

had distributed over 50 motorcycles,<br />

500 bags of rice<br />

and 5000 pieces of wrappers<br />

to widows/women alongside<br />

other items.<br />

He said presently 117<br />

undergraduates in various<br />

tertiary institutions across<br />

the country are under his<br />

scholarship.


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

6 BDSUNDAY<br />

News<br />

IGP reinstates Janga as Kogi police commissioner,<br />

following re-arrest of the 6 jail breakers<br />

Victoria Nnakiaike, Lokoja<br />

Ali Janga has been<br />

reinstated as the<br />

Commissioner of<br />

Police in Kogi State,<br />

the state police command<br />

spokesman, ASP William<br />

Aya, confirmed.<br />

Speaking, Aya said in<br />

Lokoja that Janga returned<br />

to office on <strong>Apr</strong>il 3, <strong>2018</strong> on<br />

the orders of Ibrahim Idris,<br />

Inspector -General of Police.<br />

He said the reinstatement<br />

was made after Janga met<br />

the one-week ultimatum<br />

given to him by the Inspector-<br />

General of Police to re-arrest<br />

the suspected six jail breakers<br />

who escaped from police<br />

custody.<br />

Aya, the police public<br />

relations officer, confirmed<br />

that all the six suspects that<br />

escaped from the police<br />

custody on March 28, <strong>2018</strong><br />

had been re-arrested.<br />

He also disclosed that13<br />

persons that aided the escape<br />

of the suspects had been<br />

arrested in Lokoja alongside<br />

the commercial tricycle<br />

Ebonyi youths decry excessive<br />

taxation, brutality<br />

Bunmi Bailey<br />

Several youth groups<br />

and youth-led organisations<br />

gathered in<br />

Abakiliki Friday to decry<br />

excessive taxation being<br />

imposed on entrepreneurs<br />

among them by the state<br />

government.<br />

The youth groups met with<br />

representatives of the government<br />

from the integrated<br />

revenue department of the<br />

board of internal revenue,<br />

Esema Chima, head of the<br />

department, and a senior<br />

special assistant to the government<br />

on internally generated<br />

revenue, Okwuegbu<br />

Sunday.<br />

Representatives of Salt<br />

Youth Network narrated the<br />

experience of one of their<br />

skills acquisition beneficiaries,<br />

who just relocated to<br />

Abakiliki from his village to<br />

start his barbing business<br />

at a low cost location, only<br />

to be slammed with a tax of<br />

N36,000 which exceeds his<br />

rent and his business capital<br />

put together.<br />

The attitude of the waste<br />

management agents was<br />

not left out of this agitation as<br />

they were reported to have<br />

seized goods from traders<br />

at their business premises,<br />

insisting on annual purchase<br />

of waste bins.<br />

According to Nwogodo<br />

Vincent of Young Visioneers<br />

Association of Nigeria<br />

(YVAN), these agents<br />

also beat up citizens in the<br />

process of recovering such<br />

levies.<br />

operators that ferried the<br />

suspects to safety after their<br />

escape and the owners of<br />

the houses where they slept<br />

after escape from custody.<br />

The suspects, according to<br />

Aya, would be charged to<br />

court after conclusion of<br />

investigation.<br />

It could be recalled that<br />

Janga had on March 28, <strong>2018</strong><br />

announced that six suspects,<br />

including Kabiru Seidu a.k.a<br />

Osama and Nuhu Salisu, who<br />

had named Dino Melaye, a<br />

senator, as their gun supplier,<br />

escaped from lawful police<br />

custody in Lokoja.<br />

Following the incident,<br />

the Inspector-General<br />

of Police, Ibrahim Idris,<br />

removed Janga as the state<br />

Commissioner of Police and<br />

named Sunday Ogbu as his<br />

replacement.<br />

Aya equally said that the<br />

13 policemen that were<br />

on duty on the day of the<br />

incident had gone to the<br />

police headquarters for<br />

interrogation as directed by<br />

the IGP, saying that they had<br />

started returning to their<br />

duty posts.<br />

As a result of this heavy<br />

tax and recovery agents’<br />

molestation, several entrepreneurs<br />

have closed up their<br />

businesses, while some only<br />

open their shops at odd hours<br />

when the tax forces have<br />

closed for the day.<br />

In response, the government<br />

representatives explained<br />

the basis for the<br />

taxes and called on the<br />

youth to support the effort<br />

of the government as<br />

the dividend of their taxes<br />

can be seen in the development<br />

of the state. They<br />

however admitted that the<br />

agents responsible for the<br />

recovery are incompetent<br />

in some cases and as a result<br />

overcharged citizens. The<br />

youths suggested solutions<br />

to the problem which were<br />

documented in a communiqué.<br />

At the end of the engagement,<br />

the youths agreed<br />

that they are willing to work<br />

with the government in the<br />

interest of the development<br />

of the state and they are<br />

also willing to pay tax, but<br />

demanded from the government<br />

a more transparent<br />

process subject to assessment<br />

in the determination<br />

of taxes.<br />

The aggrieved stakeholders<br />

made it clear that the<br />

right to freedom of expression<br />

has been denied them<br />

since anyone who reports or<br />

makes any statement against<br />

the government becomes<br />

a victim of attack. Journalists<br />

such as Charles Otu and<br />

Chika Nwoba were reported<br />

to have been arrested and<br />

brutalized, as a result.<br />

Mantu’s confession: INEC should<br />

deregister PDP, APC, SDP – Agoro<br />

Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan<br />

Following the revelations<br />

by Senator<br />

Ibrahim Mantu<br />

that he allegedly<br />

rigged elections<br />

for the People’s Democratic<br />

Party (PDP), National Chairman<br />

of the National Action<br />

Council (NAC), Olapade<br />

Agoro has asked the Independent<br />

National Electoral<br />

Commission (INEC) to<br />

deregister and proscribe<br />

the umbrella party, the ruling<br />

All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC) and the Social Democratic<br />

Party (SDP).<br />

Mantu now APC member<br />

recently said he helped the<br />

PDP to rig elections.<br />

In a letter dated <strong>Apr</strong>il, 3,<br />

<strong>2018</strong> to Mahmood Yakubu,<br />

INEC chairman, Agoro<br />

threatened to drag the commission<br />

to court if it failed to<br />

deregister and proscribe the<br />

three political parties within<br />

seven days.<br />

“There is the urgent need<br />

for INEC to deregister both<br />

the ruling APC, PDP and the<br />

SDP following the recent<br />

FG trains<br />

ex-militants on agric<br />

enterprise in Abia<br />

UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia<br />

Fifty persons drawn<br />

from the Niger Delta<br />

areas have been<br />

trained by the Abia<br />

Agricultural Development<br />

Programme (ADP) in collaboration<br />

with Fadmobi<br />

Investment Limited on Agricultural<br />

Enterprises under<br />

the Presidential Amnesty<br />

Programme.<br />

The training was in the<br />

areas of piggery, snailery,<br />

poultry, among others.<br />

Bartho Onyemaobi, the<br />

programme manager of Abia<br />

ADP, noted that before the<br />

discovery of crude oil in the<br />

country, Nigeria’s mainstay<br />

and foreign exchange were<br />

derived from Agriculture,<br />

adding that after some time<br />

agriculture was relegated to<br />

the background.<br />

He pointed out that it was<br />

because of the oil glut that<br />

the Federal Government<br />

asked all to go back to basis<br />

“So that we will produce<br />

enough to feed and export to<br />

earn our foreign exchange.”<br />

The programme manager<br />

informed the trainees that<br />

they were being trained by<br />

the Federal Government in<br />

one of the best centres in<br />

Agriculture in Abia.<br />

Mantu<br />

‘very serious mind-bungling<br />

revelations’ by Senator Ibrahim<br />

Mantu now APC member<br />

that “he rigged elections<br />

for PDP” and the recently<br />

released alleged looters lists<br />

by the Federal Government.<br />

Agoro added that this became<br />

necessary “in the light<br />

of Section 15 sub section<br />

(5) of Amended Constitution<br />

of Federal Republic of<br />

Nigeria that states thus “<br />

The State shall abolish all<br />

corrupt practices and abuse<br />

of power” and Section 36 – 1<br />

of the aforementioned Constitution<br />

of Federal Republic<br />

of Nigeria; and the African<br />

Charter on Human Rights<br />

Articles 2, 10, 27 as well as<br />

the powers conferred upon<br />

Independent National Electoral<br />

Commission (INEC)<br />

as clearly spelt out under its<br />

published ‘Key Actions 3.1 of<br />

Embrace demand-driven research,<br />

Ajimobi charges tertiary institutions<br />

Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan<br />

Ajimobi<br />

Tertiary institutions<br />

in Nigeria have been<br />

urged to embrace<br />

demand-driven research<br />

and courses capable<br />

of solving the country’s peculiar<br />

challenges.<br />

The institutions were also<br />

advised to pay closer attention<br />

to technical courses and<br />

ICT that would make their<br />

certificates globally competitive.<br />

Governor Abiola Ajimobi<br />

of Oyo State who charged<br />

the institutions while inaugurating<br />

an information<br />

technology building donated<br />

by his wife, Florence to her<br />

alma mater, The Polytechnic,<br />

Ibadan, as part of activities<br />

marking her 59th birthday,<br />

described technology as the<br />

bedrock of development,<br />

He said without deliberate<br />

focus on technical education,<br />

Nigeria would continue<br />

to produce graduates<br />

who would not be able to<br />

contribute effectively to the<br />

country’s socio-economic<br />

development.<br />

The governor further emphasised<br />

the importance of<br />

ICT, saying that most of the<br />

successful entrepreneurs<br />

in the world made their fortunes<br />

through information<br />

and communication technology.<br />

The governor said the<br />

state had taken the lead in<br />

tackling this problem by establishing<br />

the first technical<br />

university in Nigeria which he<br />

said was equipped to impart<br />

`practical and practicable’<br />

skills in its students. He urged<br />

the students to take the advantage<br />

of the opportunities<br />

provided by the new ICT<br />

INEC Strategic programme<br />

of Action 2017-2012’”.<br />

The NAC leader said that<br />

taking into consideration the<br />

very serious mind-bungling<br />

revelations by Senator Ibrahim<br />

Mantu now APC member<br />

that “he rigged elections<br />

for PDP”, (ii) the Looters List<br />

currently being circulated by<br />

the Federal Government (iii)<br />

The fact that almost all in the<br />

present leadership of APC<br />

government were formerly<br />

same people in PDP now<br />

in opposition; It becomes<br />

pertinent to hereby give you<br />

seven days notice from date<br />

of dispatch of this letter to<br />

you demanding that both<br />

the APC and PDP be deregistered<br />

and proscribed since<br />

both APC and PDP are dirty<br />

and corrupt same one party<br />

disguising as two.<br />

He also urged INEC to take<br />

into consideration Social<br />

Democratic Party (SDP)<br />

currently enmeshed in one<br />

hundred million naira DasukiGate<br />

scandal.<br />

“Failing which I will without<br />

further notice cause legal<br />

actions to be instituted<br />

against you jointly and severally,”<br />

Agoro said.<br />

centre to improve their skills.<br />

The governor said: “Our<br />

new education structure in<br />

Oyo State is built around technology<br />

because the illiterates<br />

of tomorrow are not those<br />

who cannot read and write<br />

but those who cannot harness<br />

the power of technology.<br />

“This is why I am calling<br />

on our tertiary institutions in<br />

Nigeria to embrace demanddriven<br />

research and courses<br />

that are capable of solving<br />

our peculiar challenges as a<br />

country.<br />

“My wife has, through this<br />

donation, contributed to the<br />

advancement of technology<br />

in Nigeria. I urge you, the students,<br />

to take the advantage<br />

of this facility to horn your<br />

skill in technology.’’<br />

In her address, Florence<br />

said she was motivated into<br />

donating the ICT Centre<br />

by the growing influence of<br />

information and communication<br />

technology and how it is<br />

changing the world.<br />

“I have been engulfed with<br />

a burning passion to spread<br />

its gospel as far as I can. In furtherance<br />

of this, I have built<br />

and completely equipped<br />

three ICT Centres which are<br />

today operating at maximum<br />

capacity.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY<br />

7<br />

News<br />

‘We want to provide needed capacity<br />

for Nigerian graphic designers’<br />

KELECHI EWUZIE<br />

As part of its drive to<br />

shore up capacity<br />

of graphic designers<br />

for the socioeconomic<br />

development<br />

of Nigeria, Ellae Branding<br />

Agency has organised a Designer’s<br />

Arise Contest.<br />

The contest, which has<br />

been running online monthly<br />

for over two years, has<br />

ensured the exposure and<br />

award of over 100 graphic<br />

designers in the Nigerian<br />

space.<br />

Noella Ekezie, CEO, Ellae<br />

Branding Agency, said the<br />

purpose of the Designer’s<br />

Arise platform was to create<br />

a community for Nigerian<br />

graphic designers, giving<br />

them an avenue to interact<br />

and learn from one another,<br />

while exposing them to local<br />

and international opportunities.<br />

“Our aim is to project<br />

Africa to the world through<br />

design and provide an enabling<br />

platform for creative<br />

talent to showcase their<br />

work and get discovered<br />

by the global design and<br />

tech communities,” Ekezie<br />

said.<br />

At the end of the keenly<br />

contested competition,<br />

the three judges Noella<br />

Ekezie, Banke Alawaye and<br />

Fisayo Fosudo adjudged<br />

Ifeoluwa Sopeju the overall<br />

winner who will went<br />

home with N100,000 and a<br />

ticket to Dubai courtesy of<br />

Wakanow.com<br />

Michael Smith won the<br />

second prize with N75,000<br />

while Emmanuel Oisemaye<br />

won the third position<br />

and was also awarded<br />

N50,000 for his spectacular<br />

designs.<br />

According to the Ellae<br />

Branding Agency Management,<br />

the recently concluded<br />

maiden Designer’s Arise<br />

Contest Live Edition served<br />

as the forerunner of many<br />

more editions to come.<br />

In the words of the CEO,<br />

“The Designer’s Arise Contest<br />

will be a quarterly event,<br />

addressing every aspect of<br />

the design field and drawing<br />

on graphic designers from<br />

around Africa.”<br />

The Designers Arise Contest<br />

is among a plethora of<br />

initiatives Ellae Branding<br />

Agency has put together<br />

to empower the Nigerian<br />

youth in the Design and Tech<br />

fields.<br />

Another one of such initiatives<br />

is the Ellae Training<br />

Academy, the foremost<br />

design, branding and digital<br />

training academy in Africa,<br />

which facilitates world class<br />

branding, design, digital and<br />

technology training programmes<br />

for the Nigerian<br />

youth and entrepreneurs.<br />

Indorama: How Aleto Eleme shared N6.4bn<br />

from 7.5% host community equity payout<br />

...Economic activities shoot up in Eleme<br />

Godwin Egba, Port-Harcourt<br />

Once again,<br />

the enviable<br />

Eleme Industrial<br />

land in<br />

Rivers State<br />

can enjoy peace after over<br />

five years of protracted crises<br />

between Elano Nigeria<br />

Limited and some groups in<br />

Eleme host communities of<br />

the Indorama world-class<br />

Petrol Chemical and Fertilizers<br />

Company situated near<br />

Port-Harcourt, Rives State<br />

capital.<br />

Elano is a registered corporate<br />

entity that acquired<br />

the shares for the communities<br />

and secured the right to<br />

manage the dividends accruing<br />

from the Indorama Company<br />

to six host communities<br />

in the Eleme geographical<br />

land. The relationship between<br />

Elano and its clients,<br />

the host communities, began<br />

from 2012 when the FG<br />

ceded some equity to the<br />

host communities as part of<br />

Corporate Social Responsibility<br />

policy.<br />

However the good intentions<br />

turned sour some few<br />

years later as allegations<br />

and suspicion against Elano<br />

management started flying<br />

about from the communities<br />

such as Aleto and Agbonchia<br />

claiming that their people<br />

had lost confidence in the<br />

company (Elano) over seemingly<br />

or alleged discrepancies<br />

in managing the funds<br />

Some of the communities<br />

shared their dividend<br />

among their people with<br />

the best trust they could<br />

which include both males<br />

and females, young and old;<br />

while others reserved theirs<br />

for development purposes.<br />

Aleto which has eleven<br />

communities was bugged<br />

down by court cases with<br />

its Akpajo brothers and<br />

this dragged Elano management<br />

in it.<br />

Along the line, a couple of<br />

irate youths from the Aleto<br />

extraction caused mayhem<br />

within the community where<br />

a number of highly valued<br />

properties belonging to some<br />

persons believed to have<br />

direct or indirect link with<br />

Elano management were<br />

destroyed. Also a good number<br />

of youths and women<br />

from the communities did<br />

not spare the management<br />

of Indorama to vent their<br />

grievances through protests.<br />

All these happened in 2017<br />

even as the case lingered in<br />

the Federal High court sitting<br />

in Rivers State Capital Port-<br />

Harcourt.<br />

However, in the heat of<br />

the protest, the Indorama<br />

Management did not fold its<br />

arms over the crises stating<br />

severally that every kobo<br />

due to the host communities<br />

was paid out through Elano as<br />

agreed and never diverted or<br />

kept back.<br />

L-R: Noella Ekezie, MD/CEO Ellae Branding Agency, Ifeoluwa Sopeju, first prize winner, Ellae Designer’s<br />

Arise Contest, Fisayo Fosudo, Digital Influencer and Tech Enthusiast’, Banke Alawaye, Business Productivity<br />

Consultant and Founder: GirlsinGlasses.<br />

Our peaceful disposition should not be<br />

taken for weakness, PANDEF tells FG<br />

ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo<br />

The Pan Niger Delta<br />

Forum (PANDEF)<br />

has expressed disappointment<br />

over<br />

the lack of progress in the<br />

16-point agenda it presented<br />

to the Federal Government<br />

which it said contained<br />

the template for resolving<br />

the crisis in the region noting<br />

that its peaceful disposition<br />

should not be misconstrued<br />

as weakness.<br />

At its inaugural meeting in<br />

Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State<br />

capital and attended by the<br />

new executive committee<br />

of the forum led by the chairman,<br />

former military governor<br />

of the state, Idongesit Nkanga,<br />

the forum maintained<br />

its resolve to pursue the realisation<br />

of true federalism<br />

and the restructuring of the<br />

country to ensure equity and<br />

fairness among all the units.<br />

Nkanga, who said that if<br />

the Federal Government<br />

had done what it said it<br />

would do after series of<br />

meetings and after the Vice<br />

Nkanga<br />

President, Yemi Osinbajo<br />

had visited the region last<br />

year, there would have<br />

been tremendous development<br />

in the region, explained<br />

that the forum was<br />

irrevocably committed to<br />

restructuring and the use<br />

of dialogue in resolving all<br />

contentious issues.<br />

“I would like to use this opportunity<br />

to make a passionate<br />

appeal that there must<br />

be a new way of searching<br />

for peace. For this cause,<br />

Isaac Daka Boro died, Ken<br />

Saro Wiwa died, Odi was levelled.<br />

If you want to operate<br />

federalism, you must listen<br />

to the voices of the people,’’<br />

he said.<br />

Describing PANDEF as<br />

Season 6 of the<br />

epic comedy and<br />

didactic drama,<br />

Professor Johnbull,<br />

will open this week with<br />

a showcase of the life of<br />

keke (tricycle) riders. The<br />

prime time television drama<br />

series is sponsored by<br />

telecommunications firm,<br />

Globacom.<br />

Season Six debuts today,<br />

Sunday <strong>Apr</strong>il 8 on DSTV Africa<br />

Magic Family Channel<br />

and also on GOTV Channel<br />

2 by 6.00 p.m. A repeat<br />

broadcast will be aired on<br />

Thursday at 9.30p.m. on<br />

both stations.<br />

The programme is also<br />

broadcast on the terrestrial<br />

channel of NTA Network,<br />

NTA International<br />

on DSTV Channel 251 and<br />

NTA on StarTimes on Tuesday<br />

at 8.30 p.m., with a<br />

repeat broadcast on Friday<br />

at the same time and on the<br />

same channels. Anambra<br />

Broadcasting Service, ABS,<br />

will broadcast the show on<br />

Wednesday at 8.30p.m.<br />

with a repeat broadcast on<br />

Saturday also at 8.30p.m.<br />

Titled Anthony Keke, this<br />

first edition of the season<br />

looks at the lifestyle of a<br />

typical Keke (commerthe<br />

voice of the Niger Delta<br />

region, he said the forum has<br />

been working with other recognised<br />

groups in the south<br />

east, south west and the<br />

middle to ensure a peaceful<br />

resolution of conflict in the<br />

country maintaining that<br />

such meetings and dialogue<br />

would ensure a paradigm<br />

shift in the governance of<br />

the country.<br />

He said even when the<br />

Vice President had pronounced<br />

that International<br />

Oil Companies (IOCs)<br />

operating in the country<br />

should relocate their head<br />

offices to the Niger Delta<br />

when he visited the region,<br />

such directives had<br />

not been headed to adding<br />

that the relative peace in<br />

the region was a result of<br />

intervention by PANDEF<br />

which he said has resulted<br />

in increased oil production<br />

and huge revenue to the<br />

Federal Government.<br />

“You may have seen responses<br />

by our youths.<br />

They believe and trust<br />

that the elders are doing the<br />

right thing.<br />

Season 6 of Professor Johnbull begins today<br />

cial tricycle) rider, who<br />

depends on taking alcohol<br />

and other stimulants to<br />

function.<br />

In the show, Professor<br />

Johnbull’s gateman, Abadnego<br />

(Martins Nebo) makes<br />

advances toward the erudite<br />

Professor’s daughter,<br />

Elizabeth acted by Queen<br />

Nwokoye; Olaniyi (Yomi<br />

Fash-Lanso). Anthony the<br />

Keke rider in the play represents<br />

the average Keke rider<br />

and he does all the evils that<br />

some of them are akin to;<br />

including disobedience to<br />

traffic rules with impunity,<br />

riding without licence, quarrelling<br />

with passengers and<br />

being unnecessarily abusive<br />

and unruly.<br />

“Viewers will have a<br />

good laugh as a drunk Keke<br />

rider, Anthony takes off<br />

with a passenger’s luggage<br />

without the passenger only<br />

to see ghosts on the way,”<br />

Globacom stated in a preshow<br />

press release.<br />

According to Globacom,<br />

viewers need to hear what<br />

Professor Johnbull, acted<br />

by Nollywood legend,<br />

Kanayo O. Kanayo (KOK),<br />

will say about the mischievous<br />

antics of these tricycle<br />

riders.


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

8 BDSUNDAY<br />

News<br />

Why electorate cannot trust Makinde<br />

with their votes, by Oyo APC<br />

Kwara police recovers 46<br />

surrendered firearms, three<br />

human skulls<br />

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin<br />

Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan<br />

The All Progressives Congress<br />

in Oyo State has<br />

advised a gubernatorial<br />

aspirant of the People’s<br />

Democratic Party, Seyi<br />

Makinde, to forget his ambition to<br />

be governor any time soon, saying<br />

that “the task of governing a state<br />

like Oyo cannot be entrusted on<br />

any feeble mind again.”<br />

The broom party in the state<br />

said never again would the electorate<br />

allow a repeat of 2003<br />

when a rebuilding process that<br />

had successfully begun by the late<br />

Lamidi Adesina was allowed to be<br />

truncated by a group of impostors<br />

who should have no business in<br />

government.<br />

The APC in a statement by its<br />

State Publicity Secretary, Olawale<br />

Sadare, stated “we are not<br />

unmindful of the fact the likes of<br />

Makinde would always believe<br />

that the best way to get to the<br />

Agodi Government House in 2019<br />

was to downplay the monumental<br />

achievements of the present APC<br />

administration of Abiola Ajimobi<br />

who has undoubtedly change the<br />

face of governance in the state.<br />

WHO marks 70th<br />

anniversary with focus on<br />

universal health coverage<br />

Lanatu Joy Shelton<br />

The World Health Organisation<br />

(WHO) yesterday<br />

marked its day with the<br />

theme ‘Universal Health<br />

Coverage’ (UHC). It was the 70th<br />

anniversary of WHO and the celebration<br />

emphasised Health For All.<br />

WHO used the occasion to call<br />

on world leaders to live up to the<br />

pledges they made when they<br />

agreed on the Sustainable Development<br />

Goals in 2015, and commit<br />

to concrete steps to advance the<br />

health of all people. This means ensuring<br />

that everyone, everywhere<br />

can access essential quality health<br />

services without facing financial<br />

hardship.<br />

The meaning of UHC is that all<br />

people and communities receive<br />

the health services they need without<br />

suffering financial hardship.<br />

It enables everyone to access the<br />

services that address the most<br />

important causes of disease and<br />

death and ensures that the quality<br />

of those services is good enough<br />

to improve the health of the people<br />

who receive them.<br />

Whereas it does not mean free<br />

coverage for all possible health interventions<br />

regardless of the cost as<br />

no country can provide all services<br />

free of charge on a sustainable basis,<br />

it is not only about ensuring a minimum<br />

package of health services but<br />

also about ensuring a progressive<br />

expansion of coverage of health<br />

services and financial protection as<br />

more resources become available.<br />

Makinde<br />

“But the truth remains that the<br />

shoe that Ajimobi would leave<br />

behind in May 2019 after completing<br />

his two term in office would<br />

be too large for anyone who does<br />

not rank among the best like we<br />

have in the army of gubernatorial<br />

aspirants available to the APC at<br />

from the right source due to overambition,<br />

the sponsor of a faction<br />

of the decimated PDP in the state<br />

is not, in anyway, qualified to seek<br />

a mandate that is far bigger than his<br />

capability. Makinde should have<br />

been informed by his handlers that<br />

the best way to start was not blind<br />

criticisms of a performing government,”<br />

the party said.<br />

“Apart from a deep pocket<br />

which he has not been able to improve<br />

since the sacking of the corrupt<br />

and inept Goodluck Jonathan<br />

administration in 2015, Makinde<br />

cannot convince the world that<br />

he possesses the wherewithal to<br />

build on the solid foundation being<br />

laid for Oyo State by the enigmatic<br />

Sen. Ajimobi and this is the bane<br />

of his ambition to contest and win<br />

any election.<br />

“Lastly, we acknowledge the<br />

fact that Mr. Makinde still contribute<br />

his quota to the nation and<br />

the best way to do this is for him to<br />

partner resource persons within<br />

and outside the state in the areas<br />

of human capital development,<br />

entrepreneurship and floating of<br />

a non-governmental organisation<br />

which will cater for the lessprivileged<br />

in the society,” APC<br />

further said.<br />

Skills acquisition panacea to unemployment - Ogurinde<br />

Ngozi Okpalakunne<br />

Omowale Ogunrinde,<br />

founder of Field of<br />

Skills & Dreams Vocational<br />

& Entrepreneurship<br />

Technical Institute, has<br />

said that skills acquisition was<br />

the way out of the unemployment<br />

crisis in Nigeria.<br />

Speaking with BDSUNDAY in<br />

Lagos, Ogunrinde said: “There<br />

are jobs out there, but no skilled<br />

people to take up such jobs, and<br />

so when you hear someone say<br />

he does not have a job it means<br />

that such individual does not<br />

have the skills the employer is<br />

looking for.”<br />

“Since the inception of our<br />

institute, we have been able to<br />

train thousands of people across<br />

the country with the collaboration<br />

of corporate organisations<br />

both local and international,”<br />

Ogunrinde said, adding: “Recently,<br />

we collaborated with<br />

NAGODE Industries to train<br />

some young men and women<br />

on skills which include, fashion<br />

designing, catering, hairdressing,<br />

electrical engineering among<br />

others. After six weeks of intensive<br />

training, they were also<br />

given interest-free loan by the<br />

same organisation to start off<br />

their own businesses and they<br />

are all doing well now.”<br />

“We do not train them and<br />

the moment. This had informed<br />

the submission of many political<br />

pundits who are of the opinion that<br />

the 2019 governorship poll will be<br />

fought and won within the APC.<br />

“Having lost the golden chance<br />

to acquire the ideal political and<br />

public administration tutelage<br />

leave them like that; we monitor<br />

them and ensure they are well<br />

established in their chosen field,”<br />

she further said.<br />

Recalling some of the success<br />

stories, she said the Institute<br />

has recorded 85 percent of success<br />

as most of the people they<br />

trained are not only doing well in<br />

their areas of specialisation, but<br />

also training others on different<br />

skills.<br />

“They are yet to make millions<br />

of naira, but they are no<br />

longer begging to eat or asking<br />

someone to help and pay their<br />

children’s school fees.<br />

“Some of the people we train in<br />

Ogunrinde<br />

the institute are street boys and<br />

girls, while some were repatriated<br />

from Libya and Italy, some<br />

are prostitutes and we have<br />

succeeded in training thousands<br />

of them and ensured their economic<br />

empowerment through<br />

hands-on training programmes<br />

with financial assistance from<br />

corporate bodies and well meaning<br />

Nigerians,” she explained.<br />

Ogunrinde appealed to other<br />

corporate organisations in the<br />

country to partner with them<br />

so that the lives of unemployed<br />

young men and women roaming<br />

the streets would be transformed<br />

through skills acquisition.<br />

“Corporate social responsibility<br />

should be measurable, we<br />

do not need only foreigners to<br />

collaborate with us in the training,<br />

Nigerians who have the<br />

capability should help. It is just<br />

few young women that will want<br />

to walk on the streets as prostitutes.<br />

If they had a choice, they<br />

will not sell their body because of<br />

money. I am not giving credence<br />

to prostitution.<br />

“We need to think hard and<br />

deep, some people are working<br />

where they receive NI5.000<br />

monthly, and l begin to wonder<br />

what they can do with such little<br />

amount of money, but when<br />

they are empowered with skills,<br />

they can become employer of<br />

others or a highly valued skilled<br />

employee.”<br />

The Kwara State police<br />

command on Thursday<br />

displayed 46 firms among<br />

which were 32 single barrel<br />

guns voluntarily surrendered by<br />

members of the public.<br />

This followed the expiration of<br />

21 days ultimatum and extension<br />

given to the members of the public<br />

in possession of illegal firearms to<br />

surrender to the police.<br />

It also paraded a 32-year-old man,<br />

Suleiman Ajenifuja for unlawful possession<br />

of three human skulls, which<br />

he transported from Lagos to Ilorin<br />

for ritual purposes.<br />

Other fire arms recovered, according<br />

to Lawan Ado, the state<br />

commissioner of police, included,<br />

four locally made cut-to-size single<br />

barrel riffles, seven locally made<br />

single barrel, one locally made<br />

double barrel pistol, one AK-47 rifle<br />

and one English made pistol in its<br />

ongoing mop up operation.<br />

The Commissioner of Police<br />

made the disclosure in Ilorin while<br />

briefing journalists at the state police<br />

headquarters and further said<br />

the command would begin clamp<br />

down on those who were still in<br />

possession of illegal arms following<br />

the expiration of ultimatum for the<br />

mop up exercise.<br />

While parading 32 years old Ajenifuja<br />

arrested for unlawful possession<br />

of three human skulls, Ado said<br />

the suspect was arrested when police<br />

operatives intercepted a commercial<br />

vehicle conveying seven<br />

passengers including the suspect<br />

from Lagos to Ilorin.<br />

“When a searched was conducted,<br />

three skulls wrapped in a sack<br />

were recovered from a black bag<br />

belonging to one of the passengers<br />

Suleiman Ajenifuja who admitted<br />

being the owner of the exhibit and<br />

claimed to be bringing them to Ilorin<br />

from Lagos for ritual purposes’’,<br />

Ado said.<br />

He also announced that the directive<br />

of the Inspector General of<br />

Police on the withdrawal of police<br />

men attached to very important<br />

personalities was still in force.<br />

He however announced <strong>Apr</strong>il<br />

20, <strong>2018</strong> deadline for persons,<br />

government agencies and corporate<br />

organisations that required<br />

the services of the police men<br />

attached to them to re-apply for<br />

revalidation.<br />

The CP said the measure adopted<br />

by the police would free more personnel<br />

for the force task of policing<br />

and carry out election duties ahead<br />

of 2019 general elections.<br />

‘‘We wish to also inform members<br />

of the public of the extension<br />

of the date of withdrawal of all<br />

police personnel attached to VIPs,<br />

government officials, corporate organisations,<br />

political office holders<br />

has been extended to <strong>Apr</strong>il 20,<strong>2018</strong><br />

to enable the affected officials to<br />

reapply for revalidation of through<br />

commissioner of police, Kwara Sate<br />

for IGP’s approval’’.<br />

‘‘Not everybody that applies for<br />

revalidation would be considered,<br />

election is coming and we need<br />

more manpower.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

9<br />

Feature<br />

How 3 square meals a day in Delta Orientation<br />

Camp lured jobless youth off a planned crime<br />

…Now a successful entrepreneur in fish production<br />

MERCY ENOCH, Asaba<br />

Thousands of youths in Delta State<br />

are now taking the business option<br />

rather than crime, thus turning into<br />

successful entrepreneurs, courtesy<br />

of the Job and Wealth Creation<br />

Scheme under the SMART agenda of the<br />

incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration<br />

in the oil-rich state.<br />

For three consecutive years now, a total of<br />

3,277 youths including graduates of tertiary<br />

institutions have benefitted from the scheme.<br />

Out of this figure, 2,324 were trained and established<br />

in the last two years while 953 are<br />

currently undergoing training and would be<br />

established to start up their own enterprises<br />

few months to come.<br />

The beneficiaries otherwise known as<br />

STEPrenuers and YAGEPrenuers, often excited<br />

by the gesture extended to them, do<br />

not waste time to tell their stories to anyone<br />

who cares to hear.<br />

Terry Ogolor, a graduate of Biology/Chemistry<br />

from College of Education, Agbor, who<br />

hails from the Udu Local Government Area<br />

of the state, revealed more in this interview.<br />

He said: “I thank God that through the<br />

SMART agenda of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa<br />

my life has been transformed and I have been<br />

liberated from being a job seeker to an entrepreneur.<br />

Upon graduation from the College<br />

of Education in 2009, I was unemployed till I<br />

enrolled into the state government’s Youth<br />

Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme<br />

(YAGEP).”<br />

“Initially, I taught in a private school, but<br />

discovered that the N10,000 that I was being<br />

paid was nothing to write home about.<br />

Thereafter, I started hustling on the streets,<br />

but the street was not friendly. One day, a<br />

friend informed me about job creation form.<br />

Though I applied, I was not shortlisted. The<br />

second time, I reluctantly applied; I thought<br />

it was a scam, one of those government<br />

programmes. To my greatest surprise, I was<br />

invited to attend the interview after which I<br />

did not hear from Job Creation Office for a<br />

while. I became frustrated and concluded it<br />

was a sham and gave up,” he said.<br />

Ogolor narrated that on the streets, to<br />

feed was a problem. “So, my friends and I decided<br />

to go into crime to survive. We planned<br />

towards executing a crime. While we were<br />

planning, the list was published and those<br />

who saw my name informed me that I was<br />

invited to Orientation Camp at Delta Songhai,<br />

Amukpe in Sapele Local Government Area”.<br />

Life in the camp led to a complete turnaround<br />

in his life.<br />

“At the camp, I had three square meals<br />

daily throughout the one week we stayed.<br />

For the first time in my life, it was unbelievable.<br />

I could have three meals every day. After<br />

three days at the camp, my friends called<br />

and told me it was time to execute our plans<br />

for the crime, but I called it off, telling them<br />

I had travelled. I was no longer interested in<br />

crime because I was comfortable with life at<br />

the orientation camp. In fact, I had a rethink<br />

and decided to get serious with my life after<br />

the Orientation and Personal Effectiveness<br />

Training (OPET),” he said.<br />

“Thereafter, I had a three-month internship<br />

where I became well-grounded in fish<br />

production. My trainer was good. Shortly after<br />

that, I was given 2000 juveniles, 150 bags of<br />

fish feed, a monthly stipend of N15,000 for<br />

six months, two earthen ponds and other<br />

items. My assessment of my starter pack<br />

excluding the ponds was over a million naira.<br />

Terry Ogolor in his fish farm<br />

I was shocked and I began to shed tears. I<br />

then pledged that I am indebted to the state<br />

government and that the only way I could<br />

pay back is to ensure that I succeeded in my<br />

enterprise,” he further said.<br />

According to him, “Apart from fish farming,<br />

I am into transportation too. I was able<br />

to use part of the proceeds from my fish<br />

farm after harvest to buy a tricycle (keke.)<br />

My colleagues at the farm now hire me to<br />

transport their feeds for them from the point<br />

of purchase to the cluster. Also, I use the keke<br />

to supply feeds to various farms on behalf<br />

of feed sellers and I am well paid. My daily<br />

routine is work at the farm in the morning,<br />

resume transportation and return to the farm<br />

by 5pm. I recently rejected a N75,000.00 job to<br />

work as a scaffolder in Port Harcourt.”<br />

He expressed his feeling: “Today, I am a<br />

happy fish farm owner at YAGEP Fish Farm<br />

Cluster, Ugbokodo Okpe. I can fend for<br />

myself, family and friends because of what<br />

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa did for me. I am a<br />

consultant by experience. I help those with<br />

challenges in their fish farms and the pay is<br />

encouraging. I have grown my fish from 2,000<br />

to over 4,000. The sky is my limit! Recently, I<br />

took my son to a hospital and in the course<br />

of billing me, I discussed with the doctor<br />

and found out he is interested in fish farming<br />

when I told him my occupation. As I am<br />

talking to you, I am setting up his fish farm<br />

and the pay is good. Thanks to the vision of<br />

His Excellency, the governor of Delta State,<br />

for making me a consultant to a doctor and<br />

many others in fish production.”<br />

While inaugurating the job and wealth<br />

creation programme at inception in office<br />

three years ago, Okowa had said that the<br />

scheme “is the bedrock of the SMART agenda<br />

with Skills and Enterpreneurship Programme<br />

(STEP) and Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs<br />

Programme (YAGEP) as the flagship programmes.”<br />

“Other programmes under job and wealth<br />

creation scheme are Production and Processing<br />

Support Programme (PPSP), Development<br />

of Agro-Industries, and Extension of<br />

Micro-Credit. All the programmes have been<br />

strategically designed, stringently planned<br />

and specifically tailored to tackle the problem<br />

of youth unemployment and produce lasting<br />

and sustainable prosperity across board”, he<br />

explained.<br />

He disclosed that “Our strategy for making<br />

this a reality is through focused and concentrated<br />

efforts to stimulate the growth and<br />

development of Micro, Small and Medium<br />

Scale Enterprises (MSMEs)”. He added that<br />

while multi-national companies and big<br />

corporations get all the public attention and<br />

acclaim for their capacity to reduce foreign<br />

investment capital, MSMEs remain the<br />

backbone for economic growth and social<br />

development in any society.<br />

“By definition, MSMEs are companies<br />

that employ less than 250 persons and available<br />

statistics indicate that 97 percent of all<br />

businesses in Nigeria employ less than 100<br />

persons. Meanwhile, they account for about<br />

50 percent of Nigeria’s productive workforce<br />

and 46.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product<br />

(GDP). The story is not different in other<br />

parts of the world. There are approximately<br />

23 million small businesses in the USA and<br />

they employ more than 50 percent of the<br />

private workforce and generate more than<br />

half of the nation’s GDP. Similarly, MSMEs<br />

account for 99.8 percent of all companies<br />

and 65 percent of business turnover in the<br />

European Union.”<br />

He said his administration, for that reason,<br />

was very passionate, deliberate, and focused<br />

in the quest to formulate tangible and lasting<br />

policies and/or programmes to support the<br />

small business sector. The overarching goal<br />

of the job and wealth creation scheme, he<br />

said, is to equip participants with the technical<br />

know-how, vocational/technical skills, values<br />

and resources to become self-employed and<br />

employers of labour.”<br />

“I am aware that there have been similar<br />

interventions in the history of our state. Unfortunately,<br />

these interventions did not deliver<br />

on their promises and, therefore, failed<br />

to meet the yearnings and aspirations of our<br />

people. Not surprisingly, some people have<br />

wondered if we are not just reinventing the<br />

wheel or going through the same motions<br />

without movement. My answer to that is a<br />

resounding NO! We carried out a thorough<br />

post mortem of past initiatives in this regard<br />

and designed the Job and Wealth Creation<br />

Scheme to avoid their shortcomings”, Okowa<br />

declared.<br />

Ogolor’s testimony and those of other<br />

beneficiaries seem to give credence to the<br />

governor’s statements. What stands the<br />

scheme out are the free meals at orientation<br />

camps, transport allowances during the trainings,<br />

complete starter packs comprising basic<br />

tools needed for successful business start up<br />

and stipend for three months on establishment<br />

of enterprise. Besides, the monitoring<br />

and mentoring aspect is said to be superb.<br />

The Chief Job Creation Officer, a professor,<br />

Eric Eboh, said the essence of emphasising<br />

on the completeness and integrity of<br />

starter packs was to avoid pitfalls of similar<br />

empowerment programmes characterised<br />

by incomplete enterprise start-up packages<br />

delivered in piecemeal manner.<br />

Eboh disclosed that the implementation<br />

strategy of co-locating YAGEP beneficiaries in<br />

farm clusters, organising them into cooperative<br />

societies and progressing them as participants<br />

in the Central Bank of Nigeria – Ministry<br />

of Agriculture Anchor Borrowers Programme<br />

were vital building blocks of sustainability.


C002D5556<br />

10<br />

Feature<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Boko Haram: The benevolence of a vampire<br />

ZEBULON AGOMUO<br />

When recently a band<br />

of members of the<br />

Islamist sect, Boko<br />

Haram, returned<br />

about 104 school<br />

girls who it kidnapped in a school<br />

in Dapchi, a sleepy community<br />

in Yobe State, many Nigerians<br />

screamed foul. They wondered<br />

when a blood-thirsty foe suddenly<br />

became a friend. That episode<br />

remains a riddle which observers<br />

believe only government can<br />

crack.<br />

Nowadays, all over the world,<br />

terror groups have emerged with<br />

the sole aim of dispensing anguish<br />

to the human race in order<br />

to satisfy some weird objectives.<br />

Boko Haram is one of them.<br />

Since 2009 it started its deadly<br />

campaign in Nigeria, the Islamist<br />

sect has not left anyone in doubt<br />

that it is an enemy of the country<br />

and its citizens.<br />

Although Islam Online, according<br />

to Wikipedia, suggests that<br />

politics, not religion, was the<br />

cause of the violence, activities of<br />

the sect, over the years, appear to<br />

put a lie to that claim. Numerous<br />

Christians have been gruesomely<br />

murdered specifically because<br />

they refused to convert to Islam.<br />

The continued detention of<br />

Leah Sharibu, one of the abducted<br />

Dapchi school girls, by her Boko<br />

Haram abductors weeks after her<br />

mates were freed over her alleged<br />

refusal to convert to Islam under<br />

duress, further proves that the<br />

Boko Haram<br />

Islamist sect is also pursuing a<br />

religious agenda.<br />

Boko Haram’s bloody attacks<br />

in the Federal Capital Territory<br />

(FCT), Abuja, Maiduguri, Borno,<br />

Yobe, Bauchi and other parts of<br />

the North in the days of Goodluck<br />

Jonathan, a Christian president,<br />

sent many people to their untimely<br />

death in the most horrendous<br />

way.<br />

The attacks were targeted at<br />

worship centres. The most mindnumbing<br />

of the attacks was the<br />

one on Churches by the terrorist<br />

sect, one of which took place on<br />

2011 Christmas Day, when the St.<br />

Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla,<br />

Niger State, was bombed. The<br />

blast instantly left 44 worshippers<br />

dead and 75 others injured.<br />

On 14 <strong>Apr</strong>il 2014 at about<br />

6:45am, two bombs exploded at<br />

a crowded bus station in Nyanya,<br />

Nasarawa Strate, killing at least<br />

88 people and injuring over 200.<br />

The bus station is 8km southwest<br />

of the Federal Capital Territory,<br />

Abuja.<br />

These were among the worst<br />

attacks carried out by the violent<br />

sect until the night of <strong>Apr</strong>il 14,<br />

2014, when about 276 female students<br />

were kidnapped from the<br />

Government Secondary School in<br />

the town of Chibok in Borno State.<br />

Since 2009, the sect has left<br />

many families devastated and<br />

destroyed people’s means of livelihood.<br />

A good number of people<br />

have been violently uprooted<br />

from their ancestral homes and<br />

are now living in camps as Internally<br />

Displaced Persons (IDPs).<br />

Several orphans, widows and<br />

widowers have been made by<br />

Boko Haram.<br />

In some parts of the North East,<br />

academic programmes have been<br />

disrupted and school system altered<br />

as many schools have been<br />

reduced to rubbles by a sect that<br />

claims to dislike everything that<br />

has a tinge of Western education.<br />

Today, billions of dollars are<br />

being spent in rehabilitating the<br />

areas devastated by the sect. In<br />

many released videos, leaders of<br />

the group have severally taunted<br />

the Nigerian government and had<br />

bragged that the government had<br />

not got the power to defeat it.<br />

When the Muhammadu Buhari<br />

administration claimed it had<br />

killed Shekau, the leader of the<br />

group, the sect had a good laugh.<br />

And Shekau has “resurrected”<br />

many times.<br />

The sect has remained a bloodsucking<br />

group in the estimation<br />

of many Nigerians. A vampire-like<br />

group that slashes the throat of<br />

victims and dismembers victims’<br />

bodies as if they were mere<br />

animals are still holding hostage<br />

over 100 Chibok young women<br />

kidnapped in <strong>Apr</strong>il 2014.<br />

Since the All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC) came to power in<br />

2015, the battle has been on to<br />

reclaim Sambisa forest which is<br />

believed to be the dwelling place


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

11<br />

Feature<br />

of the insurgents. At a point,<br />

government claimed it had totally<br />

sacked, decimated the insurgents<br />

and reclaimed the forest.<br />

At a point also, some of the<br />

captured girls were freed after an<br />

understanding which government<br />

claimed did not involve money<br />

but mere swap. Last year, the APC<br />

government had claimed that it<br />

merely released some insurgents<br />

in prison to secure the freedom<br />

of some of the Chibok girls, but<br />

it has since emerged that a lot of<br />

money exchanged hands.<br />

Despite the release of the batch<br />

of the Chibok girls, Boko Haram<br />

has continued the orgy of suicide<br />

bombing. At a point, it was rumoured<br />

that the girls used in the<br />

suicide mission were the Chibok<br />

girls.<br />

No one has been able to disprove<br />

it. And despite the claim of<br />

increased efforts on the side of<br />

government to reclaim territories<br />

and communities lost to Boko<br />

Haram, the sect is still wreaking<br />

deadly havocs in communities in<br />

some North East states, particularly<br />

Maiduguri.<br />

BDSUNDAY gathered that movements<br />

outside Maiduguri are still<br />

being guarded and that there are<br />

still no-go-areas in some of the affected<br />

states.<br />

Our correspondent, who visited<br />

Borno last year on a fact-finding<br />

mission, came back with a gory<br />

tale that suggested that the fight<br />

against the insurgents is far from<br />

being won.<br />

It was against this backdrop that<br />

many Nigerians suspected some<br />

foul deals in the recent abduction<br />

and return of the Dapchi girls in<br />

Yobe State.<br />

The abduction, which took the<br />

form of the Chibok episode, kept<br />

many Nigerians wondering if government<br />

was actually telling the<br />

truth about the fight against the<br />

insurgents.<br />

They picked holes with the ease<br />

of the abductors making away with<br />

110 young women in Hilux vans<br />

without any resistance from the<br />

military that claimed to be combing<br />

and securing the hot spots in the<br />

North East.<br />

The fact that the girls were<br />

successfully stolen away by their<br />

abductors was an indictment on<br />

the government of the day. The<br />

fact that information was earlier<br />

received on the planned abduction<br />

and the authorities chose to<br />

sleep on guard or behaved like an<br />

ostrich was also indicting enough.<br />

The worst indictment was the quick<br />

return of the girls in a celebratory<br />

mood. The girls came back in travelling<br />

bags and fine cloths as if they<br />

were returning from a holiday from<br />

their uncles’ house.<br />

The greatest question critics<br />

have continued to ask and which<br />

an answer has not been provided<br />

is the point at which a vampire<br />

became benevolent.<br />

Some sympathisers of the gov-<br />

Boko Haram<br />

ernment claim that the sect of the<br />

Boko Haram that did the Yobe<br />

stealing was not the killing type but<br />

rather a group that is interested<br />

in making money; or a sect that<br />

needed money to purchase more<br />

arms and ammunition. So, they got<br />

a sitting government to achieve<br />

their sinister motive.<br />

It is said that a leopard can never<br />

change its spots. A killer must remain<br />

a killer and so, a vampire is<br />

never a friend.<br />

An observer, who spoke with<br />

Devil never gives<br />

any good gift.<br />

While you are celebrating,<br />

he comes<br />

for something<br />

more important<br />

to you and you<br />

can never say no<br />

because you have<br />

opened the door<br />

for him. Something<br />

tells me that we<br />

are going to pay<br />

dearly for this unholy<br />

exchange”<br />

BDSUNDAY on condition of anonymity<br />

said: “It was a well scripted<br />

drama and well delivered. So, all<br />

that the Buhari administration<br />

could think about was to carry<br />

huge sum of money and give Boko<br />

Haram in the belief that they have<br />

become friends or what? Well,<br />

they may have returned the girls<br />

but something tells me that very<br />

soon we are going to lose more<br />

lives in Yobe than the number they<br />

returned.”<br />

“They are going to arm themselves<br />

to the teeth and begin to<br />

carry out more terror attacks. You<br />

can never satisfy Satan. Have you<br />

asked those who made their money<br />

by paying allegiance to devil what<br />

they suffer? Have you asked parents<br />

who got children from the<br />

devil what their experience is?<br />

“Devil never gives any good<br />

gift. While you are celebrating, he<br />

comes for something more important<br />

to you and you can never say<br />

no because you have opened the<br />

door for him. Something tells me<br />

that we are going to pay dearly for<br />

this unholy exchange”, he said?<br />

What also struck many people<br />

was the religious coloration the<br />

insurgents gave their act which<br />

critics say was in tandem with the<br />

policy of Islamist terror groups<br />

across the globe.<br />

The “harmless” and “benevolent”<br />

abductors refused to release<br />

one of the girls, Leah Sharibu, over<br />

her alleged refusal to renounce her<br />

religion and adopt Islam. It was<br />

reported that of all the 110 pupils,<br />

only Leah refused to betray her<br />

religion and as a result remains a<br />

prisoner of conscience. Her captors<br />

insist that unless she wears hijab<br />

and chants some Quaranic verse,<br />

she would not be freed.<br />

What has also remained a mystery<br />

to many observers is the<br />

rationale behind the decision by<br />

the Islamist sect to deploy such a<br />

level of wickedness on Leah, when<br />

all they needed was money. Since<br />

they claimed they were not after<br />

the lives of the girls, why punishing<br />

her on account of her religion, even<br />

after they got the huge ransom<br />

they demanded from the Federal<br />

Government.<br />

It also struck many that all the<br />

returnee Dapchi girls adorned<br />

a particular pattern of dressing<br />

on the day they went to see the<br />

President and they posed for photograph<br />

with the President in their<br />

attire, which seems to fuel some<br />

insinuation that something is fishy.<br />

Despite the profuse promise by<br />

the highest echelon of the military<br />

that everything would be done to<br />

get Leah back to her parents, the<br />

girl is still in captivity and that is<br />

an ominous sign of worse days to<br />

endure.<br />

How friendly is Boko Haram?<br />

“I think government is beating<br />

its chest in haste. They are yet to<br />

contain Boko Haram. There is a<br />

lot of connivance. A lot is going on<br />

that is being shrouded in mystery.<br />

Boko Haram abducted over 200<br />

girls in Chibok close to four years<br />

ago and many of the girls are still<br />

being held; now the same Boko Haram<br />

abducted another set of girls<br />

in Dapchi and in a matter of days<br />

the girls were brought back in fine<br />

dresses and travelling bags. I think<br />

government has not told the whole<br />

truth about who did the abduction<br />

and what really transpired,”<br />

Ambrose Jonah, a Psychologist<br />

and lecturer in one of the nation’s<br />

universities, said.<br />

“Those who inflicted enormous<br />

injuries on Nigeria and Nigerians<br />

are now being sold to the people<br />

as benevolent friends. But wait<br />

a minute; if they had become<br />

harmless, what is the rationale<br />

behind the $1billion okayed by<br />

the President last Wednesday, to<br />

fight insurgents? I smell a rat,”<br />

Jonah wondered.


12 BDSUNDAY<br />

Feature<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Hidden treasure from the bamboo<br />

INNOCENT IWARA, Port Harcourt<br />

His hands danced<br />

rhythmically weaving<br />

a nexus of cane<br />

into a-near complete<br />

native hat. He whistled<br />

to himself as though intending<br />

to wade off external distractions.<br />

He smiled slightly, looked almost<br />

askance, and then compared the<br />

size and beauty of the yet-to-becompleted<br />

hat to a ready one.<br />

But his efforts towards getting<br />

a loan facility to ease and expand<br />

his cane business have proven<br />

abortive, yet he seems to retain a<br />

tinge of pride and self-fulfillment.<br />

“This is what I do for a living,”<br />

he said. “Apart from the money<br />

it brings, it gives me a sense of<br />

nature because cane craft adds<br />

to our culture and tradition,” he<br />

said. Lucky Ebong, 43, is the chairman,<br />

Cane Workers Association<br />

in Oyigbo Local Council of Rivers<br />

State. He is also one of the 71<br />

percent of micro, small and medium<br />

enterprises (MSMEs) that a<br />

2015 survey by The Credit Crunch<br />

(commissioned by the Central<br />

Bank of Nigeria) said lack access<br />

to financial credit due to factors<br />

such as “lack of required collateral,<br />

high interest rates, and a lengthy<br />

documentation process.”<br />

The father of four ekes out a living<br />

through cane-crafting at number<br />

34 Aba Port Harcourt Road.<br />

He has been in the vocation for 23<br />

years and it has been pivotal to his<br />

livelihood, right from childhood.<br />

“As a child, I used this business<br />

to train myself in school. This is<br />

what I used to do my marriage. I<br />

train my four children in school<br />

from this business. I trained my<br />

three sisters and brother with this<br />

business until two of them (girls)<br />

got married and one of them is in<br />

the polytechnic,” the Akwa Ibom<br />

State indigene said.<br />

Being a vocation that involves<br />

the production of furniture and<br />

artistic works with skeletal com-<br />

Ekop<br />

…Cane crafters tell success stories<br />

…Urge government to emulate Ghana<br />

Cane works produced by Ebong<br />

Sunday<br />

ponents from willow, natural<br />

thick canes and bamboo stems;<br />

does cane craft deserve any<br />

government and private sector<br />

investment? Can it contribute<br />

significantly to the reduction of<br />

unemployment and boost export?<br />

To these questions, past experiences<br />

from the cane weavers lend<br />

a resounding yes.<br />

Raw materials for cane products<br />

are abundantly found in Akwa<br />

Ibom and Cross River States as<br />

well as in some other places in the<br />

Niger Delta.<br />

Finished cane works range<br />

from traditional tents and walkways<br />

for traditional marriage ceremonies<br />

to cane hats; from baby<br />

beds to different categories of<br />

chairs, cupboards, stools, baskets<br />

etc. Hike in the prices of iron and<br />

wooden upholstery furniture has,<br />

in recent times, given relevance<br />

to cane furniture, which is priced<br />

lower.<br />

Beyond the Nigerian and African<br />

shores, cane craft has assumed<br />

a universal recognition<br />

as it is well consumed in Europe<br />

and America. It is no wonder that<br />

Ebong and his colleagues once had<br />

patronage from foreign expatriates<br />

who worked with multinational<br />

oil companies in the Niger<br />

Delta. “The business was very<br />

attractive and fast-moving. I know<br />

foreigners and oil companies that<br />

used to come here and buy in bulk<br />

from us”.<br />

But following the surge in militancy<br />

and high level kidnapping,<br />

most MOCs and their expatriates<br />

moved their offices from the<br />

Niger Delta to Lagos, thus halting<br />

patronage to cane crafters like<br />

Ebong. “When many oil workers<br />

left this place because of kidnapping,<br />

it affected our market,” he<br />

said rather agonizingly.<br />

However, consolation came<br />

suddenly when people began<br />

to go for cane works as items of<br />

gift, decorations and through the<br />

Ebong<br />

use of cane tents, walkways and<br />

baskets.<br />

“In the year 2000, there was<br />

the introduction of marriage<br />

cane tents and walkways into<br />

traditional marriages. That has<br />

attracted good market for us,”<br />

said Akan Sunday, another cane<br />

crafter.<br />

Sunday, 39, and father of three<br />

said well-built cane furniture and<br />

products are durable and can last<br />

for between “10 and 15 years”,<br />

hence can compete with wood<br />

furniture in terms of durability.<br />

The challenge however, is in<br />

the lack of necessary machines<br />

to move from manual production<br />

and give top-notch finishing<br />

touches; an aspect the crafters<br />

said they need government to<br />

come in since loan acquisition is<br />

almost beyond their reach.<br />

“The future of cane craft is<br />

a good one. But if government<br />

comes in, we can afford to introduce<br />

machines for making the<br />

products. Some of these machines<br />

we need for scraping of wood,<br />

drilling and sawing are very expensive.<br />

For now we do all these things<br />

manually using nails and hammer.<br />

For example, the light we use to<br />

bend the willow is ordinary burning<br />

fire, that is why you are seeing<br />

those black spots there (pointing<br />

at finished cane chairs),” said<br />

Blessing Ekop, another cane craft<br />

professional.<br />

Lucky Ebong’s elder brother,<br />

Effiong Ebong, is also into cane<br />

crafting and said prices for the required<br />

equipment can be as high as<br />

N1.4 million. For example, he said,<br />

wooden pole grinding machine<br />

costs N1.4 million and table saw<br />

costs up to N600,000.<br />

Nigeria should learn from Ghana<br />

that set up one with N127m.<br />

In February 2015, the government<br />

of Ghana recognised the<br />

potential of cane craft and followed<br />

suit with the establishment<br />

of a craft centre at Ayi Mensah in<br />

the Greater Accra Region, at the<br />

cost of $416,000 (N127m). The<br />

centre; known as the Bamboo,<br />

Cane and Rattan Village; houses<br />

bamboo, cane and rattan artisans,<br />

with many empowered by the<br />

government. That venture saw<br />

the return of many Ghanaian<br />

cane craft practitioners who were<br />

hitherto in Nigeria.<br />

“I had Ghanaian colleagues<br />

here working with us. But when<br />

their government invested in<br />

cane craft, they left us and today<br />

they are doing very well. Their<br />

government takes it (cane craft)<br />

very seriously and they (government)<br />

ensure that it is well<br />

taught in schools. This is what<br />

our government should do,” the<br />

senior Ebong, who is also a tutor<br />

to potential cane crafters, said.<br />

On its employment potentials,<br />

38-year-old Blessing Ekop who<br />

takes care of his family of three<br />

(two children and a wife) from<br />

the proceeds he makes from<br />

crafting cane, said: “We want<br />

government to see with us that<br />

this is something that can create<br />

employment for youth in this<br />

country. They (government)<br />

should make it popular by giving<br />

it the required attention. We<br />

need machines to make this work<br />

easier and to give good finishing<br />

like the foreign ones we see.”


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

13<br />

C002D5556<br />

NewsmakersOfYesteryears<br />

Agbekoya: The farmers’ revolt that<br />

put Western Nigeria on its toes<br />

You don’t take people for granted for too long – you do not take farmers in particular for granted. If you do, you will<br />

be forced to have a bitter taste of frustration/aggression theory. The farmers in question here are rural farmers - our<br />

uneducated rural farmers. They are not privileged to acquire Western education but they have native intelligence.<br />

They are local orators who are master people mobilisers. They are unstoppable rabble rousers when the need<br />

arises for such. They go all out to fight for their rights when occasion calls for it.<br />

SIAKA MOMOH<br />

Peasants’ revolt<br />

The Agbekoya, farmers group of<br />

Western Nigeria of old, which revolted<br />

against the Western Region<br />

Government of Nigeria in 1968/69,<br />

typifies the farmers referred to<br />

here. The farmers group received an additional<br />

tonic when some political elites who<br />

felt shortchanged in the scheme of things in<br />

governance joined them. More on this later.<br />

According to Wikipedia records, the<br />

Agbekoya Parapo Revolt of 1968–1969,<br />

popularly known as Agbekoya or the Egbe<br />

Agbekoya Revolt, was a peasant revolt in<br />

Nigeria’s former Western Region, home to<br />

the majority of the country’s Yoruba population.<br />

It is the most well known peasantdriven<br />

political revolt in Western Nigerian<br />

history, and continues to be referenced by<br />

grassroots organisations as a successful<br />

example of collective action against unpopular<br />

government policies. The revolt<br />

was predominantly aimed at agitating for<br />

a reduction in taxes, though some believed<br />

there were also political catalysts.<br />

Commodity depots<br />

During the 1950s, the colonial government<br />

of Nigeria established local commodity<br />

depots in many parts of the country.<br />

The depots served as stores of exchange<br />

for goods the government was interested<br />

in buying from peasants. The prosperous<br />

Western region was one of the world’s<br />

most prolific producers of cocoa, and the<br />

regional government hoped to increase its<br />

tax revenues from farmers by regulating<br />

the sale of the crop through state-regulated<br />

agricultural cooperatives, also known as<br />

marketing boards.<br />

Most of the products to be sold were to<br />

undergo a process of grading, examination,<br />

and sometimes bargaining before<br />

purchase. Against this backdrop, a farmers’<br />

organisation was created to represent<br />

the interest of the farmers within the new<br />

marketing system. This was how Agbekoya<br />

was born.<br />

Wind of change<br />

First, during the early part of Nigeria’s<br />

independence, a systematic approach to<br />

solving the general problems of the region<br />

was taken by the Action Group, the leading<br />

political party in the Western Region.<br />

Many roads leading to villages were tarred,<br />

credit was extended to cooperative societies,<br />

and schools were equipped for better<br />

education.<br />

But as the Nigerian political scene<br />

became more volatile with the jailing of<br />

Agbekoya_militia<br />

foremost political leader Chief Obafemi<br />

Awolowo, the 1966 coup, and the beginning<br />

of the Biafran War, politicians came<br />

to view the farmers as pawns to be used<br />

for electoral strategies. The local depot<br />

officials also began to present themselves<br />

as minor vassal lords, demanding bribes<br />

and other concessions from farmers before<br />

accepting their harvest for sale. The<br />

amenities provided began to slide towards<br />

deplorable conditions, even though the<br />

government continued to demand taxes<br />

for their upkeep.<br />

Militant tactics<br />

According to records, members of<br />

the loose farming guilds that eventually<br />

coalesced into Agbekoya first developed<br />

more militant tactics during an epidemic<br />

of swollen-shoot disease on cocoa plantations<br />

during the 1950s. Calling themselves<br />

the Maiyegun (or ‘Life Abundance’) League,<br />

they resisted attempts by government representatives<br />

to destroy affected trees on<br />

the premise that farmers could not afford<br />

to lose their crops without compensation.<br />

Several violent clashes occurred before the<br />

matter was settled in favor of the league.<br />

One popular story that was ruling the<br />

waves then was that some policemen who<br />

were detailed to arrest protesting farmers<br />

got their uniforms stuck to their skin – a<br />

spiritual attack of such!<br />

As the local depots became institutions<br />

in the economic life of average farmers,<br />

the organisation and many other peasants<br />

continued to complain about other issues<br />

they found unjust.<br />

Primary problems<br />

The primary problems the farmers<br />

have were the arbitrary standards used for<br />

examination, which meant that significant<br />

amounts of harvested cocoa were dis-<br />

Ex-security personnel, who are<br />

now our members, are handling<br />

the training. Agbekoya from<br />

inception was established to<br />

fight for human rights. We<br />

fought for the rights of farmers<br />

during the time of the late Gen.<br />

Adeyinka Adebayo in the old<br />

Western Region<br />

carded as unfit for sale; and the low prices<br />

they received for the accepted produce<br />

that reached the marketplace. The farmers<br />

complained about the neglected infrastructure<br />

of roads they had to travel to reach the<br />

depots. Moreover, they were also asked<br />

to pay a flat tax, a hefty imposition during<br />

times of economic uncertainty.<br />

The Revolt<br />

Military rule descended on the political<br />

scene as a result of the perceived failures<br />

of the previous administration by many,<br />

including the peasants. Some political elites<br />

were soon left from government participation.<br />

Also, a few university-educated citizens<br />

began to emerge as a result of the education<br />

policies of the region in the 1950s. The<br />

combination of these elites, mixed with<br />

a much more sophisticated leadership<br />

among Agbekoya Parapo, created a juxtaposition<br />

of sort and a stronger political<br />

movement was born. The Agbekoya lead-<br />

ers of the time were Mustapha Okikirungbo,<br />

Tafa Popoola, Adeniyi Eda, Adeagbo Kobiowo,<br />

Rafiu Isola and Mudasiru Adeniran.<br />

The leaders decided to set an organisational<br />

target as follows:<br />

The removal of local government officials<br />

pillaging their villages<br />

The removal of some Baales<br />

A reduction of the flat Tax rate from $8<br />

An end to the use of force in tax collection<br />

An increase in the prices of cocoa<br />

An improvement of the roads leading to<br />

many villages<br />

The farmers said they were prepared<br />

to pay only 30 shillings, as they marched<br />

through the village after village to persuade<br />

the local farmers not to pay any taxes to<br />

the military governor of the Western state.<br />

These peasants were led by the ringleaders<br />

of Adegoke Adekoyejo, Tafa Adeoye,<br />

Folarin Idowu, Mudasiru Adeniran and Tafa<br />

Popoola.<br />

Government employed the use of force<br />

and violence to quell the uprising and arrested<br />

some of the Agbekoya leaders. As<br />

a method of protest against the military<br />

government, the Agbekoya attacked major<br />

symbols of state power like court houses<br />

and government building, setting free<br />

thousands of prisoners alongside their<br />

jailed members. However, the release of<br />

Chief Obafemi Awolowo helped to quell<br />

the riots, as he negotiated directly with the<br />

movement’s leaders.<br />

Gains<br />

The following followed: Removal of local<br />

government official administering the<br />

villages, removal of Baales, reduction in<br />

flat tax rate, end of the use of force for tax<br />

removal, increase in price of cocoa and the<br />

improving of roads leading to the villages.<br />

The government at the time agreed to these<br />

concessions. The riots in the long run were<br />

seen as possessing distinctive characteristics<br />

which differentiated from earlier riots.<br />

The Agbekoya story is instructive of how<br />

strong and effective a union can be.<br />

Only recently, the Oodua People’s Congress<br />

(OPC), and the Agbekoya Farmers<br />

Association, AFA, mobilised fighters in the<br />

Southwest against the continued killing<br />

of innocent farmers by Fulani herdsmen.<br />

The groups vowed to adequately protect<br />

Yorubaland from herdsmen attacks. This<br />

development followed an attack on the<br />

farm of a former Secretary to the Government<br />

of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae.<br />

Leaders of the OPC and the Agbekoya<br />

across the South-West, who spoke with<br />

Punch, said vigilance groups have been<br />

established across the region.<br />

The National Publicity Secretary of the<br />

Agbekoya Farmers Association, said: “We<br />

have established a vigilance group and it<br />

will take off with 1, 000 men any moment<br />

from now.<br />

“We are training others who will join<br />

later. The vigilantes, who would be on oath,<br />

will be deployed in to all the nooks and crannies<br />

of Yorubaland.<br />

“Ex-security personnel, who are now<br />

our members, are handling the training.<br />

Agbekoya from inception was established<br />

to fight for human rights. We fought for<br />

the rights of farmers during the time of<br />

the late Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo in the old<br />

Western Region.”


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

14<br />

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Ogunbiyi is of the Lagos State<br />

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It is no longer news that Winnie<br />

Mandela, the South African<br />

anti-apartheid crusader and<br />

former wife of the First Black<br />

President of South Africa,<br />

Nelson Mandela, has died at age 81.<br />

In the tempestuous years of<br />

apartheid, Winnie was a rallying<br />

point for the unconditional release<br />

of her incarcerated husband. She<br />

was dubbed the “Mother of the<br />

Nation” while numerous musicians<br />

and writers across the world,<br />

who celebrated Nelson Mandela<br />

in their works, also accorded her<br />

eminence consideration.<br />

She was married to Nelson<br />

Mandela for 38 years, including the<br />

27 years the late President spent in<br />

prison. She kept the memory of her<br />

imprisoned husband alive during his<br />

years on Robben Island and helped<br />

give the struggle for justice in South<br />

Africa a universal image.<br />

Up till the time she breathed<br />

her last, she was a leading member<br />

of South Africa’s frontline political<br />

party, the ruling African National<br />

Congress, ANC. At the time of her<br />

death, she was a member of the<br />

country’s parliament. In 1993, she<br />

was elected president of the ANC’s<br />

Women’s League. In 1994, she was<br />

Winnie Mandela: Heroine or villain?<br />

elected to parliament and became<br />

Deputy Minister of Arts, Science<br />

and Technology in the country’s<br />

first multi-racial government.<br />

Born in 1936 as Nomzamo<br />

Winifred Madikizela, Winnie married<br />

Nelson Mandela in 1958 at<br />

age 22, and firmly supported him<br />

at the risk of her own life and freedom<br />

throughout the dark years of<br />

apartheid in the Rainbow nation.<br />

She declined to be cowed despite<br />

the emotional pains and aches of<br />

unending pestering of her family<br />

by security forces, detentions,<br />

solitary confinements and banishment.<br />

Thanks to her doggedness,<br />

as well as the staying power of her<br />

co-fighters, in 1990, the curtain<br />

finally drawn on white minority<br />

rule in South Africa.<br />

Ironically, despite Winnie’s<br />

vital role in securing a new and<br />

unprejudiced political system in<br />

South Africa, she became a victim<br />

of the political struggle that played<br />

out during the anti-apartheid campaigns.<br />

In view of her deep involvement<br />

in the vicious anti-apartheid<br />

battle, she became entwined in a<br />

series of scandals that eventually<br />

ended her marriage with Nelson<br />

Mandela.<br />

In 1986, she was widely linked to<br />

“necklacing”, a code name for ‘jungle<br />

justice’ which involves the burning<br />

alive of suspected traitors who<br />

had flaming, petrol-soaked tyres<br />

forced over their heads. In December<br />

1988, her bodyguards, known<br />

as the Mandela United Football<br />

Club, kidnapped four boys belonging<br />

to another anti-apartheid party.<br />

One of them, Stompie Moeketsi,<br />

was subsequently assassinated<br />

by her bodyguards. In May 1991,<br />

she was sentenced to six years in<br />

prison for kidnapping in relation to<br />

the incident, but the sentence was<br />

later reduced to a fine.<br />

In 2003, she was convicted of<br />

fraudulently taking out bank loans<br />

and theft. But according to her,<br />

the loans were used to help poor<br />

people.<br />

Her conviction for theft was<br />

later reversed since she had not<br />

recognized any personal gain from<br />

her actions. South Africa’s Truth<br />

and Reconciliation Commission<br />

also accused her of human rights<br />

abuses during the apartheid years.<br />

Winnie was also accused of having<br />

several lovers while her husband<br />

was in prison. For instance, she<br />

was alleged to be having an affair<br />

with Dali Mpofu, a lawyer 30<br />

years her junior and a member of<br />

her defence team. It was even alleged<br />

that she carried on with the<br />

affair with Mpofu after Mandela<br />

left prison.<br />

The story of Winnie and Mandela<br />

is a classical narrative of people<br />

who chose to sacrifice their life,<br />

comfort and family for the good of<br />

the society and people. For Winnie,<br />

her whole life was defined by<br />

Mandela’s deep and passionate involvement<br />

in the struggle for a free<br />

South Africa. When she gave birth<br />

to her children, her husband was<br />

never there for her. Even though<br />

he was not in jail at the time, he<br />

was out on several commitments<br />

for the struggle. But then, she was<br />

aware of Mandela’s obsession with<br />

the struggle before marrying him,<br />

knowing quite well that his first<br />

marriage crashed because of the<br />

struggle.<br />

In view of her several scandals,<br />

many have tried to paint Winnie as<br />

the devil who puts on the garment<br />

of an angel. But in all reality, how<br />

could she at the age of 28 have<br />

endured the emotional torture of<br />

being separated from her husband<br />

and tendering the children for the<br />

long period (27 years) she did<br />

without possibly getting involved<br />

in the several messy episodes that<br />

eventually consumed her marriage?<br />

In the first place, was it right for<br />

Mandela to have been so deeply<br />

caught up in the struggle to free his<br />

people without giving appropriate<br />

consideration to his family?<br />

All alone and emotionally shattered,<br />

could Winnie have toed a<br />

more angelic path than she did in<br />

the face of loneliness, persecutions,<br />

betrayals and several other emotional<br />

traumas? How many women<br />

in her shoes could have been more<br />

rational in thoughts and acts?<br />

Meanwhile, how will history<br />

judge Winnie? As a heroine or a villain?<br />

Time will tell.<br />

Ogunbiyi is of the Lagos State Ministry<br />

of Information & Strategy, Alausa,<br />

Ikeja.<br />

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Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

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15<br />

C002D5556<br />

Comment<br />

The major setback to the<br />

development of Imo State<br />

over the years has been incompetent,<br />

visionless leadership.<br />

Since its creation in<br />

1976, Imo has largely been “blessed”<br />

with lacklustre leaders with no vision,<br />

no mission, and no understanding of<br />

what the real issues are. Of course, if<br />

you do not understand what the problems<br />

are, if you do not understand the<br />

urgency of the moment, how do you<br />

even begin? You’d only continue to<br />

grope in the dark.<br />

Especially since the return to civil<br />

rule in 1999, the politics of Imo State<br />

has been dominated by ex-fraudsters<br />

(419-ers), people without character<br />

or competence, people with no track<br />

record of achievement, people who<br />

had no verifiable means of livelihood<br />

before they went into politics and<br />

whose daily survival now depends<br />

entirely on how close they are to<br />

the magnetic field of political power.<br />

Politics is their sole business and they<br />

would do everything to stay relevant,<br />

whether as godfathers or godchildren.<br />

They have nowhere else to go<br />

because, in the first place, they had no<br />

strong foundation before politics happened<br />

to them. The result is that 42<br />

years after its creation, Imo remains<br />

backward on many fronts.<br />

When Imo State was created in<br />

1976, Ndubuisi Kanu, then a young<br />

commander, was sent to steer its<br />

affairs. It was with high spirits that<br />

As the battle for Abia Govt House rages<br />

GODWIN ADINDU<br />

Adindu is the Publicity Director of the All<br />

Citizens Forum (ACF)<br />

Sir Winston Churchill, the<br />

war-time British Prime minister,<br />

is right, very, very right:<br />

politics is like war. “Politics<br />

are almost as exciting as war and<br />

quite as dangerous, although in<br />

war you can be killed only once, in<br />

politics, many times,” so said the renown<br />

speech-maker and veteran of<br />

the Second World War (SWW). He<br />

continues: “Politics are very much<br />

like war. We may even have to use<br />

poison gas at times.”<br />

For the All Citizens Forum<br />

(ACF), the frontline Pro-Group in<br />

Abia, the return of Governor Okezie<br />

Ikpeazu to Government House for a<br />

second term in 2019 is a battle that<br />

must be won. The ACF is approaching<br />

the struggle as a battle but they<br />

are not going to use poison gas. They<br />

are going to deploy strategy and tactical<br />

actions. This is why the group is<br />

re-jigging all its structures through<br />

the Wards, LGAs, Zones and State<br />

levels. They have demonstrated<br />

their readiness in their moving<br />

parades in all the mega rallies so far<br />

held in Abia State.<br />

They stole the show at Okpuala<br />

Ngwa, at the Second Ukwa Ngwa<br />

Panorama<br />

with CHUKS OLUIGBO<br />

chuks.oluigbo@businessdayonline.com (<strong>08</strong>116759816)<br />

he arrived in Owerri, the capital of<br />

the new state, on March 15, 1976 to<br />

confront the Herculean task ahead<br />

of him. And he confronted it frontally.<br />

Within record time, he had laid the<br />

necessary foundations for statehood<br />

and produced a master plan for the<br />

development of the capital territory.<br />

Today, history remembers him for<br />

the link roads with good drainages he<br />

constructed within Owerri metropolis,<br />

creation of 21 local government<br />

areas in the state, and establishment<br />

of the Imo Broadcasting Service (IBS).<br />

His successor, Commodore Adekunle<br />

Lawal, established the Standard<br />

Shoe Factory, Owerri and Oguta<br />

Motel. Col. Sunday Adenihun who<br />

came after Lawal established Imo<br />

Newspapers Ltd (which published<br />

Sunday Statesman and Nigerian<br />

Statesman). It was also in his tenure<br />

that the College of Technology (now<br />

Federal Polytechnic) Nekede commenced<br />

operations.<br />

So, by the time Samuel Onunaka<br />

Mbakwe came on board as the first<br />

elected governor of Imo State in 1979,<br />

he had a solid foundation to build on,<br />

and he capitalised on the modest<br />

achievements of his predecessors to<br />

build and expand an industrial base<br />

for Imo State. To Mbakwe’s credit is<br />

the establishment of Progress Bank<br />

(now distressed), Concorde Hotel<br />

Owerri, old Imo State University (now<br />

Abia State University), and Imo Television<br />

Authority (ITV). He also initiated<br />

Declaration. They repeated the<br />

feat at Uzuakoli at the Bende Endorsement<br />

and on Easter Monday,<br />

at the Ukwa Ngwa Youth Unite for<br />

Governor Ikpeazu mega rally held<br />

at Ngwa High School, Aba. The ACF<br />

is currently embarking on a largescale<br />

mobilisation of men through<br />

the 17 local councils of the state as<br />

foot soldiers against the opposition<br />

and as resource persons for tactical<br />

actions that will lead to the victory<br />

of the Governor.<br />

But, why is ACF so much committed<br />

to this project? Men of the<br />

ACF are pointing at equity and justice,<br />

insisting that equity demands<br />

that Abia South completes its tenure<br />

of eight years like the other zones in<br />

the past. They are also referring to<br />

performance and saying that with<br />

over sixty roads completed and<br />

commissioned and a wide array of<br />

ongoing construction work in the<br />

state, Governor Ikpeazu has done<br />

creditably and should GO AGAIN.<br />

The ACF recognises that the<br />

Governor through his caterpillar<br />

revolution has changed the narrative<br />

of governance in Abia State. The<br />

infrastructural renewal drive has<br />

seen to the rehabilitation of many<br />

public centres and has created a<br />

new face for the state. Aba, the great<br />

Enyimba City, has witnessed a new<br />

social transformation and has boldly<br />

taken a place in the global marketing<br />

Rescuing Imo is a task that must be done<br />

the building of Aluminium Extrusion<br />

Industry at Inyishi, Resin and Paint<br />

Industry at Aboh Mbaise, Cardboard<br />

Packaging Industry at Orlu, Imo Flour<br />

Mills Ltd., Aluminium Product at Naze,<br />

and the Imo Modern Poultry at Avutu.<br />

Mbakwe, who till today is regarded<br />

as the best governor the state<br />

has ever had, was re-elected in 1983<br />

but the Muhammadu Buhari coup<br />

of December 31, 1983 cut short the<br />

Second Republic. The military came<br />

on board. Sadly, the succeeding military<br />

governments in Imo State did not<br />

share in Mbakwe’s industrialisation<br />

dream. From Ike Nwachukwu to Allison<br />

Madueke to Amadi Ikwechegh<br />

to Anthony Oguguo, through Evan<br />

Enwerem’s 22 months of civilian interregnum,<br />

to James Aneke, and Tanko<br />

Zubairu who handed over to Achike<br />

Udenwa in May 1999, Mbakwe’s<br />

industrial expansion dream suffered<br />

a death blow. Within this period,<br />

1984-1999, there was no effort to<br />

further Mbakwe’s industrialisation<br />

dream and so the significant gains of<br />

the previous administrations took<br />

a big dip. Social infrastructure in the<br />

state collapsed and state-owned<br />

industries died an untimely death.<br />

Adapalm, Standard Shoe Industry,<br />

Avutu Modern Poultry, etc decayed<br />

beyond recognition. Roads, hospitals<br />

and schools dilapidated. Amaraku<br />

Power Station and the Resin Paint<br />

Industry were auctioned off. IBC and<br />

Imo Newspapers became ghosts of<br />

their old selves. Concorde Hotel became<br />

abode for rats and cockroaches.<br />

Perhaps the only event of note during<br />

these dark years was the laying of<br />

foundation for the Imo Airport, which<br />

was built by Imo people themselves.<br />

When Achike Udenwa was sworn<br />

in as governor in 1999, he promised<br />

“to rehabilitate our infrastructure,<br />

arena. Impressed by these initiatives<br />

that are fast expanding the<br />

frontiers of life in Abia, ACF is ready<br />

to re-enact the solidarity that led<br />

to the victory of Governor Ikpeazu<br />

in 2015. The ACF will have taken<br />

up the gauntlet for the struggle for<br />

the completion of a two-term for<br />

Governor Ikpeazu.<br />

As they lead in the battle in conjunction<br />

with other pro-groups,<br />

the ACF will, among other things,<br />

significantly present the Governor’s<br />

records in developing the Small and<br />

Medium Scale Enterprises in Abia as<br />

a basis for their conviction that the<br />

Governor must complete his tenure<br />

of 8 years. This effort has produced<br />

great results in developing the latent<br />

ingenuity and creativity for which<br />

Aba is celebrated. It has led to a<br />

renewed attention to the artisans<br />

of Aba and a review of the future<br />

of the fabled Aba Made Goods. In<br />

the first year of his administration,<br />

60 shoemakers were mobilised<br />

to Turkey to understudy modern<br />

technologies in shoe production.<br />

And just recently, 30 youths were<br />

also mobilised to China as the first<br />

batch of 100 ambassadors selected<br />

for the training in China.<br />

The ACF is also pointing at the<br />

Governor’s achievement in fulfilling<br />

the primary obligation of government<br />

which is the maintenance of<br />

law and order. The Governor has<br />

provide basic amenities, ensure social<br />

justice and create job opportunities<br />

through reactivation of our ailing<br />

industries and encouragement<br />

of private sector investment”. He<br />

claimed that under his administration,<br />

the state was “witnessing a great<br />

renaissance, a silent but sure-footed<br />

revolution that is rapidly transforming<br />

Imo State and restoring its lost glory,<br />

every minute, every hour and every<br />

day”. However, the reality on ground<br />

shows that Udenwa’s administration<br />

was a far cry from the revolution that<br />

Imo needed, and still needs.<br />

Then came Ikedi Ohakim with<br />

his empty promises. When he was<br />

inaugurated in 2007, Ohakim said he<br />

was transforming Imo into a one-city<br />

state, a modern model state, and tourist<br />

destination of the world. He said he<br />

was constructing the most ambitious<br />

road project ever in the history of Nigeria,<br />

a 150-km Boulevard called Imo<br />

Interconnectivity Multilane Freeway,<br />

which would pass through 500 communities,<br />

19 LGAs, 39 markets with<br />

13 electronic tollgates and connecting<br />

Oguta Resort and the entire state. In<br />

the end, most of the projects never<br />

left the architectural drawing board.<br />

Those that did became permanent<br />

money-guzzlers and conduits for<br />

looting the treasury.<br />

Even Rochas Okorocha, whose<br />

coming to power on May 29, 2011<br />

through an unprecedented mass<br />

support was termed ‘The Imo Revolution’,<br />

has left a sour taste in the mouths<br />

of Imo people. Seven years down<br />

the line, the hopes and expectations<br />

elicited by Okorocha’s election lie in<br />

scattered heaps like ruins of a demolished<br />

building.<br />

As another election season dawns,<br />

and as many candidates declare their<br />

intention to join the Imo governorship<br />

excellently fulfilled this primary obligation<br />

of government by ensuring<br />

that there is adequate security in<br />

the state. His fight against kidnapping<br />

and other violent crimes has<br />

yielded maximum result. The ACF<br />

is also calling the attention of the<br />

world to the Governor’s far-sighted<br />

vision which found expression in<br />

his pioneer experiment with rigid,<br />

pavement technology (also known<br />

as cement technology) in the construction<br />

of Aba roads. He raised the<br />

bar in quality and innovation in road<br />

construction by introducing cement<br />

technology into the lexicon of road<br />

construction work in Abia. Though<br />

the cost of this technology is higher<br />

than the conventional construction<br />

methods, the Governor experimented<br />

on it as a measure to strengthen<br />

the load bearing capacity of some<br />

roads in Abia and boost the strength<br />

and quality of the finished work. This<br />

is because roads constructed with<br />

this technology have a sustainability<br />

guarantee of ten to twenty years.<br />

They will point at major signature<br />

projects like the reconstruction of<br />

Faulks road and re-channeling of<br />

the Ifeobara Water Basin which<br />

have enhanced business at the<br />

Ariaria International Market; the<br />

construction of the first Flyover at<br />

Osisioma junction, the construction<br />

of the access road linking Umuaro<br />

– Ekwereazu to Akwa Ibom and<br />

race in 2019, hopes are high again. So<br />

far, over 30 candidates have declared<br />

for the governorship race. Sadly, majority<br />

of these aspirants do not even<br />

understand what the issues are. They<br />

are not telling us why they want to be<br />

the governor of Imo State in 2019 and<br />

what experience they are bringing<br />

with them; they are not telling us what<br />

they would do in the areas of healthcare,<br />

education, security, agriculture,<br />

employment creation; they are not<br />

saying what they would do with all the<br />

unfinished and abandoned projects<br />

littering the entire Imo space; they are<br />

not telling us how they would settle the<br />

backlog of debts owed by the state in<br />

the form of unpaid salaries and pensions,<br />

contractors’ fees and so on; they<br />

are not talking about how to raise Internally<br />

Generated Revenue in a period<br />

where states are finding it difficult to<br />

meet their financial obligations owing<br />

to shrinking federal allocation; they are<br />

not talking about nonexistent public<br />

utilities, especially potable water; they<br />

are not talking about how to engender<br />

rural development by making the local<br />

governments functional again.<br />

Rather, they have latched onto<br />

Governor Okorocha’s non-performance<br />

and his plot to install his sonin-law,<br />

Uche Nwosu, as his successor<br />

– a move that has been aptly tagged<br />

“incestuous democracy” by the indefatigable<br />

Archbishop AJV Obinna of<br />

the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri.<br />

It has become their campaign slogan.<br />

Now is still morning. It is still time<br />

enough for Imo people to put their<br />

eyes and ears on the ground, research<br />

each candidate, ask the hard questions<br />

and, when the time arrives, elect<br />

that governor who would pull the<br />

state out of the doldrums and reverse<br />

the de-industrialisation that past<br />

administrations have inflicted on it.<br />

the new bypass linking Ohafia and<br />

Arochukwu.<br />

They will point at the Governor’s<br />

efforts to link Aba to the sea through<br />

the development of the Obuaku<br />

City Port. This will give a great boost<br />

to Aba as the commercial hub of the<br />

South East. They will refer to the<br />

effort to revitalise moribund industries.<br />

Today, the Aba Glass Industry<br />

has started full operation with over<br />

400 staff strength.<br />

The ACF will speak of the One<br />

Ward, One Project Initiative being<br />

executed by the Abia State Rural Infrastructure<br />

Development Initiative<br />

(ASTRIDE). This initiative is aimed<br />

at providing at least one project in<br />

each of the 184 INEC Wards in the<br />

17 local councils and the idea is to<br />

close the gap of infrastructural deficit<br />

in the rural areas<br />

Indeed, in the battle for the reelection<br />

of Governor Ikpeazu, the<br />

only arsenal in the disposition of the<br />

All Citizens Forum is the scorecard<br />

of excellent performance. While<br />

the opposition will throw missiles<br />

of blackmail and propaganda, ACF<br />

will counter with a proof of claim<br />

of work done. We will match their<br />

capacity for violent lies with our<br />

capacity for genuine evidence.<br />

Adindu is the Publicity Director of the All<br />

Citizens Forum (ACF)<br />

We cherish readers’ reactions to stories and articles published in <strong>BusinessDay</strong>. All such reactions, which must not be more than 250 words,<br />

should be sent to bdsundayletter@businessdayonline.com with names and addresses of writers. The star letter every week will be rewarded.


16 BDSUNDAY<br />

Investigation<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Libya returnees in<br />

Edo want to go back<br />

Continues from Page 1<br />

I<br />

arrived at the gate of Benin<br />

Motel Plaza where the<br />

returnees were lodged on<br />

Monday, March 26, <strong>2018</strong>. It<br />

was about 8am.<br />

Located in the Government<br />

Reservation Area (GRA) of Benin<br />

City, the Edo State capital, the<br />

plaza is less than 20 minutes’ drive<br />

from the Government House and<br />

the palace of the Oba, the paramount<br />

ruler of the Benin Kingdom.<br />

Adjacent the hotel entrance, I<br />

saw a young man who sells recharge<br />

cards. Just a stone throw away is the<br />

Nigerian Union Journalists’ (NUJ)<br />

Building, otherwise called the press<br />

centre, and further down across the<br />

road is Central Hospital, Benin City.<br />

I was told that upon arrival in<br />

Lagos from Libya, the returnees<br />

were handed a phone and an<br />

Airtel line. I decided to sit by the<br />

recharge card vendor and wait for<br />

one to come along. Not long after,<br />

a young man who could be in his<br />

late 20s walked out of the motel<br />

to where I was, bought Airtel recharge<br />

card and was about leaving<br />

when I approached him and asked<br />

if he was one of the returnees.<br />

‘‘Don’t go now,’’ he replied. ‘‘The<br />

road is not clear. You have to wait<br />

till July, rescue no dey for sea now.’’<br />

Obviously, he had thought I<br />

wanted to embark on the deathly<br />

desert journey to Libya, so he volunteered<br />

to warn me to tarry awhile.<br />

I told him I had come to get<br />

information about my sister who<br />

travelled to Libya two years ago<br />

because we have not heard from<br />

her in a while.<br />

‘‘You are not the only one. Many<br />

people come here looking for their<br />

family members. One woman came<br />

on Friday (March 23, <strong>2018</strong>) when<br />

we arrived in Benin to check if his<br />

son came back. We could not tell<br />

her that her son was dead,’’ he said.<br />

He asked for my sister’s name<br />

and I gave him some vague name<br />

but he said he never met her.<br />

I asked if I could accompany him<br />

into the motel to ask the other returnees<br />

if they had any information<br />

about my sister and he allowed me.<br />

As we walked into the motel, the<br />

young man, who introduced himself<br />

as Moses, said people usually came<br />

around to ask them (returnees) for<br />

contacts and how to get to Libya<br />

via land, but he always told them<br />

that this was not the best time to<br />

travel. Like him, most of the other<br />

returners who spoke to me gave<br />

only their first names.<br />

Inside the motel, I met other<br />

returnees and we got acquainted.<br />

They told me that many Nigerians<br />

were holed in the deportation camp,<br />

an underground prison in Libya.<br />

They asked me to be hopeful of my<br />

sister’s return since the United Nations<br />

was still repatriating Nigerians<br />

to the country.<br />

“I heard more people (returnees)<br />

are coming this week,” said<br />

Uche, a fair-complexioned lady<br />

in her mid-30s, who journeyed to<br />

Libya with her husband last year but<br />

was deported alone.<br />

“Your sister might be among<br />

them if she has not got to her destination<br />

by now. I pray my husband is<br />

safe. I don’t know if he has crossed<br />

over to Italy or still in the prison,”<br />

Uche said.<br />

Forceful eviction<br />

When it was dark, I took my<br />

leave with a promise to come back<br />

the next day. I did, but when I was<br />

about leaving, a young man called<br />

Nathaniel, an official of the state<br />

task force against human trafficking<br />

and illegal migration, came<br />

and announced to those outside<br />

that they should vacate the hotel<br />

premises as they were expecting<br />

a new batch of returnees.<br />

The returnees pleaded that the<br />

motel, which I was told has over<br />

100 rooms, could contain more<br />

than two batches of returnees<br />

since they were between two to<br />

five in a room. But when they saw<br />

that their pleas could not get them<br />

an extended stay at the motel,<br />

they resorted to threats.<br />

“Go where? Where do you want<br />

us to go?” said a male returnee. “We<br />

are not going anywhere.”<br />

‘‘Our Nigerian boys were ‘hot’ in<br />

Libya to the extent that they burst<br />

the prison. My heart dey my back<br />

now, I can even carry gun go rob<br />

bank,” said one named Joyce.<br />

Joyce’s younger sister, Esther,<br />

paved way for her (Joyce) to go over<br />

to Libya. While Esther spent two<br />

years out of her five years in Libya<br />

in an underground prison, Joyce<br />

spent a year out of her three years<br />

in the prison.<br />

Libya Returnees arriving at Motel Benin Plaza<br />

The ladies told me that the failure<br />

of the Edo State government<br />

to live up to its promises was<br />

pushing many of the returnees<br />

into prostitution.<br />

The state government had<br />

pledged to place the returnees<br />

on N20,000 monthly stipend<br />

for three months, train them on<br />

various skills and sponsor those<br />

interested in pursuing higher<br />

education. But all these appear<br />

to have remained a pipedream.<br />

“I know four young girls who<br />

returned from Libya the same time<br />

I did that have become prostitutes,<br />

and they are not hiding it because<br />

it’s condition that kept them that<br />

way. How do you expect them to<br />

survive? Where is the work or the<br />

money to start business after wasting<br />

so much in Libya,” Peace asked.<br />

Although none of them openly<br />

admitted to have taken to prostitution,<br />

I observed that some of the female<br />

returnees at the motel always<br />

went out at night and returned in the<br />

morning, then slept till about noon.<br />

As the returnees barked and<br />

said they were not moving an inch,<br />

Mercy Christian, a Computer Science<br />

graduate from the Lagos State<br />

Polytechnic who spent three years<br />

in Libya, was full of regrets.<br />

“If I had known I would have not<br />

come down to Benin. I’m from Lagos<br />

State, but when we got to Lagos<br />

and it was announced that the Edo<br />

State government had prepared a<br />

special package for its indigenes, I<br />

decided to follow to tag along with<br />

them,” she said.<br />

Mercy said those that ignored<br />

the call to go to Benin to receive<br />

what the government had for them<br />

and went straight to Prophet TB<br />

Joshua’s Synagogue of All Nations in<br />

the Ikotun area of Lagos, were given<br />

N50,000 each while those that luck<br />

smiled on got N100,000.<br />

Mercy, who told me she spent<br />

three years paying back her sponsor<br />

but that luck ran out of her when she<br />

tried to cross over to Italy, vowed<br />

to go back to Lagos the next day to<br />

warn the next batch of returnees<br />

not to come to Benin.<br />

“I will tell them to go straight to<br />

TB Joshua’s church because if they<br />

come here (Benin), they will not get<br />

anything,” Mercy said.<br />

“Some people that came down<br />

to Benin with me went to see TB<br />

Joshua on Sunday (March 25, <strong>2018</strong>)<br />

and he gave them N30,000 each. If<br />

not for IOM that gave us 100 euros<br />

(N43,100), we would not have any<br />

money on us because we came<br />

back empty,” she said.<br />

Arrival of a new batch<br />

Before noon on March 28, all the<br />

returnees had vacated the motel<br />

and at about 6pm on Thursday,<br />

March 29, another batch of returnees<br />

arrived. The female task force<br />

official who had accompanied them<br />

to Benin from Lagos complained<br />

that the returnees gave them a<br />

tough time. According to her, they<br />

had already booked five 18-seater<br />

buses to convey over 70 returnees<br />

to Benin from Lagos, only for more<br />

than half of the returnees to run off<br />

to see TB Joshua.<br />

“We really suffered,” the official<br />

said. “We had to beg them, including<br />

the ones carrying babies, to enter<br />

the bus.”<br />

It’s either that Mercy fulfilled<br />

her vow to tell the returnees that<br />

nothing good awaited them in Benin<br />

or word had gone round that there<br />

was nothing special about the package<br />

the state government had for<br />

the returnees.<br />

Immediately the returnees<br />

alighted from the bus, they filed inside<br />

the Moat conference hall of the<br />

plaza, where officials of the state<br />

task force against human trafficking<br />

and illegal migration received<br />

them. They were fed, profiled and<br />

underwent medical examinations<br />

after which they were instructed<br />

to vacate the plaza before noon on<br />

Saturday, March 31.<br />

Around 7pm on Friday, March<br />

30, some of the returnees who had<br />

gone to see TB Joshua the day before<br />

arrived at the motel but were<br />

told they could not eat their cake<br />

and have it. Although they lied that<br />

they had gone to TB Joshua’s church<br />

to testify to the Lord’s goodness<br />

in sparing their lives, unknown to<br />

them, their fellow returnees had<br />

sold them out.<br />

“Since we did not profile you, we<br />

cannot allow you inside,” one of the


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

BDSUNDAY 17<br />

C002D5556<br />

Investigation<br />

Libya returnees leaving Motel Benin Plaza<br />

task force officials who met them<br />

at the gate said. “You can use part<br />

of the N30,000 TB Joshua gave you<br />

to rent an accommodation for the<br />

night because we cannot allow you<br />

in.” Those that were smart by half<br />

sneaked in to stay with their friends<br />

but were fished out and sent out of<br />

the motel that night.<br />

Most of the returnees called<br />

family and friends, and by Friday,<br />

they had checked out of the hotel<br />

while those who had no place to<br />

go hung around till midday on Saturday.<br />

“I am frustrated. What bothers<br />

me most now is that we (my husband<br />

and I) don’t even have where<br />

to lay our head,” said Edna Godwin,<br />

a mother of three who left her three<br />

children in the company of her<br />

mother to join her husband in Libya<br />

so they could cross over to Europe.<br />

“In Lagos, they told all Edo State<br />

indigenes that our governor has a<br />

package for us. Many people went<br />

to see TB Joshua but we decided to<br />

come and answer our governor. The<br />

task force officials asked us some<br />

questions, registered us, then gave<br />

us accommodation and food but<br />

TB Joshua blessed those that went<br />

to see him with N30,000 and a bag<br />

of rice,” she said.<br />

‘‘The officials gave us a flier on<br />

Thursday (March 29) and told us to<br />

reach them through the numbers on<br />

the flier. We have been calling those<br />

numbers for two days now but it’s<br />

not even connecting.”<br />

Seeking succour in God’s house<br />

Some of the returnees who<br />

heard that TB Joshua doled out<br />

money in Lagos left the motel on<br />

Saturday, travelled to Warri, Delta<br />

State and lodged in a hotel located<br />

a walking distance from Pastor<br />

Jeremiah Omoto Fufeyin’s Christ<br />

Mercyland Deliverance Ministry so<br />

they could make it to church before<br />

6am for the first service. They told<br />

me they were going to solicit for<br />

funds to kick-start their lives but<br />

they didn’t succeed.<br />

One of the returnees that gave<br />

his name as Phillip said he even tried<br />

to give testimony that day in order<br />

to attract attention and probably<br />

get some assistance but the ushers<br />

beat him to it.<br />

“When we told them that we<br />

wanted to see Pastor Jeremiah, they<br />

said he was busy. We only saw him<br />

on the pulpit preaching and that was<br />

all but at the end, I was blessed by<br />

the service,” he said in a phone chat<br />

as he journeyed back to Benin.<br />

Desmond, another returnee<br />

from the March 22, <strong>2018</strong> batch, said<br />

he went in the company of some of<br />

his fellow returnees to see Apostle<br />

Johnson Suleiman of Omega Fire<br />

Ministry, Auchi, in Edo State, but<br />

they were prevented from seeing<br />

him. “They even started fighting us<br />

and chasing us away. We told them<br />

we did not come to fight but to tell<br />

them how God had saved us from<br />

Libya and they said we should leave<br />

the premises,” Desmond said.<br />

“I have almost exhausted the<br />

100 euros I was given by IOM. I<br />

don’t know what to do now. I’m so<br />

frustrated,” he said.<br />

Gloomy tales of torture and<br />

death<br />

They went on to tell me how<br />

they were tortured and starved in<br />

Libya and had to drink urine and<br />

contaminated water in the desert.<br />

Loveth<br />

“Some people were begging others<br />

to urinate so they could drink. It<br />

was that bad,” said Peace, one of the<br />

returnees. “I even drank water that<br />

had corpse in it while others drank<br />

from the same place where all kinds<br />

of animals drank.”<br />

Loveth Victor, 19, hairstylist<br />

whose mother abandoned with her<br />

grandmother when she was two<br />

months old, said she was tricked<br />

into going to Libya.<br />

“The man that took me to Libya,<br />

Mr. Biggie, told me that hairdressing<br />

is a lucrative business in Libya and<br />

that before four months, I could<br />

make a lot of money. I got to know<br />

him through a close friend of mine<br />

who is a caterer,” she said.<br />

She said her friend told her that<br />

Mr. Biggie had asked if she knew<br />

any hairstylist who was interested<br />

in making huge money in Libya.<br />

“Initially I was not interested in<br />

going but when business became<br />

very poor and I could stay a month<br />

without patronage, my friend asked<br />

if that was how I intended to survive.<br />

She said she had seen a better<br />

connection through who we could<br />

leave the country. She said since we<br />

had no intention of crossing over to<br />

Italy or Europe, we could return to<br />

Nigeria when we make our money<br />

and I agreed,” she narrated.<br />

Loveth left Nigeria in June 2017<br />

but was raped many times by Nigeriens<br />

in Agadez before she got to<br />

Libya in October. When she eventually<br />

got to Libya, she did not get<br />

what she bargained for.<br />

“Mr. Biggie linked me to a Yoruba<br />

woman in Libya whom he said<br />

owned a salon and the woman said<br />

we would split any money I made<br />

from hairdressing. We spent so<br />

much time in Agadez because our<br />

car did not come early.<br />

“I spent one week in the woman’s<br />

house in Libya and fixed hair for<br />

two customers. One of the customers<br />

gave me 50 dinars (N5,000)<br />

while the other gave me 20 dinars<br />

(N2,000). The following week, the<br />

woman told me someone was coming<br />

to take me to the salon to begin<br />

work. It was when I got to the supposed<br />

salon that I realized that the<br />

lady had sold me to prostitution,”<br />

she told me.<br />

Loveth insisted on speaking<br />

to the Yoruba woman and when<br />

she did, she told her that was not<br />

their agreement, but the woman<br />

told her to cooperate with those<br />

people else they would kill her.<br />

“In front of me, they used the<br />

back of gun on the head of one of<br />

the girls who refused to accompany<br />

a male customer home. The<br />

girl collapsed and we later heard<br />

she was dead.<br />

“They took me for test and discovered<br />

that I was pregnant. So,<br />

they scheduled me for abortion but<br />

I heard some girls were planning<br />

to escape and I joined them in the<br />

midnight to escape, though I broke<br />

a leg in the process of jumping. With<br />

the help of one of the girls because<br />

of my pregnancy, I got a job of cleaning<br />

the house of an Arabian, but I<br />

couldn’t send the money I made<br />

to my grandmother. So, someone<br />

suggested I use the 3,000 dinars<br />

(N300,000) I had to cross over to<br />

Italy. I was on the Blue Sea when we<br />

were captured and sent straight to<br />

deportation camp,” she said.<br />

Loveth stayed in the prison till<br />

her pregnancy was due and, against<br />

her pleas to be allowed to wait for<br />

labour so she could have a normal<br />

delivery, she was taken to the theatre<br />

for surgery. After delivery on<br />

March 7, <strong>2018</strong>, she was given the<br />

option to either remain in Libya or go<br />

back to Nigeria. She chose the latter.<br />

“I was sold thrice in Libya and on<br />

those occasions, they filmed where<br />

they were torturing me and sent the<br />

video to my grandma. I don’t know<br />

where the poor woman borrowed<br />

N550,000 to pay them those times.<br />

I felt bad for putting her through a lot<br />

because she is the only parent I have<br />

known since I was little. She hawked<br />

to train me from kindergarten to<br />

secondary school. My travelling to<br />

Libya was so I could take care of her<br />

and I couldn’t even achieve that,”<br />

she said in regret.<br />

Elizabeth Sunday, a 29-year old<br />

tailor from Enugu State who had<br />

lived in Benin for eight years, left for<br />

Libya in July 2017.<br />

Elizabeth, the first child in a family<br />

of seven children, said she decided<br />

to travel when life became too<br />

tough for her.<br />

“It was too hard for me to eat and<br />

there was no one to assist me. My<br />

parents are in my village and they<br />

are very poor. I have younger ones<br />

who are looking up to me,” she said.<br />

So, when a lady she learnt tailoring<br />

with told her about a woman<br />

who would take them to Germany<br />

and they would reimburse her later,<br />

she jumped at the offer.<br />

“When I spoke to the woman<br />

on phone, she promised to take me<br />

to Germany on the condition that<br />

I would pay her N10 million. I said<br />

that was too much but she told me<br />

that it won’t take me time to make<br />

the money once I start working. She<br />

said tailoring was a money-spinner<br />

and the way she spoke with me on<br />

the phone, I believed her,” she said.<br />

The woman told her she would<br />

put her on boat to Germany after<br />

her friend had crossed over but<br />

when a fight ensued, she was<br />

abandoned.<br />

Elizabeth said she was raped<br />

twice and later discovered that she<br />

was pregnant.<br />

“I was raped in Agadez and when<br />

they were taking us from Sabha to<br />

camp, I experienced another rape,”<br />

she sobbed. “I got to know that I<br />

was pregnant in the camp and tried<br />

to take drugs to remove it, but it refused<br />

to go. So, I left it,” she told me.<br />

She called her colleague and<br />

told her that the woman abandoned<br />

her and she was stranded.<br />

She sent her N80,000 and with<br />

that, she begged to be put on the<br />

boat. She was on the Blue Sea when<br />

she was rescued by the Libyan<br />

rescue team and taken to prison.<br />

“They came to check me in the<br />

prison and ask how old my pregnancy<br />

was and I said eight months<br />

and one week. They took me to the<br />

hospital and where I was until my<br />

baby completed nine months. They<br />

did not wait for me to go into labour.<br />

They took me upstairs for surgery.<br />

I begged them to allow me deliver<br />

vaginally but they said they could<br />

not wait. So, a caesarian operation<br />

was done on me. I told them I<br />

wanted to go back to Nigeria and<br />

I was brought home a week later,”<br />

she said.<br />

Elizabeth does not know what<br />

to do now or where to begin but<br />

she said she is not ready to tell her<br />

parents that she came home with<br />

a child because that would break<br />

their hearts.<br />

“I did not tell my parents before<br />

going to Libya. I only called them<br />

when I was on my way and they<br />

were not happy I left without telling<br />

them. My mother said even if<br />

they had nothing to give me, they<br />

could still pray for me to arrive at my<br />

destination in sound health. I don’t<br />

know where I am going to stay but<br />

because of the child, I won’t go to<br />

the village now,” she said. George,<br />

another returnee, was denied<br />

American and Canadian visa but<br />

when one of his elder brothers who<br />

had travelled via Libya to Germany<br />

persuaded him to follow the same<br />

route, he decided to give it a try.<br />

“He told me to try land. Three of<br />

my elder brothers travelled through<br />

that route and they are in Germany<br />

now. So, I left Nigeria on November<br />

3, 2017 for Libya.<br />

“When we were on top of the sea<br />

Continues on page 18


18 BDSUNDAY<br />

Investigation<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Libya returnees in Edo...<br />

Continued from page 17<br />

for 16 hours, I was praying for any<br />

rescue, even if it was by a fisherman.<br />

Then, the Libyan government came<br />

and rescued us and took us back to<br />

deportation camp.<br />

“In the morning, you might not<br />

see food to eat in the prison. They<br />

served us small humza bread and<br />

in the night, they gave us undone<br />

Marconi without pepper or salt.<br />

When you turn it, you’ll see water<br />

inside like you are swimming.<br />

“Of all the connection men in<br />

Libya, Nigerians are very wicked<br />

people. They will connive with the<br />

Arabians to sell you and tell you to<br />

call your people so they will send<br />

fund, else they won’t stop beating<br />

you,” George narrated.<br />

He said that many Nigerians in<br />

Libya would like to return home but<br />

cannot because they are closer to<br />

Italy and when they remember the<br />

hardship they suffered in the desert,<br />

they would change their minds.<br />

“If you are unlucky, they will<br />

arrest you in the desert because<br />

you don’t have papers. You’ll see<br />

some many bones of dead people<br />

because a lot of people die in the<br />

desert. If someone gives me N20<br />

million to pass through that place<br />

again, I won’t go. Never!” he said.<br />

Desire to return to Libya<br />

Although the name Libya could<br />

be said to be synonymous with<br />

slavery, many returnees from Libya<br />

say they want to go back.<br />

According to them, Libya is better<br />

than Nigeria because of availability<br />

of jobs and strong currency value<br />

when compared to the Nigerian<br />

currency.<br />

Some said that the failure of the<br />

government to live up to its promise<br />

to make the lives of the returnees<br />

better is another motivating factor.<br />

“They brought us down to Benin<br />

in the pretence that the governor<br />

has a special package for us only<br />

to chase us out of the hotel. Which<br />

help do they now have for us?” Babatunde,<br />

a trader who left his wife<br />

and children under the care of his<br />

mother-in-law before setting out<br />

for Libya, asked.<br />

“We are not even sure they will<br />

pay us the N20,000 because those<br />

that returned long before us haven’t<br />

received theirs. This is what will<br />

make most of us to go back,” he said.<br />

Babatunde was deported on<br />

March 22, <strong>2018</strong> and is making plans<br />

to go back to Libya.<br />

“I used to deal in plantains. I<br />

bought in bulk from the villages and<br />

sold in the cities. I want to go back<br />

to the business. I can get goods on<br />

credit because I didn’t owe anybody.<br />

“Within two months, I will<br />

raise enough money to return to<br />

Libya and from there, I will go to<br />

where I want to go. I cannot stay in<br />

this country because if I do, I won’t<br />

live long,” he said.<br />

Favour, one of the returnees who<br />

was a painter before he left Nigeria<br />

for Libya four years ago, is also nursing<br />

plans of going back to Libya.<br />

“If I decide to go back tomorrow,<br />

even the government cannot stop<br />

me. Instead of turning to armed<br />

robbery, it’s better for me to go back<br />

to Libya because this country is not<br />

friendly,” he said.<br />

“I’m not a baby on that Libyan<br />

route. Libya is better than this country.<br />

I only suffered after I was arrested.<br />

In Libya, I earned between 400-<br />

500 dinars (N40,000-N50,000)<br />

daily. It won’t take me more than a<br />

month to ‘gather’ money and travel<br />

again,” he said.<br />

Favour, an only child, said he was<br />

the secretary at the ‘pushing’ camp<br />

in Libya, where people board boats<br />

to cross over to Italy. His boss, a<br />

Ghanaian, did not want to ‘push’ him<br />

to Libya since he (Favour) helped<br />

him push a lot of people to him.<br />

When his boss decided to ‘push’<br />

to Italy, Favour said, they never<br />

knew the road had blocked. So,<br />

he was caught on the sea and sent<br />

to the deportation camp and later<br />

deported to Nigeria.<br />

“Many people in that country are<br />

supposed to come out but they are<br />

not ready to return to Nigeria. Many<br />

are still in the prison and they are<br />

telling the government that they are<br />

going nowhere,” said Collins, one of<br />

the returnees.<br />

“They say they’d rather remain in<br />

the prison because they know what<br />

they passed through in their Nigeria.<br />

They don’t want to come back and<br />

Elizabeth<br />

face the same thing. You are in a<br />

foreign country and you are going<br />

through stress, in your country you<br />

still face the same thing. So, what’s<br />

the use of coming back? It’s better<br />

to face it in Libya; anyhow it wants<br />

to be, let it be,” he said.<br />

Another returnee who gave his<br />

name as Paul regretted returning to<br />

Nigeria, saying he would return to<br />

Libya once he lays his hands on cash.<br />

“I was on the Mediterranean<br />

Sea, less than an hour to Italy, when I<br />

was captured by the Libyan government<br />

and jailed in an underground<br />

prison,” said Paul, 24, who sold his<br />

tailoring machine shortly after apprenticeship<br />

to travel to Libya in<br />

<strong>Apr</strong>il 2016.<br />

“I suffered in that prison but I<br />

knew I would have regained my<br />

freedom someday and continued<br />

my journey to Europe if I wasn’t so<br />

unfortunate to be deported to Nigeria.<br />

“I will go back to Libya because I<br />

want to ‘confirm’ the Europe country<br />

this time if I see someone that<br />

will sponsor me. Because I have got<br />

some kind of experience, if I go back,<br />

it won’t be tough for me. It’s only the<br />

newcomers that will find it difficult<br />

and this time, my twin brother said<br />

he will join,” he said.<br />

Growing crime rate<br />

The unintended consequence of<br />

driving the returnees into oblivion<br />

without counselling and training<br />

is that the crime rate in Edo State<br />

is likely to increase. Findings show<br />

that this may already be happening<br />

as some returnees have taken to<br />

crime. Steve, 27, two-time Libya<br />

deportee who was caught in robbery<br />

said he did so out of frustration.<br />

“I travelled to Libya in 2015 but<br />

I did not have money to cross over<br />

to Europe. So, while working to save<br />

up the money, I was imprisoned and<br />

later deported in December 2017,”<br />

said Steve, who was a truck driver<br />

before his departure to Libya.<br />

“I travelled again to Libya in<br />

January <strong>2018</strong> because I had nothing<br />

doing but I ended up in the deportation<br />

camp and was brought back<br />

to Nigeria on March 22. When we<br />

were driven out of the motel, I had<br />

no place to stay. I went to rob so I<br />

could rent a room but I was caught.<br />

My friends bailed me out and now I<br />

owe them N50,000,” he said.<br />

Another returnee who retailed<br />

female clothing in New Benin before<br />

his trip to Libya said most of the returnees<br />

took to crime as a way of survival.<br />

“When I was still at the motel, a<br />

man dropped off a lady at the motel<br />

but on getting to Sapele road, his car<br />

was snatched. It’s one of us that did<br />

that due to hunger,” said the returnee<br />

who refused to say his name.<br />

“When they received us in Lagos,<br />

they told us that our governor and<br />

the Oba of Benin wanted to see us<br />

and deliver a special package to us,<br />

but we did not see anyone and they<br />

said we should go. Where did they<br />

expect us to go to?’’ he asked.<br />

A medical doctor at the Central<br />

Hospital, Benin, confirmed that robbery<br />

has been on the increase since<br />

the returnees started coming home.<br />

“It was not like this before,” he said.<br />

Government reacts<br />

Cruose Osagie, chief press secretary<br />

to the Edo State governor,<br />

said the government cannot bear<br />

the entire burden of the returnees<br />

on its shoulders.<br />

“If I tell you that our plans are<br />

to take over the lives of the people<br />

(returnees) and begin to run it for<br />

them just because they travelled to<br />

Libya, I would be lying because they<br />

are still responsible for their lives,”<br />

Osagie said.<br />

“Just because they travelled to<br />

Libya does not mean that they are<br />

government’s property. Be that as it<br />

may, the government is committed<br />

and is giving out the little support it<br />

can to resettle the returnees,” he<br />

said. Solomon Okoduwa, senior<br />

special assistant to Edo State governor<br />

on human trafficking and illegal<br />

migration, told me on the telephone<br />

that the state has received a total<br />

of 3,155 returnees since October<br />

2017 and 530 of them had undergone<br />

vocational training while 550<br />

had been paid.<br />

“We have trained 530 returnees<br />

in bead making, cosmetology, soap<br />

making and fashion designing between<br />

December 2017 and March<br />

<strong>2018</strong>. When we have a sizeable<br />

number of them who are interested<br />

in a particular training, we contact<br />

the resource persons to train them,”<br />

he said. “We are processing the<br />

funds of those who are yet to receive<br />

their stipend. There are no<br />

funds now but that does not mean<br />

that we won’t pay them when the<br />

funds are available,” he said.<br />

However, an inside source at the<br />

state task force against human trafficking,<br />

told me that only one batch<br />

out of the 26 batches of returnees<br />

had been paid as at Thursday March<br />

29, <strong>2018</strong>. “We paid only one batch<br />

because we don’t have enough<br />

funds to pay all of them. What we do<br />

now is to lodge them for two days<br />

and after that, they can find their<br />

way,” the source said.<br />

Recently, it was reported that<br />

the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II,<br />

placed some returnees from Libya<br />

on salary for three months.<br />

When asked the number of<br />

returnees, the criteria for the selection<br />

and when payment would<br />

commence, Okoduwa said, “Some<br />

of the returnees we trained in skill<br />

acquisition requested for funds<br />

but when we told them there were<br />

no funds for them at that moment,<br />

they became agitated and went to<br />

Oba’s palace. So, the Oba placed 76<br />

of them on salary.<br />

“The Oba’s word is a decree;<br />

it does not take time because the<br />

Oba is not like the government.<br />

The Oba has the capacity to pay<br />

the returnees that same day. They<br />

will receive the payment as soon as<br />

their information is finalised.”<br />

While pleading for the returnees<br />

to be patient with the government,<br />

Okoduwa also solicited for assistance.<br />

“We will not dispute the fact that<br />

some of the returnees have taken to<br />

crime but we are not encouraging<br />

crime. Whoever is caught would<br />

face the full wrath of law,” he said.<br />

“We call on well-meaning people<br />

in the state, religious bodies and the<br />

business community to support the<br />

cause of the Edo State government<br />

because the job is enormous and<br />

we have other things to take care<br />

of,” he said.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

19<br />

Politics<br />

Why I should be elected Imo next governor - Njoku<br />

Professor Jude Ejike Njoku, a former vice chancellor of the Federal University of Technology (FUTO), was voted the ‘Best Vice Chancellor<br />

in Nigeria’ in 2004 because of his proven excellent leadership quality. He was also a former commissioner for Land Surveys<br />

and Urban Planning and commissioner for Education in Imo State. Njoku, in this interview with SABY ELEMBA, says he is the man<br />

Imo people are looking for to stabilise the politically-ravaged state and give governance a human face. Excerpts:<br />

Why do you think you are<br />

the right person to be elected<br />

as the next governor of Imo<br />

State in 2019?<br />

This is because I can<br />

add value to the<br />

quality of governance<br />

to Imo State<br />

and help to bring<br />

about the desired change that<br />

will usher Imo State into a<br />

state of prosperity and accelerated<br />

development. The reason<br />

I say so is that right now<br />

there is a clamour for change<br />

in Imo State particularly in the<br />

style of governance. A lot of<br />

people are not happy the way<br />

things are; Imo State appears<br />

to be ravaged by all kinds of<br />

mismanagement and people<br />

are not happy, they are clamouring<br />

for change, the change<br />

in the personal leadership and<br />

the change of the party that is<br />

in power in the state.<br />

Giving my background<br />

and experience, I believe I<br />

have a unique opportunity<br />

to bring about the desired<br />

change, bring about prosperity,<br />

bring about development<br />

to our people so that Imo will<br />

begin to move again, begin<br />

to restore sanity in the state,<br />

begin to restore the dignity<br />

of Imo State because Imo has<br />

been debased and they have<br />

been dehumanised so that<br />

we begin to retool our psyche.<br />

And after all, we are all people<br />

of dignity and should also be<br />

treated with some dignity<br />

and we want also to accelerate<br />

the pace of development<br />

and development that is sustainable.<br />

Nigerians think that you are<br />

only an academician; may<br />

we know more about your<br />

background?<br />

Well, as you know I come<br />

from Owerri zone, I come<br />

from Ngor Okpala Local Government<br />

Area to be precise;<br />

the place where Imo Airport<br />

is located is my town. The<br />

airport is right at the back<br />

of my house, I can walk into<br />

the airport tarmac from the<br />

back of my backyard. And I<br />

think that with a very view<br />

that the next governor must<br />

come from Owerri zone since<br />

Owerri zone has not tasted<br />

the governorship of Imo State<br />

since the new political dispensation<br />

in 1999.<br />

Secondly, I am a professor<br />

of agricultural economics<br />

at the Federal University of<br />

Technology Owerri (FUTO).<br />

I rose from the position of<br />

head of department to the<br />

dean of students’ affairs and<br />

then the deputy vice chancellor<br />

administration and vice<br />

chancellor from 1990 to 2005<br />

when I finished.<br />

And also I had the opportunity<br />

of being appointed<br />

the commissioner for Land<br />

Surveys and Urban Planning<br />

in Imo State in 2007. In 2009,<br />

I was moved to the ministry<br />

Jude Ejike Njoku<br />

of education as the commissioner<br />

for education. And I<br />

think if I could manage a very<br />

big organisation, a complex<br />

organisation for that matter<br />

like a University which is a<br />

microcosm of a state, everything<br />

you look for in a state or<br />

in a country is represented in<br />

the university. And if you are<br />

able to manage a university<br />

successfully then you can also<br />

manage a country. And you<br />

also know that in 2004 I was<br />

elected as the Best Vice Chancellor<br />

in Nigeria; that attested<br />

to the fact that I managed the<br />

institution very well to the<br />

extent that throughout my<br />

period there was no strike and<br />

we maintained steady academic<br />

calendar even when<br />

most other universities in the<br />

country lost one academic<br />

year. And we maintained a<br />

peaceful university, a progressive<br />

university that was why I<br />

got that award.<br />

I worked well as a commissioner<br />

for Land Surveys<br />

and Urban Planning, we introduced<br />

this computerised<br />

land administration which<br />

was modified by the present<br />

government that was supposed<br />

to generate a lot of<br />

revenue for the state. And<br />

we tried to open new layouts<br />

that have been allocated and<br />

also acquired other lands for<br />

development.<br />

And of course in education,<br />

I was the commissioner<br />

that masterminded the return<br />

of schools to missionaries<br />

which hitherto had been impossible<br />

for the administrations<br />

that were here before<br />

us and other achievements.<br />

So we had a lot to show for<br />

our outing as a commissioner<br />

in Imo State. And in think I<br />

have the knowledge and the<br />

capacity.<br />

I have the experience, the<br />

majority, the capacity to govern<br />

this state and add value to<br />

the governance in the state.<br />

And stablise the state where<br />

people would be honoured<br />

and dignified and give human<br />

face to governance. Our<br />

people are now looking like<br />

people who are defeated and<br />

traumatised and we need to<br />

return their psyche.<br />

If you do not know administration<br />

you don’t know it.<br />

After politics is governance<br />

and governance is all about<br />

administrating the human<br />

and material resources. You<br />

need to be vast in administration.<br />

You recall if you read the<br />

Leader newspaper recently,<br />

the archbishop said Imo needed<br />

a seasoned technocrat to<br />

rewrite the wrongs that have<br />

been inflicted on people by<br />

the present administration. I<br />

think that is what I am coming<br />

to do and that is why it is me.<br />

Prof, the party, PDP, the platform<br />

under which you are<br />

running is still battling with<br />

internal problems; how are<br />

you going to wade through<br />

the crisis?<br />

Well, I think to a very large extent<br />

we are stable. You do not<br />

have a life without problems.<br />

There is no life with perfect<br />

peace. The only perfect peace<br />

that exists is when you die,<br />

so you cannot say that the<br />

party in Imo State has perfect<br />

peace, it has relative peace,<br />

relative to the situation that<br />

existed last year when there<br />

was serious factionalisation<br />

in the party. I know that there<br />

are few people who have yet<br />

not been accommodated but<br />

to a large extent the majority<br />

is settled.<br />

There is still a move to<br />

see how some of those unaccommodated<br />

people can<br />

be accommodated in the<br />

party so that we achieve total<br />

peace.<br />

Nigeria as a political theatre<br />

DANIEL OBI<br />

Nigeria has become<br />

a theatre of sort,<br />

entertaining its<br />

people and the<br />

international community.<br />

There are ‘shows’ almost<br />

every day in the ‘theatre’ to<br />

watch, read or listen to. According<br />

to some observers,<br />

various events in the country<br />

are comical in nature. Last<br />

week, it was reported that 5<br />

gunmen invaded a police station<br />

around 2:30am in Kogi<br />

and killed two policemen and<br />

wounded another person.<br />

Various news channels<br />

which aired the information<br />

perhaps, did so to portray<br />

how bewildering and incomprehensible<br />

the incident of<br />

invasion of a police station<br />

could be. Everywhere, a police<br />

station, not a gas or railway<br />

station, is supposed to<br />

be vibrant, especially when<br />

insecurity level is high. But a<br />

police station and its officers<br />

went to sleep, leaving themselves<br />

vulnerable.<br />

According to an observer<br />

who does not want his name<br />

in print, the incident happened<br />

without police retaliation<br />

which led to the stealing of<br />

police guns and other items.<br />

Recently, it was also reported<br />

in the media that snake swallowed<br />

N36 million belonging to<br />

JAMB. Today, there is no clear<br />

conclusion on Maina. There<br />

was also Ikoyigate where the<br />

sum of $43, 449, 947, £27,800<br />

and N23, 218 cash was found in<br />

a house. There are many similar<br />

jaw-dropping news items<br />

including the alleged rat that<br />

destroyed President’s office<br />

when he was away in London<br />

for medical attention.<br />

Then, enters the release of<br />

looters’ list by the All Progressives<br />

Congress (APC). The<br />

list of persons who allegedly<br />

looted Nigeria’s treasury contains<br />

mostly members of the<br />

opposition party, PDP, who<br />

are standing trial in various<br />

courts and who have not been<br />

convicted.<br />

The released list curiously<br />

does not contain the<br />

names of PDP politicians, who<br />

have defected to the APC.<br />

Punch Newspaper Cartoon<br />

of Wednesday, <strong>Apr</strong>il 4, and<br />

<strong>BusinessDay</strong> cartoon of <strong>Apr</strong>il<br />

6, <strong>2018</strong> captured this incident<br />

succinctly. The Punch cartoon<br />

showed where EFCC was<br />

chasing an alleged looter who<br />

was holding Umbrella but the<br />

EFCC official became confused<br />

the moment the looter<br />

dropped the Umbrella for the<br />

Broom. <strong>BusinessDay</strong> cartoon<br />

illustrated the story differently<br />

but with same meaning.<br />

Another worried observer<br />

who has been watching<br />

the theatrical performance<br />

wondered whether these<br />

persons who are standing<br />

trial would eventually get fair<br />

hearing since they have been<br />

pronounced “guilty” by the<br />

ruling government. He just<br />

cautioned that the world is<br />

watching Nigeria and its performances<br />

in the theatre.<br />

Lawyers believe that there<br />

was no need to dramatise the<br />

release of the names since<br />

some of them are standing<br />

trial for various offences. Flaying<br />

the APC action, Ferdinand<br />

Orbih, a senior advocate of<br />

Nigeria (SAN), in a report,<br />

described the release of the<br />

names as irresponsible.<br />

He said people who were<br />

still under trial over corruption<br />

allegations were presumed innocent<br />

until the cases against<br />

them are proven as enshrined<br />

in the constitution. “Such persons<br />

are presumed innocent<br />

until proven otherwise, by the<br />

constitution, which the President<br />

swore to uphold,” he said.<br />

He further said in the report<br />

that it seems the Federal Government<br />

does not understand<br />

what the rule of law or the dynamics<br />

of due process entails.<br />

In the same report, Daniel<br />

Onwe, Lagos-based lawyer<br />

and rights activist, said the<br />

publication of the list was a<br />

violation of the right to presumption<br />

of innocence of<br />

those on the list.<br />

“The difference between<br />

the All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC) and People’s Democratic<br />

Party (PDP) is that<br />

while one is now in power, the<br />

other is out of government. It<br />

is just the names that differ.<br />

So, where are APC people<br />

who were active players in the<br />

PDP? Or has the APC become<br />

a cleaning pool, rather than a<br />

political party?” he asked.<br />

Corruption is a serious issue<br />

in Nigeria which has undermined<br />

development and economic<br />

growth. But the political<br />

way it is being handled instead<br />

of allowing courts of law to<br />

have its say amounts to trivialising<br />

and politicising the issue.<br />

Today, some Nigerians<br />

do not know the difference<br />

between a corrupt serving<br />

government official and exofficial.<br />

Since the list is onesided,<br />

it would appear in the<br />

public court that they are<br />

being targeted for victimisation<br />

by the APC government,<br />

especially as the 2019 election<br />

is getting closer.<br />

Nigerians want to see corrupt<br />

government officials<br />

convicted and sentenced to<br />

jail, no matter the political<br />

party affiliation. But when a<br />

government in power shields<br />

ALL its party members and<br />

accuses other political party<br />

members of looting the treasury,<br />

it sounds theatrical and<br />

the objective of naming and<br />

shaming is not achieved.


20<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Politics<br />

2019: Non-performing lawmakers must not return - Archibong<br />

Henry Archibong is a member of the House of Representatives, representing Itu/Ibiono Ibom federal constituency of Akwa Ibom State. He was<br />

elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015. A medical doctor and a first term lawmaker, in this interview with ANIEFIOK<br />

UDONQUAK, recounts his experience in the green chamber of the National Assembly, his plans for his constituents, his response to allegations that<br />

he had not empowered his people and why he should be re-elected. He spoke after an interactive session with his constituents. Excerpts:<br />

How would you respond to allegations<br />

made by your constituents that you have<br />

not empowered them; that you have not<br />

been coming to interact with them as well<br />

as not implementing projects in the area?<br />

What you saw there is actually<br />

politics. I started by<br />

saying that among them<br />

there, none of them will<br />

be able to say what I<br />

have given to all of them. I can tell you<br />

that 70 percent of those that were seated<br />

there I had empowered them. For instance,<br />

even the man who sat next to me. I was<br />

the one who helped him to complete his<br />

PhD because politicians will never really<br />

tell you what you have done for them so<br />

that another person will not know. That is<br />

the reason I started by apologising to them<br />

and also that I have not been dealing with<br />

the media because I discovered that if you<br />

don’t blow you trumpet nobody will blow it<br />

for you. I discovered that if you give people<br />

money individually, as soon as they finish<br />

it, they take the money and you cannot do<br />

anything about it. For those who have been<br />

following me, between January this year<br />

and presently, I have given over 500 people<br />

about N25, 000 each but nobody mentioned<br />

it today. I was the first person that<br />

did empowerment programme. I brought<br />

78 tricycles to this constituency. I went to<br />

the market myself to select very poor traders<br />

and I empowered them with N20,000<br />

each to help them. Those traders am talking<br />

about are people if you go to their stalls,<br />

you see may be one or two items like maggi<br />

cubes and salts, just there and they were<br />

happy and I have also given a lot of sewing<br />

machines. Now, if I had known, I would<br />

have kept those things till today. But I am<br />

not a typical politician. I mentioned that I<br />

had done boreholes in Itu and Ibiono Local<br />

Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State.<br />

Currently, there are classroom blocks being<br />

constructed in Ibiono and there is an<br />

Information and Communication (ICT)<br />

Centre being constructed. I am the only<br />

person apart from Senator Bassey Albert<br />

that has built a constituency office. I have<br />

bought cars for people but when you buy<br />

car for one person and you don’t buy for<br />

others, those ones are not going to be<br />

happy with you. I have given some people<br />

jobs, I have given somebody a N15 million<br />

contract to be able to use it and empower<br />

others. But to my greatest shock, none of<br />

it was done. Currently, in my ward, I am<br />

building a two-bedroom flat for somebody.<br />

We have roofed the building. In Itu Local<br />

Government Area, I have had 10 people<br />

employed in federal appointments. None<br />

of them is coming to say all that. I have<br />

bought people cars in Ibiono, the other<br />

local government area that is part of the<br />

constituency and they are saying that I<br />

am only doing something for the people<br />

of Ibiono. How are they judging what I am<br />

doing? They are judging because I bought<br />

cars and I ask them and I said If I had given<br />

10 people employment, a life time opportunity,<br />

which is better? Is it the car or what?<br />

So people tend to associate how much you<br />

give to them with performance. They ask<br />

you for money and you give them. I gave<br />

students educational support, about 100<br />

of them; nobody is talking about it today.<br />

Henry Archibong<br />

I have two fibre boats and I have 10 other<br />

boats. I have 15 motorcycle pickups; I have<br />

mini buses that are also coming. Yes I have<br />

also sent people for social media training.<br />

For two years, I was throwing money at<br />

people who did not appreciate but now<br />

I have come back home and realise that<br />

in politics, you must tell people what you<br />

have done. And if you don’t tell them, at<br />

some point, I stopped giving individuals<br />

money because it did not make sense. So<br />

that is what I have learnt in politics, I can<br />

tell you that you can discountenance what<br />

they have said. I have heard a lot of advice<br />

they have given to me, which is okay which<br />

I am going to work with. But a lot of people<br />

will always tell you, you have not done anything<br />

as far as politics is concerned.<br />

You described the present National Assembly<br />

as one of the best; how is this so?<br />

Again talking about ranking membership,<br />

should we encourage a member to return<br />

to the National Assembly when such a<br />

member has nothing to show? And how<br />

many times should we allow our lawmakers<br />

to return?<br />

Constitutionally, there is no term limit for<br />

members of the National Assembly. I have<br />

just mentioned that some people have<br />

done fifth term and they are going for the<br />

sixth term, because they understand the<br />

politics of the National Assembly. Now<br />

if you send somebody for two terms and<br />

A particular project was<br />

in the budget worth N30<br />

million, an ICT centre, but<br />

when they were coming to<br />

defend the budget, I did not<br />

see it as part of the things<br />

they will defend, either they<br />

have started or not or the<br />

contract awarded<br />

the person does not perform, there is no<br />

reason to send him there again. But when<br />

you say people have not performed, it is<br />

relative. For instance, some people would<br />

base performance on how much you give<br />

to people, some would base performance<br />

on what they have been able to attract<br />

to the people. But some people will not<br />

know the dynamics that affect your performance.<br />

For example, I could not have<br />

brought any project in 2017 when there<br />

was no budget release for capital projects.<br />

Now, part of the things I did which I forgot<br />

to mention is, there is power project that<br />

I promised the people of Oku Iboku in Itu<br />

Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom<br />

State which they called me the other and<br />

said I should give them my contact person.<br />

I don’t even know the contractor. I went to<br />

the rural electrification agency to find out;<br />

they told me I had to go to the ministry of<br />

power. That means the project was not<br />

awarded because the minister says he did<br />

not do any project in 2017. A particular<br />

project was in the budget worth N30 million,<br />

an ICT centre, but when they were<br />

coming to defend the budget, I did not see it<br />

as part of the things they will defend, either<br />

they have started or not or the contract<br />

awarded. I did not always see it as an ongoing<br />

project. If they have not awarded, but<br />

luckily for me I saw my senior colleague,<br />

senator Ita Enang, and I said please, this<br />

is the problem, I have this project in the<br />

budget and I don’t even know where it is,<br />

and I have done everything to get to the<br />

minister to know where my project is but<br />

I could not. What the senator did was to<br />

turn to the minister and said, ‘This is my<br />

brother, he is the one representing me’<br />

and the minister said, minute it for me. So<br />

immediately I sent my secretary down, she<br />

just brought the duplicate and I signed on<br />

it and gave to the minister. To my greatest<br />

surprise, one week later, somebody was<br />

in my village to ask, can you show us the<br />

place for the ICT centre? Meaning that if<br />

Senator Ita Enang was not there, I would<br />

have lost that project, probably they could<br />

have taken it to somewhere else. Why was<br />

that possible because Ita Enang has been<br />

there and by his position he was able to<br />

influence that project for me. When we<br />

talk about sending people back, somebody<br />

may not be able to perform during his first<br />

term because he has not been able to learn<br />

his ropes but given his second term, he<br />

probably has learnt some lessons but performing<br />

members must return. I want to<br />

say that the National Assembly is all about<br />

lobbying. Let me tell you very simple thing<br />

I did that endeared me to people because<br />

sometimes you go to a particular office,<br />

you don’t see the people you are looking<br />

for. One day I came home and bought fish<br />

worth N400,000 and took them to Abuja<br />

and now parcel them into people’s offices.<br />

It was on that basis that people would call<br />

me to acknowledge that they have received<br />

what I brought. That was how I was<br />

able to be taken along for people that you<br />

cannot see. You need to lobby, the state has<br />

to lobby. For instance, we have been trying<br />

our best over the power project in Oku<br />

Iboku , because of funding problem, they<br />

have not even been able to come in and<br />

inspect the place. In terms of ranking, you<br />

must go back because if you go back, let us<br />

assume by June, the end of the legislative<br />

year, you will be able to know who is coming<br />

back, you would have been able to meet<br />

with the person even before the National<br />

Assembly starts, you would have been able<br />

to make friends, they would have known<br />

you. The other issue is that you may decide<br />

to support a particular candidate and if he<br />

loses, then you are in trouble. I know some<br />

ranking members who have no committees<br />

because of who they supported. So<br />

there are so many factors.<br />

How would you be sure that the people<br />

would vote for you to return to the National<br />

Assembly in 2019?<br />

I started by saying that the National Assembly<br />

is a very competitive place. It will take<br />

you upwards of two years to understand<br />

what happens there. One of the reasons<br />

probably I was not coming home very frequently<br />

was because you need to stabilise<br />

yourself and be able to know what to do.<br />

First of all, one of the strategies is to call<br />

meetings, I am going to call more meetings<br />

and I am going to talk to people. Like a lot<br />

of things people did not know happened. I<br />

am going to be able to explain to them because<br />

knowledge is key, information is very<br />

important. That is why I had to engage the<br />

media in Akwa Ibom because a lot of you,<br />

probably you see me on television, but you<br />

don’t know me. And I know that the media<br />

is important in terms of propagating what<br />

somebody has done. I have been doing<br />

what I have been doing and putting them<br />

inside my pocket. Nobody knows what I<br />

am doing. For example, the empowerment<br />

I did in 2016 was very unprecedented being<br />

the first ever in my constituency. Even<br />

the ones I have done between January and<br />

now, it is the first ever. But people don’t<br />

seem to get to know about it and so it looks<br />

like I am not performing. But am happy that<br />

even the leadership at the state level, they<br />

know what I have done. We are going to<br />

come closer to the people. Talking to the<br />

people and begging the people because<br />

politics is all about recognition and I can<br />

assure that I will return to the House of<br />

Representatives next year.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

21<br />

Politics<br />

Ambode’s Lagos in the eyes of corps members<br />

Our reporter sampled the views of some serving members of the National Youths Service Corps in Lagos<br />

State on the performance of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration and their expectations before the<br />

2019 general election. Below are excerpts of their responses as presented by LANATU JOY SHELTON.<br />

He has tried, but... - Victoria<br />

Mokwunyi<br />

Well with what I am seeing,<br />

the governor is working<br />

but I think he has to put<br />

in more effort because<br />

whenever you are doing<br />

something in a society as<br />

a governor you need to listen<br />

to the people in terms<br />

of areas of need. Well, in<br />

the area of road infrastructure,<br />

he is doing well and<br />

the project going on at<br />

Oshodi is great. He must be<br />

commended on that.<br />

However, I discovered<br />

that house rent in the state<br />

is very expensive. I think<br />

there should be an interface<br />

between the state<br />

government and landlords<br />

on how to look into this serious<br />

matter. When people<br />

cannot find accommodation<br />

and they resort to<br />

sleeping under the bridge,<br />

they create a social problem<br />

for government. But<br />

I am also touched by the<br />

recent Land Use Charge<br />

Law which has become<br />

very controversial. With<br />

this, I doubt it so much if<br />

government can face the<br />

landlords to say anything<br />

about soaring house rent.<br />

Again, in the area of education,<br />

although the state<br />

government is really trying,<br />

it should do more through<br />

prompt payment of teachers’<br />

salaries and rehabilitating<br />

more schools to provide<br />

a conducive environment<br />

for learning. I believe that<br />

when teachers are rightly<br />

motivated, they give their<br />

best and that will positively<br />

impact the society.<br />

Government must also<br />

as a matter of urgency, address<br />

the problem of filth<br />

in the state. Lagos environment<br />

is very dirty. There<br />

must be urgent step to<br />

address this environmental<br />

hazard. Government<br />

must establish a task force<br />

against act of indiscipline<br />

and indiscriminate dumping<br />

of refuse. People nowadays<br />

drop their refuse in<br />

unauthorised places and<br />

you wonder what has happened<br />

to people’s senses.<br />

I hear about the Cleaner<br />

Lagos Initiative that the<br />

state government is pursuing<br />

and the arrangement<br />

with a company called<br />

Visionscape; what I do not<br />

know is why, with all these<br />

the whole place is stinking.<br />

What is happening in Lagos<br />

can cause an epidemic.<br />

Some people attribute<br />

a lot of things happening<br />

in Lagos to huge population,<br />

but for me, I think<br />

that is even more of an<br />

advantage than otherwise.<br />

Yes the population<br />

is much but they can still<br />

make use of the population<br />

to their own advantage.<br />

You know human beings,<br />

I don’t understand; it’s like<br />

sometimes we need laws<br />

like strict laws in order for<br />

us to work accordingly.<br />

For me, the population<br />

does not matter; this population<br />

issue is not just in<br />

Lagos State; if you go to<br />

other states you still meet<br />

it there, so the population<br />

is not the problem. So, the<br />

major things I want the<br />

Ambo administration to<br />

address before the next<br />

election are the dirt in Lagos;<br />

high level indiscipline<br />

both in government and<br />

among the people; high<br />

cost of rent, etc.<br />

So, on whether Governor<br />

Ambode should come back<br />

or not in 2019, my take is<br />

that he should be returned<br />

provided he looks into the<br />

housing issue, environmental<br />

pollution and educational<br />

need of the people.<br />

He must check excesses of<br />

landlords - Kehinde Osas<br />

Interesting, am going to be<br />

making comparison of two<br />

different administrations<br />

in APC that I have seen- the<br />

Fashola era and the current<br />

Ambode’s. Now looking<br />

at the Fashola era there<br />

are some work that he did<br />

that majority of Lagosians<br />

are benefiting from today<br />

while there are some<br />

that he did that some of<br />

the people are crying and<br />

criticising him. For me, I<br />

would say that Fashola<br />

was probably one of the<br />

best governors that Lagos<br />

State has had, at least<br />

in this dispensation. He<br />

did so many things; he did<br />

some infrastructure work;<br />

he did well in cleaning up<br />

Lagos better than what I<br />

am seeing now. From my<br />

own point of view, during<br />

Fashola’s era Lagos was<br />

perfectly clean, if not all<br />

areas, most parts of Lagos<br />

was clean. I want Ambode<br />

to bring back LAWMA if<br />

the new people are not<br />

ready to work. I understand<br />

there are hitches<br />

here and there, but Lagos<br />

must not be allowed to<br />

sink before they are ready<br />

to deploy their expertise<br />

to give us the much-talked<br />

about cleaner Lagos.<br />

Sometimes, I wonder<br />

the sense in stopping the<br />

usual last Saturday of every<br />

month environmental<br />

sanitation exercise<br />

that used to be observed,<br />

which helped to keep Lagos<br />

clean.<br />

On the soaring house<br />

rent in Lagos, if Ambode<br />

himself cannot call out<br />

landlords to have meeting<br />

with them, he should set<br />

up a committee to do so on<br />

his behalf. Many Lagos residents<br />

are passing through<br />

hard times as a result of<br />

lost of jobs and general bad<br />

economy; there must be an<br />

urgent intervention by government<br />

in whatever form.<br />

The Fashola administration<br />

started a good job by<br />

rolling out Tenancy Law;<br />

the current administration<br />

can go a step further<br />

by insisting that agent and<br />

agreement fees which<br />

are contributing to the<br />

high cost of rents must<br />

be pruned. For instance,<br />

you will see an accommodation<br />

of say N120,000<br />

(One hundred and twenty<br />

thousand Naira only) and<br />

agent and agreement fees<br />

will push it up to N200,000<br />

(Two hundred thousand<br />

naira) and those agents<br />

liaise with the landlords,<br />

that’s why government<br />

should set up a committee<br />

with the landlords and<br />

have a talk with them. You<br />

see a two-bedroom flat of<br />

N350,000 and the agent<br />

and agreement fees is<br />

close to N500, 000 (Five<br />

hundred thousand naira);<br />

it does not make any<br />

sense. It is very absurd and<br />

disheartening. It’s wrong.<br />

Agent and agreement fees<br />

should be scraped.<br />

He has made some giant<br />

strides - Oche Anthony<br />

I want Ambode to come<br />

back in 2019 because of his<br />

commitment and the enormous<br />

job he has done so far<br />

in Lagos. He has touched<br />

every sector. Let me start<br />

with transportation; he has<br />

done a lot in the transport<br />

sector both in land and<br />

water. Many people who<br />

live in Ikorodu working<br />

in Victoria Island or Lekki<br />

can now resume work very<br />

early compared to what<br />

the case was in the past.<br />

So people in those areas<br />

can now reach their office<br />

early because Ambode has<br />

strengthened the water<br />

transportation. Going to<br />

Victoria Island, Ikorodu,<br />

Lekki you will see a lot of<br />

boats to convey workers<br />

from various places even<br />

down to Ekpe, Badagry<br />

and other places. There are<br />

quite other giant strides<br />

the Ambode administration<br />

has made in the last<br />

few years.<br />

Nigeria needs evidence-based policies - UI<br />

AKINREMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan<br />

The Federal Government<br />

of Nigeria<br />

has been urged to<br />

formulate researchdriven<br />

or evidence-based<br />

policies to solve problems<br />

facing the country.<br />

Ayodele Jegede, a professor<br />

and dean Faculty of the<br />

Social Sciences, University<br />

of Ibadan, who made the<br />

observation at a professional<br />

development workshop<br />

for Master of Research<br />

and Public Policy (MRPP)<br />

course facilitators held in<br />

the institution, said Nigerian<br />

leaders needed knowledge<br />

on research and policy formulation.<br />

While noting that imported<br />

policies may have<br />

failed in Nigeria because<br />

of their strangeness to the<br />

country’s situation, Jegede<br />

urged all Nigerian leaders<br />

to undertake course in Research<br />

and Public Policy to<br />

be able to understand how<br />

formulation of right policies<br />

based on evidence can solve<br />

identified problems.<br />

The University of Ibadan,<br />

University of Lagos and<br />

University of Jos are among<br />

13 universities in Africa offering<br />

the course aimed at<br />

developing critical minds towards<br />

solving policy problems<br />

in Nigeria and Africa.<br />

According to him, “It<br />

is proper for executives,<br />

governors, and Nigerian<br />

policy makers to have<br />

knowledge about relationship<br />

between research and<br />

public policies in order to<br />

fast track homegrown solutions<br />

to myriad of problems<br />

facing Nigeria.<br />

The professor noted<br />

that advanced societies<br />

formulates policies based<br />

on evidence and research<br />

outcomes and not based<br />

on “importation of policies<br />

as being done in Nigeria”.<br />

“Problem of conceptualisation,<br />

lack of vital<br />

evidence and absence of<br />

research, leading to problem<br />

of implementation,<br />

and policy inconsistency.<br />

Our leaders must have this<br />

knowledge to be able to<br />

come up with right policies<br />

that can adequately solve<br />

our problems,” he further<br />

said.


22<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Politics<br />

‘Nigeria has capacity to inject $2bn<br />

for completion of Ajaokuta Steel’<br />

Rt. Hon. Dennis Amadi (PDP-Enugu) was appointed chairman, Ad-hoc Committee assigned to investigate accrued interests<br />

from the sale of power assets involving some banks and operators. In this interview with KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Amadi, a<br />

certified engineer speaks on various issues ranging from Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, series of court injunctions cum<br />

interference with Legislative activities to the agenda before his Ad-hoc Committee which kick-starts this week. Excerpts:<br />

As a certified engineer and legislator,<br />

what was the underlying factor that<br />

prompted the House’s intervention<br />

in the resuscitation of Ajaokuta Steel<br />

Company?<br />

Well, if you remember at<br />

the inception of this<br />

8th Assembly, we had<br />

to draw a legislative<br />

agenda to intervene<br />

on some critical sectors of the economy<br />

to move Nigeria forward and this Assembly<br />

as ably led by Speaker Yakubu<br />

Dogara, a man who has the passion to<br />

move Nigeria forward economically and<br />

to bring sanity to the system; in terms of<br />

corporate governance and every other<br />

thing you can think of.<br />

Having said that, part of the revival<br />

issue is to get the low hanging fruits and<br />

when you talk of that Ajaokuta specifically<br />

is at the nerve centre of the recovery<br />

of our economy both for the immediate<br />

and in the long run.<br />

Ajaokuta is the centre that will interface<br />

with various sectors of our economy<br />

to automobile to manufacturing which<br />

ever sector you can think of and because<br />

of the comparative advantage we have<br />

as a country, where the bulk of the raw<br />

material is within reach at Itakpe iron<br />

ore at Itakpe. It has been a colossal loss<br />

to the country that has the potential to<br />

be a major exporter of steel to still be<br />

dependent on importation of steel both<br />

quality and substandard we receive in<br />

our markets today.<br />

It is at the heart beat of everyone of us<br />

at the House of Representatives to ensure<br />

that we put on record, a turnaround<br />

of that sector and you know as being projected<br />

by the minister that Ajaokuta is 98<br />

percent completed and we cannot just<br />

wish-away that mileage which has been<br />

achieved over the years. So in line with<br />

that, you keep hearing the issue of conception<br />

upon conception it has become<br />

a recurring decimal in the turnaround of<br />

that plant and from one company to the<br />

other and from one tying up a project<br />

to the other and what is the sector that<br />

is bearing the brunt? Nigerians are the<br />

ones losing.<br />

So because of that, the Speaker had<br />

embarked on oversight in February, and<br />

on the spot assessment was done. And<br />

he got information beyond what is being<br />

read on the papers and insight into what<br />

the issues are and the way forward.<br />

How will you describe the refusal of<br />

some ministers to appear before relevant<br />

Standing Committees to defend<br />

the <strong>2018</strong> Budget proposals?<br />

This is people’s parliament and a country<br />

being governed by Constitution and<br />

from what happened when the ministers<br />

were invited that the House then passed<br />

a vote of no confidence in the ministers<br />

and today’s plenary, some other issues<br />

have come on the table.<br />

The issue of relationship with companies<br />

at the centre of the concession,<br />

especially the consultants that are being<br />

highlighted to be in touch with the auditing<br />

and the processes involving that concession;<br />

where such is being alleged that<br />

such companies have been indicted in<br />

some other countries, for issue of integrity<br />

test, issue of corporate governance.<br />

Also, it was being mentioned that<br />

one of the companies being mentioned<br />

has a cross relationship in terms of being<br />

mentioned to have executed one of<br />

the two projects undertaken when the<br />

current Minister of Steel was in charge<br />

of his home state. So in view of the additional<br />

information that came up today,<br />

it became additional information to the<br />

committee that has been set up to investigate<br />

that matter.<br />

But the major point you have taken<br />

home today is the resolution that Ajaokuta<br />

is not that due for concession and<br />

what we should be talking about is to<br />

complete the project and now plan on the<br />

management of the project and partnership<br />

with well acknowledged managers<br />

of steel plants.<br />

How ready is the House and indeed<br />

the National Assembly to appropriate<br />

as much as $1.5 billion for the completion<br />

of the Steel company as alluded to<br />

by the experts invited to speak at the<br />

sectorial debate?<br />

Absolutely, we have the capacity to raise<br />

the fund. The revenue base of the government<br />

in terms of the internally generated<br />

revenue is improving daily and people are<br />

having more awareness in terms of tax<br />

issues, both as individuals and corporate<br />

entities; if not for anything, to grow Nigerian<br />

economy.<br />

It will take Nigeria 20 years to achieve<br />

the mileage that has been so far achieved<br />

in Ajaokuta more than 15 to 20 years ago<br />

as a matter of fact. It is a rare feat for any<br />

country in Africa to achieve that mileage.<br />

So in terms of raising $2 billion to revive<br />

that plant, it is something our government<br />

should be able to do. You have a<br />

lot of funds tied here and there that can<br />

be injected in Ajaokuta and get people<br />

employed-direct l and indirect labour in<br />

terms of market outreach and multiplier<br />

effect to boost the economy.<br />

If you remember that part of the issue<br />

we have today that has derailed the take<br />

off of Ajaokuta is the issue of we being<br />

compelled to use substandard steel. You<br />

see buildings collapse and we lose human<br />

beings and casualties at work site. This is<br />

as a result of the quality of steel being used<br />

Amadi<br />

in construction. You see Nigerians going to<br />

use iron or metal that corrosion has taken<br />

over, cans of drinks and different kinds of<br />

things that end up in melting companies<br />

that are scattered all over the country.<br />

That cannot even achieve 20 percent of<br />

quality steel for the Nigerian economy.<br />

But if Ajaokuta had been on board,<br />

we would have been a regional hub for<br />

Africa; we should even be able to supply<br />

steel beyond Africa.<br />

But what’s your take on the allegation<br />

that the Federal Government is being<br />

held down on the project by some external<br />

influence?<br />

I wouldn’t say there is an external force<br />

but if you look at why my colleagues are<br />

directing their energies on the Minister,<br />

it is on record that the quality of companies<br />

coming for this giant project to be<br />

conceded to them to manage that they<br />

do not have the capacity and technical<br />

knowledge, financial and managerial<br />

ability of any sort to manage the plant of<br />

that size. So it is not the issue of external<br />

influence, but it is an issue of scope.<br />

When we are also appointing people into<br />

sectors that are critical to our economy,<br />

we should also profile such persons to<br />

ensure they have the depth of knowledge<br />

and the passion to manage those<br />

ministries.<br />

It is the issue of passion; I refer specifically<br />

to the Ministry that is in charge of<br />

that process, if they have the requisite<br />

qualifications and insight of the projection<br />

of what this will do to our economy,<br />

I am sure they will have a change of mind<br />

in their thinking.<br />

How will you assess this administration’s<br />

policy on economic diversification?<br />

One thing is to have theoretical projection<br />

of that diversification and another thing<br />

is to have a political will to ensure that it<br />

is done effectively. When we talk of the<br />

diversification, we have achieved a little<br />

growth in the agric sector. But the way it is<br />

today, we have not been able to structure<br />

the interventions in agriculture to get to<br />

the root of the basic people. It does not<br />

filter down the line of peasant farmers,<br />

middle tier farmers, retail farmers that are<br />

within and all over Nigeria. They are not<br />

getting these benefits that are coming, in<br />

terms of intervention, grant and any social<br />

measure that government has to improve<br />

the lives of the citizens.<br />

What are the underlying factors fuelling<br />

the rancour between the Legislature<br />

and the Judiciary, as it relates to the<br />

recurring cases of court orders?<br />

We believe there are three arms of government:<br />

the Legislature, the Judiciary<br />

and the Executive. It is the duty of the<br />

Parliament to make laws and amend<br />

laws. So if there is an abuse of court<br />

processes, that tries to derail any arm of<br />

government from carrying out its statutory<br />

duties, that will be very inimical to<br />

our democracy.<br />

I don’t think that a Court will have<br />

right to tell a Parliament what they<br />

should do and what they should not do<br />

in terms of making laws for the interest<br />

of Nigerians.<br />

What’s your schedule for the assignment<br />

given by the House to probe<br />

allegations bordering on recovery of<br />

accrued interests from sales of power<br />

assets during the last administration?<br />

The Committee was mandated to carry<br />

out investigation on alleged suppression<br />

on remittance of interest accrued on the<br />

sale of Power Holding Company that<br />

has been privatised or sold on the floor<br />

of the House.<br />

I had moved a motion asking for investigation<br />

into the suppression of interest<br />

element attached to volumes of billions<br />

of naira. It actually affected some few<br />

banks playing within our country and<br />

as a Committee, we have just been appointed<br />

by the leadership and effective<br />

from next week, we will begin to put our<br />

acts together to take-off.<br />

The fulcrum of our mandate as a Committee<br />

is to investigate the alleged nonremittance<br />

of accrued interest due on<br />

the proceeds of sales of assets of Power<br />

Holding, the GENCOs and the DISCOs.<br />

There are specific banks where these<br />

proceeds were deposited by the buying<br />

public.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

23<br />

Politics<br />

‘This govt has failed; Atiku is the<br />

best option for Nigeria now’<br />

An emerging pressure group in the Niger Delta, Technocrats for Nigerian Progress (TNP), says the Buhari administration has failed and that Abubakar Atiku<br />

is the right person to come in to repair and re-unite Nigeria at this point in time. In an exclusive interview with IGNATIUS CHUKWU in Port Harcourt, the<br />

co-founder of the group, Josiah Gershon Dagogo, a onetime lecturer, administrator, communications consultant, now an activist says security of lives<br />

and property has become the most important issue on the burner, saying only Abubakar Atiku from the North is serious with restructuring agenda.<br />

Are the Technocrats forming a<br />

political party, pressure group,<br />

or they just want to be noticed?<br />

Certainly not to form<br />

any political party,<br />

but to offer help to<br />

anyone who wins,<br />

no matter who that<br />

person may be. The group is starting<br />

from the Niger Delta but is<br />

open to all Nigerians. Niger Delta<br />

is like any other part of Nigeria.<br />

We know that the story of the<br />

Niger Delta has been made to<br />

appear like that of agitation for<br />

resource control and restructuring,<br />

etc. but we are for issues that<br />

affect everybody in Nigeria. The<br />

burning issues at the moment<br />

are security and restructuring<br />

so that all parts of Nigeria could<br />

feel reassured to pursue national<br />

development.<br />

How do they assess the present<br />

administration since elections<br />

are coming close?<br />

Well, I put it straight; the first<br />

function of any government is to<br />

protect Nigerians, their lives and<br />

property. In this area, this group<br />

would tell you straight up that<br />

the present government has not<br />

done well at all. They campaigned<br />

to come and do better but they<br />

have not done well at all. Killings<br />

happened in Enugu, Benue, Kogi,<br />

Adamawa, etc. then you begin<br />

to ask, what is the FG doing with<br />

funds and intelligence? The government<br />

has failed. It has not<br />

lived up to its billing. They need a<br />

lot of help, but we do not know if<br />

they will accept; intelligent ideas,<br />

etc. We hear persons from some<br />

neighbouring countries are now<br />

in Nigeria, even having voters’<br />

cards. Some were found last<br />

week in Port Harcourt.<br />

Many aspirants are indicating<br />

intentions to take over, are there<br />

some that you support?<br />

I do not want to play politics with<br />

issues of security. The present<br />

administration needs help in<br />

security and any administration<br />

coming will also need help. I want<br />

to be non-partisan and every selfrespecting<br />

Nigerian should look<br />

at it that way. We should admit<br />

that there is now an urgent need<br />

to save Nigeria in terms of security<br />

and national unity, trust and<br />

cohesion which can only come<br />

through restructuring.<br />

Atiku came here last two weeks<br />

to declare intention; has your<br />

group anything to say?<br />

Abubakar Atiku is the one that<br />

can unite Nigeria. Nigerian poli-<br />

Dagogo<br />

tics is now all about religion, ethnicity<br />

and age. Now, some people<br />

make it look like if you are old,<br />

you have committed a crime. The<br />

question is; is it every old man that<br />

has stale ideas, or is it every young<br />

man that has good ideas? These<br />

are the issues we must ponder<br />

on. The major issue is ability to<br />

rescue Nigeria.<br />

In the past, most of did not<br />

give him any chance but now<br />

he is sounding reasonable. He is<br />

talking about restructuring. He is<br />

a unifier, not a divider. He is a gift<br />

to Nigeria at this point in time. He<br />

will restructure Nigeria and there<br />

is nothing wrong about that. It<br />

is not about dismembering but<br />

rearranging Nigeria. Some of our<br />

friends feel uncomfortable about<br />

this the word restructuring. They<br />

should have nothing to fear.<br />

I used to be a lecturer at some<br />

point and I used to travel up to<br />

Zaria in Kaduna State. This shows<br />

how wide the country is. To sit in<br />

Abuja and to think about progress<br />

and development in Afikpo<br />

in Abia State or Bonny in Rivers<br />

State is a long shot. The present<br />

arrangement is unitary. To have<br />

a Principal in Abuja who thinks<br />

he can decorate all the nooks and<br />

crannies is not possible. There is<br />

too much poverty and suffering.<br />

Restructuring will change some<br />

of these things and put people<br />

wherever they are and pay taxes<br />

to develop where they are.<br />

The time to restructure Nigeria<br />

is now, and Atiku may just be the<br />

right driver. Others may be paying<br />

lip-service, despite his age.<br />

What major things outside resource<br />

control would you like<br />

to see in a restructured Nigeria?<br />

In think the Nigerian presidential<br />

system should be reworked because<br />

it is too expensive, it even<br />

prohibits many people of ideas<br />

from throwing their hats into the<br />

ring. We need no more than 145<br />

deputies or Representatives; that<br />

is four per state. Only 36 of them<br />

will make up the Senate. The<br />

party with the majority forms the<br />

government. Our present system<br />

is obtuse and unwieldy.<br />

The grassroots need to wake<br />

up and fend for themselves while<br />

the FG will do four things: build<br />

Atiku himself<br />

has made one<br />

or two mistakes<br />

because some<br />

of them who<br />

benefited from<br />

the PDP left in<br />

anger, and that is<br />

not good<br />

critical infrastructure, handle<br />

diplomacy, taxation, law/order,<br />

and justice enforcement. All others<br />

should go to the states, county<br />

or city management committees.<br />

Is there any evidence that any<br />

man who mentions restructuring<br />

will be the new messiah?<br />

There is no evidence per se but<br />

there is a problem here; the way<br />

our political parties are arranged<br />

and the way the oppositions run<br />

their affairs, there is problem. I<br />

met Obed Mblaba in Durban in<br />

South Africa in 2010 and I did not<br />

understand their political system.<br />

The ANC is an old political<br />

party of over 100 years, arranging<br />

and re-arranging itself to be<br />

ever strong. They score those<br />

they elected into office on their<br />

platform right from their parties.<br />

If you do not meet a cutoff point,<br />

you do not get re-elected. That is<br />

what Nigeria needs to do quickly.<br />

We told Mblaba that the next<br />

time we would come, he would be<br />

doing a second term. He said no,<br />

that he had been scored poorly by<br />

his party on all the four areas; so,<br />

no second term for him. Imagine!<br />

South Africa knows who will<br />

be next to rule; after Nelson<br />

Mandela, they knew it would<br />

be Mbeki, Zuma, etc. Now, Cyril<br />

Ramaphosa is there. They have<br />

a system. Imagine when in Nigeria<br />

when President Umoru<br />

Musa Ya’Adua died, we all felt it<br />

would come straight to Goodluck<br />

Jonathan, but it became a serious<br />

matter. Was it astro-physics? I do<br />

not know what nature Nigeria<br />

is made of; simple things do not<br />

work here. Our parties need to<br />

reorganise to make for internal<br />

democracy, we must begin to<br />

assess political office holders to<br />

find them fit to continue. Until this<br />

begins to happen, it would remain<br />

a problem.<br />

Do we have the competence to<br />

score those in power?<br />

What competence do we need?<br />

Just to say, this is how much you<br />

have received, how did you spend<br />

it? When money is well spent, it<br />

does not hide. We may not have<br />

the will to direct our leaders aright<br />

but that’s the only way to go. It<br />

can be done, starting from the<br />

parties. Only those that can win<br />

elections from integrity should<br />

step into the public space to seek<br />

power. That is where to start.<br />

How does Atiku stand in the<br />

PDP to win the presidential<br />

primaries?<br />

I would not know exactly because<br />

Atiku himself has made one or<br />

two mistakes because some of<br />

them who benefited from the<br />

PDP left in anger, and that is not<br />

good. But now that he has come<br />

back, he looks like the best man<br />

for the job. He comes from the<br />

North East and has a good organisation.<br />

He has a chance especially<br />

by how the present administration<br />

has performed. It is not going<br />

to be a piece of cake; he has to<br />

work hard for the votes.<br />

Don’t you think; here we go<br />

again, choosing people blindly,<br />

only to regret?<br />

How else do we choose? Atiku<br />

has been around, from public service<br />

to governor to vice president<br />

for eight years. So long as we are<br />

prepared to vote him in, he will<br />

get there. Except to say, how do<br />

we manage him when he gets<br />

there? How do we ensure that<br />

other than flying the restructuring<br />

kite, he can keep to his promise so<br />

that this country will actually be<br />

managed for all people? That is<br />

the assignments for us all including<br />

the media. Through media<br />

reports, a government can sink,<br />

just as the present government<br />

will not have a chance to come<br />

back due to media reports. The<br />

people have had enough. I don’t<br />

remember in my life such an era of<br />

unwarranted attacks, suffering,<br />

etc in this country.<br />

I do not know how for example,<br />

Sam Ortom of Benue State<br />

will persuade his people to vote<br />

for them a second time.<br />

Is Rivers State sure for Atiku,<br />

since he came here first?<br />

He made the choice of Rivers<br />

State perhaps because of the<br />

charismatic nature of the governor<br />

here, Nyesom Wike, and his<br />

development projects. Wike has<br />

been on the side of justice so far.<br />

There are 36 states but we got<br />

lucky he chose us. Even the Vice<br />

President, Yemi Osinbajo, came<br />

here and gave kudos to Governor<br />

Wike. I think we owe so much to<br />

Wike for the recognition Rivers<br />

State has got now.<br />

Is there any other matter you<br />

want to add?<br />

Rivers people have to defend<br />

their votes. People should not just<br />

sit in hotel rooms to write election<br />

results. It cannot be tolerated. It<br />

happens only when good men<br />

do nothing, then bad men ride<br />

into power. People should not<br />

just sit at home but get out there<br />

and defend their rights, if they had<br />

any at all.


24<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

SundayInterview<br />

‘For 2019, Governor Emmanuel’s<br />

Ekerete Udoh is the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State. In this interview with ANIEFIOK UDONQUA<br />

industrialisation and prompt payment of workers’ salaries, retirees’ pension; the governor’s second term bid, and the task of media<br />

The 2019 elections are fast approaching and<br />

we have seen series of adoptions in favour<br />

of the governor, is governor Udom Emmanuel<br />

interested in a second term?<br />

Absolutely! He is re-contesting and<br />

he is not taking the opposition<br />

for granted, but he believes his<br />

good work will set him apart. The<br />

governor made a very profound<br />

statement during his endorsement by fathers<br />

of faith. He listed his scorecard and said “if I<br />

was able to do all these in three years, and<br />

given the lean resources available to me,<br />

should the train stop in 2019?’’ The resounding<br />

answer was, No! So, if he’s been able to<br />

achieve all these; capital projects all over the<br />

states, recurrent expenditure met on time,<br />

and a new tone and tenure in governance, a<br />

Christ-centric administration, a leader that<br />

connects with his people, a leader that is humble,<br />

that demystifies power, doesn’t allow<br />

power demystify him. He has done enough<br />

and the discerning people of Akwa Ibom state<br />

know that, majority of people of this state are<br />

Christians and they are observing him and will<br />

wholesomely return him. He campaigned on<br />

a broad platform that was encapsulated in<br />

five point agenda, and on each of the items<br />

on the agenda he has done exceedingly well.<br />

So to answer your question, yes! Governor<br />

Udom Emmanuel is going for a second term<br />

and given what he has done for the people<br />

of Akwa Ibom State, his disposition is that<br />

the people will return him overwhelmingly,<br />

the margin of victory in 2019 will be larger<br />

than 2015.<br />

What is the relationship between Governor<br />

Udom Emmanuel and the opposition parties<br />

in the state?<br />

The governor was elected to work for the<br />

people of Akwa Ibom State, so I am not seeing<br />

the opposition you are talking about, maybe<br />

they exist on social media. Akwa Ibom State is<br />

excitingly a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)<br />

state. So it’s possible that the opposition you<br />

are talking about live, breath and circulate<br />

within the social media. When the real opposition<br />

materialises, we would let the works<br />

of the governor speak for itself.<br />

Akwa Ibom State has been described as a<br />

PDP state because the party has been in<br />

power since 1999, given the fact that you<br />

have an opposition party in power at the<br />

centre, are you not afraid that it may work<br />

against PDP in 2019?<br />

Let me ask you a question; is your life better<br />

off in 2019 than 2015? Are Nigerians better<br />

off? So Nigerians will make a determination. If<br />

APC is the real opposition in Akwa Ibom State<br />

for instance, we will present our scorecard<br />

and allow Akwa Ibom people to compare<br />

where they have been in the past 18 years<br />

that PDP had been in government and look<br />

at the totality of the evolution of the Akwa<br />

Ibom man or woman and juxtapose that with<br />

what APC has done in four years elsewhere,<br />

where APC governors are owing in some<br />

states. I recall a director in one of the states<br />

in Nigeria committed suicide. In some states,<br />

the governors had to tell civil servants that<br />

they’ll be paid in tranches. I have seen states<br />

where wheelbarrows were commissioned as<br />

projects, and the last I checked they were not<br />

PDP states. I have seen a disengagement of<br />

the central motivating impulse of the social<br />

His disposition is<br />

that the people<br />

will return him<br />

overwhelmingly, the<br />

margin of victory in<br />

2019 will be larger<br />

than 2015<br />

contract, and those states are not PDP. I recall<br />

times before 1999 when I used to be very<br />

downcast about the physical ambience of the<br />

capital of my state, we were not inspirational,<br />

and we were just conditioned by that subservient<br />

mentality. Then PDP came in 1999,<br />

Governor Attah gave a purposeful leadership,<br />

handed over the baton to former Governor,<br />

now senator Godswill Akpabio, he brought<br />

about massive transformation, handed over<br />

to Governor Udom Emmanuel; fantastic<br />

expansion of transformation. The governor<br />

also came up with the DAKKADA philosophy,<br />

telling you; get up, do things differently,<br />

you don’t have to fall back to conventional<br />

wisdom. Wealth creation is not about doing<br />

things the same way, it’s about looking at<br />

things and proffering different suggestions.<br />

The US would not have gotten to where it is<br />

today if the people did not explore different<br />

approaches to doing things. So given all what<br />

PDP has done since 1999, and how Governor<br />

Udom Emmanuel is consolidating and<br />

expanding the layers, I don’t think Nigerians<br />

Udom Emmanuel, governor, Akwa-Ibom state<br />

and Akwa Ibomites in particular, would want<br />

to try an experiment that has failed the nation.<br />

I want to believe that President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari is a democrat, he understands<br />

democratic ethos and ideas, if PDP lost the<br />

election in 2015 and Jonathan did not deploy<br />

federal might, but conceded even before the<br />

final votes were counted, I want to believe<br />

that president Buhari, himself a patriot who<br />

fought for this country, put his life on the line<br />

for the unity of this country, he will not stand<br />

in the way of any state, where the majority<br />

of people have aligned themselves with any<br />

political party. He will not stop their express<br />

will from being respected. The president is<br />

not that kind of person.<br />

Looking at what people or even you may<br />

be considering as maladministration, are<br />

you seeing PDP returning to power at the<br />

centre?<br />

I am very optimistic, because Nigerians have become<br />

exceedingly politically sophisticated; Nigerians now<br />

have the capacity to distinguish falsehood and facts,<br />

Nigerians political culture is deepening. Nigerians for<br />

whatever reason they felt about Jonathan elected<br />

Buhari, and Nigerians now are beginning to say “Oh<br />

my God!”! Nigerians are now going through buyers’<br />

remorse because the change they were promised has<br />

not materialised. So there is no comparison, PDP is<br />

a party of doers and it’s a known facts. PDP stands a<br />

fantastic chance of reclaiming powers.<br />

There are insinuations that Governor Udom<br />

Emmanuel is actually underperforming due to<br />

inherited debt burden from the immediate past<br />

administration<br />

Thank God you asked me that question, take a look at<br />

the Punch newspaper of Tuesday March 20, <strong>2018</strong>, on<br />

the front-page, they have listed states that are debtor


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

25<br />

good work will set him apart’<br />

K, he speaks on the governor’s strides in the area of<br />

management in the era of social media. Excerpts:<br />

Akpabio?<br />

I’m surprised you asked that. The distinguished<br />

Senate Minority Leader, Godswill<br />

Obot Akpabio granted an interview recently<br />

where it was massively circulated over the<br />

social media, he said that he has the best of relationships<br />

with his successor. Those rumour<br />

are manufactured by certain entities to throw<br />

banana peels, but nobody would step on it<br />

because the two leaders are brothers who<br />

have emotionally invested in the advancement<br />

of Akwa Ibom State. The two leaders<br />

are bests of friends.<br />

states, Akwa Ibom state is not there, so, let people<br />

stop manufacturing lies, let people go by facts, this<br />

is from Punch.<br />

Sometimes some media aides of the governor<br />

actually go mudslinging in an attempt to respond<br />

to critics of the administration, this goes against<br />

your reported approach of letting facts judge.<br />

Don’t you think their approaches may constitute<br />

image burden?<br />

Once you run a media relations unit, there may be a<br />

majority opinion, and once in a while there may be<br />

a tiny itchy bitchy little opinion that is slightly not in<br />

consonance with the agreed narrative. So these are<br />

universal things, it happens all over the world. But it’s<br />

work in progress all over their world, but I am sure our<br />

guys are doing their best.<br />

What is the relationship between Governor Udom<br />

Emmanuel and his predecessor, Sen. Godswill<br />

In specific terms, what has this administration<br />

done to make you think that the<br />

governor would retain his seat come 2019?<br />

Because people are saying that the industrialization<br />

stories are only on papers.<br />

So the syringe manufacturing industry is on<br />

paper? Have you gone there to confirm this?<br />

The metering solutions are on papers? Those<br />

things are there! The same APC media apparatus<br />

that put out all those things should<br />

also ask some of their governors leading APC<br />

states what tangible things they have been<br />

able to establish. If you have a man that pays<br />

workers’ salaries as and when due, a man that<br />

pays regular pensions and gratuities, except<br />

for those still on bio-metric processes. This is<br />

a man that has published in National newspapers<br />

all the lists of those he had paid pensions<br />

and gratuities, you can go to the Accountant<br />

General’s office and get the list. This is the<br />

governor that the first task he performed as<br />

governor was to clear the backlog of pensions<br />

and gratuities dating back from 2001-2011,<br />

he didn’t have to do that, he wasn’t the governor<br />

as at the time, but as a product of parents<br />

who were both teachers, he had to do that.<br />

This is a man that won’t go to bed feeling happy<br />

if workers’ salaries are not paid promptly.<br />

He believes that a little thing as payment of<br />

WAEC fee can determine the future of a child.<br />

And the last event when he was endorsed by<br />

fathers of faith, he sadly recalled his smart<br />

but poor classmate whose parents could not<br />

afford WAEC fee and whose education halted<br />

because of that. So for a governor to budget<br />

over N600m yearly for payment of WAEC<br />

fees for children across the state, it means<br />

that he wants a level playing level field for<br />

all Akwa Ibom sons and daughters to aspire.<br />

Let’s talk about the relationship between<br />

the governor and the media in Akwa Ibom<br />

State; we understand he hardly reads<br />

newspapers<br />

Where did you get that from? The governor<br />

respects and adores and appreciates the media<br />

community in Akwa Ibom State. Don’t forget<br />

that corporate communication was part<br />

of his responsibilities as Director at Zenith<br />

Bank. He understands the role of the media,<br />

the world of corporate communications and<br />

media relations, so whoever told you that is<br />

another manufacturer of pieces of junks.<br />

How is it like, operating as an image maker<br />

of the governor in a social media era?<br />

The experience has been interesting and<br />

exciting. Operating as an image maker or the<br />

spokesperson to the governor in the age of<br />

social media, where ethical considerations are<br />

all but desirable proposition but not attainable.<br />

Where somebody with a smart phone and an<br />

Ekerete Udoh, chief press secretary<br />

insidious thought process, somebody who<br />

wants to intentionally and maliciously create<br />

a public relation nightmare, can just manufacture<br />

a piece of lie and throw it out there on the<br />

social media and give it wings to fly and even<br />

very intellectually astute people would believe<br />

those kind of very obtuse and insidious as a<br />

fact. So, that is the major challenge, but God<br />

has also given us the presence of mind to be<br />

able to handle those kinds of issues. But the<br />

normal conventional media that you and I<br />

belong to, the world of mainstream journalism<br />

has been wonderful, I have had a wonderful<br />

and very robust relationship with my brothers<br />

in the media, and you guys have supported the<br />

governor on your media. However, there are<br />

certain areas that we disagree, but overall, I<br />

would say it’s been pretty exciting. It means<br />

I didn’t spend 32 years in journalism for nothing;<br />

those years prepared me for moments like<br />

these. The media terrain in Akwa Ibom state<br />

has been very interesting; I think we are the<br />

only state where it is fashionable in the part of<br />

the country for some ’practicing journalists’<br />

to ignore certain ethical foundations that you<br />

and I were taught. In a state where there are<br />

over 100 tabloids and publications whose<br />

motivation may not be to edify the state or<br />

to promote and project the ideals which this<br />

state represents, but whose intention may be<br />

to satisfy the ‘he who pays the piper’; somebody<br />

gave you money to produce a paper and<br />

tells you this is what I want you to put there,<br />

front-page to back page, and the fellow is not<br />

trained in the profession as you and I have<br />

been, he is very likely to do certain things that<br />

you and I cannot do. I think we are the only<br />

state where journalists or people who pass<br />

themselves off as journalists just take delight<br />

in intentionally de-marketing the state to<br />

satisfy a certain political interest, but so far, the<br />

discerning majority of Akwa Ibom people have<br />

the capacity to separate facts from fiction.<br />

It is alleged that the government fraternizes<br />

with the opposition media; that the<br />

government is actually cuddling them in<br />

order to curry their favor, while neglecting<br />

the mainstream media. Don’t you think this<br />

may motivate them to consider their trade<br />

lucrative?<br />

That is news to me, I am not aware of government<br />

cuddling a particular layer of the media<br />

community, but what government does is<br />

to disseminate information using as many<br />

media platforms as possible to project what<br />

the governor is doing. If once in a while you<br />

see certain things in some papers that may<br />

be considered opposition, it goes with the<br />

saying that if you want to catch a thief, you<br />

use things that he likes to catch him. so if<br />

somebody has been manifestly lying against<br />

you, using a particular medium, and certain<br />

people read those things, maybe once in a<br />

while you need to tell the people the truth. But<br />

I know I deal with media across lines, but I am<br />

a stickler for professionalism, I try to operate<br />

along those lines.<br />

How have been able to leverage on the<br />

emerging role of the social media in shaping<br />

public opinion? Or do you see social media<br />

as an aberration?<br />

No! The social media is not an aberration, as<br />

a matter of fact; that is the new frontier, and<br />

any journalist worth his name and training<br />

who has not actively come to terms with the<br />

fact that the social media has come to stay<br />

and it is shaping public opinion, shaping the<br />

contours of governance, is possibly not ready<br />

for prime time. But users have to create their<br />

narratives and ensure that their voices are<br />

heard in the cacophony of the entire crack<br />

that makes up the social media platforms.<br />

The president of the country that I lived for 17<br />

years, Donald Trump makes use of the social<br />

media, he tweets. And that’s a new frontier,<br />

but the challenging part of it for image makers<br />

is that the boundaries are expansive, you<br />

can’t control, no restraint. But on the whole,<br />

it’s a major platform that no responsible image<br />

maker can discountenance.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

25<br />

24<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

SundayInterview<br />

‘For 2019, Governor Emmanuel’s good work will set him apart’<br />

Ekerete Udoh is the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State. In this interview with ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, he speaks on the governor’s strides in the area of<br />

industrialisation and prompt payment of workers’ salaries, retirees’ pension; the governor’s second term bid, and the task of media management in the era of social media. Excerpts:<br />

The 2019 elections are fast approaching and<br />

we have seen series of adoptions in favour<br />

of the governor, is governor Udom Emmanuel<br />

interested in a second term?<br />

Absolutely! He is re-contesting and<br />

he is not taking the opposition<br />

for granted, but he believes his<br />

good work will set him apart. The<br />

governor made a very profound<br />

statement during his endorsement by fathers<br />

of faith. He listed his scorecard and said “if I<br />

was able to do all these in three years, and<br />

given the lean resources available to me,<br />

should the train stop in 2019?’’ The resounding<br />

answer was, No! So, if he’s been able to<br />

achieve all these; capital projects all over the<br />

states, recurrent expenditure met on time,<br />

and a new tone and tenure in governance, a<br />

Christ-centric administration, a leader that<br />

connects with his people, a leader that is humble,<br />

that demystifies power, doesn’t allow<br />

power demystify him. He has done enough<br />

and the discerning people of Akwa Ibom state<br />

know that, majority of people of this state are<br />

Christians and they are observing him and will<br />

wholesomely return him. He campaigned on<br />

a broad platform that was encapsulated in<br />

five point agenda, and on each of the items<br />

on the agenda he has done exceedingly well.<br />

So to answer your question, yes! Governor<br />

Udom Emmanuel is going for a second term<br />

and given what he has done for the people<br />

of Akwa Ibom State, his disposition is that<br />

the people will return him overwhelmingly,<br />

the margin of victory in 2019 will be larger<br />

than 2015.<br />

What is the relationship between Governor<br />

Udom Emmanuel and the opposition parties<br />

in the state?<br />

The governor was elected to work for the<br />

people of Akwa Ibom State, so I am not seeing<br />

the opposition you are talking about, maybe<br />

they exist on social media. Akwa Ibom State is<br />

excitingly a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)<br />

state. So it’s possible that the opposition you<br />

are talking about live, breath and circulate<br />

within the social media. When the real opposition<br />

materialises, we would let the works<br />

of the governor speak for itself.<br />

Akwa Ibom State has been described as a<br />

PDP state because the party has been in<br />

power since 1999, given the fact that you<br />

have an opposition party in power at the<br />

centre, are you not afraid that it may work<br />

against PDP in 2019?<br />

Let me ask you a question; is your life better<br />

off in 2019 than 2015? Are Nigerians better<br />

off? So Nigerians will make a determination. If<br />

APC is the real opposition in Akwa Ibom State<br />

for instance, we will present our scorecard<br />

and allow Akwa Ibom people to compare<br />

where they have been in the past 18 years<br />

that PDP had been in government and look<br />

at the totality of the evolution of the Akwa<br />

Ibom man or woman and juxtapose that with<br />

what APC has done in four years elsewhere,<br />

where APC governors are owing in some<br />

states. I recall a director in one of the states<br />

in Nigeria committed suicide. In some states,<br />

the governors had to tell civil servants that<br />

they’ll be paid in tranches. I have seen states<br />

where wheelbarrows were commissioned as<br />

projects, and the last I checked they were not<br />

PDP states. I have seen a disengagement of<br />

the central motivating impulse of the social<br />

His disposition is<br />

that the people<br />

will return him<br />

overwhelmingly, the<br />

margin of victory in<br />

2019 will be larger<br />

than 2015<br />

contract, and those states are not PDP. I recall<br />

times before 1999 when I used to be very<br />

downcast about the physical ambience of the<br />

capital of my state, we were not inspirational,<br />

and we were just conditioned by that subservient<br />

mentality. Then PDP came in 1999,<br />

Governor Attah gave a purposeful leadership,<br />

handed over the baton to former Governor,<br />

now senator Godswill Akpabio, he brought<br />

about massive transformation, handed over<br />

to Governor Udom Emmanuel; fantastic<br />

expansion of transformation. The governor<br />

also came up with the DAKKADA philosophy,<br />

telling you; get up, do things differently,<br />

you don’t have to fall back to conventional<br />

wisdom. Wealth creation is not about doing<br />

things the same way, it’s about looking at<br />

things and proffering different suggestions.<br />

The US would not have gotten to where it is<br />

today if the people did not explore different<br />

approaches to doing things. So given all what<br />

PDP has done since 1999, and how Governor<br />

Udom Emmanuel is consolidating and<br />

expanding the layers, I don’t think Nigerians<br />

Udom Emmanuel, governor, Akwa-Ibom state<br />

and Akwa Ibomites in particular, would want<br />

to try an experiment that has failed the nation.<br />

I want to believe that President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari is a democrat, he understands<br />

democratic ethos and ideas, if PDP lost the<br />

election in 2015 and Jonathan did not deploy<br />

federal might, but conceded even before the<br />

final votes were counted, I want to believe<br />

that president Buhari, himself a patriot who<br />

fought for this country, put his life on the line<br />

for the unity of this country, he will not stand<br />

in the way of any state, where the majority<br />

of people have aligned themselves with any<br />

political party. He will not stop their express<br />

will from being respected. The president is<br />

not that kind of person.<br />

Looking at what people or even you may<br />

be considering as maladministration, are<br />

you seeing PDP returning to power at the<br />

centre?<br />

I am very optimistic, because Nigerians have become<br />

exceedingly politically sophisticated; Nigerians now<br />

have the capacity to distinguish falsehood and facts,<br />

Nigerians political culture is deepening. Nigerians for<br />

whatever reason they felt about Jonathan elected<br />

Buhari, and Nigerians now are beginning to say “Oh<br />

my God!”! Nigerians are now going through buyers’<br />

remorse because the change they were promised has<br />

not materialised. So there is no comparison, PDP is<br />

a party of doers and it’s a known facts. PDP stands a<br />

fantastic chance of reclaiming powers.<br />

There are insinuations that Governor Udom<br />

Emmanuel is actually underperforming due to<br />

inherited debt burden from the immediate past<br />

administration<br />

Thank God you asked me that question, take a look at<br />

the Punch newspaper of Tuesday March 20, <strong>2018</strong>, on<br />

the front-page, they have listed states that are debtor<br />

states, Akwa Ibom state is not there, so, let people<br />

stop manufacturing lies, let people go by facts, this<br />

is from Punch.<br />

Sometimes some media aides of the governor<br />

actually go mudslinging in an attempt to respond<br />

to critics of the administration, this goes against<br />

your reported approach of letting facts judge.<br />

Don’t you think their approaches may constitute<br />

image burden?<br />

Once you run a media relations unit, there may be a<br />

majority opinion, and once in a while there may be<br />

a tiny itchy bitchy little opinion that is slightly not in<br />

consonance with the agreed narrative. So these are<br />

universal things, it happens all over the world. But it’s<br />

work in progress all over their world, but I am sure our<br />

guys are doing their best.<br />

What is the relationship between Governor Udom<br />

Emmanuel and his predecessor, Sen. Godswill<br />

Akpabio?<br />

I’m surprised you asked that. The distinguished<br />

Senate Minority Leader, Godswill<br />

Obot Akpabio granted an interview recently<br />

where it was massively circulated over the<br />

social media, he said that he has the best of relationships<br />

with his successor. Those rumour<br />

are manufactured by certain entities to throw<br />

banana peels, but nobody would step on it<br />

because the two leaders are brothers who<br />

have emotionally invested in the advancement<br />

of Akwa Ibom State. The two leaders<br />

are bests of friends.<br />

In specific terms, what has this administration<br />

done to make you think that the<br />

governor would retain his seat come 2019?<br />

Because people are saying that the industrialization<br />

stories are only on papers.<br />

So the syringe manufacturing industry is on<br />

paper? Have you gone there to confirm this?<br />

The metering solutions are on papers? Those<br />

things are there! The same APC media apparatus<br />

that put out all those things should<br />

also ask some of their governors leading APC<br />

states what tangible things they have been<br />

able to establish. If you have a man that pays<br />

workers’ salaries as and when due, a man that<br />

pays regular pensions and gratuities, except<br />

for those still on bio-metric processes. This is<br />

a man that has published in National newspapers<br />

all the lists of those he had paid pensions<br />

and gratuities, you can go to the Accountant<br />

General’s office and get the list. This is the<br />

governor that the first task he performed as<br />

governor was to clear the backlog of pensions<br />

and gratuities dating back from 2001-2011,<br />

he didn’t have to do that, he wasn’t the governor<br />

as at the time, but as a product of parents<br />

who were both teachers, he had to do that.<br />

This is a man that won’t go to bed feeling happy<br />

if workers’ salaries are not paid promptly.<br />

He believes that a little thing as payment of<br />

WAEC fee can determine the future of a child.<br />

And the last event when he was endorsed by<br />

fathers of faith, he sadly recalled his smart<br />

but poor classmate whose parents could not<br />

afford WAEC fee and whose education halted<br />

because of that. So for a governor to budget<br />

over N600m yearly for payment of WAEC<br />

fees for children across the state, it means<br />

that he wants a level playing level field for<br />

all Akwa Ibom sons and daughters to aspire.<br />

Let’s talk about the relationship between<br />

the governor and the media in Akwa Ibom<br />

State; we understand he hardly reads<br />

newspapers<br />

Where did you get that from? The governor<br />

respects and adores and appreciates the media<br />

community in Akwa Ibom State. Don’t forget<br />

that corporate communication was part<br />

of his responsibilities as Director at Zenith<br />

Bank. He understands the role of the media,<br />

the world of corporate communications and<br />

media relations, so whoever told you that is<br />

another manufacturer of pieces of junks.<br />

How is it like, operating as an image maker<br />

of the governor in a social media era?<br />

The experience has been interesting and<br />

exciting. Operating as an image maker or the<br />

spokesperson to the governor in the age of<br />

social media, where ethical considerations are<br />

all but desirable proposition but not attainable.<br />

Where somebody with a smart phone and an<br />

Ekerete Udoh, chief press secretary<br />

insidious thought process, somebody who<br />

wants to intentionally and maliciously create<br />

a public relation nightmare, can just manufacture<br />

a piece of lie and throw it out there on the<br />

social media and give it wings to fly and even<br />

very intellectually astute people would believe<br />

those kind of very obtuse and insidious as a<br />

fact. So, that is the major challenge, but God<br />

has also given us the presence of mind to be<br />

able to handle those kinds of issues. But the<br />

normal conventional media that you and I<br />

belong to, the world of mainstream journalism<br />

has been wonderful, I have had a wonderful<br />

and very robust relationship with my brothers<br />

in the media, and you guys have supported the<br />

governor on your media. However, there are<br />

certain areas that we disagree, but overall, I<br />

would say it’s been pretty exciting. It means<br />

I didn’t spend 32 years in journalism for nothing;<br />

those years prepared me for moments like<br />

these. The media terrain in Akwa Ibom state<br />

has been very interesting; I think we are the<br />

only state where it is fashionable in the part of<br />

the country for some ’practicing journalists’<br />

to ignore certain ethical foundations that you<br />

and I were taught. In a state where there are<br />

over 100 tabloids and publications whose<br />

motivation may not be to edify the state or<br />

to promote and project the ideals which this<br />

state represents, but whose intention may be<br />

to satisfy the ‘he who pays the piper’; somebody<br />

gave you money to produce a paper and<br />

tells you this is what I want you to put there,<br />

front-page to back page, and the fellow is not<br />

trained in the profession as you and I have<br />

been, he is very likely to do certain things that<br />

you and I cannot do. I think we are the only<br />

state where journalists or people who pass<br />

themselves off as journalists just take delight<br />

in intentionally de-marketing the state to<br />

satisfy a certain political interest, but so far, the<br />

discerning majority of Akwa Ibom people have<br />

the capacity to separate facts from fiction.<br />

It is alleged that the government fraternizes<br />

with the opposition media; that the<br />

government is actually cuddling them in<br />

order to curry their favor, while neglecting<br />

the mainstream media. Don’t you think this<br />

may motivate them to consider their trade<br />

lucrative?<br />

That is news to me, I am not aware of government<br />

cuddling a particular layer of the media<br />

community, but what government does is<br />

to disseminate information using as many<br />

media platforms as possible to project what<br />

the governor is doing. If once in a while you<br />

see certain things in some papers that may<br />

be considered opposition, it goes with the<br />

saying that if you want to catch a thief, you<br />

use things that he likes to catch him. so if<br />

somebody has been manifestly lying against<br />

you, using a particular medium, and certain<br />

people read those things, maybe once in a<br />

while you need to tell the people the truth. But<br />

I know I deal with media across lines, but I am<br />

a stickler for professionalism, I try to operate<br />

along those lines.<br />

How have been able to leverage on the<br />

emerging role of the social media in shaping<br />

public opinion? Or do you see social media<br />

as an aberration?<br />

No! The social media is not an aberration, as<br />

a matter of fact; that is the new frontier, and<br />

any journalist worth his name and training<br />

who has not actively come to terms with the<br />

fact that the social media has come to stay<br />

and it is shaping public opinion, shaping the<br />

contours of governance, is possibly not ready<br />

for prime time. But users have to create their<br />

narratives and ensure that their voices are<br />

heard in the cacophony of the entire crack<br />

that makes up the social media platforms.<br />

The president of the country that I lived for 17<br />

years, Donald Trump makes use of the social<br />

media, he tweets. And that’s a new frontier,<br />

but the challenging part of it for image makers<br />

is that the boundaries are expansive, you<br />

can’t control, no restraint. But on the whole,<br />

it’s a major platform that no responsible image<br />

maker can discountenance.


26<br />

C002D5556 Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

AssemblyWatch<br />

From the Red Chamber<br />

With<br />

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE<br />

Barring any unforeseen<br />

circumstances<br />

Senate<br />

will resume from<br />

Easter break on<br />

Tuesday, <strong>Apr</strong>il 10 as governance<br />

will be relegated to<br />

the back stage while politics<br />

occupies centre stage.<br />

Consequently, senators<br />

in the All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC) caucus who are<br />

loyal to President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari and are bent<br />

on defending him on the<br />

controversial amendment<br />

to the Electoral Act, will spoil<br />

for war with Pro-Saraki lawmakers.<br />

Attention will shift to the<br />

Samuel Anyanwu-led Committee<br />

on Ethics, Privileges<br />

and Public Petitions, which is<br />

expected to submit four reports<br />

on various allegations<br />

levelled against Pro-Buhari<br />

senators. These include:<br />

As pro-Buhari, pro-Saraki senators spoil for war<br />

alleged defamation of the<br />

Red Chamber by Ovie Omo-<br />

Agege (APC, Delta State),<br />

plot by the sacked Chairman,<br />

Northern Senators<br />

Forum, Abdullahi Adamu<br />

(APC, Nasarawa State) and<br />

other Pro-Buhari senators<br />

to destabilize the Senate<br />

leadership, alleged attempts<br />

to compromise lawmakers<br />

to abandon plans to override<br />

President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari’s veto of the Electoral<br />

Act Amendment Bill<br />

and another probe into the<br />

activities of Parliamentary<br />

Support Group for President<br />

Buhari (Senate).<br />

However, feelers from the<br />

National Assembly indicate<br />

that the panel may not be in<br />

a hurry to submit its report<br />

after all. For the Saraki-led<br />

Senate, referring the cases<br />

to the committee was strategic,<br />

as it was meant to<br />

weaken and reduce the support<br />

base of the Pro-Buhari<br />

senators and portray them<br />

in bad light.<br />

For Saraki, this is a battle<br />

for political survival. Should<br />

Pro-Buhari senators succeed<br />

in galvanising support<br />

amongst their colleagues<br />

to stop moves to override<br />

the president’s veto, then<br />

he should kiss the nation’s<br />

Number Three position<br />

goodbye as this would serve<br />

as a launch pad to impeach<br />

him.<br />

Meanwhile, death has not<br />

been kind to the Pro-Buhari<br />

senators. This followed the<br />

demise of yet another of<br />

their member, Bukar Mustapha,<br />

last week, barely two<br />

weeks after the Chairman<br />

Senate Committee on Poverty<br />

Alleviation and Social<br />

Welfare, Ali Wakili, passed<br />

on.<br />

The 63-year-old All Progressives<br />

Congress (APC)<br />

senator who represented<br />

President Muhammadu Buhari’s<br />

Senatorial District of<br />

Katsina North, died after a<br />

brief illness.<br />

Until his demise, he<br />

chaired the Senate Committee<br />

on Capital Market. Coincidentally,<br />

his predecessor,<br />

Isiaka Adeleke, also died in<br />

the same capacity last year.<br />

The development brings<br />

to four the number of lawmakers<br />

that have passed<br />

on in the Eighth Senate; the<br />

first being Ahmed Zanna.<br />

Again, they were all elected<br />

under the platform of the<br />

governing All Progressives<br />

Congress (APC).<br />

In line with parliamentary<br />

practice, the upper legislative<br />

chamber is expected to<br />

suspend plenary on Tuesday,<br />

<strong>Apr</strong>il 10, and hold a<br />

valedictory session in Mustapha’s<br />

honour on Wednesday<br />

<strong>Apr</strong>il 11.<br />

Another issue that will top<br />

agenda is President Buhari’s<br />

approval for the release of<br />

$1 billion from the Excess<br />

Crude Account (ECA) to fight<br />

the rising spate of insecurity<br />

across the country.<br />

Recall that in December<br />

2017 when the National<br />

Economic Council (NEC)<br />

authorized the Federal Government<br />

to withdraw $1 billion<br />

from the Excess Crude<br />

Account to tackle security<br />

challenges in the country,<br />

Saraki had assured that<br />

the money would not be<br />

withdrawn without National<br />

Assembly approval. He also<br />

promised that the issue<br />

would be treated as a matter<br />

of priority upon resumption<br />

in January <strong>2018</strong>. But that did<br />

not happen, as the issue was<br />

swept under the carpet.<br />

“Our party will not spend<br />

money that did not follow<br />

due process. I am assuring<br />

you that the money will not<br />

be spent until we come here<br />

and debate on it,” Saraki told<br />

the Deputy Senate President,<br />

Ike Ekweremadu who<br />

observed that deliberation<br />

on the matter was not listed<br />

on the Order Paper.<br />

As they resume, lawmakers,<br />

especially those elected<br />

on the platform of the main<br />

opposition Peoples Democratic<br />

Party (PDP) are expected<br />

to bring the issue<br />

to the front burner. They<br />

will use their numerical<br />

strength of 41 members<br />

(representing 38 percent)<br />

in the Senate to make their<br />

position known.<br />

On its part, the party has<br />

urged the National Assembly<br />

to commence appropriate<br />

constitutional legislative<br />

actions against the government<br />

for unilaterally approving<br />

the release of the fund<br />

without allowing application<br />

of legislative instrument. It<br />

also called on Nigerians to<br />

reject the approval, saying<br />

it was a renewed attempt to<br />

use the money to finance the<br />

All Progressives Congress’s<br />

national convention and<br />

2019 campaigns.<br />

While calling for an independent<br />

investigation into<br />

the processes of release and<br />

utilisation of all special funds<br />

for war against insurgency<br />

in the last three years, it<br />

expressed concerns that the<br />

same administration that<br />

claimed to have technically<br />

defeated the insurgents still<br />

approved such amount to<br />

fight insurgency.<br />

NASS Open week timely but should include spiritual cleansing<br />

From the Green House<br />

With<br />

I<br />

was privileged to witness the<br />

recent inauguration of the<br />

Committee saddled with the<br />

responsibility of National Assembly<br />

Open Week, which coincides<br />

with the commemoration of<br />

the 3rd year anniversary of 8th Assembly.<br />

The Committee is chaired<br />

by someone I hold so much in high<br />

esteem, Distinguished Senator Ahmad<br />

Ibrahim Lawan (APC-Yobe),<br />

who doubles as the Leader of<br />

the Senate. Haven reeled out the<br />

terms of reference for the Open<br />

Week, I wish to acknowledge that<br />

the exercise is well-conceived and<br />

timely, especially with the level<br />

of disenchantment between the<br />

Legislature, Executive and Judiciary<br />

arms of government. Going<br />

by Senator Lawan’s pedigree<br />

during the investigation into the<br />

operations of Bureau of Public Enterprises<br />

(BPE) through which he<br />

resisted all forms of interference<br />

and scandal, he can raise his shoulder<br />

high in steering the affairs of<br />

the National Assembly Open Week<br />

committee. Of course, there are<br />

issues that should be addressed<br />

during the week-long programme,<br />

including how best to address series<br />

of scandal hanging on the neck<br />

of the Legislature, ranging from<br />

the $50,000 and $30,000 bribes<br />

allegedly received by some Senators<br />

and members of the House<br />

to alter the Electoral Act Amendment<br />

Bill; and the recent report<br />

about the four Senators and four<br />

members of the House involved in<br />

the $96,350 foreign training scandal,<br />

sponsored by Nigeria Bulk<br />

Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) in<br />

November 2017 to attend the 43rd<br />

international training programme<br />

on utility regulation and strategy,<br />

though cancelled for undisclosed<br />

reasons. According to the report,<br />

each of the four Senators and four<br />

Members would have pocketed<br />

the sum of $9,500 (N3.420 million)<br />

and $9,000 (N3.240 million<br />

at N360/$) for 10 days.<br />

Some have insinuated that<br />

these and other unexplained<br />

reasons were responsible for the<br />

resentment by some Ministers<br />

and Heads of agencies to appear<br />

before the Standing Committees<br />

to defend their budgets and even<br />

appear at either investigative<br />

public hearings and honour invitations.<br />

The general public including<br />

the Media should be educated and<br />

convinced public on the justifications<br />

for such sponsorship and<br />

draw lines on issues of conflict of<br />

interests.<br />

We can never forget in a hurry,<br />

the issues surrounding budget<br />

padding and accusation and<br />

counter-accusation over insertion<br />

of some bogus amounts in<br />

the federal budget. While I align<br />

absolutely with the National Assembly<br />

that the power of the<br />

purse belongs to the Legislature,<br />

but the leadership of the National<br />

Assembly which stands as the<br />

symbol of democracy should take<br />

the bull by the horn and fearlessly<br />

ensure that we get value for tax<br />

payers’ fund. I’m still at loss over<br />

what the trillions of naira expended<br />

yearly on various projects<br />

are used for? Even if the Executive<br />

arm which gets approximately<br />

N8.350 billion out of the N8.6 trillion<br />

of the entire <strong>2018</strong> proposed<br />

budget fail to be prudent in its<br />

implementation, the onus is on<br />

the National Assembly to demand<br />

for accountability and transparency<br />

in the course of the oversight<br />

and bring it to public glare without<br />

any element of compromise<br />

and gratification. But what do<br />

we see for all of these? Soiled<br />

hands everywhere! The time is<br />

now to restore public confidence<br />

and trust! Drawn from Speaker<br />

Yakubu Dogara’s submission at<br />

the joint public hearing on the<br />

<strong>2018</strong> budget estimate, Nigerians<br />

should “demand strict accountability<br />

from all elected officials on<br />

this matter. Jacob Lew captured<br />

the issue succinctly when he said,<br />

‘The budget is not just a collection<br />

of numbers, but an expression of<br />

our values and aspirations.’ The<br />

citizen must therefore insist on<br />

the total realisation of these values<br />

and aspirations rather than<br />

merely the collection of figures.”<br />

I wish to also advise that the<br />

issue of alleged pension fraud running<br />

to about N2 billion within the<br />

National Assembly bureaucracy<br />

should not be left unattended<br />

to, during the National Assembly<br />

Open Week.<br />

The National Assembly should<br />

also design a template through<br />

which issue of zonal intervention/<br />

constituency projects will be open<br />

and transparent. As present, it’s<br />

obvious that various sub-heads<br />

with zonal and constituency projects<br />

descriptions are far more<br />

than N100 billion jointly agreed<br />

by the Legislature and Executive<br />

in the annual budget. All of these<br />

are worrisome and should be<br />

addressed. Adequate sensitization/enlightenment<br />

should be<br />

intensified that any of the serving<br />

Senator/Member who bring the<br />

Institution into disrepute is not<br />

covered by any form of immunity<br />

going forward.<br />

Meanwhile, the recurring cases<br />

of death among National Assembly<br />

members and staff which<br />

occurred in recent past is causing<br />

palpable fears within the Institution,<br />

and cautions to all and<br />

sundry. While some believed the<br />

situation calls for spiritual intervention,<br />

some of those familiar<br />

with the system were of the opinion<br />

that such occurrence is usual<br />

in pre-election year. As at the<br />

last count, up to 12 people death<br />

have been announced either via<br />

posters on notice boards within<br />

the National Assembly while such<br />

news about the lawmakers come<br />

either through traditional media.<br />

KEHINDE AKINTOLA<br />

For all the concerned staff, there is<br />

also the need for spiritual cleansing<br />

within the system, without<br />

further delay. It’s so unfortunate<br />

that all those who lost their lives<br />

never dreamt of suffering such<br />

fate at such tender age(s), but we<br />

should not forget the lessons that<br />

come with such incidences. One<br />

of the lessons include the need<br />

to improve our health facilities<br />

by equipping all hospitals and<br />

primary healthcare centres for<br />

which several billions are being<br />

appropriated yearly, but Nigerians<br />

get little or no equitable<br />

value and services when they go<br />

there. That accounts for the high<br />

mortality and morbidity rates in<br />

the country and life expectancy<br />

when you look at the human<br />

development indices.


2019 Watch<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

SABY ELEMBA, Owerri<br />

Shekarau, the<br />

mathematical<br />

politician<br />

7.9 million PVCs still uncollected<br />

in INEC offices nationwide<br />

… as 2019 countdown begins<br />

KELVIN UMWENI & UJU IKEDIONU<br />

As 2019 general election<br />

draws near, one<br />

would ordinarily have<br />

thought that Nigerians<br />

should by now<br />

show relentless efforts towards<br />

collecting the most pertinent<br />

item, the Permanent Voters Card<br />

(PVCs), they wield to effect changes<br />

in the governance structure that<br />

they perhaps believe have not<br />

lived up to expectations.<br />

But the current level of political<br />

apathy expressed via the low<br />

collection rates of PVCs across<br />

most states is rather too sad and<br />

pathetic.<br />

A recent statistics released by<br />

the Independent National Electoral<br />

Commission (INEC) showed<br />

that out of about 8.3 million uncollected<br />

Permanent Voters Card<br />

(PVCs) in 2016, only 121,097 PVCs<br />

have been collected so far as at<br />

22nd March, <strong>2018</strong> (compared to<br />

230,175 collected in 2017) leaving<br />

a total of 7.9 million PVCs uncollected.<br />

Eight of the 36 states of the<br />

country contributes more than<br />

half (56 per cent) to the 7.9 million<br />

uncollected PVCs as at <strong>2018</strong> with<br />

five of this eight states being South<br />

Western states of Lagos, Oyo,<br />

Ogun, Ondo and Osun. The other<br />

three states include Edo, Imo and<br />

Rivers states.<br />

A state-by-state breakdown<br />

of the figures showed that Lagos<br />

State, the commercial nerve centre<br />

of Nigeria leads in terms of<br />

uncollected PVCs with about 1.40<br />

million PVCs – compared to 1.42<br />

million PVCs as at 2016 – lying<br />

uncollected at the various INEC<br />

offices in the state, representing<br />

17.7percent of the total uncollected<br />

PVCs nationwide.<br />

This was closely followed by<br />

APC stakeholders commend Araraume’s kind gesture in Imo<br />

…Excited at his huge donation<br />

Days after the historic<br />

party meeting of the<br />

All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC) in Imo<br />

State, stakeholders have continued<br />

to applaud Senator Ifeanyi<br />

Araraume over his kind gestures<br />

to the party in the state.<br />

This is coming at the heels of<br />

Mahmood Yakubu<br />

Oyo state with 647,586 uncollected<br />

PVCs in March relative to 663,053<br />

uncollected PVCs as at 2016.<br />

In Edo and Ogun states, a total of<br />

12,142 and 7,928 PVCs have been<br />

collected so far with a colossal<br />

449,001 and 426,890 respectively<br />

yet to be collected though the latter<br />

has recorded progress as the<br />

total collected PVCs figure for first<br />

quarter of <strong>2018</strong> alone (3,979) has<br />

exceeded that for the whole of 2017<br />

(3,949).<br />

So far, states that have recorded<br />

improvement in terms of PVC collection<br />

rates according to calculations<br />

by <strong>BusinessDay</strong> are Anambra<br />

(51%), Kogi (14.2%), Ebonyi (14%)<br />

and Bayelsa (12%) states. The improvement<br />

in PVC collection rates<br />

in Anambra state was due to the<br />

recently concluded gubernatorial<br />

election held last year.<br />

Conversely, states with poor<br />

collection rates include Zamfara<br />

(0.1%), Taraba (0.4%), Niger<br />

(0.6%), Sokoto (0.7%) and Kaduna<br />

(0.8%).<br />

PVC collection rate is measured<br />

as the proportion of total collected<br />

PVCs in 2017 and first quarter <strong>2018</strong><br />

to the uncollected PVCs as at 2016.<br />

a thank you visit the Isiebu-born<br />

politician has been receiving from<br />

APC party officials and stakeholders<br />

drawn from the three zones of<br />

the state.<br />

Recall that at the party’s SEC<br />

meeting under the control of the<br />

APC state chairman, Hillary Eke,<br />

held at Concorde Hotel, Owerri<br />

recently, Araraume displayed his<br />

unshaken magnanimity to improve<br />

the lot of the party ahead<br />

next year’s general election when<br />

he donated the sum of N20million<br />

during the fund-raising organised<br />

at the event.<br />

The donation of the senator<br />

was greeted with wild jubilation<br />

which necessitated the spontaneous<br />

follow up of solidarity visits<br />

to him from party faithful across<br />

the state.<br />

C002D5556<br />

28<br />

One reason cited by most people<br />

especially those living in Lagos<br />

which has the highest number of<br />

uncollected PVCs is the level of<br />

commitment required by their<br />

jobs so much so that they barely<br />

had time to go to the nearest centres<br />

to get their PVCs.<br />

INEC averred that the important<br />

role that Continuous Voters<br />

Register (CVR) officials play in<br />

the electoral process noting that<br />

“the manner in which they discharge<br />

their duties will affect the<br />

confidence of the citizens in the<br />

electoral process and the electoral<br />

authority. They are expected to<br />

be courteous, polite, helpful at all<br />

times, treat all persons equally and<br />

with respectful”.<br />

Unfortunately, the unfriendly<br />

attitude displayed by some INEC<br />

officials is enough to get frustrated<br />

with the process of not only collecting<br />

PVCs but also registering<br />

to be an eligible voter.<br />

There seems to be an information<br />

gap between those who are<br />

yet to collect their PVCs and INEC<br />

itself. Most Nigerians are unaware<br />

of the whole electoral process visà-vis<br />

when and where to pick up<br />

their PVCs.<br />

The CVR Principles according<br />

to INEC categorically stated that<br />

“PVC of those registered in first<br />

quarter (Q1) should be ready for<br />

collection in third quarter (Q3),<br />

and second quarter should be<br />

ready in fourth quarter (Q4) etc.”<br />

The pertinent question we ought<br />

to ask ourselves is: How many<br />

Nigerians are aware of this modus<br />

operandi and to what extent is<br />

INEC complying with this?<br />

Essentially, INEC should step<br />

up its game towards curbing<br />

this trend by capturing phone<br />

numbers and email addresses of<br />

registered voters so as to notify<br />

them when their PVCs are ready<br />

and where to pick them up.<br />

The donation was the climax of<br />

the event before he, alongside the<br />

National Organising Secretary,<br />

Senator Osita Izunaso, took permission<br />

to leave for other urgent<br />

engagements.<br />

The stakeholders have expressed<br />

joy that Araraume has<br />

the capacity to shoulder the responsibility<br />

of the party ahead<br />

2019 election.<br />

Ukwa Ngwa youths<br />

endorse Ikpeazu for<br />

second term<br />

UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia<br />

27<br />

Youths from the nine local<br />

government areas that<br />

make up Ukwa Ngwa<br />

political bloc have called<br />

on the Governor of Abia, Okezie<br />

Ikpeazu, to make himself available<br />

to contest the governorship position<br />

of the state in 2019 to complete<br />

his developmental strides.<br />

The youth, who made the call<br />

during a youth rally they organised<br />

at Ngwa High School, Aba, to<br />

endorse the governor for a second<br />

term in office, noted that for now<br />

there is no vacancy at the Government<br />

House, Umuahia.<br />

The youth, who spoke through<br />

their vice chairman, Ginger Onwusibe,<br />

said that their decision<br />

to prevail on the governor to<br />

run stemmed from the numerous<br />

achievements he had so far<br />

recorded in various facets of the<br />

state’s economy including empowering<br />

youths, constructing<br />

roads, promotion of made-in-Aba<br />

goods, noting especially that Ikpeazu<br />

remains the only governor<br />

in the country who is still in good<br />

terms with his predecessor.<br />

“This shows that he is doing well<br />

and that any good deed deserves<br />

reciprocation and thanks,” the<br />

group said.<br />

Ikpeazu, in his speech, stated<br />

that he remains committed to<br />

rendering service to the people<br />

of the state.<br />

He maintained that his work<br />

would speak for him in 2019. Governor<br />

of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose applauded<br />

Ikpeazu for embarking on<br />

human capital and infrastructural<br />

development and implored him to<br />

continue in that vein.<br />

“I want to assure you that if you<br />

continue like this you will go far,”<br />

Fayose said.<br />

Former Governor of Abia State,<br />

Theodore A. Orji disclosed that Ikpeazu<br />

whom he discovered about<br />

10 years ago and insisted that he<br />

would be governor had done well<br />

and made the state proud and<br />

urged him to keep up the tempo.<br />

Earlier, Uche Ikonne, chairman<br />

of the occasion and vice chancellor<br />

of Abia State University, said<br />

that the governor had embarked<br />

on infrastructural and human<br />

capacity building, describing the<br />

rally as a celebration of success<br />

by a youthful and performing<br />

governor.<br />

Christopher Enweremadu,<br />

commissioner for Local Government<br />

and Chieftaincy Affairs, had<br />

earlier moved a motion on behalf<br />

of the youth that there is no vacancy<br />

at the Government House<br />

in 2019, seconded by Chinedum<br />

Elechi.


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

28<br />

2019 Watch Presidency<br />

Shekarau, the mathematical politician<br />

ZEBULON AGOMUO<br />

Since he joined the mucky waters<br />

of the Nigerian politics in 2003,<br />

Ibrahim Shekarau has not looked<br />

back. Unlike many politicians who<br />

have no second address but politics,<br />

Shekarau is a man that had traversed<br />

other sectors of the nation’s economy<br />

before going into politics.<br />

He started life as a humble classroom<br />

teacher and rose through the ranks to a director<br />

in the ministry of education. He also<br />

taught as a lecturer in one of the institutions<br />

of higher learning in his native state of Kano.<br />

So, he has played in the private sector and<br />

public sector. His long years in the education<br />

sector must have been responsible for his<br />

appointment in 2014 as the 45th minister<br />

of education by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.<br />

He held the position till the end<br />

of that administration in 2015, following<br />

the emergence of President Muhammadu<br />

Buhari of the All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC).<br />

As governor of Kano State between 2003<br />

and 2011 Shekarau changed the face of education<br />

in Kano. He was said to have removed<br />

Kano State from the list of Educationally<br />

Less Developed (ELD) states through the<br />

provision of instructional materials, infrastructure<br />

and manpower to schools and<br />

scholarships for 33,000 undergraduates<br />

studying in various institutions nationwide.<br />

Before his arrival on power stool, Kano<br />

had 3,421 primary schools, 20,526 classrooms,<br />

1, 026,300 pupils with 22,<strong>08</strong>4<br />

teachers. But he changed the narrative.<br />

Enrolment improved by 80 percent. The<br />

Shekarau administration also established<br />

additional 364 primary and 241 secondary<br />

schools.<br />

Shekarau was said to have initiated some<br />

large scale development projects in Kano<br />

State. He also hosted some world leaders<br />

like the former German Chancellor Schoeder,<br />

Prince Charles, among others. The Emir<br />

of Kano, Ado Bayero conferred on him, the<br />

title of Sardauna of Kano, now of the leading<br />

emirate councillors.<br />

His profile<br />

His birth, early life and education<br />

Shekarau was born November 5, 1955<br />

in the Kurmawa quarters of Kano,<br />

the son of a police officer. He was<br />

educated at Gidan Makama Primary<br />

School (1961–1967), then at Kano Commercial<br />

College (1967–1973) and finally at Ahmadu<br />

Bello University, Zaria (1973–1977) where he<br />

received a Degree in Mathematics/Education.<br />

After finishing his Degree, he went into<br />

the civil service. Later on, he started his career<br />

as a Mathematics teacher at Government<br />

Technical College, Wudil in 1978. Two years<br />

later he became Principal at Government Day<br />

Junior Secondary School, Wudil. In 1980 he<br />

was transferred to Government Secondary<br />

School, Hadejia, then to Government College<br />

Birnin Kudu in 1986, then to Government<br />

Secondary School, Gwammaja and then<br />

to Rumfa College in March 1988, all as the<br />

Ibrahim Shekarau<br />

tion (WHO) screamed foul and profusely<br />

denied it.<br />

While Kano was under his watch, he created<br />

a local religious police, the ‘Hisbah Guard’,<br />

which enforced sharia law irrespective of the<br />

residents’ religions. It was very insensitive.<br />

Eyes on the ball<br />

Former governor Shekarau is said to have<br />

determined to, once again, throw his hat<br />

into the ring this time around. It was gathered<br />

that he has since informed his party,<br />

the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of<br />

his ambition and has also communicated<br />

his political ambition to various elders, community<br />

leaders, opinion leaders, political<br />

associates and religious leaders regardless<br />

of their ethnic and party affiliations.<br />

Reports quoted letters said to have<br />

been written by him to many of his former<br />

aides, stating: “Since after the 2015 general<br />

elections, there have been various calls by<br />

individuals and groups from many quarters,<br />

nationwide, urging my humble candidature<br />

for the contest of the Presidency of the Federal<br />

Republic of Nigeria in the next general<br />

elections, due in 2019.”<br />

“In response to these calls, and in view of<br />

the seeming intricacies and the boundless<br />

complexities involved in such a national<br />

school’s principal.<br />

Career<br />

Shekarau became Deputy Director of Education<br />

in charge of Bichi Zonal Education Area<br />

in 1992. One year later, he was promoted to<br />

Director Planning, Research and Statistics<br />

in Ministry of Education. Two year later, he<br />

became Director General (Permanent Secretary),<br />

Ministry of Education and Youth<br />

Development.<br />

In January 1995, Shekarau was transferred<br />

to Ministry of Water Resources, Rural and<br />

Community Development, then back to<br />

Ministry of Education in January – May 1997<br />

before he was asked to move to General Service<br />

Directorate of the Cabinet Office, all as<br />

Permanent Secretary. By February 2000, he<br />

was on the move again to Civil Service Commission,<br />

where he stayed for only four months<br />

assignment, I have consulted across all<br />

the geo-political zones and different interest<br />

groups, who examined and appraised<br />

the issue and advised me accordingly,” he<br />

further said.<br />

According to him, “I have therefore<br />

decided to accept the clarion calls, and will<br />

in due course and in accordance with the<br />

guidelines of my party, the Peoples Democratic<br />

Party (PDP), offer my humble self<br />

for the contest of the presidency during<br />

the forth-coming 2019 general elections.”<br />

A vocal politician, not amused by APC style<br />

Recently, SaharaReporters quoted Shekarau<br />

as saying that the APC was confused<br />

and had been lying to Nigerians about bringing<br />

change to their living conditions.<br />

He was said to have described the<br />

“change” mantra of the party as a ruse.<br />

“When Nigerians asked: ‘When are we<br />

going to see the change we voted for?’ They<br />

were told to wait until after swearing-in ceremony.<br />

After the swearing-in, they heard silence<br />

without change and they asked, when<br />

will this change come? The answer was until<br />

they resume office and they subsequently<br />

resumed office and nothing happened,”<br />

said Shekarau.<br />

He added that when the masses asked<br />

before the civil service commission under Ado<br />

Gwaram Government sent him to the State<br />

College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies<br />

(CASRS) as Chief lecturer (Mathematics)<br />

at the Department of Physical Sciences, in<br />

May 2000. Shekarau remained in this post for<br />

17 months before he voluntarily retired from<br />

the services of Kano State Civil Service on 2<br />

October 2001. Sometime after quitting his<br />

post as Chief Lecturer, he decided to work as a<br />

secretary to businessman Aminu Dantata. He<br />

was employed under Dantata until he became<br />

a contender in Kano State’s 2003 gubernatorial<br />

elections.<br />

Presidential bid<br />

Governor Ibrahim Shekarau was one of the<br />

candidates for the presidential election of<br />

2011. He contested on the platform of the<br />

defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).<br />

Major controversies<br />

Although brilliant and well exposed, Shekarau<br />

could not draw a line between religion<br />

and politics. He tended to mix up everything,<br />

hence the controversy that greeted<br />

some of his moves and pronouncements.<br />

As governor, he opposed polio vaccination<br />

campaigns on the allegation that they<br />

were attempts to make Moslem women<br />

infertile. This position fetched him a barrage<br />

of criticism and the World Health Organisaagain<br />

when to expect the change promised,<br />

they were told to wait until the appointment<br />

of the Secretary to the Government of Federation<br />

(SGF).<br />

“After three months, the SGF was appointed<br />

and the people asked again: ‘Where<br />

is the change?’ The answer was they should<br />

wait for the change after the appointment<br />

of Chief of Staff. The masses got worried<br />

and said, please when will this change<br />

come? The answer was, until ministers are<br />

appointed. After six months, they appointed<br />

ministers,” Shekarau said mockingly.<br />

Following the appointment of ministers,<br />

said Shekarau, the APC promised that<br />

change would come when the budget was<br />

prepared and told the masses to wait for the<br />

budget. And when they got the budget, he<br />

added, Nigerians were told they would have<br />

the change after the National Assembly<br />

must have gone through the budget.<br />

“Suddenly, the National Assembly approved<br />

and the people asked again: ‘Can see<br />

and feel the change?’ Their (APC) reply was<br />

until the President signed the budget. After<br />

he signed, there was no change, we asked.<br />

They said, the President’s ear is paining him<br />

and we should wait until he was healed,”<br />

said the former governor.<br />

The masses, he said, were prepared to<br />

wait and rejoiced that the President could<br />

hear well and had returned.<br />

Again, the APC did not deliver the change,<br />

shifting delivery to when fuel subsidy was<br />

removed. “They suddenly tripled oil<br />

price and they kept quiet and we talked.<br />

They said we should be patient that change<br />

will come. While Nigerians were waiting,<br />

they now came again that the President was<br />

sick. They said we should wait, we waited<br />

and he came back from the first trip. They<br />

said we should pray and when he returned,<br />

they celebrated and we all secretly prayed<br />

for him, that Allah should heal him. When he<br />

returned they said we should give him time<br />

to fully recover,” stated Shekarau.<br />

He alleged that the APC started playing<br />

games, saying doctors said the President<br />

should return to London, where he stayed<br />

for 103 days before returning.<br />

“We said when will the change come?<br />

They said until they drive away rats from<br />

his office. We are hoping, they will come<br />

and apologise and say the change will come<br />

when I (Buhari) return in 2019,” Shekarau<br />

stated.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Vice Presidency<br />

C002D5556<br />

29<br />

2019 Watch<br />

Ekweremadu and politics of ‘Nwa Chinemere’<br />

ZEBULON AGOMUO<br />

Since his foray into politics, Ike<br />

Ekweremadu has remained a<br />

level-headed politician, doing<br />

his things in a cool way. As much<br />

as possible, he steers clear of<br />

controversy.<br />

Those close to him say he patterns his life<br />

after the admonition in a quote by the late Chinua<br />

Achebe that “those whose palm-kernels<br />

were cracked by a benevolent spirit should not<br />

forget to be humble.”<br />

Indeed, Ekweremadu’s gods must have<br />

granted him certain positive aspects of his<br />

life. An observer who claims to know him so<br />

well says that the politician’s steady rise in<br />

politics could only have been a combination of<br />

“destiny, doggedness and divine enablement”.<br />

Anglican Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical<br />

Province, Emmanuel Chukwuma,<br />

captured Ekweremadu’s brand of politics, this<br />

way: “Ekweremadu is not a threat to anybody.<br />

I want to say to Mr. President (Buhari), there is<br />

no need to fear him. Ekweremadu will neither<br />

say you are PDP nor that you are APC. He does<br />

not discriminate against any religion. He is not<br />

tribalistic. He is a perfect gentleman who has<br />

a heart to serve”.<br />

On mission to serve his people<br />

Since 2003 when Ekweremadu was first<br />

elected into the Senate he has remained a<br />

rallying point to many politicians in his state,<br />

particularly, his senatorial zone- Enugu West.<br />

He has also excited his constituents with<br />

tangible people-oriented projects. Recently,<br />

the senator provided a water drilling ridge<br />

with a capacity to drill down to 600 meters. It<br />

was procured to ensure provision of portable<br />

water in all communities in the zone since<br />

portable water has become a persistent challenge<br />

in all the five local government areas<br />

that make up the senatorial zone.<br />

With the collaboration of the state government,<br />

the deputy Senate president is doing<br />

everything possible to change the face of<br />

his constituency with various infrastructure<br />

development ranging from dualisation of existing<br />

roads to construction of new ones and<br />

provision of portable water.<br />

Ekweremadu’s contribution is being<br />

praised because “despite the fact that Enugu<br />

West had produced some military governors<br />

and even as the immediate past governor of<br />

the state hails from the zone, the zone is still<br />

lagging behind when compared with other<br />

two senatorial zones in the state.”<br />

Recently, while explaining why he joined<br />

politics, Ekweramadu said it was to address<br />

the age-long marginalisation and neglect of<br />

his people. He recalled that the first water<br />

project that he attracted as a senator was sited<br />

at Nze in Udi North as a way of remedying<br />

some of the difficulties faced by people in<br />

the area, adding that he has addressed most<br />

of the challenges in the area without being<br />

prompted by the people.<br />

“I joined politics to address the issue of<br />

marginalisation by influencing government<br />

policies which would help in providing the<br />

needs of the people. I can see and feel marginalisation<br />

in Udi North and my vision is to<br />

change the fortunes of the people of the area<br />

for good, that’s why most of our projects in<br />

the areas of water, roads, and electricity are<br />

sited in places where the people cannot help<br />

themselves,” he said.<br />

No noise yet about VP ambition<br />

Although the deputy Senate president has<br />

yet to make his vice presidential ambition<br />

Ike Ekweremadu<br />

public as it is still wrapped in the cooler so to<br />

speak, his foot soldiers are already trumpeting<br />

it, a move observers have described as<br />

deliberate and “testing the waters”.<br />

“Mind you, the Deputy Senate President<br />

does not believe in noise making. He is<br />

always for action. For him, action speaks<br />

louder than words. Don’t also forget that it<br />

is not expedient for him to begin to trumpet<br />

about his vice presidential ambition now.<br />

The natural thing is that he will be working<br />

underground until the person he would be<br />

deputising declares and then publicly announces<br />

him as a running mate. That is how<br />

it is done. But the question as to whether<br />

he possesses the competences does not<br />

arise,” Chuma Onuoha, an Abuja-based<br />

analyst, said.<br />

The man Ekweremadu<br />

Ike Ekweremadu is a politician and lawyer<br />

from Enugu State who has served in the<br />

Senate since May 2003. He is a member<br />

of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)<br />

and is currently deputy Senate president for<br />

the third consecutive time.<br />

Ekweremadu was born in 1962 at Amachara<br />

Mpu in Aninri Local Government<br />

Area of Enugu State, and is of Igbo origin. He<br />

holds both Bachelors and master’s degree in<br />

Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,<br />

and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987.<br />

He also holds Doctor of Philosophy Degree<br />

in Law from the University of Abuja, Nigeria.<br />

Political appointments<br />

In 2002, Ekweremadu was appointed Secretary<br />

to the Enugu State Government, before<br />

then he was Chairman of Aninri Local Government<br />

Area in 1997 and won the Best Local<br />

Government Chairman Award in Enugu State<br />

at the time. He was appointed the Chief of Staff<br />

of the Enugu State Government House.<br />

Senatorial career<br />

On <strong>Apr</strong>il 12, 2003 he was elected to the Senate.<br />

In September 2003, as Vice Chairman<br />

of the Senate committee on Information,<br />

Ekweremadu said that the Senate would<br />

make a serious investigation into allegations<br />

of bribery leveled by Federal Capital<br />

The deputy Senate president has been<br />

described as “very competent” and a lawmaker<br />

par excellence. Nominating Ekweremadu<br />

for re-election as the Deputy President<br />

of the 6th Senate in June 2011, Senator<br />

Zainab Kure (Niger South), described him<br />

as “a legislative wiz kid”.<br />

He has had a robust political outing that<br />

would rub off on any position he aspires to<br />

in 2019.<br />

Elected Senator for four consecutive<br />

times since 2003, Ekweremadu who had<br />

served as Local Government Chairman,<br />

Chief of Staff at Enugu Government House<br />

and Secretary to Enugu State Government,<br />

also emerged as Deputy President of the<br />

Senate for a record third time in 2015. June<br />

<strong>2018</strong> will mark his 11th anniversary as a<br />

Territory (FCT) minister Mallam Nasir<br />

El-Rufai. Relations between Nasir el-Rufai<br />

and the Senate continued to be hostile, and<br />

el-Rufai was eventually charged with corruption<br />

in 20<strong>08</strong>. In 2005, Ike Ekweremadu<br />

was beaten in the race for President of the<br />

Senate of Nigeria by Senator Kenechukwu<br />

(Ken) Nnamani.<br />

In July 2006, as spokesperson for the Southern<br />

Senators’ Forum, Ekweremadu denied<br />

charges that they had made an agreement to<br />

return power to the North in the 2007 elections.<br />

In September 2006, President Olusegun<br />

Obasanjo asked the Senate to review a report<br />

by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission<br />

that laid charges of fraud against Vice-<br />

President Atiku Abubakar. Ike Ekweremadu<br />

promised to establish a committee of inquiry<br />

the report of which would be submitted to the<br />

Senate, although he noted that impeachment<br />

would be difficult since it would require a 2/3<br />

majority.<br />

Ekweremadu was returned in the 29<br />

<strong>Apr</strong>il 2007 National Assembly election, and<br />

retained his position as deputy senate president.<br />

He was given the job of handing out<br />

committee chairmanship positions allocated<br />

to the southeast zone, making decisions that<br />

were unpopular with leaders such as Senator<br />

Chris Anyanwu, who failed to get the positions<br />

they wanted. In July 2007, Ekweremadu<br />

presiding officer of the National Assembly,<br />

making him the longest serving presiding<br />

officer in the history of the national parliament.<br />

Controversies<br />

Like many other high-flying politicians in<br />

the country, Ekweremadu has had his fair<br />

share of acrimonies from political foes. He<br />

has been accused of many things and in the<br />

life of the current administration, he has<br />

been arraigned with the Senate President,<br />

Bukola Saraki, on what his loyalists describe<br />

as “trumped up” charges of conspiracy and<br />

forgery of Senate Standing Rule.<br />

The other day, Ekweremadu, was accused<br />

of “false declaration of assets” and<br />

was said to be dragged before the Code of<br />

Conduct Tribunal (CCT) by the office of the<br />

attorney-general of the federation (AGF).<br />

Ekweremadu was accused of having assets<br />

in the United Arab Emirates, United<br />

Kingdom and United States of America<br />

which he allegedly did not disclose in his<br />

declarations to the Code of Conduct Bureau<br />

(CCB).<br />

Finesse on global assignment<br />

Those who believe that Ekweremadu has<br />

all it takes to function as the vice president<br />

of Nigeria point to his robust tenure as<br />

the Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic<br />

Community of West African States<br />

(ECOWAS Parliament). They note that he<br />

brought the hitherto little known parliament<br />

to the consciousness of the peoples<br />

of the sub-region.<br />

“He traversed the lengths and breadth<br />

of the sub-region, meeting heads of states,<br />

national and regional parliaments, building<br />

partnerships and vigorously canvassing<br />

the enhancement of the powers of the<br />

Community Parliament. Today, ECOWAS<br />

Parliament has transformed from a mere<br />

talk shop to a semblance of a parliament<br />

because Ekweremadu passed through it,”<br />

an observer said.<br />

was instrumental to defusing objections to<br />

the controversial nomination of the late Ojo<br />

Maduekwe to a ministerial position.<br />

When David Edevbie, President Umaru<br />

Yar’Adua’s principal private secretary, was<br />

indicted in September 2009 in a British<br />

court for corruption and money laundering,<br />

Ekweremadu refused to take a position, stating<br />

that he did not know the facts. In September<br />

2009, Ekweremadu was named co-chairman<br />

of a committee to conduct the primary elections<br />

for the PDP governorship candidate for<br />

Anambra State.<br />

Senatorial election, Enugu West 2011<br />

Ekweremadu was re-elected as Senator for<br />

Enugu West in the <strong>Apr</strong>il 2011 elections, receiving<br />

112,806 votes. The closest runner-up was<br />

the candidate of the Peoples for Democratic<br />

Change (PDC) party, Jackson Ezeoffor, who<br />

got 7,522 votes.<br />

ECOWAS<br />

In September 2009, he was appointed to lead<br />

the Economic Community of West African<br />

States (ECOWAS) ad hoc committee to work<br />

for the return of constitutional order in the<br />

Niger Republic. He was elected First Deputy<br />

Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and<br />

emerged the Speaker of the regional parliament<br />

in August 2011.


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

30BDSUNDAY<br />

TheWorshippers<br />

‘Many so-called church leaders today are answering<br />

the call of their belly, not the call of God’<br />

Ozioma Onuzulike, a professor in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), was called to service by<br />

God after the death of Ben Unegbu (the servant of God) in May 2017. In this interview with SEYI JOHN SALAU, Onuzulike speaks about<br />

God’s call and the idea of planting religious denominations or ministries in the name of God’s call. Excerpts:<br />

How do you explain the ‘Call<br />

of God’ to mankind?<br />

The call of God to<br />

mankind has been<br />

ongoing. He has always<br />

called everyone<br />

in general, and<br />

some people in particular. God’s<br />

decision to make man in His own<br />

image was an important call. The<br />

fall of mankind was a direct result<br />

of man’s unfortunate decision to<br />

heed the enemy’s call in disobedience<br />

to God’s own wonderful<br />

and sin-free call.<br />

God also called the entire Israelites<br />

for his own divine purpose.<br />

Many of them answered the call<br />

to possess the Promised Land<br />

but only two faithful men (Caleb<br />

and Joshua) eventually made it<br />

to the end of that glorious call.<br />

Others perished in the wilderness<br />

because of hardness of heart. But<br />

you will remember that God’s call<br />

to Moses was special. He called<br />

him to lead the people of God. It<br />

was God’s direct call. No human<br />

being in his or her religious denominational<br />

confusion had any hand in<br />

that call.<br />

When Moses passed away<br />

in a rather unfortunate situation<br />

due to his disobedience to God’s<br />

instruction, God himself called<br />

Joshua to step into his shoes and<br />

do the work. Similarly, God’s call<br />

to Samuel was direct and unmistaken.<br />

It was never any humanly<br />

established organisation that<br />

called him. Samson was also called,<br />

although he ended up in a woman’s<br />

bosom because of his lack of total<br />

surrender to the will of God who<br />

called him. Samson’s experience<br />

reminds one of the messages that<br />

God delivered to us through His<br />

servant of blessed memory (Ben<br />

Unegbu) entitled “A Call is No<br />

Surrender” (Message for Urgent<br />

Action No. 189). Jesus called the<br />

12 apostles, but He continued to<br />

preach repentance to them because<br />

they were merely called to<br />

service and needed to surrender<br />

through genuine repentance so<br />

as to inherit the kingdom of God.<br />

He continued to remind Peter<br />

about that even at the point of<br />

His departure when He told Peter,<br />

“When you repent, feed my flock”.<br />

Saul (who later became Paul) was<br />

also called to serve God on his way<br />

to Damascus. Nobody preached<br />

repentance to him. But he recognised<br />

that he needed to surrender<br />

to God in genuine repentance so as<br />

not to perish after helping others to<br />

turn to the path of righteousness.<br />

In answering the call of God,<br />

some have gone ahead to plant<br />

churches, some ministries.<br />

What is your position on this?<br />

There is actually God’s own<br />

call as I have already noted.<br />

On the other hand, there is, of<br />

course, man’s own carnal call<br />

through religious organisations<br />

or commercial enterprises erroneously<br />

called “churches” or<br />

“ministries” today. What you<br />

call “churches” are simply religious,<br />

political and commercial<br />

empires. Many are merely social<br />

clubs where people entertain<br />

themselves and network for<br />

pecuniary gains. The church, in its<br />

right sense, is the body of Christ,<br />

a collection of saved souls wherever<br />

they meet under the umbrella<br />

of Jesus Christ (indeed, not<br />

merely over-lip or in signposts).<br />

And Jesus Christ is the owner<br />

and head of His church, not any<br />

mortal man, no matter how humanly<br />

charismatic, eloquent or<br />

intelligent. The headquarters is in<br />

Heaven, not in any village, city or<br />

country of this world. If you have<br />

repented of your sins and are<br />

saved, the other fellow has done<br />

so, I have done so; if we meet<br />

together, we have formed the<br />

body of Christ (the Church). It is<br />

not any building made with man’s<br />

hands and wisdom, no matter<br />

how gigantic or magnificent, that<br />

is the “Church”. You and I are the<br />

temple of God.<br />

What would you say is the<br />

key characteristic of the church?<br />

Very importantly, members<br />

of this body of Christ or the<br />

“church” are known by their<br />

fruits or character as they shine<br />

as the light of the world, showing<br />

remarkable examples like the<br />

no-nonsense governor recorded<br />

in Nehemiah chapter 5 verse<br />

15. Such people also meet in<br />

the name of Jesus Christ alone,<br />

as we are instructed by Christ<br />

himself in Matthew 18:20, not<br />

by any name ending in “International”,<br />

“Worldwide”, “Global”,<br />

“Incorporated”, or, maybe, even<br />

“Limited”. Many are answering<br />

the call of their belly, not the call<br />

of God, really. They are those<br />

about whom Paul wrote in Philippians<br />

chapter 3 verse 19, “Whose<br />

end is destruction, whose God is<br />

Onuzulike<br />

their belly, and whose glory is in<br />

their shame, who mind earthly<br />

things”. And that is why there is<br />

confusion everywhere because<br />

they are subservient to human<br />

and carnal authorities, not the<br />

authority of God in Christ Jesus.<br />

They are teaching what they<br />

want to hear (as warned in 2<br />

Timothy 4:3), not the undiluted<br />

word of truth.<br />

Your organisation holds a<br />

“monthly free freedom lectures<br />

with positive action for<br />

all”. How do you ensure this<br />

outcome?<br />

I or we have no organisation<br />

in the sense that people think<br />

of “organisation” with carnallyplanned<br />

hierarchies, their own<br />

The church, in its right sense, is<br />

the body of Christ, a collection of<br />

saved souls wherever they meet<br />

under the umbrella of Jesus Christ<br />

(indeed, not merely over-lip or in<br />

signposts)<br />

constitutions outside the Bible<br />

or articles of faith selected from<br />

portions of the Bible that suit<br />

their own carnal agenda. Which<br />

is why many of such so-called organisations<br />

are currently fighting<br />

in secret and in the public, taking<br />

themselves to the law courts of<br />

this world. Just as Jesus Christ<br />

instructed in Matthew chapter<br />

28 verse 18, we simply gather<br />

in the name of that glorious and<br />

wonder-working name (Jesus<br />

Christ) at the “Compound for<br />

God’s Urgent Message” in Masterpiece<br />

Village (also called<br />

Galaxy Quarters) located in<br />

Oji River town of Enugu State<br />

from the 1st Friday to Sunday<br />

of every month (except in December<br />

and January because<br />

of the annual camping for the<br />

word of God which also holds<br />

in the same venue from 23rd to<br />

27th December). The outcome<br />

you ask about is achieved by<br />

allowing God through Christ in<br />

the company of the Holy Spirit<br />

to lead the way. Jesus promised<br />

that when He is gone the father<br />

He will send us the Holy Spirit<br />

who will guide us into all truth<br />

(John 16:13). We focus attention<br />

on the real mission of Christ<br />

on earth which is the salvation<br />

of mankind from sins and other<br />

satanic bondages. A look at Luke<br />

chapter 4 verse 18 elaborates on<br />

Christ’s real mission on earth.<br />

When people are sincerely led<br />

to seek first the kingdom of<br />

God and His righteousness, God<br />

faithfully, as usual, adds other<br />

things unto them, including deliverance<br />

from demons, healing<br />

from diverse diseases and other<br />

blessings. And all without charge,<br />

in compliance with God’s direct<br />

instruction through Christ in<br />

Matthew chapter 10 verses 7-8,<br />

where He says that we received<br />

freely and freely we must give.<br />

Like Elisha, the mantle of<br />

leadership has fallen on you after<br />

the passing on of the servant<br />

of God, Ben Unegbu. What is<br />

your vision for God’s Urgent<br />

Message?<br />

I will say, first, that I count it a<br />

very special grace and privilege<br />

to be asked by God to step into<br />

the very big shoes of His selfless<br />

and faithful servant Ben<br />

Unegbu whom it pleased Him to<br />

take home for eternal rest last<br />

year. The departure of that nononsense<br />

servant of God actually<br />

did not come to us as a huge<br />

surprise. That was because he<br />

had announced repeatedly, well<br />

before it actually came to pass,<br />

that God had signalled him that it<br />

was time to return but that he did<br />

not know the date. He declared,<br />

as he was moved by God, that<br />

when he would have departed,<br />

God would do more wonders in<br />

pushing the gospel forward, even<br />

more efficiently, for the salvation<br />

of humanity. My duty, I am<br />

convinced, is to humbly listen to<br />

God and steadfastly follow Him<br />

as He moves through Christ in<br />

the company of the Holy Spirit.<br />

There are numerous messages<br />

God gave His servant Ben<br />

Unegbu which are in print, numbering<br />

over 300 titles. They need<br />

to be digitized and circulated<br />

freely to as many people as possible<br />

for their own interest and the<br />

interest of humanity in general.<br />

Similarly, the messages that had<br />

gone on air through the Soul X-<br />

Ray radio programme (which he<br />

ran, through the power of God,<br />

on the Radio Nigeria Enugu for<br />

more than 15 years) would need<br />

to be digitized too and also made<br />

freely available to a wider reach<br />

of people, including sharing them<br />

on all possible on-line platforms,<br />

all to the glory of God only. Ben<br />

Unegbu, before God called him<br />

home to rest, had warned not<br />

only verbally but also by practical<br />

example, that the word of God<br />

must never be commercialised<br />

for any reason whatsoever, always<br />

citing Christ’s clear instruction<br />

in Matthew 10:7-8 that we<br />

have received freely and must<br />

freely give.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY<br />

31<br />

Inspirations<br />

FUNSO JOHNSON ODESOLA<br />

The performance of His promise<br />

And being fully persuaded that what he<br />

“ had promised, he was able to perform”<br />

(Romans 4:21 “ABRAHAM staggered<br />

not at the promise of God.” It is a daring<br />

and forceful figure that is used here. The<br />

word as we have it implies that the patriarch did not<br />

enter into conflict with himself; he was perfectly<br />

composed and assured; in his heart were no reading<br />

doubts. Let us gather up the facts. God in His own<br />

purpose of grace promised that Abraham should<br />

become a father of many nations he has seen many<br />

seasons of life. For he was a centenarian. His wife<br />

was old and infirm. The time of offspring seemed<br />

long gone by. The grace loomed nearer every day;<br />

Abraham must have thought of an ending rather<br />

than a beginning. Yet one eventful day the Lord came<br />

to Abraham in a vision, and said; “look now toward<br />

heaven, count the stars… so shall thy seed be.” At<br />

first sight it seems a cruel jest; it appears as a needless<br />

taunt, yet the patriarch “staggered not at the<br />

promise of God.” He was not torn with conflicting<br />

fears; he was not embarrassed with the magnitude<br />

of the promise; on the contrary, it is recorded of him<br />

“He believed in the Lord.”<br />

There is a health fascination when we come into<br />

the presence of faith like this, and we may linger for a<br />

few moments over the narrative. Let us find the steps<br />

The preface of triumph (3)<br />

that led Abraham to the confident restful attitude.<br />

“Who against hope believed in hope.” This phrase<br />

amplifies that Abraham had within him a well spring<br />

of hope, although everything externally seemed to<br />

give the lie to such genial optimism. He had a flourishing<br />

subjective hope, although the objective hope had<br />

languished, if not utterly disappeared. We mean that<br />

all the lights along the share have gone out, yet the<br />

light in the heart still burns brightly; invisible spring<br />

keeps on bubbling up, although everything objective<br />

is a thirsty objective desert.<br />

Abraham had no external ground of hope; yet<br />

he hoped against hope he grounded his faith upon<br />

hope; he refused to be daunted by the seeming impossibility<br />

of the promise; he “staggered not.” With<br />

the simple faith of a little child, he was fully assured<br />

that, what God had promised he was able to perform,<br />

although everything without seemed in opposition.<br />

“He considered not his own body now dead”<br />

The faith of Abraham is magnified. He regarded<br />

the promise incapable of fulfillment along ordinary<br />

physical lines; he took full account of the natural<br />

impediments to the fulfillment of the promise, and<br />

yet did not doubt. If he considered his old age and the<br />

barrenness of Sarah, he would have surely laughed<br />

the promise to scorn. But he considered not; he did<br />

not allow any external circumstances to have any<br />

weight; he did not look at the difficulties of the case,<br />

but looking unto the promise of God, he staggered<br />

not; his mind did not reel with prospect of a life- long<br />

dream being realised; he did not spend the time of<br />

waiting in wishful misgivings, but gave glory to God,<br />

being fully assured that what he had promised, he<br />

was able to perform.<br />

Here is a model of unquenchable optimism, before<br />

which we may well stand with humble hearts,<br />

for we have the same heavenly father whose gracious<br />

covenant cannot be broken.<br />

This is a call to genial and bracing optimism. It<br />

is an iron tonic for doubting hearts; it is a healthful,<br />

healthful wind for fevered lives.<br />

The optimism in question has its springs in the<br />

eternal God. It is to be a life – giving river that has<br />

its source in the divine word. The growing faith of<br />

the patriarch is to quicken our sense of the Lord’s<br />

faithfulness; it is to stimulate our venture of faiths.<br />

We are to stagger at nothing that he has promised,<br />

but rather live in the definite assurance that he has<br />

promised he is able to perform.<br />

We are such creatures of circumstances; our<br />

moods are too often determined by external events<br />

of slavish despair. We look too much on the things<br />

that are seen, and the things that are unseen and<br />

seem to lose their grip. Hence this calls to a fruitful expectancy.<br />

We ought ever to be on tiptoe with easier<br />

anticipation; we ought never to be staggered with<br />

the wealthy promises of God because we realize that<br />

what is to man impossible is to God an easy thing.<br />

There is too much slavish dependence on external<br />

aids: we accept the promises of the divine word<br />

theoretically, we even ask for their fulfillment, but<br />

we are ever waiting in full assurance, giving glory<br />

to God. Our lord Jesus Christ promised that where<br />

two or three are gathered together in his name, there<br />

would he be in the midst of them. Perhaps no promise<br />

is quoted and used more frequently than this one. Yet<br />

does it always kindle a sense of awe? Does its very<br />

mention produce a solemn and expectant harsh?<br />

Ah! But the prayer meeting is badly attended; it<br />

is cold, heavy, lacking in spontaneity; is that indeed<br />

the case? Then how great s the performance of the<br />

promise required! How much the few depressed<br />

and anxious quests need the presence of the host!<br />

Some of the most heart searching prayer meetings<br />

have ever known have been prayer meeting where<br />

few were present.<br />

Another example is: “Whatsoever ye ask of the<br />

Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Christ has<br />

spoken of the divine appointment of those who are<br />

to bear fruits to abide and this gracious appointment<br />

is in order that whatsoever we ask, God may give.<br />

Here then, is a stupendous promise. “Whatsoever”<br />

does it awaken a sense of expectancy? Does<br />

it call us to the venture of faith? Let us keep in mind<br />

the thought that he is able to perform what he has<br />

promised; there is no such thing as unanswered<br />

prayer; let us be fully assured that the promise is being<br />

performed, even though to us the petition seems<br />

met with a blank refusal or a stony silence; even the<br />

seeming refusal is reality the very answer that I need.<br />

Abraham simply took God at Hs word, out of a full<br />

and grateful heart, in a restful and contended spirit; he<br />

gave glory to God, and looking at the promise, lived<br />

in the atmosphere of faith.<br />

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their<br />

strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;<br />

they shall run and not be weary’ they shall walk and<br />

not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31).<br />

Let us be intoxicated with the consciousness<br />

that he who has promised will bring us into the state<br />

of restful strength, buoyancy and steady triumph,<br />

irrespective of external odds against the chances<br />

of its fulfillment.<br />

Pastor J.F. Odesola (PhD, LLM),<br />

Assistant General Overseer (Admin/Personnel)<br />

& Pastor-in-Charge Region 1,<br />

The Redeemed Christian Church of God,<br />

Redemption Camp,<br />

Nigeria.<br />

Facebook.com/PastorJFOdesola<br />

Twitter.com/PastorJFOdesola<br />

Youtube.com/PastorJFOdesola<br />

ng.Linkedin.com/in/PastorJFOdesola<br />

IRUOFAGHA JAMES<br />

There’s a right way to both connect and<br />

disconnect. And every disconnection<br />

comes with a particular level of pain.<br />

For instance, if you have to leave your church<br />

because you are relocating to another country<br />

(in this case, God would have spoken to both<br />

parties involved because in the case of things<br />

that affect divine connections He never speaks<br />

to just one person), but if someone decides<br />

on his/her own to leave and chooses to frame<br />

it as God having instructed him/her to do so<br />

without God having confirmed this to the other<br />

party, then you’ve broken the connection in a<br />

wrong way.<br />

It is also when most people have decided to<br />

break a divine connection that they now want<br />

to speak to the other person to explain their<br />

decision, this is not right. God doesn’t give you<br />

the option of altering the terms and nature of a<br />

divine connection, if you are having problems<br />

in the relationship the right thing to do is to sit<br />

with the other person and talk it out and not for<br />

you to walk out and break the connection. A<br />

person like this is deemed to be unfaithful and<br />

ends up becoming someone nobody wants to<br />

be connected to.<br />

Looking at marriages as a form of divine<br />

connection, you won’t find a marriage that is<br />

without its own share of trouble and conflicts,<br />

but these problems are meant to be worked<br />

on and resolved through communication,<br />

patience and perseverance and not by walking<br />

out when things get tough. That’s how marriages<br />

(and by extension, divine connections<br />

are preserved).<br />

Man was designed and shaped to live in<br />

a community, husband – wife, father – son,<br />

employer – employee, friends, neighbourhood;<br />

even on the bad side you have cults, gangs and<br />

The power of divine connections (4)<br />

prisons: these are all forms of relationship/connections.<br />

Whether positive or negative, people<br />

live in communities and not independently<br />

of every other person. That’s how man was<br />

created, but the devil is trying to stop people<br />

from connecting to others and ensure they<br />

live in isolation.<br />

The American Medical Association recently<br />

declared that loneliness/social disconnect is<br />

not just a psychological ailment, but a medical<br />

one as well; one which the Association says is<br />

worse than heart disease, obesity and smoking.<br />

This means loneliness will make one<br />

physically sick.<br />

Eph. 4:11<br />

Jesus gave the five-fold gifts of ministry to<br />

us, but even those who function in any aspect<br />

of these ministries ought to have someone he/<br />

she submits to (Gal. 2:1)<br />

Ps. 92:12-14<br />

“12The righteous shall flourish like the<br />

palm tree, he shall grow like cedars in Lebanon.<br />

13Those who are planted in the house of God<br />

shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14They<br />

shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh<br />

and flourishing”<br />

The righteous person has a God-ordained<br />

place to flourish. Imagine what would happen<br />

if the righteous moves away from the place<br />

that God has ordained for him to flourish in.<br />

There are two things that are necessary for<br />

us to be what we want to be:<br />

1. You have to be planted<br />

2. There is a right place to be planted<br />

For you to flourish, you need to trust the<br />

wisdom of the Master planter/gardener. You<br />

can’t plant yourself, only God can plant you; so<br />

trust in His wisdom.<br />

There’s a difference between being planted<br />

and just growing. Planting connotes a sense of<br />

purpose, it is deliberate. But growing happens<br />

by chance and it isn’t regulated by anyone. It<br />

also has a large measure of risk in that a plant<br />

that grew where it wasn’t planted can be uprooted<br />

at any point in time.<br />

Going further from being planted, there is a<br />

particular place above every other place where<br />

a person will thrive best. Like the Cedar is native<br />

to and thrives best in Lebanon (as quoted<br />

in the passage we just read – Ps. 92:12-14), so<br />

a person will thrive best in the place that God<br />

has ordained for him/her to be planted. Don’t<br />

let anything whatsoever uproot you from the<br />

place God has planted you.<br />

There are certain conditions God has made<br />

to favour each of His creations, there’s a thing<br />

as the proper connections to the right soil/<br />

place<br />

Those who are planted have a sense of<br />

divine connection. They know that’s the place<br />

that God has planted them, they are members<br />

and not just attendees. Connected people<br />

don’t truly ever leave, even if they are physically<br />

removed from the church by legitimate<br />

reasons, they will stay in touch and keep tab<br />

on whatever is going on there. Members have<br />

a sense of responsibility, commitment and then<br />

a sense of divine connection.<br />

Divine connections shouldn’t be taken<br />

trivially and/or broken indiscriminately. Even<br />

when disagreements and conflicts occur, they<br />

should be worked on and worked out, because<br />

you know if you are to leave that relationship<br />

where you’re planted and connected you are<br />

on the way to destroying yourself.<br />

Just like you have it in marriage, if one disconnects<br />

himself from a divine-ordained relationship<br />

(like a Church) at will and enters into<br />

other relationships trivially, he’s an adulterer.<br />

Adam (Man) fell because he didn’t know<br />

how to treat divine things as divine. We saw<br />

this with Achan (Joshua 7) as well; he touched<br />

what God said no one should touch, and he<br />

treated the divine instruction with levity. We<br />

see this happening in the Church with people<br />

disconnecting from church at will.<br />

Truly committed people who are members<br />

of the church (those who have a sense of divine<br />

planting), take up the challenge of building<br />

their church.<br />

Remain connected<br />

3 ways people can be disconnected:<br />

1. Overtly<br />

• Someone in open disconnection and disagreement<br />

with the church<br />

2. Covertly<br />

• Someone who’s not involved and uninterested<br />

in anything that’s going on; who<br />

gradually withdraws from what’s going on in<br />

the relationship/church.<br />

• These people are found in a circle of friends<br />

who are of a similar disposition to themselves;<br />

they have friends who are living in open rebellion<br />

to the standards of God and the Church.<br />

3. Surreptitiously<br />

1 Sam. 22:19-23S<br />

1. Abiathar was the remnant of his family<br />

and he connected divinely with David.<br />

2. As he stayed connected with David, he<br />

rose up in rank with David till he became the<br />

national priest of Israel.<br />

• When God wants to bless you He sends<br />

you a person who will help lead you along<br />

God’s pathway to His predetermined destination<br />

for you. Your destiny helper.<br />

• When the devil wants to mislead you, he<br />

sends you a person who will side-track you and<br />

move you out of your path to God’s predetermined<br />

destination for you.<br />

• We see this with Abiathar, who even after<br />

he had risen through the ranks with David<br />

eventually disconnected from him because he<br />

sought out his own agenda<br />

• 1 Sam. 2:30-36 shows us that Abiathar’s<br />

lineage was under a curse and he only escaped<br />

the effects of that curse while he divinely<br />

connected to David. But once he broke the<br />

connection, he was ousted from his position in<br />

line with God’s word spoken against his family.<br />

Each one of us at any point in time is either<br />

a beneficiary (someone seeking the help of<br />

others) or a benefactor (one who’s providing<br />

for the needs of others).<br />

Dr. Iruofagha James is the founding pastor,<br />

Glory Christian Ministries, Odo-Olowo Street,<br />

Apapa/Oshodi Expressway, Ijeshatedo,<br />

Lagos. www.isjames.org Tel: <strong>08</strong>060599144


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

32BDSUNDAY<br />

SundayBusiness<br />

Spiritonomics<br />

Debo Atiba<br />

www.spiritonomics.org<br />

A<br />

portion of the scripture<br />

that never<br />

ceases to amaze me<br />

and on which faith is<br />

anchored is found in<br />

Heb.11:1, “Faith is the substance<br />

of things hoped for...” Hope is defined<br />

as “a feeling of expectations<br />

and desire for a particular thing to<br />

happen”.<br />

Many a times we adjudge God<br />

to be unfaithful to His words.<br />

Though we may not out rightly<br />

say that, but our actions and reactions<br />

show it, when what we have<br />

asked God for does not show up,<br />

or when it looks as though it is<br />

taking too long. Silently we have<br />

licked our wounds and our inner<br />

systems begin to interpret God to<br />

Your expectations are your realities<br />

be unfaithful without us knowing<br />

it. The Bible says the labor of fools<br />

weary them because they are not<br />

wise unto what they are supposed<br />

to do (Eccl.10:15 paraphrased).<br />

In the kingdom of God you do<br />

not get result by magic or luck.<br />

You get result by understanding<br />

and following principle. Many<br />

believers profess faith in God for<br />

great things but deep down in<br />

their heart, the image they carry<br />

is contrary to what they profess<br />

with their mouth. As a result<br />

there is no way they are going<br />

to experience the power of God<br />

in their situation. They have put<br />

themselves in a position of disadvantage.<br />

The truth also is that<br />

your life will print out the picture in<br />

your heart. If you are poor, check<br />

the picture in your heart. For us to<br />

get result in the kingdom of God,<br />

the picture in our hearts must align<br />

with the scripture in our mouth. If<br />

you are loved or unloved, check<br />

the picture in your heart. When a<br />

land is not fertile, the power in the<br />

seed becomes useless. So when<br />

we miss it in this regard it looks<br />

like God has failed us.<br />

When occurrences like this<br />

become too frequent, we begin to<br />

operate in great unbelief and our<br />

systems harden up to receiving<br />

from God. Outwardly people see<br />

us as being prayerful and devout,<br />

our church attendance has not<br />

dwindled, but inwardly we are<br />

hurt and bitter. Myriads of questions<br />

going on in our minds.<br />

A lot of times as believers, we<br />

operate on assumptions and not<br />

on the truth as designed by God.<br />

We are like a fresh student in the<br />

primary school just enrolled, enthusiastic<br />

and excited only about<br />

being a student but never ready<br />

to study to pass as a student. We<br />

put on the uniform, we carry our<br />

bags and school bus drops us in<br />

school but we are neither reading<br />

not studying. We participate in the<br />

extra curricula activities but not<br />

in the exact things that makes us<br />

student. The world sees us as dutiful<br />

and serious minded student<br />

but never know we only have the<br />

appearance but the substance<br />

is missing. You can guess what<br />

becomes of such student when it<br />

is time for exam, they fail woefully.<br />

The same thing happen to us<br />

in life, we possess the form of<br />

godliness, very pious looking, but<br />

when we are confronted with<br />

the EXAMS OF LIFE, the result is<br />

there for all to see. So sad! Scripture<br />

says... When we fail in the<br />

days of adversity, or the time of<br />

our testing, then our strength is<br />

small (Prov. 24:10). The intention<br />

of God for His children is to do as<br />

admonished in Matt. 6:33 “...seek<br />

ye first the kingdom of God and<br />

his righteousness...” What is being<br />

communicated to us in all seriousness<br />

is to exercise ourselves in the<br />

operational methodology of the<br />

kingdom of God. The emphasis<br />

is so great and the result will be<br />

grave if we fail to do as admonished<br />

– your realities are a product<br />

of your expectation!<br />

Looking at the problems that<br />

men face in life, the same scripture<br />

made it clear to us that as<br />

we give attention to this understanding,<br />

those problems will be<br />

non-existent in our lives. He even<br />

said we would have the things<br />

that the gentiles (unbelievers)<br />

seek after. The day we receive<br />

Jesus is the day we are given birth<br />

to into the kingdom of God as<br />

new born babies, irrespective of<br />

our chronological age. God knew<br />

the importance of this hence, the<br />

reason He gave us 1Pet.2:2, that as<br />

new born babies we should desire<br />

the sincere milk of the word of<br />

God that we may grow thereby.<br />

Growth in every area of our lives,<br />

which implies understanding of<br />

the purpose of the kingdom, our<br />

own purpose in the kingdom, and<br />

working of the kingdom etc. They<br />

all form part of our growth and are<br />

critical to our performance in life.<br />

Once we are not in on this truth,<br />

our growth will be anemic and we<br />

would be so frail in the affairs of<br />

life that instead of us being victors,<br />

we would be victims.<br />

What are your expectations?<br />

You must consciously let the word<br />

of God paint the picture of your<br />

future on your mind. It is not your<br />

responsibility to make it happen,<br />

it is God’s. All you need to do is<br />

believe.<br />

Remain blessed as the expectation<br />

of your heart matches your<br />

conversation.<br />

A disc Jockey at night, corporate chef by day<br />

… Ademola Olajide in multi-tasks<br />

Caleb Ojewale<br />

Lagos born Chef and founder<br />

of the Spice Rack catering<br />

company, Ademola Olajide,<br />

has encouraged young<br />

people not to relent in their quest<br />

to attain greatness, seeing every<br />

obstacle as a motivation to increase<br />

their efforts to succeed.<br />

Olajide, who combines making a<br />

living as a Disc Jockey at night, and<br />

Corporate Chef by day, said that<br />

he is buoyed by the dream of the<br />

average Nigerian youth – who are<br />

carving out niches for themselves,<br />

as creative, outside of the regular<br />

professional career paths.<br />

As a Chef, Demola’s passion<br />

is to cater to companies and<br />

organizations. His work ethic is a<br />

blend of creativity, passion and the<br />

fun bubbly vibe of youth.<br />

He holds a diploma in Culinary<br />

Arts from the Institute of Culinary<br />

Education in New York coupled<br />

with the top-notch training he<br />

received at Cecil Harlem and his<br />

work experience at Blue Smoke<br />

restaurant New York are evidences<br />

of his appetite for excellence.<br />

Interestingly, he debuted<br />

Spice Rack in January 2016 in his<br />

mother’s kitchen in Lagos, offering<br />

great assortment of both local and<br />

continental dishes.<br />

Speaking on the second<br />

anniversary of the Company, he<br />

said, “My culinary story is quite<br />

funny, I started cooking in high<br />

school, and then I was the only boy<br />

in our Food and Nutrition class,<br />

which was where I first discovered<br />

my love for the kitchen. After my<br />

Masters’ degree, I stayed at home<br />

for a year and then I knew it was time<br />

to turn my skill into my passion. This<br />

led me to one of the best culinary<br />

schools In America; Institute of<br />

Culinary Education, New York,<br />

where I obtained a Diploma in<br />

Culinary Arts.<br />

“I had the privilege of meeting<br />

and working with top chefs like Chef<br />

JJ Johnson and Marcus Samuelsson.<br />

I was an Extern at the Cecil Harlem<br />

and also worked at events for Blue<br />

smoke restaurant in New York.<br />

After all my culinary experiences<br />

in America, I came back home to<br />

start Spice Rack in January of 2016<br />

because frankly, there’s no place<br />

like home”.<br />

On financing the business,<br />

Olajide said that it took the belief<br />

of an Angel Investor for him to start.<br />

“Honestly, getting capital wasn’t<br />

easy at first but luckily for me, an<br />

angel investor believed in my dream<br />

and invested a sizeable amount into<br />

my start-up.<br />

Subsequently, the business<br />

“commenced operations in January<br />

2016; then I was working out of my<br />

mother’s kitchen at home, as the<br />

business grew and more orders<br />

came, we expanded to having our<br />

own kitchen in December 2016.”<br />

Olajide says the company’s<br />

vision is to be “the catering company<br />

of choice. We plan to achieve this<br />

through maintaining and exceeding<br />

our standards and making customer<br />

satisfaction our foremost goal. How<br />

far do I intend to go? There are no<br />

limits. I intend to keep going higher,<br />

improve on myself as an individual<br />

and as a business owner while<br />

breaking barriers.”<br />

Olajide also advised young<br />

entrepreneurs in Nigeria working<br />

hard to make ends meet to never<br />

relent.<br />

“Keep pushing and seeking new<br />

opportunities. Doing business is not<br />

as easy as it seems on paper or in a<br />

discussion, but I believe with hard<br />

work and persistence the sky will<br />

be the beginning,” he said.<br />

Wulff-Caesar joins FrieslandCampina<br />

WAMCO Nigeria as marketing director<br />

Chris Wulff-Caesar<br />

has been appointed<br />

Marketing Director<br />

of FrieslandCampina<br />

WAMCO Nigeria PLC with effect<br />

from 1 <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong>. A statement<br />

signed by Ore Famurewa,<br />

corporate affairs director, said.<br />

The release said that by the<br />

appointment, Wulff-Caesar joins<br />

the Management Team of the<br />

company and will report to Ben<br />

Langat, managing director.<br />

He will be located in Lagos,<br />

Nigeria, and will lead the<br />

marketing team behind Nigeria’s<br />

iconic milk brand – Peak, to drive<br />

strong consumer experience and<br />

innovation.<br />

It quoted Langat as saying:<br />

“We’re making massive strides<br />

towards increasing the dairy<br />

portfolio for consumer preference<br />

and living our mission of providing<br />

quality and affordable nutrition<br />

for Nigerians; together with Chris,<br />

we will continue to put consumer<br />

first in realising our business<br />

ambitions.”<br />

The statement explained that<br />

until Wulff-Caesar’s appointment<br />

at FrieslandCampina WAMCO,<br />

he was the Marketing Director,<br />

West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria)<br />

at ABInBev and member of the<br />

Board of Accra Brewery Ltd in<br />

Ghana. It added that during his<br />

tenure, he led the establishment<br />

of a formidable brand portfolio<br />

which transformed the markets<br />

to wrest share away from<br />

incumbent competitors.<br />

“Whilst at SABMiller, he also<br />

held the positions of Category<br />

Expansion/Innovation Manager<br />

for Africa based in Johannesburg<br />

(2010 -2012) and Marketing<br />

Director for Ghana (2007 –<br />

2010). He is a proven marketer,<br />

commercial operator and<br />

business leader with almost<br />

20 years working experience<br />

in both local and international<br />

roles for ABInBev, SABMiller and<br />

Unilever,” it said.<br />

According to the release, “His<br />

career has seen him accrue a<br />

wealth of experience in managing<br />

the primary assets of these<br />

leading FMCG organisations<br />

i.e. brands and people. Chris<br />

Wulff-Caesar, a Ghanaian,<br />

holds a BA (Honors) Degree in<br />

Economics from the University<br />

of Ghana and an MBA from the<br />

Edinburgh Business School of<br />

the Heriot Watt University in<br />

Scotland United Kingdom. He<br />

is an Associate member of the<br />

Advertising Practitioners Council<br />

of Nigeria (APCON).<br />

“He is also involved with a few<br />

non-profit organisations which<br />

target the development and<br />

establishment of infrastructure<br />

for primary education for<br />

disadvantaged students. Chris<br />

succeeds Tarang Gupta, who<br />

is now the Managing Director,<br />

FrieslandCampina (Dutch Lady)<br />

Malaysia.”<br />

FrieslandCampina WAMCO<br />

Nigeria PLC is affiliated to<br />

Royal FrieslandCampina of The<br />

Netherlands, one of the largest<br />

dairy cooperatives in the world.<br />

FrieslandCampina WAMCO is a<br />

major player in the Nigerian dairy<br />

industry, nourishing Nigerians<br />

with quality dairy nutrition with<br />

key brands as Peak and Three<br />

Crowns.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY<br />

33<br />

SundayBusiness<br />

Ideas<br />

Nwaodu Lawrence<br />

Chukwuemeka<br />

IDEAS Exchange<br />

Consulting, Lagos.<br />

email - nwaodu.<br />

lawrence@hotmail.co.uk<br />

Cell: 07066375847.<br />

Had you asked the greatest<br />

economist of the<br />

20th century what the<br />

biggest challenge of<br />

the 21st would be, he<br />

wouldn’t have had to think twice.<br />

Leisure.<br />

In the summer of 1930, just as the<br />

Great Depression was gathering<br />

momentum, the British economist<br />

John Maynard Keynes gave a curious<br />

lecture in Madrid. He had already<br />

bounced some novel ideas off<br />

a few of his students at Cambridge<br />

and decided to reveal them publicly<br />

in a brief talk titled “Economic Possibilities<br />

for our Grandchildren.”<br />

In other words, for us<br />

At the time of his visit, Madrid was<br />

a mess. Unemployment was spiraling<br />

out of control, fascism was gaining<br />

ground, and the Soviet Union<br />

was actively recruiting supporters.<br />

A few years later, a devastating<br />

civil war would break out. How,<br />

then, could leisure be the biggest<br />

challenge? That summer, Keynes<br />

seemed to have landed from a dif-<br />

Is there anything that working less does not solve? (1)<br />

- Working less, the solution to just about everything:<br />

ferent planet.<br />

“We are suffering just now from a<br />

bad attack of economic pessimism,”<br />

he wrote. “It is common to hear<br />

people say that the epoch of enormous<br />

economic progress which<br />

characterized the 19th century<br />

is over…” And not without cause.<br />

Poverty was rampant, international<br />

tensions were running high, and it<br />

would take the death machine of<br />

World War II to breathe life back<br />

into global industry.<br />

Speaking in a city on the precipice<br />

of disaster, the British economist<br />

hazarded a counterintuitive prediction.<br />

By 2030, Keynes said, mankind<br />

would be confronted with the<br />

greatest challenge it had ever faced:<br />

What to do with a sea of spare time.<br />

Unless politicians make “disastrous<br />

mistakes” (austerity during an<br />

economic crisis, for instance), he<br />

anticipated that within a century the<br />

Western standard of living would<br />

have multiplied to at least four times<br />

that of 1930.<br />

The conclusion? In 2030, we’ll<br />

be working just 15 hours a week.<br />

A future filled with leisure<br />

Keynes was neither the first nor<br />

the last to foresee a future awash in<br />

leisure. A century and a half earlier,<br />

American Founding Father Benjamin<br />

Franklin had already predicted<br />

that four hours of work a day would<br />

eventually suffice. Beyond that, life<br />

would be all “leisure and pleasure.”<br />

And Karl Marx similarly looked<br />

forward to a day when everyone<br />

would have the time “to hunt in the<br />

morning, fish in the afternoon, raise<br />

cattle in the evening, criticize after<br />

dinner […] without ever becoming<br />

hunter, fisherman, herdsman or<br />

critic.”<br />

At around the same time, the<br />

father of classical liberalism, British<br />

philosopher John Stuart Mill,<br />

was arguing that the best use of<br />

more wealth was more leisure.<br />

Mill opposed the “gospel of work”<br />

proclaimed by his great adversary<br />

Thomas Carlyle (a great proponent<br />

of slavery, too, as it happens),<br />

juxtaposing it with his own “gospel<br />

of leisure.” According to Mill,<br />

technology should be used to curb<br />

the workweek as far as possible.<br />

“There would be as much scope as<br />

ever for all kinds of mental culture,<br />

and moral and social progress,” he<br />

wrote, “as much room for improving<br />

the Art of Living.”<br />

Yet the Industrial Revolution,<br />

which propelled the 19th century’s<br />

explosive economic growth, had<br />

brought about the exact opposite<br />

of leisure. Where an English farmer<br />

in the year 1300 had to work some<br />

1,500 hours a year to make a living,<br />

a factory worker in Mill’s era had<br />

to put in twice the time simply to<br />

survive. In cities like Manchester, a<br />

70-hour workweek – no vacations,<br />

no weekends – was the norm, even<br />

for children. “What do the poor<br />

want with holidays?” an English<br />

duchess wondered toward the end<br />

of the 19th century. “They ought<br />

to work!” Too much free time was<br />

simply an invitation to wickedness.<br />

Nevertheless, starting around<br />

1850 some of the prosperity created<br />

by the Industrial Revolution<br />

began to trickle down to the lower<br />

classes. And money is time. In 1855,<br />

the stonemasons of Melbourne,<br />

Australia, were the first to secure<br />

an eight-hour workday. By century’s<br />

end, workweeks in some<br />

countries had already dipped south<br />

of 60 hours. Nobel Prize-winning<br />

playwright George Bernard Shaw<br />

predicted in 1900 that, at this rate,<br />

workers in the year 2000 would be<br />

clocking just two hours a day.<br />

Employers resisted, naturally.<br />

When in 1926 a group of 32 prominent<br />

American businessmen were<br />

asked how they felt about a shorter<br />

workweek, a grand total of two<br />

thought the idea had merit. According<br />

to the other 30, more free time<br />

would only result in higher crime<br />

rates, debts, and degeneration.<br />

Yet it was none other than Henry<br />

Ford – titan of industry, founder of<br />

Ford Motor Company, and creator<br />

of the Model-T – who, in that same<br />

year, became the first to implement<br />

a five-day workweek.<br />

People called him crazy. Then<br />

they followed in his footsteps.<br />

A dyed-in-the-wool capitalist and<br />

the mastermind behind the production<br />

line, Henry Ford had discovered<br />

that a shorter workweek actually<br />

increased productivity among his<br />

employees. Leisure time, he observed,<br />

was a “cold business fact.”<br />

A well-rested worker was a more<br />

effective worker. And besides, an<br />

employee toiling at a factory from<br />

dawn till dusk, with no free time for<br />

road trips or joy rides, would never<br />

buy one of his cars. As Ford told<br />

a journalist, “It is high time to rid<br />

ourselves of the notion that leisure<br />

for workmen is either ‘lost time’ or<br />

a class privilege.”<br />

Within a decade, the skeptics had<br />

been won over. The National Association<br />

of Manufacturers, which<br />

20 years earlier had been warning<br />

that a shorter workweek would<br />

ruin the economy, now proudly<br />

advertised that the U.S. had the<br />

shortest workweek in the world.<br />

In their newfound leisure hours,<br />

workers were soon driving their<br />

Ford cars past NAM billboards that<br />

proclaimed, “There is no way like<br />

the American way.”<br />

The end of work<br />

All evidence seemed to suggest<br />

that the great minds, from Marx to<br />

Mill to Keynes to Ford, would be<br />

proven right.<br />

In 1933, the U.S. Senate approved<br />

legislation introducing a<br />

30-hour workweek. Although the<br />

bill languished in the House of Representatives<br />

under industry pressure,<br />

a shorter workweek remained<br />

the labor unions’ top priority. After<br />

World War II, leisure time continued<br />

its steady rise. In 1956, Vice<br />

President Richard Nixon promised<br />

Americans that they would only<br />

have to work four days a week “in<br />

the not too distant future.”<br />

Keynes’ bold prediction had become<br />

a truism. In the mid-1960s, a<br />

Senate committee report projected<br />

that by 2000 the workweek would<br />

be down to just 14 hours, with at<br />

least seven weeks off a year. The<br />

RAND Corporation, an influential<br />

think tank, foresaw a future in which<br />

just 2% of the population would be<br />

able to produce everything society<br />

needed. Working would soon be<br />

reserved for the elite.<br />

As the 1960s progressed, some<br />

thinkers did begin to voice concerns.<br />

Food &<br />

Beverages<br />

With<br />

Ayo Oyoze Baje<br />

The fad and fallacy of Energy Drinks<br />

Their names are as scary and<br />

boastful of the high level of<br />

physical and mental alertness<br />

they are supposed<br />

to provide, as their colourful packages<br />

portray. Name them: Red Bull,<br />

Shark, Rock Star, Monster and even<br />

Demon are some of the popular<br />

brands. Most of them contain<br />

large percentage of stimulants,<br />

especially caffeine and others such<br />

as guarana and ginseng.<br />

While the amount of caffeine<br />

in an energy drink can range from<br />

75 milligrams to over 200 milligrams<br />

per serving, that in a bottle<br />

of Coke is 34 milligrams while it is<br />

55 milligrams in Mountain Dew.<br />

The target consumers of course,<br />

are the youths from the teenage<br />

years up till those in their early forties.<br />

But that is not all there is to their<br />

controversy-eliciting content.<br />

In the absence of caffeine, guarana<br />

provides the energy. And when<br />

there are claims of no sugar, artificial<br />

sweeteners take charge. For those<br />

who are nutrition-conscious, the<br />

advertised vitamins or amino acids<br />

like taurine are better found by eating<br />

a variety of food and taking a<br />

daily vitamin/mineral supplement<br />

than from drinking energy drinks.<br />

Health implications<br />

I met a middle-aged Nigerian at<br />

Ikeja back in 20<strong>08</strong> who recounted<br />

his ordeal from taking energy drinks<br />

while in Germany. He was responding<br />

to the article he had read on the<br />

hazardous health implications of energy<br />

drinks in Foodbusiness International<br />

as published by Strata Media.<br />

He confessed to have felt restless,<br />

irritable and sleepless after consuming<br />

the drink. What saved him was<br />

a combination of large amounts of<br />

carrots and tomatoes prepared for<br />

him by his German hostess.<br />

Though responses from individuals<br />

may vary because of what<br />

someone called “different body<br />

chemistry” the stimulating properties<br />

from caffeine and guarana can<br />

increase the heart rate and blood<br />

pressure (sometimes to the point<br />

of palpitations).The body is easily<br />

dehydrated, affecting the functions<br />

of the brain cells and similar to other<br />

stimulants, energy drinks prevent<br />

sleep. Yet, medical doctors have<br />

severally cautioned that an average<br />

young adult needs between 8-10<br />

hours of quality sleep for him to perform<br />

optimally the following day.<br />

Another warning from doctors<br />

is that energy drinks should<br />

be avoided while exercising as<br />

the combination of fluid loss from<br />

sweating and the diuretic quality<br />

of the caffeine can leave someone<br />

severely dehydrated.<br />

According to Brown University<br />

(U.S.) Health Education instruction,<br />

energy drinks may not necessarily<br />

be bad for the average consumer<br />

when taken in moderation. But<br />

they shouldn’t be seen as “natural<br />

alternatives” either. Some of the<br />

claims they make like “improved<br />

performance and concentration”<br />

can be misleading. There, they are<br />

marketed as dietary supplements,<br />

and the national health authority<br />

does not approve or review the<br />

products before they are sold.<br />

What happens when energy<br />

drinks are combined with alcohol?<br />

This combination, according to<br />

the afore-mentioned publication<br />

warns that such a cocktail carries<br />

a number of potential dangers as<br />

reproduced:<br />

Since energy drinks are stimulants<br />

and alcohol is a depressant,<br />

the combination of effects may be<br />

dangerous. The stimulant effects<br />

can mask how intoxicated you are<br />

and prevent you from realising how<br />

much alcohol you have consumed.<br />

Fatigue is one of the ways the body<br />

normally tells someone that they’ve<br />

had enough to drink.<br />

The stimulant effect can give the<br />

person the impression they aren’t<br />

impaired. No matter how alert you<br />

feel, your blood alcohol concentration<br />

(BAC) is the same as it would<br />

be without the drink. People will<br />

misperceive their ability to perform<br />

complex tasks like driving or crossing<br />

a busy road. Once the stimulant<br />

effect wears off, the depressant effects<br />

of the alcohol will remain and<br />

could cause vomiting in your sleep<br />

or respiratory depression.<br />

Research has found that people<br />

drink more and have higher BACs<br />

when they combine alcohol and<br />

caffeine.<br />

Both (energy drinks and alcohol)<br />

are very dehydrating (the caffeine in<br />

Red Bull, Monster et al is a diuretic).<br />

Dehydration can hinder your body’s<br />

ability to metabolise alcohol and will<br />

increase the toxicity, and therefore,<br />

the hangover, the next day.<br />

NAFDAC’s intervention<br />

Characteristic of its promptitude<br />

in responding to public complaints<br />

on issues of the healthy value<br />

of food and drugs, NAFDAC had<br />

as far back as 20<strong>08</strong> warned pregnant<br />

women, victims of diabetes,<br />

children and those with high blood<br />

pressure to desist from consuming<br />

energy drinks. A spokesperson for<br />

NAFDAC had warned that: ‘I don’t<br />

see why this set of people should<br />

go for it. We made a clear public<br />

publication on it.”<br />

Stressing the issue further he reiterated<br />

that: “Energy drink is being<br />

taken everywhere in the world and<br />

not only in Nigeria, and we have to<br />

register a number of them. But there<br />

is a caveat that pregnant women<br />

should not take energy drinks as<br />

well as women and those allergic<br />

to caffeine.<br />

“Anything that is taken overdose<br />

can cause troubles for the body,<br />

even water. Everything in life is<br />

about moderation.”<br />

The Agency also talked about<br />

the fact that it is aware of the importation<br />

of unregistered energy<br />

drinks due to the porous borders.<br />

And that some people have been<br />

recruited across the local government<br />

councils to monitor the<br />

presence of such fake and harmful<br />

products. Its statement said that<br />

‘we need to understand that there<br />

are other clandestine activities and<br />

people, who bring in these drinks on<br />

daily basis. We have two hotlines<br />

dedicated to this cause, to enable<br />

us achieve these.”<br />

One’s admonition is that we<br />

should help NAFDAC to help us.<br />

That precisely, is what members<br />

of the National and Lagos State<br />

House of Assembly’s Health Committees<br />

did in considering a bill to<br />

ban outright the importation of such<br />

drinks that could put the tender and<br />

delicate health of our children in<br />

great peril. They all need our support<br />

to succeed.<br />

As concerned Nigerians are<br />

worried about the increase in the<br />

rate of death of young Nigerians<br />

from addiction to hard drugs, one<br />

area parents, school authorities<br />

and religious institutions should<br />

take a look at is the consumption<br />

of energy drinks. Many are hazardous<br />

to human health. Prevention is<br />

better than cure. A stitch in time<br />

saves nine.<br />

Baje is Nigerian first Food<br />

Technologist in the media


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

34 BDSUNDAY<br />

SundayBusiness<br />

Diversification through<br />

mortgage for economic growth<br />

There appears to be a<br />

slow down on the discourse<br />

on diversification<br />

through which the<br />

federal government<br />

seeks to refocus the economy<br />

towards non-oil sectors such as<br />

agriculture and manufacturing<br />

which are noted by the government<br />

as major growth areas with<br />

low hanging fruits.<br />

This is to be expected as oil price<br />

has climbed several steps up in the<br />

last twelve months. The country<br />

only thinks of alternatives when<br />

there is a drastic fall in oil prices<br />

which it has chosen to stay with<br />

as the mainstay of the economy.<br />

But that is simply a sure way of<br />

postponing the evil day.<br />

So good that agriculture and<br />

manufacturing top considerations<br />

for diversification, but it worries<br />

that the originators and promoters<br />

of diversification are yet to<br />

recognize that economic growth<br />

can happen when mortgage and/<br />

or real estate, which is the fulcrum<br />

around which the mortgage system<br />

revolves, is factored in their<br />

calculation.<br />

In other economies, the mortgage<br />

industry makes significant<br />

contribution to economic development.<br />

In Nigeria, this is not the<br />

case because no consideration is<br />

given to its potential. This lack of<br />

consideration explains why mortgage<br />

finance as a percentage of<br />

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), till<br />

date, remains as low at 0.5 percent,<br />

leaving it several steps behind other<br />

emerging markets such as Mexico,<br />

Malaysia and South Africa where<br />

mortgage contributions to GDP are<br />

as high as 10 percent, 25 percent<br />

and 29 percent respectively.<br />

There is no-gain-saying that<br />

mortgage has all the potential to<br />

contribute to the growth of the<br />

economy, but for it to do that, all<br />

the obstacles to its own growth<br />

have to be tackled. The relative<br />

‘newness’ of the industry, lack of<br />

understanding of its dynamics and<br />

operational models by many Nigerians,<br />

and poor appreciation of the<br />

need and the ultimate benefit of<br />

keeping money in a mortgage bank<br />

are some of the militating factors.<br />

Experts are of the view that<br />

a flourishing mortgage banking<br />

industry is an effective tool in the<br />

hands of the government as the<br />

industry will help in regulating the<br />

economy in the desired direction.<br />

But the federal government, in all<br />

the things that are being said about<br />

diversification of the economy<br />

to steer it away from the current<br />

challenges, doesn’t seem to pay<br />

attention to the mortgage sector. If<br />

government really wants to stimulate<br />

the economy, a reduction in the<br />

interest rate will be a master stroke<br />

as, all things being equal, more<br />

people will embrace mortgage loan<br />

to buy houses, leading to increased<br />

activities in the construction sector.<br />

Because of the identified obstacles,<br />

many primary mortgage banks<br />

(PMBs) are going through very difficult<br />

times, such that some are still<br />

unable to meet up with the capital<br />

requirements in the industry.<br />

“If government pays a closer attention<br />

to the PMBs by removing<br />

some of the obstacles that they<br />

have such as the drawbacks of<br />

the Land Use Act of 1978 which<br />

essentially vests land ownership in<br />

the hands of the state governors;<br />

the right to easily foreclose on delinquent<br />

borrowers, ease of creating<br />

a legal mortgage and perfecting<br />

titles and the ease of falling back on<br />

their collateral to recover bad loan<br />

etc, this sector will surely improve<br />

significantly”, a mortgage operator<br />

observed recently.<br />

The operator who did not want<br />

to be named, insisted that until all<br />

these issues are resolved in a way<br />

that encourages the provider of<br />

capital, in this case the mortgage<br />

bank, the sector will not grow as<br />

desired and he hopes that when<br />

these obstacles are removed, the<br />

supplier of mortgage will allocate<br />

more funds towards the provision<br />

of home loans while home buyers<br />

will better appreciate the implication<br />

of prompt interest and capital<br />

repayments as well as ensure discipline<br />

on the part of the people.<br />

Okika Ekwem, a US-based realtor,<br />

affirms that the poor capital<br />

Talking Mortgage<br />

with<br />

CHUKA UROKO<br />

(<strong>08</strong>037156969, chukuroko@yahoo.com)<br />

base of the PMBs is inadequate.<br />

He however, dismissed the idea of<br />

a fixed capital base for mortgage<br />

institutions. To say that a mortgage<br />

institution should have a fixed base<br />

of, say N10 billion, is wrong because<br />

that amount is too meagre; even<br />

N100 billion is also meagre given<br />

the kind of projects they are to<br />

finance.<br />

“The Federal Government needs<br />

to come in, look at what is happening<br />

in other civilised world and copy.<br />

These days, copying is no longer<br />

an act of deception but actually<br />

something that is done even in the<br />

civilised world”, he said.<br />

In the civilised world, according<br />

to him, there is secondary market<br />

for real estate financing where<br />

commercial banks or individual<br />

brokerage banks lend money to<br />

people and thereafter sell the securitised<br />

certificate to the secondary<br />

market and come back again to lend<br />

to individuals.<br />

Given the size of Nigeria as a<br />

mortgage market, the growth<br />

of this industry is possible if the<br />

Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria<br />

(FMBN) plays the role of a regulator<br />

while the federal government,<br />

through the Central Bank of Nigeria<br />

(CBN), empowers the PMBs more.<br />

Arguably, the Nigerian mortgage<br />

industry needs more well<br />

established and well funded PMBs.<br />

Meckson Innocent Okoro, an estate<br />

manager, explains that this is<br />

to discourage the concentration of<br />

these institutions only in urban centres.<br />

“When the number of PMBs is<br />

increased to say five in each state,<br />

access to housing finance will also<br />

be increased.<br />

“The PMBs must be positioned<br />

to champion the whole issue of<br />

affordable or social housing for the<br />

low income earners in the country.<br />

Anything the country wants to do<br />

without a functional mortgage system<br />

that can guarantee homeownership<br />

for a good number of people<br />

will not succeed”, he reasoned.<br />

Continuing, he said: “We are talking<br />

about housing which is capital<br />

intensive and so must have capable<br />

institutions to finance it; increased<br />

homeownership will, one way or<br />

another, contribute to the country’s<br />

GDP which translates to economic<br />

growth”.<br />

Property<br />

Logic<br />

With Akhigbe Dominic<br />

A<br />

few years ago, I took a<br />

rent of an apartment<br />

somewhere in Mainland<br />

Lagos; I paid the<br />

sum of six hundred thousand<br />

naira as total incoming rent with<br />

four hundred thousand naira as<br />

recurrent rent. During one of<br />

the (then) Environmental Sanitation<br />

Saturdays; my Landlord<br />

and I were whiling away time<br />

after supervising the cleaning of<br />

Affordable housing and the run away cost of<br />

building material; a convenient paradox<br />

the surroundings and the drainages.<br />

My landlord was an accomplished<br />

man who was ready<br />

to share his experience anytime,<br />

anywhere and any day. He is a<br />

very educated man with a Ph.D in<br />

his field of endeavor. I still recall<br />

how he told me that he bought<br />

the entire two plots on which<br />

the imposing edifice situates for<br />

N4000 in 1982. He said the entire<br />

house comprising of six plats<br />

and a potter’s lodge from start<br />

to finish was built for N80,000<br />

in all. In fact; he further informed<br />

me that this same land was his<br />

most expensive of all his landed<br />

properties. This is N120,000 put<br />

together! However, my rent for<br />

the Apartment which I rented in<br />

the same house was N400,000<br />

then.<br />

The above scenario can be<br />

argued and situated within the<br />

corridor of time factor. After all;<br />

!980 is about four decades ago!<br />

Inflation and other determining<br />

factors can be adduced to<br />

wrestle this long past period.<br />

However, I can still remember<br />

that in 2015 or thereabouts; a<br />

bag of cement was hovering between<br />

N1100 and N1200. The 6<br />

inches block was in the neighborhood<br />

of N90 and N100. Today, a<br />

bag of the same cement sells for<br />

between N2900 and N3000 . A 6<br />

inches block sells for about N190<br />

and N200 while 9 inches block<br />

sells for N200 to N210 depending<br />

on location. Other building<br />

materials have become very<br />

prohibitive. A square meter of<br />

Gerrard Steptile Roofing is about<br />

N2900. The long spam aluminum<br />

roofing sheets goes for between<br />

N19,000 and N20,000 a bundle<br />

of eighteen sheets. We are not<br />

talking of electrical fittings, ceiling<br />

or the other components.<br />

The situation has become very<br />

disturbing.<br />

Affordable Housing has become<br />

a mirage. Indeed, is it possible<br />

to make Housing affordable<br />

with this abominable cost of<br />

building imputes? The answer is<br />

very clear. You cannot expect a<br />

man to spend over N10,000,000<br />

(excluding the cost of the land)<br />

to erect a two bedrooms flat and<br />

give such an apartment out for<br />

anything affordable. You do not<br />

give what you don’t have.<br />

The big question is, can this<br />

situation not be remedied? Am<br />

sure it can. This is possible if the<br />

government creates the enabling<br />

environment for investment.<br />

Regulations can be put in<br />

place to manage the activities<br />

of manufacturers who sometimes<br />

want to take advantage<br />

of the helpless consumers and<br />

make abnormal profits thereby<br />

pricing their products out of<br />

reach. Policies that tend to<br />

encourage monopoly in favor<br />

of specific classes of people<br />

should be repealed.<br />

When this administration<br />

came into power, it was said<br />

that the president invited one of<br />

the largest manufacturers of cement<br />

and cautioned him against<br />

bogus profits that are capable<br />

of undermining the Affordable<br />

Housing policy of government.<br />

It was further said that the president<br />

also threatened to direct<br />

a forensic audit of the business<br />

activities of this same company<br />

except prices were managed<br />

in a manner that would make<br />

cement affordable. Like magic,<br />

cement prices dropped with a<br />

huge quantum. After a while; the<br />

status quo returned. This same<br />

investor practically stifled the<br />

business activities of some other<br />

investors in this sub-sector by<br />

promoting monopolistic tendencies.<br />

Just every other unwholesome<br />

practice that has gone<br />

unchallenged in this country is<br />

attributed to this same business<br />

magnate. This manufacturer has<br />

become a colossus. He practically<br />

dictates the flow of prices<br />

of cement in Nigeria today. The<br />

popular excuse is that it is expensive<br />

to do business in our climate.<br />

A fifty kilogram of cement<br />

now sells for N3000 excluding<br />

logistics!<br />

...to be continued.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

35<br />

Equity Market<br />

8 banks, 7 insurance firms miss<br />

NSE’s 90-day compliance deadline<br />

Stories by TELIAT SULE<br />

Following the expiration<br />

of the 90-day grace period<br />

during which listed<br />

companies that have<br />

December as their financial<br />

year end are expected to have<br />

released their audited financial<br />

statements, eight deposit money<br />

banks, seven insurance companies,<br />

two mortgage banks, a paint manufacturer,<br />

and 6 others have missed<br />

this regulatory deadline.<br />

The deposit money banks are<br />

Unity Bank, FCMB, Sterling Bank,<br />

Diamond Bank, FBN Holdings, Fidelity<br />

Bank, Union Bank and Wema<br />

Bank. The insurance companies<br />

are Equity Assurance, Cornerstone,<br />

Stacco, Linkage Assurance,<br />

Mutual Benefits, Royal Exchange<br />

and Standard Alliance. Aiico Insurance<br />

released its audited financial<br />

statements on Friday <strong>Apr</strong>il 6, <strong>2018</strong>,<br />

a week after the expiration of the<br />

deadline.<br />

Others are International Breweries,<br />

Lafarge, Multiverse, Abbey<br />

and Omoluwabi Mortgage banks,<br />

Oando, Meyer and Tourist Company<br />

of Nigeria. The NSE rules<br />

state that companies must release<br />

their audited financial statements<br />

90 days after their financial year<br />

has ended, in this case, on or before<br />

March 31, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

“This is to inform the Nigerian<br />

Stock Exchange (NSE), our esteemed<br />

shareholders and other<br />

stakeholders that Unity Bank Plc<br />

was unable to release its 2017<br />

Audited Financial Statement (AFS)<br />

for the year ended 31 December<br />

2017 by March <strong>2018</strong> as required<br />

by NSE rules. The AFS has been<br />

forwarded to the Central Bank<br />

of Nigeria (CBN) for review and<br />

will be filed with the NSE upon the<br />

conclusion of the CBN’s review”,<br />

Unity Bank Management said in a<br />

note to the NSE.<br />

“ This is to notify our esteemed<br />

shareholders and other shareholders<br />

about the delay in the filing of<br />

Wema bank’s 2017 Audited Finan-<br />

cial Statement for the year ended<br />

31st December 2017. The delay<br />

arose from the need to obtain the<br />

necessary approval before going<br />

ahead to publish our 12 mouths Accounts<br />

and Financial Statements.<br />

We expect to have our results<br />

released before the end of <strong>Apr</strong>il<br />

<strong>2018</strong>”, Wema Bank said in a note<br />

to the NSE.<br />

But Saheed Bashir, a senior analyst<br />

with Meristem Securities, one<br />

of the leading investment banks<br />

in the country, while accepting<br />

that banks that operate a holding<br />

company structure, which allows<br />

such institutions to have many<br />

subsidiaries, have justification in<br />

delaying their results, he however<br />

attributed the delay in other firms<br />

to inefficiency.<br />

“Holding companies need time<br />

to prepare their audited financial<br />

statements because of their subsidiaries.<br />

There are issues they need<br />

to clarify and resolve with their external<br />

auditors. If these companies<br />

ask for more time to file in their AFS,<br />

that is justifiable. But such reason<br />

will not be accepted from companies<br />

that do not operate holding<br />

company structure”, Bashir said.<br />

“For smaller companies that do<br />

not meet this deadline, it is due to<br />

inefficiency”, he added.<br />

The NSE Rule 7.4 on the submission<br />

of financial reports to the<br />

Exchange sub sections A and B<br />

indicate that “Every Dealing Member<br />

shall submit to The Exchange<br />

its annual financial statements,<br />

within ninety (90) days of the end<br />

of the fiscal year and its quarterly<br />

financial statements within fortyfive<br />

(45) days of the end of the<br />

quarter; and any other periodic<br />

report within the period stipulated<br />

by The Exchange. All Financial<br />

statements shall be prepared in accordance<br />

with the requirements of<br />

the International Financial Reporting<br />

Standards (IFRS) applicable<br />

to the time period covered in such<br />

financial statement(s).<br />

“If a Dealing Member fails to<br />

comply with this provision, it shall<br />

be liable to the following penalties<br />

which are subject to review by<br />

Council and any change thereto<br />

shall be made public by way of a<br />

Circular: Failure of a Dealing Member<br />

to submit Quarterly Returns on<br />

the date due for submission shall<br />

attract a penalty of Five Thousand<br />

Naira (N5,000) per day of default<br />

and the Dealing Member shall be<br />

suspended from trading with effect<br />

from the first trading day after the<br />

due date.<br />

“ Failure of a Dealing Member<br />

to submit Audited Financial Statements<br />

on the date due for submission<br />

shall attract a penalty of Five<br />

Thousand Naira (N5,000) per day<br />

of default for a maximum of four<br />

(4) weeks; Where a Dealing Member<br />

fails to submit Annual Financial<br />

Statement after four (4) weeks of<br />

default, the Dealing Member firm<br />

shall forthwith be suspended from<br />

trading; Where a Dealing Member<br />

is suspended from trading under<br />

sub-rule (1) or (3), such suspension<br />

shall be lifted upon submission of<br />

the Quarterly Returns or Annual<br />

Financial Statements”, the NSE<br />

rules further stated.<br />

Every year, companies pay millions<br />

as penalties for different<br />

market infractions such as late filing<br />

of quarterly and audited financial<br />

statements.<br />

Quarter two opens with N240bn loss in market capitalisation<br />

Transactions in the first<br />

week of the second quarter<br />

of <strong>2018</strong> in the negative<br />

territory as the market<br />

capitalisation of listed stocks<br />

closed lower when compared<br />

with the its closing figure on the<br />

last week of the first quarter of<br />

<strong>2018</strong>. The market capitalisation<br />

closed last Friday at N14.75 trillion<br />

representing a loss of N239.63<br />

billion from N14.99 trillion which<br />

was recorded on Friday March<br />

29,<strong>2018</strong>. Year to date, the market<br />

capitalisation closed higher at 8.40<br />

percent.<br />

Similarly, the All Share Index<br />

(ASI) lost 663.37 points from<br />

44,504.51 points recorded on<br />

the last trading day of the first<br />

quarter to close on <strong>Apr</strong>il 6, <strong>2018</strong> at<br />

40,841.14 points. Year to date, the<br />

NSE ASI closed at 6.79 percent.<br />

Last week, traders exchanged<br />

1.76 billion shares valued at<br />

N26.56 billion executed in 20,265<br />

deals compared with 2.32 billion<br />

shares traded in 25,530 deals<br />

worth N28.927 billion in the previous<br />

week.<br />

Expectedly, the financial services<br />

segment led the activity chart with<br />

1.46 billion share worth N18.70<br />

billion done in 12,850 deals and<br />

as such the segment accounted<br />

for 83 percent and 70 percent of<br />

the market volume and value respectively.<br />

The top three stocks<br />

in terms of volume are the shares<br />

of Zenith, Access and UBA.<br />

During the week, a total of<br />

125,282 units of Exchange Traded<br />

Products (ETPs) worth N2.835<br />

million were executed in 11 deals,<br />

as against 15,293 units worth<br />

N254,840.00 that were transacted<br />

in the previous week in 16 deals.<br />

Only few FGN bonds were<br />

traded as investors exchanged of<br />

4,457 units of Federal Government<br />

bonds worth N4.247 million in 13<br />

deals, as against a total of 21,583<br />

units valued at N22.868 million<br />

done in 16 deals in the previous<br />

week.


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

36BDSUNDAY<br />

BrandsOnSunday<br />

SPOTLIGHTING BRAND VALUE<br />

NHF ticks Three Crowns Milk’s value proposition<br />

Three Crowns Milk produced by Friesland Campina Wamco Nigeria has discovered various routes to more market penetration; the mothers. It has ‘healthy<br />

mums, happy families’ and ‘mum of the year’ campaigns. The brand owners also recently took a bold step to secure NHF certification as healthy product to<br />

justify its nourishing and healthy- living value proposition. Daniel Obi writes on this recent move.<br />

L-R: Maureen Ifada, marketing manager, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc;Ben Langat, managing director,<br />

FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc; Oladipo Akinkugbe, (CFR) past president, Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF),<br />

and Ore Famurewa, corporate affairs director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, during the Endorsement of<br />

Three Crowns Milk with Nigerian Heart Foundation.<br />

There are varieties of milk<br />

products in a typical Nigerian<br />

market; be it small<br />

or big market. But all the<br />

milk products are not of<br />

the same standard quality especially<br />

when friendly-to-heart valuation<br />

is considered. Some of the products<br />

have no official health certification<br />

such as low cholesterol and heart<br />

friendliness; still they promote<br />

healthy living to gullible consumers.<br />

With rising concerns among<br />

consumers against unhealthy foods,<br />

some brand owners whose products<br />

have been certified by relevant<br />

authorities have adopted such niche<br />

as a marketing tool.<br />

For instance, Nigeria’s dairy food<br />

market remains one of the highly<br />

saturated markets in Fast Moving<br />

Consumer Goods, FMCG. The<br />

number of new entrants with different<br />

products into the market<br />

seems to be growing on a consistent<br />

basis and this has fostered intensive<br />

competition.<br />

“For good measure, development<br />

such as this was seen as a sign<br />

of improvement in the economy<br />

as the country continues to attract<br />

investment portfolio from such<br />

quarter. Aside the fact that the<br />

development has stimulated the<br />

market, the level of competition<br />

appears to be on the rise as brands<br />

try to outwit one another. But over<br />

time, the adoption of value propositions<br />

by the brands has clearly<br />

helped in differentiating one from<br />

the other”, says an analyst.<br />

Three Crowns Confidence<br />

Aside the differentiation benefit<br />

for the brands, the use of proven<br />

value proposition has even become<br />

more relevant in legitimising<br />

consumption among consumers.<br />

With determination therefore to<br />

reinforce its presence and value<br />

proposition in the mind of consumers,<br />

the management of Friesland<br />

Campina Wamco Nigeria Plc, producer<br />

of Three Crowns Milk approached<br />

the Nigerian Heart Foundation<br />

(NHF), an affiliate of the<br />

World Heart Federation, Geneva<br />

for endorsement of the product as<br />

heart-friendly.<br />

Ordinarily, the dire consequence<br />

of any eventual failure<br />

and not meeting the global standard<br />

would discourage uncertain<br />

brands from going for assessment<br />

and endorsement as NHF will not<br />

compromise. But owners of Three<br />

Crowns Milk strongly believe in<br />

the product.<br />

Therefore, it strikes attention<br />

when any brand decides to approach<br />

the body for endorsement.<br />

It is a mark of confidence and reliability<br />

on the ingredients and the<br />

quality of the final product for human<br />

consumption, especially in a<br />

time healthy eating consciousness<br />

has heightened.<br />

With absolute believe in its 30<br />

year-old Three Crowns Milk product,<br />

Friesland Campina Wamco<br />

Nigeria Plc submitted the product<br />

to NHF for examination and subsequent<br />

endorsement. For days,<br />

the body with international recognition<br />

which has the objective to<br />

promote and support research on<br />

cardiovascular disease and create<br />

public enlightenment on prevention<br />

of heart diseases and promotion<br />

of heart health subjected the<br />

product to various scientific tests.<br />

Of course, the body wanted to<br />

act thoroughly in order to justify<br />

its eventual scientific claim on the<br />

product and whatever result it<br />

would come out with. Therefore it<br />

took its time to examine the product<br />

to authenticate or otherwise<br />

of the product as heart friendly<br />

product. At end of the examination,<br />

the body endorsed Three Crowns<br />

Milk as heart friendly dairy Milk.<br />

Underscoring the endorsement,<br />

the Board of Trustees and the Executive<br />

Council of NHF, recently<br />

congratulated the Management of<br />

Friesland Campina Wamco Nigeria<br />

Plc on the celebration of 30years<br />

anniversary of Three Crowns Milk<br />

in Nigeria; and signing up the Three<br />

Crowns Milk product in joining the<br />

stable of Heart health Food Products<br />

in Nigeria.<br />

Speaking at the official endorsement<br />

of the milk in Lagos recently,<br />

the President of NHF, Francesca<br />

Emanuel said the organisation<br />

is delighted to collaborate with<br />

Friesland Campina Wamco Nigeria<br />

plc, producer of Three Crowns<br />

Milk on the endorsement of the<br />

product which has been found to<br />

be free of cholesterol, no trans-fat<br />

and low in salt.<br />

She said the NHF Heart Check<br />

Food Labelling Program started<br />

in 1998 as a tripartite initiative<br />

between Nigerian Heart Foundation,<br />

National Agency for Food and<br />

Drug Administration and Control<br />

(NAFDAC) and the Food Industry<br />

promoting heart friendly food<br />

products through a rigorous scientific<br />

process.<br />

Also speaking, Ben Langat, the<br />

managing director of Wamco said<br />

the company considers it a privilege<br />

to partner with NHF to promote<br />

good healthy living among<br />

consumers.<br />

He said Friesland Campina<br />

Wamco Nigeria is collaborating<br />

with the government in tackling<br />

non-communicable diseases because<br />

NHF and Three Crowns Milk<br />

share a common interest. He said<br />

the product supports consumers<br />

by providing quality nutrition for<br />

individuals including mothers and<br />

children. The company started<br />

production of Three Crowns Milk<br />

in Nigeria 30 years ago.<br />

Nigerian Heart Foundation is a<br />

non-profit and non-governmental<br />

organisation founded in 1992 to<br />

promote Heart health, scientific<br />

research in cardiovascular health,<br />

healthy lifestyles and advocacy on<br />

heart-related issues. The Nigerian<br />

Heart Foundation (NHF) Heart<br />

Check Food Labelling Programme<br />

supports national initiatives for<br />

healthier food choices, through endorsement<br />

of positive Heart Check<br />

logo on healthier food products<br />

certified to be heart friendly.<br />

Non-Communicable diseases<br />

(NCDs) – Heart disease, Cancer,<br />

Diabetes Mellitus, Sickle Cell<br />

Disease and chest diseases – are<br />

the greatest killer diseases of the<br />

21st century. But, heart disease is<br />

a leading killer of the 5 main NCDs<br />

in Nigeria. As WHO focuses globally<br />

on the prevention of NCDs<br />

through healthy diets by means<br />

of – reformulation education and<br />

front-of-pack labelling; and the<br />

UN Secretary General’s progress<br />

report on the NCD prevention<br />

demands more action in particular<br />

in developing countries;<br />

Nigerian Heart Foundation has<br />

been working assiduously over<br />

the last ten years with NAFDAC<br />

in the promotion of healthier heartfriendly<br />

food choices.<br />

This milestone achievement by<br />

Three Crowns Milk has become<br />

significant at a time awareness<br />

about healthy eating has heightened,<br />

but more importantly when<br />

consumers are not sure of what<br />

to consume to avoid health issues<br />

such as heart diseases, cholesterols<br />

and obesity.<br />

What the certificate indicates is<br />

that Three Crowns Milk is encouraging<br />

healthy lifestyle in Nigeria<br />

through dieting which can reduce<br />

risks of obesity and illnesses such<br />

heart disease, stroke and some<br />

types of cancer. It is therefore<br />

important that such milestone has<br />

been achieved by Three Crowns<br />

Milk in the Nigerian market for consumers<br />

many of whom are facing<br />

various challenges and therefore in<br />

need of healthy food.<br />

With 5G, security is top of mind from the start<br />

In this digital age, devices and<br />

applications require a wireless<br />

network access that is not only<br />

fast but also resilient, secure,<br />

and able to protect the individual’s<br />

right to privacy. The 5G system puts<br />

all this front and center.<br />

The latest white paper from<br />

Ericsson, 5G security – enabling a<br />

trustworthy 5G system, describes<br />

the security of 5G NR and core<br />

network. This paper provides an<br />

overview of five core properties<br />

that build the trustworthiness of<br />

the 5G system, namely: resilience;<br />

communication security; identity<br />

management; privacy; and security<br />

assurance. These properties<br />

make 5G a reliable platform that<br />

enables a range of new services<br />

to be created, such as various IoT<br />

use cases.<br />

Like its predecessors, 5G is expected<br />

to become an integral part<br />

of a connected society. 5G security<br />

provides a level of trustworthiness<br />

that meets the requirements of<br />

use cases currently foreseen from<br />

the end user, service provider and<br />

regulatory perspectives.<br />

This trustworthiness stems<br />

not only from a set of security features,<br />

but also from system design<br />

principles and implementation<br />

guidelines that are applied with<br />

a holistic and risk-based mindset.<br />

In short, 5G security is not an addon,<br />

but built in from the start, says<br />

Ericsson.<br />

To build a secure system, it is<br />

important to take a holistic view<br />

and not only focus on individual<br />

parts in isolation. This is why various<br />

organizations such as the<br />

3GPP, GSMA, ETSI, IETF and<br />

ONAP have jointly developed the<br />

5G system, each covering different<br />

aspects or focusing on specific<br />

parts, the company said.<br />

It is also crucial to understand<br />

relevant risks, and how to deal with<br />

them.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY 37<br />

Kiddies<br />

Children speak on future career<br />

NGOZI OKPALAKUNNE<br />

The future belongs to<br />

those who believe<br />

in the power of their<br />

dreams, those who<br />

can feel it, see it, and<br />

say it. However, future career<br />

means a profession one wants<br />

to specialise in. The choice of<br />

such career may be as a result<br />

of the interest one has in such<br />

profession.<br />

In this edition, BDSUNDAY<br />

Kiddies interviewed some children<br />

on the choice of their<br />

future career and their reasons.<br />

Authur Joshua a JSS3 student<br />

of Timi Comprehensive, College,<br />

Lagos, said he would want<br />

to be an electrical engineer. For<br />

him, engineering is one profession<br />

he has passion for.<br />

Akindele Samuel of Baptist<br />

Bowen College said he wants<br />

to be an accountant, because<br />

he enjoys calculations.<br />

For Nwabu Nwanneke, an<br />

SS1 student of Timi Comprehensive<br />

College, to become<br />

a lawyer has been his dream<br />

career. Explaining the reasons<br />

behind his choice he said: ‘’l like<br />

law profession because it will<br />

enable me defend the innocent<br />

ones who have been wrongly<br />

accused’’.<br />

Osifeso Adeyinka, a 16-year<br />

earch Puzzle<br />

Free Printable Word Search Puzzles<br />

Insects<br />

Find and circle all of the Insects that are hidden in the grid.<br />

The words may be hidden in any direction.<br />

ANT<br />

APHID<br />

BUMBLE BEE<br />

BEETLE<br />

BUTTERFLY<br />

CATERPILLAR<br />

CENTIPEDE<br />

old student of Living Spring<br />

Hi-grade College Ilasamaja,<br />

wants to be a medical doctor.<br />

Explaining the reason behind<br />

his choice of career he<br />

said: ‘’I really want to contribute<br />

my quota to the development<br />

of health sector in the<br />

country. I have been studying<br />

very hard so that my dream<br />

will come through because l<br />

know that one has to go an extra<br />

mile in studying before one<br />

becomes a medical doctor.’’<br />

Also speaking on his future<br />

career, David Okpala a student<br />

of Bishop Howells College said<br />

he wants to become a pilot.<br />

For David, flying people on air<br />

across the globe is something<br />

that excites him.<br />

‘’I want to be a pilot and l<br />

know God will help me. l have<br />

decided to read harder so<br />

that l will pass all my subjects<br />

to enable me gain admission<br />

into school of aviation; l know<br />

l will do well when l get there<br />

and l will come out with a good<br />

result ,” he said.<br />

Ogemdi Simeon of Aguda<br />

Junior Secondary said he<br />

wants to become a banker.<br />

According to him, the reason<br />

for the choice is because he<br />

loves calculations.<br />

“l know that working in<br />

the bank when l grow up will<br />

COCKROACH<br />

CRICKET<br />

DRAGONFLY<br />

FIREFLY<br />

FLEA<br />

GRASSHOPPER<br />

HORNET<br />

MOSQUITO<br />

MOTH<br />

SPIDER<br />

WASP<br />

WORM<br />

Did you enjoy this puzzle? Visit: https://www.puzzles.ca/word-search<br />

Copyright © <strong>2018</strong> Puzzles.ca<br />

Children entertaining themselves at a zoo in Lagos recently.<br />

certainly make me happy.<br />

Besides loving calculations,<br />

l also like the way bankers<br />

dress and l will like to dress like<br />

them when l grow up. I am also<br />

aware that l need to be serous<br />

with my studies so as to make<br />

my dream come to pass. As a<br />

result, l do not joke with my<br />

studies, l always go to school<br />

on time, l read my books both<br />

in the school and at home and<br />

so far my results have been<br />

good. l know l will also pass<br />

my WAEC and JAMB,” he said,<br />

confidently.<br />

https://www.puzzles.ca/wordsearch/kids_insects.html<br />

Story of the bearded fool<br />

Once upon a time, there<br />

lived a man who had a<br />

long beard that he was<br />

very proud of. Every day, he<br />

would clean his bushy beard and<br />

comb it neatly. Then, he would<br />

stroke his bread, stretching his<br />

neck with pride. “My long beard<br />

makes me look scholarly and<br />

dignified,” he would think and<br />

smile to himself.<br />

One night, the man was sitting<br />

in his house and reading a<br />

book by candle-light. Suddenly,<br />

he came across a sentence that<br />

read: A man with a long beard<br />

is a fool.<br />

At first, he couldn’t believe he<br />

was reading it correctly. He blinked<br />

his eyes, rubbed them many<br />

times, opened them wide, and<br />

read the sentence again. It clearly<br />

said: A man with a beard is a fool.<br />

At this, the man was very<br />

disappointed. He walked up to<br />

the window, holding his beard<br />

in his hand. “How can I believe<br />

such a remark!” he wondered.<br />

“If it is true, then I am a fool!<br />

Oh, what a stupid thought!” he<br />

murmured, brushing the suggestion<br />

away from his mind.<br />

The bearded man tried to<br />

forget what he had read in the<br />

book, but it kept haunting him.<br />

“I always thought a long beard<br />

was a sign of intelligence. Was<br />

Indeed, it is important that<br />

every child has an ambition to<br />

pursue as that alone can serve<br />

as a drive for academic excellence<br />

on that child’s life.<br />

I under a delusion?” The deeper<br />

the man pondered, the more<br />

depressed he became. “No, no!<br />

I can’t take any chances. Maybe<br />

what is written in the book is<br />

true.”<br />

Finally, he decided to get rid<br />

of his long beard. “What is the<br />

use of nurturing something<br />

that makes me look like a fool?”<br />

So, he grabbed his beard in one<br />

hand, and walked up to the<br />

place where the candle was<br />

burning.<br />

Then, closing his mouth tightly,<br />

he held the tip of his beard to<br />

the candle’s flame. It instantly<br />

caught fire and began to burn.<br />

“Eeeaaaaa!” the man screamed<br />

in panic; he had never expected<br />

that the fire would spread so<br />

fast. Before he realised what<br />

was happening, his beard and<br />

moustache were burnt to ashes.<br />

Then, a spark leapt up and<br />

landed on his head, causing<br />

the fire to burn the hair on his<br />

head as well. Hearing his cries,<br />

the neighbours came running.<br />

They splashed buckets of water<br />

on the man’s face and put out<br />

the fire. “How did it happen?”<br />

they asked. The man took a<br />

deep breath and said, “I read in<br />

a book that a man with a long<br />

beard is a fool. And indeed I have<br />

proved it!”


38<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Arts<br />

Down the memory lane in Apartheid Museum<br />

A visit to the Apartheid Museum is more emotional than you can ever imagine, especially with<br />

flashback to the dark era, yet it points to forgiveness and healing writes OBINNA EMELIKE.<br />

A<br />

bright skyline lies above the<br />

Apartheid Museum that is<br />

sitting on a seven-hectare<br />

of land at Ormonde, an outskirt<br />

of Johannesburg in<br />

South Africa. The large edifice is shrouded<br />

in silence that belies the atrocities<br />

committed in South Africa many years<br />

ago.<br />

The signposts: ‘Non Whites Only’ and<br />

‘Whites Only’ still hanging overhead as I<br />

walked into the museum, attests to the<br />

racial segregation that permeated South<br />

Africa during the Apartheid era.<br />

As I moved ahead with the group I<br />

travelled with, a series of 22 individual<br />

exhibition areas take the visitor through<br />

a dramatic emotional journey that tells a<br />

story of a state-sanctioned system based<br />

on racial discrimination and struggle of<br />

the majority to overthrow the tyranny<br />

of the minority.<br />

Generally, exhibitions in the museum<br />

are assembled by a multi-disciplinary<br />

team of curators, filmmakers, historians<br />

and designers. They include provocative<br />

film footage, photographs, text panels<br />

and artefacts illustrating the events and<br />

human stories that are part of the epic<br />

saga known as Apartheid.<br />

Race Classification; the first exhibition<br />

consisting of photographs and<br />

text panels generously placed on walls<br />

reveals how the Apartheid law started<br />

in 1948. The pictures showcase people<br />

the Apartheid law placed in one of the<br />

four groups; ‘native,’ ‘coloured,’ ‘Asian’ or<br />

‘white.’ It is a pity that the natives were<br />

the worst hit by the bigotry law.<br />

Apartheid; another exhibition on the<br />

walls and iron bars representing prison<br />

cells tells the story of the beginning of the<br />

ugly discriminating policy, and gives visitors<br />

cause to ask rhetorical questions on<br />

why the policy at first. “The whites would<br />

have gone on with ‘their thing’ their own<br />

way without the unnecessary bigotry<br />

that enslaved the indigenes,” says Okipo<br />

Ankwe, a Kenyan curator.<br />

Segregation; a photo exhibition on<br />

walls and original identification papers<br />

of blacks segregated at public and workplaces,<br />

welcomes you to a provocative<br />

viewing.<br />

It further shows the original pictures<br />

of blacks who were denied voting rights<br />

in 1910, the agony of their families and<br />

tells the servitude they were into at that<br />

time.<br />

The exhibitions continue with other<br />

sad scenes captured in; The Turn to<br />

Violence, Live under Apartheid, true pictures<br />

and stories they tell of how much<br />

a people suffered in the hands of their<br />

encroachers. Others include the Homelands,<br />

The Rise of Black Consciousness,<br />

Political Executions, Total onslaught, a<br />

view that must not be seen twice among<br />

others.<br />

No matter how strong you think you<br />

are, watching the provocative film footage<br />

of the treacherous Apartheid era in<br />

a theatre and one open viewing format<br />

makes one sober with free flowing tears<br />

from the already weary eyes.<br />

A few minutes into the 30 minutes<br />

footage, you will feel you are in Soweto<br />

in the early Apartheid era dodging ‘white’<br />

police bullets and teargas canisters. You<br />

will unconsciously join the marching and<br />

toy-toying with thousands of school children,<br />

and as well, help out in carrying the<br />

body of a comrade into a nearby house.<br />

At this point, the comfort of the<br />

world-class theatre where the film is<br />

shown makes no sense to the viewers<br />

of all races. Ademola Martins, a Nigerian<br />

business executive who left meetings<br />

with his South African partners to visit<br />

the museum, wonders why the traitors<br />

were forgiven so fast.<br />

“Black South Africans are angels to<br />

have forgiven their traitors in a rush; no<br />

West African country will allow a white<br />

immediately Mandela took over power<br />

to free his people,” Martins fumes, until<br />

a museum attendant pacify his raging<br />

anger. Some others think the unconditional<br />

forgiveness is the edge the Black<br />

South African people have over other<br />

Africans on the continent and in any part<br />

of the world.<br />

The sight of one of the many police<br />

armoured tanks in the museum reveals<br />

the battering and height of violence<br />

perpetrated by the minority whites in<br />

order to enforce their Apartheid laws.<br />

At the end, one is consoled by the fact<br />

that it is victory and freedom at last, as<br />

visitors toast to this seeming freedom in<br />

the museum restaurant stuffed with best<br />

of drinks and food.<br />

While the museum hosts 22 displays,<br />

the most popular of the displays is The<br />

Mandela Exhibition, a life-map of South<br />

Africa’s greatest son and world humani-<br />

tarian icon.<br />

Obviously, The Mandela Exhibition is<br />

a must-see. It focuses on the central role<br />

former president Nelson Mandela played<br />

in South Africa’s struggle history. It looks<br />

at his early involvement in the struggle<br />

from the 1940s to his imprisonment for<br />

27 years and subsequent leadership of<br />

the country from 1994. Some of his personal<br />

items and even car are on display<br />

as well.<br />

But before you go, a book and craft<br />

shop on heroes of the anti-Apartheid war<br />

beckons for patronage. There you will<br />

find books on Mandela, Desmond Tutu,<br />

ANC, among others.<br />

As visitors leave the museum, the Pillar<br />

of the Constitution at which heart are<br />

seven fundamental values; Freedom, Equity,<br />

Responsibility, Respect, Reconciliation,<br />

Democracy, and Resilience, assures<br />

that the triumph of the human spirit over<br />

adversity is permanent in South Africa.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

39<br />

Arts<br />

NCAC moves to replicate Nigeria’s<br />

impressive cultural show in Russia<br />

…raises 3m culture friendly supporters<br />

OBINNA EMELIKE<br />

Ol u s e g u n<br />

Runsewe, director<br />

general,<br />

National<br />

Council for<br />

Arts and Culture (NCAC)<br />

has re-emphasized the need<br />

to replicate Nigeria’s impressive<br />

cultural showing<br />

in South Africa 2010 at the<br />

Russia <strong>2018</strong> World Cup<br />

coming up in June.<br />

In a statement issued at<br />

his office in Abuja, Runsewe<br />

reminded Nigerians that<br />

despite the fact that the<br />

Super Eagles did not win the<br />

World Cup in South Africa,<br />

the country put up a fantastic<br />

performance off the field<br />

showcasing her rich cultural<br />

and tourism potential to the<br />

world.<br />

He recalled that one<br />

outstanding component<br />

adopted by the Nigerian<br />

contingent under his leadership<br />

then was the Nigerian<br />

Village model, which was<br />

specially crafted and culturally<br />

equipped to wow<br />

everyone while also leading<br />

a successful delegation to<br />

the month long event.<br />

He recalled that the Nigerian<br />

Village idea was a<br />

Business of Photography<br />

conference to hold in Lagos<br />

IFEOMA OKEKE<br />

The Nigerian photography<br />

industry<br />

is about to take a<br />

new turn as all roads<br />

leads to the Business of Photography<br />

Conference at<br />

Landmark Event Center,<br />

Lagos on Tuesday, <strong>Apr</strong>il 24,<br />

<strong>2018</strong>.<br />

The Business of Photography<br />

Conference is aimed<br />

at bringing Photographers,<br />

photography manufacturing<br />

and servicing companies as<br />

well as photography retail<br />

businesses together under<br />

one roof to discuss, learn,<br />

exhibit, sell and buy everything<br />

photography. In recent<br />

times the need to efficiently<br />

monetize the photography<br />

industry and define its future<br />

as a major part of the current<br />

and future national revenue<br />

generation sector has become<br />

more important.<br />

From R-L: Segun Odegbami chairman of the occasion, Rafiu Ladipo, president general Nigeria’s supporters club and Segun<br />

Runsewe, DG, NCAC, inspecting the various pictures of both the former Eagles players and the present ones on display during<br />

the occasion.<br />

huge success in terms of<br />

providing a platform to<br />

showcase Nigeria’s rich<br />

art and crafts, dress culture,<br />

cuisine and tourism<br />

prospects thereby drawing<br />

attention to everything<br />

positive, which the country<br />

The conference would<br />

feature five segments; the<br />

Opening, the Conversation<br />

(panel session), Break<br />

out time (master classes),<br />

Cocktails/Networking and<br />

Exhibition. During the conversation<br />

segment, attendees<br />

would have the opportunity<br />

to listen to and chat<br />

with award winning Nigerian<br />

photographers about the<br />

future of photography in<br />

Nigeria.<br />

The master class would<br />

be in five segments and<br />

would be anchored by amazing<br />

photographers; Portrait<br />

Photography (TY Bello),<br />

Commercial Photography<br />

(Yetunde Ayeni- Babaeko),<br />

Fashion and Editorial (Kelechi<br />

Amadi-Obi), Landscape<br />

and Architecture (Hakeem<br />

Salaam) and Motorsport/<br />

Sports Photography (Sheyi<br />

Afolabi).<br />

The BOP team has also<br />

put together a line up great<br />

minds like Georgette Monou,<br />

Zubby Emodi, Keli Abiel,<br />

Wani Olatunde, Emmanuel<br />

Oyeleke, Bayo Omoboriowo,<br />

Bukky Karibi-Whyte,<br />

Sheyi Afolabi, TY Bello, Ifeanyi<br />

Christopher Oputa,<br />

Yetunde Ayeni-Babaeko and<br />

Kelechi Amadi-Obi , Hakeem<br />

Salaam ; to speak on the<br />

following topics; Evolution<br />

of Photography, Creative<br />

Business Practice, Accessing<br />

Finance in the Creative<br />

Sector, Law and Rights in an<br />

Emerging Market as well as<br />

Content Monetization.<br />

The conference seeks to<br />

address the evolution of the<br />

photography sector from<br />

a business perspective and<br />

discuss a way forward as a<br />

means of charting a proper<br />

course for the future.<br />

The Business of Photography<br />

Conference is an initiative<br />

of Insigna Media Limited<br />

a forward thinking Nigerian<br />

content creating Company.<br />

represents.<br />

Runsewe said there was<br />

the need to bring back such<br />

glory using Russia <strong>2018</strong> as<br />

an opportunity to market<br />

Nigeria’s rich and diverse<br />

culture, art and craft thereby<br />

attracting global patronage,<br />

which according to<br />

him, will translate to massive<br />

Foreign Direct Investment<br />

(FDI) for the country<br />

even after the fiesta.<br />

He concluded by assuring<br />

Nigerians that the<br />

NCAC having just initiated<br />

Uber Nigeria signs on Banky W<br />

as Brand Ambassador for <strong>2018</strong><br />

Uber has officially announced<br />

Bankole<br />

Wellington, popularly<br />

known as Banky W as<br />

its new Uber brand ambassador<br />

in Nigeria for <strong>2018</strong>, making him<br />

the first musician to be the face<br />

of the leading ride hailing technology<br />

in Nigeria.<br />

The musician, artiste and entrepreneur<br />

was unveiled to select<br />

members of the public and media<br />

at an upscale, invite-only cocktail<br />

event in Lagos on <strong>Apr</strong>il 4, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

“A lot of deliberations and<br />

careful thought went into choosing<br />

and selecting the Uber brand<br />

ambassador” said Margaret Banasko,<br />

country marketing lead for<br />

Uber in West Africa. “We decided<br />

to go into partnership with Banky<br />

W because we recognize the fact<br />

that he is a well-respected artiste<br />

and has his hand across multiple<br />

industries including music, film,<br />

production and enterprise. He<br />

is incredibly engaging on social<br />

media and has a great rapport<br />

with his fans - characteristics that<br />

are extremely important to us as<br />

a brand that cares deeply about<br />

its customers”, she continued.<br />

Also speaking at the event,<br />

a campaign to raise three<br />

million culture friendly supporters<br />

to cheer the Super<br />

Eagles, and was ready to<br />

undertake the responsibility<br />

just as he solicited for<br />

the support of all Nigerians<br />

towards the course.<br />

Lola Kassim; general manager,<br />

Uber West Africa, said: “Uber is<br />

a brand that takes diversity and<br />

inclusion seriously as shown by<br />

key initiatives currently ongoing<br />

within the organisation. Banky<br />

W’s successful imprint across<br />

various industries mirrors the<br />

diversity that has become one<br />

of the key pillars of our business<br />

globally. We remain committed<br />

to continually providing economic<br />

opportunities for people<br />

to thrive.”<br />

As well, Banky W expressed<br />

his excitement at being announced<br />

as the Brand Ambassador<br />

for Uber in Nigeria: “I am<br />

very excited and honoured to<br />

be partnering with Uber, as I am<br />

a huge fan of the way they have<br />

completely revolutionised the<br />

transportation business globally. I<br />

have actually been an avid user of<br />

this innovative service for years,<br />

and I am looking forward to what<br />

we will accomplish in Nigeria<br />

together. Uber is solving some of<br />

the most pressing mobility challenges<br />

in Nigeria, and I am thrilled<br />

to be partnering with a brand that<br />

has innovation at the core of its<br />

operations.”<br />

M-Net Movies<br />

launches 10-day<br />

Marvel Studios<br />

pop-up channel on<br />

DStv Premium<br />

From <strong>Apr</strong>il 13-22, <strong>2018</strong>,<br />

DStv Premium customers<br />

will experience an<br />

unprecedented cinematic<br />

journey with the M-Net<br />

Movies Marvel Studios Pop-Up<br />

Channel. The super-powered<br />

channel, which will be added to<br />

the already existing six M-Net<br />

Movies channels on DStv, will<br />

be available for ten days only<br />

on channel 109 and will feature<br />

15 of the most pulsating films<br />

from the massively popular<br />

Marvel Studios franchise.<br />

During these ten days, the<br />

M-Net Movies Marvel Studios<br />

Pop-Up Channel will run from 5<br />

am to 11 pm daily. Each day of<br />

the week a film from the franchise,<br />

which has overlapping<br />

storylines, will be screened<br />

in chronological order, i.e. according<br />

to how the films were<br />

released in cinema. Starting<br />

with 20<strong>08</strong>’s Iron Man, viewers<br />

can revisit the stories of their<br />

beloved heroes all the way<br />

through to Spiderman: Homecoming,<br />

which will close the<br />

channel on <strong>Apr</strong>il 22, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

“This channel is a special<br />

treat for the legions of Marvel<br />

fans—both old and new—who<br />

have enjoyed the live-action<br />

exploits of favourite Marvel<br />

Superheroes in films that express<br />

the unique vision and<br />

creativity of their filmmakers<br />

and deliver thrilling action and<br />

visual spectacles with relatable<br />

characters,” says Wangi<br />

Mba-Uzoukwu, regional director,<br />

M-Net West Africa. “The<br />

timing of our M-Net Movies<br />

Marvels Studios Pop-Up<br />

Channel is also absolutely<br />

perfect with the franchise currently<br />

creating an incredible<br />

buzz worldwide”.<br />

The release of the recent<br />

Black Panther became the biggest<br />

film of all time, showing<br />

that Marvel Studios is at the<br />

forefront of the comic-bookturned-action-pop-culture<br />

phenomenon. While the M-<br />

Net Movies Marvel Pop-Up<br />

channel will give DStv viewers<br />

the opportunity to enjoy more<br />

gems of the franchise, which<br />

has been ten years in the making,<br />

it also serves as a lead-up<br />

to the new Avengers: Infinity<br />

War which hits cinemas on<br />

<strong>Apr</strong>il 27, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

On top of the 15 feature<br />

films, there will also be programming<br />

linked to the behind<br />

the scenes of the movies, such<br />

as United We Stand, Divided<br />

We Fall; The Making of Captain<br />

America: Civil War; Guide<br />

to The Galaxy with James<br />

Gunn and more.<br />

Additionally, avid fans of<br />

the blockbuster franchise will<br />

be treated to a range of documentaries<br />

offering incredible<br />

insight into the history of<br />

Marvel. These include: Marvel<br />

75 Years From Pulp to Pop;<br />

From Asgard To Earth (Thor);<br />

Marvel’s Captain America: 75<br />

Heroic Years; Ultimate Iron<br />

Man: The Making of Iron Man<br />

2 Rebuilding the Suit; Marvel<br />

Studios: Assembling a Universe<br />

just to mention a few!


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

40BDSUNDAY<br />

Take a leap of fun every weekend!<br />

Did you know<br />

West Africa’s<br />

first Trampoline<br />

Park is located<br />

in Lagos<br />

Nigeria?<br />

Well, now you know!<br />

Upbeat recreation center<br />

has brought fun at every leap!<br />

It was launched on the 2nd<br />

of December 2017 in a bid<br />

to increase performance in<br />

sports; gymnastics in particular.<br />

It is a place where families<br />

or individuals have<br />

fun and also keep fit since<br />

trampolining is often said<br />

to be one of the most efficient<br />

and effective forms of<br />

exercise!<br />

In other words, jumping<br />

on a trampoline for one hour<br />

means you get to burn off<br />

1000 calories! It is an exciting<br />

replacement for those<br />

who find jogging boring.<br />

If you are bothered<br />

about safety, not to worry,<br />

there are coaches available<br />

and a pair of ‘grip socks’<br />

to wear are given after registration<br />

(at an affordable<br />

fee) to make those leaps<br />

seamless. It is also advised<br />

that you be in sporty outfits<br />

for this activity. They do not<br />

recommend jeans because<br />

it is not stretchy enough and<br />

could restrict movement.<br />

Asides the recreational<br />

aspect of Upbeat, there are also<br />

halls for events, a small go cart<br />

rink and a Johnny rockets food<br />

truck.<br />

It is definitely a great place to<br />

take yourself and kids.<br />

P.s – Eat AFTER jumping on<br />

the trampoline or taking part in<br />

any other fitness activity.<br />

EVENTS HAPPENING TODAY<br />

HAIR BRAIDING FESTIVAL<br />

Venue – Nike Art Gallery<br />

2, Elegushi beach road, third roundabout, Lekki<br />

phase 1.<br />

Time – 1pm<br />

YARD SALE NIGERIA<br />

Venue – Sweet kiwi store,<br />

Admiralty way, Lekki<br />

Time – 11am – 7pm<br />

COLOUR AND JUMP<br />

Venue – Upbeat Center,<br />

11, Admiralty road, off admiralty way Lekki phase<br />

1, Lagos


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY 41<br />

Banky W Becomes Uber’s First Brand Ambassador<br />

ful.<br />

My driver is an awesome<br />

guy.. and I wanted him to be<br />

able to earn more than just<br />

his salary & tips, so I got a<br />

small car and we put it on<br />

Uber, that way instead of<br />

him sitting around all day<br />

waiting for me while I’m<br />

in the studio, office, or on<br />

set, he can hit the road and<br />

generate income for us.. and<br />

then we split it at the end of<br />

In a long write up on Instagram,<br />

Banky W revealed that he is now<br />

the first ever brand ambassador<br />

of Uber Nigeria.<br />

Read the post below...<br />

“One of my favourite quotes is<br />

the one that says: “Give a man a<br />

fish, and you feed him for a meal.<br />

Teach a man to fish and you’ve fed<br />

him for life.” I believe very strongly<br />

in putting the people around me<br />

in a position to be more successthe<br />

month.<br />

It’s worked so well that I am now really<br />

hoping to continue to do this for more of the<br />

young people around me, as God gives me<br />

grace.<br />

I’m so excited and honoured to be @ubernigeria’s<br />

first Brand Ambassador. I genuinely<br />

love the service and I’ve been an avid rider<br />

for years – the convenience of it just made<br />

my life so much easier, home and abroad.<br />

I also love that it helps create employment<br />

for young people.. and I want to encourage<br />

more car owners, if they can, to use<br />

the service as a way to help more people<br />

around them and earn money on the side<br />

at the same time. And even if all you ever<br />

do is use an Uber as your designated driver<br />

when you’re out having drinks.. it makes<br />

too much sense. You should just #BankOnUber.<br />

I am, and I do #brandambassador<br />

Banky W<br />

Congrats Susu’s husband.<br />

Growing your personal<br />

savings on a monthly basis<br />

I<br />

was of the opinion that “please I<br />

can’t kill myself,” and a lot of people<br />

are still with this mind set. The<br />

world’s economy is going through a<br />

phase right now so saving money is<br />

pretty much one of the hardest tasks to<br />

do on earth, home and abroad. It took<br />

me many years to cultivate this habit,<br />

and eventually when I started I saw it’s<br />

usefulness. Truth is, at the beginning, I<br />

did it for 2 months, then blew the money.<br />

I tried again, this time using ‘ajo’ and<br />

once I got paid it went into thin air. And<br />

you don’t want to know how many<br />

more tries I had before getting it right,<br />

or atleast consistent.<br />

An average income earner takes<br />

everyday as it comes, struggling to<br />

save from the salary that comes in at<br />

the end of the month, or for some, at<br />

the 1st/2nd week in the new month.<br />

But I’ll like you to know that as difficult<br />

as it might seem, there are some simple<br />

ways you can start with, which will<br />

help you stay consistent and grow your<br />

savings over the days.<br />

In no particular order, here are a few<br />

measures I’ve taken to ensure<br />

my monthly saving is consistent…<br />

I have a thing I call SYB (Spoil<br />

Yourself Budget). I don’t joke<br />

with this part of my salary. Infact<br />

once my pay cheque is collected<br />

at the end of the month, this is<br />

one of the first things I subtract,<br />

because I don’t want to give<br />

myself a reason not to be happy<br />

or spend overboard. My SYB is<br />

10% of my salary and no it’s not<br />

me eating my tithe.<br />

Plan your monthly expenses<br />

as far as your eyes and mind can<br />

take you. Yes expenses just pop<br />

up from nowhere, but you have<br />

an idea of how much you need<br />

to spend monthly on food, water,<br />

electricity and other major<br />

bills. So make a list (they always<br />

help), and be sure not to spend<br />

more than, only if you have<br />

unexpected contributions to<br />

make. Don’t make spontaneous<br />

financial decisions PLEASE!<br />

Have a salary ratio. You know<br />

what works for you so split it to<br />

the best of your capacity. Don’t<br />

save more than your expenses,<br />

you’ll just be deceiving yourself,<br />

because bills don’t go away<br />

simply because you ignore them.<br />

Make sure your margins are right,<br />

so that mid-month you won’t go<br />

running back to your savings.<br />

Side hustles are the new<br />

white angels. You just have to<br />

find something on the side to<br />

make that extra ‘mula’. You<br />

know how they say money is<br />

never enough? This is very true.<br />

If not, the likes of Bill Gates, Dangote<br />

and Mark Zuckerberg will<br />

be resting in their beds resting.<br />

The secret of this side<br />

hustle is, you get to reduce your<br />

expenses as you have less free<br />

time on your hands…lol… But really,<br />

when you make profits from<br />

your side, split it in two and save<br />

50%. Then split the other 50% in<br />

two equal halves, spend one half<br />

and reinvest the other. Nothing<br />

pays better than an increased<br />

capital.<br />

Have multiple savings… Open<br />

different savings accounts to<br />

which you don’t have atm cards<br />

for. Have that wooden or iron<br />

piggy bank. You’ll thank me later.<br />

Those little 100 naira notes you<br />

use to gala everyday (N700<br />

weekly, N3,000 monthly and<br />

N36,000 yearly), will go a long<br />

way in your boxes and accounts.<br />

Lastly, make up your mind to<br />

be consistent. No one will force<br />

you to save. You just need to<br />

understand the importance and<br />

need for it. Simple!<br />

For more information, check out www.therealgist.com


42<br />

C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Life&Living<br />

Get design creative with wallpapers<br />

JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON<br />

Wall papers have<br />

had a resurgence<br />

of late and unlike<br />

the boring plain<br />

wallpapers used<br />

in the olden days, they have come<br />

back with a variety of beautiful designs,<br />

textures and colours, so you<br />

definitely don’t have to start cracking<br />

your brain on how to brighten up<br />

your rooms, offices or shops with different<br />

colours of paint because with<br />

wallpapers you surely don’t need to<br />

be too crafty, just stick them up on<br />

the wall with wall paper glue and<br />

strip them off easily when you get<br />

tired of the colour or design.<br />

Here’s why wall papers are a better<br />

option to painting<br />

1. You don’t need any expert<br />

skills to put them up on your wall.<br />

Patterned wallpapers are designed<br />

so that the pattern repeats, and thus<br />

pieces cut from the same roll can<br />

be hung next to each other so as to<br />

continue the pattern without it being<br />

easy to see where the join between<br />

two pieces occurs.<br />

2. It can be used to help cover<br />

up uneven surfaces and holes on<br />

your walls<br />

3. Adds creativity to a room as it<br />

comes in various designs, patterns<br />

and colours<br />

4. It’s quite easy to clean and<br />

maintain<br />

Wallpaper maintenance<br />

Wallpapers come in all sorts of<br />

textures and types, and each has<br />

a quality of its own. Because of its<br />

easy-to-use features, some people<br />

just simply paste the wallpapers on<br />

the wall and forget about it, which<br />

shouldn’t be so. It is very important<br />

to maintain them after installing<br />

them. Maintaining wallpapers is a<br />

task in itself where you need to keep<br />

in mind the quality of it. For those<br />

that are expensive and waterproof,<br />

cleaning them with water is a walk in<br />

the park but what about those that<br />

require cleaning but aren’t water-<br />

proof? While you think of all these<br />

questions and queries, here are a<br />

few maintenance tips that could sort<br />

your problems.<br />

Use the vacuum cleaner – Whether<br />

it is waterproof wallpaper or a regular<br />

paper pasting, a vacuum cleaner<br />

can come to your aid. You could attach<br />

a soft brush at the end of it and<br />

lightly brush against the wallpaper<br />

especially those areas near the ceiling<br />

which isn’t visible well. Ensure<br />

that you do not stick the attachment<br />

too close to the wallpaper or brush<br />

it harshly. Three are chances of the<br />

wall getting a scratch and permanently<br />

damaging it.<br />

Test before applying water or<br />

cleaning liquids – Even if they claim<br />

to be waterproof, it is always safe to<br />

test a small corner of the wall with<br />

water or cleaning fluid to check.<br />

You could use soapy water or cleaning<br />

liquid to dab on the area. If you<br />

notice the colour running or getting<br />

absorbed, it isn’t fit for a wash. You<br />

would rather have to use dry cleaning<br />

methods of using a dusting cloth<br />

once in a while to avoid the dust<br />

settling on it for long.<br />

Keep waterproof walls in the kitchen<br />

and bathrooms – While you<br />

install these paper designs on your<br />

walls, you should consider using waterproof<br />

ones in the kitchen and the<br />

bathrooms if not in the other rooms.<br />

These are the places that get dirty<br />

easily especially the kitchen due to<br />

the release of grease or steam from<br />

the food that you cook. Frequently<br />

cleaning these walls can keep the<br />

walls looking beautiful without getting<br />

affected by the oil stains.<br />

African print fabrics are here to stay<br />

JUMOKE AKIYODE -LAWANSON<br />

Gone are the days when<br />

wearing indigenous<br />

clothes were tagged as<br />

being razz (local). Nowadays,<br />

the in thing with fashionistas<br />

and fashion designers is the incorporation<br />

of African print fabrics in their<br />

outfits and designs.<br />

These prints are eluding major<br />

high street stores, runways and<br />

fashion magazines both at home<br />

and abroad. It seems they are here<br />

to stay.<br />

The colorful, tribal patterned<br />

fabrics, produced in Africa is commonly<br />

called ‘Ankara’ in Nigeria,<br />

‘Dutch wax’ in Ghana, ‘Kanga prints’<br />

in Tanzania and in other East African<br />

countries, it is called Ikat, Batik, Mud<br />

cloth and so on.<br />

The most interesting thing is, or<br />

should I say the most fascinating<br />

thing is that the use of Ankara is not<br />

limited to clothing as it was in past<br />

times. Designers have started us-<br />

ing the rich African fabric for other<br />

fashion items like purses, slippers,<br />

Temilade, CEO, Kwamuhle Fabrics<br />

bags, hats, shoes, jewelry and other<br />

fashion accessories. Pinterest is<br />

buzzing with thousands of images of<br />

African print designs and this shows<br />

how much interest is invested in our<br />

traditional Ankara fabric.<br />

Something that has become<br />

more popular recently is the stoning<br />

and beading of Ankara fabrics. The<br />

trend became so popular last year<br />

and is still very much in vogue up till<br />

now. Almost every Ankara top, skirt<br />

or dress you see worn by ladies today<br />

is bedazzled with shinny stones<br />

or sequins that laminate in low light.<br />

Swarovski crystals are used embellish<br />

some Ankara fabrics and can be<br />

sold for as much as N100, 000 or<br />

more. The intricate beading of the<br />

patterns on the fabric makes Ankara<br />

much more expensive than the normal<br />

N1,000 Ankara you were used to<br />

finding in the market a few years ago.<br />

Apart from stoning and beading,<br />

some ankaras’ are now embellished<br />

with cut out lace fabrics. Although<br />

ankaras are quite beautiful as they<br />

are, with loads of different patterns<br />

and vibrant colours, many more<br />

women seem to be interested in adding<br />

something different (a different<br />

kind of fabric) to make their styles<br />

unique. We have seen the addition<br />

of chiffon fabrics, organza, silk fabric,<br />

French and cord lace into Ankara.<br />

Now, you can buy Ankara fabrics<br />

that already have lace patterns embedded<br />

in them, just as you can buy<br />

already stoned Ankara fabrics.<br />

Ankara fabrics have kept businesses<br />

like Kene Rapu; indigenous<br />

footwear company that uses locally<br />

sourced materials including Ankara<br />

to make bespoke, handcrafted slippers<br />

and sandals.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

C002D5556<br />

43<br />

Women’sWorld<br />

Morin Obaweya: A female entrepreneur taking<br />

the lead in production of leather accessories<br />

Stories by IFEOMA OKEKE<br />

Morin Obaweya<br />

is the Chief Executive<br />

Officer<br />

and Creative<br />

Head Designer<br />

of Morin.O Designs Ltd, contemporary<br />

leather accessories brand<br />

inspired by artistic innovation and<br />

ethnic designs for the sassy, confident<br />

and fashionable individual.<br />

An alumni of the Vital Voices<br />

Women Entrepreneurs in Handcraft<br />

Programme, her works have<br />

been written about in international<br />

publications like the Huffington<br />

Post and her handbags carried by<br />

celebrities in Nigeria and internationally.<br />

“We pride ourselves in the production<br />

of exclusive handcrafted<br />

leather accessories to accentuate<br />

your style,” Obaweya says.<br />

Morin.O manufactures its<br />

handbags and other accessories<br />

with painstaking attention to<br />

detail and a strong commitment<br />

to producing world-class finished<br />

leather products for both the local<br />

and international markets.<br />

Morin Obaweya<br />

In an interview with BDSunday,<br />

she disclosed that her core<br />

strength lies in the commitment<br />

and ethos of being the best in the<br />

leather goods industry through<br />

service, attention to detail and a<br />

strong commitment to customer<br />

satisfaction.<br />

“Since the commencement of<br />

production, we have sold over<br />

1,000 bags and leather accessories.<br />

At Morin.O, we don’t just make<br />

leather accessories, we create<br />

them with customers in our minds,”<br />

she said.<br />

Obaweya said the mission of<br />

the business is to accentuate the<br />

individual style of the people they<br />

serve and to give them a platform<br />

to express their innate creative<br />

lifestyle thus giving them a powerful<br />

means of expression and fulfilment.<br />

“Our vision is to be the leading<br />

manufacturer of contemporary<br />

ethnically-inspired handcrafted<br />

leather accessories to discerning<br />

and fashion conscious individuals<br />

worldwide,” she said.<br />

Obaweya, who has been in the<br />

business for four years now, said<br />

she was inspired by her love for<br />

creativity and is quite captivated<br />

by the process of leather making.<br />

She said when she commenced<br />

the business, she found it new and<br />

challenging but was inspired to innovate,<br />

adding that the perception<br />

of people about the bags at an early<br />

stage of the business was encouraging<br />

and spurred her on.<br />

On the challenges faced, the<br />

entrepreneur mentioned that adequate<br />

funding and lack of the skill<br />

set and artisans who could produce<br />

to anticipated quality, are the major<br />

challenges most businesses face in<br />

the country.<br />

She added that quality control<br />

and detailing are things her company<br />

focuses a lot on, being able to<br />

produce products as good as when<br />

they are made abroad.<br />

Speaking on the staff strength,<br />

she said, “Currently, we have 10<br />

full time and six part-time staff. We<br />

invest a lot of time training them<br />

as we have a bigger vision for the<br />

brand and our goal is creating more<br />

job opportunities.<br />

“It is very important for our<br />

staff to know the nitty-gritty of<br />

our brand, what we stand for, our<br />

mission and most importantly our<br />

product to best advise our clients.”<br />

Beautician sets up ‘Glow Factory’ to enhance ladies’ features<br />

Ogonna Felicia Okwukogu,<br />

the chief executive<br />

officer of Glow<br />

Factory, a makeup<br />

outfit told BDSunday that despite<br />

the saturated makeup business environment,<br />

her skills and objective<br />

of enhancing the beauty features<br />

of women has kept her focused.<br />

Okwukogu who is a graduate of<br />

the University of Nigeria, a skilled<br />

makeup artist and a beautician<br />

told BDSunday that although she<br />

acquired a degree in mass communication,<br />

she felt there was more<br />

she could offer to the society.<br />

Speaking on her motivating factor,<br />

she said, “Being a makeup artist<br />

in Nigeria seems to be a saturated<br />

business to go into but my passion<br />

and interest in creativity drives<br />

me every day. This is why I am selftaught<br />

and aim to keep refreshing<br />

my skills.<br />

“During my NYSC days, my<br />

skills became more obvious because<br />

all I wanted to do with every<br />

lady around me was to enhance<br />

their beauty feature which is one of<br />

the main motor of my skill. In a society<br />

where we believe makeup acts<br />

as a mask women put on, I strive to<br />

always change that perspective<br />

people have about makeup.”<br />

She disclosed that being a<br />

makeup artist in Nigeria has become<br />

a challenging one due to its<br />

saturated nature but she sustained<br />

the business since 2016 when it<br />

commenced, despite the low patronage<br />

and income.<br />

“In that first year, I almost gave<br />

up because I thought I wasn’t making<br />

as much money as I should but<br />

the passion and hunger for my skills<br />

kept driving me and today I am<br />

gradually telling a different story. I<br />

then sat and decided that my business<br />

name should be something<br />

that tells more about the business<br />

before you even get to know what<br />

Ogonna Felicia Okwukogu<br />

the business was all about.<br />

“That idea sprung up the name<br />

“GLOW FACTORY”. My target<br />

was and is to get into the bridal<br />

world, make ladies more beautiful<br />

for that very special day, that’s why<br />

we engage in bridal and traditional<br />

makeovers. We also incorporate<br />

party, casual, runway and pageantry<br />

makeovers,” she further<br />

disclosed.<br />

The Glow Factory boss stressed<br />

that the goal of the business is to<br />

be one of the outstanding bridal<br />

makeup artists, the most featured<br />

makeup artists in beauty magazines<br />

and in Nigerian movie industries.<br />

She admitted that amidst all<br />

the objectives, it is definitely not a<br />

smooth ride, as there are lots of hiccups<br />

entrepreneurs face and most<br />

prominent is finance, especially as<br />

an upcoming makeup artist.<br />

“My first goal wasn’t making<br />

money but getting myself known,<br />

putting my work out there for people<br />

to see how far my skills can go.<br />

“Being a small business still<br />

climbing the ladder to success, we<br />

haven’t started taking in staff or<br />

internships, which brings it to one<br />

of the goals glow factory strives to<br />

attain: Create employment, take<br />

our youths off the street, make<br />

our youths believe in their selves<br />

again,” Okwukogu added.<br />

She hinted that moving forward,<br />

she has and still work on<br />

differentiating herself from other<br />

artist in the makeup industry as<br />

creating her style is one integral<br />

part of being the Glow factory.<br />

“I would like to use this opportunity<br />

to reach to people who strive<br />

to start up their own business but<br />

are discouraged by the fact the<br />

market is saturated. It shouldn’t be<br />

an excuse. Create your own niche,<br />

establish yourself as far as you can<br />

and most importantly hard work.<br />

“Hard work has never ever left<br />

anyone unsatisfied, no matter<br />

how long you have worked, keep<br />

pushing, keep moulding till you<br />

eventually get that clay in its right<br />

shape,” she advised.


44<br />

C002D5556 Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

Travel<br />

New NATOP sets to emerge in Jos AGM<br />

…outgoing executive assures on sustainability of professionalism, feats<br />

OBINNA EMELIKE<br />

As members of the Nigerian<br />

Association of Tour<br />

Operators (NATOP) converge<br />

in Jos, the Plateau<br />

State capital, for their Annual<br />

General Meetings (AGM) <strong>2018</strong><br />

from tomorrow, stakeholders in the<br />

Nigerian tourism industry hopes<br />

for the best in the elective meeting,<br />

especially for competent hands to<br />

emerge and steer the association to<br />

greater heights.<br />

Well, the outgoing executive has<br />

done well in repositioning the association,<br />

seeking fruitful collaborations<br />

in promoting Nigerian tourism and<br />

exposing its membership to international<br />

best practice in their business.<br />

To sustain the feats of the association,<br />

Nkereuwem Onung, the<br />

outgoing president of NATOP and his<br />

executive, are not leaving any stone<br />

unturned at ensuring a smooth transition<br />

of power and most importantly,<br />

that competent hands take charge<br />

after the AGM.<br />

On <strong>Apr</strong>il 9, <strong>2018</strong> at Hill Station<br />

Hotel, venue of the AGM, Onung assures<br />

that he will deliver a new and<br />

more professional association to<br />

members, Nigerian tourism sector<br />

and the country at large.<br />

However, the elective AGM is<br />

going to be very interesting for<br />

many things. First, this is the first<br />

time NATOP is holding its AGM in<br />

the Jos and in any northern Nigerian<br />

city. Again, NATOP executives have<br />

resolved to roll in younger leaders to<br />

encourage the youths to take charge,<br />

learn and impact the society better.<br />

As well, the outgoing president<br />

recalled the past, the feats and need<br />

to achieve. From 15 professional tour<br />

operators registered by NTDC in<br />

2011 when other travel associations<br />

had over 2000 registered members,<br />

Onung is excited that today, NATOP<br />

has grown to a national association<br />

that is reckoned with by Nigerians.<br />

Over the years, the association has<br />

also become the voice of tourism<br />

private sector and has engaged government<br />

on contentious issues. Of<br />

course, the growing relevance in matter<br />

of tourism Nigerian has become<br />

a thing of envy to other associations.<br />

Onung and the entire members<br />

of NATOP are grateful to Segun<br />

Runsewe, director general, Nigerian<br />

Council of Art and Culture, then the<br />

director general, Nigerian Tourism<br />

Development Corporation (NTDC),<br />

who in 2011 officially registered tour<br />

operators as professional tourism<br />

practitioners in Nigeria.<br />

“Let me use this medium to<br />

appreciate all members of NATOP<br />

especially the present executives for<br />

their solidarity and steadfastness<br />

that has been exhibited in the past<br />

years. It has been a long Journey. We<br />

picked up an association at a fragile<br />

stage with very few members and<br />

little visibility and have seen it grow<br />

into limelight and prominence to the<br />

extent that other associations feel<br />

threatened.<br />

We have witnessed desperate<br />

Nigerian tourism media, experts decry wildlife depletion<br />

Nigeria’s travel and tourism<br />

journalists have collectively<br />

spoken against the continuing<br />

attacks on the local wildlife<br />

population, calling on the government<br />

and other relevant institutions<br />

to take the problem seriously.<br />

“As a nation we need to let people<br />

know that these animals are national<br />

assets,” says Ikechi Uko, publisher of<br />

African Travel Quarterly (ATQ) magazine<br />

and an influential voice on the<br />

continent. “Nigeria needs to make<br />

a lot more effort to protect the few<br />

animals left by shaming the killers and<br />

prosecuting some.”<br />

Wale Olapade, Tourism Editor at<br />

the Nigerian Tribune proposes stiff<br />

penalties for indiscriminate poaching<br />

Nkereuwem Onung<br />

that goes on daily in Nigeria. “Also<br />

there is need for a long-term campaign<br />

on the importance of game<br />

reserves and wildlife parks as it relates<br />

to the socio- economic wellbeing of<br />

Nigeria’s eco-tourism landscape,”<br />

he adds.<br />

“Nigeria is just full of people who<br />

only think about what to eat today and<br />

not how to feed a community for the<br />

long-term,” says travel blogger and<br />

author, Pelu Awofeso who has already<br />

started a social-media campaign<br />

#SaveNigeriasWildlife in the hope that<br />

it will help draw more attention to the<br />

issue. “Imagine how many more tourists<br />

would be drawn to Idanre town if<br />

they learned there was an Elephant<br />

colony there.”Early in March photo-<br />

graphs of a dead elephant, the hunter<br />

who killed it and a crowd of onlookers<br />

in Janiyi village (Idanre, Ondo State)<br />

surfaced on Nigeria’s social media.<br />

It became an instant talking point on<br />

several online platforms and the focus<br />

of newspaper editorials.<br />

Oddly enough, this shooting happened<br />

in the same week that the<br />

international community marked<br />

World Wildlife. According to news<br />

reports, the locals claimed that over<br />

time herds of elephants had repeatedly<br />

strayed into the community, and<br />

in the process destroyed crops and<br />

houses, and trampled on people.<br />

And so fed up with constantly being<br />

in the mammals’ arms way, the locals<br />

called on the hunters, who tracked the<br />

elephants and eventually shot one.<br />

“There are many ways this is<br />

wrong, but you can’t fix a problem permanently<br />

if the origin of the problem<br />

isn’t dealt with,” said the twitter handle<br />

@LogicallySpeakn, reacting to a tweet<br />

with hundreds of comments, likes and<br />

retweets. “Are the agencies in charge<br />

of wildlife in Nigeria ignorant too? It’s<br />

easy to blame the shooter, what about<br />

the people who let it happen?”<br />

During the celebration of World<br />

Environment Day in June 2016, Nigeria’s<br />

former Environment Minister<br />

and currently United Nations Deputy<br />

Secretary-General Amina Mohammed<br />

was quoted to have said: “The<br />

status of wildlife in the country leaves<br />

efforts by some individuals who are<br />

not tour operators and some outside<br />

forces attempting to scuttle and<br />

hijack the association and crash it.<br />

Thanks to a few dedicated members<br />

of the association who stood<br />

firm, supported and funded the association<br />

up until now. I appreciate<br />

them”, the elated outgoing president<br />

explained.<br />

He also noted that Plateau State<br />

government should be commended<br />

for accepting to host the AGM and<br />

also making history as the first Northern<br />

State to host the meeting.<br />

“Plateau State Government, in<br />

an attempt to refresh and highlight<br />

“Destination Plateau”, has accepted<br />

much to be desired, as the rate of<br />

depletion of the population of animals<br />

like the elephants, leopards, giraffes<br />

and crocodiles amongst others are<br />

frightening.”<br />

Shocked and upset, Nigerians<br />

chastised the “ignorant” hunter<br />

for depriving the village of a potential<br />

source of tourist dollars. Some<br />

commentators called for him to be<br />

prosecuted, arguing that his action<br />

was ill-advised and dents ongoing<br />

biodiversity conservation efforts in<br />

the country; many called for hunter<br />

groups nationwide and communities<br />

to be better educated on the importance<br />

and benefits of preserving the<br />

unique animal and plant species in<br />

their communities.<br />

“It is a shame that a nation which<br />

once had the most diverse population<br />

of elephants in the world can now<br />

boast only a few because they have<br />

been hunted almost to extinction,”<br />

writes ThisDay, a national newspaper.<br />

“The Idanre Forest Reserve, where the<br />

latest tragedy took place, covers 561<br />

square kilometres and is a designated<br />

nature reserve of the International<br />

Union for Conservation of Nature.”<br />

The hills of Idanre are also a UNES-<br />

CO World Heritage Site, one of two to<br />

be found in Nigeria, which has seven<br />

National Parks. The West African country<br />

is a signatory to the Convention on<br />

International Trade in Endangered<br />

Species (CITES) and his laws—the<br />

to host tour operators from <strong>Apr</strong>il 7-9,<br />

<strong>2018</strong>”, he said.<br />

In appreciation of the gesture,<br />

Onung said, NATOP has agreed to<br />

partner with the government to help<br />

grow another tourism destination in<br />

Nigeria, thereby promoting domestic<br />

tourism.<br />

Speaking on the rationale for<br />

moving the AGM to the northern<br />

region, the outgoing president said,<br />

“NATOP is a National Association and<br />

as such, her AGM should be rotated<br />

across the country.This will be my<br />

last AGM as president, and as such I<br />

invite all members to take advantage<br />

of the event and promote tourism in<br />

the Plateau”.<br />

Highlighting some of his achievements,<br />

Onung said he has grown and<br />

stabilized membership of the association.<br />

“Abuja is Nigeria’s federal capital<br />

and should have a strong presence<br />

of NATOP. The executive took the<br />

initiative to set up a chapter in Abuja<br />

because it is the duty of executive to<br />

propel the association. After Abuja,<br />

Warri/Port Harcourt and the South<br />

East are the next in line for inauguration”,<br />

he assured.<br />

The outgoing president also appreciates<br />

his predecessors. “I want<br />

to use this medium to thank Fatima<br />

Garbati who steered the ship of<br />

NATOP in the past and handed over<br />

to us. I believe that a new NATOP will<br />

emerge after Jos AGM where young<br />

professionals will be given opportunity<br />

to participate”.<br />

Tamukat Weli, Commissioner for<br />

Tourism, Plateau State and her team,<br />

wait to fete NATOP members and<br />

Nigerian tourism stakeholders to the<br />

hospitality of Plateau.<br />

National Park Service Act, the Endangered<br />

Species Act, The Forestry Act<br />

and Wild Animals Act—to protect its<br />

flora and fauna heritage. Apparently,<br />

they’ve been largely overlooked.<br />

There have been slaughters of this<br />

nature in recent years, reported in<br />

the media but largely ignored by the<br />

authorities. In January, six chimpanzees<br />

as well as a manatee were killed<br />

in Delta State; conservationists say<br />

that three manatees were also killed<br />

in Lagos weeks earlier. In December<br />

2017, local vigilantes killed an African<br />

Civet in Benin City (Edo State). Back in<br />

February of the same year, locals in<br />

an Abuja locality captured and killed<br />

a Hippopotamus; and whales that<br />

washed up on the shores in Lagos,<br />

Ondo and Akwa Ibom States were<br />

cut in pieces and shared. In all of these<br />

cases, the locals ate their catch.<br />

Newspaper reports quote the<br />

commissioners for environment,<br />

tourism and culture in Ondo State<br />

as saying they couldn’t be bothered.<br />

Curiously, the public institutions with<br />

responsibilities for tourism promotion<br />

and development—the Federal Ministry<br />

of Information and Culture (FMIC),<br />

the Nigeria Tourism Development<br />

Corporation (NTDC), the National<br />

Parks Service (NPS), the Forestry Research<br />

Institute, to mention just four<br />

— have been mostly silent on these<br />

developments.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY 45<br />

Travel<br />

Strong passenger demand resumes, as<br />

February sees increase in load factor<br />

Stories by IFEOMA OKEKE<br />

The International Air<br />

Transport Association<br />

(IATA) has announced<br />

global passenger traffic<br />

results for February<br />

showing a rebound in traffic<br />

growth following the slower<br />

demand experienced in January,<br />

which was owing to temporary<br />

factors including the later timing<br />

of the Lunar New Year in <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

Total revenue passenger kilometers<br />

(RPKs) for the month<br />

rose 7.6%, compared to February<br />

2017, up from 4.6% year-overyear<br />

growth in January. Monthly<br />

capacity (available seat kilometers<br />

or ASKs) increased by 6.3%,<br />

and load factor rose 0.9 percentage<br />

point to 80.4%, surpassing the<br />

previous record for the month of<br />

79.5%, which was set in February<br />

2017.<br />

“As expected, we saw a return<br />

to stronger demand growth in<br />

February, after the temporary<br />

slowdown in January. This is being<br />

supported by the robust economic<br />

backdrop and solid business<br />

confidence. However, increases<br />

in fuel prices--and labor costs in<br />

some countries likely will temper<br />

the amount of traffic stimulation<br />

from lower airfares this year,” Alexandre<br />

de Juniac, IATA’s Director<br />

Infrastructure, costs key to harness power of aviation – IATA<br />

The International Air Transport<br />

Association (IATA)<br />

called on the governments<br />

of Latin America and the<br />

Caribbean to focus on infrastructure,<br />

costs and the region’s regulatory<br />

framework.<br />

By concentrating on these areas,<br />

the economic and social benefits<br />

of aviation can be maximized<br />

while accommodating the region’s<br />

expanding demand for air connectivity.<br />

Aviation already plays an important<br />

role in the region’s economy,<br />

employing some five million people<br />

and supporting $170 billion in GDP.<br />

“We need effective infrastructure<br />

to accommodate growth;<br />

reasonable costs and taxes that<br />

don’t kill it; and a modern regula-<br />

General and CEO, said.<br />

International passenger markets<br />

February international passenger<br />

demand rose 7.2% compared<br />

to February 2017, which was up<br />

from the 4.2% increase recorded<br />

in January. Led by airlines in Latin<br />

America, all regions recorded<br />

better year-on-year growth compared<br />

to January’s results. Total<br />

capacity climbed 5.9%, and load<br />

factor rose 1.0 percentage point<br />

to 79.3%.<br />

African airlines experienced<br />

a 6.3% rise in traffic for the<br />

month compared to the yearago<br />

period. The growth occurred<br />

amid an improving regional<br />

economic backdrop.<br />

Business confidence in Nigeria<br />

has risen sharply over the past<br />

15 months while a reduction in<br />

political uncertainty in South<br />

Africa has contributed to an<br />

improvement in business confidence<br />

there for the first time in<br />

more than a year. Capacity rose<br />

3.3%, and load factor climbed<br />

1.9 percentage points to 67.8%.<br />

European carriers saw February<br />

demand increase by 6.8%<br />

compared to a year ago, a modest<br />

acceleration compared<br />

to a 6.0% increase in January.<br />

Passenger volumes are trending<br />

upwards at a double-digit<br />

annualized rate alongside sup-<br />

tory framework that supports it,”<br />

said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s<br />

Director General and CEO during<br />

a speech at the Wings of Change –<br />

Chile conference in Santiago.<br />

“Demand for air travel is outpacing<br />

both airport capacity growth<br />

and the upgrades to air traffic<br />

management systems. In the last<br />

decade the number of passengers<br />

carried by the region’s airlines has<br />

more than doubled. And by 2036,<br />

we expect more than 750 million<br />

journeys will touch the region.<br />

Without concerted action today,<br />

we are headed towards a crisis,”<br />

said de Juniac.<br />

IATA called for the region’s governments<br />

to work with industry<br />

to develop a long-term strategy<br />

that will ensure sufficient capacity,<br />

portive economic conditions in<br />

the region. Capacity rose 5.0%<br />

and load factor increased 1.4<br />

percentage points to 82.2%,<br />

highest among regions.<br />

Asia-Pacific airlines’ February<br />

traffic rose 9.1% compared to the<br />

year-ago period. Demand is being<br />

supported by healthy regional<br />

economic growth and expansion<br />

in the number of routes on offer.<br />

Capacity increased 8.4% and load<br />

factor climbed 0.6 percentage<br />

point to 80.5%.<br />

Middle East carriers recorded<br />

a 3.4% demand increase in February<br />

compared to a year ago.<br />

Capacity rose 3.9% and load<br />

affordable costs and service and<br />

technical expertise aligned with<br />

user needs.<br />

The region’s key capacity challenges<br />

are Buenos Aires, Bogota,<br />

Lima, Mexico City, Havana and<br />

Santiago. “Unless they are addressed,<br />

Latin American economies<br />

will suffer. If planes cannot<br />

land, the economic benefits that<br />

they bring will fly elsewhere,” said<br />

de Juniac. He highlighted Mexico<br />

City and Santiago as the most<br />

pressing:<br />

Mexico City is the most critical<br />

of the bottlenecks. The current<br />

airport was designed for 32<br />

million passengers annually but<br />

serves 47 million. “The solution<br />

is a new airport which is already<br />

under construction. But its future<br />

has been politicized in the current<br />

presidential election. The critical<br />

need for the new airport needs<br />

to be understood by all,” said de<br />

Juniac.<br />

In Santiago much-needed airport<br />

terminal capacity is being built<br />

but transparency is lacking, service<br />

levels are suffering and user costs<br />

are increasing. This threatens to<br />

upend the long-standing partnership<br />

between government, airlines<br />

and other stakeholders that helped<br />

create one the most advanced air<br />

transport hubs in the region and a<br />

thriving tourism industry.<br />

On costs, de Juniac said, “Latin<br />

America and the Caribbean is<br />

factor slipped 0.3 percentage<br />

point to 74.1%. Carriers in the region<br />

faced significant headwinds<br />

over the past year including the<br />

temporary ban on large portable<br />

electronic devices as well as the<br />

proposed travel bans to the US<br />

from some countries in the region.<br />

Domestic passenger markets<br />

Domestic travel demand rose<br />

8.2% in February compared to<br />

February 2017, up from 4.9%<br />

year-over-year growth in January,<br />

with all markets reporting<br />

increases, led by India and China.<br />

Domestic capacity climbed 7.0%,<br />

and load factor increased 0.9 percentage<br />

point to 82.3%.<br />

an expensive place to do business.<br />

Taxes, fees, and government<br />

policies create a great burden.<br />

Today governments see aviation<br />

as a revenue source. But it is more<br />

powerful as a revenue catalyst. Reducing<br />

the costs of doing business<br />

will pay big economic and social<br />

dividends.”<br />

IATA cited several areas where<br />

the cost burden of government<br />

policies and taxes is excessive and<br />

counter-productive:<br />

Brazil’s fuel pricing policy adds<br />

$800 million in costs annually.<br />

Ecuador and Colombia suffer<br />

from the exorbitant costs charged<br />

by monopoly fuel suppliers—made<br />

all the worse in Ecuador where<br />

there also is a 5% fuel tax.<br />

Colombia has a connectivity<br />

tax, an exit tax and now the municipal<br />

mayors are planning to tax air<br />

travelers $5.00 to subsidize road<br />

infrastructure.<br />

Argentina has high passenger<br />

fees made worse by the monopoly<br />

pricing and poor service of its only<br />

ground handling company.<br />

In St. Lucia, taxes and fees (including<br />

the Airport Development<br />

Fee) are rising in order to repair<br />

roads and construct a cruise ship<br />

terminal.<br />

Tourism taxes are rash across<br />

the region (Mexico, Colombia,<br />

Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Jamaica<br />

and Costa Rica and St. Lucia), deterring<br />

tourists with higher costs.<br />

Turkish Airlines<br />

launches direct flights<br />

to Aqaba, its 2nd<br />

destination to be served<br />

in Jordan<br />

With existing services<br />

to Amman, Turkish<br />

Airlines has added<br />

Aqaba to its flight<br />

network as the 2nd destination in<br />

Jordan.<br />

Flights will be operated 3 times<br />

per week, with round trip fares<br />

available from Istanbul to Aqaba<br />

starting at 404 US Dollars (including<br />

taxes and fees).<br />

Additionally, there is a special<br />

offer for Miles&Smiles members<br />

to be used for their trips departing<br />

from Turkey provided that<br />

completed by 11th June <strong>2018</strong>, and<br />

the trips departing from Aqaba<br />

provided that completed by 12th<br />

June <strong>2018</strong>, with a 25% reduction in<br />

the miles needed to redeem either<br />

award tickets or upgrades.<br />

Lufthansa’s global<br />

advertising campaign<br />

introduces raffle with<br />

chances to win tickets<br />

‘<br />

Say yes to the world,’<br />

discover it and explore<br />

it together with an open<br />

mind: this is the heart of<br />

Lufthansa’s new global advertising<br />

campaign, which has gone live in<br />

many international markets across<br />

various communication channels.<br />

The campaign is one of the most<br />

innovative in the company’s history<br />

as it aims to question familiar<br />

ways of thinking and habits, while<br />

demonstrating how enriching it is<br />

to discover the world.<br />

As part of the campaign, Lufthansa<br />

is launching a #SayYesTo-<br />

TheWorld raffle, where contestants<br />

can register to win flight<br />

tickets to destinations operated<br />

by Lufthansa.<br />

The first place winner will receive<br />

two Business Class round<br />

trip tickets for an intercontinental<br />

destination. The second place<br />

winner will receive two round<br />

trip tickets for an intercontinental<br />

destination in Economy Class. The<br />

third and the fourth place winners<br />

will be selected for two round<br />

trip tickets each, to a continental<br />

destination in Economy Class. The<br />

contest will be valid until 15 <strong>Apr</strong>il<br />

<strong>2018</strong> and winners will be selected<br />

in May <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

With #SayYesToTheWorld<br />

Lufthansa encourages people to<br />

open-up to the world by asking<br />

them questions that create more<br />

awareness and allow them to see<br />

a journey as a source of inspiration.<br />

As part of the cross-media campaign,<br />

Lufthansa installed aircraft<br />

seats at public locations in Munich,<br />

Shanghai and New York, and asked<br />

people walking by to sit in the seats<br />

and answer the question “Why do<br />

you love the world?” The campaign<br />

does not include statement but<br />

rather open questions that can be<br />

answered based on personal and<br />

unique experiences.


C002D5556<br />

Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />

46BDSUNDAY<br />

Health&Science<br />

New immunotherapy for lung cancer shows promise of success<br />

Immunologist John Wrangle,<br />

M.D., of the Hollings Cancer<br />

Center at the Medical University<br />

of South Carolina<br />

said it’s a promising therapy<br />

that can be delivered in an outpatient<br />

setting. “People don’t talk<br />

about ‘curing’ patients with metastatic<br />

lung cancer. We now get<br />

to flirt with the idea for certain<br />

patients using immunotherapy.<br />

And at the very least we have<br />

a significant proportion of patients<br />

enjoying prolonged survival<br />

even if we can’t call them<br />

‘cured’,” he said.<br />

He, along with his colleague<br />

Mark Rubinstein, Ph.D. also of<br />

the Hollings Cancer Center, designed<br />

a clinical trial that started<br />

in 2016.<br />

Patients with metastatic nonsmall<br />

cell lung cancer will always<br />

progress after chemotherapy,<br />

so most patients go on to be<br />

treated with immunotherapy,<br />

a type of therapy that uses the<br />

body’s immune system to fight<br />

cancer. One class of immunotherapeutic<br />

drugs is known as<br />

“checkpoint” inhibitors, as they<br />

target checkpoints in immune<br />

system regulation to allow the<br />

body’s natural defenses, such<br />

as white blood cells, to more<br />

effectively target the cancer.<br />

Rubinstein said checkpoint<br />

therapies work by cutting<br />

the brake cables on the white<br />

bloods cells that are inherently<br />

able to kill tumor cells. “Tumor<br />

cells often produce suppressive<br />

factors which essentially turn the<br />

brakes on tumor-killing white<br />

blood cells. What’s unique about<br />

the therapy that we’re testing<br />

is that in addition to cutting the<br />

brake cables on white blood cells,<br />

we’re providing fuel to them so<br />

that they can more effectively kill<br />

cancer cells.”<br />

Wrangle and Rubinstein’s<br />

therapy is a combination of a<br />

checkpoint drug, nivolumab, with<br />

a new and powerful immune stimulation<br />

drug, ALT-803. “What’s<br />

unique about our trial is that it’s<br />

two completely different types<br />

of drugs that have never been<br />

combined in humans before, and<br />

the trial demonstrated that these<br />

drugs can be safely administered,<br />

and also, there’s evidence that it<br />

may help patients where checkpoint<br />

therapy is not good enough<br />

alone,” said Rubinstein.<br />

Patients who have stopped<br />

responding to checkpoint therapy<br />

may be helped significantly by<br />

adding ALT-803. Pre-clinical studies<br />

have shown that ALT-803<br />

activates the immune system to<br />

mobilize lymphocytes against<br />

tumor cells and could potentially<br />

serve as an important component<br />

in combination treatments. Of<br />

the 21 patients treated, nine previously<br />

either had stable disease<br />

or responded to single-agent immunotherapy<br />

before becoming<br />

resistant to this treatment. Of<br />

these nine patients, 100 percent<br />

either had stable disease or had a<br />

partial response to the treatment<br />

used in this study.<br />

“We can reassert control, at<br />

least in terms of stable disease,<br />

in essentially everybody we’ve<br />

treated so far,” Wrangle said.<br />

This novel combination is<br />

a huge step forward in cancer<br />

treatment. “Whereas for de-<br />

cades the modalities of therapy<br />

were surgery, radiation, and<br />

chemotherapy, the last decade<br />

has brought targeted therapy,<br />

and more recently, immunotherapy.<br />

It fundamentally alters<br />

the balance of power between<br />

your body and your cancer,”<br />

Wrangle said.<br />

A lung cancer specialist,<br />

Wrangle said 75 percent of lung<br />

cancer patients unfortunately<br />

are diagnosed at an incurable<br />

stage. “If 10 years ago you were<br />

talking about defining a five-year<br />

survival rate for metastatic nonsmall<br />

cell lung cancer patients,<br />

someone would laugh in your<br />

face. It would be a joke. It’s just a<br />

very different time now,” he said<br />

of the progress being made in the<br />

treatment of lung cancer.<br />

Wrangle explained that natural<br />

killer cells are the chief arm<br />

of the innate immune response.<br />

“They are an important part of anti-cancer<br />

response that haven’t<br />

been really talked about for a<br />

long time.”<br />

Wrangle said his collaboration<br />

with Rubinstein is a powerful example<br />

of what team science can<br />

accomplish.<br />

“His ownership of the intellectual<br />

foundation of this therapy<br />

is manifest,” Wrangle said of<br />

Rubinstein’s contribution. “He is<br />

brilliant and just works furiously<br />

to help understand how we can<br />

develop this therapy.”<br />

Successful trials for the treatment<br />

of cancer are incredibly<br />

rare, he said. “There are very few<br />

people in human history who get<br />

the privilege of developing a new<br />

therapy for any human disease,<br />

much less cancer. Mark and I are<br />

now in this weird micro-club of<br />

folks who have developed the<br />

promise of a new therapy for<br />

cancer. That’s such an amazing<br />

privilege to be able to do that,”<br />

he said.<br />

Both of the researchers, who<br />

are in their early forties, said they<br />

were motivated by the need to<br />

give lung cancer patients better<br />

options. Wrangle plans to frame<br />

the study’s publication. “I think<br />

this manuscript will be the thing<br />

that we have on the wall that<br />

we look back at 20 years from<br />

now, when we’re still working<br />

together and discovering new<br />

therapies.”<br />

-Medical University of South Carolina<br />

Excessive stress may relapse to mental illness<br />

ANTHONIA OBOKOH<br />

An expert in Psychology has<br />

said that excessive stress<br />

may relapse to mental<br />

illness. According to reports,<br />

the Federal Neuro-Psychiatrist<br />

Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, witnessed<br />

a 111 per cent increase in overall<br />

patient attendance and 59 per<br />

cent increase in number of new<br />

patients from January –November<br />

2016.<br />

In absolute figures, according<br />

to the data, there was an overall<br />

46 per cent increase in number<br />

of admissions in 2016 (867)<br />

compared to 594 in 2015, while<br />

the community clinic attendance<br />

went up from 1,793 to 3,510, a 95<br />

per cent increase.<br />

Richard Adebayo, a consultant<br />

psychiatric and clinical psychologist,<br />

at Federal neuropsychiatric<br />

hospital, Yaba, Lagos in<br />

an interview with <strong>BusinessDay</strong><br />

said that relapses can have overwhelming<br />

consequences for<br />

people with mental disorders<br />

such as schizophrenia, bipolar<br />

disorder, depression, or an anxiety<br />

disorder.<br />

“We know here that a patient<br />

can easily relapse into mental illness<br />

when they are undergoing<br />

severe stress.<br />

“Stress is one of the common<br />

causes of a relapse including<br />

drug and alcohol misuse, lack of<br />

sleep or irregular pattern of sleep,<br />

lack of social relationships and<br />

support, poor understanding of<br />

your mental disorder in general.<br />

Addressing these factors may<br />

help you to prevent a full-scale<br />

relapse” Adebayo said.<br />

Adebayo added that understanding<br />

the psychological<br />

mechanisms of how stress can<br />

lead to depression and anxiety<br />

can help prevent it. This is especially<br />

important for people who<br />

have had an earlier episode of<br />

depression or who have a genetic<br />

tendency of coming down with<br />

mental disorders and would like<br />

to prevent relapse.<br />

“Stress is an everyday event<br />

that human beings pass through<br />

due to excessive pressure and it<br />

can translate into deeper health<br />

implications on both physical<br />

and mental consequences either<br />

positively or negatively.<br />

Adebayo further explained<br />

that when an individual is undergoing<br />

stress, the body metabolism<br />

could be affected and the<br />

hormones get disrupted making<br />

the alert system in the body, the<br />

adrenaline and non-adrenaline to<br />

be on the hyper level because the<br />

person is always agitated.<br />

He added that some people<br />

use wrong coping strategy, when<br />

they are stressed up, smoking cigarettes,<br />

drinking alcohol. Many<br />

Nigerians falls in this category,<br />

thinking these wrong strategies<br />

will ease them of stress at home,<br />

work place.<br />

“These are wrong coping<br />

strategies, taking alcohol will not<br />

solve the stress but some people<br />

believe that is an escape route to<br />

forget problems.<br />

“Your kind of coping strategy<br />

when stressed is very important,<br />

but we should not adhere to wrong<br />

lifestyles.” Adebayo advised.


Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BDSUNDAY 47<br />

Sports<br />

‘LaLiga more tactical and the best<br />

league for any player’<br />

The race for the LaLiga trophy continues this weekend as second placed Atletico Madrid travel to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium to<br />

lock horn with rival Real Madrid in a derby that could decide the fate of Diego Simeone’s side for the LaLiga trophy. THOMAS PARTEY,<br />

Atletico Madrid midfielder in an exclusive chart with <strong>BusinessDay</strong>’s Sports Editor, NLEBEM ANTHONY IFEANYI, and other nine sports<br />

journalists from different parts of the world. The Ghanaian international spoke on the derby game this Sunday and football in LaLiga.<br />

How are you<br />

prepared for<br />

this weekend<br />

derby?<br />

We are tanning<br />

hard, doing our best<br />

preparing for this weekend<br />

derby and we hope to get a<br />

better result.<br />

How have your playing<br />

position changed from<br />

last season compared to<br />

this season?<br />

Well, the difference is<br />

clear because last season,<br />

I used to play on the wings;<br />

sometimes I play in the<br />

midfield and I could not<br />

find my position. But that<br />

has changed this season,<br />

the coach play me in the<br />

middle were I prefer to<br />

play and with hard work,<br />

support from the team<br />

that has help to improve<br />

my game this season and<br />

it makes me feel am part<br />

of the team.<br />

What’s the plan ahead<br />

of this weekend derby<br />

at Real Madrid, how do<br />

you plan to stop Cristiano<br />

Ronaldo from scoring and<br />

getting a good result?<br />

We have to do our work<br />

well and make sure we<br />

get a complete game and<br />

not making too many errors.<br />

We know how Real<br />

Madrid play and we have<br />

to go for a win.<br />

Growing up, do you watch<br />

Real Madrid vs. Atletico<br />

Madrid games and are<br />

there any player you look<br />

up to in these games?<br />

Growing up in my country<br />

in Ghana, we normally<br />

watch the English Premiership<br />

games and I look up<br />

to Steven Gerrard but in<br />

LaLiga, we watch FC Barcelona,<br />

Real Madrid FC<br />

and sometime Sevilla FC<br />

but not much of Atletico<br />

games. But now that I have<br />

been in Spain for seven<br />

years, I feel this is my home.<br />

What are the training sections<br />

like before the game<br />

against Real Madrid, any<br />

different preparations for<br />

the derby?<br />

It’s not going to be an easy<br />

game, Real Madrid are<br />

good team and are in good<br />

form. Like I said earlier, we<br />

have to do our homework<br />

well; have a complete team<br />

and go for a win.<br />

Cristiano Ronaldo has<br />

been in fine form, what<br />

is your game plan to stop<br />

him?<br />

We are not going to stop<br />

Cristiano Ronaldo alone; we<br />

are going to play the whole<br />

team. We also have our<br />

good players that Real Madrid<br />

should be worried of.<br />

Both team have to prepare<br />

well and have a complete<br />

game.<br />

LaLiga is one of the top<br />

leagues in the world,<br />

what do African federations<br />

need to do to produce<br />

good players like<br />

you?<br />

For Africans, mostly, our<br />

problem is the payment<br />

of players’ salaries and<br />

most teams in Africa are<br />

struggling to pay players<br />

salaries. But if the African<br />

federations are financially<br />

Thomas Partey<br />

buoyant to build good<br />

pitches, pay salaries, it will<br />

help the players to work<br />

harder, be in top form and<br />

play in top leagues.<br />

The race for the LaLiga is<br />

still open and Sunday’s<br />

derby is likely to be a<br />

decider for who wins the<br />

LaLiga. Do you think the<br />

outcome of the derby will<br />

decide which team wins<br />

the LaLiga this season?<br />

We have a philosophy<br />

that we approach each<br />

game as they come. At this<br />

moment, we are focused<br />

on the game against Real<br />

Madrid and our aim is to<br />

play well and get the three<br />

points at the Bernabeu<br />

and we think of our next<br />

game.<br />

Diego Coasta is making<br />

his first derby since his<br />

return to Spain; will his<br />

return give Atletico Madrid<br />

confidence ahead of<br />

the game on Sunday?<br />

Atletico Madrid play as a<br />

team and need help from<br />

other players. Individually,<br />

we have confidence<br />

and are ready to play Real<br />

Madrid. Our focus is o get<br />

the three points.<br />

Haven played in Japan,<br />

what memories do you<br />

have playing in Japan?<br />

Japan is a nice country<br />

and they have good players.<br />

It was a nice memory<br />

when we played there,<br />

I hope to visit Japan and<br />

play against more Japan<br />

teams.<br />

How important do think<br />

you have become in Atletico<br />

Madrid team and how<br />

do you think you will be<br />

in the next three seasons?<br />

At the moment, I have<br />

helped the team with so<br />

many wins and fight for<br />

positions. I feel important<br />

in the team because the<br />

coach believe in me and<br />

always tell me what to do<br />

that will help the team. At<br />

the moment, am thinking<br />

on how to get the team<br />

finish at a good position<br />

on the LaLiga table and win<br />

some trophies this season<br />

and we can now focus on<br />

next season.<br />

As an African player, how<br />

do feel to be involved in<br />

such a big game?<br />

As an African, I feel difficult<br />

to be part of this game, but<br />

am confident that most<br />

African countries are supporting<br />

me and I don’t<br />

want to disappoint them.<br />

Will the Madrid derby be<br />

more of a bragging right<br />

kind of derby?<br />

Always, this derby has<br />

been a great game, now<br />

it’s a more important to us<br />

because if we win win, it<br />

brings us closer to fighting<br />

for the LaLiga trophy.<br />

What can you say<br />

about the quality of football<br />

in LaLiga compared to<br />

other leagues in Europe?<br />

LaLiga is one of the best<br />

leagues in Europe; it’s more<br />

of tactical play and the best<br />

league for any player can<br />

choose at the moment.<br />

LaLiga is the league were<br />

good football is played and<br />

good players discovered.<br />

International Marathons Live<br />

on Kwesé Free Sports UHF 32<br />

24-hour local sports TV station, Kwesé Free<br />

Sports UHF 32, will air three major international<br />

marathons in the month of <strong>Apr</strong>il.<br />

The Rotterdam Marathon plays host to thousands<br />

of runners from home and abroad. The route is flat<br />

and traffic-free, making the marathon a fast race.<br />

The race will start at the iconic Erasmus Bridge and<br />

finish line is at the renowned Coolsingel. It holds on<br />

Sunday 8 <strong>Apr</strong>il and it will be televised live on Kwesé<br />

Free Sports UHF 32 from 8.45am.<br />

Kwesé Free Sports UHF 32 will also broadcast<br />

the world’s oldest annual marathon and one of the<br />

most prestigious road racing events, The Boston<br />

Marathon which comes up on Monday 16 <strong>Apr</strong>il. The<br />

athletic spectacle takes a winding route through the<br />

city, encompassing 26 miles of Boston’s streets and<br />

providing many opportunities to see the action. The<br />

marathon has become a symbol of the Boston community,<br />

and of endurance and team spirit. Kick-off<br />

time is 2pm local time.<br />

The annual marathon race over the classic distance<br />

of 42.195km in Hamburg, Germany will also air<br />

on Kwesé Free Sports UHF 32 on 29 <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong>. This<br />

road racing event has been described as Germany’s<br />

biggest spring marathon and has been on since 1986.<br />

The Hamburg Marathon is a sightseeing tour through<br />

the city including all of Hamburg’s highlights. The<br />

start is located at the main entrance of the Hamburg<br />

Congress Centre and finishes at the Television Tower<br />

in front of Hamburg Congress Centre. Broadcast is<br />

scheduled to kick-off at 8.15am local time.<br />

“To watch these international road racing events,<br />

viewers simply need to tune their television sets to<br />

UHF 32 on analogue television in Lagos. This means<br />

that they do not need a satellite TV decoder to watch<br />

the marathons”.<br />

Kwesé Free Sports UHF 32 had in February broadcast<br />

the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon. The<br />

channel is also the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster<br />

of the <strong>2018</strong> FIFA World Cup Russia. Viewers of this<br />

free premium sports channel will be able to watch<br />

32 live matches of the <strong>2018</strong> FIFA World Cup Russia.<br />

Kwesé Free Sports UHF 32 a part of the largest<br />

and only pan-African Free-to-Air (FTA) network<br />

available in more than 24 countries in Africa.


BDSUNDAY<br />

Ten wives for Mandela<br />

(Celebrating Winnie Mandela, 1936-<strong>2018</strong>. Reprinted from Sunday<br />

Times, 20 May 1990)<br />

Winsome Winnie, South Africa’s Warrior Queen, as<br />

fearsome as she was alluring! Scorched earth was her<br />

formidablesymbol too. No wonder why, after three<br />

decades of white terror and mass murder, Mandela’s<br />

sweet reasonableness and compromise was, to her and<br />

to so many others, anathema!)<br />

*****<br />

Last Sunday I was at the stadium to welcome<br />

Nelson and Winnie Mandela, the<br />

world’s best known freedom fighters;<br />

and with me was my good friend Burning-Bright<br />

(BB), who I’m quite sure you<br />

don’t remember (it’s been an age). Well, he is the<br />

ex-Catholic priest turned pan-African nationalist<br />

who is a non-believer in half measures, sweetreasonableness<br />

or compromise. With him it’s<br />

all or nothing. The scorched earth is his formidable<br />

symbol. “Drive the bloody Boers into the sea,” he<br />

yells whenever the matter of South Africa comes<br />

up. And that’s his final solution.<br />

“Yeah,” he sneered as we waited for this amazing<br />

couple to arrive. “So, Mandela is free. But he<br />

won’t last.”<br />

“What?” I fairly screamed. “What do you mean<br />

by that?”<br />

“Mandela and his ANC want a multi-racial<br />

South Africa.”<br />

“Non-racial,” I corrected.<br />

“Same ten and ten pence. But they should<br />

never be allowed to have that.”<br />

“You mean the racists should stick to their<br />

guns?”<br />

“One man one goal,” he said with a mischievous<br />

smile.<br />

“You think South Africa is your Nigeria? Football<br />

is not their national obsession.”<br />

He pointed at the goal posts. “We’re in the<br />

National Stadium, aren’t we?”<br />

“The racists already accept one man one vote,”<br />

I said.<br />

“Yes, but with a lot of ands, ifs and buts.”<br />

“The goal is majority rule, isn’t it?”<br />

“A black South Africa is the goal,” he said with<br />

finality.<br />

I chewed this for a while. “So what’s to become<br />

of the whites?” I asked.<br />

“Let them go back to the Netherlands where<br />

they came from. KLM still flies, doesn’t it?”<br />

The loudspeakers were getting agitated. The<br />

most celebrated couple of the decade were soon<br />

to appear. Burning-Bright went on with his oddball<br />

notions.<br />

“You see, it’s like this,” he said. “These whites<br />

think they’re in South Africa to stay. . . .”<br />

NEW YOU CAN TRUST I SUNDAY <strong>08</strong> APRIL <strong>2018</strong><br />

“Verwoerd said Over my dead body,” I interrupted.<br />

“Vorster said Not in my lifetime,” he chimed in.<br />

“And they were right, weren’t they?”<br />

“When the Arabs invaded Spain and settled<br />

there, they said the same.”<br />

“And they were right- for seven centuries!”<br />

“Yes. For seven centuries they made it stick.”<br />

“Then came the day of reckoning . . .”<br />

“And the Spaniards-in-arms drove the stinking<br />

Arabs into the sea. It’s all down there in the history<br />

books . . . .”<br />

At that point the entire stadium came down<br />

in a tumultuous and prolonged ovation. The Tall<br />

Comrade had arrived, his Comely Consort at his<br />

side. Freedom Fighter Numbers 1 and 2 in all the<br />

world! They are the Lords of Azania! This land<br />

is ours. Papa’s Land! Seek ye first the political<br />

kingdom! The Clenched Fist! And they circled the<br />

arena in their chariot of light, their juggernaut of<br />

triumph. Mandela! Black Power! Mandela! Mandela!<br />

Free Mandela! Free Mandela! Mandela is<br />

free! Amandla! Mandela is free! O God bless our<br />

native Africa . . . ! Arise Oh compatriots . . . Freedom,<br />

Peace and Unity!!<br />

The crowed settled. The ceremonies began.<br />

Speeches. Speeches. Speeches. Song and dance.<br />

Song and dance. Need I make a Roll Call? Nigerian<br />

musicians of that Day, you know yourselves:<br />

Stand and take a bow! Yes sir! See you in the<br />

kingdom! But Oh come on, let’s have some fun.<br />

I saw that brother hug Onyeka Onwenu tightly,<br />

hungrily! Uuuu-weee! Gorgeous woman. Can’t<br />

really say I blame him. And his wife smiled- she<br />

has a lot to smile about, that’s for sure- after 27<br />

years. Burning-Bright simply lost his head and<br />

started ranting:<br />

“The brother didn’t touch a woman for 27<br />

years. 27 godforsaken years, man! Can you dig it?”<br />

BB had slipped into Americanese- as he sometime<br />

did whenever he got the spirit, when the<br />

excitement reaches deep and grazes his bone<br />

marrows and he loses control. He’s swimming in<br />

the void now. Totally spaced out.<br />

“The man should have ten wives and twenty<br />

girlfriends!” he screamed. “Fragrant! Succulent!<br />

Delicious! Psychdelic! O my God! A zoomanoid<br />

of feline femininity! Tall, short, fat, thin, buxom,<br />

flat, black, white! Let the brother taste them all!<br />

Every country he visits should bestow upon him<br />

a beautiful woman, a winsome Winnie! Yes. It’s<br />

in the African tradition! The man needs a (fourletter<br />

unprintable) jamboree! Body no be wood,<br />

after all! Nwokem, madugaemeghariaru! Kai! Do you<br />

know what it means to be without a woman for<br />

I saw war!<br />

What are<br />

you talking<br />

about?<br />

I saw hell<br />

right here at<br />

home! You<br />

fight for principles.<br />

Live<br />

or die, na de<br />

same ten and<br />

ten pence<br />

ONWUCHEKWA JEMIE<br />

ojemie@businessdayonline.com<br />

07039460162<br />

27 years? Greater love hath no man than this, that<br />

he gave 27 years of his (four-letter unprintable)<br />

life for his country! . . . .”<br />

BB’s strident baritone was mercifully drowned<br />

in the wild cheering of the vast sing-along crowd,<br />

thereby saving him from deserved censure for his<br />

irreverent not to speak of unclean thoughts. (You<br />

will applaud me, won’t you, dear reader, for not<br />

daring the nation’s leading Sunday paper to reproduce<br />

the stained vocabulary of this wild man!)<br />

Meanwhile, on the podium, Mandela was<br />

speaking of peace.<br />

“Isn’t he just ripe for the Nobel Peace Prize?”<br />

I said. “Just wait three years. You’ll see. Those<br />

Swedes can spot a winner from ten miles off. They<br />

just love South Africa!”<br />

“The Swedes are idiots; their grandparents<br />

were idiots before them. South Africans have<br />

nothing to be peaceful about!” BB was quite fired<br />

up. At least, he was back down on earth. “I hope to<br />

God the PAC stays awake to its responsibilities.<br />

Then we shall see war!”<br />

Now I was getting angry myself. “It’s easy to<br />

talk of war as long as it’s in someone else’s land.”<br />

“Rubbish!” replied BB. “I saw war! What are<br />

you talking about? I saw hell right here at home!<br />

You fight for principles. Live or die, na de same ten<br />

and ten pence.”<br />

“But come on, BB, Rome wasn’t built in a day.<br />

And don’t you think Mandela knows it? Even in<br />

freedom there are degrees.” I flipped the pages<br />

of the magazine on my lap. “And I quote: Dearly<br />

beloved, herein set forth is the wheel of your progress<br />

from hell on earth to paradise on earth and back again.<br />

First, the bourgeois nationalist revolution. Then socialism<br />

if you can manage it. Then finally, after numerous trials<br />

and backslidings, the celestial state of communism. There<br />

shall be no short-cuts, by-passes or frog-jumps. You can’t<br />

have it all in two weeks. It takes three. Amen. Epistle of<br />

St. Marx to the Dieticians, Chapter 5 Verses 7 to<br />

11. And so it is.”<br />

Burning-Bright shrugged. “You know what you<br />

are, O.J.? A thorough neanderthal.”<br />

“Thanks for the compliment. At any rate, Mandela<br />

is free. We are right to celebrate. And what’s<br />

more, now the Pope can go to South Africa, since<br />

he vowed never to go there until Mandela is free.”<br />

All’s fair in love and war.” People in<br />

love and soldiers in wartime are not<br />

bound by the rules of fair play. The<br />

expression is frequently used when two<br />

people are contending for the love of a<br />

third.<br />

The All Progressives Congress (PDP)<br />

in contention for the love of the Nigerian<br />

electorate appears to have employed this<br />

principle to undermine their opponents in<br />

order to achieve electoral victory.<br />

The looters’ lists recently rolled out by<br />

the APC-led Federal Government belong<br />

to this category.<br />

Obviously haunted by the spirit of<br />

non-performance, and fearful of the likely<br />

consequence of what critics have severally<br />

described as its colossal failure, government<br />

decided on an ambush against the<br />

major opposition in the country.<br />

Since coming to power, the APC government<br />

and Buhari administration have made<br />

“<br />

Off the Cuff<br />

Looters’ lists as political ambush<br />

fight against corruption their major thrust.<br />

But the manner the war is being fought has<br />

since raised some moral questions and has<br />

also become a moral burden on government.<br />

Although it blows hot openly, reports<br />

have shown that the current administration<br />

is itself a cesspool of corruption.<br />

While it persecutes members of the opposition<br />

on allegations of corruption, its<br />

members are sitting comfy on their own<br />

looted funds.<br />

It is a known fact that some corruption<br />

charges against certain people have been<br />

dropped simply because such individuals<br />

decided to cross carpet and now members<br />

of the APC.<br />

Within the inner caucus of the Buhari cabinet<br />

are people who should by now be guests<br />

of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission<br />

(EFCC), explaining how they came<br />

about their stupendous wealth. Government<br />

has also not bothered to investigate those<br />

who sponsored the President in the<br />

2015 election.<br />

Rolling out names of those who<br />

have been in and out of the courts<br />

and dramatising it three years after<br />

it took over power smacks of incompetence<br />

and insincerity. Brandishing<br />

some lists of prominent opposition<br />

Nigerians and branding them corrupt<br />

when such persons have not been<br />

found guilty by any competent law<br />

court amounted to putting the horse<br />

before the cart.<br />

Bringing out such lists a few<br />

months to another round of elections<br />

is a sign of cowardice and paranoia,<br />

and to say the least, defeatist.<br />

What it means is that the ruling<br />

party is afraid of facing a heated<br />

campaign and an exhibition of lack of<br />

confidence that it would garner winning<br />

votes this time around.<br />

Quick Takes<br />

$811bn<br />

This is the amount of money<br />

Nigeria and other countries<br />

across the world are<br />

expected to spend on 615<br />

upcoming oil and gas fields<br />

in the next eight years.<br />

S-e-a-l-e-d!<br />

It appears that the fate<br />

of John Odigie-Oyegun,<br />

national chairman of the<br />

All Progressives Congress<br />

(APC), may have<br />

been sealed. The oneyear<br />

tenure extension<br />

given to him recently by<br />

the National Executive<br />

Committee (NEC) may<br />

have been permanently<br />

quashed by President<br />

Muhammadu Buhari<br />

to please the Jagaban.<br />

And all the governors on<br />

the APC platform have<br />

already chorused, Amen.<br />

Published by BusinessDAY Media Ltd., The Brook, 6 Point Road, GRA, Apapa, Lagos. Ghana Office: Zion House, Shiashie, OIC-Galaxy Road, East Legon, Accra.<br />

Tel:+ 233 243226596, +233244856806: email: bdsundayletter@businessdayonline.com Advert Hotline: <strong>08</strong>116759801, <strong>08</strong><strong>08</strong>2496194. Subscriptions 01-2950687, 07045792677. Newsroom: <strong>08</strong>054691823<br />

Editor: Zebulon Agomuo, All correspondence to BusinessDAY Media Ltd., Box 1002, Festac Lagos. ISSN 1595 - 8590.

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