21012019 - Elections Obasanjo bombs Buhari again

Tax breaks, 

private sector 

investment will 

boost HDI — Economy 

analysts 

INSIDE 

Why we must 

borrow to 

finance 

economy 

—Minister 8 

AWARD—CEO of Lagos Deep 

Offshore Logistic Base, LADOL, 

Dr. Amy Jadesimi (right) 

receives award for being 

recognised as one of the 

‘Companies to Inspire Africa in 

2019’ by London Stock Exchange 

Group, from Charlie Walker, 

Head of Equity Primary 

Markets of the London Stock 

Exchange Group in London. 

Story on page 10. 

VOL. 26: NO. 63726 MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

APC, 

PDP in 

war of 

words 

over 

Atiku’s 

U.S trip 

10 

Elections: Obasanjo 

bombs Buhari again 

•Says he's planning to rig polls, behaving like Abacha 

•Buhari won't join issues with Obasanjo — Presidency 

•ACF, Afenifere, Ohanaeze, PANDEF, others react 

Vanguard Lifetime Achievement Award: 

By Emmanuel 

Aziken, Emma 

Amaize, Dapo 

Akinrefon, Ben 

Agande, Dirisu 

Yakubu, Peter Okutu 

& Denis Agbo 

LAGOS — Former 

President, Chief 

Olusegun Obasanjo has, 

in a scathing preview of the 

forthcoming general 

elections, alleged plans by 

President Muhammadu 

Buhari to return himself to 

power through 

manipulation of state 

institutions including the 

judiciary and the 

Independent National 

Electoral Commission, 

INEC. 

Reacting last night, The 

Presidency, via a live 

television programme, 

Politics Today, on 

Channels Television said 

it will not join issues 

with Chief Obasanjo, but 

Continues from Page 5 

Mr & Mrs 

Mr Sam Amuka, Publisher, Vanguard Newspapers (left), assisted by the Chairman of the occasion, Chief Arthur Mbanefo (right) 

presenting Vanguard Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 to Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, retd, (2nd right) while Kanu's wife, 

Gladys (2nd left) and others watch at the Vanguard Personality of the Year 2018 Awards in Lagos, last Friday. Photo: Akeem Salau. 

Refinery: FG’ll 

source forex 

from Dangote 

—CBN gov 

Fraud allegation: 

I’m ready to 

waive my 

immunity to face 

Oil price hits 

$62.70, $2.70 

in excess of 

budget 

benchmark 

CCT Trial: Fresh suit 

asks court to stop 

EFCC, DSS, Police from 

arresting CJN 

•as Body of SANs urges 

respect for rule of law 

8 

trial —Ortom 

8 

8 

9 

COLUMNISTS OWEI LAKEMFA 33 SOBOWALE 31 HENRY BOYO 32

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019—3


Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019—5 

POCKET CARTOON 

Charles Udoh, Commissioner for Information, Akwa Ibom State (left), 

receiving Vanguard Governor of the Year Award on behalf of Akwa Ibom 

State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, from General Ike Nwachukwu (Retd) at 

the Vanguard Personality of the Year Awards 2018 in Lagos. PHOTO: AKEEM 

SALAU. 

Elections: Obasanjo bombs 

Buhari again 


asked him to explain to 

Nigerians whether 

elections under his 

administration were free 

and fair. 

In a 4,018-word 

commentary titled POINTS 

FOR CONCERN AND 

ACTION, Obasanjo also 

expressed 

his 

disappointments in Vice 

President Yemi Osinbajo, 

who he flayed for allegedly 

bastardising the electoral 

system through the 

distribution of the N10,000 

‘TraderMoni.’ 

Affirming that President 

Buhari’s alleged 

deficiencies cannot be 

ameliorated, Obasanjo 

tapped words from some of 

the president’s former and 

present associates 

including Asiwaju Bola 

Tinubu, Alhaji Buba 

Galadima among others 

who at various times 

described Buhari’s 

incapacities in extreme 

terms. 

While affirming that after 

being once deceived that 

Nigerians would have no 

one to blame if Buhari is 

brought to power, he 

nevertheless pleaded with 

the international 

community to treat the 

Nigerian situation with 

interest. 

On INEC, FG and 

elections 

Obasanjo said: I am 

concerned as a democrat, 

who believes that with 

faithful and diligent 

practice of democracy, we 

can get over most of our 

political problems and 

move steadfastly and surefootedly 

on the course of 

stability, unity of purpose, 

socio-economic growth and 

progress for all. 

“Democracy becomes a 

sham if elections are carried 

out by people who should 

be impartial and neutral 

umpires, but who show no 

integrity, acting with blatant 

partiality, duplicity and 

imbecility. For all democrats 

and those carrying out the 

process of elections, there 

must be the red line that 

must not be crossed in 

tactics and practices of 

democracy. 

“I personally have serious 

doubt about the present 

INEC’s integrity, 

impartiality and 

competence to conduct a fair, 

free and credible election. 

And if the INEC is willing, 

will the ruling party and 

government allow it? 

From what we saw and 

knew about Osun State 

gubernatorial election, what 

was conclusive was 

declared inconclusive 

despite all advice to the 

contrary. The unnecessary 

rerun, if viewed as a testrun 

for a larger general 

election, would lead 

people to expect 

incidences of deliberately 

contrived, broken or nonworking 

voting machines 

or card readers, confusion 

of voters as to their voting 

stations, inadequate 

supply of voting materials 

to designated places, long 

line to discourage voters 

and turning blind eyes to 

favour the blue-eye 

political party of INEC 

because the Commission’s 

hands will be tied to enable 

hatchet men and women to 

perform 

their 

unwholesome assignment. 

The transmission and 

collation of results are 

subject to interference, 

manipulation and 

meddling. “If the INEC’s 

favourite political party 

wins with all the above 

infractions, the result will 

be conclusively declared 

and if not, there will be a 

‘rerun’, the result of which 

is known before it is carried 

out. I know that I am not 

alone in being sceptical 

about the integrity of INEC 

and its ability to act 

creditably and above 

board. But we are open 

to be convinced otherwise. 

The joke about INEC 

would seem real. The 

INEC was asked if the 

commission was ready for 

the election and if it expects 

the election to be free, fair 

and credible. The INEC 

man is reported as saying 

in response, “we are ready 

with everything including 

the results!” God save 

Nigeria! It is up to 

Nigerians to ensure that 

the red line is not crossed 

in safeguarding our 

fledgling democracy. And 

if crossed, appropriate 

action must be taken not to 

allow our democracy to be 

derailed. 

“A friend of mine, who is 

more credulous and who 

claims to be close to the 

Chair of INEC keeps 

telling me that INEC will 

retrieve its image and 

reputation by conducting 

the coming elections with 

utmost integrity and 

impartiality. I am not sure 

as I believe more in action 

than in words and in past 

record than in promise. 

The track record of the 

present INEC is fairly 

sordid and all men and 

women of goodwill and 

believers in democracy 

must be prepared for the 

worst from INEC and their 

encouragers (those that 

encourage it) and how to 

get Nigeria out of the 

electoral morass that the 

commission is driving us 

into. To be forewarned is 

to be forearmed. A battle 

long forewarned does not 

embroil the cripple nor 

catch him unawares. A 

word is sufficient for the 

wise. 

“The labour of Nigerian 

democracy heroes must not 

be in vain. Some men of 

God would hold President 

Buhari to his word on free, 

fair, credible and peaceful 

elections. I am a realist and 

I reiterate that I go by track 

record. Therefore, I am not 

persuaded by a track record 

of hollow words, impunity, 

insensitivity and ‘Icouldn’t-care-less’ 

attitude, 

or by the sanctimonious 

claims of any candidate and 

his campaign staff. I will 

only believe what I see. 

This is a time for vigilance 

to fight to safeguard our 

votes and defend our 

democracy. The price of 

liberty and sustenance of 

our democracy is eternal 

vigilance and appropriate 

reaction to ward off 

iniquities. We must all be 

ready to pay that price and 

not relying on hollow words 

of callousness. The 

derailment of Nigerian 

democracy will be a 

monumental disaster 

comparable to the disaster 

of the Nigerian first military 

coup. 

The international 

community 

“While Nigerians must 

not allow such a disaster to 

happen nor take such an 

affront lying low, the 

international community 

who played an admirable 

role in warning INEC, of 

course, to no avail on the 

Osun State gubernatorial 

election and who have 

been warning all political 

parties must on this 

occasion give more serious 

warning, send more people 

to the field to observe and 

work out punitive measures 

against INEC and security 

officials especially the 

Police and politicians who 

stand to gain from INEC’s 

misconduct, which is 

Continues on Page 46 

Trial of Chief Justice of Nigeria (3) 

By Bose Adelaja, Ebun Sessou, Yinka 

Latona, Tade Oluwapelumi&Sophia Ogu 

Nobody is above the 

law. How can the 

Chief Justice of Nigeria 

,CJN, forget to declare 

his assets? He should 

have been a man of his 

words and be ready to 

face the music. What kind 

of image is he trying to 

portray to people outside 

the country? Ignorance is 

not an excuse before the 

law. 

Mr. Oluwatoba Adenuga 

Engineer 

If the allegations against 

the CJN are true, the 

Code of Conduct 

Bureau,CCB, was wrong 

to have referred the 

petition to the Code of 

Conduct Tribunal, CCT. 

Also, since judicial officers 

are disciplined by the 

National Judicial 

Council,NJC, CCB 

should have referred the 

matter to the council. 

Mrs. William Hannah 

Businesswoman 

I 

am not a lawyer but my 

opinion on the trial of CJN 

is that we should stop 

politicising every issue so that 

we can have a clear view and 

better understanding of 

issues. In a few weeks, we will 

be conducting the general 

election and the Chief Justice 

is one of the key people that 

will decide the election 

petition panel. Why probing 

him at this critical time? Is it to 

push him out before he works 

against them? 

Mr. Ebose Ikechukwu 

Cleric 

The CJN issue is just a 

distraction from the 

executive arm of 

government. It has become 

glaring to the world that the 

saga is just a deliberate 

attempt by the federal 

government to demoralise 

the judiciary and shift the 

focus of the people from the 

main issue which is February 

presidential election. I totally 

agree that the law of the land 

is supreme and nobody is 

above the law but we should 

give room for due process. 

Mr Femi Ogunleye 

Researcher 

As a Nigerian, I be 

lieve it is wrong and 

humiliating for the office 

of the Chief Justice of 

Nigeria, CJN. But if the 

Chief Justice had no skeleton 

in his cupboard he 

should have declared his 

assets to satisfy President 

Muhammadu Buhari. I 

am of the opinion that he 

declares his assets so that 

the Buhari administration 

would stop the trial that 

has brought shame to his 

office. 

Miss Lauretta Ovienioso, 

Fashion designer 

First, we need to know 

if it is compulsory for 

the CJN to declare his 

assets. 

If that is the case, I think 

the Federal Government 

is right. 

Second, if the 

declaration of assets 

isn’t compulsory for the 

CJN, then there is no 

sense in him being 

charged to court. 

Mr. Fortune Bolaji 

Student

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

Man loses eye in quest for spiritual power to win lotto 

A27-year-old man has lost 

an eye in his quest for 

spiritual powers to help him win 

lottery. 

The victim, Emmanuel Okachi, 

reportedly sought help from a 

witchdoctor in Ishiagu village, 

near Ogwashi-Uku in Delta 

State, to acquire spiritual 

powers to see lucky numbers. 

A friend of the victim, Osita 

Uzoka, disclosed in Ogwashi- 

FRSC returns 

N430,000 to 

accident 

victim in 

Kano 

KANO State Command 

of the Federal Road 

Safety Corps, FRSC, 

yesterday, said it had 

returned N430,000 

recovered at the scene of an 

accident on the Bayero 

University, BUK, Road to 

the owner. 

The command’s Public 

Relations Officer, Mr. Kabir 

Daura, disclosed this in a 

statement in Kano 

yesterday. 

According to him, the 

accident occurred on 

January 18 and involved a 

Honda car and a 

motorcycle. 

Daura said there was no 

loss of life in the accident, 

noting that “the money was 

recovered by our officers, 

who were at the scene of the 

accident. Immediately we 

were informed about the 

crash, we rushed to rescue 

the victims. 

“The money was handed 

over to the owner, who was 

the motorcyclist and the 

only injured person in the 

accident in the presence of 

his relatives and other 

people. 

“The incident took place 

on Friday at Rijiyar Zaki 

area of Kano metropolis, 

and the victim who is a staff 

member of BUK, was going 

to office in the morning 

when he was knocked 

down by the car. 

“Our patrol team arrived 

at the scene immediately 

and rushed the victim to the 

Murtala Mohammed 

Hospital, while the money 

contained in a polythene 

bag was taken to our Kano 

State command 

headquarters.” 

Daura added that the 

money was later handed 

over to the owner upon the 

instruction of the Sector 

Commander, Alhaji Yusuf 

Garba. 

“The Sector Commander 

also called on motorists in 

Kano to always exercise 

care while using the road 

to avoid similar 

occurrences,” he said. 

Uku that the incident occurred on 

January 12, 2019. 

According to Uzoka, “he went to see 

a juju man to help him acquire 

spiritual sight, so he can be winning 

lotto games, popularly known as 

Baba Ijebu. He once told me that 

he was worried that he has been 

playing lotto games without 

success.” 

According to him, Emmanuel 

later sought the help of a 

By Evelyn Usman 

THE Police in Ogun State have 

uncovered a shrine used by a 

syndicate to swindle people, 

arresting eight, among them a 72- 

year-old man. 

The suspects, who pretended to 

be traditional doctors, as 

gathered, talk their victims into 

believing they have spiritual 

problems. 

Thereafter, they would direct the 

victims to the shrine, with an 

assurance that they would get a 

solution to the problem, only to 

defraud them. 

Spokesman for Ogun State 

Police Command, Abimbola 

Oyeyemi, a Deputy 

Superintendent of Police, who 

confirmed the arrest, explained 

that the command was alerted 

about the syndicate’s activities by 

a member of the public on January 

11. 

He said: “On receiving the 

witchdoctor who assured him 

of spiritual solution. 

Uzoka narrated how the victim 

later went to the witchdoctor, 

who reportedly prepared some 

concoctions for him. 

He said the witchdoctor gave 

Emmanuel the prepared 

substance to drink and rub on 

his eyes, but that “he never told 

anyone what he did. When he 

started feeling some 

discomfort in his left eye, he 

cried out. 

“I heard about it from one 

of our friends, so I went to 

see him. That was when he 

told me what transpired. He 

was taken to the hospital, 

following a swollen eye, but 

there was no solution. Right 

now, he has lost his left eye.” 

An elder brother to the 

victim, Justin Okachi, said 

FRAUD: Police raid fake shrine 

in Ogun, arrest 72-yr-old man, 7 others 

By Onozure Dania 

LAGOS—A retired Police 

officer’s wife, Mrs. Taiwo 

Idehen, and her three children, 

have been arraigned before a 

Lagos High Court, sitting at 

Igbosere, over alleged murder of 

her husband, Mr. Joseph Idehen, 

a retired Superintendent of Police. 

Taiwo and her three children, 

Samuel, Michael and Ruth, were 

docked before Justice Adedayo 

Akintoye on charges bordering on 

conspiracy to murder, murder, 

stealing, use of false document 

and forgery by the men of Force 

Criminal Intelligence and 

Investigation Department, FCIID, 

Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos. 

The Police prosecutor, Morufu 

Animashaun, who is the Legal 

Officer of the General 

Investigation Department of 

ForceCIID, told the court that the 

defendants allegedly committed 

the offences at the deceased’s 

residence located at 5, Odetola 

Street, off Merit Road, Alagbado, 

Lagos, on July 4, 2016. 

He said Taiwo, who had 

divorced the deceased over 29 

years ago, allegedly conspired 

with her three children to murder 

the retired senior Police officer in 

information, the Divisional 

Police Officer, Ago Iwoye 

Division, CSP Ade 

Adedoyin, directed his 

Police accuse woman, 3 

children of killing ex-husband 

suspicious circumstances. 

They were also alleged to 

have forged a death 

certificate from Otta General 

Hospital, Ogun State, which 

was used in conveying the 

deceased’s corpse to Aragba 

in Delta State. 

Animashaun also alleged 

that the third defendant, 

Michael, fraudulently 

withdrew N286,000 from the 

deceased’s bank account. 

He further accused all the 

defendants of fraudulently 

withdrawing N2.1 million 

from the deceased’s bank 

account. 

According to the 

prosecutor, the offences are 

contrary to Sections 233, 365 

(3)(d), 366 and 287 (5) of 

Criminal Law of Lagos State. 

Animashaun, while 

arraigning the defendants 

before the court said their 

arrest was predicated on a 

petition dated August 2016, 

written to the Police by the 

Chambers of Milestone 

Partners, wherein the role 

played by each of the 

defendants leading to the 

death of the retired police 

officer was stated. 

The prosecutor also told 

the court that upon 

receiving the petition, each 

of the defendants were 

invited for interrogation and 

they all wrote confessional 

statements. 

All the defendants 

pleaded not guilty to the 

charges. 

In view of their plea, the 

prosecutor urged the court 

to remand them in prison 

custody, pending the 

conclusion of the matter. 

Meanwhile, the defence 

counsel, Mr. Kennedy 

Osunwa, urged the court 

not to grant the prosecutor’s 

request, adding that he had 

filed his clients’ bail 

applications and same have 

been served on the 

prosecutor. 

Following the application 

of the defendants’ lawyer, 

Justice Akintoye adjourned 

the matter till January 25 for 

hearing of their bail 

application. 

She also ordered that all 

the defendants be 

remanded in prison custody, 

pending the hearing and 

determination of their bail 

applications. 

the family is devastated by the 

incident, adding “we don’t want 

to say anything about it. We are 

really shocked by Emma’s 

desperation. 

“For now, we want to forget 

about the whole incident. He has 

his life to live.” 

It was gathered from village 

sources that the witchdoctor, 

whose name was not given, has 

since gone into hiding. 

detectives to be on the trail of 

the men and technically profile 

and investigate them. 

“The detectives succeeded in 

trailing them to their shrine, 

where they were swindling 

their unsuspecting victims, 

who they deceived into 

believing that they were 

getting spiritual help just to 

make them part with millions 

of naira.” 

The suspects 

He continued: “The 

suspects— Abiodun 

Bamgbopa, 72; Olashile 

Raheem, 35; Nureni Raheem, 

32; Raphael Joseph, 24; Ganiu 

Olawale, 24; Adenubi Samiu, 

25; Mustapha Lukman, 39, 

and Raimi Ramoni, 42, were 

subsequently apprehended 

and taken to Ago Iwoye 

Divisional Headquarters, 

where they were interrogated 

and confessed to be fraudsters. 

“They confessed to be 

capitalising on the gullibility 

of their victims to defraud 

them.” 

“Meanwhile, the 

Commissioner of Police, 

Ahmed Iliyasu, has ordered a 

thorough investigation into 

the activities of the syndicate 

and has directed that they 

should be charged to a court 

of competent jurisdiction as 

soon as investigation is 

completed. 

“He equally advised 

members of the public to 

beware of the antics of 

fraudsters pretending to be 

spiritualists.”


4 dead, 8 injured in Bauchi 

auto crash 

By Charles Agwam 

BAUCHI—FOUR people 

died in a motor accident, 

Saturday evening, along Bauchi- 

Tafawa Balewa Road, leaving 

eight others with varying degrees 

of injuries. 

It was gathered that a Lexus car 

conveying six passengers from 

Bununu to Bauchi had a head-on 

collision with a Ford Sharon car 

heading to Dass Local 

By Ndahi Marama 

M AIDUGURI— 

SUSPECTED members 

of Boko Haram terrorists, 

yesterday, reportedly killed a 

driver in between Shattimari 

village of Konduga Local 

Government Area of Borno State. 

This is just as the Nigerian Army 

said its troops killed eight Boko 

Haram insurgents in a fresh 

encounter with the terrorists in 

Baga, Kukawa Local Government 

Area of the state. 

A reliable security source said a 

golf Volkswagen driver, name 

withheld, was killed in the 

ambush, and his remains were 

evacuated to Bama Local 

Government Area for burial. 

He, however, said some 

passengers in the ill-fated 

Volkswagen saloon vehicle 

escaped into the bush, while 

others were feared kidnapped by 

the insurgents. 

A source said: “Confirmed report 

OPERATIVES of the Inspector 

General of Police Special 

Intelligence Response Team, IRT, 

have recovered 13 buildings, 10 

cars, two tippers, a trailer truck and 

three AK-47 rifles from a notorious 

kidnapper, Collins Ezenwa, who 

is popularly known as E-Money. 

Vanguard gathered that E- 

Money, a dismissed policeman that 

had been terrorising Imo, Abia, 

Enugu and Rivers states, was 

killed during a gunfight with the 

Police from Imo State Police 

Command in Owerri last year, 

where he had gone to kidnap a 

businessman. 

He was said to have acquired 

several property with proceeds 

from his exploits in kidnapping 

and robbery in the South-East and 

South-South states. 

Police sources disclosed that E- 

Money, who coordinated several 

kidnapping and robbery gangs in 

Imo State and environs, met his 

Waterloo after he kidnapped a 

South Africa-based businessman. 

A source at the IRT disclosed to 

Vanguard that in ensuring that the 

suspect paid for his crime, IRT 

trace his property to Enugu, Abia 

and Imo states. 

A source, who spoke to 

Government Area. 

An eyewitness disclosed that “four 

persons died in the Ford instantly, 

while six persons were badly 

injured in the Lexus car. Federal 

Road Safety Corps, FRSC, later 

conveyed those who were injured 

to hospital.” 

Contacted, Public Enlightenment 

Officer of FRSC in Bauchi, Rilwanu 

Sulaiman, confirmed that three 

persons died at the scene of the 

accident, while the fourth person 

gave up the ghost on arriving the 

hospital. 

According to him, “I can confirm 

indicated that some terrorists 

armed with AK-47 rifles ambushed 

some motorists along 85km 

Maiduguri-Kunduga -Bama Road 

this afternoon (yesterday) along 

Bama-Kunduga road. 

“One casualty was recorded of a 

golf vehicle driver. The body has 

already been evacuated to Bama 

for burial arrangement. The road 

is still busy after the attack with 

military on patrol.” 

Also yesterday, the Nigerian 

Army said its troops killed eight 

Boko Haram insurgents in a fresh 

encounter with the terrorists in 

Baga, Kukawa Local Government 

Area of Borno State. 

Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, 

Deputy Director, Army Public 

Relations, disclosed that troops of 

the Special Forces Command, on 

Saturday, repelled the insurgents’ 

attack and inflicted heavy casualty 

of men and equipment of the 

terrorists. 

Nwachukwu said that the troops 

successfully neutralised five 

that four persons lost their lives, 

while eight others were injured 

in an accident that involved two 

cars at Bayara. 

“The death recorded involved 

three men and a woman; the 

men died on the spot, while the 

woman died in hospital. Our 

operatives were at the scene of 

the accident and victims were 

taken to the hospital.” 

The driver of the Lexus car 

was identified as Kabir 

Abubakar, while the identity of 

the other driver and passengers 

were unknown at press time. 

Boko Haram ambushes motorists on Maiduguri-Bama Road 

insurgents in two mounted Gun 

Trucks, a suicide bomber and 

two other terrorists on an 

Improvised Explosive Devices, 

IEDs, borne vehicle. 

He said the combined Special 

Forces troops of the Nigerian 

Army, Navy and the Air Force 

operating under the auspices of 

Operation Lafiya Dole, inflicted 

devastating man and 

equipment casualty on Boko 

Haram terrorists on Saturday. 

He said: “The terrorists, 

armed with two gun trucks, a 

vehicle laden with IED and a 

suicide bomber, met their 

Waterloo while frantically 

fighting to break into the 

formidable defensive position of 

the troops. 

“The troops responded in a 

fierce counter-offensive, 

unleashing superior and 

overwhelming firepower on the 

terrorists; neutralising five of 

them, including a driver and a 

gunner firing from a gun truck.” 

IG-IRT confisticates 13 houses, 

13 vehicles of late kidnap kingpin 

By Ifeanyi Okolie 

One of the houses and weapons(inset). 

Vanguard on the condition of 

anonymity, said: “Four of his 

buildings, including a hotel, was 

recovered in Enugu State. Seven 

were traced to Owerri and Okigwe 

areas of Imo State, while one was 

traced to Aba, Abia State. 

The source added that seven cars, 

two SUVs, one Hilux truck, a 

commercial bus, two tipperlorries 

and a trailer truck were 

equally recovered at several 

locations within the South-East. 

The source explained that all 

the seized property are currently 

in the custody of the Police and 

a motion to have them forfeited 

have been failed in the court. 

... with Emma'nKen (08163121378) 

Just imagine what some 

people did to get this then 

Emma: Is she now a fruit seller? 

Tekno money don finish? 

Ken: She's just marking birthday 

with the Apple 

In 2009 (left) and 2019 (right)

8—VANGUARD, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

Fraud allegation: I’m ready to waive my 

immunity to face trial — Ortom 

By Peter Duru 

M AKURDI— 

GOVERNOR 

Samuel Ortom of Benue 

State has said he was ready 

to waive his immunity to 

face prosecution if need be, 

following allegations of 

fraud levelled against him 

by All Progressives 

Congress, APC, in the 

state. 


governor, the current 

smear campaign against 

him by the party indicates 

that the party has lost steam 

and has nothing to tell the 

people, ahead of the 

general elections next 

month. 

Ortom, who stated this at 

a thanksgiving mass 

organised for him by 

Isherev and Utyondu 

communities in Guma and 

Makurdi Local 

Government Areas, 

described as baseless, 

allegations that he had 

defrauded the state 

government to fund his 

private business 

organisations. 

He stated that the 

expansion of the business 

conglomerate he 

established before 

assuming office was being 

funded from bank loans 

from Central Bank of 

Nigeria, CBN, Bank of 

Industry, BOI, and Nexim 

Bank. 

He said: “Before I became 

governor, I was a well 

established industrialist 

and although I no longer 

manage the companies, 

which I set up, they are 

being expanded with loans 

obtained from various 

financial institutions and 

the records are there.’’ 

He described as false and 

mischievous allegations 

from leaders of opposition 

political party in the state 

that he had diverted public 

funds into his private 

businesses in Nigeria and 

abroad. 

Benue govt accuses 

FG of using EFCC 

to witch-hunt 

opponents 

Meanwhile, the state 

government has accused 

the Federal Government of 

converting Economic and 

Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, to a 

witch-hunt tool deployed 

against its opponents. 

The government was, 

yesterday, reacting to the 

press briefing by 

Information Minister, Lai 

Mohammed, in which he 

vowed that the Federal 

Government would 

interrogate the presidential 

candidate of Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, 

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on 

his return from the United 

States of America over his 

role in the collapse of Bank 

PHB. 

In a statement by Chief 

Press Secretary, CPS, to the 

Governor, Terver Akase, the 

government expressed 

shock at the remark by the 

minister, describing the 

allegation as one of the 

most absurd actions of any 

government. 

“The plan of the Federal 

Government to take over the 

job of EFCC to question the 

PDP flag-bearer has 

confirmed our earlier 

conclusion that the antigraft 

agency has not only 

lost its neutrality but has 

also conceded its 

constitutional role to the 

APC administration. 

“EFCC is now the witchhunt 

tool in the hands of 

APC selectively unleashed 

on opponents of the 

government in power. This 

is contrary to the EFCC Act 

of 2004, which emphasizes 

that the commission treats 

all persons and cases it 

investigates without bias or 

prejudice." 

AWARD: Group Managing Director of Daar Communications, Mr 

Tony Akiotu (middle) after presenting the Customer Service of the 

Year Award won by Digital Transformation Leader, Globacom, to the 

company’s Regional Manager, North Central, Mr. Kemi Kaka (left) 

and Customer Care Team Lead, Wunmi Oladipo, at the 3rd DAAR 

Awards in Abuja, Saturday. 

What I'll do in my second term — Buhari 

By Emmanuel 

Elebeke 

ABUJA— President 

Muhammadu Buhari 

has said his administration, 

if re-elected into office for 

second term, will build on 

the momentum of his 

present achievements. 

President Buhari stated 

this, yesterday, in his 

opening speech atThe 

Testimonies of Change 

organised by Ministry of 

Information and Culture to 

showcase the 

achievements of ‘the 

Buhari administration’ at 

the Banquet Hall, State 

House, Abuja. 

President Buhari, who 

was represented by 

Minister of Budget and 

National Planning, Sen. 

Udoma Udo Udoma, said 

he was overwhelmed by 

the testimonies of Nigerians 

from across the country who 

benefited directly from his 

economic policies and 

promised that in his second 

term, he would double the 

efforts. 

He also pledged that his 

administration would 

continue to implement 

policies and programmes 

that will impact more on the 

lives of common Nigerians. 

He said: “What I have just 

witnessed is a clear 

testimony that this 

administration has indeed 

impacted on the people of 

this country. Hearing 

directly from Nigerians 

lends credibility to the 

impact of our policies and 

programmes. 

“I, therefore, wish to 

congratulate the testifiers 

and tell them to continue 

to spread the good news. 

This administration will 

continue to implement 

programmes that will 

benefit the largest number 

of our country men and 

women." 

Earlier in his opening 

speech, Minister of 

Information and Culture, 

Lai Mohammed, said the 

event, tagged, The 

Testimonies of Change, was 

designed to showcase, in a 

unique way, the 

achievements of the Buhari 

administration. 

According to him, the 

programme is considered 

as a better way of telling the 

story of Buhari’s 

administration and lend 

credence to the ongoing 

radio and television 

broadcasts in order to get 

the message across to 

Nigerians. 

Oil price hits $62.70, $2.70 in excess of 

budget benchmark 

By Udeme 

Akpan 

FOR the first time in 2019, 

the price of oil has risen 

from $60.00 to $62.70 per 

barrel as Organisation of 

Petroleum Exporting 

Countries, OPEC, 

intensifies efforts to 

withdraw excess oil from the 

volatile market. 

Specifically, the prices of 

Brent, West Texas 

Intermediate, WTI and 

OPEC basket stood at 

$62.70, $53.80 and $59.63 

respectively. 

At the current price, 

Nigeria generates $2.70 in 

excess of its $60.00 per barrel 

2019 budget reference price. 

In its latest report, OPEC 

stated that stability was 

gradually returning to the 

market, which witnessed 

price drop from $85.00 in 

October to $50.00 in 

December 2018, especially 

Why we must borrow to 

finance economy 

— Finance Minister 

By Emeka 

Anaeto, Business 

Editor 

THE Federal Government 

has indicated that its 

budgets require extensive 

deficit funding through 

borrowings to spend its way 

out of recession. 

The government also 

indicated that the streak of 

borrowings would continue 

in the short-to-medium term. 

Nigeria’s total debt stood 

at about N22.4 trillion as at 

last year and the Federal 

Government’s 2019 budget 

plans to borrow additional 

N2.1 trillion to finance its 

budget deficit during the 

fiscal year. 

Finance Minister, Mrs 

Zainab Ahmed, who gave 

these indications in Lagos, 

last weekend, acknowledged 

that debt profile of the 

country and the continued 

borrowings are of concern to 

many Nigerians, explaining 

that the measures were 

integral part of Economic 

Recovery and Growth Plan, 

ERGP, designed by the 

as the Joint Ministerial 

Monitoring Committee, 

JMMC, was working to 

achieve the mission. 

It stated: “The Joint 

Ministerial Monitoring 

Committee, JMMC, has 

expressed its utmost 

satisfaction with the steady 

and robust achievements of 

the two-year old 

‘Declaration of 

Cooperation’ between 

OPEC and participating 

non-OPEC oil producing 

countries." 

current government to pull 

the economy out of recession 

and put it on the part of 

sustained growth. 

She stated: “We knew that 

revenues were short and were 

going to be short in the shortto-medium 

term, and we 

determined that if we allow 

our country to stay too long 

in the recession we will slip 

into depression and that is 

not a picture that anybody 

should contemplate for an 

economy the size of Nigeria. 

“So, we said we must 

spend our way out of this 

unfortunate occurrence, and 

the only option we have was 

to borrow and when we 

borrow, the borrowing was 

designed specifically to be 

spent for major infrastructure 

projects and other capital 

projects.” 

However, mindful of the 

debt concern, Ahmed said: 

“Debt Management Office 

has designed a debt 

management strategy, which 

was meant to reduce the debt 

service ratio which is the 

major concern that we have 

now.” 

Refinery: FG’ll source forex 

from Dangote —Emefiele 

LAGOS—THE Federal 

Government will soon 

start sourcing foreign 

exchange (forex) from 

Dangote Group, as soon 

as the latter’s refinery, 

petrochemicals and 

fertiliser projects come on 

stream. 

This potential reversal of 

roles was disclosed by 

Governor of Central Bank 

of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. 

Godwin Emefiele, after he 

spent over four hours 

touring the ongoing 

Dangote Refinery, 

Petrochemicals, Fertiliser 

projects and Dangote 

deep-water jetty in Lagos, 

weekend. 

Emefiele toured the 

project sites in the 

company of the President/ 

CE of the Dangote Group, 

Aliko Dangote; Deputy 

Governor of the CBN, 

Aishah Ahmad; Group 

Managing 

Dangote 

Director, 

Industries 

Limited, Mr. Olakunle 

Alake; Group Executive 

Director of Dangote 

Industries, Mr. Devakumar 

Edwin; and the Managing 

Director of Guaranty Trust 

Bank, Mr. Segun Agbaje. 

The CBN governor 

premised his comment on 

the huge forex earnings 

expected to accrue from 

export of the petrochemical 

and fertiliser products from 

Dangote refinery and 

fertilizer plants by the time 

the fertilizer plant begins 

operations in May this 

year, and the refinery in 

2020. 

Emefiele, who 

commended Aliko Dangote 

for the volume of work 

done on the projects since 

his last visit over two years 

ago, also enthused that the 

refinery and fertiliser 

projects would help Nigeria 

create thousands of jobs 

and check importation of 

fuel by the Federal 

Government; thereby 

saving government huge 

forex currently being spent 

on fuel import. 

In his remarks, President, 

Dangote Group, Aliko 

Dangote, said the project 

would definitely transform 

the economy. 

He said: “We have a 

couple of projects at hand 

and we will continue with 

these transformative 

projects. The biggest 

problem we have in 

Nigeria is that we currently 

import more than we 

produce like any other 

African countries."

VANGUARD, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019—9 

DINNER: From left, Executive Director, Chris Ezeafulukwe; President/CEO,Valentine 

Ozigbo; Managing Director/CEO, Owen Omogiafo, and Chairman, Emmanuel Nnorom, all 

of Transcorp Hotels Plc, during the farewell dinner for immediate MD/CEO of the hotel, 

Ozigbo, and welcome party for Omogiafo, the new MD/CEO in Abuja, weekend. 

CCT trial: Fresh suit seeks to stop 

EFCC, DSS, Police from arresting CJN 

By Ikechukwu 

Nnochiri 

A BUJA—AMID 

alleged plot to arrest 

the embattled Chief Justice of 

Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter 

Onnoghen, a fresh suit has 

been lodged before the 

Federal High Court in Abuja, 

seeking to restrain all the 

security agencies in the 

country from arresting him. 

The Coalition of United 

Political Parties, CUPP, had last 

Friday, said it uncovered 

plans by the Federal 

Government to secure a 

bench warrant from the Code 

of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, 

against the CJN who has a 

six-count criminal charge 

pending against him before 

the tribunal. 

The CJN, who was accused 

of failing to declare his assets, 

as well as maintaining a 

domiciliary bank account, 

had last Monday, declined to 

appear before the tribunal 

which he argued lacked 

jurisdiction to try him. 

Briefing newsmen, CUPP 

insisted that the bench 

warrant would enable the 

Federal Government to arrest 

Onnoghen to pave way for 

the appointment of Justice 

Tanko Muhammed who is 

the next most senior jurist on 

the Supreme Court bench. 

“The plan on Tuesday to get 

Danladi Umar to issue a 

bench warrant against the 

CJN; the plan on Tuesday to 

get the Acting IGP to arrest 

the CJN and the plan on 

Tuesday to forcibly arraign 

the CJN, are solely aimed at 

forcing the CJN out of office, 

thus paving the way for a 

well-known pro-Buhari 

judge, Justice Tanko 

Mohammed, who is the 

deputy chairman of the NJC, 

to take over and do all their 

bidding,” the group alleged. 

However, the Presidency 

had since debunked the 

allegation as fake news, with 

the media adviser to the 

President, Mr. Femi Adesina, 

saying the story is absolutely 

false as the Presidency is not 

in any way involved in 

plotting against or framing 

anybody. 

He said: “While the Buhari 

administration is firmly 

committed to the fight against 

corruption, we want to assure 

the general public that 

government will always 

pursue its mission with the 

highest standards of fairness, 

and in strict conformity with 

the relevant laws.’’ 

Meanwhile, in the fresh suit 

marked FHC/ABJ/CS/42/ 

2019, a constitutional lawyer, 

Mr. Johnmary Jideobi, has 

asked the high court to 

restrain Economic and 

Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC; 

Department of State Service, 

DSS, and Nigeria Police Force 

from moving against the 

CJN, pending the 

determination of all the legal 

issues surrounding his 

planned trial. 

Also joined as the 1st to 5th 

defendants in the case are 

Attorney-General of the 

Federation, Mr. Abubakar 

Malami, SAN; Code of 

Conduct Bureau; Chairman 

of CCT (Danladi Umar), the 

CJN himself and the National 

Judicial Council, NJC. 

...as SANs urge respect for rule of law 

By Henry Ojelu 

BODY of Senior 

Advocates of Nigeria, 

BOSAN, has urged all 

parties in the trial of Chief 

Justice of Nigeria, CJN, 

Justice Walter Onnoghen, 

to respect the rule of law. 

The body stated this in a 

communique issued after 

its emergency meeting at 

the conference room of 

Nigerian Law School in 

Lagos, weekend. 

In the communique 

signed by Professor Ben 

Nwabueze, SAN and Seyi 

Sowemimo, SAN, the body 

urged all parties in the suit 

to consider the impact of 

their respective actions on 

the administration of justice 

in Nigeria and public 

confidence in the nation’s 

institutions. 

The communique read: 

“The Body of Senior 

Advocates of Nigeria, 

BOSAN, deplores the 

situation that has arisen 

from the preferment of 

charges against the Chief 

Justice of Nigeria, CJN, 

and head of Nigerian 

Judiciary before the Code 

of Conduct Tribunal, CCT. 

“The Body urges respect 

for the Constitution, the 

rule of law, separation of 

powers, due process and 

proper administration of 

justice. 

“In the prevailing 

circumstances, all parties 

are urged to consider the 

impact of their respective 

actions on the 

administration of justice in 

Nigeria and public 

confidence in our 

institutions. 

“The Body recognises 

that the matter is subjudice 

(before the CCT and other 

courts) and it is, therefore, 

not appropriate to comment 

on the merits or otherwise 

of any of the cases. 

“The Body considers that 

these issues must be 

resolved carefully and 

responsibly in the interest 

of the legal profession and 

the nation. 

“The Body of Senior 

Advocates of Nigeria 

continues to endorse the 

core values of good 

governance, public integrity 

and sustenance of 

democracy in the spirit of 

the constitution.” 

Rann bombing: Falana accuses NAF of coverup, 

demands compensation for victims 

HUMAN 

rights 

lawyer, Femi Falana, 

has called on National 

Human Rights Commission, 

NHRC, to compensate 

victims of the accidental 

bombing in Rann, Borno 

State. 

At least 120 people were 

wounded and 52 killed in 

January 2017 when a 

Nigerian Air Force jet 

accidentally bombed an 

internally displaced persons, 

IDPs, camp in the town. 

In a letter dated January 

17, 2019, addressed to the 

executive secretary of the 

commission, Falana called 

for further investigation, 

accusing the air force of 

trying to cover up the 

humanitarian disaster. 

The letter read: “Instead of 

reporting the tragic incident 

to the Accident Investigation 

Bureau, AIB, which is 

saddled with the 

responsibility of 

investigating aircraft 

accidents in Nigeria, the 

authorities of the Nigerian 

Air Force decided suo motu 

to investigate the immediate 

and remote causes of the 

bombing of the IDPs camp. 

"Although the report of the 

inquiry was not made public, 

the Nigerian Air Force 

blamed the bombing of the 

camp on an accident. 

"Apart from expressing its 

deepest regrets to all 

concerned, the NAF 

promised that all necessary 

measures would be taken to 

Polls: INEC plotting to recruit 

N-Power beneficiaries as 

ad-hoc staff, CUPP alleges 

•We aren’t recruiting N-Power 

beneficiaries— INEC 

By Omeiza Ajayi 

& Joseph Erunke 

A BUJA—COALITION 

of United Political 

Parties,CUPP, has alleged 

that there were plans by 



INEC, to adopt beneficiaries 

of the Federal Government’s 

N-Power programme as adhoc 

staff in next month’s 

general election. 

CUPP in a statement, 

yesterday, by its First national 

spokesperson, Ikenga 

Ugochinyere, said already, 

the commission had begun 

recruitment of the Federal 

Government’s N-Power 

beneficiaries as ad-hoc staff 

for the election, and called on 


Buhari to call the electoral 

umpire to order immediately. 

The statement read in part: 

“The President wants to use 

the beneficiaries of their failed 

N-Power programme to 

technically rig the election. 

‘’The INEC chairman 

should ensure the credibility, 

which he promised 

Nigerians by making sure 

that no N-Power beneficiary 

prevent a recurrence of the 

unfortunate incident. 

‘’However, the tragic 

incident cannot be blamed 

on failure to mark the camp 

in an area that is fully 

controlled by the army." 

He said having confirmed 

that the air force pilots were 

aware of the IDPs camp at 

Rann, the failure to mark it 

cannot explain the 

negligence of the pilots 

involved in the bombing 

incident. 

“Regrettably, the cry of 

the council chairman, Mr. 

Malarima, for payment of 

compensation to the 

families of the deceased, as 

well as the injured ones 

has fallen on deaf ears," he 

said. 

is recruited as ad-hoc staff in 

the election, because it’s clear 

that these so-called 

beneficiaries are going to be 

used by President Buhari 

and his APC cohorts to rig the 

elections. 

’ 

We aren’t recruiting 

N-Power 

beneficiaries 

— INEC 

Reacting to the allegation 

last night, INEC dismissed 

the allegations, saying it took 

exceptions to them. 

The commission’s director 

in charge of Voter Education, 

Publicity, Gender and Civil 

Society Liaison, Mr Oluwole 

Osaze-Uzi, told Vanguard 

that the electoral umpire was 

recruiting members of 

National Youth Service 

Corps, NYSC as its ad hoc 

staff and not N-Power 

beneficiaries. 

He said: “There is a portal 

that has been opened for 

recruitment of ad-hoc staff. 

Nigerians are applying and 

we do not know who are N- 

Power beneficiaries. Most 

importantly, we are recruiting 

NYSC members." 

NNPC mulls collaboration to 

end cross-border fuel 

smuggling 

By Michael 

Eboh 

NIGERIAN National 

Petroleum 

Corporation, NNPC, 

yesterday, called for 

increased collaboration 

with members of African 

Union of Transportation 

and Logistics 

Organisation to address 

the rising incidents of 

cross-border leakages of 

petroleum products. 

Receiving the 

delegation of the group 

led by the president, 

Mustapha Chaeun, in his 

office in Abuja weekend, 

Group Managing 

Director of the 

corporation, Mr. Maikanti 

Baru, said smuggling of 

petroleum products 

remained a blight in the 

nation’s fuel supply and 

distribution matrix. 

Baru noted that the 

collaboration would not only 

help to stop the menace but 

also help rid the West 

African corridor of other 

vices that are associated 

with the illicit fuel 

smuggling business. 

Baru also charged the 

regional transportation 

union to ensure that its 

members complied with 

extant laws and regulations 

on speed limits, axial 

weight of haulage tankers 

and other sundry 

regulations necessary to 

ensure safety of high ways 

across the African terrain. 

Also speaking, Chaeun 

pledged the readiness of its 

members to comply with 

extant laws and regulations 

in countries where they 

operate.

10 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

Look beyond 2019, 

Bakare tells Buhari, 

Atiku, others 

By Gabriel Olawale 

L AGOS—SENIOR 

Pastor of the Latter 

Rain Assembly, Pastor 

Tunde Bakare, yesterday, 

urged presidential 

candidates to look beyond 

the 2019 elections and place 

the interest of the nation 

above their political 

interests. 

Speaking during a state 

of the nation broadcast 

tagged The Prophetic 

Portrait of Nigeria in Her 

Later Days, Bakare also 

called for the creation of 

Presidential Commission 

on national reconciliation 

which will work towards 

restructuring a united 

Nigeria. 

His words: “Our country 

needs a uniting force that 

can rally our diverse 

strengths around a common 

narrative, towards a 

common objective, to 

achieve a common vision – 

London Stock Exchange selects 

LADOL as Company to Inspire 

in 2019 

By Dapo Akinrefon 

LAGOS — THE 

London Stock 

Exchange, LSE, has 

selected the Lagos Deep 

Offshore Logistic Base, 

LADOL, as one of the 

companies to inspire Africa 

in 2019. The report by the 

LSE, launched during the 

week at the opening of the 

market in London at the 

LSE, aims to give 

companies global 

recognition and attract 

foreign investment into the 

continent. 

Commenting on the 2019 

report, LSE CEO, David 

Schwimmer said: “London 

Stock Exchange Group’s 

‘Companies to Inspire 

Africa’ report showcases 

inspirational and 

entrepreneurial businesses 

from across the African 

continent, representing a 

wide variety of industries 

and countries. It is 

SANNI 

I, formerly known as Miss 

Mary Onayi Sanni, now 

wish to be known as Mrs 

Mary Onayi Eserewan. All 

former documents remain 

valid. General public 

please take note. 

OTU 


Idongesit John Otu, now 

wish to be addressed as 

Mrs Idongesit Joe Ufia. All 

documents remain valid. 

General public please take 

note. 

The Nigeria of Our Dreams. 

“After all is said and done, 

may Nigeria win, no matter 

who wins or loses in this 

year’s elections. After the 

elections, we have a nation 

to build together. I am 

reminded of the words of 

Anwar al-Sadat, ‘There can 

be hope only for a society 

which acts as one big family, 

not as many separate ones. 

"With our zero-sum game 

and winner-takes-all 

politics, we could be losing 

the ideas, the brilliance, and 

all the strengths required to 

build a nation. 

“But when, beyond the 

elections, the Buharis, the 

Atikus, the Moghalus, the 

Ezekwesilis, the Durotoyes, 

the Sowores and the likes 

come together to minimise 

our weaknesses and 

maximise our strengths, as 

one political family, with one 

agenda – nationhood, we 

can shape a new nation 

beyond 2019.” 

particularly encouraging to 

see the increasing influence 

of women in leadership 

roles in these fast-growing 

companies, playing a 

pivotal role in shaping the 

future of African business. 

Mr. Schwimmer added 

that: “These high growth 

companies have the 

potential to transform the 

African economy and 

become tomorrow’s job 

creators. At LSEG, we are 

committed to helping 

companies realise that 

potential and we are 

pleased to highlight and 

celebrate the company 

success stories behind one 

of the world’s fastest 

growing markets.” 

Reacting to the 

development, Managing 

Director of LADOL, Dr. Amy 

Jadesimi said: “LADOL 

is honoured to be included 

in London Stock 

Exchange’s, LSE, list of 

Companies to Inspire 

Africa. We thank the entire 

LSE team for all their hard 

work in compiling the 

report and the launch, at 

which I was proud to be 

invited to speak. 

“LSE’s high-profile focus 

on real indigenous private 

sector companies across the 

African continent is an 

important step in 

highlighting the fact that 

Africa is already home to a 

thriving and growing 

number of leading 

companies. The broad 

range of companies 

represented show how 

shallow investment 

understanding of our 

currently markets is and 

how many opportunities 

there are for investment 

today. We look forward to 

Atiku’s US trip desperate photo-ops 

— APC 

By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru & Dirisu 

Yakubu 

ABUJA — THE All 

Progressives 

Congress, APC, Presidential 

Campaign and the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, were, 

yesterday, locked in a war 

of words over the recent visit 

of the PDP presidential 

candidate, Atiku Abubakar, 

to the United States of 

America. 

While the APC described 

Atiku’s visit as a desperate 

trip for mere photo-ops, the 

PDP Presidential Campaign 

Organization, PPCO, 

described President 

Muhammadu Buhari’s 

fixation on the trip as 

defeatist and smacks of a 

pre-defeat hallucination. 

On his part, Director, 

Strategic Communications, 

APC Presidential Campaign 

Council, Festus Keyamo, 

said in Abuja that the former 

Vice President’s visit to the 

US was nothing but a 

downright catastrophe. 

It was a desperate trip for 

photo-ops — Keyamo 

Keyamo said: “It is very 

obvious now that the socalled 

American trip was a 

desperate trip for photo-ops. 

Throughout the trip, Atiku 

Abubakar looked cagey, 

frightened and on edge. 

“We note the close support 

always provided by Senate 

President, Bukola Saraki, 

like a comforting guardian 

angel. The visit and 

arrangements smack of 

things local yahoo yahoo 

boys do to scam their victims. 

It is utterly disgusting and 

puerile that it has been 

brought into a serious 

political contest. 

“Rather than being the 

highpoint of his campaign, 

the American visit is, 

indeed, the lowest 

watermark of Atiku 

Abubakar’s campaign. It 

was a political and P.R 

disaster. 

“The statements he 

released from there only to 

the Nigerian press back 

home that he intends to 

alienate other countries and 

•Your fixation on Atiku’s US visit defeatist — PDP 

do business with the U.S is 

actually the antithesis to our 

policy of non-alignment. 

“For the information of 

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and 

his handlers, Nigerians 

know that Nigeria is already 

working again for everyone 

and not for a few. As 

confirmed by him in a townhall 

meeting a few days 

before his disastrous trip to 

the U.S, he said he wants 

to “get Nigeria working 

again” only for a few of his 

friends who he claims he 

wants to make rich. 

“If he cannot get them rich 

now from his private 

businesses, it is obvious that 

he is referring to the use of 

public funds to make his 

friends rich. Nigerians 

should judge for 

themselves whether this is 

the type of President they 

want. 

“Finally, whoever advised 

Atiku Abubakar to 

undertake that trip to 

America just destroyed his 

entire campaign and 

exposed him for who he is 

– a questionable character 

who has continued to leave 

huge questions over his 

suitability for the highest 

office of the land and as 

such cannot be trusted by 

the Nigerian people.” 

Hide your face in shame 

— PDP 

Responding to the salvo 

from the APC, the PPCO, 

in a statement by its 

Director, Media and 

Publicity, Kola 

Ologbondiyan, tasked the 

Buhari-led Presidency to 

hide its face in shame, 

saying after spending 

billions of naira in 

propaganda to stop the trip, 

Atiku Abubakar freely 

traveled to the United 

States. 

The statement read: 

“President Buhari and the 

APC were so disturbed 

about Atiku Abubakar’s 

acceptance by the 


that they wasted billions of 

naira from the coffers of the 

Niger Delta Development 

TRADERMONI: Vice 

President Yemi Osinbajo 

and Governor Godwin 

Obaseki of Edo State 

acknowledging the cheers 

of traders during the 

inauguration of Trader- 

Moni at Oba and Ekiosa 

Markets in Benin, Edo 

State... on Saturday. 

Commission, NDDC, to 

organize a failed protest in 

the United States. 

“When that failed, they 

attempted to use the 

Minister of Information, 

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to 

threaten and level spurious 

allegations against Atiku 

Abubakar, which also came 

to naught, as the entire 

world saw through the 

fabrications. 

“Today, Atiku Abubakar 

has a global support, unlike 

President Buhari, who, as 

a pariah President, has no 

friends all over the world. 

This is the reason President 

Buhari has gone into frenzy 

over Atiku Abubakar’s 

global acceptance. 

“The PPCO notes that 

President Buhari’s failure in 

all his plots against Atiku 

Abubakar signposts his 

eventual failure before Atiku 

at the February 16, 2019 

Presidential election, as 

Nigerians have since 

reached a consensus to 

vote him in as their next 

President.'' 

Lagos Assembly may receive 2019 budget today 

By Olasunkanmi 

Akoni 

L AGOS—BARRING 

any last minute 

change, members of the 

Lagos State House of 

Assembly may officially 

receive the 2019 

Appropriation Bill from 

Governor Akinwunmi 

A m b o d e - l e d 

Executive today during 

the plenary session. 

There has been a dingdong 

affair between the 

governor and members of 

the assembly over the 

process of presentation of 

the 2019 budget. 

Commissioner for Budget 

and Economic Planning, 

Mr. Olusegun Banjo, had 

absolved the executive 

from the delay, saying the 

2019 Budget was already 

before the State House of 

Assembly and was 

intended to be read before 

the house on December 24, 

2018. 

Vanguard learned that 

there are some unresolved 

issues between the 

lawmakers and Governor 

Ambode, which has been 

the crux of the matter. 

However, at press 

time, Vanguard learned 

that Ambode has reached 

a truce with the lawmakers 

over the presentation of 

2019 budget. 

Current political model stifling devt in Kwara 

— APC gov candidate 

By Monsuru 

Olowoopejo 

L 

A G O S — 

GOVERNORSHIP 

candidate of the All 

Progressives Congress, 

APC, in Kwara State, 

AbdulRahman 

AbdulRazaq, yesterday, 

stressed that the current 

political model in the state 

has stifled development and 

deliberately impoverished 

residents of the state. 

He also alleged that 

persistent infrastructural 

decay in the State has 

forced monarchs to relocate 

elsewhere from their 

palace. 

AbdulRazaq also 

disclosed that his 

administration would 

device means to reduce the 

state dependence on 

federal government 

monthly allocation. 

The APC governorship 

candidate said this at a 

conference organised by 

indigenes of the state in 

Lagos held at Teslim 

Balogun Stadium in 

Surulele.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 — 11 

Pay N50bn revitalisation fund to 

end strike, ASUU tells FG 

By Ola Ajayi 

IBADAN—AS 

the 

face-off between the 

Academic Staff Union of 

Universities, ASUU and the 

Federal Government 

continues, the union, 

yesterday, asked the 

Federal Government to 

provide concrete evidence 

of the payment of at least 

N50 billion revitalisation 

fund to end the strike. 

Though, other demands 

of the union, are still 

pending, the union said the 

proof of the payment could 

set the tone for the 

suspension of the strike. 

Speaking through its 

President, Professor 

Biodun Ogunyemi in 

Ibadan at the weekend, the 

union said the Federal 

Government had made 

mockery of promises by 

not fulfilling them noting 

that what the members of 

the academic union want at 

the moment is 

implementation. 

Ogunyemi said: “We want 

them to pay immediately 

N50 billion as a sign of 

commitment this quarter 

and for the next three 

quarters government can 

pay N50 billion in each 

quarter. So our members 

have rejected the 20billion 

proposed by them that will 

be spread over two quarters 

in 2019. Our members 

have insisted on the release 

of at least N50billion. 

“In relation to earned 

academic allowances which 

they have an outstanding 

N105billion our members 

are saying that even if you 

(Government) are 

releasing N20billion let it 

be stated clearly that it is 

only for ASUU members 

and the balance which you 

promised to pay in four 

installments, attach 

timelines to the balance 

and figures. 

“In 2017, this government 

promised to mainstream 

the earned academic 

allowances into the budget 

so that we won’t be coming 

to talk about arrears. 

“If government had put 

that into the 2018 budget, 

we would not be talking 

about arrears now. Our 

members are saying 

government should take 

steps to mainstream it into 

the 2019 budget and that is 

not late because they 

(National assembly and 

executive) are still working 

on the budget.” 

He reasoned that if ASUU 

had been docile, the 

university system would 

have been destroyed like 

the public primary and 

secondary schools. 

Prof Ogunyemi said: 

“Those peddling the 

falsehood are the same 

ruling class. They have 

forgotten that we lecturers 

also have our children in 

public universities. They 

want to weaken the public 

university education so that 

children of the poor will 

continue to suffer. We will 

not allow them to mess up 

the university education.” 

FOR ABRAHAM ADESANYA: From left; Former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; Ooni of 

Ife, oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo at the Annual Thanksgiving and 

Memorial service organised by the former governor at Abraham's Tabernacle. 

How our mother died — Jimoh 

Ibrahim’s brother 

•As Atiku group condoles with Ibrahim 

By Charles Kumolu 

& Dayo Johnson 

L 

A G O S — 

CONTRARY to 

reports stating that the 

mother of business mogul, 

Chief Jimoh Ibrahim died 

in a mysterious fire incident 

in Lagos, the last child of 

the deceased, Mr. Dipo 

Jimoh, has said that the 

deceased died of 

complications. 

Jimoh, who is the 

Chairman of Barama 

Energy Resources, in a 

statement made available to 

Vanguard yesterday, said 

the details of Mrs. Theresa 

Jimoh’s death would be 

made public soon. 

The statement entitled: 

Counter News, reads: “In 

Respect of Mrs. Theresa 

Omofemiwa Jimoh’s death, 

Dipo Jimoh (last child and 

the closest son of the late 

Mrs. Theresa Jimoh), who 

is the MD/CEO of Barama 

Energy Resources debunks 

reports that the deceased 

died as a result of candle 

fire. I also debunk reports 

that her remains were 

deposited in the morgue by 

Lagos State Emergency 

Management Agency. I 

promise to face any heavy 

weight individual or group 

who plans to misinterpret or 

confuse the populace about 

the root cause of my 

mother’s death. My mother 

died as a result of family 

complications and 

mismanagement.” 

Atiku group 

Meanwhile, the Atiku/Obi 

Campaign Organisation in 

Ondo State in a statement 

by its Director-General of 

the chapter, Eyitayo Jegede 

(SAN), lamented the 

departure of Barrister 

Ibrahim’s septuagenarian 

mother under such a 

circumstance, urging him 

to take solace in the fact 

that his aged mother 

lived a fulfilled life. 

2019 POLLS: Buhari, Atiku, 

others should scrap security 

votes, immunity — SERAP 

L ECONOMIC AGOS—SOCIO- 

Rights 

and Accountability Project, 

SERAP, yesterday, urged 

major presidential 

candidates for the February 

16 election to “publicly 

commit to revolutionary and 

innovative anti-corruption 

reforms in five key areas, 

and removal of immunity for 

presidents, vice-presidents, 

state governors and deputy 

state governors.” 

In a statement by 

SERAP’s Senior Legal 

Adviser, Bamisope 

Adeyanju, the organisation 

said: “Consistent with their 

right to participate in their 

own government, Nigerian 

voters deserve a substantive 

debate during the campaign 

about issues that affect 

them, particularly with 

respect to combating 

corruption. 

''Now is the time to make 

commitment for specific 

reforms that will strengthen 

Nigeria’s anti-corruption 

record and standing in 

global ranking. Set forth 

below are 5 main anticorruption 

priorities that 

candidates should 

address. Please let us 

know which positions you 

will support.” 

The statement reads in 

part: “Candidates should 

commit to scrapping 

security votes spending by 

presidents and state 

governors by repealing the 

constitution to include 

specific prohibition of 

security votes. They should 

also commit to a 

comprehensive audit of 

spending on security votes 

by presidents and 

governors since the return 

of democracy in 1999 and 

directing their Attorney 

General and Minister of 

Justice to take legal action 

in the public interest to hold 

governments to account on 

spending on security votes. 

“Candidates should 

commit to repealing the 

Electric Power Sector Reform 

Act of 2005 to address 

regulatory lapses which 

have continued to lead to 

systemic corruption and 

impunity of perpetrators, 

forcing ordinary Nigerians 

to pay the price for 

corruption in the electricity 

sector —staying in 

darkness, but still made to 

pay crazy electricity bills.” 

Amnesty programme has 

re-integrated over 13, 000 

ex-agitators — DOKUBO 

By Dayo Johnson 

SPECIAL Adviser to 

the President on Niger 

Delta Affairs and 

Coordinator of the Amnesty 

Programme, Prof Charles 

Dokubo, yesterday, 

disclosed that the Amnesty 

Programme has 

reintegrated over 13,000 ex 

agitators fully back into the 

society since it started 11 

years ago. 

Prof. Dokubo said this at 

the inauguration of a 

vocational training centre 

built by the Presidential 

Amnesty Programme in 

Agadagba-Obon in Ese- 

Odo council area of Ondo 

State. 

No fewer than 100 exagitators 

are expected to be 

trained in five areas that are 

mostly related to oil and gas 

industry. 

Training Courses to be 

offered include 

Instrumentation and 

Control, Mechatronics, 

Electrical Power and 

Machine Operation, 

Drilling Technology and 

Process Technology. 

Dokubo said: “Many of 

the former agitators that 

had been integrated were 

already doing well in the 

society.'' 

My investiture confirmation of 

great achievements — AJIMOBI 

By Adeola Badru 

I 

B A D A N — 

GOVERNOR 

Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo 

State has said that his 

investiture by Vanguard 

Newspaper as 2018 

Governor of the Year was 

an icing on the cake, 

adding that his 

achievements in office 

was as a result of the 

support he received from 

people of the state. 

The governor stated 

this, weekend, in an 

interview with newsmen, 

after receiving Vanguard 

2018 Governor of the Year, 

held at the Convention 

Centre of Eko Hotel and 

Suites, Victoria Island, 

Lagos. 

He said: “I feel very 

fulfilled; you know as at 

now, between you and I, I 

have 130 days and 2 hours 

as the governor of Oyo 

State. 

“What we have done 

today, the honour bestowed 

on me is the icing on the 

cake. It is a confirmation of 

our great achievements to 

the grace of God and the 

people of Oyo State we 

dedicate this award, 

because they made me to 

succeed and God will 

continue to bless all of 

them and all of you too.”


LAUNCH OF FAMILYLINES MAGAZINE IN LAGOS 

From left—Mrs. Rita Amuka; Pastor Chuks Nduka, Editor-in-Chief and 

Publisher, Familylines Magazine; his wife Patience; Pastor Frank Daria, Sure 

Word Assembly; and Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, Senior Pastor of Trinity House 

and Chairman of the occasion, during the Familylines Magazine Appreciation 

Dinner and Media Presentation, at Virginrose Resorts, Victoria Island, Lagos, 

Weekend. Photo: Bunmi Azeez. 

From left—Bethel Omeife, Nduka Omeife, Patience Nduka and 

Daniel Nduka. 

From left— 

Desola 

Ilechukwu; 

Mr. Emeka 

Ilechukwu; 

Mr. Paul 

Uchenna; 

and his 

wife. 

AGITATORS TO BUHARI, APC: We want voters' 

cards, not guns in N’Delta 

...caution Buhari against arrest, replacement of Onnoghen 

By Emma Amaize, 

South-South Editor 

Y ENAGOA—A 

coalition of Niger 

Delta campaigners, 21st 

Century Youths of Niger 

Delta and Agitators with 

Conscience, yesterday, 

cautioned President 

Muhammadu Buhari and 

the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, to let the 

Permanent Voter’s Cards, 

PVCs, not gun count in 

next month’s election in the 

oil region, otherwise the 

consequences will be very 

terrible for the nation to 

stomach. 

The group also asked the 

President to be wary of his 

alleged impending plot to 

take into custody and 

replace the Chief Justice of 

Nigeria, CJN, Walter 

Onnoghen. 

Leader of the group, selfstyled 

“General” Izon Ebi, 

in a statement, warned that 

militants would not only 

“stop the flow of oil but cut 

all the pipes beyond repair 

if the conditions were 

breached. 

“We, therefore, want to 

summarise that the people 

of the Niger Delta want a 

peaceful election where 

their voter’s cards will 

speak for them, not guns. 

“We conclude by 

sounding it loud that the 

CJN cannot be unlawfully 

removed from office and no 

amount of militarisation or 

intimidation will cow the 

Niger Delta people into 

submission and allow 

injustice to be meted out on 

our distinguished leaders 

and personalities anymore. 

“The current alarm raised 

by the Coalition of United 

Political Parties CUPP of an 

impending plot to arrest the 

CJN and replace him with 

a northerner is a very 

serious matter that the 

consequences will be so 

grievous for the Nigerian 

nation to bear. 

“The 21st Century Youths 

Bassey predicts victory for PDP in C-River 

By Emma Una 

C S ALABAR— 

E N A T O R 

Gershom Bassey, the 

Senator representing the 

Southern senatorial district 

of Cross River State, has 

predicted victory for the 

People’s Democratic Party, 

PDP, in all elections in the 

state. 

Senator Bassey who 

spoke weekend during the 

flag off of campaign by the 

member representing 

Akpabuyo/Bakassi/Calabar 

South in the House of 

Representatives, Essien Ayi 

said the PDP has statewide 

acceptance and as a 

traditional PDP stronghold, 

it will be an easy ride for 

the party in the state. 

“Many of you know that 

there is just one political 

party in Nigeria and that 

party is the PDP. That is 

the party in Cross River 

State, Central senatorial 

district and for every local 

government area and for 

everyone. 

“How many of you know 

that the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, 

government is taking 

Justice Walter Onnoghen 

who is from this state and 

the Central senatorial 

district to court and it is only 

the PDP that had spoken 

up for that man and if those 

other people who say they 

want to represent you 

cannot speak for 

From left—Udonsah Elizabeth; Elisha Udoh; and Allen Gideon. 

of the Niger Delta and 

Agitators with 

Conscience cannot 

comprehend the 

philosophy that makes 

us inferior and secondclass 

citizens in the 

abundance of our Godgiven 

resources in the 

Niger Delta, which 

sustain the Nigerian 

nation. 

“There is no amount of 

intimidation that will 

force the Niger Delta 

people to join or support 

the APC for sins to be 

forgiven. Government 

cannot force us to 

support it when it does 

not take responsibility for 

its actions." 

Onneghen who is the 

number four man in this 

country, will they speak 

for youon any other 

matter?” 

We’ll continue to campaign 

for Buhari —Tonye Cole 

By Davies 

Iheamnachor 

PORT HARCOURT— 

MR Tonye Cole has 

urged Rivers State people 

to remain steadfast in their 

support for the All 


APC, and its Presidential 

candidate, Muhammadu 

Buhari, adding that the 

party in the state will 

continue to campaign for 

him, until the court allows 

APC candidates in the state 

to campaign for 

themselves soon. 

Cole, in a statement by 

his Media Aide, Ogbonna 

Nwuke, maintained that 

the APC remained the only 

party Nigerians will vote 

for in the forthcoming 

election. 

He said that the APC in 

Rivers State has not been 

outlawed by the courts from 

campaigning for Buhari 

who has done well for the 

Nigerian people, saying: 

“What the courts have 

done is to place the 

NIFOR top staff risk jail over alleged contempt 

By Alemma 

Ozioruva 

BENIN CITY—SOME 

top staff of the Nigerian 

Institute for Oil Palm 

Research, NIFOR, 

including the Permanent 

Secretary, Ministry of 

Agriculture and Rural 

Development risk being 

committed to prison over 

alleged contempt of court 

by refusing to obey the 

Industrial Court, Akure 

Division ruling that Dr 

Aisuen Osasuyi is the 

Director/Chief Executive 

Officer of the country’s 

premier oil palm research 

institute. 

Vanguard gathered that 

a contempt proceeding 

initiated by Osasuyi, who 

is claimant in the suit had 

been served on four of 

NIFOR’s staff including 

Edward Ujeadughele, Dr 

Abdulrazak Muazu, Dr 

Celestine Ikuenobe and 

Mrs Josephine Sanni for 

their alleged continued 

refusal to obey the court 

aspirations of APC 

candidates in Rivers State 

on hold and we respect 

that. 

“As loyal party members 

who are waiting for the 

decision of the courts, we 

shall campaign for 

President Buhari and the 

APC at this time. When we 

do, we shall not be 

campaigning for Rivers 

candidates. 

“Our candidates know 

their day will come. We 

shall await judicial 

pronouncements on the 

matters before them. By the 

grace of God, justice will 

prevail.” 

He further disclosed that 

the wife of the President, 

Mrs Aisha Buhari would 

arrive the state for a women 

and youths rally, urging 

Rivers people and teeming 

members of the APC to turn 

out en masse to receive the 

wife of the President and 

wife of the Minister of 

Transportation, Dame 

Judith Amaechi. 

judgment delivered on 

December 13, 2018 by 

Justice Oyebola Oyewumi 

where he declared that the 

appointment of Osasuyi as 

head of NIFOR on 

November 9, 2017 by the 

Minister of Agriculture and 

Rural Development was 

“regular, valid and proper.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANIUARY 21, 2019—13


2018 VANGUARD PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR AWARD 

PHOTOS BY JOE AKINTOLA, PHOTO EDITOR, AKEEM SALAU, BUNMI AZEEZ, LAMIDI BAMIDELE & KEHINDE SHONOLA. 

From left: Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly; Chief 

and Mrs. Lawrence Osiegbu. 

Mr. Jimi Agbaje, PDP governrship candidate for Lagos State with 

Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, former Deputy Governor of Lagos State. 

Mr Billy Amuka and wife. 

Deacon Olude Grant with Benedicta Onwuemene. 

Mrs. Bunmi Sofola, Vanguard columnist (left) and Mrs. Stella Awani. 

From left: Engr. Ben Atseyinku; Lion Tony Adedoja and Prof 

Egerton Uvieghara. 

From left: Queen Otoka, Omas Temisan and Okejie Elfreda. 

Dancers entertaining guests. 

Guests at the event.

C 

M 

Y 

K 


VANGUARD PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2018 

Sir Adebutu Kessington and Aremo Olusegun 

Osoba,former Governor of Ogun State. 

Mr Sam Amuka, Publisher Vanguard Newspapers, presenting Vanguard Lifetime 

Achievement Award 2018 to Senator Kahirat AbdulRasak-Gwadebe received on 

behalf of Alh Abdul Ganiyu Abdulrazaq. With them is Chief Arthur Mbanefo, 

Chairman of the occassion at the Vanguard Personality of the Year Awards 2018 

held at Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, weekend. Photos: Joe Akintola, 

Photo Editor; Akeem Salau; Lamidi Bamidele; Bunmi Azeez; and Kehinde Shonuola. 

From left— 

Navy Capt 

(retd) Jerry 

Ogbona; 

R e a r 

Admiral Lon 

Iwwoha; 

R e a r 

Admiral F.D. 

A k p a n 

(retd) and 

his wife 

Victoria. 

From left—Chief Nike Akande, presenting Vanguard 

Banker of the Year Award to Mr Ebenezer Onyeagwu, 

Deputy Director, Zenith Bank, receiving the award on 

behalf of Mr Peter Amangbo, MD,Zenith Bank, while 

Mr Biodun Shobanjo, Chairman of the Troyka Holdings 

looks on. 

From left: Dr. Saleh Ibrahim, Hon. Ishaka Bawa, former Chief Whip, 

House of Reps; and Hon. Mani Katami, 

From left—Brig Gen. Emico Eruwa; Sir. Amorighoye Mene; and 

Chief Edward Ekpoko. 

From left—Prof. Bashir Garba, Hon. Yemi Arokodare, Engr. Bello 

Suleiman, former Minister of Power and Hon. Kabiru Marafa Achida, 

Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State and Senator 

Abiola Ajimobi, Governor of Oyo State.


EXPULSION: I’m still Imo APC leader, 

says Okorocha 

By Chinonso 

Alozie 

O 

W E R R I — 

GOVERNOR 

Rochas Okorocha of Imo 

State has said he is still the 

leader of the All 


APC, in the state. 

Okorocha, who spoke 

through his Chief Press 

Secretary, Sam 

Onwuemeodo, told 

newsmen in Owerri that 

he was reacting to a report 

by the Marcelenius 

Nlemigbo-led executive of 

the party in the state that 

recommended his 

expulsion from APC over 

alleged anti-party activities. 

Okorocha said he would 

not be disturbed by the call 

for his expulsion, for being 

loyal to Dan Nwafor-led 

executive of the party in the 

state. 

The governor cited some 

court rulings in his favour, 

among which is “ruling by 

Hon. Justice O.A. Musa of 

the High Court of the 

Federal Capital Territory 

Bwari Abuja, delivered on 

August 14, 2018.” 


statement, “Contrary to 

what has been read in some 

sections of the media, the 

Imo State Chapter of All 


APC, never at any time 

suspended or expelled its 

leader, Governor Rochas 

Okorocha from the party 

and has never 

contemplated doing that 

and won’t have any reason 

to think about that. 

“There is also no faction 

in Imo APC. There is only 

one APC in the state with 

Daniel Nwafor as the 

chairman and Owelle 

Rochas Okorocha as the 

leader. Any other group 

claiming to be a faction of 

Imo APC must obviously 

be a gang of 419ers or 

league of fraudsters who 

are experts in issuance of 

dud cheques and collecting 

billions for jobs not done.” 

Okorocha’s thinking was 

that, “the only contentious 

issue in Imo APC is that the 

national chairman of the 

party, Mr. Adams 

Oshiomhole imposed a 

known PDP member and a 

known character in the state 

on the party as its 

governorship candidate, 

and by so doing, pushed 

the party and its members 

to a very tight corner 

especially when it comes to 

the issue of marketing a 

candidate. 

“If Oshiomhole didn’t 

want the preferred 

candidate of members of 

the party in the state, 

Ugwumba Uche Nwosu 

for any reason, and if he 

actually meant well for Imo 

APC, he would have taken 

one of the guber aspirants 

that formed the coalition 

who are known members of 

the party, and who is also 

from Owerri zone since that 

was the reason some of 

them in the coalition 

claimed that made them to 

leave the government." 

THANKSGIVING: Catholic Bishop of Okigwe Diocese, Bishop Solomon Amanchukwu Amatu 

(middle), Gov Candidate of the APC in Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma (2nd right), his 

running mate, Prof. Placid Njoku and Parish Priest of Christ the King Catholic Church, Agbobu 

community, Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State, during the thanksgiving ceremony of 

Senator Uzodinma in Okigwe zone, yesterday. 

We've been vindicated by Buhari’s refusal to 

participate in debate —IPOB 

By Emeka Mamah 

E NUGU—THE 

Indigenous People of 

Biafra, IPOB, has said 


Buhari's refusal to 

participate in weekend’s 

presidential debate with 

other candidates has 

vindicated its claims that 

the President has been 

cloned. 

IPOB Leader, Nnamdi 

Kanu made this known in 

a radio broadcast to his 

members yesterday. 

Kanu also blamed South- 

East governors whom he 

described as “stooges” of 

the northern establishment 

for allegedly orchestrating 

the labelling of his group 

as a terrorist organisation 

by the Federal 

Government, saying that 

the invasion of Igbo land 

by soldiers on Operation 

Python Dance 11’informed 

IPOB’s decision to boycott 

the forthcoming general 

elections in the country. 

The speech read in part: 

“It has come to my attention 

that some people may have 

elected to misinterprete 

what I said regarding 

election boycott. The same 

way some Lagos-Ibadan 

gutter media attacked my 

expose on Jubril but today, 

everything I said about the 

impostor is unraveling one 

after the other. This news 

broke this evening 

(Saturday) that President 

Buhari will not participate 

In the presidential debate. 

“What does this tell you? 

It goes to confirm what I 

told all of you that Jubril will 

never participate in the 

presidential debate 

because he’s not Buhari. 

“This evening, I will offer 

clarifications to remove 

whatever ambiguity 

mischief makers may have 

introduced in their 

desperate attempt to 

dampen the spirit of our 

people. I must make it 

categorically clear that we 

IPOB are boycotting the 

forthcoming elections 

starting with the February 

16 presidential election. 

NOTAP prevented N240bn capital flight 

in 10 years, says DG 

By Chinedu 

Adonu 

E NUGU—NATIONAL 

Office for Technology 

Acquisition and Promotion, 

NOTAP, said it has saved 

the country over N240 

billion in the last 10 years 

by regulating the inflow of 

technology into the country 

through technology 

transfer agreement, efficient 

adaptation, assimilation 

and domestication of 

foreign technologies. 

The Director General of 

NOTAP, Dr. DanAzumi 

Mohammed Ibrahim made 

this statement in Enugu, 

while presenting the 

agency’s scorecard at the 

just concluded 2019 

Technology and Innovation 

Expo, tagged “Science, 

Technology and Innovation 

for Economic Recovery and 

Sustainable Development'. 

The DG further stated that 

the savings were achieved 

through NOTAP’s refusal 

to approve for importation, 

technologies and services 

that could be rendered by 

Nigerians. 

He said: “In the course of 

carrying out these onerous 

functions, the Office has 

saved the country over 

N240 billion that would 

have gone out of the 

country as capital flight. 

“Most time, when 

Nigerian entrepreneurs 

enter into technology 

transfer agreement with 

their foreign counterparts, 

the agreements are drafted 

in such a way that 

indigenous technologists/ 

service providers do not 

benefit. Rather, expatriates 

will be deployed to execute 

jobs that Nigerians are 

competent enough to 

handle." 

Obi calls for skills-based 

NYSC 

VICE Presidential 

candidate of the 


PDP, Mr. Peter Obi has 

called for the restructuring 

of the National Youth 

Service Corps, NYSC, to 

be in sync with global 

development, by turning 

to a skills acquisition 

programme. 

Obi made this call at the 

weekend, while 

speaking to over 1000 

NYSC members during 

their convention at 

Madonna Renewal 

Centre, Nkpor, Anambra 

State. 

Obi said the programme 

of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku 

revolved around 

restructuring, which, 

according to him, 

included looking at 

existing structures such as 

those of the NYSC and 

seeking ways to make it 

work better to serve the 

people of Nigeria more 

meaningfully. 

“I am aware the NYSC 

was formed in 1973 and 

we commend the wisdom 

that gave birth to it at that 

time. It was mainly set up 

to encourage nationbuilding 

and 

development as well as 

reconciliation and 

brotherhood among 

Nigerian youths. Fortyfive 

years after, the 

scheme is ripe for 

thorough appraisal as to 

make it more involving by 

deploying it as a platform 

through which young 

graduates will engage in 

skills acquisition, after 

which funding will be 

provided for them, based 

on chosen criteria, to 

start various trades”, Obi 

said. 

Obi took the opportunity 

to encourage Nigerian 

youths to love one another 

and the country and to 

shun negative tendencies 

that will be detrimental to 

the development of the 

country. 

Moghalu’s attack on Ezekwesili 

unwarranted —PACT 

By Innocent 

Anaba 

THE 

Presidential 

Aspirants Coming 

Together, PACT, has on 

behalf of Dr. Oby 

Ezekwesili demanded an 

apology from the 

Presidential candidate of 

the Young Progressive 

Party, YPP, Prof. Kingsley 

Moghalu over a recent 

statement in which he 

claimed not to be aware 

of how Ezekwesili came 

into the PACT’s picture. 

In a statement by Dr 

Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, 

Mathias Tsado, Fela 

Durotoye, Dr Favour 

Oluwamuyiwa, Dr 

Elishama Ideh, Dare 

Fagbemi, Victor Ani-Laju, 

Godstime Iroabuchi and 

Clement Jimbo, they 

maintained that it was 

expedient for them to put 

the record straight for the 

sake of posterity. 

“PACT was formed with 

just one aim, to get all new 

breed presidential 

aspirants to come 

together and present one 

consensus candidate, 

while others queue 

behind the fellow so that 

we can collectively wrestle 

power from the old 

brigades and restore our 

nation to a path of 

progress. 

“Right from the 

inception of PACT, all our 

meetings were moderated 

by Dr Ikubese, who was 

also a presidential 

aspirant and a member of 

PACT. 

Ararume promises to reposition 

education, health, agriculture 

O WERRI—IMO 

State Governorship 

candidate of All 

Progressive Grand 

Alliance, APGA, Senator 

Ifeany Ararume, has said 

that an APGA-led 

government, with him at 

the driver’s seat, will 

reposition education, 

health, collapsed 

infrastructure base, 

security, agriculture and 

industrialisation. 

He also warned that the 

present and future 

generations of Imo State 

will not forgive the good 

people if they remain 

passive and indifferent as 

Imo burns and their 

dreams for a virile state 

dashed on the altar of 

‘’incompetent, corrupt, 

fraudulent and visionless 

leadership”, as they 

currently have in the state. 

Araraume stated this 

while addressing a crowd 

of supporters that 

witnessed the flag off of 

his campaign, at the state 

stadium. 

He said, ‘’As patriots, we 

are determined to take up 

the challenges of 

recovering Imo and 

rebuild it to restore the 

hope of our people in their 

state and future. An 

APGA-led government 

with me at the driver’s 

seat will reposition 

education, health, our 

collapsed infrastructure 

base, security, agriculture 

and industrialisation."

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANIUARY 21, 2019—17 

WEDDING: Governor, State of Osun, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola (2nd left); immediate past Osun Governor, 

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd right); Speaker Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salam (left) 

and Deputy Speaker Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Akintunde Adegboye, during the wedding 

ceremony of Speaker's daughter, at De Distinguished Multi-purpose Hall, Osogbo, weekend. 

Ikpeazu dedicates AIT award to Aba 

artisans 

ABUJA—ABIA State 

Governor Okezie 

Ikpeazu, has dedicated his 

2018 AIT Outstanding 

Performance in 

Industrialization and 

Infrastructural 

Development award, to 

shoemakers, tailors and 

other artisans in Aba, the 

commercial capital of Abia 

State. 

Speaking after receiving 

the award at the 

International Conference 

Centre (ICC) in Abuja on 

Saturday, Ikpeazu said the 

award is a testimony to 

hard-work and transparent 

leadership which his administration 

has brought to 

bear on the state. 

He also stressed that 

political stability and unity 

in the state played major 

roles in the industrialization 

and infrastructural 

development by his 

administration, adding that 

the Enyimba Economic City, 

which is coming to reality 

soonest will make Abia 

State truly the SMEs capital 

of not just Nigeria, but 

also Africa. 

According to the governor, 

the Enyimba Economic City, 

which will fully industrialize 

the state, has the capacity 

to create 700,000 jobs over 

a period of 10 years. 

His words: “This award 

from AIT is a testimony to 

the hard work and ingenuity 

of the Abia man, particularly 

the never-say-die spirit 

of Aba shoemakers, tailors 

and artisans who have the 

capacities to make anything 

from nothing. 

“We thank AIT for this 

recognition. And I dedicate 

this award to the Aba 

shoemakers, tailors and 

artisans who are already 

conquering the world 

through the made-in-Aba 

campaign. 

“We have done much in 

the area of infrastructural 

development of our state 

since 2015, particularly 

Aba, but we are not yet 

where we want to be, but 

we will certainly get there 

with the support of Abia 

people. We also owe our 

achievements to the 

political stability and unity 

in the state. 

“Abia is at the confluence 

of South-South and South- 

I'm in guber race to correct past 

injustices —Uzodinma 

By Elizabeth 

Uwandu 

O 

W E R R I - 

GOVERNORSHIP 

candidate of the All 


APC, in Imo State, Senator 

Hope Uzodinma says he 

decided to vie for the governorship 

of the state so as 

to correct the injustices 

against the people and instil 

progressive governance 

in the running of the state. 

He stated this when he 

recieved the endorsement 

of the Association of Local 

Governments of Nigeria 

(ALGON), in Imo State, for 

the 2019 governorship 

election in the state. 

The group led by the 

chairperson, Mrs Rubby 

Elele, described the Governor 

Rochas Okorochaled 

administration as unfair 

to the people of the 

state and vowed that local 

government Executives 

and workers who 

were allegedly sacked illegally 

in 2011 by Governor 

Okorocha will punish 

him and his son in-law 

Uche Nwosu with their 

PVCs. 

Uzodinma who expressed 

joy and gratitude 

over the honour done to 

him, promised to address 

the alleged illegality perpetrated 

against Imo workers 

and pensioners by ensuring 

the payment of 

their salaries from 2011 till 

date. 

He said: "When I was 

told that the entire 

ALGON will pay a visit, I 

Edo North monarchs 

back Alimikhena for 

re-election 

By Alemma Aliu 

BENIN CITY—THE 

second term bid of Senate 

Deputy Chief Whip representing 

Edo North, Senator 

Francis Alimikhena received 

a boost weekend as 

monarchs within the Etsako 

axis of the senatorial district 

described him as a performer 

who deserves a second 

term. 

At the palace of the Ogie 

Eppa of Weppa Clan, His 

Royal Highness Moses 

Akpamuka Etsu, said the 

people of Weppa do not 

have an alternative to 

Alimikhena. 

On his part, the 

Okumagbe of Wanno 

Kingdom Ehabor Oshapi 

said many of his subjects 

didn't know how serious 

the issues were. Not only 

that you were removed illegally, 

since then you 

have not been paid your 

salaries. We have seen 

several injustices perpetrated 

against our people 

but we have to take a decision 

and confront this 

injustice." 

have been canvassing for 

him. "As far as my kingdom 

and the Wanno people 

are concerned, you 

have already won because 

I talk with other monarchs 

in Edo North and all Edo 

North traditional rulers are 

behind your second term 

ambition" 

Also in Etsako East local 

government, the Senator 

Francis Alimikhena 

campaign train was received at 

the palace of the Clan Head of 

South East, Oliola of Unemeh 

who described Alimikhena as the 

oracle of development. 

He said Edo North has never 

had it so good and “we call you 

the Oracle of development not 

as a title but as a result of your 

performance both outside of 

government and inside government," 

he said. 

East states and it gives us 

an advantage of a huge 

catchment population in 

terms of trade and commerce. 

People coming from 

Akwa Ibom are in Aba 

within 30 minutes. It is the 

same with those coming 

from Umuahia, Port 

Harcourt and Owerri. 

People from Enugu, in an 

hour 30 minutes are here. 

People from Ebonyi can 

come into Abia within the 

same stipulated time. So all 

of that created the huge 

business population 

around Aba." 

DTHA: 

Ndokwa East 

leaders flay 

delay in 

Ozegbe's 

swearin in 

ABOH—SOME leaders 

of Ndokwa East 

Constituency, Delta State 

have frowned at the delay 

in the swearing in of Mr. 

Emeka Ozegbe as member 

representing the 

constituency in the State 

House of Assembly. 

A statement by Chief 

Michael Obi alleged the 

delay is intentional, saying, 

Ozegbe is the qualified candidate 

to represent the constituency 

in the House of 

Assembly. 

He alleged that "in a 

meeting between the Clerk 

of the House and the 

leaders of the Constituency 

on15 January 2019 at the 

DTHA complex, the Clerk 

in a statement promised to 

communicate the 

leadership of the house as 

the seating was to convened 

but was adjourned till 5 

February 2019 due to campaigns 

ongoing in the 

state." 

He said leaders from the 

constituency would take 

their agitation to the state 

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. 

NNPC paid $993.7m cash call 

arrears by September 

NIGERIA National Petroleum Corporation, 

NNPC said weekend it had paid $993.7 

million up to September in arrears owed to its 

joint ventures with multinational oil companies 

by September, and still had to make up payments 

of $3.95 billion. 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation 

(NNPC) said it was seeking to raise about $2.3 

billion in financing from third parties, such as joint 

venture partners, to help cover costs. 

NNPC also said it was raising $3.15 billion 

through a firm called SEEPCO to develop 416 

million barrels of reserves from the Oil Mining 

Licence (OML) 13 field. 

NNPC has over the years piled up unpaid bills, 

so-called cash calls, that it was obliged to pay 

Western firms with which it has joint ventures for 

oil exploration and production. 

The delay in payments has hindered oil and gas 

investment in the OPEC state and worsened a 

budget crisis as the government seeks to increase 

spending to boost an economy still recovering 

from a recession. 

Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel 

Kachikwu said this month Nigeria was producing 

1.78 million bpd. 

Lure documents used by the attackers referred to a 

West African bank which has operations in several 

countries in the region. Some tools used in these 

attacks are similar to tools mentioned in a 2017 Swift 

alert, indicating the attackers may have been 

attempting to perform financial fraud. The second 

type began in late 2017 and targeted organisations 

in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Congo (DR), and Cameroon. 

The attackers used malicious PowerShell scripts to 

infect their targets and also used the credentialstealing 

tool Mimikatz (Hacktool.Mimikatz). They 

also made use of UltraVNC, an open-source remote 

administration tool for Microsoft Windows. 

The attackers then infected computers with the 

commodity malware known as Cobalt Strike 

(Trojan.Agentemis) which is capable of opening a 

backdoor on the computer, communicating with a 

Saudi Arabia plans oil refinery, 

petrochemicals plant in S.Africa 

SAUDI Arabia plans to build an oil refinery and a 

petrochemicals plant in South Africa as part of $10 

billion of investments in the country, Saudi Energy Minister 

Khalid Al-Falih said weekend. 

Saudi oil would be used in the planned refinery whose 

construction would be led by state energy company Saudi 

Aramco, Al-Falih said in comments following a meeting 

with South African Energy Minister Jeff Radebe in Pretoria. 

“There have been exchanges of talks by Saudi Aramco 

teams and they have been supported by the South African 

energy ministry,” Al-Falih said. 

The exact location of the refinery and petrochemicals 

plant will be finalised in the coming weeks, Radebe said. 

SocGen and Absa join forces on 

wholesale banking in Africa 

FRENCH bank Societe Generale and South 

Africa’s Absa joined forces in Africa weekend 

partnering on corporate and investment banking 

to broaden their reach across the continent. 

The agreement will lead to a closer relationship 

between the two after Absa, one of South Africa’s 

biggest lenders, split from its former parent, 

Britain’s Barclays, in 2017. 

It will see them leverage one another’s 

complementary geographic footprints and product 

sets, with Absa strong across southern and eastern 

Africa and SocGen well established in western 

and North Africa. 

“We mirror each other very well,” Nothando 

Ndebele, head of financial institutions group at 

Absa’s corporate and investment bank, told 

Reuters by phone, adding it would be hard to find 

another bank with that footprint. 

Absa has set itself a series of targets as it tries 

to make a name for itself as a pan-African, 

standalone bank.

18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

IF the speed with which the 

petition against the Chief 

Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Hon. 

Justice Walter Onnoghen was 

treated were the standard of justice 

dispensation in Nigeria, we 

would probably be ahead of 

Sweden, and at the top of the 

global Rule of Law ranking instead 

of our current 77th placing Government, Mr. David Babachir 

out of 102 countries surveyed by Lawal (who is yet to be charged 

the World Justice Project in 2018. after being sacked over a contract 

A petition by one Dennis scam about 15 months ago), the 

Aghanya on January 9, 2019 and Onnoghen case set the polity 

received by the Code of Conduct agog. 

Bureau on January 11, 2019 was The heat it generated has very 

expedited for the arraignment of little to do with the perceived 

Justice Onnoghen at the Code of substance of the case: 

Conduct Tribunal on Monday, Onnoghen’s alleged failure to 

January 14, 2019. 

declare his assets as well as ownership 

Coming against the background 

of “foreign” accounts. The 

of numerous largely ignored CJN is not above the law. He is 

cases of impropriety pending not covered by immunity. No reasonable 

against key political players and 

Nigerian is against sanc- 

regime officials, including the tions being meted out to him if 

former Secretary to the Federal he has fallen foul of the law. 

Onnoghen: A call for due process 

The Federal Government’s 

hasty decision to drag him to the 

Code of Conduct Tribunal and 

the pressure on him to resign his 

appointment even before being 

charged, begs propriety. People 

are angry because taking the 

case to the CCT without first letting 

the National Judicial Council, 

NJC, investigate and deal 

with it according to the law 

amounts to a grievous shortcircuiting 

of the law. 

In the Nganjiwa vs F.R.N.2018 

4NWLR part 1609, the Court of 

Appeal (Lagos Division) held 

that no serving judge can be investigated 

or tried in a court of law 

without first being removed from 

the Bench by the NJC. 

We call on the Federal Government 

to follow the due process of 

the law in pursuing this matter. 

We wonder why these facts were 

not brought out when Justice 

Onnoghen was awaiting confirmation 

as CJN. Coming at this time 

with the elections just around the 

corner, the case has already become 

embroiled in partisan politics 

as the two major political parties 

have taken opposite stands. 

We, once again, draw the attention 

of the Federal Government to 

the fact that we are in a democracy 

where the rule of law is supreme. 

Due process should be strictly followed 

in the anti-graft war. 

Putting the Head of the Judiciary 

in the dock in contravention 

of the law is an act of impunity. It 

is unacceptable. 

China, Africa and Washington’s weird worry 

By Charles Onunaiju 

LAST December, US National Security 

Adviser, Mr. John Bolton at a 

Washington DC-based Think Tank, Heritage 

Foundation, unveiled what he called the 

President Trump’s administration’s new 

Africa strategy, which according to him, has 

been approved by the President and would 

go into immediate execution. Mr. Bolton 

told his listeners that “this strategy is the 

result of an intensive inter-agency process 

and reflects the core tenets of President 

Trump’s foreign policy doctrine…and 

remains true to his central campaign 

promise to put the interests of the American 

people first, both at home and abroad". 

But awkwardly, in discussing America’s 

Africa strategy, themed: Prosper Africa, Mr. 

Bolton was more concerned about China in 

Africa which he mentioned 17 times in a 

six-page document, claiming that “China 

uses bribes, opaque agreements and the 

strategic use of debts to hold states in Africa 

captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands.” 

Mr. Bolton who once railed at the United 

Nations for allegedly being filled with slot 

and incompetence and suggested that it 

would not matter at all if 10 of the 38 floors 

of the UN Building were blown away, was 

at his traditional best in spewing hard 

rhetoric in describing China’s engagement 

with Africa as “predatory action.” 

In formulating its hostile rhetoric against 

China-Africa Cooperation, Mr. Bolton and 

the administration he serves, did not seem 

to have consulted any African government 

or any of its representative institutions or 

even Africa’s public opinion on the issue of 

their relations with China for factual inputs, 

with a consequence that the U.S Africa 

strategy is a barely concealed Washington 

grand strategy to contain China, with Africa 

featuring only as a mere battle ground. To 

drive home the un-substantiated fallacy 

about China-Africa Cooperation, Mr. 

Bolton claimed that “the nation of Zambia 

is currently in debt to China to the tune of 6- 

10 billion U.S dollars,” and that “China is 

now poised to take over Zambia’s national 

power and utility company in order to collect 

Zambia’s financial obligations.” The 

Zambian Presidency quickly retorted that 

this assertion is a lie. It clarified that the 

country’s total debt stock was about 9.3 

billion U.S dollars owed a variety of 

international creditors with China’s share 

of only about 3 billion U.S dollars and 

dismissed any suggestion that China plans 

to take over its utility company or any other 

of her national facilities. This is the kind of 

embarrassment Washington gets for 

manufacturing lies and slander to inveigh 

at one of Africa’s most productive 

international partnerships and 

engagements. 

Africa’s leadership at several collective 

fora and individually has firmly signaled 

that the continent’s space is too wide to 

contain all kinds of international partners 

and therefore, extrapolating the discredited 

zero-sum game in what Mr. Bolton called 

“great power competition” to Africa is 

outdated and would not find a serious 

recipient in a contemporary Africa, which 

is open to business with the rest of the world. 

China has never considered Africa to be her 

exclusive preserve despite a long trajectory, 

stretching from mutual solidarity generated 

from struggles against colonial domination 

and for national independence to now avid 

cooperation to build their respective 

OPINION 

national economies and improve the 

quality of lives of their respective peoples. 

In fact, Beijing has repeatedly called for 

more international attention to Africa and 

urged for vigorous global partnerships to 

help Africa overcome some of its existential 

challenges, while herself leading the way 

despite such distractions as Washington’s 

weird worries. 

According to Mr. Bolton, “the predatory 

practices pursued by China…stunt 

economic growth in Africa, threaten the 

financial independence of African nations, 

inhibit opportunities for U.S investment, 

Africa’s leadership at several 

collective fora and 

individually has firmly 

signalled that the continent’s 

space is too wide to contain all 

kinds of international partners 

interfere with U.S military operations and 

pose significant threat to U.S national 

security interests.” It is very likely that any 

time Mr. Bolton or any of U.S 

administration’s officials travels to 

anywhere in Africa, he or she would be 

landing at China’s assisted airport 

terminals, drive on Beijing-assisted 

highways and should he choose to travel 

by contemporary modernised railway, 

would enjoy the cruise on China’s built 

standard gauge railway lines that is giving 

practical effect and filling the gap of 

connectivity and integration, which was 

the historical deficit of pan-African quest 

for functional regional unity. 

If Mr. Bolton begrudges the significant 

strategic efforts in China-Africa 

Cooperation and simply calls it, “predatory 

practices that ‘stunt’ growth in Africa", then 

the U.S new strategy on Africa has not 

certainly benefited from the inputs of U.S 

resident diplomats in Africa, who are 

witnesses to the daily giant strides of China- 

Africa Cooperation in the course of the 

changing face of the continent. 

Washington’s concerns that China in Africa 

would “inhibit opportunities for U.S 

investment, interfere with U.S military 

operations and pose significant threat to U.S 

national security interests," are plainly weird 

and grossly out of place, except if Washington 

means that her new strategy in Africa is to 

undermine Africa and her international 

partnerships. 

In her profound and engaging pioneering 

work on China-Africa, U.S Professor Deborah 

Brautigam wrote in The dragon’s gift: the real 

story of China in Africa, that “China is now a 

powerful force in Africa and the Chinese are 

not going away. Their embrace of the 

continent is strategic, planned, long-term 

and still unfolding… Ultimately, it is up to 

African governments to shape this encounter 

in ways that will benefit their people. Many 

will not grasp this opportunity but some will. 

The West can help by gaining a more realistic 

picture of China’s engagement, avoiding 

sensationalism and paranoia, admitting our 

shortcomings, and perhaps, exploring the 

notion that China’s model of consistent nonintervention 

may be preferable to one that 

regularly intervenes in other countries’ 

domestic affairs or uses of military force to 

foster political change.” 

Given that Prof. Brautigam first wrote these 

instructive lines in 2009, the current U.S 

Africa strategy which Mr. Bolton discussed 

last month with so much gusto, appeared 

totally outdated and even out of context to 

the current conditions and stage of China- 

Africa Cooperation. 

•Mr. Onunaiju, Director, Centre for China 

Studies, CCS, Uatko, wrote from Abuja.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 — 19 

Analysts project MPC to maintain status quo despite inflation concerns 

By Babajide Komolafe 

THE Monetary Policy Committee, 

MPC, of the Central Bank of 

Nigeria, CBN, is expected to retain the 

monetary policy rate, MPR, at 14 percent 

as well as other policy rate at the end of 

its meeting holding this week in spite of 

concerns over the two month upward 

trend in inflation rate. 

Last week, the Nigeria Bureau of 

Statistics, NBS, released the inflation data 

for December 2018, which showed that the 

inflation rate rose for the second 

consecutive month to 11.44 percent from 

11.28 percent in November. 

Analysts opined that while the two 

months increase in inflation rate will be a 

major consideration at the MPC holding 

this week, the committee will, however, 

retain its policy rates due to the upcoming 

general election. 

According to analysts at Lagos based 

Financial Derivatives Company, “While 

this increase was widely anticipated, the 

rate of increase was sharper than expected. 

The rise in the price level was as a result 

of the demand pull effect of festive 

spending. Notably, the slope of the 

inflation curve is becoming steeper, 

signifying that the price momentum could 

persist in the near term. 

“This rise will be one of the major 

considerations at the next MPC meeting 

this month. Being the meeting just before 

the general elections, we expect the 

committee to maintain status quo on all 

monetary parameters.” 

Also commenting, analysts at Lagos 

based Cowry Asset Management Limited 

said: “We expect further upward pressure 

on general price level of goods and 

services in January 2019 as Nigeria’s 

presidential election campaigns intensify. 

Meanwhile, ahead of the 265th Monetary 

Policy Committee (MPC) meeting 

scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, 

Continues on page 21 

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

By Peter Egwuatu, Yinka 

Kolawole, Ediri Ejoh & 

Prince Okafor 

AMIDST the challenges of translating 

Nigeria’s population into 

real economic assets, economy experts 

at the just concluded third edition of 

annual Vanguard Economic Discourse 

have recommended use of tax incentives 

for private sector investment as 

a means of enhancing the quality of 

human life, otherwise known as human 

development index, HDI. However, 

they expressed divergent views 

on the nature of correlation between 

economic growth and HDI. 

Muda Yusuf, Director General, Lagos 

Chamber of Commerce and Industries, 

LCCI, at the Discourse with the 

theme, “Human Development Index 

vs Economic Growth: Nigeria’s Policy 

Options”, leading the proposition for 

tax and tariff incentives explained that 

investments cannot happen in the socio-economic 

sectors such as education 

and healthcare without such incentives 

from government. 

He also said the public sector cannot 

deliver the required services to 

enable development of the sector 

which he believes is the bedrock of 

HDI performance. Yusuf stated: “The 

resources of the states are dwindling 

by the day and making it difficult for 

the government to discharge some of 

its fundamental obligations in the social 

space namely, issue of educations, 

health and even security. It is very 

important that we also deal with the 

issue of resources. The government 

today do not have the resources to take 

proper care of social investment. We 

have to deal with this in two ways. 

“Already the private sector is playing 

a lot of role in this space, but what 

kind of support can we give them? 

That is important. You have a situation 

where the educational system or 

Tax breaks, private 

sector investment 

will boost HDI 

— Economy analysts 

the educational structure is now being 

private sector driven. There is the 

risk of exclusion, because the private 

sector is profit driven, we are dealing 

with cost recovery and in the process, 

many of the pupils in the rural areas 

will be excluded. This will create a 

further social problem. From the policy 

perspective, all investors in education 

should enjoy tax-free investment. 

“You should not be taxing a private 

school, either primary, secondary or 

university the way you are taxing a 

bank or an oil company, because they 

are helping to support the government 

to deliver on some key social objective. 

We should grant them complete 

tax holiday and all the input into the 

educational sector, either education 

material, laboratory materials all this 

should come into the country free of 

import duty. This will enable the private 

sector complement the effort of 

the government in delivering quality 

human capital because we need human 

capital to drive the economy. 

“Secondly, in the area of health, most 

of the public hospitals today are in a 

very sorry state, and that has happened 

because of poverty resources. 

Forget about whether resources are 

mismanaged, or not enough, the reality 

is that when you go to any hospital, 

you discovered they do not have 

resources. The private sector is also 

Continues on Page 20 

Global Headwinds: Nigeria needs 

policies to attract private sector 

investment in infrastructure 

—FSDH Merchant Bank 22 

NSE debunks alleged 

stock market 

manipulation 

Why some banks fail, 

others succeed 

— Amangbo 

24 25 

C 

M 

Y 

K


FINANCIAL VANGUARD 

Tax breaks, private sector investment will boost HDI — Muda Yusuf 

Continues from page 19 

feeling a lot of gap in that 

space, therefore all the medical 

equipment, drugs both 

those in running pharmaceutical, 

those who are running 

private hospital should also 

enjoy complete tax free investment 

so that they can complement 

the effort of government 

in the delivery of health care. 

“You should not be taxing a 

private hospital the way you 

are taxing an oil company, 

because they play a special 

role, they are complementing 

the efforts of the government. 

Recently, there was a review 

of tariffs whereby the tariff of 

medical equipment was 

moved from 10 per cent to 70 

per cent, only God knows who 

went to put that in the tariff 

book. We are talking about X- 

ray equipment, radioactive 

equipment and others. 

Radioactive equipment 

“We are talking of a situation 

where the poor do not 

have access to good health, 

and yet the tariff of medical 

equipment which we do not 

produce locally was moved to 

70 per cent. In same vein, the 

cost of syringe used in hospitals 

was also moved from 10 

per cent to 70 per cent import 

duty. However, there are 

claims that there are some 

people that produce syringe 

locally. We need to deal with 

the issues of tax and import 

duty to support the private 

In his presentation, Heritage 

Bank boss, Sekibo, stated: 

“As bankers what we look at is 

your cash or your ability to borrow 

or reserves kept with us, or 

documents or some other means 

that we can account for. But the 

elephant which is a sour point in 

this country is the minimum 

wage. For me I look forward to 

the minimum wage because it 

•Ifie Sekibo, CEO, Heritage Bank 

sector’s contribution to social 

investment, in other to grow 

the capacity of this economy. 

“Because this economy 

needs funds to grow, we need 

to grow investment because it 

is from investment that we can 

grow revenue, it is with revenue 

that you can develop education, 

health services, support 

security forces. Investment 

is key, so all our policy, 

equipment that can support 

micro-enterprises, indigenous 

investors, FDI, everything 

should be put on the table 

because if you do not grow 

investment space, there is no 

way you can grow the revenue 

and there is no way you 

can increase employment. 

“If you train people, they go 

to schools, they need jobs and 

someone has to provide the 

job.” 

On the issue of correlation 

between economic growth and 

HDI, Yusuf stated: “I have a 

bit of problem in terms of recognising 

whether it is important 

to build a strong economy 

so that we can deliver a 

very good social investment or 

whether we should face social 

investment and make the 

economy the secondary. I 

think it is a bit of a dilemma 

for me. If you look at all the 

leading economies today, 

there is a correlation between 

the size of their economy and 

the welfare of their citizens. 

The correlation may not be 100 

per cent, but clearly, there is 

a correlation.” 

He noted that HDI or the 

will swell the bankers’ balances, 

more monies will come to the 

accounts of the customers and so 

it is interesting. 

“But the challenge is that it will 

increase our liquidity, and if it 

does increase our liquidity, yes 

there will be more money to 

spend, but there is one 

interesting measurement for 

economic growth and that is 

quality of human life requires 

a great deal of resources for 

social investments. 

Discussants and participants 

were of divergent views as to 

which of the areas government 

should prioritise. 

Ifie Sekibo, Managing Director 

of Heritage Bank Limited, 

noted that a measurement 

for economic development 

is money supply, adding 

that there is need for accurate 

policies that will have direct 

impact on citizens and improve 

their living standard. 

Former Minister of National 

Planning, Dr Shamsudeen 

Usman said government must 

prioritise policaies that address 

inequalities and enhance 

welfare. 

On the other hand, Chief 

Economists of Nigerian Labour 

Congress, NLC, Dr. Peter 

Ozo-Eson, said in designing 

policies and plans, government 

should shift away 

from a fixation on GDP growth 

and move to the issues of HDI. 

Accurate policies needed for direct 

impact on citizens — Sekibo 

money supply measurement. If 

that goes on, the effect is that 

there will be inflation. Once there 

is inflation, it means that the 

money that we are hoping that 

we get, goes through the roof by 

increased prices and we are just 

going to lose that money without 

even getting the benefit of that 

increase. 

“Of course, the regulators will 

almost immediately, find a way 

to mop that up so that they can 

keep inflation within parameters 

that are reasonable. I have to 

push these two fixes for us to 

know that, yes there is need for 

economic growth and human 

development, but the policies 

surrounding each of these need 

to be developed further. 

“Policies that have direct impact 

on what is left in my bank account 

and savings is actually one of the 

parameters for which we need to 

develop further in terms of what 

new things we can bring on board 

as well as what technology we 

can invest in, either based on our 

savings or investment in one way 

or the other. If we are unable to 

create policies that don’t address 

what is left over after we take care 

of the developmental social 

problems, then we wouldn’t have 

solved the problem.” 

•Muda Yusuf, DG, LCCI 

COVER 

Policies should address inequality, 

enhance welfare –Shamsuddeen Usman 

In his presentations, the 

former Minister of National 

Planning and Chairman of 

the 2019 Vanguard Economic 

Discourse, Dr. Shamsudeen 

Usman, emphasised the need 

for government to make policies 

that will address inequality 

and enhance welfare of the 

people. 

He stated: “From the practical 

point of view, let me tell 

you some of the intellectual 

and other resource that we 

have to use to address some 

of these issues. Yes I was Minister 

of Finance when we were 

reporting six percent, eight 

percent growth and setting 

target of double digit GDP 

growth. One always faced the 

embarrassment particularly 

from the media at that time; 

that you guys are talking of 

all these your figures but the 

average Nigerian is not feeling 

it. 

“So when I was moved from 

Finance to National Planning 

one of the three targets I set 

for myself was: I am going to 

address that issue. So how 

did we start? We started by 

working with other people, 

colleagues and particularly 

with the National Bureau of 

Statistics, to say we must generate 

numbers that will guide 

policy so that when government 

is doing something objectives 

are very clear and 

specific and results measurable. 

“So we started, first of all, 

with the measurement of GDP 

itself in Nigeria. Intellectually 

from the economic point of 

view the difference between 

economic growth and economic 

development has been 

dealt with and has been mentioned 

already. Even the way 

we were measuring GDP, 

there are two fundamental 

problems: One was that a 

large sector of our economy is 

actually excluded in the 

measurement, that is, the informal 

economy. What we call 

the black economy which is a 

huge percentage of Nigeria’s 

population, so we are even 

under-measuring the GDP itself. 

The second one was that the 

data base that was being used 

was in the 1990s, the time that 

we didn’t have GSM; look at 

how GSM has transformed 

this economy. Now you are 

measuring that economy using 

base data that even did not 

exist. So we did embark on the 

issue of rebasing the GDP to 

bring it to a more recent period 

where it is more reflective. 

If you are measuring and comparing, 

then you are doing it 

on a more reasonable basis. 

Gross national income 

“Then, there were issues 

with Gross National Income, 

GNI; so what did we focus on? 

Essentially, the Sustainable 

Development Goals, SDGs 

and Human Development Index, 

HDI, and I think, for people 

to understand, I think the 

keynote speaker mentioned 

this, but there are three basic 

ways in which the HDI is 

measured: basic needs, a long 

and healthy life; access to 

knowledge, a decent standard 

of living. So you can now see 

that we bring it down to the 

things that are measureable, 

imaginable. Now these are the 

things every Nigerian should 

be entitled to. 

“Then, we also have to look 

at the issue of inequalities, 

and there is what we call HDI 

or IAHDI Inequality Adjusted 

Human Development Index. 

“There is also gender inequality; 

we worked on the gender 

inequality. Now the issue of 

poverty was also a typical 

measure that was being used. 

Until then they say any person 

that is earning not more 

than two dollars per day is 

having the problem of extreme 

poverty, so the person is ex- 

Continues on page 23



COVER 

Analysts project MPC to maintain 

status quo despite inflation concerns 


January 21 and 22, 2019, 

we expect the MPC to 

retain the MPR at 14 

percent, within the existing 

asymmetric corridor of +2 

percent and -5 percent. 

This is against the 

backdrop of rising inflation 

expectations amid 

implementation of 

minimum wage, foreign 

exchange pressure and the 

need to maintain positive 

real interest rates in order 

to attract portfolio inflows 

which have largely 

reversed in recent times.” 

In their preview of the 

MPC meeting, analysts at 

FSDH Merchant Bank also 

stated: “Although the 

Monetary Policy 

Committee (MPC) of the 

Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) has kept the policy 

rates at the current levels 

since July 2016, FSDH 

Research believes 

maintaining rates is still 

advisable. However, we 

expect the CBN to 

continue to use the sales 

of government securities to 

manage inflation 

expectation and exchange 

rate stability.” 

Decline in cost of funds 

to persist 

Meanwhile cost of funds 

is expected to further fall 

this week in response to 

inflow of N381.54 billion 

from matured secondary 

market (Open Market 

Operations, OMO) 

treasury bills (TBs), and 

slow down in liquidity mop 

activities by the CBN. 

Last week, average short 

term interbank interest rate 

fell by 550 basis points 

(bpts) in spite CBN’s sale 

of OMO TBs to mop up 

N574.59 billion as well as 

sale of N152 billion worth 

of primary market TBs. 

The impact of the outflow 

totalling N726.59 billion 

was eliminated by inflow of 

N786.37 billion from 

matured TBs during the 

week. 

Hence, interest rate on 

Collateralised lending 

(Open Buy Back, OBB) fell 

by 467 bpts to 15.33 percent 

last week from 20 percent 

the previous week. 

Similarly, interest rate on 

overnight lending 

dropped by 633 bpts to 

16.17 percent last week 

from 22.5 percent the 

previous week. 

Analysts at Cowry Assets 

projected that this trend 

will persist this week due 

to the inflow of N381.54 

billion from matured TBs. 

Naira records mixed 

performance 

The naira recorded 

mixed performance in the 

parallel market and in the 

Investors and Exporters 

(I&E) window for the 

second consecutive week. 

According to 

naijabdcs.com, the live 

exchange rate platform of 

the Association of Bureaux 

de change Operators of 

Nigeria (ABCON), the 

parallel market exchange 

rate rose for the second 

consecutive week to N361 

per dollar last week from 

N360.5 per dollar the 

previous week, indicating 

50 kobo depreciation for the 

nation’s currency. 

The naira however 

appreciated by N2.15 in the 

I&E window, as the 

indicative exchange rate 

dropped to N362.79 per 

dollar last week from 

N364.94 the previous 

week. 


Kairos Capital has projected 

increased mergers 

and acquisition activities 

in the financial 

sector in 2019. 

Managing Director/ 

Chief Executive, Kairos 

Capital, Mr. Sam 

Chidoka made the 

projection while speaking 

on the company’s 

outlook for 2019. 

He said that Kairos 

Capital expects that 

recent regulatory development 

will trigger 

mergers and acquisitions 

(M&As) in the insurance 

and 

microfinance (MfBs) 

subsectors, adding that 

the is company is 

already working with 

some firms in that regard. 

“We are going to 

gradually begin to see 

some acquisitions and 

some mergers in the 

market where people 

seek to grow a bigger 

institution that is better 

off and the key 

stakeholders are better 

off than owning a small 

institution and you are 

not able to achieve your 

objectives. So our responsibility 

is to con- 

Kairos Capital projects 

increased M&A activities 

in financial sector 

tinuously find where 

there is this opportunity 

where people can 

leverage on economics of 

skill and be able to pitch 

to clients. 

“There it is the insurance 

ones staring us in 

the face, driven by regulations; 

we want to play 

in that space. Also, overtime, 

the CBN has just 

increased the minimum 

capital requirement 

of microfinance banks, 

so there is likely to be 

some, as a matter of fact 

as at today we are working 

with two micro-finance 

banks to bring 

them together in that 

space already. So we 

hope to play in that 

space,” 

Speaking on the focus 

of the company this 

year, Chidoka said: “For 

us our strategic intent is 

to grow capacity, show 

capacity and be bold to 

show ourselves as a 

leader in this market 

particularly. We intend to 

use this year as a year 

of announcement to 

show capacity. We have 

a couple of clients we 

are working with and in 

the next few months, the 

transaction we have 

done will be hitting the 

market and people will 

see what we have done. 

So we clearly want to see 

Kiarus as a market 

leader. 

“The idea is to have 

Kiaros stand out in the 

market in the next few 

years and probably start 

to diversify our investment 

types over time. In 

the next 24 months, we 

are narrowly focused on 

corporate finance, capital 

raising, M&A advisory, 

divestitures, 

spinoffs, management, 

takeovers and such 

transactions. We want to 

be focused on that and 

be known as we go 

through corporate finance 

market and 

player in the market.” 

•Inflation Rate 

•Inflation Rate 

•Exchange Rates 

•Interbank Lending Rates




FSDH Merchant Bank has 

called on the federal 

government to roll out incentives to 

attract private sector investment for 

infrastructure development. 

The bank made this call in its 

medium-term economic outlook 

saying attracting private sector 

investment to develop the nation’s 

infrastructure is necessary to protect 

from headwinds in the global 

economy. 

Meanwhile, the bank has also 

projected average inflation rate of 

12.15 percent for 2019, and 11.5 

percent for January. 

Presenting the outlook at a press 

briefing in Lagos, FSDH Merchant 

Bank Head of Research, Mr. Ayo 

Akinwunmi, said that the headwinds 

in the global economy includes the 

trade war between United States and 

China which will likely lead to 

decline in demand for crude oil and 

hence drop in crude oil prices, which 

imply reduced foreign exchange 

revenue for Nigeria. He said in 

addition to this is interest rate hike 

in the US and Europe, and need for 

tight monetary policy by the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sustain 

foreign portfolio investment in 

Nigeria. 

He noted that another head wind 

is likely increase in global food 

prices, due to shortage of food supply, 

adding that this could translate to 

higher food inflation in Nigeria. 

Stressing that to insulate the 

country from the impact of this 

development the requires policy 

measures that will attract private 

sector investment into infrastructure 

development. 

He said: “We can begin to bring 

out policies to ensure that we woo 

more foreign investors to Nigeria. 

From L-R, Tomi Rotimi, CEO, Xclamations(Nigeria’s first high street store); Omodara Adeniran, 

SME Brand Manager, Segment Anchor; Tope Fajingbesi Balogun, founder/host of She-EO; Maisie 

Dunbar, International Speaker and Founder of the Maisie Dunbar Spa Global Experience in 

Washington DC.; Adebimpe Ihekuna, Head, Banking Products, Products & Marketing Support, 

FirstBank and Tolu Jaiyeola, CEO of The Shred Station, Nigeria’s first mobile shredding company 

at the She-EO conference held in Lagos. 

Global Headwinds: Nigeria needs policies 

to attract private sector investment in 

infrastructure —FSDH Merchant Bank 

Roll out incentives both in terms of 

tax incentives like tax holidays, and 

then in terms of our roads, we need 

to toll them and make sure we make 

money from those facilities to build 

others and also to maintain existing 

ones. 

Government needs to involve 

private sector and give them 

concessions that will make those 

infrastructures attractive for them, 

and government must honour their 

agreement. Some of these 

infrastructures are long term 

projects; you can’t break even in five 

years. 

“There must be consistency in 

policies such that will ensure that 

Afreximbank lends $170m to Orascom for Pan-African 

expansion 

THE African Export-Import 

Bank (Afreximbank) has 

signed a facility agreement 

lending $170 million to Egyptbased 

conglomerate Orascom 

Investment Holding (OIH) to assist 

the company expand its pan- 

African activities in pursuit of its 

short and medium-term expansion 

strategy. 

Speaking at the signing 

ceremony, Afreximbank President, 

Prof. Benedict Oramah, said that 

the facility agreement was part of 

the bank’s effort to promote intra- 

African investments and export 

manufacturing using the 

framework of its Intra-African 

Investment Finance Facility. 

Prof. Oramah said that the 

transaction was a significant 

opportunity for OIH’s targeted 

investments in companies across 

Africa to support their 

transformation, increase their 

production capacity and produce 

higher quality exports through 

better value addition, especially in 

the agro-processing sector. 

The facility would complement 

ongoing macroeconomic and 

safety net reforms in Egypt, which 

seek to foster sector-specific 

economic growth, especially in 

strategic sectors with proven 

record of creating jobs and 

reducing poverty, he said. 

The President said that the 

agreement would set up long-term 

strategic partnership between 

Afreximbank and Orascom, 

describing OIH as one of the most 

successful and diverse holding 

companies in the North Africa 

region, with the potential of 

assisting the Bank in expanding its 

operations in the regional and 

Egyptian markets. 

“Our collaboration opens the 

potential for our two institutions 

to strengthen their relationship 

and mutual cooperation in order 

to make significant contributions 

towards unlocking the full 

potentials of intra-African 

investment,” he added. 

Also speaking, Naguib Sawiris, 

Chairman of OIH, said that that 

the company’s main focus was 

currently on investing in Africa, 

adding that the continent would 

only achieve progress if intra- 

African trade and investment 

growth happened. 

It was up to the Africans to come 

together to work for that goal, he 

said. In that regard, Orascom 

Investment would explore business 

and investment opportunities 

referred to it by Afreximbank in 

such countries as Rwanda, Togo, 

Eretria, Nigeria and Sao Tome. 

foreign investors will have 

confidence in our local economy to 

invest not only in our financial 

markets but in our real economy, to 

build structure that will build 

structures that will support non oil 

sector of the economy to enable us 

make non oil grow”. 

On the bank’s outlook for inflation 

in 2019, Akinwunmi said: “In our 

inflation forecast for this year, we 

have two scenarios. The first is 

scenario 1, which is no adjustment 

to PMS price and electricity tariffs 

and scenario 2 based on adjustment 

to the tariffs and PMS price. 

But whichever way you look at it 

for this year, either there is an 

adjustment to those prices as we think 

it should be, it is still going to remain 

in double digits because of 

developments outside those points, 

but if they are not, we expect that 

from June, if they adjust them, 

inflation will spike to about 13.4 

percent and to end the year it will be 

in the region of 13.2 percent. 

So on the average this year, 

inflation rate will be in the region of 

12.15 percent given that from 

January to May we have the normal 

inflation number, ranging from 11 

percent to 13.3 percent. Based on the 

numbers available to us now, we 

have review our inflation forecast for 

the month, it likely be in the region 

of 11.5 percent for January.” 

Naira to depreciate to N401\$ in H2’19— Afrinvest 

By Cynthia Alo 

AFRINVEST Limited, a 

Lagos based investment 

firm, has projected that the naira 

will depreciate to N401 per dollar 

in the second half of 2019 (H2’19). 

The firm also projected that 

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, 

GDP, will grow by 2.5 percent this 

year as against 1.9 percent 

recorded in 2018. The firm made 

this projection in its economic 

outlook for 2019 titled: “On the 

Precipice, of the 2019 economic 

•Projects 12.15% average inflation rate for 2019 

outlook”. Presenting the firms’ 

outlook compiled by the Chief 

Executive Officer, Mr. Ike Chioke, 

the Deputy Managing Director, 

Afrinvest, Victor Ndukauba said: 

“Overall, we believe the exchange 

rate will remain stable, especially 

in H1’19, since the CBN has 

ample reserves for interventions. 

“However, we note that 

pressures on the currency will 

intensify in H2:2019. Hence, we 

may see depreciation in the 

currency to N401 per dollar, 

mirroring the rate of 12-month 

non-deliverable forwards quoted 

on Bloomberg. We note that the 

likely emergence of a new CBN 

governor by mid-2019 may result 

in a new exchange rate policy.” 

On possibility of the exchange 

rate of breaching the resistance 

levels in 2019, Ndukauba said: 

“The exchange rate stability which 

we anticipated was achieved for 

most of 2018. 

“In 2019, the currency faces a 

downside risk. Foreign capital 

flows may remain constrained due 

to both political risk and elevated 

interest rate in advanced 

economies. This will heavily 

impact Nigeria’s external position 

and weaken external reserves 

accretion. However, the CBN has 

guided towards a tight monetary 

policy stance which should help 

attract capital inflows. We also 

expect a stable current account 

surplus to support reserves 

accretion, if oil production remains 

steady at 2.1mb/d as expected, 

and oil prices remain above $50/ 

b.” 

Speaking on the company’s 

Savings 

Promo: 

Fidelity Bank 

rewards 13 

customers 

with N16m 

By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

FIDELITY Bank has 

rewarded 13 customers 

with N16 million and 18 

consolation prizes in the third 

monthly draw of its Get Alert 

In Millions (GAIM) Savings 

Promo season three. 

Speaking at the draw in 

Lagos, the Executive Director, 

Shared Services & Products, 

Fidelity Bank, Mrs. Chijioke 

Ugochukwu said: “This is the 

third draw in the GAIM season 

three and we started this 

journey together in October 

2018 and at today’s draw we 

will be giving out a total of N16 

million to 13 customers and 

there will be winners of N2 

million and winners of N1 

million from across the entire 

nation. 

“In addition to the cash win 

we will be giving out 18 

consolation prizes of 

refrigerators, television sets and 

generators. It is worthy of note 

that at the end of this draw 

today, we would have given out 

a total of N50 million cash 

prizes and 54 consolation prizes 

to over 93 winners. 

“We also have given out 

airtime worth N2.671 million to 

1964 customers so far. We 

expect more winners to emerge 

at subsequent draw. We still 

have N60 million to give out in 

subsequent draw up till the end 

of the year and we still have 

several consolation prizes.” 

Also speaking, Vice 

Chairman, GAIM season 3 

promo/ Divisional Head 

Operations, Fidelity Bank, 

Martins Izuogbe, said: “The 

feedback for this promo has 

been positive. I think that 

essentially what we are doing 

is first, helping the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its 

agenda of achieving financial 

inclusion 2020 target. 

outlook for Nigeria’s GDP in 2019, 

he said: “We estimate that growth 

will improve to 2.5 percent from 

1.9 percent in 2018 based on the 

expectation of improved oil GDP 

and sustained expansion in the 

non-oil sector. This forecast 

implies that with population 

growing at 2.6 percent to 3.0 

percent, Nigerians are projected 

to remain poorer on the average 

in 2019. We believe this growth 

outcome will reflect a soft rebound 

in agriculture, increased oil 

output and better performance in 

the services and manufacturing 

sectors.


‘Policies should address inequality, enhance welfare’ 

Continued from Page 20 

tremely poor. 

“Now again, from a practical 

point of view of making 

policy, addressing the problem 

of that poverty, that measurement 

is completely inadequate. 

“So what did we do? 

We started working on something 

that is called multi-dimensional 

poverty index. 

Now, the multi-dimensional 

poverty index addresses different 

causes of poverty and 

the point is that poverty is 

more than the lack of income, 

sometimes you can actually be 

poor if you are living in an 

area that you have money but 

there is no power. So you are 

actually a poor man as far as 

power is concerned. 

“If you are living somewhere 

and there is no health facility 

there, you may be the richest 

man in that village but you 

should be counted as poor in 

terms of health facilities. Now 

the development of this poverty 

index was helpful and 

this has been, to a point, helpful. 

Let me give you some of 

the measures that we used to 

address the standard of living 

index that we developed, 

about six to seven of them: 

“Lighting – we did household 

service across the whole 

country, to villages, to rural 

areas, to try to find average 

household. The first item we 

asked, do they have electricity? 

What kind of lighting system 

are they using? Is it electricity 

or not? 

“Water – do they have access 

to safe drinking water?; 

Sanitation – did they have improved 

or standard sanitation 

or not?; Housing – The type 

of housing, even to the type 

floor that they have in their 

house – is it a tied floor, a sand 

floor? 

“Cooking fuel – What system? 

Are they using dung, 

wood or charcoal, or modern 

cooking system? 

“Assets – Then on assets we 

had another definition; if you 

have less than two of the following 

assets then you are 

designated as poor: car, radio, 

television, motorbike, bicycle, 

refrigerator are some of the assets. 

“Unemployment – if you 

have an adult in the household, 

between 15 and 64 years 

that is looking for work and 

didn’t find it, then that household 

is designated as being 

unemployment poor. 

“Child mortality - if a family 

has lost some one of less 

than five years old in the last 

several years, then it is at poverty 

dimension again; because 

it is the inability to get medical 

care to take care of the children. 

We also have children 

out of school; so school attendance 

etc is a problem too. 

“So these are different dimensions 

of poverty. So you 

can see how we had to bring 

it down to practical measures. 

“And then of course we 

worked on gender inequality 

index. There are figures to 

this. If you check the National 

Bureau of Statistics, then if 

you look at the poverty measured 

by GDP, it is very clear, 

the North-West and the North- 

East are the most povertystricken 

part in this country. 

“But if you use some of these 

other indices that we have 

developed and worked on, you 

will find some interesting differences, 

for example, states 

like Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa, 

Katsina, Kano, Ondo, Plateau, 

Rivers, Zamfara, FCT, are 

much better than some others 

that you thought will be better 

than them, like Abia, Bayelsa, 

Cross-river, Delta, Edo, 

Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna 

and Kwara. 

“So the differences show. 

Now the advantage of doing 

this is that you are able to actually 

identify what are the issues 

in different parts of the 

country and then set economic 

policies with very clear targets. 

I remember when we 

started the performance-based 

measurement system where I 

had to sit every minister in a 

panel, the first question I 

asked each minister is; ‘what 

is the purpose of your ministry?’ 

“Because the objective of 

government is to improve the 

welfare of the citizens, some 

Chief economist of the Ni 

gerian Labour Congress, 

NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, at 

the Discourse raised some fundamental 

issues of strategy as 

well as global examples of successes 

that Nigeria can emulate 

in addressing its HDI challenges. 

He stated: “In mainstream 

economy schools, and economy 

teachings, 25 years to 30 

years ago when some of us 

were undergraduates, economists 

did not pay much attention 

to the human development 

index, HDI, which was being 

pushed, largely by the United 

Nations development community, 

rather we were fixated on 

growth and it was other developmental 

social sciences that 

kept bringing attention that we 

needed to focus on human development. 

Therefore, the debate about 

human development was stratified 

into two broad directions. 

By broadly neo-classical economists 

- maximize growth; by 

non-economic development 

•Peter Ozo Eson, Chief Economist, NLC 

of them were lost when I 

asked them, ‘what is the purpose 

of your ministry?’ I said, 

‘well, let’s start from the basic; 

that the overall objective 

of the government is to improve 

the welfare of the citizens’. 

Lack of continuity 

This is how we worked on 

development for each ministry, 

for each minister, each department. 

We started a system 

where at every federal executive 

council, a minister will 

come with a report of his ministry 

activities on quarterly basis, 

and showing how he 

achieved his development targets. 

“But unfortunately, the biggest 

problem of Nigeria is lack 

of continuity. Are they concerned 

about these issues? 

From my own assessment unfortunately 

they are not aware. 

We try to make as many people 

aware as possible. Since 

leaving government, I have 

set up my own consultancy 

and I have worked for, at least, 

two state governments. I’m 

working for other, particular- 

social scientists, a call that there 

was need to focus on the broader 

concept of human 

development. I think that, that 

we are posing this today actually 

has shown how far this 

debate has come over those 

years, and we need to recognise 

that. 

“We looked clearly at what is 

development. The development 

is based on human beings, 

human welfares. That is 

why the concept of the human 

development index, as a more 

embracing concept that actually 

captures the welfare development 

of the human beings, 

it has become something that 

we as a nation need to move to 

the centre stage in terms of 

policy formulations and planning. 

Policy formulations 

and planning 

“Because you could have a 

country grow at 10 percent for 

decades and yet that country 

could remain at the bottom of 

the array of countries in terms 


COVER 

•Shamsudeen Usman, former Finance Minister 

ly in the development communities. 

But for Lagos and 

Bauchi state governments, we 

did a similar exercise where 

we developed the framework 

Prioritise HDI over GDP growth — Ozo-Eson 

for their Ministry and Department 

(M&D); so that you actually 

track these performance 

indicators one by one on a 

practical basis”. 

of human development index. 

Nigeria was an example, at a 

period over a decade in which 

we were growing an average 

of 6 percent, we consistently 

remain one of the least in terms 

of ranking in human development 

index. 

“I think, therefore, the challenge 

for policy and for planning 

cannot be overemphasised. 

I think in designing our 

policies and plans we need to 

shift away from a fixation on 

GDP growth and move to the 

issues of Human development 

index. For instance, education, 

health, that holds key element 

in determining your human 

development index measure, 

these are areas where our planning 

and policy must return to 

emphasise and prioritise. It is 

only if we do that in a conscious 

way that we would be able to 

actually lift Nigeria from where 

it is in terms of human development 

index and ranking and 

move it up gradually over the 

years. 

“The second major point is 

that in doing this we need to 

learn from the examples of nations 

that we may not regard 

as rich but has consistently 

maintained very high positions 

on the human development 

ranking. For example, let us 

look at Cuba as a country. If 

you look at the United Nations 

Development Programme, 

UNDP, every year and the human 

development index ranking, 

you would find out that 

Cuba ranks above countries 

whose per capital GDP are way 

above their own, and they have 

maintained that. How have 

they achieved this? 

“We need to study such in 

order to be able to inform the 

way we make and implement 

our policies, so that we can also 

raise our human development 

index position. The second example, 

for instance is, we can 

look at what happened in eight 

years of Lula in Brazil (Lula da 

Silva, the 35th President of Brazil, 

2003 -2010) and see how 

that government was able to 

use policies to remove a quantum, 

millions from poverty and 

therefore raise the level of average 

development in Brazil. 

These were done by conscious 

policies. 

“I think that the challenge for 

us is how do we then use policies, 

use framework of planning 

to seek and set targets for 

us, not so much by saying, ‘over 

the next four years, we want 

to attain X percent rate of GDP 

growth’. “Growth is important 

because growth will also facilitate 

those other developments, 

but rather let us couch the targets 

in terms of human development 

indexes. 

“For example, if we are 132 

ranking now, let us set ourselves 

a target and say how we 

can use policies over the next 

five years to move from 132 to 

120. And if we do that, we 

would then be able to look at 

those sectors that are going to 

play major roles in human development 

and human development 

index uplifting, and 

plans and resources can then 

be tailored into those areas, so 

that at the end of the day we 

would have improved our human 

development index standing. 

“This is because, at the end, 

what we need as a nation, for 

our citizens to attain a level and 

quality of life that can be regarded 

as encompassing development. 

That is what the 

human development index actually 

projects, and not one that 

will say or a society in which 

we would grow so fast but have 

such a skewed distribution of 

income that we can still be touted 

as the emerging capital of 

poverty in the world. 

“We need to challenge ourselves 

through policy, through 

progressing critical policy to 

move the human development 

index higher and promote it 

across the board which would 

then boost the economy. ”



NSE debunks alleged stock market manipulation 

By Peter Egwuatu 

THE Nigerian Stock 

Exchange, NSE has 

debunked alleged market 

manipulation following the 

massive market activities in the 

secondary market experienced 

last year between January and 

February 2018. 

The Chief Executive Officer of 

the NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, 

while reacting to a question by a 

stockbroker on alleged market 

manipulation experienced in the 

secondary market on the 

Exchange last year said: “Let me 

remind stockbrokers that if you 

see something you or discover 

Kairos Capital 

projects increase 

M&A activities in 

financial sector 


KAIROS Capital has projected 

increased mergers and 

acquisition activities in the financial 

sector in 2019. 

Managing Director/Chief 

Executive, Kairos Capital, Mr. Sam 

Chidoka, made the projection 

while speaking on the company’s 

outlook for 2019. 

He said that Kairos Capital 

expects that recent regulatory 

development will trigger mergers 

and acquisitions (M&As) in the 

insurance and microfinance (MfBs) 

subsectors, adding that the 

company is already working with 

some firms in that regard. 

“We are going to gradually begin 

to see some acquisitions and some 

mergers in the market where 

people seek to grow a bigger 

institution that is better off and the 

key stakeholders are better off than 

owning a small institution and you 

are not able to achieve your 

objectives. So our responsibility is 

to continuously find where there is 

this opportunity where people can 

leverage on economics of skill and 

be able to pitch to clients. 

“There it is the insurance ones 

staring us in the face, driven by 

regulations; we want to play in that 

space. Also, overtime, the CBN has 

just increased the minimum capital 

requirement of microfinance banks, 

so there is likely to be some, as a 

matter of fact as at today we are 

working with two micro-finance 

banks to bring them together in that 

space already. So we hope to play 

in that space,” 

Speaking on the focus of the 

company this year, Chidoka said: 

“For us our strategic intent is to grow 

capacity, show capacity and be 

bold to show ourselves as a leader 

in this market particularly. We 

intend to use this year as a year of 

announcement to show capacity. 

We have a couple of clients we are 

working with and in the next few 

months, the transaction we have 

done will be hitting the market and 

people will see what we have done. 

So we clearly want to see Kiarus as 

a market leader.” 

abnormal movement, you say it 

immediately and we will follow 

up and investigate. We have 

system for surveying the market 

and it is arguable the best system 

for surveying the market in the 

world. 

“This system looks at market 

activities on a continuous basis 

and throws out exceptions. And 

when we see exceptions, we 

investigate those exceptions. Just 

Meristem boosts investor confidence with GIPS compliance 

By Nkiruka Nnorom 

M ERISTEMWealth 

Management Limited, a 

subsidiary of Meristem 

Securities Limited, has gone a 

step further in bolstering investors’ 

confidence with compliance to the 

Global Investment Performance 

Standard (GIPS), emerging the 

first asset management company 

in Nigeria to claim compliance. 

With this feat, the firm’s 

reporting standard is now at par 

with that of its peers in other 

advanced markets, which 

enhances investors confidence in 

the areas of transparency, risks 

management and ethical practice. 

The Global Investment 

Performance Standards (GIPS) 

are guidelines created by the 

because of significant buying 

and selling market activities does 

not on itself create market 

manipulation. So it is important 

for us to know that if you actually 

see something, you should let us 

know and come to talk to us and 

we will look at it very closely. But 

if our own model and system are 

not throwing up any exception, 

you will agree with me that it will 

be inefficient for us to take action 

Chartered Financial Analysts 

(CFA) Institute to provide ethical 

framework for the calculation and 

presentation of the performance 

history of investment management 

firms. 

Sulaimon Adedokun, Head, 

Wealth Management, Meristem 

Wealth Management Limited, 

speaking at the Meristem GIPS 

Compliance declaration in Lagos, 

said the GIPS compliance would 

ensure that the company’s 

processes, policies and procedures 

are committed towards ensuring 

that performance results, 

calculations and presentation to 

clients are done in accordance 

with the industry’s best practices 

and standards. 

“This then makes it comparable 

to how same performance results 

just because there is market 

activity.” 

Commenting on investors’ 

participation in the market, 

Onyema said that the market 

needs foreign investors the way 

retail domestic investors are 

needed, while assuring that the 

Exchange was working on ways 

to deepen the participation of 

retail investors in the market 

going forward. 

should have been calculated and 

presented if the clients were based 

in Germany, Toronto, Tokyo, North 

America and other parts of the 

world. 

“Becoming the first and only 

Nigerian asset management firm 

to claim GIPS compliance is 

simply Meristem Wealth 

Management living out its brand 

promise to grow wealth for our 

clients’ in good time and an 

atmosphere of transparency,” he 

said. 

Folasade Odunaiya, past 

president of CFA Society of 

Nigeria, who represented the global 

organisation, said: “This is window 

to global opportunities as investors 

all over the world, going forward, 

will be looking at what Meristem 

is doing, and this will guarantee 

•Dangote Cement, Tier-1 banks tipped as stock to watch 

By Peter Egwuatu 

DESPITE the rally witnessed 

in the equity market last 

week on the Nigerian Stock 

Exchange, NSE Financial analysts 

have cautioned investors to be 

careful in their investment choice 

amidst brewing political jitters 

ahead 2019 elections. 

Analysts also tipped Dangote 

Cement and depressed Tier-1 

banks as stocks to watch this week 

following the return of positive 

sentiment as investors begin to take 

position. 

It was a jolly ride for the Nigeria’s 

equity market as gains were 

recorded in all trading sessions of 

the last week. Specifically, the NSE 

All Share Index, ASI recorded a 

whopping 3.94 percent Week on 

Week, W o W gain following buying 

sentiments across sectors. 

In the same manner, another 

stock market gauge, market 

capitalisation appreciated by 3.94 

percent to close the week at N11.562 

trillion. 

Reacting, analysts at Lagos based 

investment firm, Cordros Capital 

said: “In spite of last week’s rally, 

our view continues to favour cautious 

trading pattern in the equities 

market amidst brewing political 

jitters ahead 2019 elections, and the 

absence of a positive market trigger. 

However, we expect the positive 

macroeconomic fundamentals to 

drive recovery in the long term.” 

Commenting as well, analysts at 

Vetiva Research said: “With positive 

investor sentiment returning to the 

market last week, we are cautiously 

optimistic. Whilst we expect buying 

momentum to fizzle out on cement 

sustainability”. 

Kehinde Ibrahim, Head, 

Portfolio Management, Meristem 

Wealth, adding his voice, said: “For 

us as a firm, GIPS compliance is 

something we are happy to 

complete. Going forward, our 

reporting can be placed side by side 

with other global fund managers. 

“Claiming compliance with 

GIPS is no mean feat but it’s worth 

achieving for the investment terrain 

in Nigeria and for the sake of our 

treasured clients who have given us 

the privilege to serve them. We 

constantly seek to be open and 

transparent in all our dealings with 

our clients, they have our best 

assurance as we have successfully 

walked our talk in becoming the 

first and only GIPS compliant firm 

in Nigeria.” 

Analysts task investors on cautious trading in equities 

stocks, we foresee some buy interest 

in depressed Tier1 banking stocks. 

The stock to watch, Dangote 

Cement gained 10 percent in four 

sessions last week. The stock gained 

3 percent on Friday to close at 

?194.90 and is up 3 percent in 2019, 

underperforming the Industrial 

Goods sector (nine percent Year to 

Date, YtD ). 

Meanwhile, a total turnover of 

1.270 billion shares worth N13.463 

billion in 16,476 deals were traded 

last week by investors on the floor 

of the Exchange in contrast to a total 

of 1.265 billion shares valued at 

N14.074 billion that exchanged 

hands penultimate week in 19,278 

deals. The Financial Services 

Industry (measured by volume) led 

the activity chart with 1.131 billion 

shares valued at N10.573 billion 

traded in 10,352 deals; thus 

contributing 89.06 percent and 

78.54 percent to the total equity 

turnover volume and value 

respectively. 

The Consumer Goods Industry 

followed with 37.744 million shares 

worth N1.628 billion in 2,054 deals. 

The third place was Conglomerates 

Industry with a turnover of 37.699 

million shares worth N102.918 

million in 566 deals. Trading in the 

Top Three Equities namely, 

Diamond Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust 

Speaking on the protection of 

domestic investors, Onyema 

assured that the Exchange 

would ensure that listed 

companies stick to listing 

requirements for the benefits of 

shareholders. He said the stock 

exchange was also working 

closely with listed companies to 

assist them to be able to comply 

with the listing requirements, 

saying that delisting by some 

companies should not be a cause 

of worry. 

Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc 

(measured by volume) accounted 

for 696.955 million shares worth 

N8.509 billion in 3,753 deals, 

contributing 54.86 percent and 

63.20 percent to the total equity 

turnover volume and value 

respectively. 

Meanwhile, Sovereign Trust 

Insurance Plc has announced 

through its stockbroker, Dynamic 

Portfolio Limited, a proposed 

approval from the NSE and listing 

of a Rights Issue of 4,170,411,648 

ordinary shares of 50 kobo per share, 

on the basis of one (1) new share 

for every two (2) ordinary shares 

held by shareholders.



Why some 

banks fail, 

others succeed 

— Amangbo, 

Zenith Bank CEO 

By Emeka Anaeto, 

Babajide Komolafe & Peter 

Egwuatu 

HAT is it like running 

aW 

bank in a challenging 

economy like Nigeria? 

It is quite challenging when 

you look at it globally. If you look 

at what happened from 2015 

when we had massive drop in 

oil prices, it virtually affected 

almost every country but it 

affected us more as an oil 

producer and as a country that 

relies so much on foreign 

revenue from oil. So that in itself 

was a big challenge on its own. 

But the key thing is that our 

previous fundamentals have 

always been based on 

prudence in Zenith Bank. 

We are very clear as to what 

we want to achieve and the 

customers are always our focus 

and even in the boom time, we 

try to do things consistently and 

focus on what we actually plan 

to do for our customers. 

And if we do that, it will help 

you whether things are good or 

challenging; and prudence is 

also something that is very 

important; that is what we try 

to do in Zenith and we actually 

ensure we are on the right track. 

Improving on 

products and services 

It is very challenging but we 

keep moving year in year out 

and keep improving on our 

products and services. 

In the face of some adverse 

macro-economic numbers in 

the second half of 2018 (GDP 

flip-flopping, reserves going 

down, inflation ticking up, 

Stock market indices continue 

downwards, etc.), CBN is 

saying that coupled with the 

election year impacts, it would 

respond with contractionary 

monetary policy stance. What, 

in your view, should be the 

impact on and responses from 

the banking sector? 

The banking sector itself is 

always a reflection of the larger 

economy. It is not a sector that 

just sits on its own in isolation. 

Whatever it is, the sector 

mirrors the happenings in the 

economy. Everybody actually 

agrees that 2019 is going to be 

a very challenging year not just 

because of the election alone; 

that is just the smaller part of it 

if you ask me. 

I am very much concerned 

with what is going to happen 

even globally. If you look at 

what is happening 

in the commodity 

market you will 

see that the oil 

price is coming 

down again – from 

$80 it has gone 

down to just 

early $50; that 

is even a 

bigger challenge 

on its own. So 

when you have 

that and we also 

have foreign obligation to 

service our debt, it shows you 

that we have challenges to 

contend with which everybody 

alluded to. Even the President 

alluded to that. Even, as you 

said, the CBN Governor has 

said it that 2019 is going to be 

challenging. But I will say that 

we have had worstsituations. 

If you look at what happened 

in 2015 when oil prices came 

down as low as $30 per barrel 

and Nigeria even went into 

recession, you can see we are 

recovering now. 

We as a people, should help 

and try to galvanise the 

economy. It is not just the 

government alone; it is for 

everybody, both the services 

sector and the productive sector. 

How can we look inward, that 

is, looking at other alternatives 

as against focusing just on 

import or export of crude oil? 

Agriculture is one area that 

there is still a lot of scope; not 

just agriculture but also other 

derivatives of it like packaging, 

food processing and all that. 

These are the levels we need to 

start moving into if indeed we 

actually want to boost our 

economyand become less 

dependent on oil. 

Zenith Bank and some other 

tier-1 banks appear to be 

focusing on building a Shock- 

Proof Balance Sheet. We see 

loan to deposit ratio coming 

down, gross loans and 

advances also coming down 

while liquidity ratio is going 

up. Could that be an indication 

that you are holding back from 

giving loans, and building 

walls against an impending 

economic crises? 

Very interesting question. We 

are banks and also we are in 

business too. Our business is 

•Peter Amangbo...Zenith Bank’s fundamentals based on prudence 

lending. There are certain things 

you look at in lending as well. 

Even the demand itself is the 

first thing; it is not like any other 

business. You need to generate 

that demand for the loans. What 

is the position of companies 

now? How many are 

expanding, and are new 

factories being built? We need 

If you look at 

what happened 

in 2015 when oil 

prices came 

down as low as 

$30 per barrel 

and Nigeria 

even went into 

recession, you 

can see we are 

recovering now 

people to come to us to say we 

want to build, expand and all 

that. While an economy is 

coming out of recession many 

people are trying to basically 

reset and not in that expansion 

mood. That is why even the 

governments and Central Bank 

themselves are looking at ways 

that they can galvanise lending 

on their own by coming with 

many interventions at single 

digit rate. 

These are some of the 

challenges that banks are 

facing. It is not that banks do 

not want to lend; this is where 

they make their profit. When 

they take deposits, what do they 

do with it? Yes people can argue 

that they invest in treasury bills 

but at the end of the day that is 

just one single product, and 

banks will always invest in 

treasury bills because they need 

it for liquidity management too. 

But the core loan, that is where 

you actually get your revenue 

from. There are still challenges, 

the demand for loan is very 

important and it is a function of 

the economy. By the time the 

economy begins to boom you 

will see people talking of 

expanding their capacity. 

Expanding of 

capacity 

We need to also look at 

consumption. If consumption 

drops by virtue of the fact that 

the purchasing power of the 

people has dropped, it is also 

going to affect the people 

coming for loan because, then 

nobody will be talking of 

expanding their capacity. That 

is why I said we need to look 

inward and see what we can do 

on our own locally. 

Once we do that, we will see 

the economy picking up. Even 

talking about the GDP growth 

for a country that needs almost 

everything and for a country that 

wants to develop, the GDP 

growth of 1.8% is challenging. 

Look at even developing 

countries like India, even 

Malaysia, they are talking of 9% 

growth. 

Even the US as developed as 

they are is talking of over 6%. 

We have no business talking of 

a single-digit GDP growth but 

double-digit growth. If we 

actually want to improve on the 

quality of our lives and quality 

of the country itself then we 

must look inward. 

As long as we keep on 

importing and importing for 

consumption then it will give us 

problem. Whether we like it or 

not once there is any issue in 

oil prices it would become a 

bigger problem for the economy. 

So, from the banking 

perspective, banks are actually 

willing to lend; that is our 

bread and butter, but we need 

to generate the demand itself. 

There are also other 

constraints when you talk about 

bank lending. For every deposit 

you take you have cash reserve 

requirement of 22.5 percent. 

So for every deposit I take the 

CBN takes 22.5 percent of it. 

Automatically, that is like part 

of the cost of that deposit; you 

also have the Federal 

Government Savings Bond. 

They are also competing for 

deposits with banks. Instead 

of giving your 

deposit to the 

banks you 

take it and 

put in 

Federal 

Government 

savings 

bond. Even 

t h o s e 

treasury bills 

that those 

banks are 

investing in, 

they are not 

necessarily investing for 

themselves sometimes, but are 

investing on behalf of their 

customers who request for it. 

So if you look at the deposit 

growth in the banking industry 

it is already curtailed, so that 

also will affect lending. The 

CBN is also intervening directly 

to give single digit loans. That 

will also curtail lending by 

banks. So 

there are quite a number of 

challenges in terms of lending 

by banks. 

There are expectations that 

we might see recapitalisation 

exercise in the banking 

industry because of the IFRS 

and Basel-3 that became 

effective January 1, 2019. 

What is the thinking in Zenith 

Bank? 

We don’t have any need at 

Zenith Bank to talk about 

raising capital. Everybody say 

we are over-capitalised. 

Deliberate 

strategy 

So that issue does not even 

arise because it is not an issue 

for us. We have had a deliberate 

strategy of having capital 

adequacy ratio consistently at 

over 21 percent. 

If you have so much capital 

and some other competitors in 

the Tier-1 category also do, but 

they are adding or acquiring 

some other banks with the 

huge capital at their disposal, 

to take the lead. Zenith has 

not done that, what are your 

thinking along this line? 

When you see the way a 

tortoise and a snake run, they 

run differently. You see tortoise 

do its own, while snake goes its 









own way. The way that you want 

to dance depends on your style 

and structure. We have our own 

strategy. If you look at Zenith, 

we always grow organically; if 

you look at the consolidation in 

2004 during the Soludo 

consolidation era, many banks 

came together; some 10 banks, 

some 12 banks, some 13 banks; 

it depends on what they want. 

We are one or two banks that 

did not merge with anyone. 

Today you are in a better 

position to compare each of 

the banks in terms of any 

parameter whether in terms of 

profit or size; you can judge 

what position Zenith Bank 

belongs. Everybody must dance 

their own way; some people are 

better in some areas and you 

leave them and focus on your 

own. At the end of the day, it 

will be better for the industry. 

The intervention of AMCON 

in two or more banks in 

distress is not too good for the 

industry. Why can’t mega 

banks in the country, on their 

own, come to acquire such 

banks to avoid a run in the 

banking industry? 

Mergers and Acquisition (M 

& A) is a normal business 

strategy. It is something that 

people do deliberately. Even 

when two companies are doing 

well, they can decide to come 

together. It is not necessarily by 

virtue of a company or a bank 

going distress that you 

intervene. 

Actually, we are not AMCON, 

Central Bank or NDIC that 

acquire banks. Even if I am 

talking about acquisition I can 

deliberately say I see this bank 

as having strength in a 

particular area. If I go with my 

own strength and combine it 

with their own then we can build 

a formidable force. 

Deliberate business 

strategy 

So we can decide to come 

together not necessarily being 

in distress before we can talk of 

acquisition. Do you know how 

many companies that the likes 

of Apple and Microsoft acquire 

on a regular basis? They would 

have probably acquired over 100 

medium and small fintechs, not 

necessarily because of the issue 

of distress; it is a deliberate 

business strategy. I want to 

remove the issue of distress. 

The issue of M & A in the 

banking industry in Nigeria is 

always regulatory induced. 

There are very few cases that 

you can think of that are not 

regulatory induced. 

I doubt if it is up to one percent 

that are not regulatory induced. 

So when you begin to see 

businesses coming together to 

say I think there is value here 

let us do it together, I think it 

is very positive. And it also 

shows we are maturing as an 

economy; businesses can come 

together on their own to merge. 

If we are matured this way, the 

issue of distress may not come 

•Peter Amangbo...Zenith not an elitist bank 

Why some banks 

fail, others succeed 

— Amangbo 

up. Before it gets to that point, 

you could have offered yourself 

for merger. In a way, we are 

maturing in the industry and the 

economy is maturing. If the 

opportunity is there, any bank 

can be acquired but you must 

look at what you are acquiring. 

What is the value proposition? 

Whether to pay 

for school fees or 

to meet some 

obligations 

pending 

payment of their 

salaries or 

whether to 

develop their 

small 

businesses, we 

are reaching out 

At the end of the day, are we 

going to be better together? So 

I think on that ground it is better 

but not on the perception of 

whether there is a challenge or 

not. 

What do you have for your 

shareholders in terms of 

dividend payment this year? 

Shareholders own the bank; 

there is no way we will not 

have plans for the owners of 

the business. We have plans for 

all the stakeholders; we have 

plans for our staff, the 

government in the form of tax 

payment. The shareholders too 

have their expectations and that 

is why we are really here. If we 

don’t meet their expectations 

then we won’t be here sitting 

down today. We take all our 

stakeholders serious; our 

customers and our staff too. 

For our shareholders we hold 

them in high esteem and make 

sure we reward them at the end 

of every financial year. 

Access to loans has been a 

reoccurring challenge to 

banks’ customers especially 

small businesses. What are you 

doing in this regard? 

We are not doing any customer 

a favour by granting loan to any 

of them. If we don’t do that, 

we won’t earn any revenue. So 

it is a symbiotic relationship and 

it is a mutually beneficial 

relationship. We on our own are 

doing a lot to ensure that we 

reach out to our customers. 

Beneficial 

relationship 

We just talked about the loan 

volume going down in the 

industry but we are now looking 

at other areas, which is the beauty 

of the fact that the economy too is 

maturing. If the big ones are not 

taking loans, you won’t fold your 

hands because those deposits you 

are holding are liability. 

If you take deposit and you 

don’t deploy it, over-liquidity can 

sink a bank because of all the 

regulatory requirements i.e. cash 

reserve ratio, liquidity ratio, etc. 

So, we are looking for other 

outlets. 

That is why if you see what is 

happening today, we on our own 

are developing our retail end of 

the market and we are being very 

aggressive about that. 

We believe that is an area that 

there is a lot of 

potentials. We are 

looking at individuals, 

households, small 

businesses. We are 

reaching out to them to 

give them loans. 

Whether to pay for 

school fees or to meet 

some obligations 

pending payment of 

their salaries or whether 

to develop their small 

businesses, we are 

reaching out. About two 

weeks ago we had an 

event, tagged, Style by 

Zenith. The whole 

objective is to galvanise 

the economy to let them 

know that we are well 

positioned to serve 

small businesses and to 

serve households and 

individuals and even 

the students; that we are 

actually there for everybody. That 

is actually the stage we are 

moving to. 

We are not an elitist bank, we are 

there for everybody. So those that 

don’t even have security, we have 

ways of handling some of those 

things too. There are quite a lot of 

ways we serve our customers. The 

collateral registry too is also in the 

process which the CBN is 

piloting. 

However, you will find out that 

people are still complaining, but 

it takes time. And when you 

compare us to the developed 

countries, it is a slightly different 

terrain. Our credit bureau is 

working but we can still do a lot. 

But abroad, in terms of 

infrastructure we cannot 

compare. There you can identify 

where anybody lives, they have 

their addresses, social security 

numbers. 

Social 

security 

But we are coming up with 

things, BVN and all that, and I will 

tell you that things are changing. 

If you check, access to loans is 

much more improved now 

compared to some years ago. It is 

difficult for any individual before 

to go to a bank and say I want a 

loan, but today once you are 

working, you have easy access to 

loan. 

If you want to try it, just come to 

Zenith Bank and see them at your 

branch, or you can even go online, 

you will see it there; you can have 

access to different types of loans. 

So things are actually changing. 

It might be gradual but I think the 

landscape is changing in terms of 

access to loans and facilities. 

And in 2019 I expect that it will 

be much better. For Zenith Bank, 

retail is actually very key and that 

is an area we are focused on now 

and we believe we will see a lot in 

terms of our loan growth in that 

particular sector. 

Zenith Bank recorded about 40 

percent reduction in cost of funds 

in the nine month ending 

September 30, 2018. How were 

you able to achieve this feat? Is it 

that as a net placer of funds, head 

or tail you win and smaller banks 

lose? And what is the industry 

picture? 

We have always been a net 

placer of funds. We have never 

taken money from any bank since 

inception and it is actually 

deliberate. Our business is to take 

money from our customers and do 

business. But the key thing about 

cost of funds, generally, is that it is 

not just about Zenith Bank. 

In 2017, in the early part of 

December, treasury bills were 

about 21 to 22 percent but at some 

point in 2018, at the beginning of 

the year, it actually crashed to 

between 12 and 13 percent. So it 

was really more from a CBN 

perspective that cost of funds 

should come down. 

We on our own too, we try to be 

much more efficient in terms of 

how we do our business. If you are 

able to bring down your cost of 

funds, it is much easier to pass it 

on to our customers in terms of 

lower cost of loans. And we 

believe if you are going to lend to 

the retail segment, households, 

small businesses and you are 

looking at those high rates, then 

you are inviting a bad loan. 

So for you to say you are going 

into retail, you must be sure of 

your cost of funds, which is what 

we are very mindful of. And that 

is why we said that deliberately 

we must bring down our cost of 

funds, which is basically what we 

are doing, so it makes it much 

easier for us to lend in the retail 

space. 

Retail 

space 

The rate must be affordable; if it 

is not affordable from day one, 

you have set out to fail and to have 

bad loans. 

How do you intend to manage 

your NPLs, because apart from 

the oil & gas loans the next source 

of high NPLs, according to some 

banks, is SMEs? 

As I said earlier, we are not going 

to lend at exorbitant pricing. It has 

to be affordable such that we will 

not have issues. Our job is not to 

start selling people’s properties or 

securities; no, it is to ensure that 

from day one things are put right, 

and again, what you are lending 

to, you want to actually see 

through that particular business. 

If you say your business is hair 

dressing and you say you need 

some amount to pay for the rent, 

we would want to ensure you pay 

the rent, which is the purpose the 

loan was meant for, even if we 

have to pay directly to the shop 

owner or owner of the property, we 

would do that. 

Or if you are going to buy any 

equipment, if we are even 

issuing a cheque directly, we 

would do that. So we ensure all 

those safeguards, not just to 

disburse the money and allow you 

to do whatever you wish; we 

actually want to see through the 

transaction. 

Then the issue of security 

becomes a bit downplayed. 

Because you can have all the 

properties in this world and 

somebody defaults, he just goes 



As Dangote goes so does the 

Nigerian economy 

“What is good for General Motors is good 

for America.” 

FOR almost twenty years 

General Motors, GM, was the 

largest company, not only in 

America, but in the entire world. GM 

sat on top of the Fortune 500 

companies for so long during which 

there was “no vacancy” at the top. 

All the other contestants were vying 

only for second place. Today GM is 

no longer the company presidents 

fear to offend. Others have taken the 

coveted top spot. 

Nigeria also had its own “GM” 

for decades. It was called the United 

African Company, UAC. Until the 

early 2000s, UAC was the leader of 

the Nigerian Organised Private 

Sector, OPS. Its shares quoted on the 

Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, 

constituted about 30 per cent of the 

value of the stock market. At the peak 

of its prowess, UAC had up to 40 

Divisions; some with several 

branches. No government, military 

or civilian would contemplate an 

economic policy measure without 

consulting the Chairman/Managing 

Director of the UAC – before the 

Buhari regime in 1984-5. 

Buhari altered the relationship 

between the leadership of the OPS 

and the Federal Government. 

Nigeria is still paying for that drastic 

mistake till today. More pages are 

needed to explain how that delicate 

balance of powers prevented 

economic disasters before 1984-5 

than is available now. It is merely 

sufficient to point out that a year after 

the Buhari/Idiagbon regime 

sidelined the OPS and UAC, 

thereafter the country went into its 

first recession since independence in 

1960. 

For every folly of their princes, the 

Greeks feel the lash—Horace, 65-8 

BC. 

And for every folly of their 

governments – federal state or local 

government – Nigerians are feeling 

the whip. And, the end to suffering is 

not in sight. Certainly not in 2019 

which is already a disaster before 

the first month ends. Two prominent 

Nigerian chief executive officers, 

CEOs, of UAC during the period 

under review were Chief Abebe, the 

first Nigerian CEO and Chief Ernest 

Shonekan, GCFR. While the Head 

of State, civilian or military ruled 

the polity; they virtually ruled the 

economy. 

To some extent, it could be said then 

that “what was good for UAC was 

good for Nigeria.” At the very least, 

it was the largest private employer 

of labour – directly or indirectly. 

That today UAC is no longer the 

largest company in Nigeria, either 

in terms of turnover or jobs was 

mainly brought about by Federal 

Government policy measures which 

transferred the vast majority of 

UAC’s businesses depending on 

imports to local businessmen – 

usually party members or those close 

to the corridors of power. Whereas 

UAC, as a company with reputation 

to protect would import television 

sets and other appliances and pay 

correct duties, smugglers were 

allowed to bring in the same items, 

bribe Customs staff and openly 

display and sell their imports at a 

cheaper price. The first UAC Division 

to feel the lash was Kingsway Stores 

– the first supermarket in Nigeria. 

Successive FGs made sure that 

Kingsway was liquidated. Its first 

store at Marina reminds those old 

enough of when Nigeria had a 

government in the real sense of the 

word. 

Those who do not remember the 

past are condemned to repeat it— 

George Santayana, 1863-1952. 

Moving fast forward one can 

observe that history is about to 

repeat itself. In the last ten years or 

so, the Dangote Group of 

Companies, DGC, had become the 

largest group on the NSE. For years, 

they moved the stock exchange 

forward – just as UAC did in its 

heydays. They made money and the 

investors in DGC were happy to be 

on board. In the process, Alhaji Aliko 

Dangote, perhaps the most patriotic 

Nigerian alive, rose to become one 

of the top 25 richest people on earth 

Certainly, nobody 

needs to be told that a 

nation which acquires 

the reputation of 

making its business 

people poorer will 

find it extremely 

difficult to convince 

most foreigners to 

invest in its economy 

and the richest African. To be honest, 

I was proud of him. There are very 

few positive measures of success 

known to man in which an African, 

and a Nigerian for that matter, ranks 

top 25. It was an achievement worthy 

of national celebration. To me the 

national honours given him was not 

enough. He had done more for 

Nigeria than all our post- 


Independence national leaders – 

except one. But, there was always 

that fear that another FG might do 

to DGC what was done to UAC; that 

those who once invested heavily in 

DGC would not suffer the same fate 

as those who slaved to make UAC 

great. 

Unfortunately, that is precisely 

what might be happening now. The 

latest Forbes list of the world’s richest 

people was heart-breaking. Dangote 

is now down to 100 richest and he 

has lost money – virtually all of it 

here in Nigeria. To non-economists, 

it might appear as if this is crying 

more than the bereaved. That is 

understandable. What they fail to 

realise is that Dangote, Adenuga, 

Otedola etc listed among the world’s 

richest invariably attract Foreign 

Direct Investment, FDI, to Nigeria 

which the rest of us cannot. And, the 

richer they are, the more foreign 

investors want to discuss investment 

opportunities in Nigeria with them. 

Certainly, nobody needs to be told 

that a nation which acquires the 

reputation of making its business 

people poorer will find it extremely 

difficult to convince most foreigners 

to invest in its economy. 

The economist …must concern 

himself with the ultimate aims of man 

—Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924. 

Those consumed by envy might not 

understand why a “thousandnaire” 

would worry about the problems of 

a dollar billionaire. That is where 

professional economists differ from 

our Fellow Countrymen. The 

injunction from one of the founding 

fathers of our profession was not for 

us to concern ourselves with our own 

economic aims and objectives. It did 

not even enjoin us to strive to be rich. 

Instead, it was an admonition to 

economists to take care of the 

greatest number of their fellow 

citizens. That means drawing 

attention to those events which might 

have long term negative 

repercussions for the nation. 

To be quite candid, Dangote 

represents only a pervasive problem 

with the Nigerian economy. There 

are several hundred others caught 

in the vice-grip of uncertainty 

regarding when the Nigerian 

economy will again grow at six to 

seven per cent a year. This year is out 

of the question. The 2019 Budget 

delivered two days before December 

recess by the National Assembly, 

NASS, and in the middle of 

campaigns, will not be signed until 

at least May this year. The 

appropriations are less than the 

2018 budget which will result in, at 

best, two per cent growth. The World 

Bank, the International Monetary 

Fund, IMF and other global 

organisations predict 2.2 per cent for 

2019. With population increase still 

racing at about three per cent, 

Nigeria will add about five million 

to its poor population. Per capita 

income will drop a bit more and so 

will purchasing power. 

Dangote and other patriotic 

Nigerian entrepreneurs have done 

their duty by Nigeria. They have sown 

joyfully; but they are almost 

harvesting in tears. If they stop, 

everyone in Nigeria will be in real 

trouble – not just people in Borno, 

Katsina and Zamfara States. The 

most important question now is: For 

how long must misguided 

government economic policies ruin 

our nation while we do nothing? 

This year like others has only twelve 

months. At least five will be spent 

with nobody thinking about how to 

prevent more deterioration. The 

remaining seven months cannot 

possibly reverse the accumulated 

damage – unless a new and radical 

solution is found. 


Why some banks fail, others succeed— Amangbo 


to court and get an injunction and 

you will be in court for ten years. 

Is that what you want? You don’t 

want that. You want people to take 

a loan and use it for the purpose 

for which they have taken the 

loan. 

The beauty of retail is that most 

of the loans are not huge; they 

are well spread. I lend N1 million 

here, N2 million, N3 million; 

unlike oil and gas where 

somebody comes and say I want 

$50 million, that is where you 

have challenges, and that is why 

you see that the NPL in the oil 

and gas industry is very huge. But 

for the retail, even if N1 million 

goes bad, it won’t kill you unlike 

the challenge that the banking 

industry had with over 

concentration of loans on few 

people in all these capital 

intensive industries. 

The Nigerian economy and the 

banking industry of today are far 

different from what existed when 

you started your banking career. 

So what is your advice to people 

just coming into the banking 

profession? 

I will say that banking is not the 

most difficult profession. Far from 

it; it is probably way down. The only 

thing I will say is that for you to be 

successful, not only in banking, but 

in any business, integrity is very 

important. Don’t look at the short 

term. If you look at things from a 

long term perspective it helps. 

Can you share with us some of 

those things that can make a bank 

fail? 

To me, I think on a scale, the first 

thing I will probably say is 

ownership. If the ownership is not 

right, forget it, it can never survive. 

If you come together and have 

people who are not of like minds, 

there is no way it can survive. If you 

check, as at 1988 and 1989, we had 

about 126 banks. How come many 

of them failed? It is because people 

of all forms of characters, without 

focus came together to own the 

banks. You have your own agenda, 

and others have their own agenda. 

The second thing is the quality of 

•Amangbo...banking is the most 

difficult job 

management which also will 

derive from the quality of 

ownership. 

If ten people of different 

characters come together to start a 

newspaper business, they will 

likely fail, not because they should 

fail but because of the way 

we ourselves as a people 

are structured; it is part of the 

developmental processes. 

Look at the newspapers 

that are surviving today, you 

have an anchor person. 

Look at the banks that 

survive till today, like 

Zenith Bank, you can say, 

this person was the driver. 

People can come together 

and start a business and 

they will do very well but 

people must have like 

minds. 

When you start a bank 

and you start borrowing 

from the bank, it is a 

problem. We even have it as 

a policy that time that none 

of our shareholders should 

borrow money from us. If anything, 

they were giving us deposits. If 

shareholder A takes a loan, 

shareholder B will start looking and 

asking for his own and so on. So 

those are the key things. 

Other things like business 

strategies are issues that can be 

resolved easily. But from an 

individual perspective, integrity is 

very important. And have a very 

open mind, be open; you want to 

be aware of your environment, you 

read so many things, you have to 

expand your horizon. Those ones 

are even much easier, but the very 

difficult ones are the very personal 

attributes. 

In banking you are dealing with 

people’s money, it is different from 

manufacturing, where you do 

cashflow, but banks, you just see the 

cash. So you must have that 

personal integrity, it is very 

important. 

Once you do that, you might not 

be the most profitable bank but the 

bank will survive overtime; and 

you have to be very cautious too, 

and have an antenna. You must 

know that bad loans can kill a bank, 

so you must be able to discern even 

beyond the analysis, whether this 

loan can be sustained. 

That is why to me, I don’t think 

banking is the most difficult job. 

After all, people invented the 

airplane and their job is more 

difficult than banking.


(08052201997) 

The pathetic destiny of pensioners in Nigeria 

OUR collective sense of 

compassion may have 

become so dulled, overtime, to 

media reports and media 

images of emaciated senior 

citizens, collapsing after waiting 

endlessly in queues under the 

hot tropical sun, for verification 

and payment of pension 

entitlements. In reality, the 

victims of this oppression, have 

no ethnic or religious colouration, 

but are all bound by the common 

index of social deprivation, while 

the rest of us discountenance the 

gross abuse of the dignity of aged 

men and women, who had 

served their country for most of 

their lives. 

The unsightly juxtaposition of 

such horrid spectacles, against 

the background of alleged 

impunity, in the misapplication 

of pension funds, invariably, 

broke the hearts of many 

retirees, and cut short the lives 

of several others. Regrettably, 

however, pension fund looters 

often got away with a slap on 

the wrist as punishment despite 

the severe social damage they 

may have caused. 

The 2004 Act, consequently, 

created Pension Fund 

Administrators (PFA) to ensure 

judicious management of 

pension assets; in addition, 

Pension Fund Custodians, (PFC) 

were similarly established to 

superintend pension funds, 

while the National Pension 

Commission (PENCOM) was 

statutorily mandated to regulate 

the sub-sector and ensure that 

pension assets are invested in 

safe and secure instruments. 

The exceptional performance 

of Pension Administration, after 

ten years, encouraged the 

hosting of the first ever World 

Pension Summit-Africa in Abuja, 

where former President 

Jonathan, noted, in his address, 

that sustained policy innovations 

and meticulous management 

made possible by the 2004 Act, 

had successfully facilitated 

“confidence and credibility in 

pension administration in 

Nigeria, such that the fortunes 

of pension institutions have 

transited from a deficit of about 

$12.9bn in 2004 to accumulated 

pension assets of over (N4tn) 

$27.2bn by March 2014”. 

Consequently, President 

Jonathan, accordingly, signed 

the 2014 Pension Reform Bill into 

law, to build on the gains of the 

2004 Act. The new Act was 

expected to govern and efficiently 

regulate uniform pension 

administration for both public 

and private sectors, and also 

“provide an enabling legal 

environment, which will facilitate 

the creation of appropriate 

instruments with which pension 

assets can be primarily invested 

on vital infrastructure and real 

estate development”. 

Evidently, the estimated N4tn 

pension assets was a handsome 

nest egg of cheap funds which 

could be deployed to improve 

power, housing, education, 

transportation and healthcare 

infrastructure nationwide, as is the 

case, in successful economies 

everywhere, particularly, when 

domestic funds are largely 

inaccessible and too expensive, as 

long term loans for projects with 

extended gestation. 

In reality, pension contributions 

could be similarly deployed for 

continuous expansion and 

upgrading of our social 

infrastructure; if meticulously 

managed and regulated in line 

with the spirit of the 2014 Act, 

however, the pertinent question, 

ultimately, is, whether or not, the 

payment of pensions to retirees, 

as and when due would meet 

their expectation of maintaining 

some semblance of dignity in 

their lifestyles until they pass on. 

Indeed, if PENCOM 

effectively performs its functions, 


E 

T R A N Z A C T 

International Plc has 

got the express approval of 

shareholders of the company 

to raise its authorised share 

capital from N2.1billion to 

N9.1 billion. 

The capital raise proposal of 

N7 billion was tabled by the 

Mr. Wole Abegunde, 

Chairman of eTranzact, at an 

Extraordinary General 

Meeting, EGM, of the 

company held in Lagos. He 

stated that the decision to 

raise additional capital 

pension contributions would be 

invested in safe instruments with 

relatively modest but steady 

yields, so that inadequate 

funding and tortuously delayed 

pension payments, with the 

collateral assault on the dignity 

of pensioners will become 

history. However, such a 

facilitated pension payments 

system may, unfortunately, still 

not provide adequate protection 

against the threat of poverty to 

retirees, as discussions on 

If PENCOM 

effectively 

performs its 

functions, pension 

contributions 

would be invested 

in safe 

instruments with 

relatively modest 

but steady yields 

pension reforms, often, ignores 

the critical issue of erosion in the 

value of money. Even the 

ubiquitous market woman, 

labourer or housewife knows 

from experience that, a thousand 

naira would buy so much food 

items and consumables in 

January, but if unrestrained 

inflation prevails, the same 

amount of money would buy 

much less of the same basket of 

goods in December! Thus, in 

an economy where inflation, for 

example, falls by an average of 

10% annually, static pension 

incomes will systematically 

command less and less goods 

and services; thus, a million naira 

savings in 2014, may just be worth 

less than the paper it is printed 

on in 2024, if average year-onyear 

inflation rates remain as 

high as 10%! 

It is for this reason that the rate 

of inflation in every successful 

economy is very carefully 

managed below 3%, with a five 

to 10-year benchmark for review, 

so as to protect income values, 

and also encourage a savings 

culture. Indeed, the greater the 

value of savings in an economy, 

the greater would be the funds 

available for investment; 

conversely, when high doubledigit 

rate of inflation prevails in 

any economy, people invariably 

save less, and, this will reduce 

availability of loanable funds; 

expectedly; scarcity of investible 

funds would ultimately also 

impact negatively on social and 

economic growth. 

Thus, the retrogressive social 

impact of Nigeria’s year-on-year 

double-digit average inflation 

rates, over time, is probably 

starkly reflected in the weakness 

of our infrastructural base and 

the Naira value. Ultimately, 

economic growth, employment 

opportunities and enhancement 

of social infrastructure and 

welfare will become seriously 

challenged by an uncaged, 

systemic, inflationary surge. 

Thus, even if the reforms in the 

2014 Pension Act were perfectly 

managed, future retirees may, 

indeed, never suffer undue delays 

and pains in endless queues 

before collection of their 

pensions. Sadly, however, 

unless our Economic 

Management Team succeeds in 

bringing down inflation to 

international best practice levels 

below 3%, pensioners will 

invariably still suffer severe shocks 

with the realization that their 

pension income will become 

inadequate to meet their basic 

needs; thus, sadly, despite the 

established pension reforms, 

senior citizens may still not escape 

eTranzact gets shareholders’ nod to raise authorised share 

capital to N9.1bn 

became imperative 

considering the need of the 

Company to expand its 

operations, deepen its market 

share and to remain 

competitive in the financial 

technology industry. 

According to Mr. 

Abegunde, the capital to be 

raised will be used to 

upgrade and enhance the 

Company’s technology 

infrastructure and network 

security systems and also to 

improve on its service 

delivery. He further stated 

that the company will also 

invest in its Agent Network 

Expansion Program, Human 

Resources and Employee 

Development. 

Also, speaking with 

journalists at the EGM, the 

Managing Director/CEO of 

eTranzact, Mr. Niyi 

Toluwalope, believes that the 

injection of additional equity 

will enable the company’s 

management to strategically 

maintain the company 

leading position as a key 

market leader within the 

electronic payment industry. 

Toluwalope affirmed that 

eTranzact will acquire stateof-the-art 

infrastructure, 

ensure that the company 

retains the best skill set 

available, achieve a fast 

response rate, reduce 

downtime, and expands its 

service offerings and market 

reach. 

Founded in September 

2003, eTranzact is Nigeria's 

first award winning, multiapplication 

and multichannel 

electronic 

penury after a lifetime of service 

to their fatherland! 

The above is a summary of two 

articles, namely; “Is Poverty the 

Ultimate Reward for Pension 

Contributors?”, and, “2014 

Pension Act: Not yet Uhuru for 

Pensioners”,these articles were 

published in September 2013 and 

July 2014 respectively. 

(Seewww.lesleba.com). 

Regrettably, however, the 

transparent and optimal 

management of over N8.14tn 

consolidated Pension funds, 

presently, clearly remain a 

challenge; for example, in March 

2018, Yakubu Yussuf, an official of 

the Police Pension Office, was 

jailed for 6 years, with a N22.9bn 

fine, by an Abuja High Court, for 

stealing N24bn Police Pension 

funds. Alarmingly, Yussuf had 

earlier been given a two year 

prison sentence, with an option of 

N750,000 fine by a federal High 

Court in Abuja. 

Similarly, a former Chairman of 

the Presidential Pension Reform 

Task Team, one Abdulrasheed 

Maina, and his cohorts, allegedly 

also stole and laundered N14bn 

Pension funds. EFCC 

investigations revealed that 

Maina was deeply involved in 

stealing the same pension funds 

he was tasked to protect. 

However, when a delegation of 

the Nigeria Union of Pensioners 

visited the State House Abuja in 

January this year (2019), 

President Buhari assured the 

delegation that the welfare of 

Pensioners remained a priority. 

PMB similarly declared that his 

administration has also put a stop 

to dehumanization of Federal 

Government Pensioners by 

ensuring prompt payment of 

entitlements. 

Instructively, unless the ‘curse’ of 

double-digit inflation is exorcised, 

Nigeria’s pensioners, may indeed 

receive prompt pension 

payments, the reality is that such 

payment will not rescue these 

senior citizens from the clutches 

of poverty. 

ECONOMY 

transaction switching and 

payment processing platform. 

It has evolved into a brand 

with global reach with 

operations in Nigeria, 

Ghana, and South Africa, 

with expansion inclination to 

more countries in the world. 

Since inception, eTranzact 

has deployed mobile 

payment solutions to banks, 

non-bank financial 

institutions and was recently 

granted license by the CBN 

to provide Mobile Money 

services to individuals with a 

special focus on the 

unbanked.

The Truth as a Lie 

I 

WAS at a friend’s place in 

Lagos in December. As I 

arrived, I overheard him having a 

discussion with a mutual friend. As 

I entered, he turned to me and 

asked: “Owei, what is the 

difference between the truth and 

what is factual. I replied off hand: 

“The truth can be subjective, but 

what is factual is objective and 

verifiable.” He nodded and 

relayed my response. As the 

election campaigns draw to a thin 

finish, hobbling to a drab 

February 16 date, almost all I hear 

are the truth, but very few factual 

things. Each political party 

assembles a set of truths as suits its 

purpose, and runs with it, 

neglecting all other truths 

especially those that may negate 

its assumed truth, or make for an 

objective assessment. Party 

chieftains, sharks and jobbers, pick 

half-truths and run with them, and 

in combats with opponents, hurl 

them as missiles. 

Truth can be assumed or 

perceived wisdom; the kind we 

received from our forefathers. The 

type of truth that melts into prayers 

or justifies unholy actions such as 

‘The faith of our fathers, brought 

us here’. The reality might be that 

By Tochukwu Ezukanma 

ONE Nigeria is not a homogenising 

vat where different cultures blend 

into one. Consequently, although I am an 

avowed proponent of one Nigeria, I am 

exceedingly conscious that I cannot be a true 

Nigerian without first being a consummate 

Igbo. So, as I brood over the problems of 

Nigeria, I brood, even more, over the 

problems of the Igbo. The Igbo are one of 

the major ethnic groups of Nigeria, with the 

wherewithal: numerical strength, industry, 

education, wealth, ingenuity, etc, to secure 

a robust and extensive niche in Nigerian 

politics. That we have failed to do this 

requires an explanation. 

Many Igbo blame this on the 

marginalisation of the Igbo. 

Marginalisation is the process and the 

consequences of a deliberate and systematic 

endeavour by other Nigerians and a 

continuum of Federal Governments to deny 

the Igbo their fair share of the national 

resources, and repress their progress across 

the entire spectrum of the Nigerian social 

life, especially, in politics. However, because 

I taught myself very early in my life never to 

blame others for my problems, it is very hard 

for me to blame the problems of the Igbo on 

marginalisation without being totally 

convinced. 

In musing over the problems of the Igbo, 

two questions readily popped up in my mind. 

Why were the Igbo not marginalised in the 

Second Republic, when the scars of the war 

were still raw, and the Igbo extremely 

susceptible to marginalisation? Secondly, 

how could Goodluck Jonathan, a president 

that got overwhelming Igbo electoral 

support, and appointed the Igbo to some of 

the most important positions in his 

administration, marginalise the Igbo? 

In the Second Republic, the word, 

“marginalisation”, was not part of the Igbo 

it is not the faith, but the 

desperation, opportunism and 

greed of their forefathers that 

ruled. It is like the controversy over 

the attempts to try the Chief Justice 

of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter 

Onnoghen, not even in a High 

Court, but an inferior one called 

the Code of Conduct Tribunal, 

CCT, for alleged false asset 

declaration. The truth, as the 

ruling All Progressives Congress, 

APC, knows it, is that the CJN is in 

violation of the law, and as nobody 

is above the law, it was right to drag 

him before the tribunal. But the 

opposition stands on another truth; 

yes, nobody is above the law, but 

processes and procedures matter; 

in charging the head of the 

judiciary, the laws of the land are 

being violated. To the Nigerian 

Bar Association, NBA, for the 

opposition and many reasonable 

people, to so liberally violate our 

laws, whether deliberately or not, 

is an affront on the rule of law and 

an attempt to emasculate the 

judiciary. In any case, the case itself 

raises many red flags. The APC 

with so many of its chieftains from 

the West ought to know the truth 

that while all crops are crops, you 

do not harvest cocoa, the king of 

Are the Igbo really marginalised? 

lexicon. In 1979, just nine years after the 

war, the victors, in their thrill of victory, 

would have been most disposed to exploit 

and repress the defeated, and the losers, 

cringing in the agony of defeat, would have 

been readily subservient and most vulnerable 

to marginalisation. Ironically, then, the Igbo 

were not marginalised. Following the 1979 

presidential election, there emerged an Igbo 

Vice-President, Speaker of the House of 

Representatives, and, in the Senate, the Igbo 

chaired some of the powerful Senate 

Committees. And we got our fair share from 

the President Shehu Shagari 


It was in 1999, 29 years after the civil war, 

that “marginalisation” made an inroad into 

the Igbo political lexicon. It has, ever since, 

remained a central word in our political 

parlance. After the Obasanjo presidency, the 

Yar’Adua administration continued to 

marginalise the Igbo. And perplexingly, after 

Yar’Adua, the Goodluck Jonathan 

administration also marginalised us. And 

presently, the Buhari administration is 

marginalising us. But how could the 

Jonathan administration have 

marginalised the Igbo? After all, in the 

election that brought him to power, he 

garnered more than 90 per cent of the votes 

cast in Igbo land, and he also appointed 

Igbo to important and powerful positions 

in his administration. 

A man that got ill after a meal at a 

restaurant can reasonably blame the 

restaurant food for his illness. But if a man 

gets sick from everybody’s (his wife, maid, 

mother and mother in-law) cooking, then 

the problem is not with the food but with the 

man. If every administration since 1999, 

including the Jonathan administration, 

marginalised the Igbo, then the problem is 

not with the different Nigerian governments 

but with the Igbo. Yes, the Igbo have a 

problem. Our problem is not 

marginalisation by anyone. Our problem is 

cash crops, the same cavalier way 

you harvest okra which grows 

anywhere even without being 

tendered. The CJN is not a street 

urchin or a tout at the motor park 

that can be hurled before the 

Environmental Task Force on 

charges of violating the 

environment. These are subjective 

truths which the Buhari 

government confronted as its 

actions and indecent haste against 

the CJN, mobilised the entire 

The APC with so 

many of its 

chieftains from the 

West ought to know 

the truth that while 

all crops are crops, 

you do not harvest 

cocoa, the king of 

cash crops, the same 

cavalier way you 

harvest okra which 

grows anywhere 

even without being 

tendered 

judiciary; from rookie lawyers to 

Senior Advocates; court clerks to 

Justices of the Supreme Court 

against it just five weeks before the 

general elections. Some of the big 

beneficiaries of this backlash are 

opposition parties especially the 

main People’s Democratic Party, 

PDP, which is presenting itself as a 

champion of the judiciary and 

separation of powers in a 

Presidential system. 

The subjective truth is that the 

Judiciary which has received 

serious bashing for unverified 

charges of being a clog in the fight 

our attitude towards Nigeria. We are 

clinging obstinately to a mindset that is 

antithetical to political progress in Nigeria. 

We were not marginalised in the Second 

Republic when we were most susceptible to 

marginalisation because the then Igbo 

political elite were dominated by those 

whose concept and perception of Nigeria 

and the place of the Igbo in Nigeria were 

formed before Biafra. Thus, their attitude 

towards Nigeria were not informed and 

shaped by the Biafran propaganda. So, 

despite our obvious weaknesses then, they 

approached politics with a positive attitude: 

confidence, trust and optimism in the 

Nigerian system. They believed that it works 

for all Nigerians within the limits of human 

fragilities and the Nigerian factor. On the 

one hand, with such constructive attitude, 

they achieved impressive political feats. 

On the other, the present Igbo political 

elite are dominated by those whose concept 

and perception of Nigeria were shaped by 

the falsehood of the Biafran propaganda. 

Unlike the earlier Igbo leaders who 

encouraged us to make the best of our cultural 

skills and talents in a unified Nigeria, 

Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and the Biafran 

propaganda taught us that only secession 

from Nigeria can guarantee our survival. 

They taught us that we had no choice but to 

turn inwards, fortify our battlements and fight 

off murderous hordes of Nigerians, who, 

unified by their intense jealousy and 

implacable hatred for us, were determined 

to annihilate us. They indoctrinated us that 

we were fighting a war of survival that we 

must win or face extermination by the enemy 

– a posse of conscienceless, vicious, 

bloodthirsty Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and other 


against corruption, has the basis 

to be angry. This is not just about 

the midnight raids on the homes 

of judges. First, how was it that 

Onnoghen was given security 

clearance when his records, as 

scrutinised by the security 

agencies, showed he might have 

been in some breach of the asset 

declaration law? Why is he being 

charged a few weeks to the general 

elections in which the judiciary is 

expected to play crucial roles 

especially when, not if disputes 

arise? Why the indecent haste to 

charge him within 72 hours of 

receiving a petition? Why bypass 

the statutory National Judicial 

Council, NJC, in charging a 

serving judicial officer if the 

intention is not to humiliate and 

rubbish him so much that he 

throws in the towel? 

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, a 

Professor of Law has had to weigh 

in, essentially to reveal that 

President Muhammadu Buhari 

was unaware of the charges 

against the CJN until it was too 

late. That is the truth, but it is not 

the eternal truth; government is 

not the individual, but the 

collective; the Executive is not the 

President, but a holistic arm of 

government. The CCT is not under 

the judiciary but under the 

Secretary to the Government of the 

Federation who is appointed and 

answerable to the President. 

The truth is that the move against 

the CJN has injured the Buhari 

government which is already 

limping as a result of its long brawls 

against the Legislative Arm. So what 

the Vice-President has tried to do, is 

damage control. However, what will 

be more important are the 

subsequent actions of the Executive 

The mindset that sustains 

self-pity and a sense of 

victimhood negates victory 

and progress, especially, in 

politics 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

and the agencies it controls. For 

instance, the freezing of the CJN’s 

accounts by the government does 

not help the Vice-President’s claims 

of an innocent Presidency. 

This is not about ‘Corruption 

fighting back’ but more of 

exercising discretion; being wise 

enough to know what battles to fight, 

against who, where and when. When 

I teach industrial relations, I tell my 

listeners that a good employer or 

trade unionist must know when to 

fight and when to walk away. If he 

must fight, he must pick the 

battlefield carefully; no good 

general would fight a war choosing 

his own home; no sensible employer 

will allow an industrial fight or a 

battle between his employees and 

the police on his factory floor. 

The truth is not the truth because 

it is the truth or based on who is 

speaking the truth; the truth is in 

accordance with the perception of 

who is telling it or the perception of 

the listener. My former lecturer at 

the Obafemi Awolowo University 

(Great Ife; the Greatest of the 

Greatest university in the country), 

the famous Professor Biodun Jeyifo 

talked about The Truthful Lie. It was 

the first time I reflected that the truth 

can be a lie. The Gospel Truth is the 

truth to the believer in the faith, not 

to the believer in a different faith. 

The fact is that as Nigerians are 

dragged to the finish line of the 

campaigns, the injuries inflicted on 

the truth are getting worse. I am not 

sure any surgery, including face lift 

or the spin doctors on the internet 

can restore it. If the truth survives 

the 2019 elections, its scars will be 

there for all to see. But as my friend 

and brother, Maximus Uzoatu, alias 

Borojah, the god of Poetry will say, 

even this, shall pass. 

ethnic groups of Nigeria. 

While these were blatant, brazen lies, they, 

lamentably, captured Igbo minds. They 

instilled in the Igbo the mindset needed to 

fight to a finish in a war of “survival” but that 

is antithetical to the exigencies of co-existing, 

and forging a common future with the other 

peoples of our multifarious country. The 

lingering grip of the Biafran propaganda on 

Igbo minds makes us paranoid, and fearful 

and suspicious of other Nigerians, and stokes 

the feelings of self-pity and victimhood in us. 

It makes us believe that the other tribes of 

Nigeria, in their universal hatred for us, have 

a grand conspiracy to undermine and 

frustrate us. And consequently, that despite 

our potentials and resourcefulness, there 

might be no use in striving, as whatever we 

do will not amount to much because of the 

deliberate, unified and concerted attempt of 

the other Nigerians to thwart all our efforts 

and hold us down. 

It is this defeatist, despondent attitude 

towards Nigeria - not marginalisation - that 

is our problem in Nigerian politics. Until we 

change our attitude towards Nigeria, the 

steady whittling down of our political lot will 

continue. And, in our self-pity and feeling of 

victimhood, we will continue to blame it on 

our marginalisation by the Federal 

Government and other ethnic groups of 

Nigerians. Self-pity and victimhood are the 

staples for losers and failures. Those who 

choose to wallow in self-pity and court the 

image of victimhood refuse to take 

responsibility for their actions, thus, they 

blame their failures on the hatred and 

malevolence of others. 

They tolerate failure, and sometimes, invite 

failure because it gratifies their feeling of selfpity 

and sense of victimhood, and adds more 

weapons to their arsenal of blame game. The 

mindset that sustains self-pity and a sense of 

victimhood negates victory and progress, 

especially, in politics. Not surprisingly, no 

victim is a victor and no victor is a victim. 

*Mr. Ezukanma, a publc affairs analyst, 

writes from maciln18@yahoo.com,Lagos. 

C 

M 

Y






CHIJIOKE 

I, formerly known as 

Miss Chijioke Patience 

Adamma, now wish to be 

known as Mrs. Eziamaka 

Patience Adamma. Former 


General public take note. 

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note. 

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This is to confirm that Paul 

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This is to certify that the 

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Reconciliation of name 

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note. 

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANIUARY 21, 2019—39 

FG releases over N9bn to 

clear backlog of 

scholarship allowances 

Aniocha/Oshimili: 

Adingupu assures 

constituents of good 

representation 

ABUJA—THE federal 

government has released 

N9.5 billion for the 

payment of backlog of 

scholarship allowances 

owed Nigerian students at 

home and abroad up to 

December 2018. 

The Minister of Education, 

Adamu Adamu, disclosed 

this during a press 

conference in Abuja at the 

weekend. 

Adamu, who was represented 

by the Director, Federal 

Scholarship Board, 

Asta Ndajiwo, said the 

government of President 

Muhammadu Buhari had 

already expended over 

N800 million in 2018 for the 

payment of scholarship stipends 

to students at home 

and abroad. 

According to him, with 

the current release, the administration 

will be spending 

a total of N10 billion for 

payment of scholarship to 

students in the 2018 budget 

“and we are determined to 

do more”. 

He said: “Let me use this 

opportunity to direct the 

scholarship board to immediately 

undertake all due 

processes required to clear 

the backlog of scholarship 

allowances owed Nigerian 

students both home and 

abroad. 

“The federal government 

has already released the 

sum of N9,752,000 for this 

purpose." 

By Nath Onajoke 

ASABA—THE 

All 

Progressive Congress, 

APC, candidate for 

Aniocha/Oshimili Federal 

Constituency in the February 

16, 2019 general elections, 

Hon. Paul 

Adingwupu has assured 

the people of his readiness 

to offer them good representation 

in the Lower Chamber 

of the National Assembly 

once he is elected into 

the office. 

Adingwupu made his intentions 

known recently, 

during an interactive session 

with indigenes and 

residents of Oshimili South 

Local Government Area of 

Delta State at a town hall 

meeting held at the 

Nnebisi Hall, Grand Hotel 

and Conference Centre, 

Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria. 

He maintained that his 

ambition is to serve the people 

through the delivery of 

impactful dividends of democracy. 

“The era of failed 

promises and politicians 

deceiving the people are 

over. I am on a mission to 

serve and serve well with 

positive footprints in the 

lives of people and on the 

sand of time” Adingwupu 

declared. 

The Aniocha/Oshimili 

hopeful for the House of 

Representatives posited 

that in his previous political 

assignments as a Special 

Adviser on higher education 

project, Delta State 

to the former Governor of 

Delta State, Chief James 

Ibori and also as a Special 

Adviser on ICT to the former 

Governor of Delta State , Dr. 

Emmanuel Uduaghan; he was 

able to attract developmental 

projects and employment opportunities 

for the benefit of the 

people of Aniocha/Oshimili Federal 

Constituency. 

The town hall meeting was 

organized to feel the pulse of the 

people and to communicate the 

mission of Adingwupu.


3RD AIT AWARD HELD IN ABUJA, SATURDAY. PHOTOS: Gbemiga Olamikan. 

Professor Ralph Akinfeleye(right) presenting Outstanding Governor Award to Governor Okezie 

Ikpeazu of Abia State (2nd left). 

Dr. Oby Ezekwesili displaying the Woman of the Year Award 

won by Leah Sharibu, who is in Boko Haram captivity. 

Chief Dele Momodu(middle), another recipient. 

Chairman, Daar Communication Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi (right) and Governor 

Ikpeazu. 

Dr. Amechi Anakwe, an awardeee (left) and Mr. Omofomo Ibare. 

Senator Theodore Orji (right) and Senator Mao Owabunwa. 

Mrs Dokpesi (right) and wife of Abia State Deputy 

Governor, Lady Vivien Chukwu. Chief Sunny Nwosu (left) and Chief Tom Adaba. Mrs. Lina Okaepu and Otunba Adedoyin Ogungbe.


Don’t allow traditional 

worshippers suppress God’s 

work — Uduaghan 

By Festus Ahon 

P ATANI—ERSTWHILE 

governor of Delta State 

and Delta South senatorial 

candidate of All 


APC, Dr Emmanuel 

Uduaghan, yesterday, 

urged those in authority to 

have hope and faith in God. 

Uduaghan who spoke at 

St Philips Anglican 

Church, Uduophori, Patani 


the state during the outing 

service for late Pa John 

Ologe, father of Elijah 

Ologe, charged those in 

government not to allow 

traditional worshippers 

suppress God’s work in 

their areas. 

Noting that Patani is a 

special council spiritually 

with lots of potentials, he 

said his wife, Deaconess 

Roli Uduaghan, as first lady 

of the state then, went 

round all the 25 councils of 

the state holding prayers for 

peace and development of 

the people and the state. 

He said as a governor, 

he did not bar any 

traditional worship and also 

did not allow anyone to bar 

Christian activities, adding: 

“Where the hope and faith 

of man fail, that’s where 

God’s own begins.” 

Speaking further, he said 

Patani has the potential of 

being the number one 

council in the state. 

Ijaw group kicks over PTI 

junior staff recruitment 

By Jimitota 

Onoyume 

W ARRI—IJAW 

P e o p l e s 

Development Initiative, 

IPDI, has called on the 

Federal Government to 

probe the recent 

employment of junior staff 

by the Petroleum Training 

Institute, PTI, Uvwie Local 

Government Area, Delta 

State. 

The group in a statement 

by its President, Mr Ozobo 

Austin, and spokesman, 

Ezekiel Daniel, alleged that 

Ijaw were shortchanged in 

the employment, adding 

that most of the slots went 

to other tribes. 

The group said since Ijaw 

ethnic nationality was 

within the catchment area of 

the institution, it should 

have been given adequate 

consideration in the 

employment. 

It said: “As Ijaw people, 

we call on President 

Muhammadu Buhari; 

Senate President, Bukola 

Saraki; Speaker House of 

Representatives; Minister of 

Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, 

and Federal Character 

Commission, FCC, to probe 

Petroleum Training Institute 

over recent employment. 

“We want the list of the 

recent employment 

published to show the 

formula or equation 

adopted in the employment 

exercise. In Delta State, we 

have 25 local government 

areas. 

“It is equally disgusting 

that despite Ijaw being the 

largest ethnic group in 

Niger Delta, we had fought 

several battles to retain PTI 

from being relocated to the 

north,” the group said. 

The group also made case 

for appointment of Ijaw as 

Provost and also Vice 

Chancellor of Federal 

University of Petroleum, 

FUPRE. 

12 communities get 

scholarships in Akugbene 

Mein kingdom 

By Noreen Ninyo 

THE Palace of the Pere 

of Akugbene-Mein 

Kingdom in Bomadi Local 

Government Area of Delta 

State has said no fewer than 

64 people across 12 

communities in the 

kingdom, have been given 

scholarships. 

A statement by Chairman, 

Palace Scholarship 

Committee, Mr. Carter F, 

said the scholarship scheme 

was introduced by the Pere 

of Akugbene-Mein 

Kingdom, Pere S. P. Luke, 

Kalanama VIII, during the 

15th anniversary of his 

coronation. 

It commended Governor 

Ifeanyi Okowa of the state 

for supporting the annual 

scholarship with N5 million, 

adding that the programme 

was conceived to assist 

indigenes of the kingdom in 

their educational pursuits. 

The statement said: “The 

Palace Scholarship Scheme, 

which commenced in 2012 

is an innovative idea 

introduced by his Royal 

Majesty, Pere Luke S.P. This 

idea is designed to provide 

financial support to families 

whose wards are in public 

secondary schools within 

the kingdom. 

"It is equally a 

demonstration of 

magnanimity extended to 

all the communities and 

families in Akugbene-Mein 

kingdom by the education 

friendly monarch without 

bias or discrimination.” 

A-Ibom PDP alleges plan to frame up, 

arrest key leaders •As APC denies allegation 

By Chioma 

Onuegbu 

UYO —AKWA Ibom 

State chapter of 


PDP, has alleged plans by 

All Progressives Congress, 

APC, in the state to frame 

up key leaders of the party 

in order to arrest and detain 

them ahead of the general 

election. 

The state Chairman of 

PDP, Obong Paul Ekpo, 

who made the disclosure, 

yesterday, while briefing 

newsmen at the party 

secretariat in Uyo, said the 

party received intelligence 

report of the alleged plot. 

He said: “We have 

received credible 

intelligence that on January 

21, 2019 or on any other day 

during APC rallies, buses 

branded as PDP buses or 

vehicles bearing state 

government number plates, 

will be loaded with arms 

and occupied by some 

criminals, heading to the 

venue of the APC rally. 

“On approaching, the 

buses and their occupants 

will be arrested and the 

contents of the buses 

displayed for all to see as a 

major security 

breakthrough. Additionally, 

the criminals will mention 

some PDP top shots as their 

financiers, necessitating 

their arrest and subsequent 

prosecution under the antiterrorism 

act. 

“This plot, which is 

hatched and sponsored by 

the opposition APC, is 

aimed at arresting and 

incarcerating our key 

leaders and keeping them 

away from circulation 

throughout the elections. 

This is, to say the least, very 

crude, anachronistic and 

antediluvian, signalling 

APC’s imminent defeat at 

the approaching polls.” 

APC denies 

allegation 

Reacting, spokesperson 

of APC Campaign 

Organisation in the state, 

Eseme Eyibo, denied the 

allegation, describing it as 

a strategy of a political party 

engaged in self pity. 

“The principles of law 

state that whoever alleges 

should be able to prove. So, 

whoever made the 

allegation should be able to 

prove it, otherwise it is an 

exit strategy,” Eyibo said. 

Ekpo further explained 

that the party had not and 

will not send anybody to 

attempt to disrupt rallies or 

meetings of any other 

political party, stressing that 

the party leaders who are 

currently being targeted by 

the opposition, are innocent 

Nigerians with proven 

integrity. 

Amnesty Programme: Senate, Reps laud Dokubo 

CHAIRMAN of Senate 

Committee on Niger 

Delta, Senator Peter 

Nwabushi said, weekend, 

that the Senate was proud 

of the achievements of the 

Special Adviser to the 

President on Niger Delta 

and Coordinator, Amnesty 

Programme, Prof. Charles 

Dokubo, within his short 

period in office, pledging 

more support from the 

National Assembly to uplift 

the programme to greater 

heights. 

Nwabuchi, who spoke at 

the commissioning of Oil 

and Gas Basic Skills 

Vocational Training Centre, 

Agadagba-Obon, Ese Odo 


Ondo State, commended 

Dokubo for his prudent 

MEETING: From left, Mrs Kendra Udonsi, Women Leader 

Ogbogonogo Market; Paul Adingwupu, All Progressives Congress, 

APC, aspirant for Aniocha/Oshimili House of Representatives, and 

Chief Emma Ojinmah, Director-General, Adingwupu Campaign 

Organisation, during a town hall meeting, Asaba, Delta State. Photo: 

Nath Onojake. 

Wike enthroned as Daar Governor of the Year 

2018 

G OVERNOR 

Nyesom Wike of 

Rivers State has been 

enthroned as Daar 

Governor of the Year 

2018 for his quality 

projects and commitment 

to good governance. 

Wike was recognised 

during the Third Annual 

Daar Awards held at 

International Conference 

Centre, Abuja. 

He was represented at 

the award ceremonies by 

former Rivers State 

Governor, Sir Celestine 

Omehia. 

The Rivers State 

delegation to the award also 

included former Deputy 

Speaker of the House of 

Representatives, Mr Austin 

Opara; Rivers State PDP 

Campaign Council 

Chairman, Chief 

Ferdinand Alabraba; 

Senator Lee Maeba and 

state Commissioner of 

Education, Tamunosisi 

Gogo-Jaja. 

Yesterday at the 

Government House, Port 

Harcourt, former Rivers 

State Governor, Sir 

Omehia handed over the 

award to the governor at 

a brief ceremony. 

Omehia said the award 

by Daar Communication 

Plc, the owners of African 

Independent Television 

and Raypower FM, was 

a confirmation of the 

several awards of 

recognition to Governor 

Wike by national and 

international 

organisations. 

He said that Rivers 

people were happy with 

Wike for using their 

mandate to project the 

state positively through 

projects and pro-people 

programmes. 

“The award showed 

that you are the eagle of 

all the governors. 

Recognising the fact that 

you have several awards, 

this particular award has 

confirmed what the 

world already knows. It 

is important to state that 

Rivers People are solidly 

behind Governor Wike,” 

he said. 

Responding, Governor 

Wike said Daar 

Governor of the Year 

2018 will spur him to 

sustain the massive 

development of the 

state. 

management of funds 

allocated to the Amnesty 

Programme and his 

transparency. 

Nwabushi, who was 

represented on the occasion 

by his deputy, Senator 

Baba Bashiru, said: “The 

Presidential Amnesty 

Programme, which was 

established in 2009 has had 

four chief executives as 

Special Advisers/ 

Coordinators. Of all the 

four, I can confidently say 

that the current coordinator 

has been very proactive and 

eager to realise the 

mandate of the 

programme." 

Speaking on behalf of 

members of the House of 

Representatives 

Committee on Niger Delta, 

Istiphanus Gyang, said the 

Amnesty Programme was 

designed to train and 

empower youths in the oilrich 

region, noting that the 

Oil and Gas Basic Skills 

Vocational Training Centre 

will profitably engage some 

beneficiaries of the Amnesty 

Programme in the oil 

industry. 

Earlier, Special Adviser to 

the President on Niger 

Delta and Coordinator, 

Amnesty Programme, 

Dokubo said the Oil and 

Gas Basic Skills Training 

Centre was set to 

commence building human 

capacity to fill gaps in the 

lower and middle cadre 

levels of the highly 

competitive oil and gas 

sector of the nation’s 

economy. 

In his remarks, Governor 

Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo 

State, who was represented 

by his deputy, Mr. Agboola 

Ajayi, said the Amnesty 

Programme had not only 

impacted on the lives of 

individuals, but also 

transformed the entire 

Niger Delta, especially in 

human capacity building 

and empowerment, thereby 

deepening peace in the 

area.


*From left: Professor Ovaborhene Idamoyibo of the Department of Music, Delta 

State University, Abraka; Tunji Vidal, Emeritus Professor of Music and Musicology, 

Obafemi Awolowo University; Mr. Steve Ayorinde, Lagos State Commissioner for 

Arts, Tourism & Culture; Professor Bode Omojola, Chair & Convener during the 

symposium near UNILAG Lagos. 

Akin Euba, inventor of African Pianism, 

honoured with symposium, concert 

By Osa Mbonu, 

Arts Editor 

An international sym 

posium and concert 

in honour of Professor 

Akin Euba was held from 

January 16–18, 2019. It 

was jointly sponsored by 

the Department of Creative 

Arts, University of 

Lagos and The Musical 

Society of Nigeria, MU- 

SON. The symposium 

which witnessed series of 

paper presentations and 

panel discussions took 

place near the University 

of Lagos while the concert 

was at the Agip Recital 

Hall, MUSON Centre, 

Onikan, Lagos. 

It was all in celebration 

of Professor Akin Euba’s 

contribution to Africanist 

music scholarship and 

growth of African art. He 

introduced the concept of 

African Pianism to theorize 

the ways in which 

composers could use the 

Western pianoforte compositionally 

to reinterpret 

the structural and performance 

features of African 

music. He also coined 

and popularized the term, 

creative ethnomusicology, 

to conceptualise the relationship 

between ethnographic 

research and musical 

composition. 

For many years, Akin 

Euba edited a newsletter, 

directed a research centre, 

and organised an intercontinental 

symposium 

series to explore the significance 

of interculturalism 

in musical composition 

and performance. His 

works include numerous 

academic publications 

and compositions such as 

his book, Yoruba Drumming 

and Chaka, an opera 

in two chants which 

was recorded by the City 

of Birmingham Touring 

Opera in UK and conducted 

by Simon Halsey in 

1999. 

Professor Akin Euba, 

who retired in 2011, lives 

in the United States where 

he has continued to be active. 

In 2014, his latest 

book, J.H. Kwabena Nketia 

– Bridging Musicology 

and Composition – A 

Study in Creative Musicology, 

was published by 

the Music Research Institute. 

This special event 

in honour of Professor 

Akin Euba was conceived 

to celebrate the remarkable 

achievements of a man 

who has mentored many 

scholars and musicians 

within and outside Africa, 

and whose works are invaluable 

academic and 

creative resources for 

students, scholars and 

composers. 

The three-day symposium 

and concert attracted 

scholars and 

lovers of art music from 

U.S, UK, South Africa, 

Ghana, Nigeria and other 

countries. Keynote 

speakers included Professor 

Kofi Agawu, a 

Hughes-Rogers professor 

of music, Princeton 

University, USA. His 

paper was: On the interrogative 

potential of 

(African) art music; 

George Worlasi Kwasi 

Dor, who presented a 

paper titled: Transformative 

power in Akin 

Euba’s ‘creative ethnomusicology’ 

paradigm 

for African art 

music” is a McDonnell- 

Barksdale chair of ethnomusicology, 

professor 

of music, University of 

Mississippi, USA; 

Meki Nzewi, University 

of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, 

presented a paper 

titled: Purge the 

imposed terminological 

dyspepsia, and capably 

ingest the unique humanning 

logics that 

underpin the genius of 

African indigenous musical 

arts motherhood; 

and Tunji Vidal, Emeritus 

Professor of Music 

and Musicology, Obafemi 

Awolowo University, 

Nigeria, who presented 

a paper titled: From 

Robert Coker to Akinwande 

Euba: 150 years 

of art music in Nigeria. 

Lagos State Governor, 

Akinwunmi Ambode, 

represented by Mr. Steve 

Ayorinde, Lagos 

State Commissioner for 

Arts, Tourism & Culture, 

said “the achievements 

of Prof. Akin Euba in the 

field of classical music 

are legendary. He sits 

comfortably among his 

contemporaries including 

Prof. Laz Ekwueme 

who has (now) taken the 

role of a traditional ruler, 

Prof. Sam Akpabot of 

blessed memory, and 

many others who had 

domesticated the rules 

guiding the rendition of 

African music to accommodate 

our traditional 

tunes.” 

Earlier, Dr. Stephen 

Olusoji of University of 

Lagos, in welcoming 

guests and participants 

to the symposium on 

behalf of the LOC, said: 

“We have made adequate 

preparations to 

make your stay comfortable. 

And if you need 

anything, just let us 

know. We have worked, 

despite that there is 

(ASUU) strike. We have 

done our best. I want to 

thank all my colleagues 

for doing a marvelous 

job.” 

Professor Bode Omojola 

thanked the University 

of Lagos, saying 

the symposium wouldn’t 

have been possible 

without the “strong 

show of support” and 

contributions made by 

the institution. He also 

extended his gratitude 

to the MUSON Centre, 

Onikan, Lagos, “for collaborating 

with UNI- 

LAG” on the symposium 

and concert. 

Narrating how the 

idea of the symposium 

and concert to honour 

Akin Euba was conceived 

and made a reality, 

Omojola said it all 

started with a conference 

they held five or six 

years ago in a university 

in the Caribbean 

which was also attended 

by Professor Akin 

Outcome of chat with author of 

book proposing new system of govt 

Euba. On one of the 

evenings, they were 

driving to where they 

had a dinner and Professor 

Akin Euba saw a 

neighborhood which he 

said reminded him of 

Lagos. “So at that point, 

we said: ‘Prof. you 

know, you should come 

to Nigeria; you should 

come home. You’ve not 

been there for a very 

long time. So that informal 

discussion would 

then transform into 

something more formal 

– we decided we were 

going to organise this 

conference so that he 

will come home. 

“Akin Euba has this 

model of symposia that 

he was organising all 

over the world; he 

would have a scholarly 

session and then complement 

it with a performance. 

So we decided 

we were going to use 

that model for this conference. 

We unanimously 

appointed the late 

Professor Obidike to be 

the chairperson, and 

she started doing a 

great job, mobilising 

people and support for 

this conference. But unfortunately, 

as we all 

know, she passed on. 

“When she passed on, 

I went to meet Professor 

Akin Euba and told him 

I would like to continue 

(from where Prof. 

Obidike stopped) if he 

would give me the 

blessing. He did. And 

the rest, as they say, is 

history. I got in touch 

with UNILAG, ANIM 

(Association of Nigerian 

Musicologists). 

ANIM has been a wonderful 

support. 

“Then we got in touch 

with the Creative Arts 

Department. People decided 

that Dr. Olusoji 

Stephen will be the 

chairperson. I have never 

seen a group of committed, 

hardworking 

and industrious group 

of lecturers as we have 

at UNILAG. 

Odion Obumese, pro 

ponent of Tradocracy, 

a new system of 

government, has shed 

more light on his idea. 

Tradocracy, he says, is a 

system that will root out 

money politics in electoral 

competition. Money 

politics prevents competent 

and capable persons 

from competing for political 

positions. Sovereign 

electoral commission in 

Tradocracy shall have logistics 

and structures for 

free electoral competition. 

Electoral contest shall 

involve electoral examination 

and debate. Election 

shall be scored on the 

basis of 50 per cent; 25 per 

cent for electoral examination, 

and 25 per cent for 

electoral debate. The candidate 

with the highest 

score wins the post. Allocation 

of the whole 100 

per cent to votes cast in 

an election inevitably 

leads to election of mediocre 

because sometimes 

people vote based 

on blood line and religious 

affiliation and not 

for competency. 

The author further explains 

that Tradocracy 

shall operate two legislative 

chambers: the Upper 

House and Lower House. 

The Upper House may be 

the Senate if the country 

or state is not a monarchy. 

But if the country is 

predominantly a monarchy, 

the Upper House of 

Legislature shall be 

House of Peace and the 

representatives of the 

House of Peace shall be 

traditional kings or 

queens that have at least 

school certificate. 

Note that the Senate or 

House of Peace cannot 

exist at the same time. A 

country shall choose 

whether to operate the 

Senate or the House of 

Peace based on the culture 

and tradition of a 

state. If the Senate exists, 

the House of Peace cannot 

exist and vice-versa 

because they are both 

upper arms of the legislature. 

However, there shall be 

a Lower Arm of the Legislature 

alongside the 

Upper Arm. Representatives 

of the Lower Arm 

(House of Progress) come 

from the public. The Upper 

Arm of the Legislature 

shall elect a national 

leader (Onojie) next to 

the President. There shall 

be no Vice- 

President. The national 

leader shall have executive 

mandate and will 

control traditional ministries 

like Ministry of Agriculture, 

Arts and Culture, 

Health and Ministry 

of Police Affairs. All 

other ministries, including 

the Treasury Department 

and Central Bank, 

will be under the control 

of the President. 

Governor of the Department 

of Morality shall 

sign into law all electoral 

bills made by Electoral 

Legislative Assembly. 

Government or Parliament 

does not make law 

for the Electoral Commission, 

and the Department 

of Morality shall evaluate 

the performance of the 

Executive, from the post 

of president to the least, 

every five years to ascertain 

whether they will 

continue in office or not. 

Evaluation of performance 

is different from impeachment 

in the sense 

that impeachment comes 

as a result of gross misconduct.


Voice of media, voice of the people 

…in celebration of six million strongman, Aare Gani Adams 

By Tunde Akanni, PhD 

This book, Voice of me 

dia, voice of the people, 

edited by Dr. Qasim Akinreti, 

and published by the 

Nigerian Union of Journalists, 

Lagos State Council, 

celebrates Otunba Gani Adams, 

the Aare Ona Kakanfo 

Ḟrom royalties of distinction, 

to first rate national 

political figures and activists, 

together with the central 

players (in this context) 

of tested journalists drawn 

from all genres across the 

print, broadcast and online, 

have issued forth, kind 

words of memorable commenda-tion 

to Iba Gani 

Abiodun Adams. All of these 

have been particularly stimulated 

by Iba Adam’s ascent 

to the height of Aare Ona 

Kakanfo, one of the most 

prestigious traditional titles 

in the entire Yorubaland 

which today comprises Oyo, 

Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti 

and of course the nation’s 

financial nerve centre of 

Lagos State, as well as the 

fringes of Edo and Delta 

states. 

Until this high point in the 

life of this trans-generationally 

worthy son better labeled 

Akikanju for which 

there hardly exists an English 

equivalent, Gani Adams, 

as he used to be popularly 

called, was most associated 

with the six millionstrong 

Oodua People’s Congress, 

OPC. But who is that 

Nigerian that does not even 

know, admire or fear OPC 

for whatever reason? Mine 

combines the three dimensions. 

I’m also convinced 

there would be tons of anecdotes 

from many others 

here today if there would be 

time to share related experiential 

tales. 

Gani’s story is yet another 

of poetic grass to grace 

narrative we all pray and 

aspire to realise in different 

contexts. Born to Pa Lamidi 

Adams and the late Madam 

Dada Adams, nee Aduloju, 

Gani Adams attended 

many primary schools due 

to the itinerant nature of 

daddy’s job as a driver. His 

Director, Centre for 

Gender Studies, 

Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, 

Edo State, Dr. Helen Uhuamwagho 

has reassured 

that the lingering labour 

dispute between the Federal 

Government and the 

Academic Staff Union of 

Universities, ASUU, will 

not affect the forthcoming 

international conference 

holding at the polytechnic 

from January 21 to 24. 

In a statement, Dr. Uhuamwagho 

said the conference 

will still hold as 

scheduled noting that 

participants are being 

expected from within and 

outside the country. 

“So far, we have received 

encouraging responses 

from participants 

for the conference. 

The strike will not in any 

way affect it even if by 

*Aare Gani Adams. 

educational exploits started 

at the Army Children’s 

School, Oturkpo, Benue 

State, where he got as far as 

primary three. At this point 

came the father’s transfer to 

Lagos, where he completed 

his primary school education 

at the Municipal Primary 

School, Surulere, Lagos, 

in 1980. 

Gani subsequently proceeded 

to Ansar-Ud-Deen 

Secondary School, Randle 

Avenue, Surulere, Lagos, for 

his secondary education 

before picking an interior 

decoration job at an Italian 

Construction Company, 

Visinoni Stabilini, Apapa, 

Lagos. 

Cultivated for independence 

early in life, Gani commenced 

its actualisation by 

resigning from Visinoni 

Stabilini to establish his 

own interior decoration 

business, Gadson Interior. 

Still with a pressing thirst 

for more knowledge in a 

world where the indispensability 

of knowledge keeps 

heightening, Adams returned 

to school to bag a 

Diploma in Tourism Management 

from the International 

Aviation School, 

Tema, Ghana in 2003. Not 

done, irrepressible Gani 

went further to obtain another 

Diploma in International 

Relations and Strategic 

Studies from the Lagos 

State University 

(LASU). Gani had fallen in 

love with LASU and therefore 

returned there to cap 

this up with a Bachelor’s 

degree in Political Science. 

Obviously well immersed 

into the doctrines of such 

renowned radicalising political 

science literature including 

but not limited to 

those of Frantz Fanon, Walter 

Rodney and the likes, he 

got further fired up to challenge 

the pre-existing social 

order in Nigeria largely occasioned 

by the military 

rule of that time. Young 

Gani thus became an active 

pro-democracy activist in 

1992. He pitched his tent 

with the Campaign for Democracy, 

CD, in the struggle 

to end military rule in 

Nigeria for democratic 

governance. 

Energetic Gani had a big 

and daunting responsibility 

thrust on his shoulders 

when he became the Public 

Relations Officer, PRO of 

Mushin Local Government 

Chapter of CLO in 1993 as 

well as a member of the 

Oodua Youth Movement, 

OYM, a pro-Yoruba self-determination 

group. He was 

a foundation member of the 

Oodua People’s Congress, 

OPC when it was formed in 

1994. Like the proverbial 

huge elephant that cannot 

pass unnoticed, Gani Adams 

was the overwhelming 

choice for the position of the 

first Deputy National Coordinator 

and now the National 

Coordinator of the 

group. This availed Otunba 

Gani Adams the needed 

pedestal to distinguish himself 

and earn the recommendation 

for the much revered 

Aare Ona Kakanfo title. 

This work presents a 

somewhat palpable translation 

of the meaning of the 

media as the mirror of the 

society, having mirrored the 

Aare Ona Kakanfo of this 

generation relatively extensively. 

Otunba Gani Adam’s 

nomination for the exalted 

office attracted a flurry of 

communications in the 

form of a national newspaper’s 

editorial, presidential 

courtesy, messages from 

state governors, Kabiyesis, 

political leaders as well as 

media leaders across genres. 

“In spite of the fact that 

I am a holder of 52 traditional 

titles; none has 

drawn as much comments 

and commendations as 

this,” Aare Adams notes in 

the post-installation speech 

also contained herein. 

In all, there are 61 entries 

divided into no fewer than 

eight categories apart from 

sections on the profile of the 

Aare, his inaugural speech, 

the news report on his visit 

to Ooni Ogunwusi and the 

appendix. The eight groups 

of messages are editorial 

comments, presidential 

Delta Peace Concert for 2019 elections 

With the 2019 elec 

toral campaign in 

top gear, organisers of 

Delta Peace Concert 

have called for peaceful 

campaigns and elections. 

The call was made 

by the Executive Director, 

Delta Peace Concert, 

Ediri Obada, while 

speaking to pressmen 

recently in Lagos. 

“Over the years,” said 

Obada, “there have been 

records of pockets of violence 

in different places 

during periods of 

election and those incidents 

were purported to 

ASUU strike won’t affect Auchi Poly 

conference – Fmr Dean, School of Arts & Design 

then the dispute is not 

resolved because the 

school is in session except 

academic activities,” 

she added. 

The conference has as 

theme: Implementing 

and sustaining gender 

mainstreaming in a globalised 

world, and it is 

being coordinated by the 

institution’s Centre for 

Gender Studies. 

Participants at the conference 

will address subthemes, 

such as Strategies 

for ending all forms 

of poverty; Strategies for 

making our cities and 

human settlements safe; 

Inclusive and sustainable 

strategies for effective implementation 

of international 

action programme 

on climate change; Strategies 

for achieving gender 

equality and Strategies 

for economic empowerment 

of women and 

girls, among others. 

The four-day conference 

will feature a keynote 

address by Dr. 

Kwame Nyamekhe, a 

lead paper by Prof. Agatha 

Eguavoen of Faculty 

of Social Sciences, 

Ambrose Alli University, 

Ekpoma, Edo State; a 

technical session, a gala 

night and a guided tour 

of tourism sites in Afenmai 

area of the state. The 

Rector, Auchi Polytechnic, 

Dr. M. S Jimah, is chief 

host. 

Several personalities 

who have distinguished 

themselves in various 

fields of human endeavours 

have been listed for 

the conferment of the 

Centre’s award of honours. 

have been carried out by 

youths. Records show 

that from the inception 

of any political campaign 

and electioneering 

processes in Delta 

State and Nigeria at 

large, youths have consistently 

been most vulnerable, 

yet there are no 

adequate enlightenment 

programs to equip them 

and the general public 

to peacefully defend the 

democratic process. 

“No doubt, times like 

this trigger widespread 

political violence because 

there is an exacerbated 

tension within 

fragile individuals, conflict- 

prone communities 

and oppressed societies. 

We believe that preventing 

violence before its 

eruption would not just 

be seen as one of the 

possibilities for free, fair 

and credible election but 

more preferably as a rapid 

response mechanism 

instead of the normal 

reactive approaches.” 

Obada said as the 

2019 general elections 

draw closer, the Delta 

Peace Concert propagates 

the message of 

peace amongst youths. 

And with Rivers State 

being a flash point for 

electoral violence, proper 

and proactive initiatives 

must be put in 

place to curb and resist 

the ugly menace of violence. 

The concert which will 

hold at the Dome Event 

Centre, Opanam Road 

Asaba on 14th February, 

2019 will leverage on the 

attraction by celebrities 

and entertainment to put 

on exhibition, other aspects 

of the economic 

life of the state and 

goodwill that the state 

stands to lose if election 

violence was not averted. 

Also speaking, the Director 

of programs, Oni 

Daniel, said: “For there 

to be positive promotion 

of democracy and the 

prevention of election 

violence in Nigeria, not 

only in the upcoming 

elections, there should 

be appropriate set of 

policy instruments to 

address the frustration 

problems, financial incentives, 

implementation 

of unbiased election 

tribunals for the fears of 

those who resort to violence 

as a means to win, 

disrupt, or protest election 

votes and results.” 

He called on Nigerians 

to embrace peace irrespective 

of their political 

affiliations. Lasting 

peace, he said, could be 

achieved during and after 

elections in the state 

when the existing governments, 

together with 

the elite, celebrities, entrepreneurs, 

and the 

youths, understand and 

drive the peace agenda 

regardless of their political 

alliances. The concert 

is designed to appeal 

to the senses of the 

youths and make them 

shun violence. 

commendation, editors’ 

comments, royal commendation 

and political acclamation. 

The rest are eminent 

personalities’ approbation, 

socio-cultural groups’ 

endorsement and media 

applause. 

Some of the messages are 

polite and celebratory replies 

to invitation to attend 

his investiture which was 

scheduled for January 13, 

2018. Expectedly, the most 

rounded or balanced of the 

communications is that of 

Oba Yisa Olanipekun, the 

Zaki of Arigidi Akoko, the 

monarch of the birthplace 

of Aare Adams. Kabiyesi is 

not only full of kind words 

betraying his admiration 

for ‘his son’, he is profoundly 

grateful to the Alaafin for 

finding ‘their own’ worthy of 

the huge honour. He even 

reports the support of all the 

brother monarchs in the adjoining 

communities for 

Otunba Gani’s choice for 

the exalted position by the 

Alaafin. 

While Dr. Fasehun, also of 

OPC fame, concedes the 

right to Alaafin for his 

choice for Aare Ona Kakanfo, 

Asiwaju Tinubu describes 

the generalissimo as 

a man with “heart of steel.” 

Joseph Evah, leader of a 

coalition of Niger-Delta 

groups in Lagos, finds Adams 

as deserving of all 

goodwill for, among other 

reasons, supporting their 

kinsman, former President 

Jonathan, when it mattered 

most. Expression of support 

from the media community 

came from Daily Times, The 

Nation, Nigerian Television 

Authority, NTA, Sun, NUJ, 

New Telegraph etc. 

This publication is a rich 

resource material for researchers 

in historical, sociological 

and anthropological 

studies with its scope 

and depth on the subject in 

focus. 

However, the publication, 

throughout, struggles with 

the spelling of Oodua variously 

spelt as O’dua, Odu’a 

and Odua. May I therefore 

suggest, in line with the 

much desired regional integration 

that the name 

registered with the Corporate 

Affairs Commission for 

the commonwealth headquartered 

at Cocoa House 

be adopted. A consistent 

spelling is particularly necessary 

now that Lagos is effectively 

part of the South- 

West of Nigeria having been 

admitted into the fold of the 

commercial conglomerate. 

Dr. Akanni is the Director 

of Digital Media and 

Research Centre, DMRC, 

Lagos State University, 

LASU, Nigeria.


Beirut summit: Arab leaders agree 29-item 

economic agenda 

Arab leaders have 

agreed a 29-item 

economic agenda in addition 

to encouraging the 

safe return of Syrian refugees 

to their homeland 

at the conclusion of the 

Arab Economic and Social 

Development Summit. 

The 20 countries taking 

part in the summit issued 

a joint statement called 

the Beirut Declaration on 

Sunday, calling for the 

establishment of an Arab 

free trade zone and the 


to support countries 

hosting refugees and 

displaced people. 

Reading out the statement, 

Hossam Zaki, assistant 

secretary general 

of the Arab League, reminded 

the international 

and Arab donor communities 

to “help alleviate 

the suffering of refugees 

and displaced and 

to secure funding for developmental 

projects in 

host countries”. 

In his opening speech, 

Lebanon President 

Michel Aoun had called 

for encouraging the “safe 

return of displaced Syrians”, 

saying that the 

process should not be 

linked to a political solution 

in the war-torn 

country. A key point of 

contention ahead of the 

meeting related to the 

wording of Article 13 in 

the summit statement. 

Lebanon, which hosts 

hundreds of thousands of 

Syrian refugees, called 

Eight U.N. peace 

keepers were killed 

and several were wounded 

while repelling an attack 

by armed assailants 

near a village in northern 

Mali on Sunday, the West 

African nation’s U.N. mission 

said. 

The identity of the attackers 

was not immediately 

clear. U.N. peacekeeping 

and French forces 

are stationed in northern 

Mali to combat wellarmed 

jihadist groups 

seen as the gravest threat 

to security across Africa’s 

Sahel region. 

The clash near Aguelhok 

occurred early on 

Sunday following an attack 

“by assailants in 

for their return to Syria 

after President Bashar 

al-Assad regained control 

of most of the country. 

Other countries had 

insisted this discussion 

be linked to a political 

solution. 

The summit had also 

been marred by divisions 

among Lebanese 

politicians and regional 

leaders over the reinstatement 

of Syria into 

the 22-country Arab 

League. 

While Lebanon’s foreign 

minister Gebran 

Bassil called for Syria’s 

return to the bloc, its secretary 

general Ahmed 

Aboul Gheit said there 

was no agreement the 

proposal yet, adding that 

it may be discussed during 

the Arab League 

summit that takes place 

in Tunisia in March. 

Eight U.N. peacekeepers killed in 

northern Mali 

many armed vehicles,” 

the U.N. peacekeeping 

mission in Mali (MINUS- 

MA) said in a statement. 

It said peacekeepers 

had thwarted the attack, 

but eight died and several 

were wounded. The 

mission’s chief Mahamat 

Saleh Annadif demanded 

“a robust, swift and concerted 

response.” 

A 2015 peace deal 

signed by Mali’s government 

and separatist 

groups has failed to end 

the violence. Islamists 

have also staged assaults 

on high-profile targets in 

the capital, Bamako, and 

in neighbouring Burkina 

Faso and Ivory Coast. 

French forces intervened 

in Mali in 2013 to drive 

back fighters who had hijacked 

a Tuareg uprising 

a year earlier, and some 

4,000 French troops remain 

there. The U.N. Security 

Council then deployed 

peacekeepers, 

which have been targets 

of a concerted guerrilla 

campaign. 

A 

US diocese has 

apologised and 

vowed to take action after 

videos emerged showing 

boys from a Catholic private 

school mocking an 

elderly Native American 

man at a rally in the capital, 

Washington, prompt- 

China set to post 

slowest growth in 28 

China is expected to 

report on Monday 

that economic growth 

cooled to its slowest in 28 

years in 2018 amid weakening 

domestic demand 

and bruising U.S. tariffs, 

adding pressure on 

Beijing to roll out more 

support measures to avert 

a sharper slowdown. 

Growing signs of weakness 

in China which has 

generated nearly a third 

of global growth in the 

past decade are stoking 

worries about risks to the 

world economy and are 

weighing on profits for 

firms ranging from Apple 

to big carmakers. 

Chinese policymakers 

have pledged more support 

for the economy this 

year to reduce the risk of 

massive job losses, but 

they have ruled out a 

“flood” of stimulus like 

that which Beijing has 

unleashed in the past, 

which quickly juiced 

growth rates but left a 

mountain of debt. 

Analysts polled by 

Reuters expect the world’s 

second-largest economy 

to have grown 6.4 percent 

in the October-December 

quarter from a year earlier, 

slowing from the previous 

quarter’s 6.5 percent 

pace and matching 

levels last seen in early 

2009 during the global financial 

crisis. 

That could pull 2018 

gross domestic product 

(GDP) growth to 6.6 percent, 

the lowest since 

1990 and down from a revised 

6.8 percent in 2017. 

With stimulus measures 

expected to take some 

time to kick in, most analysts 

believe conditions in 

China are likely to get 

worse before they get better, 

and see a further 

slowdown to 6.3 percent 

this year. Some analysts 

believe real growth levels 

are already much weaker 

than official data suggest. 

US school apologises for students mocking 

elderly Native American 

ing widespread criticism. 

The Indigenous Peoples 

March in Washington on 

Friday coincided with the 

March for Life, which 

drew thousands of antiabortion 

protesters, including 

a group from 

Covington Catholic High 

School in Park Hills, Kentucky. 

Videos circulating 

online show a youth staring 

at and standing extremely 

close to Nathan 

Phillips, a 64-year-old 

Native American man 

singing and playing the 

drum.



President Muhammadu Buhari (3RD R), Secretary to the Government of 

the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha (R); Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari 

(2ND R); National President, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of 

Nigerian (MACBAN), Alhaji Muhhamadu Kirowa (4TH L) and other 

MACBAN members, during their meeting with President Buhari, at the 

Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday. 

Obasanjo bombs Buhari again 


obviously encouraged by 

the Executive Arm of 

Government and who must 

be held responsible for the 

violence that will follow. 

Such measures can vary 

from denial and withdrawal 

of visas from the people 

concerned and from their 

families to other more 

stringent measures 

including their accounts 

being frozen and taking 

them to International 

Criminal Court, ICC, if 

violence emanates from 

their action or inaction. 

Nigeria must not be 

allowed to slip off the 

democratic path nor go into 

anarchy and ruin. No 

individual nor group has 

monopoly of violence or 

gangsterism. And we must 

not forget that in human 

interaction, reactions are 

normally greater than 

action, though opposite. 

It is no use, at this 

juncture, to keep 

lamenting about the failure, 

incompetence, 

divisiveness, nepotism, 

encouragement and 

condonation of corruption 

by Buhari administration 

as there is neither 

redeeming feature nor 

personality to salvage the 

situation within that 

hierarchy. You cannot give 

what you don’t have. 

Bode George put it bluntly 

in his statement of 

December 3, 2018 when he 

said: ‘The other day, the 

Vice-President of Nigeria, 

Professor Yemi Osinbajo - 

a learned man, an 

enlightened person in all 

parameters – was seen at 

various markets in Lagos 

State and Abuja 

distributing N10,000 each 

to market women. What 

an absurdity! It was indeed 

an obscene display of 

executive recklessness and 

abuse of office. Pray, 

where did the money come 

from? Was it budgeted for 

in the appropriation law? In 

more civilised nations, 

Osinbajo would have been 

impeached and prosecuted 

for gutting our collective 

treasury.’ 

“What an act by a Senior 

Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, 

number 2 man in the 

Executive hierarchy; and 

what is more, a pastor of 

one of the Christian 

movements led by a 

revered, respected and 

upright church leader, 

Pastor E. A. Adeboye. 

Osinbajo must have gone 

for, ‘if you can’t beat them, 

join them.’ 

“A great pity indeed and 

which makes people ask 

the questions, “Any 

hope?” Yes, for me, there 

is hope. Osinbajo has 

shown the human 

weakness and proved the 

saying that the corruption 

of the best is the worst form 

of corruption. His 

explanation that it was their 

government programme 

can only be construed to be 

very shallow and lopsided, 

if not an out rightly idiotic 

programme. 

“Traders in rural and suburban 

areas of Nigeria are 

many more than those in 

urban areas and they are 

much poorer than traders 

in Lagos, Abuja and other 

cities. They need more 

attention and greater help. 

Are they to be confined to 

the heap of perpetual 

poverty? What of those 

who are not traders? They 

are not entitled to hand-out 

and they can languish in 

penury? And what about 

millions who have lost their 

jobs in the last three and a 

half years? The timing is 

also suspect. Those who 

criticise the action are called 

evil but they are not evil as 

they know what they are 

doing and saying, and they 

love Nigeria and Nigerians 

not less than the likes of 

Osinbajo. They are not 

devils incarnate; they are 

patriots. 

“What is the connection 

between taking the number 

of PVC (PermanentVoters 

Card) of the recipient of the 

N10,000 doled out to 

‘traders’ and the 

forthcoming election? 

There is something sinister 

about it, and Professor 

Osinbajo, of all people, 

should know that. With 

collusion of the INEC 

officials and card readers 

not made to work, anybody 

quoting the PVC number 

may be allowed to vote as 

the revised Electoral Bill 

was not signed. And if that 

happens all over the 

country, it will be massive 

rigging indeed. The 

Chairman of INEC must 

stand firm and carry out his 

duties with competence 

and unbending neutrality. 

Card readers must be used 

without fail and 

accreditation must be 

completed and number 

ascertained and made 

public before voting 

commences as was done in 

2015. 

“Amina Zakari has 

become too controversial a 

figure to be able to give 

assurance of free, fair and 

credible election for INEC. 

President Buhari and her 

family have declared that 

there is no blood 

relationship but there is 

relationship through 

marriage and that is more 

than enough for the good 

lady to step aside. A judge 

does not sit in judgement 

over a case once he or she 

becomes a cause for 

controversy or one side in 

the case has strongly 

objected to the judge. 

Madam Amina Zakari 

should, in honour, stay out 

and not be seen as a source 

of contamination of the 

election. Otherwise, it will 

be difficulty to deny the 

rumour that she is being 

assigned to Collation 

Centre for one duty only – 

to write out figures that are 

not results of the voting in 

the field on fake results 

sheets without water mark 

or on genuine results 

sheets which she will have 

access to as a 

Commissioner. 

“Amina Zakari is not the 

only Commissioner that 

can be in the Collation 

Centre. Let the INEC 

Chairman act boldly and 

impartially and prove his 

absolute neutrality and 

responsiveness to 

contribute to make the 

election peacefully free, fair 

and credible. His integrity 

needs to be transparently 

demonstrated. 

“We should remember 

that there had been reports 

of INEC sponsored 

rigging in the past, and 

also with INEC officials 

through collation and with 

officials being put in party 

coordinators’ dresses and 

working for the political 

party favoured by INEC 

and also putting the dresses 

of other parties on INECfavoured 

parties and police 

uniforms on INECfavoured 

parties to rig all 

the elections for the 

favoured party. Like all of 

us, INEC knows all these 

and it should devise means 

to make sure they do not 

happen. But will they? 

One way will be to only 

allow card readers to be 

means of authenticating 

voters and where there is 

no such authentication, it 

should mean no voting. 

The second is to use only 

identity cards with 

watermarks issued by 

INEC itself to party officials 

only for identification of 

political party coordinators, 

officials and agents and not 

political parties dresses or 

arm and wrist bands which 

anybody can wear for 

purposes of identification 

on election duty or 

function. 

“Both the Presidency and 

the National Assembly 

must so far be commended 

for adequately providing 

funding as confirmed by 

INEC, and therefore 

funding cannot be an 

excuse for poor 

performance by INEC. 

“President Buhari and 

his hatchet men in the 

coming election think that 

the judiciary must be 

primed in their favour. 

Hence, the Chief Justice of 

Nigeria, Justice Walter 

Samuel Nkanu 

Onnoghen, has been 

harassed and prosecuted 

for non-declaration of his 

assets without following the 

Constitution and the law, 

just to make him conform 

or set him aside for a 

Buhari man to take over or 

act, as President Buhari 

and his people believe no 

stone should be left 

unturned to rig Buhari in. 

It seems to be a ploy to 

intimidate the judiciary as 

a whole in preparation for 

all election cases that will 

go before them. Where 

and how will all these stop? 

Typically, with 

overwhelming outrage and 

condemnation, we are told 

that the Presidency denied 

knowledge of the action. 

“But the Vice-President 

told us that the President 

knew of the action on 

Saturday night for 

everything that has been 

prepared for Monday 

morning. Haba VP, it 

doesn’t happen that way. 

Nobody should take such 

measure against any of the 

four in hierarchy below the 

President or any of his 

ministers without his 

knowledge and indeed his 

approval. But if that can 

happen to the Chief Justice 

of the Federation, the fifth 

man in the hierarchy of 

government, without the 

knowledge let alone the 

approval of the President, 

then it speaks for the type 

of government we have 

which means the President 

is not in charge let alone 

being in control and no 

Nigerian must take 

anything for granted. We 

are all unsafe and insecure 

under such an 


enough of it! 

And 

“Buhari’s apologists will 

not stop at anything to try 

to cover up his 

administration’s 

inadequate performance 

and character. A 

constitutional liberal 

democracy cannot thrive 

without an independent 

and insulated judiciary from 

the executive and the 

legislature. Nigerians 

must wake up and stop 

these acts of wanton 

desperation tantamount to 

mental incapacity to run the 

affairs of Nigeria 

wholesomely. 

Life and living are 

anchored on trust. But if 

I trust you and you deceive, 

cheat or disappoint me the 

first time, it is shame on 

you. However, if I allow 

you to do so the same thing 

for me the second time, I 

do not only have myself to 

blame, I must be regarded 

as a compound fool. 

“Buhari has succeeded 

in deceiving us the first 

time and we will be fools to 

allow ourselves to be 

deceived the second time. 

Buba Galadima, who 

knows Buhari very well as 

a confidant and National 

Secretary of Congress for 

Progressive Change, CPC, 

the Buhari’s party before it 

joined in forming All 


APC, has warned us this 

time around that no matter 

what he promises, he 

cannot change his 

character and attitude. He 

describes him as inflexible, 

insincere, dubious, 

intolerant, never accepts 

responsibility when things 

go wrong and impervious 

to reason and advice for 

change. If you cannot 

change your mind, you 

cannot change anything is 

the assertion of George 

Bernard Shaw. Even when 

figures, facts and statistics 

are made clear to Buhari, 

he keeps repeating what is 

untrue, either because he 

cannot understand or for 

mischief purposes and that 

places him on the level of a 

pathological liar. He 

believes he can get away 

with impunity and deceit as 

he seems to have done on 

many occasions in the past. 

Buba Galadima’s position 

is well complemented by 

Dr. Auwalu Anwar on the 

APC, CPC, TBO and 

Buhari’s character and 

attitude in his yet to be 

launched book, “Politics As 

Dashed Hopes in 

Nigeria”. It is also a 

stunning revelation. Anwar 

clearly pointed out, “the 

brazen display of 

incompetence, insensitivity 

and irresponsiveness by 

delusional party, CPC, 

leadership at all levels”. 

Buhari was the leader of the 

party. Bola Tinubu’s 

statement about 

Muhammadu Buhari in 

2003 is fairly prophetic, 

“Muhammadu Buhari is 

an agent of destabilisation, 

ethnic bigot and religious 

fanatic who, if given the 

chance, would ensure the 

disintegration of the 

country. 

His 

ethnocentrism would 

jeopardise Nigeria’s 

national unity.” 

“Junaid Mohammed was 

eloquent on the issue of 

nepotism. But if as we 

were told that Buhari is 

nepotic because he does 

not trust others, why should 

others trust him to continue 

to put their fate and life in 

his hand. Trust begets 

trust. They cannot be 

trusted for ‘sensitive’ 

appointment but they can 

be sent out to campaign for 

his re-election. Who is 

fooling who? 

Buhari and Abacha 

“What is happening 

under Buhari’s watch can 

be likened to what we 

witnessed under Gen. Sani 

Abacha in many ways. 

When Abacha decided that 

he must install himself as 

Nigerian President by all 

means and at all costs, he 

went for broke and 

surrounded himself with 

hatchet men who on his 

order and in his interest 

and at high costs to Nigeria 

and Nigerians maimed, 

tortured and killed for 

Abacha. Buhari has started 

on the same path in mad 

desperation. 

“From available 

intelligence, we have heard 

of how Buhari and his 

party are going about his 

own self-succession 

project. They have started 

recruiting collation officers 

who are already awarding 

results based on their 

projects to actualise the 

perpetuation agenda in 

which the people will not 

matter and the votes will 

not count. It is the sole 

reason he has blatantly 

refused to sign the revised 

Electoral Reform Bill into 

law. 

His henchmen are 

working round the clock in 

cahoots with security and 

election officials to perfect 

their plan by computing 

results right from the ward 

to local government, state 

and national levels to allot 

him what will look like a 

landslide victory 

irrespective of the true 

situation for a candidate 

who might have carried out 

by proxy presidential 

debate and campaigns. 

“The current plan is to 

drape the pre-determined 

results with a toga of 

credibility. It is also 

planned that violence of 

unimaginable proportion 

will be unleashed in high 

voting population areas 

across the country to 

precipitate re-run elections 

and where he will be 

returned duly elected after 

concentration of security 

officials as it happened in 

Osun State. We are 

monitoring them and we 

call on all democrats across 

the world to keep an eye on 

the unfolding antidemocratic 

agenda of 


Buhari. This is the time 

for preventive measures to 

be taken otherwise Nigeria 

may be presented with a fait 

accompli with impunity and 

total disregard of all pleas. 

“His scheme bears 

eloquent testimony to this 

road similar to Abacha 

whom he has praised to 

high heavens and as an 

arch-supporter and 

beneficiary from Abacha, 

he has seen nothing wrong 

done by him. It is clear 

from all indications that 

Buhari is putting into 

Continues on Page 47

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 —47 



practice the lessons he 

learned from Abacha. 

Buhari has intimidated and 

harassed the private sector, 

attacked the National 

Assembly and now 

unconstitutionally and 

recklessly attacked and 

intimidated the Judiciary to 

cow them to submission. 

“I was a victim of 

Abacha’s atrocities against 

Nigeria and Nigerians – 

high and low. At the 

height of Abacha’s 

desperation for perpetual 

power, he did not brook any 

criticism because Nigeria 

was seen as his personal 

property. You must go 

along with him or be 

destroyed. All institutions 

for ensuring security, 

welfare and well-being of 

Nigeria and Nigerians 

particularly the Police, the 

Military and the 

Department of State 

Services (DSS) were 

abused and misused to deal 

with critics of Abacha and 

non-conformists with 

Abacha. 

“Today, another Abacha 

Era is here. The security 

institutions are being 

misused to fight all critics 

and opponents of Buhari 

and to derail our fledgling 

democracy. EFCC, Police 

and Code of Conduct 

Tribunal are also being 

equally misused to deal 

with those Buhari sees as 

enemies for criticising him 

or as those who may not do 

his bidding in 

manipulating election 

results. Criticism, choice 

and being different are 

inherent trade mark of 

democracy. If democracy 

is derailed or aborted, 

anarchy 

and 

authoritarianism will 

automatically follow. 

“Today, as in the day of 

Abacha, Nigerians must 

rise up and do what they 

did in the time of Abacha. 

Churches and Mosques 

prayed. 

“International community 

stood by us Nigerians. I was 

a beneficiary and my life 

was saved. Well-meaning 

Nigerians took appropriate 

actions and made sacrifices, 

some supreme, some less 

than supreme but God had 

the final say and He took 

the ultimate action. 

God of Nigeria is a living 

God and a prayeranswering 

God. 

Nigerians must cry out to 

God to deliver Nigeria. 

Here again, I have been 

threatened with arrest and 

extermination but I will not 

succumb to intimidation or 

threats. 

“Maybe I should remind 

those who are using probe 

as a threat that I have been 

probed four times by 

EFCC, ICPC, House of 

Representatives and the 

Senate and Buhari has 

access to reports of these 

probes. But I have also 

challenged Buhari and the 

criminals around him to set 

up a probe on the same 

allegations and I will face 

such probe in public. But I 

know that these criminals 

cannot withstand a Police 

inquiry let alone clinical 

probe on the past public 

offices they held. My 

fervent prayer is that 

President Buhari may live 

to see the will and purpose 

of God for Nigeria. My 

final appeal to him is to 

desist from evil with 

manipulation and 

desperation because evil 

has repercussion especially 

as man who should watch 

and be mindful of his selfacclaimed 

and packaged 

integrity. At the end of the 

day, those who goad you on 

will leave you in the lurch. 

You will be left alone, naked 

and unheralded. 

“In defeat, which must 

be Buhari’s fear leading to 

desperation, he and his cotravellers 

can still maintain 

modicum of decency, and 

exhibit fear of God in their 

actions. We have been told 

that governance has been 

abdicated to a cabal. Now, 

campaigning has been 

abdicated to ‘jagaban’. 

And it is being 

authoritatively stated that 

he would not join any 

presidential debate. 

“Nigerians will not allow 

the elections to be abdicated 

to INEC and Police to give 

us false and manipulated 

results. I personally 

commend the President for 

yielding to popular outcry 

to let the former Inspector- 

General of Police, Ibrahim 

Kpotun Idris, go when he 

is due as he had the track 

record and history of being 

assigned to rig elections for 

the incumbent. It was 

alleged that he was sent to 

Kano for that purpose in 

2015. He was already 

deploying 

his 

Commissioners of Police on 

similar mission before his 

exit. We must all encourage 

the new Inspector-General 

of Police, Mohammed 

Adamu, to tread the path of 

professionalism, evenhandedness, 

respect and 

new image for the Police. 

“While Nigeria must 

appreciate Buhari for the 

little he has done and allow 

him to depart for home in 

peace if he allows free, fair, 

peaceful and credible 

elections, we must also tell 

ourselves that Nigeria 

deserves better at this point 

in time than what Buhari is 

capable of offering. 

History will note that he 

has been there. Nigeria 

now needs a man with 

better physical and mental 

soundness, with an active 

mind and intellect. 

“Let me say again that 

Nigeria belongs to all 

Nigerians and exists for the 

benefit of all Nigerians and 

non-Nigerians who desire 

to live or do business in and 

with Nigeria. The attitude 

of “it is my turn and I can 

do what I like” with 

impunity will not last 

because Nigeria is created 

by God and it will outlive 

all evil machinations and 

designs against the overall 

interest of Nigeria. 

“Before I conclude, let me 

assert that the security 

situation has deteriorated 

with kidnapping 

everywhere and Boko 

Haram more in action and 

nobody should deceive 

Nigerians about this. With 

the teaming up of Boko 

Haram and Islamic State’s 

West Africa Province 

(ISWAP), Boko Haram is 

stronger today militarily 

than they have ever been. 

Boko Haram has also been 

empowered by the 

Nigerian government 

through payment of ransom 

of millions of dollars which 

each administration 

disingenuously always 

denies. 

“With ISIS being 

liquidated in Iraq and 

Syria, Africa is now their 

port of concentration. 

Soon, they may take over 

Libya which, with 

substantial resources, is 

almost a totally failed state. 

When that happens, all 

African countries North of 

Congo River will be unsafe 

with serious security 

problems. The struggle 

must be for all West African, 

Central African, North 

African and most East 

African States. Nigeria 

has to play a vanguard role 

in this struggle as we have 

much to lose. This 

administration has reached 

the end of its wit even in 

handling all security issues, 

but particularly Boko 

Haram issue, partly due to 

misuse of security 

apparatus and poor 

equipment, deployment, 

coordination and 

cooperation. 

“Finally, those Nigerians 

that are being intimidated 

or threatened by this 

Administration must trust in 

God and stand firm. 

Tough times do not last 

forever, but tough people 

invariably survive tough 

times. This is a tough time 

for almost all Nigerians in 

different respects, but the 

people’s will shall triumph. 

All people who have 

registered to vote with their 

PVCs must never allow 

anybody or anything to 

deny or deprive them of the 

right of performing their 

fundamental civic duty of 

voting and sustaining 

d e m o c r a c y . 

Establishment of democracy 

and its sustenance is second 

to attainment of 

independence in our 

political life, leaving out the 

victory of the civil war. We 

shall overcome." 

Buhari won’t join 

issues with 

Obasanjo 

—Presidency 

The Presidency last night 

said it will not join issues 

with former President 

Olusegun Obasanjo over 

his allegations of increasing 

rate of insecurity, impunity 

in the system and the 

alleged plot by the ruling 

All Progressives Congress, 

APC, to collaborate with the 



INEC to rig the 

forthcoming elections. 

The Presidency in a live 

television programme on 

Politics Today by Channels 

Television also asked 

President Obasanjo to 

explain to Nigerians 

whether elections under 

his administration was free 

FOR LATE BADEH—From left: Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok- 

Ete Ibas; Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin; and widow, 

Mrs. Mary Iya Badeh during the service of songs for Late Alex Badeh at the 

Headquarters of Nigerian Air force Protestant Church, Air force Base in 

Abuja, yesterday . Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan. 

and fair. 

According to the Special 

Adviser to the President on 

Media and Publicity, Chief 

Femi Adesina, “Let me start 

by saying that President 

Muhammadu Buhari has 

abiding respect for former 

President Olusegun 

Obasanjo. You know they 

come from a constituency in 

which seniority is forever. 

“President Obasanjo was 

superior to President Buhari 

in the military. President 

Buhari served under him 

for three and a quarter years 

as oil minister. So, former 

President Obasanjo is a 

senior to President Buhari 

any day any time and 

President gives him due 

courtesies whenever they 

meet. 

“So President Buhari will 

never be rude, that respect 

is abiding and enduring. 

Talking of the statement 

today, I can only say that 

what the former President 

had said is opinion of a 

man. There are about 196 

million Nigerians. If one 

man says anything, it is as 

best his opinion, it does not 

mean that is the gospel. 

“What the former 

President has said is his 

opinion and this is a 

democracy, he has a right 

to it. 

“You also forget that in 

this country when former 

President Obasanjo was in 

power there were many 

things that constituted 

impunity in that 

government. So like they 

said the onlooker sees more 

of the game than the player. 

“It is so easy for the former 

President to sit back in his 

chair reclining and criticise 

a government but many 

things that constitute 

impunity would have 

happened under his 

government. 

“Like I said and like you 

have observed it is just an 

opinion of one man and it 

doesn’t constitute the 

gospel.” 

On allegation of 

increasing rate of insecurity 

he said: “There are security 

challenges but I tell you that 

these security challenges 

are being tackled. 

“Even under the time of 

Obasanjo, there had been 

Odi killings. Under him was 

when we had Zaki Biam 

massacre, under him there 

were lots OPC clashes, 

under him there were 

Sharia riots, OPC ethnic 

clashes, lots of lives lost. So 

nobody can just come and 

sit in judgment over another 

government, when worst 

things happen under his 

government.” 

Also on the allegation 

that the ruling APC was 

planning to rig the 

forthcoming elections in 

collaboration with the 



INEC, he said, “Yes INEC 

can always defend itself 

and I am sure they would. 

“But then imagine that 

kind of allegation coming 

from somebody who told us 

in 2007 that the election 

will be do-or-die and the 

beneficiary of that election 

came out to tell us that the 

election that brought him to 

power was marred in all 

respect. 

“Now for that kind of a 

person to come out and tell 

us that the election will not 

be be free and fair, was 

there free and fair election 

when he conducted his 

own? That is the question 

Nigerians should be 

asking.” 

Mixed reactions 

Mixed reactions 

yesterday followed 

Obasanjo’s assertions 

against President Buhari. 

Among those who reacted 

were the PAN Niger Delta 

Forum, PANDEF, Arewa 

Consultative Forum, ACF, 

Afenifere, Ohanaeze 

Ndigbo and some leading 

lights in politics and civil 

society. 

Buhari adopting Abacha 

strategy because he 

wants to rig poll 

— PANDEF 

PANDEFF, the umbrella 

body of traditional rulers, 

leaders, and stakeholders of 

the coastal states of Niger 

Delta, said Presidential 

Buhari was resorting to the 

tactics of Abacha because 

he wants to tamper the 2019 

presidential elections. 

National Secretary, 

PANDEF, Dr. Alfred 

Mulade, told Vanguard on 

phone, last night: “The truth 

of the matter is that the 

country is more aware now 

that it is a question of 

rigging of elections, which 

former president and 

statesman, Chief Olusegun 

Obasanjo, has drawn the 

attention of the world to. 

“PANDEF is saying that 

if there is any form of 

rigging, the people will 

resist it because Nigerians 

are tired of the present 

regime. 

“The issue of rigging is a 

matter everybody should 

put his eyes on and ensure 

that it does not repeat itself 

like what happened in 

Osun State during the 

gubernatorial election 

where there ought to have 

been a clear winner, but the 

course of victory was 

reordered to suit the ruling 

party,” he said. 

We have a civilian 

dictatorship — Afenifere 

Reacting to Obasanjo’s 

statement, the pan-Yoruba 

socio-political organization, 

Afenifere, said Nigeria is 

experiencing a civilian 

dictatorship. 

Afenifere’s National 

Publicity Secretary, Mr. 

Yinka Odumakin said: “We 

are already in another 

Abacha regime. We have 

seen disobedience of court 

orders, the decimation of 

every perceived opponent, 

and absence of freedom of 

speech. We have seen the 

hounding of people. What 

we are in today is worse 

than Abacha, we knew 

what we had under 

Abacha. So, we have a 

civilian dictatorship in 

Nigeria.” 

Food for thought 

— Ohanaeze. 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo on its 

part stated that the political 

manoeuvrings towards the 

2019 presidential election 

were indications that 

vindicated Obasanjo’s 

statement. 

In a statement issued in 

Abakaliki, the National 

Publicity Secretary of the 

body, Uche Achi-Okpagha 

said: “Every indication 

testifies to Obasanjo’s 

vindication. President 

Obasanjo (as he then was) 

appointed a South- 

Easterner, GEJ appointed a 

northerner, but apparently, 

owing to his ulterior 

motives seemingly playing 

out now, he appointed a


Nsima Ekere's Education, Health and Social 

Protection Agenda: A prospectus for Akwa Ibom 

rebirth 

IF anyone really 

wants to know how 

Akwa Ibom has fared as 

a state in the last three 

years, the state of education 

is a good index, 

particularly performance 

in the West Africa School 

Certificate Examination 

(WASCE) in the past 

three years. From 14th 

position in 2015, the 

state dropped to 17th in 

2018. That is to say, education 

suffered a sharp 

deterioration since 2015 

when the current administration 

came into power. 

Presently, poor funding, 

poor learning environment, 

poor teacherstudent 

ratio, and lack of 

motivation for teachers 

characterize education 

in the state. What do you 

expect when budgetary 

allocation - for education 

has been consistently below 

the UNESCO recommended 

minimum of 26 

per cent? At 1.6 per cent 

in 2018, the same percentage 

pegged for 2019, 

the truth is glaring: 

Akwa Ibom State is 

grossly underfunding 

•Hon Nsima Ekere 

the future of the coming 

generation. And there is 

no gainsaying that without 

government changing 

hand come next election, 

the education sector 

will continue on the 

downward spiral. 

This is why the agenda 

of Nsima Ekere, APC 

governorship candidate, 

is warmly welcome with 

optimism and 

excitement. 

Complete overhaul 

of the educational 

sector 

Salvaging the educational 

sector requires 

nothing short of a complete 

overhaul and Ekere 

hit the right chord with his 

plan which calls for a declaration 

of a state of emergency 

in the education 

sector. If elected as Governor 

of Akwa Ibom State 

in the coming election, according 

to his agenda, 

the first six months of his 

administration will witness 

a summit of stakeholders 

and experts who 

will discuss, review and 

chart a new working plan 

for education in the state. 

His plans,majorly a special 

intervention fund of 

N30 billion for the upgrade 

of libraries, laboratories, 

sport facilities and 

construction of new 

school blocks; dramatic increase 

of education funding 

from the current 1.6 

percent of the state budget 

to a target 25 per cent 

by 2023 and revision of 

curriculum to reflect 21st 

century realities et cetra– 

strongly reflect his passion 

to bring quality to education 

in the state. 

He is reinforcing his 

plan with motivational 

package from N25, 000 

bursary for tertiary institution 

students every session 

to an annual award 

for the overall best-performing 

secondary 

school in the State in 

WASCE/NECO exams to 

award for the best-per- 

Presently, 

poor funding, 

poor learning 

environment, 

poor teacherstudent 

ratio, 

and lack of 

motivation for 

teachers characterize 

education 

in the state 

forming secondary 

school in the sciences in 

the state in WASCE/ 

NECO, that will raise education 

to a whole new 

level in which all stakeholders 

are aware that a 

solid foundation is being 

laid for future greatness. 

Again, Ekere has demonstrated 

that he is not 

afraid to modernize. And 

where action is required, 

he is not one to waste 

time on rhetorics. That 

much is the message 

from his plan to computerize 

teaching and 

learning process and to 

tweak the curriculum to 

suit the modern skills and 

competencies required 

for future world leaders. 

He is bringing home the 

latest trend in education 

around the world. 

His commitment, foresight 

and innovativeness 

with regard to educational 

policy and programmes 

can be attributed 

to his upbringing, 

being raised by teacher 

parents. In this, the state 

can take comfort: that 

Nsima Ekere, himself an 

embodiment of quality 

education, will do his 

best possible to restore 

the glory of Akwa Ibom 

education. He can be 

counted upon to deliver 

on his promise. 

It has to be said that the 

state’s shambolic health 

situation is a challenge 

awaiting Nsima Ekere's 

take over of the government 

house in Uyo come 

May 29, 2019. The decadence 

is summed up by 

a single fact: Infant mortality 

rate in the state is 

one of the highest in the 

Country at 69 deaths per 

thousand. 

Low government 

spending on the health 

sector largely caused the 

problem of healthcare in 

Akwa Ibom. Just a few 

years back, Akwa Ibom 

was being touted as a 

potential medical tourism 

destination. Today, the 

hospitals are understaffed, 

plagued by insufficient 

facilities and 

incapacitated by a low 

supply of drugs and 

supplies. 

In accordance with his 

“Health with Hope” policy, 

Ekere plans to commit 

a substantial part of 

the state’s resources to 

the development of stateof-the-art 

tertiary health 

care facilities. The plan 

he unveils, calls on the 

people to envision a Nsima 

Ekere-led administration 

where the teaching 

hospital provides 

world-class treatment, 

where everyone has access 

to affordable and 

quality health care, 

where the state is replete 

with primary and secondary 

health care facilities. 

The calculation is simple: 

powered with funds, 

more job opportunities 

will be created in the 

health sector; with more 

jobs opportunities, the 

health sector will be able 

to generate more revenue; 

with more revenue, 

the sector will attract 

skilled doctors and manpower 

to the state. 

A holistic health programme, 

as he proposes, 

encompasses health insurance 

that will ensure 

that all citizens can avail 

the best quality healthcare. 

Here is where his 

Better Healthcare Initiative 

(BHI) fits in. From 

the look of it, the initiative 

aims to make the 

state’s existing 424 primary 

health care provider 

more effective. There 

is also a rural arm of 

BHI, titled Better Rural 

Health + Care Initiative 

(BrHI), conceived to 

handle preventive health 

care service on malaria, 

diabetes and blood 

pressure control, immunization 

and vaccination, 

ante and post-natal care. 

Also, a new ambulance 

scheme (BHI+ 

Ambulance) to handle 

medical emergencies is 

part of the health programme. 

In the blueprints is the 

proposed establishment 

of Ibom Medical City “as 

a flagship project using 

existing facilities at the 

Ibom Specialist Hospital 

to provide tertiary medical 

services to our people 

and to serve as a regional 

centre of medical 

excellence.” 

Overall, there is no better 

way of turning a state 

into a destination for 

medical tourism. 

In the area of social protection, 

the “Ekere manifesto” 

seeks to revamp 

the status quo where 

aged and retired citizens 

are perpetually owed 

their gratuities and 

pension, and the citizenry 

is overwhelmed with 

uncertainty for their future. 

A good, working social 

protection traditionally 

ameliorate the impacts of 

insecurity, poor health, 

and other factors of economic 

and social vulnerability. 

It is along this philosophy 

that Ekere’s 

strategy is forged. He is 

offering among other interventions, 

a social assistance 

programme that 

is a cocktail of benefits, 

including cash transfers, 

child welfare, and disability 

benefits, (especially 

to the poor), a social insurance 

(that is a contributory 

scheme that helps 

cover against risks and 

vulnerabilities) and a 

labour market programme 

that help people 

secure employment in 

both the short and longterm 

that will tide the 

people over and protect 

them against the hardship 

of life. 

Working document 

This “working document” 

as the manifesto 

appears to be, is designed 

to impact on every 

member of the society, 

women and children included. 

This is reflected 

by the plan to domesticate 

the National Gender 

Policy wherein 35% target 

of women and youth participate 

in governance 

through affirmative action. 

They will ensure that 

women are given political 

support and all entitlements 

needed for substantial 

participation in 

political and economic 

processes. Those familiar 

with the positive development 

that comes with 

equal rights and empowerment, 

now can vouch 

safe that in a government 

headed by Ekere, women 

are going to play crucial 

roles as agents of change. 

A slew of other initiatives, 

tackling of maternal 

and child mortality rates, 

curbing child trafficking, 

abuse and molestation 

with Child’s Right Act 

and operationalising 

Federal Government’s 

free nutritional meals for 

children in all public primary 

schools indicate 

that issues of women and 

children are central to the 

APC government rearing 

to make its way into the 

Government House in 

Uyo come 2019. 

With the Third Pillar of 

his agenda Education, 

Health and Social Security, 

Ekere gives hope to 

the populace. The agenda 

is an assurance the 

“coming ONE” is concern 

about the situation 

of the people and the future 

of the state. Great 

men never lived in vain; 

they always populate the 

biography of their age 

and time. Indeed our 

Akwa Ibom State deserves 

the best! 

•Hon Eseme Eyiboh is the 

erstwhile spokesperson of 

the House of Representatives 

and current Chairman, 

Cross River Basin 

Development Authority.

YOUR LUCK TODAY 

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 

CAPRICORN: The very best for you today is to look for 

ways to consolidate on progress you have recorded recently. 

The more willing you are to respect the law, the better. 

AQUARIUS: Friends may disappoint you today but you 

will have genuine cause to smile broadly tomorrow. Do 

not gamble with matters-of-the-heart today. 

PISCES: If you have, consciously or unconsciously, started 

unnecessary cold war at work yesterday, it would come to 

the head today to the resentment of people that count before 

mid-afternoon. 

ARIES: The zeal to work harder exhibited by you will earn 

you unexpected success at work to the betterment of your 

rating and finances. Don’t allow mid-morning blues to get 

best off you. 

TAURUS: If it’s possible for you to wait till tomorrow before 

an important assignment is carried out, your cause 

will be better for it. Take your love life seriously. 

L E I S U R E 

TAKE HEART — ELLA RANDLE 

A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion 

can heal.” -Steve Maraboli- 

When you know who you truly are, it makes all the 

difference in awareness. When it comes to living as a 

compassionate, non-judgmental, loving being, the only 

challenge greater than learning to walk a mile in someone 

else’s shoes, is learning to walk a lifetime, comfortably 

in your own. Ella Randle 

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” 


SAYINGS OF 

OUR PEOPLE 

If you want to 

go quickly, go 

alone. If you 

want to go far, 

go together. ~ 

African proverb 

By Kola Fayemi 

GEMINI: Now, you can not pretend that happenings within 

your (family) base of operation pleases you, 

but, you will need to be as diplomatic as possible. Avoid 

unnecessary rush. 

CANCER: Unusual exhibition of aggressive approach by 

you may put people around you off the balance. It’s in your 

own interest not to bite more than you can chew, especially 

before mid-afternoon.. 

LEO: You may be tempted to embrace extravagant tendencies 

while planning your financial transactions. Watch 

what you promise before early part of afternoon period. 

VIRGO: If you are offered what looks like Greek gift before 

early hours of afternoon, you are advised to politely 

turn it down. It’s wrong to encourage aggression. 

DUDU in “ROLLING HOT” By A.O. OLAIDE 

LIBRA: Tomorrow is one of your lucky days of this week. 

Yet, if you are more observant within your base of operation, 

you will not have it wrong, even today. Keep secrets. 

SCORPIO: Although, many will go through tension before 

mid-afternoon, the whole thing will work in your favour 

early in the day. The more ambitious you, are the better for 

you. 

SAGITTARIUS: Coming together of the Moon and Mars 

in Virgo will bring you under the fire of enthusiasm to 

achieve much along your career/business lines. Be very 

moderate. 

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING 

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING 

Send your date e and place of birth th to the Astr 

trological 

Counselling, P.M.B 100 

007, 7, Apapa, Lagos 

WHAT ARE MY NUMBERS? 

Dear Joshua, 

I am deeply interested in Astrology: and the way you analyse 

people is great, keep it up. Kindly tell me whatever you think I 

should know about my life together with my luck, social life 

and my lucky number. 

John Abuja. 

Dear John, 

Thank you for your words of encouragement. Too many things 

are important but I think what both your immediate and far 

future have for you must be revealed to you so that you will be 

prepared. 

Mars in Aquarius together with Uranus are pointers to an 

active social life. The more influential social circle you belong 

to, the better for you. You’re the cool-headed type beloved by 

many but once your anger manages to fly off, it can be very 

difficult if not dangerous; it’s because of your natal Pluto. Yet 

they keep coming your way. 

Saturn can not help forcing challenges on your way, luckily 

for you however, you have what it takes to live up to the challenges. 

And as Saturn will never deny it’s worthy native the 

deserved success, it also gives recognition. 

Saturn or no Saturn, good relationship bet Mars and lucky 

Jupiter when you were born, are green tumb for WEALTH; you 

will be wealthier more than having liquid cash; nobody can 

stop your becoming wealthy. 

Best colours for you include YELLOW, golden, black but not 

coconut white. Your sleeping posture should be on East/West 

axis with your head to the West. 

5 is your destiny number, 9 is your ambition, 8 is your expression, 

your other numbers are 1, 6, 7 & 11. Thus, they are as 

superior as listed. 

VIRGINIA 

HOME & ABROAD 

dadadekola@yahoo.com 

By Lawrence Akapa


You cannot blame 

Amaechi for Onnoghen, 

APC Rivers’ problems 

– Dakuku 

By Egufe Yafugborhi 

Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the 2015 governorship candidate of the All 

Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State is a very close associate 

of the Transportation minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi who is 

generally dubbed as the leader of the party in the state. 

The party in the state has lately been thrown into hysteria 

following the judicial ban on the party from fielding 

candidates for state level elections. In this interview in 

Port-Harcourt at the weekend, Dr. Peterside, who is also 

the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety 

Agency, NIMASA, expresses confidence in the party overturning the judicial 

ban even as he addresses questions on the culpability of the major 

actors in the affair. 

Excerpts: 

What is your reaction to the to pursue the path of peace, unity 

complete disqualification of and of course, working for a common 

purpose. You cannot have a 

all candidates of your party from 

all state level elections in Rivers team if you are not working for a 

State? 

Politics is a process, it is not an 

event. It involves a number of activities 

common purpose. 

If you 

have persons 

and usually there will be an working to- 

outcome. What is going on in the 

Rivers State APC is unfortunate, 

gether at cross 

purposes, they 

but it is part of the political evolution 

will never 

process. I am pained that it even 

happened in the first place, but I 

know that it is not the end in itself. 

What has happened in Rivers 

APC is some sort of temporary setback. 

I am optimistic that APC's 

candidates will be on the ballot. I 

am very, very optimistic. I know 

that the judiciary is an important 

component of the political process. 

You cannot talk about politics, without 

talking about the judiciary and 

the roles of the judiciary, but my 

confidence is that ultimately, this 

issue will be resolved and APC's 

candidates will be on the ballot, 

they will run the elections and Rivers 

people will have options. They 

achieve result. 

The only way 

to achieve result 

is when 

you work towards 

a common 

purpose. 

That actually 

makes you a 

team. We are a 

team of patriotic 

and progressive 

citizens of Rivers 

State, who 

want the best for 

Rivers State, as 

against our opponents 

in the 

will choose the candidates of APC other party 

above the other political parties. 

The other political party (People's 

Democratic Party) has disappointed 

(PDP), who are self-serving and usually 

pursuing their own narrow opportunistic 

interests. 

Rivers people on all fronts. 

What the party (PDP) has done in 

the past three years and some 

months is to make more and more 

people lose confidence in the institution 

of government of Rivers 

State. They have embarked on outright 

lies, concocted stories and half 

truths. Rivers people are indeed 

tired of the mess. They cannot wait 

to get rid of the current government 

of Nyesom Wike. APC provides Rivers 

people the alternative, but unfortunately, 

we are going through 

our own challenges. 

Let me take advantage of this opportunity 

to plead with all members 

of APC to remain calm, confident, 

loyal and keep trusting the Almighty 

God. The end of this tortuous 

journey will come and it will 

be to God's glory. All hope is not 

lost. Indeed, no hope is lost. One 

thing I am pretty sure of is that at 

the end of the tunnel, there is light 

and it will be to God's own glory. 

We have embarked on series of 

engagements to get all the sides of 

the party and to get different interests 

in the party to understand that 

it is in our own interest to work together, 

that it is in our own interest 

You are said to be close to Transportation 

Minister, Rotimi 

Amaechi, who is the leader of APC 

in Rivers State. But do you subscribe 

to the claims that he is responsible 

for the crisis and that he 

should be blamed for the confusion. 

What is your reaction? 

It is not true that the Hon. Minister 

is responsible for the crisis. I do 

not believe that this is the time for 

blame game. A lot of things happened 

and blame game will not 

help us in any way. So, even as the 

leader of the party, it is wrong for 

me to join in the blame game. 

Depending on where you are 

standing, people accuse different 

individuals of being responsible. 

Some persons would say some persons 

are over ambitious outright 

and that because of their ambition, 

we are where we are. Some said 

some persons were uncouth in their 

language. Some accused the young 

people in the party of not handling 

their emotions with maturity. 

People have right to hold their 

opinions. You cannot hold it against 

anybody for holding an opinion. 

One thing that all of us have built 

consensus around and we are unanimous 

about is that there is a time for 

war and there is a time for peace. 

This is the time to ceasefire, engage 

TIMELINE ON THE RIVERS APC 

5 May 2018 - Rivers High Court restrains Rivers APC from conducting 

congresses 

30 May - Rivers State High Court annuls congresses of the 

Rivers APC 

22 June - Appeal Court orders stay of execution on order stopping 

congresses 

11 October - Rivers High Court sacks new APC executives across 

board 

12 Dec - Appeal Court strikes out appeal against sack of 

APC executives 

13 Dec - Federal High Court joins Tonye Cole in Abe’s suit 

against INEC, APC NWC 

7 Jan, 2019 - Federal High Court orders INEC to remove APC 

candidates from 2019 polls 

15 Jan - Appeal Court declines to grant stay of execution 

on Fed High Court judgment 

16 Jan - Appeal Court strikes out APC’s appeal against its 

exclusion from polls 

with one another and to allow the 

common interest to prevail, over our 

narrow parochial interests. 

No man's ambition should be superior 

to the collective interest of the 

party (APC) and Rivers people. Not 

mine, not anybody's own. Nobody's 

interest should be superior to the interest 

of the collective. 

So, I do not believe in the blame 

I want to 

reassure 

members of 

APC and 

indeed all 

Rivers people 

that the APC 

will be on the 

ballot, there is 

need for all of 

us to be calm 

game. I do not support it. I will 

not embark on it. Rather, it is for 

all of us to begin to engage with 

people. Let them see reason why 

we must all come to the table and 

agree on the best way forward and 

indeed, work out a way forward, 

so that we will go and take over 

Government House, Port 

Harcourt from May 29, 2019 and 

begin to change the narratives in 

Rivers State. 

Senator 

Magnus Abe 

has said that 

for peace to 

reign in the 

party, Tonye 

Cole should 

step down for 

him as the 

governorship 

candidate. Is 

that an option 

for you given 

your difficult 

position? 

It is not true. 

I have had 

cause to engage 

with 

Senator 

Magnus Abe 

and he could 

not have 

taken that position. 

I can 

say it on good authority that his 

minimum condition cannot be 

that Tonye Cole should step down 

for him to become the governorship 

candidate of APC in Rivers 

State. He has never said so. He 

realises the need for all of us to 

work together and I believe that 

reason will prevail at the appropriate 

time. 

Are there plans to settle out of 

court? 

All options are on the table. 

There is nothing anybody can rule 

out. What matters to all of us is 

the victory of APC in the elections 

and whatever needs to be done 

and whatever should be done will 

be done to ensure that we all operate 

on the same frequency, to 

deliver the party (APC) in the elections. 

National Assembly (Senate and 

House of Representatives) elections 

are four weeks away, while 

the state's elections are six weeks 

away. That is a lot of time in politics. 

It is actually time to consolidate 

and get the buying-in of the 

people of Rivers State, get their 

support, coast home to victory and 

sing the victory song for the good 

of the people of Rivers State. 

Would members of Rivers APC 

have done things differently to get 

different result from the current 

situation? 

In all cases, there is always room 

to do things differently, even for the 

best of the best. There is no case 

where you have only one way of 

achieving result. So, it is possible 

that things could have been done 

differently and we would have got 

different outcome, but I do not think 

that is the issue now. We have gone 

past that stage. 

The issue is that there is critical 

need for all of us to come together 

to work towards a 

common purpose. 

There is the need 

for all of us to 

•Dakuku Peterside 

lay aside our different interests and 

the different weights that thus far oppress 

us. 

I want to reassure members of 

APC and indeed, all Rivers people 

that the APC will be on the ballot; 

there is need for all of us to be calm, 

there is need for all of us to work 

together and there is need for us to 

remain confident of the judicial 

process, that it will turn out for our 

good ultimately. Most importantly, 

beneath all of this is the need for 

unity and the need for us to work as 

a team. No one person can do it 

alone. 

Rivers State Governor, Chief 

Nyesom Wike, accused Transportation 

Minister (Amaechi) of being 

behind the trial of the Chief Justice 

of Nigeria, Justice Walter 

Onnoghen, at the Code of Conduct 

Tribunal, with the intention to remove 

him for not supporting the 

APC and its candidates. Is it true? 

Nothing can be more spurious, 

laughable and childish than that 

statement by the governor of Rivers 

State. I am not taken aback at all, 

because the governor is known to 

promote lies as truth; he has also 

acquired the status of a pathological 

liar. Wike is a man who concocts 

stories, distorts facts and presents 

half-truths as the truth. 

In this specific instance, there is 

no iota of truth in it. Rt. Hon. 

Amaechi has absolutely no hand in 

the matter. He is not a judicial officer, 

he is not an intelligence officer 

and he does not work for any of the 

intelligence agencies. I cannot understand 

the connection between 

the work of the intelligence agencies, 

the anti-graft agencies and the 

judiciary. There is absolutely no iota 

of truth in it. 

Wike claimed that Transportation 

minister had conversation with 

somebody that he (Amaechi) was 

behind CJN's travails. There is no 

truth in it. It is the trademark of 

Rivers governor to concoct stories. 

Rivers people and other Nigerians 

know Wike for who he is. So, I do 

not believe that anybody will take 

him seriously. 

Is it true that Accord candidate, 

Dumo Lulu-Briggs is a Plan B for 

you in APC given he was an aspirant 

in the APC until long ago? 

Wike is not a member of APC. Wike 

is not a member of our political family 

and he cannot be a member of 

our political family. When Rivers 

governor embarks on these kind of 

wild lies and baseless allegations, 

they ridicule him. There is no truth 

in having Plan-B or working with 

Dumo Lulu-Briggs.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 —51 



northerner as lNEC 

Chairman. 

“The bleeding issues are 

the latest appointment of 

Amina Zakari who has 

been an age long close 

confidant of Buhari and the 

callous and blatant move to 

remove the Chief Justice of 

Nigeria. The majority fear 

and alarming opinion are 

to the fact that the 

presidency wants to 

remove the CJN and plant 

a northerner, as usual, who 

would play to the political 

gallery and instruct 

appointed judges to make 

electoral decisions 

favourable to the APC. 

“I sincerely identify with 

Obasanjo in his fears and 

posit that a four-year-old 

government should be able 

to tell Nigerians that ‘l did 

this and that’ not that ‘l will 

do this and that.’ 

Meanwhile, Ohanaeze 

Ndigbo is expected to take 

a formal position on the 

election Thursday. 

Obasanjo should act like 

a statesman –ACF 

The Area Consultative 

Forum on its part has called 

on Obasanjo to behave like 

the statesman that he is by 

desisting from running 

down democratic 

institutions but 

encouraging them to 

perform better. 

Reacting to the 

development, the National 

Secretary of the ACF, 

Anthony Sani said 

Obasanjo was driven by his 

partisanship. 

While admitting that he 

had not seen the statement, 

the secretary noted that 

most Nigerians are not 

aware of any plan by 

Abacha to rig election 

because “Abacha never 

conducted elections. 

“If that is what he 

Obasanjo said, I would 

submit that most Nigerians 

were not aware since 

Abacha never conducted 

any elections before he 

died. 

“And given the fact that 

we do not know the alleged 

plans by the present 

regime to rig the elections, 

it would be wrong for any 

group to be worried. This 

is because any worry would 

amount to vote of no 

confidence on our 

democratic institutions like 

INEC which has assured 

the nation of the 

commission’s readiness to 

conduct free and fair 

elections by improving on 

the performance recorded 

in the previous elections in 

2015. 

“Even though the former 

president is fully partisan 

and may go any length to 

cast aspersions on the 

ruling party and the 

democratic institutions 

under her watch, it would 

be worthy of him to note 

that he cannot plough off 

his status as a statesman 

who is expected to help 

build and strengthen our 

democratic institutions for 

performance, and not to 

run them down without 

suggestions on how best to 

improve them” he said. 

Obasanjo saying the 

obvious—Adebanjo 

Also throwing his weight 

behind the former 

President, a leader of the 

pan-Yoruba socio-political 

organization, Afenifere, 

Chief Ayo Adebanjo 

Adebanjo said: “That is 

obvious to every 

reasonable person. What 

else is responsible for all 

the attacks on the 

opposition now? 

Everything to make the 

elections free and fair, he 

(Buhari) opposed it. 

Obasanjo is just saying the 

obvious.” 

Obasanjo’s concerns 

vindicate us — PDP 

The Peoples Democratic 

Party, PDP, meanwhile has 

said that the assertions 

made by President 

Obasanjo vindicated its 

position on the partisanship 

of the electoral commission. 

The party in a statement 

issued by its spokesman, 

Kola Ologbondiyan said 

Obasanjo’s submission has 

also reinforced its position 

that President Buhari, and 

the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, “having 

realized that there is no way 

he can win in a free and 

fair election, is now 

besieging all democratic 

institutions, including the 

judiciary, the legislature, 

the Independent National 


INEC, while engaging in 

acts that threaten the unity, 

peace and corporate 

existence of our dear 

nation. 

The statement read: “The 

whole world can see how 

President Buhari and 

APC’s desperation for 

power is putting the lives 

of over 200 million 

Nigerian citizens at great 

risk as their actions stoke 

violence and push our dear 

nation to the precipice. 

“We are however not 

surprised that the APC, a 

party that has shown that it 

is completely anti-people, 

quickly rose in defence of 

the Buhari-led 

Presidency’s assault on our 

democratic order. The APC 

has always been a 

deceptive soulless mob that 

would rather have our 

nation burn than to be out 

of power. 

“President Obasanjo’s 

concern is, therefore, a 

clarion call to all 

compatriots, irrespective of 

ethnic, religious and 

political affiliations to rise 

in defence of our 

democracy.” 

The ruling All 


APC in its response at a 

press conference Sunday 

evening in Abuja, 

addressed by its National 

Publicity Secretary, Mallam 

Lanre Issa-Onilu, said 

during Chief Obasanjo’s 

regime, government 

policies were determined 

by whatever mood he 

(OBJ) found himself and all 

decisions of government 

were subjected to his 

whims. 

“When you are used to a 

particular thing, that 

means something you 

know how to do very well. 

For eight years of President 

Obasanjo, all the elections 

he held, in fact his 

government policies were 

determined by whatever 

mood he finds himself and 

all decisions of government 

were brought under his 

wings, and all that he did 

in those eight years are 

what is hunting him. 

“Obasanjo cannot 

imagine that it is possible 

for a government to allow 

INEC statutory 

independence that it has. 

We have had 93 elections 

since APC came to power 

and we are sure that all 

those elections were 

conducted without any 

interference from this 

government. In fact, if there 

is anything you want to 

credit this government 

with, it is the fact that 

institutions are allowed to 

fulfill their mandate without 

anybody’s interference. So, 

we can understand where 

the former President is 

coming from, his past is 

haunting him.” 

Other reactions 

Mallam Auwal Ibrahim 

Rafsanjani, head of 

Transparency 

International, Nigeria and 

also executive director of 

the Civil Society Legislative 

Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) 

in his response said the 

2019 General Election had 

become a source of serious 

concern especially given 

developments in the ruling 

party. 

He said: “Again with the 

fraudulent party primary 

conducted within the 

ruling party and the 

desperation with use of 

money and intimidation of 

opposition political parties 

during the ongoing 

campaigns clearly shows 

that the 2019 election is a 

huge concern. 

“This is even as the US 

Congress issued a 

resolution expressing their 

concern about the 2019 

election because from all 

indications there is a 

credible allegation that 

2019 will be rigged in 

favour of the ruling party. 

Therefore for me what 

Obasanjo and wellmeaning 

Nigerians are 

talking should be taken 

seriously by INEC and 

government because if this 

election is rigged, it will be 

a setback for democracy in 

Nigeria.” 

Deputy Senate Minority 

leader, Senator Emmanuel 

Bwacha, also concurred 

saying Dr. Obasanjo’s 

assertion should be taken 

seriously. 

“Very weighty allegations 

that need to be taken 

seriously given the 

impunity demonstrated by 

the ruling party all over the 

place and not coming from 

an ordinary mortal, but from 

a former President, both 

military and civil rule.” 

Also responding, the 

Deputy Minority leader, 

Senator Emmanuel 

Bwacha said, “ it is because 

the battle is between the two 

of them.” 

Ndigbo prefer Buhari’s 

projects to appointments 

for elites – Wogu 

DR. Emeka Wogu, erstwhile minister of labour, two-time commissioner in 

the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, 

was the first political adviser to Governor Orji Uzor Kalu at the 

commencement of the Fourth Republic in 1999. Having sustained himself 

in the political space with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Wogu 

detached from the party after losing out in the party’s 2015 governorship 

primaries in Abia State. Now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, 

APC, and a member of the party’s reconciliation committee for the South- 

South, the politician, businessman and lawyer, in this interview, speaks on 

topical issues in the polity including today’s planned arraignment of Chief 

Justice Walter Onnoghen, his reasons for leaving the PDP and perceptions 

on the marginalisation of the South-East by the APC-led federal 

administration. Excerpts: 

By Emmanuel Aziken, 

Political Editor 

As a lawyer, where do you stand on 

the reported moves to arraign the 

Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice 

Walter Onnoghen over the allegation of 

non-disclosure of assets? 

I believe in the sanctity of the principle 

of rule of law. There is a Court of Appeal 

decision on the process to be adopted in 

the arraignment of judicial officials; i.e. 

passing through the National Judicial 

Council, NJC. Coincidentally, the CJN 

is the chairman of NJC. I’ll advise that 

the matter concerning the CJN which 

has dominated the space since Saturday 

be handled with caution and within the 

ambit of the law. 

You were in the PDP for most of the 16 

years the party was in power. Why did 

you leave immediately the party lost 

power? 

I did not leave because of the defeat of 

PDP in the General Election or my loss 

in the Abia gubernatorial primary 

election but due to fundamental 

differences between myself and the 

leader of the party in the state then and 

now, Senator T.A. Orji who championed 

the political principles of non-inclusion 

of participants of the then gubernatorial 

primary where his favourite candidate 

emerged and acts targeted at 

diminishing our political fortunes. 

I saw it early and left the party. Like it’s 

now popularly said “all politics is local” 

and now all aspirants in that “primary 

election” except the brother-in-law to the 

incumbent governor left the party for 

him. Ditto other political heavyweights 

in Abia like Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator 

Nkechi Nwaogu, Senator Chris 

Adighije, etc. 

Also the brazen impunity in the party at 

all levels and lack of internal democracy 

and mechanism for conciliation and 

peace were other reasons for leaving to 

another party APC with attractive 

political ideology and pro people 

policies. 

How do you assess the President 

Muhammadu Buhari administration 

especially in its treatment of the South- 

East? The administration has been 

accused of marginalising the region 

especially in appointments into the top 

rank of the security agencies. 

The Buhari administration has rekindled 

public confidence and trust in 

governance and he has reinforced the 

fine doctrine of continuity in governance 

which is an essential ingredient of 

statecraft and administration. Since 

assumption of office he has been able to 

complete and commission critical 

infrastructure and projects he inherited 

from previous administrations to the 

admiration of the Nigerian populace. 

From the railway sector, the most 

outstanding is the more than three 

decades rail project between Ajaokuta, 

Itakpe to Warri. We also have the Lagos 

– Ibadan rail link that will be 

commissioned soon among others. Also 

in the aviation sector the Port Harcourt 

and Abuja airports have been completed 

and commissioned. 

I plead with President Buhari to revisit 

the Enugu Airport and finish it and grant 

more international routes to the airport. 

I spent my holidays in the Eastern part 

of the country what I saw in terms of road 

infrastructure was amazing. The Enugu/ 

Onitsha road is seriously being done 

with high quality workmanship, the 

second Niger bridge is ongoing and has 

taken off in earnest, the Enugu-Port 

Harcourt Expressway, particularly the 

Enugu to Aba portion. I understand that 

the funding of the projects in the South- 

East is guaranteed. I also interacted with 

supporters and non supporters of 

President Buhari and they were all in 

agreement that the President has done 

well in terms of the above road projects 

and they prayed God to grant him good 

health and long life for honouring our 

legend, the great Zik of Africa with a 

befitting resting place (mausoleum) after 

many years of his demise. I think the 

people of the South-East are more 

interested in the development of 

infrastructures and the reopening of the 

ports/wharfs in the Eastern zone and 

conducive business/economic policies 

targeted towards their commerce than 

the aggrandisement of public offices by 

the elites. 

But nonetheless, we must not be 

relegated to the background in terms of 

some critical positions in the services 

when the opportunity arises. I’m 

confident that Igbo all over will vote 

massively for him and votes must count 

this time around. 

And what I mean is that Igbo who are 

residing in the South-East, the Igbo in 

Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Abuja, Nassarawa, 

Rivers, Delta, etc, will vote Buhari. When 

you aggregate these votes, you will see 

that Igbo have a great voting strength. 

The Igbo bloc is interested in producing 

the next president of Nigeria in 2023 and 

that is why there is going to be massive 

support for President Buhari’s re 

election. So, I urge Igbo all over Nigeria 

to come out en-masse to vote for him no 

matter where they are domiciled.

52 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019




Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

FRIDAY’S ANSWER 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

FRIDAY’S SOLUTION 

How to Play Sudoku 

ACROSS 

1 Searcher for minerals (10) 

7 Flute player (8) 

8 Merit (4) 

9 Cain’s brother (4) 

10 Naturally grown (7) 

12 Cutting down expenses 

(11) 

14 Changed (7) 

16 Lofty (4) 

19 Capital of Norway (4) 

20 Feelings (8) 

21 Plague (10) 

DOWN 

1 Lively dance (5) 

2 Rich, luxurious (7) 

3 Bucket (4) 

4 At a reduced rate (3-5) 

5 Musical drama (5) 

6 Attempting (6) 

11 Worshipful (8) 

12 Zestful enjoyment (6) 

13 European language (7) 

15 Wear away (5) 

17 Jousting weapon (5) 

18 Implement (4) 

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two 

of the same number). 

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines 

from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine 

blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no 

number can appear twice in any block, column or row. 

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or 

multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination. 

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21012019 - Elections Obasanjo bombs Buhari again

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