28032019 - NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP:All clear for Lawan; fresh crisis brews over Gbaja

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16 — Vanguard THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 BRIEFING: From left— Mr Williams Uzomba, Media Consultant, Connect Nigeria; Mr Emeka Okafor, Founder/MD, Connect Nigeria; Ophylia Temi Ibekwe, Lead Strategist, Phyllion and Jumoke Lawoyin, CMO, Lucy.ng, at the Connect Nigeria Pre-Business fair briefing in Lagos. Photo Lamidi Bamidele. Come let's build Abia together, Ikpeazu tells Otti, Ogah U MUAHIA—THE incumbent Governor of Abia State and the Governor-Elect, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has extended an olive branch to his opponents at the just concluded governorship election, Dr Uche Ogah of All Progressive Congress, APC, and Dr Alex Otti of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), calling on them to join him in building Abia. Governor Ikpeazu, who made the call when he collected his Certificate of Re- By Elizabeth Uwandu A SABA—THE Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr Chiedu Ebie has inaugurated a 7-man Board of Enquiry to investigate the allegations of the collection of unauthorised levies in public primary and secondary schools in Delta State. Mr Ebie while inaugurating the board in his office in Asaba stated that the board became necessary after a video of one Miss Success Adegor, a primary three pupil of Okotie-Ebor Primary School 1, Sapele who was allegedly sent home for failing to pay school fees went viral. turn as Governor-Elect of Abia State from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the Commission’s headquarters in Umuahia, said that such collaboration is the only way to build the Abia. The governor, while extending the olive branch, also called on his opponents to bring their ideas to the table and participate in the development of Abia State. “I call on my brothers and those who lost in the election to join us to build the Delta gets 7-man board to probe illegal collection of levies in public schools The education Commissioner stated that terms of reference for the board include to authenticate the claim of collection of unauthorised levies from pupils of Okotie-Ebor Primary School 1, Sapele and the Healthcare bill passes 3rd reading in Delta Assembly By Festus Ahon ASABA—THE Delta State Private HealthCare Registration, Operations and Prohibition Bill has been read the third time and passed by the Delta State House of Assembly at plenary presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori. The bill sponsored by the member representing Ukwuani Constituency and Chairman, House Committee on Health, Dr Alphonsus Ojo and five others, seeks to curb unhealthy practices in the Foundation trains 500 entrepreneurs on fashion design By Prince Okafor L AGOS—GMYT Foundation, a Lagosbased foundation that is into training of fashion designers and entrepreneurs, has commenced training of over 500 Nigerian Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (SMEs) in the country on fashion design. The Foundation recently moved up from training over 200 of its students to 500. The training is being sponsored by GMYT Fashion Academy, a section of the foundation that trains potential fashion designers and entrepreneurs. The Fashion Academy/ GMYT Foundation will also induct over 92 students and as well empower 11 GMYT Fashion Academy students each with an industrial machine serving as their first form of empowerment for their homework and to also start their business. The foundation’s Chief Executive Officer, Princess Kelechi Oghene, made this known during the unveiling of the academy’s new students in Lagos. She stated that the foundation has spent over N200 million on the training of 200 women without external support and also help them start their own business. Abia of our dreams. This is the only way to go because in every election or contest, there must be a winner and losers. For us, this is a victory for Abia and since all of us that participated in the election are all Abians, it then means there is no loser in the actual sense. We must collaborate for the good of our state and our people.” He described as a privilege, the opportunity to serve Abians again for the next four years while reaffirming his commitment to the all round development of the state. Ikpeazu further reiterated his administration's commitment to job creation for the teeming Abia youth in the next four years, adding that he is poised to leave Abia better than he met it. Governor Ikpeazu who also dedicated his victory to God for perfecting all his efforts and that of the campaign teams with success said the Lord gives Power to whoever He wills. nature of such levies, to identify the officer/individuals/ organizations who are behind the collection of unauthorised levies (if any) at Okotie-Eboh Primary School 1, Sapele and the extent of their involvement and to determine why Miss Success Adegor of Okotie-Eboh Primary School1, Sapele was sent out of school. The committee was giving two weeks to submit their report to the state government. health sector in Delta State. The proposed law, according to the sponsor, Dr Alphonsus Ojo, is being enacted to comprehensively regulate all facets of the state's health sector in order to adhere strictly to international best practices and reduce the incidence of quackery in the sector. "It is for a law to regulate the registration, establishment, operations, conduct, monitoring and inspection of private healthcare facilities in the state and for other matters incidental thereto". Speaking after the third reading of the bill, Ojo emphasized that the main intent is to safeguard the health of all Deltans, stressing that the bill when signed into law and fully implemented, will end quakery in the medical profession in Delta State. S/African mining firms seek charter changes over past black ownership deals Mining companies have requested a judicial review of South Africa’s 2018 mining charter to change clauses related to transactions made in the past to increase black ownership, an industry body said on Wednesday. In a bid to rectify the wealth disparities of apartheid more than two decades after the end of white minority rule, South Africa has demanded that a proportion of a mining company’s shares are owned by black investors. Originally set at 26 percent, the black ownership level was raised to 30 percent in 2017, although companies that had already achieved 26 percent were not required to meet the higher target. Mining companies have argued that, while they accept the need to raise black ownership to the required level, they should not be required to maintain that level should black investors sell any of their shares later. The Minerals Council, which represents mining companies, said most aspects of the new charter unveiled in 2018 were “reasonable and workable” but said it should be changed to ensure it recognised past deals related to black empowerment. Nigeria aims to borrow at home and abroad to fund 2019 budget –Minister Nigeria plans to tap concessionary long-term loans to finance its 2019 budget in addition to borrowing at home, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said on Wednesday. “We intend to fund the 2019 budget through borrowing locally and internationally with a spread of 50:50. Our focus is on concessionary long-term loans,” said a National Assembly tweet quoting the finance minister. Nigeria, which has Africa’s biggest economy, has borrowed abroad and at home over the past three years to help to finance its budgets and to fund infrastructure projects but debt servicing cost is also rising. Ahmed said there were challenges generating revenue but that the 2018 budget has performed well. She said the government had put in place strategies on how to finance the 2019 budget of 8.83 trillion naira ($28.9 billion). Nigerian bond yields drop op after er CBN rate cut Nigerian bond yields fell slightly on Wednesday, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN unexpectedly announced an interest rate cut aimed at stimulating growth in Africa’s biggest economy, traders said. CBN cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 13.5 percent on Tuesday, its first reduction in four years. The rate has been held at 14 percent since July 2016 to support the naira and curb inflation. Bond yields dropped to around 13 percent across maturities on Wednesday on minor buying interest, traders said. They later recovered to 14.15 percent. The most liquid one-year treasury yield fell 15 basis points to 12.75 percent. “The markets opened lower but no one is buying as investors adjust their bids,” one trader said.
Re: The judiciary: Matters arising AS is customary with this page, we occasionally pause to listen to our readers, and engage with them where possible. The twopart article on the judiciary, March 7 and 14, elicited a number of responses. The responses were, as usual, of two kinds: reasoned and reasonable, and unreasoned (sometimes abusive) and unreasonable. I ignored the latter and have the former published below: Muhd Lawan Usman: You are surely on course Mr. Dori. What a paradox! Justice Onnoghen, the supreme custodian of justice and its chief deliverer in Nigeria is fighting hard to deny himself what he has been giving to others!! To the utter dismay and disenchantment of Nigerians, the Bar and the Bench, seem to be wavering, sitting on the fence or sleeping. Please Mr. Gambo wake them up!! Rabi’u Yahaya: Your write-up on the Judiciary and Acting Chief Justice Tanko is nothing more than the truth. His quality and straightforwardness is known only to his mates and those close enough to understand his mode of operations and conduct of his personal life. As a mate in the university, he associated with selected few just to preserve his virtues. The noises by the so-called senior lawyers on the issue was to ensure continuity in reaping from the corrupt system. May Allah be with the righteous people to serve the society. Ngozika Ihuoma: "The Judiciary: Matters Arising 2". Brilliant submission except the pronouncement of guilt against Chief Justice Onnoghen when no court, including the CCT, has convicted him. Opinion should reflect all sides and obedience to the 1999 Constitution should be paramount. Desecration of institution of state for personal gains don’t foster development. Joseph Iyoha: You are one columnist I respect but I don’t understand it when you papered over so many double standards. The CCT Chair is himself charged with a N10 million bribe case yet to be concluded. How can he be trying somebody else? All the PDP members with cases pending for corruption charges, by the EFCC, who decamped to APC when are they going to be tried? What of wellknown cases such Maina, NHIS Exe Sec, ex-NIA DG and many others too numerous to mention. Why are they not on trial? You see partiality in applying punishment is corruption in itself. Still on the Judiciary article, many readers have contacted me to ask why I referred to Abdullahi Bayero College, one of the institutional forerunners of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and Bayero University, Kano (BUK), as Ahmadu Bello College. Actually the majority of us that passed through ABU in the 1960s and 70s had always assumed that the earlier name of the Kano campus had been Abdullahi Bayero College which in 1976 became BUK. Not so. And this deserves some explanation. When in the late 1950s the Northern Nigerian Government decided to have a university it started with establishing a college in Kano in 1960. The regional Minister of Education, Isa Kaita had in May 1960 told the members of the Legislature that the Kano college was being named after the Premier, Ahmadu Bello, ‘in His quality is known only to his mates and those close enough to understand his mode of operations and conduct of his personal life appreciation of the good work he had done for the region’. The college, according to the Minister would ultimately become a University, ‘the first in the North,’ and when this happened, it would be known as ‘Ahmadu Bello University’. Coincidentally, just before independence, there were discussions also going on at the Federal level to push for more investments in higher education. The Ashby Commission established at the behest of the Federal Government had decided to recommend for the establishment of four regional Vanguard, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 —17 17 universities in the East, West, the North and Lagos, to complement the federal university in Ibadan. The Eastern Region had everything ready and were able to start the University of Nigeria Nsukka immediately in 1960, while ABU, University of Lagos and University of Ife took off in 1962. When the Northern Nigerian Government came to establish its own it found it more convenient to settle on Zaria because of the number of institutions already domiciled there that could be drawn into it – Institute of Administration, Kongo, the Institute of Agricultural Research, Samaru and more importantly the Zaria branch of the old Nigerian College. Since the name of the university had earlier been decided to be Ahmadu Bello, another name had to be found for the Kano college which was to be an integral part of the new university. It was then decided to name it after the illustrious Kano Emir, Abdullahi Bayero. There is no better corroboration to this narrative than the interview given by the Emir of Suleja, Awwal Ibrahim, the former Governor of Niger State and published by Daily Trust last Sunday. He said: ‘I left (Bida) in 1961 and went to Kano to attend the Ahmadu Bello College which was changed to Abdullahi Bayero College. When the name, Ahmadu Bello College was adopted for the first university in the Northern Region, the present ABU, Zaria, we continued there.’ The other piece that evoked reactions was the one published last week, "The CP in Kano – Man of the moment". CP Mohammed Wakili who had overall security supervision in Kano during the gubernatorial elections became an overnight media sensation for the sterling role he played to douse tension in the city. It is not just the role he played but the way and manner he performed it. Anyone associated with theatre arts will know what this means. The social media as well as the traditional ones have discussed nothing more than CP Wakili these last two weeks. I have had my own share of respondents also: Buhari Hassan: While we eagerly await the final results of the inconclusive election outcome of some states the case of the role played by the CP Kano makes me a little queasy. The speed with which tributes are paid complete with in depth family history and photo album smacks of Kannywood choreography. W Jasper: More of his kind in all sectors! We must celebrate bravery, dedication, and honesty. Well done CP. Eyes Justice: The Nigeria Police Force, that’s the official name. A colonial appendage and left over. Thus, sophisticated and highly educated gentlemen like Wakili have no place in it. It is fashioned in the image of the Adewusis, Baloguns, Ehindaros and the Kpotun Idris. The incompetents and mediocre cadres always trump excellence. Mr. Wakili, do your best. Posterity will appreciate you if we don’t. FBN: I would rate this post 5 stars. God bless CP Wakili. God bless the institution that produced him, NPF. God bless Nigeria. Phibby: I doff my hat for the amiable CP who never allowed anyone to lord him. A man of the moment indeed. Oghenena: CP Wakilis! CP Wakilis! CP Wakilis! We love you. You have given us hope that Nigeria can be great again. Sunny: In agreeing with yours, I also doff my hat for the Kano CP, a real thoroughbred professional, same with the present Ag IG. Cyclone in Africa: Going to Afghanistan By Banji Ojewale IN 1984, when we all stood in awe of Decree Four, to differ from officialdom as represented by Nigeria’s military junta headed by Muhammadu Buhari was a perilous path to perdition. The soldiers brooked no dissent as they waved the draconian law before all, notably newsmen. The law, the most outrageous and pernicious by any military dictator in Nigeria, forbade reporters from publishing or broadcasting what the authorities "calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the Government of a State or a public officer to ridicule or disrepute." Then this scary one: The martial ruler was given the power to prohibit the circulation of an "offending" newspaper for one year. He was also at liberty to revoke the licence granted any broadcast medium or order its closure or forfeiture to the government if he was satisfied that its untrammeled existence was "detrimental to the interest of the Federation” or any part of the country. Still more frightening and utterly alien to jurisprudential convention, this: "the burden of proving…the charge is true…shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any enactment or rule of law, lie on the person charged”. There was no escape if this law caught up with you. One of the two journalists of The Guardian newspaper jailed under Decree 4, Tunde Thompson, would later write in his book, Power and the Press: "...those charged under the decree were first to be regarded as guilty and to prove they were not, whatever the odds against them”. Thereafter journalists were shy to write on local issues. You didn’t know when Buhari’s Procrustean-bed law could make you lie in it, regardless of your size. It was an elastic contraption that took in everyone, fat, skinny, tall or short, or averagely formed. So, Nigerian journalists, columnists especially, would opt for farflung foreign events. And the Soviet and US proxy war in Afghanistan was the talk of the day. The writers suddenly became experts in global conflict resolution, leaving the larger domestic challenges unattended to. Their own home was on Our governments are not anchored on vision that looks into the next century; they live to exhaust the perks of office of the moment fire; but what sweet relief they got on flights away from hell. If you wrote on such issues in order to dodge the radar of the military, you were said to have gone Afghanistan. I also want to go Afghanistan today. Not because home issues are too hot to handle. No. I think running from them would keep them hot and make them hotter. But then we need to discuss something close home: the visit of a devastating cyclone to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi last week. It’s a week after Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, all in Southern Africa, leaving hundreds confirmed dead and levelling communities and sending hundreds of thousands into refugee camps. A Mozambican government spokesman declared that human casualties could go up with the records indicating that 15,000 persons are missing. Even the military struggle waged to liberate Mozambique and Zimbabwe did not throw up such statistics of fatalities and destruction at a go. But this did. There are also security and grave health concerns. Those displaced are diseased and hungry and revolting. There are food and fuel shortages in the three countries. The United Nations World Food Programme coordinating food flights says it needs to sustain supplies over the next three months to stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe. In Mozambique where Idai began its march of death, the director of a Christian charity has warned Africans to prepare for a long recovery. “This is a catastrophe,” Edgar Jone of Tearfund, a charity body laments. He adds: "Cyclone Idai has destroyed so much in an instance and it will take years for people to recover what they have lost.” And a couple of international aid agencies have sent an SOS saying they are "racing against time” to rescue the perishing, because they can’t reach survivors trapped in areas of Mozambique where some villages are buried in floods. We should not be consoled by the flood of aid stuff and messages from African leaders commiserating with their counterparts in Southern Africa. Nor should we be unduly stirred by the presence of US military teams joining the cyclone rescue effort in Mozambique. We should be more elated to see African nations and the African Union with the other regional bodies on the continent rise to the occasion to supply the needed succour to our brothers and sisters in the afflicted areas. This is an international humanitarian crisis brought about by nature, requiring all humanity to come together to battle. But our leaders go to sleep and expect the outside world to seize the initiative from them. It is a disease of lethargy that has bedevilled our leaders continent-wide. Even Cyclone Idai we are all demonising didn’t spring on us. For instance, BBC’s reporters Jack Goodman and Christopher Giles have quoted the Zimbabwe Minister of Defence Oppah Muchinguri as saying her government was alerted by the meteorologists on the imminence of Idai and its route, but the authorities "failed to anticipate its strength”, and that undermined the level of preparations for evacuation of those in the trajectory of the cyclone. That is what we are saddled with in Africa. Our governments are not anchored on vision that looks into the next century. They live to exhaust the perks of office of the moment. Our town planning strategies are for urban centres that don’t see beyond five years or so. We are compromised such that we approve buildings put together that wouldn’t withstand sharply inclement weather. Years ago, while shooting a documentary in Delta State, I was stupefied at the shapely sight of the General Hospital, Ughelli. There were no cracks. Our guide told me it had been in that pristine state over the decades. The plaque corroborated him: it was built in the days of Obafemi Awolowo, first premier of the old Western Nigeria that stretched from Ikeja to the banks of the Niger. The hospital block and wards with the steel beds were as though they were commissioned yesterday by Awolowo. Only leaders with an agenda set for the next century and beyond deliver a citizenry and monuments that stand against the treacherous elements of misgovernance and nature. •Ojewale, a social commentator, wrote from Lagos C M Y K
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Page 31 and 32: Nigeria’s endless cycle of undemo
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28032019 - NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP:All clear for Lawan; fresh crisis brews over Gbaja

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