07102019

External 

reserves 

plunge 

to 20-month 

low 

ASUU splits as 

new academic 

union emerges 

•We’re not threatened, 

says ASUU 

8 

POLITICS 44 

Our leaders 

not ready 

to 

sacrifice 

— MOGHALU 

SPOTLIGHT 

RETURN OF NATIONAL CARRIER: 

Level playing ground 

crucial, by airline 

operators, other 

stakeholders 

42-43 

VOL. 26: NO. 63912 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 

Why we oppose return of 

toll gates — LABOUR 

•Govt must reduce price of fuel first — ULC 

•Nigerians should resist plans to tax GSM calls 

•NECA calls for caution, efficient policy 

AWARD... 

STORY 

ON PAGE 

5 

INSECURITY: 

Recruitment 

of 10,000 

policemen 

flops as 

PSC, IGP 

bicker 41 

From left, Professor Emeritus, Umaru Shehu, Chairman, HLF Board of Trustees presenting the HLF Umaru Shehu Award for 

Consistent Advocacy for Positive Change within the University System to JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede; while Professor 

Oladipo Akinkugbe; Professor Ayo Banjo; Professor Kayode Oyediran and Professor Njidda Gadzama look on at the Hallmarks 

of Labour Foundation Awards in Lagos, yesterday. Photo by Lamidi Bamidele. 

Adeboye to 

Osinbajo: 

Don’t be fazed 

by gang-ups 

against you 

Bonny Light 

price drops to 

$59.12, 

threatens 

budget 2019 

COLUMNISTS SOBOWALE 29 

9 

Securitymen 

close in on 

kidnappers of 

Kaduna 

school girls 

9 7 

ASSET DECLARATION: 

Level of 

compliance not 

encouraging 

9 

— CCB 

HENRY BOYO 30 OWEI 31 

Mr & Mrs

2—Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019

Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 — 3


Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019—5 

POCKET CARTOON 

From left, Chief Patricia Otuedon-Arawore, Executive Secretary, Hallmarks of Labour Foundation; Chief 

Emeka Anyaoku, Special Guest of Honour; former CJN, Hon Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, chairman of 

the occasion; Professor Emeritus, Umaru Shehu, Chairman HLF Board of Trustees presenting HLF Christopher 

Kolade Award for Excellence in Leadership and Professionalism in the Media to Chairman of Channels 

Television, Mr John Momoh, as his wife,Olusola, Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe and Professor Itse Sagay 

look on at the Hallmarks of Labour Foundation Awards in Lagos, yesterday. Photo by Lamidi Bamidele. 

Why we oppose return of 

toll gates — LABOUR 

By Victor Young, 

with Agency reports 

LAGOS — 

Organised Labour 

weekend rejected the 

proposed plan by the 

Federal Government to 

re-introduce toll gates 

on federal highways. 

Labour spoke as the 

Nigeria Employers’ 

Consultative 

Association, NECA, 

yesterday called on the 

Federal Government to 

put in place an efficient 

policy before returning 

toll gates. 

While the Nigeria 

Labour Congress, NLC, 

said the toll gates would 

worsen people’s misery 

and raise the poverty 

level in the country, the 

United Labour Congress, 

ULC, said the only 

condition for Nigerians 

to accept a return of toll 

gates on federal roads is 

a drastic reduction in 

pump prices of 

petroleum products. 

It contended that the 

money to be realized 

from toll gates was 

factored into pump prices 

of fuel before they were 

dismantled in 2003. 

The ULC also urged 

Nigerians to reject the 

planned tax on GSM 

calls, lamenting that 

government had in 

recent times been 

emasculating the 

ordinary Nigerians with 

several tax burdens. 

The Trade Union 

Congress, TUC, on its 

part, also rejected the 

planned re-introduction 

of toll gates by the 

Federal Government. 

Return of toll 

gates not 

welcome 

— NLC 

General Secretary of 

NLC, Emmanuel 

Ugboaja, said: “It is not 

welcome news at this 

point in time. It is going 

to put extra pressure on 

the ordinary people and 

worsen the poverty level 

in the country because it 

will affect the prices of 

goods and services. 

“The roads are in very 

bad shape across the 

country, how can you toll 

a bad road? If you have 

fixed the roads and you 

now talk of tolling to 

recoup the money spent 

and to generate money to 

maintain the roads, 

people could consider it. 

“But now, it is 

unacceptable because 

roads have remained the 

only means for 

transportation for 

humans, goods and 

services because the rails 

are not working. It is 

desperation by 

government to raise 

money at all cost. 

“Ordinary Nigerians 

who have been 

overburdened will be 

forced to bear the extra 

burden 

the 

reintroduction of the toll 

gates will bring. In other 

words, it will add to the 

pains and suffering of 

the masses because the 

prices of goods and 

services will go up. This 

is not what we need now. 

“Let the government fix 

the roads first before it 

could talk about tolling. 

If people can travel from 

Lagos to Port Harcourt in 

less than seven hours, 

travel from Lagos to 

Benin City in three hours 

on road, or from Abuja to 

Lagos, to Port Harcourt 

in less than seven hours 

on a smooth road, when 

you talk about tolling, 

people will listen. 

“But today, the roads 

are in terrible conditions. 

It is unacceptable 

because it will bring 

nothing but more misery 

to the ordinary man.” 

Nigerians must 

resist tax 

planned tax on 

GSM calls 

— ULC 

President of ULC, Joe 

Ajaero, while speaking 

at the inaugural 

Delegates Conference of 

P r i v a t e 

Telecommunications 

Senior Staff Association 

of Nigeria, PTECSSAN, 

in Lagos, weekend, said: 

“Recently, members of 

the National Assembly 

have been talking about 

10 per cent tax on calls 

you and I make. 

“The way they are 

going to deduct it, we 

will not know. Nigerians 

should rise and resist 

any tax on GSM calls. It 

is unacceptable. The era 

of taxes in Nigeria is 

becoming unbearable. 

There is the issue of 7.5 

percent increase in 

Value Added Tax, VAT, 

another tariff on 

electricity, and 

reintroduction of toll 

gates. 

“The issue of toll gates 

will determine whether 

Nigerians are alive or 

not, because the amount 

that was supposed to be 

realised from toll gates 

was factored into the fuel 

pump prices when 

former President 

Olusegun Obasanjo 

Continues on Page 41 

By Abosade Adelaja, Olayinka Latona 

& Onyeka Onyinye 

NEW MINIMUM WAGE: Threat by FG to downsize (1) 

It’s definitely a 

shame that in a country 

full of so many resources, 

we are experiencing this 

kind of thing. We have 

senators and others busy 

doing nothing but 

spending our money on 

worthless things. 

Indeed, it’s a bad idea 

because it will further 

increase the agonies of 

the people and it will 

give rise to corruption 

and social menace. 

-Ogunmoroti Abraham 

Analyst. 

Why should workers be 

downsized when the 

basic salary of a Senator can 

pay about 100 workers? God 

has blessed us with 

everything we need to make 

Nigeria great but it is left 

for us to harness them. 

Rather than sending an 

average worker to the 

labour market, our leaders 

should reduce their wages 

and stop punishing the 

average worker. Let’s look 

inward and stop pushing 

the nation backward. - 

Taiwo Yusuf 

Delivery man 

It is a big shame on the 

government to consider 

sacking poor workers just 

because they want to add a 

paltry sum on the 

ridiculously small salary 

they earn. Does the 

government consider 

cutting down the salary of 

senators, reducing those 

numerous allowances? The 

masses vote to enjoy the 

dividends of democracy 

and it’s sad they are on the 

chopping slab when certain 

decisions are made. 

-Temitoyosi Obe 

Educationist 

I 

believe if they 

don’t get to sack 

some workers, it will 

be impossible for the 

government to implement 

the new minimum 

wage. 

So some people would 

have to go for the new 

minimum wage to be 

implemented. 

I believe it is not an easy 

decision for government 

to take. It is really unfortunate 

-Umeh Somtochukwu, 

Enterprenuer 

They should go 

ahead and sack 

everybody. 

We are not expecting 

anything different or 

new from this administra-tion. 

They will rather sack 

people than reduce 

their jumbo pay. 

This is the next level 

they promised us during 

their campaign. It is 

obvious this government 

is not serious 

-Ifeoluwa Bankole, 

Student 

Current wages are not 

regular and we are 

talking about the proposed 

N30,000? However, the 

workers should keep 

pestering the government 

to pay the N30,000 while 

the government should 

look into the plight of these 

workers because sacking 

them is not the solution, 

rather, it will plunge the 

nation into deeper poverty, 

so, don’t increase the rate 

of unemployment. 

-Mrs Funmi Adesanya, 

Businesswoman

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 

Man dies after pumping stomach full 

with ‘detoxification herb’ in Calabar 

By Ike Uchechukwu 

CALABAR—A middle-aged 

man has died in Calabar, the 

Cross River State capital, after 

drinking herbs in a bid to detoxify. 

Vanguard learned that the man, 

identified as Mr. Etuma an 

indigene of Abia State, was 

battling with low sperm count 

before he decided to use herbs to 

detoxify his system in an effort to 

boost his sperm count. 

Vanguard gathered that Enuma 

gave up the ghost inside a 

vehicle, while waiting for his CT 

Businessman 

docked over 

alleged 

N9.1m fraud 

•He was seeking solution to low sperm count—Neighbour 

Scan results at Arubah Specialist 

Hospital, Calabar. 

A source close to the family, who 

pleaded anonymity, told 

Vanguard that Mr. Etuma had 

been battling constipation since 

Monday, September 30, after 

filling his stomach with herbs 

prescribed by an unidentified 

woman, who is now at large. 

The source said: “Etuma had 

been battling low sperm count 

since he married his second wife. 

His first wife died about three 

years ago; after giving birth to his 

first son, she slumped and was 

confirmed dead at the hospital 

few weeks after giving birth 

through Caesarean Session. 

“He finally got married last year 

and had been battling with low 

sperm count, which had 

generated a lot of issues with the 

new wife. 

“He was advised by a family 

member living in the same 

compound to consult a herbalist 

for remedy. He did and was given 

a unidentified leaf to use. 

“The herb was pumped into his 

stomach through his anus with a 

stomach pump. But things started 

coming out from his body and he 

was unable to stool for four days. 

“When the problem persisted, 

they had to rush him to the 

hospital where he was advised 

to run a scan. While waiting for 

the scan result, he was asked 

to go and rest in the car since 

he was already feeling 

uncomfortable, only for them to 

find out after a moment that he 

was dead. 

“It is quite a painful and 

avoidable death. I am just pitying 

his three-year-old son, who is now 

an orphan.” 

By Onozure Dania 

LAGOS—A 36-year-old 

Lagos-based businessman, 

Godson Ogbonna, who 

allegedly obtained N9.1 million 

under the guise of exporting 

condemned battery cells, has 

been arraigned before an 

Igbosere Chief Magistrate’s 

Court. 

The defendant, whose 

residential address was not 

given, is facing a two-count 

charge of obtaining and 

stealing, preferred against 

him by the Police. 

Police prosecutor, Sergeant 

Moshood Abiola, told the 

court that Ogbonna 

committed the offence 

between March and May 

2018, at Suite 67, Anjorin 

New Shopping Complex 

along Kingsway, Apapa, 

Lagos. 

He said that the defendant 

obtained the money from 

Mercygrace Favour Nigeria 

Limited under the pretext to 

use the money for exportation 

of condemned battery cells 

and failed to pay back. 

Abiola said the defendant 

stole the said money from the 

complainant, Mercygrace 

Favour Nigeria Limited. 

According to the 

prosecutor, the offence is 

contrary to and punishable 

under Section 315 (1a) and 

287, Criminal Laws of Lagos 

State, 2015. 

The defendant, however, 

pleaded not guilty to the 

charge against him. 

Magistrate I. B. Bakare 

granted the defendant bail in 

the sum of N500,000, with 

two sureties, in like sum. 

He said the sureties must 

show evidence of tax 

payment to the Lagos State 

government and their 

addresses to be verified by the 

prosecutor. 

The case was adjourned till 

November 5 for mention. 

One dies during New Yam Carnival float in Cross River 

By Emma Una 

CALABAR—NEW 

yam 

festivities in Owakande 

community in Obubra Local 

Government Area in central Cross 

River State, weekend, turned sour 

after a young man, identified as 

Koko, was crushed to death 

during carnival float. 

Reports from the area, which is 

about 140 kilometres from 

Calabar, indicated that as part of 

the festival celebration on 

Saturday, youths in the 

community undertook a midmorning 

carnival float of a 

distance of five kilometres. 

But tragedy struck when one of 

the revellers, who sat on the 

bonnet of one of the cars on the 

float, fell off and was crushed by 

the vehicle. 

An eyewitness, Miss Carine 

Obongha, told Vanguard that the 

boy, who is about 22 years old, 

was displaying his dancing skills 

while seated on the bonnet of the 

car when, suddenly, the car 

swerved throwing him on the 

road and one of the front tires of 

the car crushed his head. 

Obongha said: “They came all 

the way from Owakande village 

and when they got to Ikom- 

Calabar Highway, where the 

Army checkpoint is, Koko fell off 

from the bonnet of the car where 

he sat and was crushed 

instantly.” 

She added that the tragedy 

brought severe pain to the 

community and most events 

By Wole Mosadomi 

MINNA—NIGER State 

Police Command has 

arrested a 25-year-old man, 

Abdullahi Umar, for allegedly 

raping a 13-year-old girl. 

The incident occurred in 

Angwan Tukura area in the 

Kontagora Local Government 

Area of the state on Sunday, 

September 29. 

Vanguard gathered that the 

suspect sent the victim to buy him 

sachet water. On returning with 

the item, the suspect was said to 

planned as part of the celebration 

were cancelled. 

DSP Irene Ugbo, Public 

25-year-old man rapes minor in Niger 

By Bashir Bello 

KATSINA—A day old baby 

girl and 14 other women 

were freed by bandits operating 

in Jibia Local Government Area 

of Katsina State. 

The victims were said to have 

been abducted from Mallamawa 

village in Jibia area of the state. 

Speaking while receiving the 

victims, Governor Aminu 

Masari said they comprised the 

last batch of the victims 

expected from the bandits as 

have dragged her into an Islamic 

primary school at Angwan 

Yamma, where he raped her. 

The suspect, who was paraded 

before journalists in Minna, 

confessed that he had been 

planning for the girl for a long 

time before he eventually got her. 

His words: “That was the only 

opportunity I had and I wouldn’t 

want to miss it at that point in 

time. 

“I have set trap for her several 

times, but for one reason or the 

other, the plans failed and when 

this opportunity came, I didn’t 

part of the peace dialogue 

initiative. 

He also said the next phase 

of the initiative would be 

disarmament of the repentant 

bandits, which he and 

governors of Zamfara and 

Niger were working to 

actualise. 

With the release of the women, 

the number of kidnap victims 

who were freed under the 

agreement reached in the 

initiative is put at over 70. 

Murjanatu Isa is one of the 

BOYS-II-MEN: 

Cadets at the combined passing out 

parade of the 66 Regular Course (NA), 

67 Regular Course (NN/NAF) and 

Short Service Course 45 (NA) of the 

Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, 

Kaduna. PHOTO: Olu Ajayi. 

Relations Officer for Cross River 

Police Command, said she was 

yet to be briefed on the incident. 

want to miss it. That was why I 

dragged her to one Islamic 

primary school very close to my 

house and had canal knowledge 

of her.” 

The state Police Public Relations 

Officer, DSP Muhammad 

Abubakar, had also said the 

suspect had earlier confessed to 

the crime during interrogation. 

He added that the suspect was 

apprehended by a team of 

policemen attached to “B” 

Division Kontagora, following a 

tip-off, and that he would soon 

be arraigned in court. 

Day old baby, 14 women freed by Katsina bandits 

14 victims freed and gave birth 

to the baby girl in the forest few 

hours before their release. 

Isa said they were in the 

kidnappers captivity for 45 days 

and went through a miserable live. 

Earlier, Chairman, Jibia LGA, 

Haruna Musa said the 14 women 

released put the number of 

kidnapped victims released in 

the area at 29. 

Musa lauded the peace 

dialogue initiative which he said 

had brought about relative peace 

in the area and state at large.


South Africa returnee robs 

laptop dealer with toy gun 

By Evelyn Usman & 

Olasunkanmi Akoni 

TWO suspected members of 

a robbery gang, one of 

them a South African returnee, 

have been arrested by 

operatives of the Rapid 

Response Squad, RRS, for 

dispossessing a dealer of three 

laptops valued at N1.5 million 

at gunpoint. But the gun was 

a toy. 

The suspects, Victor Remi, 

27, who claims to be a forex 

trader and Ekeh Maxwell, 23, 

a musician, posed as a driver 

and Managing Director of a 

company. 

They ordered for the 

MacBook Pro laptops, 2018 

edition, only to dispossess the 

dealer of the items when he 

got to the designated point of 

collection. 

During interrogation, the 

suspects, both residents of 18, 

Alexandra Street, Abule Egba, 

Lagos, disclosed that they got 

details of their victim through 

his twitter handle. 

According to Remi, the 

South Africa returnee, “I told 

the dealer I was the Managing 

Director of a new company on 

Acme Road, Ikeja. I also told 

him that my daughter 

recommended him; that his 

laptops were good. 

“I ordered one for myself and 

another for my secretary and 

told him to bring them. 

“It took us a week to initiate, 

perfect and execute the plan. 

My colleague, Maxwell, 

borrowed his brother’s Camry 

car (FKJ 833 EZ) for the deed. 

We bought a toy gun and 

painted it to make it look real. 

“I told the dealer to meet me 

at Acme Crescent because we 

knew the location was a 

desolate area. While Maxwell 

drove, I sent the dealer a 

message on Whatsap to bring 

the consignment to my office, 

last Monday. 

“I told him that my driver 

would pick him up at Acme 

Crescent. 

“Maxwell picked him at the 

designated point, while I 

joined them few metres from 

where he entered. He (dealer) 

sat in front with the laptops. 

Immediately I entered, 

I placed the gun on his neck 

and ordered him to surrender 

them. 

“We wanted to take his phone 

too, but he pleaded not to be 

stripped of everything. We told 

him to alight from the car and 

we zoomed off.” 

Preliminary investigation as 

gathered, revealed that after 

the operation, Remi told his 

accomplice that the laptops 

were two instead of three. He 

further lied that he sold each 

of the two laptops, N250,000 

each instead of the N500,000. 

On his part, Maxwell, who 

corroborated Remi’s claim, 

said he got N250,000 after 

Remi sold the laptops, adding 

that his partner threw the toy 

gun away after the operation. 

He also expressed 

disappointment when he 

realised that Remi lied to him 

on the number of laptops and 

the amount they were sold for. 

I had no idea they 

were robbers—Victim 

Narrating his ordeal, the 

laptop dealer, who did not 

want his name in print, said 

the main suspect, Remi, gave 

his identity as Uche during 

the conversation on social 

media. 

According to him, “we were 

communicating on 

WhatsApp. I never had an 

inkling that they were 

robbers. They used a gun and 

By Esther Onyegbula 

OPERATIVES of Lagos State 

Police Command have 

arrested one Chizoba Okeke, a 

member of an armed robbery 

gang that operate dressed as 

military men. 

The suspect, Chizoba Okeke, 

was arrested on October 3 at 

about 11:30p.m. when Festac 

Police Station received a distress 

call from a filling station at 2nd 

Rainbow, that an armed robber 

was sighted in the area. 

It was learned that 

immediately operatives of antirobbery 

patrol team were 

drafted to the location and 

Chizoba Okeke was arrested. 

By Ben Agande 

K ADUNA—SECURITY 

operatives are closing in 

on the kidnappers of the six 

schoolgirls and two teachers 

from the Engravers Academy in 

Kaduna State, multiple security 

sources have told Vanguard. 

It was gathered, yesterday 

evening, that special security 

teams from the Police, the 

Department of State Services, 

DSS, and Army had been 

deployed to Kaduna to rescue 

the kidnap victims. 

According to a Police source, 

security services “have a 

general idea of where the 

kidnapped victims are being 

held, but are wary of carrying 

out any rescue operation 

because the victims are being 

used as human shield by their 

abductors.” 

It was gathered that elite 

teams from the three security 

services—Army, DSS and 

Police— have been deployed to 

knife to dispossess me of the 

laptops. The three laptops are 

worth N1.5 million.” 

The stolen laptops have, 

however, been recovered from 

their buyers and returned to 

the owner. 

Commissioner of Police, 

Lagos State Police Command, 

CP Zubairu Muazu, in his 

reaction to the arrest of the 

suspects, advised Lagosians 

to moderate the amount of 

information they expose 

publicly through the social 

media, adding that criminal 

elements were exploiting the 

social media to perpetrate 

crime. 

He restated the commitment 

of the Command to remain 

unrelenting in the pursuit of 

criminals in the state. 

30-yr-old fake soldier 

arrested for robbery 

Items recovered from him 

were two phones, one sword, 

house breaking implements, 

two daggers, a POS machine 

and ATM card. 

Confirming the arrest, DSP 

Bala Elkana, Police Public 

Relations Officer, Lagos State, 

said: “Investigation is ongoing 

to ascertain where and how he 

got the military uniform he 

operated with and to also 

identify other members of his 

gang. 

“It is not yet established whether 

he belonged to the gang of 

dismissed soldiers arrested some 

weeks ago. The suspect will be 

charged to court as soon as 

investigation is concluded.” 

Security operatives close 

in on Kaduna kidnappers 

Kaduna for the operation to 

release the kidnapped girls. 

“We are mounting pressure on 

the kidnappers, but we have to 

be careful not to put the lives of 

the victims in jeopardy,” another 

source told Vanguard. 

Attempts to get an official 

update from the Police Public 

Relations Officer were 

unsuccessful as all known 

telephone lines were not 

available. 

Recall that the six girls and 

two teachers from the 

Engravers Academy in Kaduna 

State were, last Thursday, 

kidnapped by gunmen. 

Their abductors made contacts 

with the school last week and 

demanded a ransom of N50 

million. 

Already, the school has been 

closed down and Kaduna State 

government, in conjunction 

with security agencies, has 

advised schools in the state to 

employ additional security 

measures. 

... with Emma'nKen (08163121378) 

It's the Ministry of Education! 

Wonderful. Here, we take our time. 

We can do one for 10 years 

Please, see the lead 

story in Page 6


By Johnbosco 

Agbakwuru, 

Joseph Erunke & 

Shina Abubakar 

THERE appears to be a 

split in the Academic Staff 

Union of Universities, ASUU, 

as a new academic union, 

Congress of University 

Academic, CONUA, has 

emerged. 

The new union said its 

emergence was to ensure 

stable university calendar to 

improve the quality of 

education at the ivory tower 

and enhance innovations in 

the system. 

The union further stressed 

the need for interfacing 

between teachers at the 

ordinary level and academics 

at the higher institutions of 

learning to improve quality of 

students admitted into the 

university system. 

Meanwhile, Minister of 

Labour and Employment, 

Senator Chris Ngige, 

confirmed yesterday that 

CONUA had applied for 

registration in April but noted 

that the application was yet to 

be treated. 

‘’Their application is in the 

ministry but it has not been 

treated. I asked a committee 

to look at their application. It 

was submitted in April, “ he 

said. 

ASUU, however, reacted 

yesterday, that it was not 

threatened by the emergence 

of a new academic staff union, 

even as Nigeria Labour 

Congress, NLC, said the only 

academic staff union it knew 

was ASUU. 

New union seeks 

stable calendar for 

varsities 

But addressing journalists at 

CONUA’s first stakeholders 

meeting held at Obafemi 

Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 

Osun State, weekend, 

National Coordinator, Dr. Niyi 

Sumonu, said it was time for 

other academia in other 

universities to join the union 

in its search for a refined 

academic unionism to foster 

quality education in the 

Nigerian university system. 

According to him, the union 

can no longer afford doing 

things in the old ways and 

expect different results, hence, 

the need to develop alternative 

ideas to brainstorm with other 

stakeholders to ensure 

stability in the university 

system and return the 

country’s old glory in the 

sector. 

He said: “For standard of 

education to be very high, we 

need a stable academic 

calendar, we need to be able 

to predict academic session, 

we need to have innovations 

which is difficult without 

continuity. 

‘’We also need to be in tune 

with modern realities, our 

union would approach the 

matter of engagement with all 

stakeholders in an engaging 

manner to have a common 

ground for moving forward. 

“Our union is not antigovernment, 

if government 

and by extension, 

administrators of universities 

are doing well, we will let the 

world know and will quickly 

PASSING-OUT PARADE: Minister of Defence, Major-General Salihi Magashi (retd) (right) with 

some Service Chiefs at the combined passing-out parade of the 66 Regular Course (NA) 67 Regular 

Course, NN/NAF, and Short Service Course 45 (NA) of Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Kaduna, 

weekend. Photo: Olu Ajayi. 

ASUU splits as new academic union 

emerges 

knock them if they do 

otherwise. We shall provide 

alternatives, constructive 

criticisms and take them to task 

where they are not doing well 

and provide for them how to 

do well. 

‘’We will not wait for them to 

make mistakes before we 

intervene. We have vision and 

will provide ahead what can 

be done to have better results. 

If that is done, we are sure we 

will have a better way to move 

forward. 

Alternative ways of 

solving problems 

“Members believe we 

should have alternative ways 

of solving problems, members 

have been contributing very 

well to the finance of the 

union, when we fulfill and do 

all that we need to do, financial 

constraints will be forgotten. 

“We have been at this for over 

three years in Ife, we have 

been waxing stronger and 

members from other 

universities have been 

experiencing what we 

experienced here, hence the 

decision to come together to 

form a national union. 

“The issues we are having 

cut across all universities and 

resonate well everywhere, the 

five institutions that have the 

gut to bell the cat came together 

to form the union and this is 

only the first stage. By the time 

we are done with the 

procedures, it would be like 

an inferno you may not be able 

to curtail in terms of spread. 

“Our strength lies in our 

focus, which includes the 

welfare of our members, the 

interest of the system and most 

importantly, the students that 

no one is defending their 

interest, we would look out for 

them because we are only 

lecturers because of them.’’ 

Institutions that 

attended the 

meeting 

According to him, the five 

institutions that attended the 

•New union seeks stable calendar for varsities 

•New group has submitted application—Ngige 

•We’re not threatened — ASUU 

•We've only one ASUU—NLC 

meeting are Federal 

University, Lokoja; Kwara 

State University, Malete; 

Ambrose Ali University, 

Expoma, Edo State; Federal 

University, Oye-Ekiti; and 

Obafemi Awolowo University, 

Ile-Ife. 

He said other schools were 

already on board to join the 

union. 

Asked if the union was out 

to rival ASUU, National 

Publicity Secretary, CONUA, 

Dr. Nwoke Earnest, said the 

union was out to redefine 

academic unionism in Nigeria 

and was not ready to join 

issues with any union. 

He said: ‘’We want to be able 

to proffer solutions to issues, 

even before they come up. 

There is no point sending our 

children to countries which do 

not have intellectuals as 

Nigeria but because you can 

predict when your child gets 

to the university and 

graduates. 

‘’We are, in essence, coming 

together to start something 

new, which is an interaction 

with the educational system, 

which is not confrontational 

but a synergy of all 

stakeholders. 

"We need to think of 

students’ welfare, the 

educational system in Nigeria 

and the development of the 

country itself because many 

countries developed because 

of the achievement of their 

ivory towers and without a 

stable academic system, it is 

impossible to achieve such 

feat.” 

We’re not 

threatened —ASUU 

Reacting to the 

development, yesterday, 

chairman of OAU chapter of 

ASUU, Dr Adeola 

Egbedokun, said he was not 

ready to talk about any union 

because he was not aware of 

its existence. 

He, however, stated that 

ASUU was not in any way 

threatened by the existence of 

any union or the formation of 

a new one, since it had been 

in existence for over four 

decades. 

Egbedokun said: “ASUU is 

solid, can fight for itself and 

always up to the task. I don’t 

want to talk about any union 

because I am not aware of its 

existence. 

“The last time ASUU called 

for strike, it was complied with 

100 per cent here in Ife, so if 

any union is coming to 

existence, good luck to them, 

but ASUU has the tenacity to 

agitate for whatever it wants, 

it is not threatened by any 

union.” 

We've only one 

ASUU —NLC 

In its reaction, organised 

labour denied knowledge of 

any splinter group in the ranks 

of Academic Staff Union of 

Universities, ASUU, declaring 

that there was only one ASUU 

recognised by law. 

President of NLC, Mr 

Ayuba Wabba, said there had 

been attempts in the past to 

use some individuals to cause 

problems in ASUU but noted 

that such attempts had never 

succeeded. 

On his part, the General 

Secretary of NLC, Emma 

Ugboaja, said although 

people were entitled to form a 

union, the trade union laws 

specified steps to follow, 

adding that there was no 

information available to the 

NLC that there was another 

ASUU group in the country. 

Speaking to Vanguard on 

telephone, the NLC President 

who is in Geneva for Labour 

matter, said: “Such a situation 

(splinter group in ASUU) does 

not exist. I am aware that 

efforts have been made to 

undermine ASUU, which has 

not succeeded. 

“ASUU has no splinter 

group. If there is, let them 

disclose their names and also 

which universities they belong 

to. That (new group) is not 

something that is known to us. 

“In the past, during the 

military era, a lot of efforts, 

including proscription, were 

made but that has not 

succeeded because this is a 

union of intellectuals. 

“ASUU remains one entity 

and it has continued to work. 

No splinter group exists, 

these are just possibly 

individuals coming together 

to achieve a purpose. Many 

people claim what they are 

not. 

“In this case, ASUU has been 

there more than 40 years. It 

has undergone different 

challenges and different 

attacks and it has been able to 

remain together. There is no 

splinter group.” 

Also commenting on the 

alleged formation, the 

General Secretary of NLC, 

Comrade Ugboaja said: “ To 

the best of my knowledge, we 

are not aware and we have 

not got any information from 

our affiliates. 

“People are entitled to form 

a union but the trade union 

law is clear on formation of 

unions. This is a country built 

on law and running on rule 

of law. 

“Trade union is not 

established by people that are 

angry with their leadership. 

If you are angry with the 

leadership of Nigeria, you 

don’t form another Nigeria, 

you go and contest election.” 

The Federal Ministry of 

Education in its reaction, said 

the issue was purely a union 

matter which was not its 

business. 

The Deputy Director of Press 

in the Ministry, Bem Goong, 

speaking on a telephone 

interview with Vanguard, said 

union matters were out of 

government’s purview, hence 

it cannot comment on any 

alleged split in it. 

FG moves 

to seize 

Maina’s 

multi-million 

naira 

property at 

home, 

abroad 

•Files for detention 

extension 

ECONOMIC and 

Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, 

has filed court papers to 

confiscate a number of 

property traced to the 

embattled former 

chairman of the Pension 

Reforms Task Team, 

Abdulrasheed Maina. 

The anti-graft agency 

has also filed another 

motion to get an extended 

order to detain the 

former deputy director 

with the Customs, 

Immigration and 

Prisons Pension, CIP- 

PO, who was arrested 

last week in an 

undisclosed hotel in 

Abuja. 

A top source said last 

night that the EFCC 

had traced many houses 

worth hundreds of 

millions of naira at 

home and abroad to 

Maina. 

An official said: “The 

commission strongly 

believes that these 

property, which our 

operatives have traced 

in Nigeria and in other 

jurisdictions, could 

have not have been 

genuinely procured by 

a civil servant like 

Maina, no matter how 

long he would have 

worked in the service. 

“We have, therefore, 

filed for the temporary 

forfeiture of the mansions 

traced to him, 

which we strongly believe 

are proceeds of 

economic and financial 

crimes.” 

Beyond the houses, 

EFCC also traced five 

companies, which it 

claimed Maina also 

used to engage in 

money laundering and 

has asked him to provide 

details of the 

money in the accounts 

of the firms. The firms 

include Cluster Logistics, 

Drew 

Investment and Construction 

Ltd, Kongolo Dynamics 

Cleaning Ltd, 

“Dr” AbduUahi A. 

Faizal, Nafisatu Aliyu 

Yeldu and Abdulrasheed 

Abdullahi 

Maina. 

There were indications 

last night that 

Maina might be 

charged to court this 

week to answer for economic 

and financial 

charges levelled 

against him by EFCC 

and the Federal 

Government.


ANNIVERSARY: From left, Chinwe Bode-Akinwande, Head, Digital Marketing & 

Innovation; Ismail Omamegbe, Head, Corporate Responsibility &Sustainalibility Media 

and External Relations, both of FirstBank; Niyi Yusuf, CEO, Verraki; Olayemi Ogogbua, 

Head, Internal Communications, and Folake Ani-Mumuney, Group Head, Marketing & 

Corporate Communications, both of FirstBank, during the branding master class session, 

Junior Achievement Nigeria 20th anniversary celebration, in Lagos. 

Adeboye to Osinbajo: Don’t be fazed 

by gang-ups against you 

By Luminous 

Jannamike 

THE General Overseer of 

Redeemed Christian 

Church of God, RCCG, 

Worldwide, Pastor Enoch 

Adeboye, has asked Vice 

President Yemi Osinbajo not 

to be fazed by the snares of 

those unhappy with his 

rising profile, saying God 

who destined him to be part 

of President Muhammadu 

Buhari’s administration will 

sustain him. 

Adeboye spoke, 

yesterday, at a special 

service to mark the 20th 

anniversary of RCCG 

Province 7 Headquarters 

(Faith Chapel), Gwarinpa, 

Abuja. 

HEALTH TIPS 

By Sola Ogundipe 

Body odour 

Body odour, also known as 

bromhidrosis, is the 

unpleasant smell that can 

occur s when you sweat. The 

sweat itself does not smell. 

The unpleasant odour is 

produced by bacteria on the 

skin that break down the 

sweat. 

Excessive sweating and 

body odour is an unpleasant 

problem that can affect a 

person’s confidence and selfesteem. 

People who sweat 

excessively or have a lot of 

bacteria on their skin tend to 

have body odour. Men tend 

to sweat more than women, 

so men are more likely to 

have body odour. 

Things that can make body 

odour worse include being 

overweight, eating rich or 

spicy foods, and medical 

conditions, such as diabetes. 

The best way to avoid 

getting body odour is to keep 

areas of your body prone to 

sweating clean and free of 

bacteria. 

Use a good soap to wash 

Taking his text from1 

Samuel 9: 18 and 19, the 

cleric likened the story of 

Osinbajo’s emergence as 

vice president to that of Saul 

who became king of Israel 

without lobbying for 

recognition. 

Adeboye, who was 

represented by Assistant 

General Overseer, 

Education and Training, 

RCCG, Pastor Ezekiel 

Odeyemi, said: “I prayed 

with him (Osinbajo) a few 

moment ago, and God made 

me to understand that before 

this man became a vicepresidential 

candidate, he 

never thought he could get 

to that position. He was not 

a politician. 

every day, paying particular 

attention to areas the 

armpits, genital area and 

feet. Washing removes sweat 

and reduces bacteria on your 

skin. 

Take a warm bath or shower 

once a day. On hot days, you 

may need to bath or shower 

twice a day. 

Change your clothes and 

socks on a regular basis will 

also help. 

Using an antiperspirant or 

deodorant daily will also help 

prevent body odour. 

Regularly shaving your 

armpits can also help reduce 

body odour. 

Use a deodorant or an 

antiperspirant after bathing 

or showering. 

Wear natural fibres, such as 

wool, silk or cotton. They 

allow your skin to breathe, 

which means your sweat will 

evaporate quicker. 

Limit your consumption of 

spicy foods, such as curry or 

garlic, because they can 

make your sweat smell. 

Eating a lot of red meat tends 

to make body odour worse. 

“But destiny is very 

powerful. If God destines 

you to be in a place, even if 

100 people are lined up 

before you, they will all be 

disqualified. If God is the 

one promoting you, he will 

sustain you there.” 

While reflecting on the 

theme of the celebration: 

‘The Next Level of Glory,’ 

Adeboye called on 

Nigerians to be 

incorruptible to experience 

the dividends of the 

promised ‘next level’. 

He said: “We are living 

in a nation where 

corruption is the order of the 

day. If we must experience 

the next level of glory, we 

must make up our minds 

not to defile ourselves. We 

must determine to be 

incorruptible.” 

He also warned 

Nigerians against 

resigning to the negative 

belief that the country cannot 

be better, saying: “We don’t 

want anyone to be 

complacent. But, we want 

Nigerians to be pro-active 

and determined to move 

from one level to the next. 

We can’t afford to give up.’’ 

Speaking also, RCCG 

Pastor in-charge of Faith 

Chapel, Olusegun Rotimi, 

expressed optimism that the 

church would fully actualise 

its vision in the years ahead, 

noting that 20 days of 

prayers and fasting had 

been offered to God as 

thanksgiving for the 

chapel’s growth and 

success since 1999. 

We’re ready to release 

recovered NHIS fund in our 

custody —EFCC 

By Luminous 

Jannamike 

ABUJA—Economic and 

Financial Crimes 

Commission, EFCC, has 

expressed its readiness to 

release funds belonging to 

National Health Insurance 

Scheme, NHIS, which are 

kept in its custody. 

A statement, weekend, by 

Ayo Osinlu, NHIS’ Head of 

Press and Public Relations, 

said the funds were 

recovered from some public 

officials, who allegedly 

milked the treasury of the 

scheme dry. 

According to Osinlu, the 

EFCC boss spoke during an 

advocacy visit to his office by 

Executive Secretary of 

NHIS, Prof. Mohammed 

Sambo, in Abuja. 

The statement quoted 

Magu as saying that “the 

funds were retained in the 

safe custody of EFCC 

because the agency needed 

concrete assurance of due 

process, transparency and 

accountability in the further 

handling of the recovered 

funds.” 

The EFCC advised his 

NHIS counterpart to 

intensify his ongoing value 

reorientation strategy to 

deepen the moral tone of staff 

and stakeholders of the 

Scheme. 

Earlier, Sambo had urged 

the EFCC to release the 

funds to augment the 

dwindling resources of the 

scheme. 

He said: “Recent rapid 

assessments by the new 

leadership of NHIS indicate 

pressing need of funds for 

critical activities to grow the 

mandate of the Scheme.” 

Sambo also listed 

professionalisation of the 

operations of the 

organisation, strengthening 

of the state offices, and the 

firm application of the reward 

and sanction mechanism to 

regulate conduct of all 

players in the industry as 

part of his strategies for 

taking the scheme to the next 

level. 

Asset declaration: Level of 

compliance, not 

encouraging — CCB 

ABUJA—CODE 

of 

Conduct Bureau, CCB, 

has lamented the low level 

of compliance with the 

declaration of assets by 

public office holders in the 

country, saying it was not 

encouraging. 

Chairman of the bureau, 

Prof. Mohammed Isah, who 

stated this when he featured 

on News Agency of Nigeria 

Forum in Abuja, said though 

there was an improvement 

from what it used to be in 

time past, there was need for 

all public officers to know 

that they were duty bound 

to declare their assets. 

He said: “What we met 

that used to be the level of 

compliance has now risen to 

a certain level, the nature of 

the subject that we are 

expected to cover is too wide. 

“Part two of the fifth 

schedule of the 1999 

Constitution provides that 

from the president, vice 

president, governors, deputy 

governors, members of the 

National Assembly, members 

of House of Assembly, 

ministers, commissioners 

and all chairmen of all 

parastatals and agencies of 

federal and state 

governments, military, 

police, immigration, 

customs, prisons, political 

office holders and all federal, 

states and local government 

civil servants, all of them are 

public officers. 

“Our main predicament is 

the issue of enlightenment. 

People have little or no 

knowledge about their 

obligations or relations to 

compliance to with the Code 

of Conduct for public officers. 

So, the level of compliance 

is not encouraging at all.” 

On the issue of accessing 

information as declared by 

public officers, the chairman 

noted that the Freedom of 

Information, FOI, Act 

provides that an individual, 

such as a private person, 

would be given access to 

such document. 

According to him, “If 

anybody wishes to access 

information as declared by a 

public officer in the custody 

of the bureau, the law has 

laid down conditions 

precedent for that particular 

individual as a private person 

to access that information. 

“The Freedom of 

Information Act, FOI, is very 

clear and is very explicit in 

relation to this. And 

paragraph three of the third 

schedule of the constitution 

as well as the CCB and CCT 

Act provides that it is the 

National Assembly that will 

give out the guidelines for 

accessing the information 

that is in custody of the 

bureau of declarant and those 

guidelines are still much in 

place. 

Bonny Light price drops to 

$59.12, threatens budget 

2019 

By Udeme Akpan 

THE price of Bonny Light, 

Nigeria’s premium oil 

grade, has dropped from 

$60.00 to $59.12 per barrel, 

thus constituting fresh threat 

to the nation’s 2019 budget. 

The development, which 

occurred yesterday, indicated 

88 cents below Nigeria’s 

$60.00 per barrel budget 

2019 reference price. 

Figures obtained from the 

global market also showed 

that the prices of 

Organisation of Petroleum 

Exporting Countries, OPEC, 

Basket and Brent also 

crashed from $58.90 to 

$57.96 and $59.50 to $58.37 

per barrel respectively. 

The general fall in prices 

was attributed mainly to 

ability of Saudi Arabia to 

restore export after the 

rehabilitation of damaged oil 

facilities. 

Meanwhile, the 

Secretaries General of 

OPEC and Gas Exporting 

Countries Forum, GECF, 

have signed a 

Memorandum of 

Understanding, MoU, to 

strengthen cooperation in 

research and the sharing of 

best practices. 

Dr. MohammadBarkindo, 

Secretary-General of OPEC, 

and his GECF counterpart, 

HE Yury Sentyurin, signed 

the MoU on the sidelines of 

the Russian Energy Week 

Forum in Moscow. 

In a statement sent to 

Vanguard, OPEC stated: 

“We look forward to utilise the 

framework we signed today 

in our MoU to deepen 

discussions, as well as 

undertake joint work and 

actions, in the interest of our 

members, entire industry, 

and the global economy,” 

Barkindo said at the signing 

ceremony. 

“It is the mainstream 

consensus that oil and gas 

together will continue to be 

the fuel of choice for the 

foreseeable future. In fact, 

most projections validate that 

oil and gas will continue to 

dominate energy basket.” 

It further stated: “Dr 

Barkindo echoed the 

remarks of Mr Sentyurin that 

today’s signing ceremony is 

a milestone in the evolving 

productive relationship 

between OPEC and GCEF 

that started two years ago. 

The purpose of the MoU is 

to establish and strengthen 

cooperation in order to carry 

out activities and share 

experiences, views, 

information and best 

practices in areas of mutual 

interest.

10 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 

Shun scientific misconducts, 

varsity don tasks researchers 

By Chioma Obinna 

LAGOS—A Professor of 

Biochemistry and 

Molecular Toxicology, 

University of Ibadan, 

Professor Ebenezer 

Farombi, has urged 

researchers in the academia 

to shun scientific 

misconduct and consider 

integrity in their research to 

impact effectively on the 

public. 

Making the call during 

the 8th Annual General 

Meeting and Scientific 

Conference of the Faculty 

of Basic Medical Sciences, 

College of Medicine, 

University of Lagos in a 

lecture entitled: Policies, 

Practices and Ethics of 

Biomedical Research, 

Farombi explained that the 

outcome of research done 

by a scientist or researcher 

can make or mar the public. 

According to him, issues 

of honesty, probity, and 

trying to do things right 

scientifically are the things 

that should be considered 

as a policy in any institute 

of education. 

He said: “The person who 

is a researcher or a scientist 

must understand that as a 

scientist there are so many 

expectations because 

society wants a lot from the 

scientist or the researcher. 

The scientist must consider 

the issue of conduct and 

must not engage in the 

issue of misconduct, which 

includes plagiarism, 

fabrication of data, and 

slicing of data which are the 

things, we consider as 

scientific misconducts. 

“A scientist must not 

engage in these practices 

to impact society positively 

and effectively.” 

Corroborating his views, 

the Dean of the Faculty, 

Professor Olubunmi 

Magbagbeola, who noted 

that biomedical sciences 

represent a critical sector, 

said progress in medical 

care and disease 

prevention depends upon 

an understanding of 

physiological and 

pathological processes or 

epidemiological findings 

among others in research 

involving animals and 

human subjects. 

Earlier, Associate 

Professor and the 

Chairman, Conference 

Organising Committee, Dr. 

Abidemi Akindele noted 

that biomedical research 

was an evolutionary 

process requiring careful 

experimentation by 

scientists including 

biologists and chemists. 

NES@25: Sterling Bank, NESG, 

others provide N10m grant to 

Startups Pitch 

L AGOS—STERLING 

Bank has partnered with 

the Nigerian Economic 

Summit Group, NESG, 

Venture Capital for Africa, 

Verakki and GreenHouse 

Capital, to fund early-stage 

ventures with grants up to 

N10 million at the NES #25 

Startups Pitch held, 

yesterday, at the Transcorp 

Hilton Hotel in Abuja. 

Sterling Bank and the 

NESG will announce the 

top three winners during 

the Closing Plenary 

Summit by the Vice 

President, Professor Yemi 

Osinbajo tomorrow. 

The top three winners will 

get grants, ranging from N 

2.5 million to N10 million, 

through the Nigerian 

Economic Summit Group 

Innovation Fund. 

A N1million audience 

choice prize will also be 

awarded. 

The 10 ventures that 

made it to the finals are 

Agriple, Notitia, Phaheem 

Pharmaceuticals Limited, 

Tiny Hearts Technology, 

AfriNET Power Tech 

Solutions, Doctoora E- 

Health Ltd, GatePass, 

Loystar, Gricd Services 

Limited and Green Axis. 

They are all early-stage 

startups registered in 

Nigeria and have been 

doing business for no more 

than five years. 

They have pitched their 

business to venture 

capitalists and investors, 

and are awaiting the 

announcement of the top 

three winners, and 

audience choice prize. 

Each startup had five 

minutes to pitch to 

prospective investors and 

10 minutes to respond to 

their questions. 

The session also 

connected all the 10 startups 

to venture capitalists 

and investors. 

Before the finals, Sterling 

Bank in partnership with 

NESG and GreenHouse 

Lab hosted a welcome 

dinner to kickstart a 

weeklong startup bootcamp 

to prepare the finalists for 

business, pitching at the 

grand finale, and meetings 

with venture capitalists and 

investors. 

The intensely educative 

bootcamp featured sessions 

on forming a team, working 

with coaches and/or 

mentors, business advisory, 

and communicating a 

venture to venture 

capitalists and investors 

with confidence. 

The 2019 edition of the 

Startups Pitching Event, 

just like the 2018 edition, is 

powered by Sterling Bank. 

UNVEILING—From left: Eunice Sampson, Head, Sustainability, Dangote Cement; Dr. Ndidi Nnoli, Group Chief, 

Sustainability, Dangote Industries Ltd.; Dr. Musa Rabiu, Head, Human Resources, Dangote Cement, and Dr. 

Titilayo Fowokan, Head, Strateguc Tax and Compliance, Dangote Industries Ltd., during the unveiling of the 

Dangote Waste-to-Wealth recycling initiatives. 

There’s no epidemic in Queens College 

— LASG •Urges students to return to school 

By Olasunkanmi 

Akoni 

LAGOS—THE Lagos 

State Government, 

yesterday, urged parents 

and guardians of pupils of 

Queens College, who had 

gone home due to the fear 

of an outbreak of a disease, 

to return their children and 

wards to the school saying 

“there is no cause for 

concern.” 

This came against the 

backdrop of a recent 

widespread report of an 

excess of upper respiratory 

tract infection among the 

students of the school in the 

last two weeks. 

The Lagos State 

Commissioner for Health, 

Prof. Akin Abayomi, said 

this after an on-the-spot 

inspection of facilities in the 

school. 

Prof. Abayomi assured 

that there was no evidence 

of any major infection or 

outbreak of epidemic at the 

College. 

He, however, expressed 

satisfaction in the general 

environment of the school 

as well as the state of 

facilities available for the 

use of students and 

teachers. 

He said: “I came here to 

have an idea of how many 

girls are experiencing any 

illnesses in light of the 

recent report. I have gone 

round; I have been at the 

sickbay and through all the 

dormitories, I have 

interacted with all the girls; 

very clever, bright and 

happy girls and we haven’t 

really seen any evidence of 

major infection in the 

school, all the students look 

very happy and very 

healthy and I am happy 

that things are going on 

well here.” 

”My advice to the 

parents is that I am satisfied 

that everything is okay here 

and your children can come 

back, I haven’t identified 

any risk or any cause for 

concern. So, those children 

that have gone home, can 

come back, nothing serious 

is happening in Queens 

College”, the commissioner 

said. 

Abayomi was 

accompanied by the State 

Epidemiologist, Dr. Ismail 

Abdul-Salam; Principal of 

the School, Mrs. Tokunbo 

Yakubu-Oyinloye; Vice 

Principal, Special Duties 

and Student Affairs, Mr. 

Adeyanju Adewale and 

Mrs. Chinyere Okeke; 

Resident Doctor, Dr. 

Fatimah Ahmadu and the 

Head Girl, Miss Rachael 

Alatise. 

He, however, noted that 

there was a need for an 

upgrade of some facilities 

as well as improvement in 

some areas. 

” We’ve examined the 

water system, the kitchen 

and the bathrooms; by and 

large I am satisfied. 

”Though it requires a 

little bit of work here and 

there but we are making 

our recommendations. We 

have identified some places 

and I will appeal to the 

Federal Government and 

the Queens College Old 

Girls’ Association to pay 

more attention to this 

fantastic school with an 

incredible heritage, to keep 

maintaining it to a standard 

that everybody, is 

accustomed to and will be 

proud of.” 

Also speaking, the 

resident physician of 

Queens College, Dr. 

Fatimah Ahmadu, noted 

that students, who came 

down with flu, cough and 

catarrh in the course of the 

week, had been treated 

appropriately while those 

with high fever were 

referred for further 

assessment. 

Sowore, Jalingo: SERAP writes NJC, seeks 

directives on citizens’ rights 

LAGOS—THE Socio- 

Economic Rights and 

Accountability Project, 

SERAP, yesterday, sent an 

open letter to Justice 

Ibrahim Muhammad, 

Chief Justice of Nigeria and 

Chairman, National 

Judicial Council, NJC, 

urging him to use his offices 

and leadership of the NJC 

to “urgently develop 

measures and issue 

directives to all courts to 

respond to the disturbing 

trends by state 

governments and federal 

government, using the 

court as a tool to suppress 

citizens’ human rights.” 

SERAP said: “Across the 

country, state governors and 

federal government are 

charging citizens, mostly 

journalists, bloggers and 

activists, with serious crimes 

such as ‘treason’, 

‘treasonable felony’ or 

bogus crime of ‘insulting 

public officials’, simply for 

exercising their human 

rights.” 

In the letter dated 4 

October 2019 and signed 

by SERAP’s Deputy 

Director, Kolawole 

Oluwadare, the 

organisation said: “These 

charges, refusal of bail and 

granting of bail on stringent 

conditions seem to be 

dangerous manipulation of 

judicial authority and 

functions by high-ranking 

politicians, something 

which the NJC and the 

judiciary under your watch 

should resist.” 

SERAP also said: “In the 

climate of a growing 

clampdown on human 

rights of journalists and 

activists by several state 

governments and federal 

government, the NJC 

ought to push back and act 

as the protector of 

individuals’ rights against 

abuses by the authorities. 

We believe that the courts, 

not the state government or 

federal governments, 

should have the final say 

in matters of citizens’ 

human rights.” 

SUSTAINABILITY WEEK: Dangote unveils 

waste-to-wealth, recycling initiatives 

LAGOS—AS part of 

activities marking the 2019 

Global Sustainability Week, 

employees of the pan-African 

conglomerate, the Dangote Group, 

at the weekend, flagged off a Waste 

to Wealth initiative to create a 

sustainable environment, generate 

revenues from environmental 

waste, and also give back to the 

company’s host communities. 

The company marked the 

Sustainability Week with the 

theme: “Our Community, Our 

Passion” with various activities held 

in the Lagos Head Office and across 

the plants and Business Units. 

These activities focused on 

investment programmes directed 

towards turning waste to wealth, 

and reviving reading culture in 

young children in host 

communities. 

In Lagos, over 200 Sustainability 

Champions and employee 

volunteers across the business 

units, assisted by five international 

facilitators to train the children on 

turning the most insignificant 

materials and waste in the 

environment into tangible assets 

of economic value to the nation. 

Dangote employees took the 

initiative to St. George Primary 

School and Aunty Ayo 

International School in Ikoyi, 

where the facilitators, with 

additional help from the volunteers, 

trained the children on how to 

manage their wastes and create 

sustainable products that are 

marketable from their everyday 

generated wastes. 

Speaking on the initiative, the 

Group Chief Sustainability and 

Governance, Dangote Industries 

Limited, Dr. Ndidi Nnoli, said the 

company’s sustainability approach 

is driven by a desire to contribute 

and impact positively towards the 

development of host communities.

Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 — 11 

By Dayo Johnson 

A Academic KURE—THE 

Staff Union 

of Secondary Schools, 

ASUSS, yesterday, 

lamented that education in 

Nigeria is being driven by 

politics unlike in other 

climes where it is 

prioritized. 

Its Ondo State 

chairman, Comrade Dayo 

Adeniyi said this during 

the commemoration of the 

2019 World Teachers’ Day 

:Vanguard 

News 

:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 

WEDDINGS—Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde (fourth right); his deputy, Engr. Rauf Olaniyan (fourth 

left); the newly wedded couple's, Paul Femi-Emmanuel, his wife, Ademilola (second left); Peter Femi-Emmanuel 

and his wife, Cecilia (second right) and the groom's parents, Pastor and Pastor Mrs. Femi Emmanuel, during 

their wedding, held at the Living Spring Chapel International Dominion City, Ibadan, Saturday. 

INSECURITY: Don't make cosmetic 

changes, stop killings, Bakare tells Buhari 

....As Fayemi backs state, community police 

By Gabriel 

Olawale &Rotimi 

Ojomoyela 

L Pastor AGOS—SENIOR 

of the Latter 

Rain Assembly, Pastor 

Tunde Bakare, yesterday, 

called on President 

Muhammadu Buhari to do 

the needful, and not make 

just cosmetic changes, to 

address the state of 

insecurity in the country. 

He also attributed the 

current state of insecurity in 

the country to the lack of 

capacity of the security 

agencies. 

This came on a day 

Chairman, Nigeria 

Governors’ Forum, 

Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. 

Kayode Fayemi advocated 

multi-level security policy 

for the country, to effectively 

tackle the myriad of security 

challenges facing the 

nation 

Bakare, who said this in 

Lagos during a state of the 

nation broadcast tagged; 

Resetting Nigeria on the 

Path of Predictable 

Progress, said that a shakeup 

in the security 

architecture of the country 

is non-negotiable. 

He said: “Buhari must be 

willing to do the needful, 

and not make just cosmetic 

changes, to stop the 

hemorrhage. 

“My assertion that the 

Nigerian state has been a 

threat to its national 

security might sound 

strange. However, when 

state actors such as the 

armed forces, the police 

force, and others, become 

perpetrators of acts of terror, 

the state scores an own goal 

and becomes a threat to its 

security. 

“According to Nigeria 

Security Tracker, 8,571 

civilians were killed extrajudicially 

by soldiers and 

security agents between 

May 2011 and September 

2019. The need to return to 

true federalism through the 

devolution of powers 

cannot be overemphasised. 

“Sub-national 

governments must be 

empowered to provide 

security alongside federal 

structures. The true test of 

leadership in a federal 

system is the willingness of 

the central government to 

empower the federating 

units. It must be a case of 

first among equals. The 

federal government must, 

therefore, stop being afraid 

of empowering states and 

local governments. 

“We must embrace 

multilevel policing in the 

spirit of true federalism, 

setting in place appropriate 

constitutional checks and 

balances to prevent abuse. 

Not to act swiftly, or to do 

otherwise, can only be 

counterproductive to our 

stability and progress. 

“We can begin to redesign 

our security architecture by 

taking several first steps. 

The funds being 

channelled into extra 

universities should be 

channelled towards 

building the capacity of the 

Nigerian Defence Academy 

and prosecuting the war 

against Boko Haram. We 

must then refocus the 

training of our soldiers to 

cater to unconventional 

warfare.” 

He said: “What we need 

is the restructuring of our 

police force to allow for 

multilevel policing. 

Therefore, we must, as a 

matter of urgency, create 

police forces at the state and 

community levels under 

the control of the respective 

state and local 

governments.” 

WORLD TEACHER’S DAY: Education 

in Nigeria being driven by politics 

— ASUSS 

Celebration in Akure. 

Adeniyi said: “Only if 

every sector of the 

country’s economy is 

driven by education, the 

many challenges, affecting 

her, will be solved. 

“Government must 

ensure to put in place 

policies that will ensure that 

education is prioritized in 

the country. In Nigeria, 

Education is being driven 

by politics unlike in other 

climes where education is 

always at the front burner. 

“In countries where 

giant strides have been 

made in science and 

technology and sustainable 

industrialization achieved, 

education and the teaching 

profession, in particular, 

has been made a cardinal 

policy. 

“And at the centre of this 

profession is the teacher. In most 

advanced economies, like the 

United States of America, South 

Korea, Singapore, Belgium, 

Finland, China and even some 

developing economies like Brazil, 

Indonesia, and Rwanda in Africa, 

they have given great attention 

to teachers’ matter, especially the 

conditions of service and general 

welfare for optional 

performance." 

Proffering solution to the 

state of insecurity, the cleric 

said: “To boost intelligence 

gathering, we propose the 

creation of a Directorate of 

National Intelligence, DNI, 

headed by a Director of 

National Intelligence who 

shall report directly to the 

president and shall also sit 

on the National Security 

Council. The role of the 

Director of National 

Intelligence shall be to 

provide unbiased, nonpartisan 

intelligence, while 

the National Security 

Adviser, who is a political 

appointee, shall support 

the president in decision 

making based on 

intelligence provided by 

the DNI.” 

Fayemi backs state, 

community police 

Meanwhile, Governor 

Fayemi said the Federal 

government, as a matter of 

urgency, needs to develop 

an enduring national 

security policy. 

Besides, the governor 

called for the 

decentralizing of security 

and law enforcement from 

the federal to state down to 

the community. 

Fayemi said this at a 

Public lecture titled: 

Perspectives on Security 

Challenges in Nigeria from 

1999 to 2019: The Way 

Forward” organized by the 

Yoruba Tennis Club in 

Lagos to mark its 93rd 

anniversary. 

He said it has become 

imperative for the 

government to look at 

another mechanism in 

addressing insecurity in the 

country, in addition to 

military intervention. 

Fayemi said: “From a 

strategic point of view, the 

military’s role as an elite 

specialist weapon of last 

resort must be fastidiously 

preserved while we 

leverage other resources 

and tools that are part of the 

security sector’s arsenal. 

“This means re-tooling, 

re-training and re-arming 

the police force – much 

neglected in the scheme of 

security planning." 

RUGIPO is on life support, can 

collapse anytime —ASUP 

By Dayo Johnson 

A KURE—-THE 

Academic Staff Union 

of Polytechnic, ASUP, of the 

Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, 

Owo, RUGIPO, weekend, 

expressed worry that the 

institution was on the verge 

of total collapse just as it 

called for the removal of the 

Chairman of Governing 

Council, Mr. Banji Alabi. 

Addressing newsmen in 

Akure, the Chairman of 

ASUP, Comrade 

Oluwadare Ijawoye, called 

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu 

to probe the institution's 

governing council 

chairman. 

Ijawoye said: “The bone 

of contention between the 

ASUP and Management 

started when the Ondo 

State Government released 

a sum of N1.7 billion to the 

institution to clear some 

backlog of salary arrears. 

“The Union accused the 

Management of the 

Institution of removing 

N500 million without 

recourse to the purpose for 

which the fund was 

released. 

“The Management 

initially claimed that the 

withheld fund was to be 

used to fund capital 

projects within the 

Institution and to date, no 

project has been initiated 

nor commissioned by the 

Council from the deducted 

fund. 

“The institution’s affairs 

have largely grown in 

leaps and bounds under its 

various purposeful past 

Governing Councils; it has 

of recent become a cesspit 

of mismanagement under 

its current Governing 

Council being led by Mr. 

Banji Alabi. 

Allegations unfounded— 

RUGlPO spokesperson 

But in a swift reaction, 

the Director of Public 

Relations and Protocol of 

the institution, Mr. Samuel 

Ojo, dismissed the 

allegation against the 

Chairman of the Governing 

Board as unfounded, 

adding that everything 

follows the due process at 

the school. 

Ojo noted that there 

was no warning from the 

NBTE that it would deaccredited 

all its 

programmes. 

Chieftaincy tussle threatens 

peace in Osun community 

By Shina 

Abubakar 

O sleepy SOGBO—THE 

town of 

Ileogbo in Ayedire Local 

Government Area of Osun 

State is embroiled in 

Chieftaincy tussle following 

the installation of one chief 

Kehinde Shittu as the 

Balogun of the town 

against the preferred 

candidate of the family 

entitled to it. 

The Olu of Ileogbo, Oba 

Abeeb Agbajelola, was 

alleged to have installed 

his preferred candidate as 

the Balogun of the town 

against the choice of the 

Balogun Igbinyemi family. 

To this end, the Balogun 

Igbinyemi family has raised 

the alarm over what the 

family described as 

illegality and cheating and 

sought the intervention of 

Governor Gboyega Oyetola 

of Osun State before the 

matter degenerates into 

violence. 

The family also alleged 

that attempts were made by 

some hoodlums to 

demolish a monumental 

edifice erected by their 

forebears at their 

compound but for their 

proactiveness and warned 

those behind the attack to 

desist for peace to reign in 

the town. 

The head of the family, 

Mr. Buraimoh Raji, 

lamented that the heritage 

of the family is the 

Chieftaincy title and the 

monument, condemning 

efforts by the traditional 

ruler of the town to 

jeopardize their heritage for 

alleged selfish reasons. 

According to him the 

matter was pending before 

a state High Court sitting 

in Iwo until recently when 

it was struck out for reasons 

not known to members of 

the family that instituted the 

case. 

Raji expressed worry over 

attempts by some high 

profiled indigenes of the 

town to distort history, 

stressing that the 

Chieftaincy title of Balogun 

of Ileogbo is the sole right 

of the Balogun Igbinyemi 

descendants that make up 

the Balogun Igbinyemi 

ruling house. 

But for their peaceful 

disposition to the matter, 

Raji said the matter would 

have snowballed into 

violent crisis, claiming that 

two persons now lay claim 

to the position of Balogun 

of Ileogbo.


WORLD TEACHERS DAY: Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Labour Relations, 

Mike Okeme; 3rd National Vice Chairman of NUT, Bashiu Oyewo; Delta State Chairman of 

Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Titus Okotie; state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary 

Education, Chief Patrick Ukah, who represented Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, and 

Deputy Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, Ochor Ochor during the 2019 World Teachers 

Day celebration in Asaba, yesterday. 

Ijaw, Edo groups at daggers-drawn 

doing their evils.” 

over alleged threat video 

•IYC, IPDI call for probe of BFF, as BSM backs BFF 

By Emma 

Amaize & Alemma 

Aliu 

BENIN CITY—IJAW 

Youth Council, IYC, 

yesterday, called on the 

federal and Edo State 

governments to investigate 

and call to order, some Bini 

youths under the auspices of 

Benin Freedom Fighters, BFF, 

who are armed with assorted 

rifles in a viral video currently 

trending in the social media, 

threatening to attack Ijaw 

people in Edo State. 

President of IYC, Pereotubo 

Oweilaemi, in a statement, 

said: “We are calling on the 

Edo and Federal 

governments to immediately 

take steps to investigate the 

video. The security agencies 

should also rise to the occasion 

by investigating the source of 

the video and bring to book 

anybody found culpable.” 

This came as Ijaw Peoples 

Development Initiative, IPDI, 

yesterday, called the 

Commanding Officer, 4th 

Army Brigade; Commissioner 

of Police and Director, 

Department of State Service, 

DSS, Edo State, to probe the 

video of “Bini militants behind 

the recent criminal activities in 

the state and bring them to 

justice before it will be too 

late.” 

BSM backs BFF 

Reacting, however, Director 

of Mobilisation, Benin 

Solidarity Movement, BSM, 

Ikponmwonsa Idemudia, said 

though BSM was not the 

architect of the so-called 

Malaysia group that 

sponsored the said video, it 

was in support of the group. 

He said: “We are in support 

and we are asking them (Ijaw) 

to know that nobody has the 

monopoly of violence. 

Previously, they have been 

threatening our great king 

and also our government that 

if they do not give them five 

traditional communities with 

five kings and five 

commissioners in the 

government, they will declare 

war against the Benin 

kingdom andEdo State. 

“They are settlers in our land, 

they do not have that kind of 

power or right. We are letting 

them know that they do not 

have monopoly of violence 

and this came as a final 

warning to them. 

"The next time they dare 

insult or threaten our king, we 

will move them out of Edo 

State. Wherever they think 

they are getting their power 

from, we will tell them that God 

and our ancestors reject 

them.” 

IPDI calls for 

probe of BFF 

President and spokesperson 

of IPDI, Messrs. Austin Ozobo 

and Mayor Ogobiri in a 

statement, said: “Our attention 

has been drawn to an online 

video of some Benin armed 

robbers and cultists parading 

with AK-47 rifles under a 

faceless group, Benin 

Freedom Fighters, 

threatening to attack Ijaw 

communities in the state. This 

is evidence that Benin armed 

robbers and cultists were 

behind the recent NDF 

militants’ threat. 

“It is now glaring that the 

Benin armed robbers and 

cultists are the members of 

NDF, who issued threat under 

the guise of Ijaw militants, 

creating wrong public 

impression about Ijaw people 

in the state. They want to hide 

under the threat, which they 

masterminded in the name of 

Ijaw militants to perpetrate 

crime, to divert or direct the 

attention of the security 

apparatus to Ijaws in the state, 

while they freely go about 

...IYC too 

IYC president, Oweilami 

said: “The Ijaw people will not 

sit idle and allow the Bini 

warmongers attack us. If the 

governments fail and or refuse 

to carry out their primary 

functions of securing lives and 

property, then the Ijaw in Edo 

State will protect themselves 

against invaders. 

“Ordinarily, IYC would 

have responded to such 

cowardice act of feeble minds 

as the Ijaw nation is equal to 

the task but for the sake of 

peace and harmony. 

“If the faces that appeared 

in the footage are people 

being sponsored by the Bini 

Kingdom, then we are 

surprised why they chose to 

use such sickening method to 

threaten people who are ever 

ready to protect themselves 

and their lands?" 

NUT honours Obaseki as 2019 Best 

Performing Governor 

THE Nigeria Union of 

Teachers, NUT, has 

bestowed the award of the 

‘2019 Best Performing 

Governor’ on Governor 

Godwin Obaseki of Edo State. 

The teachers said the 

governor emerged as winner 

of the award in recognition of 

his efforts in improving basic 

education and teachers’ 

welfare in the state. 

They noted that Obaseki 

had achieved so much in 

transforming the sector within 

three years of his assumption 

of office. 

The colourful ceremony at 

the Eagle Square in Abuja 

was to mark the World 

Teachers’ Day, which was 

attended by President 

Muhammadu Buhari, who 

was represented by Attorney- 

General of the Federation 

and Minister of Justice, Mr. 

Abubakar Malami, SAN. 

The award was presented 

to the governor by Minister 

of State for Education, Mr 

Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, 

who urged Obaseki to 

continue with the good work 

of repositioning education in 

the state. 

Speaking to journalists after 

receiving the award, Obaseki 

said Nigeria’s developmental 

challenges stemmed from 

poor education, which his 

administration had set out to 

address. 

He said: “We found out that 

the root cause of this 

challenge is poor education, 

which this generation is 

receiving. And for us as a 

government, we decided to 

dedicate ourselves to not just 

to building of classes but to 

go to the foundation of 

education. 

“The fact is that if a teacher 

is not in class, a child will not 

learn. If the teacher does not 

know what to teach the child, 

there will be no learning. And 

you have got to think of 

education strategically to 

realise that and what is most 

important is the foundation. 

“When you don’t make the 

right investment and 

commitment to the 

foundation of education, that 

is basic education, children 

will not learn. If you are not 

able to add sums and 

pronounce alphabets, you 

cannot write and you cannot 

think logically. So, what we 

have done in Edo State in the 

last one and a half years is to 

first prioritise basic education 

and technical education. 

“To do this, we are 

encouraging teachers, 

making sure we are able to 

deploy technology to 

determine and tell when a 

teacher is in class. I can tell 

from my office today when a 

teacher is in class. If a teacher 

is not in class, then the 

teacher hasn’t signed into the 

database. 

“Once a teacher is signed 

into the database, the lesson 

note for that day will be 

loaded into the teacher’s 

tablet. We have trained 

teachers to understand how 

to use the tablets and the 

technology to teach children. 

“To motivate the children, 

corporal punishment has 

been abolished in our 

schools. The outcome is that 

children are learning. After 

one term, a child in Edo State 

today learns more than they 

used to learn in three terms 

of work in the old system." 

Rivers teachers decry 

deplorable condition of some 

school buildings 

By Davies 

Iheamnachor 

PORT HARCOURT— 

NIGERIA Union of 

Teachers, NUT, has decried 

the deplorable condition of 

some schools buildings in 

Rivers State, noting that the 

dilapidated condition of the 

school was affecting teaching 

and learning in those schools. 

The body also pleaded 

with Governor Nyesom Wike 

to implement the promotion 

of teachers in the state. 

State Chairman of NUT, 

Lucky Nkpogene, spoke on 

the occasion of the 2019 World 

Teachers’ Day, weekend, in 

Port Harcourt. 

Nkpogene urged the 

governor to take the welfare 

of teachers in the state 

seriously, stating that 

improved welfare such as 

regular promotion would 

motivate teachers to serve the 

state better. 

He enjoined the governor 

to immediately promote the 

teachers who have been 

verified, clarified but not yet 

promoted since 2014. 

Nkpogene said: “We 

humbly wish to remind your 

excellency that so many other 

schools are in deplorable 

conditions and that makes 

teaching and learning 

ineffective. We pray that 

urgent attention be accorded 

to such schools.” 

Responding, the 

Permanent Secretary, 

Ministry of Education Rivers 

State, Dagogo Hart, said all 

the demands of the teachers 

had been forwarded to the 

governor, urging all heads of 

public schools to warn their 

teachers against collection of 

illegal levies from the pupils. 

Traditional rulers, symbols 

of African pride — Okowa 

By Festus Ahon 

AIfeanyi SABA—GOVERNOR 

Okowa of Delta 

State, weekend, said 

traditional rulers are symbol 

of African pride, calling on 

Nigerians to respect the 

traditional institution. 

Okowa, who spoke at 

Isiokolo, Ethiope East Local 

Government Area of the state 

during the commissioning of 

ultra-modern Palace for the 

Ovie of Agbon Kingdom, 

Ogunrimerime, Ukori I, said 

respect for traditional rulers 

was very important, adding 

that it was also biblical for 

such to be done. 

While congratulating the 

monarch for the edifice, he 

thanked the people of the 

kingdom for erecting such 

an edifice for the king as a 

palace. 

Okowa said: “We must 

respect the traditional stools, 

we must respect our 

traditional rulers. They are 

the symbols of our pride and 

it is also biblical to support 

traditional rulers.” 

He said that the structure 

“is a wonderful palace, which 

will stand the test of time; it 

is not just a palace, but could 

be a tourism centre in the 

state." 

Former Governor James 

Ibori, who spoke earlier, said 

the manner in which the 

project was delivered 

depicted the leadership style 

of Governor Okowa. 

Ibori said: “There are some 

people who are in politics 

and belong to the extreme, 

our governor is not one of 

those. He works for all, we 

thank him and all those who 

contributed to the building 

of this palace." 

In his welcome address, 

the Ovie, Ukori I, recalled 

that his first pronouncement 

immediately after his 

coronation in 2013 was the 

constitution of a building 

committee for the palace. 

He noted that it was 

selflessness on his part that 

made it possible for the 

palace to be built. 

Bayelsa guber: Diri/Ewhrudjakpor 

ticket‘ll sustain my development 

agenda —Dickson 

By Samuel 

Oyadongha 

Y ENAGOA— 

GOVERNOR 

Seriake Dickson of 

Bayelsa State has 

reaffirmed that the 

Senators Douye Diri and 

Lawrence Ewhrudjakpor 

ticket of Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, is 

the only one that has the 

capacity to guarantee 

continuity of his 

development agenda in 

the state. 

Dickson gave the 

assurance, weekend, 

while presenting the PDP 

governorship flagbearer, 

Diri, and his running 

mate, Ewhrudjakpor, to 

the Obenibe of Epie 

Kingdom, King Malla 

Sasime, and the entire 

Epie Kingdom, at 

Igbogene, Yenagoa, on 

Saturday. 

He expressed 

confidence that the Diri/ 

Ewhrujakpo ticket would 

ensure completion of the 

critical projects in the area 

that were stalled due to 

the economic recession. 

In his remarks, Diri said 

that if elected, they will 

take over all the projects 

to ensure their 

completion. 

In his response, the 

Obenibe of Epie Kingdom 

commended Dickson for 

his administration’s 

unparalleled 

achievements in the state.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 — 13 

Teachers urge Kwara govt to address 

lasting solution to the 

Infrastructure decay 

challenges affecting 

By Demola 

Akinyemi 

ILORIN—KWARA State 

wing of Nigeria Union of 

Teachers, NUT, weekend 

urged the state 

government to urgently 

address the problems of 

collapsing infrastructure 

in the state owned 

educational institutions to 

reposition them for better 

performance. 

Chairman of NUT, in the 

state, Alhaji Toyin Salihu 

spoke during the 

celebration of the World 

Teachers Day, in the state. 

He said , “it is disgusting 

Good reward system only way to attract, retain 

quality teachers —Aremu 

A BUJA—FORMER 

Vice President of 

Nigeria Labour Congres, 

NLC, and General 

Secretary of the National 

Union of Textile, Garment 

and Tailoring Workers of 

Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Issa 

Aremu, weekend, said 

“The best way to retain 

young teachers is good and 

sustainable reward system 

that must start with 

JIME vs ORTOM: Anxiety in Benue as tribunal 

delivers judgement 

By Peter Duru 

M ANXIETY AKURDI— 

has 

engulfed Benue State 

ahead of today’s judgment 

by the Benue State 

Governorship Election 

Petition Tribunal in the 

petition by the All 

Progressives Congress, 

APC, gubernatorial 

candidate in the last 

general elections, Mr. 

Emmanuel Jime, 

challenging the victory of 

Governor Samuel Ortom. 

Counsel to the parties 

had, three weeks ago, 

adopted their respective 

written addresses before 

the tribunal, presided over 

that many of the schools 

buildings are dilapidated 

and with acute shortage of 

furniture for students, 

pupils and teachers. There 

is absence of relevant 

instructional materials to 

provide effective teaching 

and learning, lack of 

motivation for teachers and 

other related matters need 

urgent attention of the 

government.” 

Salihu also decried the 

delay in the promotion of 

teachers in both primary 

and secondary schools, 

saying “the teachers in 

Kwara are worried over 

minimum and living wage 

for all working teaching 

men and women”. 

Aremu, who is a member 

of the National Executive 

Council, NEC of NLC and 

Labour Party, LP, 

governorship candidate in 

Kwara State in the last 

general elections, spoke in 

a statement marking 2019 

World Teachers Day, WTD, 

weekend in Abuja. 

by Justice Adebola Olusiyi 

ahead of judgment. 

While adopting his 

written address, counsel to 

Governor Ortom, Mr. 

Sebastian Hon urged the 

court to dismiss the suit 

“because it is riddled with 

fundamental errors and it 

is self contradictory in many 

respect in terms of the 

figures and scores of the 

candidates and evidences 

presented by the 

petitioner’s witnesses.” 

On his part, counsel to 

the PDP, Chief Chris Uche 

argued that the petitioner 

failed to prove his case 

since the onus of proof lied 

with him adding that “the 

petition is lacking in 

lack of promotion at both 

state Universal Basic 

Education Board, SUBEB, 

and state Teaching Service 

Commission, TESCOM, is 

affecting the service 

delivery to the students”. 

He advised the state 

government to urgently 

address the challenges 

facing the teaching 

profession in the state to 

ensure maximum output 

from teachers. 

Speaking, Governor 

AbdulRahman 

AbdulRazaq, represented 

by the Speaker of the state 

House of Assembly, Yakubu 

Danladi, said the legislators 

and the executive would 

collaborate in finding a 

He demanded urgent 

implementation of special 

Teachers Salary Structure, 

TSS, for all teachers in 

public and private schools 

nationwide. 

NUTGTWN Scribe 

lamented that Nigeria’s 

primary education crisis 

had almost been defined in 

terms of falling quality, 

incoherent curriculum, 

examinations malpractices, 

poor funding, dilapidated 

content, quality and 

quantity.” 

Counsel to the 

Independent National 

Electoral Commission, 

INEC, Mr. Offiong 

Offiong, in his submission 

said, “the law is abundantly 

clear that the onus of proof 

lies on the petitioner to 

prove polling unit by polling 

unit and ward by ward that 

the election did not comply 

with the electoral act but he 

failed woefully to do so.” 

However counsel to the 

petitioner, Yusuf Ali on his 

part said he had adduced 

evidence to show that the 

election was marred by 

irregularities and prayed 

the Tribunal to uphold the 

petition and declare Mr. 

Jime winner of the poll. 

teaching profession. 

He advised the teachers 

to continue to support the 

administration and ensure 

that quality teaching was 

given to the students to 

move education forward in 

the state. 

The governor, however, 

urged teachers to be willing 

to teach in any part of the 

state to ensure that quality 

education was not denied 

pupils and students in the 

rural arrears, assuring that 

motivational allowances for 

teachers in the rural areas 

were being worked out. 

LAUNCHING—From left': Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistants to President 

Muhammadu Buhari, on Sustinable Development Goals, SDG; Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, Deputy Governor 

of Lagos State; Dr. Hajo Sani, Senior Special Assistant on Admin Office of the First Lady, Aisha 

Buhari; Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State; Prof. Akin Abayomi, Commissioner for Health, 

and governor' s wife, Ibijoke, during SDG's and Lagos State Government's Official Launch of 

Aisha Buhari Material and Child Centre in Alimosho, Lagos. Photo: Bunmi Azeez. 

structures and abysmally 

poor sector management. 

He said, however, it was 

time searchlights were 

beamed on the status of 

teachers, “the real drivers 

of education and their 

status. I commend the 

Nigeria Union of Teachers, 

NUT, for organizing a 

number of activities and 

promotional manifestations 

to bring to the fore critical 

issues begging for attention 

in the country’s education 

sector today. 2019 

Teachers’ Day celebration 

assumes special 

importance as it focuses on 

the urgent need to retain 

Young teachers in the 

teaching profession in 

which there has been much 

attrition as many trained 

teachers are leaving the 

profession.” 

"This year also marks 

the 53rd anniversary of 

the UNESCO/ILO 

recommendation on the 

Status of Teachers in the 

countries that ratified the 

recommendation in 1966. 

Nigeria faces the 

challenges of both quality 

and quantity of teachers. I 

call on the Federal and state 

governments to massively 

recruit, motivate and train 

more teachers for Nigeria 

to be able to meet the 2030 

Sustainable Development 

Goals." 

Governors castrated local govts, 

says Kashamu 

government funds. I 

PEOPLES Democratic 

Party, PDP, 

governorship candidate in 

Ogun State in the last 

general elections, Senator 

Buruji Kashamu, has said 

he is delighted at the 

Buhari administration’s 

efforts to bring succour to 

ordinary Nigerians by 

freeing local governments 

from governors who 

castrated them. 

Kashamu, who spoke in 

an interview, said President 

Muhammadu Buhari 

meant well for the country. 

He said: “It is an open 

secret in Nigeria that 

governors had castrated the 

local governments by 

depriving them access to 

their statutory funds. 

‘’This has turned into a 

serious economic 

strangulation at the 

grassroots which prompted 

me into making the 

declaration during my 

electioneering that I would 

never touch local 

government funds if elected 

as governor. 

‘’I salute President Buhari 

for having the rare political 

courage and patriotism to 

save the Nigerian masses 

through the NFIU 

monitoring of local 

KOGI 2019: We're still contesting, 

SDP reacts to disqualification 

By Boluwaji 

Obahopo 

LOKOJA—THE Social 

Democratic Party, SDP, 

has rejected the 

disqualification of its 

candidate, Natasha Akpoti, 

from the November 16 Kogi 

gubernatorial election, 

saying both the party and 

its candidate will still be on 

the ballot paper. 

Director General, 

Natasha/Khaleed 

Campaign Organization, 

Dr. Abdullahi Abdul, spoke 

weekend in Lokoja while 

inaugurating the party 

campaign committee. 

Dr Abdul said INEC's 

argument for disqualifying 

SDP’s candidate would not 

stand because it lacked the 

power to disqualify any 

candidate. 

strongly believe that sooner 

than later the people will 

feel the impact of this 

initiative." 

Kashamu called on 

Nigerians to support 

Buhari to make a success 

of his effort to correct the 

infrastructure deficit in the 

country. 

“The President must be 

supported by all Nigerians 

for his giant strides in the 

area of correcting the 

infrastructure deficit. If you 

consider what he is doing 

at the airports together with 

the road construction in 

different parts of the 

country, it becomes obvious 

that he means well for the 

nation,” he said. 

Kashamu said he had not 

abandoned the PDP but 

noted that there must be an 

end to campaign for 

governance to thrive. 

“After an election, any 

genuine political gladiator 

must partner with the 

government for the 

development of the society 

and the advancement of its 

people. That is why I am in 

politics. It is about my 

people’s welfare and 

certainly not out of want of 

what to do,” Kashamu said. 

According to him “”Our 

interpersonal and phone 

conversations in the last few 

days have been daunted 

with question to whether we 

are contesting the 

November 16, 

governorship election or 

not. And our answer 

without prejudice to the 

matter before a competent 

arbiter is yes. 

“Our principal having 

declared interest, went 

through primary and 

emerged victorious with her 

name forwarded to INEC 

within the time frame 

stipulated by law and have 

met all the eligibility criteria 

for running for the office of 

governor, it’s therefore not 

and issue or any 

contemplation to be on the 

ballot box come November 

16."


NDDC Board: APC youths salute Buhari over Abia nominee 

By Clifford Ndujihe 

Acoalition of All Progressives 

Congress, APC, youth 

leaders in Ukwa West, Local 

Council of Abia State has 

commended President 

Muhammadu Buhari for 

renominating Mr. Nwogu 

Nwogu into the board of the Niger 

Delta Development Commission, 

NDDC, saying the reappointment 

was based on merit. 

The youths described as 

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri 

ABUJA—IN two separate 

unanimous judgements, the 

National Assembly/Legislative 

Houses Election Petition Tribunal 

sitting at Awka, Anambra State, 

has affirmed the Chairman of 

Capital Oil, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, 

as the winner of the Anambra 

South senatorial election. 

The three-member panel 

tribunal headed by Justice Okara 

Thelma, in judgements it 

delivered on September 9, 

dismissed two petitions lodged 

before it by Chief Chris Uba and 

his brother, Senator Andy Uba. 

The tribunal held that both 

petitions challenging the outcome 

of the Anambra South Senatorial 

election lacked competence, 

maintaining that the petitioners 

failed to establish why the result 

that was announced by the 

Independent National Electoral 

Commission, INEC, should not 

be upheld. 

Whereas the first petitioner, 

Chris, contested on the platform 

of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; 

his brother, Andy, was the 

candidate of All Progressives 

Congress, APC, in the contest 

held on February 23. 

They had separately 

approached the tribunal to 

challenge the declaration of 

Ifeanyi, candidate of the Young 

frivolous and baseless, the issues 

raised against Nwogu by Mr. 

Donatus Nwankpa, a factional 

chairman of APC in the state. 

Claiming that Mr. Nwankpa 

was rejected for the post by the 

Senate on the ground that he is 

not from the oil-producing area 

of the state, the youths after an 

enlarged meeting, weekend, said 

they would not tolerate any 

further steps from Nwankpa to 

cause confusion in Abia State. 

In a statement by their 

Progressives Party, YPP, as winner 

of the senatorial seat. 

Cited as first to 11th 

respondents in the first petition 

were INEC, Returning Officer, 

Anambra South Senatorial 

District, the Collation Officers of 

Aguata, Orumba North, Orumba 

South, Ihiala, Nnewi North, 

Nnewi South and Ekwisigo Local 

Government areas, the Resident 

Electoral Commissioner, Anambra 

State, as well as Senator Ubah. 

Uba’s case 

Specifically, Chief Chris Uba 

had in the petition he filed on 

March 16 told the tribunal that 

whereas INEC credited him with 

a total number of 52,462 votes, 

the 11th respondent, the YPP 

candidate, was declared winner 

with a total of 87,081 votes. 

He told the tribunal that other 

leading candidates were 

Ukachukwu Nicholas of All 

Progressive Grand Alliance, 

APGA, who got 51,269 votes and 

his blood brother, Senator Andy 

Uba, who polled a total of 13,245 

on the platform of APC, among a 

total of 26 candidates that vied for 

the senatorial seat. 

He argued that the declaration 

and return of the 11th respondent 

as winner of the contest was 

unlawful and invalid as he did 

not score majority of the lawful 

votes cast at the election. 

Chairman, Mr. Obinna Ezere, the 

youths urged President Buhari 

and national leadership of APC 

to ignore Nwankpa, adding that 

the renomination of Nwogu “is 

the collective decision of Asaland 

and Abia APC.” 

In like manner, a chieftain of 

APC in Ukwa West, Engr. 

Uruakpa Sterling, said Nwogu’s 

renomination is a step in the right 

direction given his pedigree in 

Abia APC and support for 

President Buhari. 

He further contended that the 

11th respondent was, at the time 

of the election, not qualified to 

contest the election. 

Though the petitioner listed a 

total of 207 witnesses, he closed 

his case after 19 of them testified 

before the tribunal. While the first 

to tenth respondents listed eight 

witnesses, the 11th respondent 

listed 57 witnesses. 

Judgement 

All the respondents filed 

preliminary objections for the 

petition to be struck out, 

contending that failure of the 

petitioner to join YPP as a 

respondent in the matter 

rendered it incompetent. 

Their contention was however, 

dismissed by the tribunal which 

held that by virtue of section 

137(2) of the Electoral Act, a 

political party is not a necessary 

respondent to an election petition. 

Nevertheless, the tribunal held 

that the petitioner failed to prove 

According to him, “Nwogu is a 

true APC man and worked 

tirelessly to ensure the return of 

President Buhari in 2019. Some 

of us joined the party because of 

the passion and commitment that 

Nwogu exhibited towards the 

welfare and progress of the party 

and Asa in general. 

“He single-handedly brought 

APC to Ukwa West. Chief Nwogu 

was a member of ANPP and has 

followed and supported the 

President up to this moment.” 

GOCOP: From left—Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Bayo Onanuga; Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; Keynote 

Speaker/Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Dr. Matthew Kukah; Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, and Senior 

Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, at the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, 

GOCOP, third annual conference in Lagos. PHOTO: Lamidi Bamidele. 

Senate: Why tribunal declined to 

sack Capital Oil boss, Ifeanyi Ubah 

By Peter Okutu 

A BAKALIKI—GOVERNOR 

David Umahi of Ebonyi State, 

weekend, charged Nigerian 

clerics to preach forgiveness and 

hard work as such virtures were 

necessary for unity and 

his petition as required by law, 

noting that statement on oath of 

most of his witnesses that testified 

before it were repeated word for 

word, with only their names 

changed. 

It further noted that material 

contradiction in the evidence of 

self-acclaimed expert witnesses 

that were brought by the 

petitioner rendered all their 

evidence “worthless, unreliable 

and of no probative or evidential 

value.” 

Though the lead judgement 

was delivered by Justice Sunday 

Olorundahunsi, both the 

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice 

Thelma and the third member of 

the panel, Justice Ngele Gilvert 

Alo, concurred. 

The tribunal also dismissed 

Uba brother’s petition on the 

same ground. 

The two Uba brothers have 

since expressed their determination 

to challenge the judgements 

at the Court of Appeal. 

development of the state. 

Governor Umahi said this, 

yesterday, at a thanksgiving and 

child dedication service of David 

and Gloria Egwuche at the 

Redeemed Christian Church of 

God, RCCG, Glory Land 

Province, Abakaliki. 

Obiano didn’t 

tell Fulani to pay 

N.5m for killing 

any person 

By Vincent Ujumadu 

AWKA—ANAMBRA State 

government, yesterday, 

described as untrue, reports 

circulating on social media 

that Governor Willie Obiano 

had told Fulani to pay 

N500,000 for any Anambra 

person they killed, describing 

the report as the handiwork of 

the opposition. 

The state Commissioner for 

Information and Public 

Enlightenment, Mr. Don 

Adinuba, said in Awka that 

attributing such a statement to 

the governor was politics taken 

too far. 

According to the 

Commissioner, “having failed 

to incite Anambra people to 

rise against innocent and lawabiding 

Fulani people in our 

midst, they have now resorted 

to other measures. 

“This is an unintelligent 

attempt at disinformation. 

Murder is a serious crime 

everywhere in the world and 

it carries capital punishment in 

Nigeria. It cannot be 

compensated for with money, 

according to the Nigerian law. 

Human life is, indeed, sacred. 

“The fact that some faceless 

politicians can carry their 

propaganda to the level of 

equating human life with 

money shows a total lack of 

respect for human life, let 

alone human dignity. These 

characters show no regard for 

law, order and peaceful coexistence. 

“The hate mongers who 

have been trying to incite the 

ordinary people in Anambra 

State against fellow Nigerians 

conducting legitimate 

businesses in a peaceful 

manner must be held 

accountable should anything 

untoward happen to Anambra 

people in other parts of the 

country. 

“They must be reminded for 

the umpteenth time that they 

are putting in harm’s way the 

lives of millions of Ndigbo who 

are working in other parts of 

Nigeria. These Igbo people are 

not subjected to daily 

demonisation. 

“The desperate search for 

power should not give rise to 

dethronement of reason. The 

people and government of 

Anambra State are proud that 

their state has, in the last four 

years, emerged the safest.” 

Preach hard work, Umahi charges clerics 

He stated that he will soon lead 

the campaign from one church to 

another to ensure that Ebonyians, 

and Nigerians by extension, 

understand that success doesn’t 

come by developing hate, 

bitterness, jealousy but rather 

through hard work and prayers.



ECOBANK DAY 2019: From left— Chief Risk Officer, Biyi Olagbami; Executive Director, Commercial 

Banking, Carol Oyedeji; MD, Patrick Akinwuntan; Chief Audit Executive, Felix Igbinosa; Executive 

Director, Corporate Banking, Akin Dada and Chief Financial Controller, Ibukun Oyedeji all of Ecobank 

Nigeria during the bank" commemoration of Ecobank Day 2019 in Lagos. 

Evaluation c'ttee decries rot, decline at ESUT 

By Ikechukwu Odu 

N SUKKA—THE 

Governing 

Council of the Enugu 

State University of 

Science and Technology, 

ESUT, has bemoaned the 

rot in the university. 

The six-member 

committee headed by the 

Pro-chancellor, 

Chairman of the Council 

and Catholic Bishop of 

Nsukka Archdiocese, 

Prof. Godfrey Onah, 

We must aspire to match UAE in tech advancement 

—Minister 

nation to move forward and 

By Emmanuel 

Elebeke 

DUBAI—MINISTER of 

Communications, Dr. 

Isa Ibrahim Pantami has 

challenged Nigerians to 

aspire higher to match the 

technological advancement 

of Dubai, the United Arab 

Emirate. 

discovered that the university 

management had 

continued to operate 

multiple bank accounts 

leading the institution to 

lose over N558 million 

in over 31 different bank 

accounts. 

Also, the committee 

discovered that lack of 

agreement between the 

contractors handling the 

students’ hostels 

maintenance for the 

university had resulted 

He also said Nigerians 

must begin to see the need 

to adopt ICT to improve our 

systems as the only critical 

factor needed to make the 

country globally 

competitive. 

He made the call on 

Sunday while unveiling 

Nigerian Pavilion at the 

ongoing GITEX 2019 in 

Dubai, the United Arab 

2023: Delta Central'll partner North, South 

—Urhobo leaders 

By Elizabeth 

Uwandu 

O GHARA—FORMER 

Governor of Delta 

State, Chief James Onanefe 

Ibori, and political leaders 

in Delta Central Senatorial 

District, came together, 

weekend, at Oghara, Delta 

State, to x-ray the 2023 

governorship drumbeat. 

Ibori said the promise 

Urhobo nation made during 

the 2019 governorship 

election was well kept, in 

the sense that the 

incumbent governor, 

Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, 

was returned unopposed at 

the primaries, in line with 

the power rotation 

agreement. 

He disclosed that the 

Peoples Democratic Party 

(PDP) in the state is well 

organised and united 

which is why the 2023 

gubernatorial elections will 

enjoy the support of Delta 

North and South senatorial 

districts in favour of Delta 

Central. 

Ibori, fondly referred to as 

the Oracle of Delta politics 

and Odidigboigbo of Africa, 

commended the good 

g o v e r n a n c e 

accomplishments of Gov 

Okowa, and appealed to 

those who are yet to be 

appointed in the second 

tenure to be patient and 

hopeful, adding that, it is 

almost impossible for the 

governor to appoint all party 

members who worked so hard for 

the attainment of Gov Okowa and 

PDP landslide victory in 2019. 

He said: "Political appointments 

and or government patronage is 

an ongoing exercise and I urge 

to the alleged questionable 

disappearance of 

N21,514,561. Furthermore, 

the committee also 

discovered that the accreditation 

status has 

moved from 45% in 2015 

to 95%, in 2019 due to 

the efforts of the state 

governor, Hon Ifeanyi 

Ugwuanyi, adding that 

the preponderance of 

adjunct and contract staff 

in ESUT has placed the 

academic strength of the 

Emirate. 

With the realization of the 

need for ICT, Pantami said 

time has come for Nigerians 

to struggle to match the 

unassailing feat already 

recorded by Dubai ,which 

the minister said with the 

wide digital technology gap 

that exist in the country, 

Nigerians should see development 

of ICT as a priority 

and passion for the 

those who are waiting to wait 

patiently because our governor 

is doing the needful to 

accommodate a reasonable 

number of persons as far as 

appointments are concerned. 

"Urhobo people of Delta 

Central cannot do it alone which 

is why we must make friends 

across board, to the North and to 

the South Senatorial Districts. 

Power rotation is the best and 

before you know it, Gov Okowa 

will complete North tenure in 

2023, Central will take over and 

South, in that order. 

Speaking to newsmen at Ibori's 

country home, the Executive 

Assistant on Communications to 

the Governor of Delta State, Dr 

Fred Oghenesivbe said Chief Ibori 

and the leaders are in one accord 

on the way forward, adding that 

the meeting gave direction as to 

the individual and collective 

approach towards political 

greatness and leadership 

development. 

university above the National 

University Commission’s, 

NUC’s recommendations. 

The committee also 

recommends that all 

outstanding certificates 

totaling 138,418 should 

be signed and effort for 

those graduates of ESUT 

to collect their certificates 

should be intensified 

to get the desired 

result. 

be globally competitive. 

He specifically 

challenged all agencies 

under his ministry to 

explore all new 

advancements in 

technology showcased at 

GITEX as a challenge and 

go home to domesticate 

them, as that remains the 

sure way of bridging the 

digital gap. 

Pantami, who called for 

youth mentorship said 

Nigeria urgently needs 

people with crazy ideas to 

make the difference that the 

country desperately 

required. 

His world: ‘‘ICT can’t be 

developed in silos. We 

must make sure there is 

values for money for 

coming to GITEX 2019. 

Our mission is to showcase 

what we have, look for 

investors, technology 

transfer and network. 

‘‘Our passion for ICT 

must change after this 

conference, Development of 

ICT sector should be our 

passion. Let us all be alive 

to exploration rather than 

be exploitative. Let’s look at 

how we can improve how 

our systems work. We need 

people that have crazy 

ideas to change the status 

quo. We must struggle to 

match the UAE.’’ 

US importers stockpile Parmigiano, 

Provolone as tariffs on EU cheeses loom 

AMBRIOLA Co Inc’s mammoth warehouse in West 

Caldwell, New Jersey, is crammed full of boxes and 

wheels of harder cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano, 

Pecorino Romano and Grana Padano - and more is coming, 

lots more. 

Phil Marfuggi, president and chief executive officer of 

Ambriola, a unit of Auricchio SpA, one of Italy’s largest 

cheese producers, is among the many importers and shop 

owners across the country who are scrambling to stockpile 

European cheeses before new U.S. tariffs kick in on 

Oct. 18 in efforts to shield consumers from price hikes. 

The Trump administration last week slapped 25 percent 

tariffs on cheese and other European Union products 

ranging from whisky to woolens, in retaliation for 

EU subsidies on large aircraft. Both sides say they are 

open to negotiations, but trade experts see little chance 

of averting the duties - at least in the short run. 

Importers began ordering millions of dollars of extra 

wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano and other harder cheeses 

after the US Trade Representative’s office in July added 

cheese to its list of EU products potentially facing 

tariffs due to the dispute over aircraft subsidies. 

Mercedes-Benz offers subsidies 

to retrofit older diesel cars in 

Germany 

DAIMLER, manufacturers of Mercedes-Benz said 

last week that Mercedes-Benz customers in Germany 

could apply for a 3,000 euro ($3,350) subsidy to upgrade 

the exhaust filters of older, polluting diesel vehicles, 

the latest effort among German carmakers to avoid innercity 

bans. 

Carmakers have been forced to consider upgrading exhaust 

treatment systems on older cars after German cities 

started banning heavily polluting diesel vehicles to cut fine 

particulate matter and toxic nitrogen oxides. 

Daimler launched a website this week to process applications 

for financial support, as German motor authority 

KBA seeks to approve an after-market kit to upgrade the 

exhaust systems on various Mercedes diesel passenger vehicles. 

The company has offered the subsidy to customers in 

German regions that face potential driving bans, the carmaker 

said. For a factbox about possible diesel bans, click:. 

The first retrofit kit for Mercedes cars with “Euro 5” diesel 

engines, including the best-selling E220 and E250 models, 

has been developed by Dr Pley SCR Technology, a Bavaria-based, 

family-owned business. It will cost around 

3,000 euros to buy and install. 

US unemployment rate hits 

3.5%, job growth moderate 

THE United States (US) unemployment rate 

dropped to near a 50-year low of 3.5% in September, 

with job growth increasing moderately, suggesting 

the slowing economy could avoid a recession 

for now despite trade tensions that are hammering 

manufacturing. 

The Labor Department’s closely watched monthly 

employment report on Friday, however, contained 

reminders that the risks to the longest economic 

expansion on record remained tilted to the downside. 

Wage growth stagnated and manufacturing 

payrolls declined for the first time in six months. 

The retail and utilities sectors also continued to shed 

jobs. 

The report followed a string of weak economic reports, 

including a plunge in manufacturing activity 

to more than a 10-year low in September and a sharp 

slowdown in services industry growth to levels last 

seen in 2016, that heightened fears the economy 

was flirting with a recession. 

PayPal becomes first member to exit 

Facebook’s Libra Association 

UNITED States (US) payments processor Pay 

Pal Holdings Incorporated said last week it 

was leaving Libra Association, the entity managing 

the Facebook-led effort to build global digital 

currency Libra, making it the first member to exit 

the group. 

PayPal said it would forgo any further participation 

in the group and would instead focus on its 

own core businesses. 

“We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and 

look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work 

together in the future,” PayPal said in a statement. 

In response, Geneva-based Libra Association said 

it was aware of the challenges lying ahead in its 

attempts to “reconfigure” the financial system. 

Stories credited to Reuters


18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 

AS preparations for the November 

2019 off-cycle governorship elections 

in Bayelsa and Kogi states pick up, 

the vexed matter of prohibitive and 

non-refundable expression of interest 

and nomination fees in the major two 

political parties - the All Progressives 

Congress, APC, and the Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP - come back 

into focus. 

after they had each paid the nonrefundable 

N22.5 million for the 

In September last year, the two 

parties announced the fees amidst a expression of interest and nomination 

flurry of murmurings from aspirants fees. 

that these non-refundable fees were The grumbling that goes with this 

exorbitant, more so as in most cases, process was reflected in the angry 

party leaders collect these huge sums tweets of the wife of the President, 

of money from unsuspecting Hajiya Aisha Buhari, directed at the 

aspirants though they have no Chairman of the APC, Comrade 

intention of allowing all the Adams Oshiomhole, after her 

candidates a free and fair contest. brother, Dr. Mahmood Halilu, was 

In the case of APC Kogi State disqualified to make way for a 

governorship aspirants, the party was primary contest eventually won by 

able to rake in N360 million from 16 former governor, Jibrilla Bindow. 

aspirants, though it disqualified 12 of Many people believe that taking 

them (including two sons of the late huge sums of money from aspirants 

former Governor Abubakar Audu) and for any reason failing to allow 

Parties must halt impunity against, 

exploitation of aspirants 

them contest the primaries amounts 

to unfairness and impunity. Calls 

have been made that those 

disqualified should be given back 

part of their money after deducting 

administrative costs. 

Party leaders usually defend 

themselves by saying that such calls 

for refund do not arise since it was 

clearly indicated before hand that the 

fees are non-refundable. They insist 

that aspirants ought to know that out 

of a field of contestants in a primary 

election, only one candidate will 

emerge. 

Political parties resort to the 

shylock exploitation of aspirants 

because they need funds in their kitties 

to fund the secretariat, party activities 

as well as campaigns. They strive to 

raise these funds to minimise the 

influence of governors whose financial 

clout enables them to seek control of 

the parties and thus rob them of their 

independence and supremacy over 

their members. 

This exploitation of aspirants must 

stop. It encourages corruption among 

election winners and bitterness among 

those who fail. To some, it is actually a 

scam to collect money from someone 

for a contest and refuse to refund the 

money if the person is disqualified 

from that contest. 

Over 20 years into our third 

democratic experiment, political 

parties should return to the age-old 

culture of raising funds from their 

members for their operations. 

Squeezing political candidates and 

governors with impunity seriously 

corrupts our democracy. 

When life begins at 59 

By BANJI OJEWALE 

LOOKING at the history of some 

modern countries, you discover that 

at 59, they had gone past the toddler and 

experimental stage of growth and 

development. They had worked out a 

nationhood credo steering their society and 

citizens along an ideological speedway, 

away from a route of potholes and mined 

shallow pits that slowed you down or that 

knocked you out completely when the 

treacherous explosives went off. You 

wouldn’t make any progress plying that 

road, even if you were guaranteed double 

the lifetime of Methuselah! 

It’s not how long you last that matters, it’s 

how you handle your time that counts. For 

great societies, life didn’t begin at 59. It got 

golden then. But these restless communities 

didn’t construct a comfort tent to announce 

they had arrived. They began to scale new 

heights. They sat atop mountains, looking 

beyond their gilded grounds, seeking new 

conquests to make them secure a digit in 

the statistics of history. 

As Nigeria tepidly marked the 59th 

milestone this month, nothing, I’m afraid, 

suggested that our country is engaged in 

any serious enterprise of building an 

adhesive and buoyant society. Life in the 

country is in the backwaters as I write. Our 

leaders are still a clique alienated from those 

they depend on to rule them. 

Our people are a conquered and dejected 

lot. The spell of wanderlust driving them 

from one fruitless venture to another in the 

vast length and breadth of Nigeria pushes 

some to elemental crimes putting us in the 

top bracket of the felonious league. A new 

onslaught of levies to further diminish our 

meagre income is coming our way, starting 

with increased VAT regime and the return 

of toll on federal highways. Other societies 

in the contemporary world had gotten past 

these stages at 59. 

At its 59th Independence in 2012, Cuba 

had arrived as a nation to be reckoned with 

globally. It wasn’t struggling with issues of 

cohesion, illiteracy, poverty, ignorance as 

Nigeria is doing close to six decades of 

‘freedom’ from colonial rule. Part of the 

thrilling story of this small territory 

(pop:11.48m., 2017) is that it sent its young 

men and women to fight in the struggle to 

liberate parts of Africa under White colonial 

and apartheid subjugation. 

It has a hero in a man called Fidel Castro 

who wasn’t known to live parasitically off 

the sweat of the masses. When the entire 

military might of the formidable US moved 

against Cuba, it was the believable war cry 

of Castro that brought the people of Cuba 

together to defeat the Americans. 

At 59 in Cuba, the citizens and their leaders 

were not going for medical treatment 

overseas. Fidel Castro was ill for years. He 

was treated by local doctors in Cuba till he 

passed on on November 26, 2016. At 59, 

Cuba’s medicare profile was one of the best 

in the world. 

India at 59 in 2006, was a military and 

economic titan. Its politics also flourished, 

boasting the largest democracy on planet 

earth. It has never experienced a military 

takeover, despite its boisterous politics and 

an election process involving hundreds of 

millions of eligible citizens over weeks of 

casting the vote. 

The year India turned 59, the country had 

US President George Bush visit India to sign 

a landmark nuclear deal. The same year, 

India launched the largest-ever rural job 

scheme to lift 60 million families out of 

poverty. It was also the year the nation gave 

birth to the Changing Innovation System 

OPINION 

that is today birthing India as the eighth 

Wonder of the World in Information 

Technology. India’s space exploits, 

culminating in the recent Moon Mission, 

is traced to its advances in information 

technology. 

Neighbouring Ghana was 59 in 2016. In 

its annals are episodes indexing a rich 

history in sports, culture and politics. The 

country had long arrived at the point of an 

opposition candidate toppling the 

incumbent before we secured that record 

in 2015. Ghanaian politics has done so 

three times, beginning in 2000. Current 

leader, Akuffo-Addo, himself defeated 

Nigeria’s own 59th 

anniversary hasn’t been 

eventful to propose that we 

have arrived where others 

were when they hit that 

milestone 

sitting President John Mahama. Before its 

59th anniversary, Ghana had had a 

foremost pan-Africanist leader, Kwame 

Nkrumah, whose advanced ideas on 

continental unity, dating back to the ‘50s 

and ‘60s, are now being hailed as the 

panacea for the troubles neocolonialism 

has brought upon Africa. 

When the gale of xenophobic attacks in 

South Africa broke upon the Blacks, the 

world began to recollect the sayings of the 

Ghanaian leader that Africa’s power lies 

in unity. On Ghana’s Independence Day in 

1957, he had declared that Ghanaians 

should not rejoice at their freedom until 

all Africa was also liberated. A nation’s 

greatness begins with the making of its 

heroes. Where are Nigeria’s national 

heroes on its 59th anniversary? 

Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

The United States of America was 59 in 

1835, with Andrew Jackson as its president. 

It was the year the heavily indebted nation 

paid off all it owed externally and internally, 

freeing the country to embark on projects to 

benefit the people. One of the first of such 

infrastructure the president undertook was a 

bridge, the longest in the US. 

Although that year also marked the first 

assassination attempt on a president, the 

period didn’t stop giant strides from taking 

place. For instance, the US’ 59th anniversary 

witnessed the first issue of the New York 

Herald newspaper. It was founded by the 

‘inventive’ editor, James Gordon Bennett, 

whose work “ultimately influenced the entire 

American press”. Today’s ‘invasive’ nature 

of the press, with its ‘sensationalist’ 

accompaniment is often linked to the New 

York Herald. 

When The Peoples Republic of China struck 

59 in 2008, Amazon.com published a book, 

China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, 

chronicling the communist nation’s 

remarkable achievements since its 

establishment in 1949. The three editors of 

the book said the period marked what they 

called the “most tumultuous and traumatic 

since the uprising of 1989 in Tiananmen 

Square”. 

It was the year of the Beijing Olympics, when 

the best of the communists was on display. At 

59, China was a world power needing no 

introduction as the successor to the US as 

the most powerful nation in the world. The 

prognoses are there for analysis. 

Nigeria’s own 59th anniversary hasn’t been 

eventful to propose that we have arrived 

where others were when they hit that 

milestone. Does it then indicate we are yet to 

start? If it’s a bit mischievous to conclude 

we’re toddlers at 59, might it be safe to ask if 

Nigeria’s own life begins at 59? 

•Ojewale, a public affairs analyst, wrote from 

Lagos

By Peter Egwuatu 

THE level of compliance in 

terms of timely submission 

of financial results by corporate 

entities listed on the Nigerian 

Stock Exchange, NSE, may 

have significantly improved as 

the number of defaulters in the 

first half of 2019, H1’19, 

dropped by 80 percent to three 

from 15 in the corresponding 

period of 2018, HI’18. 

Findings by Financial 

Vanguard from the data 

obtained from the 

NSE shows that the value of 

fine imposed on the defaulting 

companies for HI’19 declined 

by 97.9 percent to N3.2 million 

from N158.3 million in H1’18. 

NSE suspends 5 firms, as defaults in 

financial results rendition drops 

The three companies that defaulted 

in HI’19 and fine paid 

include: Lasaco Assurance 

N300, 000; Universal Insurance 

N700,000 andThomas 

Wyatt N2.2 million. 

Meanwhile, the NSE has 

suspended seven companies 

this year for breach of its rule 

for filing of accounts and 

treatment of default filing, but 

has readmitted two after 

complying with post-listing 

requirements. 

The companies under 

suspension include; FTN 

Cocoa Processors Plc, 

Goldlink Insurance, R.T 

Briscoe Nigeria Plc, Resort 

Savings & Loans Plc, and 

Standard Alliance Insurance 

Plc. 

In its explanation for the 

suspension, the NSE said: 

“The companies listed in 

Schedule 9 were suspended 

pursuant to the provision of 

Rule3.1, Rules for Filling of 

Accounts and Treatment of 

Default Filing, Rulebook of the 

Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 —19 

Exchange (Issuers’Rles), which 

provides that: “if an issuer fails 

to file the relevant accounts by 

the expiration of the Cure 

period, the Exchange will: 

send the Issuer a “Second 

Filing Deficiency Notification 

within two business days after 

the end of the Cure period; 

suspend trading in the Issuer’s 

securities; and notify the 

Securities and Exchange 

Commission, SEC and 

market within 24 hours of the 

suspension.” 

The Exchange further noted 

that early filers are companies 

that file their audited financial 

statements four weeks before 

the due date, adding that 

quoted companies are required 

to file their financial statements 

on a timely basis in accordance 

with the listing rules. 

The earlier filers for both 

Q1’19 and Q2’19 include: 

Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank 

Plc, Secure Electronic 

Technology Plc, Access Bank 

Plc, and Austin Laz & 

Company Plc. 

The NSE said: “Referring to 

companies with early filers, 

we are extremely proud of 

Continues on page 20 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 

By Babajide Komolafe 

PRESSURED 

by the 

impact of volatility in 

the price of crude oil, slow 

down in dollar inflows from 

foreign portfolio investors 

(FPIs), as well as increased 

dollar sales by the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the 

nation’s external reserve is 

projected to fall this month to 

the lowest in 20 months, since 

January 2018. 

The reserve which fell by 

$3.22 billion in the third quarter 

2019 (Q3’19) to $41.852 billion 

at the end of September 2109 

from $45.074 billion at the end 

of June, continued its 

downward trend in the first 

three days of this month. 

Downward 

trend 

Data from the CBN showed 

that the reserve fell to $41. 742 

billion on Thursday last week 

(October 3rd) from $42.051 

billion on Thursday of the 

previous week (September 

24th), indicating week-onweek 

decline of $309 million 

dollars. 

Analysts projected that the 

downward trend which started 

from $45.149 billion on July 

5th will likely persist this 

month, with the possibility of 

touching the $40 billion mark. 

Highlighting factors that will 

External Reserve Decline 

External reserves plunge 

to 20-month low 

•Drops by $3.2bn in Q3’19 •Naira suffers 1st depreciation in 7 weeks 

•CBN injects $521.5m 

impact the reserve this month 

in his monthly economic review 

at the Lagos Business School, 

Chief Executive Officer, 

Financial Derivative Company 

Limited, Mr. Bismack Rewane 

said, “Demand for dollars will 

increase in the coming month 

due to inventory build up 

ahead of Christmas and this 

will mount pressure on 

external reserve, hence gross 

continues on page 21 

Forex: I&E window records 

$11bn turnover in Q3’19 

Leadership, cultural shift critical for digital 

transformation in banks — Philips Consulting 

22 22 

C 

M 

Y 

K


FINANCIAL VANGUARD 

NSE suspends 5 coys, as defaults in financial results rendition drops 

Continues from page 19 

these companies and will 

continue to show case quoted 

companies that imbibe high 

corporate governance 

practices.”According to the 

NSE “Any late submission of 

accounts shall attract a fine of 

N100, 000 per week from the 

due date until the date of 

submission. 

“A listed company who 

contravenes any of the 

provisions of the Listing Rules 

and General Undertaking and 

fails to pay the penalty imposed 

on it for such contravention on 

or before the due date shall be 

liable to a further fine of 

N300,000.00 in addition to 

N25,000 per day for the period 

the violation continues. 

Shareholders 

react 

Mr. Oderinde Taiwo, National 

Coordinator, Proactive 

Shareholders Association of 

Nigeria, PROSAN, said: “It is 

good news that less companies 

missed their regulatory fillings 

of their results. This shows 

that companies’ management 

are beginning to take their 

responsibility serious. 

“We hope to see sustained 

improved adherence to the 

rules of the Exchange at the 

end of this financial year. For 

companies that still flout the 

rules, then the directors 

responsible for the filing should 

be held accountable and in that 

way they will sit up.” 

Mrs. Bisi Bakare, Chairman, 

Pragmatic Shareholders 

Association of Nigeria, said “In 

my own opinion, those officers 

of the companies assigned to 

process returns should do the 

needful to avoid unnecessary 

penalties. 

“The regulators in the 

banking, capital market and 

insurance sectors, Central 

Bank of Nigeria, CBN, SEC, 

NAICOM should be up and 

doing in their responsibilities 

because most times it is when 

one regulator or the other do 

not complete their work on 

time that it affect prompt 

filling of results by companies 

to the NSE. 

“It is a good thing that the 

number and value of fine for 

defaulting companies have 

dropped” 

Mr. Boniface Okezie, 

Chairman, Progressive 


Nigeria, PSAN, said “It is a 

good thing that number of 

companies that have complied 

is on the increase. 

“Also, the Exchange and 

other regulators should 

compel companies to state 

reason for late fillings of results 

in their annual reports. This 

will enable shareholders to 

tackle and hold the 

management responsible 

during Annual General 

•Segun-Balogun, CEO, Lasaco Assurance 

•Seyi Onajide, CEO, R.T Briscoe 

Meetings, AGMs.” 

Commenting as well, Mr. 

Moses Igbrude, Public 

Relations Officer, Independent 


Nigeria, ISAN, said: “There 

are rules and regulation in our 

market and operators must 

abide by them. So, management 

of companies should be aware 

of the rules and penalties 

involved. Our association 

always tell companies are to 

guide against being penalised. 

Rules and 

penalties 

“Another issue why some 

companies do not meet 

regulatory requirement, is 

because of the numerous 

regulators in our system. If 

one regulator delays a 

company from meeting the 

requirement of other 

regulators; should they be 

held responsible? No, I don’t 

think it is proper. 

“So, the NSE should look at 

this issue critically before 

imposing fine to defaulting 

companies. Sanctions are not 

always the best as we 

normally advise. 

“We think regulators should 

find a way of rewarding those 

that meet regulatory 

requirements; in that case 

others will learn and be 

attracted to get such reward 

subsequently. 

“Again even when penalties 

are to be imposed, the officers 

or directors responsible to turn 

There are rules and 

regulation in our 

market and 

operators must 

abide by them. So, 

management of 

companies should 

be aware of the 

rules and penalties 

involved. Our 

association always 

tell companies are 

to guide against 

being penalised 

in results should be punished. 

We frown at a situation where 

the entire company or 

shareholders bear the brunt of 

the negligence of some few 

officers. If that is done, you will 

see that the directors will sit up 

and do things that will not 

attract penalty to the company.” 

•Benedict U. Ujoatuonu, CEO Universal 

Inurance 

•Kenneth Edore Egbaran, CEO, Goldlink 

Insurance 

Mr. Owolabi Peter, Chairman, 

Integrated Supreme 


Nigeria, said: “In as much that 

sanction is necessary to make 

the companies sit up, it is still 

not the best form of 

punishment. It is the 

shareholders’ investments that 

suffer most. Whether there is 

fine or not directors are paid 

their money.” 

Defaulting 

companies’ reaction 

The companies that were 

suspended and few that 

defaulted in the timely 

submission of results were 

unable to respond to the text 

messages sent to them as at 

press time, except for Royal 

Exchange Plc and Niger 

Insurance Plc 

Reacting, the Head of 

Corporate Communication, 

Royal Exchange Plc, 

Mr. Wilson Okoh said: “We 

have met the compliance and 

our suspension from the NSE 

has been lifted. 

The letter sent to us 

on Thursday, August 29, 2019 

reads “We refer to our Market 

Bulletin dated July 2, 2019, with 

Reference Number: NSE/RD/ 

LRD/MB34/19/07/02 wherein 

we notified Dealing Members 

COVER 

of the suspension of eleven 

(11) listed companies for noncompliance 

with Rule 3.1, Rules 

for Filing of Accounts and 

Treatment of Default Filing, 

Rulebook of The Exchange 

(Issuers’ Rules) (Default Filing 

Rules”), which provides that: “If 

an Issuer fails to file the 

relevant accounts by the 

expiration of the Cure Period, 

The Exchange will: send to 

the Issuer a “Second Filing 

Deficiency Notification” within 

two (2) business days after the 

end of the Cure Period; (b) 

suspend trading in the Issuer’s 

securities; and (c) notify the 

Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC) and the 

Market within twenty- four (24) 

hours of the suspension.” 

Relevant 

accounts 

Royal Exchange Plc, one of 

the eleven (11) companies that 

were suspended on July 2, 

2019, has now filed its Audited 

Financial Statements for the 

year ended December 31, 2018 

with the Exchange. 

In view of the Company’s 

submission of its Audited 

Financial Statements, and 

pursuant to Rule 3.3 of the 

Default Filing Rules, which 

provides that: “The 

suspension of trading in the 

Issuer’s securities shall be lifted 

upon submission of the 

relevant accounts provided 

The Exchange is satisfied that 

the accounts comply with all 

applicable rules of The 

Exchange. 

The Exchange shall thereafter 

also announce through the 

medium by which the public 

and the SEC was initially 

notified of the suspension”, 

Dealing members are hereby 

notified that the suspension 

placed on trading on the shares 

of Royal Exchange Plc was 

lifted today.” 

For Niger Insurance Plc, its 

Head of Corporate 

Commission, Shola said “We 

are working on meeting 

compliance and very soon the 

suspension would be lifted.” 

But the NSE has lifted the 

suspension it placed on the 

shares of Niger Insurance Plc 

and Guinea Insurance Plc. In 

a statement last week, the NSE 

said: “Both insurance firms 

have now submitted their 

reports and hence, the decision 

to lift the suspension. 

“In view of the Companies' 

submission of their Audited 

Financial Statements, and 

pursuant to Rule 3.3 of the 

Default Filing Rules, which 

provides that, "The suspension 

of trading in the issuer's 

securities shall be lifted upon 

submission of the relevant 

accounts provided the 

Exchange is satisfied that the 

accounts comply with all 

applicable rules of the 

Exchange.”


External reserves heads to 20 months low 



external reserve level 

may decline to $40 

billion.” 

In an interview with 

Financial Vanguard, he 

said, “I am cautiously 

optimistic that the reserve 

will stay above $41 billion 

this month because when 

it falls below $41 billion 

everybody begins to 

panic.” 

Speaking similarly, Ayo 

Akinwunmi of Corporate 

Banking, FSDH 

Merchant Bank, said that 

“the direction of the 

reserve in October is 

unpredictable. However 

if it continues to decline 

the way it did between 

August and September, 

when it fell by about $3 

billion, it may go below 

$40 billion by the end of 

this month. And as the 

reserves drop, foreign 

portfolio investors will be 

hesitant to bring in their 

money and this will 

further reduce accretion 

to the reserve.” 

He noted that while 

FPIs still find the 

Nigerian market 

attractive due to the huge 

difference between 

yields on the one year 

Treasury Bill (TB) in 

United States and 

Nigeria which, for now, 

over compensate for the 

risk of devaluation, 

further fall in the reserves 

below $40 billion may 

however trigger serious 

concerns among the 

FPIs. 

These concerns are 

reinforced by the 41 

percent decline (quarteron-quarter) 

in FPI 

investment in TBs in the 

second quarter (Q2’19) of 

the year to $3.5 billion 

from $5.9 billion in 

Q1’19. 

The sharp decline led to 

40 percent decline (q/q) 

in total FPI inflow in 

Q2’19, to $4.29 billion in 

Q2’19 from $7.1 billion in 

Q1’19. 

Naira suffers first 

depreciation in 7wks 

R e f l e c t i n g 

apprehension over the 

continued decline in the 

nation’s external 

reserves, especially 

among FPIs, the Naira 

suffered its first 

depreciation in seven 

weeks in the Investors 

and Exporters (I&E) 

window last week. 

Data from FMDQ 

showed that the 

indicative exchange rate 

of the window rose to 

N362.77 per dollar last 

week from N362.02 per 

dollar the previous week, 

translating to 77 kobo 

depreciation. 

Forex & TB rates 

Yields on FGN Bonds 

Prior to last week, the 

Naira appreciated 

persistently against the 

dollar for six weeks, when 

the I&E window 

exchange rate dropped 

from N363.44 per dollar 

on August 9th to 

N362.02 on September 

27th. 

The resulting N1.42 

appreciation was fuelled 

by increased dollar sales 

by the CBN in the I&E 

window in a bid to reverse 

the N2.65 depreciation 

suffered by the Naira 

against the dollar 

between July 12th and 

August 15th, when the 

I&E window rose to 

N363.44 per dollar from 

N360.79 per dollar, due to 

increased dollar demand 

by FPI exiting the 

nation’s fixed income 

market. 

The depreciation 

suffered by the Naira last 

week, according to 

analysts at Lagos based 

Cowry Assets 

Management Company, 

will persist this week, 

citing apprehension 

over declining external 

reserves. “In the new 

week, we expect 

depreciation of the Naira 

against the dollar across 

the market segments 

amid decreasing external 

reserves”, they said. 

CBN injects $521.5m 

Meanwhile the CBN 

last week stepped up its 

intervention in the 

interbank foreign 

exchange market as it 

increased weekly dollar 

sales to $521.5 million. 

On Tuesday the CBN 

injected $210 million, 

allocating $100 million to 

the wholesale segment, 

$55 million to the SME 

window and $55 million 

to meet demand for 

invisibles. 

On Friday, the apex 

bank injected another 

$311.5 million as well as 

CNY15 million via the 

retail secondary market 

intervention sales 

(RSMIS). 

In a statement 

announcing the 

additional injection, 

Director, Corporate 

Communication 

Department, CBN, Mr. 

Isaac Okoroafor, said: 

“The latest injection were 

for customers in the 

agricultural, airlines, 

petroleum products and 

raw materials and 

machinery sectors, while 

Interbank interest rates 

the Yuan component was 

for payment of renminbi 

denominated letters of 

credit for agriculture as 

well as raw materials”. 

Okorafor further said 

that the market continued 

to enjoy stability, owing to 

the regular interventions 

by the apex bank, which 

he said has also 

guaranteed a stable 

exchange rate for the 

naira. He assured that 

the CBN’s management 

would remain committed 

to ensuring that all the 

sectors of the forex 

market continue to enjoy 

access to the needed 

foreign exchange.



By Elizabeth Adegbesan 

THE volume of US dollars 

traded (turnover) in the 

Investors and Exporters (I&E) 

window of the foreign exchange 

market dropped to $11.4 billion in 

the third quarter of 2019 (Q319). 

Financial Vanguard analysis of 

daily transactions in the window as 

published by FMDQ Securities 

Exchange Plc showed a quarter-onquarter, 

Q-o-Q, decline of four 

percent to $11.4 billion in Q3’19 from 

$11.9 billion in the preceding 

quarter, Q2’19. 

This is the second consecutive 

quarterly decline recorded in the 

window since inception three years 

ago. The window recorded 33 

percent decline in turnover in Q2’19 

to $11.9 billion from $17.72 billion 

in Q1’19. 

On monthly basis, turnover in the 

I&E window dropped by 41 percent 

to $4.4 billion in September from $7 

billion in August 2019. 

Monthly turnover in the window 

dropped by 33 percent to $3.2 billion 

in June from where it rose by 45 

percent to $4 billion in July and up 

by 75 percent to $7 billion in August, 

courtesy of dollar sales by the Central 

Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to meet 

demand from foreign portfolio 

investors (FPIs) exiting the nations 

fixed income market. 

Financial Vanguard analysis of 

weekly turnover in the window for 

September showed that $1.22 billion 

was traded in the first week of 

September. Turnover dropped by 

MANAGING Director of 

Philips Consulting Plc, 

Robert Taiwo, said that 

banks require cultural 

shift and leadership more than 

technology in order to 

achieve digital 

transformation. 

Taiwo stated this at the 12th 

annual banking and finance 

conference of the Chartered 

Institute of Bankers of 

Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja last 

week. 

The two-day conference 

themed, ‘The Future of the 

Nigerian Banking Industry 

360’, among other 

things, addressed matters that 

would enable stakeholders to 

reposition the finance and 

banking industry. 

Speaking on the topic, 

‘Driving Digital and 

Innovation’, Taiwo, said, 

“Culture and leadership are 

more important than technology 

in a digital transformation.” 

He advised organisations to 

begin to pursue digital 

transformation differently if they 

want to survive in a digital-led 

economy. 

As per digital transformation 

and change, he said, “the 

components are technology, 

culture, and leadership. I 

believe the technology will take 

care of itself, especially in 

Nigeria where we have 

leapfrogged in terms of digital 

and our use of emerging 

technologies. Nigerian banks 

•Head, Savings Group, Janet Nnabuko, 2nd left; Regional Bank Head, Apapa, Jude Monye (l); 

Executive Director, South, Aku Odinkemelu; Executive Director, Shared Services and Products, 

Chijioke Ugochukwu; Executive Director, Lagos and South West, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe; Executive 

Director, Operations and Information, Gbolahan Joshua, all of Fidelity Bank at a press 

conference, announcing the official launch of the Fidelity Get Alert in Millions Promo Season 4 

in Lagos …Thursday 

Forex: I&E window records 

$11bn turnover in Q3’19 

two percent to $1.2 billion in the 

second week and down by 13 percent 

to $1.05 billion in the third week. The 

turnover further dropped in the 

fourth week by 92 percent to 

$894.3 million. 

However, the naira 

appreciated by 50 kobo in the 

I&E window in September as 

the indicative exchange rate for 

the window dropped to 

N362.23 per dollar on 

September 30th from N360.73 

per dollar on 2nd of 

September. 

Leadership, cultural shift critical for digital transformation in banks 

—Philips Consulting 

must now begin to focus on 

changes in culture and 

leadership.” 

He stressed the need for 

organisations to make the 

transition from a command-andcontrol 

culture towards an 

adhocratic culture that promotes 

speed, impact, and openness. He 

By Babajide Komolafe 

FIDELITY Bank Plc has 

unveiled the ‘Get Alert in 

Millions’ (GAIM) Season 4 

savings promo aimed at 

rewarding customers with 

N120 million. 

Speaking at a press 

conference to announce the 

commencement of GAIM 

Season 4, Managing Director/ 

Chief Executive of Fidelity 

Bank, Mr. Nnamdi 

Okonkwo said that the bank 

gave out more than N465 

million in the first three 

seasons of the promo. 

Represented be the 

Executive Director, Shared 

Services and Products, 

Chijioke Ugochukwu, 

Okonkwo explained that the 

promo among other things is 

aimed at rewarding customers 

loyalty and patronage as well 

as encourage customers and 

also advocated a shift from the 

traditional methods of leadership 

to transformational leadership that 

relies more on empathy, coaching, 

and empowerment. This is the 

kind of leadership we need to 

drive digital economy 4.0 he 

stressed. 

Taiwo also encouraged public 

and private sector institutions 

on the need to ensure an 

increase in digital literacy. 

Noting that a lot is 

happening in digital space, he 

said, we still have a lot of work 

to do. I know that government 

at the federal and state levels 

are rolling out digital 

awareness programmes. The 

private sector is also pushing 

out programmes around 

digital training and new 

technologies. But we do need 

to step up." 

Fidelity Bank to reward customers with N120m in 

GAIM Season 4 

the members of the public to 

imbibe the savings culture, 

thus deepening financial 

inclusion, in line with the 

mandates of the Central Bank 

of Nigeria (CBN). 

Also speaking at the event, 

Executive Director, Lagos 

and South West Directorate, 

Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe 

explained that GAIM Season 

4 is divided into four parts 

namely, monthly draw, bimonthly 

draw and the final 

draw for the grand prize 

For the monthly draw she 

said that, Customers have to 

top up existing savings 

account with incremental of 

N10,000 to qualify for monthly 

draw to win cash prizes of N2 

million and N1 million. New 

customers have to open 

accounts to qualify for draw to 

win N2 million and N1 million 

and consolation prizes of TV 

sets, fridges and generators. 

Speaking on the bi-monthly 

draw, she said, Customers 

have to top up existing savings 

account with N50,000 and 

above monthly to qualify for 

the draw to win star prize of 

N3 million while new 

customers have to open 

account and grow it to N50,000 

to qualify for bi-monthly draw 

to win star prize of N3 

million. 

On qualification for the 

grand prize, she said that 

customers have to maintain 

monthly average balance of 

N200,000 to qualify for draw 

to win two prizes of N10 

million each. 

“In all, over 200 winners will 

emerge inclusive of 

consolation prizes such as 

Fridges, Generators, TV sets 

etc. Furthermore, over 400 

customers will also be 

rewarded with varying 

amounts of airtime weekly, she 

added. 

Access Bank 

unveils 

independence 

campaign for 

DiamondXtra 

customers 

IN commemoration of 

Nigeria’s 59 years 

independence 

anniversary, Access Bank 

Plc has unveiled a cash 

incentive campaign 

tagged, ‘DiamondXtra 

Independence Splash’ to 

reward over 30 

DiamondXtra customers 

daily with cash prizes. 

The bank said the 

campaign will run from 

October 2nd to October 

31, 2019 and will reward 

over 600 customers 

during the campaign 

period. 

Speaking at the 

unveiling ceremony in 

Lagos, the Executive 

Director, Retail Banking, 

Access Bank Plc, Victor 

Etuokwu, said the bank 

introduced the daily 

rewards promo in 

commemoration of the 

country's independence 

to give as many Nigerians 

as possible financial 

freedom and empower 

them to fulfil their day to 

day needs as they 

celebrate Nigeria at 59. 

The DiamondXtra 

Independence Splash 

which is going to run 

from October 2 to 

October 30, 2019 is a 

testimony to our 

commitment to empower 

Nigerians financially 

irrespective of their 

educational, religious and 

social status. 

For 30 days of 

celebrating Nigeria at 59, 

we will be rewarding 

more than 30 lucky 

customers daily with cash 

prizes ranging from, 

N10,000, N20,000 and 

N50,000 respectively. 

This is our own little way 

of giving back to our loyal 

customers. 

To qualify for the 

D i a m o n d X t r a 

Independence Splash 

reward scheme which is 

open to both new and 

existing customers, new 

customers are required to 

open a DiamondXtra 

savings account with just 

N5,000 by dialling *901# 

or walking into one of our 

branches to open the 

account. However, the 

more multiples of N5,000 

both new and old 

customers save, the 

higher their chances of 

winning at the daily draw 

Victor concluded.


24 —Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019






Why Nigeria might not 

escape povert under Buhari 

“President directs release of N600bn for 

2019 Capital Projects”. 

News Report, 

October 1, 2019. 

President Buhari had 

“stated in his 59th independence 

anniversary speech 

that he had directed the release 

of N600bn for capital implementation 

from the 2019 

budget in the next three 

months.” If Nigerians want to 

know why poverty will only 

get worse under Buhari, the 

report has provided all the 

information we need. Nigeria 

is now the poverty capital of 

the world and will remain in 

that position because, in the 

twenty-first century, we are 

under a leader who is an 

anachronism to modern economic 

trends and thoughts. 

No honest economist can read 

what the President proudly 

announced without at least 

shaking his head with disbelief 

or shedding a tear with 

grief. The most obvious fact 

that emerges from that statement 

made by the Chief Executive 

Officer, CEO, of Nigeria 

Plc, is that the 2019 

budget has been thrown into 

the dustbin and will certainly 

not be implemented. As a corollary 

to that, after the low 

growth of the Gross Domestic 

Product, GDP, in the first two 

quarters of the year, Nigerians 

can expect nothing better 

in the third and fourth quarters 

of this year. End year 

growth will once again fall 

below 2 per cent. And, that 

means more people will fall 

below the poverty line. 

Buhari, of course did not state 

that in his address. The President 

and his “clever” speech 

writers are specialists in telling 

half or even one quarter 

of the story. They throw figures 

into the public space 

without explaining them in 

the hope that most gullible 


LAPO scholarship scheme produces 3,134 

students in 12 years 

By Providence Emmanuel 

THE seed fund for the 

programme was the cash 

prize of $10,000 of the Grameen 

Foundation's Excellence in 

Microfinance Award in 2006. 

Beneficiaries of the skills are 

drawn from all areas of operation 

of the bank while the skills 

development support is to support 

children of clients who desire to 

acquire skills. 

Speaking at the scholarship and 

skills acquisition awards 

ceremony in Benin, Managing 

Director/Chief Executive Officer, 

LAPO MfB, Dr. Godwin 

Ehigiamusoe, said the 

educational empowerment 

scheme is targeted at supporting 

Nigerians will not be able to 

interpret what they say. 

Take the figure N600bn (and 

there is another figure to be 

interrogated) which was 

tossed out as if it represented 

a great achievement when 

indeed it was a confession of 

failure for which Fellow Nigerians 

will pay dearly. Few 

Nigerians will recollect that 

the capital budget for 2019 

was N2.7 trillion. Thus the 

N600bn ordered released on 

October 1, was only 22.22 per 

cent of the total budgeted for 

the entire year. To the extent 

that a national budget represents 

a President’s promise to 

the people, Buhari had just 

announced to us that he will 

fail to deliver 78 per cent of 

the capital projects he promised 

this year. And, he did it 

without apologies to those 

who were gullible enough to 

vote for his re-election. 

Furthermore, anybody who 

has ever had cause to complain 

about deteriorating infrastructure, 

education, health 

services etc, now knows why 

there had been no improvement 

this year so far, and why 

there might be none before 

the year comes to an end. 

Capital votes are used for all 

these social services and sad 

as it is, the Federal Government 

had not released one 

kobo this year for capital expenditure. 

The N600bn ordered 

released is the first and 

last money Ministries, Departments 

and Agencies can 

expect this year. That also 

means a lot of the projects 

slated for funding in 2019 will 

not be funded. Roads will remain 

death traps nationwide 

and even Teaching hospitals 

will remain abattoirs. That is 

the Buhari record for 2019 and 

he had issued the report himself. 

clients' children and the less 

privileged in the society. 

Ehigiamusoe who was 

represented by Head, Corporate 

Services, Mr. Moses 

Ehigiamusoe, said that the bank 

acknowledges and rewards 

exceptional students who have 

emerged after a rigorous award 

selection process, even as it 

reaffirmed its commitment to 

improving lives. 

He stated: “Quality education is 

critical to the development of a 

child for a productive adulthood. 

LAPO MfB recognizes the 

importance of education in 

personal and national 

development. Unfortunately, 

access to quality education for 

children from low-income 

What can Nigerians expect 

this year from the N600bn ordered 

released? We can expect 

very little will result from 

it. Buhari’s mind-set is still in 

the military era. He still lives 

in the world of orders issued 

to take “immediate effect”. 

Even his most recent failures 

to get his instructions obeyed 

To the extent that a 

national budget 

represents a 

President’s promise 

to the people, 

Buhari had just 

announced to us 

that he will fail to 

deliver 78 per cent 

of the capital 

projects he 

promised this year 

immediately have not taught 

him any lesson. It is always 

difficult to teach new tricks to 

a lot of old people. Some readers 

would recall how after 

signing the Minimum Wage 

Bill into law in May this year, 

he ordered “immediate implementation”. 

He was informed 

that it was impossible for that 

to happen. In an article titled 

PRESIDENT GOVS UNION- 

ISM AND HOOLIGANISM, 

the reasons were explained as 

follows. 

“The Minimum Wage Bill, 

which they expected will be 

implemented immediately, 

will certainly not be. Buhari 

had built up false hopes by 

“ordering” immediate implementation 

while forgetting 

that he only pays federal 

workers. Even the FG cannot 

implement immediately because 

a lot of work still needs 

to be done before government 

workers at all levels can start 

households is constrained by 

limited financial resources. This 

informed the establishment of 

LAPO Scholarship and Skill 

Acquisition Support Scheme. 

“The seed fund for this 

programme was the cash prize of 

USD 10,000 of the Grameen 

Foundation's Excellence in 

Microfinance Award in 2006. 

The primary focus is on support 

for Secondary level, as children 

from low-income households 

usually drop out of the 

educational system at the 

secondary level. 

“Beneficiaries of the skills are 

drawn from all areas of operation 

of LAPO MfB. The Skills 

Development Support is to 


receiving the new emoluments. 

It is now beginning to 

dawn on Labour leaders that 

they have made promises to 

the rank and file which cannot 

now be fulfilled. In their 

individual and collective lack 

of knowledge about Public 

Finance, they have overlooked 

various organs created by law 

which must work on the implementation 

before governments 

can start paying.” 

President Buhari has once 

again fallen into the same 

trap by ordering the immediate 

release of N600bn for capital 

projects. There is every 

reason to believe that the 

statement was more political 

than presidential. Various organs 

of government which 

must work on the President’s 

instructions before funds can 

be released don’t work on 

announcements made to the 

media. There are procedures 

to be followed and nothing 

will happen until the regulations 

have been followed. 

Thus, a good portion of the 

N600bn might not even reach 

the MDAs before the year 

ends. Consequently, the impact 

on this year’s economic 

growth will be very minimal. 

The tragedy of all these lies 

in the fact that there are top 

level individuals within the 

All Progressives Congress, 

APC, who are aware that 

Buhari is leading us into the 

ditch, but are unpatriotic 

enough not to say it. 

BUDGET 2020 SHOULD BE 

DISCARDED 

The National Assembly, 

NASS, now under the control 

of Executive branch rubber 

stamps, had expressed the 

hope that the Medium Term 

Expenditure Framework, 

MTEF, and the 2020 Budget 

will be delivered by end of 

September. That was before 

the $9.6bn judgment against 

Nigeria was handed down in 

the UK. To the best of my 

support children of clients who 

desire to acquire skills. The 

scheme remains an important 

event within the framework of our 

commitment to educational 

development especially as we 

have promised to continue to 

improve lives as stated in our 

mission and vision statement. 

“Surely, every parent holds the 

dream that their children will get 

proper education either formally 

or informally. Equally, every child 

deserves the opportunity to get a 

standard education. For us at 

LAPO, this presents an 

opportunity to complement the 

ambition of parents and intellects 

of the students. 

“This educational 

empowerment is our way of 

supporting clients' children and 

the less privileged in the society. 

We are extremely happy about the 

knowledge, the FG did not 

take that liability into account 

when preparing the budget. 

But, the matter is now real. 

There is every reason to believe 

that Nigeria will have to 

pay something next year on 

account of this scam. 

Furthermore, the budget was 

based on daily crude oil exports 

which are now clearly 

unrealistic in light of the 

quota approved for Nigeria by 

OPEC. Even a rubber stamp 

NASS must respect itself and 

not waste time on a document 

so defective and which will 

not be implemented if passed. 

RAIL TRANSPORT AS 

METAPHOR 

The bulk transportation of 

goods and services of every 

major economy are carried by 

rail except Nigeria. Hope was 

rekindled when in 2016, the 

Federal Minister of Transportation, 

Mr Amaechi announced 

that the Buhari administration 

was embarking 

on three major rail projects – 

Lagos to Ibadan, Lagos to 

Calabar and Kano to 

Portharcourt. The Lagos to 

Ibadan commuter service was 

scheduled to be completed in 

2017. Till now, it remains uncompleted. 

There has been 

deafening silence from 

Amaechi and the administration 

on the Lagos-Calabar 

project. Furthermore, there is 

no provision in the 2020 

budget for it. That sums up 

the mind-set of the Buhari administration. 

It promises a lot 

and delivers nothing. Nobody 

can point to any major project 

completed from May 2015 till 

now – except the Kaduna- 

Abuja rail line which was 90% 

completed by the Jonathan 

administration. 

The 2020 Budget and te 59th 

independence anniversary 

address of Buhari are so destitute 

of hope for rapid GDP 

growth, they would make the 

Devil weep for Nigeria. 

ECONOMY 

performance and growth of these 

students, and the huge relief it 

has brought to their parents and 

guardians. We have 134 new 

beneficiaries that would be 

awarded scholarships this year 

across 33 states in Nigeria. So 

far, the noble efforts of the LAPO 

Scholarship Scheme have 

nurtured the dreams of 

3,134students since 2007. 

Meanwhile, Ehigiamusoe 

commended the efforts of the 

National Directorate of 

Employment (NDE) and the 

National Business and Technical 

Exams Board (NABTEB) for their 

immense contributions to the 

success of the scheme, a platform 

that continues to provide technical 

training on vocational skills to 

young Nigerians, saying, ; “from 

2016 till date, 521 skilled youths 

have emerged.”


$26bn diaspora remittances: Where are the dollars? 

•A rejoinder by Etubom Anthony Ani – former minister of finance, 1993-1998 


ECONOMY 

Securities dealers plan to partner FMDQ, seek diversification of income streams 

THERE are strong 

indications that the Association 

of Dealing Members 

Houses of Nigeria, ASHON, is 

planning to partner with FMDQ 

Securities Exchange in order to 

diversify the income streams for 

members in the wake of inclement 

operating environment. 

Market sources disclosed that 

the Executives of ASHON may 

brief members of the plan to partner 

FMDQ in its forthcoming 

Some years ago, on 

my visit to London, I 

went to Western 

Union office, at 

Marble Arch, to test 

by remitting £500 to 

my son in Nigeria. I 

first had to convert the 

money to dollars and 

to my surprise 

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making available modern communication 

solutions relevant for 

businesses and consumers in 

Ghana and Nigeria. 

Kirusa's Founder and CEO, 

Inderpal Singh Mumick staed 

said: “Nigerian and Ghanaian 

markets are very important to us. 

With a combined population of 

over 200 million people, we are 

poised to help businesses and consumers 

in these markets get more 

value and result from every 

communication they make.” 

He further stressed that Kirusa 

has been working in collaboration 

The above question was 

posed in an article in 

The Punch Newspaper edition 

of September 9, 2019, by 

Columnist, Henry Boyo. I have 

been a daily reader of Punch for 

the past 10 years and I have not 

yet, read any comments from 

anyone on this question. There 

is need to discuss this issue, as 

it appears that there is a massive 

foreign exchange laundering, 

going on in our banks. As 

the architect of the Diaspora Remittances 

in 1996, I am naturally 

concerned at the abuses 

disclosed by Mr. Boyo.” 

“When in 1995, we at the Ministry 

of Finance, reviewed the 

country’s sources of foreign revenues, 

we found out that nothing 

was coming in from Nigerians 

in the Diaspora, whereas 

India and Jamaica were living 

on foreign exchange from its citizens 

abroad. When I enquired 

why Western Union and MoneyGram 

could not receive money 

from Nigerians abroad, I 

was told that it was due to our 

tax laws. As a Chartered Accountant 

Student in 1962, I 

studied Comparative Commonwealth 

Taxation-Nigeria, Jamaica 

and UK, and I found out that 

the tax laws of these Countries 

had the same wordings on imposition 

of tax (“tax is imposed 

on income accruing in, derived 

from or brought into”) the question 

then to me was why income 

“brought into” India was not 

taxed in India. On enquiry, I 

found that India had modified 

its tax laws to accommodate its 

citizens living abroad who 

wanted to send money in foreign 

exchange to India. In 1996, 

I had proposed (and it was accepted 

by the Federal Executive 

Council) in a new law, regarding 

Nigerians repatriating remuneration 

from abroad, Nigerians 

repatriating dividends, 

royalties, fees, commissions 

from foreign countries receipts 

by authors, sportsmen/women, 

musicians, play writers, artist, 

etc. Such income repatriated 

into Nigeria in foreign currency 

was 100 per cent exempted 

from tax, provided the foreign 

currency was repatriated 

through a domiciliary account 

with a Nigerian bank! With the 

promulgation of this law, First 

Bank Nigeria Ltd brought in 

Western Union in august 1996 

while USA brought in Money- 

Gram a few weeks later.” 

“In 1996, Nigerians, abroad, 

repatriated about $4.5bn (about 

50 per cent of our gross revenue 

from oil) and we ensured 

that these amounts were brought 

into Nigeria, intact, in foreign 

exchange. The receipts increased 

exponentially in 1997 

and 1998 and we also made sure 

that they were received in Nigeria, 

in foreign currency. The 

receipts helped to stabilize our 

exchange rate mechanism at 

N82 to a dollar, throughout my 

tenure as Minister of Finance, 

to the extent that Naira was internally 

convertible currency.” 

“Some years ago, on my visit to 

London, I went to Western 

Union office, at Marble Arch, to 

test by remitting £500 to my son 

in Nigeria. I first had to convert 

the money to dollars and to my 

surprise; Western Union gave 

me a quote in Naira to be 

claimed by my son. I refused 

their Naira equivalent and insisted 

that my son mut be paid 

in dollars. It was obvious to me, 

that there was anarrangement 

between our Nigeria Banks and 

Western Uion/MoneyGram, 

with 50+ telecom network partners 

and 1,000+ notable organisations 

and brands. It has more than 100 

million monthly active users with 

over three billion monthly transactions 

from the emerging markets 

of Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

“Kirusa is at the forefront of 

whereby the former pays from 

their excss Naira liquidity while 

the later retains the dollars 

abroad. In other words, the dollar 

remittance is retained abroad 

and is laundered by the Nigerian 

Banks. This is definitely 

against the law which provides 

that all remittances must be 

brought into Nigeria in foreign 

currency via domiciliary account.” 

“If by chance, as in my case, the 

dollar is remitted into Nigeria, 

the Central Bank of Nigeria 

(CBN) on 14th August 2014 introduced 

the Outward Money 

Transfer Service and authorised 

the same MoneyGram and 

Western Union to re-export, in 

tranches of $5000 per transaction, 

to Nigerians abroad, on 

payment of the Naira equivalent 

at the CBN rate of exchange. 

Thus, Nigeria is the 

only country in the world reexporting 

its remittances. It is 

relevant to note that the Naira 

is not a convertible currency but 

remittances which are meant to 

stabilize our exchange rates are 

re-exported! There is something 

10th Annual General Meeting, 

AGM. 

It was gathered that operations 

of most stockbroking firms in Nigeria 

have been largely hampered 

by macroeconomic instability, 

low purchasing power of 

investors, anti-investment government 

policies and investor 

apathy among others. 

The 10th AGM, scheduled for 

Thursday, October 17, at the 

LCFE Trading Floor, at UAC 

(08052201997) 

wrong at our Central Bank. It 

could be that we have imported 

the mentality of commercial 

banking into CBN. We now 

need real Central Bankers to 

govern our Central Bank. We 

have Central Bankers amongst 

those in CBN, and we also have 

Central Bankers amongst the 

members of the Nigerian Economic 

Society (NES) or, alternatively, 

indeed, we can even 

go outside Nigeria to employ 

Central Bankers. The fact is that 

Diaspora remittances are not retained 

in Nigeria and there is a 

collaboration between CBN, 

Nigerian Banks and Western 

Union/MoneyGram; in such 

event, Government must investigate 

the infraction, punish the 

money launders, and recover all 

past Diaspora remittances retained 

abroad! The Outbound 

Money Transfer Services must 

be stopped and all our remittances 

retained for Naira stability 

and the Nation’s development.” 

POSTSCRIPT OCTOBER 2019: 

Notably, Chief Anthony Ani, 

was former Chairman of KPMG 

(a renowned, International Intervention 

Accounting Firm), 

before he became Finance Minister, 

between 1993 to 1998, under 

Military rule, led by General 

Sani Abacha. Arguably, 

during his tenure, the duo of 

Tony Ani, an accomplished Accountant, 

and Professor Sam 

Aluko, a cerebral Economist, by 

any standard, formed the nucleus 

of the engine room of creative 

policies that stabilized and 

positively drove Nigeria’s economy, 

such that, inspite of Nigeria’s 

International Pariah Status 

and trade sanctions, in response 

to Abacha’s iron fist dictatorship, 

Nigeria’s economy was 

House, is coming on the heels of 

many initiatives being put together 

by the trade association 

to enable its members remain in 

business irrespective of the nature 

of operating environment. 

Market sources revealed that 

ASHON’s Chairman, Chief 

Patrick Ezeagu, is expected to 

brief members on some new developments 

in the financial market 

that can provide multiple income 

streams for the members. 

They pointed out that ASHON 

positively turned around and 

moved from about 2.0 per cent 

negative growth in 1993, to minus 

0.1 per cent in 1995; thereafter, 

the economy took a positive 

trajectory and grew positively 

by 4.2 per cent in 1996, and 

stayed steadily, well above 2 per 

cent until 1999. Similarly, the 

Naira also remained stable at 

N82/$ for over 4 years, even 

when crude oil price was, relatively 

modest at between $14- 

22/barrel within the same period. 

Furthermore, although 

Abacha’s Government inherited 

over 57 per cent Consumer 

Price Index, in 1993, however, 

inflation, significantly, 

dropped to 10 per cent in 

1998, and further receded to 

6.6 per cent by 1999. 

It is probably fair to observe, 

that the astute economic management 

which stabilized the 

Naira between 1994-1998 is 

certainly elusive today. Sadly, 

the Naira rate has since 

plummeted, remarkably, to 

between N305-360=$, even 

when crude oil price, (the subsisting 

mainstay of Government’s 

annual income) has 

largely remained above $40/ 

barrel, with an average daily 

output of about 2million barrels. 

Ultimately, the question is, do 

we have the courage to confront 

the truth and engage in 

best practice policies to salvage 

our economy, or, are we 

determined to consciously 

sustain an obtuse strategy 

that has continuously pauperised 

our people, when 

the converse of increasing 

employment and inclusive 

growth could have been our 

portion? 

leveraging data networks to 

transform messaging and voice. 

Kirusa has products and services 

that cater to businesses, developers, 

telecom operators and anyone 

who uses a phone. Since its 

inception in 2001, Kirusa continues 

to introduce innovations and technologies 

that define the next 

generation telecom experience. 

Kirusa offers the following 

products and services:Kirusa 

Konnect: An omnichannel Communications 

Platform as a Service 

(CPaaS) for enterprises that helps 

bolster brand-customer engagement 

with chatbots, IP messaging, 

SMS and voice,” he emphasised. 

“With 1.5 billion users of 

WhatsApp, 1 billion iMessage 

users and over 300 million RCS 

users, data messaging is taking 

over how we communicate, and 

Kirusa is helping shape the new 

content and enhance communication 

using these newer channels.” 

might be considering a relationship 

with the newly approved 

FMDQ Securities Exchange as 

a new platform where its members 

can execute transaction. 

They also noted that Ezeagu 

would update ASHON’s members 

on the Lagos Commodities 

and Futures Exchange (LCFE) 

which has secured approval 

from the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC) to 

become operational.


Send Opinions & Letters to: 

opinions1234@yahoo.com 

Please, take a message to 

President Buhari 

INDEPENDENCE Day morning. 

Tuesday, October 1, 2019. A 

retired ambassador calls me. He 

wants my opinion on President 

Muhammadu Buhari’s 

Independence Day broadcast. I told 

him I was outdoors; I had not 

listened to it. He seemed taken aback 

as he knew I strive to be current on 

news and events. 

I was tired of these speeches, 

assurances and promises made and 

broken just after. In September, the 

President had assured us he would 

relieve the burden of the people; days 

later, his government announced the 

increase of the Value Added Tax, VAT, 

from five to 7.5 percent. The 

irritating thing about such decisions 

is that hangers-on and sycophants 

then go into overdrive. They lectured 

us that VAT does not affect the 

average Nigerian as it is a consumer 

tax for the rich. I reason that if it 

affects only the affluent and as 

promised, the money is ploughed 

into programmes that will benefit the 

poor, why not increase the VAT to 50 

percent? 

I knew the speech would be 

patronising. That hapless Nigerians 

would be told how well the 

government is serving them and the 

90 

need for us to be patriotic. There is of 

course, no feedback mechanism. 

Who tells the President the truth that 

Nigerians are suffering so much? 

Who tells him that the state of 

insecurity is so bad that Nigerians 

who have come to accept that 

travelling on the highways is a 

suicidal mission, are becoming wary 

of even going outdoors? That 

children are not safe in school or 

commuters in public transport? 

Does he know that his government 

is not protecting lives and property? 

Who can tell him governance is not 

all about speeches and borrowing 

money for non-discernible projects? 

How can President Buhari 

appreciate the state of Nigerians if 

even ministers are barred from direct 

access to His Excellency? 

If I thought the speech will contain 

some dramatic announcements such 

as the President confessing to the 

populace that we are at war. That all 

hands must be on deck to defeat our 

enemies, and that a state of 

emergency is declared to put the 

country on war footing against 

terrorists, land-grabbing bandits, 

marauders and kidnappers, I would 

have been more receptive. These 

would have aroused our patriotic 

Make Nigeria great, returnee ministers 

By CHIOKE MARY HANUM 

FOR the returnee ministers, it is 

welcome back. You are among the 

chosen men and women from 200million 

Nigerians to drive the society and 

prosper it, to manage the nation’s 

resources and wealth beneficially to 

create a better life for the population. 

You are returned for your worthiness, 

especially the 'super minister', Mr. B. R. 

Fashola. You are all appreciated. 

It is the greatest privilege to be called 

by one’s country to serve at the highest 

level of duty and responsibilitywhich 

makes you a national figure. This calls 

for diligence. 

You may become astounding as the 

most honourable minister amongst you, 

Mr. Fashola, who in my esteemed 

estimate has worked to deserve this 

honour, even from his days as the 

Governor of Lagos State where he 

excelled to become famous for it. 

As a Federal minister, he held three 

key ministries in the last dispensation 

with a majorly acknowledged great 

humanly results. It is the first time in 

the history of Nigeria’s civil service, quite 

incredible isn’t? 

One may agree or disagree with my 

exaltation of this great man. Any of our 

new ministers can do as much and get 

acclaimed, for it is pro bono Nigeria. He 

is of the breed of persons required to 

steer the ship of state to a safe berth and 

all will be bliss in Nigeria since 

independence, going by his pedigree 

and renown. 

He is a Yoruba man, an Igbo man and 

a Hausa man simultaneously; what 

instincts and make us realise that 

wars are not fought and won by the 

military or security services alone, 

but by the populace. Imagine if the 

hundreds of thousands turned 

internally displaced persons in Niger 

State were mobilised to defend their 

towns and villages against the 

handful of bandits raiding them, 

those battles would have been won. 

Finally, I sat down to listen to the 

broadcast. I am not sure there was 

anything new. Claims of food selfsufficiency 

as against exports, and 

improved power, are at best 

debatable. A paragraph that I 

reflected on a few times read: “Whilst 

we uphold the Constitutional rights 

of our people to freedom of 

expression and association, where 

the exercise of these rights infringes 

on the rights of other citizens or 

We need a change 

of tactics and 

strategy, but who 

can go whisper that 

in the ears of the 

Commander-in- 

Chief? 

Nigerians call a “detribalised” man. For 

religion, he is a “circular function” and 

for all faiths. He’s a Hobson’s choice and 

civic minded and I ask: Why would one 

with this pedigree and “magic hand” not 

be considered for the leadership 

ofNigeria. Such a man can put Nigeria 

right, you know. 

Hmm, it is like I am his best friend or 

colleague: sorry, by no means, just one 

who wants the best for my country. I don’t 

know him more. How I wish I am his 

best friend anyway. 

In an answer to an accusation on TV, 

that he is always giving contracts to his 

friends only, he replied by asking the 

accuser to say which was better: to give 

contracts to your friends or your 

enemies? And it drew such a great 

hilarious laughter and ovation. You see 

why I will wish to be his friend? 

“Make Nigeria great!” This is our 

charge to the ministers, for Nigeria has 

never been described as great, though 

she is acclaimed to retain all the 

attributes of greatness, but lacks one to 

do the job of pruning her to grow into 

greatness. We have long dwelt in near 

disasters, false hopes and expecting 

things that exist in the imagination only. 

So, go make Nigeria great! Rhyme 

with the people in body, soul and spirit; 

know when they are sick and get sick 

with them, so as to get well with them 

and all will be song and dance! When 

this is seen to be done, you would have 

surely delivered. 

The new ministers have every 

opportunity to excel and earn accolades 

like Mr. Fashola, but they must always 

bear in mind that it is impossible to 

threatens to undermine our National 

Security, we will take firm and 

decisive action.” 

The problem here is that the 

government of the day arrogates to 

itself the power to determine if an 

expression undermines “National 

Security”. As the Omoyele Sowore 

case shows, court rulings on this are 

respected only if they favour 

government. If they do not, the 

government disobeys them and 

simply tramples on the rights of the 

citizenry. If our courts are not allowed 

to adjudicate between the citizen and 

government, is it not wiser, cheaper 

and more economical to abolish 

them and elect more amenable 

courts that will not waste time 

listening to both sides? 

As you might have guessed, I was 

quite interested in the issue of 

security, but the President’s 

broadcast told us nothing new. He 

simply stated: “In the last four years, 

we have combated the terrorist 

scourge of Boko Haram. We owe a 

debt of gratitude to our gallant men 

and women in arms, through whose 

efforts we have been able to achieve 

the present results.” 

First, this is the tenth year “we have 

combated the terrorist scourge of 

Boko Haram” not in the last four 

years. Secondly, what are “the 

present results” the President said we 

have achieved? Just a bland 

statement that gives no information, 

no report nor what we, as Nigerians, 

are expected to do beyond clapping 

for “our gallant men and women in 

arms”. 

In the past four years, the President 

and his men had told Nigerians Boko 

Haram had been “defeated”, 

“technically defeated”, “degraded”, 

“highly degraded” and that they 

“occupy no inch” of our soil. If truly 

the terrorists occupy no inch of 

Nigerian territory, who then are we 

fighting? If the terrorists have been 

pushed into neigbouring countries, 

why are our towns and villages the 

theatres of war? The government’s 

narrative began to give the 

impression that we were at war with 

spirits not human beings. 

My hunch was confirmed on 

Independence Day eve when the 

army hinted that after all, the war is 

not just against humans but also 

spiritualties. If true, this will require 

our military, as advised in Ephesians 

(6:11-12) to put on the whole 

please all, but must not allow this 

inexplicable phenomenon which must 

occur as a challenge, to oblique their 

focus. It takes a pretty good time to attain 

such a great height; that’s why I said at 

the beginning that great diligence must 

be observed with determination. 

Have there ever been governors and 

ministers who have equally excelled like 

Mr. Fashola? Yes, of course, there are; 

except that they operated at a micro level. 

Ex-governors like Dr. Chris Ngige, who 

can be said to be the harbinger of good 

governance in Nigeria, who actually 

performed beyond the common ordinary 

It is the greatest 

privilege to be called by 

one’s country to serve at 

the highest level of duty 

and responsibilitywhich 

makes you a national 

figure 

general expectations of the people of 

Anambra State until his tenure suffered 

thrombosis and expired by the force of 

law. If he ever served for eight years, 

the story line would have been 

pleasantly different for Anambra State. 

The other ex-governor who came along 

as well was the uncommon performer 

inAkwa Ibom State, Mr. Godswill 

Akpabio who also performed at a micro 

level but warmed himself into the subconscious 

of his people and has 

remained there. 

Fashola as we all know performed at a 

macro level in Lagos State, the 

armour of God in order for them to 

stand against the wiles of the devil: 

“For we wrestle not against flesh and 

blood, but against principalities, 

against powers, against the rulers of 

the darkness of this world, against 

spiritual wickedness in high places.” 

So, last Monday, the Nigerian 

Army at its Resource Centre in Abuja 

organised a seminar on “Countering 

Insurgency and Violent Extremism 

in Nigeria through Spiritual 

Warfare”. The Chief of Army Staff, 

Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai 

in his speech, revealed that: “It is 

easier to defeat Boko Haram and 

ISWAP terrorists than their 

ideology” adding: “Religious bodies 

and organisations in particular who 

interface regularly with the 

grassroots should be at the forefront 

of this spiritual battle and fashion 

out ways of stepping up their roles.” 

He said there is the need to tackle 

terrorist groups “through spiritual 

warfare…”. 

I think it is time we unleashed on 

the terrorists our nuclear weapons 

of religious clerics and the faithful. 

Imagine a battalion of turbaned 

clerics making recitals as they 

march into the Sambisa forests, 

followed by a division of beautiful 

ladies in white garments shaking 

their bountiful bounties in spiritual 

ecstasy singing “Onward Christian 

soldiers! March as to war” with 

women commanding rain and 

Shango worshippers summoning 

lightning and thunder to strike the 

terrorists. 

Visualise this spiritual army 

followed by mine sweepers, 

armoured cars and the infantry. With 

this, Boko Haram will be wiped out 

within days. So we need a change of 

tactics and strategy, but who can go 

whisper that in the ears of the 

Commander-in-Chief? 

commercial headquarters of the country 

and brought his magic performances to 

the national level to prove that the Lagos 

magic wasn’t an unmerited acclaim. 

In the last dispensation, he held three 

key ministries: Power, Works and 

Housing, known as the soul of the 

society, and improved the lives of the 

people as never before, especially in the 

electricity sphere where even my little 

home town of Isiokpo, Imo State, at the 

Anambra border, has greatly been 

empowered with almost 14 hours of 

electricity daily, and sometimes, every 

other day, after 12 years of darkness. This 

serves as a litmus test and proof of the 

argument. 

All thanks goes to President 

Muhammadu Buhari who, in his wisdom 

deemed it appropriate to recall him and 

others for the benefit of Nigeria. 

It is no governance at all where merit 

is ignored in the name of politics. 

Having said this little much, the onus is 

on us Nigerians to help them succeed 

by expressed encouragement. I am only 

giving expression to my inner thoughts 

and imagining where the leadership of 

the country is thrust on this fellow to take 

us to a magic country where almost 

everything runs well, and merit is 

offered a front seat. 

Mention his name anywhere: North, 

South, East and West, and he is no 

stranger. 

However, I am also having in mind, 

the fact that opinions(yours and mine) 

are always divergent, never congruent, 

but in the process, insightful knowledge 

is enriched where divergence is duly not 

for hostility. 

•Hanum, a public affairs analyst, wrote 

from Lagos. 

C 

M 

Y





JAN@20: From left—Onyeche Tifase, Managing Director/CEO, Siemens Ltd.; 

Simi Nwogugu, Executive Director, Junior Achievements Nigeria; 

Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Head, Brand and Reputation, Sub Saharan 

Africa, Google Africa, and Dave Uduanu, Managing Director, Sigma Pensions 

Ltd., at the Junior Achievements Nigeria @ 20 in Lagos, weekend. 

MEDIA TOUR: From left—Bukola Adebakin, COO, The Future Project; Seun 

Fakorede, Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Oyo State; Khafi Kareem 

and Temisan Emmanuel, season hosts for The Future Awards Africa 2019, 

during a media tour of Ibadan, Oyo State. 

Mercy wins Big 

Brother Naija 

Season 4 

MERCY Eke has 

become the winner 

of Big Brother Naija season 

four. The ‘Queen of 

Highlights’ was crowned at 

the finale yesterday. 

This win makes Mercy 

the first woman to win the 

Big Brother Naija reality 

show since inception. 

Popularly known as 

Lamborghini, Mercy was 

touted as the possible 

winner for the season by 

show fans and celebrities 

alike. 

The light-hearted diva 

made the top two with her 

show best friend, Mike 

Edwards, who emerged 

first runner up. 

As winner, Mercy walked 

home with cash prize worth 

over N40 million, brand 

new Innosson SUV, Dubai 

trip for two, among others. 

Indian community celebrates 

Nigeria, Gandhi with charity 

By Agbonkhese Oboh 

LAGOS—TO celebrate 

Mahatma Gandhi, who 

would have been 150 years 

old on October 2, the Indian 

Community in Lagos State 

organised a blood donation 

camp “to get 150 bottles of 

blood as service to 

humanity, which Gandhi 

stood for.” 

Held in the premises of 

the Indian High 

Commission, Victoria 

Island, Lagos, the event 

was organised by the Indian 

Cultural Centre, ICE; 

Indian Professionals 

Forum, IPF; Rotary clubs of 

Palmgrove Estate and 

Lagos Island, in 

collaboration with Lagos 

State Blood Transfusion 

Committee. 

Speaking at the event, 

IPF President, Mr. Atul 

Kshetvy, said: “This is the 

second edition. One pint 

can save three lives and we 

are aware of the challenges 

of blood donation in 

Nigeria. So, we target 150 

pints in this camp. That is 

saving 450 lives. 

“Besides service to 

humanity that Gandhi 

represents, Indian 

professionals are known 

worldwide for efficiency, 

technical abilities, sincerity 

and culture of hard work. 

These are inbuilt and we 

hope to share these as we 

celebrate with Nigerians.” 

Also speaking, ICA 

President, Chief Sanjay 

Jain, said: “Blood donation 

is beneficial to the donor, 

recipient and society. When 

you donate blood, it is 

replenished with a fresh 

one in a few hours, and it 

saves lives. The process 

also creates awareness.” 

For Island Rotary Club 

President, Mr. Vipul 

Agarwat, “serving 

humanity is our drive. And 

there is no occasion more 

momentous than the 

birthday of a great man and 

the independence day of a 

great country to donate 

blood. Last year, we 

collected 1,200 pints of 

blood.” 

His Palmgrove 

counterpart, Mr. 

Jayashankar Nalode said: 

“Only 30 percent of blood 

need is met in Nigeria. So 

we have been trying to 

create awareness because 

culture and religion have 

made some to avoid blood 

donation.” 

On his part, the Blood 

Donation Chair, Mahesh 

Birla, said: “My motto is 

collect as many pints as 

possible and utilise it for the 

needy and not the greedy.”

36 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 

Last week, the senator 

representing Imo West 

Senatorial District at the 

National Assembly, ex- 

Governor Rochas Okorocha, 

recommended one senator per 

state, instead of the current 

three from each state of the 

federation. Speaking during 

the Senate plenary, Okorocha 

said this will reduce cost of 

governance in general. While 

the ex-governor’s advocacy 

resonated with some citizens, 

cross sections of lawyers are 

divided over what approach 

should be adopted in 

restructuring the senate. 

Part-time legislators better- 

Lawal Pedro, SAN 

“Having one senator per 

state will not guarantee 

reduction in cost of 

maintaining the legislators. To 

get Nigeria on a right track 

towards good and 

inexpensive governance, we 

should work together to make 

political offices less financially 

attractive. This will discourage 

electoral fraud and 

malpractices as well as 

political investors who must 

get returns on their 

investments. 

“If we have professionals 

and technocrats who have 

distinguished themselves in 

their professions or excelled 

in their career and willing to 

offer service to the country 

without receiving jumbo 

remuneration,they can be 

encouraged by political parties 

to take up political offices (on 

part time basis) on the 

platform of the party. 

“It will not be out of place to 

enact a law that provides that 

all legislators (except principal 

officers) shall serve or work on 

part time basis and receive 

sitting allowances to reduce 

cost of governance? The 

commencement date can be 

May 29, 2023. Anybody be it 

politician, professional or 

technocrat interested in 

political office will know that 

he need not break a bank, 

borrow money or sell his 

property to contest election or 

support a political party. It is 

his knowledge, ideas, vision 

and honesty that will count for 

him. This is part of what I 

refer to as restructuring 

government in Nigeria. 

” 

Constitutional amendment 

required- Gbenga Ojo 

There is no empirical 

evidence that the laws passed 

by the National Assembly are 

better than the laws passed by 

House of Assemblies in the 

states. We cannot copy USA 

slavishly. I advocate one 

house; call it any name, with 

members in the structure of 

the present House of 

Representative for fair and 

balanced representation. 

Alternatively, Senator 

Okorocha’s suggestion is also 

good. 

“There is need to cut 

significantly numbers and 

monies spent on the members 

Tel: 08152060944 

ONE SENATOR PER STATE: Lawyers divided over call 

BY Innocent Anaba, Henry 

Ojelu & Onozure Dania 

National Assembly 

of the National Assembly. This 

will require amendment of the 

Constitution. For many years 

now, the national assembly 

could not pass the PIB Bill. It 

has always been assurances. 

Even time to pass budget is 

unreasonable. By and large, 

we must do something about 

the National Assembly. We 

either prune it to one or 

reduce the membership as 

suggested by Okorocha.” 

Call, a greek gift-Kabir 

Akingbolu 

“Since this is a product of the 

constitution, reduction in the 

number of members is a 

constitutional issue that can 

only be tinkered with if there 

is constitutional amendment 

to that effect. It is true that the 

call by Okorocha is a good one 

but it is a Greek gift and a kind 

of political chicanery to gain 

popularity or some attention. 

This is because Okorocha 

himself is a lawmaker but why 

has he not moved the motion 

on the floor of the Senate to 

show that he truly desires the 

change he is talking about. 

“There is no gainsaying the 

fact that Nigeria and 

Nigerians must wake up from 

its slumber and know that 

there is no way we can 

continue like this if we need 

any meaningful change or 

development in the country. 

Honestly, they are not fair to 

Nigerians and I think we have 

reached the high point where 

this must change. And 

contrary to Okorocha’s 

exhortation, though not 

backed by actions, we only 

need a unicameral legislature. 

That is, we need only one 

House may be the House of 

Representative or the Senate 

just to act as watch dogs on 

the executives.” 

Number of legislators not 

the problem-Israel Mbaebie 

Senatorial representation is 

a constitutional issue and 

hence is also regulated by our 

extant laws. In that light, any 

change to the law relating to 

legislative representation 

must first go through the 

process of amendment as 

provided by the Constitution 

of the Federal Republic of 

Nigeria (as amended). 

That having been said, a 

more pertinent and pragmatic 

question to ask is this; 

“Is the problem actually with 

the number of our legislators 

(including Senators and 

Members of House of Reps) 

or with their jumbo salaries?” 

A serving Nigerian Senator 

(including of course, Senator 

Rochas Okorocha) earns a 

minimum of N36million. This 

is despite the fact that the 

government of the day finds 

it hard to pay a Nigerian 

worker a minimum of N30,000 

monthly. 

In my humble opinion, I do 

not think that our problem is 

with the number of our 

legislators. The real issue is 

with their inexplicable jumbo 

pays. I therefore say to 

Distinguished Senator Rochas 

Okorocha, “as Senators (and 

by extension all legislators), 

please cut down on your 

jumbo pays and not the 

number of our Legislators. 

Okorocha playing to the 

gallery-Adindu Ugwuzor 

The National Assembly will 

have to amend the 

constitution which involves 

the States assembly. Why did 

he wait till after eight years of 

being a governor? As a 

governor he should have 

championed it through his 

state assembly or as chairman 

of progressive governors then 

he should have done that. He 

is just playing to the gallery. 

Membership of national 

assembly should be part time 

as they have not done 

anything to benefit the 

masses. 

He should initiate a bill for 

amendment-Ogu Ogedi 

Why did he wait 

till after eight 

years of being a 

governor? As a 

governor he 

should have 

championed it 

through his state 

assembly or as 

chairman of 

progressive 

governors then he 

should have done 

that 

It is doubtful at this stage to 

believe that his invitation is 

geared towards saving cost. 

This is because; we are still 

aware how Mr Okorocha ran 

his own government. We are 

also aware how he appointed 

several aids thereby creating 

wastages in government. Be 

that as it may, we must take 

some positives from his 

statement. Nigeria is in urgent 

need of cutting down cost. No 

country survives with this 

manner of profligacy. But 

then, while we celebrate the 

instant commentary, it must 

not be lost on us that we have 

a Constitution known as and 

called the 1999 Constitution, 

which has demanded that the 

number of Senators and Reps 

shall be so. He now has a 

task to initiate and sponsor the 

necessary amendment. And I 

wish to also note in particular 

that the Senate President has 

equally informed Senator 

Okorocha of this. He must now 

show that by that comment 

and suggestion, he was not 

playing to the gallery and/or 

demonstrating his oratory 

skills for which he held in 

IMO spellbound. He must note 

that by his position, he is now 

disqualified from firing 

cannon of suggestions from 

the outside. 

” Sections 47, 48 & 49 of the 

constitution must be 

amended-Emmanue Ochai 

Senator Rochas Okorocha’s 

suggestion is commendable 

because the cost of running 

the National Assembly is 

really huge and looking at 

Nigeria’s present economic 

reality, there is the need to cut 

costs of governance if we must 

make progress as a nation. The 

United States for 

example, whose economy is 

the largest in the world and 

which has 50 states, operates 

a Senate with 2 senators from 

each state while we have a 

Senate with 3 senators from 

each state. I align myself with 

Senator Okorocha and wish to 

add that to achieve this, 

Sections 47,48 and 49 of the 

Constitution of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as 

amended) must be amended, 

to reflect the views of majority 

of Nigerians because I think 

Senator Okorocha spoke the 

mind of majority of 

Nigerians.” 

Bill for amendment will fail- 

Yemi Produce 

Okorocha is not a lawyer but 

if he is of legal mind, he is not 

an expert in constitutional 

issues. He is entitled to his 

opinions which he has 

expressed by saying only a 

senator suffices for a state in 

Nigeria. Any issue that arises 

from constitutional provision, 

it must be viewed from the 

ground norm perspectives. If 

Rochas is serious about his 

opinion which borders on the 

constitution, he is at liberty to 

sponsor a bill to that effect but 

I doubt if the bill will scale 

through in the sense that 

senators / house 

representative politicians 

have turned the national 

assembly to a money making 

venture. Therefore, reducing 

three slots to one in a state of 

the country may die a natural 

death at the floor of the house. 

Okorocha is a senator he 

knows how much goes to his 

account every day, week, 

month, quarterly and / yearly 

which must have warranted 

him bringing such a 

suggestion. Generally, our 

constitution needs 

overhauling in terms of 

amendments to address some 

salient issues in the land 

Senators should accept 

salary cut—Victor Mbanaso 

The number of senators is 

embedded in the constitution 

and you can’t change that 

without going through the 

rigorous, time consuming 

process of constitutional 

amendment. Even if the 

amendment can be achieved 

easily, the big question is; is 

it a desirable option? I think it 

is not, why should a single 

senator represent a whole 

state? What impact would he 

make? “He won’t make much 

impact, so I think the three 

senators per state is just 

adequate. So there’s no need 

to begin the process of 

amending the constitution at 

all, if the ruling class is 

serious about reducing the 

cost of governance, they have 

to make sacrifices and slash 

their monthly take home rather 

than go through the process 

of reducing the number of the 

representatives of the people 

which will work greater 

hardship on the people.”


KUDIRAT 

I, formerly known as Balogun 

Gbemisola Kudirat, now 

wish to be known as Balogun 

Gbemisola Olawunmi. All 

former documents remain 

valid. General public please 

take note. 

ETOK 

I, formerly known as 

Mmenim Abasi Etok, now 

wish to be known as 

Mmenim Abasi Okeke. All 



take note. 

ORUABENA 

I, formerly known as Miss 

Oruabena Ebikare Elizabeth, 

now wish to be known as 

Mrs. Atolagbe Ebikare 

Elizabeth. All former 

documents remain valid. 

General public please take 

note. 

OGBU 


Ogbu Christiana Chinyere, 


Mrs. Nnaji Christiana 

Chinyere. All former 



note. 

EBOKOSIA 


Kasiemobi Pamela Ebokosia, 


Mrs. Kasiemobi Pamela 

Ebokosia-David. All former 

documents remain 

valid. General public take 

note. 

AGAJERE 

I, formerly known and 

addressed as Erowo Matilda 

Agajere, now wish to be known 

and addressed as Erowo 

Matilda Chigbata. All former 



note. 

RUKEVWE 


Mukoro Edith Rukevwe, 


Mrs. Ejiofor Edith Mukoro. 

All former documents remain 


take note. 

EMAKPOR 

In some of my documents my name 

appears as Emakpor Oghenero while 

Emakpor Oghenetega Martins in 

others that the name Emakpor is my 

surname while name Oghenero and 

Oghenetega, my native name and my 

English name, that i now wish to be 

known and addressed as Emakpor 

Oghenero Martins. All former 

documents remain valid. General 

public please take note. 

BENIBO 


Mrs. Hannah Benibo, now 

wish to be known as Hannah 

Timi Lawson-Ekubo All 


valid. The Nigeria Police and 

the general public should 

please take note. 

BARAKAH 


Odusanya Barakah 

Oluwaseyifunmi, now wish to 

be known as Odusanya 

Haleemah Boluwatife. All 


valid. General public and 

Concerned Authorities please 

take note. 

ODEYEMI 


Olowo-Okere Tolulope 

Christiana, now wish to be 

known as Mrs. Odeyemi 

Tolulope Christiana. All 



take note. 

SHINYOBOLA 


Shinyobola Habibat ‘F’, now 

wish to be known as Busayo 

Wemimo Habibat ‘F’. All 



take note. 

OLULU 

I, formerly known as Olulu 

Gladys Ogheneovo, now 

wish to be known as Chinda 

Promise Gladys Ogheneovo. 



take note. 

JOSEPH 


Joseph Edith, now wish to 

be known as Kingsley 

Edith. All former 



note. 

UDEZI 


Udezi Kesiena, now wish to 

be known as Mrs. Onoguren 

Kesiena. All former 


General public take note. 

ASEMOTA 


Asemota Florence, now wish 

to be known as Mrs. 

Osemwegie Florence 

Iroghama. All former 



note. 

OGBONNA 


Ogbonna Joy Chikamso, 


Mrs. Nwanji Joy Chikamso. 

All former documents 

remain valid. General public 


PAT 


Oritseweyinmi Saniyo Pat, 


Blessed Saniyo. All former 



note. 

DURUKU 


addressed as Miss John 

Duruku, now wish to known 

and addressed as Mrs. John 

Moses Faith. All former 

documents remain valid. The 

public should please take 

note. 

OSAGBAJUMI 

I, formerly known as Joan 

Eyewunmi Osagbajumi, now 

wish to be known as Mrs. 

Golly Joan Eyewunmi. All 



take note. 

ADEGBAJU 


Odeyemi Abimbola 

Oluwakemi, now wish to be 

known as Mrs. Adegbaju 

Abimbola Oluwakemi. All 



take note. 

BRODRICK-WILLIAMS 


Esther Brodrick-Williams, 


Mrs. Esther Pedro. All former 



note. 

ESSIEN 


Ofonime Godwin Essien, 


Mrs. Ofonime Anietie 

Udoudom. All former 



note. 

OFOEGBU 


Ofoegbu Cecilia Kosiochukwu 

Ulumma Golden, now wish to 

be known as Mrs. Ofojimba 

Kosiochukwu Golden.All 



take note. 

JOHNSON 


Johnson Regina Chioma, 


Mrs. Nwanguma Nnamdi 

Regina Chioma. All former 



note. 

GLORIA 


Iphie Gloria Ifeyinwa, now 


Ifeyinwa John Benson. All 


valid. General Public please 

take note. 

ACHUBA 


Achuba Cedellia Ifeoma, now 


Edigbe Cedellia Ifeoma. All 



take note. 

AKHONFOH 


Akhonfoh Israel, now wish 

to be known as Okhaifo 

Israel. All former documents 



SIMON 

I, formerly known as Simon 

Friday Ekpo, now wish to be 

known as Jibril Muhammed. 



take note. 

ADEPEGBA 

I, formerly known as Ganiyu 

Rashidat Abike, now wish to 

be known as Adepegba 

Rashidat Abike. All former 



note. 

TAIRU 


Tairu Matunrayo Ramota, 


Mrs. Salami-Tairu 

Motunrayo Ramota. All 



take note. 

LELAP 

I, formerly known as Mrs. 

Juana Lelap, now wish to be 

known as Mrs. Christiana 

Egbeke. All former documents 

bearing my former name 

remain valid. All relevant 

authorities and the general 

public please take note. 

JULIANA 

This is to certify that the 

names: Keke Uchechi and 

Keke Uchechi Juliana belong 

to one and the same person 

as Keke Uchechi Juliana. All 



take note. 

ODOEMELAM 


addressed as Miss Odoemelam 

Mercy Ihuoma, now wish to 

be known and addressed as 

Mrs. Bobson Mercy Ihuoma. 



take note. 

NWAIWU 


Joy Chinenyenwa Nwaiwu, 


Mrs. Joy Chinenyenwa 

Aloysius. All former 



note. 

CHINEDU 


addressed as Nwaezeigbo 

Chinedu Marvellous, now wish 

to be known and addressed as 

Nwaezeigbo Chijioke Sunday. 


valid. The general public 

should please take note. 

MUSA 


Musa Rakiya Layefa, now 

wish to be known as Oluba 

Layefa Blessing. All former 



note. 

OKORIE 

I, formerly known as Okorie 

Rechael Uvieroghene, now 

wish to be known as Jacob 

Rechael Uvieroghene. All 



take note. 

OSAIGBOVO 

I, formerly known as Fidelia 

Ojineme Osaigbovo, now 

wish to be known as Fidelia 

Ojineme Uromi-Owu. All 



take note. 

ENWEANI 


Professor Ifeoma Bessie 

Enweani, now wish to be 

known as Professor Ifeoma 

Bessie Enweani-Nwokelo. All 



take note. 

OGBEVIRE 


Ogbevire Blessing 

Ebruphiyor , now wish to be 

known as Mrs. Ugbeya 

Blessing Ebruphiyor. All 


valid. General public take 

note. 

OBIEFUNA 


Obiefuna Emmanuela 

Chimezie, now wish to be 

known as Mrs. Ifeanyichukwu 

Emmanuela Chimezie. All 



take note. 

EGBEME 


addressed as Egbeme Onome 

Jackson, now wish to be 

known and addressed as 

Bobson Onome Jackson. All 



take note. 

AKPOJOBOR 

My name was wrongly written 

as Akpojobor Oghenevwegba 

Gilead instead of Akpojotor 

Oghenevwegba Gilead. My 

correct name remains 

Akpojotor Oghenevwegba 

Gilead. All former documents 

remain valid. The general 

public should please take note. 

NWADIKE 


addressed as Miss Perpetua 

Onyinyechi Nwadike, now 

wish to be known and addressed 

as Mrs. Nkemka Perpetua 

Onyinyechi. All former 

documents remain valid. The 

general public should please 

take note. 

AGBINOR 


Ereremena Promise Agbinor, 


Mrs Ereremena Promise 

Okoh. All former documents 



CHIEDU 

I, formerly known as Eugene 

Iruobe, now wish to be 

known as Iruobe Eugene 

Chiedu. All former 


My bank and general public 


FOR ADVERT PLACEMENT VISIT TRINITY MALL, BESIDE ZENITH BANK 

BALOGUN BUS STOP, OBAFEMI AWOLOWO WAY, IKEJA, 

OR MURPHIS PLAZA, SANUSI FAFUNWA STREET, VICTORIA ISLAND 

LAGOS 

ASIAT 


Fatai Iyabo Awero / Miss 

Azeez Asiat Yetunde, now 


Hamzat, Asiah Iyabo. All 



take note. 

AGWU 

I, formerly known as Mr. 

Onwuchekwa Agwu, now 

wish to be known as Mr. 

Onwuchekwa Ckekwas 

Henry. All former documents 



CHINAEMEREM 

I, formerly known as Promise 

Chikezie Chinaemerem, now 

wish to be known as Promise 

Chikezie Okoli. All former 



note. 

ONWUTALU 

I, formerly known as Mr. 

Onwutalu Anthony 

Ugochukwu, now wish to be 

known as Mr. Samuel 

Anthony Ugochukwu. All 



take note. 

EKPEN 

This is to confirm that Miss 

Ogbeide Wisdom Ekpen, Miss 

Ogbeide Wisdom Ivie and Miss 

Ogbeide Wisdom Ivie Ekpen refer 

to one and the same person. I now 

wish to be known and addressed 

as Mrs. Wisdom Ivie Eleuno. All 

former documents remain valid. 

General public please take note. 

OJO 


Janet Iyabode Ojo, now wish 

to be known as Mrs. Janet 

Iyabode Bankole. All former 



note. 

OGUMA 

This is to notify that Oguma 

Rita Oghenerukevwe and 

Rita Ighoare is one and same 

person, now wish to be 

known as Rita Ighoare. All 



take note. 

MICHAEL 


Michael Kevwe Lydian, 


Mrs. Aruoturu Ovoke 

Lydian. All former 

documents remain valid, 

Banks, authority concerned 

and general public take note. 

ADEGHEJI 

My correct full name is Jacob 

Adigheji Jeremiah Ellu, not 

Adegheji as been spelt.I want to 

be known as Jacob Adigheji as it 

appears in BVN. But I am still the 

same person bearing Jacob Adigheji 

Jeremiah Ellu. Former documents 

remain valid. General public please 

take note.


OSA MBONU-AMADI 

08070524223 

osaamadi@yahoo.com 

The re-invocation of 

Blood on the Niger 

…in commemoration of the October 7, 1967 Asaba Massacre 

By Osa Amadi, Arts Editor 

In August 2018, several 

decades after the end of the 

Second World War, 95 years 

old Jakiw Palij, a Nazi war criminal, 

was deported from American 

soil, where he had been hiding. Palij, 

in March 1944, among other roles, 

was assigned to the Deployment 

Company, whose mission included 

arresting suspected Jews and sending 

them to concentration camps. 

The case of Jakiw Palij, the arrest 

and trial of other fugitive Nazi war 

criminals who had served in Adolf 

Hitler’s army are clear messages 

to all the soldiers in this world, especially 

soldiers (and even civilians) 

who played one role or the other in 

the Asaba Ogbeosowa Massacre, 

exactly 52 years ago today, on October 

7, 1967, that there are no hiding 

places here or hereafter for participants 

in massacres and pogroms. 

Judgment and punishments 

may tarry, but they must surely 

come. 

As Asaba people and all Nigerians 

of good conscience shed tears 

afresh today in memory of thousands 

of Asaba sons, daughters, 

husbands, wives and even infants, 

who were massacred at Ogbeosowa 

killing ground by the Nigerian 

Army commanded by the late General 

Murtala Mohammed and Major 

Ibrahim Taiwo, we commiserate 

with them through the 

invocation of the most authoritative 

book ever written on that mass 

bloodshed, Blood on the Niger, by 

Emma Okocha, who, as a child, had 

witnessed but survived the pogrom. 

Dr. Cyril Uchenna Gwam 

Dr. Cyril Uchenna Gwam was 

also an eyewitness of the massacre. 

He had, in an interview with a national 

newspaper, described the 

Nigerian soldiers who committed 

the atrocities as evil: “They were 

evil! The Nigerian troops that came 

into Asaba came with the aim of 

eliminating every Asaba man as 

they thought they were fathers, 

brothers and uncles of Chukwuma 

Kaduna Nzeogwu, the leader of the 

first Nigerian coup in 1966 that 

killed Sardauna of Sokoto and Sir 

Ahmadu Bello. Major Nzeogwu 

was from Okpanam Town, which 

was five kilometres drive from 

Asaba. It would interest you to know 

that every Okpanam person regards 

himself or herself as an Asaba person. 

I would rather say those soldiers 

that came to Asaba were on a 

revenge mission and not after the 

Biafrans.” 

One question Dr. Cyril and many 

others have continued to ask is why 

the soldiers decided to kill unarmed, 

innocent civilians, saying it 

is against the international humanitarian 

to deliberately kill innocent 

civilian, whether in time of peace 

or war. “For me,” he said, it would 

be very difficult to forgive or forget 

the injury inflicted on the Asaba 

people.” 

Prof. Wole Soyinka 

NOBEL Laureate, Prof. Wole 

Soyinka, in October 2017, spoke 

against naming national institutions 

and infrastructure after leaders 

known to have committed grievous 

harm against humanity. 

As a special guest of honour in 

Asaba at the ceremony marking the 

50th anniversary of Asaba Massacre, 

Soyinka, said it is a desecration 

of the memories of innocent 

people killed by federal troops 

in 1967 to name our streets and 

important public infrastructure 

after them. For instance, he said, 

“How do we talk to future generations 

about corruption 

if they find 

a street 

named 

after 

Gen. 

Sani 

Abacha?.We 

do not 

say dig 

u p 

Abacha’s 

remains 

and put in 

the evil forest, 

but do 

not leave lying 

around 

the provocative 

symbols, 

the trauma 

that this nation 

went through.” 

The Nigerian 

troops that came 

into Asaba came 

with the aim of 

eliminating every 

Asaba man as they 

thought they were 

fathers, brothers 

and uncles of 

Chukwuma 

Kaduna Nzeogwu, 

the leader of the 

first Nigerian coup 

in 1966 

cent people who had no hand in 

the killing of Ahmadu Bello and 

Tafawa Belewa: “He (Murtala 

Mohammed) was the butcher of 

Asaba people. He was the one central 

character who destroyed Asaba. 

He decided what happened in the 

Nigerian Civil War. He was on the 

move from Lagos to Benin and was 

heading to Nnewi in Anambra 

State. He killed our children, men 

and women who came out to welcome 

him to Asaba. It was a 

genocide that will remain indelible 

in the minds of our people.” 

“We will never forget,” the author 

said. “We’ve erected war 

memorial at Ogbeosowa 

quarters…Although 

General Yakubu 

Gowon, the then 

Supreme Commander 

of the Nigerian 

Army 

came to Asaba 

and apologized 

to Asaba 

people…but 

it’s not like ordinary 

killing. 

Genocide is 

a deliberate 

planning 

of by 

a group 

to eliminate 

another 

group. 

T h e 

number 

o f 

killings 

to 

make it 

genocide has to 

be massive. If you allow 

the perpetrators to go free, 

there is no guarantee that it won’t 

happen again.” 

Blood on the Niger 

Given that today, October 7, was 

in history, the day of Asaba Massacre, 

permit me to retell this story: 

On page 234, Mr. John Kanayo 

Hudson Odittah, a survivor of the 

first black-on black genocide popularly 

known as October 6 and 7, 

1967 Asaba Massacre, gave an eyewitness 

account of how “at the Cable 

Point Area, hundreds of (Asaba) 

people were lined up by the River 

(Niger) bank (from where Nigeria 

derived her name) and ordered to 

walk into the River by the vandals 

(Nigerian Army). When they moved 

into a point where the water reached 

their waist, they were shot dead and 

their corpses carried away by the 

river (Niger)…at Ogbeosowa 

Square, the (Nigerian Army) vandals 

also collected thousands of 

men who they ordered to dig three 

large graves. After they had dug the 

graves, they were ordered to enter 

into the graves which they did and 

were all shot dead.” 

Among the thousands of innocent 

people executed at Ogbeosowa killing 

ground on 7 October 1967 by 

Nigerian soldiers led by Col. 

Murtala Mohammed, Major 

Ibrahim Taiwo, and Major 

Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, were not 

more than 4-year old infants like 

Felix and Alphonsus Nwajei who 

were forced to join the men as they 

faced firing squads. “Babies were 

yanked away from their mothers’ 

breasts,” an eyewitness, Dr. Getrude 

Okogwu, narrated, “their heads 

bashed against concrete bitumen 

tar, their little bodies strewn under 

and rolled over by the monstrous 

tyres of the army supply vehicles.” 

The story of Adaobi, a 16-year 

•Prof. Wole Soyinka 

E m m a 

Okocha, author 

Time and time 

again, author of the tear-evoking 

book, Blood on the Niger, Emma 

Okocha, said the people of 

Asaba will continue to remember 

General Murtala Mohammed 

as a war commander of Second 

Division of the Nigerian Army who 

came to Asaba and had his 

hands filled with blood of innoold 

virgin 

Or what would you make of the 

story of Adaobi, a 16-year old virgin, 

set aside by the gods to serve as 

Priestess to the River Niger. Three 

Nigerian Soldiers raped Adaobi to 

death during the Asaba Massacre. 

Adaobi’s father told Emma 

Okocha: “You don’t know how 

powerful your River is…I told you 

I’m from Abor. Many Abor, Ndoni 

and Kwale families were killed at 

Cable Point. We live in Cable because 

the River has taken over our 

land. In those days, my daughter 

whose name was Adaobi was betrothed 

to the Omu family. She was 

sixteen. The Omu would stop by my 

house on her way to the Oniche 

Shrine down the River. She would 

take Adaobi along. She was getting 

initiated and as a Christian I wasn’t 

bothered about the details. “Then 

the soldiers came and defiled her in 

my presence. For me, a titled ma, 

the Otibu-Ayiya of Abor, that was 

an abomination! She was a virgin, 

and apart from the fact that the eye 

does not see the ear, the three army 

rapists almost suffocated Adaobi, 

my young daughter, to death. “In 

my rage, I cared little about their 

guns when I charged. By the time it 

was all over I had lost an eye and 

those vandals beat me to a pulp. It 

was in the morning hours a day after 

the Omu as usual visited her 

daughter. She never said any word 

or blinked till the end of the story. 

She left for the River and returned 

with a large piece of white cloth and 

covered the poor girl. 

The following morning, it was my 

sister who ran to the Omu with the 

sad news. Adaobi had bled to 

death!! The Omu returned with my 

sister and asked us to leave the 

house. She avoided the casket the 

family bought for Adaobi’s burial. 

“She lifted her with little effort and 

we were amazed that such an advanced 

woman could lift that 180 

pound, 5feet, 9inches chubby girl 

without help. She never cried, shed 

tears, nor blinked. She took my 

daughter down the slopes of Cable 

Point to the River. Adaobi was buried 

somewhere there. I never had 

the courage to interfere and till this 

day there was no question from me, 

her mother, or my sister on why the 

Omu took away the corpse of my 

daughter. 

“Four days later, the Priestess of 

the River, the Omu of Asaba, entered 

my house. Again, she was in all 

white. It was around 5:00 a.m. and 

she declared in the language of the 

water: On the portals of her Shrine/ 

Before the presence of her messengers/Barbarians 

came to defile?/ 

The virgin daughter of the River/ 

Abomination is wrought their 

cause/Tribulation shall carry their 

cause/Their families a future 

cursed/ A generation to be born and 

lost/Oniche from strife always recaps/But 

never forgives her virgin 

rape/Tomorrow the land shall 

turn to water/And the water 

shall bury the land. “And Omu 

disappeared just like the way she 

had appeared. I rushed to my 

door and the door was still 

locked. It had been locked since 

the previous night yet she had 

come in. “When I opened the door, 

the build up for the inversion of 

Onitsha had started. There were lots 

of activities down the River Niger 

Road to the River Port – hundreds of 

armored vehicles, artilleries, machine 

guns, etc., countless numbers 

of soldiers. Then the following morning, 

there was Armageddon! The 

River was afloat with thousands of 

dead soldiers by dusk, right till the 

next day. The soldiers that attacked 

Adaobi were in the same boat with 

Lt. Usman, alias ‘White man no 

mercy’. Their disintegrated barge 

was the first to receive a direct hit 

from the Biafran shore-batteries. Lt. 

Usman and few others were still 

struggling when an amorphous 

monster, more of an alligator, surfaced. 

“White man no mercy” had 

been masticated alive. The next 

morning, his two legs still in the 

black army boots and familiar 

bulala whips were found at the 

banks under the big Mango trees 

overlooking the River Niger killing 

spot. After the vultures had had their 

fill, the boots were never touched 

until the end of the war.” (P243-244) 

Perhaps that is why General Gowon 

went to Asaba “to the very sands of the 

River Niger and prayed and apologized,” 

said Saint David Oputa. But 

what can one man’s apology do for a 

nation neck-deep in the blood of her 

innocent citizens? And yet, the blood 

level, like sea level, is still rising. 

How did leaders of these murderers, 

General Murtala Mohammed 

and Major Ibrahim Taiwo end up? On 

February 13, 1976, Lt. Col Bukar Suka 

Dimka, who was deeply involved in 

the killing of innocent Igbos in 

Kaduna during the July 1966 counter 

coup, cornered General Murtala who 

was sitting in his car in a Lagos traffic 

holdup and cut his body into pieces 

with a machine gun. On the same day, 

Col. Ibrahim Taiwo was also beheaded 

by his mates. It was a coup 

against Murtala Mohammed. 

The Lessons 

Those who kill by the sword will 

also die by the sword. But even at 

that, the physical death of the individual 

sinner is not the end of his 

punishment. God tells us through 

the Bible that we should not be 

afraid of the person who only has 

power to destroy the body but has 

no power over the soul. The person 

we should fear, says God, is the person 

who has power to both destroy 

the body and cast the soul into Hell 

Fire. So, both terrestrial and eternal 

punishment await all those who 

committed and condoned the Massacre 

of Igbos generally and Asaba 

people particularly. God is merciful. 

If Nigeria genuinely repents and 

forsakes her evil ways and submits 

herself for thorough blood transfusion, 

she might obtain forgiveness 

and survive, otherwise, she must 

pay the supreme price – death, both 

of body and soul.

OSA MBONU-AMADI 

08070524223, osaamadi@yahoo.com 


Ebenezer Obey Museum opens 

at FCE Abeokuta 

Evangelist Ebenezer Obey (MFR) at the event, excitedly 

pointing at some relics of his musical performances 

in the museum to the curator, Oludamola Adebowale 

(left). 

By Chukwuma Ajakah 

Evangelist (Prof.) Ebenez 

er Oluwaremilekun Olasupo 

Aremu Obey-Fabiyi 

(MFR), Nigeria’s veteran 

musician cum gospel crusader 

last Wednesday opened a 

gallery museum-space at the 

Federal College of Education, 

Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun 

State. 

The museum booth was 

among the many projects 

commissioned as the premier 

tertiary institution in the state 

celebrated her 24th Convocation 

Ceremonies and 42nd 

Foundation Anniversary. 

Other projects include: the 

Theatre Arts Complex, built 

by TETFUND, College Conference 

Hall, Chief Olusegun 

Aremu Obasanjo (OBJ) 

Vocational Education Building, 

Water Treatment Plant, 

PED Building-an edifice 

meant for the School of Early 

Childhood Care Education/ 

Primary Education Complex 

and the College Gallery, a 

brainchild of the Provost, Dr. 

Adebayo Ayodele Ajayi. The 

gallery dedicated by Dr 

Olakunle Filani, a former 

Provost of the college, houses 

the mini-museum and ancillary 

facilities aimed at immortalising 

eminent personalities 

who have contributed 

to the development of the college. 

Stating the objective of the 

initiative, the curator, Oludamola 

Adebowale remarked, 

“This is a presentation to 

showcase the unique artistic 

life of Evangelist (Prof.) Ebenezer 

Oluwaremilekun Olasupo 

Aremu Obey-Fabiyi 

(MFR). It is also aimed at 

immortalizing him. All the 

items in this space were personally 

supervised and handpicked 

by myself and Baba 

Obey. The idea is not just to 

create inspiring works for 

posterity, but also to inspire 

the younger generations and 

students of this great institution 

that they can also achieve 

greatness”. Oludamola, the 

Creative Director of Wildeye 

Creative Solutions Ltd revealed 

that the legend has focused 

on using music to promote 

his cultural heritage 

since the mid-50s. Songs like 

“Ota mii dehin le yin mi, Oro 

Oluwa Ede, Board Members, 

Eniri Nkan e, Ori mi 

koniburu and “Egba” portray 

Baba Obey as a music legend, 

a man who is also a proud 

promoter of his cultural heritage. 

The revered evangelist donated 

items worth millions of 

naira to the school in response 

to its request for his 

personal effects to equip the 

museum space designed in 

honour of select prominent 

sons of Ogun State. Speaking 

on the occasion, the legendary 

music maestro said, 

“The journey of my life has 

been a source of testimony 

and inspiration. I was conceived 

in Idogo, born in Massey 

Hospital, Lagos Island, 

raised in Idogo and Abeokuta. 

I know this museum space 

will be of immense benefit and 

a source of inspiration to the 

students of the school and future 

generations who will find 

motivation in my story and 

journey through life. I donate 

these items to the school in 

good faith and hope that posterity 

will serve us well as we 

try to preserve our history for 

the benefit of generations to 

come”. 

Deputy Provost, Dr. Rafiu 

Soyele, remarked that the 

eminent musician was the 

first to respond to the institution’s 

call for personal effects 

to establish an archive of the 

exploits of prominent citizens 

of the state. As he formally 

handed over the priceless valuables 

to FCE, Abeokuta, 

Obey declared, “I dedicate 

these items to the memory of 

my parents. Most especially 

to my mother, Mrs. Abigail 

Oyindamola Abeke Fabiyi 

(Nee Toriola) from Owu quarters 

in Abeokuta, and to my 

father, Chief Nathaniel Olasewo 

Fabiyi from Kesi, Abeokuta 

and to the glory of the 

Almighty God who has been 

my source of strength all these 

years!” While commending 

the school for taking the initiative 

to establish the museum, 

Evangelist Obey harped 

on the need to inculcate a 

sense of history in younger 

generations. Items showcased 

in the museum booth 

are Obey’s personal effects, 

record labels, stage costumes, 

relics of musical performances 

and pictures chronicling 

his trajectory from childhood. 

Despite going through the 

crucible of social change, 

Obey’s lyrics remain evergreen 

and relevant decades 

after their release. The legend 

explained this uncommon 

phenomenon in the industry 

thus, “I’m almost 78 years old 

now. Songs I wrote at 40 still 

thrill people today. When I 

compose songs I ask myself: 

What will the people gain 

from this, how will it positively 

affect their lives and are there 

lessons or prayers for them? 

People like prayers. When you 

pray for them they join.” 

Art meets tech at Impart Artists Fair 

There was a time African 

art was described as 

"primitive" by Westerners and 

seen as lacking in technical 

ability due to its low socioeconomic 

status. But all that 

have changed. 

As scholars began to study 

African art at the beginning 

of the twentieth century, discovering 

emotional and psychological 

qualities that had 

not been seen before in Western 

art, art generally became 

a true medium for philosophic 

and intellectual discourse 

and ceased to be mere aesthetic 

objects. What we know 

today as European architecture 

was strongly influenced 

by African art. 

Today, contemporary African 

art has achieved international 

recognition, but more 

needs to be done. That, and 

more, is the aim of Impart 

Artists Fair – to increase the 

awareness of African arts and 

culture and also to improve 

its recognition globally. 

This maiden edition of 

Impart Artists Fair themed 

Art Meets Tech, organized by 

Lasmara, is scheduled to hold 

from Friday 25 October to 

Sunday 27 October 2019 at 

the Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island, 

Lagos. 

According to the organizers 

of the art fair, 300 African 

artists are expected to participate, 

exhibiting over 1000 recent 

works to more than 6000 

international and local collectors 

and art lovers from 

various socio-economic 

backgrounds. 

Addressing arts journalists 

last Thursday during a press 

conference which announced 

the event, Hana Omilani, 

founder and director of Lasmara, 

gave the reasons for the 

Impart Artists Fair: 

“We felt that we needed a 

platform to promote African 

artists that would really put 

them on the shining light. So 

we thought very hard (and 

asked) what can we do that 

would help artists in Africa 

with their career, especially 

with their sales. So we decided 

to put a platform together. 

It’s more than just a fair. We 

are going to launch Impart 

with the Artists Fair. 

Hana also explained why 

the Impart Artists Fair is different 

from any other fair: 

“We are going to connect artists 

directly with buyers, and 

we are really aiming at democratizing 

art. We want to 

be accessible to everyone – 

youths, seasoned art collectors, 

first-time buyers, and 

first-time visitors. We want to 

make it a very accessible platform.” 

Other activities scheduled 

to take place at the fair include 

Digital Art show, workshops 

with artists and professionals, 

exclusive collectors’ 

events, etc. 

“We believe that technology 

is at the forefront of everything 

we do now,” said Hana, 

“and we don’t want to be left 

behind in the creative sector. 

We know that many industries 

are ahead of this but as Africans 

we feel that our artists in 

the creative industry are using 

the technology tool very 

much to their advantage and 

we just want to enhance it. We 

want people all over the place 

to have access to African artists 

through technology at 

least, if they can’t make it 

physically because it is not 

everyone that can travel to 

Africa.


Trump impeachment: Second whistleblower emerges 

ASECOND whistle 

blower has come forward 

in the impeachment 

case against US President 

Donald Trump, according 

to lawyers representing the 

first one. 

Mark Zaid told ABC 

News the second person 

was also an intelligence 

official and they had spoken 

to the inspector general. 

The White House has 

made no direct comment. 

President Trump has repeatedly 

rejected the original 

complaint. 

No details have been released 

about the second 

whistleblower’s claims. 

However, Mr Zaid said the 

person had first-hand 

knowledge of allegations 

associated with the phone 

call Mr Trump made with 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr 

Zelensky on 25 

July. The impeachment 

inquiry stems from the call, 

which was flagged up by 

the initial whistleblower in 

August. 

On Friday, the New York 

Times reported that a second 

person was considering 

coming forward who 

had “more direct information” 

about the events surrounding 

the call. It is not 

yet known if this is the person 

represented by Mr 

Zaid. 

Mr Trump’s personal 

lawyer Rudy Giuliani 

tweeted that he was not 

surprised there was another 

“secret source”, calling 

the inquiry politically motivated 

and lashing out at the 

“swamp media”. 

The Democrat-led investigating 

committee is eager 

to speak to someone who 

witnessed the call directly 

or has more information. 

Judge shoots himself in court in Thailand 

A 

JUDGE in southern 

Thailand shot himself 

in court after delivering a not 

guilty verdict in the case of 

five Muslim suspects charged 

with murder in the predominantly 

Buddhist country’s restive 

south. 

Khanakorn Pianchana 

shot himself in the chest after 

acquitting the suspects 

charged with murder, illegal 

association and gun-related 

offences on Friday afternoon 

because of insufficient evidence. 

He was in hospital on 

Saturday. 

On Saturday, people laid 

flowers in front of the court in 

Yala, one of the three Muslim-majority 

southern provinces 

at the heart of the insurgency 

that has claimed more 

than 7,000 lives since 2004. 

“He is safe now. We don’t 

know why he did this, probably 

his stress from personal 

issues,” Suriya Hongwilai, 

spokesman of the Court of 

Justice, told Reuters. 

“I confirm that there is no 

interference in the work of 

judges. They are independent 

in making verdicts,” he said. 

Suriya said he would report 

the incident to the Office of 

They are hopeful that this 

could be that person. The 

second source has not yet 

filed an official complaint or 

spoken to the committee. 

the Judicial Commission on 

Monday. 

“I don’t think it’s just about 

insurgency in the three southernmost 

provinces, he (the 

judge) may want to convey a 

message that there is a problem 

with the entire judicial 

system,” said Yala resident 

Ameed Mata. 

“The insurgency issue is the 

most intense in the judicial 

system, his decision was apparently 

to show Thailand 

that this problem does exist,” 

he added. 

Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat 

were part of an independent 

Malay Muslim sultanate 

before Thailand annexed 

them in 1909. Some rebel 

groups want an independent 

state. 

Political, 

economic woes 

overshadow 

Tunisian election 

TUNISIANS will go to 

polls on Sunday to 

vote in legislative elections 

amid political and economic 

challenges. 

Last month, contenders 

from Tunisia’s major political 

blocs, including the 

moderate Islamist Ennahda 

and secular Nida Tounes 

Party, suffered a shock loss 

in the presidential vote. 

Two political outsiders – 

independent academic 

Kais Saied and jailed media 

mogul Nabil Karoui – 

are facing off in a presidential 

run-off scheduled for 

Oct. 13. 

Sunday’s parliamentary 

polls are seen as a test 

for established political 

parties against the backdrop 

of challenges from 

nascent parties and independents, 

according to experts. 

“I expect a new-look parliament. 

The parties, which 

were once in power, including 

Ennahda, will experience 

a strong shake. 

“In contrast, new powers 

such as Karoui’s Qalb 

Tounes Party will ascend,” 

said political analyst Salaheddine 

Jourchi. 

Jourchi predicted that no 

bloc would gain an outright 

majority to form a government 

on its own, and that 

there would be “a lot of political 

horse-trading to form 

a government”. 

Tunisia, the birthplace 

of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts, 

has been roiled by social 

unrest and economic 

hardships in recent years. 

It has been under pressure 

from international lenders, 

mainly the International 

Monetary Fund, to take 

drastic measures to revamp 

its economy. 

Around 15,000 candidates 

running on party lists 

or as independents are vying 

for seats in the 217-seat 

parliament. About 7.2 million 

people are registered 

to vote.


Why we oppose 

return of toll gates 

— LABOUR 


dismantled toll gates in 

2003. 

“Then, Comrade 

Adams Oshiomhole was 

the president of Nigeria 

Labour Congress, NLC. 

The government of 

Obasanjo increased the 

pump price from N26 to 

N42 per litre. We 

protested and the 

government, before we 

could enter into 

negotiation, dismantled 

toll gates and told us 

that the money to be 

realized from the toll 

gates were already 

factored into the pump 

prices. 

“Now, 

any 

reintroduction of the toll 

gates must lead to the 

reduction of fuel prices 

in the country. That is 

the only way it can work 

or we can’t accept it. If 

you said you have 

factored in N2 or N5 into 

the prices of petroleum 

products that were 

supposed to be got from 

the toll gates, if you want 

to reintroduce the toll 

gates, you must reduce 

the prices of petroleum 

products. 

“Otherwise, that is 

fraudulent and 

Nigerians must stand 

against and fight it. 

These taxes are 

becoming too much and 

unbearable. Nigerians 

should resist these taxes 

and put a stop to it.” 

On privatization of 

public enterprises, he 

said: “The history of 

privatization in Nigeria 

is that of agony and 

woes. As they privatise, 

the people languished, 

suffer and weep. 

Privatization has 

brought untold hardship 

on Nigerians. 

“The formation of this 

union is to see through 

struggle to mitigate the 

effect of privatization on 

the workforce principally. 

The so-called investors 

laugh to the bank and 

Nigerians cry. If you 

know what happened in 

NITEL, you will cry. 

“If you know what 

happened to Nigeria 

Airways, you will weep. 

In Nigerian Airways, 

workers were evicted 

from their official 

quarters, even without 

being paid their 

entitlements. In the 

power sector, it has been 

battle of life and death. 

“We are happy we still 

have officials of the 

Ministry of Labour who 

insist there should be 

unions in these sectors, 

otherwise, if they hijack 

the Ministry of Labour, 

that will be the end. 

Already, there is 

regulatory hijack by all 

the regulatory agencies. 

‘’Whether it’s the NCC 

or NERC in the power 

sector, they have been 

hijacked by the 

privateers. It is NERC 

that now determines 

tariff that should be 

charged, you and I have 

no input, so also is 

GSM, when you call, the 

call drops, they charge 

you. There is nothing 

you can do.” 

On his part, TUC 

President, Quadri 

Olaleye, said: “This will 

increase the hardship 

people are already 

facing, especially now 

that the minimum wage 

has not been fully paid.” 

Good policy 

needed before 

returning toll 

gates — NECA 

Meanwhile, the 

Nigeria Employers’ 

Consultative 

Association, NECA, has 

called on the Federal 

Government to put in 

place an efficient policy 

before returning toll 

gates on federal roads. 

The Director-General of 

NECA, Mr Timothy 

Olawale, made the call 

in an interview with 

News Agency of Nigeria 

in Lagos yesterday. 

Olawale urged 

government to engage 

relevant professional 

and business 

organisations to fashion 

out policies that would 

guide its operations for 

effective infrastructure 

development of the 

nation. 

“We are conscious of 

the numerous benefits 

that the economy can 

derive from tolling. 

However, we are 

concerned of the past 

failures 

characterised 

which 

the 

management of the toll 

system across the nation, 

which were marred by 

revenue leakages and 

unmet maintenance of 

the tolled roads. 

“We will like to reiterate 

that not all roads are 

viable for tolling, 

especially subsidiary 

roads and roads with low 

traffic volumes,” he said. 

Olawale also said 

government should not 

place additional burden, 

in form of any tax or levy 

on businesses or 

individuals in order to 

fund the construction of 

the toll gates. 

According to him, 

businesses and 

individuals have already 

been inundated with 

numerous taxes and 

proposed additional 

taxes, including the 

mobile phone tax, and 

increase in Value Added 

Tax. 

He said: “All these and 

many more will reduce 

the purchasing power of 

consumers with dire 

consequences for 

businesses. 

“Private sector 

operators should be 

attracted through publicprivate 

partnerships, 

PPPs, in the 

construction, 

maintenance and 

management of the toll 

systems, as it is done 

successfully in other 

climes, such as Egypt 

and South Africa.’’ 

Olawale also called for 

the resuscitation of the 

rail system, as it 

remained the cheapest 

and most efficient of all 

modes of transportation 

worldwide. 

He said the rail system 

would reduce the high 

cost of maintenance as it 

carried more than 90 

percent of domestic 

freight and passengers. 

NECA is the umbrella 

organisation of 

employers in the 

organised private sector 

of Nigeria. 

Insecurity: Recruitment of 10,000 policemen 

flops as PSC, IGP bicker 

By Emma Nnadozie, 

Crime Editor 

LAGOS — The rift 

between the Police 

Service Commission, 

PSC, and Police 

Management Team over 

recruitment of 10,000 

policemen to help fight 

the prevailing insecurity 

in the country as directed 

by 

President 

Muhammed Buhari has 

taken a turn for the worst 

as it has affected all 

police activities 

connected with the 

commission. 

Areas most affected 

include recruitment, 

training, retirement and 

discipline of men of the 

force. 

The situation took a 

worsening dimension last 

week after police 

authorities reportedly 

directed the Assistant 

Inspector-General of 

Police, AIG, from Police 

Academy, POLACK, 

Wudil, Kano, who was 

attending a crucial 

stakeholder’s meeting at 

the commissions’ office 

involving the PSC, 

Minster of Police Affairs 

L-R: Minister of State for Education, Barr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and Edo State Governor, Mr. 

Godwin Obaseki, and permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Sonny Echono during 

the World Teacher's Day celebration, where Governor Obaseki was honoured as the 2019 NUT Best 

Performing Governor, in Abuja, recently. 

•Stakeholders parley at the commission stalled; Police activities grounded 

•Fears over Sole Administrator for Police; Police management depleted 

and Federal Character 

Commission, to walk out 

of the venue. 

Vanguard learned that 

police authorities did not 

also send any 

representative to the 

meeting where vital 

decisions over the issue 

of cut-off marks for those 

that applied for 

admission into the Police 

Academy were to be 

taken. 

This, according to 

sources, is against what 

was obtainable in the 

past and in total 

disregard to the fact that 

candidates admitted into 

the academy are already 

policemen in training 

who will graduate and 

enter the force as cadet 

officers. 

This is coming on the 

heels of disagreement 

between Police 

management team and 

the PSC, led by a retired 


Police, Musiliu Smith, 

over recent recruitment 

exercise conducted by 

both parties. 

It was gathered that 

following the 

disagreement, senior 

staff of the commission 

locked up all offices of 

the commission a few 

weeks ago, agitating that 

police management was 

taking the commission 

for a ride. 

The offices were 

unlocked after the PSC 

was forced to suspend all 

activities and overall 

functions involving the 

police. 

According sources at 

the commission, the 

management of the 

commission was forced to 

succumb to this demand 

for total suspension by 

the union after they 

denounced the crisis. He 

stated that IGP was 

taking PSC for a ride by 

hijacking the recruitment 

exercise which is one of 

the constitutional 

responsibilities of the 

commission. 

The source that 

pleaded strict anonymity 

said: “What IGP Adamu 

Muhammed is saying is 

that recruitment is 

different from 

appointment but in the 

public service rule, 

recruitment is filling of 

vacancies by 

appointment of persons 

not already in the 

system. 

“This is because all 

employed Policemen sit 

for confirmation 

examination in the 

Public Service 

Commission. So, they 

cannot say they are not 

public servants because 

they are guided by the 

public service rule.” 

It was learned that 

following this crisis, the 

management team of the 

Police had been depleted 

because three Deputy 

Inspectors-General of 

police holding sensitive 

positions were supposed 

to have been retired. 

“We don’t know how 

this system works 

because PSC is 

supposed to have 

received a list of new 

DIGs to be replaced but 

the IGP has not done 

that. The fear is that we 

may end up having a 

sole administrator in 

charge of Police,” the 

source hinted. 

Recall that President 

Buhari had, during the 

presentation of the 2018 

PSC annual report at the 

Presidential Villa by the 

Chairman of Police 

Service Commission, 

Musiliu Smith, a retired 

IGP, members of his 

commission and the 

present IGP, Adamu 

M u h a m m e d , 

admonished both parties 

to work harmoniously 

towards achieving a 

common goal. 

So far, both the 

recruitment of about 

10,000 fresh policemen 

and almost all police 

activities involving the 

PSC have been put on 

hold as a result of the 

crisis. 

Commenting on the 

development, retired 


Police and former 

Chairman, Police Service 

Commission, PSC, Sir, 

Mike Mbama Okiro, told 

Vanguard: “The rift is 

not only over 

recruitment, I just 

learned that members of 

the commission have 

been directed to return 

the SUV’s assigned to 

them.” 

When contacted for 

comments, both the Force 

Public Relations Officer, 

Frank Mba and PSC 

spokesman, Ikechukwu 

Ani, could not be 

reached as calls made to 

their phones rang out 

without reply.


•Nigeria Air...What is its modus operandi? 

RETURN OF NIGERIA NATIONAL CARRIER: 

Level playing ground 

crucial, by airline 

operators, other 

stakeholders 

•There's nothing wrong with government being 

regulator - operator — Ministry of Aviation officials 

By LAWANI MIKAIRU 

SINCE the demise of the Nigerian 

Airways, which once dominated the 

African continent airspace in aviation 

operations, the idea of the Federal 

Government operating another national 

carrier has remained for a long time in 

abeyance. That was until last year when then 

Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi 

Sirika, not only mooted the idea of its 

possibility but also informed of advanced 

plans to make it a reality. But for some 

inexplicable reasons, the idea was 

temporarily suspended even as the grand 

plan of its take-off was unfolding. 

But the recent return of Sirika as the 

substantive Minister of Aviation has given 

a new impetus to the desire of the Federal 

Government to establish a national airline. 

Giving Nigeria a national carrier was one 

of the focal missions of Sirika in his first 

coming as Minister of State, Aviation. 

However, the question on the lips of many 

aviation stakeholders and watchers has 

been: Should the Federal Government, 

which is the regulator of the aviation 

industry, also be an operator? 

Recall the Federal Government in July 

2018 unveiled the branding and livery for 

the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, and 

said that the airline would be inaugurated 

before the end of that year. Senator Hadi 

Sirika, while unveiling the carrier at a press 

conference during the Farnborough Air 

Show in London, UK., was quoted as 

saying: “I am very pleased to tell you that 

we are finally on track to launching a new 

national flag carrier for our country, Nigeria 

Air. We are all fully committed to fulfilling 

the campaign promise made by our 

President, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015. 

We are aiming to launch Nigeria Air by the 

end of this year (2018). 

“I want to personally thank our 

Transaction Advisers, led by AMG, and the 

Special Task Force, who have worked 

diligently to achieve the results so far and 

overcome the challenges involved. We 

obtained the Certificate of Compliance from 

the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession 

Regulatory Commission, ICRC, two weeks 

ago and can now go into the investor search. 

I am confident that we will have a well-run 

national flag carrier that is a global player, 

compliant with international safety 

standards and one which has the customer 

at its heart. 

“We hope to establish an airline that 

communicates the essence of our beautiful 

country; an airline we can all be proud of. 

The government will support the launch of 

the new flag 

carrier with 

viability gap 

funding in a 

public private 

partnership 

arrangement to 

deliver a national 

flag carrier 

guided by 

international 

standards. 

Following 

Can the 

private airlines 

exist and 

flourish sideby-side 

with 

the Federal 

Governmentowned 

national 

airline? 

extensive market 

research, the branding of our new airline, 

Nigeria Air, demonstrates a true flag carrier 

of our nation, soaring through the skies in 

the shape of our nation’s eagle.” 

Sirika also said the Federal Government 

had learned a lot of lessons from the 

experience of the defunct Nigeria Airways, 

and was now determined not to repeat the 

mistakes that led to its demise. He also said 

that the Ministry was currently running an 

aviation road map that includes airport 

concession, aerotropolis, an aircraft 

Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul centre, 

agro allied terminals, the national carrier 

and an aircraft leasing company. 

A visibly elated Sirika also informed that 

on take off, the carrier will be targeting 81 

routes, 40 of which will be for domestic, 

while regional and sub-regional and 

international will account for about 41 

routes. He further said: “This airline is a 

business and not a social service. It is not 

intended to kill any airline in Nigeria but 

complement it and promote it. It must be 

done in the right way so that it will be here 

to stay. Government will not hold shares 

beyond five per cent at the topmost. This 

airline has the backing of the government. 

Government will come up with funding 

according to the business case that has 

been delivered to the government. We will 

engage the youth of Nigeria because we 

do believe in the ‘Not Too Young to Run’. 

“We engaged them in the campaign to 

name this airline. We engaged 400,000 

Nigerian youths to arrive at the name of 

the airline. All of their ideas were taken 

and digested and we came up with what 

is an average. The airline will take into 

cognizance the multicultural nature of the 

nation through its diversity. We want to use 

this airline to make a statement that yes, 

we can do it.” 

Aviation 

stakeholders 

But the existing private airline operators 

are worried about the fate of their 

businesses and aviation stakeholders are 

asking: Should the government become 

both the regulator and the operator? Can 

the private airlines exist and flourish sideby-side 

with the Federal Governmentowned 

national airline? Will the national 

carrier kill private airlines? 

Some stakeholders believe that the 

proposed national airline can co-exist with 

private domestic airlines. They have, 

however, cautioned the Federal 

Government not to commit too much of 

public funds into the venture. They have 

also asked how the five percent equity 

share will be funded and the source of 

$300 million initial funding. 

Reacting to the above issues, a former 

Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation 

Authority, NCAA, and current Rector of 

International Aviation College, Ilorin, 

Kwara State, Benedict Adeyileka, said 

both the national carrier and private 

airlines can exist mutually and run as 

business entities. He added that the 

proposed national carrier will not be a 

threat. 

According to Adeyileka: “UK has two flag 

carriers: British Airways, BA and Virgin 

Atlantic, both of them making fortunes in 

Nigeria. So we could also have Air Peace 

airline, for instance, and the Federal 

Government national carrier operating as 

Continues on page 29

Nigeria Air: Level playing ground crucial 


flag carrier”. 

When the former NCAA boss was asked if 

the national carrier will not be a threat to 

private airlines and if it will be a win-win 

situation, he said: “I think the Federal 

Government (national carrier) should face 

regional, international (operations), while 

the domestic routes will be operated by 

private airlines.’ 

Also speaking with Vanguard, former 

Airport Commandant, Muritala 

Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Retired Group 

Captain John Ojikutu, said that the Federal 

Government can invest in an airline and 

have minimal shares. He also said that 

though the government is the regulator of 

the aviation industry through NCAA, it 

should not deny itself ownership of shares 

in the national carrier owned by Nigerians. 

Ojikutu said: “I have never canvassed for 

a government carrier but a national carrier. 

Air Peace airline, a private carrier and single 

ownership is already designated a flag 

carrier. To designate it a national carrier 

needs the participation of more than one 

Nigerian credible investors, including the 

Nigerian public.” 

He further said that: “A government as the 

statutory regulator of the industry should 

not deny itself ownership of shares in the 

national carrier owned by Nigerians where 

government will not have controlling shares 

but minimal shares that should not be more 

than 10 per cent.” 

When also asked if it will still be a winwin 

situation for the private airlines and will 

they not be stifled and run out of business 

by the “mighty” national airline, Ojikutu 

said: “Provided they have good business 

plans and good knowledge of commercial 

aviation which generally, most of them lack.” 

Vanguard investigation revealed that 

domestic airline operators are not really 

worried about the entrance of the proposed 

national carrier to the Nigeria aviation 

market. All they are asking for is a “level 

playing field" for all the airlines. Chairman 

of Air Peace airline, Allen Onyema, for 

instance, has expressed excitement on the 

introduction of a national carrier. But he 

cautioned that government should provide 

a level playing field for domestic investors 

who have put their resources in the airline 

business without any form of support and 

protection from government. 

Speaking recently on the issue, Onyema 

said: “If you say it is a national carrier and 

it is private investor-driven, are you not 

saying it is just investors like me, Alhaji 

Bankole (of MedView Airline) and other 

investors? So you are simply saying that 

government is just supporting another 

private airline? I do not have a problem with 

the national carrier per se, it is welcome. 

But it must not be given any undue 

advantage over other airlines as the owners 

are investors too. Now, as this airline is 

coming on stream, are they going to take 

routes already allocated to other airlines and 

give it to this carrier? These are the things 

government has not told us.” 

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer 

of Medview Airlines, Alhaji Muneer 

Bankole, has also been quoted as saying that 

it is important for Nigerians to give 

government the opportunity to come out and 

be able to tell everybody the template under 

which the national carrier will operate. He said 

that stakeholders will have to sit down with 

government and ask questions about the airline 

project; warning government not to deploy 

public funds into the project. 

Bankole said: “There is definitely no threat 

once you know the onions. They operate 

normally like an airline. The only thing is that 

they should not take from the government and 

peoples’ funds, it should be privately driven”. 

In his own views, Chief Executive Officer of 

African Aviation Services Limited, Mr. Nick 

Fadugba, said there are many questions that 

I am 

expecting to 

hear from the 

transaction 

adviser the 

modus operandi 

of that airline, 

that is the most 

important thing 

to me 

need to be answered 

in terms of the 

management, 

funding and the 

fleet. 

Fadugba said: “I 

believe government 

now needs to brief 

the Nigerian people 

on the national 

carrier. Rather than 

doing it abroad we 

need to come home 

and explain to the 

whole nation what 

the concept of the new national carrier entails. 

More importantly, I am interested in how the 

national carrier will interface with all the other 

airlines in Nigeria. Remember, government is 

the de facto owner of two other airlines: Arik 

and Aero. So this is the first time I have seen 

one government own three airlines. So, 

government needs to coordinate its airlines 

strategy in terms of moving forward.” 

Fadugba, therefore, called on the Minister 

to, as a matter of urgency, meet with Nigerian 

airline operators and iron out the grey areas 

as there is a looming challenge if that is not 

done. 

President, Aviation Round Table Safety 

Initiative, ARTSI, Elder Gbenga Olowo, while 

applauding government’s effort in fulfilling 

its promise to restart a national carrier, said 

government must not be too forward in doing 

certain things that the transaction adviser is 

expected to do. 

Olowo said: “The logo looks good; I can see 

the flame go into the air and I hope it doesn’t 

flame out. I am expecting to hear from the 

transaction adviser the modus operandi of that 

airline, that is the most important thing to me. 

The transaction adviser should tell us members 

of the board and management of the airline; 

these are people who should take decisions 

because I heard the Minister is already talking 

with aircraft manufacturers, lessors and things 

like that. 

“The decision about aircraft funds, whether 

to lease or purchase, if you are going to do a 

private airline, this should rest with the board 

and management and I don’t think that is the 

role of the minister. I am eagerly waiting to 

hear from the transaction adviser on the modus 

operandi of Nigeria Air. I am believing 

government that it is a private carrier and is 

coming to compete with the rest of the carriers 

on ground because we do not want a 


government monopoly, we want a 

competitive operator that is going to be 

very formidable. Not only against Nigeria 

but against all the partners that fly into 

Nigeria. That is what I expect”. 

Also of interest to the public is the 

ownership structure of the planned 

national carrier. It will be recalled that at 

the unveiling ceremony last year, Sirika 

had made it clear that though Nigeria 

Air will carry the nation’s insignia, it will 

be 95 per cent owned and controlled by 

“private sector” operators while the 

Federal Government will hold only five 

per cent equity. This arrangement was 

probably made to avoid the mess that 

became of the defunct Nigerian Airways 

due to government total control of its 

operations. 

But whether this experiment will work 

the desired magic of putting Nigeria back 

as a strong force in global air 

transportation still remains to be seen. 

The scepticism in some quarters over this 

derives from past attempts in that 

direction that did not succeed. For 

instance, British billionaire and Virgin 

Atlantic owner, Richard Branson, was 

invited by the President Olusegun 

Obasanjo regime to partner with the 

Federal Government and some Nigeria 

operators in floating Virgin Nigeria. After 

a brief run, Branson pulled out and the 

venture collapsed. 

Before the Virgin deal was the Nigeria 

Eagle Airlines project, in conjunction with 

South African Airways when Andre 

Viljoen was its CEO. That also collapsed. 

Private 

operators 

Other attempts included handing 

business man, Jimoh Ibrahim’s Air 

Nigeria the opportunity to fly Nigeria’s 

flag and converting existing Nigerian 

private operators such as Arik Air and 

Aero Contractors into a single national 

carrier. None of these efforts succeeded. 

Instead, these attempts ended up in 

cesspool of corruption and diversion of 

intervention funds worth over N150 

billion for which the Senate in June 2016 

indicted and even blacklisted several 

notable Nigerians for culpability. 

None of them, however, is known to 

have been brought to justice while many 

workers were not paid their wages on 

account of these failed ventures. The 

development had prompted the National 

Union of Air Transport Employees, 

NUATE, to serve notice that it would 

“sabotage” the new effort at floating a 

national carrier because thousands of 

workers in the defunct Nigerian Airways 

are yet to be paid their dues. 

For many observers, it is imperative that 

while contemplating setting up a new 

national carrier, the Federal Government 

should endeavour to sort out all 

contentious issues, including corruption 

and other factors that may work against 

or hasten the failure of the new venture.


HIGH COST OF GOVERNANCE: 

Our leaders not ready 

to make sacrifice 

— Moghalu 

•Says constitutional restructuring a must to save Nigeria 

Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, former deputy governor of 

the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, political economist and 2019 

Presidential candidate of the Young People’s Party, YPP, In this 

interview, outlines the challenges of Nigeria after 59 years of 

independence, and charts the way forward for the country. 

By Olayinka Ajayi 

On Nthe state of the nation 

igeria is a country that has 

failed to become a nation 

even though it can, a country that 

has been hurtling in reverse gear 

instead of moving forward, 

wallowing in the delusion of its 

“potential” instead of working 

hard to realise it, and falsely 

believing that it is a great country 

simply because it has a large 

population or because its 

incompetent leaders have 

consistently paid lip service to the 

illusions of our greatness. 

In nearly 60 years, the main 

distinction we have achieved is 

that in 2019 we are the poverty 

capital of the world. We are at the 

bottom of most human 

development indices and our 

average GDP per capita since 

1960 is about $1600. 

Today, Nigeria is more divided 

than in 1960. But I think this sorry 

state also presents us an 

opportunity to ask ourselves hard 

questions and begin to do the 

right things to build a nation and 

make progress. 

Is this the picture of 

independence our heroes past 

fought for? 

Certainly not. Our founding 

fathers, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu 

Bello and Obafemi Awolowo 

wanted something different for 

Nigerians, even though they had 

sharp political differences. 

They wanted a better life for 

Nigerians, especially education, 

health and infrastructure and 

thriving economies. They had 

plans to achieve these goals and 

were already on the path to doing 

so, but the military coups of 1966 

derailed Nigeria’s destiny. 

Whether this derailment was 

permanent or temporary will 

depend on us as Nigerian citizens 

in the years to come. 

Amid this derailment, what is 

your estimation of the new 

economic team formed by 

President Muhammadu Buhari? 

At a technocratic level I think it 

is a competent team of economic 

advisers. 

Do you see the team addressing 

our dwindling economic woes? 

That’s the million Naira 

question. That outcome will 

depend on a lot of things, most 

important of which is whether 

President Buhari will in fact listen 

to and act on their advice. 

It will require political will to 

shift from some of his well-known 

instincts. Claiming to love and 

represent the interests of the poor 

and actually managing the 

economy to achieve a better 

outcome for the poor ultimately 

are two different things. 

Sometimes, what is in the 

medium to longer term interest of 

the poor may be difficult in the 

short term. The test of leadership 

is the ability to take people from 

their comfort zones to a new and 

better place ultimately. 

Despite the economic woes, 

what is your take on the 9th 

Senate justifying the N5.5 billion 

budget on cars for serving 

Senators? 

The cost of governance as 

represented in the budgets for 

recurrent expenditure have 

increased by approximately N1 

trillion since or possibly much 

more, since 2015. 

Budgeting N5.5 billion to buy 

cars for Senators is just one 

example of the problem. Our 

political leaders don’t want to 

make sacrifices but the federal 

government is quick to propose a 

50 per cent in VAT. It is unfortunate 

for the poor masses of our country. 

What is your view on the P&ID 

$9.9billion court judgement? 

I think this is a very painful lesson 

for us on the price of carelessness 

in entering contracts without 

careful review of the fine print, 

corruption, and lack of continuity 

in governance. 

As a Nigerian, though, I hope 

we can somehow within the 

international legal process find a 

way out and not have to be hit with 

such a heavy financial loss. 

•Moghalu 

HIGHLIGHTS 

•Incompetent leaders paid lip service to our greatness 

•INEC needs to be overhauled 

•Cost of governance increased by N1 trillion since 2015 

•Why proposed Water way bill, Ruga are suspicious 

•‘Presidential Economic Team’ an idea I recommended in my book 

•Our leaders quick to increase taxes, unwilling to make sacrifices 

•Nigeria becoming a huge lost opportunity 

Do you think this 

administration is taking the best 

measures to address this? 

I think they are taking the steps 

they are able to take, but I hope 

they are working effectively in the 

legal terrain rather than bluster 

on the pages of newspapers. 

How will you describe the 

reported waterway bill 

reintroduced by the Federal 

government? 

I think it is wrong-headed. It 

shows that this government simply 

has no interest in devolution of 

powers to sub-national units in the 

context of a constitutional 

restructuring. 

The Federal Government of 

Nigeria should be shedding its 

constitutional and legal powers 

rather than acquiring more. It has 

powers over 68 items on the 

Exclusive Legislative List in the 

1999 Constitution. Are we better 

or worse off? We need a return to 

Budgeting N5.5 

billion to buy cars 

for Senators is just 

one example of the 

problem. Our 

political leaders 

don’t want to make 

sacrifices but the 

federal 

government is 

quick to propose a 

50 per cent in VAT. 

It is unfortunate 

for the poor masses 

of our country 

real federalism with fiscal 

autonomy. 

Also when we consider the Ruga 

controversy, I think many 

Nigerians have every reason to be 

suspicious about the motive 

behind this proposed legislation. 

What is your assessment of 

President Buhari’s performance 

so far? 

I believe his performance in his 

first term was dismal. I ran for 

President because I believe I have 

a better vision for Nigeria and far 

better preparation to lead Nigeria 

into the 21st century as a modern, 

united, and prosperous nation. 

It’s still early in his second term, 

so let’s see how things unfold. I 

criticized the profile of his 

ministerial cabinet list broadly, 

although there may be one or two 

exceptions, but commended the 

President’s appointment of an 

independent Economic Advisory 

Council. 

By the way, this was an idea that 

I recommended in my book Build, 

Innovate and Grow (BIG) which 

was the blueprint of my vision for 

Nigeria in the last presidential 

election. So, I was happy to see an 

attempt to use it. But as I said let’s 

see whether he will use it in such a 

way that it works out in practice 

by having a real impact on 

economic policy and 

management, because that 

depends on several additional 

factors. 

What’s your take on jostling 

for 2023 presidency with North 

angling to retain it, the chances 

of Tinubu/Osinbajo, and the 

South-E? 

It’s still a bit early, so it is rather 

premature to comment on those 

things. I know, though, that many 

Nigerians expect that the 

President in 2023 should come 

from the South, and specifically 

from the South-East. But this is 

politics, so there will be all sorts 

of debates and negotiations and 

lobbying, and we cannot predict 

the outcome with certainty. 

How will you describe the 

speculative move against VP 

Osinbajo? 

I would not want to comment 

on that question because I think it 

is speculative. I am not involved 

in or with the Presidency’s daily 

workings so I don’t have enough 

information to delve into it. 

What is your take on Nigeria at 

59 as an independent country? 

Nigeria so far has been a huge 

lost opportunity. One British 

journalist, Richard Dow-Den, 

wrote that our country has been 

described as “a failed state that 

work.” 

All hope is not lost, however, but 

hope is not a strategy. We must be 

serious and do more than just 

hope. Here, the citizens have not 

played their role. Their tolerance 

for bad governance is extremely 

elastic, it seems. 

What is the way forward for the 

country? 

Number one, fundamental 

electoral reform so that our 

democracy can become a real 

one. Our votes must count and be 

counted transparently. We need 

electronic/digital voting; the same 

way we reformed the payments 

system in Nigeria to go digital 

and electronic when I was a 

Deputy Governor at the Central 

Bank of Nigeria with Lamido 

Sanusi as Governor. The process 

of voter registration must be 

simplified. Our citizens need far 

more effective voter education. 

And the Independent National 

Electoral Commission, INEC, 

needs to be overhauled, starting 

with who appoints the chairman 

and members of the commission. 

It should not be the President 

doing so, or at least it should be 

on the recommendation of 

independent voices in the 

judiciary and civil society. 

Also, constitutional 

restructuring is essential if 

Nigeria is to survive and thrive. 

Third, we must begin a conscious 

search for competent and 

visionary citizens as our political 

leaders.

YOUR LUCK TODAY 

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 

LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 22)Mercury in Scorpio opposes Uranus 

in Taurus. That is to say you will need to beware of both 

your personal but unusual ideas about money. Also it is a day 

you must not give into the antics of dubious set of people. Try 

to be more practical. Love your spouse more . 

SCORPIO (Oct 23 – Nov 21)Unnecessary aggressive approach 

on your part may generate misunderstanding within 

your base of operation. Exhibition of maturity will reduce the 

tension. 

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec21)Misunderstanding at work 

is a possibility but ability to manage the affairs with maturity 

is given to you. Do not reject good advice from your trusted 

friends. 

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)Although others may not be 

willing to give you much needed support initially, at the end 

of the whole thing you will record success. Money can come 

in. 

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)The Moon moves into your 

Star and present to you the needed opportunities to show case 

your talent in many ways. Don’t ignore competitors at work. 

L E I S U R E 

TAKE HEART — ELLA RANDLE 

“If we all did the things we are really capable 

of doing, we would literally astound 

ourselves.” —Thomas A. Edison- 

Always remember, all possibilities in this world 

already exist. We tap into the results we would 

like to experience through the power of intention. 

Love yourself beautifully. You more than 

anyone deserves your love. Take moments to 

reconnect with yourself. — Ella Randle 

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” 


SAYINGS OF 

OUR PEOPLE 

A beautiful 

thing is 

never perfect. 

~Egyptian 

Proverb 

By Kola Fayemi 

PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 19)The needed solution to bring 

peace to the charged atmosphere is for you to be as diplomatic 

as possible and refuse to divulge important secrets at your 

disposal. 

ARIES ( Mar 21 – Apr 19)Diplomacy and friendly approach 

are what you will need today to avert both personal and official 

loss. This is the wrong time for unnecessary joint ventures. 

TAURUS ( Apr 20 – May 20) Backward moving Uranus in 

Taurus forms opposition aspect with ticklish Mercury in Scorpio 

and encourage unnecessary argument. Protect your image. 

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20)Many of you would be in semi 

confused state if you exhibit adamant state of mind. Think of 

your future before any action is taken today. Watch your health. 

CANCER (June 21 – July 22)Those of you who allow others 

to push them off balance today will be made to pay for their 

weakness tomorrow. Avoid exhibition of mental arrogance, 

Be loving. 

DUDU in “ROLLING HOT” By A.O. OLAIDE 

LEO (Jul23 – Aug 22)You may find it a little bit difficult to 

manage younger people around you today. The more co operative 

you are with your partner the betters for you. Be more 

loving. 

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22)Avoidable mistakes both by yourself 

and others within your working arena are indicated. But 

if you allow your analytical mind to work for you, you will 

avoid them. 

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING 

Send your date and place of birth to the Astrological 

Counselling, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos 

SHOULD I CHANGE MY STYLE? 

Dear Joshua, 

Am always been tagged as money girl by my friends. Maybe 

because they almost all the time have needed support through 

me whenever they have financial difficulties. But what they 

refuse to accept is the truth that I rarely waste money, particularly 

on expensive wears, shoes and bags. Should I change and 

adopt their life style. Which career and/or business line good 

for me ? What about my finance ? 

Victoria, Lagos. 

VIRGINIA 

dadadekola@yahoo.com 

Dear Victoria, 

You have already chosen a reasonable life style of respect and 

dignity. It would be similar to what Chinese refer to as hara-kiri 

(suicidal move) to descend to a borrower life style. Remain your 

honorable self. Please!!! 

YOUR CAREER LINE. 

Venus the ruler of your 10th house of career in your first house of 

self is an indication of career success through your own initiative; 

meaning that it is important for you to plan how you will become 

independent and your own boss before too long either along the 

career line you are involved with currently or what is known as 

business in Nigeria. If you want to go into business there are three 

major lines for you namely, entertainment, provision of home for 

those away from their home (Hotel) and commercial involvement 

with petrol chemical related things. 

Yes you may be attracted to BANKING/FINANCE related career. 

You were a born WRITER, researcher, COMPUTER/LAW 

person and possible inventor. But if you are not along academic 

line, what is known as business in Nigeria will bring you good 

fortunes especially if you are involved in COMPUTER, BOOKS 

and contracts with reliable organization. Equally dealing with 

foreigners can bring success. Politics can be taken as a part time 

for you. But it is important you check carefully before jumping on 

this. 

YOUR FINANCE 

Venus ruler of Taurus is the major indicator of money in the 

whole of 12 Zodiac signs and it was placed in your first house, that 

simply means financial success for you. Your being practical will 

always see you through. And you will need to guide against 

unnecessary loss of money through both physical and Spiritual 

thieves. You are favoured to remain successful financially. Yet, it is 

important you did not allow friends to influence you wrongly. 

HOME & ABROAD 

By Lawrence Akapa


Newcastle 

heap misery 

on Man 

United 

Matty Longstaff sent Ole Gunnar 

Solskjaer’s Manchester United into 

a tailspin by firing hometown club 

Newcastle to victory on a dream Premier 

League debut. 

Neither of these troubled Uniteds 

could afford lose the final match before 

the international break, with pressure 

mounting on Magpies boss Steve 

Bruce after a poor start to the campaign 

and his former club struggling 

for fluency, inspiration and results. 

But things would only worsen for 

Solskjaer’s side in the north-east as 

19-year-old Longstaff’s superb second-half 

strike sealed a memorable 

1-0 win for embattled Newcastle as 

the raucous away support called for 

the Glazers to leave Old Trafford. 

This gut punch leaves Manchester 

United facing an uncomfortable fortnight 

of scrutiny and introspection, 

while an 11th straight winless away 

match increases the focus on manager 

Solskjaer and the structure above 

Southampton 1 Chelsea 4 

GARETH SOUTHGATE’S two 

newest recruits were put to the 

test following their England call 

ups. 

And the Tammy and Tomori show 

summed up what Chelsea are all about 

this season. Wonderful attacking and 

defending that is work in progress. 

The two youngsters got phone calls 

from England boss Southgate last 

week and will sit side by side at Wembley 

on Friday for the Euro 2020 qualifier 

against the Czech Republic. 

Striker Abraham heads into international 

week on a massive high. He followed 

up his first Champions League 

goal last Wednesday with a spectacular 

opener for Chelsea. 

This is a player riding a wave of confidence 

and determined to enjoy every 

moment while it lasts. 

Regular goals and a first competitive 

game for England make it a memora- 

him. 

Things could have been so different 

had Harry Maguire nodded home as 

half-time approached, only for the Red 

Devils’ familiar futility in front of goal 

to allow Longstaff to cement himself 

as hometown hero. 

The teenager, playing alongside older 

brother Sean, rattled the crossbar in the 

first half but would not be denied, firing 

low past David De Gea in the 72nd 

minute as Bruce’s 400th Premier 

League match ended with a first home 

win as Newcastle manager. 

Abraham, Mount strike again as 

Lampard’s Blues romp into top 5 

Osimhen 

rescues Lille 

with 7th 

league goal 

Victor Osimhen 

scored his 7th 

league goal of the season 

on Sunday as he helped 

his Lille side battle back 

from the cups of defeat against Nimes. 

Osimhen netted a late equalizer as 

Lille maintained their unbeaten home 

record this season in the League. Making 

his 9th league appearance for Les 

Dogues. 

The hosts had taken the lead through 

Loic Remy (122 ) as Osimhen got a 

ble time for the striker who has been at 

Chelsea for 13 years but is only now 

showcasing his talents in the first team. 

Abraham is embracing the responsibility 

and reward for his patience from 

being sent out on loan three times while 

waiting for the chance to shine. 

That is precisely what he did in the 

17th minute when he latched onto a 

through-ball from Callum Hudson- 

Odoi. 

Taking the pass down on the outside 

of his right ankle with Maya Yoshida 

in close company and keeper Angus 

Gunn closing in, Abraham calmly lifted 

the ball up and over all three of them 

from at least 35 yards out. 

Only a striker in the groove has the 

guts to try that. But everything is going 

his way at the moment and even though 

Yoshida chased back to hook the ball 

from under the bar it had crossed the 

line. 

booking in the heat of the game too. 

However, Nimes struck back, leveling 

in additional time of the first half, 

from the penalty spot. 

On the 71st minutes, Nimes got a 

second and were cruising to victory, but 

the young Nigerian forward had something 

to say about it. 

Adesanya beats Robert 

Whittaker by KO 

New Zealand’s Israel Adesan 

ya extended his perfect professional 

record to 18-0 as he dethroned 

UFC middleweight champion 

Robert Whittaker in spectacular 

fashion at UFC 243 in Melbourne, 

Australia. 

Adesanya, 30, arrived in the arena 

to an acrobatic choreographed 

dance routine and produced a nearpunch-perfect 

performance to finish 

Whittaker after three minutes and 

33 seconds of the second round and 

capture the undisputed UFC middleweight 

title in front of nearly 

60,000 fans at Marvel Stadium. 

Whittaker started out throwing a 

host of power shots but Adesanya 

was loose and slick on his feet in 

the opening round, and delivered a 

stunning right hand in the final seconds 

that sent Whittaker crashing 

to the canvas as the buzzer saved 

Chukwueze’s error 

proves costly for 

Villarreal 

Super Eagles winger Samuel Chuk 

wueze was in action for 90 minutes 

Saturday evening in Villarreal’s 2-1 away 

defeat to Osasuna at the El Sadar Stadium 

but it was his error that led to the hosts’ 

second goal that drew the attention of his 

manager Javier Calleja and Spanish journalist 

Tony Pattia. 

As Villarreal played out the ball from the 

back, it was soon at the feet of the Nigerian 

but he was dispossessed of the ball by an 

opponent which eventually led to Ezequiel 

Avila’s match winning goal for Osasuna. 

Villarreal head coach Calleja summed up 

his frustration in his post match reaction. 

“We had the chance to increase our lead. 

We knew its going to be a difficult place to 

come. 

“At the start of the second half, they scored 

a great goal and it was through our mis- 

•Etebo 

the champion from a first-round defeat. 

A similar counter right hook from 

Adesanya found its mark early in the 

second round as the interim champion 

began to turn up the heat, but a 

powerful left from the defending 

champion showed the challenger 

would have to be on his guard against 

Whittaker’s power. 

And, as the pair started to trade big 

shots in the middle of the octagon, 

Adesanya planted his feet and answered 

a straight right from Whittaker 

with a stunning right-left combination 

to send him down, with referee 

Marc Goddard stepping in to 

spare the Australian further punishment 

as the Kiwi 

moved in to ap- 

p l y 

the finishing 

touches on 

the ground. 

•Chukwueze 

take, the ball given away (in reference 

to Chukwueze giving 

away the ball). 

“We did try to score an equaliser 

but we didn’t take our opportunities. 

We wish our Spanish 

players and Samuel well in the 

international break. Its the reward 

for our good work. I wish them 

good results,” Calleja whose team 

are ninth in the table said. 

Etebo’s Stoke City finally ends 

Six-month winless streak 

Eight minutes later he was celebrating 

the goal that earned his side a point 

and keeps them within a touching distance 

of the top four. 

His goal came from a goal mouth 

scramble after the Nimes goalie produced 

a save to deny Remy. 

Super Eagles midfielder powerhouse Oghenekaro Ete 

bo and his Stoke City teammates finally win a Championship 

game after failing to do so since April. 

Stoke who are currently at the bottom of the of the 11 

weeks English Championship produced a spirited efforts 

to beat Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium. 

Etebo was not on target but the Nigerians who played 

90 minutes action for the Potters immensely as the clubs 

won in style and ended their bad run of form. 

Stoke fell in the first minute of the match as Ghanaian 

international André Ayew put Swansea City ahead. 

Etebo and his teammates rallied round and got 

back into the game and equalised in 

the 22nd before finding the winner in 

stoppage time , thanks to Sam Clucas 

and Scott Hogan’s strike respectively. 

Stock City will look to sustain the 

momentum when they welcome Fulham 

to bet 365 stadium next Saturday. 

Man City 0-2Wolverhampton 

Wanderers 

Wolves dent 

City title 

hopes at 

Etihad 

Manchester City played on 

the precipice of disaster and 

are now in a race where Liverpool 

might just be uncatchable. Eight 

points adrift after eight games, the 

outlook is looking increasingly 

bleak. 

Wolves were magnificent – fully 

deserving of Adama Traore’s two 

goals in the final 10 minutes – and 

City were dreadful, the heavyweight 

boxer repeatedly punching 

themselves in to the ropes. 

Picked off at will and barely creating 

chances of their own, this was 

as bad as we have seen under Pep 

Guardiola. It is no exaggeration to 

say Wolves could have left the 

North West having inflicted far 

more damage. 

City ended up with five bookings, 

something that underpins their 

sense of desperation. They failed to 

score a home goal for the first time 

in 45 Premier League matches. They 

gifted a dizzying number of genuine 

chances and were forced into 

hopeful crosses, long-range shots. 

The champions have dropped as 

many points at home now as they 

did in the entirety of last year. This 

does not resemble the same team 

as the previous two seasons, with 

City having laboured to victory over 

Dinamo Zagreb a few days earlier. 

Wolves, who had that 4,000 trip to 

Turkey in midweek, were far more 

energetic. 

Three huge opportunities came 

and went before the break and 

Nicolas Otamendi’s fingerprints 

were smudged across them all. The 

Argentine charged to win a ball he 

had no hope of doing on halfway, 

Adama Traore’s ball passing him by 

and leaving Fernandinho despairingly 

out of position. Patrick Cutrone, 

who only has one goal this season, 

panicked and skewed his effort 

well wide when through. 

ARSENAL 1 CHERRIES 0 

Luiz heads 

winner as 

Gunners edge 

into 3rd place 

DAVID LUIZ scored his first Ar 

senal goal to help his new team 

stumble to third in the Premier 

League. 

The former Chelsea defender’s 

ninth minute header was enough to 

see off a Bournemouth team who 

improved in the second half of a forgettable 

contest in north London. 

For the third game in a row, Mesut 

Ozil was not even on the bench for 

Arsenal. 

And while they were the better 

team in the first half, Unai Emery’s 

side could have done with some creativity 

in the second half as they barely 

created anything and in the end, 

were left hanging on. 

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had 

scored in his last six Sunday matches 

– managing eight in total – and 

initially seemed on a mission to score 

another. 

He sent an effort curling wide of 

Aaron Ramsdale’s post but that 

would prove to be only one of two attempts 

of a disappointing game for a 

player hoping to score his 50th goal 

for Arsenal. 

Arsenal looked set to score a few 

when Luiz timed his run to perfection, 

completely losing marker Callum 

Wilson, to deliver a glancing 

header from Nicholas Pepe’s corner. 

Pepe sent a shot dipping over the 

bar and then felt he should have 

been given a penalty following a 

tackle from Diego Rico but VAR ruled 

in favour of the Bournemouth defender.

West African brother, Cape Verde ended the 

hope of Super Eagles B team of returning 

home with at least a win from the ongoing WAFU 

competition in Thies, Senegal. 

The performance of the team has been placed 

under scrutiny for something following their back 

to back loses to Togo in the CHAN 2020 qualifier 

and WAFU Cup competition. 

It was Lobi star striker Sikiru Alimi who opened 

the scoring in the 64th minute before Cape Verde 

levelled up before regulation time. 

Theophillus Afelokhai replaced injured Adamu 

Abubakar and was able to save penalty in the 

shootout. 

Reuben Bala, John Lazarus, Sikiru Alimi and 

Dare Olatunji missed Nigeria’s penalties and 

handed Cape Verde a 3-2 win. 

Next for the home Eagles is the second leg of 

the CHAN 2020 qualifier against Togo. 

Samuel Kalu joins Eagles’ 

injury list, a doubt for Brazil 

WAFU Cup: Cape Verde edge 

Nigeria’s Super Eagles B 

Olympic Qualifiers: Super Falcons 

tak 

ake on Ivor 

ory Coast t in Lagos 

Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire are 

in Lagos for the third round, 

second leg tie of the African 2020 

Women’s Olympic Qualifier today. 

The Super Falcons forced Les 

Femelles Elephantes to a 0-0 draw 

in the first leg at the Parc des Sports 

de Treichville last Thursday. 

Twenty four hours after the 

encounter in Abidjan, the two 

nations’ delegations flew into 

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial 

capital city on Friday evening. 

Having landed in Lagos, 

Christopher Danjuma’s side was 

immediately lodged at the Park 

Lane Hotel, while Clementine 

Toure’s team were accommodated 

at the Academy Guest House. 

The African champions began 

preparations for the reverse fixture 

with their training at Legacy Pitch 

on Saturday. 

Nigeria are seeking a return to 

This is not the best of times for Super Eagles coach 

Gernot Rohr as another key member of the Super 

Eagles and Bordeaux winger, Samuel Kalu has reportedly 

picked an injury that could keep him out of the glamour 

international friendly against Brazil. 

Kalu is said to be nursing a slight injury and was omitted 

from a matchday squad for the first time this season when 

Bordeaux played Toulouse on Saturday. 

Gernot Rohr is already sweating on the fitness of two 

players named on the 23-man roster for the Brazil friendly 

next Sunday. 

The German has already scratched Kenneth Omeruo 

from his plans after the former Chelsea defender failed a 

fitness test ahead of Saturday’s game vs Levante. 

Joe Aribo has returned to training after suffering a head 

injury against Livingston in the League Cup eleven days 

ago but it remains to be seen if he’ll figure against the 

South Americans, though the Glasgow Rangers 

midfielder has informed that ‘he is fine’. 

Tyronne Ebuehi has been handed a late call-up as 

replacement for the injured Omeruo but the Benfica man 

has had his own physical problems this season. 

The Portuguese club are monitoring his fitness and have 

sent him to their U23 team to regain his match fitness 

ahead of a possible debut for the first team. 

the Women’s Olympic tournament 

for the first time since 2008 but 

must win at home to advance. 

On the other hand, the Ivorians 

held their first training session on 

the same ground Saturday 

evening. 

By John EGBOKHAN 

Main draw matches of the 

2019 Lagos Open Tennis 

Futures 4 serve off today at the 

Lagos Lawn Tennis Cub, Onikan 

with teenage hopeful Oyinlomo 

Quadre setting a quarter final 

target for herself in the 

international computer pointawarding 

tournament. 

By a distance the best Nigerian 

lady in the women’s singles draw, 

Quadre comes into the 

First Bank, Air Warriors, MFM, 

Dolphins, Customs book final 8 spots 

Zenith Bank Women’s League 

defending Champions, First 

Bank of Lagos have qualified for 

the National Final 8 from the 

Atlantic Conference Centre in 

Ibadan after 5 wins. 

Newly formed Air Warriors of 

Abuja proved to be the surprise 

package of the 2019 season after 

dispatching all oppositions with 

commanding display with 5 wins 

after 5 games. 

The qualification of MFM of 

Lagos never came easy as they 

snatched a late victory against 

former Champions, Dolphins on 

match day 5 to record their fourth 

win and punch a Zenith Bank 

Women’s League final 8 slot 

alongside Customs whose only 

loss was to Air Warriors in the 

Savannah Conference. 

The battle for the last ticket in 

the Atlantic Conference will be 

between Delta Force of Asaba with 

8 points and Sunshine Angels of 

Akure with 7 points from 2 wins. 

Although Nigeria Army 

Amazons’ qualification is not yet 

Quadre sets Lagos Open Tennis q/final target 

tournament with an impressive 

form, having recently done well in 

the ITF camp in Morocco, where 

she combines tennis with 

academics. 

Aiming to become a lawyer or 

psychologist in the future, Quadre, 

a product of the famed Chevron 

Tennis Academy founded by the 

sports all-rounder late Chris 

Enahoro, will be the cynosure of 

all eyes when she steps into the 

court for her first round singles 

match. 


Brazil coach Tite land in 

Singapore ahead of friendly 

Brazil legend Bebeto will be one of the 

spectators at the National Stadium in 

Singapore when the five-time world 

champions take on Nigeria in a glamour 

friendly on Sunday, October 13. 

According to Globoesporte, part of the 

Seleção delegation landed in Singapore on 

Saturday morning after a stopover in Dubai, 

and manager Tite and Bebeto were part of 

the traveling party. 

The former Sevilla and Deportivo de La 

Coruña striker was a member of the Brazilian 

squad that lost 4-3 to a Nwankwo Kanu inspired Dream Team in 

the semifinal of the 1996 Olympic Games. 

The CBF’s official website has informed that Brazil will start training 

for the matches against Senegal and Nigeria today but the full squad 

will not be available until tomorrow. 

The South Americans will have five workouts before facing the Super 

Eagles, from October 7-12, and the training sessions are scheduled to 

take place at Kallang Football Hub, starting from 1730 hours local 

time. 

The Brazilian players and officials will be staying at the JW Marriott 

Hotel Singapore South Beach. 

Having reached the second 

round of last year’s Lagos Open 

Tennis, Quadre told Sports 

Vanguard that she was relaxed in 

the pursuit of her ambitions here 

at the Lagos Tennis Club, Onikan. 

“My ambition is to get into the 

quarter final of the singles draw. I 

got to the second round last year, 

so my desire is to go one step better 

and I hope that things will go as 

planned”, said Quadre, who at 16 

years old, is a player in transition 

to the senior level. 

Ebere joins Falcons 

to face Ivory Coast 

Arna-Bjornar’s Ngozi Ebere has earned 

a late invitation to the Nigeria 

women’s side for today’s clash against Cote 

d’Ivoire. 

The 28-year-old, who played a part in the 

Super Falcons’ second-round triumph over 

Algeria, was surprisingly left out by coach 

Christopher Danjuma for the qualifier game against 

the Ivorians. 

After his side’s laboured to a 0-0 draw in Abidjan 

in the first, the interim tactician sent a late call-up 

to the veteran defender, who was subsequently 

granted release by her Norwegian outfit. 

Upon receiving the call-up on Thursday, the 

former Rivers Angels star arrived in Nigeria on 

Saturday night and was well-received by her 

teammates at their base in Park Lane Hotel in 

Lagos. 

Ebere’s immediate task in Nigeria colours will 

be helping the African champions get past 

Clementine Toure’s side at the Agege Stadium, 

Lagos. 

A second leg win will secure Nigeria a ticket to 

the fourth round of the African Women’s Olympic 

qualifiers, where they will take on either Cameroon 

or the Democratic Republic of the Congo next 

month. 

he League Management Board, LMB, organisers of 

the Kwese Premier Basketball League has cautioned 

all the Kwese league teams to disregard the invitation 

sent to them by the Kida faction of 

the NBBF to participate in “a socalled 

2019 NBBF Premier Basketball 

League”. 

In a letter to the teams titled “ 2019 

guaranteed in the Savannah Domestic Basketball League: Look 

Conference, they enjoy a third spot Before You Leap “, with Reference 

in the Conference with Black Gold no. KPL/2019/TC/Vol.1/52 and dated 

Queens on 8 points and Plateau October 4, 2019, the LMB through 

Rocks on the 5th spot hot on their its Coordinator, Ajibarede Bello, 

heels. 

warned the teams that an Abuja 

Action will resume on Monday Federal High Court, vide suit no 

with MFM Queens taking on IGP FHC/ABJ/CS/1317/2018, had “ issued 

Queens while Oluyole Babes an injunction restraining any other 

tackle Sunshine Angels. 

league from being played pending 

Last placed Ogun Babes will the determination of the substantive 

battle Dolphins who will be hoping issue “ brought before it by the 2018/ 

to bounce back after the harrowing 2019 KPL Champions and runnersup 

(Gombe Bulls and Kwara 

loss to MFM. 

Falcons).” 

Niger United, Lagos Seasiders, 

Peacocks maintain winning streak 

By Solomon Nwoke 

efending champions in the 

Dmen and women categories of 

the Prudent Energy Handball 

League Niger United and Plateau 

Peacocks are leaving no stone 

unturned as they recorded their 

second win from two games 

respectively after dispatching their 

Steer clear of illegal basketball 

league, KPL warns teams 

T 

arch rivals Sokoto Rima and 

Desert Queens 34-29 and 34 - 

18 apiece in the early games 

played yesterday at the Mobolaji 

Johnson Sports Centre, Rowe Park, 

Yaba. 

The game was played in frantic 

pace with both clubs hoping to win 

and better their stand on the table. 

However, it was the Niger team 

that made better use of the chances 

that came their way to secure a 

vital win against their Northern 

rival. 

Sokoto Rima had a walk over 

against Borno Spiders on Saturday 

and were expected to be fresh to 

give Niger United a stiff fight. 

Much as they tried, the Sokoto 

team still ended up losing the game 

and will hope to better luck in their 

next game. For United, this is 

resurgence as they finished fourth 

in the first phase. 

Also, the female defending 

champions, Plateau Peacock 

defeated Desert Queens 34-18 to 

continue their push to the top of 

the table in the women’s category.

Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 

TODAY’S PUZZLE 

Sudoku 

FRIDAY’S ANSWER 

TODAY’S CROSSWORD 

QUICK CROSSWORD 

THURSDAY’S SOLUTION 

How to Play Sudoku 

ACROSS 

1 Sodium Chloride (4) 

3 Pitiable (8) 

9 Writers (7) 

10 Eye shield (5) 

11 More mature (6) 

12 Rarely (6) 

14 Rides a bike (6) 

16 Nut from a horsechestnut 

tree (6) 

19 Centre (6) 

21 Aspect (5) 

24 Verge (5) 

25 Rust (7) 

26 Late afternoon church 

service (8) 

27 Taverns (4) 

DOWN 

1 National emblem of 

Ireland (8 ) 

2 Abatement, alleviation 

(3-2) 

4 Help (6) 

5 Slum dwelling (5) 

6 Bushy clump of grass (7) 

7 Stiff paper (4) 

8 Origin (6) 

13 Pigs' feet (8) 

15 Culinary art (7) 

17 Old-established English 

university (6) 

18 Signal fire (6) 

20 Noblemen (5) 

22 Old five-shilling coin (5) 

23 Competent (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. 

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri-Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-4548355. Advert Hotline: 

08027767834; 01-4544821. Abuja office: 7, Dambata Close, Area 7, Garki, 09-2921024. Ikeja office: 73, Awolowo Way. V.I. Office: Murplus Plaza, 27, Sanusi Fafunwa Street. Asaba: 21, Anwai 

Road. Benin City: 4E, Arusa Street. Port Harcourt: 50, Ikwerre Road; Warri: 102, Efurun-Sapele Road. Advert: advertproduction@yahoo.com; E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, 

news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: EZE ANABA. Phone: 01-4548355. All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

07102019

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