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Again, Foreign Observers Knock 2019 General Election IRI, NDI say it didn’t meet previous standards INEC: We will study the reports Iyobosa Uwugiaren, Chuks Okocha and Udora Orizu in Abuja Like the European Union Election Observations Mission

(EU-EOM) that recently slammed the conduct of the 2019 general election, two United States’ institutes that monitored the elections said yesterday that the election did

not meet previous standards and the expectations of Nigerians. In their Joint report, presented in Abuja, the National Democratic Institute

(NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) said that 2019 elections were marred by irregularities, such as intimidation of voters/ electoral officials, vote buying

and election-related violence. They also condemned the suspension of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, saying the judiciary plays a crucial role

in post-election matters. "Although many new political parties nominated candidates for the 2019 Continued on page 8

NERC: 5m Metering Gap to Close in Three Years... Page 9 Wednesday 19 June, 2019 Vol 24. No 8836. Price: N250

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Officers, Men at the Frontlines Not Sufficiently Committed, Says Buratai Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai, yesterday called out his officers and men, saying their deficient loyalty to set courses was responsible for the setback the Nigerian Army has had in recent operations. He spoke at a "Transformational Leadership Workshop" held at the Army Resource Centre, Abuja and

said insufficient commitment of frontlines soldiers was the reason for the reverses the Army had suffered in its operations. Although he acknowledged that the Army had scored resounding successes in the past, producing military leaders that had performed exceptionally well at Continued on page 9

"It is unfortunate, but the truth is that almost every setback the NA has had in our operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks: or simply insufficient commitment to a common national/military course by those at the frontlines"

APC Govs Back Off, Say Ministerial Appointments, Buhari’s Prerogative Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday in Abuja described the process of constituting a new cabinet by President Muhammadu Buhari as the president's exclusive preserve. The governors made the disclosure while answering questions from journalists after meeting with the president behind closed-doors in the State House over the outcome of last week's National Assembly leadership elections.

The meeting started at 11.37 a.m. and lasted for only about 27 minutes. The governors are perceived to be putting pressure on the president to allow them make input into the selection of his cabinet. But speaking after the meeting, the forum chairman and Kebbi State Governor, Senator Atiku Bagudu, said the governors visited the president to congratulate him on the victory of the party's candidates at last Continued on page 9

NCAA to Demolish Unauthorised Masts as Ultimatum Expires... Page 8

VICTORY VISIT... L-R: Governors Abubakar Bello (Niger), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), President Muhammadu Buhari, Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Godwin Obaseki (Edo) during the visit of All Progressives Congress governors to the president in Abuja… yesterday godwin omoigui

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NCAA to Demolish Unauthorised Masts as Ultimatum Expires Insists masts may cause air crashes Chinedu Eze The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said it will commence the demolition of telecommunication masts of network providers and financial institutions in different locations across the country for failing to comply with Aviation Height Clearance (AVH) regulation. In a statement yesterday by NCAA’s spokesman, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, the agency said the demolition exercise would affect some banks and other financial institutions that have discountenanced the authority’s regulatory requirements on the clearance to erect any high structure within the navigable airspace in Nigeria. The Director General of the agency, Captain Muhtar Usman, has also told THISDAY in an exclusive interview that the indiscriminate installation of masts by the communication network providers constitutes danger to air navigation and may lead to air crashes. The agency gave the telecommunication operators and others 30 days ultimatum to remove the masts in April, 2019 and some of the organisations indicted for erecting masts on flight paths did not remove the masts. “The regulatory authority is left with no choice as the 30-day ultimatum given to those telecommunication service providers has expired. Prior to the expiration of the ultimatum, letters of reminder were written to all affected organisations

to obtain Aviation Height Clearance for their masts. “The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had earlier warned all Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) providers and telecom operators against violation of safety regulations. A 30-day ultimatum was therefore handed down for compliance,� the statement said. The agency said the power to regulate the erection of masts is derived from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NigCARS) Part 12.1.7.1.3.1, which stipulates that no person or organisation shall put up a structure - permanent or temporary - within the navigable airspace of Nigeria unless such a person or organisation is a holder of Aviation Height Clearance Certificate granted under this regulation. NCAA noted that in line with this regulation, it has insisted on AHC approval for every tower installation in the country, irrespective of the height and location. “It should, therefore, be noted that under the Civil Aviation Act. 2006, section 30(3) (1), the NCAA is empowered to prohibit and regulate the installation of any structure which by virtue of its height or position is considered to endanger the safety of air navigation,� it said. NCAA said while some of the providers and operators have since commenced regularisation of their masts, others have failed to do the same. The agency listed the

telecommunication operators that have not regularised their masts to include: Globacom Nigeria 7,012 masts; United Bank of Africa 439 masts; Guaranty Trust Bank 295 masts; Unity Bank 217 masts and Sterling Bank 159 masts. Others are Union Bank 92 masts; First City Monument Bank 205 masts; Fidelity Bank 83 masts; and Access Bank 303 masts. “Therefore, a total of 8,805 masts belonging to the aforementioned organisations will be decommissioned forthwith,� it said, adding: “The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) wishes to reiterate that it will continue to apply requisite sanctions for violation of extant regulations. Especially, where the resolve of the Authority is tested.� Description: https://mail. google.com/mail/images/ cleardot.gif

Masts May Cause Air Crashes, NCAA Insists Meanwhile, the Director General of NCAA, Captain Muhtar Usman, has reiterated that the indiscriminate installation of masts by communication network providers constitute danger to air navigation and may lead to air crashes. Usman told THISDAY in an exclusive interview in Lagos, that there were records of such accidents in different part of the world. This, he said was why air transport regulatory authorities

were given the responsibility to monitor and ensure height control in the installation of masts. The director general expressed concern that masts were built along flights parts in many Nigerian cities and around the airports, warning that network providers must secure height clearance approval before installing their facility. THISDAY gathered that pilots of low-flying aircraft in Nigeria were being forced to look out for these masts in order to avoid them. While landing and taking off, pilots also have to look out for these masts too. “In addition to regulating airline operators, the airports, and the air navigation service providers, we also regulate installations like communications masts height because they also occupy Nigeria’s airspace. “So, we have to know all the height, chart them accurately for pilots to know so that they will be able to avoid any hazards or potential hazards or collision. “The civil aviation Act 2006 provided for that because we have to chart the airspace. We are all on the page because it is all about safety. We have to know where the hazards are, identify them appropriately for the pilots who are going to fly to ensure that they avoid such hazards,� Usman explained. The director general said while some communication network providers obtained clearance approval, others

ignored the regulations and indiscriminately installed these masts. According to him, some of the network providers also refused to pay height clearance charges, which amounted to millions of naira. He assured that whatever action that would be taken by NCAA would be in accordance to the rules as enshrined in the Civil Aviation Act, noting that this is very critical because it involves the lives of air travellers. “Some of the network providers are complying with the regulation. We have the law on our side, we don’t want to interrupt anything but whatever we are going to do will be done as provided for in the Act and inside the regulation. “And we have been talking with the providers that are yet to comply; it is unfortunate that they have not been responsive. Sanction is always applied as the last resort because sanction is not meant to be punitive but corrective. “It is to make the organisation or the individual to comply with safety regulations. Because we have to know where those masts are, we have to know the accurate height. They must have the correct marking, very visible and also the lightings to ensure that pilots are able to see and avoid the masts. That is why we will insist that everybody must do the right thing,� he explained. In the area of safety of flight operations, Usman said Nigeria

has improved significantly as there has not been any major incident or accident involving scheduled commercial flights since 2013. “Let me say that we have been doing very well as far as safety and security is concerned. In the area of security, which was the first thing that we attacked as soon as we came in between June 1 to 9,, 2015, we had an ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) audit in the area of security. “Earlier on around 2010, in that audit Nigeria scored 70.85 per cent. But the one we did in 2015 Nigeria scored over 96 per cent and it is quite a feat. Then closely followed by the safety audit, which Nigeria passed, the minimum set by ICAO is 60 per cent, the global average is 63 per cent and Nigeria is over 67 per cent. In the area of the connection link between Nigeria and the United States under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audit programme, foreign assessment for civil aviation authorities, Nigeria sustained the category one status that is enabling Nigeria to connect directly to the United States. “The first time that was achieved was in 2010; it was renewed in 2014 and Nigeria sustained it again in 2017 ending to early 2018. So, we are doing very well in that area even we will still not rest, we still want to conquer and still go towards achieving it 100 per cent. So, we have been quite successful in that area but we intend to build on that,� Usman added.

government elections. "Buhari withheld his assent to each version of the bill, ultimately citing the proximity to the election and the short time INEC would have to implement reforms. The president's last rejection of the bill in December 2018, just a couple of months before election day, surprised most stakeholders and delayed the release of lNEC's election guidelines. "Other legal reforms to the electoral process recommended by Nigerian civil society were unrealised before the 2019 elections, including creating appropriate institutions to oversee political parties and prosecute electoral offenses, responsibilities that currently impede INEC’s focus on administering elections." In its recommendations, the joint report called for a national dialogue, stating that there should be a national conversation about the progress made since that transition and the vulnerabilities that must be overcome to make electoral processes more credible and the country’s democracy more resilient. "The lRl/NDI mission urges Nigerian stakeholders to seriously consider these and other recommendations to improve the electoral process, unlike in previous years when suggestions by reputable citizens and international observation missions went unheeded.’’ Other recommendations include, legal framework and election dispute resolution; pursue a comprehensive, inclusive and expeditious electoral reform process; establishment of time limits for the adjudication of pre-election

petitions and others

partnership with you predated the 2019 general election and will hopefully continue to the next general elections and beyond. "It is therefore our expectation that your report is all-encompassing with clear recommendations for all institutions involved in the electoral process. Given the size and peculiarities of different parts of the country, it is understandable that no single observer group covered every polling unit and collation centre throughout the Federation. “For the 2019 general elections, the Commission accredited 159 organisations (39 foreign and 120 domestic) which deployed a total 73,258 observers. Some of the organisations have already submitted their reports.�

AGAIN, FOREIGN OBSERVERS KNOCK 2019 GENERAL ELECTION elections, the polls were largely a contest between the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); the APC hoped to renew the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari and consolidate its majority in the National Assembly and of governorship. However, the party faced internal wrangling and defections of some key figures in the months to the polls. "The PDP fielded former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its standard bearer and, entering the process for the first time as an opposition party, challenged the APC: record, claiming the ruling party not kept its campaign promises to fight corruption, improve security and boost the economy’’, the report said. The IRI/NDI observation mission said that the 2019 elections did not meet the expectations of many Nigerians. On security and elections related-violence, the report said, "Ahead of the 2019 polls, the poor security situation in Nigeria, mainly attributed to Boko Haram's resurgence in the North-east, inter-communal violence in the Middle Belt and widespread crime and banditry, raised concerns about the safety of voters and candidates. "Increased politicallymotivated violence and conflict in the pre-election period was also a concern, especially around political party primaries in some areas.’’ The report further stated that for many Nigerians, the 2019 elections-the sixth since the country’s 1999 transition back to civilian democratic rule, were an opportunity to

consolidate democratic gains and build on sound electoral practices. ‘’Significant improvements in the administration of the 2011 and 2015 elections boosted expectations in the 2019 electoral process. Moreover, Nigeria’s first peaceful transfer of power between political parties following the 2015 elections underscored for Nigerians that credible elections matter," the report said. The joint report further said that the last-minute postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 16 showed that INEC had underestimated challenges associated with the administration of the elections. According to the report, "the commission did not communicate sufficiently with political parties and the public about election preparations. Such a late postponement likely depressed voter turnout and created confusion about the duration of candidate and party. ‘’Most significantly, the delay also undermined public confidence in INEC. After the one-week postponement, it increased its public outreach and communications through regular press briefings. Since the polls, however INEC has been slow to release information, including detailed results.’’ The report said that the last-minute postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections on the morning of February 16, and delays in opening some polling units and other administrative challenges on February 23 undermined public confidence in INEC. The report further said that

political parties remain the weakest link among Nigeria’s nascent democratic institutions, saying "opaque candidate nomination processes led to violence in some states and many pre-election lawsuits.’’ The report also made reference to the paucity of women nominated to run on the tickets of the two major parties, the APC and PDP, saying it demonstrated Nigerian political elites’ lack of commitment to opening space for new faces and new voices. It added that the political parties and their leaders did not uphold their commitment to peaceful and credible elections, and failed to restrain and hold accountable members and supporters who committed electoral offenses. The NDI /NRI report said that the Electoral Act of 2010 was an important update to the electoral legal framework, but added that after the 2011 and 2015 polls, however, stakeholders identified areas where additional reforms were needed. Lamenting President Buhari’s not signing the amended act, the report said, "In 2018, the National Assembly approved four versions of a bill to amend the Electoral Act. The measure would have codified important improvements, including imposing higher fines on media houses not providing equal air-time to competing political parties, making the voter register and election results electronic and publicly accessible, capping the nomination fees that political parties’ charge candidates, and extending the application of the Electoral Act to local

INEC: We Will Study the Report Meanwhile, commenting on the report, the National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission would study the recommendations in detail and would continue to partner with the institutes to improve the electoral and democratic processes in Nigeria. "We have already embarked on our own internal reviews. Your report is coming at the right time. I wish to assure you that we will implement aspects of your recommendations that require administrative action by the commission beginning with the forthcoming Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections scheduled for 16th November 2019,� Yakubu said. He also assured that the commission will also work with other institutions on aspects of the recommendations that require consequential action beyond the mandate of the commission. He noted the joint team IRI and NDI were among the 39 foreign organisations accredited by the commission to observe the 2019 general election. He said: "The joint team reportedly deployed 40 international observers to 16 states of the federation for the presidential and National Assembly elections and 20 international observers to 10 States of the Federation for the Governorship and State Assembly elections. "You observed the 2019 general election on the invitation of INEC. Your long-term and continuous presence in the country means that our

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NERC: 5m Metering Gap to Close in Three Years Peter Uzoho The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has stated that the wide metering gap, which is a major challenge in Nigeria’s power sector, will be closed within the next three years, with the effective implementation of the meter rollout plan by the distribution companies (Discos) under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme. This is even as the commission disclosed that the present metering gap in the electricity industry was about five million compared to the total customer size of 8.8 million, which it said represented 57 per cent deficit in metering. The Chairman of NERC, Prof. James Momoh, stated this yesterday in Lagos at the

town hall meeting organised by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in collaboration with McArthur Foundation and the Ikeja Electric. Momoh stressed that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) considers metering critical in terms of returns on investment, which is required to sustain the entire value chain of NESI, thereby addressing the challenges of technical and commercial losses in revenue collection. He said: “Metering is of great concern to the commission and the federal government. In light of this, the commission has instituted measures to accelerate metering through regulatory means such as the Meter Asset Provider Regulation of 2018. “Data available to the

NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh commission indicates that the present metering gap in the industry is about 5, 046, 906 when compared to total customer size of 8, 840, 801 representing 57 per cent deficit in metering. “However, the commencement of the Meter Asset Providers scheme, developed in line with the

MAP Regulation 2018 will go a long way to assuage the long pressing issues of metering in line with the regulatory requirement. The distribution companies have also done extensive work on their customer enumeration to determine the actual metering gap as well as perform adequate ‘Know Your Customer’ to reduce electricity theft and improve service delivery to esteemed customers. “It is expected that the present metering gap would be closed within the next three years with the effective implementation of the Discos meter roll out plan under the MAP scheme.� The NERC chair added that the commission has established Customer Complaints Forum Offices in 25 states of the federation as part of

the redress mechanism for complaints to ensure that customer complaints were speedily resolved. Momoh, who was represented at the meeting by the Deputy General Manager, Consumer Affairs, NERC, Mr. Shaibu Shittu, explained that members of the forum cut across representative of all the customer classes, industrial, commercial and residential as well as professional bodies drawn from within the locality and environs. According to him, institutional agencies of government like the Consumer Protection Council, Professional bodies such as the Nigerian Society of Engineers, and civil society groups are also represented in the membership of the forum. “This multifaceted representation is designed to

enhance the confidence in the customer that some measure of fairness would accord the handling of electricity issues by the Customer Complaint Forum Office,� Momoh stressed. He, however, described the meeting as “significant because any opportunity to project recent developments in the sector and attempt to resolve pressing consumer concerns all contribute to our collective resolve to take the Nigerian power sector to greater heights of efficiency and relevance.� Momoh also appealed to customers to be patient in dealing with the Discos on meter installation and assured that the commission will not sit back and watch Nigerian electricity consumers continue to be exorbitantly charged or estimated for energy consumed or not consumed at all.

Terrorism: UK Cautions Citizens against Travelling to 21 States Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the United Kingdom has issued a security travel alert to British citizens, cautioning them against travelling to 21 states in Nigeria. The alert issued by Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, said terrorists were planning to kidnap foreigners and urged them to also avoid some Niger Delta states. The alert warned against spiraling insecurity in Nigeria occasioned by the activities

of the terrorist groups, Boko Haram, and Islamic State for West Africa (ISWAP) in the North-east and banditry in the North-west. “The security environment in the North-east has deteriorated since 2018 and there is a heightened risk of kidnap. Kidnaps in the North-east have included humanitarian and private sector workers. “There is also a high threat of criminal kidnap in the Niger Delta region and Kogi State,� said the alert. The travel advisory listed

the states to include Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe and the Niger Delta States of Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states. “If you travel to areas to which the FCO advise against travel, you are particularly at risk and will need a high level of security. “If you are working in northern Nigeria, you should make sure your employers provide an adequate level of security where you live and where you work; make sure they regularly review security arrangements and familiarise

yourself with those plans,� it said. The advisory further noted that “terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Nigeria. “Most attacks occur in the North-east, particularly in Borno, including central Maiduguri and along access routes connecting the city to other major towns and along the Niger border, including in Damasak, Yobe, including the eastern LGAs bordering Borno State both north and south of the Damaturu road, and Adamawa States.

“There have also been significant attacks in Gombe, Kano, Kaduna, Jos and Bauchi State and in the Federal Capital, Abuja. “The terrorist threat across eastern Yobe and Borno States is high, with frequent recent attacks. Terrorist groups carried out attacks in North-east Nigeria during the February 2019 election period, and further attacks are likely. We continue to advise against all travel to Borno and Yobe States�, it said. The travel security alert urged UK citizens to avoid

crowded areas. “You should avoid places where crowds gather, including political meetings, religious gatherings and places of worship, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, transport hubs and camps for displaced people. “Attacks could be indiscriminate and could affect western interests as well as places visited by tourists. Besides Abuja, other major towns and cities remain particularly at risk, including Kano and Kaduna,� it added.

country but Nigeria, we must remain here and salvage it together," he said, adding: "The president's exhortation, though about 35 years old, is still relevant today given as we see in some cases that apathy has even increased amongst the younger generations." The workshop, a six-day programme, for mid-level officers and soldiers, organised by the Nigerian Army Headquarters Department of Army Transformation and Innovation at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja, has the theme "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way." It is part of the Buratai’s efforts to have a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles.

Buratai told the officers that leadership was core to military professionalism hence the inclusion of aspects of military leadership skills acquisition. According to him, "Military leadership skills equip personnel with the capacity to control and care for members of their group from the lowest tactical to the highest operational level. "The NA even conducts special military leadership programmes when necessary to complement what is provided in the routine courses." He noted that all such programmes, however, were mainly designed to build capacities that would enhance the intellectual and physical components of a fighting force.

social cohesion. We thank Mr. President for celebrating the Democracy Day consistent with the promise he has made which is a major element reflective of his democratic ideals in ensuring that an issue which is so important to many Nigerians has been finally addressed in a way that we are all happy." Present at the meeting were the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; Alhaji Yahaya Bello of Kogi State; Mr. Godwin Obaseki of Edo State; Chief Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State; Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno State; Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State; Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje of

Kano State; Bagudu of Kebbi State; Mr. Simon Lalong of Plateau State; Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State; Alhaji Mai-Mala Buni of Yobe State; Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State and Alhaji Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State. Also present were Alhaji Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State; Alhaji Abubakar Bello of Niger State; Deputy Governor of Katsina State, Mr. Mannir Yakubu; and the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Mrs. Hadiza Balarabe. The meeting was also attended by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha and the Chief of Staff, Mr. Abba Kyari.

OFFICERS, MEN AT THE FRONTLINES NOT SUFFICIENTLY COMMITTED, SAYS BURATAI international assignments, he regretted that things had now gone awry in the force. "It is unfortunate, but the truth is that almost every setback the NA has had in our operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks: or simply insufficient commitment to a common national/ military course by those at the frontlines," he told middle level officers who were at the workshop organised to retool them for the task ahead. Terror gangs, particularly Boko Haram in the Northeast and armed bandits in the North-west, have held many communities to ransom in the two regions with the military sent to rein them in achieving little success of its task.

Whilst there have been claims by the federal government that Boko Haram had been degraded with no further capacity to hold positions in the North-east, the reality on the ground is that the terror group has demonstrated sufficient capacity for scotch earth attacks even on military bases, including battalions and a brigade. The situation in the Northwest has been worse as armed bandits sack villages at will and kidnap citizens for ransom. The military, in most cases, has been reactive rather than proactive. Setting the tone for the critic of his men yesterday, Buratai reminiscence the lost glory of the Army: "It is worthy to note that the Nigerian Army has had good success over

the years in the grooming of military leaders.� He added: "This is evident in the many successes that the NA (Nigerian Army) has achieved in our operations and the high performance of our personnel, both officers/ soldiers, in international/ multinational operations or other military duties.� He said he had tried to maintain this tradition by ensuring that promotion of Nigerian Army personnel was essentially based on professional considerations only. "But we all know that professional capacity is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task; willingness to perform the task is equally necessary," he stated before delivering his upper cut to his wanting officers.

"Many of those on whom the responsibility for physical actions against the adversary squarely falls are yet to fully take ownership of our common national or service cause," Buratai said with a tone of regret. He, however, urged his officers and men to show sufficient commitment to the national cause, citing President Muhammadu Buhari's speech made 35 years ago, exhorting Nigerians to fight and salvage the country from external aggression. "I, therefore, believe that the transformational leadership workshops will again remind and clarify to participants what our president and Commander-in-Chief meant by: 'this generation and indeed, future generations of Nigerians have no other

APC GOVS BACK OFF, SAY MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENTS, BUHARI’S PREROGATIVE week's National Assembly leadership elections. Asked whether issues bordering on appointments of ministers were discussed in the meeting, Bagudu said it was not mentioned because it is the president's exclusive initiative. "No. It's an executive decision," Bagudu said. He also said they used the forum to thank him for the N2 trillion he had so far given to states as bailout funds for payment of salaries and pensions, as well as the refunds on federal roads reconstructed by states. Bagudu also said the forum expressed appreciation to Buhari for increased investment in agriculture

and his efforts to address insecurity in the country as well as his recent recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day. Bagudu said: "This morning Mr. President graciously granted audience to Progressive Governors Forum. We came to congratulate him on the National Assembly elections and thank him for the confidence he had in the Progressive Governors Forum members who participated actively in all the processes that led to the emergence of Senator Ahmad Lawan, as Senate president; Senator Ovie Omo-Agege as deputy Senate president; Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as speaker, and Hon. Ahmed Wase as deputy speaker.

"Furthermore, we used the opportunity to thank Mr. President in all he has been doing and all the successes recorded in the areas, which he campaigned upon and by extension our party which are: security, economy and accountability. "We are quite happy with his support for states where close to N2 trillion was given to states in form of restructuring of loans, refunds on federal roads, refund for Paris Club, which has helped to encourage economic activities in the states, payment of salaries, payment of pensions, payment of gratuities and overall investment in infrastructure. "We are also appreciative

of increased investment in agriculture, which has been a result of conscious decision to support agriculture as a way out of our economic challenges and provide economic growth. "We also congratulate Mr. President that despite dropped incomes, the value for money that he insists upon has begun to pay off in terms of more security across the country even though some challenges still remain, he is working hard on that with sincerity. "Last and not the least, we offered to work with Mr. President continuously to ensure that we increase economic performance, security of our country and

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Group News Editor Ejiofor Alike Email Ejiofor.Alike@thisdaylive.com, 08066066268

North-east Crisis: UNICEF Condemns Use of Children as Human Bombs Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri The United Nation’s’ Children Fund (UNICEF) has condemned the use of children as human bombs and in any combat or non-combat roles in the ongoing conflict in Nigeria’s North-east. UNICEF claimed that from 2018 till date 53 children were used as couriers of bombs (human bombs) in the Northeast conflict. In 2018, alone, according to UNICEF, 38 girls were used as human bombs, and in 2019 four girls have been used already. According to UNICEF, the 2018 figure represented a reduction as the 2017 figure was 146 children- 45 boys, 101 girls. A statement issued by UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins said: “According to several reports, three children - two girls and a boy (ages unknown) – were used to detonate explosives that killed 30 people and injured 40 others at a community football viewing centre in Konduga, Borno. “UNICEF sends its

condolences to all those who have been killed or injured in this horrific incident. “It is unacceptable that children should be used in this way. UNICEF appealed to “all those involved in this terrible conflict to protect children at all times and to keep them out of harm’s way. “This incident brings the number of children who have been reported as having been used as human bombs to five, since January 2019. In 2018, 48 children - including 38 girls were used in suicide attacks. “We again call on all parties to the conflict in North-east Nigeria to immediately cease all attacks against civilians, to stop using children in this conflict, and to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.” The statement further lamented that since 2012, non-state armed groups in North-east have recruited and used children as combatants and non-combatants, raped and forced girls to marry, and committed other grave violations against children.

HDP Asks Tribunal to Nullify Buhari’s Election Says Feb 23 presidential poll unconstitutional Alex Enumah in Abuja Hope Democratic Party (HDP) has told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to nullify the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office, insisting that the February 23 presidential election, which produced the president was unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional. HDP, which was among the parties that participated in the election conducted by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), argued that the February 23 poll is unknown to law and should be invalidated by the tribunal. In a fresh motion filed by the party and its presidential candidate, Chief Ambrose Owuru, it was argued that the postponement of the election from February 16 to 23 had no backing of any law as no cogent and verifiable reason required by law was advanced for the postponement. In the fresh motion filed by the party’s counsel, Ezechukwu Ifeanyi, the HDP insisted that the February 23 poll was never validly held by INEC and cannot produce any valid result or returns recognisable by law. Although the party admitted that the electoral body has powers under section 26 of the Electoral Act 2010, it however maintained that no cogent and verifiable reason were produced by INEC to postpone the February 16 election and thereby rendered the February 23 election a nullity under the same law. HDP, which cited several authorities to buttress its averment,

said that since INEC breached the provisions of the Electoral Act, especially section 26 to conduct the February 23 poll, the purported election cannot stand in the eyes of the law. The party therefore, prayed for an order compelling INEC to produce at the tribunal notice of election, original time-table for February 16, the press statement of February 16, as well as minutes of meeting where the decision to postpone the February 16, presidential was held. HDP also prayed that the return of President Buhari for a second term in office on account of February 23 election be invalidated and set aside because the election has no force of law. HDP and its presidential candidate had earlier filed a petition marked: CA/ PETP/001/2019 asking the tribunal to nullify the election that brought Buhari to office. The main grouse of the petitioners was that they were validly nominated for the 2019 general election but were unlawfully excluded from the said elections by INEC by delisting their names and party logo from the ballot papers. Another grouse of the petitioners was that the electoral body placed a false version of their registered party logo on the ballot papers for elections and thereby cost them the chances of realising their political ambition in the 2019 general election. Meanwhile, the tribunal will resume pre-hearing season in the HDP petition against the election of President Buhari on Thursday.

According to UNICEF, some of the girls become pregnant in captivity and give birth without any medical care or attention. The statement recalled that in the ongoing armed conflict in North-east, more than 3,500

children were recruited and used by non-state armed groups between 2013 and 2017. It noted that the use of children in suicide attacks by armed groups as person-borne explosive devices (PBIED)

significantly increased from 2014 to 2017. In first quarter 2019, two girls were reported as having been used as PBIEDs. The statement assured that UNICEF would continue

to work closely with state authorities and partners to support the reintegration of children who have been associated with this conflict back into their communities and reunite them with their families.

ALL EYES ON HIGHER RETURNS…

L-R: Africa’s richest man/Chairman, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Aliko Dangote; Chief Operating Officer, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Ravindra Singhvi; and Non-Executive Director, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Abdu Dantata, at the Annual General Meeting of the company, held in Lagos… yesterday

Herdsmen Kill Soldier, Three Others in Plateau Community Seriki Adinoyi in Jos At least four persons, including a soldier, have been killed following a fresh attack in Riyom Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, yesterday. The attack on Kagboro community lasted for several hours, which accounted for the high level of casualties. An eye-witness said at least 300 herdsmen swooped on the village killing, maiming and burning houses, including a government-owned clinic in the village after they

overpowered men of the vigilante group who tried to resist them. Spokesman of the Plateau State Police Command, Mr. Terna Tyopev, said he will get details on the attack for the media. However, the lawmaker representing Riyom Constituency in the state House of Assembly, Mr. Timothy Datong confirmed the incident, adding that he had concluded plans to table the issue as a matter of urgent public importance before the assembly members during their plenary in Jos yesterday. The lawmaker said: “Yes, I

can confirm to you that four of our people, including a security personnel, were killed during the incident. Many were also wounded. We have also counted at least 44 houses that were completely burnt down by the attackers. “It was the heavily-armed Fulani people numbering over 300 that came to attack our people. I am going to present the issue as a matter of urgent public importance before the House of Assembly members when we convene today because this thing cannot be allowed to continue. “The invasion started

around 12.noon on Monday and did not stop until more than four hours. I was in touch with the Commander of the STF in charge of security in the state and he assured me he was going to mobilise his men to quell the situation. I was then surprised at the extent of destruction that eventually occurred in the community.” A source from the assembly said that a committee would be set up by the lawmakers on how to resolve the lingering crisis of herdsmen attacks in the state.

Buhari Congratulates CAN President, Ayokunle on Re-election Omololu Ogunmade and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari last night in Abuja warmly felicitated with Dr. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle on his re-election as the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Buhari, according to a statement by presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, congratulated church leaders and the entire Christendom in general for the successful conduct of the CAN election, assuring Ayokunle that his administration will continue to strengthen existing cordial relationship

with CAN, especially in tackling the challenges facing Nigeria. The statement added: “Recalling his meetings with Rev. Ayokunle, who is also the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, the President believes the cleric’s maturity, humility and wise counsels to governments will go a long way in healing and putting the country on the right track for development. “President Buhari prays that the almighty God will grant the leadership of CAN more wisdom and strength in running the affairs of the association.” Ayokunle, who is the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC),

and incumbent President of CAN, was re-elected yesterday. The result was announced by the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Professor Matthew Kukah, at the Ecumenical Centre, Abuja. Ayokunle got 59 votes to defeat the runner up, President, Fellowship of Christian Churches in Nigeria (TEKAN), Caleb Solomon-Ahima, who got 44 votes. Ahima, according to the CAN constitution, becomes the vice president of the organisation. Ayokunle was born on January 25, 1957 and hails from Isheke, Oyo in Oyo State. He has his first degree in Sociology from the University

of Ibadan in 1983. He had a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) and a Master of Education (M.Ed) in Guidance and Counselling from the same university. Ayokunle equally bagged a Master of Divinity in Theology (M.Div Th) from the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso in 1995 before proceeding to the United Kingdom to obtain a Master of Arts (MA) in Theology and Religious Studies from Liverpool Hope University. He also obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Theology with emphasis on liturgical studies.

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N’Assembly will Prioritise Electoral Reforms, Say Lawan, Gbajabiamila Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, have promised that the Ninth National Assembly will hit the ground running in terms of electoral reforms in preparation for the 2023 general election. The leaders made the promise separately when the European Union Election Observer team on Nigeria and ECOWAS paid them a visit in Abuja The observers mission that visited Lawan was led by Ambassador Keitec Karlsen. They presented a copy of its observations from the 2019 elections. The senate president said the

senate would expedite action in ensuring that necessary actions were taken in amending the act to ensure more credible elections in the future. He commended the mission for its 30 points recommendations on how to conduct better elections moving forward. “Your visit today is historic, as it’s the first visit to my office after elections of the presiding officers of the ninth assembly. “We consider our elections of great importance. We have lessons to learn and we want our elections to be credible and to meet with best practices. “The National Assembly has always worked hard on the Electoral Act to ensure that we improve on the standard. “Your recommendations will

inspire us to better electoral processes,” he said. Lawan explained that the inability of the National Assembly to successfully amend the act prior to the 2019 election was due to wrong timing, adding that the ninth assembly would begin the process early enough. “This time, we will be quick to address all the grey areas and come out with better input. “We need to see an improvement in our electoral system. So, we solicit your support to further boost knowledge of our members and committees. “We, in the ninth assembly, will continue to work in a committed and united manner to offer the best to the electorate,” he said.

The president of the senate called on the European Union Mission to collaborate more with the National Assembly in order to build the capacity of lawmakers. He also noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is an institution that has always been supported by the National Assembly. “They also require more support and resources as the resources available are not enough for the enormous tasks. “Our desire is that our electoral empire should continue to be independent to continue to perform its statutory functions creditably,” Lawan said. Earlier, Karlsen congratulated

Lawan for his election as the Speaker, assuring that the EU would continue to strengthen its collaboration with Nigeria. The Deputy Chief Observer, Hannah Robert, disclosed that the observer mission was invited by INEC to monitor the last elections. She added that, as an independent observer, the mission visited several polling stations in the country during the polls, stressing that the exercise afforded the observers the opportunity see events on self-appraisals. Robert added that 30 recommendations were brought up for electoral reforms and another seven priority recommendations were comprehensively arrived at. On his part, Gbajabiamila in

a statement by the Speaker’s aide, Mr. Smart Lanrewaju, said. “Nigeria is ready to always follow international best practices. I commend the fact that there has been improvement in Nigerian electoral process but more needs to be done. “Parliament will hit the ground running in terms of electoral reforms as the process of elections is before, during and after the elections. “Election is the bedrock of any democracy and there is the desire to get the process right,” he said. The speaker commended EU for the tremendous job done all over the world, particularly in Nigeria.

Nigeria Records Stable Oil Production Level of 2.3mbpd Kasim Sumaina in Abuja The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru yesterday stated that the corporation as at June 2019 recorded 2.3 million barrels per day of crude oil production. Baru also disclosed that the corporation attracted $3.6 billion and $3 billion in 2017 and 2018, respectively, adding that negotiations were currently ongoing to attract several billions of dollar worth of investments into the oil and gas sector. He made the disclosure in Abuja while hosting the executive members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by its National President, Mr. Chris Isiguzo. Baru, said: “We have been able to attract FDIs into the oil and gas industry and in 2017 alone we attracted about $3.6 billion; in 2018 we attracted about $3 billion. At the moment we are negotiating sums in the region of $7 billion as FDIs that will come into the oil and gas sector,” Baru said. The GMD, NNPC, noted that since his coming into office in July 2016, “we are focused on increasing production of oil and gas and condensates. At some

point, our national combined production of oil was about a million barrels. I am happy that at the end of 2018 we have moved on, averagely last year about 2.1 million barrels.” “As I am speaking this morning, I look at our production figures, combine oil and condensates, we are pushing 2.3 million barrels per day. I think this stability and ability to push production has come as a consequence of several factors: our relationship internally, externally and of course with the media.” “In the gas sector, we have a pushed at a lower level of about 450 million standard cubic feet per day to say that for the domestic alone, we are covering about 1.5billion cubic feet (bcf) that is 1,500 million standard cubic feet per day of gas. “Internally, we have a flagship company, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC). This is 100 per cent NNPC operations; they have pushed their production and equity size from a lower figure of about 65,000 barrels per day in 2016 to over 166,000 per day equity. And overall production for NPDC, we are about to maintain it at close to 300,000 barrels per day. It’s quite a significant boost.”

Ex-Health Minister’s Son Abducted at Gunpoint Some unknown gunmen yesterday abducted Dayo Adewole, who is the son of the immediate past Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole. The military, the police, and local hunters were already on the trail of the kidnappers as at press time. The ex-minister has however been forced to cut short his trip abroad. The abductors were yet to contact the family on their motive and the condition of their victim. According to a source, Dayo Adewole was waylaid at gunpoint on his farm in Iroko, near Fiditi in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State at about 6p.m. Although there were some

staff with Dayo, the abductors went for him as a prime target. It was gathered that the kidnappers later took Dayo away to an unknown destination. A source said, “The villagers were alerted by the staff who survived the ordeal. Local hunters were mobilised by the Oniroko of Iroko. “The hunters were said to have located the car of the abductors along the road to Iware village near Iroko. “But they are yet to locate Dayo’s whereabouts. It was suspected that the kidnappers might have changed their vehicle following persistent announcement on radio after Oniroko had raised the alarm on air.”

FOUR HEARTY CHEERS...

L-R: Secretary General, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Mr. John Denton; Chairman, Emeritus, ICC Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Osunkeye; Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Abosede Ogunmola; and Chairman, ICC Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Savage, at the 4th Annual ICC Arbitration International Conference in Lagos....yesterday KOLAWOLE ALLI

Court Restrains Ganduje from Taking Action against Sanusi Gov: Armed robbers, not gorilla stole N6.8m in Kano zoo Omololu Ogunmade inAbuja A Federal High Court sitting in Kano yesterday granted an order restraining Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje and the Kano State Public Complaints and AntiCorruption Commission from acting on the preliminary report on alleged misappropriation of N3.4 billion by the Kano Emirate Council. This is coming as the governor yesterday in Abuja said no conclusion had been reached yet on the stand-off between him and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, saying discussion was

still ongoing. The order followed a suit filed on June 7, by Muhammad MannirSanusi, Dan Buran Kano, seeking an order to restrain Ganduje, the commission and the state Attorney General or their agents from acting on the preliminary report of the investigation. Justice Obiora A. Egwuatu, issued the restraining order and directed that the respondents be served through a publication in the Daily Trust newspaper and the Attorney General of the state. He adjourned the case to June 28, for hearing of the motion on notice.

Meanwhile, Ganduje yesterday in Abuja said no conclusion had been reached yet on the stand-off between him and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, saying discussion was still ongoing. Ganduje made this disclosure while answering questions from journalists after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House, Abuja. The governor said discussion was still in progress. “Discussion is still ongoing,” he said. Asked on why he seemed determined to depose the emir, Ganduje queried such insinuation,

saying “who told you that?” On the allegation that a gorilla swallowed N6.8 million in Kano zoo, Ganduje dismissed it as untrue, explaining that the money was rather stolen by armed robbers who reportedly stormed the zoo and made away with its safe. Ganduje disclosed that there was no gorilla in the zoo. However, he said he had given an order for the investigation of the entire episode by the state’s anti-graft agency, saying it was the body’s preliminary report, which revealed that the matter was an armed robbery incident.

APC Committee Recommends Expulsion ofYari, National Deputy Chairman from Party Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The five-member Disciplinary Committee set up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has received a report and evidence of alleged anti-party activities against its Deputy National Chairman, North, Lawal Shuaibu. The Zamfara State Executive Committee of the APC submitted the report to the committee yesterday in Abuja. The committee also received

report against the former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, on his alleged role in the 2019 electoral misfortune of the APC in the state. The Zamfara APC Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Bakyasuwa, who led other officials of the party to the APC National Secretariat to submit the reports, made it available to journalists. According to the report, the duo allegedly breached

Article 21(a) 2014 of the APC Constitution as amended. “We are going to prove that we are not just bragging, and we mean it, we have drawn the battle line with Yari’s group. “We have realised that the two men were behind the misfortunes of the party, and we need to expel them to prepare for the challenges ahead,” he said. The APC Zamfara Chairman, Surajo Garba, blamed the party’s misfortune on the action of the

two men. “By this letter and for the above reason, we the executive council of the APC in Zamfara have firmly resolved to expel Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Yari and the Deputy National Chairman (North), Lawal Shuaibu, from the party. “The attitude and conduct of the personalities have brought APC in Zamfara to a state of disrepute and a clear flagrant disobedience to party,”he said.

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COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

BETWEEN SEC AND OANDO

The Securities and Exchange Commission is biased against Oando, argues Bisi Ashiru-Olabanjo

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ando finally responded to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Sunday, June 9, 2019 press release in which the commission said it had given Oando sufficient opportunity of being heard and to rebut the issues revealed by the investigation. The SEC, in its press statement claimed that “Oando PLC was given sufficient opportunity of being heard and accorded several opportunities to rebut the issues revealed by the investigation.� The commission further attested that those opportunities were via engagement with Deloitte & Touche in the course of its audit into the company’s business. Oando’s response was extremely comprehensive, defining what fair hearing is, meticulously detailing all the instances it engaged with both SEC and the independent auditor Deloitte, Nigeria and explaining that day- to- day engagement in the course of an investigation is not the same as a fair hearing. In Oando’s press statement published on June 19, 2019, it vigorously debunked SECs claims, stating that “Oando was not accorded a fair hearing because we simply co-operated with the process and responded to questions posed by the auditors in the course of their fieldwork for findings in a report that the company has still not seen.� The company implied that “a hearing can be said to be fair when all the parties to a dispute are given an opportunity to present their respective cases, and each side is entitled to know the details of the case/ findings being made against it and is given an opportunity to reply thereto.� The company goes on to highlight that it was not given the same opportunity to meet with the SEC as afforded the petitioner, despite multiple requests, one of which was the request addressed to the SEC by the Chairman, HRM Oba Michael Adedotun Gbadebo CFR, on August 24 2017, who wrote asking for a meeting to table concerns, before the commencement of the forensic audit. In defence of Oando Plc, the Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria, an association of Oando minority shareholders had run a series of advertorials comparing SEC’s handling of Ecobank Transnational International to Oando and there were significant differences. The differences included SEC inviting Ecobank Board members to defend the findings of the forensic audit by KPMG but the same courtesy of defending or rebutting the findings of Deloitte, Nigeria was never granted to Oando PLC. The advertorial also highlights that till date, Oando has not seen the forensic audit report despite repeated requests, while in Ecobank’s case, the audit report was delivered to ETI’s head office and its defence was incorporated in the final forensic report. Further faulting the SEC’s processes, the advertorial showed that an

OANDO HAS NOT SEEN THE FORENSIC AUDIT REPORT DESPITE REPEATED REQUESTS, WHILE IN ECOBANK’S CASE, THE AUDIT REPORT WAS DELIVERED TO ETI’S HEAD OFFICE AND ITS DEFENCE WAS INCORPORATED IN THE FINAL FORENSIC REPORT

Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC) was not convened in the case of Ecobank, and therefore the regulator could not issue sanctions under its procedures while for Oando, the SEC did not have a functional board and therefore was unable to convene an APC, nevertheless the SEC still issued sanctions. In the light of the foregoing and the ETI case study, it would not be far-fetched to claim that the SEC has meted unfair treatment on Oando PLC and shown an unfair bias in its decisions and actions. Further reinforcing the issue of bias, in the case of BGL, it took the SEC three years and 32 complaints between 2012 and 2015 against the company over misconducts relating to operations of their Guaranteed Consolidated Notes (GCN) and Guaranteed Premium Notes (GPN) before SEC finally took a decision to investigate BGL. In the case of Oando, it took just one complaint before the SEC swung into action. Oando has consistently reiterated its concerns that the SEC even took up this complaint as it was a petition from an indirect Oando shareholder. Still on the BGL case SEC had stated that in order to ensure investors obtained justice while also granting all parties a fair hearing, all parties were invited before the SEC APC.In the popular 2006 Cadbury case SEC wrote to Cadbury expressing its concern on the issue of its 2005 financial report review after which it constituted an in-house committee, which investigated the matter of confirmed misstatements of approximately N13 billion. SEC then invited the company executives to appear before the APC to explain why sanctions should not be imposed on them before it took action from the APC’s findings. Using the two cases as examples Oando asserts in its press statement that the “APC forum was rightly adopted by the SEC in the case of Mr. Olubunmi Oladapo Oni vs. Administrative Proceeding Committee & Securities and Exchange Commission (2014) N.W.L.R. (part 1424) 334 “The Cadbury Case�, the case of Afolabi Gabriel Oluwaseyi & 9 others vs. BGL Securities Limited & 22 others as well as in the case of the investigation of a certain financial institution�, therefore, it sees no reason not to be accorded the same hearing since other aforementioned parties were afforded opportunities to be heard before the panel prescribed appropriate punishments. Weighing the actions of the SEC against Oando to the above listed companies, it is irrevocably clear that the regulatory body has shown bias against Oando. Despite clamorous from all sides for SEC to readdress the situation and act as a fair and impartial regulator SEC continues to turn a blind eye and not address some of the disturbing issues such as bias that are coming to light. Instead the Commission seems happy to go to court with Oando’s principals for the judiciary to decide on this matter. Ashiru-Olabanjo wrote from Lagos

NOT BY GOVERNMENT ALONE Sonnie Ekwowusi argues for the strengthening of values

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ow that new governments have been inaugurated at the federal and state levels the expectation is that the new governments should easily translate to a new lease of life. I beg to disagree. To begin with, the so-called new governments, in the strict sense, are not new government. What has happened is that the same whitewashed political parasites have either returned to power themselves or through their proxies. And as you know very well, an old wine poured inside a new wineskin still remains an old wine. So the Nigerian political landscape has remained unchanged despite the feverish readjustments of some political seats recently. In any case, the presence of government alone in a country is not enough to improve the wellbeing of the people otherwise Nigeria would have been a paradise on earth. Government and government activities are not synonymous with economic prosperity. In fact government can be a curse on the people. In his epic essay: “Common Sense,� Tom Paine maintained that the English government was evil. “Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness: the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is patron, the other punisher�, he opined. Obviously Paine was reacting to the peculiar political situation of his time. But we are still in the times of Paine. Government dominates public discourses in Nigeria especially on Facebook, twitter, instagram, WhatsApp platforms, in beer parlours, in churches, mosques, stadia, market places and so forth but government is a big failure in Nigeria. In Nigeria governments boast and

pretend that they can do everything when in actual fact they constitute the roadblocks that inhibit the citizens from reaching their potential or creating wealth for themselves. The truth of the matter however is that many states in Nigeria are ungovernable. For example, since political independence, the Northern region has produced a powerful prime minister, powerful heads of state and presidents yet many Northern states are ungovernable. Today Muhammadu Buhari, a Northerner, is the President of Nigeria. Most political appointments are skewed in favour of North to the disadvantage of the South (South-East enjoys only about 12 appointments; South-South 17, South-West 16, North-Central 16 while North-West enjoys 34 and North-East 25 appointments) yet Northern Nigeria is still defined by poverty and hopelessness. Notwithstanding the constant inflow of huge revenues to the high number of local government areas in the North, grinding poverty is fast grinding the North to a halt. For instance, the North-West is the poverty capital of Nigeria. It is writhing in pains at the moment with about 75% poverty rate followed by North-East with 72% poverty rate. Despite the fact that virtually all our service chiefs are Northerners and despite the deployment of heavy army troops, army generals and army chieftains in the North, Boko Haram insurgents, Fulani herdsmen terrorists, noon-day kidnappers and bandits are continuously maiming and murdering their victims in the North. Today most residents in the North live in perpetual fear. They sleep at night with one eye open for fear that bandits and kidnappers might knock at their doors any time. The Abuja-Kaduna expressway is now encumbered by kidnappers and bandits waiting for whom to devour. The increasing

insecurity of lives and property in the North is so scaring that if nothing is not done urgently to tackle it the average northerner might end up fleeing the North to seek succour somewhere else. Apart from Northern states, some Southern states are equally ungovernable. I have just returned from visiting some parts of Imo and Abia States. I will tell you that Owerri and Umuahia are just like abandoned rickety Igbo villages. On arrival in Owerri, the lady in front of the commercial vehicle I boarded started cursing Rochas Okorocha and the day he was born. The lady was hell bent on convincing us that Rochas is a thief, and, that his only achievement as Imo State governor was the erection of the statues of Zuma, Idi Amin, Sani Abacha, Buhari and others in Owerri. In Umuahia, apart from the beautiful roadside billboards where Dr. Theodore Orji and his son are advertising their faces, there is no other beautiful thing in Umuahia. Any student of history in either Edo State or Delta State will tell you that since the glorious era of Samuel Ogbemudia in the old Midwestern region no governor has achieved anything worthwhile in that region. We can go on discussing failed states in Nigeria but that is not the thrust of this piece. The thrust of this piece is that it is suicidal putting our destiny in the hands of a few political office holders who have managed to capture the state in order to advance their foolish interests. The Nigerian people should begin to explore their capacity to defend their lives and property against, say, Fulani herdsmen killers or bandits or kidnappers. They should also explore their capacity to create wealth for themselves instead of waiting for the so-called messianic government that will never come. In fact a time has

come for the Nigerian civil society to take up important roles in the Nigerian democratic experiments. You will recall that under the governments of Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and even Barack Obama, the American political landscape was reshaped to accommodate the work of the traditional and civil organizations and NGOs. That eventually paid off in America. It can also yield fruits in Nigeria if given a try. Considering that most governments in Nigeria have failed, NGOs, churches, mosques, voluntary organizations, etc., should come to their rescue especially in the education and health sectors where governments have woefully failed. Man does not live by government alone. No nation has survived under a barren government. At the get-together with some Lagos professionals last Sunday, Professor Pat Utomi reiterated Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s idea of cultural pathology, that is, his thesis that culture not politics is what determines the success of any society. Prof Utomi said something which struck his listeners. He said that the Nigerian state is now perceived abroad as a criminal enterprise. Why? Because of lack of character. Because of lack of character foreign companies are no longer investing in Nigeria. The members of international community prefer dealing with other African countries to dealing with Nigeria. I agree completely. The first thing is culture and at the heart of culture are values. No government in which its political actors are fraudulent can save a nation. Therefore if we want to survive as a nation we must first of all strengthen the communally-binding values because the latter are what give rise to the former. Without imbibing and living those binding values which make society tick we are bound to continue drifting.

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EDITORIAL Mental Illness And Public Health There is need to pay more attention to mental health

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ental illness is assuming a disturbing trend in the country. A recent disclosure by a team of medical personnel from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital that one in every five Nigerians is vulnerable to mental illness only affirms the level of the prevalence of the disease. Notwithstanding, medical scientists argue that mental illnesses are neither incurable nor terminal. This implies that persons who suffer from this disease can recover if they promptly seek help instead of allowing it to weigh them down. When understood and spotted on time, every Nigerian with mental health challenges can seek help before severe damage sets in. But this public health challenge is unfortunately on the rise in Nigeria because no commensurate plan has been put in place to address it. For instance, Nigeria has only about 150 psychiatrists to care for the population; that is one psychiatrist EARLY SIGNS OF MENTAL to 1.3 million NiILLNESS INCLUDE EATING gerians. It also has OR SLEEPING TOO MUCH five mental health OR TOO LITTLE; PULLING nurses to 100,000 Nigerians with only AWAY FROM PEOPLE eight neuropsychiatric AND USUAL ACTIVITIES; hospitals in the entire HAVING LOW OR NO country. It is therefore ENERGY no surprise that mental health challenge is on the rise and suicide is now a common phenomenon. From jumping into the lagoon to hanging self with rope or drinking poison, reports on suicide have moved from an occasional blip to a very disturbing trend in our country. According to scientists, mental health includes the emotional, psychological and social well-being of people and they affect the way such individuals think, feel and behave. Medical scientists also attribute the cause of mental illness to three factors: biological, which include genes or brain chemistry; life experiences, such as trauma or abuse; and family history. Sadly, the authori-

Letters to the Editor

ties in Nigeria are not paying adequate attention to them. During a recent community awareness campaign in Sokoto, it was disclosed that there were over 300 diagnosable mental illnesses in Nigeria. Listed as causes of these illnesses are genetics, environmental factors, infection, drugs and stress. Since those who suffer from any of these illnesses can fully recover, they are encouraged to seek help immediately they notice the signs. Family members who notice signs of mental illness in their loved ones should also not trivialise it or pretend that all is well. That will be counter-productive. Instead, they should immediately assist the victims to get to the psychiatric hospital for treatment.

E T H I S DAY EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI DEPUTY EDITOR YEMI AJAYI, DAVIDSON IRIEKPEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS PATRICK EIMIUHI, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (9501000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

TIME TO STOP BOKO HARAM, OTHERS

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frica region has been experiencing significant levels of terrorism since 2013. Africa has largest number of classified terrorist groups in the world which are Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, Boko Haram terrorist group of Nigeria, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Shabaab of Somali, Ansar ul-Islam and Ansar, among others. According to “Terrorism in Africa: A Qualitative Analysis” written by Adriana Linsde Albuquerque, 218 known organizations have perpetrated terrorist acts in Africa. But, only a handful of groups are behind most of the major incidents. Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab, the two notorious terrorist groups based in Nigeria and Somalia were responsible for nearly 50 per cent of attacks in Africa. In West Africa, Boko Haram, the Nigeria version of AlQaeda, which means “Western Education is a Sin” came into existence since year 2002. In 2009, it metamorphosed into a violent sect to create an Islamic State in northern Nigeria. Thereafter, in 2015, the sect pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It has extended its operations to the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic. Boko Haram has massacred over 100,000 people both civilians and military personnel in Nigeria, displaced hundred of thousands of people and destroyed property through suicide bombings and assaults on civilians as well as kidnapping of over 276 school girls.

arly signs of mental illness include eating or sleeping too much or too little; pulling away from people and usual activities; having low or no energy; feeling numb or behaving as if nothing matters any longer; having unusual aches and pains; feeling helpless or hopeless; smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual. Others are: feeling unusually confused, forgetful, staying on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared; yelling or fighting with family and friends; experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships; having persistent thoughts and memories that you can’t get out of your head; hearing voices or believing things that are not true; thinking of harming yourself or others; and inability to perform your daily tasks such as taking care of your kids or getting to work or school. While we counsel that everyone can avoid a sudden degeneration into mental illness by seeking professional help when they perceive that it is necessary, it is obvious that Nigeria is not yet ready to address the issue of mental health. To make matters worse, no clearly defined mental health policy has been implemented. What Nigerians must understand is that the insane man on the street who talks to himself and sleep on dirt is not the only one with mental disorder. There are many who appear ‘normal’ yet may be having serious mental health challenge. We need to take them into account.

Boko Haram and a splinter group known as Ansaru, had carried out series of kidnapping, killings, bombings, and attacks on civilians and military targets. The Nigerian states where these attacks occurred most frequently are Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Plateau, Taraba and Federal Capital Territory (FCT). On July 6, 2013, over 50 students were murdered in their dormitories at Mamudo Government Secondary School in Yobe State. Some 44 persons praying at a Mosque outside Maiduguri and another 12 civilians nearby in Borno were simultaneously killed. Also, Boko Haram terrorists killed more than 40 students in the dormitory of an agricultural technical school in Yobe State. According to UNICEF, the activities of Boko Haram have forced more than 2,000 schools to close and disrupted the education of more than a million children. Records show thatBoko Haram alone has carried out over 180 attacks in Nigeria, making the sect the most deadly terrorist group not only in Africa but globally. Through the activity of Boko Haram, the economy of northern Nigeria has been devastated as the fight against Boko Haram is sucking the scarce financial resources of states in the north -east Nigeria. On the other hand in East Africa is Al-Shabaab which means “the youth” in Arabic, a Somalia-based terrorist group that operates also on Ethiopian land of Addis Ababa and Kenya. Agunloye Adewunmi Bashiru, bagunloye@gmail.com

JAMB AND DIRECT ENTRY REGISTRATION

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he sudden closure of the 2019 direct entry registration portal during the election period in February has created serious bottleneck for thousands of A ‘Level IJMB, JUPEB and diploma students who are seeking admission into the university. We implore the honorable Minister of Education and the Jamb Registrar to reopen the direct portal for the affected candidates whose future hang in the balance. Note that there was no enough publicity or awareness for the Advanced Level IJMB, JUPEB and diploma students before closing the direct entry portal. The notification was only available to the UTME candidates and people who visited the Jamb portals during the time. Two, the closure of the direct entry registration in February 2019 was unusual. From the previous practice, the direct entry portal normally closes by July every year. This explains why the A ‘Level candidates never expected the portal to close that soon. Three, UTME and direct entry are two different forms meant for two different categories of candidates at different times,

and so, their portals are never expected to close the same time based on previous practice. Four, we also expect that any change in the existing policies should be given wide publicity through the mass media and enough time should be given to effect the needed changes. Last year, the Jamb Registrar closed the 2018 DE portal in July. So, no one would expect the same Jamb Registrar to change the usual closure period to February. Furthermore, most of the affected students have neither received their examination numbers nor have seen their results with which to register for the direct entry as at the time the portal was closed in February 2019. We therefore urge the good offices of the Jamb Registrar and the Minister of Education to reconsider the extension of the 2019 direct entry registration for the sake of the innocent candidates who desire to further their education in the university, knowing fully well that one year wasted can cause a serious setback for these candidates and for the society at large. Comr. Olawuyi Olufemi, President, ASEAN, Ilorin, Kwara State

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

ICPC to Probe Benue, 11 Other States Warns against diversion of LG funds George Okoh in Makurdi The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has said it will investigate Benue State and 11 other state Houses of Assembly over alleged diversion of constituency funds. This was disclosed by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, at the swearing-in ceremony of 23 Local Government Caretaker Chairmen at the New Banquet Hall of the Benue People’s House in Makurdi. He said he got the information from a social media platform even as he stated that his state was penciled down to be probe on the application of constituency funds by lawmakers, “so I advise you not to be involved in any financial misappropriation that could land you into such situation because I will not defend you.” Ortom also advised the local government area chairmen to abide strictly by the guidelines of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) abolishing Joint

Account system between the state and local governments which has given the third tier of government the financial autonomy. According to the governor, “We, the governors, are in court with NFIU to insist that the constitutional provision as it concerns the local governments is followed. I urge you to abide by the guidelines pending the determination of the suit. “I have not interfered with local government funds, and I do not intend to do so. Guard against illegal practices that tend to give the local government bad image. Our government will not tolerate diversion of funds, and any chairman found outside his domain would be removed.” He further charged the new chairmen to concern themselves with payment of staff salaries, declaring that he will put an eye on them to ensure prudent application of funds. Ortom stated that the appointment of the caretaker chairmen was to fill the vacuum created by the expiration of the

tenure of the elected council chairmen, stressing that merit was the yardstick used in choosing them. While tasking the local government chairmen on excellence and the need to prioritise payment of salaries of workers, the governor charged them to relate closely with the people of their respective areas

to identify their challenges, instead of relocating to reside in Makurdi, the state capital. He urged the council caretaker chairmen to also execute projects in accordance with the needs of their communities while exploring avenues to guarantee peace and security. The governor emphasised on

the importance of transparency and prudence in the management of resources accruing to the councils. He reaffirmed his support for local government autonomy and advocated that implementation of the new guidelines on financial autonomy for local government should follow constitutional

procedures to prevent crisis at the third tier of government. Caretaker Committee Chairman of Guma Local Government Area, Mr. Anthony Shawon, who responded on behalf of his colleagues, expressed appreciation to the Governor for the confidence reposed in them and promised to live up to the expectations.

Navy Destroys 50 Illegal Refineries in Delta Creeks Chiemelie Ezeobi As part of its continuous fight against crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta, the Nigerian Navy (NN) yesterday said over 50 illegal refineries have been destroyed in the past 32 days around Yeye, Burutu and Ibafa creeks in Delta State. In the ongoing operation, of which select defense correspondents in Lagos and Abuja were embedded, personnel attached to the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) DELTA, also seized six ships- MT AYSU, MY INTERIM, MV MAMA ELIZABETH, MT MIRACLE, MV NIPAL and SD WATERMAN. Also seized were 85 wooden boats used by criminal elements for alleged illegal bunkering of petroleum products siphoned from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipelines and crude oil well heads in six months. At the different creeks where

the defence correspondents were taken to by the Executive Officer, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Captain Festus Adewuyi, a massive and well-coordinated operation of crude distillation processes were being carried out. Despite continuous efforts by the navy to destroy such illegal refineries, more keeps sprouting especially at Benet Island, where over 50 of 10,000 litre metal tanks were found. Already, the navy has identified over 900 illegal refinery camps within NNS DELTA’s area of operation (AOO) with the bulk of it located around Ughelli and Warri South. According to the Commander, NNS DELTA, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, several persons have been arrested for various maritime offences and handed over to prosecutorial agencies, while the vessels were being kept in trust for the agencies in line with the Harmonised Standard Operation Procedure (HSOP).

Nigeria Losses About N127bn to Cybercrime Annually Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has disclosed that Nigeria losses about N127 billion to cybercrime as a result of the country’s inability to properly secure her information system, adding that the global IT industry is expected to hit $5 trillion by the end of 2019. He made this known yesterday in Abuja during the stakeholders’ engagement for the review of the guidelines for information system audit and software testing Speaking through the Director, e-Government Regulatory Department of the Agency, Dr Vincent Olatunji, the DG said Nigeria needs adequate guidelines to protect her cyberspace.

“The Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), has estimated that Nigeria loses about N127 billion to cybercrimes yearly. This is caused in part by our inability to adequately secure our Information Systems. “Therefore, securing our information systems is a must if we want to guarantee the safe delivery of our services. The proposed Guidelines for Information Systems audit by the agency is one of the tools to guarantee this safety”, he said Speaking further, he said on assumption of office, the agency realised that it did not have any instrument that stipulates a clear process for issuance of regulatory instruments, saying a Rulemaking Process Regulation was therefore issued on January 25, 2019.

SERVICE OF SONGS…

L-R: Former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Timi Alaibe; former President, Nigerian Bar Association, Chief OCJ Okocha; his wife, Mrs. Okocha; Secretary to Government of Bayelsa State; Mr. Kemela Okara; and Mrs Okara, at the service of songs in honour of the late Dr. Gabriel Okara in Port Harcourt…recently

Catholic Priests Meet in Kaduna over Insecurity John Shiklam in Kaduna Catholic priests drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the Abuja yesterday commenced meeting in Kaduna over the spate of kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry and general insecurity in the country. The meeting, which is still ongoing, is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigeria Catholic Diocesan Priests’ Association. However, the priests would discuss the spate of killings, kidnapping and other related crimes confronting the land. The AGM holding at the Catholic Social Centre in the

state capital, has as its theme: ‘The Imperative of Good Governance for a secure and Prosperous Nation.’ Earlier speaking in a church service preceding the event conducted at the Our Lady’s Parish along the Independence Way, the Archbishop of Kaduna Diocese, Most. Rev. Mathew Ndagoso- Manoso, urged the clerics to frankly discuss the security challenges bedevilling the country. While noting that the theme of the AGM was apt, the cleric lamented the disturbing insecurity in the country. This, he said, was due to lack of the presence of government

and good governance in certain parts of the country particularly the North-east where the dreaded Boko Haram was still holding sway. He argued that good governance and security were interwoven such that in the absence of one, the other suffered. He added that the Nigeria leaders “should stop whatever they are doing and frontally confront the security challenges.” “Insecurity starts from where there is absence of government. The absence of government in certain parts of the country has brought us to where we are today. Our problem has always been the management of resources of

the land,” he added. He also disclosed how Boko Haram had taken advantage of lack of government’s presence in the North-east, to render essential services to communities in the area. This, he said, portend danger for the country against the backdrop of the federal government’s fight against terrorism. He said, “Something is happening right now weather the government knows or not, is that the splinter group of the Boko Haram is providing services to the communities in Borno. “They are collecting taxes because of the absence of government. This is dangerous,” he added.

Sanwo-Olu: Reconstruction of Lagos-Badagry Expressway Begins in Two Weeks Omololu Ogunmade inAbuja The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday in Abuja stated that reconstruction of the collapsed Lagos - Badagry Expressway will formally resume in the next two weeks. The road has been an eye-sore and a nightmare to the people of Lagos, particularly motorists, commuters and residents plying the route over the years. Answering questions from journalists in the State House on the state of the road, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Sanwo-olu who said he visited the road two days after he assumed office, disclosed that

machinery had been put in place to ensure that the contractor returns to site at the end of June. Sanwo-Olu added that he had inspected the road twice since he assumed office. He explained that between this weekend and early next week, discussions with the contractor on the road would end and work would commence in earnest. “I was on that road two days after I was sworn-in precisely and we’ve gone round. I’ve been there twice now in about two weeks. So, the commitment we got was that the contractors would move into site before the end of this month and I am still relaying that in the month of June, we should

be closing out the discussions with the contractor over the weekend early next week. “We are hoping that barely any unforeseen circumstance, they should be moving-in in another two to three weeks’ time, meaning that the clean-up and the construction of the Badagary expressway returns back in earnest,” he said. Also speaking on the decongestion of Oshodi-Apapa expressway, Sanwo-Olu said certain false claims had been circulating in the media that he promised during the electioneering that he would decongest the road within his first 60 days in office. He denied making the

comment, saying rather he promised that his government would carry out a review of previous activities on the road within 60 days. The governor who said he thanked the president for federal government’s intervention in the decongestion of the road, added that whereas port operators causing gridlock on the road are federal agencies, it is actually the people of the state who bear the pains. According to him, the reconstruction of Oshodi-Apapa road has commenced but it is yet to attain the level where it can be noticed, adding that the evacuation of tankers causing congestion on the road has equally begun.”

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019

MIDWEEKPOLITICS

Group Politics Editor NSEOBONG OKON-EKONG Email nseobong.okonekong@thisdaylive.com 08114495324 SMS ONLY

NEWSMAKER

Lifting Ebonyi Out of the Backwater Nseobong Okon-Ekong writes that through his sterling performance, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has inspired a people once derided as the most backward among the Igbo states to rise to a place of honour

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Umahi

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would contest for president in 2023

where a woman was raped in her husband’s house

madu Buhari to score 25 percent in the 2019 presidential election

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r0LPSPDIB JT PVS MFBEFS B HSFBU TPO PG *HCP MBOE BOE XF BSF JO WFSZ HPPE UFSNT Umahi denying that there is a rift between him and former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who is now a senator

r* XBOU UP UIBOL BMM PG ZPV BOE * SFTFSWF BMM UIBOLT Ã STU UP (PE BMNJHIUZ NZ GBNJMZ BOE UIBU PG UIF %FQVUZ (PWFSOPS BOE PG DPVSTF $IJFG .BSUJO &MFDIJ UIF GPSNFS (PWFSOPS * XJMM OFWFS GPSHFU IJN CFDBVTF IF JT UIF EFTUJOZ IFMQFS UIBU (PE CSPVHIU UP QVU NF XIFSF * BN 8JUIPVU IJN * XPVMEO U IBWF CFFO IFSF 4P GPS ZPVS JOGPSNBUJPO XF BSF UBMLJOH OPX BOE XF BSF IBQQZ XJUI PVSTFMWFT Umahi chiding those fanning the embers of purported political enmity between him and his predecessor, Chief Martin Elechi r"OZ *[[J XPNBO XIFUIFS UIF NBO JT GSPN *[[J PS PVUTJEF *[[J BOE IF IBWF TFY XJUI UIF *[[J XPNBO JO UIJT QMBDF UIF MBOE JT EFTFDSBUFE BOE UIF XPNBO BT XFMM JT EFTFDSBUFE BOE DBOOPU SFUVSO UP UIF IVTCBOE T IPVTF BHBJO BOE UIBU JT PVS DVMUVSF 5IF NBO UIBU EJE JU JT OPU BMMPXFE UP TUBZ JO UIBU MBOE *U JT UIF TBNF UIJOH JO UIF FOUJSF &CPOZJ TUBUF 4P XIFSF UIFSF JT SBQJOH PG XPNFO JO UIFJS GBSNT JT WFSZ EBOHFSPVT 5IBU MBOE JT DVSTFE BOE DBOOPU QSPEVDF BOZ DSPQ BHBJO *G UIBU XPNBO HJWFT BOZUIJOH UP UIF IVTCBOE UP FBU UIBU NBO NVTU EJF Umahi charging the chairman of Miyeti Allah herders group to solve the problem

r5IF GBDU JT UIBU UIF QSFTJEFOU SFNBJOT UIF CPTT PG BMM HPWFSOPST BOE BOZ SFBTPO BCMF HPWFSOPS NVTU SFTQFDU UIF QSFTJEFOU QBSUZ EJGGFSFODFT BQBSU :PV HBJO OPUIJOH CZ DBTUJHBUJOH IJN BOE TVDI DBTUJHBUJPO EPFT OPU TUPQ IJN GSPN CFJOH UIF QSFTJ EFOU :PV TIPVME SBUIFS NBLF IJN ZPVS GSJFOE BOE TFF IPX ZPV DBO HFU TPNFUIJOH GPS ZPVS QFPQMF 5IF #JCMF UFMMT VT UIBU XIFO UIF XBZT PG B NBO JT QMFBTJOH VOUP (PE JU LFFQT IJT FOFNJFT UP CF BU QFBDF XJUI IJN Umahi debunking claims that Southeast governors help President Muham-

r* BN JO B IVSSZ UP DIBOHF UIF OBSSB UJWFT PG &CPOZJ QFPQMF TP XIBUFWFS WFIJDMF PG QFBDF UIBU * OFFE UP KPJO UP BDIJFWF UIJT * XJMM KPJO Umahi restating his commitment to develop Ebonyi r"T B MFBEFS JO UIF [POF * NVTU TBZ UIBU TPNF PG UIFJS DPNQMBJOUT BSF HFOVJOF CVU UIF BQQSPBDI JT WFSZ CBE 5IBU JT XIZ UIF MFBEFST PG 4PVUI FBTU BSF OPU JO TVQQPSU PG UIFJS BQQSPBDI 8F BSF OPU BHBJOTU UIFN CVU UIFJS BQQSPBDI "T UIF $IJFG 4FDVSJUZ PG UIF TUBUF * EP OPU XFMDPNF UIFN &CPOZJ TUBUF JT OPU QBSU PG #JBGSB XF BSF B TPWFSFJHO TUBUF BOE XF EPO U XBOU UP CF DPMPOJTFE BHBJO BT XF BSF B TUBUF EFNBOEJOH CFUUFS USFBUNFOU JO UIF BGGBJST PG PVS OBUJPO Umahi stating categorically that Ebonyi is not part of ‘Sovereign States of Biafra’ declared by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra

T H I S D AY ˾WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019

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NEWSMAKER

Giving New Meaning to Presidential Amnesty Programme

Udora Orizu interrogates the gains and challenges of the Presidential Amnesty Programmes under Professor Charles Dokubo

P

rofessor Charles Quaker Dokubo, the Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta/Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, is at home with conflict management. At the University of Bradford, he obtained a Masters Degree in Peace Studies, before continuing his doctoral degree in Nuclear Weapon Proliferation and its control. In 1985, he was awarded his doctoral degree in the same University of Bradford. He was later appointed a temporary lecturer in the department before proceeding to Nigeria in 1993. He is the author and editor of various scholarly books and journals including, ‘Nigeria’s Security Interest in Africa’, ‘Nuclear Proliferation and the Probability of Nuclear War: The effectiveness of the Nuclear NonProliferation Regime’. His latest publication is the ‘Defence Policy of Nigeria: Capability and Contest’. He was a Research Professor in the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, when he got his current job. And he assumed office at a time the amnesty programme was at its ‘’Reintegration Phase’’ - a phase that is hinged on training, education/knowledge and vocational/skills acquisition. Monitors of the programme said one thing stood out undoubtedly, since the inauguration of the programme to the time Professor Dokubo took over: His predecessors were only interested in education and training without option of empowerment and job placement for the target-group. The amnesty programme — a special institution that will not only grant amnesty to the Niger Delta militants but also to oversee the human development capacity of the region, was initiated by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua om June 25, 2009 following the breakdown and the failure of all other initiatives to the growth and the development of the Niger Delta region. The amnesty programme was created as a policy response to the menace of social agitations that had undermine insecurity and the development of the region in which the agitators were involved in seemingly destructive actions: blowing up of pipelines, kidnapping of multinational oil company’s workers and other oil infrastructures. The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) eventually offered the troubled region a huge opportunity to stem violent conflict meaningfully and to start longer-term regional development in the oil-rich region. The success of the programme was to be determined by the disposition and keenness of the agitators to surrender their arms and unconditionally, renounce militancy and sign an undertaking to this effect. And in return, the federal government pledged its pledge to institute programmes to ‘’rehabilitate and reintegrate’’ ex-militants under a structured Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR) programme. From the design, the DDRR programmme was not the typically one frequently considered to reflect what many peace-building strategists have under the framework of ordinary peace agreement; although it drew a lot from international standards and principles that are consistent with the national context. So far, the programme has undergone a transcendental progression through the various phases of Disarmament, Demobilization and Rehabilitation. Many international organisations working on the Niger Delta’s projects, see the turning point of PAP under the leadership of Professor Dokubo. To be sure, on assuming office, he injected a new thinking and dimension to the programme: the introduction of job placement programmes, micro-credit, cooperatives, business support, monitoring and evaluation. Dokubo’s projection was that for the programme to achieve its objectives, the Niger-Delta youths need to be taught to

For many, the PAP Coordinator, Professor Dokubo has restructured and created the programme such that in the long run, it will proffer solution to the endemic crisis and give room to sustainable security in the region and to Nigeria as a whole. The whole ideal may be that if he gives these young men and women from the NigerDelta favourable conditions and policies to enable them gain employment, it will be keep them busy, invariably, and they will not have time for much agitation; the youths will be properly empowered within the region; and also, a potential employer of labour, thus contributing to economic growth as well as development.

Prof. Dokubo

go through training and education, and be assisted to rediscover their potentials and further made to be self-reliant, as this will keep them engaged. And records show that since he took over the PAP, the number of exmilitants that have graduated has increased geometrically to over 20, 000. ‘’About 3, 243 persons are at present undergoing training while 5, 578 are at the same time awaiting training; this is because the PAP does the training in batches,’’ Professor Dokubo told journalists recently. In the education programmes, a breakdown shows that, of 2,577 persons who are currently in schools, 1,060 persons are studying in not less than 10 universities -- both private and government locally, while 1,517 are studying abroad in over 50 universities - spread across Europe, Asia, Africa and Americas. ‘’PAP is doing all this knowing that knowledge and education are key factors to the full and effective participation of youths in the processes of social, economic and political development,” the presidential adviser stated; and adding that what education does to the youth is that it gives them the knowledge, capacities, skills and ethical values needed to fulfil their role as agents of development, good governance, social inclusion, tolerance and peace. Dokubo, who was a Research Professor at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos may have also recognised the fact that greater focus on universal access to education, quality education, human rights education and learning are key for young people to be able to address their aspirations and challenges, fulfil their potential, and influence current and future social and economic conditions and opportunities. Empowering Ex-militants through Vocational Skills/Acquisition For those following the programmes of the PAP under the leadership of Dokubo, skills/ vocational training is seen as another area where he has done tremendously well. The skills acquisition involves the development of a new skill usually gained through training or experience. While vocational skill is a highly useful education as its occupational content is such that the trainee acquires skills, attitudes, interest and knowledge to perform socially and economically scientific knowledge. Deriving from this initiative, a total of 18,602 were said to have received vocational training in specialised courses: agriculture,

2,265; automobile mechanics, 1,171; welding/ fabrication 4,686; entrepreneurship, 2,074; carpentry, plumbing & pipe fitting, 402; electrical installation/maintenance, 714; Information and Communications Technology-ICT, 401; Crane/heavy duty operations, 1,536; health safety & environment-HSE, 249; and music/ fashion/entertainment/catering, 1688. Others include, aviation, 187; and Boat building, 152. Out of the 3243 in training, 3,006 are receiving education; 2,799 in universities in Nigeria, and 207 students in universities and colleges abroad. Also, a figures obtained from the PAP’s office suggest that 237 are receiving specialised vocational training, 217 in vocational/skills acquisition in Nigeria, and, 20 undergoing specialised training Aviation training at the Nigerian College of Aviation TechnologyNCAT. This shows that the training component of the reintegration programme have had modest impact on human capacity development in the Niger Delta. Also, Dokubu is working on setting up in collaboration with the different state governments vocational Training Centres (VTCs) in different fields. Two of these Centres have been commissioned: the oil and gas training Centre in Agadaba-Obon, Ondo State and the Basic Skills Training Centre in Kaiama in Bayelsa State. PAP and Entrepreneurship Development Releasing that in the Nigerian scenarios, many Niger-Delta youths and citizens do not have the financial muscles to set-up their businesses, and further recognizing that governments alone cannot provide jobs for its teeming youth population, PAP has developed programmes towards the expansion of economic activities through entrepreneurship and job placements of all trained delegates. Already, PAP is said to be liaising with different organisations such as United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to help in this regards. Even although, post-training engagement for already trained ex-militants remains daunting, the presidential adviser on Niger Delta is said to have so far empowered and facilitated the set-up of small and medium scale businesses for nearly 4,450 ex-militants. ‘’Some of the many trained delegates have secured direct employment in the public and private sectors within and outside the country’’, Dokubo stated recently.

Challenges For Professor Dokubo, militancy did not end with the declaration of the PAP; according to him, that would amount to expecting that armed robbery would end when armed robbers are condemned and killed. ‘’That means training is a continuous process; rehabilitation is continuous; that is why it has been difficult to bring the amnesty to an abrupt end’’, Dokubo told a group of editors recently in Abuja. He said that containing these former combatants is a very sensitive assignment, describing the task as ‘’a generational’’ issue that cannot be wiped away within a twinkle of an eye. He added, ‘’As long as oil remains and as long as injustices exist in the operations of the oil companies, people will feel cheated and will continue to revolt. We must always anticipate this. ‘’Second, there is what is called economic reintegration. This implies not just the training in specialised or general skills, but the ability of the system to absorb graduates of such training at the completion of their courses. We must find jobs for the ex-combatants. ‘’Something must engage them and turn their attention away from their old lifestyle of militancy. This is a challenge that government alone cannot handle.’’ The conflict management expert explained that it is against the spirit of re-integration, when the ex-combatants—after the disarmament and demobilisation and the training are returned to the same environment and lifestyle that gave rise to militancy. ‘’Here I am talking about the atmosphere of joblessness and under-development. The truth is that if something must change about their behaviour and way of life, then something must change about their environment and lifestyle. This is a global practice everywhere. ‘’Some people have often asked why we are still paying the stipends to some of the ex-combatants. This question becomes necessary because some of them have already undergone trainings and are expected to stand on their own. However, it does not end there. The answer is this: by the rules of DDRR, those who have undergone training must be fully empowered with functional employment; they must be re-inserted into the larger society with alternative means of livelihood other than militancy. This is what rehabilitation and re-integration is all about’’, Professor Dokubo explained. He said that payment of stipends will continue for the time being -- until it is replaced with effective way of life for the ex-combatants, saying they must first be functionally re-integrated before they are left alone. According to him, anything to the contrary will be counter-productive, as there are provisions in the re-integration process as to when payment of stipends will stop, adding that it certainly will not continue forever. But when will the amnesty programmes winding down its operations? ‘’Amnesty is a gradual process that will be completed someday, soon and it is the federal government that will determine that,” he stated.

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FEATURES

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Email chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com, Tel: 08152252325

Insecurity: Locally Trained NAF In the past four years, the Nigerian Air Force has relied on the services of the Israeli Four Troops Team to train its Special Forces. Now, it has gradually built capacity to domesticate the training as was showcased during the recent graduation of its second batch, Chiemelie Ezeobi reports

T

he ongoing efforts of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to build added capacity to address the current security challenges in the country were once again boosted as the service graduated its second batch of locally trained Special Forces (SF) Instructors on May 31, 2019. The graduation of SF Instructors Course 2/2019, comprising 51 officers and men, brought the total number of locally trained instructors to 95. The move, which has saved the nation considerable foreign exchange whilst ensuring the domestication of SF training, is in line with one of the key drivers of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar’s vision, that is; “reinforcing a culture of self-reliance and prudent management of resources�. According to the Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, the colourful graduation ceremony, which took place at the Regiment Training Centre (RTC) Outdoor Shooting Range Kaduna, featured complex counter-terrorism demonstration exercises by the graduating students, including vehicular and foot assaults. Speaking during the ceremony, the CAS who expressed delight with the impressive display by the graduands commended RTC’s efforts in producing another set of locally trained SF instructors which, he said, would increase capacity to sustain the training of NAF SF. He noted that the NAF had, in the past four years, relied on the services of the Israeli Four Troops Team to train its SF personnel but had, over the years, gradually built capacity to domesticate the training. He further disclosed that the NAF was poised to increase RTC’s training capacity with the establishment of training centre annexes at Ipetu-Ijesha in Osun State, Owerri in Imo State and Bauchi in Bauchi State to maximise terrain training for the SF personnel. Commendation Speaking further, the CAS expressed immense satisfaction with the performance of NAF SF personnel in various internal security operations across the country, including Gusau in Zamfara State, Agatu in Benue State, Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State and Gembu in Taraba State, among others, as well as those operating alongside other security agencies along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway to ensure security of commuters along the route. He therefore urged the graduands to sustain the level of performance and exhibit the highest levels of professionalism in their future conduct as part of the frontline in the defence of the nation. He equally charged them to maintain and possibly exceed the standards set by their predecessors from the initial instructors’ training course. Air Marshal Abubakar appreciated the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari, for giving the NAF the resources and enabling environment to thrive. He equally expressed gratitude to the National Assembly, especially the Senate and House Committees on Defence and Air Force, for their continued support to the service. He also commended the efforts of the Air Officer Commanding Ground Training Command (AOC GTC), AVM Idi Amin, as well as the Commandant RTC, Wing Commander Stephen Sekegor, and his team of instructors that worked tirelessly to mould the new set of NAF SF instructors. Intricacies of the Special Forces Training In his welcome address, the Commandant RTC, stated that the current NAF administration, under the leadership of Abubakar, had deliberately pursued the capacity building drive of the NAF Regiment Specialty to better conduct base defence operations in both conventional and asymmetric warfare environments. The commandant further stated that before now, the SF training had been conducted abroad in various countries such as Belarus, Jordan and

Special Forces elements conducting a simulation at the Regiment Training Centre in Kaduna

Chief of the Air Sta (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar anked by other senior oďŹƒcers and elements of the Special Forces

Air OďŹƒcer Commanding, Ground Training Command (AOC GTC), AVM Idi Amin presenting an award to one of SF personnel

Pakistan. However, in line with CAS key driver in relation to human capacity development, the Four Troop Team was employed to conduct training for SF personnel as instructors at the RTC. While giving highlights of the 10-week intensive training programme, the commandant stated that the graduands underwent technical, tactical and basic night shooting; endurance training; dry drills; breaking and entry; discharge from vehicles; running and breaking of covers; convoy movement as well as weapon and ballistic zeroing, amongst others. It would be recalled that the initial SF Instructor Course1/2018 was

conducted at RTC in October 2018. Awards Awards were given to students who distinguished themselves during the course. Aircraftman Kanu Ihuoma got the Commandant’s Award for placing third in order of merit. The AOC GTC’s Award was given to Corporal Ohanu Emmanuel, who emerged second best in order of merit, while Corporal Abdullahi Isyaku clinched the CAS’ Award having emerged the best all round on the course. The Commandant Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Air Officer Com-

manding Air Training Command, Commandant Air Force Institute of Technology, Commanders of co-located NAF Units in Kaduna as well as other serving and retired senior officers were among the dignitaries that graced the occasion. Force Protection In another development, the NAF has built capacity in force protection. This is because the need for continuous capacity development to meet the evolving imperatives for specialist skillsets, such as Force Protection, required in the ongoing counterinsurgency and anti-armed

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FEATURES

Special Forces to the Rescue

CAS with the Commandant RTC, Wing Commander Stephen Sekegor

Another simulation by graduands of Force Protection in Complex Air-Ground Environment

Some of the graduands of the Force Protection in Complex Air-Ground Environment

The Commandant RTC, Wing Commander Kehinde Akinyosade, with CAS

banditry operations cannot be overemphasised. In line with these imperatives, NAF on June 15, 2019, graduated 707 Regiment and Air Police personnel trained in Force Protection in Complex Air-Ground Environment (FP-CAGE).

In addition to the FP-CAGE Course 8/2019, the combined graduation ceremony, which took place at the Regiment Training Centre (RTC) Kaduna, also marked the completion of the Basic Regiment Officers’ Course 14/2019, Advanced

Regiment Airmen’s Course 3/201 as well as the Basic Regiment Airmen’s Course 27/2019. The ceremony, which featured simulation demonstrations by the graduating students, brought the total number of personnel trained in FP-CAGE,

since the NAF entered into partnership with the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT) in 2015, to 2,872. Speaking during the graduation ceremony, the CAS, who was the special guest of honour, stated that the graduation marked another milestone in the progress made towards revitalising the NAF Regiment and repositioning the Specialty to play its roles of Force Protection and security of NAF assets. He noted that the inclusion of some Air Police personnel in the FP-CAGE training was another initiative aimed at improving the security of bases and especially the personnel. The CAS further noted that the current security environment, with its attendant threats and challenges to NAF bases and infrastructure, had brought to the fore the need for the NAF to be able to not just project air power but also adequately ensure the protection of NAF air assets in furtherance of national security imperatives. According to him, “Our pragmatic approach to training has improved our capacity to secure our Bases as well as critical national assets and infrastructure while at the same time improving the capacity of the NAF to respond to national emergencies and crisis situations�. While congratulating the graduands for the successful completion of the training programme, the CAS reminded them of the need to remain disciplined and vigilant, whilst always guarding their utterances and ensuring they avoid any acts capable of denting the image of the NAF. The CAS also charged them to abide by rules of engagement when deployed and submit themselves to civil authority as they would be operating at a time when the nation is facing numerous security challenges. He further urged the graduands to keep giving their best in the service of the nation. “Always remember that your duty is to protect all Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic background or religious inclination�, he added. Air Marshal Abubakar again expressed gratitude to the president for the priority attention given to the requirements of the NAF. The support provided by the Federal Government, he said, had positively impacted on the NAF especially in the areas of training, enhanced operational efficiency as well as improved provision of welfare and other services. He also commended the efforts of the Chief of Training and Operations Headquarters NAF and Director of Regiment as well as the Air Officer Commanding Ground Training Command (AOC GTC) and the Commandant and staff of RTC for their efforts towards ensuring that the aims for which the Centre was established were being achieved. While also commending the BMATT instructors for their dedication, hard work and commitment to the training package in the RTC, the CAS noted that the seamless execution of the force protection exercise demonstrations by the graduands were a testimony to the collaborative efforts and synergy that has been achieved in partnership with NAF instructors. Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Commandant RTC, Wing Commander Kehinde Akinyosade, stated that the commendable achievements recorded by the RTC were made possible due to the unwavering support of the CAS and the commitment of the AOCs of GTC and the Air Training Command (ATC). He therefore expressed his profound gratitude and appreciation to the CAS for his keen interest in capacity development of NAF personnel, which, he said, had ensured an enabling environment for the timely, qualitative turn out of well-trained Regiment personnel. As part of the ceremony, the graduating students conducted an exercise simulating the countering of an insurgent threat to the base by an FPCAGE Team supported by an Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform. Another highlight of the graduation ceremony was the presentation of awards to students who distinguished themselves during the various courses. Dignitaries that graced the occasion included the Commandant Armed Forces Command and Staff College, AOCs ATC and GTC, Commander Nigerian Army Infantry Corp, Commanders of co-located NAF Units in Kaduna as well as other serving and retired senior officers.

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY Ëž JUNE 19, 2019

Group Business Editor Obinna Chima

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OBB OVERNIGHT

A S

A T REPO

10.86 % 11.43 %

CALL 1-MONTH 3-MONTH

11.50 % 12.25 % 12.63%

J U N E

7 ,

S & P INDEX INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY MONTH-TO-DATE

Email obinna.chima@thisdaylive.com 08152447875

2 0 1 9

393.05 % -0.52 % -0.48 %

S & P INDEX 1/4 TO DATE YEAR TO DATE

1.67 % 10.11 %

EXCHANGE RATE N306.95/1US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes Firm Pledges Free Internet Services

L-R: Senior Adviser, Department for International Development(DID), Mr. Richard Sandall; Head of Prosperity, British High Commission, Mr. Guy Harrison; Associate Executive Director, Corporate Development, FMDQ Securities Exchange Plc, Ms. Kaodi Ugoji; Managing Director/CEO FMDQ Securities, Mr. Bola Onadele. Koko; British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ms. Laure BeauďŹ ls; Associate Executive Director, Capital Markets, FMDQ Securities, Ms. Tumi Sekoni, and Head of Trade and Investment, DID, Mr. Hamed Kamal when FMDQ hosted BeauďŹ ls in Lagos‌recently.

Discos’ Collections Rise to N831bn in Two Years Chineme Okafor in Abuja Electricity consumers who are hooked on to the national grid paid N831 billion to the Distribution Companies (Discos) out of about N1.3 billion worth of electricity that was sent to their homes and offices between the second quarter of 2017 (Q2 2017) and first quarter of 2019 (Q1 2019), THISDAY has gathered. According to the records obtained by THISDAY, the 10 Discos were Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Port Harcourt. Yola Disco which is now under the management of the federal government having gone back to it on account of a force majeure earlier declared by its private operator, was not covered by the report. It showed that between

ENERGY the period – Q2 2017 and Q1 2019, the Discos received 52,185 gigawatt hour (GWh) of electricity from the grid and billed their customers for 40,901 GWh of electricity sent to them. The total worth of the billed electricity to the consumers, the report showed was N1.3 trillion for the period, but N831 billion was realised. It explained the Discos within the period, improved on their revenue collection efficiency, which rose from 62 per cent in Q2 2017 and Q1 2018, to 66 per cent in Q2 2018 and Q1 2019. “The total energy collection (across the 10 Discos) increased by N61 billion more, as compared to the previous 12 months (+16 per cent). This is mainly due to improved

performance (+12 per cent), as well as the incremental energy received (4 per cent). In this quarter, in general, Discos have increased their revenue collection,� the report obtained from the Discos trade association – Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) showed. “Overall, the ATC&C (Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection) keeps reducing and reached a new low in February 2019 (47.2 per cent) versus a starting point of 56 per cent, on set of privatisation,� it added. According to it, in Q1 2019, energy received increased for five Discos but decreased for the other five Discos which were not named in the report. It equally stated that between 2016 and Q1 2019, the Discos’ average revenue collection ef-

ficiency has improved from a low of 47.8 per cent to 68.4 per cent. “Overall, the amount of revenue collected increased immensely (+16 per cent), as well as energy billed (+7 per cent), which summarises that the performance improvement of Discos is not only due to the benefit of receiving more energy (+4 per cent),� it added. Furthermore, showing the distribution, the report noted that between Q2 2017 and Q1 2018, the total energy billed by Discos was 19,741GWh which was equivalent to N628 billion, and from which N385 billion was collected. Between Q2 2018 and Q1 2019, the total energy billed was 21,160GW, equivalent to N672 billion, and from which N446 billion was Continued on page 22

Nigerian Equities Now Cheapest in Africa Goddy Egene Long term investors now have very good opportunity to invest in the Nigerian equities market and reap significant capital gains as the market parades some of cheapest prices among capital markets in Africa and beyond. The sustained bearish trading at the stock market has depressed the prices of many stocks to very affordable level compared to other markets. THISDAY checks showed that as at Monday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index recorded a year-to-date (YTD) stood at 4.7 per cent, lower than that of Ghana which stood at 5.7 per cent. This implies that most stocks in both markets are trading

CAPITAL MARKET significantly lower than their year’s opening values. Apart from having recorded a YTD of 4.7 per cent, the Nigerian equities market has an average price earnings ratio multiple of 8.1x, while Ghana has 19.3x, indicating low valuation compared to their peers in Africa. For instance, Egyptian market has a YTD gain of 9.2 per cent as at Monday, its PE multiple stood at 15.5x per cent. Kenya posted YTD growth of 6.9 per cent and PE multiples of 11.8x. South Africa market (JSE Securities Exchange) has YTD growth of 4.6 per cent and PE multiples of 17.5x. Frontier markets has

YTD gain of 9.8 per cent and PE multiples of 13.6 per cent, just as emerging markets has YTD appreciation of 5.1 per cent and PE multiples of 13.2 per cent. While the NSE ASI has depreciated by 4.7 per cent, some companies have suffered higher price depreciation despite their strong fundamentals. In the banking sector, for instance, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated has depreciated by 29.6 per cent as at Monday, while United Bank for Africa Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc shed 20 per cent, 17.2 per cent, 13.2 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. The banks had reported improved results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019

and are also expected to record better performance in first half of the year ending June 30, 2019. UBA grew its Q1 profit after tax (PAT) by 21 per cent to N28.665 billion up from N23.736 billion in the corresponding period of 2018. Profit after tax (PAT) rose 10.37 per cent N44.67 billion in 2018 to N49.302 billion in 2019. GTBank Plc’s PAT rose 10.37 per cent from N44.67 billion in 2018 to N49.302 billion in 2019, while Zenith Bank Plc’s PAT rose seven per cent to N50.2 billion, compared with N47.79 billion in 2018. Also, despite a 235 per cent in Q1 PAT, the share price of Cement Company of Northern Nigeria

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pixels International Academy, Omolaraeni Olaosebikan, has expressed the desire of the company to provide free Wifi and value-added service across all its outlets. The initiative according to him are part of efforts to offer best value and premium services to the general public. Olaosebikan, who made the disclosure while briefing newsmen ahead of the planned 16th anniversary of the outfit which would take place later this year, said the digital photography outfit was offering this to reaffirm its total commitment to offering best value for every transaction between it and the general public, as they will continue to offer premium products and services to their highly esteemed customers. According to her, “As part of our premium offerings as the pace setter and market leader in photography industry today, we announced free Wifi value-added service across all our outlets. “Customers can now book sessions and while waiting for their pictures to be ready within our business premises, they can switch from their data to access our free wifi to browse and check their social media platforms.� She, however, added that the firm would also be expanding its outlets beyond what they have presently, as part of efforts to promptly respond to their customers’requests and to cover large part of the photography market. “We are expanding not to only provide photography but to also bring to fore brand experience. Our contact with customers will now be holistic from planning their events to delivering top notch post event productions.

Old Mutual Fires Suspended CEO

South Africa’s second-biggest insurer Old Mutual said it had fired suspended CEO Peter Moyo, citing a conflict of interest with an investment firm he founded. In a Tuesday statement, the insurer described problems engaging with Moyo following his suspension in May, which came less than a year after he took the over as CEO of the newly listed insurer. “Mr Moyo’s actions since the suspension contravened his fiduciary duties to Old Mutual, his contract of employment and his notice of suspension,�the statement said. “Following unsuccessful attempts to engage on the terms of separation, theBoardhasnowresolvedtogivenoticeofterminationofemployment.� Moyo did not reply to a number of messages seeking comment. He told Reuters following his suspension there had been no wrongdoing on his part. Old Mutual said in the statement the conflict of interest related to ordinary dividend payments made by NMT Capital, the investment firm Moyo founded and in which an Old Mutual subsidiary is the only institutional investor. The insurer said that while Moyo’s interest in NMT Capital was declared and protocols were put in place to manage it, the two payments made by the firm in 2018, totalling 115 million rand ($7.78 million), were a breach of its rights as a preference shareholder.

Rain Brightens Cocoa Prospects

Above average rains in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa growing regions last week should boost the next main crop in autumn, while the April to September mid-crop is tailing off, farmers said on Monday. In the centre-western region of Daloa, farmers said weather conditions were ideal for the next main crop after a disappointing mid-crop due to a lack of rain. “Now there is enough water in the ground. We’re expecting a good blossoming start next month,�said Germain Adou, who farms near Daloa.“The mid-crop has slowed down,�he added. Data collected by Reuters showed that rainfall in Daloa, including the region of Bouafle, was 68.1 millimetres (mm) last week, 40.5 mm above average. Similar conditions were reported in the central region of Yamoussoukro, where rainfall was 50.2 mm last week, 22.6 mm above average and in the western region of Man which received 36.6 mm, 5.6 mm above average.

There is a lot of work that goes into getting any company to come to list. To be listed, they must find value in the listing proposition and it must meet their strategic business objectives before they are listed CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange

Continued on page 22

Mr. Oscar Onyema

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T H I S D AY Ëž JUNE 19, 2019

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

DISCOS’ COLLECTIONS RISE TO N831BN IN TWO YEARS

Barkindo: Renewable Energy Unlikely to Overtake Oil in Decades

earned. For Q1 2019, it said the total amount of energy billed was 5,576.8GWh, equivalent to N176.5 billion, and from which N114.6 billion was also collected from consumers. Based on a moving average, it explained that since July 2016, there had been a gradual rise in both energy received by Discos and, consequently, in the energy billed. It further stated: “Although the retail tariff has remained unchanged since Feb 2016, the revenue collection has been increased continuously, up by almost N40 billion in March, compared to the average of N24 billion per month in 2016. This is a consequence of improved Disco performance. “The energy received by ANED´s members have increased by 7 per cent in the last quarter compared to the previous one and in some Discos the increase is above 10 per cent.� While calling for an improved rapport with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on proactive energy management, the Discos in the document stated: “It is important to better understand the reasons behind these variations to avoid decreasing scenarios, while in parallel, there is an urgent need to improve the energy management communications between TCN and Discos on daily basis. “Until this operational coordination is completed, Discos might face erratic scenarios that negatively affect the evolution of their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), under their PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans).�

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

NIGERIAN EQUITIES NOW CHEAPEST IN AFRICA

Plc has declined by 30 per cent. In the breweries sector, International Breweries Plc has shed 39 per cent, Champion Breweries Plc (34 per cent) and Nigerian Breweries Plc (32 per cent). In the consumer goods sector, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc has lost 39 per cent, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (30 per cent), NASCON Industries Plc (17.7 per cent) Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (15.6 per cent).

Group Business Editor

Obinna Chima Capital Market Editor

Goddy Ogene Comms/e-Business Editor

Emma Okonji Senior Correspondent

Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents

Chinedu Eze (Aviation) Eromosele Abiodun (Maritime) James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Chineme Okafor (Energy) Reporters

Nume Ekeghe (Money Market) Nosa Alekhuogie (ICT)

The Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Dr. Mohammad Barkindo, has said the upcoming meeting of the group and its non-OPEC member allies led by the Russian Federation will deliberate more on keeping the global oil market balanced and stable in the midst of threatening pressures. Mohammad, said this at the recent third Dundee Energy Forum held at the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom. He also explained there are no reputable outlook that have said renewable energy sources would overtake oil and gas in the decades ahead. OPEC and its non-OPEC allies would meet on June 25 and 26. To this end, Mohammad stressed that the meeting would allow them a chance at evaluating the existing and growing dynamics in the oil market. “It is also important for me to underscore here that the commitment of OPEC and its non-OPEC partners in the ‘Declaration’ to a balanced market and a sustainable stability remains our key objective. “We are responsive and alert to shifting market dynamics, and adaptable to ensure that we remain on track,� said Mohammad, in his lecture at the forum. He further stated: “We realise that many underlying risks remain. We are closely monitoring oil market developments and the economic bearishness that has been prevalent in markets in recent weeks, with major challenges and uncertainties related to ongoing trade negotiations,

monetary policy developments, as well as geopolitical issues. “This will all be discussed in detail at the upcoming OPEC ministerial conference and the OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting, where our minds will be focused on market balance and stability, in the interests of producers, consumers, and the world at large.� “This historic commitment to cooperate and make a difference, for the benefit of all, underscores how OPEC sees the future. We can no longer work in silos; we can no longer operate

on divergent paths; we can no longer see our futures in polarised terms,� he added. Mohammad, also noted that OPEC understood that the foundation for investment, growth and economic diversification for economies can only come through balance and stability in the oil market, and was in this regard fully committed to investments across the whole industry value chain. Speaking about energy transition and OPEC’s commitment to same, Mohammad, explained it did not mean oil and gas would cease from being used by the world

but that their use would be more efficient and suitable to the environment. He also noted that renewable energy sources would not replace oil in decades ahead. “The issue of investments is critical in any talk of an energy transition and diversification. For all investments, the focus has to be on a stable environment and a level playing field. “Firstly, many OPEC member countries have great sources of solar and wind, and we are seeing huge investments being made in the field of renewables. And secondly, we do not see any

reputable outlook projecting that renewables will come anywhere close to overtaking oil and gas in the decades ahead,� said Mohammad. According to him: “Given our outlook, as well as many others carrying similar forecasts, it is also important to broach the issues of policies and technologies. We need to continually look to develop, evolve and adopt cleaner energy technologies, as well as all-inclusive and non-discriminatory energy policies, that enable us to meet expected future energy demand, in a sustainable and ever more efficient manner.�

NSE LISTING

L – R: Divisional Head, Trading Business, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Jude Chiemeka; Chief Agronomist, Ella Lakes Plc, Ă‹Ă—Ă“Ă? Ă“Ă˘ĂžĂ™Ă˜Ëž Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă? Ă“Ă˜Ă‹Ă˜Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă– ĘŠĂ?Ă?ĂœËœ ÙÖĂ? Ă˜Ă‹Ă?Ă‹Ă˜ĂŁĂ‹Ëž Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă? âĂ?Ă?Ă&#x;ÞÓà Ă? ĘŠĂ?Ă?ĂœËœ Ă’Ă&#x;Ă•Ă‹ Ă™ĂœĂŽĂ“Ëž Ă“Ă Ă“Ă?Ă“Ă™Ă˜Ă‹Ă– Ă?Ă‹ĂŽËœ Ă“Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă&#x;Ă?Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă?Ëœ Ëœ Ă–Ă&#x;Ă—Ă“ĂŽĂ? ÙÖĂ&#x;×ÙÖĂ?Ëž Ă™Ă˜Ě‹ âĂ?Ă?Ă&#x;ÞÓà Ă? Ă“ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ™ĂœËœ Ă–Ă–Ă‹ Ă‹Ă•Ă?Ă?Ëœ Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă‘ĂŒĂ?ĂŒĂ™ĂœËž Ă™Ă˜Ě‹ âĂ?Ă?Ă&#x;ÞÓà Ă? Ă“ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ™ĂœËœ ĂœĂ‹Ă˜Ă• Ă–Ă–Ă‹Ă’Ëœ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹Ă˜Ă‹Ă‘Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă“ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ™ĂœËœ ËÚÓÞËÖ Ă“Ă—Ă“ĂžĂ?ĂŽËœ ÙÖÙ Ă‹Ă”Ă?ÕÙÎĂ&#x;Ă˜Ă—Ă“Ëœ ĂŽĂ&#x;ĂœĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ ÞÒĂ? Ă–Ă“Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă™Ă? Ă–Ă–Ă‹ Ă‹Ă•Ă?Ă? Ă–Ă? Ă™Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹Ă‘Ă™Ă?Ë&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ–ĂŁ

FG to Clear Backlog of Workers’ Accrued Rights,

Ebere Nwoji

The federal government has said it will through its budgetary provisions for 2019, clear backlog of outstanding accrued pension rights of its workers as well as the outstanding three per cent additional contributions to the retirement Savings Account(RSA) of its workforce as stated by the 2014 Pension Reform Act. The National Pension Commission(PenCom), disclosed this at the 2019 pre-retirement workshop for prospective retirees in the Contributory Pension Scheme it organised in Lagos

recently. The Acting Director General of PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, represented by officials from various departments in the commission who delivered lectures at the workshop, lamented that non -payment of accrued rights of workers for some years had retrogressed the quick and timely payment of retirees’ benefits by the various Pension Fund Administrators. The PenCom boss, however, assured the retiring workers that respite has come their way in this regard, saying the federal government in the 2019 budget, retained

all its budgetary presentations for retirees. At the meeting, Mrs Bukky Arekoya, one of the resource persons from PenCom, while speaking on behalf of the DG, said the commission this year got government nod on the budget on pension which it presented to government. According to her, this included the outstanding accrued rights of all retired and retiring government workers which recent reports put at over N100billion. Both PenCom and PFAs believe that release of the accrued rights of workers would enhance

payment of benefits to workers. Statistics from government shows that the last money released by the federal government for payment of workers’ accrued rights was in April 2017, when it released N54 billion to this effect. She also the federal government would also release fund to take care of the additional three per cent contributions of government to workers’ retirement savings account as stipulated by the Pension Reform Act 2014. According to her, since the review of 2004 Pension Reform Act in which government’s

contributions to workers’ RSA was upgraded from 15 per cent to 18 per cent, the federal government has not commenced its implementation as it still limited its contributions to employees’ RSA to 15 percent. She, however, said provision has been made for implementation of the 18 per cent contributions from 2014 to date in the 2019 budget. The one-day pre-retirement workshop was organised for staff of Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) who are due to retire between January and December 2020.

FG Urged to Create Enabling Environment for Boat Operators

Funmi Ogundare

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Multimodal Transport Technologies Limited, Mr. Kayode Olowu, has appealed to the Lagos State Government to create an enabling environment for boat operators. This, he said will make them provide the needed services for members of the public. Olowu, who made this known, recently, at the unveiling of his organisation’s warehouse and showroom, in Lagos, also

stressed the need for government to give waivers especially on taxation, so as to reduce cost of doing business for all boat operators. He described the showroom as a one-stop shop that would cater for leisure and commercial boat owners, adding that it was also in line with the Lagos State government objective of improving navigation on the waterways to facilitate water transportation and private investment. “We cater for land and marine transport needs of various

multifaceted companies in Nigeria. For instance, if you have a little issue, you can get into the store and get spare parts for your boats. “It has been a challenge for most marine businesses getting original parts for on time businesses. So what we have done is to put all these factors in one place so that we can make it easier for transport to run, � he said Olowu said the showroom was the first in the country , noting that it was his organisation’s

contribution to marine logistics. The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Taiwo Oluremi Salam, commended the organisation over the initiative, saying it would help boat owners who have problems with their boats to access the facilities. According to him, “This facility here is first in West Africa. You can imagine a boat with propeller issue, all you need to do is to write to the organisation

and it is immediately fixed. “They have the spare parts, welders and other specialists that will repair the boat, so it’s a super one.� Also, the General Manager, Lagos State Waterways Authority ( LASWA), Mr. Damilola Emmanuel, described what the organisation was doing as a welcome development saying, “we will have an efficient way of being able to fix boats and have the parts readily available to ensure movement of boats on our waterways.�

T H I S D AY Ëž JUNE 19, 2019

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BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

Pencom Begins VeriďŹ cation of Prospective Retirees Ă‹Ă—Ă—Ă?ĂŽ Ă’Ă“ĘľĂ&#x; in Ilorin The Acting Director General of the National Pension Commission (Pencom), Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, said the commission has finalised arrangement to commence the verification of prospective retirees expected to retire from the public service of the federation next year. Already, she said that, 15 centres which cuts across the six geo-political zones of the country had been earmarked for the verification exercise and would hold between July 1 to August 2, this year across the country. The centres are Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Gombe, Owerri, Sokoto, Enugu, Lokoja, Ibadan, Lafia and Benin. Speaking at the pre-retirement workshop for the federal government retirees due to retire in

2020 in Ilorin, Kwara State on Monday, Dahir-Umar said, “the workshop is very important so as to enlighten the affected retirees on what they need to know on documentation requirement, payments of retirement benefits and best way to enjoy life retirement.� Represented at the event by head of Benefit and Insurance Department of the Pencil, Alhaji Abubakar Ali, Dahir-Umar recalled that, “the objectives of the pension reform act (PRA 2014) is to ensure that every person who worked in either in the public service of the federation, federal capital territory, states and local governments or the private sector receive his retirement benefits as and when due and to establish uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for all aspects of pension administration including

payment of retirement benefits to retirees amongst others�. She said that, “the forthcoming verification exercise, therefore necessitated the need to undertake adequate sensitisation and public enlightenment in order to prepare prospective retirees on the steps to take towards a hitch free retirement life.� While reiterating the commitment of the commission to make life worth living after retirement with payment of their benefits, Dahir-Umar advised the retirees to make useful suggestions during the pre-retirement workshop about the issues that may further help to make their retirement life more comfortable and others coming behind them. She, therefore, thanked the retirees for their support that had helped the commission to achieve maximum results in the last 17 years.

SystemSpecs Partners WAEC Prospective private candidates of the 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) – Second Series (Aug/Sept WAEC GCE) across Nigeria can now conveniently purchase their registration PINs through any of the multiple channels available on Remita, one of the leading electronic payment platforms in Nigeria. This agreement was made recently as the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) formally announced the commencement of the sale of WAEC GCE registration PINs that commenced on May 27 and would end on July 19, 2019. To enjoy this service, a statement explained that intending candidates are to visit the Remita website or mobile app and choose a preferred payment channel of the many options available which include Debit/Credit Card, Internet Banking, Mobile Wallet (Pocket Moni, Paga, etc), Branches of

all Nigerian banks, and at designated Agent locations across the country. According to the statement, once payment is completed, the exam registration PIN is delivered to the candidate’s email and also displayed on the Remita payment receipt sent to the same email. The candidate is then expected to proceed to WAEC’s website to complete registration with the obtained PIN. “We are glad to always provide everyday payment solutions for our customers across the value chain. In this particular instance, it is our pleasure to empower prospective candidates of the August/September WAEC GCE with multiple payment options available round-theclock that would help them complete their registration in good time, with no hassles,� said David Okeme, Divisional Head, Applications and Vertical

Markets, of SystemSpecs, owners of Remita. Candidates are required to conclude registration within two weeks of first access to the WAEC registration portal during the registration period and to ensure that name, gender, passport photograph, date of birth and examination subjects are correctly provided. Upon completion, they are also to print the Admission Notice/Photo Card as evidence of successful registration which will serve as identification during the examination. Remita is a payment platform in Nigeria that helps individuals and businesses to easily send and receive funds and also settle various bills. The West African Examinations Council is an examination board established to conduct the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authorities internationally.

TAF Leads Delegation to Explore

Gambian Investment Opportunities TAF Africa Global, one of the leading pan-African real estate development companies with presence in about eight African countries including Nigeria and the Gambia will be leading a delegation of prominent Nigerian business men to the Gambia this July in its bid to better deepen strategic economic cooperation between both countries. The Chief Executive Officer of TAF, Mr. Mustapha Njie, in a statement, explained that The Gambia presents a veritable investment destination for highly discerning Nigerian investors especially in the nascent but increasingly lucrative sectors like tourism, hospitality, telecommunications and real estate that define the burgeoning Gambian Economy. He explained The Gambia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 4.6 per cent in 2017 to 6.6 per cent in 2018, reflecting a strong

recovery in tourism, trade, construction and electricity. The growth rate, he said, was slightly above the estimated at 6.2 per cent driven by the number of tourists rebounding by 36.6 per cent in the first eight months of 2018 relative to the same period in 2017. Also commenting, Co-Founder of Hamilton and George Local Financial Advisers to TAF, Joseph Edgar, averred that the relative stability witnessed by the enthronement of democracy has seen government policy focused on the development of a strong and competitive private sector that will move the Gambian economy towards higher value added activities in key sectors thereby transforming The Gambia into a financial Centre, a tourist paradise and a trading cum manufacturing outpost for the keen investor looking at broadening its scope. The Construction Sector in the Gambia, according to

Mr. Gbenga Olaniyan of Estate Links, accounts for 6.1 per cent of GDP. “Construction sector comprises infrastructure, residential and business structures and given the small size of the manufacturing sector most of the equipment needed are imported thereby giving Nigerian investors a lucrative opportunity. Furthermore,� he said, adding that capital appreciation for Gambia real estate is 10 per cent year on year. “It is for these reasons and the very wide prospect of closer economic ties between both countries that its President His Excellency Mr. Adama Barrow is expected to meet with the delegation upon their arrival, while its Vice President Her Excellency Isatou Touray is also expected to play host to dinner with cabinet ministers in attendance,� the statement disclosed.

Ă‹ĂœĂ“Ă?Ě‹ Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă? Ă’Ă“ĂŽĂ™

Ă—ĂŒĂœĂ‹Ă?Ă? Ă™Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă– Ă?ĂŽĂ“Ă‹ Ă™Ăœ Ă“Ă?Ë Some will say, “Marie what kind of heading is this? Are you not being too dramatic? I am NOT! If you do not embrace social media in today’s business environment, I can assure you, you will die eventually. I tell people every day that social media and digital are where they should focus on, because the world is going in that direction. Traditional media will have to find a way to conform and many of them already are, as they now use various social media platforms to disseminate their information. The digital space has completely transformed the way business and everyday activities are done. Despite this direction, I have friends who take special pride in saying that they are not on social media. They see it as a badge of honor and feel that those of us who use social media are time wasters. What they do not realize is that they are being left behind and fossilizing. My parents both over 70 years old are on social media and follow issues and events ardently and compete with their grandchildren on trends and happenings around the world. Social media has opened them up to so much information and activities. The other day, I heard my mom telling my daughter to download Snap chat for her. Recently, I asked a lady who sells me lace, “why do you not use Instagram to show me new designsâ€?? Her response was that all the big lace sellers do not use the medium to advertise and are her mentors. My response to her was “you are losing the opportunity to sell to a global market, instead of just the people passing through the shopping complex and walk in customers. How many of us are losing this opportunity? Social media gives you the opportunity to sell to the world, expands your sphere of influence and opens you up to new markets. I know many people who make purchasing decisions via social media – shoes, soup (traditional), cosmetics, clothes, bags, jewelry, etc to name a few. Many entrepreneurs are smiling to the bank because they’ve cottoned on to the idea and are using the relatively affordable means of relating with and selling to their clients and potential customers. They have a captive audience and are engaging with these customers on a real time on time basis. Sadly, many are not. To attract the next generation and the ready pool of consumers who do everything online, you need to engage with this audience via social media. There are over 650 million twitter users posting 58 million tweets every day. Facebook has a larger followership with over 1.4 billion users, spending at least 700 billion minutes on the network every day and these numbers are growing. Nigerians are avid users of Facebook. Over 80% of Nigeria’s educated population between the ages of 18-30 years old are on one social network or the other. They spend quality time on these platforms Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc. Yet, we still have people taking pride in not being on social media. Many have made significant improvements to their personal brands by using social media to convey their messages to their target audience. Social media was pivotal in the historic election of President Obama as he was able to reach youths, made

them interested in politics and excited them enough to go to the effort of voting. Many also credit social media with helping Donald Trump win. Twitter was his preferred network which he used to spread his ideology to his teeming supporters. In Nigeria, social media had a great influence in our democracy, where the “Changeâ€? campaign was ignited on all networks and ushered in the Buhari Presidency. Nobody can deny the power social media had in ensuring Buhari’s success. According to a University of Berkeley research, organizations must realize that 80% of users (in the 16-35 age bracket) use the internet to research information on a product or service they want to buy and increasingly, that’s on social media networks and not search engines alone. Using social media to reach your customers to tell them about your unique value proposition is no longer an “ifâ€? but a “mustâ€?. The question most businesses or individuals will have is “where do we start from and how do we figure out which social network to useâ€?? The first step is to have an effective social media strategy that meets your particular and peculiar need, because the worse thing is having a presence with zero content, stale information or little interaction. I see many organizations in Nigeria trying to engage with their customers but not doing so effectively. Many are not using it to drive their core business and to push their products. They tend to use it as a means for social engagement to give quotations, announce corporate activities which is good. But, the real benefit should affect their bottom line and engender growth. I have had cause to discuss with CEOs, the disconnect inherent between product developers and the digital teams in their organizations. I usually see a lack of synergy, team work and results. As a start, in developing your organization’s social media strategy you need to: r 3FTFBSDI XIJDI TPDJBM OFUXPSL ZPVS customers will use most and start with it. r #VJME B HSFBU QSPĂ MF BOE GPMMPX CFTU practice in doing so. Each social network provides helpful guides and suggestions on what’s best r %FWFMPQ DPNQFMMJOH DPOUFOU $POUFOU is king on social media. Make it fresh, interesting and engaging r (SPX ZPVS GPMMPXFS CBTF BOE JU TIPVME be quality over quantity. Though this depends on the business. For some, everybody should be courted. r .FBTVSF BOBMZ[F BOE BEBQU .BLF sure you are using data to determine what’s working and what is not and track progress. r *ODSFBTF GSFRVFODZ PG DPOUFOU &YQFSJment and find your sweet point. r $POEVDU UBSHFUFE GPMMPXFS DBNQBJHOT by having online campaigns to push particular products. As you know marketing is a mix and social media is a platform for place. Adesuwa Onyenokwe is one person using social media very well. She conducts some of her programmes via Facebook and YouTube in addition to her print and television programmes. Feedback from her followers is positive and they like the mode of engagement. My final word is Embrace Social Media or Die!

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Bello: FG Committed to Resolving Apapa Gridlock Permanently The federal government recently extended by two weeks, the time given the Presidential Taskforce on the Apapa traffic gridlock to resolve the matter, following a request for an extension by members of the task force and other stakeholders. A key member of the team and Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Bello, in this interview with Eromosele Abiodun, speaks on efforts by the government to resolve the problem permanently, his effort to drive Inland Dry Ports and Trailer Transit Parks and the move to reform freight forwarding profession in the country. Excerpts:

Y

ou are a key member of the Presidential Task Team set up by the federal government to restore sanity in Apapa. Can you tell us your experience? It was a very good experience and not a new one. Regarding the traffic congestion in Apapa, we have been able to see what could be done using long and medium term approaches to it. What we are having now is the short term; the whole idea is to establish a system where there will be no such congestion. The congestion as you know is causing the country a lot of money. The port is unsightly, the ease of doing business has suffered and the nation cannot take it. This is why we are combining the three approaches. The first is to restore discipline, law and order in Apapa and this is what we have been able to do around the immediate environment of the port. You could see traffic going out and coming out of the port. The second is to establish the call system to restrict the freight market all over Apapa, so many people come into Apapa without any business to conduct and that leads to a lot of gridlock. Now we are restricting approaches to Apapa for trucks that have businesses to conduct and that is responsible for the relative ease we have in Apapa. The idea is to continue with it and mix it with the medium term, and then you continue with it, it is not a one day thing; it has to be done over a period of time. What in your view is the permanent solution to Apapa trafďŹ c congestion? The permanent solution is to go back to planning. I have had many people say it is lack of planning. The port was built in the 70s, at that time what was the population of Nigeria, may be 60 or 70 million. Now the population has increased. Our population is growing by 2.5 per cent and if we had planned, we could have foreseen that the road will not be there. Secondly, the capacity of the Apapa port have been stretched, because it was built to a certain capacity and now the capacity has been overstretched and so things will not happen again. Also, the uni-model approach of using the road only to evacuate cargo is bound to fail; we need multi-model approach to evacuate cargo especially the rails, the waterways, and even the pipelines. If we had the pipelines, we will not be having tank farms around the port and tankers coming to Apapa port. The whole of Apapa should be owned by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). It should have the whole port around under its control but because of the confusion and chaos, and the seeming attitude of not obeying rules many things were built. You cannot build a single block of anything, whether gas station or kiosk without consulting the NPA because they are the landlords; they should have the port plan, so that we could have ease. So we are paying for our chaos and lack of respect for authorities. But I think this is will be mitigated. Going back to the issue of infrastructure, one major concern for the port community here in Apapa is the total decay of infrastructure, now the road is the most used infrastructure that we have around this axis, so what is this committee doing to ensure that road we

Bello

are using can be maximised, and then for those that are in deplorable conditions, what is the committee doing to ensure that it is repaired? The committee has noted that the deliberateness of the government to address the situation. This government is really tackling this situation deliberately for the first time, the creek road is being done, the Liverpool road is under construction, once you open the flanks, you will see the flow of traffic, even most importantly, we have to have trailer parks, to park the trailers and wait for their turns to pick truck cargos, we have to have packing or holding bays, is important. So the architecture of the infrastructure is important and what we noted is to accelerate this, you have even seen the private sector coming such as Flour Mill, Dangote and NPA constructing the wharf road. That is, it what is needed for this. Now attention has been shifted to these two, the Federal Ministry of Works opposite the Tincan port gate and I think if this is handled over by whatever means, you will see that this is done. Lagos State government is very important in this situation and the response from the state government has been prompt and that gladdens the heart. So you need synergy, you need everybody to come in; you don’t just leave this thing to one organisation. Expanding that to what the Shippers’ Council is doing because I know that at a point you were thinking of truck transit parks. So what is the latest from that from the shippers’ council? The shippers’ Council has always been on top of this situation, we have had to

conduct a study on why do we have the gridlock. We conducted a study known as the Lagos logistics ring which was done by world class consultants and then the facts are obvious 7000 trucks around Apapa, Orile, Mile 2 and Apapa, Tincan port. But what you need is just 2100 trucks. What are the rest doing, they are just vagabonds coming to pollute the place. So the port environment must be restricted. Recently you said poor policy framework is obstacle to Nigeria’s eet Development, can you explain this to our readers? The national fleet issue is also important to us. We ought to have Nigerians owning and operating ships, we have lost a lot of money on freight to foreign companies, billions of dollars, if we are the ones having that, the billions we earn in freight will at least have effect on our economic growth, employment and open up ancillary services. We are talking about ship yards, ship repair yards; we are also talking about our flag administration, nautical colleges, having trained seafarers to do that. The national fleet is three-year so that we can have it in Nigeria, but to do that, there are so many so laws and policies that you have to review that is what the fleet is doing, there are also incentives we have to offer private sector. Don’t forget that the national fleet is private sector led, government will not put a kobo, but the government will have to look at laws, policies that militate against investment especially in that sector. We are talking about tax holidays and relaxing of certain procedures, and overall conducive atmosphere for that investment to thrive.

You have been in the forefront of driving IDPs and TPPs, and you made effort sometime last year to get investors to invest. Can you tell us where we are right now in that regard? We are still on the quest for investors and we have had so many meetings. For the truck transit parks, it is also part of decongesting the Apapa port, so that there could be staging areas. We are talking with the Ogun State government and very soon we will find out the issue of land. Land has to be donated to Shippers’ Council; this has been done by Enugu State government in Ogbulafor, Enugu State. We have cleared the land and we about to through the procurement processes because it has to be open, transparent and fully advertised for request of interest, people are careful we will qualify them. We are working with ICRC on that. The same thing in Lokoja and Kogi State, which is a confluence state where trailers congregate, we need to establish one there. Land has been allocated even the though Lokoja one has one issue of compensation to be paid. So we are at it. So the same thing with the dry port, the one in Ibadan, even yesterday, I had meeting with the Oyo State government where we are going towards the end of the procurement process and very soon construction will start. The Ibadan one is particularly important to us because of proximate to the sea port so we could use that staging area, because this must be done. We are now operating a manual call-up system, but it is important to have it electronic and the study we have done about three years ago, where we put electronic kits, you can only access on or come to the port area, when you are complying with that. But here it is not the city that met the port. It is the port that has met the city one way or the other. You have your car and you are struggling with trailers that are not right. Access to port should be exclusively for port. Let us get back to the issue of the gridlock and the presidential task force. Some people still holds that belief that what we are suffering today is a direct consequence of concessioning of the ports. So now that we have a presidential taskforce what are you doing in terms of speaking with the concessionaires to also make them know, perhaps they can get some task holidays if they also invest in projects around this access roads? The idea is not to take it one at a time, but we need a comprehensive, connected and integrated system, because as I said, what happens at the terminals, the role of the shipping companies, the role of freight forwarders, the role of the truckers and everybody will have direct consequences on the traffic management of Apapa. We need modern traffic management and what we do is that right before the ship comes, we know what is happening that is why we have advocated that for a long time for international cargo tracking lot. Also, that we could know electronically what is coming to the country. So we make adequate effort to say that the ship will berth on a particular date. Two weeks before it comes everybody is ready so it comes, we have less duel time, the duel time was good but because of the infrastructure decay we had failure. The duel time, that is the time goods stay without clearance, is getting

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Bello: FG Committed to Resolving Apapa Gridlock Permanently gistic architecture that we have. They must be freight forwarders rather than customer clearing agents. Of course it is a function of the economy, but I want a freight forwarder to also, but I want freight forward to also hire or charter a vessel. We want them to have warehouses, fleeting companies where they deliver goods to the doorstep of the shipper or factory. We want them to be involved in the whole transaction. We want them to negotiate with the carriers about the fees, the surcharges, and charges. We want them to be strong. But what we have now is proliferation of one person. You see a container with five freight forwarders; we don’t need that in our economy now.

uncomfortably longer and that is not good with our competitors. Don’t forgot, we are competing with other ports, and we need to make our ports efficient, but the way the government is going now, I think thing will be a thing of the past. That is what we have been able to do, to address the government and government has taken that responsibility. We have review with the Vice-President, who is the chairman of the taskforce, don’t forgot about two or three days, and the solutions are coming because all of us are united that this issue is resolved. Last year, you announced that you were working with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to get shipping companies to open Disbursement Account (DA). Can you give us an update on that? We are working with the CBN on so many things. The NSC has saved a lot of money on confirmation of chartered party charges and reasonableness of freights. What we are doing now is to see that the shipping companies have accounts operated and sent to them by their principals in Overseas instead of them using what is usually a local thing to operate, but in any case whatever we do we have to talk with the shipping companies, terminal operators. The terminal operators are going to make sacrifice on that. For the three days free periods, they are extending it to eight days that is also what you call sacrifice. The shipping companies they are extending their free demurrage period from 5 to 12 days. We are also talking with the NPA to also relax and give 30 per cent waiver of certain charges within the period contemplated. This is a temporary measure. But this is what I call general average sacrifice in order to save the situation. When the ship is going to capsize, you have general average where the heavy cargos are jettisoned and thrown overboard for the ship to survive. This is what we are doing, so everybody is coming along. Why the usually taskforce failed at time was because there was no congruity, it was just touching one thing and the problem of the port is a two headed monster, you catch one and three will spring, but now everybody is seeing and we think time has come for us to solve this problem and we have the political backing of this government. Recently you launched some manuals to encourage people who do business in that area. What is the latest as it relates facilitation and what you are doing to promote that in the West Africa subregion? Trade in the West Africa sub-region is abysmal. It is terrible; you cannot be compared to Asia or Europe. We need to trade among ourselves. Can imagine now that if I want to take a product to Ethiopia, it has been shipped Spain and transshipped to Ethiopia because there is no direct link in Africa countries, so this is also lack of infrastructure and Nigeria Shippers’ Council has seen this problem and have worked assiduously with NEXIM Bank to establish sea link project. Now this sea link project especially with the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), is a regional cabotage and it is backed by Afrexim Bank to encourage the trade between them. So we are doing that. But Shippers Council is always looking at the barriers to trade. The checkpoints for example, the issue of common currency, and the issue of divergence of trade systems, we have the border information centres in Seme border where we want to formalise the informal trade. We have similar one in Gibia, Katsina. The idea of smuggling could be reduced when establish a formal office, so Shippers’ Council has established these BICs and we have many people coming for enquiries. We established access to markets so that these things could be done formally, people going through bribing and all sorts can do it formally through Nigeria shipper council. Very soon, we will have a meeting with Benin Shippers’ Council to look at an MOU we have signed for a very long time, so that we fine-tune the whole architecture

Bello

We need modern trafďŹ c management and what we do is that right before the ship comes, we know what is happening that is why we have advocated that for a long time for international cargo tracking lot of cross-border trade and see that our trade facilitation mandate is harnessed towards good direction. Last year, the national transport commission bill was passed by the National Assembly and people are looking in the direction of the shipper council as the most relevant agency to transform it to commission. How prepared is the shippers’ council for that? The national transport commission bill is not a shipper council bill. It is an industry bill. It is a comprehensive issue to tackle economic regulations as opposed to technical regulations. So shippers’ council will have a say into it, but there is also NPA and aviation, railway and others. So there have been some issues that were not well addressed and the latest we have is that it is been reviewed again. The government is in the best position to know which the best to assent is or not. Government cannot assent to laws unless they align with the effect on other laws, that is why we have the federal ministry of justice, the moment a law comes for instance if you have environmental impact assessment, the ministry of justice will have legal impact assessment to see how it aligns. It is a very good law and I am sure when government is satisfied this will be done. But Shipper council is just one of the many agencies involved.

As port economic regulator, your effort to get shipping companies to fall into line is well document but these companies behave as if they are above the law, why is that so? We are not trying to get them fall line. We are not their headmaster. In port management in Nigeria, everybody is a culprit. Of course there are some shipping lines that are recalcitrant and we have had to go and shut their premises. But you see the issues of charges is no more there because we have understanding, one cannot increase charges without coming to Nigeria Shippers’ council, so we have stability of charges for now which is very important. But they are partners; we need to talk with them. They are investors and they have the option of going to another country, and so we really have to come and stop the arbitrariness of only shipping companies, but many operators. It is not a uniform thing, there have been some shipping companies that have some tremendous contributions, there are some terminals that have automated their terminals, and there are those who have not, so it is for us to say please fall in line. It is important that they make profit or return on their investment so that they will employ our people, increase wealth and other things. Shippers’ Council is not having a stick and whipping anybody, this is our partners. The trucking system for example, the council must work to ensure that the trucking system is reformed. Unless you reform the trucking system, you will companies owning fleets, whatever you want to do, will not be possible I mean this owner-driver thing. I mean everybody has one trailer; you will drive from Benin to Lagos. No, it cannot happen, you need to have about 10 companies operating fleets, and they must be structured. The same thing with what I have said about freight forwarding, there must be reform on freight forwarding. So unless you have these reforms, our efforts will just be a drop in the ocean. There were controversies about the freight forward issue, where you were misquoted in the media that some freight forwarders didn’t accept your idea of getting them to be registered? That is given, but reforms must be carried out. Freight forwarding profession is a very important profession; it cannot be left to the whims and caprices of touts. They must be really trained and they have to expand it and be entrenched in the lo-

But the rising trend of foreigners dominating the industry is a concern among freight forwarding professionals? If you don’t reform, the foreigners will do that. I know it is the concern of NAGAF and ANALCA. We have discussed this idea that we really need to reform the freight forwarding profession. How it will come, it will be left to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders (CRFFN), which is the ultimate moderator as far as the business is concerned. We need to work with the association. The associations have contributed much with us opposing policies that are not good. They have been outspoken, but the idea is to have professionalism in the freight forwarding. It is a weak link and it is everywhere and we need to reform in this direction. The reform I am saying is that there must be consolidation. There must be minimum share capital for them to operate. If there were structured, there will be this container deposit. Who do the shipping companies trust with their containers when you don’t have address, email or anything to identify you. That is why we are saying that all operators should register with the NSC. Back to the Apapa taskforce put together to restore sanity in the area, do you by chance discuss with the VicePresident, the need to have importers clear cargo in another ports across the country because everybody seems to be clearing goods in Lagos? The idea is that a port is as good as its connectivity inland. We have ports in the eastern part of the country; we have port in Calabar, Port Harcourt and Warri. There is need for those ports to be patronised to decongest Lagos. Recently, the NPA offered 10 per cent reduction that is what is needed. I know there may be problems with insecurity and draft level, but they are not much. I think government should make deliberate policy on that. It is the same thing with the dry port. We are taking containers now to Kaduna and they will be cleared there. When Ibadan port many containers will be taken there too. Port is not storage; it is just the transit to evacuate the cargo. But the federal government, NPA and Lagos State government are building the NPA deep water port which has more capacity, depth and will have bigger ships coming in and tremendous TEUs to come and that is also very important. But these are long-term solutions, but the government is very serious about it. Lastly, what is your message and advice to truckers, stakeholders and everybody that have business at the port? We should have discipline. Most of the issues are as a result of indiscipline. We are working with the truckers’ union which is very important. The Chairman of Apapa Local Government is always with us, which is very important. We are working with the media because they are also a critic of the situation. What I will call is for everybody to fall in and be disciplined, so that this modern traffic management and the effort of the government about rehabilitating the infrastructure in Apapa and the sacrifice are made by NPA, the Shipping companies, the terminal operators, and truckers should all come together so that we have a decent traffic situation.

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Lifting Informal Sector with Micro Pension Plan The National Pension Commission Micro-pension scheme allows informal sector contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme to withdraw at least 40 per cent of the contributions in their Retirement Savings Accounts. The extension of the scheme to informal the sector and the flexibility of its operation is one of the incentives expected to encourage participation and growth, writes Hamid Ayodeji

T

he International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a report stated that in sub-Saharan African, up to 90 per cent of jobs outside agriculture are in the informal sector, including household enterprises that are not formally registered. These include street vendors or domestic workers as well as off-the-book activities by registered firms—for example, the taxi driver that offers a discount if the meter is not turned on. “The informal economy in sub-Saharan Africa is the second-largest in the world, after Latin America and the Caribbean. From 2010 to 2014, sub-Saharan Africa’s informal economy accounted for 38 percent of GDP to the region,� the IMF had stated. “Household survey data suggest that people working in the informal sector consume more goods and services than those in the agricultural sector in many countries,� the fund had stated. Indeed, the informal sector generally is characterised by absence of official protection and recognition, non-coverage by minimum wage legislation and social security system, predominance of own-account and self-employment work, absence of trade union organisation, low income and wages, little job security as well as the absence of fringe benefits from institutional sources. The informal sector represents an important part of the economy, and particularly of the labour market, in many countries, especially developing countries, and plays a major role in employment creation, production and income generation. Indeed, Nigeria’s informal sector is a sleeping giant. The potential of the sector, estimated at $240 billion, is largely untapped. Unlike the formal economy, the informal economy has grown faster in size at an annual average rate of about 8.5 per cent between 2015 and 2018. This growth seen in the informal sector and an increase in employment it provides implies higher household income and lower poverty in the country. That was why the National Pension Commission (PenCom) identified with this informal sector with the launch of the Micro Pension Plan (MPP), which has enabled artisans such as photographers, caterers, hairdressers, motorcycle service operators, tailors, fashion designers, carpenters, painters among others to embrace Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and protect their future and businesses. Speaking on the success and future of the MPP, the Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar explained the gains of understanding how this aspect of the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) works. She said the MPP arrangement allows for every contribution to be split into two, comprising 40 per cent for contingent withdrawal and 60 per cent for retirement benefits. According to her, the Micro Pension Contributor is eligible to access the 40 per cent portion three months after making the initial contribution. This flexibility is one of the incentives expected to encourage participation and consequently drive growth of the Pension Industry. “As you are aware, the informal sector workers constitute the larger percentage of the working population in the country, there is therefore no doubt that robust participation would result to exponential growth of the Pension funds which would consequently, provide funding for allowable and relevant investments that would impact positively on the economy. “The MPP would contribute immensely to archiving the Pension Industry’s strategic objective of covering 30 per cent of the working population in Nigeria under the CPS by the end of 2024. As at 31 March 2019, the value of pension assets stood at N9.03 trillion and the number of employees 8.57 million,� she said. On its assessment of the MPP take-off after the federal government officially extended it to the informal sector in March 2019, the PenCom boss disclosed that the Micro Pension Plan was launched by the President of the Federal

Dahir-Umar

Republic of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari on March 28, 2019 to make life better for grassroots contributors by bringing the into the pension net. “The very successful launch by the President is an indication that the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that informal sector workers are also covered under the CPS. Effectively we are just about two months into implementation after the launch. Sequel to the launch, registration of Contributors by Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) has commenced and is ongoing. Public enlightenment and engagement with relevant Unions and Associations is also on going,� she said. Dahir-Umar, explained that to sustain the tempo and momentum achieved from the launch, the Commission is planning to embark on sensitisation events in the six geo-political zones of the country. Overall, I would say we are off to a good start and the gains of the scheme would manifest in due course.

Those participating in the MPP would require a functional bank account, which would be used for transactions such as contributions and withdrawals. It is therefore obvious that implementing MPP will deďŹ nitely promote ďŹ nancial inclusion

On efforts that PenCom was making to ensure that more artisans and other operators at the grassroots key into the scheme, she said that in implementing the MPP initiative, the informal sector has been segmented into three broad categories. “The low income earners, the high income earners and the SMEs. Each of these categories is going to be targeted with appropriate MPP products and sensitisation programmes that meet their peculiarities. As earlier mentioned, the Commission is engaging relevant Unions and Associations in its enlightenment drive. Some of these Unions and associations cover the artisans and grassroots operators. “The Commission is aware that public enlightenment and pension education are key success factors and as such is working assiduously with the Pension Operators Association (PENOP) to ensure effective coverage,� she added. On steps PenCom was taking to ensure development of the micro pension plan to enable the artisans and other self-employed to plan for their financial future, Dahir-Umar explained that prior to the implementation of the MPP, the Commission had issued guidelines and framework for MPP. These documents are expected to guide the Pension Operators in administering the MPP. She said the Commission shall carry out adequate supervision and periodic reviews to monitor and ensure the efficient and effective implementation of the MPP. Adequate implementation would therefore ensure that artisans and other self-employed plan for their financial future. Also highlighting the commitment of the commission to financial inclusion, she said the introduction of the MPP by the Commission is a major step to promoting financial inclusion at the grassroots. According to her, Section 2(3) of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 (PRA 2014) provides that employees of organizations with less than three employees as well as the self-employed persons shall be entitled to participate in the Contributory Pension Scheme in accordance with Guidelines issued by the Commission. Majority of these categories of persons covered are in

the informal sector and have generally low and irregular incomes. “Those participating in the MPP would require a functional bank account, which would be used for transactions such as contributions and withdrawals. It is therefore obvious that implementing MPP will definitely promote financial inclusion,â€? she said. Dahir-Umar, said that the micro pension plan targeted the significant majority of Nigeria’s working population who, incidentally, operated in the informal sector. She said, “Thus, a prospective micro pension contributor is required to open a Retirement Savings Account by completing a physical or electronic registration form with a Pension Funds Administrator of his/her choice. The contributors may make contributions daily, weekly, monthly or as may be convenient to them. “Every contribution shall be split into two, comprising 40 per cent for contingent withdrawal and 60 per cent for retirement benefits. The contributor may, based on his/her needs, periodically withdraw the total or part of the balance of the contingent portion of his/her RSA, including all accrued investment income thereto. “The contributor may also choose to convert the contingent portion of the contributions to the retirement benefits portion. The remaining balance in the RSA shall be available to the contributor upon retirement or attaining the age of 50 years.â€? PenCom said it had established a separate department dedicated to the supervision of all matters relating to the MPP, including enforcement of compliance with the guidelines and customer complaint handling and resolution. Ă“Ă˜Ă‹Ă˜Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă– Ă˜Ă?Ă–Ă&#x;Ă?Ă“Ă™Ă˜ Analysts said achieving the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) financial inclusion mandate of getting 80 per cent of adult population into the financial system by 2020 requires the backing of key stakeholders like PenCom . The PenCom is, through the RSA remittances, helping to deepen the pension industry, financial system and economy. The PenCom exists for the effective regulation and supervision of the Nigerian pension industry to ensure that retirement benefits are paid as and when due. Head of Communication Department of PenCom, Peter Aghahowa, said the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) had made the life of retirees much easier, unlike the defined benefits scheme which it replaced. He said that PenCom has deployed the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) MultiFund Structure conceived by the commission to align with contributors’ risk appetite with their investment horizon, at each stage of their life cycle. The RSA Multi-Fund Structure are to achieve optimum returns for contributors by aligning their pension savings with their individual risk/return profiles, provide investment portfolio choices to Contributors, and enhance safety of pension assets through adequate portfolio diversification, through increased investment in equities and alternative assets, such as infrastructure and private equity. We have recorded some successes so far. Beside the micro-pension scheme, PenCom has developed a Framework for Recovery of Outstanding Pension Contributions with penalty for defaulting employers. Based on the Framework, the commission has engaged recovery agents for continuous enrollment into the CPS and recovery of un-remitted pension contributions plus penalty from defaulting employers. The recovery, which has been largely successful, has boosted the confidence of contributors and by extension encouraged non-participating employees and employers to embrace the Scheme. Besides, the commission has a fully functional Complaints Monitoring and Resolution Team, which attends to complaints on non/ late/under-remittance of pension contributions into employees RSAs.

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Apochi: Banks, Others Using Technology to Enhance Customer Experience The Founder and Director, PayAttitude, Mr. Agada Apochi, who is an organisational psychologist and change leadership specialist, in this interview speaks about how technology-driven solutions are enhancing customer experience in the electronic payment space. He also talks about the benefits of PayAttitude digital solution. Obinna Chima presents the excerpts:

D

uring the recent public holidays, high transaction and network failures were experienced. As one of the stakeholders in the E-payment value chain how do you think we can overcome this perennial challenge? One of the ways is to make payments easier and simpler for people; enabling people make payments with their personal devices. If you could go into a shop and the shop owner enters your mobile number into his phone and instantly, that way the value is exchanged and many problems are solved. The experience from the last Sallah holiday was unpleasant and we were not proud of it. So, the entire industry is working on it to make sure such things never occur again. Banks are the largest shareholders in the payment space. If you use PayAttitude, whether or not transactions are failing such persons would not have such problems and that is why industry stakeholders are doing everything to make transactions seamless while offering many other new technology- driven solutions to enhance customer’s transaction experiences. What are these other options? One of them is paying with phone number whereby people can exchange value with one another and get the result needed; it is also of interest because you can securely handle it through family and friends, your mobile number can be entered at a merchant location and where ever you are you will get a notification for you to approve and then the payment is approved and made. This is the first of its kind because making payment globally, you are required to disclose certain details you would ordinarily not share at the environment you are doing the transaction and secondly you are required to enter your pin where you are doing your transaction. PayAttitude technology raises the bar by saying what the world considers sufficient today is no longer sufficient. All you need to enter when you are performing a transaction is your mobile number and nothing else. If your pin is your personal identification number PayAttitude believes it should be entered only on your personal device which you have control of which means the risk of fraud is minimised or eliminated so these are new ways of doing electronic transaction. We are proud this is coming for Nigeria and we need to appreciate Nigerian banks for coming together to form Pay attitude. But as more innovations are being introduced into the payment system, cybercrime appears to be on the rise. What do you think can be done to address that? The single most important thing is the investment each operator makes concerning risk management and fraud prevention. This is because the weakest link is as strong as the strongest link. When cyber criminals want to attack, they look for the weakest link and once they can penetrate at that point it exposes industry operators and customers. So, we must continue to invest in risk management solutions that guaranty people would be able to transact with their eyes open and when they close it, they will not wake up to fraud. That is what we are doing and every stakeholder in the payment space in Nigeria are doing everything to eliminate cyber fraud in the country. Also I can say proudly that Nigeria has one of the least ratio of crime concerning electronic payment. The perception out there is that Nigeria is filled with crime in the E-payment space, but Nigeria has one of the least ratios of E-payment globally and that is something Nigerians should be proud

Apochi

of. Our banks have always applied the best available technologies, including the chip and pin that has been made mandatory for several years. Nigeria is the first country in the entire world to make it mandatory and eliminate magnetic scratch cards and we have moved on to the current state of technologies by deploying the first of its kind in the world, a solution that doesn’t require you entering your pin asides on your mobile device but rather your phone number when making transactions and yet you are still able to transact on traditional channels. If you enter your mobile number on any channel while transacting and your mobile number is acquired by someone who wants to perform a fraudulent act like making payment with your mobile number, it will not work because the person doesn’t have any other valuable information asides your mobile number and when the transaction wants to be approved it has to be approved on your mobile device. But we need to feel comfortable as Nigerians while transacting; because it is safe to transact electronically. The rate of crime in terms of loss of cash is higher than loss to e-payments in Nigeria. So, the Central Bank of Nigeria, banks, payment solutions providers and stakeholders are doing everything to make sure Nigerians transact successfully. Some believe the fintechs are threat to the banking sector, while others see them as enablers, what is your view about fintechs? I see fintechs as enablers not threats. Any bank that embraces financial technology and works with fintech companies would be like the bank of few decades ago that embraced technology into its way of doing business. Any bank that fails to operate with fintechs due to fear or threat, that bank would one day become extinct. Imagine banking in the last two decades with technology, without using computers, extinction would be inevitable for such banks. As long as a bank is willing to work with technology it has to be willing to collaborate with financial technology providers

who are there to enhance the performance of banks so as to provide the best customer experience for their customers and seamless transactions. So, what is PayAttitude? PayAttitude is a financial technology (fintech) that is owned by Nigerian banks and seeks to make payments easier for Nigerians. It delivers financial technology that focuses on the digital payment space. It focuses on how people can perform digital transactions using their mobile devices. It also depends on Nigerian-owned technology. So, the technology used and deployed by PayAttitude is owned by PayAttitude and that ends the tradition of us depending on foreign technology to provide our solutions. It is the first of its kind in the market to enhance our market and that is the beauty of having a Nigerian-owned company that leverages on internal technology because it understands the needs and problems of the Nigerian market. For now, our services are within Nigeria. However, PayAttitude has obtained patent for its technology in Nigeria and now it is seeking for its patent in other countries across the world. Who are your target customers and can anyone subscribe to your solution? The beauty is you do not have to go to any office to subscribe, wherever you are, once you have mobile you will be able to subscribe and do transactions without having to go to the bank. How are you driving awareness to ensure more customers embrace the solution? We are making use of different channels to ensure this happens. For instance, we are working with partner banks so as to reach their customers, we are offering this as solution to government agencies and institutions as payment solutions, we are offering this to various stakeholders and organisations that are involved in financial inclusion like banks and other financial institutions to see what they can do to the benefit of the Nigerian public.

The good thing is that people do not need a lot of lectures on usage. Once you know how to use your mobile devices you will be able to operate PayAttitude because the major thing it offers is the ability to do financial transactions across all channels with the use of your telephone number and mobile devices which you can do whether you are present there or at another location. For example, if you want to withdraw money at an agency outlet in a rural community you do not need a bank account. All you need is your mobile device and telephone number, what you need to do is to give the agent your phone number and the agent inputs it in his own mobile device then automatically you will receive a prompt on your device and then you input your password on your device which will followed by you being debited while the agent’s account is credited and then you are given cash. Beyond cash, when you want to buy something from someone for as low as N100,000, you can make use of this solution which also helps us to achieve a cashless economy whereby we do not always need to go about with cash. This solution is also delivered on mobile app and USSD, that means it is not only for those with smart phones or data. Once you have voice service at any location USSD would also work there. If you go to an ATM to withdraw money, all you need to do is enter your mobile number. We are working with various banks who are ATM owners and financial organisations that have agents to enable this for their agents. And the agents do not need a PoS device because the PayAttitude solution has turned the mobile device into a payment device. For someone who banks with multiple banks in Nigeria, what are the unique selling points that would make such a person choose PayAttitude over other payment solutions by the banks? We don’t mind people using solutions owned by Nigerian banks, PayAttitude is also owned by Nigerian banks, and we are working with banks to also enable PayAttitude on their features like mobile apps, USSD. The advantage PayAttitude offers is whether you are in your bank channel or you take the PayAttitude app or the USSD itself which is *569#, you would be able to enjoy the benefit of paying with your mobile number through every channel like PoS, ATM, web and person-to-person. So we collaborate with banks rather than compete and they have established and funded PayAttitude so as to make lives easier for Nigerians and achieve financial inclusion. How does the platform work? It allows you use your telephone number as a means of payment and authorises every transaction on your mobile device. That means every Nigerian with a handset can simply link his or her account with a PayAttitude or create a pre-paid account that can be funded. Thus, when you go to an ATM to transact, it would be your mobile number you need to input. The telephone has now become a remote control for financial transactions thanks to PayAttitude. What is your outlook for the financial services industry for the rest of the year? My outlook is that we will continue to see growth in adoption and penetration, financial inclusion would get better. People would get more comfortable using the digital payment solutions that we offer. Everyone that has a phone and functioning mobile number can make use of PayAttitude. So, I definitely see growth.

T H I S D AY Ëž JUNE 19, 2019

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BUSINESSWORLD

PERSPECTIVE

Imo Now Ready for Business “My vision for Imo is a South East Nigeria State that will become one of the top three (3) most developed state economies in Nigeria by year 2025‌ leveraging on the abundant human capital and natural resources the state is endowed with to build an economy anchored on good governance, wealth creation, rule of law and sound management of state resources.â€? – Governor Emeka Ihedioha Ă’Ă‹ĂœĂ–Ă?Ă? ĂŽĂ“ĂŒĂ™

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n the lead-up to his inauguration and swearing –in on May 29th, 2019 as the sixth democratically elected Governor of Imo State, Rt. Honourable Emeka Ihedioha invited a number of dignitaries – business, political, religious, activists – to Imo state to participate in the series of events heralding a new dawn for Imo, over a fourday period. Six of them, captains of industry, who collectively lead businesses that employ over 20,000 Nigerians, and who did not associate with the immediate past administration because of the hostile environment then, caught my attention. Two of them who are not from Imo State lead a flourishing airline and a quoted indigenous upstream oil and gas company. The other four from Imo State are key players in upstream and downstream petroleum; Information Communication Technology (ICT); E-commerce; Telecommunications; and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). Beyond these six titans, the Imo State capital, during this transition period, was awash with an overflow of the nation’s business leaders and advisors. What changed? The reality of perception, because our view of the world is shaped by communication, which means that perception being a function of communication is a reality. In his over 20 years in public service, mainly as a legislator, Governor Emeka Ihedioha has been projected and therefore identified as a man who is faithful to his words. He has consistently advocated for due process, openness, transparency and accountability in the conduct of government business, attributes which appeal to the business community and this perception has defined his persona in the public space and influenced how people relate with and respond to him. Little wonder his four-point agenda to rebuild Imo State is laden with a commitment to good governance - revitalize the Imo economy by thinking and acting like a business driven by premium talent, cutting-edge strategy, and operating process; effective and efficient service delivery leading to better resource use and value for money which will ultimately promote economic growth, employment generation and poverty reduction. Other components of the economic blueprint as articulated by Governor Ihedioha in his four-year action plan to transform Imo State include growing the economy through functional education, rapid industrialisation, entrepreneurship/skill development and innovative technologies; reform and increase investment in agriculture for sustainable wealth creation and food security; facilitate integrated infrastructural development across the state; and guarantee the security of lives and properties of citizens and residents. Other actionable plans of the “my word is my bond� Governor include revamp of tourism and entertainment as key contributors to the economy; launch a four-year N10 billion Employment Trust Fund to give access to entrepreneurial ventures in the state; ensure strict observance of the principle of separation of powers with the legislature

and respect the autonomy of the judiciary in order to promote the rule of law; and establish Imo State Investment Promotion Council to act as a one-stop shop to implement Government policies on private investment and Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements. No doubt that these are indeed laudable plans on paper but which success is dependent on the discipline of execution. In their 2002 best-selling book, “Execution – The Discipline Of Getting Things Doneâ€?, Larry Bossidy, an acclaimed CEO, and Ram Charan, a legendary advisor to senior executives posit that “with the right people in the right jobs there’s a leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that can be executedâ€?. According to them “people then work together to create strategy, building block-by-block a strategy in sync with the realities of the marketplace, the economy and the competition, then linked to an operating process that converts the strategy into specific programs and actions‌â€? Referred to as “tested and trustedâ€? based on his strings of identifiable accomplishments as a legislator, too numerous to outline here, Governor Ihedioha has already hit the ground running in selecting people, articulating strategy while guided by due process. So far he has approved the appointments of over ten technical and special advisers, amongst others. But one of these appointments stands out in framing the evolving Ihedioha governorship that places premium on exceptional talents and will go to great lengths to attract them. The Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, whose appointment was announced on June 8, 2019 is not from Imo State but from the neighbouring Abia State because it is a talent hunt to recruit the best to rebuild Imo. The safety of lives and property ranks high in the social contract between the government and the people, and is a sine qua non to attract durable investments. During the tenure of the outgone administration, Imo state was not regarded as a secure state and insecurity deteriorated to the point that the United States of America, through its Embassy, in 2017, included Imo State in its security advisory notice as one of the states in Nigeria that its citizens should be wary of visiting. It is against this background that the Governor sought out Mr. Raymond Nke-

Governor Ihedioha has consistently advocated for due process, openness, transparency and accountability in the conduct of government business, attributes which appeal to the business community

Ò�ÎÓÙÒË

mdirim, an experienced security intelligence administrator and expert who served in the nation’s security service for thirty five years, rising to the position of Director of Operations in the State Security Service (SSS), to be his Adviser on Security Matters. An alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Mr. Nkemdirim holds Bachelors’ Degrees in Law (LLB) from the University of Abuja, and B.Sc in Education and Sociology from Abia State University. A Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) he is a Fellow of the Security Institute. In terms of strategy, the plan of action to achieve the overall “rebuild agenda�, the Governor, in a process-driven manner has set-up simultaneous activities that are developing the frameworks for action. These include the Financial Advisory Committee headed by a former Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr. Abraham Nwankwo; Committee for the Review of Appointments, Recruitments and Retirement; and an Interim management Committee for Imo Transport Company. Of strategic importance is the Financial Advisory Committee, apparently a standing committee, which signposts the Governor’s disposition for stringent fiscal discipline. Its mandate includes a review of all financial transactions, including forensic audit to ascertain sources of funds and application in the past; and recommending measures to strengthen internal controls and enhance the performance of agencies of government. To put his words and promises to action and assure Imo people and potential investors that truly his word is his bond infrastructural development has already kicked-off. True to his commitment not to use the state’s paucity of funds as excuse for non-performance it is obvious to the discerning constituents and stakeholders that Governor Ihedioha is reaching out to do the needful. Two weeks after being sworn-in as Governor of Imo State, emergency repair works have already commenced on the ever-busy Owerri-Mbaise-Obowo-Umuahia road, arguably the second busiest inter-state road in the state, which has been a traveler’s nightmare in the past eight years. Simultaneously, as part of the integrated infrastructure development of the “Agenda To Re-

build Imo�, reconstruction works have also commenced on the roads connecting Protea Hotels to Ahiajoku Convention Centre to Port Harcourt Road, all in New Owerri. Though the projects are being executed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), it is apparent that these critical infrastructures redevelopment reconstruction that did not happen in the past eight years, are at the behest of the new state government which is committed to make the first 100 days count for something. And for the first time in over three years Imo State civil servants have received their May 2019 salary which, was paid in full as against previous practices of owing full months or paying paltry percentages under the out-gone administration. Recall that the state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) had been on strike until Governor Ihedioha in his first week in office prevailed on them to call-off the strike. The early, quick, and sure-footed steps of the Governor are an affirmation of his resolute commitment to ndi Imo and his strong desire for them to own and control their resources and key means of production, as he promised before being elected as Governor. Because morning shows the day, the new Imo State led by Emeka Ihedioha is steadily assuming positive brand association that Ndi Imo can proudly relate to. Ndi Imo can now identify with such noble attributes of a Governor who speaks in characteristic measured tones, with candour and decorum befitting of the office; a Governor who thinks before he speaks; a Governor who does not frivolously make promises that he hardly keeps, but one whose word is his bond; and overall, a leader who is guided by rule of law. Above all, to deepen the evolving amity between the government and Ndi Imo, the Government as a brand has to entrench the new-found connection with Ndi Imo which ensures that they will defend the government vigorously even in the face of obvious weakness against opposition and detractors; the administration should communicate effectively by framing its issues properly and telling its story proactively; and ensure that the state lives up to and consistently delivers on its promise to the people. Odibo is a Marketing and Communications Practitioner

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍˇËœ Ͱ͎ͯ͡

EDUCATION Onimawo: Positioning AAU for Leadership through ICT, Infrastructural Devt Benjie Ihenyen highlights the unprecedented reforms of Prof. Ignatius Onimawo in his third year as the Vice-Chancellor, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, to attain his vision of making AAU one of the best state universities and one of the ten best in Nigeria At the Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State, the giant strides of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ignatius Onimawo can be seen in vaious projects like e-senate, e-learning, computer-based examinations, e-results, e-transcript, e-admissions and ground breaking research initiatives and actions, thus the institution is fast attaining the vice-chancellor’s vision. Upon assumption of office on May 11, 2016, Onimawo had said: “My vision is to make the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma a first-class university that would be rated as the best state university and among the best 10 in Nigeria in knowledge and skills for service delivery to the society.� The vice-chancellor set for himself the task of repositioning governance, deepening infrastructural development, attaining academic excellence, deployment of ICT to every aspect of the university administration, improving staff and students’ welfare and the provision of adequate security within and around the campus. All these are coming to pass. Three years into his tenure, AAU is reputed for its unique deployment and application ICT in every segment of the day-to-day running of the institution. Onimawo has infused a new model in lecturing and examination in the university. The AAU was once notorious for cultism to the extent that it got the attention of international media like the American-based CNN over a decade ago. Today, that negative image is history. “We came together and said things cannot remain the same,� said Onimawo. “So we came up with strategies and solutions to curb the menace. Through these efforts and the by the Onimawo grace of God, the issue of cultism has been others from other alumni in the diaspora. The addressed. “We have a good relationship with our ICT has also helped in the seamless collection students and our staff unions have also been of school fees. “In the past, we had what we called ‘Task very cooperative and we have had a smooth working relationship.� he said. To ensure that Force on School Fees’, they move from one such practices are banished, he resorted to the exam hall to another, asking students for their school fees receipt. use of technology. “This new ICT method has helped us to collect The first step was to introduce computerbased examinations which had checked many our school fees with ease because if you login vices associated with examination malpractices. with your computer, without school fees, you Vouching for the workability of the system, he cannot access the questions. So apart from the said, “when the students go to write exam, as fact that it has brought sanity to our academics, soon as they finish writing, all they need to do it also has helped us in the collection of school is to press the submit button and their score fees,� he said. According to him, the ICT innovation is also will immediately pop up on the screen. It is not a matter of go home and we will process being used in senate screening of final exams and it has helped in collation of results, in cutting your result. “When we did that for all 100 level and 200 costs and better management of resources. “You level courses, we discovered that the issue of know, the university is not only about academics missing results was completely eliminated. The and students. Infrastructure is also a major part issue of some lecturers expecting some students of it. When you go to a university, the first thing to bring money before they do their job was that catches your attention is the infrastructure completely eliminated and that has brought a on ground and AAU has suffered in that area over the years.� lot of sanity to the university system. Besides, the university has effectively deployed “We started this initiative with 100 and 200 level students because these are people that can ICT in conducting students’ union election. The easily be cajoled. They do not know their left last two SUG elections in AAU were conducted from their right. In fact, when they come in, electronically. There is a dashboard and as the people can tell them, ‘if you do not do this or votes are being cast, they are displayed on the do that, you cannot pass’, but now they have screen and students can see who is leading and realised that they can pass and that all they how all candidates are faring. “It is not a question of go and count result need do is to read their books; their exams will be written on computer and their result will be as everything is being displayed as the voting takes place and all the candidates’ agents are right there on their screen.� An elated Onimawo said glowingly: “There there with their laptops and are monitoring it. is no other federal or state university in Nigeria Whoever wins, we already know and we have that has been able to do this, but we are doing done this two consecutive times now. There has it here and that is one reason we talk about been no issue, very transparent and we have been making AAU the best state university in the telling our colleagues from other universities to also use this method,� said Onimawo. country.� He disclosed that the use of electronic votThe university’s e-library which accommodates students for computer-based examination ing system in SUG elections has stemmed the currently boasts of 1,300 computers which are tide of killings, vandalism and insecurity on grossly inadequate. But reprieve is coming with the campus. “Students don’t need to go and the donation of an examination centre by the queue up anywhere to vote. All you need is Tony Elumelu Foundation which will soon be your smart phone. Once you login to the portal, equipped with 1,000 computers in addition to you cast your vote and once you vote, it counts.

You can’t vote twice from the same phone. We developed the app here and that is what we have been using for our students’ union election�, he said. Strides in infrastructural development Onimawo is also investing extravagantly in infrastructural facilities. Determined to put an end to the ramshackle buildings that once dotted the campus, Onimawo wrote, pushed and negotiated with federal agencies, foreign donor bodies to access funds to upgrade the facilities on campus. As a result, the university was able to access intervention funds from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and other public institutions like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the National Universities Commission (NUC), individuals and faith-based organisations, as well as alumni bodies both home and abroad. “For you to be able to access TETFund, you must be able to show what you have done with previous funds you accessed. We passed their criteria and they gave us opportunity to access their funds and we have also completed the building of Physical Science Faculty. As we were doing this, we were also able to, through some contacts, access special intervention from TETFund. Last year, only six universities were selected to benefit from them to build and AAU was one of them. If TETFund gives you money and you don’t spend it well, they will not be encouraged to talk to you if you come to them for another intervention. The speed with which we completed the Faculty of Life Sciences made it easier for us to access funds for Faculty of Physical Sciences. We have about 33 projects on-going and they are at different stages of completion. We have lecture theatres going on, and other constructions scattered all over the place. So infrastructurally, we have shaped the phase of AAU and we are still working. We are also very lucky that NDDC came and started helping us as well. Shell came and donated an ICT centre to us. Tony Elumelu came and donated a project to us as well. “We were also able to access needs assessment

and that gave us opportunity to upgrade some of our facilities and build some few structures. We are lucky that Ambrose Alli University also benefitted from the 2018 High Impact Assessment Intervention. We are building two new Faculties of Education and Faculty of Management Sciences. We are also building the Department of Mass Communication.� The vice-chancellor has meticulously deployed strategic initiatives in driving his vision for the university. This includes deepening research and teaching to make the university a centre of academic excellence. Harping on capacity building for the teaching staff, Onimawo said: “As we speak now, we have a lot of money in TETFund set aside to train our lecturers in the best universities in the world. Last year about five people are outside the country now. The money is there. As for research, we have about six clusters. The Director of Research and Training is doing a lot of jobs. We have had seminars on how people can write proposals that can win grants. We are making progress in the area of research.� Provision of adequate hostel accommodation has been a herculean task and intractable challenge in Nigerian universities. Out of the over 27,000 student population of AAU, only about 4,000 is accommodated in the hostels. Propelled by the quest to address the deficit, Onimawo has triggered fundamental reforms in that direction by bringing in private partners with whom a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed to provide more hostels for students. The Registrar, AAU, Chris Adamaigbo said of the vice- chancellor: “He has that rare capacity to listen to all shades of opinion; that is one quality that has endeared his administration to the students and staff. The ability of the VC to accommodate diversity of ideas, listen to others and build a consensus based on consultation.� According to Professor Julius Azelama, the Director, Centre for Strategic and Government Studies, the VC is very aggressive in sourcing for funds. “The governing council is also on the same page with the VC since he came on board and TETFund is happy with the university because of short period for project execution and transparency,� he said. The Head, Department of Accounting, Dr. Omorogie Nosa said: “The vice-chancellor is much focused. Dormant TETFund now releases funds to AAU through his efforts and properly utilised. At AAU, it is now a case of projects, projects and more projects all over the campus. He is dynamic, innovative and creative. He has revamped our internally generated revenue.� A Biochemistry student, Tessy Edokpu, over joyed with the development in the university, said the atmosphere of learning is improving every day. With two more years in his tenure, Onimawo said he would want to be remembered as the vice-chancellor that propelled AAU to its peak in terms of service delivery and academics. “I want to be remembered as the vice-chancellor that moved AAU’s ranking from 56th position where I met it to either second or third in Nigeria and of course number one state university. I think we can achieve it. I also want to be remembered as the vice-chancellor that brought about e-senate to Ambrose Alli University. It has never happened before, that you conduct your senate meetings without papers. I want to be remembered for being the vice-chancellor that developed the university infrastructure. “I want to be remembered as the vice-chancellor that did the fencing of our lands because we are talking about perimeter fencing now and I want to be remembered as the vice-chancellor that had all the university’s programmes accredited before I leave.� For all his accomplishments, Onimawo is not asking for too much.

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EDUCATION

Improve Investment in Human Capital, Education, Finland Ambassador Tells FG Ogechukwu Obi The federal government has been urged to increase its investment in education and in different aspects of human capital development. The Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen said it is imperative as the desired development is attainable when quality education is made accessible to all citizens. Speaking at the 11th edition of TOSSE in Lagos with the theme ‘Future of Education in Africa’, Pulkkinen said governments must take cognizance of four factors that make education

truly transformational such as accessibility, quality of education, relevance and teachers’ training.“Education requires new methodology especially if you have too many children to be educated; new education methods have to be applied from time to time. Also, education must be relevant such that it can be trusted to provide young people with the needed skills for them to survive. “More importantly, teachers must be highly educated because they are not only facilitating learning, but also developing education. That is why in Finland we insist on

having masters and scientific education for our teachers because they can actually be active transformation leaders in education. Pulkkinen added: “Education is basically dependent on the level of education of the teacher. So the country should focus on how to train capable teachers for the future. Education model differs, in the UK and many other countries for example, teachers are trained to follow the curriculum but in Finland, that is not how we think education can be developed. “For us, it is the teacher who prepares the curriculum, the

teacher is a master of the curriculum as well as the keeper. Education should be seen as an investment. It is important that government invests more in education because without resources, there is no education, not even the four points can work without resources.� Also, the keynote speaker, Prof. Bankole Sodipo called for an increase in the country’s education budget, as well as constitutional amendment that will make education a right. While stressing that education should not be left in the hand of government alone, he urged Nigerians to imbibe the culture

of giving back to their alma mater. “If you want to compete and have the kind of skills that will attract foreign investors; if you want to have a future, then the government needs to increase funding for education. “If education is a right and it is well articulated, then the state and federal governments will know that they are not doing us a favour.� Also calling for alternative funding for the education sector, the Professor of Law said people should imbibe the culture of giving back to the system that made them. In her remarks, the convener of TOSSE, Mrs. Yinka Ogunde

reiterated the importance of the annual event, saying, “our desire is to be the rallying point for everything about education in Africa. To be a platform for key stakeholders concerned about the sector to meet and deliberate on issues. “However, the question is how can we use education to build a new generation of Africans? If we are to do this effectively, what would be the key drivers? Improvement in the quality of our teachers; better managed private and public educational institutions and the integration of technology,� Ogunde said.

150th Anniversary: St. Anne’s Alumni to Raise N250m to Refurbish School St. Anne’s School Old Girls Association has annoounced plans to raise N250 million to refurbish the school and revive extra-curricular activities, as part of programmes to mark its 150th anniversary. The Chairperson of the 150th Central Planning Committee, Dr. Funmilayo Soleye, who made this known at a news conference in Lagos, said: “Some major areas to be worked on include the re-roofing of the classroom blocks, clearing and landscaping, creation of various sporting field events and the establishment of a vocational centre, among others. “We will also set up an endowment fund that we expect the old students and parents of students, interested corporate organisations, families, friends and individuals to donate to.� Soleye, who noted that it is time to further identify and give back to the school that they love, said the association is planning to celebrate the institution’s anniversary in Ibadan, Oyo State. “The school is said to be the

first school in Nigeria established solely for the education of the girl child.� According to her, education without extra-curricula activities is not enough to produce all rounded individuals needed to contribute to the much desired accelerated national development. “We want to come back fully as an association to create an enabling environment that will develop the finer aspects of life in a bid to produce complete ladies that will be able to assert themselves in every area of life’s endeavour. “We want to go back to that old tradition we had in our time in school when we had robust boarding house system. “There were lots of activities that developed the finer aspects of life. We had clubs like the literary and debating society, the drama club, we also engaged in an annual competition between houses covering the festival of the arts. We had each of these houses representing different cultural aspects of the country.

Monarch Tasks FG, Others to Deemphasise Paper Qualifications Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan The Olubadan of Ibadan Land, Oba Saliu Adetunji has called on the federal government and other stakeholders in the education sector to evolve a mechanism that will deemphasise paper qualifications so as to stem the tide of unemployment in the country. The monarch also canvased that premium be placed on the acquisition of entrepreneurship skills with a view to making many unemployed graduates self-reliant. He said this while receiving the management of the Precious Cornerstone University (PCU), Ibadan, led by the ViceChancellor, Prof. Kola Oloke, who paid him a courtesy visit at his Popoyemoja, Ibadan palace. He lauded what he described

as the brilliant start of the university, adding that he is aware that the institution was established for knowledge and research. The monarch, who expressed delight that the university came into reality during his life time and tenure on the throne, promised to mobilise well-meaning Ibadan indigenes with a view to supporting the development of the institution. In his remarks, the VC thanked the oba for always identifying with the university since its establishment, adding that his presence during the thanksgivings service held in honour of Governor Seyi Makinde at the behest of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries, the owners of PCU, was commendable.

The Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, being presented with an award by the Managing Director, Edumark Consult, Mrs. Yinka Ogunde, during the 11th TOSSE in Lagos‌ recently

Deputy Governor Laments Poor Condition of Ogun Schools Femi Ogbonnikan in Abeokuta The Ogun State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, has expressed concern over the deplorable condition of schools in some parts of the state, saying that the challenges such structural integrity of buildings where the children learn, coupled with other factors contributing to the bad state of the schools, would be tackled with immediate effect. Oyedele-Salako, who made this known recently during her maiden familiarisation tour of some selected primary and

secondary schools in Abeokuta South and Abeokuta North Local Government Areas, said it was shocking to see children of different classes facing two sides in one classroom. “If you want to learn and excel, there is need to reposition the educational sector to where it used to be. Ogun State is where we breed excellence, hence, the need to provide proper learning facilities and tackle these challenges with immediate effect.� She promised that the Dapo Abiodun-led administration would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that over bloated population, lack of toilet facilities

and teaching aids would be a thing of the past. Salako-Oyedele said for a state that is blessed like Ogun, plans are underway to commence construction of befitting blocks of classrooms in all wards in Abeokuta North Local Government Area during the upcoming holiday, adding that other wards would be touched subsequently to ensure that children learn under conducive environment. She charged parents to begin to understand the value of education, adding that it opens doors of opportunities everywhere and also encouraged them to take advantage of the facilities put in place by the government by

allowing their wards to be in school on market days. The deputy governor commended to Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) for coming together to supplement the meagre resources provided by the government, as well as teachers for their dedication and commitment despite the few tools available for teaching. In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Olu-Ola Aikulola, said for the state to get to the milestone it desires, there is need to tackle infrastructural deficit and embark on training and re-training of teachers.

House Passes Bill to Establish College of Education Aghoro Shola Oyeyipo in Abuja The House of Representatives has passed a bill for an act to provide for the establishment of Federal College of Education (Technical), Aghoro, Bayelsa State. The committee, presided over by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Honorable Yakubu Dogara recently passed the bill establishing the college. Some of the provisions of

the bill state that: “The college shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal shall have power to acquire and dispose of interests in movable and immovable property and may sue and be sued in its corporate name. “The college shall be a training institution for the development of teacher education in the country, and shall be supervised by the Federal Ministry of Education through

the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), which shall be responsible for approving and regulating academic programmes run in the college, to ensure quality compliance and provide infrastructures and remunerations of employees.� According to the bill, “the objectives of the college are to encourage the advancement of learning; to hold out to all persons without distinction

of race, creed, sex or political conviction; develop and offer academic and professional programmes leading to the award of certificates, first degrees, postgraduate degrees, diploma and higher degrees with emphasis on planning, developmental and adaptive skills in education, technology, applied science, agriculture, commerce, arts, social science, humanities, management and allied professional disciplines.�

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Bauchi Discovers 20% Ghost Teachers in its Payroll Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi The Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed has announced the discovery of 20 per cent ghost teachers in the state payroll, just as he promised that his administration would place premium on developing the education sector. The governor disclosed this during a courtesy call on him by Bauchi State Youth on the occasion of the Day of the African Child (DAC), organised by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in collaboration with UNICEF Nigeria, Bauchi Field Office, held at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Bauchi. The action, supported by UNICEF, was in commemoration of the Day of the African Child, the day in 1976 that hundreds of students were shot in Soweto, South Africa,

while demonstrating for their right to quality education. The Nigerian campaign for access to quality education will hold the newly-elected government officials at all levels accountable for their campaign promises to provide equitable access to free, safe and quality education for every child, especially the girl child, in Nigeria. The governor, who reiterated the contribution of education to the socio-economic and political development of any society or nation, condemned the engagement of unqualified people into the system, saying that they would be flushed out through strategic measures. On the alleged mismanagement of funds in the SUBEB, he revoked all contracts awarded in the education sector, adding that the immediate past Chairman of SUBEB, Professor Yahaya

Yero would be prosecuted for awarding contracts without access funds and announced the recruitment of 1,000 qualified teachers within one month for improvement in the education especially basic education. The governor promised to comply with UNICEF requirements for accessing intervention by ensuring timely release of counterpart funding for effective teaching and learning in schools. The Representative of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Hajiya Maryama Dikwa said 120 youths from three senatorial zones of the state were been selected to work for increased access to safe and quality education for every Nigerian children, especially girls. Dikwa, who expressed concern over the number of out of school children and non enrollment of girls in schools, called for improved budgetary

allocation especially to basic education to increase acess to safe and quality education. The Permanent Secretary of the state ministry of education, Musa Wadata challenged members of the advocacy conference to work towards the eradication of the challenges facing education especially at the basic level. THISDAY gathered that the 10 states where the mass actions and activities commemorating the 2019 (DAC) took place, Bauchi, Niger, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba and the FCT, have about eight million children not in school and an average enrolment rate of only 57 per cent. The global theme for this year’s Day of the African child is child ‘Rights in all Situations, Including during Humanitarian Crises’.

Teachers Asking for Financial Support

Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă˜Ă™ĂĄ Ă‹ Ă?Ă™Ă—Ă—Ă™Ă˜ Ă•Ă˜Ă™ĂĄĂ–Ă?ĂŽĂ‘Ă? ÞÒËÞ Ă’Ă&#x;Ă˜ĂŽĂœĂ?ĂŽĂ? Ă™Ă? ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă‹ĂœĂ? ĂŒĂ?Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?Ă™ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂŽ Ă“Ă˜ĂžĂ™ ĂŒĂ?Ă‘Ă‘Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹ Ă?Ă’Ă‹ĂœĂ“ĂžĂŁ Ă?Ă™Ăœ Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă’ Ă’Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽĂ™Ă&#x;ĂžĂ? ĂŒĂ?Ă?Ă‹Ă&#x;Ă?Ă? ÞÒĂ?ĂŁ Ă?Ă‹Ă˜ Ă˜Ă™ Ă–Ă™Ă˜Ă‘Ă?Ăœ Ă‹ĘĽĂ™ĂœĂŽ ÞÙ ÚËã ĂŒĂ‹Ă?Ă“Ă? Ă?ÞËÚÖĂ? Ă?ÙÙÎĂ?Ëœ ĂžĂœĂ‹Ă˜Ă?ĂšĂ™ĂœĂž Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă?Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?Ă™Ă?ĂžĂ?Ë Ă’Ă? Ă™ĂŒĂ”Ă?Ă?ÞÓà Ă? Ă™Ă? Ă—Ă™Ă?Ăž Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă“Ă? ÞÙ Ó×ÚËĂ?Ăž Ă•Ă˜Ă™ĂĄĂ–Ă?ĂŽĂ‘Ă?Ëœ ĂĄĂ’Ă“Ă?Ă’ Ă“Ă? Ă‹ĂŽĂ”Ă&#x;ĂŽĂ‘Ă?ĂŽ Ă‘Ă–Ă™ĂŒĂ‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă‹Ă? Ă‹ Ă Ă?ĂœĂ“ĂžĂ‹ĂŒĂ–Ă? Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? Ă™Ă? ÚÙåĂ?Ăœ Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹ Ă?Ă?Ă‹Ă—Ă–Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă˜Ă?ĂœË› Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă“Ă? Ă?Ă?ĂšĂ?Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ ÞÙ Ă?Ă˜Ă?Ă&#x;ĂœĂ? ÞÒËÞ Ă?ĂžĂ&#x;ĂŽĂ?Ă˜ĂžĂ? Ă–Ă“Ă Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ• Ă?Ă&#x;Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă&#x;Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŁ Ă?ÞËÞĂ? ÞÒËÞ ÞÒĂ?ĂŁ Ę¨Ă˜ĂŽ ÞÒĂ?Ă—Ă?Ă?Ă–Ă Ă?Ă? Ă“Ă˜ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă‘Ă–Ă™ĂŒĂ‹Ă–Ă“Ă¤Ă?ĂŽ ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ–ĂŽË› ÙåĂ?Ă Ă?ĂœËœ Ă“Ă˜ ÞÒÓĂ? ĂŽĂ‹ĂŁĂ? Ă™Ă? Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă™Ă—Ă“Ă? ĂŽĂ™ĂĄĂ˜ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ˜Ëœ Ă—Ă™Ă?Ăž ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă“Ă˜ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖĂ? Ă˜Ă™ĂĄ Ę¨Ă˜ĂŽ Ă“Ăž Ă Ă?ĂœĂŁ Ă’Ă‹ĂœĂŽ ÞÙ Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂœĂ‹ĂžĂ? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÙʰĂ?Ă˜ ÞÓ×Ă?Ă? Ă˜Ă™ĂĄ Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ùʼ Ă?ÚËĂ?×ÙÎÓĂ?Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă–Ă‹Ă?Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă‹Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă—Ă‹Ă”Ă™ĂœĂ–ĂŁ ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂšĂ™Ă˜Ă?Ă“ĂŒĂ–Ă? Ă?Ă™Ăœ ÞÒÓĂ? Ă“Ă? Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă™Ă—Ă˜Ă“Ă‹ ÞÒËÞ Ă“Ă? Ă™Ă?Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă“Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂŽ ĂŒĂŁ Ă?ËÞÓÑĂ&#x;Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă“Ă? Ă‹Ă? Ă‹ ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă&#x;Ă–Ăž Ă™Ă? ÞÙÙ Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ă’ ĂžĂ’Ă“Ă˜Ă•Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă˜Ă™ĂĄ Ă&#x;Ă?Ă&#x;Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă‹Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă?Ă“Ă‹ĂžĂ?ĂŽ åÓÞÒ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă™Ă—Ă“Ă? ĂœĂ?ËÖÓÞã Ă“Ă˜ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂŽĂ?Ă‹Ăœ Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă˜ĂžĂœĂŁË› Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă‹ĂœĂ? ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ?Ă? Ă’Ă“Ăž Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÞÒÓĂ? Ă˜Ă™ĂĄ Ă‹ĘĽĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ? ÞÒĂ?Ă“Ăœ ÞÙÞËÖ Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂœĂ‹ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ë›

Ă˜Ă?Ă™Ă—Ă˜Ă“Ă‹ Ă“Ă? ĂŽĂ“ĘŠĂ?Ă&#x;ÖÞã Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă–Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ă™Ăœ Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂŁĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?ĂšËœ Ă?Ă Ă?Ă˜ ĂĄĂ’Ă?Ă˜ Ă‹ ĂšĂ?ĂœĂ?Ă™Ă˜ Ă’Ă‹Ă? ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă‹Ă˜Ă?Ă? ÞÙ ĂŽĂ™ Ă?Ù˛ Ă?ÙÚÖĂ? åÓÞÒ Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă™Ă—Ă˜Ă“Ă‹ Ă?Ă‹Ă˜ Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă– ĂŽĂ“Ă?Ă?ËÞÓĂ?ʨĂ?ĂŽ åÓÞÒ ÞÒĂ?Ă“Ăœ Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă?âÚĂ?ĂœĂ“Ă?Ă˜Ă?Ă? Ă&#x;Ă?Ă&#x;Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă?ã×ÚÞÙ×Ă? Ă?Ă&#x;Ă?Ă’ Ă‹Ă? ÖÙå Ă?Ă˜Ă?ĂœĂ‘ĂŁËœ ĂŽĂ“ĘŠĂ?Ă&#x;ÖÞã Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂœĂ‹ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘Ëœ ĂŽĂ?Ă?ĂœĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă?ĂŽ ĂšĂ?ĂœĂ?Ă™ĂœĂ—Ă‹Ă˜Ă?Ă? Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‘Ă?Ă˜Ă?ĂœĂ‹Ă– Ă?ËÞÓÑĂ&#x;Ă?Ë› Ă‹Ă˜ĂŁ Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă–Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă“Ă˜ĂžĂ™ ĂœĂ?Ă˜Ăž Ă‹ĂœĂœĂ?Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă?Ó×ÚÖã Ă&#x;Ă˜Ă‹ĂŒĂ–Ă? ÞÙ Ă‘Ă?Ăž ÞÙ ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ• Ă“Ă˜ ÞÒÓĂ? ĂšĂœĂ?Ă?Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă™Ă—Ă“Ă? ĂŽĂ™Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ&#x;Ă—Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă‹Ăž ĂĄĂ™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ Ă—Ă‹Ă•Ă? Ă‹ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?Ăœ Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹Ă˜ĂžĂ–ĂŁ ĂŽĂœĂ™Ăš Ă’Ă“Ă?˚ÒĂ?Ăœ Ă’Ă?Ă‹ĂŽ Ă™Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? ĂžĂ‹ĂŒĂ–Ă?Ëœ Ă“Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? Ă?ÞËʼ ĂœĂ™Ă™Ă— Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ùʼˣ Ă™ĂœĂ?Ă? Ă?ÞÓÖÖ ĂĄĂ’Ă‹Ăž ĂĄĂ™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ Ă—Ă‹Ă•Ă? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; ÎÙäĂ? Ùʼ ĂŽĂ&#x;ĂœĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?ÞËʼ Ă—Ă?Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘Ă?Ëœ ĂĄĂ’Ă“Ă–Ă?Ăž Ă“Ă—ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ăž Ă—Ă‹ĘľĂ?ĂœĂ? Ă‹ĂœĂ? ĂŒĂ?Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ ĂŽĂ“Ă?Ă?Ă&#x;Ă?Ă?Ă?ĂŽË› Ă’ĂŁ Ă‹ĂœĂ? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă‹ĂŽĂŽĂœĂ?Ă?Ă?Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă—ĂŒĂ‹ĂœĂœĂ‹Ă?Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă?Ă&#x;ĘĽĂ?ĂœËœ ĂĄĂ’Ă?Ă˜ ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?ĂžĂ&#x;ĂŽĂ?Ă˜ĂžĂ? Ă?Ă‹ĂžĂ?Ă’ ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?ĂšĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă™Ăœ ĂŽĂ™Ă¤Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă–Ă‹Ă?Ă?ËŁ Ă?Ă™Ă—Ă—Ă™Ă˜ Ă?Ă&#x;Ă–ĂšĂœĂ“Ăž Ă“Ă˜ ÞÒÓĂ? Ă—Ă‹ĘľĂ?Ăœ Ă“Ă? ÞÒĂ? Ă“Ă?Ă?Ă&#x;Ă? Ă™Ă? ÞÒÓĂ? Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă™Ă—Ă˜Ă“Ă‹ ĂĄĂ’Ă“Ă?Ă’ Ă“Ă? Ă‹ ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă&#x;ĂœĂœĂ?Ă˜Ăž Ă?âÚĂ?ĂœĂ“Ă?Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă™Ă? Ă“Ă˜Ă‹ĂŽĂ?Ă›Ă&#x;Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ú˛ Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ă“Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ“Ă‹Ă– ĂšĂ‹ĂœĂž Ă™Ă? ÑÙÙÎ Ă’Ă?ËÖÞÒ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ĂĄĂ?Ă–Ă–ĂŒĂ?Ă“Ă˜Ă‘Ë› ÑÙÙÎ Ă˜Ă“Ă‘Ă’ĂžËŞĂ? Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ă’Ă?Ă–ĂšĂ? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă– Ă‘Ă™Ă™ĂŽËœ ÖÙÙÕ Ă’Ă?Ă‹Ă–ĂžĂ’ĂŁËœ ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ• Ă?ĘĽĂ?Ă?ÞÓà Ă?Ă–ĂŁ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ĂžĂ’Ă“Ă˜Ă• Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ–ĂŁË› Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ó×ÚËĂ?ĂžĂ? ÚÙĂ?ÓÞÓà Ă?Ă–ĂŁ Ă™Ă˜ ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă—Ă“Ă˜ĂŽËœ ĂŒĂ™ĂŽĂŁ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–Ë› Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂŒĂ™ĂŽĂŁËŞĂ? Ă™ĂœĂ‘Ă‹Ă˜Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă?ĂŁĂ?ĂžĂ?Ă—Ă? Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă‹Ăž ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ•Ëœ Ă?Ă™Ă˜ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă’Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÞÓĂ?Ă?Ă&#x;Ă? ĂœĂ?ĂšĂ‹Ă“ĂœĂ?Ëœ ĂĄĂ’Ă“Ă–Ă?Ăž ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă‹Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ú˛ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂŒĂœĂ‹Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă—Ă“Ă˜ĂŽ ĂœĂ?Ě‹Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă“ĂŒĂœĂ‹ĂžĂ? ĂĄĂ’Ă“Ă–Ă?Ăž ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?ĂšĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ĂŒĂ™ĂŽĂŁ Ă‘ĂœĂ™ĂĄĂžĂ’Ă? Ă™Ă?Ă?Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂĄĂ’Ă“Ă–Ă?Ăž ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă‹Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ú˛ Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš ÒÙåĂ?Ă Ă?Ăœ Ă“Ă? Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă‹Ă–ĂĄĂ‹ĂŁĂ? Ă?Ă‹Ă?ĂŁ ÞÙ Ă?Ù×Ă? ĂŒĂŁË› Ă? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă?Ù×Ă?ÞÓ×Ă?Ă? Ă™Ăœ Ă‹Ă–ĂĄĂ‹ĂŁĂ? Ă’Ă‹Ă Ă? ĂžĂœĂ™Ă&#x;ĂŒĂ–Ă? Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă–Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš Ă™Ăœ Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂŁĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?ĂšËœ ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă‹Ă–Ă™Ă˜Ă? Ă?Ă?ĂšĂ?Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă˜Ă™ĂĄ ÞÒËÞ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă™Ă—Ă“Ă? Ă?Ă“ĂžĂ&#x;Ă‹ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜ Ă“Ă˜ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă˜ĂžĂœĂŁ Ă“Ă? ĂŽĂ“ĂœĂ?Ë Ă‹ĂŁĂžĂ“Ă—Ă? ĂŽĂœĂ™ĂĄĂ?Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă“Ă? ÙʰĂ?Ă˜ Ă“Ă˜ĂŽĂ“Ă?ËÞÓà Ă? Ă™Ă? Ă‹ Ă?Ă–Ă?Ă?Ăš ĂšĂœĂ™ĂŒĂ–Ă?Ă— ÞÒËÞ Ă“Ă? ÚÙÞĂ?Ă˜ĂžĂ“Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ ĂŽĂ‹Ă˜Ă‘Ă?ĂœĂ™Ă&#x;Ă? ÞÙ ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă’Ă?Ă‹Ă–ĂžĂ’Ëœ Ă“Ă? Ă˜Ă™Ăž ĂžĂœĂ?Ă‹ĂžĂ?ĂŽ Ă&#x;ĂœĂ‘Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ–ĂŁË› Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă“Ă? ĂĄĂ’ĂŁ ÑÙà Ă?ĂœĂ˜Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ Ă?ĂœĂ“ĂžĂ“Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ ÖÙÙÕ Ă“Ă˜ĂžĂ™ ÞÒÓĂ? ĂšĂœĂ?Ă?Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ă™Ă—Ă“Ă? Ă?ĂœĂ“Ă?Ă“Ă? Ă‹Ă? Ă“Ăž Ă‹ĘĽĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ? ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă“Ă˜ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖĂ?Ë› Ă’Ă? Ă?ĘĽĂ™ĂœĂžĂ? Ă™Ă? Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ ĂŒĂ? Ă‹ĂšĂšĂœĂ?Ă?Ă“Ă‹ĂžĂ?ĂŽ Ă‹Ăž Ă‹Ă–Ă– ÞÓ×Ă?Ă? Ă—Ă™ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă™Ëœ ĂĄĂ’Ă?Ă˜ ÞÒĂ?ĂŁ Ă‹ĂœĂ? ÞÒĂ? Ă™Ă˜Ă?Ă? ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂšĂ™Ă˜Ă?Ă“ĂŒĂ–Ă? Ă?Ă™Ăœ ÞÒĂ? ĂžĂœĂ‹Ă“Ă˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă™Ă? Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ ÚÙÖÓÞÓĂ?Ă“Ă‹Ă˜Ă? Ă˜Ă™ Ă—Ă‹ĘľĂ?Ăœ ÞÒĂ? Ă‹Ă˜Ă‘Ă–Ă? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; ÖÙÙÕ Ă‹Ăž ÞÒÓĂ? Ă&#x;Ă˜Ă‹Ă?Ă?Ă‹Ă“Ă–Ă‹ĂŒĂ–Ă? Ă?Ă‹Ă?ĂžË Omoru writes from the UK

From left: The Marketing Manager, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Abiodun Ayodeji; with Paul Uche Femi, Sulaiman David, both of Wonder Gate College; and Adeoti Bamidele of St. Anthony International School; the top three runners in the 4.4km fun marathon, during the Promasidor One Love Family Fest for schools in Lagos, in commemoration of the Children’s Day celebration in Lagos‌ recently

BROCLA 2019: British Council Rewards Academic Excellence Sunday Ehigiator It was celebration of academic excellence at the 2019 British Council Recognition and Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards (BROCLA), held recently in Lagos, to recognise students and schools that stood out at the November 2017 and June 2018 Cambridge examinations. The award, which is aimed at recognising exceptional performance of learners all around the world in the Cambridge examinations, reflects the talent and hardwork of learners and acknowledges the dedication and commitment of teachers and parents. In her remarks, the Country Director in Nigeria, Lucy Pearson, revealed that the council has presented 185 awards to deserving learners in Nigeria in the past, while expressing its delight in the performance of 91 students that won this year’s awards. “British Council has enjoyed

75 years of unbroken cordial relationship with Nigeria and we are delighted to host the third edition of BROCLA. The awards, which started in 2017, have given us an opportunity to recognise learners that have performed excellently in their Cambridge exams. “So far, we have presented over 185 awards to deserving learners in Nigeria. This year, we are happy to be presenting 125 awards to 91 students. We will also present awards to our partner schools that have exemplified Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Child Protect (CP) policies which underpin our work.� She stated that the council creates international opportunities through its work in arts, English Language, education, administering exams and building stronger society. “The exams we administer help people all over the world to gain educational and professional development so they are better positioned for success in

life,� Pearson said, adding that this year, it will be marking its 75th anniversary. In her address, the Territory Manager, Nigeria, Cambridge International, Kanto Adesina said: “The council and Cambridge have a long-standing collaboration in Nigeria for several decades. We meet on regular basis to ensure the accreditation of our schools and up our performance in many countries around the world. “The council has helped us in so many years to uphold the integrity of our examinations and we are grateful for that. The outstanding achievements of three students from there schools who achieved the highest mark in the world in our exams is really an outstanding achievement. “Today, we have 77 students who received top in Nigeria awards which is also a feat to be proud of. So in total we have 125 awards for 91 winners, and of course

46 schools in the country with 40 high achievements awards, 77 top in the country awards, and three top in the world awards. Truly, these sets of numbers are worthy of recognition. Five elements lie at the heart of a Cambridge education they are international curriculum, teaching and learning, assessment, international recognition and global community, and all our awardees have benefitted from all these.� The high point of the programme was the recognition of three students: Chinaza Adaeze, Prince Ogunlana, and Omoshemi Favour, from Chrisland College, Lifeforte International High School and The Child Villeneuve Senior School, Lagos, who emerged top in the world at different levels of the examinations. Students from Lifeforte International High School carted away 36 awards from the possible 125.

Dufil Awards Scholarships to Pupils of Host Community in Rivers State In an effort to improve the lives of residents of one of its host communities, Dufil Prima Foods, makers of Indomie instant noodles recently presented a total of N4 million in scholarships to 40 junior secondary and primary school pupils of Choba Community, Rivers State. The funds are meant to cater for their educational needs, including tuition, books and others. The scholarship support of N100,000 was presented to 10 pupils each from the four public schools in the community- two junior secondary schools and two primary schools based on their academic standing in the last session. The beneficiary schools are Community Junior Secondary School; Olobo Premier College; Universal Primary Education (UPE); and State Primary School. The Group Public Relations and Events Manager, Dufil Prima Foods, Mr. Temitope Ashiwaju handed over the cheques to the beneficiaries during a ceremony organised by the company in Port Harcourt. According to him,

the gesture was borne out of the need to reward academic excellence and to spur the pupils to do more. For Dufil, he said it was also a way of adding value to the lives of residents of the community hosting one of its major factories. He said education is one of the pillars of the company’s corporate social investments, adding that it has over the years continually invested in education as part of its commitment to the development of the country’s future potential. He added that the company would stop at nothing to ensure that every child is supported to become the best they can be. “Dufil Prima Foods is passionate about education and we will continue to support education in Nigeria through scholarships and other social investment initiatives. “Education is the bedrock for the growth and meaningful development of any nation. It is also a process of developing the child’s moral, physical, emotional and intellectual wellbeing. Dufil believes strongly in this assertion and will continue to play its part,� he said.

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Rotary Club Donates Exercise Books to Students Funmi Ogundare The Rotary Club of Shomolu, District 9110 has donated a total of 10,000 free exercise books to some public schools in Shomolu, as part of its back-to-school project. Speaking at the programme held recently at Angus Memorial High School, Shomolu, the President of the club, Mr. Lusty Mustapha said the gesture was designed to support them to enable them settle down in school, adding that some parents may not be able to provide exercise books for their children, which will hinder them from concentrating on their studies. “We were able to identify schools in our environment and we look for what we felt they will need when they are going back to school. It could be uniforms, text books or exercise books. This time around, we are giving out exercise books to students to enable them settle down.� He said the club was motivated to give out the books when it previously offered the same gesture in Igbobi College in April, saying, “we did 1,000 exercise books at the school last month, it was wholesome; this necessitated us to do more. We now went ahead to get 10,000 exercise books so we could reach more students.� He advised the students to make use of every opportunity to become something better in future and put in a lot of efforts to get to their destination. “We are teaching them so that when they grow up, they will be willing to give to others and realise that it is only through the act of giving that can help our environment. They should also be focused in what they are doing and know that there are people who don’t have, so when they grow up, they can add value to the society rather than hinder the economy,� Mustapha stressed. He said the club’s other

projects include construction of borehole and toilets in schools and communities, as well as immunization of community members. “Our main objective is to give back to the economy and give health talk to support our community. The impact so far has been very wonderful, it is a small gesture, but the impact has gone a long way from the feedback we get from people. I remember when we did our ‘family health day’, when we brought doctors to do medical test and gave out drugs. It was wonderful to see the impact and people were getting free consultation.� A past President, Mr. Saheed Ajao, said the initiative was introduced in 2011 when he became president, adding that the idea was to ensure that the ideals of rotary gets to the needy and serve humanity. “We decided that we should continuously get involved in the distribution of notebooks every year. We have touched schools around Shomolu and Yaba, and ensured that we extend the love within our community first before others. “We have carried out a survey and realised that at some point, there are students that go to school whose parents cannot afford one or two exercise books and since the idea of rotary is to give back, we want to ensure that those students who don’t have material to work with, get the books. We want to distribute it straight to the students personally. We have this mind-set that if we give it to the school, it will get to the principals. The ideal of rotary is ‘is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? If it is the truth that we want to distribute these books, is it fair to all concerned? Will the books be getting to those who actually need them? We have also done other projects like borehole outside Shomolu.�

Foundation Awards Scholarships to 121 Students at ATBU Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi The Nura Manu Foundation, owned by a philanthropist and businessman in Bauchi State Alhaji Nura Manu Soro has paid tuition fees for 121 indigent students at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi. Soro, who is the Chairman of the foundation, disclosed this while interacting with the beneficiaries who paid him a thank you visit at his residence recently. He explained that 116 out of the beneficiaries are degree students, while the remaining five were supported to enrol into master’s degree programmes, adding that the foundation has also received 70 applications from students of the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi. He promised that the gesture would not be restricted to only tertiary institutions in the state, but will be extended to all needy indigenes of the state studying

in various schools across the country. Soro, who stated that the scholarship is purely for tuition fees, added that it is meant for students that secured admissions into tertiary institutions, but cannot pay registration fees. “Both applications, selections and verification will be carried out through a local committee. At the tertiary level, it includes students, religious leaders and a representative from students’ affairs office. Applicants should write the names of their three referees, who must be known people in their localities. “Further verification is to be carried out at the foundation secretariat. The foundation is purely cashless and makes payments directly to schools’ accounts and not individuals.� Soro said forms have been distributed to emirs, district heads, local government secretariats and students’ affairs offices of institutions across the state for the less privileged students.

Sanwo-Olu Pledges to Deepen Lagos/NYSC Partnership Funmi Ogundare The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has expressed the state government’s readiness to deepen the existing partnership between the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the state government, especially in the area of skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development, training and empowerment for youth employment. He said the state has a lot of skill acquisition centres where the NYSC could key into, adding that corps members should also understand that skills acquisition is imperative considering what is happening today in the society. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Batch ‘B’ pre-orientation workshop with the theme ‘Reinvigorating the NYSC Orientation Course

for a Successful Service Years’, held at the Event Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, recalled that when the state government was building the Lekki/Ikoyi link bridge, contractors were seeking to employ 700 welders for the project, but couldn’t find any. “In trying to build the suspended bridge, the contractor in-charge said they needed 700 welders but they could not find so they said they would go outside Nigeria to look for welders because they said certain skills were needed, but we refused. So at our skills acquisition centre in Igando, we decided to train the 700 welders who were part of the people that finished the project.� He disclosed that the state government delayed the comple-

tion of the bridge by six months just to get the welders, saying, “interestingly, when the welders finished, they were employed by oil companies such as Chevron and Shell and they are making a salary between N800,000 and one million a month. “However, there are many more grounds to cover and break in the realisation of a more developed and greater Nigeria through youth re-orientation and empowerment both in entrepreneurial and leadership skills that are needed in Nigeria. Skills acquisition if well done is fantastic.� Sanwo-Olu, who declared the workshop open, expressed hope that it will serve to harmonise relations between government and NYSC camp officials, as well as enhance the benefits of the scheme as the largest youth mobilisation strategy in Africa, while commending the Director

General of NYSC, staff and corps members for their contributions towards the success of the 2019 general elections. “The participation of the corps members has further attested to the contemporary relevance of the scheme to the development of Nigeria,� he said. The Director General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim said the workshop is designed for NYSC managers and its collaborating partners to review previous orientation courses with a view to tackling identified challenges and mapping out new strategies for successful conduct of the forthcoming one. He said the theme was informed by its desire to sustain proper induction and preparation of eligible graduates for dedicated and hitch-free service to their fatherland.

L-R: Award Coordinator, Marist Brothers’ Juniorate Old Boys Association, Mr. Collins Ijeoma; the recipient of Leadership Award, Chuka Utahu; members of the association, Mr. Emeka Udemgba; and Mr. Bernard Nzerem, at the association’s 2019 reunion/annual general meeting in Uturu, Abia State‌ recently

CIAPS Announces Commonwealth Scholarship for Postgraduate Professional Studies The Centre for International, Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS) has announced a scholarship scheme for the 2019 Postgraduate Commonwealth students. The Centre Director, Professor Anthony Kila in a statement said there are a total of 50 scholarships available worth a total of $50,000, adding that each successful applicant can receive up to a thousand dollars to pay his/her tuition fees at CIAPS for the duration of the postgraduate professional

study. According to the statement, “the CIAPS Commonwealth scholarships are part of the new CIAPS scholars’ scholarship programmes, which will directly benefit students entering postgraduate professional education in July 2019.� He said these scholarships are funded by individuals and corporations who like CIAPS, are dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, learning and understanding

in the service of society. “Our aim is to identify and help students who are pursuing higher learning so that they can use the skills acquired in playing a part in making their societies and the world a better place. “Students will be selected on the basis of a test consisting of a personal statement and interview. A good personal statement must not exceed 1,000 words and it will be a chance to tell us about yourself,

why you think you deserve this scholarship and how you think it will help you serve yourself and society once you graduate,� he said. For eligibility, students must be aged 22 to 30 with a degree or equivalent and must have graduated with a minimum of 2.2 or equivalent GPA; have a desire to study for international professional courses that can lead to creation of jobs and wealth; and be ready to commence study by July 6, 2019.

COREN President Donates School Uniforms to 456 Pupils in Kogi Yekini Jimoh in Lokoja The President, Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Mr. Kashim Ali has donated new sets of school uniforms worth N2 million to 456 pupils of LEA Primary School, Ofugo in Ankpa, Kogi State. The donation was in fulfilment of a promise he made to the pupils during the sixth edition of the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) conference, held on

March 30. During the conference, he promised to buy uniforms for all pupils in the three primary schools of Ofugo. Ali, who had his primary education at the school, told journalists that he was happy to fulfil his promise. “You were here with us some weeks ago, when we held the APWEN programme, in collaboration with NNPC. “During the event, I noticed that the uniforms that most of the children wore that day were not particularly appealing. I felt

a need to do something about it. So, I promised to sew new uniforms for all the children of the three schools in this premises. Today, that promise has been fulfilled. The uniforms are now ready and that is why we are here to distribute to them.� Ali added that he was particularly thrilled that a vocational centre that was training some school dropouts in Olamaboro was contracted to sew the uniforms. He expressed delight that school dropouts are being encouraged to do something on

their own, and commended the training centre for encouraging the dropouts to be self-reliant. The president said his excitement was heightened when he saw the pupils shouting for joy as the uniforms were brought to them, saying that the sight would remain indelible in in his mind. He promised to do more for the pupils by providing textbooks and exercise books. In her remarks, the President of APWEN, Mrs. Felicia Agubata advised people to always remember their roots.

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CITYSTRINGS

ĂœĂ™Ă&#x;Ăš Ă?Ă‹ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? ĂŽĂ“ĂžĂ™ĂœË? Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă–Ă“Ă? äĂ?Ă™ĂŒĂ“ Ă—Ă‹Ă“Ă– Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă–Ă“Ă?Ë›Ă?äĂ?Ă™ĂŒĂ“ĚśĂžĂ’Ă“Ă?ĂŽĂ‹ĂŁĂ–Ă“Ă Ă?Ë›Ă?Ù×

Transportation as Litmus Test for Lagos Government Chiamaka Ozulumba writes that one of the areas the new Lagos State Government should look at is the inadequate number of Bus Rapid Transit in the Lagos, which explains the long queues at each terminal, especially during rush hours

O

n a typical Monday, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) terminal at Ikorodu Roundabout usually witnesses an influx of passengers. Scratch that! Every day of the week, the scenario plays out the same way. To board the bus however, the passengers have to form a queue that sometimes extends even longer than the terminals. On a recent Monday, commuters were as usual stranded for hours during the morning rushhour due to unavailability of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vehicles, with long queues of passengers observed at designated BRT bus stands/terminals. Passengers who spoke to THISDAY, lamented the insensitivity on the part of the management of the Bus Rapid Transit scheme, especially on Mondays which usually witnesses high turnout of people eager to get to their work place and business destination. Speaking to THISDAY anonymity, one of the commuters at Haruna terminal, said because he works in a company on Lagos Island, he had to rent an apartment there while his family stays in Ikorodu. According to him, because of the long commute, he stays in his Ikoyi apartment during the week and then goes to join his family over the weekend in Ikorodu before heading back to the Island every Monday morning. That fateful morning however, even though he left home early for the BRT terminal, luck wasn't on his side as he was on the queue for well over two hours waiting for a bus to pull up. He said most of his colleagues that work on the Island also do the same thing as they don't like the idea of being stuck in traffic in the mornings and evenings as well, hence some of them make contributions towards renting an apartment together as flatmates or renting a self- contained apartment as the case maybe, all in a bid to avoid the ever present Lagos gridlock on major roads. For majority of them who make their way home on Friday evenings to relax from the bustle of work life but are stuck in traffic, the emergence of the BRT scheme was a welcome idea at its incision but of the inadequate buses on ground. But since, it has become evident that there is still a lacuna given the number of queues witnessed at each BRT terminal. Checks revealed that the same traffic scenario was evident at most BRT stands/terminals from Garage, Aruna, Agric, Itowolo, Majidun, Mile12, Ketu, Ojota, New Garage, Obanikoro, Maryland, Idi-Oroko, Palmgrove, Fadeyi routes, all along the arterial Ikorodu corridor which THISDAY plied on a that certain Monday to observe the intra-city transport situation in the Lagos metropolis. Commuters who spoke to THISDAY, decried this artificial transportation scarcity that is most peculiar to Monday mornings from experience and repeated observations as other days of the week experience lighter traffic and minimal rush hours. Some evenings often have its own slice of traffic as commuters jostle to get home after the day's work. Some major BRT bus stands/ terminals get filled up, from C.M.S, Costain, Barracks, Stadium, Ojota, New Garage, Palmgrove, Obanikoro, Fadeyi, Idi-Oroko, Maryland, Ketu, Mile12, queues resurface as passengers struggle to go home. A commuter who spoke to THISDAY lamented the lost manhours she spends while standing in line for a bus. Mrs Chinwe Ezeoke, a secondary school teacher at Oshodi decried the number of hours she wastes while waiting for a BRT bus. Often times, she gets to her school quite late no matter how early she leaves her house to get to the bus stand at Aruna Bus stop in Ikorodu. On a good day she would get a bus after about 20-30 minutes of waiting in line, while on bad days she could spend up to an hour thirty minutes to about two hours when on the queue. Most times she forgoes sitting down to stand to save time if the bus takes too long in other to meet up with her appointments. Ezeoke added that she hates having to stand all through the transit as her whole body aches almost everyday from the speed bumps and

Queues like these have become a normal phenomenon at BRT terminals

potholes the driver tries to maneuver on the way, which makes the journey less desirable. Mr. Obinna Mbajunwa, another commuter who regularly takes the Palmgrove to C.M.S route also experiences the same issue as he also

stands in line for hours before he gets a BRT bus. Although he saves money while using the BRT, he always looks disheveled any time he is unable to get a seat and has to stand throughout the journey even with the air-conditioning blasting

at the highest. When standing, people are packed so close together you have little wiggle room and most often stands in a spot until people start disembarking at various bus stops which is often not the case especially when you enter a BRT bus that is going straight, it rarely makes stops like the Costain to Ikorodu that hardly makes any stop till it gets to Majidun and Ogolonto before those passengers standing can get any few respite from being on their feet and getting a seat when someone disembarks. But to Miss Endurance Evulukwu using the BRT is always a welcome idea anytime no matter the hours spent in a queue. According to her, she would rather stay in BRT buses instead of using 'danfos' rickety buses who at the slightest spike in traffic hike up bus fares through the roof with out pity. In danfos, passengers are squeezed four in a row on rickety seats. Commuting from Agric to CMS using the BRT Bus Transit would cost you N250 while danfos charge as high as N300 to N400 on a good day, meanwhile from Aruna to Ojota with the BRT is N150, danfos charge N200-N300. Most people patronise the BRT due to price stability and because they have their own dedicated lanes that makes them evade traffic gridlock. Thus, commuters spend less hours on the road unlike danfos and private cars that spend hours just commuting a short distance whenever there is traffic jam. Although the long queues appear at the close of work and the wait begins, the minute a BRT pulls up the jostle renews irrespective of the queues as some unscrupulous commuters try to cut corners by jumping the iron bars in order to get to the boarding point. Despite efforts of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) to tackle this traffic situation which varies between traffic logjams and dearth of BRT buses, Mondays have remained a nightmare for many Lagos commuters along the popular routes from the hinterland to the mainland and island axis. A BRT official who did want his name in print, blamed the scarcity on the persistent absence of diesel used to power the buses, rendering quite a number of these buses immobile further compounding the woes of Lagos commuters of possible longer queues, loss of significant manhours and the never ending scuffles at the bus stands/ terminals. As affected passengers continue to groan due to loss of manhours, analyst expect that the completion of road and rail construction projects on other popular routes like the Agege Motor road; the Lagos-Badagry Expressway; and the Light-rail Scheme and the enhanced Ferry Services on the Inland waterways would help lessen the agony of commuters and ensure smoother, free-flowing traffic and overall transportation on Lagos roads. Also, going by the key derivatives of the new government in power, traffic management and transportation is one of the areas it intends to address. To address this and other boiling issues, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu rolled out a template known as T.H.E.M.E which stands for Traffic Management and transportation, Health and environment, Education and technology, Making Lagos a 21st century economy, as well as Entertainment and tourism. Under traffic management and transportation, he said, “Our plan is to integrate road, rail and water transportation in Lagos to solve the problem of commuting within the metropolis. We will fix all bad roads and expand our road infrastructure. We will complete existing road projects and fix inner city roads. We will improve navigation on our waterways to facilitate water transportation and promote private investment. Part of our plan is to complete the ongoing Blue Line rail project from Okokomaiko-Marina and kick-start the Red line from Agbado to Marina.� Hopefully, when all the above listed are tackled, it would ameliorate the situation in Lagos.

T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍˇËœ Ͱ͎ͯ͡

37

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Armed Forces Trains, Retires 256 Personnel from Active Service Following a viral message on social media that some suspected herdsmen had attacked the convoy of members of the Abule Egba branch of Christ Apostolic Church, Sunday Ehigator went on a fact-finding mission

CRIME SITUATION REPORTS

TIPS FOR SURVIVING KIDNAPPING (PART 3)

In the unlikely event, that in spite of your observance of all the precautionary measures mentioned earlier you are still kidnapped, surviving the ordeal should be the next course of action.Below are the necessary tips you should observe while in the hands of kidnappers: t5BLF B EFFQ CSFBUI BTTVSF ZPVSTFMG UIBU ZPV XJMM DFSUBJOMZ DPNF CBDL BMJWF /PUF UIBU UIF mSTU GFX NJOVUFT PG BCEVDUJPO PS LJEOBQQJOH JT UIF NPTU DSJUJDBM BOE IPTUJMF QFSJPE "U UIJT TUBHF UIF LJEOBQQFST BSF BMTP BGSBJE GPS UIFJS MJWFT 'BJMVSF PO UIFJS QBSU NFBOT UIFZ DPVME CF BSSFTUFE BOE QSPTFDVUFE 5IFZ BSF UIFSFGPSF KJUUFSZ BOE BOZ TVTQJDJPVT NPWF CZ ZPV DPVME NBLF UIFN QVMM UIF USJHHFS BU ZPV t )BWJOH USJFE UP BWPJE UIF LJEOBQ TJUVBUJPO BOE GBJMJOH UIF NPTU JNQPSUBOU PQUJPO TIPVME CF UP DPPQFSBUF BT VOQMBOOFE BUUFNQU UP FTDBQF NBZ CFDPNF UPP SJTLZ "WPJE PQFOMZ NBLJOH BOZ GBDJBM DPOUBDU XJUI UIF LJEOBQQFST CVU USZ BOE NFNPSJTF UIFJS EFTDSJQUJPO JG ZPV HFU UIF PQQPSUVOJUZ UP WJFX UIFN XJUIPVU FOEBOHFSJOH ZPVS MJGF t,FFQ NFOUBM OPUF PG UIF MBOENBSL FTQFDJBMMZ UIF TIPQT TVQFSNBSLFU GVFM TUBUJPOT CVJMEJOHT BSPVOE UIF BSFB UIF LJEOBQQFST BSF UBLJOH ZPV UP JG ZPV BSF OPU CMJOEGPMEFE CZ ZPVS DBQUPST L-R: EMPRETEC boss Mrs. Donald Duke; NAFRC Commandant, AVM Abubarkar-Sadick Liman; DHQ's Chief of Administration, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman; General OďŹƒcer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Maj.-Gen Musa Yusuf, and Air OďŹƒcer Commanding (AOC), Logistics Command, AVM Abdul-Ganiyu Olabisi, at the graduation of military retirees from NAFRC

Chiemelie Ezeobi The Armed Forces over the weekend retired 256 Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) who have reached the mandatory service years in the military, but not before they were trained for post-service life. The soldiers comprising 116 from the Nigerian Navy (NN) and 140 Nigerian AirForce (NAF) were trained at the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC) Oshodi, Lagos, over a six-month period. The training was tailored to assist the retirees adapt to civil life using business ideas and skills they learnt to be self reliant after retirement. Meanwhile, NAFRC also graduated 21 mid-level commissioned officers comprising five from the army, six from the NN and 10 from NAF, who underwent a month entrepreneurship and management course. The entrepreneurship course was tailored to equip them with relevant skills to successfully manage their respective service welfare schemes, improve their job performance and help them run successful businesses upon retirement from service. Speaking at the ceremony, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin assured the retirees that their benefits would be enhanced following the signing of the 2019 budget into law by President Muhammadu Buhari. The CDS who was represented by the Chief of Administration Defence Headquarters, Rear Ad-

miral Apochi Suleiman said: "The new budget when implemented will enhance your retirement package. The retirement package is geared towards ensuring that service personnel are properly resettled after dedicated service to our fatherland. "As you are aware, the Federal Government is not relenting in its effort to improve the welfare of service personnel. “It has vigorously stemmed the tide of corruption, while pursuing due process towards ensuring transparency, accountability and rule of law in order to stimulate durable socio-economic development for improved living standards of the society at large. "It is also our hope that our gallant discharging servicemen and women are going to comfortably enjoy their post-service life and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired. "For our discharging compatriots in arms, you will henceforth take full charge as planners and executors of your personal daily activities. This may sound exciting and promising but beware; you need to properly manage your freedom in order to be successful. "The society will expect a high moral standard and discipline from you. You will have to prove in your relationships that you passed through a highly disciplined system. "As our ambassadors, I believe you are all capable of excelling in your future endeavours and positively influencing your environment for the economic development of our dear nation.� He added that NAFRC's re-

viewed curriculum has enabled both mid-level and senior officers to benefit from the rich repository of its courses, urging the commandant to "continue these laudable initiatives for high quality human resource development that will be gainful to our officers and the society at large. "I understand that the officers' courses are organised here in partnership with other organisations and institutions. The Defence Headquarters will continue to support you to build the capacity to fully run these courses at the centre with your in-house staff�. In his welcome address, NAFRC Commandant, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Abubarkar-Sadick Liman urged the retirees to remain obedient to constituted authority and uphold discipline. Listing some of the achievements recorded by the centre under his watch, he said: "We have reconstructed and renovated, equipped and commissioned over 31 projects in the centre since July 2018. "Few of the projects are the remodeled and furnished B Coy Trainees accommodation, 16 renovated quarters for accommodation of personnel, new Electroplating and Hydrographics Workshop, new Auto Oven Spraying Booth, model NAFRC Ranch. "New Quarter Guard and car park, FIIRO Road NAFRC Link Road and NAFRC-FIIRO Road Gate, children’s park among others were also achieved. "These projects were designed to improve the living accommodation and training environment for trainees, staff and their families at the centre."

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DCP Frank Mba

frankmba.ng

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍˇËœ 2019

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

CBN Injects $210m into Forex Market The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again injected the sum of $210 million into the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market. Figures obtained from the CBN on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, indicated that authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market were offered the sum of $100million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment received the sum of $55 million. The sum of $55 million

was allocated to customers requiring foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others. This was disclosed by the Director, Corporate Communications Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who stressed that the effort of the bank had continued to stabilise the foreign exchange market. This, according to

him, had sustained the level of confidence investors and the public had in the Naira. At the last intervention on Friday, June 14, 2019, the CBN injected the sum of $256.4million and CNY37.4million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment. Meanwhile, the Naira on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, exchanged at an average of N362/$1 in the BDC segment of the market.

NLNG, Indegenous Contractor Bicker over N1.147bn Debt Ernest Chinwo Ă“Ă˜ Ă™ĂœĂž Ă‹ĂœĂ?Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂž An indigenous entrepreneur, Macobarb International, doing business under ‘minor civil contractor’ category with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), has cried out saying his enterprise has been ruined through alleged acts of vindictiveness, wickedness and total suppression, leading to eventual termination of contract and mounting debts. But the NLNG has responded describing the claim by Macobarb International as false and ludicrous as the company failed to deliver on its contract. Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, the Delta State-born entrepreneur, Shedrack Ogboru, said his firm, Macobarb International, was now heavily indebted to a commercial bank due to N68 million loan obtained since 2014 to execute the first phase of the job but had turned into a protracted debt with unmentionable interest accumulation all due to the NLNG refusal to release payment. He said the failure of the NLNG to honour payment schedules without any reason led to his firm being blacklisted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for bad debt all because of contract liability of N1.147 billion that the multinational corporation has refused to redress to this moment. The indigenous contractor wondered if the NLNG would do this to any foreign company that did not do anything wrong, at a time the federal government is striving to assist indigenous businesses to get ahead. His surprise is that no government agency he cried to has been able to go beyond preliminary responses, only to go silent after interacting with those he called NLNG demigods. Narrating his ordeal, Ogboru said his firm, Macobarb, got a job on January 9, 2014, to fabricate and install world class access entry system called ‘Integrated Turnstiles and Vehicle Barriers Systemâ€? that must be fabricated in Europe for security and seamless entry into the world class facilities of the NLNG. He said this contract worth N95 million was to be executed in phases supervised by a team of experts and engineers from the NLNG. Ogboru said the contract term insisted that there would be no mobilisation fee or upfront payment but that each milestone executed and certified by the supervision team that included expatriates would not be delayed in payment so as to move to the

next phase. He said the most bitter part of the agony was that the contract terms insisted that the staff and equipment procured for the project must never be removed from site nor be used to do any other job until completion of project, except with express approval in writing by the NLNG. He said, touble came, when he fabricated the turnstiles in Europe and met the first payment milestone, only for request of about N30 million payment be rejected despite endorsement by all the four engineers supervising the project in Bonny, just because a Nigerian that did not want him on the job declined assent without pointing out justification. He said NLNG nominated foreign experts that must inspect the fabricated equipment abroad and confirm before payment would be made, and that the experts inspected and issued approval letter of correctness, yet, only one man in the NLNG stopped payment. Ogboru said he went and knelt down and pleaded with the man not to strangulate the project but the oppression and suppression continued. As a result of this, the N68 million loan turned into bad debt with accumulated interest. “Important people lost their jobs in the commercial bank that funded the project, the CBN blacklisted us, and the equipment and men trapped in NLNG ran into several hundred millions of naira,� he said. Tendering volumes of documents, Ogboru said he reported the actions of the man to the management of the NLNG but efforts to resolve the matter proved abortive as the man worked round the system as an insider against all rules and all contract terms until the contract was terminated after several years. Ogboru lamented: “Do you know that the moment this man got this contract terminated, he now got the NLNG to pay the money he refused to approve, which now meant nothing because the trapped equipment and men have attracted loss of over N1 billion at that time. I had written the NLNG to warn them that by continued refusal to pay, and by trapping all equipment and men on site, that liability was piling up hugely.� He also said the NLNG held several meetings under the former Managing Director, Babs Omotowa, on the matter and even offered him back the contract after seeing how he had been oppressed, but that he was asked to take back the remaining

part of the job at the same old contract rate of 2012 evaluation when the United States Dollar was a mere N150. Ogboru said he has petitioned the Senate, the Rivers State House of Assembly, and several other bodies but that the same forces inside the NLNG suppressed the efforts only for the authorities to ask him to go to court, if he wished. He said the official in the NLNG, after holding down payment for over a year, started canvassing for cancellation of the contract. The management at that point said cancellation was not an option. At last, however, the NLNG ended up doing exactly that, cancellation. He asked: “Must a citizen be suppressed and maltreated so much? They know that a small firm like Macobarb cannot stand the financial power and wide connections of the NLNG and some evil desks in the place that can reach any authority and suppress any matter.� Ogboru appealed to all authorities to compel the NLNG to pay his firm the over N1 billion that they owed him so that he could offset the numerous liabilities on Macobarb and begin life afresh. He said he was prepared to go to any length to ensure that justice is done because an indigene has a right to do business in his fatherland. But in its response, the NLNG, through its Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Andy Odeh, explainrd; “A contract was signed between NLNG and Macobarb and valued N95,479,057.86 with 18 months delivery schedule commencing in January 2014. It was never contemplated, neither was it written into the contract documents, that the contractor would take a loan to execute this project. The decision for any contractor to take a loan is purely on its own account and for its independent purposes. In this case, that delineation was prominent as NLNG was not privy to any loan transaction by Macobarb. “Macobarb was unable to execute the project, thereby incurring protracted delays, despite several interventions by NLNG to help the company overcome its inability to finance the project in line with its obligations. “It should be stated clearly that it was on this ground of non-performance, not on any act or omission attributable to NLNG or any of its personnel, that the contract was terminated in November 2015, after the date stipulated for its completion.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

NOVEMBER 2018 Money Supply (M3)

31,794,803.44

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

6,333,064.28

Money Supply (M2)

25,461,739.17

-- Quasi Money

14,773,076.98

-- Narrow Money (M1)

10,688,662.18

---- Currency Outside Banks

1,711,763.59

---- Demand Deposits

8,976,898.59

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

18,990,400.78

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

12,804,402.66

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

26,062,986.22

---- Credit to Government (Net)

2,980,229.66

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

7,093,619.43

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

-4,144,571.43

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

23,082,756.56

--Other Assets Net

13,258,583.57

Reserve Money (Base Money

6,811,192.37

--Currency in Circulation

2,100,129.91

--Banks Reserves

4,366,259.05

Ëž Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? Ě‹

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

March 2018

Inter-Bank Call Rate

15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

Ëž Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂœĂŁ ÙÖÓĂ?ĂŁ Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ě‹ ͯ͹Ϲ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT THURSDAY, 13 MAY 2019

The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $61.51 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $61.01 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations. The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Oriente (Ecuador), ZaďŹ ro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela). SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

39

T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍˇËœ Ͱ͎ͯ͡

MARKET NEWS

FG Eyes another N100bn Sukuk Bond to Finance Infrastructure Goddy Egene The federal government is to float over N100 billion third Sukuk Bond in a bid to address infrastructure challenge. The government had successfully floated the first and second Sukuk bonds raising N100 billion from each exercise in the past. But the Director General of Debt Management Office (DMO), Ms. Patience Oniha yesterday disclosed that government was

perfecting arrangements to float another N100 billion Sukuk Bond to finance some infrastructure projects listed in the 2019 budget. Oniha stated this at inaugural edition of the Islamic Finance Network (IFN) Nigeria Forum organised by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in partnership with REDMoney Group in Lagos. Sukuk are bonds structured to generate returns to ethical investors without infringing on the Islamic law which forbids

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

interest payments. Oniha said: “It represents an ownership interest in the asset to be financed rather than a debt obligation. It will be this year 2019 you God’s grace because the budget has been approved. The projects would be those included in the budget and the borrowing will also be what has been approved in the budget, part of new domestic borrowing. So, it will be this year.� According to her, the second Sukuk bond (N100

S E C U R I T I E S

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

billion Ijarah Sukuk) issued last December would be listed in July. She said the DMO needed to ensure allotment to all successful parties as well as commencement of the infrastructure projects before applying for listing. “There are two conditions and I believe those two conditions have been met and we would list shortly, it may not be a ceremony. “Once we agree, you know FGN securities are listed on two trading platforms, so once the

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

other platform say we can list and trading will start without necessarily having an official ceremony we will do that. Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of the NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said that the Islamic Finance sector has grown noticeably over the years, from about $1.5 trillion dollars in 2016, to about two $2 trillion in 2018. Onyema, represented by Divisional Head, Trading Business, NSE, Mr. Jude

O F

Chiemeka, said that the figure was driven by growth in Islamic Banking assets as well as growth in Sukuk issuances. “This growth has largely been concentrated within Gulf Cooperation Council region and in Asia. “However, recent data suggest that Islamic financing is beginning to take root in Africa, with issuers across Gambia, Sudan, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, as well as Nigeria in more recent times,� Onyema said.

1 8 / 0 6 / 2 0 1 9 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

40

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 • T H I S D AY

41

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2019 ˾ T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

Lagos Commodity and Futures Exchange Gets SEC’s Approval Goddy Egene The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally approved the application of Lagos Commodity and Futures Exchange (LCFE) being promoted by the Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) to operate as a full fledged commodities and futures market.

Before now, SEC had earlier granted the LCFE, approval-inprinciple. However, by the new approval, the commodities and futures market is set to leverage the assembled best talents to commence operations as an influential brand, established to unlock its true potential in the financial market. Also, SEC has approved

A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager. Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return. An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

the appointment of the top management team to drive the operations of the new exchange. According to a letter of approval, signed by SEC’s Head of Department, Registration, Exchange and Market Infrastructure, Mr. Emomotimi Agama, on behalf of the Ag. Director General, Ms Mary Uduk, the final approval takes effect from

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg. Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 14Jun-2019, unless otherwise stated.

June 14, 2019. Part of the approval letter addressed to LCFE’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Akin Akeredolu-Ale states that “ In the exercise of the power conferred on it by the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) No 29 of 2007 and the Rules and Regulations made there-under, the commission has granted your

Company, registration to perform the function of a Commodities and Futures Exchange in the Capital Market with effect from June 14, 2019. By virtue of this registration, you are authorised to perform the function for which you are registered.” Commenting on the approval, Chairman of ASHON, Chief Patrick Ezeagu said: “SEC has

shown a commitment to open up the commodities market ecosystem for ASHON’S initiative of floating LCFE to come to fruition. Congratulations to the market, the operators and the economy. We are really grateful to SEC , shareholders, and all our partners NSE, CSCS, technology providers etc that collaboratively bithed this new baby.”

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors. Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return. NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 145.21 147.29 -7.66% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 8.11% Nigeria International Debt Fund 277.00 277.00 1.38% ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A ACAP Income Funds N/A N/A N/A AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 13.17% AIICO Balanced Fund 2.31 2.33 3.90% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 15.33 15.79 -7.62% ARM Discovery Fund 342.47 352.79 -3.97% ARM Ethical Fund 28.89 29.76 2.30% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.21% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 96.10 96.78 -5.03% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 12.45% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 1.82 1.82 12.66% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 13.62% Paramount Equity Fund 11.87 11.97 0.51% Women's Investment Fund 105.39 106.12 1.80% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 12.59% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 98.91 99.37 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 98.87 99.18 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 12.59% Coronation Balanced Fund 0.82 0.82 Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.20 1.20 7.18% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B N/A N/A N/A FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,193.31 1,194.15 6.87% FBN Heritage Fund 143.46 144.41 0.48% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 12.83% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional 116.08 116.56 5.10% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 116.04 116.52 5.33% FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund 136.94 138.85 -8.71% FIRST CITY ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD fcamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcamltd.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 11.28% Legacy Debt Fund 3.42 3.42 5.56% Legacy Equity Fund 1.12 1.14 -8.24% Legacy USD Bond Fund 1.05 1.05 2.16% FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A Coral Income Fund N/A N/A N/A GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 9.47% Nigeria Entertainment Fund 108.30 108.80 0.67% GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 12.90%

INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 12.41% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.15 2.17 -0.01% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 0.00% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 131.41 131.50 5.15% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.21 1.23 5.47% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,109.13 1,109.13 6.20% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 10.69 10.78 -7.04% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 11.92% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.27 1.29 3.40% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.53 11.60 3.57% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 12.62% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 124.18 124.92 2.93% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.03 1.03 6.64% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 2,349.13 2,362.60 1.51% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 201.92 201.92 6.20% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.89 0.91 -5.26% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 256.78 256.88 5.93% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 152.65 154.41 -6.41% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 12.86% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,964.55 8,065.59 -6.15% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.11 1.11 2.76% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD unitedcapitalplcgroup.com Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.20 1.21 0.75% United Capital Bond Fund 1.71 1.71 7.30% United Capital Equity Fund 0.69 0.70 -3.08% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.20% United Capital Eurobond Fund 111.23 111.23 3.70% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.13 1.14 3.68% QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 10.51 10.69 -0.31% Zenith Ethical Fund Zenith Income Fund Zenith Money Market Fund

11.19 22.05 1.00

11.34 22.05 1.00

-6.11% 14.30% 12.23%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

5.40 121.48 52.39

-44.85% 3.19% 1.26%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

9.83 96.90 79.91

9.93 98.95 81.39

-6.81% -17.40% -9.88%

Fund Name FSDH UPDC Real Estate Investment Fund SFS Skye Shelter Fund Union Homes REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

3.55 6.09 13.02 10.45 155.76

3.59 6.17 13.12 10.65 157.76

-11.20% -19.98% -11.05% -15.35% 17.45%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

106.90

17.40%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

42

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 • T H I S D AY

43

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019 ˾ T H I S D AY

INTERNATIONAL

UK: Boris Johnson Solidifies Lead in Race for Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains the frontrunner in the race to become the next leader of Britain’s Conservative Party - and, as a consequence, the next prime minister of the United Kingdom. The former mayor of London was the clear favourite among the party’s 313 MPs in a second secret ballot, held on Tuesday afternoon, storming ahead with 126 votes, 80 ahead of his nearest rival, Jeremy

Hunt. The race is over, however, for Dominic Raab, who with 30 votes failed to meet the 33-vote threshold necessary to continue to the next round. Whoever wins the competition to become the leader of the Conservatives, the party that is currently in power, becomes by default the next prime minister of Britain as the country prepares

Trump to Announce Bid for Re-election at Florida Rally United States President Donald Trump is set to announce his candidacy for a second four-year term at a rally in Florida. Trump’s campaign for re-election in 2020 chose the 20,000-seat Amway Centre in the centre of the state to make the announcement on Tuesday. The event is scheduled to start at 8 p.m (0000 GMT). Trump has been touting the rally in tweets, claiming there has been a large demand for tickets. “Big rally tomorrow night in Orlando, Florida, looks to be setting records, we are building large movie screens outside to take care of everybody,’’ Trump tweeted on Monday. New polls of potential voters

indicate Trump will need all their support on Election Day, which isn’t until Nov. 3, 2020. A poll conducted on Sunday by Fox News showed Trump trailing former vice president Joe Biden, the front-runner among a crowded field of Democrats, by 10 points. The poll also shows him nine points behind Senator Bernie Sanders, another leading contender. Trump tweeted about the polls on Monday, suggesting they were fake. “Only Fake Polls show us behind the Motley Crew. We are looking really good, but it is far too early to be focused on that. Much work to do! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

to leave the European Union, or Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this month formally stepped down as party leader after her authority to govern collapsed following several failed attempts to win Parliament’s approval for a negotiated deal to leave the EU. The MPs’ secret votes will continue this week until the candidates are whittled down to just two, when the choice of who will lead the country of some 65 million people will be put to the 160,000 members of the Conservative Party. “The question is, as contenders are gradually eliminated and their votes are passed on to the frontrunners, will anyone have the numbers to seriously challenge or beat Johnson?” said Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker, reporting from

outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, in central London. “He has very much appealed to members of the party with uncompromising stances on leaving the European Union. He’s seen by many of them - if there is a general election at the end of all this - as the only person who can unite the different factions within the party and avoid the party being completely destroyed.” Johnson has positioned himself as a “hard Brexiteer”, having first made his name as a Europe correspondent. Sacked by The Times for making up a quote, he became Brussels columnist for the Conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph, where he became “one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism”, according to former EU external affairs commissioner (and former Conservative MP)

Chris Patten. He has also used outright bigotry in his writing, using the words “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” when referring to Africans. He has referred to gay men as “tank-topped bumboys” and insinuated that US President Barack Obama had an “ancestral dislike” for Britain due to his being “part-Kenyan”. Johnson was given a small boost on Monday, when Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who received 20 votes in the first ballot of MPs, dropped out of the contest and endorsed the frontrunner. Of the remainder of the pack, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt received 46 votes, Environment Secretary Michael Gove got 41, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart secured 37 and Home Secretary Sajid Javid

scraped through to the next round with 33. “Probably the biggest surprise has been Stewart,” said Al Jazeera’s Barker. “He’s a long way down the pack, but he has increased his support from just 19 MPs in the first round of voting to 37 in a few days. From the start, he was regarded as a political outsider and a moderate, but he did particularly well in the first televised debate on Sunday.” Arch-Brexiteer Raab, once thought to be Johnson’s closest rival in the race, dropped out on Tuesday. He was a principal architect of May’s withdrawal agreement, yet the day after it was presented to the cabinet, he resigned as Brexit secretary, saying he could not support the deal he had helped to negotiate.

Egypt’s Former President, Morsi Buried in Eastern Cairo Egypt’s former President Mohammed Morsi has been buried in Cairo, his son said on Tuesday, after he collapsed in court and died a day earlier. Morsi’s son, Abdullah, said in a tweet that his father was buried near two Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leaders in eastern Cairo’s Nasr City district. He said security agencies had

refused to allow their father to be buried at the family grave in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya. “We washed his noble body at the hospital of Torah prison and read the prayers for him inside the mosque of the hospital. “The burial took place at the grave of Muslim Brotherhood guides in Nasr city,” Abdullah said. Morsi, who hails from the

outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt’s first democratically elected leader in 2012 before being deposed in a military coup the following year. He collapsed during a court session in Cairo. He was 67. Monday’s session was part of a trial in which he was facing treason charges for allegedly leaking secret state documents

to Qatar while he was in office. The Ministry of Interior declared a state of maximum alert in the country after the announcement. The Muslim Brotherhood was formed in 1928, though was only able to transform to a political party, the Freedom and Justice Party, in 2011, while it was headed by Morsi.

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Insecurity: IG Sends Emissaries to Gani Adams over OPC’s Threats to Herdsmen Esther Oluku Following the seven-day ultimatum handed down to Fulani herdsmen in the South-west by the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, has sent his Chief of Staff, Mr. Jude Nwankor, to the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Abiodun Ige Adams. Speaking during the visit in his house in Lagos, Adams tasked the IG on the need to be proactive in tackling the various security issues in the country. Adams restated his belief in boosting local security, saying the best measure is to get people at the grassroots involved in local security. He told the top police hierarchy that as the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, “there are pressures on me to act on the issues”. Adams admitted that the OPC “is ready to partner with the police in solving the security challenges in the country”, adding that “our group has a history of winning

war against kidnapping, banditry and other social vices”. “I commend the Inspector General of Police on this move. The visit, as far as I am concerned, is a welcome development and it goes a long way in solving the menace. “The security situation in the country is becoming too worrisome with cases of Killings, kidnapping, raping and banditry prevalent across South-West states, and there is an urgent need to curb the menace” Responding, Nwankor, who led the police team, said the reason for the visit “is to seek your support in solving the security challenges in the country”. He said the police will be willing to partner with the Aare, giving his deep knowledge and experiences at the grassroots. “We are happy to relate with you as a prominent voice in Yorubaland. We know there is no way we can secure the grassroots without local intelligence. The IG has indicated interest in seeking your assistance and support and

Students Still Prefer Public Varsities, Others, Says TETFund Secretary Ugo Aliogo The Executive Secretary Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Elias Bogoro, yesterday said 94 per cent of Nigerian students still enroll in public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. He said TETFUND has enough justification for investing its funds in public institutions. He said the agency would devote attention to ICT because some intellectuals in the country are still in analog mode. Bogoro, who made these submissions while receiving experts from the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) in Abuja, said Nigerian tertiary institutions must be operating at the same level with their competitors. The ICDL delegation comprises Strategic Advisor, Mr. Etinick Mutinda and one of its Nigerian partners, Mr. A.U. Mustapha (SAN). Bogoro said ICT was the driver of the knowledge-based economy and Nigerian universities needed to keep pace with international best practices and standards. He said, “We have been emphasising on public tertiary institutions despite the fact that there are a number of private universities. “But the factors which inform our emphasis on public universities have not changed. One is that the majority of students in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are in public tertiary institutions. “As I am talking to you, it is 94 per cent. So, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has insisted that its position to focus on public institutions is justified. In terms of numbers, the public institutions are about an equal number with the private but in terms of students’ population, the public has 94 per cent population.

“As you would understand, the private institutions are charging fees in dollars, not in naira, which is definitely much weaker. There is therefore the justification that our funds should be attached to the public institutions. “In the 21st century when knowledge economy has taken over from resource-based economy, we cannot lose focus of the fact that there are some elements that drive this knowledge. In the era of knowledge economy, Information and Communication Technology is actually the driver. That is the relevance of ICT and digitisation. “The training and capacity building are pretty weak. In this country, there are some intellectuals, even many researchers that are analog. In fact, let me talk about a professor. They were our teachers, even as undergraduates. He said to me that some of us are manual. You talk about analog, but we are actually manual. “That is unacceptable. When we go around the world, in the knowledge economy, we must be operating at the same level with our competitors. That is very important. And that is why I appreciate the two main areas of partnership and we are taking them serious.” The Strategic Advisor, ICDL Foundation, Mr. Etinick Mutinda, said: “The initiative is to provide computer digital skills certification for people in the academic and non-academic in the education sector. “ICDL is an international certification for computer literacy that is adopted by many governments and organisations across the world. “This training will be offered through public tertiary institutions. They will be the ones providing the training. We are providing them with the curriculum and certification at the end of the training.”

that is why we are here to tell you that the police, as an institution, is ready to partner with you”, he said Other personalities present at the meetingincludedAsojuAareonakakanfo of Yorubaland, Yinka Oguntimehin, Assistant General Secretary of OPC, Mr. Lasun Ogunfowokan, Chief Superintendent of Police Peter Gana and Mrs Stella Gowon.

Adams later presented a letter to the IGP, indicating his support and proffering solutions to insecurity across the country. Meanwhile, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBN) held a meeting in Osogbo yesterday to fashion out ways of ensuring peaceful

coexistence and improved security in Osun State. During the meeting, OPC in Osun State gave the Fulani herdsmen living in the state a seven-day ultimatum to fish out the bad eggs among them in the interest of peace in the state. OPC, however, expressed readiness to use everything within its reach

to tackle the security challenges currently facing the state. The OPC leader in the state, Alhaji Leke Akintayo, gave the ultimatum during a peace meeting held with the leaders of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria and Miyetti Allah Castle Breeders Association in Osogbo, the state capital, yesterday.

FEARLESS REBIRTH CONCERT...

L-R: Award-winning American gospel artiste, JJ Hairston; Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo; Tim Godfrey; and award-winning American gospel artiste, Phil Thompson, at a meeting with Fidelity Bank CEO, after the Fearless Rebirth Concert organised by Godfrey and sponsored by Fidelity Bank in Lagos...recently

You Can’t Remove CJ, Court Tells Kogi Gov, Assembly 20 APC guber aspirants kick against indirect primary Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Yekini Jimoh in Lokoja The Kogi State High Court sitting in Koton-Karfe yesterday ruled that the executive and the legislature, jointly or unilaterally, cannot remove the state Chief Judge, Justice Nasir Ajanah, without recourse to the National Judicial Council (NJC). This is coming as 20 governorship aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state have kicked against the adoption of indirect primary by the Governor Yahaya Bello-led faction of the party ahead of the party’s primary in August. The court also declared that the Chief Registrar of the state High Court held a statutory position as the accounting officer of the judiciary and was therefore, not subject to the control and supervision of either the executive or the legislature.

Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, the presiding judge, made the declaration in his judgment on the suit brought against the assembly, the governor and three others by Justice Ajanah and the Chief Registrar, Alhaji Yahaya Adamu. Omolaye-Ajileye who granted all the reliefs and declarations sought by the claimants in the suit said, “On the whole, I find merit in this action and it succeeds. All the declarations sought are allowed. “To allow only the House of Assembly and the governor of a state to remove a Chief Judge of a state or any judicial officer for that matter, without the input of the NJC, will be monstrous and outrageous as it is capable of destroying the very substratum of justice and introducing a system of servitude, utterly inconsistent with the constitutional independence of judges,” he said. Meanwhile, 20 governorship aspirants on the platform of the APC in the state have kicked against

the adoption of indirect primary by the Governor Yahaya Bello faction of the party ahead of the party’s primary in August . The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had fixed November 16, 2019 for the governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states. The aspirants who came together under the auspices of APC Kogi Stakeholders Forum, said that the party in the state was divided and warned that APC would have to be extremely careful so that the party does not lose the state to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The leader of the forum and one of the APC leaders in the state, Senator Alex Kadri, while addressing a press conference in Abuja, called on the national leadership of the party to do the needful by setting up an independent caretaker committee to run the activities of the party in the state until after the election. He stated: “As we are preparing

for the gubernatorial primaries, we want it known that we, the leaders of the APC in the state, as well as the 20 aspirants of our party are opposed to the Yahaya Bello’s contrived method of doing primaries, because we are told that he gathered his appointees at Lokoja over the weekend and they endorsed indirect primaries. The aspirants who attended the meeting include; Prince Mustapha Audu, Dr. Timi Diche, Alhaji Aliyu Zakari Jiya, Alhaji Yusuf Ali, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, Alhaji Idris Usman, Mr. Sunday Edibo, Alhaji Mohammed Ali, Gen. Patrick Akpa (rtd), Alhaji Yakubu Mohammed, Mr. Gowon Egbunu, and Alhaji Yahaya Audu. Others include, Prince Yahaya Sani, Admiral Jibril Usman (rtd), Dr. Aminu Audu, Prof. Seidu Mohammed Oga, Engr. Kasim Ali, Dr. Haruna Sheu, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Audu, and Prince Shaibu Sani.

NACETEM Moves to Address Skill Deficit in Science Technology Fred Ojeh The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Prof. Okechukwu Okwuonu, yesterday said the agency has started training across Nigerian’s economic sector to address the skill gaps in the science, technology and innovation sector. Okwuonu stated this at a national workshop programme organised by the agency on management of Science,

Technology and Innovation (STI) projects for scientists, engineers, builders, project managers and other stakeholders in the sector, which started yesterday in Yenogoa, the Bayelsa State capital. Okwuonu said: “Specifically, this workshop is designed to enhance the skills of professionals in science and technology sector and help to develop concrete and practicable solutions to address knowledge and skills gaps in managing science, technology

and innovation (STI) based projects across the various economic sectors in Nigeria. “I am pleased to give this address at this momentous workshop coming at a very auspicious moment that the administration of President Muhammad Buhari is placing premium on science, technology and innovation as a driver of Nigeria’s economy. According to him, the significance attached to science and technology is evident in the kind of support this

administration has extended to the Ministry of Science and Technology and its agencies. The DG said “it is with this backing that NACETEM, as an agency of the ministry, has been relentless in reaching out to all and sundry, particularly in the area of capacity building”. “So, this workshop is one of the novel ways the agency is ensuring that no stone is left unturned in making science, technology and innovation a veritable tool of sustainable development”.

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CCB Refuses to Disclose Details of Buhari’s Assets to SERAP Agency’s reasons illogical, says Falana

Davidson Iriekpen The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has stated that it cannot disclose the details of President Muhammadu Buhari’s assets. This is coming as a human rights lawyer, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana has condemned the CCB for its refusal to grant a FoI request by SERAP on the grounds that asset declaration form is private information. CCB made its position known in its response to a freedom of information (FoI) request by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project

(SERAP), seeking a disclosure of assets declaration submitted by successive presidents and governors from 1999 till date. In its FoI request, SERAP had asked the CCB to provide “details of declarations made immediately after taking offices and thereafter, and for those who have left public offices, at the end of their term of office.” SERAP also wanted the CCB to make public, “information on the number of asset declarations so far verified by the CCB and the number of those declarations found to be false and deemed to be in breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, by

Sanctions: Oando Insists SEC Violates Own Rules Goddy Egene Oando Plc has insisted that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) neither followed due process nor gave it fair hearing before the commission’s decision to penalise the oil firm over market infractions. In statement pasted on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, Oando insisted that it was not accorded a fair hearing “because we simply co-operated with the process and responded to questions posed by the auditors in the course of their fieldwork for findings in a report that the company has still not seen.” According to Oando, “ a hearing can only be said to be fair when all the parties to a dispute are given an opportunity to present their respective cases, and each side is entitled to know the details of the case/ findings being made against it and is given an opportunity to reply thereto.” The oil and gas company, therefore said it disagreed with SEC’s statement that it was given sufficient opportunity of being heard and accorded several

opportunities to rebut the issues revealed by the investigation. Oando said its disagreement is based on some facts. For instance, it said prior to the commencement of the forensic audit the company was not afforded the same opportunity to meet with the SEC as was afforded to the petitioners, despite repeated written requests to that effect. The first of these requests was on August 24, 2017 from the Chairman, Oba Michael Adedotun Gbadebo who wrote to the then SEC Director General (DG) saying:“We would like to request for a meeting with you, in your capacity as DG of the SEC and regulator on matters involving the securities of our company, to formally table our concerns to you and clarify any further questions that you may have in respect to the issues that we have raised in this and previous letters to the SEC.” Oando added that during the 18 month long forensic audit exercise, the company was never given an opportunity to present its case based on the concerns or findings of the forensic auditor to the SEC.

‘Nigeria Has No Plans to go to Eurobond Market’ Peter Uzoho with agency report The Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Mrs. Patience Oniha, has stated that Nigeria has no plans of returning to the eurobond market this year, after a sixth outing in November raised $2.86 billion. Nigeria approved a threeyear plan in 2016 to borrow more from abroad. It wants 40 percent of its loans to come from offshore sources to lower borrowing costs and help to fund record-high budgets. Oniha, who was reportedly asked at an Islamic finance conference in Lagos whether the government would consider a US dollardenominated Eurobond, said: “For 2019, given the

process, I would say no. Foreign borrowing for the 2019 budget is set at N802 billion ($2.7 billion).” Reuters reported that Nigeria, which emerged from recession last year, has borrowed abroad and at home over the past three years to help finance its budgets and fund infrastructure projects, but debt servicing cost is also rising. The government had said it wanted to tap concessionary long-term loans to finance its 2019 budget in addition to borrowing at home. It sold $3 billion in eurobonds in 2017, part of which it used to fund its budget that year. It then followed with a $2.5 billion eurobond sale last year to refinance local currency bonds at lower cost.

the bureau.” But in a letter signed by Musa Usman, on behalf of CCB chairman, the bureau said the request “falls short of the requirement of the law” saying the information requested cannot be provided on the grounds of “invasion of privacy”. “Section 12(1)(a)(4)(a)(b) exempt production of information relating to investigation for the purposes of law enforcement and such investigation must have been carried out pursuant to an Act or regulation. Verification is investigation carried out pursuant to Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act for the purposes of law enforcement. “Referring breaches of the Code of Conduct for public officers to the Code of Conduct Tribunal for prosecution is a matter of

discretion of the bureau and not a matter of FOI. “Consequently, I am further directed to convey to you that the request in SERAP’s application for information on details of asset declarations by presidents and state governors since the return of democracy in 1999 is hereby denied on the grounds that it falls short of the requirement of the law,” CCB explained. Reacting, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare, said the civil society organisation will challenge the decision of the CCB at the court, insisting that “declaration forms are public information, and not private information.” Meanwhile, human rights lawyer, Falana, has condemned the CCB for its refusal to grant

a FoI request by SERAP. Speaking in Kano in a keynote address titled ‘Involvement of Nigerian people in the fight against corruption, delivered at Stakeholders Dialogue on Corruption in Nigeria organised by ActionAid Nigeria, Falana described the grounds as “illogical.” He argued that by not disclosing the assets of the president, the federal government has failed to show commitment to the fight against corruption by encouraging secrecy with respect to asset declaration by public officers. He said, “With respect, it is illogical to claim that the asset declaration forms submitted by the erstwhile public officers are private documents. Accordingly, the rejection of the request by SERAP is a contravention of section 1 of

the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. “It is hoped that the CCB will review its position and allow citizens to access the information in the declaration forms submitted to it by all public officers in view of the new policy of the Buhari administration to enforce effective asset declaration by public office holders.” Falana’s paper read in part: “It is an undeniable fact that the progressive withdrawal of subsidies from social services by the State which is a key component of the IMF/World Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme has led to mass poverty in the land.”

E-TECH GUESTS...

L-R: Chairman, Nairobi, Kenya E-Tech, Abdulakim Mustapha (SAN); General Manager ICDL Africa, Solange Uimulisa; and Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, during the visit of Nairobi, Kenya E-Tech delegation to TETFUND Headquarters in Abuja...yesterday

Ogun Gov Dissolves Transport Unions, Names Ad hoc Hajj Committee The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has dissolved all transport unions in the state. In the interim, he named a 13-man committee to coordinate the activities of road transport trade unions. The governor has also constituted an ad-hoc committee to coordinate the 2019 Hajj operations for the State Muslims faithful performing this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in the absence of a substantive

Muslim Welfare Board. According to a statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kunle Somorin, the interim road transport unions’ committee is headed by Mr. Sunday Olufemi Adeniyi, while the Hajj Operation Committee is chaired by Imam Mufutau Majekodunmi. Other members of the Hajj committee are Alhaji Abdul Gafar Orunsolu, Imam Rufai Sile, Alhaji Misbau Salako and Alhaji Tijani Hassan Ishola.

The rest of the members of the committee are Alhaji Tunde Oladunjoye, Dr. Raheemat Oloyede, Hon. Kamaru Oduntan and Alhaja Bisola Aliu. The governor also appointed Alhaji Abdul Yekin Arimyau Parakoyi as the Amirul Hajj for this year’s pilgrimage. The statement noted that the mandate of the Road Transport Associations’ Interim committee is basically to review the operations of the unions and make

recommendations on how the unions could be better organised to support the developmental agenda of the state. The interim committee is expected to educate and create awareness among the stakeholders in the sector on the need to ensure peaceful conduct at all times and avoid any activities that could undermine peace, security and safety of life and property in the state.

Oyo Gov Declares Entry Forms for Schools Free Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde, has directed that entry forms into the state’s Schools of Science and Junior Secondary Schools be made free. The governor, in a directive issued through the State Head of Service, Mrs. Amidat Ololade Agboola, ordered that placement and screening exercise forms for students into Junior Secondary Schools be also made free. A statement by the Chief Press

Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, also indicated that Makinde had directed that registration forms for admission into Schools of Science in the State be free for all candidates. The statement further disclosed that fees earlier paid by the categories of students mentioned above be refunded by the management of the respective schools immediately. According to the statement,

the directive by Makinde was in fulfillment of his electioneering campaign promise to promote free and quality education to the citizenry of the State. The release further appealed to the stakeholders to co-operate with the present administration to ensure that the state assumes its pacesetter status in the education sector. In another development, the government of Oyo State

has kick-started massive refuse evacuation in Ibadan metropolis. Permanent secretaries of the ministries of Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Gabriel Oguntola and his Information Ministry counterpart, Dr. Bashir Olanrewaju, who spoke during the evacuation exercise held at Gege River in Ayeye, area of Ibadan, said that the exercise was aimed at making the city of Ibadan clean and habitable.

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ĂœĂ™Ă&#x;Ăš ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĂ? ĂŽĂ“ĂžĂ™ĂœË? Duro Ikhazuagbe Ă—Ă‹Ă“Ă–Ë? duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 08111813083

(P GPS "'$0/ 5SPQIZ 1JOOJDL $IBSHFT 4VQFS &BHMFT Team in first training session since settling down in Alexandria Duro Ikhazuagbe After arriving in Alexandria, the venue of Nigeria’s 32nd Africa Cup of Nations Group B matches in Egypt on Monday from Ismailia, Super Eagles have been charged to win this edition of the tournament. Since winning the last edition Nigeria featured in last at South Africa 2013, Super Eagles failed to make the cut to the last two editions in 2015 and 2017. Six years after that feat at the FNB Stadium by the class of 2013 Eagles under the watch of late Stephen Keshi, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Melvin Pinnick wants the team to wipe away the sad memories of missing the last two editions of the African football showpiece by adding Egypt 2019 as the country’s fourth AFCON title. Pinnick who incidentally is the chief executive office of AFCON 2019 gave this charge shortly after Eagles first training session yesterday at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in the port city. “Do not take any team for granted. Easy groups exist only on paper; things are different on the pitch. The NFF will ensure you get all that is due

to you. This is a very important tournament and Nigerians are fully behind you. You should do your very best not to disappoint them. “The NFF is happy about the situation in camp; the commitment, discipline and dedication of each and everyone of you. You have all the quality of a champion team and everything about you is positive,� observed Pinnick who also doubles as CAF’s First Vice President. Interestingly, only three players from that Keshi’s all-conquering squad of 2013 are in Egypt with Nigerian senior team. Captain John Mikel Obi along with Ahmed Musa and Kenneth Omeruo are the only surviving members from the class of 2013. Head Coach, Gernot Rohr is keeping faith with the bulk of green horns he took to Russia for the World Cup last year. Responding on behalf of his teammates, Captain John Mikel Obi promised that the three-time African champions will be very professional on and off the pitch and do all they can to make the country proud again. “Mr. President, we thank you for all that you have done for this team over the years, as the head of Nigerian Football. We appreciate your honest approach to all issues that concern our

L-R: Super Eagles players, Ahmed Musa, John Mikel Obi, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, Odion Ighalo and William Troost-Ekong during Pinnick’s visit to the team at their Alexandria base in Egypt‌on Monday

welfare. “We all are aware of what is at stake. This tournament will not be child’s play or a stroll in

the park, but we are ready. It will be tough but when it gets tough, we will get tougher.� The three-time champions

Kanu, Six Others Named AFCON 2019 Ambassadors Nigerian football legend, Nwankwo Kanu has been named along with six others as ambassadors for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, which begin this Friday in Egypt. The others named with him include; Mahmoud El Khateeb of Egypt, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba of Cote d’Ivoire, Rabah Madjer of Algeria, and El Hadji Diouf of Senegal. ‘Papilo’ as he is fondly called featured six AFCON editions from 2000 to 2010. The highlight of his career was his coronation as CAF Player of the Year in 1996 and 1999.

t.BINPVE &M ,IBUFFC Ranked among the best African players of all time, El Khateeb was the first Egyptian to win African Player of the Year in 1983. “Bibo� as he is fondly called among Egyptian supporters won the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt at home in 1986. t4BNVFM &UP P Eto’o is widely regarded as the greatest players of all time in the history of African. A four-time CAF Player of the Year (2003,2004,2005 & 2010), he also won the Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2000 and 2002.

t:BZB 5PVSF The Ivorian enforcer ranks amongst the best in his country, Africa and rest of the world. Toure was crowned CAF Player of the Year for an unprecedented four times in a row (2011, 2012, 2013 &2014), and ultimately guiding Cote d’Ivoire to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015. t%JEJFS %SPHCB Two-time CAF Player of the Year – 2006 & 2009, Drogba ranks amongst the foremost forwards of his generation. Besides successes at club level, he appeared in five AFCONS (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 & 2013) reaching the final in 2006 and

2012. t3BCFI .BEKFS Madjer was part of the squad that won Algeria’s AFCON title, 1990 on home soil. He is revered by all and is famous for his stint with Portuguese side Porto. He also won the Ballon d’or Africain in 1987. t&M )BEKJ %JPVG He remains the only Senegalese to have been crowned CAF Player of the Year, decorated in 2001 and 2002. Diouf was a key member of the Teranga Lions golden generation that made headlines across the world in the early 2000’s.

*CSBIJN 6EPI UP 3FDFJWF $PWFUFE &VOJTFMM #PPU "XBSE Eunisell announced on Monday that a decision has been made to award the Eunisell Boot to the duo of Nasarawa United FC’s Sanusi Ibrahim and Mfon Udoh of Akwa United FC, top scorers in the 2018/2019 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). In a dramatic move, the prize money will not be shared, but rather, both will be presented with a cheque for N2 million each for the 10 goals they scored respectively.

The Eunisell Boot values a goal in the Nigerian topflight at N200,000. Eunisell Group Managing Director, Mr. Chika Ikenga said, “Our logic is simple; both players deserve to be rewarded for their performances. The eligibility to be awarded the Eunisell Boot, is based on the most goals scored. “This past season saw Ibrahim and Udoh each scoring 10 goals. We look no further than that; there are no technical consider-

ations that we factor in. We are delighted for these two players at the top of their game,� observed the CEO of Eunisell. Ikenga continued; “The rationale behind Eunisell introducing the award in 2018 was three-fold: First, we set out to help increase the standard of professional football in Nigeria through incentive and awareness. “Second, demonstrate to the youth that playing football in the professional league in Nigeria, is

a viable career and third, increase spectator interest and support for local teams and players.� The inaugural Eunisell Boot winner was Kano Pillars’ striker, Junior Lokosa, now playing for Tunisian and African champions, Esperance Sportif. Lokosa commented, “I wish Ibrahim and Udoh well, winning the Eunisell Boot had a dramatic and positive impact on my career. Congratulations to them both!�

will kick off their campaign against Burundi on 22 June before facing West African rivals Guinea in the second Group B

match on 26 June and debutants Madagascar four days later. All Nigeria’s group matches are in Alexandria.

1MBUJOJ 2VFTUJPOFE PWFS 2BUBS 8PSME $VQ Former UEFA President, Michel Platini, is being questioned by French anti-corruption investigators over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Platini, 63, was head of European football’s governing body until being banned in 2015 for ethics breaches. The former France midfielder and three-time Ballon d’Or winner has always denied any wrongdoing. Qatar beat bids from USA, Australia, South Korea and Japan in 2010. Platini is in custody and being questioned in Nanterre, a suburb in western Paris. Officials have been investigating alleged corruption connected to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for the past two years and were reported to have interviewed Sepp Blatter, the former president of world governing body FIFA, in 2017. In a statement, Platini’s lawyers reiterated he had not been arrested and has “expressed himself serenely and precisely, answering all the questions, including those on the conditions for the awarding of Euro 2016, and has provided useful explanations�.

They added: “He has nothing to do with this event which doesn’t concern him at all. He is absolutely confident about what’s next.â€? FIFA said it is aware of Platini’s questioning, but added it is “not in a position to comment furtherâ€?. Platini was banned over a 2m Swiss francs (ÂŁ1.3m) “disloyal paymentâ€? from Blatter, who was also banned from football for his part in the matter. Blatter has also always denied any wrongdoing. Platini’s eight-year ban was later reduced to four on appeal and will expire in October 2019. Qatar’s bid team has been previously accused of corruption, but was cleared following a two-year FIFA inquiry. However, former Football Association Chairman Greg Dyke told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup was a “bizarreâ€? one. “I think anyone who was involved in that decision has to be questioned because it was such a bizarre decision,â€? he said.

)J'- 6/*-"( .BSJOFT '65" 5JHFST #BUUMF 4IBSF 1PJOUT UNIBEN Royals defeat FUOYE Dazzlers to pick maximum points The Higher Institution Football League (HiFL 2019) began on high-tempo at the weekend as the University of Lagos (UNILAG Marines) held FUTA Tigers to a 1-1 draw at the UNILAG Sports Complex in Lagos. The UNILAG Marines dictated the play, showing

early glimpses of flash touches on the ball at the start of the game, but, as soon as the FUTA Tigers settled into the game, the contest became more intense, as both teams did all they could to outplay each other. However, in the 40th minute, Ibrahim Babatunde of the

FUTA Tigers, spotting jersey number 20, just after the centre half of the field lobbed the ball over UNILAG Marines goalkeeper, Oroge Olawale, who had stepped out of the 18-yard box. Despite the lead, The Marines maintained their composure and controlled the game, firing

from all cylinders in the second half. In the 84th minutes, their efforts finally paid off, when big striker Robert Odu, scored an amazing equaliser to put the team back in the game. The game ended 1-1. Elsewhere at the University of Benin Sports Ground in Ugbowo, Benin, the boys from

the UNIBEN Royals showed class against FUOYE Dazzlers from Ekiti as they defeated the team 2-1. Although both teams created chances, the UNIBEN Royales were more clinical in front of goal and got a deserving win. The league is organised by Pace Sports and En-

tertainment Marketing in partnership with the Nigerian Universities Games Association (NUGA). The top 32 Universities from NUGA-member institutions will play over a period of 21 weeks, with the final four billed for the Agege Stadium, Lagos.

47

WEDNES Ëœ ÍŻÍˇËœ Ͱ͎ͯ͡ Ëž T H I S D AY

WEDNESDAYSPORTS WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

Brazil’s Marta Becomes World Cup Leading Scorer Global attention refuses to shift away from France’s VAR penalty against Nigeria Brazil’s Marta last night became the record goal-scorer at FIFA Women’s World Cup finals as her 17th goal gave the South America nation a 1-0 win over Italy in Group C and a place in the last 16 in France. The 33-year-old - a veteran of six World Cup finals - scored from the penalty spot after a foul on Debinha. It takes her past the 16-goal tally of Germany men’s striker Miroslav Klose. She becomes the outright World Cup top scorer in either the men’s or the women’s game. Italy however topped Group C with six points, with goal difference separating them from runners-up Australia and third-placed Brazil. However, despite Martha’s feat last night, global attention refused to shift away from France’s VAR penalty goal that denied Nigeria a share of the points in Rennes on Monday evening. And Nigeria’s Coach Thomas Dennerby who is still fuming from the perceived injustice told BBC Sports: “If I give you my honest feelings (on the VAR), they’ll probably send me home

so it’s better I don’t say anything. “My players are heroes. Of course I’m disappointed by the result, France is a really good team and don’t need support from anybody to win games. The girls were fighting so well, they followed the match plan and it’s getting destroyed by people that we’re not so happy with.� BBC Sport readers also showed their frustrations by its player rater tool to give France’s match-winner Wendie Renard the lowest score of any player on the pitch (3.36), while keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie got the highest mark (8.80). Former England defender Laura Bassett, watching for BBC Four, said the decisions were “ultimately right� but that the law changes will continue to lead to confusion. “France deserved to win because Nigeria were in the wrong (according to the laws) but for the players it is so hard because it is going to take time to coach them to change their training methods.� The law makers, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) threw more light on the new law with this explanation: “Goalkeepers are not permitted to stand in front of or behind

the line. Allowing the goalkeeper to have only one foot touching the goal line (or, if jumping, in line with the goal line) when the

penalty kick is taken is a more practical approach as it is easier to identify if both feet are not on the line. As the kicker can

‘stutter’ in the run, it is reasonable that the goalkeeper can take one step in anticipation of the kick.�

So given that explanation, Nnadozie clearly had both feet in front of the line, the decision was correct.

Brazil’s Marta (left) celebrating his record 17th goal in the 1-0 defeat of Italy at the ongoing Women’s World Cup in France‌last night

IAAF Used Me as Human Guinea Pig, Says Semenya Caster Semenya has said that athletics’ world governing body “used� her like “a human guinea pig� by insisting she takes medication to control her testosterone. South Africa’s Semenya, 28, is in legal dispute with the IAAF, who have said the 800m runner must take medication or compete over a different distance. The two-time Olympic champion insisted that the drugs made her feel “constantly sick� and have “unknown health consequences�. “I will not allow the IAAF

to use me and my body again,� said Semenya. Semenya spoke out as the Court of Arbitration for Sport released a 163-page document explaining in detail why it had rejected her appeal against the IAAF’s rules. Since the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision she has gone to Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court (SFT), which has temporarily suspended the IAAF ruling. “The IAAF used me in the past as a human guinea pig to experiment with how the medication they required me to take would affect my

testosterone levels,� added Semenya. “Even though the hormonal drugs made me feel constantly sick, the IAAF now wants to enforce even stricter thresholds with unknown health consequences. “I am concerned that other female athletes will feel compelled to let the IAAF drug them and test the effectiveness and negative health effects of different hormonal drugs. This cannot be allowed to happen.� IAAF rules state Semenya - and other athletes with differences of sexual

development (DSD) - must either take medication in order to compete in track events from 400m to the mile, or change to another distance. People with a DSD do not develop along typical gender lines. Their hormones, genes and reproductive organs may be a mix of male and female characteristics, which can lead to higher levels of testosterone - a hormone that increases muscle mass, strength and haemoglobin, which affects endurance and which - the IAAF argued - gives Semenya and DSD athletes an unfair advantage over other women.

Since the ruling, Semenya has raced over 2,000m and took victory at the Meeting de Montreuil in Paris. She has been named in South Africa’s preliminary squad for the World Championships in Qatar later this year but has only been entered in the 800m, meaning her participation depends on the outcome of her appeal. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has said the new rules for athletes with differences of sexual development were discriminatory, but concluded that the discrimination was “necessary, reasonable and

proportionate� to protect “the integrity of female athletics�. The IAAF has welcomed the full release of the CAS findings, saying: “Having the arguments of all parties and the detailed findings of the CAS panel in the public domain will help to foster greater understanding of this complex issue. “The IAAF considers that the DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair and meaningful competition in elite female athletics, and the CAS agreed.�

Akwa Utd, Rivers Utd Battle for CFAO Yamaha Rewards Nigerians AITEO Cup Last 16 Ticket with AFCON Trip A very special football match will be played today at the ‘Cathedral’, the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu when two grand establishments in Nigerian football, Akwa United and Rivers United go toe to toe for the right to play in the last 16 of Nigeria’s oldest football competition, the AITEO (Federation) Cup. Akwa reached this stage of the competition by beating Sokoto United 2-1 at the Old Parade Ground, Abuja in the round of 64 while Rivers United outclassed FC Timberloader 4-0 at the

Lafia City Stadium, Lafia at the same stage. Wednesday’s game is extremely vital for both Nigeria Professional Football League clubs as success will mean their only route to the continent, next season, remains ajar. Akwa is a side laced with top talent; Jean Efala, Olorunleke Ojo, Ottobong Effiong, Kodjovi Dadzie Ubong Essien, Dennis Nya, Wilson Elu, Cyril Olisema and Ndifreke Effiong easily roll off the tongue. There’s also the small matter

of feared marksman, Mfon Udoh who is surrounded by a stellar caste which includes Wisdom Fernando, Ocheme Edoh and Godspower Aniefiok. Akwa also have the luxury of having two former Rivers United players, Markson Ojobo and Emeka Atuloma who both represented the ‘Pride of Rivers’ in the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup where they reached the group stages of the competition to call on, for ‘inside information’ about the Port Harcourt club.

CFAO Yamaha, a joint venture subsidiary of CFAO Group and Yamaha Motor Corporation, Japan is set to rev the hearts of football loving Nigerians by sending customers to Egypt on all-expense paid trip to watch the semi-final and final games of AFCON 2019. Other customers will also enjoy the AFCON experience through free public viewing. The 2019 African Cup of Nations will hold in Egypt from June 21 to July 19, 2019. All football lovers will qualify for the promo if they buy any Yamaha product. The Managing Director of

CFAO Yamaha Motor Nigeria Limited Mr. Boye Ajayi said “the company’s desire to sponsor loyal customers to Egypt to watch live games at the football fiesta is to identify with the beautiful game and reward our loyal customers. “In addition, the company will stage free public viewing centres at designated locations across the country, where Nigerians will rev their passion and win gifts at the same time.� Mr. Ajayi said Yamaha Motor Corporation, Japan has supported this initiative of co-sponsoring AFCON 2019 with the aim of branding from a long-term

DStv, GOtv to Broadcast Live AFCON 2019 Matches With Pidgin Commentary With the start of the Total 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) only a few days away, DStv and GOtv subscribers can look forward to experiencing every moment of the tournament live and in HD on SuperSport, with superior analyses and commentary both in English and Pidgin! All the matches of the tournament will be available to DStv subscribers on Premium, Compact Plus, Compact, and Family packages, while selected

matches will be available to DStv Access subscribers. On GOtv, the matches will be available to subscribers on GOtv Max and GOtv Plus packages. Chief Customer Officer, MultiChoice Nigeria, Martin Mabutho, said: “We know pidgin is one of the most popular languages for interaction in the country and we received good reviews when we introduced pidgin commentary during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. “Now, we are excited to announce that we

will bring it back as part of the commentary for the 2019 African Cup of Nations as we believe it will help Nigerians have more connection to the competition’s broadcast.� The AFCON broadcast will also feature magazine programmes, providing analyses on how select teams qualified for the tournament, information on culture and lifestyle of the participating countries and iconic places of interest in the host country. Journey to Egypt is a show that will detail how Nigeria,

Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and South Africa qualified for the tournament, while Hello Africa is a lighthearted Saturday morning programme showcasing the best of Egyptian flavour, tourist attractions and hospitality to football fans visiting the country for AFCON. DStv subscribers can catch all the games SuperSport 7 with selected matches on SuperSport 10 and SuperSport 8, while GOtv subscribers can watch the

action on SuperSport Select 4 with selected games scheduled on SuperSport Select 2 and SuperSport Select 5. In addition, all DStv subscribers and subscribers on GOtv Max, Plus and Value packages will, ahead of the tournament, enjoy access to archive content, previous finals, best qualifiers, documentaries and profile pieces of the participating teams from 7-20 June on SuperSport Select 7 and SuperSport Select 1 respectively.

perspective in Africa, where future market expansion is expected. This same vision guided Yamaha’s expansion to Nigeria through a joint venture partnership with CFAO Group to establish herself as a manufacturing entity in Nigeria, building a world-class motorcycle assembly line and service centre in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos rather than trading through distributors like it did in the past. Yamaha’s product offering in Nigeria include; motorcycles, marine products, generators and other motorized products which are highly patronized by Nigerians, most especially football lovers. The Team Lead Marketing, Mr Victor Momodu said CFAO Yamaha has been following through with her brand statement by creating exceptional value and experiences that enrich the lives of Nigerians in general through quality products and after sales services. “Thus, bringing the AFCON experience to our customers is another way for us to connect with customers through their passion for football. Nigerians purchasing Yamaha products from any of our CFAO Yamaha accredited retail stores will win instant gifts and get raffle tickets that qualifies them to win exciting gifts like Yamaha Generators and other household items� he said.

Wednesday June 19, 2019

TR

UT H

& RE A SO

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Price: N250

MISSILE

Obi to INEC “INEC must provide the server they used for the election because they know they used the server for the election and must provide it” – Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi, calling on the party to compel the INEC to produce the results of the 2019 polls from its server.

OKEYIKECHUKWU

EDIFYING ELUCIDATIONS

okey.ikechukwu@thisdaylive.com

The Herdsman’s Narrative H

e was an urbane looking man of moderate build and calm demeanor. A strong personality, no doubt, with calm eyes and a totally unassuming aspect. His somber simplicity, firm but unobtrusive presence and the slightly mischievous glint in his eyes were among the first things I noticed. I was shocked to discover not only that he was an older man, but that I put his biological age close to 20 years below what it actually was. This man was over 70 years of age and I just could not make out how. He turned out to be “a herdsman” with a story about his plight, the plight of “his” people. Well educated and well-travelled in the terrain of power through the public service in Nigeria, he explained that it was futile for him or “his” people to say he is a big man in Abuja, or even on the moon, if he did not have visible herds and heads of cattle to his name “at home.” Frankly, I had no idea what he was talking about at this point! I did not know this man until two weeks ago when we met at an event in one of the Transcorps Hilton conference rooms and got talking. Then he brought up the article “As the North Goes Under”, which appeared on this page April 17, 20919, saying he wanted us to discuss some matters arising therefrom. He knew me and had followed my writings over the years, he said, and was prepared to wait until the lunch break for us to talk about this particular piece of writing. When we finally came down to it, he began by saying that he was at once relieved and worried after reading the article. He felt relief because it brought out much that his brothers and sisters in the north choose to turn a blind eye to. He was worried because (1) the problem of the North had actually become more intractable than he was prepared to admit and (2) there is an overlooked context to the entire so-called Fulani criminality. Then he asked without warning: “How do you measure the wealth, social standing and overall profile of an Igbo man in your traditional society?” Not quite sure what this was about, I explained that a man’s bans of yam, the welfare of his household his character, etc., defined his standing in the traditional Igbo society. He smiled. Then, scrolling on his phone until he got a map of Nigeria which he enlarged for greater image definition, he pointed out the areas where cattle rustling had thrived in the North for decades. He also said that these crimes were usually on a small scale, along with all manner of petty thievery. It increased until it became a major source of concern to most of the communities. Then, from nowhere, over 150 heads of cattle could sometimes be “rustled” in one day. This, he said, created serious problems of poverty and loss of social status in communities that were hitherto peaceful. Whereas I could understand the element of impoverishment of the cattle owners, I needed him to link this with some imaginary loss of social status. He did that easily, by asking me what would be the status of an Igbo man in the traditional Igbo society

IG, Mohammed Adamu who suddenly lost all the yams in his barn, including the seed yam for the next planting season. When he was asked why the matter of plain cattle robbery could not be reported to the police and dealt with like any other act of social deviance, he said that “his people” rarely made reports because of their location in the bush and forests. He also said that the few who tried to do so, like some village heads whose herders came home empty handed to report ill fortune, were not always taken too seriously by the police. Thus the initial self-arming of herders was a simple response to the demand for self-preservation. It is fair to say that his explanations could be understood from the standpoint of a cultural situation gone bad. But it did not address the question of whether this means of livelihood was the best for any people in the 21st century. It also did not say anything about the fate and fortunes of the young men deployed to rear cattle by an elite that may be in Abuja, abroad, or simply at home in the village living a pleasant feudal life. When I asked: “what explains the growing criminality all over the place, most of which is perpetrated by persons alleged to be Fulani herdsmen?” He replied: “There is no forest in Bauchi, Jos, or most other parts of the North where there had not always been some form of herdsmen who lived harmoniously with the

people of the town.” He then said that a progressive decay of values, in addition to the challenges of grazing and an impatient youth generation, led to minor skirmishes with some locals. Cases of trespass, petty robbery and even occasional rape crept into what had hitherto been centuries of give and take relationship. But it was also a relationship not moderated in any way by the state apparatus for law and order, so disagreements were also settled outside of that state framework. The result is that when violations of their old rules of engagement increased in number and frequency, especially in the absence of accompanying mitigations, nerves were frayed and relationships deteriorated precipitously. That made some locals to occasionally take matters into their hands and deal with known youths who were known for thievery or molestation of people. This led to cases of outright killings in a few cases. Then came retaliations. Then, all of a sudden, hitherto brotherly neighbours became each other’s killers and undertakers. Progressively, retaliations for minor infractions turned into full-scale intergroup hostilities. In the end, the penalty for killing one person turned into the wiping out of an entire villages, instead of dealing with the specific issues on the table at the moment. The herdsman went on to dwell on the triumph of opportunistic criminality all over the country. While agreeing that some of the itinerant and roundly roguish herdsmen are of Fulani extraction, he submitted that it was only recently that the otherwise harmless and law abiding Fulani some of us had always known from childhood, and who was only an occasional only public nuisance, became the subject of discussions about national security. The current trend of uncontrolled movement of cattle all over the place, as against the well-controlled cattle movement of yore where cattle never strayed into farms, fenced or not, was traceable to factors other than the fact of being Fulani. It was only in recent years that the good old herdsman of old Nigeria became something of a menace, even to well-trained military personnel. He now has high calibre military assault arms and ammunition. Even by our herdsman narrative, it is clear that the herdsman, if we can still call him

Insecurity knows no boundaries of ethnic roots or geographical divide. So it is not just about the Fulani. It is about crime and criminality. It is also about the impotence of noisy ethnic militias that are good at threatening the Nigerian state, and other Nigerians, on the pages of newspapers; but which crawl under the table in abject terror when the real enemies of their people emerge

one, has moved from the simple project of self-protection against cattle rustlers to full-scale projects of questionable legality. The result is that many people, Fulani or not, who rob, kidnap, burgle house, rape, and kill both weak and strong, raze homes, villages and communities in the name of personal survival. His trail is now littered with death, disorder and social decay. Robbery, kidnapping and sundry criminality thrived more in the South and the South generally, than in the North before the last five years. We know that many criminals who commit these crimes are not Fulani. We also know that “Fulani” is not synonymous with “criminal” by any stretch of the imagination. What is perhaps staring us in the face is the fact that the ordinary motorcycle rider, vulcaniser and also herdsman has hit upon the lucrative business of unlawful behavior. Armed criminality has become the new gold mine, as well as the short cut to all manner of material comfort – including cash that could instantly change your social ranking based on the number of heads of cattle you own. It is Nigeria, not just southerners of northerners, who are in the line of fire everywhere. The maimed are everywhere. So are the violated. The insecurity knows no boundaries of ethnic roots or geographical divide. So it is not just about the Fulani. It is about crime and criminality. It is also about the impotence of noisy ethnic militias that are good at threatening the Nigerian state, and other Nigerians, on the pages of newspapers; but which crawl under the table in abject terror when the real enemies of their people emerge. Where is OPC, IPOB, Arewa Youth, MASSOB, Egbesu Boys and co. in all of this? Failure of preemptive intelligence, crime control and crime fighting and counter intelligence are issues here. While I agreed with the herdsman on the danger of giving ethnic or religious coloration to nationwide criminality, while it is true that we are all victims of the same malaise of weak and weakened national security, there is a preponderance of criminal activities associated with persons suspected to be Fulani. The only concession here is that criminals should not be defined in ethno-religious terms.

POSTSCRIPT My attention was drawn to an unfortunate error of attribution in the article of April 17, 2019. Paragraph 12 of the said article should have read: “After a programme on transhumans organised by a former, very highly respected, National Security Adviser, I was at another stakeholder event convened in Abuja on the herdsmen and kidnapping menace now plaguing the nation; and particularly the North. At the later event, I listened with a mixture of dismay and consternation to the tales of a stakeholder who told us about his several meetings with kidnappers on various major routes and how they explained to him why nobody could ever come after them in the forest and hope to get out alive.” The error is regretted. On

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