...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 62703

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016**

Mr & Mrs

Terminal operators owe FGN86.2bn port charges, fees

CMYK

•Operators kick, deny owing govt

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FG moves to unveilbeneficiaries of N66bnHalliburton bribes

N676bn NIS job scam:

Abba Moro,4 others to bearraigned today

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DefiantchurchmemberscelebratecondemnedRev.King'sbirthday

S-Court verdict: Wike owes Rivers people explanation — APC >12

UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA HONOURS TINUBU—Vice -Chancellor, University of Abuja,Prof Michael Adikwu; formerGovernor of Lagos State and National Leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with Registrar ofthe Uuiversity, Mrs Rifkatu Swanta, during presentation and Conferment of Honorary Doctorate of Business AdministrationDBA, degree on Tinubu at the 20th Convocation of the University of Abuja, weekend. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

FOREX SCARCITY:OPS loses N1.46trn in 6months — KADCCIMA >8

See storyon Page 17

ALLEGED SHARP PRACTICES AT THE PORTS:

OWEILAKEMFA

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HENRYBOYO

P.32 P.34

OCHEREOME

NNANNA

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Agenda forBuhari rescueconfab

Niger Deltapeople, flow intoa common river

DEVALUATION:IMF Vs Buhari

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, February 29, 2016

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, February 29, 2016 —3

CMYK

4 — Vanguard, MONDAY, February 29, 2016

CMYK

POCKET CARTOONVanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016—5

IT'S UP TO YOUBY AYO ADIO

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

SAYINGS OF OUR PEOPLE

The man who has bread to eat cannotappreciate the severity of famine.

WITHOUT love, hate will prevail, without goodevil will dominate. to save humanity, we must

show love and give no room for evil to prevail. It'sup to you.

FG moves to unveil beneficiariesof N66bn Halliburton bribes

As we express our gratitude, we must rememberthat the highest appreciation is not to utter wordsbut to live by them —John F Kennedy

GRATEFUL people have a higher sense of self-worth. I think that’s because when you’re

grateful, you have the sense that someone else islooking out for you. Once you start to recognize thecontributions that other people have made to yourlife, once you realize that other people have seenthe value in you, you can transform the way you seeyourself. Just because gratitude is good doesn’t meanit’s always easy. Practicing gratitude can be at oddswith some deeply ingrained psychologicaltendencies but if we focus on gratitude, we’ll attractour heart desires.

•To ascertain whereabouts of recovered $200m, payment

of $12m legal fees to senior lawyers

•We’re considering both criminal and civil options against

suspects — AGF

By Soni Daniel,Northern Region

Editor

A B U J A — T H EF e d e r a l

Government moved anotch higher in its anti-graft war, last night, witha confirmation that it waslaunching acomprehensive probeinto the controversialHalliburton bribery casein which top Nigerianpoliticians allegedlyreceived huge bribes inthe region of N66 billion.

The bribes were takenby top players in

government between1994 and 1998 from fivemajor companies thatwere awarded $6 billionfor the construction of gastrains in Bonny Island inRivers State for theNigerian LiquefiedNatural Gas Company,NLNG.

Under the fresh probebeing ordered by theBuhari administration,and unlike in the past,the key players in theNigerian government,who demanded andcollected the huge sumsof money and those whooffered the bribes, are tobe fished out and

prosecuted.Vanguard also learned

that the FederalGovernment was keenon determining if,indeed, the sum of $200million said to havebeen paid by the fivecompanies, which wereindicted over the scam,was indeed remitted intothe purse of thegovernment.

The fresh enquiry willalso ascertain why fivesenior Nigerian lawyers,who negotiated with theindicted multinationalfirms to escapeprosecution in Nigeriaand paid the $200million fines, collectedclose to $12 million as‘legal fees’ from thefines.

The Attorney Generalof the Federation andMinister of Justice, Mr.Abubakar Malami, whoconfirmed the freshprobe being launched bythe government in aninterview with Vanguardlast night, said bothcriminal and civilcharges would bepressed against thesuspects.

Malami, who is aSenior Advocate ofNigeria, said nothingwould be left to chancein the new attempt toinvestigate the multi-million Naira scam thathad cast the nation inbad light in theinternational community.

Leaving nothingto chance

Malami said: “It is truethat the federalgovernment isundertaking a

comprehensive probe ofthe Halliburton briberyscandal and we are notleaving anything tochance this time around.

“The recent invitationof some persons forquestioning by theEconomic and FinancialC r i m e sCommission,EFCC, inconnection with thebribery, is the beginningof the fresh effort tounravel all the issuesrelated to the case and itis going on as planned.

“I want to say that if weneed to proceed withcriminal prosecutionafter our investigations,we will do that, and if weneed to go for recoveryand prosecution, we willdo so. Nothing will beleft to chance,” theminister said.

Asked to confirm thereceipt of $200 millionfines said to have beenpaid by the fivemultinational companiesinto a dedicated FederalGovernment account withthe Central Bank ofNigeria, CBN, asdeclared last week by oneof the lawyers, DamianDodo, Malami said theinvestigation wouldestablish thewhereabouts of the saidmoney.

The minister said thatall claims related to thematter would beunravelled by the probe

currently going on butdid not name all theagencies involved in thecurrent probe apart fromthe EFCC, which hasalready quizzed two ofthe five lawyers, whohandled the case.

The immediate pastAGF, Mohammed Adoke,in 2010, raised a five-man legal team toprosecute the companiesindicted in the scamand they all opted to payhuge fines instead ofbeing tried in Nigeria.

The legal team raisedby Adoke was led by thethen President of theNigerian BarAssociation, Joseph B.Dauda, with Mr.Emmanuel C. Ukala,Chief Godwin Obla,Roland Ewubare and

Damian Dodo asmembers.

The companies whichwere involved in thebribery scandal andopted for payment ofheavy fines and non-prosecution by Nigeria,were: HalliburtonEnergy Services,Siemens AG, TSKJ,Technip of France,Snamprogetti of Italy,Kellog, Brown and Roots of the U.S andJapan Gas Corporationand Julius Berger, whichwas accused of acting asa conduit for the illegaltransfer of $5 million.

To avoid prosecution,JB immediately opted topay a fine of $35 millionto Nigeria andaccordingly, let off thehook.

PDP CRISIS: Our termsfor truce — Rescue Team

By Ben Agande

A B U J A —MEMBERS

of Peoples DemocraticParty, PDP, RescueGroup, have givenconditions that wouldmake them pledge theirsupport for the leadershipof Senator Ali ModuSheriff as chairman of theparty.

This came as formerSpokesperson to ex-President GoodluckJonathan’s CampaignOrganisation, Chief FemiFani-Kayode, said,yesterday, that he was notlosing sleep over threatby the new nationalchairman of the Party todrag him to court.

In an interview withVanguard in Abuja,members of the groupsaid though they wereimpressed with theinterventions of membersof the National Assemblyas well as the Board ofTrustees, BoT, of the party,which have pegged thetenure of the presentmembers of the NationalWorking Committee,NWC, at three months, itwould watch closely,activities of the NWCunder Sheriff beforegiving their support.

It would be recalled that

the PDP rescue groupunder the leadership ofAmb. Wilberforce Juta,last week, rejected thechairmanship of SenatorSheriff, saying that hisemergence as thenational Chairman of thePDP was “against the willand wish of the generalityof faithful members” of theparty.

The group furtheralleged that “the mannerof Senator Sherrif ’semergence hadunleashed unnecessarycontroversy within theparty and beyond.

"We assert that therecannot be any short cut tothe truth. Part of thederailment from thevalues of our party overthe years is the elevationof imposition over internaldemocracy as happenedin the presentappointment of thenational chairman.

"Most party faithful donot see in Sen. Sheriff amodel of impeccableintegrity that the PDPbadly needs to lead it atthis critical moment."

But following theintervention of criticalstakeholders in the party,including the NationalAssembly, the Board ofTrustees and PDPGovernors Forum, it wasagreed that Senator

Sheriff should serve forthree months after whichhe would organize theparty ’s nationalconvention to elect newmembers of the NWC.

Speaking withVanguard, formerMinister of Informationand member of the PDPRescue Group, Mr JohnOdey, said members of thegroup were watching thenew development withcautious optimism.

“We are watching eventsclosely and the actionstaken by the NWC in thenext one week willdetermine whether wewill support him or not."

Meanwhile, ChiefFemi Fani- Kayode said,yesterday, that he wasnot losing sleepfollowing the threat todrag him to court byModu Sheriff.

Fani-Kayode in astatement noted that hestood by what he said,stressing that they wouldmeet in court and thatthe era of silencingpeople with threats andlitigations were longover.

The statement wassigned by Fani- Kayode’sspokesman, JudeNdukwe.

FUEL QUEUES RETURN TO LAGOS—Long queue at Mobil filling station,along Oregun-Ikeja Road as scarcity returned to Lagos State, weekend.PHOTO: AKEEM SALAU.

6 —Vanguard, MONDAY FEBRUARY 29 , 2015

UNILAG convocation to affectUTME candidates

Lai Mohammedadvocatesrevival ofindigenousfestivals

By Daud Olatunji

Lagos launchesanti-sexualassault standingorder, rape kits

LAGOS—THE 2016 allComputer Based Test, CBT,

version of the Unified TertiaryMatriculation Examination(UTME), conducted by the JointAdmissions and MatriculationBoard (JAMB) would not hold atthe University of Lagos centreuntil March 7.

Dr Beatrice Okorie, theCoordinator of JAMB NationalHead quarters Annex, Lagos, toldnewsmen that this was becauseof the institution’s 2014/2015convocation that would start todaywith the convocation lecture. Theconvocation will run till Thursday,she said.

Okorie had, however,commenced the conduct ofcandidates during theexaminations for being peacefuland seamless.

According to her, candidates atthe Yaba College of Educationcentre where she monitored theexamination for instance, arrivedthe centre as early as 8.30 a.m.

She said the candidates weresearched and screened by menof the Nigeria Security andCivil Defence Corps, NSCDC,using the scanners.

“The conduct of this year’sexamination looks encouraging,smooth and stress free

“It is seamless as reportsreaching me from the slit one ofthe examination that comprises 30centres across the state says thatso far the exams have been verypeaceful with no issues at all.

“Here in our centre, actually wehave 53 accredited centres but weused 30 for Saturday , but fromMonday we shall put all theremaining 23 others in use.

“We have enough machines forthe biometrics and as a result,there was no waste of time inchecking the candidates into the

examination hall,” Okorie said.She said that the entire

examination centre was calm andone would hardly know that anexamination was going on hereunlike what was obtained beforethen.

She said that only one sessionof the examination was held onSaturday in all the examinationcentres in and outside the country.

According to reports that 1.8million candidates are sitting forthe examination in 540 centres inNigeria and eight foreign centres,including Cameroon.

The figure includes 343 inmatesand 201 visually impairedcandidates.

The examination is expected tobe concluded on March 11.

By Dayo Adesulu

ABEOKUTA—THEMinister of

Information and Culture, LaiMohammed has advocatedthe revival of indigenousfestival across the country.

The Minister, who spoke inAbeokuta, the Ogun Statecapital during the maidenedition of Nigerian Drumfestival slated to hold betweenApril 19 and 21, 2016 inAbeokuta.

The Minister, who spoke inthe presence of the stategovernor, Ibikunle Amosun’srepresentative and the stateCommissioner for Culture andTourism, Olumuyiwa Oladipolauded the government on theinitiative.

According to Mohammedwho was represented by MsGrace Isu Gekpe, “We carriedout a research and discoveredmany unique instruments thatshould be promoted,showcased to complement ourmodern musical instruments.

“By doing that, you createjobs for people who areproducing those instruments.So, it is gladdening to see thatOgun State is doing somethingthat the ministry likes. Becausethis is something that we haveactually been telling the states;initiate festivals, apart fromthese indigenous festivalsthat you have, initiate newfestivals. So, I’m so glad thatthis festival is going take placein April.

The governor, who wasrepresented by his Deputy,Chief Yetunde Onanuga saidthe event would foster thegrowth and unity of the countrybeing the first of its kind inNigeria and Africa at large.

He said the event would alsopromote cultural heritage andunity of the people as it woulddraw participants from the 36States of the federation, apartfrom show-casing talents andskills on drum beating, drumdancing and performances.

He stated that it would alsoenhance tourism opportunitiesin the state, which in turnwould create employment forthe teeming youths.

In his remarks, theCommissioner for Culture andTourism, Basorun OlumuyiwaOladipo expressed optimism,that the Nigerian DrumFestival would turn aroundthe face of culture andtourism not only in the statebut in Nigeria and Africa, asit would promote culturalheritage of the countrywhich other African countrieswould take a cue from.

LAGOS—IN line with themandate of Governor

Akinwunmi Ambode, the LagosState Domestic and SexualViolence Response Team, DSVRT,in partnership with the Ministryof Health and the Primary HealthCare Board at the weekendlaunched the Sexual AssaultStanding Order and SexualAssault Evidence Examination Kit,also referred to as rape kits.

Coordinator of the DSVRT, Mrs.Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi said thelaunch was done at a trainingsession for health workers ofPrimary Health Care Centres.

She listed the five pilot centresto include Ogudu, Ita-elewa inIkorodu, Ajilete in Ifako-Ijaiye,Palm Avenue in Mushin andOshodi in Oshodi-Isolo.

She said the selection of the pilotPHC’s was methodically done asstatistic reveals that sexual andgender-based assault-relatedcrimes are most prevalent in theseareas. These centres render 24-hour service, laboratory, HIVcounselling and testing, andmaternal and child health services.

Mrs. Vivour-Adeniyi said theLagos State Sexual AssaultStanding Order, the first of its kindin Nigeria, was produced to guidethe provision of health care servicesas well as set the minimumacceptable standards for theprovision of quality health care tothe survivors of sexual assault.

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

R E C E P T I O N :Lagos StateGovernor, Mr.A k i n w u n m iAmbode (middle),with President,U N I L A GA c c o u n t i n gS t u d e n t s ’Association Set of84, Chief AdejareShobayo (left) andHead of Serviceof the Federation,Mrs. WinifredOyo-Ita during areception inhonour of theHead of Service,yesterday.

Three airlines obtain Safety Audit Certification

Ogun kicks off rural electrification scheme

L A G O S — T H R E ENigerian airlines have

successfully obtainedInternational Air TransportAssociation, IATA, OperationalSafety Audit Certification.

This was disclosed when IATAteam led by the newly-appointedRegional Director for Africa, Tanja

Grobotek paid familiarisation visitto the Director General of theNigerian Civil Aviation Authority,NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, atthe Aviation House, Lagos.

According to General Manager,Public Relations, NCAA, Mr SamAdurogboye, the successfulairlines are Arik Air, AeroContractors and FirstNation.Those on the verge of attainingIOSA certification include AlliedAir and Cargo services, OverlandAirways and Dana Air. While AirPeace has done its last workshopbut is about to be audited.

The IATA Operational SafetyAssessment (IOSA) certificate isissued to airline after a successfulassessment and demonstration ofcompliance to Safety Regulationsas specified by the body.

In another development,Grobotek “condemned ConsumerProtection Council’s (CPC)incursion into aviation regulatoryresponsibilities of the NCAA withreference to the recent issue ofpassengers’ complaint withTurkish Airlines.”

The DG, NCAA, Capt. MuhtarUsman, in his response, thankedthe IATA team for their visit. Heexpressed willingness to partner

with IATA on issues of Safety,Security and Training.

The IATA team included itsAviation Solutions Manager(South West Africa) EwemadeAtake.

With the DG were some topmanagement staff of the Authority,which included the Director of AirTransport Regulations, Mr OgidiJustus-Wariya, Director ofConsumer Protection, AlhajiAdamu Abdullahi, Director ofFinance and Accounts, AlhajiNuhu-Ozigi , Technical Assistantto the DG, Engr. Ben Tukur, GMPublic Relations, Mr SamAdurogboye and others.

Bristow Helicopters engagesoperations audit firm

Meantime, Bristow Helicopters,weekend, said it has engaged theservices of an independentcompany to audit and review itsoperations. This is coming on theheels of the directives by NationalPetroleum InvestmentManagement Services(NAPIMS) to Bristow clientsasking them to terminate thecontract between them andBristow as a result of recent aircrashes involving Bristow.

OGUN State Government is set toembark on an electrificationscheme that will providepower supply in ruralcommunities in the state.

Already, Gbamu Gbamu, in theIjebu East Local GovernmentArea, has been chosen as thecommunity where the pilot projectof the scheme, being carried outwith GIZ, a German organisation,will kick off.

Deputy Governor, Mrs.Yetunde Onanuga, whodisclosed this, said it is infulfilment of the stategovernment’s commitment

towards uplifting the standardof living of rural dwellers in thestate.

Onanuga, represented by theSpecial Adviser to the Governoron Rural Development, Mr. WaleOgunyomade, during aninspection tour of Gbamu Gbamu,said the community has theprerequisite needed for the successof such a pilot project.

Permanent Secretary, Ministryof Rural Development, Mr. GbenleOlugbebi, in his remarks said thestate government would ensuredevelopment in all ramifications asmore social amenities will beprovided to enhance the standardof living of the villagers.

By Lawani Mikairu &Daniel Eteghe

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 7

FOUR DAYS TO INSTALLATION: Seriki asks courtto arraign Olubadan-designate for contempt

I have over 50petitions againstShagamu DPO— OGUNLAWMAKER

Ekiti APC, NUREC condemn Fayose’s outburst against Buhari

FIDAU PRAYER: From left; Mrs Abimbola Oyinlola; Mr Dare Babarinsa; Mrs Joke Omotunde,Information Specialist, U S Consulate General, Lagos (behind) and Mr Nosa Igbiebor during the 40thDay Fidau Prayers for Alhaja Limota Aduni Hassan, Nee Babalakin, mother of Mrs Joke Omotundeat St Paul Anglican Church Primary School, Oke Church, Gbogan, Osun State. Photo by Shola Oyelese.

IBADAN—FOUR days to theinstallation of a new

Olubadan of Ibadanland, anotherclaimant to the throne, ChiefAdebayo Oyediji has asked anOyo State High Court to arraignthe Olubadan designate, ChiefSaliu Adetunji for contempt ofcourt.

While speaking with newsmenin his Monatan residence at theweekend, Chief Adetunji accusedOlubadan-in-Council of flagrantdisobedience to the rule of lawwhich, he said, was the bedrockof a sane society.

He alluded to an earlierrestraining injunction granted byHon. Justice M. O. Ishola onNovember 21, 2008.

In a letter addressed to thesenior registrar, High Court ofJustice, Iyaganku, Ibadan,through his counsel, A.GAdeniran, he stated that“however, with absolute disregardfor the said orders of thehonourable court, Chief Saliu,who is the 8th defendant boundby the third and fourth legs of theorders of injunction with absolutedisregard for the said orders of thecourt has presented himself to thepurported kingmakers of theOlubadan of Ibadan chieftaincyand the Governor of Oyo State forappointment as the Olubadan ofIbadan which said appointmenthas been fixed for March 4, 2016.”

He lamented as worrisome asituation where people who aresupposed to be custodians of lawwillingly break the same law withimpunity.

He said even though he hadinitially restrained himself fromfiling this committal proceedingagainst the likely successor to theOlubadan chieftaincy stool, hehad explored all known means tomake the Olubadan-in-Councilsee reason why due processshould be adhered to.

According to him, “I had triedto prevent this crisis fromdegenerating to this level, but,they have proved to be above thelaw. They left me with no optionthan to file this suit.”

Showing the copy of the suitentitled, ‘notice of consequencesof disobedience to order of court’and dated February 23, 2016, hesaid, “Some people think they areabove the law and I have the beliefthat the country is being governedby law. It gives me a lot of concernthat some wealthy and famouspeople have no regard for law.This is very bad. I got a judgmentin 1989 during the reign of ObaAsanike and we both signed thatSeriki should join the royal lineon both sides (Balogun andOlubadan). When they beggedus, Muibi Akanbi,Alimi Alaadorin,Oyeranmi and I were there. 21 ofus were in Seriki line then. In2007, they went to the SupremeCourt three times and they failed.”

Olubadan-designate seekssupport for security agencies

Meantime, the Olubadan-designate, High Chief SaliuAdetunji, has urged members ofthe public to cooperate with securityagencies in the bid to promotepeace and security in the country.

This is contained in a statementissued in Ibadan by Alhaji AdeolaOloko, the media aide toOlubadan-designate, and madeavailable to newsmen on Sunday.

Adetunji gave the advice whilereceiving a delegation led by

Director of the State SecurityService, DSS, in Oyo State, MrLaasan Baba, at his Popoyemoja,Ibadan residence.

Adetunji stated that thecooperation of the public in thearea of intelligence gathering hadbecome necessary to reduce crimerate to the barest minimum.

He spoke in the same veinwhen the Commandant ofNigerian Security and CivilDefence Corps, Mr John

Adewoye, paid him a courtesyvisit at the palace.

The statement added that theOlubadan-Designate has beenadmitted as a full member of theIbadan Progressive Union, theoldest surviving socio-culturalclub in Ibadan that was foundedin 1930.

He was presented a cap, plaqueand constitution of the union bythe President, John Adeniji, andthe secretary, Fatai Falola.

ADO-EKITI—THE AllProgressives Congress,

APC, in Ekiti State has describedGovernor Ayodele Fayose's recentoutburst against PresidentMuhammadu Buhari as adesperate ploy by the governorto escape an impeding justiceover his many crimes against thestate.

The party regretted thatGovernor Fayose had chosen tomake himself “a virus” to thenation’s peace and stability,adding that his utterances aredangerous and a threat to thesecurity and unity of the country.

Also, the Muslim RightsConcern, MURIC, has advisedGovernor Fayose not to playpolitics with religion and bemindful of his utterances.

The caution came after Fayose’sallegation against PresidentBuhari of trying to islamiseNigeria by visiting Saudi Arabia.

The group gave the advice in astatement by its Director, Prof.Ishaq Akintola,in Ibadan,yesterday.

The statement said that Fayosehad failed woefully on his attemptto whip up religious sentiment,saying even a 10-year-oldNigerian child knew the reasonfor Buhari’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

The APC noted that Fayose’srecent unwarranted outburstsagainst President Buhari,including allegation that thePresident wanted to islamiseNigeria, were disgracefulandintended to sway public sympathyin his favour when the law catchesup with him over his many allegedcrimes against the state.

Fayose, had at athanksgiving service for theRivers State governor, Nyesom

Wike in Port Harcourt,accused President Buhari ofmaking subtle moves to makeNigeria an Islamic nation.

Meantime, Governor Fayosehas described as worrisome, thesilence of President Buhari on thealleged killing of harmlessNigerians by Fulani herdsmen,saying; “wanton murder of over300 Agatu people of Benue Stateand the silence of the FederalGovernment on this genocide is

...Gov decries President’s silence on Fulani herdsmen killings

By Rotimi Ojomoyela &Monsuru Olowoopejo

ABEOKUTA—THEmajority leader of

Ogun State House ofAssembly, Yinka Mafe,yesterday, said he has about50 petitions against theDivisional Police Officer incharge of Sagamu, CSP JohnMark.

Mafe, representingSagamu I state constituency,also vowed that the Housewill summon theCommissioner of Police,Abdulmajid Ali, and thecommand’s spokesperson,Muyiwa Adejobi, on thealleged criminal casesagainst him.

The state House had lastTuesday asked the stateCommissioner of Police toprobe the alleged extortion ofthe people of Sagamu by theDPO.

But the Police through itsspokesperson, MuyiwaAdejobi said Mafe has nomoral justification to raisesuch issues as he has about15 criminal cases against him.

OSOGBO—IN hisremarks before officially

declaring Ile-Ife “a TourismZone”, the Ooni of Ife, ObaAdeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi hassaid that the historical assets ofIle-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba, wasenough to empower Nigeria andAfrica at large and urged touristsacross the world to thrillthemselves with artefacts availablein the town.

Oba Ogunwusi who spoke atthe weekend during the officialdeclaration listed some of thealready discovered touristattractions in the town.

Ooni Ogunwusi said: “Ark of

Noah, which the entire world hasbeen searching for is in Ile-Ife.The Ark of Noah has been inexistence and it is in Ife land.

“We want to bring out themysteries for the whole world tosee. God thrives on mystery andevery inch of Ile Ife- the land ofexpansion-is full of mystery.

“God has blessed us with somemysteries and we need to blessthe world with those mysteries.For instance, there was a barrentwin in Ife, who turned herselfinto a river in order to bless thetown. It remains the first wife ofany monarch in this town.

“If you dare the water and enterit deliberately, as small as it is,you will never return. But if you

fall into it by mistake, it willprotect you and drop you at thenearest bank where your relativescan see you.

“This river is Yeyemoolu, thereis nothing you ask from her, thatYeyemoolu will not give you. Thisis another tourist attraction, amystery river that the world canexplore.”

In her speech, the DirectorGeneral, Nigeria TourismDevelopment Corporation,NTDC, Mrs. Sally Nwechue-Mbanefo declared South Westregion a “tourism-friendlyregion.”

Despite having the tendency tochallenge Lagos as the capital oftourism in Nigeria, Mbanefo saidmuch of the tourism potentials ofIfe have remained untapped.

By Daud Olatunji

Ooni extols Ife’s tourism potentialsSays Noah's Ark is in Ile-Ife

By Gbenga Olarinoye

a clear invitation to chaos.”Decrying the activities of the

herdsmen, Fayose said;“Farmlands costing billions ofnaira have been destroyed in theSouth-West, South-East andNorth-Central zones. Onewonders how Nigerians can goback to farming when farmers arelosing billions of naira worth ofcrops to destruction of theirfarmlands by Fulani herdsmenand the Federal Government isdoing nohing about it.”

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Forex scarcity: OPS loses N1.46trnin 6 months —KADCCIMAFG restates commitment to stabilize naira against dollar

As CBN targets N200/$ parallel market rate

By Naomi Uzor

KADUNA — THE KadunaChamber of Commerce,

Industry, Mines and Agriculture,KADCCIMA, yesterday, saidinvestors in various sectors of theeconomy were weighing thenegative impact of the scarcity offoreign exchange on theirbusinesses, noting that within sixmonths, members of theOrganised Private Sector lostabout N1.46 trillion.

This came on a day the FederalGovernment restated itscommitment to stabilize thecountry’s currency against thedollar.

Also, the strident calls by theInternational Monetary Fund,IMF, and some foreign interest forNigeria to devalue its currencyand the artificial spike in forex ratecreated by bureau de changeoperators have been linked to acomplex and integrated currencymanagement approachesdeployed by the Central Bank ofNigeria, CBN, to peg the naira atN200 to the dollar.

Disclosing information on theN1.46 trillion loss at the ongoingKaduna International Trade Fair,the President of KADCCIMA, Dr.Abdul-Alimi Bello, said the losswas occasioned by stalledbusiness activities due toinadequate supply of foreignexchange as a result of FederalGovernment’s policy on foreignexchange restriction.

“We are concerned about theinclusion of essential rawmaterials, which are not availablelocally and do not have localsubstitutes, in the list of items notvalid for forex because of the direconsequences of factory closuresand attendant unemployment thatwould result.

“Our view is that such items canbe included only after allowinginvestors ample time to backwardintegrate and generate these items

locally. To avoid the risk ofindustrial closures, we plead thatpolicy should be revisited,” hesaid.

He appealed that patronageof Nigerian products by publicand private sector operatorsshould be vigorouslyencouraged.

“In order to effectivelyentrench this as a policy, we urgeall tiers of government tostrengthen and fully implementthe procurement Act so as tomake it a reality as well asensure that the various arms andtiers of government, includingMDAs and Nigerian MissionsAbroad actively patronize made-in-Nigeria products in asustainable manner inpreference to importedsubstitutes."

FG restates commitmentto stabilize Naira

Meanwhile, the FederalGovernment has restated its

commitment to stabilize thecountry’s currency against thedollar.

Speaking at the openingceremony of the 37th KadunaInternational Trade Fair, tagged“Promoting Solid MineralsSector for Sustainable EconomicDevelopment in Nigeria,”Minister of State (Industry, Tradeand Investment), Hajiya AishaAbubakar, said government wascommitted to stabilizing thecountry’s currency against thedollar and that short termmeasures had been introducedby the monetary authority toprevent the free fall of the naira.

She noted that governmentremained committed andresolute in ensuring that on-going reform programmes,especially in the areas of trade,industry, power, agriculture andsolid minerals sectors, resultedin a vibrant private sectorparticipation and increaseefficiency in the nationaleconomy.

“As we confront thechallenges ahead, I urge theentire private sector operatorsin Nigeria and their foreigncounterparts to positivelyreciprocate these gestures byinvesting in the identifiedgrowth and employmentgenerating sectors of theeconomy,” she said.

On his part, Governor Nasirel-Rufai of Kaduna State calledon all and sundry to supportand partner with the presentadministration in promotingnon-oil export opportunities foreconomic growth anddevelopment.

“It is when economicdiversification is encouragedand supported that we will beable to provide criticalinfrastructure, employment,wealth creation etc,” he said.

CBN targets N200/$parallel market rate

Meantime, the strident callsby the IMF and some foreigninterest for Nigeria to devalueits currency and the artificialspike in forex rate created bybureau de change operatorsappear to have been linked toa complex and integratedcurrency managementapproaches deployed by theCentral Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

A top source in the apex banksaid: “The aim of CBN is toensure that the divergencebetween the official andparallel rate does not exceedN3, so we are looking at aparallel market rate of N200/$because the downward trendin the pressure on the naira willbe sustained.

“The CBN has the capacityto sustain the downwardpressure and will deployfurther currency managementinitiatives, while capitalisingon fiscal policies of the federalgovernment to remain insupport of non-devaluation ofthe naira.

"The current stand of theFederal Government onNigeria’s legal tender is non-devaluation. It will be unwisefor anybody to be hoardingdollars because we can assureyou that naira appreciation isgoing to trend upwards goingforward.”

Budget 2016: 8 Reps c’ttees sanctioned for failing to meet deadline

To forfeit right to supervise MDAs’ budget proposals

By EmmanOvuakporie &

Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—EIGHT standingcommittees of the House

of Representatives that failedto submit budget reports ofMinistries, Departments andAgencies of government theyare supervising have lost theright to conclude the exercise.

The eight committees areexpected to hand over theirbudget proposals to the HouseCommittee on Appropriationwith immediate effect.

The committees that failed tosubmit their reports as

mandated by the Houseleadership include PublicAccounts Committee, PAC;Loans, Aids and Debts; GasResources; Public ServiceMatters; Maritime; SafetyEducation Admin; Housing;Interior and NationalSecurity.

After 12 hours of grillingsome of the committees, Fridaynight, the House Committeeon Appropriation formallyclosed the collation of reportson the 2016 budget fromstanding committees of theHouse (sub-committees to theCommittee on Appropriation) Friday, February 26.

This was contained in a

statement issued and signedby the committee’s chairman,Abdulmunin Jibrin, APC,Kano, who said in all, 60substantive -committeespresented their reports andrecommendations, coveringimprovements, shortcomingsand actions to be taken intheir respective MDAs.

Jibrin praised thecommittees for theircooperation and the that they“heeded our call to submittheir reports within thedeadline.

‘’This is for the overallinterest of the nation and thecommitment of the National

Assembly to pass the 2016budget at the latest by the secondweek of March”.

“However, it is regrettable thatsome committees still did notmeet the deadline and have notsubmitted any reports. Due topressure of time, because wehave to tidy up the final reportwith the Senate, the Committeeon Appropriation will have totake over the work of suchcommittees by appropriatingfunds for the MDAs that theysupervise.”

The committee will alsointerface with officials of theMinistry of Finance, BudgetOffice on March 3.

Badeh’slawyers, familyworried overcontinueddetention

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—LAWYERS toformer Chief of

Defence Staff, Air ChiefMarshal Alex Badeh, haveexpressed concern over hishealth following hiscontinued detention by theEconomic and FinancialCrimes Commission,EFCC.

In a letter to the Ministerof Justice and AttorneyGeneral of the Federation,Abubakar Malami, thelawyers faulted what theydescribed as the toostringent bail conditionsbeing sought to ensure hisfreedom.

Members of his family arealso said to beapprehensive, as theirbread winner may not havebeen getting the deservedmedical attention, while indetention, calling on theEFCC to consider theman’s contributions to thecountry and allow him toreturn home and facecharges against him, if any.

Badeh’s lawyers, whoalso alleged that the EFCCmight be acting out a scriptby placing obstacles in theformer Chief of Defencepath to freedom, evenwhen he has cooperatedwith the commission sincethe commencement of hisinteraction with them overalleged corrupt practicesunder his watch.

According to the lawyers,the EFCC is aware of thehealth challenges faced byBadeh, and managing suchailments while in detentionmay tend to further worsenhis situation.

VISIT: From left, Director, Enterprise Segments, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Eric Chijioke; ChiefMarketing Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Francesco Angelone; Ooni of Ife, Oba EnitanOgunwusi Ojaja II; Director, Market Strategy, Pricing/Insight, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. AdebisiIdowu, and Head, Enterprise Marketing, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Bidemi Ladipo during acourtesy call by Etisalat Nigeria Group to the Ooni of Ife in his palace at Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016—9

Price slump: Oil firms, banks risk bankruptcyover IOCs' assets acquisition

By Michael Eboh

ABUJA — INDIGENOUS oilcompanies that acquired the

divested interests of Shell, Totaland Chevron in Nigeria, between2013 and 2015 are at r isk of goingbankrupt and may find it difficultto repay the loans they borrowedfrom financial institutions toacquire these assets, therebyputting the banks in dire straitsalso.

According to a report in Forbes,most of these deals wereconsummated during the periodwhen crude oil was selling forabout $100 per barrel, meaningthat these firms would be facedwith serious challenges inmeeting their financial obligationsto their lenders now that crude oilis selling around $30 per barrel.

The companies, mostly affectedare Newcross Exploration andProduction Limited, FirstExploration and PetroleumDevelopment Company, Seplatand Aiteo Group.

The report stated that oilcompanies that are particularly atrisk of default are those that raiseddebt financing in 2014 to buyshares in Shell’s Oil MiningLeases (OMLs) 18, 24, 25 and 29.

According to the report, at thetime the acquisition deals wereconcluded for these assets, oilprices soared above $110 a barreland local banks— less risk-adverse than their internationalcounterparts – readily lent on aprice basis of about $80-$90 perbarrel.

It further stated that Nigerianbanks’ ability to maintain the linesof credit in place is now underquestion, given their exposure tothe sector and also considering therising cost of US dollar-denominated funding, addingthat write-offs seem unlikely rightnow.

The report said: “The nation’sindigenous firms that rose toprominence to purchase oil fieldsfrom supermajors, such asChevron, Shell and Total, are nowin deep distress. The billions ofdebt they raised for theseacquisitions risk going unpaidwith oil revenues a fraction of 2013levels.

The scramble to prevent firmssuch as Aiteo and Newcross fromdefaulting has begun. And withsome banks looking to leave loansyndicates, the market iswelcoming the arrival of newentrants – commodity traders.

“But with oil now hoveringaround $30 a barrel, and showinglittle signs of recovering, howeffective can restructuringmeasures be?“

Commenting on thedevelopment, Amaechi Nsofor, adirector at Grant Thornton, saidclose to 100 per cent of theindigenous oil and gas companiesneeded funding of some sort,either to meet debt repayments orfund significant fielddevelopment capital expenditure.

A banker, who does not wanthis name in print said: “Althoughwhen the drop in prices is thisdramatic, new loan agreementsare almost impossible. There isonly so much oil a company canpledge with current prices."

Another banker, however,stated that “the last thing youwant to do as a lender is toenforce. If there is still some cashflow, then you would ratherrestructure.”

The report explained thatrestructurings will take the formof amend-and-extend exercisesthrough covenant readjustmentsand extension of debt maturities,adding that pushing thingsdown the road in order to tradeout of the situation until the oilprice returns seemed to be themost viable option for both oilproducers and banks.

The Forbes report furtherstated that over recent months,

commodities traders such asGlencore, Mercuria and ShellTrading have been looking toparticipate in refinancing andrestructuring deals, providinga new life-line to the market.

The report said traders havemuch-needed US dollarliquidity, and were, therefore,welcomed by distressedborrowers and over-exposedlenders.

Buhari to OPEC: Oil price crashunacceptable

By LevinusNwabughiogu

ABUJA — PRESIDENTMuhammadu Buhari,

yesterday, in Doha, Qatar, toldmember states of Organisationof Petroleum ExportingCountries, OPEC, and non-OPEC members that thecontinued crashing of oil priceswas no longer acceptable.

He, as a matter of urgency,called on all other stakeholdersin the sector, especially the oilproducing nations to articulateways of rising up to thechallenges as the developmenthad seriously affected theeconomy of many nations.

Nigeria is a member of OPECand currently running a mono-economy based on oil exports.But its economy is at its ebb dueto the oil price.

President Buhari’s charge wasmade during a bilateral meetingwith the Sheikh Tamim BinHammad Al-Thani, the Emir ofthe State of Qatar.

He said: “As members ofOPEC and Gas ExportingCountries Forum (GECF), ourrelations in the areas of oil andgas, which our two nationsheavily rely on, need to be

enhanced and coordinated forthe benefit of our people.

“The current market situationin the oil industry isunsustainable and totallyunacceptable. We mustcooperate both within andoutside our respectiveorganisations to find a commonground to stabilize the market,which will be beneficial to ournations.”

The President, who extolledthe existing cordial bilateralrelations between bothcountries, also extended aninvitation to prospective Qatariinvestors, urging them to takeadvantage of the abundantopportunities in Nigeria andinvest in the key areas of energy,agriculture, real estatedevelopment, banking andfinance.

He assured prospectiveinvestors of governmentprotection of their persons andinvestments.

This was as he noted that bothcountries hoped to formalize atleast two bilateral agreements toboost economic cooperationbetween them.

Also speaking on the crisis inthe Middle East, the Presidentcommended Qatar for her role

in resolving the present Syriancrisis, the Palestinian cause andefforts in reconstructing Gaza.

He said: “The conflicts inYemen and Syria with theirattendant humanitarian crisisneed genuine internationaleffort to solve. Nigeria, as apeace-loving country,identifies with the State ofQatar in all her peace effortsin the world to end terroristactivities.

“Nigeria is a victim ofterrorism. It is with heavy heartthat I stand before you and saythat the activities of BokoHaram have led to loss ofmany lives and displacementof innocent people in our dearnation.

“We, however, take pride toinform you that since ourcoming to power, Boko Haramhas been systematicallydecimated and are in noposition to cause serious threatto our developmentprogrammes.

“I wish to reiterate thatNigeria rejects violence andextremism in all ramifications,and assure your Highness thatwe are with the State of Qatarin your efforts to fight terrorismand injustice in your region andin the world at large.”

SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK: From left, Chairman, Social Media Week, Lagos, Mr.Obi Asika; Senator Foster Ogola; Chiarman, Senate Committee on FCT, Sen. Dino Melaye;Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki; Co-founder of Red Media/State Craft Inc., Mr. DebolaWilliams and Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator AliyuAbudullahi, during the Social Media Week, in Lagos.

BVN: FGeliminates23,846 ghostworkers,savesN2.3bnmonthly

By Emma Ujah, AbujaBureau Chief

ABUJA — THE FederalGovernment has

eliminated 23, 846 ghostworkers from its pay roll, thussaving about N2.293 billionmonthly in what should havebeen paid out to non-existentworkers or those who drawmultiple salaries fromgovernment coffers.

The feat, according to theSpecial Adviser to the Ministerof Finance, Mr. Festus Akanbi,was achieved through the BankVerification Numbers, BVN-based staff audit and enrolmentto the Integrated Payroll andPersonnel Information System,IPPIS.

He said in a statement thatmore investigations were on-going in collaboration with theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission, EFCC.

He said.“The FederalGovernment is also takingactions to pursue recovery ofsalary balances in bank accountsas well as any pensioncontributions in respect of thedeleted workers. This involvesactive collaboration with theconcerned banks and theNational Pension Commission,PenCom.

“Due to the fact that personnelcosts represent over 40 per centof total governmentexpenditure, the FederalGovernment will continue tostrengthen its payroll controls.It plans to undertake periodicchecks and to utilise computerAssisted audit techniques underits new continuous auditprogramme.

"This will ensure that allpayments are accurate andvalid. Requirements for newentrants joining the FederalCivil Service have also beenenhanced to prevent theintroduction of fictitiousemployees in future.

“The ongoing exercise, whichis part of the cost-saving andanti-corruption agenda ofPresident MuhammaduBuhari’s administration, is keyto funding the deficit in the 2016budget, as savings made willultimately reduce the amount tobe borrowed.”

He explained that the FederalGovernment would not accedeto the request of the Associationof Senior Civil Servants ofNigeria, ASCSN, that itsmembers be co-opted into thepanel investigating the cases ofindicted civil servants becausethe investigations were of acriminal nature and would,therefore, be handled by the appropriate investigativeagencies.

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

90-yr-oldBayelsamonarchrelives kidnapexperience OWERRI—ABOUT 30

children have reportedlydied, following what Imo StateGovernment called “freshoutbreak of diarrhoea” in thestate.

According to a post in ImoState Government Blog, pickedup by Vanguard weekend, the

administration disclosed thatdiarrhoea is relatively commonin remote areas of the state.

“Diarrhoea is relativelycommon in remote areas of thestate, where potable water isoften scarce and residentsfrequently rely on water fromunwholesome sources,”government explained.

Speaking when she played

host to a delegation fromNigerian Agip Oil CompanyLimited, the state Commissionerfor Health, Mrs. Ngozi Njoku,said: “The death toll from thelatest outbreak had risen to 30in the last few weeks.”

According to theCommissioner, several otherchildren, also suspected to havebeen affected, are receivingtreatment in various hospitals inthe state.

She said: “Four children died

last month at Nekede, OwerriWest Local Government Area.65 suspected cases had beenreported at Ikeduru LocalGovernment Area, while areaslike Orlu, Owerri West, Ohaji/Egbema, Owerri North andNgor Okpala have alsorecorded cases of the diarrhoeaoutbreak.

“This outbreak startedsometime in January, but wewere preoccupied with theLassa Fever challenge.”

Diarrhoea kills 30 in ImoBy Chidi Nkwopara

UGHELLI—EXACTLY aweek after a female

passenger lost her life at theUghelli axis of the East-WestRoad, a mother has lost two ofher teenage children in anothermotor accident.

The incident, it wasgathered, occurred a fewkilometres from Ekuigbo

Junction at about 11a.m.,Saturday.

Confirming the incident, thePublic Relations Officer of theFederal Road Safety Corps,FRSC, Ughelli UnitCommand, Chinyere Ngwu,disclosed that the accident wasas a result of a burst tyre of aVolkswagen car with numberplates UGH 739 MZ.

According to her, there were

eight occupants in the car. Thetwo siblings, a male andfemale, whose mother was alsoa passenger in the vehicle,died in the accident.

Ngwu hinted further that theremains of the victims hadbeen deposited at the morgueof Ughelli Central Hospital,while the wounded were alsorushed by men of FRSC to thesame hospital.

Mother loses 2 children inEast-West Road accident

By Perez Brisibe

OWERRI—UNEASY calmnow reigns in Umulolo,

Ihitte Ubi, Isiala Oparanadimcommunity in Ahiazu MbaiseLocal Government Area of ImoState, following the murder ofEzinne Ann Nwachukwu, fivedays after her abduction byunknown persons.

Vanguard gathered that the67-year-old slain woman wasthe Secretary of Catholic WomenOrganisation, CWO, of St.Anthony’s Catholic Church,Ihitte Ubi.

Giving account of whathappened, her second son,Pastor Anslem Nwachukwu,said that his mother waskidnapped at about 4a.m. onFriday, February 5, by about

seven armed men that stormedher house in a Toyota car.

It was also gathered that thehoodlums contacted the familywith her mobile phone andmade an initial demand of N10million ransom, which was laterreduced to N3 million.

Vanguard was told that beforethe family could gather therequested fund, one of thekidnappers called a member ofthe family making incoherentremarks.

The call was repeated the nextday with the hoodlums directingmembers of the family to wherethe woman’s lifeless body wasdumped, as the caller said theyno longer have any need for thefamily’s money.

The traditional ruler of IsialaOparanadim, Eze Isidore

Atughara, expressed regret,saying it was not the first time

such incident was happening inthe area.

CWO's scribe kidnapped, murdered in Imo

By Chidi Nkwopara

U G H E L L I —U N I D E N T I F I E D

gunmen, weekend, abductedthe Leader of Ughelli Northlegislative arm, Mr. SundayEguke, along the East-WestRoad on his way to PortHarcourt, Rivers State,demanding for N10 millionransom.

The abduction of the Houseleader occurred 18 days afterhe emerged as leader of the

House following the oustingand subsequent suspension ofthe former leader, Chief TeddyOkperin.

Though details of theincident were still sketchy atpress time, a principal memberof the House confirmed theincident yesterday.

The councillor, who spoke oncondition of anonymity, saidthe gunmen struck alongUwheru axis of the East-WestRoad in Ughelli North LocalGovernment Area.

Delta council MajorityLeader kidnapped

By Perez Brisibe

By Francis Igattah

SOME stolen vehicleswere recovered by

policemen attached to OguiDivision in Enugu State,when the leader of a gangof car snatchers thatspecialises in reshapingstolen vehicles, wasarrested.

The suspect, who gave hisname as Chijioke John, anauto-electrician from Ikwoin Ebonyi State but residentat Mgbemena Street,Awada Layout, Onitsha, inAnambra State, wasarrested by detectives as hewas working on a stolenvehicle in a shop atOnitsha.

The arrest of the gangleader took place few daysafter a Toyota Highlanderwith number plates ENU358 NK, was allegedlysnatched at Onuike TopL a n d , Aw k u n a n a w,Enugu, by somehoodlums.

However, following a tip-off, detectives swung intoaction and arrested anothermember of the gang afterrecovering the vehicle.

He is now helping theoperatives in theirinvestigations.

Police bustcar-snatchingsyndicate inEnugu

Y E N A G O A — T H Eparamount ruler of

Tombia town in YenagoaLocal Government Area,Bayelsa State, ChiefChristian Otobotekere, saidthe 17 days he spent lastyear in the kidnappers' denwere his “darkest days.”

Chief Otobotekere wasabducted from his palace atTombia on July 23 by armedmen and released 17 dayslater.

Relieving his experiencein Yenagoa, weekend, atthe unveiling of TheMariner, a journalpublished by the statechapter of the Associationof Nigerian Authors, ANA,the royal father said thoughthe 17 days opened hiseyes to the involvement ofunemployed graduates toviolent crimes, the timespent with his abductorswas unpalatable.

He said though he wasnot maltreated, “the 17days spent with thekidnappers was enoughmaltreatment.

“I was thinking of mystudents, the communityand the nation in general.That is why the experiencewill be titled days ofaberration in my nextwork.”

Chief Otobotekere, whois a literary icon and patronof the ANA, said heengaged his abductors indiscussion and discoveredthat some of them weregraduates and students ofthe arts and literary world.

By SamuelOyadongha

DOGGED HUNTERS: Hunters resting with their dogs on Maiduguri By-Pass in Bauchi, yesterday. NAN PHOTO.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016—11

91-yr-oldex-CBNDirectorkidnapped inchurch

By OchukoAkuopha

O L E H — UNIDENTIFIED

gunmen, yesterday,kidnapped 91-year-oldretired Director, ForeignOperations, Central Bankof Nigeria, CBN, ChiefJoseph Ogedegbe at St.Michael’s AnglicanChurch, Emevor, IsokoNorth Local GovernmentArea, Delta State.

It was gathered that thenonagenarian, who retiredfrom the apex bank in 1978,was abducted at about9a.m. in the churchpremises as he wasalighting from his vehicle.

Sources said thekidnappers, who drove inan ash-coloured Passat car,followed Ogedegbe intothe church's premises,forced him into theirvehicle and zoomed offtowards Otibio-Orogun.

LAGOS—NO fewer than 46members of Awawa

confraternity, in Agege andenvirons, were arrested byoperatives of Rapid ResponseSquad, RRS, of Lagos StatePolice Command, weekend.

The suspects were arrestedin the early hours of Saturdayalong Agindigbi Road, Ikejaand Agege, in an operationthat lasted about three hours.

The operation was led by theAssistant Superintendent ofPolice Timothy Ojetunde,acting on tip-off from victimsof the group along Agidingbi,Agege and Ogba areas.

Commander, RRS, AssistantCommissioner of PoliceOlatunji Disu, who confirmedthe arrest, said: “Apart fromincessant complaints from theresidents alleging that somegroup of young boys and girlsaged between 15 and 22, weremaking lives difficult forresidents, they equally rape,loot, snatch and dispossesslaw-abiding citizens of theirbelongings.

“During their recent attackalong Agidingbi Road, wewere able to arrest 46 of them,

Police arrest 46 Awawa cult members in LagosI was promised free access to girls—SUSPECTWe’re after their financiers—POLICE

By Olasunkanmi Akoni& Esther Onyegbula

CUB TERRORS: The Awawa cultists paraded by police.

including six female, whileothers manage to escape.Before we made the arrests,they engaged us in a fight,throwing stones and brokenbottles at us.

“On arrival at the RRSHeadquarters, the suspectswere still raging, saying noone can arrest them and goscot free. They threatened thatif we do not let them go, theircolleagues who are yet to bearrested, would besiege ourbase the following day and setthem free.”

Meanwhile, some of them

said they were lured into thedreaded cult group throughpeer group influence, with oneof them saying “I was forcedto join them with a promisethat I would be very powerfulamong my peers. Theypromised me that I would havefree access to girls, who aremembers of the group.”

Lukmon Arowoseni, one ofthe arrested suspects said:“One thing is certain, onceyou join the group, it wouldbe very difficult to dissociateyourself again. And you mustalso be part of their

proceedings and operationsany time they are set to go out.

“We loot, rape and robinnocent members of publiceach and every time we areoperating. We do not fearanybody, even police, becausewe are always in hundreds.”

Lagos State Police PublicRelations Officer, DolapoBadmus, said that Awawa cultgroup is a violent group,adding “we are after them.Their financiers and leadersare our targets; with those inour dragnet, the tide is againstthem.”

Squatter kidnaps onemonth old baby in Lagos

A Togolese living at 14,Ago Street,

Okokomaiko, a Lagossuburb, is alleged to haveconspired with anotherforeigner to kidnap a 34-day-old baby, MustaphaIbrahim.

Vanguard gathered thatthe other foreigner,identified as Sekinat, liveswith the parents of thebaby, Ganiyu and SaidatIbrahim at the saidaddress. It was learnedthat Sekinat and thetoddler ’s parents hadbeen neighbours for aboutfive years.

Vanguard gathered thatSekinat had introducedthe foreigner to theIbrahims as her eldersister, a day earlier. Theforeigner kidnapped thebaby on Saturday,February 20, at about3p.m., when the motherwas having her bath.

When Vanguard visitedthe home of the Ibrahimsweekend, residents saidthat Sekinat was not athome when the childdisappeared, but arguedthat she must have actedin such manner to createan alibi.

A mother’sstory

In an interview withVanguard, Saidat, motherof the baby, said: “OnFriday before the kidnap,Sekinat, whom we oftencall Aunty, brought thelady (foreigner) andintroduced her to us asher elder sister. Andbecause of therelationship between ourfamily and her, I allowedthe lady rock my baby.Few minutes after, shehanded over the baby andleft.

“Next morning, Sekinatleft at about 7a.m. forAlaba InternationalMarket, where she sellsfood. But she left the saidelder sister at home.

“At about 3p.m., my baby(Mustapha) was asleep. I

decided to use the time tohave my bath. Onreturning to my room, Idiscovered that my babyhad disappeared. I raisedalarm and my neighboursinformed me that they sawa lady with a baby, but thatthey thought it was hers.Effort to track her provedabortive.”

I don’t knowher—SEKINAT

Meanwhile, speaking atOkokomaiko PoliceStation, Sekinat deniedknowing the allegedkidnapper, saying “I sawher at the marketwandering around,looking for where tosleep. So I decided tohelp her. That was why Ibrought her home. Inever knew she had suchsinister motive.”

Confirming the kidnap,Police Public RelationOfficer, Dolapo Badmus,said: “The case is nowbeing handled by thecommand gender deskunit. Efforts are on to trackdown the suspect withpossible recovery of thestolen baby.

“We are already gettingInterpol involved; verysoon, and hopefully, wewill find the child.”

By MonsuruOlowoopejo

Saidat, baby's mother.

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Okowa tasks CBN on entrepreneurial devtBy Festus Ahon

Wike owesRivers peopleexplanation—APC

CMYK

ASABA—GOVERNORIfeanyi Okowa of Delta

State has said that with theeffect of the fall in oil priceson the nation, it wasimperative for the country todiversify its sources ofrevenue, just as he urged theCentral Bank of Nigeria,CBN, to be involved inentrepreneurial development.

Okowa spoke at the CBN2015 Best Managed BranchDinner Award in Asaba.

Asaba branch came first, Josbranch second and Kanobranch third in the award.

Okowa stressed the need forCBN to establish anEntrepreneurial DevelopmentCentre in the state, addingthat the state government haspartnered the apex bank in itsdifferent empowermentprogrammes.

He said: “We are happy thatthe CBN is encouraging itsbranches. I congratulate the

recipients of the awards,especially, Asaba branch thathas done so well within itsshort time of establishment.We are particularly partneringthe CBN on the single digitinterests rate on Micro, Smalland Medium Enterprises,MSME and we will continueto stay in that partnership.

“Delta State is interested inequipping our youths withdifferent skills. We know thatyou (CBN) can be ofassistance to us inestablishing anEntrepreneurial DevelopmentCentre. We request that thecentre be established in DeltaState.”

Insisting that his SMARTagenda was predicated onempowering Deltans to bewealth creators, Okowa heldthat his administration hasreawakened the interests ofyouths in agriculture and skillacquisition with a bid tocreating alternative means ofgenerating revenue.

Governor of CBN, Mr GodwinEmefiele, in his remarks saidthat the annual award ceremonywas to boost healthy competitionamong the branches of the bankto encourage healthy services tocustomers.

The Asaba branch Comptroller,Dame Elizabeth Agu, thankedGod for making it possible forthem to come first andcommended her staff for theirdedication to duty.

Community leader urges Gbaramatuindigenes to be united

CHAIRMAN of RiversState Chapter of All

Progressives Congress, APC,Chief Davies Ikanya, hasurged Rivers people, andNigerians to ignore thenumerous campaigns byGovernor Nyesom Wike underthe guise of thanksgivingservice to mark his victory atthe Supreme Court. He saidthey should ask the governorto provide explanations to hisconfessions of how he got hisvictory at the Supreme Court.

Ikanya, in a statement byChris Finebone, State PublicitySecretary of APC, whilereacting to Saturday’s PDPthanksgiving service at theLiberation Stadium, wonderedwhy Wike had refused toaddress key issues he raisedin his confession concerninghow he got victory at theSupreme Court.

“For example, Wike told theworld while speaking on livetelevision that he got hisvictory at the Supreme Courtbecause Dr. Peter Odilidirected him on who to meetand what to do. Let Wike alsoexplain to the world who andwho Dr. Peter Odili directedhim to meet and where theformer governor directed himto go that brought about victoryfor him (Wike) at the SupremeCourt.”

He further wondered thekind of advice that Wike wouldhave received from formerGovernor Odili, a medicaldoctor, which resulted invictory for him at the SupremeCourt.

“We know that the matterbefore the Supreme Court waslegal and not medical. Surely,Wike has not disclosed all thathappened.

“It has become more curiousto most people that Wikeopenly acknowledged that hisSupreme Court victory was aresult of the advice he gothence the need for thegovernor to tell Rivers peopleand Nigerians the nature ofthe advice, especially those hewas directed to meet which gothim victory at the SupremeCourt.”

By Akpokona Omafuaire

A community leader, ChiefBeck Hitler, has

commended the people ofGbaramatu Kingdom, in WarriSouth West Local GovernmentArea, Delta State, for the peacefulselection and subsequentinstallation of Prince Naira Ogobaby the kingmakers.

Hitler, who urged the peopleof the kingdom to remainunited and continue to live inpeace, appealed to them toalways give the new monarch,the needed cooperation toenable him rule over a peacefuland a united kingdom whichwill bring development to thearea.

More bloodletting in Rivers as gunmen kill 5By Jimitota Onoyume &Davies Iheamnachor

PORT HARCOURT—FIVEpersons were allegedly

shot dead in Ogbelecommunity, Ahoada East LocalGovernment Area, Rivers State,by gunmen, Saturday night.

Meanwhile, residents ofYeghe community in GhokanaLocal Government Area of thestate have fled their homes forsafety, following rumours thatthe military would storm thearea to make mass arreststoday.

Following the rumours,yesterday, the community wasalmost deserted as a fewresidents were seen movingout of the community. Someothers, who do not haveanywhere to go, said theywould hang around to see theaction of the military.

On the killings in Ogbelecommunity, the state PolicePublic Relations Officer, MrAhmad Muhammad, had notresponded to a text messagefor comment on thedevelopment by ourcorrespondent at press time.

Community sources said theassailants came through thewaterways at night, left fivecorpses in their trail.

They also kidnapped theCommunity DevelopmentCommittee, CDC, Chairman,Mr Nehemiah Jerry.

It is not clear what could have

triggered the fresh killings inthe community as sourceswho did not want their namesin print said the area hadbeen peaceful. They saidthey could not understandwhat informed the freshkillings.

“We don’t knowNehemiah's whereabouts. We

have not heard anythingabout him since the killerswent with him. We arepraying he comes backalive,” a source said.

The source said that thecommunity was desertedafter the sad incident.

Vanguard gathered thatthe remains of the five

persons murdered had beenburied.

The Police and the Army werereportedly in the communityyesterday on fact findingmission.

It will be recalled that abouteight persons were killed undera similar circumstance in UlaUpata community in thecouncil last month.

By Emma Amaize &Samuel Oyadongha

....As sea bandits lay siege to Delta, Bayelsa

FUNERAL: From left: Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel (right) presentinga letter of condolence to the wife of the pioneer Field Superintendent of The ApostolicChurch Nigeria, Deaconess Eno Ikpe, during the funeral service of the late clergyman,Apostle Amos Ikpe, at Uyo Township Stadium.

B U R U T U — A R M E Dpirates have invaded the

Burutu-Warri waterways andriverine communities in BurutuLocal Government Area, DeltaState, where they robbedpassengers of valuables and cartedaway speedboats and engines.

A source told Vanguard thatpanic has gripped riverinecommunities in the localgovernment area and environsfollowing the audacious activitiesof the criminals.

Meanwhile, armed mensuspected to be sea robbers,weekend, invaded Okoroba,home town of late OrontoDouglas, in Nembe LocalGovernment Area, Bayelsa State,forcing the natives to flee theirhomes before carting awayvaluables.

The invaders, about 10 innumber, armed with sophisticatedweapons, reportedly raided homesand retail outlets in the coastalcommunity.

Regent of the community, ChiefRomani Ide, who confirmed theinvasion, said that the gunmenspent some time in the communityterrorizing the natives.

He said: “The armed men

arrived at 10.30p.m., Saturdayand left at 1a.m., on Sunday.Most of the youths, whoattempted to resist the raid wereinjured, while others took refuge

in the bush.”A prominent trader in the

community, Obababe Topman,whose shop is located close tothe waterfront, was reportedly

disposed of huge cash.The hoodlums also carted away

generators, refrigerators and foodstuffs.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016—13

REC warns against violence in C-River polls

By Emma Una

Wike assures on free, fair re-run election

By Emma Amaize

RIVERS State governor,Mr Nyesom Wike, has said

that only those in support ofpolitical armed robbery will kickagainst his declaration that anyplan to rig election in the statewill be resisted.

This came as Senator MagnusAbe, the All ProgressivesCongress, APC, candidate forRivers South-East senatorialdistrict re-run election, alleged ofa plot to use the recent militaryinvasion of some communities inthe state to malign his person.

Meanwhile, Centre for theVulnerable and Underprivileged,CENTREP, a rights group in DeltaState, has called on the FederalGovernment to institute an inquestinto the recent military invasion ofYeghe and Bori communities inKhan and Gokhana LocalGovernment Areas of Rivers State,which led to the loss of severallives and wanton destruction ofmulti-billion naira property.

Governor Wike, who spokeweekend, during aninterdenominational thanksgivingand victory celebration of thehistoric Supreme Court verdict thatvalidated his election, stated thatdesperation for power was behindthe killing of Ogoni people duringan ill-fated military operation inthe area last week.

He said that his administrationwill stand firm to protect theOgoni people, insisting that hestands for free and fair rerunelection in Rivers State. He assuredthat nobody will be allowed to

subvert the mandate of thepeople through the use of themilitary.

The governor noted that it wasthe responsibility of theIndependent National ElectoralCommission, INEC, to conductcredible rerun election.

He said: “Let me reiterate, thatany INEC officer bent on riggingthe rerun election should firsttell his wife and children wherehis will is kept because he willbe treated as a political armedrobber. Popularity is tested onthe ground. It is not by carryingsoldiers around to intimidate

voters."He urged the people to vote

for the PDP in all theforthcoming re-run election inthe state.

“When I went to Luuwa forthe 50th birthday celebration ofSenator Lee Maeba, I told ourpeople not to vote Senator Abeand the APC. There is no way Iwill play anti-party. MagnusAbe is my friend, but the peopleof Rivers South-East senatorialdistrict should vote SenatorOlaka Nwogu. We have a dutyto make sure that the APC doesnot win a single seat during the

March 19 rerun election.”

Abe alleges plotMeanwhile, Senator Abe, on

a radio current affairsprogramme monitored in PortHarcourt, alleged that aconspiracy had been hatched byGovernor Wike and the PDP tomalign his character and incitethe Ogoni people against himbefore the March 19, state andNational Assembly re-runelection.

He said that the case of themilitary approved by GovernorWike to raid the home of ex-

militant leader Solomon Ndigbarawas the script the governor andthe party were using to malignhis character and incite his peopleagainst him.

He said that he knew nothingabout the operation and had nohand in it.

He said those who knew himwould testify that he had neverbeen a desperate politician.

Senator Abe recalled that whenthe caucuses in the Senatorialdistrict endorsed him in 2003, andthe leadership of the party saidotherwise and chose Senator LeeMaeba, he quickly supportedMaeba without fighting him.

He recalled that when his partydid not approve of his ambitionto be the governor of Rivers State,he did not fight the party neitherdid he give them personalconditions but rather presentedonly the interest of the Ogoni.

CENTREPOn its part, CENTREP, which

is also planning to carry out anindependent inquest, in astatement by its ExecutiveDirector, Mr. Oghenjabor Ikimi,condemned the invasion of somecommunities in Rivers State asbarbaric and evil.

He said: “We, therefore, callon the Federal Government toimmediately institute an inquestinto the incident with a view todetermining its immediate andremote causes and the extent ofthe culpability of the military inthe entire operation which lastedfor two days with a view topreventing a re-occurrence infuture.

“However, as a responsible andresponsive human rights group,we are not oblivious of the factthat collective punishment inwhatever guise has since beendeclared a war crime by theUnited Nations GenevaConvention of 1949.

“To this end, CENTREP hasconcluded arrangements to carryout its own inquest into theinvasion with a view todetermining the extent of theculpability of the military in thesaid operation."

As Abe alleges smear campaign plot Probe Rivers military invasion—CENTREP

CALABAR—NO acts ofviolence, intimidation of

voters, cheating or rigging ofresults would be tolerated inthe re-run for the Yakurr II,state House of Assembly seatwhich became vacant followingthe sack of Mr Eteng Williamof the Peoples DemocraticParty, PDP, the occupant of theseat by the Appeal Court.

Mrs Gesila Khan, theResident ElectoralCommissioner, newly posted toCross River from Rivers State,gave the warning at a meetingwith political parties,candidates for the election andstakeholders, weekend, in heroffice.

She assured that there will beadequate security and effectivemonitoring of the election toensure a free and smoothexercise that will meet theexpectation of the contestantsand their supporters.

“Everyone participating inthe re-run should stick to therelectoral guidelines whichspell out that there should beno violence during elections,no cheating, no intimidation of

voters,” she said.She said that the election

which is scheduled for next

week was crucial, as thewhole state will be watching,adding that the Independent

National ElectoralCommission, INEC, will notmake “any mistake eitherknowingly or unknowingly.”

Ayomike advocates reintroduction ofHistory in schools’ curricula

AWARD: From left: Pa J.O.S Ayomike receiving the Exceptional Lifetime AchievementAward from Dr Bribina Samayin, the Class Captain of the 72/74 set of Federal GovernmentCollege, Warri, during the school's Golden Jubilee Celebration, weekend.

By Egufe Yafugborhi

W A R R I — F O R E M O S Thistorian and Chairman,

Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, Pa J.O.SAyomike, has called for thereintroduction of History intoNigeria’s education curricula acrossall strata of learning.

Ayomike, weekend, at the annualreunion of Class of 72/74 of theFederal Government College, FGC,Warri, Delta State, where he washonoured with an Exceptional LifetimeAchievement award as part thecelebration of FGC’s Golden Jubileein Warri, said: “I use this occasion tomake a call close to my heart. It hasbothered many Nigerians that History,as a formal discipline, is no longertaught in our schools up to tertiarylevel. I call on education planners inthe country to have a rethink and goback to teaching History.

“On my part, as a first step, I makea donation to your (FGC) library of

historical tools (obtained from theUK museums) that are significantto our development,” the authorof several historical works, now 89announced to the gathering.

FGC Class of 72/74 Captain, DrBribina Samayin, said, that theaward, the first of its kind, was inrecognition of the recipient’simmense contributions to thedevelopment of Nigeria and theNiger Delta region in particular.

The 72/74 Class, he noted, wasunique in the annals of FGCWarri, symbolising unity andeverything Nigeria stands for,adding that they, over time, havebeen giving back to the institutionthat moulded them.

Other recipients at the awardnite include Chairman of DeltaBroadcasting Service, DBS, DameFelicia Adjago, the ClassSecretary, Mr Henry-OtisAmurun, Engr Goodluck Efemayiand Mr Jerry Osemekhian.

14—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29 , 2016

SENATOR BOLA TINUBU, JUSTICES ALOMA MUKTAR AND IDRIS KUTIGI BAGHONORARY UNIABUJA DOCTORATE DEGREES PHOTOS: ABAYOMI ADESHIDA

CONVOCATION: From left: Justice Aloma Muktar, former Chief Justice ofNigeria (awardee), Senator Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All ProgressivesCongress, APC (awardee), Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, and another formerChief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutugi (awardee), during the combined15th-20th Convocation Ceremony of University of Abuja.

From left: Former Governor of Niger State,Babangida Aliyu, University of Abuja VC, Prof.Michael Adikwu and Justice Idris Kuta.

A cross section of graduating students of theuniversity on the occasion.

Vice Chancellor University of Abuja Professor Michael Adikwu (left), Mrs.Rifkatu Swanta, School Registrar (right) decorating Sen. Bola Tinubu,during the ceremony.

From left: Chief Kemi Nelson, APC Women leader,Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, former Speaker of LagosState House of Assembly and Mr. Wale Edun, formerCommissioner of Finance, Lagos State.

Faces at the 50th anniversary of Federal Government College, Warri

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd left),with Professor Godini Darah (left); Deputy Governor, KadunaState, Arc. Barnabas Bala (2nd right), and a guest.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd right), Deputy Governor, Kaduna State &alumni of the School, Arc. Barnabas Bala (left), Deputy Director, Federal Ministry of Education/Principalof Federal Government College, Warri, Mr. Abiodun Fabiyi (2nd left) and National

President, Federal Government College, Warri, Mr. Chyna Iwuanyawu, during the50th anniversary of Federal Government College, FGC, Warri, Delta State.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (6th right); Lagos State Attorney General &Commissioner for Justice. Mr. Adeniji Kazeem (3rd left), Country Senior Partner, Nigeria &Regional West, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Uyi Akpata (middle) and other old students ofthe FGC, Warri, at the event.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (middle) withstudents of Federal Government College, FGC, Warri in DeltaState during one of the programmes lined up for the 50thanniversary of the school.

Vanguard, MONDAY, February 29, 2016 —15

CMYK

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

OPINIONLicit jumbo salaries of legislatorsBy Eric Teniola

APART from the issue of oil subsidy,no other subject has enraged and

infuriated Nigerians more than the issueof the jumbo salaries and allowances of themembers of the National Assembly.

Yet in spite of the anger, the salaries andallowances are licit under the monetisationpolicy of the government which wasimplemented in 2003.

It is the monetisation policy that enabledthe former Senate President David Markto buy so cheaply the official residence ofthe Senate President at Apo in Abuja- ahouse that should be a National heritage-and get away with it.

Ditto to the former speaker of the Houseof Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankolewho bought the official residence of thespeaker of the House of Representatives alsoat Apo at giveaway price and got awaywith it.

If we talk about the jumbo salaries andallowances for the legislators what abouttop Civil Servants who earn their jumbosalaries for life and the governors andformer governors who also earn theirjumbo salaries and entitlements for life.

Once we adopt the Presidential systemof government we can not run away fromits excesses. And also its shortcomings. Thejumbo salaries and allowances of themembers of the National Assembly andthe Security votes of the governors is alsopart of the excesses. They must be curbedin the light of the dwindling fortunes ofthe Nigeria economy. Albeit we cannotafford it.

What is Monetisation? Monetisation is thequantification in money terms of thosefringe benefits which government used toprovide for its workers as part of theirconditions of service. Such benefits includeresidential accommodation, chauffeur-driven cars, residential furniture, utilityservices, etc.

This policy is only practiced in Ghana,Cameroun and other African countries. Iunderstand that Ghana had stopped thepolicy in the last two months.

The Proposal came from the RevenueMobilisation, Allocation and FiscalCommission. It was debated in theNational Assembly and passed into law as‘Certain Political, Public and Judicial officeHolders (Salaries and Allowances etc) Act2002. Monetisation was clamoured for byCivil Servants, as conveyed in theCommuniqué of the Re-orientationWorkshop for Directorate Level Officers inthe Federal Civil Service read to thePresident, Olusegun Obasanjo on 14th

January, 2002. The Organised Private

Sector and a number of GovernmentAgencies and Parastatals have adoptedMonetisation of benefits for quite some timenow, e.g. CBN,NNPC,etc. I note also thatthe University system has its own listmonetised fringe benefits and allowances.

In other to ensure effectiveimplementation of the policy, thePresidential Committee on themonetisation of fringe benefits in thepublic service of the federation was set upby President Obasanjo on November 11,2002 under the Chairmanship of the thenSecretary to the Government of theFederation, Chief Ufott Ekaette (CFR).Following the submission of theCommittee’s Interim Report to PresidentObasanjo and its subsequent adoption byGovernment, a circular detailing thenewly monetised fringe benefits and themodalities for their implementation wasissued on 27th June, 2003, with 1st July,2003 as the commencement date of theprogramme. To sensitise the States on theimplementation of the Programme, aninteractive Session was earlier organisedon Tuesday 17th June, 2003 to enableboth the Head of Civil Service of theFederation to intimate Secretaries to StateGovernments (SSGs) and Head of CivilService of the States (HCSS) in the 36 statesof the Federation with modalities for theimplementation of the Monetisationpolicy. Suffice it to say the states objectedto the implementation insisting that theycould not afford it.

On November 27, 2003, Chief Ufott

Ekaette told members of the Faculty ofSocial Sciences, University of Lagos underthe headship of Professor Lai Olurode that “Monetisation as a public policy reform mustbe appreciated in the context of other reformseach of which plays complementary roleswith the new overarching economicdevelopment strategy of the ObasanjoAdministration called NEEDS(NationalEconomic Empowerment DevelopmentStrategy).”

The following was approved for membersof the National Assembly as part of theMonetisation policy: (a) HousingAllowance-100% of Annual Basic Salary(b) Transport Allowance-350% of AnnualBasic Salary (c) Utility Allowance-20% ofAnnual Basic Salary (d) Domestic StaffAllowance-75% of Annual Basic Salary (e)Entertainment Allowance- 10% of AnnualBasic Salary (f) Constituency Allowance-150% of Annual Basic Salary (g) FurnitureSalary- 300% of Annual Basic Salary (h)Allowance for Employment of SpecialAssistant- Equivalent of 25% of AnnualBasic Salary to be paid (i) VehicleMaintenance and Fuelling- 30% of AnnualBasic Salary (j) Recess Allowance- 10% ofAnnual Basic Salary (k) SeveranceGratuity- 300% of Annual Basic Salary(tobe paid once in a life time) after successfulcompletion of tenure

*Mr. Teniola, a former director at thepresidency, wrote from Lagos.

Continues tomorrow

This policy is onlypracticed in Ghana,Cameroun and otherAfrican countries. Iunderstand that Ghanahad stopped the policyin the last two months

Removing Apapa gridlockpermanently

After years of untold hardshipfaced by residents, business own-ers, government agencies and com-muters around the Oshodi – Apa-pa Expressway axis due to the traf-fic jams occasioned by the trailers/trucks coming in from all parts ofthe country, there is a temporaryrelief currently in place.

This is the result of a collabora-tive effort by the Federal Govern-ment, the Lagos State Governmentand various stakeholder unionsthat operate in the oil and gas sec-tor in the embattled axis. At least,free movement has been facilitat-ed by the presence and hard workof the Police, Army and Lagos StateTransport Management Authority(LASTMA) personnel, who ensurethat the blockage of the expressand the arterial connections to itis minimised, though not eradicat-ed.

It is unfortunate that the Feder-al Government, which bears themajor responsibility to end thegridlock, for the fact that the na-tion’s foremost theatre of non-oil

revenue is primarily a federalzone, does not have a kobo setaside in the 2016 budget towardsthe implementation of a holisticand final decongestion of Apapavehicular traffic.

We also frown at the idea beingmooted in some quarters that thepetroleum tank farms, which drawthe tankers to Apapa, will be re-located to the Trade Fair Complexaxis. This is not an ingenious so-lution to the problem. We willmerely be transferring the woes of

Apapa to the Trade Fair zone.While Apapa is the primary point

of entry and exit of imports and ex-ports, the Trade Fair axis containsinternational markets for the dis-tribution of goods to all parts ofNigeria and the West Africa sub-region. The traffic nightmare inthat area is already at a breakingpoint and cannot afford the addi-tional burden of accommodatingtank farms. We are, therefore, onthe same page with Hon OgheneEgoh, the member of the House of

Representatives for the area, whohas petitioned the Federal and La-gos State Governments to drop theidea.

The solution to this problem mustbe all-encompassing and wellthought-out Pending when Nige-ria will begin to operate refiner-ies in all parts of the country toend importation, we suggest thatefforts to pump petroleum prod-ucts from Atlas Cove straight toMosimi in Ogun State must be in-tensified. Tank farms are best lo-cated outside the economic bustleof the Lagos metropolis. Rail evac-uation should also resume.

Tank farms should be located inother coastal and port cities suchas Warri, Koko, Port Harcourt, Iba-ka and Calabar. It was a hare-brained idea to dump them in Apa-pa and thus choke the economicand social livelihood of the peo-ple there.

To decongest Apapa and perma-nently free it from a traffic night-mare is a task that must be done.

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

CMYK

Continues on page 18

$6.4 million while N13.6 million debtin movable assets was recordedagainst BUA Limited.

Other debtors are ENL whoseindebtedness to the governmentstands at $2.3 million, Apapa BulkTerminal debt was put at $2.9 million,Greenview Development NigeriaLimited owed a sum of $4.3 millionwhile $476,016.52 was also recordedagainst Josephdam terminal.

Also indebted to the government areTin Can Island Container Terminal,(TICT), Port and Cargo HandlingServices owned by Sifax Group, and Port and Terminal Multi-purposeServices Limited (PTML) $1.5million, $4.4 million , $746,896.08 andRoyalties of N766.3 millionrespectively.

According to data sighted byFinancial Vanguard, Port and TerminalOperators Nigeria Limited owed a total

The debts are accumulated fees,charges and rentals that are yet to bepaid into the purse of the federalgovernment, owner of the ports thatwere concessioned to terminaloperators.

A breakdown of the amount beingowed to government as at December2015 showed that the top three debtorsare AP Moller Terminal that owes atotal of $1.8 million, Five Star Logisticswhose lease, throughput fees stand at

with their payments to the NigerianPorts Authority, NPA.

The terminal operators allegedlyindebted to government are AP MollerTerminals, Five Star Logistics, BUALimited, ENL, Apapa Bulk Terminal,Greenview Development Nigeria.Others are Josephdam Terminal, TinCan Island Container Terminal, Portand Cargo Handling Services and Portand Terminal Multi-purpose ServicesLimited.

TERMINAL operators in Nigeriaare currently indebted to the

Federal Government to the tune of$433.4 million, about N86.2 billion, forlease and container throughput feesas at December 2015, FinancialVanguard investigation has revealed.But most of the terminal operators whencontacted said they were up to date

By GODWIN ORITSE

VISIT - From left, Finance Director, SIMBA Group, Mr. Sohan Sharma; Finance Controller, SIMBA Group, Mr. VipulPushkarna and Business Relationship Officer, Corporate Banking , Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Muyiwa Oyatokun during acourtesy visit by the bank to SIMBA Group.

As far as ourrecords show,NPA owes us alot, we have a lotto reconcile withNPA, because Icannot believethat Intels isoperatingsomewhere and isowing lease fees

Controversy over N86.2bnports fees, charges due FG

18 —18 —18 —18 —18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Continues on page 19

Cover

Nigeria’s once-thrivingpalm oil industry is

often cited as one of the mostmiserably failed economicopportunities in Africa.

Agriculture has suffered fromyears of mismanagement,inconsistent and poorlyconceived government policies,and the lack of basicinfrastructure. Still, the sectoraccounts for over 26.8% of GDP, and two-thirds of employment.Nigeria is no longer a majorexporter of cocoa, groundnuts(peanuts), rubber, and palmoil production, mostly fromobsolete varieties and overagetrees, is stagnant at around180,000 tons annually; 25 yearsago it was 300,000 tons. An evenmore dramatic decline ingroundnut and palm oilproduction also has taken place.

Use of the oil palm fruit toextract edible oil has been inpractice across the continent forcenturies, and it remains anessential ingredient in much ofWest African cuisine. Farmersin the region, who inter-cropped palm oil with otherfood crops like yam and maize,started the first export tradeearly in the nineteenth century.Before its close, the industrialrevolution in Britain had createda huge demand for palm oil,which by then had found its wayto use in candle making and asan industrial lubricant. Theeconomic importance of palmoil grew steadily because of itshigh yield, leading Europeancolonists to start plantations inCentral Africa by 1900. As palmoil found wider use in food-processing and industry, globaldemand for the commoditysurged. By 1982, worldwidepalm oil exports had grown toa staggering 2,400,000 milliontonnes per annum.

For most of this period,Nigeria held centre stage asone of the largest producers andexporters of palm oil,accounting for more than 40%of global output in the 1950s.At the time of the country’sindependence from Britishcolonial rule in 1960, palm oilcontributed 82% of nationalexport revenue. However, theoil boom of the mid-seventiesand the subsequent decline offarming proved catastrophic tothe sector. By the end of thetwentieth century, the Nigerianpalm oil harvest had dwindled

The Nigerian Palm oil Industry:What went wrong and theway forward (1)

to just 7% of global production.More embarrassingly, the once-largest exporter had turned intoa net importer of palm oil,sourcing 180,000 MT of thecommodity from internationalmarkets to meet local demand1.

The fundamental flaw with thepalm oil sector lies in Nigeria’scolonial origins, when Britishtrade necessities dictatedeconomic policy. Because of itsprimary export orientation atthat time, planned expansion ofthe industry was slow in comingthrough and its futurecompetitiveness had beencompromised. As a result, thebulk of Nigerian palm oil comesfrom dispersed and semi-wildgroves, and through the use ofhighly outdated manualprocessing techniques. Severalattempts to establish large-scaleplantations since the 1960s -including the Cross River Stateplan and the Oil Palm Belt RuralDevelopment Programme -ended in miserable failure.Currently, 80% of productioncomes from scatteredsmallholdings spread over anestimated 1.6 million hectaresof land. In contrast, plantationsoccupy only about 300,000hectares - most of it coming upover the last decade with privatesector investment.

Economic reforms initiatedsince the reinstatement ofdemocracy in 1999 succeededsomewhat in nudging the sectorout of stagnation. Between 2001and 2005, palm oil productiongrew rapidly from 760 MT to800 MT, while recording acorresponding rise in localconsumption. Much of thismovement can be owed to a banthat Abuja imposed in 2002 onthe import of palm oil andrelated products. However,Abuja’s reversed the ban inJanuary 2008, prompting gravemisgivings about the fate of theindustry and impact on localproduction. The PlantationOwners Forum has gone so faras to say the move wouldseverely threaten Nigeria’sVision 2020 goals foraccelerated economicdevelopment. Inconsistentpolicies like this are largely toblame for the fact that Nigeria’spalm oil industry continues toflounder despite the markedresurgence of agriculturethrough the last decade.

of N15.5 billion in throughput,lease, fees and moniesaccruable to movable assets.For the West African Terminal,(WACT), it owed a total ofN19.12 million in cargo duesand $9.9 million as amortizeddues as at the month ofDecember of 2015, whileoperations of the IntegratedLogistics Nigeria Limited,popularly called Intels had anoutstanding bill of over$38,000.00 and over$842,000.00 in its FederalLighter and Federal Oceanterminals on Onne, RiversState.

A total of $139,854.19 wasrecorded against Brawal’soperations at the KirikiriLighter Berths Phase Oneterminal in Lagos during theperiod under reviewoutstanding lease andthroughput fees, while Intelsoperations in Delta ports hada total of $2,364,884.71recorded against it. For itsoperations in terminal ‘B’ inDelta ports, Intels incurred adebt of over $4.3 million inlease and throughput feesincluding penalty on GrossMetric Tonnage (GMT).Nigeria’s construction giant,Julius Berger also owed thegovernment a total of$232,983.59 as debtrecorded against its name forthroughput and lease fees forthe same month of Decemberof 2015.

For Associated MaritimeServices (AMS) that operatesin Delta ports owed about$314,000.00 while Greenleigh

Ports Services Nigeria Limitedwhose license has beenrevoked due to non-performance, owed a total of$1.512, 477.70 for lease andthroughput fees. For lease,throughput fees and paymentof some movable assets,Ecomarine Terminal operatingin the Calabar Port Complexowed a total of $23,187,599.43in the period under review.Besides the indebtedness ofIntels in Onne and Delta ports,it also owed the governmentby virtue of its operation inCalabar a total $774,215.30 asat December of 2015. The sumof $995, 093.78 was alsorecorded against ShorelineLogistics Nigeria Limited as atDecember 2015.

Commenting on thedevelopment, a logistics

expert, Mr. Lucky Amiwerosaid that the amount couldbe more than that as thereare no agencies monitoringtheir activities, includingthe financial returns of theseterminal operators. Hesuggested that the terminaloperators must be made togive proper accounts of theiractivities for the years theyhave operated the ports.Also commenting on thematter, another logisticsexpert, Dr. Alban Igwe saidthat the management of theNigerian Ports Authorityshould be blamed for thedevelopment adding thatthere is a contractualagreement with the terminaloperators.

“These operators are notoperating on their own; theydid not just get into theports and started operating.The Nigerian Ports Authorityis the landlord to thevarious port operators, theyshould be able to collecttheir dues as at when dueexcept these fees have beenconverted to credit facilities.We have to investigate thematter and if it is a creditfacility given to terminaloperators to operate moreefficiently or that it was dueto inefficiency of NPA thathas made it unable to collectthe debt owed by theconcessionaires.” Heexplained that port serviceshas two dimensions, whichinclude the internationaland the local, adding that ifthe state of the port is in dire

Controversy over N86.2bnports fees, charges due FG

Continued from page 17

FORUM - From left, Executive Director, Lagos Commercial Banking Directorate, Skye Bank Plc, BayoSanni(left); Managing Director, Rondatoks Services Nigeria Limited, Mrs Adedoyin Osinowo; ManagingDirector K-Vogue, Kayode Otunola; and General Manager, Rondatoks Services Nigeria Limited, GbolahanOsinowo during a forum of sub distributors/wholesalers of Rondatoks Services Limited on Friday

Theseoperatorsare notoperating ontheir own;they did notjust get intothe portsand startedoperating

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 19— 19— 19— 19— 19

Continued from page 18

Cover

CMYK

The restriction placed bythe CBN on 41 items’

access to foreign exchange andBureaux De Change hasgenerated so much heat thatsome highly placed Nigeriansand foreign investors arecalling for drastic actionagainst the CBN. It is quiteunfortunate that Nigerianshave very short memory. As ayoung graduate of Economicsand a reporter in 1987, someof the issues rearing their uglyheads now were the sameissues we reported then. Thenas it is now the CBN hasalways been vilified wheneverthere is drop in the supply offoreign exchange in thecountry. The CBN at suchcritical moment in the economichistory of Nigeria had bentover backward in attempt toredeem what looks like ahopeless situation.

At such times it rolls outcontrol measures that in the lastthree decades have been its lastresort. In 1988, in an attemptto save the Naira, CBN underthe leadership of GovernorAbdulkadir Ahmed blacked outeight newly licensed banksfrom access to foreignexchange market. It deniedthem access to foreignexchange because they weresaid to be involved in foreignexchange speculation that iscapable of distabilising theeconomy.

In 2002, Joseph Sanusi, thenCBN governor withdrew theforeign exchange dealership of21 of the 90 banks in thecountry that were found to beinvolved in foreign exchangemalpractices. ProsessorChukwuma Soludo as CBNGovernor in 2005 liquidated 23banks which did not meet theN25 billion consolidation mark.

Looking through myreporters diary, on October 19,1987, I wrote a news report indefunct The Republic

CBN always at receivingend when FX dries up

newspaper titled “CBN bars 80firms from FEM.” An excerpt:

“The Central Bank has barred80 companies from furtheraccess to official foreignexchange. The order came as aresult of the refusal of thecompanies to submit theirshipping documents for scrutiny.Republic investigation revealedthat it has become a practiceamong Nigerian companies topurchase foreign exchange anddivert the money to purposesother than the one in which theywere intended on purchase.

CBN sources disclosed thatsuch companies now refuse tosubmit their shippingdocuments for inspection. Theshipping document include thebill of lading (clean or dirty)which importers use to takedelivery of goods. The bill alsogives a detailed description ofthe type of goods, the state andstage of the goods duringshipment.

From my diary, CBN denied728 firms access to foreignexchange in the first half of 1987.On December 7, 1987 I wrote thereport that 728 companies werebarred from access to foreignexchange by the CBN. Anotherexcerpt:

“A total of 728 companies andindividuals were blacklistedfrom procuring foreignexchange because of theirinvolvement in different forms offoreign exchange malpracticesduring the first half of 1987.Investigations conducted byThe Republic revealed that 336companies, mostly thoseregistered as private companies,228 individual Nigeriansbelieved to be students and 164foreigners were involved in theforeign exchangedmalpractices.

According to ourinvestigations, none of thecompanies quoted at the StockExchange was involved in theshady deals. It was revealed

that most of the companies thatwere blacklisted by the CentralBank used forged forms‚ "FormA" to apply for foreignexchange. Most of thecompanies were also caughtusing Nigerians to front for themin foreign exchange dealsespecially in companies whereAsians have shares.

The 228 individualsblacklisted were those who poseas students in FederalGovernment approved schoolsoverseas when in actual factthey were not studying abroad.In some of the cases, Nigerianswho have access to position ofauthority faked studentshipwhile they trade with theproceeds of the foreignexchange they got from theCentral Bank. Some wereknown to have connived withembassy officials to obtain theenabling documents to apply forscarce foreign exchange. Themost prevalent in the series ofembargo were exporting firmsthat refused to repatriate homethe proceeds of their foreignexchange earnings. It is thesame thing that is happeningnow 28 years after.

On June 18, 1987, I wroteanother report that “Inter Bankdealing likely” to be restored.The CBN had in attempt tobring sanity into the foreignexchange market banned inter

bank dealing in forex. Anotherexcerpt:

“The present ban on inter-bank dealings on foreignexchange will be lifted at theend of the current two-tierexchange system investigationhas shown. An informed sourceat the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, said that when thishappens the CBN would deallike any other bank selling andbuying foreign exchange overthe telephone or telex to andfrom other participants in theinter bank market. The sourceadded that autonomous sourceof funding is expected to play asignificant role or even replacethe official sources as the mainsupplier of funds to the market.The current bidding sessionswill pale into insignificance andbe phased out when this isrealised. The bidding sessionsare being used as a vehicle forinjecting official funds into themarket. This expectation hasnot been realised."

In another report on 18 June1987, I wrote that the "CBNmade it mandatory forauthorised dealers underSFEM to submit a detailed listof transactions with the CentralBank of Nigeria, CBN, beforeany bidding session. This CBNorder effective from today iscontained in a circular issuedto dealing banks yesterdaywhich is expected to checkillegal inter-bank dealings andparticipation of banks in theparallel market".

Pre-SFEM import: N2.6bntied down

As recorded in my diary, as atFebruary 1988 “About N2.6673billion was paid by importersinto the account of commercialbanks that are still awaitingforeign exchange cover fromthe Central Bank. A largeportion of the money had beenpaid into the banks since 1983.The Republic gathered thatN1.4285 billion is already paid

to the Central Bank, while thebalance of N1.2388 billionwhich represents the advancedeposits paid by importersagainst letters of credit istrapped in the commercialbanks. The backlog was causedby foreign exchange crunchwhich hit the country.Accordingly, CBN cannotprovide foreign exchange tofacilitate the transfer of themoney to overseas creditorsbefore the introduction ofSecond Tier Foreign ExchangeMarket (SFEM). The hike inexchange rates put theimporters who had alreadysettled their bills in a difficultposition as they were beingasked by their bankers to paythe new rates".

The diiference between whatthe CBN did then and now isthe mere fact that in those earlydays the CBN imposedpenalties on those whoinfringed the rule, but today theCBN is asking Nigerians to lookinward in a concious effort tomake Nigeria a productiveeconomy rather than being aconsuming economy.

Private sector operators thatare veriferious of the CBNpolicy, I do believe do not wantto get to this point where theCBN can not provide foreignexchange cover for import.

Each time a new policy is putin place, those whose vestedinterest are affected by thedecision mounts campaign forthe CBN governor to beremoved. In each of these cases,the President took side with theCBN. It was only Dr. IbrahimAyagi and Oladele Olashorewho were MDs of banks thatopposed the CBN in 1987 thatwere unceremoniously removedfrom office. PresidentMohammadu Buhari hasopenly sided with the CBN;Nigerians should learn to obeythe rules of engagement in theforex market.

Each time anew policy isput in place,those whosevested interestsare affected bythe decisionmountscampaign forthe CBNgovernor to beremoved

need of infrastructure, it willaffect cargo throughput andbring about cargo diversion.

In an effort to get commentsfrom the NPA, its spokesman,Captain Ihenacho Ebubeogu,General Manager in chargeof Public Affairs departmentof the authority asked thatFinancial Vanguard text theenquiry to him so as to getmore detailed informationfrom the accountsdepartment. But as at the timeof writing the report, therewas no response.

Speaking in defence of Intels,Mr. Sambol Isidore said thathe was not aware of anyindebtedness of Intels to NPAadding that if anybody wasowing, it will be NPA thatwould be indebted to Intels.

“As far as our records show,NPA owe us a lot, we have alot to reconcile with NPA,because I cannot believe thatIntels is operating somewhereand is owing lease fee.

"Besides, the accounts reconlia-

tion is an on-going process be-tween the parties.

“On the throughput, fees arecalculated based on volumesand that was why we kepttalking about oil and gascargo.

“When they give the lease,assumptions are made overthe period of the lease and ifall things go well the accruablelease fees can be calculated.

“We keep talking about oiland gas cargo, that was the

Controversy over N86.2bn ports fees, charges due FG

point we were making, ourterminal is for oil and gas. Ifwe don’t have the throughputcoming into our port, how dowe make the money to payNPA?” Efforts to reach Mr.Muyiwa, spokesman for SifaxGroup, owners of Port andCargo Handling ServicesLimited was futile as hisphone was switched off whenFinancial Vanguard called.

Speaking in defence ofEcomarine, Mr. Kingsley

Anaroke said that the firm haspaid all its dues to NPA.Anaroke explained that theCompliance and MonitoringCommittee from the NPAcommended the firm for beingup to date with their payment.

When the ExecutiveSecretary of the NigerianShippers’ Council, (NSC), Mr.Hassan Bello was contactedfor comments, he was said tobe unavailable as he was outof the country.

20 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

CMYK

Business & Economy

VISIT - From left: Commercial Counselor, Embassy of Turkey in Nigeria, Ahmet Safer Gulsen;National President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines andAgriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. Bassey Edem; Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil;NACCIMA Deputy Directors General, Janet Omisore and Sani Yandaki during NACCIMAvisit today to the Embassy in preparation for the Turkey-Nigeria Business Forum.

The Chief Justice ofNigeria (CJN) Justice

Mahmud Mohammed hassaid that Foreign DirectInvestments would be amirage unless there was anefficient judicial system in thecountry. He noted that delaysin securing redress at thecourts on matters involvingbusiness operators could befrustrating and discouragingto foreign investors andtherefore must be addressed.

Justice Mohammed spoke atthe annual workshop forjudges on legal issues in thecapital market which wasorganised by the Securitiesand Exchange Commission,SEC, in Abuja last week. “Itis crucial to the holisticdevelopment of the capitalmarket that sustainable andvibrant dispute resolutionmechanisms are put in placein order to boost investorconfidence in the sector. Allhands must be on deck toensure the independence ofthe judiciary and that judicialofficers have all they require

CJN, SEC seek speedy resolutionof commercial disputes

to work with, such as adequatefacilities, sufficient budgetaryallocation, capacity buildingand continuous professionaldevelopment amongst others,”Justice Mohammed saidthrough Justice Ibrahim TankoMohammed who stood in forthe CJN.

He urged judicial officers toacquaint themselves withbusiness laws and emerging

trends, especially the capitalmarket, corporate governanceand the law and procedure ofthe investments and securitiestribunal, in order to serve thenation better.

In his address, the Director-General of the SEC, Alh.Mounir Gwarzo stated that theJudiciary must play a criticalrole in the efforts of the federalgovernment to attract foreigninvestors to the country.

An inefficient judicialsystem, he said could hamperthe activities of the capitalmarket and therefore, urgedjustices to expedite actions oncases involving commercialdisputes.

“Investors would be verycomfortable that when theyinvest in the market and theyare not able to get what theywant, that they have recourseto finding ways and meansthat their issues can beresolved and the only waysuch thing can be done iswhen both the capital marketand the judiciary are on thesame page," he said.

Africa foreignexchange marketlast week

NIGERIAThe naira rallied in the week

to around N300 to a dollar afterPresident Muhammadu Buharion Saturday rejected the ideaof devaluing the naira, despitemounting pressure from aneconomic crisis caused by asharp fall in the price of oil,Nigeria’s dominant export.Aminu Gwadabe, head ofNigeria’s association of bureaude change operators said“hoarding and speculativeactivities have returned to themarket, pushing down the nairavalue again.”

GHANAGhana’s cedi is expected to

gain marginally on positivemarket sentiment ahead of a 5-year domestic bond to be issuednext week, analysts said. Afterweakening nearly 4 percent inJanuary on seasonal dollardemand from importers andspeculative buyers, the cedi hasheld firm in recent weeks. It wasquoted at 3.89 to the greenbackon Thursday, compared with3.92 last week. “Marketsentiment about the cedi’sperformance has been positiverecently, erasing fears of apossible first quarter cedidepreciation.

KENYAKenya’s shilling is expected to

hold steady but could comeunder pressure due to end-month importer dollar demand,traders said. Commercial banksquoted the shilling at 101.70/80to the dollar, compared with lastThursday’s close of 101.75/85.

“I don’t see much movement.Maybe a bit of (dollar) demandtowards the end of the month,”a trader at one bank said.

TANZANIAThe Tanzanian shilling is seen

firming against the dollar in thedays ahead, helped by asubdued demand for the U.S.currency from large importers.Commercial banks quoted theshilling at 2,185/2,195 to thedollar on Thursday, weaker than2,183/2,193 a week ago. “Thecurrency has been very stableover the past few weeks. Thereisn’t any big demand for dollarsnor much inflows, so we expectthe shilling to remain stableover the coming days,” saidHakim Sheikh, a dealer atCommercial Bank of AfricaTanzania.

UGANDAThe Ugandan shilling is

forecast to weaken over the nextweek as business activitygradually picks up afterelections and likely spurs an up-tick in demand for dollars.

Commercial banks quoted theshilling at 3,365/3,375, strongerthan Wednesday’s close of3,420/3,430.

FirstBank Sustainability Centre inpartnership with the Lagos

Business School is hosting aSustainability workshop for NGOs infurtherance to its objective to driveknowledge creation, dissemination andapplication.

The workshop scheduled for February24 and 25, 2016, will hold at the LagosBusiness School, Lagos and willcritically examine the emerging shift inthe NGO/private corporationrelationships and how it creates anexciting new landscape of opportunities

FirstBank's Sustainability Centre hosts NGOsfor both parties to collaborate, boostcapacity development, sustainability, anddeliver service to the community.

The sustainability workshop which willhelp develop business partnershipsbetween NGOs and corporateorganizations to achieve widespread andlasting change in the businessenvironment would also providecapacity building training for NGOs whowant to partner with corporateorganisations on their sustainabilityprogrammes.

In the wake of the emerging shift in

stakeholder needs which optimizes socialresponsibility above businessprofitability, there is a landscape ofopportunities for NGOs and corporateorganisations to collaborate, increasecapacity, sustainability, and deliverservice to the community. Topics such as:Sustainability Strategy for NGOs, SocialEntrepreneurship, NGO-Private SectorPartnership as well as the role of NGOsin promoting and achieving theSustainable Development Goals amongstothers will be treated by experts inSustainability.

Aninefficientjudicialsystemcouldhamper theactivities ofthe capitalmarket

China, Nigeria tostrengthenbilateral ties

China has said it willstrengthen its bilateral

ties with Nigeria bycommitting more investmentstowards the development ofcritical infrastructure in thecountry.Charge d’affaires of theEmbassy of China in Nigeria,Qin Jian stated this when theEmbassy of China in Nigeriaand the Ministry ofInformation and Culture ofNigeria recently held aSpecial Performance at NiconLuxury Hotel in Abuja,marking the 45th anniversaryof China-Nigeria Diplomaticrelations and the ChineseNew Year.In an address, Qin Jian saidthat the Chinese New Year,the year of monkey, which wascelebrated on February 8 thisyear, is of great significancefor the development of China-Nigeria relations.He said: “This year marks the45th anniversary of China-Nigeria diplomatic relations.As China and Africa jointlyimplement the results ofForum on China-AfricaCooperation, FOCACJohannesburg Summit, newopportunities of developmentand prosperity have arisen forboth China and Nigeria.Looking to the future, wehope to further cooperate withNigeria in the areas such asinfrastructure, agriculture,power, mining, etc, as well asexplore jointly constructingindustry parks and free tradeszones.”Also speaking at the eventwhich had nearly 1000 peoplewatching the performancepresented by the QinghaiTroupe from China and FCTArt Troupe from Nigeria, thePermanent Secretary of theMinistry of Information andCulture, Ayotunde Adesugba,pointed out that there havebeen exchanges, official visitsand signing of MOUsbetween Nigeria and Chinasince February 10th 1971,when the formal diplomaticrelations was established.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 21

CMYK

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

CMYK

Banking & Finance

DONATION: From left, Head, Sustainability and consumer Protection, Skye Bank Plc, Mrs BolaAdesanoye; Deputy Director, Education, FCT Department of Education, Mr. Gama Yakubu; ExecutiveDirector, Abuja/Northern Directorate, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Idris Yakubu ; and Principal, GovernmentDay Secondary School, Wuse 11, Abuja, Mr. Joseph Akor; during the tape cutting/handing over ofblock of classrooms donated to the school by Skye Bank in Abuja.

CENTRAL Bank ofNigeria (CBN) said that

the Electronic PaymentFinancial Incentives Scheme(EFIS) Efficiency Award isaimed to enhance competitionamong operators in theelectronic payment industry.

Meanwhile Guaranty TrustBank emerged the leader inthe maiden edition of the awardwinning in six categories. Thebank won six of the 11 bankbased award. These includeCashless Instant Payment;Cashless PoS issued cards;

Instant Payment TransactionEfficiency; ElectronicReference; Automated DirectDebit Mandate; and CustomerExperience Satisfaction award.

Zenith Bank followed with twoawards namely Cashless BulkPayment Award and PoSTransaction Acquirer.

Speaking at the awardceremony held in Lagos onFriday, Deputy Governor,Operations, CBN, AlhajiSuleiman Barau said that theawards indicate that GTBankand Zenith Bank have done welland other banks should emulatethem. He said, “The two bankshave done very well. We like all

the banks to emulate what thethree or four banks have done.What the efficiency awards seekto do is to encouragecompetition so that next yearyou will see more bankscompeting and that is theessence of award ceremony likethis.”

He said that the award wasdesigned to address apathy toelectronic payment channels,which greeted the cashlesspolicy.

He said, “In 2012 when thecashless policy was introduced,basically to reduce the cashintensity in the economy, andby implication to encourageelectronic payments, with a lotof e-channels to drive the

policy, these include PoS,multifunctional ATMs, internetbanking, NIBSS electronicfunds transfer (NEF), NIBSSInstant Payment (NIP) that Iam very proud about, mobilepayments, and others.

However, the level ofmerchant apathy was highthereby inhibiting adoption.This gave birth to ElectronicPayments Incentive Scheme(EPIS) Efficiency Awards withthe objective of recognizing,encouraging all stakeholdersin the payment space inNigeria.

Other objectives of theprogramme include therewarding and appreciativeefforts in adoption as well asusage of all channels includingthose that promote financialinclusion.

Some of the components ofthe programme include thereduction of merchant servicecharge from 1.25 percent to0.75 percent or a maximum ofN1,200".

In his opening remarks,Managing Director/ChiefExecutive, Nigeria InterbankSettlement System (NIBSS),Mr. Adebisi Shonubi said thatthe award is about paymentand efficient payment. He said,“We are very specific in theaward here, it is about paymentand efficient payment and I amnot sure you will find too manycustomers complaining. Whatwe are hoping this award couldbring out is healthy rivalryamongst the banks. We pickedthe top three. I am sure if wehad picked the top five, manymore banks would have beenmentioned. Almost all thebanks showed improvementwe sent report to their chiefexecutives on monthly basis toshow their performance. It isnot all the banks that could bementioned but we hope nextyear, it will be different set ofbanks taking up thechallenge.”

Tuesday before rising to N350on Wednesday and Thursday.

The appreciation, according toCowry Asset ManagementLimited was prompted by inflowof dollars into Nigeria from otherWest African countries. TheCompany stated, “In the justconcluded week, the Nairarecovered against the greenback due to the surge in crossborder inflows of the dollar,as market participants soughtto take advantage of thearbitrage opportunity thatcurrently exists in the currencyspace. The Naira advanced by11.39 percent to close at N350per dollar (from N395) at theBureau de Change segmentwhile the Naira appreciatedby 11.25 percent at the parallel(or black) market to N355 perdollar (from N400 per dollar)as at Thursday, February 25.

Nigeria’s externalreserves rose

marginally to $27.8 billionbenefitting from increasedcrude oil prices during theweek.

Data published by theCentral Bank of Nigeria showthat the external reserve roseto $27.807 billion on ThursdayFebruary 25, 2106 from$27.793 billion on FridayFebruary 19, 2016.

Meanwhile the nairaappreciated in the parallelmarket on Friday to N335 perdollar, from N350 onThursday. Consequently thenaira gained N40 against thedollar during the week in theparallel market. The parallelmarket exchange rate hadopened the week at N375 perdollar, dropped sharply toN305 between Monday and

Meanwhile, the local currencystrengthened as high as N310to a dollar on Wednesday,February 24 on the parallelmarket before reversing thegains and eventually closingat N355 per dollar. The CBNclearing rate and interbank rateremained stable at N197.00/USD and N199.10 per dollarrespectively.

This week, we expectmarginal decline in parallelmarket rates as inflows thatdepressed the rates in theprevious week dry up”, theCompany said.

Also commenting on themarginal increase in thenation’s external reserve, theCompany stated, “In the justconcluded week, Nigeria’sexternal reserves increasedweek-on-week by 0.02% toUSD27.80 billion as atWednesday, 24 February 2016.This followed increase in

international crude oil pricesamid sustained decrease incrude oil production in theUnited States as well asongoing efforts by OPECproducers and Russia to placea cap on their respective crudeoil exports.

“However, a downside riskto Nigeria’s fiscal andforeign sectors near-termoutlooks remains incessantdisruption of activities atdownstream petroleum sectoramid below budget crude oilprice. During the week,Shell Petroleum DevelopmentCompany of Nigeria Limited(SPDC) declared forcemajeure on Forcados liftingson February 21, 2016,following a disruption inproduction in productioncaused by spill on the 300,000barrels per day capacityForcados Terminal subseacrude export pipeline.

Sterling Bankcalls for increased

investment incapacity building

The Executive Director,Finance & Strategy, Sterling

Bank Plc, Mr. Abubakar Suleimanhas advised banks in the countryto invest more in capacity buildinginitiatives for staff in the industryto compete favorably with theirpeers in both local andinternational markets.

Mr. Suleiman who gave theadvice at an interactive sessionwhere he shared the Bank’s variouspeople led initiatives with reportersin Lagos explained that thedecision of the Bank to invest incapacity building initiatives washinged on the need to have a poolof staff who are technically soundand equipped with latestdevelopment in the global marketto enable them compete with theirpeers anywhere in the world.

The Sterling Bank Directorwho hinged the accreditation ofthe Bank’s training school by theChartered Institute of Bankers ofNigeria (CIBN) to the quality offacility put in place and productsfrom the school, maintained thatfinancial institutions mustcontinue to see the need to put inplace staff oriented policies thatwould encourage staff to be morecommitted, dedicated and resultoriented.

Skye Bankrenovates Abuja

school

Skye Bank Plc hasrenovated three blocks of

12 classrooms at GovernmentDay Secondary School, Wuse 11,Abuja, under its ‘School adoption’and financial literacy mentorshipseries in line with the CentralBank of Nigeria’s (CBN) ‘Adopt aschool project’.

The renovated classrooms werehanded over to the authorities ofthe FCT Department of Educationand the Principal of the school, Mr.Joseph Akor, in Abuja onWednesday.

Speaking at the occasion, theExecutive Director, Abuja /Northern Directorate, Skye BankPlc, Mr. Idris Yakubu, said thebank was committed to creating aconducive atmosphere for studentsand teachers to learn and teachrespectively.

Yakubu said the bank had madesubstantial investment incorporate social responsibility inthe education sector, adding thatthe bank would continue tosupport the school and help itachieve its objective of producinghigh quality graduands.

The bank director appealed toparents to save for the educationof their children as a way ofovercoming the challenges offunding their wards’ education,noting that savings ensured thatparents were not put underpressure over payment of schoolfees.

EFIS Efficiency Award will spurcompetition in epayment — CBN•As GTB leads with six awards

External reserves rise to $27.8bn as Nairaappreciates to N335/$

By BABAJIDEKOMOLAFE

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 23

Corporate Finance

VITABLOM NigeriaLimited, a subsidiary

of Vitafoam Nigeria Plc haslamented the global economiccrisis as it affected thecompany’s operations in thefinancial year 2015.

The company stated that aspart of its strategic move toboost operations and sustaincompetitiveness, it hasconcluded arrangements tocommence production of fibersheets .

By this plan, the company isset to acquire fibre sheetproduction plant. Although,details of the new investmentstrategy are sketchy, there arestrong indications that the highprofile equipment wouldelevate the quality ofVitablom’s products.

Addressing the shareholdersat the company ’s AnnualGeneral Meeting in Lagos,Vitablom’s Chairman, MrTaiwo Adeniyi explained thatthe rationale behind theproposed investment was toenhance synergy betweenVitablom Nigeria Limited andother foam making companies.

Adeniyi who reviewed theoperating environmentlamented that the globaleconomic crisis had impactednegatively on the activities ofmany companies worldwide.According to him, despite thechallenges, Vitablom was ableto weather the storm with goodfinancial result.

“ It was indeed a periodhallmarked by a variety ofchallenges, but it is gratifyingto note that our dynamiccompany characteristicallyweathered all storms and infact, we have cause to remain

proud of ourselves.“In 2015, economic growth

prospects dimmed on a globalscale given the drasticreduction in the volume ofconsumption of crude oilrelative to supply resulting inworsened financial conditions.Commodity prices skyrocketedwhile oil prices experienced anall-time volatility throughoutthe year.

“The successful electionsearly 2015 created optimismamongst Nigerians,individuals and businessesalike. However, despite thepositive economic prediction ofrobust growth prospects fordeveloping and emergingmarkets like Nigeria, the majorindices reveal that Nigeria fellshort of its growth potential in2015 principally due to lack of

funds to finance infrastructuraldevelopments.

‘The Naira remained weakagainst major currencies andthe persistent demand pressurein the foreign exchange marketresulted in the Central Bank ofNigeria (CBN) tighteningfiscal controls on oil revenue.Nigerian Stock Exchange AllShare Index recorded adownward trend at the close ofthe year.

“The money marketcontinued to experiencerestrictive monetary policystance of the CBN which hadsevere impact on the fortunesof the players in the real sectorof the economy. The Nigeriansituation was compounded bythe violence and insecurity inthe Northern parts of theCountry. Although our militaryhas successfully weakened

insurgence, this has nottranslated to economic growthas it continually poses a majorrisk to foreign directinvestment and existingbusiness operations especiallyin the affected areas ,” saidAdeniyi

Adeniyi, however explainedthat despite the inclementoperating environment thecompany’s turnover increasedto N754.9million in 2015 fromN693.49million in 2014. Profitbefore taxation also increasedto N119.79million in 2015 fromN101.75million in 2014.

Commenting on thecompany’s plan to expand itsproduct line, The ManagingDirector and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Mrs Titi Bakareexplained that the investmentinitiative was designed tosteadily position Vitablom asa major supplier of inputmaterial to the soft furnitureand industrial material sectorof the West African region.

Ecobankrepositionsfor improvedefficiency

Indications haveemerged that the

recent re-alignment thataffected some senior staffat Ecobank Nigeria was infurtherance of a marketrepositioning exercisedesigned to strengthen thebank’s business across allmarkets where it operates.

Market feelers indicatethat for a banking groupthat grossed over N315billion in revenue and overN78billion in pre-tax profitin the third quarter of 2015,the Ecobank Group is on agrowth trajectory. As attoday, Ecobank remainsone of Nigeria’s strongestfinancial institutions.

An industry analystopined that the Bankappears to be putting morefocus on cost efficiency andinvestment in keyinitiatives in its Transactionbanking, Cards, andeBanking businesses,while also continuing tosimplify its operations tobetter serve customerswhich will put the bankahead of the competition.

Meanwhile, a sourcefrom within the bank saysthe recent restructuringcame after a review ofsenior staff bench strengthand industry standards.The source also revealedthat it became necessaryfor the Bank to realign itswork force for betterefficiency in line with bestpractice.

Ecobank is said to haverealigned certain rolesbank wide and those whowere affected by theexercise were adequatelycompensated.

The bank only recentlypromoted 300 staff,representing 10 per cent ofthe employees based onthe bank’s commitment torecognizing andrewarding excellence andexceptional performance.The promoted staff cutacross all cadres of theworkforce.

He added that the Bankhas also commenced aselection process ofconverting qualified non-core staff to permanentstaff, in line with theBank’s commitment todevelop and grow talent byproviding them with careerpaths that give them accessto higher responsibilities.

Vitablom laments globaleconomic crisis

BY PETER EGWUATU

FMDQ OTC SecuritiesExchange Plc has

revealed plans to launch N100million Investors ProtectionFund (IPF) before the end ofsecond quarter this year.

Ms. Kaodi Ugoji, VicePresident, Strategy &Corporate Services Division,FMDQ, made the disclosurewhile making presentation ata media lunch in Lagos.

The Securities Exchange hadlast year said it planned to floatN100 million IPF to ensure thatinvestors that commit theirmoney in the market do notsuffer any kind of loss.

The Exchange said it wasworking together with theSecurities and ExchangeCommission, SEC, to work outmodalities for effective take-offof the Fund.

It noted that already, ruleshad been submitted to the SEC,and the Fund is expected tofully take effect by the end ofthe second quarter 2015 upona successful engagement withthe SEC.

However, Ugoji explainedthat after disclosing plans tofloat the fund last year, theExchange later realized theneed to put modalities in placeto guide the operation of theFund before takeoff.

Though she did not state theamount the Exchange plannedto start with, Ugoji said thatapart from putting theframework in place, FMDQalso needed to constitute aBoard of Trustees (BoT) thatundertake supervision of theFund.

‘We thought we could simplysay we want to float investors’protection fund, put the seedcapital together and it takes off,

but by the time we got started,we realized it wasn’t as easyas we envisaged. We realizedthere are a lot of things weneeded to put together beforewe could go ahead, apart fromgetting regulatory approvalfrom the Securities andExchange Commission.

“We also realized that weneed an IPF guideline andyour guideline has to take intoconsideration the category ofinvestors that will benefit fromthe scheme; under whatcondition the investors canparticipate, and who issupposed to make contributionto the Fund. So, we had to slowit down until those things arecompleted. Hopefully, it isgoing to be fully launched bymid this year,” she said.

She stated that the keysuccess factor for any securitiesexchange is the support andcollaboration of its

stakeholders, adding thatFMDQ strives to develop andmaintain participative,collaborative and informationengagement with its diversstakeholders.

FMDQ and its stakeholdergroups have synergeticrelationship. By working to createand contribute to an environmentin which the stakeholders are ableto flourish, FMDQ supports itsown long-term ability to createvalue by making the Nigerianfinancial market globallycompetitive, operationallyexcellent, liquid and diverse, shesaid.

She said that while the FMDQconcentrated in establishment ofdebt capital market in 2015; itwould focus on developingmarket infrastructure andstandardizing the market duringthe course of the year. In 2017 and2018, she said the SecuritiesExchange will

FMDQ to launch N100m Investors Protection Fund

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

FORUM - From Left: Mr Emmanuel Ayotade, Business Manager, Ikeja, GTI Microfinance BankLtd, Mr. Okorie ThankGod of 414 Business Group, Mrs Tolulope Opayinka, Managing Director,GTI Microfinance Bank Ltd, and Dandy Benjamin, Group Chairman, 414 Business Group, at thebank’s customer forum in Lagos.

24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

CMYK

Homes &Housing Finance

The Okokomaiko –Badagry axis has the

potential to become the ‘Lekki’of Lagos mainland oncompletion of the ongoingexpansion and rehabilitation ofthe Okokomaiko – Badagryexpressway and the expectedtake-off of the Blue Line LagosRail Transport (LRT) masstransit transport system alongthe corridor by the end of thisyear.

This is contained in a reportby Residential AuctionsCompany (RAC) tagged,“Spotlight on Lagos HousingDevelopment – 2016 Outlook”.The report stated:“Notwithstanding the fact thatLagos Island has the bulk of

UK mortgagerates set to

plunge below 1%

Mortgage rates couldplunge below 1 per

cent for the first time in the UK,the boss of one of Britain’sbiggest lenders has said.

Chris Pilling, chief executiveof Yorkshire Building Society,said a price war would make itcheaper than ever to pay off ahome loan. He said two-yearfixed-rate mortgages – the mostpopular type of deal – coulddip below 1 per cent this year.The fall would shave around130 pounds off the annualmortgage bill for a family witha 150,000 pounds loan.

The record low for a two-yearfixed mortgage rate is 1.05 percent, which was offered by thePost Office in August last year.Mortgage rates have tumbledsteadily since hitting a ten-yearhigh in June 2008 as thefinancial crisis began. Backthen, two-year fixed deals cost6.75 per cent on average –meaning a bill of 1,036 poundsa month on a 150,000 poundsmortgage. By contrast, if ratesfall to 0.99 per cent in the nextfew months, the same loanwould cost 564 pounds a monthin repayments.

BoA’s newmortgage

ditches FHA

Bank of America Corp. isrolling out a new-

mortgage product that wouldallow borrowers to make downpayments of as little as 3percent, in a move that wouldrepresent an end run around agovernment agency thatpunished the bank for makingerrors on similar loans.

The new mortgage programwill let borrowers avoid privatemortgage insurance, a productto protect mortgage lendersand investors that is usuallyrequired for low-down-payment loans.

That could make the new loanscheaper than those offeredthrough the Federal HousingAdministration (FHA), thegovernment agency that has wonbig settlements from banks inrecent years for what the lendersdescribe as minor errors.

The FHA doesn’t make loans butinsures lenders against default onmortgages that can have downpayments of as little as 3.5 percentand a credit score of as low as 580,on a scale of 300 to 850. Whenlenders make the loan, they haveto certify that everything in a loanfile is accurate. Bank of America’snew mortgage cuts the FHA outof the process. Instead, the newloans are backed in a partnershipwith mortgage-finance giantFreddie Mac and the Self-HelpVentures Fund.

new units under goingdevelopment, we cannotneglect or overlook that somelocations on Lagos Mainlandsuch as; Ayobo-Ipaja, Badagryand Okokomaiko also have vastnumber of units in thedevelopment, a majorconsequence of a few masshousing schemes launchedunder Joint-Venture (JV)arrangements and are stillawaiting completion.

“With the on-goingrehabilitation and expansion ofthe Lagos-BadagryExpressway and theconstruction of the Blue LineLagos Rail Transport (LRT)mass transit transport systemby the Lagos StateGovernment, the Okokomaiko– Badagry axis part of LagosMainland has the potential toemerge as the next “Lekki” of

Lagos Mainland in the futurewith regards to the delivery ofnew housing units in Lagosprovided infrastructurescontinues to improve along this

• Sunrise Hills Estate Abuja

Housing developmentportends more than just

providing shelter in view of itsother numerous economicbenefits, says Rev UgochukwuObiora Chime, NationalPresident of Real EstateDevelopers Association ofNigeria (REDAN).

Speaking in Abuja, Chimesaid housing is no more aboutshelter but about employment,economic inclusiveness, andmultiplier effect on the localeconomy. “We believe that thefuture of Nigeria, the future ofinvestment, the increase inGDP we’re asking for will comefrom the housing sector becausethe global economy dynamicshave shown clearly that the

solution lies in a reinvigorated,dynamic and refocusedhousing delivery mechanism.

“Government shouldencourage local investors andentrepreneurs and developersto come in more forcefullybecause their own money isn’trepatriated to anywhere. Itdoesn’t affect our naira. Whatthey need is finance. Housingis no more about shelter - it’sabout employment, economicinclusiveness, multiplier effecton the local economy.” Hereiterated the association’s planto train artisans to ensure thatcompetency and skills gap inthe sector are bridged. “Thereis 53 percent unemployment of the youth. We saw that we

axis. This will have a directivepositive impact on commercialactivities in the location andwill act as a catalyst to lure moreresidents from other locationson Lagos Mainland to migrate.The Blue Line is a 27 km urbanrail line that will run fromOkokomaiko to Marina. Therewill also be a Red Line whichwill run from Marina to IkejaInternational Airport.”

Also the RAC report notedthat available data revealed thatthe vast majority of newhousing units being deliveredare concentrated in LagosIsland. “This has been thetrend in the last few years.Ironically, Lagos Mainland islarger than Lagos Island interms of square area but due tothe fact that the financial centreof Lagos is in Lagos Islandwhich is also home to twoCommercial Business Districts(CBDs), traditional LagosIsland CBD and the NewEmerging Victoria Island CBD,the population of residents hasswelled in this part of themarket and especially with theopening of the Lekki-Epe axisin the early 80’s there has beena massive influx of people thatpreviously resided in LagosMainland to Lagos Islandparticularly for employmentand business motives whichhas since attracted the interestof developers.

“In 2015, an estimated 3,929new units were delivered intoLagos; of which 3,203 units (82percent) of these were locatedin Lagos Island and of these2,579 units (66 percent) werelocated along the Lekki-Epeaxis making this location tohave the largest proportion ofnew housing units in Lagos.This is followed by Ikoyi with10 percent and Victoria Islandwith 6 percent. On LagosMainland, Festac had thehighest number of new unitsdelivered with 4 percent dueto a high rise development byUPDC boosting supply in thislocation. This was followed byYaba and Ikeja GRA with 3percent and 2 percent

have a pool of people, schoolleavers who are unemployedbut don’t have the relevantskills to play in this vital sector.If today, this country embarkson building 100,000 units ofhousing every year, we don’thave the number of qualifiedartisans who will do that,” hestated.

The REDAN president notedthat investment in the realestate sector continues toexperience growth despite theeconomic downturn in thecountry. “There is still housingdevelopment because manymanufacturers in this countryare operating at below 20percent capacity utilisation oftheir factories. Some of the idle

funds are now kept in aspectsthat can oscillate with theeconomy. So people now buildhouses, build malls with theaim of securing the value oftheir assets, the value of theirmoney because when you putthis money in, when there’sinflation, the nominal value ofone naira will still remain onenaira. But the value of an assetcreated with that money fiveyears ago will keep onincreasing. Another reason isthat members of REDAN havedecided to keep on investingin this sector because theybelieve in it. That’s why youstill find a lot of developers, alot of estates springing up,” hestated.

Housing means more than shelter, says REDAN boss

Okoko-Badagry axis can become‘Lekki’ of Lagos mainland — Report

Stories byYINKA KOLAWOLE,with agency report

This will havea directivepositive impacton commercialactivities in thelocation andwill act as acatalyst to luremore residentsfrom otherlocations

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 25

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26 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

friends wanting to invest inDISCOs when the lastadministration slated them forprivatization. To me, itamounted to throwing goodmoney and peace of mind,down a septic tank, andjumping down after it. All thewould-be investors, in theirlate forties to early fifties weretold they would ageungracefully thereafter andthey might never recover theirinvestments. Grief was acertainty. Right now, many arehanging on the ropes; one hadgiven up. Bad news for Nigeriaand Nigerians.

The investors in DISCOs arethe first real gamblers of thismillennium. Hopefully, theywill not experience whatBenjamin Franklin, 1706-1790,said. “He that lives on hopewill die fasting.” Collectivelyand individually, they deserveour appreciation for havingwhat Americans call ‘true grit’.Given my boundlessadmiration for their courage,bordering on foolhardiness, Iintend to join the minority,even if a one-man minority,supporting them and theFederal government as theystruggle, against odds, to takeus to a future when powersupply, reasonably priced, andmeasured will become a realityin Nigeria.

According to conventionalwisdom, the DISCOsconstitute a bunch of heartlessblood-suckers, who, after

Killing DISCOs; commitingnational suicide

Nor should we listen to those who say, ’The voice of the people is the voice ofGod’, for the turbulence of the mob is always close to insanity.”

ALCUIN, 735-804 AD.Like most Nigerians, I consume electricity and receive all those bills, about which

everybody complains, and the services are not satisfactory. But, unlike most Nigerians,five DISCOs, two in the North and three in the south, provide me services. With onepre-paid metre, four estimated bills, popularly called crazy bills, are received andpaid monthly. I don’t have shares in any DISCO and I tried my best to discourage

“

Micro Finance

failing to provide electricity,send all those inflated crazybills just to punish FellowNigerians. Some of the chargesare true; it must be admitted,but mostly, we blame thevictims (DISCOs). Estimatedbills are sent to those withoutnew metres, especially oldmetres, which no longerfunction. That is unfortunate.But, how many of us haveasked the question: how didthose old metres get there?Four of mine were placedthere by the, ElectricityCorporation of Nigeria, ECN,later called, NationalElectricity Power Authority,NEPA, later called, PowerHolding Company of Nigeria,PHCN (Problem Has ChangedName) – long ago. Two werein the buildings long before Iwas born in 1944. Severalgovernments have come andgone before Jonathan’s; yetnone bothered to replace thosemetres which should havebeen retired long beforeprivatization. Whose fault?Certainly, it is not the fault ofthe DISCOs. Then, whosefault? Our fault because we“stood around and looked”(apologies to Bob Marley) as

one government after anotherwalked into office, met us withuseless metres, and leaveswithout replacing them evenwhen ECN/NEPA/PHCNbelonged to all of us. Only Godknows how many old metresexist in Nigeria, but it hadtaken over ninety years toaccumulate those museumpieces which we are nowhanging the DISCOs for notreplacing in three years ofoperation. First, why?

Does it make sense toanybody? Could any of us, ifwe were the owners of a

DISCO have been able toreplace all the old metresinherited in three years? As themasked Jazz musician Lagbajasang, please answer, “SimpleYes or No”. Undoubtedly, nosingle honest Nigerian wouldanswer ‘Yes’. Since it isobvious that nobody on earthcould have achieved theobjective of supplying metresto all customers in three years,our often-repeated criticism ofthe DISCOs is, at bestunreasonable; or, at worst,crazy. We are expecting theimpossible from human beingslike ourselves. Again, why? Isit fair?

Unfortunately, neither theFederal Government, nor theDISCOs, nor civil society hadconsidered jointly agreeing onthe number of metres thatshould be reasonably expectedto be installed by each DISCOevery year and to aim atachieving those goals. TheNigerian Labor Congress,NLC, which organizedprotests in some cities (thesame ones actually – Lagos,Abuja, Portharcourt, Ibadan,but not Igbotako, Umuahia orNingi) was, as usual playingto the gallery asking for the

reversal of the new tariffwithout taking steps to ensurethat we work out an achievablegoal of metre supply. As longas DISCOs receive powersupply from the powerproducers and supply them toend users, they will try theirlevel best to collect all therevenue expected from thatquantum of power supply –even if it means allocating thecharges without proof. TheFederal Governments whichhanded over the nation tothem, without doing theneedful had tacitly accepted onour behalf that estimatedcharges will continue toprevail until that future whenall premises are metred. Itsounds like bad news; yes.But, it is the bitter truth. At anyrate, what is the alternative tothis, admittedly untidy, billingarrangement? Nobody hadoffered a suggestion.

Is the situation fair toeverybody? The honest answeris ‘No’. With allocated billing,some consumers are over-charged, some are under-charged; while some withoutmetres but illegally connecteddon’t pay at all. On a street inLagos Island, four to sixdifferent buildings receive thesame monthly bill. Even thetwo metres in one building areassigned the same amountevery month – even, oncewhen the occupants of one unitwent on Holy Pilgrimage for amonth.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 27

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Even the twometres in onebuilding areassigned thesame amountevery month –even whenoccupants of oneunit went onHoly Pilgrimagefor a month

A group of entrepreneurs,Social EnterpriseNetwork Nigeria

(SENN) has announced plans toempower about 100,000Nigerians annually viasustainable social initiative.

The network which is acombination of young individualswho are using their skills,resources and network tocreatively provide solutions tosociety most pressing needs, wasbirth in Lagos in February 2015after La Roche Leadership andEducation Foundation, identifiedand rewarded their hard work.

Also, members of the networkdevelops and implementsustainable strategies to tacklekey issues including: promotingand improving a reading cultureamong the populace; reducingenvironmental degradation;equipping unemployed youthswith work place skills andexperience; eradicating illiteracyand promoting adult education;

ending rape and securing justicefor its victims; facilitatingmentoring for children fromdisadvantaged background;promoting the education of thegirl child and equipping them withICT skills; and others.

Speaking at a press brief inLagos, Coordinator, SEEN, Mr.Famakinwa Oluwadamilola,said that the awardees wereencouraged by the present LagosState Governor AkinwunmiAmbode, (that was before hebecame governor) to form anetwork and develop frameworkthat will make it easier forgovernment to partner with themin order to achieve mutuallybeneficial goals

According toOluwadamilola,”with a vision todirectly impact 100,000 people invarious Nigerian states everyyear by providing an enablingenvironment for social enterprisesin Lagos and a mission toimpacting lives throughsustainable social initiative, thebenefit of social enterprises areincreased when they are

adequately supported by publicpolicies and funding.”

Dignitaries at the occasionincludes: CEO, Stand to endRape, Ms. OluwaseunOsowobi,CEO, Fair Life Africa

Foundation, Mrs. UfuomaEmerhor, CEO, Slum to School,Mr. Otto Orondaan, CEO, WestAfrica Vocational Educational,Noella Morshi, PyramidEducational AdvancementFoundation, Mr. Adedapo Conde,CEO, WECYCLERS, Mrs. BilikissAdebiyi-Abiola, CEO, Easyshop,Mrs. Saudat Salami, amongothers.

Meanwhile, Moshi said thatvocational education is the

practical solution tounemployment in Nigeria, whileAbiola stressed that waste is not awaste but a resources, “Nigeriafor too long have ignored wastemanagement, let us look at wasteas a resources. In Sweden wasteis imported, they have finished alltheir waste, therefore they nowbuy waste and that is what is lyingover here in Nigeria. We canrecycle waste, turn it to bio-gasand even combustion, she said.

medium scale entrepreneurs and bring financialservices to the unbanked.

She urged individuals, businesses and tradeassociations to cultivate the habit of savings andinvestments in order to grow their wealth and ensurea secured tomorrow for themselves and theirbusinesses.

According to her, the secret of financial success isto cultivate the habit of saving.

She stated that GTI Microfinance Bank hasconceived and developed its products and serviceswith a view to meeting all business and bankingrequirements of small and medium business owners,pointing out that such products and services includesavings account, current account, fixed depositaccount, loans and advances, electronic fund transfer(EFT), card services, business advisory, planningservices and safe custody.

The Managing Director of GTI MicrofinanceBank, Mrs. Tolulope Opayinka, has assured

entrepreneurs that it would provide amenablefinancial support to help drive the growth of theirbusinesses as part of the commitment of the Lagos-based microfinance bank to promote developmentof Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Opayinka who spoke at the Bank’s 2016 CustomerForum which was held in Lagos at the Bank’s headoffice in Marina stated that the Bank is strategicallyplaced to promote economic growth throughfinancial inclusion, driving the micro sub-sector ofthe economy with its products and services designedbasically for individuals, groups/associations andSME’s with the aim of growing their businesses.

She commented on the importance of microfinancial services in the fight against poverty as itserved to financially empower micro, small and

Group moves to empower100,000 Nigerians annually

Stories byPROVIDENCE OBUH

GTI Microfinance Bank harpson savings, investment

28 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

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e-Commerce

LAUNCH - From left: Managing Director, Insights Africa at Connemara Limited, SouthAfrica, Mr. Mark Leisegang; Chief Executive Officer, ThetaAlpha, Mrs. Titilayo Akisanya; aformer MD, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd/Executive Consultant,Newcross EP, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu; and Principal, Adeyemi Akisanya Associates, Mr. AdeyemiAkisanya, during the Insights Discovery breakfast launch in Lagos.

The current foreign exchange crisis rockingthe Nigerian economy has hit the nascente-commerce sector as the sector’s major

foreign investors have begun to pull back.Vanguard investigation has revealed that some of

the big players in the industry such as the Africa

Forex crisis: E-commercereels under pressure

Internet Group and Konga.com have begunto implement massive restructuring in orderto stay afloat and remain in business.

Sources close to AIG said most of itssubsidiary companies like online retailer,Jumia.com, online marketplace, Kaymu.com,online hotels booking, Jovago.com, onlinereal estate marketplace, Lamudi.com andonline vehicle marketplace, Carmudi.comhave all implemented a massive restructuringexercise that saw them cutting their workforceby more than 50 per cent.

The source also disclosed that the Group’staxi hailing application, EasyTaxi isconsidering shutting down as only twomembers of staff are left at the moment tomaintain skeletal operations of the servicepending final decision on its future.

Recall that the industry began to feel themeltdown from October last year whencompanies like Jumia and iROKOimplemented massive job cuts that saw over300 jobs lost in the industry within the period.

Also by January this year, Nigeria’s onlinemarketplace, Konga.com bowed to theprevailing economic situation bydisengaging about 10 per cent of itsworkforce citing a need to restructure inrespect to prevailing economic situation.

In a statement, Konga had said: “With thisrestructuring and by taking advantage of newinnovations and upcoming retailopportunities in the market space, we areoptimistic that we are on the path to grow aneven healthier and more sustainable business,whilst delivering best in class service to ourcustomers. The decision to restructure andrealign our company’s focus to be more agilein the prevailing local economic conditionsis not one that was taken lightly.”

Recall that both AIG and Konga have huge

foreign investments fromRocket Internet and Naspersrespectively. People familiarwith the matter said theseinvestors have becomesceptical of Nigeria’sinvestment landscape andhave become reluctant tocontinue to provide additionalfunds for these firms.

Operators and industryanalysts alike believe that thelull in the sector has beenprecipitated by the uncertainlyresulting from the unstableexchange rate including steadydecline in disposable income inthe economy.

Mark Essien whoseHotels.ng raised $1.2 million in2015 said it is difficult not toexpect the forex crisis not tohave huge implications for thesector especially with itsdependence ond o l l a r d e n o m i n a t e dinvestments.

He said: “For companies likeours that raise money fromforeign investments, the directimpact of an unstable exchangerate is that we cannot properlypredict how much money inforeign currency we will beable to generate to repay ourinvestors. That makes theinvestment more uncertain.The internal market however,particularly in hospitality hasremained relatively stable.”

He added that, (the state ofthe local currency) “doesdiminish the willingness offoreign investors to invest asthey are not sure what willhappen with such companies.In particular, the companiesthat earn money locally willhave their growth slowed downwhen observed from an externalperspective (when they declaretheir revenue in USD).

However, he still thinks thatthis period remains the best toinvest in the sector because“Costs are cheap because of theweaker currency. We can hireand pay a lot less than before.So the dollar stretches reallyfar.”

Also speaking, OsamedeEvbkhavbokun who is theDirector of Nigeria’s pioneeronline marketplace, GidimallNigeria however believes that“Nothing will happen to e-commerce firms that havereceived foreign investmentsbecause as you can see, forthose who still have their fundsin foreign exchange, they havebetter advantage at this pointin time. Where they may havesome challenge is in the areaof repatriating earnings whichI do not think any e-commercefirm is doing at the moment. As at today, the dollar hasfallen significantly to less thanN230/$ and things aregradually beginning to easeup.”

He however added that thereis a strong need more than everbefore for investors to lookinwards and embrace made inNigeria products and byextension e-commerce.

iROKO+ Nollywoodapp launches inFrancophone Africa

CANAL+ GROUP andiROKO are launching

the iroko+ SVOD service forFrench-speaking Africa. TheAndroid app will be availableacross all of French SpeakingAfrica, bringing 1,500 hours ofaffordable, premium Nollywood& Télénovelas content to millionsof Francophone entertainmentfans.

Available now on theGooglePlay store, iroko+ is freeuntil 1 June 2016 and users will beable to download movies and TVseries as part of their subscriptionpackage. The brand newNollywood and Télénovelas appwill showcase the very best movies& TV series from Nollywood TV,Novelas TV and A+, becoming theworld’s largest homegrowncontent catalogue for FrenchSpeaking Africa. Titles currentlyavailable on iroko+ include Folie,Triangle Amoureux, Qui sera lafemme idéale? and much lovedTélénovelas such as La Patrona, LeCorps du Désir, and the best contentfrom French Speaking Africaincluding Dinama Nekh andChroniques Africaines. All contenthas been dubbed into French,much of it for the very first time.iroko+ has been designed tooptimize data consumption andthe service will be aimed atbuilding a new mobile-onlysubscriber base acrossFrancophone Africa.

It is difficult not toexpect the forex crisis tohave huge implicationsfor the sector especiallywith its dependence ondollar denominatedinvestments

Stories by JONAH NWOKPOKU

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 29

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Send your reactions to: news@vanguardngr.com

PPPPPolicy options folicy options folicy options folicy options folicy options for Nigeria'sor Nigeria'sor Nigeria'sor Nigeria'sor Nigeria'seconomic crises (Peconomic crises (Peconomic crises (Peconomic crises (Peconomic crises (Pararararart2)t2)t2)t2)t2),

(continued from Wednesday)

By Johnson Chukwu

We suspect thatordinary folks andforeign residents

have joined this flight tosafety and may be convertingtheir Naira assets into dollarto mitigate additional loss invalue. The danger of anunmitigated progressivedepreciation of Naira is thatour national currency maylose one of the most criticalattributes of money, which is“as a store of value” andshould this happen, theconcerns about thedollarization of the economywill become real.

Beyond the abovedrawbacks of the currentexchange rate policy is thefact that it focuses only ondemand management. Atbest it ignores supplyimprovement and in worstcase scenario discouragesalternative sources of supply.Because inflows forinvestment and otherlegitimate transactionswould be converted at officialprice as against the rulingrate on the street, which willserve as the transaction rate,investors feel shortchangedto sell their inflows at theofficial rate hence theirdecision to stay away fromthe market pending when theofficial rate is reflective of themarket situation.

We should also recognizethat in today’s society it isalmost impossible toeliminate consumption ofimports. Nigeria’s populationand demography makes it allthe more inevitable for thecountry to have a base levelof imports. A classicalexample is that 16 years ago,personal consumption oft e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n sbandwidth in Nigeria wasinsignificant, but todayalmost every high schooleducated Nigerian isconsuming bandwidthvirtually every minute of theday and these bandwidth isnot manufactured anyway inNigeria. The providers bethey local or foreign have topay for these consumptionsvia foreign exchange.

2000 2010 2015Exports (FOB) NGN

2,745,102,210,000.0012,011,475,890,000.008,871,595,980,000.00

Imports (CIF) NGN591,325,600,000.008,163,974,580,000.00

10,167,844,040,000.00Population

122,876,723159,424,742182,201,962

According to the Central

Bank, Nigeria’s currentmonthly import bill is about$4billion while earnings isless than $1billion, it thenmeans that if we limitourselves to the currentsources of inflow, which isprincipally crude oil sales,the price of crude oil in theinternational market mustrise from the current level ofabout $30 per barrel toabout $120 per barrel beforewe can balance ourinternational trade. In effect,the focus of Policy makersshould be rather onencouraging the expansionofsources of forex supplyagainst the current focus ofdemand management.

ALTERNATIVE POLICY

OPTIONS Expanding the Sources of

Forex Inflow. FlexibleExchange Rate Management

A flexible exchange rate islike a silver bullet that can beeffective for both demandmanagement and supplyexpansion. When the price ofa currency is adjusted toreflect the earnings capacity,the citizens capacity to

consume imported goods isautomatically reset at a lowerlevel as they can no longerafford many of the nonessential imported items.Irrespective of the so calledinelastic demand of Nigeriansfor imported goods, once thecurrency is devalued andtheir Naira income is notadjusted in the same ratio,citizens will reorder theirpriorities and eliminate itemsthat they can no longerafford.

In many instances, citizens

will look for local alternativesto the imported items andshift their patronage to suchlocal substitutes. Theincrease in demand for thelocal substitute will spurincrease in production andpossible improvement inquality. With improvedquality and lower export cost,Traders may considerexporting such improvedlocal products to neighboringAfrican countries and may befrom there to Europe, Asia,America and other parts ofthe World. For emphasis, wehave a proof of concept of thismodel in the 1980s during theStructural AdjustmentProgram when made in Abashoes, bags and otherleatherwears became exportcommodities to Ivory Coast,Ghana, Togo, Gabon, CameronCongo Democratic Republic,etc.

Concessioning ofInfrastructure

The government has alreadyindicated in its intention toborrow about $4.5billionfrom the international marketto fund the budget deficit,which is basically going intoinfrastructure development.News have it that thegovernment may have alreadystarted exploratory talks withAfDB and World Bank forconcessionary budget loans of$3.5billion. While we support

these efforts, we are convincedthat the government does notand will not have the financialresources to fund theinfrastructure gap in thecountry. Without efficientinfrastructure, the countrywould never become acompetitive market for

domestication of ourdownstream petroleumindustry will createemployment and possibleearn the country foreignexchange from export.

Use trade policy to

stimulate specific sectorsThe government should

adopt policies similar to theCement industry policy tostimulate investment inspecific sectors of theeconomy where Nigeria hascomparative advantage. Thepolicies should be such thatwill encourage valueaddition instead ofproduction of raw materials.For instance, thegovernment should renewthe previous government’sdrive towards theimplementation of theCassava policy, Sugar policyand Automobile policy.Similar policies should alsobe enacted for petroleumrefining, palm oil/produceand vegetable oil refining,Sesame seeds, Cocoa,Cotton, Granite, furniture,leatherwears, etc. Should wegrow these sectors to thepoint of producing globallycompetitive final productsfrom the abundantlyavailable raw materials, wewould have succeeded inachieving the much desiredimport substitution,conserve our foreignreserve and possibly earnsome foreign exchange.

CONCLUSION While we clearly support a

more flexible exchange ratemanagement, we stronglybelieve that devaluation alonewill not address the problemsof the economy. We need acocktail of policies which willinclude exchange rateadjustment, creating windowsof investment for long-termfunds through concessioningof commercially viableinfrastructure, fullderegulation of thedownstream petroleumindustry and stimulatinginvestment in sectors whereNigeria has comparativeadvantage, as well as investingheavily in social infrastructuresuch as health, education,security, etc. It is such holisticapproach to economicmanagement that will changethe structure on Nigerianeconomy and wean it fromdependence on Oil for exportearnings.

The concerns of thegovernment have been thatthese routes will inflict painson the citizens; unfortunately,there is not easy route out. Wehowever believe that it isbetter for the citizens to takethis pain once and have theeconomy restructured so thatwe will not be exposed toanother crude oil crises as wesuffered in the 1980s, 1990s,2008 and 2015/16.

for inflow of long-term capitalinto the country. A goodexample is the 1,342 KMstandard gauge rail line fromLagos to Kano which wasawarded to a Chinesecompany by the Obasanjogovernment in 2006 at a costof $8.3billion but canceled bythe Yar’ Adua government in2007. At present, theFederal governmentobviously does not havemoney to fund suchambitious project, which iscritical to the economicdevelopment of the country.Should this rail corridor beconcessioned, the countrywill receive foreign directinvestment of about$8.3billion (assuming thatthe cost is still the same) andstil l enjoy the catalyticbenefit of the infrastructuretoeconomic development.Several projects of similarnature that are bankable canbe left in the hands of theprivate sector to develop. Aproof of concept – virtuallyall the shopping malls inNigeria were funded withforeign private equitycapital.

Deregulate thedownstream of thePetroleum Industry.

A proper deregulation ofthe prices of petroleumindustry will triggerinvestment into that sector.The current modulatedpricing system has clearlynot attracted investors andwould not likely attractinvestors. A shift from afinished products importingnation to local refining willreduce Nigeria’s monthlyimport bills from $4billionto $2.4billion based on CBNstatement that refinedpetroleum productsimportation account for40% of the total demand atthe official foreign exchangemarket.

Beyond that, the

manufacturing. Wetherefore believethat the way to gois to concessionsome of the criticalinfrastructure thatare commerciallyviable such ast r a n s p o r tinfrastructure –Rail lines,H i g h w a y s ,S e a p o r t s ,Airports, etc. andinvite privatesector capital tobuild thesei n f r a s t r u c t u r eunder BuildOperate andTransfer (BOT).

This will create a

veritable channel

Unfortunately, theshallowness of supplyin the alternativemarkets and hugedemand is drivingimporters to a statehysteria, as theyseem to be ready topay any price tomeet their demand

John Chukwu is thegroup CEO, Cowry AssetManagement Ltd

30 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

CMYK

Economy

SOME Leading EconomicIndicators, LEIs, are

pointing to a year-on-yearcontraction in growth inJanuary 2016, which may seeNigeria’s economy returning agrowth rate of less than one percent in the first quarter, 2016,if the trend continues.

But some other internationalreports indicate that thedevelopment is likely to be aglobal phenomenon thoughsub-sahara Africa and othercommodity dependenteconomies which includeNigeria, may be worst hit.

The LEIs compiled byanalysts at Nairametrics, signala significant increase in the riskof recession, and are a pointerto the poor state of the Nigerianeconomy requiring urgentpolicy response to stimulategrowth.

Of the nine indicators traced,only two showed expansion orpositive development while therest seven were negative.

For instance allocations fromthe Federation AccountAllocation Committee, FAAC, amajor determinant of publicsector solvency across the threetiers of government, was downby 26 per cent y-o-y, signalinga significant reduction in thespending capacity of thevarious governments.

Obviously the above situationwas a direct consequence of adownward trend in anotherindicator, international oilprices, which was down by 41percent.

Also, the value of the localcurrency, Naira went downmassively with the exchangerate indicator showing adepreciation of about 51 percent in the parallel marketwhich is negative forconsumers.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange,NSE, Index has lost 19 percent,while the cumulative effect oninvestors’ wealth from that hasseen N1.7 trillion wiped off themarket capitalisation of listedstocks.

The LEIs listing also cited FBNQuest manufacturing PurchasingManagers Index, PMI, whichtracks five variables of output,including employment, neworders, delivery times fromsuppliers and stocks of purchases,recorded a contraction in January2016, compared to January 2015.

The PMI declined in theheadline to 44.6 with four sub-indices in negative territory. Areading below 50 representscontraction or negative growth.

The National Bureau ofStatistics, NBS, had reported acontinued inflationary pressurewith the headline increasing to 9.6percent in the period.

On the positives the LEIs listed

Private Sector Credit and theBroad measure of money supply,M2, growing by 3.3 and 6.8 percent respectively.

However, beyond Nigeriaglobal reports point to creepingrecessionary monster into mosteconomies of the world.

Last weekend’s chat in CNBC,global financial medium, hadnoted that since corporate profitsturned negative in mid-2015, WallStreet has pondered whether it’sjust a passing phase or a signal ofsomething worse with discussantsindicating that historically thelater may be the reality.

Historically, recessions havefollowed consecutive quarters ofearnings declines 81 percent of thetime, according to an analysisfrom JPMorgan Chase strategists,who said they combed through115 years of records for theirfindings.

Of the remaining 19 percent ofthe time, recession was onlyavoided through either monetaryor fiscal stimulus. With the USFederal Reserve Bank holdinglimited easing options theprospects for help are not good.

The warning comes amid a stockmarket hovering aroundcorrection territory and a mixedeconomic picture.

Citigroup, last week warned ofescalating risk of a globalrecession, though data lastThursday on durable goods orderssuggested the manufacturingsector may be shaking off acontraction phase. “Absent a

pickup in consumption andfurther weakening in the U.S.dollar, we continue to see risingrisk of earnings recession in theU.S.” JPMorgan’s equity strategyteam said in a note to clients.

Corporate earnings in the USand most part of the worldincluding Nigeria, began toweaken significantly in the thirdquarter of 2015.

The drop became morepronounced in the nearly

completed fourth quarterreporting season, which is likelyto see a drop of 3.6 percent, andworst rate in Nigeria has alreadybeen reported.

Worse, future estimates aredeclining, indicating the damagewon’t end until at least the thirdquarter of 2016.

Despite the mounting problems,JPMorgan still only assigns a one-third chance of recession this year,though the probability seems to

be rising. The firm said itsQualitative Macro Indexmeasuring business conditionsshows “a cycle that remains incontraction (weak anddecelerating) over the comingmonths.”

The index’s reading is consistentwith a bear market 64 percent ofthe time and has been below thecurrent level just four times since1980, each occasion signaling arecession.

Stories BY EMEKAANAETO, Economy Editor

Economic indicators point tocontinued contraction

Effective tax system develops economy — KaleAMIDST concerns over policy

options towards revampingNigeria’s economy, Statistician-General of the Federation and ChiefExecutive of National Bureau ofStatistics, Dr. Yemi Kale, has pointedout the need for strategies that wouldensure not just economic growth butall inclusive development.

In a paper he presented last week atthe seventh Stanbic IBTC BankInvestors Conference, Kale stated thatGross Domestic Products, GDP,growth is not necessarily synonymouswith development, as development ismulti-dimensional by nature and moreintricate.

He explained that GDP growth isnecessary but not sufficient for

development; “so you must grow todevelop but growth doesn’t alwaysguaranty development”.

He said that one of the importantlinks between growth anddevelopment is through taxes, addingthat “it is expected that as GDP oroutput grows companies pay highertaxes to government and it is thathigher revenue from higher growththat will be used to fund developmentprojects.

“If, however, government cannotcollect those taxes because of a weaktax system or, like in the case ofNigeria the economy is largelyinformal and outside the control of taxauthorities, then the economy can onlykeep growing to a point, but without

the associated growth related taxrevenue needed for developmentbeing collected.

“On the other hand, if taxes fromhigher output can be collected but arenot used to fund development projectsand is instead used to fundconsumption, then again growth maynot translate to development”.

Kale also stated that growth may notnecessarily result in a correspondingrise in jobs, explaining that thisdepends on the nature of that growth.

In his words, “if our economy isgrowing as a result of largely capitalintensive or technological intensivesectors like telecoms, then output cangrow without creating jobs”.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 31

Advertising & Media

Everyday consumersroutinely encounter

marketing efforts that promotean endless variety of brandsand products. Unsurprisingly,consumers are weary, guarded,and circumventing any attemptby marketers to gain theirattention. Experientialmarketing thus engagesconsumers on a more intimateand personal level by buildingmeaningful connectionsthrough shared moments andevents. Princewill Ekwujurusought the views of Gil Kimani,new Managing Director of EXPMarketing Nigeria, who hashad experiences in Africanmarkets.

Challenging market:I am not sure if the Nigerian

market is actually strange, butI think the market is a bit morechallenging compared to othermarkets, giving the swell sizeof the country. Having operatedin a 22 million to 40 millionpopulation market is differentfrom having to do business in170 million population market. Strange!. I don’t think, butchallenging, no matter howchallenging it is, it poses formore opportunities

From the experientialmarketing stand point, giving

Experiential marketingis taking technologicaltwist — EXP boss

the challenging nature of themarket, it, shows that there ismore need for us asexperiential marketers to besure that our brands connectwith consumers, and assuch we have to deploytools and tactics that will getthe brand we manage orlook after get highershare of the consumer heart.

Economic crunch:You are right, when there is a

likely economic crunch, themarketing department is theone CEOs always look into, andthe first point of call of cuttingbudget. Is it actually the rightstrategy?. That is up for debate,there have been a lot ofdiscussions and whitepapersaround such strategies. Thereare those that are completelyagainst it and have put uprational defense, that is whyit is not naturally a good move.

So far as I have witnessed inthe past weeks or so, marketers have now understood that thereis the need to keep momentumin respect of their brandpresence. As much as you knowacross board there will be somereduction in terms of spendingin terms of professional budget.I do not believe they willcompletely cut into themarketing budget.

I think however that there

will be a reduction in spend.The challenge that is actuallyposed is how do we take thatsame one dollar and generatea true value out of it. I thinkfor any marketer this is actuallythe idea condition, because interms of opulence we tend tospend without too much regardto what they do.

In this respect, we have todo it right, look for the rightsolutions, not to go forqualitative kind of approaches,

but not quantitative kind ofapproaches. I think wemight have a bit of reduction, Ithink we will see more brandsbeing loud, because, like us inEXP, in whatever we do we givevalue. We give more voice to thebrand.

Creativity and Innovation:We are always prepared to be

creative and innovative. I thinkgone are the days when onecould employ the same tacticsovertime. I think without thedown turn the country is facingright now, consumer habit had habit overtime has beenchanging. Today we are into thedigital world, the digital space,today consumers touch pointmeet brands at different levels,today consumer touch pointsare no longer what they usedto be some years ago, rightnow what we think about iswhat the channel means, whatthe touch point means.

Skye Bank promoproduces 25m i l l i o n a i r e s

In the eight months of theSkye Bank “Reach for

the Skye” millionaire promo, 25millionaires have so far beenproduced, as a student wins inSokoto.

Speaking, Head, RetailBanking at Skye Bank Plc,Nkolika Okoli, said, in eightmonths, the millionaire rewardscheme has produced 25millionaires and winners ofN250, 000 and N100, 000consolation cash prize winnersand other gift items have alsobeen won.

Okoli further stated that theobjectives of the promo were toencourage a savings culture inthe country while improvingthe lives and businesses ofcustomers, in line with themission and values of the bank.

“We have received feedbackfrom winners from other geo-political zones who ploughedback their winnings into theirbusinesses. Other customershave also confirmed that theprize money came in veryhandy as payment foroutstanding loans or a fund foremergencies” Okoli disclosed.

“At Skye Bank, we find thisvery encouraging because weunderstand the importance ofsustaining a savings cultureand encouragingentrepreneurship” she added.

At the sokoto draw, Dahiru

Today, we are intothe digital world,the digital space,today consumerstouch point meet brands at differentlevels

NAICOM, NCRIB set up joint comtte to reviewbrokers' requirements

President of the NigerianCouncil of Registered

Insurance Brokers (NCRIB)Mr. Kayode Okunoren saidthat it has set up a joint adhoccommittee with the NationalInsurance Commission(NAICOM) to review the listof requirements expectedfrom brokers for renderingreturns to NAICOM on ayearly basis.

Okunoren who stated thisduring its February edition ofmembers evening in Lagossaid that the move will pavethe way for better and earlycompliance of members.

Okunoren said that it isunprofessional for anypracticing broker to wait till itscertificate is lapsed beforefiling necessary documents

with the authorities.He added that the

Governing Board hasconsidered the retention ofthe Help Desk earlierestablished as a standingbody to assist members inaddressing areas that portendchallenges for members with

regards to compliance withregulatory institutions.

On joint technical committeeof NIA and NCRIB, he saidthat the committee to work outsome market agreementsbetween the two bodies haveconcluded their sittings,adding that the report of the

Lasaco committed toprovide support foreconomic activities— Akinyanju

AGM Marketing ofLasaco Assurance Plc,

(Lagos & South-West), Mr.Akintunde Akinyanju, has saidthat the company is committedto provide support to economicactivities in such a way thatchallenges do not cut short theaspirations of investors andstakeholders.

Akinyanju stated this at theNigeria-British Chamber ofCommerce bi-monthlymembers’ evening sponsoredby the Lasaco in Lagos.

Also, Lasaco marketing drivereceived a big boost with theendorsement of the pastpresident of Nigeria-BritishChamber of Commerce, Mr.Micheal Olawale-Cole.

Managing Director ofUniversal Insurance

Plc, Mr. Ben Ujoatuonu, hassaid that the company isleveraging electronic platformsto deepen its operations.

Ujoatuonu stated this whenthe company hosted themembers evening of theNigerian Council of RegisteredInsurance Brokers (NCRIB) inLagos, adding that the

Universal Insurance leveraging on electronicplatforms to deepen operations — Ujoatuonu

company is workingassiduously to be amongst topten insurance firms in thecountry.

He noted that the firm wouldsoon engage more hands todrive its operations, even asplans are in top gear to openmore branches.

Ujoatuonu said the firm haspaid over N300 million claimsin the past three years,

Insurance

Committee, which, amongother things, consideredcommission rates for brokersare to be ratified by theGoverning Boards of the NIAand NCRIB and go throughthe approval of NAICOMbefore it could fully come onstream.

Stories byROSEMARY ONUOHA

stressing that the firm hascontinued to make profitswithin the same period.

He called on the public toembrace insurance especiallynow that the economy is facedwith challenges, adding thatthe firm would continue toensure that appropriateinsurance products are madeavailable to meet the needs ofthe insuring public.

•Gil Kimani

32 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Omoh Gabriel - Group Business Editor

Babajide Komolafe - Deputy Business Editor

Clara Nwachukwu - Energy Editor

Peter Egwuatu - Asst. Business Editor

Yinka Kolawole - Snr Bus. Correspondent

Favour Nnabugwu - Insurance Correspondent

Godwin Oritse - Maritime Correspondent

Godfrey Bivbere - Maritime Correspondent

Michael Eboh - Energy Reporter

Franklin Alli - Industry/Agric. Reporter

Ifeyinwa Obi - Maritime Reporter

Rosemary Onuoha - Insurance Reporter

Nkiruka Nnorom - Capital Market Reporter

CONTRIBUTORS

Princewill Ekwujuru - Media/Marketing

Jonah Nwokpoku - E-Commerce

Naomi Uzor - Industry

Providence Obuh - Micro Finance

LAYOUT - Graphics Department

(0805 220 1997)

Business & Economy

CMYK

A Team from IMF, recentlyconsulted with

relevant government Agenciesand officials to assess theeconomic impact of the crashin oil revenue and theproposed responses to addressthe ‘’near-term vulnerabilities’’and those fundamental reformswhich are required to promotesustained economic growth andreduce poverty.

The Team’s recommen-dations, reflect the self evidentneed for reforms which wouldimprove fiscal discipline andalso reduce the presentimbalance between our grossexport and import values;furthermore, the IMF report re-echoed the need to broaden thetax base and to implementthose measures that wouldboost the ratio of non oilrevenue to Gross DomesticProduct. The Team advised thatsustained private sector ledgrowth requires a competitiveeconomy, which the reportsuggests, can evolve with anexchange rate policy that isallowed “to reflect marketforces”, and thereforerecommended that ‘’restrictionson access to foreign exchangeshould be removed”.

Although the IMFacknowledges that “CBN haseased monetary conditions”,the Team however observes thatthere is still a ‘’need to ensurea strong and resilient financialsector that can support privatesector investment acrossproduction segments,(including SMEs) atreasonable funding cost’’.There is nothing new in theserecommendations, as theysimply amplify the same selfevident prescriptions withoutdefining the appropriatemedium that would guaranteea cure. For example, if youhave not identified the antidoteto the poison of systemicsurplus Naira, how do youbring down cost of funds froma clearly prohibitive twentypercent plus to ‘’more

reasonable’’ and progressive 4-7% interest rates that wouldfacilitate industrial consolida-tion and rapid job creation?

The IMF report, inexplicablyshifted attention from thealbatross of liquidity surplus,that undeniably fuels inflationwell beyond best practicemodels below 2%; or, is therean unwritten law that countrieslike Nigeria must not enjoyminimal inflation and trulycatalystic low cost of fundsbelow 6% across the board?Surely, it is not so difficult toappreciate that all static incomeearners, particularly,pensioners and other lowincome earners will lose 50%of the purchasing value of theirincomes every five years, ifinflation continuously trendscloser to double digit rate.

Indeed, if the IMF sincerelyexpects sustainable inclusivegrowth for Nigeria, there is noway they would have failed toexamine the persistent cause ofthe systemic surplus Nairawhich forces CBN to regularlycommit to reckless financialmanagement to fight inflation,when it involuntarily sets outto crowd out borrowing andconsumer demand bymarginally reducing thepersistent liquidity challengewith unreasonably highinterest payments on moneysthat it would simply borrow andstore as sterile and idle funds.

Similarly, it is the same threatof inflation that instigates selfflagellating double digit CBNMonetary Policy Rates, in placeof more supportive rates below2% adopted by MonetaryAuthorities in disciplined andmore successful economies.

Instructively, if therecommendation for the‘’removal of restrictions onaccess to foreign exchange’’was adopted, the Nairaexchange would have sinceplummeted below N1000=$1.

In such event, the World Bankwould step up, to advanceNigeria, another dollardenominated loan, withshylock terms, to defend theNaira; regrettably, ultimately,the Nigerian economy wouldunravel and the Naira rate willunfortunately track the GhanaCedi which eventuallyexchanged for over 10,000=$with still no respite.

Nonetheless, the IMF’srecommendation that Nairaexchange rate should beallowed to reflect market forcesmay seem credible andprogressive; the realityhowever, is that the Naira willcontinue to have absolutely nochance against the dollar, if themoney market remainsdeliberately skewed, as itpresently is, with persistentlysurplus Naira liquidity againstrationed dollar Auctions;Nevertheless, CBN’smonopolistic compulsive dollarauctions to banks, is certainlynot commercial best practiceand unfortunately provides awide latitude for forex marketmalpractices.

It is unexpected that thecounterproductive impact ofCBN’s monopolisticstranglehold on the forex

market escaped the notice of theIMF Team; however, if CBNretains its monopoly of dollarsupply, unending Nairadepreciation will becomeinevitable, and ultimately noteven a steady rise in crudeprices will save us; after all, theNaira rate inexplicablyremained between ‘weak andstagnant’ even when reservesbountifully approached $60bwhen the oil market wasfortuitously very buoyant.

Devaluation does not holdsany other promise for Nigeria,other than the obviouslymisguided and unrealisableexpectation that matchingofficial with parallel marketexchange rates will attractforeign investors or ensurecompetitiveness of theNigerian economy.Nonetheless, Naira’sdevaluation from 0-50kobobefore 1979 to thepresentN200=$1 did not attractmuch more than about $20bnin foreign investments, i.e apaltry annual average of$540m; worse still, foreigninvestors were ‘smart’ enoughto invest primarily ineconomically, minimallyimpactful, but secure and highyielding federal governmentbills and bonds!

The unusually wide gapbetween the official andparallel Naira exchange rates,has intuitively engendered theobservation that Nigeria’seconomy will only becomecompetitive if Naira is devaluedand brought closer to the streetmarket rate. Instructively,however, despite serial Nairadevaluation, from 50kobo toN200=$1 Nigeria’s economyremained neither diversifiednor internationally competitive;well, maybe a furtherdevaluation to N300=$1 mayjust change our fortunes; butsuch expectation must bepredicated on the parallel

market rate remaining static;consequently, if the root causeof the deliberate marketimbalance against the Naira isnot squarely addressed, thecall for further devaluationbeyond N300=$ will againbecome clarion from misguidedand self serving experts.

Fortunately, President Buhariis not fooled by the falsepromises that advocates ofdevaluation canvass. ThePresident is sharply aware thatthe intensity of deepeningpoverty in Nigeria, loyallycorrelates with Naira’s steadydepreciation, even in times ofplenty. Buhari certainlyrecognises that devaluationinstigated and has sustainedour economy’s debilitatingbrain drain and the massmigration of our youths togreener pastures.

Besides, further devaluationwill only precipitate Labour’sagitation for wage increases,while pension incomes willinvariably gradually becomevalueless. Furthermore, theinevitable inflationary spiralinstigated by a hugedevaluation will invariablyreduce consumer demand andadversely affect investmentdecisions, with collateraldamage on employmentopportunities.

Worse still, if the dollar sellsofficially for N300=$ andabove, fuel price will spiralbeyond N130/litre and makederegulation and the removalof fuel subsidy impossible.Sadly, Nigeria’s celebratedGDP of US$ 510bn willinvariably also shrink below$300bn, while the current stockmarket capitalisation of about$42bn will similarly recedebelow $25bn and make themarket vulnerable to an easytake over by foreign portfolioinvestors.

In the above circumstances,Buhari must be encouraged toresist further Nairadevaluation. Save the Naira,save Nigeria.

DEVALUATION: IMF VS BUHARI

Besides, furtherdevaluation willonly precipitateLabour’s agitationfor wageincreases, whilepension incomeswill invariablygradually becomevalueless.

THE Board of DAARCommunications Plc

has regretted its failure to paydividend to the company ’sshareholders since 2008 when itbecame public.

“I am at pains to state that sinceour company was listed on theNigerian Stock Exchange, NSE,DAAR Communications Plc hasnot paid out s ingle kobo asdividend which isn’t good enoughand we are determined to turn thistide,” the Chairman of the Board,

Chief Raymond Dokpesi (Jnr)told shareholders at the 6th and7th Annual General Meeting, ,AGM, in Abuja, yesterday.

He blamed the situation on thetax commitment of N3.4 billionto the federal government whichhe claimed affected its financialpositions in the two years ofoperation, 2013 and 2014, underconsideration.

According to the chairman,some measure of appreciableearnings were recorded in theyears under review but wereeroded by the liabilities .

“Your Company recorded

modest improvement in earningsin 2013 and 2014 of N5.6 billionand N6.9 billion respectively.These achievements translated toearnings growth of 33 per cent and23 per cent respectively overearnings recorded in theirpreceding year.

“Regrettably, the Companyrecorded loss after taxation ofN3.4 billion in 2013. However. There was improvement inoperation in 2014 as the loss aftertaxation was drastically reducedto N0.107 billion . These lossesarose from increasing cost ofoperation which was not matchedwith corresponding growth inearnings due to dwindlingadvertising budgets.

DAAR Communications regretsfailure to pay dividend…pledges better deal for investors

By EMMA UJAH,Abuja Bureau Chief

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016—33

CMYK

Send Opinions & Letters to:opinions1234@yahoo.com

Myth of deregulationMyth of deregulationMyth of deregulationMyth of deregulationMyth of deregulationBy Paul Odili

*Mr. Odili, a public affairs analyst,wrote from Asaba, Delta State.

THE people of the NigerDelta are “one people from

the same tree.” This is a basicfact, but it assumes far greatersignificance when this opensecret is revealed by HRH OmobaGodfrey Ikenwoli Emiko, the Oluof Warri, leader and symbol ofthe Itsekiri Nation.

His actions since his coronationon December 12, 2015 andinterview in the SaturdayFebruary 20, 2016 VanguardNewspaper maybe anindication that the restive NigerDelta has a mighty force of peacesweeping through it. One of themajor statements he made in theinterview is that “Being inconflict with the Ijaws is the mostunfortunate thing to havehappened to the Itsekiris, becausethey are supposed to be our closestneigbours, with whom we haveinter-married the most.”

During those tragic conflicts inthe 1990s, I was a sort of specialcorrespondent for Vanguard on

Niger Delta people, fNiger Delta people, fNiger Delta people, fNiger Delta people, fNiger Delta people, flololololow intw intw intw intw into ao ao ao ao acommon rivercommon rivercommon rivercommon rivercommon river

the Niger Delta and was assignedto do some reports which requiredmy interviewing leaders from bothsides. I was given the address of ahouse in Lagos where leaders ofItsekiri youths met regularly tostrategise on the conflict and plannew moves. When I announced mypresence, the inhabitants seemedstunned. They knew me, and oneof them blurted “You are Ijaw”. Ianswered in the affirmative.Another asked in surprise why Iwas not afraid to come to thehouse, I answered that we arebasically brothers, besides, theperson who sent me, Mr. SamAmuka, Publisher of theVanguard, is an Itsekiri elder andone of the best known Itsekiris.He knew I was Ijaw beforeassigning me, but he knows I willdo a professional job.

The Olu told a personal familystory “My father of blessedmemory, Erejuwa II, his motheris from Escravos. The fiveprominent Itsekiri royal families

today, their mother is Ijaw.” Thisis quite familiar. During theconflict, I had often wondered howboth sides could differentiatethemselves; it was not unlikelythat blood relations attackedthemselves.

I recall the Urhobo-Itsekiriconflict. Again, I was confidentthat blood relations wereattacking themselves. At thattime, I had a journalist colleaguein Lagos who seemed lost inthought. I asked her what theproblem was, she shook her headand smiled ruefully, “Its myparents, old people; my motherasked my father ‘why are yourpeople killing my people?” Themother is Itsekiri, the father,Urhobo. That was the dilemmamany from the Niger Delta hadduring those crazy conflictswhich were partly elite fight overcrumbs from oil companies. I hadoften wondered what I would do if

Ijaws and Isokos were to have sucha conflict; my paternal andmaternal grandmothers wereIsokos, and both Ijaw and Isokowere spoken in my home. In mypart of Ijawland, it is difficult tofind a family without Isokoconnections, and the language isused as one of commerce.

My father told me a story thathappened in the 1920s about adispute over land with someIsokos in the creeks. The youthsmobilised to go and retake theirlands. He said at a point, he gotup and said while it was painfulthat part of their ancestral landwas being occupied by Isokos, hecannot shed the blood of hismother’s people. His brother gotup to support him, more youthstook his side, and the attack hadto be abandoned.

I agree with the Olu’s analysisthat most of the problems Ijawsand Itsekiris have are “morepolitical because an Ijaw man,who knows how the relationshipwas built over the years, wouldnot attack an itsekiri man onwhatever ground.”

The Olu’s recall of two otherincidents were quite touching.The first was that when Itsekiriswere excluded from the NationalConference convened by theJonathan administration, “ChiefTunde Smooth, an Ijaw, was thefirst person that wrote in thepapers that it was wrong for anItsekiri man not to be there.”Subsequently, Chief IssacJemide was invited to theconference. The lesson he says isthat “ The Ijaw man should fightfor an Itsekiri man and anItsekiri man should do likewise.

The same thing should apply toan Urhobo man, and this wouldin turn make us a strong bodydefending each other.”

This brings me to his nextillustration. The Olu’s father, HisMajesty Erejuwa II wasdethroned as the Olu in 1964.But when Major General DavidEjoor (Rtd) an Urhobo, becamethe new Governor of the thenMid-West Region, he reinstatedhim. The Olu recalls “An Urhoboman brought my father fromthere (exile in Ogbese, behindOkada) saying ‘go away, go backto your throne’ and that was it. Iwill never forget thatexperience.”

The Niger Delta people aretributaries flowing into acommon river; the waters cannotbe differentiated, and if any ofthe tributaries is contaminated,the whole river is polluted.

The Olu’s recipe fordevelopment in the area issimple; engage the people ingainful employment, providebasic infrastructure such as alink bridge from Ogbe-Ijoh toOde-Itsekiri and resuscitateWarri Port. On the nationallevel, he suggests grazing sitesfor Fulani herdsmen to eliminatethe recurrent bloody farmers-herdsmen conflicts

The Olu who is reaching out totraditional rulers in the Ijaw andUrhobo kingdoms needs to beencouraged and supported in hischosen path. There are those whoprofit from conflict, such peoplewho can be found in allnationalities in the regionincluding the Itsekiri, will notwant him to succeed.

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)was in the streets across Nigeria

recently protesting and picketing officesof electricity distribution companies(DISCOS). NLC was fighting againstFebruary 1 approved increase of over 45%by electricity regulator, NigeriaElectricity Regulatory Commission(NERC).

The policy to increased electricity pricearose from the decision by NERC andindeed the federal government to createwhat is termed bankable price regime forcost recovery by the investors who boughtassets of defunct National ElectricityPower Authority (NEPA). It is also arguedby the proponents of price increase that toensure the distribution companies andothers in the electricity value chain breakeven, Nigerians have to pay more.

Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Minister ofPower, has been a strong advocate of thisnew price regime insisting, thatNigerians must bear the cost if only forthe survival and growth of the electricitysub-sector. He also claims that under thenew price regime, a willing buyer andseller structure will emerge. If Iunderstand this point at all, it means thosewho can afford to pay for 24 hourselectricity can do so and should not enjoythe subsidy that would otherwise happenif price is kept low. It is further argued byFashola that in satisfying demand of thosewho can pay and should pay more, theelectricity companies would haverecovered their cost and will invest moreand thus have the spare electricity to giveto other Nigerians, who it is assumedmight not pay as much.

The other argument is that there hasbeen massive leakage and fraud arisingfrom inadequate metering system inNigeria leading to a lot of commerciallosses by the distribution companies.Because of these losses, the distributioncompanies have not been able to make

more investments and many if not most arein the loss column. This is despite the fixedcharge (now abolished) which was put inplace by the distribution companies tomitigate their losses.

In a way, the labour protest isreminiscent of fuel subsidy debate andprotests in Nigeria, which has often beenled by NLC. And this has been the casesince Nigeria under President IbrahimBabaginda adopted the free market,liberalised economic policies under theStructural Adjustment Programme (SAP)in 1985. SAP may be dead but its legacyis still with us. As government withdrawsfrom the commanding heights of theeconomy (supposedly becoming smaller)and replaces it with private sector led,price spike has become the naturalcorollary.

It has been the case with fuel. It has beenthe case with the banking sector. It hasbeen case with transportation. It is nowwith electricity and it is going to be thecase with any economic activity that isgoing to be private sector led, especiallyin Nigeria. As a matter of fact, telephonemay be abundant and affordable in termsof prices but many Nigerians are notsatisfied that the telephone companies areoffering the quality of service expected ofit considering the huge return it makes.Thus, the telecommunication companiesare making a kill at the expense ofNigerians. The telecommunicationcompanies’ broadband penetration andthe sophistication of their technologies areopen to serious scrutiny. Deregulation policyhas not been able to solve these problems.And if we bother to look closer at these

sectors, there is likely to be all sorts of hiddensubsidies that Nigerians might not be awareof. For instance, when a Dangote or any bigcorporate player gets a waiver on imports,is the benefit of these transferred to end usersand consumers in the general public? Theanswer is no.

Now the question is why, why is theprocess of deregulation such a problematicthing in Nigeria? The reason is a fairlystraightforward one. The policy ofderegulation is a simple concept butextremely difficult to implement. Andmost times it does not yield the benefits itsstrongest devotee’s paint of it.Deregulators talk about competition, freeentry and exit, cheaper prices and betterquality products. In theory this may betrue but in the real world, this is not oftenthe case.

For one thing a deregulated market isthe easiest market to manipulate. It needseither one behemoth or collusion ofbusiness interests to dominate the marketand a monopolistic or oligopolistic marketis created as the case may be. This is thecase because governments in Nigeria donot quite have the grasps or interest orare in bed with private interests insupporting deregulation no matter howit is structured. Look at the cable televisionin Nigeria. It is a monopoly with Multi-Choice Nigeria enjoying monopoly profits.The aviation industry is a disaster evenafter it has been deregulated. Not a singleairline in Nigeria is a commercial success.The aviation industry has beenderegulated, yet it is not growing.

Those who crow about virtues ofderegulation do not point to its pitfalls,perhaps because they are more interestedin capturing the market than competingin the market. Why not, if you can getthe first mover advantage, you havealready locked-in the market. You thendrive out the competition and enjoymonopoly profits. With your firmdominating the market it does not takelong before the quality of products beginsto decline. This has been case study acrossboard.

In this context, there is very little to expectfrom the unbundled electricity sector. As amatter of fact, electric companies tend tobecome monopolies because of the natureof the sector, which is perhaps why manyNigerians wonder at any difference, if at allbetween now and when defunct NEPA wasin operation. This is the real danger.

Another thing, while in economicdefinition, market competition should leadto zero economic profits— a situationwhich enables companies to break evenand no more, what has happened in thederegulated market in Nigeria is that bigbusinesses has continued to earnstupendous profits in contrast to whatshould have happened in a competitivemarket. This fact is often obscured by thosewho trumpet deregulation as the cure-allidea. Actually, why should they ifNigerians are not asking the hard andtough questions.

As labour struggles to roll back the priceincreases of electricity, it should be notedthat deregulation is not by itself a badconcept. However, beyond its theoreticalconstruct, for deregulation to really work,it must be properly designed, it must bebacked by the right laws that should besubjected to constant review astechnology and business practicesevolves. Moreover, a deregulated marketmust have strong institutional structureto ensure the protection of the interest ofthe general public. The electricity priceincreases might be warranted—if you runthe numbers—but is there a justificationin asking consumers to pay more for poorservices by the distribution companies?On the other hand, with massive loss ofrevenue due to poor metering, etc, as wellas other legacy issues, the distributioncompanies and others in the value chaincannot possible survive as a business. Toavoid market failure with its catastrophicconsequences, something has to be done.This is the dialogue that should now takeplace.

The Niger Deltapeople aretributariesflowing into acommon river;the waters cannotbe differentiated,and if any of thetributaries iscontaminated,the whole river ispolluted

For deregulation toreally work, it must beproperly designed, itmust be backed by theright laws

34—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

OPINION

CMYK

Agenda for Buhari rescue confab

Buhari: The ultimate democratBy Tochukwu Ezukanma

THERE can be no freedom without the law. While it isthe law that limits our freedom, it is also the law that

guarantees our freedom. When there is no law to limitone’s freedom, there will be no law to guarantee hisfreedom. Therefore, democracy, with its entrenchedsafeguards and expansive latitude for individual rightsand freedom must inevitably be founded on the law. Theconstitution (the supreme law of the land) outlines thestructure and role of government and guaranteesindividual rights and dignity against governmentoppression. The Nigerian president is sworn to defend theconstitution of Nigeria, and according to this constitution,the primary purpose of government is the “security andwelfare of the people”.

President Buhari was under intense criticisms forwhat was seemingly a breach of the law; hisadministration’s continued detention of individualsalready granted bail by the courts. To his critics, it wasan unacceptable, blatant assault on the rule of law.The president’s defense of his action on grounds ofnational security did not impress his critics. Theyargued that the president is a dictator and that hisdisregard for a court ruling evinced his scorn for theseparation of powers and portends grave danger forNigerian democracy.

In granting bails to the accused, the court wasoperating within its constitutional purview. And,ordinarily, as no one is above the law, all, includingthe president, should be bound by a court order. Butwhat of if the court order is in conflict with thepresident’s oath of office to defend the constitution ofNigeria (with its fundamental objectives of “securityand welfare” of the people of Nigeria). In such a conflict, Mr. Ezukanma, a public affairs commentator,

wrote from Lagos.

THIS morning, I am surprised buthopeful. I am surprised at the speed

and expedition with which PresidentMuhammadu Buhari accepted the rescuelifeline thrown to him by his newfoundfriend and sympathiser of his AllProgressives Congress (APC) FederalGovernment, Nobel Laureate ProfessorWole Soyinka.

Last Thursday when I published anarticle entitled: “Soyinka’s Buhari rescuebid”, little did I know that I was going todo a sequel of sorts. When prominentindividuals and those not so prominentsound alerts as Soyinka did and profferadvice, our usually all-knowing andimperial Presidency usually feelsindignant and either ignores it or getsback with acid repartees. When ChiefObafemi Awolowo in 1980 warned thatthe Nigerian economy was in gravedanger, President Shehu Shagari’sFederal Government sent people like thelate Dr Umaru Dikko to dismiss it with acavalier wave of the hand and a flurry oftruculent rhetoric.

General Ibrahim Babangida’sgoverment was fond of responding to suchprodding with a terse one liner: “there isno alternative to SAP” (StructuralAdjustment Programme). OlusegunObasanjo would feel terribly insulted andeither send his special assistant versed inthe art of delivering abrasive insults (suchas Femi Fani-Kayode – this chap is stillactively practising his well-honed art) orhe (OBJ) would personally take up themike or pen (whichever was within easierreach) to deliver a “befitting” response.

It is not as if Buhari lacks the musketeerscapable of doing this dirty job. There is hisSpecial Assistant, Media and Publicity,Mallam Garba Shehu. There is SpecialAdviser, Media and Publicity, FemiAdesina (alias Kulikuli). There is also theMinister for Information and Culture,Alhaji Lai Mohammed, whose reputationgoes ahead of him, if you get me. And nowa new cadet has been added to thepresident’s cavalry: Tolu Ogunlesi, whocoordinated Buhari’s spins in foreignmedia, especially The EconomistMagazine.

Buhari’s eagerness to be rescued fromhis nine months of visionless anddirectionless economic programme is aconclusive evidence that he had noeconomic blueprint, let alone an economicteam, to carry it out. What else could itbe? Even his ardent supporters, such asProfessor Pat Utomi have openly said so.Remember it was Utomi who, about fivemonths ago, told those who complainedabout the President’s excessive pandering

to people from his section of the countryfor appointment of his inner governmentto shut up. He said Buhari, for all he cared,could appoint all his officials from hisvillage, provided they could deliver thegoods. Well, it would appear that Buharicould not find economists from his villageto employ?

So, I congratulate President Buhari forhis humility and openness of mind toaccept help. But I do not know what hewould have done if the advice had comefrom equally concerned Nigerians whoare not his “friends” like Soyinka. I say“friends”, because I expected Soyinka togo to Aso Villa and whisper the emergencyconference idea into Buhari’s ears. Basedon that, the President could, as usual, goto a choice foreign country and announcehis government’s intention to call aneconomic conference. It would have beenneater that way.

Nevertheless, it is not a sign of weaknessor foolishness for a leader to accept the offerof help when he seems lost for ideas orstrategies to tackle a challenge of thismagnitude. Nobody knows it all, except

the Obasanjos of this country.Now that we are told that conference is

not only imminent but already has a dateattached to it (March 10/11, 2016) whatshould it be all about? What should wediscuss? For me, the agenda is twofold: theimmediate and long term strategies.

The immediate include ways ofstabilising the gyrating Naira,considering options for economicdiversification away from oil dependencyand job creation. We must restore hope inour economy by reassuring those whooperate in it (investors, traders and theorganised private sector) that they willno longer be abandoned in an unmannedship at sea. The government must definea direction for the economy to enable uskey in and help Buhari to succeed.

But by for the most important objectiveof this conference should be to set the tonefor the implementation of the APC’smanifesto and Buhari’s campaignpromises. I don’t even know if he still looksat them at all. Buhari had promised,during the fight for nomination as hisparty’s candidate in December 2014, to“initiate action to amend the Nigerianconstitution with a view to devolvingpowers, duties and responsibilities to statesin order to entrench true Federalism andthe Federal spirit”.

This has been the primary agenda ofprogressives in Nigerian politics. The trueprogressives believe that the centralisedfederation foisted on Nigeria by themilitary is responsible for our economicbackwardness, particularly the heavycost of governance. It is responsible for thefact that recurrent expenditure takesthree quarters of the annual budget ofeach tier of government, especially theFederal Government.

If Buhari is a genuine progressive (andnot just a “progressive” to grabpresidential power) he must seize theopportunity of this conference to unfoldthe details of his agenda for economic

devolution. It is the states and the privatesector that create wealth and jobs, whilefederal government merely guides andensures the welfare and security of allNigerians and the territotiral integrity ofthe country. Even if Buhari and some ofhis cohorts from the North (who usuallyfootdrag about devolution of power) playsomnolent on this item, I expect Chief BolaTinubu to remind him that this was adriving force of the defunct ActionCongress of Nigeria (ACN) before itmerged with the other parties to form theAPC.

If this conference takes place and nothingconcrete is said about economicdevolution and the institution of truefederalism, then the APC FederalGovernment will, once again, be calledthe “one chance” regime that usedseductive promises to win election only todump them.

I have not set any agenda for Buhari onthis conference. I have only reminded himto do as he said he would when givenpresidential power.

Will he?

who should have precedence? Surely, it must be thePresident, elected by overwhelming popular mandateand not an appointed judge designated to interpret thelaw. Moreover, while the rulings of the judges arepredicated on the narrow confines of the law and itstechnicalities, the president has access to broadersources of information, and is privy of classifiedinformation not available to the judges. Therefore, hisdecisions on national security may take priority over acourt verdict. So, in ignoring a court order, in hisdetermined commitment to the central roles ofdemocratic government, as stipulated by the Nigerianconstitution, President Buhari was not being a dictator,but a democrat, essentially, the ultimate democrat.

In the United States of America, the courts have widepowers of judicial review. Unlike in Britain, where anact of Parliament binds the courts, in America, a courtin deciding a case before it, can disregard an Act ofCongress that it considers inconsistent with theConstitution. However, despite the enormous powersof the courts in America, a number of Americanpresidents have, in the past, defied court orders. Forexample, in the1830s, President Andrew Jacksonignored a Supreme Court order that voided a billordering all the Indian tribes to move went of theMississippi River. More recently, President Bill Clintondefied court rulings on affirmative action. These rarebut necessary breaches of court verdicts by UnitedStates presidents did not dismantle Americandemocracy or nudge the country into dictatorship.Therefore, President Buhari’s disregard of bail orderswas not tantamount to dictatorship, and was definitely,not a threat to democracy in Nigeria.

Presently, our deadliest national scourge is corruption.The piratical depredation – looting and tearing down -of this country by government officials in concert with

their political and business cronies is bleeding the countryto death. It has pervaded and perverted every Nigerianinstitution, including the ordinarily most incorruptible,like the judiciary, university and church. It has batteredour morality, corroded our will and distorted our values.It has caused us more deaths and social disruption (thoughless conspicuously), and undermined the security andwelfare of the country than Boko Haram terrorism. If notseriously checked, it will destroy this country.

A successful war against corruption will be remarkablysplendid. It will, among other things, result in a moreequitable distribution of the national wealth and thealleviation of the dreadful poverty of the Nigerian masses;make Nigerian institutions more responsive to the needsand aspirations of the people; elevate societal morals andethics; enhance social justice, political stability and therule of law, etc. A litany of the benefits of a victorious waron corruption reads like the electoral promises ofPresident Buhari. Invariably, for the president to upholdhis constitutional and electoral obligations to Nigerians,he must defeat the monster of corruption. Normally, thisshould be done in strict adherence to the standards of thelaw with its subtleties and technicalities and copiousscope for evading and frustrating prosecution. On theother hand, this monster is entrenched, resilient andutterly ruining the country. Therefore, fighting it demandsurgency, vigour and the administration’s willingness tosubordinate individual rights to the public good.

In resolving this moral dilemma, that is, in striking thedelicate balance between the niceties of the law and theexigencies of the war against corruption, the president’smoral and constitutional obligations to the people ofNigeria should transcend a court ruling.

If this conference takesplace and nothingconcrete is said abouteconomic devolutionand the institution oftrue federalism, then theAPC FederalGovernment will, onceagain, be called the “onechance” regime thatused seductive promisesto win election only todump them

Alex Otti: quotable quote

TO the agents of PDP and the AbiaState Government who desperately

want to hear us congratulate Dr. OkezieIkpeazu in the spirit of sportsmanship, myanswer is this: you are ignorant of themeaning of sportsmanship. From day one,you disobeyed the rules guiding the gameas you threatened, attacked, assaulted,intimidated, maimed innocent Abiansand violently rigged the election; so wherelay the spirit of sportsmanship in thecontest? While like I said earlier, we haveaccepted the unpopular judgment thatinjures the sensibilities of Abians, wecannot congratulate you as that wouldamount to endorsement of criminality,so rather than arrogantly be demandingfor unjust and undeserved congratulatorymessage from me and my party, the PDPshould rather express remorse seekrepentance, and be humble enough to seekfor forgiveness from God and Abians.

Like President George W. Bush said:“Terrorists can attack the foundation ofthe World Trade Centre and the Pentagon,but cannot touch the foundation ofAmerica”. I say to the agents of electionrigging and political violence that thoughyou may have hurt us temporarily, butyou cannot stop our collective desire,determination, and drive to reclaim Abiaand restore its pride and lost glory to theadmiration and appreciation of millionsof expectant Abians”. - At his recentthanksgiving in Aba.

“

Vanguard, MONDAY, February 29, 2016 —35

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36—VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

AKEREDOLU

Continues on page 37

DO you think Gov. AyodeleFayose’s consistent

criticism of PresidentMuhammadu Buhari is right?

On the contrary, we respectelders in Yorubaland. It is inother places that some peoplethink that all animals are equal,whereas in actual fact, not allanimals are equal. In politics ayoung man can stand up toraise an issue, but I personallythink that it is not right to abusethe President or to insult him.

You are insulting the wholenation, when you are insultingthe president, or when you areabusing him, you are abusingthe whole range of people whobelieve in him and put himthere. I don’t think it is right for any governor or anybodyat all to abuse the country andabuse the president.

You can make suggestion tohim as to what you thinkshould be done in certain areas,but nobody, either culturallyand whichever considerationyou put it, should abuse thePresident.

But we must respect those inhigher authority, even if it isyour opponent, you must try torespect and accommodatethem. I don’t think it is right toabuse or make negativeremarks about a well knowleader. I don’t think it is proper.

What is your take on thecriticisms against the mannerPresident Buhari is wagingthe anti-corruption war?

There is nobody who wouldstart something that thePresident is doing that wouldbe praised, because among thepeople he relied on, they foundfault.

At a point the treasury wasempty, what happened to it?So, people were wonderingwhy would anybody be bold

enough to run the affairs of thiscountry, because there wasnothing left in the treasury.

There were allegations ofsquandermania, people just dowhat they like, engagingpeople with huge sums ofmoney, hundreds andhundreds of million of nairawere distributed to individuals.

Those who collected themoney confessed that it wasmeant to help PresidentGoodluck Jonathan get back topower.

Some of them confessed thattheir party had no presidentialcandidate and they were readyto support anybody who couldgive them money.

The issue there goes to theroot of the matter that peoplewanted power by all means,buy it, steal it, rig it, bywhatever means you can get topower, get power by all meansand by any means. That is whathappened here. But one greatlesson we should all learn inthis matter, that people havethe last word. It has beendemonstrated that the people’svoice matters. Even theordinary man on the street sayshe doesn’t want this man,because it was such anoverwhelming victory that theygave Buhari.

Remember, here was a manwho had already thrown in thetowel, due to serial electoraldefeats, but suddenly, therewas a switch and people weresaying “Sai Buhari”, peoplewere already celebrating him,even before the election wasconcluded.

I always said to my peoplethat this party, APC didsomething right, whichpersuaded the people that theyare honest and full of integrity.They conducted openprimaries, the whole nationwas watching and when theycompleted the thing, even the

competitors were shaking eachother’s hands with a pledge tosupport each other. That is onelesson we should learn.

The fact that imposition at anylevel is not welcome and that isthe lesson I have been trying togive to the younger men that ifyou want to win an election, winthe heart of the people at theprimary level.

And ensure that whatever youare doing, you are doing it withhonest and good intention in theopen and don’t ever take forgranted the grace of God in thelives of the people, they have aright to choose who their leaderis, because that is the verymeaning of democracy,government of the people, by thepeople and for the people. If youare doing it secretly and you aredoing some tricks, some peoplemay not like it.

Do you approve of PresidentBuhari’s method in reining inNiger Delta militants, as againstthe pacifist method of formerPresident Jonathan?

Self discipline is what can takea man to where he wants to go.Self denial and self discipline arevery important in the life ofindividuals, and a nation shouldhave discipline, we can’tcontinue like this. If PDP hadcontinued for another five yearsto 10 years, we would have beenin trouble, there may have beenno country anymore. So therecomes a time when people muststand up and say, who are mine,where am I and how far am Igoing? Buhari is a man who iswell known for his disciplinarianpattern of life and he wants toapply it to governance.

He has the boldness and selfdiscipline to say let us disciplinethis nation. So, must we be soafraid of those who break pipes,so that there can be stability? Doyou bring stability by breakingall those things that the nation

spent so much money on? I don’tthink so. Discipline is necessary inthe life everybody.

Chief Awolowo said two thingsaffected his life, the grace of God andself discipline, if you don’t disciplineyourself and your government, youwould be afraid.

Look at the way we bring ourchildren up, some children arepampered, they can’t face life or theirown reality. It is better we face thesituation squarely and it will reach apoint where people would accept thefact that some people are in charge.

I think that even the bible, saysspare the rod and spoil the child, weneed discipline. We are only prayingthat God should spare and keep thelife of Buhari so that these saboteurswho feel so important that they candefile the laws and do what they like.

Members of the PDP describe theanti-graft fight as selective and anattempt to muzzle the opposition.Do you agree?

You know politicians have a wayof saying things, but I don’t think thatBuhari is oppressive in anyway, Idon’t think so. Discipline isdiscipline.

Even when the PDP iscomplaining that the President isgoing after their chieftains anddefying court orders to keep thembehind bars?

But the PDP chieftain put theirhands into the cooky jars of thenation. We would all becomewretched if we distribute it just aswe like. $2.1 billion was distributedto people when Boko Haram washaving a field day slaughtering ourpeople.

The situation was so bad, nodiscipline, no purposeful pursuit ofgoals, everybody got what hewanted, they were all struggling toget the bigger pie and Boko Haramwas making mince meat of oursoldiers, just because the moneymeant for the purchase of weaponsdisappeared into some peoples

EVANGELIST Bamidele Olomilua, formerGovernor of the old Ondo State and achieftain of the All Progressive Congress,in this interview spoke extensively onmany topical and controversial issuesincluding the formation of the APC and itspresidential election victory, PresidentMummadu Buhari’s approach togovernance, rule of law, anti-corruptioncrusade, the economy and the attitude ofGovernor Ayo Fayose.

Fayose lacksYoruba training— OLUMILUA•If Jonathan had won there would havebeen no more Nigeria

•Olomilua: I don’t think that Buhari is oppressive in anyway

By Rotimi Ojomoyela If PDP hadcontinued foranother fiveyears to 10years, wewould havebeen introuble, theremay have beenno countryanymore

ATTACKS ON BUHARI:

VANGUARD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 37

Continues from page 36

pocket.There is so much revealed and

disgraceful, now we cannotabuse anybody who says ordermust be restored. I think this iswhat Buhari is doing to restoreorder.

Even at the expense of rule oflaw?

Rule of law is good, but the lawis what you interpret it to be. Ifyou say stealing is part of the ruleof law, then we run the countryin dis-orderliness and disgraceand we get the consequences,rule of law makes people take$2.1 billion and nobody is ableto account for it concerning thepurpose for which it was meant. How did the money get to theirpocket, they need to explain a lotto do Nigerians.

Let’s be frank and factual aboutthis, get out the names of thosewho are stealing money, theymust have been put in charge,they must have abused theirposition.

Somebody raised the issue ofputting handcuffs on OlisaMetuh and somebody is talkingof abuse of his fundamentalhuman right, the money theystole, when you add it together,it’s enough to sustain this nationthrough the year.

So, fundamental humanrights? Yes, I always love to seethat people are not harassed,embarrassed or become victimsof abuse of power. The probecan’t be described as oppressionor abuse of human right. If wehave a thief around the houseand we always find out that evenour chicken are not safe, if theydidn’t find feathers of chickenaround his house, nobody willaccuse him. They can’t come andtake innocent people now, is itpossible?

I have been in governmentbefore, when they say theywanted to investigate me, I saidgood by all means, they shouldgo ahead. I said maybe theywould discover some of myentitlements and return it to me.I didn’t take them because I feltthey would be too much on oureconomy.

Governor Fayose has beenraising alarm for some timenow that President Buhari isplanning to use the outcome ofthe Military probe into thealleged partisanship of itsofficers in Ekiti 2014governorship election to unseathim, do you think this fear hasbasis?

I learnt that the militarydisciplined their men as regardsome misdemeanour, whichmeans they must have gotcertain facts.

The only thing I feel is that ifthe Federal Government feelsthat the election had beenwrongly interpreted to bring thewrong man here, they wouldstart with the IndependentNational Electoral Commission,if INEC now admit that they use

terrorism or oppression ofsomebody to declare the wrongcandidate.

Or if they found a fault in theprocess, intimidation,oppression, can that be used asa basis for removing theGovernor, would that besufficient reason for removinghim. Because he says they arethreatening to remove him. Howare they going to remove him?Who will make pronouncementfor his removal? Is it the court, the Federal Government orINEC? The fear of the Governor,would definitely create anatmosphere of fear for all themembers of his Government. Ithink his fear is unfounded.

There is an atmosphere ofconfusion in the country today,which was fuelled by the beliefthat your party was notprepared for governance, didyour party come to powerunprepared?

The formation of APC is alandmark in the politicaldevelopment of this nation, theparty was made up of allNigerians from every part of thecountry. In those days,principally in the West, we wereAction Group, we couldn’t getvotes from certain states in thenorth.

Things are changing, you maynot know it. They are changingso fast here, they are going toreduce the number of beggars inthe streets in the north, so thatevery child would haveopportunity, that is progress.They all have the opportunitynow, to be who God wants them

to be, when they are exposed toeducation and they have a rightto it.

Progressiveness means peoplemoving forward to a higherground to have a better view ofsituation. That is a progressivemovement.

But when you say conservative,we are here, my grandfather wasthe Emir of this village, only mychildren can have access to land,only my children can do thingshere. Some of my classmates Imet at the University of Ibadanwere either sons of emirs orprominent persons.

When you go to England, youwould find them in the samesituation. So they didn’t want achange but now the progressiveshave come together. It is alandmark achievement, thepeople are able to come together,you may say that they are not asfast as they ought to be in takingdecisions.

We thank God that he hasmade these progressive to cometogether so that this nation canmove forward.

APC is populated by formerPDP members and they wereintegral part of the changemovement, do you see thishaving any effect on theeventual life of the party as timegoes on?Five days is a long timein politics, the way you thinkyesterday is not the way you willbe thinking today and tomorrowis another new day, that is allabout politics. But people arenow becoming aware of the factthat if your neighbour madeprogress, he would consider theothers.

As an economist, do you agree witha section of the foreign media thatthe Federal Government N6.1trillion budget is defective?

There are two types of people, theoptimists and pessimists. There arepeople who are praying that Godwould help us, given all the moneythey stole in this country. More thanN9 trillion., and this man is fightingthat, that would stop and it will stopby the grace of God.

If it stops we will all be morecomfortable than we are. Even thevalue of our naira would increase.There was a time the Naira was twiceas strong as the dollar.

What has changed so much here,bad administration, careless act, justusing money without any concern forconsequences. Why did we have oneaccount now? Nothing will go amissanymore, those who have resourceswould have to pay for the progress ofthe society.

Of course the potentials of thiscountry is enormous. Hillary Clintononce queried, why is this country sowealthy and yet so poor. So muchwealth here and so much poverty,because the money does not reach thehand of the ordinary man on thestreet.

A lot of things are being correctedby President Buhari and at the end ofthis, you would see changes. We arenot going to borrow as much as theythink. Now we are turning our eyesto things we have and have not beenusing.

It was Obasanjo who said they muststop flaring our gas, from that decisionwe got $1.2 billion recently. UntilBuhari came, I never heard that gaswas fetching , $1.2 billion. We havewhat it takes, it is only for our eyes tosee and anchor God’s given gift to theprogress of the society. We aredestined to get better.

The formationof APC is alandmark inthe politicaldevelopment ofthis nation, theparty wasmade up of allNigerians fromevery part ofthe country

•Olomilua: A lot of things are being corrected by President Buhari

So much wealth,so much povertyin Nigeria— OLUMILUA

38 — Vanguard, MONDAY, February 29, 2016

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Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29 , 2016—39

BIAFRA: I'll rather die in prison than for Ohanaeze toclaim credit for my release —Kanu

By Clifford Ndujihe, ChrisOchayi & Omeiza Ajayi

ANAMBRA: NASS candidates ask INEC toimplement S-Court judgment•We're yet to get a copy of the judgment, status quo remains —INEC

ABUJA—ELEVEN Senateand House of

Representatives candidatesunder the Ejike Oguebego-ledexecutive of Peoples DemocraticParty, PDP, in Anambra State,have called on the Chairman,Independent National ElectoralCommission, INEC, ProfessorMahmoud Yakubu, to obey theJanuary 29 Supreme Courtjudgment and issue themCertificates of Return withoutfurther delay.

The candidates – SenatorAnnie Okonkwo, Chris Uba andJohn Emeka among others saidthey remain the PDP candidatesfor the 2015 polls as opposed toDr Andy Uba, Stella Oduah andothers who are currently in theNational Assembly. According tothem, the Supreme Courtjudgment set aside the order ofthe Court of Appeal, which ledto the removal of the list ofcandidates submitted by theAnambra State Chairman of thePDP before the 2015 generalelection.

Their counsel, Chief ChrisUche, SAN, wondered whyINEC is finding it difficult toobey the judgment of theSupreme Court.

Uche said that when theFederal High Court gave itsruling on the issue, INECcomplied immediately withoutseeking for clarification and thatwhen the court of appeal overturned the decision of theFederal High Court, theelectoral body complied with theappellate court’s decisionwithout seeking for anyclarification.

“I am surprised that the sameINEC has found it difficult to acton the Supreme Court decisionof January 29 the way it actedon the decisions of the FederalHigh Court and the Court ofAppeal,” noting that the INEChad claimed that the January 29judgment was confusing anddecided to approach the apexcourt for clarifications but thecourt frowned at the move,saying that its ruling does notneed any interpretation becauseit was clear and unambiguous.

‘’INEC had never denied thefact that it removed the namesof candidates sent to it by therecognized PDP leadership inAnambra State because of thejudgment of the Court ofAppeal, which has now been setaside by the Supreme Court. Ifthe judgment upon which INECbased its decision has been setaside, then the candidateselected on that list automaticallyfall with the judgment.

Justice H.A. Ngajiwa of theFederal High Court had earlier

in a judgment delivered onSeptember 12, 2013, affirmedOguebego and members of histeam as constituting theauthentic executive committeeof the PDP in Anambra andstopped INEC from acceptingthe list from any other body otherthan the Oguebego ledexecutives in the state for thepurpose of the 2015 election intothe National Assembly.

However, the PDP set up acaretaker committee thatorganized the primary electionthat submitted the list containingthe names of Senator UcheEkwunife who was sacked bythe Court of Appeal, for not

being a product of a valid primaryelection, Senator Stella Oduah,Senator Andy Uba and others.

'INEC must do the needful'Speaking in like manner, the

eight House of Representativescandidates, insisted that INECmust do the needful by issuingthem Certificates of Return,having been recognized by twoseparate court judgments.

The candidates who spoke withthe media in Abuja, are Hon.Emma Nweke, Hon. JuliusOfoma, Hon. Benny Obaze,Hon. Ejike Nwene, Hon. TonyOffiah, Hon. Ify Anazonwu,Hon. Uche Obi and Hon.

Charles Odedo, where theycollectively told INEC there wasno reason for further delay.

According to Tony Offiah, whospoke on their behalf, “Nigeriansare watching the actions of INEC.Despite being given recognition bythe Supreme Court, INEC hascontinued to disobey the judgmentof the court of law. It is importantwe go by the mantra of thegovernment of the day, which ischange.

‘’After the judgment of theSupreme Court on January 29,INEC, through its lawyer had saidthat he will advise his client to dothe needful. For us to get thingsdone politically, INEC should do

the right thing,” he said.

We are yet to get SupremeCourt judgment – INEC

Reacting to the call yesterday, theINEC said it would in the interimmaintain the status quo until it getsand reads the Supreme Courtverdict.

Director in charge of Publicity,Voter Education and Civil Societyand Gender Liaison, OluwoleOsaze-Uzi told Vanguard that thecommission was not yet in receiptof a copy of the court judgment.

He expressed hope that INECwould be able to get a copy of thejudgment today (Monday), studyit and then make its positionknown.

“As a matter of fact, we have notgotten a copy of that judgment. Wecould not get it before the close ofwork last Friday. We hope to be ableto get it on Monday and then study itbefore taking our own decision,” he said.

He added that if possible, INEC maystill explore other legal options afterstudying the judgment.

NNEWI—THE IndigenousPeople of Biafra, IPOB has

warned those who are claimingto be representing the group,including the members ofOhanaeze Ndigbo and its youthwing to stop such move, thatnobody speaks or representsthem, unless such a person orpersons are designated officersof IPOB worldwide.

The group also said that itsleader Mr. Kanu said he wouldrather die in jail than for theOhanaeze Ndigbo to claim theglory of his release as he has nobusiness with the Igbo Sociocultural organization.

”I will rather die in jail thanfor Ohanaeze Ndigbo to claimthe glory of my release,“ Kanureportedly said.

IPOB in a statement signed byits United Kingdom spokesmen,Dr Clifford Iroanya and EmmaMmezu, a lawyer said: “We arein court and our wish is toexpose the fraudulent charge oftreasonable felony before thewhole world. At the end of thiscase, the corrupt andcompromised segment of theNigerian judiciary will bepublicly disgraced.

“Our march to freedom isunstoppable; this is somethingBuhari ought to know. We havecome to die for Biafra if that iswhat it will take to be free. Ourresolve should not beunderestimated. As our leaderwill always say, “Nigeria will killus, we will kill them but in theend, we will win.”

IPOB reaction follows analarm raised from Enuguyesterday by some of thegroup's members that somepeople suspected to beOhanaeze Ndigbo and their

youth wing were impersonatingIPOB leaders in Enugu,claiming to be representing IPOBin meeting with some Americanofficials who were in Nigeria tohave a meeting with the groupon the release of their leader .IPOB officials said such anegoatiation would need thedesignated presence andcontribution of IPOB members,but they were not informed.

"The people went ahead tospeak for IPOB when they donot have the power andauthorization of the group tospeak for them.

"People alleged to be membersof Ohanaeze Ndigbo andOhanaeze Youth wing were saidto have met with some Americansat Nike Lake Resort Hotelbetween 6pm and 7pm Saturday evening."

Information about the allegedmeeting at the hotel was said tohave gotten the attention of theUnited Kingdom spokespersonsof IPOB, who felt embarrassed bythe meeting and some of thedemands the people claiming tobe representing IPOB saidshould be done for the group forpeace to reign.

“If any country or group iscoming to Nigeria to discussanything concerning IPOB andthe release or freedom of ourincarcerated leader and Directorof Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnandi Kanu,it is not Ohanaeze Ndigbo or theiryouth wing that will speak for usbecause they are not our membersand so, cannot represent or speakfor us. We urged the Americanswho came for the meeting that thealleged representatives of IPOBdid not represent or have oursupport. Nobody speaks orrepresents IPOB except itsprincipal and designated officers.

“We learnt that they corneredsome Americans who came toEnugu to have audience with theIPOB over the way forward on theissue of Biafra agitation and thecontinued incarceration of ourleader Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. Wewant to let the world know thatthey do not have authority to speakor represent us. They are on theirown and should be ignored.

“We want to use this opportunityto tell the Americans that came andthe world that the people whoclaimed to have represented IPOBin the meeting were impostors,they are not members of IPOB,

they are the usual Ohanaezecontractors who will alwayscondemn IPOB, but will be fast tohijack anything good that iscoming to the South East statesthrough IPOB. They do not haveour support and will neverrepresent us in anything.

“We want to tell therepresentatives of the Americangovernment who met with themat Nike Lake Resort Hotelbetween 6pm and 7pm Fridayevening to ignore them andwhatever discussion concerningIPOB they had with them, becauseit does not represent our views ordemands as IPOB members” theysaid.

Denying allegationBut in a swift reaction, Ohanaeze

Ndigbo Youth Council, OYC,denied that it was working to tradeoff MASSOB/IPOB, saying that ithas rather continued to work hardto secure the release of thedetained leader of IPOB, NnamdiKanu.

Reacting to the allegation that itheld discussion with certain USAEmbassy Group on the Biafranagitation where it allegedly tradedoff both MASSOB and IPOB, thegroup denied the allegation in astatement which read: “Theattention of the Ohanaeze NdigboYouth Council is drawn to arumour peddled by some enemiesof Ndigbo and busy body alarmiststo the effect that a USA-baseddelegation that came to Nigeriaheld discussions with the Nationalleadership of Ohanaeze NdigboYouth Council and at the purportedmeeting, the Biafran cause wasbetrayed by the Ohanaeze YouthCouncil.

“This story and rumour is ablatant lie. Nothing like thathappened. It’s the figment ofimagination of the rumourpeddlers."

By Anayo Okoli &Chimaobi Nwaiwu

•IPOB disowns, warns Ohanaeze over negotiation for his release

Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra,IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.

N A T C O MDevelopment

and Investment Limited, thecompany that acquired thecore assets of NiTel/MTel (inliquidation) made its firstVoice over LTE call inLagos, Thursday. The testVoLTE call which was madeat 3.30pm at NTEL’s newTier III data centre locatedon Lagos Island wasenabled over a carrier’shigh-speed data networkinstead of on a voicenetwork. Voice over LTEcalls also connect fasterupon dialling and featureultra-clear high-definitionvoice quality.

The VoLTE call wascompleted in partnershipwith original equipmentmanufacturers L MEricsson of Sweden andSonyElectronics of Japan.This follows Ntel’s first datacall, January 18, 2016 andits first SIP voice call,February 18, 2016. Ntel willnow progress work withNigeria’s other mobile

40 —Vanguard, MONDAY FEBRUARY 29 , 2016

Ntel makes history with first VoLTE calloperators and internationalpartners to perform cross-network VoLTE calls: Thiswill ensure that itscustomers can connect witheach other as easily as theycan to both customers inNigeria and to thoseelsewhere in the world: anetwork now comprisingtelephones, globally.

This crystal-clear, high-definition VoLTE call wasmade via an Ntel sim cardand is set to be a significantdifferentiating factor forNtel as it progresses withthe roll-out of Nigeria’slargest Advanced 4G/LTEnetwork, due to belaunched shortly.

THE New Diplomat,Nigeria’s global voice

and an investigative andinsightful fortnightlypolitico newspaper with aglobal appeal has gone onsale nationwide with acover price of N200 andmajor revealing stories ofhow the sack is danglingover the head of the CentralBank Governor, MrGodwin Emefiele as thecrisis trailing the naira andNigeria’s monetary policyworsens.

The report captures thebehind the scenemanouverings, scheming

and political intriguesfuelling the call for reformsin the nation’s monetarypolicy and the calls for sackof Mr Emefiele, who wasappointed to the position ofCBN Governor by formerPresident GoodluckJonathan. Also in its latestedition out nation-widetoday, The New Diplomat,in an exclusive interviewwith Femi Falana, SAN,reveals why he draggedCol Dasuki Sambo and Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tothe International CriminalCourt.

The New Diplomat debuts

Vanguard, MONDAY, February , 2016 —41

CEO, Consolidated Media Associates

CMYK

Watching televisionhas become anintegral part of

everyday life. At the end ofeach day, we lounge in frontof the television to unwindafter an exhausting day. Thismakes the influence oftelevision on society moreapparent. Tajudeen Adepetuis the CEO of ConsolidatedMedia Associates (CMA),owners of a range of TVchannels that cut acrosstelevision genres. As one ofAfrica’s rapidly emergingtelevision executives,Adepetu sees television as aninfluencer: “Television is amedium of influence”, he says“and that is what televisionmeans to me”. Adepetubelieves that it is impossibleto imagine life withouttelevision because everythingwe experience through itshapes and molds us into howwe are now. And to a greatextent everything that we seeon television influences theway we think:

“From the perspective ofedutaining, I think nothingshould happen on televisionthat shouldn’t be for apurpose. Information,education and entertainmentmust have a particular goal.Everything I do on televisionis always set towards definingsomething or setting anagenda and so, if I produce adrama series for instance, itis always about portrayingissues that define decisions.That is why the influence oftelevision on society isprofound”. 25 years agoAdepetu began his career intelevision. His mission was tochange the landscape oftelevision programmingthrough Consolidated MediaAssociates. Add to this hisdaring task of launching 8channels of exciting televisionprogramming and he can onlybe seen as one of the icons inthe media pantheon intelevision who has shaped ourmedium.

Before setting up histelevision empire, Adepetuhad been working as anindependent producer forterrestrial television stationslike AIT, LTV and MITV andproducing blockbustertelevision series such asEveryday People, Saints andSinners, Candlelight,Treasures, One Love andDomino: “I’ve always been acontent provider because

TajudeenAdepetu

creative content defineseverything about television,and that is where we stand outas a company”. ConsolidatedMedia Associates is backed bythe exceptional expertise of itsfounder with an energeticand vibrant team. Since it wasestablished, the company hasbuilt a portfolio of excitingcable television news andentertainment brands andbusinesses, including SoundCity,ONTV, ON Max, Trybe,Spice, Access 24, Televistaand Urban 96: “Our vision hasalways been very simple”,Adepetu explains:

“ We want to be part ofpeople’s lives no matter whothey are and we try as muchas possible to meet them at

the point of their televisionviewership need anddemands. That is whatinformed our decision tocreate 8 channels all designedand defined along the variouslevels of televisionviewership. Our key driversfor content include sports; theOmni sports daily globalsports news package which isbroadcast every night and thehighlight show of the samepackage, which offersbreaking news and updatedsports news six times daily.We have an extensive libraryof telenovelas, be theyMexican, Filipino, Brazilianor Indian, and our viewershave come to expect the bestfrom us. We have yet to let

them down. We also take newsseriously, and provide aheadline news service sixtimes a day.

We also provide a widevariety of quality productionson our Hollywood movie belt,as well as an extensive libraryof original dramaproductions; this is why wehave been rated number onefor two years in a row.Regarding music, we havepartnered with Sound city, theleading light in African urbanentertainment, and we can saythat we are the first to bringviewers the best Nigerian andPan African music from arange of talented artistes.With regard to Lifestyle

programmes,we have anarray of decentshows andd e l i g h t f u lcontent fromSpice TV, theonly fashionchannel inAfrica”. And thefollow upquestion is:What do thevarious genresof televisionprogrammingsay about hiscompany?

“It says verysimply that weare a companyt h a tunderstands what we aredoing. And I don’t think thereis any television company inAfrica that has 8 channelsdesigned solely for the Africanmarket —it says a lot abouthow we want to project ourcountry”. The question of howtelevision portfolios fittogether with advertising, andhow brands have utilized themedium to increase brandawareness or engageconsumers, has haunted themedium since its origins.Advertising is TV’s originalsin. When people called TVshows garbage, which theydid all the time until recently,commercialism was at theheart of most complaints. Evengreat TV could never be goodart, because it was tainted bydefinition. It was there to sell.Adepetu has a different view:

“Advertisers know thattelevision is the leadingdefiner of popular culture andan agenda setter in thevarious areas that it plays into,so most often whenadvertisers want to doanything they engage us tohelp them tell the story andsell their product andservices. And we’ve beenfairly successful in thatbecause it’s from patronagelike this that we’ve been ableto sustain ourselves”. Sinceestablishing the CMA Group,the challenge of funding andcapacity is something thecompany has continually hadto deal with. “Capacity hasalways been an issue becausethere are not enough peoplewho know what they arecapable of doing withoutsupervision. That is why wefind that at every particular

time, you just have to behands-on because it can bevery frustrating when, havinggroomed somebody into thejob, and then midway into itthey just leave thinking thatthey know it all now. Andthen you have to start theprocess all over again”

“That, I think, is one of thechallenging parts of thisbusiness”. “. In terms offunding, he laments that mostbanks don’t even understandthe broadcasting industry:“This lack of understanding ofour business”, he says“explains why they are unableto cater to our needs as anindustry. Since we startedwe’ve been self-funded.

We’ve not beenable to gete x t e r n a lfunding frombanks orelsewhere, andthat has been am a j o rchallenge forus. If we hadfound ourselvesin a society thatunders tandsthe nuancesand intricaciesof this business,then it wouldhave been a loteasier becausein addition tothe funding thatwe might have

received; there would also beexpert advice and capacitybuilding facilities provided toensure that the businessbecomes even morecompetitive. The reverse isthe case here. I really wish thatwe could find partners thatcould help us in getting to ourdesired destination in mediabecause we are on a journeythat is by no means smooth,but I know that in the endwe’ll get there”. In the faceof these hurdles, TajudeenAdepetu has been able tocontinue to grow the companyand sustain its position,ensuring that each stepdoesn’t create additionalproblems. Essentially, hiseffective leadership hashelped him create sustainablegrowth for the company: “Ithink it’s the force that we’vebrought to bear in the marketthat is still sustaining us. Weare so compelling in everysphere that we’ve venturedinto that we cannot beignored. Basically, it’s thestrength of our creativecapacity that keeps us going.And I think that’s going tokeep us here into the futurebecause creative capacity isthe soul of our business”.Tajudeen Adepetu’s definitionof success is more focused onthe present than the futurebecause he sees success fromthe outset of every endeavorhe undertakes. “The fact thatI’m able to start anything is asuccess in itself. And I reallydon’t consider futuristicinitiatives because I’m moreconcerned with the present.That said, it doesn’t mean thatI don’t plan for the future”.

Television Influence

•Tajudeen Adepetu

Television is amedium ofinfluence becauseto a great extenteverything thatwe see ontelevisioninfluences theway we think

42 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Defiant church members celebratecondemned Rev. King’s birthday

By Sam Eyoboka, MonsuruOlowoopejo & Olayinka

Latona

FORTY hours after the SupremeCourt affirmed the death

sentence passed on the GeneralOverseer of the Christian PrayingAssembly, CPA, Rev.Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, a.k.a. Rev.King, the about 500 remainingmembers of his depleted church stillrevered the bearded, athletic weirdcleric as they shrugged off theirworries to organise a special churchservice to mark his annual birthday.

Although his age was kept secretby the church leadership andmembers, the birthday though wason February 26, a date thatcoincided with the apex court’sjudgment, was postponed tillyesterday when the membersthronged the church to celebrate aman who still commandsunmatched cult loyalty and follower-ship among his converts, such thatthey still consider their lives of noconsequence as far as ‘His Holiness,Rev. King’ is concerned.

Church declines comments onSupreme Court judgment: Thechurch declined comments on theSupreme Court judgment on thefounder of the church. Pressed byour correspondents for officialcomments, the resident pastor of thedressed in ash-coloured suit with astriped tie to match, PastorIfeanyichukwu Chiokwe said thechurch was yet to finalise its reactionon the judgment.

Special birthdayservice

The resident pastor onlyvolunteered: “You can reportwhatever you have seen todayobjectively. At least you havewitnessed the ‘Special birthdayservice for His Holiness’ and youcan see how we have conductedourselves. As a church we have nocomment on what you have talkedabout.”

The special church service whichcommenced at about 7.00 a.m. andended five hours later, was attendedby about 400 members who arrivedthe church at different times. Sourcessaid that the members were thosewho had held tenaciously to thedoctrine of their General Overseerbefore his incarceration 10 years agoand believe that the embattledfounder would live forever.

A member who do not want hisname in print, said: “I had otherengagements today. Butimmediately I was reminded thatthere will be a special church servicefor the G.O, to mark his birthday, Irushed down. Infact, I am happythat I was able to attend the service.Our G.O lives on.” Some of themembers took to the social media tocongratulate the general overseer

King’s pulpit, special seat vacantApparently as part of the high

esteem members hold Rev. King, anative of Achina in Anambra Stateand Psychology graduate of theNnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka-he is highly revered and dignifiedby members of CPA-nobodymounted the upraised altar whichcarried a kingly black chair to one

side and a covered glass pulpit. Inanticipation of his eventual return,his seat and altar were covered witha purple cloth and other royalapparels.

The resident pastor, PastorIfeanyichukwu Chiokwe, whopresided over the special serviceused a different pulpit from wherehe preached the only sermon of theday, quoting several Bible passagesinclude Luke 24 and Isaiah 53:1,urging members to hold tenaciouslyto their faith and do not believewhatever was being disseminatedby the mass media.

The Sermon: Rev. Chiokwe notedthat Rev. King would soon return tothe church and continue hisevangelical mission, pointing out:“When you visit the news standtoday, what you will see in the frontpages are stories about our G.O., Dr.Rev King. Also, the social media isawash with stories about HisHoliness (Dr. Rev King), but themessage I have for you is that, donot believe whatever you have heardor read.

“This is a trying time and I expectyou to stand firm. Our enemies aretrying to use the agencies ofgovernment to scatter the Church.But I expect you to stand firm andput your faith in GOD. I do not

expect you to believe whatevermessage the world is passing acrossto you. But believe in the Lord, hisscriptures and abide by hiscommandments,” he added.

Chiokwe who presided over theSunday worship and birthdayservice at the Ugo Nnabuife Street,Off Bishop Ojo Avenue, Ajao Estate,Lagos, urged members to pray forthe G.O., and remain steadfast andfocused, saying that the birthdayservice of their spiritual father isworth celebrating.

Spiritualfather

He further asked the elatedmembers to appreciate God for thelife of their founder and also singseries of birthday songs for almost20 minutes. Sources said that theexcitement on the faces of theworshippers would make a first timevisitor to the church find it difficultto believe that the bearded churchfounder with charming smile hadmesmerised members describinghimself as the Jesus Christ of ourtime is currently on death row.

Some members were dressed intwo different branded attires with thepictures of Rev. King boldlyimprinted on them with theinscription, ‘The man of the moment;His Holiness, the Most Hon. Dr. RevKing-The man of the moment,” andothers in tee-shirts reading “Stopfighting GOD and His people.”

Rev. King’s alleged message toworshippers: After the only sermonof the day, Pastor Chiokweproceeded to read Rev. King’smessages of encouragement,prayers amongst others to his faithfulfollowers. The founder’s messageread thus:

1.Today is worth celebrating.2.Offer prayer for our G.O. Thank

God for His Holiness, Dr. Rev King(3 minutes).

3.Everyone that prayed and

thanked God for our G.O. willreceive a special Hosanna miracle;miracles that are highly different fromwhat he or she has been receivingbefore.

4. Pray against evils that havefashioned themselves against yourlives, shops, joy, dreams (20minutes).

5. You shall never be put to shame6. The moment the cake of the

birthday celebration was cut by me,shackles, chain and all powers ofthe enemies will cut to pieces.

7. After the service go home andrejoice.

8. There is someone that ate poisonbut that poison has disappearedimmediately you eat of therefreshment here today, you willhave peace.

9. I bless all the children in CPA,they shall be healed, protected, havelong life and grow up to becomegreat men and women of God.

10. I bless all those who gave ussupport in any way, God shall givethem pools of living water.

11. Everything that would beconsumed here today, has alreadybeen blessed, they have becomemiracle materials.

12. Pray right now for every othergood needs of yours. He shallanswer your prayers.

13. Let us sing very good birthdaysong for our Daddy G.O. for 20minutes. “Happy birthday to you HisHoliness”

14. Open your mouth and sing yourown good song to God because oftoday (30 minutes).

15. Offerings16. I will stop here for now till next

time time, our Daddy G.O, will liveforever.

17. Testimonies18 Prayer of dismissalImmediately after the service

which ended at noon, members weredirected to the second wing of theauditorium for refreshments andthey had quite a lot to eat and drinkwhile the choir supplied light

music.Neighbouring cleric com-mentsMeanwhile another Ajao Estate

cleric and a medical practitioner, Dr.Omadeli Boyo, General Overseerof the Redeeming Love Chapelyesterday described the SupremeCourt verdict as long in coming,stressing that it was commonknowledge that the apex court wouldconfirm the death sentence.

“It took a long time in coming. Itwas obvious it was going to come.So it was long expected and thesalient lessons to draw from theverdict, are that the chicken hadcome home to roost. At the end ofthe day, each man will give anaccount of his stewardship; eitherhere on earth or by and by, inheaven-the judgment of God isbigger than the judgment of man,”the medical director of PinecrestSpecialist Hospitals, averred.

Account of hisstewardship

Continuing, Dr. Boyo, a specialistin Organisational Culture, PublicHealth, and Sociology of MentalHealth and Illness told our reporterthat the judgment is only a matter oftime to come “and this one has comeafter a tortuous journey through theLagos High Court and eventuallythe Supreme Court which gave itsverdict yesterday. Right from theHigh Court to the appellate courtthere was no mistake about it thatRev. King was wrong.”

According to him, there are lots oflessons ministers should learn fromthis; that the laws of the land mayprevail and what he did was not onlyagainst the laws of the land but alsoagainst God, stressing that “he willstill face the judgment of God overthe allegations against him. This isonly a preliminary judgment. Therewill still be a bigger judgment of God.That is the one he should also fearand repent for obvious reasons.

“The lessons to men of God is thatthis was the case of burns, deathsand other such like, there are othersins—though no sin is greater thanthe other—like falsehood,misinformation and financial andmisappropriation of funds in theBody of Christ, lies…the world willhave to judge the church in the areaof accountability,” he noted.

•Say he’ll live forever

This is only apreliminary judgment.There will still be abigger judgment ofGod. That is the one heshould also fear andrepent for obviousreasons

Christian Praying Assembly, Lagos. Inset: Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, aka Rev. King. Photo: Monsuru Olowoopejo

VIRGINIA

KAPTAIN AFRIKA in “HEY’ By Andy Akman

dadadekola@yahoo.com

TERROR MUDA in “Scavenger Elite” By Lanre Kehinde

HOME & ABROAD By Lawrence Akapa

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGSend ySend ySend ySend ySend your datour datour datour datour date and place of bire and place of bire and place of bire and place of bire and place of bir th tth tth tth tth to the Aso the Aso the Aso the Aso the Astrtrtrtrtrologicalologicalologicalologicalological

Counselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, P.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 100000000007, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos

YOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAY

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139L E I S U R ETHOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

43 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

VIRGO; The more willing you are to listen to yourpartners and/or spouse the better for you today. Friendsare trying to convince you that the are reliable.

LIBRA; The more push-full you are along your career/business lines the better. Embrace new method at work.Don’t neglect your love life.

SCORPIO; Here is a day you are not meant to ignorenew ideas that come suddenly. It’s good to take matters ofthe heart more seriously. Listen to your spouse please.

SAGITTARIUS; Monetary and romantic Venus atpositive angle to your Star and bringing you goodinfluence. Be more ambitious.

CAPRICORN; Although your being co-operative canenhance your scope, your personal ideas and initiativeare guarantee for a bigger do.

AQUARIUS; Those of you who are more consistent willhave more to gain. Good ideas on monetary issues willenhance your finances. Be more family minded.

PISCES; Entrance of monetary and romantic Venus intoa positive angle is meant to enhance your finances. Themore willing you are to take good advice the better. Beloving..

ARIES; Monetary Venus makes an ingress into your Starsign with good luck to you. Financial success is closer toyou than you can imagine. Give it a big push.

TAURUS; Here is a good day when influentialpersonalities around you will be willing to assist you butyou will need to take the initiative. Take good advice.

GEMINI; This is your day. The more ambitious you arealong your career line the better for you. And friends arewilling to give the needed supports.

CANCER; Your mind is truly active and if you’re morepractical about it success’ll crown your efforts. Reasonwith your tried and trusted friends.

LEO; Coming of monetary and loving Venus into apositive angle to your Star sign is a big plus. On a day likethis the more ambitious you are the better. It’s good to beloving.

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SCORPIOTIME SCOPE = OCT 23 – NOV 22RULER =AGGRESSIVE MARS AND MANIPULATIVE

PLUTO.QUALITY = FIXEDELEMENT = WATER.SYMBOLS =SCORPION AND THE EAGLE.GROUP = FEMININE.ZODIACAL POSITION = THE 8TH.

Scorpio stands for secret, sex, sin, death, jealousy andregeneration. You can see that sex and death have powersto compel any earth’s inhabitant to surrender. Thus,Scorpio is the most powerful of all the 12 zodiac signs.That is why you are endowed with strong will powers thatcan be used to regenerate either yourself or those close toyou.

Scorpio is a water sign. It’s natives are emotional typeswith powerful intuition. They are of inclination to protecttheir loved ones and/or the people with weaker personality,however, if they have any cause to doubt the loyalty orsincerity of such person/persons, they tend to becomejealous and the strong love they have for the person canturn to hatred. And as they are the type capable of intensivelove and bitter hatred, it is not good to incur their wrath.

Scorpio-being a member of fixed signs, it’s natives arenot keen lovers of change. That is why you always love tomake success of any important project of yours beforeconsideration can be given to another one. And by sodoing, you make yourself a reliable person.

The water element of Scorpio makes them highlymysterious personalities who intuition (and emotion) canbe regarded as extra-ordinary.

Although, other influence in your natal horoscope cantempt some people to think that you are very open; thetruth is, you can be highly secretive person who knowswhat he wants and how to get it.

Your being secretive has many advantages, thus, youare encouraged not to be tempted to open up unnecessarilywhenever it comes to manipulation of unseen forces orpsychic energies. Let it be known that African Scorpioborn person that refuses to acknowledge the reality ofoccult forces heads for failure.

Whoever tries to jeopardise your interest and/or anythingthat is important to you and yours will be met withresistance. Equally, Scorpio tends to nurse grudge; that iswhy some people will say natives of this powerful zodiacsign are truly good friends but dangerous enemies.

Pluto’s ruling influence over Scorpio makes Scorpio’sdesire for unknown to be strong. That is why manyAstrologers call Scorpios the deadly detectives. And awell-developed Scorpio is as bold as aggressive soldiersand fears no death. In other words, you have all the traitsof the most powerful Star sign Scorpio.

God is watching

under the water andunder the dark, hop-ing and praying thatwe will not be caught.We live a lie. We for-get that air bear wit-ness to our cruel act;

the sun by our shadowtakes our photograph,and our conscienceconvicts us daily.

Beware, God iswatching. Your sinswill find you out.

Think about it!

RIGHT from agesman has contin-

ued to look for ways ofclothing his naked-ness. Nakedness doesnot just mean notwearing clothesalone. It includes cov-ering our evil deeds,wicked acts, ways and

sins etc.As it was the days of

the biblical Adam andEve, so it is today.When we commit hei-nous crime, we run forcover under the stone,

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O R E - O F E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as Ore-OfeO l u w a b u n m iAnuoluwapo, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Anwo-Ade AnuoluwapoOluwabunmi. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please take note.

U W A K W E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissUwakwe PreciousChika, now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs. HarrisPrecious Chika. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please take note.

EZECHI—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss JudithNjideka Ezechi, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Judith NjidekaOnwufuju. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

Reconciliation of NamesThis is to confirm thatthe names OgbonnaPaschal Murphy andOgbonna PaschalSunday refer to oneand the same person.I now wish to be knownand addressed asOgbonna PaschalSunday. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

O Y E W O L E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissOyewole OpeyemiAbidemi, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Oluwatimiro FunshoOpeyemi. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

Confirmation of NameNASAMU—This is toconfirm that the namesNasamu Francis andNasamu FrancisItebemien are one andthe same person butnow wish to be knownand addressed asNasamu FrancisItebemien. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

MKPA—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss Eme HenryMkpa, now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs. Eme ImehUsanga. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

JOHN—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss John Mercy,now wish to be knownand addressed as MrsAwele Mercy. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please take note.

Correction of NameMy correct name isEkpetha Oke Benson,but it was wronglywritten as ChukwumaOke Benson on myNational IdentityCard. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

IBIYEMI—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Ibiyemi Grace, nowwish to be known andaddressed as PeterGrace. All formerdocuments remainvalid. Information ofUBA Bank and generalpublic please take note.

KWADA—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Kwada BisharaElisha, now wish to beknown and addressedas Bishara Martins.All former documentsremain valid.Information ofgeneral public andany authorityconcerned please takenote.

ABIGAIL—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss Okoro AbigailMarymoore, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Nwachukwu AbigailMarymoore. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publictake note.

Confirmation of NameThis is to confirm thatthe names UdochukwuNnaemeka refer to thesame person as OscarU d o c h u k w uEmmanuel. All formerdocuments havingboth names remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

E B E N E Z E R — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissJennifer Ese Ebenezernow wish to be knownand addressed as Mrs.Jennifer Ese Hillary.All former documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

AKPOKOMUAYE— I,formerly known andaddressed as MissSylvia Akpokomuayenow wish to be knownand addressed as Mrs.Sylvia Adeniyi. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please take note.

OKOTIE—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss HannahOdemi Okotie, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Hannah Oghomienor.All former documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

EKEH— I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss UchechukwuBlessing Ekeh, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Uchechukwu BlessingOlajide. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

JULIET—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Idundun Ani Julietnow wish to be knownand addressed asIdundun Ani. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

E F I J E M U E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissEfijemue BridgetEmeoghene, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Okiemute BridgetEmeoghene. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please take note.

U G U E M A H — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissMargaret OniozaUguemah, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Margaret OniozaIkharedia All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

AGHO— I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss Agho Nogie,now wish to be knownand addressed as Mrs.Asoronye Nogie. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

EZEMAH—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss EzemahAgatha Ukamaka, now wish to be knownand addressed as Mrs.Abah AgathaUkamaka. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

O D E Y E M I — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissIbukunoluwa TemitopeOdeyemi, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Ibukunoluwa TemitopeOnabajo. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

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44 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 45

7,000 persons displaced in Fulani herdsmen,Agatu farmers' clash in Benue

M A K U R D I —I N D I C A T I O N

emerged weekend that no fewerthan 7,000 persons weredisplaced in the wake of the crisisbetween Fulani herdsmen andAgatu farmers of Benue State.

The displaced persons whowere sacked from Okokolo, Akwu,Ocholonya, Adagbo, Ugboku andAila by the rampaging herdsmenare currently camped at the OchiIdoma square in Otukpo,Ugbokpo, Adoka, Ojantele, Ikobiand other neigbouringcommunities.

It will be recalled that thealleged invasion by the herdsmenlast week, claimed about 300 lives.

Speaking to reporters in

Otukpo, one f the refugees, ElderSani Echioda, an indigene ofAyila lamented that the conditionin the camp was terrible andcalled on public spiritedindividuals, the state and federalgovernments to urgently come totheir aid.

He said: “We sleep on bare floorsince we don’t have mattress ormats. It is quite a difficult situationas we are exposed to mosquitoesand all kinds of insects andreptiles during the day and atnight. The absence of medicalofficers at the crowded camp isalso a disturbing factor, and youcan see that the entire camp isnot suitable for humanhabitation.”

While recalling last week’sinvasion of Agatu, Echioda saidit was like an operation to wipe

out the inhabitants of Agatu, “tilltoday, the Fulani herdsmen arestill in our communities causingmayhem. As am talking to you,their cows have taken over ourland. In fact we believe that it isthe government of NasarawaState that is fighting us; the peaceGovernor Almakura claims to bemaking is a deceit. They shouldtell the world who provided thetwo helicopters which flew intoAbogbe and Okokolo to provideammunitions for the Fulanis.”

Similarly, Rev Fr. John Attah ofthe Justice, Development andPeace of Otukpo Catholic Diocese,who also spoke to reporters inOtukpo, bemoaned the lack ofcoordination and poormanagement of the displacedpersons’ camps.

According to him, officials of theState Emergency ManagementAgency, SEMA, who carried outon the spot assessment of the

crisis provided some mattresses,mats, guinea corn and maize, but“the situation still requires furtherattention from the NationalEmergency ManagementAgency, NEMA.

While putting the figure of thedisplaced persons in Otukpoalone at 7,000, he said “I shedtears when I saw old womenrunning from their ancestralhomes seeking refuge. It ispathetic.”

Meanwhile, PresidentMuhammadu Buhari, yesterdayordered an investigation into theclashes between Fulaniherdsmen and indigenes ofcommunities in Agatu localgovernment area of Benue State.

President Buhari, whoexpressed shock at the latestkillings ordered security agenciesto unearth the issues with a viewto finding enduring solution.

“We will conduct aninvestigation to know exactly whathappened; the only way to bringan end to the violence once andfor all is to look beyond oneincident and ascertain exactlywhat factors are behind theconflicts,” he said.

He added that all Nigeriansmust learn to live together as one,in peace and unity.

By Peter Duru &Levinus Nwabughiogu

K A D U N A —ORGANISED

Labour weekend inKaduna threw its weightbehind PresidentMuhammadu Buhariplans for a nationaldialogue on the state of theeconomy, urging thePresident to ensure an allinclusive dialogue that mustinvolved the workingpeople as represented bylabour.

Speaking through theNational Union of Textileand Garment and TailoringWorkers of Nigeria,

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

Labour supports planned national dialogueon economy

N676M NIS RECRUITMENT SCAM: AbbaMoro, 4 others to be arraigned today

By Soni Daniel

A BUJA—AFTERbeing detained for

almost a week, formerInterior Minister, AbbaMoro, will be arraignedtoday before Justice AnwuliChikere of the FederalHigh Court Abuja, toanswer to charges of abuseof procurement process anddiversion of public fundspreferred against him andfour others by the Economicand Financial CrimesCommission, EFCC.

The EFCC is slamming11-count charge against himand four others for allegedlycollecting N676.6 millionfrom 676,675 job seekers inthe fatal Nigerian

Immigration Servicerecruitment exercise in2014.

Moro, a permanentsecretary in the ministry atthe time, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, a deputy directorin the ministry, F. OAlayebami, one MahmoodAhmadu (at large), and thecontracting firm given therecruitment job, Drexel TechNigeria Ltd, are beingaccused of defrauding 676,675,000 Nigerianapplicants of N676,675,000.

The EFCC saidN202,500,000 of theamount was spent onbuying No. 1, LahnCrescent, Maitama, Abujawhile N120, 100,000 wasused to upgrade No.2,

Sigure Close, OffMonrovia Street, Wuse IIAbuja.

The commission said therecruitment firm, DrexelTech Nigeria Limited andMahmood Ahmaduconverted N101, 200,000to US dollars for personaluse.

The accused are alsoalleged to havecontravened the PublicProcurement Act, No. 65 of2007 in the contract awardsby not following thenecessary procedure laiddown by the government.

The commission said therecruitment firm, DrexelTech Nigeria Limited, andMahmood Ahmaduconverted N101, 200,000 toUS dollars for personal use.

I L O R I N —G O V E R N O R

Abdulfatah Ahmed ofKwara State, weekendcalled for collaborativeefforts by stakeholders toaddress the challenge ofhealthcare infrastructuredeficit in the country.

The governor spoke whenthe Deputy Ambassador ofNetherlands, MitchelDecleen led a team ofPharmAccess and Hygeiaon a visit to him at theGovernment House, Ilorin.

According to him,collaborative efforts wereneeded to address the poorhealthcare situation,stressing that theCommunity HealthInsurance Scheme, CHIS,of the state in partnershipwith the government ofNetherlands, PharmAccessand Hygeia was a positivedevelopment in that regard.

By Demola Akinyemi

Ahmed tasksNigerianson healthcareinfrastructuredeficit...Buhari orders probe

NUTGTWN, organisedlabour contended that whatNigeria was needed was anational consensus on theeconomy not another eliteconsensus that had provento lead to nothing in thepast but corruption andunderdevelopment.

In a statement by IssaAremu, General Secretaryof NUTGTWN andChairman, IndustriALLGlobal Union, Sub SaharaAfrica, it insisted that asdemanded by the NobelPrize winner, ProfessorWole Soyinka, thedialogue must involveorganized labourrepresented by the NigeriaLabour Congress, NLC,and Trade Union

Congress of Nigeria,TUC, ManufacturersAssociation of Nigeria,MAN, Nigeria Employers’Consultative Association,NECA, women groups andyouths among others.

The statement read in part:“The proposed dialogueshould be on how toimplement existing tons ofpolicy measures oneconomic recovery not toreinvent new measures.Past Governments haveorganized countlessconferences, summits anddebates with reports andrecommendations in thepast, many of which havenot been implemented toredirect and diversify theeconomy.

46 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Rashford dents Gunners title hopesM A R C U S

R a s h f o r dnetted a first-half brace togive Manchester Uniteda crucial victory overrivals Arsenal.

Defeat leaves theGunners third - fivepoints behind PremierLeague leaders Leicesterand three points behindTottenham with 11 gamesremaining.

On the other hand,United are now just threepoints behind rivalsManchester City in fourthand may have taken astep closer to ChampionsLeague qualification.

Rashford, who has nowscored four goals in hislast two appearances,gave United the lead onhis Premier Leaguedebut.

Nacho Monreal failedto deal with GuillermoVarela’s cross and the

teenager smashed theloose ball past Petr Cech.

His second came threeminutes later whenheading Jesse Lingard’sfloated ball in from five-yards.

Former Old Trafford star

Danny Welbeck managedto pull one back shortlybefore half-time courtesyof a pin-point Mesut Ozilfree-kick.

Ander Herrera managed toget his name on the

scoresheet after unleashing afierce strike that took adeflection off LaurentKoscielny.

At 3-1 the home sode lookedhome and dry but Ozil’s strikeset up a tense final 20 minutes.

Spurs keep pressure on Leicester withSwansea win

T O T T E N H A Mshowed the sort of

resilience from whichchampions are made asMauricio Pochettino’sside scored twice in thelast 20 minutes to beatSwansea 2-1.

Alberto Paloschi gavethe visitors a surpriseearly lead at White HartLane and for 70 minutesit looked like that mightbe enough as Swanseakeeper Lukasz Fabianksi

made a string of superbsaves.

Spurs substitute NacerChadli, however, finallyfound an equaliser andseven minutes laterDanny Rose scored thewinner to complete adramatic turnaround.

The victory meansTottenham reduce thegap behind Leicester backto two points and movethree clear of Arsenal,who lost at ManchesterUnited. Swansea sit 16th.

O LY M P I AC O Shave won the

Greek Super League fora record 43rd time withsix matches to spareafter recording a 3-0 winat home to Veria on

Ideye wins Greek league with OlympiacosSunday.

Two goals from DavidFuster and a late strikefrom Alan Pulido gavethem a comfortablevictory that puts them21 points clear of

second-placed AEKAthens, who only haveseven games left to playand have a weaker head-to-head record.

Olympiacos have nowwon the title for six

straight seasons and anastonishing 18 timesfrom the last 20campaigns.

Nigeria's Brown Ideyeplayes for Olympiacosand was among the play-ers jubilating yesterday.

•Chadli

•Rashford

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 — 47

Pinnickruled out the hiring ofany indigenous coach toreplace Oliseh.

“After this SundayOliseh debacle, we havedefinitely turned the cor-ner. We are now going tostart shopping for a wellgrounded and qualifiedforeign coach to tinker theteam. Enough is enough.What we have learnt isthat there is a world of dif-ference between being agood coach and being agood manager”, Pinnicktold hotsports.tv at a col-loquium organised as partof the 18th Annual AfricaBusiness Conference ofthe Harvard BusinessSchool, Boston, Massa-

chusetts, United States.Oliseh resigned as Su-

per Eagles coach on Fri-day after he did not enjoythe right support from theNigeria Football Federa-tion.

He complained that ev-erything was being donefor him to fail againstEgypt so he could bemade a scape goat.

And the NFF swiftly an-nounced U-23 coach Sam-son Siasia, Eagles assis-tant coach Salisu Yusufand U-20 coach Emman-uel Amuneke to lead theEagles for next month’sAFCON qualifiersagainst Egypt to be su-pervised by coach Shua-ibu Amodu.

Oliseh: I’ll expose NFFFORMER Super Ea

gles coach, SundayOliseh, is prepared tomeet the Nigeria Foot-ball Federation in courtover what they termedbreach of contract,

The Football house isreportedly threateningto sue Oliseh for quittinghis post as coach with-out prior notice, but the42 year old gaffer is op-timistic the court will vin-dicate him on the falseallegations levelled

against him.“They said I was paid

for three months (De-cember 2015, January2016 and February 2016)and half-year rent forJuly-December 2015. Butwe will see who is tell-ing lies,” Oliseh said.

“Since they are pre-pared to expose them-selves, I will help themfurther. My lawyers arestudying the reports,and when we meet, weshall know who

breached our contractu-al agreements.”

Oliseh further claimshis eight months on thejob was a lesson for him,that only a wholisticchange is needed in Ni-gerian football void offavouritism and nepo-tism.

“My time there was abig lesson and unless awholistic change is madein the administrative lev-el, it will be difficult.”

CAF Champions League: Enyimba trample on Vipers toqualify

By John Egbokhan

TWO-TIME winners,Enyimba yesterday

defeated Vipers SC ofUganda 2-0 to qualify forthe next round of the CAFChampions League onaggregates scores of 2-1.

Trailing 1-0 from the firstleg preliminary roundheld a fortnight back inKampala, the Nigerianchampions scored ineither side of the half tomake light-work of theUgandan champions,who were holding out fora draw to qualify at the

expense of the homers.Playing in Port

Harcourt, due to ongoingrepair works at theirtraditional home groundin Aba, top scorer in theNigerian league two yearsago, Mfom Udoh shotEnyimba into the lead on29 minutes, calmlyconverting from thepenalty spot, to send asense of relief into CoachPaul Aigbogun, who hadled the Elephants to threesuccessive defeats andwas facing severepressure from fans, whowere getting increasinglyworried with the losingstreak of the seven-time

record league champions.The goal rattled Vipers,

who, thereafter, took thegame to the Nigerians butfound the defence line ledby Chinedu Udorjiimpregnable, resorting tolong shots from afar, thatdid little to troublegoalkeeper Femi Thomas.

Enyimba knew their 1-0lead was nothing morethan cold comfort as agoal by the visitors wouldbe against their interest,making it all the moreimportant to score asecond goal, which Udohgladly obliged on thehour mark, rounding uphis marker beforeunleashing a volley thatrested at the back of thenet.

Aboutrika accused of funding ‘terror group’

EGYPT’s prosecutionwill investigate former

football star MohamedAboutrika for allegedlyfunding a “terroristgroup”, officials said Sun-day, after authorities lastyear seized his share cer-tificates in a travel compa-ny.

In May 2015, Aboutri-ka’s share certificates inTours were seized over ac-cusations it had funded theIslamist Muslim Brother-hood movement, outlawedas a “terrorist” organisa-tion since December 2013.

A committee charged

with confiscating Brother-hood assets has referredhim, and hundreds more,to the prosecution oncharges of “funding a ter-rorist group,” it said in astatement.

“We will begin investigat-ing the files of those re-

ferred by the committee,”an official at the prosecu-tion service said.

Aboutrika has filed anappeal against the commit-tee’s decision to confiscatehis share certificates withan administrative court,

which is due to review iton April 5.

In an interview withstate-run Al-Ahram news-paper in May last year,Aboutrika denied that hiscompany — or any of hispartners — had ever fund-ed the Brotherhood.

We’re ready to face Eagles — Pharaohs

AFTER concludingtheir preparation for

their upcoming Africa Cupof Nations 2017 qualifyingclash with Nigeria,Egypt’s Argentineanmanager Hector Cuperannounced that he finallyreached the final line-upfor the crucial game.

“I am satisfied with theBurkina Faso game and Iwill work to avoid themistakes made in thefriendly when we faceNigeria,” Cuper said.

“We almost reached thefinal lineup with the start

of the Nigeria game, TheNigeria game is a test todetermine our real abilities,and we will do our bestduring this game.

“I understand thecriticism after facing minorteams since we didn’treach the highperformance we all look forbut we will when we playagainst Nigeria. I know theteams we played are moreminor than our team butthey are the availableteams during this time,”Egypt’s coach said.

NOC drags Directors of Sports toclassroom

A two-day robustprogramme for all

Directors of Sports in allthe State Sports Councilsin Nigeria that would

lecture on the negative useof drug abuse amongothers holds from March4 to March 5 at theCommand Guest House,Apapa, Lagos.Under the auspices ofOlympic Solidarity and theNigeria OlympicCommittee, the NigeriaSports For All Forum havelined out renownedspeakers to deliver papersto the participants.

Dr. A.K. Amao will delivera paper titled ‘’Negativeuse of drug abuse whileProfessor Clement Fasanwill deliver a paper titled‘’Marketing and SportsSponsorship. Others todeliver papers includeProfessor Seun Omotayo –Importance of Aerobic andExcercises and Dr SikuadeJagun who will deliver apaper on ‘’Volunteerism inSports, Nigeria

perspective’’.Secretary of Sports For

All, Augustine Odijie whileassuring participants thatadequate arrangementshave been made for theircomfort throughout theduration of their stay inLagos advised them toassemble at the secretariatof the NOC where they willbe conveyed to theCommand Guest House,Apapa.

Udoh

El Hadary

Habu Gumel

Abia shoot to top of league

ABIA Warriors are thenew Nigeria league

leaders after they beathosts Heartland 1-0 onSunday.

Abia Warriors now

have seven points inthree games to toppleMFM FC at the top ofthe standings.

Michael Olaha scoredthe only goal of the gamein the 67th minute.

Adamu applauds Siasia for accepting Eagles challenge

By Jude Opara,Abuja

FORMER member ofthe executive

committee of the worldfootball governing body,FIFA Dr. Amos Adamuhas applauded thecourage of CoachSamson Siasia to acceptthe responsibility oftaking over the SuperEagles for the two-legged 2017 African Cupof Nations (AFCON)

qualifier against Egyptnext month.

Speaking in anexclusive chat withSports Vanguard at theweekend, Adamu notedthat since the time wasnot there for the NFF toshop for a substantivecoach, the only optionleft was to draft some ofthe coaches that arealready used to the teamin the interim.

“What the NFF hasdone to appoint Siasiaand Amuneke to take usthrough this next two

games against Egypt isthe right thing. Also Isalute the courage andpatriotism of the coachesto have accepted tocome in at this time.Everybody knows that

there is no much timeleft to hire a coach whodoes not know the teambecause if you aretalking about a foreigncoach it takes time tonegotiate and all that."

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-4548355. Advert Dept Hotline: 01-4544821. Abuja Advert Hotline: 09-2921024. E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com

Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

How to Play Sudoku

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line canhave two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (alsonine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within abold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1through 9. This means that no number can appear twicein any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, divisionor multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

FRIFRIFRIFRIFRIDDDDDAAAAAY'S ANSY'S ANSY'S ANSY'S ANSY'S ANSWERSWERSWERSWERSWERSTTTTTODODODODODAAAAAY'S PUZZLEY'S PUZZLEY'S PUZZLEY'S PUZZLEY'S PUZZLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

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YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

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Oliseh: I’ll expose NFFRESULTS

NPFLRivers Utd 2Ifeanyiubah 0Heartland 0 AbiaWarriors 1Pillars 2 Wikki 1Plateau Utd 2 Wolves1Rangers 2 Tornadoes 1Ikorodu Utd 1 Lobi 0Shooting 3 MFM 0

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No more indigenous coach for Eagles — Pinnick

Enyimba trample onVipers to qualify

—Details inside

We’re ready toface Eagles

— PharaohsPg. 47 Aboutrika accused of

funding ‘terror group’

•Amaju •Oliseh

Red DevilsdentGunnerstitle hopes— Pg 46

By Tony Ubani

Still saddened by theresignation of his ‘AfricanPep Guardiola’(SundayOliseh) from the Super

Eagles, President of theNigeria Football Feder-ation, Amaju Pinnick hasfinally slammed the dooragainst the employmentof indigenous coaches

for the senior nationalteam.

Amaju over-hypedOliseh and christenedhim ‘Pep Guardiola ofAfrica’ when he was

hand-picked to replaceformer skipper andcoach, Stephen Oke-chukwu Keshi.

Still yet to come toterms with Oliseh’s res-

ignation, Amaju who wasaway in Zurich for FIFA’selection when Oliseh ten-dered his resignation has

Continues on page 47

Aboutrika

ACROSS4 Tally (5)7 Snare (6)9 Sorrowful (3)10 Through (3)12 Clear (5)13 Insect (4)15 Repulse (5)17 Come (6)19 Argument (4)20 Womaniser (5)22 Consume (3)24 Warned (7)27 Sheep (3)28 Pointed (5)31 Unaccompanied (4)33 Meal-course (6)35 Roost (5)37 Lofty (4)38 Stitched (5)39 Spike (3)41 Material (3)42 Moaned (6)43 Started (5)

DOWN1 Calf (6)2 Rivulet (6)3 Knock (3)4 Masculine (4)5 Grown-up (5)6 Hairstyle (8)8 Fairy (4)11 Respect (9)14 Region (4)16 Fuel (4)18 Part (4)21 Disused (8)23 Rip (4)25 Pitcher (4)26 Food (4)29 Ungenerously (6)30 Cheat (6)32 Entertainment (5)34 Melt (4)36 Paradise (4)40 Managed (3)

ACROSS: 1, Fair 4, Cad 6, Tart 9, Ape 10, Dis-tance 11, Stab 14, Dim 16, Berth 19, Demeaned21, Beret 23, Disabled 24, Dwell 27, Ten 31,Jolt 33, External 34, Tie 35, Deer 36, Pad 37,Deem.

DOWN: 2, Avid 3, Rite 4, Confined 5, Deep 6,taste 7, Apt 8, React 12, Edged 13, Amaze 14,Dab 15, Merit 17, Reply 18, Handy 20, De-serted 22, Tan 25, Wrote 26, Later 28, Help 29,Prod 30, Safe 32, Lie.

City win CapitalOne Cup

MANCHESTER Citylast night lifted the

Capital One Cup, beatingLiverpool 3-1 on penalties,after the match ended 1-1after extra time.

Goalkeeper Caballerowas the hero of the night,stopping penalties by Lu-cas, Coutinho to hand de-parting manager, ManuelPellegrini a silverware.

Emre Can scored Liver-pool’s opening kick,Fernandinho missed, Lucasmissed, Jesus Navasscored, Coutinho failed toscore, Sergio Ageuro scored.Adam missed and YayaToure scored to hand Citythe Capital One crown.