OBJ,GEJ's visit to Buhari not to stop anti-graft war

...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 62467

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015**

Mr & Mrs

OBJ, GEJ's visit to Buharinot to stop anti-graft war

COLUMNISTS:

•P.41

Aregbesola: Theidealist aspolitician

Yoyo nairaexchange rates andcommon sense

•P.40

•Presidency says no one can stop battle against corruptionI'm resolute in fighting corruption — Buhari

Continues on Page 5

How corruption hit civilservice— Asiodu...Why North rejected secession in 1966

Philip Asiodu

•Pages 47-49

By EmmanuelAziken, PoliticalEditor & LevinusNwabughiogu

A B U J A — T H Ep r e s i d e n c y

affirmed last night thatthe private visits whichformer PresidentGoodluck Jonathanmade to PresidentMuhammadu Buhari lastThursday followed byformer PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo onFriday were not aimed atstopping Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

The presidency’s

Port-Harcourt Refinery toreduce fuel import by 40%

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FG considering10% increase inVAT — FIRS 9

10

Yorubaleadership:Don'tdistorthistory,Osoba tellsObasanjo

42

Only kingmakers canannounce Ooni'sdeath — Oba Akinruntan

45

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015 — 3

CMYK


CMYK

POCKET CARTOONVanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015 —5

Continues from Page 1

OBJ, GEJ's visit to Buhari not tostop anti-graft war—Presidency

IT'S UP TO YOUBY AYO ADIO

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

GREAT Men have found no royal road to theirtriumph. It is always the old route by way of

industry and perseverance.Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it

knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or itwill be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up, itknows that it must out run the slowest gazelle or itwill starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether youare a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, youhad better be running. (African proverb). It is up toyou.

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something.But I can’t accept not trying — Michael Jordan

RARELY, a dream or goal comes true easily andeffortlessly, without delays, challenges or

hurdles. It is far more common, however, that youhave to overcome many obstacles and suffer somesetbacks before achieving any meaningful target. Themore ambitious your goals, the more likely it is thatyou will face difficulties on your way towards it.

When this happens, what will you do? Will youjust give up? Or will you persist and struggle andsucceed? A lot of that depends upon your attitudeand experience. Some of it depends upon your skills,network and some other factors as chance, luck ordivine intervention.

No matter what you’re experiencing, you simplydo not give up. When you find work that matters,giving up is not an option. So choose only the kindof work that matters. No, it does not have tonecessarily be ‘life saving’ or ‘world changing’. Butit should matter enough to you that you will notcasually think of abandoning it when a distractionor obstacle crops up.

RCCG—From left: Pastor Kola Oluwawole, Speaker, Ekiti House ofAssembly; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Governor ofOndo State; Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, his wife, Eunice andMajor-Gen Abayomi Olonisakin, Chief of Defence Staff, during the RedeemedChristian Church of God 63rd Annual Convention held at Km 46 Lagos-Ibadan expressway headquarters of the church on Friday. Photo: LamidiBamidele.

clarification followedinsinuations in Abujaand some sections of thepolity at the weekendthat the private visits ofthe two former leaders toPresident MuhammaduBuhari were aimed atprotecting the interests

of the two formerleaders.

President Jonathanwho handed over toBuhari made his firstvisit to his successor onThursday night. The visitonly became knownfollowing newsspeculations that weresubsequently confirmed

by Buhari’s spokesman,Femi Adesina, yesterday.

Obasanjo also visitedthe villa last Fridayunder much secrecy andwas said to have metBuhari in his residencewithin the villa outsidethe sights of newsreporters. Obasanjo’svisit was also alleged tohave been after workinghours when thepresident had retired tothe residence.

Senior SpecialAssistant on Media andPublicity, Mallam GarbaShehu who alsoconfirmed the meetingslike Adesina, claimedignorance of the detailsof the meetings.

Shehu, however,cautioned againstspeculations that themeetings were meant toderail any specificinvestigation of allegedcorrupt deals.

“The meeting betweenformer PresidentsObasanjo and Jonathanwith President Buhariwere private andconfidential. Thepresident can call themfor advice. But it will beunfair for anybody to feelor say it was to stop thewar against corruption.The war will continue togo on,” Shehu said.

The speculationsaround the visits wereprompted by the focus ofsecurity agents onassociates of some of theformer leaders. Obasanjohad the previousweekend receivedHajiya Turai Yar‘Adua,the widow of PresidentUmaru Yar‘adua in his

Abeokuta residenceunder much secrecyallegedly directed by theformer PresidentObasanjo.

Interest in Mrs.Yar ‘Adua’s visit toObasanjo was upon theinvestigation of herdaughter, Mrs. ZainabDakingari, theimmediate past FirstLady of Kebbi State bythe anti-graft agency onan alleged crime. Mrs.Dakingari’s husbandstepped down frompower last May and wasbelieved to have beenquizzed by operatives ofthe Economic andFinancial CrimesCommission, EFCC.

Obasanjo had in thepast played a benefactorrole to the Yar‘Aduas andsteered the way forUmaru to become hissuccessor in 2007 thoughthe relationship betweenthe two families,however, steadilyd e t e r i o r a t e dsubsequently as thesuccessor ditchedseveral landmarkprogrammes he inheritedfrom Obasanjo.

Jonathan’s visit to

Buhari was also secretand was only confirmedby Adesina, yesterday.

Jonathan’s visitaroused concernfollowing affirmation bythe presidency that thenew administrationwould probe hisgovernment uponrevelations of withheldfunds, leakages andgraft in the financialdealings of theimmediate pastadministration.

Before he handed overlast May, PresidentJonathan had, however,urged his successor not

to limit his inquiry to hisadministration, urginghim to extend anypossible investigation toadministrations beforehim.

Besides the two formerleaders, Speaker YakubuDogara and hispredecessor, GovernorAminu Tambuwal ofSokoto State also metwith President Buhari atthe weekend. However,multiple sources privy tothe meetings affirmedthat the visits werestrictly private and wereof no official imputation.

Senators jostle for committees onpetroleum, NDDC, Finance, others

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA— AHEAD ofthe composition of

the 57 StandingCommittees in the Senate,most of the Senators haveindicated their interest toserve on some very juicycommittees such asPetroleum Resources,Committee on PetroleumDownstream, Niger DeltaD e v e l o p m e n tCommission, NDDC andthe Federal CapitalTerritory, FCT.

The Committee onDownstream overseesRefineries, Pipeline andPetroleum ProductsMarketing; NigerianNational PetroleumCorporation, NNPC,Ministry of PetroleumResources, Oil Subsidy,Petroleum Products PriceRegulation, annualbudget estimates.

Vanguard gathered thatother committees that theSenators would want toeither be chairmen, ViceChairmen and membersare Committee on Financewhich oversees Customsand Excise, FederalInland Revenue Service,FIRS; Committees onMarine Transport, InterParliamentary Affairs,Works, Power, SteelDevelopment andMetallurgy.

It was also gathered that

besides these very strongcommittees, others wheresenators indicated interestto serve were Education,Internal Affairs, PoliceAffairs, Navy and Army.However, committees likeMedia and Public Affairs,Local and Foreign Debts,National Identity andNational Population,Information, WomenAffairs and YouthDevelopment, amongothers did not haveenough patronage.

Meanwhile, there areindications that senatorswill on Thursday thisweek proceed on anotherrecess that will last sixweeks. The senators atresumption of plenaryafter the election of SenatePresident Bukola Sarakiand his deputy, SenatorIke Ekweremadu, June 9,went on recess June 10and resumed June 23.

On June 25, they wentfor another recess andwere scheduled toresume July 21, but oneweek was added and theyresumed July 28. ByThursday this week whenthey would be proceedingon recess, the lawmakerswould have sat for 14days.

It will be recalled thatSenate President BukolaSaraki had disclosed lastweek during plenary thatforms would be

distributed to senators toindicate interest in theirchoice committees.

Saraki who noted thatevery lawmaker has theliberty to belong to morethan one committee,stressed that they were freeto also make suggestionsafter studying the forms.According to him,“Senators are advised tofill the forms indicatingtheir interest in belongingto the committees of theirchoice and it is amaximum of fivecommittees per senator.

“The forms will bedistributed by the Clerk.You can also take a look atthe form and make yoursubmissions to the leaderof the Senate.”

The office of the Clerkof the Senate and that ofthe Senate leader, SenatorAli Ndume have beenvery busy collating theforms.

It would also be recalledthat the Senate Presidenthad named chairmen andmembers of three specialcommittees and one ad-hoc committee.

The three committeeswere Senate ServicesCommittee, Rules AndBusiness Committee;Ethics And PrivilegesCommittee; and Media,Information And PublicAffairs Committee.

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

IyalojaGeneral’sallegedkillerdocked

By Daud Olatunji

ABEOKUTA—OGUNState Commissioner of

Police, Abdulmajid Ali, hasdisclosed that the suspectedkiller of Iyaloja-General ofIjebuland, Alhaja SaidatElewuju, has beenarrested and charged tocourt.

Elewuju was killed onWednesday July 8 in herhome in Ijebu Ode.

Ali also paraded 23suspects yesterday, amongwhom were ritualists,cultists, kidnappers andmurderers, at the statecommand headquarters,Eleweran, Abeokuta.

The Commissioner alsosaid his men would sooncatch the suspectedritualist linked with theabduction of a 20-month-old baby, OpeyemiOgundele, Chief OlasileIfayemi.

He said his men almostcaught him in his hideoutin Lagos, but that heescaped.

He said: “We will gethim. Many developmentalactivities have taken placein the state; so manycompanies are in the stateand some expatriates arehere.

“These activities mightscare them. We want tomake sure we protectthem.”

Meanwhile, Ali paid avisit to his Lagos Statecounterpart, FataiOwoseni, saying the visitwas to deliberate on vitalsecurity issues towardseffective policing of thetwo prominent commands.

BENIN—ARMED securityoperatives deployed,

Saturday evening, to theinternally-displaced persons,IDPs’ camp in Edo State, withthe aim of evacuating them,broke down in tears asweeping children ran helter-skelter in the rain, begging toremain in the camp.

They told the over 50 securityoperatives that they werebeing taken care of by themissionaries in the camp,spear-headed by the Pastor

Security operatives weep as EdoIDPs resist relocation attempt

Solomon Folorunsho-ledOverseer of InternationalChristian Centre for Missions.

The emotional operatives,including policemen, NationalSecurity and Civil DefenceCorps, NSCDC, Departmentof State Services, DSS, and theArmy, who wanted to effecttheir relocation to Kano andJigawa states, suspended theaction, as the pleas and criesof the over 1,000 IDPs got tothem. It was a pitiable sight.

Pastor Folorunsho, whoVanguard gathered had beeninterrogated for several weeks

both by the police and DSS,watched helplessly as thesecurity operatives attemptedto relocate the IDPs.

He also wept profusely,pleading with the securityagents to allow the victims,mainly children, remain in thecamp, which had become ahome to them.

Though Folorunsho refusedto give details of the operation,he, however, said: “God knowswe are here only to do his workby taking care of this displacedchildren. That was my calling.

“We do not have any security

issue here and I pray thatgovernment allows thesechildren remain because theyare already in school. They seethis place as home now, so it isgoing to affect their psyche ifthey are relocated.”

However, Vanguard learnedfrom a security source that thedecision to relocate the victimscame from the Presidency.

It was learned that the FederalGovernment was planning toget a correct data of IDPs acrossthe country and, therefore,planned to relocate all of themto Kano and Jigawa states.

By Simon Ebegbulem

Multiple accidents at Doyin Bus Stop, Orile-Mile 2 Road, Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: Gabriel Olawale.

A B E O K U T A —DETECTIVES attached

to Ewekoro Division of OgunState Police command, havearrested one Adebola Titilayo,a nurse and owner of a privatehealth facility at Arogun village,Ewekoro Local Government

Area of Ogun State, forallegedly stealing a-day-oldbaby boy after taking hisdelivery.

The Police Public RelationsOfficer in the state, MuyiwaAdejobi, disclosed in a statementthat the suspect committed thecrime on Friday, immediatelyshe took delivery of the baby in

the facility.According to Adejobi, the

nurse had lied and deceived themother that she had a stillbirth.

However, nemesis caught upwith her when the mother gotreliable information that hernew baby boy had been sold outand she immediately informedthe police.

The PPRO said:“Sympathisers in thecommunity noticed that thenurse (suspect), who was neverpregnant, suddenly startednursing a baby that she couldnot even breast feed. Theyinformed the mother who laterreported the case to the policeat Ewekoro on August 7.

“In the course of policeinvestigation, it was revealedthat the suspect, a mother ofseven, had issues with herinitial marriage and got marriedto another rich man, who thenurse wanted to have, at least,a baby for, for reasons known toher.

“The police operatives haverecovered the baby alive andunhurt. The suspect has,however, given crediblestatement that will assist thepolice and the matter will soonbe charged to court.

“The state Commissioner ofPolice, Abdulmajid Ali, hascommended the operatives fora good job and charged ownersof hospitals or maternity homesto operate legally and alwaysemploy credible and trustednurses and staff.”

Mother of 7 accused of stealing day-old-babyBy Daud Olatunji

CALABAR—WIVES of the11 policemen, who have

been in detention for the past12 months at Cross River StatePolice Command headquartershave cried out to the InspectorGeneral of Police, Mr SolomonArase, to release their husbandsand save their families from painand psychological trauma.

The women, led by Mrs JanetEwa, wife of ASP Raphael Ewa,visited Vanguard officeyesterday, after their weeklyprayer sessions for the releaseof their husbands, said their

husbands, who had put inseveral years of meritoriousservices for their fatherland,were now being humiliated anddisgraced after they staked theirlives in fighting crime inCalabar.

Narrating to Vanguard thecircumstance that led to theprolonged detention of theirhusbands, Mrs Ewa said onApril 17, 2014, at about2.30a.m., the officer in chargeof the Special Anti-RobberySquad, ASP HorsefallMinafuro, received a distresscall that armed robbers wereoperating at Atimbo, in the

eastern axis of Calabar and theman, along with 11 otheroperatives, went to the scene.

She said: “The robbersengaged the SARS squad in agun battle and six of them werekilled, while others escaped.”

She said police recoveredfirearm, expended ammunitionand a Kia Picanto car from therobbers, which were taken to thepolice headquarters asexhibits.

She added: “One of themothers of the robberysuspects, to avoid stigma,generated a case ofkidnapping against one of the

SARS operatives, whicheventually metamorphosed tothe incarceration of ourhusbands for over 12 months.”

The women said theirhusband's salaries had beenstopped since September 2014,saying this had inflictedsevere hardship on them andtheir children and wards, whohad to drop out of school,adding “we appeal that youkindly listen to thesupplications of yourdaughters and sisters andrelease our husbands, whohave done police and theirfatherland proud.”

DETAINED POLICE OFFICERS:They deserve commendation not incarceration, wives appeal to IG

By Emma Una

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015—7

Man, 30,arrested overabduction of82-yr-oldwoman

A K U R E —DETECTIVES in

Ondo State PoliceCommand have arrested a30-year-old kingpin of agang of kidnappers,identified as SundayOmojugba, who abductedan 82-year-old woman.

The suspect was pickedup after he collected aransom of N3 million fromthe family of his victim,identified as MadamOlamodesi TheresaAkindeju.

Madam Akindeju wasabducted in her residenceat Igbotako, Okitipupaarea of the state.

Vanguard gathered thatthe suspect was arrested bydetectives from the SpecialAnti-Cultism Squad,SACS, in his hideout at 5,Ego Eduwo quarters, Ilu-Titun area of the state.

Police source said he hadconfessed to being a cultistand was involved in otherviolent crimes in andoutside the state.

Vanguard was informedthat the detectives, actingon a tip off, stormed hishideout after his gangmembers collected the N3million ransom for therelease of the old woman.

Other members of thegang, it was gathered, hadearlier been arrested andremanded in prison custodyat Olokuta, Akure.

Police spokesman, WoleOgodo, said the suspectwould soon be arraigned incourt after the completion ofinvestigation.

In another development,21 years old KunleAkinyemi has beenreportedly stabbed to deathby his friend at Okitipupa,Ondo State, over anargument.

The deceased wasreportedly stabbed in thechest by his friend,identified as Dele.

By Dayo Johnson

ABAKALIKI—NO fewerthan 14 persons were

weekend reported to have diedin a ghastly road accident atAmasiri Secondary Schooljunction along Afikpo-Okigwefederal highway in EbonyiState.

The accident, which occurredaround midnight, involved anarticulated vehicle and a 14-seater bus conveying membersof Assemblies of God Church,Isu, in Ohaoazara LocalGovernment Area from a burial.

Mr. Roland Ogbuke, AfikpoUnit Commander of FederalRoad Safety Corps, FRSC,confirmed the accident.

He said: “We received adistress call early morning of theaccident, and I mobilised myrescue officers immediately tothe scene of the carnage.

“Sources informed us that thearticulated vehicle driver wastrying to dodge a heap of sandon the road, but hit theoncoming bus which was in aconvoy of vehicles, and crushedit against a tree some metresaway from the road.

“A nearby quarry companyused its heavy duty machine tocut the tree and parts of the busbefore we could evacuate themangled bodies of thepassengers.”

Ogbuke remarked that thecrushed passengers weremostly women and that theirrelatives and church memberswho were in other vehiclesjoined in the evacuation.

He added: “Police particularlyassisted FRSC in evacuating the

Nigerian returnees from Cameroon at Adamawatransit camp waiting to be taken to their permanentcamp by National Emergency ManagementAgency, NEMA, in Yola, yesterday. NAN PHOTOS.

14 die in Ebonyi road accident

bodies to the MaterMisericordae Hospital, Afikpo,because our vehicle developedserious fault on the way.

“We urge citizens of the statewhose relatives failed to returnfrom a journey on Saturday to

visit the hospital to identifycorpses of the relatives.

“We urge the public to imbiberoad safety practices byshunning night journeys, overspeeding, among otherpractices that negate road safety

regulations.”“I call on relevant authorities

to expedite action onreconstruction works on roadsin the area and across the stateto save innocent loss of lives inavoidable carnages,” he said.

Avoid night travels, FRSC warns

LAGOS—A woman hasreportedly abandoned her

baby in a day-care centrelocated at Isawo road, Oke-Afa,Agric, Ikorodu, Lagos, for overthree months.

It was learned that thewoman, identified as SolojaAyobola, came to God’s CareNanny on January 18 with herseven-month-old baby to makeenquiries about how the centreoperates.

Thereafter, she was said tohave been given a form whichshe filled and promised to bringher passport in her next visit,but never did.

Mrs Elizabeth Oyeshile, whoruns the day care facility, saidthe woman described herself asa politician and a member ofPeoples Democratic Party, PDP,and that because of the natureof her work, she travelledmostly during weekends forpolitical campaigns and rallies.

Oyeshile said the woman kepther baby, MofeoluwanifemiAmos, in the facility onThursday morning and said she

Woman abandons baby in day-careBy Esther Onyegbula

would take her back onMonday.

Oyeshile said: ‘’Thearrangement was that she willbe keeping the child during theweek, while the centre will takecare of the child weekends andwe agreed on a weeklypayment.

‘’She came to the day-carecentre about three times beforeactually putting her baby at thecentre for the first time onThursday, January 22.”

Vanguard gathered thatsometime in March, Ayobolacame with her male friend

(names withheld) to the day-care centre.

While introducing the man toElizabeth Oyeshile, the womanwas said to have explained thatwhenever she was not around,her male friend would be payingthe bills for the baby’s upkeepbut the man refused.

It was learned that he onlyprovided diapers for the babyuntil May, when he stopped.

Vanguard learned that onApril 5, Ayobola came to the day-care centre and complained thatit was becoming burdensome topay the bills weekly and that shewould be paying at the end ofthe month and depositedN10,000 part payment, whichwas the last payment she made.

Mrs Oyeshile said: “The lasttime Soloja Ayobola came to theday-care was on May 25. Iasked her to take her baby sinceshe was finding it difficultpaying for her upkeep.

“She pleaded that she will becoming regularly and alsopromised to come with mymoney on Friday, but shedidn’t.

“Since she abandoned herchild at the facility, I have calledher several times but sherefused to pick her calls. Thebaby, who was seven months oldwhen she brought her is now ayear and three months old. I didnot know what to do.

“It was when I lost my son-in-law three weeks ago thatfamily and friends, who sawthe baby when they came topay condolence visit, advisedme to take the baby to thepolice and report the case.”

Vanguard gathered thatnobody knows the whereaboutsof Soloja Ayobola, havingrelocated from her place ofabode without notifying anyone.

Mofeoluwanifemi Amos.

By Peter Okutu

MAKURDI—NO fewerthan three persons were

feared dead in Makurdi, BenueState, following last Saturday’sbloody clash among rival cultgangs and members of avigilante group in the city.

Vanguard learned that theclash left about six persons withinjuries, including an Indiannational (names withheld), whowas allegedly shot in the head.

According to a source, the

fight for supremacy by the cultgroups started at the WelfareQuarters area of the city, whereno fewer than three personswere shot, including membersof the vigilante group who hadintervened in the fight.

The source said: “They haveturned Welfare Quarters into aden of arms wielding cultists.It is unfortunate that lawenforcement agencies areturning a blind eye.

“Yesterday, the cult groups inthe area engaged each other in

a bloody fight that left threepersons dead, and manyinjured, while families fled theirhomes for fear of being killedby arms wielding young men.

“In a bid to stop an escalationof the fight, the vigilante groupon duty in the area tried to stopmembers of the gangs but someof them were shot.”

State Police Public RelationsOfficer, AssistantSuperintendent Austin Ezeani,confirmed the incident, sayingpolice recorded two deaths.

Cult war claims 3 in MakurdiBy Peter Duru


Pressure mounts on economy as oil price,external reserves drop further

By Emeka Anaeto,Economy Editor

LAGOS— THE nation’seconomic challenges may

have taken further negativeturn, weekend, as externalreserves declined further whileoil prices dropped significantlyin the international market.

Last weekend, Nigeria’sexternal reserve declined to$31.55 billion, losing about$350 million month-on-month.

This development is comingdespite recent efforts of theCentral Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to stabilize the externalreserves, a key indicator ofeconomic health. It is alsocoming just as the benchmarkcrude oil price (Brent) declined5.5 per cent to $49.45 while the

OPEC Basket price slumped6.7 per cent to $47.10 amidstglobal oil glut last weekend.

The external reservesposition measures a country’ssustainable ability to financeits imports and the volume isdetermined by interplay ofinflows from exports (oilexport income in case ofNigeria) and outflows in formof foreign exchange deployedto importations.Consequently, externalreserves decline meansoutflow is exceeding inflow.

Responding to this negativeinflow-outflow interplay,CBN had eliminated 41 itemsfrom its foreign exchangesupply window last monthand last week it also orderedbanks to pay for forexdemands upfront. CBN

continues to resist pressureto devalue the Naira.

Emefiele had told theSenate in the first week ofJuly that reserves had goneup to $31.9 billion from $29.1billion attributing thepositive development then toPresident MuhammaduBuhari’s measures ofplugging leakages in theeconomy.

But barley one week afterthis presentation, the reservebegan to decline promptingthe apex bank to take severalcounter measures whichseem not to have workedexcept the depreciation of theNaira in the black marketwhich was halted butfluctuating last week.

Speaking at the Senate,Emefiele had said:

“Reflecting the sharp fall inoil prices and speculativeforeign exchange activities,external reserves declinedfrom $37.3 billion in June2014 to $29.1 billion as atthe end of June 2015. Givenour understanding that thefall in oil prices may not betransitory but permanent,and that some speculativeactivities were going on inthe forex market, the CBNtook a number of proactivecountervailing actions.

“At the heart of the issuesthat currently confront ournation is the need for us todiversify the structure of oureconomy from being importdependent to being aneconomy that produceswhat she consumes."

Stakeholders fault FG over non-publication of accident reports

CONFERENCE: From left, Founding Director, Downdeep Energy Limited, Mr.Promise Egele; General Manager, Eunisell Solutions, Engr. Patrick O’Callaghan andformer Special Adviser on Petroleum Matters and SPE Director, Africa Region, Dr.Emmanuel Egbogah at the 39th Society for Petroleum Engineers Conference andExhibition, in Lagos.

By Daniel Eteghe

LAGOS — EXPERTS in theaviation industry have

condemned the FederalGovernment for not allowingAccident Investigation andPrevention Bureau, AIPB, topublish most of the accidentinvestigation reports in thecountry.

They argued that in otherparts of the world, accidentreports were published in formof a book to enable pilots as wellas the general travelling publicknow why accidents happenedin order to avert a recurrence.

Former Nigerian Airways pilotand General Manager ofdefunct Concord Airlines,Captain Samuel Adewumi, saidit was necessary for AIPB topublish accident reports forpublic consumption.

Captain Adewumi affirmedthat when the reports were inthe public domain, it would helpto inform them on how to alsobe vigilant to ensure thatdevelopments that couldendanger safety were averted.

He called on the NationalAssembly to pass favourablelaws that would make itcompulsory for AIPB to publishaccident reports.

He said: “The AIB since Iknew them in 1978, has neverpublished any accident report.When they investigate, theyshould publicise it; peopleshould buy the books and readwhat happened. The engineersand the management have to beaware of what is happening inall the departments.”

According to him, an incidentoccurred in Miami, Florida,United States of America,involving a $60 million Boeing747 aircraft in 2001 which madea turn around in the ocean andthe incident was reported andpublished, indicting the

engineering department forforgetting to put the oil seal inthe four engines of the aircraft.

He said it was expected ofthe AIPB to publish all accidentreports, adding that was anavenue to get the truth of whathappened during.

Also speaking, former Headof Flight Operations,Medview Airline, CaptainHenry Olawole, wonderedwhy accident reports were notpublished in Nigeria,stressing he saw no reasonsuch reports should be keptsecret.

Captain Olawole further saidin the western world, everyaccident report is published forthe public to be aware of thecause of the accident.

He said: “You can easily go

online and read accidentreports of any airline in thewestern world but here, theyare keeping it a secret. So thequestion the press should beasking is: why are they (AIPB)not publishing it; why are theykeeping it a secret.

"It is not punitive and it isnot meant to punish anybody,it is to help flying pilots tolearn from the mistakes ofother co-pilots and preventsuch accident in future.

"Sincerely, I wonder whythey don’t publish accidentsreports in Nigeria, maybe theydon’t want the public to know,including pilots.”

Sheri Kyari, a member of theNational Association of AircraftPilots and Engineers, NAAPE,noted that it was necessary for

the AIPB to release it reportsas that would better the lotsof the industry.

He further stressed that itwas better if the agencyorganised a stakeholders’meeting before publishing itsreports so as to have inputsfrom other stakeholdersconcerning that particularreport.

He said: “The mostimportant thing is that onewould have expected theAIPB, once or twice in a year,hold a stakeholders’ meetingand then explain their workto the industry.

‘’Then in that area, you canalso talk about passing yourreports to stakeholders so thatthey can learn from what hashappened, even if they arejust incidences."

My agendafor Air Force— Abubakar,CAS

By Esther Onyegbula

LAGOS — CHIEF of AirStaff, CAS, Air Marshal

Sadique Abubakar, weekend,disclosed that his agenda forthe Air Force is to have ahighly professional service thatrespects the rights of everyoneand can deliver in theirconstitutional duties.

Abubakar, who spoke duringhis familiarization tour of theLogistics Command and someother units in Lagos, weekend,said the military is currentlyrestrategizing its tactics in thewar against insurgency in theNorth-East.

He said: “We are identifyingthose strategies that we needto discard that are not workingfor us, especially with regardsto how we are operating in theNorth-East.

“With what I have seen, I amvery happy with the situationon ground. We have identifiedareas that we need to improveupon and we will go ahead tostart doing something about it.

“We have our airplanes thatare patrolling the Nigerian-Cameroonian borderparticularly at all times and wehave intercepted quite anumber of people that aresmuggling petroleum productsto support the insurgents andwe have engaged them on anumber of occasions.”

He also faulted those whoargued that the military is notwinning the war againstinsurgency, saying: “I don’twant to say we are not winningthis war. I think we are. Whatwe are simply doing now is tore-strategize. We are goingthrough all the activities thathave happened in the past andthe idea there is to re-evaluatethese ideas and see the oneswe need to improve upon.

“That is why I am going onthe tour. We started with about16 operational units that aredirectly involved in the war inthe North-East but we alsorecognize that without logisticsyou cannot fight war.

“We need the logisticssupport to carry out ouroperations. So what I haveseen on ground is highlycommitted personnel that areworking to ensure thatwhatever logistics support weneed to execute the war in theNorth East is given to us.

“We need to have a highlyprofessional service that isprudent in management ofresources, a service that ishighly disciplined and haveinnovative ideas.

“We are working on welfareprogrammes fromaccommodation, medicalservices for our personnel andthe children of our personneltoo.”


FG considering 10% increase in VAT —FIRS

It’ll worsen poverty level in Nigeria—ExpertBy Omoh Gabriel &Clifford Ndujihe

LAGOS — THE FederalInland Revenue Services,

FIRS, weekend, said theFederal Government isconsidering a review of ValueAdded Tax, VAT, with apossible increase from five percent to 10 per cent.

It also stated thatgovernment would take adrastic measure to stop taxevasion as there are moves tocapture the revenue flow ofcompanies and individuals tomake it difficult for anybodyresident in Nigeria to operatean account without TaxIdentification Number (TIN).

Chairman of the FIRS, Mr.Sunday Ogungbesan, whodisclosed this, said: “FederalGovernment would soon takea decision on the VAT systemafter engaging withstakeholders on the need toincrease it in order to make upfor the shortfall in crude oilrevenue. The plan is toincrease to 10 percent thisyear but we have to consultfirst with relevantstakeholders.”

VAT is a tax on spending.The tax is borne by the finalconsumer of goods andservices because it is includedin the price paid.

It’ll worsen povertylevel in Nigeria—Expert

Commenting on the issue, apublic affairs analyst, ChrisUdoh M’Enin, advised theFederal Government to dropthe proposed idea ofincreasing VAT.

Cautioning the governmentagainst poorly conceivedideas, M’Enin asked thegovernments to tell Nigeriansthe value they have given tothe people with the five percent they are alreadyreceiving.

His words: "Original designof VAT was to be input-outputtax whereby the businesscollects VAT for vatableservices it offers (output) andpays VAT for vatable servicesit receives (input). At the endof the day, the business wassupposed to deduct what itpays out from what it collectedas VAT and hands thedifference to government. Buttoday, both the input andoutput VATs go togovernment, thereby heapingmore burden on theconsumers.

"Technically, the governmentis using VAT to forcefullyreduce the quantity andquality of food that the massesput on their tables everydaybecause whatever VAT a

service provider pays isautomatically passed on to theconsumers in the form ofincreased prices.

"For instance, Mr Jonathanearns N20,000 per month. Abasin of garri is N5,000. With10 per cent VAT, his garribecomes N5,500 a basin. MrJonathan will have no otheroption except to reduce thequantity of gari that heconsumes or reduce thequantities of goods andservices his remainingN15,000 could buy. Note alsothat he would need N16,500

to satisfy his original N15,000consumption.

"Therefore, with his fixedincome at N20,000, theconsumer would need N22,000to maintain the same level ofconsumption that he had. Butbecause his income is fixed atN20,000, he needs to reducehis consumption by aboutN4000 to meet up.

"My suggestion is that FIRS/government should forgetabout any tax increase for nowbut should implement policiesto increase the productionbase and employment so that

unit consumption canincrease and by extensionincrease total VAT and payeetaxes.

"If you have y consumptionunits bring in Nx VAT at fiveper cent, you can useproduction/employment toincrease consumption unitsto 2y and earn 2Nx at thesame five per cent VAT.Government should not lookfor quick and easy ways ofmaking money because theyhurt the masses. They shouldbe creative and strategic intheir thinking and actions."

See more on page 17

VICTORY PARTY: From left: Member, House of Representatives, Lado Suleja; MajorityLeader, Femi Gbajabiamila; representative of Lagos Governor, Mrs Adebunmi Adekanye,and Rep. Rabiu Kaugama, at a welcome and victory party for Gbajabiamila, in Lagos,yesterday. Photo: NAN

NIMASA: DSS may take overinvestigations from EFCC

By Emmanuel Aziken

LAGOS — THEDepartment of State

Services, DSS, is set to takeover investigations into theaffairs of the NigerianMaritime Administration andSafety Agency, NIMASA,under its immediate pastDirector-General, Dr. PatrickAkpobokemi, from theEconomic and FinancialCrimes Commission, EFCC.

Both security agencies, itwas learnt at the weekend,were set for a head oncollision over who should takethe lead role in theinvestigations into the agencyduring the regime of itsimmediate past boss,Akpobokemi, who was sackedby President MuhammaduBuhari more than one monthago.

It was gathered that theEFCC was the first tocommence investigations intothe agency with its agentscombing the books of themaritime regulatory agencyimmediately Akpobokemi wassacked by the president. Theformer director-general wasbelieved to be a close ally offormer President GoodluckJonathan.

Apprehension was,however, said to have beenraised recently followingalleged moves by the DSS totake over the investigationsfrom the EFCC which,according to some sources,has been on for the past threeweeks.

The basis of the DSSinvolvement, it was gathered,was the alleged securityconcerns that may flow outfrom deep scrutiny of theagency.

The involvement of theDSS, it was gathered, mayalso not be unconnected withalleged past links betweenthe former director generaland Niger Delta activists whobefore the last presidentialelection promised unsavouryreactions to the possibledefeat of Dr. Jonathan.

A source privy to thedevelopment said, weekend:“It means, therefore, thatwith the loss of the formerpresident, who is their man,in the last presidentialelection, the leadership ofthat platform of which theformer DG was a playermight want to have ulteriormotives.

“As far as the DSS isconcerned, the issue ofsecurity is far more importantthan what the EFCC ispursuing without result forthe last three weeks or so.”

Meningitis:Nigerianchildren athigh risk

As shortage ofvaccine lingers

By Sola Ogundipe &Chioma Obinna

LAGOS — LOCAL andinternational health

officials are worried thatNigerian children may be theworst hit in the lingeringshortage of meningitisvaccine in Nigeria and someparts of African countriesfollowing possible outbreakof child meningitis in someAfrican countries.

Their worries may not beunconnected with the factthat the only certified vaccinelaboratory in the West Africansub region is currentlydefunct.

Already, reports from theWorld Health Organisation,WHO, revealed that this year,800 people have died out ofthe 12,000 infected inNigeria and Niger Republicin the first large-scaleoutbreak of the C strain of themeningitis virus.

The WHO had earlierwarned that meningitis caseshave been increasing since2013, and that an outbreakof the disease in parts ofAfrica was imminent.

Vanguard gathered thatcurrently, health officials aremaking efforts to bridgingthe wide gap created by thevaccine shortage, amiddemands for the reopeningof the defunct FederalGovernment vaccinelaboratory located in Yaba,Lagos.

Investigations revealedthat even though local healthofficials are seeking tostockpile five million dosesof the vaccine, themanufacturers cannot meetthe demand.

However, efforts to reachgovernment officials,weekend, for an updateproved abortive as theirphones were switched off.

When Vanguard finallyreached the Director of theNigeria Centre for DiseaseControl, NCDC, Prof.Abdulsalami Nasidi, onphone, he said he wasattending a meeting inDakar but confirmed that theshortage was global notpeculiar to Nigeria.

Nasidi, who had onceheaded the defunctlaboratory as far back as1980s had earlier expressedfears over the potentialnumber of fatalities thatcould result in the event of ameningitis epidemic in themidst of a vaccine shortage.

Plans to stop tax evasion


YORUBA LEADERSHIP: Don’t distorthistory, Osoba tells Obasanjo

Ladipo markettraders,council settledispute

VISIT: Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State (middle) flanked by newly-elected NigerianUnion of Journalists, NUJ, President, Mr. Waheed Odusile (2nd left); Chairman, NUJ, Lagos chapter,Mr. Deji Elumoye (right); Secretary, NUJ, Lagos chapter, Mrs. Bimbo Oyetunde (2nd right) andTreasurer, Kehinde Ajayi during Odusile's courtesy visit to the governor, at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

By Tony Nwankwo

UNPAID WAGES: Maritime workers suspend planned strike

By Monsur Olowoopejo

L A G O S — F O R M E Rgovernor of Ogun State,

Aremo Olusegun Osoba, hascondemned former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo’s position inhis book, My Watch: Political andPublic affairs, that there hadnever been any Yoruba leader,saying “He (Obasanjo) wants todistort the history of the Yoruba.”

Obasanjo made the assertion inchapter 31 of the book, wherehe explained issues centred onNigeria and Yoruba, arguing thatthere was no individual as Yorubaleader before and now.

Osoba, in an interview inLagos, lamented that thedeclaration by the formerPresident, who was present at theevent when late Chief ObafemiAwolowo was ‘unanimously’elected as the ‘Yoruba Leader,’ onAugust 12th, 1966, is worrisome.

According to him, “I disagreewith the former President, onwhatever claims he made thatAwolowo was hand-picked bysome of his supporters. In fact,the day he was elected as Yorubaleader was two weeks afterAwolowo was released fromprison by the military.

“As the garrison commanderin Ibadan at the time,Obasanjo was an active memberof General AdeyinkaAdebayo’s erstwhile cabinet. Ido not think that Obasanjowould have forgotten so soonthe sequence of events that threwup Awolowo as Yoruba leader.

“I was present at the forum whereLate Chief Awolowo wasunanimously elected the Yorubaleader. And the election involvedall stakeholders, including political,cultural and intellectuals in Yorubaland. Some who did not belong toAwolowo’s political camp alsoendorsed him,” Osoba added.

Osoba however said thatYorubas cannot have a singleleader under current politicaldispensation. “What we can haveat the moment is ‘cultural’ leadernot an overall leader. By our levelof education, exposure andindependent mindedness welike to express our views.''

LAGOS—TRADERSunder the umbrella of

the Ladipo Auto Spare partsDealers Association, LadipoMain Market, wereyesterday reported to havesettled the rift arising fromre-development of themarket.

This followed theintervention of concernedIgbo leaders, who appealedto the warring groups tosheathe their swords forpeace to reign in the market.

A statement signed by theInformation officer of MushinLocal Government Authority,Mr. Olusegun Akinyemi,said the Executive Secretaryof the council, Mr. BabajideBello, had emphasised thatthe allegation that Mushinlocal government wasinterested in taking over themarket was untrue.

According to him;‘’Although the Marketbelongs to the localgovernment, it wasconcerned about the generalwell-being of the traders, whoare its tenants.''

According to the statement,“When the market is finallyredeveloped, it is these sametraders that will occupy theplace. Every genuine shopowner in the place willhave their shops backwithout stress,’’ he said. AT exactly 8.20 a.m.

yesterday the arguablyfastest growing pentecostalchurch in the world, theRedeemed Christian Church of

G o dopened an e wepoch ast h eGeneral

Overseer, Pastor Enoch AdejareAdeboye publicly dedicated thechurch’s new nine squarekilometre auditorium on a hillsituated between Shagamu inOgun State and Ikorodu in LagosState.

The new vista marked the grandfinale of the church’s 63rd annualconvention, which began oneweek ago. Apart from theordination of 1,184 pastors, whohad the privilege of being the firstset to be so honoured on the hilly

arena, a total of 70 elders were alsoordained.

The service began with anopening prayer by the VicePresident, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, whois also a pastor with the church, whoused the occasion to appreciate Godfor the gift of a new auditorium andsuccessful conclusion of a wonderfulconvention.

Praying for the ordainees, PastorAdeboye described them as uniqueand special, being the first set to beordained in the new auditorium and

urged all church members tocontinually pray for them to besuccessful in their callings.

According to him; “This set ofpastors are special as they arethe first to be ordained in thisauditorium. I pray thatwhatever you bind on earthwill be bound in heaven;whatever you loose on earthwill be loosed in heaven. Youwill not fail, God will standby you, uphold you and youwill stand till the very end.”

RCCG ordains 1,184 pastors, dedicates auditorium

By Sam Eyoboka &Olayinka Latona

M A R I T I M EWorkers Union of

Nigeria, MWUN, weekendstopped the planned shut-down of the nation’s portsafter it said the managementof Nigerian Ports Authority,NPA, signed necessarypapers to ensure paymentof outstanding wages todockworkers from today.

President of thedockworkers’ branch ofMWUN, Mr AdewaleAdeyanju, said the signingof the papers took placeThursday night after amarathon meeting bystakeholders and a letterfrom the Ministry ofTransport to the

management of NPA,urging it to ensureimmediate payment of thewages to avert industrialunrest in the nation’s ports.

MWUN had threatened tobegin indefinite industrialaction by Friday after NPAallegedly refused to endorse

the payment of the wagesof the dockworkers,especially tally clerks andon-board security men inthe last eight months.

According to Adeyanju:“All the papers have beensigned by the managementof NPA and it is expected

that the payment will beginfrom Monday (today).Because of that, we aresuspending the plannedstrike, hoping that thebacklog of wages will bepaid before the end of theweek to avoid unnecessarytension in the ports.''

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

P R E S I D E N TM u h a m m a d u

Buhari has been petitionedto urgently intervene bypreventing the forcefuleviction of internallydisplaced persons (IDPs) inWASU IDP camp in Apo

District of Abuja or any othercamp across the country.

A non-governmentalorganisation, Socio-Economic Rights andAccountability Project,SERAP, in an open letter byits executive director,Tokunbo Mumuni to thePresident, said the threat toevict the people from the

camps contravenes naturaljustice and the provisions ofthe constitution.

In the letter dated 7 August2015, SERAP expressedconcern that unless thepresident urgentlyintervenes, the IDPs may berendered homeless and leftwithout water, food or othercritical assistance.

SERAP wants Buhari to halt IDPs eviction from Abuja

By AbdulwahabAbdulah


CMYK


Group blames DESOPADEC problems onpolitical interference

Zoning ofEdo govticketillegal—PDPSTALWART

By GabrielEnogholase

By Emma Amaize

2016: APC chieftain tasks Oshiomhole ondisunity among members in Edo Central

By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—A member ofthe Peoples Democratic

Party, PDP, in Edo State, Mr.Jeff Ukhureigbe, hasdescribed the allegedceding of the 2016governorship ticket of theparty to Edo Southsenatorial zone by theleadership of the party asundemocratic, illegal,unjustifiable andunconstitutional.

In an open letter to theacting National Chairmanof the party, Mr. UcheSecondus through hiscounsel, Olayiwola Afolabi,Ukhureigbe said that it wasthe turn of Edo Centralsenatorial zone to producethe next governor of thestate since Edo South hadruled for eight years in theperson of Chief LuckyIgbinedion and AdamsOshiomhole from EdoNorth, another eight years.

WARRI—THE branchnational Chairman of

Marine Equipment and OilSuppliers, MEOS, an arm ofNational Union of Petroleum andNatural Gas Workers, NUPENG,Mr. Best Ose, has said that themajor aim of the body is tocompliment the efforts ofconventional security agencies inthe maritime sector, especially inthe oil and gas industry.

Ose at NUPENG House, DeltaState during the inauguration ofthe six operating units of MEOSin the state, said that MEOSwould continue to partnerNIMASA, the Nigerian Navy,

NUPENG arm targets maritime securityas major policy direction

BENIN CITY—AS campaignsfor the 2016 governorship

election in Edo State intensifies,a chieftain of the All ProgressivesCongress, APC, in the state, MrMathew Emhiohe, has lamentedwhat he described as the disunityamong leaders of the APC in EdoCentral senatorial district andappealed to Governor AdamsOshiomhole to find a solution tothe problem so as to save the partyfrom defeat next year.

According to him, the APCneeds a leader in Edo Central,one who will serve as a rallyingpoint for members of the party,“Just like the Peoples DemocraticParty, PDP, has Chief Tony Anenihin Edo Central, we lack that sortof coordination and that isaffecting the APC in EdoCentral.”

Emhiohe who addressedjournalists in Irrua, Edo State,said: “My worry is that APC inEdo Central is seriously divided,we are not as united as we wereduring the past elections. What Ifear is going to kill us in thedistrict is the division and disunityamong leaders of the party. Wehave many factions, you cannotget a leader to call a meetingwhere every other leader willhonour and attend.

“The only leader that cansummon a meeting of APCleaders in Esan land is only thegovernor, Oshiomhole, but he isnot an Esan man, and cannot bean Esan leader. I see former

WARRI—THE Centre for theVulnerable and

Underprivileged, CENTREP,Warri, Delta State, has said thatpolitical interference and notrestructuring was the problem ofDelta State Oil Producing AreasDevelopment Commission,DESOPADEC.

Reacting to the recent passageof the amended DESOPADECbill by the Delta State House ofAssembly, the group, said: “Weare not oblivious of the fact thatundue political interferenceaccounts for the earth quakinglevel of corruption, greed andmismanagement afflicting thecommission.”

Executive Director ofCENTREP, Mr. OghenejaborIkimi, in a statement, said thatthe mandate of DESOPADECwas to develop oil-bearingcommunities with 50 per cent ofthe 13 per cent derivation fundaccruing to the state from theFederal Government.

“Restructuring DESOPADEClike NDDC would not by anystroke of imagination repositionthe commission, as NDDC even

with her present structure isriddled with massive corruption,greed and mismanagement.

“There is undue politicalinterference in the day-to-daymanagement and finances ofNDDC by both the Presidencyand members of the National

Assembly under the watch of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan,hence the urgent need byGovernor Ifeanyi Okowa toinsulate DESOPADEC frompolitics by appointing testedtechnocrats to man thecommission to realize its mandate.

“We make bold to state that aslong as the day to day runningand finances of DESOPADECis subjected to undue politicalinterference whether it isstructured like NDDC orotherwise, the commissionwould remain a cesspool ofcorruption as it was the caseunder the ex-governor's watch.”

Governor Osarhiemen Osunboras someone who can bringeverybody together and serve asa rallying point. But I understandhe is nursing a governorship

ambition, if not he would haveplayed that role better.

“We need somebody of thecalibre of Chief Anenih. Anypatriotic Esan man will be happy

to have the next governor comefrom the district but right now, itis not going to work because we needthe kind of leadership that will lead usand be a rallying point."

DSS and Marine Police in therenewed determination to tacklecrude oil theft, sea piracy,kidnapping and other acts ofcriminality.

According to him, arrangementwas being put in place to trainMEOS members with a view tostrengthening their capacity onthe task ahead.

The Warri Zonal Branchchairman of NUPENG, Mr.Cogent Ojobor at the event,admonished the newly sworn-inunits’ executive to see themselvesas the peoples’ servant and notto oppress anyone with theiroffice.

Ojobor, represented by theWarri Zonal Auditor, Mr. GabrielEsezobor administered oath ofoffice on the six MEOSchairmen and other members oftheir executives.

It was gathered that theCommander, NNS Delta,Commodore A. Sule wasrepresented by Lt. Cdr. A.Omotosho, while other securitychiefs and traditional rulers inthe area also graced the occasion.

While the Escravos Unit ischaired by CollinsAjeboghouku, Forcados Unit ofMEOS has David Perebor asChairman.

PORT HARCOURT—P R E S I D E N T

Muhammadu Buhari hasbeen lauded for steps takenso far to fast trackimplementation of theUnited NationsEnvironment Programme,UNEP report on Ogoni,Rivers State.

Executive Director, NigeriaRebirth Initiative, Mr. JosephAmbakaderimo who spokeweekend in Port Harcourt,enjoined the FederalGovernment to carry the Ogonialong in all the process, saying itwill achieve quality results.

He further advised the FederalGovernment to give attention torecommendations of the UNEPreport for setting up of OgonilandEnvironmental RestorationAuthority, EnvironmentalRestoration Fund for Ogoniland,a Centre of Excellence forEnvironmental Restorationamong others.

Group laudsBuhari onUNEP report

By Jimitota Onoyume

AWARD: HRM, Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Chike Edozien (left) and Parish Priest, St. JosephCatholic Church, Asaba, Rev Father Patrick Isichei, during the presentation of award forcommunity development, to the priest by the monarch as part of activities to mark his 90thbirthday in Asaba, yesterday. Photo: Nath Onojake.

By Abdulwahab Abdulah

PORT HARCOURT—ANindigenous oil servicing

company, Arco Group Plc hascautioned Nigerian Agip OilCompany Limited, NAOC, orany of its subsidiaries from doinganything that will jeopardise theongoing suit it filed before aFederal High Court sitting inPortharcourt, Rivers State.

In a public notice by its counsel,

Arco cautions Agip to refrain from jeopardising court caseArco lamented that in spite of thesubsisting court order directingparties in the suit to maintainstatus quo, Agip has taken stepsto send its over 1000 workers outof site as against the order ofcourt.

In the statement, Arco Groupnoted that, “Arising from theforegoing, the general public,Agip, G.E., Piantgeria CompanyLimited, or any other company,

persons are hereby reminded,warned and admonished thatNigeria operates and thrivesunder the doctrine of the Ruleof Law, and that none of themis above the laws of the land.

“It is in their own interest, and,indeed, the interest of allNigerians to obey and abide bythe Orders of the court untilsame are set aside, either by thecourt itself, or by an appellate

court. This is the civilized andhonourable thing for anycompany of the status of Agip todo, rather than taking the lawsinto its hands.”

It will be recalled that Justice LamboAkanbi at the last hearing of the suit,sequel to an oral application by the leadcounsel to Arco, Chief Wole Olanipekun,SAN, directed parties in the suit tomaintain status quo pending the hearingof the applications before the court.


PIRATES ATTACK: Bayelsa govt condemnskilling of 4 soldiers, policeman

By Samuel Oyadongha

Corpse of slain soldier recovered in Nembe River

YENAGOA—BAYELSAState Government has

condoled with the Chief of ArmyStaff, Major General TukurBuratai and the families of thesoldiers and policeman killedweekend by gunmen in thecreek of Nembe in NembeLocal Government Area of thestate.

The state government in astatement by the Chief PressSecretary to Governor SeriakeDickson, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, expressed regretover the incident.

It assured that the Dickson-led administration will partnerthe security agencies to arrestthe perpetrators of thedastardly act, stressing that,no stone will be left unturnedto bring the killers to justice.

Condemning the attack onthe nation’s security agencies,the government described theattack as mindless and mostbarbaric.

The statement, said: “A letterpersonally signed byGovernor Dickson had alreadybeen dispatched to the Chiefof Army Staff to express theheartfelt condolences of thegovernment and people of thestate.”

The state government alsoassured the families of theslain officers that their lovedones and benefactors did notdie in vain, noting that, theydied as gallant officers, whilein active service to theirfatherland and prayed for the

repose of their souls.

Corpse of slain soldierrecovered in NembeRiver

Meanwhile the corpse of oneof the soldiers killed in theweekend sea pirates attack onJTF base was, yesterday, foundfloating on the Nembe River.

According to a source from

the area, the corpse of thedeceased soldier was found inthe early hours of Sunday byboat drivers, who alerted thecommunity leaders.

“When the attention of someNembe chiefs was drawn tothe floating corpse, theyimmediately called theattention of the JTFcommanders,” the source said.

The state further said: “Weurged Bayelsans not todespair, as government willcontinue to do everythingwithin its powers to stem thenew wave of insecurity beingorchestrated by a clique ofmindless and disgruntledpoliticians, who want towrest power by all meansfrom a performing governor

AWARD: From left: Former Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major GeneralS.Y. Audu (rtd), Head, Corporate Communications, Dana Air, Mr. SamuelOgbogoro, and Head, Security, Mr. Ossai Ayogu, during the presentationof an award of excellence to Dana Air as the Best Security Conscious Airline2014/15 by the International Institute of Professional Security in Lagos.

LAGOS—THE New PortHarcourt Refining

Company, PHRC 2, is nowready for the productionof more premium motorspirit, PMS, popularlycalled petrol, and willreduce fuel import by 40per cent when fullyoperational.

When the FCCUs arere-streamed, the refinerywill be working at 95 percent of its 150,000 barrelsper day capacity, it isexpected that petrolimportation will reduce.

This was disclosed tojournalists, weekend, byChrome Oil Services, amember of the ChromeGroup, one of the threecontractors, handling thephased rehabilitation ofthe refinery.

Recall that VanguardSweetcrude hadexclusively reported lastweek that the fourNigerian refineries areweak in petrolproduction and high infuel oils because theFCCUs were stillu n d e r g o i n grehabilitation.

The Project Manager,Chrome Oil Services, Mr.Bombey Adigbara, said:“The job on the FCCUs isabout 98 percent completedand by next weekend, wewill hand over and theFCCUs will be re-streamed and therefinery will be workingat about 95 percent of itsthroughput.

“Three companiesparticipated in thisphased works and COSis the first, and we arestill doing the work. Atthe moment, the refineryhas started preliminaryproduction, which meansthat it is Unit 1 that isproducing.

“The Unit 3 is beinghandled by Chrome, andby the end of next week,we will hand over theplant and the FCCs willbe streamed. When thisis done, we will startexperiencing high levelof PMS production inNigeria. So, all thecritical jobs are beingdone by us.”

He disclosed that thereare three majorcontractors handling theongoing phasedrehabilitation of PHRC,namely Chrome, DKJ/ITC, and DBM.

P-Harcourtrefinery toreduce fuelimport by40%

By Clara Nwachukwu

in the person ofDickson.

“All these acts ofinsecurity andbrigandage areintended to putfear in the mindsof the people,ahead of theDecember 2015g o v e r n o r s h i pelection and wecall on Bayelsansto remainsteadfast, be lawabiding and goabout their normalbusinesses.

“As a government,we have worked sohard and havecommitted a lot ofour state’s resourcesto achieve thepeace we have beenenjoying and it issad to observe that,because of theirpolitical ambitions,some persons wantto perpetuatev i o l e n c e ,brigandage andinsecurity acrossthe state,” thestatement added.


CORRUPTION: Buhari orders MDAs to operate TreasurySingle Account

By LevinusNwabughiogu

ABUJA—TO ensuretransparency and

accountability in theoperations of public accounts,Muhammadu Buhari hasordered the Ministries,Departments or Agencies,MDAs, under the FederalGovernment to run a TreasurySingle Account, TSA, whichwill be domiciled at theCentral Bank of Nigeria,CBN.

Also affected by the directivewere ForeignMissions,Teaching Hospitals,Medical Centres, FederalTertiary Institutions.

Agencies like the CentralBank of Nigeria, CBN,Security and ExchangeCommission SEC, CorporateAffairs Commission CAC,Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA,Nigerian CommunicationsCommission, NCC, FederalAirport Authority of Nigeria,FAAN.

Others are NCAA, NIMASA,NDIC, NSC, NNPC, FIRS,NCS, MMSD, DPR.

President Buhari’s directiveis drawn from section 80 of the1999 Constitution.

The section 80 (1) reads: All revenues or other

moneys raised or received bythe Federation (not beingrevenues or other moneyspayable under thisConstitution or any Act of theNational Assembly into anyother public fund of theFederation established for aspecific purpose) shall be paidinto and form one ConsolidatedRevenue Fund of theFederation.

(2) No moneys shall be

withdrawn from theConsolidated Revenue Fundof the Federation except tomeet expenditure that ischarged upon the fund bythis Constitution or where theissue of those moneys hasbeen authorised by anAppropriation Act,Supplementary AppropriationAct or an Act passed inpursuance of section 81 of thisConstitution.

(3) No moneys shall bewithdrawn from any publicfund of the Federation, otherthan the ConsolidatedRevenue Fund of the

Federation, unless the issue ofthose moneys has beenauthorised by an Act of theNational Assembly.

(4) No moneys shall bewithdrawn from theConsolidated Revenue Fundor any other public fund of theFederation, except in themanner prescribed by theNational Assembly.

Meanwhile, a TSA is acentral bank account systemfor all government transactionswhere all its receipts andpayments are harmonized foraccountability.

CMYK


Fuel scarcity worsens in Imo

O WERRI— THElingering fuel

scarcity, which hit parts ofImo State in the pastworsened yesterday as most

By ChidiNkwopara

Anambra youths riseagainst drugs, fraud,crime

By ObialunammaNwadiogbu

E K W U L O B I A —GOVERNOR Willie

Obiano of Anambra State,yesterday, applauded thenewly inaugurated IsiaguYouth Association, IYA,Awka South LocalGovernment Area for takinga bold decision to assist thesecurity agents in policingtheir community by flushingout all drug addicts,criminals and fraudulentpeople in their community.

The 11-man Isiagu YouthAssociation executiveelected are Chief NelsonOkolo, President;Nwabueze Nwokoye, VicePresident; Uche Ozumba,Secretary; Obinna Okoli,Assistant Secretary;Crescent Chibuife ,Financial Secretary;Chuma Anagor, Treasurer;

Chekwube Okoli, PRO;Uchenna Nwoye, Provost;Ekene Odogwu, WelfareOfficer 1; ChiemelieOkoye, Welfare Officer 2,and Shedrack Okoli, Ex-Officio.

Anambra StateCommissioner for Youthand Sports, Ogbuefi TonyNnachetta, represented, byDirector of YouthDevelopment in hisministry, Chief GregOnugbolu (JP), said thatshould the youths be docileover crime or applaud evil,their future will be bleakbut with such a daringmove, there is hope for abrighter future.

He encouraged them topursue their fight againstevil, injustice, drug abuseand crime of all sorts as wellas uniting and reconcilingvarious factions thatpolarized the community.

OWERRI—IMO StateGovernment has beenchallenged to publish thestate accounts so thecitizenry would know theproper financial health ofthe state.

The Catholic Archbishopof Owerri EcclesiasticalProvince, Most Rev. Dr.Anthony J. V. Obinna, whothrew the challenge toGovernor RochasOkorocha, yesterday,

Publish state accountsnow, Archbishop tasksOkorocha

By ChidiNkwopara

INSPECTION: From left, Dr. Yilji Jurbe, Mr. Ayinla O. Gbolahan, AirportManager, Jos; Engr. Saleh Dunoma, Managing Director, Federal AirportsAuthority of Nigeria, FAAN;Mr. Godwin Omadefu, Aerodrome Rescue & FireFighting Services; Mr. Alfred Itua, Head of Department, Corporate Affairs, FAAN,and Mrs. Jane Ominifega, Head of Department, Operations,FAAN, during theunscheduled inspection visit by Management of FAAN to Yakubu Gowon Airport,Jos,weekend.

while delivering a sermonat Maria AssumptaCathedral, Owerri, alsoargued that the publicationof the state account wouldenable the citizenry to knowthe true position of things.

“Lack of salary createsroom for murmuring. It isnecessary that parentsreceive their salaries andpensions to take care ofthemselves and theirfamilies. When parents donot provide for theirfamilies, it will lead tomurmuring,” Archbishop

Obinna reasoned.It was the considered

opinion of the Archbishopthat there was no cogentreason why workers andpensioners should not bepaid if the state wasbuoyant.

“If there is money, why isit not being used to payworkers and pensioners? Ifthere is no money, it isimportant to let peopleknow. Lack of accountabilityand transparency couldlead to murmuring,”Archbishop Obinna said.

filling stations said theyhad run out of premiummotor spirit, PMS.

When Vanguard visitedOwerri Municipality,Owerri North, AbohMbaise, Obowo, IhitteUboma, Ehime Mbano andIsiala Mbano Local

Government Areas,yesterday, some of thefilling stations that hadPMS to dispense, forcedtheir customers to part withbetween N110 and N120per litre.

Although none of themajor marketing

Boundary Commission's DG laudsEnugu, Ebonyi states' bid to resolvedispute

By Francis Igata

E N U G U — T H EDirector General,

National BoundaryCommission, Dr.Mohammed Ahmad hasenjoined the officials ofEnugu and Ebonyi Statesto maintain their existing

tempo of commitment toensure that their boundarydispute is resolvedcompletely.

The commission’s bosswho led a delegation to paya courtesy call on GovernorIfeanyi Ugwuanyi ofEnugu State in his office atthe weekend ahead of themeeting of the commissionwith officials of both state

CMYK

governments andrepresentatives of thedisputed areas commendedboth sides for speedilyattaining resolution of theconflict.

The Enugu governorassured him that not onlywould the gains made sofar in the negotiationbetween the two sisterstates be consolidated butthat the nagging boundarydisputes between Enuguand Anambra states andany other state would beshortly made to attain thesame level of resolution asachieved in the case ofEbonyi and Enugu.

The DG, who briefed thegovernor on the bilateralmeeting of the officials ofboth states at theGovernment House,Enugu, noted that thedispute resolution andboundary definition processhad attained an appreciablelevel.

In his words, there is nodoubt that if the currenttempo of commitments ismaintained, the entireboundary will be definedand demarcated in nodistant future.”

Dr. Ahmad had notedwith regret the slow paceof progress on the boundarydispute, blaming theunfortunate scenario on thenon-readiness of the statesto mobilize and supporttheir contingents on jointfield works.

companies had PMS forsale, people were seenstruggling frantically to buythe product, despite thestaggering pump price.

At the Temple fillingstation on World BankRoad, Owerri, a youngfemale pump attendant thatrefused to give her namesnubbed and refusedselling the product toVanguard Correspondent.

It was a shouting matchfor motorists at St. Cosifilling station, Egbu,Owerri North local councilarea, as they struggled toget to the pump, despite theN110 per litre selling price.

Some of the aggrievedcitizens, who spoke toVanguard at the variousfilling stations, not onlycomplained bitterly aboutthe pump price, but also thescarcity that had hit thestate.

Mazi Ike Onye for hispart, said: “It is mostshocking that theDepartment of PetroleumResources, DPR, is ashouting distance awayfrom Temple filling station,but have seen nothing,heard nothing, smeltnothing and did nothingabout the high pump priceslammed on people.”

Onye passionatelyappealed to PresidentMuhammadu Buhari to notonly restore the commodityin all filling stations, but alsoensure that marketersrespect the pump pricefixed by the government.

A house wife, who simplyidentified herself as Ijeoma,lamented that the price ofkerosene had sadly goneout of the reach of peasants.

“Our case is made worsehere in Imo State, followingthe non-payment of workers'salaries. Pensioners are alsobeing owed several months.I do not know how we cancope with the situation,”Ijeoma lamented.

OPINION


OPINION Asagba @ 90: Okowa's cake Asagba @ 90: Okowa's cake Asagba @ 90: Okowa's cake Asagba @ 90: Okowa's cake Asagba @ 90: Okowa's cake

By Norbert Chiazor

* Mr. Chiazor, a social critic, wrotefrom Asaba, Delta State.

ASABA is agog. Africa 's firstprofessor-king is 90! The lion king is

happy. It is a hilarious roar.The revelryresonates beyond the River Niger.Asagba of Asaba is dancing. And whynot?

In this age of much sin and stress ,howmany mortals can make 90 years.Professor Chike Edozien is the proudmonarch of Nigeria 's first colonialcapital,thanks to the British Royal Nigercompany, which established authorityin the country in the 1880s. Anacademic, world class Asagba is thelongest surviving dean of medical schoolin Nigeria.The tallest giant in the IvoryTower.

While the birthday party goes on,theman who takes the chunk of the cake isGovernor Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa. If gracemade Okowa governor,against allodds,Asagba rolled the wheel of destinyto Government House Asaba. Long beforewe all started clapping for Okowa, evenas fake fans and silly sycophants, Asagbalike the French seer Nostradamusalready saw tomorrow.Long before theDecember 8 ,2014 PDP governorshipprimary enthroned Okowa ,in the mostshocking defeat of the status quo in Deltahistory, Asagba had scored a clear goalfor Okowa.

But for his wise mobilisation of DeltaNorth traditional rulers and thepeople,the journey could have brokenOkowa 's back.The first class report cardANIOMA CONGRESS led by Asagbaremained his unique selling point in theheat of the gubernatorial campaigns.There were other gladiators in the arena,so strong and steady.But by strengthshall no man prevail.Time andcircumstance happen to all men.Thedivine shows mercy to whom hechooses....It is written.

When charity meets destiny ,the godsare not to blame.So the masqueradesboth strong and steady must follow themaster ....That is the simple story ofOkowa.

The moral is that power is notUrhobo.Not Itsekiri.Not Ijaw.Not Isoko.Not Anioma...and not even Ika. It is notUPU.Not president -general.Whetheruncle Joe Omene or chief Tuesday Onoge.It is far from Uviamughe

declaration.That is not the road topower.It is not even Asagba.Not Aniomacongress.Only one man can speak withunquestionable finality.And we all knowhim.He is not even a man! No man canplay Alpha and Omega.

Now that fate has thought us ahumbling lesson that any Deltan,whether Ochuko, Edema,Preye,Ewomaor Olise, can be governor Okowa mustwatch it. He promised a pan Deltagovernance.That is a SMART agenda.Hemust do ANIOMA proud without hurtingAigbigborodo.He must develop Asabawithout neglecting Aviara.He mustchange Ubulu-uku without shortchanging Uvwie. He must give Owa -Alero " uncommon transformation"without diminishing Ogulagha.

Politics and democracy under Okowaadministration should effect a positivechange in the fortunes of Deltans. Deltaprides itself as the big heart of Nigeria.Apompous self introduction of its ethnicdiversity and vast potentials.But like apoisoned chalice ,this plurality is itsalbatross. Ethnicity its punisher.Ordinary folks in Delta are boisterousand easy going while its political elite,ever self serving spurn ethnic schismand tension in the land as perennialpredators. All feasting on thecommonwealth with rapacious greed.Nothing dramatises this infamy as muchas the acrimonious battle for politicalpower at the expense of the people.

Okowa rode to power by popularmandate. Electorate from all quarters-Delta north, central and south senatorial

districts voted for him.I did.He still hasmy vote of confidence.No governor sincethe creation of Delta state had enjoyedthe kind of goodwill that trailed Okowaascendancy. He must use it wisely.

With his mellow tendency as a man oftact and moderation,well meaningDeltans are persuaded that better daysare ahead under Okowa.No doubt he hasthe temperament to bring lasting peaceand development to a complex multiethnic state where primordial cleavageshold sway. By his popularity andsocialisation,he appears more Deltanthan his political rivals.He has anubiquitous political structure and folkappeal that transcends boundaries.Okowa is a man of the people respectedby everyone.Hence his unprecedentedgubernatorial success.

Congratulations jinx breaker.Congratulations king maker.What aduet.

On this special occasion,the governorcan give Asagba good money,big jeep orhigh consultancy as birthday gift.Buthere is the best homage to the king...Lethim lead with matchless excellency.If hecannot be the best governor ever he muststrive to leave Delta better than he metit .

Happily he has a powerful name"EKWUEME"

Okowa has spoken .He will do it.I believe!

But here is the besthomage to theking...Let him leadwith matchlessexcellency

SEVERAL banks, discount houses and theAsset Management Corporation of Nigeria(AMCON) are complying with thedirective of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to have the names of their loandefaulters published in newspapers witheffect from this August. The amountinvolved is about N13trillion.

The “name and shame” strategy cameagainst the backdrop of apparent failedattempts to recover the outstanding loansover a long period of time, far beyond theirtenors.

The failure of the recovery options is alsoevident in the fact that only few of the 113bad debtors that the Central Bank ofNigeria (CBN) barred from furtherborrowing from banks two years ago havebeen able to repay their loans taken overby the Asset Management Corporation ofNigeria (AMCON).

Some observers have noted that this is notthe first time the CBN will be publishing alist of bad debtors. It did same in the earlydays of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s regime asCBN Governor in 2009. It didn’t achieveits objective. Rather it ended in controversy

Publication of bankdebtors

as the list turned out to be lacking incredibility and thoroughness. But this timethe apex bank is not doing it. The banks aredoing it directly.

Statistics of the bank debtors show thatthose affected are the big borrowers whoare less than one per cent of the borrowingpopulation but which actually hold over 70per cent of the total N13 trillion bad loans.

The resort to “name and shame” hasattracted some criticisms as much as it hasbeen hailed amongst industry stakeholders.Some argue that “name and shame” isunorthodox and unprofessional. Otheropponents also warn that dueconsideration should be given to the legal

implications. Yet others note that somedefaults came as a result of genuine,irreversible business failures. While weappreciate the shortcomings of the “nameand shame” strategy, we are seriouslyconcerned that failure to do somethingmight plunge the financial sector into agreat disaster. The cost of the possiblecollapse of the financial sector is farheavier on the populace than thereputations of a few recalcitrant, chronicdebtors.

The truth is that some defaulters havesimply decided not to pay their debts. Thisgroup, when identified, must face criminalprosecution after being exposed.

The right of lenders to recover theirmoney must be upheld in the overallinterest of the economy. Entrepreneurshipis about risk taking. If you fail you bite thebullet.

We expect both the lender-banks and theCBN to approach this drive to recoverloans with the greatest respect for thebanker-customer contract, and also takeinto account the overall interest of theeconomy in penalising defaulters.

CMYK

AUGUST 10, 2015

Continues on Page 18

CHAIRMAN, Federal InlandRevenue Service (FIRS) Mr. SundayOgungbesan weekend said the FederalGovernment is considering a review ofValue Added Tax, VAT with a possibleincrease from 5 to 10 per cent. He saidthat FIRS is at the moment engagingstakeholders to sensitise the nation onthe possibility of increase in VAT asthe quick win for revenue generationfor the country, saying that with

dwindling crude oil revenue thegovernment expects to fill the gap withnon-oil revenue.

He said that the service iscollaborating with the Central Bank ofNigeria, CBN to capture the revenueflow of companies and individuals andthat very soon it will be difficult foranybody resident in Nigeria to operatean account without a Tax IdentificationNumber.

Meanwhile, President MuhammaduBuhari has urged Nigerians to stop

paying mere lip service to agriculture,as crude oil and gas exports will nolonger be sufficient as the country’smajor revenue earner. The Presidentgave the charge at an audience hegranted Dr Kanayo Nwanze, theNigerian born President of theInternational Fund for AgriculturalDevelopment (IFAD), at thePresidential Villa, Abuja.

“It’s time to go back to the land. Wemust face the reality that the petroleumwe had depended on for so long will

no longer suffice. We campaignedheavily on agriculture, and we areready to assist those who want to gointo agricultural ventures” he said.

Buhari pledged that hisadministration would also cut short thelong bureaucratic processes thatNigerian farmers had to go through toget any form of assistance fromgovernment. He told the IFADPresident that improvement of theproductivity of farmers, dry seasonfarming and creative ways to combatthe shrinking of the Lake Chad willalso receive the attention of hisadministration.

“There is so much to be done. We willtry and articulate a programme andconsult organisations like IFAD foradvice” he added. According to thePresident, foreign exchange will beconserved for machinery and otheritems needed for production “insteadof using it to import things liketoothpicks”.

Nwanze had earlier congratulatedBuhari on his victory at the generalelections and assured him that IFADwas ready to give all possibleassistance to the Federal Governmentand Nigerian farmers to boostagricultural production in the country.Nwanze, who later spoke to StateHouse correspondents, said IFAD hadsince 1985 been providing loans andgrants in the nation’s agriculturalsector to boost agricultural production.

“Nigeria has the largest portfolio ofIFAD’s investment in Western andCentral Africa and the second largestin Africa. But the case point here isthat this country has all theendowments that it takes not only forit to produce enough food for itspopulation but also to be the breadbasket of region. And this is where myinstitution on my behalf, I offered ourservices and our support in the agendaof rural transformation as a key ingrate

BY OMOH GABRIEL

New rules to halt tax evasion,raise VAT underway

AWARD: From left, Executive Director, Enterprise Risk Management, Heritage Bank, Jude Monye; Brit-ish Deputy High Commissioner, Ray Kyles; MD/CEO, Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo; and Acting MD, Enter-prise Bank, Mary Akpobome; at the presentation of ISO/INEC 27001:2013 certification award to HeritageBank at the British Deputy High Commissioner’s Residence, Ikoyi, Lagos last Thursday. Photo: KehindeGbadamosi.

CMYK


Cover

An entrepreneur is aperson who makesplans for a business

or a piece of work and getsit going. Anyanwuocha(2001) observes that theentrepreneur is the chief co-ordinator, controller andorganizer of the productionprocess. The entrepreneurcombines other factors ofproduction (land, capitaland others) in such a wayas to obtain maximumproduction of goods andservices at minimum costs.In order to effectivelyenhance occupational skillsin the present day,entrepreneurs need also toacquire information andcommunication technologyknowledge and skills.Mkpozi (1996) observedthat a country that isdeveloping andmanufacturing its owngoods either from Hi-Techor small/medium scaleindustries using indigenousskills and exports some ofthose goods to othercountries is usuallyeconomically stable. Thiscould be better achievedthrough the acquisition ofentrepreneurial andoccupational skills intechnology and vocationaleducation. Individuals withtechnical and vocation skillsand good knowledge of ICTare characterized by self-reliance, self-employmentand fit properly into today’stechnical, entrepreneurialand business world.

The entrepreneur shouldtherefore possess technicalskills, ideas andmanagement skills whichare necessary for thesuccess of the venture. Oneof such skills is informationand communicationtechnology which ischaracterized by employeeempowerment and involvesthe making of unskilled andsemiskilled workers to beskilful and functional intoday ’s world of work. Italso involves thedevelopment of taskoriented team of workerswho no longer depend onindividual managers for alltheir decisions to achievetargets. Technical processre-engineering are alsorequired to redesigntechnical work processes,jobs, organizationalstructure, managementsystem, and also in processdesigns using inmanufacturing industries.

These components of ICThave great implications for

Vocation and Technical Education— Key to improving Nigeria’sdevelopment (3)

the enhancement ofentrepreneurship educationin technology andvocational education field ofwork. According to Azuka,Nwosu, Kanu and Agomuo(2006), classroom behaviourmust align with ICT- drivenenvironment which isconstantly shaping and re-shaping the work place andconsequently, what is learntand how learning takesplace.

There are variousnumbers of opportunitiesfor technology andvocational educationgraduates withentrepreneurship skills inICT driven technical andvocational educationenvironment. Theseopportunities exist invarious forms for thee n h a n c i n gentrepreneurship skills.Nwabuona (2004) viewsentrepreneurship educationas the identification of thegeneral characteristics ofentrepreneurs and howpotential entrepreneurs canbe trained in managementtechniques needed foreffective performance ofpersons for long timesurvival of an organizationafter the acquisition ofoccupational skills.Therefore, the rolestechnology and vocationaleducation in enhancementof entrepreneurship skills isto identify and equippedgraduates with criticalwealth of skills, technicalknowledge, and a goodmeasure of self-confidenceusing information andcommunication technologycompetence.

The entrepreneur shouldtherefore possessentrepreneurial andmanagement skills whichare necessary for thesuccess of the venture.Ogalanya in Nwabuona(2004) identifiedentrepreneurial skills toinclude managerial oradministrative skills, job/technical skills, humanrelations skills, innovative/enterprising skills,competitive skills,communication skills,conceptual/planning skills,supervisory/guidance skills,according skills,inves t iga t i on /p rob lemsolving skills. Ohakwe(2003) observedentrepreneurial skills asbanking transactions,internet concepts andskills, internet websitesknowledge and skills.

in this country’s economicand social development,” hesaid

The FIRS chairman,speaking on how to boost non-oil revenue said that it wouldcrack down on tax evaders bydenying them access tobanking facilities forindividuals and companiesthat failed to join its register.FIRS boss told journalists ina news briefing in Lagos thatthere were more than 450,000companies in the country, butonly about 125,000 pay anyform of tax.

Ogungbesan said it wasdifficult to track the financialactivities of those who did notpay taxes, adding that mosttheir firms were not active.

“We are collaborating withthe CBN to enforcecompulsory registration withthe tax authorities bycompanies and individualsbefore they can access theirbank accounts,” saidOgungbesan.

Tax identification numberswere introduced for corporatebank accounts in 2012 butsome firms whose accountspre-date the system arecurrently not obliged to haveone.

“There is a need to reviewour tax laws,” saidOgungbesan, adding theywere not stringent enough todeter evaders. Tax evasioncan be punished with up tofive years in prison.

According to him, theservice was given a revenuegeneration target of N4.5

trillion in 2015 and has so fargenerated N2.667 trillion. Hesaid that the estimatedcollection for July 2015 isN404billion. This, he said, is106 per cent of the monthlytarget of N381.02 and bringstotal collection to date up toN2.374.18 trillion against thetarget of N2.667.13trillion,and improves collectionpercentage to 89 per cent. Hesaid that the target for VATwas N1.283 trillion and theservice has so far been ableto generate N390.36 billion asVAT into the federationaccount. He said the targetwas set with the hope that asfrom July the VAT rate willrise to 10 per cent.

Ogungbesan said “oil hasnot been doing well,government expects the non-oil sector to provide the reliefbeing sought. Governancemust continue; this isparamount in the minds ofevery one. If we can not paysalaries, it is a big problem forthe country; my record showsthat we have 450,000corporate entities in thiscountry, how many of themare contributing taxes, into thecoffers of government, onlyabout 125, 000. So the rest300, 000 plus, where are they?You can not find them; theyare portmanteau companies.The law says if you areregistered within six monthsyou must commence business.

“The same law which saidyou must commence businesshas not provided theinfrastructure upon which youcan rest. If a company isregistered and stays for yearswithout doing business andbecomes operational ten tofifteen years later, it will berequired to pay return chargefee of N25, 000 for each of theyear it did not operate aspenalty. This kind of law doesnot promote investment.

“There is the need tointervene, and amend thecomplex laws that inhibitinterest in promotinginvestment in the country.The thinking is that all thosein the informal sector are notpaying taxes, it is only thosein formal employment that arepaying. Can this be true?When the local governmentcomes to the market to

DINNER: From left: Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode explaining to apoint to the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Skye Bank Plc, Mr. TimothyOguntayo and Group Head, Public Sector, Mrs. Moji Malik-Iyama, at the Governor’s dinnerwith the business community at the weekend.

New rules to stop tax evasion, raiseVAT underway

Continues from Page 17


Oil has notbeen doingwell,governmentexpects thenon oil sectorto provide therelief beingsought,governancemustcontinue, thisis paramountin the mindsof every one.

CMYK


Continued from Page 18

Cover

The 2015 election willcertainly come and go

but the after effect may lingerfor a long time. Whether it isPDP or APC that eventuallywins the presidential election,the party that will come topower post-election, had betterget prepared for the handlingof the economy. As it stands,the nation is on a financial cliffthat can fall off any time excepta miracle happens. The onecommodity that provides lifesupport for the economy hasseen its price at theinternational market fall to aslow as $58 per barrel (nowbelow $50).

The International EnergyAgency has predicted thatcrude oil prices may fall to aslow as $20 per barrel. Oilprices might have stabilisedonly temporarily because theglobal oil glut is worsening andUS production shows no signof slowing. The US may soonrun out of spare capacity tostore crude, which would putadditional downward pressureon prices. That process wouldlast at least until the secondhalf of 2015, when growth inUS oil production is expectedto start abating.

Behind the façade ofstability, the rebalancingtriggered by the price collapsehas yet to run its course, andit might be overly optimistic toexpect it to proceed smoothly.

As a result of the above oilmarket scenario, the incominggovernment will have aherculean task running the

country effectively. Manystates will not be able to paytheir bills, same with theFederal Government. As it isnow, money that would havebeen judiciously used is beingfrittered away in foreigncurrency in the name of election.Right now, politicians haveinvaded the foreign exchangemarket to buy up the availabledollar to pay electorate for votes.Instead of saving the windfallfrom oil when prices were high,state governors clamoured forthe sharing of money in theexcess crude account. Now,the account has nothing to beshared. Indications are thatthe pressure on the naira nowis as a result of politicalactivities in the country. Post-election, the naira may seesome level of stability at N197to the dollar.

The unusual use of dollar inpolitical campaign has led tofurther depletion of the nation’sforeign reserves as money iscarried around in sacks topeople whom the politiciansbelieve have some influenceover a certain section of thepopulace and their presidentialvoting choice. As a result of themopping up of the dollar fromthe system for non-productiveuse, a less than three per centdifferential between the banknaira – dollar rate and the blackmarket rate after theNovember 2014 devaluation,

is now about 13 per cent in lessthan five months.

This is not in the best interestof the economy and after theelection, if prices of crudecontinue the southwardjourney; things will becomeworse as fewer dollars will beavailable at the foreignexchange market forimportation of essentialconsumer goods. This, ofcourse, will give rise to hyper-inflation which is already risingand will continue to rise. TheNational Bureau of Statistics(NBS) last week released theConsumer Price Index (CPI)report for February 2015,saying that prices of goods and

services rose slightly by 20basis points, which is about 0.2per cent. It said that rise inprices, headline inflation –measured Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y), was estimated at 8.4 percent, 20bps higher than 8.2 percent reported in January 2015.

This is largely the expectationas inflationary pressureintensified in February due tothe weakness of the domesticcurrency over the past sixmonths. This had a knock-onimpact on prices of bothimported food and non-fooditems.

After the election, which everparty comes into power,Nigerians should expect arough time going forward.There is no doubt that withdwindling oil prices, Jonathanor Buhari will have no optionthan to remove completely,fuel subsidy. It will not be amatter of choice; it will be amatter of survival for thegovernment to continue tomeet its internal financialobligation. The first shot atraising revenue will be subsidyremoval. Nigerians should notbe deceived. This will certainlycome into play early in the lifeof the new administration.None of the political parties hasmade it an electoral issue andNigerians have not asked eitherJonathan or Buhari what theyintend to do with subsidy onpetrol.

The Nigerian banking sector

Tough times ahead after electionswill feel the heat as they arelikely to lay off employees afterthe election is successfullyconcluded. Many companiesmay not be able to service theirfacilities and non-performingloans may mount. Banks maybe tempted to stop giving outloans due to high cost of funds.In a bid to tighten monetarypolicy after the election, theCBN may demand to sterilisepublic funds in the bankingsystem or demand that allpublic sector funds be placeddirectly with it. The privatesector deposit in banks may seesome increase in the amount theCBN will withdraw from banks.The banks will then be underextreme pressure to performpost-election 2015.

The Federal Governmentunder pressure to raise money,may after the election, allow thenaira to further depreciate toraise more money forgovernment as crude oil pricesprobably falls below $53 whichis the 2015 budget benchmark.More manufacturing companieswill close or reduce operationsdue to stifling businessenvironment wreaking havocon their businesses. Nigeriansshould expect higher electricitytariff, naira devaluation, lesspower from the national grid,which means more expensesincurred to run generators. Fornow, there is no light at the endof the tunnel.

In this column in March this year, we warned the nation of thetough times ahead in the foreign exchange market and theeconomy at large. In view of what is happening in the economy,we republish the article as a reminder.

Nigerians shouldexpect higherelectricity tariff,naira devaluation,less power fromthe national grid,which meansmore expensesincurred to rungenerators; fornow, there is nolight at the end ofthe tunnel

allocate stores, the woman inthe store pays N2, 000 permonth. Is that not tax she ispaying? All those sundrylevies being collected bystates, they have more thansixty levies on thesebusinesses what do you callthat? They are taxation in oneform or another.

“It is true they are notpaying adequate taxes, somebody that should be payingN60,000 is giving you N2,500. The limitation and thechallenges we have is that wedo not know who these taxpayers are and where theyare operating from. The factis that the Federal InlandRevenue Service which everyone is quick to refer to is onlyadministering the FederalCapital Territory, not the

entire country and so thatmakes it difficult for us.

"When we compute tax-to-

GDP ratio, every now and thenyou hear Nigeria is doing onlyabout 7.5 per cent, whereas othercountries in Africa are reportingabout 19 per cent.

“Yes they are partially correctbut they forget that the variouslevies at the local and state levels,including the personal incometaxation administered by stategovernments are not captured.If you include them in the taxfigure, Nigeria will be doingclose to 17.5 per cent. It is stillnot enough because the benchmark is 20-22 per cent. We arenot assessing ourselves correctly.

“The quick win is, why notincrease the rate of VAT from 5-10 per cent? Can we do it now?If you see how far we have gonethis year in revenue generationyou will see that VAT would haveincreased by July, that is thetarget they gave us but we have

not been able to do it. We areconsulting as we speak to you,we will also speak to theacademic community, thestudents, we will speak tolabour.

"I will tell you first andforemost that we in Nigeria donot pay the classical VAT, whichanyone may settle for. The firstis the income VAT, is just amatter of taking all the incomesof production and solve theminto mathematics and then thevalue such as income, labour,entrepreneurial, the increase inthese element from the previousyear record is value added. Thiscan be conveniently calculatedwith proper records and bookkeeping" he said.

He added that Nigeria needsto adopt a central tax payment.He said that there are a lot ofbenefits in this type of taxcollection system that will

enhance the revenue generationof the different levels ofgovernment in Nigeria. He alsosaid that collaboration will go along way in non-oil revenuedrive of the country.

“We are collaborating withall the banks to ensure thateven individuals without TINcannot do businesses with thebanks. So what is the idea ofthis centralisation of taxsystem, is about helpingstates to collect their taxrevenue, not keeping therevenue, because theconstitution says every stateshall keep its revenue, but theconstitution did not say eachstate shall collect its ownrevenue. It is easier if I canhave an MOU so that FIRScan help them do thecollection. We have the staff;FIRS has six thousand staff,check it out with any of thestates,” he said.

New rules to stop tax evasion, raise VAT underway

The fact is thatthe FederalInland RevenueService whichevery one is quickto refer to is onlyadministering theFederal CapitalTerritory, not theentire country andso that makes itdifficult for us

20— Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

CMYK

Business & Economy

THE NigerianInvestment PromotionCommission (NIPC) is

working closely with theNational Cotton, Textile andGarment (CTG) PolicyCommittee in order topromote Made-in-Nigeriaproducts and encourage theresuscitation of the textileindustry in the country.

The Executive Secretary of thecommission, Mrs. Uju AishaHassan Baba, who met withthe sub-committee oncommunication and localpatronage of CTG in her officerecently, stated that “NIPC is

NIPC parleys CTG to promotehome-made products

not only promoting ForeignDirect Investment (FDI), butalso encouraging Local DirectInvestment (LDI) as theycontribute so much to the growthof the economy.”

She maintained that thecommission will partner with thecommittee to realise most of itsinitiatives to encourage andpromote indigenous productsas that will spur the creation ofwealth and generateemployment for Nigerianyouths, stressing that “NIPC isaware that there are wealthyNigerians that will invest intheir home economy ratherthan keeping their moneyoutside the country if they areencouraged and guided

properly.” She added that thecommission will strive in itsmarketing drive to seek forinvestors that will partner withNigerian investors toresuscitate the ailing textileindustry in the country.

The NIPC boss disclosedthat the commission is alreadypartnering with stategovernors to promoteagriculture in their variousstates in order to grow productslike cotton that is the main rawmaterial for textiles andgarments products, adding thatthe “NIPC has put manystrategies in place to realise itsmandate of attracting andpromoting investments intothe economy”.

Earlier, the chairman of thesub-committee oncommunication and localpatronage of CTG and Made-in-Nigeria products, Mr.William Iheanacho Otabil,stated that the CTG policy ofthe Federal Government,which was inaugurated inDecember 2014 wasenvisioned to create acompetitive cotton, textile andgarment sub-sector capable ofstimulating and supportingsustainable value addition alongthe entire CTG value chain.

He announced that as part ofthe commission’s initiative topropagate Made-in-Nigeriaproducts, it has concludedarrangements to hold Buy-Naija Dress Day; Buy-NaijaMilitary and Paramilitarypatronage and Buy-NaijaSchools Patronage, all aimed atpatronizing Nigerian textilematerials.

BY FAVOURNNABUGWU

Regulations,fiscal incentivescan speedIslamic FinanceDevelopment

The development of anIslamic financeindustry in Africa could

help plug the regions largeinfrastructure gaps over thecoming decade, says Standard& Poor’s Ratings Service in aReport published last week.

However, a framework ofregulation and fiscaladjustments will be necessaryto foster African sukuk markets,provide wider investmentoptions for potential Islamicinvestors, and attract a pool ofIslamic liquidity, the reportsays.

To date, African sovereignshave issued about $1 billion ofsukuk instruments, comparedwith global sukuk issuance ofan average $100 billion peryear over the past five years.Meanwhile, widening fiscaldeficits and large infrastructuregaps will likely requiremultibillion-dollar additionalfinancing needs over the nextdecade.

Experience in South Africaand Senegal has shown that asignificant amount of time canelapse between a government’sannouncement of intent toissue sukuk and their effectiveissuance, as governmentsgauge market interests and tryto address the legal hurdlesand cost of issuance.

“We believe legislation gap isthe main cause of delay betweena country’s intent to issue andits effective issuance of sukuk,”said Standard & Poor’s creditanalyst, Samira Mensah. Thesuccess of Malaysia in South-East Asia as a hub for Islamicfinance lies, among otherthings, in the strong regulatoryframework to support thesector’s growth. Malaysia alsomoved quickly in 2009 toaddress the standardization ofinstruments and interpretationof Sharia law.

Tax regimes are equallyimportant to consider whenencouraging sukuk issuance.Sharia-compliant instrumentsrequire equal treatment withconventional instruments forinvestors to consider them.Malaysia introduced varioustax incentives that made Islamicfinance a cheaper economicalternative for institutions toraise fund.

However, increasing technicalassistance by the IslamicDevelopment Bank (IDB) andIslamic Corporation for theDevelopment of the PrivateSector (ICD), are graduallyfacilitating sovereign sukukissues.

Management of theN i g e r i a

Customs Service, NCS, incontinuation of its anti-smuggling efforts hasimpounded poultry productsworth N35,651,458.00(Thirty Five Million, SixHundred and fifty OneThousand, Four Hundredand Fifty Eight Naira Only)in the out going week.

The Service’s effortsagainst smuggling of poultryproducts code named “Operation Hawk Descend”

saw a total seizure of 5,472(five thousand, four hundredand seventy five) cartons offrozen poultry product thatwere confiscated at Idirokobush path in Ogun States,Agbeji/Ife axis in Osun State

and Seme axis in Lagos Stateall around the South Westernarea of the country.

A breakdown of the seizureshows that the WesternMarine Command of theService impounded 3,221cartons, Federal OperationsUnit, FOU “A”, OgunCommand, Oyo/Osun andSeme Command seized1,220, 820, 120 and 91 cartonsrespectively in the last oneweek. In a statementsigned by Deputy NationalPublic Relations Officer ofthe Service, Joseph Attah,quoted the Customs bossDikko Inde Abdullahi,

Customs impounds N35.6 m worth of poultry productsin one week

By GodfreyBivbere

RECEPTION: Executive Director, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Yemi Odubiyi; Honoree, Prof. Nnenna Okore of North Park University,Chicago, Illinois, USA; Professor of Sculpture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. El Anatsui; Managing Director/CEO, KachifoLimited, Mr. Muhtar Bakare and Art Curator, The Wheatbaker Hotel, Sandra Obiago, at a reception in honour of Prof. Okore.

lamented the use of commercialvehicles to conceal and transportthe banned poultry products.

The Customs helmsmancalled on owners of commercialbuses operating in the SouthWestern area to desist fromsuch act or face theconsequences of losing theirvehicles and possibility of a jailterm.

He however expressed thehope that the re-invigoratedcollaboration between theCustoms Administrations ofNigeria and Benin Republicwill help to deal decisively withthe crime of smuggling fromboth sides of the border.

Owners ofcommercial busesoperating in theSouth Western areato desist from suchact or face theconsequences oflosing theirvehicles


Business & Economy

The National IndustrialCourt of Nigeria

(NICN) has restrained theNational Union of Petroleumand Natural Gas Workers(NUPENG) from picketing theCentral Bank of Nigeria(CBN). Justice Peter Lifu, whogave the ruling in Abuja, alsogranted leave to the claimantto issue and serve itsoriginating process.

“The defendants are herebyrestrained either bythemselves, or through theiragents, privies, servants,members or anybody acting ontheir instruction or on theirbehalf,” the judge ruled. Theorder also barred the

defendants from “disrupting,picketing, blocking, paradingthemselves or in any other wayor manner disturbing thenormal business operation ofCBN, either at theheadquarters or any of itszones or branches within theFederal Republic of Nigeria,pending the hearing anddetermination of the motion onnotice”.

The union is protesting overthe non-payment of theoutstanding salaries andterminal benefits of itsmembers who weredisengaged by Seawolf Oilfield Services Limited.

Seawolf Oil Field Services

Limited, due to its non-performing loans with a bank,was acquired by AssetManagement Corporation ofNigeria (AMCON) in 2014.AMCON refused to pay theoutstanding benefits ofdisengaged staff afteracquiring the company,thereby generating theprotest.

It was established on the19th July 2010, when formerPresident Goodluck Jonathansigned the AMCON Act intoLaw. The corporation wascreated to be a key stabilizingand re-vitalizing toolestablished to revive thefinancial system by efficiently

resolving the non-performingloan assets of the banks in theNigerian economy. As part ofits overall supervisoryfunctions through AMCON,the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) is empowered to actwith AMCON to provide amyriad of functions intendedto improve the liquidity of thetoxic assets. This is achievedby purchasing them usingsecondary marketmechanisms, thus allowingthe affected institutions tostabilize their balance sheetsand avoid further losses. Thejudge adjourned the case tillAug. 13, 2015, for hearing.

of government in facilitating thegrant of relevant approvals andlicenses to such Chinesebusinesses from the QICCPS inaccordance with relevantlegislations and further agreedto identify specific projects andpromote them to interestedinvestors from both countries.”

The MoU also permits theChinese businessmen to investin Nigeria, particularly inconstruction sector; Woodwork(Furniture Manufacturing;Cement Manufacturing, Glassproduction, Garment andDiaper Manufacturing andRailways while the NIPC wouldfacilitate and support theadmission of such investmentsin accordance with relevantlaws and regulations of this

business entry of members ofQICCPS into the country.

She reiterated her call onforeign investors to the countryto always register theirenterprise with the commissionas it is the only agency ofgovernment that has the legalframework and statutoryresponsibility of promoting andattracting investments into thenation.

She assured the Chineseprivate sector of thecommission’s unflinchinglyassistance on relevantinformation to guide investorsin setting up their enterprisesand also provide incentives andaftercare services.

“The commission agreed toliaise with relevant institutions

The Nigerian InvestmentPromotion Commission

(NIPC) and QingdaoInternational Chambers ofCommerce for the Private Sector(QICCPS), China, have signeda Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) to boostinflow of Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) into Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary of thecommission, Mrs. Uju AishaHassan-Baba, and theChairman of the Chambers, Mr.Shang Yongle, who signed theMoU on behalf of the twocountries in Abuja, noted theneed to recognize the benefitsof the existing economic andbilateral cooperation betweenNigeria and China.

Hassan-Baba said the twoparties reached anunderstanding on the need toestablish a close workingrelationship in order to facilitate

country Mr. Shang Yongle who also

led the Chinese delegation tothe country, expressed theircommitment to invest in Nigeriawithin the shortest possibletime.

The MoU which waswitnessed by the managementstaff of the commission and an11-man Chinese delegation,further agreed to provide anddisseminate up-to-dateinformation on investmentrelated matters to investors intheir respective countries andto jointly initiate and organizepromotional activities such asexhibition, conferences andseminars for the stimulation ofinvestments into theirrespective countries.

The Managing Director ofMedview Airline,Alhaji Muneer

Bankole, has urged bankers inthe country not to overlookfunding of the aviation industryas he commended First Bank forits leading role in the industry.

Speaking at the MurtalaMuhammed Airport, Lagoswhile taking delivery of aBoeing 767-300ER just acquiredby the airline, Bankole said mostbanks in Nigeria do notunderstand the aviationindustry.

Bankole commended FirstBank for its effort at financingthe purchase of the aircraft bythe airline. “We started thebusiness with First Bank andsince we commenced businessdeal with it, the bank has beenappreciating us for ourcommitment and consistency.”

He noted that the newlyacquired Boeing 767-300 ER isan integral part of its long-termbusiness model, adding that theaircraft would immediately bedeployed for this year ’s hajjoperations which will commenceAugust 18th.

Bankole said the airline is setto change the face of pilgrimagein Nigeria with its Boeing 767-300 ER as Nigeria pilgrimsdeserve the best too, “this is whywe brought in this aircraft, it willbe commissioned with the firstflight to Makkah and Medinah.”

His words: “We are as usualpoised to give our customers thebest of service and with theintroduction of our additionalnew baby, we will definitelyexpand our fleet andoperations.”

Bankole added that the aircraftwill join the airline’s growingfleet after the hajj operations,just as he said another Boeing767 aircraft being expected soonwould be deployed to Jeddahand Dubai routes.

“Today is an historic day for thecountry, because this is one of thedomestic carriers in the country thatcommenced operations just threeyears ago. We ventured intoregional operations with Accra andthe federal government designatedus to fly international too withJeddah, Dubai and London, whichhas led us to source for a biggeraircraft to match any of theinternational airlines.

“This aircraft you are seeing is767-300 ER, it has an endurance ofover 14hours flying. We have sixaircraft in our fleet now. These arethe new generation aircraft youwill find us using when wecommence operations to UK andDubai soon.”

Bankers urgedto financeaviationindustry

By JIMOHBABATUNDE

Court restrains NUPENG from picketing CBN

NIPC, Chinese chamber signpact for FDI inflow

BY FAVOURNNABUGWU

LAUNCH: From left, Martin Thomle, deputy managing director, GMT Nigeria Ltd; Titi Osuntoki, executive director, businessbanking, Access Bank Plc; Herbert Wigwe, GMD/CEO, Access Bank Plc; Banjo Adegbohungbe, group head, global trade,Access Bank Plc, and Tim Maguire, chief financial officer, GMT Nigeria Ltd, at the official launch of Finance & LogisticsWorldwide Scheme (FLOWS) by Access Bank Plc in Lagos. PHOTO BY AKEEM SALAU




Banking & Finance

NSE, Diamond Bank recordedProfit After Tax, PAT of N12.15billion, which is lower than its2014 position of N13.78billion.The Bank’s capital adequacyratio surged to 18.6 per cent,in excess of the Central Bankof Nigeria’s (CBN) requiredminimum, and signposting thebank’s preparedness forexpanded business and toremain an industry leader.

The shareholders who spokeagainst the backdrop of thebank’s performance for theperiod under reviewcommended the managementfor the proactive measurestaken to maintain the growthin some of the performanceindices.

Mr. Boniface Okezie,Chairman, ProgressiveShareholders Association ofNigeria, PSAN, who spoke themind of its members said “Weare impressed with the bank’sperformance and kudos shouldbe given to the managementfor this result given the tightbusiness environment itoperated upon. Manycompanies are not doing wellat the moment due to the slowpace of governance.

Boniface Okezie said “Thebank under the leadership ofOtti did not let us down, sowe still believe in the newleadership led by UzomaDozie. We hope with thisperformance, the dividend forthis year may likely surpass theprevious year if economiccondition improves in the nextsix months.”

He said the dividend for lastyear was commendable givenenormous funds that weredeployed for expansion andrebranding.

‘’It is an impressiveperformance. We commend

them. It is a sign of better thingsto come. Dozie managementwill do well as economicactivities improve in the yearsahead” Okezie noted.

Another leader ofshareholder Group, ProactiveShareholders Association ofNigeria, PROSAN, Mr.Oderinde Taiwo said “ The bankshould be commended for thisperformance as it is anindication that the second halfperformance would be better asthe country’s economic indicesimproves. The economy is downand it has affected so manyinstitutions so, if DiamondBank could record thisperformance, it then means thatit would do better in the nexthalf of the year when activitiesare expected to pick up sincethe last national election hascome and gone.

Speaking on the bank’s halfyear result from the Bank’sCorporate Head Office inLagos, Uzoma Dozie, GroupManaging Director/CEO, saidthat the Bank’s continuedsuccess in spite of regulatoryheadwinds, is hinged onfocusing on the implementationof strategies that promotesustainable growth andprofitability for the long term.

According to the bank’s ChiefExecutive Offer, CEO “Ourinnovative, customer friendlyservices and retail bankingstrategy are showing positiveresults and will enable us tosustain low cost of funds. In thequarters ahead, we will focuson premium quality risk assets,as we continue to exploreopportunities to grow our

market share responsibly. Weshall expand customerrelationships, enhanced by ourelaborate channels andexcellent service delivery”.

The Group’s focus on fundingthe real sector was reflected inthe growth in loans andadvances to customers fromN791.09 to N793.67 billion sincethe beginning of the year amidsta decline in the pace ofeconomic activities and weakeconomic fundamentals.Deposits, however, declinedfrom N1.49 trillion to N1.35trillion, reflecting cumulativechanges in regulation such asthe new unified Cash ReserveRatio and Treasury SingleAccount that necessitatedsterilization of huge sums ofmoney by the Central Bank ofNigeria.

The Bank’s focus remains on

retail banking and providingconvenient and easy bankingto the micro small and mediumenterprises segment, it hashowever continue to grow itscorporate and mid-tierbusiness segments, andaccording to the CEO, “theconcept of value chainmanagement helps us toprovide end to end solution tothe value chains of ourcorporate clients andultimately improves value forboth us and the customers.”

It will be recalled that thebank in its full year 2014 resultrecorded a growth of 27.3 percent in total assets from N1.52trillion in the previous year toN1.93 trillion. This was drivenmainly by growth in deposits,which surged 23.8 per centfrom N1.21 billion in 2013 toN1.49 billion, demonstratingthe Bank’s strong ability andnetwork to generate cheapdeposits from the retail andmiddle market segments. Also,the bank grew its loan portfolioto customers from N689 billionto N791 billion, representing14.8 per cent increase.

Gross earnings increased by15.0 per cent from N181.2billion in 2013 to N208.4billion, showing an increase of9.6 per cent in net operatingincome which stood at N116.3billion in 2013 to N127.4billion. However, Profit BeforeTax (PBT), declined marginallyby 12.5 per cent from N32.1billion in the previous year toN28.1 billion, reflecting theharsh regulatory headwindsthat hallmarked businessoperations in 2014.

Our innovative,customerfriendly servicesand retailbankingstrategy areshowing positiveresults and willenable us tosustain low costof funds.”

•Mr. Uzoma Dozie, Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Bank Plc

By PETER EGWUATU

HALF YEAR:Diamond Bank’sshareholders hope ofdividend heightens asrevenues rise

The hope of higher dividend for shareholders of DiamondBank Plc for the financial year 2015 heightened as the

bank maintained stable growth in its half year results despitethe harsh operating environment experienced in the periodunder review.

Diamond Bank Plc, in its half year (H1) performancescorecard, showcased its ability to sustain growth in allparameters, by posting 5.3 per cent increase in its grossrevenues, and N14.59 billion in comprehensive income,which represents 3.3 per cent increase over 2014 figureof N14.12 and surpasses analysts’ expectations for thehalf year (H1) ended 30 June 2015.

In the half year results ended 30TH June, 2015released recently on the Nigerian Stock Exchange,

Importers,agents groanunder highexchange rate,policyuncertainty

BY GODFREY BIVBERE

IMPORTERS and theiragents are presently

groaning under the highexchange rate and uncertaingovernment policy that hasresulted in the down turn in thevolume of imports into thecountry since the newadministration came to power.

Vanguard gathered thatmany importers have adopteda “wait and see” attitude totheir businesses ostensibly dueto the uncertainty surroundingthe Buhari administration’spolicy directiion.

Investigation revealed thatimporters are no longer placingorders for goods, but rather arewaiting to see thegovernment’s policy directionbefore further action cancommence.

Confirming the development,a chieftain of the NationalCouncil of Managing Directorsof Licensed Customs Agents(NCMDLCA), Mr. OnyebuchiObah, described thedevelopment as very serious.

He said the ports werealmost grounded because“importers are no longerimporting” as they are yet tounderstand the presentgovernment’s direction interms of policy.

“Nobody wants to take therisk of investing his moneywhen he is not sure of what thegovernment’s next line ofaction would be, adding thatthe situation was likely toremain so until the authoritiescome out with a clear-cut policyof where they are heading to.

He said rather than exposingNigerian business men to theunpredictable foreignexchange, government shouldpeg the rate at N65 for them,maintaining that with this,importers would be encouragedto do their business.

He said, “I can tell you thatas things are now, no importerwill put his money down in anenvironment where if youprocured forex at N185 to thedollar and when the goodsarrive your bill is calculated onN230 plus. No business can besustained this way”

“But if he is sure that if heopens his Form M at N65, N80or N100 rate and the goodsland, his bills are calculated onsame rate, he’ll be encouragedto remain in business.Unfortunately this is not thesituation”.


CMYK

Banking & Finance

LECTURE - From left: Interim Chairman, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, AeronauticalDivision, Group Capt John Obakpolo, chairman of the occasion, Dr. Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, Guest Speaker, Mr. Aliyu Edoji Aliyu and MD, NAMA, Engr. Ibrahim Abulsalam,during the 2015 Annual Public Lecture by the Nigerian Society of Engineers, AeronauticalDivision, at NCAA Annex, Ikeja Lagos.

NDIC introducesdeposit insurancesystem curriculumin universities

The Nigeria DepositInsurance Corporation,

NDIC has introduced depositinsurance system DIS into thecurricula of Nigerianuniversities and othertertiary institutions as part ofthe on-going efforts towardenhancing public awarenesson its mandate andoperational activities.

The DIS programmecommenced with twocourses: “Fundamentals ofDeposit Insurance Scheme” and “The Practice of DepositInsurance”were designed forstudents of BusinessAdministration, Economics,Banking and Finance, andAccounting.

The ‘Fundamentals ofDeposit Insurance’ wasspecifically designed for 300level students while ‘ThePractice of DepositInsurance’ was for 400 levelstudents.

The introduction of theprogramme is intended toenhance the knowledge ofboth undergraduate andpost-graduate students ofuniversities and students ofthe Chartered Institute ofBankers of Nigeria, CIBN.This will go a long way toenhance the quality ofpotential staff of banks as wellas promote financial literacyand financial inclusion.

Not for profitorganisations in the

country now stand the chanceof growing their savingswhen they open and operatethe Enterprise AssociationSavings Account (EASA), aninterest-bearing account,specially developed byEnterprise Bank Limited tosatisfy the financial needs of that segment of its customers.

The bank said thecontribution of theseorganisations to humanityand society in general,requires support that ensuresthey earn some form ofrevenue on their savings toaid their humanitarianservices. A statement from theCorporate CommunicationsDepartment of the bank said,“We have a large number ofnon-profit bodies,associations, organisations,clubs and movements amongothers in the country, who donot engage in profit-makingbusinesses. But because ofthe nature of their role, theyrequire our support.

“As a financial institutionthat cares, we are aware thatthese associations requiresavings accounts to keeptheir funds as againsttransactional current accountswith its attendant charges.

Enterprise Bankunveils ‘AssociationSavings Account’

policy. There aretelecommunication, powerand other problems that areyet to be addressed”

The CBN ) has introduceda new policy on cash-basedtransactions which stipulatesa ‘cash handling charge’ ondaily cash withdrawals orcash deposits that exceedN150,000 for Individuals andN1,000,000 for Corporatebodies. The new policy oncash-based transactions(withdrawals & deposits) inbanks, aims at reducing (noteliminating) the amount ofphysical cash (coins andnotes) circulating in theeconomy, and encouraging

BY PETER EGWUATU

The Central Bank ofNigeria, CBN hasordered banks in the

country to refund chargesmade on customers for dailycash withdrawal or depositsexceeding set limit in the 30states that full cashless policytransactions has not takenplace.

The CBN disclosed that thenew policy on cash-basedtransactions has not officiallytaken place in all the statesof the country.

Briefing newsmen after the322 Bankers’ CommitteeMeeting in Lagos weekend,Mr. Kolawole Balogun, whorepresented the DirectorBanking SupervisionDepartment of the CBN,Tokunbo Martins said “At themeeting we agreed thatbanks should refund thecharges made on customersfor withdrawal and depositsin those states that cashlesspolicy has not taken place.”

According to him “ Thecashless policy has officiallytaken place in five states andfederal capital, Abuja. Thestates are Lagos, Abia,Anambra, Kano, Ogun andRivers States, as well as theFederal Capital Territory,Abuja. The CBN has notofficially announced the takeoff implementation of fullcashless policy in other statesother than the already statedstates and federal capitalterritory, Abuja, due to someinfrastructure bottlenecks. Weare allowing ample time forthe banks to deploy adequateinfrastructure needed tosupport the cashless policy aswell as enable additionalsensitisation of various bankcustomers on the merits of the

more electronic-basedtransactions (payments forgoods, services, transfers,etc.). Tokunbo further notedthat the CBN will sanctiondelinquent debtors whosenames were published bybanks if they refused tonegotiate with their banks onhow to pay their debts. “Thepublication of debtors namesis ongoing and banks will bedoing this on quarterly basis”he added.

Speaking on domiciliaryaccount, Mr. Segun Agbaje,Chief Executive Officer,Guaranty Trust Bank Plc said“said “The restriction on

domiciliary account is just thecash deposit. Every otherthings remain the same.Payment of school fees,medical treatment etc can bedone through the domiciliaryaccount. Any person orcompany that need foreigncurrency can go through theCBN’s window and getwhatever it wants provided itis a genuine who cannot meetthe official windowrequirements that can go toparallel market. The essenceis to strengthen naira andmake Nigeria less importdependent.”

CBN orders banks to refundwithdrawal charges in 30 states

By JONAH NWOKPOKU

As part of its moves toembrace modern

banking, Union bank ofNigeria Plc has introducednew technologies to driveconvenience and ease of accessto its financial services.

The technologies which areembedded in its Smart Centresis a revolutionary platform thatprovides a one-stop shop for allfinancial services for all itscustomers across the country.

Services that can be obtainedin the Smart Centres include:Account opening, cashdeposits, cash withdrawals,live video chat with customercare agents, fund transfers,internet banking etc. The SmartCentres introduced in May,2015 and operational in Abujaand Lagos presently arebasically electronic branchesaimed at totally redefining the

branch channels as, to make itmore customer-friendly.

Features include aninteractive project screenwhich consists of a video wallthat creates a larger than lifevideo experience. The devicealso allows customers tointeract with the projectedimage contents frompromotional videos and otherproducts information beingdisplayed.

The Smart Centre also featuresan interactive kiosk which allowscustomers to open an account infive minutes and conduct otheronline banking transactions. Thetechnology which is the first ofits kind in Nigeria is a state ofthe arts interactive medium onwhich customer servicepersonnel can also sit around andattend to customers. The devicealso comes with various otherapplications centred on customerservice including investment

banking, amongst others. Theother feature is the innovativeSamsung smart TV for videoconferencing which enablescustomers to use the SamsungPC at the centre to communicatewith the Union Bank contactcentre team. Customers via a livevideo chat can get immediateresolution to any issues theywant resolved.

Speaking on the innovations,member of the Smart Centreteam, Titilope Amusan whoconducted newsmen around thefacilities in Lagos, said: “Withthis technology, we want to letour customers know that in thiscompetitive market, we are readyto serve them and offer them thebest service they can getanywhere in the country. Allthese are also our own way ofmaking life easier for ourcustomers. As you know, thistechnology makes it possible tobreak the barrier of restricted

Monday to Friday financialservices. And the service isseamless and faster as opposedto walking into a banking halland filling a long tedious formand waiting forever to get to youraccount details. With thistechnology, you can get youraccount details in just fiveminutes.”

She added: “The Smart Centreis one of the transformationprojects that we are doing at themoment in Union Bank. We alsocall them the bank of the future.The Smart Centre is the one-stopshop for customers where you canwalk in serve yourself.

“This Smart Centre offers 24hours availability as opposed tothe traditional banking where ifyou do not get there beforeofficial closing hour, you aredenied of banking services,meaning you have to return thenext day or squeeze out time tomake those banking hours.

Union Bank’s Smart Centres leverages technologyto drive banking services


Corporate Finance

PROJECT FAME: From left: Joba Popoola, Participant in MTN Project Fame 4; Ade Bantu,Artiste; Tolu Adesina, participant in previous Project Fame and Joy Panam, audition judgeduring the MTN Project Fame West Africa Season 8 opening Gala show in Lagos.

that would persist until thegovernment comes out with aclear economic policy thatinvestors can relate to,” saidsome market operators whospoke with Vanguard.

On the other hand, foreignportfolio investors who areeager to play in Nigeria’sfixed income securities marketwould like to see a higher and

affecting investmentdecisions.

“Investors are not clearabout what would be thepolicy direction of thisgovernment and that is whythe level of bids in the stockmarket has been weak.

“You have seen the marketmove southwards over the lastcouple of weeks and I think

FOREIGN portfolioinvestment on the

Nigerian Stock Exchange,NSE, in month of Junedropped to N69.65 billionagainst a total transaction ofN79.77 billion recorded theprevious month.

This is even as domestictransactions increased toN133.80 billion from N65.68billion recorded in May.

Capital market operatorspointed out that the policyuncertainty in the economy is

more sustainable exchangerate equilibrium as well as areturn to a price-driven forextrading platform, they stated.

However, total transactionsat the nation’s bourseincreased to N203.45 billion(about $1.04 billion) in June2015, up 39.88 per cent fromMay 2015.

Foreign investors concededabout 31.52 per cent oftrading to domestic investorsas FPI transactions decreasedfrom 54.84 per cent of thetotal transactions in May to34.24 per cent in June whiledomestic transactionsincreased from 45.16 per centto 65.76 per cent over thesame period.

Foreign portfolio investors’inflows accounted for 20.97per cent of total transactions,while the outflows accountedfor 13.26 per cent of the totaltransactions in June 2015.

In comparison to the sameperiod in 2014, total FPItransactions decreased by40.97 per cent, whilst the totaldomestic transactionsincreased by 24.45 per cent.FPI inflows outpaced outflowswhich was consistent with thesame period in 2014.

Overall, there was a 9.78 percent decrease in totaltransactions in comparison tothe same period in 2014.

NSE: Foreign portfolio investmentdrops to N69.65bn in June

By NKIRUKANNOROM

CMYK

billion in first half 2014 to N61.2billion (Volumes decline) in firsthalf 2015 as a result of reducedimportation of petroleumproducts by the company due toprolonged delays by thegovernment in making subsidiespayment. This was furtherexacerbated by nationwidestrikes by downstream sectorworkers

“At the back of the fall inrevenue, operating profitdeclined by 39 per cent to N2.8billion in first half 2015 from N4.5billion in the correspondingperiod of 2014. However, netincome fell 19 per cent due tolower tax burdens and recoveriesof prior period interest chargeshitherto recognised throughgovernment reimburse-ments.”

Meanwhile, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Nigerian StockExchange, NSE, Mr. OscarOnyema has charged Forte Oilmanagement to continue tostrive to achieve the higheststandards of corporategovernance by ensuring on-going compliance with theexchange’s post-listingrequirements, includingprompt filing of its financials.

sector”Akinfemiwa stated that the

harsh operating environmentaffected the company’sperformance in the first half of theyear, 2015. However, he assuredthat the company is optimistic tosurmount the obstacle as it hascommenced its 5-year growth andconsolidated strategy for all of itsstrategic business units whichinclude strategic retail businessexpansion, increased commercialcustomer base for both fuels andlubricants, improved operationalefficiency and logistics and talentmanagement and development.

According to him “We havecompleted a major restructuringexercise to compete effectively inthe upstream sector wherein thecompany’s name changed toForte Upstream Services. We arehaving business expansion withexisting and new clients (Shell-production chemicals contractsand Addax, Afren and Chevron-Drilling fluid contract).

Commenting on the company’shalf year result, he said “Revenuefell by 23 per cent from N79.6

not even interested in thesubsidy and that is why we arepositioning the company andready for deregulation of thesector. As of now, the federalgovernment owe marketersabout N40 billion. We areincurring huge interest from thebanks, so timely payment orreceipt of this fund would enableus to pay better dividend to ourshareholders and settle ourdebts. We are looking at foreigninvestors to have as foreignpartners to enhance ourproposed drive in the upstream

FORTE Oil Plc hasdisclosed that it is

targeting to raise long termfund to boost its business andpay dividend to shareholders.

The Group Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Forte Oil Plc, Mr.Akin Akinfemiwa, disclosedthis during the company’sfact behind the figurespresentation at the NigerianStock Exchange, NSE inLagos.

According to him “We areplanning to raise cheap longterm debt fund that wouldhelp boost our business,reduce our debt and enableus pay dividend to ourshareholders.”

Commenting on the debtprofile of the company, hesaid the huge amount of debtincurred was a result ofdevaluation of the currency assubsidy payment was notmade as at when due. We are

Forte Oil to raise long term fund, pledgesto pay dividend

By PETER EGWUATU& NKIRUKANNOROM

Wehavecompleted a majorrestructuringexercise to competeeffectively in theupstream sectorwherein thecompany’s namechanged to ForteUpstream Services.

NSE, IoDcollaborate totrain directorsof quotedcompanies

BY PROVIDENCEOBUH

The Institute ofDirectors of

Nigeria, IoD, hasdisclosed its collaborationplan with the NigerianStock Exchange, NSE, totrain directors of quotedcompanies to ensure strictadherence to corporategovernance principlesand ethics.

President of IoD, Mr.Samuel Akeju stated thisat the New MembersEvening and InductionCeremony with the theme:“Change” in Lagos.

He said, “The IoDNigeria and NigerianStock Exchange (NSE)have collaboration to traindirectors of companieslisted on the exchange.”

With a vision toinstitutionalize the tenetsof sound corporategovernance and bestpractices in the Nigerianbusiness environment, hesaid that the IoD Nigeriamaintains cordialrelationship withMinistries, Departments,Agencies and Companiesin both the public andPrivate sectors of theNigerian economy toincrease national andinternational visibility.

To this end, he said thatthe IoD Nigeria joinedthe African CorporateGovernance Network(ACGN), which is anumbrella body of allInstitute of Directors andaffiliates in Africa.

Additionally, Akejupointed out that the twinissues of tax burden andnon-compliance with therelevant sections of theFiscal Responsibility Act2007 and the varioussectoral Codes ofCorporate of Governanceseem to be the mostchallenging aspects of theProblems besieging thebusiness community.

“While tax burden is afactor militating againstreturns to investment,non-compliance is anattitudinal change factor,which is attributed to howeffective or otherwise thegovernance of anorganization is” he said.


CMYK

Corporate Finance

LAGOS StateGovernment hascommended the

management of VitafoamNigeria Plc on itsinnovativeness byintroducing two uniqueproducts to prevent nursingmothers from the hazards ofbreast feeding.

The two products,Vitafoams Early days Breastfeeding Covers and Pillowswhich were unveiled lastweekend were specificallydesigned to enable nursingmothers maintain properposition for breast feedingdevoid of back pain andprivacy while breastfeedingin the public.

Speaking at a specialceremony to mark WorldBreast feeding Day at Lagos

Custodian andAllied growsprofit by 21%

Custodian and AlliedPlc, one of the leadingnon-bank financial

institution quoted on theNigerian Stock Exchange(NSE) with investments in lifeand non-life insurance, pensionfund administration,trusteeship and propertyholding businesses, hasannounced an unaudited profitbefore tax of N3.34 billion andprofit after tax of N2.62 billionfor the six months period ended30 June 2015.

In spite of the challengingenvironment in which the groupoperated during the reportingperiod, the profit before taxrepresents an increase of 21 percent over that of thecorresponding period of 2014.

Similarly, shareholders’ fundsgrew to N24.42 billion fromN22.49 billion, as at 31December 2014, while totalassets exceeded N54 billion asat 30 June 2015.

In furtherance of its traditionof rewarding shareholders, aninterim dividend of 6 kobo onevery 50 kobo ordinary sharewill be paid to shareholders,whose names appear on theregister on 14th August, 2015.

The directors are confidentthat, barring unforeseenunfavourable circumstances,the positive trend would besustained for the rest of the year.

NSE winsfinancialinstitution of theyear award

The Nigerian StockExchange, NSE hasstated that it has

received the 2015 FinancialInstitution Award from The Oil& Gas Year (TOGY) Nigeria.

The award was presented tothe NSE last week at The Oil &Gas Year Nigeria Award ceremony,an annual event held to celebrateindividuals and institutions whohave distinguished themselves intheir areas of specialization.

According to the organisers of theevent, this award is being conferredon the NSE in recognition

of its first-ever dual listing withthe London Stock Exchangethrough the $500 million InitialPublic Offering (IPO) of Nigerianindependent hydrocarbonscompany Seplat Petroleum Plc. Thelisting was the largest EuropeanIPO of an exploration andproduction company since the 2008financial crisis.

With almost 50 per cent of locallysourced capital and more than 65percent of trading volumes done onthe exchange, the role of capitalmarkets in advancing local oil andgas firms is clear.

BY PETER EGWUATU

•From left, Medical Director, Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Dr. Lawson Imosun;representatives of wife of Lagos State Governor, Dr. Claudiana Sanwo-Olu; Mrs. LadunOgunbanwo; Director, Vitafoam Nigeria, Mrs. Titi Bakare; and Group Managing Director, VitafoamNigeria Plc, Mr. Taiwo Adeniyi, at the launch of Vitafoam’s breast feeding products during the2015 World Breastfeeding week in Lagos

Island Maternity Hospital inLagos, Lagos State’s FirstLady, Mrs Bola Ambodeexplained that VitafoamNigeria Plc had been at theforefront of products aimed atreducing infant mortality inNigeria. Mrs. Ambode who wasrepresented by Mrs. LadunOgunbaniro stated thatVitafoam’s Board andManagement should beappreciated as a goodcorporate citizen whichconstantly produces productsthat address humanproblems. Mrs Ambodecalled on the government andother employers of labour tosupport the initiatives in orderto have a better society.

She reiterated that LagosState government hadincreased the maternity leavefrom three months to sixmonths while there is 10-daypaternity leave as a support for

proper child care.Earlier in his address,

Vitafoam’s Group ManagingDirector, Mr Taiwo Adeniyiexplained that the companyhad expanded its products’portfolio from being amanufacturer of justmattresses and pillows into aforemost producer of ultimatecomfort products. According

to him, Vitafoam hasventured into production andsupply of flexible, semi rigidand rigid polyurethane foamproducts including furniture,bed and beddings. Thisexpansion gave birth to someof its current subsidiaries:Vitapur, Vitagreen, Vitascoand Vitabloom”, he said.Commenting on the Worldbreastfeeding Week, Adeniyinoted that the company’ssupport for the weekculminated into its productionof products that ensure thatmother ’s breastfeed theirbabies in comfort either in theprivate or public.

“We produce quality babysoft and hard furniture like thepregnancy pillows, bed sheetcollections, pillows, baby cot,play mat and everything thatmakes the mother and theirbabies experience totalcomfort” he said.

By PETER EGWUATU

Profit taking drags down All Share In-dex by 0.17 %

The gains recorded forthe four days runninglast week could not be

sustained on the last tradingday, Friday, as transactionsat the Nigerian StockExchange (NSE) ended on anegative trend on with theAll-Share Index declining by0.17 per cent to close at31.441.71 points against31,497.73 points recorded onThursday.Capital market operatorsopined that the drop in theAll Share Index was a resultof profit taking by investorsas they felt that the marketwould return bearish giventhe fact that no activeeconomic activities havetaken place in the economy.Also, the marketcapitalisation which openedat N10.795 trillion lost N19billion to close at N10.776trillion.Guinness recorded thehighest price loss to lead thelosers’ chart, dropping by N6to close at N131 per share.Total came second withN5.25 to close at N150, whileFlour Mill lost N1.84 to closeat N29 per share.Cadbury declined by N1.75to close at N33.30, whileOkomu Oil shed N1.17 toclose at N24.83 per share.Conversely, Forte Oil led thegainers’ table with N8 toclose at N208 per share.Mobil Oil garnered N5 to

close at N160, while PZ roseby N1.51 to close at N34.51.Ashaka Cement inched N1 toclose at N23, while BergerPaints appreciated by 0.47k toclose at N9.97 per share.Continental Insurance for thethird consecutive day emergedthe most traded equity with a

total of 315.48 millionshares valued N293.39million.It was trailed by Transcrop,having accounted for 47.46million shares worthN133.66 million, whileZenith Bank sold 24.61million shares valued atN415.86 million.

Access Bank traded 22.72million shares worth N108.85million, while Stanbic IBTCexchanged 18.95 millionshares valued N400.85million. In all, a total of 524.65million shares worth N2.33billion were traded byinvestors in 3,432 deals.

Lagos govt commends Vitafoam’s two innovative prod-ucts

Vitafoam hasventured intoproduction andsupply offlexible, semirigid and rigidpolyurethanefoam productsincludingfurniture, bedand beddings.


CMYK

Homes & Housing

THE mortgage bankingsector in Nigeria has

been confronted withnumerous challenges that haveimpeded the attainment of itspolicy objective of acting as acatalyst for the developmentand provision of affordablehousing in the country.

Nigeria Deposit InsuranceCorporation (NDIC)highlighted some of thechallenges being encounteredby primary mortgage banks(PMBs) in its 2014 annualreport. The report stated:“Some of the challengesinclude: Delay in accessingNHF funds/dearth of long termfunds. Most of the PMBscontinued to find it difficult toprovide the required bankguarantee to access the NHF.Only four out of the 42 PMBsin operations were listed on theNigerian Stock Exchange

which meant that manyothers did not have access tolong term funds through theStock Exchange window.

“Due to lack ofunderstanding of the nature ofbusiness of PMBs by the public,it had been difficult for thePMBs to mobilise deposits tofinance their housing projects

which were usually long termin nature. The public prefer toopen savings/current accountswith deposit money banks(DMBs) rather than with PMBswhose operations wereconsidered to be toocomplicated. Another challengeis the Land Use Act, which hadmade the process of perfectingtitle to landed propertyburdensome, slow and costly.That had affected negatively theforeclosure procedures on theproperties pledged as collateral.Accordingly, the Land Use Actneeds to be reviewed to addressthis issue.

“Also, under-developedMortgage-Backed Securities(MBS) which allows mortgage

assets to be traded onrecognized stock exchanges,do not presently exist inNigeria. Securitization ofmortgage assets should beencouraged to enhancemarketability and promotemarket deepening; Appallingstate of facilities like roads,transportation, power andwater supply had contributedto the high cost of buildingconstruction in Nigeria.Furthermore, the high foreignexchange content of importedbuilding materials such ascement, tiles, ceramic waresetc have made housing non-affordable for the average andlow income earners.”

Experts have alwaysidentified some of the majorchallenges facing themortgage banking sector toinclude the lack of foreclosurelaws governing the defaultmortgage loans, the entire costassociated with the task of titletransfer, poor infrastructure toprovide support for houseconstructions and highlycomplicated and lengthylegislative and legalframeworks for landacquisition.

Operators of mortgagefinance in the country havetherefore intensified theirclamour for government tooverhaul the housing financesystem, especially strictfinancing laws and weakbanking structures that haveled to volatile markets andmade investors, reluctant to dobusiness in such trying marketconditions.

Messr WrothamsW i n d s o r ,

Nigerian property adviser andreal estate investment companyhas partnered a UnitedKingdom property developer,The Berkeley Group, in a bidto launch three exclusivedevelopments known as RoyalArsenal Riverside, 250 CityRoad and 375 High StreetKensington in Lagos andAbuja.

The Berkeley Group is madeup of five autonomouscompanies: St. George, St.James, Berkeley, St. Edwardand St. William which are allpublicly-owned and listed onthe London Stock Exchange asa FTSE 250 company.According to a statement from

US mortgageapplicationsrebound

There was moreencouraging news for

the US housing market lastweek as mortgage applicationsjumped to the highest level infour weeks.

The volume of applicationsrose 4.7 per cent from the weekearlier, according to data fromthe Mortgage BankersAssociation. This followed a 0.8per cent rise the previous week.

The increase was driven by a6 per cent rise in the refinanceIndex, which showed that adrop in mortgage rates hasencouraged homeowners torefinance their mortgage.

Meanwhile, the seasonallyadjusted purchase Indexclimbed 3 percent.

The rise in mortgageapplications came alongside adrop in mortgage rates. Thefixed 30-year mortgage ratedecreased to 4.13 percent inthe week, the lowest level sinceMay.

July was a strong month forthe housing sector with a risein housing starts and existinghome sales. New home salesproved to be a spot of weaknessduring the key spring summerseason for the housing market.

UK housingaffordabilitygap grows

The gap between the mostaffordable and least

affordable homes in Englandand Wales has widened, figuresshow.

The average home inWestminster, London cost 24times more than a typical grossannual salary in England andWales, the Office for NationalStatistics (ONS) said.

At the other end of the scale,the average property price inBlaenau Gwent in Wales wasonly four times greater than theaverage salary. This gap haswidened since 2007, the figuresshow. House price rises in themost expensive 10 percent ofareas of England and Waleshave outstripped growth for theleast expensive 10 percent ofareas. “Westminster and otherexclusive central areas of thecapital have long beenunaffordable for the majority ofus,” said Peter Rollings, chiefexecutive of Marsh & Parsonsestate agents.

ONS said that in 2014 - thelatest figures available - thevalue of the least expensivehomes had not returned to pre-recession levels. This left someowners at risk of being left innegative equity.

Wrothams Windsor, BerkeleyHomes is now launchingWaterfront II at Royal ArsenalRiverside which boasts of 205Manhattan Apartments as wellas an exciting range of one, twoand three-bedroom propertiesand penthouses. Waterfront IIis situated on the banks of theRiver Thames, with over 1kmof river-walk and favourablypositioned close to theproposed four-acre WaterfrontPark.

Situated in North EastLondon, 250 City Road is setto launch its first phase and isquickly becoming the mosttalked-about Londonresidential destination of 2015.Designed by one of the mostinnovative and acclaimedarchitectural practices of thedecade, Foster + Partners, 250City Road delivers theoptimum place to live and

work. Situated in the heart ofone of London’s most vibrantareas and very close to the Cityand the capital’s tech andcreative quarters, this landmarkscheme lays the foundations foran enduring new community.Upon completion, the schemewill comprise 930 homes,expertly built by BerkeleyHomes, a 190 bed 4 star hotel,office and retail space, all setamid breath-taking architectureconceived to complement theexisting surroundings.

On the other hand, 375Kensington High Street, locatedat one of London’s mostfashionable addresses, StEdward’s prestigiousdevelopment - offers theheight of luxury living in ahighly sought-afterneighbourhood. Thisdevelopment has beendesigned to complement its

regal surroundings, whichinclude Kensington Palace, theRoyal Albert Hall and theVictoria and Albert Museum. When complete, 375Kensington High Street willcomprise of more than 500homes including apartmentsand penthouses, and willtransform this corner of theCapital into a flourishing newcommunity.

Mr. Adam Jones, Director ofInternational Properties forWrothams Windsor noted thatBerkeley Homes is a uniquedeveloper that seamlesslycombines historic andcontemporary buildings. “Thelaunch of these threedevelopments highlightsBerkeley ’s commitment todeveloping brand new, modernbuildings, which bring high-quality and stylish design tothe London Landscape.

It had beendifficult for thePMBs to mobilisedeposits to financetheir housingprojects whichwere usually longterm in nature

Developer partners UK firm for exclusivehousing projects

BY KINGSLEYADEGBOYE

BY YINKA KOLAWOLE NDIC enumerates challengesfacing mortgage banks

AGM: From Left; Mr Godwin Ehigiamuoe, Managing Director Lapo Microfinance Bank Ltd,Dr Osaren P. Emokpae, Chairman, Board of Directors, and Mrs Cynthia Ikponwonasa, Com-pany Secretary, Lapo Microfinance Bank Plc, during the 4th Annual General Meeting of LapoMicrofinance Bank Ltd, last Thursday in Lagos. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Micro-Finance

ACCESS Bank Plc incollaboration with

GMT Nigeria Limited,integrated logistics serviceprovider, have introduced animport solution scheme,Finance and LogisticsWorldwide Scheme (FLOWS),with a view to meeting Smalland Medium Enterprises(SMEs) importation need.

FLOWS is a combination ofimport finance and logisticsservices targeted at importerssuch as: traders,manufacturers, contractors/vendors of large corporate

and owner of retail outletswho are into importation ofnon-perishable, fast movingand unrestricted goods.

Customers stand a chanceto benefit trade financefacilities by the bank;efficient processing of alldocuments relevant to thespecific import;management of totallanding costs for any import;lowest rates based on thestrength of a consolidatedpackage, among others.

Speaking at FLOWSunveiling ceremony inLagos, Group ManagingDirector, Access Bank, Dr.Herbert Wigwe, said thatthe platform would deliver

an end-to-end cost efficientmanagement of the entireimport process which reducesthe total lead time of a typicalimportation transaction.

He explained that thedecision to bear its clientsburden became necessary as aresult of the hectic importationprocess they undergo.

Wigwe said, “Serving theSME segment provides us withthe huge opportunity ofachieving economicdevelopment and growthacross Africa, considering itscriticality to the economy.

“We appreciate the fact thatSMEs are the future andengine room of the economy,and as a bank we are well

positioned to providing thenecessary support throughdeliberate focus andcommitment of resourcestowards their growth. It isvital that this integral sectorof the economy gets all thesupport it needs to drivegrowth and development. Thefuture outlook for the sectoris encouraging provided thatthe challenges are militatedagainst and the present gapsare adequately covered.

“The opportunity in thissector is enormous and thefinancial sector plays acentral role in the growth anddevelopment of the economythrough mobilisation anddeployment of financialresources,” he said.

On the other hand, DeputyManaging Director, GMTLimited, Mr. Martin Thomle,assured SMEs that necessarystructures would be put inplace to ensure smoothprocess of the scheme.

Thomle said that thecompany established in 1999has since grown into thelargest inbound logisticsservice provider in SubSaharan Africa, offeringintegrated logistics servicethat spans across the supplychain transforming logisticschallenges into competitiveadvantages and providingcustomized solutions to meetany logistics demand whenimporting goods into Nigeria.

According to him,“Supported with our importfinancing, we add furthervalue to import process,resulting in reduced workingcapital requirements andimproved cash flowmanagement. GMT expertiseis in importation, exportation,sea and airfreight,transportation, importfinancing, warehouseservices, vendor managedinventory services and projectmanagement,” he said.

Visa to rewardholiday carduser with“NotATourist”campaign

The global paymentstechnology company,

Visa, penultimate week,announced plans to rewardholiday card users with“#NotATourist”, an innovative,regional campaign aimed atdriving international tourismduring holidays.

The NotATourist campaigndesigned to inspire travelbeyond the regular tourist sitesto savour truly localexperiences would be runningin the Middle East and Africanmarkets including, Nigeria,Ivory Coast, Cameroon,Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) and Senegal till August31, 2015.

Also, the campaign is poisedto help travellers exploredestinations as localinhabitants and not as touristsby providing local knowledgeusing crowd sourced digitalcontent that is showcased onVisa’s NotATourist website andthe Visa Explore mobile app.

Access Bank, GMT unveilsimport solution scheme for SMEs

Stories byPROVIDENCE OBUH

The NEPAD BusinessGroup Nigeria

(NBGN) Graduates’Employability Improvementand Development Initiative(GEIDI), is charting ways withLagos State MicrofinanceInstitution LASMI on how tomake funds available forprogramme participants.

GEIDI is an intervention fromthe NBGN specificallydesigned as its contribution toreduce the scourge ofunemployment particularlyamong

Out of 50 that started, 42participants successfullycompleted the six monthstraining initiative involvingvocational skills acquisition,

entrepreneurial developmentas well as practicaldemonstrations in relatedindustries.

Chairman, NBGN, ChiefChris Ezeh, said that theNBGN was set out to providea holistic initiative that seesparticipants through training,employment or setting up oftrades or vocations.

Ezeh said this at a PhotoSession and Presentation ofCertificates ceremony inLagos, saying, “There wereset backs particularly withloan facilities to assistparticipants in setting uptheir businesses. Thefinancial institution that wehad its commitment before the

commencement of the programbacked out along the line.

“We have therefore initiateddiscussion with anotherfinancial institution, LASMI asit concerned provision of loanfacilities for participants of thefirst edition and the secondedition that will sooncommence. LASMI hasassured of its collaboration andwe are at the momentdiscussing the relevant termsand conditions. It may involveparticipants formingcooperative societies. We willhowever get back with fulldetails in due course,” he said.

On the other hand, ActingHead, NBGN Secretariat, Mr.Dosumu Oluwole, said that

retraining of jobless graduatesin technical andentrepreneurial skills wouldsolve problem ofunemployment.

Oluwole puts totalunemployment rate at 10.8percent with the youthunemployment ratesexceeding the adultunemployment rates.

He said, “For Nigeria to solvethe threat of her hugeunemployment problemparticularly among herteeming young graduates,attention must be given toretraining of the unemployedgraduates in technical andentrepreneurial skills that willenhance their competition inthe labor market. This willequally enable them to be selfemployers and consequentlyemployers of labor.”

NEPAD partners LASMI on funds forprogramme participants


Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi (middle), flanked by Board Members ofNigerian London Business Forum, Prof. Chris Onalo (2nd left) and participants at the justconcluded UK-Nigeria Economic Forum held in London.

30 Lottoagents re-warded withpr i zes

BY ONOZURE DANIA

At least 30 Sub Agents ofGolden Chance Lotto

have been rewarded withprizes ranging from Tricy-cles, Deep Freezers, Televi-sion sets and cash sums, forrecord of highest sales rep-resentative to the company. Speaking at the event, theManaging Director of Gold-en Chance Lotto CharlesArthur said that their compa-ny is the first and only onethat rewards its Sub agents,adding that there are somany Lotto companies inNigeria, but he hasn’t heardof anyone of them rewardingthe sub agents who are clos-er to the costumers. He said that this is part ofthe company’s contribution ofgiving job opportunities tothe youths as some of the subagents are youths, some ofwhom are students, statingthat with the business theyalready have, they won’thave to look for jobs whenthey graduate as they al-ready have a job of their ownand will also be employer oflabour.Arthur further stated that theprizes that are won is to en-courage them so that theycan work harder.


CMYK

CMYK

Tax Matters

What is the FIRS E-TaxPay Solution?

The FIRS E-Tax Pay is anacronym for FIRS ElectronicTax Payment Solution.

What is the specific functionof the E-Tax Pay?

The FIRS E-Tax Pay is anelectronic tax paymentplatform that enablesindividual and corporatetaxpayers effect tax paymentsvia their respective bankaccounts using self- servicechannels provided by anyNigerian Bank. It is based onthe recipient’s account andwould place a debit on therecipient’s account whileapplying the credit to FIRSCBN’s account real-time.

How does the e-tax paysolution work?

The e-tax pay solution ishosted on the internet bankingplatform and bank branches ofcommercial banks and will beavailable to any taxpayer whohas access to the internet viaPC, or handheld devices suchas mobile phones. It will

ELECTRONIC-Taxpay isan online self-service

tax payment system which givestaxpayers the opportunity topay their taxes through theirbanks’ online payment portals.It is an initiative of FIRS incollaboration with NigerianInterbank Settlement System(NIBSS). It is meant to facilitatepayments of taxes from thecomfort of taxpayers’ offices orhomes. Taxpayers can payusing the electronic channelsprovided by their banks suchas the banks’ internet bankingplatform, branches and mobilebanking platforms.

Conditions to be met bytaxpayer before using e-Taxpayplatform

Register and obtain yourTaxpayer Identification Number(TIN)

Have an account with anybank of your choice andsubscribe to the internetbanking function of your bank.

Have sufficient funds in theaccount to cover the tax liability/transaction.

Steps to take to makepayment through e-Taxpayplatform

Having registered andreceived a TIN, an activeinternet banking account andsufficient funds, then; decidethe channel to use. If youdecide on internet bankingchannel, log on to your bank’sinternet banking platform e.g.GTBank Online Banking,FirstOnline, etc;

In the case of GTBankOnline Banking, select the“Payment” option in themenu;

Then select “NIBSS E-Billspayments” under the“Payment” option; Select theaccount to debit from, tocontinue;

Once inside the NIBSS E-Bills payments, select “NewRequest” to start a newpayment. This will take you tothe NIBSS platform; then select“FIRS e-Taxpay” from thedisplayed list services that theNIBSS platform provides, inorder to start the tax paymentin particular; you then enteryour TIN (FIRS/JTB-TIN) or theTIN of the taxpayer you wantto pay for;

Click “verify” to validatethat the TIN belongs to thetaxpayer making thepayment;

A pop-up will appear with theTIN details. If ok, then go tothe next stage;

Select the tax type (e.g.Company Income Tax, Pre-Operation Levy, Value AddedTax, etc.); Enter the amount tobe debited (tax sum beingpaid); Accept service charge forthe bank (if applicable);Confirm that all theinformation provided arecorrect and valid; Submit therequest.

After a successful transaction,the system will generate an ‘e-acknowledgement’ which canbe printed online, or sent to a

specified e-mail address. The‘e-acknowledgement’ is aconfirmation of the transactionof payment of tax to FIRSwhich would be presented toFIRS field office for theissuance of statutory FIRSreceipt to the taxpayer. ATAXPAYER SHOULDPLEASE ENSURE THE ‘e-acknowledgement’ ISSUBMITTED TO THE TAXOFFICE OF DOMICILE TOGET A GOVERNMENT TAXRECEIPT FOR THEPAYMENT MADE.

Real time notifications: Theplatform also notifies thetaxpayer and FIRS throughSMS alert and real time email.FIRS can view paymenttransactions and reports online,in real time. Tax types that canbe paid using the e-Taxpaychannel: e-Taxpay can be usedto pay all tax types and leviescollected by FIRS. Theyinclude: Petroleum Profit Tax(PPT)

Education Tax (ET)Companies Income Tax (CIT)

Value Added Tax (VAT)Personal Income Tax (PAYE

for residents of FCT and non-Residents)

Withholding Tax (WHT). Thisrequires a schedule to beuploaded on the platform;

National InformationTechnology Development FundLevy (NITDEF) Capital GainsTax (CGT) Pre-Operation Levy(POL) Stamp Duties (SD) andlate filing penalty

enable the bank customerswho are registered for internetbanking make their taxpayments online and also viabank branches.

Will a taxpayer be chargedfor using the e-tax paysolution?

No, there is no additional costto the taxpayer for using the e-tax pay internet bankingsolution. Only the normal bankcharges such as Commission-On –Turnover agreed betweenthe customer and the bankwould apply.

What is the specificrequirement of a potentialtaxpayer to use the e-tax paysolution?

Taxpayers that intend to usethe e-tax pay solution musthave registered and obtaineda valid TIN (TaxpayerIdentification Number) fromany FIRS or JTB office andwould have done theirrespective self-assessment inorder to use the e-tax pay topay their tax liabilities. The e-tax pay solution prompts for a

valid TIN upon Login andperforms a system validationwith the TIN before populatingwith the taxpayer’s records.

Can a taxpayer use the e-taxpay to pay all FIRS taxes?

Yes, the e-tax pay can be usedto pay all FIRS taxes. It has adrop down menu list showingall FIRS taxes. The taxpayersimply has to select the tax typehe intends to make payment for.

Would a taxpayer receiveconfirmation if the transactionis successful?

Yes, the taxpayer wouldreceive a confirmation that thepayment is successful and asystem generated reference IDwould be issued. The systemwould also generate an e-acknowledgement confirmationto the taxpayer which he canuse to obtain his tax paymentreceipt/credit notes from FIRSoffice.

Does the e-tax pay solutionsend notification?

Yes, the system would sendan e-notification immediatelythe transaction is successful.The taxpayer would alsoreceive a debit notification viaemail and SMS from his bank

confirming the payment.Can taxpayers use the FIRS

e-tax pay solution to make taxpayments online now?

Yes. The solution has beenimplemented in all commercialbanks. All bank customers thathave their valid i-bankingtokens and have registered fori-banking can access the e-taxpay under their internetbanking menu under theNIBSS ‘e-billspay’ service andselect FIRS e-tax pay as theirtax payment channel and followthe prompts towards makingthe payment. They also haveto have valid TINs.

What are the specific self-service payment channelsunder the FIRS e-tax paysolution?

The specific channelswherein a taxpayer can makepayments are: internet/onlinebanking, mobile banking andbank branches. For internetand mobile banking platforms,a taxpayer can access theseself-service channels usingPCs, Laptops, notebooks, smarthandheld devices and mobilephones.

on the use of the FIRSE-Tax Pay Solution

Tax payment made easy...OAGF to partnerFIRS for improvedrevenue collection

The Accountant Generalof the Federation, Alhaji

Ahmed Idris, has made anoffer for his office to partnerthe Federal Inland RevenueService, FIRS, in exploringcreative avenues to improverevenue collection for thegovernment. Making thisoffer while receiving adelegation from the FIRS ledby the Ag Chairman, Mr.Samuel Ogungbesan, to ameeting at the TreasuryHouse in Abuja, Idris notedthat the drop in oil revenueand the increase of revenuefrom taxes have madegovernment aware of theenormous revenue potentialwhich could be generatedthrough taxes and other non-oil generating sectors, ifproperly harnessed.

He further observed thatalthough similarities exist inthe functions of bothinstitutions, their roles havebeen clearly defined by theConstitution, adding that theFIRS has remained one of thegreatest ally of his office. Idrisalso said this provision hasunderscored the need tosynergize their operations to make them more effectivefor the benefit of the Nigerianeconomy.

10 ships arriveLagos portswith petroleumproducts

Ten ships have arrivedthe Lagos ports with

petroleum products, waitingto berth, the Nigerian PortsAuthority (NPA) said onThursday in Lagos.

This is contained in NPA’sdaily publication, ShippingPosition, made available tonewsmen in Lagos.

It said that eight of theships arrived the ports withpetrol, while the remainingtwo sailed in with diesel andaviation fuel. The documentindicated that 34 other shipswere expected in the portsfrom August. 6 to August.28. NPA noted that 11 of theships would arrive withcontainers, while five otherswere expected with generalcargo. It said that eightships would sail in withpetrol, diesel, kerosine andbulk gas; while 10 otherships would sail in with rice,frozen fish, buck wheat andsoya beans.


CMYK

“FG takes over Yola Discofrom private investors.”

PUCH, July 24, 2015, p 27.

THE story went on to statethe reason for the take

over. According to the report byEverest Amaefule, “Following thedeclaration of force majeure byIntegrated Energy Distributionand Marketing Company, thecore investor in the Yola ElectricityDistribution Company, theFederal Government has takenover the beleaguered power firm.”

YEDC is the first but might notbe the last DISCO to be takenover by the FG before long. Whilethe decision might appear to bein the public interest, in the shortterm, it portends grave danger forthe Nigerian economy. As moreDISCOs go under, privatizationof the power sector, a dream sincethe Structural AdjustmentProgramme, SAP, was introducedis becoming unraveled. Unlike theprivatization of the banking,airline and communicationssectors, which succeeded underBabangida and Obsanjorespectively, the first attempt atprivatization of the refineriesunder Yar’Adua and power sectorunder Jonathan have createdmore problems than they havesolved. And, there are dangersahead.

First, reversal of the privatization

of refineries, which Obasanjocriticized, and now a powercompany will inevitably make itmore difficult for governments (FGand States) to privatize anybusiness or sector in the future.Capital is a coward; it dreadsuncertainties, especially when thecapital investment is colossal andthe recovery period is severaldecades. Taking over enterprisespreviously managed by publicsector appointees invariablyamount to re-investing in abusiness with a great deal ofaccumulated rot which we werefortunate to discard.

Political connections, rather thancompetence, inform appointmentsto even the most strategiceconomic organizations in thiscountry and it is still to be provedthat we have changed ourorientation in that regard. Nigeriaonce had a Governor of the CentralBank of Nigeria, CBN, who readHistory. He naturally left a “rot”in the system which his more ablesuccessors required years to clear.Certainly, none of the investorsin DISCOs acquired a unit whichrequired less than ten years to beturned around. Unfortunately, asthings stand right now, it isdoubtful if any of them will lastthe next five years. The reasonsare not hard to discover.

Without exemption, theDISCOs were the victims of 419

agreements signed with theJonathan administration.Certainly, among the factorsinducing them to invest in thesector were the promisesregarding the power generationby 2014 and years beyond. Fourhighly respected individuals,President Jonathan, VicePresident Sambo, and two formerMinisters of Power, ProfessorsBarth Nnaji and Nebo promisedNigerians, and by extension theDISCOs, the following:

•Jonathan in ROAD MAP ONPOWER – 14300MW byDecember 2013.

•Sambo in 2015, 20,000MWsoon (whatever that meant).

•Nnaji – 5000MW by 2011, 2012•Nebo–6000MW by December

2013, 2014, and 10,000MW byDecember 2015.

If a private entity had promisedthose with whom it was signingagreements so often and failed todeliver on the promises, it wouldhave been declared fraudulentand the victims would haveheaded for court. The DISCOs,which must have believed thesepronouncements, before partingwith their funds, would probablynot have bothered if they knewJonathan and Nebo would leaveus in darkness on their way out.

It is bad enough that DISCOswere fraudulently promisedpower supply, from which theywere to make their money, theirpredicament was deepened whenthe same government alsoguaranteed them tariff increase by2015 which is now almostimpossible for them to receive withonly five months left in the year.Suddenly, the DISCOs arerequested to go and negotiate thenew tariffs with their consumers.That means no tariff increase for2015. Yet, every DISCO musthave factored the tariff increaseinto their projections for this year.

Most Nigerians must havemissed the announcement by theDISCOs, in the PUNCH of July15, 2015, page 34, by Mr ErnestOrji, of Eko ElectricityDistribution Company, EKEDC.

According to Orji, “largeinvestment in distributionnetwork was still a mirage as thegoal post keeps moving. It isscary, as many of us cannot meetpayment obligations..” In additionto the Federal Government,DISCOs are also behind in theirobligations to banks and othercreditors and are being pushedsteadily to the brink.

The collapse of DISCOs, andreversal of privatization of thepower sector, at a time when theFederal Government itself is cash-strapped will result in a serioussetback to the Nigerian economyimmediately. Nobody can guesswhen the mess resulting inreversal will be cleaned up andNigerians can once again be sureof who is in charge of powerdistribution.

When Jonathan, Sambo, Nnajiand Nebo were feedingNigerians with atrocious liesabout power generation, theywere warned on these pages, inseveral articles that the crisis wehave on our hands would be oneof the consequences of theirunpatriotic pronouncements.

In the article POWERFULLIES; FAMILIAR STORIESABOUT BLACKOUTS, I madethe point that the fixation ofJonathan on re-election isinducing the government to lie toinvestors in the power sector. Itwas bound to back-fire. Now thecrisis is about to become acalamity.

Killing discos? Time for rethink

Withoutexemption,the DISCOswere thevictims of419agreementssigned withtheJonathanadministration



CMYK

Aviation

ONGOING constructionwork at the new

International Terminal buildingat the Muritala MuhammedInternational Airport hassuffered disruption due toincessant industrial actionand protest by workers ofthe China Civil EngineeringConstruction Company(CCECC).

The terminal which isamongst the five new terminalsunder construction in Lagos,Kano, Abuja, Enugu and Port-Harcourt since 2013 has inrecent times faced a lot ofsetbacks.

Vanguard was at theconstruction site of the newterminal where the workerswere protesting and gatheredthat the workers wereprotesting against the decisionof the management of thecompany to lay them offgradually.

It was further found out thatabout 3,000 workers had beensacked in June 2015 and moreworkers were on the line to besacked by the management ofthe Company.

AVIATION stakeholdershave been reacting to

Wednesday’s call by PresidentMuhammadu Buhari for theMinistry of Aviation to hastenup the setting up of a nationalcarrier. Most of them havecalled for caution in order notto repeat the mistakes that ledto the death of NigerianAirways.

Protest halts work on newterminal at Lagos airport

Aviation stakeholders differ on proposed national carrier

By LAWANIMIKAIRU

& DANIEL ETEGHE

The workers who wereprotesting and chantingsolidarity songs withinscriptions on placards “Arewe slaves to the Chinese?”,“They don’t care for us, theyonly care for themselves. Wedon’t have good take-homepay and we heard that theygot the permission of theGovernor Akinwunmi Ambodeof Lagos State to shut down alltheir construction sites acrossthe state.

Speaking to Vanguard one ofthe worker, Pastor DouglasBanahene, an ElectricalEngineer of the company saidthat the decision of thecompany to lay off its workers

was because it did not wantto hand over the workers tothe new company, that wasabout to take over from it.

Pastor Banahene affirmedthat CRCC ConstructionCompany Limited hasbought over CCECC but thatCCECC has refused to givedetails of each worker to thenew company in order forthem to be properly absolvedrather they decided to sackthem.

He said “Before we camehere, we went to Alausa onWednesday to lay ourcomplaints because what weare passing through isdifficult and we cannot bear

it as workers anymore whichhas been for years now, so wedecided to meet the Governorto intervene for us, to see howthe problem can be resolvedbut right now, we are here tostop our workers who are stillworking, we have gone to allour sites across the state to stopour workers pending whenthey resolve the issue. Themanagement have been sackingus unnecessarily”

“Right now we say they shouldpay us off, nobody is workingagain, casual and staff, we aredemanding an amount as ourpay-off, staff N800,000 andcasual N600,000 for each of usapart from our main salarybecause they are owing us forthe month of June 2015”

“They say the minimum wageof a Nigerian worker is N18,000but we as CCECC workers, weare not captured in theconstitution of Nigeria, why?

We only have holidays whenChina is on holidays, we workfrom Monday to Sunday. 1n2013, I celebrated myChristmas in CCECC. Nowthey have been sacking us,they don’t let us know beforethey even sack us” he added.

Efforts to meet themanagement of the company toget their own side of the storyproved abortive as none of themanagement staff was onground during the protest ofthe workers.

Also, efforts to contact theGeneral Manager FederalAirports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN), Mr. Yakubu Dati tocomment on the disruption ofwork at the new terminalbuilding proved abortivebecause our correspondentlearnt that he was in a boardmeeting as at the time of fillingin this report.

By LAWANI MIKAIRU Reacting, Dr. KashimShettima, President, SkyjetAviation Services said thePresident needs to have theforensic audit of why Nigeriaairlines are failing and getdebt-ridden before venturinginto the business.

According to him “In myown opinion, I think thePresident needs to beproperly briefed on what thecurrent situation is. He needs

to hear the truth and nothing butthe truth. There should be astakeholders' meeting withPresident, where he will meetface-to-face with the industryplayers such as unions, airlineoperators and so on. Does thePresident know the cost ofrunning an airline now? Does heknow that a national carrier willhave to be given subsidy fromtime to time?”

“Why do we have to re-invent

what happened to NigeriaAirways? I hope it is going tobe business because aviation isnothing but a business. Thismight be a nightmare. In asmuch as this is a good dream,sentiment must not replacereality.”

But Mr Balami Isaac David,President, NationalAssociation of Aircraft Pilots andEngineers, NAAPE, said hismembers support it with allsense of responsibility.


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CMYK

Economy

CENTRAL Bank ofN i g e r i a ’ s( C B N )

Business ExpectationsSurvey (BES) has revealedthat business confidence waspositive in second quarter(Q2) 2015 across mostsectors.

However the report alsoindicated that businesseswere constrained byinsufficient power supply,high interest rate, financialproblems, competition amongother operatingenvironmental issues.

The survey report alsoindicated that businessesshowed greater optimism forimproved business conditions( m a c r o e c o n o m i cenvironment) in the thirdquarter (Q3) 2015 as theyexpect a decline in inflationand borrowing rates as wellas appreciation of Naira.

The Q2 2015, nationalBusiness Confidence Index(BCI) registered 55.5 points.At a confidence level of 62.9points for Q3, businessesexpect increased volume ofactivities in even as theemployment outlook index for

There were indications thatinvestors from United

States of America (USA) areexpressing interest inNigeria’s auto industryfollowing the recent visit to theUSA by President PresidentMuhammadu Buhari

The Counsellor for EconomicAffairs, USA Embassy in Abuja,Mr. Alan Tousignant, said therecent visit to the U.S. hastriggered a flood of enquiriesfrom potential Americaninvestors on the country’sautomotive industry.

According to a statementissued by Mr Bello Rasheed,the Principal Executive Officer

US investors eye Nigeria’s auto sector(Information) of NationalAutomotive Design andDevelopment Council(NADDC), Tousignant gavethis hint when he visited theDirector-General of theNADDC , Mr Aminu Jalal, lastweekend in Abuja to makeenquiries on the NigerianAutomotive IndustryDevelopment Plan (NAIDP).

Tousignant, according to thestatement, was at the NADDCto get answers for the delugeof enquiries from the Americangovernment and its businesscommunity on the NAIDP.

According to the statement,Jalal told his visitors that two

American automobile giants,Ford Motors and GeneralMotors, had confirmed theirinterest in starting vehicleassembly operations in 2016.

Jalal also explained thatNigeria is the largest economyin Africa with very huge marketfor automobile. He stressed thatthe auto policy is intended totransform Nigeria into a majorvehicle manufacturing hub forleveraging on Nigeria’sabundant trainable labour forceand material resourcesespecially petrochemical-based.

The statement further addedthat Jalal told Tousignant and

members of his team that witha population of over 170million, Nigeria could notcontinue to run an importdependent economy.

NAIDP was launched by theFederal Government in 2014 tolimit excessive automobileimports and promote massiveinvestments in affordablemade-in-Nigeria cars.

Stakeholders had expressedfears that the Buhariadministration would discardthe policy, but he used the U.S.visit to assure investors of hiscommitment to thedevelopment of the autoindustry.

Q3 2015 registered 39.4points, far below average.

About 62.3% of businessesin the industrial sector had

expansion plans for Q3 2015while the services sector had66 per cent, according to thesurvey report.

In Q1 survey respondentfirms were optimistic on themacro economy as theyexpected business conditionsand operating environment toimprove. The optimism wasdriven by the opinion ofrespondents from the servicessector (7.2 points), followedby wholesale/retail trade (4.1

points) and industrial (1.6points).

Respondents’ optimism inthe volume of total order andthe internal liquidity position,buoyed the volume of theirbusiness activities in thecurrent quarter. Similarly, thepositive outlook in access tocredit by the majority of firmsupped the financial conditionof firms in the review quarter.

CBN survey indicates positivebusiness confidence

Stories ByEMEKA ANAETO,

Economy Editor

increase the number of peoplewho can invest in insurance toprotect their wealth.

“We have been negotiatingwith some parties in Nigeria toacquire some stakes in theirbusinesses and we’ve madequite good progress in thatregard,” Casper Troskie,Liberty’s chief financial officer,said in an interview.

The company, which istargeting mostly corporateclients in east and west Africa,plans to spend about USD393million bulking up in thosemarkets in the longer term,Troskie said.

Liberty said businessesoutside its home market hardlygrew during the period due toweak investment markets ineast Africa.

Liberty, majority owned bySouth African lender StandardBank, reported a six percent inheadline earnings per share,a measure which excludes theimpact of a black economicempowerment scheme andother one-off items, for the sixmonths to the end of June.

Net client cash flow, or thedifference between moneyreceived from customers andmoney given back, fell 11percent, by a slowdown insingle-premium inflows fromcorporate clients.

LIBERTY Holdings plansto invest up to USD80

million (N16 Billion) on twodeals in Nigeria by year-end,as part of a five-year strategyby South Africa’s No.4 insurerto expand further into sub-Saharan Africa, its chieffinancial officer said.

Like rivals, Liberty isexpanding elsewhere in Africaas growth prospects attract theattention of corporateexecutives and promise to

South Africa’s Liberty tospend up to $80m on twoNigeria deals

•President Buhari


International Business

China’s exports declinedmore than expected

in July, hobbled by a strongyuan and lower demand in theEuropean Union, and addingpressure on Premier LiKeqiang to stabilize growth.Overseas shipments fell 8.3percent from a year earlier indollar terms, the customsadministration said. Thereading was well below theestimate for a 1.5 percentdecline in a Bloombergsurvey and compared with anincrease of 2.8 percent inJune. Imports dropped 8.1percent, widening from a 6.6percent decrease in June,leaving a trade surplus of $43billion.

Along with weak domesticinvestment, subdued globaldemand is putting China’s2015 growth target of about 7percent at risk. Thegovernment has rolled outfresh pro-expansionmeasures, including specialbond sales to financeconstruction, but has held offweakening the yuan as Chinaseeks reserve-currency status.

“Exports are no longer anengine for China growth — nomatter what the governmentdoes, it’s just impossible to seestrong export growth as in thepast,” said Bank ofCommunications economistLiu Xuezhi. “It meansadditional slowdownpressure, and it requires thegovernment to be moreaggressive in the domesticmarket.” Liu said China islikely to accelerateinfrastructure spending asfixed-asset investment is the“the most immediate and

China exports fall as lower demand,strong yuan hurt growth

effective” way to stimulategrowth.

China’s exports to theEuropean Union fell 2.5percent in the first sevenmonths of 2015 from a yearearlier, while shipments toJapan dropped 10.5 percent.One bright spot was exports tothe U.S., which expanded 9.3percent. The slump in exports“compounds downwardpressure on China’s economyand threatens to bringexchange rate depreciationonto the table as a tool torestore competitiveness,” Tom

Orlik, chief Asia economist atBloomberg Intelligence, wrotein a research note onSaturday.

The People’s Bank of Chinahas adopted a vice-like grip onthe yuan, allowing littlemovement of the currency inthe onshore market. Thecurrency’s closing levels inShanghai this week matchedthe tightest range recordedsince a fixed exchange rateended a decade ago.

“On a trade weightedmeasure, China’s yuanappreciated sharply since

THE United StatesEmbassy in Abuja

says President MuhammaduBuhari’s recent visit to theU.S. has triggered a flood ofenquiries from potentialAmerican investors on thecountry ’s automotiveindustry. The embassy ’sCounsellor for EconomicAffairs, Mr. Alan Tousignant,said this when he visited theDirector-General of theNational Automotive Designand Development Council(NADDC) weekend in Abuja.

According to a statementissued by Mr Bello Rasheed,the Principal Executive Officer(Information) of NADDC,Tousignant visited to makeenquiries on the NigerianAutomotive IndustryDevelopment Plan (NAIDP).The statement reportedTousignant as saying that hewas at the NADDC to get

answers for the deluge ofenquiries from the Americangovernment and its businesscommunity on the NAIDP.

It said that the Director-General of NADDDC, MrAminu Jalal, and thecouncil’s Director of Policyand Planning, Mr LuqmanMamudu, received andbriefed the U.S. team Thestatement said: “ Tousignantsaid that there had been anupsurge in the amount ofbusiness enquiries fromAmerica since the recent visitof President Buhari to theU.S.

“He told the NADDC DGthat quite a number of thelatest enquiries from potentialAmerican investors were onthe Nigeria auto industry.

“Therefore, he needed toknow about applicable staffstructure, incentives,availability of skilled

personnel, current totalinstalled capacity, localvalue addition and industrialclusters and infrastructure.He also asked questions onapplicable safety standards,annual national vehicledemand, export potential toother countries, amongothers.” The statement saidthat the NADDC DG, MrAminu Jalal, was excited bythe “keen interest shown byAmerican companies andbusinessmen in theindustry”.

According to the statement,Jalal told his visitors that twoAmerican automobile giants,Ford Motors and GeneralMotors, had confirmed theirinterest in starting vehicleassembly operations in 2016.“The NADDC DG explainedthat Nigeria is the largesteconomy in Africa with veryhuge market for

US investors flood embassy with enquiries onNigeria’s auto industry – Official

The National IdentityM a n a g e m e n t

Commission (NIMC) says ithas completed plans to deploythe National IdentificationNumber (NIN) authenticationand verification service link toall Ministries, Departmentsand Agencies (MDA’s) andbanks.

Mr Chuks Onyepunuka,NIMC’s General Manager,Information Technology andIdentity Database, disclose thisto newsmen in Abuja.Onyepunuka said that thedeployment was part of thecommission’s strategy toensure the success of theproposed Septembercommencement of themandatory use of NIN.

He said that NIMC hadalready deployed theauthentication and verificationservice link to one of thesecurity agencies and wouldsoon extend to other agencies.

Onyepunuka also said thatNIMC was discussing with theMDA’s and banks to enablethem ascertain theinfrastructure to achieve thedeployment of the NINauthentication and verificationservice link.

“These institutions includethe banks, Nigeria ImmigrationService, Ministry of Aviation,Joint Tax Board, State House,National UniversitiesCommission, National PensionCommission, Joint Admissionsand Matriculation Board, andNational Health InsuranceScheme. Others are theFederal Road SafetyCommission (FRSC), FederalInland Revenue Service(FIRS), among others.Government institutions andagencies require thebiometrics of individuals tooffer functional services or forsecurity reasons.

“They are required by lawto key into the NIMCNational Identity Database forthe purpose of identitymanagement andverification,” he said.

Onyepunuka said theverification and authenticationwould be done both online,which has two approaches, andthe offline platform. The onlineversion has the web portalapproach used for NINverification alone, while thedesk top is a robust windowsbased approach that allowsenrolee conduct the NINverification,” he explained.

He added that, on thepresentation of NIN or thefingerprints, the individual ororganisation requesting suchproof would utilise the onlineNIMC verification service toconfirm such identity.

NIMC to deployauthentication,verification servicelink to MDAs,banks

FROM LEFT: Mr Olivier Thiry, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, Promasidor Nigeria Plc,Mr Festus Tettey, Head of Marketing, Promasidor Nigeria Plc, and Mr Andrew Enahoro, Head Legal,and Public Relation, Promasidor Nigeria Plc, During the Press Briefing on CowbellPedia for secondarySchool in Nigeria, Organised by Promasidor Nigeria Plc, Held on Thursday 6-8-2015, At Just MediaStudio, Kayode Street Ogba, Ikeja Lagos. PHOTO; Kehinde Gbadamosi

automobiles. He stressedthat the auto policy isintended to transformNigeria into a major vehiclemanufacturing hub forleveraging on Nigeria’sabundant trainable labourforce and material resourcesespecially petrochemical-based.

“ Jalal told Tousignant andmembers of his team thatwith a population of over 170million, Nigeria could notcontinue to run an importdependent economy,” thestatement said. NAIDP waslaunched by the FederalGovernment in 2014 to limitexcessive automobileimports and promotemassive investments inaffordable made-in-Nigeriacars.

Stakeholders had expressedfears that the Buhariadministration would discardthe policy, but he used theU.S. visit to assure investorsof his commitment to thedevelopment of the autoindustry.

2014,” said Liu Li-Gang, chiefGreater China economist atAustralia & New ZealandBanking Group Ltd. in HongKong. “Meanwhile, externaldemand remains weak as alsoshown by the poor exportturnout in Taiwan and SouthKorea.” A yuan depreciationis not a policy option becauseof the government’s desire tomake it an internationalreserve currency, Liu said.The government will be “moreaggressive in easing monetarypolicy and lowering taxes,” hesaid.

CMYK


CMYK

Advertising & Promotions

STORIES BYPRINCEWILLEKWUJURU

FROM LEFT: Matron, Echoes of Mercy and Hope Foundation, Mrs Funmi Adedokun; ProgramOfficer, Women in Technology in Nigeria, Olamide Ogungbemi; Administrator, Echoes of Mercyand Hope Foundation, Mrs Anne-Marie Obikoya; Intel She Will Connect Spokesperson, TitilopeSonuga during a visit by Intel She Will Connect spokesperson to the Echoes of Mercy and HopeFoundation, in Lagos.

SINCE the introductionof Automated TellerMachine, ATM,

Nigeria shoppers have usedcredit and debit cards in several transactions, locally andinternationally running tomillions of Naira

The adoption of this paymentsystem has helped drive the useof plastic money rather thancash.

Its introduction has alsohelped in facilitating businesstransaction, an indication thatuse of cards have risen in thelast one year.

However, the fast growingcard culture and the rapidacceptance by the Nigerianpopulace has led to increasedcompetition and innovation bybanks which are the deliveryvehicles of these cards.

Of the banks, First Bank ofNigeria, FBN Plc’s partnershipwith Paypal, one of the largestglobal online paymentprocessors and the bank’s abilityto control a sizeable portion ofthe market is largely on itsinnovative and differentiatedproduct offerings occasioned bythe paypal platform.

According to the bank’s Group Head, Marketing andCorporate Communications,Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney:”our card productshave been specially designed togive convenience and supportcustomers domestic andinternational transactions. Withincreased transaction activitiesand a good number of domestic/international travels, it is

now agreed to rotate thetraining round majorUniversities in the United Stateof America. And the one fornext year will be in partnershipwith Harvard University.”

“Also we have been able toactualised the resuscitation ofposter award that has nowgained international

essential our cardholders areinformed of existing rewardsand partner locations wherethey can use their cards atdiscounted rate on purchases.”

On this note, Vanguardconducted an investigation onthe viability of the bank’s credit/debit cards to authenticate theworkability of these cards byusers.

The investigation showedthat customers with the bank’sFirstonline card have been ableto get absolutely things neededto make most of their shopping,while they travel for holidaysor in Nigeria.

Some persons spoken to at

the Muritala MohammedInternational Airport, MMIA,some travellers spoken to whoare signatories to the Firstonlinecard said they were going todo most their transactionsoverseas with their firstonlineinspired paypal card which theydescribed as a unique offeringby the bank.

Like, Jude Agbosureme, said:“First bank needs toaggressively drive thismessage, particularly as thesummer approaches, regardingthe fact that users have an edgeby signing on to Firstonline,and linking their Paypalaccounts to enjoy automatic

higher spending limits withoutverification hassles.”

In Nigeria, FirstBank debitand prepaid cards are nowaccepted on the PayPalplatform, Agbosureme hinted.

From what i understand saidJimoh Alo, “with the productthe bank targets frequentInternational Holiday Makers,business persons /entrepreneurs, and high networth individuals.”

With more than 50 millionmerchants and growing, PayPalboasts of over 100 million usersacross the world in 193countries and regions withwide acceptance on merchantwebsites, preferable on eBay.

AFTER 51 years ofexistence, Outdoor

Advertising Association ofNigeria, OAAN, hascommissioned its new ultra-modern building, elects newexecutive to pilot affairs of theAssociation for the next twoyears.

Speaking during thecommissioning, which alsocoincided with the 30th Annual General Meeting of theAssociation, the outgoingPresident, Mr. CharlesChijide, said that the relocationof OAAN corporate head officeto a new ultra modern one storybuilding complex was part ofthe major success recordedduring his administration.

“Aside the newlycommissioned building,capacity building has beenslated to be a yearly trainingprogram. Having signed anMoU on behalf of theassociation, the University has

dimension, capacity building inpartnership with DakotaUniversity USA. Ourrelationship with lawyers inmedia has been made moremutual, while we foster morepartnership among membersand regulators.”

He urged the incomingadministration to be more focus

and committed, “aside from thenewly commission office at KofoKasumu Avenue, LakeviewPhase 1 Estate, off Ago PalaceWay, Amuwo Ododfin, theoutgoing administration hasrecently acquired a parcel ofland in Owerri, which weexpect the incoming executiveto follow up and secured.”

51 yrs after, OAAN commissions own building

How First Bank, PayPal partnershipaid contactless transaction

Chi Limited has unveiled a newmarketing communication campaign

tagged ‘Chivita 100% or Nothing’ as part ofeffort to reinforce its flagship’s brandproposition and strengthen the credential ofthe brand in the market.

The campaign which is deployed throughTelevision, Digital, Out of Home, ConsumerActivation and Point of Sales initiativesdemonstrates the brand’s commitment toquality and excellence.

Speaking on the marketing campaign, Chi

Limited’s Head of Marketing, Mr. ProbalBhattacharya, said the campaign highlights Chivita100% with purity, commitment & nothing but thebest which is its recipe for premium quality, therebyproviding all the ingredients for success,achievement & leadership”

“We do everything possible to ensure that Chivita100% lives up to its brand promise of goodnessand the best there is. This also explains ourpartnership with the world’s most valuable footballclub brand because for us it is the best or nothing”he said.

Chi Limited unveils ‘Chivita 100% orNothing campaign

Superiorbetng.comboosts sportsbetting profile

Sports betting portfolio inNigeria has increased

with the entrant ofSuperiorbetng.com, a digitalsport betting game.

The Chief Executive Officerof the company, Mr. TundeAdebayo said at a ceremonyin Lagos that the unveiling ofSuperiorBet is aimed at turningfun, excitement and relaxationinto an empowerment forNigerians.

According to him, in thisgame, participants place stakeson their selection of possibleoutcomes from different sportsevents on the Superiorbetng.com platform.On the Superiorbetng.com platform, odds are attached toeach possible outcome fromavailable sports events,resulting in players winningcash prizes when their selected“possible outcomes” match the“actual outcomes” from thesports events in question. Thisdigital gaming product isstrictly for Sports Games (both‘Real-life’ and ‘Virtual’),” saidMr. Adebayo.

Kasapreko launches new

products

Kasapreko, makers ofpopular Ghanian

drink, Alomo bittters havelaunched two new products;Kalahari and Carnivalstrawberry into the Nigerianmarket.

The Company said thelaunching of the new productswas to make Nigerians enjoyquality flavoured drinks at anaffordable price.

Speaking, ManagingDirector of KasaprekoCompany Nigeria Limited,Kojo Nunoo, said both brandswere the outcome ofpainstaking research anddevelopment work to ensurethat Nigerians enjoy qualityproducts at an affordable price.

“We are giving full assuranceto Nigerian consumers thatevery product from the stableof Kasapreko have beenproduced to the highest ofproduction and quality assurancestandard to ensure that the drinksmeet all consumptionrequirements globally and mostespecially locally as evident by theNAFDAC product registrationnumber,”. He said.

Speaking in the same vein,Marketing Manager, PeterAdegor said the two brands of theproducts had already debuted inGhana and the decision to bringthem to Nigeria was based on theidentification of gaps in the spiritmarket in Nigeria.

By ANOZIE EGOLE

Business & Economy

Email:[email protected], [email protected] page:www.lesleba.com/blog2Website: www.lesleba.comTel:0805 220 1997


CMYK

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

Yoyo naira exchange rates and common sense

Nigerians were clearlybewildered by therecent wild swings in

the Naira Exchange rate.Regrettably, however, despiteGodwin Emefiele’s earlierassurances to the contrary,Naira was officially devaluedfrom N155=$1 to N165 andlater to N197=$1 within hisfirst year as Central BankGovernor.

Expectedly, the dollar ratequickly skipped beyondN220=$1 in the parallelmarket, while speculativedollar accumulation byhoarders and the subsequentdenial of access to officialforex to importers of 41 sundryitems, later catapulted theparallel market Nairaexchange rate beyondN240=$1. Notwithstanding,the CBN has again assuredNigerians, that the currentNaira rate would be stable, asit is inappropriate for the tail(i.e. the small parallel market)to wag the dog.

Nevertheless, the CBNmay have been in denial of theinflationary potential on theeconomy of the ultimatelyhigher market prices for riceand 40 other items recentlybanned from official dollarpurchase. Consequently, theinevitable reality of suchinflationary push, willcompromise the achievementof CBN’s core mandate forprice stability for some time tocome.

Furthermore, althoughparallel market Nairaexchange rates improvedimmediately after therejection of forex depositsfrom bank customers, suchimprovement will probablyalso be short-lived as thisprocess will only constrict theprimary source of dollarsupply from CBN’s real timeforex allocation to over 1,000licensed Bureau de change(BDC) nationwide. It iscertainly not best practice forCentral Banks to formallyfund BDCs, but CBN’s

apparent favorable dispositionis clearly the result of theIMF’s misguided prescriptionwhich made such liberaldispersal of official dollars toBDCs as one of theconditionalities for debt exitin 2005-6.

Remarkably, monthly dollarsupplies to BDCs oftenexceeded $1b when Nigeria’sdollar reserves approachedthe premium level of about$60bn; nevertheless, eachBDC is currently entitled to$30,000 allocation weekly,while Nigerians with Nairadenominated debit cards canstill also obtain $300 per daydirectly from ATM terminalsabroad at the official rate ofN197=$1, up to a limit of$50,000 annually, i.e. downfrom the earlier stupendous$150,000 per person.

CBN’s sustenance of suchliberal forex allocations isclearly inexplicable,especially, when infact,probably less than 1% ofNigerians earn $50,000/annum, while dollarallocations to BDCs ultimatelyalso fund imports ofcontraband and forex roundtripping with the collateralthreat to the survival of localindustries and thedisenabling economicdislocations.

Nonetheless, we havereturned once more to theforgone era of multipleexchange rates, despite theattendant economicdistortions of this practice; forexample, while faith pilgrimsenjoy forex rates at N160=$1,importers of 41 delisted itemswould endure N225-250/$,while fuel and all otherimports are favored with thecurrently subsidized price ofN197/$.

Clearly, the wide disparitiesbetween the different Nairaexchange rates and the hugeopportunity for gain willundoubtedly instigate sharppractices in the forex market.Fortunately, the Senate hasinvited the CBN Governor to

explain the reasons behindNaira devaluation and thewild swings in the parallelmarket. Expectedly, Emefielewill identify increasingspeculation and the drop incrude oil prices/revenue asthe primary causes of theNaira’s predicament.

It would be unfortunate if theSenate is sufficiently gullibleto accept drop in crude prices/revenue as a plausible causeof Naira depreciation, withoutasking the CBN Governor toexplain why the Nairaexchange rate remained staticand unexpectedly evendepreciated marginally whencrude prices converselyexceeded $140/barrel, andforex reserves exceeded $60bnafter debt exit in 2006!

Plausible reasons for theprice contradictions in theforex market have, lately, alsoagitated the minds ofindividuals as well as criticalinterest groups. For example,one, Matthew Somoyesuggested in the Guardian

advertorial of 5/8/2015, thatthe solution to a stablestronger Naira and theelimination of multipleexchange rates would befound in the supply side of theforeign exchange equation;Somoye thereforerecommended as follows:

“Every month, both thefederal and stategovernments receive monthlyallocations from crude oildollar denominated revenueand CBN converts the Nairaand gives out to States. Thishuge Naira volume chasesfew dollars which further fuelsan already bad situation. CBNshould change the order bypaying the states and federalagencies in dollars” ....... “andfor the commercial banks tobuy the dollars from the stategovernments and sell toimporters. The implication ofthis is that the so called FXthat is scarce will not be thatscarce, as genuine importersunder eligible transactionscan relatively find dollars fromthe interbank and theinterbank will become richagain”.

Similarly, the Ikeja Branchof the Manufacturers’Association of Nigeriaconcluded as follows in aGuardian advertorial titled“Manufacturers Association ofNigeria’s position paper onthe management of foreignexchange in Nigeria toenhance the performance ofthe manufacturing sector”:(Guardian 5/7/2015 edition, pg50)

“We, as manufacturers willbe very satisfied if inflationfalls to less than 2% whilemonetary policy rate isanchored on a rate between 1-3% so that cost of funds to thereal sector will fall below 8%across the board! We areconfident that the adoption ofdollar certificates for theallocation of distributabledollar revenue will quicklybring about the desiredindustrially supportive

environment and also reducethe pool of excess Nairaliquidity that drivescorruption in the publicservice.”

Finally, in its editorial of 6/8/2015, titled “CBN and theeconomy”, the Guardian Newspaper examined theorigin and trajectory ofexchange rate managementand concluded as follows:

“For Nigeria to begin toclose the gap by facilitatingextensive investments thatcreate jobs, Buhari shouldurgently stop both thepolitically dictated wrongfulwithholding by CBN ofFederation Account dollarallocations and theirsimultaneous substitutionwith freshly printed nairaamounts by not only directingthe country’s public sectorand autonomous forex to betransacted appropriately butalso allowing the apex bankthe leeway to professionallycarry out its statutorymandate”.

Instructively, the CBN isclearly familiar with therecommendation of dollarallocations for dollardenominated revenue andindeed the Vision 2020blueprint’s ‘monetary policythrust’ also recognized that itsadoption would strengthenthe Naira exchange rate adsignificantly reduce the ratesof inflation and cost of funds.In retrospect, after over5years of denial, the CBNadopted this enablingpayments system in its“Strategic Agenda for theNaira” in August 2007.Regrettably, the initiative wasDead on arrival as theincumbent Attorney General,one Andoaka, summarilytruncated the reform asunconstitutional. Sadly, theCBN authorities have becometoo timid since then to evencontemplate this clearlyenabling reform strategy thatwould induce price stability.

SAVE THE NAIRA, SAVENIGERIANS.

C B N ’ ssustenance ofsuch liberalf o r e xallocations isc l e a r l yinexplicable,e s p e c i a l l y ,when infact,probably lessthan 1% ofNigerians earn$50,000/annum

Cyber risk, regulation, increasing tax burdentop threats for insurance CEOs

The findings of two recentreports by PwC that

chart the top risks in theglobal insurance sector and thegrowth concerns of insuranceChief Executive Officers, CEOsshows that cyber risk, interestrates and growing tax burdenwere among the top risks forinsurers.This is indicative of how highthese issues have become for theindustry when looked at inconjunction with regulatorydevelopments and the broadermacro-economy.One of the reports, InsuranceBanana Skins 2015, a globalstudy conducted by CSFI

(Centre for the Study of FinancialInnovation) in conjunction withPwC polled over 800 insurancepractitioners and industryobservers in 54 countries

including Nigeria,to find outwhere the greatest risks are in thenext 2-3 years stated thatregulatory risk emerged as theoverall top risk for participants inthe survey for the third successivetime, underlining the deep impactregulatory change is having.The report says that new rulesgoverning solvency and marketconduct could swamp the industrywith costs and complianceproblems. It could also distractmanagement from the taskof running heal thybusinesses at a time whenthe industry faces radicalstructural change.

This is indicative ofhow high theseissues have becomefor the industrywhen looked at inconjunction withr e g u l a t o r ydevelopments


CMYK

Send Opinions & Letters to:[email protected]

By Bobson Gbinije

•Mr. Gbinije, a social critic, wrote fromWarri, Delta State.

Aregbesola: The idealist aspolitician

“So long as mankind shall continue tolavish more praise

Upon its destroyers than upon itsbenefactors war

shall remain the chief pursuit of ambitiousminds” -Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)

THE intellectualisation of tritestatements remains the stout

tradition of the literate and the academia.But no amount of academic acrobaticsand pedantic romanticisation can stop orprevent the chrysalis from carrying itsown load-so mankind has borne its ownself-inflicted tragedies and bestialities ofwar to an enormous extent.

The month of August marks the 69th

anniversary of the unleashing of theatomic bomb on the people of Hiroshima-6th August, 1945 and Nagasaki-9th

August 1945 respectively. Over 150,000people were killed and millions injured,and some would carry an emotionaleternal wound in their hearts. Itultimately culminated in the end of the2nd world war (1939-1945).

The dropping of the “ANOTA GAY” as itwas called, climaxed the writing of one ofthe saddest, darkest and bleakest pages inthe history of mankind, confirming theShakespearian refrain that “Men havelost their reasons and powers have flownto the brutish beast” and furtherresonated by Nicholo Machiavelli (1469-1527) in his book The Prince that “youmust know that there are two ways ofcontesting, the one by the law, the otherby force; the first method is proper to men,the second to beasts; but because the firstis frequently not sufficient it is necessaryto have recourse to the second” and thisthe Allied Forces led by America did.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki: Arms race maladyHiroshima/Nagasaki: Arms race maladyHiroshima/Nagasaki: Arms race maladyHiroshima/Nagasaki: Arms race maladyHiroshima/Nagasaki: Arms race maladyParaphrasing the renowned scientist

Albert Einstein –"It is not the weaponsinvented that are dangerous, it is the‘Man” who put them to wrong use”. Theextent to which “Man” could go inexercising his primordial andNeanderthal propensities came to the forein the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedies.It remains not only a tragedy for Japanbut also for the human race.

In the “Memoirs of Survivors”(publication of the Japanese authority)quoted in the “AWAKE” A Jehovah’sWitnesses publication of August 22, 1985-one Nosuyo Fukushima said: “when wegot to the hospital, it was packed withpeople. The heads and faces of many ofthem were covered with blood, whileothers had burned flesh dangling in strips.The hair on some of them, being singedby the heat, was standing on end. Otherswith fragments of wood and glass blastedinto their bodies, were groaning deeply.Their faces were so bloated that it wasdifficult to tell one from the other. Thecity had become the large, burnedoutfield, with only an occasional crushingconcrete wall still standing in the ashes.Everynight, there were fires on the riverbank where the dead were cremated. Ivividly recall the red glow of the fires and

the terrible odour of the burning bodies,like oily fish being grilled. I still shudderand feel sick at heart whenever I think ofit”

This is just one testimony from acatalogue of so many. It vividly portrayshow gruesome a nuclear war could be. Buthave we learnt any lessons from thishideous nightmare, belligerency andsanguinary proclivities of man. This deepscar and cicatrix will be left on the mindsand consciences of many Japanese and,nay, mankind for a long time to come. Weremain inveterately chagrined at thehorrors and destructiveness of war. Buthave we learnt any lessons?

In the historic, concessionary andstatesmanly speech of Emperor Hirohitoof Japan on the 15th of August 1945 hesaid: “It is according to the dictates of time,and fate that we have resolved to pavethe way for a great peace for all thegenerations to come by enduring theunendurable and suffering theinsufferable”. By this singular act andsubsequent amendments of theirconstitution Japan became a “PacificNation” denouncing and renouncing waras a means of settling disputes.

In Japan’s constitution, Article 9glaringly states that “Aspiring sincerelyto an international peace based on justiceand order, the Japanese people foreverrenounce war as a sovereign right of thenation and threat or use of force as meansof settling international disputes. In orderto accomplish the aim of the precedingparagraph, land, sea and air forces, as wellas other war potential, will never bemaintained. The right of belligerency ofthe state will not be recognized”.

From the foregoing, Japan seems to havelearnt its lesson from the atomic bombepisode. But a more insightful view willshow that in recent years, Japan is oncourse again to acquiring weapons and thesetting up of military units. It was

superlatively present, although playingbackground supportive role to Americaand is allies in the Guff war. It is a knownfact that Japan has stepped –up itmilitary budget and there are manyunmentionable covert activities of theJapanese government. Does this show thatJapan has learnt its lessons?

The allies have of course become worse.Even after the end of the Cold war era,Glasnost and Perestroika. America andRussia are still covertly and overtly busystockpiling weapons of mass destruction.The wanton acquisition of dangerousweapons like the Tomographic X-RayLaser, Neutron, Atomic and Hydrogenbombs. Different ranges of missiles- theexocet, patriot, scud and theintercontinental ballistic missile (Z range-ICBM) etc. Does this stockpiling of nuclearweapons show any penitence on theirside?

In the midst of fear of neighbours, likelyoutbreak of the third Word War anddistrust, the nuclear weapon acquisitionfever is currently taking over the wholeworld, with America as the supremeculprit. There is current nuclear craze inSouth East Asia. Recently India tested,followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh. Wehear that Iran has followed suit. There ismassive nuclear weapons proliferation.Africa is not left out. South Africa has alsopublicly acknowledged its nuclearcapability. Its likely Nigeria is doingsomething underground or it will dosomething as soon as there is politicalstability. Nigeria now has Satellite inSpace and more.

In the light of the aforesaid one couldstate without fear of contradiction thatthe world has not learnt any lessons fromthe Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s colossalmalady and genocide.

WHEN I was Acting GeneralSecretary of the Nigeria

Labour Congress (NLC) in 2011,we ordered workers' strikesfollowing disagreements on theimplementation of the newMinimum Wage. Ogbeni RaufAdesoji Aregbesola, ExecutiveGovernor of the State of Osun askedme for a discussion in Abuja. Thestate was on its knees due to thestrike and negotiations with thelabour leaders had broken down,how can I assist? I advised him toincrease the quantum of the fundshis government was offering sothat the workers can have a betterpayment table. In return, I offeredto ask the state labour leaders toreturn to the negotiation table. Heprotested that the wage bill will betoo high and that the workersought to realise that the all-rounddevelopment schemes he wasimplementing would reduce theirfinancial burden.

I told him they realise this, butthat the workers first priority istheir survival and that of theirfamilies; that the primary concernof a bird is to eat, before flying tobehold the wonders of the world.He looked disappointed, but I toldhim that unless he takes my advicehe would need to break theworkers, or they will break him. I

told him I had no doubt who will bebroken and that he needs to learnfrom one of his predecessors, theprudent Chief Bisi Akande whocould hardly finish his first termas a result of his wars with workers.Aregbesola felt he had the backingof the populace, and I wished himluck. I could see he was genuinelycommitted to sustainabledevelopment in the state. I couldalso see an idealist as governor.

I can reveal that in the January2012 General Strike and streetprotests over fuel price increase,he was one of two governors Iknow, who stood by the Nigerianpeople, and even provided uswith much needed information.He also stoutly stood against theJonathan Governmentdeclaring a state of emergencyin the country to break thestrikes. In contrast, almost allother governors including fromthe opposition parties, queuedbehind the government of theday.

This year, when the list oftwenty three state governmentsowing workers salary and pensionwas published, Osun was listed asowing six months. A state likeEnugu owed parastatal workerstwelve months, and pensioners,

five years. Ogun State had not paidpension for fifty two months whileBenue State was a basket case.Despite being one of the least debtorsin this roll of dishonour, the focushas been on Aregbesola with aserving judge demanding hisimpeachment. To some, thiscould be a way of getting back atAshiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,to whom he is closely identified.But I believe it might have to dowith his antecedents as anactivist, and peoples’expectations.

This focus, tends to overshadowthe social engineering, thismechanical engineer is carryingout. Unlike most governorswhose sense of governance is tobuild some roads or kitchenettes,advertise them and impose hugetaxes on the populace,Aregbesola, to use a trite, thinksoutside the box. He makes alinkage between policy and thepeoples’ interests. He does not just

conceive projects, but also possiblederivatives from the particularproject, and how it is linked withother projects. He is like a townplanner who ensures that thevarious development programmesare well situated for theconvenience of the populace, andto enhance further development.

In tackling the massunemployment monster, hebegan, in 2013, an ambitiousOsun Youth EmpowermentScheme (O’YES) under which20,000 unemployed youths wereengaged for two years. Tailoredafter Kwame Nkrumah’s YoungPioneers, beneficiaries wereorientated to have loyalty to thepeople and serve them. Then theywere taken through skillacquisition. This became a pool ofeducated, conscientized, skilledand empowered youths fromwhich the state drew thousands ofnew recruits into its public service.The second group of 20,000 youthsin the 2013-2015 batch, arerounding up their programme.

In introducing free education, hisgoal was not just literacy, butcomplete education whichincluded membership of theOmoluabi (virtuous) Boys andGirls Club with emphasis oncitizenship and physical training.One major innovation is theprovision of one balanced meal aday for all children in school. Thisensures their wellbeing andencourages parents to send theirchildren to school. As part of thelinkage, the food as much aspossible, is locally producedthereby ensuring a linkage withthe wellbeing of farmers in thelocality of the schools. Also, theuniformed cooks and theirassistants are taken from theschools’ locality therebyestablishing a bond betweencommunity and school.

In integrating basic education withmodern information technologyalong the lines of India’s KeralaState, the government providedpupils with Tablets (Opon Imo)

Also in providing school uniformsfor pupils in public schools, theAregbesola administration insistedthe textile contractor mustestablish a factory in the state andtrain locals to sew the uniforms.The Government also introduceda Rural Enterprise andAgriculture Scheme and put inplace an emergency system withambulances. To checkinsecurity, it bought armouredpersonnel carriers and asurveillance helicopter.

In his zeal to frog-leap anessentially agrarian society intoa 21st Century industrial one,Aregbesola forgot his Achillesheel; that like other states, Osunis dependent on monthlyallocation from the federationaccount; so when the allocationdropped from N5 Billion inFebruary 2013, to N540 Millionthis April, he was like a pilot whohad overshot the runway.

Aregbesola tends to beprogrammatic like ObafemiAwolowo, a populist similar to‘Penkelemesi’ Adelabu Adegoke,an orator in the mold of SamuelLadoke Akintola, with aTalakawa spirit like AminuKano. But in a polity controlledby APC and PDP where all birdscongregate; it is difficult todifferentiate doves and pigeonsfrom hawks and vultures.

In a sense, he is an idealist, andthe problem with this tribe ofpeople which I belong, is that wedo not fully understand ourenvironment. However, whilerealists perpetuate the statusquo, only idealists changesociety.

The world has notlearnt any lessonsfrom the Hiroshimaand Nagasaki’scolossal malady andgenocide

In his zeal to frog-leapan essentially agrariansociety into a 21stCentury industrial one,Aregbesola forgot hisAchilles heel; that likeother states, Osun isdependent on monthlyallocation from thefederation account


PETITION: Aregbesola reacts, callsJudge liar, incompetent

OSOGBO—GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola has

described Justice FolahanmiOloyede ,who petitioned the stateHouse of Assembly to investigatehim and his deputy, Mrs TitilayoLaoye-Tomori for allegedmismanagement of the stateresources as a blatant liar and anincompetent judge.

The seven-man investigativepanel set up by the House toinvestigate the petition have sincedismissed it for lack of merit andalso recommended the judge tothe State Judicial Council, SJC,and the National JudicialCommission, NJC, for sanction.

But a human rights activist inthe state and Chairman, CivilSocieties Coalition for theEmancipation of Osun StateCSCEO, Comrade Adeniyi AlimiSulaiman has urged the womenactivists in Nigeria to rise up indefence of Justice Oloyede, whomhe described as a courageouswoman judge.

Aregbesola had at the 50thbirthday party organised by thespeaker of the state Assembly,Hon. Najeem Salaam, taken aswipe at the Judge, saying shehas lost her integrity in thejudiciary.

His words: “It is time for me tospeak on the petition written byone of the judges in the state. Iwant to say that there was no basisfor the petition. Its all lies. She isa judge that doesn’t know herselfas judge. You can only see a judgeand they are not to be heard.She (Oloyede) doesn’t haveany substance in the petition.She lied against me.

“Newsmen should have

checked the financial statement ofthe allocation before writing theirstories. Most of them want meout of office but I will triumph. If Ihad collected N538 billion asalleged, Osun would have turnedto Dubai. I am happy Buhari wentto USA and it was said that onemillion barrels of crude oil arebeing stolen everyday.

“Is there any country that wouldlose such every day that won'tsuffer economic hardship? Godwill open economic doors to Osunsoon. I was accused of not livingin the state. I was perturbed bythis report but the weeklyexecutive meeting register provedthem wrong.

“I have never gone on leavesince November 2010 that I cameinto government. There is notruth in judge’s petition. I will tell

my side of the story bit by bit. Iam confident that before the endof the month the hard time willstart to ease in the state,” thegovernor added.

Rep commendsAssembly’s decision

In another development, amember of the House ofRepresentatives in the 7thAssembly representing IfeFederal Constituency, Mr RotimiMakinde, has hailed the verdictof the Osun State House ofAssembly to dismiss the petitionof Justice Folahanmi Oloyedeagainst Governor Aregbesola.

In a statement issued yesterdayin Lagos, Makinde said theruling of the assembly has shownthat falsehood and deceit cannever defeat truth, adding that

Osun State can now move onafter the cacophony of lies byJustice Oloyede.

PDP hails planned parleyMeantime, the Osun State

chapter of the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, hascommended Governor RaufAregbesola for heeding its callfor Stakeholders Summit to solvethe myriads of problemsconfronting the state, butdenounced what it calledunserious parley being called.

By Gbenga Olarinoye

ADO EKITI—G O V E R N O R

Ayodele Fayose of EkitiState, has alleged that MrsAmina Zakari, the ActingChairperson of theIndependent NationalElectoral Commission(INEC) is PresidentMuhammadu Buhari's in-law and that the position isunknown to the 1999Constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria.

The governor, who calledon Nigerians to rise indefence of the impartiality ofINEC, added that: “Themost honourable thing forPresident Buhari to do is torescind the unlawfulappointment of Mrs Zakarias INEC ActingChairperson.”

In a statement issuedyesterday by his SpecialAssistant on PublicCommunications and NewMedia, Lere Olayinka,Governor Fayose said;“Since Mrs Zakari’s tenureas INEC NationalElectoral Commissionerhas expired, she cannotcontinue to preside legallyon INEC affairs, except ifduly appointed assubstantive Chairman of thecommission as providedin the constitution.''

INVESTITURE: From left; Former chairmen of the Correspondents' Chapel of Nigeria Union ofJournalists, NUJ, Oyo State, Mr Sola Adeyemo, Mr Dele Ogunsola and the incumbent chairman,Pastor Ola Ajayi jointly presenting the life patron investiture plaque to Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom,His Majesty, Oba Fredrick Obateru Akinruntan at his palace in Ugboland during the monarch'sinvestiture as the Life Patron of the Correspondents' Chapel, NUJ, Oyo State. Photo by Dare Fasube.

THE Olugbo of UgboKingdom, Oba Fre-

drick Eniti OlorundaObateru Akinruntan,Okoro Ajiga 1, has ex-plained that no otherperson or organisationhas the right to announcethe death of a monarchother than the kingmak-ers.

He said this while ex-plaining the controversythat greeted the death ofOoni of Ife, Oba Okun-ade Sijuwade, Olubuse11.

While stating that thecontroversy had deniedthe highly referred mon-arch the expected sympa-thy his death would haveattracted, he said neitherthe chiefs nor the mediathat broke the news ofthe demise of the king

‘Only kingmakers can announce Ooni's death’By Ola Ajayi

INEC actingChairpersonis Buhari’sin-law, Fayosealleges

could be blamed, butasked for the manage-ment of the issue by thewhole Yoruba race, whosetradition is at stake.

He said this after hisinvestiture as the LifePatron of the Correspond-ents Chapel of the Oyo

State Council of Niger-ia Union of Journalists(NUJ), in his palace.

He said; “While no-body has the right to an-nounce the demise ofany monarch except thetraditional chiefs in thepalace, yet, the media on

the other cannot be blamedfor doing their job. WeYoruba should managethe situation in such away that the traditionwill be respected andnot thrown over board inthe name of modernitythrough the internet.”

ABUJA— THE Presi- dency on Sun-

day said that PresidentMohammadu Buhariwill launch a full scaleprobe into the awards ofcontracts for the supplyof military weapons bythe immediate past gov-ernment. It also statedthat the president waskeen on ensuring finan-cial transparency in thepublic revenue.

The Senior Special As-sistant to the Presidenton Media and Publicity,Mallam Garba Shehu,gave the hints yesterdaywhile speaking on aChannels Television pro-gramme: “Politics To-day.” He said: “The pres-ident is interested in eve-ry penny that leaves theNigeria’s treasury. Asyou are aware, recordsare being checked right

now, not only in the oilsector, but also in thevarious departments ofgovernment.

“So, Mr President isreally interested in whathas happened to theequipment that havesupposedly been boughtand supplied, some ofwhich might be there onthe ground and mightnot be. Only a thoroughaudit will actually revealthis."

Buhari'll investigate supply of militaryweapons —Presidency


CMYK



I am resolute in fightingcorruption— Buhari•says corruption has no political parties•denies affinity with Akwa Ibom, Rivers, AbiaElections Tribunals

By Levinus Nwabughi-ogu

ABUJA—PresidentM u h a m m a d u

Buhari said, yesterday, thathe was unwavering in thefight against corruption inthe country.

He also stated thatcorruption has no politicalparty, no religion and noethnic group and as suchthere would nopartisanship in the fightagainst the scourge.

The president’s remarksfollowed an accusation bythe Senate PDP caucus thathe was selective in the anti-graft war.

Speaking through hismedia aide, Mallam GarbaShehu in a statement, thepresident regretted theaccusation, saying it wasabsolutely false andunfounded. “We havenoted with regret, theallegation by members ofthe PDP Senate Caucusthat the presentadministration is beingselective and partisan in itsprosecution of the waragainst corruption.

“We state withoutequivocation that theallegation is false, baselessand totally unjustifiable. Forthe avoidance of any doubtwhatsoever, we affirm thathaving made his zerotolerance for corruptionclear to all and sundry,President MuhammaduBuhari does not micro-manage or interfere in thedaily work of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies. Thewild allegation of bias andpartisanship in the fightagainst corruptionshouldn’t have cometherefore from respectedand distinguishedmembers of the Senate ofthe Federal Republic ofNigeria.

"That claim belongs to thepast and not the present.Public officials and otherleaders accused ofcorruption by relevantagencies should plead theirinnocence, not malice.President Buhari’sunwavering stance is thatwhosoever is charged withcorruption should face thelaw irrespective of whetherthey are members of the ofAll Progressives Congress(APC) , Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP), or any otherpolitical party. As far as thePresident is concerned,corruption has no politicalparty, no religion and noethnic group.”

The presidentialspokesman also reminded

the PDP caucus thatPresident Buhari’s messageduring the campaign wasto stamp out corruption inNigeria, saying that he waswholly committed to thefight. “It is important toremind the PDP SenateCaucus and all Nigeriansthat right from 2003 whenhe started campaigning forthe Presidency of Nigeria,President Buhariconsistently promised to dohis best to curb corruptionin the country. ThePresident remains whollycommitted to fulfilling thatpromise and will not bedeterred from the relentlessprosecution of the waragainst corruption becausehe remains convinced that,as he has said, “unlessNigeria kills corruption,corruption will kill Nigeria.”

On the claim that thepresidency was meddlingin the election petitionstribunal, Shehu also statedthat president Buhari doesnot interfere in theconstitutional duties of thetribunals.

He specificallymentioned Rivers, Abiaand Akwa-Ibom States,saying they the tribunals donot operate under theguidance of the President.“The claim by the PDPSenate caucus thatPresident Buhari and hisadministration aremeddling in electionpetition cases through theDepartment of StateServices (DSS) is alsountrue. The duties of theDSS and other securityagencies are clearly speltout in the laws establishingthem. The FederalGovernment led byPresident Buhari does notgive them instructionsregarding their dailyoperations. ElectionTribunals and theIndependent NationalElectoral Commission inRivers, Abia and Akwa-Ibom States do not operateunder the guidance of thePresident.

“Any individual or groupof individuals who thinkthat their legitimate politicaland civil rights areinfringed upon by the DSSor any institution is advisedto seek protection andredress under ourconstitution and laws of theFederal Republic of Nigeriainstead of resorting tobaseless allegations againstthe Buhari Administration.On President Buhari’swatch, the rule of law, notimpunity, shall governevery aspect of life inNigeria."

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O N W U D I W E — I ,formerly known andaddressed asOnwudiwe Emos andOtoakhiaemoedumheMacdonald, now wishto be known andaddressed asOnwudiwe-OtoakhiaMacdonald Emos. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

Confirmation of nameI, Shaguolo OhwofasaJeffrey hereby confirmthat the names EvwereniOhwofasa and OwhofasaShaguolo as they appearon my Primary SchoolLeaving Certificate andJunior School Certificaterespectively refer to oneand same me. All formerdocuments remain valid.General public pleasetake note.

O N Y E A N Y A — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissOgechi BlessingOnyeanya, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Ogechi Blessing Agor.All former documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

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UNUAFE—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Unuafe OmamuzoComfort, now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs. ComfortOmoakpor Ogbor. Allformer documentsremain valid. DeltaState University, OlehCampus, Lawenforcement agenciesand general publicplease take note.

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46 —Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

By Ndahi Marama

Police grosslyunderstaffed,says DIG Katso

Borno govt sets condition for Boko Haramto negotiate with FG

MAKURI—THE DeputyInspector General of

Police, DIG, in charge ofResearch and Planning, Mr.Kakwe Katso, has disclosedthat the Nigerian Police Forcewas grossly understaffed andlacking in manpower, notingthat the personnel strengthwas far below the 350,000usually bandied about.

Katso, who made this knownin an interactive session withofficers of Benue Statecommand and members of thePolice Community RelationsCommittee, PCRC, inMakurdi weekend, said theInspector General of Police,IGP, Mr. Solomon Arase, wastaking steps to address thesituation.

The DIG, who also doublesas the Coordinating andSupervising Officer for theNorth Central geopoliticalzone, said before now, the policeused to talk of manpower shortfallwithout proper statistics.

He said: “At a time, it was assumedthat we were 350,000 but recentfindings from our payroll statisticsshowed that our number was farbelow that."

MAIDUGURI—BORNOState Deputy Governor,

Alhaji Zannah Mustapha,yesterday, described thespeculated pleas by the BokoHaram in the media to negotiatewith the Federal Government asa welcome idea, saying this couldonly hold if the militants agreedto lay down their arms.

He also urged returning Bornorefugees from Cameroon toidentify and expose any terrorsuspects among them as theywere being screened by themilitary and other securityagencies at Yola InternallyDisplaced Persons, IDPs, camps,before their transportation toMaiduguri for resettlement andrehabilitation.

Mustapha made the declarationin Yola, Adamawa State, whilereturning from the Burnt Bricksof Internally Displaced Persons,IDPs’ camp which accommodatesover 3,000 returning Bornoindigenes from CameroonRepublic, in company of theDirector-General of the NationalEmergency ManagementAgency, NEMA, Alhaji Sani Sidi

to Mubi, said he also heard of thespeculated pleas in the media byBoko Haram for negotiations withfederal government.

His words: “I heard and readfrom the media of the said pleasfor negotiations by the insurgents,but sincerely speaking I do notknow its source, no authenticityof the speculation.

‘’The insurgents are tired andthey want true and sincerenegotiations, it is left to the

Federal Government to accept orreject their advances, dependingon the genuineness of theirapproach to this incessant insane,massive killings and bombings inNigeria, including schools,markets and hospitals.”

Mustapha, while addressingthe returnees in Mubi South,said that 3,488 had so far returnedto Nigeria via Mubi, a bordertown to Cameroon.

He said they had been

refugees in Cameroon after thethe Boko Haram attacks atGambouru and Ngalacommunities of Borno State.

He said the state governmentwould identify with the plightof the returnees, adding that thereturning refugees would beevacuated from Adamawa afterthey must have been thoroughlyscreened by Immigration andMilitary personnel at theSahuda entry border post.

By Peter Duru

Kogi East PDP endorses Wada for 2nd termBy Kingsley Fanwo

LOKOJA—THE second termbid of the governor of Kogi

State, Captain Idris Wada hasreceived a big boost as theWorking Committee of hisparty in Kogi East endorsedhis candidature.

Kogi East is made up of nineLocal Government Areas ofOfu, Idah, Igalamela/Odolu,Ankpa, Dekina, Olamaboro,Bassa, Ibaji and Omala.

The chairman of the forum,Mr Idris Waja, who briefednewsmen on theendorsement, said that the

decision to adopt Wada was toavoid unnecessary bickeringwhich he said were thegreatest undoing of the partyduring the last general elections.

The chairman who listed someof the governor’s achievementsin the past three and half years,said that the only way the partycan win the November 21governorship election is bysupporting Wada's second termbid.

Mr Waja called for a consensusarrangement which he saidwould save the party a lot ofmoney and make the party more

formidable to contest theelection.

The chairman who wasflanked by other members of theforum, urged his colleagues inKogi West and CentralSenatorial Districts to similarlyadopt the Governor in theinterest of the party, anddevelopment of the state.

Governor Wada whileresponding to the endorsement,thanked them for their love andsupport and appealed to themto avoid unfounded rumourwhich he said was capable ofderailing the party.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015—47

Continues on page 48

AT 80 you look relativelyfresh. You could pass off

as a 60-year old man. What is thesecret?

It is important to add alittle moderation in allyou do. There shouldalso be regular exercises. The

THE appointment with Chief Philip Asiodu was fixed for 12noon but finding the residence of the octogenarianretired civil servant and elder-statesman was another thingthat Wednesday. The reporter who made thecontact had forgotten to note the address when theappointment was made, so when another call was made torequest the specific address, the fear of the reporter wasrealised when the chief gently rebuked him for beingcareless. Chief Asiodu is undeniably a careful man, a factthat progressively unfolded as the interaction got underwayfollowing an hour long wait for him to end another meetingwith an expatriate Caucasian.

The meticulousness of Asiodu was very visible from theneat arrangement of the anteroom where the three Vanguardreporters were received. It was also seen in the durablematerials used in furnishing his apartment built more thanthirty years ago.

The chief’s love for the arts and made-in Nigeria productswas also visible. A number of art works adorned theanteroom and the lounge room where the interview was

By Emmanuel Aziken,Political Editor, Clifford

Ndujihe & Charles Kumolu

moderation should also includeyour eating and drinking habits.More importantly,one should try tobother less about things of life.Things are not always a bed of rosesbut some people take bad thingsbadly. People are bound todisappoint you. Some bear it butothers don’t.

It is unfortunate that manyNigerians age prematurely as aresult of meaningless stress. In

those days life was better and thataccounted for the low statistics ofdeath rate then. Those who diedthen, died probably at infancy.Beyond that, people lived as longas they want. So, moderation is mysecret. For instance, the Itsekiri havean adage which advices people tochop life little by little.

What is your impression of thecivil service of today?

I joined the civil service towards

the end of the colonial era. And Ibecame a permanent secretaryunder Zik and Balewa. I stayed onin the first two military regimes ofIronsi and Gowon. And then camethe destruction of that civil servicein 1975 when Gowon wasremoved. I was retired and I wasthe number one civilian amongthose retired with immediate effect!Later on, the military added anamazing phrase to our sack saying

that it was done with increasingalacrity! It shows how people werenot really thinking through whatthey were doing at that time.

Since leaving civil service I hadthe opportunity of coming back tothe public service three times butnot as a civil servant. So I have hadthe opportunity of seeing the civilservice under the colonial and postindependence era. There is nodoubt that it is a completely differentsituation because the civil servicethat I joined had clear rules to besatisfied and defined conditions ofentry. There were well arrangedcourses that you had to undertakebefore confirmation. And after that,there were local and internationalprogrammes to be undertaken. Wehad clear demarcation of classes.

There was the administrativeclass, which was supposed to be

It is unfortunatethat manyNigerians ageprematurely as aresult ofmeaninglessstress. In thosedays life wasbetter and thataccounted for thelow statistics ofdeath rate then

•Asiodu

How corruptionhit civil service– Asiodu •Why North re-

jected secession in1966

conducted.Speaking about the house, Asiodu, who urged Nigerians,

especially the elite, to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods, saidthe furniture (which are still very strong) were all sourcedlocally.

Asiodu was to note that imported furniture, which many eliteare crazy for, don’t last as the ones made by experienced localproducers.

In the interview proper, Asiodu assessed the Nigerian civilservice, pointed out where the country missed the mark andhow to retrace our steps. He spoke on the state of the nationand why President Muhammadu Buhari cannot limit his anti-corruption war to the former President Goodluckadministration. Asiodu was Chief Economic Adviser at thecommencement of the Olusegun Obasanjo civilianadministration in 1999, Peoples Democratic Party, PDPpresidential aspirant ahead of the 1999 election, Special Adviserto President Shehu Shagari on Economic Affairs, and wellbefore then, one of the country’s foremost civil servants whoretired as a Permanent Secretary in 1975.

48—VANGUARD, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

advising on policies. It was a classfrom which we had the permanentsecretaries, who ran the civil ser-vice. We were able to make surethat the professionals did what theyhad to do. They were the ones whocoordinated and formulated policyoptions in accordance with theobjectives of the government of theday. Such recommendations weresent to the council as memorandaso that decisions would be taken.There was collective responsibilityin the civil service at that time. Thesuccess of the ministry of educationwas also the success of the ministryof finance.

And the permanent secretarieshelped to make that possiblethrough broad consultation. Beforesomething would be finallypresented to the cabinet forapproval, whoever needed to beconsulted would have been con-sulted.

When you submit a councilmemorandum in those days, youdo it with a file and the secretary tothe premier will take it to the premierand they will make sure that it wasworth it. For instance, if you wantto build a secondary school in anarea, it may require land andmoney. And so you will make surethat before finalizing the proposalthat all those who will be involvedare consulted.

This made for easy discussionsin cabinet. It also made for seamlessimplementation because once itwas decided, and you are nowgoing to move into an area, theministry of works will not denyknowing about it. That was theprocedure. Those days, the thingswe hear now, about ministriesbeing lucrative, didn’t exist. Whenyou are posted to anywhere, it isyour duty to do your best.

Discussionsin the cabinet

The advice I will give to myminister as permanent secretary inthe ministry of industries, will becoherent with the advice I will giveto the minister of education. So,discussions in the cabinet werestructured. And that was madepossible by the competent civilservice we had. Then came thedebacle of 1975 when 10,000people were asked to retire ordismissed within two months.

Even newly created states thatwere just putting together their civilservice were asked to bring peopleto be retired. That act was quiteunjust because there areprocedures in the civil service fordiscipline. If anyone does anythingwrong the person will be queriedand if it was something urgent, theperson is given 24 hours to statehis case.

It was so bad that people will beat work while their wives will hearin the news that they had beenretired.

Many good people, who wereworking very hard and evenrecommended for promotion foundthemselves in that situation. Therewas so much impunity andrecklessness then because those

Continues from page 47

people were working honestly andlooking forward to retirement.

It was so bad that people whosechildren were schooling in CoronaSchool and lived in the GovernmentQuarters had to relocate to placeslike Ojota. Families were damagedand some even died. That was whenwe started hearing that peopleshould make hay while the sunshines which is a euphemism forcorruption.

Our founding fathers in 1954before independence signed adocument affirming that we shouldhave an independent, professionaland non partisan public servicewhich would be run byprofessionals. We also hadindependent Public ServiceCommission which was damaged.Later on when late Monsignor PedroMartin was asked to look into thecases of the dismissals, his reportsaid that 90 percent of thosedismissed did not deservedismissals.

Institutionalmemory

When the service was truncatedand dislocated, we were left withoutrole models to ensure that theservice worked. These people aresupposed to ensure that there isinstitutional memory and otherfunctions the civil service wassupposed to have providedprofessionally. Before some of uswere retired, we were oncorrespondence with Britishministers.

It didn’t do us good because welost institutional memory. Tocompound it, based on some illadvice, there was a decree under

Babangida in 1988 whereby theynow said that ministers can nowhire and fire. They went on withsome aberration that you can onlyget the leadership of a ministry fromonly those who were employed bysuch ministry.

At a time when Europeans willgo to America, while Americans willgo to Europe looking for competentpeople to run their public service,we were limiting ourselves. Theyalso destroyed the administrativeclass concept. These were peoplewho were trained to listen to expertsand listen to the basis of policies

and then marshal them. Udoji inhis reforms said that you don’t limitthe class from which you will getpermanent secretaries to theadministrative class. Whether youare a professional or not, by the timeyou will get to the managerial class,you will now go for anadministrative training like anyoneelse.

And it is from that group that apermanent secretary will beselected. Udoji, who was head ofservice in the east tried to make surethat whatever route anyone took tobecome permanent secretary, theperson will be a good administrator.This practice was damaged in 1975and compounded in 1988.

On federalcharacter principle

Now they invented the idea offederal character and quota system.At a time when people were lookingfor geniuses they were saying thatwe should not focus on high fliers.When we entered we had rolemodels. We used to look for highfliers. In our days we used to sendpeople to schools to get their bestgraduates even before they gradu-ated.

We made the civil service thepreferred destination. But we wentinto quota and misapplied thequota system. What we then hadwas not the civil service that weknew which was usually thedestination for high fliers.

Then, you needed to have anhonours degree before you enterthe administrative cadre of thescivil service. You also needed tohave proper career planning. Wehave lost the benefit of that and thiswas what came out in the dispute

between Oronsaye and the publicservice commission. It was a situa-tion where directors were broughtin through the state civil service. Itwas then that they brought tenuresystem that people can go aftereight years if they cannot rise to thenext position.

Rather than saying that each statemust have one or two permanentsecretaries, merit should have beenthe basis for growth in the service.There are other things in life ratherthan being in the civil service. Astate may have people who areinterested in other pursuits. So withthe great shock of 1975, stars weredriven out of the service.

They made sure that the civilservice was no longer the choicedestination. My father was a civilservant, which was attractive then.If someone did not die early inservice, that person was sure ofbeing comfortable. It was not theroute to becoming the richest manin the country.

So, did you allow your childrento follow you in the service?

With the experience we receivedit will be difficult to have any of ourchildren in the service, especiallywhen our experience wasoccasioned by ill feelings. Some ofus survived it but others did not.

What happened to us was not aninspiration to our children. Whenwe were growing up, promotionwas strictly according to theorganizational chart.

If there was no space for theposition of permanent secretary,nobody will be made a permanentsecretary. After the disruption of1975, they just started promotingpeople without respect to the

Many good people,who were workingvery hard and evenrecommended forpromotion foundthemselves in thatsituation. There was somuch impunity andrecklessness thenbecause those peoplewere working honestlyand looking forward toretirement

Continues on page 49

Asiodu...founding fathers wanted a non partisan public service

VANGUARD, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015—49

organogram of the service. So weended up having a public servicewithout traditions. The fact that theservice is no longer secure and ob-jective did not do good to the pub-lic service. To show the decay, therewas a time an examination was in-troduced for people who were tobe made permanent secretariesand a number of them could noteven write minutes.

When you look at what we havein the civil service today, it is a farcry from what we had. Up to 1975,salaries of public servants werequite comparable with our Britishcounterparts. Indian consultantswho came here then earned morein Nigeria than in India.

In terms of training, courage,entry qualification and careerplanning, we have gone backwardand we must restore it.

How can we restore it?It is until the leadership of the

political class realize that you needa proper civil service for you todeliver. The civil service is the firstmanifestation of government to thepeople. Someone will need apermit for investment, instead ofgetting it, the person will bedelayed for unjust reasons.

Permit forinvestment

For instance, when I was in theTransitional Council in 1993, theyhad advertised for people to expressinterest in deep water offshore/newtechnology. People had been shortlisted for two years withoutresponse. When I came I did itunder three months. There was noneed wasting such time. What wasneeded was simulation which wasnot done before I came. The idea ofcome today, come tomorrow doesnot help because the world doesnot owe us a living.

In the last 20 years especially inthe oil sector, the amount ofinvestments that have movedelsewhere as a result of indecisionis so much. Now, they are talkingabout Petroleum Industry Bill,PIB, when oil policies need adjust-ments on a quarterly basis. Whenthe law is eventually passed, it maytake them six years to start imple-menting it.

Are you saying that the PIB isnot necessary?

The PIB is not necessary. PIB intheir thinking which is to put alllaws governing the oil industry intoone is not necessary. A non per-forming civil service can frustratethe best intentions of government.

If people realize that they aregoing into politics for public interestand not for self aggrandisement aswe have witnessed, thing will beginto change. We can restore the civilservice to become efficient but it willtake the best part of twoadministrations. You can start theprocess by naming the minimumqualifications for certain positions.

President Buhari recently askedthat audit queries piling up foryears should be replied within 30days. How was it in your time?

I was very shocked to read that

audit queries were outstanding.First, we had internal audit whichmay raise questions. Beyond that,the external auditors can come toraise issues maybe on the moneythat was not applied. In our days,no money was spent which was notbudgeted for.

And if you had to spend moneyoutside the budget, you have tocome to the council and ask forvariation. The person can come tothe council to state that there wasneed to channel money to adifferent cause. That will beapproved. And the accountant incharge of an organization did not

allow money to be used except theone budgeted for or approved bythe council. If the auditor now findsit funny, he raises a query whichshould be answered immediately.

If it is kept under, it means thatthe person has skeleton in hiscupboard. And this has been thereason for the misapplication ofmoney and bloated budget. I wantto make it clear that the FederalGovernment budget neverexceeded £40 million pounds ayear. With that, they built 4,000 milesof railway.

Farmsettlements

They built the habours in Lagos,Sapele, Warri, Calabar and Port-Hacourt. They provided airports inLagos and Kano. They built theschools which the people before meand those of my generation wentto. It was from the schools that wewent to Oxford. In the FirstRepublic, it was after some timeunder Balewa and Okotie Eboh asMinister of Finance that revenuereached 50 million pounds. In thatera, we built farm settlements,industrial centres, new secretariatsand more importantly, scholarshipswere awarded.

When Gowon came in, it was inhis second year that our revenuereached 100 million pounds andby then the civil war was ongoing.The war was fought without

borrowing. We also started therehabilitation, reconciliation andreconstruction programme withoutborrowing. Our economy wasgrowing at 11.75 percent yearly.That was from 1970 to 1975. Wewould have escaped poverty if wehad continued in that manner suc-cessively. We were the African lionas compared to the Asian Tigers. Iam not saying this because Gowonwas removed, because the twoleading members in the coup thatremoved Gowon, who wereObasanjo and Murtala were partof the Gowon administration. The1975-80 national development planstarted by saying that oil was notmeant to last. It emphasisedagriculture and agro-alliedindustries. We also factored in petro-chemicals. That basis for a properindustrial sector was abandoned.It was not only abandoned, thediscipline of identifying prioritieswas abandoned.

After the 1975 coup, themetallurgical complex we startedin Ajaokuta was not completed.Then they went to Delta which wasnot in the plan. Even at that, theywere going to base it on importedbeneficiated ore. But withoutdigging Escravos which wasstarted in 60s and abandoned, only10, 000 tonners could come in. Butores are carried in big 50, 000tonners.

They abandoned the Itakpe plant.We started the plan of assembling

motor vehicles. We had worked outthe deletion rates to show that at150,000 cars a year, we will be cast-ing the engine blocks in Nigeria.But that was abandoned when weleft. Our plan was done in such away that we would not have beenimporting cars by now. First, theycame up with differentials by bas-ing Peugeot in Kaduna. Then un-der the Shagari government theyinvited seven more people to beinvolved in vehicle assembling.And that killed the deletion processwhich we had begun. You know wehad started producing radiators, butthat required a certain volume. Butall were allowed to collapse. Lateron, they said that everybody canimport.

Automobilepolicy

Even the new automobile policywhich allows all sorts of people toassemble vehicles will not work.Even before we started our plansthen, we had to put everything intoconsideration. We looked at threeLatin American countries, Brazil,Peru and Mexico and learned fromtheir experience. Brazilconcentrated on Volkswagen andthey started exporting after sometime. We took the model, and if ithad been followed, we would havebeen exporting today. We startedassembling before South Korea,

Continues tommorrow

Continues from page 48

After the 1975coup, themetallurgicalcomplex westarted inAjaokuta was notcompleted. Thenthey went toDelta which wasnot in the plan

Asiodu...our economy was growing at 11.75 per cent yearly


CMYK


52— VANGUARD, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

Pope recalls ‘horrific’ WWIIatomic bombings

POPE Francis saidyesterday that the

Hiroshima and Nagasakibombings still evoked“horror and revulsion” 70years on and called for a banon nuclear arms andweapons of massdestruction.

An American planedropped a bomb onHiroshima on August 6,1945, in one of the closingchapters of World War II,turning the bustling city intoan inferno and killing anestimated 140,000 people.

Three days later, anotheratomic bomb was droppedon the city of Nagasaki,killing more than 70,000people.

In his traditional Angelusprayer at Saint Peter ’sSquare, the pontiff saidHiroshima had come torepresent “the symbol ofman’s disproportionatepower to destroy throughthe erroneous use ofscientific progress andtechniques.”

He recalled it as a “tragicevent which even todayevokes horror andrevulsion.”

The pope urgedhumanity “to foreverrenounce war and bannuclear arms andweapons of massdestruction. People

everywhere should rise upand say in a single voice:no to war and violence, yesto dialogue and peace.”

Japan surrendered onAugust 15, 1945, thoughopinion remains divided onwhether theunprecedented use of theweapons was justified.

Trump declares ‘I love women’, resumesbattle with rivals

DONALD Trumpyesterday professed

his love for women and saidhe would be their bestadvocate if elected president,dismissing the firestorm ofhis own making that hasconsumed the Republicanpresidential campaign.

Even as he asserted thatone of his main challengersis the one in trouble withfemale voters, the onlywoman in the GOP contestsaid she believes women are“horrified” by Trump’scomments and that thebillionaire businessman maybe unprepared for the

pressure that comes withbeing president.

“I apologize when I’mwrong, but I haven’t beenwrong. I said nothingwrong,” said Trump, whocalled in to four Sundaynews shows, skipping onlyFox News, the network withwhich he is feuding. “I’mleading by double digits, somaybe I shouldn’tchange,” he boasted toNBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Trump’s unconventional,insurgent campaign hasexcited many anti-establishment conserva-tives while confounding

party leaders already facingthe prospects of a bruisingfight among 17 candidates.

The latest controversystarted Thursday nightwhen Fox News debatemoderator Megyn Kellyrecounted Trump’s history ofincendiary commentstoward women.

Republican presidentialfrontrunner Donald Trumpon Sunday refused toapologize for a crude attackon a female Fox Newsjournalist that sparkedwidespread outrage,insisting he wasmisunderstood.

Ferguson marks anniversaryof Michael Brown’s death

ONE year after theshooting that cast

greater scrutiny on howpolice interact with blackcommunities, the death of18-year-old Michael Brownin Ferguson, Missouri, willbe marked with a sombermarch and a moment ofsilence.

The march late Sundaymorning begins at the sitewhere Brown, who was

black and unarmed, wasfatally shot by Fergusonofficer Darren Wilson on Aug.9, 2014. A grand jury and theU.S. Department of Justicedeclined to prosecute Wilson,who resigned in November,but the shooting touched offa national “Black LivesMatter” movement.

After the moment of silence,a service commemorating theanniversary is planned at aFerguson church. The eventsare among several thisweekend in Ferguson andnearby St. Louis.

Brown’s father, MichaelBrown Sr., led a paradeinvolving several hundredpeople on Saturday. Brownsaid his family is still grieving,but he believes his son’slegacy can be seen in theincreased awareness ofpolice shootings, andrenewed skepticism whenofficers describe their side ofevents leading up to thoseshootings.

Obama sees chance for improvedrelations between US, Iran

PRESIDENT BarackObama says a

constructive relationship withIran could be a byproduct ofthe deal to limit its nuclearprogram, but it won’t happenimmediately. If at all. Obamatold CNN in an interviewairing Sunday that Iran’s“nuclear problem” must bedealt with first. He said theagreement reached lastmonth by the U.S. and five

other world powers to removecrippling economic sanctionson Iran in exchange forrestrictions on its nuclearprogram achieves that goal“better than any alternative.”

Republican lawmakerslargely disagree with thepresident’s assessment thatthe deal blocks Iran’s pathto a nuclear weapon, as dosome of Obama’s ownDemocrats.

Fears of ISIS links in Mail asinsurgency spreads

FEARS of ISISinvolvement in Mali

grew at the weekendfollowing the first attack byIslamic extremists in acentral Mali town, inwhich 10 people died. Theattack shows that jihadistaggressions are spreadingin the country and hittingmore directly at thegovernment military andthe U.N. peacekeepingforce.

Three of the attackersalso were killed, and sevensuspected militants weredetained, the governmentsaid. Four U.N. employeeswere rescued.

Additional U.N.personnel may still bemissing, said a U.N. officialwho spoke on condition ofanonymity because of lackof authorization to speak tothe press.

The militants first targetedthe army camp in Sevareon Friday but when theyfaced resistance theymoved to the nearby Hotel

Debo before assaulting theHotel Byblos, popular withU.N. staff, to take hostages,said a Mali governmentreport, according to the U.N.official.

Sevare, a garrison townabout 600 kilometers (375

miles) northeast of thecapital, Bamako, is at theheart of Mali’s tourismindustry and up until nowhad not been targeted inthe attacks more commonin the northern towns ofGao and Timbuktu.

“It’s a troubling sign thatthe armed Islamist groupsare intent on stepping upthe pressure both on theMalian government andon the U.N. and Frenchpresence,” said BruceWhitehouse, Mali expertand associate professor atLehigh University. “Theywant to show they are notjust contained within thenorth and that they’re notafraid to confront theirprimary enemies wherethey’re strongest.”

Whitehouse said theattack was likely intended“to signal all Malianseverywhere that neithertheir government nor theU.N. can keep them safe,”but he noted the rapidresponse by Mali’s forces.

Ebola: China to build highway for Liberia

CHINA will build a newcoastal highway

for Liberia as part of its aidto the country recoveringfrom an Ebola epidemic,Liberia’s foreign ministersaid yesterday.

He was speaking at anews conference withChina’s Foreign MinisterWang Yi who is visitingLiberia, Guinea and SierraLeone, the countrieshardest hit by theepidemic.

Liberia’s existing coastalroute is vital for commerceas the country rebuilds aftera civil war that ended in2003. It connects the capitalto the border with IvoryCoast via the port city ofBuchanan, where exportsof exports of iron andtimber pass through, butmuch of the road isunpaved.

“China has agreed tohelp Liberia with theconstruction of aministerial complex whichwill host about 10

ministries. Also, China willconstruct a coastal highway,”Liberia’s Augustine KpeheNgafuan said.

China would use its globalfund for Africa to finance theproject and seek partners,he said. The construction ofthe ministries had alreadybeen announced.

Wang did not directly referto the highway but said

Ngafuan had explainedthe specific components ofChina’s aid.

“China is open tocooperation in all areas andwe know that Liberia isattracting investments fromall countries around theworld. We know about thehistoric ties between Liberiaand USA but China has itsown strength,” Wang said.

Ebola survivors face severepain, possible blindness

THOUSANDS of WestAfricans who were

infected with the Ebola virusbut survived it are sufferingchronic conditions such asserious joint pain and eyeinflammation that can leadto blindness, global healthexperts said on Friday.

Ebola survivors whofought off the most severebouts of infection are themost likely to suffer ongoingmedical problems, World

Health Organizationexperts said, and theirhealth is becoming “anemergency within anemergency”.

“The world has neverseen such a large numberof survivors from an Ebolaoutbreak,” said AndersNordstrom, a WHOrepresentative in SierraLeone who took part in afive-day conference thisweek about Ebola survivors.

“We have 13,000 survivorsin the three countries(Guinea, Liberia and SierraLeone). This is new - bothfrom a medical and from asocietal point of view,” hetold reporters on atelebriefing.

Angolan police clash withprotesters

ANGOLAN policeclashed with more than

50 anti-governmentprotesters in the capitalLuanda at the weekend anddetained several of them,including activist RafaelMarques de Morais.

The protesters weredemanding the release of 15activists accused of planningto disrupt public order andsecurity and were chanting“Liberation now! We wantour 15! We want our 15!”.

Marques de Morais saysin his 2012 book “BloodDiamonds: Corruption andTorture in Angola” that

Angolan generals wereresponsible for more than 100cases of killings and tortureof civilians and workers atdiamond mines that they own.

The generals deny thoseallegations and broughtdefamation charges againstMarques de Morais inPortugal, where the book waspublished, but the case wasdismissed for lack of evidence.

Armed police used batonsto disperse the crowd onSaturday and kept Marquesde Morais inside a police carfor about 45 minutes. Otherprotesters were still indetention, he said.

•Trump

•Pope•A militant on the run.

•Morsi


54 — Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10 2015

final third, came closestwhen Aaron Ramsey hitthe crossbar in the firsthalf.

Gunners fans, who leftthe Emirates Stadium inlarge numbers before thefinal whistle, will feellike they have seen allthis before, not just inthe way their side per-formed, but also in thefamiliarity of their start-ing line-up.

Cech’s arrival fromChelsea has beenWenger’s only summersigning since last term’sthird-place finish, and itwas an uncharacteristic

West Ham

Tanzania

The players whojoined the camp on Sun-day are in for a week-long training session.

Of the 29 players, fiveof them are profession-als trading their skillsoverseas who will laterjoin a Turkey-basedcamp ahead of Africannations Cup crunchqualifier game againstthe Super Eagles earlynext month.

The foreign basedplayers who will jointheir colleagues on Au-gust 23 for Istanbul-bound flight for ten-days training includeTP Mazembe strikingduo of Mbwana Samataand Thomas Ulimwen-gu, Mrisho Ngasa (FreeState Stars), HassanSembi (Santos FC) andAdi Yussuf (MansfieldTown).

Eyimba back to the top

SIX-time champions Enyimba have re-

turned to the summit ofthe Nigeria league tableafter they beat Lobi Stars2-1 in a Week 22 gameplayed yesterday.

Enyimba now have 41points from 22 matches,a point ahead of Sun-shine Stars, whose gameagainst Ifeanyi Ubahwas postponed till Mon-day due to heavy rain.

Ifeanyi George brokethe deadlock in the 31st

minute to give Enyimbaa 1-0 lead.

Nine minutes later,Ifeanyi Anaemena dou-bled Enyimba’s leadwhen he headed homePeter Onyekachi’s flickfrom Kamal Sikiru.

In the 90th minute,Tony Okpotu pulled agoal back for Lobi Starsfrom the penalty spot af-ter goalkeeper Femi Tho-mas was penalised forbringing down ObinnaArinze.

Continues on Back Page

Continues on Back Page

In the 10th minute,Daniel Etor had thechance to score for Eny-imba, but his header offMarkson Ojobo passwas off target.

Five minutes later,Onyekachi failed toscore from 10 yards out.

Kingsley Sokari madea return to Enyimbawhen he entered for Ra-zak Aliyu in the 65thminute after his move toEsperance of Tunisia col-lapsed.

display from the experi-enced keeper.

The 33-year-old wasnot only at fault for WestHam’s opener, but waswrong-footed by Za-rate’s strike, although hereceived little help fromhis defence as Alex Ox-lade-Chamberlain andFrancis Coquelin com-bined to give the ballaway on the edge oftheir own area.

Olivier Giroud fre-quently looked isolatedup front, which will nodoubt increase the hopeamong Arsenal support-ers that a reported dealfor Real Madrid forwardKarim Benzema can becompleted.

FAMOUS Nigerian sprints star Utito-

fon Nkantah, nee UkohMFR, has come out inpraise of the grass rootsathletics developmentprogramme that hasbeen sustained by Mo-bil Producing Nigeria(MPN) in the past 15years in Akwa IbomState.

Deaconess Nkantahwas reacting to the newsthat Comfort AnietieJames, a product of theA K S / N N P C / M P NSchools Athletics Cham-pionships got a silver inthe 1,500 metres event ofthe just concluded AllNigeria Athletics Cham-pionships in Warri. “Forher to compete with sen-iors and emerge the sec-ond best in the land is agreat testimony to thefoundation that was laidby MPN, Operators ofthe NNPC/MPN JointVenture”, she said.

At the Warri trialsComfort ran 4mins 36seconds to pick a silverand was heralded for herfeat as a great potentialin a distance that Niger-ia is yet to control on theAfrican Continent.

An ex student of Gov-ernment SecondarySchool Ikot Nya in NsitIbom Local Govern-ment Area, the 17 yearold was the MobilChampionship champi-on for two years in 2013and 2014. And was oneof the beneficiaries ofthe 2013 Calabar camp-ing and training experi-ence. The state Directorof sports Coach AniediDickson said though thestate has a lot of juniorNational Championsthanks to Mobil, we de-cided to take five of them

to Warri to expose them,( Comfort James, Ak-waowo Etim 100 metres,Ubon Sunday, 400me-tres, Esther Ekanem 100metres and NdipmoEdet 100metres). And ityielded positive results.

Deaconess Nkantah,President of AthleticsTechnical Officials inAkwa Ibom, who wasalso in Calabar in 2013when MPN initiated thefirst ever Holiday Camp-ing and training pro-gramme said she was“very happy with theinitiative, because it isone thing to discoverstars, and another togroom them to enhancetheir potentials. First itwas Aniekeme Alphon-sus, now Comfort. Weare really reaping fromMobil’s trade mark Cor-porate Social Responsi-bility strides”

On the forth comingprogramme scheduledfor the Godswill Interna-tional Stadium Uyo fromAugust 17, DeaconessNkantah expressed a lotof delight at the qualityof coaches lined up tohelp mentor the youths.

“when you have thelikes of Professor Ogun-jimi, Gabriel Okon, Solo-mon Abari, Amellia Edet,Ken Onuaguluchi andNuhu in one camp, thenthe kids can only expectthe best.

Comfort shines inWarri as Utitofonlauds mobil

THE FIFA presiden-cy dream of former

Abia State Governor, DrOrji Uzor Kalu got aboost at the weekendwith two executive mem-bers of the Nigeria Foot-ball Federation (NFF)endorsing his candida-ture.

Alhaji Yusuf Fresh andAlhaji Ahmed Mu’azuKawu, who is also thechairman of the NigeriaNationwide League(NNWL) in a separatechat supported the am-bition of Dr Kalu buturged him to make a for-mal request for endorse-ment to the NFF.

According to Fresh, amember of the NFF tech-nical committee, Dr Kaluhas every right to aspireto the topmost positionin world football withhis achievement withEnyimba Internationalof Aba while he heldsway as the Abia Stategovernor. “I am enthu-siastic and happy thatNigerians are starting to

show interest in the topfootball position in theworld. His Excellency,Dr Orji Kalu has theright to contest for theFIFA job but he must getthe endorsement of theNigeria Football Feder-ation (NFF). “He cannotaspire to contest withoutthe backing of the NFFand if he seek our sup-port, we shall surelygive him,” Alhaji Freshsaid, adding “He hascountless of achieve-ments to show from hisperformance as two-timeGovernor of Abia State.He made Enyimba whatthey are today becauseit was through his effortthat Nigeria broke theCAF Champions Leaguejinx. He won the compe-tition twice as well as theCAF Super Cup.”

For the NNWL chair-man, Alhaji Kawu, theaspiration of Dr Kalu isnot abnormal but ad-vised he go through theproper channel to actu-alize the dream.

NFF board members backKalu’s FIFA ambition

NIGERIA’s 2013FIFA U-17 World

Cup-winning coach,Manu Garba, has againrallied behind the Gold-en Eaglets’ quest for asuccessful defence oftheir title at the forthcom-ing global cadet cham-pionship in Chile.

Nigeria holds the en-viable record of four ti-tles in this category withvictories in 1985, 1993,2007 and 2013, and Gar-ba, who was instrumen-tal to the last two suc-cessful campaigns, be-lieve the class of 2015can go all the way yetagain.

Reacting to the Chile2015 World Cup drawthat pitched Nigeriaagainst host Chile,Croatia and USA, Garbareckoned the GoldenEaglets under his formerassistant, EmmanuelAmuneke would have togird their loins.

“It’s not an easygroup,”noted Garba.“Chile is the host andSouth American teamsare always good.” Hecontinued: “ Croatia ispart of former Yugosla-via along with Serbia

that just won the U-20FIFA World Cup in Newzealand which showstheir football culture isgood and USA playswith aggression. Butthey all are up againstNigeria, four-time WorldCup winner and the No.1 ranked team at that lev-el.

“I’m very optimisticthat with good prepara-tions and motivation,wecan qualify from thistough group and go allthe way to excel and Iwish my dear countrygood luck in Chile,”added Garba.

IN what promises to be a unique thrill-

ing experience for foot-ball fans, top bettingcompany Bet9ja hasconcluded plans to or-ganize a get togetherfor fans of top Europeanclubs like Chelsea,Manchester United, Ar-senal, Barcelona, RealMadrid, Liverpool, AcMilan among others.

Speaking from Lon-don the CEO of Bet9jaAyo Ojuroye disclosedthat “We are partner-ing with SSS7 Lounge

at Victoria Lagos tobring together our cus-tomers who are fansof top clubs in Europe.These fans are expect-ed to grace the eventin their clubs jerseysto share food and.drinks, discuss the pros-pects of their teams inthe new season and beentertained by top Ni-gerian musicians. “

He affirmed that thefans are expected towear their various clubjerseys to create a fes-tive atmosphere.

Bet9ja unites Chelsea,Man U, Arsenal, Barca fans

Manu Garba tipsEaglets for glory

*Manu Garba

Dr Orji Uzor Kalu

CMYK


Wenger refuses to blameCech after shock loss

ARSENE Wenger

refused to lay theblame for a surprise 2-0Premier League defeatto London rivals WestHam solely with PetrCech.

Big things are expect-ed from Cech after heleft Chelsea to join Ar-senal just over a monthago, but the Czech Re-public goalkeeper had aPremier League debut toforget for his new club onSunday at the EmiratesStadium.

Wenger was left to rueconceding two goals thatwere very much avoida-ble, but refused to sin-gle out Cech for criti-cism. “I haven’t spokento him [Cech] yet, but Ican’t see many convinc-ing individual perform-ances. It is difficult tosingle one out,” said theFrenchman.

“It’s not only him, ifyou look at the back linewe have plenty of expe-rience at the back. Ithink the youngest is 30.

“We were punished forour defending. We gavetwo very cheap goalsaway and gave ourselvesa mountain to climb.

“The way we conced-ed a goal just beforehalf-time with the expe-rience we have in ourteam is difficult to un-derstand.”

Wenger felt WestHam’s participation inthe UEFA EuropaLeague - a tournamentthey were knocked out ofon Thursday - worked intheir favour and urgedhis side to show a posi-tive response to a poorstart to their PremierLeague campaign.

“West Ham are a bitmore advanced in theirpreparation. They ’veplayed more competitivegames than us and weknew that,” Wengeradded.

“We were a bit nervousand we didn’t respectthe basics. There wereno individually convinc-ing performances.

Oxford revels in ´dream´ West Ham debut

REECE Oxford re

flected on a“dream debut” after the16-year-old shone inWest Ham’s surprise 2-0 Premier League derbyvictory at Arsenal.

The midfielder becamethe second-youngestplayer to start a PremierLeague match on Sun-day and made the mostof his opportunity, asPetr Cech endured atop-flight debut to forgetfor Arsenal.

West Ham had notbeaten their London ri-vals in 15 attemptsstretching back to 2007before this surprise tri-umph in their PremierLeague opener, whichwas Slaven Bilic’s firstleague game at thehelm.

Oxford, now theyoungest player to fea-ture for West Ham in thePremier League, rel-ished the chance givento him by Bilic andhopes his impressivedisplay is the sign ofthings to come.

He told Sky Sports: “Itwas a dream debut, also

Pellegrini knows Cityaxe looomsMANUEL Pel-

legrini mighthave signed a new con-tract on Friday, but heknows he could be out ofjob in the summer ifMan City fail to win thePremier League.

Pellegrini signed aone-year extension to tiehim to The Etihad until2017, but he knows morethan most he is unlikelyto see out that deal ifCity have another sea-son like the last.

“In a big team you can-not go two years withoutwinning the title,” saidPellegrini, whose Cityside finished eightpoints behind champi-ons Chelsea in 2014/15.“It’s very important towin it. It’s also impor-tant to demonstrate tothe media and to the fansthat sometimes you cankeep working withoutwinning.

“When you don’t win

a title, you must changesome things. It is impor-tant when you don’t wina title that you trust thework you are doing.

“But it is true that it isvery difficult for a bigteam to be two yearswithout winning a title.”

The 61-year-old, whohas been plagued by talkof Pep Guardiola takingover the City reins, haspenned an extension tothe three-year contracthe signed when he ar-rived in June 2013.

SOUTHAMPTON earned a point at

Newcastle thanks to sub-stitute Shane Long’s late

goal. Graziano Pelle metCedric Soares’ long ballto head Saints into anearly lead, before PapissCisse equalised bychesting in a deflectedcross.

New £14.5m signingGeorginio Wijnaldumthen scored a powerfulheader on his PremierLeague debut to giveNewcastle the lead ear-ly in the second-half.

But Long struck 10 min-utes from time, headingin a Dusan Tadic cross.

Relieve the entertain-ing draw here.

Southampton managerRonald Koeman watchedthe match from home ashe recovered from anoperation on his Achil-les tendon, but brotherand assistant managerErwin gave a first Pre-mier League start in 491days to striker Jay Rod-riguez.

The Saints also hand-ed starts to right-backSoares and goalkeeperMartin Stekelenburg,while Steve McClaren,who was managing aPremier League side forthe first time in nineyears, gave a first Pre-mier League start to cen-tre-back Chancel Mbem-ba.

England striker Rod-riguez was making hisfirst Premier Leaguestart in 16 months.

Cisse scores as Newcastleearn one point

*Czech

Pellegrini

Oxford (L), the teenager that silenced Ozil.

*Cisse

PHILIPPE Coutin-ho’s stunning long-

range strike gave Liver-pool a late victory overStoke on the openingweekend.

The match was a lack-lustre Premier Leagueencounter until the Bra-zilian’s magic four min-utes from the end.

Former Liverpool manGlen Johnson couldhave put his new side infront in the first half, butskewed his shot over thebar from 12 yards out.

Charlie Adam’s long-range free-kick almost

Coutinho stunner wins it for Reds at Stokesneaked in at the backpost but was pushedaway by Simon Migno-let. These two sides meton the final day of lastseason, when Stoke’s 6-1 win was Liverpool’sheaviest defeat since1963. It meant MarkHughes’ side ended thecampaign with 54 points,their highest total in thetop flight.

Despite last season’sembarrassing result,Liverpool’s ownersbacked Brendan Rodg-ers and kept him asmanager, so have things

improved?Although victorious

this time round, Liver-pool have work to do onhow to bed together theirattacking players.

Christian Benteketouched the ball just fivetimes in the penaltyarea, and will need toimprove as he faces com-petition from substituteRoberto Firmino - whohad a run out in the last15 minutes - and DannyIngs. Daniel Sturridgewill add to the fight forplaces when he returnsfrom injury next month.*Coutinho

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: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Advert:[email protected]

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.

FRIFRIFRIFRIFRIDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSTODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

CMYK

QUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORD

ACROSS: 1, Appeal 5, Secure 8, Register9, Onus 10, Asp 12, Ledge 15, Set 17, Awe18, Rip 19, Lag 20, Villa 21, Eke 22, Ape 23,Sin 24, Win 26, Rhyme 29, Tit 33, Mean 34,Initiate 35, Client 36, Endure.

ACROSS1 Bucket (4)4 Enquire (3)6 Too (4)9 Pinch (3)10 Scornful (8)11 Equipment (4)14 Fighting (3)16 Command (5)19 Aardvark (8)21 Postpone (5)23 Cheated (8)24 Dissuade (5)27 Wand (3)31 Divide (4)33 Attendance (8)34 Owing (3)35 Ale (4)36 Parched (3)37 Discourteous (4)

DOWN: 2, Press 3, Edit 4, Lithe 5, Spring6, Clot 7, Route 10, Allow 11, Pagan 12,Lever 13, Delay 14, Erase 15, Spent 16,Treat 25, Ideal 27, Hoist 28, Maize 30,Inter 31, Once 32, Kind

RESULTS

Arsenal 0 West-Ham 2Newcastle 2 Sampton 2Stoke City 0 Liverpool1Today’s Fixture(EPL)West Brom vMan City 8pm

NPFLBayelsa 1 Kano 1Dolphins1 A/Warriors 1ElKanemi 2 Kwara 0Enyimba 2 Lobi 1Giwa 1 Warri Wolves 1Taraba1Akwa 0Wikki 0 Nasarawa 0EPL

Black Stars, Hawksreject EaglesNIGERIA will now

play next-doorneigbours Niger in afriendly on September 9in Port Harcourt afterproposals to take onGhana or Togo did notcome through.

A top NFF official in-formed: “The matchagainst Niger is nowconfirmed for Port Har-court after the AFCONqualifier in Tanzania.The other proposals toplay other neigbouringcountries like Ghanaand Togo did not fly.”

However, it is left to beseen the team who willprosecute this match –whether the home-based Eagles to preparethem for a CHAN quali-fier against BurkinaFaso in October or themain Eagles squad.

Port Harcourt was alsothe proud host city for acrucial CAF U23 Cham-pionship qualifieragainst Congo recently.

*Team nowto play Niger

Tanzania line up Libya, Kuwait forEagles the Turkish commercial

capital of Istanbul, willplay two internationalbuild up matches againstLibya and Kuwait beforeflying back to face theSuper Eagles.

Tanzania national soc-cer team’s interim coach,Charles Boniface Mk-wasa last week called 29players to join a trainingcamp in Dar es Salaam.

TANZANIA national team, Taifa Stars

who are expected tocamp for two weeks in

Eyimbaback tothe top

ARSENAL’s season started in defeat

as West Ham won theirfirst Premier Leaguegame under SlavenBilic. Keeper Petr Cechmisjudged DimitriPayet’s free-kick to allowCheikhou Kouyate tonod in the Hammers’first.

And after the breakMauro Zarate finishedfrom 20 yards after be-ing gifted the ball by theGunners defence.

Arsenal, who control-led possession but wereworryingly blunt in the

West Ham shock Asenalat Emirates


*Wenger


NIGHTMARE: Kouyate rises high to beat summer signing Petr Cech to theball and head the visitors into a 1-0 lead in the first half. West Ham beatArsenal 2-0 at the Emirates

*Mkwasa

P.54

DOWN2 Declare (4)3 Placed (4)4 Flustered (8)5 Retain (4)6 Wrath (5)7 Untruth (3)8 Flood (5)12 Swift (5)13 Fat (5)14 Lump (3)15 Allude (5)17 Dig (5)18 Prompt (5)20 Recuperation (8)22 Colour (3)25 Elude (5)26 Go in (5)28 Rushed (4)29 Tolerate (4)30 Tart (4)32 Regret (3)

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OBJ,GEJ's visit to Buhari not to stop anti-graft war

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