Vol. 3 N0. 679 Monday, September 16, 2013 N150

TOLA AKINMUTIMI ABUJA Nigeria’s external

merchandise trade total value rose mar-

ginally to about N5.34trn in the second quarter of

this year, up from about N5.09trn recorded in the preceding quarter.

The trade figures repre-

Al-Mustapha writes Army, seeks promotion to Major-General

P.12

P.6

P.7

Olu of Warri re-unites with subject at special thanksgiving

Free inside

New auto sector policy for roll out

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P.7

FG, Akwa Ibomto commenceconstruction of Ibaka seaport

OBIORA IFOH AND ROTIMI FADEYI

After three con-secutive meetings, President Goodluck

Jonathan and the seven aggrieved governors last night failed to reach an amicable settlement on the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The meeting, which ...adjourns till Oct 7 Crisis hits new PDP, NWC member resigns

Again, Jonathan, G7 meeting deadlocked

L-R: Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Maj.-Gen. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu; President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire; President Goodluck Jonathan and the parade commander at the passing out parade/convocation ceremony of the 60 Regular Course Cadets at the NDA in Kaduna at the weekend. PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

Aganga

Nigeria's trade value rises to N5.34trn in Q2

BUSINESSTHE SECTION

ree insiidedede

Nigerians disqualified from 2015 visa lottery

P.A6

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Again, Labour threatens mass protest over minimum wage

20,000 displaced as ACF calls for arrest of suspects14 die as vehicle plunges into river in Kebbi

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Telecoms operators spend N15.5bn on adverts

50 killed, palaces burnt in fresh Nasarawa violence

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Atuwatse

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Monday, September 16, 2013

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 3Monday, September 16, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net4 Monday, September 16, 2013 Photo News

TOLA AKINMUTIMIABUJA

The Federal Gov-ernment may soon send an amend-

ment proposal on the Fis-cal Responsibility Act to the National Assembly as part of its efforts to improve fiscal discipline in the management of the country’s revenue re-sources.

As a prelude to the move, the government is cur-rently working on plans to set up a committee to har-monise the remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, CRF, account and ensure a more prudent ap-proach to determine how much each of the revenue generation agencies collect and their cost on remitted revenues.

Giving the hint after the botched August 2013 FAAC meeting at the weekend in Abuja, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yer-ima Ngama, said: “What operates now is fluid and it is not scientific so we can’t

harmonise the remittances of these agencies.”

He explained that based on his ministry’s advice, government had given the go ahead to set up that com-mittee and find a way for-ward and even amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The minister classified the agencies which pay their revenues to the CRF as those that collect rev-enues for Federal Govern-ment and take cost of collec-tion and made the revenue available to the government and others that collect rev-enues, use the revenues for certain activities that the Act establishing them said they should use the money and remit the surplus to government coffers.

In addition, he also spoke on agencies of government that collect revenue, remit 25 per cent to the Federal Government and use the rest for their activities.

Ngama said the ques-tion about the operations

of the third categories of the revenue agencies that had remained a concern to government and which the proposed committee would help to determine was whether or not the 75 per cent was too much or too little for the agencies.

Based on the separate re-mittance operations of dif-ferent agencies, the minis-ter said his ministry made the “suggestion to set up a committee to look at all the laws establishing all the rev-enue earning agencies of government and also look at the actual operations of those agencies so that it can come with a framework be-cause we don’t know which agency will give 25 per cent and keep the rest”.

According to him, most of the agencies will opt for the latter and prefer using their money for statutory duties and giving govern-ment the surplus.

“If it suits them to col-lect revenue for govern-

ment, collect their cost of collection and give the rest to government they will do that and for others if it suits them if there is a surplus they will remit to govern-ment if not then nothing for the Federal Govern-ment,” he added.

Ngama explained that for now, some legislators believed that all govern-ment agencies should remit everything they collect and then bring their cost of op-erations to the National As-sembly to appropriate as a budget.

However, this position, according to him, has its advantages and disadvan-tages “because there will be no incentives to motivate the revenue earning agen-cies to put in their best and earn more for the CRF”.

On the need to align monthly revenue distribu-tions with accruals for all tiers of government, the minister said with effect from August 2013 distri-

butions, the three tiers of government would only be sharing actual collections to the Federation Account and not what was initially budgeted.

He explained that the reason for the FAAC’s deci-sion was because the bench-mark used for the 2013 bud-get was over-bloated and was no longer realistic to implement.

Ngama said that at FAAC’s meeting on Friday all the parties decided to henceforth distribute only actual collections and not what had been budgeted.

The minister said while the nation’s production of crude oil had appreciated to about 2.4 million barrels, it would take 90 days before the impact of the increase in production was felt.

He added that this month’s FAAC meeting had to be adjourned so that more money could be sourced to fund the shortfall in the July 2013 allocation.

The minister disclosed that it had taken the com-mittee two months to fund the July shortfall and that it was still looking for funds to make up for the shortfall.

Ngama pointed out that despite the fact that the Federal Government had provided its portion of the funding shortfall which was distributed to the states last Thursday; it was not enough as the share of the Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation, NNPC, was still being awaited.

The minister, however, assured that the difficul-ties encountered in the 2013 budget on Federation Ac-count disbursements would be avoided in 2014 as plans were on to collaborate with the National Assembly with a view to agreeing on a real-istic budget benchmark, fol-lowing the experiences on the 2013 budget.

Ngama regretted that from January 2013 to date, the actual revenue shared by the three tiers of govern-ment was higher than last year’s earnings.

FG proposes amendment to Fiscal Responsibility Act

L-R: Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Nigerian Ambas-sador to the USA, Professor Adebowale Adefuye and Chairman of the House of Reps’ commit-tee on foreign Affairs, Hon Nnenna Ukeje at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington on Friday.

L-R: Celebrant, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, Lady Cherry Igbinedion and former Edo State Gover-nor, Lucky Igbinedion, during Chief Igbinedion’s 79th birthday celebration in Benin, yesterday.

L-R: Factional Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Oyo State, Alhaji Kunmi Mustapha; former Minister of Sports, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja; Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide and former Oyo State Governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala; observing a minute silence for the late former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, at the party’s stakeholders/leaders’ meeting in Ibadan, yesterday.

L-R: Divisional Principal Manager, Public Affairs, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Mr. Tokunbo Peter; Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide and Manager, Planning and Construction, PHCN, Mrs. Deborah Oyelakin, during Akinjide’s visit to the PHCN Injector Sub-Station in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

National News

• To set up Revenue Harmonisation Committee

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Monday, September 16, 2013 News

sented 4.8 per cent increase.The positive change was

the result of increase in value of exports from about N3.45trn in Q1 to N3.74trn in the quarter under re-view, representing a trade surplus of N290.8bn or 8.4 per cent.

The value of imports also decreased from about N1.64trn in January to March this year to about N1.59trn in the three month period ended June.

According to the Foreign Trade Statistics Report for the second quarters released yesterday by the Director-General, National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Dr. Yemi Kale, the increase in exports and decrease in imports resulted in a fa-vourable trade balance of

about N2.14trn in the sec-ond quarter, an increase of N339.3bn or 18.8 per cent from levels recorded in the first three month of the year.

A further analysis of the merchandise trade on year-on-year basis, how-ever, showed that the value of the nation’s total mer-chandise trade decreased by N1.74trn or 24.6 per cent, while the trade balance also declined by 49.7 per cent as imports increased by 13.5 per cent while exports de-creased by 34.1 per cent.

The crude oil component of the total trade stood at N2.71trn, representing a decrease of N321.2bn or 10.6 per cent when compared with the previous quar-ter. On the year-on-year, the crude oil component

recorded a 23.6 per cent de-cline.

According to the NBS, “The total value of Nige-ria’s external merchan-dise trade amounted to N5.341.1bn in the second quarter 2013, an increase of N242.3bn or 4.8 per cent from N5,098.9bn recorded in the previous quarter.

“This change resulted from an increase in the value of exports from N3,452.1bn in the first quar-ter of 2013 to N3,742.9bn in the second quarter, an increase of N290.8bn or 8.4 per cent, and a 2.9 per cent decline in the value of im-ports from N1,646.7bn in the first quarter of 2013 to N1,598.2bn in the second quarter.

“Furthermore, the in-crease in exports and de-

crease in imports resulted in a favourable trade bal-ance of N2,144.7bn in the second quarter, an increase ofN339.3bn or 18.8 per cent from levels recorded in the first quarter of 2013.

“Further analysis with the second quarter of the preceding year indi-cates that the value of the nation’s total merchan-dise trade decreased by N1,742.8bn or 24.6 per cent, while the trade balance also declined by 49.7 per cent as imports increased by 13.5 per cent while exports de-creased by 34.1per cent year on year.”

According to the sta-tistics agency, analysis of exports by section reveals that mineral products con-tributed N3,122.1bn or 83.4 per cent of total exports

and that this was followed by plastics, rubber and parts with N196.5bn or 5.2 per cent and prepared food-stuffs, beverages, spirit and vinegar, tobacco were re-corded at N98.2bn or 2.6 per cent.

Similarly, the NBS re-ported that the value of imports, when classified by International Trade Clas-sification, showed that the decline of imports in the second quarter 2013 relative to Q1 2013 resulted from the decline of some products such as crude inedible ma-terials which accounted for N12.2bn or 0.8 per cent of total imports, oil and fats at N1.2bn or 0.1 per cent, min-eral fuels at N14.2bn or 0.9 per cent and beverages and tobacco with N6.7bn or 0.4 per cent of total imports.

A further breakdown of the imports classified by sections showed that foot-wear, headgear, and umbrel-las accounted for N4.7bn or 0.3 per cent of total imports, miscellaneous manufac-tured articles accounted for N7.0bn or 0.4 per cent, min-eral products were recorded at N254.7bn or 15.9 per cent and vehicles, aircraft and parts at N89.4bn or 5.6 per cent.

The Nigerian imports, according to Broad Eco-nomic Category, revealed that consumer goods ac-counted for with N55.7bn or three per cent of total imports, transport equip-ment and associated parts accounted for N57.8bn or four per cent, and food and beverages were recorded atN147.5bn or nine per cent.

started at 4p.m. ended about 11p.m. yesterday.

After the meeting, Gover-nor Babangida Aliyu of Ni-ger told journalists that the meeting agreed that parties in the crisis should refrain from making inflammatory statements while another meeting was scheduled to hold on October 7.

His words: “Sequel to the number of meetings convened by leaders and stakeholders, the governors of Adamawa, Niger, Riv-ers, Kwara, Sokoto, Jigawa, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Kano and Cross Rivers states met with the President, the Vice President and the chair-man of the Board of Trust-ees and extensively deliber-ated on various issues.

“The meetings were cordial and deliberations fruitful with a clear com-mitment on all sides to resolve all issues raised at the meetings. The meeting also called on all parties to sheathe their swords and avoid further inflammatory comments on issues par-ticularly during the course of our deliberations as we have all agreed to resolve all the differences.

“In the interim, all par-ties have accepted to com-mence immediate action and agree towards com-plete resolution of all mat-ters and continue to meet until all processes toward reconciliation are totally complete.

“The meetings will con-

tinue on Monday, October 7, 2013. We use this oppor-tunity therefore to thank all members of our party and supporters for their pa-tience and understanding as we will make sure and ensure that there is prog-ress in resolving the crisis.”

Sunday meeting was called to resolve the crisis rocking the ruling party.

Some of the aggrieved governors in attendance in-clude Rotimi Amaechi (Riv-ers), Murtala Nyako (Ad-amawa), Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara), Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Sule Lamido (Jigawa).

Amaechi, who made a surprise appearance at the meeting as he had been con-spicuously absent in all pre-vious meetings, was spotted in a white shirt and drove himself to the First Lady’s Office at 5:14 p.m. in a black Range Rover jeep with plate number Nasarawa AE 153 NBB behind Babangida Ali-yu, Niger State Governor’s vehicle.

Also at the meeting were governors considered loyal to the Bamanga Tukur-led executive. They are God-swill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Idris Wada (Kogi) and Ibra-him Dankwambo (Gombe).

The seven aggrieved governors or G7 as they are called had on August 31 staged a walkout at the PDP special convention in Abuja to form a parallel PDP with Kawu Baraje as chairman.

The aggrieved governors

had expressed dissatisfac-tion with the leadership of Tukur and demanded for his removal.

They also demanded the resolution of the Adamawa PDP crisis in favour of Nya-ko and the lifting of the sus-pension of Amaechi from the party and that Jonathan should respect his one-term agreement.

Also, the governors are demanding a halt in their investigation by the Economic and Finan-cial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Following the faction-alisation of the party, an Elders’ Committee, led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo was set up to rec-oncile the factions and en-sure that peace returns to the party.

The Elders Committee

met with Jonathan last week to present their rec-ommendations although there were reports of dis-agreement within the com-mittee over the recommen-dations.

As at the time of filing this report, it was unclear if the parties have reached a consensus of the condi-tions, mainly the removal of Tukur and that Presi-dent Jonathan will not seek a re-election in 2015.

Barely one week after it constituted its National Working Committee, NWC, crisis has hit the new Peo-ples Democratic Party, PDP, led by Abubakar Baraje.

The National Treasurer of the New PDP, Alhaji Tanko Isiaku Gwamna, yes-terday resigned from the faction’s NWC and pledged his loyalty to the Bamanga

Tukur-led PDP, calling on all party faithful to unite and ensure the amicable resolution of the current impasse in the party.

The resignation is con-tained in a press statement he issued in Abuja on Sun-day.

Gwamna said he re-signed after a careful study of the unfolding events in the polity, and a deep reflec-tion of the consequences of such impasse on the party.

“This decision was ar-rived at after a careful study of the unfolding events in the polity and a deep sober reflection of the conse-quences of the outcome of such impasse on our party,” he said.

According to him, as a lover of democracy, he is of the belief that the impasse will not augur well for the

unity, peace, progress and prosperity of the party in particular, and the nation in general.

“Our desire is for the PDP to continue to lead while others follow, as such, we must eschew all vices capable of unnecessarily heating up the polity.

“I pledge my loyalty to the Bamanga Tukur lead-ership, while calling on all party faithful to do same,” he said.

Also, the PDP has ap-pealed to its aggrieved members to embrace the window of dialogue and reconciliation offered by the party, cautioning mem-bers not play into the hands of those who do not wish the nation or her democ-racy well.

The party in a statement

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Nigeria's trade value rises to N5.34trn in Q2

Again, Jonathan, G7 meeting deadlocked CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

L-R: Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan; Amir, Abuja Muslim Forum, Mallam Luqman Amoo and artist, Mal-lam Abdulfatai Adeyemi, during the 2nd Islamic Arts and Calligraphy Exhibition in Abuja, at the weekend. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

OMEIZA AJAYIABUJA

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Of-

ficer, CSO, to late the Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, , has written the Army High Command, requesting for concessions on his posi-tion in the Army.

Sources in the Army told our correspondent that Al-Mustapha is seeking his ac-celerated promotion to the rank of a Major-General and his consequent retirement with his full benefits paid.

The argument had been that due to his "age on rank", he should be retired as a Ma-jor from the Army but the for-mer CSO is seeking a waiver on the grounds that he was unjustly incarcerated.

For the over 14 years that Al-Mustapha spent in prison, the Army high com-mand had paid half of his monthly salary to his fam-ily.

While Al-Mustapha's case has been presented to the Army council, the Le-gal Department is said to be studying the issue with a view to coming up with mutually acceptable recom-

mendations. Our correspondent

learnt yesterday that Al-Mustapha's lawyers were waiting the Army's reso-lution of the issue with a view to either accepting it or approaching the law courts to get a fair deal for their client.

The Army Council is composed of the Minister of Defence, Permanent Secretary, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff and some other administra-tive staff.

Director, Army Public Relations, Brig- Gen. Ibra-him Attahiru, said that as a professional force, the Army had already looked into Al-Mustapha's case and had forwarded his peti-tion to the Army Council.

He also confirmed that the Legal Department was already handling the issue.

The former CSO wrote the Army requesting that his case be treated fairly and that he should be grant-ed certain concessions.

Attahiru was, however, silent on the concessions being sought by Al-Musta-pha.

“The Army, as an organ-isation looked into this mat-

signed by its National Pub-licity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, and made available to National Mirror yester-day, said the ongoing skir-mishes and well organised theatrics aimed at portray-ing the President in bad light were not necessary because as members of one big family, no challenge was insurmountable.

Metuh said: “This tactics is antithetical to democracy but not an unfamiliar rule of engagement. However, it is important that we avoid over-stretching it, so as not to play into the waiting hands of the desperate, wishing to incite the people and destroy our common destiny.

“We wish to assure our members therefore that we are still capable of resolv-ing our challenges and urge them to be more committed to our progress. We shall emerge stronger.”

The statement regret-ted that the problem in the party was something which could be resolved within the ambit of the crisis reso-lution mechanism of the PDP but was being exag-

gerated by some politicians desperately looking for quick photo opportunities through sensationalism in the media.

It added that “the na-tion would benefit the more should detractors of the President pick on him or the party on issues of devel-opment so as to enrich our practice of democracy.”

“Very unfortunately, the easiest way to gain prominence today is to at-tack the President and the leadership of his party, not on issues of governance or on alternative direction of governance but on the pedestrian that borders on sheer mudslinging.

“In all these, our firm support for the President, as the leader and symbol of our party in government remains total. We shall nei-ther waver nor allow nar-row sentiments stand in the way of the absolute resolve of our great party to better the lots of all Nigerians," the party stated.

In another development, the new PDP has demanded the immediate unsealing of its secretariats in obedience

to the Federal High Court in Abuja, which ruled that the Baraje faction of PDP should be allowed to operate without any further harassment or inhibition as it is not break-ing any known law.

The National Publicity Secretary of the New PDP, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, in a statement made available to National Mirror yesterday called on PDP Chairman, Al-haji Bamanga Tukur to hon-ourably resign as he can no longer run the affairs of the party with “impunity and high-handedness.”

The faction said: “To the glory of God, contrary to the prayers of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s faction of PDP, a Federal High Court in Abuja on September 13, 2013, once again ruled that the Baraje faction of PDP should be allowed to operate without any further harassment or inhibition as it is not break-ing any known law.

“Justice E.S. Chukwu in his ruling held that there was no evidence before the court to show any tardi-ness on the part of Baraje’s faction as claimed by the Tukur-led faction, which re-

quested it to stop the Bara-je-led PDP from operating.

“In view of this ruling, the Police no longer have any valid reason to continue to seal our secretariats. We, therefore, wish to appeal to President Goodluck Jona-than to save the Police from the plot to ridicule it by using it to perpetuate illegalities such as sealing the lawfully-acquired National Secre-tariat of PDP and our secre-tariats in states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Kaduna and Kwara.

“The powers that be should, as a matter of ur-gency, stop projecting and portraying the Police as a tool of injustice and attack on the perceived political opponents of Mr. President.

“On our own, we will continue to use the Judi-ciary to prove to Tukur’s faction that the days of running the affairs of our great party with impunity and high-handedness are gone for good. The time has come for him to correctly read the handwriting on the wall and honourably throw in the towel along with his National Working Committee.”

ter and it has been present-ed to the Army Council - the highest body.

“But the specific depart-ments handling the issue now are the Legal Depart-ment and another, which are looking into it and will come up with their submis-sions soon.

“Al-Mustapha wrote to the Army requesting for certain concessions but the Army is still looking at it and very soon, we shall take a position on the mat-

ter and it would be made public," he said.

Attahiru said the Army has nothing to hide on the is-sue and that it will never de-viate into partisan politics.

The Army had in July debunked speculations that Al-Mustapha had been pro-moted and decorated with a new rank of Brigadier-General, explaining that all administrative procedures are guided by extant rules and regulations such as the Armed Forces of Nigeria

Harmonised Terms and Conditions among others.

The Court of Appeal, sit-ting in Lagos, had on July 12 discharged and acquit-ted Al-Mustapha over an alleged conspiracy and the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, the wife of late MKO Abiola, on June 4, 1996.

Abiola won the 1993 pres-idential election, annulled by the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

The court had upturned a death sentence handed

down on him on January 30, 2013, by Justice Mojiso-la Dada, of a Lagos High Court.

Three days after his re-lease, the Army had con-firmed that Al-Mustapha was still in its fold and that his case would be handled administratively in line with the harmonised terms and conditions of service.

Already, the Lagos State Government had chal-lenged the ruling before the Supreme Court.

PAUL ARHEWE

Nigerian citizens have been disqualified from participating

in the United States 2015 Di-versity Immigrant Visa Pro-gram (DV-2015) otherwise know as US visa lottery.

According to a statement by the US Department of State, Nigerians would no longer be eligible to apply for the programme as over 50,000 citizens had emigrat-ed to the US under the visa lottery scheme in the last five years.

The US government state-ment reads in part: “The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered annually by the Department of State. Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as “di-versity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For fiscal year 2015, 50,000 diversity vi-sas (DVs) will be available.

“For DV-2015, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years: Bangla-desh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecua-dor, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United King-dom (except Northern Ire-land) and its dependent ter-ritories, and Vietnam.

“Changes in eligibil-ity this year: For DV-2015, natives of Nigeria are no longer eligible.

However, since entries are based on country of birth, Nigerians born in eligible countries can still apply.

The move is certain to come as a big blow to thou-sands of Nigerian who try to enter the US legally or illegal-ly based on family ties and de-sire to escape joblessness and economic hardships at home.

Entries for the DV-2015 open on October 1 and close on November 2.

L-R: Chairman, Supervisory Board, Royal FrieslandCampina, Netherlands, Mr. Piet Boer; Chairman, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Mr. Jacobs Ajekigbe; Managing Director, Mr. Peter Eshikena; CEO, Royal FrieslandCampina, Mr. Cees't Hartand and Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, during a visit to the monarch in Lagos at the weekend.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Again, Jonathan, G7 meeting deadlocked

Al-Mustapha seeks promotion to Major-General

Nigerians disqualifi ed from 2015 visa lottery

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 Monday, September 16, 2013News

OLUFEMI ADEOSUNABUJA

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union

Congress, TUC, have con-cluded plans to protest the removal of the National Minimum Wage from the purview of the Federal Government by the Sen-ate.

The unions stated yes-terday that directives have been issued to their over 60 affiliates throughout the country to be battle-ready against the move.

A statement signed by TUC National President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama and Secretary General, Comrade Musa Lawal, noted that both unions had agreed to shut down the proposal by mobilising Nigerian workers.

It expressed surprise that the Senate, while pro-posing the decentralisa-

tion of minimum wage, voted for life pension for its leadership.

The statement said: “It must be noted that in the first place, the very essence of the concept is to ensure that employees particularly the unor-ganised and unskilled, are not exploited by their employers to the extent that their pay become so low that it creates a poor of the working masses. “Minimum wage is not a living wage; as such it guarantees mere bare ex-istence for workers in the formal sector-public and private. It also influences wages in the informal sector.

“To underscore its im-portance, the National As-sembly has legislated on the minimum wage from N125, 00 in 1981 to N5, 500 in 2001. And in 2011, the current minimum wage of N18, 000 was signed. Alas,

the governors suddenly re-alised the minimum wage matter should be concur-rent rather than exclusive.

Who are they serving? The motive however, is not far-fetched: decentralise labour and turn the work-ers into political thugs for the purpose of self-serving politicians.

“We will never allow this because even if the states legislate for state workers (concurrent), who legislate for the pri-vate sector. This is why we must mobilise to kick against the senate’s unin-formed position.

“We are of the opinion that states’ determina-tion of minimum wage and other established emoluments for staff of civil service of the states, institutions, bodies and agencies established and managed by the govern-ment Councils and Lo-cal Government Services

Commissions will intro-duce politics into wage determination, in partic-ular during elections, as was the case in the First Republic.

We insist that the sen-ate should leave item 34 of the 1999 constitution and allow minimum wage determination to remain in the Exclusive List.

“We need to stay with the tradition; we need to strengthen, not weaken the protection of the most vulnerable segment of our nation; we also need to avoid the devel-opment of a segmented labour market.

“Nigerians must wake and join hands with la-bour to ensure the mini-mum wage remain in the exclusive list. This is why this collaboration between the Nigeria La-bour Congress and the TUC must be hailed once again.”

EMMANUEL ONANIABUJA

Former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, Mr.

Abdulrasheed Maina, has withdrawn the suit he filed against the Senate and the Clerk of the National As-sembly.

It will be recalled that the Head of Service of the Federation, HoSF, had dis-missed the pension boss from office following a Sen-ate resolution.

Dissatisfied with the HoSF’s action, the for-mer director of pensions, through his counsel, M. Magaji (SAN), filed the suit on March 19, 2013.

Among other questions formulated for determina-tion by the court was wheth-er the HoSF “Can legally or validly dismiss or terminate the claimant's employment

based on a resolution by the Senate of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria.”

This was even as Maina asked whether the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, could issue him a query as his schedule of duty does not fall directly under the minister's purview.

In the light of these pos-ers, therefore, the claimant prayed the court for an or-der quashing his dismissal/termination of employ-ment, as well as an order re-instating him to his former position.

He also asked the court to declare any further action taken by the Head of Service during the pendency of the suit as null and void.

And as compensation for the perceived loss and psy-chological pain he may have been put through as a result of the dismissal, Maina asked for N2.5 billion damage.

Minimum wage: Again, Labour threatens mass protest Pension: Maina withdraws suit against Senate, Clerk

L-R: Shehu of Borno, Amirul Hajj, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar El-Kanemi; Sultan of Sokoto and National Amirul Hajj, Alhaji Muham-mad Saad Abubakar III and Vice-President Namadi Sambo, during the 2013 flag-off of Nigerian Pilgrims' flight to Saudi Arabia at the Maiduguri International Airport, Borno State on Saturday. PHOTO: STATE HOUSE.

KUNLE AZEEZ AND DEJI ADEMIGBUJI

Te l e c o m m u n i c a -tion operators in Nigeria recorded

the highest amount of ad-vertising expenditure on their product category in the Above-The-Line, ATL, advertising in 2012.

This was made known in the latest annual pub-lication of Mediafacts, an annual publication of MediaReach OMD, Nige-ria’s most influential me-dia independent agency.

The data, released at the weekend, takes a look at the amount spent on advertising in 2012 by

different categories of sectors in the country’s economy.

From the total ATL advertising, telecom-munications product category spent the high-est amount of N15.562 billion, representing a decline from the N20.118 billion spent in 2011, fol-lowed by entertainment, leisure and tourism with N4.988billion while la-ger beer was third in the product category with N4.784 billion.

In the telecommuni-cations category, MTN topped the list with N5.09 billion followed by Eti-salat that spent N4.40 bil-lion during the year un-

der review. Airtel and Globacom

spent N2.99 billion and N2.95 billion respective-ly. All the four brands topped the list of the top 20 brands in terms of ad spend last year.

According to the pub-lication, total advertising spend on Above-The-Line activities fell slightly by 10.6 per cent to N91.846 billion in 2012 as against N102.755 billion in 2011.

The publication attrib-uted the drop to reduced media investment of 43.9 per cent on outdoor ad-vertising and 41.7 per cent on press. But despite the drop in total expendi-ture, media investment

on TV and radio rose by 7.2 per cent and 20.1 per cent respectively.

Of the N91.846 billion, television had N49.399, radio N15.782, outdoor N17.692 while N8.974 was spent on the press.

A further analysis of the trend in the advertis-ing industry during the review year showed that television advertising closed at N49.399 billion as against N46.076 billion in 2011.

Radio recorded N15.782 billion as against N13.142 billion spent in 2011, press spent N8.974 billion lesser than the N15.395 spent in 2011 while outdoor expen-diture was N17.692 billion

Telecom operators spent N15.5bn on ATL advertising in 2012 –Studycompared to N28.142 bil-lion spent in 2011.

Mediafacts noted that in 2012, Lagos region ac-counted for 35.8 per cent or N32.913 billion, North; 33.1 per cent or N30.418 billion, West; N15.024 bil-lion or 16.4 per cent while the Eastern part of Nige-ria accounted for the re-maining 14.7 per cent or N13.491 billion.

The report also noted that Nigeria’s economic market size of about $247 billion represents 41 per cent of the entire West Africa Gross Domestic Product, thereby placing the country among the top-most African economies and a destination of choice for investment in Africa.

The World Bank, ac-cording to the report re-cently, forecasts a 6.6 per cent growth in GDP for Nigeria in 2013, driven largely by foreign invest-ments.

Under key changes in the Nigerian economic scene; 2010 - 2013, Nige-ria’s overall ranking in the World Bank’s Do-ing Business Report had moved from 137 out of 183 economies in 2011 to 131 in 2012.

The report noted that with the obvious poten-tial of a vibrant agri-cultural sector, not only as a revenue earner, but also as a major source of employment, the

government has taken commendable steps to encourage increased par-ticipation in agricultural production.

It added that despite being affected by global financial and economic crises, the Central Bank of Nigeria has taken proactive measures to re-structure and reinforce the financial sector for better efficiency.

Mediafacts 2012, which is published in one vol-ume in English and French, contains media trend information on 14 African countries.

This covers some of the countries where Media Reach OMD operates in.

Media Reach OMD is a specialist media company that provides media plan-ning, buying, control and inventory management services with offices in Lagos, Nigeria and Ac-cra, Ghana and is widely known to be a transparent and accountable media independent in the West African sub-region.

Mediafacts has become a key media resource for marketing professionals in West and Central Af-rica and beyond. Besides the in-depth coverage of Nigeria and Ghana’s media markets, this lat-est edition of Mediafacts provides deeper insight into the Central African market.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 7NewsMonday, September 16, 2013

OLUFEMI ADEOSUN ABUJA

The Christian As-sociation of Nige-ria (CAN) has said

that former Federal Cap-ital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir El-rufai, should be taken to the psychiatric hospital for brain examination over his vile comments on the association’s leader, Pas-tor Oritsejafor.

El-rufai had, in an in-terview in one of the na-tional dailies on Satur-day, attacked Oritsejafor, allegedly calling him “a bigot, an ethnic irreden-tist and unworthy to be taken serious.”

But reacting to El-rufai’s comment, CAN, in a statement signed by Head, TEKAN/ECWA block, Rev.(Dr) Emman-uel and National Di-rector of the Christian body, Elder Sunday Oibe, said since the former minister no longer had a father who could help him out, his friends and relatives should help him out of his mental dementia.

The statement reads: If El-Rufai doesn’t have a father who should have properly brought him up and for which reason

he started using gutter language to abuse Jesus Christ and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, he should go to psychiatric hospital for serious mental ex-amination. This is a task we are giving his friends and relatives.

“His brain should be examined because it seems something is wrong. We can no longer fold our hands and al-low Christian leaders to be abused by El-Rufai. We can no longer take it; enough is enough. Any-time he abuses Chris-tian leaders and Jesus Christ, we, Christians, will let him know that

he has many forces to contend with.”

CAN said the fact that Christians did not act when he El-rufai, in his tweets, abused Je-sus Christ should not be taken for timidity.

It said: “The fact that Christians are not vio-lent does not mean El-Rufai should go far with his utterances. He is not in a position to tell us who should be the leader of Christians in Nigeria.

“We want to let Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) know that his prob-lem with the country is El-Rufai. It was this

same El-Rufai that was abusing Buhari when he was in the cabinet of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He is now fighting ex-Vice President Atiku Abuba-kar, Obasanjo and all the fingers that fed him just because he has lost out of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hoping that when Buhari becomes President in 2015, he would be given a job.

“Buhari should know that El-Rufai is a politi-cal liability who is looki ng for survival. Any politician who allows El-Rufai around him will always fail election,

even before campaigns. Nobody will like to be as-sociated with a political liability.

If El-Rufai is broke, he should go and beg Jona-than to give him job, But it should not be through blackmail. Pastor Ayo is not his problem.

“We are giving El-Rufai seven days ultima-tum to inform Nigerians and the world the person he claims to know that gave Pastor Ayo his pri-vate Jet. If he fails to do that, we will open up on him and his dirty life. El-Rufai stinks to the high-est heaven. He is morally depraved and lacks cred-

ibility. This was the man who mismanaged the FCT administration and allocated plots of land to his cronies and girl-friends and mistresses. What credibility has a man, who as FCT Minis-ter was paying salaries to a female member of the National Youth Ser-vice Corps NYSC?

“We want to make it unequivocally clear that Pastor Ayo is not in PDP, he is not a politician and so cannot be a propagan-da machinery of PDP as erroneously alleged by El-Rufai. Pastor Ayo is a religious leader and he remains so.”

Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Kalu (right) and Kano State Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who visited Kalu at his Lagos residence, at the weekend.

PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 News Monday, September 16, 2013

SAM OLUWALANA

Church of Nige-ria, Anglican Communion, has

disclosed that the Arch-bishop of Province of Niger Delta, Most Rev. Ignatius Kattey, was re-leased unconditionally by his abductors.

Kattey and his wife, Beatrice, were abducted on September 6 at Eleme Junction on the East - West Road, while on their way to Port Har-court from an official as-signment.

While Beatrice was later freed, the gunmen took the archbishop away.

The Archdeacon of Eleme Archdeaconry, Venerable Israel Omo-sioni, told journalists that Kattey was looking healthy and agile, de-spite his ordeals.

Omosioni said the kidnappers gave Kattey N200 as transport fare, which he used to take a motorcycle back home.

He said: “Kattey was released uncondition-ally and he is in good health. He is hale and hearty.’’

Also the church said contrary to the claims of the Rivers State Po-lice Command, police-men were not involved in Kattey’s rescue.

The state Police Pub-lic Relations Officer, DSP Angela Agabe, had said in Port Harcourt that Kattey was rescued by the police at 8p.m. on Saturday.

But the church said the kidnappers on their own released the cleric, without involving any other party.

The church said Kat-tey was brought out to the expressway via the

same footpath, which the kidnappers used in abducting him, and took him to a petrol station across the road.

Also, a knight of the church, Sir Okafor Efie-bor, told our correspond-ent that the police were not involved in Kattey’s release.

Efiebor said the kid-nappers responded to the pleas of the church and its members by re-leasing the cleric uncon-ditionally.

He said: “It (his re-lease) happened on Sat-urday night, around 8pm. The kidnappers brought him out to the East - West Road, through the same foot path, which they used in abducting him.

“They took him to the Total Filling Station be-side the spot and left af-ter, giving him a token. This is after they have

apologised to him for the inconvenience caused him.’’

On Sunday last week, the church, led by its clergymen, demanded the bishop’s uncondi-tional release and told the world that it would not pay any ransom for his release.

On the following day, the church members, led by their leaders, staged a peaceful protest on the spot where Kattey was abducted; demanding his immediate release.

Yesterday, Agabe con-firmed that Kattey had been rescued.

She said: “The com-mand is not aware that any ransom was paid and the bishop is in sta-ble condition.”

The police image-maker, however, said no arrest had been made in connection with Kat-tey’s abduction.

OBIORA IFOH ABUJA

Former National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria

Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has said that the crisis rocking the ruling Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) could be traced to the emer-gence of All Progressives Change (APC).

Onu, who spoke in an interview with journal-ists at the weekend in Abuja, said the strategic positioning of APC as a credible alternative to the ruling party had embold-ened those with voices of dissent within PDP to stand up against the party leadership.

He said: “The situation in PDP shows that the par-ty ought to really reexam-ine itself, understanding that it is the ruling party with certain obligations to the nation.

“Yes, disagreements may come but do not for-get that what is happen-ing in PDP now would never have happened if there has not been APC.”

Onu claimed that the existence of APC gave im-petus to defiance by the seven New PDP governors and their allies.

He said though there have always been dis-agreements with the ranks of political parties, PDP not being an excep-tion, but that such dis-senting voices had been suppressed due to lack of an equally credible and influential alternative party which could absorb them.

Onu said: “What is hap-pening to the PDP would not have happened if there is not a party like the APC because the ag-grieved members of PDP have been emboldened by the fact that they have an alternative platform which is equally influ-ential like the PDP with about 11 governors.

On the claim that the PDP crisis may have long been plotted by the actors in concert with the APC, Onu said such insinua-tion could not be true.

According to Onu, whatever relationship that existed between the PDP governors and their counterpart in the APC could be traced to Nige-rian Governors Forum (NGF).

He said the governors usually meet regularly under the auspices of the NGF even before the po-larization of the body.

The former Governor of old Anambra State, however, described the crisis rocking Rivers State as disturbing, add-ing that the recent block-age of Governor Chibuike Amaechi by the police was an embarrassment to the country.”

How PDP crisis began –Onu

Kidnappers gave Kattey transport fare after releasing him –Anglican Church

CAN seeks psychiatric test for El-Rufai over comment on Oritsejafor

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 9South West

400 aircraft configured to accommodate 517 passen-gers and B767-300 for the exercise.

He said: “The stage has been set and we are ready for the exercise and we pray to Allah to grant us a safe journey to and from Saudi Arabia.

“We are using B747 with the configuration for 517 people. In all the zones that we are operating, we will be using two aircraft, which have been on ground for sometime now.

“We have about 18 flights out of Lagos zone alone and we hope to finish as sched-uled. Talking on the hitch-free exercise, we have been carrying out this exercise for the past 30 years. This is our 30th year in the sky as hajj operator. I’ve done hajj 30 times. That shows you we are the grandmaster in this game. That is a record no one can beat.”

Some of the pilgrims expressed delight over their participation in this year’s Hajj.

One of them, Alhaja Idayatu Salau, said she would use the opportu-nity to move closer to God and pray for peace and adequate security in the country.

2013 Hajj: 517 pilgrims take-off from Lagos OLUSEGUN KOIKI

About 517 pilgrims were yesterday airlifted from the

Murtala Mohammed Inter-national Airport, MMIA, Lagos to Saudi Arabia.

This signified the com-mencement of this year’s Hajj exercise.

The pilgrims, mainly from Osun State, were airlifted by Med-View Air-lines.

Speaking with journal-ists at the Hajj Camp of the MMIA, the Managing Di-rector, Med-View Air carri-er, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, said the airline, which is designated to airlift 5,500 pilgrims from different departure points for this year’s Hajj exercise, would operate as scheduled.

Bankole said the airline would airlift pilgrims from three zones - Lagos, Ilorin and Port Harcourt.

He added that the intend-ing pilgrims had been coun-selled by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with the National Commission.

Med-View is expected to operate about 18 flights from Lagos zone alone.

Bankole said the carrier would operate Boeing 747-

ADEOLU ADEYEMOOSOGBO

The Yoruba Youth Alliance, YYA, said at the weekend that

the South-West deserved more ministerial positions in the new cabinet to be constituted by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The YYA National Leader, Comrade Jackson Olalekan Ojo, said this in a statement made available to newsmen in Oshogbo, the Osun State capital, less than a week after Jonathan sacked some ministers.

Ojo said this would ad-dress the imbalance power sharing of political offices in the country.

He requested that de-fence portfolio should be reserved for new nominee from Osun State.

Ojo also called on the President to allocate more ministerial positions to the South-West to address the imbalance in the shar-ing of political offices in

the country.He said: “The defence

portfolio should be re-served for new nominee from Osun State and ap-pointment into the defence should be based on experi-ence and capability to hold the office in thrust for Mr. President.

“Now, it is an ample opportunity for Mr. Presi-dent to replace the sacked ministers with those that will bring peace, develop-ment to the country, those tested by their people who are not going to be politi-cal liabilities to their party and to President that ap-pointed them.

“There is no point giv-ing such appointments to those that will spend the next two years studying and learning the rudiment of administering their re-spective offices.

“There is no doubt the fact that ministers that are recommended by the god-fathers would be loyal to those that assisted them.”

South-West deserves more ministerial slots –Group

FEMI OYEWESOABEOKUTA

Men and officers of the Ogun State Police Command

were at the weekend en-veloped with grief, follow-ing the death of an officer in an auto crash on Satur-day afternoon.

The accident occurred on the Sagamu - Siun - Ko-bape Expressway.

Until his death, the officer, Superintendent of Police (SP) Folahan Ogunkoya, was in charge of the Anti-Robbery Team at the State Criminal In-vestigation Department,

SCID, Eleweran Abeoku-ta, the state capital.

In a statement issued yesterday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, described the deceased as a wonderful crime buster, a seasoned and loved police officer with characteris-tics worthy of emulation.

Adejobi explained that late Ogunkoya was driving his Honda Accord (EOD) car marked Lagos MZ 717 AAA when he suddenly lost control and crashed at Asu village on Sagamu - Abeokuta Expressway about 4pm on Saturday.

The deceased, who was

Ogun anti-robbery squad leader dies in auto crashsurvived by his wife and three children, was buried yesterday in his home town, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

It was gathered that the deceased was travelling from Abeokuta to Ijebu-Ode for a social engage-ment before he had the ac-cident which also involved a Toyota Prado Jeep a few metres before DayWater-man College.

The Public Relations Officer, PRO, of the state Traffic Compliance Agen-cy, TRACE, Babatunde Akinbiyi, who confirmed the accident, said the de-ceased lost control of his car, swerved to the other

lane and collided with the Prado Toyota jeep on its way to Abeokuta.

The deceased, it was learnt, bought the car a few days ago.

Akinbiyi added that the Prado Toyota jeep car-rying a couple burst into flames in the bush where it eventually landed.

He also explained that the couple inside the jeep sustained injuries and were taken to the General Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta for treatment.

TRACE officials and those of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, rescued the victims.

Tambuwal, Akpabio, others mourn AgaguTORDUE SALEM AND OJO OYEWAMIDE

The Speaker of the House of Repre-sentatives, Hon.

Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has expressed regret over the death of former Gov-ernor Olusegun Agagu of Ondo State.

In a statement signed by his media aide, Imam Imam, the speaker de-scribed Agagu’s demise at the weekend as “a monu-mental loss coming at a time his wealth of experi-ence and fatherly advice was needed in the country”.

He said: “The deceased was a nationalist who championed the unity and tolerance among the people.”

Tambuwal described the late Agagu “as a ful-filled gentleman who shared his vast knowledge and experience with many

politicians within and outside his beloved state”.

Also, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Ak-pabio, described Agagu’s death as a painful loss to the country, Ondo State, which he served for years and the Peoples Democrat-ic Party, PDP.

Akpabio, who is also the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Governors Forum, said this in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Jackson Udom.

He said: “Agagu was a revered leader whose wealth of experience would have been effective in reclaiming the South-West states for the PDP.”

In a related develop-ment, former governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Dan-juma Goje, also expressed shock over Agagu’s death.

Goje was the minister of state for Power and Steel when Agagu was the min-

ister between 2000 and 2002. Goje, in a statement by

his media aide, described Agagu as a gentleman, brilliant and patriotic.

He said: “It came to me as a shock, a very rude shock. Dr. Agagu was an absolute gentleman, quite brilliant, and very pa-triotic. When we ran the Power and Steel Ministry together, you could see his passion for the country.

“He was very dedicated and committed. It must have been these qualities that the people of Ondo State saw in him, and for which they elected him governor in 2003.”

Meanwhile, the Nige-ria High Commissioner to Uganda, Otunba Omolade Oluwateru, has described Agagu as an uncommon intellectual who brought a lot of thinking into the governance of Ondo State.

Oluwateru, who was Agagu’s deputy from May

2003 to February 2009, said in a statement that the former governor’s death was a great loss to the country since the vac-uum he left behind would be difficult to fill.

He said: “I received the news of the death of a great leader, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, with great shock. His demise has left a vac-uum that will be difficult to fill. The legacy that he left behind will speak vol-umes for generations yet unborn.

“Dr. Olusegun Agagu was a leader of leaders and a teacher of teach-ers. Those of us that passed through his politi-cal school of thought will forever remember him for his intelligence, hard work and leadership by example.

“I sincerely send my condolence to the immedi-ate family and the entire political class. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

L-R: Intending pupil, Miss Adebisi Toriola; Ekiti State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Kehinde Ojo; Governor Kayode Fayemi and his deputy, Prof. Modupe Adelabu, during the registration of primary school-age children for 2013/2014 academic session in Emure-Ekiti, recently.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net10 South West Monday, September 16, 2013

L-R: Coordinator of African Business Roundtable, Mrs. Heather Akanni; Chieftain, All Progressive Congress, Chief Audu Ogbeh; Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and Commissioner for Trades and Investment, Mr. Adebayo Olagbenro, during Chief Ogbeh’s visit to the governor at the Government House in Ibadan, at the weekend.

‘Osun PDP panel set up to witch-hunt members’

Lagos begins immunisation, urges parents to embrace exercise

Ibadan residents groan over eight year’s power outage

Alaafi n fl ays distortion of history on Oranyan

Retired Army offi cer’s building, others demolished in Lagos

KEMI OLAITAN IBADAN

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayi-wola Adeyemi, at

the weekend flayed what he described as distortion of history on Oranyan.

Oba Adeyemi said that Oranyan was not in any of the four ruling lineages of Ile-Ife.

The monarch spoke at the grand finale of the 2013 Oranyan festival held at the Aganju Fore Court of the palace in Oyo.

It will be recalled that Oyo and Ile-Ife recently engaged in controversies over which of them had the right of cele-

brating the Oranyan festival in view of the relationship of the legend with the two towns with Ile-Ife claiming that Oyo had no right cel-ebrating the festival without seeking approval from its monarch, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade Okunade, Olu-buse 11.

But Oba Adeyemi, who in-stituted the festival last year, said that there was no other place central to the celebra-tion of Oranyan festival than his kingdom, Oyo, where he said Oranyan once ruled as monarch, a fact that made him a direct offspring of the legend as against Ile-Ife.

The Alaafin claimed that there was no way the people

of Ile-Ife could lay claim to Oranyan as the Oyo people would do because the legend was never a monarch in Ile-Ife the way he did in Oyo.

He described as falsifica-tion of facts the claim by some people in Ile-Ife that Oranyan ever ruled in the ancient town, noting that to further rubbish such claim was the disclosure by some people that he was the sec-ond king of Ile-Ife while in another breath, the legend was said to be the fourth king.

Oba Adeyemi insisted that without mischief, none of the four ruling houses in Ile-Ife could claim to have been the descendant of

Oranyan, saying: “Whereas in our case in the ancient Oyo town, Oranyan was our progenitor as one of our founding fathers.”

He said the itinerary na-ture of the legend made him a household name in several places across the Yorubaland as well as outside the shore of the country.

The grand finale of the weeklong celebration attend-ed by traditional rulers from across the Yorubaland and Republic of Benin as well as senior government func-tionaries led by the Oyo State Deputy Governor, Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo, wit-nessed diverse cultural dis-plays and festival lectures.

Three buildings situated at Ojora family land at Orile-Iganmu in Lagos

State have been pulled down on the order of a Lagos High Court.

One of the victims affected by the court order is Col. Ey-itayo Akinbami (rtd), whose storey-building situated at 2C, Salvage Lane, Orile-Iganmu, was bull dozed.

The other two buildings are a two-storey building lo-cated at 26, Bale Street, built owned by one Nurudeen Omobalufon and a building at 26 Coker Road, Alaba, owned by one Ganiyu Animashaun.

A Supreme Court judge-ment in 2009 gave the owner-ship of the land to the Ojora royal family of Lagos.

The three victims were said to have failed to perfect their tit-tles on the properties with the Ojora family despite several appeals made to them by the legitimate owners of the land.

The demolition was car-ried out under the supervi-sion of a sheriff of the court amid tight security provided by the Orile-Iganmu Divi-sional Police Station. The se-curity personnel was led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Superintendent Dick-son Onyeka.

The demolition was wit-nessed by Akinbami, who claimed that he bought the land from the Lagos State Government.

However, the Estate Manage-ment Consultant to the Ojora

family, Prince Samuel Owojuy-igbe, debunked the retired colo-nel’s claim, adding that after the Supreme Court verdict in fa-vour of the family, he appealed to Akinbami and other victims to renegotiate their titles with the family, but to no avail.

Prince Owojuyigbe said that rather than perfect their tittles, the victims went back to the Su-preme Court in 2012, asking for the vacation of the judgement.

Commenting on the pres-ence of the about 50 armed policemen during the demoli-tion exercise, the Orile Divi-sional Police Officer said their presence was to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order because the ex-ercise was ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction.

ADEOLU ADEYEMOOSOGBO

A chieftain of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP)

in Osun State, Chief Dapo

Ayodele, yesterday de-scribed the setting up of a panel to probe suspended members of the party as a witch-hunting exercise.

It will be recalled that the state PDP Chairman, Alhaji

Ganiyu Olaoluwa, hadset up a seven-man disciplinary committee to probe some members for attending a ral-ly organised by former Gov-ernor Olagunsoye Oyinlola on September 8, 2013 at his

Okuku country home. But addressing journalists

on the development yesterday in Iresi, Ayodele described the suspension as illegal and un-constitutional.

He said the members were

MURITALA AYINLA

The Lagos State Govern-ment yesterday said it would begin its Lo-

cal Immunisation Days (LIDs) today across the state, urging parents and care givers to bring their children and wards out for vaccination against prevent-able diseases like polio, yellow fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, hepatis B, measles and pertusis.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, told journalists at the weekend that immunisation remains the most cost-effective strat-egy in disease prevention and health promoting services.

He appealed to parents

and care giver to take their children under one year to the nearest primary health centers and scheduled vac-cination posts between today and Friday, September 20, 2013 for vaccination.

Idris said: “I hereby seize this opportunity to encourage our parents and care givers to ensure that their children and wards are taken to the primary health care clinics to receive all scheduled immuni-sations before they are one year old. This is with a view to protecting them against the preventable killer diseases.”

The commissioner said the population dynamics of Lagos put the state at the risk of childhood preventable dis-eases, especially the wild po-

lio virus transmission.According to him, the grow-

ing population of the state cre-ates an additional pool of chil-dren that must be immunized, hence the need for routine im-munisation services.

Describing Local Immuni-sation Days (LIDs) as a veritable strategy employed by the state government to significantly re-duce the number of un-immun-ised children that were missed during the previous exercise, Idris said that the government had been very active in imple-menting the LIDs apart from participating in supplemental immunization activities as may be declared from time to time by the Federal Ministry of Health through the National Primary Health Care Agency.

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Residents of Muslim, Odinjo, Alade Masfala, Adesola in Oluyole

and Ona Ara local govern-ment areas in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, yesterday lamented their lack of electric-ity supply for the past eight years.

The residents spoke dur-ing an inspection of a sub-station of the Power Hold-ing Corporation of Nigeria (PHCN) by the Minister of State for the Federal Capi-tal Territory (FCT), Oloye Jumoke Akinjide.

The minister, however, told the residents that Pres-ident Goodluck Jonathan’s administration prioritises efforts to fix all the chal-lenges confronting the pow-er sector.

A community leader, Mr. Adegbite Yisau, said the areas had been in darkness since the administration of the former governor, the late Alhaji Lamidi Adesina.

Two landlords, Mogaji Fatai Adebayo and Mr. Sa-lau Suberu, said tenants had refused to rent their houses due to the electric-ity problem.

According to them, after many years of darkness, some youths used the opportunity of the fuel subsidy crisis to vent their anger on the substation and set it ablaze two years ago.

Speaking on the develop-ment, the Principal Man-ager, Public Affairs, PHCN, Mr. Tokunbo Peters, said the plight was exaggeration, but admitted that the outage could have been caused by a little fault.

deliberated suspended by the Olaoluwa-led executive to frus-trate those loyal to Oyinlola.

The PDP chieftain said that since the disciplinary committee was not set up on sincerity, its findings would be baseless.

Ayodele added that the panel’s findings would com-pound the crisis rocking the party in the state the more.

Stressing that members of the party would not allow themselves to be victimised by Olaoluwa, Ayodele said: “There are laid down steps to be followed before anybody can be suspended from the party. The party chairman should know that the deci-sion to suspend any member must originate from his or her wards. After which, his ward executive will inform the lo-cal government executive and from there, the council execu-tive will inform the senatorial district of the alleged member before it gets to the State Work-ing Committee (SWC).

“Then, it will now be the duty of the SWC to set up a committee that will investi-gate the matter whether it is genuine or not. And the outcome of the investigation will, however, determine the decision of the SWC. From the listed processes, it is clear that the party has jumped the protocol. That shows that the suspension is nothing but un-constitutional in its entirety.

“The so-called suspen-sion also became worrisome when some members of the State Working Committee came out to say that they knew nothing about the sus-pension. Then, the question now is who are the people that took the decision? Where and when did they take it and on what basis?”

DENNIS AGBOENUGU

Despite some pro-tests and walk outs in some local

government areas, the Enugu State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday re-leased the results of the primaries it conducted on Saturday for the No-vember 2, 2013 local gov-ernment election.

The list of the elected candidates released by the state PDP Chairman, Engr. Vita Abba and Sec-retary, Mr. Steve Oruruo, showed that 12 of the out-going council chairmen were re-elected as the party’s flag-bearers while five new entrants were elected.

The outgoing chair-men, who made the list of the party’s candidates seeking re-election for another two-year term in-clude, Christopher Nwo-bodo (Aninri); Matha-nus Nze (Awgu); Prince Cornelius Nnaji (Enugu East); Emeka Edeh (Enu-

DENNIS AGBOENUGU

Former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar, yesterday

visited Ukehe, the country home of Chief John Nwodo Jnr; where he condoled with the family over the death of Justice Obiageli Nwodo, wife of Nwodo Jnr; who recently died in a London hospital.

John Nwodo Jnr. was

the Minister for Informa-tion during the Abdusalami Abubakar administration as the military head of state.

General Abubakar de-scribed Nwodo as a younger brother, noting that death is a destiny that every man bears and prayed to God to grant the family fortitude to bear the loss.

He said ever since Nwodo served in his administra-tion, their relationship has

become stronger, describing the politician as the bridge between him and the rest of the world.

“He is an astute and fo-cused young man that pro-duces results. I came to know his wife, who is in the same profession with my wife. She bore her sickness with dig-nity and courage. I pray that she rests in peace,” Abuba-kar said.

He told Nwodo that each

and everyone will go the way of the late Justice Obiageli, noting that even though its painful to lose one’s life part-ner, death should not deter people from leaving their normal lives.

In his response, Nwodo said General Abubakar has been a very close friend of his family, noting that the former head of state visited his late wife in the hospital before she died.

ALIUNA GODWINEBONYI

State Chairman of the Bamanga Tukur fac-tion of the People

Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Amaoti Ugoji, has said that the new PDP is not in existence in Ebonyi State.

He also threatened to deal decisively with any member

of the party that factionalis-es or take steps to form the new PDP in the state.

The party chairman issued this warning in Abakaliki while addressing party faithful in a rally held at both Ezza North and Ezza South Local Government Areas of the state.

He added that PDP is united in Ebonyi, though

there are squabbles here and there among members of the party but that such is under control.

He said: “The most im-portant aspect of the divi-dend of democracy is peace. We want to thank our sup-porters for supporting PDP in Ebonyi State.

Should any one deviate from PDP any more, there

will be no second chance. We have only one PDP in the state. I want to inform you that PDP is very strong here, there is no division and we have no new PDP.

“If anybody, for what-ever reason, does not want to remain with PDP, such is free to join any other party, not to form factional execu-tives,” he added.

CHARLES OKEKEAWKA

The Nigerian Red Cross Society has accused Very Important Per-

sonalities, VIPs, in Anambra State of negligence, saying they often cause road acci-dents in the state.

The society regretted that the high rate of accidents on the roads was caused by reckless driving and obsti-nate disobedience to traffic regulations by road users, particularly very important personalities.

Speaking to journalists at the flagging-off of the 2013 World First Aid Day at the weekend in Awka, the Vice-Chairman of the Nigeria Red Cross Society, Anam-bra State, Dr Peter Emeka Katchy, said most road ac-cidents occur when key per-sonalities indulge in deliber-ate, obstructive behavior.

Katchy said such behav-iour like blocking of the highways, using security personnel as well as siren to clear every road user on sight to enable them move nonstop, are common with such personalities.

The vice-chairman, whose speech was on issues relating to ‘First Aid and Road Safety,’

the theme for this year’s World First Aid Day celebra-tion, listed other factors caus-ing road accidents in the state to include, deplorable federal roads and drunkenness.

Others he said are smok-ing of intoxicants and others by commercial vehicle driv-ers, who endanger the lives of responsible road users.

Katchy said the theme of this year’s celebration is de-signed to draw the attention of the whole world on the need to embrace road safety.

Shedding light on how they would celebrate the event under reference, Kat-chi, who spoke on behalf of the Chairman of Nigerian Red Cross Society, Anambra State, retired Justice P. A. C. Obidiegwu, said the three-week activities will take Red Cross Anambra to the roads.

He said the activities will also take the body to the Anambra State Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka, Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospitals and some private hospitals that have been as-sisting Red Cross to manage vehicular accident casualties.

He added that the pro-gramme will end with the honours and investiture awards on deserving citizens on October 6.

DENNIS AGBOENUGU

Two teenage beggars that went swim-ming at the weekend,

drowned inside Asata River along Bissala road, Indepen-dence Layout, Enugu, the state capital.

The two girls were said to be beggars at New Ha-ven Junction, where they do menial jobs like cleaning of cars to earn a living.

The younger of the two was said to have first got drowned while the elder one, identified as Chidera Nwekwe, 13, dived into the river for rescue mission and got drowned as well.

Chidera’s lifeless body was later recovered by div-ers but the first victim’s body was not found as at the time our correspondent left the scene later that evening.

Eyewitness account said the teenage beggers, were among those that clean the windscreen of motorists for alms at the New Haven traf-fic junction.

They were said to have

gone to swim at the nearby river, but in the process, the younger victim, whose remains could not be found got drowned and in a bid to rescue her, the other one, Chidera also got drowned.

The other kids swimming in the river started shouting for help even as some of them took to their heels.

When our reporter vis-ited the scene, a crowd of spectators gathered in antic-ipation as the divers made fruitless efforts to recover the missing body while the remains of the recovered one was laid on the pave-ment of the road covered with a wrapper.

The elder brother to the deceased, who identified him-self as Chukwuebuka Nwe-kwe, said he was informed about the incident on phone.

Chukwuebuka said they are from Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state, but live in Nkporogwu near Emene, adding that he was waiting for other fam-ily members so that the de-ceased could be buried by the riverside.

PDP releases result of LG primaries amid protests

Abubakar condoles with Nwodo over wife’s death

New PDP not in existence in Ebonyi, says Ugoji

Red Cross accuses VIPs of causing road accidents

Two beggars drown in Asata River

L-R: National Chairman, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh; Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi and governorship candidate, Dr. Willie Obiano, at the presentation of the APGA Most Faithful Party Man of Our Time Award to Obi in Amawbia, at the weekend.

gu North); Emeka Ozo-agu (Ezeagu) and Festus Ozoemena (Igbo Etiti).

Others are Bonaven-ture Onuh (Igbo Eze North); Festus Ozioko (Igbo Eze South); Augus-tine Nnamani (Isi-Uzo); Pastor Sam Iyiogwe (Nk-anu East); Ifeanyi Chine-du Iloeje (Udi) and Cornel

Onwubuya (Uzo-Uwani).The new candidates

are Victor Agbo (Enugu South); Afam Okereke (Nkanu West); Charles Ugwu (Nsukka); Jideofor Onyemechi (Oji River) and Amaechi Nwodo (Udenu).

Some stakeholders in Igboeze North, who are against the candidature

of the incumbent Chair-man, Onuh, told our reporter that they are working on something to upturn Onuh’s purported victory.

State party Chairman, Engr. Vita Abba, however, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the primary election in the 17

local government areas, saying the candidates emerged through a trans-parent process.

He commended mem-bers of the party for the maturity they displayed during the exercise, which ensured that the process was conducted without any ugly inci-

dent in all the councils.While congratulating

the candidates for their success in the primary election, Abba urged them to work hard in or-der to ensure the party’s victory in the council poll in which many par-ties are presenting candi-dates.

Katchi defined first aid as a help given at once to an in-jured person or to those who suddenly took ill, before call-ing a doctor.

He also described a first aider as someone trained to give first aid, one who can exhibit certain life-saving

skills, adding that the organ-isation has a road project programme tagged; “Sanity on our Roads,” wherein they adopted advocacy, sensitisa-tion and accident disaster reduction risk in educating people on how to prevent road accidents.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Monday, September 16, 2013 South East

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 South South Monday, September 16, 2013

L-R: Delta State governor’s wife, Roli, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II, and his wife, during a thanksgiving organised by Ewere Kingdom in Warri, yesterday.

Ogiame: Olu of Warri re-unites with subjects at special thanksgivingSOLA ADEBAYO WARRI

The Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse, yesterday held a

special re-union thanks-giving service with his subjects, days after mas-sive protests against his new order of managing his domain.

The ceremony held at the monarch’s church, Four Square Gospel Church, lo-cated within the premises of the ancient Itsekiri pal-ace (Aghofen), Ugbori in

Ajamimogha area of Warri metropolis, was attended by notable Itsekiri sons and daughters, including Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

Itsekiri chiefs, clad in tra-ditional costumes and youth leaders, were conspicuously present at the service. The monarch and his subjects exhibited the new found love at the church programme.

The Itsekiris thronged the church built by the mon-arch, five days after they compelled the royal father to dump Christianity in the

management of the king-dom.

The church service cli-maxed the peace efforts by relevant stakeholders in the aftermath of last week’s pro-tests by Itsekiri indigenes over the monarch’s decision to jettison the culture and tradition of his people and the adoption of Christian principles in the manage-ment of his domain.

Specifically, the Itsekiris were enraged that the mon-arch dropped the “Ogiame” title and refused to acknowl-edge greetings in traditional

manners in the new order.Uduaghan, an Itsekiri

from Abigborodo commu-nity in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, led effort leading to the resolution of the crisis.

He told the congregation that he defied the advice of his security details discour-aging him from coming to address the protesting Itsekiri youths in the heat of the protests at the pal-ace, adding that the youths were being incited by some unscrupulous leaders to engage in violent conducts

ERA deplores poor state of Yenagoa roads Uduaghan gets postgraduate medical college fellowship

JTF arrests 22 suspected oil thieves in Bayelsa, Delta

Police lack power to arrest us –New PDP

OLUSEGUN KOIKI AND EMMA GBEMUDU

Project Officer of E n v i r o n m e n t a l Rights Action, ERA,

in Bayelsa State, Alagoa Morris, has expressed concern over the deplor-able roads in Yenagoa, the state capital.

While describing the roads as a nightmare, Morris urged the government to rehabili-tate the bad roads to amelio-

rate the plight of the residents.The rights activist and envi-

ronmentalist, who spoke with our correspondent yesterday in Yenagoa, regretted that the internal roads had been ne-glected by the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson.

Moris said roads in the metropolis were riddled with potholes making them un-bearable for motorists to ply.

He said: “It would be so un-fortunate if the major roads look very beautifully con-structed and maintained while

the places people have the liv-ing homes are left in pristine conditions; where inhabitants have to wade through water and deep potholes to go out of the streets and return.

“This presents a scenario of the tale of two cities… where those in authority see only the major roads and never a glimpse of the inner streets.”

The ERA official regretted that most cars were parked on major roads in Yenagoa because their owners live in inaccessible streets and could not drive to their houses.

Delta State Gover-nor Emmanuel Uduaghan will on

Thursday be awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the National Postgraduate Med-ical College of Nigeria, at its 31st Annual Convocation.

The President of the col-lege, Prof. Victor C. Wakwe, disclosed this in a letter sent to the governor.

The ceremony holds at the college’s premises at Ijanikin, Lagos.

The award comes as the medical community has been

acknowledging Uduaghan’s pioneering efforts in boosting maternal and child health through a comprehensive coverage that gives free health services for pregnant women and free healthcare for new-borns up to the age of five.

Uduaghan, a medical doctor with a distinguished career, has been executing an ambitious programme of rehabilitat-ing, upgrading and equipping many hospitals in Delta State.

Under the project, the 60-year old Baptist Hospital in Eku was upgraded to a mod-

ern health institution with state-of-the-art facilities.

Similarly, the governor also upgraded facilities at the Delta State University Teach-ing Hospital, Oghara, which is now undertaking knee cap and kidney transplant.

The National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria was set up in 1979 to produce specialists in all branches of Medicine and Dentistry as well as determine standards and accredit medical institu-tions in the country for profes-sional postgraduate training.

EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

The Joint Task Force, JTF, yesterday said it had arrested 22 sus-

pected oil thieves including a Benin Republic national, Videgnon Medard.

The JTF also destroyed 56 illegal refineries in the creeks of Bayelsa and Delta states.

The task force said six suspects, who connived with Medard in sourcing il-legally refined products in the Niger Delta region, were apprehended by operatives of 3 Battalion of JTF during a patrol of Opodibobo creek

near Escravos in Warri South West Local Govern-ment Area of Delta State.

A statement issued by the JTF spokesman, Lt. Col. On-yema Nwachukwu, said the cartel was led by one Samp-son Omuti.

Other suspects include Romeo Orupade, Adena Wuriya, Blessing Julius and John Lomiegbene.

Nwachukwu said a large Cotonou boat containing 11 large plastic reservoirs and a speed boat were recovered from the suspects.

The spokesman added that the suspects were cur-rently undergoing prelimi-nary investigations to un-

cover their links and other collaborators in the illegal business.

He said: “In another anti-oil-theft operation, seven other suspects operating illegal oil distillation sites were arrested by troops of 3 and 19 Battalions covering the Sector 1 area of respon-sibility of the JTF.

“During the swift opera-tion that resulted in the ar-rests, the troops scuttled 16 illegal oil distillation camps and 21 Cotonou boats in Tukula, Gbaramatu King-dom, Odi II, Asugba, Beneth Island, Ekekudo, Escravos, Egwa, Egbeokute and Opo-diboba in Warri South West,

Warri South and Okpe local government areas of Delta State.”

Nwachukwu also dis-closed that seven illegal re-fineries located at Moboko, Irhado, Agbekudo, Obodo camp, Ajeosoho, Sapele water side and Omere in Ethiope West, Okpe and Sapele local government ar-eas of Delta State were also destroyed by the operatives.

He said: “The troops also scuttled 503 steel tanks, 22 cooking ovens, 44 plas-tic tanks, 16 large surface tanks, 12 dug out pits, 329 drums and 13 pumping ma-chines used for the illicit ac-tivity during the operation.

EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

The new Peoples Dem-ocratic Party, PDP) in Bayelsa State yes-

terday said the police lacked the power to declare its members wanted.

The group said it was go-ing to court to enforce its members’ fundamental hu-man rights which guaran-teed the freedom of associa-tion.

The state Commissioner of Police, Hilary Opara, had warned persons associat-ing with the new PDP in the state to desist or would be made to face the music.

But the interim leader of the new PDP in the state, Chief Richard Kpodo, told journalists that the group would go ahead with its deci-sion to inaugurate an office in Yenagoa this week.

Kpodo regretted that it was only in Bayelsa State that the police had declared opposition politicians want-ed for what they believed in, noting that in other places

the worse the police did was to close the office and not threatening to kill them.

He said: “We are not in-timidated by the police. We have not committed any of-fence, so we will go ahead with what we are doing and dare them to arrest us. Nige-ria is not a lawless society.”

Kpodo denied insinua-tions that they were loyalists fighting the cause of Gover-nor Timipre Sylva who was denied opportunity to seek a second term in office as gov-ernor of the state.

According to him, they are genuinely interested in what happens to the PDP.

He said: “I worked for Gov-ernor D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha as director of operations, Centre for Youth Develop-ment. I was senior special as-sistant to President Goodluck Jonathan as governor of the state on Strategy and Policy Monitoring before Sylva ap-pointed me senior special assistant and later special ad-viser on security. So what do they mean when they call us Sylva’s loyalists?”

while the crisis lasted.The governor, who de-

scribed the crisis as chal-lenging, attributed its peaceful resolution to di-vine intervention and con-certed efforts by prominent Itsekiri leaders, including the President of the Chris-tian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritse-jafor.

Uduaghan also disclosed how he resisted pressure from some quarters to order troops to dislodge the pro-testers from the palace and praised the monarch for his understanding and compro-mise as well as the Itsekiri youths for their peaceful conduct.

He appealed to communi-ty leaders to desist from in-citing the youths to engage in destructive actions.

The governor said: “I knew my security men were worried when I said I would mount the podium and address the protesters, but I knew nothing will hap-pen to me because I knew God was with me.

“In communities where there are crises, we must do extra work to attain peace; our leaders should work for peace rather than inciting youths to go to war.

“I want to thank our youths for their understand-ing in this matter, it was a difficult moment but our youths refused to be used as agents of destruction. If not for the Lord, what would Iwere Kingdom be saying now? It was a very difficult moment for us, but at the end of the day, God took con-trol of the situation.

SINA FADARE

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned President

Goodluck Jonathan to stop the impunity exhib-ited during the blockade of the Rivers State Gov-ernment House last week, saying such arrogance of power was a mere cheap political vendetta and vio-lation of the constitution.

The party in a state-ment issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Al-haji Lai Mohammed, said the police could not have

L-R: Director General of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr Ekpenyong Essien Ita, Cross River State governor, Lyel Imoke and his Akwa Ibom State counterpart, Governor Godswill Akpabio at the passing out parade and official commissioning of Cadet Officers in Lagos on Saturday.

Rivers crisis: Stop this impunity, APC tells Jonathan

NLC President to lead LP campaign in Anambra

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

The Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, has told the Independent

National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, not to tam-per with the nomination of Mr. Tony Nwoye as its candidate in the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State.

The PDP said this in a let-ter written to the electoral commission at the weekend by its counsel, Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), alerting INEC about media reports that Senator Andy Uba had been affirmed by the courts as the party’s candidate for the election.

Gadzama averred that the judgement of the court, which ordered for the maintenance of the status quo in the suit chal-lenging the legitimacy of the Anambra State PDP executive, did not in any way infer that the nomina-tion of Nwoye through the primary conducted by the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, should be upturned.

The PDP counsel noted that the conduct of pri-

OBIORA IFOHABUJA

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Pres-ident, Abdulwaheed

Omar yesterday said that he will lead the Labour Par-ty, LP, governorship cam-paign in Anambra State.

Briefing journalists at the weekend shortly after its 16th National Executive Council, NEC, Omar said that workers in Anambra State have suf-fered in previous regimes and wondered why they will toy with the oppor-tunity to enthrone an LP government in the state.

While endorsing the can-didature of Ifeanyi Uba, Omar said: “We have now resolved that we will not only go and cast our votes

Gadzama made copi-ous references to judicial pronouncements which he said were in tandem with Section 87 (1)(4)(b)(i) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended), and which he said “confirmed that only the NEC of the party has the power to conduct pri-maries for governorship elections in Nigeria.”

He added: “Therefore, the fact that the court di-rected the party to recog-nise Ejike Oguebego and work with him in respect of its affairs in Anambra State does not translate to the recognition of Uba, who never participated in the primaries organised by

had the audacity to act the way it did in block-ing Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his guests from his residence if they were not acting the script from higher authorities.

It, however, warned that giving presidential backing to the police or any national institution to commit impu-nity and violate the nation’s constitution is the fastest means to destroy such in-stitutions and erode public confidence in them.

“In the case of the police, what is happening in Riv-ers is sending a wrong sig-nal to the polity concerning the role of the force in 2015.

constitutional and statuto-ry powers to do so, to the ex-clusion of all other organs, Gadzama said that such recognition is necessary to ensure that the polity is not unduly overheated as INEC’s silence on the issue has led to misconceptions, most notably the recent re-port by media houses that Uba had been declared the Anambra State gubernato-rial candidate by the Fed-eral High Court.

He reminded INEC “that its constitutional and statu-tory mandate requires it to be dispassionate, objec-tive and neutral between or among political parties’ candidates.”

the NEC of the party.“Uba cannot therefore

by any form of ingenuity become the Anambra State PDP gubernatorial candi-date, when he was never an aspirant along with several others at the primary elec-tion that was transmitted by media houses in Nigeria and watched both nation-ally and globally.”

While urging INEC to tow the path of legality and accept the nomination form of Hon. Nwoye, who is the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Anambra State, having won the primaries of August 24, organised by the only appropriate organ of the party that has the

How can a malleable police be trusted to be neutral and to help ensure the conduct of a free and fair election – with the President as a can-didate – in 2015?” the APC queried.

Regretting that the Ni-geria Police Force has be-come a tool in the hands of the President to harass, intimidate, arrest and per-secute all his real and per-ceived political enemies, the APC stated: “Since the onset of the President Jon-athan-inspired political logjam in Rivers State and the implosion of his party, the PDP, the President has been depending on the

Nigeria Police to shore up his dwindling political fortune. The insubordina-tion of the Rivers State Su-per Police Commissioner Mbu; the police-sponsored fracas in the Rivers State House of Assembly; the assault on the five visiting governors by thugs work-ing under the direction and protection of the state Commissioner of Police and the unlawful occupa-tion of the new PDP secre-tariats at Abuja and Lagos are clear examples.”

The party noted that as far as the crisis in Rivers is concerned, the buck stops on the President’s desk.

mary elections was the exclusive function of the NEC of political parties as stipulated by Section 87 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) and therefore a change of leadership, even if enforced on the party, cannot alter the job proce-durally done by the NEC, which produced Nwoye as the party’s candidate.

The party appealed to Jega to maintain the in-tegrity of INEC under his leadership, saying: “Sadly, this order of court, most especially, the third para-graph which states that the 1st and 2nd Defendants (the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Independent National Electoral Com-mission) should recognise and deal with the 1st Plain-tiff (Ejike Ogbuebego) in all matters in Anambra State has been badly mis-construed and the position of the court deliberately and mischievously misrep-resented.

“Some media houses even reported that the court had upheld Uba’s nomina-tion as the PDP candidate in the Anambra State gov-ernorship election, when nothing of the sort trans-

and fold our arms after sensitising the workers and other Nigerians, but we will monitor the collation, the counting up to the declara-tion of the results. We will encourage every worker to ensure he or she will be part of the monitoring.

“Anambra is very unique particularly to workers. Not only workers, even market women and other people, therefore I think Anam-bra people are desperately looking for a change and a change for the better.”

He said that the Labour Party will campaign in Anambra State as it in Edo and Ondo States. “We will tell the sceptics that LP is the party that Nigerians need if they want develop-ment as being witnessed in Edo and Ondo states.”

pired in court.”PDP added: “The court

order does not in any way relate to the nomina-tion and election of Hon. Nwoye as the gubernato-rial candidate of the PDP in Anambra State, (which nomination and selection has not been invalidated or nullified by any court in Nigeria), rather it is with respect to who is the state chairman of the PDP in the state. The issue of who is the valid gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Anambra State does not in any way concern the state chairman of the party in Anambra State; rather it is a function of the NEC.”

PDP to INEC: Recognise Nwoye as our candidate

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Monday, September 16, 2013

Double candidacy: APGA trails PDP’s path

14

The double-candidacy bug that caught the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the primaries to

pick the its candidate for the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State seems to have also infected the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the state and is likely to dim its chances at the poll if not resolved on time.

While the issues over the PDP primaries that produced Senator Andy Uba and Mr. Tony Nwoye was predicted given the crises that have factionalised the state chapter of the party, the parallel congress that produced Dr. Chike Obidigbo as APGA’s flag bearer, one week after the Victor Umeh-led faction of the party had elected Chief Wiilie Obiano, was a shocker to many who had thought that the leadership crisis in the party was over.

Obiano had polled 817 out of the 1,076 votes that were cast at the August 24 congress described by delegates as the most peaceful in the state in recent times and a true reflec-tion of the wishes of the party members.

He defeated other aspirants including Mrs. Uche Ekwunife (150 votes); Chief Paul Odenigbo (49 votes); Emeka Nwogbo (22 votes) and John Nwosu (18 votes). Former Minister of State for Transport, John Eme-ka, whose withdrawal was turned down be-cause of his absence got one vote, while 16 votes were voided.

But, despite the assumption that the ex-ercise was a true reflection of the wishes of the party members, Maxi Okwu, the national chairman of the party’s faction that picked Obidigbo, said his group is fielding a candi-date in order not to be caught off guard, as he is challenging the recognition of Umeh as APGA national chairman by the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Okwu said the special congress to elect the governorship candidate was in line with Sec 11(11:4) of the party’s constitution and code of conduct, adding that the 450 delegates who participated in the exercise voted by show of hands, as Obidigbo was a sole aspirant in the race.

In his acceptance speech, Obidigbo said that APGA is one family. “There is no bit-terness among APGA members. Every member is working towards achieving our dream of producing the next governor of Anambra State,” he said.

The Anambra North-born industrial-ist, who was disqualified alongside other aspirants by the party, including former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, had earli-er accused Governor Peter Obi of bias and deceit in his handling of the processes that led to the party’s primaries.

But the state chairman of the party, Chief Mike Kwentoh, who insisted that Obiano remains APGA’s candidate, dis-missed the parallel congress. He described Okwu and his co-travellers as dissidents who want to divide the party, saying the pre-sentation of two candidates would confuse the electorate and affect the party’s chance of retaining the leadership of the state.

“We do not welcome double candidature,

it is alien to us in APGA and we have just one candidate in the person of Willy Obia-no for the governorship election. Those try-ing to divide our party are dissidents and I call their actions rascality of the highest order,” he said.

The state Commissioner for Lands, Sur-vey and Planning, John Akirika, who also dismissed the emergence of Obidigbo, how-ever said that APGA is not threatened by the development.

His words: “Firstly, I am not aware of any other congress outside the congress duly convened and held at the Women Develop-ment Centre, Awka in which the leader of the party, Governor Peter Obi and other national officers of the party participated. Secondly, nobody ever raised any issue ques-tioning the authenticity and legality of that congress. Chief Maxi Okwu never raised any molecule of protest against that congress. So, it is a very great surprise for me to hear that another congress was purportedly held.

“I will say that the purported congress organised by Okwu that produced Dr. Chike

Obidigbo did not satisfy the requirements of the law, neither will it be acceptable to the leadership of the party. An APGA event in which the National Leader, Mr. Peter Obi, the authentic National Chairman of the party confirmed by the judiciary, Chief Victor Umeh and other national officers were not there cannot stand the test of time. So, sound-ing personal and legal, I don’t think that the presentation of Chike Obidigbo will stand.”

The optimism, notwithstanding, some analysts however opined that the threat by the Okwu-led faction is not one to be ignored, especially as it had prior to the August 24 congress challenged the eligibil-ity of the Umeh/Obi group to elect APGA’s candidate for the November 16 poll in a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010, re-serves the right for the conduct of gover-norship primaries to pick gubernatorial candidate strictly on the National Execu-tive Committee, NEC, of a political party.

Okwu and Messrs Ibrahim Carefor, Dick-son Ogu, Gbenga Afeni and Abubakar Ad-

amu, sued for themselves and other national officers of the party elected during the par-ty’s national convention of April 8, 2013.

In the suit with reference number: FHC/Abj/CS/563/2013, the plaintiffs averred that the APGA convention and election on February 10, 2011 in which Umeh and Sani Shinkafi were re-elected National Chair-man and Secretary respectively was by voice vote contrary to Article 18(4) of the party’s constitution which stipulates that elections should be by secret ballots only.

Against this backdrop, they specifically asked the court to determine “whether the second defendant (Shinkafi) can still validly occupy the position of National Secretary of APGA in 2013 when the con-stitution of the party provides for a maxi-mum tenure of eight years and he was first elected as National Secretary of the party 10 years ago on January 10, 2003.”

They also prayed the court for an order directing Umeh, Shinkafi and all others pur-portedly elected with them in the February 2011 national convention by voice vote to va-cate their various offices as their “election” was not in accordance with Article 18(4) of the APGA constitution which prescribes that elections shall be by secret ballot.

Furthermore, the plaintiffs asked the court to declare that Umeh and Shinkafi “having been expelled from the party, wheth-er lawfully or unlawfully, regularly or irregu-larly, cannot validly continue to occupy the positions of National Chairman and Nation-al Secretary respectively when the suit they filed challenging their said expulsion has not been decided and in their favour.”

When the matter first came up for hearing, the presiding judge, Justice A.R Mohammed, ruling in an exparte motion seeking leave to serve the respondents the motion of notice, held that the prayers of the applicants were not out of place.

Besides the suit, more worrisome is the declaration by the Okwu faction that the par-ty lacked the constitutional capacity to field a candidate for the forthcoming election.

Bernard Akoma, the National Publicity Secretary of the faction, who made the po-sition known, insisted that Obiano would be disqualified if his candidature is chal-lenged by the opposition in court even if he wins the poll.

He said: “Despite the emergence of Dr. Obiano as the Victor Umeh/Peter Obi-led APGA candidate in the forthcoming gov-ernorship election in Anambra State, the party may after all not contest the gover-norship race.”

“Should the same Umeh and Shinkafi who was also not properly elected to the of-fice of the national chairman and secretary according to the constitution of the party forward any candidate’s name to INEC for recognition, it will amount to building a house on sand dome. They may just be wet-ting the ground for the aggrieved members of the party as well as its opponents who are just waiting to sue the party,” he said.

While APGA faithful await the decision of the court on the matter, political pundits are of the view that other parties in the con-test – All Progressives Congress, APC, and Labour Party, LP, may become the prime gainers from the squabble if not resolved on time, as both parties have carefully avoided the acrimony associated with primaries.

How the parties, particularly APGA, which has Anambra as its stronghold re-solves the dual candidature crisis will de-termine if it is to continue to pilot the af-fairs the state for another four years or not.

Double candidacy: APGA trails PDP’s path

Obi Umeh

FELIX NWANERI writes on the parallel primaries organised by the factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Anambra State, which may dim the party’s chance of retaining the governorship seat that it has occupied in the last seven years.

The November 16 governorship election in Anambra State is gathering momentum. The candidates have emerged, the par-ties are equally ready and are now on the campaign trail. But Anambra is a unique state, especially where elections of this nature are concerned. It is in Anambra that the word ‘God fa-ther’ in politics gained wide acceptability and usage. From Gov-ernors Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Chris Ngige and presently Peter Obi, Anambra State politics have always come with its unique-ness. So, what are the expectations this time around? Are the Godfathers still around the corner pulling the strings behind the curtains? What are the permutations this time around?These we serve as we examine the strengths and weaknesses of each of the political parties and their selling points, as well as the value of each candidate to their political parties. Most importantly, the effect zoning would have on the out-come of the poll.

It is a must read! Keep a date with National Mirror on Tuesday.

BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF ANAMBRA

Politics National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 201314

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 15Monday, September 16, 2013 Views

CALLISTUSOKE

Callistusoke@nationalmirroronline.net 08054103275 (SMS ONLY)

HeartBeat

THE LACK OF EXTENSIVE AND INTENSIVE

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OUR LEADERS

AND THE VARIOUS CORE STAKEHOLDERS

IS THE MISSING LINK IN NIGERIAN LEADERSHIP

STYLE

DEATH IS INEVITABLE AND THERE ARE TWO

MAJOR FRAILTIES THAT READILY

SPELL IT: AGE AND INFIRMITY

To realize that you do not under-stand is a virtue; not to realize that you do not understand is a defect – Lao Tzu

Read again and again the quote above by the 6th century Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu. Do you feel

the paronomasia (sorry, pun) effect? I in-tended it to capture the hubris that has become the geopolitical posturing of the Nigerian nationalities and sub nation-alities on their stake holding positions. The Alhaji Mujahedeen Asari-Dokubo humongous presidential isolationism, a repudiation of political consensualism, which I call Asari-Dokubo syndrome, of-fers us a window into how to approach the governance gaps at the various levels of government in the country.

In my last Monday piece, Exorcising the demons in PDP, I highlighted the con-vulsive siege mentality that has led the different geopolitical regions to recede to the comfort of their cultural boundaries and thus eliminating a bigger-picture-perception of what is good for Nigeria. In doing this, threats have been elevated to statecraft art. Uncomfortable with this de-

Death is inevitable and there are two major frailties that readily spell it: age and infirmity. When

age or ill-health corners a man, what should he do? Should he take a back seat to nurture himself to life or live with the stress of statecraft and stardom?

State assignments and living our life ambitions could be very stressful. It com-pounds health challenges and ages man fast. That is why young leaders barely 40 years on entering the state house get grey in less than three years. Did you no-tice how fast ex-President Bill Clinton of the USA got his hairs grey no sooner he occupied the White House? What about our own Babatunde Raji Fashola?

When men in power discountenance these two inevitabilities, they want to rule their world for life. They want to rule till death. They want to die in power, in the state house or on the stage. Even then, they are no longer the rulers. It is what or who rules them that are the real rulers of state. Who then are the rulers of men who contend with age and ill health?

The first is the cocktail of drugs on which they live, the syringes and the in-halers in their breast pockets, the mini life support in their underbellies, and the personal physicians that are on their beck and call. The second category of the rulers is the spouses of such men in power, while the third category is their personal aides and advisers who form a cult around them. When this is the

circumstance under which a superstar rules his world (in sport or music) or a ruler governs his people, public interest is no longer at stake. Private or survival-ist instincts are rather at play.

But these often bring conflict among the members of the cult. There will be those who would be after the star or the leader’s vault. There would those an-gling to succeed him. There will be the optimists who believe his recovery or sustainability whether in good or bad shape is a guarantee of their access to state power and public wealth. Intrigues rule. Governance suffers. For us in the media, it is good business. We are fed all sorts of innuendoes and speculations, with very good exclusives that sell our papers and popularize our channels or brands. We cast bold, banner or scream-ing headlines on the state of health of such men of influence or superstars. In fact we prepare their obituaries and analyses, waiting for the inevitable.

Mobutu Sese Seko offers lesson from Zaire. Houphouet Boigny is another les-son from Cote d’Ivoire just as Kamuzu Banda is from Malawi. In the life of our own Sani Abacha and the promoter of servant leadership in our polity, ex-Pres-ident Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, we have local examples.

Pope Benedict XV1, President Robert Mugabe and Governor Danbaba Suntai are related somehow. They are all liv-ing. Pope Benedict was the former head of the Catholic Church and the head of

Warped nationalism, compromised polity

Puzzling ruling-for-life syndrome

state of the Vatican; Mugabe now on his sixth term as President of Zimba-bwe. Governor Suntai is presiding over the largely rural Taraba State. They are rulers of men. They are men of power. They control state resources. They are also related by inevitable human frail-ties with which I opened this essay: in-firmity and age. Pope Benedict is almost 90. President Mugabe is at the finishing line of the 80s. Governor Suntai is bat-tling health.

What is the ideal thing to do in these frames? Mugabe has just been sworn in to continue ruling Zimbabwe for the next five years. Governor Suntai has just been flown back to Nigeria after a 10 month long medical holiday to finish his second term. Their return was well cele-brated. But Pope Benedict, a few months back ‘retired’, acknowledging that his frame of health and age could not carry the burden of his office any longer. The decision attracted global acclaim. This is faith in his lieutenants and subjects, especially borne by a concern for stabil-

ity in the Catholic Church. Between the action of the Pope and the contrasting resolve of many other leaders to rule for life is the definition of sincerity in ser-vice.

I do not have on my bookshelves yet the two best sellers of my former col-league in National Concord, Olusegun Adeniyi, who was tapped from ThisDay to serve the late President Yar’Adua as Special Adviser on Media until the de-mise of the former leader. He chronicled the last 100 days of his boss in two books: Abacha and Power; Politics and Death. In them he revealed the scheming and brinkmanship behind the thrones of sick or aged leaders. This is the stuff that made his books intriguing.

korewarith@yahoo.com, 08090585723 (SMS only)

ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE

A

Mirror of the moment

velopment, Professor Friday Ndubuisi in his last Thursday essay in this newspaper, Still on echoes of secession, forcefully can-vassed the convocation of a national con-ference for us redesign the most beneficial political architecture for the country.

In this season of unreasonable emo-tionalism, the larger issue of a grossly deficient and inefficient political class has been subsumed in the raging hegemonic contests. We have gaping leadership gaps at all strata of leadership in the country. For us to get our bearing right, let us con-textualize our expectations of the ideal political leader. He should have a vision and mission, set strategy, motivate his/her team into achieving results. This is how high-impact leaders operate globally. The level of success achieved in this enter-prise depends on a number of factors, of which emotional intelligence is the most important.

In political cultures where perfor-mance is ingrained, it is a settled issue

Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mail@nationalmirroronline.net mirrorlagos@yahoo.com or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs. Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.

how a leader could get endorsement for a second or third term, as the case may be, from the various constituents of the polity. Such endorsement goes beyond emotionalism. There are metrics of mea-suring performance, and the verdict that a leader is good has very little or nothing to do with his/her perception, but rather it has everything to do with the perception of others. The mostly decided rewarding approach therefore, is that good leaders take the time to understand their various constituents, and the spheres of influence they interface with. Understanding the core stakeholders’ perceptions affords the leaders a source of intelligence, a learning opportunity, and the ability to keep lines of communication open.

The lack of extensive and intensive communication between our leaders and the various core stakeholders is the miss-ing link in Nigerian leadership style. Once Nigerian leaders get elected they only lis-ten to their own voices; and their immedi-ate constituency (culture area) expropri-ate them. This message was well delivered by Asari-Dokubo recently.

If I understand him very well, he does not feel President Jonathan is accountable to all Nigerians; he also does not feel Mr. President is bound by the opinions of the leaders of other ethnic nationalities in the country; he believes force is a useful instrument of statecraft, and lastly, that the second term bid of Jonathan does not depend on what other Nigerians feel.

The Asari-Dokubo syndrome is emana-tion of a diseased polity, where national values are absent and loyalty to the system

is shifting. I hold the North responsible for this negative and system destructive culture. For the many years they were in charge of the affairs of the nation medioc-rity was a national sub culture and effec-tive leadership was discounted.

The institutional decadence and col-lapse that has hobbled the country and re-duced Nigeria to a near failed state was not the creation of Jonathan not that of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo before him. The wob-bling foundation on which the nation’s su-perstructures was laid after the January 15, 1966 collapse of the First Republic was constructed by military leaders of north-ern extraction. Ceaseless defederalizing measures which began with the creation of 12 states out of the four regions by the Generation Yakubu Gowon in 1967 and resulted in the 36 statelets into which Ni-geria is divided were taken to ensure the hegemonic dominance of the North. Go into archives; all the reconfigurations of Nigeria were done by fiat.

Take the issue of fiscal federalism. No-where is its total repudiation underscored than the insignificant weight given deri-vation principle when crude oil became the major foreign exchange earner of the country in post civil war Nigeria. At one time it attracted 1.5 percent. The injustice sticks out when it is understood that in the First Republic, the regions were al-lowed a substantial control of the natural resources through the adopted the 50 per-cent derivation principle. Then the West-ern Region, Northern Region and Eastern Region had their cocoa, cotton and ground nut, and palm oil respectively.

16 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netEditorial Monday, September 16, 2013

DOES THE COAL TO POWER PROJECT HAVE AN ANGELIC POWER OF ITS OWN

TO TRANSFORM THE OPERATORS OF THE

POWER SECTOR?

Speaking recently at a sensi-tisation workshop on solid minerals sector develop-ment in Abuja, President

Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that his administration was putting machin-ery in place to generate 30 percent of the nation’s energy needs from coal. The prelude to the consummation of the plan was the signing of a Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU) on coal-to-power between the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Develop-ment and HTG Pacific Energy Consor-tium, an indigenous firm with a Chi-nese partner, for the construction of the Ezimo Coal Power plant in Enugu State with a mandate to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

Ordinarily, an initiative of this nature should be commended, coming from a dispensation that has made a commitment to delivering on the ener-gy sector and in view of the centrality of electric power to the over-all health of a nation’s economy. After all, coal power is a veritable source of electric energy worldwide. Available statistics show that coal-fired electricity plants account for over 41 percent of global average of energy generation mix. In the United States, it accounts for 52 percent of electricity generated; South Africa 93 percent; 79 percent in China,

87 percent in Poland and 54 percent in Australia, etc.

Another factor that recommends the exploitation of coal-sourced electric power is that it is cheaper and cleaner than gas and hydro-fired plants. Indeed, it is generally ac-claimed to be more environmentally friendly. Luckily, too, the documented coal reserve in the country is put at 639 million metric tons with a capacity to generate 4,000 megawatt of electric-ity. It is estimated that the whole coun-try warehouses about 2.75 billion tons of inferred coal reserves. All of these make the Jonathan government’s proposal an attractive option.

However, as attractive as the alter-native appears, it is doubtful whether it can truly lead the nation out of its perennial and protracted energy crisis. Firstly, it signals a loss of focus on the privatization of the power

sector as it relates to the sold succes-sor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). Barely seven days ago, the FG was still mouthing its endless refrain of pre-paring grounds for the handover of the ‘Gencos’ and ‘Discos’ to their new owners. The alleged cause of delay is the FG’s inability to resolve the issue of the settlement of PHCN workers’ severance benefits.

Secondly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led-government has been unable as yet to make any concrete headway in the improvement of pow-er supply in spite of several billions of naira that have gone down the drain in the name of power sector improve-ment. In addition and perhaps more disturbing, is the fact that the coal to power project is conceived within the context of the old decadent, failed, and corrupt electricity industry structure, which has kept the nation in perpetual darkness for over five decades.

The NIPPs project of the ex-Presi-dent Olusegun Obasanjo government that gulped billions of dollars failed to deliver electric service to the people; it was not because it was not a feasible project, but because of the corrupt and inefficient agencies and individu-als the government entrusted with the power project. Has anything changed

in that regard? Does the coal-to-power project have an angelic power of its own to transform the operators of the power sector?

Therefore, while we think that the coal-to-power project is laudable, it is our considered opinion that the FG should first of all conclude the priva-tization process it started by elimi-nating all the obstacles in the way of final and successful hand-over of the Discos and Gencos to the new private investors, decentralize power genera-tion and distribution to the federating units, dismantle the PHCN with its ap-paratus of fraud and corrupt practic-es, come out with an affordable tariff template and get the private operators to significantly increase and improve electricity supply to consumers.

Some civil society groups in the country had petitioned the Jonathan government to the United Nations over its outrageous increased fixed rate electricity tariffs in a regime of epileptic electricity supply and total power failure most times. They deposed that governments are con-stituted is to ensure the security and protection of citizens’ live and proper-ty, as well as promoting their welfare. In Nigeria, however, the expectations have remained a mirage. It’s really a sad commentary.

Generation of electricity from coal

ON THIS DAYThe trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel

Noriega began in the United States. Noriega (born Feb-ruary 11, 1934) is a former Panamanian politician and soldier. He was the military governor of Panama from 1983 to 1989. In the 1989 invasion of Panama by the US, he was removed from power, captured, detained and flown to the US for trial. He bagged a seven-year jail term in July 2010 for drug trafficking, money laundering, etc.

September 16, 1991 September 16, 2007

Mercenaries working for Blackwater Worldwide allegedly shot and killed 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad; and all criminal charges against them were later dismissed, spark-ing outrage in the Arab world. Blackwater Worldwide is a private United States’ military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. It is currently the largest of the State Department’s three private security contractors.

September 16, 1992

Black Wednesday: Black Wednesday refers to September 16, 1992 when the British Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) for being unable to keep it above its agreed lower limit. The pound sterling was devalued against the German mark and George Soros (a high profile currency market investor) made over £1 billion profit by short selling the sterling.

All the Facts, All the SidesAll the Facts, All the SidesA PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD

BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

STEVE AYORINDE MANAGING DIRECTOR / CEO

BOLAJI TUNJI DAILY EDITOR

SEYI FASUGBA SUNDAY EDITOR

GBEMI OLUJOBI SATURDAY EDITOR

DOZIE OKEBALAMA COORDINATOR, EDITORIAL BOARD

CALLISTUS OKE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

ISE-OLUWA IGE ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

KAYODE BALOGUN JNR SM, STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

FRANK OBOH HEAD, GRAPHICS

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A2 18 Business CourageCourage

A Publication of GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTDBARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

SEMIU SALAMI EDITORADEJUWON OSUNNUYI STAFF WRITERBIODUN ALADE REPORTEREMMANUEL OGBONNAYA REPORTER

SEYI OKUMODI SENIOR GRAPHIC ARTIST

BusinessCourage

Cover

Last Thursday, when news broke that the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Devel-

opment Company (SPDC), had agreed to enter negations with the Bodo Community in Go-kana Local Government Area of Rivers State with an offer of N7.5 billion compensation for the 2008 oil spill, many had thought that the issue, which had generated lots of interna-tional debate and legal fi re-works would be resolved after all.

Shell, Business Courage gathered, had made the offer at the settlement negotiations be-tween the company and repre-sentatives of the community in

The prospect of an early resolution of the acrimonious legal battle between the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Bodo Community in Rivers State may have crumbled following the rejection of the N7.5 billion compensation offer which the community described as an “insult, cruel and derisory” offer.

By Biodun Alade Port Harcourt, having accepted responsibility for the oil spill which polluted the waterways of the fi shing community.

Shell’s spokesman, Joseph Obari, said that the company took part in the settlement ne-gotiations with two objectives — “to make a generous offer of compensation to those who have suffered hardship as a result of the two highly regret-table operational spills in 2008, and to make progress in rela-tion to the cleanup.”

He had on Thursday, last week, expressed hope that the offer would meet the expecta-tions of the Bodo community whom he said has, along with Shell, have committed their full support for the cleanup process, currently in progress, with the support of Bert Ron-

haar, the former Netherlands Ambassador to Nigeria.’’

“We await the community’s response to our compensation proposal, and we’re pleased to have made progress in relation to the cleanup,” said Obari who claimed that Shell had also pro-posed a series of interim mea-sures to begin the removal of oil from the area. “Of course, the success of any interim mea-sures and fi nal remediation depends on the cessation of oil theft and illegal refi ning in the area,” he said.

He added that oil theft, which usually affected the envi-ronment, had remained the ma-jor cause of oil pollution in the Niger Delta, even as he insisted that the volume of the spill and number of those who lost their means of livelihood were exag-gerated.

However, by weekend, it ap-pears that the negotiation had hit a dead end as reports indi-cated that the community out rightly rejected the offer, which they allegedly called “an insult, cruel and derisory”.

Martyn Day, a partner with the UK law fi rm of Leigh Day who represented the Bodo com-munities, said Shell’s offer was rejected unanimously at a large public meeting in Bodo. “The amount offered for most claim-ants equated to two to three years’ net lost earnings where-as the Bodo creek has already been out of action for fi ve years

and it may well be another 20-25 before it is up and running properly again. I was not at all surprised to see the community walk out of the talks once they heard what Shell was offering,” Day said.

Shell, which took a top Lon-don negotiating team including a barrister, a QC and other le-gal experts to the negotiations, had indicated that it wanted to be fair, saying that “We have an interest in sensible and fair compensation being paid quick-ly to those who have been genu-inely impacted by these highly regrettable spills.”

Chairman of the Bodo council, Mene Kogbara, while expressing disgust at the of-fer made by the oil giant, said that Shell continue to treat the people of Bodo with the same contempt as they did from the start when the company tried in 2009 to buy the community off by offering it the total sum of £4,000 to settle the claims.

“We told them in 2009 the people of Bodo are a proud and fi ercely determined community. Our habitat and income have been destroyed by Shell oil. The claim against Shell will not re-solve until they recognise this and pay us fully and fairly for what they have done,” Kogbara said.

Similarly, Tal Kottee, Bodo elected regent, said that the community had been expect-ing a good settlement from Shell, adding that their liveli-hoods here have been totally destroyed. “It’s an outrage that it has taken so long for a clean-up and to get compensation,” he said.

Patrick Porobunu, leader of a Bodo fi shing community de-scribed Shell’s action as “cruel, very wicked. It has given us nothing again. People here are very angry. All we have is pov-erty because of Shell. We have no electricity, no health. Our suffering goes on.”

Bodo oil spill devastation

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A3 19Business CourageCourage

BC

International and region-al groups condemned Shell, which is the largest company on the London stock exchange with a market capitalisation of £140.9bn, for what they called its “meanness”. They accused Shell of fi nancial racism and applying different standards to clean-ups in Nigeria compared with the rest of the world.

“Is it because we are Nige-rian and poor that they offer so little for the damage they have caused? Crude oil is the same in every country. Does the black man not also have red blood?” said one fi sherman who was also part of the Bodo meet-ing, stating that “This would be different in the US or London.”

Environmentalist and chair of Oilwatch International, Nnimmo Bassey, said that “It is a big shame on Shell that they are unwilling to pay a fraction of their profi t as compensation after subjecting the people and the environment to such un-thinkable harm they would not dare allow in their home coun-try.”

Similarly, Pastor Christian, a former fi sherman and preach-er from Bodo, said that “If the money had come, then people would have been able to restart their businesses. I lost every-thing in the pollution. Now, nothing will change and pov-erty will only increase. This of-fer was derisory. We don’t want our children to suffer again like

we did.”As things stand, experts say

a London court is now likely to decide how much the giant Anglo-Dutch company should pay the 11,000 fi shermen and others from the Bodo commu-nity who lost their income when the 50-year-old Shell-operated Trans Niger pipeline burst twice within a few months in 2008-09.

Five years after the spills, the creeks and waterways around Bodo have an apocalyptic feel. The air stinks of crude, long slicks of oil drift in and out of the blackened, dying mangrove swamps and a sheen of oil cov-ers the tidal mudfl ats.

“It’s everywhere. The wind blows the oil on our vegetable crops, our food tastes of oil, our children are sick and we get skin rashes. Life here has stopped,” said Barilido, a fi sh-erman reduced to collecting wood.

Eleven thousand farmers and fi shermen in Bodo who claimed that their land, rivers and wetlands were spoiled by two “massive” spills in the Ni-ger River delta in 2008 had in March last year fi led a suit in a London court against the oil gi-ant after talks failed to produce a deal.

The claimants, through their lawyers, Martyn Day had claimed that “The spills have caused extensive and long-last-ing devastation to their lands

and fi shing waters and have a profoundly detrimental impact on the life of the community.”

The Shell/Bodo commu-nity issue appears to have re-ignited discussions on the United Nations Environmen-tal Programme (UNEP) damn-ing report of the destruction to the ecosystem in Ogoni land by years of unchecked oil spillage through activities of multi-na-tional oil companies operating in the area.

More than two years after the UNEP’s damning report the Federal Government is still foot-dragging with the imple-mentation of the remedial ac-tions contained in the report.

The report released in 2011contained detailed records of oil spills in Ogoni land and also revealed the extent of dev-astation caused by more than fi fty years of unchecked oil spills on the environment and human lives with little or no effort to clean up the environment.

A Presidential committee set up to effect the immediate implementation of the report, especially on areas of environ-mental clean- up or remedy-ing the damages done to the ecosystem as well as halt the continued loss of human lives in the region has remained co-matose. Apart from the emer-gency water supplied to some communities by the Presiden-tial committee in the wake of its formation, nothing concrete has been done concerning the UNEP report.

The report had spurred im-mediate reactions in several quarters, mainly from con-cerned groups and individuals, which insisted that the Federal Government should make sure all those implicated in the re-port, especially the multina-tional oil companies are actively involved in order to guarantee

full implementation of the rec-ommendations of the report.

The report categorically re-vealed that the restoration of the negative impacts on man-grove stands and swamp lands will take up to 30 years, adding that families are suffering due to the loss of means of liveli-hood, mainly fi shing and agri-culture.

Parts of the report, which covered a period of one year, read; “Some areas, which ap-pear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contami-nated underground and action to protect human health and re-duce the risks to affected com-munities should occur without delay”

Again, a major new indepen-dent scientifi c assessment, car-ried out by UNEP indicated that pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the region has penetrated further and deeper than it appears on the surface.

For the period of over a 14 months, the UNEP team exam-ined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical re-cords and engaged over 23,000 people at local community meetings level

Furthermore, detailed soil and groundwater contamina-tion investigations were con-ducted at 69 sites, which ranged in size from 1,300 square meters in Barabeedom-K.dere, Gokana LGA to 79 hect-ares in Ajeokpori-Akpajo, in El-eme LGA.

Altogether more than 4,000 samples were analysed, in-cluding water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifi cally for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes.

Last year, Amnesty Interna-tional demanded that oil giant

Shell, should pay an initial sum of $1 billion (N154bn) to clean up and remedy the damaged done to the ecosystems in the Delta region due to oil spillage from its facility as recommend-ed by the UNEP.

Aster Van Kregten, Amnesty International Researcher for Ni-geria said Shell which posted profi ts of $7.2 billion between July and September should as a sign of seriousness pay the initial amount to set up a fund for the clean-up.

Using the example of Bodo village in Gokana area of Ogoni, she said two consecutive spills were not stopped for about eight weeks thereby devastating the environment and livelihood of the people due to Shell’s in-action, this she said continues to this day.

According to her, the degree of devastation done to the en-vironment and Bodo commu-nity of Gokana in Ogoni land is one of many such incidences and the Nigerian government has failed to ensure compliance with its laws by the company.

“Bodo is a disaster that should not have happened, yet it is one that due to Shell’s inac-tion has continued to this day. The situation in Bodo is symp-tomic of the wider situation in the Niger Delta oil industry. The authorities simply do not control the oil companies. Shell and other oil companies have the freedom to act or not to act,” she laments.

Dr. Nenibarini Zabby of Cen-tre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEH-RD), said the action of shell is unacceptable and they must take responsibility for it.

He added that the report is gradually being forgotten, but people are living in the affected regions, saying this is not only going to affect the region alone, but its impact would tickle down to other parts of the coun-try in terms of mass movement to seek for better conditions of living, destruction of the eco-system, air pollution and other such negative impacts.

In his article title ‘Two Years After the UNEP Report, Ogoni Still Groans,’ Nnimmo Bassey said that “till this moment, the oil rigs began to puncture holes in the land and crude oil began to be spilled on lands, forests and rivers. The air was clean, but that changed when gas fl ares belched like dragons out for the kill. Today, twenty years after Shell got excommunicated from Ogoni, thick hydrocarbon fumes from sundry pollutions hang in the air.”

Bassey further decried that despite the messy condition as disclosed by the report without exception and pollution of all the water bodies in Ogoni by the activities of oil companies - Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); it is still not given the required attention by the government.

Mutiu Sunmonu, Shell MD

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Nigeria has a lot to gain from Indonesia Expo 2013 –Tobing By Kayode Falade

Nigerian businessmen, tech-nologists, tourists, security

agencies, human capital ex-perts and manufacturers have been enjoined to attend the 2013 Indonesia Expo to boost their business.

The director, Indonesian Trade Promotion Centre, ITPC, Embassy of the Republic of In-donesia, Lagos, Pontas Tobing, who spoke at a media briefi ng to herald the expo which holds between October 16 and 20, 2013 in Jakarta, Indonesia, said that the expo is aimed at promoting quality Indonesian-made products and services to the global market.

The expo, Tobing further stated, is meant to develop business and investment networking and to exchange potentials and opportunities, especially for those who desire partnership and investment in Indonesia’s industrial sector.

In a presentation, Mary Lin-da Archebong showed a display of an array of articles ranging from Armoured Personnel Car-rier (APC), aircraft, furniture, electrical and electronic, tire, footwear, coco products, textile and textile products, jewellery and accessories that would be on display at the expo.

Others, she said include medical instruments and ap-pliance, leather and leather products, building materials, chemical products, rubber and rubber products, essential oils, processed foods, art and crafts, sport equipment, glassware, medical herbs and many other products and items

Tobing said that the trade expo attracted more than 5.000 buyers from over 90 countries last year, and gener-ated in total, trade transac-tions valued at over $1 billion, while targeting transactions amounting to $2 billion this year.

He pointed out that this year’s edition with the theme, ‘Trade with remarkable Indone-sia,’ is appropriate because it showcases the array of prod-ucts and services to offer in virtually all sectors.

The ITPC director main-tained that visitors would have the opportunity of meeting and interacting with leading Indonesian manufacturers, wholesalers and operators of related businesses in nearly all the industrial sector in the country.

He revealed that Nigeria re-corded the highest attendance at TEI 2012, with over 200 businessmen and women in attendance, representing 27.27 per cent of total attendance, adding that the target this year

is 500 selected business par-ticipants from Nigeria.

Tobing said that more than 12 Indonesian fi rms have invested in Nigeria adding that more are planning to establish in Nigeria before the end of the year.

“Indonesia and Nigeria are like Siamese twins. One is in the African region and the other is located in the Far East, but both are identical in multi-cultural confi guration, lan-guage diversities and religious multiplicity. Hence, the two countries are joined together by the same umbilical cord of identifi cation,” he said.

The total volume of non-oil and gas trade between Indo-nesia and Nigeria in 2012, according to him was valued at $448.6 million, with a target to increase the fi gure by 12 per cent in 2013, pointing out that overall trade balance between the countries is currently tilted in favour of Nigeria because Indonesia imports oil and gas from Nigeria.

Richard Ibru, Chief Execu-tive Offi cer, Hadibru Nigeria Limited who imports Kuku-bima Energy Drink and others from Indonesia, said that though he trades with Euro-pean and American countries, doing business with Indonesia has a whole lot of difference.

According to him, apart from the quality of the prod-ucts, marketing them is also easy because they meet up with the market price and of nutritional value than products from any other country.

Dolapo Adebowale, Market-ing Manager, Inbisco also ad-mitted that apart from the high quality and super standard with which any product from Indonesia is attached, Indone-sian products are always pro-duced with consideration for the customers’ health. “Their

products are always medicinal, talk of the coffee, the sweet and the biscuit. There are always the health advantages.”

Nigerians in the Diaspora holds investment forum in Paris

As a way of enhancing and promoting investment op-

portunities in Nigeria, a group of Nigerians based in France is to hold Nigeria-France Busi-ness and Investment Forum in October.

Tagged “Nigerian-France Business Forum 2013,’’ the event will see the who-is-who in business world converge in Salon Hoche, Paris between October 25 and 26.

Uche Ejims, the coordina-tor of the Nigerian Networking France forum, in a statement said the Nigerians in the Dias-pora, who left the country in search of greener pastures in Paris, France, have not forgot-ten their roots. “The Nigerian Networking France specialised in communication and promo-tion of investment to Nigeria, an area where they have been keeping positively the good im-age of our country.

Ejims said there was need to work together with Nigerian entrepreneurs to see how the economy could be boosted and also create employments for the youths. “The truth is that we need to attract more foreign investors to manufacture in Nigeria so as to boost employ-ment’’, he said.

He said the Nigeria-France Business Forum would provide an opportunity to fi nd, meet and connect with potential strategic partners and gain

exposure in both domestic and international markets, and further, enhance awareness of products and services.

He said the two-day event would also provide a great opportunity to network with industry leaders and govern-ment contacts.

“The priority will be to highlight new areas of coopera-tion, opportunities for market-ing and joint venture tie-ups, capacity building and technol-ogy transfer, sourcing different products from both countries and drawing a road map for future collaboration’’.

Ejims said the forum would be rounded off with a Nigerian-French Gala Night in which dif-ferent awards would be given.

Expected guests include Nigeria Ambassador in France, Akin Fayomi, Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Silas Eke, Micro Link Computers Nigeria and Victorien Luret, a French Minister DES

Others are President Poitou Charente, Champagne Ar-denne of Region France, Parfait Gerard, President, Association- France Nigeria, the Mayor of Paris, Delanoue, some African envoys as well as Governors of Delta and Kogi states.

The managing directors of

Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, Nest Oil Nigeria Plc, Dansa Group Nigeria, Anabel Group Nigeria and Chairman, Nigerian Tour-ism Board as well as chamber of commerce of the two coun-tries are also expected at the event.

Group to partner Customs on trade facilitationBy Francis Ezem

The National Association of Government Approved

Freight Forwarders, (NAGAFF), has said it will partner the Nigeria Customs Service, espe-cially in the area of compliance with fi scal policy of the Federal Government and trade facilita-tion.

This is part of the fallouts of a courtesy visit by top execu-tives of the association led by its president, Chief Eugene Nweke to the Controller of the Federal Operations Unit, (FOU) Zone C Owerri, of the Nigeria Customs Service, David Dimka, in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

The president, who spoke in a telephone interview at the weekend, insisted that the as-sociation is committed to main-taining a responsible partner-ship with the service in order to facilitate the growth and development of the maritime industry in particular and the Nigerian economy in general.

Nweke observed with delight that the transformation going on in the Customs, aimed at making the maritime industry people-friendly, facilitate inter-national trade and enhance the revenue base of the country.

According to him, the pur-pose of the visit was to show solidarity to the unit, especially its anti-smuggling operations, which he noted have been go-ing on quietly, as many of the breakthroughs made by the unit are not reported.

While commending the efforts of the unit in fi ghting smuggling, the president noted that operatives of the unit should however apply discre-tion in the handling of certain issues, some of which tend to pitch the freight forwarders against the operatives of the units.

“You will observe in some cases based on information at the disposal of the operatives of the FOU, a consignment that has already been processed and released from the ports and subjected to another phase of examination and scrutiny, after all a container that leaves the port must have been re-leased by somebody”, he had argued.

He insisted that discretion should be applied instead of hounding already cleared con-signments outside the ports,

L-R, Marketing Manager, Inbisco, Dolapo Adebowale; Director, Indonesian Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC), Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Lagos, Pontas Tobing; Chief Executive Offi cer, Hadibru Nigeria Limited, Richard Ibru and Marketing Manager, Nutri Food Beverages, Caroline Benson at a recent press briefi ng in Lagos

Fayomi

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A5 21Business CourageCourage

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which is not in tandem with the letters and spirit of trade facilitation.

It was gathered that there have been several cases where-by containers already cleared from the ports are intercepted on the road by operatives of the unit, subject them to another examination only to discover that nothing is incriminating about the container after the owners have been subjected to additional and avoidable cost.

“Partnership is an all en-compassing thing. We will also support in terms of supply of network of information to ensure that innocent importers are not made to suffer as has been the case whereby released goods are intercepted and re-examined and at the end, noth-ing is found on them”, he said further.

The NAGAFF-boss argued that just like any other human endeavour, such information network might be mislead-ing or sometimes completely wrong, which is why the asso-ciation will also deploy its own information network system to make for accurate information so that innocent importers do not suffer.

.He called on freight for-warders and importers to avail themselves of the various edu-cational opportunities available to improve their competence since according to him the Customs of tomorrow will be different from that of yesterday.

He also commended the FOU-boss on the giant strides being made in the fi ght against smuggling and other illegal trade in the zone.

Dimka had while speaking during the visit, commended the rapport between NAGAFF and the Customs which he observed has been of benefi t to the country.

The Owerri FOU-boss said this relationship has been of much benefi t to the activities of both the FOU and freight forwarders, thereby boost-ing international trade in the country.

He paid glowing tribute to NAGAFF for the association’s immense robust intellectual contributions to the maritime industry, which have helped in no small measure in govern-ment’s efforts at enthroning a regime of international best practice in the import docu-

mentation in the country.

Ex-CBN boss seeks tax holidays for business outfi ts

A former Executive Director of the Central Bank of Ni-

geria (CBN), Titus Okurounmu, has urged the Federal Govern-ment to grant tax holidays to business outfi ts below three years.

Okurounmu told news-men in Lagos that tax holidays would enable young businesses in the country to grow; add-ing that granting tax holidays to young entrepreneurs would bring about growth and devel-opment of the businesses.

``The tax holidays for young entrepreneurs will encourage graduates to manage and own their own business. The mul-tiplier effect on the society will be very great, `` he said

Okurounmu, however, said that no country could wit-ness any meaningful economic growth when lives and property were threatened.

To remedy the security situ-ation in the country, he said more police offi cers should be recruited by the Federal Gov-ernment.

Customs Lagos Industrial Area generates N518.6m

Winifred Okon, the Control-ler of Lagos Industrial

Area Command of Nigeria Cus-toms Service in Festac Town, Lagos, has said that the com-mand recorded N518.6 million revenue in August.

Okon told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the amount was far lower than the N1.3 billion recorded in July.

She said that the command was, however, making efforts to improve on its revenue drive.

The controller said that several products had been removed from the Excise List of the Customs by the Federal Government as a strategy to encourage local manufactur-ers.

Okon said that excise duty collections were limited to beer, stout and spirits. ``Excise duty has been limited to just spirits, beer, stout and tobacco. To-bacco is not here in Lagos, so we only have beer, stout and small-scale businesses that produce spirits,’’ the controller said.

He noted that the de-ex-cising the products was done through gradual process.

The controller said that the unit was not necessarily look-ing at revenue targets as it was using trade facilitation strategy to improve its revenue.

``We now encourage these indigenous entrepreneurs through our forum. We encour-age them to register with ap-propriate government agencies to enable them operate with-out fear. It is yielding results because when their businesses succeed they are able to pay their duties without trouble and that is a plus for our rev-enue drive,’’ the controller said.

She said the command’s interactive sessions with business owners revealed the challenges the business owners were facing, adding that it was only reasonable to encourage them.

``We found out that lately, the production level was low and the business owners ascribed it to challenges of getting ethanol, a major raw material they use. We cared to know because it is when the businesses operate that we can talk of revenue collection, ‘’ she said.

She said the command still carried out intensive monitor-ing to ensure that government obtained revenue from busi-nesses on the excise list under the command.

Okon said that 16 excise traders were registered under the command, adding that offi cials of the command were still scouting for those hiding to brew.

Electricity: Experts blame poor maintenance for frequent system collapse

Some energy experts have advised the new investors

in the power sector to com-pletely overhaul power gener-ating plants to stem frequent system collapse.

The experts, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend, said that poor maintenance of generating plants was one of the causes of frequent system collapse.

Adekunle Makinde, Chair-man, Nigerian Institution of Electrical Electronics Engi-neers, said that many of the power generating plants in the

country were old. Makinde said that the

investors needed to invest more funds in overhauling the generating plants to ensure stable power supply across the country.

``Most of the plants have put in over 30 to 40 years of operation without adequate and prompt maintenance which in turn causes system collapse. Solution to the prob-lem lies on complete overhaul-ing or replacement of some of the bad units and this will go a long way in stabilising the system,’’ he said.

Charles Francis, Manag-ing Director, Metrix Electrical Company, said that rainfall was also one of the causes of frequent system collapse.

Francis said that abrupt disruption of gas supply to power stations had also re-sulted in system collapse.

He said that there was need for government to set-up a technical panel on system col-lapse to address the incessant problem.

``Government should pay more attention to tackling is-sue of vandalism of facilities as this may impact negatively on generating machines. Investors should also note that frequent overhaul of the system will go a long way in stabilising the plants,’’ Francis said.

However, the Chief Ex-ecutive Offi cer, Egbin Power Station, Mike Uzoigwe, said that plans were on to install a ‘black-starting’ mechanism at the station in order to reduce the black-out experienced dur-ing system collapse.

Uzoigwe confi rmed that the Minister of Power, Prof. Chin-edu Nebo, had approved the project and arrangement had been concluded to install the technology at the power sta-tion.

He said that the ‘black-starting’ mechanism allowed for quick revival of the plant after a system collapse, adding that the technology would be the fi rst in the country.

Uzoigwe said the technology would also boost power genera-tion in Nigeria.

``Before now, it takes power plants in Nigeria about fi ve days to restore electricity after a system collapse, but now the black-starting technology will make it possible within few

hours.Uzoigwe said that Egbin

power plant, with installed capacity of 1,320MW, had suf-fered setback over the years due to ageing and paucity of funds to upgrade the facility.

According to him, the Egbin plant was built about 30 years ago to operate on six tur-bines of 220MW each, but the Unit Six exploded in 2006 due to some water challenges.

He said that the plant would be back to its installed capacity of 1,320MW in nine months, when the repairs were expected to be completed.

Rivers chamber boss wants FG to enforce tax payment

Emeka Unachukwu, the President, Port Harcourt

Chamber of Commerce, Indus-tries, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), has called for a more effi cient tax system in the country.

He said that a more effi cient tax system would help the gov-ernment to address the prob-lem of annual budget defi cit.

Unachukwu who made the call in Port Harcourt while suggesting ways of overcoming budget defi cit, said that the in-ability of government to ensure robust internally generated revenue (IGR) posed great dan-

ger to the nation’s economy.‘’Over dependence on

foreign countries through the sale of oil for revenue is very worrisome; we should begin to generate money internally. Ni-gerians should be made to pay taxes; tax payment is not sup-posed to be trivialized or left for only civil servants whose taxes are deducted at source,’’ Unachukwu said.

The chamber boss described as ‘’unpatriotic’’ the indiffer-ence of Nigerians to issues of tax payment, saying that such ugly trend should be stemmed.

He called on the Federal Government to adopt the Pri-vate-Public Partnership (PPP) approach in the bid to indus-trialise the country.

According to him, with pri-vate industries and companies, government will have enough tax sources, adding that the leakages in the nation’s rev-enue sources were responsible

Nweke Uzoigwe

Dikko, Customs Comptroller General

Unachukwu

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for its current fi nancial condi-tion.

The chamber boss, who also identifi ed oil theft and vandal-ism as part of the problems of the economy, said that it was time to check these vices, stressing that until these acts of economic sabotage were addressed, the Federal Govern-ment would continue to incur defi cits.

He urged the Ministry of Finance to introduce measures to block all those leakages to increase the IGR.

ABUCCIMA urges FG to enact law for infrastructure projects

The Abuja Chamber of Com-merce, Industry, Mines and

Agriculture (ABUCCIMA) has advised the Federal Govern-ment to provide legal frame-work for the development of infrastructure in the country.

The President of ABUC-CIMA, Dr Solomon Nyagba, said in Abuja that government needed to give priority to infra-structure development to aid the growth of the manufactur-ing sector.

Nyagba said that the need for enactment of laws to back projects was necessary to en-sure that projects approved by the government were imple-mented within specifi c time-frame.

According to him, this would discourage the practice of abandoning projects because of paucity of funds.

“The National Integrated Master Plan, which I was part of the process, is a very comprehensive document for the development of infrastruc-ture in Nigeria. We did make a strong recommendation that once that document is ap-proved, it should be moved to the National Assembly to be made an infrastructure law,’’ he said.

According to him, this is to ensure that whether there is change in President or leader-ship, it will be implemented as a matter of law.

He said that if the docu-ment was approved, it would give the sector accelerated growth it deserved.

The ABUCCIMA president also urged the government

to provide adequate incen-tives to enhance the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

``SMEs are veritable tools that can be used to boost and improve the country’s econo-my, hence appropriate incen-tives should be put in place to encourage development of these enterprises,” he said.

Commenting on the forth-coming 8th Abuja International Trade Fair, scheduled to hold between Sept. 26 and Oct. 10, Nyagba said the fair was ex-pected to attract over 500 local and foreign exhibitors.

“We have sent out invita-tion for participation to various state governments, corporate organisations, individuals and various embassies within the country and so far we are re-ceiving response from prospec-tive participants.

``Some of them are from Taiwan, China, India, Ger-many, Turkey, Ghana, Senegal, Pakistan and many West Afri-can countries. `The response has been very encouraging and this year we are very sure that it will be a full outing,” he said.

He said that the fair would create temporary and perma-nent jobs for youths. “The main purpose is to create interest in our economy and at the end boost job creation and reduce unemployment,” he said.

FG, Akwa Ibom to commence construction of Ibaka seaport

The Akwa Ibom Government says it is committed to

commencing the construc-tion of Ibaka Deep Seaport in partnership with the Federal Government.

Gov. Godswill Akpabio said this at a gala night organised in honour of the visiting US Consul-General in Nigeria, Jef-frey Hawkins.

The U.S. consul-general was accompanied by the Minister of State for Trade and Invest-ment, Samuel Ortom.

Akpabio said that the sea-port project was a major indus-trial concern for Akwa Ibom.

The governor said that the need for continuous partner-ship between Nigeria and the U.S. in the promotion of trade and investments was impera-tive.

``We must continue to pro-mote trade and the only way to do so is for us to continue to forge partnership. I thank you so far because so many American companies are show-ing interest in Nigeria and for most of them, the destination is Akwa Ibom State,’’ Akpabio said.

He said that the time for investment in Akwa Ibom was ripe. ``We have done the infrastructure; we have opened access to our state through an international airport. This is the only state that government goes a little extra mile to spend money to ensure security for companies operating in the state.

``The Managing Director of ExxonMobil is in a position to confi rm the extent of partner-ship between the oil company and the government and the extent we have gone to ensure that there is peace and cordial-ity,” Akpabio said.

The Consul-General com-mended the government for the massive infrastructural devel-opment in the state.

Hawkins, who said that Akwa Ibom was host to one of the largest American invest-ments in Nigeria, thanked the state government for giving him a warm reception. ``I have been in Nigeria for two years now and I have visited 17 states. I have not seen such hospitality, ‘’Hawkins said.

The Ibaka Deep Seaport is a component of the envis-aged Ibom Industrial City, the ground-breaking ceremony which was done in 2009 at Mbo Local Government Area of the state.

The Ibom Industrial City is also expected to host oil and gas activities with refi neries, petrochemical and fertiliser plants, coupled with manu-facturing, packaging, bulk-breaking and small equipment factories.

FG to roll out new comprehensive auto sector policy

A new comprehensive policy to transform the nation’s

auto sector is expected to be announced soon by the Federal Government, going by indica-tions given by the minister of Industry, Trade and Invest-ment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga.

Aganga, who made the dis-closure at a business luncheon in Lagos, stated that out of the ten most populous countries in the world, there are only two that don’t have a robust auto programme and they are Nige-

ria and Bangladesh.He announced that the

government is set to release a new policy on transforming the auto sector in the country and once that is done, Nissan and Toyota have already indicated that they are willing to be part-ners in the programme.

He stressed that he has been assured by the president of Nissan that the company is keen to come to Nigeria as soon as the right policy is in place,

“When I say I want a com-prehensive auto policy in the country I am not talking of what we did in the ‘70s when Peugeot was brought in to as-semble their cars here and the raw materials where not there. This programme has every-thing; it is strategic and holis-tic because it looks across the whole value chain,” he said.

He explained that the pres-ent industrial revolution plan is to correct the mistakes of the past and focus on the fact that there is no way Nigeria will be rich if it doesn’t industrialize.

He stated that focus will be on the enablers such as power, infrastructure, industrial skills, fi nancing and local patronage.

“When you look at the origi-nal equipment manufacturers (OEMs), they only produce about 30 per cent of the total goods passed to you while the rest are from the SMEs, so when a major company comes to Nigeria all its suppliers move with them and join up with lo-cal manufacturers.

“In developing the new auto policy we engaged with local stakeholders as well as international OEMs including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai just to make sure that the policy is comprehensive and accommodates everyone.

“And any of these car manufacturers who don’t come in will surely lose out because the others will be here and will be getting a lot of business,” he stated.

He pointed out that to have a successful auto industry you need to have other related sec-tors developed as well, stress-ing that there are at least 2000 parts that make up a car and most of these parts are made from plastic which is why we have lighter cars today.

“So for example you need

the petrochemical industries because that is where the plastics industries are going to come from. You also need a metal industry because the fl agship for the cars will come from iron ore to pellets through the hot and cold rolling mills so if you want to be importing these components you will not be doing justice to your coun-try,” he said.

Aganga also harped on the need to develop our chemi-cal industry because it is the source of raw materials for paint; rubber industry for producing tires as well as other rubber parts of the cars.

He noted that it is only when we adopt a holistic ap-proach that we can be guaran-teed the multiplier effect and impact from the auto sector.

“With this policy strategy I am not just looking at the automobile but I am looking at the whole components sector as well and the accelerated lo-cal content policy to go with it,” he said.

He stressed that already Nigeria has what it takes to be the number one leader in the petrochemical sector in Africa because of the vast presence of raw materials.

“Under the new policy we are looking at setting up clusters in Lagos/Ibadan zone, Kaduna/Kano zone and Aba/Nnewi zone. A complete auto industry is one that has auto spare parts factories built in all these areas,” he said.

Manufacturers get 2014 date for multiple tax relief in Ogun StateBy Emmanuel Ogbonnaya

Manufacturers in Ogun state have been given

assurance by the state govern-ment of relief from multiple taxation come January 2014, as efforts are on-going to harmonise all taxes currently being paid in the state.

The hint was dropped by the permanent secretary of the ministry of commerce and in-dustry in the state, Mrs. Thelsa Efuwape, at a business meet-ing with members of the state’s branch of the manufacturers association of Nigeria (MAN).

Nyagba

Akpabio

Aganga

Amosun, Ogun State Governor

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According to her, “Gov-ernment is working towards harmonizing the various taxes which are being paid by manufacturers in the state and hopefully by January 2014 the issue of multiple taxations would have been resolved.”

Earlier, the chairman of the association, Dr. Dapo Ogutuga, represented by his vice, Wale Adegbite, had lamented over the various challenges facing them in the state including multiple taxation, levies and permits, inconsistency in gov-ernment policies and dearth of basic infrastructure.

“There are unchecked and arbitrary introduction of new taxes and levies by the state and local government councils, thus creating a situation of un-certainty and ambiguity. These taxes and levies are contrary to the constitution of Nigeria. Our businesses are constantly being disrupted and we are constantly under the threat of closing down our factories for non-payment of illegal taxes and levies,” he said.

He stressed the urgent need for government to harmonize taxes and implement the joint tax Board Act 21 of 1998 as these will provide investment guarantee packages for specifi c industries particularly those in the SME categories.

He also urged the state government to accelerate the implementation of investment incentives like tax holidays, tax reduction and location incen-tives among others.

“MAN, Ogun state branch is calling on the state government to accelerate the implementa-tion of the recently reviewed industrial incentives. The government should put more effort in providing an enabling environment conducive to the growth and development of the manufacturing sector, as well as the infl ow of FDI,” he said.

The chairman concluded that the investment climate in Ogun state and indeed Nigeria as a whole requires a lot of fi ne-tuning in order to reduce the tardiness being witnessed in the manufacturing sector and the consequent prevailing high cost of production which renders Nigerian industries uncompetitive.

In a related interview, the association’s chairman on in-frastructure and environment, Vincent Dosumu revealed that the industries in Ogun state were facing major infrastruc-tural challenges especially in the areas of motor able roads and power supply.

“For instance if you look at the Ota and Ijebu-ode in-dustrial estates they have no roads and are not developed, a situation which cannot enable industries to grow,” he said.

He stressed that the situ-ation is also impacting on the job creation capacity of indus-tries as many industries now

employ relatively few people in order to cut down costs of production.

“If you are spending mil-lions on diesel monthly to run your power generators how can you expand your business?” he queried.

He said that presently industrialists in the state were suffering from the burden of illegal multiple-taxation by the local government authorities.

“From our committee point of view, we know that the local government has no right to impose tax and levies outside the ones approved by the state government but thankfully the present administration is looking into the situation to harmonize the situation just as it is in Lagos state,” he said.

He pointed out that if the situation does not improve more investors would not come in because investors cannot be expected to provide their own roads and sources of power when the government is there to do so for them.

Wema Bank’s website wins customer service award

The corporate Website of Wema Bank Plc, www.

wemabank.com, has been ad-judged the “Best Nigerian Bank Website in Customer Experi-ence”.

The bank said that the award was given at the 11th edition of the 2013 Web Jurist 11.0 Awards organised by Phil-lips Consulting in Lagos.

According to a statement by the bank, The Web Jurist 11.0 Awards has become the stan-dard for ranking Website of banks, insurance and telecom sectors.

Kemi Aina, the bank’s Head of Brand and Marketing Com-munications, said that the award was due to a “dedicated focus on ensuring an impres-sive online user experience”.

She said that the bank was committed to relevant con-tent delivery across all service touch-points, whether physical or virtual.

Aina said that in addition to the bank’s team of user-ex-perience designers, the devel-opment of the bank’s service touch-points were backed by

thorough research and exten-sive consultation.

She said the bank also relied on end-user feedback in order to ensure customers had delightful service experience with Wema Bank at all times.

``The Web-Jurist ranking is the result of the research conducted into the Website’s best practices and effective-ness. It is aimed at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of Website as a business platform in the digital world and determines the extent to which a Website is successful in achieving the essence of its e-business strategy.

``Established in 1945, Wema Bank boasts of a ro-bust digital fi nancial services strategy across various alterna-tive channels and platforms. This enables the provision of cutting-edge, value-adding transactional and non-trans-actional services in the most simple, effective manner to its discerning customers,’’ the statement said.

NBC gets NECA’s Occupational Safety & Health awardStories by Adejuwon Osunnuyi

For the exceptional per-formance in the recently

concluded Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) audit car-ried out by National Employ-ers Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited has received the 2013 OSH Awards in two geo-political regions and two ambulances as prizes.

The South-West leg of the award and prize was presented to NBC at the award ceremony and interactive enlightenment forum recently by NECA.

In a statement signed by the Head Public Affairs and Com-munications, Adeyanju Olomo-la, the company said that the award was a further validation of NBC’s absolute commit-ment to producing beverages under the highest quality and safety standard. “We are fully certifi ed on all Management Systems Standards of Quality, Food safety, Environment, and

Health and Safety,” she said.NBC’s emergence as win-

ners of the OSH award for 2013 follows the company’s exceptional performance at the just concluded audit of OSH infrastructure in the country carried out by NECA and NSITF in Ikeja and Abuja plants for the South-West and North-Central regions respec-tively.

NBC has a strong focus on occupational safety and health ensures compliance in its operations. All thirteen (13) bottling plants of the company are OHSAS 18001 certifi ed.

Stanley Black& Decker releases new products to Nigerian market

With a mission to provide quality products and

deliver key requisites to users, Stanley Black & Decker has launched its home appliances and power tools in Nigeria.

The two-day launch-ing conference, held in La-gos witnessed the launch of power tools, portable, battery-powered and energy-saving home products with the aim of providing solution to the need of users who desire multifunc-tional and effi cient products.

Other products launched include dust buster, vacuum cleaner, steam buster, steam-mop, toaster ovens, steamer, rice cookers, deep fryers, toast-ers, grills and sandwich mak-ers, microwave oven, kettles, coffee maker, pressing iron, hand blender, performance kitchen machine, multi-func-tional food processor, chop-pers, food processor, fans, oil radiator, blender, portable consumer electric drill, cord-less drill, workmate, mouse, sander, auto select technology, among others.

Manoj Panikkal, SB&D Marketing Manager, Consumer Products, Middle East and Af-rica, said the initiative became necessary so as to satisfy the needs of users of the products in Nigeria who desire perfor-mance, durable and quality products explaining further that the products are of new brand, features and technology which make them unique.

Jagtiani of Mace Industries Nigeria Limited- the major dealer of SB&D products in the country said Nigerians are getting very selective about the quality of products they use or invest on adding that SB&D has a track record of many years of performance in the Nigerian market

“Users in Nigeria are aware of the quality of the products over time. Stanley Black& Decker’s history is built on reputation of sound and global durable quality. I’m quite opti-mistic that with the re-launch-ing of the products, we will be

able to convince more Nigeri-ans to purchase the product’’ he enthused.

Resort Savings to open more branches, assures shareholders of high returns

As part of efforts to spread its reach and consolidate

on the fallout of its recent hy-brid offer, Resort Savings and Loans Plc, a mortgage bank based in Lagos, with branches spread across the country, is set to open more branches.

The bank’s managing direc-tor, Abimbola Olayinka, made this known during the bank’s facts behind the fi gure session at the Nigeria Stock Exchange recently.

Olayinka said the bank has been able to brace all odds to becoming a major player in the Nigerian mortgage sector as a result of the effort of the banks numerous shareholders and the strong deposit base of its numerous customers.

According to him, the bank was able to increase its net profi t position from N1.1 bil-lion in 2011 to a profi t of N3.5 billion in 2012. He said further that the bank currently has disbursed over N1.5 billion loan from Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to various benefi ciaries, while also processing the National Housing Fund (NHF) mortgage facilities in an excess of about N6billion. The shareholders fund has also grown from N2.9 billion in 2011 to N6.2 billion as at today. This clearly shows the upward profi tability trend of the bank.

On the fi nancials of the bank, Olayinka allayed the fears of shareholders saying that provision had been made for the un-performing loans under the prudential guideline.

While assuring sharehold-ers that their investment is being channeled towards the right direction, Olayinka stated that part of the current drive of the bank is to attract more funds to prosecute the goal of mortgage creation in the coun-try, a situation that will allow for more housing units to be constructed thereby reducing the accommodation problems the ordinary citizens are faced with.

Segun Oloketuyi, Wema bank CEO

Ben Langat, Managing Director NBC

Olayinka

BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A8 24 Business CourageCourage

Global News

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Twitter plans stock market listing

Twitter says it plans to join the stock market in the

most hotly anticipated fl otation since Facebook’s last year.

Referring to the offi cial paperwork needed to join the market, the company tweeted: “We’ve confi dentially submit-ted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned [initial public offer-ing].”

Investors value Twitter, founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, at more than $10bn (£6.3bn).

Twitter gave no further de-tails as to the timing or price of the offering.

The micro-blogging service is on track to post $583m in revenue in 2013, according to advertising consultancy eMar-keter, up from $288m in 2012.

Most of Twitter’s funding comes from advertising, with companies paying for “promot-ed tweets” that appear in users’ Twitter feeds.

Advertisers are keen to tar-get Twitter’s 200 million active users, who send more than 500 million tweets a day.

But some analysts believe the risk for Twitter post-fl o-tation is that if the drive for greater advertising revenue leads to increased numbers of adverts in and around the site, they could become intrusive and unpopular with users.

“There’s a few issues [such as] how many revenue streams can be developed beyond just advertising, the impact of more people accessing the service via smartphones,” said Colin Gillis, a New York-based technology specialist at BGC Partners.

Nearly two-thirds of us-ers access Twitter via mobile devices that have traditionally been diffi cult for advertisers to reach.

This is one reason why Twitter has acquired MoPub, a mobile-focused advertising ex-change, for a reported $350m.

“Twitter was more or less a mobile-fi rst platform from the start and so the company built its experience to work relatively well across devices,” Clark Fredriksen of eMarketer told the BBC.

“Ultimately, they did a good

job of monetising their mobile user base.”

“Twitter is one of the last of the major developed social networks to fi le [for an initial public offering or IPO] - we’ve already had Facebook and LinkedIn,” said Gillis.

Nasdaq sign Facebook Demand for Facebook shares was high when they fi rst listed, but the share price has disap-pointed investors since then

Facebook listed on the stock market in May last year. Although it initially created ex-citement among investors, its share price performed poorly, before recovering this summer.

The timing of the IPO is likely to be related to renewed activity in stock market fl ota-tions. There have been 131 IPOs priced so far in 2013, according to IPO tracking fi rm Renaissance Capital - a 44% increase on the same period last year.

Vodafone to take over Kabel Deutschland

Vodafone is set to complete a 7.7bn-euro (£6.6bn;

$10bn) takeover of Kabel Deutschland after securing the backing of the German cable operator’s shareholders.

The mobile phone giant said 75 per cent of sharehold-ers had agreed to the deal, the minimum amount it needed before buying Kabel.

Vodafone expects to fi nalise the takeover by the end of the month but EU regulators still need to give it their approval.

The acquisition would mark a change in strategy for Voda-fone, which has largely focused on mobile phone services in Europe.

Vodafone is making its fi rst foray into consumer broadband and television, tapping into the so-called “quad-play” market in Germany, which is growing, but still lagging behind France and Spain.

“Quad-play” or “multi-play” services offer digital TV, broad-band and fi xed and mobile tele-phony services to customers.

Among other things, these bundled packages allow cus-tomers to watch television on numerous devices, from tablets to laptops. Cable lines also carry voice calls and internet

at speeds faster than those usually offered by telecoms operators.

The deal will give Vodafone access to 32.4 million mobile phone customers, fi ve million broadband and 7.6 million TV customers in Germany.

Vodafone recently sold its 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless to US telecoms group Verizon Communications in one of the biggest deals in cor-porate history.

The $130bn (£84bn) deal was announced by Vodafone in early September.

The company will return £54bn to its shareholders, of which £22bn will go to share-holders in the UK.

No deal on Bangladesh garment disaster damages

International clothing makers have failed to reach a deal on

the creation of a compensation fund for victims of two Bangla-deshi factory disasters.

Only a third of the retailers who used the factories turned up for a two-day meeting on the issue in Geneva and only Primark was reported as mak-ing a fi rm commitment on funding.

More than 1,200 Bangla-deshis died in the two garment factory accidents. Trade unions say many of their families are now struggling to survive.

The talks in Geneva were called by the global trade union IndustriALL and chaired by the International Labour Organiza-tion.

The aim was to provide compensation to families of those who died in the Rana Plaza disaster in April, when the collapse of a factory build-ing killed more than 1,100 people, and in the Tazreen factory fi re in November 2012, which killed 112 workers.

Only nine of the brands being produced at the Rana Plaza were represented at the meeting, IndustriALL said in a statement.

Key absentees included Wal-Mart and Benetton, whose chief executive said many companies had stayed away because of a “lack of clar-ity” around the talks. Benet-ton would focus on “working directly with those affected by the Rana Plaza disaster”, a statement said.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company was focused on investing in improving factory safety but did not comment on the issue of compensation, a Reuters report said.

IndustriALL is seeking to establish compensation funds of $74.6m (£47.2m) for the Rana Plaza workers and $6.4m for the Tazreen factory workers which would address loss of

earnings, medical and funeral costs, and other expenses of victims and bereaved families.

Those fi rms present did agree to meet again for fur-ther talks on a co-ordinated compensation fund, the trade union said.

Primark pledged to provide another three months salary to families of Rana Plaza victims. C&A set out a “substantial compensation initiative” for the victims of the Tazreen factory fi re, IndustriALL said.

The fact that only a hand-ful of the companies invited turned up for the meeting refl ects deep differences within the industry on how to com-pensate victims of garment fac-tory disasters in countries like Bangladesh, says the BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan.

Bangladesh’s garments ex-port industry is the second big-gest in the world after China’s.

India revises GDP growth to 5.3 per cent

India’s economy is expected to grow 5.3 per cent this fi scal

year, the prime minister’s eco-nomic advisory panel said on Friday, sharply lower than an earlier estimate of 6.4 per cent but higher than last year.

The revised forecast is roughly in line with projections of the central bank and many private economists, who expect Asia’s third-largest economy to grow at around 5 percent, the same level as in 2012/2013.

A pick-up in automobile pro-duction and exports in August indicated that the manufactur-ing sector would do better in the

second half than the fi rst, said C. Rangarajan, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

“Taking these factors into account, the forecast growth rate appears reasonable,” Ran-garajan said.

India’s industrial produc-tion unexpectedly rebounded in July, while consumer infl a-tion cooled last month, offering some relief for policymakers who have been battling the country’s worst economic crisis in more than 20 years, accord-ing to Reuters.

The rupee has fallen nearly 14 per cent against the dollar so far this year, hitting a record low last month, as the econo-my struggles with decade-low growth, a record current ac-count defi cit and a steep fi scal shortfall.

The advisory council also said that containing the fi scal defi cit within the budgeted target of 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product could be a challenge. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said the target will not be breached.

“My fi scal defi cit estimate is now 5.5 per cent, but it all depends on how Chidambaram manages it,” said Anjali Verma, chief economist at PhillipCapi-tal. “He can go back to slash-ing planned spending like last year.”

Rangarajan also said the current account defi cit could be lower than the $70 billion that the government is target-ing if current trends in exports and imports continued, citing data showing the trade defi cit had narrowed in August.

However, a large part of the smaller trade gap was due to a $2.25 billion fall in gold imports, which are expected to rebound over the next few months as India’s wedding and festival seasons kick in.

India’s economy grew 4.4 per cent in the three months to June — the slowest quarterly rate since the global fi nancial crisis — hurt by a contraction in mining and manufacturing.

The panel said infl ation for the current fi scal year was ex-pected to be 5.5 percent, lower than the 6 percent recorded in the last fi scal year.

Dorsey

Vittorio Colao, Vodacom Group CEO

Rangarajan

Bangladesh factory collapse

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A9 25Business CourageCourage

Continued on pg A10

If a boy did not begin to think of manhood when he was still a boy, when he gets to be

a man, that era would pass and he would be nobody.” These are the words of Bode Adediji, Chief Executive Offi -cer of Bode Adediji and Part-ners, who obviously was not born with the proverbial silver spoon but hit the multi- mil-lionaire status in his thirties through dint of hard work, doing the right things, being focused on what he was doing as well as through the grace of God.

Understandably, Adedeji knew from day one that if he did not struggle and compete, there was no way he could make good results in school. Through that philosophy, he spent only three years in the secondary school against the standard fi ve-year period that most students spend because he was getting double promo-tion.

Secondly, he went to the University of Ife without passing through the normal Higher School then and even emerged the best overall stu-dent in the department of Estate Management in his fi nal year exams. “All these I achieved through the grace of God and my endorsement of hard work as the cardinal principle of any modicum of success anybody can achieve

Making money can be very easy for some and difficult for others. For Bode Adediji, Group Executive Chairman of Bode Adediji and Partners, while it was not as if everything was strewn together for him to succeed, he waded his way through the murky waters of life to hit the top of his career. Aided by hard work, doing the right things and being focused, Adedeji has been able to build a frontline multi-disciplinary real estate firm which ranks among the first five in the country.

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

“

in life,” he said in a recent in-terview.

Incidentally, Adedeji, of-ten regarded as highly cere-bral real estate management professional, believes that his success today was not basically as a result of his academic brilliance, but the grace of God. “There are so many unseen forces in life. As a result, for everything I have done, I have always seen the hand of God. The choice of my school, the choice of my career, the choice of my wife, the choice of my place of work and the friends I keep. So, I will not ascribe brilliance to my success. I have come across several people who are phenomenally brilliant in aca-demics. That is just a means to an end and not an end in itself. You still need the di-rection and wisdom of God. Without these, academic bril-liance may turn to a liability,” he said.

Born and bred in the rus-tic Ada village, about 20 ki-lometres away from Osogbo in Boripe Local Government Area of modern day Osun State to Pa Adediji, a saw miller and timber merchant, the young Adedeji’s journey to manhood was expectedly tough and rough. But then, his lowly background helped inculcate in him, the attri-butes of hard work, discipline and obedience to constituted authority.

Right from his youth, the young Adediji had imbibed the culture of hard work. As he noted, part of what has been working for his success in life is that he was lucky to have attended a secondary school where they believed in working round the clock “such that the school opened at 6 a.m and closed whenever it pleases the principal. I had to read and read, not having time for any other thing.”

Little wonder he believes that a man will not succeed in this world if his planning is not backed by discipline. “If there is anything that I want Nigerians to know today, it is that majority of our youths have ambition to become rich, to become popular but this ambition is not underpinned by passion for excellence, planning and hard work. You can see in the majority of them, they want the shortcut to everything. That is why, in majority of cases, they end up as failures. The life of every-body is based on fundamen-tal programming. If you don’t programme your life positive-ly, you would end up a disas-

Adediji

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013A10 26 Business CourageCourage

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ter. If you programme your life very well and you pray for it and work towards it, challeng-es can come but you will end up becoming a successful hu-man being wherever you fi nd yourself,” he reckons.

Starting out like an ordi-nary village boy, living all his early stage of life in the village, he had attended primary, sec-ondary and even university in the village. This was possible because, then, the University of Ife, which not too far away from his village was also in a village setting. What took him out of his village for the very fi rst time however, was the compulsory national youth service. At that point in time, there was no electricity, no water and no hospital, only one or two primary schools.

Though Adediji is today a successful Estate Surveyor, not many knew that the for-mer President, Nigerian Insti-tute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, would have been charting his course in another fi eld far away from the Estate management profession.

Back then at the univer-sity, he had been admitted to read accountancy, but a year later, he changed to Estate Management merely because he didn’t want to read any popular course. “As at that time, the Estate Management department was the broadest in terms of course content of all universities in Nigeria. You can see that the products of that department are actu-ally the pillar of all the lead-ing estate fi rms in the country today. Fatimilehin & Co, Jide Taiwo & Co among others are ex-Ife. It was because of their practical exposure to quality knowledge, practical training and discipline,” he said boast-fully.

Determined to put what he had studied into practice, not minding the negative impres-sion the society had about Estate Surveyors and Valuers then, regarding them as mere estate agents, who engage merely in rent seeking, Bode Adediji, in 1993 registered his company known as Bode Adediji Partnership (Estate Surveyors, Valuers and Prop-erty Consultants).

“I kept asking myself, if that was all about the profes-sion, why would I spend fi ve years in the university to go and learn the art of buying and selling of landed proper-ty? It is ridiculous. The truth is that the profession is one of the most cerebral and broad-est profession anybody can come across by virtue of their training and what they do es-pecially in advance countries. Some of the areas they engage

in are client advisory services, construction, engineering, project management evalua-tion.

Anyone who studied Es-tate Management must have knowledge in building, engi-neering, construction designs, and all other areas that are germane in building like elec-trical, mechanical designs. So when you look at the whole gamut of these knowledge and exposure, certainly, an estate Surveyor and Valuer must not be seen as a mere estate agent,” he said.

However, when he was to establish his company, he decided to do something dif-ferent. As against the prac-tice of most of the other prop-erty consultancy fi rms in the country, he decided to make his own company a multi-disciplinary one, making it the fi rst of its kind in the country.

Bode Adediji Partnership is reputed as the pioneer multi-disciplinary professional es-tate fi rm in Nigeria employing Architects, Engineers, Survey-ors, Town Planners, etc under the same roof – The House of

Estate Victoria Island, Lagos.Adedeji recalled that his

desire to pioneer the fi rst mul-tidisciplinary estate fi rm in the country came during his master’s programme in Estate Management at the University of Reading, United Kingdom way back in 1982. “It dawned on me that at any professional fi rm, if any consultant wants to add value from a strategic perspective, he or she needs to have a good bias for a con-sortium approach to service delivery. So, I asked myself, what are the basic things that defi ned estate assets? They include conceptualisation, de-sign, construction and project management and then prop-erty management. This hovers around engineering, architec-ture, quantity surveying, es-tate surveying and town plan-ning. So, what I then did was to assemble all these people under one roof and through that approach, you can syn-ergise and today we are able to leap in the fore-front of es-tate consultancy through the multi-disciplinary approach to service delivery system, and since then, there has been no looking back,” he said with a sense of satisfaction.

Having worked in the third largest company in Nigeria for about four years at that point in time, the idea was formed by the reality that real estate had challenges from time to

time. “I considered that if you work as a team or a consor-tium, you are able to see all the problems from various perspectives; and so, when you agree to proffer a solu-tion, it will be effective, cost-effi cient and sustainable; you will be able to tackle the prob-lem from a multidisciplinary perspective and you are better served in terms of value for money,” he noted.

Today, while a number of other fi rms in the build-ing environment have towed the line, BAP, as it is fondly called, remains the frontline multi-disciplinary estate sur-veying fi rm.

The BAP is noted for its being a professional fi rm which encompasses the high-est quality of professionals in the building, construction and housing profession. The fi rm is composed of property valuers, estate surveyors, ar-chitects, quantity surveyors, town planners, engineers, ad-ministrators, marketers, ac-countants and ICT specialists.

The company is a regis-tered member of national and international professional bodies such as, the Nigerian Institution of Estate Sur-veyors and Valuers (NIESV), South African Property Own-ers Association (SAPOA), In-ternational Real Estate Fed-eration (FIABCI) as well as Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE).

The Bode Adediji Partner-ship is also affi liated to vari-ous bodies such as Interna-tional Real Estate Federation, FIABCI – Paris, Nigerian In-stitution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, NIESV-Nigeria, Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy, CASLE- London, South Africa Property Owners Association, SAPOA- Johannesburg, In-stitute Of Directors, IOD – Lagos and Nigeria-South Af-rica Chamber Of Commerce, NSCC ,Lagos.

Over the years, BAP has been noted among others for its multiple competences which include estate valu-ation, plant and machinery valuation, construction, proj-ect management, property sales and purchase, invest-ment studies, property man-agement and Development, fi nancing and general estate agency and consultancy busi-nesses.

By virtue of its human re-sources, mobility and technol-ogy, BAP serves the Estate pro-fessional needs of its diverse clients anywhere throughout the country. Hence, it has of-fi ces located at prime areas of the country that is, Lagos,

Bode Adediji Partnership is reputed as the pioneer multi-disciplinary professional estate fi rm in Nigeria employing Architects, Engineers, Surveyors, Town Planners, etc under the same roof – The House of Estate Victoria Island, Lagos

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A11 27Business CourageCourage

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Port Harcourt and Abuja.Bap’s services include in-

vestment advice and as a fo-cused multi disciplinary pro-fessional fi rm, one of its rare core competencies has been fi nding solutions to any as-set holding or divestment pro-gramme of strategic compa-nies. Likewise, BAP has been a fi rm with experience in ad-vising individuals and corpo-rate bodies on issues relating to property investment and management as well as merg-ers, acquisitions and prepara-tion of companies prospectus.

On real estate matters, it provides in-depth teaching and training both within and outside the country as its line of clientele includes the Federal Government, the La-gos State Government, South African High Commission, Australian High Commission, Total Plc, Mobil, Sea Petro-leum & Gas Co. NLNG, First Bank of Nigeria Plc as well as Union Bank Plc. Others are Access Bank Plc, Fidel-ity Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigeria Deposit In-surance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Power Holding Company of Ni-geria (PHCN), UAC of Nigeria Plc, MTN Nigeria. Ltd, Kaka-wa Discount House, Michelin Nigeria Ltd and Eko Hotel & Suites

In his characteristic man-ner of lecturing aspiring pro-fessionals, he has never dis-appointed anyone who comes to him to seek for advice. “As a professional, every step of my life is characterised by certain peculiar challenge or another, and I want all professional men and women to bear that in mind. If you want to be a successful professional any-where in the world, you have to reconcile yourself with the fact that at every given time, certain challenges would characterise your develop-ment. Specifi cally, as a youth corps member and after youth service, the challenge that I had was to imbibe as much training as I could. That would make you to become a servant to all your seniors, send you to all the places without you blinking an eyelid or express-ing any fatigue or disappoint-ment. Having learnt that, the next is that as a professional, issues of integrity, hard work, excellence, are the ingredients that clients look forward in in-dividuals.”

“But unfortunately in Nige-ria, only a small percentage of aspiring professionals adhere to that. If you are able to relate yourself to what I have always canvassed, that when you see Nigerians moving en masse towards one direction and you

are not sure of that direction, go the opposite direction and you would not fail. If you see people who migrate here and there without making con-scious effort to ask what are the bases for this mass move-ment, just go to the other di-rection and you would suc-ceed.

“The other challenge that we have, of course, is that certain trade requires capital and if your line of business requires capital, you have to focus your mind on the most ethical way of getting the capi-tal without which you cannot do anything. The last but not the least is that you should not end up becoming a jack of all trade and master of none. In Nigeria, I can categorically state that many doctors, ar-chitects, engineers who would have succeeded, fail half way in their journey because of lack of focus. They make some money in the early days of their careers and they would want to go into politics, chief-taincy title taking or other fri-volities. I am not casting any aspersion on anyone but for the younger ones, a focused life is a template for success and an unfocussed life is a recipe for failure. So, if you are an engineer, focus on your engineering fi eld and whatev-er capital you generate, you

can diversify. But for you to be a medical doctor and at the same time a contractor, a poli-tician and at the same time a globe trotter, that is, a recipe for failure and this is common with Nigerian professionals.”

Apart from serving as Group Executive Chairman of Bode Adediji Partnership, Adediji had served as the Managing Director of Epega & Company (Chartered Sur-veyors & Valuers). He is also the Group Executive Chair-

man of Kontinetal Developers (Nig) Ltd. and a Director in Financial Derivative Co. Ltd. He also serves as a Director of UTC Nigeria Plc. He is on the board of several other com-panies notably; MicCom Golf Hotels & Resort Ltd, Standard Alliance Life Assurance Lim-ited, Europress Nigeria Lim-ited, among others.

A National Undergraduate Merit scholar, the best over-all graduating student in Es-tate Management Department

(1979) and a Commonwealth scholar for Post-Graduate Studies in Britain (1982), Bode Adediji has played prominent academic and professional roles for about 30 years in the Nigerian Real Estate sec-tor. Besides his professional callings, he has over the years dedicated himself to mentor-ing and delivering lectures to inspire the younger ones to greatness.

He admitted that he be-came a millionaire in his 30’s when millions of his peers were still largely struggling to make ends meet. “I became comfortably rich in my early 30s but if you want to use the word millionaire, you can go ahead. Money on its own is a meaningless asset. You fi nd out that you don’t have to go religious to understand some of the comments sages had made about money. One of the wise sayings is that money is a means to an end but never an end in itself. Money is a good servant but a very bad master.”

Bode Adediji is a member of many professional and busi-ness organisations including Institute of Directors (IoD), Nigerian-South African Cham-ber of Commerce, The Metro-politan Club, IBB Golf Club, Ikoyi Golf Club, International Real Estate Federation (FIAB-CI), Commonwealth Associa-tion of Surveying & Land Eco-nomic (CASLE), American Real Estate Society (ARES), African Real Estate Society (AFRES), Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria and Association of Profession-al Bodies of Nigeria.

Widely travelled, Adediji is also a member of the Federal Government Vision 20:2020.

As a former President, Ni-gerian Institute of Estate Sur-veyors and Valuers, Adediji was at the forefront of the need for a radical change in the ways in which the public perceived the practice of Es-tate Surveyors and Valuers. Working tirelessly leading the campaign, he noted, “I think we have achieved that to a large extent. We have been able to tell the corporate in-dustries, government and other bodies that as you have them in other countries, so it is here or even better in some areas. In 2005, I led a team to conduct the evaluation of the entire Federal Government assets in this country before their capitalisation. We have also taken a look at all the as-sets belonging to Lagos state government and advised them as to their values and their management. These are what we don’t usually convey on the pages of newspapers.”

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‘

Adediji

I became comfortably rich in my early 30s but if you want to use the word millionaire, you can go ahead. Money on its own is a meaningless asset. You fi nd out that you don’t have to go religious to understand some of the comments sages had made about money. One of the wise sayings is that money is a means to an end but never an end in itself. Money is a good servant but a very bad master

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A12 28 Business CourageCourage

ThebuddingEntrepreneurs

Management Principles

Principles of Transformational Leadership

It is often argued that when a great moment knocks on the door of our lives, it is often

not louder than the beating of our hearts, and it is very easy to miss it. And truth is, many people do miss the opportuni-ties when they come knocking but not for Olufemi Obawole.

Obawole embraced the rare opportunity presented by the Swedish Government to will-ing Nigerians to further their education on a tuition-free ba-sis in Sweden few years ago. He faced the odds, endured the pains and keeping faith with the words of renowned author, Sarah Caldwell that “learn ev-erything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can, there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did,” Obawole did acquired knowl-edge not only from Malardalen University where he bagged a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, or his Master’s Degree in Information Systems from both Stockholm Universi-ty and Linnaeus University; he was also a keen observer of the needs of the society and how to proffer solutions to them.

As it turned out, that need to offer strategic solutions to the basic problems faced in the so-ciety propelled him, along with his wife, Minna Rumpunen to establish JustRich Group in 2008 with a vision to offer de-sirable solutions to strategic challenges faced by individu-als and organizations. JustRich supplies products that help

“It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself but he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come, he is ready,” is one of the famous quotes of a former governor of New York and an ex-president of the United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt.

In a way, Olufemi Obawole can be aptly described as a product of this school of thought. He benefitted from the tuition-free higher education initiative of the Swedish government some years ago and today, he does not only boast of a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Information system, he is also

the Group Managing Director of JustRich Group, Sweden with a distributing arm in Lagos, Nigeria.

By Biodun Alade businesses to achieve the best solution needed for their ac-tivities, through the creation of an enabling environment that strategically put individuals and businesses one step ahead in terms of output.

“Our activity is character-ised by the identifi cation of strategic problems faced by individuals and organisations, establishing contact and part-ner with the solution maker(s) and the delivery of the unique solution to our esteemed cus-tomers. We decided to set up the Nigerian branch because we have realised that coupled with the good reforms that is being initiated by the govern-ment, it is important that we also contribute our own quota to the development,” he said in an interview with Business Courage.

Obawole said that JustRich Group has fantastic product which all Nigerians need rang-ing from gas and smoke de-tector for all homes, hotels, retailers among others. “We also have the Business Kiosk Solutions, Queue Management Systems, and Digital Signage among the list of products that we offer. We also sell an un-breakable and anti-fl ammable type of glass that can be used for building windows, doors, of-fi ces and even on cars because security issue is one of the ma-jor issues in Nigeria.”

Obawole said that part of what his company has done to address incidences of large crowd often witnessed in the banks, public centre, bus sta-tions and customers centre of

“Every customer or client that walks into any of the men-tioned places, just need to press the machine and a number tag is generated, so you know where you belong on the queue. With the system, there will be no need for argument or fi ght-ing on who came fi rst on the queue. More so, it is not cus-tomer friendly when you have people on the queue for hours; with their number tag, they can sit down and the bank for in-stance will look more friendly and business-like. We actually have about 150 different prod-ucts which we distribute across the country. We do not manu-facture, we only make sure that we distribute this strategic products and services to our end customers to help them get to the next preferred level,” Obawole disclosed in an inter-view with Business Courage.

The smoke detector, accord-ing to him, will help reduce, if not totally eliminate the inci-dences of fi re outbreak as the alarm will come up at the slight-est detection of a smoke while gas alarm will do same whenev-er a leakage is noticed from the gas cylinder; thus ensuring that the home is secure to live in.

Obawole described the ham-mer glass as the new genera-tion of unbreakable glass that provides a whole system of un-breakable glass solutions for

Leadership comes in various forms, such as the civil rights leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the political leadership of John F. Kennedy, and the managerial leadership of a small busi-ness owner. Like leaders, there are several leadership styles, including transformational leader-

ship, which is appropriate for many business environments. Transformational leaders are true and trusted leaders. As a small business owner, apply the seven principles of transformational leadership to obtain a harmonious work atmosphere.

Simplifi cationUnder the principle of simplifi cation, the transformational leader speaks in a clear and practical

manner while articulating the direction the team is heading. Specifi cally, the plan for each project should include more than what needs to be done at the moment. The desired end result should also be vividly communicated so employees know where they, and the project, are heading. By knowing and effectively relaying what the project needs to transform into the anticipated result, you eliminate miscommunication and misunderstanding.

MotivationEmployees need motivation to perform at their best. Under the principle of motivation, you gain

the agreement and commitment necessary to elevate your vision. By understanding your employees’ likes and dislikes, you know what motivates and what doesn’t. For example, recognizing and ap-plauding their accomplishments, providing training to increase their knowledge base, establishing a pleasant work environment, giving half-days off for performing above expectations, or providing weekly snacks such as bagels or donuts, can motivate employees into performing at their highest level.

DeterminationDetermination means having the tenacity to fi nish the race regardless of the hurdles that come

some organisations, was to cre-ate the virtual queue system, through an electronic queue

management system which eliminates the problems associ-ated with queues.

Obawole

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A13 29Business CourageCourage

ThebuddingEntrepreneursPersonal Finance

Common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (4)

BC

Build a rock-solid reputation

A good reputation is unquestionably one of the home business owner’s most tangible and marketable assets. You can’t simply

buy a good reputation; it’s something that you earn by honouring your promises. If you promise to have the merchandise in the customer’s hands by Wednesday, you have no excuse not to have it there. If you offer to repair something, you need to make good on your offer. Consistency in what you offer is the other key factor. If you cannot come through with the same level of service (and products) for clients on a regular basis, they have no reason to trust you . . . and without trust, you won’t have a good reputation.

Sell benefi tsPushing product features is for inexperienced

or wannabe entrepreneurs. Selling the benefi ts associated with owning and using the products and services you carry is what sales professionals worldwide focus on to create buying excitement and to sell, sell more, and sell more frequently to their customers. Your advertising, sales presenta-tions, printed marketing materials, product pack-aging, website, newsletters, trade show exhibit and signage are vital. Every time and every medium used to communicate with your target audience must always be selling the benefi ts associated with owning your product or using your service.

Grab attentionSmall-business owners cannot waste time,

money and energy on promotional activities aimed at building awareness solely through long-term, repeated exposure. If you do, chances are you will go broke long before this goal is accomplished. Instead, every promotional activity you engage in, must put money back in your pocket so that you can continue to grab more attention and grow your business.

Master the art of negotiationsThe ability to negotiate effectively is unques-

tionably a skill that every home business owner must make every effort to master. It’s perhaps second in importance only to asking for the sale in terms of home business musts. In business, negotiation skills are used daily. Always remember that mastering the art of negotiation means that your skills are so fi nely tuned that you can always orchestrate a win-win situation. These win-win ar-rangements mean that everyone involved feels they have won, which is really the basis for building long-term and profi table business relationships.

Follow-up constantlyConstant contact, follow-up, and follow-through

with customers, prospects, and business alliances should be the mantra of every home business own-er, new or established. Constant and consistent follow-up enables you to turn prospects into cus-tomers, increase the value of each sale and buying frequency from existing customers, and build stronger business relationships with suppliers and your core business team. Follow-up is especially important with your existing customer base, as the real work begins after the sale. It’s easy to sell one product or service, but it takes work to retain customers and keep them coming back.

To be continuedBC BC

new construction, conversions and Add-Ons. Hammer glass is an ap-propriate protection in any environ-ment where there is the risk of bur-glary or vandalism: shops, shopping malls, public buildings, municipali-ties, schools, sports centres, police stations, offi ces and industries - but also in private homes and apart-ments. The company also has the road sweepers which can be used to sweep the highways and other ma-jor roads.

He argued that the products of-fered by the company are a must have for every home and organisa-tion, stressing that they are also affordable with a guaranty and an insurance cover. “We also have few banks which we partner that can give credit facility to our customers to buy our products provided such customers are credit worthy. We can actually supply in large quan-tity,” he added.

Obawole said that he chose to establish the company in Nigeria because of his conviction that Ni-gerians can live a more comfortable life than they are living at present, adding that there are untapped po-tentials in the country and a lack of knowledge of what the strategic needs of the citizens are.

Speaking on the challenges and how he started the business with his wife, Minna Rumpunen who is the Executive Director, Obawole admitted that it was pretty diffi cult at the initial stage. “From getting the right manufacturer of a product we want to the delivery of the same products to the right customer who will buy it from us. But as we keep working hard, customers started coming and suppliers continually knock at our door”.

Obawole added that he worked for fi ve years in a multinational company where he was well paid

but the urge to establish his own business and make contributions to the good of the society engi-neered him to resign to embark on the JustRich voyage in 2008.

“I worked for fi ve years with a company called Vasteras, Sweden and while on the job, I always ask myself if I will not be doing better putting all of the effort I placed on that job on mine. Then a day came when I realised that I had to take the bold step. After I had tasted the autonomy of running my own business, I realised it was a right decision. We got some funds from a foreign bank to start up the busi-ness,” he said.

He added that his team is com-mitted to providing strategic solu-tions to the needs of Nigerians and ensuring that JustRich becomes a household name in the coun-try hinged on professionalism and qualitative delivery of products, adding that the company is always willing to listen to the needs of cli-ents in order for them to get desired result.

Obawole enjoined would-be en-trepreneurs to always remain fo-cused in the face of challenges, stressing that every challenge pres-ents them another opportunity to strategise and make the business works. “The spirit of entrepreneur-ship is something you cannot let go. There is a kind of zeal and ability in you that will always ring in your heart that there is a need or ser-vices that you can provide. When you face challenges, you feel a little bit down but as an entrepreneur, the challenges should make you think of what next to do to make the business bigger and succeed. I would say that don’t give up, there will be challenges and reasons to think twice and not take too much risk but don’t quit in the face of dif-fi culties.”

“You can go back to the draw-ing board and see where you have gotten it wrong and fi x it. Do not be put down by the potential and even the existing challenges. You must know exactly what you want, what you are doing and where you are going. You must focus on add-ing values to the good of the society and be determine to succeed. Hard work pays,” he concluded.

your way. The principle of determination requires you to depend on your courage, stamina, strength and perseverance to realize your vi-sion. By displaying endurance, you show employees that hard work pays off in the end.

Mobilisation You need the right people to elevate your vision. Transformation-

al leaders know how to assemble the appropriate team to get the job done. This includes enlisting, empowering and equipping qualifi ed team leaders and other willing participants who do not have leader-ship roles. The transformational leader understands the importance of assigning tasks based on participants’ characteristics and abili-ties.

Preparation The principle of preparation requires transformational leaders to be

infi nite students. You must have the introspective ability to keep learn-ing about yourself, alone or with the assistance of others. To maintain a fl ourishing bond with your employees, you must always be prepared to nurture and support the relationship. This means looking outside yourself, concentrating on what’s best for the team, and transferring this energy to your employees so they emulate this behavior.

Facilitation The principle of facilitation requires you to provide your employees

with the proper learning tools to elevate the vision to its greatest height. Specifi cally, workers need stimulating work that challenges and expands their minds and facilitates the desire to keep learning. As a transforma-tional leader, you recognize this principle and work toward improving your employees’ intellectuality.

Innovation Change in a business environment is inevitable. Under the principle of

innovation, you courageously recognise the need for change and initiate it accordingly. For example, innovation may include learning and adapting to an upgraded accounting system, or adjusting to an employee who has just been promoted to management. As a transformational leader, you effectively show employees why the change is needed, how it will benefi t them and the company, and how to embrace it.

Hammer glass productsSmoke detector

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A14 30 Business CourageCourage

In a matter of months, Nige-rians may soon have their fi xed and mobile phones

and electronic mails monitored by the Federal Government. Bent on introducing the much criticised ‘telephone tapping’, known as Lawful Interception (LI), the Nigerian Communi-cations Commission (NCC) is said to have fi nalise arrange-ment for the award of contract for the surveillance and intel-ligence gathering activities. Al-ready, the NCC has invited ten-ders from reputable fi rms with proven experience to undertake consultancy for the award of 25 consultancy contracts in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007.

Few months ago, when the NCC came out with a draft policy on Lawful Interception which is meant to monitor tele-phony communications such as phone calls, short message ser-vices (SMS) and chat messages, many stakeholders had stoutly spoken against it, arguing that such exercise would impede on the privacy of the citizens.

Though it is generally re-ferred to as telephone tapping or telephone bugging, Lawful Interception has become an important tool for law enforce-ment agencies (LEAs) around the world for investigating and prosecuting criminal activities and terrorism.

The International Telecom-munication Union (ITU) de-scribes the LI as the lawfully authorised interception and monitoring of telecommunica-tions (voice and data communi-cations) to obtain the forensics necessary for pursuing wrong-doers pursuant to an order of a government body. Interception may take any of several forms, such as, the live interception of communications (“listening in” to actual conversations real time), access to audio record-ings of previous conversations, access to communications re-cords (CDRs, etc.) as well as access to location information (pinpointing presence of the subject) etc.

Most countries have passed laws that require telecommuni-cation service providers to sup-

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi port LEAs with duly authorised requests to identify, monitor, and deliver all of the electronic communication of specifi ed in-dividuals and groups.

The main functions of any LI solution are to access Inter-ception-Related Information (IRI) and Content of Communi-cation sessions (CC) from the telecommunications network and to deliver the information in a standardised format via the handover interface to one or more monitoring centres of law enforcement agencies.

Through a new regulation being proposed by the NCC, tagged “Draft Lawful Inter-ception of Communications Regulations”, telecommunica-tion service providers in the country are to be compelled to provide unhindered access to subscribers’ telephone calls or e-mail messages. According to the NCC, by virtue of the Nige-rian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, telecommunications pro-viders are under obligation to implement the technical capa-bilities for LI - to enable nation-al security and law enforcement agencies to exercise their au-thority to intercept communica-tions.

With the new regulation seeking to provide the legal and regulatory framework for the lawful interception of commu-nications in Nigeria, and to put into effect the provisions of Sec-tion 70 of the Nigerian Commu-nications Act, the regulations shall specify the nature and types of communications to be intercepted; prescribe penalties for non-compliance; provide a notifi cation procedure to the commission of all warrants is-sued, amended renewed or can-celled under these regulations; ensure the privacy of subscrib-ers as contained in the Consti-tution of Federal Republic of Ni-geria is preserved”.

According to the highlights of the draft regulation, while communication can be inter-cepted in any part of the coun-try, intercepted communication can be disclosed in the interest of national security. Though privacy of subscribers will be ensured in consonance with the Constitution of the Federal Re-public of Nigeria, warrants can be issued for the purpose of pre-

venting or investigating a crime, or protecting and safeguarding the economic wellbeing of Nige-rians, or in the interest of public safety.

Also, warrants may be grant-ed to the National Security Ad-visers (NSA) or a designee not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police (or equivalent) or to Director State Security Service or designee not below ACP. The NSA may initi-ate interception without warrant in an emergency, which may entail death, danger or serious injury, or in cases of conspiracy threatening national security, or organised crimes. When such happens, the NSA must make application to a Judge within 48 hours after interception and if such application is denied, in-terception must terminate im-mediately.

A warrant is issued for three months, and lapses unless re-newed for another maximum of three months, as any person intercepted shall in writing no-tify the NCC, and may make application to the court for judi-cial review. Interception will be in force till reversed by a court. Once any piece of intercepted communication is admitted by court, all copies shall be de-stroyed by the law enforcement agency in whose custody the information resides as intercep-tion communication shall be kept confi dential by law enforce-ment agencies, and only shared for the purpose of investigation and criminal proceedings.

When communication is

encrypted, then it must be de-coded by the Licensee, failure to comply with the law makes any Licensee liable to a N5 million fi ne or a daily default of N500, 000 as it may even lead to li-cence revocation.

To show its total commit-ment to the introduction of the LI, other consultant contracts which the NCC will be awarding include: Review of the Readiness of Social Media Networks and its Implications for Telecommu-nications Regulation and Na-tional Security; Development of a Technical Framework for Data Filtering in Telecommunications

Networks; and Development of a Technical Framework for the Use of Social Media Networks.

Others are Electronic Ar-chiving of Documents; Upgrade and Comprehensive Mainte-nance of Site to Site VPN Solu-tion; Implementation of Visitors Management System (VMS); Localised Investigation into the Electromagnetic (EM) Emission from telecommunications radia-tors associated with masts, tow-ers and terminal devices and study to quantify the value and compliance levels in the use of 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz centre fre-quencies of the ISM Band in the

Nigeria seems to be moving closer to the introduction of the much criticised ‘telephone tapping’, known as Lawful Interception, as the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, prepares to award contract for mobile phone surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Juwah

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A15 31Business CourageCourage

BC

Conserving your iPhone, iPad battery life

with Esther Ozue(ozueesther@nationalmirroronline.net) 08059234648 (sms only)

BC

TechnotalkTechnotalk

Nigerian market.According to Director, Public

Affairs of the NCC, Tony Ojobo, “The technical and fi nancial proposals shall be submitted in a sealed envelope,” adding that “The document should be dropped in the bid box located at the reception of the Commis-sion’s head offi ce.

However, it would be recalled that shortly after the NCC had announced its plan for the Law-ful Interception (LI) project, the Federal Government was alleged to have awarded a $40 million contract to an Israeli company to provide technology tool and software to monitor emails of Nigerians online.

Series of criticism had fol-lowed the pronouncement. In the words of Engr. Lanre Ajayi, President, Association of Tele-communications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), such a con-tract remains uncalled for as many Nigerian telecommuni-cations companies are already using the technology on their networks.

Speaking at a forum for the review of lawful intercep-tion organised by the Joint Action Committee for Informa-tion Technology Awareness and Development (JACITAD), Ajayi listed a Netherlands company, Digivox as key supplier of in-terception technology tools to the Nigerian government and telecommunication operators which Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS), MTN, Airtel, Eti-salat and Glo are among its business partners.

Clearly, the NCC decision has not been well received by many Nigerians. Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Associa-tion of Licenced Telecommuni-cations Companies of Nigeria (ALTON) noted that “By virtue of NCC Act 2003, operators are under obligation to implement technical capabilities for lawful

interception,” he however sub-mitted that there was no law protecting the operators from attacks in the performance of their duty while helping govern-ment agencies.

“It is worrisome, that where operators have provided some information to security agen-cies, the law enforcement and security agencies have said ‘ these operators gave us this in-formation; that operator gave us call data records’. This has of-ten led to attacks of operators’ facilities. It is critical that the National Assembly provides leg-islative backing on lawful inter-ception”, he stated.

Nasir El-Rufai, former direc-tor-general, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), believes that the move to “regulate” Lawful In-terception of Communications” is a contravention of Nigerians’ fundamental human rights.

Describing the LI as being similar to eavesdropping, El-Rufai said that over two hun-dred years ago, in the fourth volume of William Blackstone’s ‘Commentaries on the Laws of England”, eavesdropping has been recorded as an offence in-dictable at common law.

Making reference to what Blackstone wrote in 1769 that at common law, “Eavesdrop-pers, or such as listen under walls or windows, or the eaves of a house, to hearken after dis-course, and thereupon to frame slanderous and mischievous tales, are a common nuisance and presentable at the court-leet; or are indictable at the ses-sion, and punishable by fi ne and fi nding of sureties for good behavior,” El-Rufai stated that “Listening to other people’s con-versations is therefore not only objectionable but a crime in common law jurisdictions like Nigeria.”

Citing Chapter IV of the Con-stitution of the Federal Repub-

lic of Nigeria 1999 which guar-antees fundamental rights of citizens, he stated that Sections 34, 35, 37 and 38 entrenched rights that may be breached if the government unlawfully in-tercepts communications be-tween citizens.

“From the foregoing, it is not only unlawful for the govern-ment to invade the privacy of citizens by intercepting letters, phone conversations or emails, but a constitutional violation and therefore an impeachable offence. However, if the National Assembly enacts “any law that is reasonably justifi able…in the interest of defence, etc…” then the interception may be law-ful. The question that follows is whether NCA 2003 is one such law.”

“So why does our govern-ment want to listen to our tele-phone conversations? Why has the Federal Government com-mitted between $40-$61 mil-lion off-budget to monitor our emails, instant messaging and social media activities?” he won-dered.

According to him, the Fed-eral Government has refused to answer these questions, and when it does, its justifi cation will be the paternalistic need to provide security for all by spying on a few of us.”

Aside infringing on Nigeri-ans’ freedom of privacy, the for-mer BPE boss also frowned at NCC’s moves to “regulate” Law-ful Interception of Communica-tions, saying that it clearly falls outside its jurisdiction.

According to El-Rufai, the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA 2003) was originally draft-ed by a consortium of local and international lawyers hired by the BPE under his leadership to give legal effect to the ap-proved National Communica-tions Policy midwifed by the Na-tional Council on Privatization in 2001.

The goal of the legislation, he said, was to fully deregulate the telecommunications sector and give broader and deeper regula-tory powers to the NCC, while restricting the Minister to policy making roles only.

Thus, he slammed NCC for pushing to regulate an affair concerning human rights which falls under the purview of the National Assembly. “As one of the fathers of the NCA 2003, I can say without any fear of con-tradiction that it was only meant to deregulate the telecommuni-cations sector and no more. It was not designed or drafted to abridge the fundamental rights of Nigerians entrenched in the 1999 Constitution, and there is nowhere in the law except one of the ‘emergency provisions’ in section 148(1)c that inter-cepting communications was envisaged. The regulations un-der discussion did not pretend to derive legitimacy from any ‘emergency’ situation in Nigeria right now,” he noted.

El-Rufai

Enterprises, government and business owners love the iPhone and ipad because of its back-end management and security features.

However, one thing that can hinder you from enjoying your valuable devices is the battery life. To get the most time out of your iPhone/iPad battery, you have to properly man-age it and its enabled services and features on your device to make sure you get the most life out of your battery. In fact, you may need to sacrifi ce some features to use the device a little longer

Here are some tips to stay fi rmly in charge of your devices battery.

* Place device in airplane mode when not in useIn situations when you are not using your iPhone to

make or receive calls, or not using it to browse the Internet, you should place it into airplane mode. Do this especially when you are in an area where no wireless signal is available or when boarding an airplane that is not equipped with Wi-Fi as your iOS device will expend a lot of power continuously looking for a wireless signal.

* Turn off Bluetooth, Wi-FiIf you have no Bluetooth devices (such as a headset or

wireless speakers) connected to your iPhone or iPad, turn off the Bluetooth feature. To do this, launch Settings, tap the Bluetooth option, and then turn the virtual switch for the Bluetooth option to the off position. If you have a Bluetooth device paired with your device that you know you won’t be using for a while, turning off Bluetooth on your phone or tablet is another way to conserve battery life.

* Don’t rely too heavily on the InternetConnecting your iPhone or iPad to the Internet requires a

lot of power, particularly when using a cellular data connec-tion. To extend your device’s battery life, refrain from surfi ng the Internet too much, using Safari or continuously check-ing your email account(s) with the Mail app. If possible, con-nect to the Internet using Wi-Fi.

* Turn off the vibrate featureThe iPhone’s vibrate feature that activates for incoming

calls, text messages, and notifi cations, should be turned off to conserve battery life.

* Don’t use the built-In speakersUsing the iPhone or iPad’s built-in speakers to play audio

uses more battery power than plugging corded headphones into the device. Likewise, on the iPhone, avoid using the Speakerphone option when engaged in a phone call.

* Reduce reliance on the Maps, Weather and Stocks Apps

The Maps, Weather, and Stocks apps are examples of apps that heavily use the Internet in order to function. Since excessive Internet usage drains battery life faster, shutting down these apps when conserving battery power is impor-tant.

* Keep conversations shortKeep your phone conversations short since talking on the

phone is one of the quickest ways to deplete battery life. If you’re using Skype on your iOS mobile device, it will drain the battery faster because heavy Internet usage is required.

In summary, for many people on the go, fi nding some-place to plug in your iPhone or iPad to charge it can be a challenge. Having your charger cords at home, offi ces and in the car is just smart in case your battery runs low or dies, you can easily charge it. Conserving your iPad / IPhone bat-teries is key for you to always stay in touch and be produc-tive in your businesses anywhere you are without losing track of your customers.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A16 32 Business CourageCourage

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Nigerian Telecoms Award boosts telecoms industry growth – OrganisersStories by Kunle Azeez

Organisers of the annual Nigerian Telecoms Award

and the Telecoms Develop-ment Lecture have said that the two events have been engendering healthy competi-tion among the operators as well as providing a platform for discussing pressing indus-try matters for promoting the sector’s growth.

In an interview with Busi-ness Courage at the week-end, Chairman, Logica Group, organisers of the events, Abio-dun Ajiboye, lamented that the industry was still bedev-iled with a lot of challenges which, he observed, had not been frontally tackled by the Federal Government.

In his assessment of the industry in the last 12 years of deregulation, Ajiboye said there were many lapses, in form of problems which the industry is still facing.”These range from the issue of Right of way, to multiple taxation, vandalism of telecom equip-ment, declaration of telecoms as Critical National Security Infrastructure.”

He said these were the issues “We are still battling with as an industry and I am not impressed about the way the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is going about solving these problems as well.”

He urged the NCC to appoint people within the society that can solve the problems, talk frankly to the government and to the society and who will get rid of the industry challenges once.

“I don’t know how the committees handling each of these challenges have gone but I do know that govern-ment has not done enough in solving the problems of the telecoms indus-try. The companies are groaning. Look at the volume of destruc-tion caused to their infrastructures last year as a result of the insecu-rity n the country.

“The operators are

complaining and govern-ment should wake up to solve all these problems to the benefi t of Nigerian telecoms consumers,”he said.

The Logica Group boss however expressed regret that players in the industry have not been supporting the award. “What I can see clearly as a player in this industry is that the industry is growing faster than the people. There are issues everywhere. The indus-try does not appear to carry members along at the rate that can engender the needed devel-opment.”

According to him, “The ICT media has suffered the great-est neglect. That is why the industry is growing and the media is not growing. The indi-viduals that constitute the ICT media are not growing. If they are not growing at the rate the industry is growing, then, we would have a problem, which we are already having. I do not see any reason why you want to grow the industry without growing the media alongside.”

Dell builds latest workstations for professionals

A global Information Technol-ogy giant, Dell has expand-

ed its workstation portfolio with ‘the most powerful’ mobile and tower workstations, the Dell Precision M4800, M6800, T3610, T5610 and T7610.

According to the company, the new workstations are designed to seamlessly run the leading content creation, en-gineering, scientifi c and other professional software applica-tions.

Updated with the latest high-performance, worksta-tion-class processors, graph-ics, storage, display and other technologies, the new systems demonstrate Dell’s continued commitment to delivering un-paralleled performance and re-liability that creative, engineer-ing and scientifi c professionals require to quickly develop and realize innovative ideas.

Workstation General Manager, Technical Comput-ing Group, Intel Corporation, Frank Soqui, said, “Dell’s new Precision tower and mobile workstations, now featuring the latest Intel Xeon Proces-sor E5-2600 v2 family and 4th generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors respectively, offer users the opportunity to cre-ate, test and modify their ideas as they never have before.”

According to Soqui, “Dell is also the fi rst to offer Intel® Cache Acceleration Software - Workstation and worked closely with Intel to tune it for workstation applications. This innovative caching software uses a solid state drive as a fi le cache with existing hard drives. This accelerates the storage subsystem to I/O speeds comparable to storage made entirely of solid state drives at a fraction of the cost.”

Principal and Creative direc-tor, Ghost Town Media, Bran-don Parvini, whose company has deployed the systems, said “Our latest project is CG-heavy so we needed strong processing power and speed. We turned to the latest Dell Precision tower and mobile workstations with NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics as we found they provide massive acceleration that facilitate lightning-fast rendering, allowing complex 3D scenes to be rendered in minutes instead of hours.”

“Today professional work-station users get a new set of tools with the announcement of new Dell Precision desktop and mobile workstation solu-tions powered by AMD FirePro workstation graphics,” said Senior Director and General Manager, Professional Graph-ics at AMD, David Cummings.

According to him, “AMD has worked closely with Dell to offer exceptional workstation-class graphics processing performance so users can work on more complex/detailed 3D models and work on larger data sets. AMD and Dell rec-ognize the increasing require-ment for Open Computing Language (OpenCL) support when it comes to workstation productivity with industry-leading applications.

Committed to improving the performance and personal experience and interaction with its new Dell Precision M4800 and M6800 mobile workstations, Dell is the fi rst to bring a 15.6-inch Quad HD+ IGZO panel to the workstation market, with higher resolution than the Apple MacBook Pro Retina display, and the only to offer optional 10-fi nger Wacom multi-touch on a 17.3-inch display for intuitive control and interaction with creative and design applications.

Airtel offers Nigerians phone ownership scheme

Airtel Nigeria has part-nered with Nokia to pro-

vide Nigerians the opportu-nity to exchange any of their current handsets for one of

Nokia’s swank smartphones, the Lumia 520.

Chief Sales Offi cer of Airtel Nige-ria, Inusa Bello, said

the initiative was conceived to provide further value to Nigeri-ans in line with Airtel’s com-mitment to becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians.

“The phone upgrade pro-gramme is yet another unique initiative by Airtel and Nokia to provide Nigerians a rare oppor-tunity to own smartphone de-vices, complete with innovative applications to enhance their communication experience. Also, the additional value of free voice and data services is one more reason for consum-ers to port to Airtel,” he said.

In the same vein, the Gener-al Manager, Nokia West Africa, Chris Brown, said Nokia was ecstatic that the Lumia 520 had been chosen as the smart-phone of choice for consumers to get their fi rst smartphone experience on.

He applauded Airtel for leading the way on a much requested upgrade opportunity which will offer consumers the best starter kit with the device discount and a fully loaded phone with free airtime and data for easy internet access.

Meanwhile the telecom operator has also stated the conditions for qualifi cation to get the device by Nigerians.

According to Bello, “To qual-ify for the Airtel/Nokia phone upgrade programme, custom-ers needed to visit any of Airtel shops with their old but functional device of any given brand and network, then pay an exchange fee of N23, 990, to own the Lumia 520.

“The offer also gives cus-tomers who embrace it up to N10, 000 worth of value for exchanging their old devices for the new Lumia 520 as they stand to enjoy 6 months free airtime for on net calls and data worth N6, 000.

Etisalat is telecoms host partner for 4th annual NigeriaCom By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

Etisalat Nigeria is set to play a leading role as Host

Operator Partner to over 700 telecom experts, including leading industry regional op-erators and regulators at this year’s NigeriaCom, the coun-try’s leading event for telecoms, media and ICT.

Coming up between 17 and 18 September 2013, as part of this year’s edition, the fourth in Lagos, Etisalat will champion the theme ‘Qual-ity of Service on the Network: Challenges & Opportunities for Telecoms Operators in Nigeria’ with a hard-hitting keynote panel debate.

The Minister of ICT, Omobola Johnson, with Dr. Eugene Juwah, the executive vice chairman of the Nigerian

Communications Commission along with the Chief Techni-cal Offi cer of Etisalat will lead the open discussions on the fi rst day of the event taking place at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos.

NigeriaCom provides a platform for telecoms and ICT players to deliberate on Nigeria’s digital revolution to innovative areas like cloud services, mobile money, digital entertainment, social media marketing as well as the ever-evolving network, connectivity, customer experi-ence management spheres and the return of the ex-tremely popular AppGig.

Speakers have been cho-sen from leading telecoms operators, Internet Service Providers, fi nancial and legal entities, regulators, associa-tions, App experts, content providers, analysts and solu-tion providers.

Announcing the net-work’s participation, Director, Brands and Communica-tion, Enitan Denloye said the company remained commit-ted to working together with other industry players on ways to improve the qual-ity of service throughout the digital realm. “Together we will create sustainable strate-gies for transforming the telecommunications industry. Etisalat recognises its role in shining a spotlight on service improvement and expansion platforms in Nigeria. Nigeria is Africa’s largest telecoms market, and represents 15% of the continent’s subscrip-tions in the fi rst quarter of this year,” he said.

According to him, the number of mobile subscrip-tions in Nigeria has grown by 21 per cent as he noted that though voice activations currently remains on the increase, the growth rate of the mobile data market has greatly improved. “Etisalat is a large part of that, through innovative and quality data provisions. So far, Etisalat has performed above average, amassing a subscriber base of over 15 million and will continue to satisfy customers’ needs in the area of innova-tion, quality of service and customer focus. We are proud to be one of the leaders at the NigeriaCom 2013,” Denloye concluded.

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Steven Evans, CEO Etisalat Nigeria

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A17 33Business CourageCourage

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The Federal Government recorded a revenue shortfall of N443.75bn within the fi rst seven months of

this year, an analysis of the country’s income profi le has revealed.

The federally collected revenue ac-cruing to the Federation Account had continued to experience a sharp drop in spite of government’s efforts at plug-ging leakages in the system.

Figures from the monthly alloca-tions to the three tiers of government of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee also showed that the coun-try realised N4.39tn as gross federally collected revenue in the fi rst seven months of this year.

The amount indicated a shortfall of N443.76bn when compared to the revenue of N4.834tn that would have accrued to the country for the seven months period.

According to the FAAC document, the monthly budgeted gross federally collected revenue for the country is put at N702.54bn, expected to be realised from three revenue sources-mineral revenue N465.057bn; non-mineral rev-enue N158.711bn and Value Added Tax N78.77bn.

However, while the government had budgeted to earn N702.54bn as monthly revenue, further investigations showed that it only surpassed that target once during the seven-month period.

The country’s gross revenue for the fi rst seven months of this year was earned as follows: January,

N651.26bn; February, N571.7bn; and March, N595.71bn.

In the months of April, May, June and July, the revenue received by the country was N621.07bn, N590.77bn, N863.02bn and N497.98bn, respec-tively.

There are also concerns that the country’s revenue projection as ap-proved in the budget for the 2013 fi scal year may not be realised.

Figures obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the average daily production of crude oil in the second quarter of 2013 was 2.11 million barrels, declining from 2.29 mil-lion barrels in the fi rst quarter of the year; and 2.38 million barrels, which was recorded in the second quarter of 2012.

The oil sector contributed approxi-mately 12.9 per cent to real Gross Do-mestic Product in the second quarter of 2013, which was lower than the 14.75 per cent contribution in the fi rst quar-ter of 2013, and the 13.86 per cent recorded during the second quarter of 2012.

Further fi ndings by our correspon-dent revealed that massive oil theft, crude oil leakages owing to pipeline vandalism and downward review of some companies estimates on Petro-leum Profi t Tax payable were major rea-sons for the huge decline.

The Nigerian oil sector had in recent times witnessed massive disruptions as a result of pipeline vandalism and bun-

kering incidents.While the sector had benefi ted im-

mensely from the relative stability in international crude oil market price and the exchange rates of naira against the dollar, this had not translated into increased revenue to government.

President Goodluck Jonathan had last week said the country was losing between 60,000 to 80,000 barrels daily to crude oil theft.

Jonathan, who gave the fi gure in Abuja, while speaking at this year’s an-nual banking and fi nance conference, said the loss of 80,000 barrel lost daily as a result of crude oil theft was mini-

mal compared to the 400,000 being re-ported in some quarters.

Represented at the event by the Min-ister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, the President, however, admit-ted that in recent times, the oil sector had brought about nothing but serious shock to the economy.

The price of crude oil in the interna-tional market sold for $113 per barrel and going by the statistics of the Presi-dent, the country would be losing be-tween $6.78m (N1.08bn) and $9.04m (N1.45bn) daily.

Jonathan said, “The oil sector has brought nothing to this country than shocks, even some new shocks that we never thought like oil bunkering and oil theft. These are shocks because once they happen they shut down the entire system.

“Most of the fi gures you see don’t even represent the theft. They say 400,000 barrels per day but that does not represent what is being stolen in this country.

“What is stolen is between 60,000 and 80,000 barrels per day. But once they start stealing from your pipelines, do you allow them to continue? No, you shut them down and once you shut down, the entire production stops; so, that is also lost.”

To help mitigate the impact of oil sector shocks on the economy, the President challenged the banking sec-tor to increase funding to the real sec-tor.

The total value of transactions of listed securities on the Nige-rian Stock Exchange stood at

N1.183tn in the half year report, which ended on June 30, 2013.

The amount represents an increase of N673bn or 132 per cent compared to the N510.1bn recorded at the end of the fi rst quarter, ended March 31, 2013.

The total transactions represent the aggregate purchase and sale of listed securities within a defi ned period and it comprised both Foreign Portfolio In-vestments (FPI) and domestic invest-ments.

The amount of FPIs for the year-to-date stood at N582.64bn or 49.24 per cent of the total transactions, while the domestic investments amounted to N600.70bn, representing 50.76 per cent of the total transactions conduct-ed by local and retail investors.

As of March 2013, the FPIs account-ed for 42.7 per cent of the N510.1bn worth of transactions recorded since the beginning of the year, while domes-tic investments represented 57.3 per cent.

This, according to market watchers,

Govt revenue drops by N443.75bn in seven months

Jonathan

shows the growing interest of local and retail investors in the capital market, who before this year were participating minimally in the market, compared to the interest shown by foreign investors.

The Chairman, Association of Stock-broking Houses of Nigeria, Emeka Madubuike, said that there has been

increased participation by local inves-tors, who fl ed the market in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

He said the renewed interest in the market could be traced to the collab-orative efforts of the regulators and key stakeholders aimed at sanitising the market.

Madubuike said the association, for instance, had been involved in various interactions with major stakeholders in the capital market on ways to en-sure that the growing interest being shown by retail investors in the last few months was sustained.

“Since stockbrokers are the front-runners of the market and the major interface between the investors and the market, we have decided to come together to seek ways to increase inves-tor-confi dence in the market. We have been involved in various investor edu-cation schemes to allow investors to become more aware of the happenings in the market.

“We have done a lot in this regard already and we know that a lot of work still needs to be done as we want to refocus to ensure that retail investors return to the market. Already, we have

seen some improvements and we hope to see more as the year progresses,” he said.

Madubuike explained that stake-holders had been studying the situa-tion in other markets around the world as regards the global meltdown and what such markets did to overcome the situation.

He added that such ideas could be adopted for the Nigerian market.

The President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Ariyo Olushekun, said a lot of investors were taking positions in the equities market ahead of the ex-pected rise in the market indices. “We are pleased to note that recovery has already commenced in our market and we are sure that this recovery will be sustained. Already, you will notice that we are having signifi cant year-to-date returns in the market.

“All indications point to the fact that we are going to see even more growth in the months ahead, and we can see this from the way that both local and for-eign investors have been playing in the market in the last two years and taking advantage of the undervalued prices of major companies.”

Stock Exchange transactions hit N1.183tn in half year

Oscar Onyema, NSE Boss

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013A18 34 Business CourageCourage

Behind d WheelsThis page is open to sponsorship

Despite Nissan’s push to consider the current-generation Maxima as a

“4-Door Sports Car,” it’s proven to be more of a stylish, luxuri-ous alternative larger main-stream sedan, rather than a dynamic one.

Calling it a luxury sedan with a few sporty tendencies may be closer to the truth, as the Maxima chooses com-fort and refi ned driving feel over the ability to toss the car around turns. That’s not a bad exchange, though, especially if you’re looking for a car with fl owing, unique design, an up-scale interior and a long list of features.

Little has changed since the Maxima was redesigned in 2009, but this model has man-aged to maintain a fresh look despite rolling into its fi fth year in 2014. Much of that can be credited to the fact that the Maxima doesn’t really look like anything else on the road.

With its low grille, tall rear haunches, Coke-bottle fend-er curves and large wheels, it looks more like a rear-drive sports car than the front-wheel drive sedan that it actually is. Inside, the control centre will look familiar to Infi niti owners, and the Maxima’s soft lines and fi nishes at least fl irt with the edge of Nissan’s more upscale offerings.

SpecsAt the base level, the 2014

Nissan Maxima does really maximize the number of stan-dard conveniences (like a power moonroof, power front seats, and Intelligent Key entry and starting), as well as optional ex-tras.

But if adding many of those

The 2014 Nissan Maxima isn’t the enthusiast car it claims to be, but it is a more luxurious, more stylish option than many of its competitors

By Emmanuel Ogbonnaya with Agency report

extras, you should be aware that some of the most desirable ones come only by stepping up to the more expensive SV mod-el. New for last year was an SV Value Package that adds nine-speaker Bose audio, satellite ra-dio, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and heated out-side mirrors.

The Sport Package has also been enhanced with a seven-inch monitor, iPod/USB con-nectivity, a rearview monitor, and a climate-controlled driv-er’s seat. A Dark Hyper Silver wheel fi nish (from last year’s Limited Edition Package) was

new as well.

FeaturesA power moonroof, dual-

zone climate control, power front seats, keyless entry, an Intelligent Key entry and start-ing system, a six-disc changer, and steering-wheel audio con-trols are all standard, though, while a heated steering wheel and cooled front seats are among many options.

PerformanceWhen it comes to torque and

power, the legendary 3.5-litre V6 engine rap-

idly unleashes its 290 horses with a press of the accelerator. The innovative valve design, coupled with variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust ports, helps generate incredible torque for off-the-line acceleration and improved pow-er at higher engine speeds.

While the 2014 Maxima might not be an all-out sport sedan or sports car, it does per-form smoothly and confi dently, and the acceleration from its 290-horsepower, 3.5-litre V-6 engine has a strong, relaxed de-

meanour in ordinary driv-ing, where it works well

with the automatic continuous-ly variable automatic transmis-sion (CVT).

With the advanced Continu-ously Variable Transmission, seamless power is a green light away. This intelligent CVT® op-timizes engine performance and maximizes power output. The transmission also features four driver-selectable (DS) modes to meet your driving needs.

There are available steering-wheel paddle shifters, as well

Mercedes unveils the GLA ClassMercedes-Benz has unveiled the GLA-

Class at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This is the fi rst Compact SUV from the Ger-man manufacturer that is based on the MFA platform. It will be the smallest ever Mercedes-Benz SUV.

The GLA-Class is 4417mm long, 1804mm wide and has a height of 1494mm. This compact SUV is expected to be launched in India sometime next year and it will compete with the BMW X1 and the Audi Q3. This will be available in India with two engines, one being the 1.6-litre petrol with 156bhp, and other being the 2.2-litre diesel that could come with a power rating of either 136bhp or 170bhp.

The GLA-Class is a four seater with humongous boot. It also has similar interiors like the other MFA platform vehicles. So it has the circular air-con vents and it could be made available with 4MATIC drive too.

Volvo unveils Concept Coupe, new Drive-E PowertrainsVolvo Car Group has revealed the new Concept Coupe and

the new, super-effi cient Drive-E powertrains at the Frank-furt Motor Show. The Volvo Concept Coupe showcases the capability of the company’s new Scalable Product Architecture, and the new, super-effi cient four-cylinder Drive-E powertrains

are now available in six Volvo models.Concept Coupé is the fi rst in a series of three

concept cars that demonstrate the new design direction of Volvo Cars. They are paving the way for the introduction of the all-new XC90

next year. “The Volvo Concept Coupé show what you can expect from our new architecture: the

confi dent stance, the proportions and the most prominent design signatures. Even though the all-new XC90 is a different type of car, you will recognise the connection instantly,” said Thomas Ingen-lath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Car Group.

The company has launched the fi rst three engines from Volvo Cars’- new two-litre, four-cylinder Drive-E powertrain family. Initially, the new S60, V60 and XC60 are available with three engines from the new engine family: the 306bhp petrol turbo T6, the 245bhp T5 and the turbo diesel D4 with 181bhp. The T5 and the D4 are also available in the new Volvo V70, XC70 and S80. To deliver the desired responsive, smooth and fuel-effi cient drivability, the engines are teamed either with a new eight-speed automatic gearbox from Aisin or an enhanced six-speed manual, tuned for improved fuel economy. The T6 and D4 will be available in the UK.

Volvo Cars’ strategy is to use electrifi cation to create the most powerful versions in the new four-cylinder Drive-E engine fam-ily, taking power fi gures

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National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A19 35Business CourageCourage

Behind d Wheels

AutocareThis page is open to sponsorship

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Guide to safety features

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without the typically harsh sports car ride. A stiffer, lighter suspension allows for quicker acceleration and enhanced agility. A high-strength body provides better handling and a smoother ride, making Maxima one of the most advanced and thrilling vehicles on the planet.

Interior Interior detailing is superb

and really luxury-calibre, with soft leather and carefully co-ordinated trims. The standard front seats are good, although the better-bolstered ones you get with the Sport Package will be a welcome upgrade to some.

The sophistication extends to the back row. In the event that your friends in the back want to stay out of the sun, the available dual power sunshade can be raised to shield the rear window.

The back seat is offi cially good for three, but it’s really just good for two adults and head-room can be a bit tight com-pared to other sedans this size.

ExteriorWith an aggressive silhou-

ette – and the power to match – Maxima embodies refi ne-ment and style. Fenders that crouch low over dark-fi nished, available 19” alloy wheels and dual muffl ers that show off its throaty roar accentuate its commanding stance.

With a brighter, sharper beam pattern, Maxima’s avail-able Xenon Headlights give

you a better view of what’s up ahead.

Innovatively designed and made almost entirely of glass, the available Dual Panel Moon-roof allows in light for all pas-sengers to enjoy. If you choose to open the moonroof, it lifts over the rear glass roof, so you always have a clear view out. To really set the mood, Maxima of-fer ambient lighting that illumi-nates the cabin with a soft glow.

SafetyMaxima’s safety starts with

six standard airbags, its Ad-vanced Air Bag System includes dual-stage supplemental front air bags that adjust their infl a-tion rate depending on the se-verity of impact and seat belt use. If the front passenger seat is empty, a sensor deactivates that air bag.

Side-impact supplemen-tal airbags, built into the front seats, move with you as you adjust your seat. Above, roof-mounted curtain side-impact supplemental air bags help pro-tect front and rear passengers.

In addition, a high-strength cabin structure with hood-buckling creases, steel side-door guard beams, and an en-ergy-absorbing steering column help further reduce the likeli-hood of injury.

But the Maxima might not meet all of family shoppers’ re-quirements: While its feature set is strong for safety, ‘accept-able’ ratings in the IIHS roof strength test have kept the Maxima from the top tier.

Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) this standard feature continuously monitors your steering and braking actions, senses any over-steer or under-steer, and compensates by re-ducing engine power and/or applying brake pressure to spe-cifi c wheels.

When the need for extra grip arises with rain, snow or ice conditions, the standard Trac-tion Control System (TCS), can sense a front-wheel spin and responds by instantly reducing throttle to help you regain grip and put you back on more solid footing.

During hard braking, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), rapidly pumps the brakes to help prevent your wheels from locking, helping you maintain steering control.

Electronic Brake force Dis-tribution (EBD) detects addi-tional weight and sends added brake force to the rear wheels.

When compared to most other front-wheel-drive sedans, the Maxima feels edgier and more fun to drive when the road turns tight and curvy. It’s a sporty calibration, with a fi rm ride, yet at the same time it’s supple enough to keep passen-gers content.

as a manual sport mode for the CVT, and you can tap into a se-ries of simulated gear ratios for high-performance driving. The letdown is that even with these, you don’t get the level of control that enthusiasts might hope for (and the available manual gear-box that used to be a Maxima talking point has been history, for years).

Maxima’s revolutionary D-platform delivers the patented 4-door Sports Car performance

up into V8 territory. The concept car in Frankfurt is equipped with Volvo Cars’ ingenious plug-in hybrid technology. A high-performance petrol engine teamed with an electric motor on the rear axle gives Volvo Concept Coupé a total output of about 400 hp and over 600 Nm of torque.

The high-performance petrol engine T6 is fi tted with a super-charger and turbocharger combined, while I-Art delivers seam-less and frugal diesel performance. Developed together with Volvo strategic partner Denso, I-Art features pressure feedback from each fuel injector. This ensures that the ideal amount of fuel is injected in each of the cylinders during each combustion cycle.

“Our four-cylinder engines offer higher performance than today’s six-cylinder units and lower fuel consumption than our current, already effi cient four-cylinders,” said Lex Kerssemak-ers.

On top of the new Drive-E powertrains, Volvo Cars introduce new infotainment and safety features in the 60-series. Sensus Connect fea- tures a refreshed HMI with a number of innovative functions.

Lane Keeping Aid, which helps the driver stay in the lane by applying extra steering torque to the steering column, and the parallel park-ing wizard Park Assist Pilot are now available

in the S60 and V60. BC

new infotainment and safety features in the 6Connect fea- tures a refrnumber of innova

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The most important thing you can do to protect your life is to buckle your seatbelt. Safety belts save lives on their own, but many of the more advanced safety features,

such as seatbelt pretensioners and air bags, work best for people who are buckled up to start with.

Don’t overlook safety features when comparing different models. Antilock brakes and electronic stability control, for instance, are very desirable. Although now standard on new cars, these features are well worth seeking out if you’re buy-ing an older car.

Here’s a rundown of some of the more important safety gear.

Air bags: Front air bags have been standard on all new cars since 1998 and light trucks since 1999. Most vehicles had them even before then. Crash sensors connected to an onboard computer detect a frontal collision and trigger the bags. The bags infl ate in a few milliseconds and then immedi-ately start defl ating.

While air bags have saved thousands of lives, they also have the potential to cause injury or even death to children or to occupants who aren’t using a seatbelt. Children under 12 should be seated in the rear in an appropriate restraint system and rear-facing child seats should never be installed in front seats equipped with air bags.

Antilock brakes (ABS): Before antilock brakes came along, it was all too easy to lock up the wheels (stop them from turning) during hard braking. Sliding the front tires makes it impossible to steer, particularly on slippery surfaces. ABS prevents this from happening by using sensors at each wheel and a computer that maximizes braking action at each in-dividual wheel to prevent lock-up. ABS allows the driver to retain steering control while braking, so that the car can be maneuvered around an obstacle, if necessary. Some drivers, unaccustomed to ABS actuation, may be alarmed as the puls-ing sensation conveyed through the brake pedal and chatter-ing at the wheels when used.

Traction control: This electronically controlled system limits wheel spin during acceleration so that the drive wheels have maximum traction. It’s particularly useful when starting off in wet or icy conditions, and/or launching with a high-horsepower engine. Some traction-control systems operate only at low speeds, while others work at all speeds.

Most traction-control systems use the car’s antilock brake system to momentarily brake a spinning wheel. This routes power to the opposite drive wheel. Some systems also may throttle back the engine, and upshift the transmission, to prevent wheel spin.

Brake assist: Brake assist detects when a driver initiates a panic stop (as opposed to ordinary gradual stops) and applies the brakes to maximum force. In conjunction with anti-lock brakes, the system enables threshold braking without locking up the wheels. Studies have shown that most drivers, even in panic stops, don’t apply the brakes as hard as they could, so Brake Assist intervenes to reach the shortest possible stop-ping distance.

Adaptive cruise control: Adaptive cruise uses lasers or radar to keep a constant distance between you and the car ahead, automatically maintaining a safe following distance.

Forward-collision warning uses cameras, radar or laser (or some combination thereof) to watch for cars ahead and alert the driver if they are approaching too fast or not paying at-tention. The systems alert the driver with some sort of visual or audible signal or both. Advanced forward-collision braking systems typically use Brake Assist to apply the brakes when an imminent collision is detected.

Telematics: Combining cellular telephone and Global Posi-tioning Satellite (GPS) technology, several major automakers are offering an automated service that provides a high level of security and convenience. GM was the fi rst to offer a factory-installed telematics solution with its OnStar service. Later systems include BMW Assist, Hyundai Bluelink, Kia UVO, Lexus Safety Connect, Mercedes-Benz’s mBrace, and Toyota Safety Connect. These systems allow the driver to communi-cate with a central dispatch centre at the touch of a button. This center knows the location of the vehicle and can provide route directions or emergency aid on request.

BC

Nigeria’s burgeoning used car business

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A20 36 Business CourageCourage

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MOJEC International Nigeria Limited, in partnership with a Chinese metre manufactur-

ing company, is setting up a multi-billion naira world-class SKD metre assembly plant in Lagos.

MOJEC International is one of the companies engaged by Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to sell and install meters under the newly intro-duced Credit Advance Payment Meter-ing Implementation Scheme (CAPMI).

The factory to be sited along Os-hodi/Isolo Expressway will be funded by the Bank of Industry (BoI).

According to Mojisola Abdul, the president/chief executive offi cer of MOJEC, all arrangements have been concluded with the partners to set up the company in Nigeria before the end of this year or latest fi rst quarter of 2013. When the factory is fully op-erational, she said, it would serve the yawning Nigerian and African metre markets.

The metres, which are to be as-sembled in different categories, are expected to fi ll the gap in meter sup-ply in Nigeria, especially with the in-troduction of CAPMI.

CAPMI, instituted by Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC), is to address the ugly trend through the payment for metre in the country.

Abdul, however, said that it was indeed a new dawn in the electricity

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed for the week on depressed note last

Friday with the market indicators de-preciating.

The All-share index depreciated by 126.38 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 36,098.06 against the 36,224.44 recorded on Thursday.

Market capitalisation of listed eq-uities declined by N4 billion to close at N11.493 trillion from the N11.533 trillion recorded on Thursday.

Dangote Cement led the price los-ers’ chart, dropping N3 to close at N190 per share.

Nigerian Breweries dipped by N1.48 to close at N162 per share, while UACN lost 48k to close at N54.51 per share.

Champion depreciated by 44k to close at N15.55 per share, while IHS fell by 32k to close at N3.31 per share.

NSE index drops by 0.35 per centOn the other hand, Nestle led the gainers’ chart with a gain of N3.26 to close at N938.26 per share.

Unilever followed with a gain of N1.25 to close at N60 per share, while Okomu Oil share price grew by 94k to close at N47.42 per share.

Jos International Breweries ap-preciated by 68k to close at N7.52, while Portpaint rose by 49k to close at N5.45 per share.

In all, investors exchanged 186.11 million shares worth N2.1 billion in 3,710 deals compared with N323 mil-lion shares worth N2.8 billion traded in 5,027 deals on Thursday.

Unity Bank emerged the most traded stock, accounting for 23.52 million shares worth N11.76 million.

Zenith Bank trailed with 14.32 million shares valued at N281.53 mil-lion, while Vono traded 12.91 million shares valued at 23.14 million.

Multi-billion naira metre assembly plant to be set up in Lagos

industry in Nigeria. “We are assuring esteemed customers that we have put up a broad range of solutions to make electricity metering challenges a thing of the past in Nigeria,” she said.

Her company, she said, has taken into consideration the ease and con-veniences of the various segments of customers in all solutions.

“Based on the anticipated large demand for various metres, we are poised to meet categories of cus-tomers’ demands, especially when the SKD metre assembly plant is in place,” she added.

But according to Bolaji Oyesiku, managing director/CEO of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), CAPMI is meant to make electricity users accountable and happy over billing mechanism.

The creation of CAPMI, he said, became necessary to address what he called the “ugly trend through the payment for metre, the fund of which is refundable over a period of three years with a 12 per cent interest in which cost of meter and meter box will be refunded by the PHCN”.

Speaking at a recent forum organ-ised by IBEDC, one of the 11 distri-bution companies of PHCN, to for-mally commence CAPMI in the zone, Abdul, who spoke on behalf of other CAPMI contractors, promised to de-liver quality products and services to IBEDC.

Within a space of just a week, I got unsolicited offers from at least four family members and

old friends to help me ship any used (Tokunbo) car of my choice from the United States to Lagos if I was interest-ed in acquiring one. This only required making an upfront payment of about half the value of the car and it would be at the Lagos Port within a month or two.

While I had not disclosed any inten-tion to buy a car at this time, I guess their motivation could have been their assessment of the state of my jalopy that has been doing a miraculous job ferrying me 40 kilometres both ways fi ve or six days a week to the offi ce and back home in the last few years.

What struck me afterwards though, was the increasing ubiquity of used car “dealerships” in Lagos and virtually ev-ery other Nigerian city.

Used or Tokunbo cars are now dis-played for sale at virtually every fi lling station, mechanic workshop, in front of private homes and street corners in vir-tually all Lagos suburbs. Used car sales are not new of course, but it appears that in recent times, the so-called “grey market” has surged in scope and size such that it cannot be ignored.

Obviously the market is being driven by several factors. For one, Nigerians have an insatiable appetite for cars, especially, fi ne cars. Given the terrible state of our public transport system, owning a car is a must for those who can afford one. Signifi cantly, car own-ership is about status and making a statement. In many cases, cars defi ne the person in our mammon-worshiping society.

The reality of the matter however is that new cars are out for most Nigeri-ans since the era of automatic car loans for workers including teachers ended decades ago. Today, the cheapest new car, a Kia Picanto or Hyndai Oi costs just over a million naira. Indeed the bill for a midsized Toyota could easily top N6 million, so that market is reserved for high earners; those who happen on sudden wealth and corporate organisa-tions.

Fortunately for most, the used car market has stepped in the fi ll that gap with hundreds of thousands of cars, SUV, trucks, vans and buses shipped into Nigeria annually. Of course, not all used cars are cheap but discerning individuals can save 40 to 50 per cent of the cost of a luxury used car such as a Mercedes, BMW or Range Rover by buying a used one, which is likely to be as good as new anyway since the previous European or American owner might not have had the misfortune of encountering the terrible roads and mechanics Nigerian motorists have been condemned to contend with.

The sorry aspect of this thriving trade

is that most of the cars are brought in overland through neighbouring Benin Republic due to the age restrictions on used car imports imposed by the Feder-al Government and the sheer complexi-ty of importing goods through the Lagos Ports, resulting in the loss of billions of naira in potential Customs duty. Not that anybody cares anyway.

Nonetheless, the used car market has also become a veritable way of re-patriating funds by Nigerians in The Diaspora, not necessarily captured in remittance fi gures, as enterprising our compatriots abroad buy cars at auc-tions, even crashed units and ship to Lagos complete with replacement with parts rather than simply wire money home.

Local businessmen have also joined the game shuttling between destina-tions in the US and Europe and Nigeria to import cars for sale. This trade has no doubt generated business oppor-tunities and jobs for those that would otherwise have been idle. In some parts of Lagos for example, property prices have risen especially for vacant parcels of land needed to display the wares, as it were.

However, caution is the word for po-tential buyers regardless of the impor-tant role used car imports has played in saving a large of the working class from being subject to the indignities of a public bus ride, as a lack of regula-tion of the market via a certifi cation process has led to many car owners biting their fi ngers after ending up with bad buys that are unpractical to use on Nigerian roads and expensive to main-tain due to hidden problems, scarcity of spare parts and technically competent mechanics.

All these bring me, inevitably, to the issue of our local automotive industry that has failed to take advantage of the notoriously huge demand for motor ve-hicles in this country.

The old assembly plants of Volk-swagen, Peugeot, Styer, Iveco and ANAMMCO run in partnerships with the government have collapsed eons ago due to a combination of misman-agement and poor patronage even from the government itself. The only real se-rious effort at revamping that sector currently is from a certain young man who runs Innoson Group in Nnewi, and is rolling out mini-buses that can qual-ify as made-in-Nigeria.

Ones hopes that sooner than later, the iron and steel industry, petrochem-icals and other base industries that support where automotive sector will develop to fully functional status, while more entrepreneurs will go down this road with the right incentives and skill sets in place.

Before that happens however I will continue to wait for the Lord’s blessing in the form of a BMW X5.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A21 37

Stock Updates

GAINERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

JOSBREW 6.84 7.52 9.94

PORTPAINT 4.96 5.45 9.88

TRANSEXPR 1.03 1.13 9.71

THOMASWY 0.66 0.72 9.09

VONO 1.81 1.94 7.18

LOSERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

WAPIC 0.99 0.90 -9.09

HIS 3.63 3.31 -8.82

MULTITREX 0.57 0.52 -8.77

IKEJAHOTEL 0.88 0.82 -6.82

INTENEGINS 0.67 0.63 -5.97

Inter-Bank Rates

TENOR RATE%(PREV) 04-Sept-2013 RATE%(CURR) 11-Sept-2013

CALL 14.0000 – 18.0000 18.0000-21.0000

OBB 13.5000 – 16.2500 13.2500 – 25.0000

Primary Market Auction

TENOR AMOUNT (N’mn) RATE (%) DATE

91-Days 20647.81 11.09 21-Aug-13

182-Days 30,000 12.25 21-Aug-13

91-Days 22057.31 11.50 07-Aug-13

Open Market Operation

TENOR AMOUNT (N’mn) RATE (%) DATE

182-Days 100,000 12.75 05-Sept-13

91-Days 22970.71 10.9 05-Sept-13

182-Days 40,000 12.34 05-Sept-13

Wholesale Dutch Auction System AMOUNT OFFERED MARKET DEMAND AMOUNT SOLD DATE

$300m $300m $300m 11-Sep-13

$300m $300m $300m 09-Sep-13

Market Indicators for Week Ended 13-09-13All-Share Index 36,098.07pointsMarket Capitalization N11,493,628,889,807.17

Business CourageCourage

BC

BC

The Hertz fl eet manage-ment, a unit under C&I Leasing plc. in a bid to

enhance its customer delivery services and in celebration of its customers week will provide a weekend free chauffeur driven car service to two clients who emerged winners at the 2013 Edition of customer service week in Lagos.

Ayodele Babatunde, country manager, Hertz fl eet manage-ment, said the idea behind the customer week which is in its third year was part of the com-pany’s efforts to reward clients for their loyalty and patronage and get customers’ feedback on how to better improve their unique service product to cli-ents who are in need of specifi c transportation services.

Babatunde further said the annual event is intended to put the customers in the front burner in the service provision discourse and assist the com-

Hertz deepens customer service experience

pany provide customer focused services so they get value for their money.

He noted that Hertz is cur-rently represented in over 155 countries, operating a fl eet of over 550,000 vehicles from 6,300 locations adding that the decision to expand into Nige-ria re-affi rms its avowed intent to operate globally in all major markets with reputable part-

ners.Queeneth Wodu, head of

marketing and customer rela-tions of the company disclosed that the customers’ week is a period set aside annually to fo-cus and concentrate on custom-ers, celebrate them and appre-ciate them adding that it is also provide an opportunity to look after their welfare.

According to her, “The whole idea is to get a perception of the way the customers see the ser-vices we render. Our plan is to make sure that we can render around 90 percent of the ser-vices to meet customer satisfac-tion”

“Customer satisfaction gives us the edge in this whole busi-ness. Where we have created a niche for ourselves is to settle out each customer and know how they will prefer to be ser-viced. We tailor our services to the needs of the customers” she said.

Guaranty Trust Bank plc has emerged the ‘2013 Best Banking Group

– Nigeria’ in the 2013 Annual World Finance Banking Awards in an announcement.

Outlining the rationale for GTBank winning the ‘2013 Best Banking Group – Nigeria award’, judges commented that the Bank scored high marks in innovation and product offering in the fi nancial services indus-try, regional reach to cover high growth markets, signifi cant proof of continuous develop-ment, good Corporate Gover-nance and Corporate Social Re-sponsibility.

According to World Fi-nance’s correspondent, “We rely on reader insight and expe-rience to provide nominations to the judging panel, and we relish hearing about new ex-perts and burgeoning markets. Our award programmes are tai-lored to provide a comprehen-sive analysis of the very best in each market”.

World Finance cited GT-Bank’s clearly defi ned customer centric strategy dedicated to improving the client experience, innovative fi nancing solutions tailored to client needs, invest-ments in new technology, and unique industry specialization as important factors in winning this award.

Commenting on this award, Segun Agbaje Managing Direc-tor/CEO of Guaranty Trust

Bank Plc, who also emerged the 2013 Banker of the Year – Africa, said “We are proud to receive this award and are de-lighted that our performance over the years has earned glob-al recognition.

He attributed the bank’s achievements to the loyalty of its customers and the com-mitment of its employees, who constantly strive to give 100% above customer expectations every single time. “‘We are a Proudly African and Truly Inter-national Institution and we are committed to the ideal that our stakeholders should be better off for partnering with us. This principle infl uences our opera-tions, products, style of service delivery and corporate culture,” he said.

Guaranty Trust Bank plc has introduced several innova-

tions over the last fi ve months in its bid to further consolidate its position as a service focused bank in Nigeria. These include the introduction the of the GT-Bank social banking; the fi rst of its kind by any Nigerian Bank allows GTBank Social Account holders transfer money, pur-chase airtime, pay bills, and confi rm their account balance on Facebook and the introduc-tion of a ‘Fast Track’ banking system that allows its custom-ers deposit and withdraw mon-ey within its branches using their debit cards.

The bank’s half year audited results which were released on the fl oor of the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges re-cently showed gross earnings of over N113.52 billion and Profi t Before Tax of N57.36 billion over the period.

GTBank is 2013 Best Banking Group – Nigeria

Babatunde

Agbaje

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 A22 38 Business CourageCourage

BC

Mobil Oil Nigeria is a fi rm in the petroleum downstream industry.

The company faces industry-wide challenges inclusive of high costs and low margins and a decreasing level of oper-ating profi tability on the back of increasing dependence on short and long-term borrow-ings.

The company closed its 2012 operations with an un-precedented drop in after tax profi t. It however used income from other non-core business-es to dress up the fi nal net profi t fi gure. The company’s af-ter tax profi t dropped by 29.5 per cent to N2.88 billion, the lowest after tax profi t fi gure in three years.

The company’s after tax profi t fi gure had come to a peak of N4.08 billion in 2011. This was however defl ated by other comprehensive income, which was a negative fi gure of N597 million, resulting in a net profi t fi gure of N3.48 billion.

In 2012, other compre-hensive income changed from negative to a positive fi gure of N716 million. It therefore lifted after tax profi t to N3.59 billion, slightly above the net profi t fi g-ure recorded in 2011.

BackgroundMobil Oil Nigeria Plc (MON)

is one of the two petroleum products marketing fi rms where foreign investors have controlling interest. The sec-ond company is Total Nigeria Plc. However, unlike Total Ni-geria, Mobil has a Nigerian as Chairman/Managing Director. He is Mr. Adetunji Oyebanji. Although this could be said to be a sign of confi dence the for-eign investors have in the abil-ity of Nigerians to run the fi rm, the combination of Chairman/Managing Director by one in-dividual is not in consonance with the good corporate gover-nance requirement that stipu-lates the separation of the two positions.

The company was incorpo-rated as a private limited li-ability company in 1951 and converted to a public limited liability company in 1978. The company got listed on the Ni-gerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 1979. It is a subsidiary of Mobil Oil Corporation of the United States of America, which controls 60 per cent eq-uity stake.

The company has over 200 retail outlets spread across the 36 states of Nigeria and owns three plants located in Apapa, Lagos State, that manufacture lubes, petroleum jelly, and in-

By Johnson Okanlawon

secticide.Apart from Oyebanji, who is

the chairman of the board and managing director, other direc-tors include: Abba Kyari, Henry Obih, Alastair MacNaughton, John Bell and Mayen Adetiba.

StrategyMRS Oil Nigeria Plc, a com-

pany with the main business of manufacture and marketing of petroleum products has about 172 active company owned and more than 215 third party owned retail outlets. The com-pany owns the following stra-tegic assets namely 1. 38,513 barrels base oil storage, a lube blending plant capable of pro-ducing 186,000 barrels per year, a 22,500 barrels per year grease plant, 4. 5,100 barrels of additive storage and a mod-ern Avjet facility plus a yet to be completed aviation storage facility, including other ware-houses across the entire coun-try.

Profi tability With reversal of positive

working of N1.71 billion to N646 million in 2012, the pro-portion of working capital to to-tal sales declined from 2.8 per cent to -0.8 per cent. Debtors/creditors ratio stood at 62.1 per cent in 2012 as against 87.4 per cent in 2011.

The company’s turnover rose by 30.1 per cent to a new peak of N80.8 billion in 2012. This is a major acceleration from a moderate growth of 6.4 per cent in the preceding year and the strongest revenue growth in several years. Until last year, when the company raised sales revenue to a new peak, turnover had remained below the 2008 peak of N66.74 billion.

Its inability to grow sales

revenue seems to be an in-dustry wide problem among petroleum marketing compa-nies. The accelerated growth in sales revenue reported by Mobil in 2012 was attained at a signifi cantly increased cost of products. Cost of sales grew well ahead of sales revenue at about 40 per cent to N72.59 billion. The cost per naira of sales therefore rose during the year from 83.7 kobo in 2011 to 90 kobo in 2012.

The rise in cost of sales caused a drop of 19 per cent in the gross profi t fi gure, which came to N8.21 billion in 2012. The drop was partly countered by an increase of 11 per cent in other income, which amounted to N2.81 billion in the year. There was also a slight mod-eration of selling and distribu-tion expenses, which increased

by 4.1 per cent compared to the 30.1 per cent growth in sales revenue.

Selling and distribution expenses claimed a reduced proportion of sales revenue in 2012 at 6.1 per cent compared to 7.9 per cent in the preced-ing year. This means that selling and distribution cost per naira of sales revenue de-clined in 2012. There was also a moderation of administrative expenses, which grew by 7.3 per cent to about N1.7 billion in the year. The proportion of sales revenue claimed by ad-ministrative cost also declined during the review period.

The cost moderation in the observed areas was however unable to fully compensate for the high rise in cost of sales. Consequently, operating profi t of the company fell by 29.4 per cent at the end of 2012. Fur-ther pressure on revenue also came from interest charges, which rose by 80.1 per cent to N299 million.

The net effect of the revenue and cost developments in the year was a decline in net profi t margin from 5.6 per cent in 2011 to 4.4 per cent in 2012. Mobil used to show the highest profi t margin among petroleum marketers and now its margins have also come under pressure from rising cost.

The company’s full year po-sition is nevertheless a major improvement from the third quarter position when the company reported a profi t mar-gin of 2.7 per cent.

LiquidityMajor developments in the

company’s balance sheet dur-ing the year include a 30 per cent drop in trade and other receivables, which stood at N5.74 billion at the end of the year. There was a 70.2 per cent advancement in prepayments and 7.7 per cent decline in in-ventories. There was a slight decline of 1.6 per cent in trade payables during the year.

The company’s cash fl ow position came under pressure as net cash generated from op-erating activities dropped by 28.1 per cent to N4.97 billion. Increase in investing activities claimed much of the net cash fl ow from operating activities and the company had to em-bark on new bank borrowings during the year. A new long-term borrowing of N612 mil-lion was contracted in the year and bank overdraft was raised from only N21 million in 2011 to more than N429 million in 2012.

OutlookThe operating outlook for

the company this year indi-cates that margins are likely to remain tight and high cost of sales could put further pressures on cash fl ow. There might be a resort to increased bank borrowings, which could reinforce the pressure on mar-gins through higher interest charges. In the event that sales revenue fails to grow reason-ably, a further drop in profi t from the core business may not be ruled out.

In the face of these chal-lenges that affected fi nancial performance, the company’s Chairman Mr. Adetunji Oye-banji maintained that the com-pany will continue to lead the industry in safe work practices and operating control.

He said, “Our control envi-ronment remained robust with continued strong results in all internal audits and unit inter-nal assessments completed in 2012. Our efforts did not go unnoticed. In November 2012, and for the second year run-ning, the company won the Pearl Award for the best down-stream petroleum marketer in Nigeria for 2011.

“As we continue to plan for the challenges ahead, the di-rectors recognise the need to constantly focus on sharehold-er returns that are competitive and of long-term value. We are therefore pleased to declare a dividend of N5 and this rep-resents an increase of 20 per cent over last year and is con-sistent with our vision of de-livering robust returns to our shareholders.”

Oyebanji

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, September 16, 2013 A23 39

STOCKWATCH

AGRICULTURE/AGRO-ALLIED Crop Production FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 0.50 1,000 0.64 0.50 2,200,000,000 0.10 N/A 0.50OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 47.42 2,298,300 107.81 20.92 476,955,000 2.29 2.84 46.11PRESCO PLC 37.00 55,496 41.14 8.24 1,000,000,000 7.55 0.00 37.00Fishing/Hunting/Trapping ELLAH LAKES PLC. NT NT 4.26 4.26 60,000,000 0.00 N/A NTLivestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 4.00 1,102,935 7.18 0.68 1,199,549,736 0.07 -4.31 4.18CONGLOMERATES Diversifi ed Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1.55 7,200 2.08 0.71 2,191,895,983 0.11 0.00 1.55CHELLARAMS PLC. NT 1,000 6.43 4.36 963,900,300 0.16 N/A 4.41JOHN HOLT PLC. 1.26 5,636 5.89 1.16 389,151,408 1.09 N/A 1.26TRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC 1.35 10,059,348 1.96 0.50 821,666,666 0.09 N/A 1.46U A C N PLC. 54.51 425,698 71.10 28.00 1,600,720,323 4.38 N/A 56.00CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction ARBICO PLC. 5.05 67,679 26.00 5.05 148,500,000 0.33 N/A 5.05CAPPA & D’ALBERTO PLC. NT NT 95.49 95.49 196,876,000 4.50 N/A NTBuilding Structure/Completion/Other COSTAIN (W A) PLC. 1.25 970,700 2.66 0.72 920,573,765 0.00 N/A 1.22G CAPPA PLC NT NT 14.46 14.46 125,000,000 0.00 N/A NTNon--Building/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 76.95 11,200 83.75 19.86 1,200,000,000 6.74 3.01 74.70ROADS NIG PLC. NT 5,800 10.60 6.61 20,000,000 1.69 N/A 8.46Real Estate Development PINNACLE POINT GROUP PLC NT NT 7.28 7.28 0.00 N/A NTUACN PROPERTY DEV 15.06 359,967 18.00 8.82 1,375,000,000 2.20 -6.92 16.18Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC NT 1,000 100.00 100.00 20,000,000 5.82 N/A 100.00UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INV NT NT 50.00 50.00 250,019,781 0.19 N/A NTUPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 10.50 12,000 10.50 0.00 CONSUMER GOODS Automobiles/Auto Parts DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 0.50 20,000 0.50 0.50 4,772,528,415 0.00 N/A 0.50Beverages--Brewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 15.55 50,000 19.48 3.13 900,000,000 0.00 N/A 15.33GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. NT NT 0.68 0.68 272,160,000 0.00 N/A NTGUINNESS NIG PLC 248.50 554,237 297.41 209.10 1,474,925,519 8.66 0.61 247.00INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 19.97 152,472 28.67 5.34 2,112,914,681 0.63 N/A 21.49JOS INT. BREWERIES PLC. 7.52 1,405,004 4.69 0.81 562,000,000 0.00 N/A 4.69NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 162.00 272,880 179.40 91.10 7,562,562,340 5.03 -1.21 163.99PREMIER BREWERIES PLC NT NT 0.97 0.93 126,000,000 0.00 N/A NTBeverages--Non-Alcoholic 7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 72.00 112,959 75.90 38.12 640,590,362 4.46 N/A 72.00Food Products BIG TREAT PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 2,000,000,000 0.00 N/A NTDANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 9.01 852,944 10.68 3.85 5,000,000,000 0.00 0.00 9.01DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 10.46 1,623,383 12.85 3.26 12,000,000,000 0.81 -0.29 10.49FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 83.00 89,170 109.24 50.00 1,879,210,666 3.38 -0.93 83.78HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 2.82 803,156 3.74 1.83 7,930,197,658 0.34 -9.03 3.10MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 0.52 735,207 1.21 0.50 3,722,493,620 0.00 N/A 0.63N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. NT NT 29.70 17.51 178,200,000 0.00 N/A NTNATIONAL SALT CO. NIG. PLC 11.61 382,719 14.00 3.65 1.05 1.75 11.41P S MANDRIDES & CO PLC. NT NT 5.94 5.35 40,000,000 0.08 N/A NTU T C NIG. PLC. 0.65 485,008 0.93 0.50 1,233,375,004 1.13 0.00 0.65UNION DICON SALT PLC. NT NT 4.22 4.22 360,000,000 0.00 N/A NTFood Products--Diversifi ed CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 49.00 118,063 64.53 8.33 3,129,188,160 1.57 0.00 49.00NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 938.26 139,856 1088.00 400.00 792,656,250 28.34 0.45 934.10Household Durables BETA GLASS CO PLC. NT NT 15.58 10.03 3.90 N/A NTNIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. NT NT 36.19 32.27 63,360,000 13.92 N/A NTVITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3.74 83,777 5.54 2.91 819,000,000 0.71 -15.19 4.41VONO PRODUCTS PLC. 1.94 12,915,242 2.88 0.57 300,000,001 0.00 N/A 1.39Personal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 39.90 158,900 56.00 21.02 3,176,381,636 1.34 -5.67 42.30UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 60.00 8,075,103 76.00 27.60 3,783,296,250 1.42 1.69 59.00Textiles/Apparel UNITED NIG. TEXTILES PLC. NT NT 0.97 0.57 843,284,027 0.00 N/A NTFINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. 10.41 5,878,412 12.39 4.70 17,888,251,479 1.61 0.29 10.38DIAMOND BANK PLC 6.22 5,549,486 7.66 1.92 14,475,243,105 1.71 -2.81 6.40ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INC. 14.00 6,672,748 16.01 9.90 9,873,614,567 3.67 -0.71 14.10FIDELITY BANK PLC 2.50 10,548,255 3.47 1.13 28,974,797,023 0.68 -7.41 2.70FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC. NT NT 8.30 3.04 16,271,192,202 0.60 #VALUE! NTGUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 24.90 10,487,555 29.99 13.02 29,146,482,209 3.08 0.04 24.89SKYE BANK PLC 4.26 6,774,012 7.05 2.65 13,219,334,676 0.97 1.43 4.20STERLING BANK PLC. 2.46 2,118,260 3.05 0.80 12,563,091,545 0.63 2.50 2.40U B A PLC 7.05 3,796,722 9.60 1.64 32,334,693,693 1.70 -5.37 7.45UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 10.39 182,970 15.30 2.34 13,509,726,273 0.44 -2.53 10.66UNITY BANK PLC 0.50 23,528,206 1.16 0.50 33,675,576,085 0.18 0.00 0.52WEMA BANK PLC. 0.97 2,827,324 1.88 0.50 12,821,249,880 0.00 -6.73 1.04ZENITH BANK PLC 19.65 14,341,358 22.80 11.96 31,396,493,790 3.30 0.77 19.50Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services AFRICAN ALLIANCE INS. COY. PLC NT 1,000 0.50 0.50 20,585,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 0.80 5,240,910 1.42 0.50 7,809,391,256 0.19 0.00 0.80CONFIDENCE INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.64 0.61 211,626,000 0.00 N/A NTCONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INS. PLC NT NT 0.52 0.50 6,000,000,000 0.05 N/A NTCONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 1.20 6,414,900 1.45 0.58 10,372,624,157 0.15 0.00 1.32CORNERSTONE INS. COY. PLC. NT 534,000 0.72 0.50 8,820,010,363 0.02 0.00 0.50CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC 1.34 409,403 2.44 1.08 5,100,846,808 0.24 0.00 1.50EQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 8,847,298,420 0.01 N/A NTGOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.69 0.50 4,549,947,000 0.00 N/A NTGREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.60 0.50 3,827,485,380 0.03 N/A 0.50GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 720,000,000 0.01 N/A NTINTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INS. PLC NT NT 2.50 0.50 5,061,804,000 0.00 N/A NTINTERNATIONAL ENERGY INS. PLC 0.63 633,000 2.50 0.50 6,420,427,449 0.00 0.00 0.83INVESTMENT AND ALLIED ARN. NT NT 0.50 0.50 28,000,000,000 0.02 N/A NTLASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 1,000 0.50 0.50 7,323,313,227 0.00 N/A NTLAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 0.50 2,000 0.61 0.50 3,437,330,500 0.00 N/A NTLINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 380 0.50 0.50 4,083,713,569 0.02 0.00 0.50MANSARD INSURANCE PLC 2.07 966,400 2.87 1.06 10,000,000,000 0.25 -1.43 2.10MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. NT 9,975 0.63 0.50 7,998,705,336 0.00 N/A 0.50N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 0.70 1,487,700 1.01 0.50 5,332,830,881 0.37 0.00 0.70NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 700,000 1.11 0.50 5,649,693,923 0.02 N/A NTOASIS INSURANCE PLC 0.50 190,000 0.50 0.50 5,003,506,791 0.04 N/A NTPRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.55 48,374 1.24 0.50 2,508,315,436 0.06 -3.51 0.57REGENCY ALLIANCE INS. COY PLC NT NT 0.53 0.50 6,668,750,000 0.04 N/A NTSOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC NT 4,500 0.59 0.50 5,203,757,266 0.09 0.00 0.50STACO INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 6,141,087,609 0.00 N/A NTSTANDARD ALLIANCE INS. PLC. NT 5,700 0.50 0.50 8,493,173,450 0.00 N/A 0.50UNIC INSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 2,581,733,505 0.00 N/A NTUNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 13,000,000,000 0.02 N/A NTUNIVERSAL INS. COMPANY PLC NT 3,066,000 0.50 0.50 16,000,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 0.90 330,000 1.55 0.50 0.07 0.94Micro Finance Banks FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC NT 4,100 6.60 0.00 1.18 6.60NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 0.78 454,000 1.22 0.72 0.19 0.72Mortgage Carriers, Brokers &Services ABBEY BUILDING SOCIETY PLC 1.65 100 1.65 1.37 4,200,000,000 0.03 N/A NTASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 0.50 2,000 0.50 0.50 8,679,148,676 0.02 N/A NTRESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 0.50 75,000 0.50 0.50 13,175,732,404 0.30 N/A NTUNION HOMES SAVINGS&LOANS PLC NT NT 0.99 0.50 7,812,500,000 0.00 N/A NTOther Financial Institutions AFRICA PRUDENTIAL REGISTRARS 2 227,548 2.1 0 0.63 2CRUSADER ( NIG) PLC. NT NT 0.61 0.50 3,778,005,975 0.00 N/A NTDEAP CAPITAL MGT & TRUST PLC NT NT 2.02 2.02 1,333,333,333 0.15 N/A NTFBN HOLDINGS PLC 15.65 7,365,890 21.50 8.57 32,632,084,358 2.45 0.32 15.60FCMB GROUP PLC 4.01 1,541,784 5.70 2.90 1.23 3.98NIG SEW. MACH. MAN. CO. PLC. NT NT 0.15 0.15 5,880,000 0.00 N/A NTNIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND NT NT 552.20 555.20 2,500,000 12.68 N/A NTROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 0.55 23,991 1.33 0.50 3,608,657,661 0.13 N/A 0.56STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 18.08 1,318,197 20.72 10.64 18,750,000,000 1.53 2.03 17.72UBA CAPITAL PLC 1.30 7,103,372 1.70 0.00 0.29 1.32HEALTHCARE Healthcare Providers EKOCORP PLC. NT 100 5.05 4.32 498,600,908 0.13 N/A 4.32UNION DIAGNOSTIC &CLINICAL PLC NT 50,500 0.50 0.50 3,553,138,528 0.00 N/A 0.50Medical Supplies MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. NT NT 10.54 7.39 152,178,750 0.00 N/A NTPharmaceuticals EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 3.10 636,090 4.80 0.50 486,473,856 0.58 -9.88 3.44FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 2.00 838,022 2.50 0.61 1,500,000,000 0.24 -0.99 2.02

NOTE NT=Not Traded on 13-09-13 N/A=Not Avialable

GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER PLC 64.00 38,216 68.00 18.97 956,701,192 3.07 0.00 64.00MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 2.04 24,440 3.38 1.23 980,000,000 0.09 -11.30 2.30NEIMETH INT PHARM PLC 1.05 104,882 1.76 0.58 1,925,717,268 0.00 -7.89 1.14NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 7.36 479 12.91 8.59 153,786,012 0.00 N/A NTPHARMA-DEKO PLC. NT 250 3.50 1.83 100,000,000 0.00 N/A 1.85ICT Computer Based Systems COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SLN PLC 0.72 237,000 0.96 0.50 2,960,000,000 0.11 0.00 0.64Computers and Peripherals OMATEK VENTURES PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 2,941,789,472 0.00 N/A NTElectronic Communications Services MTECH COMMUNICATIONS PLC NT NT 0.91 0.91 4,966,666,668 0.00 N/A NTIT Services NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. NT NT 18.70 13.12 108,000,000 0.00 N/A NTTRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. NT 800 2.94 2.29 492,825,600 0.03 N/A 2.29Processing Systems CHAMS PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 4,620,600,000 0.04 N/A NTE-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC NT NT 4.97 4.04 4,200,000,000 0.04 N/A NTTelecommunications Carriers STARCOMMS PLC NT NT 1.47 0.50 6,878,478,096 0.00 N/A NTTelecommunications Services IHS NIGERIA PLC PREF SHARES NT NT 2.25 0.00 0.00 N/A NTIHS PLC 3.31 6,452,813 3.79 1.70 4,400,000,000 0.00 N/A 2.80MTI PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 4,893,594,400 0.00 N/A NTINDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. NT 2,500 2.86 2.86 260,000,000 0.07 N/A 2.86ASHAKA CEM PLC 21.00 325,829 29.98 8.01 2,239,453,125 0.80 0.00 21.00BERGER PAINTS PLC NT 4,571 12.20 6.82 217,367,585 0.91 #VALUE! 8.70CAP PLC 43.40 50,786 67.50 13.78 560,000,000 1.66 0.00 43.40CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 8.72 405,600 12.99 4.00 1,241,548,285 1.12 1.04 8.63DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 190.00 214,408 210.01 102.00 15,494,019,668 5.77 -1.55 193.00DN MEYER PLC. 1.90 500 3.54 0.50 242,908,200 0.06 N/A 1.88FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC NT NT 0.75 0.50 2,109,928,275 0.00 N/A NTIPWA PLC 0.83 100,768 1.34 0.50 513,696,000 0.00 N/A 0.82LAFARGE WAPCO PLC. 92.00 242,910 110.00 39.80 3,001,600,004 6.83 0.00 92.00PAINTS & COATINGS MANFACT.PLC 2.04 25,750 2.41 0.50 792,914,256 0.36 N/A 2.13PORTLAND PAINTS & PRDT NIG. PLC 5.45 560,200 7.22 2.27 400,000,000 0.43 N/A 4.51PREMIER PAINTS PLC. NT NT 10.93 10.93 75,000,000 0.00 N/A NTElectronic and Electrical Products AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC NT NT 2.00 2.00 0.05 N/A NTCUTIX PLC. 1.93 71,936 2.39 1.20 510,396,608 0.19 1.58 1.90NIGERIAN WIRE AND CABLE PLC. NT NT 0.73 0.50 2,220,000,000 0.00 N/A NTNIGERIAN WIRE IND. PLC NT NT 2.58 2.58 15,000,000 0.00 N/A NTPackaging/Containers ABPLAST PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.98 3.98 25,000,000 0.00 N/A NTAVON CROWNCAPS & CONTAINERS 1.71 1,000 5.94 1.71 683,974,528 0.00 N/A 1.71BETA GLASS CO PLC. 11.87 1,600 13.18 9.04 3.23 11.87GREIF NIGERIA PLC NT NT 15.03 13.28 42,640,000 0.90 N/A NTNIG. BAGS MANFACT. COY PLC NT NT 3.60 1.60 6,215,000,000 0.24 #VALUE! NTPOLY PRODUCTS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 1.86 1.05 240,000,000 0.22 N/A NTW A GLASS IND. PLC. NT NT 0.63 0.63 199,066,550 0.00 N/A NTTools and Machinery NIGERIAN ROPES PLC NT NT 8.69 8.26 265,409,280 0.00 N/A NTSTOKVIS NIG PLC. NT NT 0.14 0.14 2,918,000 0.00 N/A NTNATURAL RESOURCES Chemicals B.O.C. GASES PLC. NT 12,500 9.35 5.68 393,120,000 0.76 #VALUE! 6.50Metals ALUMACO PLC NT NT 7.75 7.75 75,600,000 0.00 N/A NTALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. NT NT 12.39 10.55 100,000,000 0.24 N/A NTMINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE PLC 0.50 1,000 0.50 0.50 4,058,989,226 0.01 N/A 0.50Paper/Forest Products HALLMARK PAPER PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.22 3.22 50,000,000 0.04 N/A NTTHOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 0.72 92,638 1.38 0.67 220,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.73OIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SER. PLC 0.50 1,035,181 1.02 0.50 6,262,701,716 0.00 0.00 0.50Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC 11.77 742,927 24.80 10.81 2,262,711,568 1.24 1.03 11.65Petroleum &Petroleum Products Distributors AFROIL PLC NT NT 20.71 20.71 125,487,475 0.00 N/A NTBECO PETROLEUM PRODUCT PLC 0.50 2,600 0.70 0.50 3,716,976,579 0.00 N/A NTCONOIL PLC 28.80 77,009 33.67 16.96 693,952,117 2.69 0.00 28.80ETERNA PLC. 2.82 26,126 4.87 1.32 1,249,162,828 0.61 -5.69 2.99FORTE OIL PLC. 35.70 61,177 43.95 7.73 1,080,280,628 1.43 0.00 35.70MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. 106.00 10,132 146.00 107.10 300,496,051 9.93 -5.36 112.00MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. NT 2,641 59.00 16.20 253,988,672 1.04 N/A 36.14TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 157.90 15,089 190.01 118.75 339,521,837 12.91 0.00 157.90SERVICES Advertising AFROMEDIA PLC NT NT 0.72 0.50 4,035,497,307 0.00 N/A NTApparel Retailers LENNARDS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 3.48 3.48 0 N/A NTAutomobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. 1.38 121,182 2.45 1.00 980,294,400 0.00 -1.43 1.40Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 4.00 34,131 5.10 2.19 589,496,310 0.52 0.00 4.00TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 1.13 126,614 3.45 0.73 198,819,763 0.00 N/A 1.09Employment Solutions C & I LEASING PLC. NT NT 1.64 0.85 865,808,912 0.00 N/A NTHospitality TANTALIZERS PLC NT NT 0.75 0.50 3,211,627,907 0.00 N/A NTHotels/Lodging CAPITAL HOTEL PLC NT NT 8.00 3.00 1,548,780,000 0.23 N/A NTIKEJA HOTEL PLC 0.82 131,100 1.72 0.64 2,078,796,396 0.00 10.81 0.74TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. NT NT 4.53 4.08 1,772,884,297 0.00 N/A NTTRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC NT NT 1.95 0.50 25,813,998,283 0.22 #VALUE! NTMedia/Entertainment DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.50 5,000 0.51 0.50 8,000,000,000 0.43 N/A 0.50Printing/Publishing ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 1.90 40,000 4.10 1.57 403,200,000 0.22 N/A 1.90LEARN AFRICA PLC 1.80 83,000 3.09 1.39 771,450,000 0.00 N/A 1.65STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. NT 100 2.78 2.52 0.00 N/A 2.52UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 4.00 52,000 5.77 3.00 425,641,111 0.61 0.00 4.00Road Transportation ABC TRANSPORT PLCPLC 0.80 726,448 1.29 0.50 1,507,000,000 0.21 N/A 0.78Specialty INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC NT NT 5.15 4.90 236,699,511 0.00 N/A NTSECURE ELECTRONIC TECH.PLC NT NT 1.88 0.80 5,631,539,736 0.00 N/A NTTransport-Related Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC 3.35 82,800 5.90 1.27 634,000,000 0.50 N/A 3.35NIG. AVIATION HANDLING COY PLC 6.13 662,062 8.81 5.08 1,230,468,750 0.43 -1.61 6.23ASeM CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Property Management SMART PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC NT NT 1.43 1.04 45,000,000 0.12 N/A NTCONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC NT NT 1.02 1.02 201,885,335 0.00 N/A NTPersonal/Household Products ROKANA INDUSTRIES PLC. NT NT 0.60 0.60 30,000,000 0.00 N/A NTHEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals AFRIK PHARMACEUTICALS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 24,898,850 0.00 N/A NTINDUSTRIAL GOODS Electronic and Electrical Products NT NT NTADSWITCH PLC. NT NT 1.88 1.63 125,005,250 0.00 N/A NTNATURAL RESOURCES Metals W.A. ALUM. PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 6,650,000 0.00 N/A NTOIL AND GAS Petroleum & Petroleum Products Distributors ANINO INTERNATIONAL PLC. NT NT 0.21 0.21 24,200,000 0.00 N/A NTCAPITAL OIL PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 5,857,500,000 0.00 N/A NTRAK UNITY PET. COMP. PLC. NT NT 0.31 0.31 15,000,000 0.00 N/A NTUNION VENTURES & PET. PLC NT NT 0.63 0.63 98,600,000 0.00 N/A NTSERVICES Apparel Retailers UDEOFSON GARMENT FACT. NIG PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 20,000,000 0.00 N/A NTFood/Drug Retailers and Wholesalers NT NT NTJULI PLC. NT NT 3.05 2.76 194,700,000 0.00 N/A NTETF’s Sector ETF NEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND NT NT 2,706 2,422 #VALUE! NT

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

Stock Exchange weekly equities summary as at Friday, Sept 13, 2013

Business CourageCourage

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net40 Monday, September 16, 2013

27

Law & Justice“Individual rights when systematically trampled upon

leads to loss of faith in the polity.’’

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 41Monday, September 16, 2013

nationalmirrorlaw@yahoo.com

RETIRED JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT, JUSTICE SAMSON UWAIFO

Legal education is a vital ingredient that affects the quality of the justice system in the country. It is against this backdrop

that a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Salihu Moddibo Alfa Belgore recently raised an alarm over the proliferation of law faculties in the nation’s universities.

Belgore, who spoke as the chairman of the opening ceremony of the just- concluded Annu-al General Conference of the Nigeria Bar Asso-ciation (NBA) in Calabar, Cross River State, two weeks ago, deplored the trend with its attendant effects in churning out poor quality lawyers that would not stand the test of time. To the CJN, an urgent reform of legal education was necessary to correct the obvious inadequacies in the sys-tem in a bid to salvage the deteriorating state of legal education in the country.

He was not the only one concerned by this un-healthy development. Several stakeholders had earlier expressed similar reservations about the wobbly state of the country’s legal education.

For instance, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Moham-med Adoke (SAN), had at a meeting of the Nige-rian Law School Class of 1988 in Enugu in No-vember last year, lamented the decline in legal education in the country.

The AGF said, “It is a matter of grave concern that even the conduct of examinations for the bar finals is no longer free from irregularities and malpractices’’.

Adoke called on the NBA, the National Uni-versities Commission (NUC) and the Council of Legal Education to restore sanity in the system.

In an apparent confirmation of the AGF’s re-marks , the Nigerian Law School recorded the poorest performance ever in the August 2012 Bar final examinations as about 4,000 students failed when the results were released in Septem-ber last year.

It was learnt that the results had been so poorly rated in the history of the school because out of over 6,000 registered students, about 1, 625 passed the Bar part two examinations.

Indeed, it is worrisome that legal education in the country is drifting towards an appalling state even as over 25 universities are offering de-gree courses in law. Of this figure, 10 universi-ties’ law faculties have been adjudged the best in the country.

National Mirror gathered however that some of the law faculties with poor rating often faced CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

Unending trails of bank CEOs, oil subsidy fraudsters

Why Igboora high chief, two others bagged death sentence

Public perception of judiciary embarrassing –Williams

45

46

42

Stakeholders raise alarm over shaky legal education

Okocha Justice Belgore

Stakeholders in legal education in Nigeria are worried by the rising proliferation of law faculties in the country’s universities and are seeking urgent reforms to redress this trend. FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary discusses this challenge and the need to enhance the dignity of legal profession.

challenges of inadequate manpower and facilities to run the law programme. In some others, their shortcomings stem from dearth of the basic and fundamental tools and facilities for the realisation of high level and functional legal education.

It was also learnt that some law lectur-ers lacked teaching methodology and hence require re-training and exposure to conferences, seminars and workshops on continuing legal education in the country. Interestingly, some top lawyers, law lectur-ers and stakeholders in the administration of justice barred their minds to National Mirror on the issue.

Former Chairman, Body of Benchers (BOB), Chief Idowu Sofola, (SAN) said ‘’In our days, we were not many, therefore we knew ourselves and everybody was very careful with what he did. But these days’ lawyers are being produced in thousands. The type of scrutiny we went through be-fore we were admitted into the Bar is not the same thing today. So, there are some people who are not fit to be in the profes-sion and until they are detected they will continue to be there. So, to that extent I will say the standard regrettably is not what it used to be. It is not the type of standard that we met?

Prof. Fidelis Oditah, (SAN) also agrees that, “I think the standard of education generally has declined and I believe this is not peculiar to law, it is something that cuts across all sectors of education in Nigeria. But I think the standard of legal education has declined.

According to him, ‘’It will be simplistic to attribute the decline in the standard of law education to the quality of lecturers or the lack of quality lecturers; I believe that it is a combination of factors.’’.

Prof. Uche Uko Uche said, “Everybody is complaining about the deteriorating state of education generally and legal education is one of them. The one that pains us most is the legal one because that is where we should make things look excellent. So, it is true that there has been this complaint about deteriorating standard of legal edu-cation in Nigeria.’’

He advised that it was necessary to raise law to the status of a second degree adding that it would help in making a lot of people more knowledgeable, more mature and it would help legal education and legal prac-tice.

Chief George Uwechue (SAN) argued that what is required is not the making of law as a second degree but a high standard for admission of people into the profession.

He said ‘’It is not everybody who reads law in the university that is expected to

THE CONDUCT OF EXAMINATIONS FOR

THE BAR FINALS IS NO LONGER FREE FROM

IRREGULARITIES AND MALPRACTICES

42

What is your reaction to the recent kidnapping of your learned col-league, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN)?

Naturally I feel very sorry for Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), his nuclear family, his friends and for the nation. Mike personally to me is more than a good friend. He is a loyal brother and each time I remember him ever since this unfortunate incident happened, I feel sad. He does not deserve this treatment, Mike loves his people. He loves his country. He is a na-tionalist and he is a man of prin-ciple and honesty. He is a man with a good heart.

How will you react to the ris-ing insecurity challenge in the country, especially the spate of kidnapping?

I think the fundamental un-derlying factor is the despair that the general population feels; it is something that pushes people to indulge in such nefarious act. Apparently, it is the high level of poverty in our country that is re-sponsible for this inhumane act. People are living and wallowing in abject poverty and yet there is plenty of money in this country.

What will you recommend as ways out of these challenges?

The best solution is to address the issues of poverty, unemploy-ment and corruption while us-ing the available resources for common good. I have always ad-vocated some sort of social secu-rity system. I understand that this might be a challenge to us as we do not place premium on identity. Citizens of other West African states can come here and pretend to be citizens of our country, I un-derstand that there are other chal-lenges but my position is that we can make a start, let us make it available at least to those who are bonafide citizens of Nigeria.

Until we establish a proper social security system in this country, issues such as kidnap-ping will always be here. And we are not even moving towards that at all. By social security system, I am talking about creation of a welfarist state where nobody can die for nothing simply because he cannot afford adequate medi-cal care, which some people call health-care delivery system.

We need to fight poverty, illiter-acy, unemployment, power failure

among others, until we do that, I am afraid issues of insecurity will still be here.

Next month, we will celebrate Nigeria at 53, how will you access the Nigerian Judiciary from inde-pendence till date?

I think the fair place to start is from the period of Sir Adetokun-bo Ademola, the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria. He served for about a decade and he did the country very proud. Un-der him, nobody talked about cor-ruption in the Judiciary, under his leadership, one is certain of going to court and getting justice according to law. Thereafter, se-ries of fairly competent justices followed. From his time to the pe-riod of Justice Aloma Mukhtar is a long time. I have been privileged to witness all CJNs that came af-ter Justice Adetokunbo Ademola till present time. Until Justice Mukhtar took over the leader-ship of the judiciary, the image of the judiciary was so bad. In fact, it got to a stage that many of my colleagues were apologetic of de-scribing themselves as lawyers talk less of judicial officers. The average man on the street thinks

all justices are corrupt and it is so painful that some of us who derive our livelihood from the temple of justice find ourselves on the defensive side, ,making strenuous arguments to let them know that it is only few judicial officers that are incompetent and corrupt not every single one of them. It is unfair especially for those who lived within monthly salary or annual salary and those who actually work hard.

Go to through law reports, you will see some of the judgements that are outstanding and remark-able. Unfortunately, it is those ones that are bad that the media blow up. The bulk of our judicial personnel are doing a very good job in an atmosphere that is not too conducive. So, I will not make a blanket statement condemning all judges. The problem is that the bad ones are giving the good ones a very bad name. The public perception of the judiciary today is very embarrassing to many of us who are legal practitioners. There is no point trying to con-vince ordinary men and women in the public that the judiciary is not that bad because they have a mindset on justices. These bad eggs have given the majority bad reputation.

I can confidently tell you that it is only a few judicial officers that are corrupt. I make bold to say the present CJN, Justice Mukhtar is doing well to sanitise the system. She is simply doing what some of his predecessors failed to do especially her imme-diate predecessor, who did noth-ing. I think he was there for one year but in all seriousness, he did nothing. Let us be frank, the for-mer CJN made no single achieve-ment at all. Certainly the last Chief Justice did nothing about discipline of judges. He did abso-lutely nothing.

Look at Justice Mukhtar, she has only spent one year, look at the achievements she has been able to make. If she has the op-portunity of staying there for five years, I can assure you that everybody will sit up. Only re-cently a number of judicial of-ficers in the Supreme Court reg-istry were dismissed for leaking a judgement .Two officers in the registry in the Court of Appeal in Abuja were dismissed and from what I understand, the CJN is not stopping at dismissal, she wants them prosecuted. Recently from information available to me not less than 12 officers in the regis-

try at the Court of Appeal in Abu-ja have been transferred out. The truth is that these officers have been there for years, they were there last year, and they were there two years ago. Is it now that they are being corrupt? The cor-ruption has been there before? The truth is that leaking judge-ment is a form of corruption.

These people have been there for long and have been doing these things long time ago. If this act of corruption has been attacked by her predecessors, it won’t have got to this level and you know all these things give judiciary a bad image. Justice Mukthar also review the practice direction of the Supreme Court. I think the media should encour-age the present CJN to continue in her good works. The media should blow her trumpet very loud because she does not know how to blow her own trumpet. She is a very quiet and private person.

Obviously, the current CJN has done well. She has taken the bull by the horn and she is determined to fight the battle. Mind you, she alone cannot win against forces of corruption. She needs coopera-tion from men of goodwill and pa-triots, those who love Nigeria. She also needs encouragement from the executive and the legislators. We in the inner Bar appreciate what she is doing. I can also as-sure you that only lawyers who take money to judges that would not appreciate her. But she alone cannot win because a tree does not make a forest. She can only make a start and try to institu-tionalise some of the things she is doing. I wish her success in this endeavour

The prolonged trial of suspects/defendants involved in high- pro-file cases is worrisome. How can the judiciary overcome the slow dispensation of justice?

I agree that there are some countries that court trials are very quick, in countries like China, three days is enough for criminal trial because they know where they are going but in other countries of the world it can take a long time. For example, United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy. Some of the problems responsible for slow dispensa-tion of justice in our country are obvious, for example lack of in-frastructure - our courts are not computerise. Furthermore, when there is outage of power, what happens? The environment that

Monday, September 16, 2013Law & Justice

Williams

Chief Ladi Williams, SAN is the eldest son of the late legal luminary, Chief Rotimi Williams. In this interview with KENNY ODUNUKAN, he speaks on the relationship between the Bar and Bench, criminal justice system and the spate of insecurity in the country, among other issues. Excerpts.

Public perception of judiciary

THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF THE JUDICIARY TODAY IS EMBARRASSING TO MANY OF US WHO

ARE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS

43

our judges work is most uncomfortable. I agree that if justice is to be properly done, all those things must be put in place. Take for example; Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s election dispute was remarkably sorted out at the Supreme Court. The present CJN waded into the matter. She realised that if she had to wait until after the vacation is over, justice might not be quickly dispensed and before you know it, the matter was sort-ed speedily. She called back her colleagues and asked them to swiftly hear the matter. These are the things I see that made me ad-mire the present CJN, look at the things she is doing, is she not coming from the same Judiciary many people are condemning? And look at her, she had done impeccably well within few period she occupied the of-fice. If it was two years ago, these kind of things won’t happen.

Another solution to slow dispensation of justice is that our registry should be com-puterised and we should have sophisticated recording machines. There is also the need to make provisions for research lawyers who assist the Judges in the research of cases.

Some SANs have been accused of manipu-lating judicial system to favour their clients, what is your take on this?

Well, it is not every time that cases dragged on that it is as a result of lawyers’ default. This is grossly misunderstood. There are many instances where case files are missing, there is no power supply and the judge could not sit because of lack of electricity and many of our courts are largely uncomfortable for cases to be heard in them. All these factors contribute to de-lay trials. It is a problem that lawyers don’t contribute to it but circumstances are the main causes.

The first thing I will do to improve the situation is to address the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. I will limit their juris-

diction to constitutional cases, criminal cases that carry death penalties or crimi-nal cases that carry more than five years imprisonment. A matter such as divorce has no business with the Supreme Court. A matter such as probate has no business with the Supreme Court. It should stop at the Court of Appeal. How many personnel do we have at the Supreme Court?

I think the maximum is 15, 16 or 17 and they are taking appeals from all over the country. Today, when you file an appeal at the Supreme Court, before it gets to be heard, I may be wrong but I am generally right, it cannot take less than six or seven years. There is a case which we filed, my father handled it, I handled it, thank God I am still alive but my daughter was the one that eventually went to argue it in the Su-preme Court. Three generations. Mean-while, virtually all the parties are dead!

I also think there is no reason why the Supreme Court should be taking interloc-utory appeals as low down in hierarchy as from customary courts, magistrate court, alkali court and others all the way to the Supreme Court. It should not be like that. The Supreme Court should have a very powerful but limited jurisdiction for ex-ample criminal cases ,cases that involve life and cases that attract death penalty, like treason and murders and cases like interpretation of the constitution, cases where there is a dispute between two states, cases between Federal Govern-ment and some constituent parts. But if you want to divorce your wife, why must you carry the case all the way to Supreme Court. Cases like that should end in High Court or the Court of Appeal and by so do-ing you will free the Supreme Court from a lot of burdens. There are no reasons why the Supreme Court should be sitting on trivialities.

Recently, the Patriots, a group of re-

spected elders to which your late father belonged, recently visited President Jonathan and advised him not to contest in 2015, do you share this view?

My position is that there is nothing in our law as it stands today that makes Pres-ident Jonathan illegible for him to contest election in 2015, if he so wishes.

If he so wishes is one thing, if his party adopts him as the party presidential candi-date is another, if the electorate in Nigeria as a whole adopt him is still another factor. .From Sokoto to Calabar, from Badagry to Maiduguri, if they want Mr. President to come back as a president, who is an individ-ual to say is not. My take is that the people of Nigeria decides if he is free to contest. My principle is let everybody run. If the PDP decides to nominate Mr. President as their candidate, I don’t see any legal imped-iment to him. If the people of Nigeria de-cide to give him the required votes, so be it,

that is what democracy is all about, but if the party nominates him and he is defeated by the candidate of the opposition party, so be it. From the little I know about presiden-tial elections, I am sure that the president will bow to the wishes of the electorate.

The NBA concluded its 53rd AGC in Cala-bar few days ago. What are those funda-mental issues you would have wanted the conference to address but were left unad-dressed or unresolved?

I would have liked them to address the encouragement of interactive session with our judicial officers. Our judges and jus-tices. I would also have liked openness at the Bar to be talked about. There must be an interactive session where views are ex-changed to see how we all can make prog-ress for the benefit of our people. Interac-tive session between the Bar and the Bench is critical to our progress.

Monday, September 16, 2013 Law & Justice

Williams

embarrassing –Williams THERE IS A CASE WHICH WE FILED, MY FATHER HANDLED IT, I HANDLED IT, THANK GOD I AM STILL ALIVE BUT MY DAUGHTER WAS THE ONE

THAT WENT TO ARGUE IT IN THE SUPREME COURT. THREE GENERATIONS. MEANWHILE, VIRTUALLY

ALL THE PARTIES ARE DEAD

44 Monday, September 16, 2013Law & Justice

become a legal practitioner at the end of the day. Law is a degree like history, geography, and economics.

Uweuche said it was the duty of the Nigerian Law School and the Council of Legal Education to increase the quality and standards of people who go into legal practice in the country.

A former law lecturer, University of Lagos, Dr. Muiz Banire admitted that the training of lawyers these days was a bit challenging.

According to him, ‘’This is due to several reasons such as lack of infrastructure, lack of quality personnel and even the environment. So, there is no doubt about the fact that the standard has fallen because what makes for qual-ity of education are not readily available. I want to believe the standard is declining.

“Many of our universities are faced with problems of classrooms, libraries, laboratories, students’ hostels and staff quarters, ICT facilities and so forth. Even in schools where some of these facilities are available, they have been overstretched and therefore, no longer meet the standard required in the 21st Century academic environment.”

On the way out, he advocated massive investment in the training of lawyers, and lecturers that would impart knowledge into the students. ‘’Today, most libraries in our universities are obsolete. So, how would they get them-selves acquainted with recent developments?’’

Another senior lawyer, Chief Guy Ikokwu in a recent interview queried, ‘’Why should we train lawyers who are half-baked?

He said, “the lawyers we have today are about 4, 000, most of them have not read a law report. Our new lawyers don’t read law reports; they don’t know what is there.

Mr. Zik Obi also agreed that the standard had declined tremendously. He regretted that most of the students at the law school these days lack knowledge on how to go to the library and bring out a book or even a law report.

The Council of Legal Education (CLE) as one of the reg-ulatory authorities appeared to have risen to the challenge of tackling the decline in legal education. For instance, its chairman, Chief Onueze Okocha (SAN), had declared that law graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria

(NOUN) should forget the idea seeking admission into the Nigerian Law School.

Legal education in the country has gone through the trials and thrills of a developing concept in the Nigeria society.

The solution according to some stakeholders lies in the need for the adoption of a wide range of measures through which legal edu-cation in Nigeria could be revamped, restructured and restored to its previous glory.

How to attain this feat should involve a reapprais-al of the various stages of training of legal educa-tion in the country. Such training of the Bar must be sufficiently profound and varied.

It is in this regard that the introduction of manda-tory period of one year pu-pilage to be served by a new wig becomes relevant in the contemporary society.

The importance of train-ing and retraining of law teachers’ through the com-pulsory participation at the annual conference of Law Teachers’ Association should also be embraced by the Deans and law lecturers in all Nigerian universities.

The provision of up-to date materials in the li-braries of the law faculties and the law school with current texts, journals and facilities for research in law would equally aid the development and advance-ment of jurisprudence in the country.

Given the location of the Law School headquar-ters in Bwari, Abuja and its campuses in Lagos, Kano and Enugu, and more re-

Sofola Banire Oditah

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

Lawyers seek reforms of legal education

SOME OF THE LAW FACULTIES WITH POOR RATING OFTEN FACED

CHALLENGES OF INADEQUATE MANPOWER AND FACILITIES TO RUN

THE LAW PROGRAMME

cently, the establishment of two new campuses in Yola, Ad-amawa State and Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, it behooves on the Federal Government to fund these campuses adequately.

This call becomes compelling due to the neglect of the Lagos campus whose new hostel complex has been an abandoned project for the past 15 years.

Unending trials of bank CEOs, oil subsidy fraudsters

THE CURRENT STATE OF TRIAL OF SOME HIGH-PROFILE CASES BEING PROSECUTED BY THE

EFCC LEAVES MANY PEOPLE WONDERING

WHAT EXACTLY IS HAPPENING IN THE COUNTRY’S FIGHT

AGAINST CORRUPTION

FRANCIS FAMOROTI AND WALE IGBINTADE

Two major hallmarks of justice ad-ministration the world over are speedy trial of suspects and prompt

justice delivery. Nigerian judiciary is not an exception to these essential elements of criminal justice administration.

It is against this backdrop that it is often said that ‘’ justice delayed is jus-tice denied’’. Indeed, the current state of trial of some high-profile cases being prosecuted by the Economic and Finan-cial Crimes Commission (EFCC), leaves many people wondering what exactly is happening in the country’s fight against corruption.

This is because scores of high-profile criminal trials which began in some high courts in the country in the last four years are being prolonged unduly.

Notable among such cases are the trials of some former bank chief executives, busi-nessmen and a number of oil marketers al-legedly implicated in the oil subsidy scam.

In the category of embattled bank chiefs are, former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Aking-bola, ex-Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FinBank, Okey Nwosu, the former MD of Bank PHB Plc, now Keystone Bank Limited, Francis Atuche and ex-CEO, Afribank (Mainstreet Bank), Se-bastine Adigwe.

These ex-bank helmsmen are currently being tried following their arraignment for allegedly stealing huge sums belong-ing to the banks.

They are among several other execu-tives of eight banks, whose managements the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), dis-solved in 2009 for alleged mismanage-ment and theft. They were thereafter ar-raigned by the EFCC.

Akingbola’s trial began about four years ago before Justice Habeeb Abiru then of the Ikeja High Court. The case had reached an advanced stage such that both the prosecution and defence had al-ready led evidence and the court had di-rected the parties to file their written ad-dresses when Justice Abiru was elevated to the Court of Appeal Bench.

The matter eventually began de novo (afresh) before Justice Adeniyi Onigban-jo. Shortly after Akingbola’s re-arraign-ment, he filed an application in which he sought to quash the N47.1 billion crimi-nal charges preferred against him by the EFCC. So far, the trial judge has dis-missed the motion.

The court ruled that the Appeal Court had upheld the authority of EFCC as a government agency to institute criminal proceedings against the defendant under Section 211 of the 1999 Constitution.

Onigbanjo said since the defendant’s appeal had failed at the Court of Appeal and the court’s decision has not been set aside by the Supreme Court, he was duty bound to respect the appellate court’s. Akingbola’s trial is expected to resume on September 19.

Also, Nwosu and three of former direc-tors of FinBank are standing trial for an alleged N20 billion scam which involved the use of the bank’s depositors’ funds to purchase shares without the consent of

convicted is the ex-Managing Director of Oceanic Bank, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru.

When the cases of the oil marketers be-gan last year, there were hopes that their trials would be hastened by the prosecut-ing authority.

But investigations have so far shown that their trials are also going at slow pace and might be prolonged before the justice could be dispensed by the trial courts.

The EFCC had on July 25, 2012 ar-raigned Mamman Nasir Ali, Christian Taylor, Mahmud Tukur, Ochonogor Alex, Walter Wagbatsoma, Adaoha Ugo-Ngadi, Fakuade Babafemi Ebenezer, Ezekiel Ola-leye Ejidele, Abubakar Ali Peters, Jude Agube Abalaka, Abdulahi Alao and Olu-waseun Ogunbambo.

Tukur is the son of Bamanga Tukur chairman of the ruling People’s Demo-cratic Party (PDP), while Mamman Nasir Ali is the son of a former chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali.

Another defendant being tried is Alao, the son of an Ibadan-based business mo-gul, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola Alao.

The men and other defendants are fac-ing trial before Justice Onigbanjo.

Alao and Axenergy Limited were al-leged to have obtained the sum of N2, 640, 141,707.75, being payments received from the Petroleum Support Fund for the pur-ported importation of 33.3 million litres of PMS. Further trial is the matter has been adjourned till September 23.

However, Mamman Nasir Ali along-side Nasaman Oil Services and one Chris-tian Taylor were charged over alleged subsidy fraud bordering on obtaining N4,460,130,797.94 from the Federal Gov-ernment of Nigeria under false pretence.

The sum is alleged to have been fraud-ulently obtained as subsidy payments from the Petroleum Support Fund for the

the board of directors of the bank. The other directors being tried are;

Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi and Ag-nes Ebubedike. The trial judge, Justice Latifat Okunnu also of the Ikeja High Court is expected to continue the hearing of the case on September 25, 2013.

In a similar manner, Atuche, Ugo Any-anwu, and their co-defendants are expect-ed to open their defence in the N27 billion scam preferred against them.

The trial judge, Justice Okunnu, had held that a prima facie case had been es-tablished by the EFCC against them and as a result the defendants should be pre-pared to open their defence.

The court held that the 27-count charge brought against the defendants estab-lished that all the defendants fraudulent-ly converted the bank’s money for their personal use.

Apart from the ex-bank chiefs, the Chairman, Bi-Courtney Highway Ser-vices, Dr. Wale Babalakin, is also being tried for allegedly laundering N4.7bn for the convicted former Delta State Gover-nor James Ibori, whose is serving his jail -term in London.

Arraigned along with Babalakin were Alex Okoh, Stabilini Visioni Limited, Bi-Courtney Limited and Renix Nigeria Limited.

Part of the 27 counts slammed on them included using the huge sums of money to purchase a Challenger Jet aircraft from Erin Aviation in Mauritius on behalf of Ibori between May and December 2006.

Further hearing in the criminal matter will begin on September 27.

Since the present administration em-barked on its war against corruption in the country, only relatively fewer num-ber of prominent personalities have been convicted. The only bank chief so far

purported importation of 30.5 million li-tres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from SEATAC Petroleum Limited of British Virgin Islands.

Ogunbambo who is facing a separate fuel subsidy- related fraud charge before Justice Onigbanjo was arraigned before Justice Olabisi Akinlade alongside with his company, Adeline Investment Lim-ited for fraudulently obtaining a credit facility of about N1.2 billion from Stanbic IBTC Bank between February and Sep-tember 2009.

As the Lagos State High Court just returned from vacation and began the 2013/2014 legal year on September 11, notable lawyers and stakeholders in the justice administration expected that proceedings in these high-profile cases would be accelerated in order to restore the hope of the common man in Nigerian justice delivery.

For instance, the state Chief Judge, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, shortly after the mass redeployment of judges in the state a few months ago had directed them to take along with them to their new di-visions all part -heard matters, rulings and judgements that were yet to be deliv-ered as well as case management matters which had commenced but were yet to be concluded.

This, according to her, was to ensure that the ongoing cases especially crimi-nal trials continued without hitches.

Consequently, all the judges were di-rected to take along with them to their new divisions all part -heard matters, rul-ings and judgements that are yet to be de-livered as well as Case Management mat-ters which have commenced but are yet to be concluded.

Reacting to why these high-profile cases are lingering unduly for years and are still in the courts’ dockets, some lead-ing lawyers, including two Senior Ad-vocates of Nigeria, Prof. Itse Sagay and Dr Abiodun Layonu, have blamed their colleagues partly for manipulating the judicial system through the filing of un-necessary preliminary objections, and interlocutory injunctions in a bid to frus-trate justice administration.

Other prominent lawyers who spoke to our correspondent on the issue are, the former Lagos State Director of Pub-lic Prosecutions (DPP), Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey and Mr. Fred Agbaje.

The lawyers except Arthur-Worrey be-moaned SANs for abuse of the judicial processes and further suggested the need for the establishment of instititutional reforms to curb the abuses.

But the ex-DPP specifically argued that the Federal Government had ‘’out-sourced the prosecution of cases to Se-nior Advocates of Nigeria because that is what the EFCC does at present.’’

According to Sagay, “a group of law-yers, many of them Senior Advocates of Nigeria, are in the habit of filing unnec-essary applications, preliminary objec-tions, and interlocution injunctions to drag their matters unnecessary in order to defend clients they knew are guilty of alleged crime”.

He said, “this group of SAN specialises in frustrating the smooth administration of justice. They will go to Court of Appeal

CONTINUED ON PAGE 47

TukurAkingbola

Ogunbambo

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 45Monday, September 16, 2013 Law & Justice

Why Igboora high chief, two others bagged death sentence

In the times past, traditional rulers and community high chiefs in Yor-ubaland were known to have wielded

enormous powers. The belief and con-ception then was that the king could do no wrong. The king was highly revered and considered to be next to the gods.This was the situation in those days in many communities including Igboora, a sleepy town in the old Western Nigeria, the present day Oyo State.

However, about 75 years ago to be pre-cise, the Baale of Igboora known as Ade-femi had abused his wide discretionary powers by setting fire to the dwelling house of one of his subjects. Due to this barbaric act, a life was lost. This even-tually led to his trial and conviction along with two of his messengers by an Ibadan High Court.

The issue arose from an allegation of an illicit affair with a housewife lev-elled against one Agboola Shitta, a na-tive of Abeokuta, who resided in the community. Shitta admitted that indeed sometimes in 1933, he seduced the wife of one Adegoke, who was the son of the Balogun of Pako near Igboora. The Baale of Pako was a member of the Na-tive Court of Igboora over which the Baale of Igboora presided.

As a result of the seduction, Shitta became unpopular with the Baale of Pako, and with other village heads who sat along with the Baale of Igboora in the Igboora Native Court. The baale of Igboora felt this was an abomina-tion and with the concurrence of other Baales he ordered Shitta’s expulsion from the community.

Shitta left the town in consequence of the expulsion but eventually resurfaced early in the morning on March 18, 1937. The man said his return was autho-rised by the District Office in Ibadan, in whose district Igboora was at that time.

March 18, 1937 was a court day in Ig-boora Native Court. Some members of the nine-man panel of the court and the litigants had assembled as usual. On the arrival of other members of the court, they were informed of Shitta’s re-ap-pearance in the community. This infu-riated the Baale of Igboora, the Baale of Pako and that of Iberekodo and some others to such an extent that they could not attend to any of the court work that morning. They had a discussion with some members in the court retiring room and then asked the Native Court clerk to prepare a warrant for Shitta’s arrest. But the warrant could not be prepared because no proper charge was alleged against him.

The village heads then resolved to send messengers to Shitta to come and explain why he had returned to the town.

According to the Crown witnesses, the messengers sent were Motesho Oko-ni, one Raji, Akoda Akinwale and two others.

About 75 years ago, an Igboora community ruler, Baale Adefemi, and two of his messengers were tried and sentenced to death for murder. Their convictions were equally affirmed by the West African Court of Appeal (WACA). FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary writes.

These five messengers accompanied by other people, went three times to Shitta’s house and saw him. On each occasion, Shitta, refused their bidding. After Shitta’s refusal had been commu-nicated the third time, the members of the Native Court had another confer-ence during which they decided among others that Shitta must leave the town forthwith. They also resolved that as chiefs, they would leave the court and go to the market place, and that the Oro drums should be used to drive Shitta out of the town.

The chiefs converged at the market place and sat under a tree. The Baale of Igboora who presided over the meeting sent a message to the hereditary drum-mer of Igboora that he should come to the market and bring the Oro drums with him. Ladeji, the drummer came as directed to beat Oro drums, but at first he refused because it was not an Oro fes-

My first solo appearance was before a magistrate court in Agbowa, Ogun State

sometimes in February 2012.My principal in the chamber

where I work called me and said he wants to baptise me. He, thereafter, asked me to appear in court. He also gave me details on what the matter is all about.

It was a tenancy matter, our client was issued a quit notice and the time frame given to him had elapsed.

I was instructed to request for more time with a view to allowing our client to make proper arrange-ment for relocation.

When the matter was announced in the court, I was nervous but managed to summon confidence,

announced my appearance and requested that our client be given more time to relocate.

The presiding magistrate consid-ered my application and ruled that our clients be given more time as request-ed. It was indeed a memorable day!. Nwagwu

tival day. Baale Adefemi rebuked him for ques-

tioning his orders and Ladeji eventually obeyed the order.

The beating of the drums caused con-fusion and the women were forced to run to their houses. During the hearing of the case, three principal members of the Native Court who protested against the action of the Baale in ordering the Oro drums to be beaten but without success testified for the Crown against Baale Adefemi.

According to their testimonies, Shit-ta hurriedly left his house sought ref-uge elsewhere. The Baale again called the same five messengers and sent them to one Basin’s house. It was believed that Shitta had hidden in Basin’s house which was next door. Basin’s explana-tion that Shitta had left his house fell on deaf ears. The Baale insisted that Shitta must be fished out of his hideout.

The messengers were sent three times from the market to Basin, the last time with the message that if Basin did not eject Shitta forthwith he would suffer

OKONI LIT A MATCH AND SET FIRE TO THE THATCHED ROOF OF

BASIN’S HOUSE WHICH IMMEDIATELY WENT UP

IN FLAMES

Shitta’s punishment. The Baale decreed to the first and second accused, ‘’ if you know where he is exactly you should go and put fire there.’’

The messengers complied and the first accused, Okoni lit a match and set fire to the thatched roof of Basin’s house which immediately went up in flames. The accused persons then ran away.

When Baale Adefemi got to Basin’s burnt house he feigned ignorance of the act and asked how the fire had occurred. The women who lived in Shitta’s house accused him of sending messengers to burn the house.

A woman, Yesajo who lived in the house was badly burnt to death in the fire. She was taken to Adeoyo Hospital, Ibadan, where she later died of burns on April 13, 1937.

The Baale was subsequently arrested along with two of his messengers and charged with murder. The men were tried, found guilty and convicted of mur-der under Section 316(3) Criminal Code (CC) by an Ibadan High Court. The men were all sentenced to death. They lodged an appeal against their conviction.

In the notice of appeal, the Baale was the third appellant. After the hearing of the appeal, the West African Court of Appeal (WACA) affirmed their convic-tion.

Delivering judgement on January 11, 1938, the Chief Justice, Cor Kingdon and two other Justices, Butler Lloyd and Carey were unanimous that ‘’the carry-ing out by the first two appellants of a felony at the bidding of the third appel-lant (Baale) was clearly the prosecution of an unlawful purpose; and that the act was of such a nature as to be likely to endanger human life is implicit in the finding that the fatal burning of Yesajo, an inmate of the dwelling house, was a reasonably consequence of setting fire to the house.”

The justices declared that the trial judge was right to find each of the ap-pellant guilty of murder. The appeals were accordingly dismissed and the convicts were later hanged.

I was nervous –Jessica Nwagwu

Sir Bernard Bourdillon, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria (1935 - 1943)

46 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013Law & Justice

Law & JusticeNational Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 47Monday, September 16, 2013

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45

Atuche Alao

Bar JokeLawyer’s love letter

Ever wondered how a law-yer could write a love letter to his girlfriend.

To ....., Sub: Offer of love!Dearest Ms ......,1. That I am very happy to

inform you that I have fallen in Love with you since the 7th of August (Wednesday).

2. That with reference to the meeting held between us on the 11th of Aug. at 15:00hrs, I would like to present myself as a pro-spective lover.

3. That our love affair would be on probation for a period of three months and depend-ing on compatibility, would be made permanent.

4. That needless to say and of course, upon completion of probation, I propose that there will be a continuous ‘on the job training’ and performance appraisal schemes leading up to promotion from lover to spouse.

5. That I propose that the ex-

penses incurred for coffee and entertainment would initially be shared equally between us.

6. That I further propose that later, based on our mutual performance, I might take up a larger share of the expenses.

7. That however I am broad-minded enough to be taken care of, on your expense account.

8. That I humbly request you to kindly respond within 30 days of receiving this letter, failing which, this offer would be cancelled without further notice and I shall be consider-ing someone else.

9. That I wish to add here that I would be happy, if you could forward this letter to your sister, if you do not wish to take up this offer.

Wish you all the best!Thanking you in anticipa-

tion.Please reply if you desire

so...Yours sincerely,Mr. ....

New number plates: Group vows to challenge enforcement in courtWALE IGBINTADE

A group, Consum-er Rights Project (CRP),has vowed to

institute legal action to chal-lenge the propriety of the new number plates introduced by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

The group also said that it would mobilise motorists to embark on peaceful protests across the country against ‘such oppressive directive from your Commission’.

Already, the group has is-sued a pre-action notice to the FRSC, threatening to mobilise Nigerians for peaceful pro-test nationwide to resist the planned restriction of move-ment of Nigerians with the old number plates.

The group in its pre-action notice, signed by its Executive Secretary, Onu Eke Uche, stat-ed that as an organisation con-cerned with the composition of consumable goods and ser-vices by the Nigeria citizens, it has become a great concern to it that the intended enforce-ment of the deadline on the use of the old number plates was unconstitutional and op-pressive to the citizens.

Uche lamented that the ac-tion was a clear violation of

Section 41 (1) of the Constitu-tion, as it constitutes an in-fringement on the rights of Ni-gerians to free movement.

According to the group, the enforcement will also create gross economic hardship for the populace individually and collectively.

It said “The rationality of introduction of new plate number and drivers’ license is greatly in doubt as there ex-ists no material difference be-tween the old number and the newly introduced one.

“Moreover, the overall inter-est of the end users which form the bulk of the consumers was not properly considered before such a burdensome, cumber-some and cruel decision was arrived at.

“The functions of the Com-mission are clearly spelt out under the Act establishing the Commission and as such, the Commission is not at liberty to deviate from such entrenched functions or apply measures besides its powers as is stipu-lated under the relevant Act.

He said the group would not hesitate to file an action in court against the Commission to stop it from commencing with the disruption of move-ment of Nigerians over the use of old plate numbers and driv-ers licence.

Unending trials of bank CEOs, oil subsidy fraudsters

and also to Supreme Court for just unnecessary applica-tions and further delay a mat-ter for eight to 10 years”

Sagay explained that by the time the matter had been on for years, the Investigative Po-lice Officer (IPO) might have been transferred, some of the witnesses would have died and the case would just suffer a natural death.

He described these lawyers as renegade SANs whose main goal was to protect alleged criminals and their proceeds of crime by unnecessarily de-laying court process.

Layonu also aligned with Sa-gay’s view and canvassed the need to strengthen the judici-ary institution in order to curb the alleged abuses of court processes.

His words, “The truth is that if the system allows the right to interlocutory injunctions, right of appeal and other legal steps, lawyers will continue to take advantages of those legal provisions to favour their cli-ents and help their cases”.

For Agbaje, he argued that the allegations raised were substantially true adding that ‘’ lawyers are at the forefront of manipulating judicial pro-cesses to win their matters.”

He said, “In fact some law-yers thrive on such practices and we have seen in recent times that lawyers in the crim-inal division have flourished using these manipulating practices to prolong matters unnecessarily”.

According to him, “You will discover that high- profile mat-ters filed by EFCC and ICPC against some ex-governors and ex-politicians have lasted more than seven to eight years be-

cause of these practices”.He pointed out that all of

these happened because some lawyers were in the fore-front.

He, however commended La-gos State Government for en-acting laws that seek to reduce the abuse of court processes.

Arthur-Worrey argued that the diversionary functions and conflicts in the roles of the Po-lice, the EFCC and the ICPC might also be responsible for the delay in the speedy pros-ecution of some high-profile cases.

According to him, ‘’These are diversions and I can say it anywhere and I challenge any-body to tell me how EFCC and ICPC have imparted positively in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. You don’t set up agencies like that to prosecute; the end product must be that people are deterred from going into corruption because there is a powerful and potent agen-cy to curb them.

He said ‘’Our philosophy is that we set up agencies to clean up the mess whereas we should look at internal control. If a man sits in a pension office and steals N26 billion, there is no amount of justice you can do to that case. The question must be asked how was he able

to consistently over a period of time steal N26 billion and no alarm was raised through the audit and the system? . We can be a bit frivolous in the way we handle issues and superfi-cially address things. I think we were more serious, more focused and everybody knew who was responsible for polic-ing and who was responsible for funding the police.

Besides, the ex-DPP said the EFCC was always complaining that the National Assembly did not appropriate enough funds to it, yet the commission had enough money to hire Senior Advocates to prosecute their cases.

He said there are many agen-cies charged with prosecutori-al authority, adding that many of them charge cases that have no substance whatsoever or have not been properly inves-tigated.

Arthur-Worrey also ob-served that the courts have lost authority adding that, “today people write petitions against judges and then the judges will hands-off the cases.’’

‘’Unfortunately for us, we don’t seem to understand the implications of weak institu-tions; we don’t understand the signals it sends to citizens and to the rest of the world. A coun-try is only taken as seriously as its law and justice system is managed.’’ he added.

There is no doubt that de-lay in justice administration and weak institutions are is-sues militating against an ef-fective and efficient judiciary in Nigeria. It is also not out of place for the federal and state judiciaries to tackle the prob-lem of courtroom congestion which in itself, is antithetical to the survival of democracy.

I CHALLENGE ANYBODY TO TELL

ME HOW EFCC AND ICPC

HAVE IMPARTED POSITIVELY IN THE

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN

NIGERIA

Community Mirror48 National Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013

“It is government’s vision to transform agricultural sector and make it attractive.”

VICE PRESIDENT; NAMADI SAMBO

FRANCIS SUBERU

The people of Ipoti-Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State have

resolved the kingship tussle which pitted the ruling houses against each another for 31 years, with the installation of the Oluwademilade 1 of Ipoti-Ekiti, HRM, Oba James Oladip-upo Kolade.

Oba Kolade who was present-ed with the staff of office by the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Professor Modupe Adelabu hails from Amilede ruling house.

The tussle for the traditional stool began shortly after the death of Oba Ajayi Ajigunna II

in 1982, as candidates from dif-ferent ruling houses vied for the vacant throne.

The crisis got worse when in 1988; some kingmakers pur-portedly installed one Mr. Ol-adele Ayeni, as Oba without due process. This led to fracas and the matter was later taken to court.

The court’s verdict came af-ter many years, even as it ruled against Mr. Oladele Ayeni, who was immediately dethroned. Fresh process of selecting a new king was then initiated, leading to the eventual installation of Oba James Oladipo Kolade on August 17, 2013 as the 12th king of the town.

At his installation, Oba Ko-

lade thanked the people and kingmakers for their steadfast-ness in ensuring the right per-son was enthroned.

He said his installation was made possible by the collective resolve of the people, even as he praised the Ekiti State Govern-ment and pleaded for the provi-sion of more social amenities in the town.

He said; “We are grateful to Ekiti State Government for the remarkable work on our roads and schools.

“I, however, wish to request for the construction of Ipoti-Adurumi-Oke-Ila link road and also the electrification of Ipoti streets and construction of an ultra-modern market.”

Ipoti-Ekiti resolves kingship tussle Street hawkers preparing their wares at Apongbon, Lagos.

Man remanded in prison for attempted murder ADEOLU ADEYEMOOSOGBO

A middle aged man, Muda-siru Oyeniyi has been re-manded in Ilesha prison

by an Osogbo Magistrate’s Court for allegedly setting his room-mate, Oladimeji ablaze following a disagreement between them.

The incident happened on July 30, 2013, at Arikalamu Area of the state capital. It was gathered that trouble broke out when Oyeniyi reportedly lent out a loud speaker belonging Oladimeji without the latter’s consent.

This reportedly infuriated Oladimeji as he could not find the

loud speaker to hawk his natural herbs.

The reaction did not go down well with Oyeniyi who later poured petrol on Oladimeji while asleep and set him ablaze.

Though Oyeniyi admitted guilt to the one count charge of attempted murder, he pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, saying it was the dev-il that pushed him to perpetrate the dastardly act.

The Police Prosecutor, Mr. Isia-ka Ajadi told the court that the offence by Oyeniyi is contrary to section (2) of the criminal code cap. 34 vol. 11 laws of Osun State, Nigeria.

Grandmother jailed for contempt of court ADEOLU ADEYEMOOSOGBO

An 83-year-old woman, Madam Mariam Shittu has been sentenced

to 30 days imprisonment for contempt by an Osogbo Magis-trate’s Court.

The great grandmother was standing trial in charge No. Mos/677c/2012 land dispute, but failed to appear in court which consequently led to the con-tempt charge.

Magistrate Olusola Aluko condemned the non appearance of the woman and asked the prosecuting officer, Inspector Taiwo Adegoke if she had any previous criminal record.

When InspectorAdegoke said Madam Miriam had no previous criminal record, the Magistrate said if she was not arrested, she would continue to take the court for granted.

However, the accused pleaded guilty to the charge and said her absence from court was not

intentional but due to sickness and pleaded for mercy as such would never repeat itself.

However, Inspector Adegoke told the court that Mariam has committed an offence contrary and punishable under section 133 of the criminal code cap 34 Vol ii of the law of Osun State of Nigeria 2013.”

In his judgement, Magistrate Aluko sentenced Madam Shittu to one month imprisonment or in the alternative she pays a fine of N2, 500.00.

These are graduates of various disciplines, I believe. They understand philosophy, history and political science and

they have their medical teamHUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER,CHIEF MIKE OZEKHOME

The Redeemed Christian Church of God,RCCG, has appealed to the Inspector

General of Police,IGP, to inter-vene in order to avert impending crisis at Oloke-Asese-Maba and Gideon villages following the de-molition of a structure by land grabbers.

The church made the appeal in order to stop the delay tactics being employed by the other par-ties to frustrate the resolution of the matter and giving the rightful land owners, RCCG a leeway to the land..

Hoodlums, armed with dan-gerous weapons and led by one Lukman Jimoh, purportedly acting on the instructions of the Christ Embassy Church, on March 19, 2003, had invaded the villages, destroying the head-quarters of Ogun Province 8 of RCCG under construction.

The guard on the site said the hoodlums had told him the land belonged to the Christ Embassy. “The thugs threatened to kill me or anyone, while boasting that they and the police have been compromised to look the other way”.

In a petition to the IG, the RCCG had asked for intervention in the case of trespass on the land and malicious damage to church property.

Even though the land falls un-der government acquisition area, the church had gone ahead to pay ratification fee in June 1999 to one Alhaji Tajudeen Ogo Oluwa, father of Lukman, who gave the church a signed Deed of Surren-der and witnessed by one Waidi Ogunsesan, aka Damolapa.

The church was also given al-location of the land for 99 years by the Ogun State Government in a letter with reference number LUD 9/LCI33/6, signed by the Di-rector General Bureau of Lands and Survey, Office, Gbenga Ogun-noike.

Ogun State also issued a Cer-tificate of Occupancy,C of O with Number 025748, of November 7, 2006 and signed by the governor.

However, in 2004, the RCCG wrote to the presiding Pastor of the Christ Embassy Church, Chris Oyakhilome following a programme held by his church on the disputed land.

The letter, signed by the A.G.O Admin/Personnel of the RCCG, Pastor A. O. Akindele, said:“It has come to our notice that your organisation is inadvertently trespassing on the piece of land measuring 40 acres on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, precisely at Oloke Area.

“We wish to inform you that the land belongs to the RCCG, and you have confiscated it for more than four years.

“We shall appreciate your prompt intervention and godly di-rective to one Alhaji Ogo Oluwa, who has held himself out as your agent, to desist forth with in con-tinuing with the trespass”.

The RCCG also solicited the help of Ogun State Government who invited the two parties in the dispute. At the meeting presided by the then Director General, Bu-reau of Lands and Survey, Mr. Gbenga Ogunnoike, the govern-ment said the RCCG has the duly signed C of O, and so is the rightful owner of the disputed land. It also warned the Christ Embassy from further trespassing on the land.

Despite this, the Christ Em-bassy Church and its agents had gone ahead to demolish a RCCG structure on the land, which prompted the petition to the IGP.

At the Eleweran police head-quarters in Ogun State,where the matter was directed, it has been series of long delays, with no res-olution in sight.

Meanwhile, the hoodlums are still occupying the land and have kept threatening those ready to testify on the matter.

Church petitions IGP over land trespass

49National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013

World News50

Syria hails US-Russia deal on chemical weapons

Somalia’s govern-ment and interna-tional donors will

sign up to a three-year plan today to rebuild the violence-torn country, backed by pledges of new funding that EU officials hope could reach more than one billion euros ($1.3 billion).

The Brussels confer-ence is aimed at consoli-dating fragile security gains in Somalia after two decades of civil war and lawlessness triggered by the overthrow of Presi-dent Siad Barre in 1991.

Nick Westcott, a se-nior EU diplomat dealing with Africa, said Mon-day’s conference would be a “milestone in terms of the political recon-struction of Somalia”.

“We are beginning to see after 20 years of conflict Somalia pulling

itself together,” he told reporters.

The 28-nation EU is the largest donor to So-malia and helps fund the African Union’s Amisom peacekeeping troops, who have helped drive Islamist al Shabaab rebels out of Mogadishu and many oth-er strongholds in central and southern Somalia.

Somali President Has-san Sheikh Mohamud and international backers will sign up to a “new deal compact” at Monday’s conference, committing them to a series of goals in the areas of inclusive politics, security, justice, economy and services.

International donors are also expected to pledge aid in support of Somalia’s reconstruction.

EU officials would not say how much they ex-pect to be pledged, but

one EU source said any figure above one billion euros would be “a signif-icant success”.

About 50 delegations will take part in the meeting, including Afri-can countries, the Unit-ed States, Japan, China and Gulf countries as

well as EU states.Somalia will also today

join the Cotonou agree-ment, the framework for the EU’s relations with countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacif-ic, making it eligible for aid from the European Development Fund.

The EU has previously pledged 1.2 billion eu-ros for Somalia between 2008 and 2013. It has also launched several mis-sions to help Somalia strengthen its security, including a counter-pira-cy force and a mission to train the Somali military.

dermining stability in the Afri-can country already awash with arms after decades of conflict.

HRW said in a report soldiers had killed at least 96 members of the Murle tribe, including 74 civilians, 17 of them women and children, between December and July.

Some of them were shot dead in crossfire during battles with rebels, HRW said.

Others were executed as an apparent punishment for alleged support for Yau Yau or for fail-ing to give up weapons during an army campaign to disarm locals, the campaign group added.

The army, or SPLA, killed 13 Murle members in Lotho village on Dec 4, HRW said.

“SPLA soldiers approached a group of civilian men ... and de-manded that the men hand over their guns.” the report said, cit-ing witnesses.

“The men gave the SPLA two rifles. The SPLA then tied up the men into two groups of seven. The soldiers executed the men in one group at the site and took the men in the other group some distance away and shot them,” it added.

Yau Yau’s group has said it fights to end army abuses, cor-ruption and the domination of the ruling party in South Sudan.

“Soldiers should be protect-ing Murle civilians in Jonglei state from the fighting and the ethnic conflict,” said Daniel Bekele, HRW’s Africa director. “Instead, the army has been kill-ing these vulnerable people.”

Last month, President Salva Kiir ordered the arrest of sev-eral generals in Jonglei over the alleged killing of civilians and other reported abuses under their command.

EU optimistic about reconstruction plan for Somalia

South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir

Members of the al Shabaab Islamist militant group sitting on pickup trucks as they participate in a military training exercise in southern Mogadishu PHOTO: REUTERS

PAUL ARHEWEWITH AGENCY REPORTS

South Sudan’s army has killed almost 100 members of a small tribe, executing

some of them in cold blood, dur-ing seven months of fighting with rebels in the eastern Jon-glei state, Human Rights Watch said.

South Sudan’s defence min-ister Kuol Manyang declined to discuss details of the report by the New York-based rights group. But he told Reuters au-thorities had launched an in-vestigation in August into army abuses in the vast territory.

South Sudan’s army spokes-man could not be reached on his mobile phone.

South Sudan’s army is grap-pling with a rebellion led by local politician David Yau Yau as well as clashes between his Murle tribe and the rival Lou Nuer in Jonglei, which borders Ethiopia.

Western powers are worried a heavy-handed army approach is worsening the violence, un-

Three members of the Ivorian security forces have been killed in Yamoussoukro, the adminis-trative capital of Ivory Coast, in two separate attacks by armed gangs, officials said.

“Gendarmes and policemen were attacked Tuesday and Friday while on duty in Yamous-soukro,” the mayor, Kouakou Gnrangbe, told.

He said two gendarmes were killed in the first attack and a po-liceman in the second. The city’s governor gave the same toll.

Local media said the attack-ers were bandits who have been ambushing vehicles on the roads of the West African coun-try, whose economic capital Abidjan is a major regional hub.

Two people have been killed by grenade blasts in the Rwan-dan capital, Kigali.

The first victim died in an initial attack on Friday in a marketplace in the city which also wounded 14 people, according to police.

Another grenade detonated in the same area on Saturday, killing another person and injuring eight. Police say three people have been arrested.

No-one has said that they carried out the attacks, which come ahead of a parliamentary vote today.

“I don’t think it is going to impact on the election... everything is in control,” police spokesman Damas Gatare told a news agency.

Last year 22 people were found guilty of launching a series of grenade attacks around Rwanda, including some former soldiers who were accused of having links with the FDLR rebel movement.

Some FDLR leaders are accused of links to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Three Ivorian policemen killed in attacks

Blasts kill two ahead of Rwanda’s vote

WORLD BULLETIN

“We cannot have hollow words in the conduct of international affairs”

–UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY

South Sudan’s army kills 100 members of small tribe –Rights group An Egyptian journalist yesterday

appeared before a military court, accused of spreading lies about the army’s campaign against militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

The court in the Suez canal city of Ismailiya adjourned Ahmed Abu Deraa’s hearing to 18 September.

Abu Deraa, who writes for the independent daily, Al-Masry Al-Youm, was detained on 4 September in north Sinai over published reports that army raids had hit a mosque and houses and also injured civilians.

Authorities say they are target-ing “terrorists” in the penin-sula that borders the Palestinian Islamist-run Gaza Strip.

Media watchdog Report-ers Without Borders and rights activists have condemned his detention.

But military spokesperson Ahmed Ali justified the journalist’s detention and military trial.

Egyptian journalist faces military court over ‘lies’

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net50 Monday, September 16, 2013World News

chemical arsenal.Kerry responded to

widespread skepticism about the feasibility of the plan by saying in Israel that it had “the full abil-ity” to remove all Syria’s chemical weapons.

The agreement has ef-fectively put off the threat of air strikes Obama made after poison gas killed hundreds of Syr-ian civilians on August 21, although he stressed that force remains an option if Assad reneges - and U.S. forces remain in position.

Obama embraced the disarmament proposal put forward last week by Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin after his plan for U.S. military action hit re-sistance in Congress. Law-makers feared an open-ended new entanglement in the Middle East and were troubled by the pres-ence of al Qaeda followers among Assad’s opponents.

In an interview with

Syria’s government hailed as a “victory” a Russian-brokered

deal that has averted U.S. strikes, while President Barack Obama defended a chemical weapons pact that the rebels fear has bolstered their enemy in the civil war, Reuters has reported.

As President Bashar al-Assad’s warplanes and artillery hit rebel suburbs of the capital again yester-day, minister Ali Haidar told Moscow’s RIA news agency: “These agree-ments ... are a victory for Syria, achieved thanks to our Russian friends.”

Though not close to Assad, Ali was the first Syrian official to react to Saturday’s deal struck in Geneva by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Bridging an angry East-West rift over Syria, they agreed to back a nine-month U.N. pro-gram to destroy Assad’s

ABC television, Obama said criticism of his quick-changing tactics on Syria was about style rather than substance. And while welcoming Pu-tin’s willingness to press his “client, the Assad re-gime” to disarm, he also chided the Kremlin leader for suggesting rebels car-ried out the gas attack.

Defending his changes of tack on Syria, Obama said: “Folks here in Wash-ington like to grade on style ... Had we rolled out something that was very smooth and disciplined and linear, they would have graded it well - even if it was a disastrous policy.”

National reconciliation minister Ali said Syria welcomed the terms of the U.S.-Russia deal: “They will help Syrians get out of the crisis,” he said. “They have prevented a war against Syria by deny-ing a pretext to those who wanted to unleash it.”

Syria hails US-Russia deal on chemical weapons

Protesters, police clash over poll results in Cambodia

Yemen jails three al Qaeda members over plot to kill president

21 killed in Iraqi bombings –Police

L-R: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

The rallies have so far been peaceful but the vio-lence and CNRP’s refusal to heed instruction not to march beyond the protest site have taken a six-week standoff representing one of the biggest tests of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s three-decade grip on pow-er to a new and precari-ous level.

By nightfall, at least 1,000 protesters were camped out in the rain on straw mats and under makeshift tents, despite government orders to leave Freedom Park, the only venue in Cambodia where rallies are permitted.

The clashes with riot police, known for cracking

of civil war in neighbour-ing Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian di-visions in Iraq, fraying an uneasy government coali-tion of Shi’ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions.

The deadliest attacks were in the city of Hilla, where two parked car bombs exploded simul-taneously near a busy market and a third blew up near a vehicle repair workshop killing nine people in total, police said.

“I was about to get my breakfast in a nearby restaurant when a huge explosion happened and smoke and dust filled the place. Before I had taken a step forward another explosion happened,” wit-ness Abu Ahmed, who runs a grocery store, said.

“I ran to check on my son who was covering for me in my shop and found him covered with blood among many other bodies. There is no trace left of my shop.”

Another explosion took place in the oil-exporting southern city of Basra, where a car bomb blew up near another vehicle repair workshop killing five people, and another car bomb in the city of Kerbala killed two others, police said.

Car and roadside bombs in Baghdad and predominantly

Shi’ite provinces of Iraq killed at least 21 people yes-terday, police sources said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility of yesterday’s the attacks, which appeared coordi-nated, but Sunni Islamist insurgents, including an al Qaeda affiliate, have been regaining momen-tum in recent months.

More than two years

A man was arrested after shooting at three young siblings in his Pine Lawn, Miss., neigh-bourhood, authorities said.

The man shot at the children, who were play-ing on their patio, at 9:30 p.m. Friday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

An 8-year-old boy sustained a gunshot wound that was non-life-threatening.

His 4-year-old brother suffered a graze wound and the 12-year-old sib-ling was uninjured.

Officers arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting and set up a barrier.

A 2013 Hyundai broke through the barrier and police pursued the vehicle.

The chase ended after 15 minutes, the Post-Dispatch said.

Police determined that the driver was not con-nected to the shooting, and persisted in their investigation.

The officers arrested the shooter, whose name is not being released, at 7 a.m. Saturday, police said.

At least eight people were killed yesterday when a bus collided with a truck in China’s Sichuan Province, local officials said.

About 12 of the 24 people on the bus were injured, according to res-cue workers at the scene.

The collision took place in Dazhou City and sent the bus tumbling off a bridge. The cause of the accident was under investigation, China’s Xi-nhua news agency said.

Man shoots three young neighbours

Bus crash in China leaves eight dead

WORLD BULLETIN

A Yemeni court sen-tenced three al Qaeda members

to jail yesterday for plot-ting to kill President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and target foreign diplomats, including the U.S. ambas-sador to Sanaa.

Yemen is battling one of the most active fran-chises of al Qaeda, known as al Qaeda in the Arabi-an Peninsula, which has carried out a number of foiled attempts to attack U.S. targets, including airliners.

The Sanaa court of first instance sentenced Abdullah al-Kheishani to seven years in prison, Maher al-Ramim to five years and Omar al-Najjar to one year, state news agency Saba said.

The public prosecution had accused Kheishani and Ramim of monitor-ing, planning and pre-paring for the assassina-tion of Hadi outside his residence using booby-trapped vehicles, it said.

Hadi was elected in February 2011 after his predecessor Ali Abdul-lah Saleh was eased from power as part of a U.S.-backed power transfer deal which came after months of popular pro-tests that brought the country to the brink of civil war.

Saba said Kheishani and Najjar were also found guilty of planning and preparing to target military officers and the U.S. ambassador to Sanaa.

Al Qaeda in the Arabi-an Peninsula last year of-fered a reward of 3 kg of gold for the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa or 5 million rials ($23,000) for an American soldier in Yemen.

In Libya, U.S. ambas-sador Christopher Ste-vens and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi last year when dozens of Islamist gun-men attacked a U.S. dip-lomatic compound and a nearby CIA annex.

down hard on dissent, add-ed to political tension not seen for years, heightened by the discovery of a bomb and some grenades around the city on Friday.

Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won another five-year term with 68 seats to the Cambo-dia National Rescue Par-ty’s 55, a greatly reduced

majority that signals dis-satisfaction with his au-thoritarian rule despite rapid economic growth in a country seen for decades as a basket case.

A protester supporting the opposition party, CNRP, reacting as police fire tear gas during clashes near the Royal Palace in central Phnom Penh, yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS

Police used teargas, smoke grenades and water cannon

to disperse hundreds of demonstrators after a ral-ly in Cambodia’s capital yesterday to push for an independent investigation into a July election they say was fixed to favour the ruling party.

Clashes broke out twice between separate groups of protesters hurling rocks at hundreds of riot police who used baton charges af-ter supporters of the oppo-sition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) tried to remove razor-wire barri-cades. There were no seri-ous injuries reported.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 51NorthMonday, September 16, 2013

Galadiman Bauchi, Alhaji Ibrahim Jahun, addressing members of Jahun Elders’ Forum during their visit to his palace in Bauchi, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

AZA MSUE AND IGBAWASE UKUMBA

Over 50 people have been killed and palaces of two tra-

ditional rulers of Asakio and Obi were burnt in a renewed ethnic clash in-volving Eggon and Alago youths in Nasarawa State.

The clash began last week Thursday.

The police, however, con-firmed that three people were killed, while many houses were burnt during the fresh communal vio-lence.

National Mirror learnt that the palaces of para-mount rulers of Obi and As-sakio chiefdoms, Dangiwa Ogiri and Inarigu Osula, who are both of Alago ex-traction, were destroyed by the armed Eggon youths.

No fewer than 20,000 per-sons, mostly women and children have been displaced by the crisis.

The communal clash was said to have begun at Tudun Adabu area of Obi Local Government Area, about 40 kilometres from Lafia, the state capital, before it spread to the council headquarters and Assakio town in Lafia Local Government Area.

Obi and Assakio towns are approximately 50 and 30 kilometres away from the

state capital.Report claimed that the

communities were attacked following information that some Alago youths and po-licemen, acting on a tip off, apprehended a van convey-ing Eggon militias at Adabu who were on their way to Awe Local Government Area for an undisclosed mission.

A victim, who did not want his name mentioned, told National Mirror that Assakio community was attacked by the gunmen in their hundreds.

The victim said the at-tackers shot anyone they laid their hands on.

He said: “As I am speak-ing to you now, I don’t know the fate of any of my family members because the attack-ers suddenly stormed our community unannounced. We were not prepared for any form of resistance as we did in the last attack. So, I am hoping that the government will fish them out for pros-ecution.”

In a state-wide broadcast yesterday, the government condemned the incident, warning that it would not stand by and watch “the heartless criminals unleash a reign of terror on innocent citizens.”

The state deputy gover-nor, Damishi Barau Luka, who made the broadcast on behalf of Governor Umaru

50 killed, palaces burnt in renewed Nasarawa violence

At least 14 people died in an ac-cident in Kebbi

State, when the vehicle they were travelling in plunged into a river on the Bahindi-Kende road in Bagudo Local Govern-ment Area of the state.

Chairman of the Nige-ria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Kebbi State council,

Alhaji Tukur Mari, who witnessed the accident, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the accident occurred mid-night on Saturday.

Mari told NAN in Birnin Kebbi yesterday that the accident oc-curred when the driver of the vehicle lost control and the vehicle plunged

into Kende River.He said 14 of the 15

passengers in the vehicle died.

He added that the survivor, Malam Sham-suddeen Kende, was re-ceiving treatment at the General Hospital, Da-kingari, while the bod-ies of the deceased were buried yesterday morn-

ing according to Islamic rites.

Vice-Chairman of Ba-gudo Local Government Area, Alhaji Aliyu Zagga and the District Head of Kende, Alhaji Bello Zagga, both confirmed the incident. Both men attended the burial cer-emony arranged for the victims.

WALE IBRAHIMLOKOJA

Kogi State govern-ment has once again urged all

residents living in flood prone areas in the state to relocate as soon as pos-sible as some states of the country are already experiencing flood.

The Acting Executive Secretary of Kogi State Emergency Management

Agency, KOSEMA, Mrs. Alice Ogedengbe, made this call at the weekend during a sensitisation visit to Budon and Abugi communities in Lokoja Local Government Area of the state.

She said with flood ravaging some states al-ready, there was no need for residents to wait for it to come before leaving such flood prone areas, adding that it is better to

move now as it is always devastating when caught aware by flood.

According to her, though the state was ful-ly prepared for the flood, but residents will have to play their part by heed-ing the advice and direc-tive of government to re-locate out of such areas and stop the blockade of water channel through refuse dumping.

Ogedengbe said the

state wants to avoid last year’s experience; hence the earlier the residents take the warning seri-ously the better for the state and the people.

She pointed out that the state government has the interest of the peo-ple at heart and would always cater for them, adding that it is only when they are alive that the government can ad-equately care of them.

PRISCILLA DENNISMINNA

No fewer than six wom-en in Niger State plan-ning to participate

in this year’s Hajj have been barred from the exercise.

The women were barred from participating in the ex-ercise because of their preg-nancy status.

They were barred in accor-dance with the directive of the National Hajj Commission.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Ibrahim Sule, stated this yesterday during the flag-off of the inocula-tion of the intending pil-grims from state against yel-low fever, polio and cerebral spinal meningitis in Minna.

According to him, the discov-ery was made by the medical team for the Hajj exercise during the screening of the women.

The commissioner added that the medical team seized the trav-

elling documents of the affected women to ensure that the ban placed on them was enforced.

He said: “The pregnant women are banned from the Hajj operations in their in-terest, their health and the interest of the babies they are carrying. And we will also make sure that the medical team conducts another round of screening for the female counterpart at the pilgrims’ camp hours before their de-parture to Saudi Arabia.”

The commissioner, how-ever, urged all intending pil-grims from the state to make themselves available for inoculation to protect them against diseases, claiming that the inoculation is free.

He warned that should any intending pilgrim fail to be inoc-ulated, the yellow card would not be issued to him or her because of the importance the Saudi au-thorities attaches to the adminis-tration of the vaccines.

14 die as vehicle plunges into river

Leave fl ood prone areas now, residents warned

Niger bars six women from performing Hajj

•ACF asks FG to arrest suspects for prosecution Tanko Al-Makura, said that government had taken ad-equate measures to bring the situation under control.

Luka said: “This unpro-voked attack by some Eggon youths suspected to be mem-bers of the outlawed Om-batse cult on the innocent people of Adabu and other parts of Obi, as well as As-sakio towns is, to say the least, barbaric, condemnable and an affront on the secu-rity of lives and property of innocent citizens.

“The government wishes to state categorically that it will not stand by and watch these heartless criminals in our state unleash a reign of terror on innocent citizens.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Shehu Umar, told journalists yesterday in Lafia that the clash was between suspected mem-bers of Ombatse and Alago groups in Obi Local Govern-ment Area.

Umar said that the po-lice had drafted a team of security personnel to the troubled communities to restore peace.

He said: “Three persons were killed while many oth-ers were injured during the clash, but many houses that we cannot give account of for now were burnt.”

Meanwhile, the apex Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Con-sultative Forum (ACF), yes-terday called on the Federal

Government to arrest those behind the violence for prosecution.

In a statement, ACF spokesman, Mr. Anthony Sani, described the incident as mindless crisis between communities who hitherto lived peacefully among themselves, but have now decided to take it out on each other in order to ad-dress their concerns.

The statement, how-ever, condemned what the forum described as heartless destruction of lives and properties, stressing that resorting to violence had never resolved perceived griev-ances any where across the globe.

ACF said: “It is against

this backdrop that ACF ap-peals to the feuding factions to lay down their arms and embrace civilized way of addressing perceived griev-ances in the interest of peaceful coexistence need-ed for socioeconomic devel-opment. As they do so, the feuding communities must note that all communities are settlers.

“ACF also calls on the government to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice in order to deter fu-ture occurrences. And in doing so, they must avoid generalisation and stick to what they know, lest gen-eralisation enable crimi-nals to use groups as shield to perpetrate heinous crimes.”

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net52 Monday, September 16, 2013

53National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013

SportMartins, Utaka, Ezekiel hit target

54

Honestly, I would like to say that I don’t enjoy all the limelight, even

though I really can’t escape it-MIAMI HEAT STAR, LEBRON JAMES

ANDREW EKEJIUBA

Enyimba International FC of Aba and Rivers Angels FC yesterday, in Lagos,

won the 2013 Federation Cup. In the first final played on the

synthetic pitch in the main bowl of the Teslim Balogun Stadium,

Surulere, Lagos, for the women’s trophy, Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt emerged winners after beating Nasarawa Amazons FC of Lafia 3-0.

The victory is the Angels’ fourth Federation Cup title win. Angels took the lead through Elizabeth Addo in the 34th min-ute. Addo scored a brace in the

54th minute after a beautiful in-ter-play in Amazon’s 18-yard box.

Angels made it 3-0 in the 79th minute when Gloria Ofoegbu put her name in the scorers’ sheet.

An excited Edwin Okon, Coach of the Angels, told report-ers that his team deserved the vic-tory because they dominated the

encounter. “The girls have made me

proud; they played to instruc-tions, kept up the pressure until the goals began to come in,” Okon said.

“We will keep giving our best to ensure that the team con-tinues to grow from strength to strength.”

Coach of Amazon, Obi Ogba-la, described his team’s defeat as unfortunate, saying that his team had worked hard to get to the fi-nal.

In the men’s final that kicked off at 4pm, Enyimba defeated Warri Wolves 5-4 (penalties), after the regulation time ended in 1-1 draw

AFOLABI GAMBARIWITH AGENCY REPORT

Israeli club, Maccabi Netanya, yesterday disputed claims by

Ivorian club, Asec Mi-mosas, that it still has a contract with Flying Ea-gles’ striker, Olanrewaju Kayode.

Netanya also contested Asec’s claims that it has a FIFA ruling to the effect that Kayode is still under contract with the side.

MTNFootbal l . com , which reached both con-flicting parties, feared that the raging transfer issue might attract the at-

tention of FIFA this week. Netanya has signed a

contract with Kayode till May 2014 and has request-ed for the International Transfer Certificate of the player from his last club Asec as the Israeli league transfer window closes to-morrow.

But according to MT-NFootball.com, Asec has fired back at the Israeli second division club, say-ing it has a contract with the player and do not ex-pect the Ivorian Football Federation to honour the Israeli club’s request for the player’s transfer pa-pers unless there is an

agreement between both clubs.

Meanwhile, Netanya has expressed concern over how a FIFA letter sent to the Nigeria Foot-ball Federation (NFF) on the matter reached Ivorian club, which sub-sequently sent it to the Israeli club as proof that FIFA has intervened in the transfer matter.

“It clearly showed that there are some elements in the NFF who are work-ing for some people with vested interest in this mat-ter,” a source which spoke to MTNFootball alleged yesterday.

The official handover of the rehabilitated main bowl pitch

of the National Stadium, Abuja to the National Sports Commission (NSC) by Julius Berger Plc, the contractor that fixed it, will take place tomorrow.

As part of activities marking the handover, the Golden Eaglets of Nige-ria will take on local side, Amakson Soccer Academy, in a friendly match. Sec-ondary schools in Abuja will also participate in ath-letics competitions.

Side attractions will include performances by

Whizkid, Ice Prince Zamani and White Nigerian. Lead-ing comedians in Abuja will also perform on Tues-day starting from 3pm.

The contract to rehabili-tate the main bowl pitch of the National Stadium, Abuja was awarded to Ju-lius Berger in January this year, after a disruption of power supply to the sta-dium affected the regular wetting of the pitch which made it to be overgrown by weed. The scope of work completed by Julius Berger includes removal and re-placement of the topsoil, planting the approved spe-

cie of grass, well watered and nourished until roots are established and main-tenance of the pitch, in-cluding watering and trim-ming of the grass.

It also provided new wa-ter sprinklers for the sta-dium.

Last week, the Sports Minister and Chairman of the NSC, Mallam Bo-laji Abdullahi, gave assur-ances that the Commission had a plan for the regular maintenance of the pitch and also stated that there would be regular activities at the stadium after the handover.

Transfer: Olanrewaju faces bleak future NSC opens re-grassed Abuja National Stadium

Champions of the 2013 FA Cup final, Enyimba of Aba, jubilating after defeating Warri Wolves 5-4 penalty shoot out in Lagos, yesterday. Champions of the 2013 FA Cup final, Enyimba of Aba, jubilating after defeating Warri Wolves 5-4 penalty shoot out in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: OLUFEMI AJASAPHOTO: OLUFEMI AJASA

Enyimba, Angels win Fed Cup

54 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, September 16, 2013 Sport

Real Madrid winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, has said he could end his career with the Liga club

after signing a new contract with the club that will run until 2018.

The Portugal international has scored a remarkable 203 goals in 203 games since joining for a then world record €94m from Manchester United in 2009.

“It is a priviledge for me to con-tinue with this club,” Ronaldo said yesterday.

“It is just like my first day here. I am going to continue with the same spirit of sacrifice and give every-thing for the shirt.

“It is a special day for me because this club is the biggest in the world and I am extremely happy.”

With Ronaldo’s previous deal set to expire in 2015, there had been strong speculation linking the 28-year-old with a return to Old Trafford, but he said United was now “in the past”.

“I was in Manchester for six years and they gave me many things that I will never forget, but now I am at home, my family is here and I am happy,” he offered, adding, “I want to remain here and win things.”

Multihchoice Nigeria on Sat-urday pledged to take bas-ketball to greater heights

in the country through an unflinch-ing support for the game.

The company’s General Man-ager (Marketing and Sales), Martin Mabutho, gave the assurance at the DStv/Basketball All-Star Game held at the University of Lagos Sports Hall, Akoka, Yaba.

In the All-Star Game, Team At-lantic Conference defeated Team Savannah Conference 104-103, to win the N1million prize for the 2013 edi-tion.

Team Savannah Conference, runners-up in the game, also got a cash prize of N500,000. The edition was sponsored by Multihchoice Ni-geria.

Mabutho said the company was proud and willing to do more for the sport because the 2013 Basketball season was a success.

“Multihchoice Nigeria Plc is happy and will continue to support the basketball league. We signed a

four-year contract in April and the company believes the league would continue to improve,” Mabutho said.

“Multihchoice is now 20 years in Nigeria and the company intends to continue to entertain Nigerians with good basketball games. The company is not only sponsoring basketball, but it is also into football and athletics.”

``We assure Nigerians that we will be around for many more years and improve on our set objectives,’’ Mabutho said.

NAN reports that Atlantic Con-ference’s Azouma Dike won the All-Star Most Valuable Player Award of N250, 000 cash, while Timothy Kwanor of Team Savannah Con-ference won the Three-Point-Shoot Award of N100, 000.

Dike plays for Dodan Warriors of Lagos, while Kwanor plays for Kada Stars of Kaduna.

The All-Star fiesta earlier fea-tured a celebrity match between Channel ‘O’ and Beats FM, which ended 17-18, in favour of Beats FM.

IKENWA NNABUOGOR

Former Super Eagles’ striker, Obafemi Martins was on tar-

get for Seattle Sounders as they beat Real Salt Lake on Saturday, to go top of the Western Conference table of the Major League Soc-cer (MLS) in the United States. The former Wolfs-burg striker struck as ear-ly as the third minute to put his side ahead before is mate doubled the lead seven minutes before half time and the score stood for the rest of the game.

Martins, who starred for 90 minutes, played his first game for the table toppers since August 10 having re-covered from injury. The lone effort of the former Newcastle United hit man was his eighth of the sea-son from 17 league outings.

In Belgium, young Nige-rian striker Imoh Ezekiel was on fire for smoking Standard Liege, netting once in their 4-2 hammer-ing of hosts KV Oostende as Standard maintained the 100 percent record this season. Ezekiel, who was also opening his season’s goal account, fired his side into the lead in the 24th minute and was yel-low carded barely a minute later for excessive celebra-tion. He was on 90 minutes in the emphatic victory and that was his seventh game of the season.

In Turkey, former Super Eagles striker John Utaka opened his goal account for his new club Sivasspor as they beat Eskisehirspor 3-2 at home yesterday. Utaka

evened scores for his side in the 9th minute, just two minutes after the visitors took a shock lead. The hosts went ahead again just few minutes after the break but the visitors re-stored parity in the 60th minute before Utaka and mates finished off a good home victory in the 73rd minute. Utaka was howev-er pulled out at the start of the second half. Utaka has played in all four games of the season so far.

His younger brother Peter was also on song in China as he scored a brace for his side Beijing Guoan who beat Yakubu Aiyegbe-ni’s Guangzhou R&F 6-0 at home on Saturday. Utaka scored to give his side a 4-0 lead in the 70th minute, be-fore he completed his brace with the sixth goal in the

90th minute. The younger Utaka now has 10 goals to his credit in the league and his team Beijing Guoan are third with 40 points from 24 games.

It was also a goal scor-ing weekend for out-of-fa-vour Super Eagles striker Babatunde Michael who netted for Volyn in their 2-1 loss to Arsenal Kyiv on Saturday. Michael fired his new side into the lead in the 36th minute before the hosts rallied to two second half goals to overpower them. However, the former Kryvbas winger was pulled out in the 61st minute. It was Babatunde’s season’s opener after he joined his new side in the summer. He has so far made four appearances. He has also been on the referees’ books just once.

Martins, Utaka, Ezekiel hit target

L-R: General Manager, Marketing and Sales, MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. Martin Mabutho; Managing Director, Mr. John Ugbe; Celebrity Most Valuable Player, Sound Sultan and NBBF President, Mr. Tijani Umar, during a MultiChoice 20th Anniversary event in Lagos at the weekend. PHOTO: ADEMOLA AKINLABI

Ronaldo

Martins in victory somersault

Ezekiel

Ronaldo eyes long Spain stay

B’ball League: Multihchoice pledges renewed support

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 55Monday, September 16, 2013

Vol. 03 No. 679 Monday, September 16, 2013 N150

WORLD RECORD

Longest line of fanfare trumpetersThe longest line of fanfare trumpeters consisted of 91 military trumpet-

ers and was achieved in an event organised by Victoria Business Improve-ment District, at The Guard’s Museum, in London, UK, on 22 May 2012.

NFF President, Aminu Maigari

England Coach, Roy Hodgson, is not worried about the

prospect of captain Ste-ven Gerrard retiring from international football af-ter next summer’s World Cup after the 33-year-old

Liverpool midfielder sug-gested the quadrennial competition would be his last.

But the coach is howev-er not giving up hope that Gerrard will carry on with England, along with other

long-standing members of the squad.

“It is easy for players to talk about retiring in a year’s time,” Hodgson said yesterday.

“I have fallen into that trap myself on several oc-

casions. When the time rolls around you realise you don’t actually want it.

“Let’s wait and see with Steven. I know he gives these interviews and peo-ple write these things but I just bat them off.

“The most important thing is for England to be at the World Cup. Then I am rather hoping Ger-rard, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard will still be available for the com-petition.”

Sport Extra

Gerrard ‘ll rescind retirement decision –Hodgson

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Printed simultaneously in Lagos, Abuja and Ondo State. ISSN 0794-232X.

Appraising the thrust of Nigeria’s monetary policyContinued from last Tuesday

The economy is not just about singling out consumer price inflation and or real consumer spending. It is more

broadly about inflation, of which consumer price movements is only a component, but also of real activity, of which consumer spending is only a component. To ensure that monetary policy actions are not doing more harm than good, discussions lead-ing up to interest rate decisions need to be broad enough to cover the linkages between broader measures of inflation, real activity, and the policy rate and other policy instru-ments. This would require each commu-niqué of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to speak to a series of measurable

slacks, gaps, imbalances or deviations from norms in real and nominal economic activi-ties, for example, nominal GDP shortfall, output gap, employment rate, unemploy-ment rate, manufacturing and industrial capacity utilization, savings ratios, and household and corporate debt ratios.

We need to hear more about what the MPC knows about nominal and real out-put developments, employment and unem-ployment developments, wages and profit developments, developments in aggregate demand and its key components, and what views the MPC hold about the outlook of these core measures of economic activ-ity in Nigeria. It is only then anyone can judge whether MPC actions make sense, or for that matter, whether the MPC’s oft expressed views about the inappropriate-ness of the fiscal stance make sense. Closing measurable gaps in overall real and nominal economic performance must define the com-mon grounds for fiscal and monetary policy. Changes in fiscal or monetary policy stance must be directed at clear measures of gaps in economic activity. But it is important that these considerations be evaluated at every meeting of the MPC and similar committees so that the appropriateness of their choice of policy stance is unambiguous.

Much of the progress in evolving better institutions for managing growth and sta-bility in the UK have been spearheaded by the parliament, which has provided new enabling legislations as rapidly as neces-sary on an ongoing basis over the past one and a half decades. Each of the MPC and the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) are

collectively directly accountable to the Treasury Committee for fulfilment of their mandates, just as the members of each of the two committees are individually di-rectly accountable to the committee as a way of preserving their independence. It remains to be seen how soon the Nigerian legislature can have such functionality in economic policy management.

While MPC and FPC have overlapping membership to ensure that both commit-tees are kept abreast of the insights from each other’s deliberations, members of the MPC and the FPC give evidence on a regu-lar basis before the Treasury Committee, and each of the MPC and the FPC in the UK includes a non-voting representative from the Treasury, who sits with the Committees at their meetings, discuss policy issues, but is not allowed to vote. The purpose is to en-sure that the MPC and FPC are fully briefed on fiscal policy developments and other

aspects of the government’s economic policies, and that the Treasury is kept fully informed about monetary policy and finan-cial policy. In Nigeria the Permanent Sec-retary of the Federal Ministry of Finance represents the ministry on the MPC as a voting member, though he/she has tended not to be an economist.

The current composition of the Nigerian MPC in which lawyers, accountants, and bankers account for as many as eight of the 12 members must partly account for the ten-dency to retreat from the more important but exacting task of linking policy discourse and action to aggregate, sectoral, and region-al economic growth, employment, house-hold and business spending. All the nine members of the UK MPC are economists with expertise in the fields of economics and monetary policy, while only about five of the 10-member UK FPC are economists (includ-ing the Governor and two Deputy Governors of the central bank, who also belong to the MPC), the others being lawyers, bankers, ac-countants or stockbrokers.

There is a need for Nigeria to create an FPC within the CBN and re-examine the modalities for appointing persons to the MPC to preserve its competence. The cur-rent composition of the Nigerian MPC in which economists are in the minority might be suitable for the FPC, that requires econo-mists, supervisors, and regulators to work together, but only economists should be called upon to set interest rate in the MPC. Economic literacy of individual MPC mem-bers, defined as demonstrable ability to read and write technical documents in macro-monetary economics, is needed to preserve the competence, integrity, and credibility of the committee. Track record of ability to publicly articulate views on practical mon-etary policy issues, especially in writing, is essential for individual MPC members.

Concluded

Dr. Teriba, ayo.teriba@econassociates.com, is CEO, Economic Associates, Lagos.

THERE IS A NEED FOR NIGERIA TO CREATE AN FPC WITHIN THE

CBN AND RE-EXAMINE THE MODALITIES FOR APPOINTING

PERSONS TO THE MPC TO PRESERVE ITS

COMPETENCE

Gerrard

Guest Columnist

AyoTeriba