dtn 17 3 15

Military: Yobe, Adamawa now free of terrorists

All the money in CBN can’t buy me – Falae

NIGERIA TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015 VOL. 1. NO.67 N150https://plus.google.com/+DailytimesNgr/postshttps://twitter.com/DailyTimesNGRwww.facebook.com/dailytimesngr dailytimesng

NSE GAINERS AND LOSERS AS AT 16th March 2015.EXCHANGE RATES

ABUJA LAGOSKANO P/HARCOURTENUGU MAIDUGURI Low 27°CHigh 43°C

Low 27°CHigh 36°C

Low 24°CHigh 42°C

Low 24°CHigh 33°C

Low 27°CHigh 36°C

Low 28°CHigh 44°C

GAINERS LOSERS Currency Buying(NGN) Central (NGN) Selling(NGN)US DOLLAR 196 196.5 197

POUNDS STERLING 289.982 290.7218 291.4615

EURO 207.3876 207.9167 208.4457

SWISS FRANC 194.5023 194.9985 195.4947

GLAXOSMITH 42 2.00 4.76% 7UP 155 1.00 0.65% MOBIL 151 0.80 0.53% VITAFOAM 3.7 0.06 1.62%

SEPLAT 408.5 -21.50 -5.26% NB 132.05 -6.95 -5.26% TOTAL 140 -4.50 -3.21% WAPCO 80.4 -4.15 -5.16%

Incite polls violence, go to jail

Clement Enajemo

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Life TIMES

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N Name: Carl LewisFull name: Frederick Carlton LewisNationality: AmericanBorn: July 1, 1961 (age 53)Place of birth: Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.Residence: Houston, Texas, U.S.Height: 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)Weight: 80 kg (180 lb; 13 st)Sport: AthleticsEvents: 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump,

4x100 m relayCollege team: Houston CougarsClub: Santa Monica Track ClubRetired: 1997

Medal recordOlympic GamesGold: 1984 Los Angeles 100 mGold: 1984 Los Angeles 200 mGold: 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m relayGold: 1984 Los Angeles Long jumpGold: 1988 Seoul 100 mGold: 1988 Seoul Long jumpGold: 1992 Barcelona 4×100 m relayGold: 1992 Barcelona Long jumpGold: 1996 Atlanta Long jumpSilver: 1988 Seoul 200 m

World ChampionshipsGold: 1983 Helsinki 100 mGold: 1983 Helsinki 4×100 m relayGold: 1983 Helsinki Long jumpGold: 1987 Rome 100 mGold: 1987 Rome 4×100 m relayGold: 1987 Rome Long jumpGold: 1991 Tokyo 100 mGold: 1991 Tokyo 4×100 m relaySilver: 1991 Tokyo Long jumpBronze: 1993 Stuttgart 200 m

Pan American GamesGold: 1987 Indianapolis Long jumpGold: 1987 Indianapolis 4×100 m relayBronze: 1979 San Juan Long jumpGoodwill GamesGold: 1986 Moscow 4×100 m relayGold: 1990 Seattle Long jumpGold: 1994 Saint Petersburg 4×100 m

relaySilver: 1990 Seattle 100 mBronze: 1986 Moscow 100 m

Olympic Boycott GamesBronze: 1980 Philadelphia Long jump

About Carl LewisFrederick Carlton “Carl” Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals, including nine gold, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired.Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the world rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981 to the early 1990s. He set world records in the 100 m, 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m relays, while his world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984. His 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport’s longest undefeated streaks. Over the course of his athletics career, Lewis broke ten seconds for the 100 metres 15 times and 20 seconds for the 200 metres 10 times.

His accomplishments have led to numerous accolades, including being voted “World Athlete of the Century” by the International Association of Athletics Federations and “Sportsman of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee., “Olympian of the Century” by Sports Illustrated and “Athlete of the Year” by Track & Field News in 1982, 1983, and 1984.After retiring from his athletics career, Lewis became an actor and has appeared in a number of films. In 2011 he attempted to run for a seat as a Democrat in the New Jersey Senate, but was removed from the ballot due to the state’s residency requirement. Lewis owns a marketing and branding company named C.L.E.G., which markets and brands products and services including his own.

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INSIDE

I am Ijaw, not Nigerian, says Dokubo-Asari

President Goodluck Jonathan dancing with Reggae musicians at a Showbiz Interactive session with him in Lagos... on Sunday

J6

Andrew OroluaAbuja

J9

–World Crimes court

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Lateef IbrahimAbuja

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

The Military on Mon-day announced the com-plete dislodging of Boko Haram terrorists from Yobe and Adamawa states,

The International Crimes Court (ICC) on Mon-day had a word of advice for those who might be encour-aging violence in Nigeria as the general elections draw

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 20152

3

PoliticsDaily Times Nigeria


Æ s

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Editorial

Yemi Ogunsola

Danger of Boko Haram-ISIS alliance

More info: www.dailytimes.com.ng

It would amount to play-

ing the ostrich if Nigerians

pretend that the recent alli-

ance between Boko Haram

and Islamic State of Iraq and

Syria (ISIS) poses no threat to the

country’s security. To all intents and

purpose, this alliance could be said

to be the biggest danger facing not

only Nigeria but also to the entire

West African sub region. Moreover,

no one would deny that the alli-

ance is a propaganda coup for Boko

Haram.

Definitely, something must be done

and urgently too to checkmate the

alliance. That is why we welcome

the reported heightened state of

alert at the country’s international

airports and land borders in order to

interdict and arrest the Boko Haram

members rumoured to have travelled

to Syria and Iraq for military train-

ing.

For long, Nigeria’s land, sea and

air borders have been a source of

concern due to their porosity and

even lack of effective patrols by bor-

der guards.

Geographically, Nigeria has very

long and fluid borders with some

West African states. That is why it

has been easy for Boko Haram to

recruit fighters from those countries

and even establish safe havens and

training camps on their soil. The en-

during longevity of Boko Haram in

the past five years owes its explana-

tion of this fact. So the potential of

future disruption to peace in Nigeria

in spite of recent military successes

against the jihadist group is still

there.

Reason is that Boko Haram is

known to have long-standing con-

nections to Al-Qaeda-aligned Al

Shabaab in Somalia and Al Qaeda in

the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Now

with ISIS carving out a large swathe

of territory in Iraq and Syria and its

military successes in spite of West-

ern air strikes has made it even more

appealing to disenchanted youths in

search of martyrdom. Such youths

can be found in the country’s North-

east where Boko Haram insurgency

has uprooted thousands of them.

Fighting on its last leg, Boko

Haram may believe that an alliance

would help them draw on the tech-

nical expertise of the ISIS network

in Libya, especially in the area of

bomb making and improvised explo-

sive devices (IEDs). They also see

such help as a way to weather the

pounding they are getting from the

regional military forces currently

operating against them.

All said, Boko Haram has poten-

tially widened its appeal with the

ISIS endorsement. Its videos are now

subtitled in French, a clear nod to

neigbouring francophone audience.

To show its endorsement, ISIS has

called on those willing to fight its

cause, but can’t get to the Levant

to join Boko Haram instead. Such

call is being heeded; especially with

the recent defection of the son of a

former chief justice who crossed to

Syria from Turkey.

That is why the country’s security

operatives must put in place all nec-

essary machinery to stop the infiltra-

tion of ISIS into Nigeria through its

local proxy, Boko Haram.

The opinions expressed in the articles published in this newspaper are solely those of the authors. Articles may be reproduced, provided that the original source is indicated.

SOME people conceive of Hell as some distant bar-becue industry where hu-man souls are roasted in an eternal fire — with the Devil as Chief Mai Suya and God as a possible share-holder.

Having shifted their focus to that distant place, these people fail to recognise the hells all around them.

Hell is ubiquitous. It ex-ists to varying degrees ev-erywhere human vices are given unrestrained expres-sion.

But the worst hells are created by powerful men

with twisted, crooked souls. And these human hells are found in every society. Wise societies take care to shield these twisted souls from power, or ensure that pow-erful men don’t get crooked.

But crooked men are in reality, moral weaklings; men lacking the strength to toe the path of integrity.

It’s easier to cheat a weak-er fellow than to be fair to him, and it’s easier to exe-cute a shoddy contract than to do a quality one…

Crooked men usually take the easier routes. That way, they give unrestrained expression to their vices which therefore continue to multiply.

Leave crooked men at the helm of affairs long enough and crookedness goes epi-

demic. It permeates every-where — families, offices, schools, churches, mosques, e.t.c.

As the Yoruba put it, Bile ba ngbe osika ti ko gbe olo-to, b’o b ape titi oore a ma a suni i se.

When the system keeps favouring the wicked at the expense of the upright, with time, the upright gets dispirited and joins the bandwagon.

That way, pervasive deca-dence sets in. And human vices reign supreme.

That is the stuff of which hells are made. Hells actu-ally burn with human vices.

Such a state of affairs never leads a nation to prog-ress. Never. Rather, it leads to the precipice of self-de-struction.

Hell burns with human vices…

Æ sPage Three

Group Managing DirectorNoel Anosike

Chief Commercial OfficerDoyin Awomosu

Group Managing EditorGabriella Osamor

EditorYinka Olujimi

Editor, Standard, Archives and Special projectsTunji Okegbola

Deputy EditorsYemi OgunsolaSam Nzeh

Bureau Chief, Northern OperationsCelestine Okafor

Group News EditorSegun Adio

Editorial Page EditorOkay Osuji

Sports EditorAndrew Ekejiuba

Head of OperationsInnocent Nwankwo

Online EditorAdetayo Adelaja

Business EditorEmmanuel Ogbonnaya

Head ICT (Shared Services)Banjo Ayorinde

Head GraphicsKing Ododoru

PublisherFidelis Anosike

Words On Marble : STATEMENTS BY THOSE WHO MATTER

Albert Einstein Maya AngelouMy mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Desmond Tutu

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 5 News

Don’t institute lying as state policy, APC tells Presidency

No restriction on sanitation day in Lagos - Court

Osinbajo can’t win S’West for APC - PDP leader

Court sacks Ibinabo-led Actors Guild exco

FCT minister advises Fulani herdsmen on polls

Augustine Aminu & Mathew Dadiya

The All Progressives Con-gress (APC) has, again, cau-tioned the Presidency against peddling lies as a state policy while it frowned at the prob-lems confronting Nigeria’s healthcare system under the Jonathan administration.

APC also called on President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to tender an un-reserved apology to Nigerians based on the false claim that Mr. President spoke to the Moroc-can King Mohammed VI, when no such telephone conversation took place.

Addressing journalists on

Peter Fowoyo

Justice James Tsoho of a Fed-eral High Court sitting in Lagos has sacked the Ibinabo Fiberisi-ma-led executive of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN).

The court, on Monday, declared the election that brought the sacked executive into office as null and void and of no effect and that the election was conducted against a clear order of court that parties should maintain status quo.

The Judge further ordered Ibinabo Fiberisima to, henceforth, stop parading herself as the AGN President, as well as other nation-al officers that emerged from the said election.

Besides, he ordered her and the national officers of her executive, to render full accounts of monies generated by the AGN under her, including details of income and expenditure, within 90 days of the date of delivery of the judgment.

The suit that brought about the judgment was filed by an actor, St. Maradona Mikevine, who was the National Treasurer in the election that produced another actor, Eme-ka Ike as AGN President. Mikev-ine, through his lawyer, Malcom Omirhobo, had contended that the election that brought her into of-fice was conducted in the face of a subsisting court order restraining the conduct of AGN election.

Peter Fowoyo

A Federal High Court sit-ting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has stopped the monthly environmental san-itation policy of the Lagos State Government.

Justice Mohammed Idris held that there was no law in force in Lagos State, by which any citi-zen could be kept indoors, com-pulsorily.

The court added that the Con-stitution of the Federal Repub-lic of Nigeria, grants freedom of movement to every citizen and such freedom cannot be tak-en away by executive proclama-tion, in the absence of any law to that effect."

It found that there was no regulation in force, presently, in Lagos State, which authorised the restriction of movement of citizens, on the last Saturday of the month, for the purpose of observing the environmental sanitation exercise.

The suit, filed by human rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adeg-boruwa, against the Inspector-General of Police and the Lagos State Government, challenged the restriction of human move-ment on the last Saturday of every month, for the purpose of observing the environmental sanitation exercise.

Wife of the President, Patience

Jonathan (middle), Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose

(2nd left); Wife of the Ekiti State

Governor, Mrs. Feyisetan Fayose

(left) and Minister of State, Works, Prince

Dayo Adeyeye (right) during PDP

Women Rally in support of the 2nd term of President

Goodluck Jonathan in Ado-Ekiti… on

Monday Photo: Ekiti

Government House

Monday, at the APC presiden-tial campaign head office, Dep-uty Director General, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora and Di-rector of Media, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Jonathan’s belated admission that he never spoke with the Moroccan King at any time didn’t go far enough add-ing that instead of apologising to Nigerians for the diplomatic embarrassment his adminis-tration had caused Nigeria, the Presidency was blaming ‘some fall guys at the Ministry of For-eign Affairs’.

They said “we, in the APC, are outraged and embarrassed beyond words, that the Jona-than government can elevate lying as a state policy. The false claim that President Jonathan

spoke with the Moroccan King Mohammed VI, when no such telephone conversation ever took place, has made Nigeria a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. It is yet another in the se-ries of lying by the Presidency”.

“By our tradition and cul-ture, lying is not encouraged, even among children. Why did President Jonathan have to wait until Morocco recalled its Am-bassador to Nigeria before he issued a clarification on the is-sue?” According to Mamora, as the President, the buck stops at his desk, and it was, therefore, inappropriate for the President to dismiss a serious diplomatic gaffe with levity and blame some poor, anonymous civil ser-vants for the row. He should just

own up, apologise and stop ly-ing, not only this, but, on sever-al others, of which the PDP and Jonathan are culpable. A word is enough for the wise”.

Meanwhile, the APC has frowned at the problems con-fronting Nigeria’s healthcare system under the Jonathan ad-ministration.

The APC observed that four years after, Nigeria’s health institutions, especially, at the tertiary level had witnessed a systemic decay with doctors and other health workers’ pro-longed labour disputesnever seen in history of Nigeria.

According to Mamora, sala-ries of most health workers at the federal level have not been paid till date.

Idu Jude Abuja

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, has advised leaders of the Fulani herdsmen, from the six area councils, to eschew violence during the forthcoming general election.

The Minister, who had a meet-ing with them on Monday in Abuja, pointed out that Fulani herdsmen were known for their peaceful co-existence with others and urged them to continue to toe

that line to ensure minimal fric-tion between them and the host communities before, during and after the forthcoming general election.

The Minister directed the area council chairmen to consider putting some Fulani chiefs on a monthly salary in order to give them a sense of belonging, while he used the occasion to set up a task force on crime and cattle rustling control to be chaired by the FCT Police Commissioner, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu.

Inalegwu advised the Fulani

herdsmen to be cautious in pro-viding abode for their kith and kin coming in from other parts of the country since “no one can be trusted” and gave the herds-men a telephone hotline to be called in case of distress.

Michael BamigbolaOsogbo

A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and for-mer Special Adviser to the Presi-dent on Social Development and Special Duties, Hon. Kunle Yusuf, has declared that the vice presi-dential candidate of the All Pro-gressives Congress (APC), Profes-sor Yemi Osinbajo, cannot win the South West for the APC.

Rather, Yusuf said the people would vote massively for Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan, consid-ering the development witnessed in the region since Jonathan as-sumed office as President.

Yusuf, in a chat with newsmen in Osogbo, Osun State on Mon-day berated the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, who, he said, did not have any synergy with the people of the South West.

According to him “Buhari, from all indications, has no synergy with the people of the South West geopolitical zone of the country, so also, is Osinbajo."

Mohammed

5 News

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015News 6

Kids hang on the boot of a dilapidated car on Kobape Road, Abeokuta Ogun State… on Monday PHOTO: BOLAJI OLASUNKANMI

Military flush terrorists out of Yobe, Adamawa

I can’t be bought to support GEJ– Falae

Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12

Continued from page 1

Continued on page 12


‘Fuel polls violence, go to jail’near: Don’t.

However, the main actors in the election have continued in their war of words, with the spokesper-sons of the ruling Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) and the oppo-sition All Progressives Congress (APC) issuing adversarial press statements against each other.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor At-tahiru Jega has declared that he has no plan to embark on a termi-nal leave which would mean that he would not supervise the elec-tions.

A statement by the Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, on

Monday warned of dire conse-quences for those who might be fu-elling violence before, during and after the elections.

Benouda declared that even if such persons escape Nigerian courts, they would be prosecuted at the ICC.

The statement, entitled: “I reit-erate my call to refrain from vio-lence,” read:

“Following my statement of the 2nd of February 2015, and my Of-fice’s subsequent visit to Nigeria from the 3rd to the 5th of February, I reiterate my previous message.

“At a time when abhorrent lev-els of violence already plague parts of the country, I recall that the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or the “Court’”) has juris-

diction over Rome Statute crimes committed on the territory of Nigeria. Any person who incites or engages in acts of violence in the context of the upcoming elec-tions or otherwise – including by ordering, inciting, encouraging or contributing to the commission of crimes that fall within ICC’s juris-diction – is liable to prosecution; either by Nigerian Courts or by the ICC.”

The prosecutor added: “No one should doubt my Office’s resolve to prosecute individuals respon-sible for the commission of ICC crimes, whenever necessary.

“Violence is not a solution. The conduct and outcome of elections in Nigeria, free from violence, will not only prevent further instabili-

ty in the country, but will also send a clear message that electoral com-petition does not have to result in violence and crimes that shock the conscience of humanity.”

The verbal war by the APC and the PDP continued on Monday.

At a press conference addressed in Abuja by its Deputy Direc-tor General of the APC, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, the APC berated the PDP-led Federal Gov-ernment over the continued fuel scarcity in some parts of the coun-try, as well as what he called the collapse of the country’s health sector. He also accused President Goodluck Jonathan of lying over the recent diplomatic row between Nigeria and Morocco.

He said: “Across the country, ex-cept Lagos and Abuja where fuel scarcity has eased off, due largely to the huge presence of the media and very active Civil Society, the situation in other parts of Nigeria has been that of pains, anguish and frustration.”

Mamora continued: “These are the issues in this campaign and they are the issues that affect our people. Rather than confronting these issues, the Jonathanians in their Buhariphobia continue to engage in campaign of calumny and hate propaganda against our presidential candidate and other leading lights in our party. The APC and its Presidential Candi-date, General Muhammadu Bu-hari are poised to tackle headlong these hydra headed socio-econom-ic problems and give Nigerians a new lease of life.”

On its part, the PDP accused the APC of engaging in dangerous

effectively bringing to an end the reign of terrorists in the two states.

Director of Defence Informa-tion (DDI) Major-Gen. Christo-pher Olukolade, stated this on his twitter handle.

He wrote: “We announce the reclaiming of Goniri today (Mon-day). That was the last strong-hold of terrorists in Yobe. Yobe is Free”.

In the same vein, after days of intense fighting, Nigerian troops also on Monday afternoon finally flushed out Boko Haram insur-gents from Bama in Borno State, Defence authorities said.

In a tweet, the Defence Head-

quarters wrote: “Nigerian troops have this afternoon (Monday) routed terrorists from Bama in Borno State. Mopping up opera-tion is ongoing”.

Bama, the second largest Local Government Area in Borno State, fell to Boko Haram insurgents on September 11, 2014.

The town was one of two most important towns held by Boko Haram insurgents for months.

The other, Gwoza, is now the only town under the control of the insurgents.

Nigerian troops had on Thurs-day successfully flushed the in-surgents from Adamawa State, making Yobe the second state to be rid of the terrorists.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army

Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah, on Monday, vowed that Nigerian Army will ‘never again’ be humiliated.

Minimah stated this in his re-mark at the opening ceremony of a three day COAS First quarter conference holding in Abuja to re-view Army operations, logistics, and general administration of troops as well as Nigerian Army preparations for upcoming 2015 general elections.

He said that the last three months particularly the past few weeks have been very eventful as the army rooted out the Boko Ha-ram insurgents from some local government areas in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. He however, said that the Nigerian Army was

yet to reach Damas.The COAS acknowledged the

pains of the public and their con-cerns and expressed the Nigerian Army’s profound appreciation to all who stood by her through thick and thin particularly in the last one year.

“Despite some of the reverses we suffered in the course of our operations, the good people of this country never wavered but consistently solidarised and iden-tified with us,” he said.

“They are understandably frus-trated when we failed to perform to expectation but are always quick to show their support and appreciation for our successes”.

“The challenge that we con-tinue to face has again brought

to fore the strength perseverance, long-suffering and resilience of the Nigerian nation and its peo-ple,” he added.

Minimah disclosed that new equipment, enhanced training and improved welfare services of personnel in the theatre of war, troop’s commitment, support of sister services, the Nigeria Police Force, security agencies and local vigilantes groups accounted for the recent successes.

He said the troops will continue to draw inspiration from Nigeri-ans in the fight against Boko Ha-ram insurgents and invite them to embrace “our battle cry of never again”.

Former Secretary to the Fed-eral Government (SGF) and leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Olu Falae, has ex-pressed surprise over statements credited to the All Progressives Party (APC) that his support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid was born out of fi-nancial inducement. He has also disowned a statement credited to him that he branded the All Pro-gressives Congress (APC) and its Presidential candidate Major General Muhammadu Buhari as enemies of Nigeria.

A self-acclaimed aide of Chief Falae, Remi Olayiwola, had while addressing journalists in Akure on Sunday claimed that the for-mer SGF described APC members as “beneficiaries of the corrupt system that do not want change in the status quo.”

In a swift reaction to the pur-ported statement, the spokesman of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had also on Sunday told the Daily Times that Falae’s position must have been induced by the Presi-dency.

Reacting to the report, Chief

disowns ‘aide’Lai Mohammed:

He has our respect


Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (middle) with his counterparts from Republic of Niger, Lt.-Gen. Garba Seyni (left) and Chadian, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Mahamat during a meeting on the ongoing war on terror in Abuja… on Monday Photo: John Baba

JDPC, Ohaneze host Anambra South candidates

Duke seeks loans for young entrepreneurs

Chika OkaforAbuja

The Minister of Youth De-velopment, Mr. Boni Haruna, has commended the Nigerian military for the recapture of Madagali and other towns in Adamawa State from the Boko Haram terrorists.

Haruna, through a press re-lease, said that with the recov-ery of the territories, residents would be able to return home

Idu JudeAbuja

The Minister of Culture and Tourism and the Supervis-ing Minister of Information, Chief Edem Duke , has appealed to the over 500,000 registered co-operative societies in Nigeria to give loans to young people for small and medium enterprises in order to check unemploy-ment.

He made the appeal when members of the National As-sociation of Cooperative Credit Unions of Nigeria paid him a courtesy visit recently in Abuja.

The visitors, while engaging the minister on issues to help young and enterprising Nigeri-ans to be self-employed, solicited

and pick up the pieces of their past lives.

He called on the displaced people to return to their former towns as he assured them of government's commitment to rebuilding and securing their communities.

Haruna also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for fulfilling his promise to Ni-gerians on the recapture of the towns before the rescheduled elections which would ensure

peaceful and transparent polls.He noted that the recapture

of Mildo, Sabon Gari, Gulba and Madagali, was a sign of the President's commitment to the protection of the country.

Haruna also called on the In-dependent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to begin preparations for actual voting in the areas as “the people have strong desire to perform their civic responsibility in their communities”.

The minister urged the people to vote for Jonathan on March 28, so that he would get another opportunity to fulfill his pledge to rebuild the recaptured towns.

As part of the six-week mili-tary counter-insurgency opera-tions by the Federal Govern-ment, the military recovered Bara, headquarters of Gulani Local Government Area of Yobe State and Gulag, the headquar-ters of Madagali Local Govern-ment Area of Adamawa State.

the CBN Intervention Fund was a brain child of Mr. President.

Speaking earlier, president of the association, Mr. Adebola Orolugbagbe, requested for the immediate access to the Fed-eral Government fund that was promised to young and intend-ing entrepreneurs.

Minister lauds Army over recaptured towns

El-Rufai wants Southern Kaduna killings probed

‘Oba of Benin indisposed’

his assistance, through coopera-tive societies, to access the Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria (CBN), N220 billion Micro, Small and Me-dium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMED), an initiative of (President Goodluck) Jonathan administration to strengthen young entrepreneurs through the cooperative societies.

While commending the ser-vices of cooperative societies to the nation, Duke said that the banks still provided alternative sources of finance for small and medium enterprises in alleviat-ing poverty and providing a for-midable platform for the growth of the economy.

The minister, however, as-sured the visitors that their plight would be addressed since

Sunday IsuwaAbuja

The All Progressives Con-gress (APC) governorship can-didate for Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has called for a thorough investigation into the frequent killings in Southern Kaduna.

El-Rufai, who was speaking to newsmen after his meeting with investigators from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said that there was the need for an independent inves-tigation into the killings, while calling for the prosecution of any person found culpable.

He further argued that in-stead of sincere condemnation and quest to contain the killings, those manipulating religion for political power were exploiting the situation.

"I have said it and will con-tinue to say it, loud and clear. I will not tell a lie because I want votes, but, the fact remains that I will never tolerate such killings as a governor. I cannot continue to see our citizens being slaugh-tered in their sleep.

"That is why I made my posi-tion clear last week. For over 4,000 people to be killed without a single arrest or prosecution, shows that there is insensitivity and negligence on many sides. It is the same thing happening in the Birnin-Gwari and Giwa ar-eas, where robberies and cattle-rustling continue to claim lives and property.

Titus AkhigbeBenin

The Benin Traditional Coun-cil has said that the Oba of Benin, Omo N'oba N'edo Uku Akpolokpo-lo Oba Erediauwa is "indisposed".

Secretary to the council, Mr. Frank Irabor, in a statement, said that in palace parlance, the prop-er information due the general public on the disposition of the Oba is, "the Leopard is ill in the Savannah bush".

"All public engagements, in-cluding courtesy visits, hearing of complaints from individuals, families and communities, and, in particular, complaints over in-heritance and land disputes, are, therefore, suspended until fur-ther notice.

"All palace chiefs and function-aries are to note that their routine traditional duties continue as usual".

Okey ChrisNnewi

As the 2015 general elec-tion gathers momentum, the Justice, Development and Peace Commission/ Voice to the People Project targeted at (JDPC/V2P), Nnewi Diocese and the Ohaneze Ndigbo, Anambra South Senato-rial Zone, have organised a polit-ical forum to enable candidates of the various political parties in the area to unveil their mani-festoes.

The event was held at the Anaedo Town Hall, on Monday, with prospective voters and del-egates from the towns, unions, interest groups, among other stakeholders, and four House of Representatives candidates, two State House of Assembly contes-tants, and one Senatorial candi-date present.

Speaking to newsmen after the event, Engr. Jimmy Asoegwu, Treasurer of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Anambra State chapter, ex-plained that the forum was an interactive session between the electorate and candidates.

On her part, the Programme Manager of JDPC, Nnewi Dio-cese, Ugochi Ehiahumike, while describing the event a success, disclosed that JDPC as part-nered Ohaneze on the project to make governance work for poor people.

Duke

“I see Nigeria as an illegitimate state, because states are built by the will of the people. People decide to build a state; it is not imposed. Nigeria was imposed on us by the British.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9


Æ s8

Politics

In this interview with MATHEW DADIYA and UCHE OBI, former president

of Ijaw Youth Council and found-er, Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Abubachree Dokubo Asari, renews calls for the renegotiation of the Nigerian polity. Not one to pull punches, he expresses strong views about the Boko Haram, the distri-bution of the country’s oil wealth, as well as President Goodluck Jonathan and his main challenger in the coming general election, Ma-jor General Muhammadu Buhari. Excerpts:

You are different things to

different people. Even your

surname is a ground for de-

bate. Are you Asari-Dokubo

or Dokubo-Asari…and, for the

records, could you give a brief

background of yourself?

My names are Alhaji Mujahid Abubachree Dokubo-Asari, not Asari-Dokubo. I was born on June 1, 1964, to Hon Justice Melford Goodhead and Mrs Okukuba Do-kubo Goodhead. She was a school teacher. I attended Baptist Prima-ry School, King Amachree Prima-ry School and Township School. I also attended St Scholastica High School, Bekana; Baptist Science School, and then proceeded to the University of Calabar in 1985 to read Law. I left the university in 1988 without a degree, and went to Rivers State University of Science and Technology to continue my Law programme. I again left. Af-ter that, I have gone through a lot of certifications in different fields of studies. I have certificates in Peace and Conflict Resolution, in Small Arms Deployment, Quranic Recitation from several countries, among many others.

You own a number of

schools, including a university

outside Nigeria. Why did you

decide to establish your busi-

nesses overseas?

I am a businessman. I run a chain of schools - The King Ama-chree Royal Academy that has a group of schools in Cotonou, Be-nin Republic. I started my busi-ness here but the government of Nigerian, under former President Umaru Yar’Adua, closed down

Dokubo-Asari

We need to renegotiate Nigeria – Dokubo-Asari

my businesses, arrested all the expatriates who were working for me – about eight of them. When they could not find anything in-criminating, they deported them. They came in combined forces - Customs, Immigration, Army, Air force, Navy and the Police. My property, worth more than $1 million, were seized in 2008, and have not been returned to me up till today. So, I decided to relocate my businesses to the Republic of Benin. My schools are doing well. They are among the best schools. We came tops in many competitions. Recently, we de-feated the British International School, which is one of the most expensive schools in this part of the world, at the finals. More than 50 percent of the students in that school are on my scholarships.

Are they all from Nigeria?

No. They are from different countries. We have Congolese,

Kenyans, Guineans, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin Republic and Sen-egal, among others.

You made a statement ear-

lier that your property, worth

over $1 million, was seized by

the Yar’Adua government.

Have you made any formal re-

quest to President Goodluck

Jonathan to reclaim them?

Yes, I have made requests and every attempt to President Goodluck Jonathan to retrieve my property, but he keeps telling me…“You know, ehm, if I do am now, them go say because you be my brother na him make me give you the things or I pay you the money.” (If I do it now, they will say it is because you are my broth-er, and that that’s why I returned the property or give you monetary compensation).

Even the guns I returned to Obasanjo, they’ve not finished paying me for them. When I made peace with Obasanjo before he cunningly arrested me, I returned 3200-plus rifles. They were to pay N150,000 for each rifle. Each Gen-eral Purpose Machine Gun, N1.2 million, and each rocket launcher N1.2 million.

In total, how much are you

being owed?

The government owed me more than N1 billion at that time. Now, in the black market, one AK47 rifle costs N400,000. So, if you put the cost together, na big money bi dat (it’s a big sum).

Do you still have hope that

the Federal Government will

pay you this money?

One day, maybe I would be paid. But what we are trying to say, my brother, is that Goodluck Jona-than has displeased us to please them. But, even at that, they are not happy. So, the whole thing is that people say a lot of things, and we laugh. Why should Dangote make so much money in Nigeria and Dokubo-Asari does not have the right to make it? Why should Femi Otedola make so much money? Wale Tinubu makes so

Politics Editor: Akinjide Akintola

“I’ve gone through treasonable trials. If a man takes a gun and says if Goodluck wins he is going to make trouble, what do you expect us to do, fold our arms? No! When Shagari won election,

did we make trouble? When Obasanjo won election, did we make trouble? When Yar’Adua won election, did we make trouble? In my lifetime, these are the people that I’ve seen that won

elections, so when Goodluck wins again and they come to make trouble, we would crush them.”

Yar’Adua Jonathan

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

‘I’m an Ijaw man, not a Nigerian’

Dokubo-Asari

much money. Why should Mike Adenuga make so much money and Dokubo-Asari cannot? If Dokubo-Asari makes money, it’s a problem. Why?

As a freedom fighter, having

passed through many chal-

lenges, do you hold any grudge

against the Federal Govern-

ment?

I see Nigeria as an illegitimate state, because states are built by the will of the people. People de-cide to build a state; it is not im-posed. Nigeria was imposed on us by the British and if the British have left, we should be free to go our separate ways. Anybody who wants to hold on to the oppressive tactics used by the Caucasian as-sembly in Brussels and the Berlin Conference, where they sat on the table and used pencils and rulers to apportion territories to them-selves, in disregard for the ter-ritories’ cultures and traditions, as well as religious beliefs of the people, as presently constituted, is a fraud. Anybody who believes in justice will do everything pos-sible to make sure that Nigeria is dismantled, and that is where I stand.

But as a citizen of the country,

don’t you have a hope that things

will change for the better?

I have not accepted being a citi-zen. This Nigeria was imposed on me and that is what I have said.

Why did you say that?

Because the British came here and imposed Nigeria. I am an Ijaw man…at no time have I accepted that I am a Nigerian. There is nowhere that I sat down with anybody and agreed that I am a Nigerian. People should be free to accept who they want to become. Somebody said there is indepen-dence in Nigeria, what sort of independence? Independence to continue to perpetuate the colo-nial legacies of the British? No! The only first genuine attempt at discussing Nigeria is under Presi-dent Jonathan, when a conference

of the people was called, but even that was not far-reaching enough. But it is a good beginning. The people must sit down to decide where they want to be, who they want to be, and nobody has the right to force that on them. That would be slavery.

From your background, it

shows that you were actually

brought up from a Christian

family. You attended Christian

schools. How did you get con-

verted to Islam?

I found Islam appealing to me, and Islam is agreeable to my na-ture. I studied all religions and found out that of all the religions in the world, it is only Islam that flows with my nature, and I ac-cepted it. Since my 27 years of being a Muslim, I have found a spiritual satisfaction and succour as a Muslim.

What were the challenges

you experienced at your initial

stage of conversion?

Initially I had a lot of challeng-es. I was closer to my grand mom, and she did not believe in Nige-ria. She did not like the North. The first thing she said to me was “Even you! You have gone to join them?” Of all her grandchildren, including her direct children, I was the closest to her. She died at the age of 94. She was the bridge between the old and the new. I met my grandma having slaves, but my father and I liberated those slaves. She believed that Nigeria was a negation of what she made because she was born in 1900, and died in 1994. Her grandfather was the last sovereign king of Kala-bari, King Abbe Princewill Ama-chree IV. My friends also laughed at me when I became a Muslim, but I am a strong-willed person. A lot of people know that when I have taken a decision, there is hardly anything that can make me turn back.

I have made so many donations to people who call themselves Muslims, especially to those ‘bar-barians’ who came from Funtaja-lo, thinking everybody is on their

level. But I’ve put them in their right perspective from the begin-ning. First, they are not Muslims; they used Islam to perpetrate evil. Somebody talked about Shekau. What is the difference between Shekau and Uthman Dan Fodio? They’ve committed the same genocide, destroyed the same communities and killed people be-cause of their distorted interpre-tation of Islam. So, anybody who celebrates Uthman Dan Fodio should also celebrate Shekau, be-cause he is a worthy successor of Uthman Dan Fodio. It is the same ideology they professed. Dan Fo-dio said the Islam of the Hausa rulers, of the people of the Zakki of Gobiri, the ruler of Kano, the Islam of the people of Zazzau and Katsina were not good enough.

That his own Islam was the best, and he started killing people, im-posing his children, relations and his fellow Gambaris as rulers in all these places. And today, con-sciously, the Hausa people have accepted slavery, they have totally surrendered themselves spiritu-ally and everything to the superi-ority of the Gambaris and expect everyone to follow suit.

So, these are the challenges when you point out to them that look, we read the Quran and the Hadith like you, and we don’t know the Islam you are talking about. This Islam you are talk-ing about is not the Islam that the Prophet of Allah (sallallahu alay-hi wa sallam) brought.

So, which people practise the

real Islam?

9 PoliticsDaily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015

The people that follow the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), those are the people who practise the real Islam. The Islam of these people is an Islam of domination and oppression. Like the way the Dutch in South Africa did when they introduced Apartheid (supe-riority of races) and tried to use the Bible to justify it, or what the Israelis are doing…using the Old Testament for the oppression of Palestinians.

Do your family members

practise Islam?

Yes, my children practise Islam and some members of my family also accepted Islam. Today, there is absolute harmony in my fam-ily, whether you are a Christian or Muslim. We love and care for ourselves and we live together. There is this relationship that is absent in the fake Islam practised by Gambaris. If you go to Yoruba-land you will find that everybody lives in harmony. The Quran clearly states that there is no com-pulsion in religion; the Quran goes on to say ‘Lakum dinukum wa-liya dini’. Meaning: For you it’s your religion, for me, it’s my religion…! It says ‘falsehood and truth are much open; you have the right to choose. Allah gives man the freewill to choose what he wants.

How would you assess Presi-

dent Jonathan’s leadership

style in the past six years?

President Jonathan has not been in power for the past six years. This is the falsehood they are spreading. It’s been five years. He came to power in March 2010. It was at that time that the doc-trine of necessity came to being. At this critical time, some of us are very angry with the way Goodluck Jonathan is going with what is happening in this coun-try. If I am the president, if you want war, I will give you war. The northerners in the North are sab-otaging the war against insurgen-

Politics 10 Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015

‘I have been bombed yet I am still alive’


Dokubo-Asari

“The peace we are enjoying in the Niger Delta has nothing to do with the Amnesty. It is because Goodluck Jonathan is the President.”


cy in the country, leading to the death of soldiers from other parts of the country. They are abandon-ing their posts, leaving weapons for the insurgents to take. Some-body will fly a plane and he will come back without carrying out orders; he will say that he found the insurgents praying, so he couldn’t drop a bomb. You can’t drop a bomb for people who have killed your comrades? We’ve read all these stories. People are being court-martialled. The old forms of conspiracies are being played. If he (Jonathan) is not somebody who can hold himself, by now Ni-geria would have been totally de-stroyed.

Would you say it’s the best

way to go?

If Nigeria is surviving, people should be grateful to Goodluck Jonathan because the temptation would be too much for you to re-strain yourself when somebody tells you: ‘stupid, clueless, thief, we are going to go to the streets; we are going to form parallel govern-ment’. There is no political pris-oner; there is no body arrested. El-Rufai that was making noise under Goodluck’s government, ran away when Yar’Adua became president, even Ribadu ran away. Yar’Adua didn’t do anything, he was a sleeping President and they called him ‘Go Slow’. There was nothing happening under his regime. Again, was Obasanjo talking during Yar’Adua’s gov-ernment? No! Were things better under Yar’Adua? No! What value did Yar’Adua’s government add, other than bribing the Niger Del-ta militants?

Did you call it a bribe?

Yes, it was a bribe! He bribed the Niger Delta militants so that the oil could flow. That was the only achievement of President Yar’Adua.

So, how would you assess

the Amnesty programme insti-

tuted by the Yar’Adua govern-

ment?

I have nothing against the Am-nesty programme other than that it’s a bribe. I have nothing against the management of the Amnesty programme; people are being trained. But why should you criminalise people? Why would a Gambari Yar’Adua see me an Ijaw man on the street and say, ‘oh I know that you are a criminal; I want to give you a pardon’. Why?

Did Yar’adua said that to

you, one-on-one?

No, but that is what it means. When you give somebody a par-don; pardon for what? Or you see an Urhobo man then you say, ‘ah Urhobo man, Onome, you are a criminal. I want to give you a par-don; I will pay you N65,000….”

But it was seen as the only

way out of the situation at that

very point in time?

The only way to bribe people…how many people would you bribe? Hahahah….

So what would you have sug-

gested?

There are fundamental issues demanded by the people of the Niger Delta and the issues are germane. You can’t sweep them under the carpet. Look, the peace we are enjoying in the Niger Delta has nothing to do with the Am-nesty. It is because Goodluck Jon-athan is the President. Whenever you want to do something, they would say: ‘Is it you that wants to spoil your brothers’ government’?

Does it mean that there is

the likelihood of experiencing

militancy in the Niger Delta

again?

After 2019, if things do not change, even the 2019 people are already tired.

What are the kinds of

change you are expecting?

We want the people to have their rights to decide whether they want to be Nigerians or not.

It’s not about resources con-

trol again?

My dear brother, you’ve never heard me talk about resource control, so don’t tell me about what others talked about. The oil belongs to our people, so it’s not about control. We agitate for resource takeover. And resource takeover means we must have the sovereign authority to do that. You have never heard me talk about resource control anywhere. Look at my previous interviews, there is nowhere I talked about resource control; I have never talked about that. The resource is ours and we will take it, whether anybody likes it or not.

A group of ex-militants led

by Young Piero and Peters Asu-

luwa, under the aegis of Niger

Delta Coalition for Change,

has said that the region would

not be thrown into violence if

President Jonathan loses the

March 28 election, contrary to

an earlier threat by some other

ex-militants. Do you share in

this zeal?

Talking is cheap my brother.Do you subscribe to their

peace call?

No, no, no! Talk is cheap. Let them come. If they dare the peo-ple, they will be buried by the people. Do you know them? What are their names and where do they come from? They just came from the blues. They were paid by Tinubu and co. to issue that state-ment. Khaki get size. Goodluck will win. When he wins and they come to make trouble, we will crush them.

Why are you so confident

that Goodluck is going to win?

He will win, but I won’t tell you my strategies. He will win. They said we couldn’t crush Boko Ha-ram in three weeks. We’ve started crushing the Boko Haram. People volunteer to go and fight and they are making sacrifice. Who are the people you think are fighting Boko Haram? You think it’s the Gambari? No! They are people of different ethnic nationalities like the Tiv, Igbo, Jukun, Ijaw, Urhobo, among other good people. We’ve proven to them that they are defeatable; that they are not as strong as they think they are. And if they attempt, we would crush them.

Don’t you think you are

making comments that the

government may describe as

treasonable?

I’ve gone through treasonable trials. If a man takes a gun and says if Goodluck wins he is going to make trouble, what do you ex-pect us to do, fold our arms? No! When Shagari won election, did we make trouble? When Obasanjo won election, did we make trou-ble? When Yar’Adua won elec-tion, did we make trouble? In my lifetime, these are the people that I’ve seen that won elections, so when Goodluck wins again and they come to make trouble, we would crush them.

Let’s go back to your state,

Rivers. What can you say

about election there?

I don’t know what is going on in my state. We made statements that if you stoned or attacked Goodluck, we would retaliate. We’ve been saying it. If others don’t do it, we would do it.

What about the coming gov-

ernorship election there?

We will not vote for traitors. Anybody who is in APC is a trai-tor. We won’t vote for them.

Why did you say that?

We’ve fought for our freedom over the years. King Jaja of Op-obo, King Okia Koko of Nembe, Nana of Itsekiri, Isaac Adaka Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa and all of us who have fought for our freedom. Anybody who wants to take us back to the time when we believed that the Gambari was second to God, that person is a traitor. He would be defeated.

What exactly do you think is

the problem with the politics

of Rivers State?

There is no problem. Rivers peo-ple said there is a traitor who was never voted for, who was made a governor by the seven Gambaris in the Supreme Court. He is act-ing the script of his masters, who put him there. After March 28, he will run to them.

But Gov Rotimi Amaechi

says he is fighting a just cause

for the sake of the state over

the Suku oil wells that were

ceded to Bayelsa State?

I am from Suku. I am not only a Suku man; I am one of the lead-ers of Suku. Suku oil wells did not start now; it started under the administration of his godfather, Peter Odili. When it started and they were doing this case, what was he? He was the Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly. What was the role of the Rivers State government then? It is an inter-state’s case. We are trying to resolve it, not to play politics. Before this time, did he ever visit Suku before? He has never visited Suku. He is fighting for himself, it’s not about taking our resources to go and give Gambari people.

Now you’ve told us much

about your person - a school

proprietor, businessman, free-

dom fighter and so on. How

would you like to be addressed?

Address me by my names, Alh Mujahid Abubachree Dokubo-Asari, I am the Edi Abali of the Kalabari Kingdom. That is an institution I inherited from my forebears. Before I conclude, I would like to say that I am not just supporting Goodluck Jona-than because of what he has done. First and foremost, because he is of my kind; he is an Ijaw man, no apology about that. But I want to move further to say that he has outperformed all past leaders put together from 1956 to date. Tafawa Balawa to Umar Musa Yar’Adua. In one sweep, Goodluck Jonathan established 14 universities. That had never happened. Today agri-

11 PoliticsCONTINUED FROM PAGE 10


Jonathan

‘Our constitution supports injustice’

culture is being revived. We did Operation Feed the Nation, Back to School Agriculture, all sorts of things…and they all failed.

Today the railways that was abandoned after the colonial masters left is back and working, with better and more comfort-able trains. I have travelled all round Africa, with the exception of South Africa, our railways in Nigeria today is the best in Af-rica. Good couches with air con-ditioners, clean restaurants, good toilets, and then you pay peanuts. I’ve never seen it before.

Have you boarded the train

yourself?

Yes I did, in Lagos, from Main-land to Ebute Meta to Ibadan. Why did Buhari not do it when he was Head of State? He was a Head of State for more than one year. You don’t need five hundred years to make impact; you can make an impact in one day. What impact did Buhari make? He was busy flogging people, frog-jump-ing people; he was busy searching for people he would send to pris-on. He was a maximum dictator. People tell us that Buhari is going to take care of security. A man who could not secure himself, how can he secure other people? Three middlemen officers walked into Commander-in-Chief’s office and arrested him, took him away and put him in prison. That was the end of his government. They were Dasuki, Abdul Mumuni and Col. Umar. They were the people who went and grabbed him. They said he fought Maitatsine and I laughed. People with cutlasses, bows and arrows with charms were the people he fought, and these Boko Haram are using rock-et launchers, guns and armoured personel carriers, AK 47s. If that man comes in, in five minutes they (Boko Haram) would just shoot him and the man would just die in Aso Rock. Even the sound of the guns would kill him.

You said Goodluck Jonathan

has performed. Would you say

he has performed to the expecta-

tions of the Niger Deltans in ac-

cordance with their agitations?

Excuse me, Goodluck Jonathan is not the president of the Niger Delta. He is not ruling with a con-stitution written by Niger Delta people. As long as this constitu-tion subsists, it would be difficult even for God to come and rule here and do justice. This constitu-tion is injustice. Except the 1999 Constitution is put aside and a people’s constitution, which guar-antees the rights of every people to the total ownership of their resources to internal sovereignty of the people, their rights to guar-antee and all the basic rights that are supposed to be present in a federal republic comes into place. Goodluck Jonthan cannot be a magician. He cannot do magic. Goodluck Jonathan has tried within his limitations, because a

situation where the FAAC people sit down and share the money; the constitution has laid down how they are going to share the money. For us, what we are going to do, dey for our belle, wen the time reach, we go do am. (Our plan is a closely guarded secret. When the time is ripe, it will be carried out.)

What is it that you are going

to do?

I say e de for our belle, when a woman is pregnant, no bi nine months after she go deliver? (I told you, it is top secret. When a woman gets pregnant, will she not deliver after nine months?)

So what do you think is

wrong?

What is wrong is that many times our people chicken out. We are not ready to chicken out Our own is eyeball-to-eyeball. If you slap us, we slap you. So, they are now seeing a new crop of people they did not bargain for. But the people who will come after Doku-bo-Asari would be worse.

But it seems you actually

chickened out when Yar’Adua

attacked you?

How did I chicken out? First of all, you do business in a favour-able environment. Business is not

emotional, and it is not sentimen-tal. You do business in a friendly, and not hostile environment. For instance AGIP, is there oil in Italy? But they are here in Nigeria doing oil business because the environ-ment is conducive for them. I am operating a bi-lingual school and I think a French environment is good for a bilingual school. For me as an individual, I believe that it is very important for Nigeri-ans, if they want their country to survive they should tell Buhari to drop his presidential ambition and return Goodluck Jonathan for second term. Mr. Integrity did an interview here (room 803 in Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja) and said it was in London, and people are not talking about it. Obasanjo is saying that Goodluck said he would not contest, but Mr. Integrity came before all of us on TV and said he would not contest again. Today, he is contesting and his supporters, Obasanjo and oth-ers, are keeping quiet because Goodluck is a good man. Na Tiger them de look for, no bi am? (It’s a tiger they want, right?) There is a lamb, and they are looking for a tiger. One day I might decide to come out for the Presidency, since

“Today the railways that was abandoned after the colonial masters left is back and working, with better and more comfortable trains. I have travelled all round Africa, with the exception of South Africa, our railways in Nigeria today is the best in Africa.”

una no want lamb, Tiger de come (since you don’t want a lamb, a Ti-ger is on the way).

Our people were saying Good-luck Jonathan was a vice presi-dent, let us give his government a chance to succeed and that was really what happened. It was di-vine that Goodluck Jonathan be-came a president. If at that time we antagonized Yar’Adua’s govt, fighting this and that and did not accept what they prized for the Amnesty, God too would not have compensated our people with the Presidency. I believe in God; I believe that it is only what God gives me that I must accept. That I am alive today is God. I have been bombed, fired at, locked in an underground cell, maltreated and yet I am alive. It is the will of God. I went to eight different pris-ons; they could not convict me. I have suffered several arrests from Babangida to Yar’adua’s govern-ments. Goodluck’s administra-tion is the only government that has not arrested me. I thank God that I am alive today.

Some time ago you were

reportedly arrested in Benin

Republic, what exactly hap-

pened?

I was arrested. It’s the same people here. They sent the same wrong information to govern-ment of Benin Republic that I was the leader of Boko Haram. I was arrested. They went to my schools, terrorized my children; broke into my houses, but they did not find anything incrimi-nating against me. They then re-leased me and apologized.

The All Progressives Con-gress (APC), gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State,

Mr. Akinwumi Ambode has said the Federal Government is owing the State N51billion used on the construction of Federal roads in Lagos State.

Ambode, who is vying for the number one position in Lagos State in the forthcoming elections disclosed this during an interac-tive section in Lagos.

He said the huge amount being owed will not deter the state gov-ernment from continuing devel-oping Lagos State. His words: “All the roads that Lagos State govern-ment has done, federal govern-ment is still owing us N51billion. We would have used that money to do other things for Lagosians. But we will not relent, wherever there are bad roads we will continue to do them because it is Lagosians that are plying such roads”.

He however promised to con-solidate on the development be-ing experienced in Lagos State if elected governor in the April 11, 2015 governorship election. “The past governors have laid an irre-versible foundation in the state. Everything has been done grace-fully to prepare Lagos for the next level on which l have conscripted myself with other APC members to take Lagos to that next level. Lagos is for all of us, we must join hands together to make it work better. When Lagos is safer, then we can begin to talk about the 21 century economy.”

Ambode promised Project 202057 which he said will complement the efforts of all local governments in the state noting that the project is to give governance back to local government, “so that our inner roads in the state are activated. With Project 202057, a minimum of 20 roads by each local govern-ment must be done with 20 street lights; when we do that for every year in the 57 local governments, we would have done 1140 roads in the local governments. When we are able to accomplish that for four years, we would have done almost 5,000 roads.

“I intend to light up the whole of Lagos. If we are able to light up Lagos, that means it is safer for us to walk around, the night economy will be activated. We will deploy more efforts to the se-curity, make Lagos comfortable for everyone.”

FG owes Lagos N51billion on roads – Ambode

Ambode

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015News 12

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega (left); Director of Voters Registry, Mr Emmanuel Akem while speaking during a Town Hall Meeting in Abuja… on Monday

I support Jonathan on principle – Falae

Military: No more terrorists in Yobe, Adamawa




‘Fuel polls violence, go to jail’

mind game, using wild allegations, in a bid to cause panic, balkanize the nation and pave the way for a reign of anarchy in the country.

The PDP advised APC leaders that rather than plunge the nation into chaos in the pursuit of their selfish interests, they should be humble enough to face reality, ac-knowledge their electoral inferior-ity to the PDP and surrender to the will of the people.

The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh made the accusation in a statement in Abu-ja.

Metuh pointed that the APC, now confronted with the reality of failure in the 2015 general elec-tions, has intensified its frenzied deployment of false alarms aimed at throwing the polity into chaos and wreck the electoral process.

He stated: “For the APC, it has become a matter of if we can’t have it, then let’s destroy it.

“In the last couple of weeks, this opposition party and its lead-ers have engaged in dishing out dangerous false alarms in a bid to discredit the electoral process, heighten tension, create fear in the minds of the people and push the polity to the brinks.

“For instance, how else would one explain the false alarm by the leader of the opposition, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Thursday, March 12, 2015 alleging that there were plots to assassinate him, a phan-tom claim which was followed on Sunday, March 15 by the APC in a statement that there were plans to kill their Presidential flagbearer, General Muhammadu Buhari.

“Also, on the same March 15, the APC, in a yet another statement, falsely claimed that the Federal Government paid N9 billion to eth-nic militias to foment trouble, be-fore, during and after the general elections. “This was immediately followed by a release on Monday, March 16, in which the opposition, in their unrelenting effort to fur-ther discredit the process, alleged that the Federal Government has hired an Israeli expert, Gyora

Berger to sabotage card readers on election day.

“In the same vein, on March 4, 2015, the APC released a false alarm claiming that there were plots by the Federal Government to frame its leaders and sensitive INEC officials and manipulate the electoral process. This is in addition to another statement on March 9 in which it alleged of plots to harass its financiers and cripple its operations ahead of elections.

“We are aware that the APC has lined up many of such false allega-tions and nuisance alarms, which would be methodologically re-leased to the public to swell the ten-sion as the elections draw nearer.

“APC’s history of lies has be-come legendary. Nigerians may recall that this party in their pen-chant for deceit had in June 2014 alleged that a plane carrying Kano state Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to attend a rally in Ekiti to sup-port Governor Kayode Fayemi’s re-election bid was denied land-ing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of Press Affairs, Baba Dantiye to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano and had no plans to travel to Ekiti State.

Meanwhile, Jega declared that there was no iota of truth in the report that he was being forced to proceed on a terminal leave. He similarly dismissed insinuations that he was under pressure to re-sign from office before the general elections.

The INEC Chairman spoke at a Town Hall meeting in Abuja organised by Reinvent Media in conjunction Ford Foundation and Kukah Centre.

He maintained that the card reader remains the best option for the forthcoming general elections in the country, stressing that no cloned card reader would be used.

He also stated that the use of military personnel in elections is defined in the constitution where they are expected to maintain law and order.

Jega pointed out that he was not losing focus in ensuring that his job is done.

Earlier, in his welcome remark, the Chief of Plans and Policy, Army Headquarters, Major Gen-eral Ugo Buzugbe, had disclosed that the decisions reached at 2014 COAS Annual Conference in Uyo has in recent week turned the tide of operation in the North East in favour of the Nigeria state.

In a related development, Ni-geria, Chad and Nigeria have established a military Joint Op-erations Headquarters (JOH) for effective co-ordination and liai-son of the activities in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists.

A statement issued by Direc-tor of Defence Information (DDI), Magor-Gen. Chris Olukolade,

stated that “JOH will be activated immediately, pending any other structure being put in place at regional and international organ-isations’ level with regards to the counter terrorism efforts.

The arrangement is to enhance operational and tactical coordi-nation as well as the synchroni-zation of command, control and communication in the field and the higher headquarters.

“The three countries actively involved in the ongoing opera-tion namely, Nigeria, Chad and Niger are expected to utilize the structure to beef up their Liaison Teams already operating in the mission area.

The decision was taken on Monday at a meeting between the

Chiefs of Defence Staff of Nige-ria, Chad and Niger. The delega-tion led by the Chiefs of Defence staff of the three countries par-ticipating in the ongoing coun-ter terrorism campaign also re-viewed the progress so far made in the operations conducted by the countries.

Coordinated by Nigeria’s Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, who set the meeting in motion de-claring that the essence was to fine tune the coordination of the activities of the collaborative ef-forts of the operations, the meet-ing eventually resolved to estab-lish a structure for joint planning to enhance the operations and consolidate on the successes so far achieved.

Falae who disowned the aide, de-clared that the claim that he was financially induced was absolutely false.

He told the Daily Times: “First, the statement attributed to me in the newspaper did not come from me. The man who spoke with jour-nalists is not my personal aide. He is an official of my party in Ondo State and could not have spoken on my behalf.

“Also, I will be surprised if Lai Mohammed, who knows me very well, can say that I must have been induced by President Goodluck Jonathan or anybody for any posi-tion that I hold.

“The Nigerian public knows

that my career is without blemish and that I have spent many years in public offices without spending public funds. I was federal Perma-nent Secretary in the Cabinet Of-fice (now Presidency); I was Man-aging Director of the Nigerian Merchant Bank for five years; I was Secretary to the Federal Gov-ernment for four years; I was also federal Minister of Finance and Economic Development for one year. If money was no attraction to me in all those years, how can it be now?”

Restating his decision to sup-port the re-election of President Jonathan, Falae said: “Gen. Bu-hari I am sure will confirm that when my party, the Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) endorsed

him (Buhari) in 2007, we did so be-cause he promised to restructure the country and not for any finan-cial consideration. It is the same reason for which my new party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has now endorsed President Jonathan. So, it should be clear that we act on principles and we are consis-tent. I raised money to campaign for Buhari in 2007. All the money in Central Bank of Nigeria cannot buy me.”

Reacting to the clarification from Chief Falae, Alhaji Lai Mo-hammed, told the Daily Times that the withdrawal of support for Gen. Buhari by the former SGF was in-defensible.

Mohammed said that it was wrong to conclude that Buhari

would not agree to the restructur-ing of Nigeria since the Army General has not had an opportu-nity to govern the country.

His words: “Did Buhari become President in 2007? Nigerians will find it difficult to believe that Chief Falae is not one of those in-duced because everywhere Jona-

than goes now he spends money.“Personally, I have a lot of re-

spect for Chief Falae. He is one of the elders in Yorubaland. We used to be in the same party before but now we do not share the same po-litical ideology, but it is no longer a secret that the President shares money everywhere he goes now.”

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 13

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015International 14

Wife of Burundian politician shot

Somali forces capture four suspected militantsProtests

rock Brazil, president asked to quit

DR Congo detains US diplomat

The wife of prominent Bu-rundian opposition politician, Agathon Rwasa has been shot and wounded at a hair salon in the capital, Bujumbura.

The gunman fled after opening fire on Annonciate Haberisoni as she was waiting for her hair to be done, witnesses said.

Rwasa accused the govern-ment of attempting to assas-sinate his wife. It has not com-mented on the allegation.

Tensions have been rising in Burundi ahead of elections in May and June. Mr Rwasa said at a press conference that his wife was being treated for head inju-ries at a local hospital, and her condition was not critical. He would not be intimidated by Sun-day's shooting, he added.

Mr Rwasa accused the govern-ment of compiling a hit list of people to be targeted in the run-up to parliamentary elections in May and presidential elections in June.Police said they were in-vestigating the attack.

Witnesses were quoted in the local media as saying that Mrs Haberisoni's life was probably saved by her hair dresser who saw the gunman taking aim and pushed her out of the way.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev speak during their meeting in the Konstantin Palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia, on Monday

Russian President Vladi-mir Putin has reappeared in pub-lic following a 10-day absence, laughed off suggestions he had been forced to lie low because of poor health, saying on Monday that life would be “boring with-out gossip.”

Democratic Republic of Congo's security forces detained a US diplomat on Sunday in a raid that also targeted journalists and regional democracy activists and accused them of posing a threat to stability, a government spokes-person said.

The diplomat "was found among a group of people that was believed to be in the process of bringing an attack against state security," Lambert Mende said. He did not disclose the diplomat's name or position.

The US Embassy in Kinshasa did not respond to messages seek-ing comment. The state depart-ment did not offer additional information when contacted on Sunday night.

The detentions followed a news conference in Kinshasa orga-nized in support of a Congolese movement known as Filimbi that aims for greater youth participa-tion in politics.

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians have joined demon-strations against President Dil-ma Rousseff, with many asking for her impeachment. The protesters say the presi-dent must have known about a corruption scandal in the state oil firm, Petrobras. The political op-position say much of the alleged bribery took place when she was head of the company.

But Ms Rousseff had been ex-onerated in an investigation by the attorney general and denied involvement.

Most of the politicians accused of taking bribes in a kickback scheme come from the governing coalition. After the protests, the government promised a series of measures to combat corruption and impunity.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo said the government saw the rallies as an "expression of

Somali government forces have captured four suspected Islamist militants, a spokesman for the state security agency has said.

Qasim Ahmed Roble told re-porters that the four suspected members of the terrorist group al-Shabab were shown to the me-dia in the capital, Mogadishu.

He said the suspects opened fire on Somali security forces Friday night while officers were conducting a security operation.

Qasim said one of the suspects is in his early 60s, adding that "many people believe that most al-Shabab members are misled young boys."

Al-Shabab is fighting for an Islamic state governed by strict interpretation of the Quran. The group has suffered setbacks in recent years, as government troops, backed by African Union forces, regained control of the capital and other territories that had been taken by al-Shabab. But its members continue to stage sporadic attacks in Moga-dishu and elsewhere in Somalia. The number of the attacks has increased in the past week.Kabila

Putin smiled as he sat before television cameras in the Con-stantine Palace near St. Peters-burg in his first public appear-ance since March 5.

In what appeared as a carefully choreographed double-act, visit-ing Kyrgyz President Almazbek

Atambayev also vouched for the Russian leader's health, saying that Putin “just now drove me around the grounds, he himself sat at the wheel.”

“It would be boring without gossip,” Putin, looking relaxed if pale, told reporters.

Putin's meeting with the presi-dents of Kazakhstan and Belarus planned for March 12-13 in the Kazakh capital Astana was post-poned, with Reuters quoting a "Kazakh governmental source" as saying it was canceled because Putin had fallen ill. The Kremlin, which vehemently denied the claim, announced Monday that Putin's meeting with the two presidents has been rescheduled for Friday, March 20.

In addition to the rumors about Putin's health, his disappearance from public view also sparked speculation that a conflict had erupted among powerful factions in the wake of the February 27 murder in Moscow of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Five eth-nic Chechens were detained in connection with the killing, in-cluding Zaur Dadayev, a former deputy commander of a Chechen Interior Ministry battalion.

According to some observers, the Nemtsov killing was connect-ed to a power struggle involving the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's main security agency, and security bodies con-nected to Chechen leader Ram-zan Kadyrov.

democracy".The largest demonstration

went ahead in Sao Paulo, a ma-jor opposition stronghold. The estimates of how many people attended the march varied widely.

Brazilian data analysts Data-folha say almost 200,000 people marched on Avenida Paulista on Sunday evening. But police estimated the number of par-ticipants at one million, based on aerial photographs of the area.

Many of the protesters waved Brazilian flags and wore the yel-low shirts of the national football team. Protest in Brasilia Thou-sands gathered outside Brasilia's modernist Congress building to protest against corruption

Anti-Rousseff protest in Belo Horizonte In Belo Horizonte the protest drew more than 20,000 peopl They shouted slogans against corruption and the Work-ers' Party government.Opposi-tion parties have backed Sun-day's protests but have not openly called for impeachment of the president, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.

Senator Aecio Neves, who was defeated by a narrow margin in October's presidential vote, is-sued a statement praising the protests.

Mende did not say how many people were detained. He said the group was held for identifica-tion and investigation, and that foreign journalists had been re-leased. He did not have informa-tion on whether the diplomat, activists or local journalists had been released.

The activists included mem-bers of Burkina Faso's Balai Ci-toyen and Senegal's Y'en a Marre movements. Both have led large-scale protests in recent years against presidents attempting to extend their time in office.

Putin reappears, laughs off health rumours

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 15 Opinion

PrinceNiyi Sijuade

As the dates for the gen-eral elections draw nearer, many issues continue to come up

for discussion in a bid to ensure that nothing is left to chances in conducting successful polls in the country.

However, some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), such as those incarcerated in prisons and those relocated to other areas of the country, are often excluded from the exercise, thus denying them the right to choose who rule them. Under the democratic rule, voting at elections remains the only way through which citizens can elect their representatives. Section 77 (2) of the 1999 Consti-tution specifically grants every citizen, who has attained the age of eighteen years and reside in Nigeria at the time of the voter’s registration such privilege while the Electoral Act under Section 12 (1) also stipulates other conditions that allow eligible voters to present themselves for registration and other electoral activities.

A recent and disturbing re-port informs that with about 3.3

million IDPs, Nigeria has the largest population of persons displaced by conflicts in Africa. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), disclosed that no fewer than 300,000 people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, consisting of 70 percent of children and women, had since fled their homes. In different parts of the country, communal clashes and related violence have made many people to flee their homes and abandoning their properties. The report showed that 470,500 persons were displaced in Nigeria in 2013, placing it as the third with the highest number of displaced persons in the world, ranking behind Colombia with 5.7 million and Syria’s 6.5 million.

The United Nations High Com-mission for Refugees also put the figure of IDPs in the Northeast at 650,000. It revealed further that there were 258, 252 babies and mi-nors, 207, 583 women and 147, 894 men in the various camps across the federation.

However, statistics by the National Commission for Refu-gees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFMIDS), indicated that internal conflicts

had displaced about 470, 565 people, while 143,164 people were displaced because of natural disasters across the country last year. The statistics, which covered a period of January 2013 to February 2014, pointed to the fact that Borno State leads with 196, 337 persons while Nasarawa followed with 24, 947. The commission added that 24 states already had IDPs; of which 470, 565 of the IDPs from 21 states arose from conflict situation; while a total of 143, 164 displaced persons in 14 states resulted from nature-induced disasters.

Similarly, the National Emer-gency Management Agency (NEMA) indicated that between January and March 2014, more than three million Nigerians faced humanitarian problems caused by insurgency in three endemic states resulting in many deaths and dis-placement of about 250, 000 people.

Available statistics from the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) in-dicate that not all the inmates may have actually committed acts of misdemeanour. For instance, out of the 56,785 inmates currently in the 239 prisons across the country, only 18,042, representing 32 per cent are convicted prisoners, while a larger number of about 38,743

inmates, representing 68 per cent are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATP).

The truth is that many impris-oned persons are innocent of what they’re being punished for making it imperative for proper reformation, rehabilitation and integration. What it means is that these high number of inmates is quite significant to influencing the outcome of elections. Politicians should not be allowed to manipu-late the voting power of IDPs to their advantage.

That is why the assurance given by Professor Attahiru Jega, Chair-man of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), is soothing when he said IDPs would be al-lowed, under the current dispensa-tion, to exercise their civic rights. The INEC boss also promised to do everything humanly possible to en-sure that the affected persons were not disenfranchised. As a step forward in realising this goal, a task force was constituted by INEC and the terms of reference include examining the legal, political, secu-rity and administrative challenges in achieving IDPs voting during elections. It was also expected to review the experiences of other jurisdictions in dealing with the challenges of IDPs voting.

Why Internally Displaced Persons must vote

AdewaleKupoluyi

Disclosures on Jega’s PVC contract

U nderstand-ably distract-ed by the high intensity of the ongoing electioneer-ing cam-

paigns, the public seems to have ig-nored an equally important issue of the moment. This has to do with the many scams trailing the PVC contract awarded by INEC Chair-man, Attahiru Jega. Considering the low publicity, this piece comes as a modest effort by a concerned citizen to put a spotlight on the is-sue, in the hope that the public will be better informed on the facts. Below, therefore, are the verified facts and disclosures, which have been supplied by patriotic Nigeri-ans working at INEC, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and other pertinent entities.

First, as regards the PVC, an obscure and poorly capitalised Nigerian company, ACT Technolo-gies Limited, was awarded a N2.6 billion contract by Jega to produce them. Then, just as immediately, ACT proved its technical incom-petence by sub-contracting the production of the PVCs to a Chi-nese firm, potentially in flagrant violation of national security laws on protection of biometric

information of Nigerians. Official records show that the contract was awarded since February 2013 in naira and was supposed to be per-formed within seven months, but almost immediately re-designated by Jega in dollars to the Chinese company at US$140 million. That was more than two years ago.

Second, an itemised voucher of the payments ordered by Jega confirmed that on February 14, 2013, INEC paid N489, 937,500 to ACT Technologies, being initial payment for the production of the PVCs. The money was paid through JAIZ Islamic Bank. After the initial payment, other hurried payments totaling more than N2.6 billion was paid to the Nigerian and Chinese companies for the fast-track production of the over 68.8 million PVCs.

They were again given seven months from April 13, 2013 to fully produce and supply them. Those seven months have long passed and despite full payment by Jega, the PVCs are yet to be fully sup-plied, just two weeks to the elec-tion set for March 28, 2015.

Third, despite ACT’s proven in-ability to perform, Jega authorised another quickly arranged pay-ment of N590, 871,418 on February 19, 2015, a clear five days after the

presidential election was meant to have been held on February 14. Still, according to highly-placed sources at INEC, a significant batch of the PVCs are yet to be produced, just few days to the presidential election set for March 28, 2015.

Fourth, what is most worrisome is the fact that Jega, on 19th Febru-ary 2015, paid more than N500 mil-lion for PVCs that would not have been used for the elections. Recall that the elections would have been held and a ‘winner’ declared on 14th February, without these outstanding PVCs. The credit for preventing this infamy goes to all the patriotic Nigerians who boldly came together to stop Jega and the few that insisted on February 14th, most probably because they knew all along that this whole scheme was deliberately geared to a certain hideous objective. It is now known why some ‘favoured’ parts of the country recorded very high PVC distribution and ‘collection’ than others. Why was Jega not bordered that millions of Nigerians would have been disen-franchised to an extent that would have led to judicial annulment of the entire results?

Fifth, a check of public records showed that ACT had listed a

certain Ahmad Yahaya as its Vice President, but that information was removed since the ill-fated PVC contract award. Yahaya also maintains a LinkedIn account that listed him as former Vice Presi-dent of ACT. A check of other in-ternet records reveal that Ahmad Yahaya also has an active Face-book account as Ahmad Yahaya Jega, and listed Jega, Kebbi State as his hometown. INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega is also from Jega in Kebbi State, and like Ahmad Yahaya Jega, attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. A casual scrutiny of Ahmad Yahaya Jega’s Facebook profile picture shows a striking resemblance to the visage of INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega; so it raises the high likelihood that two are closely related by blood or kinship.

Sixth, ACT Technologies listed a paltry N10 million as its share capital, according to certified records at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). It raises ques-tions as to why Jega could have awarded such a sensitive contract of almost N3b to such an inad-equately funded, technically un-qualified company like ACT. There are so many better-qualified, older, financially capable and tested ICT companies owned by Nigerians.


www.bglgroupng.com

bgl capital | bgl securities limited | bgl asset management | bgl private equity


Robotics is good for

children- Ajayi

Last week,the National Information Technology De-velopment Agency (NITDA)supported First Lego League to inaugurate the Robotic league programme in Nigeri-an schools. The Director of Lego League, Mr Olajide Ajayi,spoke with our corre-spondent, Tony Nwakaegho, on the Robotics programme. In this interview he gave an

expose of how it all began and the future of First Lego League in Nigeria. Excerpts:

Let us into a brief back-ground of yourself and the First Lego League Nigeria?

I am Olajide Ajayi, Director

First Lego League (FLL) Nige-

ria and also the Technical Qual-

ity Manager with SAP in Ireland

which is the number one Enter-

prise Software provider in the

world. I am now coordinating the

First Lego League Nigeria with

the support of SAP and NITDA.

What is Robotic programme all about?

It is called the First Lego

League and it is an alliance be-

tween Lego, the educational giant


Æ sTechnology Times17

Why local content guidelines in ICT must be implemented

Inye Kemabonta, Editor, TECH [email protected]

Ajayi

Jack

At more than half the popula-

tion of all of West Africa, Ni-

geria is a country that no one

can truly ignore even though it

has remained a fledgling giant.

The country is still considered an

emerging market and a regional

power. That is why it is a mem-

ber of the MINT countries. But

the interest Nigerian may not al-

ways be for good. Most times we

also inadvertently dig our own

metaphorical grave. Otherwise,

how can anyone explain why as

a country bordered on all sides

(east, west, north and south) by

French speaking neighbors yet

we speak no word of French? But

all our neighbors make every ef-

fort to speak English.

Anyone with the most basic

knowledge of security and for-

eign policy must be aghast that

French is neither a compulsory

subject in Nigerian schools nor

the country’s second official lan-

guage after English. Another

truly inexplicable pattern is how

we send our soldiers on peace

keeping missions or even to in-

tervene in neighboring countries

like Liberia, have the hands and

legs of our nationals chopped off

by militants then return from the

mission with nothing to show for

it. Our business men do not ac-

company the soldiers to help ‘re-

build’ the countries nor do they

move in when peace is restored to

‘help’ stabilize their economy.

You might be wondering how

all this relate to local content in

ICT. The relationship is at least

on two counts but let me hasten to

point out that there is absolutely

no reason why Nigerian ICT so-

lutions (hardware, software and

services) should not be ‘helping’

in Liberia, Dafur, Angola, Congo,

Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, for

instance. Call it South to South

aid. You will be correct. So far,

what the world knows is North to

South aid (Western countries’ aid

to Africa).

The truth is that wars and

peacekeeping are motivated by

economic interests. Our foreign

policy machinery needs to recog-

nize this. The disconnect between

our private sector and govern-

ment can only be attributed to

naivety in foreign policy. It is true

that Nigerian businesses includ-

ing banks dot the west coast, but

much of that have been through

private efforts. None has been

facilitated by any direct govern-

ment policy or action. Govern-

ment-backed trade mission in

ICT has not taken place in living

memory in the real sense of the

expression.

The relevance of the local con-

tent program in ICT initiated by

NITDA and the Federal Ministry

of Communication Technology

under Omobola Johnson to the

concept of South to South aid is

embedded in the role ascribed by

the Guidelines to NITDA in Ar-

ticle 10.6. 3:

NITDA shall collaborate with

similar IT development agencies

in neighbouring West African

states in order to establish re-

gional Information Technology

tradeshows that will provide a

platform to grow the local indus-

try

The import of the clause is that

NITDA, as Nigeria’s IT Agency,

is expected to lead ICT trade mis-

sions for the purpose of diversify-

ing the economy and making ICT

an important foreign exchange

earner for the country. What the

local industry needs to grow is

the creation of new markets or

the expansion of existing ones

beyond the shores of the country

Customs and Immigration is-

sues in cross border relations will

be a lot easier for Nigerian entre-

preneurs if government facilitate

such trade missions. Clearly, this

should be a major plank in the na-

tion’s foreign policy platform. De-

velopment Agencies like NITDA

have a solemn mandate in this

regard.

Now to the issue of security.

Currently, the technology world

is in shock at the extent of steal-

ing of encryption keys in SIM

cards from manufacturers who

also make chips for passports and

smart cards. The theft has been

going on for the past four years

but was only reported this year.

It potentially enables snooping on

telecom infrastructure and the

decoding of data on chips. While

other countries are scrambling

to do damage assessment, we are

oblivious of the incident.

Now, given the size and status

of Nigeria as the largest black

nation and the largest economy

in Africa, it is almost certain that

the SIMs and chips in our phones,

bank cards, national ID cards,

INEC PVs are all compromised!

Every one of that sensitive tech-

nology is imported! None is ad-

equately checked for breach but

our critical information infra-

structure and financial system

ride on them! Article 12.1.3 of the

Guidelines for Nigerian Content

Development in ICT states that

ICT Companies shall “use only lo-

cally manufactured Smart cards

for the provision of data and tele-

phony services…”

This is a guideline which must

be urgently implemented. It is not

national pride. It is not just capac-

ity building; our economy and

the survival of our nation, as we

know it today, may well depend

on it.

Inye Kemabonta is Editor TECH FUTURE

Odoma

Students participating in First Lego League robotic competition in Lagos recently. Photo: TONY NWAKAEGHO

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015Technology Times 18

‘Robotic programme teaches kids live skills’CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

NiRA decries Govts, MDAs hosting .ng servers abroad

and First, an organisation in the US. First was founded by Dean Karmen, an American and inven-tor, who made Segway , a motor-ized cycle which is like a bicycle that you can stand on instead of sitting.. They are used in terrains where you don’t use cars. He has a lot of patent in the US and just thought to himself, “ I can create tings why don’t I teach people how to create things” So he founded the organization called First and then partnered with Lego to form the First Lego League. So First Lego League is a program that has four elements, one is the Ro-bot game, the Robot performance where the kids are given mission annually which they perform on the table. They build the Robo and program the robot to carry out missions on a thematic table. We have another component called project where we give them topic to research and come up innovative ideas and they pres-ent it in front of judges. We also

have another part called the Core Values and this teaches the kids how to work as a team to be gra-cious in defeat or when they win. We want the kids even though in the face of stiff competition they can still work together as a team. That is where we coined the word “Coepetition”- It is a trade mark by the First Lego League. This is because they cooperate and work together, hence there is now an award for gracious profession-alism, best behaved team, team which displayed exceptional ability to assist other teams or to work with other teams. This teaches them live skills that will help them go through life as rea-sonable and sensible human be-ings.

Who are your target audi-

ence in this First Lego League

initiative?

The demography is 9 years to 16 years because it is an age bracket we feel will have the mental capa-bility to learn the programming and the rigorous task that we

want to put them through.

Could this initiative also be

extended to tertiary institu-

tions?

In the First Lego League, First has field programs, one is the Ju-nior FLL, which is targeted at the primary kids, then FLL which is targeted to nine to 16 years, then FTC which is First Tech Chal-lenge targeted at the university. So we will be bringing that as well.

How is your partnership

with NITDA in Nigeria at the

moment?

NITDA has supported us with SAP. They gave us equipment to run it and the equipment they gave us will only cover Lagos, and we need to do this not only in La-gos. We want it to spread across the Federation. So one of their Board of Directors approached NITDA and they have been very supportive for the initiative. They


Tony Nwakaegho

Mary Uduma, President, Nigeria Internet Registration As-sociation (NiRA), has decried the situation where most of Federal government Ministries, Depart-ments and Agencies (MDAs) are currently hosting their webs and emails’ servers outside of the country.

Uduma said that the situation negate the government directive to register their websites with the country’s top level domain name .ng, stressing that it is inimical to capacity building and infrastruc-ture development of the country.

Daily Times gathered that some of the MDAs which previ-ously hosted their web and email servers in the country had to move to foreign countries, citing trust issues as reason.

Investigation also revealed that the MDAs whose website servers are hosted abroad include, Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria, cbn.gov.ng which is hosted in USA; Ferma.gov.ng hosted in UK; National Health Insurance Scheme, nhis.gov.ng hosted in USA; Economic and Financial Crime Commis-sion, efcc.gov.ng hosted in USA; National University Commis-sion, nuc.ed.ng hosted in UK; pfp.gov.ng hosted in USA; federal ministry of finance, fmf.gov.ng hosted in USA; and Nigerian Communications Commission, ncc.gov.ng hosted in USA, among others.

She lamented that hosting serv-ers outside of the country does not make economic sense as those MDAs pay in foreign currency there by depilating the country’s foreign exchange.

“Local content in information and communications technology will not grow and we must do something to arrest this situa-tion,” she said.

She commended the effort of the minister of Communications Technology for her campaign at promoting local content and has been making effort to ensure that they relocate their servers to the country.

In her words: If they can’t pa-tronize commercial data center operators, Galaxy backbone has cloud services that can host serv-ers of federal MDAs. We need pro-active action in this regard such as memo to federal executive council on the need for federal MDAs to relocate their website servers to Nigeria.”

She explained that the lack of competitiveness in the local data centre business in Nigeria is a factor that may affect people planning to relocate their server to Nigeria.

Chief Executive Officer, Steineng, Engr. Sam Adeleke, Nigeria Ltd and immediate past president, Internet Service Pro-viders Association Of Nigeria (ISPAN), noted that cost, power, security and bandwidth which contribute to high cost in Nigeria are some of the reasons why Fed-eral MDAs and others preferred hosting their servers abroad, since it is cheaper to host abroad.

He maintained that abroad there is multiplicity of location of server, where most of the host-ing companies provide multiple locations in case there is disaster in one location they will move to another location without their customers suffering downtime.

He opined that continuity of business is not certain in Nigeria because of harsh business en-vironment. ”Suggesting Galaxy backbone as alternative is risky because in as much as it is owned by government there is no guar-antee that it will not collapse one day, as government is not good business man,” he said.

gave us resources too for Abuja and they are supporting it seri-ously.

Aside from NITDA, do you have other support from government?

We have nothing from the Fed-eral Government yet. We are a Nongovernmental Organisation (NGO) and we have been running on shoe string budget and been working with people on a shoe string budget. You know that vol-unteering culture is not very pop-ular in Nigeria, so everybody we have to work with we have to pay. And we are so short on resources that is unreal, but we just decided that we will carry this through. We will need organization like NITDA, USPF, Intel, Google, Tel-cos like MTN, Airtel, Globacom, Etisalat and any other organiza-tion that have the interest of kids at heart.

Has First Lego League ap-

proached these organization

for assistance, sponsorship or

funding?

No, we haven’t. We will ap-proach them in due course.

Is this the first First Lego League competition in Nigeria?

This is the first First Lego League competition in Nigeria and it is an annual event. So we give the kids the challenge about July, August and they work till September through November, December. They work for eight weeks and then we will do the tournament or championship for them. This year we started late because the resources didn’t come in until much later in the year. So we started in November towards the vacation in Decem-ber. That is why we are doing this at this time. Next year we will be doing the next one in December, so we can get the kids within the Regional championship in La-gos, Regional Championship in Abuja and the National champi-

onship. We hope to include Port Harcourt. We want to expand along the geopolitical zones. So we started in Abuja which is the North Central and Lagos which is the South West. We hope to do the South South and South East this year so that we can have the Na-

tional Championship in January. We have the Regional in Decem-ber and National championship in January.

How did you select the

schools that are partaking in

this competition in Lagos?

In Lagos we are working with public schools. We approached the Education District and we asked for 10 schools as a pilot, but they gave us 20 schools so we merged the 20 schools to 12 teams, so the teams will be two to 10 teams merged into 12 schools. So we are working with 20 schools merged into 12 teams.

How do you assess the ICT

industry in Nigeria?

ICT is an eye opener, but the schools lack resources and the teachers lack ICT skills. So one of the things we hope to achieve with this program is to teach the teachers so that we can build an ecosystem, and have the pool of

knowledgeable teachers and an ecosystem of knowledge workers.

What is the fate of the stu-

dents that were merged from

different schools after this

competition?

Each school will work in their own school and the ones we joined together could inter-relate and work from one school this week and another next, which will bring about cooperative learning between those schools and this, is a good thing. Actually it does not end there as the schools will con-tinue knowing that another tour-nament is coming in December. Whatever you are going to see to-day will be improved upon by the schools next year.

Is the Government really

funding knowledge economy?

The Federal Government will be interested in knowledge econ-omy; they only need people to

First Lego League encourages team work among kids- AjayiCONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 19 Technology Times

NITDA has supported us with SAP. They gave us equipment to run it and the equipment they gave us will only cover Lagos, and we need to do this not only in Lagos. We want it to spread across the federation.

Tony Nwakaegho

Institute of Software Practi-tioners of Nigeria (ISPON)

has presented an Award of Ex-cellence to Minister of Commu-nication Technology, Dr. (Mrs) Omobola Johnson, in recogni-tion of her role in initiating pol-icies and programmes fostering innovation and entrepreneur-ship in the software ecosystem in Nigeria.

President of ISPON, Pius Okigbo, presented the award to the Minister at the recent insti-tute’s sixth annual presidential dinner in Lagos, stressing that the institute was honoring the

Minister because her tenure as

the Minister of Communication Technology had witnessed “an accelerated and outstanding delivery of a plethora of ICT initiatives enabling the develop-ment of Nigeria’s ICT sector.”

ISPON was formed in 1999 with the aim of creating an en-

ISPON honours Communication Technology Minister

abling environment for local

content developers to thrive lo-cally and internationally.

Membership of the associa-

tion is drawn from different categories that key into diverse range of software developers, software testers and users.

Tony Nwakaegho

Reliance Infosystems in partnership with Microsoft Nige-ria, has unveiled Microsoft Azure as a timely measure to alleviating high Information Technology (IT) capital expenditure by busi-nesses.

In a joint statement released at a recent Customers Forum in La-gos, Reliance Infosystems’ Public Relations Director, Mr Babajide Orungbe expressed that Azure is a revolutionary platform of choice as it continues to appeal to the cost-conscious organiza-tions by reason of its pay per use model.

He further explained that busi-nesses of today frown at locking down cash in the name of IT asset that will quickly depreciate along technology relevance.

Microsoft Nigeria, Business Group Director Cloud and Enter-prise, Oluyomi Alarape said “The beauty of Azure platform is the ability to spin up new solutions, access computer power and le-

verage enterprise ready Services quicker and faster than ever be-fore and also allow you scale up and out as required at a great price point.

“With Microsoft Azure, your IT cost greatly reduces and al-lows you focus on your innova-tion while Microsoft takes care of your infrastructure.”

Sharing his thought on his ex-perience with Azure platform, Cornerstone Insurance Chief Technical Officer, Olasoji Te-hingbola commented thus “Just like we have witnessed in Office 365, Azure promises the much desirable agility to our business. Being able to provision new ser-vices on-the-fly will reduce our deployment window from weeks to hours.”

On his part, GZ Industries IT Head, Yomi Zannu said: “We were able to relieve the capacity strains on our premise data cen-ter by extending it to Microsoft Cloud platform. At any point in time, we can leverage Azure for any workload.”

Reliance Infosystems, Microsoft dazzle customers with cloud services


Omobola

Makwane

Tony Nwakaegho

Concept Nova, one of Nige-ria’s foremost IT solutions

company, has been awarded with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) licence for its Ti-kon device that is packed with the latest car tracking technology.

The Ti-kon device which is a new innovative product known as Ti-kon Vehicle Tracker came in partnership with Konga.com as the latest in tracking technology that gives one complete control of one’s asset which can be accessed all in real-time.

The Nigerian Communica-tions Commission,(NCC) is a regulatory body that governs and monitors the performance and standard of all communication services and facilities supplied to consumers in Nigeria.

Head of Strategy and Market-ing, Concept Nova, Ms. Chidim-ma Onyeokoro said “this comes at a great time when one of our most innovative products launch-

es with the largest online market-place.”

An excited Onyeokoro dis-closed the certification brings immense joy at a time when the Ti-konvehicle tracking device is launched on the well-known online shopping site and sub-sequently offline with selected franchise partners around the country.

The Ti-kon vehicle tracking solution provides effective moni-toring of vehicles’ daily Per-formance, as well as shows em-ployees’ driving habits, all at the touch of a button via any GSM/GPS enabled mobile phone.

Data monitoring from the de-vice is provided every 10 seconds, viewable from a personal com-puter or smartphone by selected members of the Concept Nova technical team, besides each cus-tomer’s own access.

The Ti-Kon tracking device is seen as a welcomed development at a time when car theft is one of the banes of the economy.

‘FLL organises robotic tournament for students’

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 21 Technology Times


Tony Nwakaegho

A smart cooking device that uses ‘satellite technology’ for precision-temperature cooking has been unveiled.

The N105, 000 Cinder Sensing Cooker looks like a sandwich toaster but is used to cook a vari-ety foods, including steak.

An app tells you when your food is done and even stores it for up to two hours if you aren’t ready to eat just yet.

The boss of the San Francisco-based company, Eric Norman, was previously an engineer at Lockheed Martin - known for its involvement in the space indus-try.

Mr Norman said they “drew upon rocket science used in space-craft to create a wholly down-to-Earth cooking experience.”

For example, the materials and the structural design were selected specifically to optimise heat flow, while the device can cook food to very precise specifi-cations.

“Like controlling the motion

of a satellite, Cinder’s predictive control system and sensor place-ment are carefully tuned to avoid overshoot” the company said.

Mr Norman said the product enables people to “combine the best parts of home cooking - the creative and sensory experience - with the best part of fine dining, which is the perfectly cooked, de-licious food.”

To cook food, Cinder has an en-closed chamber and two non-stick aluminium cooking plates.

These are equipped with highly accurate sensors that achieve and maintain the precise tempera-ture to cook a particular food.

This can either be calculated by the machine, or selected accord-ing to the cook’s preferences.

The company said it can “pre-pare a perfect, medium-rare New York Strip steak, cooked evenly edge-to-edge and with a beautiful seared exterior, in 28 minutes.”

To cook food in Cinder, the user simply places the food inside and closes the lid.

Concept Nova awarded NCC licence for car tracking technology

come up with this initiative. We can’t expect the government to do everything so we need a third sector, public private to come in to fill the gap, where the govern-ment and private can fill when they know that there is enough resources. What we are doing, is that we are developing human capital and we need the Federal Government to support this. And we can only get better.

How do you source for mate-

rials for the competition?

We gave them all the materials which Lego made abroad.

Is there any hope to localize the material in accordance with the local content policy of govern-

ment?What we do is that Lego gives

us a challenge every year and the challenge for this year is going to be “how do you manage your waste”. Waste is generated ev-erywhere across the world, so the kids in England will work on how to manage their waste looking at their environment. The kids in Nigeria will look at the Nigerian environment and see how to man-age their waste. It is localized and it funnels down to the local environment. The kids in Eng-land will teach us how they want to learn. And the kids in Nigeria will teach us how they want to learn. It is an application and you apply it to your environment. It is a gestation that will determine the idea you are to throw forward.

Is Robot Technology not a

new concept in Nigeria?

It is a new concept in Nigeria and we are one of the pioneers to bring it to Nigeria. Robotics is good for kids because it teaches them how to build, how to make things and relate with the mind-set that we don’t really have to make much because other people will make them. This is a game changer and it will teach the kids that they can actually make something. Because we gave them robots in pieces and they built the software which you are seeing today, they are perfect and it is very good.

Where do you hope First

Lego League will be in the

Tony Nwakaegho

Following the spate of un-employment among Ph.d hold-ers, the National University Commission (NUC) has said that it will establish a portal for them in order to facilitate their engagement in the Nigeria uni-versity system.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Julius Oko-jie, dropped the hint during an interactive dinner with news-men in Abuja, adding that it was worrisome that Ph.D holders were unemployed when their services were needed in the uni-versities.

He revealed that many Ph.D holders visit his office looking for job, hence the need for a por-tal that where their data would be uploaded for easy access to any university that may need their services.

``It is amazing seeing the num-ber of Ph.D holders that come to my office and say they are look-ing for jobs.On the other hand, many universities are looking for Ph.D holders to employ; we will create a portal that will serve as a pool from which the universities can engage such people.’’

He noted that the nine newly approved private universities had been directed to institute a credible staff enrolment pro-gramme.

NUC plans to create internet portal for Ph.D holders

next two to five years?

In the next two to five years we want First Lego League to be run-ning across the Federation and we can now grow up horizontally within the states and we can now

have a central point where kids can now come ad partake in this program and we will take it to the rural areas, and everywhere we can take it to because this is the future of education.

Smart cooking device that uses satellite technology unveiled

Students participating in First Lego League robotic competition in Lagos recently. Photo: TONY NWAKAEGHO

Concept Nova fleet track device

Cinder Sensing Cooker

Dr. Fritz Todt, an engineer and master road builder, was appointed Minister for Weapons and Munitions, ushering in a new era in the efficient use of German industry and forced labour.A civil engineer with a doctorate from the School for Advanced Technical Studies in Munich, Fritz Todt caught the attention of Adolf Hitler in 1932 as Todt spoke out about the importance of building new roads to jumpstart a moribund German economy. Once Hitler came to power, Hitler placed Todt in charge of a massive road-building project that remains remarkable today: the Autobahn, Germany’s superhighway.Todt designed the Autobahn so it would “harmonize with the German landscape.” One of the unintentional outcomes of the project was that it provided a working model of the use of slave labour within the Nazi regime. In February 1940, realizing that mass executions in occupied

Poland were not serving the Reich efficiently, Hitler decided to create a centralized and supervised source of mass slave labour. It was Todt who was chosen to command the project. The Todt Organization became the single largest employer of slave labour in Hitler’s empire, disseminating workers to shorthanded munitions plants. And as Minister for Munitions and Weapons, Todt oversaw a more efficient use of raw materials in Hitler’s arms machine.Todt’s engineering skills also proved useful in the war against France, with the design and construction of what was called the “West Wall,” a fortress line of bunkers that divided the Franco-German border.On February 8, 1941, Todt, after a conference with various government ministries on German arms production and distribution, was killed in a plane crash en route to Berlin.

Æ s22 Daily Times Nigeria

Tuesday, March 17 , 2015

Today in History

On March 17, 1901, paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh

were shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. The 71 paintings, which captured their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colours, caused a sensation across the art world. Eleven years before, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris, van Gogh had committed suicide without any notion that his work was destined to win acclaim beyond his wildest dreams. In his lifetime, he had sold only one painting. One of his paintings--the Yasuda Sunflowers--sold for just under $40 million at a Christie’s auction in 1987.

Born in Zundert in the Netherlands in 1853, van Gogh worked as a salesman in an art gallery, a language teacher, a bookseller, and an evangelist among Belgium miners before settling on his true vocation as an artist. What is known

as the “productive decade” began in 1880, and for the first few years he confined himself almost entirely to drawings and watercolours while acquiring technical proficiency. He studied drawing at the Brussels Academy and in 1881 went to the Netherlands to work from nature. The most famous work from the Dutch period was the dark and earthy The Potato Eaters (1885), which showed the influence of Jean-Francois Millet, a French painter famous for his peasant subjects.

In 1886, van Gogh went to live with his brother, Theo, in Paris. There, van Gogh met the foremost French painters of the postimpressionist period, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and Georges Seurat. He was greatly influenced by the theories of these artists and under the advice of Pissarro he adopted the kind of colourful palette for which he is famous.

Todt named Reich Minister for Weapons and Munitions

Compiled by ‘Tunji Okegbola

1940

Cartoons from our Archives

Daily Times March 17, 1961

The former Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania steadfastly rejected a demand from the Soviet Union that it renounce its declaration of independence. The situation in Lithuania quickly became a sore spot in U.S.-Soviet relations.

The Soviet Union had seized the Baltic state of Lithuania in 1939. Lithuanians complained long and loud about this absorption into the Soviet empire, but to no avail. Following World War II, Soviet forces did not withdraw and the United States made little effort to support Lithuanian independence. There matters stood until 1985 and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union. In 1989, as part of his policy of loosening political repression in the Soviet empire and improving relations with the West, Gorbachev repudiated the Brezhnev Doctrine of 1968, which

stated that the Soviet Union was justified in using force to preserve already existing communist governments. Lithuanian nationalists took the repudiation of the Brezhnev Doctrine as a signal that a declaration of independence might be accepted.

On March 11, 1990, Lithuania declared that it was an independent nation, the first of the Soviet republics to do so. It had, however, overestimated Gorbachev’s intentions. The Soviet leader was willing to let communist governments in its eastern European satellites fall to democratic movements, but this policy did not apply to the republics of the Soviet Union. The Soviet government responded harshly to the Lithuanian declaration of independence and issued an ultimatum: renounce independence or face the consequences. On March 17, the Lithuanians gave their answer, rejecting the Soviet demand

and asking that “democratic nations” grant them diplomatic recognition.

The Soviets had not been bluffing. The Soviet government insisted that it still controlled Lithuania, Gorbachev issued economic sanctions against the rebellious nation, and Soviet troops occupied sections of the capital city of Vilnius. In January 1991, the Soviets launched a larger-scale military operation against Lithuania. Many in the United States were horrified, and the U.S. Congress acted quickly to end economic assistance to the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was incensed by this action, but his powers in the Soviet Union were quickly eroding. In December 1991, 11 of the 12 Soviet Socialist Republics proclaimed their independence and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. Just a few days after this action, Gorbachev resigned as president and what was left of the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

Lithuania rejects Soviet demand to renounce its independence1990

1901 Van Gogh paintings shown


Niger gov urges opposition to emulate Aminu Kano

NGO unveils motor ambassador, preaches safety on roadEberechi Obinagwam

A non-governmental organisation known as Miss Motors Nigeria Foun-dation, has unveiled its am-bassador that would help preach safety on the road.

Its Co-ordinator, Evelyn Igbe, said that the body tended to use ladies to preach safety on the roads, because they were always a centre of attraction.

She also stated that the body would not just stop at educating a few people, but would carry its campaigns to schools and the rural areas. She said her reason of partnering with Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) was because the body was concerned with safety.

The Assistant Corps Commander, Motor Vehicle Administration, Gloria Danfulani, thanked the or-ganisation for the honor, adding that enlightening the public on safety was the main function of the com-mission.

She stated that although its campaigns may not stop traffic crashes, they would help reduce it to some ap-preciable minimum.

Emma ObiCalabar

Cross River State Labour Party candidate, Dominic Aqua Edem, has been kidnaped.

He is contesting to rep-resent Calabar South, Ak-pabuyo and Bakassi Local Government Areas, in the House of Representatives. He was also a former dep-uty Speaker of the state House of Assembly.

Daily Times reliably gathered that at about 8.30 p.m. on Sunday, Edem was driven away from his compound, at Anantigha, in Calabar South, by five men in a Toyota vehicle. As of the time of this re-port, no contact had been

made with him or his kid-nappers.

The Police Public Re-lations Officer, (PPRO), Hogan Bassey, told Daily Times that the matter had been reported to the state Command.

Similarly, in a telephone interview, the Labour Party Chairman, in Cross River State, Austin Ibok, accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the state for being behind the kid-nap.

C’River LP candidate kidnapped

Jonathan to separate Nollywood from Ministry of Information

Aliyu

Saka BolajiMinna

Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Ali-yu, has charged the opposi-tion in the country to emu-late the qualities the late Malam Aminu Kano, who, despite being a mainstream opposition leader, still found time to work for the development of the north-ern part of the country.

He said that while Malam Aminu Kano campaigned vigorously for his Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), he was generous enough to drop his political or ideo-logical leaning, in the inter-est of the region’s progress.

Aliyu spoke in Minna,

on Monday, at the open-ing of a one-day Strategic Meeting of Executives of Non- Governmental Organ-isations from the northern part of the country, under the aegis of the Centre for Communication and Re-productive Health Service, with the theme: “Effective Partnership to Compliment Government’s Efforts in addressing Developmental Challenges in the Region.”

He said Malam Aminu Kano and other members of the opposition “never al-lowed their political differ-ences to affect their goals for the North” – a trend that had been abandoned by the present crop of opposition politicians.

Aliyu also said that there was a need for a clear-cut difference in the ideologies of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ma-jor opposition party the All Progressive Congress (APC), because, as of now “we don’t know the differ-ence between the ideologies of these parties, which is creating problem in the pol-ity.”

On the development of the northern region, Aliyu said that there a need exist-ed for the political leader-ship to have a rethink about its concept of development, which should be convinc-ingly people-oriented.

He recommended that states and local govern-

ments in the north should now look inwards to gen-erate more money to fund their projects.

He advised Nigerians to make regular exercise and medical checkup of their health status priority.

Opeoluwani Akintayo

President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to separate the Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood from the Ministry of Infor-mation, if re-elected in the forthcoming general elec-tion.

He said this during the question and answer ses-sion at the Showbiz Inter-active forum held with the movie practitioners on Sun-day evening, at the Conven-tion Center of Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The occasion, which brought together Nolly-wood, the music and movie

industry operatives, was graced by some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Honourable Musiliu Obanikoro.

Jonathan also promised to work hand-in-hand with the movie industry, to make sure that the sector devel-oped more, so as to be a stronger player, than it pres-ently is, in the international market.

He also revealed that Nol-lywood provides 1.5% of the national income, which makes it an industry to be reckoned with.

Benue community deserted over Fulani attack Freddie Adamgbe Makurdi

Over 1,000 villag-ers have deserted Egba community of Agatu Lo-cal Government Area of Benue State, following Sun-day attack, that killed more than 100 people, while property worth millions of naira were destroyed.

The recent attack is com-ing in spite of the cease fire agreement signed last year between the Benue State government and the leadership of the Miyyetti Allah Cattle Rearers Asso-ciation.

The Sunday attack, which disrupted church ac-tivities, left families strand-ed as members scampered for their dear lives as they ran into the camp of the In-ternally Displaced Persons (IDP’s). A catholic priest in the area, who spoke to our correspondent, on condi-tion of anonymity, pointed out that as early as 5 am on the fateful Sunday, while he was preparing for the morning mass, he heard gun shots, preceded with loud cries, mostly from women and children, who were murdered in a most despicable manner never

witnessed in the area be-fore.

The priest said due to the unfortunate orgy, every community member alive, had to run for their lives, as they now seek refuge in neighbouring community, for fear of further attack.

An eye witness, who es-caped the attack, and took refuge with his uncle in Makurdi, Ocholi Abba, told our correspondent that the Fulani attackers crossed from Loko in Nasarawa State, to unleash terror on the innocent peace loving villagers, who were taken unaware.

''They crossed form Loko in Nasarawa State to Agatu as early as 3 am, when many villagers were asleep and opened fire on us, killing over hundred. They killed my mother and three of my siblings. It is by the grace of God that I escaped. Dead bodies were scattered everywhere like dead fish, oh my God'' Abba said sobbing.

Asked whether the vil-lagers had earlier provoke the herdsmen, Abbah said the Fulanis had been kill-ing them since last year so it was not a question of be-ing provoked or not.

A cross section of Coalition of Concerned Nigerians in a protest rally demanding the removal of INEC Chairman, Prof Jega held in Lagos...on Monday.

PHOTO: Olawale Rotimi

Public Notice 24 Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015

The general public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to the Cor-porate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under Part “C” of Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:1. Pst. Stephen George - Chairman2. Pst. Mrs. Chinyere George - Secretary3. Pst. Fidelis Agbo. 4. Chigozie Ibeanwusi.5. Elder Damian Iheanacho.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE:1. Reconciling the world to God.2. Preparing a glorious church not having sport or wrinkle.

Any Objection(s) to this Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar- Gen-eral, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 Days of this Publication.

Signed: PST. STEPHEN GEORGE(CHAIRMAN)

The general public is hereby notified that the above named association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part ‘C’ of the companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

TRUSTEES: 1) Elder Oyedele A. John – Chairman; 2) Pastor Ajiboye Peter O – Secretary; 3) Chief(Mrs.) Kusaanu Omolara – Treasurer; 4) Mr. Olatunde Oluwagbemiga – President, Nigeria; 5) Mr. Ekundayo Adenrele – PRO; 6) Dr. Musa Kadagana – Hausa Rep.; 7) Mr. Matthew Awharitomah – Ibo Rep; 8) Miss. Bukola Ayoola – Women Rep 1; 9) Mrs. Tolulope Fasoranti – Women Rep 2

Aim and Objective:i. Feed the Nation by working with GRASS ROOT farmers (in all commodities)ii. Add value to farmers products, for the purpose of providing solutions to the challenges threatening their economic well-beingiii. Provide holistic agricultural packages that facilitate modern production, storage, processing and marketing (locally and internationaliv. Enhance the economic health of the country by providing alternative source of foreign exchange inflow

Any Objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commis-sion, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi street, P.M.B 198, Maitama, Abuja within Twenty-Eight (28) days from the date of this publication.

Signed: Elder Oyedele A. John (Chairman)

This is to inform the general public that the above named centre has applied for Registration to the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.Trustees. 1. High Priest Jossy Yetonepo Ogunlawaja. 2. Rev. Solomon Ogunlawaja. 3. Rev. Anuwa Gabriel Ogunlawaja. 4. Rev. Joshua Star Ogunlawaja. 5. Rev. Sanmina Ogunlawaja. Aim and objective. 1. To preach the gospel and teaching of Jesus Christ to all humanity. 2. To propagate the message of peace, love, Charity and brotherliness in accordance with the Christian faith without boundaries. 3. To organize seminars workshop crusade and other programmes aimed at inculcating the exemplary life Jesus Christ to all humanity. 4. To liaise and partner with both governmental and non - governmental organization in order to achieve the foregoing and similar objectives. Any objection to the Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar general, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed; CHARLES EZEAGU ESQ. Charles Ezeagu $ Co. Suite 2-018 Area 1 shopping complex, Garki Abuja.

08035510701.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named foundation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja, for registration under Part “C” of Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE:1. Eno-Obong Patrick-Chairman. 2. Aniedi Ikoedem Bassey-Secretary. 3. Joseph Simon Ukpong.4. Edeheudim Dickson Udom. 5. Ekerete Godfriey Essien.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE:To protect the interest of our members.

Any Objection(s) to this Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar- Gen-eral, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 Days of this Publication.

Signed: Eno-Obong Patrick.( Chairman)

This is to inform the general public that the above named Association has applied for Registration to the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

Trustees. 1. Gershow Henshaw. 2. Charles Ebiai. 3. Kenechukwu Onuorah. 4. Olasoji Olowolafe. 5. Benson Iroha.

Aims and objectives. 1. To encourage its members towards professional developnment strong ethics and improved service to employers. 2. To encourage patriotism and selfless service among its members.

Any objection to the Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar general, Corpo-rate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: Barr ihuoma uwalaka.

This is to inform the general public that the above named body has applied for Registration to the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Compa-nies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

TRUSTEES ARE:- 1. Anthony Nwabueze Onyenweaku - President. 2. Ijoma Uchenwa Okpo - Secretary. 3. Nnamdi Donatus Uzoechi. 4. Grant Nwokoma (Esq). 5. Lilian Tony Onyenweaku (Esq)

AIMS & OBJECTIVES: To protect human rights such as the rights of women, youths, children, aged , environmental rights via legal aids, advocacy and access to justice.

Any objection to the Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar general, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: UZOECHI LILIAN OBUMNEKE (ESQ) COUNSEL

This is to inform the general public that the above named Association has applied for Registration to the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

The Trustees Are: 1. Mr Adewuyi Aderemi. 2. Mrs Adewuyi Favour. 3. Amoo Zacheaus Olusola. 4. Morenikeji Ajibola Keji. 5. Mrs Williams Oluwatoyin.

Aims and Objectives are: To prevent accident of all kinds in Nigeria & all Africa sub-regions.


SIGNED: TRUSTEES

This is to inform the general public that the above named body has ap-plied for Registration to the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

The trustees are: 1. Pastor Prince Adeyemi. 2. Mrs. Tonia-Wendy Prince Adeyemi.

Aims and objectives are 1. To preach the gospel of salvation. 2. To bring deliverance to the captive.


SIGNED: Secretary

The general public is hereby notified that the above named FOUNDATION has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission (C.A.C.), Abuja for registration under Part “C” of the Company and Allied Matter Act 1 of 2004.

The Trustees Are:1) Ekpecham Ufuoma - Chairman2) Ekpecham Uzoma - Member 3 Stella Akpotoma - Secretary4 Pastor Ofodile Nzimiro - Member

Aims and Objectives are:1. To cater for the less priviledge in the society2. Creating charitable programmes that would enlighten and sensitize the public on the plight of disadvantage and uneducated young person3. To promote godliness and uprightness Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar General, Corpo-rate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: TRUSTEES

This is to inform the General public that Mr. Ajamu Sunday Adebayo of No. 4 Ogudu Road is suspended in Commandclem Ni-geria Limited (the company) and does not have the legal capacity whatsoever to act, represent and/or negotiate for the company, By this suspension notice effective from the date thereof anyone that deals with Mr. Ajamu Sunday Adedayo does so at his/her peril.

Commandclem Nigeria Limited shall not be liable for any con-tractual relationship or dealings whatsoever entered into with him.

FOR MANAGEMENT

This is to inform the general public that Rev. (Barr) Jesse-Dan-iels Onuigbo of Rev. Jesse-Daniels Onuigbo & Co. No 40 Oriafite Road, Nnewi Anambra State is not the Executive Secretary/Legal Adviser Commandclem Nigeria Limited (The Company) and does not have the legal capacity whatsoever to act, represent and/or negotiate for the company. By this disclaimer notice effective from the date thereof anyone that deals with Rev. (Barr) Jesse-Daniels Onuigbo does so at his/her peril.Commandclem Nigeria Limited shall not be liable. For any contractual relationship or dealings whatsoever entered into with him.

FOR MANAGEMENT

DIVINE EMPOWERMENT CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS NATION FEEDERS FARMERS, YOUTH AND WOMEN ORGANISATION COMPREHENSIVE CHRISTIAN CENTRE

ELITE FAMILY GLOBAL FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL RIGHT OF WAY ASSOCIATION CHAPTER 84 NIGERIA

HUMAN RELIEF ADVOCACY PROGRAMME

THE SHIELD SAFETY FOUNDATION ANGELA NKEMDILINU NKOIDET SHONEKAN AKOREDE OLORUNKEMI

EGBOCHI BENITA CHISOM UMOEBIT UDOCHUKWU VICTORIA

SPIRIT LIFE DOMINION ROYAL EMBASSY

SAINT RALPH ROSE AKPOTOMA FOUNDATION

NOTICE OF SUSPENSION

PLACE YOUR

ADVERT HERE

PLACE YOUR

ADVERT HERE

PLACE YOUR

ADVERT HERE

DISCLAIMER

I, formerly known as Angela Nkemdilim Uchedike is now known as Mrs. Angela Nkemdilinu Nkoidet; all other documents bearing the former name remains valid. First Bank of Nigeria please take note

I, formerly known as Miss Shonekan Akorede Olorunkemi is now known as Mrs. Ayodele Akorede Olorunkemi. All other documents remains valid. The general public should please take note

I, formerly known as Miss Obayedo Benita Chisom now wishes to be known as Mrs. Egbochi Benita Chisom; all other documents bearing the former name remains valid. General public please take note

I, formerly known as Miss Nwakudu Udochukwu Victoria now wishes to be known as Mrs. Umoebit Udochukwu Victoria. All other documents bearing the former name remains valid. General public please take note.


Adamawa Speaker survives removal plotWale AkintundeYola

The attempted plot to remove the Speaker, by some law-makers, was, however, unsuccessful, as his loyalists scuttled the move.

It would be recalled that Fintiri was the ar-rowhead of the process that ousted former gov-ernor, Murtala Nyako. He had also been at log-gerheads with the state Governor, Barrister Bala James Ngillari and some law-makers, who per-ceived him a traitor, for failing to secure a return ticket for them during the last controversial

Peoples Democratic Par-ty (PDP) primaries, in Abuja.

Before now there had been exchange of harsh words between the ex-ecutive and the legisla-ture, following an adver-

torial, in which Ngillari allegedly accused Presi-dent Goodluck Jona-than of betraying him, while another adverto-rial accused Fintiri of treachery towards for-mer vice-president, Al-haji Abubakar Atiku and Murtala Nyako.

The brains behind the plot to remove Fintiri were hurriedly removed from their positions, which included the Ma-jority Leader, Hon. Sali-hu Kabilo, who replaced by former majority lead-er, Hon. Ishaku Bala, and Jerry Kundusi, the Chief Whip, who was replaced by a Finitiri ally – Hon. Aminu Iya Abbas.

Vote for me, Umeh begs Idemili NorthAfam Aminu ChimezieOnitsha

As the All Progres-sives Grand Alliance (APGA) concluded its cam-paigns in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, the Na-tional Chairman of the party and Anambra Cen-tral Senatorial candidate in the fourthcoming election, Chief Sir Victor Umeh, has appealed to the voters there to back him. Idemili North and South have the high-est number of registered voters in Anambra Central Senatorial Zone. For that, it has remained the strong-hold of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senato-rial candidate, Sen. Chris Ngige, who hails from Alor community in Idemili South.

Addressing party sup-porters at St. Philip’s An-glican Church Field, Ogidi, on Monday, Umeh said that being one of the local gov-ernment with the highest number of registered vot-ers in the zone, APGA was relying on the electorates

to vote for all its candidates from the area.

The APGA boss disclosed that time had passed when voters cast their votes sim-ply because one hailed from a particular area.

He, however, charged the electorates to remain stead-fast with APGA during and after the elections, adding that one of his major prior-ities would be to champion the implementation of the recommendations of the defunct National Confer-ence, which included the creation of additional state in the South-East.

A member of APGA Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Romeo Ezeonwuka, commended Governor Willie Obiano for his nu-merous achievements barely one year in office and hoped, as a result, that the electorates in Idemili North would vote for all APGA candidates.

Ezeonwuka observed that owing to the emer-gence of credible candi-dates from Idemili North, the APC was dead and bur-ied in the area.

NLC president demands review of minimum wage

S’East APC berates PDP over Enugu trade fair complex

Akor Ejumene Abuja

The newly-elected president of Nigeria La-bour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, on Monday, demanded the evaluation of the N18, 000 minimum wage for Nige-rian workers.

Wabba, who formally as-sumed duty, on Monday, the Labour House, Surulere, Lagos, said the N18,000 minimum wage for workers could not take the workers home in this hash economy and had to be evaluated.

He said there was a need to look into the 18,000 mini-mum wage and consider its increment due to the infla-tion rate in the country.

Said he: “The inflation is due plummeting value of the Naira compared to the dollar, which is currently N198 to $1.

Wabba, however, called for alternative policies that would ease the effects of the inflation on workers.”

He also called for an end to fuel scarcity, in the inter-est of national economic de-velopment.

“Every process of devel-opment revolves round fuel. Why should we continue to import fuel when we can re-fine it here?’’, he asked.

He said his administra-tion had laid down plans, which would help in seeing workers through the aus-terity period. “We have, in our manifesto, fleshed out some ways to cushion the effect of inflation on work-ers”, he said.

Moses OyediranEnugu

The All Progres-sives Congress (APC), spokesperson in the South-East geopolitical zone, Mr. Osita Okechuk-wu, has flayed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government for its failure to construct the permanent site of Enugu International Trade Fair complex, six years on.

Okechukwu who spoke on the matter in Enugu, accused President Good-luck Jonathan of treating Ndigbo with levity.

According to him: “The 26th Enugu International Trade Fair is ongoing now. Every year, the or-ganisers of the fair keep appealing to Jonathan, to construct the permanent, site as was done in Lagos

and Kaduna.“In this country, we

have three major ethnic nationalities, Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. The citing of the three international trade fair complexes in Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu represents the regional structure of the country and is meant to engender even economic growth of the regions.

“For the PDP-led gov-ernment to have aban-doned the Enugu Trade Fair in ruins is a testa-ment to the marginalisa-tion Ndigbo has suffered in the past 16 years.

Daily Times recalled that the federal govern-ment designated Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu as International Trade Fair complexes, while it had completed construction works in Lagos and Ka-duna, not so Enugu.

Wabba

Fintiri

“The armed forces have always been actively involved in providing security and there is nothing contrary to the provisions of the constitution or the armed forces act in so doing that says the police are to be deployed for the conduct of elections.”

26 Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015

Æ sLaw

Police do not have exclusive security right during elections – Emukpoeruo


determine how the president is going to determine the operation-al use of the armed forces.

Now, under the armed forces act, there are specific provi-sions that now elaborates on how the president is to deter-mine the operational use of the armed forces, and those provi-sions make it very clear that the president, in determining the operational use of the armed forces, may deploy them in aid of civil authorities and civil ac-tivities to maintain peace with-in Nigeria and, certainly, I think that should not need much of a rocket science to know that without peace and order there cannot be a free and fair elec-tion. So, there is nothing illegal or unconstitutional in the presi-dent deploying the armed forces to secure the country during the period of election.

This has always been the case right from 1999. The armed forc-es have always participated in securing the peace during elec-tions. They don’t participate in conducting the elections. Theirs is to provide security.

They did it in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 and in other election that has been conducted in be-tween this period. The armed forces have always been actively involved in providing security and there is nothing contrary to the provisions of the constitu-tion or the armed forces act in so doing that says the police are to be deployed for the conduct of elections. There is nothing that says so, even in the Police Act; there is nothing that says Police should be deployed for the conduct of the election, but everybody knows that police are there to maintain law and order and that function is also conferred on the armed forces in the operational use to which the president is explicitly em-powered to put the army.

But under the electoral act,

who is empowered to provide

security during election?

The electoral act itself does not deal with who is to provide secu-rity during election; the electoral act certainly will not make such

Robert Emukpoeruo read law at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo Uni-

versity (OAU), Ife, Osun State, and was called to the Bar almost three decades ago. In this inter-view with PETER FOWOYO, he spoke on a decision by the Federal High Court that frowns at lawyers disclosing their cli-ents fund in a money-laundering case, the forthcoming general election and sundry issues.

Emukpoeruo

There is a judgment of a

Federal High Court, where

the court said it is unprofes-

sional for lawyers to disclose

their clients fund in a mon-

ey-laundering case. What is

your take on it?

Well, that is a very interesting judgment. The judgment itself is a very important one in the legal jurisprudence, because my take on it is that the issues that were canvassed in the case were issues that could not necessarily be seen as substantive. For example, one of the grounds this case was decided was whether this Special Control Unit for Money Launder-ing (SCUML) is a juristic body. Is it a creation of law for it to seek to regulate the activities of law-yers? It is even the Ministry for Trade and Commerce that set-up this body and is operating it in conjunction with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commis-sion (EFCC). Are they juristic bodies…do they have control over lawyers? Are they the ones that call lawyers to the Bar…are they the ones that issue them practicing certificates?

All these were issues that were considered in that case and the judge ruled that the SCUML is not a juristic body. It is not a body known to law to start issuing di-rective to anybody, not to talk of lawyers. So, it cannot regulate lawyers because there is already a body set up under the Legal Practitioners Act to regulate the activities of lawyers. That is why I said it is a case that focused more on the legality of SCUML and the legality of the provision itself. Is the provision legal? And the court found that the provisions were

unconstitutional and they were contrary to the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act, which had made elaborate provisions to regulate lawyers in the conduct of their business. To that extent, I do not think the judgment can be faulted because, frankly, the first time I also heard this SCUML, I wondered if it was an agency created by law and given legal personality to act by itself with rights, and that is part of the deci-sions the court came to rightly. It is not a legal body; they don’t have any rights to be sued or sue, so it certainly cannot regulate the con-ducts of lawyers. It is not so much of the court trying to exempt lawyers from money laundering activity, it is the legal issues that were canvassed and resolved in favour of the Nigerian Bar As-sociation. The APC campaign group has called on the Nigerian government to obey the Court of Appeal judgment by keeping the military out of election.

Do the armed forces have

any role to play in the coun-

try’s election?

The recent judgment of the Court of Appeal from the gu-bernatorial election appeal from Ado-Ekiti made a pronounce-ment that the armed forces of Nigeria, under the provisions of the constitution and under other laws, has no statutory role to play in the conduct of the election and that the President has no power under any law to deploy them for security purposes during the conduct of the election.

Firstly that pronouncement of the Court of Appeal will appear not to have taken into consider-ation all of the relevant provi-sions of the constitution and the armed forces act that deals with the issue. The pronouncement of the Court of Appeal did not take cognizance of the fact that the president, as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is vest-ed with the power by the constitu-tion to determine the operational use to which the armed forces of the federation may be put to anywhere in Nigeria. That right that is conferred on the president is a right that is conferred by the constitution to determine the op-erational use of the armed forces as the commander-in-chief. The power itself is not vested in the judicial arm of government to

Law Editor: Peter Fowoyo


Emukpoeruo

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 27 Law

‘President can appoint ADC from armed forces’a provision. All that the electoral

act specifically provides for is for

the presence of policemen at each

polling unit; they are the only se-

curity agency that are specifically

allowed to receive polling units

results, copies of each should be

given to them. It is not as if they

are specifically mandated to pro-

vide security and, most certainly,

there is nothing in the electoral

act that provides that it is the

police that must exclusively pro-

vide security. That is part of their

duty; maintaining law and order

is their duty but what is given

to them under the electoral act

is that they will be entitled to be

given copies of the polling units

results at the end of the election,

and the main reason for that is

also to vouch safe the authenticity

of the results that emanates from

any polling unit.

The INEC has improved upon the voting system with the introduction of PVCs, do you think this is in line with the electoral act which pro-hibits e-voting?

Well, I suppose the point of

views may be more than one of

those issues but, once we take

voting in its definition by judi-

cial authority that voting is not

limited to the actual act of cast-

ing the ballot but involves the

entire electoral process mainly

accreditations and everything,

then it means that there may well

be a problem in the introduc-

tion of the card readers by the

INEC, because the electoral act

expressly prohibits electronic

voting in very clear terms. Now,

if you take voting in its narrow

sense of dropping your ballot in

the box, we may say that is what

the electoral act prohibits but we

have regard to judicial authority

that has defined voting to include

the act of accreditation and that

voting is a process that is not lim-

ited to merely casting your ballot.

Then it means that the introduc-

tion of the card readers may con-

stitutes a clear infraction of the

provisions of the electoral act

that prohibits electronic voting.

Because the truth of the matter

is that the foundation of any elec-

tion is accreditation and without

accreditation, you cannot have

any vote because the voters need

to be accredited and, when you’re

talking about accreditation, it is

the process of ascertaining that

any person who presents himself

to a presiding officer or to a poll

clerk is to be registered to vote.

He has a voters’ card with which

he can identify himself and his

name is ticked on the voters reg-

ister. That is the process of ac-

creditation. Now if you want to

take that process that is more or

less a foundation of the voting

process and introduce an elec-

tronic device, which is going to

take over the process of accredi-

tation because that is what is go-

ing to be used to ascertain that

this person is duly a registered

voter, who is entitled to be given

a ballot paper to go and cast his

ballot, then it is e-voting.

If you look at it from the nar-

row perspective that voting is

limited to just dropping your

ballot paper in the ballot box, we

may say that it is not a violation

of the electoral act but we have

regard to numerous judicial au-

thorities, unanimously saying

that voting is not limited to mere-

ly casting of ballot. It is the entire

process of the election starting

with accreditation, then there is

a problem that INEC itself is on

a collision course with the provi-

sions of the electoral act, which

prohibits electronic voting. I

know there are cases pending in

court concerning the use of PVC,

because the essential require-

ment for voting is that you are

a duly registered voter and any

person who is a duly registered

voter, there should be no basis for

disenfranchising that person to

cast his vote, which is essentially

what INEC has done by bringing

in the PVC and there is going to

be a card reader. If you have a

temporary voters’ card, you can-

not vote, regardless of the fact

that your name is on the register

as a duly registered voter.

So, that creates a lot of prob-

lem, unless if the voters register

they are going to display will

now be a voters register that

contains only names of those

persons who have PVC. But

once it is the same register that

was used in 2011, because the

so called temporary voters card

was issued by INEC, people vot-

ed with that voters card in 2011

election, the electoral act that

was used in 2011 is still in op-

eration in 2015 elections, if the

temporary voters card was valid

in one election, why would it be-

come invalid and illegal in this

election without change in the

law? All these are the issues that

need to be looked at very, very

critically. Moreso when INEC

is having challenges with the

distribution of the PVCs. Yes,

maybe the card reader may aid

in checking electoral malprac-

tices, but it has to be ascertained

whether it can achieve that, be-

cause it has never been tested

anywhere. Why do they now

want to use it to disenfranchise

those who are clearly registered

voter under the constitution?

A right activist, Mr. Femi Falana SAN, has accused the President of breaching the law by his use of the military as his aide-de-camp, stating that this violates section 419 of the Police Act, which stipu-lates that the president shall have as his ADC a police of-ficer not below the rank of superintendent. Do you think the President breached the constitution with his action?

Now section 419 of the police

act that you’ve made mention

of, with regards to the ADC to

the president; all that that sec-

tion says is ‘Subject to the ap-

proval of the president, the

Inspector-General of Police

may appoint a superior officer

to act as ADC to the president.

There is nothing in this provi-

sion that makes it compulsory

for the president to appoint a

policeman as his ADC. In fact,

there is nothing in this act that

makes it compulsory for the IG

to appoint any superior officer

as ADC but, more importantly

is that the section itself starts

with ‘subject to the approval of

the president.’ In other words,

there is a power conferred on

the president; the appointment

of the ADC is subject to his ap-

proval. If he does not approve

then certainly there can’t be ap-

pointment.

The other leg of it is that the

section itself specifically talked

about the IG appointing, so it is

not mandatory for the IG to ap-

point. If the IG does not appoint

then what happens? In order

words there is no duty imposed

by this section on the IG to ap-

point, it is entirely discretionary,

what all these suggest is that it is

not compulsory all these words

‘May’ mean that it is not manda-

tory that the ADC of the presi-

dent must be a member of the

police. There is certainly nothing

in this section that says so. All it

means is that if it is going to be

a police officer, the appointment

should be done by the IG, subject

to the approval of the president,

that is all it says, but that it must

exclusively be a police officer.

Certainly, this section does not

say so and I do not think there is

any necessity for so restricting

the provisions of that section,

but one also have to bear in mind

that the president, as command-

er in chief of the armed forces,

under the provisions of the

constitution, is vested with the

constitutional power to deter-

mine the operational use of the

armed forces and, in exercising

that constitutional power which

is certainly superior to the pro-

visions of the police act, the

president can determine that his

ADC will be a member of the Air

Force, Navy or the Army, as the

case may be, and in the matter

of the personal security of the

president, I’m aware the brigade

of guards is part of the security

outfit that is also the power the

president is exercising, pur-

suant to the provisions of the

constitution that allows him to

determine the operational use

of the armed forces because he

can set up a specific unit of the

armed forces that will cater for

his personal security and that

will be constitutional.

So, to the extent that the pres-

ident has such constitutional

powers to determine the opera-

tional use of the armed forces is

electing to appoint an army offi-

cer to be his ADC, I believe it is

within his constitutional power

to determine the operational

use of members of the armed

forces, there is nothing illegal

in it, he is certainly not in con-

travention of the provisions of

the police act.

“There is nothing in this provision that makes it compulsory for the president to appoint a policeman as his ADC. In fact, there is nothing in this act that makes it compulsory for the IG to appoint any superior officer as ADC but, more importantly is that the section itself starts with ‘subject to the approval of the president.”

“I know there are cases pending in court concerning the use of PVC, because the

essential requirement for voting is that you are a duly registered voter and there should be no basis for disenfranchising that person

to cast his vote, which is essentially what INEC has done by bringing in the PVC and

there is going to be a card reader.”

DPR maintains status quo as deadline for defaulting marginal operators pass



Business Times

Tony Nwakaegho

Indications has emerged that the Department of Pe-troleum Resources (DPR)

may have reneged on the 15th March deadline, given for the re-vocation of licenses belonging to 16 unproductive Marginal field operators licensed since 2003.

Speaking with the Daily Times on telephone on Monday 15th March, the Head, Basinal Assess-ment and Lease Management of DPR, Mr J.A Babalola said that no decision has been taken on these companies yet because their issues are still being re-viewed, while the DPR wants to ensure that the issue is given a human face in arriving at a fair decision.

According to him, the process takes time in which case, all av-enues will have to be exhausted in arriving at the right decision that will be acceptable to all.

Daily Times recalls that in its publication of 5th March, that the DPR confirmed its stance on the deadline given to 16 default-ing Marginal fields that have not been producing since they were issued licenses in 2003, where the department threatened to revoke their licenses.

Meanwhile, industry players in the oil and gas sector equally decried the delay in the renewal of expired onshore and shallow-water licenses held by Inter-national Oil Companies (IOCs) which is said to be denying the Federal Government additional revenue.

According to industry sourc-es, the IOCs have continued to produce from the Oil Mining Li-censes (OMLs), some of which expired seven years ago. While ExxonMobil’s expired licenses were renewed in 2012 and Chev-

ron’s in January this year, other oil majors, including Total, Shell and Eni are yet to get their ex-pired licenses renewed.

Shell Petroleum Development Company holds an interest in six shallow-water offshore leases, of which five – OML 71, 72, 74, 77 and 74 – expired on November 30, 2008, but have not been renewed by the government.

The sources canvassed that core problem stems from the non-existent provision on relinquish-ment, which in effect means that the Nigerian government does not have a policy in place as to what to do when licenses run their course.

The Deputy Manager, Public Affairs, Department of Petro-leum Resources, Mr. George Ene-Ita, however said the renewal of the licenses would be pending until the oil companies met the requirements prescribed by law and regulations.

Charles Okonji

Research findings by the Ni-gerian Institute for Oceanogra-phy and Marine Research (NI-OMR) has revealed that Nigeria can chose to end importation of sardine and substitute supply from the untapped 200metres of exclusive economic zone which remains unexplored.

Specifically, the fish canning industry that once boomed in Nigeria over 30 years ago can be resuscitated as Nigerian waters contain commercially sustain-able quantity of Arioma Bondi and Tuna fish, stated the Execu-tive Director of NIOMR, Gbola Akande, in Lagos.

“Nigeria has what we call 200miles exclusive economic zone, which has not been tapped. We have tuna in our waters, tuna is enormous, and we have done research to prove that you can harvest 10,000 tons on yearly ba-sis without adversely affecting the stock. The records are there.

“So, this fish (Arioma Bondi) I’m talking about that can replace Titus is an import substitution; and what made people to start canning in Nigeria in those days is that they depended on importa-tion, and they all collapsed when importation went high. Morocco did not depend on importation; they depend on what is caught in their sea (the Mediterranean). They can it and sometimes when you open it you see three pieces of fish.

“We have fishes in our waters that if you want to set up fish canning industry in Nigeria, you can conveniently do so. We have researches to show that. So, what we are looking at is what we call import substitution. Ghana to-day is using Tuna to get foreign exchange. When you go to the market, you see a lot of canned Tuna, and when you look prop-erly you will see that one of those canned Tuna is Starkist and it is

a brand from Ghana. “One of the justifications that

made the government to invest in us is that the in-shore waters (50 metres) is where the over 200 trawlers we have in Nigeria op-erate. But the resources are not as it used to be in those days, not as abundant as it used to be, and that is why some of the fishing companies folded up. You can count the number of some of the fishing companies that are oper-ating on your fingertips. So, we approached the government that we needed to go outside the 50me-tres for fishing,” he said.

Akande explained that the in-stitute recently received a vessel by the federal government to fur-ther explore the viability of their findings.

“It is a combination research vessel which can do both fisher-ies and oceanographic research. But in the area of fisheries, it is a vessel that can do both bottom, mid water and top water fishing. If you look at the trawlers we have in Nigeria today, they can only do what we call bottom trol-ley. They can only operate at the bottom of the sea. Thanks to the Federal Government who gave us a vessel that was built in Au-gust 2014. We were in Poland to launch this vessel and it was ac-tually launched by the first Lady of the Federal Republic of Nige-ria which finally arrived Nigeria in October 2014 and right now the vessel is on the sea,” he stated.

Akande said the vessel cost close to N1.5billion and it was purchased by the Federal Gov-ernment to buttress the impor-tance of putting fish protein on the table for the teeming popula-tion of Nigeria, “otherwise, they couldn’t have invested. So, it was an investment that we are also go-ing to pay back in the form of en-suring that we have food security in Nigeria. That would be our own pay back for the investment of that magnitude.”

Nigeria has excess capacity to end sardine imports –NIOMR

L-R Oral Care Consultant, Mrs. Oge MacJohnson; Profession Manager East West Africa, Cheslin Twigg; Marketing Director, Colgate Palmolive Nigeria, Mrs. Hannah Oyebanjo and Brand Manager, Mr. Gbadesola Adenre

Akande Research, fishing vessel

Business Editor: Emmanuel OgbonnayaEmail: [email protected]

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 29 Interview

Insecurity, no threat to Turkish investors in Nigeria - ABINAT Director

What is the objective

of your association (ABI-

NET)?

The objective of ABINET is to bridge Nigeria and Turkey in terms of business and invest-ment

Can you highlight the suc-

cess of the association?

We have been able to bring 20 investors to Nigeria, they came here with their families from Tur-key. About three Nigerians have also successfully opened business offices in Turkey, one of them opened a factory.

What sector of the economy

do the Turkish businessmen

invest in?

Apart from Turkish colleges, Education and Health, there are construction companies, Furni-ture companies, some quarries and some small scale business.

What is the procedure for

Nigerians that want to invest

in Turkey?

It is very easy, if any Nigerian wants to open a company in Tur-key, he needs to register a compa-ny and identify a sector or busi-ness, just like what is obtainable in Nigeria.

What role do you play in fa-

cilitating such businesses?

Like Nigerian Investment Pro-motion Council (NIPC), when companies come from outside we can present the companies and register the companies in two days’ time.

Which one is your focus, is it

Nigerians investing in Turkey

or Turkish investment in

Nigeria?

Ours is to completely bring businesses to Nigeria since we are registered in Nigeria. We fo-cus on Health and Education. We are trying to do our best to bring more and more Turkish investors to Nigerians. At the moment we have 310 Nigerians as members and 50 to 60 Turkish members of our association.

The process is very easy, you pick the application form, the rel-evant papers and show your tax identification number, and the annual payment; which is N80, 000.

Any other thing you want to

say about the association?

We also organize seminar for our members in specific subjects on how to do some exportation, we bring professionals from UK, from US, from Turkey. We also organise seminars in collabora-tion with NPIC, ministry of in-vestments, and in collaboration with other bodies within Nigeria. We have a good understanding with NACCIMA, NIPC and other chambers of commerce. Many of them have signed memoranda with us.

If I am businessmen and

what to invest in Turkey what

will I do?

Not only in Turkey, our main umbrella which is called TUS-KON is confederation and we are in 146 countries, for example if one of our members what to do business in Germany, we get in touch with them and make things easier. We are officially in India, China, Moscow, Washington DC, Brussels, Addis Ababa and many others, we are also business part-ner for Africa Union (AU), we also organize programmes for AU, we are also business partner to Eu-ropean Union (EU), we don’t just want to focus only on Turkey.

For example if you want to go to Brussels, we have association and offices in Brussels, we can call them to make things easy for our members. Same in Ethiopia, Kenya, Gabon, Senegal and oth-ers.

What is the target for ABI-

NAT in this 2015?

Our target for this year is to reach 1000, but the number is not important to us but the effective-ness, also on the other hand we are trying to open a skill acquisi-tion centre in Abuja to help the unemployed, we have applied to FCT administration for the land and very soon we are going to start the construction

Which areas are you looking

at for the skills acquisition?

We will be looking at fourteen different courses, some of the ex-perts that we handle the courses we come from Turkey, Nigeria and others from the Nigerian-Turkish centre.

Mr. Yavuz Zenheri is the Director of Association of Business People and Investors of Nigeria and Turkey (ABINAT), in this in-terview with ONJEWU DICKSON he bares his mind on how the association is promoting business opportunities between Turkey and Nigeria. He also speaks on the perceived insecurity in the country and other wide range of issues. Excerpts

Any challenges so far?

Mainly our challenges are inse-curity and power failure, the rest are common problems. Power is the main concern because inse-curity is only affecting part of Nigeria. If you are looking at Ni-geria from outside, you will think that Boko Haram is everywhere, but there is no internal war in Nigeria, the media is only trying to blow up the issue of insecurity, which I think is intentional in my view. If you watch some channels you will think there is a war in every parts of Nigeria. But when they come here especially the Turkish people, they see Nigeria as a good democracy.

Yearly we bring up to 100 to 200 businessmen from Turkey to Ni-geria and at the same time will take more than 500 businessmen yearly from Nigeria to see busi-ness opportunities in Turkey through ABINAT.

How long have you been in

Nigeria?

I have been here for twelve years and as association, I have been here for three years. I have been to many states like Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Yobe and Abuja

How far has it been in the

three years with the associa-

tion?

The association was like a com-ponent of our schools in Nigeria, Nigerian

Turkish International Colleges (NTIC). In 2006 we tried making it (association) as a bridge with parents, we were doing the asso-ciation with parents of students, it came to a point that we said we should make it more and profes-sional by engaging Nigerian busi-nessmen , then in 2011 we formed the association.

What is the process to be-

come a member of ABINAT?

‘‘The media is only trying to blow up the issue of insecurity, which I think is intentional in my view.’’

Adesola Akindele

To further increase the awareness on financial literacy, the global money week a yearly event, Which took place between the 9th- 17th of march 2015, has been used as a platform by Ajapa World Limited, to initiate the Aja-pa World financial literacy club, geared towards rejuvenating fi-nancial values amongst Nigerian Children through fun but educa-tive methods.

According to CEO Ajapa World, Mr. Akin Braithwaite, Ajapa World is set to roll out its finan-cial literacy club to over 1,000 public primary schools in Lagos state.

“Our goal is to reach 100,000 children in the first phase, which we intend to actualise by the end of the year’s second quarter, after which we roll out to the whole of Nigeria in the not too distant fu-ture” he stated.

Ajapa World which has been in existence since 2003, started with the production and publication of children books and cartoons and has since diversified.

“We got involved with the fi-nancial literacy drive 2 years ago and being a children’s company we saw that this was something we really and truly had to teach children, especially children in the lower income bracket, last year we partnered with UNICEF and finally got approval from the state

Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to roll out the Aj-apa Financial Literacy Club in all states of the country” Mr. Akin stated.

In commemoration of the Glob-al Money Week, the Ajapa World pupils have had a long rich and overwhelmingly fulfilling expe-rience as they have been taken to Financial Institutions to show them how money is managed in different ways, shopping malls to teach them how to spend and shop wisely for themselves and their families and also the Nige-rian Stock Exchange where they were exposed to the operations of the exchange house and encour-aged to begin an investment plan with as little as N200.

“The whole essence of this event is to raise awareness in fi-nancial literacy and make our children productive, economic citizens. The children in the low income bracket have been left be-hind which is dangerous to the economy because that is where we have defiant behaviors.

Firm targets 100,000 pupils for financial literacy by Q2

Zenheri

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015Real estate 30

Emmanuel Ogbonnaya

Today, searching for a property to rent or buy in Nigeria, could be a ramble

in the woods or a stroll in the park, due to the average level of tech-savviness among Nigerians, in spite of an array of new technologies available at our fingertips.

More specifically, two types of technol-ogy are becoming increasingly important in easing the stress of searching for prop-erty in the metropolis.

The first is mobile tools – Mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and other new technologies can help you access property information at anytime, anywhere, thanks to thousands of property agents (not quacks) in the country.

Another important type of technology changing the game are tools for collabora-tion and sharing information quickly, like enterprise software. This technology leads to faster, cleaner transactions between real estate agents and buyers.

Increased search efficiencyA few years ago, the biggest gap in real

estate technology was searching for list-ings on pages of newspapers. Today with Web listings, search is ubiquitous, and consumers are able to access real estate listings more quickly and with expanded targeted searches than ever before.

Simply put, smartphones and mobile devices have been the catalyst for speed-ing up the entire real estate process. Con-sumers today should have no shortage of options when it comes to finding homes these days.

The Best Part? A marketplaceMost agents and consumers have access

to all of this technology, but they must work in unison to make the technology platform more impactful and sustainable, this will save both parties a lot of time, en-ergy and money.

Real estate technology is making deals happen more smoothly, making custom-ers’ lives easier and driving more business in the form of referrals.

Recently Lamudi, an online real es-tate marketplace operating in Nigeria, launched the first property hotline for the

Nigerian community. The Dial-4-Home ho-tline has been developed as an extension to Lamudi’s market-leading Internet plat-form to extend access to the country’s larg-est database of properties to mobile users without internet access.

By calling the Dial-4-Home number, house-hunters can inquire about proper-ties for sale or rent. Users will be able to get over-the-phone access to listings from over 7,000 property agents and developers who currently list their properties on the Lamudi Nigeria website.

Many view Nigeria as a market with significant potential for Internet-based businesses, with over 60 percent of all Internet connections made from an esti-mated 12 million smartphone and tablet devices. However, there are more than four times as many mobile subscribers who do not have access to the Internet via their device. With the launch of Dial-4-Home, Lamudi aims to enable property-seekers without an Internet connection to access the same kind of service that users enjoy

at Lamudi.com.ng.“Technological innovation is not only

about what you can achieve on the Inter-net,” said Obi Ejimofo, Managing Director of Lamudi Nigeria. “We need to ensure technology remains relevant, accessible and valuable to the broadest spectrum of users. We developed Dial-4-Home to as-sist those property-seekers with little or no access to the Internet. Through voice calls and SMS, they can now search a wide selection properties, from affordable hous-ing to luxury accommodation,” he said.

“Ever since our launch just over a year ago, we always had the intention to bring Dial-4-Home to the market. In 2014 we fo-cused most of our efforts on building the broadest possible database of properties, real estate agents and property develop-ers to ensure maximum customer choice. Now we are extending that choice to as many Nigerians as possible,” Mr. Ejimofo added.

Property search: Get smart, use technology

Even something as mundane as stairs can be ab-solutely beautiful. How often do you spend your days thinking about stairs? Probably not all that often, but stairs play a pivotal role in everyday life.

Traditionally, stairs are simple things, designed to serve one purpose: get you to higher ground. Many people step the stairs in their house up by adding wood floors, plush carpeting, or fancy banisters. Whatever your choice is, just know that your stair-case can add more posh and style to your house.

Staircase Ideas

flower petal staircase. Lace staircase

Tree banister Timber stripe staircase

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015 31

TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015 VOL. 1. NO.67 Price: N150

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Oh Our PMAN!Charly Boy

Last week I visited the two warring factions of my once great Union, PMAN. It wasn’t a sur-prise that I still see the same neither here nor there people in circula-tion, hanging around. Both the “Find me some-thing” kinda people, or the types who can produce any kinda’ document you want. My heart goes out for the two people in ques-tion, Kevin and Pretty.

Life is never fair and human beings seem not to ever learn. To survive and thrive in a now rag-tag Union as PMAN, no thanks to Dele Abiodun, we need to always be on our toes, alert and agile; no room for slackers and draggers, jooooor.

My one term Presidency taught me so much. It was fun then that my role as Charlyboy and my leader-ship style were juxtaposed by different adjectives in ways I could not necessar-ily be defined. Machiavelli style, soft yet so fierce, gentle and rough, kind and mean, a little twist in character as my journey then unveiled before me on a daily basis, bending corners, roundabouts, junctions and dead ends. Any which way, I am

proud to say that I was on top of my game, but it came with a heavy price. I saw orishirishi.

I learnt many things on that journey, to allow a little softness, I think it’s called diplomacy, a little hardness, sometimes mis-taken for gragra. Com-plete madness, defined as Charlyboyisim. I found myself adjusting like a chameleon to different situations that called for different solutions.

My early experience in life and ruggedness as a true nwa Biafra helped me weather the storm in 2003 as PMAN’s Presi-dent. A position which I actually didn’t take inter-est in at first until a lot of people who believed I was what PMAN needed as at that time coerced me into wanting to serve the association as their presi-dent. PMAN was at its lowest when I became the President, her image and finance were in the gutter. But I was ready to pull my best moves as this was an association I was a mem-ber of and if there was anything I ever wanted for the association and its members, it was a tremen-dous improvement from the way things were. Like

a multi lingual Nigeria, PMAN was a mixed grill of jabgagatis, people from different backgrounds, usually dregs, illiterates, semi or night school, myopic, cliques of people whose career was to mess up anything good whether they were part of it or not. Hmmmmm the people? You either had big balls to deal with them or allowed yourself to be messed up by most of the nonentities because of the high level of illiteracy in the union.

King Sunny Ade, the late Sonny Okosun, Femi Lasode, the late Mustafa Amego, Bolaji Rosiji, Tee Mac, and even the very, very illegal Dele Abiodun all passed through PMAN as presidents. They might have had a game plan but their parachute never opened hence their tenor was uneventful and flat, not to be remembered.

Tony Okoroji was one good president PMAN had, his tenure brought “Glamour” and reminded Nigerians that Artistes were not just drop outs. He had what it took to put PMAN on the conscious-ness of the nation. People who mattered took notice. He surrounded himself with very creative people,

and the First and second editions of the Nigerian music awards was born. It was at that time, like our own Oscars. He had a plan, BUT...............

The late Christy Es-sien Ibokwe was another leader who made sure that artistes had a lot of play-ing engagements. Many had jobs during her reign. Forget for a moment that she led Nigerian artistes to drum up support for ABACHA.

Bottom line is this: to be a successful PMAN leader, one needs to have (a) creative intellectual swag, plus surrounding themselves with positive and progressive souls, (b) a mission and a convic-tion that’s hard to bend, (c) you must already have a thriving business (d) must command respect in government and corpo-rate circles, (e) members must love you for the extra value you bring to their lives or FEAR you because they can’t decode your un-predictability. I had all the above and a bag of potato chips. Yesooooooo, it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is

broken at every opportu-nity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.

My tenure saw the vig-orous and dynamic re-branding of the Union. After that came the advo-cacy for better pay for the Nigerian artiste from the corporate world. We were tired of the flooding of for-eign artistes on our soil, and the great disrespect some corporate bodies had for local stars. It was a tenure of FIRSTS. We fought piracy, we insured most members to the tune of one million each. We made corporate Nigeria pay the union millions for bringing in foreign ar-tistes when our national stars were the greatest consumers of their prod-ucts. We initiated the first corporate night, where we had to breakdown the multi billion Naira indus-try for corporate Nigeria. We had unending confer-ences to get musicians to understand and fight for their damn rights. We were in bed with the Ni-gerian Stock Exchange, banks chased us around for our accounts.

You either had big balls to deal with them or allowed yourself to be messed up by most of the nonentities because of the high level of illiteracy in the union.

TO BE CONTINUED ON FRIDAY

Published by FOLIO COMMUNICATIONS LTD, Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja.

website: www.dailytimes.com.ng; email: [email protected]. Tel: 018447948. EDITOR: YINKA OLUJIMI News Hotlines: 08138773277, 08173901838. Advert Hotlines: 08169118913, 08075038528

We need to renegotiateNigeria – Dokubo-Asari

Police do not have exclusive securityright during elections – Emukpoeruo



Politics

P26P 8

P 28P14

Law News BusinessJ J J J

“I see Nigeria as an illegitimate state, because states are built by the will of the people. People decide to build a state; it is not imposed. Nigeria was imposed on us by the British.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9


Æ s8

Politics

In this interview with MATHEW DADIYA and UCHE OBI, former president

of Ijaw Youth Council and found-er, Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Abubachree Dokubo Asari, renews calls for the renegotiation of the Nigerian polity. Not one to pull punches, he expresses strong views about the Boko Haram, the distri-bution of the country’s oil wealth, as well as President Goodluck Jonathan and his main challenger in the coming general election, Ma-jor General Muhammadu Buhari. Excerpts:

You are different things to

different people. Even your

surname is a ground for de-

bate. Are you Asari-Dokubo

or Dokubo-Asari…and, for the

records, could you give a brief

background of yourself?

My names are Alhaji Mujahid Abubachree Dokubo-Asari, not Asari-Dokubo. I was born on June 1, 1964, to Hon Justice Melford Goodhead and Mrs Okukuba Do-kubo Goodhead. She was a school teacher. I attended Baptist Prima-ry School, King Amachree Prima-ry School and Township School. I also attended St Scholastica High School, Bekana; Baptist Science School, and then proceeded to the University of Calabar in 1985 to read Law. I left the university in 1988 without a degree, and went to Rivers State University of Science and Technology to continue my Law programme. I again left. Af-ter that, I have gone through a lot of certifications in different fields of studies. I have certificates in Peace and Conflict Resolution, in Small Arms Deployment, Quranic Recitation from several countries, among many others.

You own a number of

schools, including a university

outside Nigeria. Why did you

decide to establish your busi-

nesses overseas?

I am a businessman. I run a chain of schools - The King Ama-chree Royal Academy that has a group of schools in Cotonou, Be-nin Republic. I started my busi-ness here but the government of Nigerian, under former President Umaru Yar’Adua, closed down

Dokubo-Asari

We need to renegotiate Nigeria – Dokubo-Asari

my businesses, arrested all the expatriates who were working for me – about eight of them. When they could not find anything in-criminating, they deported them. They came in combined forces - Customs, Immigration, Army, Air force, Navy and the Police. My property, worth more than $1 million, were seized in 2008, and have not been returned to me up till today. So, I decided to relocate my businesses to the Republic of Benin. My schools are doing well. They are among the best schools. We came tops in many competitions. Recently, we de-feated the British International School, which is one of the most expensive schools in this part of the world, at the finals. More than 50 percent of the students in that school are on my scholarships.

Are they all from Nigeria?

No. They are from different countries. We have Congolese,

Kenyans, Guineans, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin Republic and Sen-egal, among others.

You made a statement ear-

lier that your property, worth

over $1 million, was seized by

the Yar’Adua government.

Have you made any formal re-

quest to President Goodluck

Jonathan to reclaim them?

Yes, I have made requests and every attempt to President Goodluck Jonathan to retrieve my property, but he keeps telling me…“You know, ehm, if I do am now, them go say because you be my brother na him make me give you the things or I pay you the money.” (If I do it now, they will say it is because you are my broth-er, and that that’s why I returned the property or give you monetary compensation).

Even the guns I returned to Obasanjo, they’ve not finished paying me for them. When I made peace with Obasanjo before he cunningly arrested me, I returned 3200-plus rifles. They were to pay N150,000 for each rifle. Each Gen-eral Purpose Machine Gun, N1.2 million, and each rocket launcher N1.2 million.

In total, how much are you

being owed?

The government owed me more than N1 billion at that time. Now, in the black market, one AK47 rifle costs N400,000. So, if you put the cost together, na big money bi dat (it’s a big sum).

Do you still have hope that

the Federal Government will

pay you this money?

One day, maybe I would be paid. But what we are trying to say, my brother, is that Goodluck Jona-than has displeased us to please them. But, even at that, they are not happy. So, the whole thing is that people say a lot of things, and we laugh. Why should Dangote make so much money in Nigeria and Dokubo-Asari does not have the right to make it? Why should Femi Otedola make so much money? Wale Tinubu makes so

Politics Editor: Akinjide Akintola

DPR maintains status quo as deadline for defaulting marginal operators pass



Business Times

Tony Nwakaegho

Indications has emerged that the Department of Pe-troleum Resources (DPR)

may have reneged on the 15th March deadline, given for the re-vocation of licenses belonging to 16 unproductive Marginal field operators licensed since 2003.

Speaking with the Daily Times on telephone on Monday 15th March, the Head, Basinal Assess-ment and Lease Management of DPR, Mr J.A Babalola said that no decision has been taken on these companies yet because their issues are still being re-viewed, while the DPR wants to ensure that the issue is given a human face in arriving at a fair decision.

According to him, the process takes time in which case, all av-enues will have to be exhausted in arriving at the right decision that will be acceptable to all.

Daily Times recalls that in its publication of 5th March, that the DPR confirmed its stance on the deadline given to 16 default-ing Marginal fields that have not been producing since they were issued licenses in 2003, where the department threatened to revoke their licenses.

Meanwhile, industry players in the oil and gas sector equally decried the delay in the renewal of expired onshore and shallow-water licenses held by Inter-national Oil Companies (IOCs) which is said to be denying the Federal Government additional revenue.

According to industry sourc-es, the IOCs have continued to produce from the Oil Mining Li-censes (OMLs), some of which expired seven years ago. While ExxonMobil’s expired licenses were renewed in 2012 and Chev-

ron’s in January this year, other oil majors, including Total, Shell and Eni are yet to get their ex-pired licenses renewed.

Shell Petroleum Development Company holds an interest in six shallow-water offshore leases, of which five – OML 71, 72, 74, 77 and 74 – expired on November 30, 2008, but have not been renewed by the government.

The sources canvassed that core problem stems from the non-existent provision on relinquish-ment, which in effect means that the Nigerian government does not have a policy in place as to what to do when licenses run their course.

The Deputy Manager, Public Affairs, Department of Petro-leum Resources, Mr. George Ene-Ita, however said the renewal of the licenses would be pending until the oil companies met the requirements prescribed by law and regulations.

Charles Okonji

Research findings by the Ni-gerian Institute for Oceanogra-phy and Marine Research (NI-OMR) has revealed that Nigeria can chose to end importation of sardine and substitute supply from the untapped 200metres of exclusive economic zone which remains unexplored.

Specifically, the fish canning industry that once boomed in Nigeria over 30 years ago can be resuscitated as Nigerian waters contain commercially sustain-able quantity of Arioma Bondi and Tuna fish, stated the Execu-tive Director of NIOMR, Gbola Akande, in Lagos.

“Nigeria has what we call 200miles exclusive economic zone, which has not been tapped. We have tuna in our waters, tuna is enormous, and we have done research to prove that you can harvest 10,000 tons on yearly ba-sis without adversely affecting the stock. The records are there.

“So, this fish (Arioma Bondi) I’m talking about that can replace Titus is an import substitution; and what made people to start canning in Nigeria in those days is that they depended on importa-tion, and they all collapsed when importation went high. Morocco did not depend on importation; they depend on what is caught in their sea (the Mediterranean). They can it and sometimes when you open it you see three pieces of fish.

“We have fishes in our waters that if you want to set up fish canning industry in Nigeria, you can conveniently do so. We have researches to show that. So, what we are looking at is what we call import substitution. Ghana to-day is using Tuna to get foreign exchange. When you go to the market, you see a lot of canned Tuna, and when you look prop-erly you will see that one of those canned Tuna is Starkist and it is

a brand from Ghana. “One of the justifications that

made the government to invest in us is that the in-shore waters (50 metres) is where the over 200 trawlers we have in Nigeria op-erate. But the resources are not as it used to be in those days, not as abundant as it used to be, and that is why some of the fishing companies folded up. You can count the number of some of the fishing companies that are oper-ating on your fingertips. So, we approached the government that we needed to go outside the 50me-tres for fishing,” he said.

Akande explained that the in-stitute recently received a vessel by the federal government to fur-ther explore the viability of their findings.

“It is a combination research vessel which can do both fisher-ies and oceanographic research. But in the area of fisheries, it is a vessel that can do both bottom, mid water and top water fishing. If you look at the trawlers we have in Nigeria today, they can only do what we call bottom trol-ley. They can only operate at the bottom of the sea. Thanks to the Federal Government who gave us a vessel that was built in Au-gust 2014. We were in Poland to launch this vessel and it was ac-tually launched by the first Lady of the Federal Republic of Nige-ria which finally arrived Nigeria in October 2014 and right now the vessel is on the sea,” he stated.

Akande said the vessel cost close to N1.5billion and it was purchased by the Federal Gov-ernment to buttress the impor-tance of putting fish protein on the table for the teeming popula-tion of Nigeria, “otherwise, they couldn’t have invested. So, it was an investment that we are also go-ing to pay back in the form of en-suring that we have food security in Nigeria. That would be our own pay back for the investment of that magnitude.”


L-R Oral Care Consultant, Mrs. Oge MacJohnson; Profession Manager East West Africa, Cheslin Twigg; Marketing Director, Colgate Palmolive Nigeria, Mrs. Hannah Oyebanjo and Brand Manager, Mr. Gbadesola Adenre

Akande Research, fishing vessel

Business Editor: Emmanuel OgbonnayaEmail: [email protected]

“The armed forces have always been actively involved in providing security and there is nothing contrary to the provisions of the constitution or the armed forces act in so doing that says the police are to be deployed for the conduct of elections.”

26 Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015

Æ sLaw

Police do not have exclusive security right during elections – Emukpoeruo


determine how the president is going to determine the operation-al use of the armed forces.

Now, under the armed forces act, there are specific provi-sions that now elaborates on how the president is to deter-mine the operational use of the armed forces, and those provi-sions make it very clear that the president, in determining the operational use of the armed forces, may deploy them in aid of civil authorities and civil ac-tivities to maintain peace with-in Nigeria and, certainly, I think that should not need much of a rocket science to know that without peace and order there cannot be a free and fair elec-tion. So, there is nothing illegal or unconstitutional in the presi-dent deploying the armed forces to secure the country during the period of election.

This has always been the case right from 1999. The armed forc-es have always participated in securing the peace during elec-tions. They don’t participate in conducting the elections. Theirs is to provide security.

They did it in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 and in other election that has been conducted in be-tween this period. The armed forces have always been actively involved in providing security and there is nothing contrary to the provisions of the constitu-tion or the armed forces act in so doing that says the police are to be deployed for the conduct of elections. There is nothing that says so, even in the Police Act; there is nothing that says Police should be deployed for the conduct of the election, but everybody knows that police are there to maintain law and order and that function is also conferred on the armed forces in the operational use to which the president is explicitly em-powered to put the army.

But under the electoral act,

who is empowered to provide

security during election?

The electoral act itself does not deal with who is to provide secu-rity during election; the electoral act certainly will not make such

Robert Emukpoeruo read law at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo Uni-

versity (OAU), Ife, Osun State, and was called to the Bar almost three decades ago. In this inter-view with PETER FOWOYO, he spoke on a decision by the Federal High Court that frowns at lawyers disclosing their cli-ents fund in a money-laundering case, the forthcoming general election and sundry issues.

Emukpoeruo

There is a judgment of a

Federal High Court, where

the court said it is unprofes-

sional for lawyers to disclose

their clients fund in a mon-

ey-laundering case. What is

your take on it?

Well, that is a very interesting judgment. The judgment itself is a very important one in the legal jurisprudence, because my take on it is that the issues that were canvassed in the case were issues that could not necessarily be seen as substantive. For example, one of the grounds this case was decided was whether this Special Control Unit for Money Launder-ing (SCUML) is a juristic body. Is it a creation of law for it to seek to regulate the activities of law-yers? It is even the Ministry for Trade and Commerce that set-up this body and is operating it in conjunction with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commis-sion (EFCC). Are they juristic bodies…do they have control over lawyers? Are they the ones that call lawyers to the Bar…are they the ones that issue them practicing certificates?

All these were issues that were considered in that case and the judge ruled that the SCUML is not a juristic body. It is not a body known to law to start issuing di-rective to anybody, not to talk of lawyers. So, it cannot regulate lawyers because there is already a body set up under the Legal Practitioners Act to regulate the activities of lawyers. That is why I said it is a case that focused more on the legality of SCUML and the legality of the provision itself. Is the provision legal? And the court found that the provisions were

unconstitutional and they were contrary to the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act, which had made elaborate provisions to regulate lawyers in the conduct of their business. To that extent, I do not think the judgment can be faulted because, frankly, the first time I also heard this SCUML, I wondered if it was an agency created by law and given legal personality to act by itself with rights, and that is part of the deci-sions the court came to rightly. It is not a legal body; they don’t have any rights to be sued or sue, so it certainly cannot regulate the con-ducts of lawyers. It is not so much of the court trying to exempt lawyers from money laundering activity, it is the legal issues that were canvassed and resolved in favour of the Nigerian Bar As-sociation. The APC campaign group has called on the Nigerian government to obey the Court of Appeal judgment by keeping the military out of election.

Do the armed forces have

any role to play in the coun-

try’s election?

The recent judgment of the Court of Appeal from the gu-bernatorial election appeal from Ado-Ekiti made a pronounce-ment that the armed forces of Nigeria, under the provisions of the constitution and under other laws, has no statutory role to play in the conduct of the election and that the President has no power under any law to deploy them for security purposes during the conduct of the election.

Firstly that pronouncement of the Court of Appeal will appear not to have taken into consider-ation all of the relevant provi-sions of the constitution and the armed forces act that deals with the issue. The pronouncement of the Court of Appeal did not take cognizance of the fact that the president, as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is vest-ed with the power by the constitu-tion to determine the operational use to which the armed forces of the federation may be put to anywhere in Nigeria. That right that is conferred on the president is a right that is conferred by the constitution to determine the op-erational use of the armed forces as the commander-in-chief. The power itself is not vested in the judicial arm of government to

Law Editor: Peter Fowoyo

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday, March 17, 2015International 14

Wife of Burundian politician shot

Somali forces capture four suspected militantsProtests

rock Brazil, president asked to quit


The wife of prominent Bu-rundian opposition politician, Agathon Rwasa has been shot and wounded at a hair salon in the capital, Bujumbura.

The gunman fled after opening fire on Annonciate Haberisoni as she was waiting for her hair to be done, witnesses said.

Rwasa accused the govern-ment of attempting to assas-sinate his wife. It has not com-mented on the allegation.

Tensions have been rising in Burundi ahead of elections in May and June. Mr Rwasa said at a press conference that his wife was being treated for head inju-ries at a local hospital, and her condition was not critical. He would not be intimidated by Sun-day's shooting, he added.

Mr Rwasa accused the govern-ment of compiling a hit list of people to be targeted in the run-up to parliamentary elections in May and presidential elections in June.Police said they were in-vestigating the attack.

Witnesses were quoted in the local media as saying that Mrs Haberisoni's life was probably saved by her hair dresser who saw the gunman taking aim and pushed her out of the way.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev speak during their meeting in the Konstantin Palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia, on Monday

Russian President Vladi-mir Putin has reappeared in pub-lic following a 10-day absence, laughed off suggestions he had been forced to lie low because of poor health, saying on Monday that life would be “boring with-out gossip.”

Democratic Republic of Congo's security forces detained a US diplomat on Sunday in a raid that also targeted journalists and regional democracy activists and accused them of posing a threat to stability, a government spokes-person said.

The diplomat "was found among a group of people that was believed to be in the process of bringing an attack against state security," Lambert Mende said. He did not disclose the diplomat's name or position.

The US Embassy in Kinshasa did not respond to messages seek-ing comment. The state depart-ment did not offer additional information when contacted on Sunday night.

The detentions followed a news conference in Kinshasa orga-nized in support of a Congolese movement known as Filimbi that aims for greater youth participa-tion in politics.

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians have joined demon-strations against President Dil-ma Rousseff, with many asking for her impeachment. The protesters say the presi-dent must have known about a corruption scandal in the state oil firm, Petrobras. The political op-position say much of the alleged bribery took place when she was head of the company.

But Ms Rousseff had been ex-onerated in an investigation by the attorney general and denied involvement.

Most of the politicians accused of taking bribes in a kickback scheme come from the governing coalition. After the protests, the government promised a series of measures to combat corruption and impunity.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo said the government saw the rallies as an "expression of

Somali government forces have captured four suspected Islamist militants, a spokesman for the state security agency has said.

Qasim Ahmed Roble told re-porters that the four suspected members of the terrorist group al-Shabab were shown to the me-dia in the capital, Mogadishu.

He said the suspects opened fire on Somali security forces Friday night while officers were conducting a security operation.

Qasim said one of the suspects is in his early 60s, adding that "many people believe that most al-Shabab members are misled young boys."

Al-Shabab is fighting for an Islamic state governed by strict interpretation of the Quran. The group has suffered setbacks in recent years, as government troops, backed by African Union forces, regained control of the capital and other territories that had been taken by al-Shabab. But its members continue to stage sporadic attacks in Moga-dishu and elsewhere in Somalia. The number of the attacks has increased in the past week.Kabila

Putin smiled as he sat before television cameras in the Con-stantine Palace near St. Peters-burg in his first public appear-ance since March 5.

In what appeared as a carefully choreographed double-act, visit-ing Kyrgyz President Almazbek

Atambayev also vouched for the Russian leader's health, saying that Putin “just now drove me around the grounds, he himself sat at the wheel.”

“It would be boring without gossip,” Putin, looking relaxed if pale, told reporters.

Putin's meeting with the presi-dents of Kazakhstan and Belarus planned for March 12-13 in the Kazakh capital Astana was post-poned, with Reuters quoting a "Kazakh governmental source" as saying it was canceled because Putin had fallen ill. The Kremlin, which vehemently denied the claim, announced Monday that Putin's meeting with the two presidents has been rescheduled for Friday, March 20.

In addition to the rumors about Putin's health, his disappearance from public view also sparked speculation that a conflict had erupted among powerful factions in the wake of the February 27 murder in Moscow of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Five eth-nic Chechens were detained in connection with the killing, in-cluding Zaur Dadayev, a former deputy commander of a Chechen Interior Ministry battalion.

According to some observers, the Nemtsov killing was connect-ed to a power struggle involving the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's main security agency, and security bodies con-nected to Chechen leader Ram-zan Kadyrov.

democracy".The largest demonstration

went ahead in Sao Paulo, a ma-jor opposition stronghold. The estimates of how many people attended the march varied widely.

Brazilian data analysts Data-folha say almost 200,000 people marched on Avenida Paulista on Sunday evening. But police estimated the number of par-ticipants at one million, based on aerial photographs of the area.

Many of the protesters waved Brazilian flags and wore the yel-low shirts of the national football team. Protest in Brasilia Thou-sands gathered outside Brasilia's modernist Congress building to protest against corruption

Anti-Rousseff protest in Belo Horizonte In Belo Horizonte the protest drew more than 20,000 peopl They shouted slogans against corruption and the Work-ers' Party government.Opposi-tion parties have backed Sun-day's protests but have not openly called for impeachment of the president, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.

Senator Aecio Neves, who was defeated by a narrow margin in October's presidential vote, is-sued a statement praising the protests.

Mende did not say how many people were detained. He said the group was held for identifica-tion and investigation, and that foreign journalists had been re-leased. He did not have informa-tion on whether the diplomat, activists or local journalists had been released.

The activists included mem-bers of Burkina Faso's Balai Ci-toyen and Senegal's Y'en a Marre movements. Both have led large-scale protests in recent years against presidents attempting to extend their time in office.

Putin reappears, laughs off health rumours

Clement Enajemo


Life TIMES

&

Battle of the sex symbols:

Iyanya and Burna boy

PL5

PL2,3

PL3

Get a career in fashionThe style crafts man

PL3,4

PL6Mudiaga

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015Interview L2

A grand piano at his fashion edifice

Clement Mudiaga Enajemo

I was wired to be in the fashion world

Nkarenyi Ukonu

Just as he is a household name

in the Nigerian fashion industry,

so has his fame spread all over

Africa where he operates his

fashion brand. Popularly known

as Mudi, Clement Mudiaga Ena-

jemo is the face behind MUDI

FUHDWLRQV�� D� PDOH� IDVKLRQ� RXWÀW�that has successfully carved a

niche in churning out exquisitely

designed African clothing from

his ultra modern corporate head-

quarters which he personally fur-

nished with urbane and contem-

porary décor pieces. He dissects

in this interview, some of the vir-

tues that has kept him on top of

his game for over two decades.

You have remained in the fashion industry long after most of your contemporaries lost steam. What has kept you going in all of the 23 years you have been in this game?

Nothing but hard work, focus,

discipline and constantly improving

on my craft. These are a few of the

things that have kept me from derail-

ing. I work round the clock, I am a

work-a-holic so to speak and I enjoy

it. The body is designed to work so

why should it remain in an idle state?

It has been a long tortuous journey

but I am driven by the passion for

what I do. There are times when I

wake up with pains in my joints but

the work has to continue. I would

rather get to work and sleep than to

remain at home and sleep.

Was there anything about your growing up years that suggested that you would end up in the fashion world?

I want to believe that I was wired

and pre destined to be in the fashion

industry. First, I am endowed with

– Clement Mudiaga Enajemo

the ability to illustrate because while

in school, I always came out tops as

the best arts student in every class

I was in. Also as a youngster, my

mother made sure my siblings and

I dressed well especially during the

Christmas period. She would ask us

to go to the best boutique in town

to pick the very best of clothes and

thereafter, the bill would be sent to

her. We were a middle class fam-

ily so I grew up with that mentality;

to always look good at all times. Till

date, my friends would always seek

my opinion before they go shopping.

So, from an early age, my mother

imbued in us, class and style. She

is old now though, but in her young-

er days, she was among the best

dressed women in town.

$UHQ·W�\RX�IRUPDOO\�WUDLQHG�WR�GR�this?

I did get some training but even

getting that had to be prompted.

After school in Delta State, I came

down to Lagos and immediately got

a job at Benex industries, a lighting

company. During break while my

colleagues would be taking naps, I

preferred to sketch just for the fun

of it. But during the Ibrahim Baban-

gida regime, about ten of us were

retrenched causing me to live on

SHRSOH·V�JRRG�ZLOO��6HHLQJ�WKDW�,�KDG�D�WDOHQW�ZKLFK�,�GLGQ·W�WDNH�VHULRXVO\��two of my friends persuaded me to

attend a fashion school. I ruminated

over their suggestion and concluded

that going to a fashion school would

be a waste of time, instead, I ap-

proached an experienced tailor in

Ketu area of Lagos for a nine month

training programme, to learn a good

FXW�DQG�EH�SHUIHFW�ZLWK�P\�ÀQLVKLQJ��Shortly after, Mudi was born.

When would you say was your turning point?,�GRQ·W�EHOLHYH�WKDW�,�KDYH�DQ\�\HW�

because I am yet to get to that point.

,�GRQ·W� WKLQN� ,�KDYH�KDG�DQ\�EUHDN-through. Whatever I have achieved

today is as a result of hard work and

being consistent for 23 years. I mean

if after 23 years of doing something

ZHOO�DQG�\RX�DUHQ·W�VXFFHVVIXO��WKDW�means something is wrong some-

where. Your instincts should be able

WR�WHOO�\RX�WKDW�VRPHWKLQJ�LVQ·W�TXLWH�ULJKW��*RRG�WKLQJV�GRQ·W�FRPH�HDV\��I started from the scratch with no

capital unlike some of my contem-

poraries and a few of the younger

ones now who had it all mapped out

for them. I have never taken a dime

from the bank to run my business.

After undergoing training, I began to

PRYH�IURP�RIÀFH�WR�RIÀFH�WR�VHOO�P\�creations and market my skills until I

decided to get a shop, unfortunately,

,� GLGQ·W� KDYH� HQRXJK�PRQH\�� ,� DS-

proached actor cum commissioner,

Richard Mofe-Damijo whom I will

forever remain grateful to, for help.

I had saved only 17,000 naira, he

gave me the remaining balance. But

even after paying for the shop, it took

another three months before I could

move in because I had to source for

money to buy the essential things a

fashion designer should have.

What has been the greatest challenge running the brand Mudi,W�KDVQ·W�EHHQ�D�ZDON� LQ� WKH�SDUN�

building this brand but I would con-

sider my greatest challenge to be

managing people. It is extremely

GLIÀFXOW� WR�PDQDJH�SHRSOH�DQG�VDW-isfy them. Another challenging thing

about building the brand is the nega-

tive attitude I get from Nigerians

for doing extremely well. If another

national does extremely well in Ni-

geria, no one will raise an eyebrow

but when a Nigerian does the same

thing, people insinuate all kinds of

WKLQJV��7KH\�GRQ·W� EHOLHYH� WKDW� RQH�

can succeed without doing drugs,

dirty deals or belong to a secret cult.

,�PHDQ� LI� \RX�JHW� WR� \RXU�RIÀFH�E\�1am and I get to mine by 7am ev-

ery day, there is no way we can both

be on the same level. When people

say all sorts of negative things about

me, it hurts and it makes me won-

der if it is an offence for a black man

to be successful. After doing busi-

ness successfully for these num-

ber of years, especially in a society

where there is so much envy, jeal-

ousy, backbiting, wickedness and

unnecessary competition, I think I

deserve a pat on the back. That is

one of the statement I am trying to

make with my corporate headquar-

WHUV��+HUH��SHRSOH�GRQ·W�EHOLHYH�WKDW�one can remain consistent in a trade

for this long and emerge a success.

I have been called an ordinary tailor

in many quarters and people won-

der how an ordinary tailor can have

VXFK�D�KXJH�DQG�EHDXWLIXO�HGLÀFH�DV�headquarters which I consider my

greatest achievement thus far. That

is the level of their mentality.

What inspires some of your unique designs?

God and the kind of music I listen

to. I like to listen to pure African mu-

sic.

What else are you equally good at besides fashion designing?

I am also good at interior deco-

ration. In fact I designed the entire

structure of my corporate headquar-

ters including the interior which I per-

sonally saw to. I am thinking of go-

ing fully into it in the nearest future. I

would probably get someone who is

good at it, an architect or an interior

decorator whom I will rub minds with

to get exactly what I need.

You are one designer who GRHVQ·W�EHOLHYH�LQ�UHPDLQLQJ�D�¶NLQJ�LQ�KLV�FRPPXQLW\·��:KDW�is the driving force behind your expansion drive?

It is basically to push the brand.

Just because I have made a suc-

FHVV�RI�WKH�EUDQG�LQ�1LJHULD�GRHVQ·W�mean I should remain a local cham-

pion. Fashion is universal and has no

language barrier. So the essence of

pushing the brand out of Nigeria is to

tell people that good things can also

come out of Nigeria. I have an obli-

JDWLRQ�WR�SURMHFW�WKH�FRXQWU\·V�LPDJH�even though it is capital intensive.

+RZHYHU�� LW� LVQ·W� DERXW� KRZ� PXFK�I am making. Everything is made

in Nigeria and sold in the outlets in

these countries. I always as a matter

of courtesy, seek the opinion of the

ambassador to any country I plan to

expand into. He or she must give me

their blessings, get me a lawyer to

explain the nature of business there

and its implications and thereafter,

business starts.

While building your fashion empire, who were most of the people you looked up to?

Quite a number of people as I

made progress, people like Kesse

-DEDUL��/DQUH�2JXQOHVL�RI�6RÀVWLFDW��Vivid imagination, Dakova etc. Unfor-

tunately, most of them are no longer

relevant and it breaks my heart. You

can imagine that the likes of Giorgio

Armani who has spent decades in

the fashion industry is still relevant

WRGD\��,�GRQ·W�NQRZ�ZKHWKHU�LW�LV�DV�D�result of distractions or the environ-

ment. Sometimes I get scared and

wonder if that is how I would end up.

In less than ten years, some of them

KDYH�À]]OHG�RXW�

'R�\RX�JHW�ERWKHUHG�E\�WKH�LQÁX[�of young male designers in the

TE

AMLife & Editor

Nkarenyi Ukonu [email protected]

Music Correspondent Akintayo Opeoluwani [email protected]

Movie CorrespondentMutiat Alli [email protected]

PhotographyQuadri [email protected]

Society CorrespondentIsaac Oguntoye [email protected]

GraphicsAustine Agbovi [email protected]

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015 L3 Interview

fashion industry?Of course not. Any profession

ZKHUH� WKHUH� LV�QR�FRPSHWLWLRQ�FDQ·W�move forward. It is better when there is competition, it challenges you to do your best and be more creative. My only worry is that some of them are into this profession for the glam-our; they end up getting carried DZD\��1RW� WKDW� WKH\�VKRXOGQ·W�HQMR\�the glamour, but they should set their priorities right. Most of them are out there in your face but with no struc-ture and substance.

One of your well known admirers is Yomi Makun of Yomi Casuals, a budding fashion designer. Do you take time out to mentor male upcoming designers?

Sometimes I call them on my own free will and offer them my advice. We are in a country where many are talented but the problem is usually how to express the talent in a proper

way.

What corporate social responsibility are you involved in?

I want to begin to give back to so-ciety by setting up a school where I can train people in clothes making. I get a lot of calls from people who wish to send their children and wards to me for training. I have put off the VFKRRO�SURMHFW� IRU� WRR� ORQJ�EHFDXVH�I wanted to get the structure right. Now I think I am ready. I am looking at a situation where I can train 36 people, one from each state and give them the best training I can. There-after, they will go back to their indi-vidual states to replicate what they have been taught. I want it structured in such a way that their state govern-ments will pick their bills.

You have been honoured and recognized by various

organizations. What do all of these awards mean to you?

I have lost count of the number of awards that I have but I must say that the most recent award I got was from Ovation magazine as the 2012 fashion designer of the year. It is my best award ever because it came at the right time; less than a week after I completed my ultra modern FRUSRUDWH�RIÀFH�� ,�KDG�QHYHU� IHOW�VR�happy. I know I deserve the award because I have worked so hard for it, I have paid my dues, I have contrib-uted so much to the fashion industry in Nigeria. That and the rest of the awards mean a lot of things to me but basically, it is a further push for me to keep striving, to keep working hard and to step up my game. I am not like others who pay to receive DZDUGV��,�MXVW�GR�P\�ZRUN�DQG�DOORZ�it speak for me. I believe in what I do and expect people to believe in me likewise.

What does style mean to you?It is an expression of my inner self.

My own style is simple and classic

As a work a holic, how do you keep your home front from suffering?

No doubt I have a busy schedule but I thank God for the kind of wife that I have. She is half Nigerian, half Ghanaian. We have been married for 10 years. She bowls me over with her humility and understanding as she has been able to cope perfectly ZHOO��6KH�GRHVQ·W�KDYH�D�FKRLFH��VKH�KDV� WR�EHFDXVH� ,�GRQ·W�GR�DQ\WKLQJ�other than this. Do you know what LW� WDNHV� WR� WKLQN� IRU� ÀYH� FRXQWULHV��Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal. I have to keep coming out with new designs which is quite challenging.

What fond childhood memories

can you readily recall?I remember how we used to

JR� LQWR� P\� PRWKHU·V� URRP� WR� WDNH�money from her purse and dash to Warri which was an hour away from Ughelli in Delta State, to buy clothes and quickly dash back. The commu-nal life we were used to as children in those days have long since disap-peared. Those days, it was common WR� HDW� LQ� HDFK� RWKHUV·� KRPHV� DQG�even have sleep overs without our parents worrying, the liberty to do as we liked was there but these days, people cage their children. There is no more exposure, no communal life, no more trust among people.

How do you unwind?By clubbing when I can or go to

Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos where there is a life band. I loves live bands

�� The kind of cars he drives are an expression of his style. �� +H�GRHVQ·W�KDYH�D��IDYRXULWH�FDU��DV�ORQJ�DV�LW�LV�D�IDVW�FDU�� He is a collector of vintage cars. He has a 1957 Mercedes Benz and

a 1971 Peugeot

Known by his mononym, Iyanya, is a recording artist, singer, songwriter and performer, best known for winning the 2008 071�3URMHFW�IDPH�:HVW�$IULFD�DV�well as for his song, Kukere. He is the co-owner of Made Men Music Group, a record label. He won the artist of the year award at The Headies in 2013. He is an MTN ambassador.

Mudi, a lover of vintage cars

Your preferred male sex symbol - Burna boy or Iyanya?

Abiola Raphael UndergraduateI think Iyanya is sexier than Burna boy

Damilola IsholaUndergraduate Both of them are sexy. I love them both

Francis EjetehUndergraduate They only look big and cool but no-ZKHUH� QHDU� VH[\�� %HLQJ� VH[\� LVQ·W�DERXW�PXVFOHV�� WKHLU� ORRN� LVQ·W�VWULN-ing.

Ifeoluwa OlowoUndergraduateBurna boy does it for me. He is sexier than Iyanya

Shola OlabodeUndergraduateI consider Burna boy sexier

Rose BalogunUndergraduateIyanya is sexier than Burna boy, I love his muscle

Olufowora Oyinkansola

Better known by his stage name, Burna Boy, is a reggae-dancehall singer and songwriter. In 2012, he released a single titled Like To Party which saw his rise to prominence. The video was released later same year. He is a Globacom ambassador.

Vox Pop

Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk

Damini Ogulu

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015L4

Lisa Folawiyo (Fashion designer)

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015 L5 Fashion & Style

[email protected]

Interested in a career in

fashion? Here are eight

fashion-related roles to

turn your interest into a

career opportunity.

Fashion designers can

either work for a company, as

a freelancer or independently

on their own fashion label.

While some designers are

generalists, working across

a wide range of products,

others focus completely on a

specialist area.

Apparel designers de-

sign anything from fashion

to functional clothing (lin-

gerie, sportswear, lounge

wear, ready-to-wear, mater-

nity wear, haute couture etc.)

for men, women or children.

Other areas of design can

Turn your passion into a careerinclude costume design for

WKHDWUH��EDOOHW�RU�ÀOP�Footwear designers cre-

ate designs for shoes, boots,

VDQGDOV�DQG�ÁLS�ÁRSV�IRU�RQH�or more of these markets:

sportswear, luxury or mass

market.

Accessory designers

have a broad area of special-

ism to choose from that in-

cludes jewellery, handbags,

leather goods, eyewear,

hats, gloves and scarves.

Seamstress/pattern cut-ter: This role requires years

of training to master the

art of making patterns and

sewing clothes. A pattern is

a template of the garment

one wishes to sew, which is

drawn up on paper. It is then

used as a guide when cutting

DQG�VHZLQJ�WKH�ÀQDO�JDUPHQW��8VXDOO\�WKH�ÀUVW�GUDIWV�RI�WKH�pattern are made in paper

while cardboard is used for

WKH�ÀQDO�SDWWHUQ��WR�ZLWKVWDQG�PXOWLSOH�XVHV��2QFH�WKH�ÀQDO�pattern is made, it can be re-

produced in different sizes -

a process known as grading.

Textiles manufacturers/fabric suppliers:The prior

work in textile mills creating

a variety of fabrics, while the

latter purchase fabrics from

various manufacturers to sell

to consumers (who require a

few yards for individual use,

for instance to commission a

handmade iro and buba) and

fashion companies.

Fashion model” There

are different types of mod-

HOV� ZKLFK� LQFOXGHV�� ÀWWLQJ��runway, swimwear, editorial,

catalogue, plus size includ-

ing models who specialise in

particular body parts such as

hands or legs. Models can

fall into one or more of the

above-mentioned categories

depending on their physi-

cal attributes. It is common

¶IDVKLRQ·� ODZ� WKDW� IDVKLRQ�models are generally 5 feet 9

inches or taller.

Merchandising is a broad

ÀHOG� DQG� IRUPV� WKH� FUXFLDO�link between fashion as an

DUW� DQG� IDVKLRQ� DV� D� SURÀW-able business. Merchandis-

ers conduct research to de-

termine and analyse fashion

and market trends relative

to what their target customer

wants. This role (which in-

cludes sales and market-

ing) requires an up-to-date

knowledge of the latest in-

dustry developments as well

as good numeracy, manage-

ment and marketing skills.

Another discipline within

merchandising is advertis-

ing, using images and text

intended to communicate a

compelling and persuasive

message to a targeted audi-

ence, in a bid to attract and

maintain new, existing and

loyal customers. Experience

and a solid education are

strongly advised for this role.

Public relations which

bridges the gap between

product and consumer. PR

specialists maintain a strong

public image for companies

in an ongoing pursuit to cre-

ate, maintain and protect

their reputation. Great com-

munications, networking and

interpersonal skills and a

degree in Communications,

Management or Marketing

are essential for a successful

FDUHHU�LQ�WKLV�ÀHOG�Fashion journalists are

WKH� YRLFH� DQG� LQÁXHQFHUV�of fashion and traditionally

known to write articles for

newspapers and magazines.

In this modern digital world,

a new brand of fashion jour-

nalism has emerged – fash-

ion blogging. Some require-

PHQWV� IRU�ÀQGLQJ�VXFFHVV� LQ�WKLV� ÀHOG� LQFOXGH� D� GHJUHH�in English writing or a good

command of English.

Fashion stylists help se-

OHFW� RXWÀWV� IRU� SHRSOH� �VXFK�as celebrities), publications

(photoshoots for editorial or

advertising purposes) and for

fashion brands who may re-

quire their services in prepa-

ration for look book and port-

folio photo shoots or catwalk

shows – assisting them to

VW\OH�HDFK�RXWÀW�DQG�HQVXULQJ�that they are cohesive, desir-

able and appealing. This dis-

FLSOLQH�LV�YHU\�LQÁXHQWLDO�DV�LW�LV� D� VW\OLVW·V� UHVSRQVLELOLW\� WR�educate the public at large

by informing and inspiring

WKHP��ɑ��

Aisha Ugah Igbinovia (Accessory designer)

Fashion model

Runway model

Latasha Ngwube (fashion journalist)

Ono Bello (Fashion public relation)

Pattern cutting

Isioma Onochie and Aihie Terae Onyeje (fashion merchandizers)

Veronica Odeka (fashion stylist)

Yetunde Alabi (Shoe designer)

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015Relationship L6

I once remembered my fa-

ther asking why my husband

and I were always cooked

up with the children. I smiled

then, but now the reality of

his words hunt me. My hus-

band and I are not unhappy

or anything, but parenthood

had more or less reduced us

to a business partnership and

ZH·YH� EHHQ� FRPIRUWLQJ� RXU-VHOYHV� ZLWK� WKH� IDFW� WKDW� ZH�DUH� GRLQJ� HYHU\WKLQJ� LQ� RXU�power to make life for our chil-

GUHQ�FRPIRUWDEOH�DQG�ORYLQJ��%XW� 1JR]L�� \RX·YH� EHHQ�

PDUULHG� IRU� RYHU� ��\UV�� \RX�and your husband are like

we used to know you guys

back when you just got mar-

ULHG��ZKDW·V�WKH�VHFUHW"�$VNHG�a childhood friend and this is

what my mother taught me

years before I married.

Tips for

strengthening

your marriage $�JRRG�PDUULDJH�LV�RQO\�DV�

good as its foundation: Most

married couples are short

changed in so many ways in

WKHLU� PDUULDJHV� WRGD\��$� FHU-WDLQ�DPRXQW�RI�FRPIRUW�LV�YHU\�crucial to making a marriage

KHDYHQO\��2QH�RI�WKH�EHVW�DQG�easiest ways to strengthen

your marriage is applying

these rules:

�� ,GHQWLI\LQJ� <RXU�Make-Up: Men, women are

created differently from each

other with different expecta-

tions, needs, desires, and in-

terests. The man and woman

coming together, came from

different backgrounds, so it is

likely that the way one spouse

handles issues, might be dif-

ferent from the other. Spend-

ing a lifetime together iden-

tifying, understanding these

differences, accommodating

WKHP�DQG�ORYLQJO\�DGDSWLQJ�WR�HDFK�RWKHU��7KDW·V�ZKDW�PDU-riage is about.

Day 6 Love Is Not Irritable

He who is slow to anger is better

than the mighty, and he who rules

his spirit, than he who captures a

country.

THE DAREChoose today to react to tough cir-

FXPVWDQFHV�LQ�\RXU�PDUULDJH�ORYLQJO\�instead of with irritation. Then list any

ZURQJ�PRWLYDWLRQV�WKDW�\RX�QHHG�WR�release from your life.

Day 7

Love Believes the Best/RYH�²�4XLHWO\�FRYHUV�DOO�WKLQJV��

EHOLHYHV�DOO�WKLQJV��KRSHV�DOO�WKLQJV�

THE DARE,Q�WZR��GLIIHUHQW�VKHHWV�RI�SDSHU��

VLQFHUHO\�ZULWH�RXW�SRVLWLYH�WKLQJV�RQ�RQH�DQG�QHJDWLYH�WKLQJV�RQ�WKH�RWKHU�DERXW�\RXU�VSRXVH��$W�VRPH�SRLQW�WRGD\��SLFN�D�SRVLWLYH�DWWULEXWH�IURP�\RXU�ÀUVW�OLVW�DQG�WKDQN�\RXU�VSRXVH�

IRU�KDYLQJ�WKLV�WUDLW�

�� 8QLTXH� ([SHFWD-

tions: What a man wants from

his marriage and spouse might

be different from what the wife

wants out of the marriage.

Nothing is constant in a mar-

riage, the opinion a husband

or wife had at the beginning

of the marriage may change

because the other spouse

has sold his or her ideology

to the other. What should be

FRQVWDQW� LQ�HYHU\�PDUULDJH� LV�willingness to compromise.

6SHQGLQJ� TXDOLW\� WLPH� LGHQWL-I\LQJ� \RXU� VSRXVH·V� H[SHFWD-

WLRQV�DQG�EULQJLQJ�WKHP�DOLYH��NHHSV�\RXU�PDUULDJH�DOLYH�DQG�blissful.

�� +HDOWK\� &RPPXQL-FDWLRQ��(YHQ�WZLQV�KDYH�GLIIHU-HQW�RSLQLRQV�IURP�HDFK�RWKHU��talk less of two different indi-

YLGXDOV� IURP�GLIIHUHQW�SDUHQWV�and backgrounds. Spending

WLPH� ORYLQJO\� OHDUQLQJ� KRZ�your better half communicates

LV� YLFWRU\� RYHU� IUXVWUDWLRQV��KXUWV� DQG� GLVDSSRLQWPHQWV��WKDW�HYHQWXDOO\�OHDGV�WR�D�KDS-

py marriage.

NOTEWhether your marriage is

experiencing hick-ups or not,

learn to nip all problems in the

bud, before a minor issue or

SUREOHP�VODS·V�\RX�ZLWK�VHSD-

UDWLRQ� RU� GLYRUFH�� 5HPHPEHU�you are all on the same side

and you each need to work to-

gether for the success of mar-

riage and home.

From our next publication

we will be talking about par-

ent-children relationships and

seeing that in the introduction

of this page, we said we will

be dealing with all manner of

UHODWLRQVKLSV� HYHQ� ZLWK� WKH�relationship between you and

your pets.

,�KDYH�VRPH�YHU\�LQWHUHVWLQJ�TXHVWLRQV�RQ� IDWKHU�²�GDXJK-

WHU�UHODWLRQVKLSV�DQG�PRWKHU�²�son relationship.

5HPHPEHU�� DOO� TXHVWLRQV��suggestions, opinions and re-

actions to our articles should

be emailed to ngozindubi-

VL��#\DKRR�FRP,�OHDYH�\RX�ZLWK�WKLV�MRNH�

$�ZRPDQ�JRW�PDUULHG�DQG�KHU�husband abused her. She

remarried and husband num-

ber two walked out on her.

She got married again and

the third husband failed her

in bed.

)LQDOO\��VKH�SXW·V�DQ�DG�LQ�WKH�paper: “Looking for a man

ZKR� ZRQ·W� DEXVH� PH�� ZRQ·W�OHDYH�PH�DQG�ZKR�ZRQ·W� IDLO�me in bed.

The next day, her doorbell

rings. There is a man with no

arms and no legs.

MAN: Hello, I saw your ad

WOMAN: Tell me a little

about yourself

MAN:�:HOO�� ,�KDYH�QR�DUPV��VR� ,� FDQ·W� KLW� \RX�� ,� KDYH�QR�OHJV��VR�,�FDQ·W�run out on you.

WOMAN: How do I know

\RX·UH�JRRG�LQ�EHG"MAN: I rang the doorbell,

GLGQ·W�,"

Strengtheningmarriageyour

JOKE OF THE DAY

Ngozi [email protected]

The Love DareDay 8

Love Is Not Jealous/RYH�LV�DV�VWURQJ�DV�GHDWK��LWV�MHDO-

RXV\�XQ\LHOGLQJ�DV�WKH�JUDYH��,W�EXUQV�OLNH�EOD]LQJ�ÀUH�

THE DAREDeterminedly become your spouse

biggest fan and reject any thoughts of

jealousy. To help you set your heart

DQG�IRFXV�RQ�WKH�DFKLHYHPHQWV�RI�\RXU�VSRXVH��WDNH�\HVWHUGD\·V�OLVW�RI�QHJDWLYH�DWWULEXWHV�DQG�GLVFUHHWO\�burn it. Then share with your spouse

how glad you are about a success he

or she recently enjoyed.

Day 9

/RYH�0DNHV�*RRG�,PSUHVVLRQV*UHHW�RQH�DQRWKHU�ZLWK�D�NLVV�RI�

ORYH�

THE DARE7KLQN�RI�D�VSHFLÀF�ZD\�\RX·G�

like to greet your spouse today to

UHÁHFW�\RXU�ORYH�IRU�KLP�RU�KHU��7KHQ�determinedly make it a habit come

what may.

Day 10Love Is Unconditional

*RG�GHPRQVWUDWHG�+LV�RZQ�ORYH�toward us, in that while we were yet

sinners, Christ died for us.

THE DAREDo something out of the ordinary

today for your spouse—something

WKDW�SURYHV��WR�\RX�DQG�WR�WKHP��WKDW�\RXU�ORYH�LV�EDVHG�RQ�\RXU�FKRLFH�DQG�QRWKLQJ�HOVH��'HPRQVWUDWH�ORYH�

to them for the sheer joy of being

their partner in marriage.

Day 11Love Cherishes

+XVEDQGV�RXJKW�DOVR�WR�ORYH�WKHLU�RZQ�ZLYHV�DV�WKHLU�RZQ�ERGLHV�

THE DAREMeet a need of your spouse

today.�&DQ�\RX�UXQ�DQ�HUUDQG"�*LYH�D�EDFN�UXE�RU�IRRW�PDVVDJH"�,V�WKHUH�KRXVHZRUN�\RX�FRXOG�KHOS�ZLWK"�

Choose a gesture that says, “I cher-

ish you” and do it with a smile.

Day 12

Love Lets the Other WinDo not merely look out for your

own personal interests, but also for

the interests of your spouse.

:HHN��

'HPRQVWUDWH�ORYH�E\�ZLOOLQJO\�FKRRVLQJ�WR�JLYH�LQ�WR�DQ�DUHD�RI�

disagreement between you and your

spouse. Tell them you are putting

WKHLU�SUHIHUHQFH�ÀUVW�

Join the Love Dare from week one – 10th/3/2015

Please email me the reaction(s) of your spouse on the dares.

[email protected]

The Dare

Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015 L7 Movie & Music Chart

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Daily Times NigeriaTuesday March 17, 2015 L8 Television

Showing on Showing on107 M-Net Movies Romance 108 M-Net

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XT Exclusive

BAZUAYE

EXTRATIME EXTRATIMETuesday, March 17, 2015 Tuesday, March 17, 2015

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Poyet

dumps Sunderland

EYES OLD

TRAFFORD

RETURN

PASSES ON

IN BENIN

RONALDO

GUNNERSvow to down Monaco

EXTRATIMETuesday, March 17, 2015

X2

RECEIVE BOOST

Andrew Ekejiuba

Nigeria’s U-20 team, the Flying Eagles, on Monday, received boost, following the return of first-choice

goalkeeper Joshua Enahoro, who has served out his one-match ban after his dismissal against Congo.

Also, midfielder Ifeanyi Matthew, who was rested against Cote d’Ivoire, as well as defender Izu Omego, who the coaches did not want to risk because he was already on a booking, are all fit to take on Ghana tomorrow.

Extra Time gathered that the team are now safely back at ‘Lucky’ Alafifa Hotel, after an hour’s bus ride from Mbour, on Monday.

It was from Alafifa Hotel that the Flying Eagles won their first two group games before they traveled to Mbour for their final group game against Cote d’Ivoire, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

The Flying Eagles trained at the Diambars Academy in Mbour on Monday morning and, after lunch, headed for Dakar.

Tomorrow’s semi-final at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium will kick-off at 5pm local time, which will be 6pm in Nigeria.

Nigerian legend, Willy Bazuaye, has passed away on Monday at the University of Benin

Teaching Hospital in Benin City.A very close family source revealed

to supersport.com on Monday of the death of the former Golden Eaglets coach.

“Yes, Willy Bazuaye died this morning,” “It’s unfortunate. May his soul rest in peace.”

His last days before his death, according to the family source, had seen him become immobile.

Bazuaye was famed for being a part of the backroom staff as an assistant coach when the Nigerian under-23s won Olympic gold in the football event in Atlanta in 1996.

Sunderland parted company with manager Gus Poyet on Monday with the club facing a

battle for Premier League survival after a crushing 4-0 home defeat by Aston Villa on Saturday.

Sunderland are 17th in the 20-team league with 26 points, one place and one point above the relegation zone with only nine matches left to play. They have won only one of their last 12 league games.

The 47-year-old Poyet, who had been in charge at the Stadium of Light for 75 matches since October

2013, saved the Black Cats from relegation last season when they won four of their last five games to escape from the bottom three and finish 14th.

Bazuaye dies in Benin

Poyet leaves Sunderland

FLYING EAGLESA

YC

:

Flying Eagles players celebrate after a victorious outing

Bazuaye

Poyet


X3

Ronaldo Aubameyang: returns to Old Trafford

Dortmund ready for Juve!

Chelsea need big win, admits Cahill

FIXTURESTODAY’S MATCHES

Atl Madrid v Bayer Leverkusen 20: 45Monaco v Arsenal 20: 45

Gary Cahill admits Chelsea need a big, morale-boosting win to get them back on track

again.But he insists it is not all doom and

gloom at Stamford Bridge, despite their shock Champions League exit.

Chelsea suffered a hangover from their away goals defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last week when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Southampton.

And Cahill’s confession suggests the league leaders’ collective confidence has taken a significant hit after they were dumped out of Europe at the last-16 stage.

The Southampton draw meant Chelsea missed the chance to fully capitalise on title rivals Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat to Burnley 24 hours earlier, though they did go six points clear at the top of the table.

Daniel Carvajal has insisted that Real Madrid will not settle for a draw against Barcelona and

will do everything possible to emerge victorious in Sunday’s Clasico at Camp Nou.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men beat Levante 2-0 at the weekend to return to winning ways after three games without a victory in all competitions, and Carvajal

is determined to build on Sunday’s success when they travel to Catalunya to take on their Liga title rivals.

“We knew this would be a crucial match in front of our supporters as well as for us ahead of next week’s game. We picked up three points, kept a clean sheet and now the aim is to beat Barcelona,” Carvajal said.

“We have no doubts in our minds

heading to Camp Nou. The team and the system are the same and I think we are more united now and mentally prepared for good things to happen. We have to give it 100 per cent and we are aware that we are capable of beating any side.

“This is a Clasico and there is no favourite. I wouldn’t settle for a draw, we’re going there to win.”

Reports have emerged that Real Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo, is now seriously

considering a move back to the Premier League, specifically to the club where he won his first Ballon d’Or title.

The man who has supposedly convinced him to look back to England is his former manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. It is thought that the discussion happened after Real Madrid’s humbling at the hands of Schalke in the Champions League.

The timing of the dinner meeting could not be more convenient for the Red Devils as Ronaldo was visibly

displeased by his team’s performance and would thus be more likely to even consider exchanging Madrid for Man United.

The presence of Angel di Maria at Old Trafford, a player whom Ronaldo was sad to see leave Real Madrid and the constant friction between himself and Gareth Bale are certainly incentives for the Galactico to come back home.

Probably the greatest incentive for the change of environment would be the knowledge that in his time at Real Madrid he has managed to eclipse Lionel Messi as the best player both in La Liga and European football.

Borussia Dortmund forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is convinced his side is fully

prepared to face Juventus in the midweek Champions League tie, with the Italians leading 2-1 from the first leg.

The Bundesliga outfit have had a relatively poor season, flirting with relegation, though seem to have found some form of late which has propelled the team to mid-table safety.

“Dortmund is unique, it lives for football and we are ready,” he said. “The sport is deep-rooted here and we have huge support.

“The secret is the special bond we have with the fans who have remained

Carvajal

Ronaldo

loyal despite the crisis. And now we have got back on track, we are pressing well, our counter-attacks are fast and defensively we are organised.”

Interestingly, the Gabon international started out his career at AC Milan but never made a senior appearance for the Rossoneri, having spent most of his time out on loan.

CLASICO:

–CARVAJAL

MADRID WON’T SETTLE FOR DRAW

Aubameyang


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INTERVIEW

Carlos, having lived in various cities around the world, how do you find Turin?

After spending eight years in Man-chester I received a very warm wel-come to Turin. The people are very easy-going, in contrast to other parts of Italy such as Rome or Naples, where passions run much higher. Life’s very good here and it’s where I’ve found it easiest to adapt. That’s also because of the language, which I understand a bit better. In England that was so hard for me.

Do you miss Argentina?Yes, definitely. I’ve always missed

friends and family, right from the start. Luckily I get plenty of visitors so I’m not always alone. Los pibes (my old mates) have always been there for me no matter where I’ve been. Imagine my pals from Fuerte Apache in Eng-land! I have countless stories. Every time we went out something funny happened, usually involving the lan-guage. It’s always good fun.

Is it difficult for someone who’s grown up in an entirely different world – in Europe, for example – to imagine what Fuerte Apache is like, and how would you describe it ex-actly?

It’s tough to make people under-stand what that life is like if they haven’t been through the same things as I or the other people from that neighbourhood have experienced. Therefore people can make of it what they want. You simply can’t get inside

or Villa Carlos Gardel. As someone who grew up in one such area, what’s your take on that?

I don’t think that attitude is con-fined to the media – everyone thinks that way. If a kid with a hood passes somewhere that has just been robbed, people put the blame on him – that’s the mentality in Argentina these days. People live in fear nowadays. Previ-ously criminals had principles of sorts: they’d rob you but then they’d let you go. Now they’re all on drugs – you give them your belongings and they kill you anyway. Youngsters today no longer have the values I remember. In the past they would risk their necks by heading out, swiping something and then going home again – that was it. Today the lads who go stealing are all on drugs. They’re still taking a risk but in a different way. Now they’re only thinking about their own lives and not those of other people.

But there is also another side to

those neighbourhoods, like the people who you dedicate your goal celebrations to. What can be done to help change the negative image people seem to have about places like these?

We need to show people who think like this that there are good kids in Fuerte Apache and Ciudad Oculta too, just like in every Argen-tinian city. Not all people are bad. I got out of there and there are others who were able to escape that situa-tion too. It’s not easy for anyone. In fact, it’s unbelievably difficult to get out of there. But everyone’s fate is in their own hands, as I always say. You have to prove to people that we’re not all the same.

Is it true that you thought about all these things to motivate yourself on the journey to Berlin’s Olympi-astadion for the 2006 FIFA World Cup quarter-final, while looking at the Germans out on the streets?

Yes, that’s true. We were going to the stadium, and although you’re always in a reflective mood in those moments, this time it was totally dif-ferent. It had never happened to me before and it hasn’t happened in the same way since. I was suddenly full of energy and said to myself, ‘Today you’ve got to give your all out on the pitch because you come from a place it’s very tough to get out of’. I thought of how we played with balls made from rags as children and things like that. The thoughts just came to me like that. I had it all in my mind.

the heads of other people and say to them, ‘Look, I went through some rough times’. It’s impossible to explain everything the streets taught me, and that was quite a lot.

Is there one particular experience that shaped your childhood?

My whole childhood was hard, so it wasn’t a matter of any individual incident. I lived in a place where drugs and murder were part of everyday life. Experiencing difficult things, even as a very young kid, means you grow up quickly. I think that enables everyone to choose their own path and not just accept what others have taken before you, and I went my own way. I never condoned drugs or murder, and luckily I was able to make a choice.

It is said that your childhood friend Dario Coronel was every bit as tal-ented as you, but he wasn’t lucky enough to be able to make that choice. Is that right?

I don’t think you can say that he wasn’t lucky enough to be able to choose. As I’ve said already, everyone decides for themselves what they’re going to do. He had everything he needed to be just as successful, but he chose a different path – criminality and drugs – and that ultimately meant that he is no longer with us. I truly be-lieve that everyone chooses their own route through life, and he – and this has nothing to do with luck – chose the easier option.

Do you think about him often?Yes! He is, or was, my best friend.

We were together 24 hours a day, even though we later went to different clubs and things like that. But we were always together, all day long.

It seems that kids who grow up in poorer neighbourhoods everywhere tend to be stigmatised, even in the media. In Argentina you see it in plac-es like Fuerte Apache, Ciudad Oculta

TEVEZ: Carlos Tevez and Dario Coronel had a great deal in common. They were born in the same year, grew up in the same neighbourhood and, unsurprisingly, shared a passion for football. ‘Together they were dynamite’ was the consensus of those who had the good fortune to see the pair linking up and hitting one-twos in the junior teams of clubs like All Boys, Santa Clara and Villa Real. So inseparable were they that they frequently spent entire days in each other’s company. That all changed when Cabanas, as Coronel was dubbed because of his physical resemblance to then Boca Juniors player Roberto Cabanas, was selected to join the youth team of Velez Sarsfield.

With Tevez not chosen to follow him there, they spent more time apart, although it was his friend’s growing attachment to a local street gang that would eventually make their separation permanent. Jettisoning a promising career in football, Coronel went the way of armed robberies and drug dealing, before reportedly taking his own life at just 17 when surrounded by police. Tevez managed to sidestep the temptations of crime and bad company to forge a career in professional football. Currently delighting fans of Juventus in the Italian Serie A, he frequently uses his background and goal celebrations to vindicate the lives of those who, with hard work and sacrifice, are struggling to extract themselves from difficult circumstance.

Now in this exclusive interview with FIFA, the player talks about his roots, the story that shaped his childhood and much more. Excerpts:

MY CHILDHOOD LIFE WAS HARD! !


X7

STARS OF YESTERYEAR

EMILIO BUTRAGUENO

won another league), mainly due to the emergence of 17-year-old Raul, Butragueno signed for Club Celaya in Mexico and, in his first year, the team reached the final of the national championship.

After three seasons where he was known as the Gentleman of the Pitch – never received a single red card dur-ing his entire career – he finally de-cided to retire from the game in April 1998.

International careerButragueno played 69 interna-

tional matches for Spain, and scored 26 goals. His debut came on October 17, 1984 against Wales in a 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifier, although he had already been picked as an uncapped player for the UEFA Euro 1984 team as the nation finished runners-up.

Butragueno was also selected for the 1986 World Cup, where he played a major part, scoring four goals as Spain beat Denmark 5–1 in the round-of-16 match. He also played in the 1990 edition in Italy (four games, no goals).Honours

Butragueno won six La Liga titles with Real Madrid in 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90 and 1994–95 seasons.

He also won two Copa del Rey

ternational goals for his country for a record that stood several years.

Club careerIn 1981, skillful Butragueno joined

Real Madrid’s youth system, playing first for its reserve side before being given his senior debut by Alfredo Di Stefano on February 5, 1984 against Cadiz FC. Expectedly, he made an in-stant impact during the explosive encounter, scoring twice and assist-ing for the third goal in a 3–2 away

trophies with Real in 1988–89 and 1992–93 seasons.

Still with Real, he won Copa de la Liga in 1984–85 season; Supercopa de Espana in 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1993; UEFA Cups in 1984–85 and 1985–86 seasons and Copa Iberoamericana title in 1994.

He inspired the Spanish national team to the UEFA European Cham-pionship runner-up position in 1984.

Top among Butragueno’s indi-vidual awards are: Bravo Awards in 1985 and 1986; Bronze Ball in 1986 and 1987; Pichichi Trophy in 1990–91; FIFA World Cup Silver Boot in 1986 and FIFA World Cup All-Star Team in 1986.

Post-retirement and other ven-tures

Still as a player Butragueno had a computer game with his name released in 1988, for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and MSX.

On October 19, 2004 he replaced Jorge Valdano, a former Real Madrid teammate, as the club’s director of football and, until the end of the 2005–06 season, also served as the club’s vice-president. Subsequently he acted as head of Public relations for the organization.

turnaround, after Real Madrid trailed by 0–2.

On December 12, 1984, he made his European competition debut, contributing with a hat-trick to a 6–1 home triumph against R.S.C. Ander-lecht for the UEFA Cup third round (after a 0–3 loss in Brussels). The Me-rengues went on to win the competi-tion.

At the time, Real Madrid’s form was so patchy that first team’s atten-dances were poorer than the reserve side ones; Butragueno contributed to the side’s transformation, and was a prominent member of the team dur-ing the 1980s, winning numerous honours.

Butagueno received the European Bronze award for best footballer in two consecutive years, and won the Pichichi Trophy in 1991, while also be-ing instrumental in the capital club’s six La Liga trophies, two Copa del Rey and UEFA Cups.

In June 1995, having lost his influ-ence in the Real Madrid side (only eight games and one goal, as the club

Emilio Butragueno is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a striker. Born July 22, 1963,

he was best known for his spell with Real Madrid.

Nicknamed El Buitre (The Vulture), he amassed La Liga totals of 341 games and 123 goals for his main club, in 12 seasons, and represented the Spanish national team in two World Cups (being the second top scorer in the 1986 edition) and as many Euro-pean Championships, scoring 26 in-

Brilliant! Emilio Butragueno celebrates after scoring during Spain’s 5-1 thumping win over Denmark in 1986.

THE ‘SPANISH VULTURE’


X8

EXTRATIME ARSENAL

PLOTS

MONACO’S

FALLA

rsenal manager Arsene Wenger

says Saturday’s 3-0 win over

West Ham sets his side up nicely

for tonight’s Champions League clash with

Monaco.The Gunners were unable to fully

capitalise on their first-half superiority at

the Emirates but Olivier Giroud scored just

before half-time to put them into the lead.

They then weathered some West Ham

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho believes Arsenal are Premier League title contenders

following their 3-0 win over West Ham at the weekend.

Mourinho had said in the build-up to Sunday’s game against Southamp-ton that Chelsea ‘will go on to win the league’ this season, but the Blues were held to a 1-1 draw by the Saints to move six rather than eight points clear of Manchester City at the sum-mit.

Arsenal are a point further back after a fifth straight league win, and Mourinho accepts Arsene Wenger’s

Arsenal-German playmaker, Mesut Ozil, has called on his team-mates to believe they have what it takes to

miraculously overrun Monaco at Monte Carlo tonight.

The Gunners’ hopes of progress to the quarter-finals of Europe’s elite club competi-tion are all but over, following a disappointing 3-1 defeat in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium last month.

No team has recovered from more than a single-goal deficit going into an away leg in

side must be considered title chal-lengers.

“Of course, Arsenal are in conten-tion,” he said. “Seven points behind Chelsea and one less match to play than Chelsea.

“I keep thinking whether our op-position is better than them over the run-in. I think so. Both teams are in the race.”

Chelsea exited the Champions League to Paris Saint-Germain in mid-week and have now dropped points in successive Premier League home games having drawn with Burnley last month.

the Champions League era.Monaco beat nine-man Bastia 3-0 in

Ligue 1 on Friday night to extend their formi-dable defensive record with only seven goals conceded from the last 22 games.

“When you believe in yourselves, a posi-tive energy grows that you can achieve your aims.

“In football, things that may look un-likely can happen. I know that if we believe in ourselves and utilise our potential, we can still go through,” Ozil said.

Arsenal still title

contenders!

MOURINHO:

WENGER

Oziltasks Gunners on miraculous outing

Ozil

Wenger

Mourinho

scored in each of the three games he has started since.

Giroud paid no attention to his critics following his misfiring display in the first leg against Monaco and is backing himself to continue his impressive form at Stade Louis II.

“I take a lot of pressure on the pitch. But when I ‘miss’ a game, if I can say that, you know I try to bounce back as quick as I can,” he said.

Olivier Giroud is backing himself to

make amends for his poor performance in Arsenal’s

Champions League last-16 first-leg defeat to Monaco by inspiring a second-leg fightback tonight.

The striker was wasteful in front of goal as the Gunners slumped to a 3-1 defeat against the Ligue 1 side at the Emirates Stadium last month, but has

Giroud vows to make amends

pressure after the break, before Aaron

Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini wrapped up

the victory with second-half goals.

“I think we played very well in the first

half and created chances but we

could not finish the chances off. Their

keeper (Adrian) kept them in the game.

“We scored a great goal just before

half-time but second half, coming out,

West Ham put us under pressure.

“We needed to be well organised and

stop them from scoring. Then, in the

last 20 minutes, we were on top of

the game and looked always

like we could score goals,” Wenger said.

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