Nigerian Music Legend, Eedris Abdulkareem says he feels vindicated by the song (Jaga Jaga) he sang 18 years ago.
Eedris who said this as a guest on Channels TV’s Rubbing Minds on Sunday explained that he feels vindicated because the country has remained the same even though he was openly criticised by some at the time he released the song, including the then-president of the country.
The song was released in 2002 and was banned from radio by the Federal Government because it projected corruption and suffering in Nigeria.
His words, “In 2002 I dropped Nigeria Jaga Jaga, and the ex-president came on the National TV and said that boy wey sing that song, na him papa and him family jaga jaga.
“I was very happy that my message got to the president. I was very happy that the president talked back at me because that means they were listening and today I’ve been vindicated again because Nigeria is still jaga jaga”.
‘Jaga Jaga’ describes a state of complete disorder and confusion.
According to the singer, he would continue to speak his truth through his music because that is the Legacy that would be left behind after he is long gone.
“We should under no circumstances let terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims because those barbaric killers don’t represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world” – President Buhari after Muslims slaughtered Christians on December 25, 2019.
“A leader is best
When people barely know he exists
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him
Worst when they despise him…” – Lao-tsy, Chinese philosopher, 6th century AD,
VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 124.
Buhari quite frequently reminds me of someone who says great things and does the opposite virtually all the time. I am still willing to give him the benefit of doubt that he dissembles inadvertently and not deliberately – out of respect for his position as our national leader. His statement quoted above is one example of falsehood easily disproved.
If governments represent the wishes of their people on religion, then there is no country in the Middle East which represents its “law-abiding Muslims” which is not at the same time a promoter of terrorism worldwide. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the recognised headquarters of the two factions of Islam – Sunnis and Shi’ites. Both actively sponsor terrorism throughout the Arabian Peninsula and abroad. ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, etc have never denied that they are Muslims. Those who primarily destroyed a good part of Syria, e.g. Aleppo, were Islamic sects and nothing else. Buhari knows the truth but appears he won’t say it.
Here in Nigeria, from the Maitatsine sect in the 1980s till Christmas Day 2019, the religious terrorist groups who have shed other peoples’ innocent blood have been Islamic. Not even idol worshippers or believers in traditional religions have been as “godless” (to use Buhari’s word) as his Muslim brothers. I challenge anybody to point to one instance in which Christians and so-called non-believers have steadily and, without remorse, slaughtered other Nigerians as Boko Haram and ISWAP have done. It is no longer an accidental occurrence but planned and executed genocide by numerous Islamic groups. Again, Buhari knows the truth, but he it appears he won’t say it. Admitting the truth will destroy his false sense of protecting ALL Nigerians. He isn’t. Obviously, the President who fails or is unwilling to protect all Nigerians, irrespective of religion, is the person dividing Nigerians along religious lines. Let me explain.
Buhari, at 77, is my senior brother but, with me, at 75, in demographics, we would be classified in the same generation. I can state authoritatively that Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims had existed side-by-side before we were born in 1942 and 1944 respectively. No government, colonial, elected or military, had taken sides in the age-long dispute between the two sects of Islam; none had adopted one as the Nigerian Muslim sect until Buhari, a Sunni. When Abubakar Malami, Buhari’s Minister of Justice, a Sunni, filed an ex-parte case before a judge and, most probably a Sunni, asking that Shi’ites be declared a terrorist group, it was the first time any Muslim Head of State – Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Murtala Muhammed, Shehu Shagari, Babangida, Abacha, Abubakar and Yar’Adua – would use his position to divide Muslims and to deprive millions of fellow Nigerians of their right to worship the way they want. Incidentally, all the other leaders mentioned were/are Sunnis. But, they never allowed their bigotry to get the better of them as Buhari has done. Furthermore, Buhari and his Attorney General and their biased judge of the Federal High Court labour in vain. They must be self-deluded to imagine that a religion to which millions of people subscribe can be wiped out by a court decision. Long after they have all died, Shi’ites will still be worshipping in Nigeria. Buhari has created millions of sworn enemies against himself. To them, his government, by depriving them of their constitutional rights, is the terrorist.
Two young ladies
“Must one be called Abubakar or Mohammed to get an appointment with Buhari…?” – Dele Sobowale, DAILY INDEPENDENT, January 2, 2020, back page.
It is not only along religious lines that Buhari is dividing us. I recently wrote that next time he attends a meeting of world leaders, Buhari might find himself sitting between two young ladies – young enough to be his grand-daughters.
They are Heads of Government in advanced countries. In actual fact, Donald Trump, President of the US, and Buhari, at over 75, are vestiges of a bye-gone era. The Stone Age idea that “Father knows best” has long ago given way to whoever takes the trouble to read widely, be technology-compliant and have the energy for back-breaking work. Such people, irrespective of age, are probably the best for the job. That description, however, is gender neutral.
But, unfortunately, Buhari’s own mind-set has already divided Nigerians into male and female. The females are only good for services “in the other room”. Thus, half of the Nigerian population has already been consigned to the bedroom – while more progressive societies are making use of their enormous talents. Let me again explain why I am annoyed at the obvious penchant for dividing us along gender lines.
First, I was privileged to have been drafted into a group which drafted Nigeria’s protocol on Gender Equality during the Abacha regime. The documents that Mrs Abacha delivered in China to a global audience included a segment on how to implement various proposals to alleviate poverty among women – especially in the North-East zone; which was and is still the worst. Even Abacha, not to talk of Babangida and Abubakar, were committed to achieving the goals established at Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing. It was another misguided woman-hater, Olusegun Obasanjo, who halted the march towards more gender equity.
Second, I am the proud father of six children – all girls and all graduates. They have brought home certificates in all the respected disciplines – Computer, Medicine, Engineering, Law, etc. My daughters are so responsible none of them will drive a N100 million BMW motorcycle at breakneck speed in Abuja and almost get themselves killed. Yet, it is the irresponsible males who Buhari prefers to employ instead of more serious girls and women. Do he really wish Nigeria well? It certainly does not show.
Third, I wrote that article after reading in one day and in various papers announcements about appointments made recently. Quite apart from dividing Nigerians into Abubakar/Mohammed and the rest, I counted fifteen (15) appointments and no single female among them. To me, it is inconceivable that any modern leader at any level can in 2019 make such lop-sided appointments. Obviously, women don’t exist in Buhari’s mind.
To be quite candid, it was not surprising. His prejudices are usually so deeply ingrained the man is not even conscious of exhibiting them. I once confronted an APC Woman Leader during the campaigns last year by asking her if she believed Buhari will appreciate their efforts and be more equitable when distributing the dividends of victory. She thought I was being pessimistic. She called me after reading the article last week sobbing on the phone. In the end, she got the words out, “Uncle Dele, how could you have known that this is what Buhari would do to us?” Well, UniJankara is not a place for fools. We don’t trade sex for marks. You must be very good to work with us. We work all the time and we don’t even pay anything.
Nnamdi Kanu and Sowore
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – Francois Voltaire, French philosopher.
Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB, and Sowore have a few attributes in common. They are young, they are southerners, they hold annoyingly radical views about how to restructure Nigeria and they probably come from Christian homes. None of them has murdered a single soul with their words. Incidentally, I happen to consider their proposals puerile and impractical. But, they are entitled to them. But, the two have been treated like terrorists by the combination of Buhari, Buratai, Bichi and Idris (IGP). The President of Nigeria, the Chief of Army Staff and the Director General of the Department of States Services did nothing when Muslim bandits invited the Governor of Katsina State to a meeting to discuss what was in effect power sharing in Katsina. Masari went to attend to terrorists without the Army invading the meeting venue to arrest those who have seized half of the power in the President’s own state. Kanu’s community was invaded and parts of it destroyed in the search for a man armed only with his mouth. DSS in full view of the world sent armed men into a court room to wrestle and brutalise Sowore who did not even have a pen-knife for self-defence. But, they kept away while a northern Muslim governor negotiated power sharing arrangement with declared and armed enemies of the state. So, who is dividing Nigerians into untouchables and expendables?
All the states of the South-East and South-South are predominantly Christian states. Yet, there are mosques in every state. Muslims gather every Friday for Jumat Prayers and celebrate Sallah annually. No single case of Christian fundamentalist attacking Muslims has ever been recorded. No Christian President – Ironsi, Gowon, Obasanjo and Jonathan — has ever had to send a condolence message to Muslim families for any premeditated genocide committed by a minority of “godless Christians”. That already points to a difference. But, imagine, if you can, what would happen if a group of Christian Avengers should start killing Muslims in any of the SE and SS states and openly claiming responsibility for it? What do you think Buhari, Buratai, Bichi and Idris would do about it? Would they stop at sending condolences? Definitely not. And, there is a precedent to support that statement.
After herdsmen had slaughtered over 400 people in Benue and Enugu States alone, as well as uncountable others nationwide, there was a rumour. Five (5) herdsmen had been killed in one of the SE states. Within days, the community was over-run by Daura’s DSS officials in search of evidence and possible arrests. The officials of Buhari administration who were offering excuses for undisputed mass killing were actively in search of people to prosecute for a mere rumour!!! So, who is dividing us?
“Your land or your life” – FG loudspeaker.
About two years ago, one of Buhari’s loudspeakers from the South-West advised his own family (certainly not mine) that they had no choice about giving up their land for grazing. His submission is summarised above. It is on record that no such offer that cannot be refused was made to people in any state in the North-West. That the Yoruba have not surrendered their ancestral lands to marauding herdsmen is not a victory which our leaders in the All Progressives Congress, APC, can claim. Left to the traitors of Yoruba people, there would probably, by now, have been established a RUGA at Isale-Eko, Oja Oba, Osun Shrine and Oba Adeshida Road – to mention a few. It was the tenacity of the Yoruba people and Sango striking cattle dead with thunder which has kept the invaders at bay.
Who is dividing us? Please let’s change the subject.
NEXT WEEK: FOR ONCE I WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE WITH LAI MOHAMMED.
NOTE: The books are available at CSS Bookshops, VANGUARD Abuja Office and MM2 as well as GATT in Lagos. www.delesobowale.com
Says ‘we are ready for Niger, Chad, Mali criminals who infiltrated S/West’
Lashes critics of security outfit as either sadists or do not value human life’
Aare Gani Adams, The Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland
FOLLOWING the launch of the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Operation Amotekun (Leopard), Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, in this interview, says the Yoruba people are happy with the outfit. Aare Adams, who flays critics of the outfit, says those playing politics with Operation Amotekun do not have value for lives. Excerpts:
By Dapo Akinrefon, Deputy Regional Editor, South-West
How do you see the launch of Operation Amotekun?
Amotekun Operation is a welcome development and, at the same time, it is a belated idea that we had been expecting for a long time. I am one of those who gingered them to hold the South-West security summit that led to Amotekun. I can say authoritatively that Yoruba people are very happy with this initiative.
Anybody criticising it is either a sadist or does not value life. Amotekun is not the same with state police that we have been demanding before now. Amotekun is like someone with a fever that requires first aid treatment otherwise you may not have the chance to administer full treatment. We wanted state police but in the absence of that, something must be done. State police is a constitutional issue that would involve the process of amendment of the Constitution.
But a security outfit that will be controlled by governors is necessary now. We know from the intelligence report available to us that the Yoruba nation has been highly infiltrated. We have been infiltrated all over South-West by criminals, especially from external forces from Niger, Chad, Mali and even our people who are criminals. The issue of security threat in the South-West goes beyond herdsmen. We also have it on good authority that some Yoruba people are collaborating with these criminals. As the Aare Onakankanfo, I am interested in the Amotekun, not because of what I want to get. We may differ politically but what our governors are doing right now with regards to Amotekun is in the interest of the entire Yorubaland and we must support them.
There is a limit we must play politics with our lives. The issue on the ground now requires that we, Yoruba, should allow God to use the present governors to secure our land. The buck stops on the table of the governors and also on me as Aare Onakankanfo of Yoruba land. I am not supporting the idea because of personal gain but what it will bring to Yorubaland. I am not even in government.
There is a limit we must play politics with our lives. My traditional position requires me to ensure that Yorubaland is secure. I may not know much about the technicalities but the DAWN committee is there to handle that. There was a committee set up and controlled by the DAWN Commission, it has about 30 people and they are in charge of the technicalities. All the security advisers to the six-state governors are there in the committee, there are retired police and SSS officers and even there are strong criminology lecturers among the committee members.
Difference
The difference between Amotekun and private security outfits is that government controls it, therefore, it is well planned; it will be legitimized; so we have to encourage the governors to start first and I think, with time, it will be upgraded. With time, they will put their house in order, because, within just one month, criminals will relocate, they will know that South-West is no longer a safe haven for them. I can tell you authoritatively that some ugly incidents are happening in the South-West and the media is playing down because you don’t want to create panic in our region.
So against all odds, we have to support this Amotekun initiative.
You have talked about Amotekun. What exactly is the solution to insecurity?
Amotekun is a temporary way of solving the problem, even state police, without restructuring is not ideal. State police is a component of true federalism. If we want to solve our problems, we should solve it once and for all. Restructuring is allowing the federating units to have autonomy.
Let the component units develop at their pace, let the federal remain in Abuja. Abuja should control the Army, Navy, Airforce, Department of State Security Service, DSS, federal police, Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps and other relevant agencies at the federal level. The region should have its regional and local government police. We have options for restructuring in Nigeria but the federating units should be given autonomy.
Assuming the federating units were given autonomy, Nigeria would not be as worse as this. Nigerians would have a good country if the federating units were given autonomy to run their units. If we don’t restructure Nigeria we are wasting our time.
There are issues surrounding the recruitment process of personnel. The Director-General of the DAWN Commission said illiterates will not be members of the outfit. How do you react to this?
The illiterates in OPC are about 20 to 25 per cent; the elites are not up to five per cent. It is the grassroots people that would stay in the sun and be campaigning for you; the elites are there for strategy. 95 per cent of the followers of any political party are stack illiterates. The three groups that we want to use are very important, psychologically 90 per cent are illiterates and if you bring any other group, it won’t work. It is only the people who are being deprived that can lay down their lives, those who benefit from the system cannot lay down their lives.
There are fears that the outfit may be used for the 2023 general elections…
Anybody that wants to contest should come out in 2021. If I start talking about 2023 now, it would amount to distraction.
Were you carried along during the process of setting up of the outfit?
I was not deeply carried along.
For more than two decades after his asylum application was rejected, Sunny found a safe haven aboard the buses that zigzag across London at night. What’s it like to spend every night on the lower decks?
Sunny waits patiently, wind penetrating his well-worn jacket and the winter cold biting at his extremities.
It’s past midnight and his legs are weary but he stands firm and smiles as the bus lunges to a halt, its wing mirror clipping overgrown branches on its way. He moves aside to let other passengers board, greets the familiar face of the driver with a gentle bow of the head and taps his weathered Oyster card on the payment point.
Relieved at finding his favoured spot at the back of the lower deck empty, he slides into place and gets comfortable for the long ride ahead. Sunny hugs his bag to his stomach, feels his wrinkled hands start to thaw, and closes his eyes.
Leaving behind the smell of fried chicken and noise of London’s late-night traffic, his mind drifts.
He sees his younger self, kneeling in prayer between the concrete walls of a Nigerian prison, waiting to be executed. His offence: struggling for democracy.
A guard barges into the cell, lifts him to his feet and rushes him down silent corridors, out into blinding sunlight, where a car is waiting.
Family and friends have bought his freedom, paying off everyone from the prison officials to the air hostess on the flight to London.
Sunny is jerked back to the present as a scrum of drunken men, singing tunelessly, trail through the doors and up to the top deck. It must be three or four in the morning, he calculates – the usual hour for trouble.
PHOTO: BBC
Around this time, Sunny often notices three distinct groups around him. It’s a neat survey of modern London. There are those who came to this country for a better life, rushing to their pre-dawn cleaning jobs. Another group – mostly indigenous Britons – heads home from the nightclubs, talking loudly and cramming down fast food. And finally there are the homeless, those who have nowhere else to go, for whom buses are a place to rest.
Sunny doesn’t resent the others; he has learned to enjoy their boisterousness. When they smile, he smiles. When they laugh, he laughs too. It’s amazing how a few pints can evaporate class boundaries, stripping reserved Englishmen of their inhibitions so they chat with the homeless as temporary equals.
Sunny tries to recall the last time he felt as happy as these drunken men.
Perhaps it was when his asylum claim was still under review. Back then he was full of gratitude for his second chance at life. He took a course in documentary-making, choosing to report on the lives of London’s homeless, never imagining he would soon be in their shoes.
Sunny had dared to hope for a bright future, safe under the protection of Her Majesty the Queen – that figurehead familiar from sun-faded colonial posters across Nigeria. But his request for asylum was refused.
That left him with two options: go home to a country under the iron fist of a military ruler, where his death sentence would finally be carried out, or go underground.
And so began 21 years as a nomad on London’s buses, which Sunny quickly realised were safer and warmer than the streets.
It was a church minister, a woman of unwavering generosity, who first bought him a monthly pass to save him multiple nightly fares. She continued to do so, month after month, and other friends would chip in if she wasn’t around.
Sunny’s travel card holder quotes Jesus: “Peace I bequeath to you, My own peace I give you, A peace the world cannot give.” PHOTO: BBC
By day Sunny would volunteer at churches – he would attend several during his time in London. When his work was done, he would often head to Westminster Reference Library where he could catch up on the day’s news or pick up where he’d left off in the book he’d been reading.
He might then ask a restaurant manager if they could spare some food, and says he was rarely turned away.
But no later than 9pm he would invariably be stepping aboard a bus for the first of three, maybe four, nightly trips across the capital.
He soon discovered the best buses for a good rest. There was the trusty N29, from Trafalgar Square to the northern suburb of Wood Green. But the 25 – which ran 24 hours – offered the longest uninterrupted sleep. In traffic, it would take two hours to get from central London to Ilford, in Essex, where – if he was really lucky – a driver might take pity and leave him sleeping on board at the terminus.
More often, the homeless passengers – maybe four or five of them – would be woken and turfed off until the next driver arrived.
Most were destitute women, British or African, who used the bus as a sanctuary from the threat of sexual assault. Laden with bags, they would be grateful for Sunny’s help lugging them on and off the bus.
Sunny always travelled light. A small tote bag allowed him to avoid the stigma of homelessness during daylight hours.
Some homeless folk would stretch out across seats but he preferred not to inconvenience other riders.
It took a while to learn all the tricks. At first, he hadn’t worried about where to sit. But then he found himself in a confrontation with two men who had been trying to set light to the hair of an unsuspecting woman in front. He chased them off but resolved to avoid conflict where possible.
The lower deck, he concluded, was the preserve of reasonable people, of families and the elderly. Trouble rarely erupted so close to the driver. The back seats were optimal, not just for the headrest but for peace of mind.
But there were always distractions: the lurching bus, the neon lights, the noisy night-riders and the humming engine. Two hours of proper sleep across an entire night was an achievement.
At dawn – or when he got hungry, whichever came first – he would head to a McDonald’s.
He never begged but the friendly staff at the Leicester Square branch would give him food and let him shave in the bathrooms. Fellow customers could be kind, too.
Or, if he timed it right, he could hop off at the 24-hour branch in Haringey – halfway along the N29 route. There, he could enjoy a peace that was rare in the central London branches, rest his head on a table and continue his slumber.
For a handful of Christmases, Sunny broke his routine and tried winter night shelters provided by churches.
Seven different churches worked a rota. But they were scattered in different locations across the capital, creating a daily exodus of people – the “walking dead”, in his words – trying to reach their next bed before the evening curfew.
Sunny came to realise he preferred the bus to lying on stone floors, packed shoulder-to-shoulder. It was hard to sleep through the smell of tobacco, alcohol and unwashed bodies. And, of course, the screams of the others as they lay there tormented by nightmares.
From the seats of London buses, Sunny watched the changing face of the capital. Slowly, the white population declined as a proportion of the total. The ranks of the homeless expanded.
In this most diverse of spaces, he became adept at matching faces or dialects to places of origin. And he developed a sixth sense for trouble, detecting warning signs in gestures: the smirk of trouble-making teens, the pursed lips of an explosive racist.
There were combinations that could result in confrontation: drunken football fans and a veiled woman; tired commuters and people using speakerphone; gang members and their local rivals. In the months following the Brexit referendum of 2016, hostility to migrants seemed to become more commonplace. “Go back home,” became a regular refrain.
Sunny didn’t blame the British government for his predicament. Had his own country’s not been so bad, he wouldn’t have been here in the first place.
Eventually, the refugee centre at Notre Dame de France church, off Leicester Square, made an application for leave to remain on his behalf. If people prove they have continuously lived in the UK for 20 years, they can qualify to settle. But Sunny had spent that time avoiding all records, evading detection. How could he demonstrate he had been there all this time?
“I understand that your client is currently homeless, but we still require documentary evidence to show continuous residence from 1995 to the present date,” said a letter from the Home Office. “Evidence such as utility bills, bank statements, tenancy agreements…”
Sunny asked the friendliest bus drivers to write him a letter of support. One obliged, confirming he was “a regular rider throughout the night”.
The churches he had volunteered at over the years provided supporting statements and dug out old photographs recording his presence at charity events.
These days Sunny is the one taking pictures. He reaches inside his bag for the disposable camera he’s been given to tell his story as part of a photography project.
There are a few frames left. Lifting the viewfinder to his eye, Sunny pushes firm against the flash button and pauses to adjust his composition. Click… He releases the shutter.
The photograph will not simply show rows of mostly empty seats on the lower deck of a bus. It will be a picture of life as a free man.
At the age of 55, in 2017, Sunny was granted leave to remain. It had taken a year but finally, he had the right to shelter, to work, to exist. And he was thankful.
It is almost his stop, deep in south London’s suburbs – he still isn’t used to travelling to a destination. Even now he sometimes sleeps on buses, though more often during the day rather than at night. For so long a sanctuary, they remain a place to empty his mind – their familiarity a comfort.
Sunny’s knees click as he hoists himself up. He’s getting older, his struggle has aged him beyond his years. He thanks the driver and carefully steps down to the pavement. Leaning into the breeze, he walks towards his bedsit, smiling as the cold cracks his lips.
Sunny, whose name has been changed, collaborated with photographer and journalist Venetia Menzies to document his story for one year. This story is drawn from interviews with Sunny, his own photographs and portraits that preserve his anonymity.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will on Monday commission some major road projects constructed by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State.
During the one-day official state visit, the Vice President will also lay the foundation stone for the first state-owned Cancer Centre in Nigeria.
Prof. Osinbajo will be accompanied by Governor Ganduje and other senior government officials in the state.
He will commission the Tijjani Hashim Underpass in Kofar Ruwa, the Aminu Dantata Flyover in Sabon Gari amongst other project constructed by the Kano State Government under Governor Ganduje.
The Vice President will also make history when he lays the foundation stone of the Kano Cancer Centre, which is the first state-owned cancer Centre in the country, amongst others.
The official visit to Kano comes a day after Prof Osinbajo headlined the annual Armed Forces Remembrance Day service at National Christian Centre, Abuja on Sunday.
Osinbajo who paid glowing tributes to Nigeria’s Armed Forces spoke in appreciation of men and women who have put down their lives to serve Nigeria.
In a speech titled ‘A Debt We Cannot Repay’ the Vice President said the sacrifice of the men and women in uniform has never gone unnoticed. Nigeria News
Ahead of today’s final verdict on Imo State governorship election by the Supreme Court, the Imo State Police Command on Monday, said it has beefed up security to ensure there is peace regarding the outcome of the governorship court case.
According to the State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Orlando Ikeokwu, in Owerri, said the move by the police was to stop any party that loss from causing problems in the state.
He also warned the party that will win at the supreme court to respect other peoples right while jubilating over their victory.
Just as the police have warned parents and guardians to prevail on their children to avoid indulging in an unlawful activity before, during and after the supreme court judgement.
The police said: “In view of the supreme court judgement on the Imo state governorship election, which is scheduled to hold on Monday, 13/01/20. The Imo state Police command in conjunction with other security agencies in the state wishes to express its readiness to ensure the safety and security of Members of the public during and after the judgement.
“The Command, therefore, warn all the parties involved to maintain decorum before, during and after the judgement, It further advice whichever party that comes out victorious to be responsible and respect other people’s rights.
“While jubilating and celebrating, and not to use such medium to ferment trouble or conduct themselves in a manner that could cause a breach of the public peace.”
They continued by saying: “Similarly, it warned whichever party that looses to also be peaceful and maintain decorum, as the loss will afford the said party to reflect, restrategise and prepare for the next election.
“Members of the public are therefore advised to go about their lawful business without fear of molestation, as machinery is emplaced to ensure the security of lives and properties of all and sundry.
“Parents and guardians are advised to warn their children and wards not to allow themselves to be used by anyone or group to ferment trouble anywhere in the state, as any person or group of persons arrested will be made to face the full wrath of the law.”
Jamaican musician, Shaggy reportedly turned down the opportunity to feature on Rihanna’s forthcoming album because he was asked to audition for it.
Shaggy according to The Daily Star passed up a chance to collaborate with Rihanna on her upcoming album, saying no on the grounds that he “didn’t need to audition.”
Rihanna’s forthcoming album follows her 2016’s ‘Anti’ and will be reggae-inspired.
“They approached me for the Rihanna project, yeah,” Shaggy said. “There’s a lot of great people involved, but for me, I didn’t need to audition to be on the record, I’ll leave that to younger guys.”
He, however, went ahead to show his support for her venturing into dancehall, “It’s a healthy competition. Dancehall is in a good place but we need as many people to do this art form as possible. When it crosses over and becomes popular with artists from other genres and other cultures, that can only be good.”
Rihanna has been working on her long-awaited ninth album, which is rooted in reggae. “I like to look at it as a reggae-inspired or reggae-infused album,” she told Vogue. “It’s not gonna be typical of what you know as reggae.”
Mr Mohammed Garba, the newly appointed Coordinator for the Joint Border Operations Drill, Northcentral Zone, Ilorin, Kwara, says Federal Government policy on temporary border closure is not designed to witchhunt or obstruct legal businesses.
He said this at the palace of the Emir of Yashikira, Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara on Sunday when he led his team on a familiarisation tour of border communities in the state.
Garba, who is also a Comptroller, Nigeria Customs Service, also explained that the idea was not to obstruct indigenes from legitimate trading.
According to him, the decision is rather to encourage local farmers, control the inflow of arms and ammunition, halt the smuggling of illicit drugs and other prohibited goods in and out of the country.
From R-L: Prince Harry, Meghan and Queen Elizabeth II
Britain’s Prince Harry is expected to meet his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and other senior royals on Monday to discuss his plans to “step back” from royal duties.
Harry and his wife Meghan, made a surprise announcement on Wednesday that they will seek a lower profile, build financial independence and divide their time between Britain and North America as they “carve out a progressive new role.”
The queen will hold talks with her grandson at her Sandringham estate in Eastern England on the future roles of Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, the BBC and other British media quoted royal sources as saying.
Buckingham Palace and Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have not confirmed plans for a meeting.
Many commentators and British tabloid newspapers have criticized the couple’s plans.
The criticism intensified on Friday after the palace confirmed that U.S.-born former actress Meghan had flown to Canada, where she had lived for several years while filming the popular television drama “Suits.”
Harry and Meghan also said they plan to restrict media access and withdraw from a rota system for media coverage of the royal family.
Their announcement came after they had denounced intrusive and inaccurate media reporting, as well as the vitriol directed toward them on social media, including racist attacks against Meghan, whose mother is black.
Harry and Meghan had returned earlier last week from a six-week break in Canada, a member of the Commonwealth, with their 8-month-old son Archie.
A Federal High Court Lagos on Monday, adjourned until Feb. 11 continuation of trial of President of the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA) Paul Usoro, charged with alleged N1.4billion fraud.
Usoros is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Rilwan Aikawa on 10 counts bordering on the offence.
He was first arraigned before Justice Muslim Hassan in December 2018, but the case was re-assigned to Justice Rilwan Aikawa.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges before Hasssan.
He also maintained his not guilty plea before Aikawa, and was granted bail.
The continuation of trial which was earlier fixed for Monday, has now been further adjourned to Feb. 11, as Justice Aikawa did not sit.
Also mentioned in the charge, is the incumbent governor of Akwa Ibom, Emmanuel Udom, who is described as being “currently constitutionly immune from prosecution”
Others mentioned are: the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Finance, Nsikan Nkan; Accountant-General of Akwa Ibom State, Mfon Udomah; the Akwa Ibom Attorney-General, Uwemedimo Nwoko and Margaret Ukpe.
The aforementioned names were described in the charge as being at large.
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In the charge marked FHC/418c/18, the anti-graft agency alleged that the defendant committed the offence on May 14, 2016.
Usoro, was alleged to have conspired with others, to commit the offence within the jurisdiction of the court.
The commission said that the N1.4billion belonged to the Akwa Ibom State Government.
The defendant was alleged to have conspired to convert the said sum, which he reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of unlawful activity.
The prosecution said that the unlawful activity includes criminal breach of trust which contravenes the provisions of section 15 (2), 15(3), and 18 (A) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Wildlife Conservation, on Monday, said that the cabinet has agreed to recruit civil defence in areas worst affected by the long-standing conflict between humans and elephants to minimise the number of deaths.
The ministry officials noted that about 2,500 civil defence personnel would be recruited in areas populated by humans/elephants, and steps would also be taken to build strong elephant fences with Chinese aid to remedy the situation.
In addition, every eight officers from the civil defence force would be given five firearms each to scare away the elephants to avoid encroachment on human residences.
According to the Centre for Environment and Nature Studies, Sri Lanka faced the highest number of elephant deaths in the country’s history in 2019 with 361 animals killed.
“Over 100 people were also killed in the longstanding human-elephant conflict,“ the ministry said.
However, the ministry urged the Sri Lankan Government to take immediate steps to control the situation to minimize the elephant deaths and protect the majestic animals.
Killing wild elephants in Sri Lanka is an offence punishable by death, but there have been regular reports of angry villagers poisoning or shooting them.
Official records show the population of wild elephants in Sri Lanka is estimated at 7,500.
The FG through its National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB has ordered cinemas to stop screening the recently released Kayode Kasum’s “Sugar Rush”.
The decision stirred outrage in the Nigerian social media circles, with commentators hinting that the decision might not be unconnected with the film’s portrayal of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC as incompetent and ineffective.
Sugar Rush was released on the 25th of December, 2019 and has gone on to gross about N157m in the Nigerian box office so far, showing its wide acceptance among Nigerian cinema lovers.
The movie plot revolves around three sisters who discover the whopping sum of $800,000 in the house of a corrupt man, and subsequent failed attempts of the EFCC officials to retrieve the money.
Reacting to outrage surrounding Sugar Rush’s suspension, the board of the NFVCB released a statement to clarify existing issues. The statement contained in part
“It has come to our notice that #BringBackSugarRush is currently gaining momentum on Twitter with many speculating a ban on the movie ‘Sugar Rush’ and presuming the supposed action as a sign of government’s intention to stifle creativity.
“The movie has not just significantly increased box office revenues within a short period but has improved our cinematic culture which is sine qua non for attracting the investment we so much desire as a nation.”
The Executive Director of the NFVCB, Mr Adedayo Thomas, took full responsibility for the final approval for Sugar Rush, saying it had been delayed due to his preoccupation with extant responsibilities.
Mr. Thomas said “I, however, take responsibility for the gap in communication and the delay in granting final approval as the temporary approval given for the movie exhibition expired before we could release an official statement due to my preoccupation with extant responsibilities and a backlog of movies requiring approval as a result of the December rush.
“I am currently working with the distributor, producer, director and key actors to grant final approval for the resumed exhibition at cinemas.”
Although, Nigeria’s current capacity hovers around 8,100MW but in real term, only an average of less than 4,000WM is wheeled to consumers.
The Managing Director of TCN, Usman Mohammed, had last year disclosed that Nigeria can achieve a wheeling capacity of 10,000MW in 2020, which remains a mirage.
But speaking in Abuja on the capacity that would be realised by implementing the Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) policy of the company, TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mba, said the agency has energised another brand new 100MVA 132/33kV power transformer installed in Ogba Transmission Substation in Lagos.
According to Mba, “TCN is working assiduously to implement the Transmission, Rehabilitation, and Expansion Programme (TREP) under which the capacity of the company will be expanded to 20,000MW by 2023.”
However, there is a need for commensurate distribution capability to improve supply of electricity to consumers, Mba noted that the new transformer, which was installed under the supervision of TCN’s engineers has increased the capacity of the substation from 165MVA to 265MVA.
The TCN publicist stated that “Prior to the installation of the 100MVA power transformer, Ogba Substation had a total of two (2) units of 60MVA 132/33kV power transformers, and one unit of 45MVA 132/33kV mobile power transformer. To ensure optimal utilisation of the newly installed power transformer, a brand-new switchyard made up of 132kV, 33kV and three number 33kV feeders were equally installed and commissioned.”
She said the increase in the substation’s capacity from 165MVA to 265MVA, means that the substation has more bulk electricity available for Ikeja Disco to take to its customers within Ikeja Industrial Area, Ogba – Ijaiye, Agege Pen Cinema, Mangoro Cement, Ojodu and Ifako-Ijaiye areas of Lagos.
Mba added that to optimise the capacity of the newly-inaugurated 100MVA at Ogba and other substations feeding Ikeja DISCO, TCN imported high capacity conductors, and would soon conclude on the re-conducting contract that would expand the transmission lines under IKEDC to double the current capacity.
The Department of Petroleum Resources, yesterday, said it is set to grant a Licence to Operate, , LTO, to Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, NDPR, for the installation of an additional 5,000 barrels per day modular refinery at Ogbele, Ahoada in Rivers State.
In a statement in Abuja, Director/Chief Executive Officer of the DPR, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, stated that the refinery, when completed, would reduce importation of petroleum products with corresponding savings in foreign exchange and employment generation for the country’s teeming youths.
According to him, this laudable project was expected to catalyse further growth of the Nigerian refining industry by attracting more investments as more players gain confidence. He noted that in addition to its maiden 1,000 barrels per Day (BPD) Diesel Topping Refining Plant, NDPR had consolidated on its capacity by expanding the plant with an additional 5,000 BPD. The expansion, he said, provided for other products slate to include kerosene, marine diesel and heavy fuel oil to cater to the Nigerian market. Auwalu noted that major equipment and units of the second train of 5,000 BPD had been fabricated, inspected, tested and modules are currently being shipped to Nigeria.
He said, “When installed, the upgraded refining complex will bring the total refining capacity to 11,000 BPD and will then have the requisite units to produce diesel (512,775 litres/day), kerosene (317,205 litres/day), marine diesel (281,907 litres/day) and heavy fuel oil (234,525 litres/day), and particularly Premium Motor Spirit/gasoline (168,540 litres/day). “The DPR provided necessary regulatory guidance and technical support throughout the project development phases for NDPR to contribute about 4.2% of national daily diesel demand and about o.4% for gasoline in Nigeria. “Having achieved these giant strides, the DPR is set to grant NDPR a ‘Licence to Operate’ (LTO) the plant expected to be commissioned soon.” Auwalu explained that this was part of the DPR’s drive to realise the objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and other similar Federal Government initiatives aimed at deepening local refining in Nigeria.
He commended the giant strides of the NDPR, a subsidiary of Niger Delta Exploration & Production Plc (NDEP) in pioneering modular refinery in the country. He further directed all modular refinery ‘Licence to Establish’ (LTE) holders to demonstrate expected performance within the two years validity of the Licence to enable them obtain ‘Approval to Construct’ (ATC) and other milestone approvals.
TOMORROW marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970) but we have remained locked in low-intensity warfare ever since because we are a senseless country. Our last civil war broke out over unresolved nationality question and its most unfortunate that our fault lines are more pronounced in January 2020 than they were in July 1967 when we started killing ourselves like the “enemy tribes” Lord Lugard once called us.
Cerebral fathers from my neck of the wood said from the depth of their wisdom that when a child falls down, he gets up and continues the journey without looking because of lack of reflection. On the other hand, an elderly person who falls down gets up and looks back to see the cause of the trip so he can avoid such as he continues.
Nigeria remains the child who stumbles and gets up without finding out the cause of the fall and continues to walk on carelessly. The truth of the matter is that there was never a need for a country like Nigeria. It is a perfect example of one disappeared entity Brian Hall called “The Impossible Country” (Yugoslavia).
A country is never borders or infrastructures. It is about unity of goals which has never been available around here. It has always been a perpetual feud between different nationalities in the worst clash of civilizations ever seen around the world.
Anti-colonial struggle
Something happened in 1953. A leading light of anti-colonial struggle and a prominent member of the Obafemi Awolowo-led Action Group, AG, Anthony Enahoro had moved a motion that Nigeria should become independent in 1956 at the Federal parliament. That motion should have been unanimously supported by members of parliament if an “impossible country” was not the setting.
Enahoro had said in the preamble to his motion on the floor of the Federal House of Representatives that any proposal short of full political independence for Nigeria “has ceased to be a progressive view because Nigerian nationalism has moved forward from that position”. But in a response that showed the fault lines of Nigerian nationalism in the late colonial era, Sir Ahmadu Bello of the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, introduced a dilatory motion substituting the phrasing “as soon as practicable” for the year “1956” proposed by Enahoro.
In an undisguised reference to the superficiality of the “Nigerian nationalism” which Enahoro and his Southern compatriots were lionising, Bello added: “Sixty years ago, there was no Nigeria but merely a collection of communities very different in outlook and mode of life”.
The North threatened to leave Nigeria over the quest for independence by the South. In anticipation that the NPC which had more numbers in the House was going to win the vote, the NCNC and AG members in the House of Representatives walked out. The meeting of the House was adjourned and members of NPC met very unfriendly crowd in Lagos who could not understand why “fellow Nigerians” would be opposed to independence.
They were called all sorts of names before they left for the North. A retaliatory move by Northern leaders after the adjournment on March 31, 1953 self-government motion, came during the tour of the Northern Region by the AG led by Chief S. L. Akintola; it was viewed by Northerners as an invasion of another man’s territory. It was while Akintola and his group were in Kano that a riot broke out. Several people lost their lives while many were wounded. After the crisis, the NPC members issued an “eight-point-programme” to the colonial government to the effect that until their demands were met, they would not return to the House in Lagos. The demands spelt confederacy.
By the time Nigeria became free in 1960, Awolowo, whose party moved the motion for independence in 1953 that was opposed by the North was seated among ex-servicemen at independence dinner and by 1962 was already thrown into jail.
By 1966, events already peaked with the first coup on January 15 led by some junior officers who were dissatisfied with the state of the country. The coup eliminated political leaders mainly from the North and West. The dominant presence of Eastern officers among the leaders of the coup made Northern officers to conclude that the coup was planned against the North and they immediately started to plan a revenge coup which they staged on July 29, 1966.
Diplomatic officials
They codenamed the coup operation “Araba”(Hausa word for let’s divide it). And for 48 hours after the coup there was no government in Nigeria as Northern officers were bent on pulling out of Nigeria. It took efforts of American and British diplomatic officials and the top of bureaucracy to convince them to stay within the country.
They initially said they were going to blow up the Central Bank of Nigeria when they were told that the money that would be used to service their government if they broke away was locked in that place. By the time they agreed to remain in Nigeria they had destroyed the army for ever as rank and file soldiers from the North would no longer take instruction from very senior officers from the South. Brigadier Ogundipe who was the most senior officer in the army had a swift dialogue with his feet. By then the rebellious officers from the North had insisted the most senior among them, Lt-Col Yakubu Gowon would be the new Head of State above his seniors from the South.
Events moved from there until the Republic of Biafra was declared and we fought a war in which millions of lives were wasted.
As we mark the 50th anniversary of the “end” of that war, we are frenetically manipulating our fault lines that led to the last civil war; it is the worst exclusive use of power that has never been seen in this country before. Today we have the three arms of government headed by core Northerners, with 15 out of 17 service chiefs in Nigeria from the North. All heads of anything that has to do with money, except the CBN, are from the North: Ministry of Finance, Customs, NPA, FIRS, AMCON, etc. Once any Fowler is taken out now, a Nami must replace him.
There are no more pretenses. It is in-your-face impunity bordering on extreme provocations that makes all look like the immediate pre-1994 days in Rwanda. Can those behind all we are going through step back and ask just one question: where is the coalition that fought the last war?
The honest answer is that it has collapsed for ever. The very reason why nobody should drive the country to another war ever again as it would be decisive and fought on different fronts with different goals.
A negotiated settlement that understands our differences is the best way out. Its other name is federalism.
FEEDBACK
Re: Godwin Obaseki: My man of the year
Dear Yinka,
THANK you for nominating Governor Obaseki as your man of the year. I also join you to nominate Obaseki as my man of the year 2019 for the reasons you gave and more.
In your well written article, you made the following, among other reasons, for declaring him as the man of the year.
Godfatherism is a form of political corruption in which an influential member of the party climbs to leadership. Permit me to add that it also ensures that loyalty of elected members is to the godfather and not to the people who elected the godson. It also ensures that cash (corruption) is the determinant of election not votes.
You identified the predatory behaviour of godfathers in many states in the country in the last 20 years. (a) You gave the examples of Chris Uba and Chris Ngige; (b) The case of Ladoja and Adedibu where Ladoja had to “surrender to the authority of Adedibu to unseat Lam Adesina in 2003” at the peak of which crisis Adedibu boasted on TV thus: “I asked him (Ladoja) to let us share his security vote and he refused. Now, he knows that I am the major insecurity in the state”.
3.You argued that the godfathers have not relented even when none of them had had it easy all through as political office holders continued to pander to them to get what they want. This shows the qualities of these godfathers;
That Governor Godwin Obaseki who used to be his political boy is now looking eyeball to eyeball and is poised to wrestle him to the ground with sweat all over him. You came to the above conclusion based on Tinubu, Fashola and Ambode in Lagos State.
I am particularly pleased to note that the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shuaibu, was reported to have said “our people have spoken loud and clear that they believe in democracy, they just don’t want to be beneficiaries, they want to be the drivers of the process.” Governor Obaseki himself in the Vanguard of January 3, 2020 said that “my pact with the citizens of the state is to defend their interest and to end godfatherism – which threatens the democratic right of the people.”
For the above reasons, I also “elect” Governor Godwin Obaseki as my Man of the Year 2019. In the hope that vice-chancellors and professors who are to conduct elections this year for office of governors will spare the people of Edo State what happened in Ekiti and Osun with the connivance of the intelligence and security units who do not believe in democracy.
We, the people of Edo State, will resist as the people in Rivers did when attempts were made to make the value of one man, one vote irrelevant so as to promote Sharia. As Governor Obaseki has said, Edo like Rivers State is a Christian state and democracy is preferred for its inclusiveness not totalitarianism of the alternative.
Activities in the insurance industry in 2019 maintained a slow pace occasioned mostly by the non renewal of public sector insurance for the third consecutive year.
Consequently, patronage by some government parastatals was stalled due to non-release of funds.
However the industry saw growth in 2019 as firms strengthened their retail offerings while there was increase in premium rate of group life.
One of the major highlights for the year was the suspension of the insurance rebranding campaign project due to unimpressive response of some companies.
Other major activities in 2019 include the extension of the deadline for the recapitalization exercise; fake motor insurance enlightenment campaign etc.
The rebranding campaign
On December 13 2019, the Insurers Committee, which is made up of the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, as well as all the chief executives of insurance companies announced the suspension of the rebranding campaign project.
Introduced in 2018, with estimated budget of N300 million, the campaign was geared towards increasing insurance awareness and deepening penetration in the country.
The suspension, according to the Committee, became necessary due to failure of some companies who refused to pay up their own part of the contribution thereby hindering the progress of the campaign. The Committee however said that the project will be revisited in the future.
Extension of recapitalization exercise
On May 20 2019, NAICOM announced a recapitalization exercise for insurance and reinsurance companies, with June 30, 2020 deadline for compliance.
This however did not go down well with some of the insurance companies as some of them argued that the economy did not present better opportunity for the industry to strive. Even shareholders were not left out in the agitation and constantly called on the regulator to extend the time frame or cancel it outright.
This prompted NAICOM to extend the deadline to December 2020.
Fake motor insurance enlightenment campaign
On October 2nd, the Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, commenced a campaign against fake motor insurance in Nigeria tagged ‘wetin U Carry.’
In this regard, the Association said it deployed over 33 cops in the street of Lagos to kick off the exercise.
Operators comment
Speaking on the performance of the sector in 2019, Managing Director, Old Mutual General Insurance Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Olalekan Oyinlade said that the industry was thrown off balance with the performance of the general economy which insurance is not insulated from.
“The initial apprehension over the non-clarity of the recapitalization process also threw operators off balance,” he stated.
Managing Director, Veritas Kapital Assurance, Mr.Kenneth Egbaran, said that the industry saw growth in 2019 through strengthening of its retail market and the increase in premium rate of group life.
Way forward
Despite the challenges in 2019, Oyinlade maintained that for the industry to grow, operators must continue to change product offerings to meet the prevailing challenges whilst developing alternative distribution channel largely on digital models which he said is cost effective and efficient.
He said: ”The industry focus should be on developing the less served middle and mass market. These sections of the pyramid need insurance and the challenge are for the practitioners to offer them real solutions that meet their needs.”
As confidence returns to real estate, the industry faces a number of fundamental shifts that will shape its future.
We have looked into the likely changes in the real estate landscape over the coming years and identified the key trends which, we believe, will have profound implications for real estate investment and development.
PriceWaterHouseCooper PWC, has noted that looking forward to 2020 and beyond, the real estate investment industry will find itself at the centre of rapid economic and social change, which is transforming the built environment.
According to a report by PWC, while most of these trends are already evident, there is a natural tendency to underestimate their implications over the next six years and beyond.
“By 2020, real estate managers will have a broader range of opportunities, with greater risks and new value drivers. As real estate is a business with long development cycles, as from planning to construction takes several years, now is the time to plan for these changes.
“Already, thousands of people migrate from country to city across Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa on a daily basis, attracted by the new wealth of these economies. By 2020, this migration will be firmly established. The cities will swell, and some entirely new ones will spring up.
“Meanwhile, the growing emerging markets’ middle class and ageing global population are increasing demand for specific types of real estate. Sub-sectors such as agriculture, education, healthcare and retirement will be far bigger by 2020.
“High energy prices, climate change and government regulation are already pushing sustainability up the real estate agenda, but by 2020, their impact will be far greater.
Technology is already disrupting real estate economics, but by 2020, it will have reshaped entire sectors. And the real estate community will have taken a greater role in the financial ecosystem, in part moving into the space left by banks”.
Pointing out that its fictional forum illustrates some elements of this change, PWC said “We believe the new era of real estate investment, to 2020 and beyond, is the beginning of a time of unprecedented opportunity for real estate investors and asset managers, although with greater risk.
“The global stock of institutional-grade real estate will expand by more than 55 per cent from US$29.0 trillion in 2012, to US$45.3 trillion in 2020, according to our calculations. It may then grow further to US$69.0 trillion in 2030.
This huge expansion in investable real estate will be greatest in the emerging economies, where economic development will lead to better tenant quality and, in some countries, clearer property rights.
“And it will play out across housing, commercial real estate and infrastructure. Indeed, as intense competition continues to compress investment yields for core real estate, real estate managers will have every incentive to search for higher yields elsewhere”.
Insurance underwriters have said that the extension of the recapitalisation exercise by the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, will allow them explore other means of raising funds to shore up their capitals.
According to the underwriters, this will not only give them room to explore untapped means of raising funds but create deeper understanding of the benefit of the exercise.
NAICOM had in a circular dated December 30, 2019, and signed by Director, Policy and Regulations, Mr. Pius Agboola, announced a six months extension of the recapitalisation deadline to December 31, 2020.
The Commission said the need for the extension came after it reviewed the recapitalisation plans submitted by operators, the various levels of compliance observed, and the inputs noted from various engagements with relevant stakeholders.
Commenting on the development, Chief Executive Officer, Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc, Mr. Kenneth Egbaran expressed confidence that the extension will avail the underwriters, room to explore other means of increasing their funds.
Egbaran told Vanguard that, it is imperative to note that the present economy makes it hard to raise funds and as such the regulators have done the right thing in postponing the deadline.
He said: “You are aware of what is going on in the capital market, so the Commission has done well in extending the deadline as this would give the underwriters room to explore other means of raising funds. It is the state of the economy that determines how the capitals are raised otherwise the alternative is to look outside and that will mean bringing in foreign investors but primarily the capital is expected to be raised from the local economy except we are expecting a take over from foreign investors.”
In the same light, Managing Director, Old Mutual General Insurance Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Olalekan Oyinlade, said, “The end of the year pronouncement on the extension of deadline recapitalization would allow various underwriters a bit of more time to ensure that the benefit of the recapitalization is not negated.”
In a chat with Vanguard, a top official of AIICO who pleaded to remain anonymous said that the extension will allow other insurance companies to further perfect their record and get funds from their investors to meet up with the new requirement which is of huge benefit to the industry.
According to him, many people believe that extending the recapitalization will negate the real sense of the exercise, adding, “I don’t see it being swept under the carpet like others believe because this will help other companies meet up with the recapitalization requirement.
He stated that those in view that the extension will be unrealizable are those that believe that the initial request for the recapitalization was politically motivated adding, “if it is borne out of the need for sanity and sanctity of the industry, it will be executed and it will be seen through by the industry authorities.
However, an insurance specialist and former head of retail business at Cornerstone Insurance, Mr. Ekeret Glam-Ikon opined that rather than extending the deadline, the Commission should pronounce the names of those ready for the exercise and go ahead with them in the interest of the policyholders.
According to him, some companies are ready for the recapitalisation while some will never be ready no matter how long the Commission decides to stretch the exercise.
He warned that this act could make a lot of the underwriters who are not paying claims to further delay in claims payment while the policyholders could decide to invest in other opportunities.”
It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another, as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not! – Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) English writer and journalist.
MOST of those who look into the future, close or distant, talk of the shape of things to come. They hardly speak of the shape of things that won’t happen. Why? It is assumed that we should be led only into the world of the good life awaiting us after today, the prosperity that will take place hereafter, the gilded age hid from us, the world of what we are not seeing at the moment.
Why are we afraid to talk of the other world, a sunken world of jaded values? The point is that the future is a déjà vu. We’ve been brewing it all along. Our stew is really several pre-existing independent constituents come together in a cauldron passing through the fire. What emerges in the process isn’t new at all. What you’ve always held on to can’t be said to be new. Can it?
We are responsible for what comes forth: a trip to the market, where there are transactions that give us pepper, fish, meat, tomatoes, oil, seasonings, vegetables, etc. They all assume a new life when they eventually become a delicacy; still, we know their history, their past, their source, their distinctiveness. However, they lose their individual disparities in the stew. But they can’t hide their individual distinctions from discerning observers.
That is also the way with considerations of the future, any future, nearby or out of sight. Therefore, we shouldn’t be fooled, frightened or felled by false prophets with flat, deflated crystal balls pretending to have heard from God about what’s in for Nigerians in the New Year. Whatever is going to happen in 2020 has its roots in 2019, in the years before it. We were all part of that past. And, therefore, we are members of its offspring, the future, which has become the now. As lawyers often say, you can’t build something on nothing. But religionists, taking advantage of ignorant compatriots scared of the so-called uncertain future, engage in a lot of manipulation of the people, especially women and play the Omniscient. Only He sees through the opacity of the ages, far and near.
He permits man a glimpse, though. All it takes to locate what Heaven allows of the entrails of the immediate future or to picture it, is to have a luxuriant mind watered by facts and reality of current affairs and history and muscular analysis.
Nothing arcane about it as Nigeria’s mercantilist pastors want us to believe. It’s only God Who knows it all, not these lucre-loving deceivers who have their ears tied to their bank accounts. The enduring and believable predictions are in the Word of the LORD, not in the word of man.
So what does 2020 have for us? We have shown, through the culinary analogy, that the year has nothing to present more than what we give it. Nor can it offer what we didn’t give its predecessor. It is safe then to assert that in Nigeria of 2020 nothing will change from what we had in 2019, just as there has been little change in the country in nearly 60 years of Independence from Britain.
In 2019, we were negligent, as we have always been, in handling our politics and electoral process. The outcome was outcry of foul play. Some citizens are even saying they didn’t ask for those they have as their leaders at the moment. Hence, the clamour for the country to be restructured reached a crescendo in 2019. The decibel, it seems, will be higher in 2020, given the mass disenchantment with the order of the day, according to some predictions for 2020. Will these futurologists receive a gold medal if their forecasts come to pass? No way! 2019 and the years that came before it posted an anomalous federal arrangement into the future now arriving in 2020.
We must be prepared to live with the killer by-products of a killer federalism: an indolent centre giving birth to correspondingly indolent centres and local councils. Still more distressing consequences: a land with the economic and social potential to outstrip such global prodigies as Britain, Germany, France, Cuba and Japan through its population and elemental natural resources, has neglected its virile youth and women and driven them into drugs, despair, destitution and death.
Does anyone need a Nostradamus to announce that a country that had this mix in 2019 would fare well in 2020 if it does not abolish its anaemic system?
Now, Bismarck Rewane, Nigeria’s neoliberal economic expert, has simply looked at what obtained in 2019 to predict that the sufferings of his countrymen will be worse in this successor year 2020. He says Nigerians’ income “will shrink in 2020” on account of the central government’s policies. His forecast: “2019 was a year of political trepidation and growing uncertainties…For Nigeria, consumers will groan about the hike in VAT, the restoration of tollgates and cost-reflective electricity tariffs.” He adds that the VAT hike (from five per cent to 7.5 percent) would lead to higher commodity prices. Rewane says “other challenges (in 2020) would include low income per capita (currently at $2,236), high income inequality and rising poverty rate in the country.”
The omens, from the foregoing exegesis, are that the New Year will not bring any new thing, since we threw nothing refreshing into it ahead of our arrival into it. Garbage in, garbage out! GIGO!
Since Independence, we’ve always talked about bad roads, unstable electricity supply, inadequate funding of tertiary education leading to yearly lecturers’ strike, poor wages for our workers, millions of out-of-school children, under-empowerment of the youth, wide gap between the haves and have-nots, primordial do-or-die politics, neglect of our rural dwellers, nonexistent welfare and medical care for the vulnerable, thieving, insensitive and selfish political leadership etc. There’s never been a radical attempt to battle these demons and ostracize them. So they return year after year to torment us.
They are here with us again in 2020. They will not be evicted by the jejune and unscriptural prophecies of happy-go-lucky, sky-domiciled, sybaritic, signs and wonders-seeking pastors disconnected from the deprivations of the flock. These men and women of God must come down from their jets and return to their “first love” to “watch and pray” with the people to rescue the country.
Lagos State Government said it has completed construction of 360 additional housing units for commissioning soon as part of its efforts to tackle the challenge of housing deficit in the state.
The state Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Moruf Akinderu–Fatai, disclosed this recently, while conducting a validation and inspection visit to Lagos Homes, LAGSHOM Igbogbo Scheme 2B, in Ikorodu Local Government area of the state.
“Lagos is adding 360 more homes to the existing stock of homes in the state in the next few weeks,” Fatai said.
According to him, the state government has resolved to complete all housing schemes that were set aside by the previous administration in order to speedily bring succour to residents by increasing the availability of decent accommodation for the increasing population of the state.
“Reducing the housing deficit and bringing more people on the home ownership ladder through provision of affordable and quality homes are tasks that are germane to building a 21st century economy.
“Hence, the administration of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu is frontally pursuing the goals of completing all the on-going housing schemes to ensure that befitting and decent accommodation is available to the ever increasing population of the state,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Wasiu Akewusola who also affirmed that over 360 families will soon move to their homes, expressed satisfaction with the on–going works at the site and he encourages the contractors to keep up with the good job in order to deliver at the targeted date.
He disclosed that in year 2020, not less than 3,500 homes in Sangotedo, Idale in Badagry, Odo Onasa/Ayandelu, Ibeshe, Egan-Igando and Ajara will be completed from both government owned schemes and joint ventures.
The LagsHom Igbogbo Housing Estate is made up of 30 blocks of buildings with 120 units each of three-bedrooms, two-bedrooms and one- Bedroom making a total of 360 units of family homes.
In addition, the scheme which commenced in 2012 has a central sewage treatment plant, Water treatment plant, high quality road network, and Street lights.
By Ediri Ejoh
By Cynthia Alo
