N5bn debt: NBC to release list of indebted broadcast stations today

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By Emmanuel Elebeke
ABUJA—AT last, the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, will today release the list of all the broadcast stations owing it N5 billion licence fees.

Addressing broadcast stakeholders in Abuja, Director-General of the commission, Mallam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, decried the situation where many stations have refused to pay their licence fees.

according to him, the statutory act of informing the NBC, six months before the expiration of licence and signifying intention to continue as a licensee, is ignored.

Vanguard gathered that the decision was in conformity with the commission’s earlier announcement that it would clamp down on all erring broadcast stations flouting the rules.

The commission had last month gave indication that before the end of this month, it would weld the big stick on operators who have refused to pay up their license fees to date.

“Our licensees carry on, as if they have their licenses for keeps and the NBC cannot withdraw licenses. It is important to remind us all that ALL licenses are provisional, no matter how long you have held them. And for emphasis, I want to let you know that stations owe over N5Billion as license fees.

“I will like to use this medium to inform you, that the NBC would be invoking the relevant laws against erring stations. Consequently, ALL stations without exception, are expected to complete all payments owed to the Commission by the 15th of March, 2017,” he said.

He also lamented that the Commission is equally disturbed by the illegal and rampant use of transmission power by stations all over Nigeria, saying that some stations procure transmitters without respecting the stipulated and recommended transmitter power in city-based FM stations.

“The consequence of this is that we have frequency clashes occurring all over Nigeria. As of yesterday, we have compiled a total of 69 stations around Nigeria, that have installed transmitters beyond the transmitter power stipulated in their licenses, and that is not even exhaustive.

“A top Nigerian politician, who was given a license, installed a 10KW transmitter; began transmission even before NBC gave him the permission, and when NBC Engineers went to inspect his facilities, he sent his thugs to chase away our workers!

“Let me make some points clear here: Henceforth no broadcaster would be allowed to import a transmitter beyond the power allotted in the licenses issued. Secondly, stations must ensure that their broadcasts are limited to assigned areas only; and where these areas require less than 2KW power, they must tune their transmitters below 2KW.

“On a final note, All stations that have installed more than allotted TX power are hereby put on notice, that they have six months to procure and install 2KW transmitters. After the expiration of this grace period, we will ensure the de-commissioning of the transmitters installed beyond the allotted TX power!

“Other related technical issues include the refusal of some stations to install aviation warning lights on their masts. Each one of us here realizes that we endanger our collective safety with this terribly unprofessional attitude,” he explained.

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Sterling Bank launches ‘One Woman’ to commemorate International Women’s Day

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Sterling Bank Plc, the one-customer bank has launched a new proposition known as, ‘One Woman’ to commemorate the International Women’s Day in Nigeria with the theme ‘Be Bold for Change.’ The product was launched by Mrs. Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, the Chief Executive Officer of DO.II Designs Limited and the wife of the Chairman of Sterling Bank Plc, Mr Asue Ighodalo, at a well -attended ceremony in Lagos.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs. Ighodalo said the significant number of women in Nigeria’s population has made it imperative to deliberately focus on the needs of women to ensure sustainable economic development and growth.

According to her, the business case for targeting women is simple; they are the more excluded gender. 21.4 million females, which represents 42.7 percent of the total female population are financially excluded; 15 million of these women are not earning income frequently.

Mrs. Ighodalo who is also the wife of the Chairman of the Bank, Mr. Asue Ighodalo said, “This provides a huge opportunity for structural changes within the economic and financial system if we pay attention,” remarking that, “to enable us to make an impact, we must reach as many women as possible.”

“At Sterling Bank, we are moved not just by the statistics before us but by the stories we experience to make a difference in the lives of women through financial access. This is the premise on which we are here today. To be the platform that provides a space for women to thrive, to be heard and live the best of their lives,” Mrs. Ighodalo said.

Earlier in her address of welcome, Mrs. Egbichi Akinsanya, an Executive Director of the bank said the One Woman was designed to make the women of the past proud; the women of the now, inspired, and provide the women of the future with hope.

She said the theme of the programme, ‘Living a Legacy’ was also apt as it challenged everyone to celebrate the women in their lives as the foundations of communities and challenged women to make great impact in the lives of those around them.

Mrs. Akinsanya also noted that the launch of the One Woman on the International Women’s Day underscored the importance of women to the Bank and the need to celebrate the enduring legacy and accomplishments of women in education, business, science, art, medicine, public service, athletics, and every other field where they have made the world and the country a brighter and stronger place to live and work in harmony.

The Bank in a statement said “the programme is designed to honour the legacies of women of the past,   those who stood up for change and fought for the rights that we live and enjoy today; the women of the present who toil night and day to support the family and those women around the world who use their voice to help make the   world a brighter place for women; and the women of the future who will continue to champion women’s voices and causes to neutralize barriers and keep alive the achievements and plights of women in our society and the world at large.

Under the One-Woman proposition, the Bank has developed unique value propositions tailored specifically for women. The value proposition comprises of an array of different value-add offerings to meet financial, business and personal needs of women in Nigeria and to foster support by providing platforms for women to support other women.

Some of these offerings include the Sterling Maternal Medical Finance (SMMF) available to women for peculiar medical treatments like fibroid, customized debit cards with a bold feminine touch that would provide cardholders access to discounts for spas, makeover services, and furniture/household items at select outlets; discounts on lending rates of all   existing retail loan products (e.g. personal loan, asset acquisition loan, MSME loans,) for women and capacity building programme for young women.

 

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Man who married over 100 women

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Muhammad Bello Abubakar

 If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice (Quran 4: 3).

Yes. According to reports, Muhammad Bello Abubakar has died and left over 200 children behind. He was aged over 92 years. He lived in Bida and as a protégé of His Majesty, the Etsu Nupe, the King of Bida Land. While most men in Nigeria were in the wilderness, totally lost as to how to find just one person to love until death do them part, Mallam Abubakar “found love” not only in one, two, three or even four women. He “found love”, or rather ‘love” of close to hundred and twenty women found him. Mallam Abubakar emerged in Niger State to change the common narrative about marriage. Like his ‘friend’ in Kenya named “Danger” Akuku whose death left around one hundred women in a state widowhood, Mallam Abubakar married one hundred and twenty women, divorced ten, and fathered over two hundred and three children. Unconfirmed reports had it that as at the time of his death, some of his wives were believed to be pregnant.

Thus while he was being interred weeks ago, some of his widows were probably in the labour room bringing more children to the world, adding more heads to the millions of fatherless legs who daily invade our streets and cities like hordes of infectious insects.

The day he passed on, Mallam Abubakar would probably have experienced some feelings of accomplishment. This is because long before that time, he had refused all entreaties to him to exit the iniquitous pathway which he chose for himself. He had boasted that if God permitted him, he would continue to marry as many more women as possible. He probably thought that he had a divine mission to liberate Nigeria from the shackles of recession and oppression. He thought he could rescue Nigeria from recession with, in the manner of Frantz Fanon in Black Skin White Mask, his phallus. He probably wanted to set women free by throwing them down the abyss of sexual oppression and dehumanization. When the number of women in his harem reached 86 and was taken to task by critical sectors of the Bida society, he countered. He queried: “”I married 86 women and there is peace in the house – if there is peace, how can this be wrong?”

 
“What about the State government” you would wonder. “What did state government do”? You might query. Reports reaching me are to the effect that the Niger State government actually tried to rein the atrocious life and living of Mallam Abubakar in. A former Attorney General of the State was said:

“As Attorney General then I personally appeared before Sharia court, Minna, as prosecutor to prosecute the man but later discovered that Sharia courts in Niger State cannot deal with the case. No provision made in Penal code C.P.C or Sharia administration of Justice law to deal with such cases.” In other words, the Penal code in place in Niger State was incomplete. The penal was code invalid. It could not deal with Muslims who know what the law says and demands of them but were unprepared to submit to it. Abubakar became a “scholar” of the Quran with new exegetical postures in relation to the Quran. He became a “Qadi” of the Shariah who interpreted the Quran unto himself. In an interview he granted a media outfit, he justified his egregious conducts saying,  “the Quran does not place a limit (on the number of women a man may marry); it is up to what your own power, your own endowment and ability allows.” He said all these even in the consciousness of what the Islamic law says as contained in Quran 4:3.

Mallam Abuabakar lived and succeeded in establishing an empire in which ignorant, illiterate and impressionistic women became preys to his libidinous desires and iniquitous ways. Local Muslim scholars did not and could not find any validity in law for his plethora of marriages. Some of them even described his atypical household as cult-like; a dungeon of hell.

Brethren, I did not set out to memorialize Mallam Abubakar today. I have not come to pay any homage to him. But I want to pooh-pooh some commentaries in the media which have decided to hide behind the tragedy of Mallam Abubakar’s ways in order to further their own Islamophobic agenda.

By saying Islam encourages unbridled polygamy is to indulge in arrant falsification of facts and prejudice. Brethren, why is it that each time a Muslim misbehaves, each time a Muslim conducts himself in ways which are infractions either of the Nigerian constitutional or even that of Islamic law, some editors and writers find it easy to blame Islam for the former? Yet, not in one instance do they criticize the other religion for the many iniquities of its adherents. I take solace in Quran chapter 2: 120. (For feedbacks: 08122465111).

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i-Naira.com receives licence for online auction practice

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Hillary Nwaukor:PHOTO;twitter<br />

I-Naira Integrated Resources Ltd, has joined the first set of auction professionals to receive the ‘Auctioneer Practice License’, marking a new dawn in the auctioneer practice in the state.

Mr. Hillary Nwaukor, founder and chief executive officer, i-Naira Integrated Resources, was credited for pioneering first online auctioning platform in Nigeria dubbed i-Naira.com, which caters for individual, corporate and government auctioning activities.

Speaking at the event held in Lagos State, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye, commissioner of Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, (Hon.) said that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode led administration saw the need for strict implementation of the law regulating auctioneers’ activities; adding that Chapter 12, sub-section 2(1) states clearly that “a person shall not carry on the business of auctioning without a licence granted under this law authorizing him to carry on such business”.

He said that working in accordance with provisions of the law will ensure quackery is contained to the barest minimum, while restoring investors’ confidence in the State’s economy.

“It is paramount today to identify with a licensed practitioner either for the execution of court judgments or corporate bodies auctioning programmes or prominent artistes, because this is a huge sector that requires only people of integrity be allowed to play in there.

Ogunleye said that it is no longer business as usual or a ‘free-flow’ market, where unqualified persons’ prey on unsuspecting corporate bodies to swindle them of their fortunes.

“This is a globally recognized profession and currently developing in our clime. We expect it to develop, supporting cross-border auctioning activities. So, we encourage those who are receiving the operational licenses to play by the rules guiding their practice”, he said pleading the State Government’s support to the Certified Institute of Auctioneers of Nigeria (CIAN), to uphold expertise in Nigeria for all matters relating to Auctions and Auctioneering.

Speaking to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek after receiving the operating license, Mr. Nwaukor of i-Naira.com extolled the Lagos State Government for the bold step taken to further rid the sector of unwholsesome practices.

Nwaukor described the license as a solid foundation for professionals to build on and institute highest standards, while restoring discipline by way of re-instating decorum in auctioneering practise in the country.

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Trump, the world is your stage now!

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US President-elect Donald Trump gestures before being sworn in as President on January 20, 2017 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. / AFP PHOTO / Mark RALSTON

I respect Professor Wole Soyinka of Nigeria to the point of veneration. Apart from his achievement as the first black African to have won the Noble Prize in literature, Soyinka distinguished himself to me as a non-tribalistic Nigerian who spoke out in defence of the Igbo-speaking people of the then Eastern Nigeria after the Igbo came under coordinated mass killings in the streets of Northern Nigeria in mid 1960’s.

Soyinka did not only protest against the gruesome killings of pregnant Igbo women, elders and children by riotous but well-motivated Northern youths, but he suffered many months of incarceration for persistently speaking out against the deliberate bombing campaign by the General Yakubu Gowon-led military junta of Nigeria against the then newly declared Biafran Republic.

Biafran Republic which lasted throughout the thirty months-old fratricidal war saw the elimination of over three million Igbo. 
Soyinka went ahead to pen a masterpiece whilst serving term in the prison because of Biafra which he called The man died.

But my love for Soyinka did not stop me from fundamentally departing with him on the issues around the candidacy and emergence as the President of the United States of America of the Republican Party’s Mr. Donald Trump, the American super billionaire.

Soyinka hates Donald Trump to such an extent that he has chosen not to visit the United States from January 20,  2017 when Trump was sworn in as the United States president. 

Soyinka threatened to tear apart his green card meaning that he would never visit the United States at least for the next eight years during which Trump could preside over as the United States president.

The Nobel laureate, who threatened to destroy his green card last year, confirmed he did it as an act of protest before the 20 January’s inauguration ceremony, so reports The Guardian of United kingdom. 

After threatening to do it a week before the U.S. presidential elections last November, Soyinka confirmed he had destroyed his green card because Trump won.

Soyinka, the first African writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, was jailed twice for his criticism of the Nigerian government during the 1960s, famously composing protest poems on toilet paper from his cell in solitary confinement. 

In 1994, Soyinka’s passport was confiscated by the de facto president Sani Abacha after he urged Nigerians to not pay taxes, as their money would aid the military. 

After years of living in voluntary exile and teaching overseas, Soyinka eventually sought refuge in the United States that same year, with the help of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. He later received a death sentence in absentia in 1997, from the regime under Abacha.

On November 2, six days before the U.S. election, Soyinka told a student audience at Oxford University’s Ertegun House that he would hold his own, self-described “Wolexit” if Trump won, and destroy his green card. “If in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing he’ll do is to say [that] all green-card holders must reapply to come back into the U.S. Well, I’m not waiting for that,” he said at the time. “The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up.”

In an interview with The Atlantic only recently, Soyinka confirmed he had followed through on his pledge to destroy his green card if Trump won as he celebrated Thanksgiving with his family in the U.S.

Soyinka, who has returned to living mainly in Nigeria since Abacha died in 1998, said he had made his green card “inoperable”. He did not expand on how he had destroyed it, but said: “I don’t have strong enough fingers to tear up a green card. As long as Trump is in charge, if I absolutely have to visit the United States, I prefer to go in the queue for a regular visa with others. I’m no longer part of the society, not even as a resident.”

Soyinka described the act as cathartic: “I delivered myself from uncertainty, from discomfort, from internal turmoil.”In an interview with Nigeria’s The Interview magazine in November, Soyinka said he would destroy his green card in preparation for Trump’s inauguration on 20 January and that he “felt disaster in my marrow” as he watched the election results come in. “Trump’s wall is already under construction,” he said. “Walls are built in the mind, and Trump has erected walls, not only across the mental landscape of America, but across the global landscape.

The Nigerian literary guru is not alone in his rejection of Donald Trump. Several American celebrities boycotted the inauguration ceremony of Trump. Trump and a reputable black civil rights leader had a clash following the criticism Trump suffered at the hands of that statesman. Trump’s jibes with John Lewis the respected Civil Rights leader nearly took racial undertones.

Ironically, this verbal warfare happened in the very week that the United States has dedicated to remember the memory of Martin Luther King jr, the great American Civil Rights leader who worked and paid the supreme sacrifice to gain voting rights for millions of black Americans.

The defeat of the Democrats sent shock waves around the globe particularly because of the nationalistic tones of Trump. From January 20, which marks Trump’s presidential inauguration, the whole wide world became his own stage as he automatically became the strongest world leader because the United States of America is the number one super power nation in the globe.

Trump expressed shock that despite the quantum of American cash paid out to the Nigerian authorities to wage the counter-terror war, the 300 Chibok school girls kidnapped since over two years by Boko Haram terrorists are yet to be found. Trump has also drawn criticism for his unclear commitments towards checking the effects of climate change because he believed that it is completely fake. If Trump makes good his disdain for climate change accord the Paris Climate Change accord signed by his predecessor and many nations including Nigeria could suffer global set back.
Onwubiko is head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria.

This would be catastrophic for Nigeria which stands to gain for the funds for remediation of the effects of pollution of the Earth by the world’s industrialised countries such as Japan, China, United States amongst others which would be paid to Third World countries. 

If Trump pulls out the technical, military  and financial assistance that United States gives to Nigeria because of the issues of corruption by government officials in Nigeria, if therefore follows that the threats posed by armed Islamists and other terror networks would be exacerbated and this would have telling effects in the economic and social wellbeing of Nigerians and Africans in general because if Nigeria remains perpetually unstable, then Africa is unstable. The fact is that if Nigeria collapses then the continental stability is endangered. 

Also, the expressed determination of President-elect Trump to make the United State a greater nuclear power could see his administration focusing so much on increasing its defence budgets thereby leaving very little money for foreign assistance to poor and developing nations such as Nigeria. 

It would also mean that the refusal of the United States to sign on to the Rome treaty which brought into existence the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands would become a permanent feature. 
Already countries such as Russia and a lot of African nations are pulling out of the Rome Treaty on ICC.

If the International Criminal Court fails, it therefore follows that the overflowing cases of impunity and lawlessness that characterise most African nations including Nigeria would further expand. 

This would mean that with the deliberate snail speed nature of criminal justice system in Nigeria and the clear lack of will power to prosecute mass murderers such as Boko Haram and armed Fulani terrorist by the Nigerian government under Muhammadu Buhari has come to stay meaning that the over 30,000 innocent Nigerians killed by these terror gangs would have died in vain.

As an ardent supporter of Trump, may I appeal to the United States President not to abandon the third world nations even as he desires to make America great again. 

Trump should please sign on to the International Criminal Court’s treaty and hold on to the Paris Climate Change treaty which his predecessor has signed on to so the global community can become peaceful and so the political leaders who carry out horrendous crimes against humanity are marched to the global crimes court to face their day with the international humanitarian law. 
Onwubiko is head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria.

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El-Rufai begins payment of pensions, gratuity to retirees

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Nasir El-Rufai

The Kaduna state government has started the payment of pension and gratuities to retirees in the public service.

The state government also pledged to settle inherited arrears of pension and gratuity of the civil servants since 2011, totalling N15 billion.

Expectedly, the retirees have commended Governor Nasir El-Rufai for prompt payment of their pensions and gratuities benefits under the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

Speaking during the launch of payment of pension benefits under the revamped Contributory Pension Scheme, governor El-Rufai, said the interest of the pensioner and the sustainability of government pension obligations were uppermost in his mind when government championed the passage of the Kaduna State Pension Reform Law 2016.

The governor explained that over the years, the pension system had been a nightmare for the pensioner, a heavy strain and fraud-prone burden on the resources of government.

He added: “We do not think it is fair that the pensioner should face delays in payment or be subjected to the perennial stress of physical verification, often in arduous conditions. Of course, we conducted our own verification of pensioners and were not surprised to find ghost pensioners whom we proceeded to knock off the payroll.”

El-Rufai said: “But we knew that we needed new legal and institutional arrangements to manage public sector pensions. We were concerned about the huge size of the inherited arrears of pension and gratuity of almost
N15bn. And the fiscal challenges many states have faced since the collapse of the oil price, with many unable to pay even current workers, meant that the agony of pensioners may worsen without reform”.

“And the untidy arrangement we met on ground indicated a stillborn hybrid that operated on the defined benefits platform while keeping a poorly-implemented contributory pension scheme on the books.

“That is why we passed the new pension reform law, and appointed actuaries to assess the pension liabilities that have accrued. With the Contributory Pension Scheme now effective in the state since 1 January 2017, retirees can now transit from being workers in January, to recipients of pension payments in February”.

Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the Kaduna recipients who collected retirement exit letters under the state new Contributory Pension Scheme, Salami Muhammed, urged the governor to continue with his good work and maintained good industrial relationship with workers.

On his part, the Executive Secretary, State Pension Bureau, Dr Dan Ndackson, said: “As we commence the payment of pension benefits under the Contributory Pension Scheme in Kaduna State today, Tuesday, we are hopeful that this would mark the beginning of the end to delays in accessing pension benefits in Kaduna State.”

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Abductors demand N100m ransom for DPO kidnapped in Delta

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Kidnapping

Abductors of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of C Division Police Station in Asaba, Delta State, Mr. Valentine Mbalu, have opened negotiation with his family members and are demanding N100 million ransom to secure the cop’s release.

Mbalu was reportedly kidnapped by six heavily armed gunmen, who ambushed him while in Agbor town for an official assignment on Monday.

But the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Mr. Andrew Aniamaka, who confirmed the DPO’s kidnap yesterday in Asaba, refused to speak on the N100 million ransom demanded by the gunmen. He rather said the police were on top of the situation as they were working tirelessly to ensure his release unhurt.

It was gathered that the abductors in the early hours of yesterday made the demand for ransom, which according to a family member simply identified as Eunice, is an outrageous amount.

She said: “My brother is a peace-loving officer. Please, I want his abductors to release him unhurt and without any ransom.”

Investigation revealed that the victim was ambushed by the gunmen and effectively disarmed before taking him away in an unmarked vehicle to an unknown destination.

According to an eyewitness, the kidnappers shot sporadically into the air when they noticed some vehicles coming in their direction before they zoomed off into the thick forest around Agbor town.

Already, family members have engaged prayer warriors to pray for the safe return of the DPO, whom many described as hardworking and humble.

Reacting to the new wave of kidnapping in Asaba and its environs, the police have beefed up security at strategic parts of the capital city with a view to arresting the renewed crime surge.

The PPRO, however, assured members of the public of police protection, adding that the abductors of the DPO would be brought to book as soon as possible.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mVCR5E

Onnoghen’s trial

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Justice Walter Onnoghen

In his illustrious career spanning several decades Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen has had the judicial responsibility of deciding the fate of people who are put in front of him for trial. He did not know that at some point in his life he would go through some sort of trial himself. By doing his job over the years successfully he knew that by the seniority ranking of the Judiciary, he would at the retirement of Justice Mahmud Mohammed, that tall and eloquent dispenser of cerebral legal verdicts, step into his big, made-in-London shoes. He did not step into that hot seat the next day or the next week or even the next month after Mohammed’s exit. What went wrong? The National Judicial Council had nominated Onnoghen as the next Chief Justice of Nigeria and forwarded his name to President Muhammadu Buhari on October 13, 2016. His own duty was to send the man’s name to the Senate for confirmation.

He did not. Instead, he appointed Onnoghen as Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria for three months. Before the expiration of the three months, Buhari had jetted out to London on medical vacation and the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo had to act as President. As Onnoghen’s short term was about to expire and uncertainty became the only certainty, Osinbajo sent Onnoghen’s name to the Senate and also extended his acting appointment. No one gave any explanation for this tardiness. Was Buhari investigating Onnoghen? Was he uncomfortable with Onnoghen’s alleged judicial radicalism or did he simply want to replace him with someone whose hymn book is the same as his own? Or was he simply unable to make up his mind one way or another about the man? In fact, did he have the powers to withhold the NJC’s recommendation? Questions, no answers.

Onnoghen was obviously on trial for being qualified, by every account, to be the next Chief Justice of Nigeria. Onnoghen is from Cross River State so politicians from that state threw their weight behind him. He is also from the Niger Delta region so Chief Edwin Clark and his group concerned about the fate of that beleaguered region weighed in on Onnoghen’s behalf. Lawyers, human rights groups and news media expressed their views largely in favour of the judge. Among them were eminent senior advocates Wole Olanipekun and Afe Babalola who held the view that Onnoghen, having been recommended by the NJC, as the most senior Judge in the Supreme Court deserved to take the chair at the apex court.

However, one man who stood out in the controversy was Professor Itse Sagay, an eminent senior advocate who is the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption. He said that the matter “has generated a lot of heat, acrimony and self-generated anger without generating a single ray of light.” He said he is a lawyer and someone who is a beneficiary of informal sources of information.” If this gratuitous remark was expected to put a question mark on Onnoghen’s eligibility for the office it flopped miserably because the public was not interested in his opague gyration but in something tangible, investigateable and proveable. He offered none. He simply intoned magisterially: “the president is the appointor. He is not a cipher or a robot who has to pass on a nomination coming from the NJC to the Senate without discretion, input or without the right of rejecting such an appointment and calling on the NJC to send other nominations.”

I combed through the 1999 constitution and I saw no provision of such discretionary powers granted to the president. But in the 1979 constitution there was one in Section 211 (1). That section said that “the appointment of a person to the office of CJN shall be made by the President in his discretion subject to confirmation of such appointment by a simple majority of the Senate.” It is apparent that the learned framers of the 1999 constitution were unhappy with the provision for an executive discretion. They therefore deleted that provision. So three things must have happened (a) Sagay may have either read the 1979 constitution or (b) he may have wanted to make a verbal insertion of presidential discretion in the 1999 constitution or (c) he was simply playing the advocate. I take it that he was playing the advocate. The function of an advocate according to David Pannick, a famous Queen’s counsel in London, who has written a book titled, “Advocates” is to “advance one point of view, irrespective of its inadequacies. He must belittle other interests whatever their merits. His task is to seduce, to seize the mind for a pre-determined end, not to explore paths to truth.”

In other words, the advocate simply works for whoever pays for his voice. He doesn’t work for a higher cause. His aim is to convince or confuse. Sagay must have been a brilliant student of Pannick. Pannick represented the Sunday Times in the famous Spycatcher case and Penguin Books in the Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses matter. More sensationally he successfully defended a waitress who complained that she had been dismissed from her job because her employers considered her bust too large.

In the Onnoghen matter, Sagay was waxing eloquent in the manner that advocacy demands but the public did not seem convinced or confused by his verbal exertions. And worst of all, he did not bring forth any ray of light that can help us to find the way now or in future. All of that is history now. Onnoghen is now the “tear-rubber” Chief Justice of Nigeria.

While the matter was being heard in the Court of Public Opinion, Onnoghen issued a cautionary statement asking people not to put pressure on the President to do his duty. The public recognised that to be the voice of a decent man but they also knew that the matter went beyond Onnoghen as a person. It was likely to determine the fate of our institutions, the fate of procedures and precedents. It was also likely to determine whether the appointment of the CJN should be left to the whims and caprices of the President and the shenanigans of black market lobbyists and auctioneers.
That would be a degradation of that office.

Onnoghen’s appointment is a small punch for the semi-separation of powers and another small punch for the semi independence of the judiciary. Taken together the two small punches constitute a huge punch for our democracy. I use the word semi advisedly because each arm of the government depends, to a major or minor extent, on the others for its smooth sail.

For me there are three big challenges that await Justice Onnoghen. I call them the three Cs: corruption, congestion, constitution. Corruption is a gargantuan problem in Nigeria and the judiciary has not been quarantined from it. So I see the problem from two perspectives: corruption in the judiciary and corruption in the larger society. The stench of it wherever it occurs besmirches our image, assaults our nostrils and our Nigerianness. The judiciary under Onnoghen’s watch will have to give it a fight through its judicial decisions and through an internal fumigation process.

The last CJN, Mahmud Mohammed, gave an idea of congestion of cases at the Supreme Court when he retired. In the 2014/15 legal year the Supreme Court heard 1,578 matters and delivered 262 judgments. In 2015/16 it heard 1,489 matters and delivered 268 judgments. In that legal year, he said 500 new appeals were filed meaning that there were about 10 new appeals per week.

At his departure, there were more than 5000 appeals pending. He decided to constitute a second panel of the Supreme Court and to explore an Alternative Dispute Resolution. It might be useful to explore ways, through some kind of legislation, that some cases can terminate at the Court of Appeal. It may also be useful if special courts could be set up for corruption as well as constitutional cases. The success of these proposals depends on the acceptance of them by the Executive and the Legislature as worthy causes to pursue. But most cases at the Supreme Court come on appeal from the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal receives cases from the High Court. So the large chunk of cases at the Supreme Court derives from the avalanche of cases at the lower courts. Members of the Bench, Bar and Legislature must find ways of reducing congestion of cases at various levels. If that happens at the lower courts the Supreme Court will be happy to handle fewer cases.

The third C concerns constitutional rights of Nigerians. Rights enshrined in the constitution are currently on trial in Nigeria. Court orders are brazenly disobeyed and people’s rights are marched with impunity. Most Nigerians would like to see a Judiciary that seeks to uphold the freedoms and human rights inscribed in the 1999 Constitution. The Supreme Court must work to strengthen the pillars of our democracy so that they are not pulled down by the ferocious forces of dictatorship. An activist Judiciary that interprets laws in a manner that seeks to liberate people from the shackles of bad policies and bad government can be an eminent enhancer of the people’s wellbeing.

Justice Onnoghen must remember every minute of his day on the CJN’s chair that the constitution was almost subverted to his detriment but for the strong roar of dissent from the people.My closing argument is: My Lord, please make your administration people-centred because the people stood toe to toe with you at your trial. And triumph.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2n8tagb

Fidelity Bank gets SME award, rewards customers

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Fidelity Bank

Fidelity Bank Plc has been adjudged “SME Support Bank of the Year 2016” at the Independent Man of the Year Award ceremony, in Lagos.

According to the organizers, it was in recognition of its outstanding contribution to economic growth and development in Nigeria, particularly the challenging environment for small businesses.

The organizer- Independent Newspapers affirmed the bank’s outstanding support for the country’s Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Meanwhile, at the presentation of prizes to winners for the fifth draw of “Fidelity Get Alert” promo in Lagos at the weekend, the lender said that beyond its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, support for the financial inclusion strategy of government and impressing savings culture on Nigerians are reasons for the series of rewards.

At the event, Ifeanyichukwu Okenwa from Saka Tinubu branch in Lagos, was given N1 million cheque, while Charles Igwe and Okonjo Chukweabuka, went home with a refrigerator and generating set respectively.

Speaking at the ceremony witnessed by representatives of National Lottery Regulatory Commission, and Consumer Protection Council, the bank’s Executive Director, Shared Services, Mrs. Chijioke Ugochukwu, said the winning brought the total cash prizes given out to N49 million to 72 customers, including consolation prizes.

She said that there is no loser in the initiative, but a mutually beneficial relationship fostered between the customer and the bank, adding that if customers prosper, it would be to the interest of the bank.

Urging customers key into the promo. She said that N56 million and consolation prizes are still available for subsequent lucky winners till May this year.

However, the General Manager, Managed SMEs Division, Kenneth Opara, who received the award on behalf of the bank, said the bank has worked so hard in supporting the SME sector.

According to him, while most financial institutions avoid financing SMEs, terming it a highly risky segment, Fidelity Bank has found creative ways of lending profitably to micro and small businesses in Nigeria.

To him, it is because the lender realized that SMEs are the backbone of any successful economy, hence there is need to support small businesses to grow, increase their relevance and competitiveness across the globe.

“We have now been selected as one of the pilots of the CBN’s Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme. We also run an Export Management Programme, currently in its fourth stream, to help entrepreneurs who have exportable products to expand their markets abroad,” he said.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2m0hS0T

NDIC nets N85 billion in 2016, urges government to fast-track 2017 budget

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NDIC

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) recorded actual income (net of provisions) of N85.02 billion, which by Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007, was expendable to the limit of 75 per cent.

However, the corporation said its total expense was N31.55 billion, representing about 37 per cent of total income, leaving a net operating surplus of N53.47 billion.

The development showed that the Corporation surpassed its budgeted operating surplus of N35.893 billion transferable into Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, who made the disclosure during the corporation’s budget defence in Abuja, also affirmed that as at date, NDIC has made a transfer of N35.893 billion into CRF.

Already, the deposit insurer has made provision to transfer N42.775 billion or 80 per cent of the surplus into CRF, adding that the outstanding of N6.88 billion will be made at the conclusion of its 2016 External Audit report, in line with FRA 2007.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim has reiterated the need to speed up processes towards the approval of 2017 budget, noting that 2016 implementation was only moderate because of the delay in the approval of 2016 budget.

He noted that given the ongoing recession, the plans to put the economy back on the sustainable path call for quick implementation.

He restated the NDIC’s commitment to performance based budgeting system, the essence of which is to ensure efficient allocation of resources.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters, Femi Fakeye, while commending NDIC on its performance in the 2016 budget, which he said was outstanding, urged the management not to rest on its oars and strive to achieve greater heights.

He charged the deposit insurer and other regulatory authorities to come up with ideas and advise lawmakers on the ways of helping the financial institutions, especially now in the peak of the economic crisis.

Similarly, NDIC has urged the lawmakers to approve its 2017 proposed budget, which has total income of N102.29 billion and expendable income of N76.720 billion.

This comprised operating expenses of N43.227 billion or 49.94 per cent of total expenditure plan and capital expenditure of N43.32 billion or 50.1 per cent of the total budget.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2m0hsYn

Makarfi blasts APC over alleged intolerance, unpreparedness for governance

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Ahmed Makarfi

Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Muhammed Makarfi, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of allegedly suppressing opposition, saying the act portrays it as being unprepared for the business of governance.

Speaking on the socio-economic problems confronting the nation, he claimed that the standard of living had declined greatly, adding: “We have learnt our lesson today and we would ensure that we wrestle power back from APC come 2019.”

He decried the deployment of security agents to halt a meeting of his faction following the recent ruling by the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal on the party’s lingering leadership crisis.

In a chat with The Guardian at the weekend, Makarfi said: “You see, the APC came on board unprepared to capture power. We have been in government, of course we made our mistakes, but we have learnt our lesson. We are no beginners. We will take off from where we left, but not making the mistakes that we made. So, we are prepared.”

He alleged that his rival, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was being used by a powerful block from the outside to destroy the PDP.

But Makarfi was quick to point out that party stalwarts were resolute to put the political grouping on the path of progress again.

He went on: “You see, Sheriff is not even in control of himself. Of course, he may have his own agenda. We have heard that he planned to zone the chairmanship to South South so that he hands over to somebody from Delta State. We have heard that he plans to zone the secretary position to North East, particularly Yobe and gives other key offices to certain states so that nobody fights for those offices, all with the intention to return him as presidential candidate come 2019.”

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mAT0Jy

Estate agents tasked on research, innovation

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Illustration of a proposed estate

Members of the Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria (AEAN) have brushed aside political and economic challenges that have plagued the Nigerian nation, agreed to embrace new innovation and imbibe the culture of research.

Stakeholders in the real estate sector, expressed some of these views at the second yearly conference of The Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria (AEAN) held in Lagos.

The conference themed; “ Estate Agency Practice and National Development”, was aimed at revealing the correlation between the practice and national development and was attended by practitioners across the country.

Expounding the theme, a fellow of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Gbenga Olaniyan, stressed the need for estate agents to embark on research in order to update themselves on real estate trends.

Describing real estate in Nigeria as a hedge against currency devaluation, he said, with right information, estate agents can properly advise their clients to invest even in the midst of the current economic challenges with huge profits.

Expressing confidence that Nigeria is about to exit recession, Olaniyan urged estate agents to be innovative by giving incentives to sitting tenants rather then driving down contractual rents in order to remain relevant in the face of economic challenges.

Lamenting that many agents do not know more than their clients, he re-emphasised that agents’ fees must be earned not given on a platter of gold.

Also speaking on the “ Impact of Estate Agents in Property Development and Management, the Managing Director of UACN Property Development Company PLC, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran tasked estate agents to advise their clients rightly on the importance of investing during recession.

According to him, despite the challenges posed by the economic downturns, there are still several opportunities for estate agents who can do some things differently.

He lamented that multiple agencies, which often leads to disputes and litigation have posed a great challenge for estate agents.

Ogunniran urged them to seek for collaboration and build a reputation since integrity is key to the industry.

Speaking also, the Chairman of the Association, Chudi Ubosi, who is a fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and valuers, lamented that until now, the understanding of real estate composition and growth has been somewhat limited to its required use in Nigerian national accounts.

Development, he said is a general word that encompasses all aspects of human life, segments and disciplines, which give direction to the state of an economy.

According to him, despite the economic recession and the contraction of the real estate sector in the last few quarters, no one will doubt that the fundamentals for growth in the country remain strong.

“According to a 2014 forecast by the international Monetary Find (IMF), strong developments in the construction, real estates and technology sectors in developing countries such as Nigeria has supported the world economy through tough financial periods in recent years”, he said.

IMF, he said, also predicts that these developing nations will account for about 70 per cent of world growth over the next decade.

Nigeria is touted at the moment as one of the developing countries with great potentials in real estate and one of the competitive players in the global real estate market that has fast becoming increasingly attractive to investors.

Ubosi stressed that the association has continued to fulfill one of her core aims, which is the training and re training members through organised continuous professional development workshops and seminars to improve the professional practice of her members.

“With this ongoing process, we want to ensure that we maintain and enhance the knowledge and skills our members need to deliver a professional service to their customers, clients ands the community which will invariably lead to increase public confidence in individual professional and their profession as a whole”, he noted,

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2m0qa8N

Zenith Bank, AIICO, others lift NSE’s turnover by N9.7b

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Brokers on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos.

Heavy transactions in the shares of some banks and insurance companies, last week, lifted the volume of shares traded, as a turnover of 765.656 million shares worth N9.717 billion was recorded in 12,468 deals by investors on the floor of the Exchange, higher than a total of 1.073 billion shares units worth N8.608 billion that changed hands in 14,486 deals during the preceding week.

Specifically, at the close of transactions last week, the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 575.290 million shares valued at N3.470 billion traded in 6,738 deals; thus contributing 75.14 per cent and 35.71 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The consumer goods industry followed with 53.812 million shares worth N3.470 billion in 2,572 deals.

The conglomerates industry ranked third with a turnover of 48.961 million shares worth N229.411 million in 622 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely – Zenith International Bank Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc, and United Capital Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 280.563 million shares worth N1.867 billion in 2,438 deals, contributing 36.64 per cent and 19.22 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

There were no trades in Exchange Traded Products last week compared with a total of 15.400 million units valued at N198.477 million transacted during the preceding week in nine deals.

A total of 24,850 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N20.533 million were traded lastweek in six deals, compared with a total of 10,673 units valued at N10.479 million transacted last week in 10 deals.

The NSE All-share index and market capitalization appreciated by 0.34 per cent to close the week at 25,250.37 and N8.739 trillion.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mAAktE

Babcock university inducts first set of medical doctors

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Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, has inducted the first set of its medical student graduands into the medical profession.For the 13 new medical doctors, it was a dream come true, as they beamed with smiles for their accomplishment.

The President/VC of the institution, Prof. Ademola Tayo, said the relevant accrediting and professional bodies have positively acclaimed the institution’s medical programmes, both nationally and internationally.

“We are inducting 13 new medical doctors that will carry the destinies of their patients in their hands; 13 exceptionally trained and gifted doctors that will impact the world for a positive change.

“Let me warn you that your profession requires of you, honesty, hard work, patience and empathy. As you move out to practice, I urge you to maintain the high standard for which this university is known for. You have been exposed to adequate capacity building to impact positively on the lives of the people of this country and wherever you choose to practice.”

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2miRCPH

Libya returnees: How we were forced into prostitution

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Some of the returnees last week at MMIA

Some of the young women who came back from Libya on Tuesday have narrated how they were forced into prostitution or exploited against their will.One of them, 21 years old Ogechi Gabriel, from Imo State, told The Guardian, how she was deceived by some men in Nigeria, who told her she was going to get a decent job in Libya.

“I travelled in October 2016. The journey was very tough; we passed many obstacles – the immigration, police, the desert. When we finally got to Libya, we suffered even more. We have to earn money to eat and to pay our burger- the people that took us there. They deceived us. They told me I was going there to work, they didn’t tell me I was going there to do prostitution.

“When I got there, they forced us to sleep with men and they collect the money. They said we have to pay them all the money they spent bringing us from Nigeria and the amount we owed was N700,000. So any day we sleep with men, they collect the money,” she said.

One morning, when the Libyan immigration officers came they arrested them. She recalled; “One morning, some people came and attacked us, they were killing a lot of people, when they came to our place they broke down the door, they asked us to come out and they took us to prison.”

Now finally free and back in Nigeria, Ogechi pleaded with Nigerian government to help stop the human trafficking and forced prostitution.“Nigerian government should help us, we don’t want to go back to that kind of work again,” she pleaded.
 
Another returnee, Vivian kelechi, 24 years, said she was also deceived into prostitution. “I thought it was a normal job I will do, I never knew it was prostitution. I suffered a lot, the guy that took me there said he bought me from someone else so I had to pay him back,” she said.

Every day after being abused by different men, Vivian said she has to still pay her owner from the money she made. “The guy that took me there said I have to repay him for the travel expenses. He said the money was N650,000. What is paining me is that I have lost everything, I have nothing now, my mum is dead and I couldn’t take care of her. I did ashawo work for nothing, my womb is down now, Each time I want to bath, I feel my womb and I know I have infection,” she told The Guardian reporter.

With teary eyes, Vivian narrated why she had to travel to Libya in the first place: “I was about to write my WAEC, but I had to drop out of school because my mum was sick. When my mum’s sickness got worse, someone told me about the travel and I agreed because I needed the money to help my mum. We need Nigerian government to help us with jobs so we will not go back to this kind of work again.”
 
Aminat Adewale, 26 years old, from Ogun State also has similar story to tell.“I travelled last year August. We were deceived, the woman that took us told us we were going to Italy, not by road but by air. So many people died on the road, I am even lucky to be alive. When we reached Libya the woman sold us,” she recalled. 

With face full of agony she cried; “They didn’t tell us the kind of job we will do, they forced us into prostitution and made us pay them.”
After all her travail, Aminat said she was happy to be back in Nigeria. “I chose to travel because I couldn’t get job after my school. I learnt nursing after my secondary school, but when I checked the hospital requirement and found out that I don’t have that, I have to look for a way to survive. If our government had helped us, we wouldn’t bother to travel to another country,” she said.
 
For 21-year-old Deborah Ebiwonjumi, hers was a case of exploitation and physical abuse. The indigene of Ondo State, who came back with a broken hand, had suffered severe physical abuse.  According to her, her parents were deceived by some people who promised her a decent job in Libya.

“I travelled to Libya February 2016. Some people told my parents that they will help me get work in Libya, when I got there, the madam I was working for beat me. Last month, she told me to bring soap, when I brought it, she pushed me and I fell down. She told her husband that I poured the soap on the floor deliberately, she beat me and I broke my hand, then they took me to the hospital and abandoned me there. When I recovered, I didn’t know the address of my madam, so the police came and took me to prison,” she said.

Gift Peters, another returnee, said they were forced to drink urine of people when they refused to do indecent work.“I got to Libya 11 months ago after being deceived that I was being taken to Germany. At Libya, they sold me to someone who has a connection house in Libya, where we were maltreated daily. If we don’t want to work, they will do something to you that will make you wish to die. Sometimes they use iron to burn us. At times, they will instruct our fellow ladies to urinate for us to drink,” she said.

It would be recalled that about 171 Nigerians voluntarily returned from Libya on Tuesday aboard a chartered Nouvelair aircraft with registration number TS-1NB. They were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.

Majority of the returnees were young women. The Director, Search and Rescue, NEMA, Salisu Mohammed, who gave a breakdown of the returnees, said they were made up of 109 females, 49 males, seven children and six infants.

On ground to receive them at Murtala Mohammed airport Lagos, were officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, IOM, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP), and the Police.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Head of Sub -Office, IOM Lagos, Nahashon Thuo, said the organisation has been trying its best to see that the returnees are reintegrated back to the society.
 
“The IOM gave NGN 19,695 to support each of them on the rest of their journeys home. Thirty-two of the most vulnerable returnees (mothers with young children, medical cases, unaccompanied minors) in the group will receive in kind, assistance of approximately NGN 390 000 to support their reintegration into Nigerian communities. This assistance can be used to set up a small business or pay for education or for medical costs,” he said.

Dr. Nahashon called on government and philantropists to assist in the rehabilitation process.  According to him: “There is still a lot that needs to be done to support the reintegration of the migrants, who would all benefit from vocational training and grants to set up small businesses. More can also be done to educate young men and women about the dangers of migrating to other countries without proper documentation. For now, IOM’s full reintegration assistance is currently limited to supporting the most vulnerable migrants.”

Addressing journalists, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, commended the IOM for facilitating the return of the Nigerians.

She said: “Like I told them, they are not criminals. These are people that have gone in search of greener pastures. However, it turned out to be a terrible experience for them. Times are tough, things are difficult but your country is the best place to be.”

According to her, the Federal Government, IOM and some states have put up programmes in place to rehabilitate Nigerians who volunteered to return from Libya in order to reintegrate them into the society.

“The question is; how long are we going to keep evacuating them? So there is going to be another evacuation and a final one when we will tell Nigerians who are stranded in Libya to come back home. After that it will be difficult getting IOM to do the evacuation.

“A lot of them don’t know where they are going to. There is a lot of ignorance here. Some of them are trafficked and they get there with nothing. The message here is that illegal migration is not worth it because as tough as the country is today, you are better off here than being in those places,” Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa said.

She reiterated government’s commitment to the welfare of Nigerians all over the world, stressing that it was currently addressing the issue of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lc6tGx

Saving the naira: The Soludo option

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Charles Chukwuma Soludo

The late Professor Sam Aluko was the chairman of the Newswatch Board of Economists. We set up the board to periodically examine our national economy. The board met twice annually – after the federal budget and six months into its operation.

We selected the members from the academia and the business community. They were brilliant men who knew the theory and the shenanigans of economic behaviour or rather misbehaviour, like the back of their hands. I remember Dr Uma Eleazu, Dr Ibrahim Ayagi, Dr. Kayode Familoni, and of course, chairman Aluko. And I remember the lively debates moderated by Aluko at the board meetings.

As you would expect from such a group led by the renowned economist, the chairman and members of the board took their assignment seriously. We believed that the effective management of the rather treacherous Nigerian economy was too serious to be left in the hands of our generals, however much they believed they were well-grounded in the intricacies of economic management. We believed they required inputs from those who taught the science of economics and those, as business leaders and employers, knew where and why the shoes pinched them and possibly why in an economy known for its abnormalities.

Our ambition was to help the government work out a model system of economic management that would forever and anon cure the economy of its basic ills of dependence. The board examined and critiqued the federal government’s annual budget and often accurately predicted why the economy was heading down the wrong road. We published its critique each time in a special edition of Newswatch magazine.

Now many years later and given the consistent bad behaviour of the economy, I am wondering if the government ever took the views of the board seriously. Our economy has a history of taking us up towards the top of the mountain only to drop us down the valley half way up there.

I recall the work of our then board because of what is happening to our national currency, the once strong and almighty Naira. At one of our board meetings, Aluko told us some of his former students working at the World Bank and the IMF confided in him that the ultimate objective of the Bretton Woods Institutions was to see the Naira exchange at 500 to the dollar.

We laughed it off. We found it hard to believe and must have collectively sighed: it is not the portion of our currency in the mighty name of Jesus. At that time the Naira was exchanging at less than 50 to the dollar, in spite of its buffeting by the vagaries of the structural adjustment programme. We squirmed at the thought that our national currency would take such a beating. There is something nightmarish about a battered national currency. It is an elementary fact that when you batter a country’s currency, you batter the national sense of pride attached to it. We simply feared to take in the unpleasant fact or see the distant but looming shadow.

It has come to pass. Poor Naira. As of this writing, the Naira was exchanging for N506 to the dollar. Aluko to is no longer with us to say I told you so. I know he would have wept for our country. How awfully sad. How truly sad. Many other African currencies are today stronger than the Naira, the national currency of a nation that was once its brothers’ keeper on the continent. Will our currency hit the very bottom like the Zimbabwean dollar? Ask the malams who deal in currency exchange.

The Naira has had a long history of greatness. And of progressive weakness. In the second republic, it was hawked openly in London, New York and other big Western cities. Its purchasing power was unmatched by any other African currency. Nigerians were the crowned princes of profligacy.

The keepers of the world economic flame felt that the Naira was too strong for its own good. It was two and half times stronger than the almighty green back, the dollar. I suppose the fact that a third world currency was so strong rankled and the plot to cut the uppity Naira down to its size began, as evil plots do, its slow, steady and inexorable process of thickening.

The changing fortunes of the Naira mirrors our fitful rise towards greatness only to fall back to the banks of the gutter. The Naira is a victim of economic experiments that failed to pull it through the woods. What to do with the Naira essentially brought about our rejection of the $2.5 billion bridging loan the Shagari administration was negotiating with the IMF/World Bank in the Second Republic before his regime ended three months into its second four-year term. One of the conditions the fund attached to the loan was that Nigeria must devalue the Naira. President Shagari found this positively abhorrent. He rightly feared that a devaluation of the Naira would possibly put the country in the same league with say, Turkey or Brazil. That would not, to be fair, a credit to his competent management of the economy.

The fear of devaluing the Naira forced President Ibrahim Babangida to reject the IMF/World Bank conditionalities and opt for home-grown alternatives that would be, arguably less painful for the citizens and less traumatic for the national currency. The general then chose the economic path never taken before in the country. He introduced the structural adjustment programme, with the unfortunate acronym of SAP. Its structural philosophy was aimed at curing the main weaknesses of the economy, the biggest of which was the country’s import-dependence. The pains came and trauma battered the Naira.

Under the programme and on the advice of the keepers of the global economic flame, the Naira was set free to struggle with market forces and find its own true value. An unusual economic experiment whose wisdom appeared frayed in the SAP morning. Nothing has ever been right or the same for the Naira. It is yet to find its correct value more than three decades later that would be acceptable to the gurus who believe it is not right for the currency of a middling third world country, even if that country is home to the largest black population in the world, to have such a strong national currency. In its current state, the Naira has lost its capacity to hold our economy together as it faces the battering ram of recession.

In the early years of SAP, the Babangida administration believed it was the missing key to our economic paradise, hence its stout argument that there was no alternative to it. At one of our board meetings, Aluko mocked that slogan and put up a counter-argument, to whit: there is an alternative to everything, including death.

I heard it repeatedly argued then that the ordinary Nigerians were not complaining of the exchange rate because it meant nothing to them. They imported nothing and had no appetite for exotic foreign food such as long grain rice. On the other hand, the elite complained because their cultivated taste for foreign food had been confronted with the eba alternative.

Does anyone still doubt that the battering of the Naira is as much of concern to the elite as it is to the ordinary Nigerians? Common home-grown vegetables are priced in our local markets in response to the weekly beating the Naira is subjected to. This is not pleasant.

I am not sure if this is an ode to the Naira or a funeral dirge. As I see it, the Naira is a victim of economic experiments that lost their magic wand. I believe we can find a more creative formula for saving the Naira. The floating formula has not worked because with so much Naira chasing so few dollars every week it is patently unwise to expect the Naira to find its own value. If it has not done so for nearly four decades, what makes us think it would now? The answer is to revalue the Naira. Professor Charles Soludo saw the wisdom in that but it cost him his high profile as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Let us revisit the Soludo formula. It may save the Naira and make some sense of our unruly economy.

It would only get worse for our national currency and our national economy if we have no alternative to letting the Naira continue to float in search of its true value. This option must have been wise some three decades ago but it seems to me that the wisdom has run its course. We are all groaning because we go to the market with a large quantity of Naira only to return with almost an empty basket. It is change all right. But it is an undesirable change.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2miMsTJ

The link between crime and politics

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The past, according to that United States of America white writer, never goes away. It is in fact not past. This must be the reason why all who write on the ease with which crime and politics co-exist in democracies of the developing world take their arguments to the station of the past.

They insist that the extractive nature of a colonial economy, instead of an inclusive economy, breeds a politics of criminality. This type of past leads to a politics absolved of ethics and morality. Put simply, because British colonial economy was of an extractive rather than inclusive nature in Nigeria, Nigerian politicians can only play extractive economy, which breeds immoral politics and unethical social relationship. What do these words and phrases mean — extractive, inclusive, nexus of crime and politics and being absolved from ethics and morality?

The Trouble with contemplating these words and phrases and sentences is to think that History should not be about the past, especially in a developmental state, but about the future! History should be about what should not be in the future. The economy should not be extractive but inclusive, the reason being the last time it was extractive it led to criminal politicians excusing their criminality on the criminality of their colonial rulers. And since no one has punished the colonial politician-rulers for slavery and slave-labour laws, why should anyone want to blame them?

Before other diversionary thoughts seize us, it is necessary to wonder how deeply our languages have absorbed these ideas and used them to fire our contemporary lives of extractive economy and a politics without ethics and morality. Yoruba questions your unwillingness to cheat a mad person when there is certainty that a sane person would not permit himself or herself to be cheated. Which means that we were all mad to let the British come here and cheat us and go away. And we are still mad to allow our politicians to be here to cheat us and stay among us to enjoy the harvest of their unethical and immoral politics. After all, we insist that they should cheat us because “Omo wa ni, e je o se!”“He or she is of us, let him or her be.”

Some years ago, on a television discussion on 419 scams, a young Nigerian participant said that there was nothing wrong with those who initiate the scam. It is those who are tempted who are to blame. This was in South Africa. After all, the British comprising the Irish, the Scots, the Welsh and the English came here to scam us and got away with the murder of our ways and our means. First of all, we must get it back from them, get back our ways and means. Second to everything, when we have satisfied on that score we can then also get our ways and means from our own criminal politicians.

After all, we have spoken here of the rise of proverbs, words of wisdom, that encourage ethical and moral compromise. Let’s invest the mad one as the groom of the day so he can clear out of our way. If we grovel before the dwarf it does not mean when we get up we would not be taller than him. So, politics without principle, wealth without work are fine. We did the labour, they took the harvest. Now let others of us do the hard work and we lick the cream, thank you!

But wait small, where in the world can we find inclusive economics? Such an economy will nurture inclusive social relationships where my action would emanate from consideration of your interest and your activities would not proceed without counting me in! It would encourage an ethical and moral political practice. Such a place would ensure that I would not take a bite without wondering if my neighbour has something to eat. I would not pick and choose when my neighbour picks from the garbage and chooses what I throw away. Where is such a place where all efforts have been expended to turn stone into bread? And when such a feat has been achieved and every mouth ate and every stomach was full what happens then?

If we are alarmed at the cosy relationship between democracy and political criminality, are we saying that all previous political criminality happened under undemocratic systems? Crime and politics felt at home under imperial systems of governance, under dictatorships, both military and civilian, benevolent and malevolent. How many imperial majesties can we count in Nigeria today? Anyway, to get away from these easy messy systems, democracy is called forth, the best government of the people by the people for the people. Instead of king ships and monopolies, instead of inherited hierarchies and inheritances of blue blood and family virtues and natural rights of being born to rule, we have processes of leadership emergence through qualities of humane behaviour. We have periodic elections for periodic rulers. And everyone has the right to aspire to rule.

Still. Yet. Every democratically government aspires to imperial majesty!
Who did the British blame for their period of criminal politics, the Romans? Who did the Americans blame for their period of railway barons and pork barrel politics, the British? Perhaps yes in both cases and in other cases. In doing something about it, in correcting the situation they also learnt that when a government does not provide the basics that the people need, opportunists would come in to try to provide such social needs. In doing so, they would claim constituency projects and social far-fetched responsibilities. They would try to replace the work of the government.

Once it was discovered that the link between crime and politics is the failure of democratic governments to provide for the greatest number of the people, everything is done to strengthen government by creating institutions that would make a democratic government work best. With that would come inclusive politics, would be nurtured concerned co-existence, and ordinary comfortable fellow-feeling. A nanny state, not a neglect state.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lc8d2R

Akande kicks off conversation on her novel what it takes

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To further encourage reading and creative writing among students, the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, Akoka, yesterday featured Dr. Lola Akande, who read from her latest work, What It Takes, in the February, 2017 edition of the department’s literary reading. The monthly literary reading, which started in 2006, and has featured such writers as Chimamanda Adichie, Odia Ofeimun, Sam Omatseye among others, is an avenue for inspiring students of the department to be creative writers.

Students and lecturers gathered at the faculty’s boardroom as they sipped from Akande’s creative brew. She read excerpts from her new novel that brings to light the ills in Nigerian university system, specifically lecturer versus student relationship and the needless rigor required to acquire a PhD degree.

Akande explained that lecturers take advantage of their positions and the situation on ground to sexually harass and extort students as some of the students who are fragile fall into their whimsical trap. She said the aim of the novel is for society at large to be conscious of the happenings in the university system and for the dastardly acts that happened there to stop so as to promote quality education at all levels in the country.

Also, speaking at the event, Head, Department of English, Prof. Hope Eghagha, said the literary reading programme was initiated to restore and improve reading habits among students. He noted that Akande’s novel captures the reality in the university system as male lectures exploit female students by taking advantage of them, a situation that terrifies students and make learning or acquiring a degree a hard task.

According to him, “Book reading is a practice we try to establish in the department. We invite writers to read their latest work as a way of interacting with students to imbibe the habit of reading. Male–female relationship comes up in the university system often. Male lecturers exploit female students by taking advantage of them. I try to comprehend these issues and admonish them.”

Also to lend his voice was Prof. Timothy Asobele, management board member of the university, who commended the author of the book and the effort put into bringing such evil deeds into limelight. He said lecturers, who engage in such immoral acts never rise above their positions of mediocrity and depravity.

“Lola has been groomed by the faculty and department which is evident in her works,” he said. “She captures what happens in the university system. Lecturers, who are evil-doers do not rise above their position due to the evil scheme they engage in with vulnerable students.”

There were musical interludes as well as Akande read excerpts from her novel. Reviewer of the book and an alumnus of the university, Samuel Olatunji, also noted that the author infused real life experiences to energise the fictional narrative so that readers can feel and experience the narrator’s plight and empathise with her all the way.

Akande holds a doctorate degree in English Literature from the University of Ibadan. She teaches African Literature and has written In Our Place, Camouflage and Dream Chasers.

FOR Akande, the literary reading event was most fulfilling and even surpassed all her expectations. In a conversation after the event, she said, “I wasn’t sure how it would go; I was sure I was going to be attacked. A colleague had accosted me about the book before; so, I was expecting something like taht, but I didn’t see anything of such. My colleagues really came to support me.

“It was very fulfilling. I felt and still feel very grateful to God. I didn’t expect it would turn out so great. It was like a book launch. It felt amazing; our boardroom was filled to capacity. Surprisingly, the HOD, Eghagha, tried to get someone to review What It Takes, but the person he got couldn’t make it. But a former student volunteered; it was so magical, so miraculous. I can assure you I had an exciting time. Some people asked me how I got the courage to write such a book; they were afraid for me how the university would receive the book. Do you know that the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics and Research, Prof. Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, just sent me a mail asking me to participate in the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Structural Training for African Researchers? I was surprised. It prepared me for my triumph today!”

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2miCKku