The Nation Newspaper

Tag: time

  • It’s my time to shine, says SugarBoy

    It’s my time to shine, says SugarBoy

    Nigerian reggae-dancehall/Afrobeat singer and songwriter Umoren AKanimoh Felix (Oscar Jnr), aka Sugarboy, has said this is his year to shine.

    The artiste who is signed to G-Worldwide Entertainment, told The Nation that his album is set for release April 22 at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

    “You all know that Kiss Daniel’s album, New Era, shook the industry last year, topping charts and coming as number eight on the Billboard World Album Chart. I believe it is my time to shine this year.

    “On the title, Believe, ‘it is my story.’ The songs on the album have different genres and they all have a story to tell. It is about my journey from where I started to where I am.”

    Sugarboy who has released songs like Hola Hola, Double and Legalize has 22 tracks on the album, the second to come out of the G-Worldwide label in two years.

    On why he is yet to feature in collaboration, he stated: “in every label, there is a regulation that is set. In G-Worldwide, it is believed that every artiste has to work hard and become a brand on their own, before they can start having collaboration.”

    Brand Consultant to the label, Edward Isreal-Ayide added that the label is trying its best to disrupt the trend that artistes have to have collaborations with top artistes before becoming popular.

    “The relationship of the label and its acts with other industry players could never have been better,” he said.

    “This will also be witness at the grand event of the album release.”

  • Time to redenominate the naira

    Naira was first introduced as official currency for Nigeria in 1973. Nigeria adopted a national currency in replacement of the one with colonial notation. Thus, naira and kobo replaced pound and shilling. Nigeria currencies were introduced in coin and notes. There were half kobo, one kobo, 10 kobo and 25 kobo. These were token coins with reasonable purchasing power. The currency notes were 50 kobo, one naira, five naira and 10 naira being the highest.

    As the economy grew due to oil boom, the 20 naira note was introduced in 1977. However, with the devaluation of naira in 1991, some denominations were withdrawn while 50 naira was also introduced. This was geared at increasing money supply and devaluation of currency to boost demand for local product as suggested by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). However, as good as the programme was, due to little or no effort towards export promotion and import substitution, the policy failed.

    Much later, namely- 1999,2000, 2001 and 2005; 100 naira, 200 naira, 500 naira and 1000 naira were introduced respectively due to lower purchasing command of previous denominations, policy failure, inflation and low public confidence in lower currency. While several administrations have searched for soft-landing in CBN, much of the work had little impact due to poor fiscal complement from government end. It was either an era of fiscal rascality or misery. There was little attention to textiles, manufacturing and education.

    Today, all the token coins re-introduced under Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo has returned to antiquity in people’s offices, homes, wallets and currency museums of the central bank. Nigerians rejected them even though they are still legal tenders with no value today. In spite of money being backed by government legislation, acceptability remains a major attribute authorities must consider as in the case of ‘the coins and the enforcement by the CBN in 2007’.

    The former CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi attempted to print 5000 naira in 2012 but was vehemently rejected by Nigerians. In fact, the plan was to convert lower denominations to coins. What is clear is that, perhaps, all the several CBN governors including the present mean well for Nigeria. The problem seems to come from lateness in taking decision and policy implementation.

    At the moment, the denominations we have in polymer notes- five naira, 10 naira, 20 naira and 50 naira; their cost of production is fast approaching their face values. In theory, the currency should be converted to coins. However, the purchasing power of most of them is next to zero. Therefore, converting them to coins will not solve much of our problems. Similarly, the paper money namely- 100 naira, 200 naira and 500 naira and 1000 naira, have lost over 75 percent of their purchasing power from their initial date of production. Inflation, poor currency management, overreliance on a single major export product – oil, disconnects between fiscal and monetary authorities, currency trafficking, monetized polity, abnormal taste for foreign products, inability to hold government accountable and a lot more are responsible for emaciating naira. I am not sure we are serious at solving these problems today.

    Can we say the naira is dead? What is not in doubt is that the original value of naira is now in negative. What we know is that the value of one naira in 1973 is more than one thousand naira today. $1 equalled 63 kobo in 1973. Today a dollar is N315 at interbank rate and N500 at street rate. Besides, what N1 could buy in 1973, N1000 cannot buy in 2017. Between 2007 and 2017, we can also notice that $1 was N115 today it is N315. More than 100 percent of its value is gone using 2007 as the base year. It will be worrisome to compare the price of a bag of cement, a litre of PMS, a litre of kerosene, a tin of milk, a bar soap, a cup of sugar, a bag of rice, a pair of shoe, a cup of garri and many more in year 2007 to what the price is today (10 years ago). A more stable economy would only have a little increase.

    What is the way forward? Diversify the economy; improve infrastructure, hope for positive externalities, a review in exchange rate policy and import substitution. All of these solutions are very important but the willingness as of now is what is begging for answer. Political solutions seem to hold sway for real economic issues. It should be noted that they are not short-term based solutions.

    Redenominating our currency is very important now before it is too late. While I agree this may not directly affect the GDP figures, it will help reduce some pressure on naira and in fact induce GDP growth. Now the question is, ‘What is redenomination of currency’?

    Currency redenomination is the process where a new unit of money replaces the old unit with a certain ratio. This can be achieved by removing zeros from a currency that is moving some decimal points to the left. The aim here is to correct perceived misalignment in the currency and pricing structure as well as enhancing the credibility of the local currency.

    My recommendation is, we need to drop two zeros from the currency or moving two decimal places to the left. The name of the national currency will still be the Naira or any other name as government may deem fit. However, to avoid confusion, when transacting, the existing Naira will be referred to as the “Old Naira”, and the new one to be called the “New Naira” or any other name.

    The benefits of this policy are enormous. They include better anchor inflation expectations, strengthening of public confidence in the Naira or any other name government may prefer, make for easier conversion to other major currencies, reverse tendency for currency substitution as we currently witness,  eliminate higher denomination notes with lower purchasing power, reduce the cost of production for a currency with little purchasing power, distribution and processing of currency, promote the usage of coins and thus a more efficient pricing and payments system, promote the availability of cleaner notes with stronger value, deepen the foreign exchange market, ensure more effective liquidity management and monetary policy, expose stolen money, convertibility of the naira and hence greater confidence in the national economy and lead to greater inflow of foreign investment, position the Naira to become the ‘Reference currency’ in Africa. CBN will better capture monetary operations for better policy formulation.

    Failure to consider this policy will result in continuous speculation on naira. The fear is, if we do not consciously terminate speculation on the naira now, by the end of 2017, a dollar may be exchanging for N800.

    There is nothing to fear about this policy as countries such as Germany, Hungary and more recently Ghana have implement it in their various countries.

     

    • Alaje is an economist.

  • Trump can’t handle presidency – Poll

    Americans have little confidence in President-elect Donald Trump’s abilities to handle his presidential duties, with less than half of them saying they trust him to prevent major scandals, handle an international crisis, or use military force responsibly.

    According to a Gallup poll released by TIME, Americans have significantly less faith in Trump than they had in his predecessors.

    Only 44 per cent said they were confident Trump would avoid major scandals in his administration, 46 per cent said they are confident in Trump’s ability to handle an international crisis, and 47 per cent said they trust him to use military force wisely.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that when the same questions were asked at the start of outgoing President Barack Obama’s and former Presidents George W. Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s terms, roughly three-quarters of Americans said they had confidence in the newly elected President in these areas.

    When compared with Gallup’s averages of confidence polling in his predecessors, Trump comes up short.

    The incoming president has a 32-point confidence deficit in his ability to avoid scandals in his administration, a 29-point deficit in his ability to use military force well and a 28-point deficit in his ability to manage the executive branch.

    Most Americans (60 per cent) believe Trump will be able to get things done with Congress, but even there he comes up far behind his predecessors — the average number of Americans with confidence in Obama, Bush and Clinton to work with Congress was 82 per cent.

    The data also reflected a more polarised America than Obama or Bush faced when they came into office.

    On average, only 21 per cent of Democrats have confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the various responsibilities of the presidency.

    By contrast, roughly two-thirds of Republicans had some confidence in Obama and the same was true for Bush and Democrats.

  • Nigeria: Time to ponder the realities

    The popular children’s story, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” is soberingly close to the relationship between Nigeria and the various nationalities (or peoples) that make up Nigeria. Each Nigerian people perceived, and proceeded to mould Nigeria, in their own way. The British nation too, the nation that created Nigeria, did the same, with the result that, at independence, they left Nigeria packaged as a troubled country that would be impossible to manage. In short, many nations – the British, the Yoruba, the Igbo, the Hausa-Fulani, and nearly 300 other nationalities – when faced with Nigeria, formed, like the blind men in the story, their different perceptions of Nigeria and have resolutely kept trying to impose those different perceptions. This state of affairs was destined from the very beginning to determine Nigeria’s history. It has determined Nigeria’s convoluted and sad history.

    Of the Nigerian nationalities, the three largest and most influential, and the three most responsible for the making of Nigeria’s direction, are the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba and the Igbo. Another people, the Ijaw of the Niger Delta, are much smaller than each of these three, but because nature packed the Ijaw homeland with petroleum (the most important resource in modern world economy), their stature in Nigerian affairs has been big too. It is therefore the divergent perceptions of Nigeria by the British, the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba, the Igbo and the Ijaw, and their divergent responses to Nigeria, that have shaped Nigeria’s endemic pattern of instability and conflicts – resulting in turning this naturally rich country into a land of frightful and perpetually worsening poverty, corruption, and conflicts, a country that must wage bloody wars to remain one. It is not merely because Nigeria is made up of many nationalities that it has evolved into an unworkable country. It is because these main builders of Nigeria (the British, the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba, the Igbo and the Ijaw – as well as the other nearly 300 Nigerian peoples) have never jointly invested serious and sincere effort in the critically important task of harmonizing Nigeria’s profound differences.

    The differences are not merely ethnic and linguistic. They are also products of deeply divergent histories. Historically, the Hausa people were one of the three largest peoples of tropical Africa – the other two being the Yoruba and the Igbo. Exposed to Islamic influences penetrating from North Africa since as early as the 8th century AD, the Hausa people and their kings were mostly Muslims for centuries before the 19th. In the course of the 18th century, a mostly nomadic people, the Fulani, migrating from the grasslands and Sahel of West Africa, spread out into Hausaland.  In the first years of the 19th century, an Islamic reform movement arose among the immigrant Fulani, and started a Jihad (holy war) against the old Hausa kingdoms. The Fulani were, in comparison with the Hausa, very few. But, by winning large numbers of Hausa folks with the message of Islamic Reform, the Fulani Jihad overthrew the Hausa kings and replaced them with Fulani men, with the title of Emirs.  Hausaland thus became a Fulani Empire, fervently Islamic and seeking to expand its kind of Islam, as well as its Fulani political rule, to the homelands of neighbouring non-Hausa peoples.

    Beyond the eastern borders of Hausaland, the Kanuri and related peoples had long been strongly Islamized peoples. They defeated the Fulani attempts to conquer them, and they thus remained under their own ancient rulers.

    The broad Middle Belt south of Hausaland was inhabited by many small peoples. The Fulani rulers of Hausaland launched intensive attacks to conquer, destabilize, or even to destroy these peoples. Some of the peoples sought peace by accepting Islam, but that hardly stopped the attacks. These fierce attacks were still going on when Christian influence reached these territories. Many of the peoples accepted Christianity. And then, British colonial rule came over the whole large country that was later (in 1914) to become Nigeria.

    South of the Middle Belt, especially in the western parts of the South (the homeland of the Yoruba), Islam had come at about the same time as it had come to Hausaland in about the 8th century but, on the whole, Yoruba conversion to Islam had been relatively small. In the course of the 19th century, internal political developments in Yorubaland resulted in the emergence of a strong Yoruba Islamic centre in the Yoruba city of Ilorin. Attempts by the rulers of Ilorin to spread Islam by force into the rest of their Yoruba homeland was decisively defeated by other Yoruba. Thereafter, Islam peacefully spread, becoming considerably strong in various parts of Yorubaland by the late 19th century. In the territories east of the Lower Niger, (the homelands of the Igbo and neighbouring peoples) the influence of Islam was almost non-existent.

    From the 1840s, European Christian missions of various denominations began to bring the message of the gospel to these Southern and Middle Belt lands. Penetrating from the coast, they gradually expanded into the interior. With Christian churches came schools and Western education.

    Churches and schools immediately became most widespread in the South-west (the homeland of the Yoruba people). The cause of this is that Yorubaland was the most urbanized country in all of tropical Africa. For nearly a thousand years before the 19th century, the Yoruba people had evolved a rich urban civilization, with sizeable towns flourishing at short distances from one another all over Youbaland. Churches and schools quickly mushroomed in the Yoruba towns. By the 1860s, Yoruba families were already beginning to send their children to institutions of higher education in Europe, and a literate Yoruba elite and professional class (of doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, writers, surveyors, etc) was emerging. Yorubaland’s first newspaper was born in 1859 in the city of Abeokuta, and others soon followed in other towns. When the British created Nigeria in 1914, the Yoruba part of Nigeria was considerably ahead of the rest of the new country in modern transformations. For instance, no other Nigerian people produced a university graduate until the mid-1930s. Islam and Christianity were strong in Yorubaland by 1900. But the Yoruba people have a unique ancient tradition of religious tolerance and accommodation, and, as a result, Christianity, Islam and the traditional Yoruba religion co-existed harmoniously in Yorubaland (even in Yoruba families). Yoruba people of all religions embraced Western education, thereby turning their country into the most literate part of, not just Nigeria, but tropical Africa. In the 1950s, the last years of British rule, under the system of limited self-government preceding independence, the Yoruba established free education in their part of Nigeria – the first African people to take such a step.

    Furthermore, in the traditional government of Yoruba kingdoms, in the context of Yoruba urban civilization, there had long existed many democratic institutions and tendencies – such as selection of kings and chiefs by their subjects, provisions for the peaceful removal of unpopular rulers,  institutions commanding the power to moderate the conduct of rulers and influential citizens and to penalize any of them that was guilty of errant conduct, citizens’ associations with institutionalized influence on the processes of governance, the right of all to voice their opinions (to “contribute their wisdom”) freely, the practice of forming factions and of lobbying rulers,  the right of peaceful protests, etc. In contrast, the large Igbo nation traditionally lived differently from the Yoruba, without a widespread urban culture, or centralized political systems.

    In the course of the first three decades of the 20th century, Western education grew fast in the rest of Southern Nigeria too, especially in the homelands of the Igbo and the Ibibio peoples. By the mid-1930s, the Ibibio and Igbo, and some other Southern Nigerian peoples, began to produce literate elites.

    In contrast to these educational and occupational transformations going on in the South and, to a lesser extent, in the Middle Belt, the strongly Islamic Hausa-Fulani North rejected Christian influence and showed apathy to Western education as well as to modern occupations. Furthermore, the system of rule which the Fulani Jihad had created here was one in which the Fulani, though much fewer than the Hausa, were simply the aristocratic ruling elements over the large mass of Hausa people – a system which the Fulani feel duty-bound to spread over all the peoples of Nigeria.

    Did a vast country so ethnically, linguistically, culturally, religiously, politically, and historically divided and divergent, with so many scattered traditions of conflict possess the elements and prospects for one country? Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister from 1952, said more than once that Nigeria’s unity was merely British intention for us, and that the factors for such unity simply did not exist. Now that we have tried Nigeria for over a whole century, what do we think of Balewa’s words? Isn’t it instructive that we still have not found how to live harmoniously together, respecting one another, sincerely wishing one another well, and providing for the happiness of all? Isn’t it important that we are still fighting, and still threatening to fight and destroy, one another? It is worth thinking about.

  • Time to act on Lagos ‘apartheid’ schools

    It is a disaster of an unimaginable proportion; disaster that predated the administration of the current action governor of the Centre of Excellence. Its reality bespeaks anti-excellence. Simply anti-Lagos. Gbagada-based Ogo Oluwa Primary School, Idi Odo Primary School and Temidire Primary School are public but segregationist institutions. Founded by the Lagos State government for the purpose of grooming knowledge, equality, freedom, hope and creativity in the minds of the custodians of the future of the nation, but alas, the Idi-Odo trio is now funded to uphold its degeneration into institutions of the less-privileged, of ‘unlucky’ children permanently denied the fortune of hobnobbing with their ‘lucky’ peers.

    No thanks to the ironically ‘privileged’ and ‘elitist’ Gbagada environment of the rich whose personal safety and security has led to the denigration of these public schools into exclusive centres for labourer-children – house-helps, house-maids, cooks and the likes. Nothing can be more sorrowful than the sight of ones Alma Mater that was indeed the potter of so many shining stars of today in such peril that is now the lot of the Idi-Odo trio. Schools that sprang up as Gbagada Primary School III and School IV, illuminating the dawn of the Alhaji Lateef Jakande-led administration with glowing rising sun.

    Although the species of classroom blocks that surfaced across the earth of Lagos at the advent of Baba Kekere’s government, as temporary structures built within a twinkle of an eye, were indeed poultry-like in design, yet the irresistibility of the nostalgia their memories conjure in the Nigerian citizenry till date is an open statement of the superlative education that pupils of yore, including, this writer procured therein.

    As pioneering students of Gbagada Primary School IV, for instance, having been relocated from some ancient schools to complete our foundational education at Idi-Odo, we found ourselves in an excitingly mixed world; a world that broke boundaries, flattened fences and walloped walls. A world of innocence which inhabitants thrived in pleasant forgetfulness of our socio-economic differences, as the line between the rich and the poor became inexistent.

    Obviously, the long stretch of fence that now marks the Gbagada boundary, delineating its territories from its neighbouring Somolu-Pedro-Bariga neighbourhood was sincerely erected some few years back to ward off security threats in a nation where none sleeps with closed eyes. Good intention, no doubt. But for the surreptitious evil the edifice casts on our collective future as a nation.

    What is my drift? It is a given fact that, in contemporary Nigeria, our public schools are no longer patronized by the relatively few economically-advantaged Nigerian families, found in such a luxuriant environment as Gbagada Estates – a radical departure from what used to be in the good days of yore, which has, thus, largely restricted the services of the Idi-Odo schools to the less-privileged masses on the other side of the skirting fence. I mean the sprawling and struggling mass of Nigerian families that densely populate the Somolu-Pedro-Bariga world, to whom the relatively ‘meagre’ fees charged by ‘cheap’ private schools within their vicinity is totally unaffordable.

    Tragically, however, for many of such families, the hope of bequeathing, on their offspring, a future brighter than today, through education at the proximate, cost-free Idi-Odo Schools at nearby Gbagada, has been totally dashed. Dashed by the loathsome, long stretch of Gbagada ‘apartheid’ fence that today torments its discerning beholder with a fatal fear of tomorrow.

    My writing pen pairs with my eyes in shedding tears of sorrow. Tears of regrets, tears of lamentations, tears of nostalgia, as I behold my Alma Mater in its current status as a school now ‘majorly meant’ for   housemaids and all other categories of child-slaves wickedly engaged by Gbagada residents whose elitist hands actually held the pen that outlawed child-labour in our revered constitution.

    Indeed, no law forbids anyone from enrolling his children in these schools. But, this bad ‘apartheid’ fence does just this. It imposes on kids from the other side of it, a daily merry-go-rounding ritual of a minimum of 20km trek, on daily school trips. Hence, schools that once infected every speeding motorist on the Oshodi-Gbagada Expressway with exuding liveliness is now a ghost of its old self, now hardly conspicuous, probably due to our collective violent neglect and indifference towards the sort of children whose names now fill the registers of those ‘unlucky’ teachers.

    Yes! “Less privileged’ teachers teaching ‘less privileged’ pupils would struggle to deceive you with cheerful mien to welcome every approaching adult in the faint hope that, at last, protracted prayers are about fruiting. They are always looking into the empty space with forlorn eyes imagining oncoming parents holding their kids for enrolment.

    If anything is sure, the restless Ambode with his cabinet lieutenants would agree with me that the deployment of such an artificial barrier as a fence to isolate and foreclose extensive and mixed patronage by citizens and residents of the state can never be rationally justified. Or, what can rationalize a situation that has forced those institutions funded with public resources, constitutionally meant to engender sense of equality and belonging in the citizenry, to degenerate into ‘second’ class schools for ‘second’ class students handled by ‘second’ class teachers.

    The likely effects of such a strange educational setting are better imagined. To call a spade a spade, it can only beget tragedy on the victim, not victims.

    No! The victimized are not the multitude of Nigerian children who, over the years, are denied of access to the potter services these schools were originally founded to offer. They are neither the second class outputs with jaundiced psychology that are likely to emerge from there.

    The victim is none but our society, our supposed community of humans whose inborn mentality of freedom, equality and potentialities is expected to derive monumental boosting through the facility of education. To relegate and ignore this truism is to refuse to learn from history and admit the weighty role of negative citizenship orientation in the multi-coloured reality of terror in our nation of today.

    Hurray! When I behold the ongoing magical structural intervention of the Lagos government in Lady Lak Primary School, Bariga, an innate voice within me tells me there is hope for the Idi-Odo schools and their likes. My elation over the current rebuilding of Lady Lak, an aged facility is particularly due to the fact that my educational sojourn actually started, over four decades ago, in the same set of buildings, then dilapidated, that are just being replaced with ultra modern ones by the Ambode administration.

    Still, the fear of history threatens my hope with hopelessness in terms of what may become of these schools even after the governor’s anticipated positive response.

    Whether those invisible and seemingly ‘invincible’ forces that frustrated the order and efforts of ex-Governor Fashola on the aborted reconstruction of the fragile wooden make-shift bridge linking the Gbagada and Bariga community would allow the public interest to reign supreme, this time around, remains a begging question.

    Lest we forget, Fashola’s order and subsequent mobilization of materials to the impassable bridge site was in response to the yearnings of the staff and students of Gbagada Comprehensive High School for safe and quick access to a public health clinic situated within nearby but ‘far’ Bariga-based Mafoluku Market. What has become of those abandoned tons of sand, granite stones as well as machines, for almost a decade, is currently visible to the blind.

     

    • Olokode, a media consultant, writes in vide solacemediaconsult@gmail.com

  • Time to call Turkey’s President to order 

    SIR: Events that continue to unfold in Turkey aftermath of the failed coup in that country have not ceased to bleed my heart as no day will pass without incident of arrest or detention of Turkish people and sometimes foreigners, like in the case of some Nigerian students.

    Since the failed coup, thousands of civil servants have been dismissed, scores of  media outlets shutdown,  hundreds of judges sacked, academics booted out from their universities, doctors, journalists, rights activists have not also been spared of this massive onslaught  by Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The attention of the international community, especially  that of the United States, the European Union, the Africa Union  is highly needed to prevail on President Erdogan to respect the rights of the Turkish people.  A failed coup should not be a licence to suppress opponents, suffocate perceived enemies or arrest innocent people.

    So far, nearly 100,000 persons are in detention and 37,000 arrested  all because of  suspected links to US-based Islamic cleric, Fethulah Gülen, whom Erdogan fingered for  the failed coup despite the denial by the highly-respected cleric.

    President Erdogan through his actions and body language is fully determined to crush anything or anybody that is perceived to be sympathetic to Gulen, and in the process continues to trample on the basic rights of the Turkish people and gags the media.

    Just few days ago, Turkey’s secularist Cumhuriyet  newspapers’ daily Editor-in-Chief, Murat Sabuncu and columnist Güray Öz were detained after police raided their residences.

    Though some international rights organisations have already voiced their condemnation over the blatant crack down on the rights of the people in that country, it is high time more pressure is mounted on Erdogan to purge himself of his tyrannical posture and respect the rights and freedom of the Turkish people.

     

    • Usman Dikko,

    Kaduna.

  • Ayo Adedoyin bides time on remarriage

    PRINCE Ayo Adedoyin is knee deep in an unusual kind of dilemma. Following his failed marriage with Oghogho Asemota, he has remained single and vulnerable to the lustful eyes of female admirers. The Agbamu, Kwara State indigene has had to endure the challenge of ignoring flirtatious gestures and politely turning down advances.

    Even more confounding for the son of popular business mogul, Prince Samuel Adedoyin, is that the more he masters the act of turning down female advances, the more ladies jostle to win his heart. Although his closest associates claim he is not ready for another marriage, particularly because the scar from his last marriage is still festering like a fresh sore in his heart, it is being speculated in some circles that he may have done away with the heartbreak of the past with something solid in the offing.

    In fact, it was reported sometime last year that a particular Lagos Island-based tall and fair lady, who runs a popular boutique on Awolowo Road, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos had succeeded in capturing the heart of the eligible bachelor. While many had thought that Ayo would settle down with the elegant businesswoman and save himself the pressure from the lustful women that are crowding around him, he seems to be biding his time on the issue.

    The Chairman of Peacegate Group has managed to prevent undue attention from the opposite sex from distracting his focus on business.

  • My word for Buhari next time we meet—Emzor Pharmaceuticals CEO Stella Okoli

    My word for Buhari next time we meet—Emzor Pharmaceuticals CEO Stella Okoli

    Dr. Stella Okoli is without a doubt one of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria and one of the most prominent members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). At more than 70 years old, Mummy, as she is fondly called by admirers, has not lost any of the traits that endeared her to many who have come to regard her as a role model. As far as such people are concerned, she is the Amazon of the Nigerian corporate sector.

    Okoli’s distinctive taste for clothes and accessories should ordinarily rate her among the stars of the nation’s high society. But for a woman whose main concern is how to make the nation’s healthcare industry better, her fashion sense, social life and style are often eclipsed by her concern for business.

    Of course, her sense humour is always on display whatever the situation. This much was the case when our correspondent encountered the woman behind the success of one of Nigeria’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited.

    From time to time, she would bring up a joke that would lead to prolonged laughter. But at the end of each session of laughter, she never missed the point. She would go back to the question as if there was never a break.

    Every sentence she made was interspersed with an admonition on the need for one to love one’s country and make it great. In fact, she is of the opinion that patriotism should be taught in schools in order to inject its spirit into young Nigerians.

    “Patriotism should be taught in schools,” she said. “This will make the people to know what it is all about. It is the same with corruption. The curriculum should explain to the children that some actions could lead to corrupt practices.

    “You see, some of these young kids don’t even know which action leads to corruption and which one is not. We need to begin with them very early in order to inculcate the sense of patriotism in them. We must end this cycle of failure.”

    Asked to explain her fashion style and how she has been able to combine brain and beauty attracted a loud laughter before she said: “It is the grace of God. But let me share a joke with you: they say if you are going out on a political campaign, you need to look good and beautiful in order to win. However, the truth is that the Lord has been very good to me. For everything He has done for me, I am really grateful. In everything that I do, I glorify God. You see, I’d always ask myself, ‘what is it that I do that He has been so good to me. I am sure the beauty you are seen is the grace of God upon my life,” she said before breaking into another round of laughter.

    For the mother of three, being in the presence of the Lord gives the most joy. Aside this, she says she loves it whenever an opportunity presents itself for her to help someone in need.

    “As a business woman, whenever you step into the factory, you are always distracted by one noise or the other. If it is not the noise from the generator, it could be you thinking of how to grow the business. But for me, whenever I am in the presence of the Lord, I realise that all these don’t make any meaning to me. I am at peace with myself and everything about me is peaceful. Believe me, that gives me the most joy.

    “Another thing that gives me joy is to help someone in need. Recently, I got a note that one of the children of the security man with us was in coma for two weeks. Unfortunately, the man did not bother to tell us. I asked my people to get a doctor so that we would know what was wrong with the child. What we found out was that the expertise to handle the case was not even in that hospital. And the child had been in coma for two weeks.

    “We took steps and transferred the child to another hospital where proper attention and care were rendered. You needed to see this man. He was happy. It really gave me joy that God used me to save the child’s life and to put a smile on the face of the father. It was an opportunity and I thank God for it. It is very important for you to be a problem solver and a change agent.”

    In furtherance of her dream to expand the scope of her company, Okoli said she was focused on ensuring that Emzor Pharmaceuticals moved some steps further by investing in research.

    “Our plan was to have started the research programme by now. We are still eager to make sure that the programme takes off. It is something that we need to do in Nigeria in order to move the pharmaceutical industry forward,” she said.

    According to her, the determination to be a change agent was behind her decision to award scholarships to students in secondary and tertiary institutions. This, she disclosed, is in addition to her donations to the less privileged in the society and consistent support for several non-profit making organisations.

    The Chike Okoli Foundation is one project that is very close to her heart. The Foundation was set up in 2006 to raise awareness on cardiovascular disease and promote entrepreneurship.

    “To date, the Foundation has set up the Chike Okoli Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and has trained over 1,600 entrepreneurs/students in the science and spirit of entrepreneurship. It has also reached over 5,000,000 people across Nigeria on lifestyle interventions,” she said with a sense of pride.

    Despite her seemingly tight schedule and education, Okoli is not one to disregard her people’s culture and ways of life. Among the Igbo, it is the tradition that grandmothers visit their children when the latter are delivered of babies and spend some time. In Igbo land, the tradition is called Omugwo.

    “I have gone for Omugwo. It is the practice whereby a grandmother goes to care for her grandchildren. Don’t forget that I am a grandmother. However, things have been simplified now. You find that children these days are so independent that even if you are with them, they may not allow you to do much.

    “But the truth is that tight schedule must not stop you from doing what is expected of you. If you look at it, you must find time to do what is important to you.”

    Asked what her question would be if she were to meet President Muhhamadu Buhari, she said: “I would say good to meet you again Mr. President. I met him during the PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund) days when I was introduced to him as the president of the pharmaceutical group. The first thing he asked my predecessor who did the introduction was ‘Why did you allow a lady to beat you?’

    “But I will congratulate him for having many women in his cabinet. I will also tell him that his wife, Her Excellency, Aisha Buhari, is a wonderful PR for him. And finally, I will say to him, economy and manufacturing can be fixed and that we must join hands and do the work, no matter how daunting it looks.”

    Born in Kano to the family of Chief Felix Ebelechukwu and Princess Margaret Modebelu of Nnewi, Anambra State, young Stella attended the All Saint Primary School, Onitsha between 1954 and 1959. She proceeded to Ogidi Girls Secondary School, from where she went to the Federal Science School, Lagos.

    Dr. Stella Okoli, OON is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, an indigenous group she founded 33 years ago, which has remarkably grown to have footprints in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

    Her romance with pharmacy took a strong foothold when she later proceeded to the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy. She followed up with an MSc in Biopharmaceutics from the University of London, Chelsea College in 1971.

    Her love for pharmacy got even stronger when she began work in Middlesex Hospital as a Ward/ Clinical Pharmacist. She followed this with a brief stint as a pharmacist at Boots Chemist London.

    But the pull for the young Okoli to return home to practise what she had learnt was too much to resist. On her return home to Nigeria, she worked at popular Massey Children Hospital in Lagos before she eventually moved on to join a pharmaceutical manufacturing company as a sales manager.

    At that time, her entrepreneurial skill began to manifest. In 1981, she delved into drug importation and began the sale of ethical and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. This, she said “was intended to meet the health needs of Nigerians on quality drugs.”

    In 1984, three years after she started her drug importation business, she incorporated Emzor Pharmaceutical.

  • Chibok Girls: Time to break the rule

    The latest video released by Boko Haram showing a section of the missing Chibok girls should serve as incentive for deeper introspection. At the official level, perhaps the moment has come to rethink a counter strategy that increasingly looks impotent, if not suspect; even as public communication is weaned of words that now sound more like broken record.

    In the eleven-minute-long recording, the Abubakar Shekau-led faction unambiguously restated its old demand that its members held across the country be released as pre-condition for the release of the over 200 remaining Chibok girls. As usual, a masked guy (Shekau?) in military fatigue is shown blustering beside the girls who look expressionless in hijab against an eerie black backdrop.

    No prize for guessing the possible motives behind Shekau’s latest stunt. Like any movement not inspired by an enduring or lofty value, the accursed Boko Haram (BH) is obviously already choking on its grotesque contradictions. With ISIS seeking to disrobe him by naming Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new leader, it is evident the bloodthirsty fugitive is desperate for a pitch to demonstrate his nuisance value to the Nigerian authorities.

    True, hostage-taking in Nigeria did not start in April 2014 with the Chibok girls. But with the twists and turns witnessed in the past 28 months, this should be the most dramatized in human history. It is like a slow-motion horror movie. The spectacle of aggrieved mothers fellowshipping periodically, holding vigil, at a hearing distance from Aso Rock gates in Abuja has become a constant source of national embarrassment.

    Well, we are free to elect to live blissfully in denial by conveniently making generous allowance for Shekau’s blustering in the latest video and the possible exaggerations – like claims that Nigeria’s airstrike had killed many of the girls. But the next footage in the flick should be enough to sting us back to cold reality: the face and voice of one of the captives, Dorcas Yakubu.

    Speaking both Hausa and her native Kibaku in a voice that strikingly sounds accustomed to the tragic fate she and others find themselves, the teenager urged parents to “be patient and beg the government to release their people, so that we’ll also be released.”

    Caught between joy at a proof their daughter is still alive and sorrow at the thought of the unthinkable she must have endured in the past 28 months, Dorcas’ parents, Mr. & Mrs. Kabu Yakubu, could only afford to make a loud sigh in Abuja after watching the new video. Their testimony: “We cried when we saw our daughter but we’ll sleep better now.”

    They spoke from the very depth of anguish every true parent will feel.

    For others who could not see or hear their loved ones, the nightmare obviously continues.

    Today, what however remains unknown is if, beyond the mouthing of platitudes and shedding of crocodile tears, anyone in Abuja truly feels the kind of soul-wrenching pain parents of the Chibok girls have endured in the past 28 months to want to literally move mountains to free the captives.

    The dumbest apology to give today is to say Buhari is ready to negotiate with BH but is handicapped over which faction to talk to. Unless the government wants us to believe its intelligence-gathering capacities and capabilities are dead and so now fit only for the cemetery.

    Legion stories are told of how western nations like Britain had passed credible intelligence to the Jonathan administration on the precise location of the Chibok girls earlier in the day but, as usual, it refused to lift a finger until it became too late. In fact, one account states that the girls were initially camped on the other side of the river for several days in April 2014 without any intervention by the authorities until they were presumably herded deep into the dreaded Sambisa forest.

    But lamenting missed opportunities is no longer defensible today. What we want now is result by any means necessary, realizing that each passing day means a continuation of their abuse in captivity.

    Elsewhere in the west, the mere echo of Mr. & Mrs. Yakubu’s words, to say nothing of the sheer spectacle of their presence, would be enough to drive leaders into extra-ordinary exertions with a view to liberating citizens so held in bondage, anywhere. In the circumstance, such leaders begin to pick and choose sections of the Geneva Convention to obey.

    Officially, the tendency is for western nations to openly pontificate that ransom-payment in turn fuels terrorism. That cash paid is soon invested by the receivers to buy new weapons and finance training. But unofficially, countries like Italy, Germany, France and Spain are known to have paid ransoms through private companies to free their nationals from terrorists, convinced that the end ultimately justifies the means.

    UK, for instance, is known to turn a blind eye if relations or companies slipped cash to have their loved ones freed. That was how Judith Tebbuth’s release was secured in 2012. In 2014, the same tactic was employed to secure the release of teacher David Bolam from the clutches of ISIL in Libya.

    Same year in the US, the Obama administration swapped five Al-Qaeda suspects held at the Guantanamo detention facility for one American soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, after five years in captivity, whipping the sentiment of an ironclad commitment “to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield”. Washington engaged the government of Qatar as the go-between in the indirect negotiations.

    Decades earlier, the Reagan administration did something far more unorthodox to free seven US hostages held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. Despite subsisting arms embargo against Tehran, Washington opted to sell arms secretly to Iran during its war with Iraq in a complicated covert deal that soon birthed the Iran-Contra scandal. Once the illicit cargoes began to berth in Tehran, three of the US hostages in Beirut were let off, though three more were taken in what a Washington top official later described cynically as “hostage bazaar”.

    More filth surfaced in 1986 after a Lebanese newspaper blew the whistle on the secret deal. Not only was Reagan exposed, it was also discovered that only $12m out of the expected $30m had reached government coffers. It soon came to light that the balance had been diverted to fund the contra rebels being propped by Washington to combat the communist government in Nicaragua since the US congress had outlawed such direct monetary aid through formal channel.

    To be fair, President Buhari only inherited the Chibok girls issue. Still, the government deserves credit for rallying a relentless campaign against BH in the past fifteen months so much that relative peace has now returned to the hitherto beleaguered North-East, even as it is left to face a huge refugee crisis. But to suggest that the war is now totally over as the military high command is wont to claim lately with the over 200 Chibog girls still unaccounted for is to miss the human angle to the historic tragedy.

    One lesson the Buhari people appear not to have learnt from the Jonathan mishap is rehashing the same rhetoric each time the Chibok girls question is raised. The other day the Information Minister reassured that the government was still on top of the situation. Well, Lai Mohammed just said what is expected of him. Really, no one can say the president has forgotten the Chibok girls. After all, he gave a plum appointment to one of the conveners of the BringBackOurGirls Group. And since Ms. Hadiza Usman assumed duties as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, at least one of the eloquent BBOG voices has since become muted. Even if she is not too engrossed sorting cargoes at the Lagos ports to forget or have time to attend the BBOG fellowships in Abuja, her presence there today will certainly be incongruous.

    Really, what the aggrieved parents desire and indeed deserve is not just tons of nice words from Mohammed. If truly the government is quietly moving mountains to get the girls released, it ought to device an effective channel the information is shared with the traumatized. Had this been the case, it is doubtful if Oby Ezekwesili and other committed activists will continue to speak so bitterly each time they congregate at the Unity Square in Abuja.  But for the uncommon patriotic zeal of these volunteers, perhaps the memory of the abducted would have long faded, if not totally extinguished, by now.

    Again, whoever counseled the Army authorities to publicly declare wanted last Sunday three individuals known to have links with Boko Haram did the nation a disservice. If the measure was intended to project the authorities as being proactive, it has surely backfired. For no sooner had the announcement been made than the duo of Mrs. Aisha Wakil (aka Mama Boko Haram) reported at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja and lawyer Ahmed Bolori turned himself in at the Army Headquarters in Maiduguri. Journalist Ahmad Salkida expressed willingness to travel down from his Dubai base once he receives ticket fare.

    Mama Boko Haram, for instance, soon expressed disgust that the Army could go ahead and declare her wanted like a fugitive when, according to her, they knew her address and how to reach her.

    The Army spokesman later explained that the trio were invited out of a belief that they knew more than they were willing to share vis-a-vis the location of the abducted. A claim the accused did not deny. From the utterances of Mrs. Wakil and Bolori after meeting with the military authorities, it would appear they are more than willing to be engaged in the search to rescue the missing girls. The trio is not alone. A serving senator, Shehu Sani, is also known to have links with the BH leaders. Rather than alienate or demonize them, such individuals ought to be co-opted into the search for the missing girls as a matter of national urgency.

    In the unlikely event that all the remaining captives are being assembled in one location, given the young lives involved, let it however be stressed that no one is advocating a re-enactment of the daring Entebbe raid of 1976 when Israeli commandos stormed Uganda’s International Airport in Kampala to free 100 of their nationals being held hostage by pro-Palestinian gunmen. After a 35-minute fire-fight, the toll exacted was not only heavy in human but also in material terms: three hostages lay dead beside seven hijackers, twenty Ugandan troops and the leader of the invading unit, Lt. Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu (brother of future Israeli Prime Minister). Completely wrecked also were eleven Russian-built MiG fighters of the Ugandan Air Force.

    Nor can anyone afford a repeat of the Moscow solution applied in Russia in October 2002 following the hijack of a theatre by some 50 Chechen rebels. A record 700 theatre-goers were taken hostage. After a 57-hour-standoff at the Palace of Culture, the Russian special forces who had surrounded the hall were at their wits’ end. In what became one if the worst rescue operations in history, they resorted to the quick fix by simply lobbing a pipe into the hall through which a lethal narco gas was discreetly sprayed. By the time the fume settled, no fewer than 120 hostages and most of the militants had been wasted.  The official defense was that gassing was the most prudent option in the circumstance to disarm the militants before they had time to detonate their explosives.

    In the two foregoing scenarios, the casualty toll was quite heavy. While no one will at this point prescribe a similar raid on the location where the Chibok girls might be kept, several other options remain open to Abuja with a view to quickly bringing a closure to what has clearly become one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history. Swapping, as already mooted by the affected, is not a bad idea.

    In case President Buhari is still unaware, the hour has finally come to bring back our girls.

  • Boom time for children fruit juice

    Boom time for children fruit juice

    The array of fruit juices for children on the shelf may throw their parents into confusion. To make a choice under this condition, it is advisable to consider products’aesthetics, among other factors, writes TONIA ‘DIYAN.

    The business landscape in Nigeria is undoubtedly attractive to investors because of the population size. Consequently, consumers may be confused in making their choice from the array of brands they find in the market. Nowhere is this dilemma more evident than in the foods and beverages’ category of the fast moving consumer goods sector.

    The consumer goods sector, comprising the food and drink category, non-food products and the retail category, compete for leadership through various offerings, particularly those brands targeted at children. For example, foods, such as Indomie noodles, already prepared custard in sachets from the stable of Chi, producers of Hollandia yoghurt, among others, lead the pack in the rat race to capture the hearts of children and their parents. Also, drinks such as Bobo, Viju Milk, Ribena, Happy Hour, Lucozade Boost, Capri-Sonne and Nigerian Breweries’ Maltina have all joined the fray.

    However, some of these brand owners face the challenge of ensuring that their products are accepted by their target market. According to Jack Trout and Al Ries in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, marketing is not truly a battle of products, but a battle of perceptions and this implies that even if a product is of the highest attainable quality, brand owners must still work on the perception from consumers.

    Today, genetically modified or synthetic consumer goods are being widely promoted despite the protests against their use. This should give natural products an edge in the minds of consumers, who want the best.

    A fruit juice drink retailer at Alade market in Ikeja, Lagos, Mr Ikechukwu Ukomadu, said the demand for children fruit juice drink, which he sells, is unparalleled.

    Ukomadu stocks some drinks more than others, because they are preferred drinks for children worldwide and they control more than 80 per cent of the fruit drink market for children in the country. According to him, some contain 100 per cent natural ingredients and it is estimated that five billion pouches are sold every year in approximately 100 countries. A particular one, he said, is made with the best juice of sun ripened fruits available and contains no artificial flavours and colours or preservatives.

    “The silver pouch used to pack some of these fruit drinks have made some more popular than others, particularly among parents and children, as their designs make them easily portable. Most pouches are sturdy, hermetically sealed and tamper proof. They can withstand many tumbles and pass the hardness test in a freezer without bursting. This means that they can also be enjoyed as a tasty ice treat,” he said.

    The Nation Shopping spoke with some primary school pupils, who shared their experiences from their favourite fruit juice drink.  Majority said their choices are determined by consistent promotional offer a particular brand gives, some others said the taste of the drink is their attraction to a particular drink while others said the tamper proof nature of some of these drinks have kept them stuck with a particular brand as they won’t have to wipe their launch packs each time they keep the drink in them.

    A pupil of Caleb International Nursery and Primary School in Lagos, Nonye Akumeh said Capri-Sonne fruit juice brand has been consistent in giving promotional offers to children, likewise Bobo, which is why they have become her choice fruit juice drinks. “One of Capri-Sonne’s offers from which I benefited is the ‘Capri-Sonne School Surprise Offer.’ It provides rewards for kids, who patronise the brand. Rewards like taking children abroad on excursions or on a shopping spree to have fun. Bobo would insert exercise books and stationeries into their packs before selling them out,” she said.

    She added that most offers come with several other exciting gifts such as wrist watches, flash lights, pouches, colour pencil cases and many more that will be useful for kids at school. “There was an extra bonanza option, where children would submit Capri-Sonne flaps or Bobo caps and stand the chance of getting free Jumbo Crayons and Water Colour Boxes and sometimes trips to Disney land,” she said.

    For Chinelo Agwu, another pupil of the school, the taste of Ribena is incomparable and nourishing. ”I am really not particular about freebies, if I want some of those treats, my parents would buy them or make them available. I just love the taste of Ribena and the fact that it nourishes my body. And that is why everywhere I go, I opt for it rather than any other drink. I would rather not take any fruit juice if I don’t find Ribena,” she said.

    In today’s world, healthy living is uppermost in the minds of the people and mothers, in particular, tend to be extra careful with what they give to their children. It is obvious that many people, including children, do not drink enough. They tend to eat too much, but not drink enough! This is why parents use simple tricks such as buying fruit drinks to encourage their children to drink more.

    But in the long run, the children are only going to drink more if they like and enjoy the taste of the beverage. When children turn fussy about eating, parents turn to buying healthy and nourishing products that suit the children’s taste buds and in almost all cases, the children take the drink with a smile. This is where some universally recognisable drinks, that are perhaps most well known for their stand-up pouch packaging, beat other beverages on offer.

    Mrs Allero Ike, a housewife, who wants the best for her children, said her children’s school bags are not complete without their daily intake of their favourite fruit juice. “My children know what they want. If they want the best, they know what it is and I cannot give them what is close to the best. Nobody can fool them, they always ask for their favourite drink,” she said.

    The excitement of Gbemi, Mrs. Oladele’s four-year-old daughter, sighting her mother picking her favourite drink from the shelf in a supermarket last weekend, was a sight to behold. She confessed that the little girl will give her no rest if she failed to include the fruit drink in her purchases. “She loves the drink and I enjoy buying it for her because of its natural taste and as a supplement for her healthy development,” she said.

    Understandably, competition for patronage by operators in the sector is fierce. But in an increasingly health conscious world, consumers will only choose to buy the best. The brands that will ultimately survive the contest for consumer loyalty will be the ones with quality products manufactured locally, using world-class technology.

    Nevertheless, there are significant differences in their offerings, which define the competition and their respective performance in the marketplace. Many of the brands mentioned are a mixture of synthetic materials and natural ingredients.

    Nutritionists say some beverage drinks contain 100 per cent fruit ingredients that add to vitality and healthy growth of the child. This quality has naturally endeared such brands to discerning mothers.