₦airaland Forum

A coalition for good governance has advocated that the 9th National Assembly must avoid the needless executive-legislative rancor that plagued the out-going dispensation, saying that the nation had experienced setback in terms of project implementation.

Making a case for the candidature of Senator Ali Ndume as the Senate Presidency of the 9th National Assembly, the coalition, under the auspices of National Coalition In Defense of Democracy, insisted that his matured sense of reasoning and his antecedents will ensure the right environment for delivery of dividends democracy promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Addressing journalists in Abuja, yesterday, the coalition’s National Coordinator, Amb. Auwal Alhassan Gama charged the leadership of the APC to create a level playing field for all those qualified to contest so as to give all a sense of belonging in the determination of the Senate leadership.

Gama said: “The forum observed among other things that one of the reasons why the present government under the able leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR did not meet up the expectations of many Nigerians in the areas of Infrastructure and Human development was a result of the sour relationship between the Executive and the Legislative arms of Government. This has created setbacks in the areas of non-full implementation of the budget and alteration on key intended project by the government.

“The decision to call for Support for Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume’s emergence as the next Senate President is born out of our desire for a healthy working relationship between the Executives and the Legislature for a better delivery of democratic dividends. It is our believe that he will bring his matured sense of reasoning, experience and fear of God into play as the Chairman of the National Assembly, he is one politician we know and trust will unite all interest in the National Assembly.

“While we salute the courage and goodwill of the presidency in allowing the independent of all arms of government to run its activities independently. It is equally important for all stakeholders including the APC National Working Committee to provide a level playing ground for all its members at the North Eastern part of the country who deemed it fit to contest.”

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/09/9th-nass-ndumell-guarantee-executive-legislative-harmony/

Rapper Cardi B is out here gushing over her daughter Kulture, while also bringing to everyone’s notice the striking resemblance between Kulture and her sister Hennessy.

Sharing a photo of Hennessy as a baby and that of Kulture, Cardi wrote:

Bro this is weird i gave birth to another Hennessy @hennessycarolina

We see it too though.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/08/rapper-cardi-b-gushes-over-her-daughter-kulture/

The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday alleged that some leaders of the All Progressives Congress and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), were working to cause a constitutional crisis in Rivers State.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja.

He claimed that the leader of the APC in the state, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Minister of Transportation, had embarked on fresh moves to subvert the will of the people.

He added that the PDP had been informed of how the APC stalwarts and their agents had allegedly been mounting pressure on the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed, to reverse the February 12, 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court.

The apex court had in the judgement upheld the verdict of the trial court that excluded the APC from participating in the National Assembly, governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the state, having nullified the party’s primary elections.

Ologbondiyan said, “Nigerians can recall that in nullifying the APC primaries and barring it from fielding any candidates in Rivers State for the 2019 general elections, the High Court held, and rightly too, that APCs’ primaries in the state were invalid.

“Acting upon the final judgment of the Supreme Court, the Independent National Electoral Commission, on February 23, 2019 held the presidential/National Assembly elections and on March 9, 2019 conducted the governorship and state House of Assembly elections in Rivers State, in which the APC, having been lawfully excluded, did not participate.

“Nigerians can also recall how the APC, having been frustrated by its lawful exclusion, used compromised security agents to violently disrupt the smooth conduct of elections in Rivers State.”

Ologbondiyan stated that in the course of the elections, the APC adopted the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress, bankrolled his election and allegedly made compromised security agents and thugs available to him, with the view to using them to rig elections.

He added, “However, not done with the desperation to cause confusion and crisis in Rivers State, the leader of the APC in the state, Rotimi Amaechi, has engaged in fresh conspiracies to subvert the will of the people as expressed at the polls.

“The PDP has information of how Amaechi has been going round in Rivers State, giving assurances that he has the ears of the Supreme Court under the leadership of acting CJN, Justice Tanko Mohammed, and that the apex court will reverse its final judgment on the APC primaries and make way for fresh elections in which the APC will be allowed to participate.

“Amaechi goes about boasting that the apex court in the land, the Supreme Court, will reverse itself and ask for fresh elections in Rivers State.”

He said if this was allowed to occur, it would amount to travesty of justice, apart from being a direct abuse of court process.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/08/pdp-accuses-amaechi-others-of-plotting-constitutional-crisis-in-rivers/

Ace comedian Ali Baba has taken to social media to ask why the trail of notorious kidnapper Eans keep stalling.

Recall Evans was arrested in June 2017 and has been on trial since his arrest.

Sharing his thoughts about this, the comedian wrote on IG;

‘Evans is still on triallllllllllllll.

See why justice in Nigeria leaves a lot to be desired. The New Zealand shooter… had his day in court, no waste of time. The Boston Marathon bomber too did not even have time to plan an escape. The Nigerian diaper bomber… didn’t have time to take a leak and all of the other cases did not take 1 year. But in Nigeria, a case will go on for 20 years.

The lawyers who are on the case will get frustrated; move to another law firm; retire:; or die; get appointed into government; set up their own chambers; the judge will be transferred or promoted or retired or died… for one reason or the other, shaaaaaa justice will be delayed. That’s how cases have been killed. Young promising lawyers have been frustrated out of the legal world. Beautiful lawyers that would have made SAN in record time. Naaaaaa. We don’t do that.

The SANs will come to court, take a date and in collusion with justices who are their friends continue to take adjournment after adjournment. Oh he is appearing in a higher court. An election tribunal case came up and it’s a time-bound case. He is out for medical checkup. A case is clashing with this one. Me lord give me time to go through the prosecution witnesses statements… 5 years later, case is still on. Judge will not sit.

People threatening witnesses. Witnesses disappearing without a trace. Court is on strike. Case has not begun, but it will first reach Supreme Court. Just to interpret jurisdiction will take 2 years. Then after that it will come back to the magistrate court. And move up again, thanks to appeals till Supreme Court again.

We have no shame. People who walk free in Nigeria get sentenced in working judicial systems. People were jailed in the Halliburton case. Yet those who the culprits paid here, are saints.
And we have the guts to query Dubai judicial system. You are caught, you go to court and you are cut. No diplomatic courtesy.’

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/06/what-is-taking-so-long-ali-baba-complains-about-the-delay-in-sentencing-evans/

In this report, MUYIWA OYINLOLA writes that in the face of growing anti-party activities among political gladiators, there is the need for party supremacy

There seems to be no difference in the roles recently played by former Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; the incumbent state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and his Imo counterpart, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

Analysts observed that they all worked for, and against their various political parties in the just-concluded 2019 general elections.

While Daniel was Campaign Director General for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, in the election currently been contested in court, he supported the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, for the office.

The latter is now the governor-elect in the state.

Daniel’s successor in office, Amosun, was the candidate of the APC for Ogun Central Senatorial district, but sponsored his godson, Adekunle Akinlade, for the governorship position on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). While Amosun is now senator-elect, luck did not smile on his godson.

The same scenario played out in Imo, where the state governor and embattled former chairman of APC Governors Forum, Okorocha, is fighting the battle of his political life.

He is currently on suspension by his party for attempting to foist his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, on the people of his state, as his successor.

Both Amosun and Okorocha who contested for senatorial election on the APC platform in the February 23 polls, had a rough battle with the party hierarchy when their governorship candidates lost the APC primaries. Okorocha then decided to move Nwosu and their supporters to the waiting Action Alliance (AA).

Both Okorocha and Nwosu lost their bid to secure victory at the polls.

It is not out of place to say that the intra-party crisis in the Imo APC was what gave the governorship victory to Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP.

Whereas Okorocha claimed he won his senatorial bid, the returning officer has maintained that he declared the outgoing governor winner, under duress. Nwosu may have met his political waterloo, even though he has always been a paper tiger who relies on Okorocha to ride to Government House.

It is also instructive to note that all these dramatic personas worked and delivered for their presidential candidates. Daniel worked for Atiku while Amosun and Okorocha remained with President Muhammad Buhari during the presidential poll.

What is worrisome is that while Amosun and Okorocha have continued with their politics, Daniel has announced his retirement from politics, perhaps having secured victory at home.

Recall that Daniel went under and nothing much was heard of him after his exit from office in 2007.

He left office unceremoniously. The same fate may be awaiting Amosun and Okorocha.

Amosun was not the choice of Daniel. In fact, they were not in the same party. Daniel left the PDP when his choice, Gboyega Isiaka, was not given the PDP ticket. They moved to People’s Party of Nigeria (PPN) and lost to Amosun. It was a difficult time for Daniel who later returned to the PDP and got the recent appointment.

But Daniel has said that while he’s quitting politics, he remains with Atiku in his struggle for mandate.

There are however, speculations that his resignation letter from the party dated March 14 and addressed to the PDP Chairman, Uche Secondus, may be a licence for him to join the APC.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the politician at a recent meeting with some of his loyalists at his Asoludero residence in Sagamu, Ogun State threw up the speculation about his possible defection to the APC.

But in a terse statement which went viral on the social media, Daniel said: “I have not, will not and will never abandon Atiku. Atiku is different from PDP. I have resigned from PDP and lost interest in partisan politics having put in about 20 years of my life in a thankless process.

“I will commit my God-given resources to help the less privileged through my foundation and will contribute to the body of knowledge through our not for profit Political Academy. That will be a thankful process.

“I will continue to support the political process in a non-partisan manner. I am clear with my position, without any ambiguity. There is no need to insinuate, speculate, extrapolate, anticipate or draw conclusions on my behalf. I did not expect such a simple personal decision can generate such national discourse and for that I remain grateful to God.”

But only time will tell whether or not Daniel is on his way to the APC, especially now that his kinsman, Abiodun, is on his way to the Government House.

It is, however, worrisome that politicians will openly have their hands in two different parties at the same time.

The Electoral Law should be strengthened to stop this. There is also the need for party supremacy and discipline. The APC appears to have taken the lead in this regard with the sanction imposed on Okorocha.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/06/of-anti-party-activity-and-need-for-party-supremacy/

Nollywood actress and Vogue cover girl Adesua Etomi, has taken to Twitter to share the hell out of some people.

The actress tweeted her displeasure at the new way insults are now been issued online saying many now insult people based on how many followers they have.

In her words;

Welcome to this generation, where people can now abuse you based on the number of followers you have. E.g “see her/him…she/he doesn’t even have up to 500k followers.” Like…I mean…but wait…see ehn? Followers! Is that now what validates us?

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/05/people-now-abuse-you-based-off-of-the-number-of-your-following-adesua-etomi/

Leading airline, Air Peace, yesterday placed a record order for 10 brand new Embraer 195-E2 planes, first of such in Africa.The order comprises purchase rights for another 20 E195-E2 jets. The request has 124-seater jet in dual class and 146-seater jet in single class configurations.

The deal, which was unveiled during Embraer Business Meeting with the aviation world in Port Louis, Mauritius, makes the Nigerian firm the first to order the brand of jets on the continent and also the official launch customer of the brand in this part of the globe.With all purchase rights exercised, the contract has a value of N640.5 billion ($2.12 billion) based on current price list.

The carrier also set a regional record in September 2018 when it requested 10 brand new aircraft from Boeing to increase its fleet to about 37. The new order further boosts its planes to 67.Shortly before the Boeing feat, Air Peace set a domestic feat as the first Nigerian airline to acquire and register the Boeing 777 aircraft in the country. Three of the four wide-body aircraft it acquired for its long-haul operations to Dubai, Sharjah, Johannesburg, London, Houston, Guangzhou and Mumbai have so far been delivered.

Speaking on the latest development, the airline’s Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Allen Onyema, stated that Embraer’s new E195-E2 presents “a marvel of economic performance.” He added: “It is also great that we will be the first E2 operator on the African continent. We already have the ERJ145s in our fleet, so we understand the high standards of Embraer products.”

The E195-E2 aircraft, the chief executive observed, would strengthen Air Peace’s drive to deploy the right kinds of planes to under-served and unserved domestic and regional routes under its no-city-left-behind project. `

Onyema thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for creating an enabling environment for the growth of the aviation sector through duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) waivers for commercial aircraft, engines and spares. Also, the Vice President, Sales Africa, Embraer Commercial Aviation, Raul Villaron, noted that the Nigerian carrier embodied the kind of pioneering spirit his company loves.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/04/air-peace-orders-30-embraer-jets-worth-n641-billion/

The victory of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Mr. Seyi Makinde at the last governorship polls in Oyo State is being contested by the All Progressive Congress (APC).

In a petition filed before the Oyo State Election Petitions Tribunal by the APC governorship candidate Mr. Adebayo Adelabu alongside the party chairman in the state, Chief Akin Oke, the opposition party is praying the tribunal to overturn Makinde’s victory.

Moments after filing the petition, Mr. Oke said; “I want to repeat what I said concerning the outcome of the last governorship election. First, I want to greet all the people who genuinely voted for us. But where there is a genuine case of fraud, of course why not go to court?

“Do you want us to continue to support fraud? I repeat we will go to court once there are enough grounds to do so.”

After the governorship elections, INEC declared Makonde winner of the governorship election by the state Returning Officer, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, on March 10, having polled 515,621 votes to defeat Adelabu, who scored 357,982 votes.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/03/oyo-guber-apcs-adelabu-approaches-tribunal-to-contest-victory-of-pdps-makinde/

Long-reigning President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria has resigned from office, the state news agency said on Tuesday.

The sudden resignation came in the wake of the demand by the country’s powerful army chief of staff that he be declared unfit and leave office “immediately”.

“We believe there is no more time to waste” on starting a constitutional process to declare Bouteflika unfit for office, said a statement released by Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah.

“Our decision is clear and irrevocable. We will support the people until their demands are fully and completely satisfied,” the statement added.

Bouteflika had promised to resign before 28 April when his term expires. But the impatient military demanded the immediate launch of impeachment proceedings against him.

“Any decision taken outside the constitutional framework is considered null and void,” the general said.

Without naming anyone, Gaid Salah criticised “the stubbornness, the procrastination and the deviousness of certain individuals who are trying to make the crisis last and make it more complex with the only concern being their narrow personal interests”.

He said the army’s “sole ambition” was to “protect the people from a handful of (other) people who have unduly taken over the wealth of the Algerian people”.

Bouteflika has come under mounting pressure to step down since his decision to seek a fifth term despite rarely being seen in public after suffering a stroke in 2013.

The 82-year-old, who uses a wheelchair, said last month he would pull out of the race and postponed April elections, in moves that angered protesters who saw it as a ploy to extend his two decades in power.

Gaid Salah, a long-time Bouteflika ally, last week called on the president to resign or be declared unfit to rule, becoming one of the first of his faithful supporters to abandon him. (NAN)

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/02/breaking-algerian-army-forces-out-president-bouteflika/

The Ogoni people of Rivers State under the aegis of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have demanded the creation of Bori State as one of the conditions to be met by the Nigerian Government before oil activities, suspended in Ogoniland over a decade ago following heightened agitation, can resume.

The conditions were outlined in a communique of the Ogoni National Congress held last Saturday, March 30, 2019, at the MOSOP secretariat, Peace and Freedom Center, Bori.

“Congress expressed dismay attempts by the Federal Governments to force oil production in Ogoniland without the consent of the Ogoni people. Congress resolved that oil production in Ogoni will only commence when it is properly negotiated,” the communique, a copy of which was made available to News Express, said.

“Congress,” according to the communiqué signed by MOSOP President Fegalo Nsuke and General Secretary, Deacon Monday Neeka Ziinu, “demanded the creation of a Bori State as a primary demand for the negotiation of oil resumption in Ogoniland.”

It also “noted the disturbing and alarming rate of insecurity in Ogoniland and called on all parties to sheath their swords and allow the intervention of MOSOP to resolve all disputes within and between Ogoni communities.”

Continuing, the communiqué said: “Congress condemned the poor implementation of the Ogoni cleanup exercise and demanded the immediate commencement of the recommended emergency measures. Congress demanded immediate action for the provision of water, the conduct of comprehensive health audit on Ogoni people, the establishment of an Integrated Soil Management Center and the Center of Excellence.

“Congress passed a Vote of Confidence on the leadership of MOSOP headed by Mr. Fegalo Nsuke and called on the general public to disregard and treat all other claimants to the MOSOP presidency as impostors.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/02/ogonis-demand-creation-of-bori-state-as-condition-to-resume-oil-activities-in-ogoniland/

A Senior Secondary Student and the Head Prefect of Ijo Mimo High School in Akure, Ondo State, Temitayo Oluwole, died at the weekend after falling from a mango tree within the school compound.

Oluwole was reported to have attended a tutorial class organised by the school for Senior Students on Saturday when the ugly incident happened.

According to a source, one of the teachers in the school sent Oluwole to pluck mangoes for him after the lesson but the young student fell from the tree in the process.

He disclosed that Oluwole was the fourth student that would die mysteriously from climbing the only mango tree within the school premises whenever they were sent to pluck mangoes by their teachers.

He explained that the school’s senior prefect who was billed to write his final examination in April slipped from the tree while trying to pluck the mangoes and hit his head on the floor and fainted immediately.

He said efforts were made to rush him to the hospital by the teachers and school authorities but said the boy gave up at the hospital.

The source said “we all came for a tutorial on Saturday, after the tutorial one of our teachers asked him to pluck mango, it was while he was on the tree trying to pluck the mango that he fell and died immediately.

“This is the fourth student to die from falling from this particular tree in this school, and our teachers would not hesitate to send us to pluck mango for them, despite the danger attached to the tree because the tree is evil. But we can’t disobey them whenever they send us to climb the tree to pluck mango.”

A family source who also confirmed the incident said the teachers and the School’s Principal have taken to their heels after the incident saying “none of the teachers or the principal could be reached as they have all gone into hiding, switching off their phones.”

The father of the deceased, Pastor Bode Adegoke, also confirmed the death of his son, explaining that the young boy went for a tutorial in the school on Saturday.

He said one of his teachers asked him to pluck mangoes for him around 1:30 pm after the lesson but he slipped and hit his head on the floor.

He explained that he was rushed to a private hospital where they were referred to State General Hospital but the boy was referred to the Trauma Center in Ondo, where he gave up around 6:25 pm

He commended the State Commissioner for Education, Pastor Femi Agagu, for the prompt intervention to save the life of the boy but said: “it was unfortunate we lost him.”

Agagu was reported to have been visiting the relatives of the boy in the town since the accident happened

However, Agagu said the investigation has commenced to ascertain what led to the death of the Senior Prefect of the school.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/04/01/school-prefect-dies-after-falling-from-mango-tree/

Award-winning singer, Simi has apologised for suggesting that having tribal marks amounts to being stupid in the lyrics of the trending #FvckYouChallenge.

Her apology comes after she was heavily criticized by model, Adetutu OJ who felt offended and turned off by the continuous use of the words “Do I look stupid?”.

Taking to her social media page to clear the air, Simi wrote;

Guys I had to bring down my post cos I used the line “abi o ro bi mo kola ni” (Do you think I have tribal marks?) – which people mean to say “Am I stupid”.

It’s an old Yoruba ‘joke’, but I never acknowledged how insensitive it is. It offended some and I shouldn’t have used it. Lots of unlearning to do. We should remember to be sensitive and emphatic to others,

Also I know the video is all over the place already, but it’s a step in the right direction and I apologize to anyone that was/is offended by it. I only ever mean well

Also, if you think this is extra, it’s part of the problem. Always letting BS go is how we build the wrong cultures that become hard to shake off.

She further wrote in another Tweet;

I don’t want this to trend for the wrong reasons please. Let’s not only advocate for the things that directly affect us. Lezzz keep it moving. I’ma make many many more lit covers insha Allah. Na the work wey we dey do ☺️�

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/03/31/fvckyouchallenge-simi-apologises-for-offensive-tribal-marks-lyrics/

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, appointed the deputy President of the Senate, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu as Technical Adviser to its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondinya, the party also named the Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Mallam Sule Lamido and Senator Ahmed Makarfi as Technical Advisers too.

The PDP also named Lamido as the chairman of Elder’s Council for the campaign.

Other appointments made on Monday include: Alhaji Kawu Baraje, Technical Adviser to the Director-General of the campaign, Senator Bukola Saraki, while Dr. Doyin Okupe was named the Media Adviser to the Director-General.

Ekweremadu had been rumoured to be secretly working with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.

But, in his series of tweets on his official Twitter handle Monday morning, Ekweremadu described the rumour as “cheap blackmail” and “propaganda”, vowing to ensure the PDP coasts to victory in the entire South-East region of the country.

http://dailypost.ng/2019/01/14/breaking-pdp-appoints-ekweremadu-others-technical-advisers-atiku/amp/

State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, Ndubisi Nwobu, has said that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) offers Nigerians insecurity, poverty and divisiveness.

He stated this at the weekend while responding to questions from newsmen at the party secretariat Awka concerning the party’s level of preparedness in the elections in the state.

Nwobu alleged that under the ruling APC government, Nigeria has been rated the world’s poverty capital, when the nation according to him, should be compared to countries like China, Japan, South Korea, South Africa.

He said due to bad leadership, Nigeria was currently the world’s poverty capital, emphasising that woe betide Nigerians if they vote APC again.

The Anambra State PDP chairman, however, stated that the President should be reminded that Nigeria is greater than only one individual and that any attempt to rig the presidential election would be met with stiff resistance. He said the will of the people of Nigeria will at the at the end show that it is greater than individual aspiration.

Nwobu maintained that Nigerians cannot be cowed again and that come 16th February,, he has no doubt that Nigerians will vote for the betterment of their children and not the retrogression offered by the APC government .

He said, “If Atiku/Obi were inaugurated as president and vice president, we won’t dwell on unimaginable pitfalls of APC government. We will endeavour to reverse the trend and bring Nigeria to a level where our economic potential will be unraveled.”

According to him, the PDP presidential candidate believed in restructuring and already has a roadmap towards actualizing a restructured Nigeria, if elected.

He also recalled that the party held an inter-denominational church service recently where the party dedicated its candidates to God, stressing that the inter-denominational church service was also to seek God’s intervention for peaceful election as he said that no person’s aspiration was worth the blood of any Nigerian.

The State Chairman of the PDP said that candidates of the party were all in the field, embarking on community tours, adding that one must reach out to the people to canvass for why they should be voted.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/14/apc-offers-insecurity-poverty-anambra-pdp-chair/

Popular Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe has officially addressed the viral reports of her being in a secret relationship with Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.

Reports had it that Ambode was in a relationship with the actress and that he recently got Mercy her Lekki mansion and cars.

The actress, however, addressing the issue during her birthday bash in Canada, denied the report.

According to her, she has neither met nor received anything from Governor Ambode.

“When a person is successful and people don’t know the source, they begin their speculations

“I do not know who started the rumours of me being in a relationship with Ambode, All I have to say is, there is nothing between us, I have not even met him,” Mercy said.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/13/mercy-aigbe-talks-association-ambode/

The Managing Director/CEO of First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Subsidiaries, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, in this interview reveals that with about 12,000 agents across the entire network, the distribution of its automated teller machines across the country, the bank has built a solid foundation upon which it can rapidly grow its business and that the financial institution will continue to be a dominant player in the retail banking segment of the industry. Obinna Chima, Goddy Egene and Nume Ekeghe present the excerpts:

There was a major development in the banking industry some days ago, which saw Access Bank and Diamond Bank signing a business combination agreement. How did you receive the news considering that it is one that is going to shift the balance of power and ranking in the banking industry, and for FirstBank being one of the industry leaders, are you prepared to cope with the emerging competition in the industry?

We have had two waves of consolidation in the market. The first was in 2004-2005 which was orchestrated by Professor Chukuma Soludo. The second wave happened between 2009 under Governor Lamido Sanusi which was what saw to the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank by Access Bank. So, we have seen two big waves and there have been other minor waves. And if you also look at the number of tier 1 banks we have today in Nigeria, that is compare the size FirstBank, GTBank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank and the United Bank for Africa, when you put them on an African landscape, our banks are actually quite small. That is the truth.

In fact, from the last statistics I reviewed, there was no Nigerian bank in the top 10 banks in Africa. When you then realise the fact that Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, but we are not in the top ten banks, that tells you two things: Firstly, that there is a significant opportunity for growth for banks but secondly opportunities for further consolidation. So what is contemplated by the merger agreement between Access Bank and Diamond Bank is not strange. For operators like us who have been watching this strategic landscape, it was not unexpected. For banks and indeed any institution or any business venture, you do have two opportunities or two key options of growth. You can decide to grow organically or you can decide to grow inorganically, which is what Access Bank is doing.

You may now go further to look at the tier 1 banks. There are banks in the tier 1 bucket who have never done any M&A and GTBank and Zenith Bank stand out. FirstBank has done one or two relatively small M&A which in reality you can take out. So it would appear that just looking at the market, that banks like FirstBank, GTBank and Zenith have perfected the act of growing organically. Whereas when you look at Access Bank, the bank was a major beneficiary of 2004/2005 consolidation in the industry. As at that time, they acquired Marina International Bank, Commercial Bank Credit Lyonnais, so they were a very key participant in that wave. In the second wave which happened between 2011, they were also a big beneficiary bank. So what I’m saying is that broadly speaking, there are banks that have perfected the act of growing organically and there are banks that have also perfected the act of growing inorganically. Nothing precludes one, and none is mutually exclusive.

What does it mean for the industry?

I think it is very good. I think for the size of our economy, we actually require bigger banks. Like I said, there is no Nigerian bank in the top 10 banks in Africa whereas Nigeria is the largest economy. So it is kind of counter intuitive and that scenario is wrong. The top four banks in Africa are South African and that speaks to the strength of South African banks. If our economy is bigger than that of South Africa, naturally you would expect that we should have bigger banks and even if not bigger, but to become comparable in terms of size to those banks. I think we are on a journey it is an industry that would continue to see growth from my perspective. Like I said earlier, people can choose a path on how to grow and all they can also choose both.

But with this development, do you foresee FirstBank also adopting an inorganic growth strategy in the medium term, considering the intensive competition we expect to too in the industry?

As an institution, you always have the option of organic versus inorganic growth. Unlike two of the tier 1 banks that have never been involved in any M&A activity, we have a history in M&A. Also, a bigger part of our history is actually growing our businesses on our own. So what that says is that both capabilities are inherent in our DNA and are available to us. What we would do continuously as a management working under the guidance of our board is to re-evaluate our position. And to say what are the growth opportunity for us, either inorganic or organic growth.

What is the update on your African subsidiary, are they now profitable?

I’m happy to announce to you that we have fully recapitalised our subsidiary in Ghana. You would recall that in the course of 2017, the Bank of Ghana announced a significant increase in the minimum pay up capital for all banks operating in Ghana. I’m happy to inform you today that FirstBank Nigeria own 100 percent of FBN Ghana. We have fully recapitalised FBN Ghana and we are now fully compliant with the new minimum capitalisation. What we done with our subsidiary is that we have basically reposition all of them and they have moved from where I would call them net taker of resources, we have broken even and as we journey in 2019 we expect growth and an increasing contribution to the groups profitability.

Last year, you had expectations for your bank, were your economic projections and expectations for the bank met and how will you describe 2019?

You would recall that the Nigerian economy was recently in a recession and we came out of the recession in 2017 and what consistently the key operators have said is that the recovery remains fragile. However, we have recovered and we are recovering. When you look at the growth that has been recorded in the course of 2018 you sit back and say we could have done more but, if the growth was also not well orchestrated the way it has always been orchestrated, we could have also slipped back. So for me, I would give the economy a pass mark.

As we move into 2019, the expectations are that things may be a bit slow on the back of the elections and given the fact that naturally, key players, especially on the fiscal side of the economy, would be focussing on re-elections.

But post that, the projections that I have seen are all quite positive and they all speak to the fact that the expected growth should be higher than what we recorded in the course of 2018.

For FirstBank, we started a massive transformation program in 2017 and 2019 is the end of that strategic cycle. That plan is focused on transforming the entire business with the work stream focusing on the way we serve our customers and around innovation. There are projects around reigniting the passion of our people, there are projects around strengthening our technology platform and there are projects also around save guarding our assets which is essentially risks management. We are quite delighted from the progress we have made over the last two years and we believe that in the course of 2019, we would have accomplished all the critical components 2017-2019 strategic agenda. We are also looking forward to 2019 because with what we are doing; we have basically built a new foundation to enable our bank to run more as digital bank rather than a branch led institution. Today, based on what we are doing, more than 80 per cent of our customer-initiated transactions are actually carried out on alternative channels.

That means 80 per cent of our transactions happen on Firstonline which is done online, Firstmobile which is done with your mobile phones and USSD which is done on both smart and basic phone. That for us is our star product because today we are the clear leader in that segment of the economy. We currently have almost 6.3 million customers processing transactions on our USSD platform. If you look at Firstmobile, we are a very close to number two, with over 2.5 million of our customers processing transactions. We process very close to 25 per cent of the industry volume in terms of transactions. We are quite delighted with what we have achieved so far. We are basically building the foundation and we believe our next cycle would be around significant growth on the back of the fact that we have fixed the foundation and we trust the foundation that we have built that it would enable to grow rapidly and we are going into 2019 with that highly optimistic mode.

You predicted growth for the economy in 2019, with the recent interest rate hike in the US, don’t you think this would affect Nigeria’s growth trajectory next year?

You need to sit back and look at the impact of the US on the global economy. The reality of it is that because of the size of the US economy and also because for all practical intent, a chunk of global trade is denominated in the US dollars. So, whatever happens in the US economy because it has a vibrating impact across the entire world, affects other economies. So when US interest rates go up, it does have an impact on everybody. Don’t forget that whether as a country or as a financial institution, we all are going into the international capital market to borrow money. So when interest rates go up, the implication is that when you want to tap that market again, you have to go at a higher rate. Because the question the investors would always ask is why they would want to take emerging market risks when they can also get a decent return within their own economy.

The simple answer is that it would impact economies that are US-dependent, Nigeria being a key one. But globally, any action or inaction in the US has a significant impact because of the size of the US economy on the global space.

One issue manufacturers and some businesses complained about in 2018 is the tight Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), how did that impact on your operations during the year?

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Rate stance has always been tight. So what I would say is that it was not unexpected. If you look at the major pronouncement of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) throughout the year actually retained for the most part all the key MPC matrices. So it is something we have all been dealing with and would continue to deal with. But you need to also understand the contest which the CBN has adopted those measure and that is also equally very important.

Firstbank is the cashcow of FBN Holdings. What are you doing in terms of risk management as well as to ensure you deliver maximum returns to shareholders?

I alluded to it when I spoke about the projects and all the transformation work we are doing. You are right; FirstBank is a big entity within FBN Holdings and the largest. Part of the work stream I earlier mentioned is one that focuses on safeguarding our assets. We have done a lot of work around our risk management. For example, when we started this journey about three years ago, we recruited a new Chief Risk Officer (CRO), we revamped the credit risk system, we have implemented a new risk management solution and in fact we have also implemented one now that has reached a very advanced stage. And what you see if you have been monitoring the NPL ratio for FBN holdings, of which FirstBank is substantial contributor to that, you would see that it is a dropped materially. We still have some wave but we are quite optimistic that by the time we are wrapping up our current strategic cycle by December 2019, we would be single digit which is quite significant.

What are some of the initiatives taken by the bank to drive financial inclusion, especially in the area agency banking?

Agency banking is one of the most successful initiatives we have introduced over the last 12- 18 months. Indeed, over the last year, we now have close to 12,000 agents across the entire network. Our agents are present in all local government in Nigeria except for one or two local governments. And what means is that when you layer that over 700 operating branches and we also have the largest distribution and network of ATM of about close to 3000. So that makes FirstBank a bank with the largest distribution network as far as financial services is concerned and that is quite significant. With the kind of foundation, we have built; we are confident that we have built a solid foundation upon which we can now rapidly grow our business. And that was speaking to the distribution network and to the revamped risk management system within our institution.

Looking at the retail business space, what is FirstBank going to do differently in 2019, to ensure you remain one of the leaders in that segment of the market?

Remember my response to the issue of agency banking. Agency banking is actually targeted at the unbanked and the people at the base of the pyramid. Our star product; USSD banking I referred to where I currently said we have customers in the excess of 6.2 million is also targeted at people at that level. So a combination of our agency banking and it is still growing. I mentioned that we currently have about 12,000 agents and we do have a growth projection around that but equally important is the fact that our USSD continues to grow. The reason why we have been quite successful with that is that you don’t need to have an expensive phone to be able to transact. Once you have a basic phone and you are able to send an SMS then that automatically becomes a tool to which you can transact. So a combination of growing our agent network and our very solid and rapidly growing USSD banking for us remains the winning formula in ensuring we have more people at the bottom base of the pyramid.

Don’t also forget that we operate from over 700 branches and our mobile banking called Firstmobile is actually the second in the industry today and we would continue to also focus on that and that is focused more on the middle income earner.

Sustainability banking is one the areas the CBN is asking banks to embed, what are you doing in this area?

FirstBank is committed to Global Sustainability as it is an area we have been very active in over the years. For many years, we partnered with Lagos Business School on its Sustainability centre. In addition to this, we are a member of The United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC). Internally as a bank, we have the right policies, the right framework and when we are going into projects that we believe would fall into sustainability; there are certain things that we look out for as part of our transactions or credit review. For example, when we look at a credit, we look at the environmental impact and analysis. We would now often ask questions on how projects would impact on the environment; if it would result in flooding or displacing people and what plans do you have to ensure that the environment is not destroyed or degraded on the back the project you are doing. So it is a critical part of what we watch out for.

There is a perception about FirstBank as not appealing to the younger generation. What are you doing to do to attract a younger generation?

That used to be the case some three to five years ago. I don’t have the statistics readily available now, but I would tell you that even from an internal perspective, more than 75 per cent of our workforce is less than 40 years. So that is a very young workforce. In the course of 2018 alone, and no other bank has done anything near that, FirstBank recruited 700 fresh graduates to join our workforce. Mind you, the maximum entry age is 27 so that gives you an idea of what we have done. And as I am speaking with you; we have advertised that we want to bring in younger people. So we are carrying out massive refreshment of talent and injecting a lot of young people at the base of our institution. If you also look at our customer profile within the retail statistics, I also know that between the age of 18 to 45 that is the age bracket between which the majority of our customers are. It is a perception issue that we have been working on and perception takes a while before you can completely change. So whether you are looking at our staffing or our retail base, we are actually indeed a very youthful bank.

Do you think the budget proposal presented can drive growth?

Yes.

What is your outlook for 2019, and what message do you have for customers of FirstBank?

We are quite optimistic about 2019 despite the fact that there is an expectation of a slowdown in the first half of the year on the back of elections. I did mention that GDP growth expectation based on IMF predictions is actually better than 2018.

For us at FirstBank, 2019 is also a very significant year for us. By March next year, our bank would be 125 years old and that is quite significant. We are by far the oldest financial institution in Nigeria and in the entire West Africa. But we are old in terms of age and if we have a large chunk of our customers that are youths. So we are old in terms of age but very youthful in terms of operations.

You would also notice that in the course of 2018 we launched our financial laboratory which we call First Digital laboratory whose essence is to do research for our new products and innovations. For example, today we are the only bank doing Whatsapp Banking. So this is an institution that is old but in terms innovation, culture it is youthful.

To our teaming customers, FirstBank has always been there, we would continue to be there for them and more importantly, we intend to take our game to the next level in terms of innovation, quality of customer service, in terms of our ability to provide customer with necessary support to grow their business.


http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/13/significant-opportunity-consolidation-banking-sector-firstbank-md-adeduntan/

Declan Rice’s first West Ham goal secured a 1-0 win over Arsenal in a capital city derby clash at the London Stadium.

The victory in Saturday’s early kick-off saw the Hammers move up to eighth in the Premier League table, on 31 points, ahead of the bulk of the weekend’s fixtures.

Irish teenager, Rice gave himself an early present for his 20th birthday on Monday by scoring the only goal of the game three minutes into the second half.

The defeat dented Arsenal’s bid to break into the top four, with the Gunners still adrift of Chelsea — who face strugglers Newcastle at Stamford Bridge later Saturday – in the race for a Champions League place.

West Ham named Marko Arnautovic in their starting line-up despite the Austrian forward’s brother and agent saying Thursday he wanted to move to the Chinese Super League.

Former Arsenal favourite Samir Nasri started against his old club as the midfielder made his Premier League debut for the Hammers.

Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi returned from injury for Arsenal but there was no place in Unai Emery’s squad for Mesut Ozil.

The match was goalless at the interval following near-misses by Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi and Hammers playmaker Felipe Anderson.

That all changed in the 48th minute.

Mustafi’s poor clearing header fell to Anderson, whose ball came to Rice via a neat lay-off from Nasri and Rice’s first-time shot gave Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno little chance.

Arsenal pressed for an equaliser but the Hammers survived three minutes of stoppage time as they held on for victory. (AFP)

• West Ham United’s Irish defender Declan Rice (C) and West Ham United’s Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang (R) embrace as West Ham players celebrate on the pitch after the English Premier League football match between West Ham United and Arsenal at The London Stadium, in east London on January 12, 2019. West Ham won the game 1-0.
Ian KINGTON / AFP

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/12/arsenals-top-four-chase-suffers-setback-unexpected-loss-west-ham/

The Senior Pastor and Founder of House on the Rock, Pastor Paul Adefarasin, has advised his church members to make Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Vice Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, their friend, saying that he, himself is Peter’s friend. Pastor Adefarasin gave the advice during the just-concluded Communion Service at the Rock Cathedral, Lagos.

On the reasons that informed his position, Pastor Adefarasin said that having followed Mr. Obi over the years, he saw in him the embodiment of those virtues House on the Rock continues to preach which those in public service require to uplift the society in accordance to the ethics of Christ. The pastor charged all those aspiring to leadership to be humble in full realisation that serving the people well and faithfully is also a way of serving God.

A member of the church who introduced himself as Gbenga Oloye also said that he had followed Mr. Peter Obi and was in total agreement with what the Pastor said. In his words, “for people like me, the pastor was only preaching to the converted.” He said he was sure that If Obi would remain the Obi of Anambra State in terms of the work he did in the state as Governor and his conduct in public service that Nigeria would become a changed place.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Obi called on Nigerians to remain prayerful for the country and her leaders so that the leaders would realise that using the resources of the state to work for the state is a win-win for everybody.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/12/house-rock-roots-peter-obi/

Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the southeast zone have pledged to work together as a formidable team to deliver President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 elections and change the negative perception in the zone about the party.

They agreed to embark on door-to-door and community-to-community campaigns to showcase the achievements of the president in the southeast zone since 2015, even as they expressed confidence in the ability of the president to continue to transform the country for the good of the people.

In a communiqué released after the well-attended maiden meeting of the South East APC presidential campaign council, held in Enugu, the leaders also passed a vote of confidence in the zone’s Director of Campaign, Sharon Ikeazor and pledged their support to enable her undertake the task of achieving victory for Buhari in the election.

At the meeting were Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who represented Ministers from the zone, former governor Sullivan Chime who represented former governors, Southeast Zonal Chairman of the party, Mr. Emma Enukwu, National Auditor, Chief George Moghalu, APC gubernatorial candidates in the elections: Senator Hope Uzodinma (Imo) Senator Ayogu Eze (Enugu), Chief Uche Ogah (Abia) and Chief Sunny Ugwuoji (Ebonyi).

There were also Senator Ben Uwajumogu, Senator Andy Uba, Senator Julius Ucha, and Senator Margery Chuba-Okadigbo as well as National and State Assemblies candidates, former Ministers Chief Emeka Wogu and Professor Chinwe Obaji.

Also in attendance were State Chairmen from the five South Eastern states, National Working Committee members and political appointees including Mr. Osita Okechukwu, Juliet Ibekaku and Princess Gloria Akobundu among others.

The communiqué signed by Ikeazor said that the leaders resolved to ensure that President Buhari wins overwhelmingly in the South Eastern region.They also pledged to “reconcile, restore and reintegrate into our fold, our disenchanted members” as well as reinforce the need to “forget their differences from the fallout of party primaries and unite to win the presidential election and other elections for the APC.”

The leaders thanked the President for the confidence reposed in Sharon Ikeazor, saying she has a wide reach in the five eastern states and beyond based on her antecedents as a former National Women leader and member of board of Trustees of the party and promised to support her in her assignment.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/12/breaking-southeast-apc-leaders-pledge-deliver-zone-president-buhari/

The United States has raised the alarm that widespread vote-buying could mar Nigeria’s general elections coming up next month.

The US Deputy Ambassador, Jonathan Cohen, who spoke yesterday during a United Nations Security Council meeting on West Africa, urged politicians, civil society groups and community leaders to ensure that the election was free and fair.

Cohen said, “The United States sees a risk that widespread vote-buying could challenge the integrity of the election process.

“We are concerned about reports of intimidation and partisanship by security forces, heightened insecurity and inability of internally displaced persons or persons with disabilities to vote.”

AFP reported that the UN envoy for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said Boko Haram attacks had increased over the past months.

He explained that during the last week of December alone, the Islamist militants staged three attacks on army bases.

Chambas said “tensions are high” in Nigeria ahead of the vote, but that prospects for peaceful elections had brightened with the signing of an accord last month in which parties pledged to support calm and order.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/11/us-identifies-threat-nigerias-2019-elections/

Residents of Damaturu, capital of Yobe, are delighted with recent restoration of 24 hours electricity supply and resolved to vote re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari.

The uninterrupted power supply to the state had been made possible by the completion of 330kVA transmission line.

A cross section of Damaturu residents, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Damaturu, that the improvement in power supply had promoted social and economic activities in the state.

Alhaji Abdullahi Usman, a rice miller, said the improved electricity supply had saved millers from depending on generators and diesel.

“The completion of the 330KVA line by the Buhari administration had been the dream of everyone in Yobe and we are happy this has been completed and put to use.

“Millers, barbers and automobile electricians are enjoying full electricity supply to execute their trades and this has increased the volume of trade daily.

Manu Maigari, a meat seller, said he had no fear over unsold meat again because it could be preserved in the refrigerator without damage.

“Meat and fish vendors comfortably preserve their unsold products for days without fear because of the improved electricity supply which has been steady and of full voltage,” he said.

Maigari said the improved power supply had also improved the lives of traders and residents economically and socially.

“We will vote for President Buhari again and Maimala Buni as governor, for continuity of the APC policies and programmes.

Yagana Mustapha, a provision store owner, said she had to switch off her refrigerator because the contents were always forming blocks.

She said a vote for Buhari and Maimala would be a guarantee to having more projects and dividends of democracy for the people of the state. (NAN)

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/11/24-hours-electricity-supply-excites-damaturu-residents/

Several people were injured on Thursday morning when a train derailed at the Mangoro/ Agege area of Lagos State.

The incident occurred when one of the train coaches reportedly fell off the rail track while in motion, causing another coach to derail.

This caused tension among passengers on the train who struggled to escape through the windows of the affected coaches.

The train was said to be coming from Ijoko area of Ogun State and heading to Ebute Metta in Lagos before the incident happened.

Responding, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) said there was no major casualty from the train that derailed this morning in the Agege area of the state.

According to the General Manager of LASEMA, Adesina Tiamiyu, no life was lost when three coaches from the train derailed.

He, however, explained that several persons were injured and some of those with injuries fled for fear of being arrested for hanging on the coaches.

“I understand the train was coming from the Ijoko axis, heading for Lagos. Unfortunately, the last three coaches at the back derailed throwing people hanging, some of them on the body and roof off balance.

“Well, nobody died, that I can tell you. Casualty figures I cannot give, because we didn’t meet anybody on the ground here. Only that people who were here said there were people perching on the train, some were hanging by the side and they must have been injured,” he stated.

The LASEMA boss explained that the situation was brought under control following the prompt intervention of his officials, assisted by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Nigeria Police.

He added, “The situation of things is that we have brought normalcy here. We have moved people away from the incident scene. LASEMA team are here, Red Cross, Road Safety, and of course the Nigeria Police. Now what we are waiting for is the Nigeria Railway Corporation to bring in their crane to begin to lift up the three fallen coaches off the scene so that we can restore normalcy back to the track here.”

The train moving enroute Ebute Metta via Oshodi from Iju with full capacity passengers.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/10/many-trapped-others-injured-train-derails-lagos/

Bayelsa State Governor, the Honourable Seriake Dickson, on Wednesday received the 9thCommissioner of Police posted to the state within 3 months, expressing his administration’s readiness to work with any security officer for the maintenance of law and order in the state.

Governor Dickson who stated this during a courtesy call by the new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aminu Saleh, in Government House, Yenagoa, warned political actors across the country who do not have the capacity to win elections to desist from manipulating the security agencies.

A statement by his Special Adviser on Media Relations, Fidelis Soriwei, quoted the Governor as saying that the government and people of Bayelsa would support every legitimate law enforcement activity towards promoting peace and stability particularly as the general election draw closer.

Governor Dickson who charged Mr. Saleh to lead the State Command to perform its duties in a professional and credible manner, emphasized that crime and criminality have no partisan colour.

The Governor said no individual, group or political party should be above the law, adding that anybody found culpable should be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the country.

Assuring the Police Force of his administration’s continued support in fighting crime, Governor Dickson noted that the state government would soon launch a Security Trust Fund as no country makes progress without adequate funding, equipment and training of security personnel.

His words: “This state is so comfortable that we have had a very quick turnover of Commissioners of Police because it is a very serene place that so many people want to visit and work.

That is the only reason I can give for the fact that in a space of 3 months you are the 9th commissioner of Police. I hope that I won’t have cause in the next couple of days, weeks or months to receive another Commissioner of Police; I won’t be surprised.

“Once again that is a record that we are creating but you have seen that our state is hospitable and stable. One of the most peaceful state in Nigeria.

“I want to thank and appreciate the officers and men, my friends and colleagues in the law enforcement community particularly the Police for the role they are playing in working with the government to make this state safe.

“As far as your relationship with our state is concerned, our state stands to support any lawful and legitimate law enforcement action that the Police command under your leadership will embark upon.

“This state does not tolerate the politicization of law enforcement. This state does not politicise crimes and criminality and we advise that you maintain the work your worthy predecessors have embarked upon to make the state safe and stable.”

In his remarks, the new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aminu Saleh, expressed preparedness to work with all stakeholders to sustain the prevailing peaceful environment towards achieving a hitch-free election in the state.

To this end, he called on the political class to go about their campaigns peacefully and play by the rules as the Command under his watch would not condone any form of political violence.

Accompanied by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State CID, Mr. Austin Odion and the Officer in charge of State Investigation Bureau, Mr. Ondo Gbekumo (Superintendent of Police).

Mr. Saleh had served in different capacities including, Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, Lagos.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/10/bayelsa-gets-9th-police-commissioner-3-months-%e2%80%a2dickson-tasks-security-agencies/

Gabon’s President Ali Bongo, who survived a coup attempt on Monday, January 7, 2019, has continued to be linked to Biafra, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

“Even his birth was controversial. Rumours, which he has always denied, have persisted for years that he was adopted from the Nigerian south-east at the time of the Biafran war,” BBC reported on late on Monday in a story entitled “Who is Ali Bongo, president of Gabon?”

It described Ali Bongo as “a man of many faces”, saying: “To some, he is a spoilt, playboy prince who sees ruling the oil-rich Gabon as his birthright; a one-time funk singer who stepped into his father’s shoes to continue his family’s 50-year rule.

“To others, he is a reformer – a man who, they would argue, was voted into power democratically by the masses.”

BBC noted that Ali Bongo’s “recent ill health has pushed tensions to the surface in this country of just more than two million people”, culminating in the January incident when a group of Gabonese soldiers tried but failed to take over power.

“Among their stated reasons was an attempt to ‘restore democracy’ following the 2016 election, which Mr Bongo narrowly won amid accusations of fraud and acts of violence.”

The report noted that the 60 years old Ali Bongo has always being considered “Gabon’s outsider” due to his birth and upbringing.

Born Alain Bernard Bongo in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville in February 1959, the young Alain Bernard was still in primary school when his father Omar Bongo took control of Gabon in 1967.

“Alain Bernard became Ali and his father Omar in 1973, after converting to Islam – the only members of their family to do so,” the report said.

A former Funk music star, “Ali Bongo served in his father’s government as Minister of Defence, a role he held for 10 years. Before that his first appointment, as Gabon’s Foreign Minister in 1989, ended after three years because of a constitutional change requiring ministers to be over the age of 35. He was 32 at the time,” the report said.

It added that “Mr Bongo has also been criticised over his prominent role in the Freemasons – a society whose Gabonese chapter he led, as lodge master.”

BBC recalled that “it was during a visit to Saudi Arabia for an investment conference in October 2018 that he was first admitted to hospital. He eventually left for Morocco at the end of November, where he remains.”

“Frustration over the lack of information surrounding his illness is thought to be one of the triggers behind January’s attempted coup,” the report said.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/09/gabonese-president-linked-biafra/

Got this on Tweeter and decides to share perhaps someone may be of help. Please kindly rebroadcast.

This guy lying in the picture below had an accident two days ago along Ughelli-Warri road by beta glass he is unconscious at Elohor clinic Agbarho

Kindly rebroadcast until it gets to members of his family.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/09/sad-see-accident-victim-elohor-clinic-agbarho-know/

Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, has confirmed that the organised labour had a useful discussion with the federal government on Monday and promised they would reconvene on today to finalise talks on the new national minimum wage.

He said that labour leaders had consulted and agreed to meet with the government on Wednesday by 1p.m to ensure that the processes for the transmission of the bill on the minimum would be completed without further delay.

But he said that the labour would go ahead with the mass protest nationwide on Wednesday.

“The protest is about implementation, it has no link with the transmission. We are trying to see how the bill will be transmitted to the National Assembly.

“The protest is about how to get all parties committed to the issue of minimum wage, it is different from how we get this bill transmitted with timeline to the national assembly,” he added.

Earlier, Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said after the closed door meeting with labour on Tuesday in Abuja that they made progress and explained that a definite date to transmit the bill to National Assembly will be known by Wednesday.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC had threatened to embark on a nationwide protest on January 8, if the Federal Government failed to transmit the bill on minimum wage to the National Assembly.

The organised labour gave the threat following President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that a “high powered technical committee” would be set up to device ways to ensure that minimum wage implementation did not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.

“It has been difficult to arrive at a date because there are processes to follow on the bill.

“We have to go to the Federal Executive Council with a council memo on the bill after that, we will go to the National Economic Council and the Council of State.

“But for the Council of State, the President has to look at his own time table and we will inform past Heads of State and Justice of the Federation. This can take two weeks.

“However, we are trying to see if we can accommodate all these meetings by next week because we cannot do Council of State meeting again this week.

“Immediately after that meeting (Council of State), we will transmit the bill,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting which started about 9:05 p.m ended at 11: 56p.m.(NAN)

•NLC President Ayuba Wabba (middle) addressing a world press conference at its headquarters in Abuja

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/08/minimum-wage-labour-fg-making-progress-nlc-president/

President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated Modibbo Hamman Tukur as a Director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

The nomination is in accordance with the provision of Section 5(1) of the NFIU Act 2018.

The president’s nomination was contained in a letter dated January 7, 2019 to the Senate President seeking the confirmation of the nominee by the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.

Tukur, from Adamama State, is a holder of Master of Science (MSc) degree in International Business.

He is currently an Assistant Director in the NFIU, and has vast international experience in illegal assets recovery.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/08/buhari-nominates-modibbo-tukur-director-nigerian-financial-intelligence-unit-nfiu/

Zonal leaders of Ohanaeze in South South, South West and Northern states on Sunday said that those who visited President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday under the auspices of Ohanaeze youths were imposters.

They also frowned at their exclusion from the New Year visit to Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The Zonal leaders in a joint statement issued in Yenagoa urged President-General of the parent body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, to sanction those behind the visit as it did not follow set rules.

The aggrieved chapters said that one Kingsley Chiedozie, a Deputy President of Ohanaeze Youth Wing, unilaterally led some persons to the visit without regard to the procedures of the youth body.

According to the statement signed by Chief Chinedu Arthur-Ugwa, South South, Chief Obinna Nwankwo, Northern states and Mr Alexander Ezeobi, South West Coordinators, they were not party to the visit.

The statement reads in part: “We wish to draw the attention of all Igbos that the persons who visited the Presidential Visit under the guise of Ohanaeze Youth Wing acted on their own in their personal capacities and do not have the backing of Igbo youths.

“It is regrettable that some individuals chose to work against Ohanaeze Youth Wing disguising as leaders of our group for selfish gains ahead the 2019 elections even though the group is non-partisan.

“The authentic leadership of Ohanaeze Youth Wing Executive led by Chief Arthur Obiora was not part of the visit and the President General of our parent body Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo neither endorsed the visit.

“We also note that Chiedozie who had disrespectfully made unauthourised comments on the stand of Ohanaeze on restructuring as he was out of sync with the parent body should face disciplinary actions and sanctions.

“It is our position that they acted in their personal capacities because we have yet to take a position on the forthcoming general elections and the position of Ohanaeze as a non-partisan socio cultural group is sacrosanct.

“We further appeal to our President General to inaugurated the newly elected President of Ohanaeze Youth Wing Chief Arthur Obiora to prevent imposters who parade themselves as leaders of the group from misleading the public.”

The group maintained that sidelining the leadership of the group was an indication that those behind the visit were driven by selfish gains and not the general interest of the Igbos.

They said that there was need to prioritise, consult widely amongst the zones and agree on issues to be tabled before the Federal Government at such meetings and regretted that no such steps were taken.

According to them Ohanaeze Youths residing outside Igbo land remain loyal to the parent body under Nwodo’s watch and await his intervention to avoid leading Igbos astray in the political turf.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/07/ohanaeze-youths-visited-buhari-aso-rock-exposed-impostors/

Nigerian movie star, Regina Daniels who has continually raises question over her stagnant age got snapped recently without one of her excessive headgear or Wigs she’s usually known with.

The budding fashionista looked pretty bare faced without her makeup and Wig.

See below: http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/06/controversial-teen-star-regina-daniel-shows-us-real-face/

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/06/controversial-teen-star-regina-daniel-shows-us-real-face/

Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, says security will top his administration’s priority list in 2019 to ensure the state is stabilised before, during and after the general elections scheduled to hold this year.

The governor made this known when he received the outgoing 4 Brigade Commander, Brig.-Gen Ibrahim Garuba and his successor, Brig.-Gen Greg Omoregbe on a courtesy visit to Government House, Benin on Saturday.

Obaseki said due to the strategic location of the state, it was important to beef up security before, during and after the general elections.

“This year we will focus extensively on security as it is an election year and given the position of the state; it is important that the state is stabilised.

“We are doing everything possible to ensure that we have a security arrangement, which recognises the citizens of the state and integrates them to our security frame work,’’ the governor said.

He commended the outgoing Commander for his roles in the birthing of the state new security Architecture and trust funds as well as his level of commitment and dedication to his duties.

“At every time, he was always there in planning our response to security challenges and as a state we can’t thank him enough.

“I recall the support he gave to us when we were trying to ensure law and order in major streets in Benin metropolis.

“He assisted the state in collaboration with other security outfits to curtail farmers-herdsmen crises and militancy in the state during our early days in office, ‘’ Obaseki said.

The governor urged the new Brigade Commander to deploy his operational skills toward sustaining the achievements of his predecessor and assured of his administration’s support.

Earlier, Garuba had thanked the governor for his supportive role to the Brigade under his tenure as Commander.

He said the synergy between the state government and the Brigade Command made him contributed his quota to the security of the state and inauguration of the new security architecture in the state.

Similarly, the new Commander said he would continue from where his predecessor stopped to sustain the cordial relationship between the state government and people of the state.

Omoregbe pledged to work in harmony with the state government and other security outfits to ensure peace and security in the state.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/05/gov-obaseki-speaks-2019-election-security/

Former Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume has said that the President of the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki was using the National Assembly to sabotage the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari.

This is even as he alleged that the Senate had performed abysmally poor under Saraki, as they used most of the time to be antagonistic to the executive.

Ndume who represents Borno South, disclosed this after he and the governorship Candidate of Taraba State, Sani Danladi, met with President Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa.

Briefing state house correspondents, Ndume said that Nigerians had been supportive of the National Assembly and expected so much from it but regretted that leadership crisis made the 8thSenate to perform below the expectations.

“The legislative arm which is supposed to be interdependent was more or less independent and extensively antagonistic; and to some extent, you can say the leadership has been sabotaging the activities of the executive.

“I am accusing specifically, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, not the leadership so to say; as I have said several times, we elected the Senate leader who turned out to be Senators’ President,” he said.

The former leader however said that members of the legislative arm have all agreed to bury their hatched and work together for the remaining six months.

“We have a leftover time of six months and we have agreed on cease fire including the Senate President himself; that we put the interest of Nigerians first.

“That was why when we resumed, we have been able to pass certain outstanding bills and we have agreed to work together; the interest of the nation first before party’s interest or any other individual’s interest.

“Any breach in that agreement that we have, will also send us back to our trenches,” he said.

On the 2019 budget proposal, Ndume said that timely passage of the budget was important as it was one of the agreements the senators had.

According to him, the budget belonged to Nigerians and Nigerians are expecting that the budget be passed as quickly as possible so that the content of the budget will be delivered.

He said that anybody that tried to stand on the way of the budget would be seen as a saboteur to Nigerians.

Ndume said that APC senators were fully in support of the budget because they had input in it.

“It is a budget of continuity; it is a realistic budget. “So we are not expecting any hiccup but as usual, the normal dragging will continue but we will resist it,” he said.

On the appointment of Amina Zakari as head of INEC collation centre for the forthcoming presidential election, Ndume, said that her relationship with Buhari had nothing to do with her assigned role.

He chided the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saying the party had resorted to what he described as CCC.

“PDP is now is concentrating on what I call the CCC instead of doing what is the right thing they are concentrating on complaining, criticising and contradicting themselves instead of campaigning.

“We in the APC; we said it initially and we even have a manual of campaign and that is to discuss issues, ideals, integrity and things that will move this country forward,” he said.

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/05/saraki-using-nass-sabotage-buhari-ndume/

The All Progressives Congress, APC, Kwara State has inaugurated over 2,500 grassroots canvassers to regain power in 2019.

The canvassers were inaugurated in Kwara on Friday to engage in massive mobilisation of people from all the wards and polling units in the state.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who is also the leader of the party in the state, spoke at the inauguration at the Buhari/Osinbajo Project 2019 Office in Ilorin.

He said, “These canvassers will be our victory army, the army that will dismantle the gargantuan edifice of corruption and misgovernance that has held our dear state down for too long.”

”This unprecedented move is our most potent weapon against the enemies of the state and the oppressors of the people,” he said.

The minister pointed out that the ‘well-recruited, tested and trusted canvassers’ will go from house to house in each of the 1,872 polling units in the state to tell the people why they must vote for President Muhammadu Buhari and all the candidates of the APC in Kwara State in the 2019 general elections.

”This unprecedented move is our most potent weapon against the enemies of the state and the oppressors of the people,” he said.

“Gathered here today are 1,872 canvassers representing the 18,720 canvasses. That is one canvasser per each polling unit across the 193 wards in Kwara State.

“We are also inaugurating today 193 ward coordinators, 193 ward secretaries, 193 ward women leaders and 193 ward youth leaders.

“Gathered here today are 1,872 canvassers representing the 18,720 canvasses. That is one canvasser per each polling unit across the 193 wards in Kwara State.

“We are also inaugurating today 193 ward coordinators, 193 ward secretaries, 193 ward women leaders and 193 ward youth leaders.”

http://mcebiscoo.com/2019/01/04/2019-election-lai-mohammed-boasts-apc-inaugurates-victory-army-sack-pdp-kwara/