ATTENCAO

These are uncertain times in Nigeria, which demand deep introspection and coming together with one purpose to tackle the multiple problems which are now facing the country.  The mutually assured self destructive actions  of farmers and herdsmen in Benue, Taraba, Kaduna and some states in Northern Nigeria is worrisome and must not be allowed to degenerate  further  by acts of revenge  or other unhelpful retaliatory actions.  This crisis and others are problems which can easily be solved by building dairy and animal husbandry industries around farmers and herdsmen or pastoralists in the country.  Countries with large populations, like Nigeria rely on dairy farming to fight hunger, malnutrition and unemployment.  India is a good example with its 130,000 cooperatives, 300 million cows and buffalos produce 160 million tonnes of milk annually, the largest in the world and 10 per cent of world’s output.  This is followed by USA, China, EU, Pakis...

The most popular response from Nigeria   to the shithole insult from the United States President Donald Trump is, perhaps, the one that goes like this: Trump’s statement hurts, but he is telling the truth about the African condition. For this group of critics, that is the moral of the unfortunate story.  An attempt is being made to infuse some logic into an insane statement. In dismissing the case for immigrants from Africa, Haiti, El Salvador and other places Trump reportedly asked: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Despite some attempts to deny the story, some American congressmen who were at the meeting have insisted they heard Trump say so. In any case, that Trump is an incurable racist and irredeemable bigot is hardly deniable. Besides, what is the moral fibre of Mr. Trump, who is now providing the clues for some commentators to criticise the African condition? Only eight months ago, in a rare pursuit of the public good 27...

Explains letter of apology, why three others remain suspended By Ayoola Omole While reacting to reports making the rounds on his reinstatement after being suspended along with three others by Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) for inciting students against school authorities, John Udeh said he battled travails alone as students whose interest he had advocated abandoned him to his predicament, carrying on with routine academic activities. Jacob Tosin, Omole Ibukun, Oluwalade Babatunde and John Udeh were suspended by institution for involvements in anti-school activities during protest of a power outage that extended five days in October 2017. Since news of John Udeh's reinstatement broke a few days ago, students have expressed different views on the development with some tauting his writing of an apology letter in compliance with conditions set by the school management to restore his studentship, while others alleged foul play, noting that three other students who were sus...

The day after the summer transfer market closed Barcelona’s sporting director, Albert Soler, and their director of football, Robert Fernández, ran through a PowerPoint presentation, specially prepared for the occasion. They sat in the press room at the Camp Nou but might as well have sat in the dock. As they talked their way through it, player by player, deal by deal, those that happened and those that did not, they sought to justify what some considered the unjustifiable. Barcelona were in crisis and they stood accused. The interrogation was intense, the explanation not always convincing. Instead it was contradictory, as if they could not always get their story straight. More importantly they had not got their man. Neymar had left for Paris, barely a fortnight after the vice‑president, Jordi Mestre, declared himself “200% sure” the Brazilian was staying and they had been unable to stop him. In his place there was no sign of Philippe Coutinho, the man they had so publicly pursued. Ev...

…I want to preface my intervention with a story I told sometimes in 1999 or thereabout which is still very relevant today. And like I did back then, I seek the indulgence of readers because the story is about a supposedly loving couple having problems which bordered on sex. The husband happened to be a man with healthy appetite hence he would not allow his wife any breathing space. After putting up with his antics for some years, she took the matter to her in-law as the ‘court of first instance’. After narrating her story, her mother-in-law asked whether her son was maltreating the wife in other ways; she said no. Was he providing for her as he should? She answered in the affirmative. The parents of the husband declared that the wife had no case because their son was only claiming his rightful entitlements. Case dismissed! Defeated, the poor woman accepted her fate for a while before reporting to her own parents. Let us call this the ‘court of appeal’. Here, they equally asked th...

The former chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has spoken on the possible reason for the loss of the chairmanship aspirants from the South-west at the party’s national convention. Five candidates from the region had withdrawn from the chairmanship race and adopted Prof. Tunde Adeniran as their consensus candidate. Adeniran later emerged second in the exercise with 231 votes, far behind the 2,000 votes garnered by Uche Secondus, the new chairman. Speaking on Channels TV Monday, Makarfi said the South-west never had a true consensus candidate for the chairmanship position. He also said a “damaging campaign” engineered by an unnamed individual rubbed off negatively on the region. “For the South-west, it was at the convention venue that they resolved on a consensus candidate. And even then, another candidate came to the state box and met the leaders and said, look they never resolved and that he was still in t...

Full disclosure in the administration of crude sales remains an issue at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) despite current efforts at enthroning transparency in the conduct of government business. An account reconciliation activity for crude oil transactions found gaps in the corporation’s reporting and remittances to the Federation Account for the month of October 2017. State governments had boycotted the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on November 23, accusing the NNPC of cutting corners in reporting and remitting of receipts from oil in the period under review. The states insisted on thorough collation and reconciliation through representatives agreed upon by all the parties. The ensuing investigation and reconciliation uncovered the sum of N58.369 billion in unremitted funds and forced the state-owned company to issue fresh payment mandates to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to fund the Federation Account as well as the joint ventu...

For years, he was rejected at the polls and given a tag that demarketed him among the electorate. His opponents said they knew how to get people to vote against him — just dress him up in the uncomplimentary toga and voters would avoid him like a raging plague. He tried as much as he could to explain that what people were saying about him was not true. That did not change the minds of his critics. Anytime he announced his intention to become president of Nigeria, many would scoff and ask: what exactly does this man want? Why is he so desperate to become president? Is it a must? Can’t he just accept that Nigerians would never vote for him? But in 2015, everything changed. It was like a movie. The same Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, tagged as a religious bigot and dressed in the uncomplimentary toga of a jihadist for 12 years, suddenly became the darling of Nigerian voters outside his “core north” stronghold. The PDP stalwarts who said they knew how to win against him were shocked at the mo...

Uche Secondus has emerged as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party  ( PDP) after he defeated three other aspirants with over 2000 votes. Below is the full list of new members of PDP NWC. Deputy National Chairman ( South); Yemi Akinwonmi- Ogun Deputy National Chairman ( North); Garba Gamawa- Bauchi National Secretary; Ibrahim Tsauri- Katsina Deputy National Secretary; Abubakar Mustapha National Treasurer; Aribisala Adewale- Ekiti Deputy National Treasurer; Wada Masu-Kano Financial Secretary; Abdullahi Maibasira- Niger Deputy Fin. Sec.; Irona Gerald-Imo National Organizing Secretary; Austin Akobundu- Abia Dep. Nat. Org. Sec.; Hassan Yakubu- Nasarawa Publicity Secretary; Kola Ologbondiyan- Kogi Dep. Nat. Pub. Sec.; Diran Odeyemi- Osun National Legal Adviser; Emmanuel Enoidem- Akwa Ibom Dep. Nat. Leg. Ads.; Ahmed Liman- Sokoto National Auditor; Adamu Mustapha-Yobe Dep. Nat. Auditor; Divine Arong National Woman Leader; Mariya Waziri-Kebbi Dep. Nat. Wo...

The redo edition of The Signature Summit closed in high spirits as participants, speakers and organizers took turns to have brief chats and pictures. The participants had earlier been drilled by experts on Branding and Digital Marketing skills in line with the event’s theme. The program, held at Ajose Lecture Theater, Obafemi Awolowo University- spread across two days, witnessed a conference session on Friday 24th November while a concluding workshop session followed on Saturday 25th November. Keynote speakers at the Friday conference included Author, Business Coach, Business Development Expert and Strategist, Tale Alimi and Digital Marketing Consultant, Deola Kayode while Art Director, Fericool Studios, Tunde Ogunkunle, Digital PR consultant at The Robert Taylor Media, Esther Odia, and CEO of Media Panache, Timilehin Bello oversaw practical sessions Saturday. Delivering ‘Perception is the new reality’, Tale Alimi said being a unique brand required the dualism of one’s big ...

Taking lessons from other parts of the world, Nigerians could make a unique headway of their own to strengthen the country's economy by identifying entrepreneurship as a window to shifting focus from government to the people. Having for the longer period made inputs to the instrument of government without concurrent gains, a strategic point has come to start considering and channeling efforts towards the alternative. The Signature Summit lays fundamental procedural groundwork in that direction - to  which those who attended its first edition on the 24th of February 2017, at the Cooperative Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University will attest. Signature NG, a creative, and multimedia (visual communication) agency, upon inquiry into mystery behind enterprise failure and decline in patronage presents an intervention in the form of The Signature Summit on a score - to turn the tide. Entrepreneurs take their feet off the pedal for reasons they would describe as ranging from limited res...

Question 1 – Let’s say your budget estimated you to earn N4trn from non-oil revenue in 2017 but in reality, you only managed to collect just over N2trn, how much should you budget to collect in 2018? The correct answer is N4.2trn. Question 2 – Let’s say you budget to earn N2.4trn from oil in 2018, how much of that should you spend on servicing your debts? The correct answer is N2trn. If these numbers don’t make sense to you, it’s because you don’t really understand how fiction works. Our existence on earth is in many ways restricted by rules we really have no control over. For example, we humans cannot fly (at least not yet) because the law of gravity truncates our hustle in that regard. But we can create a world on paper (and film) where the law of gravity does not exist, and human beings are thus able to fly. Fiction allows us to escape inconvenient or impossible rules. To be clear, this is not the only function of fiction – it also allows people say things that would be dang...