An ode to Obi

Everybody was surprised when Michael Essien handed the captain's armband to John Obi Mikel on Sunday.

Even Jose Mourinho admitted after the game that by right Ashley Cole should have received it when the Ghanaian was substituted.

But Mikel and Cole were both signed by Mourinho in July 2006 and it's clear that the former, rather than the latter, will play the more crucial part in a Chelsea title bid.

During the past seven-and-a-half years, since signing as a 19-year-old, Mikel has matured immensely.

He's 26 at the moment - 27 in April - and approaching the peak of his career.

Everybody was even more surprised, on Sunday, when Mikel scored; his header was only his fourth Chelsea goal, arriving in his 300th game.

Mikel is the fourth non-British player to reach that total for Chelsea, behind undisputed club legends Petr Cech (459 appearances), Didier Drogba (341) and Gianfranco Zola (312).

He has been consistently selected since he joined, by no less than eight managers. Mourinho, Hiddink, Ancelotti and the rest can't all be wrong.

And yet Mikel still divides opinion among Chelsea supporters. Many chide him if he ever misplaces a pass and wonders what he adds to the team.

Perhaps this is a hangover from his early, ill-disciplined days, where he would lunge in rashly for tackles and pick up red cards.

The transfer itself was controversial; he had signed for Manchester United from Lyn Oslo, but Chelsea had agreed a deal with his agent.

A press conference where Mikel sported a Red Devils' shirt only clouded the matter and after lengthy legal wrangles, Chelsea eventually emerged with their prize - at a cost of £4million to Lyn and £12m to United.

Subsequently, Lyn director Morgan Andersen was convicted of fraud and Chelsea issued a High Court Claim against him and the club, to try and recoup the money.

The matter was settled out of court, confidentially, but it likely means that Chelsea paid less than £16m for the defensive midfielder - a pittance given his service over the years.

It did not appear that way at first though; despite Mourinho putting his faith in Mikel, playing him 42 times in his debut season in England, the player's attitude was not quite right.

He was late to training a handful of times and on the pitch some of his decision making left plenty to be desired.

Mikel was booked nine times and sent off twice in 2006-07, and had two reds the following season with eight bookings (39 games). He hasn't been red carded since, and now averages seven yellow cards a season

As his discipline improves, his awareness of the game and his surroundings increases as well. Or perhaps it's the other way around.

Mikel is composed - he can receive the ball under pressure from several opposition players, drawing them in, before sliding it along to a team-mate in a better position.

This draws criticism that he can only pass sideways or backwards, but if Chelsea are trying to keep possession those balls are crucial.

He is a player that Chelsea's defence can trust to come deep and sit in amongst them if needed, someone who never hides and will always make himself available for a pass.

You notice when Mikel does make a mistake or misplace a pass, because it's so rare for him to do so.

Mikel is the best screen in front of the defence that Chelsea have - and is one of the best in the world at this role.

Ramires makes plenty of tackles but when he's left as the most defensive player in the Blues' midfield, they can look exposed.

Following in the master's - Makelele - footsteps was always going to be difficult but some Chelsea supporters may not appreciate what Mikel offers until it is gone.

As you will know, in his youth, Mikel used to be an attacking midfielder. Mourinho saw the potential for him to play as an anchorman and deployed him there from the start.

It does lead people to wonder why he hasn't contributed more goals and assists, but given his role in the side it's safety first for Mikel.

However, given his aerial prowess, he should have scored more goals from set piece situations, like the one against Derby County, rising to nod home Willian's free kick.

Andersen had stated, during the transfer debacle: 'Alex Ferguson said to me that Mikel would be the new Roy Keane and he was offered a contract that was even better than the one they gave Cristiano Ronaldo when he came to the club.'

Perhaps a weakness is his speed; Mikel is not the quickest, and, infrequently, still throws himself into tackles which he might not be able to win.

Mikel is also a big game player. His finest performance to date for the club came in the Champions League final, against Bayern Munich, the greatest night in Chelsea's history.

He was arguably man of the match on that day, although Didier Drogba's brilliant equaliser and cup-winning penalty kick overshadowed him on that day.

That's often the story for Mikel. A quiet, under-appreciated but crucial part of a trophy-winning side

dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2534573/John-Obi-Mikel-How-Chelsea-man-transformed-seven-years-crucial-component.html

Isang Awah: All For Children

I have met many a spirited woman, but Isang Awah did strike me as one who would give me good conversation. We met at a gourmet’s delight, Wuse 2, Abuja, to prove this point.

Awah hit the klieg lights after she produced her debut movie Bent Arrows, and its follow-up, Broken Arrows, but when everyone thought she was about to make a huge statement, she took to publishing and writing. She scored a first by publishing Nigeria’s first personalised book.

“I am having Afang soup; how about you” she asked. “It’s good and healthy; too, you should try it.”

“I do. I have tried it a few times and the periwinkle is the best part of the meal.”

After we had settled in and handed over the menu, we had a few minutes of silence and I went: “What’s a personalised book?” I could not refrain from asking that.

Before now, she had her nose buried in a cup of sherry, but she lowered her glass, nursing it with her right palm. “First, I was inspired by the desire to positively affect lives through literature. Now, a personalised book is one that is custom-made for a child, with the child as the main character. The child’s friends are the supporting characters. Some personalised books are photo-based while others are not.” This has helped her push the ‘bring back the book’ campaign to an entirely new level.

Still at sea, I asked why bio-chemist who graduated from the University of Uyo got the inspiration to begin writing.

At this point, our first order arrived.

“Good stuff. Hmm,” she said. I couldn’t help but agree more. Periwinkles, fish, snail and huge lobsters cut in half made it almost difficult for my spoon to navigate through the soup.

“There’s always a soft-spot for something in every person’s life. Mine was easy; my desire to write something important drove me to go get a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Literature and Creative Writing from the Harvard University. Prior to that, a few things motivated me to start writing personalised stories for children. First off, I had the experience of seeing the joy and excitement children derive from reading personalised stories.

“When my children were very young, I told personalised stories to them, in which they were the heroes and heroines. They loved these stories and always wanted to hear more of them.” Even though she had been writing for many years and already had some of her works published, it did not occur to her then to get these stories printed and personalised for different children.

While in the United States a few years ago, she ordered some personalised books for her children and some of her friends’ children. She was disappointed at what she saw. “I really needed to see personalised books that would not only entertain the child, but at the same time, inculcate positive values and showcase something of the African culture.” Determined to do something, she realised that she could meet the need for personalised books and also positively affect lives through literature by creating a business that would make personalised storybooks for children. But Awah began writing as a means to an end: “Apart from writing to encourage a healthy reading culture among children, I intend to help boost the self-esteem of every young reader of the My Rainbow series.”

Awah does agree that these are not the best of times for Nigerian children. “We need to do constructive things that will get the children back to academic ways. These days, our children spend more time watching television and playing computer games than they do reading books. We need to get children more into their books and out of these dangerous inventions and a good way to do this is to give that child a personalised book. I can assure you that that child will not put down the book, until he/she gets to the last page.”

There’s also a psychological angle to her campaign. “Personalised books encourage reading and build the self-esteem of the child. The child is the hero/heroine in the story and that greatly affirms the child’s belief in the uniqueness of his/her personality. Also, these personalised books instil positive values.”

For all her love for books and her efforts to get Nigerian children reading again, the CEO of My Rainbow Books still has time for her the art form that brought her fame – movie-making. “I still produce films and write scripts, songs, poems, short stories, scripts and many other things, to keep my mind active.”

“Do you really like this soup?”

“Matter of fact, I do.”

“If you don’t don’t worry, the Greek Salad will be better. After all, you are not Efik, so…” We share a laugh which almost rocks the place. The salad did taste better; more like an exotic form of the salad we all know, just without the cream and with a few ‘strange-looking’ ingredients.

But Awah does not kid herself. She acknowledges that there is a dearth of reading culture even among the country’s elite and not just for a particular class. “In most Nigerian homes, there is no library. If you randomly pick a number of Nigerians and ask each one how many books he/she has read since the year began, I can bet you that more than half of the number will tell you that they have not read any. We do not read. What is even worse is that we are doing very little to encourage our children to read. Most parents allow their children to spend time watching television or playing computer games. It is a sad reality.”

But like a true, passion-driven campaigner, Awah does more than list the issues. She also has a few solutions to proffer. As part of her bring-back-the-book-to-the-child campaign, Awah’s My Rainbow Books hosts a free-to-enter annual creative writing competition for children between the ages of 5 and 16, which could either be a short story or poem, submitted to a website. The entry voted to be the best will win a fabulous prize.

“Actually,” she said, her fingers drumming on the fancy table, “the deadline for this year’s submission is January 31, 2013 and the website for submission of entries is competition@myrainbowbooks.com.”

I come away with an almost perfect impression of the woman who has made writing for children a forte of sorts.


leadership.ng/features/746/isang-awah-all-for-children

MEET MR IROKO

The Iroko tree is a very distinctive tree, even in a forest chock-full of a hundred trees. Hence it is apt to describe Mr. Jason Njoku, one of the iROKO partners, as a human iroko. A graduate of Chemistry, Jason Njoku saw an opportunity many had overlooked, weighed the risks and took the plunge in a very hands on manner. Trailing the streets of Alaba market to liaise with producers does not sound like a dream job, but that is exactly what Mr. Iroko did, and today we celebrate his success.

But before I forget myself, who is Jason Chukwuma Njoku? The recently married debonair dude and entrepreneur hails from the eastern part of Nigeria although he grew up in Deptford, South East London. A Manchester University alumnus, this was not his first business idea, but it has sure turned out to be his best so far.

So what did Mr Iroko do exactly? As I earlier mentioned, he co-founded iROKO Partners in 2010 in London, England with Bastian Gotter. The idea was born out of the high and rapidly growing demand for Nollywood films in the diaspora. iROKO partners initially set out to rid both the internet and the industry from the vast amount of piracy which was crippling the industry; once established, the organization birthed Nollywoodlove and Yorubalove which dominated the Youtube platform throughout 2011.

The company is globally the largest licensor and the leading distributor of Nollywood movies (both English and Yoruba) online. iROKO Partner is currently YouTube’s biggest African partner with distribution deals with Dailymotion, iTunes, Amazon and Vimeo. With the launch of iROKOtv in 2012 the sky really is his starting point. Other platforms are iROKING and and iROKtv.

iROKING has over 35,000 songs from 200 or so of Nigeria’s top artistes. It is touted as the future of Nigeria’s digital music scene where people can access songs from Nigerian artistes; anytime, anywhere. iROKtv is a behind the scenes look at Nollywood, and iROKOtv is the platform for people to watch Nollywood movies. It has a catalogue of over 5,000 movies whose online licenses have been duly paid for. Subscribers with $5 get an exclusive scoop on new releases every week.

Piracy is a very real and present challenge in the line of work that Mr. Iroko has chosen, and they constantly have to be on alert for pirates who encroach on their rights, inadvertently or otherwise. In an interview published on Bella Naija, Jason Njoku addressed the issue of piracy in Nigeria thus: “We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in combating the pirates who have no regard for the producers’ livelihoods and profit from stealing other peoples’ creative content.”

The future is rosy for the iROKO partners. The class of investors pouring in is a tribute to the skills, focus and creativity of those involved. Tiger Global, a hedge fund run by an early investor in Facebook and Zynga has invested $8milion into the company. If his past success is anything to go by, we can be sure it will be wisely ploughed back into establishing a venture that is above reproach on all fronts.

konnectafrica.net/2012/10/23/meet-mr-iroko/

Photo's That Defined Nigerian Fashion In 2013- by Style Mania Magazine

Photo-shoots published in Style Mania magazine in 2013. They express creativity at its best and showcases celebrities in the Nigerian Fashion and Entertainment industries.

Photo credit: onobello.com

Non-oil Export Income Rises to $2.64bn

The total non-oil export earnings by Nigerian exporters during the third quarter of 2013 stood at $2.64 billion.

This indicated an increase by 236 and 362 per cent above the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding quarter of 2012, respectively.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) economic report for the third quarter 2013 attributed the development, largely, to the 55.9 and 187.4 per cent increase in the proceeds of industrial and manufacturing sectors, respectively, as well as the significant increase in proceeds from primary agricultural and other products.

A breakdown of the proceeds showed that agricultural products, manufactured products, industrial, minerals and food products earned $1.3 billion, $738.7 million, $522.7 million, $47.5 million, and $27.4 million, respectively.

The shares of agricultural products, manufactured products, industrial, minerals and food products in non-oil export proceeds were 49.3, 28.0, 19.8 1.8 and 1.1 per cent, respectively.
On the other hand, available data indicated that the invisible sector accounted for the bulk (55.4 per cent) of total foreign exchange disbursed in the third quarter of 2013, followed by mineral and oil sector (13.6 per cent).

Other beneficiary sectors, in a descending order included: industrial sector (14.1 per cent), food products (7.2 per cent), manufactured products (6.9 per cent), transport sector (2.5 per cent) and agricultural products (0.3 per cent).

“Provisional data indicated that foreign exchange inflow through the CBN in the third quarter of 2013 amounted to $12.01 billion, representing an increase of 27.2 per cent above the level in the preceding quarter, but showed a decline of 10.7 per cent below the level in the corresponding quarter of 2012. “The rise in inflow relative to the preceding quarter was attributed to the significant increase in non-oil component due largely to proceeds from Eurobond and other official receipts,” it stated.

Furthermore, it showed that outflow amounted to $12.65 billion, showing an increase of 1.2 and 56.5 per cent above the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding quarter of 2012, respectively.
This, according to the report, resulted in a net outflow of $0.64 billion, compared with a net outflow of $3.06 billion recorded in the preceding quarter but was in contrast to the net inflow of $5.36 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2012

thisdaylive.com/articles/non-oil-export-income-rises-to-2-64bn/167862/

Centenary: Where Are Nigeria’s 6,500 Artefacts Worth N313bn?

 Leadership Newspapers Nigeria

Nigeria is famous for the large body of ancient artefacts of her rich cultural heritage. Created by various ethnic groups from time immemorial, these artefacts were an integral part of the peoples’ cultures in the past. But today, many of these priceless treasures are no longer in the country; they are in public museums and private collections in Europe and the United States of America, illegally.

The artefacts, estimated to be in the region of over 6,500 are reported to worth over N313billion.

The president, Archaeological Association of Nigeria (AAN), Dr. Zacharys Anger Gundu, says many of these Nigerian artefacts are still being held in European and American museums in spite of several attempts made to have them repatriated to Nigeria.

He stressed that the artefacts were “stolen, plundered, or collected through stealth,” and called on well-meaning Nigerians to join AAN in its quest to recover the treasures.

But how many Nigerians of this generation know about these artefacts to even appreciate and seek them out wherever they are? We hereby do a spotlight on these ancient treasures and the issues around them.

The best known of these are the Benin Bronze Works, Igbo-Ukwu Bronze Arts, Nok sculptures and other Nigerian terracotta pieces from places like Ife, Sokoto and Kwatarkwashi, Kano, among others.

As prices of art works continue to appreciate in the local and international markets, agitators for the repatriation of about 6,500 Nigerian antiquities illegally being held in various museums and other collections in European countries and beyond have put the monetary value at N313bn.

Mostly involved are Benin bronzes, ivories and other ancient works looted by British colonialists, especially during the reprisal attacks launched by the Queen‘s soldiers against natives trying to resist imperialism in 1897.

While the former director-general of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Dr. Joseph Eboreime, described as immoral the excuses often given by foreign museums for holding on to the antiquities, he said the number could be higher going by the fact that there are many others in private hands.

Eboreime said that it was an exhibition of Benin antiquities in foreign museums two years ago that suggested a reliable inventory of the antiquities in formal settings.

“From the catalogue produced for the exhibition, we now got the number of the Benin art works in such museums,” he said.

The number in the catalogue of the exhibition which was organised by African Museum was 1,500.

The exhibition which held, among other places, in Chicago, United States, had Nigerian representatives in attendance.

While terracotta and Nok arts were also systematically stolen from Ife, Osun State, and some Northern parts of the country, it was from Benin, Edo State, that the heaviest volume of antiquities was removed and carted to various museums in Britain, Germany and other parts of the world.

Among others, an account by an art historian, Philip J. C. Dark, in his work titled, Benin Bronze Heads: Styles and Chronology, indicates that up to 6,500 artefacts of Nigerian origin are in some 77 places across the globe.



The Benin Bronze

The Benin Bronze is a collection of more than 1,000 commemorative pieces that originated in the royal palace of the Benin Empire. They were creations of the Edo people. The art, as was gathered, began in the 13th century and reached the climax of its production in the 15th and 16th centuries during the reign of Esigie (1504-1550) and Eresoye who later mounted the throne. In 1897, the British appropriated most of them during their invasion of the kingdom.

The Benin Bronze led to a greater appreciation of African culture and tribal arts in Europe. It appeared incredible that people, supposedly so primitive and savage, were responsible for such highly developed objects. Some even claimed that their makers’ knowledge came from the Portuguese.

While the collection is known as Benin Bronze, not all the pieces are made of bronze. There are also pieces made of brass, of a mixture of bronze and brass, of wood, of ceramic, and of ivory, etc.

The pieces were made using lost-wax casting and considered the best sculptures made using this technique. The Queen-mother Pendant Mask is one popular artefact that adorns the Royal Court of Benin.



The Queen-mother Pendant Mask of the Benin Art

This is one of the most celebrated masterpieces of African art. The pendant used to be a prestigious object worn by the king on ceremonial occasions. The portrait is of a historical figure, Idia, the mother and close advisor to one of Benin’s greatest leaders, Esigie, who ruled between 1504 and 1550. Framed by an elegant tiara-like coiffure and openwork collar in the likeness of an Edo royal woman, the preciousness of the materials and the refinement of the carving indicate that it was created by the exclusive guild of royal ivory carvers for the king.

Esigie honoured Idia, his mother, for helping to secure his claim to the throne and for the wise counsel that she provided him throughout his reign. As a result of Idia’s role, the title of Queen-mother (Iyoba) was introduced to the Benin Court, granting the mother of the Oba (king) equal authority to that of senior town chiefs.

Some of these objects were auctioned to public and private institutions in Europe and North America to defray the cost of the punitive expedition. At the moment, about 3,173 of the Benin treasures are distributed between 17 encyclopaedic museums in Western Europe and North America. Queen-mother Idia pendant mask, for example, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, New York, USA. Many of these museums have been known to auction these Benin treasures to beef up their revenue base. Virtually all of them have refused to consider overtures for the repatriation of these treasures to Nigeria.



The Esie Statue From Kwara State

Over 230 years after the discovery of the Esie Statue in Kwara State, the mystery surrounding its carvers remains unravelled.

The Esie Statue is made up of about 1,500 soap stones neatly seated in a semi-circle formation under a palm tree with the Oba Ere (king of the images) seated in the middle as if presiding over a community meeting.

Esie, about 53 kilometres from Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, is an ancient Igbomina town in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State that is rich in unique historical monuments. The statue was discovered in a thick forest near the community.

Although the inhabitants of the area have been unable to explain the origin of the Esie statue, legend has it that around 1775, a powerful hunter and founder of the town, Baragbon, discovered the statue.

In 1945, precisely 170 years after Baragbon’s historic discovery and about two years after the founding of the Nigeria Antiquity Service, now known as the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), the British colonial government established the first museum in Nigeria, the Esie National Museum, Kwara State.



Nok Terracotta

The terracotta is a significant aspect of the culture of Nok people in Kaduna State. The terracotta art is believed to have existed between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago and constitutes most of the ancient artefacts in West Africa. The Nok culture had its beginning at about 1,000 BC but spread to the West African region at about 300 AD.

The year 1928 may have been forgotten by any other group of people but it will remain unforgettable in the hearts of Nok people. That was the year terracotta sculptures were first discovered in their soil during a tin mining operation. One of the miners found something other than the tin he was searching for. It was a small terracotta design of a monkey head.

Subsequently, more terracotta designs were found as the mining operation progressed. This time, it was a terracotta human head and a foot. It then dawned on the Englishman who was leading the mining activity, Lt. Col. John Dent-Young, that the Nok soil was also rich in cultural deposits and not only natural mineral resources they had set out to get.

Dent-Young, who saw that these discovered objects would be much valued in future, later placed the artefacts in a museum in Jos, the present capital of Plateau State. In 1932, more terracotta statues, 11 of them, were discovered intact near Sokoto. In 1943, more clay-made figurines were unearthed during tin mining near Nok village. One of the miners who had found a head quickly considered it a helpmate in his yam farm where he thought it could serve as a scarecrow. So, he took it home and placed it in his farm.

The Nok people of the ancient time were also hunters, farmers and famous iron smelting workers besides their popular terracotta sculpting. There was a measure of dexterity in the skill of the Nok people which enabled them to preserve the terracotta figures over a long period of time. Some of the statues were polished while some were broken.

However, they were valued highly across international boundaries, art and cultural markets. This is the reason why some of the artefacts were smuggled, perhaps by stealing, out of the country to Britain, France, Belgium, United States, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Australia and Italy.

By 1993, a consortium of European art dealers plundering Nigerian art employed hundreds of diggers in the Nok valley and other parts of northern Nigeria where 3, 000 terracotta finds were illegally recovered annually and taken to European and American art markets through Lome and Cotonou.

LEADERSHIP Friday also gathered that construction and development of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has considerably opened up the opportunities of plundering Nok terracotta. Big-time construction companies are rumoured to have plundered Nok terracotta in the course of construction and illegally shipped them out.

Though it is difficult to track where these Nok statues end up in Europe and North America, at least 50 pieces are currently in the collection of Gert Chesi in Schwaz, Australia. Mr. Chesi’s museum, established in 1995, is called the “House of the People”, and has the most splendid collection of Nok terracotta anywhere in the world.

However, there are revelations that Nok terracotta and other cultural artefacts in Nigeria were not smuggled only by foreign interests, as there were indigenous accomplices who acted as local agents for them.

Nigerian dealers in antiquities are alleged to be complicit in the plunder as some of them are known to have close business relationship with European art dealers.



Igbo-Ukwu Bronze

Present-day Igbo-Ukwu is located in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. Igbo-Ukwu is widely known as an ancient city of bronze and is said to hold the largest and the earliest known bronze artworks in sub-Sahara Africa that dates back to the 9th Century AD though it has not received as much publicity as Benin Bronze and the Ife and Nok Terracotta. However, Igbo-Ukwu craftsmen were working with bronze centuries before those of Ife.

According to findings, the Igbo-Ukwu bronze works were discovered for the first time in 1939 by a villager, Mr. Isaiah Anozie, while digging beside his home. This excavation site is today known as the Igbo Isaiah, which is a stock house of regalia.

Owing to the discovery of Igbo Isaiah, the Nigerian government requested formal excavations from the archaeologist, Thurstan Shaw, in 1959, which led to the discovery of two other sites: Igbo Richard (a burial chamber) and Igbo Jonah (a disposal pit), containing other ancient artefacts.

Artefacts discovered range from jewelries, ceramics, a corpse adorned in what appeared to be full regalia, a ritual pottery vessel, a scabbard, pendants with a ram head and another with a scarified human face, a bronze bowl, a pear-shaped bowl, fly-whisk handles, crowns, breastplates and staff ornaments.



Features Of Igbo-Ukwu Bronze

Igbo-Ukwu bronze works differ in design and alloy composition from those of Ife and Benin arts. Their surface decorations reflect the mastery of the craftsmen, an artistic technical ingenuity that lacked known prototypes. It was also indicative of a well structured society with wide-ranging economic relationships. For instance, it is believed that the bronze found in the burial chamber (of a high personage) was part of the furniture of a forerunner of the Eze Nri, a priest king who wielded religious power over large parts of the Igbo region well into the 20th century. Then, of course, there was the old (and sometimes still-whispered) practice of burying certain persons in fine clothing, along with living attendants.

The bronze pendants were in the form of animals such as elephants, leopard, rams head, and insects like flies, beetles and grasshoppers arranged in symmetrical order.

There were also geometric designs of parallel lines, triangles, circles and raised dots overlaid with fine threads, pellets and spirals. A good example is the roped bronze vessel.

Most of the Benin bronze works were plundered from the Kingdom following the 1897 punitive expedition. It is estimated that more than 3,000 works of art, including what was later adapted as the FESTAC logo, were stolen from the palace, shrines and houses of ranking Benin chiefs.Other Nigerian artefacts in the West were plundered during the colonial period and the Nigerian Civil War. It is on record that Leo Frobenius, whose expeditions to Africa were a front for major ethnology museums in Germany, visited Nigeria between 1910 and 1912. Within two years, he carried off (through ‘purchase’ and stealth) 5,670 Nigerian heritage treasures which are scattered between the Leo Frobenius Instittute in Frankfurt and the Museums of Ethnology in Hamburg, Leipzig, and Berlin, all in Germany. He is also implicated in the theft of the Olokun Head in Ife and its replacement with a counterfeit.

Another notable example is the Tiv Naakaa incident of between 1929 and 1930. British misunderstanding of Tiv sacred heritage led to the widespread confiscation of Tiv sacred objects under violent and humiliating circumstances, and all such objects were shipped abroad.

This ugly trend is still lingering. It is known that in 1987, nine objects were stolen from Jos museum. It peaked in 1990 when Nok and North-Western Nigeria (Kwatarkwoshi)’s archaeological sites were massively robbed of their treasures. In the 1990s, an estimated 429 treasures were stolen from 33 museums and institutions across Nigeria and 34 Esie soap stones were stolen between 1993 and 1995 from the Esie Museum. It was reported recently that the government of France has returned some valuable Esie artefacts stolen from Nigerian in 2011 and seized by customs officials at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The value of stolen treasures from Nigerian museums has been estimated at ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’.

Though the international instruments on ownership and repatriation of archaeological resources are understandably skewed in favour of art consuming countries of the West, Nigeria must seek to exploit the small windows open for repatriation to push along with countries in Africa and elsewhere that are also victims of such plunder.

leadership.ng/news/704/centenary-where-are-nigerias-6500-artefacts-worth-n313bn

Dasuki At 90 Still Going Strong

     
Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, great great grandson of the legendary Uthman Dan Fodio, the founder of what is today known as the Sokoto Caliphate, was and still is a powerful force in the religious and political life of Nigeria. Even before he became the 18th Sultan of Sokoto in 1988, he had a commanding influence in the affairs of the nation and served as a member of the 1977 Constituent Assembly. As sultan, he was the president of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.

Dasuki was born in 1923 in Dogondaji to a family of descendants of Uthman Dan Fodio; he is a member of the Buhari Royal House. He started his education at a Qur’anic school in 1928 and was there until 1931. He later attended Dogondaji Elementary School and the Sokoto Central School. Between 1935 and1940, he was a student at the Sokoto Middle School, where he was the school’s senior prefect during his third year. He later attended the famous Barewa College, sponsored by the Sokoto Native Authority. On completing his secondary school education and to fulfil scholarship duties, he joined the native authority as a clerk to the district officer in charge of treasury, although his original intention was to become a journalist.

Between 1953 and1955, he was private secretary to the regional minister of transport, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, who was also his cousin. He later went to Oxford University, England for a one-year course. On his return, he was posted to the Plateau Division as assistant district officer, and later pilgrims officer. In 1963, Dasuki was appointed a representative of the North to the board that conducted the Nigerian census of 1963. After leaving the census board, he continued working for the civil service in the Regional Ministry of Local Government and later Trade, where he was permanent secretary and chairman of the Northern Nigeria Marketing Board. In 1969, he resigned from the civil service into a life of entrepreneurship.

As a private citizen, his first high profile job was his position as chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, where he championed a policy of decentralisation and the creation of district offices. Dasuki’s announcement as the sultan in November 1988 to succeed Sultan Abubakar Siddiq was, expectedly, controversial, in keeping with the larger than life stature of the candidate. With his political godson General Ibrahim Babangida then in office as president, it was no surprise that he was able to weather the storm of opposition. However, he had a bumpy relationship with the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, who deposed him in April 1996.

During his short tenure as sultan, he took steps to unite Muslims throughout Nigeria and led an international conference on Islam in Africa, to discuss the problems and perspective of the religion in the continent. As he clocks 90, we wish him many more years of service to his fatherland.

leadership.ng/opinions/596/dasuki-at-90-still-going-strong

Tonye Cole: MD, Sahara Group, Entrepreneur and Change Agent

A Sahara Group desktop calendar sits on my desk as I clatter away at the keys of my computer. I actually glance through it, marvelling at all the claims contained therein. International trade it says, Tank farms, Agro-Business, Aviation support, Dreams and Inspirations….REWIND!!! Dreams and Inspirations? Is that a product or a service? That’s not all. Next I see Team Spirit, Focus and Pursuit? Oh I see, Sahara Group is not just about the products and services; it is about the people!!! [Wow I am good!!! I should be paid for this wonderful Ad I just put together; what do you think?]

The man to whom I will send my bill is Tonye Cole; offspring of Patrick Cole; wife of Sylvia Cole and father of …three children. He is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Sahara Group; a conglomerate which is present in over 13 countries and whose interests cover trading, storage, energy and power resources, aviation, farming and real estate. From an office in 1996 which “was slightly bigger than a cupboard” to use the innovative man’s words, and the core business of trading excess fuel oil from the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, the Sahara Group has expanded its tentacles to offices in Geneva, Switzerland -which actively trades in crude oil, gas oil, Jet A1, mogas and bitumen in global markets; Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, France, Singapore, Dubai and Brazil. The success of this enterprise is simply astounding, more so because it is a 100% indigenously grown company, competing with established giants in the energy industry. This is a story of three young men who were determined to turn their perceived disadvantages, namely youth, and ‘Nigerianess’ into advantages.

Tonye Cole was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. He attended Corona School, Victoria Island and later King’s College, Lagos before proceeding to King’s School, Ely, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. He is also an alumnus of the University of Lagos and Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil. An Architect, he worked in a Brazilian architectural firm Grupo Quartro SA in Goiania Brazil from 1990-92. He was involved in the design and implementation of the urban planning and city development of Palmas, the capital city of the newly created state of Tocantins in far-away South America.

Tonye returned to Nigeria in 1993, and was quickly employed as the Director of Operations EMSA S.A., a Brazilian Civil Engineering Company- allegedly the 7th largest engineering firm in Brazil that was awarded a World Bank-financed water project valued at about $58m for the Lagos State Water Corporation-. To paraphrase the Bible, a man who is faithful in little, will be given even more.

In 2011, Tonye Cole launched the ‘NEHEMIAH PROJECT ‘, a project patterned after Nehemiah’s reputation as the rebuilder of Jerusalem. Tonye is doggedly positioned to empower and inspire Nigerian youths to discover, explore and realize their full potential. He is a frequent speaker at forums, meetings and conferences.

Of his company’s mission, Tonye says “We see ourselves as ambassadors to show what can be done as an indigenous Nigerian company, but we want to be seen from a global perspective and not just as a local player.” His CEO advice? “We learnt a long time ago to never make promises that we cannot keep and to never oversell and then fall short in expectations.”

Under-promise and over-deliver; tis the way to go folks.

konnectafrica.net/2013/06/04/tonye-cole-md-sahara-group-entrepreneur-and-change-agent/

Innocent Chukwuma: Most Innovative Entrepreneur 2013

Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Co. Ltd, the first indigenous vehicle manufacturing plant in Nigeria was born in 1961 in Umudim, Nnewi, Anambra. He is the last of six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Chukwuma Mojekwu of Uru-Umudim Nnewi, Anambra State. After his education, he started trading in spare parts under the name Innoson Nigeria Ltd in 1981. His company is third after Leventis and Boulos Enterprises in assembling branded motorcycles in the country.

His business has metamorphosed into four manufacturing companies namely: Innoson Nigeria Limited Nnewi, manufacturers of motorcycles, tri-cycles, spare parts and accessories; Innoson Tech. & Industries Co. Ltd Enugu, manufacturers of Household and Industrial Plastics, Health & Safety accessories, Storage containers, Fixtures & Fittings, Electrical components & accessories; Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Nnewi, manufacturers of Capacity City bus, Mini & Midi buses, Pick-Up trucks and Garbage Collecting vehicles; General Tyres & Tubes Co. Ltd Enugu, manufacturers of Tyres and Tubes.

The vehicles in IVM fleet range from cars, trucks, SUVs, compactors, etc . Presently, the company has made in-road into some African countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Chad, Niger, Togo.



As the first indigenous motor manufacturing company in Nigeria, he says he wanted to prove that Nigerians can do it. This he says has been proved. According to him, the inspiration to go into vehicle manufacturing was drawn from a desire to see Nigerians drive new cars. “Nigeria has become a dumping ground for second hand cars. I know it was the high price of new vehicles that made Nigerians resort to patronising old vehicles, but since we decided to manufacture the vehicles here, the price is affordable, and our people can drive new vehicles again,”

When the company began, no one gave him a chance. He recalled that not so many believe it will work, but today, ” they can attest to the fact that it’s working. People from other countries are coming to copy what I did to replicate it in their own country”. This story success has ensured employment for about 7,400 Nigerians who work in the company’s factory.

For his efforts, he has been made Deputy Chairman, Board of Trustees, National Coalition for Jonathan/Sambo Presidency, November 2013; The honorary Life Vice President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture (NACCIMA) on November 23, 2013; Ambassador for Peace by St. Andrews Anglican Church, Trans Ekulu, Enugu, April, 2012; Entrepreneur of the Year by Wesley University of Science and Technology, Akure, Ondo State, March 2012.

He is also Most Outstanding Indigenous Entrepreneur in the Manufacturing Sector by Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA) in January 2012; National Council Member, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. Conferred the National Honour of the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) on November 2011 by His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan; Awarded Doctorate Degree in Business Administration (DBA) by Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu in November 2011 amongst several other awards. Dr. Chukwuma who loves playing tennis is married to Ebele and they are blessed with children.

During an earlier interview with him, he recalls that : “I started as a small business man dealing on spare parts at Nnewi. At that time, people were bringing only second hand motorcycles to Nigeria, and I felt there should be a way to reduce the price of the new ones, so that people will be interested enough to buy new ones, rather than the second hand motorcycles.

“I travelled overseas and found out that there were four companies importing motorcycles into Nigeria. First was Leventis that was bringing the Honda brand, the second company was Yamaco that was bringing Yamaha, the other company was Bolus that was bringing Suzuki and the fourth was CFAO that was bringing moblet.

“These were the companies that were dealing on motorcycle in Nigeria, and my company was the next one. So when I went there, I discovered that when they brought the motorcycles in crate and each crate contained one motorcycle which took a lot of space and you can put about 40 units in one 40ft container. In one container with 40 units of motorcycles in a 40ft container, the motorcycle will become expensive. So after evaluating it, I went to overseas and packed 200 units in one 40ft container and my price came down by 40%. Of course, this was cheaper.”

How was he able to pack 20 units into one container? His response was simply ingenious:

“Because of my experience in spare parts, I knocked it down and brought them here, and arranged mechanics to assemble them, to couple them manually. The first five containers I brought in took me about three months to sell. I went back and brought another ten containers which took me about one month. I went and brought twenty containers and it took one week, and when I brought fifty containers, people were now paying in advance before they landed.

“There was a time I was bringing 200 containers of motorcycles every month and spread them across Nigeria. Because of that idea, my own price was cheaper by 40%, before other people saw what I was doing and followed suit. That is why today, motorcycle price crashed to N60, 000 from a high price of N150, 000 in the past.

“It was in the course of doing this that I discovered that there are a lot of plastics in a motorcycle, and that is one of the reasons I set up a plastic plant to produce the plastics components locally. These are some of the things I did to bring down the cost of motorcycle to about N60,000. Today, nobody thinks of buying second hand motorcycle anymore in Nigeria. Everybody wants to buy new one because new one is cheap, and I am going to do the same thing with motor vehicles.

“In the near future, you find out that all these “Tokunbo” vehicles in Nigeria will not work out as people will prefer the new ones. With the support of Nigerians, we will see that we will be there.

“Today, we are importing engines; we are importing certain components for motor manufacturing, but after sometimes, we will make them here. With the support of Nigerians and the government we will make everything here, then Nigeria will be the first in Africa to manufacture full made in Nigeria vehicles. According to Dr. Chukwuma, the vehicle factory was set up for the entire African continent and not Nigeria alone.

Said he said: “In the near future, I’m sure we will take over the motor business in Africa. This of course is with the support of Nigerians.” To this end, the federal government has directed all MDAs to patronise locally made vehicles and other goods. Inspite of this good intention and directive of the federal government, Dr. Chukwuma observed that “sometimes some ministries would prefer Toyota or other brands that they have used for 50 years. They don’t want to try our made-in-Nigeria brand. But the ministries that have taken the bold step of using our products, are happy they did”.

The Innoson boss would boast beating his chest that the Innoson brand is comparable to any in the world and that spare parts are no problem. “Presently, our manufacturing plant at Nnewi is built to service the entire African continent, and good enough we have been meeting up with market demands. Our strategy is to plan futuristically, knowing that huge orders will come, and as it stands today, we are able to meet up with the huge demands. We have the manpower and modern technology to cope with expected challenges.”

Recently, at the Federal Executive Council meeting, the Minister of Trade and Investment revealed that the multinational Nissan company has written that they want to partner with Innoson in vehicle manufacturing in Nigeria. While Dr. Chukwuma, acknowledged this development, he was not so willing to let the cat out of the bag. According to him, I’m aware that they have made such move, and on our part, we are ready to go into any cooperation that will boost the nation’s economy, and lead to increased productivity and provision of jobs for our youths.

         vanguardngr.com/2014/01/innocent-chukwuma-innovative-entrepreneur-2013/

Dangote, the man with a Midas touch

When on 10th of April 1957, a male child was born in Kano, little was heard or known of the child. Like Shakespeare wrote in one of his epic books, Julius Caesar, when beggars die there are no comets seen but the heavens themselves blaze the death of Princes. In some dynasty and royalties, when kings are born, they are celebrated. That was not the case in Kano when Aliko Dangote was born. He was just like any other child. He, like other children, learnt to crawl, walk and run. He cried like others but at school he was focused on what he chose to do.

He probably discovered his destiny early enough and keyed into it. In his words: “I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets (sugar boxes) and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.” Dangote, right from when he was young had his eyes on business.

He had always, as all real entrepreneurs do, see opportunities where others see high risk and failure. In an atmosphere of difficulty, when others would have given up, he took the risk. He is known for taking great risks in a highly risky environment.

He has grown to have a Midas touch in every business he ventured into. He started as a commodity trader, he made success of it, he entered into sugar refining, and he made success of it. He set up cement manufacturing; he has made a huge success of it.

Now he is venturing into petroleum product refining. His hard work has set him apart to the envy of his detractors who only see in him as a beneficiary of government waiver and concession. But there are others who have had the same benefit but could not make any thing tangible from it.

That has brought success to him, his family, state and his country. He has invested in the various sectors of the Nigerian economy and across the African continent thus creating millions of direct and indirect jobs in the continent of Africa. He has become a business colossus that bestrides the global business environment, making him the richest African today.

In one of the articles written by Jonathan Berman in Harvard Business review entitled American CEOs should Stop Complaining about Uncertainty, he wrote how uncertainty has not deterred Aliko Dangote from investing in Nigeria and across Africa. In the write- up Barman said: “This month, the chief executive officers of America’s biggest companies went on a media blitz to decry the uncertainty caused by the fiscal cliff. In such uncertain times, they say, they are hesitant to invest in the US economy.

I departed Washington in the midst of these rumblings to attend a forum of Africa’s leading CEOs. Here’s a quick sample of the scheduled participants: Aliko Dangote, CEO of Dangote Cement. He’s building a $2 billion fertilizer plant in his native Nigeria. He recently announced the next two growth markets for sizeable investment by his group are Iraq and Myanmar.

“For Dangote and many other executives in frontier markets, uncertainty is not the inhibitor of opportunity. It is the condition in which opportunity arises. That is a reasonable perspective to look for in American CEOs as well.” The moving force behind private enterprise all over the world is what Adam Smith described as the invisible hand that allocates resources in the most uncertain environment.

It is real entrepreneurs that see opportunity in very risky areas, yet go in there with the hope of making profit. Business is about taking risk and any local entrepreneur that is not ready to take risk is not a genuine businessman. Dangote saw opportunities in the very uncertain and tough business environment in Nigeria. From trading in rice, sugar and other commodities, he veered into manufacturing in an environment many foreign and local investors see as very risky.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s business empire is estimated at a net worth of $20.8 billion as of November 2013 spanning interests in commodities with operations in Nigeria and several other countries in Africa , including Benin , Cameroon , Togo , Ghana , South Africa and Zambia . Dangote in 2013 was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 43rd richest person in the world and the richest man in Africa based on his investment and the listing of his companies’ interest at the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Taking some of his companies to the exchange has given other Nigerians opportunities to share in his success and has shown that he operates his companies in an open manner.

.Early life

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a northerner, precisely from Kano State, Nigeria was born on the 10th of April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family. He studied business from the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and thereafter returned to Nigeria to borrow from his uncle Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata. The uncle (Dantata) eventually gave him a loan of N500,000 when he was just 21 years old to start his own business.

Business career

The Dangote Group which started as a small trading firm was established in the year 1977. Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin , Ghana , Nigeria , and Togo . At present, Dangote has enlarged his line of businesses to also cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar and cement market in Nigeria and is a major sugar supplier to the Nigeria’s soft drink companies, breweries , and confectioners . The Dangote Group has also moved from being a trading company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria and these include: Dangote Sugar Refinery , Dangote Cement , and Dangote Flour just to mention but a few. He plans to set up the largest petroleum product refinning facility in Nigeria.

In the month of July 2012, he approached the Nigerian Ports Authority with the idea of leasing an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, which was welcomed and approved. He later went to build facilities for his flour company there. In the 90’s, he approached the Central Bank of Nigeria with a proposal that it would be cheaper for the bank to allow his transport company manage their fleet of staff buses which was also approved.

He owns the Obajana cement plant which is the largest cement manufacturing facility in Africa. Apart from these, Dangote Group owns salt factories and flour mills and also a major importer of rice, fish, pasta and fertilizer. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas.

The company employs over 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in the whole of West Africa. Dangote is also exploring the telecommunications sector and has started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria and as a result, he was honoured in January 2009 as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, continues to expand his publicly traded Dangote Cement across the continent, announcing plans to build new plants in Kenya and Niger. With operations in about eight countries, it is the largest cement manufacturer in sub-Sahara Africa.

In May, 2013 Dangote said he would build a $9 billion oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Nigeria. When completed, it will be Nigeria’s first and Africa’s largest petroleum refinery.

His words; “As an investor who believes in Nigeria, knows Nigeria well and whose prosperity was made in Nigeria, we have responded to the challenge with our decision to invest $ 9 billion in a refinery/petrochemical and fertilizer complex to be located at the OKLNG Free Trade Zone. This complex will be the largest industrial complex project ever in the history of our great nation.

The project had effectively taken off, with the award of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to Saipem of Italy for the fertilizer plant. The Basic Engineering Design and optimisation for the refinery has also been awarded. When completed, the fertilizer plant would produce 2.75 metric tons per annum of urea and ammonia; while the refinery would process 400, 000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The refinery would produce a higher grade of premium motor spirit, popularly known as petrol, compared to what is currently being imported into the country. According to him, in addition to high grade petrol, the refinery would produce diesel, aviation fuel, household kerosene, slurry as raw material for carbon black, as well as 650,000 metric tons of polypropylene per annum.

Dangote’s mission is to reverse the current situation in which Nigeria has not only become a net importer in her trade relations with nations of the world but also of products for which it has comparative advantage. He said “Our mission is to through industrialization, reverse the historical trend of the export of foreign exchange and jobs and replace it with foreign exchange conservation and job creation;” promising to replicate his success story in the cement industry where he has turned the nation from an importer to a current level of self-sufficiency and with potentials for exports within a short while.

If the refinery and the petrochemical plant come on stream, Nigeria will reclaim its place of pride as one of the largest exporters of fertilizer, refined products and other petrochemical products, to consolidate on its efforts in ensuring the rapid development and the contribution of Africa to the global economy. The billionaire plans to spend up to $350 million to build a new cement plant in the Republic of Niger which will boost Dangote Cement ’s annual output by 1.5 million tonnes.

He made the announcement after a meeting with Niger’s President Issoufou Mahamadou in the capital, Niamey. Dangote said the new cement plant will produce its own electricity and any surplus will be channeled to Niamey’s power grid. The new venture is expected to create 6,000 to 7,000 jobs. At the moment, Niger has only one cement plant, built in 1964, which produces a mere 40,000 tonnes annually. The country relies heavily on cement imports from Nigeria.

Dangote Cement is the largest cement producer on the continent and its ambitious founder is aggressively pursuing growth across the continent. In September, Dangote announced that he will invest $400 million to build a cement plant in Kenya. The company aims to achieve an annual production of 55 million tonnes by 2016 and is investing $5 billion to build cement plants across the continent.

On the 14th of November, 2011, Dangote was awarded a National Honour, Nigeria’s second highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON ) by the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan .

Apart from his business acumen, he is also a philanthropist who has collaborated with American billionaire, Bill Gates Foundation to invest the provision of health especially the eradication of polio in Africa and other parts of the world where the disease is still prevalent.


vanguardngr.com/2014/01/dangote-man-midas-touch/