Tuesday 29 September 2015

Nigerian Senate Resumes



Welcome Address by The President of the Senate, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (CON) to Senators of the 8th Senate on the Resumption of the Senate from Recess. Tuesday, 29th September, 2015.

Protocol:

Distinguished colleagues, I heartily welcome you back from our annual recess. I hope you had a very rewarding time with your families and your constituencies. I also hope that the period of recess has afforded you opportunities to reflect on the enormous task before this Senate in the months ahead. I believe that we have all resumed today with greater vigour and higher commitment to serve our fatherland and serve the cause of democracy. In the face of the great challenges that our country faces on different fronts, which urgently demands our attention, we must be prepared to put in the long extra hours to make up for the precious time we have lost for sundry reasons. As we resume today, we must demonstrate clearly to Nigerians that we are prepared to fulfill our mandates and put Nigeria first in all that we do, no matter how we feel about anything else. To behave contrary will amount to a betrayal of the confidence repose on us by our constituencies and our country as a whole.

Let me seize this moment to register my deep sadness over the death of yet-to-be-determined number of pilgrims who lost their lives in the tragic events that happened in Saudi Arabia during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage. May the Almighty Allah grant them eternal salvation and comfort their families. Even though the incident in Mecca has global ramification, we must pursue a Nigerian angle to it. By so doing, we would begin to demonstrate to Nigerians and to the world that Nigeria cares about its people and will take care of its people wherever they may be. Pursuant to this, the Senate shall seek to determine the exact number of Nigerian lives lost in the incidents and through the Federal Government of Nigeria, work with the Saudi authorities to determine the remote and immediate cause of the tragedy with the general aim of averting such occurrence in the future.

On the 17th of September, 2015, we woke to the shocking news of a military coup in Burkina Faso. This is a monster, which we thought has been wiped off the West African political landscape forever. I therefore, commend the prompt response of the leaders of ECOWAS, not only in unanimously condemning the coup, but in pushing hard to ensure that the constitutional order is restored in that country. A threat to democracy anywhere, is a threat to democracy everywhere. We must therefore remain vigilant and leave no one in doubt that only democratically elected government would be accepted on our Continent and our Sub-region.

During the recess, I attended with some of our colleagues, the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in New York, United States. The high point of that visit for me was the conversation on Boko Haram and mobilization of global support for Nigeria, especially in dealing with the serious challenges of Internally Displaced Persons and the overall development of the North East of our country. I argued that the significant military success that has been achieved under President Muhammadu Buhari must now be complemented by a robust economic strategy in form of a Global Infrastructure and Development Fund that can deliver the vital services needed by the IDPs today, and the key infrastructure they would need to live a more meaningful and more secured life in the future: homes, hospitals, schools and, of course, jobs. Even though the evolution of Boko Haram has been regional and it is primarily a Nigerian problem; the consequences in human catastrophe implicates the whole of humanity and therefore demands a global scale solution, which can only happen with the support of our richest global partners and the biggest companies around the world. The call for a Global Infrastructure and Development Fund for the North East of Nigeria, is not only an appeal to our common humanity, but a call for a global platform that would demonstrate to Boko Haram and other terrorist groups everywhere that the whole world is united against them, and will ultimately defeat them.

The biggest challenge face by our country today is the state of our economy. The dwindling oil revenue has brought enormous shock to our economy and greatly limited the capacity of government at various levels to meet even basic commitments. Our country has gone through periods of recession in the past. What we face today is however unprecedented in ramification and potential gravity. We must think hard and work hard with the Executive to achieve greater clarity in policy direction and interventions. We shall therefore commence immediately, a review of the 2015 budget and begin now to lay down the fundamental principles that would determine the 2016 budget and the philosophy of our economy in times like this. Like I mentioned earlier, legislative agenda must take precedent over all other things in this Senate. I have no doubt that we are all capable of putting in the long hours, but those long hours must be invested primarily, in debating and making the laws that would move our country forward.

We are here to proffer policy solutions and minimize hardship amongst our people. Any other objective must be secondary. The externalized distractions we have had recently have been unhelpful but I am more than ever focused and resolute to the course of our people to provide them leadership that will ease their pain and realize their dreams. It is in view of this that we set for ourselves the legislative agenda committee to help us identify priorities that will have substantial impact on the lives of our people.

In the coming days we shall be considering the report of the committee. Adopt it and immediately begin the implementation of the priorities identified. There will be need to fast track issues- not with haste but with deliberate steps and diligence that would deliver results that can stand the test of time.

We promised Nigerians that our actions would positively impact on their lives. This I intend to keep. In that light I will urge you my distinguished colleagues that we make priority the passing of bills that would ultimately and substantially expand our peoples livelihood and opportunities.

As part of our agenda, we shall also be starting the journey to deliver the E-parliament blueprint. This we believe is a vital precursor to building a strong technology infrastructure that will engender greater public participation in law-making and enable real-time interface between committees in both houses, and between both houses and civil society organizations.

I took opportunity of the recess to undertake tour of the facilities, staff offices, agencies and institutions attached to the National assembly with a view to understanding their various peculiarities and state of readiness to implement and drive the adoption of the E-parliament agenda.

This will see us leapfrog into the ranks of efficient law-making entities able to solve 21st century problems. I believe that this will leapfrog our productivity and make lawmaking in this chamber much more efficient.

As we await the list of ministerial nominees this week, I believe the presence of ministers will create the space for greater policy engagement with the Executive Arm of government and enable us to begin to respond in a more systematic manner to the various economic and social challenges before us, especially through our various Committees that will also be constituted soon. On this note, I want to urge you all my colleagues to ensure that what is uppermost in our minds as we begin the constitutional task of screening of ministerial nominees is the overall interest of our country, informed by the enormity and the urgency of the challenges before us. Once the list is submitted, let us ensure that we treat it with dispatch. We must not be held down by unnecessary politicking. The enormity of our national challenges at this time does not give room for pettiness or politics of vendetta.

Distinguished Senators, I believe you have all followed with keen interest, my trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. I shall avoid discussing the details of that case here for obvious reasons. But let me say it again, that I am ready and will submit myself to the entire judicial process as provided by law. Meanwhile, I wish to reiterate my remarks before the Tribunal, that I have no iota of doubt that I am on trial today because I am the president of the Nigerian Senate, against the wishes of some powerful individuals outside this Chambers. But what is clear to me also, is that the laws of Nigeria, and the rules of the National Assembly give consideration only to the wishes and desires of those of you who are here today as members of the Senate, to elect as you wish, one of your peers as President of the Senate. This, in your wisdom, is what you have done by electing me to be the first among all of you who are my equals. The laws of Nigeria do not give any consideration to any other forces outside the Senate in the election of its President. And to yield the ground on this note, is to be complicit in the subversion of democracy and its core principles of separation of powers as enshrined in our constitution. This is why we must once again, commend President Muhammadu Buhari, for refusing to interfere in the election of the National Assembly leadership even in the face of enormous pressures on him to do so. He has proven quite concretely that he is indeed a born-again democrat.

Too many people have fought and died for the democracy that we enjoy today. We would not be honouring them and their memories if we allow the sad chapters of our history to continue to repeat themselves like a bad curse. As for me, I am prepared to do my duty in defence of our democracy and in safeguarding the independence of the National Assembly. My duty, as I see it, is to do justice and honour to the memory of those who have paid even higher prices to give us this democracy and this constitution. Primarily as a Senator of the Federal Republic and as Senate President I owe it to this Senate to stand strong in the face of relentless persecution. I invite all of you to stand with me to defend this Senate and preserve its sanctity. Ultimately, our legacies would not be defined by how long we stay here and in whatever position; but by what we did with this great opportunity that our people have given us by the grace of Almighty God.

In the next couple of days, we would be celebrating our 55th Independence Anniversary as country. This is an auspicious moment for us to rededicate ourselves to all that which will advance our nation, move us closer to the dreams of our founding fathers and our attain our destiny as the greatest nation of the black race on the planet. All that we seek for our country is achievable in our life time if we all play our part and forsake our old ways. But the least we must do is to ensure that while we are here, we are able to lay the necessary foundation for our children and their children to live a more prosperous life.

Distinguished Senators, once again, I welcome all of you and thank you for your abiding support and confidence in my leadership. Ladies and Gentlemen, Let’s start our work!


Senator (Dr) Abubakar Bukola Saraki, CON
President of the Senate

Monday 28 September 2015

I’LL FULFIL MY ELECTORAL PROMISES, AMBODE ASSURES


Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode over the weekend assured Lagosians that he would fulfill the electoral promises he made to the people, especially in the areas of infrastructural renewal.

The Governor, who spoke at the 2015 Ojude Oba Epe Festival held at the Epe Recreation Ground, Epe, said the infrastructural renewal drive of the previous administration in the state will receive adequate attention in the course of his administration.

“One of the things that we did promise during the campaign is that we would continue with the infrastructural development of my predecessor and at the same time improve on it and that’s what we’ve started with areas where we feel that there are immediate palliatives that we can give, we have done that but more importantly, is for us to improve on the network in which Mr. Babatunde Fashola had actually laid down”, he said.

Governor Ambode said he used the first three months of his administration to set up an institutional framework, assuring that going forward, Lagosians will begin to witness development across the state.

“I have no choice, I have to do it for all Lagosians, that’s what I am committed to do, I have said I am going to be selfless about service and that’s what I am going to do and you will see it. What I have done in the last three months is to set up the institutional framework and If you want to build a house, you have to lay the foundation, you will now see what I’ll be doing in the next three and half years, just watch and you would see it”, he said.

He also assured the people of Epe that development will also get to the area, saying aside being a native of Epe, the town has witnessed less development in recent times. “For Epe, you can see, in terms of the rural local governments, Epe is the most rural and in terms of the divisions, Epe is the least of all the five divisions. So for them, the best thing we can do is to increase the infrastructural development here in Epe and also help them to develop in other areas”, the Governor said

How Sadiq Daba emerged Africa’s Best Actor




Nigeria’s seasoned actor and broadcaster Sadiq Daba has been adjudged the Best Actor in a Leading Role as Inspector Danladi Waziri in Kunle Afolayan’s thriller, October 1, at the 11th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) held Saturday night in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

At the glittering ceremony, Daba was announced the best ahead of Tony Kroroge (Cold Harbour); Sdumo Matshali (INumber Number); Abdoul Kareem Konate (RUN) and Gerard Essomba (Le President).

During the night, Afolayan’s ‘October 1’ also clinched awards in two other categories: Best Nigerian Film and Best Costume Design.

Nollywood stars, Ini Edo and Queen Nwokoye lost out to Angola’s Lesliana Pereira in the Best Actress in a Leading Role. Pereira’s role in the movie, “Njinga: Queen of Angola” fetched her the AMAA 2015 statuette.

AMAA 2015 Best Actress in a Supporting Role went to Hilda Dokubo (Stigma). Kemi Lala Akindoju won the Best Promising Actor for her role in the movie “Dazzling Mirage”. She shared the honour with Hassan Spike Insingoma who thrilled in Uganda crime drama “Boda Boda Thieves”. Best Comedy Film was clinched by Ayo ‘AY’ Makun’s “30 Days in Atlanta”.

Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako shone brightly at the ceremony as his film “Timbuktu” clinched the highest number of awards. Sissako emerged the Best Director with his film also won AMAA 2015 Best Film and Best Film in an African Language. Timbuktu also won in the Best Editing category. The Best Child Actor honour went to Layla Walet Mohammed and Mehdi A.G Mohammed – Timbuktu.

Also on AMAA 2015 honour list was Mauritius’ Lobraz Khan who won double statuettes for Best Sound and Best Cinematography.

South Africa’s “iNumber Number” won the Best Visual Effects and Best Production Design. Best Actor in a Supporting Role went to Samson Tadesa for his delivery in “Triangle Going to America”; Best First Feature Film by a Director was won by Destiny Ekeragha for “Gone Too Far”; Best Make-up: Njinga: Queen of Angola – Angola and Best Soundtrack: Triangle: Going to America – Ethiopia.

Others are Best Screen Play: Le President; Best Short Film: Twaaga – Burkina Faso; Best Animation: The Legacies of Rubies – Nigeria; Best Documentary: Egypt Modern Pharaohs – Egypt; Best Film by an African Living Abroad: Fevers – France/Morocco and Best Diaspora Short Film: Sound of Tears – Canada. The Best Diaspora Documentary award was won by “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” – USA; Best Diaspora Feature: Supremacy – USA.

Special Jury Award went to Le President – Cameroon and Triangle: Going to America – Ethiopia.

Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed on Tony Vander Heyden and Posthumous Award was bestowed on late Oronto Douglas, a top aide of former Nigeria president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Africa Magic and Kingsley Ogoro were both awarded Special Recognition by AMAA organisers. Elated Dayo Ogunyemi, AMAA CEO thanked everyone especially filmmakers and the audience for making this year’s AMAA a success. It was first AMAA awards night to be held outside Nigeria

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/09/how-sadiq-daba-emerged-africas-best-actor/

Saturday 26 September 2015

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI’S SPEECH AT THE 70TH UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY


STRENGTHENING THE MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND ENSURING AN AIDS – FREE GENERATION BY 2030 THROUGH THE ELIMINATION OF MOTHER TO CHILD TRANSMISSION OF HIV: A DUAL IMPERATIVE FOR NIGERIA

STATEMENT BY:
HIS EXCELLENCY MUHAMMADU BUHARI
PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
AT THE 70TH UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK ON 25TH, SEPTEMBER 2015

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome you to this important event. Let me express Nigeria’s sincere appreciation to UN-AIDS for the support and collaboration in organizing this event.

2. We are on the threshold of history as world leaders adopt the successor development agenda to the Millennium Development Goals. For over 30 years, HIV as a public health challenge has been causing havoc and untold hardship in virtually every part of the world. To date, several million children have been orphaned and some communities have been devastated, while economic activities have been disrupted.


3. Unfortunately, Sub -Saharan Africa bears a disproportionate burden of this epidemic. The good news is that the effort of the global community has resulted in greater control, less spread and better management.


4. Furthermore, we have made significant progress towards the interception of mother to child transmission of HIV. In 2014 alone, over 3million pregnant women were tested for HIV and 63,000 of these tested women, accessed anti – retroviral therapy.


Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,


5. What is required in our continued fight against HIV/AIDS is improved health delivery system, education, and cheaper production of anti – retroviral drugs through technology exchange. Our countries should also look at the whole field of medicare and strengthen our partnership with all stakeholders including the civil society, inter- faith and cultural bodies for education and dissemination of information at all levels. Nigeria will also like to call upon all pharmaceutical companies for more cooperation and understanding in reducing the cost of anti – retroviral drugs through production of generic items.


Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,


6. Nigeria will continue to work with development partners and key stakeholders to strengthen the means of implementation of the SDGs as elaborated in the Post- 2015 Development Agenda. At the continental level, Nigeria remains fully committed to the outcome of the Abuja process as evident in the 2002 Declaration, the Action Framework on Roll – Back Malaria. In addition, the 2013 Abuja + 12 Declaration is a strong commitment towards eliminating HIV and AIDs in Africa by 2030. Globally, the United Nations Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS of 2011 is a major reference point for intensifying efforts to eliminate the epidemic.

7. Nigeria appreciates the support of our development partners for their support and commitment to the total eradication of HIV/AIDs, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as other deadly communicable diseases, for example Ebola, when an epidemic arises.


8. I therefore encourage you to continue in your efforts to sustain the fight against infant and maternal deaths, HIV and AIDs, Tuberculosis, Malaria and other communicable diseases, high on the global development agenda.

9. Let us work together to make HIV and AIDs history by 2030.

10. I thank you.

Friday 25 September 2015

24-yr-old Nigerian Software Engineer builds Artificial Intelligence Robot at Sri Lankan University



 A Nigerian Software Engineering student, Bobai Ephraim Kato, has built a functional Artificial Intelligence robot as his final year project at the International College of Business and Technology(ICBT), Sri Lanka.

Kato, a 24-year old from Kaduna State, personally built the robot and developed the algorithm that enabled it solv the famous Rubik cube puzzle in a manner of minutes. It was not an easy journey to success because he had to deal with an unimpressed supervisor and a lot of failures in the course of the project.

Do read more from Kato as he shares insight into his academic journey, challenges and eventual success.

An early love for computing


'I’m a self-directed learner willing to experiment with new things; with a high level of contextual and technological insight. I was a science student who loved computing and technology, I represented my school in computer competitions but I was never successful in any, and that discouraged me.

I knew I was really doing well in Chemistry, Physics and Biology, so I thought I will do well if I went after a medical career. In my final year in secondary school I became the health prefect and that confirmed to me that I was going to be a doctor.

I have received awards in sports including Athletics, Basketball, and Chess and I also won the best singer for a music competition here in Sri Lanka in 2014'.

Tough Getting Into University

After completing my secondary school in 2009, I wrote JAMB exams twice applying for Medicine Course in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, but I never got admitted. I also tried the university’s remedial school and still wasn’t admitted. I then decided to change my choice of university and applied to the Kaduna State University (KASU) where I was granted the admission to study medicine. Unfortunately, on the day of my course registration I wasn’t allowed to register because I had not passed English in WAEC. So I moved on to the KASU remedial school.

It was during my remedial that I decided to try NIIT (National Institute of Information Technology) scholarship exams in which I emerged the second highest. The scholarship and that granted me a chance to return to computing. I then decided to leave the remedial school to register with NIIT to study software Engineering. After completing a year in NIIT my cousin decided to get me an admission in Sri Lanka Institute of Technology (SLIIT).

Going overseas and starting over


I left NIIT and travelled down to Sri Lanka. When I got to Sri Lanka in 2012, I started University all over again. I completed my first semester in SLIIT but I wasn’t happy in the school because they focused more on IT (Information Tech) while I wanted software Engineering. I then decided to leave SLIIT to Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) which was affiliated to University of Westminster UK.

So I then started university over again, I stayed in IIT for 2 years and I completed my diploma and advance diploma. My third year at IIT required that I take an internship for a year before I complete the fourth year. But I couldn’t take an internship because of my visa status which clearly stated that I’m not allowed to work, paid or unpaid job.

I then left IIT in 2014 to ICBT to complete my degree in software Engineering (2015 September 20th).

Accidental Project?

To be honest I didn’t plan to make the project this great. I didn’t know it will happen. I guess it’s safe to say that I randomly chose the idea for my final year project, it has nothing to do with my passion and future plans. Though I took a module called Artificial Intelligent System while studying in the university and that module was just so interesting, I learnt some few AI languages and I was able to do a mini project called WINE QUALITY TEST software which uses and Artificial Intelligence to determine the quality of a wine drink. This software used some data set for its prediction. I enjoyed the whole development process.

Coming to my final year project we was all asked to do a software that uses AI (artificial intelligence) for predictions and solutions; that got me worried because I barely came up with an idea. So I decide to spend time making research and I came up with something. I proposed to do a robot that solves puzzles, I wasn’t sure what puzzles as I had a lot in mind but I final choose the Rubik cube puzzle.

I then decide to make further research on what tools to use and I found out that there are many tools out there that I can use for a robotic design.

Building the Robot in the midst of disappointment


I then started developing the algorithm to solve the Rubik cube. My supervisor was never impressed with the progress all he cared about was to see a robot working. I spent most of the time researching and he thought I wasn’t going to make it happen.

I was able to create the algorithms that solves the puzzle. I created 16 different algorithms which served as set of skills for the robot. With these sets of skills, I used an artificial intelligence language called ‘R’ to develop a pattern for the robot to choose the best skills to solve the puzzle. So basically R was the AI part of my robot. It’s very easy to use. I also had a database where the new skills are saved. So the more the robot solves the cube the more intelligent it becomes.

I spent two nights building the robot and after completing the construction, I installed the software which serves as the brain into a memory card for testing.

My first 5 tests were a failure. The robot always shot a scanning error, and this was a week to my final submission. All I could do was pray. I didn’t know what to do again. I was confused and restless. I kept grinding and it finally started working. At that stage, the robot wasn’t intelligent enough and I had to train it to solve many puzzles to get more skills to save in the database.

It was very hard for me because I can’t even solve the Rubik cube myself. The robot is smarter than me in that aspect.

Coming back to save Nigeria

My focus now is on Forensic computing, Cyber Security and Digital Investigation. This is the path I will love to follow for my career and education. I’m happy to return back to Nigeria as a Cyber Security and Digital forensic Tech. If anything, that’s what Nigeria needs more. We need people who are savvy and sincere in Digital Investigation, Cyber Security and Forensic computing. The world today is bent on technology, the corruption in the world today is bent on it too.

I don’t get how a country will say they can’t locate the terrorist living in the country, and I don’t get how a country will say they don’t know the sponsors on this terrorist group. They make calls, they send emails, they use the internet for many reasons, they upload videos etc. Just one among-st this list is enough to get whoever is responsible. We only need savvy and honest people to do this.

Many Nigerians have useful skills, but money determines how, where and what we use it for. My heart is to return home. To be honest I don’t have a dream of staying in a foreign country. I must tell you something I hate the fact that my current status in my life is being a foreigner. I hate the feeling that I’m not in my own country.

So I’m on a fast track back to Nigeria.

Photos 


Acknowledgement:  African Leadership

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Meet the Man Changing the Face of Print Production in Nigeria


Meet Printivo's Co-Founder and CEO, Oluyomi Ojo. He shared his inspiration for Printivo,  challenges and much more in this interview with Tech point.

Please tell us a little about your educational and professional background?

I will call myself a design entrepreneur because everything I have ever done in my life that earned me money has been something around Graphic Design and Print Production. I studied Applied Mathematics at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho. People often wonder how I transited from Applied Mathematics to Advertising and then Print Production.

While in college, I started printing and design. Back then, I would call myself a Print Broker – we create the designs and outsource to print firms. This had me shuttling between Lagos and Ogbomosho almost every week. It was just a student hustle for me. Immediately I left college, I started a Design and Advertising firm called Urbanbaze. It was my sole business. We did quite a number of projects working with brands like Etisalat, Honda and First Bank.

But I saw a niche – a market that wasn’t being catered for. That was the SMEs and that’s basically why I decided that we – my Co-Founders Ayodeji Adeogun, Ibukun Oloyede and I – should setup Printivo. It was supposed to be a side project, a print production arm of the business, for us at the agency. But right when we were about to start, it dawned on us how huge it was. So we decided to handle it as a separate business on its own.

So you probably never worked for anyone?

I took an unpaid internship when I was in 400 level. I worked in an ad agency as a graphic artist. I was supposed to run for 6 months but thanks to an ASUU strike at the time, it extended for 1 year. It was in that time I really understood what it was like to build a design business.

How much has Printivo grown since it launched a little over a year ago?

It’s been a very great journey between when we launched and now. We launched with basically 4 products – business cards, letterheads, envelopes and fliers. We’ve added greeting cards, bags, gift items, custom mugs, magic mugs, roll-up banners, posters. We are expanding the product category by the day. We are also going into merchandise products in the nearest future. We started with 4 employees and have grown to 13 employees now. We are still growing.

Without going into much details I’d say we are doing between 10 and 15x of what we were doing when we launched.

You already had Urbanbaze before Printivo. How easy was it starting up Printivo?


I always say, if you really want to succeed in something, burn the ships. When we launched Printivo, all the funding we put into Printivo was spent on setting up the business. As at the day we launched we had almost nothing left in our account. Everything had gone into acquiring machines, developing the website and setting up the business.

So it was a case of myself and the co Founder’s, Ibukun and Deji, and the few guys we started it telling ourselves we either make money from customers or this business dies. The story has been amazing since then. Yes, the first one month was tough. It was really crazy, the founders had to sacrifice salaries.

Considering that funding was a challenge, have you raised any funding rounds since then?

One of the things I tell people is, when you are building a business, there are various possibilities to funding. We had an advisory board which was made up of quite successful people in the industry and people in finance. One of the things someone on the board said to us was, “guys, when you see free money, grab it”. It didn’t sink at the moment. He was aware that as entrepreneurs we feel weird about free money.

One such channel for free money was YouWin. We have quite a large number of tech people who saw YouWin and didn’t go into it. The Federal Governement kept funding businesses that can’t even scale. Meanwhile there were some really good tech business that weren’t able to scale for lack of funding. The YouWin opportunity was there, we grabbed it. We got N7 million from there and as it came in, we told ourselves this money isn’t going into anything else besides expanding our capacity for production.

We also won an Etisalat innovation award. The $10,000 we got from that also went straight into the business.

So at the point that we discovered that we were making enough revenue to keep the business going, to pay salaries and keep operations going, every other source of money went straight into expanding our capacity.

One perception in the local tech ecosystem is that there isn’t enough funding. Some would argue that there aren’t enough good startups. What’s your take on that?


I think one of the major problems is education. When I say education, I’m not talking about going to school. I’m talking about knowing what to do to get what you want. The funding landscape in Nigeria may not really be as interesting as it is in a place like The Valley. However, there are people in Nigeria who are looking for business they can fund. Unfortunately most founders don’t even know how to raise money.

I know quite a number of founders that are building really awesome startups. However, investors are not Santa Claus. Most of them are investing other people’s money. What this means is that as you are looking for profit, an investor is also looking for profit. So you need to show your business to that guy that if he invests, there is something in it for him.

I think that is where a lot of things are missing. It’s like he that has before is he that is still having. And he that does not have still has not; those that have raised keep raising.

It is just because of a lack of information or technical know-how of Startup funding works. I didn’t come from tech into tech. I came from advertising. I’ve had six years of my life in advertising before coming into tech. So I didn’t come into tech as a startup founder. I came in as a business man. Funding wasn’t really the first thing on my mind but rather getting the business off the ground. Getting into sustainability, if not profitably, as fast as possible.

That was our first goal. Within the third month we were already making enough to keep the business going. Every other extra funding that was coming inside, we kept pumping it into exapnsion. Which is why within a year we were able to expand our category, we were able to fund constant technology development, building the team and everything else to keep the business running.

So I would say there are funds, but there may not be enough fundable businesses. What is common in this part of the world is that the idea might be great but the team is not too good.

How is Printivo able to cater to SMEs, who make small orders at a time, and still keep the business profitable?

For us, one of the most important parts of our business is Print Production. A larger percent of our revenue comes from that. We have 3 customer segments – the small scale businesses who come to the website to place their orders, the graphic designers, who order on behalf of their clients and corporations and multinationals.

We print at nearly the cheapest prices and SMEs still order in small scale. At first when we started Printivo, we saw ourselves as a tech enabled business. But as we continued in the business, we suddenly realised that there was a hardly a week that we weren’t iterating development projects on the side. At a point we realised that we are not just a tech enabled business, we are actually a tech business.

So behind what you see on the frontend of the site, is core tech, in terms of how we print and manage orders such that when we have multiple small orders, we are able to print them and still scale. Our entire process is powered by tech. I can’t go into the full details.

We noticed your are strategically situated in the outskirts of Shomolu, Nigeria’s printing capital

We are actually in Yaba. Where we are situated is a part of the Yaba local government. Yaba is just 5 to 10 minutes drive from here. But we decided to move this close to the printing hub of Lagos primarily for logistic reasons.

The supply chain is right next door. While we control 100% of our production unit, supply services are important to the business. Mind you, we are a heavy production business, meaning we are going to need engineers, print material suppliers. So being here reduces our cost of logistics for those things. It also reduces the level of inventory we have to keep. It makes the business run without so much friction

Do you see Printivo as competing against the brick and mortar Printing Presses of Shomolu?

The bigger vision for Printivo is not to compete. If you look at the printing industry globally, people say it is declining. That’s not true. You first need to understand that there is a huge difference between print production and print media. Print media refers to newspapers and the like. Print production refers to production of marketing material. The Print Production market is growing at 20% globally every year. New technologies are being brought in to make things easier and a lot more seamless.

Now for a market like Nigeria, we have barely scratched the surface. This is a market that cannot even meet its demand. The moment Nigeria hits ’ember months, every printing press is in chaos. We should ask, why can’t Nigerian printers meet deadlines? We all grew up to know that printers are very big disappointments. We’ve had instances where what you ordered would be delivered to you at the venue of your wedding. Or even as you are rounding up the event. Why is it like that? It’s because the industry has more demand than supply.

So we don’t see ourselves as competing with anybody. We see ourselves as giving our customers better options to what they’re used to. Nigerian customers are used to sitting at the printing press. They’re used to using their phones to chase the printer about. They’re used to waiting for weeks before they get their orders. They’re used to printers picking one order from them and waiting to get 10 other orders before they produce. We are changing that. We have changed that.

Now you can sit in your house in Abuja, place order on Printivo and have it shipped to you within days. Now the graphic designer who usually would have to leave her system and go to the print shop can easily order on Printivo and ship to the customer’s address directly, giving her time to focus on her core business which is designing.

We don’t see ourselves as competing with printers who can’t even meet their demand. We see ourselves creating a new option for customers to order.

We noticed Printivo doesn’t offer Pay on Delivery. Why is that?

We are a mass customization company. If we have tens of thousands of orders, each order is unique. We cannot afford to play with returns in our segment. If an order is returned, it is a lose-lose for us. We’ve lost on the cost of logistics of shipping to that customer. We’ve lost on the cost of actually getting that order ready for production

Nobody wants to really talk about the pain of supporting Pay on Delivery but the reality is that it is a serious pain for everybody in the eCommerce business in Nigeria. The return rate is something else but nobody wants to talk about it. We cannot afford that.

However we are building trust with our customers such that if we deliver to you and in any case you don’t like your delivery, you can be 100% sure that we will reprint. We are here to make our customers happy. As long as the product has been paid for, we can go any length to satisfy our customers.

We also have money back guarantee. So if you are not satisfied with your order and we are unable to fix it, we will refund your money. That is better than offering Pay on Delivery.

What kind of customers do you see using your web platform? My impression is that majority of your target audience are not internet-savvy.

Apart from being online, we have a call-to-order option were you can instruct the team on how to create your order.

We also have account executives who handle big organizations that order in bulk. Our B2B customers whose specifications are too unique to be ordered with standard templates on the website. To put it better, we are an hybrid of online and offline. However a larger part of our orders are online. Also we realise that we are growing a market. We are reaching customers with something they are not used to. So we have to be ready to bend their way. We have customers who are not very tech savvy who find our site and prefer to call. We have a team than converts such customers.

What is your biggest motivation?

Our biggest motivation is watching customers grow. It is really amazing working with SMEs. You actually get to see first-hand the real core of the economy. Things that you never knew could be monetized, you see customers in that segment ordering marketing materials. And within months, this person that started with just a pack of 100 business cards for herself, will order for an increasing number of employees. Soon she is ordering for materials to open her official office. We are seeing our customers grow. You see the real effect of SMEs at work. It is something we see every now and then. It is part of the things that motivates us.

What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs in the system?


Like I said earlier I am new in tech. I came only 2 years ago. But I have always been around tech. There is something that I have noticed that really needs to change.

I see people seeking funding first before starting up. Just start. From day one of your business, think of how you are going to get revenue.

The best person that can keep your business afloat is your customer. Nigerian startups focus too much on investors money. Then months after the Startup is dead. Why? Because there are no customers to pay. If you focused on customers from day one, one thing will happen. You will stay in business till investors eventually come. And when they come, they will find paying customers, which is what investors are looking for.

In short, focus on customers money from day one. Not just that, deliver results and value. If you do that, you will stay in business, no matter how bad things get, till when investors eventually come so you can expand. But if you focus on investors money from day one, you may not get customers. You may not even get investors and if you’re not careful, you will be out of business.

Acknowledgment: Techpoint.ng




Monday 21 September 2015

Onalo: Unmasking Nigeria’s Mr. Credit





• How He Founded Credit Management In Nigeria

By Tope Templer Olaiya

Prof. Chris Onalo is not your usual Nigerian, who relishes in hugging the limelight, but he is definitely a man adept at multi-tasking. He is one of those very few individuals around who are known to possess more than one business call cards, as he is at present the Registrar/CEO of the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA), President/CEO of the Postgraduate School of Credit and Financial Management which is Nigeria’s frontline credit management higher educational Institution for credit professionals, Managing Director/CEO of Credit Business Services (CBS), Director of Nigerian London Business Forum (NILOBF), and General Overseer of the House of God Fellowship Church (HGF).

While Onalo will go down in history books as the man who saw tomorrow and brought credit management to Nigeria just the same way Mr. Akintola Williams introduced accountancy to the country, the heights attained today began with small steps.

“Life is a journey from the known to the unknown. The unknown; is what makes it riddled with so many uncertainties,” he said while recounting how his voyage to become the doyen of credit management started. “You never can tell what is planned ahead. It is only God that knows that.”
Obviously, like the fabled Andrew at the time, Onalo was tempted to ‘check out’ and return to the United States of America, where he got his training in credit management. “I knew I had to tighten my belt to face up to the task. I didn’t know where it came from, but I suddenly had the power of creativity, resilience, patience and adaptability and all these kept me going when it was tough. Several people were discouraging me and advising that I should change course since our economy will always be cash driven and it will never change in the next 50 years.

“Besides, credit management is not in the educational curriculum nor in the knowledge skills of Nigerian professionals then, you will never read it in any university. It was tough for me. I received rejections from CEOs, executive directors and people who were not thinking beyond their present circumstance. I battled this frustration between 1983 to the early 90s.”

All these sacrifices came at a huge personal cost to ‘Mr. Credit’; one of which was that for most part of his adult life till date, Onalo has found it extremely difficult to keep any savings. “I couldn’t have any savings because I was running a graduate school of credit administration, which name was later changed to Postgraduate School of Credit and Financial Management. I also introduced the first magazine on credit management in Nigeria because it was strange to the media at the time; yet I needed a mass media platform.

“It has taken a lot from me. The struggle is no longer to put food on the table, but rather to institutionalize the virtues of giving, taking, managing and facilitating credit management in our private, public and national life. As a result of these, I have lived most of my adult life without savings. It was a tug of war to build my house and presently, I have no house in my village. If my mother of about 125 years drops dead today, I have no personal house in my village to keep my guests (he laughs).

“Secondly, the ICA, which I singlehandedly founded took me 12 years to scale through the legal processes because some indigenous professional institutes thought the only way to remain relevant was to ensure other professional institutes are not registered.

“This was a major stumbling block, particularly coupled with the fact that you need to be cleared by the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation before an organization whose name begin with the word “Institute” can be registered in the country,” he added




Today, the Institute of Credit Administration has become a formidable, highly regarded national body for all matters relating to credit management in Nigeria, imparting strongly on business credit stakeholders namely, credit givers, credit takers, credit facilitators and managers of credits, including public institutions which in one way or the other inspired the growth and development of credit economic system in the country.

Now close to his 60s, the only thing Onalo has known and committed his energy to is credit management. He sleeps, wakes, dreams and breathes credit management. With benefit of hindsight, he has seen how dangerous it is to live on a cash and carry system as a nation and from examples of other countries; he could spend hours elucidating on the benefits of a fully developed and robust credit system.

After more than three decades of living his dream as a career credit economist, he was early this year duly acknowledged as the Father of Credit Management in Nigeria and earned his nickname as Mr. Credit, when the London Postgraduate Credit Management College (LPCMC) in collaboration with its affiliate universities across the world appointed Onalo as professor of Credit Management.

In late July, he midwifed the third in the annual series of the United Kingdom (UK)-Nigeria Economic Forum organized by the Nigerian London Business Forum (NILOBF) in Kingsway Hall Hotel, London. With the theme: Partnership for Mutual Benefits, the Metrics that Matter, business managers, political leaders and representatives of strong business interests of the two countries met in a no-holds barred interactive session to espouse on the beneficial bilateral relationships between Nigeria and UK.

The key objective of NILOBF is to promote and attract trade and investments, support or oppose legislation or other policies and measures, capable of affecting trade, investment, and business between Nigeria and the UK, as well as representing the opinion of Nigerian business community on those issues and the economy as a whole.

Success, as defined by Booker Washington, is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, but by the obstacles, which he has to overcome. It is the obstacles, rather than the successes that define the journey of one of Nigeria’s unsung heroes today.


Press Release: NNPC secures $1.2 bn Alternative Funding Arrangement for 36 Oil Wells

. Project to Generate Additional $5bn into Federation Account

. Inject 127 MMscfd Gas (equivalent of 400 megawatts) to Boost Domestic Power Generation

. Kachikwu Says New Deal to Serve as Template for Upstream Financing 
 
In a landmark move designed to supplement the Federal Government’s Cash- Call commitment, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has secured a $1.2 bn multi-year drilling financing package for 36 Offshore/Onshore Oil wells under the NNPC/Chevron Nigeria Limited Joint Venture.

The funding package which is being financed by a consortium of Nigerian and international lenders is an integral part of the Accelerated Upstream Financing Programme initiated by NNPC to address the perennial challenge experienced by the Federal Government in providing its counter-part funding of JV upstream activities.

It also envisaged that the initiative apart from supplementing the Cash-Call commitment would help in the maintenance of current production levels in the short term as well as replacing depleting reserves.

Breakdown of the NNPC/Chevron JV deal which was executed at a signing-ceremony in London over the weekend indicates that the $1.2bn is to be channeled into the development of 23 onshore and 13 offshore wells on OML 49, 90 and 95 in two stages over 2015-2018.

Stage one, comprising 19 wells, is projected to deliver 21, 000 barrels of crude oil and condensate per day alongside 120, 000million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscf/d) over 2015 and 2016.

Stage two, comprising 17 wells, is projected to yield 20, 000 barrels of crude oil and condensate per day alongside gas production of 7 mmscf/d between 2016 and 2018.

It is envisaged that both stages of the project would generate $2 to $5 billion of incremental revenue to the Federation account.

Beyond the contribution to the national treasury, the projected peak incremental gas production of 127 mmscf/d, which is the electricity equivalent of 400 megawatts, would help boost the Federal Government’s domestic gas aspirations with expectant positive effect on power supply.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, described the new alternative funding arrangement as the new contractual model in upstream financing which would serve as a template for future initiative to supplement the Federal Government’s Joint Venture Cash Call commitment.

While commending the NNPC/ Chevron Joint Finance Team and the Consortium of local and international lenders led by Standard Chartered Bank and UBA for a job well done, the GMD noted that the Corporation will not relent in the renewed effort to restore probity and transparency to the process of generation, collection and remittance of crude oil proceeds.

“I have always believed that issues of Federation Accounts must be left sacrosanct and not be toyed with. The Accelerated Upstream Financing Programme is designed to help us achieve this objective,’’ he said.

Clay Neff, Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited pledged the readiness of Chevron to work assiduously with the NNPC to meet its set target in the project.

With the completion of its financing, Project Cheetah stands as the pioneer project under the Accelerated Upstream Financing Programme of the NNPC. The project is operated under the NNPC/CNL JV which is owned on a 60-40 basis in favour of the NNPC.

The NNPC/CNL Joint Venture is reputed as the 3rd largest producer in Nigeria. Project Cheetah is projected to achieve a peak incremental production of 61 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. 



OHI ALEGBE

Group General Manager

Group Public Affairs Division

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

NNPC Towers, Abuja

Saturday 19 September 2015

Reasons Why Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Bashing Won't Work - Senator Ben Bruce



 I am former President Goodluck Jonathan’s senator. He is my constituent in the Bayelsa East senatorial zone that I represent in the Senate of the National Assembly and I am sufficiently aware of what he did and did not do while he was president of Nigeria.

Former President Jonathan achieved a lot of things for Nigeria during his term and I think it is a revision of history for anyone or institution to propagate the narrative that he set Nigeria back. How could that be the case when under him Nigeria became the leading economy in Africa and our average life expectancy grew from 47 years to 51.7 years which represents the single largest increase in our annals?

Thankfully, these records, especially the one for the increase in life expectancy come from no less a body than the United Nations, so no one can say that Jonathan manipulated these records.

It is not that I have set out to defend Jonathan in this piece, but I think someone has to be responsible enough to say that Jonathan is out of the picture and to continue to blame him and his administration for Nigeria’s current problems betrays a defeatist mentality by those who are engaging in that pastime. This ‘blame it all on Jonathan’ song can sustain those who sing it in the short term, but eventually it will work in Jonathan’s favour. Those in the frontline of the anti-Jonathan chorus are more responsible than anybody else for keeping Jonathan in the consciousness of Nigerians which cannot be good for the present administration.

When you are out of political office, your greatest need shifts from the need to be seen as performing to the need for relevance. It is the government in power that needs to perform. Everybody else only needs to be relevant. And Jonathan’s enemies are making him relevant.

In fact, by blaming Jonathan for all of Nigeria’s problems, his enemies make him the main issue in Nigerian politics which is good for him and not for them.

Let me use an analogy here. In the 80s, reggae music was at the zenith of its popularity and all over the world, from the Caribbean, to Europe to Africa, reggae musicians were singing mostly one song. All their songs centred around freeing Nelson Mandela. However, when Mandela was unexpectedly released in 1991, the popularity of reggae music nosedived because reggae musicians had lost their number one source of inspiration!

So, while Mandela went on to become the most relevant black man of his lifetime, those that sang about his release gradually faded away into obscurity.

Are we seeing a replay of this scenario in Nigeria? Instead of all this Jonathan bashing, should we not be more concerned about the clear and present dangers facing this nation?

For instance, Nigeria has the fastest growing population in the world. While the population of Europe is projected to shrink by 2050, Nigeria’s population is expected to surpass that of the United States and by 2100 it is projected that we will rival China’s population.

Yet, as the population of Nigeria is exploding right before our eyes, some people are talking about dismantling the Jonathan era policies that were actually preparing us for the dramatic increase in our population without themselves coming up with alternative solutions. The new song is to jettison the National Conference report which made progressive suggestions on how to make our economy and polity less dependent on oil which is a diminishing resource.

The agricultural policies of Akinwumi Adesina while he was minister of agriculture are being pooh poohed for political reasons instead of celebrating and continuing with them. The man led changes that reduced our food import bill by over $4 billion and increased our ability to feed ourselves yet we do not want to recognise that because it is a fruit from the Jonathan tree.

The Jonathan administration weeded out 50,000 ghost workers from the federal civil service through the introduction and strict compliance with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), yet instead of applauding Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for this feat, we are instead bailing out states that cannot pay workers’ salaries precisely because many of those workers are ghost workers!

Tell me who will feed us in 2050 when we have more mouths to feed than the entire populations of those countries to whom we would be looking for help? Jonathan was building schools for Almajiris and there are those insulting him for that and calling it a misplaced priority forgetting that if we do not educate the 10 million out-of-school children that the United Nations estimate exists in Northern Nigeria, a day will come when the population of out-of-school Nigerian children will be more than in-school children and the resultant effect on our national security will be nothing short of catastrophe!

Nigeria’s politics has to mature. We have to realise that once elections are over, we must all accept the outcome and learn to work with each other. It is a big, big misconception that you have to like people to work with them or to build upon what they started. If man had kept reinventing the wheel, we would never have invented the plane.

Every generation must build upon where the previous generation stopped from. That is the story of human progress since the fall of man in Eden to the Internet age of today. If Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the telephone, we would not have the Internet today. If we had complained about the complication associated with the land line and jettisoned the idea of a telephone, we would not have made progress in telephony to the point where we have mobile phones!

If every new administration keeps starting from the scratch and wastes its honeymoon period demonising its predecessor, both Nigeria and the administration may find it difficult to fulfil their potential.

Enough of this rear view mirror focus we have been regaled with these past few months. It is time to man up and take responsibility for the way things are and take action to make progress. Thankfully, not everyone has been caught up in the ‘blame it all on Jonathan’ frenzy.

Of all the present office holders, the only person that seems to have come to grips with the economic reality Nigeria finds itself in is the current Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele. His idea of introducing home grown pragmatic policies to curtail what we spend our foreign exchange on is the only saving grace that has kept the naira at the level it is in.

If not for Emefiele’s decision to stop the sale of foreign exchange for the importation of 40 items, we would have been experiencing perhaps a rate of 500 to $1. By this action, Emefiele has shut out those who previously wasted our foreign exchange importing luxury or non-essential commodities such as toothpicks, glass and glassware, kitchen utensils, tables, textiles, woven fabrics, clothes, plastic and rubber products, soap and cosmetic, tomatoes/tomato paste, margarine, palm kernel/palm oil products/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and processed vegetable products, poultry chicken, eggs, turkey private airplanes/jet and Indian incense.

Can you imagine that the CBN had been subsidising the importation of toothpicks, wheel barrows and palm oil which are products that we can conveniently produce in Nigeria? Are we going to die if we do not import Indian incense? What is that even used for in the first place? Or that at a time Nigeria had become a net exporter of cement we were still allowing people to import cement with our scarce foreign exchange?

We have millions of youths looking for jobs, yet, we were allowing people import chicken and eggs instead of financing our small and medium scale enterprises to go into such ventures which will meet our needs while providing jobs for our youths. These are the types of things that deserve our attention and I thank God Nigeria has people like Emefiele who has not allowed himself to be distracted by all the Jonathan bashing such that he is providing a steady hand at a time when other hands are unsteady.

Hopefully, those engaged in this conduct will come back to reality and stop their blame-shifting dance. If there is ever any man to blame for your present condition, it is never the man that sat in the seat you now seat on. It is always the man in the mirror!

My name is Ben Murray Bruce and I just want to make commonsense!

Senator Ben Murray Bruce is the senator representing Bayelsa East in the National Assembly and is Chairman of the Silverbird Group. His tweeter handle :@B enMurrayBruce.

Friday 18 September 2015

King Sunny Ade



Sunday Adeniyi, popularly known as "King" Sunny Adé, was born 69 years ago on the 22nd day of September 1946.

Sunny Adé is a successful Nigerian Musician, a profound Singer, a brilliant Songwriter, a wonderful multi-instrumentalist, a dazzling dancer and, of course, a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time.

The Music Grand-master was born to a Nigerian Royal Family in Ondo State, thus making him an Omoba of the Yoruba people. His father was a church organist, while his mother was a trader. Adé left grammar school in Ondo under the guise of going to the University of Lagos. There, in Lagos, his mercurial musical career started.

Sunny Adé's musical sound has evolved from the early days. His career began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form a new band, The Green Spots, in 1967. Over the years, for various reasons ranging from changes in his music to business concerns, Sunny Adé's band changed its name several times, first to African Beats and then to Golden Mercury.

In the 1970s and 1980s the Maestro embarked on a tour of America and Europe where he played to mixed (both black and white) audiences. His stage act was characterised by dexterous dancing steps and mastery of the guitar. Trey Anastasio, American guitarist, composer and one of his devout followers, once said, "If you come to see Sunny Adé live, you must be prepared to groove all night."

After more than a decade of resounding success in Africa, the Virtuoso Guitarist was received to great acclaim in Europe and North America in 1982. The global release of Juju Music and its accompanying tour was "almost unanimously embraced by critics (if not consumers) everywhere". Adé was described by The New York Times' as "one of the world's great band leaders", and in Trouser Press as "one of the most captivating and important musical artists anywhere in the world".

His next album, Syncro System (1983), was equally successful and earned him his first Grammy Award nomination in the folk/ethnic music category.

After the death of Bob Marley, Island Records began looking for another developing world artist to put on its contract, while Fela Kuti had just been signed by Arista Records. Producer Martin Meissonnier introduced King Sunny Adé to Chris Blackwell, leading to the release of Juju Music in 1982.

Robert Palmer claims to have brought King Sunny Adé to Island's attention, his familiarity being from his life on Malta in the 60s listening to African Radio and Arm Forces Radio. Many music aficionados are quick to point out that Sunny Adé's brand of music Juju could not be ignored.

Today, this seminal recording is often acclaimed as one of the most important records from Africa. Adé gained a wide following with this album and was soon billed as "the African Bob Marley".

Sunny Adé has said in the past that his refusal to allow Island to meddle with his compositions and over-Europeanise and Americanise his music were the reasons why Island then decided to look elsewhere.

Sunny has collaborated with major artists such as Manu Dibango (Wakafrika) and Stevie Wonder (played harmonica in Aura).

At the beginning of another round of tour of the United States and Canada, Sunny Adé, now known as The Chairman in Nigeria, was appointed a visiting professor of music at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. In July the same year King Sunny Adé was inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame, at the Brooklyn African Festival in the United States. He dedicated the award to the late Michael Jackson.

The ever-smiling and ever-jovial King Sunny Adé is set to mark his 69th birthday in four (4) days that is the 22nd of September 2015. Without an iota of doubt the impact he has made on the Music Industry in Yorubaland, and by extension, Nigeria at large, would be celebrated for several decades to come. 

KSA is no doubt a connoisseur of fine music.

Acknowledgment: Dawn Commission

Wednesday 16 September 2015

French Economist Warns President Buhari Against Trusting President Hollande of France


French Economist , Tiécoro Diakite, has published an open letter to President Buhari, warning him about France and it's mission in Nigeria .

Below is the Letter already translated into English


“Dear Mr. President!

The majority of Africans greeted your election to the Supreme post of Nigeria. The Federation of Nigeria, the largest truly independent African country is the matter of pride and dignity of African people. Your predecessor had relegated Nigeria to the level of Francophone African countries under neo-colonialist French rule with such domination tools as the French army and the CFA franc [currency used in Africa guaranteed by the French treasury].

After more than fifty years of formal independence, Francophone Africa remained under French rule. Except for the reigns of [Guinean] President Sekou Toure, [Malian president] Modibo Keita and [the president of Burkina Faso]Thomas Sankar, Francophone Africa has seen only “virtual independence.”

The Federation of Nigeria which fought to preserve its territorial integrity and its position vis-à-vis sovereignty of the colonial powers, must avoid any allegiance to France, which has tried once to destroy its unity by supporting the secession of Biafra. Nigerians should bear in mind the detrimental policy that France pursues in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the war against Boko Haram, France is positioned as saviour of Nigeria and its neighbours by inviting you and its neo-colonialist lackeys to the meeting in Paris. Why in Paris? Why not in Africa? France despises the African people and supports the corrupt presidents and stateless persons. Its military intervention in Mali which France seems to be proud of, has served and serves only its neo-colonial interests (uranium in Niger, protecting French nationals).

Accordingly, you should not be fooled, when France manifests its concern in the fight against Boko Haram.

The French intervention in Mali is becoming a nightmare for the country. Given the actions of France in this political and military crisis [in Mali], peace is not forthcoming in this country.

France’s intervention in the Nigerian will bring nothing positive in that country, on the contrary, it will only serve to stir up hatred between ethnic groups in Nigeria. Divide and conquer has always been the policy of France in Africa.

France has not enough military power to be able to provide the sustainable resolution of the armed conflict.

The only thing France is good at is adding fuel to the fire as seen in Syria and as we have seen in the Western-Iranian negotiations. The Nigerian and African people ask you not to get involved in the French political game that will only tarnish your presidential image and the patriotic feelings which the Nigerian people credited to you.

Yours sincerely,

Tiécoro Diakite”


Saturday 12 September 2015

President Buhari Applauds Armed Forces’ Resolve To Speedily End Insurgency, Warns That Human Rights Violations Will Be Punished


President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday in Kaduna reaffirmed his administration’s total commitment to the rule of law and warned that proven acts of human rights violation by the Armed Forces will be punished under his leadership.

Addressing officers, troops and newly commissioned cadets at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), President Buhari reminded them that the rule of law applied to the Armed Forces as much as any other institution in the country.

“I wish to remind you of the Federal Government’s commitment to overhaul the rules of engagement and improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human rights violations by the armed forces.

“We are committed to a thorough investigation of recent and any future occurrences of human rights violations by elements of our Armed Forces.

“While I applaud the integrity and sterling record of the Armed Forces as an institution, this administration will insist on the rule of law, and deal with any proven cases of deviation from laws of armed conflict, including human rights abuses. 
“In operational conduct Nigerians expect our Armed Forces to keep law and order, and not to behave like bullies.

“Let me reiterate this administration’s commitment to due process, merit and total observance of the rule of law as central pillars of a prosperous and democratic society.

“Rule of law as an element of good governance applies to the Armed Forces as much as any institution in our country. It is therefore gratifying that all three Services have recently taken steps to emphasize strict adherence to rules in recruitment, promotions, procurement, project executions and civil-military relations,” the President said at the passing out of Officer Cadets of the NDA’s 62 Regular Course and Short Service Course 43.

Observing that security remains the most important challenge in his Administration’s “Change” Programme, President Buhari said that the nation expects exemplary conduct and professionalism from officers and men of its Armed Forces at all times and in all situations.

“The objectives our fight against terrorism cannot be realized without a credible and effective military. You must avoid any behavior that will tarnish your honour and dignity as commissioned officers.

“Your commitment and loyalty to the Armed Forces and the nation must be total. I urge you to take your roles in the on-going process of rebuilding our Armed Forces very seriously,” President Buhari told the newly-commissioned officers.

Declaring that the Federal Government was pleased with the Armed Forces’ resolve to end the insurgency facing the country once and for all, President Buhari assured them of his Administration’s determination to ensure the speedy provision of platforms and equipment they require to win the war against terrorism and meet their long term needs.

Garba Shehu

SSA to the President

(Media & Publicity)

September 12, 2015

Photos:



























Friday 11 September 2015

The Calabar International Convention Centre (CICC)





“ I have a vision for the CICC to be a world-class conference and convention destination, which will rival and compete with the very best on offer.

Nigeria has a vibrant and rapidly growing economy that requires facilities such as the CICC. The CICC has been years in the planning, carefully researched and ultimately designed to answer the needs of a demanding market. It complements the existing Tinapa Business Resort and the new ‘live, work, play’ Summit Hills mixed-use development.

Cross River is a culturally-rich, tourism-friendly destination which goes out of its way to offer visitors the ‘warmest welcome in Africa’. This extends equally to the business community.

A short ride from our Margaret Ekpo International Airport, the CICC is supported by a proven hospitality, leisure and entertainment infrastructure.


I look forward to welcoming you to the Calabar International Convention Centre. ”

- Former Governor Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke



Such is the vision of the founding fathers of 'The Calabar International Convention Centre' - A landmark, purpose-built facility located in Calabar, Cross River.

This state-of-the-art, multifunctional convention centre will host events for national and global audiences comprising business, government and international associations.

The Calabar ICC offers the market an almost unlimited scale capability to host a wide range of events – from intimate business meetings and workshops to large audience product launches, press conferences, congresses, exhibitions and conventions.

The scale and flexibility of the venue offers the freedom to design an event that will impress the audience and enhance the stature of the client. Coupled with a skilled and well-equipped technical, catering and support team, the Calabar ICC aims to earn the reputation as one of Africa’s most enticing meetings, conferences and exhibition venues.

Nigeria’s economy is the largest in Africa, with a dynamic and exciting business culture and an aggressive developmental agenda. It therefore makes sense that Nigeria plays an increasingly important role in the international business events market.

From this Quarter of 2015, Calabar is destined to become West Africa’s business meeting and event destination of choice.

The Calabar ICC is located in a free trade zone (FTZ) and, as such, exhibitors and conference organisers are exempt from paying VAT, WHT and other national and state levied taxes on transactions within the FTZ.

An additional benefit is that exhibitors may bring in items duty free, including those in prohibited categories such as furniture and fabrics.

The design and overall aesthetic of the Calabar ICC was the creative work of the renowned Danish architects, Henning Larsen Architects. They brought to the table their international experience of successfully designing a wide range of concert and convention centres in many different countries.

In November 2011, Henning Larsen Architects won an international competition for the design contract of the Calabar International Convention Centre, and in 2012 the construction of the Calabar ICC commenced.

The Calabar ICC is part of the remarkable 367 hectare Summit Hills mixed-use development, just north of the city of Calabar.

Summit Hills includes a 4-star 300-room business hotel (in view), an international hospital and medical facility, an 18-hole golf course and a residential development.

The location and convenience of the Calabar ICC is ideal for convention organisers and delegates, being a short 15-minute drive from downtown Calabar – with its hotels and guesthouses, restaurants, and entertainment and cultural attractions – and a 30-minute drive from the Margaret Ekpo International Airport.

More Details About the CICC

Distance from Calabar International Airport: 18 km (25 minutes)

Architects: Henning Larsen Architects , Copenhagen, Denmark

Total floor space: 35,000 sqm

Total number of conference rooms: 18 – 5 conference halls (220-1,800 delegates), 12 meeting rooms (55-90 delegates) and 1 VIP room

Lounges and foyers
: 3

Largest room: Main Hall with 1,800 seats

Total capacity of the centre
: approximately 5,000 delegates

Largest banqueting spaces: Main Hall (900 dinner guests), Hall A (650 dinner guests) and Hall C (500 dinner guests)

Main kitchen: (1,200 sqm, largest in Nigeria) and 4 distribution kitchens; HACCP accreditation applied for .

Exhibition space: In conference halls and foyers. Additional pre-allocated space for temporary exhibition marquee up to 8,000 sqm at the back of the Calabar ICC, directly connected to the Main Hall and the other conference halls

Coffee shop: In entrance hall, 40 seats

Parking: Secure parking for 700 vehicles

Convention Centre Hotel : (adjacent to the Calabar ICC): 300 rooms (phase one: 200 rooms)

Address: Calabar International Convention Centre

                Summit Hills, Off Murtala Mohammed Highway

                Calabar Cross River State Nigeria.

                 Phone: +234 811 056 0614 or 811 056 0617

                 Email: info@conventioncentrecalabar.com

Photos:











http://www.conventioncentrecalabar.com/about-calabar-international-convention-centre-cicc/

Thursday 10 September 2015

Nigeria deserves a seat on UN Security Council - Osinbajo


Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has advocated a permanent membership status for Nigeria in the Security Council of the United Nations, stating that the country deserves it because of its contributions to international peace keeping, the size of its population and economy.

Delivering a keynote address today at the Africa launch of the Global Commission Report, Confronting the Crisis of Global Governance at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, Prof. Osinbajo said  ''Nigeria fully shares the views expressed in the Report, that the United Nation’ Security Council should be expanded including the call in the Report for restraint on the use of veto by the five permanent members of the Council.''

He continued ''in addition, we take the position based on our peacekeeping role in the United Nations, the size of our economy, and the fact that we have the largest population in the continent to say that Nigeria deserves a permanent status in the Security Council''.

The Vice President is of the view that since Africa is the only continent without a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, Nigeria has the strongest profile to represent Africa and therefore balance the membership composition of the Council.

Speaking on the issue of good governance, the Vice President  affirmed that '' it is clear that the crisis of global governance has deeply contributed to and continues to engender insecurity, corruption, injustice, insurgency, violent extremism, terrorism, piracy, cyber-crime, underdevelopment, climate change fears among many vices.''

Concerned that Africa is at the centre of this crisis, Prof. Osinbajo stated that ''for instance, the Report highlighted the issue of intersection between justice and insecurity. It opens up the question of the place of social justice in ensuring security''. He added that '' there are those who believe that the absence of social justice in parts of our continent is partially responsible for the insecurity experienced in many of the countries in this continent''.

According to the Vice President, the way out of crisis in Africa is for the leaders to treat their people not as mere statistics but with the respect and human dignity they deserve, explaining that '' this can only be reflected by government in the provision of social services and giving opportunities to their peoples.''

Said he ''injustices in one state leads to instability or insecurity in neighboring states even if only on account of economic consequences or movement of refugees. Ultimately, no nation is free of the consequences of injustice anywhere'', he submitted.

Regarding trans-border problems, Prof. Osinbajo said ''Nigeria fully shares the view that no one state or states can effectively deal with such challenges. For us as a nation and government, the issue of security, justice and human rights, climate change and sustainable good governance constitute the cornerstone of responsibility we owe our people.''

He therefore disclosed that such a realization '' explains why the Federal Government of Nigeria is meticulously re-assessing the entire governance question with the hope of putting in place structures and institutions that can sustain Nigeria in confronting multitudes of challenges identified in the report.''

Good governance, the Vice President, averred is the panacea to the challenges confronting our world and can only be realized by a determined and visionary leader, with the active cooperation of all segments of the society.

The Vice President who was the event’s Special Guest of Honour launched the Report at the impressive gathering chaired by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, one time Secretary to the Government to the Federation.

Prof. Osinbajo used the occasion to laud the commitment and vision of Madeleine K. Albright, former United States Secretary of State and particularly Nigeria’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, both Co-Chairs of the Commission that produced the Report for their pursuit of global security, justice and governance.

In his presentation of the Report, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari underscored the significance of global alliance for security, justice and good governance especially for Africa as a continent. He also supported the Vice President’s call for a permanent Security Council membership status for Nigeria.

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President (Media & Publicity)

 

Dr. Toyin Falola Promotes African Studies



By Heidi Frontani, PHD - Professor of Geography from North Carolina USA


Toyin Omoyeni Falola was born 1953 in Ibadan, Nigeria. In the 1960s, he dropped out of high school to join a peasant rebellion that protested high taxation and the ill treatment of farmers. During and after the rebellion, young Toyin kept wondering why it was that some, including his own grandfather, had to lose their lives. Although he initially planned to enter the sciences and medicine, Mr. Falola’s loss of his grandfather made him determined to enter the humanities.

Mr. Falola began his career in education in 1970, teaching at the UAMC Primary School, Pahayi, Ilaro Nigeria. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in History at the University of Ife, he obtained his Ph.D. in 1981 from the same institution, which is now known as Obafemi Awolowo University. Dr. Falola served on the history faculty at the University of Ife for around a decade before moving to the USA in 1991 to take a position teaching history and African Studies at the University of Texas, at Austin.

Dr. Falola is an astoundingly prolific author. He has more than 100 single-authored, co-authored, and edited books to his name. Although he is best known for his work on the political economy of southwestern Nigeria, his intellectual interests are wide ranging, such that he has published on teen life in Africa, Black business leaders, the global oil industry, and African landscapes and environments. He also has a volume of poetry. His acclaimed memoir, A Mouth Sweeter than Salt (University of Michigan Press, 2004), was a finalist for the prestigious Herskovits Prize, granted through the largest professional society in North America for the study of Africa, the African Studies Association (ASA), for which Dr. Falola has served as President since 2015.

In addition to his own scholarship, Dr. Falola has been a champion of African Studies. He has supported research through his mentorship of students, long-term editorship of the African Economic History Review, service on many academic journals’ editorial boards, and his creation and editorship of several academic book series including: the University of Rochester series, Studies in Africa and the Diaspora and the Carolina Academic Press African World Series. Dr. Falola is also a founding member of the Ife Humanities Society, the President of the Nigerian Studies Association, and the General Secretary of the Historical Society of Nigeria.

In addition, Dr. Falola has hosted his own Annual Africa Conference at the University of Texas-Austin (UT-Austin) for more than a decade. The conference draws students and scholars from across North America, Europe, and Africa. Hosting the conference requires considerable effort that goes well beyond Dr. Falola’s duties as the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at UT-Austin. Dr. Falola indicates that he has given over $10,000 of his own money to support African Studies in a variety of ways. He also engages in fundraising to make his Texas-based Africa conference affordable and he graciously invites conference goers to his home for a banquet. His daughter, Bisola, a geographer, assists with the organization of the annual event, including the program and peer-reviewed books based on select conference papers.

Dr. Falola is a pioneer in digital communication among Africanists. He has worked tirelessly to build linkages between African and US-based institutions of higher education. He has helped make UT-Austin a destination for members of the highly competitive Young African Leadership Initiative (Mandela Washington Fellows Program). The Mandela Washington Fellows Program was initiated by President Obama in 2014. It enables 500 outstanding young Africans (out of over 50,000 applicants) to network, exchange ideas, and learn about businesses and academics in the USA for six weeks. The impressive 2015 group is currently touring the USA.

Dr. Falola has received many honors and awards (click here to see the full list). To name just a few of these recognitions, Dr. Falola is: the recipient of the University of Texas System Chancellor’s Teaching Award (2003), the Cheikh Anta Diop Award for Excellence in African Studies (2006), the Ibn Khaldun Distinguished Award for Research Excellence, and the ASA’s Distinguished Africanist Award (2011). Since 2013, an annual conference has been held in Dr. Falola’s name. It is known as the Toyin Falola Annual International Conference on Africa and the African Diaspora or TOFAC. To date, the meeting has been held in Nigeria and South Africa. Dr. Falola holds three honorary chieftaincies, including two from 2014 from Nigeria.

Based on the literature on international development and personal success, why has Dr. Toyin Falola and his promotion of African Studies been so successful?

Some key characteristics come to mind:

Dr. Falola has wide ranging interests and expertise and has NETWORKED effectively through conferences and numerous short-term teaching appointments including at: the University of Cambridge in England, York University in Canada, Smith College in Massachusetts in the United States, The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, Nigeria.

Real life events from his FAMILY’S PAST sparked a PASSION in Dr. Falola to learn more and to SHARE that KNOWLEDGE with others. He is a CHAMPION of AFRICA who helps debunk myths and misconceptions about the continent. He also assists people in the USA and elsewhere to understand AFRICA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AMERICAS, from scholars and businesspeople, to products such as oil and coffee. These positive contributions go well beyond topics such as slavery that might get covered in history books.

Dr. Falola WORKS TIRELESSLY and PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES for others through the conferences he organizes and leads and the journals and book series he has founded and edits.


Acknowledgement
1. First sighting of Article on Konnect Africa ( Associate of The Unknown Nigeria)
2. African Development Successes by Heidi Frontani blogs at https://africandevelopmentsuccesses.wordpress.com/