Eagles: NFF confirms Oliseh, approves Dutch assistant

The Nigeria Football Federation has confirmed that former Nigeria international
Sunday Oliseh will coach the Super Eagles with a team that will include a Dutch
as an assistant.
A manager close to Oliseh in Europe, who has full knowledge of the talks
between the NFF and Oliseh in London, confirmed to The PUNCH on
Wednesday that the former Eagles captain had accepted the job offer and
would work with an assistant from Europe.
He said, “I can confirm that Sunny (Oliseh) has accepted the offer and he will
be working with an assistant coming down from Europe as well.”
On Wednesday, the NFF confirmed they were in talks with the Belgium-based
Nigerian to replace Stephen Keshi, who was kicked out as Eagles coach on
Saturday. Oliseh met with NFF president Amaju Pinnick and Austin Jay Jay
Okocha in London on Tuesday.
“An offer has been made, and there is an understanding, but we have to work
out the final details of the agreement in a few days. Of course, the Executive
Board has to give approval for his appointment based on the final terms to be
agreed,” Felix Anyansi-Agwu, Chairman of the NFF Technical and Development
Committee said on Wednesday.
The NFF added that Oliseh would come with a “foreign technical assistant,
whose job description will centre around development programmes, and
working with clubs’ youth teams and certified academies towards developing
the game from the grassroots.
“Current stand-in coach Salisu Yusuf will also be in the new team, but with
greater devotion to the home-based team, otherwise known as Super Eagles B,
and will be the interface between the technical crew and the home boys.”
From the details of the package being finalised, Oliseh is expected to come up
with a five-year developmental plan “to fashion a unique playing and coaching
philosophy for all the national teams, and will for this purpose, interface
regularly with coaches of those teams.
“We are also looking at how he will periodically organise clinics and seminars
for coaches of clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League, probably once
in a month, so as to strengthen the playing philosophy across board. A robust
youth development programme, elite player development strategy and
performance programmes to drive higher standards, among other core
sustainable development programmes, are also part of the proposal,” Anyansi-
Agwu said.
NFF President Pinnick said, “Sunday Oliseh has vast experience and immense
knowledge of the game, and will certainly add value to what we are doing. He
has bought into our vision and objectives towards the development of Nigeria
football. He will command the respect of the players and we trust he has the
temperament to work harmoniously with the Technical and Development
Committee, the Technical Directorate and the Technical Study Group.
“On our part at the NFF, we will give him all the support to succeed as we have
been giving to all our coaches. Subject to the approval of the NFF Executive
Committee, we will conclude negotiations by weekend and he will be unveiled
next week.”

WHEN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BECOMES NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT...

By Samuel Alabi
Diverse opinions have been expressed through numerous speeches and articles on last week's dishonourable show of our supposed honourable members of the National Assembly. This therefore is not to add to the list, but to encourage every true promulgator of 'change' who’s enthusiastic expectations have been taunted by the last Thursday’s ignominious outing of the Lawmakers, that hope is not lost. The frustrating conducts of the 8th NASS since its infamous inauguration on the 9th of June, should be taken as a challenge- that we are not yet anywhere near the envisaged rest- rather than allowing it to drain our resolve for a changed Nigeria. Though I have on many occasions argued with him over it, Pastor Dotun Reju's assertion - that no single individual, including President Buhari, can cause the needed transformation in this country without the unanimous decidedness of the citizenry to demand just governance from her leaders - has to be generally accepted and embodied now.  Evidently, it would be a share waste of another four years if we are waiting for this crop of wanton, self-serving and naive legislators to initiate any tangible progress without being compelled by our refusal to accept anything less than the global best practice of public leadership.
Accordingly, this is not the time to take any side of the political divides; rather, we must collectively condemn and resist every inimical act capable of truncating this nascent opportunity to build a new Nation. A national outcry must be launched and sustained against every iota of impunity, unjustness and anarchy in any arm of our government.  From the President to the Local Government Councillors, none of the elected public office holders got there of their own volition, neither were they voted to serve themselves; expediency is on us, therefore, to keep watch on them and ensure that only the best is accrued to Nigeria in this dispensation. We must employ all legal means to checkmate every form of public privileges' abuse among our functionaries.
The excogitation of social media and its exponential growth in our days should be productively maximised to always sabotage any attempt to prioritize personal interest above our common good in all tiers of government. The last general election among other things, have shown that a politician can only ignore to his own detriment, the efficacy of the social media in gaining or losing popularity, this indispensable advantage has our generation over the previous ones must be fully exploited to negotiate a better future for ourselves and posterity. Regrettably as it was, the shameful shamelessness of our National Assembly and its underlying implications, should not make us give up so soon on our hope for a better country, neither should it drag us into wallowing in self pity. We must readily bring to bear our globally-acknowledged resilience and rise above this unfortunate incident. Since the National Assembly has become a national embarrassment, we must be willing to stage peaceful protests and occupy the State Government Houses, NASS and even Aso Rock (if necessary), until what is just becomes powerful and what is powerful becomes just. There's an invincible hope in our hopelessness, and no matter how slow it seems in coming, the enviable change is on its way and Nigeria will flourish again!
Samuel Alabi is an Estate Surveyor & Valuer, based in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria.
www.facebook.com/samueltaiwoalabi, Twitter: @sambolad
Email: boldsam2014@gmail.com

You can also join The Analysts Network, send your article to theanalystsng@gmail.com for publication

I dropped my presidential ambition for Buhari — Saraki

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has denied reports that he is nursing the ambition for presidency in 2019, saying he actually quit his presidential bid in the 2015 election for President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki stated that he contributed immensely to the emergence of Buhari as President and contributed greatly to his victory in the presidential election held on March 28,2015.
The Senate President, who spoke to select journalists in an exclusive interview in Abuja on Saturday, also denied having plans to dump the All Progressives Congress due to the ongoing crisis in the party over his leadership of the Senate.
Rather, he said what remained paramount in his mind at the moment was how to support the Buhari-led administration to tackle the various social and economic problems confronting the country.
Saraki said, “I was the first person that stepped down his political ambition, once General Buhari announced that he was going to contest the presidential election. And since then, prior to the period of election, I worked tirelessly to support his emergence.
“Even some of my friends who are not supporting me now are doing so because I did not support them in their presidential ambition and that I supported President Buhari. That is why I find it funny that the same people are now claiming to love Buhari more than me. It is a very funny world.
“These are people that I was begging to leave the stage for Buhari to run since all of us are young. They are now the one going round to say that Saraki did not like Buhari but time will tell.”
The Presidency, however, faulted Saraki’s claim of stepping down for Buhari ahead of the presidential election.
Saraki had on October 13, 2014, announced the suspension of his presidential bid in the interest of the country and his party.
He, however, did not state which of the other aspirants he was going to back.
Saraki’s statement then partly read, “I decided to step down my ambition because Nigeria’s political outlook for 2015 is very complicated and this is the time for every patriotic politician to situate his personal ambition in the context of the country’s overall interest.
“I don’t think our party can afford too much internal rancour going into next year’s election. I, therefore, think some of us need to make the sacrifice and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem of the party.”
This will be Saraki’s first personal response to the ongoing crisis that is trailing his controversial emergence as the President of the Senate on June 9.
Saraki had led a faction of APC senators, under the auspices of the Like Minds Senators, to defy the party’s choice of Ahmad Lawan as the Senate President.
In what many have described as a ‘coup’, the pro-Saraki group had allied with the opposition lawmakers in the Peoples Democratic Party to make Saraki leader of the upper chamber of the legislature in the absence over 50 APC senators.
A similar scenario had also played out in the House of Representatives where Yakubu Dogara opposed Femi Gbajabiamila, the choice candidate of his party, to emerge Speaker of the House.

Saraki did not step down for Buhari – Presidency

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Saturday, said there was no truth in the
claim by Saraki that he stepped down for President Buhari in the APC presidential race.
Adesina, in an interview with one of our correspondents, said the issue of stepping down did not arise because the party
conducted a free and fair presidential primary which Buhari won.
The presidential spokesman said all Nigerians know those who took part in the party primary.
Adesina said, “There was no issue of stepping down during the presidential race in the APC. There was a presidential primary
that was plain, transparent, free and fair.
“We all know those who were involved in the primary; all Nigerians know those who participated in the APC presidential primary
and President Buhari emerged the winner of that process.”
When asked if Saraki had reached out to the President as he claimed, Adesina said, “The President has always maintained that
the party is supreme. The party started a process which was truncated.
“The President has always maintained that those who truncated or aborted the process were the ones who precipitated crisis.
“The President had said in earlier statements that he would work with anybody who emerged the Senate President, but then,
that did not include those who will subvert (the process).”

‘Saraki snubbed Buhari to emerge Senate president’

A leader of the APC, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on the condition of anonymity, said Saraki was only trying to be clever by half.
The leader of the party, who spoke in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Saturday, said Saraki had boxed himself into a corner.
“Saraki is simply trying to be clever by half. He is in a fix and he is trying to justify his illegal actions,” the source said.
He added, “Saraki is bound by the nation’s constitution to read the party’s list without any amendment. If the PDP had sent him their own list of principal officers, will he tamper with it or won’t the PDP send their own list?”
Insisting that the Senate President lied about not being invited to the ICC meeting, the reliable party source said Saraki was invited.
The source said, “He is lying if he said he was not invited to the ICC meeting. All National Assembly members-elect were invited via an SMS.
“He deliberately snubbed the President because he had already struck a deal with the PDP to actualise his inordinate ambition in defiance of his party’s position.

How I escaped abduction on inauguration day: Saraki opens up

17 days after his election, Senator Bukola Saraki,opened up yesterday on the controversial poll, saying those
against him planned to abduct him to prevent him from emerging as Senate President.
Saraki disclosed that, on Tuesday, June 9, Senate inauguration day, following information he got of the
abduction plot to keep him off the National Assembly, he altered his schedule by arriving the parliament car
park at 6am, stayed in his car and then trekked at quarter to 10am into the chamber.
He denied the rumour that for him to win, he entered into a pact with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for
Senator Ike Ekweremadu to be produced as his deputy, just as he stressed that the absence of All
Progressives Congress, APC, senators in the chamber paved the way for the emergence of Ekweremadu.
The Senate President, who noted that the emergence of Ekweremadu will make things difficult for him, said,
“Never in our wildest imagination did we envisage that some senators would not be present on the day of the
inauguration.”
Speaking with journalists, in Abuja, Saraki insisted that he never got any message to attend a meeting at the
International Conference Centre (ICC) with President Muhammadu Buhari on the Senate inauguration day.
“First of all, as regards the meeting (at ICC), on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish at a
meeting until 4:00am of that day and I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make
sure that I didn’t get access into the chamber”, he said.
“So, as early as 4:00am and 5:00am, I had made contingency plans that I must get into the National
Assembly because the plan before was that senators-elect should go to Transcorp Hilton Hotel
around 8:00clock and 9:00am to proceed to the National Assembly.
“But I was advised that it would not be safe or it would not be secure for me to do that because if
some people made sure I didn’t get into the chamber, it would not be possible for me to be nominated,
for the nomination to be seconded and for me to accept the nomination.
“I can tell you today that I was in the National Assembly Complex as early as 6:00 in the morning and I
stayed in a car in the car park till quarter to 10:00am. That is the truth. I stayed there and I was there
with no communication whatsoever.
“So, anybody who said he spoke to me to go to the ICC was not being truthful because I didn’t even
know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people were arriving the complex.
“It was just before 10:00 that I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly had entered the
chamber. So, I got out of the small car I was inside, stretched myself and put on my Babariga because
I didn’t have it on before then.
“I walked from the car park into the chamber. That was why some of you would have seen that I
looked very tired that morning.
“Even when I was in the chamber, I didn’t know what had transpired earlier. The only thing I observed
was that it appeared that some of our senators were not in the chamber, but because the fact that my
colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that they were on the way and, by 10:00am, the
programme started.
“Before I knew it, my election had come and gone. Even my people were worried; it was only when I
got into the chamber that they were relieved.”
In regards to the emergence of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, Saraki said
“In my own view, and, in the view of some of those who worked closely with me, I worked hard for my
election. I had direct contact with every single senator, one on one; weeks leading to the election, I did
not rely on anybody. I worked hard; both in our party, the APC and out of it.
“I approached every senator, I talked to them, we built confidence, not only in the APC, but, also, in the
PDP. I talked to them. That was why I laughed when people said I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I
had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu.
“I didn’t need any deal to win. I had penetrated, there was no deal; I didn’t need any deal in the first
place. I had worked hard such that everybody who was a Senator, I campaigned hard and canvassed
for their votes and won their confidence.
“At one of the meetings held at Transcorp Hilton which Senator Godswill Akpabio co-chaired with
Senator Ibrahim Gobir and a few others, which had both APC and PDP members, if you heard most of
them there, the position they took was that ‘this is the Senate President they want.’
“Across party lines, that day they believed in me and that this is the Senate President that can lead us,
there was no deal.
“Sometimes, I wonder how some of our colleagues found themselves at the ICC. If it had been a case
that the Clerk of the National Assembly had made an announcement and the event had been
postponed or it was no longer holding, plus, the invitation, I’m sure some are asking now, what really
happened?
“First of all, the PDP senators had announced to the public that they were supporting me without even
meeting me because, in their own meeting, majority had decided to vote for me.
“In their own interest, strategically, they decided that, `look, this is a fait accompli’ because 30 of their
own senators were going to vote for this man anyway and the remaining felt it was better to join.
“It wasn’t until 2:00am that they called us to tell us their decision . With regards to the deputy, when
they told us that they had a candidate, we, too, told them we had a candidate for Deputy Senate
President in the person of Senator Ali Ndume!
“After our own meeting, it was our thinking that it was after the election of the Senate President that
the two groups in APC would meet and we would agree on a candidate. We never in our imagination
thought they would not turn up. By the time we got there, we were only 24 while the PDP was  more
than 40.
“In an election, there’s no way they would not have defeated us and that was what happened? And
now, when people say it was a deal, I say that if the CNA had started the procedure in the House of
Representatives first, and moved to the Senate, thereafter, today, we, the APC, would have had a
deputy Senate President.”
“It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy Senate President. It is painful. It is painful for
every APC member because when we went through the struggle, that was not what we signed for. But
it has happened; but it is unfortunate and it is not fair to put the blame on one side because it is a
combination of errors and miscalculations that led us to have, that morning, some Senators were at
another place instead of being there.
“So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to emerge, is what I reject completely and those who
followed the events would know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge.”
When asked to speak on his rumoured ambition for 2019 presidency, Saraki said that the country is currently
going through a lot right and he isn't bothered about 2019, adding that those talking about the election at the
moment could be described as irresponsible.

Vanguard News

Why NNPC board was dissolved

Only a few undiscerning Nigerians and foreigners
would have been surprised by the dissolution,yesterday,of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
by President Muhammadu Buhari.
For as long as anyone can remember,the organization has been stumbling from one
corruption scandal to the other,the latest being the 2013 allegation by the immediate past Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN)
and now the Emir of Kano,Alhaji Muhammadu Lamido Sasusi ,that the NNPC failed to remit up
to $20 billion to the federation account.
The allegation was to cost him his job at the apex bank even after forensic auditors appointed by the immediate past administration said only
$1.4billion should be remitted by the firm.
The NNPC was established on April 1, 1977 following the merger of the then Nigerian
National Oil Corporation and the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel with sole responsibility for
upstream and downstream developments.
It is also charged with regulating and supervising the oil industry on behalf of the Federal
Government.
Eleven years after the birth of the NNPC it was commercialised into 11 strategic business
units, covering the entire spectrum of oil industry
operations: exploration and production, gas
development, refining, distribution,
petrochemicals, engineering, and commercial
investments.
It manages the joint ventures between the federal government and such foreign multinational corporations like Royal Dutch Shell, Agip, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Texaco (now
merged with Chevron).
Through collaboration with these companies, the
Nigerian government conducts petroleum
exploration and production.
The oil companies appropriate portions of their
revenue which is nearly 60% of the revenue
generated by the oil industry in this manner,to the
government.
With oil as Nigeria’s largest revenue earner,cash
flow from the NNPC accounts for 76% of federal
government revenue and 40% of the entire
country’s GDP.
But in reality,the corporation and many of its
subsidiaries have failed in living up to their
responsibilities.
Its refineries hardly work with the result that
Nigeria relies more on imported fuel .
Thus, scarce foreign exchange is wasted on
importing fuel while billions of naira is also paid
as ‘subsidy’ to importers.
This mode of business has since been found to
be a huge racket on the nation.
Several of such fuel importers are currently
standing trial for defrauding the country and
Nigerians are not likely to forget in a hurry their
recent harrowing experience when the importers
refused to do business.
The ‘missing’ $20billion was a major dent on the
reputation of the last government even if its key
actors refuse to admit it.
Nigerians are angry with the NNPC on account of
its operations and alleged corruption.
Most of the misgivings concern the ‘missing’
$20billion and perveived mismanagement and
abuse of the Petroleum Support Fund otherwise
known as oil subsidy and lack of transparency .
They are clamouring for its removal and probe of
those that managed the fund.
With the then President-elect Muhammadu Buhari
vowing in April to revisit the ‘missing’ money
issue,his anti-corruption reputation,and his vast
knowledge of the oil and gas industry,it was to be
expected that he would have more than a
passing interest in the sector on his assumption
of office.
Observers believe that the NNPC dissolution is
just a prelude to what is to come from Buhari in
the industry.
It should not be a surprise if he orders an
inquisition into what is generally perceived as the
financial indiscretion of successive
administrations in the organization.
He may not even limit the looming probe to the
‘missing’ $20billion.
Nigerians and foreigners are asking questions on
other corruption related allegations against NNPC
like the over $1million bribes which ABB Vetco
Gray, a US company, and its UK subsidiary ABB
Vetco Gray UK Ltd, claimed to have paid to
officials at NNPC subsidiary NAPIMS in exchange
for obtaining confidential bid information and
favourable recommendations from Nigerian
government agencies; the over $6.3million
allegedly paid by another US company Willbros
Group Inc, to officials at the NNPC and its
subsidiary NAPIMS, in return for assistance in
obtaining and retaining contracts for work on the
Eastern Gas Gathering System (EGGS);and the
allegation by the Swiss Non-governmental
advocacy organization – Erklärung von Bern - of
heavy fraud surfaced, placing the NNPC under
suspicion of siphoning off $6.8 billion in crude oil
revenues.
The sacked board headed by the immediate
Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke had
as members the Group Managing Director of the
corporation, Dr. Joseph Dawha, Group Executive
Director, Finance & Accounts, Mr. Bernard O.N.
Otti – Group Executive Director, Corporate
Services, Dr. Dan Efebo , Coordinator, Legal
Services/ Secretary to the Corporation, Ikechukwu
Oguine and other five members : Alhaji Abdullahi
Bukar , Mr. Danladi Wadzani, Prof. Olusegun
Okunnu , Mr. Danladi Kifasi and Mr. Steven
Oronsaye.
The NNPC was scheduled to hold its Group
Executive Council meeting on Wednesday but
shifted it to the following day.It never happened
still.
What followed was the summon of the GMD to the Presidency yesterday to be told of the board
dissolution.

APC NWC divided over sanction for Saraki, Dogara

The All Progressives Congress is undecided on how to handle the Senate President, Senator
Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakuubu Dogara, for
disregarding its directive on the choice of principal officers of the National Assembly.
Saturday PUNCH learnt on Friday that the party’s
National Working Committee was undecided on whether or not Saraki and Dogara should be punished.
It was learnt that while some members believed that the party should handle the issue with care; others insisted that the Senate President and the
speaker should be punished.
The division among the NWC members had prevented the committee from taking a definite decision on the alleged anti-party activities by the Senate President and the Speaker.
Saraki and Dogara, had on June 9 defied the directive of the party by contesting the senate
presidency and the speakership.
The APC leaders were particularly angry because
the Peoples Democratic Party got the senate deputy presidency.
Saraki and his loyalists, among the APC senators, had boycotted a peace meeting the
party had with its senators on June 9.
The meeting was attended by the rival group, Senate Unity Forum, led by Senator Ahmed
Lawan, who was endorsed by the party as its sole candidate for the Senate President.
Saraki emerged as senate president unopposed
when the meeting was going on at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The Senate President again on Thursday refused to announce the party’s candidates for the upper chamber’s principal positions.
The APC, had in a letter to Saraki on Wednesday,
named Lawan as its choice for the Majority Leader; Prof. Sola Adeyeye as the Chief Whip;
George Akume as Deputy Majority Leader; and
Abu Ibrahim as Deputy Chief Whip.
The party also wrote Dogara and named a former Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila as
the Majority Leader; Ado Doguwa as the Deputy
House Leader; M.T. Monguno as the Chief Whip and Pally Iriase as the Deputy Chief Whip.
Saraki read letters from zonal caucuses tof the APC on Thursday.
The North-East caucus of the party nominated
Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader; while
the North-West put forward, Bala Na’Allah as the
Deputy Majority Leader.
The South-South caucus adopted Francis
Alimikhena as the Deputy Chief.
In the House of Representatives, the refusal of
Dogara to read the party’s letter threw the lower
chamber into commotion.
The APC, had in a statement on Thursday by its
Secretary Mai Mala Buni, insisted on its position
and rejected the principal officers announced by
Saraki.
Investigations showed that those who advocated
a soft approach were of the view that if the issue was not handled with care, the PDP would cash in on the crisis and woo Saraki, Dogara and
other APC senators.
But it was learnt that those calling for a punitive
measure insisted that the party would set a bad precedent, if Saraki and his group were not punished.
A top member of the party, who confided in
Saturday PUNCH , said, “As of now, we have not reached a consensus on what is going on in the National Assembly.
“Some believe that taking a harsh stand will
send the affected lawmakers away, while others
are saying that they should not go unpunished.”
Another highly placed member of the party, who
confided in Saturday PUNCH out of fear of
retribution said, the party was keeping its next
line of action close to its chest.
“What I can tell you is that the party will meet
within the next few days and make its position
on all these issues known,” he said.
When contacted. the APC National Publicity
Secretary, Alahaji Lai Mohammed said, “No
comment.”
But some state chairmen of the APC on Friday
expressed sadness over the crisis in the National
Assembly.