WORDS OF WISDOM

*Offloading Your Emotional Baggage: Everyone has a certain amount of emotional baggage they carry with them everywhere. We carry the shame for past deeds, judgments towards others, being victimized, being abused, guilt for past mistakes, distorted beliefs about yourself and others, insecurities and body image problems. *We Can Only Change Ourselves: Why would anyone want to bother with all this inner peace stuff? To end the cycle of ups and downs, emotions popping up when you don’t want them too, interactions with others become diplomatic and helpful and you will be able to experience an inner calm and confidence that words can not describe. What you put out, you really get back in life. So if you think and feel negatively towards others, you will think and feel negative about yourself as well. Whenever someone makes a decision as to how they spend their own time or energy, it is their decision to make, so don’t go sticking your nose in where it isn’t wanted and don’t think it is all about you. *Self Acceptance: Consider taking the time to write a list of the things you fear most in life. Then seriously consider ways you can work towards confronting and overcoming those fears. You should add to your list as you become more self aware, because you will have more realizations as to who you are and what you can work on overcoming.

FROM CARETAKER MANAGER TO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNER; ROBERTO DI-MATTEO

He tried the Tinkerman, the Special One, the director of football, the World Cup winner, the European Cup winner, the Champions League specialist, and the young upstart – but, in the end, it took the caretaker to win Europe’s biggest prize for Roman Abramovich. All of the Chelsea owner’s investment in the club has been with a view to lifting the famous trophy – and it has cost him a great deal – but in Roberto Di Matteo he found almost by accident the man to do it. Around £13 million had been spent on bringing Andre Villas-Boas to Stamford Bridge last summer and Saturday’s scenes were no doubt the ones that Abramovich had in mind when he appointed the Portuguese, but he wasn’t prepared to let things get worse before they got better and the costly manager had to become an even more expensive ex-manager. Di Matteo, former MK Dons boss and sacked by West Brom before becoming Villas-Boas’ assistant, came in to steady the ship, to hold the fort until the summer when a ‘proper’ coach could be found

YEKINI: Anonther Unsung Hero

DEBATES will continue about the treatment of our heroes following the death of Rashidi Yekini, Nigeria’s iconic footballer and scorer of Nigeria’s first World Cup goal in 1994. The circumstances of his death and the panegyrics that have been pouring since then are typically Nigerian. We shun heroes. We fail to appreciate the consequences of the likes of Yekini dying as destitute from treatable medical conditions. The hypocrisy of lamenting Yekini’s end when millions of Nigerian pensioners, heroes in their own right, die in abject poverty because people have stolen their dues, is evident. Born in Kaduna, he began his career with United Nigerian Textile Limited, UNTL. He played in Cote d’ Ivoire, Portugal, where he became the third African to win the league’s highest goal scorer after the legend Eusebio, and fellow Nigeria Richard Owubokiri. He also played in Greece, Spain, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. “Yekini used to pay surprise visits to fans at their homes even at nights and ate with the poor ,” Serge Kouame, a 56-year-old secondary school teacher said in Abidjan where Yekini played for African Sports 19 years ago. “ I can still see his goals in my spirit. No other player has been so close and so good to us .” He is mostly remembered for his celebration after scoring Nigeria’s first-ever World Cup goal against Bulgaria. Incidentally it was his only World Cup goal though he played in other matches including the 1998 World Cup. Yekini used a Finidi George cross to score the first ever goal for Nigeria at the World Cup, but more striking was the celebration he brought to it, grabbing the net, and shaking it, while screaming. Nothing could have captured the exhilaration better. In 1993, he became the first Nigerian to win the African Player of the Year award. A year after he helped Nigeria to win the Africa Cup of Nations and was also the tournament’s top scorer with five goals, becoming the only player to have won the title as a reigning African Player of the Year ever since. Yekini scored 37 international goals for Nigeria in 58 appearances and also played in the Nations Cup in 1988, 1990, 1992. He scored Nigeria’s only goal in the 3-1 loss to Yugoslavia at the 1988 Olympics. CAF President and FIFA Vice-president Issa Hayatou’s tribute stated, “ I remember him well – he was a solid attacker. It was so difficult to take the ball from him .” A country that remarkably maltreats its people cannot bother about them, whether they are kings or commoners. Yekini’s death is another call for us to care for our people instead of wasting words when they die.

CAPITAL MARKET PROBE

Capital market probe: NSE faults Okereke-Onyuike’s claims However, SEC in a swift reaction said “a number of claims made by the removed Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in today’s proceedings at the Public Hearing were false and deserve quick refutation and rebuttal so that the investing and general publics as well as the public records do not retain such falsification. On the May 20, 2011 judgment of Justice Idris Mohammed of a Lagos High Court, Onyiuke claimed that the SEC only appealed the award of N500m to Okereke – Onyiuke in damages. “This is entirely false because the appeal filed by the SEC was against the judgment. The appeal challenged both the substantive judgment, as well as the award of N500million which was not sought for by Okereke – Onyiuke. Given the fact of this appeal therefore, her claim to being the DG of the NSE is clearly false “She also claimed that the SEC and CBN approved what she called the “Offer Prospectus” for “Private Placements” which have remained unlisted on the NSE. This again is entirely incorrect. At no time did the SEC ever approve offer documents for vendors of private placements. We decry this recourse to deliberate falsification of facts by Okere – Onyiuke under oath. We invite her to deposit proof of this fabrication in the public domain. As a matter of fact, the SEC had placed a number of “buyer beware” advertorials in key national daily newspapers, advising the investing public that private placements were beyond the regulatory purview of the SEC. The point she deliberately refused to make is that Public companies also make private placements for which the SEC must approve as opposed to private placements by private companies. “This deliberate lie was consciously fabricated by Okereke – Onyiuke to hoodwink the general public to the wrong conclusion that the SEC Nigeria was negligent in discharging its regulatory functions in the capital markets. She also sensationally claimed that the SEC was not performing its market development responsibility. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The sub-committee system which has been revitalized by the SEC is a market – wide development initiative which is intended to confront areas of deficiency in the market. The recent investor outreaches in Sokoto, Port Harcourt and Kano, as well as ongoing capital market awareness programmes in secondary schools and universities, and market wide capacity building in collaboration with sister regulatory agencies and multilateral financial institutions, are instances of market development effort undertaken by the SEC. “On the NSE’s trading platform, all her claims were false. It is within the forte of the NSE to offer a detailed refutation of these. What is material for us, from a regulatory point of view, is that appropriate machinery has been set in motion to overcome the challenges posed by the platform bequeathed by Okereke– Onyiuke through wholesale replacement. Contrary to the misinformation offered by her, the platform has a lifespan which lapsed in December 2011. It is not a renewable or upgradable technology like she claimed. “But more significantly, Okereke – Onyiuke, before her removal, had initiated the process of acquiring a loan of $20 million from African Export – Import Bank, AFREXIM Bank for replacing the NSE trading platform. This is the same platform that the current leadership of the NSE has concluded arrangements to procure from the same supplier at $10 million ! “On succession planning, Okereke – Onyiuke claimed that she had a succession plan in place. Contrary to this, it is common knowledge that she kept vacillating on succession and delaying her exit despite having spent 10 years in office as Director General and 26 years in the employment of the NSE in senior managerial cadre. The SEC intervention was the only way to cut short her reluctance. It was the only way t put paid to the regime of unaccountability and financial recklessness which she had instituted to the point that the exchange was on the verge of bankrup

MAN ALLEGEDLY AXED WIFE TO DEATH

I was under a spell, says 69- yr-old man who allegedly axed wife to death By ALBERT AKPOR Ordinarily, his frail look will readily counter the offense for which he is being held. But he is stronger and even much younger in speech, albeit his age. Pa Mathew Agbe is 69 and a security guard with the National Museum Benin city, the Edo state capital. Sadly, he may be confined in prison custody for the remaining part of his life, for a first degree murder except the court says otherwise. Pa Mathew is being held by homicide detectives at the Edo state Police command for allegedly axing his wife of 42 years to death. Although the Edo state born father of one said he could not actually say what came over him that ill- fated day, leading to grabbing an ax which he ended up using on his loving wife, Alice. But he was able to trace the beginning of the strained relationship between him and Alice, a woman he married in 1970, to the period he was bestowed with the title of Odionwere which in Bini language means, head of his community in security matters. He said his late wife had mistaken the title for one that should be accompanied by cash reward and therefore, made ceaseless demands for money.

BROADBAND;Key to Rapid GDP Growth

By Prince Osuagwu Considering that voice telephony has just become a basic service in many countries of the world today, while data transmission defines for them the speed which businesses are conducted in the new world order, Accenture, gathered technology experts and other industry stakeholders last week, in Lagos, to brainstorm on possible ways of promoting and sustaining broadband availability in Nigeria. Johnson, Juwah on broadband Interestingly, Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson chaired the parley while the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah also made a powerful presentation on the way forward. The event seemed to have revolved around these two, considering that the institutions they head are key to the success or otherwise of the country’s broadband penetration efforts. While the ministry is expected to formulate and implement right policies to ensure growth, NCC is expected to sustain growth through focused regulation. In her opening address, Mrs Johnson noted that on weekly basis, every event that holds in Nigeria, must have one segment or the other, where broadband access is discussed. For her, that is a strong point to begin to take the issue more seriously than before. This is more so, as she observed that some countries of the world have gone as far as defining access to broadband as a fundamental human right, just as access to water, electricity and healthcare. Broadband for wealth From every indication Johnson believes that for developing countries, declaring broadband a fundermental human right is the way to go. She said: “There are compelling and empirical statistics that tell us that every 10 percent increase in access to broadband in developing countries, results in a commensurate 1.38 percent increase in GDP. Therefore any country seeking growth, job and wealth creation, must address their minds to how it can increase access to broadband.” However, there seems to be a sore point in Nigeria’s position to all these advantages that broadband access can bring about. This also seems to be giving the minister some sort of migraine. Her voice while highlighting the point, betrayed an urgent willingness to turn things around before her country plays the catch-up, forever. “Despite the fact that we have internet penetration of about 28 percent which translates to about 45 million internet users, only nine per cent which is about 14.5 million people of the population are actually internet subscribers and broadband penetration is at a mere six percent. “Although access through mobile broadband increases tremendously, that statistics only tell us that most Nigerians still access through public venues like cyber cafes and computer labs. This is not only for lack of broadband ubiquity but also the cost of access. Today, we have one of the highest costs of access in the world at approximately N8,000 to N10.000 for 5Mbs of data. This is even when the average speed of access is still low and in fact lowest in Africa,” she lamented.

NOA LAUNCHES TRANSFORM NIGERIA CAMPAIGN

By Emeka Mamah The campaign by the National Orientation Agency, NOA, seeking the participation of Nigerians in all the sectors of the economy in the development of the nation was launched simultaneously in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, yesterday, with thousands of Nigerians joining the road shows. The campaign and logo for the Do the Right Thing: Transform Nigeria, campaign was launched Monday night by President Goodluck Jonathan and seeks the participation of all Nigerians as part of national transformation. According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to NOA, Mr. Paul Odenyi, the Director-General of the agency, Mr. Mike Omeri, led headquarters’ staff around the FCT in a carnival which was attended by several musical groups and movie artists to draw attention to the new campaign. Odenyi said those who attended included St Obi, representatives of other government organisations, market women, security organisations like the Civil Defence and road safety agencies, motorcycle and commercial vehicle drivers, among others. NOA said the Do the Right Thing charge was intended to create consciousness in Nigerians to do what is right at all times and under all circumstances in order to transform the country.