Manchester United’s defensive vulnerabilities returned as AC Milan grabbed an injury-time equaliser in their Europa League last-16 first-leg tie at Old Trafford.
Amad Diallo’s stunning header five minutes into the second half looked like giving United a first-leg lead.
But Milan, who had already been harshly denied a goal when Franck Kessie’s first-half volley was ruled out for handball, replied when Simon Kjaer evaded the attentions of Nemanja Matic at a corner right at the death and steered a near-post header past Dean Henderson’s weak attempt to save.
It was the least a Milan side lacking former United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic deserved.
It was tough luck on Diallo, who scored in quite brilliant fashion with his first effort on goal in only his third appearance for the Red Devils.
The Ivorian raced on to Bruno Fernandes’ brilliant chipped pass five minutes after replacing Anthony Martial at half-time, then, with his back to goal close to the penalty spot, looped the ball over Gianluigi Donnarumma and into the net.
Diallo’s entrance was delayed slightly as he had a band he was wearing on his wrist taped up. It was the only waste of time the 18-year-old was responsible for. It might only be his third United game but he already looks good value for the initial £19m United paid Atalanta for him in January.
Only Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and George Best have scored European goals at a younger age for the club and for a long time, the inspirational effort seemed set to spare Harry Maguire’s blushes for a simply woeful first-half miss.
Maguire timed his far-post run to perfection as he arrived, unmarked, to meet Fernandes’ flick-on from an Alex Telles corner. Amazingly, even though he was barely half a yard out when he connected, Maguire ended up in the net but the ball did not as it flicked off the inside of the post and flew across the six-yard area to safety.
Martial went close in the opening stages but it was one of the Frenchman’s more ineffective displays and it only took five minutes for his replacement to upstage him.
But while the window of opportunity is open for Diallo, Henderson now fully understands the reality of life in the harsh glare of the spotlight at Old Trafford.
Henderson has performed pretty well in his 16 appearances for United this season, so much so it has been suggested he is ready to replace David de Gea as the first-choice goalkeeper at the club.
But mistakes on this stage get magnified in a way they do not at Sheffield United, where he did so well last season to take him into the England fold.
And the more often Kjaer’s goal was replayed, the more a view began to form that Henderson should have done much better in his attempt to keep it out.
In five previous two-legged European ties with Milan, United have emerged victorious only once and with Ibrahmovic potentially returning at the San Siro next week, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have their work cut out to reach the last eight.
Despite Ibrahimovic’s absence, there were still some familiar faces in the Milan side.
Diogo Dalot is still a United player but, unlike in the Premier League, Uefa rules allowed him to play against his parent club, while England defender Fikayo Tomori may yet have a future at Chelsea.
It is now more than two years since Brahim Diaz left Manchester City for Real Madrid.
Diaz was part of the same City youth team as Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho. Like Sancho, he decided there was a future away from Pep Guardiola.
Evidently he decided to use his return to Manchester to remind an English audience of his talent as he probed and prodded around the United box as Milan took control.
One through ball for Davide Calabria was exceptional but the full-back was unable to get the ball under control quickly enough.
Aside from Kessie’s disallowed effort, Alexis Saelemaekers drew a save from Henderson after stepping inside Matic’s outstretched leg and Rade Krunic put a header just over.
Kjaer ensured their efforts did not go unrewarded.
A commodities trader was given painted stones instead of $36m (£26m) of copper from a Turkish supplier in a fraudulent deal last summer.
Geneva-based Mercuria Energy Group says it’s been the victim of cargo fraud following its purchase of 10,000 tons of copper blister.
When the cargoes started arriving in China, it found containers full of painted stones instead.
The bizarre case happened despite security and inspection controls.
Last year, Mercuria agreed to buy the copper blister, an impure form of the metal, for delivery to China. About 6,000 tonnes was loaded for shipment in more than 300 containers on eight vessels.
But before its journey from a port near Istanbul, the copper was switched with paving stones, spray-painted to resemble the semi-refined metal.
Mercuria, one of the five-biggest oil traders in the world, is seeking redress in Turkish and UK courts against the copper supplier Bietsan Bakir.
Turkish police have taken a number people into custody in relation to the fake copper scheme.
“Suspects have been taken under custody who are thought to be involved in the various parts of this organised crime against Mercuria,” the company said in a statement while thanking the Istanbul Financial Crimes Department.
It appears the copper was initially loaded into the first shipment of containers, before being surveyed by an inspection company. Seals used to prevent fraud were fixed to the containers.
But the containers were opened and the copper replaced with paving stones, Istanbul law firm KYB told media. The fraudsters switched between fake and real container seals to avoid detection.
Once the vessels were at sea, Mercuria paid $36m over five installments.
The fraud wasn’t discovered until the ships began arriving in the Chinese port of Lianyungang later that month.
“There has been a criminal investigation petition by the buyer against the seller and two intermediaries,” Turkish police said in a statement. “It’s been determined that the incident is the outcome of fraud perpetrated in an organised manner.”
In cases of non-delivery a trader could make a claim against a cargo’s insurance policy. But Mercuria found that just one out of seven contracts used by the Turkish company to insure the cargo was real. The rest had been forged.
Bietsan Bakir, the Turkish firm which sold Mercuria the copper, did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by Reuters. More hearings on the case are expected this week.
African fintech company Flutterwave announced that it has raised $170 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at over $1 billion.
The round was led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global. New and existing investors who participated include DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, Worldpay FIS, and 9yards Capital.
This funding round comes a year after Flutterwave raised a $35 million Series B and a $20 million Series A in 2018. In total, Flutterwave has raised $225 million and is one of the few African startups to have secured more than $200 million in funding.
Hitting the $1 billion valuation means Flutterwave is the third unicorn coming out of Nigeria after fellow fintech Interswitch and e-commerce company, Jumia. What’s impressive about this milestone is how quickly Flutterwave has joined the small club of African unicorns – under 10 years.
Founded by entrepreneurs Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Olugbenga Agboola in 2016, the company is present in 20 African countries, with a reach of over 33 countries on the continent.
According to CEO Olugbenga Agboola, the company grew more than 100% in revenue within the past year due to the pandemic without giving specifics on numbers. This contributed to its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 226% from 2018.
With this new capital, Flutterwave says it will invest to accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets, as well as develop complementary and innovative products. One of such products is the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help to accelerate e-commerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Store.
Two years later, @theflutterwave had processed over $1Bn in transaction value by making it easier to complete seamless and secure payments across Africa. Today we’re announcing our $170m Series C funding. We’ve come a long way and you made it possible.https://t.co/SgO4hThPf8
Following Paystack’s acquisition by Stripe for more than $200 million last year, there were rumours of Flutterwave taking the same route. This Series C round suggests otherwise.
What other plans does Flutterwave have? The African fintech giant is open to the idea of acquiring smaller players in the African fintech space and plans to go live in North Africa.
The Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, has announced that 5,000 Nigerians refugees have been repatriated to the state from Cameroon.
According to a statement on Zulum’s Facebook page, the handing over took place on Monday and was led by Cameroon’s Minister for Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, and other officials of his country.
The returnees were part of thousands of Nigerians, mostly from Borno, who since 2014, fled in batches to Minawao camp located in Mokolo, far north region of Cameroon, to escape Boko Haram’s killings.
The statement said, “Cameroonian officials, led by Minister for Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji have repatriated and handed over first batch of 5,000 Nigerian refugees to Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum.
“The hand over took place on Monday, at a brief ceremony in Amchiide, a border community between Nigeria and Cameroon, close to Banki in Bama local government area of Borno central.
“The returnees were part of thousands of Nigerians, mostly from Borno, who since 2014, fled in batches to Minawao camp located in Mokolo, far north region of Cameroon, to escape Boko Haram’s killings. Many Nigerians in uncertain numbers, some accounts saying more than 60,000, fled to the camp from parts of Borno and Adamawa but over the years, the number came down following isolated returns.
“The handover ceremony was attended by top officials from Cameroon, including Governor of the Far North Region, Midjiyawa Bakary and officials of United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR.
“Cameroonian Minister for Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji Paul announced that President Paul Biya had approved a big relief package which included food items, mattresses, blankets and other non-food items for distribution to all 5,000 returnees as support.
“The Minister commended Governor Zulum for constructing homes where the refugees were to be resettled.
“Governor Zulum had approved funds and supervised the ongoing construction of over 6,000 urban and low-cost resettlement houses sited in Banki, Gwoza, Kondugu, Kaga and different others, with a substantial number already completed. The majority of them are used for resettlement of refugees and internally displaced persons.”
Zulum appreciated the donation made by the Cameroonian President and thanked him and other officials and host communities for taking good care of the Nigerian refugees in the last six years.
“I wish to sincerely convey our deepest appreciation to the government of Cameroon under the distinguished leadership of President Paul Biya, for the enormous support to my fellow Nigerians who took refuge in the Minawao [refugee] camp. We remain eternally grateful,” Zulum said.
“The repatriation was to implement the outcome of a tripartite commission meeting held in Marwa, Cameroon, February 10, 2021, which was attended by officials from Cameroon, the UNHCR and a Nigerian delegation that comprised Governor Zulum and top officials from federal ministries of foreign affairs, humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs as well as Zulum’s special adviser on monitoring and evaluation, who chairs a technical committee on the repatriation, Engr. Lawan Abba Wakilbe.”
Following the arrest of some three members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) who were involved in the capturing of suspected kidnap kingpin, Iskilu Wakilu, civil right lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo has urged the police to release the arrested individuals.
Saying the arrest was an unfortunate development in the first place, Ajulo urged the police to release the OPC men without any further delay.
Speaking through his aide, Wole Adepoju, the Mayegun Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba said the issue at hand is such a sensitive one and therefore must be treated as such.
Ajulo said complains about Wakilu’s activities in Ibarapa area of Oyo state have been so rife that it was expected the police would have done something about it but nothing seemed to be coming forth. He further said it was regrettable that the police would now turn against the OPC operatives who made the job of the police easy by turning in the alleged kidnap kingpin.
Also, he said the police ought to have recognized fact that the arrested men were not acting in isolation but as members of an age long sectional group saddled with responsibility of defending integrity of Yorubaland and as a matter of exigency, backed by the sons and daughters of Yoruba land to ensure that pockets of insecurity being witnessed in the South West doesn’t degenerate further than it is. He argued that it is better Wakilu was apprehended and handed over to the police, rather than being killed outrightly. He therefore said the arrest of the OPC men by the police is fittingly and unwittingly sending wrong signal to the populace.
Ajulo added that, by extant law, citizen arrest is lawful as anyone having reasonable suspicion can arrest a suspect and within reasonable time hand such suspect over to the authority.
On a final note, while the former national secretary of Labour Party urged the police to free the detained OPC members, he advised that the police should hence desist from action that may make it appear to be partisan in a matter that involves two or more ethnicity as this, as it could cast a stain on its image.
Zoom founder Eric Yuan has transferred about 18 million of his shares worth more than $6bn (£4.4bn), according to a regulatory filing.
Mr Yuan, who is also chief executive of the video-conferencing platform, moved roughly 40% of his stake in the company last week.
The shares were shown as gifts to unspecified beneficiaries last week.
Mr Yuan has seen his personal wealth rocket as Zoom became a household name during pandemic lockdowns.
An increasing number of students and professionals connected online boosting the fortunes of Zoom and its founder.
Mr Yuan started Zoom in 2011 and listed it on the US stock market in 2019, making him a billionaire. He is currently worth $13.7bn, according to Forbes.
A Zoom spokesperson said the transfers were related to Mr Yuan’s estate planning practices. “The distributions were made in accordance with the terms of Eric Yuan and his wife’s trusts.”
Zoom’s shares have nearly tripled in the past 12 months and the company has a market valuation of around $100bn.
“Zoom founder Eric Yuan’s decision to transfer more than a third of his stake will raise some eyebrows,” Edward Moya, at trading firm Oanda, told the BBC.
“While a Zoom spokesperson noted that the transfer is consistent with the Yuans’ typical estate planning practices, investors will be nervous until we find out who is the recipient of the stock,” he added.
“Yuan is only 51, married and has three children, so the distribution of his wealth could be viewed as rushed.”
Mr Yuan said working from home is here to stay even as lockdowns eased and vaccines are rolled out across the globe.
During Zoom’s annual results last week, Zoom executives said they expected strong growth to continue this year.
“The future is here with the rise of remote and work from anywhere change. We recognise this new reality, ” Mr Yuan said.
The video conferencing company expects sales to rise more than 40% this year, reaching more than $3.7bn.
However, Zoom said it did not expect growth to continue at the pace it enjoyed last year.
Chinese-American Mr Yuan was named the 2020 Time Businessperson of the Year and was included in its annual list of the 100 most influential people.
Mass kidnappings of children in Nigeria have been making global headlines recently and this has been hard to watch for a young woman who was abducted in an infamous attack on a school in Chibok.
Naomi Adamu is quiet. As she talks she rarely makes eye contact, keeping her voice low and steady.
Upon meeting her, few would suspect she survived one of the most harrowing experiences a young woman could go through. But her timid demeanour belies an extraordinary strength of character.
Naomi, 24 at the time of the attack, was the oldest of more than 270 students from the Chibok Government Secondary School for Girls abducted by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in April 2014.
Her classmates referred to her as Maman Mu, Our Mother. Her education had been interrupted by health problems as a child.
She is now the main protagonist in a new book on the so-called “Chibok girls”.
The book explores the girls’ time in captivity in detail, and shows how the social media campaign that made them famous also made it harder to secure their release. Their fame had made them precious commodities, too valuable to let go.
During the three years she spent with Boko Haram, Naomi refused to bow down to pressure to marry one of their fighters, or convert to Islam.
Instead she and another classmate wrote secret diaries in textbooks they were given to write Islamic verses. She kept them hidden in a makeshift pouch tied to her leg.
“We decided that we should write down our stories,” she tells me, “so that if one of us got to escape, we could let people know what happened to us”.
She shows me one of the diaries, a lined text book with a fraying cover. In it is a letter to her dad, written just before Christmas of the year they were kidnapped.
“Dear my lovely dad, I miss you so much in this moment.
“Dad, I want to see you, I’m so worried about you and mum and the rest of the people at home.
“I wasn’t aware that this could happen to me, none of us who Boko Haram kidnapped realised that. By the Grace of God dad, I miss you so much.
“I want you to help me in prayer all the time so that I will defeat the devil each time he comes to torment me. So dad, I will like to stop here.
“I miss you so much. Goodbye have a nice day.
“Your lovely daughter, Naomi Adamu. Wish you a merry Christmas.”
Besides being separated from their loved ones and not knowing how they were doing or if they were even alive, the girls suffered many hardships.
They were moved frequently to avoid detection by the myriad armed forces looking for them, including the Nigerian military, foreign mercenaries and American drones.
Apart from a brief period in the town of Gwoza, captured by Boko Haram in late 2014, they spent most of their time in camps in the Sambisa forest, the group’s main hiding place.
“It was a very difficult time for us in Sambisa,” Naomi explains, “there was no food, no water. We even had to use soil to clean ourselves up when we were on our periods.”
Senior Boko Haram militants were constantly trying to get Naomi to marry one of their fighters. They believed seeing her get married would help convince the younger girls to follow her lead.
Every time she refused she would be beaten brutally and threatened with death.
When I ask how she knew she would not be killed for refusing to obey her captors, Naomi says she was not ready to get married.
Her insubordination led her and others to be introduced to the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau. But during the meeting he made a surprising revelation.
“Shekau told us that he didn’t abduct us to marry us off, but because he wanted to put pressure on the government to release his men who were in detention.”
The discovery strengthened her resolve and soon there were other rebellions.
When the militants kept her and some of the more stubborn students apart from their peers, depriving the weaker girls of food in order to force them to marry, Naomi and her friends smuggled food to them.
They sang hymns in front of their guards, quietly at first, then more boldly. Most of the kidnapped students were Christians. They wrote down their favourite Bible verses and prayers in their diaries.
She was eventually freed in 2017 along with 81 other girls, following years of painstaking negotiations between a small team of Nigerian volunteers and a Swiss diplomat.
At the time she thought Boko Haram was on its last legs.
“I didn’t think Boko Haram would still be active today because when we left there, they were splitting into two groups, so we thought they were over. Some of them were in Sambisa, whilst some were Kangaroua.”
But the social media campaign to free the girls, led by celebrities including the US first lady at the time, Michelle Obama, had propelled them to fame and shown Boko Haram how valuable school children were as captives.
Pan African financial institution, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Plc is set to change the face of digital banking services with its new mobile banking app aimed at delivering first-rate services to customers.
The new UBA mobile banking app, has been armed with benefits and features designed to give its customers increased control and accessibility to carry out transactions with ease.
UBA’s Group Head, Digital Banking, Kayode Ishola, who spoke about the new banking app to members of the press during an international virtual media parley on Monday, explained that apart from being able to decide where they want their cards to operate and block, view, or request new cards straight from the app to suit their specific needs, the app has been tailor-made to give customers what they want, how and in the way they want it.
Reeling off some of the features and benefits of the app, he said a lot of investment in cutting edge technology and attention to details was put into the new UBA mobile app.
Ishola said, “The new UBA Mobile App is your personal finance manager built with a distinctive user interface that will change the face of banking. With this app, we are reimagining banking as our engagement has moved from being channel-based to being platform-based. The speed of the platform has been made to match the speed of light as we have cut down significantly on the number of processes expected to carry out your transactions.
“Interestingly, we have worked towards creating behavioural insight for our customers and working around this to address the real needs of our customers using the Omni channel platform and running on our open digital platform, which is very interactive and armed with lifestyle services. It is sleek and trendy with seamless user interface” Ishola stated.
UBA’s Head, SME Banking, Sampson Aneke, said that apart from the fact that the app has been created with journey that has a high-level of intelligence – as it can work based on frequent transactions, it can also speak to the specific country where it is being used as the new mobile app runs concurrently in the 20 countries of UBA’s operation interacting in the different languages and cultures in line with the specific needs and regulation of the country in focus.
“This all-encompassing platform which boasts of a new user interface because of its sleek, modern nature of delivering seamless experience across several devices; can be used as a budgeting tool, loan application and also allows customers view their expenses according to their various categories such as the amount spent on data within a particular period;” Aneke added.
On the security features of the app, UBA’s Group Chief Information Officer, Onyebuchi Akosa, said that security of the app are best in class adding that the new platform, which will revolutionise the way banking services are offered, promises to deliver increased personalized banking via a watertight and highly-effective security system.
“The new app has also been built with the best-in-purchase security features and has been modelled appropriately to ensure that all the features are working properly to secure transactions maximally. It is also important to mention that the bank took into consideration the virtually impaired, and thus has used voice recognition as a channel for transaction which suits both convenience and the visually impaired customers,” he said.
United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading Pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than twenty million customers, across 1,000 business offices and customer touch points, in 20 African countries. With presence in New York, London and Paris, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross-border payments and remittances, trade finance and ancillary banking services.
Bisi Kazeem is Assistant Corps Marshal, ACM and Corps Public Education Officer, Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, in this piece made available to NAOSRE, reflects on the 33 years trajectory of the Commission and the commitment to ensure travels on Nigerian roads become luxurious
Thirty three years ago, precisely on 18 February 1988, the Federal Government of Nigeria established the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) as the nation’s lead agency saddled with the responsibilities of identifying the causes of road traffic crashes and proffering appropriate solutions to the menace that had placed the country in the position of the second most hazardous nations in Africa to drive motor vehicles in.
With its lead agency status, FRSC was set as an institution to make effective use of instruments of education, science and technology to resolve the intractable challenges of motorisation in the country which was heightened by people’s fatalistic beliefs towards road traffic crashes.
For a nation that had nearly surrendered itself wanton killings on its highways which most of the people falsely attributed to either “the will of God” or “evil spirits,” the establishment of the FRSC 33 years ago was hailed by some discernible Nigerians as the most comprehensive policy that could address the menace of road traffic crashes in the country.
It’s worthy of note that prior to the establishment of the Corps, there were various efforts made by some concerned individuals, organisations and corporate bodies to create public awareness on the effects of road traffic crashes and tackle the menace to no avail.
With the incapacity of such efforts evidenced by the yearly public enlightenment programmes annually carried out by the Nigerian Army during the ember months particularly in the month of December; the creation of the Highway Patrol Unit under the Nigeria Police and the Oyo State Road Safety, the mandates of the new FRSC were expanded to essentially include conducting research into the causes of road traffic crashes and using all modern tools to adequately address them while prompt removal of obstructions formed an essential part of its mandates.
FRSC thus, started its operations with a renewed spirit of road traffic management system built on public goodwill, integrity and service delivery by its personnel.
Backed by enabling law espoused in Decree 45 of 1988 as amended by Decree 35 of 1992 under the military rule, captioned as Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, but repealed and reenacted as FRSC Establishment Act 2007, during the civilian rule, the statue provided adequate powers to members of the Corps to utilise not just the efficacy of public enlightenment programmes, but to embark on aggressive enforcement of traffic rules and regulations to return sanity to the otherwise chaotic Nigeria highways.
Accordingly, right from its inception to date, successive leaderships of the Corps have strived to build on the solid foundations laid by the founding fathers in creating public awareness on issues of road safety and enforcement of traffic rules and regulations without fear or favour.
First Decade of the FRSC
The first decade of the FRSC from 1988 to 1998 was devoted to laying solid foundation for the organisation; creating alliances between the organisation and strategic members of the public through enlightenment programmes particularly, among the drivers and raising awareness that could convince every Nigerian that in its enforcement strategies, FRSC would not be “business as usual.” To this end, offenders who were apprehended for various traffic violations were not only sent to the banks to effect payment of the coded fines, but made to attend post- payment lectures in the commands after which video clips of road traffic crashes were shown to convince them that road traffic crashes were real, and that because they are caused mostly by human factor, they could be prevented with adequate caution and adherence to the rules of the road by the drivers.
However, this non relenting efforts of the young and energetic members of the Corps who shared the value orientation with the leadership of the organisation chaired by the internationally acclaimed Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and managed by Dr Olu Agunloye as the pioneer Corps Marshal, it became evident that most of the notorious traffic violators started showing remorse and promising to abide by the rules and regulations guiding the use of the roads.
As for the elite members of the society who believed that any law could only be enforced on those less privileged members of the society, the target of the public enlightenment efforts at them coupled with enforcement system that did not exclude anyone from been apprehended whenever they committed traffic violations saw them cautioning their drivers and abiding by the regulations.
With the combined strategies of aggressive public enlightenment and robust enforcement coupled with the introduction of the new licensing system by the Corps, Nigeria’s FRSC successfully commenced a new engagement with the Nigerian public in matters of road safety that restored relative sanity to the roads. This tempo of aggression was sustained throughout the Corps’ first ten years of existence with majority of the people hailing its non-compromising stance on matters of road safety as a healthy development
FRSC in the Second Decade
By the time the FRSC entered its second decade which commenced in February 1998, the organisation had experienced its first leadership change four years earlier. This saw the change of Barton from the pioneer Corps Marshal, Dr Olu Agunloye to Major General Haldu Anthony Hananiya( rtd) who introduced obvious changes into the organisation’s culture of civility upon which the Corps was founded, to a new regimentation that gave impetus to the organisation as a paramilitary agency.
In line with the new postures of a paramilitary agency, changes were effected on the Corps’ uniforms; trainings, including arms trainings were organised for management staff and some selected members of the Corps, while the general comportment of the staff to make them more reflective of the new regimentation were introduced as evidenced by the launch of a new FRSC Disciplinary Code and dominance of military styles in the operational and administrative activities of the Corps.
Despite these massive structural changes however, the Corps’ core values of ensuring safety on the nation’s highways and civility in enforcement remained uncompromised while the civil approach to patrol activities and pursuit of public enlightenment programmes were adhered to religiously. The various changes in the military leaderships of the country within the period especially with the stepping aside of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) to the brief Interim Government of Chief Earnest Shonekan, to Generals Sani Abacha and Abdulsalami Abubakar within a spate of five years, the FRSC’s first and second decades also witnessed leadership changes. These ranged from General Hananiya to Deputy Corps Marshals Dahiru Yakassai and Engr Abba Wakilbe.
Importantly, within the same period, the Corps also experienced merger and demerger with the Nigeria Police and its return to General Hananiya in November 2003 in the aftermath of the demerger, all of which affected the operations and structures of the Corps in various ways.
Despite the celebrated “second coming” of General Hananiya, he only held the saddle of leadership of the Corps till a new Corps Marshal was appointed from outside in May 2007, few months before the celebration of the Corps’ 20th anniversary, which ushered in a new chapter in the organisation’s tortuous journey.
The Third Decade of the Corps
The third Decades of the FRSC which effectively commenced in February, 2008 saw a new leadership of the Corps undet Chief Osita Chidoka. The new Management came with the introduction of a digital era of rapid development in information and communication technology; consolidation of the gains of the past twenty years of the Corps and chatting a new course for its future as a technology-driven organisation. The decade’s activities commenced with an international Conference on Road Safety, which was organised to mark its 20th anniversary celebration at the Sheraton Hotel Abuja.
The third decade was characterised by a new dynamism in road safety management with the launch of several road safety programmes that are technology-driven; reaffirmation of the FRSC as a veritable tool for achieving the socioeconomic goals of the government and membership of the Corps to the security and other socioeconomic bodies across the States. Meanwhile, with more funding and active participation of the Corps in road safety activities, various local and international recognitions came to the organisation.
Seven years into his tenure and four years before its 30th anniversary, Chief Osita Chidoka was appointed as Minister of Aviation, leading to the appointment of Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, the first Corps Marshal from within the organisation who is the currently saddled with the leadership of the organisation.
Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, a founding officer of the Corps took over the mantle of leadership on 24th July 2014 and has since been pursuing the modernisation policy of the Corps with commendable dexterity. A firm believer in policy continuity, the Corps under his leadership has in the last seven years been propelled by a new force that aligns with the principles of the founding fathers: More Federal Government’s moral and logistics support have been secured; road safety strategy document was first approved under him while the second edition of the strategy is currently in operations.
There have been greater vigour in the pursuit of anti corruption war in the Corps under his Management with the formal launch of anti corruption app in partnership with some strategic stakeholders. Meanwhile, more collaborative initiatives have led to greater vigilance on the activities of members of the Corps with those caught engaging themselves in anti corruption practices being arraigned by the EFCC and ICPC to courts while others are facing the FRSC Disciplinary panel for trial and appropriate sanctions on various allegations to serve as deterrence for others.
The policy of expansion of the Corps’ presence nationwide to bring its operations closer to the grassroots which the Oyeyemi-led Management initiated has led to the opening of a liaison office in each of the remaining local councils across the country where FRSC was yet to establish a full unit command, while liaison officers have been appointed to all such councils since last year. In pursuit of the new agenda, more unit commands, zebra and roadside clinics are being opened while training programmes for staff to prepare them adequately for their tasks have been on the increase.
Moreover, the Corps has also witnessed improved provision of patrol logistics, rescue and tow trucks by the federal government under the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to prepare the Corps to carryout its statutory responsibilities most efficiently. There’s no doubt that FRSC has over the years endeared itself to the generality of people of Nigeria and positively impressed the government which has continued to give it supportive hands.
With the growing desire for urbanisation by the government coupled with the central role which transportation and safety plays in the liveability of the people, there is every possibility that the demand on the FRSC to perform more optimally will be on the increase and the present Management is up to the tasks in closing such gaps.
FRSC in the Next Decade
By the time Nigeria will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of FRSC in 2028, it’s expected that all the lessons learnt over the years would have come to assist the organisation to stand firmly on its feat in order to continue to deliver on safety to the people.
Therefore, It is also expected that the capacity of the Corps would have developed to a level where the personnel would be in a position to address whatever traffic challenges that the nation maybe faced with more professionally and efficiently.
In addition, with improved funding by government and closer collaboration with stakeholders, the entire Nigeria road network would have been effectively covered with the activities of the special marshals been more widely embraced by Nigerians from all strata of life which aligns with the collective nature of road safety campaigns
Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta was elected as the head of the Catalan club again on Sunday, taking charge of a team in crisis and facing daunting problems that include a huge debt and the possible departure of its superstar Lionel Messi when his contract finishes at the end of the season.
“The fact that the best player in the world came to vote today, along with his son, is proof that Leo loves Barca,” Laporta said. ”Together we will convince him to stay.”
Laporta defeated businessman Víctor Font and longtime board member Toni Freixa, the other two candidates who were among the more than 110,000 members eligible to vote. The election was held just days after the club’s last elected president Josep Maria Bartomeu spent a night in jail while Catalan police investigated possible irregularities during his administration. Bartomeu has denied any wrongdoing.
Laporta won with 54% of the votes, with Font coming second with nearly 30% and Freixa on 8%. Turnout was 55,611.
The club posted a video of Laporta celebrating the victory along with his campaign team, jumping and chanting “Barca, Barca, Barca…”
The election, which was postponed from January because of the coronavirus pandemic, caps a week in which the club made worldwide headlines after a police raid at the team’s headquarters led to arrests and further embarrassment for an institution that has long prided itself as “more than a club.”
The police investigation was related to the so-called “Barcagate,” which involved allegations that the former executive board hired an internet services company to spread negative messages about its own players and opponents on social media to boost the image of senior club officials.
Laporta, who has a five-year term, was the team’s president between 2003-2010, during Messi’s breakout seasons for the senior team. The 58-year-old Laporta has said all along during his campaign that he was the best candidate to convince the playmaker to stay.
He has known Messi since not long after the Argentina great joined the Spanish club after leaving his home country with his family. Messi’s professional debut with Barcelona came as a 17-year-old in 2004, with Laporta already in charge.
Messi’s future was a key campaign issue as he can leave the club for free at the end of his contract this summer. He was upset with Bartomeu after the former president denied his request to leave at the end of last season.
At the start of his first stint as president, Laporta chose the equally inexperienced Frank Rijkaard as his first coach, and brought in Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Deco to team up with in-house talents Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández. Messi quickly moved up through Barcelona’s youth teams and joined the senior squad in 2004. The team took off and won two Spanish league titles and the club’s second European Cup in 2006.
When that team began to falter, Laporta made another bold move by replacing Rijkaard with the untested Pep Guardiola and selling Ronaldinho. Guardiola retooled the team around Messi, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, sparking the most glorious period in the club’s history.
Laporta tried to unseat Bartomeu in a 2015 election, but Bartomeu won with the team coming off a triple sweep of the Champions League, Spanish league and Copa del Rey.
Members, including Messi and other players, voted at the team’s Camp Nou Stadium and other polling stations in northeast Catalonia and neighboring Andorra. Voting by mail also was allowed in certain circumstances.
The election was called after Bartomeu and his board resigned in October facing a possible no-confidence referendum by club members angry about the team’s trophy-less 2019-20 season – the first since 2007-08. The season ended in a humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals.
The club has qualified for the Copa del Rey final and is second in the Spanish league this season. It won 2-0 at Osasuna on Saturday. Barcelona lost 4-1 to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League.
The new president will face problems that include the possible departure of Messi at the end of the season and a debt of more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) brought on in large part by the coronavirus pandemic but also by one of the highest payrolls in soccer.
Of the three candidates, 52-year-old Freixa was the only one who has guaranteed that coach Ronald Koeman would remain in place to see out his contract through the end of next season. The 48-year-old Font, by contrast, had promised to bring back midfield great Xavi in some capacity, either as sports director or as the coach.
Font was the only outsider among the candidates who had no experience at the club’s administration. He had been calling for renewal at the club.
Freixa was a Barcelona board member from 2010-15. He rejected its portrayal as a club on the brink of collapse and had said he could win as an underdog.
