Monthly Archives: August 2021

Opinion

Worries about Obi Cubana and his image

OGBUAGU ANIKWE identifies two worries about the branding efforts of Obi Cubana and how they will impact his continental image.


I can say this now that I believe the dust must have settled at Oba, Anambra State. I write about the spectacle where Obinna Iyiegbu (aka Obi Cubana), forced Nigeria to take note that he has arrived.

One can understand and appreciate the filial love that drove him and his friends to such extreme displays. However, from a personal and corporate branding points of view, there is actually cause for worry. It is this worry that has polarized media analyses of the event, as sympathizers and social values advocates violently clashed.

Allow me to illustrate my worries with a story of two burials, standing some 20 years apart. Both took place in the same Oba Community. I witnessed the one of some 20 years ago. It was my first and only visit to the little town 10 kilometers from Onitsha on the Owerri highway. I was in Oba to commiserate with another illustrious son, late Mr. Dan Nzelu, when he buried his father.

Engr. Nzelu was CEO of Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), the cash cow of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). We were friends before he passed on. After he left office, he and I agreed to partner on a media publishing proposal. Unfortunately, death took him away barely a week after we had our conversation at his rock-fortified residence overlooking Aso Villa.

When the social media brouhaha over the loud displays at Oba broke out last month, my mind immediately went to Nzelu. I remembered the quiet, efficient and understated manner he bid his own father farewell in the same community.

The contrast was striking. The two Oba natives have one thing in common but this is where it ends. Like Obinna Iyiegbu (the Cubana boss), late Engr. Nzelu worked very hard, quietly and loyally at the NNPC. Not many were therefore surprised that he reached the zenith of his profession when he was appointed PPMC boss.

Like Iyiegbu, he cultivated and deepened friendships and goodwill that made him such a likeable and non-controversial fellow all through. He also had a close circle of friends but this was the point of divergence. His friends cared deeply about public image and eschewed social vulgarities of any sort.

A national image in the making

However, from what I have read so far, they shared kind-heartedness and were always ready and willing to help those in need, not least the youths of Oba community. I imagine that the PPMC contracts that Obi Cubana said he did, from where he bought his first Mercedes Benz car, were awarded when Nzelu was either in charge, or secured through his direct or indirect influence.

When Nzelu wanted to make his entry, I was one of the lucky ones that he reached out to. He was anxious to avoid running into controversy, as was the lot of his predecessors. He listened to people who came to offer unsolicited advice, took notes and implemented a simple plan.

What is the point of this story? Unlike Chief Iyiegbu, however, Nzelu planned his entry into the national media stage carefully.

There were two things that he took away from his interactions, as he said to me afterwards. He scrupulously maintained a national public profile that befitted his status as a federal public servant while discharging his duties. Then he watched his back. This involved making sure not to cross the path of greedy hawks in the Obasanjo cabinet. Desperadoes eager to slice from the national cake stop at nothing to remove stumbling blocks on the way to their greedy destination.

He accomplished his goal by running an efficient, transparent and equitable but humane operation. Thus, the image that Engr. Nzelu carefully cultivated is the reason why I worry about the Obi Cubana persona today. However, this worry has absolutely nothing to do with the burial itself. On the contrary, it has everything to do with the image that he seeks to project going forward. Especially now that he has stepped into the public square to be recognized and appreciated as a top hospitality player.

I’ve taken note of his interviews and subsequent panicky actions to downplay his friends’ obscene displays at his mother’s funeral. It seems to me that the young man needs to reflect on the need to speak to those who are versed in public relations and branding. Because there will be a number of major hurdles standing in the path of attaining the public image he desires.

Look at it this way. Everything that happened at Oba shows clearly that Chief Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, has very good friends. The Oba spectacle however exposed majority of these friends as people who do not care if they are branded as money-miss-roads. He hasn’t also learnt how to win over his critics. His social media defenders want us to see what his friends did at Oba as a private matter of an individual’s right to bury his mom the best way it suits him. But this is clearly not the case. They also want us to believe that this is normal social entertainment. It is not.

The two worries about Cubana Image

These are my worries about the branding efforts of Obi Cubana and how they will impact his continental image.

Those who visit the Cubana business operation (the nightclubs in particular) speak of it as a tightly-knit operation. Everything, they say, is organized and efficently works to the delight of the fun-seeking customer. This is why what happened at Oba comes as an anti-climax for someone who perfected the art of managing shows. Oba was his mother’s burial and therefore his business and show. Imagine giving to Oba half the attention usually invested in running the best after-hours business operation in Nigeria. His friends’ kitschy displays would have been avoided.

I do not blame Chief Iyiegbu personally. Losing one’s mother, especially one that shares a close bond, is an emotional moment. I am therefore willing to allow that his unruly friends took advantage of his vulnerability at that point to show off. But the show off hurt the Cubana brand that we have now come in contact with through his interviews. Therefore, there’s urgent room for amends; he should recognize this and not become overly defensive.

The second of my worries about Obi Cubana is the panicky measures he took when his public image took a bashing. For a moment, it appeared this was not the projection. His prior media interviews actually project positive values of a philanthropic billionaire. The branding is receiving critical acclaim. The story of how he intentionally created billionaires around his business empire, by empowering trustworthy associates, captured the imagination and admiration of both business strategists and the public at large. To now proceed to “dash” N300million that friends allegedly contributed to 300 youths of Oba (at One Million Naira each) smacks of a panic attack. It is also at variance with the well-thought out strategy that he had hitherto favored. And it slightly reduces the image he is trying to cultivate as a trans-continental hospitality power player. This needs further clarification.

Obi Cubana’s traditional chieftaincy title is “okpataozuora,” which means “wealth that automatically spreads to his community.” This title serves as his brand identity in the Oba community. For him to earn this title means that his people already know him as someone who is firmly rooted in people and community development. Thus, he has nothing else to prove locally. Therefore, he should continue to quietly and unobtrusively lift those who need his services at Oba while upscaling his philanthropic forays.

Consequently, he needs to quickly appreciate that the wealth he acquires and the friendships he makes extend beyond Oba. Equally he should refine ideas and actions that promote the continental image he wishes to cultivate through charitable projects. This is urgent, now that he has decided to step into the public square as a national hospitality player.

Beyond these two worries about Obi Cubana,I actually wish the young man well. I am one of those willing to forgive this first-time social faux pas. Like many other positive-minded folks, I look beyond the burial spectacle to the inspiring story. This is the tale of a young man who decided to stop looking for a job, immersed himself in the first menial business he could think of and steadily worked his way up to the top of the hospitality industry in Nigeria.

Worries about Obi Cubana and his image

Opinion

Obi Cubana as an innovator and insurgent entrepreneur

Prof. Moses Ochonu examines the persona of Obi Cubana and concludes that Obinna Iyiegbu is an innovator and insurgent entrepreneur.

Moses Ochonu
Moses Ochonu

Ochonu is a US-based Professor of African History

Author Bio

As an economic historian who edited a well-received book on entrepreneurship in Africa, the introduction to which argues for the recognition of distinct African entrepreneurial traditions and innovations, I find the case of Obi Cubana (Chief Obinna Iyiegbu) quite fascinating.

Let me first get a few caveats out of the way. I do not endorse his vulgar, exhibitionist, and performative wealth, but I do not judge it either. To each their own. We all operate from different value and ethical scripts, but none is, in the final analysis, inherently superior to the other.

Besides, a person has a right to spend their money as they wish, and Cubana’s exhibitionism cannot be analyzed or understood outside his business and brand, which are anchored by show business and entertainment, the lifeblood of which is performance, vulgar excess, and razzmatazz. In other words, his antics have instrumental and utilitarian logic in his line of business.

What appears to others as his vulgar exhibitionism and excessive self-indulgences are actually part of his business repertoire, part of the script, and aspects of a carefully, strategically organized spectacle to boost his brand. If I’m right then this is a type of genius.

Others of course have a right to be disgusted and to express that disgust, but ultimately, a person has the right to bury their loved ones in the manner that pleases them.

On the question of how Cubana and his associates became so wealthy, any explanation outside of privileged insider or documented information is conjecture and speculation. I will also leave the question of how he started and how he obtained his seed money to those with privileged information.

I heard of this man for the first time only a few days ago, although I knew of Cubana night club in Abuja because a friend once took me there. I did not know the owner, nor did I know that it was part of a larger entertainment empire.

In fact, when I read about Cubana Chief Priest, one of Cubana’s associates, meeting with Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello, recently, and they said he was a nightclub operator, I thought he was the owner of the Abuja Cubana that a friend took me to. In other words, I mistook the associate for his Oga.

All of that said, I find Cubana to be an interesting case study in entrepreneurial insurgency and innovation. Insurgent because he refuses to conform to and in fact challenges some of the tropes established by more established people of wealth in Nigeria in terms of how to mold and curate one’s image to the public as a person of means. Innovative because, well, all successful entrepreneurs are innovators.

Whether you like him or hate him, it is to the man’s credit that he dominated the news cycle for an entire weekend and that the debate and conversations he sparked have not only continued but have netted him and his brand tons of free, enduring publicity of the type that other brands pay tens if not hundreds of millions of Naira for. By the way, I am aware that by posting this update, I am giving him even more publicity and extending his dominance of the news cycle.

The other aspect of Obi Cubana’s profile that fascinates me is his model of what one might call associative entrepreneurship (I’m copyrighting this coinage so don’t use without permission or acknowledgment, lol). He is at the top of a core group of entrepreneurs who are roughly of his age and are his friends and enablers.

In this way, Obi Cubana’s success is also his associates’ success, and his associates’ associates’ success, and so on—a collective and shared success, if you will. As he and the business rose, his associates, including the more visible and vocal face of the empire, Cubana Chief Priest, rose with him.

Obi Cubana as an innovator and insurgent entrepreneur

Whether or not Cubana himself and observers realize it, this model of entrepreneurship is distinctly African, as I argued in the introduction to the aforementioned book on entrepreneurship.

This is why the highly individualized entrepreurship model of the Western capitalist experience theorized by Alois Schumpeter, with the emphasis on the sole, individual catalytic business innovator and disruptor, does not apply to the African entrepreneurship landscape.

Sure, Cubana fits partially into the Schumpeterian model of an innovative disruptor who identifies a niche and its deficits and proceeds to disrupt it with innovative and more efficient solutions. But unlike the Dangotes, the Elumelus, and Adenugas, the Otedolas, the Abdulsamad Rabius, and others, Obi Cubana is not the sole patriarch of a business fiefdom or of a consanguineous empire but rather the coordinating leader of a multilayered business empire where brand building is diffuse, fairly decentralized, and robustly delegated to and distributed among the core players.

The African group entrepreneurship model is not just about the formation of an inner core of invested entrepreneurs, as is the case with Cubana; it is also about the cultivation of a wider concentric circle of collaborators, communal support, a social network of beneficiaries, an elastic chain of empowerment, and a communally shared prosperity.

These are my “serious” provisional reflections on the Cubana phenomenon for now. I may return with more thoughts, some of them hopefully more well-formed.

Obi Cubana as an innovator and insurgent entrepreneur, by Prof. Moses Ochonu

Politics & Policy

Anambra leads voter registration as Enugu lags behind

Anambra State leads the nation in new voter registration while next-door neighbor, Enugu, flops at the bottom behind other states.

Over 30,000 Anambra voters have registered in the exercise flagged off on 28 June by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Anambra beat the efforts of the second-best state, Osun (26,775) by more than 3,600 new voters.

Overall, the North-West Region (89,895) leads in the current registrations, followed by the South West (81,126) and South-South (77,259).

new voter registration by regions
Voter registration by regions

Predictably, the South East continues to retain the last position.

However, no region dominates the top five states, going by figures released by INEC at the end of registrations last week.

Anambra placed South-East on top, followed by Osun for South-West, Bauchi  for North-East, Kano for North-West and Delta for South-South.

Nevertheless, this South East performance is a fluke, as the remaining four states are struggling at bottom of the table.

Out of 36 States and FCT, Abia is 33rd, Ebonyi 35th, Imo 36th while Enugu hugs the bottom at 37th.

Enugu’s performance, for example, is so bad that the difference of 3,601 between Anambra Osun is almost the entire number that she registered within the period.

Anambra’s performance therefore turned out to be the redeeming grace for the South East, as the rest recorded embarrassing numbers.

November polls fueling Anambra voter frenzy?

It has been suggested that restiveness in the south east accounts for the poor registrations. However, the performance from Anambra contradicts this.

Analysts said yesterday that the 6 November 2021 governorship election could be responsible for the upsurge in voter registration.

Governor Willie Obiano (APGA) is concluding his second term and set to relinquish power to a successor in February 2022.

Already lined up to contest for the position are three formidable opponents who bring different strengths to the polls.

They include Prof. Soludo who is being sponsored by Obiano as successor, Chief Valentine Ozigbo (PDP) and Chief Andy Uba (APC).

A total of 17 parties fielded candidates to contest the 6 November 2021 governorship election in Anambra State.

There are however other suggestions that the new registration process helps a lot more people not only register but to also choose their voting points and state.

“You can be in the FCT and register to vote in Anambra State,”an official explained to Enugu Metro.

“It is also possible to update your voter’s card and choose where you want to vote through this online electronic process,” an INEC staff said.

Anambra leads, Enugu lags in new voter registration

Crime & Justice, News Updates

Governors evacuate Unijos students from troubled Plateau

  • Gov. Ikpeazu
  • Gov. Obiano

Anambra, Abia Governors evacuate Unijos students from troubled Plateau

Governors Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Willie Obiano (Anambra) rally to rescue and evacuate stranded students of the University of Jos.

Abia State on Sunday despatched an official with security cover to evacuate about 200 students.

Anambra is using a commercial transport fleet with security cover to rescue stranded students from the State.

The Jos area of Plateau State has been boiling as Fulani and indigenous communities clash over land and water rights.

Abia State Government spokesperson, John Kalu, announced on Sunday that an Assistant on Student Affairs, Chibuzo Ndom, went to Jos.

“The contingent which includes security personnel are expected to ensure the safe return of the over 200 students of Abia origin back to Umuahia.”

Anambra Information Commissioner, Chief C. Don Adinuba, said today that the state has reviewed its strategy to evacuate students.

“The evacuation will now be handled by Anambra Liaison Office Abuja and GUO Transport which has a strong operation in Jos.

“This is to make for greater efficiency,” he said.

He advised students of the University from Anambra State who want to return to present themselves to GUO station in Jos.

Students will be assisted as long as they present University identity card and proof of membership of Anambra State Students Association of the University.

“An arrangement has also been made to pick up students who may not be able to leave the university campus.  

“Any student who has any difficulty whatsoever can contact the Liaison Office in Abuja for immediate assistance.
 
“The safety and welfare of the people of Anambra State … will continue to remain a priority of the State Administration,” Adinuba said

Unijos shut following killings

The university suspended its examinations and shut down, following the killing of 27 travellers on Rukuba Road.

The Plateau State government imposed a curfew on Jos North LGA over the killings.

A 100-level Geology student, Jeremiah Dalong, was reportedly stabbed to death on his way to school last week. This was after the curfew was relaxed.

Anambra, Abia Governors evacuate Unijos students from troubled Plateau

News Updates

Discord creeps into IPOB as leaders quarrel over sit-in

Discord creeps into the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as members openly quarrel over suspension of the Monday sit-at-home directive.

Nevertheless, for the third week running, IPOB successfully used intimidation and threats to force Southeasterners indoors today, 23 August,

Disenchanted members are questioning the claim that the suspension directive was a direct order from Mazi Nnamdi Kanu himself.

In recorded messages, they accused IPOB lawyers of selling out and insisted that the sit home Mondays must continue.

Mazi Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, however took issues with those saying they have been compromised by government officials.

“Does it make any sense to say that “the Lawyers collected money to suspend the Sit At Home”?

“Do the Lawyers have such powers? Can’t you see that these allegations are aimed at setting the house against itself?” he asked.

Today, the lawyer said he has been receiving death threats.

“I can no longer keep quiet because I’m receiving death threats from people I’ve been defending for years,” he said.

He also said he was not the bearer of the instruction from Mazi Kanu to suspend the sit at home directive.

“Onyendu did not pass the sit at home message through me. The message was already delivered by others days before I visited him on 9th August. Check social media,” he said.

“Shine your eyes, be smart and separate the apples from the oranges,” Ejimakor said.

IPOB grounds south east again

Most residents of the South East remained indoors today due to the indiscriminate threats being passed round.

The directive was suspended last week by IPOB’s leadership and spokesperson ostensibly on the orders of Mazi Kanu himself.

Enugu was a target today following reports that the population hearkened to IPOB leadership’s suspension of the Mondays sit-at-home order.

In social media messages, they threatened to kill market leaders, office managers and citizens who defy the sit-at-home directive.

Today, they succeeded by threating to kill market leaders, business owners and citizens if they violate IPOB-imposed Mondays sit-at-home order.

The messages were unsigned, delivered in printed and audio formats, and are being massively shared using the social media.

Last week Monday, pranksters caused a stampede at Kenyatta Market Enugu by spreading fake news that traders were under attack.

Discord creeps into IPOB as leaders quarrel over sit-in

News Updates, People

Okpara, Ironsi widows pass on within days of each other

  • Adanma Okpara
  • Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi

Okpara, Ironsi widows pass on within days of each other

Widows of Eastern Region Premier, Michael Okpara, and Nigerian military ruler, JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, pass within a day of each other.

The death of late Aguiyi-Ironsi’s widow, Lady Victoria today comes a day after Chief Adanma Okpara died.

Mrs. Okpara was wife of popular late Premier of Eastern Region, Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara, popularly known as MI Power.

Dr. Okpara succeeded Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as Premier of old Eastern Nigeria and ruled the Region between 1960 and 1966.

Amb. Tom Aguiyi-Ironsi, son of the Lady Victoria, broke the news of his mother’s passing this morning.

He said she died at the early hours of today, 23 August 2021.

Lady Victoria was the spouse of Nigeria’s first Military Head of State (January-July 1966) Maj. General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi.

The Agui-Ironsis are from Ndume Ibeku Umuahia, while the Okparas are from Afugiri, also in Umuahia, Abia State.

The Abia League of Professional Initiatives mourned both deaths in a statement just released today 23 August.

League Convener, Mr. Sonny iroche said:

“We thank God for the long lives of the two strong and respected Amazons, as they were both over 90’years old.

“Our condolences to the families of Michael Iheonukara Okpara and Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi both of Umuahia, Abia State.”

Okpara, Ironsi widows pass on within days of each other

City Attractions

Famous artworks in Enugu streets and landmarks

All over the Coal City are famous artworks in Enugu roads and landmarks that beautify the city. These artworks define both the history and the bubbling arts scene of Enugu.

This is an update on 10 Famous landmarks in Enugu

Many of the sculptors were executed by students – and by famous artists. Consequently, Enugu is a unique example of a effective town-and-gown handshake, especially in the Arts. It shows how a city can benefit from having an institution that hosts a famous arts school.

Famous landmarks in Enugu
Group Capt. Samson Emeka Omeruah

The story of artworks adorning famous junctions and sights began four decades ago (in 1981). Old Anambra’s Military Governor, Group Capt. Samson Omeruah visited the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu, in the State capital.

In the course of being conducted round the institution’s Campus II on Abakaliki Road, he was taken to the bespoke IMT Art Garden. This is the place where excellent stude artworks were being kept.

Display at IMT Sculpture Garden

Omeruah couldn’t believe his eyes. The paintings and sculptures he saw were simply out of this world. He also couldn’t believe that they were executed by the students themselves.

The Governor immediately decided that the pieces he saw there – particularly the sculptural works – shouldn’t just be sitting there. He ordered them to be installed at stragic road junctions and landmarks in the City.
They were to be placed in such a way that Enugu residents and visitors will see and also appreciate them.

A committee was set up to implement the Governor’s directive. They transported a number of artworks and installed them at many spots around the Coal City.

IMT’s Graphics Arts Department (link) has produced many famous artists, including Effiong, Ifeanyi Afuba, Chike Aniakor and the rest. It is a bespoke learning center for artists in Nigeria.

  • Late Nsikak Effiong
  • Prof. Chike Anakor

Famous Otigba Statue

Sculpture at Otigba Junction


Among the sculptural pieces carted away is the Otigba, the drummer. The Otigba statute is a giant drummer beating an equally gargantuan drum which was placed at the junction where Chime Avenue (New Haven) joined Ogui Road. In short order, the drummer took over as the landmark for the area, subsequently renamed Otigba Junction.

The Otigba Statue was carved in 1980 by Afuba, then a third year student of IMT. In 2020, residents of Enugu watched in horror as miscreants who infiltrated the #EndSARS protests set the iconic sculpture on fire.

A group of artists quickly teamed up together and contacted them Afuba, the original artist, to repair or reproduce another Otigba. The group included organisers of Arts In My City Arts Festival, Society of Nigerian Artist, and Art in Nigeria Project.

New Otigba, with artist Chris Afuba underneath

Artworks as landmarks

Two things distinguish the artworks found around the City. Many of them, like Otigba and the Reticent Baboons (Monkey Junction) in Independent Layout have become landmarks. Today, there are many such iconic works of art that people now use as landmarks to give directions to visitors and those looking for directions to places that they are not familiar with. One of them is Monkey Junction also carved by an IMT student.

see-no-evil-hear-no-evil monkey art in enugu
Three Wise Monkeys

The “Three Wise Monkeys” can be found at Ozubulu Street, near the EFCC State Office. They are sitting on the fence, with their famous “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” gestures.

A second attribute of the artworks is that many of them represent the history of Enugu. The first sight that hits visitors coming into Enugu from the Ninth Mile Expressway is a depiction of the 1949 coal miners’ strike. It shows a politician joining a group of miners protesting the condition of the mines. As many as 49 miners were shot dead by the British task masters during the strike.

coal miners strike enugu artwork
Coal Miners Strike, 1949

There is another artwork in front of the Park Lane Hospital, the oldest hospital in Eastern Nigeria, honouring healthcare providers trying to do what they know best how to do – which is taking care of health for the people.

park lane hospital junction enugu
Parklane Hospital Enugu

Rounding up these symbolic artworks is the Cenotaph in Okpara Square. It shows a military officer with gone raised high indicating that they presumably the Nigerian Civil War was over. If we move further down to Aguleri Junction, there is amolten sculpture that indicates to all that they have arrived at a court zone – the symbolic blindfolded maiden with a sword and a scale in both hands.

Cenotaph at Michael Okpara Square

Recent efforts to add more

The Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi Government has added a dash of artworks here and there and substituted others. Some of the additions defy rational explanation. Examples are replacing the lions at both entrances to Government House Road and the Lion Building itself with “white lions” and adding three more Otigba artworks in the same Origba Junction.

However, the administration compensated these flamboyant displays with some original pieces that adorm the rehabilitated forest park beside Okpara Square (now renamed Unity Park).

There are so many other artworks in Enugu. The best we can do is to just give you a sneek peak to some of these to whet your appetite.

Welcome to Enugu, the Arts City.

Enjoy.

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Travel

International flights resume at Enugu Airport

Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) issues final clearance for International flights to resume at Enugu Airport.

“Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu will resume international operations on the 18 August 2021,” NCAA said in a statement.

In the statement, signed by the CEO, Capt. Musa Nuhu, NCAA said the clearance was approved by the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19.

Already one flight has been operated from the Airport to Jordan to convey Christians on holy pilgrimage.

The pilgrims, numbering 300, were airlifted on Sunday night of 15 August from Enugu International to the Kingdom of Jordan.

Ethiopian Airline has hitherto been the sole international airline that flies passengers and cargo into Enugu.

The Airline said in a statement today 20 August that it’s thrice weekly flights to Enugu will resume on 15 September.

Consequently, the Airline will be operating it’s regular flights to Enugu on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Airlines consider Enugu a lucrative route but were put off by the hazardous nature of it’s runway.

Aviation authorities eventually shut down the airport for repairs that cost N10 billion and took a year to complete.

The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic caught up with the repairs and workers abandoned the site when Nigeria went on lockdown.

The runway rehabilitation has been completed and regular local flights are being operated since 30 August 2020.

Gov. Ugwuanyi rescued Enugu Operations

Enugu Metro learnt that the PTF on Covid-19 overlooked Enugu airport while provisioning for protocol logistics for international flights.

The Taskforce concentrated on only Kano and Port Harcourt airports which were subsequently reopened yo flights.

When South East Governors asked why Enugu airport was passed over, the committee reportedly said it has no more funds to prepare Enugu airport for international flights.

South-East Governors Committee on Akanu Ibiam Airport Rehabilitation and Palliatives, Sir. Chris Okoye said it was the intervention of Enugu State Government that saved the day.

The Committee visited Enugu three months ago and, after listing the logistics requirements, Gov. Ugwuanyi pledged to provide them.

Okoye said it was the Governor’s intervention that saved the day and made it possible for the airport to reopen.

Analysts have been trying to make sense of the claim that rhe Federal Government had no provision to install Covid-19 protocol equipment at Enugu.

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved N16.6billion to construct a new airport in Yobe State.

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International flights resume from September at Enugu Airport

Politics & Policy

INEC okays Soludo candidacy for Anambra polls

INEC okays Soludo candidacy

Independent National Electoral Commission today 19 August okays candidacy of APGA’s Prof. Chukwuma Soludo for 6 November governorship polls.

A spokesperson, Chief Festus Okoye, said the Commission relied on an Kano Court of Appeal judgement to make the switch.

INEC had hitherto cleared a factional candidate, Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji, as the APGA candidate for the election.

Stung by the switch, the Chief Victor Oye-led faction robustly challenged the cases that the Jude Okeke-led faction spread in several courts.

Thus, APGA lawyers simultaneously defended and challenged legal traps set for the Oye faction in Kano, Abuja, Awka and Owerri.

APGA national Chairman, Chief Victor Oye took to Facebook to announce the development.

He said that consequently, APGA “will now fire on all cylinders to mobilize the people of Anambra State to win the November 6, 2021 governorship election.”

He also described winning as “a sacred duty” which the party “owes to the people.”

INEC okays Soludo candidacy for Anambra polls

PDP’s Ozigbo is still in limbo

The INEC announcement, however said nothing about the candidate of the opposition PDP, Chief Valentine Ozigbo.

INEC’s Chief Okoye offered no explanations for the continued exclusion of the PDP and its candidate from the race.

It is generally believed that the election will come down to a straight fight between Ozigbo and Soludo come 6 November 2021.

However, both frontrunners struggled to clear several legal hurdles that factional party rivals laid on their way to the candidacy.

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