52nd AGM: Julius Berger Delivers Highest Dividend in Five Years

L-R: Corporate Development Director, Tobias Meletschus, Company Secretary, Barr. Mrs Cecilia Madueke, Managing Director, Engr. Dr. Lars Richter, Chairman JB Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Director, Mrs Belinda Ajoke Disu, Chairman Julius Berger International, Dr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, Vice Chairman, Dr George Marks, Director Administration, Alh. Zubairu Ibrahim Bayi, and Financial Director, Christian Hausemann at the Julius Berger Annual General Meeting recently

Inside the venue of the 52nd Annual General Meeting of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc in Abuja recently, the excitement was pervasive and palpable. Dr Ernest Azudialu Obiejesi, chairman of Julius Berger International, beamed and buoyed in pride as the construction behemoth he superintends its international operations, once again, defied the headwinds of the 2021 financial year to meet its targets. His joy is understandable.

For the first time in five years, the foremost engineering construction company paid out its highest dividend to shareholders. Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Chairman of the Board of Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, said that although the company had challenges in the 2021 financial year, it excelled and overcame the challenges by dint of hard work and unflinching commitment to success by the management and staff.

While presenting the Consolidated Financial Statements of the year under review, Sunmonu said that Julius Berger Nigeria Plc performed positively despite the numerous macro-economic hiccups which affected businesses during the year. He added that the company achieved exceptional financial performance, meeting targets for both revenue and cash flow. “One for those challenges, of course, is COVID-19, which remains ever present in our personal and professional lives – with prolonged consequences. Unfortunately, we are unable to put this virus behind us just yet,” he said.

The chairman declared that while 2021 was certainly a challenging year, “It was also a dynamic and industrious year. Within our core construction business, we made meaningful progress across our portfolio of private and public projects.” He listed the projects to include the International Worship Centre, Uyo; the Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja, and the Bodo-Bonny Road as well as infrastructure projects in Lagos and Rivers States, where Sunmonu added that the company supported the state governments “to achieve a remarkable infrastructure transformation within the year.”

Underscoring the shining example of trust the federal government placed on Julius Berger, the chairman harped on the priority projects of the government being financed via the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, saying that the company forged ahead with all of them including the Second River Niger Bridge and the Abuja-Kano Road “with our values, standards and capacities remaining core to our competitive edge.”

He stated that Julius Berger Nigeria Plc closed for the year under review “with a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate of 0.19, equivalent to our 2020 results,” and that the various subsidiaries of the group also made reasonable progress in 2021.

Sunmonu promised that in 2022, “We will continue to work hard, remain resilient and champion progress in regard to the potentials ahead of us. We do not underestimate the effort or the endeavour it will take to achieve our vision, but we also do not underestimate our collective diligence and determination.”

In his remarks to shareholders at the AGM, the Managing Director, Engr.

 Dr Lars Richter disclosed that the company stood strong in the year under review as the shareholders approved a N2.50k per share dividends. He said that the three pillars of Julius Berger’s business strategy - the core business, group subsidiaries and diversification - have remained central to all operations even as he shared an update on the company’s sustainability and inclusivity efforts, as well as on the company’s outlook for 2022 and beyond.

Richter declared, “Julius Berger continues to stand strong, our values are firmly in place and our reputation for reliable and quality delivery remains unmatched…. And within our core business we continue to realize meaningful progress across our portfolio of projects as a foundation for our continued success and growth.”

On the business trajectory of the company, Richter said Julius Berger continues to acquire new projects for major clients such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Lagos and Port Harcourt State, the Federal Ministry of Works. 

Dr Richter also listed some successfully commissioned major projects to include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation office, several flyovers and civil infrastructural works in Port Harcourt; and the Rehabilitated Control Towers at Tincan Island and the Lagos Port Complex.

Adekoya Best Candidate for 2023 Reps Ticket, PDP Stakeholders Declare In Ijebu

Leaders, Stakeholders and teaming supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday held a reception in honour of Rt Hon Abdel-Majid Adesegun Adekoya, the Deputy Minority Whip of the House of Representatives

Adekoya, who was few days back presented with the Certificate of Return as the candidate of the party for Ijebu North, Ijebu East and Ogun Waterside federal constituency is seeking a reelection to the Green Chamber. 

Speaking at the event organised by a pressure group, The Attacker Think-Tank Leaders, Adekoya said he had honoured the invitation extended to him in order to appreciate the party's unflinching support which led to his emergence at the party primary. 

Attacker, as the federal lawmaker is prominently known in the Nigeria political circle however urged his supporters across the three local governments which forms the federal

constituency to always see those who contested the seat with him as their kinsmen. 

"Let me reiterate my commitment to making peace with the other people who contested the primary with me. Both Kenny Bello Tele Ogunjobi are my brothers and stakeholders in the PDP project. We should accord them deserved honour whenever you see them so that the party can trump the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming election," Adekoya added.

Adekoya disclosed that there is no success without succession, stressing that no matter despite his remarkable feat in the federal constituency, he will have to leave the Green Chamber one day, appealing to the aggrieved aspirants to give him the necessary boost.

"I won't be occupying this seat for ever. I want to appeal to those who contested the primary with me to rally round me on this journey. As a time will also come too for me to support their aspiration as well.

The federal lawmaker also assured the people to continue the spread of dividend of democracy being witnessed, despite the election challenges which has taken him off official responsibilities.

2023: Bola Tinubu Writes Aso Rock, Tells Who Buhari Is

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a “true leader, brother and friend”  who demonstrated a “sense of purpose, composure, and maturity”  in the weeks leading to the Special Convention of the Party.

In a letter to the President, which he personally signed, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu  expressed gratitude for the President’s congratulatory letter to him, adding that while all the contestants expected President Buhari to “choose” his successor, he simply allowed a level playing field. 

According to him, “You belonged to everybody in the party and you belonged to none of the individual candidates of the party.”

He congratulated the President for the successful conclusion of the Convention and assured him of an issue focused campaign leading to the 2023 general elections.

The full text of the letter is reproduced below:

Dear Mr President,

DEEP APPRECIATION

I bring you sincere fraternal greetings and congratulations on the successful conclusion of the special Presidential Convention of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On behalf of my wife, Oluremi, and my entire family, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the very special and personal congratulatory letter you sent to me. I am deeply honored. Your words in that letter were reassuring, reenergizing, and reinvigorating.

Your Excellency, one must admire the sense of purpose, composure, and maturity you demonstrated in the weeks and months preceding the primary elections of our great party. As aspirants and party leaders, we all pleaded with you to “choose” your successor.

Naturally, this is expected especially in African democracy. Up until the 6th of June, 2022, the day of the APC Presidential primaries, the whole of Nigeria, including myself, was waiting for you to announce your preferred candidate. All of us thought and believed this was a very simple matter.

However, it was only as the primary went into the night and as the candidates walked up to the podium and spoke that I fully and truly appreciated your position and stance to be neutral and non-aligned to any of us. As the first person to speak, I also had the special vantage point to carefully hear, without any distraction, what the other candidates had to say.

As the hours rolled by that evening, it became clear to me that all of us were your preferred candidates. As you captured it aptly in your letter to me, the “spirit” of 2013 and 2014 when we created and built APC was there for all to see.

In your letter and in our many meetings over the years, you fondly reminisced on fraternal attitude in the days and months before and after formation of the APC, when we all worked day and night to create, sustain and nurture our nascent movements into a credible opposition party and ultimately, become the ruling party. That time, no one spoke about tribe; no one spoke about religion. That was not what drove us. We were driven by a common desire to save and transform Nigeria.

One by one, I saw my colleagues and partners stand on the podium, full of the same passion and patriotic zeal they had in 2013/2014, presenting their ideas on how to build on your successful legacy. Back then, as it is now, we were from all parts of the country, all tribes, and all religions. We all had deep personal and strong bonds with you. We were together back then and our bonds remained strong up till now.

Mr. President, as the night of 6 June turned to morning of 7 June, I fully understood and appreciated your stance. “You belonged to everybody in the party and you belonged to none of the individual candidates of the party.” A true leader, brother and friend.

Mr. President, the delegates from all over the country nominated my humble self to be their candidate. I must acknowledge that my nomination would not have become a reality without your support and that of the party leaders across the country. Indeed, as I reflect on my political journey, most of the 2022 APC presidential aspirants, members of the Progressive Governors Forum and National Assembly leaders and members all had a role to play in my successes and achievements thus far.

I will forever be grateful to them for shaping my political journey over the decades. I want to assure you that I will continue to work with them going forward. My emergence as a candidate is also a victory for them.

I have met most of them in the past few days and will continue these engagements as we plan for the general elections. Mr. President, APC is united and will remain united as we move towards the general elections.

I have taken note of the message you sent to all Presidential Candidates in your Democracy Day speech to the nation on the 12th June, 2022. Our country is going through a very sensitive period and no one should put their personal desires above and beyond the nation’s peace and prosperity. As you said, the “message we set at the top will be replicated in our followers.” At this point, I will take this opportunity to assure Your Excellency of my commitment to running an issue focused campaign as we move into the general elections. I will personally engage the candidates from other political parties to urge them to do same. Voters should elect us based on our policies, programmes,  and projects. By the grace of God, we as candidates will avoid having divisive, destructive and disruptive campaigns. 

I will conclude by once again thanking you for being there for all of us. By the grace of God and with your leadership, guidance and support, I am confident that we will lead our great party, the APC,  to victory in the February 2023 general elections. We will ride on the back of your successes. We will build on the foundations of transparency and integrity which you have laid.

Mr President, together, side by side, in the spirit of 2014, we will win and Nigeria will move forward to a progressive, peaceful and prosperous future.

Muslim-Muslim Ticket Will Kill Your Ambition, Group Warns Tinubu

New Nigeria Collective (NNC), a non-profit making civil group, has warned the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, against running with a Muslim-Muslim ticket, because that would ultimately kill his lifelong ambition to be president of the country. 

Reacting to current political developments, the group, in a statement by its general secretary, Bosun Osifowora, said it has become obvious that the reason Tinubu deferred naming his running mate, and instead preferred a place holder, was because he was conflicted between the choices of a Muslim-Muslim or Muslim-Christian ticket.

While insisting that the presidential candidate must not pander to “foolish political correctness” as being propounded by a selfish and narrow-minded few, the group said the Christian community as a bloc would most definitely repay any deliberate disrespect to them in the prevailing political calculus of the nation.

The group said, not only must Tinubu see the push for a Muslim-Muslim ticket as a subtle move to disparage him as unqualified or unworthy to be regarded as a devout and genuine Muslim being a southerner, it would also pass as a brazen disrespect to the religion of his dear wife of many years.

According to the group, “These things are not difficult to situate and you can tell that those pushing this agenda are doing so only for their selfish and personal aggrandizement. But what should guide Tinubu is the fact that these same set of people had earlier discouraged the party against the choice of a southern candidate, because the opposition PDP went north.

“Unfortunately, for them, they were disappointed to learn that a southerner picked the nomination and so, they switched their narrative and started selling fear of defeat into the presidential candidate and party, alleging that only a Muslim-Muslim pairing would fly and lead the party to an electoral victory. It’s all lies. This is 2022 and no such lies can fly in the face of evident confusion that currently pervades the land.

“For the record, the Tinubu brand has gone beyond what any beginner politician would say only a certain kind of pairing would lead him to victory. That is so inane. With any blend at all, Tinubu is the singular most popular and acceptable candidate in Nigeria today and would push through to electoral victory. He knows the right message, where, when and to whom.

“Therefore, what is left is to do the right thing. A south/north candidacy combined with Muslim-Christian pairing, without any scintilla of doubts, pays the right attention to our cultural and religious diversity and effectively balances the fault lines. This is also important because, with the current state of the nation, today, whose challenges are religiously and ethnically rooted, disregarding these tendencies could spell doom.

“This is why we want to appeal to Asiwaju Tinubu to ignore those, who are deliberately pushing him to doom. Some have mooted the need to test the idea, tell them to do so when it is their turn. You have this one and only chance to be president; this opportunity may never come again. Please, listen to your inner voice of reasoning and do that, which is in collective interest, and not jut to assuage some vested political interest.”

NNC, however, insisted Tinubu speaks to himself and awaken his inner mind to the reality of today’s Nigeria, saying, “Everyone in Nigeria is important. Every religion is crucial. What is not acceptable in the current equation is the domination of one over the other. Even if a Christian running mate would not stop the carnage, the fact that he is on the ticket has some psychological suasion and effect that cannot be quantified. Please, ignore the jobbers and do the needful.”

TINUBU PICKS BUHARI'S LOYALIST, KABIR MASARI, AS RUNNING MATE *still consulting

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has dropped the name of Alhaji Kabir Ibrahim Masari as his running mate for the 2023 Presidential election.

Tinubu reportedly dropped his name as a place holder ahead of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deadline for parties to submit the names of their candidates for the 2023 elections.

Sources in the camp of Tinubu and Masari confirmed this on Thursday evening.

The running mate of the APC Presidential Candidate hails from Masari, a village in Kafur Local Government Area of Katsina State.

He is the kinsman of Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, governor of Katsina.

The running mate of the APC Presidential Candidate served as the National Welfare Secretary of the ruling party during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman.

Oshiomhole chaired APC from 2018 to 2020.

Tinubu’s running mate was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the era of late President Umaru Musa YarÁdua.

After the death of YarÁdua in 2010, Masari defected to the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), the party under which President Muhammadu Buhari contested but lost the 2011 election.

Masari had worked for the president but ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who stepped into office after YarÁdua’s death, won the election.

Ahead of the 2015 election, CPC collapsed its structure into APC and Masari joined the ruling party.

He was also involved in the election where an opposition party unseated a ruling party for the first time in the history of the country.

There are reports that Tinubu would replace Masari before the election as he only dropped his name to meet INEC’s deadline.

“Tinubu is still consulting widely on the choice of his running mate. He would replace Masari as soon as the right candidate is selected,” a source said.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP has named Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate in the 2023 election, which is widely seen as a two horse race.

source- dailytrust

OKOWA CAN BE PRESIDENT AFTER ME, SAYS ATIKU

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has tipped Ifeanyi Okowa to become President after him.

Okowa (left) with Atiku

Recall that the Delta State Governor was today announced as Atiku’s running mate.

He said part of the criteria he considered was Okowa’s rich experience and political trajectory which positioned him well to become president after his (Atiku’s) tenure.

Atiku stated this in his remarks at the unveiling of Okowa as his running mate at the PDP National Headquarters, Wadata Plaza, Wuse Abuja, on Thursday.

“In arriving at the decision, I held wide consultations with various stakeholders in our party including our Governors, National Working Committee, Board of Trustees, and other leaders to seek their input and their wisdom.

“In these consultations, I made clear that my running mate would have the potential to succeed me at a moment’s notice, that is, a President-in-waiting,” Atiku said.

He added,

“In other words, the person must have the qualities to be President. The person must have an appreciation of the deep rot which our country has been put into by the rudderless APC government; understands the great suffering that most of our people are going through and the urgency of relieving them of that suffering; understand the critical importance of economic growth and development to provide our young people with jobs, hope, and a pathway to wealth.

“The person must appreciate the critical importance of education in the development of modern societies so we can prepare our young people to be able to compete in the increasingly competitive and globalized world.

“My running mate must understand that without security, development will be very difficult because local and foreign investors who have been scared away already, would not return to invest in our economy. Thus, my running mate will be a person who will stand by me as I confront the frightening level of insecurity in our land.”

The former Vice President said it was a difficult decision for him to arrive at the choice of Okowa as all those shortlisted for the role “are all dedicated party-men suitable for this task”.

PRIMATE AYODELE HOLDS ROAD EVANGELISM IN LAGOS

The Leader Of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele has held a road evangelism with his church members in Mushin area of Lagos State on Thursday, 16th Of June, 2022.

It was a surprising moment for residents of Mushin to behold the man of God who is hardly seen in public except during church services and personal spiritual counselling that doesn't go beyond the four walls of his church.

Primate Ayodele, during the rally, was seen walking with his church members, preaching to anyone he came across and sharing them tracts to read in order to build up their faith.

The significant thing about how he addressed them was the humility portrayed; he would bow to all he spoke and gave tracts to.

This act of Primate Ayodele is reflecting the teachings of Jesus Christ who admonished Christians to go into the world, preach the gospel and win souls for Christ.

Even in a world where church leaders no longer engage in one-on-one evangelism which is almost the most effective means of winning souls, Primate Ayodele has dared to be different without regard for his status in the ministry.

Furthermore, apart from spreading the word of God through street evangelism, Primate Ayodele is known for his many philanthropic acts to the needy, widows and youths that cut across all religions.

He has given out cars, paid accommodation fees, giving scholarships to more than 700 students, giving about 1000 tricycles, and many others.