There is no combination more perfect than the blend of a shrewd husband and an industrious wife. Not only do they make a successful home, they are capable of building a business empire and leaving a legacy that would be remembered for long.
Adekunle Adedayo and his wife Olayinka are a blend that makes other couples to go green with envy. Some have suggested that they write a book on how to build the right relationship in marriage while others say their marital life is enough lesson for anyone that cares.
The owners of the famous fast food company, Tastee Fried Chicken, recently launched The Bunmi Adedayo Foundation, in honour of their late son. Held at the Muson Centre, Lagos, the event witnessed a gathering of eminent personalities who took turns to pay glowing tributes to their deceased son.
The foundation was conceived to continue to propagate Bunmi’s spirit of giving and sharing. He was said to have exhibited these traits through various charity programmes while he was the Executive Director of Tastee Fried Chicken.

THE crime rate in Lagos has dropped by 65 per cent, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said yesterday at the Second Town Hall Meeting where he rendered his stewardship.
He told members of the audience at City Hall on Lagos Island that recent statistics indicated great improvement in security in the state.
He said his administration between last May and July invested massively to reenergise and reinvigorate the state security infrastructure and bring it to a level comparable to those in other modern cities.
“I am happy to report that our state is a lot safer today as statistics show that crime rate reduced by 65 per cent during the last quarter compared to Year 2014,” he said.
Other steps taking by government to tackle insecurity, he said, included the light up Lagos project where major and inner roads were being lit to keep criminals at bay.
Ambode said: “In the past few months, we have fixed street lights from Berger in Ojodu to Lekki, Ikorodu to Lagos Island, the entire Ikeja axis, Victoria Island and Ikoyi. We are taking this project to every part of the state.
“If we are not yet in your neigbourhood, give us a little time; we will soon be there. As we light up the state, we expect crime to reduce as criminals will have nowhere to hide and operate.”
The governor appealed to individuals and corporate bodies to partner with government by adopting a street and lighting it up, adding that the government will grant such individual or organisation special concessions on Land Use Charge. They will also earn commendation from the state and local governments.
In the last quarter of 2015, he said the government donated 49 transformers to communities that had been in darkness for five years and restored electricity to 63 communities starting from Eleko to Ode-Omi in Ibeju Lekki Local Government.
“We also commissioned the 33kva Electrical Sub-Station in Gberigbe Community, Ikorodu. This is expected to improve electricity in that axis,” he said.
Government, Ambode said, also reconstructed and rehabilitated major and inner roads across the metropolis. Over 300 major roads, he said, had been rehabilitated, adding that 66 major roads are at various stages of completion. Grading and surface dressing of 80 roads will soon be completed in all councils, he said.
The governor listed some of the roads as Afa Nla, Agege, CIPM, Alausa, Ijegun-Ikotun, Mba Street, Ajegunle, 1st and 2nd Avenue, Festac Town, Afolabi Ege Street, Ojo Thompson, Ikoyi 2nd Avenue, Ikoyi, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Ebute Ero, Lagos Island and Akin Adesola, Victoria Island.
Work, he said, had begun on the fly-overs planned for Ajah roundabout in the Central Senatorial Zone and Abule–Egba Junction in the West Senatorial Zone.
On transportation, he said the government introduced 434 brand new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses and flagged off a direct BRT line from Ikorodu to CMS to ensure commuters’ comfort.
Work, the governor said, had also started on the Blue Line Rail Project that will run from Mile 2 to CMS, with seven bus stops, adding that the project is expected to be completed in December.
Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni said his command is sanitising the Lagos Island to restore law and order in the state.
Owoseni urged parents to monitor their children, lamenting that many of them are shirking their duty.
The commissioner said he had been frequent on Lagos Island to address the growing crime rate in the area, lamenting that most parents hardly pay attention to their children’s lifestyle.
He said suspected criminals will no longer enjoyed protection in the state because “it is a new dawn”.
According to him, hoodlums on the Lagos Island were in the habit of committing crimes and running into hiding in some houses because of the terrain. He said it was discovered that criminals hide guns and other weapons in abandoned vehicles accross the state.
The commissioner said once the suspected criminals ran inside, their parents would lock gates to enable them escape arrest.
He said: “I saw this thing myself yesterday (Monday), they would leave the gate open, these boys would run in there and by the time police get there, they would shut the gates.
“Even yesterday (Monday), they saw me as I was entering, just to go and talk to them about community partnership with the police, everybody shut their doors. They saw me coming. They don’t want to talk to me. This should not continue.
“Guns are kept in abandoned vehicles, if people are abandoning vehicles on the roads, in whose house’s front are they abandoning the vehicles? It is in these vehicles that they keep the guns. If somebody is abandoning his bus in front of your house, it is for you to tell him to take the bus away.
“What I want to appeal to you is that we should take interest in what our children do, where and where they go and who they associate with.”

Bureaue de Change (BDC) operators got yesterday a piece of bad news – the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will no longer sell to them foreign exchange.
They are to source their foreign exchange from autonomous sources.
Addressing journalists on the development in Abuja, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said BDCs “must, however, note that the CBN would deploy more resources to monitoring these sources to ensure that no operator is in violation of our anti-money laundering laws”.
The CBN also reversed its decision on the deposit of foreign currency in commercial banks, announcing that it will henceforth “permit commercial banks in the country to begin accepting cash deposits of foreign exchange from their customers”. Both decisions are to take effect immediately.
These measures, the CBN governor said “are not intended to be punitive on anyone or any group; rather, it is meant to ensure that the CBN is better able to carry out its mandate in an effective and efficient manner, which guarantees preservation of our scarce commonwealth, and that our hard-earned financial system stability remain intact to the benefit of all Nigerians.”
The apex bank took these decisions because of what Emefiele described as “total disregard of the difficulties that the CBN is facing in meeting its mandate of maintaining the country’s foreign exchange reserves to safeguard the value of the Naira”.
Emefiele lamented that the CBN has “continued to observe that stakeholders in some of the subsectors have not been helpful in this direction. In particular, we have noted with grave concern that Bureau de Change (BDC) operators have abandoned the original objective of their establishment, which was to serve retail end users who need US$5,000 or less. Instead, they have become wholesale dealers in foreign exchange to the tune of millions of dollars per transaction. Thereafter, they use fake documentations, like passport numbers, BVNs, boarding passes, and flight tickets, to render weekly returns to the CBN.”
Emefiele noted that “despite the fact that Nigeria is the only country in the world where the Central Bank sells dollars directly to BDCs, operators in this segment have not reciprocated the bank’s gesture to help maintain stability in the market.”
According to him, “whereas the CBN has continued to sell US Dollars at about N197 per dollar to these operators, they have in turn become greedy in their sales to ordinary Nigerians, with selling rates of as high as N250 per dollar”.
Given this rent-seeking behaviour, Emefiele said, “it is not surprising that since the CBN began to sell foreign exchange to BDCs, the number of operators have risen from a mere 74 in 2005 to 2,786 BDCs today. In addition, the CBN receives close to 150 new applications for BDC licences every month, indicating that some individuals have identified a lucrative business venture that had become a threat to the Naira”.
Rather than help the CBN to achieve its objectives for which they (BDCs) were licensed, Emefiele said, “the Bank has noted the following unintended outcomes: Avalanche of rent-seeking operators only interested in widening margins and profits from the foreign exchange market, regardless of prevailing official and interbank rates; Potential financing of unauthorised transactions with foreign exchange procured from the CBN; Gradual dollarisation of the Nigerian economy, with attendant adverse consequences on the conduct of monetary policy and subtle subversion of cashless policy initiative; and Prevailing ownership of several BDCs by the same promoters in order to illegally buy foreign currencies multiple times from the CBN.
More disturbing to the CBN is the financial burden being placed on the Bank and the country’s limited foreign exchange.
The CBN, Emefiele said, “sells US$60,000 to each BDC per week.” “This amount translates to US$167 million per week, and about US$8.6 billion per year. In order to curtail this reserve depletion, we have reduced the amount of weekly sales to US$10,000 per BDC, which translates into US$28.4 million depletion of the foreign reserve per week and US$1.476 billion per annum.”
This, he stressed, “is a huge hemorrhage on our scarce foreign exchange reserves and cannot continue, especially because we are also concerned that BDCs have become a conduit for illicit trade and financial flows.”
Asked why it has proven difficult or impossible to prosecute erring BDCs, Emefiele said the CBN would now look at that possibility but added that “there are many things that the CBN is mandated to do, we would have lived a situation what people should do is obey and work within extant rules and regulations within which they are supposed to operate and do what is right, but if they begin to do what is wrong, in this case, it becomes a problem”.
Emefiele also said it was almost impossible for the Bank to monitor over 2700 BDCs with its limited number of examiners. “It is almost practically impossible,” he said, adding that “because of inadequate foreign exchange the BDCs have to source their foreign exchange autonomously. We do not have the resources to cope with over 2,000 BDCs in the country right now”.
BDCs not happy with this decision, the CBN said, “are free to return their licences and get a refund of the N35 million cautionary fees.” “Besides, we need more people go into other forms businesses like agriculture where we believe there is a lot of scope at this time,” Emefiele said.
On the reversal of its decision to have commercial banks accept foreign currency deposits again, the CBN governor said the banks “stopped deposit of foreign exchange then because we thought Nigerians were fast approaching dollarisation of the economy because a lot of people were speculating, and there was a lot of speculative attack on the currency”.
The CBN, he added, “saw a situation where people were going into their accounts, took their naira out of their accounts to buy dollars and indeed some were going to their banks to borrow money to buy dollar and stack those dollars in their accounts and, of course, it got to a point where the banks’ vaults were full and the banks wanted us to collect the cash and give them electronic dollar which we said we will not do and so what we had to do at that time was to plug the torrents of flow of the dollar, that has been achieved and at this point, we are beginning to think of opening the tap a little and let’s begin to see whether there will be proper orderly behaviour by operators as well as people in the market.”
“We believe that there are some people who would love to have the opportunity of depositing their foreign currency cash in their banks rather than in their houses, that is why we decided to open that tap again”, the governor said.
The immediate impact of the decision to stop selling foreign exchange to the BDCs, Emefiele explained, “it is the dollars that the CBN is giving the BDCs that is being round tripped to the banks; that is the reason why we said at this time because of limited resources we would not be able to fund the BDCs, they will believe there is always autonomous market and, indeed, in every part of the world there is the autonomous market. We believe that the autonomous market should be allowed to flourish and let’s see how it goes with the CBN out of that market.”

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, and the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) have called for unity among the Yoruba.
The frontline monarch spoke at his palace in Ile-Ife, Osun State, when he hosted During ARG members.
Oba Ogunwusi said peace was an essential nutrient that would help Nigeria and the Yoruba race to grow.
The monarch noted that one of the major things he set to achieve during his reign is unity among the Yoruba, adding that peace would be achieved when Yoruba leaders work together.
He said: “I have been praying to God for unity among the Yoruba race and in the land because our unity is germane to the progress of the world. The Yoruba are gifted and will always make impact anywhere they go. Now, there is a challenge about who will make sacrifices by leading others to resolve crisis among the Yoruba, mostly as a result of our bravery.
“Love and unity among the Yoruba will bring about many positive things. It is time for unity to return to Nigeria and we must all return to the source to achieve it. If we forget our source, we may go astray. To bring love, I have decided to work with leaders in Yoruba land.
“Growth is not difficult in Yoruba land; unity is the challenge. With my emergence, unity is returning to Ife and it is gradually spreading to other places across Yoruba land.”
The head of ARG delegation Olawale Oshun said the focus of the meeting was to look into how unity could return to Yoruba land and the development the race should witness during Oba Ogunwusi’s tenure.
Oshun urged traditional rulers to work for peace among the Yoruba in the country and in the Diaspora.
He said: “It is important that across the Yoruba-speaking area there should be unity. When there is unity, there will be peace and when there is peace, you can facilitate development.
“We are interested in the development of our people. We want to stop managing rancour; we want to manage development and growth. We want peace – and not rancour – to enhance positive things.”

•Frank threatens party’s leaders over function
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has said the party lost the governorship election in Bayelsa State because of unresolved intra-party misunderstanding.
Frank told reporters yesterday at his Abuja home that the party’s internal crisis, which arose from the primary election, was not resolved.
The spokesman said APC’s governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, did not take reconciliation seriously ahead of the election.
Frank, who said he was speaking as an APC stakeholder in Bayelsa State and not for the party, threatened legal action against the national leadership of the party, if they continued to deny him the right to function as the Acting National Publicity Secretary, as enshrined in the party constitution.
He said: “Before this election, Bayelsa APC had issues, which were not attended to. I have been shouting about these. I made it clear that if we didn’t resolve our issues and went into the election, we were going to lose Bayelsa. But nobody listened. I cried and cried, spoke to our leaders and many other people about the need for reconciliation and its importance.
“But the governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, refused to listen, thinking he could do it alone. Today, look at the result! When some of us told him to make peace, he refused. After the primary, he never spoke to anybody; thinking he could do the job alone. I said then that with Sylva, we would lose Bayelsa. But nobody listened to me. The result has played out.
“It was important to make peace so that all of us will come together. If we had done that, the result would have been different. It is quite painful that we lost Bayelsa. But it is an eye-opener.”
Dickson’s victory hard-earned, says Mimiko
Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has expressed joy on the re-election victory of his Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson.
The National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Dickson winner of last Saturday’s supplementary polls, following the “inconclusive” December 5 and 6, 2015 elections.
Mimiko, in a congratulatory message through his Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, said it was not for fun that the election extended to the supplementary level.
The governor said God manifested Himself in the election because “one with God is majority”.
He said although there are no easy elections, “but when man’s obstacles are involved, only God’s intervention could justify His chosen”.
Mimiko said the Federal Government needed to do much more to restore the people’s confidence in the electoral process.
According to him, it has become obvious that the nation has not progressed from where it used to be in the conduct of free, fair and violence-free elections.
Congratulating the Bayelsa State governor, Mimiko said: “Your victory didn’t come on a platter. Potential leaders of the country, breadwinners, patriotic and lovers of democracy lost their lives in the process of accessing this victory.
“Needless killings of people were recorded; people were subjected to intimidating experiences before and during the elections, thus heating up the process. But God has rewarded the good and loyal people of Bayelsa, who ensured that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) maintain its hold in the state.”

The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has apologised to Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka on the embarrassment caused him by Governor Nyesom Wike’s allegation that the former Rotimi Amaechi administration spent N82 million on his birthday dinner, which lasted just three hours.
The party’s Chairman, Davies Ikanya, through his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Public Affairs, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, described Wike’s allegation as the unfortunate ranting of a drowning man.
Wike, through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George, last week alleged that N82 million was wasted on hosting the Nobel laureate to a birthday dinner.
The governor threatened to involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the matter.
APC said: “On behalf of the good people of Rivers State, we hereby tender an unreserved apology to Prof. Wole Soyinka and assure him that Wike’s vile attempt to link him to an imaginary corruption has failed.
“The accusation is nothing but the ranting of a drowning man looking for whom to pull into the stinking pool. But Wike has over-reached himself this time, because Prof. Soyinka is globally renowned as a man of unimpeachable integrity, who has never been associated with corruption in his over 80 years on earth.
“The fact remains that Wike is currently in a pit full of faeces, looking for whom he will splatter the faeces on; sadly, he remembered our revered Nobel laureate. As rightly observed by Prof. Soyinka, Wike is ready to splatter sewage in all possible and improbable directions.”
The Rivers APC noted that Wike, in his desperation to demonise Amaechi and whoever that is associated with him, must have forgotten that his panel of enquiry, which investigated the former governor’s tenure, exonerated him of any financial misdeeds.
The party said the achievements of the Amaechi administration could not be wished away or cancelled through cheap blackmail.
It said Wike’s outbursts did not surprise the party because of the governor’s antecedents as a “controversial politician”.
Rivers APC said: “For Wike to try to disparage a respected personality like Prof. Soyinka in this manner only exposes him as a drowning man looking for any tool to stay afloat. If Wike is sure of his records, why doesn’t he go to court to retrieve the N82 million?

Popular oil magnate, Femi Otedola, is not your everyday billionaire businessman. Unlike most business tycoons, the Chairman of Forte Oil takes his role as a father very seriously. He dons the cloak of fatherhood with pride, hence he never shies away from performing his fatherly roles to his wards.
Not only does he create quality time to be with his daughters, he supports their dreams and takes out time to celebrate every aspect of their lives. More than he monitors the growth of his business empire, Otedola monitors the progress of his daughters every step of the way, goes on vacation with them in exotic locations around the world and joins in celebrating their graduations, birthdays and other success stories.
No doubt, Otedola has done his best to make his children his source of joy and peace. It comes as no surprise therefore that these days, the happy father and his wife, Nana, are always posing for pictures with their daughters, Florence (DJ Cuppy) Otedola and Temi Otedola, the celebrity Fashion and travel blogger. In a recent picture posted on the social media by Temi, the London-based fashion and travel blogger, she was teaching the billionaire oil magnate how to take a ‘selfie’. She actually captioned it ‘”Teaching how to take a Selfie 101 to dad”.