Priyanka Chopra: Make it happen!

New Delhi, May 14 -- We all have dreams. No matter who you are and where you have come from, you have a dream. It could be for your job, your life, marriage, home, car, etc. there is always something that we dream about. But what I find most amazing is what little effort we make to turn our dreams into reality. I have come to realise that it is human tendency to find 15 reasons why things can't work, rather than look at finding the one way to make it work.
Over the years, through various interactions I have had with people via one-to-one chats, emails and now via social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, the most common question that has been put to me has always been, "How did you do it and what do I do to make it happen for me?" Different people had different dreams and they were sitting there, waiting for that one big opportunity to come or that one person to appear to make those dreams come true. That, in my opinion, is where the problem lies. Speaking from my own experience, if I just sat by, waiting for things to unfold, I wouldn't have been where I am today. Yes, I did have some key opportunities that opened the doors for me, but if I just sat by, nothing would have happened. I am a firm believer that opportunity knocks on everyone's door.
It is important to recognise the knock, open the door, invite the opportunity in to your life but what is most critical is how you take it forward. First and foremost, you need to make the decision of what you want to do. Spend some time to research it and see if it's really something you want to do. Then start making plans on how you can achieve your dream. Remember, nothing comes easy. On the path to success, you WILL face failure and you have to be prepared for that so that you will have the courage to carry on regardless.
The most important factor in all of this, is hard work. There is no replacement for it and it always, always yields results. I can hear the thoughts running through your head right now... "what about luck? Some people are just so lucky!"
I do agree that some people are luckier than others, but it's never a driving factor. A key factor in making dreams come true is the human will. I have learnt that if you put your mind to something, there is nothing that can stop you. So my advice to you all you dreamers... stop thinking and dreaming... step out and fight to make it a reality... You will never regret it!

CBN limits borrowing by bank’s directors to 1%

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has limit the amount a director or a “significant shareholder” in a bank can borrow from the bank to 1 percent.

This was contained in the new guidelines titled “Prudential guidelines for deposit money banks in Nigeria” and posted in the website of CBN yesterday.

The affected directors or shareholders can only borrow more than the above amount with the prior approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The guideline defined a significant shareholding as a holding of at least 5 percent (individually or in aggregate) of bank’s equity.

It said that the maximum credit to all insiders should not exceed 10 percent of share capital. The share capital shall be made up of paid up share capital and share premium.

According to the guidelines, insiders include directors, significant shareholders and employees. The term “director” includes director’s wife, husband, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter and their spouses.

It said that the provisions of this section supersede the provisions of circular BSD/9/2004 on large exposure and connected lending.

The guidelines also said that insider-related credits include transactions involving shareholders, employees, directors and their related interests.

Banks are required to present their disclosure in the financial statements by disclosing the aggregate amount of insider-related loans.

It said that advances and leases outstanding as at the financial year end should be separately stated in a note to the accounts and the non-performing component further analyzed by security, maturity, performance, provision, interest-in suspense and name of borrowers.

There are other provisions in the new guidelines.

CBN Director of Banking Supervision Samuel Oni said: “These prudential guidelines should be regarded as minimum requirements and licensed banks are encouraged to implement more stringent policies and practices to enhance mitigation of risks.”

EFCC begins Ibori’s extradition

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mrs. Farida Waziri has dispatched a team to Dubai to start the process of extraditing former governor of Delta state James Ibori after he was arrested by the International Police (Interpol) on Wednesday.

Mrs. Waziri confirmed to journalists in Abuja that, “It has been confirmed that Ibori was arrested by the Interpol.”

She said the commission had been exchanging intelligence with Interpol and Metropolitan Police, UK, after Ibori was declared wanted in Nigeria and failed to submit himself for interrogation over an alleged N44billion scam.

The former governor was however granted bail by a Dubai court after he was arraigned yesterday, his media aide Tony Eluemunor said in a statement.

Ibori was arrested by Interpol via a warrant of arrest issued by United Kingdom authorities and would soon be extradited to face charges of money laundering against him before a London court.

EFCC declared Ibori wanted in April for failure to explain his involvement in the alleged sales of shares owned by Delta State government to obtain N44billion loan from Intercontinental bank for his company, Ascot Offshore Nigeria Limited.

The anti-graft agency also secured a court warrant for his arrest and equally put him on a watch list.

“My initial reaction when I heard of Ibori’s arrest was that of excitement, and surprise too. Surprise because somebody said he had gone to Ghana. Some people also said he is still somewhere in Delta, some say in his Village in Warri. My mind never went to Dubai. But the Met police have a relationship with Dubai police. They told me that if he is in Dubai they will get him that it will be easier to track him down .If he had gone to places like China or Japan, and then it would have been difficult. I was very excited.

“EFCC is prepared to prosecute him without leaving any loose end. Before, we declared him wanted, of course to arraign him. We have some charges and we have witnesses and we are prepared on our side.”

Ogbulafor may quit today

Embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Prince Vincent Ogbulafor is expected to quit his post anytime today following the withdrawal of support from the PDP governors who caved in to pressure from President Goodluck Jonathan and advised Ogbulafor to resign, Daily Trust learnt yesterday. Already, his aides had cleared the chairman’s personal effects from his office at the PDP’s Wadata Plaza national secretariat and Ogbulafor did not report for work yesterday.  

Efforts to reach Ogbulafor’s Assistant on Media and Public Relations Chijioke Adindu to confirm the authenticity of the reports proved abortive.   

The National Chairman was not at the secretariat up till 6:30 p.m when our reporter left the Wadata Plaza. However, PDP National Secretary Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje in an interview with reporters over the development could neither confirm nor deny the resignation reports.   

Baraje, who said he could only confirm whether the story was true or not after some hours, stated that Ogbulafor was still consulting other stakeholders from his zone as a result of the Southeast governors’ demand on  him that he should resign.   

He said the Southeast governors’ request was taken seriously because of the PDP tradition and unwritten law that governors are leaders of the party in the states.   

Baraje, who noted that Ogbulafor had not been convicted as a result of the ongoing corruption trial, also said the only snag was the request by his zone which he is representing that he should resign.   

Baraje said: “The national chairman of a party like PDP cannot resign without you hearing. I cannot confirm that to you now but maybe in the next few hours I will be able to confirm yes or no.”   

He added: “On a serious note, it is no longer news that three governors from the eastern states asked him to resign as a result of the case in court and you know the process of electing our chairman and various members of the executive party.   

“They come from the zone before; they are now elected through national convention. So he has to go on consultation with his zone and presently he is doing a lot of consultations around from his zone and the outcome of the consultation is what will tell us whether he is going to resign or not.   

“That is why I tell you that presently I cannot confirm and I know that before the end of the day, definitely you will know the outcome of his consultation, today (yesterday). Definitely you will know the outcome of the consultation.” Commenting on the reports that all the PDP governors had ordered Ogbulafor to resign, he replied: “that is not true and I won’t say more than that.”   

He dismissed the knowledge of the insinuation that President Goodluck Jonathan was behind the move to oust the party’s National Chairman.   

When asked to give the process involved in the resignation of the national chairman, the party scribe reacted: “the process is very clear in the Constitution.  If he resigns, then there is a vacancy and the constitution says that if there is a vacancy he hands over to the deputy national chairman pending the appointment of a new chairman from that same zone and the appointment will also have to be confirmed by the executive committee of the party.   

“The process is that he will resign, handover to the deputy and the deputy will hold forth and the letter will have to be presented to the deputy who will present it to the National Executive Committee (NEC) and at the same time approved.”   

In a separate interview, PDP National Legal Adviser Chief Olusola Oke said he was not aware if Ogbulafor had resigned or not but noted that an emergency meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) is likely to hold today if he tenders a resignation letter, to look at the letter in order to enable them accept or forward it to National Executive Committee (NEC).   

Oke, who explained that the issue of one month notice of resignation was not mandatory, stated that such issue required consultations with other party leaders apart from the NWC.   

While dismissing the insinuation that any eventual resignation of Ogbulafor would affect the party’s zoning formula, the National Legal Adviser said any replacement would come from the Southeast geo-political zone in line with the PDP Constitution.   

He said the NEC would meet to ratify anybody chosen to replace Ogbulafor should he decide to resign.   

“At the moment as far as we are concerned until 2011 when a call to any revisit of the zoning will arise. The chairmanship, if Ogbulafor resigns, will still have to come from the southeast,” he said.

Daily Trust could not reach PDP’s spokesman Professor Rufai Alkali for comments. However, another source said the NWC members met with Ogbulafor on Wednesday but the meeting ended inconclusively because “the other executives could not tell him what to do in the light of the governors’ demand. He has to go and make his own consultations.” The source confirmed that the latest trouble for the chairman began on Tuesday when President Goodluck Jonathan told the South Eastern PDP governors that he could not work with Ogbulafor on moral grounds because he is standing trial in court over alleged fraud.

The source however said, “That was the reason the President gave, but it was not true. It was not his real reason. This alleged offence was committed more than 10 years ago, and no one thought it fit to prosecute him until now. The President’s real reason is 2011, period. He wants to remove the chairman so that he can grab control of the party, change the power rotation formula and rig his way to the nomination. That’s all.”

Why Sambo’s nomination is delayed

Kaduna State Governor Mohamed Namadi Sambo’s nomination as Vice President of the Federal Republic was not sent to the Senate by President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday because the National Governors’ Forum requested for time to lobby members of the National Assembly and ensure a hitch-free confirmation process, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja last night.

Late in the afternoon and well into the night yesterday, Governor Namadi Sambo and several of his colleagues were seen paying visits to the houses of Senate President David Mark, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, House Speaker Oladimeji Bankole as well as House Deputy Speaker Usman Bayero Nafada.  Among governors sighted in the entourage were Dr. Bukola Saraki, governor of Kwara State and chairman of the National Governors’ Forum; Governors Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto and Gabriel Suswam of Benue.

The bone of contention, Daily Trust learnt, was the insistence by National Assembly members that a legislator, as opposed to a state governor, should be selected as the new vice president. Earlier in the week, both the Senate and House Northern Caucuses endorsed former Kaduna State governor Senator Ahmed Mohamed Makarfi for the job. Governor Sambo’s subsequent nomination by Jonathan infuriated some legislators because of his ongoing political conflict in Kaduna State with Makarfi, the man who anointed him as governor in 2007.

Sambo’s name was supposed to be sent to both houses of the national Assembly yesterday, but up until they rose from their sittings, no letter from the President was read on the floor. This set many tongues wagging as to whether Jonathan may have had a change of mind. However, Daily Trust learnt that during Jonathan’s late night meeting with the governors on Wednesday, the issue of possible complications in the confirmation process came up. While all the governors were confident that Sambo will be confirmed given his humble disposition good track record in office and non-controversial nature, it was also agreed that there was the need to pacify the legislators before his name was forwarded to them.

Yet another source told Daily Trust that after visiting the Assembly leaders, all the governors will use this weekend to work on MPs from their states in order to smoothen Sambo’s path to easy confirmation when his name is forwarded to the National Assembly on Monday next week.

Meanwhile, there was jubilation at the Kaduna Government House yesterday as hundreds of politicians and women from across the state’s 23 local government areas converged there to rejoice with the wife of the governor, Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo, over the reported nomination of her husband as the vice president.

They danced and chanted; “Allah Ya bamu,” meaning, “God has given us” in Hausa. The men also shouted Governor Sambo’s political war cry, “Daram, Dam, sai Abuja!”

Members of the state executive council were also sighted at a parlour where Hajiya Amina Sambo was receiving the well-wishers. She was seen beaming with smiles and greeting the visitors. Wife of the Kaduna State Deputy Governor Mrs. Amina Patrick Yakowa, who is billed to succeed her as state First Lady, assisted Sambo’s wife to receive visitors.

A well-wisher, Mrs Karimat Isang, said the elevation was worth celebrating as it was a surprise to the people of the state. She commended President Goodluck Jonathan for picking Governor Namadi Sambo, saying he would never regret his choice.

She said, “Good things happen to people who have good intentions, even when they don’t struggle for it. God chose Namadi because he has a good heart for Kaduna State and Nigeria in general. He is very proactive when he wants to do things.’’

Mrs Florence Aya, a former member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, said Governor Sambo’s elevation was purely the work of God. “He is a man who has capabilities, who has the interest of the masses at heart. God will use him to transform this country for the benefit of the masses. I wish him and the president well as they pilot the affairs of our country,’’ she said.

Kaduna state’s Commissioner for Information Mr Sa’idu Adamu also told NAN in Kaduna yesterday that Sambo’s nomination was the outcome of the president’s meeting with state governors in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said Governor Sambo returned to Kaduna early yesterday after attending the meeting to receive the president who was on a one-day visit to Kaduna to mark the Nigeria Airforce Day.

Born on Aug. 2, 1954, in Zaria, Kaduna State, Sambo started his education in 1959 in Kaduna before proceeding to ABU, Zaria in 1972 where he qualified as an architect in 1976.

He was elected governor on the platform of the PDP in 2007.