The Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY/ARISE NEWS Media Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena (CON), yesterday, responded to allegations levelled against him by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council’s (PCC) Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga and its Director, Strategic Communication, Mr. Dele Alake,and also challenged them to present their candidate, Bola Tinubu, for debates and town hall meetings in order for the electorate to interrogate his proposed policies and programmes and make informed choice on who should lead them in the 2023 election.
Obaigbena,
in a four-page rebuttal to an article by Onanuga and Alake, which was in
response to an earlier statement by the THISDAY/ARISE News Board of Editors,
titled: “Tinubu and THISDAY/ARISE Media Group and the Attack on Free Speech,”
stressed that journalists were not the opponents of the APC presidential
candidate in the forthcoming election.
The statement titled: “Lies Have Short Legs, They Do Not Run Far – The Fake
News from Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake,” and categorised into four parts, was
signed by Obaigbena’s Chief of Staff, Fawuziya Mohammed.
While
noting that although many APC-PCC members, had personally called to dissociate
themselves from the resort to blackmail, personal attacks and bullying by Alake
and Onanuga, the statement noted that, “everyday the media calls on public
officials and those who seek public office to account,” establishing that there
was nothing personal with the APC candidate.
Starting
with issues around the late Chief M.K.O Abiola and the June 12 struggle,
Obaigbena pointed out that, when the late Abiola was the standard bearer of the
Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the 1993 presidential election, he was a
senatorial candidate on the platform of the National Republication Convention
(NRC).
According
to Obaigbena, Abiola then supported SDP’s candidate, the late Chris Okolie,
leading to a strain in their relationship.
He
further noted that he was also Special Adviser to the NRC National Chairman,
Tom Ikimi in 1991, and later Hameed Kusamotu.
“Before
and after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, Abiola and Obaigbena
were friends and remained friends till the end. Abiola was broad-minded enough
to understand that Obaigbena, like his other friends in NRC, were competitors
for power. But that competition ended, when Abacha took power and all true
democrats moved against military rule.
“Indeed, Abiola’s last public appearance was an Obaigbena event at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on June 8,1994, where he took the Abacha government to the cleaners while demanding his mandate. After his speech against the Abacha junta, he went underground only to reappear in Epetedo, Lagos Island, on June 12,1994 to declare himself president.
“The rest, as they say, is history. Some weeks before the Epetedo Declaration
on May 9,1994, Abiola and Obaigbena had met on a South African flight from
London to Johannesburg for Nelson Mandela’s presidential inauguration.
Obaigbena sat on one side of an aisle seat, while Abiola sat on the other side
of that aisle seat with his wife Kudirat taking the window seat next to him.
“Abiola
reminded Obaigbena that he had driven all the way from Ilorin to Lagos City
Hall to attend his wedding in 1987. I then invited him to my event of June
8,1994. As we arrived Johannesburg International Airport as guests of the
Mandelas, Obaigbena was witness to his claim of being the elected Nigerian
President and his delegation was driven off in official motorcade while
Obaigbena made his way to the Carlton Hotel, downtown Johannesburg (the same hotel
most invited guests lodged), and later bussed to Union Building in Pretoria,
venue of the inauguration, where he ran into Dele Olojede who was covering the
event for a New York newspaper,” he explained.
According
to the THISDAY/ARISE News Chairman, the military leader at the time, Abacha
soon arrived and on his delegation were then foreign minister, Babagana
Kingibe, Naval Chief Allison Madueke, former president Shehu Shagari and
ex-Head of State Yakubu Gowon.
He
added: “Although I promised to help, that opportunity did not come until 2003,
when we started THISDAY South Africa, which soon became easily one of the best
newspapers in the country, by every ranking. However, the establishment did not
like it that a Nigerian-owned newspaper was shaping public opinion.
“A
South African special security official once invited me to play golf and told
me pointedly that they couldn’t have a Nigerian Newspaper Reporter at the
(Union Buildings) State House.
“Despite
the support of Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, who had become president then, the
establishment insisted on South African ownership for THISDAY Newspapers.
“Shortly after that request, bank credit lines were frozen in South African
banks despite presenting a $5 million Citibank guarantee from GTBank. The banks
simply refused to grant credit to the newspaper.
“After
a few crisis meetings with South African investors and Naaspers, and our
refusal to cede editorial control in any co-ownership from the bigger South
African media companies, we closed our SA operations after some $30 million
investment over two years.”
In
addition, Obaigbena stated that at ARISE News Channel and THISDAY, “We believe
the narratives around Africa and Africans and the black race can only change,
when we have strong global voices.
“We
have used our ‘sorrow, blood and tears’ (apologies Fela) to pioneer this
process in South Africa, Europe and the USA. It can only get better. Aljazeera
has done it for the Arab world; we too can. Even at home, back in Nigeria, we
are being misrepresented and libelled by some envious peers.”
Thus,
contrary to the wild claims by Alake and Onanuga, the organisation did not owe
any tax authorities in South Africa, adding that it also paid all its creditors
in an organised exit strategy.
“If
they have any such evidence to the contrary, they should publish it
immediately,” he added, saying the debacle of THISDAY in South Africa was one
of the factors that persuaded President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to
cancel the South African Airways takeover of Nigeria Airways, given that
Nigerian businesses were being discriminated against in that country.
Responding
to the allegation about ARISE Networks Limited (ANL) UK, he said his
disqualification as a Director was still a subject of litigation in the UK
Court of Appeals and would not want to make further comments on the matter.
His words: “The Judgement made it clear that there was no evidence of any
dishonesty against Obaigbena. Since those initial teething difficulties, other
ARISE entities have traded out of the shortages and ARISE News Channel is now
thriving in the UK, Europe, the USA, Middle East and 54 countries of Africa. We
await the judgement of the Appellate Courts on ANL as to why and if we ought to
have known that the FX shortages in Nigeria would not improve to continue
trading.”
Clarifying
on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Newspaper
Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) refund, Obaigbena explained that the
anti-graft body invited him and Executives of other national newspapers to
clarify payments made to NPAN, when he was president at the time.
He
revealed that the executives of all other newspapers involved (The Nation owned
by Bola Tinubu inclusive), were also invited at the time to clarify the
payments they received.
The Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY/ARISE NEWS Media Group, Prince Nduka
Obaigbena (CON), yesterday, responded to allegations levelled against him by
the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council’s (PCC)
Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga and its Director, Strategic
Communication, Mr. Dele Alake,and also challenged them to present their
candidate, Bola Tinubu, for debates and town hall meetings in order for the
electorate to interrogate his proposed policies and programmes and make
informed choice on who should lead them in the 2023 election.
Obaigbena,
in a four-page rebuttal to an article by Onanuga and Alake, which was in
response to an earlier statement by the THISDAY/ARISE News Board of Editors,
titled: “Tinubu and THISDAY/ARISE Media Group and the Attack on Free Speech,”
stressed that journalists were not the opponents of the APC presidential
candidate in the forthcoming election.
The statement titled: “Lies Have Short Legs, They Do Not Run Far – The Fake
News from Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake,” and categorised into four parts, was
signed by Obaigbena’s Chief of Staff, Fawuziya Mohammed.
While
noting that although many APC-PCC members, had personally called to dissociate
themselves from the resort to blackmail, personal attacks and bullying by Alake
and Onanuga, the statement noted that, “everyday the media calls on public
officials and those who seek public office to account,” establishing that there
was nothing personal with the APC candidate.
Starting
with issues around the late Chief M.K.O Abiola and the June 12 struggle,
Obaigbena pointed out that, when the late Abiola was the standard bearer of the
Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the 1993 presidential election, he was a
senatorial candidate on the platform of the National Republication Convention
(NRC).
According to Obaigbena, Abiola then supported SDP’s candidate, the late Chris
Okolie, leading to a strain in their relationship.
He
further noted that he was also Special Adviser to the NRC National Chairman,
Tom Ikimi in 1991, and later Hameed Kusamotu.
“Before
and after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, Abiola and Obaigbena
were friends and remained friends till the end. Abiola was broad-minded enough
to understand that Obaigbena, like his other friends in NRC, were competitors
for power. But that competition ended, when Abacha took power and all true
democrats moved against military rule.
“Indeed,
Abiola’s last public appearance was an Obaigbena event at the Nigeria Institute
of International Affairs (NIIA) on June 8,1994, where he took the Abacha
government to the cleaners while demanding his mandate. After his speech
against the Abacha junta, he went underground only to reappear in Epetedo,
Lagos Island, on June 12,1994 to declare himself president.
“The rest, as they say, is history. Some weeks before the Epetedo Declaration
on May 9,1994, Abiola and Obaigbena had met on a South African flight from
London to Johannesburg for Nelson Mandela’s presidential inauguration.
Obaigbena sat on one side of an aisle seat, while Abiola sat on the other side
of that aisle seat with his wife Kudirat taking the window seat next to him.
“Abiola
reminded Obaigbena that he had driven all the way from Ilorin to Lagos City
Hall to attend his wedding in 1987. I then invited him to my event of June
8,1994. As we arrived Johannesburg International Airport as guests of the
Mandelas, Obaigbena was witness to his claim of being the elected Nigerian
President and his delegation was driven off in official motorcade while
Obaigbena made his way to the Carlton Hotel, downtown Johannesburg (the same hotel
most invited guests lodged), and later bussed to Union Building in Pretoria,
venue of the inauguration, where he ran into Dele Olojede who was covering the
event for a New York newspaper,” he explained.
According
to the THISDAY/ARISE News Chairman, the military leader at the time, Abacha
soon arrived and on his delegation were then foreign minister, Babagana
Kingibe, Naval Chief Allison Madueke, former president Shehu Shagari and
ex-Head of State Yakubu Gowon.
He
added: “Although I promised to help, that opportunity did not come until 2003,
when we started THISDAY South Africa, which soon became easily one of the best
newspapers in the country, by every ranking. However, the establishment did not
like it that a Nigerian-owned newspaper was shaping public opinion.
“A
South African special security official once invited me to play golf and told
me pointedly that they couldn’t have a Nigerian Newspaper Reporter at the
(Union Buildings) State House.
“Despite
the support of Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, who had become president then, the
establishment insisted on South African ownership for THISDAY Newspapers.
“Shortly after that request, bank credit lines were frozen in South African
banks despite presenting a $5 million Citibank guarantee from GTBank. The banks
simply refused to grant credit to the newspaper.
“After
a few crisis meetings with South African investors and Naaspers, and our
refusal to cede editorial control in any co-ownership from the bigger South
African media companies, we closed our SA operations after some $30 million
investment over two years.”
In
addition, Obaigbena stated that at ARISE News Channel and THISDAY, “We believe
the narratives around Africa and Africans and the black race can only change,
when we have strong global voices.
“We
have used our ‘sorrow, blood and tears’ (apologies Fela) to pioneer this
process in South Africa, Europe and the USA. It can only get better. Aljazeera
has done it for the Arab world; we too can. Even at home, back in Nigeria, we
are being misrepresented and libelled by some envious peers.”
Thus,
contrary to the wild claims by Alake and Onanuga, the organisation did not owe
any tax authorities in South Africa, adding that it also paid all its creditors
in an organised exit strategy.
“If
they have any such evidence to the contrary, they should publish it
immediately,” he added, saying the debacle of THISDAY in South Africa was one
of the factors that persuaded President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to
cancel the South African Airways takeover of Nigeria Airways, given that
Nigerian businesses were being discriminated against in that country.
Responding
to the allegation about ARISE Networks Limited (ANL) UK, he said his
disqualification as a Director was still a subject of litigation in the UK
Court of Appeals and would not want to make further comments on the matter.
His words: “The Judgement made it clear that there was no evidence of any
dishonesty against Obaigbena. Since those initial teething difficulties, other
ARISE entities have traded out of the shortages and ARISE News Channel is now
thriving in the UK, Europe, the USA, Middle East and 54 countries of Africa. We
await the judgement of the Appellate Courts on ANL as to why and if we ought to
have known that the FX shortages in Nigeria would not improve to continue
trading.”
Clarifying
on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Newspaper
Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) refund, Obaigbena explained that the
anti-graft body invited him and Executives of other national newspapers to
clarify payments made to NPAN, when he was president at the time.
He
revealed that the executives of all other newspapers involved (The Nation owned
by Bola Tinubu inclusive), were also invited at the time to clarify the
payments they received.
He
stressed that he was not detained as he signed no bail bond, “and indeed has
never been detained by the EFCC or the police in any criminal case, contrary to
the fake news of Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake.”
He,
therefore, explained that the N500 million THISDAY refunded was compensation
the Jonathan administration paid THISDAY for the Boko Haram bombing of the
newspaper’s elegant Abuja office.
“The
Jonathan administration paid compensation for, and/or rebuilt properties bombed
by Boko Haram terrorists in Abuja, The United Nations and THISDAY inclusive.
Again, when the Buhari administration requested refund, it was fully made. The
property remains un-rebuilt,” he stated.
On
staff salaries, he stated that the organisation has been very consistent in
paying salaries regularly; as and when due every month at ARISE News Channel.
“We
do not owe staffers at ARISE whatsoever despite the fake news of Bayo Onanuga
and Dele Alake. Of course, all Newspaper houses are facing the tough economic
environment arising from increasing cost of operations and dwindling copy and
advert sales and most newspapers owe salaries from time to time. It is,
however, taking hypocrisy to a new level for Onanuga to be sermonising about
salary payments.
“Those
who passed through The News stable of which he was co-founder and CEO, have not
forgotten how the company owed 11-month salaries between 1996 and 1997, how
protesting staff were forced to forfeit 5-month salary as “contribution to the
democratic struggle”, and how union leaders were sacked over the same protest.
“All
we do is creating value. We have had over 3,000 people in the employment of
THISDAY/ARISE Media Group over the years and we are proud to have created value
in human and resource capital.
“Dozens of those we have employed here have moved on to become ministers,
special advisers, ambassadors, commissioners, special assistants, and
publishers of print and online newspapers, including several who are Tinubu’s
personal staff and executives in his companies,” he said.
To
this end, he maintained that, “No misinformation, fake news of Bayo Onanuga and
Dele Alake will change Obaigbena’s global trajectory. The journalists at
THISDAY and ARISE News Channel are doing their duty by raising pertinent
questions.
“Rather than addressing our questions, Alake and Onanuga countered with wild and misleading allegations and fake news. We did not dismiss their allegations and have addressed them frontally. We now challenge them to respond with facts to the legitimate questions of the Nigerian people through their media.
“Present
your presidential candidate for Town Hall meetings, debates and interviews by
the independent media that last for more than 8 minutes, and not pre-arranged
Townhalls, where questions are pre-set, prearranged and rehearsed.
“The
resort to media bullying tactics, blackmail and fake news will not work.
Journalists are not your opponents in the 2023 elections. When they go low, we
go high.”
0 Comments