Forbes Magazine’s world’s richest list that estimates Globacom Chairman, Mike Adenuga’s networth at $2billion has been described as a gross under-estimation, financial experts close to Adenuga’s business empire have revealed.

“Conoil Producing alone, operator of six oil blocks and holder of 25 per cent stake in Joint Development Zone Block 4, with proven reserves of more than one billion barrels of crude and 7 trillion cubic feet of gas, is worth more than $2 billion”, said the financial expert in an interview with P.M. News this morning.

He indeed estimated that Conoil Producing, without factoring in Conoil, the downstream firm involved in the retail sale of refined petroleum products, is worth more than $10 billion.

It appears that Forbes evaluated Adenuga’s wealth on his Globacom holdings alone, as the reports dwelled mostly on the network’s subscription, the company’s $1 billion investment in fiber optics, Glo-1, to link Africa with the rest of the world and Globacom’s operations in West African nations such as Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Senegal and Gambia.

“Whatever criteria they use are faulty”, said the expert. “Globacom West African operation is worth more than $5 billion, when the huge investments in Ghana, Togo and Benin are put in the picture”.

P.M News also learnt that Adenuga has huge investments in real estate in Nigeria and Europe. Three years ago, his interests were estimated at about $3 billion. And of course, he owns majority shares in Equitorial Trust Bank.

On Wednesday, Forbes magazine released its list of the world’s richest.

The magazine listed 1210 individuals across the globe, with Aliko Dangote, listed as Nigeria’s and Africa’s richest man with networth of $13.8 billion.

According to Forbes, the combined wealth of these 1,210 individuals is $4.5 trillion (£2.78 trillion) – which is slightly more than the UK’s total debt which stands at £2.34 trillion.

Since Forbes listed Dangote in 2008, there has always been controversy among Nigerians on whether the magazine’s goggles is not afflicted with some sight disorders, as most Nigerians wondered why Adenuga’s name was left out.

The controversy is even now going to deepen, on who is richer between Aliko and Adenuga, the magazine having now recognized Adenuga’s deep pockets, after several years of omission.

According to reports, in the past year Aliko Dangote’s fortune surged 557% to $13.8 billion, up from $2.1 billion, after he consolidated all his public and private cement holdings throughout Africa into the continent’s largest cement manufacturer and took it public on the Nigerian stock exchange in October. Dangote Cement now has a market value in excess of $13 billion, and accounts for a quarter of the Nigeria Stock Exchange’s total market capitalization. Dangote also has interests in flour, pasta and sugar manufacturing.

According to Forbes, Dangote is richer than longtime white South African billionaires Nicky Oppenheimer of Debeers and Johann Rupert of luxury goods group Richemont, which owns Cartier, Dunhill and other premium brands. He is also richer than Chelsea Football Club owner, Roman Abramovich.

But the jury may not have a word yet on the richest African, between Aliko and Adenuga.

President of the Senate, Mr David Mark, on Monday, dismissed the Governor of Central Bank (CBN) Mallam Lamido Sanusi’s claim that the National Assembly was consuming 25 per cent of the total annual national overhead budget, saying it was the CBN that was gulping the largest national overhead cost of 50 per cent.

Mark said going by Mallam Sanusi’s own arithmetic, the CBN was consuming N300 billion, representing 50 per cent, which amounted to double of what the CBN governor alleged that the National Assembly was spending.

According to him, Sanusi was wrong when he claimed that 25 per cent of the total Federal Government’s overhead budget was being used to maintain the National Assembly every year, pointing out that if N150 billion overheads to the National Assembly translated into 25 per cent, it meant that the N300 billion overheads to the CBN amounted to 50 per cent of the national budget.

The Senate President spoke with journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital, shortly after paying a condolence visit to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, over the death of his wife, Clara.

50percent (cbn) + 25 percent (senate) =75 percent

remaining 25percent Anenih's PDP has not eaten their own cake .I wonder what actually gets to the rest suffering and smiling Naijas

Five months ago, a friend of mine, who edits a national daily, sent me a text message agreeing substantially with my column, ‘The Punch and the rest of us’, except the generalised conclusion that “all (journalists) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the profession”. There are still some journalists, he submits, who toe the narrow path of integrity. Of course I knew where he was coming from, but I also knew the context in which I had made that statement.

I revisit that statement in light of the stories spewing out of the political beat, specifically on the race for the 2011 presidential elections and how it affects the integrity of news.

As part of the effort to sell his candidature for the presidency, former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) invited as many as 40 journalists to his Minna home on August 14 for an interview. I have heard questions asked about why he should invite journalists to his home instead of a public place if he didn’t have an ulterior motive, and why he should offer monetary gifts to the journalists in the name of paying for their transportation.

One news medium, which has championed this opposition in the open, is the online agency, Sahara Reporters. According to SR each of the journalists received N10 million for heeding Babangida’s call on his presidential ambition. That is N400 million just for one night’s interview from an aspirant yet to win his party’s nomination if it were true. But it was not. When some of the journalists complained about the fictional sum, SR changed the story on August 19, saying it was just “a paltry N250, 000 each”. Rather than admit its initial error SR simply said, “our accountants have told us that going by the number of 40 journalists in attendance, we are still around the same ballpark of N10 million”. So much for credible reporting!

Three days later, SR followed up with ‘IBB and his Rogue Journalists’, accusing the journalists of roguery and professional misconduct; roguery, because they collected money from two sources—their employers who presumably authorised and funded the trip and their news source, IBB; misconduct because it is unethical for them to demand/receive gratification from news sources for their services.

And on August 23 in ‘IBB Nocturnal Press Parley: Punch fires Editorial board Chairman’, SR stayed on top of the story by reporting that Adebolu Arowolo, editorial board chairman of the Punch, had lost his job for going on that trip without his management’s approval..

The PDP in Osun East senatorial district declared on Monday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, that it had disqualified governorship aspirants in the area who had less than N500 million in their bank accounts. Duro Famojuro, the party’s deputy leader of Ijesa Elders’ Caucus, said this at a news a conference in Ilesa, organised to present the party’s aspirant from the area.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Gbenga Onigbogi, a House of Representatives member, who was adopted by the group, formally declared his intention for the 2011 governorship election. Mr. Famojuro said the caucus investigated the background of about 14 aspirants, to determine their legibility and financial strength through their bank accounts. He said the scrutiny was necessary to avoid the mistake of the past when the party sponsored campaigns for aspirants.

“Anybody who has less than N500 million can’t go for the governorship race. It is the caucus’ decision that nobody will give aspirants the money to campaign.”

Mr. Famojuro said Mr. Onigbogi met the criteria and had been adopted as the only aspirant qualified to run the race in Ijesaland for the governorship seat..

He also said that many young aspirants were eliminated because they had not contested for even a councillorship position before aspiring to become governor.

Paupers are not welcome

Ebenezer Babatope, a PDP chieftain and a member of the caucus, said the race was not for paupers. On complaints by some aspirants that the group was exploiting them, Mr. Babatope said they failed to meet the requirements.

The former minister of transport said a committee was set up to scrutinise aspirants who were required to pay money for the exercise. He said that though many of the aspirants failed to pay the levies, the caucus did not stop anyone from pursuing his governorship ambition.

“If the party at the state level conducts free, fair, and open primaries, we, the elders here, are ready to embrace whoever emerges as the PDP candidate for the election,” he declared.

Onigbogi, who represents Ijesa South federal constituency, pledged to embark on an agrarian revolution to turn around the agricultural fortune of the state, if elected.

Chinese student laments high business cost in Nigeria

The 2010 World Tobacco Day (which is today) focuses on the need to ban all forms of

promotion of tobacco even with a new direction to fight the recruitment of the womenfolk into smoking, In clubs,bars,malls & even some schools Ladies are not just boozing like the guys they are also puffing and beating the guys at it says the World Health organisation .

It may sound odd, but the World Health Organisation says more girls than boys smoke tobacco; giving new reasons why the anti-tobacco crusade must now address the womenfolk.

When on Friday, WHO called for a special protection of women and girls against tobacco, it was not as if the organisation had assumed the other members of the society needed not to be shielded from the harmful effects of what is perceived globally to be an addictive consumption.

It was because global researches have indicated a growing, worrisome trend in the habit of women and girls who take tobacco as a thing of glamour and status. WHO’s new direction of campaign is to press home the focus of this year’s World Tobacco Day..

WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said, “The trends in some countries are extremely worrisome,” adding, “Tobacco use is neither liberating nor glamorous. It is addictive and deadly.”

This 2010 campaign theme, “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women, focuses on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. It also highlights the need for governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and to eliminate tobacco smoke in all public and work places as provided in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” according to the global health body.

Nigeria, where the campaign against smoking has been gaining ground through the efforts of the Environmental Rights Action, is ranked among countries which WHO Director-General said the trend is pretty worrisome.

Smoking may be one habit that is generally perceived to be rife among males, but a recent survey, according to WHO, shows that there is a growing rate of tobacco use amongst girls and women. Women and girls are said to represent 20 per cent global smoking population.

“In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed for trends in tobacco use among young people, approximately as many girls uses tobacco as boys. More girls use tobacco than boys in some of the countries, including Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Uruguay.

“Women are a major target for the tobacco industry in its effort to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. The leading preventable cause of death, tobacco use kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women,” says WHO on Friday.

And what is the nexus between tobacco and women? Or better still; what is the attraction? After strategic manners in which the anti-smoking campaigners across the world had tackled the recruitment of youths into smoking by tobacco manufacturers and marketers, there is said to be a new path manufacturers and marketers are following to force smoke down the throats of women. By linking smoking with beauty, young girls are easily fascinated and are consequently recruited into the habit.

Analysts are of the view that the same method employed in using the media to present slim girls as paragon of African beauty is being promoted to make young girls believe that their beauty is incomplete without tobacco addiction.

But it is not only those who engage in the practical habit of direct smoking that are considered to be smokers. Passive smokers abount through their inhaling of smokes in public places.

The inclusion of Nigeria amongst countries considered to be having a disturbing rate of smoking girls further reinforces the points being raised by Nigerian crusaders that the government needs to act fast before tobacco-related diseases add to its alleged unenviable record in health management.

Programme Manager of the Environmental Rights in Nigeria, an affiliate of the Friends of the Earth, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the focus on the need to save women and girls from smoking, which is the theme of this year’s tobacco day, should compel some persons in high places to act fast.

“It will interest you that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, is a woman. And we believe that where the interests of women are concerned, a woman in the status of the senator should use her position to ensure the welfare of her fellow womenfolk,” say Oluwafemi.

His call is on the strength of a bill which was said to have been presented to the Senate by a member, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora which, according to him, is yet to be passed into law.

Among other things, the bill seeks to ban smoking in public and end all forms of promotion of the product in the country.

Mamora, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, said there had been deliberate moves to scuttle the bill at the National Assembly, adding that some of his colleagues who swore to defend the wellbeing of Nigerians were engaging in acts that are inconsistent with their oath of office.

Mamora said, “No amount of propaganda; no amount of purported job creation by the British American Tobacco can justify the number of lives being destroyed through the use of tobacco. This is because certain incontrovertible evidence have been established linking tobacco use to various diseases.”

In a separate statement on the 2010 World Tobacco Day, Oluwafemi called for the passing into law of the bill as a sign of government’s readiness to recognise the global concern for the health of its citizenry.

He stated, “It is a fact that dangers are associated with smoking. The World Health Organisation estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to tobacco-related diseases, with majority of these deaths happening in developing countries.

“Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half its consumers if used according to manufacturers’ intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.

“It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria, where the industry continues to flout regulations, marketing to young and impressionable youths, and hooking them on smoking.”

Indeed, another recent survey, according to Oluwafemi, also shows that two persons die each day in Lagos hospitals as a result of tobacco-related ailments.

With the theme of this year’s event, many expect that the focus will now shift to demystifying those messages being sold to girls which make them embrace smoking as a way of upping their beauty profiles.

Perhaps, that will compel manufacturers and marketers to also review strategies. But then, the health of the citizenry is at the centre of it all.

Federer States Nadal Lacks Drive & Consistency

World number one tennis player Roger Federer has stated that he has more drive than his main rival, Rafael Nadal. Also mentioning that despite talk of a calendar Grand Slam sweep his main focus for the season was to retain the world number one ranking.

International, the 16^th of February 2010 [PDN]: Since his Australian Open win last month, talk has intensified over the possibility of Federer completing a clean sweep of the Grand Slams this year, especially since his main rival, Nadal, struggles to overcome persistent knee injuries. “I’ll try, that’s for sure,” Federer explained when questioned about the possibility of him completing a sweep of the Grand Slams. “But it’s not even number one on my to-do list. I’ll just try to defend my number one position.”

Federer acknowledged Nadal’s threat to his success, although mentioning that he did not believe the Spaniard had the ambition and drive to be the world number one. “The first moment when I became number one in the world was six years ago now and it was a magical moment in my career,” Federer said. “It was pretty special and I always wanted to get back there. Some people have that drive more than others who’ve been number one. Rafa doesn’t seem like he cares as much for number one, or he doesn’t show it.” Federer stated to an unnamed news agency reporter.

The other players believed to be able to ruin his chances of completing the Grand Slam sweep according to Federer, are: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del Porto and Nikolay Davydenko. Federer also mentioned that he thought Briton Murry was now on top of Nadal’s game after the Australian Open failure.