Femi Otedola dismisses friendship with billionaire, Tony Elumelu

CC™ Nigeria News

By Chukwuani Victoria

Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola has said that he offered to acquire Transcorp Plc for N250 billion and take the company’s market capitalization to N2 trillion but his bid was rejected.

Recently, Otedola acquired a 5.52 percent stake in Transcorp Plc to become the second largest shareholder of the company, but then sold out his entire holding to Tony Elumelu, the chairman of the group.

In a press statement he shared with The Cable on Tuesday morning, Otedola spoke for the first time on the events surrounding his bid to take over the company.

The statement read, “In 2005, while Tony was the Managing Director of Standard Trust Bank he approached me to get funds to acquire UBA. I enthusiastically gave him $20million, which was N2billion at that time to buy the necessary shares in UBA for the acquisition. After a short period of time, the share price moved up and I decided it is was a good moment to sell and get out of the bank. However, Tony appealed to me to hold on to the shares as he was convinced that there were future prospects – so I kept the shares.

“I became Chairman of Transcorp Hotel in 2007 with a shareholding of 5% and unknowingly Tony gradually started buying shares quietly.

“By the following year in 2008 I went bankrupt in Nigeria. Tony proceeded to take my shares in UBA to service the interest on my loans and he also took over my shares in Africa Finance Corporation, where I was the largest shareholder.

“Shortly after, Albert Okumagba informed me that an American firm wanted to acquire my shares in Transcorp, which I then agreed to sell. However, this supposed American firm turned out to be Tony Elumelu. The revelation of this prompted me to resign as Chairman of the hotel.

“Years later in 2012 Tony said he wanted to see me so we met in my office where I had previously had a meeting with foreign investors who had not yet departed the premises.

Curious to know, he asked what sort of meeting I had had and I disclosed that I wanted to go into the power business, specifically Ughelli Power Plant. Tony quietly went ahead to bid for Ughelli and he outbid me by offering to buy the plant for $300 million.

“And as a some would say: the rest is history.

“Fast forward to the present…

“I offered to buy Transcorp Plc for N250 billion, but unfortunately, my offer was rejected. My goal was to maximize the company’s potential as a Nigerian conglomerate with a market cap of at least N2 trillion instead of the current N40 billion, but it seems some shareholders have a different vision.

“As a businessman, I believe in healthy competition and market dynamics. Two captains cannot man a ship, and I respect the majority shareholder’s decision to buy me out. This is the nature of the game.

“But let me be clear: my offer was made with the best intentions for Transcorp Plc and its shareholders. I saw an opportunity to unlock the company’s full potential and create value for everyone involved.

“It’s important for investors to understand that free entry and free exit are crucial to healthy markets. The scramble for shares after my acquisition is a testament to the value that Transcorp Plc can offer, and I hope the company continues to thrive under new leadership.

“My message to Transcorp Plc and its shareholders is this: I remain committed to the growth and success of Nigerian businesses, and I will always be looking for ways to create value for all stakeholders.

Stakeholders are unfortunately always shortchanged by getting stipends while the owners and managers of the business live a jet set lifestyle, which is detrimental to the stakeholders. Thank you for the opportunity to engage in this exciting chapter of Transcorp’s history.”

Elumelu has yet to officially react to the allegations levelled against him.

VANGUARD

Steve Jobs died over a decade ago but his ideas about the future endure

CC™ ViewPoint

By Nick Kolakowski

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died over a decade ago. With over 10 years of hindsight, we have an even greater sense of how deeply he impacted the tech industry—but also how the tech industry is beginning to move beyond some of the paradigms he established and the battles he fought.

Unlike many other tech CEOs who rose to prominence in the early part of the 21st century and subsequently faded away, Jobs continues to hold the public’s attention. He’s elevated as an icon of creativity, the rare executive who could not only run a business, but also predict what consumers really wanted. Apple’s track record during his tenure—from the iMac to the iPod and the iPhone—certainly bears this out. 

“As thoughts grew into ideas, however tentative, however fragile, he recognized that this was hallowed ground. He had such a deep understanding and reverence for the creative process,” Jony Ive, the former head of Apple’s design and a close friend of Jobs, wrote in a new piece in The Wall Street Journal. “He understood creating should be afforded rare respect—not only when the ideas were good or the circumstances convenient.”

Ive added: “Ideas are fragile. If they were resolved, they would not be ideas, they would be products. It takes determined effort not to be consumed by the problems of a new idea. Problems are easy to articulate and understand, and they take the oxygen. Steve focused on the actual ideas, however partial and unlikely.”

Jobs’s focus on high quality and aesthetics helped transform Apple into a multi-trillion-dollar company. Whether Apple continues its stratospheric growth for yet another decade may hinge on whether it can successfully evolve into a provider of cloud services in addition to hardware—a shift that Jobs dimly saw before his death. In an October 2010 email, he suggested that the tech industry was on the verge of a “post-PC era,” and that 2011 would not only be “Year of the Cloud” but also see the continuation of Apple’s “Holy War with Google.” Unless Apple moved beyond an “old paradigm,” it would eventually fall behind its rivals.

While Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android still compete for their respective slices of the mobile OS market, Apple’s opponents have multiplied over the past decade. For example, Apple’s dedication to user data privacy under current CEO Tim Cook has put it in direct conflict with Facebook, whose business model hinges on vacuuming up as much data as possible from users. Apple has also been locked in a fierce legal battle with Epic Games, creator of the ultra-popular “Fortnite” game, over the size of Apple’s App Store commission. 

In addition, Apple must ensure that it can continue to compete with its rivals in cutting-edge technologies including (but certainly not limited to) artificial intelligence (A.I.), machine learning, and the cloud. Although Apple was one of the first companies into the digital-assistant game when it rolled out Siri in October 2011, it has since lost ground to Amazon’s ultra-popular Alexa and Google’s voice-activated assistant. While most of the company’s hardware devices remain society-redefining hits, if there’s one thing that Jobs understood, it’s that the tech industry can shift very quickly under your feet.

DICE

Is Nigeria On The Brink Of A Civil War?

CC™ VideoScope

Apartheid Explained - Nelson Mandela’s Battle

CC™ VideoScope

Ronald Wayne: The forgotten co-founder of Apple and billionaire that never was.....

CC™ Business News

Ronald Wayne was one of the original founders of Apple, Inc. In the late 1970s, Ronald worked as an engineer at video game maker Atari. While at Atari, one of his co-workers was Steve Jobs. In their free time, Steve Jobs and a friend named Steve Wozniak were building homemade computers. 

In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak decided they wanted to launch their own company. Jobs reached out to Wayne, who had experience setting up corporations, to be a co-founder.

The oldest member of the three-man team, Mr. Wayne sank personal assets into the business and soon became worried that the project was going to run his finances into the ground. He drew the first logo for Apple, drafted the original agreement between the Apple founders, and wrote the manual for the first Apple computer.

Unfortunately, just two weeks after forming the company Ronald decided to relinquish his 10% stake for a payout of $800. When the company became an official corporation, he was paid an additional $1500 US to give up all rights of ownership.

Ronald went back to working at Atari and later owned a stamp shop. He is now retired, and authored his memoirs Adventures of an Apple Founder, and a book about the Constitution and its historic relevance, Insolence of Office, both of which were published in 2011.

Had Ronald held on to his 10% Apple stake, today it would be worth more than $100 billion today. He has said that he made the "best decision with the information available to me at the time" and does not regret his selling of his shares. The first Apple product he ever owned was an iPad 2 which was given to him in 2011. He is the owner of a dozen patents and was featured in the documentary Welcome to Macintosh. He sold the original Apple company agreement signed by Jobs and Wozniak in the early 90s for $500. That document later sold at auction for $1.6 million.

Today, Wayne, who is 88 years old has a net worth of $400,000. Truly a case of what could have been. 

CNW

Sowore 'disappointed' Tinubu did not participate in Abuja Marathon

CC™ Politico News

The African Action Congress (AAC) Presidential Candidate, Omoyele Sowore has expressed his 'disappointment' that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu did not participate in the 2023 Abuja Marathon.

Sowore stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja on Saturday.

He also expressed disappointment over the absence of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mohammed Bello, at the race.

The rights activist was one of the participants in the maiden edition of the Abuja International Marathon.

He said: “This is the first Abuja marathon, I participated and I ran longer than I expected. I expected that the Minister of FCT would be here.

“I was even expecting Tinubu to be here, but apparently, I am the only presidential candidate standing after the election.

“I ran with kids, great kids. I am of the opinion that we are wasting a lot of talent in this country.”

According to Sowore, sports was an important tool towards uniting Nigerians and generating employment for the youths.  

The Reality of Black life in America

CC™ InfoShots

Peter Obi reacts to Buhari’s postponement of National Population Census

Buhari betrayed Jonathan’s Legacy

CC™ Global News

By Gboyega Sowemimo

Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Gregory Obi, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to postpone the 2023 Population and Housing Census, earlier scheduled for May 3-7 2023.

Buhari in a press statement signed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Saturday, officially approved the census postponement.

Mohammed revealed that Buhari gave the approval after meeting with some members of the Federal Executive Council and the Chairman of the National Population Commission, Nasir Isa-Kwarra, and his team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday.

According to the minister, President Buhari approved that a new date would be determined by the incoming administration.

Reacting via Twitter on Saturday, Peter Obi described Buhari’s decision as a welcome development, stressing that National Census is a critical development and nation-building tool.

Obi tweeted: “FGN’s decision to postpone the 2023 Population and Housing Census, scheduled for 3-7 May 2023, to a date to be determined by the incoming Administration is a propitious and welcome development. National Census is a critical development and nation-building tool”

It is imperative that the next National Population Census is done right, with a view to addressing past concerns of the exercise being manipulated to favor a certain region of the country. 

Transgender female runner who beat 14,000 women at London Marathon offers to give medal back

Twitter 

CC™ Global News

By Ryan Gaydos and Chantz Martin

Glenique Frank, a transgender woman who ran the London Marathon in the female category, offered to give her medal back after controversy stirred when she beat out about 14,000 women in the race.

Frank sparked criticism after she appeared in a BBC interview and gushed about becoming a grandmother. She told the New York Post that the London Marathon was the first race she was able to pick her own name and gender. Several other races she plans on running need her name and gender given on her passport, including New York City, Tokyo and Boston, among others.

Frank told the outlet she was only sorry for "upsetting" her critics.

"If they want me to give my medal back, I’ll say, ‘OK, fine. No problem,'" Frank told the New York Post. "If they really think I’ve stolen the place [of a female runner], I don’t mind giving the medal back, because I’ll run again next year for charity.

"They’re angry because they’re saying that one of 14,000 women behind me could have had my place. Really? I did [the race in] 4 hours 11 minutes. There’s lots of women that beat me."

Frank said she understood she does not have a "womb" but insisted she did not compete as an elite runner and "didn’t steal any money."

Frank’s foray into the London Marathon irked two-time Olympian Mara Yamauchi, who finished in sixth place in the marathon at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 while representing her home country of Great Britain.

Yamauchi did not mince words when she spoke on Frank's win at the marathon over the weekend.

"Males in the [female] category is UNFAIR for females," Yamauchi wrote in a tweet.

"Nearly 14,000 actual females suffered a worse finish position [because] of him," Yamauchi wrote on Twitter.

Frank said her attention was not to try to trick anyone.

"I’ve known since I was 5 that I was in the wrong body," Frank said.

Frank said she is still planning on running marathons and planned on entering the London race next year as "other" or "male" to "just keep everybody happy."

Frank previously ran at an event in New York City while wearing a bra and a wig.

Frank, who is a British citizen, identifies as a female. After running a 17th career marathon, she excitedly spoke about using "girl power" to help get through the race.

FOX NEWS

Nigeria Completes Gas Pipeline Without Chinese Funds

CC™ Energy News

By Charles Kennedy

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has used around $1.1 billion of its own funds so far and has completed work on 70% of a large natural gas pipeline in Nigeria even after a Chinese loan for the project failed to materialize.

Nigeria's federal government announced in July 2020 that the Bank of China and Sinosure had agreed to finance part of the costs for constructing the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline to the economic hub in the north, Kano. In the summer of 2021, reports started swirling that Chinese lenders were reluctant to increase their exposure and finance part of the gas pipeline project estimated to cost $2.8 billion.

Nigeria has started to look for alternative funding for at least US$1 billion of the pipeline's cost and has started to approach other lenders, including export-import credit institutions, sources told Reuters two years ago.

This week, NNPC Group chief executive, Mele Kyari, said on a site inspection that the AKK Gas Pipeline project was nearly 70% completed, and more than $1.1 billion has been released so far to finance the project. The pipeline is planned to run for 614 kilometers (382 miles) and is currently being financed by the NNPC.

The AKK Gas Pipeline line will flow 2 Bscf/d and will power industries and power plants and create gas-based industries, Kyari said. By the third quarter of this year, NNPC will complete the entire welding job on this line, he said while visiting a construction site along the pipeline's route. 

“We have so far spent over $1.1 billion on this project from our cashflow," NNPC's Kyari said.

"We are a commercial company today. We have inter-company loans within our company now. This company can fund this project, so we do not need any support to deliver this project now."

Oilprice.com