Information reaching The Eagle Online has it that the Publisher of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, has turned in the direction of the Central Bank of Nigeria for survival.
This, sources told The Eagle Online, followed the exhaustion of Obaigbena’s goodwill with Deposit Money Banks, which have paid him well in advance for advertisements.
Some banks are said to have released money upfront for advertisements for between two and five years to Thisday, leaving the newspaper without further sources of adequate funding.
Most of the funds, as reported in the past by The Eagle Online, have gone into funding Arise Television, the pet project of the publisher, who is popularly known as The Duke.
It was gathered that in the bid to survive, Obaigbena has turned int the direction of the CBN, putting its Governor, Godwin Emefiele, under intense pressure for funding.
Sources said Emefiele, who has been very careful with the handling of the finances of the CBN following the focus of attention on the apex bank by the Presidency and its apparatus, especially the anti-graft agencies, has within allowable limit made available to Obaigbena funds under its “PR Services”.
It was gathered that after several visits to the CBN by Obaigbena, Emefiele too had visited the premises of Thisday newspaper in Apapa, Lagos “at least once or twice”.
A source said one of the visits was on a Saturday.
Emefiele, who was said to be causally dressed in a t-shirt and without his aides, was conducted round the premises, with emphasis on the studio of Arise TV.
The duo were said to have met for over one hour before Emefiele was conducted round the premises.
It was gathered that Emefiele is being cautious in his approach to the business proposals by Obaigbena as the publisher is still under the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission following his alleged involvement in the illegal receipt of N800 million in what has come to be known as Dasukigate.
Last year, Obaigbena was detained for a week by the EFCC until he refunded part of the N800 million he collected from embattled former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, with an undertaking to offset the balance over a period of time.
The N800 million received by Obaigbena “on behalf” of the Newspapers Proprietors
Association of Nigeria through his private company, Hydrocarbon, had divided NPAN, with The Punch newspapers pulling out of the body.
This was in protest of the continued leadership of the association by Obaigbena.
Whereas the Thisday publisher had kept N650 million of the largesse to himself as “compensation for the bombing of Thisday Abuja office in 2012”, N10 million was shared out to each of a number of newspapers that had filed claims over the seizure of their copies by security agencies in 2014.
However, as a mark of honour, The Nation and Tribune newspapers returned cheques of N10 million to NPAN last year.
That of The Nation came with a note that in accepting the compensation for its copies seized in 2014 across the country, it did not know it was sourced from the $15 billion set aside to procure arms for the military to combat Boko Haram.
In exercising restraint in his dealing with Obaigbena, sources said Emefiele took a cue from the indictment of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deziani Alison-Madueke, along the same line by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Alison-Madueke was indicted for such “working relationship” with Obaigbena during the closing stages of the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration and the days before the 2015 general election.
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