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Honestly for me, it feels good because at 70 I am in good shape without any health or other challenges. However if you put it in the context of the environment and the times we live in, I don’t feel as good as I could or should. I am not happy that the country is facing diverse and numerous challenges, many of them self-inflicted and needless. As I speak, we are all currently struggling to cope with heightened and extreme forms of those challenges at every level. The problem is that I cannot be okay or as happy I could or should be when all is not well with the community of which I am an integral part. That is how I feel about Nigeria in my 70th year.

The central bank’s involvement in FirstBank is essentially about playing the role of the regulator. CBN’s intervention has been in the best interest of the bank’s stakeholders and its performance; aimed at restoring confidence in the bank as well as to reassure the depositors, creditors and other stakeholders of the bank of its commitment to ensuring the stability of the financial system.

The first reason is as a means of combating climate change. Combating climate change forces the world to seek alternative, low-carbon sources of energy and fuel. Since traffic is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas, i.e. carbon emissions, substituting fossil fuels with renewable alternatives such as biofuels is an efficient way to reduce these emissions. Secondly, it’s an effective way of responding to higher energy consumption. The expected increase in world population to 10 or even 15 billion by 2050, combined with significant economic growth in emerging economies will result in substantially increasing energy consumption. To be able to respond to this growing demand, we need to use natural resources more efficiently and increase the use of renewable energy, such as biofuels.

Indeed November 21, 2020 is a date that cannot be forgotten in a hurry by Tijani Waidi Adio. It was the day unknown hoodlums, allegedly led by one Chief Adeyemi Abidoye, invaded his family home in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, where he was attacked over a marital crisis involving his niece, Simiat Adeyanju Olusanya. He narrates his near-death escape in this interview.

What informed the introduction of the AdCademy?
The idea of the Adcademy is a dream that’s about two decades in the making. If I am not mistaken, the idea was first mooted when Dr. Biodun Shobanjo was President of the AAAN. Even though I was just a junior creative then, I imagined that at the core of the idea was the imperative to broaden the talent pipeline of the industry and the need to also upskill existing talent pool of member agencies. That vision hasn’t changed even today. Rather, it has taken a much more urgent dimension because of the seismic shift caused by technology. This has totally disrupted many industries including ours. Thus, we have no choice than to launch the academy as part of our mid to long-term survival strategy.

What is your name and tell us a little bit of your background?
My Name is Mike Adamu. I am from Kebbi State, North West Nigeria. To the glory of God, I’m the CEO of Reform Sports West Africa. We are into sports facility construction and development as well as other sports-related construction work available in the field.

How did you meet Aruna Quadri?
I met Aruna at the Abeokuta 2006 National Sports Festival. I was Chairman of Lagos State Table Tennis Association then. It was a festival which allowed professional athletes compete and in the table tennis event, the legend himself, Segun Toriola, was captaining a star filled Ogun State team, including Bode Kayode, Lanre Aremu and Kazeem Makanjuola, who had been members of the Lagos team, but decamped to the host state, Ogun. Having lost many players, we took a young team made up of secondary school students from Lagos to gain experience. But the cynosure of all eyes was the very young mostly unknown boys’ team from Oyo State. They had a fantastic Coach and played with such skill and determination but lost the men’s finals narrowly with Toriola’s experience coming to the fore. Aruna Quadri was one of the young boys and I introduced myself to them and started inviting them to Lagos to play in tournaments and train with our Coaches.

I got it from the title of a poem I wrote, called: “I Will Be Silent.” This was a poem I wrote concerning the genocide which happened in Darfur, Sudan, many years ago. I wrote it in response to the then international media blackout that occurred during that period and how men and young male children were systematically slaughtered by government supported Janjaweed militia.