Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is worried that after he and Former president Olusegun Obasanjo worked tirelessly to clear Nigeria’s foreign debt after the return of democracy in 1999, and vowed that he will not allow any government to “plunge Nigeria into debt”.
Atiku was reacting to the proposed N30 billion loan request by the Buhari government which he claims is to be used to fund critical infrastructure. The loan request, which was initially presented to the eight assembly and was rejected by both upper and lower legislative chambers, was recently represented to the Ninth Assembly under the leadership of Ahmed Lawan. Last Monday, Lawan said that the loan will be approved by the senate but that the senate will monitor implementation.
The Senate is yet to debate the issue but the Senate President appears to have already ruled, a situation that made the opposition to describe the senate as rubber stamp.
In an article he wrote Tuesday, Atiku described the government as irresponsible’
“…while spending 50% of our current revenue on debt servicing, this administration wants to take further loans of $29.6 billion! To say that this is irresponsible is itself an understatement”, he fumed.
“The fact that Nigeria currently budgets more money for debt servicing (₦2.7 trillion), than we do on capital expenditure (₦2.4 trillion) is already an indicator that we have borrowed more money than we can afford to borrow. And the thing is that debt servicing is not debt repayment. Debt servicing just means that we are paying the barest minimum allowable by our creditors,” he said.
“President Olusegun Obasanjo and I paid off this nation’s debt, and I will not stand idly by and watch while Nigeria is plunged into second slavery by those who only know how to reap where they have not sown.”
“In my economic blueprint, I said that rather than turn in regular losses (which it has consistently been doing), the best thing to do with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is to reform it. Of course, the administration’s paid propagandists went into overdrive, accusing me of planning to sell the NNPC to my friends.
“But just last week, Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO, the most profitable company in the world, took that route and almost broke the global stock market with the most successful initial IPOs in world history, bar none. Ironically, Saudi Aramco raised $29.4 billion via this IPO. Just the amount this administration wants to borrow.
“That could have been Nigeria’s story, but for our failure of leadership. By reforming the NN PC, Nigeria can raise the $29.6 billion the Buhari regime wants to borrow, and we will raise the money without going into debt.”
“I was part of a team that paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt. I, therefore, cannot sit and watch an administration without vision squander our children’s future by taking and wasting loans that they do not even have the capacity to utilise properly.
“Our youth must have something better to inherit from us than unsustainable debt fuelled by insatiable greed. That is why I call on the Senate of the National Assembly to show loyalty to Nigeria and reconsider its decision with regards to approving Buhari’s $29.6 billion loan request.”
Former GOVERNOR OF Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has filed a post-conviction bail application on health grounds pending when he will appeal against his Jail sentence.
Recently, Kalu was convicted by a high Court and sent to jail for twelve years over N7.1 billion fraud, and is currently serving his prison sentence.
He is serving his Jail sentence at Ikoyi Prisons.
The Court had ordered the liquidation and forfeiture of his company, Slok Nigeria Limited. This is not the whole of Slok group of companies, but recently the economic and financial Crimes commission, EFCC sealed off the Premises of The Sun Newspapers, which was not mentioned by the court. They however, left the Telegraph, owned by Kalu.
Telegraph was founded after the case that convicted Kalu started twelve years ago.
Kalu is just one of the shareholders in The Sun, which is jointly owned by other Nigerians.
In his appeal, Kalu complained of “serious health issues that the medical facilities in the prison cannot handle”, adding that as the senator representing Abia north, “the interest of his constituents would be in jeopardy if he was kept behind bars.” He asked to be left free to challenge his conviction from outside the prison bars.
Even as a prisoner, he is still a serving senator as his allowances are still being paid, and he is yet to be recalled by his people. In fact, there appeared to a tacit approval of his imprisonement by a section of his constituency, if feelers after his conviction is anything to go by.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC objected to the bail, saying that there is no recent medical case, since the medical report submitted by Kalu’s Lawyers is more than a year old. According to him, Ikoyi custodial center where he is being kept can handle his medical condition.
The Presiding judge, Mohamed Liman, adjourned the caseto December 23, 2019.
The trouble with the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, gets worse everyday.
From the home-front, his Governor, Godwin Obaseki says Oshiomhole is a pathological liar. And, the factional leader of the APC in Edo State, Anslem Ojezua, says by suspending Oshiomhole from the party, the Edo APC only obeyed the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari that any member who is not relevant in his ward, local government area and state cannot hold office at the national level. This was the main reason Oshiomhole was suspended, he disclosed.
In a Press Conference on Monday 16th December 2019, at the APC Secretariat in Benin, Edo State, Ojezua asked Oshiomhole to resign or be precluded from functioning in office while his suspension subsists.
He traced the genesis of the crisis rocking the party to the conduct of primaries ahead of the last general elections, where Oshiomhole unilaterally and arbitrarily cancelled the primaries conducted by the leadership of the party in the state.
He stated that had the Edo APC not complied with the directive to conduct fresh primaries, Edo would have been exposed to what befell Zamfara and other states.
He further alleged that events have shown that there had been a grand plan to falsely create the impression of a crisis of leadership within the party in the state.
Ojezua said the plans were hatched and executed under the directive of Comrade Oshiomhole and executed through Oshiomhole’s acclaimed ‘infantry division’.
He said the Edo APC has concluded that Oshiomhole lacked the capacity, temperament and moral authority to lead the APC as National Chairman.
He insisted that any action taken by Oshiomhole in the capacity of National Chairman, including documents signed, and meetings presided over by him might be futile as his membership was already compromised.
“In any case, having been placed on suspension as member of the party, he has lost the legitimacy to act in any capacity in the party.
“We draw particular attention to Article 21 of the APC constitution which relates to discipline of party members and the powers of respective organs of the party to take disciplinary actions against members.
“In the circumstances, any action taken in the capacity of National Chairman including documents he signs and meetings he presides over May well be futile as his membership is already compromised.
“We are guided by the admonition of President Buhari who has consistently maintained that we must live up to the tenets and provisions of the constitution of the APC.
“Mr. President has also maintained, quite rightly that anybody who is not relevant in his Ward, Local Government Area and State cannot hold office at the National Level,” Ojezua said.
Ojezua stressed further that Governor Godwin Obaseki remains the chosen candidate of the party for the forthcoming governorship election in the state, alleging that Oshiomhole was fighting a lost battle, parading a third rate army.
He added that Oshiomhole should leave Obaseki alone to govern the State and stop dictating what happens. Obaseki is not a puppet that Oshiomhole can push around.
“What Oshiomhole has with him is a third rate army. That was the deficiency he meant to fill when he invited mercenary group to invade our party. I am happy our members resisted them.
“We are ready for the elections. Obaseki has done so much to justify the confidence the citizens reposed in him. It is the goodwill and prayers of the people. We will have success at the elections,” he said.
The All Progressives Congress, APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole is looking for political allies away from his state, Edo, where the controversial former labour leader has now been totally deserted by those who once ate and dined with him.
Some say the reason why the APC boss bowed to pressure to pardon former Governors Ibikunle Amosun, Rochas Okorocha and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, may not be far from his desperate moves to consolidate his position as chairman of the party in the face of recent pressure on him by many APC governors to resign from his exalted position.
It was learnt that one of the demands of the governor for peace to return to the party, is that their former colleagues be pardoned.
Amosun and Okorocha were suspended from the party for supporting governorship candidates of other parties in the last governorship election.
The party said the pardon is in line with the party’s deliberate policy of fairness and actions targeted at ensuring harmony within the fold of the ruling party across the country.
“Through the suspension, our party has shown the capacity and willingness to implement its own rules and enforce discipline when there is an infraction.
We have also shown that no individual is above discipline and that the leadership of the party will always apply equity and justice in the day-to-day running of the party.
We hope the concerned party members will seize this opportunity to fully reconcile themselves with their ward, local government area, and state party structures.
They will key into the party activities, and continue to make their own contributions to the growth and stability of the party,” Issa-Onilu, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, said in the statement.
Apart from the three NWC members others who received pardon are Osita Okechukwu and Usani Usani, former minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
Oshiomhole has also recently swelled his camp with Ize Iyamu who dumped the PDP for the ruling party.
“The reason why the chairman is doing all of these is to prove to his critics in the party that he’s still very much in control and has not lost the confidence of majority of his party men and women,” an analyst told the magazine.
But as things stand, it doesn’t seem the storm is about to calm yet for the embattled chairman.
More pressure has been mounted in the last few days by angry governors, who the magazine learnt are rooting for a former Governor Abdullahi Yari of Zamfara state to replace the former NLC president.
Yari and Oshiomhole’s dispute led to the loss of Zamfara state to PDP in the last governorship election.
The choice of the ex-Zamfara helmsman, therefore, the magazine learnt is a clandestine plot to spite the former governor of Edo state, who’s involved in a battle royale with his successor who rode on his crest to office.
Oshiomhole said recently that Governor Obaseki, who the magazine learnt has the support of many APC governors, is not interested in fostering peace in the state.
He also accused the Inspector General of Police, IGP of colluding with Governor Obaseki to implicate him.
The duo had stopped Oshiomhole from organizing a rally in Benin, the state’s capital to welcome Ize Iyamu into the APC.
The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS hardly commends officers, when he does, that officer must have proven himself hardworking and patriotic as the regiment demands.
Some say that’s the virtue Ali saw in Comptroller Mohammed Uba Garba, area controller, Seme Customs Command, when he redeployed him from the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja last year.
But critics of Comptroller Mohammed say he’s just very lucky, to have some powerful people in the NCS who always put in a word for him whenever critical decisions are to be made by the comptroller General.
The two groups of thoughts may not be far from the point.
But what is more germane is that Comptroller Mohammed has never let down his boss in Abuja.
Therefore, the controller did not just get the attention of the CG on a platter, it’s as a result of sheer hard work and patriotic duty to country.
That’s fair enough.
In fact the CG, at a time like this watchers of NCS says, requires officers who will not buckle under the pressure of border closure by the Buhari administration.
“The major source of income for smugglers is the illegal importation of rice from the Seme corridor.
But the closure has made life so unbearable for them.
How can you survive when your only source of income has been taken away? You look for other means. It doesn’t matter at what cost. What’s really important is survival at this point,” Kalu Benjamin, a security expert told the magazine.
Bearing this in mind, the smugglers quickly put their acts together by investing heavily, their time and capital in smuggling petrol from Nigeria into Benin Republic.
Before the border closure, the department of petroleum Resource, DPR estimated that between 60-65million litres of petrol was consumed daily in Nigeria.
What many Nigerians did not know is that a large chunk of this is smuggled into Benin and other neighboring countries by smugglers who feed on our collective paternity.
But all that is gradually becoming a thing of the past, according to various sources in the border, who salute the patriotic work of Comptroller Muhammed and his men, for making life difficult for petrol smugglers.
“Smuggling petrol through Seme border nowadays is like passing through the proverbial needle’s eye. With the joint operations of security agencies led by Customs, that business is no longer lucrative.
What benefits do you derive after going through so much inconvenience, your investment and everything, you still discovered that the products will be seized,” a trader along the border said, though he didn’t want his name mentioned.
The federal government had identified the loopholes and last month directed the closure of all filling stations close to the borders.
In spite of this, the smuggling of the commodity still went on unfettered along the Seme border, until Comptroller Mohammed alongside his men went to work, by conducting unexpected raids on the smugglers hideouts.
The results are now there for critics to see. The DPR has recently announced the drop of petrol consumption in the country to about 52million litre per day.
“If you cannot still see what the command is doing, then you must have yourself examined,” Yemi Adegbenro, a freight forwarder told the magazine on Monday.
The CG on his part has made sure that some officers, working selflessly with Comptroller Mohammed are rewarded for their patriotic duty despite a campaign of calumny, recently launched against the command and the area controller by destructive elements.
According to the recent promotion list released by NCS, three deputy comptrollers from the Seme command made it to the Comptroller rank, aside others who have now been elevated to higher ranks.
Jibo B.M, Ndarani J.D and Bello A. are some of the officers who have worked under Comptroller Mohamed and are now happily wearing the comptroller ranks.
“The joy of a leader is to see his subordinates rising and taking up higher responsibilities.
It’s not a coincident that some of us have now been promoted while Comptroller Mohammed is the area comptroller.
It means he gave good commendation of us apart from the promotion exam that we wrote,” an officer recently promoted to the rank of CSP told the magazine.
Comptroller Mohammed and his men have made sure revenue flows into the Federation Account for state and federal government to share.
For instance, when the NCS is taking stocks of its revenue for the year 2019, no doubt, the Seme Command will take a prime place because the command has been generating steady revenue into the commonwealth.
A whopping N6.5 billion, the command generated is one of the highest across the country.
“Ali will be very happy because he will have something to show his bosses in the Presidency that things are working in the NCS,” a source in the ministry of Finance told the magazine.
The NCS has projected to rake in over one trillion naira into the federation account by the end of the year.
The figure represents the revenue collection from January to November, 2019 according to checks by the magazine.
In spite of this feat Comptroller Mohammed has remained modest and focused on next year.
Other border commands have not been so lucky considering the fact that they have been experiencing revenue drought due to border closure.
Apart from the huge revenue collection the command “Within 11 months,” also “recorded 1302 seizures” of different categories” with duty paid value of over N1.5billion,” the controller said in a statement.
Within the period also “the command also realized N4.9billion revenue making a cumulative amount of over N6.5billion” aside “1992 parcels of hard drugs, 47 trailers of foreign rice, 62 used vehicles, 1100 bales of used clothes, 185 sacks of shoes, bags, 5489 cartons of poultry products, petrol, vegetables, oil and other items,” the command stated.
It was the morning after Senator Orji Uzor Kalu was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. I was low in spirit. I had woken up, very angry, over the circumstances that put Kalu in jail. I guess it was just sinking in. And I shook my head in disbelief.
It is not that Kalu is above the law. Of course not. It is just that he didn’t need the money for which he was sent to jail.
He is one lucky guy. Very blessed by God. The story of his meteoric rise from grass to grace is well documented.
At 19, when boys, his age, were still in school, living in their parents’ houses, and/or thinking of what to do with their lives, Kalu was already counting in hundreds of thousands. He had become a millionaire.
At 28, or thereabouts, he had become the Chairman of a bank. He was counting in millions. Nobody knew how he did it but, perhaps, he has the right aura and, so, has friends in high places. It didn’t begin with now.
He has always been well connected. No wonder he had a National Honour, MON, in the bag, awarded to him during the Babangida regime, when his mates knew nothing about National Honours.
But, he really never was in the circle of his mates. He was in the company of Military Generals and billionaire businessmen, bankers and high profile traditional rulers. He was at home in their company.
Long before his peers had even a block, Kalu had built mansions both in Igbere, his home town, and in Lagos. His compound in Igbere is as large as a village. His mansion in Ikoyi, built since the 80’s, remains, till date, one of the most sophisticated and expensive in Lagos.
Orji Uzor Kalu: From Senate to prison
In Abuja, his abode is a sight to behold. Large, very large. Big, very big. It is very close to Aso Rock. He bought it over from another money man, a Northerner.
In the USA, I, also, understand that his home makes not a few people green with envy. And, he has many others scattered all over Nigeria.
In business, Kalu has the world at his feet. He travels the world. When it comes to making money, he is a citizen of the world. He has his tentacles world over. Money-wise, he may not be in the league of the Aliko Dangotes, the Femi Otedolas, the Mike Adenugas and a few others, but he is not too far away from them.
From just an Aba stockfish trader, he spread his tentacles deeply in, almost, every business. Oil and Gas. Aviation. Hospitality. Media. Real Estate. Shipping. Banking. Furniture-making. And much more. All came under the Octopus called the Slok Conglomerate.
I cannot confirm, but I have, also, read reports that at a point in his life, he was an arms dealer.
In politics, he shone like diamonds. He succeeded beyond the wildest imagination of not a few people, including himself.
Kalu was one of those at the Constitutional Conference organised by the Military President, Ibrahim Babangida’s regime. He was one of the youngest in that group.
He, according to him, helped in no small measure to midwife Nigeria’s democracy, born in 1999, after a long labour, which almost still-birthed it – in the military’s deadly labour room. Kalu was at the right place at the right time. He was in the right team – the winning team.
He, thus, became one of the founding members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. He never fails to flaunt that. And how much he spent for and, on the party. According to him, it ran into hundreds of millions. If the PDP was a Public quoted company, he had said a number of times; he would be the highest share holder. Not to forget the millions he, also, says, often, that he gave former President Olusegun Obasanjo. N500 million? No jokes.
But, all his expenses on the PDP were to his political advantage. It was the PDP that propelled him, politically, beyond his dreams. Under PDP, he became, unbelievably, some people say, a two-time governor of Abia state, with all the power, influence and privileges that went with it.
Yet, it was not all smooth-sailing for Kalu. He has had a share of his downs. A share of scandals too. But he always managed to survive, smelling of roses, thereafter.
Two of the downs took place, early enough. At the University of Maiduguri, he and other students led a protest against injustice. Others were expelled. He was spared. But, according to Kalu, he opted to be expelled with the others. So, he carried the not-too comfortable label of a university drop-out for a long time.
He was to wipe away that when he became the governor of Abia State. As the visitor to the University, Kalu re-registered as a student. A photograph of him, in an examination hall, alone, writing a paper made the rounds. He was awarded a degree by the University. But the administration of his successor, and political godson-turned-political enemy, now Senator Theodore Orji, withdrew the degree. A court later restored Kalu’s degree.
The second was the real scandal. Kalu was one of the big names at the launch of the Borno State Development Fund. He donated bags of money to the fund. But it turned out a hoax, and a huge embarrassment. Stacks of papers, carefully cut to currency size, were more than the real currencies. He put the blame on sabotage.
God has been good to him. Some people say partial. How he did it is not the question here. Truth is: he worked hard to be where he is.
Kalu started life as a trader. With £35 from his mother, he began. A combination of street wisdom, native intelligence, and hard work did the trick.
Politically, he became an institution. A two-time governor of Abia State, he founded a political party, the Progressive People’s Alliance, PPA, almost, at the end of his governorship, when he fell out with Obasanjo.
Unbelievably, the party won two states, Imo and Abia, with Ikedi Ohakim and Theodore Orji as governors. He was to, inexplicably; lose the two governors to the PDP.
But Kalu always bounced back. Moving from one party to the other, back and forth, he finally, settled for the APC where he is now, not only a Senator, but the Senate Chief Whip.
The point I really want to make is: Kalu exited from poverty since he was a youth. He had long passed that stage long before he became a governor.
He was rich, as in rich. He was already counting in billions of Naira, and had hundreds of people in his employ long before he became a governor.
The over seven billion Naira for which he was jailed is nothing to Kalu. It is, almost, an insult. He could lose that in business deal without losing much sleep. He owns a bank outside Nigeria’s shores. His airline is the National airline of an African country.
So, why did he do it? Greediness some people chorus. Some others say the fate that befell him had everything to do with religion and his tribe. But there is a counter.
He is not the only ex-Governor jailed for, allegedly, putting their hands in their states’ treasury. Some of them have served their time, and came out to become political kingmakers in their states. Former Governors Jolly Nyame and Joshua Dariye of Taraba and Plateau states, respectively, are still in jail. But, again, they counter that all the jailed ones are Christians. A coincidence? I seem to believe so, naive as I am in these things.
As for Kalu being jailed because he is Igbo as some people are insinuating? Not true.
Here is why.
Kalu has never hidden his love for the North. He leans towards the North than to the South, especially, the South-east where he comes from. He had said, a couple of times, that he was brought up by the Hausa-Fulani. He had boasted that he brought RUGA to Abia State and would vote for RUGA anytime on the floor of the Senate, in defiance of the stand of the South and the Middle Belt. He also says that as governor, he built a Mosque at the Government House, Umuahia. Kalu has been quoted as telling Ohaneze that “he gives no damn about their stand on politics.” So, it’s not true that he was jailed because he is Igbo.
Some others say it is political persecution. But the former Governor is in the ruling party. So, who will persecute him?
True, he always blamed Obasanjo for laying the foundation for his problem because he, allegedly, fought against his third term plan. For that, Kalu has cursed Obasanjo no end. He has called him a devil, and placed a stamp of wickedness on his face. He has also asked President Buhari, on a number of times, to jail Obasanjo. It is an irony that Kalu is now the one in jail, Curse not the elders, many people admonish.
In any case, Obasanjo is no longer that chummy-chummy with the government at the centre. So, if it was an Obasanjo problem, why was Kalu not saved?
Kalu, in Court, strongly denied all charges against him. He still does.
Not many people, including this writer, believed this fate could befall him. It was unthinkable. For 12 years, he fought that the cup be taken away from him. He did everything to escape the bitter pill. He did everything to gravitate towards whoever could save him.
It is one of the reasons, many claim, Kalu defected to the APC. It is one of the reasons, they, also, claim he campaigned, as if his life depended on it, for a Buhari Presidency in 2019. He actually thought he would be saved. Many thought so too. But, too bad.
He does not have the luck of a couple of his colleagues who, even though they allegedly dipped their hands in the till, deeper than him, are strutting around, free, and calling the shots here and there.
His fate has, instead, put a large stamp of credibility on the Judiciary, and on the FG’s fight against corruption. If Kalu could be jailed, inspite of his efforts, many now say, then, not a few people should worry.
When, on the day he was jailed, it was reported that he was begging Prison warders not to publicly put handcuffs on him, I broke down in tears. Life, I said to nobody in particular.
Now, unless a higher Court upturns his conviction, he will be in for 12 years. With that goes his robust political ambition and, almost, everything he had worked for.
Even his multi-billion Naira investments, before he became governor, he is to forfeit to the Federal Government.
Not a few people ask why not to Abia, which money he was convicted for? And, is there no way to differentiate what he acquired while in office as governor, from what he acquired before then?
A shrewd businessman, compassionate, a good husband, loving-father, brother, and a doting son, Kalu, according to a source close to him, once paid an Online Publisher, the sum of 30 thousand USD to be off his mother’s back. Insult me, he was quoted as telling the guy, but not my mother.
But, perhaps, Kalu was destined to pass through this route. Destiny can be funny. He seems to have his fate tied to the number, 12.
A couple of days after he was jailed, the following was posted by an anonymous writer who tried to rationalize his fate. He wrote:
“ORJI = 4 letters.
UZOR= 4 letters.
KALU= 4 letters.
4+4+4=12.
He was governor 12 years ago
His case lasted for 12 years
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison
The judgement came on the 12th month of the year in 2019
(2+0+1+9)= 12”.
Who knows? Kalu still holds tight to destiny. Talking to Reporters as he was being herded into prison, he told them: “2023, here we come”. Destiny? Kalu always wanted to be Nigeria’s President. The prison may be a preparatory ground. He wouldn’t be the first. Think Obasanjo. Think Nelson Mandela. No jokes. The world is a funny place. Unpredictable too!
The Nigeria Media has once again been thrown into mourning following the death of Kayode Lanrewaju, former Editor of Vanguard Newspaper.
The death of Lanrewaju came as a shock to the pen profession, who recently lost Bolanle Onigbanjo, an On Air Personality with Radio Lagos, on Thursday 12th December, 2019.
Lanrewaju was member, Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists, NGIJ, and was also a member of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE.
NGIJ President, Wale Abydeen has described the death of Lanrewaju as a great shock.
In a condolence message to the family, Abydeen said the Guild has lost a great, fantastic and hardworking man, adding that his contribution to the Guild within the short period he spent cannot be overemphasized.
”As a Guild, we have lost a great, fantastic and hardworking member. This is so pathetic and mind blowing! We pray God to forgive all his shortcomings and grant him eternity rest.
“NGIJ has lost a great and fantastic BOT member, you will forever remain in our mind.” he said.
The Guild prays for the repose of his soul and that the Almighty God should give the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Until his death, Lanrewaju was a former Special Assistant on Media to former Deputy Governor of Ogun state, Prince Segun Adesegun.
The 2019/2020 UEFA Champions League Draw for the knockout stage was held in Nyon, Switzerland, a few hours ago. Top European Club sides are jostling for the coveted European Club silverware.
2012 Champions, Chelsea of England, will face 2013 Champions, Bayern Munich, at Stanford Bridge, London, for the first leg in the round of 16 clash.
Chelsea came second behind eventual group winners, Valencia Football Club of Spain, while the German top Clubside came top in its group.
Pep Guardiola will return to Spain capital, Madrid, as his club, Manchester City, will face 13-time champions of the coveted trophy, Real Madrid, in the knockout phase.
It will be the second time Coach Zinedine Zidane of Real Madrid will face Guardiola after facing each other in the Champions League when Guardiola was still in the saddle as Bayern Munich coach.
Borussia Dortmund will face Paris Saint Germain of France in another cracker, while defending Champion, Liverpool will face 2015 and 2017 runners-up Atletico Madrid.
Valencia Football Club of Spain faces debutant, Atalanta Football Club of Italy, while Olympique Lyonnais Football Club of France faces Cristiano Ronaldo’s side, Juventus Football Club.
Since 1997, the prestigious European Club trophy has eluded Juventus.
With Massimo Sarri in the saddle as Juventus coach, it may become a reality.
Lionel Messi’s led Barcelona will face Napoli in the knockout phase.
New acquisition, Antoine Griezmann, will be bent in winning the coveted trophy that has eluded him. Having won the FIFA World Cup, Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup, winning the Champions League will be a dream come true after switching to Nou Camp.
Coach Jose Mourinho will lead his new team, Tottenham Hotspurs, to the knockout phase against Leipzig Football Club of Germany.
The 2019 runners-up will be hoping Mourinho surpasses former Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s feat, by winning the trophy for the London Club side.
