The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Olanipekun: Man of uncommon accomplishments steps higher

    Olanipekun: Man of uncommon accomplishments steps higher

    • By Sunday Saanu

    With the recent successful defence of President Bola Tinubu at the presidential election petition court, Chief Oluwole Oladapo Olanipekun, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) holds the distinction of a legal icon in the country who has defended the highest number of Nigerian Presidents in the court of law. He was a counsel to Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammad Buhari before the 2015 election. One should not even attempt to list the state governors he has used his legal knowledge and prowess to rescue from political oppression, cheating and intimidation.

         With his wiry frame, eel-like body dynamics depicting an eponymous figure; in addition to his awesome myth and meteoric greatness, Chief Olanipekun in the course of his professional journey that has earned him so much fame and fortunes, has smashed many cases to smithereens, almost effortlessly, with his opponents screaming like whose wounds have been stomped upon! He certainly knows the nuts and bolts of the profession like the back of his hand. Yet, remaining humble and harmless.

          An elder that he is, whose eyes have been made sunken by the troves of variegated sights he has witnessed, this iconic legal luminary who is 72 today is not only regal and resplendent, Chief Olanipekun is rich and righteous in Christ with excellent manners, sterling integrity,  just as he regularly comports himself with class and candour. Indeed, a perfect picture of geniality and civility.

           One-time President of Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), immediate past Chairman, Body of Benchers, one-time Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council, University of Ibadan, current Chairman, Board of Trustees, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Chairman of this, Chairman of that, and Chairman of everything else, Chief Olanipekun is clearly a man in his own world without wishy-washy equivocation.

          But how can a man parade this kind of enviable credentials without enemies? He certainly has many enemies in different places! Why? You may ask. The answer is simple. People like success, but hate successful individuals. We are in a world of competition, a world full of envy, malice and treachery. The good news is Chief Olanipekun is not a malice bearer. In many of our conversations, he will say, “Sunday, I will never think of evil towards anyone. My Bible does not teach me to hate people and destroy fellow beings”

         On account of his prestigious reputation, he is ever restrained from provocation.   His reaction to many attacks he has faced has always been, “no reaction”  When he was admonishing me on a particular case and the way I handled it, hear what he told me, “Sunday, ta lo ko e logbon, ti ko ko e lomugo?” meaning who taught you wisdom but failed to teach you the usefulness of assumed foolishness? This has been his philosophy in life. He chooses his battles. He doesn’t react to everything. He stands for whatever that is noble and honourable, yet,  so committed to the healing of the ill

        However, what are the sterling qualities that set him apart? Hard work and discipline. To him, there is no honest alternative to hard work. Obviously, this is one of the reasons he has attained the dizzy heights of stardom in his profession. If he is not in court, he is either in his expansive office reading and preparing for various cases he has,  or in church to serve His God. Chief Olanipekun is not a personality you see at every loud social engagement, dancing and sweating. His is a story of decency and dignity. You will like his courage and you will admire his carriage.

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          At 72, age hasn’t removed the spring in his steps. There is no mistaking that jaunty walk. He still crisscrosses the length and breadth of the country, practising what he knows how to do best. It could only have been God. In his office, and around him, everyone is held up to the highest standards of character and virtues. From his sartorial preferences to leadership styles, this living legend stands pretty tall and far away from the archetypal lot, providing selfless and service to humanity.

          Saying that he is as rich as the legendary Croesus is to affirm the obvious. Without doubt,  he is a mighty man of means. Fantastic! But that is not the point per se! The question is how has his wealth benefited the poor who are in the majority? At least, it is on record that over 80 percent of Nigerians are in multi-dimensional poverty. In fairness to Chief Olanipekun, he has done so much to alleviate poverty in the land in his own little way. For instance, he has established Wole Olanipekun Scholarship Board with which he spends a lot of money on a yearly basis to give education to the intelligent but indigent students from primary school level through secondary school and the university level.

          The Board which has been running over 25 years now has enabled so many students who would have otherwise ended up as hewers of woods to become graduates of different disciplines. I have also benefited from the scheme. Details will be revealed later. Beyond that, Chief Olanipekun has empowered so many youth to be so useful to themselves and to the society. It is also on record that wherever he finds himself, he will ensure he leaves behind an enduring legacy. Before he left as University of Ibadan Council Chairman, he built a 350 capacity lecture theatre and donated to the institution.

    At Ajayi Crowther University Oyo where he was Council Chairman, and now Chairman of Board of Trustees, he singlehandedly built Vice Chancellor’s Lodge. In his Ikere Ekiti country home, he built a modern church, hospital, court complex among others. These are just synopses of his numerous altruistic kind gestures. Chief Olanipekun is a special breed whose philanthropic profile is beyond compare!

     In recognition of his contributions to the society however, he has received numerous awards and honours. He was given Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2001, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) in 2014. These are in addition to his prestigious Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) title. Recently, Chief Olanipekun was inducted along with others including Chief Afe Babalola into Ekiti Elders Hall of Fame for their contributions to the betterment of humanity.

         As he marks his birthday today, one can only pray that God continually prolongs Chief Olanipekun’s life in peace and prosperity for the benefit of humanity. Born in Ikere Ekiti, Ekiti State on November 18, 1951,   Chief Olanipekun attended Amonye Grammar  School, Ikere Ekiti between 1965 and 1969 where he obtained the West African School Certificate (WASC). His academic brilliance informed his appointment as the Senior Prefect. He proceeded to Ilesa Grammar School in 1970 from where he obtained the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 1971.

     At Ilesha Grammar School, the young Olanipekun manifested his innate leadership qualities, thus becoming the Editor-in-Chief of the school magazine (The Spike). He was also the chairman of, Students Representative Committee in 1971. In 1972, he gained admission into the University of Lagos where he bagged the Bachelor of Law degree in 1975. As light drawing moths, Olanipekun attracted many friends and admirers with his enchanting brilliancy which led to this election as the secretary-general of, Students’ Union between 1973 and 1974.

     He attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos from 1975 and 1976 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1976. He was a junior counsel in the Messrs Oniyangi & Co Ilorin between 1977 and 1979. A happy birthday, Chief.

    Saanu (08034073427) is with Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo  on sabbatical.

    ●Email: sundaysaanu@gmail.com

  • An afternoon for Femi Olugbile

    An afternoon for Femi Olugbile

    To the cavernous bowel of the NIIA auditorium this wet and windy Wednesday afternoon for the launch of Femi Olugbile’s fictional tribute to Madam Alimotu Pelewura, an iconic avatar of Nigeria’s anti-colonial struggle and one of those amazing women regularly thrown up by Nigeria’s turbulent history. In the event, it turned out to be a literary tour de force as well as a cultural and historical moveable feast.

    The audience that came to honour Olugbile this pleasant afternoon was an A-grade list of the illustrious who have reached the pinnacle of their profession and have made some difference to their society. The chairman of the occasion was Dr Patrick Dele Cole, diplomat, top state bureaucrat and accomplished pen pusher in his own right.

    The father of the day was Alhaji Musiliu Adeola Adekunbi Smith, former Inspector General of the Police and lately Chairman of the Police Service Commission. An urbane and quintessential Lagosian gentleman, the former top cop wondered aloud as to why he should be the father of the day when there were far older people in the gathering.

      The reviewer was the irrepressible JK Randle, one of the nation’s top notch accountants and author of many fascinating books in his own right. In all likelihood, Randle will be remembered as a notable writer who also did sums.

      A royal splash was added by the Oniru, Oba Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, who has made a seamless transition from former top cop and former commissioner to the preeminent paterfamilias of his people. There were also Dr Abayomi Finnih, Fola Adeola and the boss of Emzor Pharmaceutics, Stella Okojie, a formidable matriarch in her own right who made a stirring pitch for the rights of women.

     Quiet, contemplative and self-effacing, Olugbile can also be an indignant and abrasive fellow when rubbed the wrong way. A psychiatrist at the cutting edge of his profession, Olugbile has acquired a massive reputation as one of Nigeria’s finest and most accomplished writers. It is polished writing at the very summit of the trade: finely honed and well-nuanced, with a hint of public school prim.

        Olugbile wields his pen like a surgeon’s scalpel: poised, surgical and lancing with delicate precision. It is writing meant for the aficionados and impresarios of the trade. Overtly apolitical and deliberately uncontroversial, he avoids drawing blood, as if he has seen enough of this on the operating table. The literary pugilist will search in vain for the savage putdown or the sledgehammer dismissal.

         Ever since he burst on the scene with his 1986 collection of short stories, titled Lonely Men which won the Association of Nigerian Authors’ prize for prose fiction for that year, Olugbile has not looked back, writing newspaper columns and publishing other works of fiction including Batolica and the outstanding Heroes and Others.

    Sigismund Freud, the great pioneering psychoanalyst, often worshipped Fyodor Dostoevsky, the revered Russian novelist, as his master and mentor when it came to the deep probing of the human psyche. When you add a dash of Anton Chekhov, the gifted Russian writer who was himself a trained physician to this mix, you get a hint of Olugbile’s illustrious precursors.

        The psychoanalyst can only add clinical certainty and clarity to what a creative artist with the fecundity of imagination had already glimpsed as he plumbs the deep catacombs of the human conundrum. If he tarries, the artist himself becomes mere collateral damage, a casualty of the maze. And so does the clinical psychiatrist. According to a character in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Cancer Ward, the greatest affliction that can befall a doctor is to suffer an illness in his own area of specialization.

       Perish the thought, Olugbile is far from the road to Aro. But his professional affiliations seem to confer a special terrorist status on him. It is a profoundly ironic development. In a land of the noble and upright, the psychiatrist is seen as a friendly healer, welcomed with relief by all. But in a society bristling with deviants of the highest order and at the top echelons, furtive glances are exchanged whenever the word psychiatrist is mentioned.

       Consequently, a Foucauldian chill descended on the hall last Wednesday whenever the dreaded word dropped from somebody. Setting the pace was no less a person than the chairman of the occasion who in his jokey, self-depreciating manner let it be known that he ultimately consented to chairing the occasion out of the fear of being declared “mad” if he had refused.

      Another guest, Sigismund Oludoye Fernandez, seasoned administrator and a scion of the notable Fernandez clan who was a member of the interviewing board that gave Olugbile his first job as a certified psychiatrist, also noted rather warily that he could not afford to miss the august gathering in honour of Olugbile out of the fear of being sectioned. Innocent jokes have a way of reflecting general turmoil and anxieties.

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      Gimlet-eyed, soaking up all the plaudits and the occasionally cagey commendations of his professional distinctions was the author himself, a figure of Olympian rectitude and steely forbearance. There is always something mildly unnerving about Olugbile’s calm composure and placid comportment. Like an ancient deity of his people, the author hides it all behind a wall of reticence and veiled bemusement.

      This writer must now confess that he once let Olugbile on to the case of his bosom friend who had puzzled and confounded him to no end since university days at Ife. Billionaire, philanthropist and a leading patron of the arts and prime culture, our man is also an indefatigable non-conformist from his days as a student union activist at Ife. Within a few years of graduation, he had made a dramatic transition as a leading boardroom guru where he continues to ply his devil may care, irreverent trade.

      As the chairman of a committee to present his unusual memoir to the public, yours sincerely decided to invite Olugbile to solve a psychoanalytical conundrum for posterity. In his memoir, the rebel magnate with a touch of Croesus  had described his political and business praxis as an example of positive deviance.

      Yours sincerely described it as creative neurosis so imbued with emotional intelligence and gutsy nous that it would have been impossible to stop the fellow from reaching the pinnacle of his trade, no matter the adverse circumstances. Unlike his bookworm hidebound contemporaries, our man was already seeing beyond his fellow students and teachers alike who were unable to think out of the box.

      The Civic Centre banquet hall came aglow that morning as Olugbile mounted the rostrum. Having reviewed the facts and the evidence, Olugbile concluded that what was before him was a classic case of positive psychosis. It was the hallmark of genius. The audience, including the sovereign of Ondo township, Oba Kiladejo, himself a noted medical practitioner, erupted in applause. A few days later, my friend called and insisted on meeting the remarkable psychiatrist.

        It can be said that the practice of psychiatry has helped Olugbile a lot in his literary endeavours. Deploying a technique which can be justly described as de-estrangement, the writer relentlessly chips and chisels away at the subject matter from all angles until he gets to the heart of the matter. It is literary creativity on the couch.

       This technique is very much in evidence in this remarkable fictionalized biography of an equally remarkable woman. The result is an outstanding work of art which is at the same time a historical and cultural tour de force. The Alimotu Pelewura that comes alive on these pages is a woman of uncommon grace, compassion, civility, courage and fearless patriotism.

       The reviewer, Basorun J.K Randle, takes a mild and genial umbrage at Olugbile’s unrelenting capacity to conflate history with fiction and to fictionalize actual history. In the psychiatrist’s alchemy, fiction is historicized and history is fictionalized.

        On a closer scrutiny, J.K Randle would have noticed his own illustrious grandfather, the eminent physician, explaining to the bemused Pelewura the surgical procedure for removing a particularly nasty fibroid tissue from her womb. The dialogue may be flat and flaccid but both Pelewura and Dr Randle are on the same page and in the right place, too.

       So is Femi Olugbile’s feel for native politics in the colonial period which remains unfailingly acute. The Randle progenitor was an integral part of the anticolonial turmoil which convulsed the Lagos colony for almost a century.

      Originally a Pharmacy Assistant,  the then Mr Randle was handed a severe rebuke by an European doctor for daring to raise an alarm about the humongous dosage the doctor was giving a native patient. Randle resigned his appointment over this colonial contumely and headed abroad and to Edinburgh University. He did not return until he had qualified as a medical practitioner.

        This is not a literary review. That can come later. It is the celebration of the life of an amazon, an unlettered female avatar who rose from very humble beginnings as a fishmonger to the pinnacle of power and glory. Nigeria’s colonial and postcolonial history has the knack of throwing up remarkable specimens of the female species.  It is a trend that has continued till date.

       After a particularly grueling encounter with the Ahomey invaders, the Egba warriors decided to take the corpse of one of their tormentors to their base. Upon close examination after stripping the body of charms and other escutcheons of war, they discovered that it was a woman. Thereupon the war chiefs concluded that it would amount to a mortal affront to Egba national pride to be defeated by an army of women. They rejoined the battle with greater ferocity and drove the invaders out of town.

       From Efunsetan Aniwura who was gruesomely executed on the orders of Aare Latosa, the Ibadan generalissimo, through Madam Tinubu who was expelled from Lagos to later day heroines of resistance against external and internal colonialism such as Funmilayo Ransome- Kuti, Humani Alaga, Abibat Mogaji, Madam Bisoye Tejuoso and Kudirat Abiola, the Nigerian political firmament continues to throw up these amazing amazons. This fictional recall of one of them, Alimotu Pelewura by Femi Olugbile, is a major tribute to these heroic exemplars. May their brood continue to grow.

  • Okon cooks for Dino

    Okon cooks for Dino

    As they say, man pikin be man pikin. You cannot summon the tiger to devour a badly behaved chap. No one can be completely useless, at least they can always serve as an ignoble example of ignominy. Readers will be surprised that this weathered lothario was not completely averse to Dino Melaye until he crossed certain borders of gender civility and sensitivity in the senate which showed him up as an uncouth, ill-bred lout.

    But even then, yours sincerely retains a sneaking fascination for the rogue politico from the Yoruba plains of Kogi State. On a good day, and given his tendency for histrionics and ham-acting, the totally self-absorbed but self-mismanaging politician is a good copy for social media scavengers and other hyenas of the underground press. But man must whack even after a historic drubbing.

     A day after the resounding shellacking his gubernatorial bid received in the hands of the Kogi Kaiser, Yahaya Bello, and his Amalgamated Army of Ebira Revanchists, Dino was seen in public shedding tons of tears and verbiage as usual. After collecting their pay cheques, the crowd had thinned even further.

    The poor boy seems to have a great future firmly behind him. A notable Kogi philosopher who claims to be a distant uncle of Dino from their Aiyetoro Gbede enclave once rued with usual cerebral acumen that if Dino does not harm politics, politics will harm him. That day of reckoning seems to be upon us.

      Last Wednesday, Okon, the ultimate undertaker, was sighted carrying two full cans with exaggerated caution. Having earlier declared an industrial dispute over pay matters and other emoluments, yours sincerely thought that it might well be that the mad boy had come to put finishing touches and torches to the entire household. He was followed by a drunken Baba Lekki who was chanting war songs and ancient ditties from Odolaiye Aremu brimming with sly innuendoes and subversive animosities.

    “Okon what is that you are carrying?” yours sincerely demanded rather fearfully.

       “ Ha oga, na tears from dem yeye Dino boy. Him cry sotey he come fill four cans”, the mad boy retorted with sadistic relish. “I tell you dem crazy boy sabi cry well well and him com dey sound like dem trailer wey him engine come knock as he dey climb Miliki Hill for Enugu”.

     “So what do you want to do with Dino’s tears?” one asked the mad boy mightily relieved.

      “ Ha oga, I wan use am cook amala for dem poor boy”, the mad boy retorted.

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    “ Okon dat one no be amala again oo, na dat one dem dey call amulumala”, Baba Lekki snorted as he burst into a deranged fit of convulsive laughter which reminded one of asthmatic baboons in the jungle.

     “Baba wetin be amulumulu again? You don come with your Yoruba jibiti again?” Okon crowed.

    “Ha!! Omo were!! Na dat one dem dey call omipojoka or water pass yam flour. Wetin kukuruku small boy like you sabi?” Baba Lekki crowed as he began singing and dancing to a classic tune from the unforgettable Odolaiye Aremu.

      Ti won bape e wa gberu awon

      B’eru o bati danu

    Afi b’eleru o safira

    Tio safira ooo

    Afi b’eleru o safira.

    The ancient crook was quite a sight to behold as he cantered forward and capered sideway like a possessed votary of some ancient deity. The mad boy cut short his celebration.

     “Baba as dem thing dey sweet you pass anything, make you no forget say dem use one stone finish two birds for Kogi. As dem finish Dino, dem don finish him people oo. He sweet me say Yoruba people no fit see power for dem place again lai lai”, the crazy boy sneered.

      “Kai, kai Okon na dem IBB and dem Daura man cause dat one. Thunder fire all of them”, the old man screamed and vanished into the shadow leaving Okon to carry his cans of tears.

  • Money can’t buy me love

    Money can’t buy me love

    It is often said these days that what goes round, comes around. A few Sundays ago, the series of articles about money began with the title of a song which was made popular on a global scale and because many things go round, it is appropriate to at least complete the circle with another song about money which again the Beatles turned into a monster hit. After saying Money – that’s what I want, they turned round to dismiss the very idea of money by saying that Money can’t buy me love. It is pertinent to point out that like the other song, this song also came out of Tamla Motown and is not a Beatles original. Anyway, for all our love of money, we are reminded that after all said  and done, money cannot buy love. That saying is open to contention but whichever way you stand in the matter, it has to be said that money cannot take you all the way all the time. Another musical icon who had something weighty to say about money was the evergreen Bob Marley who on his deathbed declared with great authority that money cannot buy life. He certainly knew what he was talking about because if money could buy his life, he certainly had enough of it to buy just one life, his own.

    There are many, especially those who have very little money of their own who confidently declare that money cannot buy happiness and since in the final analysis what we all want is happiness, then the limit of money can never be regarded as being far enough to justify all the effort that people make to lay hands on a large store of money. An appropriate riposte to the argument about money and happiness is that money can buy you a lot of things that can make you happy. At the very least, it can make it possible for you to make other people deliriously happy by giving them enough money to make it possible for some of their wishes to come true. From personal experience, I know that my generousity index goes up in tandem with the amount of money in my pockets. Ask me for any amount, however small of money at the wrong time of the month and I am likely to react as if I have been stung by a particularly unfriendly insect in the category of a wasp. On the other hand, when I can hear the jingling of money in my pockets, I am likely to part with some of it with a tight little smile on my lips. Ladies married to impecunious Nigerian professors such as I have been for far too long will nod their collective head in agreement with the point I have made here. I am of the opinion that money can buy you love, happiness and many other things beside. Try persuading a geriatric multimillionaire of the truth of this statement and you will be barking up the wrong tree. You may think that the young supermodel with a figure to die for hanging on his ancient arm is just an item of decoration but the small army of doctors at his beck and call may, but for patient -doctor confidentiality consideration, disabuse your mind of that error. There really is no end to what money can buy under the right set of circumstances. That is why it is true to say, money, that’s what I want as the Beatles most famously affirmed in that song.

    It is often said that money is the root of all evil and there are so many examples of the veracity of this statement that it is not worth arguing over. This is why the men who built their fortunes in what has now been described as the Gilded Age in the USA will, for all time be referred to as robber barons, ruthless early capitalists who accumulated stupendous wealth through the brutal exploitation of prevailing circumstances and their fellow men. In an age when money in individual pockets was as scarce as hen’s teeth, these men appropriated to themselves more millions of dollars than they could be reasonably expected to spend in a million life times. The men who made up this caste were a small handful and were represented in popular folk lore by Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt. They built up huge fortunes which are still being enlarged more than a century after they died. Ironically, they all gave away so much of their fortunes to charitable causes that they are now known more for the charitable foundations which bear their names than for their rapaciousness as business men. For all their charity however, they still epitomise the Yoruba assertion to the effect that great wealth is built on a foundation of filth. The validity of this assertion is so strong that you can assume that the extravagant wealth being displayed by your neighbour is camouflage for a shameful secret or indeed a catalogue of shameful deeds for which penance should be done.

    It has to be said however that some people just have a talent or a penchant for making money. Indeed, everything they touch turns to gold in the manner of the mythical King Midas who was so far captivated by the beauty of gold that he could not get enough of this precious metal. In his desperation for more and more gold, he prayed for the power to turn everything he touched into gold. To his great delight, his wish was granted and he was transported into his own version of heaven when he discovered that he could turn anything to gold with a touch. He enjoyed himself immensely until the time came for him to eat and the food placed in front of him turned into gold as soon as he touched it and instantly became inedible. Just as the seriousness of his condition dawned on him his daughter whom he loved even more than gold came into his golden presence but as soon as he returned her hug, she was instantly turned into a gold statue! His previous elation was instantly wiped away and he prayed that his power be revoked so that he could eat and have his precious daughter back. This may be the reason why the robber barons strongly felt the need to make restitution for the way and manner by which they acquired their enormous wealth and were impelled to give most of it away. It is in keeping true to type that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the richest men in the world today have declared their resolve to give most of their wealth to charity. After all, there is only so much that an individual, however profligate can consume in one lifetime however long it is. In the end, when confronted with their impending mortality, hardly anyone will depart the world with the thoughts of their wealth on their mind. The rest is vanity, as empty as the vacuum into which they are being sucked and where they are forgotten distressingly sooner rather than later.

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    When the colonialists arrived in Africa to take over their respective inheritance from the infamous Berlin conference, they were dismayed to find a rudimentary currency system. This was not to their liking as their primary mission was to exploit their colonies maximally and without a currency with which to run their economy, their intentions were likely to be thwarted. It was therefore imperative that those cowries and manilas with which the colonised people carried on their trade be phased out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the colonial coins which were to replace local currency were in very short supply. Indeed, those foreign coins circulated only within restricted government circles which meant that only those who dealt directly colonial institutions had any real money. Such people; court officials, teachers, railway workers, clerks and other minor actors were paid in the new coins and were instantly elevated far above the common herd who had  to navigate somehow, the mine field of colonial officialdom. These people formed the nascent elite class, playing both sides against the middle and making off with as much of the money available as they could without landing in jail. These formed the first members of the elite class which has expanded relentlessly to include the multitude that have, in present circumstances, become so disillusioned by their dwindling share of what is sharable in Nigeria that they are packing their bags and going off in continuous search for coins to places where they perceive the grass to be greener. On the same scale, the underclass, those who do not have two coins to rub together, are having to deal with the shortage of everything that make lives tolerable. In other words, our so called economy is in tatters and countless lives are being rubbished by a shortage of funds. Surely, a little more money will expand their happiness index to the level of the inflow of money into their pockets.

    With money in such short supply and inflation, rampant inflation for that matter making a mockery of whatever sum is in your pocket, people are concerned more than ever to grab unto themselves more than their fair share of the money available. Just as it was at the dawn of the colonial age. It is now a case of the end justifying the means. Many of the fortunes, if not the overwhelming majority were created by corruption, so much so that this is the fuel which powers the engine that runs this country. Virtually everyone, especially those operating within the public domain are corrupt but the private system is not far behind. Think of any group of Nigerians including those in the so called liberal professions and you will find that corruption rules. Each one is corrupt to the limit of their opportunity to loot the public treasury. Funds which are meant for societal development are simply looted and in some cases buried in a convenient soak-away  pit, now instantly converted into a bank vault. Were just half of such monies to be retrieved from wherever they are concealed, our economy would rise from the ashes. After all, the sum of $12 billion has been known to simply disappear from government account  in those heydays of the first Gulf War. Were such a sum of money to be injected into our economy today, the precipitous slide in the value of the Naira would not only be halted but reversed promptly.

    Not too long ago, ladies in certain parts of the country had to mount guard on their laundry spread out to dry. This was because their underwear had suddenly become a target for thieves who had somehow come to the bizarre conclusion that it was possible to use lacy underwear to create money. The craze of stealing freshly laundered underwear has quietly faded away as suddenly as it cropped up and young ladies can now go back to the days when their underwear were not a target for the attention of petty thieves.

    On the other hand, there is the far more serious matter of stealing and killing people in the unfathomable belief that body parts can be made to conjure up money, lots of currency notes to convert yesterday’s pauper into a fabulously wealthy person today. Now, that is a depth of nastiness to which no member of a modern society should stoop to. But unfortunately, this is a reality with which we have to grapple a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century. It is a grisly reality which is fatal to far too many young ladies. In other parts of the world, people are killed to provide body parts; kidneys, lungs, livers and eyes to be transplanted into ailing but rich people who need these parts, no questions asked. Here, people are simply butchered, some choice parts especially breasts and genitalia removed and the rest of the body buried in the proverbial shallow graves which are now being discovered with distressing frequency all over the place. People are now having to take stern precaution to prevent grave robbers from digging up their recently dead relatives so that their organs would not be harvested and somehow  be converted into currency notes. These truly alarming beliefs and practices stem from ignorance of the dynamics of money and unfortunately, the practitioners of these evil practices would not have availed themselves of the opportunity of reading these articles on money, to disabuse their evil, little minds of the error of their ways.

  • All sleeping and facing in one direction

    NLC & TUC

    When Emefiele confiscated Naira and hunger and death swept across the land, these AJAERO SIAMESE TWINS were not in Nigeria.

    They were in WONDERLAND” – a trending WhatsApp snapshot.

    Many Igbo friends of mine often think I am denigrating them (never, denigrate a whole over – achieving race, both here at home in Nigeria and Diasporan?), when I say that Igbos literally all sleep and face in one direction.

    On the contrary, I say that, when I do, to  show admiration for how mostly ‘ad idem’, they always are, on matters concerning Igbo interest, regardless of where in Igbo land they hail from.

    Witness, for instance, the near unanimity that  IPOB’S ‘Sit At Home on Mondays’ enjoys as a potent instrument in the Biafran actualisation effort, and

    compare it with the near total disdain Yorubas extended to a chivalrous Sunday Igboho whose dream of a brand new Oduduwa Republic they tossed in the winds, even when they knew the yeoman’s sacrifices, blood and tears, he invested in his Yoruba Nation  effort; almost losing his dear life in the process.

    That is a major difference between the two principal ethnic groups, South of River Niger, and it  reflects, to a considerable extent,  the politics of both.

    While in the  Southwest you would find elders, even an Acting Leader of the region’s leading Socio- Cultural Organisation, literally setting fire to the group he putatively leads, while celebrating to high heavens, and endorsing everything belonging to the other almost diametrically opposed ethnic group, whereas, you will hardly ever find any persons of  substance behave in that manner, amongst those he genuflects to.

    It is beyond shameful.

    Many have argued, though,  that this is majorly the case because of the fear that one may, willy nilly, prematurely answer his maker’s call, if he/ she foolishly goes outside groupthink.

    The result is that you hardly ever find, among the Yoruba, the near unanimity you quite easily see among Igbos.

    To be able to freely choose like the Yoruba, for example, you will either have to decide to damn the consequences of your action,  or be made in the mould of a David Umahi, a Hope Uzodinma, or perhaps, an Uzor Orji Kalu. That, they say, is the only way you can  freely make your personal political choices, without having a lingering fear of some brutal consequences. Many Igbo will deny this, anyway.

    But it is so obvious.

    The absence of  these negative consequences accounts for why, there is a lot of freedom of choice, or  seeming non unanimity on issues, among the Yoruba. Neither ethnic nor religious consideration constrains  Yorubas in their choice of who to marry, what political party to join, or vote for, or the name to give  their child.

    None of these is simple among the Igbo if you do not wish to be hauled before the ancestors, or worse..

    The Igbo cultural/ political practice is that powerful and universal and feared or respected.

    For the same factors, some things enjoy near unanimous support in the East which should ordinarily have been better examined if people enjoy freedom of choice.

    A good example is Peter Obi and the Igbo wholesale support for the  Labour party which saw the party cleaning the votes in favour of Obi in the Presidential election int all the Southeast states.

    You would think that the people have forgotten Obi’s years as Anambra state governor –

    a time in Anambra state when non- Anambrarian Igbos were deprived of their jobs and sent home,  when Anglicans, and non Catholic Christians were literally declared persona non grata and treated harshly, only a little less than Hausa traders who were ex- communicated from Anambra and banished to Delta state; so traumatised His Majesty,  Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, had to come all the way to Anambra state to plead with the plenipotentiary on behalf of the Northerners but without success.

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    But even if the people had remembered all these before the votes were cast on February 25, it would still have been dangerous to vote any party other than Labour; at least, not if you do not want your head hanged in the market place.

    While that was about partisan politics, almost the same groupthink has just happened in the Ajaero fiasco.

    NLC President, Joe Ajaero believing he had to take off their anti – Tinubu war from where  the judiciary left it,   decided to, coyly, rail road the NLC & the TUC, into the war some Igbo Intellectuals, home and abroad, have already commenced on behalf of Peter Obi.

    It is another phase they intend to engage in till 2027, that is, if they cannot subordinate extra – democratic forces to their side to effect a change of government earlier.

    Their media acolytes are, of course, not yet tired as Sam Amadi showed on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Thursday, 16 November, waxing much more lyrical than their unionist counterparts, calling  Senator Adam Oshiomhole, the indomitable Union leader and ‘Professor of trade unionism’ where the Ajaero’s of this world are floor members, names.

    He even had the effrontery to suggest that Oshiomhole should apologise to Ajaero.

    Infradig!

    Regarding this part of the article, I crave the indulgence of my readers to press into service, the versatile Ajibola Omole(author “Newsgrid

    Uyo Political Series) in what he titled ‘Ajaero And His Activities’.

    He wrote:

    “Tinubu cannot be paternalistic to Ajaero like Buhari, who

    paternalistically allowed Nnamdi Kanu to rage, and rant, instigating disaffection  against certain sections of the country as well as individuals, and causing incalculable destruction to his own peóple, apart from setting up a parallel security outfit before he was picked up in Kenya.

    Tinubu’s government, perhaps for reasons of being new, is intolerably  developing a leadership weakness while Ajaero is fast becoming a national security risk.

    It is time security agencies look into his activities which are a threat  against the state.

    His take over of  the Abuja international airport should be seen as a direct threat to state security for which he should be made to face the consequences.

    The man is no longer into labour activities but active partisan politics, with a clear intent to overwhelm the country and instigate a change of government.

     Security agencies must now invite Ajaero and his co – conspirators before it is too late, as obtaining court injuctions each time he threatens the country,  is obviously  not the solution. He has to be shown that there is only one elected national government, and source of power in Nigeria.

  • Decline of the Sunshine State

    Decline of the Sunshine State

    • By Olu Ayela

    Barrister Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is a household name. He is debonair, outspoken, and candid. At the Nigerian Bar Association where he was chairman, he was known for his incisive analyses, erudition and agility. When it came to discussing human rights, his place was on the front row. These clouts, no doubt, recommended him to the good people of Ondo State, the Sunshine State of Nigeria, when he canvassed for votes to be elected governor. The campaign was flawless, and when the election came, he was victorious. But little did the politically enlightened people of the state know that it was a pyrrhic victory and that they had shot themselves in the foot!

    For all who may care, Ondo State is blessed with both human and natural resources and should be one of the richest states in the country, if properly managed. Alas, mismanagement, avarice and calculated attempts to subjugate the people and the truth have turned a once growing state, and one of the privileged oil producing states in the country, into a Siberia, a state of extreme difficulties and lamentation, one in which civil servants are not sure of their wages at the end of the month. Thanks to Ogbeni Akeredolu and his cabal who, by their actions and inactions are destroying the state.

    Ondo State currently illustrates the potential risk philosophers predicted would befall a state if allowed to function without direction. It is a dictum that where there are no laws, there would be no sin. Philosophers had centuries ago foreseen that a state without a rudder would fall into anarchy. The laws of the land are there to guide those at the helm of affairs. Today, Ondo State presents an evidence of what those philosophers claimed.

    In fairness, only God is immune to sickness. Akeredolu, like all mortals, had fallen ill. He was in Germany for months, and during the period handed over to the deputy governor as dictated by the 1999 Constitution (as amended). But since he returned, the state has been without any one in particular governing it, yet he is one of the nation’s legal luminaries. Just when the Constitution would have vetoed that the deputy governor takes over the reins, Akeredolu was brought back to Nigeria, and bundled to Ibadan.

    No one has seen him near Ondo State since then. Surprisingly, his wife Betty Anyanwu Akeredolu and his son, and some selfish politicians have formed themselves into a cabal ruling the state. They are even eager to cite the case of Turayi Yar’Adua and Buhari as instances. Many appointees of Akeredolu have lost their sense of reasoning and do not see anything wrong in what is happening in the state.

    Imagine 31 of his appointees passing a vote of confidence in him, a man they have not seen at Government House, Akure, since his return from Germany; a man who has not called or presided over any Executive Council meeting since his return?. They say in a statement on November 17, 2023;

    “We unanimously declare our unflinching trust in Mr Governor and endorse his impactful leadership. As a united front, we remain steadfast in our support for Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON, and pledge to continue working collarboratively towards the advancement and prosperity of the state. We express our gratitude to Mr Governor for his selfless service and courageous leadership.”

    Its gratifiying that one of his commissioners disagreed with them. Mr Akinwumi Sowore, his commissioner for commerce, industry and cooperatives, faulted his colleagues’ claim

    “I don’t have any issue with the governor, and he is our governor in the state. Infact, they don’t allow the man to rest. There has been no exco meeting, the governor is far away in Ibadan and the deputy is embattled far away in Abuja. So, nobody to chair the executive council meeting in the state. Even if am around, I will not have signed because I’m supposed to tell them what they are supposed to do. No exco meeting had been held, except during the period the deputy governor was acting governor. But since the governor had resumed duty on 7th September, no exco meeting has been held.” Sowore said.

    The lawlessness going on in Ondo State is contrary to the social contract the citizens signed with Akeredolu. For a truth, Akeredolu is to blame for his shenanigans. When he was hauled back into the country without being  fit to perform his constitutional function as governor, as a learned gentleman, the right thing to do was to hand over to his deputy, but he refused. Truly, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. But the heat is now on him. The price of hanging on to power at the detriment of the people is higher than he ever thought. Whether he or his cabal likes it, as long as the state economy, infrastructure and security are not at acceptable level, Akeredolu’s surrogate cannot claim to be winning the peace, and of course, like Macbeth, they have murdered sleep.

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    Let it be emphasized here, that the battle for the right thing to be done in Ondo State is far beyond that of the deputy governor who has been castrated and treated like a leper when it comes to appurtenances of office by non-elective surrogates. It should also be recognized by all that the illegal occupation of the governor’s office by this so-called cabal is a threat to the survival of the state indigenes. The heavy groanings in the state about the absurdity are welcome but the indigenes should do more than lament. There is need for affirmative action; incidentally, history is on the side of the people. If you fold your arms and refuse to take a responsible course of action, those who had vowed to run Ondo State to the ground would continue in the subjugation of the state wide sovereign.

    It is no longer news that when you see a façade of governor’s entourage anywhere in the state be sure it is either Akeredolu’s wife or son racing about in state apparati, sucking it to the people, “we have come to suck you dry.” It was a bitter experience the other day, when the entourage swept past and we all thought the governor was back and raced after him, only to discover it was the governor’s son and his friends inspecting projects in the state capital. You begin to wonder how a young man with lively imagination and with a very short attention span can be regarded as possessing the qualities expected of a brilliant academic or law guru. The bravado and other schemes are just like using antibiotics to fight common cold; the people no doubt, will just be more resistant rather than being sympathetic.

    Go to any part of Ondo State now, what you see all are people who are downcast and people whose suffering is clearly visible in their faces. Their strange stares seem to ask why they were been so silly-beaten just for the error of voting the wrong person into the seat of power. A rhetorical question only Akeredolu and his cohorts could answer. More than ever, the misery sweeping through the state is unimaginable. The masses of the people are hitting their heads against pillars of corrupt politicians and posts erected by shameless state cows milking the poor citizens.

    The utter chaos Akeredolu’s wife and her cabal have turned Ondo State into is highly unbecoming. The question to ask is what is the role of the governor’s wife in the scheme of things in a peaceful state? What power has the governor’s wife to wrestle all the apparati of office from a sitting deputy governor? These anomalies  are only possible in Ondo State.

    What did the Constitution say about the office of the deputy governor and that of the wife of the governor and in the absence of a governor up to five months, how should power transit from him to the next line of authority? These are questions begging for answers in Ondo State.

    Unfortunately, the Ondo State House of Assembly seems to have sold its soul to the highest bidder. All sorts of stories are flying about with regards to what has handicapped the assembly from doing the right thing. Their job is very simple, if not blinded by poisonous gifts. Is there any clause arrogating the passage of governorship power to the wife or son of Ondo State governor, otherwise, who is benefitting from the current absence of power structure?

    It is high time All Progressive Congress leaders intervened to restore order and good governance. The constitution is the nation’s supreme law and most be obeyed. Enough of political bravado and rascality. Ondo people have suffered enough and in the words of Milton Obote’s opus, Cry My Beloved Ondo State for your agonies have reached the high heavens.

    In this regard, the advice of a group, Ondo State Patriots, based in Lagos which is aghast with the goings-on in the state is timely and should be heeded. President of the group, Chief Samuel Olanrenwaju who is a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, has warned that the state must not be allowed to slide into anarchy as a result of the small mindedness of certain individuals. He urged the state assembly to thread the path of common sense, by installing immediately the Deputy Governor, to continue to act pending the time the governor would be fit to resume duties in Akure.  

    ●Olu Ayela, Veteran Journalist, based in Lagos

  • To Jackson Ude and co: Let Bala Mohammed breathe!

    To Jackson Ude and co: Let Bala Mohammed breathe!

    • By Kola Oyerinde

    In a recent Facebook post which appears to have been deleted, social media influencer Jackson Ude described the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) as “a failed assemblage of crooks, betrayers, opportunists and elements with no conscience”. In his words, “the party as presently constituted is a disgrace. It has failed to provide a vibrant opposition, it has failed to be a political party in tune with today’s realities”.

    Not yet done, the self-appointed watchdog hurled undeserved expletives at the Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed who also doubles as Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. Ude attributed his umbrage to a photograph showing Governor Bala Mohammed with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu performing a religious rite.

    Aware that Ude provides media support to some high profile members of the PDP, his comment does not come as a surprise. What is surprising, to put it mildly, is his bellicose and scurrilous disposition that are neither supported by facts, commonsense nor logic. And he should not be allowed to escape with his bare-faced obscurantism, especially when he feigns ignorance of the genesis of the PDP crisis. If one may ask, where was Jackson Ude who had served as a special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan, when, in 2013, the PDP was sent into its present tailspin by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who had led a rebellion against the sitting President Jonathan?

    Where was he when some desperate over-indulgent disgruntled PDP stalwarts led a renegade faction of the party under the banner of the n-PDP and, with some opposition elements, coalesced into the All People Progressive Congress (APC) to chase Jonathan out of power in 2015? If Ude is concerned about a weak PDP, let him tell the world if the party has recovered from that betrayal by characters whose impatience, deep sense of entitlement and obduracy explain what he now sees as the sorry state of the opposition in Nigeria today.

    What about 2023 when, against all entreaties to respect Nigeria’s plurality, the same group of people, ignoring the well thought-out power rotation principle of the party, hijacked both the PDP party machinery and the presidential ticket, thereby condemning the party to the dilemma of going into the presidential elections with a divided house? Has Ude forgotten so soon how, playing God, some PDP stalwarts, rather than toe the path of reconciliation and inclusiveness, arrogantly disclaimed and dismissed voices of reason within the party as nonentities who were incapable of stopping what they considered to be their imminent victory?

    If the PDP has indeed degenerated to the nadir characterized by Ude, those are the people to hold responsible, not Bala Mohammed or any other person. Before pontificating on the presumed speck in other people’s eyes, Ude and his co-travellers should first dislodge the gargantuan logs in their jaundiced political eyes.

    Ude probably belongs to the school of thought that sees political opponents as enemies; that subscribes to the characterization of politics as a zero-sum game where the winner takes all, in fact, a war where the actors remain at daggers drawn, where there can only be victors and vanquished. To such people, compromise, conciliation and collaboration are alien constructs that should be securely quarantined like a virus. That is pretty unfortunate to say the least.

    Irrespective of party or personal differences, we are bound to respect the fact that every argument about the presidential election ended with the Supreme Court decision affirming President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner. It does not matter whether we agree with the verdict or not. And within the context of inter-governmental relations, what anyone feels about President Bola Tinubu as a person is not important. It is within that context that Bala Mohammed’s involvement should be seen and understood, as respect for the rule of law and good governance.

    Besides, history should be our guide lest we make the mistakes of the past. Refusing to relate with President Bola Tinubu who is the sovereign authority is tantamount to an unintelligent throwback to the less than noble posture of some governors in the Second Republic who threw caution to the wind by denigrating the person of President Shehu Shagari.

    Some of us were witnesses to how some governors who, except for matters that were constitutionally binding, blatantly refused to co-operate with the easy-going Shagari on any issue. Indigenes of some states had to pay heavily for such unbridled partisanship when it became their lot to finance huge projects that the Shagari administration was ready to provide.

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    Is Jackson Ude recommending a relapse to that ignominious era? Or is he, with his co-travellers, surreptitiously agitating a derailment of this republic through unremitting crisis; akin to pulling down the roof of the house if one cannot get into the master bedroom?

    Rather than the bitter opposition that Ude and his paymasters prescribe, the country would gain more from constructive engagement by all stakeholders. Has Jackson Ude not heard that it is the grass that suffers when two elephants fight?

    Neither is Bala Mohammed stupid, nor is he one given to grandstanding. Years of exposure as a top civil servant, a Senator and a minister of the Federal Republic have equipped him with the political savvy to appreciate the dynamics of intergovernmental relations, the nuances that enable a Governor to leverage mutual collaboration with the presidency for the achievement of the legacy goals that have earned his administration deserved accolades and peer group compliments. There is no doubt that the Saudi trip is one of such engagements. If that to Ude is treachery, then anything would qualify to be so described.

    If associating with a President from another political party passes for treachery, obviously, Jackson Ude would either have been ensconced somewhere in outer space or perhaps in a state of incurable blankness when Atiku Abubakar, even while angling to succeed APC’s Buhari on the platform of the PDP, was conspicuously present and actively participated at the wedding of Buhari’s son in 2021. Did Ude not see photographs of the Waziri as he grinned from ear to ear at the event, despite the economy already being on its way to its now parlous state? If Ude did not see anything wrong with our highly revered Waziri indulging in that personal gratification with his opponents, it is curious that he would consider an official investment trip that promises to benefit the people of Bauchi State and by extension Nigeria, as a betrayal. At any rate, neither Ude nor any other person can choose friends or enemies for Bala Mohammed.

    It is instructive yet regrettable to note that in the aftermath of the 2023 presidential elections, several futile attempts have been made by some mischievous desperados to tar Bala Mohammed with the brush of a traitor. To their eternal disappointment, all such attempts will continue to crumble. Bala Mohammed has no regrets whatsoever being an unrepentant federalist, a consummate nationalist and a genuine patriot whose every political step is dictated by the loftiest nationalist considerations.

    Alluding to this, last month, at the closing of the retreat for top public officers and civil servants in Bauchi State, the Emir of Katagum recalled the controversies that trailed the much quoted Doctrine of Necessity, spearheaded by Bala Mohammed in the Senate in 2010, to clear the impediments that had tended to obstruct Jonathan’s ascendancy to the presidency. The emir who was a federal permanent secretary at the time, recalled how a prominent permanent secretary of northern extraction came to him in the middle of the night to ask if that “boy”, referring to Bala Mohammed, knew what he was doing; if he was not aware that his move was against the interest of the north.

    Such was the groundswell of opposition that greeted Bala Mohammed’s principled insistence on upholding the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is the essential Bala Mohammed who, at 65, can only calcify into a more unbreakable nationalist always holding the banner of inclusion aloft as the irreducible mantra of his political engagement, now or in the future.

    Had the Senate ably led by David Mark capitulated to the seething parochialism of the era and not endorsed the patriotic Bala Mohammed-inspired Doctrine of Necessity motion, chances are that the Niger Delta region would have seen the denial of Jonathan as a justification for throwing the country into a daunting security and economic nightmare.

    As Nigeria stands on the threshold of another major dilemma today, Jackson Ude and his ilk, nay his pay masters, should shed the political glaucoma that is beclouding their accurate reading of the Nigerian political landscape; it is incumbent on them to see Nigeria beyond their insatiable quest for power, what many now consider as their irritating sense of entitlement. It is not just about allowing Bala Mohammed to breathe.

    Back to the PDP. If those now shedding crocodile tears and pointing accusing fingers at everyone except themselves are sincere to themselves, they need no prodding to admit that had they listened to the voices of people like Bala Mohammed, chances are that they would have avoided the present state of regret and spared the nation, the spiral of serial political convulsions that has turned the country into a revolving nightmare.

    There is still a window of redemption: that window is squarely in the hands of President Tinubu. I expect the President to make inclusiveness, magnanimity, national as against particularistic hegemony, and the entrenchment of good governance in all facets of national life, the guiding principles of his administration.

    The magnanimity that Tinubu is already demonstrating, must be complemented by deepening democracy, rebuilding confidence in Government among the youth and giving every stakeholder group, particularly the minorities, a genuine sense of belonging.

    To succeed in these, President Tinubu needs the support of all those who profess genuine love for Nigeria, not the misguided and unjustified vendetta against the Governor of Bauchi State. Please, Jackson Ude and his co-travellers should let Bala Mohammed breathe!

  • Ogun: Abiodun’s renewed developmental agenda

    Ogun: Abiodun’s renewed developmental agenda

    • By Femi Ogbonnikan

    Little by little, Ogun State is soaring higher towards attainment of the second phase of the developmental agenda of the new administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun. It hasn’t been an easy cruising through, due to the limitation of the national and global economic challenges of the past four years. By and large, the state has remained afloat. In those turbulent times of the Covid-19 pandemic and its existential threat, every effort of government to reach the loft height of its objective of building a prosperous economy for the good of all had been punctuated by one crisis or the other. But the administration was never deterred. With courage, determination, and focused leadership, the state was able to wade through the vicissitudes of the time.

    Without a doubt, much still needs to be done. And in any case, development is forever a work in progress. But it goes without saying that the Abiodun has raised the threshold of good governance.

    To whom much is given, they say, much is expected”. Having overcome the past few months of distraction that followed the outcome of the last general elections, the Governor is now poised to deliver on its electoral promises. In this second term, there is a brighter hope on the horizon. With all the indices of the socio-economic development present in the state, one can say without any equivocation that the feat the administration has achieved is not by sudden flight. Rather, it is due to the forthright attitude of the man leading the charge, his dogged determination, and infinite forbearance even in the face of obvious distractions and other extraneous circumstances. All through human history, no development effort has ever recorded any reasonable level of success without some hiccups. It’s the ability to surmount those challenges and forge ahead with eagle eyes on the vision for a better tomorrow that leads to sustainable development.

    All of these have been factored into Abiodun’s working document as encapsulated in the ISEYA mantra of his administration. This is not to take it for granted, however, that the journey of the next four years will be absolutely hitch-free. Certainly, not. There will be hiccups that may come from either the known or the unknown circumstances. First, it is important to note that those who have constituted themselves as a clog in the wheel of progress are not going to relax in their efforts to cause one form of distraction or the other. But they are not powerful enough to pull back the hands of the clock. Secondly, the nation’s economy still remains largely challenged by the new regime of subsidy removal and high food inflation. Like the past experience, Governor Abiodun has assured on several occasions that no effort would be spared to mitigate the negative impact of it on the citizenry and development effort of the administration.   

    While recently regaling his audience with the policy direction of his new administration in a recent media interview, he further reiterated his commitment to the sustenance of the trajectory of economic growth through aggressive pursuit of infrastructure development, implementation of an integrated transportation master plan as well as industrial investment and improvement in agricultural value chains, among others.   

    This is in line with his aspiration to make Ogun State an investment destination as the centre-piece of his policy thrust. During the interview, he made it abundantly clear that he would consolidate on the foundation of success the government had achieved in its efforts to lead the state to the Eldorado. To achieve this, he promised to harness to the fullest the advantage of the geographical location of the State, its proximity to Lagos as well as its land size to nurture his vision to transform the economy into a leading industrial hub in the West Africa subregion.  

    In his narrative of the journey of the last four years, he had this to say: “Ogun State, without doubt, has become an investment destination of choice. And being the only neighbour Lagos State has, we are what I would describe as New Jersey of Nigeria. What New Jersey is to New York is what Ogun State is to Lagos State. So, we represent the overflow of Lagos. Ogun State is 16,000 Square kilometres in size. We are about four times the size of Lagos State. That in itself represents our comparative advantage over other states.

    “As an administration, when assumed office and looked at the combination of the geographical location, power, and land size, we said these should form our vision. That vision is the reason we focus on creating an enabling environment for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) because we believe it is fundamental to the economic growth of the state and the individual prosperity of our people.

    “We are leveraging our geographical location, and access to natural gas that we have to now see how we can create a further enabling environment for people to work and live in Ogun State. We decided that it was extremely important in whatever we do to take advantage of its proximity to Lagos to enjoy its full potential”.

    To ease the movement of people to and from Lagos and also stimulate the transport sector as a catalyst for industrial transformation, he disclosed that over 400 kilometres of highways had been constructed by the administration. Not surprisingly, a sizeable population of Ogun State residents now finds it convenient to work in Lagos, as it takes less than an hour to transit between the two states. “To date, in Ogun State, we have constructed over 400 kilometres of highways. We prioritise the highways that connect us with neighbouring states, particularly Lagos. Today, four years and a few months into our tenure, you can travel between Lagos and Ogun State in less than an hour. Before we assumed office, it would take you probably two or three hours or even more. So, more people are now coming to Ogun State to live, to work and to hold conferences, to play because we are easily accessible,” Governor Abiodun enthused. 

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    All this has been complemented by a transportation master plan focusing on an inherent connection between roads and rail, on the one hand, and air transport on the other hand. That is the vision that has culminated in the building of a world-class International Agro-Cargo Airport located somewhere in Ikenne Local Government between Ilishan and Iperu. Although the state government had secured the licence for the airport in 2006, it was the present administration that finally resolved the impasse arising from the contention about the choice of the location between his two predecessors. Though capital intensive, the Airport was built in a recording-breaking short period of two years, making it the fastest to be constructed ever in the history of this country. It recorded the first historic flight landing sometime last year. According to projections, all things being equal, it will commence full commercial operation before the end of this year. 

    “One exciting thing about it is the unique features that give it a competitive edge over others. Apart from the dual advantage of its access to two major highways-Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Sagamu-Benin Expressway, it is also co-located in the special Agro-Processing zone. The idea behind the initiative is to create an enabler for easy evacuation of fresh agro-produce”.

    As the Governor already hinted,  some investors had already indicated interest in setting up vegetable farms in the special agro-processing zone and airlifting fresh vegetables on a daily basis.

    “Similarly, when finally completed, the ongoing industrial zone will create between 30,000 and 50,000 new jobs with multiplier effects on the state economy and the country at large. As a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the state government and private companies, the industrial zone has already been chosen as an economic hub with partnerships in different parts of the sub-region, Ivory Coast, Garbon, Togo, Benin Republic, and so on.

    “Therefore, the importance of the airport to the overall turnaround of the fortune of the state’s economy cannot be over-emphasized. According to statistics, Ogun State currently houses over 5,000 industries. Today, the state has the largest cement factories in Nigeria, producing the highest tons of cement. These include Lafarge, Dangote as well as others that are just springing up.

    “Other than cement factories, the state is also the home of industrial giants like Nestle, Cadbury, Unilever, May & Baker, International Breweries, Olams, Flour Mills, and a host of others.  

    “By the time the Cargo Airport commences full commercial operation, manufacturers will no longer need to go to the already congested ports in Lagos any more to export their containers when the airport commences full commercial operation”, said the Governor.

    That is the vision that drives the commitment of the Abiodun administration to build a world-class airport with the best standard facilities. At present, the Airport has the longest runway in Nigeria. It has the best-constructed terminals and apron in Nigeria. Precisely, the apron is 84,000 Square meters which is four or five times larger than the largest Cargo Airport in Nigeria.

    Governor Abiodun, in his brief outline of the vision of his new administration, stated thus:  “We must find a way of allowing our manufacturers who are exporting to be able to export their containers efficiently. We would be constructing our dry port and when the port is constructed which would be in Kajola, it means that, if you are shipping goods from anywhere in the world to Ogun State, you don’t need to go to Lagos anymore. You will ship in your goods and you will see “FOB Kajola Dry Port”.

    “The whole idea of co-locating the Airport in a special Agro-Processing zone is that all the entire value chains of agro-produce would be occurring in the zone where raw materials are coming from in different plantations that we have in Ogun State, be it cassava, cashew, oil palm, rubber, cotton, and so many others.

    “Our Apron is 84,000 Square meters which is four or five times larger than the largest Cargo Airport in Nigeria. These cargo-based companies have now decided that, once the Airport is ready they will now be flying their cargoes that are destined for Nigeria to that Airport.

    “Today, we have received unsolicited offers from those who are serious about taking over the Airport on concession. We are talking to them. We are still excited about the level of interest that we have seen. That’s why we built this Airport to a world-class standard.

    “We must find a way of allowing our manufacturers who will be exporting to export their containers efficiently. We would be constructing our dry port and when the port is constructed it would be in Kajola. It means that, if you are shipping goods from anywhere in the world to Ogun State, you don’t need to them to Lagos anymore. You will ship in your goods and you will see FOB Kajola Dry Port.

    “There will be no need for inefficiencies that are associated with trucks going in and out of Lagos ports and the congestion itself that has been associated with that in the past is no more. These are some of the things that reforms, policies, programmes that this administration has implemented to support the over 5,000 industries that have come to make Ogun State their home. By so doing, we would be fully implementing our vision which is to create an enabling environment for more people to come here to live, work, to play which in turn translates into individual prosperity of our people,” the governor stressed.

    ●Ogbonnikan writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State

  • Nathan Tella: Alonso Crucial To My Transfer

    Nathan Tella: Alonso Crucial To My Transfer

    Like his new Bundesliga club, Bayer Leverkusen, Nigeria latest invite Nathan Tella wouldn’t have wished for a better start of the season than what he has experienced within weeks of putting pen to paper for Bayer 04.

    Becoming the second Nigerian to join the Werkself this season, after hotshot Victor Boniface signed up at the beginning of the 2023/24 term, Tella has hit the ground running.

    LIKE BAYER 04, LIKE TELLA

    Bayer 04 beat Union Berlin 4-0 last Sunday to claim their 16th win out of 17 competitive fixtures in 2023/24 and defend top spot in the Bundesliga by equalling Bayern Munich’s record start after 11 games of 31 from a possible 33 points.

    Leverkusen ran away with a resounding 4-0 victory with Alejandro Grimaldo, Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Tah and Nathan Tella getting on the scoresheet at the BayArena.

    Head coach Xabi Alonso made five changes to his team from Thursday’s UEFA Europa League victory away at Qarabag. Lukas Hradecky, Kossounou, Jeremie Frimpong, Exequiel Palacios and Jonas Hofmann came back in, with Matej Kovar, Josip Stanisic, Tella, Robert Andrich and Amine Adli dropping to the bench.

    On a run of 11 straight wins in all competitions, Leverkusen started with confidence and their usual dominant possession play. Union sat back in their own half to form a defensive wall. The first chances came after around 10 minutes when Victor Boniface missed the target from a Florian Wirtz delivery. Moments later, a poor Frederik Ronnow clearance went straight to Boniface, who tried to slip in Wirtz, but he had his path to goal blocked. Tah then met a corner unmarked at the far post but saw his header cleared by Paul Jaeckel.

    A moment of magic from Grimaldo gave the Werkself a deserved lead, with Wirtz pressing to win back the ball before the Spaniard, who has just been called up for the national team for the first time, fired into the far top corner on his left foot for his sixth goal of the season.

    Two more goals from Kossounou, who headed in a Hofmann corner on 57 minutes for his first-ever Bundesliga goal, and the third also came from a corner. This time it was Grimaldo’s delivery, which Tah acrobatically finished with just over a quarter of an hour to go.

    Leverkusen weren’t done there, though, as substitutes Tella and Adli finished off a counter moments after coming on thanks to a thumping effort under the crossbar from the summer signing, who marked his maiden senior Nigeria call-up with his first Bundesliga goal. It rounded off the Werkself’s 10th win in 11 Bundesliga outings this season as they equalled the best start in history, set by a Bayern team featuring Alonso under Pep Guardiola in 2015/16.

    TELLA’S FIRST GOAL

    Tella had a lot to celebrate after receiving his first Nigeria call-up in the two-headed World Cup qualifying matches.

    “Adli was quick to pick me out and scoring my first Bundesliga goal feels great. I’m happy that we are playing fine and I’m here to keep up the tempo.”

    BEST ATMOSPHERE I’VE EVER EXPERIENCED

    That Tella has settled in nicely is to put it mildly. The winger said he has been enjoying himself since he made his debut for Leverkusen in front of the fans. 

    For Tella it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment – and he was soon sure he wanted to make the most of it: In spite of the many changes on and off the pitch bound up with his move to Bayer 04, the 24 year-old opted to sign for Bayer 04 in August. And with full conviction as the winger, brought through the youth ranks at Arsenal, explained.

    “The daily routine in Germany was and is obviously a change for me as I’d lived in England for the whole of my life up to the summer. And I was always very happy there. Whether that was in London, Southampton or Burnley. But I just had to take up the option of signing for Bayer 04. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me. This club has a great history and is almost always in Europe. I wanted to come here from the moment I first heard Leverkusen were interested in me.

    “I started watching the team play from the first point of contact – Marseille, West Ham, Ottensen. I closely analysed my possible positions and the style of play. After my medical I went back to the hotel and watched the game against Mönchengladbach – (3-0). It felt great to know that I would soon be part of this team.

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    “The atmosphere for my debut against Darmstadt (5-1 home win) was the loudest and best I’d ever experienced as a player. I asked my teammates after the game if it was always like that. They just said to me it can be even louder and more crazy at our stadium. (He laughs) It was incredible how many fans supported us in the last game away at Mainz. They sang from the first to the last minute, jumped up and down and spurred us on – it was like having an extra player and they gave us a crucial boost.

    XABI ALONSO

    Tella added that Bayer 04 head coach Xabi Alonso also played a crucial role in his making up his mind to transfer to Bayer 04.

    “Of course, Xabi played an important role in my decision to move to Leverkusen. He is the coach at the end of the day. Xabi loves details and always prepares us as best as possible. That helps a lot. So we all know what we have to do if you are in the starting line-up or on the bench. For me it’s important that every coach remembers working with me and can say something positive about me and my development.”

    GRANIT XHAKA

    The former Arsenal player said reuniting with former captain Granit Xhaka is also helping him.

    “When he (Xhaka) left Arsenal in the summer it really upset me as a fan of the club. He was incredibly important to the team. Then suddenly playing alongside him four weeks later – crazy! That was a fast emotional change for me. (He laughs) He really helped me a lot from my first day and told me all about the team and the players. His approach and that of the other lads made it easy for me to quickly feel at home in this new environment and I haven’t regretted taking this big step.”

    PROFILE

    Tella, who wears the number 19 shirt for the Werkself, left England for the first time for his move under the Bayer Cross. The young forward grew up in Stevenage, a town 43 kilometres north of London. He moved to the UK capital when he had the opportunity to play in the Arsenal youth system. Tella progressed through all the youth teams at the Gunners from 2007. The 1.73 metre tall winger then joined the youth set-up at Southampton in 2017.

    TOP-FLIGHT DEBUT

    Tella later moved up to the first team squad at the Saints and he soon made his debut in the Premier League. He came on as a substitute against Norwich City in the 2019/20 season on 19 June 2020. The then 19-year-old had his first taste of top-flight football in England – his first minutes proved to be successful as Southampton won the away game 3-0.

    Tella made 18 league appearances the following season and 14 in the campaign after that. The versatile wizard on the wing then moved on to gain more time on the pitch in 2022/23 in a season-long loan to Burnley, relegated from the Premier League the previous season, in the EFL Championship, the second tier in English football. A stroke of fortune for the Clarets as it turned out. Burnley, with Tella, went straight back up as second division champions and the attacking all-rounder made a significant contribution with his 22 goal involvements in 39 league games. His impressive performances earned him a place in the EFL Championship Team of the Season.

    MOVE TO LEVERKUSEN

    Burnley were promoted back to the Premier League for the 2023/24 season – but without Tella. The 24-year-old returned to Southampton in the summer at the end of his loan with the club now relegated from England’s top flight. Tella played three league games for the Saints this season, scoring once and providing one assist, that is before he answered the call of the Bundesliga and Bayer 04.

    He can now look forward to once again playing in the top-flight at Leverkusen.

  • Emir Of Kano’s love for Dambe

    Emir Of Kano’s love for Dambe

    • As House Arewa wins Ado Bayero Championship

    The Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero has revealed his love and affection for the cultural boxing sport Dambe as House Arewa emerged winner of the inaugural Emir Ado Bayero Dambe Championship Cup after two days of thrilling competition at Dorayi Palace in Kano.

    Dambe is a martial art of the Hausa people from Nigeria. Competitors in a typical match aim to subdue each other into total submission mostly within three rounds.

    He said: “The Emir’s Cup is a celebration of our cultural roots. As the cultural custodian of Kano, I have long been a supporter of Dambe, and I would like to see the sport continue to reach new heights. We are proud to support the African Warriors Fighting Championship and the Legacy of Traditions in promoting our customs globally.

    Organised by the African Warriors Fighting Championship (AWFC), the event was held as part of the Legacy of Traditions, a yearlong festival showcasing Kano culture with the Kano Emirate Council.

    Sixteen athletes from Dambe House Arewa, Kudawa, and Gurumada competed in eight bouts, while House Arewa triumphed in six out of eight bouts and secured the Emir’s Cup, which was presented to House Arewa by His Royal Highness, The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero.

    Among the winners of the bouts are Dan Daba (Arewa), Liele (Kudu), Musa Shagon Ebola (Kudu),  VS Sha Aike (Gurumada), Dan Yellow (Arewa), Dan Messi (Arewa), Autan Dan Bunza, (Arewa), and Garkuwar Bahagon Yasanda (Arewa).

    The event attracted over 5000 live attendees while tens of thousands watched via live streaming on AWFC, ARTV, and Legacy of Traditions social media pages.

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    According to Maxwell Kalu, Founder of African Warriors Fighting Championship, “The Emir’s Cup was a huge spectacle highlighting the unifying power of sport as people from across Kano rallied to support their favourite fighters and houses. This is just the beginning, and we are already excited to deliver the next edition of the Emir’s Cup.”

    Meanwhile, the much-anticipated Superfight 01 of the Dambe Warriors League (DWL) will be taking place at the Kano Pillars Stadium in Nigeria on November 26. The thrilling event, conducted with the support of the Kano State Government, is expected to draw the largest crowd in Dambe history with an anticipated 15,000 spectators.

    The event features an N3 million prize purse for the champions, the largest in Dambe history. DWL SuperFight 01 will feature seven electrifying fights, promising an action-packed evening for all attendees.

    Super Fight 01 battles will include a promotion fight lightweight between Alaye – House Kudu and Yar Mage – House Kudu; a promotion fight middleweight between Shagon Agantsare – House Gurumada and Shaaban – House Kudu; a promotion fight heavyweight between Shagon Audun Tunga – House Gurumada and Dogon Sani – House Jamus.