Author: The Nation

Chief Umeh Kalu, SAN, is the Head of Chambers, Seasons Law Firm. For 10 years, he held sway as the Abia State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, becoming the longest serving state attorney general in the South East and South South.  In this interview with OKORIE UGURU, he talks about his years of advocacy for the rights of tenants in Lagos and his experience in public service as a political appointee, among other issues.

 

YOU functioned for 10 years as Abia State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice. How did you manage to stay that long in the office?

I first of all must state that there was no time I actually planned to go into public office as an appointee. But right from time, I have always had the opportunity to offer service even as a student in the university, because I was involved in student union politics. And when I left school, I had a desire to serve through elective positions. I made one or two attempts to get into such positions.

I actually wanted to go to the National Assembly. I had no idea that I would be appointed as an Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice. It only came in the course of my involvement in party politics. I was appointed in 2009, and I must tell you too that when I went into that office, I did not know that I would stay that long. From the first day I got into the office, I was preparing for my exit.

Was there any reason for that?

Well, you see, when you are appointed, it is something you can never be sure of. You are there at the mercy of whoever appointed you. I am sure you know the person would be the governor. If he wakes up one day and his mood is not good and he decides to do away with his cabinet, you are out of job. So, from day one, I had that at the back of my mind and I was prepared. Surprisingly, in the course of my service, several dissolutions were made and most times, I would be asked to remain, not even reappointed.

It happened like that about two or three times. The governor would dissolve the EXCO and there would be an announcement that I should remain in office. So, that was how it went for year one, two, three, four, and we kept counting until…

At a stage, it seemed you were the longest serving attorney general in Nigeria…

Well, I don’t know about Nigeria, maybe South East and South South. Far there in the North, I know there are some of my friends who spent more than 10 years in office. I know I have a colleague in Yobe State who would have spent almost the same number of years. I also know there was one in Kogi State. But in the South East and South South, most of them spent one or two years. There is a high turnover of Attorneys-General; some within six months of coming into office. To an extent, it was a record that I spent a decade of my life in that seat.

 What was your experience in that office?

It was a golden opportunity for me to actually get to know the politics of my state, get to feel the pulse of my people, get to be in the executive council where decisions are taken, get to know how politicians actually formulate their policies, how they are executed, their mindset and all that. To a great extent, I must say I was satisfied with some and also disappointed with others, because until you get involved, you would not know the intricacies behind most of the things that happen around you.

It equally afforded me the opportunity to see the level of incompetence in our system, even in our civil service. You know I was in charge of a ministry for 10 good years. I interacted with the civil servants. I got to know that most of them can hardly perform their duties. In totality, the experience was enriching. I now have a wealth of experience about the way things work, especially in public service; the way government runs. Most times, decisions are not taken objectively. There are so many underlining factors and issues.

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You know I came from the private sector. I was a lawyer in Lagos, practising. In a place like Lagos, I had to be up by 5 am. If you are going to court, you are off from your residence by 6am. You have to be in court by 8:30 am because the court sits at 9am. Then you come to the public service and by 10 am, most of the offices would still be under lock and key. So, you can see there is a huge difference from your office as a lawyer, because as the head of the chamber, at the end of the month, you must pick the bills. So, you have to be on your feet.

But back there in public service, people are just there because at the end of the month, there is no yardstick to measure performance and all that, but you will get paid.

So, to that extent, people just move as if there is nothing at stake. I have tasted both worlds, if I must put it that way. I said it is enriching because I am now better placed to face even my private practice. If I have the opportunity of going into public service again, I will be better placed. I have a wealth of experience.

Professionally you have got to the apex of your career as a private practice lawyer. Did you set out to achieve this milestone?

Every professional, I’m sure, would always aspire to get to the peak of his profession. But I know most people would not get to the peak. I started practice in Lagos, and if you know how Lagos is, you can hardly find lazy lawyers there, especially in our days. I started practice in 1986. I was a struggling lawyer and I did my bit. There were models we aspired to emulate, who were in practice. I was in Lagos while the late Chief Rotimi Williams was in practice. I was there when the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi was all over the place. There were quite a number of lawyers like he late Chief G.O.K. Ajayi and others. They were all Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN). We would meet them in court, watch them advocate, and to that extent, you would want to be like them. So, I had it at the back of my mind that with God on my side, I would get to the apex of the profession, which is being conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Let me say that my foray into public service was equally of tremendous assistance to me. You see, if you get to the level of being the attorney general of a state, you are the chief law officer of that state. It exposes you to a lot of cases, the contacts you make and all that. Those cases are equally the things that would add up to you. So, if you look at those who are SAN, most of them were at one time or the other attorneys general of their states. By the time you count about 50 SANs, you would be surprised that about 30 of them were at one time or the other attorneys general of their states. This is because of the exposure you get in that office. So, my being the attorney general of Abia State for 10 good years gave me that leap. If I were in practice, who knows what would have happened. I might not have been able to meet the criteria, because there are yardsticks. You do not just wake up and get that conferment.

I know that in the early years of your career as a lawyer, you floated an NGO that fought for indigent tenants in Lagos. What made you to found the NGO?

Well, the NGO is not active now. As I speak, we have not been able to revive it. That is one of the prices I had to pay for going into a larger public office. The body was my idea. I founded it between 1988 and 1989 as a young lawyer. That was shortly after I was called to the bar in 1968. I had joined the firm of Chike Okoro and Co, who was my principal then. That gave me the opportunity of going to court to do matters for the firm. I discovered that the courts, most times, were overflowing with landlords/tenants cases. Most times, the tenants had nobody to defend them because they had no money. I saw a lot of injustice being meted to them, because the landlord would always have a lawyer.

Most times, it was what we called summary trial. They would ask the landlord how many months notice he wanted to give the tenant to move out of the house. He would say one month. Most times, they would ask the tenant and he would say he had no choice other than whatever the landlord wanted. Most of them ended up being given six weeks to vacate the premises. They had kids who were in school. I’m sure you would agree with me that they did that because they were entirely at the mercy of the landlord, and most times, the magistrate adjudicating would also be a landlord. So, they were equally sympathetic to the course of the landlord. I saw it as a helpless situation for the tenants in Lagos and it touched me.

So, I said we could not leave things the way they were. I called one or two friends and suggested that we should float a body that would give some succour to poor tenants; at least let us render free legal services to them. One of them, David, said it was a good idea. We had a meeting and my office was the secretariat, and we started. We printed handbills and started distributing, asking tenants who had cases to come to us to get free legal services. It was well received by the public. We were trail blazers in that field of advocacy. I can tell you that it was quite a great assistance to indigent tenants. Some of them who had their roof tops removed by wicked landlords had the rooftops restored. We also halted some of what they called Jankara practices then. It was quite another uplifting moment for me that we were able to provide succour to people.

What was the response of the government to your advocacy?

The government listened. I remember the Federal Attorney General then, Clement Akpamgbo of blessed memory, gave us audience on the plight of tenants. We met with the authorities in Lagos State and that led to the amendments that they made to the rent edict. You remember the amendment of 1997 and the one preceding it. They were all as a result of efforts made by my body, the TSO. We were household names in Lagos then. People came to us and government listened to us. We were able to draw the attention of the government to the plight of tenants. I am even happy with what is happening in Lagos, because they have made some provisions since then. I know in Lagos you don’t charge more than a year’s rent. Our efforts were not in vain. For several years, I did it, up till the time I left for Abia State.

I am thinking about which other way I can render service now that I am back to practice. It is still one of the things I want to do. But for now, I am still thinking of the level and the model it would come. It may not just be landlords/tenants; it could be some other forms of assistance to people who need legal services.

How did your childhood prepare you for the current position of political leadership and legal advocacy?

I was not born with a silver spoon. Neither did I come from very poor parents. I had a father who was a business man but was struggling. I come from Ohafia. We have that fighting spirit of trying to be the best anywhere we find ourselves. I have always had that at the back of my mind, and as a growing child, I was in Aba, if you know what Aba was then. If you grew up in Aba, one would expect you to be more business inclined than education. No. If you grew up in Aba, one thing you get is street sense, and having that street sense gives us advantage in whatever field of human endeavour we find ourselves. If you are in football, you would be among the best.

I knew I had no muscles as a young man, and I knew the only way to go was school. I had quite some encouragement from my parents who were not educated but knew the value of education.

They assisted and encouraged me.  So, to a great extent, I had that fighting spirit and motivating factor. Most importantly, however, I always have the fear of God. I am a very religious person, and I relate with God in my own way. I do my prayers and put my faith in Him, and He has never disappointed me.

At what point did you decide that you were going to be lawyer?

When we were living in Aba, at a place called Ogbor Hill, there was this fair complexioned lawyer who lived behind us. I used to see him every day get dressed in his good suit. He was married to a white lady. I have forgotten his name, but I used to admire him. I also had a grandfather, my maternal grandfather. I drew some inspiration from him too because he was a warrant chief. Being a warrant chief, he was in charge of settling cases and all that. He had a title, Okpealabali, meaning the man who atones and gets back late. He was a great traditional jurist and related comfortably with the white men as a warrant chief. He was renowned and very knowledgeable. I grew up under his tutelage at a point and I took after him. People who knew him would tell you. That is why I took that title from Ohafia.

So, when I saw that lawyer, I said this is actually the way to go. Nobody talked me into becoming a lawyer. It just came naturally. I decided to read Law and God has been faithful.

What are the key virtues that you think guided your way to the top of your career?

One thing I must tell you is that I have always had good people around me in form of tutelage. When I started the job as a national youth corps member, I had a law firm, a very busy one too but not very flamboyant. Also my commitment to whatever I am doing. If you know people who know me, they will tell you that I am committed to whatever I make up my mind to do. I put in my best. I don’t get tired. I want to be the best of whatever I do. I equally try to be steadfast and honest in my dealings with people. If I tell you I am going to do something, I will do it.

When you go along that line with hard work, you are prepared to put in hours to do a job and you are committed to it; you are sincere to the clients that you meet; all the clients I have dealt with in my young age as a lawyer, if you meet them, they will tell you, most of them are still my clients. We have been there for more than 30 years. They have been faithful. Now that I am back to private practice, most of them are returning their files and all that.

In fact, as I was coming into this office, I got a call from somebody I did a matter for about 27 years ago. More importantly, on top all this is God’s faithfulness. Once He waters your path, you find things going smoothly. That does not mean I have had a smooth sail or there have never been difficulties. But each time there has been trying moments, I have always overcome.

What moments of your life would you describe as some of the most difficult?

I had turbulent periods in the course of my service in Abia State. That was the most turbulent. I don’t know if I want to make these things public for now, but they will be contained in my memoir. I am coming out with a memoir. Ten years in an establishment is not 10 days. A lot of things happened to me as a person. I saw intrigues. I saw blackmail. You can see the wickedness of man in most of the things that happened. Most times you are blackmailed. Most times you are misunderstood. There were times you had to go out of your way to defend things that ordinarily you would not have been in a position to defend.

There were expectations from people. Maybe as a commissioner, people think you have the whole world in your hands; that you can perform magic. Expectations were high. Everybody who is there would want something from you—pay the school fees of their kids because you are an appointee. Some may not even know the constraints that you have. People come to you to get their son or daughter an employment, and all that. They would not know that as a commissioner, you don’t have the power. Friends would ask you for contracts when you don’t have the power to award contracts.

Sometimes then, when I lay in my bed, I asked myself, how did I get involved in all this? Most times, you cannot explain it. You know I was doing my practice in Lagos and I was quite successful even within the limits of what we were doing then. I had peace of mind. But when you are in politics, every other day is one problem or the other, and they are unending. Most times, you have bosses who may not feel satisfied even when you are doing your best. So, those were actually challenging moments, and I was actually happy when it came to an end temporarily, because for now, I am on sabbatical. What the future holds, I don’t know. But for now, I have relative peace. I am not at anybody’s beck and call. Nobody is after me; I mean political opponents. This is because when you are in politics, you even inherit the opponents of your principal. Even things that you are not privy to, they would say it is you. This happens more when you’ve been on that seat for so long a period like I did.

What informs your mode of dressing? I know the average Ohafia man likes traditional attires. Does that apply to you?

It does. In fact, if I were not a lawyer, nobody would see me in suit and tie. For me, I like comfort. I feel comfortable in my traditional wears, especially the type I am wearing now. It is a form of identity, and it is simple Igbo attire. It is only when I am going for official engagements that I put on suit and tie. For me, I must tell you, our weather is not suitable for suit and tie. But I am a lawyer and there is no running away from it.

How did you meet your wife?

We met in school. She is a lawyer. We actually got into the university the same year. But she had to change her course from English to law, so she lost one year. She was called to the bar in 1987 while I was called in 1986.

What are some of the qualities you admire in her?

Well, she gives me peace at home. I tell every man there is nothing like having a peaceful home. You go back to your place and sleep. There is nothing to compare to that. A man without peace in his home is like one who is in hell. She understands me and we’ve come a long way. We have known for more than 40 years. Those who schooled with us knew from day one.

Do you have children following in your footsteps?

Yes, I have two sons. One is already a qualified lawyer. He has been called to the bar. The second one is in his final year in law too. It might interest you to know too that I am a grandfather. I have two grandsons from my daughter.

When the Federal Government recently issued an executive order preventing the supply of petroleum products to filling stations located less than 20 kilometres away from Nigeria’s borders with neighbouring countries, not a few people hailed the move as a master stroke in the effort to check the smuggling of fuel across the nation’s international borders. It is, however, not music in the ears of the residents of Nigerian communities located on the border lines, as most of them have to travel longer than the stipulated distance to buy even five litres of petrol to power their generators. To make matters worse, they are often arrested by security agencies on their way back home for smuggling petrol. The Council Chairman of Badagry Local Government Area, Hon. Olusegun Onilude, spoke with VINCENT AKANMODE about the ordeal of border communities’ dwellers in his local government.

 

YOU have been the chairman of Badagry Local Government Area for two years. How will you describe the experience so far?

Well, it is a grassroots experience. It is an experience that teaches one how best to deal with people and resources. So it is a worthwhile experience, though it is hectic because it is not easy pleasing human beings. Anybody who wants to put his endurance and acumen to test should go for local government chairmanship.

Is that you opted for politics at the grassroots while many of your contemporaries are vying for positions at state and federal levels?

I have always been a grassroots man. I was Education Secretary for Badagry Local Government. By virtue of that position, a lot of people came around and I saw their plights. I was very close to the people at the helm of affairs then. I saw what they were doing and I was convinced within myself that I could add value to Badagry.

Initially, my thought was about the legislative arm, and that prompted me to come out in 2011 for House of Representatives. But I was not successful. I asked myself, would I be able to touch many people’s lives as a legislator? Yes, in the area of enacting laws that will have a binding effect on everyone, but the direct touch would not be there. As a local government chairman, every day, you receive nothing less than 50 to 100 people. They come and tell you their problems. You try to solve the ones you think are solvable. But it is a daily thing; the problem you solved yesterday is not the one you will solve today. That challenge was what made me to believe that I had something I could contribute. Your people could be your greatest asset if you know how to engage them.

Badagry happens to be one of the local government areas that host communities at Nigeria’s borders with Benin Republic. Is that an advantage or a challenge?

Living on the border with Benin Republic is supposed to be an advantage for us, because it ought to be an opportunity to dualise our relationships. You relate with the people on this side and have the opportunity to mix freely with the people on the other side. But that fortune is turning into a very big challenge for our people, especially with the happenings around us now. The closure of the border has become a problem that is better imagined than experienced. Badagry is known for fish and coconut. Our people who are involved in legitimate trade, like those selling coconut, we cannot consume everything they produce. We also cannot convert everything into coconut oil, so we have to sell some of them. But in the process of taking them to the potential buyers, Customs men seize their wares, claiming that they are smuggled products, because they also have coconut in Benin Republic and Ghana. I was with the controller of Seme-Krake border the other time and one of the things he was asking me was to bring our coconut and the one from Ghana to show his the differences between them. It is funny. What I know is that coconut is coconut. I am not a legal person, but I know that instead of allowing an innocent man to suffer, it is better to let go the culprit. That is my understanding of the spirit of the law. But for one to assume that this one must be imported and because of that you deprive the legitimate traders of their rights, it is too bad.

Besides that, there is this new executive order that disallows supply of fuel to filling stations located less than 20 kilometres away from the border. Even this morning, some of our fishermen were complaining that they cannot even buy fuel in jerry cans for their engine boats. So they are finding it pretty difficult to even fuel their boats. They have said they will come to my office on Monday to discuss the matter. So I have to go back again to the customs, the police, the army and others and tell them that though the laws are there, we don’t have any other place to live. We can’t say because the federal government has issued an executive order we will ask all our men and women to vacate their natural abodes and start living in Lagos. This is our home; we don’t have any other place.

So living in the border communities has become a very big challenge. We are not finding it easy. Even to light your home now is a problem. How else can we buy fuel than in a jerry can? If they limit the quantity that can be bought, that would have been better. But it is outright cancellation. So, how do I power my generator in a country where we don’t have regular supply of electricity? It calls for concern. My own take on it is that the federal government should have paid more attention to their men at the borders. They should not have allowed all these smuggled things in. All the illegal routes taken by smugglers, they should send their men there to police them instead of subjecting our people to blanket suffering. Indeed, we are suffering in Badagry. We are really suffering.

In other words, your people are the ones suffering dysentery for the excess sugar consumed by smugglers and dubious law enforcement agents…

Exactly! It is the effect of the activities of smugglers that is biting hard on us. I personally appreciate the measures taken to curb smuggling. At least that will help us to look inwards and make us producers on our own. But the legitimate traders should not suffer. If you see somebody carrying imported rice and you take it, nobody will complain. If you see them bringing in frozen chicken or turkey, seize it, nobody will talk. But to say we should not buy ordinary 10 litres of fuel to power own generator, it amounts to imposing hardship on us. To say my parents who are coconut sellers should not sell their produce, how do they want me and my other siblings to survive?

Attention should be directed at the security agencies at the borders to do their jobs the way they should do them. That should curb excesses. If they see me carrying a keg of fuel and I want to cross the border with it, they should seize it. But to buy five or ten-litre fuel within my locality you arrest me that I’m breaching a policy, I’m afraid it is not the best.

Is the closure of the land borders with Benin Republic also affecting your people?

Yes. The border town is a market on its own. If you go there at peak hours when things were booming, you would see people coming in, buying and selling. We are not like Ekiti State where there are lots of professors. We are not Zamfara where there are gold deposits. We are not from the Niger Delta where we can do oil bunkering and illegally refine fuel. These are our people and those are the people we trade with. I think what the federal government should do is to sort of liberalise it and find a way the government itself can benefit from the legal businesses rather than say there should not be any form of business, because literally, that is what it translates to. That is where some of our people live and they don’t know any other place. Some of them at the border have not even been to Badagry town before, not to talk of Agbara or Lagos. So what will fetch them a living if the government says they cannot trade?

Look at somebody who sells ordinary sachet water. For it to sell, he needs power to make it cold. If he cannot get fuel to do that, I wonder. I will not be surprised if soon they start arresting people for carrying imported fish. If coconut can become contraband, then we are getting to that point. A customs officer will call me to come and show the difference between the Tilapia of Badagry and that of the Republic of Benin even when it is the same water that stretches across the two countries. The funny thing is that the people don’t know the difference between the tiers of government. As far as they are concerned, government is government. So when they see some of us in political positions, they say we hope you see the punishment you are giving us? Is this how you want to pay us back for voting for you?

For somebody who lives around Gbaji and Owode to come to Badagry just to buy five litres of fuel. There are fishermen there who come to Badagry to but 20 litres of petrol to power their boats. Then policemen will see them on the road and arrest them. Everybody from Seme or Owode would not have access to fuel until they come to Badagry town to buy. And when they buy and are returning home, they are arrested.

What will you regard as your biggest challenges as Badagry Local Government chairman?

Badagry Local Government being one of the foremost local governments and an indigenous local government for that matter, we are one of the biggest if not the biggest in the state. It is the only local government with 10 wards. Most local governments in Lagos are with four, five or six wards. I think the one that is closest to us is nine. But when you look at the allocation of funds, it does not favour us. Our own infrastructure, being an old local government, is not something to write home about. Most of our infrastructure has decayed.

What we need most is funds. The formula for allocation does not favour us. The population and the utilities we have around, those are the things they use in allocating funds. Maybe aside Ikorodu, we are one of the poorest paid local governments. But look at our landscape from Seme to Owode and Agbara. You can pick four, five or six other local government areas from it. Even the size of Alimosho I’m sure is not as big as Badagry, although they have the population. But in terms of land mass, I don’t think they can match us. The implication of this is that we have a lot of areas to cover. The focus should be decongesting the urban for the seemingly rural.

For some of my counterparts, the problem is what they would spend the money on, because most of their structures are relatively new and they don’t even have space to develop again, so, they only do maintenance. But ours here, we have a lot of space to grow and expand but we don’t have the resources. So my appeal is whether it can be done in such a way that certain concessions would be given to the rural to decongest the urban.

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On Wednesday, I was going for a meeting and I left Badagry around 11 am. I had linked that Oshodi-Iyana Ipaja-Sango Expressway by 1.30 pm but I couldn’t get to Gen Adeyinka Adebayo Avenue, a distance that should not take up to 20 minutes, until around 7 pm. That is the problem we have with the urban areas. I saw a Daily Times edition of 1978 where they reported that traffic in Lagos had defied solution. This is 2019 but we are still on it. So, something fundamental needs to be done, and in my opinion, the concentration of development, of social amenities, the development of roads and infrastructure is lopsided. So, inadvertently, we are the one creating it. So, if they can start disinvesting in cosmopolitan Lagos for a seemingly rural Epe, inner Ikorodu and Badagry, there may be an end to the problem.

Alternatively, the rail should become functional. The light rail, if they had done it during the time of Jakande, maybe we would not be where we are now. The other day I wanted to see one of my leaders at Ajegunle. I started considering the traffic. I chose to go through the lagoon, and in one hour five minutes I was there. By the time I called my driver who drove the car, he said, ‘Oga, are you not going again?’ I told him I had returned and he was shocked. So, government should do more in the area of water transportation. The state government is trying to do something in this regard. But they should do more regulation.

What would you say you have achieved as the chairman of Badagry Local Government?

Of course, we have done a lot. We have built schools. We’ve done LA Primary School Keta West at Gberefu. We’ve done LA Primary School Iyaafin. We are in the process of fixing LA Primary School Ajido. We are making desks and benches for the pupils. We bought GCE forms for indigent students. I feel very happy when some of them call me or text their results to me. There was a man that did not even go to secondary school but he was studying at home. He studied up to the level he was supposed to sit for GCE but he could not afford the forms. We bought him the form, and when the result came, he made seven credits, including English and Mathematics. We trained them, organizing extramural classes for them. We also organize Spelling Bee and other programmes for the students. We do exercise books for them too.

On roads, we did a road of about 800 metres at the Ajara-Sunny Ajose and other adjoining roads. The streets were lighted too with a generator to power the light. We did Agakanme Road in Badagry town. Presently, the Agric-Salu Road, we are fixing the drainages. In the area of health, we always participate in all the federal government immunization programmes. On our own, we have organised many eye screening, sugar and BP tests and we give them the medicines. We do this quarterly. Aside that, we are renovating our health centres. Presently, what we call the flagship at Ajara is undergoing renovation. We are equally putting a touch to Etopo Health Centre.

We organise sporting activities like football for the youth. One is currently going on. On general infrastructure, we are trying to put our international motor park in proper shape. That place was built by Hon. Kiki of blessed memory when he was the local government chairman between 1991 and 1993.  The condition had become highly deplorable. We have almost finished it. In the area of markets, we have transformed Ikoga Market. It was an ancient market whose structures had become moribund. It is now a modern market. At the Badagry Roundabout, the structure built by Hon. Kiki is aged, so we are rebuilding it. We are about starting a road in Ikoga too to ease transportation. Presently, we have a customary court in Badagry. It is an ancient building, so we demolished the structure that was weak and almost falling. Although some people wonder why we would demolish such a historical structure, my own position is that even the Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem we visit, the structures are not the ones left behind by Jesus Christ and Mohammed, yet people are still going there. The city hall in Lagos is no longer in its original shape. We need to develop.

By the grace of God, next year, the Badagry Town Hall too will get a face lift, but the current shape will be retained so that the people that come after us know that this is how it has always looked. In the area of empowerment, we do it almost regularly. And there are categories. For somebody who cannot even feed at all, if you give him or her N5000, it is a lot of money. If you go to the market, you would see somebody who came to sell cocoyam but the worth of the whole cocoyam may not be up to N1,000. Somebody who sells pure water will be very happy with a thousand naira or two. Some of them don’t even have money to buy, so they are given the pure water to sell and bring back the money after taking their commission. For such category of people, we package food items and put N5,000 on it. That N5,000, to them, it is a big thing. So, when some people ask what N5000 can do in the life of a person, it depends on the level the person is. If he or she is at the bottom rock, it could mean a lot.  Somebody who wants to sell pure water, two bags is okay for him to begin with. Why we attach food to it is that we don’t want that person to spend the money on food.

We also look at the people in businesses and assist them accordingly. We give sewing machines to those who are tailors, for instance. We give hairdressers hairdressing equipment. We give out pepper grinding machines and give refrigerators to those who are selling fish, and so on. Those who are into farming, we give them fertilizer, sprayers, seedlings and some other things.

In the next level, we want to look at the poorest of the poor within the community. There is a man I call my friend. He told me that since he was born, he has never slept on a mattress. He said his roof is leaking and his mat is wet. To that person, if you give fridge or pepper grinding machine, he could sell it to meet his immediate needs. So, we have set up a committee to identify people like that so that we give them funds. Or in the case of someone like that my friend, we look into fixing his house, getting him a mattress and little fund for him to move on. We want to look into giving people we know are into petty businesses about N100,000 or N200,000 so that they can boost their trades.

It has become a regular thing to send our staff on training even abroad, probably because I am coming from the field education. We take training very seriously. Our political office holders and management staff, we have bought official vehicles for all of them to ease movement. We even plan to have a school bus for pupils. Maybe because I am a teacher, I feel bad when I see school pupils around 9 am still looking for okada (commercial motorcycle) to take them to school. It means the pupil has already missed the first two periods. We want to ease their movements by getting a bus next year to convey them to and fro.