The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Ensuring inclusive education for blind students

    Everybody deserves to have education, but for the visually-impaired, access to education is a daunting task, reports IJEOMA OLORUNFEMI

     

    Mr. and Mrs. Mansur Ibrahim live in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. They gave birth to their child in the city, but did not know he was visually impaired.

    After some months, they observed that they could not connect expressions between them and the baby. They thought the development could be one of the early challenges among the newborns.

    After two years, they sought help from a medical specialist, whose diagnosis showed that their son was visually impaired.

    The specialist recommended medications to restore the baby’s sight which the couple agreed and the medications began immediately.

    But inspite of the medications, the condition never changed and they had to live with the pain of having a blind first child.

    “We have to start looking for an elementary school where his condition would be accepted and found one school for blind and physically challenged children in the FCT,” Ibrahim said.

    The child, Ishaku, who is now 24 years old, is a 300-Level student of Political Science at the University of Abuja.

    Ishaku said: “Being the first child of my parents, I was born blind and it took more than two years and six months for my mother to discover the condition.

    “My mother took me to St. Mary Specialist Hospital, Zuba in the FCT, where we met a German doctor.

    “The doctor tried all he could and placed me on drugs for two years, ran all manners of test, but there was no positive response.

    “The man then got me a medicated eye glasses to restore the sight, but when I used the glasses, I developed headache and I had to abandon it and continue with the medications.

    “From there, I was enrolled in primary school for the blind in Zuba and I became an assistant head boy of the school until I left the school in 2008 and later got admission into the university,” he explained.

    For Ishaku, the study conditions of People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs), especially the visually impaired in the tertiary schools, can be ameliorated if better facilities are available.

    According to him, although University of Abuja does not have many visually impaired students, it is still necessary for the school management to put in place facilities to aid movement and learning.

    Abraham Emmanuel, Ishaku’s friend said: “I met Ishaku in Government Secondary School, Kwali and then I saw lots of students with different forms of disabilities and I felt for them.

    “His hostel was different and I was curious only to discover that they were blind. I felt for them because it was the first time of seeing visually impaired people in school and it became a challenge for me.

    “I later got to know Ishaku and that he is a sociable person, from there I became close to him, assisting him. Ishaku is not a burden to me because in spite of his condition, he doesn’t want to be a liability to anybody.”

    John Paul, 29, another partially blind student of FCT College of Education, Zuba, said he could move around in the school and go about his regular school schedules unaided.

    “Before my parents could notice that I was blind, the doctor had to conduct some tests and they realised I had measles.

    “Then I underwent a surgical operation and noticed that a socket in the eye was condemned and at that point, there was nothing to do again.

    “I had no form of discrimination from students, lecturers, school authority; rather they are more concerned on how I can cope.

    “Whenever handouts are distributed, I translate it to a brailing form, study by myself and during examinations, I use the manual typewriter in answering my questions.

    “In my first year, after the examinations, my results were commendable and from there the school authority reposed more confidence in me,” he said.

    Abdulraman Lawal, a blind student of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in Minna, Niger State, said he gained admission on scholarship in 2016 to read Peace Studies and Conflict Resolutions, but lost the scholarship due to the inability of his sponsor to continue supporting him.

    He said while he was in the school, NOUN had a few assistive technology tools which helped in studying but getting people to supervise the usage was always a problem.

    “There was the Non Visual Desktop Assistance which, to an extent, is free and the Job Access with Speech facility which costs about 2,000 dollars and these two technologies are majorly used in Nigeria.

     

    “Blind people’s education and moving about are expensive and it will be useful if the Federal Government and Nigerian Universities Commission can waive the school fees for visually impaired students,” he said.

     

    According to Lawal, if the government does not intervene in the education of the blind, they will majorly engage in street begging and while other blind people are being born, they will follow the trend.

    He also said tertiary schools should provide technology room where PLWDs, especially the blind could access materials for their studies.

    National President of Association of the Blind, Mr. Ishaq Adamu,  who is also a lecturer in Gombe State University, observed that inclusion of the blind in education system has been a problem.

    Read Also: Disabilities, no longer barrier to learning, educationists insist

     

    “The environment is not well structured to suit the blind person, whether within the university or outside the university.

    “I had the opportunity of doing my M.Sc in the University of Manchester and there is Disability Support Office in all tertiary schools in the United Kingdom.

    “By identifying yourself as a physically challenged person in the school, the authority will contact you to find out the specific need of your disability,” he said.

    He commended the National Assembly for passing the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, urging the lawmakers to monitor the implementation of the act.

    However, Dr. Mohammed Hamza, the Provost, FCT College of Education, Zuba, said although the college was not designed to address the needs of the physically challenged students, the management considered few physically challenged students for admission.

    “If we need to implement inclusive education, we need increased funding so we can have all the laboratories expected to address the need of physically challenged students,” he said.

    Mr Isaac Ameh, Public Relations Officer, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), said the Federal Government established Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, to address the needs of PLWDs.

    Ameh said the commission has the mandate to review the minimum standards for operating the special school every five years, adding that the last was in 2012 while “another review is ongoing’.’

    He said in the reviewing process, the commission would contact specialists on disabilities both locally and overseas to recommend the global standard for managing special students.

    Ameh noted that although other colleges of education are not restricted from admitting physically challenged students, the NCCE would have to inspect the infrastructures to ascertain the standard.

    He, however, observed that one special college of education might not be enough to serve the entire PLWDs in the country.

    He appealed for one special college of education in each of the six geo-political zones of the country so that distance would not hinder any physically challenged person from accessing education.

    Dr Precious Sango, School Director, International School of Disability Studies, a UK-based institution, said issues such as physical and societal barriers have contributed to stigmatisation of the physically challenged persons.

    According to her, since the bulk of responsibility of catering for PLWDs has been on the government, it is important for private organisations to support the institutions in addressing the challenges affecting the physically challenged.

     

    • Olorunfemi is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

     

  • Changing lives affected by dental flaws

    Project Smile, an initiative of a leading dental clinic in the country is impacting lives of many Nigerians, who have  dental flaws that have stigmatised them, writes AMBROSE NNAJI

     

    Raymond Orji always wears a grim face. He hardly smiles or laughs even when there is cause for him to do so.

    Not that he is a sadist or an unhappy man. Within him, he is always happy and could smile or laugh when alone. But to smile or laugh in the public is something he considers outlandish. This is because he has dental flaws which have become a source of stigmatisation for him.

    Realising the precarious situation people with dental flaws find themselves, experts are encouraging those who find it difficult to smile to do so because of its immense benefits. They maintain that smiling engenders some health benefits.

    Dentists say smiling has well-documented social benefits. A genuine smile can make you look more likeable, attractive, intelligent and even trustworthy.”

    Apart from the above, “smiling can boost one’s mood when one is feeling blue and may be beneficial for people struggling with anxiety and depression”.

    According to them, smile also lowers blood pressure, relieves stress, enhances better relationships, improves stronger immune function, relieves pain and increases one’s life span.

    Inability to smile can hold one back. One can be shut down from being open to the world because of not being able to face the world, socialise, get married or get the dream wife/husband as a result of one’s dentition.

    It could as well hold one back from having that dream job just because of the flaws of one’s dentition.

    However, hope appears on the horizon as Project Smile is transforming lives affected by dental flaws; ranging from overcrowded, protruding and discoloured teeth to far more complex cases by giving them great smiles.

    The organisation has so far provided succour for four of such deserving individuals; a chance in a lifetime to correct this shortcoming and have a perfect dentition. Some of those who have benefited from the gesture included Henry Ijeoma, Tomilola Bada, Sesan Dales and Opeyemi Fasuyi.

    Penultimate Tuesday, some celebrities teamed up with dentists, consultant orthodontists and other professionals to put smiles on faces of some under-privileged Nigerians with flawed dentition who could not afford a smile makeover.

    Project Smile is a complimentary smile makeover initiative founded by Smile 360 Chief Executive Office, Dr. Amy Traore-Shumbusho,  for Nigerian youths who have suffered lost opportunities and stigmatised due to cases of flawed dentition.

    Project Smile, since being in existence eight years ago, has also provided sucour to about 24 young men and women spread across the country.

    Dr. Traore-Shumbusho, who is also the Clinical Director and Initiator, Project Smile360,  said over 226 young adults had entered for being considered.

    “We really hoped we could take on everybody, but we cannot at this time do it alone. We look for Project Smile through people who could help the course so that we can help more people.

    “Of course, we can do better, and our aim is to do at least 20 smiles transformation every year. Today, we are closing the last edition for this year and we have one lucky individual that wil l leave with a smile transformation of his/her life,” she said.

    Traore-Shumbusho, appealed to governments at all levels, corporate organisations and public-spirited individuals to support the cause by providing the health needs of the people through donations and partnership so that the organisation could give more to the society.

    She said her mission is to give opportunities to her patients to smile again, and give them healthy fitting.

    “I realised that my patients are happy after they are empowered and I see the transformation within and outside them and the opportunities that those new smiles and beautiful teeth would make in their lives.

    “I  know there are people out there that do not have the opportunity or have the means. We know that dentistry is expensive and the reason for that expensiveness is the high cost of equipment and the technology involved,” she said.

    She admitted that “not everybody could afford to set up a dental office, even as she disclosed that not everybody could afford to pay the dentist’s fee. “We know that there are people who will be affected by the flaws of their dentition and may not be able to cross the door of our practice. And I thought that these individuals deserve a life-changing experience by changing their smiles,” she said.

    Stressing the importance of dentists to people’s lives and the importance of giving a smile and changing people’s lives, Traore-Shumbusho said dental health ranks high in keeping people healthy as it has a direct impact on cardiovascular health.

    She noted that most people do not pay the necessary attention to their dental health, hence they end up developing dental issues.

    According to her, a regular dental check-up is required to keep the teeth in a healthy state, which will enable one to put up a nice smile on the face.

    “For a healthy smile, you must practice good oral hygiene every day. Brushing after meals, using anti-microbial mouthwash, and flossing at least, once per day helps to keep these disease-causing bacteria from reproducing in your mouth, and causing tooth decay.

    “We are looking for opportunities to continue the project, make more people know about the project and have support of more people who have the goodwill to be able to do much more. The most important thing is we do not want the project to go down.

    Read Also: Dental pain and what you should do

     

    “Again, we want to create more awareness so that people will know the connection between oral health and smile. But there’s a bigger message behind this. It’s the fact that we want people to know that they need to take care of their teeth and how important it is for them to visit a dentist.

    “Visit your dentist at least twice a year because there is much more a dentist can do for you; a dentist can save a life.

    “Our vision is to have at least 20 beneficiaries each year. This is possible if we are able to get partnerships and support from other organisations, prominent individuals who would be willing to adopt a smile,” she said.

    Director, Project Smile Akinsanmi Apara, who is also a dentist, said “project smile was a social responsibility organisation that’s committed to giving back to the community through the provision of dental health care needs”.

    He noted that dental treatment could be quite expensive, and not just in terms of finance, but in terms of time; hence the need to provide such service to the people.

    “We are trying to communicate with the people that can’t have this done irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds. The criteria to join the project smile is just for the beneficiary to tell why he/she needed a smile, what happened to him or her that encourages him or her to deserve a good smile to change his or her life.

    “We do not discriminate as the gesture is open for everybody of all ages; although we prefer people who are older because they will understand the need for a change of smile.

    “Project Smile Initiative selection is usually done once a year, each year we pick a set of winners and because dental treatment is usually a long process, the winners are kept under our care for about a year,” he added.

    Continuing, he said: “Smile is dentistry, dentistry is smile. We are trying to explain why people should change their smile. You could have gotten married but there is something about your smile that it could not work out, this should not be.

    “Apart from giving treatment to people, there are some forms of advocacy that goes with it whereby we try to propagate the gospel of good oral hygiene. These include making sure you keep your teeth clean, that you visit your dentist as much as you can, making sure that you try as much as you can to change your brush every three months and do a six-monthly cleaning and polishing of your teeth to keep them healthy.

    “We tell them what to eat and what not to eat, when to brush, how to brush to ensure that everybody understands dentistry as not the pain department but the place where we prevent the pain from happening.”

    Founder and Chief Executive, JSK Etiquette Consortium, Mrs. Janet Adetu, warned that it’s more important for young graduates to be mindful of their appearances.

    She observed that a lot of graduates take their appearances for granted, wondering why most of them that finished from the university cannot get jobs. Appearance is crucial and it’s not about what you are wearing and many a times it’s not even about what you say.

    “It’s eye contact and smile that we always preach about. Whenever you go for an interview, whenever you are meeting with people, in a gathering, whenever you are meeting for the first time, your smile will attract them to you. Smile is contagious.

    “If I smile and one looks at me, one is compelled to smile back at me. Don’t take smile for granted. As simple as it appears to be, it’s one of the most powerful tools one can use to win favour. That’s why we say your confidence has to be your smile,” she added.

    On funding, Smile 360 Chief Operating Officer, Uday Naik said the organisation has been the main sponsor of Project Smile with the help of like-minded friends and patients.

    He believed that the moment there are more donors and sponsors, the organisation would expand its enrolment to accommodate people.

    He solicited for financial help from philanthropists and organisations. “We appeal for more donors, sponsorships and partnership so that we can touch more lives,” he said.

    Traore-Shumbusho said: “What we are sure of is that our beneficiaries don’t spend kobo. We have to enlighten the public on the services that we offer to beneficiaries of Project Smile. We want to ensure that Nigerians do travel out of the country for some of these treatments because some people leave the shores of the country not knowing that we can administer those treatments.”

    Executive Director, ASG Solutions, Aaron Idonije, also stressed the need for oral hygiene. “Imagine a young man talks to you and his breath is stinking. It puts you off immediately. You don’t want to get close and talk to that person. Project Smile educates people on how to take care of themselves,” Idonije said.

  • UNICEF, WHO step up war against measles, others

    Measles, unhealthy living and violence against children are receiving the attention of the United Nations Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners, write MIKE ODIEGWU and OLATUNDE ODEBIYI

     

    The United Nations Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners are stepping up the battle against measles, unhealthy living and violence against children.

    In Yenegoa, the Bayelsa State capital, UNICEF in partnership with the Centre for Disease Control and Surveillance/African Field Epidemiology Network (CDC/AFENET) said the implementation of measles second dose introduction started on November 25.

    Speaking at a sensitisation meeting with the media and other stakeholders in Yenagoa, Safe Emergency Routine Immunisation Coordination Centre (SERICC) Project Manager, Dr. Egbenipade Ebirimibowei, said the second dose was targeted at  wiping out measles in the state.

    Describing measles as a devastating disease, he said if not prevented it could lead to death following complications from eye damage, deafness and brain damage among others.

    He said the disease contributed to 40 to 50 per cent cause of death among children under age five, adding that though vaccines are administered on children traditionally within nine months of birth, vaccinated children under two years could receive a second dose.

    Explaining further, the doctor said: “From research and experience, it has been found that when you give the first measles at nine month, if for example you give children, you administered the vaccine, it’s just 80 to 85 per cent of the children that will be protected, which means that about 15 to 20 per cent of the children are  still unprotected. In medical parlance we call it zero conversion.

    “So we want to protect the remaining 20 to 15 per cent, and to protect them, we have to give a second dose. This second does is not an experiment. It is already being carried out by other climes like overseas and some other Africa countries.

    “So, Nigeria has joined the chain because of the devastating nature of measles. We use the second dose of measles, and this second dose of measles is usually given around 15 months of age but any child under two years can still be given the dose of measles.

    “Therefore, a higher does gives you a second chance of protecting all the children from getting measles. So, we have, as a country, decided that we are going to introduce the second dose, and we have done the flag off. There are health workers, going round every nook and cranny of Bayelsa State to search out every child under five years of age and to give them the second does of  the vaccine in Bayelsa State.”

    Ebirimibowei appealed to the media to help in sensitising people in communities on the need to embrace the second dose vaccination.

     

    Raising awareness on safe practices for healthy living

    The National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Ebonyi, in conjunction with the UNICEF, has embarked on programmes to raise people’s consciousness  on essential safe practices for healthy living.

    The NOA state Director, Dr Emma Abah, last Friday in Ezza-South Local Government Area, said the department of Communication for Development, a unit in UNICEF, identified the lack of knowledge and ignorance as two factors responsible for health challenges in the state.

    He said the forum aimed at raising consciousness of safe practices among residents.

    He further said high rate of poor hygiene, handwashing, poor environmental sanitation, poor exclusive breast feeding, issue of open defecation, harmful practices done in the secret, among others, were discovered in the state.

    According to him, bad practices have increased health hazards in the state, adding that the department had resolved to enlighten families and communities to be properly informed about good practices.

    He said: “UNICEF supported NOA to carry out this programme and the discussions are centred on the health of women, children and most difficult health challenges in the communities.

    “UNICEF had discovered that money and food were not the major problem of the people, but ignorance and lack of knowledge.

    “That is why they decided to go to grassroots to identify the health challenges people suffer.

    “The programme is also centred on bringing essential family practices that are very necessary for the existence of any family or society.

    Read Also: Battle against Meningitis

    “They observed that without communication and enlightenment, development will not thrive.”

    Abah encouraged communities to own the programme, saying any community without human development had yet to attain and sustain growth. “Only those in the community know the problems of their domain,” he said.

    The NOA boss said monitoring and evaluation units of the agency and the independent monitors of UNICEF would ensure the campaign was carried out at the grassroots effectively.

    He also said the governance structure, development unions and the traditional rulers council would be made to include the campaign in their monthly meetings.

    Abah urged government to provide more conveniences in public places, including markets and schools, in order to bring the desired change for safe practices for good health and development.

    The Town Union President of Ndiaguahara Community in Ikwo, Mr Patrick Ugbuloke, blamed most things that posed health challenge in the area on ignorance.

    “As a community leader, it is our duty to ensure that essential family practices was driven to the grassroots level effectively,” Ugbuloke said.

    Two traditional rulers at the forum, Eze Martin Nweke (Echara Autonomous Community) and Eze Joseph Igweonwe (Amuda Autonomous Community), thanked the organisers and promised to take the message down to their communities.

    The theme of the forum was “Working with Community Governance Forum to increase the number of mothers, caregivers and other community members with knowledge of at least five per cent of UNICEF Essential Family Practices to 85 per cent.

     

    Protect your children from violence, UNICEF tells parents

    The UNICEF on Tuesday advised parents to communicate freely with their children in order to ascertain their lifestyles and protect them from harm.

    UNICEF’s Child Protection Specialist Dennis Onoise gave the advice in Zaria at the ongoing workshop on Violence Against Children (VAC) organised by UNICEF and NOA for community facilitators in Kaduna State.

    According to him, parents need to pay more attention to their children and provide them with their basic needs in order to insulate them from sexual, emotional and physical violence.

    “Many of the children, who are abused, are children whose parents are not paying attention to them. We need to talk to parents about appropriate parenting.

    “Parents have the responsibility to make sure their children are well protected, because abused children tend to engage in negative activities like terrorism and prostitution,” he said.

    Onoise said the workshop was organised to discuss and develop dialogue guidelines with community facilitators where violence against children was common.

    He said UNICEF and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) had conducted similar workshop for religious and traditional leaders to sensitise them on the menace of violence against children.

    The UNICEF official said religious and traditional leaders were prepared to collaborate with UNICEF and NOA in putting an end to violence against children in their communities.

    He said social health workers, sexual assault centre managers, youth leaders and women leaders in the communities would be engaged as community facilitators.

    Onoise also disclosed that parents and caregivers would be engaged through theatre for development, video screening of real life stories of violence against children and other channels of sensitisation.

    He said the grassroots community dialogue would commence in December.

    The campaign against violence against children is also going on in Zaria. A four-day sensitisation workshop in Zaria began on Monday for community facilitators on ending violence against children.

    Social mobilisation officers, health educators, civil society groups and other relevant stakeholders were participants at the workshop.

    Zubair Galadima-Soba, the state Director of NOA said the agency was concerned with violence meted out against children and was committed towards ensuring such act came to an end.

    He said there was need for proper reorientation of people in order to practice good values of protecting children from harm.

    Galadima-Soba noted that some of the violence meted against children was as a result of parents and caregivers’ negligence or unmindful behaviour towards the care of their children.

    He urged the participants to engage meaningfully in the workshop by properly discussing issues of VAC and draft guidelines on how to prevent and respond to such issues.

    He also urged the public to desist from all kinds of violence so as to have a healthy and peaceful society.

    UNICEF focal person Yusuf Balarabe,  said participants would undergo orientation on community dialogue and discuss how to facilitate effective monitoring of VAC in their communities.

    According to him, participants were expected to generate key solutions to address sexual, physical and emotional violence against children in their communities.

    Balarabe added that video and theatre would be incorporated as complementary communication tools in engaging the people in resolving issues of VAC.

    “Participants will agree on modalities for conducting community dialogues on the impact of VAC for the development of community level prevention and response actions.

    “Discussion guide through the conduct of 12 community dialogue in three local government area will be presented,” he said.

     

    Pneumonia

    UNICEF is also battling pneumonia, which it says is the world’s leading infectious killer of children. It claims the lives of more than 2,000 under the age of five every day.

    Dr Sanjana Bhardwaj, the Chief of Health, UNICEF Nigeria, made this known at the commemoration of the 2019 World Pneumonia Day and World Prematurity Day.

    The event was organised by “Save the Children”, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in collaboration with UNICEF and other supporters in Abuja on Monday.

    Bhardwaj said pneumonia kills 8000 children annually, a number which makes Nigeria a highest contributor.

    “Eight thousand of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children die from the disease and 2,000 die daily, the overwhelming majority of these deaths are preventable.

    “Yet fatalities are declining slowly, far too slowly for the world to deliver on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) pledge to end preventable child deaths by 2030.

    “Changing this picture will require more than a reaffirmation of the SDGs promise, the children whose lives are at stake need a bold agenda backed by urgent action.

    “Tackling pneumonia is a call to global action and every step count in fighting this disease.”

    Bhardwaj said there was the need to develop pneumonia control strategies as part of universal health coverage and commit to reducing child pneumonia at fewer than three per 1000 live births.

    She said there was also the need to strengthen quality primary health care and action on pneumonia as part of national multi-sectoral plans through integrated strategies including nutrition, water, sanitation, and air pollution.

     

  • Prosecuting Sowore will save Nigeria’s democracy, Nigerian Professionals in Europe declares

    The Association of Nigerian Professionals in Europe (ANPE) believes the prosecution of Sahara Reporters founder, Omoyele Sowore, will save the country’s democracy.

     

    The umbrella group of Nigerian professionals in Europe made this known on Thursday after an emergency meeting in Brussels, Belgium to deliberate on the state of affairs in Nigeria.

     

    In a communique jointly signed by President, Dr. Agwu Onyeke and 13 others, the professionals urged the Federal Government to bring Sowore and his cohorts sponsored by foreign mercenaries to destabilize Nigeria to book.

     

    The group frowned at Sowore’s call for revolution – an indication that the controversial human rights activist was working hand-in-hand with some external forces.

     

    ANPE, therefore, expressed solidarity with the FG on his on-going trial for instigating violence aimed at truncating democracy.

     

    The group further recommended the process of profiling all Sowore’s accomplices in Nigeria and beyond the shores – bringing them to justice with the assistance of the International Criminal Court and the Interpol.

     

    Read full communique below:

     

    A communique by the Association of Nigerian Professionals in Europe issued after an emergency general meeting which held at Crowne Plaza Brussels – Le Palace in Brussels to deliberate on the state of affairs in Nigeria, chiefly on the growing spate of externally influenced plot to destabilize Nigeria on Thursday, 27th November 2019.

     

     

    The Association of Nigerian Professionals in Europe, the umbrella organization of Nigerian Professionals in various walks of life in Europe, converged an emergency general assembly to discuss the threats posed to the unity of Nigeria from external sources. The emergency general assembly discussed extensively the various issues confronting the Nigerian nation

     

    The meeting was well attended, and it touched on sensitive issues in Nigeria as well as recommendations for the relevant authorities in Nigeria. At the end of the meeting, the following resolutions were reached:

     

    The Issues:

     

    The Association of Nigerian Professionals in Europe views with high suspicion the motives behind the call for a revolution in Nigeria by Omoyele Sowore and his co-conspirators.

     

    That the call is at best an indication that Omoyele Sowore was working hand-in-hand with some external forces bent on destabilizing Nigeria through their nefarious ways.

     

    That the unity of Nigeria has been gravely affected by the actions of Omoyele Sowore and his cohorts, bent on seeing to the disintegration of Nigeria

     

    That the sponsors of Omoyele Sowore are instigating the on-going protests across the world by individuals and organizations using pro-democratic pseudo names in an attempt to blackmail the government of Nigeria into submission.

     

    That Omoyele Sowore indeed provided himself as that willing clog in the wheels of progress in Nigeria

    Read Also: NDDC: A dangerous action President Buhari must stop

     

    The Association of Nigerian Professionals in Europe also frowns at the campaign of calumny against the government of Nigeria and wishes to state that the campaign is in poor taste aimed at causing disaffection in the polity so they can ultimately rubbish the gains Nigeria has made since 2015 under the present dispensation.

     

    It is highly advised that those individuals and organizations should channel their energies and resources into noble causes for the benefit of humanity.

     

    THE ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN PROFESSIONALS IN EUROPE CONSEQUENTLY MAKES THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS:

     

    That it supports wholeheartedly the on-going trial of Omoyele Sowore by the Nigerian authorities for instigating violence aimed at truncating democracy in Nigeria.

     

    That the relevant authorities in Nigeria should not relent in its fight against enemies of the country who are engaged in these nefarious acts.

     

    That the relevant authorities in Nigeria should, as a matter of urgency, begin the process of profiling all the accomplices of Omoyele Sowore in Nigeria and beyond the shores of Nigeria, and bringing them to justice with the assistance of the International Criminal Court and the Interpol.

     

    That the call for a revolution is a part of a bigger plot towards ensuring that Nigeria is made ungovernable and uninhabitable.

     

    That the Nigerian authorities must also, as a matter of urgency, begin a detailed investigation into how these illicit funds are brought into the country.

     

    That anyone found guilty no matter how highly placed should be made to face the full arms of the law in line with international conventions on crimes against humanity.

     

    That should the Nigerian authorities fail to act decisively, the agents of destabilization would achieve their ultimate desire of disintegrating Nigeria.

     

     

    Signed:

    1. Dr. Agwu Onyeke (President)

     

    1. Arc. Adesugun Lawal (Ukraine)

     

     

    3.Chief Adekoya (Italy)

     

     

    4.Engr. Bright Anyanwu (Spain)

     

    1. Mr. Godspower Smith (Germany)

     

     

    6.Prof. Afik Babarinde (Cyprus)

     

    1. Chief Chuba Chime (UK)

     

    8.Mr. Charles Ayoola (UK)

     

    9.Mrs. Anita Ibeh (Malta)

     

    10.Dr. John Umeh (Republic of Ireland)

     

    11.Tobias Idoko esq (Netherlands)

     

    1. Arc. Adesugun Lawal (Ukraine)

     

    1. Mrs. Omolara Oguntade (Italy)

     

    1. Mr. Sylvester Okon (UK)

     

     

     

  • Bayelsa: Of leaders, democrats, and betrayals

    By Tiete Abel

    Every reader of the newspapers and the various online platforms in Nigeria will readily come to one inevitable conclusion that there is a media mob that is raging against the Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson as a fall out of the November 16, gubernatorial election in the state. Many of the key players in the frenzied mob action are blaming the return of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the election, Chief David Lyon, on Dickson’s purported feud with former President Goodluck Jonathan. This category of persons who have besieged the media space has carried on with this rather depressing and diversionary story line without pausing for a second to take a critical look at the major events that preceded and shaped the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party on September 3.

    It is a fact beyond contestation that former President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Dickson are (or should have been) the two biggest critical stakeholders in the Bayelsa PDP. It was the general expectation that these two leaders, one a former president who governed the country under the platform of the PDP, and the other, a sitting second term governor, have a responsibility to jointly supervise the process for the emergence of a generally acceptable candidate for the PDP to retain its hold on political power in Bayelsa. However, for some reasons, the two leaders, Jonathan and Dickson, couldn’t agree on that candidate for the PDP due to a complex twist of factors.

    While Jonathan and his political family opted to support former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Timi Alaibe, Governor Dickson and his supporters under the aegis of the PDP Restoration Team went for the senator representing Bayelsa Central, Senator Douye Diri who eventually won the hard-fought primary held at the Bayelsa State Cultural Centre, Yenagoa.

    Prior to the primaries, the two leaders decided that the PDP leadership should allow all aspirants to test their popularity at the primaries after which the aftermath would be collectively managed preparatory to the gubernatorial election. Sadly, that did not happen.

    It is in the light of this that it has become pertinent to address the deliberate distortion on the face of facts that the PDP lost election in Bayelsa because Dickson was disobedient or rude to former President Jonathan. Nothing can be farther from the truth than this wild barefaced rag of a lie that was desperately sold to the unsuspecting public to add legitimacy to the charade called election in Bayelsa. In clear terms: Neither was the governor disrespectful of the former president nor was there a free, fair and credible election that should produce a governor-elect in Bayelsa.

    As a witness to the major events in Bayelsa in the days leading to the election on November 16, I can confidently say that what happened in Bayelsa was an interplay of brigandage and state-sponsored violence which was crafted around  Jonathan’s purported conflict with Dickson all in the desperate pursuit of plot to add legitimacy to a putrid electoral robbery that would haunt all men of good conscience in the society for years.

    Read Also: Reps to probe security breaches in Kogi, Bayelsa polls

     

    The point to note is that Jonathan made what he knew was an impossible offer to Dickson which he couldn’t accept. Precisely, Jonathan wanted Dickson to support Alaibe who defected from the PDP to join forces with Chief Timipre Sylva and other elements in the APC against him in his fierce re-election bid in 2015. The governor who was not unaware of the massive implication of supporting Alaibe against member of his political family, made it clear that it was unjust and unfair for political leaders to arrive at a choice of Alaibe without his input and attempt foist him on the party.

    It is also important at this point to highlight the fact that democracy in Bayelsa cannot be twisted to have the exclusive face of savagery and primitive communalism. Democracy is not the system of government where godfathers and human gods rule by decrees and proclamations. Where there is a political disagreement in a democracy, such disputes are naturally resolved through the ballot.

    This was exactly the case during the primaries of the PDP in Bayelsa which produced Senator Diri as the candidate of the party. I can still recall clearly that the former president and Dickson drove in a convoy to commence voting in the primaries conducted by the governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, a former minister under Jonathan who is known to be fiercely loyal to him, at the Bayelsa State Cultural Centre, Yenagoa.

    Clips of the election which was televised live on AIT shows Jonathan casting the first vote of the primaries for the candidates to commence the fierce contest.  Curiously, shortly after the results of the election were announced, Alaibe headed for the court to challenge it while Jonathan refused to congratulate Diri who was returned as the winner in the election conducted by a governor many refer to as his political son, Darius Ishaku.  On his part, Jonathan kept quiet and said nothing about the primaries until the brutal siege on the electoral process and its ethos on November 16.

    It is indeed curious that Jonathan who was celebrated for conceding defeat in the 2015 Presidential election refused to congratulate Diri. This singular action of  the former president is indeed a puzzle and a ruthless negation of the reputation for which he has become associated as a pillar of democracy ever since he conceded defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.

    Nevertheless, it is important to assert here that the purported disagreement between Dickson and Jonathan (if it ever existed) was not the reason behind the INEC’s announcement of curious electoral figures that returned Chief David Lyon of the APC as the winner of the Bayelsa poll. I also find it important to add that as a father figure and leader, Jonathan did not condemn the massacre of innocent PDP members in Nembe three days to the election. What manner of bitterness and anger foisted such a mindset on him? His conduct before and after the election showed clearly that something was amiss. Jonathan later received the governors and leaders of the APC.

    Nigerians should not lose sight of the fact that the alignment of forces against the democratic freedom of the Bayelsa people was out for a set objective which no candidate could have stopped.

    Again, many who have attacked the governor for purportedly imposing a running mate on Senator Diri missed a vital point that it is the standard practice for the candidate to pick his running mate with necessary advice and guidance from the party leadership.

    As a candidate in 2015, Dickson rejected the move to foist Hon Waripamowei Dudafa, the then Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Domestic Matters, on him as running mate. Instead he provoked the rage of the powers-that-be when he opted for Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, as running mate. His decision triggered a chain of reactions which heightened with the disappearance of his name from the INEC list of candidates. Luckily for him, it was restored by Justice Olotu of the Federal High Court who gave an order setting aside the removal of his name as the candidate of the PDP in the election. By that singular judicial action, Olotu was tagged a corrupt judge and sacked from the nation’s judiciary. This illustration is necessitated by the need to emphasize that the candidate of a political party in an election has the powers to pick his running mate with the advice of party leaders!

    In conclusion, to say that the PDP lost a gubernatorial election in Bayelsa is an aberration. The party did not lose an election. The orgy of violence before and during the election, the killings in Nembe, the deployment of soldiers and heavy military equipment, and soldiers in Ogbia, the indiscriminate arrest of PDP leaders in the area, the shootings in Southern Ijaw, and parts of Yenagoa among others show clearly that a coalition of desperate forces led by the federal government despoiled the ethos of democracy to impose an APC victory on the state.

    I think we should pause to ask pertinent questions in defence of our democracy. This attempt to sell a story line to add legitimacy to the rape of democracy in Bayelsa should be condemned in totality. A morality that condemns the killing of the PDP woman leader who was burnt to death in Kogi, should also condemn the murder of an innocent OB Van Driver of Radio Bayelsa who was shot to death in Nembe! To condemn the violence in Kogi and make a surreptitious move to legitimize a worse sacrilege in Bayelsa is a sin against democracy which this nation should condemn.

     

    • Abel wrote from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

  • Rumbles in AEDC over ownership

    By Gabriel Ikese

    The year 2019 has not been a good one for Nigeria on the international scene. It seems to be one sordid story of alleged financial impropriety, fraud or a different sort of shady, underhand dealings or the other.

    Nigeria remains the centre of attraction for every watcher of the continent’s critical indices and rightfully so. It has been posited countless times that sustainable growth in Nigeria will automatically signal a replication of similar scenarios across the continent.

    As a matter of fact, our earliest leaders believed in this leadership role so much that they went ahead of themselves, standing up for African nations everywhere and anytime needed. Nigeria also led the way in the setting up of state enterprises and the hosting of several high-profile Pan-African institutions.

    These moves gave Nigeria a very positive image in the eyes of other Africans and despite the undercurrents of rivalry that may be felt between it and other nations, deep-seated respect remains. Most African business and political leaders look to Nigeria for continental models. It is only when the model they seek is not of African origin that they look to the west or east.

    This does not mean that there haven’t been many actions in the past and even present that have shaken people’s faith about this Nigeria ‘of their dreams’.

    Many businesses, African and global have received different levels of shock from the Nigerian system and Nigeria today ranks as one of the nations with the highest degrees of sovereign risk. Policy summersaults, an environment filled with landmines for non-locals, corruption and a judicial system that can be manipulated by external forces have made the country, more and more unattractive to foreign investors. No matter how large the market and all the positive feelings they may have for the country, the risk is just too great for many business people.

    An interesting case study is that of the power sector. When the federal government under President Goodluck Jonathan commenced the process of sourcing investors to purchase the power distribution and generation assets in 2010, one of the main concerns that militated against a robust interest by investors, despite the glaring potentials of the Nigerian market, was concern about the propensity for political considerations and interference in the business sphere.

    When therefore some investors eventually braved the decades of such negative history to source for and put down hundreds of millions of dollars, everyone else waited with bated breath to see how this venture will play out.

    Of course, the sector has remained unstable over the last six years and several policy inconsistencies had also left their mark but the outcome that most people expected for did not happen …at least not until recently anyway.

    Over the last two weeks, most Nigerian newspapers have published, in one form or the other, details of a struggle currently ongoing for the soul of one of the most promising electricity distribution companies in the country. Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has become something of a model in a sector plagued with many inefficiencies in terms of investment in its network, reforms in human resource capacity, etc.

    For those yet unfamiliar with this rapidly unfolding drama, at the centre of the squabble between the shareholders of AEDC’s parent company – CEC Africa (a Zambian company) and Xerxes Global Investment Limited (a Nigerian company) – is the issue of who paid for the shares, how that affects the ownership of the entity and allegation of a ploy to sell off the company.

    Now CEC Africa alleges that it paid the initial 25% acquisition payment to the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) plus the $40m Debt Service Reserve Account to the United Bank of Africa (UBA) to secure the balance of 75% of the cost of acquiring the shares in the Disco. It said it had to do so because when it was time to raise the funds, Xerxes could not come up with their own part of the amount. In their response which was also published over the weekend by a cross section of newspapers, Xerxes argued that it was their “goodwill” that enabled the parent company to acquire Abuja Disco but remained silent on whether or not they made any financial contribution to back their equity stake.

    Read Also: AEDC requires N25.09b to reduce technical losses in five years

    All this became more worrisome when leading business newspaper led its edition of Wednesday, November 20, with a story that alleged a company that presently provides services for the presidency is being lined up to take over the Disco.

    For a country battling credibility issues with respect of its investment climate and following the hesitation of investors in 2010 to venture into the sector, this drama sends all the wrong signals.

    In the first instance, the confession from Xerxes that what they brought into the deal was “goodwill” does a lot to strengthen the view of many that the power sector assets were sold to friends and cronies who could muster technical partners. It also means that the required due diligence may not have been conducted since the main determinant was this amorphous currency called “goodwill”. It is doubtful if any bank anywhere receives deposits of “goodwill” in place of cash. It will also be interesting to Nigerians to know that part of the payment the country was supposed to have received for the Disco was denominated in “goodwill”.

    Bottom line: The shares came at a cost and that cost needed to be fully paid up for.

    Secondly, it creates a sense of serious concern where even when a competent technical and financial partner is on board – and where that investor is railroaded into fully funding the acquisition simply to ensure that all prerequisites are met – a non-performing party can insist on laying claims to equity that they have not paid for and show interest in selling off the company to another company which is alleged to also have political links (even though there is a subsisting Arbitration Award in favor of the partner that is alleged to have made the payment).

    Africa as a continent needs to get a lot of things right and one of those things is how business is conducted between key players on the continent. This will go a long way in determining how much wealth is retained and redistributed on the continent. The likes of Aliko Dangote and Tony Elumelu have been leading the way in this agenda to create African super-businesses, but progress will be slow if we are known to be hostile to our African brothers who express desire to do business in our land.

    We should be at a point now where any African country seeking investors in any of its sectors can confidently expect that African investors will quickly jump at such opportunities rather than having to go cap in hand to off-continent investors. No matter how big those investments get, they will remain sources of capital flight off the continent.

    We recently beat our chests in celebration of our climb up the ease of doing business index. Stories like this reinforce the belief that those indices are on paper and differ from the reality on the ground.

    Nigeria, are we serious about doing business?

     

    • Gabriel wrote in from Jos, Plateau State.

  • In defence of Jonathan

    In 2011 the PDP had approached the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN to negotiate the South Western votes for their candidate, Jonathan in the upcoming presidential election of that year. By the way, this was an election which divine circumstances had already made a subject of geo-ethnic discord between the North and the South –no thanks to the debate over zoning. The PDP had repudiated its own zoning principle after the sudden demise of its protractedly ailing President Yar’Adua just half way through his first term in office. But since the vagaries of constitutional necessities had already thrown up his South-southern Vice President Jonathan, as successor, many had thought –and rightly so- that the South-south should be allowed to fully enjoy its first providential opportunity at ruling the country also.

    But matters political do not always lend themselves to such simplistic resolution. For, as the French political writer, Jean Larteguy would say, “in politics, as in business, you must always ask for thirty pieces of silver even though you have more than enough”. In any case the ACN and the CPC, without necessarily being obligated to, had still, in deference to PDP’s zoning arrangement, each fielded a pro-zoning Northern candidate, (Nuhu Ribadu and Muhammadu Buhari respectively). These two were to take on a profusely anti-zoning Jonathan who was now (as most of the North saw it) provocatively angling to ‘usurp’ the remainder of what should be Yar’Adua’s second term even after he had used up the last two years of the man’s first term. Meaning that in all of PDP’s 16 years beginning from 1999, the North would’ve been left with the shortest end of the dynastic stick, a measly two years.

    And so the 2011 presidential election was a contest of three partisan geo-ethnic gladiators: namely Buhari’s largely northern-backed CPC, Tinubu’s South-westerly ACN (with Ribadu as its hunt dog) and a PDP that was now majorly backed by the South-south and Southeast for the obvious reason that its brazen repudiation of zoning had inevitably made a villain of, and alienated the North. And although PDP’s Jonathan could be hurt by a cross-partisan alliance of the North and the Southwest, the chance for that had already been missed since both the ACN and the CPC had already fielded candidates. And so whereas the CPC especially had virtually the entire North as its stronghold, the ACN had virtually nothing to lose or gain in the presidential election. Fielding Ribadu was merely to fulfil all righteousness. He was not expected to shake the ground beneath his feet. And the PDP, although it had neither of the nation’s two electoral strongholds (the North and the Southwest), it still had two things going for it: namely the power of incumbency and a penchant to use both fair and foul to get whatever it wanted.

    Read Also: Why Jonathan is angry with PDP, by Presidency

    One of the two things that it should want had already happened, namely that its two enemies –the CPC and the ACN- rather than unite to field a common candidate, had opted to pull their lonely electoral furrows. The second thing that the PDP wanted was that in order not to take chances, it needed to get the ACN to agree to a symbiotic relationship whereby Jonathan would be allowed to garner at least the constitutionally-required 25% that under normal circumstances a ‘free and fair’ election in the Southwest might not give him, in return for the PDP allowing the ACN to retain control of the Southwest, -which, ironically, a ‘free and fair’ election would still have comfortably given it.

    This was a virtual demand of the underworld: ‘your money or your life’. And the ACN, for the sake of self-preservation, chose ‘life’ –not having anything to gain by cooperating, it had, on the other hand, so much to lose if it did not. By the way, PDP’s indecent proposal required that the ACN betrayed its presidential candidate Ribadu, (since there was not gossamer of chance he could beat Jonathan and Buhari to win the election). Jonathan himself was said to be on ground to seal the deal and to offer assurances and guarantees that the Southwest would not be ridden roughshod over by PDP’s rigging machine the way that it once was in 2003 by an Obasanjo who had desperately needed to bring his South-western states, by fair or foul means, to the fold of the ruling party which by the grace of other geo-polities, excluding his, he bestrode. Sparing only Tinubu’s Lagos, the PDP under Obasanjo had brazenly rigged its way through the entire Southwest, taking including Edo State in the South-south, all in one fell swoop. And so, in 2011, and notwithstanding Jonathan had just recently described the entire political Southwest as ‘rascally’, the ACN still found a notoriously rigging PDP more tolerable than Buhari’s CPC with which previously it had failed to work out an alliance agreement. And no thanks too to its vehemently anti-zoning stand, the Southwest media had boxed itself into a fait accompli, preferring PDP’s Jonathan too to either of ACN’s Ribadu or CPC’s Buhari. But it was no thanks also to the North’s intransigence over PDP’s brazen breach of its zoning policy after the demise of Yar’Adua –which itself was a fall-out of the acrimonious geo-ethnic politics previously of making Jonathan acting president via an equally acrimonious ‘doctrine of necessity’ which the North believed was orchestrated to spite a terminally bedridden Yar’Adua.

    The spokesperson for the ACN, Lai Mohammed had publicly admitted that there was such a PDP proposal, but said that the ACN rebuffed it because, according to him “there is no way darkness and light can work together”. And so there it was! The ideological red line, which the ACN had vowed it would not cross. But which in the end it had to cross. The ACN did in fact work the votes for PDP’s Jonathan. And Jonathan’s PDP did fulfil its own part of the bargain too –it did not upset already settled electoral waters in the Southwest. A contrite chairman of the ACN, Bisi Akande would thereafter explain his party’s ideological summersault with the escapist oxymoron that the Southwest “did not vote PDP, (it) voted Jonathan”. And which sounded like the British Naval Commander Lord Mountbatten pacifying the Tory Party with the excuse: “I voted Labour, but my butler is Tory”.

    But the pleasant irony here lies in the fact that just eight years, from 2011, after Tinubu’s ACN had done Jonathan’s PDP ‘one good turn’ –electorally- it has not now gone past more than two electoral circles before the PDP leader himself, Jonathan -prodded obviously by not too dissimilar political circumstances, has just done Tinubu’s APC yet ‘another’, in the just concluded gubernatorial election in his home state of Bayelsa. Jonathan may not actually have forgotten that this was the same party, the APC that un-timeously ousted him from office in the not too distant past; but he may simply have chosen to remember that the same political ancestry had once seen him through troubled electoral waters in the distant past. And that has always been the way that political cookies crumble. Political realism has always trounced ideological politics. Reason Jacques Delors, the French statesman said: “You can’t be a true idealist without being a true realist”? And as the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa said “Real politics…has little to do with ideas… and everything to do with manoeuvres, intrigues, plots, paranoia… and every kind of con game”. Jonathan too has a right to the demonstration of political anger. If it has to take scoring an own goal for his own side to know and to respect his skills, why not? At least he has not been as ideologically prostituting as members of the ‘nPDP’- who had first disavowed the retrogressive tendencies of the PDP in favour of the progressivism of the APC, and thereafter returned again to their old PDP vomit.

    Jonathan has only hit his own below the belt; to remind them that he too can play foul, as much as he can play fair! Can’t blame him!

  • Buhari and survival of APC

    President Muhammadu Buhari during last Friday’s meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  in Abuja charged the leaders of his party to work hard towards ensuring the party survives beyond his administration. History, he said would be unkind to the party leaders if the party collapses at the end of his administration. He went on to admonish the leading lights of the party to respect the wishes of their constituents who he said should not be taken for granted because “they know what they are doing”.

    “The messenger”, as advocate marketers will say “is the message”. The truth is that if anyone has taken his party or Nigerian voters for granted, it is President Buhari who by his body language gives an impression he was doing the party that sponsored him for an elective office and Nigerians that voted him into office, a favour.

    The expression of concern for the survival of APC, the platform through which the president secured power after three failed attempts through other platforms, many will argue, is belated. It was the president, goaded on by sycophants that betrayed the party after his 2015 victory. It was the president that failed to provide effective leadership for a party he treated more as a distraction than a vehicle with which he rode to power. And  it was the president’s disdain for his party and distrust for politicians that paved the way for the take-over of the party by Bukola Saraki and his like-minds senators who went on to make the country ungovernable for four years. In fact,  to many objective observers, it was President Buhari’s inability to outgrow past serial betrayals by politicians in military uniform and those in ‘agbada/babanriga’ that deprived him of the much-needed politicians’ support for effective governance of the country for the greater part of his first term. Unfortunately, he sowed the wind; it is his party that will reap the possible whirlwind in 2023. The president therefore, more than the leading lights of his party, poses greater threat to the survival of APC in 2023.

    “I swore by the holy book that I would go by the constitution”, the president told his party’s leading lights last week as a way of dismissing insinuations that he, like ex-President Obasanjo before him, was nursing a third-term agenda. While most Nigerians will agree the president as a man of character will never embark on such laughable endeavor, many will however readily admit President Buahri has been faithful neither to the constitution in other regards nor his party manifesto.

    Admittedly, we are a society of law-breakers where those who have no regard for rule of law want protection under rule of law. Driven by his blind fury to deal decisively with those who want freedom without responsibility and at the same time want to preside over an empire of slaves, he has in a number of cases betrayed his impatience with the rule of law. His alleged provincialism is of course also a betrayal of the federal character provision in our constitution. No matter how good intentioned his actions are, his APC party will have to answer for his constitutional breaches in 2023.

    The president secured  much needed support during the 2015 election from some critical  segments of the country because of APC’ s provision for restructuring in its manifesto as  solution to our unresolved national question. Following his victory, the president ignored this election promise just as he did the report of a face-saving committee set up by his embarrassed party that recommended devolution of power from a dysfunctional centre, state  and community policing as immediate answers to  increasing insecurity, banditry, kidnapping and other crimes which constituted an affront to the  legitimacy of his government.

    It is the primary role of political parties in a participatory democracy to collate and channels views of the voters to government they install. The party therefore becomes the channel through which the electorates speak to their government. Neither APC nor the electorate can be regarded as participants in President Buhari’s government which many believed, was hijacked by a mafia during his first term. Again it is not President Buhari but his party that will be on trial in 2023.

    The president’s 2019 victory was secured from two major geo-political zones of the country where the president enjoys a cult-like followership.  He secured the needed minimum support in the Southwest geo-political zone but lost South-south, Southeast and North-central geo-political zones. The outcome of the 2019 election was almost a replication of that of 1964 that led to a constitutional crisis which contributed to the 1967-70 civil war. The challenge that awaits APC in 2023 if a northern candidate emerges is how to resolve what the late Senator Okadigbo described as the ‘arithmetic of Nigeria politics’ – a situation where the north or two geo-political zones from the north decide the fate of the country if we accept democracy is a game of numbers.

    Read Also: Buhari to APC leaders: party must not die after my tenure

    Because of Nigeria’s unique ‘arithmetic of politics’, Buhari was invincible in 2019 in spite of his mishandling of  the mindless killings of Nigerians by Fulani immigrants from West African countries, the unrestrained comments by his close aides which seemed to have emboldened those waging war against our compatriots and the arrogance of some northern politicians who openly canvassed for conferment of citizenship on stateless Fulani immigrants from west African nations through  taxpayers’ supported RUGA programme. All these will surely haunt APC in 2023.

    Finally, “History will be fair to us if the APC remains strong and not only holds the centre but makes gains in the states”; the President had told stalwarts of his political party during the said Friday meeting.  Political party, Sigmund Neumann once argued presupposes identification with a group and differentiation from another”. Many will readily agree that it is difficult to make a difference between APC and PDP with the ongoing crisscrossing of many politicians facing criminal charges between the two parties.

    There are more parallels. PDP was once big, strong and appeared invincible and in fact boasted it would rule the country for an uninterrupted 60 years. They did everything except addressing   our crisis of nation building.

    Today, like PDP, APC is big. It controls the centre and about 25 states. But rather than embark on constitutional amendment to resolve the national question, the party seems to be more interested in waging PDP’s unfinished constituency projects’ war with the presidency. Nothing has been said about the outrageous salaries and allowances the 8th National Assembly awarded themselves. It has been business as usual.

    Both have failed the true test of a political party which is fixing both the political agenda and policies of a ruling party. Both have not been known to be receptive to public opinion without which democracy can flourish. Both are committed to the interest of only their members. Except President Buhari changes the narrative, a common fate awaits both in 2023.

  • The fear of witches

    AS a citadel of learning, the university allows all ideas to blossom. People are free to speak their mind as long as they do not breach the rights of others. As an institution built on ideas, it cherishes the imparting of knowledge and grooms its students along that line.

    This is why students take on their teachers in class, without any fear. It is, as they say, all in the line of learning. In the search of knowledge, the university allows its staff and students to research into whatever subject they think can aid development. To the university, every subject is worth looking into.

    No matter how the topic may be perceived, its proponents are allowed to test it before their colleagues and other scholars. But one subject has been generating heat in  the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and beyond. The B. I. C. Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies First International & Interdisciplinary Conference on Witchcraft: Meaning, Factors & Practices, which started at UNN on Tuesday and ended yesterday,  caused a stir in Christendom. Why a witchcraft conference? They wondered.

    Why not a witchcraft conference? If I may ask before they start quoting the Bible which says “suffer not a witch to live”. No knowledge is lost. If the centre has one or two things to tell us about witchcraft, why should we not listen to it? I do not see any clash with Christianity in this matter. Some people are just trying to be holier than the Pope.

  • Long dawn on Long Bridge

    IT was bound to happen. You did not need a crystal ball to tell you that evil was lurking around the corner. The Long Bridge of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway is a notorious spot where evil doers carry out their dastardly act. Since work began at the Kara end of the bridge on September 2, bad boys have been having a field day snatching valauables from motorists and commuters.

    Only God knows the number of their victims so far. Motorists and commuters move on the bridge with their hearts in their mouths. Nobody is safe on the bridge. No matter who you are, the hoodlums will not think twice before descending on you. They attack the rich and the poor; the strong and the weak and flee into the dark recesses under the bridge.

    Where do they stay there? There is a large community of people of different tribe and tongue under the Long Bridge. Do these people know the shady characters who operate on the bridge and flee under it to make good their escape? Besides being a trading outpost, people also live, work and school in the community. Can it be a den of criminals and still be inhabited by many law abiding citizens?

    For the nation to get to the root of the criminal acts on the bridge, law enforcement agents must dig into what is happening under it in the day time and at night. The bridge is most dangerous at night and in the early hours of the day. The middle of the bridge is a death spot. A motorist who has a break down there will have to decide whether he likes his life more or his car. Before the motorist even alights from his car, he would have been surrounded by urchins baying for blood.

    Giving them money or all you have may not save you. They will take your car, take your money and take your life as they did to a retired general some years ago. What have those who ply the bridge daily not seen? It does not take time to drive through the bridge when the road is free, but you will start to appreciate  that it is indeed long when there is a gridlock. It is then you will start wondering if  this is not the same Long Bridge, which takes you less than 10  minutes to breeze through.

    The perennial traffic on the bridge since the rehabilitation started has made it easier for hoodlums to hit their victims who most times are sitting pretty in their cars, waiting for the traffic to ease and drive off.  At times, the gridlock stretches beyond Wawa to as far as Move, leaving motorists groaning and grunting.

    With the government’s promise to deploy security and road safety personnel to work round the clock during the rehabilitation, the public thought there was nothing to fear. But many have lost limbs and lives on that road in the past two months of the rehabilitation. On Tuesday, what many motorists feared most happened. Armed robbers struck, creating fear and panic among the motorists plying the road. As usual, many had set out early in order to beat the traffic that has become part of their daily life.

    The WhatsApp platforms on which traffic news is shared were already buzzing with information. The first post on one of the platforms came in at 4.10a.m.,with  the information seeker, who after wishing the house “good morning”, asked: “Please, who knows what’s going on? The traffic is stand still around ASCON?” Another motorist spoke of “stand still on the Long Bridge”, adding: “People are facing one way (driving against traffic) already”.

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    Then came the chilling information: “I hear there are armed robbers on the Long Bridge”. A flurry of prayers followed, with many praying for those already on the bridge. As I got to the gate of my estate, the guards told me in Yoruba: ‘’Daddy, won ma ni awon ole wa lori Long Bridge” (we learnt there are robbers on the bridge). I thanked them and drove off as the motorist in front of me moved aside for me to  pass. The other motorist drove back home as I headed for the express, praying silently for the Lord’s protection.

    Having got wind of the robbery, members of Operation Awatse based in the Journalists’ Estate, Arepo, headed for the bridge. Their presence reassured those of us driving out that the robbers were done for.  The Lagos Traffic Radio also reported the incident and called on security agents to move to the scene. That was what saved the day, as the robbers vanished into thin air when they saw that their game was up.

    For as long as the rehabilitation continues so will motorists be at risk. To ensure the safety of life and property, there should be a 24-hour security watch on the Long Bridge, which is the most dangerous part of that stretch of the road. Government should not wait until people are killed in tens and hundreds before doing the needful. It promised before the work started to do everything to minimise the pains of the people. So far,  it has been all talk and no action.

    From all indications, the work may not be completed next month as the government earlier promised. This is the more reason security should be strengthened. We cannot overemphasise the importance of security while this rehabilitation is ongoing. Who knows what might have happened on Tuesday if not for the swift intervention of  Operation Awatse and other security agents.