The Nation Newspaper

Category: Arts & Life

Our genotype crises

Recently the world celebrated another World Sickle Cell Day. Nigeria was not left out, as various enlightenment programmes and media events were held, including one by the Sickle Cell Foundation in Lagos. Dorcas Egede seized the opportunity to interact with two people who became victims through marriage. She also sought an explanation from experts and possible ways out.

Just how much do you know about the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)? Do you even know your genotype? Or what it means to be a carrier, a sufferer and the no-go area in a marriage union?
The Sickle Cell Disease is a lifelong and life-threatening disease. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is a significant contributory factor to mortality in children below the age of five. In Nigeria, over four million people are living with this blood disorder and 75% of 150,000 children suffering from it die before their fifth birthday, studies have shown.
Yet ignorance still persists largely, leading to more endangered species of the human race being reproduced. Many have argued that if half the publicity being expended on HIV/AIDS is applied to enlightenment on Sickle Cell Disease education, it would largely have become a thing of the past, as many would make it a major consideration before even stepping into a conjugal relationship.
Recently, the World Sickle Cell Day was celebrated across the globe. To mark the event in Lagos, Nigeria, among other activities, a media workshop was organised by the Sickle Cell Foundation, where a number of issues were discussed, including the bone marrow transplant, which is a recent discovery for the cure of this blood disorder. This reporter also got an opportunity to interact with two individuals who, courtesy of marriage, have been victims of the disease.
I knew nothing about genotypes
37 years ago, Mrs Maria Adegoke (not real name) met and married her heartthrob. She knew absolutely nothing about genotype and therefore was oblivious of sickle Cell Anaemia or what it meant to be a carrier. It took her ten years and the near loss of her last two children before she finally understood what she was up against.
Her words: “For me, marrying a carrier like myself was a case of ignorance. I hadn’t the slightest idea of what it meant to be an AS, much less the implication of marrying another AS. It took me nearly a decade and the near loss of my last two children to even grapple with the idea that my children were sufferers of a deadly health condition known as sickle cell disorder (SCD).”
She said she had her first child in 1980 and the second the following year, but lost them both to an ‘unknown’ illness not too long after. “It was years later that I realised that the children could have died as a result of this problem. But I didn’t know anything about sickle cell disease at the time.”
She explained that she only got to know about the disease when her third child became very sick again and was taken to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH. “It was when we took our third son to LUTH that we were told that he was a sufferer. His sister, it was later discovered, was also a sufferer.”
From then on, she said managing the crisis has not been so much of an uphill task, basically because she has relied on God’s mercy. “From 1989 when I gave my life to Christ, and committed my children’s health to Him, till they became adults, we didn’t visit the hospital, they didn’t use drugs. Even when crisis came, we managed it at home. But then, their crises were usually far between. Only that just like twins, both of them often have the crisis at the same time. This made it a little tough for me, but I realised that each time I cried to God, He always came to our rescue.”
She however says both are more stable now, having grown up and taken charge of their medications and wellbeing.
Looking back, Adegoke has a counsel for young intending couples, which is that: “AS and AS should never have anything to do with each other. The challenges that come with it are many.”
But for youthful exuberance, I would never have married my wife
Unlike Adegoke, Emeka Ferdinand, married his wife fully aware of her AS status and the implication it could have on their offspring. But he chose to go ahead with the marriage, nonetheless. “I am AS and I knew my wife was AS, but then I’d spoken to knowledgeable people on the matter, and they told me there are preventive measures. If there are preventive measures, I reckoned there was nothing stopping me from getting married to the person I wanted to get married to.”
According to him, a doctor friend had told him about a laboratory procedure known as neonatal diagnosis, where fluid is taken from the placenta of a high risk pregnant woman when she is between 9-11 weeks pregnant. This fluid is now screened to determine the genotype of the foetus. “If the test reveals that the foetus is a sufferer (SS) then, bearing in mind that abortion isn’t legal in Nigeria, you can either decide to wash off the foetus or keep the pregnancy,” Ferdinand said. If however the couple decides to keep the pregnancy, they will be counselled on how to manage the situation when the baby eventually arrives.
But then, Ferdinand said they didn’t succeed with the process because, “when my wife took in and I reminded her we were to go for neonatal diagnosis, she suddenly developed cold feet, though we had agreed to do it even before we got married. And you know, medical procedures are not what you force people into, they’d have to do it of their own volition. So, we didn’t have the procedure and she had the baby like that.”
He revealed that the child had his first crisis when he was nine months old. But somehow, they didn’t even know what it was. He said the baby often had very high temperature, which they tried in vain to manage at home. They eventually took him to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where they were told that the child was a sufferer. “From that time till he was about three years old, we had a hard time managing the situation, which was made worse by the pneumonia he contracted at nine months, when we were trying to manage his temperature at home.”
At age three, he said the child however “had the spleen situation, where his tummy became bloated. Before that time, the spleen had been the major thing that took us to the hospital frequently, because while you can manage other things at home, the over- bloated tummy is one thing that can hardly be managed without the help of a medical personnel.” But on this occasion, Ferdinand said he gave the boy a little orange, and watched in amazement as the bloating disappeared after a while. The action was repeated at another time, and they concluded that they had eventually found a solution to the spleen situation.
But it so happened on a particular day that the orange didn’t seem to have any effect on the bloated tummy, and they had to take the child to a hospital. “It occurred to me then that we were not giving him the fruit as we ought to, so I resorted to making smoothies from a combination of watermelon, pineapple, orange, apple and cucumber, of which we give him a glass every day. Since we began doing this, I noticed that his tummy no longer bloats. As I speak with you, the kid is six now and we haven’t been to the hospital in the last three years.”
Ferdinand and his wife seem to have been on top of the situation, managing it by themselves for the most part. He however counts himself lucky. “I have to be fair and frank, I’ve been quite lucky. Somehow, I’m happy my wife refused to go for the neonatal diagnosis back then, because we may not have had the chance to meet the child. I’m glad we had him. So far, he’s been a very fantastic kid and I love him so much. Besides, there’s nothing like giving someone the opportunity to live for however long God intends for him to live. Again, why I say I’m lucky is that I happen to have two other children who are healthy carriers. All of them could have been sufferers. I’ve seen women who have four and all four are sufferers, and vice versa. It’s actually a win-win situation.
“Besides, my son’s situation isn’t as chronic as those of some other people. There are some sufferers, who no matter how hard you manage them, they’ll still fall sick frequently. Not everybody can be as lucky as I am, and even so, life cannot be predicated on luck, as it is very unpredictable.
Looking back, Ferdinand says he took that decision as an exuberant young adult and confessed that “Were I to marry now, I wouldn’t take that kind of decision. You know why? Assuming that we have been predestined to have just one child and we go for neonatal diagnosis and terminate it. Would we be able to stay together? Would that marriage have been sweet for us, especially since we love children?
“Again, assuming that someone has all the money and they go for the first neonatal test and it’s SS, then they abort it the first, second and third time, won’t they get frustrated? How will your wife feel when her mates are taking in and giving birth and she’s taking in and aborting? Assuming also that a couple has had to wait for say seven years before the wife takes in; tell me, can you convince that kind of woman to go for neonatal diagnosis? And if you’re able to convince her, if the test reveals the child is SS, can you convince her to flush the pregnancy after waiting for seven whole years before conceiving? There are lots of factors you consider as an adult, which would make you not to take that kind of decision.”
His advice to young intending couples is therefore point blank: “It’s better not to take the risk, because while I and a few others have been somewhat lucky, there are people who have had their fingers badly burnt.”
How the Sickle Cell is formed
John Wale, a medical microbiologist explained to The Nation that “Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, the most widely known in Nigeria, most common worldwide and most severe, being sickle cell anaemia. People with SCD have inherited two abnormal genes (genes are segments or regions on chromosomes which contain instructions for the production of specific proteins, leading to the expression of a corresponding trait such as eye colour, hair texture, and height) which code for (give instructions for) the production of abnormal haemoglobin (haemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells which performs the crucial function of helping to carry oxygen through the blood to every organ – and therefore every tissue and cell – of the body). In people with sickle cell anaemia, the abnormal gene is haemoglobin S, and because they have inherited two copies of this gene, one from each parent, their genotype reads SS. The haemoglobin S gene is abnormal because there has been a mutation (change) in the structure of the haemoglobin.
“The abnormal haemoglobin produced by the abnormal gene is termed sickle haemoglobin, and, being unlike normal haemoglobin, forms stiff rods within the red cells, bending the cells into the shape of a sickle or crescent.
“On the other hand, red blood cells containing normal haemoglobin appear like doughnuts (albeit with a central depression on both sides rather than the central hole typical of doughnuts). The implication of the red blood cell shape is that, whereas normal red blood cells are flexible and therefore able to flow through blood vessels, sickle-shaped ones are not (due to the stiffness of the haemoglobin S rods in the cells), and thus they stick to the walls of blood vessels, obstructing the flow of blood to various body organs and parts (including the heart, lungs, bones, and joints), depriving the organs of oxygen and therefore causing pain (the crises) and (with time) organ failure and damage. Also, as sickle cells have a much shorter lifespan of about 10 to 20 days relative to that of normal cells (90 to 120 days), they are destroyed much faster than the body can produce replacements. This situation leads to anaemia, the condition in which the red blood cell count is lower than normal. The implication of this is that the person with the condition is oxygen-deprived and energy-deficient.
“In each parent from whom the abnormal gene is inherited, the gene is recessive, i.e. suppressed, due to the presence of a dominant gene, the haemoglobin A gene. Therefore, such parents are said to be carriers, as the recessive haemoglobin S is unexpressed and 50% of their haemoglobin is normal. However, in the offspring who inherits the abnormal gene from both parents, the gene becomes dominant, as represented by the SS genotype designation. Below is a chart showing the possibilities that may result when two carriers get married and have children: (See chart)

“In the chart above, 25% of the offspring (one of every four) will have the AA genotype, which means they will have entirely normal red blood cells with the normal haemoglobin (haemoglobin A); 50% (two of every four) will have the AS genotype, i.e. will be carriers, with half their blood cells being normal, and with the normal trait being dominant; and 25% (one of every four) will have the SS genotype, i.e. will be offspring with sickle-cell anaemia. It is important to know that this does not necessarily mean that the first child or second or third or fourth is the one which will express the SS genotype; the outcome is random. This randomness and the clear understanding that the possibility of having such offspring exists are reasons why it is advisable for would-be spouses to know their genotypes and why it is unadvisable for those who know that they have the AS genotype to be married, as taking care of offspring with the SS genotype is expensive.
(Adapted from www.nhlbi.nih.gov and www.biologyguide.net)
While haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or bone marrow transplantation remains the only cure for sickle cell disease, most people with the disease are either too old for a transplant or do not have a well-matched donor.” This makes the process quite an uphill task. And so, one readily remembers the saying that prevention is better than cure.
If prevention is better than cure as is commonly asserted, how then is it that people who are both carriers of the sickle cell gene still go ahead and marry each other? Could it be a case of ignorance, in which both couples are unaware of the consequences their union would have on their offspring? Could it also be that they chose to defy the facts, opting to hold on to their faith in God? Or could it be that, they were so driven by emotion that they defied all sense of reasoning?
A doctors’ candid counsel
Doctor Victoria Idiagi, a Medical Officer at NATAFOD Consultants Hospital, who spoke to The Nation on the subject matter, strongly counsels against a carrier of the S gene marrying another carrier. She said, “A couple whose genotype is AS respectively are often advised not to get married because of the emotional and financial consequences of such decision. Managing a child with sickle cell disorder is, in my experience, usually very stressful for the parents and guardians involved. There is often frequent absence from school and work, fear and anxiety of the unknown, financial strain and probably a silent blame game between the couples involved.
“I know an average Nigerian family of eight who have three children suffering from sickle cell anaemia. You can imagine the financial burden they have to contend with, in addition to feeding, accommodating and sending them to school.
“Nowadays, the disease can be successfully managed and the victims can lead normal lives. And although prenatal diagnosis of the disease and stem cell transplantation are now available in Nigeria, neither is affordable by the average Nigerian, as the costs run into millions of Naira. So, an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure in this case.”
Issuing out another counsel, Dr Mike, a student doctor, said, “Sickle cell disease is a hereditary haemoglobinopathy common among individuals of African descent, especially the black race. It is also found in India, Middle East and Southern Europe. Couples having the sickle cell trait Hb AS have a 25% chance of giving birth to a child with sickle cell anaemia Hb SS in every pregnancy.
“The problems that follow are numerous – health, financial, emotional, etc. Hence, we advise people on these and the need to reconsider their stand. As a Christian doctor, my advice is that they shouldn’t marry, but if they believe they have a go-ahead from God, why not? “

July 17, 2016
A lifeline for Nigeria’s dying languages

Globally, many languages are disappearing and Nigerian languages are not left out. This decline was the thrust of a lecture, ‘Neglect of Nigerian languages and culture: Counting the cost’ delivered by Emeritus Professor Ayo Bangbose at the eighth edition of the annual University Press’ Authors’ Forum which held at Kakanfo Inn, Ibadan, Oyo State last month.

The event, an initiative to have the publishing houses and authors to network had in attendance eggheads such as Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, Dr Lalaekan Are, Chairman University Press Plc, Professor Ayo Banjo, Professor Akinwunmi Ishola, Professor Akachi Ezeigbo, Professor Niyi Osundare, Professor Femi Osofisan, Professor Duro Adeleke, Chief Biodun Jolaosho and Mr Samuel Kolawole, managing director of University Press Plc.

And again, the issue of dying Nigerian languages took centre stage with Bamgbose x-raying various eras and spheres of Nigerian life contributory to dying languages and cultures, and identifying possible remedies in his lecture.

Speaking on language and education, Bamgbose identified ignorant views about African languages in expressing scientific concepts as pervasive, how teaching of indigenous languages has been relegated to word-of-mouth alone. But he offered a way out for education in the future.

“As an alternative to the current practice, a mother tongue or a language that a child already knows well could be the medium of instruction throughout primary education with English only taught as a subject,” the renowned linguistics scholar said, recounting how a pilot programme was designed at the University of Ile-Ife.

“This has been tried out in 1970-80 at the now O.A.U., Ile-Ife, in a project known as the Six-Year Primary Project (SYPP) and the results have been impressive.”

Bamgbose then went on to discuss how language is being influenced by information, governance, development, arts, publishing and ICT. He highlighted the challenges which technology has placed on some Nigerian languages. For example, Yoruba, from which he made copious examples, which modern ICT softwares and devices do not recognize, thereby distorting their intended meanings.

As part of remedies of reviving language use, he noted how some state legislatures like Kano State and some southwestern states have dedicated some days for proceedings to be conducted in the language of the immediate environment.

In the second part of his presentation, Bamgbose also dissected how socialization, religion, corruption and globalization influenced culture.

Giving his input, Osofisan said the argument for use of indigenous languages has been on for some years and opined whether a problem stagnating the situation is modernisation. “I always felt with Yoruba language, one of the problems was in the area of mathematics,” said Osofisan of the complicated mathematical system which many Nigerian languages also share.

“And mathematics is so essential to modern life. If we don’t modernise our mathematical system, how do you think we’ll ever use it and convince our children to use it?”

He suggested an authority to work on that. He also harped on the proliferation of Yoruba stations which he said should also have a body controlling their activities.

“There is a conflict, it seems to me between rhetoric and the truth,” he said. “When these radio stations begin to cast news, for example, you will be surprised when they begin to use proverbs, completely distorting the reality of what is happening.”

In his own submission, Osundare went back 400 years when even the English didn’t have faith in their language and latched on to Latin as many today do to English. According to Osundare, English was called the “ineloquent, rustic and barbaric language.” He went on to speak of how the now great William Shakespeare was derided for sticking to write in English during his time, instead of Latin and Greek. He spoke of how Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who was more popular is having organisations ‘resurrect’ him. Coming back home, Osundare said Africa’s situation is very grim.

“We must not lose hope,” he said. “Our problems are many. The linguistics is just one. Let us get interested in our politics, shun stomach infrastructure, go for mental infrastructure.”

Since the Authors’ Forum berthed eight years ago, regular attendees would have heard the Are, the company’s chairman, speak fondly about his grandchildren in Japan. According to him, it was a thing of pride that Japanese valued their culture and lived within the ambits of their language, something which was not prevalent in Nigeria.

Earlier in his opening address, Dr Are noted that even though Nigeria was colonised by the British, indigenous cultures and languages should be protected.

“Many Nigerian parents today do not speak their native language with their children,” said Are who also advocated learning the learning in the language of the immediate environment as from primary school.

“This is posing a danger on both the survival of our language and culture. No wonder level of morals has been reduced drastically.

“It is believed that if primary education were in the people’s mother tongue, it would be much easier to learn English as a second language and be truly bilingual. In our days, the only language of instruction in school the first two years, irrespective of your ethnic background, is in the mother tongue. You must learn in the language of your immediate environment.

He also laid the responsibility of preserving Nigerian languages on Nigerians of child-bearing age.

“They are the people that would be responsible for the disappearance of our language and our culture,” he warned.

“When they have children, they don’t speak their own language and so, when the kids are growing up, they only speak English.”

Incidentally, in a lecture at UP’s Authors’ Forum some years ago, Ishola had delivered his address in Yoruba.

July 17, 2016
Juju music in the eye of history

From I.K Dairo’s refreshing contribution, to King Sunny Ade and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, the legendary ying-yang of Juju music, Dami Ajayi traces the evolution of a genre which spanned the oil boom of the 70s as well as the 90s, a draconian period of economic austerity occasioned by military rule in Nigeria

The night had begun harmlessly like many busy nights are wont to. I was already in bed at 10 p.m, two hours after dinner, engaging in banter I knew will end mid-way, with me drifting off. Just as sleep was kicking in, a phone call disrupted things and less than one hour later, I was driving down to a nightclub on the Island in the company of a few friends.

The situation that required urgent nocturnal intervention was the matter of a visiting Cameroonian friend yet to satisfactorily explore Lagos night life and he was due to leave in a few days. A few friends and I thought it will be inappropriate for him not to have a feel of Lagos nights. The music and myth—and what you read in Playboy Magazine—are not quite enough to have a full grasp of the inexhaustible Lagoon city.

It is 5 a.m and we are outside a nightclub in Victoria Island. Drenched in sweat, we are carrying the club’s stench with us. We had different ideas as to our next destination. There was a camp of hungry people considering a hot breakfast of Amala and Abula. And there were those who wanted to return to the warmth of their beds. In spite of the thinning dark sky, the clouds were heavy and a humid wind foretold an early Saturday morning downpour.

Moments later, we were walking into the street opposite Club 57 at Awolowo Road Ikoyi. A vibrant sound erupting from a live band led our footsteps. The place was called 100 Hours and in that early hour of the morning, it was living up to its name, jamming some proper juju music. The culprits of the sound was an all men band led by a female singer sitting on bar stool and crooning a cover of one of King Sunny Ade’s hit songs.

Warm seats welcomed us and an efficient clearing of our table full of bottles informed us that those we replaced might have just left. A blue scrawl on a white board introduced the band to us: Ayo Balogun and the Harmonic Voices.

They were clearly a disciplined band, hitting drums, strumming guitars and parting songs with such vibrancy even though they must have been performing for close to six hours. Ayo Balogun did not look like a 58 year old, sometimes she stands to stylishly stretch her feet and at other times dances to give sublime instructions to her band.

She was playing Juju music and her set-list was clearly unrehearsed as improvisation was key. In doing covers of different popular juju and highlife songs, her approach was heavy on fast-rhythm percussion and the weakest link of the rhythm seemed to be the pianist. In between the bawdy juju lyrics that glibly described voluptuous bodies and promises of sexual satisfaction, she would sing gospel songs of thanksgiving.

My friends including the drowsy ones were alive once again and they remarked, whilst we waited for our order of amala and gbegiri soup, that this would have been a more rewarding experience than a night of hip-hop and dance. One glance around the bar reveals that the patrons comprised mostly of folks in their forties or on the wrong side of thirties at the very least.

One cannot contest that the new wave of hip hop music is quite sweeping and its consequences on other music genres, especially indigenous ones, is almost parasitic. However this statement is remarkably inaccurate in a sense especially if one remembers the timeline of Nigerian music production and the hiatus between the reggae-inflected boom of the 80s to the resounding silence of the 90s occasioned by the military rule and its attendant censorship.

In a newspaper interview, Queen Ayo Balogun who was then the president of the Juju Musician Association at time of the interview corrects some notion about the perceived fetishness of juju music ascribed to its name. Juju, to the layman, is voodoo or jazz. The mere mention of juju may bring to the mind, frenzied incantations, craven images as well as other fetish paraphernalia. Ayo Balogun opined that Juju music had nothing to do with voodoo or black magic; that it rather had everything to do with making music that speaks to social conscience and good citizenry.

The origin of the name juju is an interesting one. Early juju musicians played an array of instruments majorly drums, guitars and their voices. It was not unusual for singers to sing and beat the tambourine. And sometimes in the heat of the groove, they would throw their tambourines high in the air and catch. The translation of the verb throw in Yoruba is “ju” and Yoruba, being a tonal language, repetition is often used to lay emphasis, hence the doubling of the verb throw which is “juju”. This brand of music derived its name from the showmanship of performers who beyond singing throws the tambourine with the view to catch and thrill the crowd. Although the tambourine is not much a consequential instrument tied to the sound of juju music as a whole, it also gives insight to the roots of juju music especially in the early African church.

Juju music is believed to be a syncretism, a marriage between traditional practices and western instruments like highlife and in some places, it is believed to be highlife. The idea that highlife is actually a genre of music on its own is quite bothersome, especially as it is more of an aesthetic than it is a definitive sound. After the influential West African tour of Ghanian Highlife maestro, E.T Mensah in the 1950s, it became possible to musicians that a cocktail of their culture can be made using western instruments and highlife music of this era could be identified by the substrate of the culture from which it was drawn. The highlife of the Ijaws is markedly differently from the Yorubas and the Igbos too had their own sound.

In this same vein, juju music could easily be referred to as the south-western Nigeria’s derivative of highlife but again this declaration is problematic in its simplicity. Juju’s early precursors—ashiko as well as agidigbo—did not so much as have western influences in their sound. Those sounds remain distinctive today, even if its practitioners are aged and dying off.

It will not be unusual today to draw blanks when you mention the name I.K Dairo. The more likely response will be to mistake the father for his son, Paul Play Dairo, a decent Nigerian rhythm and blues singer who has scored quite a number of hits remaking some of his father’s old tunes.

Forty plus years after the Nigerian civil war and the boom of Juju music (along with oil sales in Nigeria), the juju superstars that linger on our lips are King Sunny Ade(KSA) and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, both one-time apprentices of Moses Olaiya, the musician/comedian, and Fatai Rolling Dollar, the agidigbo music maestro respectively.

Their musical journey was that set for greatness even though they started from a humble scratch. King Sunny Ade, born into both royalty and poverty in Ondo Kingdom, had a love for music so intense that he was more willing to sing than to get a western education. His sojourn to Lagos led him to the highlife band of Moses Olaiya. He would break away from this apprenticeship to start his own band, first called Green Spots band, a name curiously reminiscent of the influential I.K Dairo. Ebenezer Obey’s journey is quite similar, even though it began about five years earlier than Sunny’s ; his apprenticeship with Fatai Rolling Dollar’s band culminated in his forming the International Brothers who became the Inter-reformers after they switched their initial style of music from juju-highlife to the definitive juju that characterized Obey’s oeuvre.

As time would have it, the rise of juju music coincided with the oil boom of the 70s, so that praise singing became a prominent aspect of the music. This ensured that KSA as well as Chief Commander, honey-tongued griots, became not only superstar musicians but millionaires. Hugely talented and prolific, it is best to imagine them as the ying-yang of juju music. Whilst KSA is the graceful entertainer with nimble feet, Obey’s music is more reflective and philosophical—both are accomplished guitarists. As one would expect of music made for dance, KSA’s music is sometimes fast-paced and suffused with innuendoes that conflate dancing prowess with sexual activities. Obey’s closest attempt to a booty call was from his early numbers and his most successful love song, Paulina is at once a sultry appeal and a lover’s prayer.

If the 70s was for oil boom and mirth-making, the 80s was a very unsettling period in Nigeria’s politics and economy, fraught with coups and countercoups. Music and precisely juju music was one of the casualties of this era, the tune of the music moved away from merriment to more reflective and meditative themes, however this was after KSA signed a deal with Island Records. In the wake of Bob Marley’s death, Island Record’s attempted to raise yet another global superstar and the easy charm and charisma of KSA had drawn them to his sound which they re-engineered into a sonic masterpiece which became characteristic of King Sunny Ade’s music. It is this remake that Rolling Stone Magazine referred to as “gently hypnotic, polyrhythmic mesh of burbling guitars, sweet harmony vocals, swooping Hawaiian guitar, and throbbing talking drums”

Names like Dayo Kujore, Mico Ade, Dele Taiwo cluttered the juju musicsape in the 90s, a draconian period of economic austerity occasioned by military rule. In the face of unrestrained hunger and hardship, by all means, culture is one of the early casualties. In this period ironically, juju music enjoyed the fresh breath of Sir Shina Peters(SSP). His triad albums Ace, Shinamania and Dancing Time were so successful in southwestern Nigeria that the widespread popularity trekked to Midwestern states and dared to cross the River Niger!

Shina Peter’s strategy to the juju of his forebears was quite enthralling. As with every genre of art, individual talent and insight was important and what Mr Peters did differently was to quicken the pace of juju music with a column of heavy percussion like the music had never had. His nimble feet and love for sexual innuendo was very reminiscent of King Sunny Ade but his percussion pattern was deliberately different. Even his snare drummer brought a distinctive sound that juju had never known. His percussion seemed to aspire to American rock music and Shina did not pursue this sound with guitar strums; he had little interest in the Hawaiian guitar that KSA had brought into juju music presumably after his contact with the sonic alchemy of Island Records. Shina Peters would go on to release a slew of albums and notably his climax was after “Dancing Time” with a music video with video clips of his huge concert at the Obafemi Awolowo University.

Since SSP, juju music has seemingly remained stagnant as a genre. The entire 90s did not produce one single enduring juju artist. By the mid-80s, fuji music was already growing in prominence. Fuji music finding its early origin in the wake-up music of the ajisaari amongst moslem Yorubas wrestled the baton of popularity with juju music. Interestingly, fuji music is the closest in equivalence to American hip-hop music. For one, fuji music was bereft of that subservience to forebears that juju embraced so tightly; young fuji turks were more Faulkerian in their attitude to the reigning masters and even though fuji was not as sophisticated as juju in sound, it was widely embraced across South Western Nigeria.

That juju music has not produced a single influential practitioner since SSP is a reason to assume that the genre has remained stagnant for about two decades. This does not take away from the continual practice of this style of music by local bands and even by its former practitioners, or the thousands of LPs of the albums churned out still enjoying its fanatic audience till date, or that new school practitioners of afrobeats are pinching from the music and taking the substrate to their sonic laboratories to develop something which is at best referential.

July 17, 2016
Dancing time for graduating pupils

It was the 2016 edition of the graduation and award ceremony of Nazareth School, Festac. The event which was duly attended by dignitaries, parents, teachers and pupils of the great citadel of learning was a memorable one for every guest.

Pupils of various classes, including the graduands, entertained the guests with various dances, cultural and contemporary.

There was soulful music from the school’s choir, as they sonorously chorused MJ’s We are the one. Guests, parents and members of the high table watched in awe as some of the female pupils displayed beauty and brains in contest for the crown of the incumbent Nazareth beauty queen.

In her welcome address, Rev Sr. Elizabeth Kachepa thanked everyone present for gracing the occasion, stressing that nobody deserves to be celebrated better than the pupils. “You will agree with me that no one deserves more attention and celebration than our children” she said.

Adding that the forward movement of the families represented and the nation at large is dependent on the children who are the future, she said, “It is important to note that our prosperity as a nation resides in the values we inculcate in our children;” values which she said are best imparted in the youngsters from their respective homes, the school and the society at large. She therefore urged parents to “pay more attention to their children and constantly teach them the values of honesty, humility, civility and integrity in private and public conduct.”

The special guest of honour, Vice Chancellor, Christopher University, Ogun State, Professor F. N Ndubisi expressed his gratitude for being given the honour to witness such great event, stressing that the children who were being celebrated are the leaders of tomorrow. “Tomorrow is not just the day after today, which is Saturday. Tomorrow is the whole length of future that lies ahead of you, bare and formless.” He explained.

Continuing, he enthused, “Children are often compared with the future because like the future, children are bare and formless. What this means is that it is in this children that humanity as a whole hopes to build a greater tomorrow. It is in the children that humanity also hopes to correct the ills of the past.”

Speaking pointedly to the graduands and by extension all the pupils present, Ndubisi told them they were very fortunate to have parents who could offer them a better life through sound education which Nazareth School is known to offer. “In a world where the future of many children is bleak, you the children of Nazareth School are very fortunate to be endowed with a sound and profound education background.” To this end he said, “The onus now falls upon you to seize upon this golden opportunity and make the best of it.”

Calling on the pupils to live responsibly owing to the privilege they have to be educated, Ndubisi urged them to fulfil theirresponsibilities, for every privilege, he said, comes with a responsibility. He also called on the pupils to lead moral and virtuous lives, adding that to be a leader is to live responsibly, and as leaders of tomorrow they must live responsibly.

Ndubisi closed his remark with a charge to the leaders of tomorrow when he said, “The ultimate goal of a leader is to drill the human soul to attain freedom, so that our faculties can operate at operate at the highest level of creativity and invention to make society attain loftier heights. Nevertheless, moving the society to loftier heights requires that we must steadfastly observe those values that mould both individuals and the society as a whole; values such as obedience, loyalty, patriotism, courage, temperance, liberality, prudence, honesty, diligence, kindheartedness, positive will or determination, endurance, perseverance, knowledge and wisdom.” All of these, Ndubisi said are marvellous jewels for human and societal development, which are indispensable and cannot be compromised.

The highest point of the event came when the engaging Master of Ceremony announced that it was time for award presentation. The prize for the overall best graduating student went to Orakwe Munachimso. Nwagbara Vanessa and Egbe Ikechukwu also received awards for best graduating students.

Other awards went to the overall best pupils in Basics 3-5. Also honoured was the overall best student during the National Common Entrance Examinations, Osuala Maxwell. Other awards presented to various students include, the best improved pupil, most well-behaved pupil, the neatest pupil and so on.

July 17, 2016
Transitions: jegede’s satirical knock

In the last two years, Professor Emeritus at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States, Prof dele jegede’s paintings most ly chronicle Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges.

Apart from the celestial aesthetics series, the works are meant to provoke reactions as well as stimulate aesthetic cognizance to reconstruct the nation. As art historian, his works attempt to ‘disrupt the canonical imbalance in the historicisation of texts by privileging the Black perspective’.

But as a painter, he employs a ‘variety of media to inveigh against economic constructs and political shenanigans that wreak unimaginable havoc on unsuspecting publics while perpetuating the subaltern condition of the underclass.’

These and many interrogations and knocks form the thrust of jegede’s solo art exhibition of paintings and drawings entitled Transitions opening tomorrow at the Terra Kulture, (Nigerian Cultural Centre) on Victoria Island, Lagos. Instructively, the art of jegede who is not only a teacher but also a critic and social crusader, offers him the ‘channel to vent, chastise, and sound a knell about the state of the Nigerian nation.’

Transitions, which will run till July 23, is a body of works ‘inspired by events, political misadventures, life, and personal aesthetics, with the force of ideological proclivities that show him as a protector of the socially disadvantaged and the psychologically troubled’.

Unlike many of his colleagues who are stuck with landscape and common place paintings, the former President, Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) finds social ills in the society as primary subjects of his works that mirror the ‘conundrum of our flawed and fractured sensibilities.’

The collection, which is thematised, is in two broad categories: First the non-objective celestial aesthetics series of colourful abstract paintings that show works dedicated to his late son, Ayo and secondly, paintings and drawings that provoke reactions on political imbroglio, poverty in the land and Chibok girls, internally displaced people among others. Serious as some of the issues are, jegede sometimes give a knock using satire and humour to convey his message.

According to him, thematising his exhibition is a strong policy he chose in order to comment on topical issues. “I don’t randomly throw works out in colours. I don’t produce works for collectors to like,” he said at a preview session in Lagos last Friday.

“My work attempts to rupture the boundaries that are installed in the way that we construct and affirm self hood in the way that we re-construct nationhood. Above all, I work primarily to express my individuality. It is conceivable that my work may touch a nerve or two, provoke a reaction, or stimulate aesthetic cognizance. That will be a plus,” he added.

Transitions will feature 30 works which include Internally displaced police, Boko Haram, Chibok agony of a mother, Generation what, Sambisa forest, Celestial aesthetics 1 to 3, Roforofo fight, Internally displaced politician among others.

July 13, 2016
Soyinka @ 82: Awakening patriotism in youth

This year’s 7th Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) project marking Prof Wole Soyinka’s 82nd birthday anniversary will open with an advocacy lecture, Corruption: A Battle for the Arts by Tunde Fagbenle at Ijegba Forest Threatre, Abeokuta tomorrow by 7 pm, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) Ozolua Uhakheme

The yearly Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) holds today and tomorrow. It coincides with the 82nd birthday of the Nobel laureate, Prof. Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, the grand motivation of the project.

The WSICE is being organised under the auspices of the Open Door Series – designed and promoted by Zmirage Multimedia Limited with the United States-based Global New Haven.

Topics to be addressed by the various segments of the event were selected to reflect happenings in Nigeria and around the world.

The event’s theme is Corruption: A battle for the arts. It is however, divided into two segments – the youth and the adult.

The youth segment will feature an essay writing competition by students while the adult segment will feature two keynotes on the main theme as well as an all-female panel of discussion on Corruption as it affects children, women and our common humanity.

For the youth, the theme for the yearly essay competition is Challenges or not, I love my country and the writing competition will feature 82 students tackling the topic — in a reality television-like setting. In addition, 18 past winners of the yearly competition will be congregated to write commemorative essays on same topic.

The wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun, will have a special mentorship session with the 82 student- essayists and 18 past winners, along with 1000 other children from various schools in and around Ogun State on the youth essay topic. This is a tradition which Mrs Amosun has held strong over the years as it presents one more opportunity for her to impact and encourage the youths.

According to Alhaji Teju Kareem, executive producer of WSICE, “This year’s theme/topic for the youth segment, is aimed at awakening the patriot in young Nigerians, even as many in the older generation have become disillusioned due to the recurrent failure of the Nigerian State.

‘’As usual, the 82 student-essayist and 18 past winners with WSICE officials will pay a courtesy visit to Governor of Ogun State Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and proceed to the country home of the Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka at Ijegba for a unique personal one-on-one experience.

“And for the adult segment, the choice of topic for the Advocacy forum is to weigh in on the current battle against corruption by the government, especially to see how the arts can use its civilising principles and tools to help the society cleanse itself of the virus of material and moral corruption.”

Kareem added: “The arts cannot thrive proficiently in an environment polluted by the pervasive scourge of graft and moral decadence.”

The Open Door Series WSICE began in 2010 as an avenue to enlighten and enrich young minds through the use of various art forms, including literature. It is conceived to engage the platforms of Literature, Arts and Culture in affirming and upholding the dignity of man.

“Focusing on the youth as the future of humanity, the WSICE seeks to foster unity among mankind regardless of nationality, ethnicity and religion. The project aims to combat fear, socio-cultural and religious intolerance amongst humanity and in its place foster a sense of unity, tolerance of diversity and subsequent embrace of and respect for each other’s differences”, said Kareem.

Producer of the series, Haneefat lkharo, said that “the youth (secondary school age) are our main target because we believe at that age, their minds are still open to receive and process change and they are also curious enough to explore and accept the unique nature of mankind.”

July 13, 2016
Enyimba Reading Festival holds in Aba

Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, hosted the literati during the Enyimba Reading Festival, a yearly book event.

Professionals and literature lovers gathered to mentor the young on the benefits of reading and writing.

The event facilitator, Obioma Okezie, was happy that over 300 youths attended the event.

Okezie, Coordinator of the Artrise Book Club and Rural Readers in Abia State, described the festival as his contribution to ensuring that youngsters in Aba get a place on the global map through reading and writing.

In a keynote address titled Back to the books, Director of Schools, Secondary Education Management Board in Abia State Dr. Eugene Nwaoha decried the description of Aba as a business area without considering that it has also produced intellectuals within and outside the country.

Encouraging families and schools to encourage reading and writing by having libraries and forming book clubs, Dr Nwaoha who donated books to the participating schools urged government to sponsor literary events that promote reading and writing like the Enyimba Reading Festival.

A former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Abia State chapter and a member of the National Executive Council of ANA, Mr. Ernest Onuoha, urged participants to imbibe reading and writing culture, noting that ANA at national and state levels has been promoting reading and writing among young people with the ‘Teen Authorship’ programme organised by the association. The programme, he said, has given some young people the opportunity to have their written works published in most states of the federation.

Onuoha performed two of his poems- Images and A letter from a rural Poet, copies of which he promised would be distributed to the schools that attended the event.

Comrade Dannie Ubannie, a writer and entrepreneur commended the organisers of the event for the initiative stressing that such event will redirect the minds of the youths to reading and becoming better leaders. He also performed a poem; Africa my Africa written by David Diop.

Mrs. Gloria Nwankire, of Magic FM Radio Aba, urged the youths to embrace their books adding that as a mother, she has inculcated the habit of ‘reading yourself to sleep’ amongst her children. This, she said, has helped them to be vast in knowledge despite their areas of specialisation in school. Mrs. Nwankire, also performed one of her poems titled Nne bu ihe, which dwells on the uniqueness of mothers, especially African mothers.

During the interactive section anchored by Peter Okeugo, the students interacted with the dignitaries who mentored them on reading and writing skills.

July 13, 2016
From street hawker to global leader

Mrs Yemisi Alatise is the first African to become International President of the Inner Wheel Club. She spoke to NNEKA NWANERI on her growing days and how she became a leader of philanthropists from 129 world countries.

For Mrs Yemisi Alatise, it is all about serving humanity. Little did she know that she would one day lead millions of women in the International Inner Wheel Club. She is not only the first African to hold that position she is also the first Nigerian to reach the peak of the service Club.

Her election was done through postal voting system whereby the nominees never saw their voters, neither were they able to rig or canvass votes. Every contestant is nominated by each participating country and circulated all over the world. They are seen only by the works of their hands and the activities of contestants through their Curriculum Vitae.

Last week in Lagos, she told of a book she is publishing for women, which will be presented at the next United Nations meeting to be disseminated all over the world. The book, she said, will contain contributions from about 42 countries and hopes to expose issues about the female privileges and challenges, highlighting the abuse of girls and women.

The president said that because Inner Wheel is a non-political group, its cannot enforce and enact but can create as much awareness as possible that some countries, women are endangered species right from the womb; adding that girls are killed either in the womb or right after they are born.

“If a girl escapes being killed before or after birth, she undergoes female genital mutilation in different forms and shapes. If she escapes that, she is taken into child marriage. So, female genital mutilation is not of any advantage to the girl, and we need to educate the upcoming mothers of the ill of the practice, most common in the Middle East and in some parts of Africa predominantly done in Europe for Africans whose parents migrated from the Middle East and Africa.

“Why should a woman allow any other woman mutilate her daughter. We have to stop the vicious cycle, that if it was done to one, it will be done to another. There is no other implication than to save the girl child. It is quite sad that in some parts of the world where women don’t mutilate their girls, it is the girls who go mutilate themselves because the boys will say they won’t marry them because they are not mutilated.”

She lamented that most times, the exercise is borne out of the selfish interest of men to control the sexual urge of the woman, even though it has been proved that mutilation can only make the woman insatiable.

On the dangers of child trading, she noted that there is no harm in teaching a child how to trade, provided the child must be tailored and guided and the girls educated to be streetwise and not follow anyone into their houses.

“I was a street hawker as a child. My mother traded in porcelain wares. When I close from school, I will stop to take some trays and pans and sell. Then, when I close school at 1:30, I will go to my father’s store and help till 5-6pm and collect wares to sell. My mother traded in Jankara market. We lived in Erika. But I had routes to pass.

She said:“We cannot continue with the policy of pamper the girls and push the boys. If girls are pampered, they will be sent to a world where they are pushed. If they are not pushed as children, they will enter a world where they are later pushed to a corner.

“So child traders need to be brought up properly not to hawk all the time on the road and their parents also has the duty to reduce the zeal to use their child to look for money. The minimum they can get within a reasonable time should be enough for them. And they should not exploit the girls and expose them to moral danger.”

Having given her support the ban on street trading in Lagos, she noted that there was no comparison of the Lagos of today and that of 50 years ago when she hawked.

“Lagos of the past and the Lagos we see now is a completely different kettle of fish. The Lagos I grew up in, we walk on the streets till 10pm and still won’t be harassed, but this ban the Lagos State Government has embarked on is for the safety of the child, to be protected from harm, so I support it.

“Touch a heart is not just a philosophy, but a philosophy of the spirit, that whatever we do it with kindness. Yes, we cannot physically touch a heart else it is diseased, but we can touch a heart emotionally by our words and deeds. A heart should not be hurts by our words, but be healed with kindness,” She said.

July 13, 2016
Perceptive creativity in the intellectual cosmos of dele jegede (3)

Although there are more discernible facial forms rendered in flaming red and mauves of blue and purple, Celestial Aesthetics Series 2 is similar to Celestial Aesthetics Series 1 both in form and content. jegede created depth of spatial illusion by painting glowing cloudy images that dissolve into space. A close look at the pictorial surface reveals series of painting techniques that crystallize into sparkling and colorful visual wealth. jegede elevates color far above form in the celestial series in order to prick our affective domain and therefore allow us a peep into the inner crevices of his emotions. We hereby witness the enormous potentials of creative imagination that an artist wields when “emotions are recollected in tranquility”.

The Boko Haram Insurgency

The Boko Haram series is the second strand of Jegede’s creative exposition. While the first is celestial in concept, Boko Haram series is based on earthly experiences where defined forms were used to illustrate and express temporal emotions. The paintings and drawings in Boko Haram series are formally characterized by precise expertise in draughtsmanship. jegede seems to pointedly display excellent painterly attributes and profound understanding of pictorial composition. He appreciates the necessity of using illustrative forms to clearly depict the theme and sub-theme of Boko Haram, which has become a scourge in the history of Nigeria.

As a social commentator, jegede’s visual activism found appropriate expression in painting and drawing the unfortunate terror activities and the devastating mass displacement of people following Boko Haram’s invasions and attacks. The members of the Boko Haram group are self-acclaimed Islamic Jihadists that pretentiously hate and fight against Western education and civilization. The Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria came with disastrous terror attacks in most parts of the North-eastern Nigeria. Many villages and towns were completely sacked with houses bombed and razed down. Women and children were violently kidnapped and enslaved while farm products including herds of domestic animals were looted and confiscated. Cities and suburbs including Abuja the capital of Nigeria were bombed with heavy human and capital casualties. These dastardly acts led to unprecedented migration of people from the Northern part, especially the troubled-spots to the relatively safer central and Southern Nigeria. The Internally Displaced People (IDP) became refugees in their own country. They suffered hunger and were emotionally traumatized with many children and the aged losing their lives.

jegede’s witty impulse as a cartoonist manifested while dealing with the social problems caused by Boko Haram insurgency. In the IDP series, he lessened the burden and tension of the havoc by introducing comical interventions in paintings such as Internally Displaced Politician and Internally Displaced Police (Rofo Rofo Fight).

The Internally Displaced Politician is a political pun played on the immediate past President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Dr. Goodluck Jonathan whose tenure witnessed the peak of the Boko Haram terror activities. Indeed, the unabated escalation of insurgency during his presidency was a major factor that led to his defeat and the ousting of his party from the leadership of the country. jegede painted Goodluck Jonathan wearing a tattered bowler hat and looking despondent with a jaw-in-hand pose. A dark bird perched on the tip of the hat with ominous premonition. The worn-out hat symbolises agony of defeat and the trauma of political displacement.

A white dove that connotes peaceful handing-over of the presidency roosted on the shoulder of the man whose lonely figure is silhouetted against a reddish background. The painting satirizes the reign of Boko Haram terror and the agony of displacement suffered by the people. It castigates Jonathan’s leadership and holds him responsible for the consequences of his actions and inactions.

IDP (Internally Displaced People) is typical of jegede’s early advanced compositions with excellent painterly renditions. The displaced people are depicted with loads on their heads migrating to unknown destinations. The human figures seem to levitate in spatial vacuum since the pictorial field was rendered in birds’-eye view. The composition is very rich in palette considering the variety of receding green tones used to paint the foreground and background. The figures and especially the head-loads were made dynamic by the colorful hues used in defining the forms. The painting looks enchanting in formal presentation despite the unmistakable thematic discomfiture.

There are more thematic and formal pranks played by jegede in order to enrich the exhibition. He engaged excellently rendered pencil drawings to highlight the plights of people who experienced displacement in works such as Internally Displaced Persons and Generation What (Selfie). Using large paper surface, he explored the impact of digital and sophisticated information/phone technology on the older generation who are generally considered ‘analogue’ in thinking. The two elderly displaced people were snapping themselves in the ‘selfie’ style; thereby asserting their ‘youthfulness’ in spite of the trauma of migration and age.

In the exhibition, jegede reconciles the theory and practice of art through a dynamic interplay of cognitive and psycho-motor series. A versatile scholar who has distinguished himself as a researcher into contextual aesthetics he is sensitive to the nuances of artistic production and appreciation. Having survived the tough and slippery paths of creativity and scholarship for over four decades, Jegede has sufficiently mastered the principles of his trade and can therefore generate fresh strategic template for aesthetic considerations.

His humanistic philosophy constantly translates to multiplex visions that are often rendered as visual activism. He parodies the state of the Nigeria nation and wittingly draws attention to the ills of the society. With uncanny visual and verbal poetics, jegede speaks to the core essence of living. He entices the audience with profound technical skills in writing and painting and delivers his messages in coded comical punches.

In this septuagenarian strut, jegede’s emotional contemplations are revealed through his articulation of abstract concepts that are converted into visual reality. He referenced memories by addressing the physical vastness and the metaphysical depth of the universe in the celestial series. He continually demonstrates patriotic concerns on Nigeria national issues despite his dual citizenship as a bona fide resident in the United States of America. He captures the enervating effects of Boko Haram insurgency and forecast the rot and profligacy of corrupt officials that hindered the defeat of terrorism in Nigeria. He reminds us of the albatross around the non-release of the kidnapped Chibok girls in one of the paintings titled Boko Haram (Bring Back Our Girls). He reconciled the two painting styles used for the exhibition by rendering the head of the perturbed Chibok girl in naturalistic approach, while treating the trunk of the girl in abstract expressionism peculiar to the celestial series.

It is plausible to observe that Jegede has upheld to a large extent his revolutionary manifesto declared in the brochure of the 1986 exhibition titled Paradise Battered. He had solemnly pledged to do nothing else than use his art for social and political activism. The Celestial Aesthetics series stands out as an emotional visual dolor that equally elevates the soul as much as the avowed expressive radicalism.

July 13, 2016
What African leaders must learn from Mbeki, by scholars

Diplomats and political scientists re-examined the state of politics, policy-making and diplomacy on the continent when Dr Adekeye Adebajo, Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, South Africa, presented his book, Thabo Mbeki: Africa’s Philosopher-King at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos.

If Nigeria is to take its place at its leading place in the continent’s advancement, political scientists say, active the development of the human capital should be in front-burner of this administration. While urging leaders to borrow from the Mbeki’s example, the experts called for an enabling political, social and business environment, along with a better policy implementation.

Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora, who chaired the event, decried the challenge posed by bad leadership on the continent. He, however, noted that African political scientists are too critical about the political class, observing that the problem facing the continent is complex.

“The problem in Africa is leadership. However, the problems facing African leaders are enormous. Where are our leaders coming from? How do we train and mature our leaders? The leaders are not connecting with the people. They leaders are very impatient and want to grab what the whites had in a century. These are issues we must address if we are to resolve the socio-political crisis, we are faced with. When a transition is too rapid, it can lead to chaos,” he said.

While praising the author’s effort at writing a biography on South Africa’s Thambo Mbeki, Fafowora lamented that it is unfortunate that “most of the well-trained political scientists have gone into politics, working for politicians”. He said: “I urge you to come home and partner with like minds to solve the socio-political crisis in the country. My only regret is that instead of coming home to Nigeria where his expertise is needed, Adebajo is in South Africa where there are better facilities, better pay and motivation for scholars than what they’d get in Nigeria. South Africa is our great rival. They have better structure, higher per capital income and they take leadership seriously.”

Adebajo has served on United Nations missions in South Africa, Western Sahara and Iraq. He was formerly the director of the Africa Programme of the New York-based International Peace Institute when he was also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Along with the biography on Mbeki, the author has written five books: Building Peace in West Africa; Liberia’s Civil War; The Curse of Berlin: Africa After the Cold Warand UN Peacekeeping in Africa.

At the book presentation were ambassador-turned-monarch, Oba Christopher Ariyo; the book reviewer, Prof Adele Jinadu; President, Oxford and Cambridge Club in Nigeria Mr Akinfela Akoni and Chief Information Officer Roland Kayange.

Although he did not have an interview with Mbeki, the author, Adebajo, who is a political-economist, said he was inspired by his leadership strength and foreign policy. He bemoaned the country lacks maintenance culture, while citing Nigeria’s political and economic structure as reason for his choice of working in South Africa.

“No prophet is honoured in his own land. That is the story of Mbeki.He will be remembered as a Pan-African. His foreign policy is his most successful legacy. He was the most prominent philosopher king of his generation. Though Nkrumah and Mbeki held international conference but Nkrumah had a federalist vision, while Mbeki sole self-confidence and sense of African identity into the black South Africans.

“South Africa may have white dominated economy but they have infrastructure. Ajaokuta was commissioned in 1971 yet we have not been able to produce steel till today: we cannot generate electricity either. If you want me to come home, you’d have to fix most of this these things. It is important we have leaders that rule by examples, not allow reckless politicians to mess the country,”Adebajo said.

The book reviewer observed that the mutual relationship between South Africa and Nigeria should be re-examined. “However, given the size of Nigeria’s economy and its population, the potential “Thabo Mbeki: Africa’s Philosopher-King, the book under review, is a pocket-sized but thoughtful and closely argued political biography of Thabo Mbeki, the former President of the Republic of South Africa, whose presidency of his country served more or less as the denouement of his apprenticeship and later frontline role in the anti-apartheid and the broader liberation movement in Southern Africa. A major objective of the book, we are told, is ‘to rescue Mbeki from the parochialism of South African perspectives and restore him to his rightful stature as an important pan-African political figure.’

“But ‘rescuing Mbeki from the parochialism of South African perspectives,’ by painting him ‘as an important pan-African political figure,’ and casting him in the role of ‘Africa’s philosopher king,’ sets this political biography in the broader canvass of the recent intellectual and political history of Africa in its engagement with democracy, development, globalisation and resurgent, if subtle racism as a global phenomenon…

Briefly put, we need to theorise Pan-Africanism or the African Renaissance as a social and political field of action, distinguishing between it as an idea or theory and as practice or movement,” Jinadu said.

July 13, 2016