The Nation Newspaper

Category: Arts & Life

  • Staying on the safe side of fires

    Staying on the safe side of fires

    Fire, usually deployed for human use has often been the source of calamities. Joe Agbro Jr. in this report touches on preparations to contain this risk

    When there is a fire, don’t panic. And don’t run,” Nicholas Laye quipped to the hall full of teachers, proprietors, and administrators last week while delivering a keynote address at the safety compliance conference organised by Lagos State Safety Commission (LSC) in collaboration with Lagos State ministries of education, women affairs and poverty alleviation, and Schoolrun consult. The event, the first of its kind for private schools, took place in the six educational districts of the state with the theme, ‘Safety culture and compliance.’

    Speaking on what he called the Nigerian perspective, Laye, who has worked in Russia, Turkey, and Abuja, dwelled on fire risks, bomb threats, intruder alerts, maintenance, classroom safety, and excursions. And in ‘setting up a safety management system’ Laye advised that such “systems should not be ad-hoc.”

    While none of the risks are trivial, the potency of bomb threats and fires loom higher in Nigeria. In the North East, bomb threats have lingered for the past three years, but all over the nation, fire incidents occur on a daily basis. Some of the worst fire outbreaks include the fire which killed 30 students at the girls’ hostel of Gindiri Girls School, near Jos, Plateau State in 2001. There was also the fire incident in 2002 at Ikorodu, Lagos where 25 workers died in a Chinese plastic factory. Investigations had revealed that the plastic factory was an illegal construction.

    And last year, according to figures from the Federal Fire Service, Lagos recorded 188 fire incidents. In Abuja, 69 people died in fire incidents in 2012 while the Abuja Fire Service received 486 fire calls. In Rivers State, 223 people died in fire incidents between January and November 2012 while properties worth N1.26bn were destroyed. In Oyo State, 38 people died in fire incidents in 2012 while properties worth about N1b were lost. And in Osun State, 31 people died in fire incidents while property worth N227m were lost.

    In 2013, fires have started devouring lives and properties already. In Oyo State, about 300 shops went up in flames at Agbowo market, Ibadan. Also, a section of the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III was also gutted on January 8. In Lagos, Makoko in Yaba, the Oko Oba Timber Market and Igando road, Ikotun-Igando Local Council Development Area, (LCDA), have also experienced fire incidents. In Ogun State, a pipeline explosion occurred at Arepo village, Owode, killing over 50 suspected vandals.

    According to the Rivers State Director of Fire Service, Oshogharhe Powa, most of the fires in the state occurred in residential buildings, especially houses built with woods and zinc, from electrical spark caused by illegal connection. “Some residents also caused the fire by refilling kerosene in their cooking stove and lanterns while they were on and some used candle light without holding it with the right stand,’’ he said.

    Also, the use of sub-standard electrical equipment was responsible for most of the fires in Osun State, according to the Director of the Osun State Fire Service, Timothy Ogunje.

    Striving for safety

    According to the Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mrs. Dominga Odebunmi, “what we realise is that people either deliberately or out of ignorance actually do not consider accepting any risks around them at all. We had to start re-orientating everyone.”

    Currently, the commission is concentrating efforts on public spaces such as work places, events centres, and schools. But, believing in the mantra of prevention, it is also beaming the safety light on construction sites. The commission also works in the area of building control and permit. Working with stakeholders, and in line with the building code, it has come out with a construction safety guideline. “In there,” Mrs. Odebunmi said, “we have input from the building control agencies and input from the planning.”

    “Right now, we are working with building agencies to go out and do on-the-spot checks. We have also sent out agents to go into various buildings, ongoing construction sites across the state to inspect. As I speak, we have covered over a 1, 000 (construction) sites. And we have sanctioned some of them and their cases are being treated by the legal department of the safety commission – the ones that have showed outright negligence to the guidelines that we have given them.”

    Prevention

    Relating an incident he witnessed about likely causes of fires in nightclubs, Taiwo said, “what people do now is that when you purchase a bottle of champagne, they bring it to your table with flares. You need to look at the flares to make sure they are not external flares because these things can cause a fire. Also, smoking is allowed in nightclubs and that can start a fire. And then, they sell spirits which can help fire to burn.”

    Sounding a note of warning, Taiwo said;.“When there is a need to be evacuated in an emergency, it is not the cause of fire or the reason for evacuation of people that will kill people, but the fact that people would try and get out as quickly as possible and the access way for them to get out is too small for the number of people in there. And so, you have an issue of stampede. These are some of the things the building code looks at but some people won’t follow it.”

    Recently a Brazilian nightclub fire killed over 234 people, most aged between 16 and 20. Commenting on the incident, she said, “that is worse than plane crash.”

    The buildings

    According to Odebunmi “if you look into that incident, the capacity of the nightclub was 1, 000 and they had a population of over 2, 000 which means 1, 000 persons in excess.”

    Speaking on the requirement for extinguishers, Taiwo said, “waiting for firemen to put off the fires should be the last resort.”

    According to Mrs. BC Akin Alabi, lead consultant of the Lagos State School Safety Compliance Initiative and principal consultant for Schoolrun consult, the conference which was targeted at school teachers, administrators, and proprietors was timely because of recurring safety hazards in schools.

    Speaking on the building codes, Taiwo said that while government cannot carry out risk assessment for all buildings, “there are common things that we can look at.”

    While adhering to the building code, there is need for caution. Already, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Fire Service, Olusegun Okebiorun, has warned Nigerians to be more safety conscious even as the service intends to enforce the National Fire Safety Code (NFC) on all public buildings.

    The arrival of harmatan has made this crucial and necessary for all to watch how they handle fire.

     

  • ‘Prostitution is big business in Belgium’

    ‘Prostitution is big business in Belgium’

    Chika Unigwe is a Nigerian writer resident in Belgium. Last year, she won the NLNG Prize for Literature with her book, On Black Sisters’ Street. In this encounter with Edozie Udeze, Unigwe, who was in Nigeria to receive her award, spoke about her life, her style and the thematic thrust of her works

     

    What does writing mean to you?

    Oh, writing is my career. It is the only profession that I know. It is my passion. It is the only thing I have always wanted to do. I wrote as a kid and I am very happy that I’ve managed to make a career out of my passion and hobby.

    How do you get your inspiration to write?

    Ha! That’s a difficult one. My inspiration comes from everywhere. If it comes while I am on the road, I jot a few things down. However, I eavesdrop a lot into conversations. Sometimes just one thing they say lodges in my head. Then a story idea will begin to form around that line. But I always carry a note book with me. With it, I can take notes. Whatever strikes me while on the way, I write it down. And when I sit down to write, I look through my note book to get the ideas right and correct.

    When you wrote your winning novel On Black Sisters’ Street, did you go out looking for those issues you raised in it?

    I don’t think human trafficking is purely a women affair or problem. I think it is the problem of humanity generally and it has to be seen and taken from that perspective. This is so, because all of us suffer a lot and women are just a part of that suffering.

    While looking for the story… In fact it is one story that struck me a lot, and I fancied I’d make it come out good. There are indeed Nigerian women in Antwerp, Belgium, working as prostitutes. There are lots and lots of them. For me, that is a story waiting to be written, waiting to be attended to. It was a story I knew I’d explore and the only way to explore it was for one to write about it. The core issues raised in that novel are all part of what we live with every day.

    Did you really have one–on–one encounter with any of the prostitutes?

    No! But because I didn’t know anything about them, I had to go into research to do it. Their world is such a closed world and you can’t penetrate it. That was why I had to go into that research and to give a lot of respect to my readers. That was why I was able too, to create characters that were authentic. I came home to Nigeria to talk to a lot of people concerning the issues of prostitution and other social vices.

    But why Antwerp? Is that the only place where such problems exist?

    Oh, it is just because I live there. I have been living in Antwerp for a long time and I am used to them; to the kind of life people live there – both white and black. So, I talk about it because that is what I am familiar with. It is my work and it is what I know. That’s why I talk about it a lot.

    If these issues had taken place in Nigeria, would you still have followed the same sequence in your story?

    Oh no, I supposed in Nigeria, prostitution works differently. For starters in Belgium, it is legal; it a legal profession over there. But it is not here. But some of the Nigerians I spoke with were working as illegal prostitutes over there in Antwerp. So if anything happens to them there, they are on their own. But basically the profession exists and it is a booming one at that. So, that is the way it is.

    How do you see the NLNG Prize for Literature?

    I think it has done a lot for Nigerian Literature. Don’t forget it is the most prestigious Literature Prize in Africa today. It has come to bring Nigerian Literature to the forefront and people love to identify with what is good. The prize for me, is basically to promote literature and keep it alive not only in the minds of those who love it, but also for writers who toil every day to create their work.

    It has brought literature not only closer to the people, but also to the attention of the public. Now, when they are talking about literature and the prize, people listen; people are aware and they respond. Now, you are not mentioning only my book, but two other books that made the shortlist. Even the judges who go through the works, the books build in their consciousness. These are people who otherwise wouldn’t have had time for your works.

    I think also that the prize itself is encouraging because it motivates other people to write. I was at Nsukka for the award and one guy came up to me and said, oh, I want to win this award someday. That is one good area we have achieved much and again the judges say they look at the quality of the print, the editing and so on. These will help to elevate Nigerian literature to a greater height. It is a very good thing because it will motivate publishers as well, to do proper work. It will also tell on the quality of the editing and the quality of stories we write.

    The quality of publishing and the quality of editing in Nigeria is so poor, that with this standard now, NLNG has tasked them to do better. Most times you won’t be able to read works published in Nigeria. Because of the poor quality, you are put off by reading it. These are some of the areas the Literature Prize has come to open new ways for our literature all over the world.

    How did your undergraduate days at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, shape your writing career?

    Well, we had a very vibrant creative writing department. It was well structured with good teachers who had time to teach us to write. The English Department was a good place then to develop talents. Those creative writing classes really helped me a lot and I am very grateful for that opportunity to be there when I did.

    What of the natural environment; the hilly encampments of the campus and so on. How did all that influence you?

    I think, for me, what made Nsukka very inspirational was the professor I had. That was Professor Enekwe. It wasn’t the hills or the highlands and all that. Enekwe was there for us; he taught us how to look at issues from the creative point of view. For him, it was proper for us to be well-educated in the field of creative writing. And when you have such a teacher, all you need do is look at those issues that would help you to become yourself in the future. That was all that we needed and I promptly grabbed the opportunity it offered me.

    Well, as for the natural issues you mentioned, they were there; they have always been there. They make the campus beautiful and cool most parts of the year. But for me, that was relative compared to what I got from my professor.

     

  • Play of emotions

    Play of emotions

    As the play Call For Me My Osheni hit the stage last week in Lagos, the emotions it emitted drove home the real dangers in the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the society. Edozie Udeze who watched the play writes on the essence of this three-man play that epitomises hope and simultaneously passes across a great warning to all

     

    One of the plays that featured in the just concluded Festival of Nigerian Plays (FESTINA) Call For Me My Osheni, made deep impressions on theatre enthusiasts. It was one play that drew on the emotions of people, opening both old and new wounds on the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS scourge and how it has eaten deep into psyche of the society.

    A three-man play, Call For Me My Osheni, told the story of a young lady who was in love with Osheni. Osheni himself did not know where his woman caught the disease from. In-between the time, however, her mind was tilting between still being in love with Osheni or going it alone with her sister, who was always there for her.

    All her relations had abandoned her in the hospital where it was her faith in her Creator that could lead her somewhere. But Osheni did not want to disappoint or abandon her. Played by Chukwu Mary, the HIV/AIDS patient showed in totality the trauma of a society where love is often a scarce commodity.

    The patient needed to be shown unconditional love by those who were in the position to do so. This was why the play was limited to three characters. So from time to time, she would ask her sister to go fetch Osheni for her. His presence was all she needed to be comforted while she waited for her departure from this earth.

    And so with sweet and well-coded poetic words from Osheni, laced with total assurance of his love, she was able to cope. While on her sick bed, not even a medical doctor was seen on stage attending to her. Whether that was deliberate or not, not too many people were comfortable with that obvious and serious omission in the play. This was somewhat absurd.

    But the truth of the matter is that the Nigerian society is yet to come to terms with the depth of HIV/AIDS and how to properly cater for carriers when the going become too unbearable. The play was good in engaging the issue from a very emotive perspective. Done in couched language, and laced with the subtlety of inferred thoughts and deductions, the playwright equally employed the technique of a physician to hack into the psyche of the people.

    Being a medical doctor, Seyi Adigun, the playwright, used the play to challenge and address the society on their indifference towards the scourge. “This is a trialogue that epitomises hope and simultaneously passes across a great warning and flag of caution. It is to show us that love should be at the heart of the society and it has to be shown where it is most desired,” Adigun explained.

    The hospital environment was real and the medical terms employed were apt. Except however, that the drip which was perpetually attached to the patient, was never changed or checked by any medical personnel. Nonetheless, the message was apparently clear: The role of relations in a situation as precarious as it was in the play needed to be looked into by those in the position to do so. A person with the scourge shouldn’t be neglected or abandoned to his/her fate.

    The Arojah Royal Theatre group that presented the play is based in Abuja. As members of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), the outfit has been at the forefront of the promotion and projection of stage plays, dances and dramas since 2007. The group also teaches young artistes the rudiments of the art and how to grow up making money from the profession.

    Arojah has been committed to the ideals of theatre in Abuja and this was why the founders chose to present a drama that dwelt on the soul of the nation. As the issue of HIV/AIDS rages on, it is the responsibility of those who really care to make it known to the people.

     

  • Warm Bodies: Book of many colours

    The zombie romance “Warm Bodies” is cute and amusing enough to catch on cable one day, where its star-crossed, blood-drenched lovers will eventually present sweet relief from the apocalyptic freakout that is the AMC series “The Walking Dead.” If “The Walking Dead” is “Lost” with zombies and a high kill rate, “Warm Bodies” is effectively a riff on every teenage romance ever told, from Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe on. Boy or, in this case, zombie meets girl. Zombie loses girl. Zombie — well, you know the rest, though here the familiar balance comes with human tartare, screams and the unsettling image of John Malkovich as the leader of the seemingly last people on Earth.

    Written and directed by Jonathan Levine (“50/50”), “Warm Bodies” is an improbable romance sweetened with appealing performances and buoyed by one of the better cute meets in recent romantic comedy, when the zombie boy, R (Nicholas Hoult), decides not to eat a live girl, Julie (Teresa Palmer). And she looks so tasty too, a Kristen Stewart type with less fidgeting and a sense of self-preservation. (She’s out scouting, looking for something nonhuman to eat.) Smitten or stricken, R drops everything — in this case, a half-gnawed corpse — and stares into her eyes, where intelligence battles fear. He then smears blood on her face to fool his zombie brethren (Rob Corddry included) into thinking that she’s dead, grunts a few sweet nothings and shuffles off, taking her to his lair.

    Freud described the oral stage of early psychosexual development as “cannibalistic pregenital sexual organization.” In this stage, he elaborated, “sexual activity has not yet been separated from the ingestion of food.” In order for there to be a story R must learn to keep his monstrous appetite in check so that he can be with Julie and not just consume her. He learns, in other words, to separate sexual activity from gobbling brains. (Real Freudians should feel free to parse how this zombie boy handles the other stages.) In story terms that means R hangs out with Julie inside the jet that he has turned into his dead-man cave and in which they listen to his vinyl records. They sound, he explains, alive.

    “Warm Bodies” began as a short story, “I Am a Zombie Filled With Love,” that its author, Isaac Marion, expanded into a novel, also titled “Warm Bodies,” which earned praise from Stephenie Meyer (the author of the “Twilight” books) and led, inevitably, to a movie deal. Given that Summit Entertainment, the company releasing “Warm Bodies,” also turned Ms. Meyer’s “Twilight” books into a global screen phenomenon, it seems it has decided that romances between sort of dead boys and living girls is a niche it can fill. The resurrection of the vampire as the ultimate suave lover has its understandable appeal. A boy-man like Edward in the “Twilight” series may be dead, but he has old-fashioned manners and, unlike his flesh-and-blood contemporaries, is in control of his hunger.

    R is less obviously appealing than Edward, both less worldly and courtly, yet also more recognizable. R keeps his hunger in check without much struggle, a process that’s personalized through his voice-over and in talky passages that show Mr. Levine’s ability to sustain interest with just two people in a room. (Dave Franco and Analeigh Tipton help round out the cast.) The off-the-shelf action scenes mostly involve someone, dead or alive, chasing someone else, who’s dead or alive, including armies of cheap-looking digital ghouls. Like the story, these scenes are familiar if not deadly, despite the nuance-killing music. If the movie surmounts its genericism, it’s largely because of the actors and a love in which the monstrous has been made literal, and violent delights don’t necessarily lead to violent ends.

     

    Culled from New York Times

  • Drawn to perfection: The pencil portraits

    Drawn to perfection: The pencil portraits

    Do not adjust your screen: the above portraits are not the products of a camera but the steady hand and sharp pencil of a London artist with an astonishing eye for detail.

    Kelvin Okafor is one of the leading proponents of a niche but flourishing school of photo-realists.

    The Middlesex fine art graduate is winning plaudits and prizes for his pencil drawings, each of which can take 100 hours over a three-week period to produce.

    From his home in Tottenham, North London, Okafor, 27, has created portraits of celebrities as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Tinie Tempah and Mother Teresa, shown here, commanding as much as £10,000 for each work.

    He has more than 50 commissions to his name and awards including the Catherine Petitgas Visitors’ Choice Prize, part of the National Open Art Competition.

    Okafor’s portraits have also been exhibited at The Mall Galleries in central London as part of the Threadneedle Prize Exhibition.

    Before the artist puts the pencil to paper, he spends days analysing his source photographs, concentrating first on the eyes before using thousands of pencil strokes to build detail showing every pore and hair.

    “The attention I’m receiving is surreal and hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he told his local Tottenham and Wood Green Journal. “I’m usually sheltered from it in my studio as I continue to build my portfolio, but I’m really humbled and honoured that so many people appreciate my work. I hope to have my own gallery in the future.”

     

    •Culled from The Independent

     

  • ‘Orlando Owoh’s legacy will never die’

    ‘Orlando Owoh’s legacy will never die’

    Don Orimipe Owoh, son of the late highlife musician, Dr Orlando Owoh, is sustaining his father’s legacy among Nigerians in the Diaspora. He has released an album entitled: Tribute To My Father in the United States, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME.

     

    Sixteen years after relocating to the United States, Donald Orimipe Olatunbosun, first son of the late highlife musician, Stephen Oladipo Olaore Owomoyela, popularly known as Dr Orlando Owoh, has concluded work on his debut due for release in Nigeria during Easter. The album entitled: Tribute To My Father, has been released in the United States (US) and will be marketed in Nigeria.

    According to Orimipe, the third of the late musician’s children to go into music, his father motivated him. He said his father discovered his talent but never trained him as a musician. He was a member of his father’s band. Daisi and Kunle Orlando Owoh, his brothers, are also into music.

    “I got into music through the motivation of my late father and moved to the United States about 16 years ago. He actually did not train me, but he discovered my talent. He tried me on some instruments and was convinced of my skill before admitting me into his band. That was how I joined his group; and we later came to the US. Since then I have been into music here,” he said.

    His father, he said, did not play juju music; but a genre that is more of highlife guitar music, which he described as music that ‘gives birth’ to all other kinds of music. To him, it is the kind of music that shares knowledge of several music and experiences, noting that: “That’s what attracted me to it, and it must not die.”

    He said: “My father’s music was and is still not Juju, but highlife guitar music as he has always described it many times to reporters. This is the kind of music that I grew up with and I was born into it. It’s the kind of music that shaped my life and I grew up to understand it the more while I live in it.

    “I’m comfortable with it in a way a person who is born into the house of a talking drummer would understand what they use the talking drum to say. Yoruba will say that abinibi yato si ability. I was born into it and grew up with it. So, it is what I call in-built. That legacy will never die because we are keeping it alive,” Orimipe said of his interest in his late father’s kind of highlife music.

    Asked if he lives on music alone in the US, he said: “It’s written in the Holy Bible that the son of man shall not live by bread alone. In the US, I live on music, but not entirely. My father’s comment about me in an interview with Opeyemi Fajemilehin, when he was asked what I was doing in US, was that I have a lot of professions, but that music is my heart and soul.”

    Orimipe had his primary and secondary education at Ifon and Ikaro in Ondo State before joining his father in Lagos. He also studied ticketing/reservation and pre-piloting at the School of Aviation. He later learnt draftsmanship with interior decorations which led him to computer school to study auto-card design and architecture. But falling in love with the computer, he changed his course to desktop publishing and maintenance/repair. He later joined his father’s band where he turned a musician.

    Orimipe’s five-track album has songs such as Kennery transformation, Jesus, Oju owagho (dedication) and Omoolode (American Boyz). A sneak preview of the album revealed that Orimipe shares so many similar traits with his late father, in terms of the content of his new album. It is a refreshed kind of highlife made popular by his father. Orimipe’s promoter and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Supreme Mizik, Mr Patrick Tolu Alele, told The Nation on telephone that the album would be released in Nigeria by Easter.

     

  • Lagos Photo partners World Press Photo

    LagosPhoto, the first and only international arts festival of photography in Nigeria, has entered into a three-year partnership with World Press Photo, to bring the worldwide competition of photojournalism and documentary photography to Lagos.

    The judging process for World Press Photo which began on February 2 will end on February 14. Organisers of the LagosPhoto said they are proud Lagos is on World Press Photo’s list of major international cities.

    This year’s edition of LagosPhoto will open in October, with expansion of its size and scope.

    Founded in 1955, World Press Photo is known as the leading international contest of visual journalism internationally. World Press Photo’s aims include supporting professional press photography on a wide international scale, to stimulate developments in photojournalism, encourage the transfer of knowledge, help develop high professional standards in photojournalism and promote free and unrestricted exchange of information.

    World Press Photo organises educational projects throughout the world: seminars, workshops and the annual Joop Swart Master class. Each year, distinguished juries of photography professionals announce prizes for winning photographs, which are assembled as an exhibition and travelled to over 45 countries over the course of the year.

    As the largest and most prestigious international photography contest, the World Press Photo exhibition reaches an audience of over two million people annually.

    Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is an annual photography festival held in Lagos, with events including exhibitions, workshops, and large-scale outdoor prints throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the general public with multifaceted stories of Africa. LagosPhoto presents a contemporary and historical visual essay of the continent to both a local and global audience. In its fourth edition, LagosPhoto 2013 will open in October, ever-expanding its size and scope.

    The 56th World Press Photo Contest will be chaired by Gary Knight, the founder of VII Photo Agency, widely considered a leading photography agency worldwide.

  • Murder of vigilantes tears community apart

    Murder of vigilantes tears community apart

    The murder of three men within two days by unknown persons has thrown the Abule Oke community, Iyana-Ilogbo in Ogun State into panic. Taiwo Abiodun recently visited the community and reports

    Two days after Abiodun Adebesin Omoola, 52, a carpenter, died in a controversial circumstance, two private security guards Jimoh Adegbite, 51, and Lukmon Alapomu, 49, were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the dead of night. The three deaths have thrown fear into their neighbourhood.

    Samsudeen Azeez and Kazeem Omotoso who both claimed to have narrowly escaped being murdered. According to the duo, who spoke to The Nation from their hideouts, they are counting their days on earth and living everyday as a bonus because they believed those who killed their friends would do same to them. They have therefore vowed not to return to their places until they are sure of their safety.

    “Since January 4, there has been tension within Abule- Oke in Iyana Ilogbo, Cele and Ilepa/ Ilupeju communities in Ifo Local Government, Area of Ogun State. The tension has led to fear, making people go to bed as early as 7pm to avoid being molested by some suspected land speculators who are suspected to be behind the killings.

    When The Nation visited the community and the scene of the murder, some areas had been deserted and the silence of a graveyard ruled. Many had fled to avoid arrest by law- enforcement officers, while some spoke in hushed tones. Members of the community now sleep with one eye open and have decided to keep sealed lips to avoid being quoted over the fear that the suspected assassins could descend and snuff life out of them as they did to the two vigilante men whom they believed were tricked and killed to avoid exposing them.

    Whodunit?

    Now, the question on everybody’s lips is: Who killed the duo? Adegbite and Alapomu’s bodies were riddled with bullets and deep cuts when their corpses were discovered in the early morning of January 6th. It was alleged that some people raised alarm that the community was being attacked by robbers, and when Adegbite and Alapomu came out to face the bandits, the two of them were mowed down. It is believed that the alarm was raised to lure the two to their death. So, who raised the false alarm and called the members of the Vigilante Group in Ifo Local Government ? Who could have masterminded their killings? What connection did the killings have with the late carpenter, Omoola, who was killed two days earlier? These are some of the questions the Iyana Ilogbo and Ilepa Communities are begging the Inspector General of Police in Abuja to unravel for the past few weeks.

    According to some of the community members , justice cannot be done unless the case is transferred from Ogun State Command to Abuja. The residents expressed lack of confidence in the police, accusing the authorities of trying to cover up those who perpetrated this evil act, adding, “the police is trying to sweep the case under the carpet.”

    Genesis of the killings

    According to Samsudeen Azeez, a driver by profession, he has been living in his one- room apartment at No 25, Oloungbebe Street, Iyana Celestial, Ilupeju-Ilepa (Abule Oke), Ifo Local Government since 1995 but his intention to take another room on January 1 was aborted. On that fateful day, suspected land speculators turned his house into a war zone. They unleashed terror and gruesomely murdered the carpenter, Omoola , whom he contracted the job for, along with his colleagues Kazeem Omotoso who was wounded but escaped and Joseph Ogbonna who was wounded and taken away by the land speculators and has not been seen till date.

    Narrating his ordeal, Azeez in tears, said: “I am a driver and have been living in a one -room with my family since 1995, and on January 1 , this year I wanted to cover another room with iron roofing sheets . As the work started some of the land speculators (Omo onile) came in batches on their okada and demanded ratification fee over the land while I pleaded with them that I would attend to them later. However, the boys who had already been under the influence of alcohol and drugs and over 30 in number, instead of listening to me ,they descended on the workers and beat the hell out of them, while Omotoso escaped , Ogbonna was wounded, Omoola was not lucky as he was beaten mercilessly.”

    The land speculators, however, returned to Azeez’s residence. This time, they were fully armed , Azeez narrated further:“On the 4th of January the land speculators resurfaced and hell was let loose, They came with a Jeep, about 20 okada motorcycles with over 40 of them. They kidnapped three of the workers. Omotoso, Omoola and Ogbonna. Later I heard that the three were dragged along the road to their leader, the Baale of Abule Oke, Chief Adebayo Adekunle where they were tortured, which eventually led to the death of Omoola while Ogbonna was seriously wounded and had not been seen till today. I am hiding in the bush now because the Baale and his boys are after my life.”

    Torture chamber

    Omotoso who has gone into hiding told The Nation that his life is not safe from the suspected assailants who have vowed to kill him. He said that he cannot easily forget how he escaped from being killed. According to him, “the land speculators kidnapped the three of us and after severe beatings, they took us to the palace of Baale Abule -Oke where we were chained. We were treated like common criminals; they used all kinds of weapons to beat us. It was painful, horrible and dehumanising. I was in agony for hours.They beat Omoola to the extent that he could not walk again. In the process of beating him, they hit him in the eye and blood gushed out. Omoola later became blind. When they found that we had no strength again, the Baale said they should quickly take us to Sango Police Station so that we would not die in his domain. They then quickly rushed us in his Jeep and drove us to Sango Police Station but the policeman we met refused to let us in and said one of us was dying. We were already naked as they had removed our clothes. The police officer bluntly refused to detain us and scolded our captors and asked why they should put law into their hands. We cried that we were dying. Ogbonna was already bleeding while Omoola could not walk again. On our way back to the palace, Omoola could not breathe or talk again until he slumped and gave up the ghost in the Jeep .When I saw this I jumped down from the vehicle and ran away without clothes on, for they had seized everything and they believed we would not have the effrontery to run away naked. I left Ogbonna with them because he was already weak and bleeding. When I escaped, I was still naked .When I saw a commercial Kombi bus I begged the conductor to give me a ride but he thought I was a mad man since I was naked. He did not allow me to enter his vehicle but gave me N100 instead.”

    He continued: “It is painful we don’t know the whereabouts of Ogbonna. Later, I learnt that the suspected land speculators were after my life because I could give evidence against them,” Omotoso removed his clothes to show the bruises he received from his attackers.

    Omoola’s corpse unsafe in mortuary

    Saheed Abesin, who is the older brother to the late Omoola, said the suspected assailants had been making frantic efforts to remove his brother’s corpse from Ifo General Hospital mortuary. He said that “we were told that some unknown people have been coming to the mortuary trying to claim the corpse. The late Omoola still has an aged father while his wife and children are at home waiting for what the court would say. He was the head of the family and their bread winner. His corpse should not be released without autopsy and should be handed over to the family but not just anybody.” He accused a commissioner in the police force of trying to tamper with the course of justice.

    How Vigilantes were killed

    However, Omotoso revealed that in the dead of the night, the alleged assailants took the corpse of Omoola, whom they had allegedly killed and wanted to dump it in the house where he was working when they were accosted by one of the vigilante members , the late Adegbite. He challenged them and asked to see what they were conveying in the car they were driving. The suspects pleaded with him and even cajoled him to cooperate with them but he refused. This led to arguments, which awoke a police officer who lives within the vicinity. The officer came out to inquire from them what was happening. Again, they made effort to woo him to their side. He also refused and the case was eventually reported at the Ifo Police Station.

    According to Azeez, the owner of the house which the late Omoola was roofing, “When we were informed that the land speculators were coming to attack us in the night we ran into the bush to hide. Around 2 am, about 30 land speculators came to my house with Omoola’s corpse, intending to dump it or to bury it in the uncompleted building, but unfortunately for them, they were sighted by the two vigilante men who quickly alerted me. It was because they saw them trying to dump Omoola’s corpse in my house that they later tricked them and killed them too. Now. I cannot sleep in Abule Oke again, I am in hiding because I am not safe. They may want to kill me too.”

    According to one of the wives of the slain vigilante, Mrs Bose Adegbite, on January 8, at 12 :30 am, a distress call was sent to her husband by some unknown people, informing him on phone that some armed robbers were at the Iyana Ilogbo Junction, and that he should come to their rescue. Adegbite who was employed by the community to be safeguarding their transformers, woke up, told his wife and children that he was going to arrest the robbers. He called his partner Alapomu and they went to the junction to see things for themselves.

    Investigation revealed that when the assailants saw both men they pretended to be armed robbers and then rained bullets on them. However, unknown to them two other security guards saw them, killing the two vigilantes. One of the security guards, who saw them killing the vigilantes was shot in the leg. On the second day, the community were alerted by the security men that two of the vigilantes had been killed and the police later came to take the corpses away.

    “We now live in fear, for we know the suspected assassins are the land speculators who have godfathers and have money to spend anywhere. When it comes to land speculators they have the money to spend and they have been killing and getting away with what they do,” said the man who begged for anonymity for fear of being killed.

    When The Nation got to one of the family members of the vigilante killed, Mrs. Awawu Alapomu, she described the incident as a shock. “We were already sleeping on the January 6 when my husband’s phone rang and he told me that he was being called to come and rescue the villagers from armed robbers that had come to terrorise them. I bade him goodbye not knowing that was the last time I would see him. Around 7am in the morning they came to tell us that he had been killed along with his partner. I was shocked to my bone marrow. I was later told that they had taken the corpse to the Ifo General Hospital. I was not allowed to see the corpse but I was told by my children how the body was riddled with bullets.”

    She continued, “I have six children for him, the eldest is 20years and the youngest is a three year old girl. Who will help me to take care of the children?, she lamented.

    Mrs .Bose Adegbite, wife of the second vigilante also confirmed that her husband was called on phone by his partner, Alapomu, to join him to go and fight the robbers. She lamented that her husband was a victim of a set up. “It was after his death that we heard a lot of things.” She believed that her husband was killed by the speculators because they thought he was going to expose their nefarious activities.

    She added: “I relied on my husband who used to support me financially but now everything is gone! I sell pap and I make about N700 once in a while daily when the market is good. Now how will I take care of these six children? This is wicked.”

    Alhaji Muraino Ayinde who was an uncle to the deceased said, “I am an old man, I remember that I was on my way to the toilet on that fateful day when Adegbite informed me that he had a distress call that he should come and rescue the community from armed robbers, it was later we started hearing strange stories.”

    Sodiq Adegbite, son of the late Adegbite, described the death of his father as strange and gruesome. He said, “When I saw the mutilated body of my father I could not believe that human beings could be that wicked. They shot him in the heart, back, chest and buttocks. There were several holes in his body showing traces of knives used in stabbing him. Now we are left fatherless.”

    Chief John Gbadegesin, who is the vice chairman of Abule Oke Central Community Development Association, described the killing of the security guards as shocking. He said “the victims were recruited four years ago to be safe guarding the electric cables and our transformers in this area. They had been performing very well and were hardworking, but see how they dealt cruelly with them. The families demanded for their corpses and said they wanted to quickly bury them for they were Muslims and we organised and paid for the expenses of the burial .They had been buried in their respective houses.”

    Also, Olu Ogundele, an ex officio said the manner and way the victims were killed was too gruesome. “We all saw their bodies , they really destroyed them to the extent that only God can judge. But we pray to the Federal Government to wade into the matter. This is too much,.” he said.

    A stained stool?

    The village head (Baale), Chief Adekunle Adefemi, who was accused of supporting the land speculators, denied any complicity in what happened. He said his community is peaceful. “I am still surprised that these people accused us of many things that never happened. It was the former President Olusegun Obasanjo who assisted us by giving us the land the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) once acquired. He released the acquired land to the community and said we should use the proceeds for our development.”

    He continued: “ Where Azeez built his house falls into the acquisition land in our area and I was told that the land agents who are in charge asked him to come and see our agents to discuss about the ratification fee before he continued the roofing of his house, but instead of obeying them, his boys seized our representative’s okada. I learnt that the boy then went to call his colleagues and they fought. Azeez too is a land agent and does his business in Ilepa, but the Ilepa land had fallen into our own area released by the LUTH. We have documents like Certificate of Occupancy, Memorandum of Understanding(MOU), Survey and Agreement between Abule and LUTH they gave us on the acquisition. We went to our lawyer who gave us instruction to post awareness notice to the people and for them to come and pay certain amount for the ratification into WEMA Bank.”

    The village head who confirmed that he was arrested in connection with the case, said, “Around 10:15 pm on January 4, some police officers came from Ifo Police Station to arrest me, saying that I knew about the death of a worker at the site. I spent six days in the police cell at Ifo where they tortured me and again was detained for three weeks at Eleweran Police Station, Abeokuta.”

    On the late Omoola who is still in the mortuary, the Baale said, “he could not have been a carpenter. If he was then the Carpenters’ Society would have come to me to officially inform me as the head of the community. Those they claimed are missing are seen walking along the streets, it’s all tissues of lies. Azeez who started the crisis and wanted to roof his house was even begging me at Eleweran Police Headquarter, Abeokuta, saying he was, being misled and was begging for forgiveness.”

    On the death of the vigilantes, the village head denied ever having hand in it , he said, “I had been in the cell since and I have just come out. I am not after anybody’s life. These men (vigilantes) were working for us without being paid, they were our own people, in fact, I am one of the chief mourners.”

    Narrating his experience in the hands of the police, the Baale said, “I was detained for six days at Ifo where they hanged me on the ceiling. They beat the hell out of me for doing nothing. I have not seen where a traditional ruler is being treated like that. I was stripped naked. In fact, you need to see my body, it is full of wounds.”

    On the death of Omoola, the traditional ruler said, “it, the corpse, was found in the house of Azeez. I don’t kill. On Wednesday, the Azeez’s group and the community called me for a settlement and for a peace meeting, saying they wanted to beg me, but I have contacted my lawyer who said investigation is on at the police station and I should not go. They cannot rubbish and lie against me in the public and now beg me in a corner. We shall meet in the law court.”

    The question about who killed Omoola is still a puzzle, while Azeez claimed the land speculators brought the corpse from the police station to his house, the traditional ruler said the body was found in Azeez’s house.

    The community has appealed to the Inspector General of Police to wade into the matter and investigate thoroughly since both parties are accusing each other of being responsible for the murder of the three men. When contacted, the Investigation Police Officer in charge of the case confirmed the story, adding that investigation was still in progress.

     

  • Isiburu: A lesson in disobedience

    Isiburu, a classical play written by Elechi Amadi was staged last week in Lagos as part of the Festival of Nigerian Plays (FESTINA). Edozie Udeze, who watched the play, takes a look at the issues the play raised concerning the socio-political problems that bedevil the people and the society

     

    ISIBURU, a play written by Elechi Amadi, one of Nigeria’s greatest writers of his time, is predicated on Isiburu, a stubborn wrestler and a hero who brought so much honour, respect and attention to his community. The central theme of the play is to show how one man with his wrestling prowess, bravery and courage, can be the main focus of attention for his people. Deliberately anchored on the need for people to love and cherish what they have, Amadi went deep into his Ikwerre tradition and heritage to produce a play that has come to prove that a writer’s insight into the norms of his people helps to redefine the society.

    However, the presentation of the play at the just concluded Festival of Nigerian Plays (FESTINA) as directed by Ebi Pre-Bai was far from depicting the total images and characteristics reminiscent of the play. Although it opened with a coterie of dances to show where the play was coming from, the dramatisation itself later proved to be wobbly, weak and ineffectual.

    By using amateur and kid actors and actresses to juxtapose the essence of the play, the director did not as much think about its implication in the importance of Isiburu as a work done to point the way forward.

    In the first place, the artistes did not understand the names of the characters in the play. Where a name was Mgbeke, they rather preferred to pronounce it Ugbeke. Mgbeke is a local name of a woman born on Eke market day. Incidentally, to those who were familiar with the local traditions replicated in the play, that pronunciation made total nonsense of not only the name, but the meaning it portrayed on stage.

    Throughout the duration of the play, these errors were repeatedly done as if the director did not really bother to make amends. Even Uzo, one of the major characters was wrongly called Nzo. Even though kid artistes were used for the presentation, that couldn’t have been a justifiable reason for the murdering of the characters on stage.

    Besides all these, the movements on stage were drab, dry and dull. When Isiburu who was originally presented in the play as a firebrand, restless and courageous wrestler emerged on stage, he did not quite fit into that characterisation. The Isiburu we saw was rather too slow and out of character to make for what Amadi had in mind when he wrote the book.

    The priest of Amadioha, the god of thunder and lightening in Igbo tradition, used to embellish the story, and to also show how powerful the god is in the cosmic realm of the people, did not bring out the forceful way the god usually acted. Supposedly played by an old priest, fully decked to demonstrate power and maturity, the one used by Pre-Bai was full of youthful exuberance and dexterity. Even though he called himself an old man, his outing on stage showed that of a young man, full of life and energy.

    In theatre, characters are meant to fit into the original context of the book. These characters are supposed to infuse life into what they represent so as to make the audience believe and follow the sequences on stage. That is why theatre is seen as a mimicry of life in all facets. Even though both Pre-Bai and Stephen Ogundele, the secretary of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) explained that they used the amateur artistes in order to help them grow, the nurturing should have been total.

    But in a saner clime, you don’t use immature artistes to demonstrate works of great and established writers. You don’t even experiment with the work of an artiste whose name in the field has already been taken beyond the level of the mundane. Amadi is one of such writers and that was why a lot of the audience felt disappointed while watching the play.

    Nonetheless, the lesson in Isiburu was not completely lost on the audience. After Isiburu had conquered all his enemies round and about and brought fame and peace to his people, he came home to face an opposition from his slave boy. The slave boy, Uzo, was in love with a fellow slave girl whom Isiburu had nurtured purposely to have as wife.

    As Isiburu went out to wrestle to add more honour to himself and his people, Uzo went to his inner room to destroy his Ikenga (secret source of power). This weakened Isiburu on returning to his palace, but the gods quickly rallied to rescue him. Uzo could not survive it but the spirits supported Isiburu to be alive again. His place in history couldn’t be subverted.

    The interesting thing is that Isiburu is a replica of Nigeria where people want to grow bigger than their masters. This attitude has not helped in any way to nurture the youths into more purposeful leaders of tomorrow.

     

  • Up ahead: The world according to Gore

    Up ahead: The world according to Gore

    The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change,” the title of Al Gore’s ambitious, drily written new book, sounds like a snoozy think-tank talk. And while it’s about 30 times as long, that’s exactly what this volume is, a wonky overview of the forces that are remaking the world: economic globalization, the digital revolution, climate change, dwindling natural resources, shifts in the global balance of power and advances in the life sciences.

    Because it bites off way more than it can plausibly digest, “The Future” lacks the cogency and focus of Mr. Gore’s previous two books, “An Inconvenient Truth,” his succinct, user-friendly assessment of the dangers of climate change (published in 2006 in conjunction with the movie of the same name), and “The Assault on Reason” (2007), his perspicacious analysis of America’s ailing condition as a participatory democracy.

    Parts of “The Future” dealing with domestic politics, foreign policy and economics retrace ground covered in more persuasive detail by Bill Clinton (“Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy”), Zbigniew Brzezinski (“Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power”) and Joseph Stiglitz (“Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy”).

    Other passages read like updates on Alvin Toffler’s 1970 classic “Future Shock,” which looked at how our culture was being rocked by an avalanche of social and technological changes. And some feel like textbook excerpts, piling one historical aside on top of another, which provides some useful context but more often bogs the book down in survey-course-like digressions. (Remember our hunter-gatherer ancestors or denizens of the Stone and Bronze Ages? They’re mentioned in these pages, as are historical events like the Paris Commune and the Industrial Revolution.)

    The main theme in this volume has to do with Mr. Gore’s conviction that “American democracy has been hacked,” that Congress “is now incapable of passing laws without permission from the corporate lobbies and other special interests that control their campaign finances.” Both parties, he says, have become so dependent on business lobbies for “the large sums of money they must have to purchase television advertisements in order to be re-elected that special interest legislation pushed by the industries most active in purchasing influence — financial services, carbon-based energy companies, pharmaceutical companies and others — can count on large bipartisan majorities.”

    The results, Mr. Gore goes on, can be seen in “the ever increasing inequalities of income and growing concentrations of wealth, and the paralysis of any efforts at reform.” Such paralysis is particularly dangerous, he says, given the challenges facing America today, like declining public education financing (at a time when schools need to adapt “to the tectonic shift in our relationship to the world of knowledge”) and continuing high unemployment (a by-product not only of the 2008 crash, but also of globalization, outsourcing and automation).

    The public’s ability to express its revulsion at this state of affairs, Mr. Gore argues, “is dampened by the structure of our dominant means of mass communication, television, which serves mainly to promote consumption of products and entertain the public, while offering no means for interactive dialogue and collaborative decision making.”

    He also complains that “virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies — not just during campaign seasons, but all the time, year in and year out — with messages designed to sooth and reassure the audience that everything is fine, the global environment is not threatened, and the carbon companies are working diligently to further develop renewable energy sources.”

    Such remarks serve to remind the reader of a business deal Mr. Gore recently made that has ignited charges of hypocrisy and greed: selling Current TV (a channel he helped to found in 2005) for an estimated $500 million to Al Jazeera, the influential Arab news giant, which is financed by the government of oil- and gas-rich Qatar. Mr. Gore, who will reportedly make about $100 million from the deal, describes Al Jazeera in this book as “feisty and relatively independent.”

     

    Mr. Gore is most convincing in “The Future” when he refrains from editorializing and sticks to analyzing how changes in technology, our political climate and the environment are going to affect the world, often creating domino or cascadelike effects.

    •Culled from New York Times