The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Buck passing leadership

    Buck passing leadership

    The scourge of poverty is ferocious and on the rise. By the last count, it has afflicted at least 133 million Nigerians from the desert to the ocean. That is two-thirds or 66% of the population. And it is not done yet. It just keeps running. Why would it be done running when no one is stopping it! The principle of inertia is at work here. But who, if any, is responsible for stopping it? That question just got embarrassingly contested last week in a manner that reminds us of the tale of the bee, the wasp, and the farmer.

    Prepared for a full day of work, the farmer was excited about the prospect of completing the first weeding of his cassava farm before the start of rain. But he hardly settled in when he had a stinging sensation on his eyelid. His hoe fell off his hands as he wreathed in biting pain. As he howled and screeched, his wife and children hurried to his aid. As they made effort to help him, they heard the buzzing and purring of a bee and a wasp. “I didn’t do it”, the wasp announced. “Me neither”, the bee chimed in. And the farmer’s eye was the size of a baseball. So, who did it?

    The population of the dirt poor is growing in leaps and bounds. If you are not one of them, you cannot possibly understand what the big deal is. What does it mean to wake up in the morning with nothing in your pocket to buy akamu for your child? The closest experience was that of the biblical widow who went to the bush to collect woods to cook her last meal so she and her son can eat and wait for their death. Her story ended well because she encountered Prophet Elijah. But not all such stories, especially in our clime, end well. But who cares?

    The question “who cares?” has been recently answered in the back and forth between the federal government and state governors. With neither the federal executive nor the state executives taking responsibility for the state of poverty and its effect on a whopping 133 million of citizens under their watch, what they appear to tell us is that no one cares. Like the wasp and the bee, the federal and state executives just denied doing it. If they didn’t do it, can they be called upon to fix it?

    Yet both of these institutions-federal and state executives- are creations of the constitution which in the wisdom of its drafters, provides for the wellbeing of citizens as a major responsibility of government. Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution is titled Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. Note that an objective is an achievable goal. A goal is an outcome that is desired while an objective is a measurable action that can be achieved in short time in pursuit of the goal. An objective is a specific individualized action or step taken towards the achievement of a goal.

    From the foregoing, the fundamental objectives identified in the constitution should be understood as measurable actions towards the goal of democratic enhancement and good governance. This is why the chapter opens with “fundamental obligations of the Government: “It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe, and apply the provisions of this Chapter of this Constitution”.

    Among the provisions highlighted in the Chapter are the following: 14(b) “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”; 16(1) (b) “control (of) the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity”; 16 (2) (c) ” the economy is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group”.

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    Furthermore, Section (16 (2) (d) provides that “suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens”; and 17 (3) provides that “The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that (a) all citizens, without discrimination on any group whatsoever, have the opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment.”

    In view of the above, we should ask: “how have various administrations and levels of government fared since 1999? Can any be exonerated? How is it that in 23 three years of democratic rule, the country has only moved from bad to worse in its poverty profile. In 2018, Nigeria got the unflattering label of the poverty capital of the world when it had about 87 million citizens living in extreme poverty. Now, a short four years later, that number is 133 million. And we are engrossed in blame game and passing the buck. Or how do we understand the present controversy between federal and state executives on the state of rural poverty?

    The Minister of State for Finance, Budget and Planning, Clement Agba, fired the first salvo: “The governors are basically functioning in their state capitals. And democracy that we preach about is delivering the greatest goods to the greatest number of people. And from our demography, it shows that the greatest number of our people live in rural areas, but the governors are not working in the rural areas… Right now 70 per cent of our people live in rural areas. They produce 90 per cent of what we eat. And unfortunately 60 per cent of what they produce is lost due to post harvest loss and it does not get to the market.” In other words, governors are to blame.

    As if to pile on, within 24 hours of Agba’s bombshell, the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, released details of Federal allocation to states, apparently to underscore and validate the position of her Minister of State. According to her, “With respect to sub-national governments, the FMFBNP (Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning) goes over and above its statutory role to provide financial support for states. A total of N5.03 trillion plus an additional US$3.4 billion has been released to the states by the Federal Government over the life of this administration.” The combined effect of these is to put the governors in bad light, even if it wasn’t the intention.

    State executives were also ready for the fight. Agba and Ahmed had hardly ended their press briefings when the governors fired back. Blaming the state of rural poverty on the federal government which they insisted is the driver of economic policy, the governors identify insecurity of life and property as the fundamental factor in rising poverty: “Today, rural areas are insecure, markets are unsafe, travel surety is improbable and life for the common people generally is harsh and brutish” and they wonder why Minister Agba “whose government has been unable to ensure security, law and order have the temerity to blame governors.” Ouch!

    Admittedly, there are kernels of truth on both sides. With insecurity, rural farmers are at the mercy of bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers. This alone is responsible for food inflation, a significant cause of poverty and hunger. The federal government, with its monopoly of security infrastructure, must accept responsibility.

    On their part, states cannot deny receiving their share of revenue, including security votes, from the federal government. And per the constitution, Governors are the Chief Security Officers of their states. While many have set up security agencies to complement the federal forces, they can do more by equipping them with adequate gadgets.

    Finally, corruption is the elephant in the room of extreme poverty and, here, both federal and state governments share responsibility. Eliminate corruption, which has been the bane of every poverty alleviation efforts, and there may be light at the end of the poverty tunnel.

     

     

     

  • Thankful for hometown

    Thankful for hometown

    It is that time of the year when, by convention, we express our gratitude for things great and small, for the grace to be alive and kicking, for mercies as numerous as sand, for the blessings of untarnished names, for families and friends, and for the love of God that envelopes us. It is Thanksgiving time.

    All of the above are great reasons for being thankful as readers of this page may know. Over the past ten plus years, no Thanksgiving has passed without our marking it with gratitude. As the Holy Scriptures remind us, in all things, we must be thankful because it is the will of God for us. Our traditional worldview also notes, succinctly, that to be thoughtful is to be thankful.

    Today, in addition to my usual subjects of gratitude–health, family, friends, fellow believers, activists for better society, Okeho, my beloved hometown, is on my mind. Not for mere sentimental reasons, but reflectively, for giving me something that I have cherished over a lifetime. Not material riches, for sure. But something more tangible, something more lasting, and, indeed, more glorious.

    Whenever Okeho comes to my mind, which is every minute of my waking life, I remember my favorite political philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau and his reminiscences about his beloved Geneva. Proud of his heritage and its history and political status as an independent republic, Rousseau dedicated his second treatise, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality to “The Republic of Geneva” as he proudly identified himself on the author page as a “Citizen of Geneva’.

    What was it about Geneva that Rousseau, who had left his city at age 16, was so enamored with? He paid tribute to the “constitution of good government” and the people’s wisdom in reconciling the natural equality of citizens with the inequality that society has inevitably instituted. He acknowledged the size of the city republic, “where, with all the private individuals being known to one another, neither the obscure maneuvers of vice nor the modesty of virtue could be hidden from the notice and the judgment of the public; and where that pleasant habit of seeing and knowing one another turned love of homeland into love of the citizens rather than into love of the land.”

    Far from his homeland, Rousseau affectionately recalled his growing up and the beauty of his native land, its laws, norms and mores “and the bonds of blood as well as the laws that unite” him and his people. He remembered his dad and the moral lessons about patriotism that he taught him: “I never call to mind without the sweetest emotion the memory of the virtuous citizen to whom I owe my being, and who often spoke to me in my childhood of the respect that was owed to you.” And he insisted that even if the aberration of youth distracted one from such lessons, “it is difficult for an education in which the heart is involved to remain forever lost.”

    I am thankful to Okeho for that education in which my heart was involved even at a tender age, and which has been pivotal in my development. Rousseau’s philosophy is also pretty much decisive in this. In his “Considerations on the Government of Poland and on its Proposed Reformation”, he advised the Poles on the importance of education at an early age in the formation of patriots:

    “It is education that must give souls a national formation, and direct their opinions and tastes in such a way that they will be patriotic by inclination, by passion, by necessity. When first he opens his eyes, an infant ought to see the fatherland, and up to the day of his death he ought never to see anything else.”

    Growing up, elders, without the benefit of western education, knew what they wanted in their offspring. With education by example, they inculcated in us the values of community service, self-discipline, and self-sacrifice. They made us see our fatherland and commit to its wellbeing. In the intervening years, these values became well-ingrained. In all my professional and social life, they continue to motivate me and shape my attitude. This is how the love of fatherland transforms us to do whatever we can for its development.

    I am thankful that, in Okeho, there has been an inter-generational buy-in into the philosophy of community and communal service. Previous generations, mine, and those after, have been diligent in passing these values to their offspring and there is now a robust appreciation of what it means to put community ahead of self. “I am because we are” is a worldview that grounds the true meaning of existence. And in the last several years, especially since the centenary celebrations, Okeho indigenes have demonstrated the virtue of selfless community engagement with single-mindedness.

    Shortly after the centenary, the idea of an Okeho Study Campus for National Open University (NOUN) was initiated by the umbrella organization Egbe Omo Ibile Okeho under the chairmanship of Alhaji Azeez Salami Lakanla. The idea, supported by HRM Kabiyesi Onjo of Okeho, Oba Rafiu Osuolale Mustapha, Adeitan II, was instantly electrifying, receiving the support of groups and individuals at home and in the diaspora.

    Knowing the plight of the town as a rural enclave with limited if any political leverage, it was clear that we had to do the heavy lifting ourselves. That “can do” spirit was summoned. A NOUN Project Committee, chaired by Dr. Kasali Salawu, went to work. And within a year, a building was completed with all required facilities, equipped to the satisfaction of NOUN Administration and the NUC. Fully commissioned with its first matriculated students in session, Okeho’s self-determined efforts have paid off.

    Now, it’s Okeho Day 2022 and the community is agog again with celebration. This is a celebration with a mission: to further the development of the town. Buoyed by the voluntary involvement of the population of the youth and young at heart who have organized themselves as Apero Omo Okeho, the community has embarked upon a new project, code-named Operation Light Up Okeho, to have 747 units of solar- powered street light across the land. Going by the NOUN project experience, I remain confident that this is a done deal, thanks to the indefatigable communal spirit that has been a mobilizing force for the people. Already, many individuals and groups at home and abroad have made sizable voluntary contributions to the project.

    As I observed a few weeks ago in “Welcoming Apero Omo Okeho”, rural communities outside of state capitals and big cities, with no political leverage, must lift their communities up by their proverbial boot straps. It is a fact that states prudently focus their developmental attention on the capital cities where residents enjoy facilities in education, health, and so on, without having to make individual contributions. This is not the fortune of rural communities. We may judge it unfair, but it is the reality of our governance systems. And instead of moaning over their plight or fighting a battle that they cannot win, it behooves such communities to strengthen their resolve to shame reality and mobilize themselves for the future that they desire. That is the path which Okeho has resolved to pursue.

    Still, we must be thankful for the mercies that come our way once a while. Okeho-Iseyin road is in the final phase of completion, thanks to the sense of fairness  and equity of the Buhari Administration ably represented by the Honorable Minister of Works and Housing, H.E. Babatunde Fashola. That kind gesture is not taken for granted, and it is greatly appreciated by the entire indigenes of Okeho.

    I am thankful to the creator of the earth and all that is in it for where he chose for me as home, for the loin and the womb that facilitated by being, for the community of selfless men and women that socialized me and my peers into communal life, and inculcated in us enduring virtues of selfless service to uphold and foster the values of community. Okeho will always be on my mind.

    Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Okeho Day 2022! Up, up, we will continue to ascend.

  • Thankful for hometown

    Thankful for hometown

    It is that time of the year when, by convention, we express our gratitude for things great and small, for the grace to be alive and kicking, for mercies as numerous as sand, for the blessings of untarnished names, for families and friends, and for the love of God that envelopes us. It is Thanksgiving time.

    All of the above are great reasons for being thankful as readers of this page may know. Over the past ten plus years, no Thanksgiving has passed without our marking it with gratitude. As the Holy Scriptures remind us, in all things, we must be thankful because it is the will of God for us. Our traditional worldview also notes, succinctly, that to be thoughtful is to be thankful.

    Today, in addition to my usual subjects of gratitude–health, family, friends, fellow believers, activists for better society, Okeho, my beloved hometown, is on my mind. Not for mere sentimental reasons, but reflectively, for giving me something that I have cherished over a lifetime. Not material riches, for sure. But something more tangible, something more lasting, and, indeed, more glorious.

    Whenever Okeho comes to my mind, which is every minute of my waking life, I remember my favorite political philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau and his reminiscences about his beloved Geneva. Proud of his heritage and its history and political status as an independent republic, Rousseau dedicated his second treatise, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality to “The Republic of Geneva” as he proudly identified himself on the author page as a “Citizen of Geneva’.

    What was it about Geneva that Rousseau, who had left his city at age 16, was so enamored with? He paid tribute to the “constitution of good government” and the people’s wisdom in reconciling the natural equality of citizens with the inequality that society has inevitably instituted. He acknowledged the size of the city republic, “where, with all the private individuals being known to one another, neither the obscure maneuvers of vice nor the modesty of virtue could be hidden from the notice and the judgment of the public; and where that pleasant habit of seeing and knowing one another turned love of homeland into love of the citizens rather than into love of the land.”

    Read also: Politics, governance and nation-building

    Far from his homeland, Rousseau affectionately recalled his growing up and the beauty of his native land, its laws, norms and mores “and the bonds of blood as well as the laws that unite” him and his people. He remembered his dad and the moral lessons about patriotism that he taught him: “I never call to mind without the sweetest emotion the memory of the virtuous citizen to whom I owe my being, and who often spoke to me in my childhood of the respect that was owed to you.” And he insisted that even if the aberration of youth distracted one from such lessons, “it is difficult for an education in which the heart is involved to remain forever lost.”

    I am thankful to Okeho for that education in which my heart was involved even at a tender age, and which has been pivotal in my development. Rousseau’s philosophy is also pretty much decisive in this. In his “Considerations on the Government of Poland and on its Proposed Reformation”, he advised the Poles on the importance of education at an early age in the formation of patriots:

    “It is education that must give souls a national formation, and direct their opinions and tastes in such a way that they will be patriotic by inclination, by passion, by necessity. When first he opens his eyes, an infant ought to see the fatherland, and up to the day of his death he ought never to see anything else.”

    Growing up, elders, without the benefit of western education, knew what they wanted in their offspring. With education by example, they inculcated in us the values of community service, self-discipline, and self-sacrifice. They made us see our fatherland and commit to its wellbeing. In the intervening years, these values became well-ingrained. In all my professional and social life, they continue to motivate me and shape my attitude. This is how the love of fatherland transforms us to do whatever we can for its development.

    I am thankful that, in Okeho, there has been an inter-generational buy-in into the philosophy of community and communal service. Previous generations, mine, and those after, have been diligent in passing these values to their offspring and there is now a robust appreciation of what it means to put community ahead of self. “I am because we are” is a worldview that grounds the true meaning of existence. And in the last several years, especially since the centenary celebrations, Okeho indigenes have demonstrated the virtue of selfless community engagement with single-mindedness.

    Shortly after the centenary, the idea of an Okeho Study Campus for National Open University (NOUN) was initiated by the umbrella organization Egbe Omo Ibile Okeho under the chairmanship of Alhaji Azeez Salami Lakanla. The idea, supported by HRM Kabiyesi Onjo of Okeho, Oba Rafiu Osuolale Mustapha, Adeitan II, was instantly electrifying, receiving the support of groups and individuals at home and in the diaspora.

    Knowing the plight of the town as a rural enclave with limited if any political leverage, it was clear that we had to do the heavy lifting ourselves. That “can do” spirit was summoned. A NOUN Project Committee, chaired by Dr. Kasali Salawu, went to work. And within a year, a building was completed with all required facilities, equipped to the satisfaction of NOUN Administration and the NUC. Fully commissioned with its first matriculated students in session, Okeho’s self-determined efforts have paid off.

    Now, it’s Okeho Day 2022 and the community is agog again with celebration. This is a celebration with a mission: to further the development of the town. Buoyed by the voluntary involvement of the population of the youth and young at heart who have organized themselves as Apero Omo Okeho, the community has embarked upon a new project, code-named Operation Light Up Okeho, to have 747 units of solar- powered street light across the land. Going by the NOUN project experience, I remain confident that this is a done deal, thanks to the indefatigable communal spirit that has been a mobilizing force for the people. Already, many individuals and groups at home and abroad have made sizable voluntary contributions to the project.

    As I observed a few weeks ago in “Welcoming Apero Omo Okeho”, rural communities outside of state capitals and big cities, with no political leverage, must lift their communities up by their proverbial boot straps. It is a fact that states prudently focus their developmental attention on the capital cities where residents enjoy facilities in education, health, and so on, without having to make individual contributions. This is not the fortune of rural communities. We may judge it unfair, but it is the reality of our governance systems. And instead of moaning over their plight or fighting a battle that they cannot win, it behooves such communities to strengthen their resolve to shame reality and mobilize themselves for the future that they desire. That is the path which Okeho has resolved to pursue.

    Still, we must be thankful for the mercies that come our way once a while. Okeho-Iseyin road is in the final phase of completion, thanks to the sense of fairness  and equity of the Buhari Administration ably represented by the Honorable Minister of Works and Housing, H.E. Babatunde Fashola. That kind gesture is not taken for granted, and it is greatly appreciated by the entire indigenes of Okeho.

    I am thankful to the creator of the earth and all that is in it for where he chose for me as home, for the loin and the womb that facilitated by being, for the community of selfless men and women that socialized me and my peers into communal life, and inculcated in us enduring virtues of selfless service to uphold and foster the values of community. Okeho will always be on my mind.

    Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Okeho Day 2022! Up, up, we will continue to ascend.

  • Rebellion of Nature

    Rebellion of Nature

    Preamble

    Arabs, in spite of what may be their misdemeanour today, are highly gifted in prose and poetry. Their literary prowess is unsurpassable as they combine the heritage of the Hellenes with that of Islamic treasures. In what has become an axiom, one poet among them once succinctly but philosophically put across the following couplet for the benefit of mankind:

    Human sense channelizes the course of destiny: whoever misapplies his sense and blocks that course should not blame destiny for his or her misfortune..

     

    Restiveness of the world

    The world is restive today not just for its bereavement of peace but also for the hopelessness which that bereavement entails. From Wellington in Australia to Helsinki in Finland; from Anchorage in America to Hiroshima in Japan; from Beijing in China to El Salado in Argentina and from Casablanca in Morocco to Antananarivo in Madagascar there is no peace and there is no hope for it. Nigeria’s share of this calamity is as enormous as that of the United States of America. Bomb blasts or massacre today, flood or hurricane tomorrow. Yet, both countries are comrades in arms.

     

    When and where did we start taking wrong steps?

    A Yoruba adage poses a relevant challenge when it states thus: when a kid falls down he looks forward for rescue but when an adult falls down he looks backwards to assess the cause of his fall.. That adage is worth studying by the right-thinking men who are capable of asking the right question at the right time: when and where did we start taking wrong steps?

    Venturing a little back into the recent past, one will discover that the world was not anything near the current prevailing barbarism even about 50 years ago. The occurrences which piloted the world to this stage can be best described as , REBELLION OF NATURE against man. And that rebellion could only have emanated from man’s own invention. People who are more than 60 years of age will testify to the fact that this same world of ours had once been in perfect serenity with harmony and concord even as peace was generally taken for granted.

     

    Problem of Man

    The main problem of man is to assume that the world is meant for him alone. He hardly believes that all other creatures like soil; animals, birds, insects, vegetations, waters, air and others known and unknown also have a right to claim a space in the tapestry of the wonderful web called the world. Yes, man is made the captain of this web but that does not give him the absolute right to re-write the constitution of the world by tampering with the nature of other creatures.

     

    Audacity of Man

    In an audacious attempt to affirm his supremacy over all other creatures man has gone deep into the firmament of transgression. He does not only change the courses of rivers and distort the nature of vegetations he also tampers with the flow of air just as he rebrands the nature of certain animals and trees in his so-called scientific experiments adopted to further the course of his capitalist project. Thus, for many years, other creatures have tolerated the dominance of man for as long as that dominance remained positively tolerable. But when it became too negative to bear, they collaborated to rebel against the oppression of man by fighting back in a way that beat the imagination of the oppressor. Today, whether through the tsunami in Japan or the wild fire in Australia, or earthquake in Haiti and Iran or hurricane in America and Canada, or flood in Africa the ecosystem is angrily revolting not only against the transgression of man over it but also against man’s inhumanity to fellow man.

     

    Greed

    With his glorification of greed, man has relegated justice to the background by rendering truth irrelevant and by deifying an agent of trade called money. This has led to crowning money as the global ‘god’ which virtually everybody on earth is now worshipping directly or indirectly. Capitalism as a major weapon of Satan has become the finger of destiny with which the success or failure of everything is measured.

    The world is restive today not because some people have gone berserk by choosing the satanic course of barbarism, vandalism and terrorism but because such people were created by injustice through capitalism. If the truth must be told, manipulation of world serenity for the purpose of capitalism is the root cause of restiveness in the world today. And anybody who wants to change the status quo must be ready to return to the old order by restoring justice and shedding the toga of satanic supremacy. At the inception of the world, the Almighty Allah had called it a divine trust and he had called for volunteers among His creatures to keep its custody in trust. This is contained in Qur’an chapter 33, verse 172 thus: ‘we offered the trust to the heavens, to the earth and to the mountains but they all refused to bear it as they were afraid of it. However, man, out of arrogance and ignorance undertook to keep custody of it but he has since proved to be foolishly unjust’.

     

    Injustice

    The injustice in the world today is not only that of man to man but also of man to nature. The search for the wealth in the belly of the soil by all means and without any consideration for the pain which the soil itself can suffer in the process is a major cause of nature’s rebellion against man. Excavation of minerals, fossils and antiquities as well as seeking for more space through the expansion of the earth by reclamation of swampy areas around oceans and seas continues to bring untold hardship to man and the ecosystem even as man persists on these activities. Earthquakes, cyclone, hurricane, flood  and tsunami which are now called natural disasters are some of the results of those activities. If the ecosystem had done to man only one percent of what man has been doing to it the world would have for long forgotten any existence of man on earth.

    Yet, without minding the consequences, man continues to invent elements of destruction in form of human and material forces by ventilating the avenue for bringing the world to an abrupt end only to turn round and blame nature or human terrorism for it. This world was quite orderly and virtuous until the capitalists introduced into it the obstructions that turned it upside down and brought restiveness to the fore. For instance from time immemorial, mothers had been breastfeeding their infants and this natural upbringing had spoken in understandable language to those who can reason. It took the capitalists to introduce processed animal milk to the world which was rebranded baby formula. This was backed up with unprecedented adverts and commercial campaigns that tricked mothers into accepting it. For about two generations of almost 50 years human infants were forced to take animal milk. And by the time they all grew up to be men and women the die had been cast.

     

    The world we are living today

    Kindness had disappeared from the surface of the earth, dignity had vamoosed and man’s humanity for man had become flakes of history.

    Children of yesterday began to behave like animals of today. Now, there are men but no husbands. There are women but no wives. There are children bearers but no parents. Couples began to live like co-tenants. There are certificates but no knowledge. Responsibility has taken flight even as children began to treat their aged parents like outcasts thereby reducing the once highly valued cultures into unnecessary luxury. Genuine workers are not adequately remunerated. Governance has become a trade that must yield profit for the rulers even as governments are trading officially in lottery and other forms of usury thereby giving the impression that in making money, only the end is capable of justifying the means.

     

    Nigeria for Instance

    Here in Nigeria about 97% of the oil wealth is shared among only three percent of the population while 97% of the entire populace wallow in abject poverty in their struggle for a share of the 3% wealth left for them by the governing cabal who propound obnoxious policies to create monster for themselves with which to hound perceived enemies. And as a result of such policies they have become prisoners in their own houses and environments even as they now run away from their own shadows.

    All these were compounded by the introduction of yet some other terribly devastating elements like cocaine, marijuana, heroin and others of the like used by the new human species to charge themselves into untameable wildness. Thus, today, the world is at war with itself as ubiquity of drug barons, drug addicts, hired killers, bandits, armed robbers, political thugs, economic vandals and suicide bombers come to the prowl. Even religion, the once exclusive niche is not spared. More than 90% of today’s clerics across faiths are shams merely hiding under the cloak of religion to extort money from their sheepish followers and exploit them to marrow. Where are we going from here?

     

    Vices to avoid

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had admonished Muslims against all these vices some of which he described as signs of the last days. That prophesy is vividly reflected in the poem of another Arab poet who said: ‘This is the time against which we had been warned through the transmission of Ubayy Bn Ka’b and Abdullah Bn Mas’ud; a time in which the truth would be consigned to the refuse bin while falsehood and treachery would be held aloft; Were this time to linger for long, humanity would have zoomed into a situation whereby no one would cry over the death of a dear one and no joy would be expressed over the birth of a new baby”.

    Now, in Nigeria, we have boxed ourselves into one corner of a ring where the ruled can no longer believe the rulers because governance is based on falsehood and rulers are perceived as sheer liars. We are in a period where betrayal rather than trust is the order of the day and those in charge of the treasury are the real thieves stealing people’s money kept in that treasury and giving a part of the loot to religious sanctuaries. Those charged with the nation’s security are the greatest threat to the same security. Or how else can we classify our so called police?

     

    Colonialist Infrastructure

    Ours is a nation where the infrastructure provided by the colonialists over 70 years ago cannot be maintained despite the enormous wealth at our disposal. Billions of naira is budgeted every year for electricity, road network, railway, aviation, agriculture, and other vital projects. Yet there are no such projects in place and the budgeted money is never returned to the treasury. Over 70% of what is supposed to constitute the workforce for the nation is idle. Those who had spent their vital youthful years serving the nation are left to die of hunger and wretchedness in their old age as their pension is being pocketed by some fictitious official fingers. We are in an era where the lesson to be taught to the youth is public mutual abuse by certain shameless former rulers of this country who call each other a fool. The situation in the Southwest is the worst. Here is a region where language and culture have been lost in the name of civilization. Majority of those who went through schools can no longer speak their mother tongue. Yet they are embarrassingly backward in English language to which they lost their natural language. No moral lessons on radio and television stations, no cultural values in private homes and public places. All that matters is the money that can be made and not how such money is made.

    In this, what legacy can the present generation leave behind? And what heritage can the future generations expect from criminal prisoners who are met on their return from prisons by co party stalwarts with songs and dances? Whenever we hear of bomb blasts and suicide bombings nowadays we get alarmed and terribly agitated forgetting that these are the fruits of the seed which some leaders of yesteryears had planted in the soil of Nigeria. Or have we all forgotten that the very first bomb blast that killed a Nigerian (Dele Giwa) was linked to government quarters? What else is expected of the experts who carried out that dastardly act? Besides utilizing that skill for their own purpose having served their employers meritoriously, can’t they pass their expertise to some other Nigerians who might need such skill? The lamentations by some people today on the hearing of bomb blasts, is an indication that Nigerians are either forgetful or mischievous. By and large it should not be expected that prayers for which many people have called will solve any crime or negligent problem. Who are those to pray? What is their record before Allah? The panacea for criminal acts is to desist from criminal acts. Thousands of years of prayers against crimes by criminals can never bring succour to this world. Most of those perceived as men of God who will want to champion prayers to God are more covertly criminal than those actually perceived as criminals. They are rather men of Satan than men of God. Allah has strongly warned thus: Surely Allah will not change the situation of a nation or a community until they themselves have reneged from evil acts and if Allah intends punishment for a nation or a community no one can repel it except a change for the better by the nation or community in question…. Q. 13: 11.

  • Still on insecurity

    Still on insecurity

    According to the wisdom of the elders, as long as there is an infestation of lice on our attire, we cannot avoid blood stain on our fingers. Lord knows that there is a colony of lice on our national attire, so we have embarrassing blood-stained fingers. There’s perhaps no better evidence of our body lice infiltration than in our security architecture. It would be easy to brush this aside as one of those things which shouldn’t cause a national hypertension if it doesn’t involve the unpardonable loss of innocent lives.

    I pleaded with my editors to use the picture illustration of this piece today because I want you as readers and the leaders of this country to experience the heartache that I suffered when I saw it. I am aware that we read of kidnappings for ransom on an hourly basis. I know that our consciousness has been numbed to the reality of life in our jungle of existence that we glorify as a nation. But if there is still some modicum of human feeling in us, this is the time to summon it.

    I want this picture to get fixed in the hippocampus of everyone who sees it, not as a tormentor, but as a catalyst for necessary action. I pray that no one who sees this picture will ever remain the same until they participate in the action needed to bring sanity to the security of lives and property in this nation. It is my desire that, with this picture, no leader or follower, no politician or activist, woman or man, will know or experience rest until they contribute to a lasting solution and it is found.

    The young man lying in his pool of blood wasn’t an armed robber meeting a deserved end. This young man was in the right place, where as a nation, we expect him to be.

    Michael Adeyemi was from Ile Ogbo in Iwo. He worked at a poultry farm at the Farmers Settlement along Okaka-Iseyin Road in the Okeogun axis of Oyo state. From media reports, he was killed when kidnappers exchanged gunfire with security operatives who tried to rescue him and other kidnap victims. And as reported, subsequent to his death, the kidnappers raised their ransom fee for the surviving victims to N40m. Michael left his hometown in search of livelihood at the farm settlement. He was doing the job that he signed up for. That was until, the wrong people, visited him and his fellow workers.

    When armed Kidnappers with AK-47 showed up, what is a normal human reaction in such a situation? Instinctively, you will try and run for your life. Encouraged by the intervention of security operatives, that was what this young man did. And he was gunned down as he fled for his life! Now, we are hearing more about the perpetrators as some of them have been apprehended and are confessing. We know their background as herdsmen turned kidnappers. They have their nests in the forests across the land, both north and south.

    Primate Uche of the Methodist Church told the nation in a life press conference about his encounter with them and what they told him was their mission. Yet, as a country, we pretend that nothing is amiss as our national leaders cling to a one size fits all security mentality. They insist on doing the same thing the same way over and over again even as the result continues to be an abject failure. Yet they are not insane. But what do the wise tell us is the definition of insanity again? I wonder.

    The foremost rationale for any political community’s coming into being is the security of members. People can fend for themselves and eke out a living no matter how meager, if they are safe and secure. But notice now how farmers are afraid of going to the farm and thus becoming more and more impoverished. A government that is keen on alleviating poverty cannot afford to pooh-pooh the importance of security. In the same manner, you cannot attract foreign direct investment in an environment of insecurity. The travel advisory by the United States, UK, and other western countries should therefore be of concern. But it is what it is!

    For a long time, the nation has imposed the responsibility of governments on middle and upper class families across the nation. They procure water for their needs with boreholes since governments are incapable of providing potable water. They generate power for their use with electricity generators. We have abandoned water dam projects across the land which can produce water and power; but since at least 1999, no administration has considered it urgent to resuscitate and make them work for the good of citizens.  With power and water, upper middle class folks are coping. Forget about the poor and wretched of the earth. Who cares what their lot is?

    For security also, the wealthy are unperturbed. They have fortified mansions, and they can afford to hire the most reliable security personnel. They don’t have to travel our highway death traps. They can fly in private jets or helicopters. And that’s what they do. So, they have no idea what our people go through and this chatter about insecurity is just that: the blabber of nauseating nuisance coming from those with nothing good for the use of their time.

    Otherwise why would a government that cares insist on monopolizing the security of citizens when every evidence shows its ineffectiveness? Even when Governors have security funds that they don’t have to account for, and some with conscience have expressed an interest in using those funds to procure weapons for their security personnel, created by the legislative authorities of their states, the federal government blocks their efforts. Why? Are federal authorities happy that innocent lives are being lost? Is their truly a hidden agenda as many have alleged?

    Southwest governors initiated the Western Nigeria Security Network code-named Amotekun to complement the efforts of the federal police. Rather than commend their efforts, federal authorities rose up in arms to frustrate them. The governors asked for permits for the operatives of Amotekun to carry weapons as their counterparts up North do. They were turned down.

    It makes no security sense that the police-civilian ratio is so low and our police officers often wade through security situations with their hands tied to their back while criminals operate with the most sophisticated gadgets, including advanced communication tools and high grade weapons. So, when they are overwhelmed, instead of making themselves sacrificial lambs in a country where heroes are treated as fools, they do what their survival instincts dictate; they take to their feet. But our leaders don’t care. They play games with the lives of the citizens whom they took an oath to protect.

    A few weeks ago, on this page, I praised the courage of Northern Governors and traditional rulers for rallying for state police. I then thought that the gesture was a breakpoint in the back and forth on the desirability, and indeed, necessity of moving policing to the local jurisdictions where it matters most. Everyone that has anything to do with this issue knows what happens in other climes where, while crime and criminality occur, they are not to the level of national paralysis that we are here in. Yet leaders play the ostrich.

    Since the news conference announcing the position of Northern stakeholders on the matter of state police, however, I haven’t heard of any follow-up movements. Is something going on behind the scene? Or was that announcement one of those stage-managed affairs meant to pull wool in the eyes of the public?

    In the midst of the unfortunate insensitivity on the part of government, it is up to patriotic individuals, groups and associations to take upon themselves the security of lives and properties in their various communities. That’s what many of our people are doing, raising funds and supporting volunteers combing the forest hideouts of criminal elements. These group efforts need the support of well-meaning individuals who still have human feeling and the benefit of a conscience that pricks.

  • Between Omoluabi and Agbasanko

    Between Omoluabi and Agbasanko

    My Bola Ige 2007 Birthday Lecture, sponsored by Bola Ige Movement, and delivered at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, included a section on Omoluabi and Agbasanko. Over the years, I have had more reflections on these concepts, especially as our enormous challenges cross my mind.

    We place a high premium on Omoluabi and we see whoever displays its quality as the epitome of decency and integrity, a paragon of excellence in character. But how do we understand Omoluabi? What is its genesis? Breaking the concept down by its components, we are taught that it means Omo ti Olu iwa bi-a baby begotten by the Chief of iwa. And we conclude that since iwa is character, the baby begotten by the chief of character must be a model of character, an exemplar of iwa. This raises the question: who is Olu iwa? In common parlance, Iwa is the daughter of Suuru (Suuru baba Iwa), and Suuru is the son of Olodumare. Therefore, Olodumare is Olu Iwa, the ultimate source and Chief of character.

    From the foregoing, then, if Omoluabi is one begotten by Olu Iwa, that is, Olodumare, it follows that everyone is Omoluabi.  But this is not true! Not every creator of Olodumare turns out to be Omoluabi. Just as we acknowledge Omoluabi, we also know of omokomo (a worthless child). At best, then, what we can say is that every child begotten by Olu Iwa is Omoluabi in name, with the potential to be Omoluabi in action. The actualization of that potential is dependent on effective cultural education. If this is missing, omokomo is the end result.

    Omokomo is an abiiko (born but not educated) or akoigba (one who refused to be educated). Therefore, if the birth of Omoluabi is not followed with adequate cultural education, it is a short step to becoming omokomo. Obviously, then, the transition from omokomo to adulthood cannot be good unless there is intervention. It is better to get rid of the tender shoots of iroko tree before they are too big to handle. It is so with omokomo.

    There is, however, another scenario. Here, Omoluabi is culturally educated at the appropriate time and he/she becomes a model of character as a young adult. We refer to him as omogidi, a genuine child. An omogidi is responsible as a youth, knows his place in society, defers to the elders, participates actively in communal duties, and is the idol of his/her group.

    Yet, it is not uncommon that the next stage of omogidi’s life may see him/her transform into an irresponsible adult, also due to the absence of appropriate continuing cultural education. Sure, omogidi is no longer a kid. But education is not limited to kids. I want to argue that as we have the concept of Omoluabi, that is, a child begotten by Olu iwa, so we need the concept of agbaluako, that is agba ti Olu iwa ko (the adult who is trained by Olu iwa).

    A child born by Olu iwa must become an adult that is trained by Olu iwa. Without this, there is no escape from his becoming an irresponsible adult. It is this adult cultural education by Olu iwa that turns an Omoluabi into Agbasanko. Born as Omoluabi, our model receives vital cultural education and training, which makes him omogidi; and through further cultural education, as agbaluako, he/she becomes Agbasanko, an elder with integrity.

    What kind of training does an agbaluako go through? It is cultural training at the feet of agbasanko. You do not become an agbasanko by mere aping. Anyone who is not prepared to be a seasoned elder through appropriate cultural education can only ape and deceive. Olu iwa teaches us that one does not become an elder without the requisite courage and fortitude.

    Read Also: Mr Macaroni, Yemi Elesho join fans for Omoluabi Day

    There is also the unfortunate category of agbaaya (a.k.a. agba bee bee), which no one prays to become. Agbaaya is the irresponsible adult, one whose eldership has not been elevated to the head, resting only at the level of the chest. An alternative rendering is agbaiya, an elder who is an object of contempt. Both renderings make sense in reference to an elder who lacks integrity. Agbaaya is the natural trajectory of omokomo.

    The transition from omoluabi to agbaaya is due to the absence of cultural education, which turns omoluabi into omokomo. Agbaaya is an elder who behaves like a child; the agba whose presence in the market does not prevent the baby’s head from being awkwardly bent on her mother’s back; the elder that, lacking integrity, performs rituals like a youth. Our ancestors insisted that a seasoned elder does not hold a rat only to see it change to a lizard.

    Agbaaya may be redeemable or irredeemable. For the former, circumstances of life may have affected their outlook, and a little push may be what is needed to get them back on track. Their problem is the inability to recognize their own limitations. Opalaba says the young lacks the height; the adult also lacks the slenderness of fingers; therefore, we need the combined wisdom of both for the enduring prosperity of the land of Oodua.

    For the irredeemable agbaaya, however, the deficit in cultural education since the beginning of life makes it impossible for them to be anything but what they turn out to be. They cannot be trusted with the leadership of a common patrimony because they have demonstrated time and again that they are not agbaluako. And, as akotileta, shamelessly engaged in the business of selling away the inheritance bequeathed to them, they are certainly far from being reliable. A discerning community will be well advised to keep them where they belong, in the dumpsite of history.

    The House of Oodua is blessed with children, youths, and elders. But in any house that is so blessed, there is bound to be a mixture of characters. There are omogidi who dedicate their lives to the cause of Oodua. They want the best for the land and the race. They have no material means at their disposal; but what they have-their lives-they are prepared to give. They just want to be given a chance that others had at comparative age. They have demonstrated enormous courage in the face of a campaign of annihilation against them. That’s all we can ask of an omogidi.

    Unfortunately, some adults, following the misconception of tradition, fail to recognize the wisdom of the young ones. However, times do change and there cannot be an eternal parochial way of doing things. If we do not move with the time, doubling down on an analog mode of existence in a digital age, we stand the risk of being left behind. Our culture cannot afford to rot in the face of the developments of the 21st century. Indeed, we have to run while others may choose to walk. Therefore, both youth and adult are indispensable for the solution to the problems that confront us in this century. And it is a sad refection on our culture, if we have to see matters in the mode of a conflict between youths and elders, given the wisdom of the ancestors to which I just referred.

    The House of Oodua is in perilous times. There is a mountain of challenges facing us in every direction, from insecurity to the loss of our head-start advantage in education, health, and industrial development. This is certainly not a time to lower our guards. It is time for us to fire on all our cylinders of progress. It is time for the Agbasanko of the land to rise up.

    The ancestors tell us that when Ifa divination gets serious, the novice is the first to disappear. At the end of the market day, market elders stick around; the agbasanko are left in place. Agbasanko are the seasoned elders; the ones that everyone defers to; the ones that everyone wants to emulate; the ones that demonstrate dignity and integrity; the ones that command respect. As we pray that agba ko ni tan lori ile, what we seek is the unceasing supply of Agbasanko in the House of Oodua. Amin. Ase.

  • Alert, advisory, and pandemonium

    Alert, advisory, and pandemonium

    “Hello there, old chum”

    “Hello, my friend. What’s going on?”

    “You mean beside the obvious fact that you guys won’t leave us alone?” Opalaba replied.

    “Leave you alone? I am sorry, but I don’t know what you are talking about.”

    “Yes, of course, you do. First it was terror alert. Then it was travel advisory. And then it was departure of family and nonessential staff. And for us who have nowhere to go, what are we supposed to do? But we have God o.”

    “Oh, I see. But really, my good friend, I don’t see the big deal in the matter. The United States Embassy doesn’t issue frivolous alerts or advisories. With constitutional responsibility for the safety and welfare of its citizens, it relies on good Intelligence to discharge its duty. Once it has the intelligence, it acts by alerting its citizens, and by extension, its hosts, including you, my friend.  Or would you rather be in the dark? You don’t forget that “God helps those who help themselves”, do you? We learnt that verse in Sunbeam, remember?

    “When elders pray that we may not become objects of ridicule, this is what they mean. You’re asking if we want to be in the dark, abi? Is there a darker situation than we are in now? Your people are warning us of terrorists attack. And they are not rendering any help to thwart it. But they are sending their own people away and warning others to avoid us. Doesn’t that leave us in darkness?” Opalaba retorted against my innocent remarks.

    “I feel bad already, my friend. But, again, as the elders teach us, it is the baby who stretches her hands that the mother picks up. If you don’t seek help, how can it be offered? Even the holy book says “seek and you will find, ask and you will receive.” See, it doesn’t say “don’t ask and you will receive.” And talking about ridicule, isn’t it strange that the response of Nigerian leaders was to take offense and openly mock the US? I watched the IGP statement deriding the embassy. Ditto with the Minister of Defence. What’s that about?”

    “They’re doing their job. They are hired to protect the image of the country. You guys cannot come to our country and rubbish us. We will defend our existence as an independent sovereign republic, you get that?” Opalaba responded.

    I can see that my friend is quite worked up now. And when he gets to that point, he becomes irrational. So I try to get him to calm down.

    “You are a great patriot, Opalaba, and I don’t blame you for standing for country. It’s in obedience to the scriptural injunctions. We must pray for our own Jerusalem and for those who lead us. But you are not the only patriot and we must bring the right perspective to bear on this matter. So, let us recap.

    “US embassy issued a terror alert on October 23 in a bulletin titled “Elevated Risk of Terror Attacks”. The bulletin stated that “There is an elevated risk of terror attacks in Nigeria, specifically in Abuja”. And it listed the possible targets as “government buildings, places of worship schools markets and shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings, transport terminals, law enforcement facilities, and international organizations.” It informed the public that it will offer reduced services until further notice. It also suggested actions that the public, especially US citizens, for whom it has responsibility, may take.

    “Frankly, my friend, I don’t see what the embassy has done wrong in this matter. If it had the intelligence and it didn’t share it, the whole world, including you, will blame the US. Remember the Libya debacle. And the Kenya crisis before then. Not only the lives of US officials and citizens, but also the lives of nationals of the host countries, were lost to terror attacks.

    “Furthermore, it is not as if we don’t have terrorists inside this country. Our forests from North to South are the habitat of terror. As I type this, a video jumped in my device. Under Malina trees, a group of terrorists were bending over and parading stacks of weapons spread out in an open space.  Where are they? Who knows?

    “Concerned patriots have been damaging their vocal cords shouting on rooftops about this menace. As you know, other embassies from UK to Australia have corroborated the report and have taken steps to protect their citizens. And now, instead of us thanking these embassies, and getting our act together, we pounce on them because we irrationally see them as the enemy. In so doing, we let the terrorists out of the equation of our blame game.

    “Even the appointed official responsible for advising the president also joined in the game. According to The Cable, the National Security Adviser (NSA) to Mr. President, says “the security situation in Nigeria does not warrant travel advisories and terror warnings from the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK).” As the NSA offered this assessment, Nigerians were being kidnapped in droves. But we deny the obvious, concerned only for the image of the country, which may end up shredded in tatters.

    “Now, the question may be raised how these embassies got their information. Distinguished Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a celebrated internationalist zeroed in on this in his interview with Arise Television Morning Show last week. I have never seen Professor Akinyemi in such a heightened sense of alarm! Here’s an 80 year-old policy wonk breaking down in minute details how Western powers gather intelligence. And he warned our leaders not to joke with the information they have. And you’re still concerned only about image? Where would the image be when Abuja is overrun by terrorists shouting “God is Great” down to the Atlantic?

    “It doesn’t even appear reasonable for anyone to question how the embassies get their information. They have intelligence agencies that scout far and wide for the security of their personnel and citizens across the globe. That’s what we should be doing as well. But we don’t get it right at home talk less of worrying about our citizens abroad. What is the capacity of Nigerian missions abroad in this type of activity?

    “The Minister of Foreign Affairs appears to me to have a more balanced and thoughtful view on this matter. Instead of blaming the Western embassies or rejecting their intelligence, the statement coming from Mr. Onyeama is measured: “Now, the ministry of foreign affairs, as well as the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, have been working very closely to fully get on top of the situation, but also to engage with our foreign partners, first of all, to mitigate and blunt any threat that there could be from outside the country, but also working and engaging with the foreign missions within the country to ensure that whatever we do, whatever we say, is constructive and should not, in any way, cause unnecessary alarm, and in any way destabilise the country.(my emphasis).

    “Let us concede that the country is naturally worried about the impact of such security alerts on the economy and political stability. People are leaving Abuja. Malls are being closed.  Hotels are going to start worrying about patronage. Private businesses must be concerned about their bottom line. And with election season in high gear, who knows what can happen with such a reminder about our tenuous security situation? These are all legitimate and government should be concerned.

    “However, you don’t solve the problem or meet the challenge by demonizing the foreign embassies for doing their job. What you do is acknowledge the validity of the alert based on good intelligence and make effort to mitigate and blunt any threat to the country. Then, you also engage with the foreigners to ensure a productive working relationship that gives you a heads up about any potential threat before it becomes public. But really, shouldn’t we also have our own intelligence that is reliable and responsive? We must not deceive ourselves into believing that foreign missions owe us a duty. They owe their citizens the responsibility to inform and protect.”

  • Afenifere: A familiar terrain

    Afenifere: A familiar terrain

    Preamble

    Arabs, in spite of what may be their misdemeanour today, are highly gifted in prose and poetry. Their literary prowess is unsurpassable as they combine the heritage of the Hellenes with that of Islamic treasures. In what has become an axiom, one poet among them once succinctly but philosophically put across the following couplet for the benefit of mankind:

    Human sense channelizes the course of destiny: whoever misapplies his sense and blocks that course should not blame destiny for his or her misfortune..

     

    Restiveness of the world

    The world is restive today not just for its bereavement of peace but also for the hopelessness which that bereavement entails. From Wellington in Australia to Helsinki in Finland; from Anchorage in America to Hiroshima in Japan; from Beijing in China to El Salado in Argentina and from Casablanca in Morocco to Antananarivo in Madagascar there is no peace and there is no hope for it. Nigeria’s share of this calamity is as enormous as that of the United States of America. Bomb blasts or massacre today, flood or hurricane tomorrow. Yet, both countries are comrades in arms.

    When and where did we start taking wrong steps?

    A Yoruba adage poses a relevant challenge when it states thus: when a kid falls down he looks forward for rescue but when an adult falls down he looks backwards to assess the cause of his fall.. That adage is worth studying by the right-thinking men who are capable of asking the right question at the right time: when and where did we start taking wrong steps?

    Venturing a little back into the recent past, one will discover that the world was not anything near the current prevailing barbarism even about 50 years ago. The occurrences which piloted the world to this stage can be best described as , REBELLION OF NATURE against man. And that rebellion could only have emanated from man’s own invention. People who are more than 60 years of age will testify to the fact that this same world of ours had once been in perfect serenity with harmony and concord even as peace was generally taken for granted.

     

    Problem of Man

    The main problem of man is to assume that the world is meant for him alone. He hardly believes that all other creatures like soil; animals, birds, insects, vegetations, waters, air and others known and unknown also have a right to claim a space in the tapestry of the wonderful web called the world. Yes, man is made the captain of this web but that does not give him the absolute right to re-write the constitution of the world by tampering with the nature of other creatures.

     

    Audacity of Man

    In an audacious attempt to affirm his supremacy over all other creatures man has gone deep into the firmament of transgression. He does not only change the courses of rivers and distort the nature of vegetations he also tampers with the flow of air just as he rebrands the nature of certain animals and trees in his so-called scientific experiments adopted to further the course of his capitalist project. Thus, for many years, other creatures have tolerated the dominance of man for as long as that dominance remained positively tolerable. But when it became too negative to bear, they collaborated to rebel against the oppression of man by fighting back in a way that beat the imagination of the oppressor. Today, whether through the tsunami in Japan or the wild fire in Australia, or earthquake in Haiti and Iran or hurricane in America and Canada, or flood in Africa the ecosystem is angrily revolting not only against the transgression of man over it but also against man’s inhumanity to fellow man.

     

    Greed

    With his glorification of greed, man has relegated justice to the background by rendering truth irrelevant and by deifying an agent of trade called money. This has led to crowning money as the global ‘god’ which virtually everybody on earth is now worshipping directly or indirectly. Capitalism as a major weapon of Satan has become the finger of destiny with which the success or failure of everything is measured.

    The world is restive today not because some people have gone berserk by choosing the satanic course of barbarism, vandalism and terrorism but because such people were created by injustice through capitalism. If the truth must be told, manipulation of world serenity for the purpose of capitalism is the root cause of restiveness in the world today. And anybody who wants to change the status quo must be ready to return to the old order by restoring justice and shedding the toga of satanic supremacy. At the inception of the world, the Almighty Allah had called it a divine trust and he had called for volunteers among His creatures to keep its custody in trust. This is contained in Qur’an chapter 33, verse 172 thus: ‘we offered the trust to the heavens, to the earth and to the mountains but they all refused to bear it as they were afraid of it. However, man, out of arrogance and ignorance undertook to keep custody of it but he has since proved to be foolishly unjust’.

     

    Injustice

    The injustice in the world today is not only that of man to man but also of man to nature. The search for the wealth in the belly of the soil by all means and without any consideration for the pain which the soil itself can suffer in the process is a major cause of nature’s rebellion against man. Excavation of minerals, fossils and antiquities as well as seeking for more space through the expansion of the earth by reclamation of swampy areas around oceans and seas continues to bring untold hardship to man and the ecosystem even as man persists on these activities. Earthquakes, cyclone, hurricane, flood  and tsunami which are now called natural disasters are some of the results of those activities. If the ecosystem had done to man only one percent of what man has been doing to it the world would have for long forgotten any existence of man on earth.

    Yet, without minding the consequences, man continues to invent elements of destruction in form of human and material forces by ventilating the avenue for bringing the world to an abrupt end only to turn round and blame nature or human terrorism for it. This world was quite orderly and virtuous until the capitalists introduced into it the obstructions that turned it upside down and brought restiveness to the fore. For instance from time immemorial, mothers had been breastfeeding their infants and this natural upbringing had spoken in understandable language to those who can reason. It took the capitalists to introduce processed animal milk to the world which was rebranded baby formula. This was backed up with unprecedented adverts and commercial campaigns that tricked mothers into accepting it. For about two generations of almost 50 years human infants were forced to take animal milk. And by the time they all grew up to be men and women the die had been cast.

     

    The world we are living today

    Kindness had disappeared from the surface of the earth, dignity had vamoosed and man’s humanity for man had become flakes of history.

    Children of yesterday began to behave like animals of today. Now, there are men but no husbands. There are women but no wives. There are children bearers but no parents. Couples began to live like co-tenants. There are certificates but no knowledge. Responsibility has taken flight even as children began to treat their aged parents like outcasts thereby reducing the once highly valued cultures into unnecessary luxury. Genuine workers are not adequately remunerated. Governance has become a trade that must yield profit for the rulers even as governments are trading officially in lottery and other forms of usury thereby giving the impression that in making money, only the end is capable of justifying the means.

     

    Nigeria for Instance

    Here in Nigeria about 97% of the oil wealth is shared among only three percent of the population while 97% of the entire populace wallow in abject poverty in their struggle for a share of the 3% wealth left for them by the governing cabal who propound obnoxious policies to create monster for themselves with which to hound perceived enemies. And as a result of such policies they have become prisoners in their own houses and environments even as they now run away from their own shadows.

    All these were compounded by the introduction of yet some other terribly devastating elements like cocaine, marijuana, heroin and others of the like used by the new human species to charge themselves into untameable wildness. Thus, today, the world is at war with itself as ubiquity of drug barons, drug addicts, hired killers, bandits, armed robbers, political thugs, economic vandals and suicide bombers come to the prowl. Even religion, the once exclusive niche is not spared. More than 90% of today’s clerics across faiths are shams merely hiding under the cloak of religion to extort money from their sheepish followers and exploit them to marrow. Where are we going from here?

     

    Vices to avoid

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had admonished Muslims against all these vices some of which he described as signs of the last days. That prophesy is vividly reflected in the poem of another Arab poet who said: ‘This is the time against which we had been warned through the transmission of Ubayy Bn Ka’b and Abdullah Bn Mas’ud; a time in which the truth would be consigned to the refuse bin while falsehood and treachery would be held aloft; Were this time to linger for long, humanity would have zoomed into a situation whereby no one would cry over the death of a dear one and no joy would be expressed over the birth of a new baby”.

    Now, in Nigeria, we have boxed ourselves into one corner of a ring where the ruled can no longer believe the rulers because governance is based on falsehood and rulers are perceived as sheer liars. We are in a period where betrayal rather than trust is the order of the day and those in charge of the treasury are the real thieves stealing people’s money kept in that treasury and giving a part of the loot to religious sanctuaries. Those charged with the nation’s security are the greatest threat to the same security. Or how else can we classify our so called police?

     

    Colonialist Infrastructure

    Ours is a nation where the infrastructure provided by the colonialists over 70 years ago cannot be maintained despite the enormous wealth at our disposal. Billions of naira is budgeted every year for electricity, road network, railway, aviation, agriculture, and other vital projects. Yet there are no such projects in place and the budgeted money is never returned to the treasury. Over 70% of what is supposed to constitute the workforce for the nation is idle. Those who had spent their vital youthful years serving the nation are left to die of hunger and wretchedness in their old age as their pension is being pocketed by some fictitious official fingers. We are in an era where the lesson to be taught to the youth is public mutual abuse by certain shameless former rulers of this country who call each other a fool. The situation in the Southwest is the worst. Here is a region where language and culture have been lost in the name of civilization. Majority of those who went through schools can no longer speak their mother tongue. Yet they are embarrassingly backward in English language to which they lost their natural language. No moral lessons on radio and television stations, no cultural values in private homes and public places. All that matters is the money that can be made and not how such money is made.

    In this, what legacy can the present generation leave behind? And what heritage can the future generations expect from criminal prisoners who are met on their return from prisons by co party stalwarts with songs and dances? Whenever we hear of bomb blasts and suicide bombings nowadays we get alarmed and terribly agitated forgetting that these are the fruits of the seed which some leaders of yesteryears had planted in the soil of Nigeria. Or have we all forgotten that the very first bomb blast that killed a Nigerian (Dele Giwa) was linked to government quarters? What else is expected of the experts who carried out that dastardly act? Besides utilizing that skill for their own purpose having served their employers meritoriously, can’t they pass their expertise to some other Nigerians who might need such skill? The lamentations by some people today on the hearing of bomb blasts, is an indication that Nigerians are either forgetful or mischievous. By and large it should not be expected that prayers for which many people have called will solve any crime or negligent problem. Who are those to pray? What is their record before Allah? The panacea for criminal acts is to desist from criminal acts. Thousands of years of prayers against crimes by criminals can never bring succour to this world. Most of those perceived as men of God who will want to champion prayers to God are more covertly criminal than those actually perceived as criminals. They are rather men of Satan than men of God. Allah has strongly warned thus: Surely Allah will not change the situation of a nation or a community until they themselves have reneged from evil acts and if Allah intends punishment for a nation or a community no one can repel it except a change for the better by the nation or community in question…. Q. 13: 11.

     

  • Mr. White goes home

    Mr. White goes home

    The world is a market; heaven is home. We learnt this aphorism almost from the cradle. It is embedded in our triple heritage of Christianity, Islam, and Orisa Tradition and it’s expected to guide our lives and direct our conduct. Knowing that our sojourn on mother earth is temporary, akin to a trip to the marketplace, should be a lesson in moderation and a curb on greed and avarice.

    The wise and prudent live by the injunction of modesty and moderation; the foolish mock it to their eternal damnation. Unfortunately, however, there are many more of those foolish mockers than the wise, behaving as if death is not a sure thing or that there is no judgement after death. They live as if God is their equal, and in so doing, they put everyone else in pain and suffering. It’s a reason for where we find ourselves as a nation.

    Sunday Oyetunji Thomas, popularly known as Mr. White Photos, was one of those wise and prudent earthlings who accepted and lived by the truth of the above maxim throughout his four score years of life. A man of strong faith in the saving grace of the Lord, Tunji lived in total submission to the will of God, in obedience to his injunctions, always keeping in mind the Messianic declaration on the “judgement of the nations”:

    “Then the king will say to those on the right hand, “come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me……Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of those who are members of my family, you did it for me.”—Matthew 25: 34-40.

    Tunji did it to the least the members of God’s family. He was not wealthy. He was an ordinary common professional himself, making ends meet. But as our elders teach us, Tunji knew that “ko to nkan nii so ni dahun. (I myself have just a little can easily turn one into a miser). So he gave generously even from his moderate resources. From the beginning of his professional career, he welcomed people to his studio which doubled as his home. And he did all cheerfully and without complaining. The Scripture declares that God loves a cheerful giver. No doubt, this applies to Tunji, and God loves him.

    As he did it for God, Tunji also did a lot for Okeho, his beloved community and origin. This is also in obedience to the directives of God. The scripture enjoins us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem with the assurance that those who love her will prosper. Okeho is his own Jerusalem, and Tunji has been a backbone for everything that is progressive and prosperous in the town for as long as I can remember. A founding member of Okeho Development Association (ODA) in Ibadan, Tunji was instrumental to the fundraising efforts for Okeho Water Dam back in 1982, and his Agbowo Ibadan Studio provided the venue for the fundraising event to which many Okeho indigenes and friends contributed generously.  Sadly, however, the powers that be did not play their role and, till now, that dam, almost completed since the early nineties, has been abandoned.

    For Tunji, family was everything. He internalizes the message of 1 Timothy 5: 8: “But if someone doesn’t provide for their own family, and especially for a member of their household, they have denied the faith. They are worse than those who have no faith.” Tunji loved his family. Yetunde (Lady White) was his soulmate; his children Tunde and Ronke, and grandchildren, were his reason of being, and he trained them in the way of the Lord. He cherished the company of his siblings and extended family. Tunji’s mother, who sacrificed everything for his upbringing after the untimely death of his father, was his treasure. He moved Mama to Ibadan in her old age and took great care of her until her passing. In human terms, this is what righteousness entails. His memory is truly a blessing.

    In every respect, Tunji was a dependable brother and friend. He was always there to offer advice. He was generous with his time. He had his shoulders ready to be leaned on, never asking for anything in return. We grew up together within a few blocks. I still remember, with nostalgia, the good old days of innocence at First Baptist School, Isia, Okeho. Tunji was a standout, always sharp, always neat, ever jolly. Some of my old schoolmates may recall his leadership of our Empire Day activities as Band Leader, directing our matching band to L. A. School, Olele for inter-school competitions!

    Upon his settling in Ibadan after his professional training in the 60s, Tunji’s home/studio at Oke Padre, a short walk from Ogunpa Motor Park, was a welcoming place for many of us. When I returned to Ibadan as a Bank Clerk in 1968, Tunji’s home/studio at Adamasingba was my first port of call. He found an apartment close to his place for me. I leaned on him for orientation and I still have fond memories of our time together. He was handy for my wedding in 1970 and for the birth of our son, Muyiwa. By divine coincidence, our loving kids were born days apart.

    Read Also: Dangote versus the White Lion

    With his cheerful disposition, Tunji was blessed with a rare endowment of making new friends and retaining old ones. It is to his credit that many old school mates remained with him into their late seventies when the cold hands of death began to strike. Chief Gbade Adejumo, Dr. Razak Olopoenia, and Dr. Oyediran Olabisi, and his professional partner, Akin Oniti, were all bosom friends who left him almost in quick succession. God knows best.

    Professionally, Tunji was an accomplished photographer. After his professional training with his master, Ariyo Photos, with whom he maintained very cordial relationships for a long time, Tunji established White Photos studio at Oke Padre around 1964. The studio quickly established itself as a center of professionalism with a reputation for high quality photography.  Further training in color photography outside the shores of the country only increased his fame and popularity.

    Tunji moved his studio from Oke Padre to Adamasingba, which opened more doors for him. Soon, clients, including professors, lecturers, and students from the University of Ibadan and The Ibadan Polytechnic were attracted to his studio. Student artists and musicians, many now famous celebrities, were regular visitors to White Photos studio. Tunji made friends with the up and coming across Ibadan.

    At the same time, another photographer, Akins Photos, had his studio, next door to Tunji. Rather than seeing each other as competitors, these two established a lasting friendship, and later in the late seventies, formed a partnership known as TUNAKIN Photographers with their studio at Agbowo Shopping Complex, Ibadan, later moving to Bodija Estates.

    In the late 90s, Tunji relocated to the United States with his family and had the opportunity not only for further training, but to also showcase his professional skills and expertise, which he did to acclaim, working with professional studios such as Arthlyn Photography Company in Illinois, Chicago and Life Touch National School of Photography in Aurora, Chicago.

    The passing of Tunji, a fixture of Ibadan social circle for more than sixty years, is a personal loss to many who knew him. Tunji was a beautiful flower in God’s garden, and God has simply picked his beautiful flower for his use. He will surely send comfort to everyone deprived of his sweet aroma.

    A o pa wa lara da

    A o de wa lade ogo

    A o si gbe wa niyawo

    Ninu ogo, lodo Baba

    We shall be transformed

    We shall receive the crown of glory

    We will be newly weds

    In glory, with the Father

    Farewell, Mr. White Photos.

  • Afenifere: A familiar terrain

    Afenifere: A familiar terrain

    Monologue

    Today’s article is not new. It was first published in this column, in 2014, albeit under a different title. The name Afenifere is a mere nomenclature adopted by an Ijebu Christo-Mafia with a permanent hidden agenda.

    For those who are quite familiar with it, the mere mention of that name (Afenifere) is a signal indicating an impending opposition to whatever will not be of direct benefit to the Christo-Mafia that adopted that name. And, looking at the antecedent of that Mafia, since its inception almost 70 years ago, one can hardly pinpoint any positive achievement attributable to it outside the benefit of its own circle.

    For instance, as an addendum to its clandestine initiation of a hidden agenda codenamed National Confab in 2014, this Mafia rolled out its obsolete drums and invited some like- minds, among the Yoruba people of the Southwest, to come and dance to its un-chorus-able sour song of the past. It will be recalled that two-thirds of the selected participants in that Confab were Christians despite the demographic majority of Muslims in Nigeria. And, all efforts to convince the then President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, to correct that anomaly, for the purpose of equity, fell into deaf ears. Yet, the loudest noise about the adoption of the outcome of that Confab as Nigeria’s constitution has invariably come from the enclave of the Mafia that initiated it.

    In Retrospect

    When this article was first published, in that same year (2014), with the title “Afenifere: Generals without Troops”, its viral effect immediately reverberated across the length and breadth of the world, through the internet, and attracted reactions from various conceivable angles.

    Thus, it was not surprising, when, recently, some ardent readers of ‘The Message’ column demanded its re-publication as a reminder of the reality of the contemporary time against the futility of the years past which Afenifere still treats as a glorious euphoria of its hidden agenda. And, as an open-minded columnist, I have no choice other than to concur to such a demand since readers, like customers in a consumer market,  are Kings and Queens in their own right. Please, read an excerpt from the first publication of this article as presented below:

    Yoruba Adage

    A Yoruba proverbial adage which informs that “all sorts of knives surface on a day of an elephant’s death” may be axiomatic after all. Politics in Nigeria today is like that proverbial elephant. It throws up all hidden agendas and exposes all clandestine motives by certain selfish characters in the society, who still see the world of today with the eyes of yesteryears. In other words, the satanic cloak under which some obscure, chameleonic politicians masquerade deceptively in a bid to selfishly benefit from Nigeria’s new political paradigm called ‘stomach infrastructure’ seems to have become an implacable calamity seeking to devour the fragile vestiges of peace in the land.

    The Plight of Yoruba Muslims

    The Yoruba Muslims of the current generation in the Southwest of Nigeria who were never privileged to witness the religious and political trauma  which their parents and grandparents suffered in the hands of Afenifere oppressors in the 1950s and 1960s in this region, are still feeling the impact of that trauma today. However, with the benefit of their leap in acquisition of Western literacy called education,  they can now take advantage of today’s atrocious spectacle to retrospectively view the religious cloak of those years and use same to unmask some of the dubious characters, that hid under those evil cloaks to stifle spiritual and psychological lives out of their parents and grandparents.

    Parable of the Owl

    Like the crafty owl, among birds, the above mentioned Mafia cannot freely interact with credible, well-meaning Yoruba men and women of substance on real issues of relevance. And, that has a political implication that may not be streamlined in a foreseeable future.

    Read Also: Afenifere not Yoruba mouthpiece, says OPC-R

    As of today, the tap root that feeds the tree of Afenifere,  stem and foliage, is in Ijebu while its rubber stamps including its ‘Yes Sir’ scribe, are scattered in some peripheral parts of Yoruba land. All of them, men and women, including the so-called Board of Trustees, are Christians, not by error but by design. They do not even see the glaring oddity in portraying such a Mafia as the representative of the Yoruba people of the Southwest where Muslims are evidently in in the majority. That agenda is quite laughable.

    The Nature of the Owl

    For people who know the owl very well with its queer operation in the forest, the antics of the Afenifere’s political demagogues cannot be strange. Here is a Mafia of octogenarians and nonagenarians who have spent their time and the time of their children as well as that of their grand children and are still seeking to spend the time of their great grand children for their own parochial benefits alone. At a time when vision, rather than improvidence, is the order of the day, it is strange that this group’s deleterious political activities are still geared towards the search for self relevance even where and when relevance for their primitive wish has become anachronistic. But what else can be said of a Mafia that once claimed to be progressive but has now retrogressively turned round to become ultra-conservative in the belief that conservatism is the real bastion of stomach infrastructure for  people in the twilight of their lives whose only real expectation is death. Isn’t that a euphemism for advanced corruption?

    Arrogation of Leadership

    Still living in the dark days of dead woods in Yoruba land, even in the 21st century, it is not strange that this Mafia is currently arrogating Yoruba leadership to itself and claiming to be the megaphone of that Nigerian major tribe as it once did unchallenged in the remote past. Unfortunately, none of them could see that the Mafia has become too visionless to cultivate a contemporary lifestyle for itself other than that of its primogenitor of the 1950s when Muslims in the Southwest region were subjected to sheer political servitude. Thus, in its failure to keep pace with the modern reality, this Mafia still believes that the situation of the 1950s is still prevalent as much   as that of today.

     Religious Politics

    In 2019, when an election was approaching, the Mafia openly told a particular Presidential candidate that Yoruba people had decided to give him their block voting. That unsolicited pronouncement in the name of Yoruba tribe was in anticipation of a richer stomach infrastructure for its obscure members alone and that has perennially been its permanent, aggrandized   political hallmark consistently pursued to the detriment of the tribe it fraudulently claims to be representing. It is necessary to ask here about what eventually happened to the results of the referred presidential election. Did the promised candidate win?

    Unlike in Nigeria’s dark days, isn’t it obvious these days that you cannot give what you do not possess? It is high time for this Mafia to know that the days of abracadabra in local politics are gone and gone forever.

    If a Mafia of octogenarian and nonagenarian members like Afenifere can still be known for the same pranks of yore, even at the twilight of their lives, what legacy will they leave behind for the future leaders in the region?

    Evidence of Ignorance

    What these people do not and may not know in a foreseeable future is that with the coming of internet and social media the definition of literacy has tremendously changed from mere reading and writing of tales and fables to that of modern day browsing and messaging through the internet in the 21st century. And without such standard of literacy, this time around, any person who still claims to be literate is half-dead. However, it takes only the seeing to recognize the light and make the best use of it. Therefore, it cannot be a surprise that the members of Ijebu Christo-Mafia called Afenifere are still snoring in their primordial bed while expecting others to be off-line, then is nothing but self-delusion.

    Even in Yoruba land, where Afenifere is supposed to be based, the Mafia merely operates in a certain obscure corner of the region only to randomly roar out, in propaganda, to impress its ignorant allies in the Middle Belt and the Southeast on the pages of some obscure newspapers. But since the dance of a dragon fly on the surface of a brook can only be in a mandatory rhythm of the drummer beneath the water, no one should expect the owl to come home to roost for a meaningful purpose.

    Fictitious Dream

    Judged by the public utterances and conducts of its members, Afenifere has become a ridiculous paradox between yesterday’s fictitious dream and today’s disappointing nightmare. Had the members of that Mafia known how much they have become a laughable stock in Nigeria today, they would have probably reclined into their obsolete shell and stopped behaving like the owl among birds.

    But how can they know that when they can hardly realize that the trend of literacy which once gave them undue advantage of occupying the upper echelon of relevance in the region has since changed with the inability of most of them to put their fingers on the keyboard of the computer let alone prying into the modern world of literacy through the internet.

    Yoruba Muslims in the 21st Century

    To this so-called Afenifere, the usefulness of the Muslim multitudes in the Western region does not transcend voting and clapping for the region’s ‘lotus eaters’ which Afenifere typifies. Despite the glaring difference between the Muslims of the 1950s who were treated like slaves and those of the 21st century who are highly sophisticated in essence and substance, the Mafia still plays an ostrich by pretending not to take note of that conspicuous change, hence the ignorant wish to continue to maintain obnoxious primordial status quo.

    Warning

    Let it be known to this self-elevated group that the antics of the yore with which this so-called Afenifere once outsmarted and relegated Yoruba Muslims to the background in the past have gone with the irritating particles of the past. And, any further attempt to want to continue such primitive antics to the detriment of Yoruba Muslims of today will be adequately resisted in letters and in law.

    That the umbrella body of the South West Muslims called MUSWEN does not respond to the various unwarranted, frivolous utterances of Afenifere and its affiliates is only due to high level of discipline, civility and responsibility.

     As genuine Muslims, we have paid our dues in terms of tolerance, patience and endurance. Elasticity has its limit.

    No group of sheer opportunists that still ignorantly believes in the deceptive gimmicks of the past will be allowed anymore to ride roughshod over the Muslims of the Southwest. Enough is enough.

    Gone are the days when wisdom was genuinely attributed to old age because old age, at that time, personified sagery with experience. Today, from the experience of technology and its effect on the modern society, the human wisdom of the bicycle age seems to have been rendered anachronistic by that of the internet age.

    Thus, like the rise of a modern building from the debris of the old mud building, the Yoruba Muslims of this generation have come of age and can no longer be swept into the refuse bin with the rubbles of the past. We do not need a borrowed mouth to speak out for us and nobody has a right to speak for us without our mandate.

    As it takes two to tango it must also take a give and take relationship to ventilate a peaceful atmosphere of togetherness in a multi-religious society. No group should deceptively assume any vain superiority over others and expect peace to thrive.

    To live side by side and cohabit in harmony, mutual respect must be in the front burner of our relationship.

    To be forewarned is to be forearmed. God bless Nigeria!