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Category: Monday

  • Delaying Akinkunmi’s burial

    Delaying Akinkunmi’s burial

    Nearly a year after his death, the celebrated designer of Nigeria’s flag, Taiwo Akinkunmi, remains controversially unburied. Known as ‘Mr Flag Man,’ he died on August 29, 2023, aged 87. Delaying his burial, 10 months after his exit, further demonstrates disconnected governance in Nigeria.

    A concerned group, Yoruba World Congress (YWC), UK, recently wrote an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, saying Akinkunmi “did his best for this country and his body should not be allowed to remain in the mortuary without attention and without a befitting burial.”

    Following his death, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, led a Federal Government (FG) delegation that paid a condolence visit to his family in Ibadan, Oyo State, where he was based, though he hailed from Abeokuta, Ogun State.  “He designed one of the most powerful symbols of our collective existence as a country and a nation,” the minister said at the time, adding, “Mr President shares with them in this grief, and the FG is with them throughout this period, and whatever the request the family puts forward, the FG will look into it.” Also, the Oyo State government officially expressed its condolences in a letter to the family signed by Governor Seyi Makinde.

    However, the public show of interest by the federal and state authorities has not resulted in expected action. According to YWC, the Akinkunmi family “had planned the burial for 7th and 8th of December 2023,” but “it was annulled by the Oyo State government on the grounds that there was no representation from the government to confirm the date chosen by the family.”

     The group also said: “After several attempts by the Akinkunmi family representatives to get the burial done, the Oyo State government representatives further confirmed that late Pa Akinkunmi’s burial is state burial and that the government will take charge of the entire programme.”

    The Oyo State government was said to have requested another date for his burial, and his family sent “April 10, 11 and 12 2024.”  “But this date has also lapsed as all attempts to get to the governor or his representatives were futile,” YWC said.  Since Akinkunmi’s death, his family “made it known that they have been paying N2,000 daily as a mortuary bill without any support from the government,” the group added.

    The YWC, therefore, called on President Tinubu “to urgently look into this matter so that the family can bury their dead and be pacified.”

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    Akinkunmi was in his early twenties when he designed the national flag, after stumbling upon a newspaper advertisement calling for the submission of designs for the Nigerian flag ahead of the independence of Nigeria from British rule in October 1960. He was then studying Electrical Engineering at Norwood Technical College, now known as Lambeth College, in London.

    His design was a vertical white band with a radiating red sun, which was flanked by two vertical green bands.  It was selected from among about 2,000 entries as the winning entry because of its ingenuity and profundity. He got 100 pounds for his effort. The judges, however, removed the red sun, leaving only a green-white-green design for the national flag. The green colour signifies agriculture; the white colour stands for unity and peace.

     He was reported saying, “I was well known all over the place. Everybody was calling me Mr Flag Man.” After his education in the UK, he returned to Nigeria in 1963 and rejoined the civil service in Ibadan. He had been employed by the government of the Western Region after he left Ibadan Grammar School (IGS) in 1955. He retired as a civil servant in the early 1990s.

    Interestingly, it can be said that he became anonymous after some time, until one Sunday Olawale Olaniran, then an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, helped to put him back in the spotlight. Olaniran, who called him a “hero without honour,” was doing research on Nigeria’s history for a pamphlet when he decided to search for the designer of the country’s flag.

    “People said he was dead, that I should forget about looking for him and just write about the flag,” Olaniran was reported saying.  But he kept searching until he found the flag designer in Ibadan.  Akinkunmi was said to be living alone, and lacking proper care.  When they met, according to Olaniran, he “was incoherent and kept talking to himself.”

    The researcher was moved to tears. “So, I got in touch with a journalist and we went back two days before Independence Day,” he said. “Even the journalist couldn’t believe the man was still alive.”

    Akinkunmi was a pensioner, but his pension payments were irregular, the researcher said, adding, “Some Nigerians went to him and donated foodstuff, clothes.”

    When the story of his sad situation appeared in The Sun on October 1, 2006, Olaniran said, it attracted the attention of many Nigerians who were unaware of his plight.  Two years later, in 2008, Olaniran was contacted through his blog by a representative of the organisers of the Nigerian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? They wanted to get in touch with Akinkunmi.

    He later appeared on a special edition of the TV show, and got a cheque for two million naira. His son said the money “given to him by the telecommunications giant, MTN, when he was a guest on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2008,” enabled him to complete the building of his house in Ibadan. The house, painted in the colours of the Nigerian flag, made a strong statement about its owner.

    His eventual inclusion on the list of national honours’ awardees in 2014 was the climax of a difficult journey to deserved recognition.  It was a long road to that juncture. Oddly, Akinkunmi received the country’s national honour more than five decades after he designed the significant symbol. The delay was inexplicable and inexcusable.  The national honours were instituted four years after the flag was officially hoisted on Nigeria’s Independence Day, October 1, 1960, in replacement of the British Union Jack. The honours are for Nigerians who have rendered service to the benefit of the nation.

    After a campaign by Nigerians who felt he deserved a national honour, Akinkunmi was finally honoured by his country in September 2014, under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. He received the national honour, Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), and was also symbolically appointed as a salaried honorary life presidential special aide. He was 78 at the time and a retired civil servant.

    It is highly concerning that Akinkunmi is unburied, nearly a year after his death, mainly because of inaction on the part of the Federal Government and the Oyo State government. He deserves better.

  • Bernard Ifechi Nnagha (1957-2024)

    Bernard Ifechi Nnagha (1957-2024)

    Bernard’s late father was my headmaster and teacher while I was in primary six. Bernard was also in the same primary school then but three classes behind me.

    But he drew considerable attention because of his brilliance in class. The school had a unique way of celebrating pupils’ exceptional performance. So, you will definitely get to know those doing well irrespective of their classes.

    My late eldest brother who worked in the Ministry of Agriculture, Okigwe in the then Eastern Region, used to send my school fees through his father. That brought me closer to the family with his father regularly showing interest in my class performance.

    And when the entrance forms into secondary schools were out, he encouraged us to apply. Among the schools I took their common entrance was Holy Ghost Juniorate, Ihiala – a junior seminary. When the result was out, four of us from St Mary’s primary school, Osina were successful.

    The letter from the seminary which was received by the headmaster had also indicated the date for the interview. The challenge was how to get to my eldest brother to inform him of my success and get prepared for the interview.

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     My brother used to send my school fees and other messages to my headmaster through a commercial bus that plied Afikpo/Okigwe through my community to Onitsha. Our headmaster quickly arranged for me to follow that bus on a Friday afternoon preceding the Monday of the interview. He instructed the bus driver to drop me off at the Ministry of Agriculture while proceeding to Afikpo. That was how I travelled to Okigwe.

    My brother took over from there and made arrangements for me to be at that school early that Monday. The outcome was successful.

    Bernard was later to enrol at Iheme Memorial Grammar School Arondizuogu. We usually met and interacted during some of those holiday activities organised by the student’s association in the community.

    After the result of my school certificate (London GCE ordinary level) came out, I relocated to Lagos for my Advanced Level courses. As I was awaiting my result, the news filtered that Bernard had secured admission to the University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University) to study Geology.

    It was a rare feat then. There were actually five full-fledged first generation universities in the country. Two or three others that had come on board then, were affiliates of these first generation universities-Jos and Calabar. I had the chance of meeting his father later that year during one of those football matches organised by our community to mark the annual New Yam festival celebrations.

    He took keen interest in me having not seen me since I left the seminary. He asked many questions including my next plans. I told him I was awaiting my A/L results and was optimistic of gaining admission the next academic session.

    Around the same period, I was at the Orlu motor park to catch a vehicle when I saw Bernard strolling in, clutching a newspaper. He had not seen me. My mind was divided as to whether to draw his attention to where I was or allow him go his way. I quickly opted to dodge him.

    Why? I knew the first question he would ask me after exchanging pleasantries will be: where are you now? I didn’t want to be repeating the story I told his father of how I had finished A/L and hoping to enter the university and all that. Remember he was three classes behind me. Somehow, I did not have the psychological comfort of mind to enter discussions with him on university admissions.

    But luck came my way later that year when I secured direct entry admission to the University of Ibadan. That opened the way for those of us from my community in the various universities to meet on holidays and interact on the educational progress of our community.

    During one of our sittings, I shared the story of how I saw Bernard at the Orlu motor park during his first year in the university and dodged him. The story drew loud laughter but it underscored the prestige that accompanied mere admission to the university then and perhaps, the complex that drove me to hiding.

    Bernard graduated with second class upper division and lectured at the University of Benin during his youth service. At the end of the service, both of us taught briefly at the secondary school in my community and decided to pursue other endeavours.

    But when the news of our imminent departure filtered, some prominent men from the community under the auspices of a social club sent emissaries to us. They invited us to a meeting where an offer of Peugeot 504 salon cars was to be made to us. They reasoned for good, that the cars would encourage us stay and help the school children.

    But we did not fall for the car offer as enticing as it was. Accepting it would bar us from pursuing other plans and consign us to the village. Those who invited us did not take kindly to our guts. They were later to summon us to the general meeting of the town union to explain our conduct.

    But before the summons by the town union, Bernard had secured appointment at the National Iron Mining Company (NIOMC), Itakpe, Kogi State. I had taken to journalism. He quickly rose through the ranks occupying various positions. He was technical assistant to three Project Directors, Deputy General Manager and General Manager, Beneficiation.

    He spent all his working life in that company and shared in the bitter experience of the disagreement between the federal government and an Indian company that stalled activities in NIOMC for many years. The Yar’Adua regime had cancelled the concession agreement his predecessor entered into with the Indian company following allegations of assets stripping. That led to litigations.

    For the years the legal dispute lasted at The Hague and the International Court of Arbitration, London, the company was virtually grounded. It took serious toll on the work force. And Bernard had a sour taste of that.

    But he remained committed believing they were temporary setbacks. At a time during that period, he had asked me for a media plan for the repositioning of the organisation. I promptly availed him one. He was later to inform me his boss was happy with that proposal.

    Luck seemingly smiled his way when in August 2016, the then Minister of Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi announced an out-of-court settlement of the dispute with the Indian firm. Bernard was thereafter appointed the Sole Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

    With the new prospects, he initiated action in many fronts to bring the company back to function. These yielded fruits as he succeeded in attracting a World Bank sponsored project for the iron ore sector. The sole administrator also succeeded in defending the company’s budget at the National Assembly and money was released.

    The joy of the workers knew no bounds. The company was to sign contracts for the face-lifting of the facilities that had gone rusty following years of neglect and auction of some properties. These decisions were taken at an executive meeting which ended at about 6pm. Implementation was billed for the next day.

    But the unfortunate happened. Man’s inhumanity to his fellow man took the centre stage. As he was being driven to his residence located right inside NIOMC premises after that meeting, a volley of bullets were suddenly pumped  into his car by assassins lying in wait. He was fatally wounded.

     Some interests that wanted him out by all means had done their worst. By the time he was rescued, he was still alive. But the damage had been done. The next five years or so saw the family doing all humanly possible to save his life. It took a heavy toll on them.

    Sadly, all those efforts and sacrifice could not reverse the mortal damage inflicted on the innocent man by demented assassins. He departed this sinful world on April 17.

    A well brought up and brilliant man, Bernard was an embodiment of honesty and integrity. God fearing and unassuming, he accepted challenges with philosophical vision.

    He was a fellow of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (FNMGS), Fellow Nigerian Metallurgical Society (FNMS) and Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC).

    Fare well Bernard. ‘Assassination is the tool of the weak and the cowardly’. They have harmed the physical body but your gentle soul rests in the comfort of God’s bosom. You live in our minds!

  • Turbaned or Turbanned

    Turbaned or Turbanned

    “In those days, there was no king …: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25

     The theatre playing out in Kano is not fun but funny. But to historians and a certain breed of political scientists, it is fun because it is funny. In this comedy, heads roll, laws are broken, a judge is invisible, palaces are at once in one place and another, one turban becomes one plus one and one minus one, we have kingmakers and a grudge match.

    Some will call it absurd. But it is the sort of tempest that will fit any dramatist’s twist.

    Today, there is an emir. Tomorrow there is another emir. The next day, some say there is an emir, and the other says there is another emir. Some then conclude, there is no emir at all.

    One emir is inside the palace, and the other is outside the palace.

     Some say the legitimate one is in the palace. Where else should he be? Others say the legitimate one is outside the palace. Again, the authorities with the full attire of police and retinue of secret service are with the one outside the palace.

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    But is the one inside not supposed to have the police with him?

    To bring humour to it, both are turbaned. Both are hailed with ranka dede.

    Then, a governor, known for his penchant for gubernatorial bulldozing, is halted by the courts. Who halts a bulldozer? But the bulldozers throw out a charge. The judge of the court, he alleges, pronounced a verdict in absentia. He was not in court, not in Kano, not in Nigeria. He was ensconced in Biden’s neighbourhood in a democratic setting when he was making a verdict on a feudal matter.

    So, says the governor, Abba Yusuf of Kano. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was installed at about 5 p.m., when the courts had closed for the day. So, how did they get the restraining order when the matter had not happened. Of course, they turned it into an ecclesiastical, nay celestial entity. Maybe it was not just a judicial injunction but a prophetic injunction.

    The first court in history to hear a case before the crime and passed verdict.

     In these days of Guinness Book of Records, this is the turn of the Nigerian judiciary.

     Some have asserted that it was a virtual judgment. When did the law procedure rule that judges could sit virtually from their bedrooms or hotel suites? I am yet to know that, pardon me. But even then, if he passed the verdict, was he operating on American time? Pacific, Eastern, Rocky Mountain time, Central or what? Maybe hence, he did not know that the courts had closed. Or was it a case of a closed mind bent on neutralizing the bulldozer? Even then, what was the bulldozer thinking when he defied the court of the land.

     If the court was wrong, the remedy is not self-help but another court. Yet, the National Judicial Council will do well to gaze with its focal lens the doings of the judge.

    The NJC had just put the hammer on a few errant men who were more wizened than wise. We also had the episode of Sanusi first in the state house  as the bulldozer paved the way with an ultimatum to Ado Bayero.

     Now, some are not sure who is behind this. Some tried to link Nuhu Ribadu, but the NSA has sued an upstart deputy speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly who was speaking without evidence.

    Yet, the real story is much like Wike versus Fubara, as the matter is being pursued by law, but it is a grudge match. It is, like all palace intrigues, inside the family. But politics has taken over family feud.

     It is because since the colonial lords pushed out ancient kingdoms and teased them with the House of chiefs, thrones and monarch have become tools of the state. Former governor and bitter enemy, Ganduje broke the emirate. Critics saw it as breaking the royal calabash.

     Now, with Ganduje clucking in Abuja and with no more edicts on his lips, Abba Yusuf can play bulldozer. Ganduje can only say Haba Abba! Even former governor in the Second Republic, Abubakar Rimi, who dismissed an emir of Kano as no more than a public officer under the local government chairman, said he would toss any king if he committed an offence.

    That is the process. Yusuf did not want to play the sophist. He did not want to quibble on his intention, which is revenge. He did not bother to go through due process.

     He is supposed to issue a query, as Ganduje did, and wait for a response before unleashing a hammer. The local government and the commissioner of local government and chieftaincy affairs ought to be the channel between governor and emir.

    But it is clear that whatever the route the demolition man of Kano has opted for, the cards are still in his hands. Under his watch, Emir Sanusi would triumph. In this matter, it does not matter who is right. It is in the words of the novelist, Bessie Head, a question of power.

    Ado Bayero strolled into the palace under Ganduje as vendetta. Sanusi does the same for the same reason. Emir go, emir come, apologies to Fela. The governors are like gods using the emir for their sport.

     In King Lear, Shakespeare says this about gods and men. “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.” Some governors play gods with kings. They actually play king to kings, democrats when they please, autocrats when they choose. It is not about the law. It is about the governor. Edicts don’t always make convicts if the governor evicts it.

     After all, the Edict of Worms – what a name – was  slammed on the renegade priest Martin Luther during the Reformation in Europe, but he escaped execution. If the police defy Mr. Bulldozer, it may be for a moment. We shall know who deserves the turban or who should be turbanned. Maybe not who deserves, but who will be served.

  • Obaseki breaks Benin calabash

    Obaseki breaks Benin calabash

    The video is riveting. I had never imagined a vision of a dancing Oba of Benin. But here he was, in his full royal apparel, splendour and grandeur, swaying from side to side. Within his orbit, his white robe adorned with a semi-circle of beads around his neck, he stepped right and left, his hands upraised and came down in rhythm to a song from courtiers’ lips that filled the royal chamber with awe and majesty. The song, translated for me by a Benin friend and former classmate, was: Serene, serene May calm reign In the Oba’s domain Serene, serene. And well, he should. The palace had just received two coronation stools stolen at an infamous hour of the Benin Empire.

     The stools were for the coronations of two kings, Oba Eresoyen and Oba Esigie. The reigning king, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, was inhaling a proud draught for the kingdom. But not everyone in Edo State is happy. Not least the governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki.

     He has not congratulated the palace.

    He even carried it so far that he wanted to pit his party against the throne. Even after members of the APC, including its guber candidate, Monday Okpebholo, has issued a hearty congratulations, he has kept mum. It took a while before Asue Ighodalo, PDP counterpart, did. It is seen as an afterthought. It is more of a reflection of the atavistic malice that Obaseki bears against the throne.

     He is reminding everyone in the state that he is an Obaseki, and he would work against the stature of the palace.

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    His forbears were on the side of the foreigners when the British invaded in 1897. It was an Obaseki, who conspired with them and served as a warrant chief for the interlopers of the kingdom. He still carries that age-long pain in his lineage. That bad blood is the reason he wants to cut the royal kingdom into parts and asks the parts to become equal to the Oba of Benin.

    He is even backing renegade Enigies who are like dukes. And Dukes are no kings. He wants to dress them in Obaseki’s robes. He is enlisting an “army” against the throne because he is a governor. It is puny force. His party has been complicit in it, and I want to know what Ighodalo will say for himself when the campaigns heat up. Will he deny Obaseki during the campaigns, or will he deny the palace. To be or not to be, to echo Shakespeare. He is a governor trying to become a bandit against the throne. He is divvying up the kingdom, so the allocation that should go to the king will now be divided among the dukedoms. He is trying to suffocate the monarch by hitting the pocketbooks. But he is an inelegant man. He can not even acknowledge the good fortune of the palace. Rather, he wanted the stools to come to him. He set up a museum by breaking away part of the iconic Central Hospital in Benin to house the artefacts.

    This is against the wish of the palace.

    The palace wants it at the Oba Akenzua II Cultural Centre located across the palace. Is that not befitting? A cultural centre to house an icon of history. But Obaseki has turned it into a motor park.

    Obaseki has broken the royal calabash. Hence, I say he is a gubernatorial bandit.

     But he will miss the prize, like the bandit in Alexander Pushkin’s unfinished tale, Dubrovsky, about a bandit who loses the prize, a young woman, because he arrives late to rescue her.

     Obaseki is a joke now because he has only a few months to go. The palace knows that. They have to temporize and bid their time before a civilised turn.

     Meanwhile, Obaseki is a cross on Ighodalo’s neck.

     Will he deny himself and carry Obaseki’s cross? Will he allow himself to be cast as the candidate to sully the Benin throne?

  • Two envoys in Italy

    Two envoys in Italy

    Ademola Lookman was the moving spirit of the match. His dribble run and instinct for the killer shot made him the man of the match at the Europa League final. He won our hearts with a hat trick. Bold, imaginative, defiant, he troubled the defence, elated a crowd, subdued a tournament.

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    Europa League bowed, Atalanta Club leapt from his shoulders because he led with his feet, his goals, one, two, three. He, a Nigerian in Italy, held a flower for the Nigerian pride. He was an envoy for a maligned nation as it can be. Before him is the gangling Victor Osimhen. The man, a toast of goals, has shaken the nation each time his shot shook the nets of Italian clubs. Both are men of medals and honour for their country. They are our best ever envoys in that country. They did not need accreditation, just their sweat and sweet feet. Their president saw them in their glory and must show awe at their prowess. That is how to be an ambassador.

  • A new turn

    A new turn

    The last time Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani made national headlines, it was not about himself. Well, it was but he could not preen because it was about someone else: his predecessor, Malam El Rufai. Now he can.

    There is a reason. After a few episodes of public cacophony, the former Kaduna State leader is as quiet as an extinct volcano.  His Napoleonic stature and hubris have, like the French general, been smarting from a Waterloo. He may be in his own version of Saint Helena. His past has bullied him into silence. Inquiries about his doings in office have cast a shadow over him, and he who often blasted any slight, minimised any threat, is now a mouse without a sound.

    Governor Sani had decided to cry out. He had a debt burden. He could not heed the two labour leaders’ fulminations about wage increase and other allowances. The government was barely afloat. The waves were heady, tumbling and roaring. Drowning beckoned.

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    But Governor Uba Sani has, in the past week, drawn attention. He acted, a performance as defiance against the odds of the past month and year. He was not in a joyful mood in the past drama. But this time, out of the slumber, it was defiance with a sunny face.

    In spite of the debt agony, he has found a way forward. He is punching debt in the eye, presaging its death sentence. He is pursuing a financial reengineering. But that was not on the surface last week.

    As other governors are planning their one-year anniversary, he is commissioning. Other than over 500 kilometres of  50 roads across the state, he set two important projects in motion. One was the Panteka Market. The other was a soya bean refining plant.

    The story of Panteka is now a metaphor for the trajectory of Gov. Sani’s stewardship. A rise out of the ashes. He met the state in a state of burn. The finances had caught fire when he became governor. Because of his relationship with his predecessor, he did not want to show him up. He wanted silence and to gradually work things out. But fire cannot hide. To put it out, he had to speak out.

    Ditto to Panteka Market, a popular place he commissioned. In January, it crackled and fell from flame to ashes. Last week, Governor Sani launched its first stage of restoration. After restoring, to refine it. After refining, to prosper.

    So, for him, launching the market was saying goodbye to despair. As an activist, he knows a lot about moving forward. The market is about human development, as it is about an enabling environment to buy and sell. It is for the skills and the learner of skills. For the electrician, plumbers, masons, painters, mechanics and more. But he looks beyond that.

    “It will be the biggest technology hub in northern Nigeria,” he exhaled. A humdinger of a claim.

    This is good news away from want and fear, away from airport without access, of hoodlums tearing away at night with ingenues and virgins, of priests beheaded and villagers in flight, of airspace without flights, of schools as entrapment.

    But this market is like the story of Prophet Joshua in Zechariah’s vision. The prophet, soaked in filth, is a metaphor of a path to reconditioning. But he is told that he is “a brand – or a piece of wood – plucked out of the fire.” That is Panteka Market. It is first a rescue and later a refinement. That is Sani’s vision. Out of the fire comes forth newness. As a market that started by fabricating metals, Panteka Market hopes to become like a metal chiseled out of a fire, like a gold bar.

    Kaduna used to be the north. It was the city of power and glory, where the north went to think and counsel, where it nurtured prosperity. Adams Oshiomhole once told me about his time in Kaduna when textile boomed and the city was a mecca of talent and investors.

    That is what Kaduna should be.

    The Panteka Market is not just a market, but a way of prosperity. Economic theorist and anthropologist, Karl Polanyi argued in his opus, The Great Transformation, that markets are not meant to be contained in one place. Panteka is a free market but, by definition, free market is a contradiction. A market is less a place than a state. It is fluid, active, mercurial, a source of interaction and thought, a magnet of peoples far and near. Hence the governor made the claim that it is a hub of northern Nigeria. A market cannot, therefore, serve as just a self-contained entity or else it will challenge the social order. A modern market is witchcraft. It is here but it flies everywhere.

    Panteka can occupy a real estate, but it is London, in Maiduguri, where persons may want to exchange goods and buy. It is in the buses and trucks on the highways and the computer, whirring from emails, WhatsApp and X, in boardroom brawls and debate and decisions.

    The soya bean refining plant is less about the plant, although the plant is a very significant thing. It is bringing in a $50 million  investment. It is tapping into an agricultural potential dormant for a long time. The CEO licked his chomps to be in Kaduna. I learned he had long wanted to launch the project in Kaduna and nowhere else. But he was looking for the right atmosphere. Sani offered, and he obliged.

    It will bring jobs, but not just jobs. It will afford suppliers to the plant in markets near and far, not just about that. It is about a state regaining its pride and pride of place. Marxists say the material determines the immaterial. Sometimes and to some extent, of course. But in the final analysis, we don’t live for food and shelter. We live for pride, according to Athol Fugard, the playwright. Francis Fukuyama described it as prestige when he announced the death of communism in his book, The End of his History and the Last Man.

    But when a person cannot eat, he knows no pride. He settles for his food. Hunger can be exaggerated, especially when it confronts sentiment. May our hunger not be tested, apologies to BRF. Since independence, hunger has yielded to tribe and faith, or group in elections. We have always voted for who we love or hate but not what we want.

    Marrying Panteka with the Soya Bean refining plant shows an industrial vision of the new helmsman in Kaduna.

    It is a testament to his optimism. As George Bernard Shaw says, “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.”

    Sani sees the aeroplane, an irony for a state that airlines had abandoned. Now, the major airlines are planning to bubble through its clouds. It also shows the work the new chief of defence staff, Christopher Musa, is doing up north. Southern Kaduna, few have noticed, is getting safer. We hope it gets better.

    While his predecessor is under probe, Governor Sani is an instance of manoeuvre in a time of financial headwinds. He has bought no new cars, not for himself or any in the state. After the sore experience of the past year, he is probably acting like Sir Andrew in the famous ballad: “I am struck and wounded/ I lay me down and rest awhile/ and I’ll rise and fight again.”

  • Death penalty for drug convicts

    Death penalty for drug convicts

    Barring other interventions, the senate is about to return death penalty for convicts of drug offences into our status books. This is sequel to a bill that passed its second reading in the upper legislative chamber penultimate week seeking capital punishment for convicts of drug offences.

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) Act (Amendment Bill 2024 which is now billed for third reading provides for death sentence for those dealing in the manufacture, trafficking, delivery or use of drugs. The existing law has a maximum of life imprisonment for offenders.

    Senate Whip, Ali Ndume while contributing to the debate on the bill, had argued that the sentence for drug convicts should be toughened to death penalty. This he claimed, “is the standard practice worldwide. We have to do this to address this drug problem that has seriously affected our youths. It should be death sentence either by hanging or any other way”.

    Spirited efforts by some of the senators to have the matter put on vote were rebuffed by the deputy senate president on procedural grounds. If the bill scales the third reading, it will require the assent of the president to come into force of law. Then, we would have returned to the era of execution of convicts of drug related offences-a retrogressive step one may wish to say. We shall return to this.

    The mortal harm the consumption, manufacture and sale of hard drugs pose to the wellbeing of the society has been of serious concern to the government. Much of the violent crimes that assail the social space, are somewhat traceable to the use and abuse of harmful drug substances by our youths. Hard drugs destroy the youths.

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    The frequent arrest of drug couriers and barons in and around the entry and exit points of the country speak of the quick source of illicit money the export of the substances has become. Even with stringent measures put in place by the relevant agencies of the government to fight the scourge, the malfeasance seems not abating. It is therefore only proper that our laws are regularly fine-tuned to respond to the challenges posed by hard drugs. That is the raison d’être for the bill seeking to amend the NDLEA Act.

    The Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohammed Marwa painted a grim picture of the growing sophistication in the illicit business in January last year, when he disclosed that within the first two years of his assumption of duty, 26,485 drug traffickers including 34 drug barons were arrested by his agency.

    The agency also secured the conviction of 3,733 drug dealers who were awarded various jail terms within the same period. The volume of arrests and convictions underscore how degenerate the illegal trade has become.

    It is a thing of worry that despite measures to deter potential dealers and manufacturers of hard drugs, these do not seem to have acted as sufficient deterrent to prospective offenders. That is the reason Ndume would want death sentence by hanging or other means for convicts. He is entitled to his opinion.

    But the ranking senator obviously erred when he claimed that death penalty for drug convicts is the practice the world over. The facts on the ground are at variance with that claim.

    In verity, most of the advanced democracies in the world have for long, done away with capital punishment. Whereas the United States of America (USA) is one of the few advanced countries where capital punishment still exists, it is applied to such capital offences as murder, treason, genocide, the killing or kidnapping of the president, congressman or supreme court Justices. Even then, a jury must decide whether to impose the death sentence.

    The United Kingdom (UK), Germany and Canada have all abolished capital punishment. Capital punishment has been completely thrown overboard in all European countries save Belarus and Russia; but Russia provides for a moratorium and has not carried out any execution since Sept, 1996. Capital punishment in France (French: Peine de mort en France) is banned by Article 66-1 of the constitution of the French Republic.

    So the claim that capital punishment is the practice the world over is not supported by available facts. If capital punishment has been abolished for heinous crimes in advanced democracies, it is inconceivable how drug related offences can possibly attract the same punishment.

    Admittedly, countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India and Indonesia among others still retain capital punishment for drug convicts. But that does not qualify as a universal practice. And as can be gleaned from the category of countries involved, there exist some other underlying reasons why they retain capital punishment for drug offences. Nigeria does not properly fit into that common denominator.

    Rather than a world-wide practice as the senator would want us to believe, capital punishment is old fashioned. The world is increasingly laying emphasis on the sanctity of the human life, reformatory and correctional laws.

    Marwa spoke along these lines when he said the agency had broadened access to treatment and rehabilitation through the inauguration of the NDLEA drug abuse call centres.  More of such interventions offer better prospects in the fight against hard drugs.

     I guess it was this principle that informed the recent change of the nomenclature of the Nigerian Prisons Service to Nigerian Correctional Services. We run the mortal danger of rubbishing the spirits of that visionary change by legitimising death penalty for drug offences.

    Unfortunately, this country had treaded that odious path in the past. The trauma inflicted on the psyche of our people by the retrogressive application of Decree 20 of 1984 during the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari will for long linger.

    Then, three Nigerians-Bernard Ogedengbe, Bathlomew Owoh and Lawal Ojuolape were tied to the stake and shot dead for drug offences. Our laws have since abolished death penalty for drug offences. It has gone out of fashion and any piece of legislation that seeks to bring it back is patently retrogressive.

    It is a truism that our laws still retain capital punishment for such offences as murder, culpable homicide and armed robbery. But many of those sentenced to death for these offences have for long remained in prison custody as state governors show increasing reluctance to sign their death warrants. This is not unconnected to the belief in the sanctity of human life and doubts on the propriety of death sentence as an effective deterrent to offenders.

    Just last year, the Nigerian Correctional Services corroborated the situation when they disclosed that 3,413 inmates on death row were still in the country’s custodial centres across the country. This is part of the reasons for the congestion of available facilities. 

    It is a mark of the unpopularity of death sentences that this high number of those convicted for such offences are still unable to have a date with the hangman. If the governors are not keen in signing death warrants for murderers, armed robbers and convicts of culpable homicide, their attitude to the execution of drug convicts should be anybody’s guess.

    Beyond this, the piece of legislation that seeks to return death penalty into our laws brings to question the propriety of capital punishment as deterrent to prospective offenders. Armed robbery, murder and culpable homicide are still a regular feature in our society despite the death sentences convicts face.

    Death penalty has rather emboldened offenders to operate in the most cruel and ruthless manner knowing the consequences that await them. The society has largely been at the receiving end for it. The emphasis on death sentences loses sight of the factors that conduce for the high prevalence of crimes in societies as ours. These are some of the issues our lawmakers should be addressing. What of the high level of corruption in public offices that deprives the people of their common patrimony, reducing them to hewers of wood and fetchers of water despite the abundance of wealth nature placed at our disposal?

    The NDLEA is obviously making serious progress in the fight against hard drugs. It should be encouraged with all it takes to lighten its duty in this daunting task.

    Extant law which provides for imprisonment, fine and forfeiture of assets for convicts is enough to debar prospective offenders. No to death sentence as it has become an anachronism of sorts. The senate can save precious time by discontinuing with that piece of legislation.

    But where the bill manages to scale through, President Bola Tinubu should not waste time in refusing assent as it is a rusted piece of legislation.

  • An Obidient lawmaker and I

    An Obidient lawmaker and I

     At the College Hall of  the Yaba College of Technology, I received a lifetime award for journalism but a federal lawmaker tried to mar it for me. He walked up to me before the event started and rather than the usual hello, his first words were, “I want to know if you believe in a Nigerian rebirth?” He belongs to the Labour Party, and he reflected the Obidient lack of finesse and savoir faire, a hallmark of their political culture. I lashed back at the lawmaker by educating him that he lacked politeness and he was insulting.

    He was echoing the main lecture of the day about the quest for a national rebirth delivered with rigour and eloquence by Prof. Hope Eghagha. Prof. Eghagha showed the stumbles towards a born again nation. He believed in the capacity of President Bola Tinubu to do it but we have to watch.

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    Senator Anthony Adefuye gave a remark of optimism with humour, saying the young generation is already doing it. My take? All our attempts have been a long series of travails. The new baby has yet to cry out of the womb. Nigerians are expecting this time for baby to triumph over travail.

  • Mele steps on gas pedal

    Mele steps on gas pedal

    Two major developments in the past week passed without due attention. They are the reports about a maritime extension for Nigeria in the ocean. It is what is called the continental shelf. It is five times the size of Lagos. Imagine.

    The second was the launching of three NNPCL initiative for gas, two in Imo State and one in Delta State. These are potential game changers for revenue generation and the power industry. NNPCL has a role in both news items. In the maritime news, the Ministry of Marine and  Blue Economy has a role here.

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    The continental shelf is the richest source of wealth in the waters, especially for marine life and minerals, including oil and gas. While the monetary part is still undergoing tweaking, these two pieces of news show fiscal gifts. It must please finance minister Wale Edun.

    The gas plant in Kwale is a tie-up between NNPC Gas Infrastructure Company (NGIC) and SEEPCO, the one in Owerri is between NGIC and Seplat but the other is by NGIC alone. It is good news also for power. Mele Kyari, the NNPCL boss, is going to help Nigeria step on the gas pedal. The potential of the three gas plants cannot be overwritten.

  •  80 gbosas for Dan the “butcher”

     80 gbosas for Dan the “butcher”

    Dan Agbese, writer, editor and journalist extraordinaire, has just climbed the eighth floor, as they say. When I worked under his supervision at Newswatch, the top flower of journalism in its day, reporters and senior editors called him Dan the Butcher. I think I first heard the term from the lips of Dele Omotunde, a senior editor. A few years ago, when I told him about it, Agbese was more than a little puzzled. We called him the butcher because of efficiency with the text. He kept the flab at bay and married elegance with

    precision. Agbese had a column that brimmed with poetic discipline.

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    He expected every reporter to write with an ear to rhythm and abhor waste. So, if you wrote a 20-paragraph story, he could cut them to nine and ask you to fill it up with material, not fluff. It was an early education for me as a professional. A Time magazine editor described it as painting within the lines. Agbese propagated a stern and imperious exterior that intimidated some staff   but he was the funniest, a play behind the stare. Happy 80th.