The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • June 12: History lesson for our youths

    Last week, the social media was suffused with youth messages about their resolve to fight for their rights. Their new resolution they claim stemmed from the discovery that many PDP men have occupied the political space for far too long. Bamanga Tukur, current PDP chairman, they said was old Gongola State governor back in 1983. Bello Halliru a commissioner in old Sokoto State in 1980 is today, 33 years after, Minister of Defence; General David Mark, who was governor of Niger State in1984 has continued to monopolise the senate presidency. David Jonah Jang who was governor of Benue in 1985 is today governor of Plateau and trying to add the chairmanship of NGF he lost to Amaechi in an election; Murtala Nyako governor of Niger State in 1976, 36 years ago, is now governor of Adamawa State etc. They are keeping their battle strategy a secret.

    The reawakening of our youths is a welcome development. After all, Nigeria youths were in the forefront of the battle against colonialism. But before our youths, who are now university graduates at 19s and 20s embarked on an unwinnable war against politicians who recently publicly declared they would rather die than lose power, I think they first need to understand how the past, when some soldiers of fortune claimed they were sacrificing their present for our future, has come to shape the present ‘cash and carry democracy’ and a recycled leadership.

    Let us start with Ibrahim Babangida, the master of political subterfuge. He rode on the back of civil society groups and the press that detested Muhammadu Buhari’s tyranny following his palace coup against him in 1985. He introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which destroyed our economy and legitimized corruption. In an effort to teach Nigeria that had engaged in party politics since the 1920s how to form political parties, he self-conceitedly decreed two government political parties, National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), wrote their constitutions and manifestoes, appointed Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih to run them as parastatals. His institute for democracy became the breeding ground for many of today’s PDP leaders. After eight years of ‘transition without end’, and billions down the drain, he annulled the landslide victory of Moshood Abiola, his friend.

    Arthur Nzeribe. He is the leader of government sponsored shadowy Association for Better Nigeria(ABN), declared illegal and banned from canvassing for ‘four more years’ for Babangida by the court. It secured a midnight judgment from Justice Bassey Ikpeme’s Abuja court to derail the Babangida’s eight year transition despite the existence of Decree 53 which shielded the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from court interference.

    Professor Humphrey Nwosu was the author of much derided “Option A4” which turned out to be Babangida’s nemesis as the method produced the most credible election acclaimed by local and international observers but faulted only by Babangida. He remained faithful to the transition by exploiting Decree 53 which shielded his NEC from prosecution until Babangida committed political suicide writing his name on the wrong side of history.

    Abiola made his fortunes through his military friends. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti described him as ‘international thief thief’. He set up a newspaper to fight Awolowo, the most prominent Yoruba politician who had mooted the idea of probing the military and their civilian fronts. He launched into politics, made a failed attempt at securing the NPN presidential ticket but was rudely told by Umaru Dikko that Nigerian presidency was not for sale. He stormed out of NPN and deployed his immense wealth to the services of the people all over the country without discrimination. He took on the West insisting it must make reparations for about 400 years of slavery. He was lured back into politics by Babangida who later betrayed him. He died in prison trying to protect the mandate freely given to him by Nigerians.

    Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa of the NRC who during the presidential debate said he wanted to be president because “our nation is divided by issues of suspicion, distrust and the fact that most Nigerians have lost faith in the country’s leadership whether military or civilian”, was initially chief campaigner for ‘four more years’ for Babangida. He was an oil consultant under the military making thousands of pounds daily before he was lured into politics.

    Tony Anenih was the chairman of a victorious SDP who bargained away the victory of his party. He has a larger than life image of ‘Mr Fixer’, a euphemism for election rigging. He is currently PDP BOT chairman and chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority.

    Tom Ikimi was one of Babangida’s ‘new breed’ creations and the government-appointed chairman of the defeated NRC. He succumbed to pressure from his military masters in their conspiracy against our nation.

    Nduka Irabor was the press secretary to Augustus Aikhomu, Babangida appointed vice-president. It was Irabor who read an unsigned statement, hurriedly scribbled on a piece of paper which confined the June 12 election to history.

    Nduka Obaigbena, a failed senatorial candidate under NRC from Delta was on CNN barely 12 hours after the June 12 election calling for cancellation of the results because Abiola went into the polling booth wearing a dress with the stallion picture of SDP logo. His argument was the one adopted by government.

    Okey Uzoho was the NRC publicity secretary who on June 16, 1993, four days after the election signed the NRC document that formally called for the cancellation of the election on the grounds that there were ‘intimidation of voters, falsification of results in most states and monetary inducement by the rival SDP. And quoting Obaigbena, the statement concluded that ‘Abiola breached electoral law by wearing a dress bearing SDP logo’

    Walter Ofonagoro as Tofa’s campaign director of organization in a 14-point statement insisted that the election was not free and fair. And citing the Abuja court injunction, and quoting Obaigbena’s MKO’S alleged contravention of decree 13 of 1993 for parading himself before voters in Lagos in the colours and emblem of his party… he demanded “the disqualification of Chief Abiola, and Tofa declared duly elected or in the alternative, the June 12 election cancelled and a fresh poll conducted.”

    Clement Apamgbo, the Attorney-General of the Federation, was privy to Section 19 of the Presidential Election (Basic Constitution and Transitional Provision) Decree 13, of the 1993 which says “no interim or interlocutory order by any court or tribunal shall affect the date or time of the election”. But Nwosu, the NEC chairman confirmed that “The commission was served with a writ of summons through the honourable Attorney-General of the federation to show cause why the commission should not be charged for contempt of the said Abuja High Court for conducting the said election in defiance of the court order.”

    Duro Onabule, Babangida’s chief press secretary, while all this was going on, refuted foreign media reports that the federal government was interfering with the results of the presidential election. According to his statement: “NEC has been saddled with the responsibility of conducting the election; and it is left to it to bring to government’s attention any problem that tended to adversely affect its patterns. Government was yet to get any complaint from NEC.”

    General Adulsalami Abubakar, another major player in the June 12 debacle emerged following the death of Abacha to rescue the totally discredited military from final humiliation. Abiola died under his custody. In 1998, the embattled military wanted someone that would protect them out of government. They reached out for jailed Obasanjo who had during his own transition in 1979 opposed Obafemi Awolowo for threatening to deal with individual military officers that looted state treasuries.

    General Obasanjo was the main beneficiary of June 12 tragedy. He had said at the onset of the crisis that Abiola was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for. He helped in installing an illegal Interim National Government headed by Ernest Sonekan, Abiola’s Egba kinsman. When the military zeroed on him as their candidate in 1998, Babangida, Danjuma, David Mark and other military ex- office-holders and their contractors including Kalu Uzor Kalu sponsored his candidacy. Obasanjo served two terms without acknowledging the contribution of Abiola to the enthronement of democracy. In an attempt to obliterate June 12 1993, Obasanjo and PDP fraudulently imposed May 29, the day the military was humiliated out of power as ‘Democracy Day’.

    This abridged history of June 12 and its enemies is important for our youths because none of the above men except Humphrey Nwosu has bothered to write his memoirs.

  • A father’s uncommon sacrifice 

    Sometime last year, I wrote about how important it is to have more people willing to share information with security agencies in the fight against violence and terror in the northern part of the country. In that piece entitled: “Boko Haram and the North”, my argument was that one crucial missing factor that had been hindering the fight against violence, especially the sort of organised terror for which groups like the Boko Haram (and now, also, Ansaru) have become notorious for championing in the North, is the insistence of those with valuable knowledge about these groups to consciously shield their relatives and friends purely on filial affinity. And as many commentators have noted, such primordial considerations need to change in the interest of peace and the poor, suffering people of the North.

    So when, recently, I read the story of an anonymous, 60-year old man, of Kanuri descent, in Borno State, who reportedly handed over his son to members of the Joint Task Force, JTF, who are currently battling to flush out Boko Haram and other insurgents who have long held Borno State and many parts of the north-east of Nigeria by the jugular, I was, perhaps, like many other Nigerians, very impressed and hopeful that, at least, we are getting somewhere.

    According to the widely-publicised report, a businessman in the Hausari Ward of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, was said to have alleged that his son, a member of the deadly group, had participated in the killing of several people in Maiduguri and subsequently handed over the son to men of the JTF in his ward. The son reportedly left the parent’s home a few months ago only to suddenly return home recently to plead with his father to allow him refuge from the current massive onslaught of security forces against the Boko Haram in Borno State, which is now under a state of emergency, alongside Yobe and Adamawa states.

    Following the crackdown by the JTF, a fallout of the emergency declaration by President Goodluck Jonathan on May 14, this year, members of the Boko Haram have been running for cover. Apart from the JTF, a group of youths under the aegis of Community Vigilance Group is also on the prowl, hunting down Boko Haram members, and in many instances, handling down instant death sentences in the form of jungle justice to whoever is caught. It is in the wake of these counter-insurgency moves that the young man reportedly ran back to the bosom of his father and confessed to how he had joined hands to kill people and loot banks, pleading with his father to shield him. But he met a brick wall as his principled father reportedly turned him down flatly. The old man was said to have told his son that it was against his conscience to keep a roving assassin, an armed robber and such a big security threat in his home. Pronto, the man approached the office of the JTF and told them of the criminal involvement of his son in serial killings and robbery. Some soldiers followed him home to arrest the son, but as fate would have it, the son tried to escape arrest and was shot dead.

    Remarkably, in an affirmative demonstration of his unflagging will to live on the right path, not only did the man turn over his son to the authorities, he also had the fortitude to resist touching the ill-gotten wealth his son reportedly starched away near their home. The young man had revealed to the father and the family the location of two cars and millions of naira he had acquired from his association with Boko Haram’s activities. Impressively, the father declined to taint his Islamic faith by taking inheritance of assets he considers haram (forbidden).

    This is a remarkable story by all account. A story that, no doubt, demonstrates the true face of religious faith, the true face of Islam. It doubtlessly vindicates many of the moderate Muslims who have been trying to tell anyone that would listen that extremist groups like Boko Haram do not represent Islam. It is a story that is sure to add more volume to the voice of those Muslims whose voices have long been drowned out by the guns and bombs of radical, violence-oriented Muslim groups and individuals like Boko Haram and their members. It is difficult to properly account for how far this might go in convincing doubters that Islam has no place for the likes of Boko Haram but what a bold statement in vindication of those who have continuously argued in defence of Islamic extremism.

    Of course, this is not the first time a father would keep his paternal feeling from interfering with his judgment where terror and his son are concerned. In 2009, after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempt to detonate a bomb on a flight to Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America, it later emerged that his father had, prior to the botched attempt, warned the authorities about the increasing extremist leaning of his son. Today, Abdulmutallab, has come to be known notoriously worldwide as “the underwear bomber” now in jail in America. One staggering discovery, all through the renewed offensive against terror in the North-East in particular, is that the residents have been showing more bravery in exposing violent elements in their midst, even if these elements were family members. In many cases, the implications for the whistle blowers have been perilous. However, this un-named businessman’s case is without doubt at a different level. It is a heroic deed and sacrifice of highly uncommon extent for a parent to be so brave for the sake of his faith and the safety of others, to the detriment and even death of his own flesh and blood. This could rightly be christened: “A Brave Father’s Uncommon Sacrifice for Sanity”.

    Still, maybe we should afford ourselves the right to tinker our praise for the old man in question with a slight dose of ‘practical pessimism’ here, for a combination of factors might have been responsible for his decision. So, maybe, we can look at this man’s act in a slightly different light. In this regard, perhaps we can be a little cynical and play the devil’s advocate by arguing that he might have acted more in self-preservation – that time-tested, time-proven golden rule in human existence – knowing fully the potential dire consequences for his son and the burden that might put on members of the family. Now, is it totally implausible to think that the man was merely trying to save his own neck from his son by resorting to that course of action? Let’s look at it this way: in April this year, the son was said to have threatened to kill the father shortly before he (the son) bolted out of home. He only came back to appease his father when he realised that he could no longer take the heat the JTF, with the help of members of the Youth Vigilance Group, was dishing out to him and his fellow terrorists at Boko Haram’s training camps in Kirenoa and Sambisa games reserve forests of the state.

    Whatever the ‘permutation’, in the final analysis, especially in an increasingly materialistic 21st Century, when it seems that the values of altruism are becoming increasingly peripheral in the lives of many, we have to doff our hats to this brave man’s uncommon vote for faith, peace and sanity. Many people in his shoes in the past might have been tempted to look the other way and cover up their wards’ misdeeds for some selfish interests. Maybe, we should ask: How many Nigerians can go the whole hog to expose the nefarious activities of their children or wards like this Kanuri businessman?

    If parents can put their feet down and dissuade their children from taking the easy route to sudden wealth and perdition, a greater percentage of the economic and social problems we now experience in Nigeria will be history.

     

  • Jagged road edges kill again! RoboCup 2013; Lagos Osborne Sand-sand Challenge Cup Pls

    On the NTA News, did you see the jagged road edge at the crash that killed five NANS students? Honest Nigerian political and road maintenance managers, if any exist, should know that jagged road margins kill more people than speeding, by forcing vehicles to suddenly cross lanes into other traffic. If the ‘unemployed’ in the ministries of works ‘dressed’ the road edges and filled potholes,  vehicles would ‘Keep Right’ and stop jerking around and thus reduce crashes thus saving hundreds of lives and misery for thousands. The Lagos-Ibadan road is a good example of bad maintenance road edges.

    Will someone please put WHO messages and other life skill social message films like CNN’s Girlrising about girl education, child trafficking, prostitution, violence etcetera on local TV and radio for the millions without cable TV? How many actually watch CNN to see Girlrising, ACT adverts and other wonderfully educational films?  Check www.girlrising.com.

    Life is serious. Seven happy proud Nigerians died from generator fumes. It is not hard to trace the deaths to the corruption and incompetence-ridden power paralysis at local PHCN office, ministerial failures and historical myopic presidential inadequacies in power policies and implementation. Their deaths were engineered 10-20-30 years ago by failures at Federal Executive Councils that refused to power Nigeria into the 21st Century. So next time you hear of someone getting CON or yet another plaque and pension for ‘services rendered’, remember these seven prematurely dug graves and thousands more. Government must accept policy and financial responsibility and apologise for the last 30 years of failures in power, education, health and roads. We must institute compensation strategies. ‘Death by Deliberate or Failed Government Policy’ should be actionable. Politicians and civil servants must pay for their failures in the past and present. A government jagged road causing a crash must be compensated for by government. Lawyers to the families of the dead NANS 5, where are you?

    Coming out of Lagos on a Sunday morning, there is an inspiringly beautiful sight on the sun-warmed sand-sand ‘landfill’ reclaimed from the ocean next to Osborne/Third Mainland Bridge area. As far as the eye can see there are youth- all occupied with the great game-football. It should be a Nollywood youth inspiration set. There are many different teams and the games are civilised and well-organised. This would be a goldmine opportunity for government, individuals and corporate bodies to invest in the ‘good’ youth. Talent scouts, 1000 good footballs with government and corporate logos and perhaps even kit can be provided. A ‘Lagos Sand-sand Challenge Cup’ can be donated and competition funded. The media can visit and identify rare talent. If those 1000 youth are kept off the streets and doing something healthy and constructive, Lagos and Nigeria will be safer places.

    Government often ignores the good active, strong, sports and other talented youth at its peril. Good honest Nigerian kids, who just want to engage in unavailable positive social and sports activities deserve as much of a break and funding assistance as the youth being ‘rescued’ from negative social activities like thuggery, NURTW, violence, drugs, alcohol and HIV/AIDS.

    Ever heard of the RoboCup? The Robotic World Cup is on this week engaging America and Columbian universities in cutting edge robotics and artificial intelligence. This game is not a game but a high tech battle disguised as a game. Where are Nigerian universities in spite of the cry about IT? Are they too myopic and preoccupied with ‘biz-admin’? Budgets, politicians and powerful academics often consumed by in-fighting, neglect to fund, access or utilise research grants in robotics. Therefore Nigeria’s robotic experience is negligible in its technology faculties. We have in Nigeria many bomb and crash amputees needing robotic limbs. It is up to government and technology faculties to broaden their scope, encourage their students with grants and travel to attend inspirational events as the RoboCup for skills. International linkages with Japan, Columbia and advanced robotic countries would help. Nigerian students could do so much more with better education policy and leadership.

    We join in sympathising with Senator Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on the loss of his illustrious mother Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji at 96 years. And as we do so, will some newspaper please start a body count of the daily victims of the various violence prone areas? Violence today is epidemic, killing more Nigerians than AIDS and malaria. This violence is in the press and encompasses our lives, including cultists on campus, Fulani anti-Birom, Fulani anti-Tiv, pro-cattle anti-farming, commercial road carnage defying the speed limit, robberies, murders, kidnapping, uniform brutality and finally political anti-democracy violence towards 2015. Add to these the Boko Haram mayhem and you have enough names to fill a memorial cenotaph every week in most states. And please add the army of Nigerian pregnant women lining up to ‘die of childbirth’ in rubbish ‘mission’ houses and poorly equipped, understaffed maternity centres, private and government. This particular government-sanctioned conspiracy against women is ‘Mass Maternal Murder’ and engineered by evil government policies. Should the families sue the system?

    Meanwhile the revenue continues to be shared and Nigerians are scared at the cost of politics. Any chance of a parliamentary system? The British want to send reckless bankers to jail. The Senate suggesting that principal officers of Senate should have salaries for life even though they get special position allowances and disgraceful emoluments while 70% of Nigerians earn less than $1 or N150/day.

  • Mercy’s personal tragedy

    Mercy’s personal tragedy

    Penultimate Tuesday must’ve been the saddest day in Mrs Mercy Lekwa’s life. That day Mama Nnenna, as we call her, lost her precious son, Lekwa Okon Emagha, aka Bobo, in a twilight shooting at a filling station in Lokoja, Kogi State, an innocent victim of possibly sibling jealousies he knew nothing about.

    My wife was the first to break the news of Bobo’s death to me and it hit me like a sledge hammer. She and Mercy had been friends from the early nineties when she helped madam run her restaurant, since closed, along Sultan Road, Kaduna.

    When her husband, Mr Okon Emagha, an aircraft engineer with the aviation pest control unit of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, died in 2001, he left her with four grown up kids to take care of. Bobo, 28, was the second and only male.

    As a widow whose civil servant husband had left little behind, she could barely make ends meet. And as if to make her life even more miserable, her in-laws took over even the small asset he’d left behind by way of a modest bungalow he had built in his village, along with the furniture; among her husband’s Igbo kin – Mr. Emagha, like herself, was from Ohafia, Abia State – in-laws, for some inexplicable reasons, seem to see nothing wrong with taking over what should be the inheritance of a widow and her children.

    Fortunately for her, Mercy was not the self-pitying lazy type. She was a good cook. She tries as best as she could to put her husband’s death behind her and work hard, using her talent, to earn enough to fend for her kids. Again fortunately for her, all of them were decent and well-behaved.

    As the man of the house, Bobo became its pillar. He did odd jobs here and there even while in school to help with the bills. He was not only hard working. He was also bright and full of initiative. Anytime anyone asked after him from her, as my wife often did, her face would light up as she told the person, “Bobo is my husband, my father, my wife, my brother, my everything!” And the girls, far from feeling sibling jealousy, adored their only brother.

    This was the Bobo who was snatched the Tuesday before last from a mother who had come to depend so much on her son. His killing was the more tragic because it came only several days before he was to resume work after completing a five-month course as one of 36 engineering staff the National Agency for Science and Engineering (NASENI), a parastatal of the Ministry of Science and Technology, had sent to Belorussia to improve their skills. Bobo had come tops in the group.

    Worse still for Mercy, the death came only a couple of hours after he had called to tell her he was coming home over the weekend to see the rest of the family before resuming work.

    His death came in the shape of a hired gun whose mission apparently was to kill the son of the owner of the petrol station in question. Bobo was a friend of the target of the alleged hired killer. His misfortune was that he was witness to the killing; obviously the alleged killer did not want to take any chances leaving any witnesses behind. With a suspect in the police net less than a week after the killings there is suspicion that Bobo’s friend was killed because he was his father’s favourite and as such was entrusted with running most of the family’s businesses.

    The killing of Bobo and his friend was clearly symptomatic of the insecurity that has become so pervasive in the land, partly because it has become all too easy for anyone so minded to acquire arms, small firearms especially.

    The story of Bobo’s employment by NANIS and the tragedy it turned into for his mother is proof positive that the problem of this country has never really been our religious, ethnic or any other differences but the way our politicians and the rest of us alike have exploited those differences for selfish reasons. The story started over forty years ago in Keffi, Nasarawa State, when his mother went to live with an uncle as a young lady. The uncle got her a teaching job in one of the town’s Native Authority primary schools.

    As a young teacher she took a special interest in three of her pupils who liked to play truant. Day in day out she would pull their ears in, metaphorically speaking, and counsel them about the virtues of knowledge. They hated her for it but she persisted as if she was their mother.

    Fast forward to 2011. As Mercy herself told it, one evening she was waiting by the roadside along Sultan Road, Kaduna, for a commercial motor-cycle to get home when a jeep that had just driven past her stopped, reversed and parked besides her. The person seated in the “owner’s corner” wound down the rear glass and spoke to her in familiar tone. He asked her if she did not recognise him. She said she didn’t, all the time thinking the man was your typical Casanova who cannot resist anything in skirts and at the same time wishing he would just drive off and leave her alone.

    Instead he alighted, walked to her side and told her the story of the three truant primary school pupils she had taken an exceptional interest in Keffi. That awoke her memory. Well, said the man, he was the most notorious of the three. The man, it turned out, was Dr. Mohammed Sani Haruna, the Director-General and Chief Executive of NANIS.

    After realising who he was, she accepted his offer of a ride in his jeep to her home to meet with the rest of the family. There, he told them how their mother was God’s instrument for what he has become.

    At the time only the girls were home. Their brother was away in Jos working with MTN as a contract staff. Like so many graduates he had found it difficult to get a job even though he had passed his Higher National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from Kaduna Polytechnic with distinction.

    When their guest made to leave, he told “Mama,” as he called her, to ask Bobo to send in his curriculum vitae to the agency which was undertaking a recruitment exercise at the time. That was how Bobo eventually got his job at NANIS, after which he was posted to the parastatal’s office in Okene, Kogi State.

    For Dr. Haruna it obviously did not matter that “Mama” was a Christian and Igbo and he was Muslim and Hausa. She had done him a good turn some 40 odd years ago and he thought he owed her to return the favour.

    Since the death of her husband in 2001, life for Mercy had not been exactly a happy one. Not only were her in-laws rather nasty in taking away the modest asset her husband left behind, she also eventually lost his official quarters in Unguwan Rimi GRA, Kaduna, which had been sold to her under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s monetisation policy even after she had made the mandatory down payment of 10 per cent. She lost the house to a fellow Christian who conspired with some of the officials in charge of implementing the policy, only for that person to sell it to a rich Alhaji. As is the case every so often, in this case money, clearly, was thicker than religion.

    Two Tuesdays ago, Bobo, as one of the few silver linings in the cloud under which she had lived for the past 12 years, was cut down in his prime. Life for Mercy must seem harsh, brutish and unfair. One can only pray that the Good Lord gives her and Bobo’s sisters the fortitude to bear his great loss.

     

     

     

     

  • Appraising Osun’s tablet of knowledge

    […] It is only when the minds of men have been properly and rigorously cultivated and garnished, that they can be safely entrusted with public affairs with a certainty and assuredness that they will make the best of their unique opportunity and assignment. —Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

     

     

    Anyone who conscientiously observes the policy initiatives of the current administration in the State of Osun since inception may not be hard-pressed to aver that it is increasingly working its fingers to the bone in order to make the effects of governance felt in all households in the state. Through many of its “O’projects”, the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration is unusually raising the bar of governance. Indeed, here is a governor who with uncommon hardihood and ideas is making life more meaningful for the generality of Osun citizens.

    What I personally find incredible is that in less than three years of assuming office, this O’Governor (as some people warm-heartedly brand him) has initiated a highly comprehensive reform that the Philistinic and rapacious PDP administration deemed impossible in the education sector of the state for an unbelievably uninterrupted seven years! In various aspects of the education sector of Osun today is striking evidence of how structured thinking and judicious use of resources can make a huge invaluable difference in the life of a people. As clearly stated in the epigraph to this piece, only rigorously cultivated and garnished minds can make the best of the opportunity availed them to serve the public.

    One of those beneficial projects Governor Aregbesola’s government will be forever remembered for is the newly launched computer tablet, an I-pad-like learning device christened Opon Imo. It was reported that about 150,000 units of the device would be given free of charge to both students and teachers in the state’s public schools – 20,000 for teachers and 130,000 for students in the high schools. With the introduction of this learning device, there is no doubt that the lacuna between teaching and learning, and access to requisite materials will be greatly reduced.

    It is noteworthy that the tablet is preloaded with different tutorial notes, past questions, and textbooks on 17 subjects that students register for in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), the National Examination Council (NECO), and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). This is a potent elixir for students; they will be motivated to settle down for business as the tuneless music of lack and dearth of necessary learning materials would have been taken care of. Experience has shown that where students are availed of the required learning materials, their capacity to excel is greatly enhanced. I am confident that the use of this device will greatly increase the capacity of our students for remarkable performances in their studies. Also, with Opon Imo, it is certain that public schools in the state will no longer produce students who are happily alien to the use of computer, which every young adult in current time can only neglect to their own disadvantage.

    For the government, parents, and teachers, it is all the way a win-win situation. In other words, while government saves money from buying textbooks (each computer tablet has about 65 textbooks), the teachers as well will no longer be tortured with teaching students who know nothing about the unsullied joy of possessing textbooks. Let me observe here that those who whoop and whine about the substantial billions of naira that the government will save from not having to buy textbooks because students can now access them on the tablets are only being mischievous. Only asinine kind of opposition politics would inspire anyone to condemn and howl negatively against a prudent government, which has even demonstrated in more ways than one, that it is committed to allocating resources across the various sectors of the state astutely. I think it is a sensible and laudable move for the Aregbesola government to even recognise in the first place that it can make savings from the huge investment it is making in the education sector. What is more, even parents, especially those with financial challenges, now have their burdens significantly crashed as they may not have to worry about how to buy textbooks for their children. Whether the nagging nabobs of notorious negativities in Osun find it palatable or not, the different households in the state are firmly convinced that they have a government which adds lasting values to their lives.

    The Opon Imo device is also said to contain six extra-curricular subjects, to wit Sexuality Education, Entrepreneurship, Yoruba Proverbs, Civic Education, Yoruba History and the Yoruba Traditional Religion. This is a welcome development as it will go a long way in equipping the minds of the students with knowledge in other useful areas other than their school subjects. The fact that the students may not be examined on these areas suggests to me that the government is directly awakening the consciousness of the students to the inexorable need for them to stuff their minds with knowledge not purposely for the sake of examination. Their capacity for dialectical thinking will be developed and they will not suffer from the malaise of insular and shallow thinking mostly favoured by charlatans and pedestrian souls. Surely, as they furnish their minds with the knowledge from those diverse subjects, they will know something about everything and everything about something. That is how to produce sound and round students. Precisely, the aspect on Yoruba, history, traditional religion, and proverbs are part of the effective ways of imbuing these students with the understanding of their culture.

    Surely, with its manifold brilliant and remarkable initiatives in the various sectors of the State of Osun, especially the education sector, the Aregbesola government is not unmindful of the tested and true view that the extent to which a government accords attention to its educational system will determine the level of the socio-economic development of the state or country, after all it has been proven again and again that there is a direct relationship between education and development. As the computer tablet affirms, the State Government of Osun knows what is at stake if it does not modernise its learning system.

    I can only cheer parents, teachers, and other stakeholders to help in ensuring that the students make valuable use of the device. The government must also continue to deepen this ICT-compliant learning system, even as it allows the worrywarts to keep clutching their permanent crutches of baseless bellyaches.

     

    • Alawode, a retired secondary school teacher, lives in Ile-Ife, Osun State.

  • Mbu Joseph Mbu

    Not a few from my generation and above should be able to recall events in old Oyo state in the second republic, particularly in 1983 as the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) engaged the ruling Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in a political battle for the right to occupy the government house at Agodi.

    The NPN you’ll recall was the ruling party at the centre and had among its ranks party bigwigs from Oyo State such as prominent Ibadan indigenes, Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye (now late), national chairman,Chief Richard Osuolale Akinjide (SAN) Attorney -General and Minister of Justice and Dr Omololu Olunloyo, among others.

    So with so many political heavyweights in its rank coming from the state, the NPN did not see any reason why it should not be in control at Agodi, and so the federal government of President Shehu Shagari deployed every resources at its disposal, notably the Nigeria Police and the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) to rig the party into power and denied Chief Bola Ige (now late) of the UPN a second term in office as governor. Dr Olunloyo, the NPN candidate was declared elected by FEDECO.

    Of course the people of Oyo state didn’t take the electoral robbery lightly as there were clashes here and there between the opposing political parties, even before the election, but Chief Ige opted to pursue his grievances against the result at the tribunal, but he failed. The federal might had spoken.

    In all of this, there was a certain police officer named Umaru Omolowo, remember him? He was the Commissioner of Police in Oyo state and his role was more than despicable. He did his part very well in ensuring that the NPN had its way. He wasn’t really acting alone as the Police in the second republic, under Sunday Adewusi as Inspector General operated more like the armed wing of the NPN than a security agency serving the interest of Nigeria. So as a member of this armed wing of the ruling party Omolowo was a “good” officer and acted his script very well.

    I remember a particular incident when a chieftain of the UPN, himself a prominent Ibadan indigene was attacked in his vehicle and seriously wounded by some hoodlums believed to be NPN thugs. He had machete cuts on his head. The man ran to a television studio and he was shown live with blood dripping from his forehead, but to the surprise of the general public Omolowo said nothing of such happened and the man sustained the head injury in a vehicle accident. Incredulous you say, coming from a commissioner of police without any investigative evidence to back his claim?

    That was not all, every other similar incidents the man either waved aside as not true or looked the other way as the NPN thugs had their way. Everything he saw through the prism of the NPN and what every other person saw he didn’t see. To him they were fictions. Chief Ige and his supporters cried foul but the CP played dumb and when he spoke he did according to script.

    No sane policeman should be proud of what the Nigeria Police did then. There were even people confirmed to be NPN thugs who were armed and given police uniform, by who? Nobody could tell,  but the police did little or nothing to arrest them. What these thugs did to political opponents of their masters is better imagined than experienced. The scars are still there at Oke Ado and other areas inhabited by non indigenes that were attacked in the NPN’s government vow to rid Ibadan of people from certain parts of Yoruba land believed to be supporters of the UPN.

    The role the Nigeria Police played in the south west especially in Oyo and Ondo states in support of NPN’s desperation to wrestle control of the region from the UPN contributed largely to bringing about the demise of the second republic.  The story is still fresh in the memories of those old enough then to appreciate what was going on at that time, and they are quick now to draw inference between what CP Omolowo was doing then in Oyo state and what Mbu Joseph Mbu is doing now as Commissioner of Police in Rivers state.

    There is indeed heightened political tensions and security challenges in Rivers state now and what is happening coincided with the appointment of Mr Mbu as the head of the Nigeria Police Command in the state. While it might be difficult to blame him solely for this, what is undeniable is that there is no love lost between him/his command and the government of Rivers state.

    The government is of the belief that the CP is part of an agenda by the opposition (within the ruling PDP in the state) and some Abuja politicians to bring down the administration of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and therefore wants him removed/redeployed. The governor has been crying out over this for sometime now alleging bias by the Commissioner of Police against his administration and the majority of the people of Rivers state. He said crime rate in the state is going up, kidnapping returning to the streets of Port Harcourt and militants are beginning to have a field day again. These he said had been long forgotten in the memory of the people of the state, but recent and on going happenings in the state (political/security) could throw the people back to those dark days of the recent past when people had to raise up their hands to pass through the streets of Port Harcourt. He said the government hasn’t been able to hold any internal security meeting for some time now because decisions taken often find their way to politicians in Abuja some of whom are opposed to his administration. He strongly suspects Mbu as the leak.

    In fairness to Mbu he didn’t respond to these allegations until recently, but even before then, he had acted in such a way and manner to suggest that the governor is probably right.

    In a clear interference in the political crisis in the state, the CP deployed his men to the secretariat of Obio/Akpor local government to “secure” the place against alleged planned attack following the suspension of the leadership of the council by the state House of Assembly (acting legitimately) and appointment of a caretaker committee. Against all pleas, even by the government, Mbu refused to vacate the premises even after a court had ordered him to remove his men. He bluntly said his men will remain in defiance of the court. The local interpretation of this was that he was doing so to protect the inerest of Minister of State for Education Nyeson Wike, a former ally of Amaechi, but now with the Abuja group, who hails from the area. You can imagine, a law enforcement officer disobeying the order of a court of law and record, with competent jurisdiction, and even doing so with impunity. But after a strong public pressure including demonstration by women wearing black, he did withdraw his men, but almost immediately the generator house of the secretariat was bombed and pronto, he returned his men, claiming the bombing as justification. But then conspiracy theorists have claimed that the attack on the council was with the knowledge of the Police and was allowed to be carried out by opponents of the government just to prove a point. What point? Your guess is as good as mine. Since then nobody has been arrested for the attack and the police are still at Obio/Akpor council secretariat even as the court order subsists. What a law enforcement officer.

    Mbu also didn’t do much to convince his accusers of his impartiality when he  gave permission to a group of opponents of the administration who besieged the premises of the House of Assembly to protest the suspension of the leadership of Obio/Akpor, and even allegedly led the team of policemen to give protection to the protesters some of whom were reportedly armed. And yet he reportedly vowed not to give permission to rival protest in support of the government.

    In the face of the shadow boxing between the police command and the state government, Mbu came out last week to reply Governor Ameachi’s accusations and did so in a manner that called to question his integrity, training and may be competence as a public officer. This is not a defence of the governor as he probably took the liberty of the privilege of his exalted office to say certain things about the police command and the CP that the ordinary members of the public knew or suspected but couldn’t say.

    So, may be the governor was speaking the minds of the silent majority in Rivers state who are not comfortable with the deteriorating political and security situation in the state and the seemingly biased role of the state police command, especially CP Mbu. But for the CP to call the governor dictatorial smacks of insubordination and was insulting. He should be called to order and sanctioned appropriately. No public officer, especially a member of the security forces should behave or be allowed to behave that way to a democratically elected leadership. Sure, no CP would have spoken like that about a military governor during the days of military dictatorship. Yes, we in a democracy but it also has its own rules and culture, and nobody should be allowed to brach them. There is need for decorum, albeit on both sides. But as the Yoruba would say, wherever is called the head, you don’t walk with it.

    Back to the management of the security situation in Rivers state, the governor is crying out now that things are getting bad and some people are committing security infringement with impunity and the CP is saying he is crying wolf. That was the position of CP Omolowo in the second republic on the political and security crises in Oyo state than and we all know what happened to that political dispensation. We should not open our eyes and allow this republic to go that way. Together, let’s safe this democracy.

     

  • Haba, Labaran!

    Haba, Labaran!

    Controversy has been its constant companion since the “National Good Governance Tour” was launched last September by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku.

    “A lot of work has been done by this administration in the past two years which has not been adequately reported in the media. So, this tour will expose a lot of things for everyone to see,” Maku said.

    To correct this alleged failing of the media, Maku would lead a team to the states to explain what “the government” is doing or intends to do to better the lives of the people, and thus somehow “increase their participation in governance”

    Nigerians from all walks of life, using conventional and non-conventional media platforms, would have the opportunity of asking questions and expressing their views on the projects the team would be inspecting.

    By “the government,” Maku probably meant the Federal Government, since his ministerial brief does not include reviewing or passing judgment on projects undertaken by the states. It now seems in retrospect that he had used that term in a much broader context, and had thus unwittingly set the scene for the controversy that has been dogging the NGGT.

    I will dwell on that and other issues presently.

    The NGGT train – or more appropriately, the NGGT executive jet, since Maku has never deigned to travel by the trains, the rehabilitation of which he has been trumpeting as a transcendental feat – has since touched down in almost a dozen state capitals, with a retinue of political officials and news reporters and information officers, in what has increasingly seemed like a touring circus.

    The team “inspects” some on-going and completed projects in and near the state capital, Maku lustfully sings praises of Federal Government for real achievements and mere intentions, usually the latter. He goes into a rhapsody about contracts that have been awarded, giant rice mills that will be installed, tens of thousands of jobs that will be generated by the cassava plantations, based on feasibility studies the government has recently commissioned, and of course the breathtaking transformation the country has witnessed in just two years, with much more to come.

    He says some kind words for the state governor, especially if the governor belongs to the ruling PDP or is not perceived by Abuja as unsympathetic to Jonathan’s Project 2015, and takes off in the executive jet for his next stop.

    How this perfunctory visitation, conducted amidst a great deal of dining and wining, leads to or enhances “good governance” or “carries the people along” or makes them participants in governance as envisaged in the NGTT’s prospectus is rarely addressed.

    Maku claims that the Nigerian Governors Forum – presumably before Jonah Jang, with blessings from on high, reconstructed that body, superfluity and all, in his own image, endorsed the scheme.

    Yet, Edo State, perhaps not unmindful of the way Maku has been running his road show and suspicious of the entire scheme, declined to accord him a welcome. Governor Adams Oshiomhole probably had more important things on his plate anyway than giving aid and comfort to a jamboree.

    Maku soldiered on, undaunted. The outcome was a fiasco.

    Perhaps misled by federal officials and local PDP stalwarts, Maku appropriated to the Federal Government projects financed and executed by the state government, moving a spokesperson for the state government to charge him with “lying” and “advertising falsehood.”

    In this matter, I would rather cast my lot with a commentator who knows the area quite well, Usman Abudah, of The Guardian (June 20, 2013). He described Maku’s visit to Edo State as an “eye opener” to the Federal Government’s “periodic wasteful exercise through which it dazzles the citizenry,” adding that “its claims to performance usually reveal non-performance.”

    Abudah pooh-poohed Maku’s claim in Benin that the Federal Government had fixed the perennially dysfunctional Benin-Ore-Sagamu highway to the point that anyone so inclined can actually spread out a mat on it and enter into blissful sleep. It is almost as if what the people need is a veritable invitation to suicide rather than a first-class highway.

    The Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway Maku claimed the Federal Government had rehabilitated had witnessed only “skeletal works” along a small stretch, Abudah wrote.

    So, there you have it.

    Charging Maku with “lying” and “advertising falsehood” as the spokesperson for the Edo State Government did is un-parliamentary, to be sure. But Maku himself is an improbable candidate for a prize in civil discourse, despite his exquisite tailoring and fine grooming.

    That much was evident in comments credited to him that he has to the best of my knowledge not disavowed on the pace of developments in Lagos State under the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) who, like his Edo State counterpart, had refused to have anything to do with the NGGT, insisting that the visitation would serve no useful purpose.

    Fashola, so went the comment, had “something to hide.”

    Hide from whom?

    This is the language of the colonial inspector from the metropole, and it does not square with any of the advertised objectives of the NGGT. It is downright condescending.

    But Maku’s spokesperson was merely warming up.

    He went on to say that Fashola was an idle governor with nothing on his plate except traffic management and environmental sanitation; the Federal Government was taking care of everything else, in its great benevolence.

    Haba, Labaran!

    You have to be practically unconscious to believe such twaddle.

    Is the Lagos light rail a federal project? Or Eko Atlantic City? Or the scores of sparkling new model schools in Lagos? Or the network of roads and bridges that compare favourably with the best anywhere? Or a raft of housing schemes in various stages of completion? Or the ambulance units positioned in strategic sections of Lagos to respond swiftly to emergencies? Or dozens of other innovative projects that make Abuja look like an unimaginative plodder by comparison?

    The NGGT is only the latest derogation in a long line of derogations of the federal principle. It was conceived in double misapprehension, the first being that the PDP-controlled Federal Government, by virtue of that fact, has the power to supervise and second-guess and perhaps even discipline state governors, whether elected on its platform or other party platforms.

    That is a throwback to the dark days of military rule. Then, the military head of state related to military governors in the states like officers on military posting, which they indeed were. The practice must stop. To continue it is to subvert not just federalism, but democracy itself.

    The second misapprehension stems from the belief or assumption that inadequate reporting on what the government has been doing or intends to do for the people is the problem. That is the theory of national development by propaganda writ small for impact.

    If government programmes and projects have significant impact on the lives of the people, that impact will be their best advertisement. Propaganda, however skillful, cannot be a substitute for impact.

    But these are not the only things wrong with the NGGT. The Ministry of Information has at its behest one of the largest communication networks in the world. Its portfolio includes, to cite just a few of its organs, the Nigeria Television Authority, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and its external broadcasting arm Voice of Nigeria, and the News Agency of Nigeria.

    Maku therefore indicts himself and his office when he charges the media with failing to report adequately on what the government is doing for the people.

    Finally, the NGGT’s execution is flagrantly partisan – reeking of bad faith, I am almost prepared to assert, judging from its misadventures in Edo and Lagos.

    It is a costly distraction that raises more questions about the Minister of Information’s credibility the more he claims for Abuja landmark achievements that only he and his team can see, or appropriates unto it the solid achievements of state governors who decline to be co-opted into a circus.

     

  • Abibatu Mogaji as exemplar

    Abibatu Mogaji as exemplar

    Chief Jerome Udoji, late patriot and exemplary civil servant, titled his no less exemplary memoirs, Under Three Masters. If Alhaja Abibatu Asabi Mogaji (16 October 1916-15 June 2013) were to write her own memoirs, what would she have titled it?

    Certainly not, Riding the Crest with Three Masters – the “masters” being the British colonial powers, the succeeding Civilian Order at Nigeria’s independence and the rampaging military regimes, shortly after.

    She probably would not have titled her memoirs that because of her trademark modesty and humility. But despite her unassumingness and quiet grace, Alhaja Mogaji, Iyaloja of Lagos and President-General of the Association of Market Women and Men, was servant to no one, except her market flock.

    She was no civil servant like the distinguished Chief Udoji, professionally bound to serve the government of the day. So, she never subordinated the interest of her market folks to any other interest, no matter how powerful.

    Therefore, if her quiet grace allowed it, she probably would have titled her memoirs, Partnering with Three Masters, a partnership that lasted all through her exemplary adult life, even with little or no formal education, culminating in a lifetime of service.

    Her direct testimonies, when she turned 93, courtesy of a fact-filled report by Emmanuel Oladesu, The Nation political editor: “I have seen it all. I have interacted with Zik, Balewa, Sardauna, Ironsi and Gowon. I have played my role and served my people. All I have been saying is that market women and the masses should be catered for.”

    The moral? Leadership is nothing, unless and until it is immersed in the interest of the led. Commonsensical, isn’t it? Yet, most of today’s power elite, legit politicians or military-era power rogues, seem not to understand this simple dictum. Common sense isn’t common, after all!

    Devoted leadership builds mutual respect, trust, reverence and awe (in that order); and eventually climaxes in “soft power”, which often trumps hard power, even with the office that drives it; and the coercion that enforces it.

    The potency of soft power, otherwise called influence, is again reinforced in this reported open discourse with Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, self-named “military president”, on the eve of his Abuja departure, at the commissioning of Third Mainland Bridge, again courtesy of Oladesu’s report: “Ibrahim and Maryam, as you are going to Abuja, you should not forget Lagos. You should not forget us because you are part of us.”

    Sure, Alhaja Mogaji was much older than the Babangidas. But it took more than mere age for a barely lettered matriarch to talk with such intimacy to a “military president” and spouse: the one, not only in government but also in power; the other, with larger-than-life influence on her husband’s government. Behind that intimacy must be the “soft power” of one who had something the power-consummate couple badly needed.

    Now, the IBB era adds interesting dimensions to this discourse. IBB’s was the age of “settlement”, a euphemism for cynical “buy-offs” of any dissonance, otherwise labelled subversive generosity; before the notorious military head-butting of irredeemable irritants.

    The goodly Mrs Maryam Babangida, of golden memory, and her First Lady activism, adds an even fresher perspective. Gen. Babangida, for all his posturing as “military president” had no mandate, except one stolen at gun point. The exquisite Mrs Babaginda, therefore, needed to rally the populace for her husband, by doing some public good. Enter then, Maryam Babangida’s Better Life for Rural Women.

    For the Babangida couple to succeed in their power striving, they needed Mama Mogaji’s extensive market network, her mobilisation acumen and her moral authority over her flock.

    The general needed to keep the masses under his thrall happy, as every benevolent dictator is wont to do. The general’s wife needed to energise her rural women’s programme that had a distinctly urban temper; thus earning the snicker of many.

    However the symbiosis worked out, it would appear Mama Mogaji did not sell her soul, or the essence of her market flock, to help the Babangidas. That could not be said of most that fell for IBB’s subversive charm.

    But Mrs Babangida’s intervention pushed First Lady activism into harsh public glare: a force for good or evil? That depended on which side of the divide you stood. Still, the principle was clear-headed enough: IBB had no mandate; and Mrs Babangida, with panache, did what she had to do to gain her husband badly needed legitimacy – and even her bitterest enemies would admit she had class.

    But reverse that position: an elected president with a formal mandate – what does his spouse add to the menu? That is the paradox of Patience Jonathan’s First Lady activism; in the context of spousal support in public office. By unrepentantly blundering into the public space with unguarded comments and illiterate power projection, Mrs. Jonathan diminishes her husband’s legitimacy, harvests him needless enemies and earns the presidential office citizens’ resent, if not outright contempt.

    But the grandest paradox of all: the Babangidas were military usurpers that nevertheless consummately understood the dynamics and metaphysics of power. The Jonathans are supposedly democratic players, but are at sea with the nuances of democratic power, to earn respect, authority and influence.

    But the most telling contrast of all, that made Alhaja Mogaji an exemplar in “woman” power: whereas both Mrs Babangida and Mrs Jonathan parasite on hubbies’ “hard” power – for public good or evil – Mama Mogaji wielded the most potent of powers, “soft” power, with an enduring grace and generosity of mind that earned her deep affection and respect till she breathed her last.

    That should be abiding lessons for Nigeria’s power Philistines, as rude and crude, as the nouveaux-riches of poet Mathew Arnold’s England (1822-1888).

    Nor did Mama Mogaji speak to women alone, which makes an interesting link between her political durability and her son, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political emergence.

    In the heat of the Action Group (AG) schism in the early 1960s, Mama Mogaji pitched her tent with the Awolowo bloc, against the Ladoke Akintola bloc, which though gained power by federal conspiracy, lost the soul of the Yoruba. She therefore reigned with the progressive majority in Awo’s post-1966 political heaven than perish with the Akintola fallen angels.

    In the heat of the 12 June 1993 presidential election annulment crises, Tinubu broke ranks with the Shehu Yar’Adua People’s Front (PF) faction of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that signed away MKO Abiola’s historic mandate. For aligning with truth and justice, not many remember the Asiwaju’s political nativity was in one of IBB’s many wayward tricks he dubbed “political new breed” – whatever that meant! In contrast, many of his superiors, back then, politically perished with the anti-MKO conspiracy.

    As Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Mama Mogaji’s remarkable daughter-in-law, busy building her own log of stellar public service, always prays, Mama has ended well; the envy of many a public figure. But how many of them can pay Mama’s stiff price?

    Mama Mogaji, exemplar of the public good, you have ended well. Now, rest well in the bosom of your creator.

  • Good news from Cross River

    Those who have followed my thoughts on this page would understand my general skepticism about the unceasing but clearly outlandish claims of Foreign Direct Investment inflow by our federal government. It’s hard not to be, in a situation where the government at the centre does very little else than stage those never-ending high-octane affairs in five star hotels in Abuja; never mind that few of those shows ever get beyond the elaborate ceremonies staged to put pen to the MoUs complete with their photo-sessions; or, the fact that a good number of the proposals are no more than ‘legal’ Ponzi schemes to fleece the local economy. Or still, when claims about FDI are not always what they seem. One only needs to look back to 2008/9 to see how quickly how the gains of the celebrated $4 billion investment haul by foreign portfolio investors would later become pain for the local economy, when soldiers of fortune, disguised as “investors” exited with their capital and all – an experience the capital market has barely recovered from.

    Against this background, you can understand why the ground-breaking ceremony of General Electric’s $1 billion manufacturing and training facility at Calabar, the capital of Cross River State would evoke both curiosity and scepticism at the same time. First, GE is a world class player – the kind of company that any country would love to have around. The second is the scale of the investment: an initial $250 million capital expenditure and another $800 million incremental spending on local sourcing of goods and services. The third is the projected jobs estimated at 2,300. Part of the package, I later understand is to make Nigeria the regional hub for GE’s manufacturing service and renovation in Africa; and, if it seems a piece of icing on the cake, the proposed facility is said to be one of two of its kind in the world under the corporation’s Greenfield investment drive.

    Just as the achievements can hardly be understated, one lesson that should not be lost is how the state has managed to transform from being a wholesale civil service state to a global tourist haven. Only a few years ago, if the world took any notice of the state, it is probably when reference is made to the beautiful and serene Obudu as well as Tinapa; today, it seems to have marched on, determined as it were, to earn its place as an industrial hub. The arrival of GE and a few other Fortune 500 companies in the state may have changed all of that for good. And from all indications, there is no stopping the march. There are great lessons here.

    I need to make the preliminary point here. Surely, the government and the people of Cross River surely have reasons to be proud of the coming of General Electric. More than mere tonic to diversify its productive base, the training facility proposed for Calabar should in fact serve as springboard for the transfer of critical skills for its citizens; the other derivatives of employment and value addition are as good as given.

    The first lesson is that is that the GE investment is neither magic nor the choice of Calabar happenstance. It is a choice consciously made by the leadership. Indeed, I suspect that the one-time oil-producing state may have finally come to its own after the bitter experience of loosing its erstwhile pots of fortune to Akwa Ibom. Evidence is the record number of investors now seeking to make Calabar their home. Today, whereas the state may not have those whited sepulchres of its oil-drunk neighbours to boast of, it has a number of world-class investments going for it. Notable examples are Wilmar Limited’s on-going $400 million investment in agriculture and agro-processing; Brentex Petroleum $300 million pipe mills manufacturing and the $700 million Essar Power Limited 660MW Integrated Power Project; Southgate Cocoa, and the Artee Group’s investment in shopping malls.

    Driving round the city, it is hard not to see the evidence of a state roaring to go – a state with its eyes firmly set on the future and, which according to its Governor, Liyel Imoke is set to wean itself of dependence on oil and gas while actively striving to provide enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.

    Gerald Ada, Imoke’s special adviser on investment and promotions would, in the course of interaction with yours sincerely, supply the factors which make the state tick for investment. I have elsewhere identified the factor of leadership on which the entire quest is anchored. That is critical. The other factor is the enabling institution to deliver the quest. This is where the role of the Cross River State Investment Promotion Bureau – a surprisingly lean agency that is pivotal to the state’s investment drive comes to play.

    Ada describes the bureau, a creation of the State Investment Promotion Bureau Law No. 4 of 2008, as providing not only the legal instrument for investment promotion, but also serving both as one-stop shop as well as clearing house for investment matters. The issues could range from access to land; to taxes and applicable rates and even to relations between the would-be investor and the local governments; and where it becomes necessary, the bureau facilitates access to the governor. He would also explain why on the coming of the bureau, the erstwhile Ministry of Trade and Commerce had to be scrapped: to eliminate the typical tardiness associated with the non-responsive bureaucracy- a major headache for would-be investors.

    Now, I do not here suggest that Cross River State has found the magic formula to the exclusion of other states. Indeed, I am aware that some states have done quite well in the area of streamlining procedures for new businesses. What I have tried to do is to acknowledge the modest efforts by the government – particularly those that seems to me to be working. The point about venture capitalists is that they are able to spot investment opportunities even without the meaningless road shows that have become fashionable in these parts. What available evidence seems to suggest is that the Cross Rivers State may finally be getting it right. The good news is that this is already being acknowledged. Which means that the journey to economic renaissance has since begun.

  • Odimegwu’s fake census data

    A very revealing but stunning scenario played out last week when officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) met with their counterparts of the National Population Commission, (NPC). INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega had asked NPC chairman, Eze Festus Odimegwu to officially release to him some certified data from the commission to aid them in the planned constituency delimitation exercise. But he must have got the shocker of his life, when he was told that, the NPC had no officially certified data for all the localities in the country as some of the enumeration areas do not exist in reality.

    Hear Odimegwu: “The enumeration centers we have, some of them do not exist in reality, some politicians bought them the way you will want to register voters and some people will buy voters’ cards in order to have an advantage”

    According to the NPC chairman, these people bought the enumeration areas and raised the number from about “250 to 500 and if you later count and discover that the population is 10, they will say no, but we gave you 500, you have to raise it to that number we gave you”.

    These disclosures are not only weighty but very revealing and sensitive. They are no doubt, at the root of the high wire controversy that trailed our past attempts at national head count. In the past 30 years or so, all the censuses held in this country were embroiled in intense controversy as the various sections of the country fiercely disputed their outcome. The two last ones held in 1991 and 2006 were no less contentious. But while that of 1991 posted a figure of 88.9 million people with a projected growth rate of 2.9 per cent, the 2006 census came out with a figure of 140 million people.

    Even before the 2006 headcount, intense bickering arose regarding the proposal to include the twin issues of ethnicity and religion in the questionnaires that will form part of the data to be furnished by individuals. The whole idea was to generate the statistics of the various ethnic and religious groups in this country given claims and counter claims regarding their relative strengths. And for a country that is still grappling with debilitating problems of development, the availability of these data will no doubt be of veritable aid for planning purposes. Despite the obvious benefits from these vital statistics, their inclusion was still highly disputed. The North threatened to mobilize its people to work against the exercise should these two indices appear in the questionnaire. There was equally a counter threat from the South-east to boycott the exercise if they were not included.

    And when eventually the NPC did not include them, some groups moved round the South-east campaigning against the headcount. This in part, accounted for the poor posting of that zone to the overall population figure. There was also the issue of state of origin as against that of domicile. It was vigorously canvassed that given the pattern of migration especially to urban centres in search of greener pastures, there was the need to add up indigenes of states counted outside to the total population of their home states. It was argued that in view of the unresolved issue of residency, states needed to have an idea of their entire population to enable them plan properly since their indigenes will ultimately have to rely for services provided by their home states. This was not adopted.

    However, the headcount went on and posted a figure that has at best, remained a matter of disputation. Its outcome did not depart substantially from the pattern that had characterized previous attempts further fuelling feelings that there is more to these figures than ordinarily meets the eyes. The revelations by Odimegwu only confirms the wildly held view that our previous attempts at reliable head count had along been heavily manipulated to gain advantage and cannot be relied upon. The desperation to falsify population figures should not be surprising given the crucial role vital statistics play not only in national planning but in the sharing of our national resources. Apart from its use as one of the indices for revenue sharing, it also constitutes a key factor in determining representation into the national legislature.

    It was in furtherance of this role that the INEC had to approach the NPC for the release of some certified data to aid it in its planned constituency delimitation exercise only to be told that previous population censuses were heavily compromised. Sadly, it is the same manipulated data that has been used to arrive at the subsisting constituencies. It is also the same spurious data that is considered in revenue sharing. We can now better appreciate the fate of sections of this country that have expectedly been short-changed through fake enumeration areas. Ironically, since that very embarrassing disclosure, much attention has not been drawn to that national disgrace such that it may soon be swept under the carpet in the typical Nigerian fashion. But that must not be allowed to happen given the centrality of accurate population data to the good health of any nation. It is good a thing Odimegwu summoned the courage to expose a festering cankerworm that has been at the root of nation’s fictitious census figures. It is also very refreshing that we have now been let into the main source of that fraud. Before now, the major sources of population fraud had largely been in the areas of double counting and counting of people in absentia. It has never been envisaged that politicians bought enumeration areas that never existed in reality and posted results for them. It is a similitude of the writing of election results after elections that have no semblance with the actual number of votes cast at the ballot box. It is fraud of unmitigated proportion that has been allowed to fester for quite some time. Given the way political affairs have been handled in this country, it may not surprise anyone to hazard a guess as to which sections of the country have mostly taken undue advantage of this malfeasance.

    It is thus not sufficient for the NPC chairman to have identified these fraudulent practices. He must proceed beyond these to plug all loopholes that were hitherto exploited by politicians to sabotage the realization of a credible headcount. The heuristic value of his revelations is that we can only rely on existing census figures at a very great risk. He must therefore work very assiduously to give this nation a census that can be relied upon. Thus, the proposed constituency delimitation by the INEC is already encumbered by the very fact that the population data that should aid the exercise cannot be relied upon. Putting it to use in the impending exercise will amount to double jeopardy as it will further perpetuate extant inequities between sections and groups.

    The idea of both commissions working in tandem to produce the digital photography of the country and give us a reliable census by 2016 is most welcome. But the NPC must weed out the bad eggs in its midst that had aided and abetted these high profile fraud. At no time in the life of this country than now is the imperative of a reliable population census more compelling.

    For once, we must ensure that the figures we post bear close semblance with extant facts on the ground. We can no longer afford to manipulate the actual population of this country because of the political advantage higher figures confer on constituent units without subjecting our collective fate to mortal harm. Can Odimegwu do the magic without being frustrated by the powerful forces that sabotaged previous attempts? Only time will tell.