The Nation Newspaper

Category: Ogochukwu Ikeje

  • The Chimes’ marital tragedies

    The Chimes’ marital tragedies

    Of all the horrible consequences of the Chime and wife saga, its impact on marriage and traditions is the most devastating. For over one week, the world has been treated to unsavoury accounts of Mrs Clara Chime’s marital battles with her husband, Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime. At a time we were left to imagine what happened inside and also outside the Enugu Government House apartment to which the governor’s wife was restricted for medical reasons, according to the governor, or where she was detained, according to her. We have heard from the governor that his wife has mental challenges requiring medical seclusion, but the lady in question has countered that she is only suffering from depression, and not madness as the world was led to believe.

    The battle has attracted all sorts of attention, from the local to the international stage. The home media has been feasting on it. A notable lawyer has been briefed. Local artistes and civil society groups have picked it up, seeking justice for Mrs Chime. International organs may also have been informed of the ordeal of a certain state governor’s wife at the hands of her husband. Security personnel are deeply involved, if only to do the bidding of their master.  The folks, especially the traditional ruler, of Ozulobu community, Amuda, Umunneoche Local Council of Abia State, Mrs Chime’s hometown, have also heard it.

    We have equally heard that the governor and his security team have, at least once, tried to ship Clara back to her mother in an Enugu estate but failing to see the woman to whom to hand her over, they thought it was better to return her to the restricted apartment in Government House until the time was right. Then, we heard that the right time came a few days ago when Mrs Chime was successfully handed back to her mother, but there soon came another report that Clara has moved to Port Harcourt amid comments that she has finally been freed.

    That was quite an ordeal, not just for the woman but also for her husband. Nothing in the saga lifted her profile, nor could anything in it lend Mr Chime to any hearts. It did grave harm to Mrs Chime, who four years ago ascended the celebrity ladder when she married the love of her life and moved into Government House. When her image graced the pages of the newspaper, it was that of a beautiful woman, graceful in that cocky gele headgear with which our female celebrities make a statement or two. When she was shipped out a few days ago, she may have shaken off the shackles of the Government House, but indeed she was leaving a shrunken woman, toppled from the heights of power to the ordinariness of daily living.

    As for her husband, few things can lower a man before humanity. It may still be common for a man to see off his wife and take another woman to replace her but something dies in such a man, even if sycophants may whisper in his ear saying all is well. Such good-for-nothing companions may tell their misguided friend that there is nothing to be ashamed of and that indeed people can marry today and divorce tomorrow. Celebrities of all stripes have turned marriage and divorce into a queer art. Some sound a bit boastful when they say they have married seven times and divorced as many times. Today I say I do, tomorrow I say I don’t. At Chime’s privileged heights, women can be a dime a dozen, but when a man begins to inflate his lungs with such airs, doom is around the corner.

    As damaging as the ordeal is to Mr and Mrs Chime, the marriage institution and our traditions are the worst hit. What is happening in Enugu is the most devastating assault on marriage. It more than mocks matrimony. It ridicules love and questions marital union because as Clara departs, it is not apparent that anything has irredeemably broken the codes of their matrimony. I do not suggest that there are no difficulties in marriage. There are, and some may take the grace of God to resolve. But in the Chimes’ case, all that we heard is Clara’s mental challenge for which her parents should find a cure, as the governor reportedly said. Mrs Chime herself has said her problem is depression. Now, whether the problem is mental or merely prolonged sadness, lingering low self-esteem or loss of interest in what once made Clara happy, restraining her or sending her away is not the answer. What caused her problems in the first place? The unwritten code of matrimony demands that the couple sort out what has crept in to rob them of their joy. If it required the best doctors, psychologists, therapists or counsellors in the world, it was within the Chimes’ means to find an answer to whatever troubled Clara. When the love-struck Sullivan held his bride’s hand as they faced the priest, they heard something similar. They were told that neither sickness of the mind nor of body should warrant a separation. They were also told that poverty should not drive them apart. Nor should wealth of which they have plenty. The officiating elders at their traditional marriage would also expect that much from the couple. More so because they were not just another couple; they were the first family of the state. Everyone looked up to them to lead the way. To a large extent, they were the moral compass of Enugu by virtue of their position.

    Traditions expect that couples quietly work hard at their challenges, and should not launder their messy linen in public. Part of the burdens of public office is that the officers should labour to be above board. They fail sometimes, and that can be understood, but such brazen assault of matrimony as illustrated by the Chime’s marital tragedy is way outside the permissible.

    Divorce grounds are rare in Christianity; even then there were none in the Chimes’ case. The traditional setting may be more permissible but what steps did Chime take to meet the requirements, if indeed he and Clara have gone their separate ways?

    Their four-year-old marriage, stormy as it apparently was, produced a son, who, according to reports, is staying with the father, rather than the mother, as the former wished. As the boy grows up, he sure will ask questions. The father had better prepare to answer them.

  • Jonathan’s best legacy

    Jonathan’s best legacy

    Everyone will like to be remembered for something. For Dr Goodluck Jonathan, that may well be the president who was no Nebuchadnezzar, no Pharaoh, no lion, and no tiger. In fact, he would like to be remembered as the one who changed Nigeria.

    Back in September, 2011, he inspired one of the most memorable headlines in the print media when he declared that he was neither like the maximum rulers of biblical times nor the king of the jungle nor its striped rival, the tiger, who commands considerable respect in the wild. The president had gone into an Abuja church not only prepared to discharge his duties there but also to reply some of his critics, some of whom dismissed his approach to the nation’s challenges. They questioned Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency. They queried his response to corruption, Nigeria’s enduring and crippling headache. Most of the president’s critics concluded that he was too circumspect, too indecisive and unable to whip errant government officials into line.

    When he replied, he chose his words carefully, his analogies even more advisedly. Distancing himself from despots who ruled with fists of fury and spoke through clenched teeth, Jonathan conjured up the dreaded memory of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Pharaohs of Egypt, all of whom left their subjects cowering and whimpering, and the rest of the world in utter disgust even to this day. Who loves Pharaoh? Who will name their child after the Babylonian king? Turning to the terrors of the jungle, Jonathan said he was no lion, the carnivore king dreaded more than admired by preys. The president duly explained that he had no desire to be likened to such rulers or beasts because he had no such traits. He would prefer to be seen and remembered as the president with a human face and heart. In fact, recently, the matter came up again when Jonathan shocked his Aso Rock audience when he said he also would not like to be addressed as the commander-in-chief, another term that conveys the image of force of arm. Rather than be a powerful president ruling with the force of arm, Jonathan said he was content to create institutions.

    I respect the president’s preferences, in fact, even applaud them. Maximum rulers like Gen Sani Abacha and swashbuckling presidents like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in my reckoning, did us little good. While their regimes lasted, many Nigerians largely wished their reign would end quickly, although some still seemed to favour Obasanjo’s sometimes quick-draw approach. But there are lots of fundamental errors, which need to be corrected. A few weeks ago, reports said one of Jonathan’s powerful female ministers was wasting hard-earned cash in hired jets on which she shuttled round the world with almost as many hangers-on as she pleased. I wrote in this space, saying that the error may not simply lie in her travel interests but in what the law allowed. In other words, I favoured things being spelt out so that a minister, for instance, will know when not to take their preferences beyond the line drawn by the laws of the land.

    Right now, two unflattering developments have imposed themselves on the print media’s front pages: the ASUU strike and what has been styled the Oduahgate. The university teachers say they want an old agreement with federal government to be implemented so they can fix the dilapidated infrastructure on the campuses and bring back the lost glory of the ivory towers. Some say, though, that the lecturers want nothing more than what will swell their bank accounts. After months of fighting, the university teachers have held talks with the president, and some are hopeful that the five-month industrial action which has crippled the university system will soon come to an end. It is not clear, though, what sort of settlement both parties are reaching or have reached. Is the government paying up the outstanding billions ASUU seeks or is it meeting the lecturers only half way just to see academic business resume on the campuses? Are the lecturers settling for partial payment in order not to be seen as sponsored enemies of the Jonathan administration? Whatever the case, one thing is clear: the universities as well all other tertiary institutions need comprehensive revamping. And you cannot turn the collapsed university system around simply by paying money to the teachers, much as that is necessary. We need to evaluate the system, ascertain what has gone wrong and determine how to correct it. This is as much about money as it is about admitting that things are no longer what they used to be in the ivory tower and working hard to correct the imbalance. It is about standards. It is about institutions. Teachers and students have been fleeing abroad. This must stop. It is only standards that can stop it.

    Oduahgate brings no sweetness to either Jonathan or the country. Again, we also need standards to shut this gate. We need standards to curb the unhealthy tastes of government officials, and we need a transparently anti-corruption government as much as we need strong agencies with a mind of their own to deter corruption. We need to redefine the word ‘scandal’. We need to rediscover our sense of shame.

    We do not need a Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar to do that. All that is required is standards or, if you like, institutions. If Jonathan can deliver that, he will leave the best legacy Nigerians have seen.

  • To school or not to school

    It should be of grave concern that the strike action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has entered its fifth month. This means that for nearly half a year, the growth foundation of this nation has been out of business. It means that the institutions where the nation’s youth are groomed in the arts and sciences for the advancement of their country have been closed. This should be scary. Are we interested, really interested, in schooling, or are we not?

    But who is scared? The sun still rises and sets. The poor still cry and the rich still chuckle. Our leaders still carry on with the presumed business of the day. Some still fly out and in at will. Some still consider their personal safety so highly that they must acquire anti-bullet cars no matter their prohibitive costs. It is a fitting narrative for a movie, but movie producers are hard-nosed business folk, not fools. They know full well that the narrative is old, repetitive and dull. Who will buy such a film?

    How many phrases are more jaded than ‘ASUU strike’ or ‘the Nigerian education system’? Who still reckons with the system, if not those who cannot afford to send their kids elsewhere? Why is Ghana more appealing to Nigerians who cannot afford UK or American education for their children? Who still believes in the Nigerian lecturer teaching in Nigeria? Very few, especially in government circles.

    Government, for reasons one cannot to see, tends to consider ASUU members a bunch of good-for-nothing agitators who excel in making impossible, if not unpatriotic, demands. That was why the strike of 1992 lasted six months in the Babangida era. The picture seems clear in the minds of government officials and their advisers that almost everything is required to whip the uncooperative academics into line. Where cunning is required, government will use it. Where force is needed, government will be happy to apply it. In fact, almost anything can be brought into the fight. Abacha tried his best to bully the teachers into submission. Proscription of their association was a veritable tool. The Abdulsalami administration wrestled with the teachers. Obasanjo fought with them. Jonathan has been slugging it out with them, too.

    While the battle lasted, its effect has been far-reaching. For instance, for half a year, university students were locked out of their lecture halls in 1992, leaving you with worries. In a country where a state in some cases has more than one university, you can imagine how many youths were forced to stay at home. You can stretch your imagination to picture how many of them stayed faithful to the creed of decency and lawful living. How many lost their patience, and sometimes their minds, and hired a gun to rob? How many girls fled their family religious backgrounds and headed for the red light districts? How many turned to fraud and have remained fraudsters? How many did everything imaginable and unimaginable to flee their country, if only to wash dishes or corpses in faraway lands? How many teachers or doctors took their services beyond their country, giving rise to what we call brain-drain?

    The present face-off is, like in most other face-offs, about cash, but the teachers say that it is quite as much about their personal welfare as about the strength and quality of the Nigerian universities and the education sector. They say they want about N500b to upgrade infrastructure in the universities, and perhaps a little more cash for the teachers’ ‘earned allowances’. The government has grudgingly come up with N100b, urging the teachers to please manage, as we say in our country. But the lecturers say it is better to pay everything than to provide the funds in bits, likening it to postponing the evil day.

    The lecturers’ position makes sense to me. Shortly before I went into the university, a student had a hostel room to himself, with a full chicken in his meal and a pair of electric shaving clippers for his sprouting beards. In my time, the chicken had disappeared, and with it the clippers, leaving only the sockets for evidence. These days, you can only imagine how many cannot be accommodated on campus, or if they are accommodated, have to be stuffed into one room. What can you say of recreational facilities on campus these days? What can be said of learning facilities, the libraries, lecture halls, teaching and learning aids?

    True, the standards of education in Nigeria has crashed but you cannot correct that by ignoring the teachers or sidestepping their needs. Nor can you solve the problem simply by sending your kids abroad just because you can. Some teachers may not be up to scratch, but not all of them, but even so, the question must be resolved as to how the incompetent or unqualified lecturers got into the system. The answer is not in dismissing the entire school system but in plugging the loopholes and correcting the deficits.

    True, the problem of the Nigerian education system started before the Jonathan administration but, if he is willing, the president can succeed where his predecessors failed. But that is if he will not reason the way they reasoned or see things the way they saw them. Jonathan must decide whether he wants Nigerian youths to go to school or not.

  • No ‘bus stops’ in the skies

    Apart from walking or riding on a donkey from one rural community to another, there is no better way to travel than flying. In towns and cities, cycling and motorcycle rides have been proven to claim more lives than shuttling in the skies. Car and bus rides are also far more dangerous. This leaves the air space the safest way to travel.

    But if the airplane is the champ of travel, why is there so much heat when it crashes? Penultimate Thursday, a small aircraft went down just outside the Lagos airport shortly after takeoff. Of the 20 people on board, 16 died, while the rest were taken to hospital seriously injured. The plane, belonging to Associated Airlines, was conveying the remains of former governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Agagu, to Akure, the capital, for burial. A son of the late politician, also a commissioner in the state, died in the crash.

    Since the incident, there has been so much heat in the country, and it is not just the hot exchange between Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister, and Ms Stella Oduah, the current chief. Nor is it merely that Oduah’s submission that the crash was an act of God has in itself won her much criticism. Temperatures have risen in private places as well as at the highest levels of government. President Goodluck Jonathan has offered his regrets and ordered an investigation. The revered chambers of the Senate have equally been heated up as lawmakers fulminated over the October 3 crash and others.

    Why do air crashes trigger such emotions? Put it down to a number of factors, some profound, others neither here nor there. Air mishaps tend to involve more of the rich and powerful since they prefer the skies to the roads. And everyone knows that the more the clout of the victims, the higher their news value and the more the focus on the incident. Also, plane crashes claim so many lives instantly, especially if they are commercial flights. The Bellview crash in October 2005 left all 117 people on board dead. One year later, when an ADC Airlines flight crashed with 104 passengers, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Maccido, and his son were among the casualties. This incident triggered so much heat, with many calling for the overhaul of the aviation sector. Mid last year, over 160 people perished in the Dana Air plane crash. There were several other mishaps.

    Now, this. And to think that in a matter of weeks, the skies have been a constant source of apprehension. From Lagos to Kano to Sokoto, air passengers and even people in their homes have been struck by fear. A plane filled with pilgrims crash-landed. There were reports of tyres exploding. There was another report of an air return, that is, a flight suddenly returning to base without getting to its original destination. Shortly after, the airline, Dana, to give it its name, was forbidden to fly until further notice. This is scary.

    There are also issues of aviation regulators’ integrity and competence, as well as concerns over the Ministry’s perceived faults. Then, add to that the cry that airlines are grappling with grave odds, some complaints being that staff are owed salaries and may even be poorly remunerated.

    All that should leave Ms Oduah worried. But she should not only be worried; she should fix the problem. To be fair, under Oduah’s watch, the airports are looking inviting, but some reports point to unflattering deficits, too. For instance, it is said that communication facilities at the airports are poor, making pilot-air-controller link-ups difficult. This is dangerous, if it is true, and will undermine the efforts and the huge cash sunk into making the airports look tempting.

    Flights are mechanical, and things can, and do, indeed go wrong sometimes, anywhere. Perhaps, that was what Ms Oduah was hinting at when she said the October 3 crash was an act of God. But the right words let her down.

    The minister will not deny that air mishaps are threatening to sully her grand efforts. She will do well to address the sources of those threats.

    Air disasters have their deathly peculiarities. No passenger wants to hear the voice of the captain announcing that some turbulence lies just ahead, let alone that the flight may not land safely. And this is for very obvious reasons. At such peculiar moments, the best engineers on board will not be able to go under the flying airplane to fix any mechanical problem. Potential problems ought to have, to a reasonable extent, been detected and sorted on the ground before takeoff.

    Again, once airborne, there are no air safety personnel positioned in the clouds to prevent an imminent danger. There are no bus stops any where, as it were, to quickly tackle a present threat. Tyres ought to be certified fit before flying. Nothing should be overlooked. The plane conveying the body of Dr Agagu, for instance, was reported to be overloaded with fuel. This is not acceptable.

    The air remains the safest route to travel but it also presents its own peculiarities, making it probably the only transport mode that requires the most thorough attention.

    I am sure Oduah knows this more than anyone else. Now, what she has to do is move quickly to correct what could possibly overshadow her aviation efforts.

  • Mourning the youths of Gujba

    Death hurts. And the closer it comes, the more it hurts. That is why it is some times hard to keep the tears at bay at the passing of even a 90-year-old close relative. Death refreshes old and fond memories. Then, it hits you with the finality of eternity. No more earthly meetings. Still, you can cope, if only for the age of it.

    But what about the death of people in their prime? A week ago, students whose number is now put at 90 were murdered at the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram. It was barely three days to the nation’s 53rd birthday anniversary. And it was in cold blood.

    Death hurts but the violent end of young people intensifies the hurt to imaginable and unimaginable proportions. And come to think of the circumstances. They were at school studying to better their lot and make something of their lives. They were at the college to prepare for life’s challenges, their future. They were studying not just for themselves but also for their families, nuclear and otherwise. Some had just returned from the mosque where, according to one of the survivors, they had prayed for a reprieve from the violence of the Islamist sect. Some other victims had retired to bed. Then, came their assailants in two vans and on motorcycles, dressed in military wear. The students were fooled at first, mistaking them for soldiers and heaving a sigh of relief. Their relief soon turned to agony and, ultimately, to grief, not only for their friends and relatives but also for the rest of the country and the world. The terrorists opened fire, killing some as they stood in single files, according to orders; some as they tried to flee and others as they failed to recover from their mortal wounds in the bushes or the hospitals.

    It must have been a bizarre scene. The students were terrified but none knew what they did to earn their predicament. Some were too close to the booming guns to flee. So they were cut down right there. Some figured they could make it if they ran fast enough. Some fled into the spaces between the ceiling and the roof.

    Thankfully, many lived to relive it. Still, a huge number did not. Initial reports put the casualty figure at between 40 and 50. Latest publications have revised the toll, putting it at 90, considering that many bodies were later recovered from the bushes. And possibly, too, some who were taken to hospital may have also died.

    Now, how do you bury and mourn 90 youths? If they lived, many would certainly not only have earned their keep (which is a good thing in these days of youth unemployment) but also looked after their families. Not all would have become millionaire industrialists but, surely, some would have made a difference, no matter how little, in other people’s lives. Perhaps, one or two would have gone on to govern their states if not their country.

    When the killers left, some students returned to view the corpses of their erstwhile colleagues and friends. As a friend, how would you mourn such friends? As a relative, what would you say at their funeral? As a parent, how would comport yourself at a son’s graveside? What words would proceed from your mouth? In what shape is Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, the state governor who has reserved some of the ugliest words for the perpetrators? As Nigerians, what fitting words can we fashion out as we contemplate the dead young students of Gujba?

    President Goodluck Jonathan in his Independence Day broadcast, sympathised with the relatives, saying his heart and everyone else’s, by inference, were with them. Elsewhere, Jonathan would ask: why did they do this? Why did terrorists slaughter innocent students?

    That question has been asked by many. But the answer is not far-fetched, really. The killers of the Gujba students did what they did because they have declared war on Nigeria. They did what they did to spite Jonathan who leads the nation. They did what they did to prove to Jonathan that they can fight dirty. Otherwise, what motivation can anyone find for attacking students sleeping in their dorm, some of whom shared the same faith as their killers?

    What justification can anyone find for their latest brutalities? Last October, gunmen believed to be Boko Haram fighters slaughtered about 40 polytechnic students in Mubi. In July, armed men invaded a school in Damaturu and forever silenced 29 pupils and a teacher.

    As a result of these and other attacks on institutions of learning, several thousands of people have reconsidered their education in the Northeast of the country. Many have quit altogether. We all can see a gloomy picture ahead if the trend is not scaled back. What will become of the pupils who flee school? What about their teachers?

    Other questions equally deserve answers. In May, emergency rule was imposed on the Northeast, and, to be fair, it did indeed hurt the sect and its operations. Still, its fighters have managed to catch everyone off guard from time to time, leaving blood and destruction in their wake. On September 17, they appeared in Buni Yadi, headquarters of Gujba council and unleashed some fresh terror on residents before retreating through a bush path from which they came.

    Why do the nation’s chief enemies find it so easy to strike at the people in spite of the troops? Whatever happened to policing the borders in the Northeast?

  • Apo killings: how not to fight terrorism

    The latest killings near Apo Quarters in the Federal Capital Territory have further illustrated how our tragedies often leave us with many unanswered questions and even deeper tragedies.

    In 2005 six youths riding in a car at night were killed in Apo by traffic duty policemen, triggering an outcry across the country. One predominant question then was, what offence did the six Igbo youths commit? When Nigerians tired of asking a question that no one could provide a reasonable answer, they hoped that a probe of the incident would put them out of their worries. Eight years after, no investigation of any kind has established the crime of the deceased youths, nor have their killers been seen to have faced the music they deserved. Messy incidents like that routinely leave us as a people feeling had, violated and diminished.

    On September 20, more youths were gunned down in the same area of Abuja, also by security personnel. The only difference is that the nation’s capital of today is not quite what it was when the Apo Six were felled. As I put this piece together, reports said 10 people were killed by a team of soldiers and state security agents on a raid of an unfinished house in the area. Several other people in that building reportedly sustained injuries and were hospitalised. The security men were said to be on a mission to flush out terrorists.

    Well, the mission got a bit sticky, for shortly after it was accomplished, a House committee on public safety and national security took on the minister of the territory, Bala Mohammed, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, plying them with questions. Reports said Senator Mohammed was “quizzed” while the general was only in a “closed-doors” meeting with members of the committee.

    We can take a hint. Both men were questioned regarding the killings, suggesting that the House of Representatives was as concerned about the circumstances surrounding the Apo deaths as are most Nigerians. In fact, even the Senate has been asked to investigate the killings.

    And, really, it is worth investigating. What are the identities of the dead? Were they terrorists? Were they menial workers, and if they were, what sort of menial work did they do? Were they water vendors, shoe-shine boys or refuse collectors or what? Or were they tricycle operators and commercial motorcyclists, as the chief of a tricycle and motorcycle association claimed? It is imperative to resolve these issues because lives and reputations are involved even as Nigeria grapples with its worst challenge yet. It is wise to determine what dangers occupants of that house posed to other people in the neighbourhoods, knowing, as one report said, that the building was only about 100 metres from the home of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    General Ihejirika said arms and ammunition were found in the house and that the security personnel were attacked first on approach to the building. He was also quoted saying a thorough investigation was carried out based on the information they had before the raid. The next thing is to tender the evidence before relevant authorities in order to clear the military and the state security outfit, and disabuse the minds of concerned Nigerians. It is important to show that the fight against terrorism is based on clear-headed strategies and also within the realm of acceptable standards.

    Senator Mohammed also made some contributions to the anti-terrorism campaign, but they are essentially pedestrian, lamely reactionary, if not outright unhelpful. Reports said the minister and his staff have identified no fewer than 100,000 illegal buildings and another 435 unfinished houses and have marked them for demolition. He said any building which is not completed two years after approval will be pulled down, or if it “cannot” be pulled down, will be converted to a police post. The reason for this action, Mohammed said, is to deny miscreants hiding places.

    This is a curious way to fight terrorism. The FCT, as everyone knows, is a territory under construction or deconstruction, but it is pertinent to ask the man who reigns over it why, in spite of the frequent demolitions, there are still as many as 100,000 illegal buildings standing. Did the illegal structures precede Senator Mohammed’s ministry, or did they spring up in spite of his roaring bulldozers? Are the structures popping up faster than his demolition team can cope with? As for the fate of the 435 unfinished houses, what manner of law or regulation determines the time frame within which a landowner can finish building his house? Can anyone measure the waste, to say nothing of the anguish, if after acquiring a piece of land and initiating its development, fate makes it difficult to finish up quickly enough? Think of the police post angle: why can some buildings be pulled down and some “cannot”?

    In any event, it is difficult for one to be persuaded that the issue of terrorism is really about uncompleted buildings. What about the owners of the buildings or the lack of proper surveillance?

    Senator Mohammed was also said to be intent on running integrity tests on uncompleted buildings. It is difficult to establish a reasonable link between weak structures and terrorism threat.

    So just how relevant are Mohammed’s post-Apo killings contributions to the much-needed anti-terrorism battle? Pretty little.

  • Is Kaduna about to break jobs jinx?

    At the state and federal levels, the unemployment profile is depressing. The last time he checked the statistics, Dr Christopher Kolade, chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SureP), found that over 40m Nigerians were without jobs. This figure, grossly underestimated and clearly a year or two behind current profile, does not represent everyone that is not working. Those who can work, though are not prospecting, are not included. The figure essentially, if roughly, covers those who are looking for work. Add 40m to the other undocumented segment of the jobless and you have a bustling, frustrated and angry army in our midst.

    This dismal picture is seen across the country and it worsens every year in spite of the rhetoric and best efforts of the state governors and federal authorities.

    Something good seems to be happening in Kaduna State. Reports suggest the textile industry there may come to life after it was left to decline over the years, with much of it eventually dying off. After talks with the Governor Mukhtar Yero administration, foreign investors are said to have visited the state with a view to assessing business viability and setting up shop. Textile is reported to be one crucial area of interest, although other businesses have also caught the eye of the investors. Pakistanis seem to be ahead of the Indians and Chinese in reviving comatose industries in Kaduna.

    Textile holds a lot of interest to me, too, though not as an investor, of course. The industry is a veritable employer, and therefore a problem solver. A recent report said in Kaduna, textile firms had a 300,000-strong combined workforce. That was many years ago when the population of the state was nothing to compare with the present figure. Those workers took their incomes home and sorted out many needs. As everyone knows, unsettled is the home whose bills are scarcely ever settled. And it also spills into the outer society. Brothels, I imagine, are filled with women who were once girls growing up in unsettled homes. Among the community of armed robbers I am sure you will find a good number with similar backgrounds, young men from homes whose breadwinners lost their sources of income because the firms where they worked wound down.  The causes of our jobs crisis are not difficult to determine. Nor do you have far to look before seeing why just about every state seems to be perpetually strapped to federal allocation, which in itself has created another problem of its own. There is almost as much hustle for federal cash as there is to share it, fuelling Nigeria’s most intractable problem: corruption. The drive of industry has remarkably slackened, and with it the dignity of labour. There is this thinking that every seat of government, whether local, state or federal, has some good cash to throw around and if you are smart you just might catch as much as possible. Once thriving local industries have since collapsed, giving rise to roadside entrepreneurs: mechanics, vulcanisers, battery technicians, commercial motorcyclists and tricycle operators and such other hard-working but low-earning workers. Among them, unfortunately, you will find graduates of tertiary institutions.

    One other troubling thing. Whereas Kaduna textile firms once engaged over 300,000, our universities and other tertiary institutions are reckoned to be graduating about that number every year without any hopes of jobs for them.

    If industries are revived in Kaduna it is a good thing. But politicians are difficult to follow. Sometimes the picture they project may differ from reality while what they promise may tarry interminably.

    Still, the news from Kaduna is uplifting. If the dead factories do indeed rise up again, the residents will tell new and exciting stories. Some have argued eloquently that the insurgency in the North fed directly from immediate social dislocations, including poor jobs profile in the region. I agree and I also believe that getting industries working again will make insurgency less attractive.

    What about the rest of the country? I am persuaded that each of the regions has or had its own brand of insurgency, even if by other names. But at its heart is a common economic cause. The Niger Delta question is still fresh in memory. The violence started with breaching pipelines and taking some expatriate oil workers hostage, then the scope widened, with the kidnapping of kings, grandfathers and their grand kids. While all that lasted, the economy of the region suffered as firms were locked up, some relocating to safer grounds far afield. The national economy was hurt too. Can anyone say how much taxpayers’ money went into containing the Niger Delta violence. And who can tell how much the federal government sank into the amnesty programme which involved not just getting the fighters to lay down their arms but also to train many in professions and skills and starting them off in their new vocations?

    If it gets it right, Kaduna may be on the way to inspiring a brand new order in the country. It just might be leading everyone in the direction of solving old problems by exorcising the demons of joblessness.

  • Is Kaduna about to break jobs jinx?

    At the state and federal levels, the unemployment profile is depressing. The last time he checked the statistics, Dr Christopher Kolade, chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SureP), found that over 40m Nigerians were without jobs. This figure, grossly underestimated and clearly a year or two behind current profile, does not represent everyone that is not working. Those who can work, though are not prospecting, are not included. The figure essentially, if roughly, covers those who are looking for work. Add 40m to the other undocumented segment of the jobless and you have a bustling, frustrated and angry army in our midst.

    This dismal picture is seen across the country and it worsens every year in spite of the rhetoric and best efforts of the state governors and federal authorities.

    Something good seems to be happening in Kaduna State. Reports suggest the textile industry there may come to life after it was left to decline over the years, with much of it eventually dying off. After talks with the Governor Mukhtar Yero administration, foreign investors are said to have visited the state with a view to assessing business viability and setting up shop. Textile is reported to be one crucial area of interest, although other businesses have also caught the eye of the investors. Pakistanis seem to be ahead of the Indians and Chinese in reviving comatose industries in Kaduna.

    Textile holds a lot of interest to me, too, though not as an investor, of course. The industry is a veritable employer, and therefore a problem solver. A recent report said in Kaduna, textile firms had a 300,000-strong combined workforce. That was many years ago when the population of the state was nothing to compare with the present figure. Those workers took their incomes home and sorted out many needs. As everyone knows, unsettled is the home whose bills are scarcely ever settled. And it also spills into the outer society. Brothels, I imagine, are filled with women who were once girls growing up in unsettled homes. Among the community of armed robbers I am sure you will find a good number with similar backgrounds, young men from homes whose breadwinners lost their sources of income because the firms where they worked wound down.  The causes of our jobs crisis are not difficult to determine. Nor do you have far to look before seeing why just about every state seems to be perpetually strapped to federal allocation, which in itself has created another problem of its own. There is almost as much hustle for federal cash as there is to share it, fuelling Nigeria’s most intractable problem: corruption. The drive of industry has remarkably slackened, and with it the dignity of labour. There is this thinking that every seat of government, whether local, state or federal, has some good cash to throw around and if you are smart you just might catch as much as possible. Once thriving local industries have since collapsed, giving rise to roadside entrepreneurs: mechanics, vulcanisers, battery technicians, commercial motorcyclists and tricycle operators and such other hard-working but low-earning workers. Among them, unfortunately, you will find graduates of tertiary institutions.

    One other troubling thing. Whereas Kaduna textile firms once engaged over 300,000, our universities and other tertiary institutions are reckoned to be graduating about that number every year without any hopes of jobs for them.

    If industries are revived in Kaduna it is a good thing. But politicians are difficult to follow. Sometimes the picture they project may differ from reality while what they promise may tarry interminably.

    Still, the news from Kaduna is uplifting. If the dead factories do indeed rise up again, the residents will tell new and exciting stories. Some have argued eloquently that the insurgency in the North fed directly from immediate social dislocations, including poor jobs profile in the region. I agree and I also believe that getting industries working again will make insurgency less attractive.

    What about the rest of the country? I am persuaded that each of the regions has or had its own brand of insurgency, even if by other names. But at its heart is a common economic cause. The Niger Delta question is still fresh in memory. The violence started with breaching pipelines and taking some expatriate oil workers hostage, then the scope widened, with the kidnapping of kings, grandfathers and their grand kids. While all that lasted, the economy of the region suffered as firms were locked up, some relocating to safer grounds far afield. The national economy was hurt too. Can anyone say how much taxpayers’ money went into containing the Niger Delta violence. And who can tell how much the federal government sank into the amnesty programme which involved not just getting the fighters to lay down their arms but also to train many in professions and skills and starting them off in their new vocations?

    If it gets it right, Kaduna may be on the way to inspiring a brand new order in the country. It just might be leading everyone in the direction of solving old problems by exorcising the demons of joblessness.

  • Is Kaduna about to break jobs jinx?

    At the state and federal levels, the unemployment profile is depressing. The last time he checked the statistics, Dr Christopher Kolade, chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SureP), found that over 40m Nigerians were without jobs. This figure, grossly underestimated and clearly a year or two behind current profile, does not represent everyone that is not working. Those who can work, though are not prospecting, are not included. The figure essentially, if roughly, covers those who are looking for work. Add 40m to the other undocumented segment of the jobless and you have a bustling, frustrated and angry army in our midst.

    This dismal picture is seen across the country and it worsens every year in spite of the rhetoric and best efforts of the state governors and federal authorities.

    Something good seems to be happening in Kaduna State. Reports suggest the textile industry there may come to life after it was left to decline over the years, with much of it eventually dying off. After talks with the Governor Mukhtar Yero administration, foreign investors are said to have visited the state with a view to assessing business viability and setting up shop. Textile is reported to be one crucial area of interest, although other businesses have also caught the eye of the investors. Pakistanis seem to be ahead of the Indians and Chinese in reviving comatose industries in Kaduna.

    Textile holds a lot of interest to me, too, though not as an investor, of course. The industry is a veritable employer, and therefore a problem solver. A recent report said in Kaduna, textile firms had a 300,000-strong combined workforce. That was many years ago when the population of the state was nothing to compare with the present figure. Those workers took their incomes home and sorted out many needs. As everyone knows, unsettled is the home whose bills are scarcely ever settled. And it also spills into the outer society. Brothels, I imagine, are filled with women who were once girls growing up in unsettled homes. Among the community of armed robbers I am sure you will find a good number with similar backgrounds, young men from homes whose breadwinners lost their sources of income because the firms where they worked wound down.  The causes of our jobs crisis are not difficult to determine. Nor do you have far to look before seeing why just about every state seems to be perpetually strapped to federal allocation, which in itself has created another problem of its own. There is almost as much hustle for federal cash as there is to share it, fuelling Nigeria’s most intractable problem: corruption. The drive of industry has remarkably slackened, and with it the dignity of labour. There is this thinking that every seat of government, whether local, state or federal, has some good cash to throw around and if you are smart you just might catch as much as possible. Once thriving local industries have since collapsed, giving rise to roadside entrepreneurs: mechanics, vulcanisers, battery technicians, commercial motorcyclists and tricycle operators and such other hard-working but low-earning workers. Among them, unfortunately, you will find graduates of tertiary institutions.

    One other troubling thing. Whereas Kaduna textile firms once engaged over 300,000, our universities and other tertiary institutions are reckoned to be graduating about that number every year without any hopes of jobs for them.

    If industries are revived in Kaduna it is a good thing. But politicians are difficult to follow. Sometimes the picture they project may differ from reality while what they promise may tarry interminably.

    Still, the news from Kaduna is uplifting. If the dead factories do indeed rise up again, the residents will tell new and exciting stories. Some have argued eloquently that the insurgency in the North fed directly from immediate social dislocations, including poor jobs profile in the region. I agree and I also believe that getting industries working again will make insurgency less attractive.

    What about the rest of the country? I am persuaded that each of the regions has or had its own brand of insurgency, even if by other names. But at its heart is a common economic cause. The Niger Delta question is still fresh in memory. The violence started with breaching pipelines and taking some expatriate oil workers hostage, then the scope widened, with the kidnapping of kings, grandfathers and their grand kids. While all that lasted, the economy of the region suffered as firms were locked up, some relocating to safer grounds far afield. The national economy was hurt too. Can anyone say how much taxpayers’ money went into containing the Niger Delta violence. And who can tell how much the federal government sank into the amnesty programme which involved not just getting the fighters to lay down their arms but also to train many in professions and skills and starting them off in their new vocations?

    If it gets it right, Kaduna may be on the way to inspiring a brand new order in the country. It just might be leading everyone in the direction of solving old problems by exorcising the demons of joblessness.

  • Under fire on Taraba

    Under fire on Taraba

    My column last week on Taraba State and the aftermath of Governor Danbaba Suntai’s return (“Is there no more decorum in Taraba?”) earned me intense fire from our readers. Bile was a distinct component of some of the responses, as were barefaced disrespect and outright insult. I intend to publish those responses, giving ample space to the most venomous of them, even as I will also print a few which dared to hail my exertions.

    But it bears restating the object of that article since it seems clear that my responders, for some reason, missed its letter and spirit. Some of them thought I had lost my mind. One nearly swore I was a Suntai supporter. Another claimed my Christian background got the best of me and that the governor is “your Christian brother”. There were several wilder allegations, most of which you will see in full presently. Before then, however, I will say that I have no link, direct or indirect, to Suntai or to any of his representatives anywhere in any capacity whatsoever. Nor did I need any such link to write that article. Contrary to another responder’s allegation, no one commissioned me to put that piece together. It came off my conviction that there are better, civil and decent ways of sorting out the Suntai matter which has done nothing to flatter Taraba people or Nigerians as a whole. If the state stakeholders sense that their governor is still not fit to run the state, and that he is not forthcoming in admitting it, surely, they can devise a means of establishing his health status and present it to the relevant authorities for appropriate action. It pays no dividends to engage him in a fight or to order him out of town before due process is followed and exhausted.

    Well, before I launch into another full piece, here are the readers’s responses:

    •It is very obvious that you are a good supporter of Suntai but people can see beyond the ordinary… +2348178794280

    •The piece on Taraba is awesome. God bless you, Sir. Isaac, +2348162364333

    •Ikeje, you are a misfit in media profession. You are not morally, mentally, medically, constitutionally and politically enlightened, with the rubbish you fed the enlightened readers with in your kindergarten piece on Taraba. Did you read and listen to yourself? You need medical check. I am not from Taraba and don’t care who governs but your piece irritates one. Give the piece to your wife and ask her to comment. She will hiss on you. Will you as a student agree to sit in a class and take lecture from today the way you see him? Spade this issue and call it a spade. Don’t bring Christianity issue into this open fact. Garba is not disputing your Christian brother as governor, just that he is presently unfit to rule. Be reasonable, boy. +2348036333016

    •I read your article a lot but this one is completely written out of misconception. You are not a doctor neither a psychologist (please correct me if I am wrong). How then do you figure someone’s state of health by his look alone? As a journalist you should investigate a case properly before you pick up your pen. I am highly disappointed by this your write-up. What else do you need to know that the governor is still ill and is being smuggled in to be used as an instrument to deep hands in government’s coffer (sic) by some greedy politicians in Taraba State. Mr writer, can’t you read between the lines? Why are crying more than the bereaved? I am sure you are part of the criminals and you are disappointed for not sharing in the loot if they had succeeded.

    MJ, Abuja +2348187953058

    •They have learnt nothing and forgotten all. Because we tend to behave like pitiful citizens otherwise no one needed telling Suntai to throw in the towel. Where he failed doing so, he should be impeached rather than administering unfittedly (sic). Taraba elders should wake up from slumber.

    Lanre Oseni, 2358023023745

    •A good opportunity to resolve the Taraba circus is here. His Excellency Governor Suntai should lead Taraba State delegates to the PDP special convention in Abuja. He should pilot the plane that will bring the delegates.

    Col. Idris Danjuma (Rtd), Abuja, 2348054377696

    •A brilliant write-up. It takes greatness of character and good depth of intellect not to follow the bandwagon. I will forward to you the comment I sent to your back page colleague, Segun Ayobolu on his write-up today on the Suntai saga. +2348188884775

    •I share your sentiments concerning the Suntai saga. However, what we have presently are just those sentiments and nothing more. There is neither scientific nor legal basis to say the man should not resume and continue as governor of Taraba State and the reason is simple: there is no valid medical report declaring him unfit for office, and the letter to the Speaker of the House of Assembly which he is required to send as a condition precedent to the resumption of office has been transmitted to the Speaker. The furore is uncalled for and shouldn’t have arisen. The man should resume (has indeed resumed) and can subsequently be removed from office by the House where it becomes clear that he is not or is incapable of discharging his office and/or is empirically established that he is medically unfit for office. The Deputy Governor and Speaker erred badly. +2348188884775

    •You are wide off the mark

    +2347036619333

    •You article is a disgrace to your personality. You should always try to be investigative and objective while writing. +2348025444443

    •Your article is unfortunate. If you are a journalist I advise you to embark on serious research on what you intend to write on before you begin to use your pen. If you continue to write in this manner your readers will think you are one of those journalists that are commissioned to write on serious national issues for money. I am sorry if you fee offended but as an indigene of Taraba State, your write-up portrayed you as insensitive. Do you love Nigeria? A.B.M, +2348096526580

    •I find your write up on this topic very amusing. The only conclusion I could draw was that perhaps you intentionally argued the way you did in order to agitate a large number of readers enough to respond. If that was your intention, well… you succeeded in my case.

    Please, the ambitions of the Acting Governor and Speaker are not relevant here at all. Everybody has got ambitions…including your goodself. What is also irrelevant is our individual feeling about the misfortune that has befallen Suntai. What is relevant is the question of Suntai’s fitness to steer the affairs of Taraba state. If I know politicians very well, were he truly fit, he wouldn’t leave anyone in doubt. Remember Sullivan Chime? The Lawmakers met with him and concluded publicly that he is unfit. Unless something is indeed very wrong with him, you shouldnt be the one holding brief for him. Let him resume work in his office at the Secretariat to convince us and prove that his deputy and the Lawmakers are bloody ambitious conniving liars! Don’t you find it strange that the Presidency summoned only his wife and the Acting Governor to Abuja in respect of this crisis whilst he didn’t get such an invite? And you think he is fit? I don’t think so. Let Suntai and his wife spare us this needless crisis.

    And please, if your write up indeed represents your true position on this issue, respectfully, I must say that you do yourself a great dis-service…you have put your analytical prowess to question.

    •Michael Orisabiyi, Orisabiyi@rtbriscoe.com