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Category: Femi Orebe

The place of visionary leadership in economic development

The period between 2010, when governor Fayemi assumed office as state governor, and now, has witnessed an incomparable development in the industry in Ekiti

“The vision is clear, the mission is here. It is to make poverty history in our land. While this is going to be a daunting task, it is not an insurmountable challenge …” – Governor Kayode Fayemi.

Well, well, well. It’s election season again in my dear native Ekiti and my readers know only too well that I never shy away from reporting the evidences of my very eyes as far as governance in the state is concerned.

I do this, ever so often, because even the most accomplished recorder of events will still find himself/herself falling short of adequately capturing the multi-pronged impact the government of Dr Kayode Fayemi has made on a state which, a few years back was, with considerable justification, referred to as the land of ‘one week, one trouble’. For the opposition, or even the ordinarily unconcerned, what I am doing here is either a hagiography, or at best, an over blow. But whoever knew Ekiti then – a mere three and half years ago – and now, as the popular Ajegunle crooner, Daddy Showkey, recently confessed in a publication, the difference will be very clear. The Collective Rescue Mission has, as promised at the very beginning, ‘taken Ekiti far beyond its most recent wounds’.

However, even in spite of the near regularity of my writings on the state, and the belief that I had a kaleidoscopic view of the developmental efforts of the Fayemi administration, it still took the perspicacity of a young friend of mine, a Special Assistant to the Governor, to draw my attention to how integrity, vision and a single-minded commitment to the larger picture on the part of a leader, could lead to a quantum leap in private investments in a country or state. The case of Ekiti is simply astounding, as I will attempt to sketch in this write-up.

Up until the 2009 re-run election when the distinguished Senator Iyiola Omisore barely shied away from getting involved in a public affray occasioned by his inability to secure accommodation at the government’s Fountain Hotel, which had itself actually been run down until it got concessioned to the E.11 group, it was a herculean task for any visitor to Ado-Ekiti to get a decent accommodation for the night outside of the Pathfinder Hotel which was the first of its kind in the state. The situation was in spite of the yeoman’s efforts of individuals who had braved investing in the hospitality industry in the state.

However, the period between 2010, when governor Fayemi assumed office as state governor, and now, has witnessed an incomparable development in the industry in Ekiti. Today, tens of billions of naira have been poured into building eye-popping hotels that will be a pride to the ecosystem, whether in London or New York. Hotels like Midas, De Jewels, Delight and Prosperous Hotels and Suites (to be commissioned 8th March), and many more springing up, belong to very educated, well travelled entrepreneurs, who knew quite well that Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt would have fetched them higher returns on investment were they to have gone to those more affluent cities. But solely out of the implicit confidence they have in the Fayemi administration, they opted to partner with this visionary governor who, given another four years, would have transformed an otherwise, completely agrarian economy to a financial hub of sorts. These gentlemen, the far-sighted investors that they are, could, however, not but have been massively influenced in their investment choices, by the absolutely mind- blowing transformation Governor Fayemi has brought to bear on the Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort which today ranks amongst the best tourist attractions in the country. From a run down, three-a-penny school- children -visiting resort, Ikogosi, of the legendary cool and warm water, has literally sprung to life: so much the world renowned poet, Professor Niyi Osundare –a proud Ekiti – one of whose poems graced the last London Olympics, could not demur from hosting a night of poems for an appreciative audience by the spring- side.

These investors, knowing full well that the newly commissioned Resort, situated within the vicinity of the Warm Spring– where natural warm spring meets and flows side by side with cold spring and surrounded by natural beauty such as hills and lush grounds and complete with appropriate facilities, would soon be a home away from home, and a haven for both local and foreign, well heeled tourists, have quickly tapped into what is bound to be a highly financially rewarding tourist industry in the Nigerian hinterland. What place to benefit the most, if not the state capital, Ado-Ekiti? This is what visionary leadership can do for a state that ranks second lowest on the federation account list. This is nothing but ingenuity, and it is one reason Ekiti will, again, vote Fayemi for another four solid years to continue the good work he has been doing on their behalf.

Investors in other areas of the economy are not lagging behind either. Mindful of the peaceful environment until some miscreants attempted to breach it, and conscious of the unprecedented presence in the state, of international development partners eagerly supporting the efforts of one of their own in whom they have implicit confidence, Ekiti State has also witnessed significant investment in other areas..

The Odua Investment Company Ltd, almost for the first time, immediately jumped into the fray and in partnership with the Fayemi administration, brought from the dead, the old and forgotten textile industry, Ado-Ekiti, which was turned into a re-branded Ekiti Odua Enterprise Development Centre where hundreds of young Ekiti unemployed graduates are now learning new skills. The icing on the cake is that the young graduates are given take-off grants to start life as a budding employer of labour. Odua has since upped the ante by partnering with the state government in establishing the College of Technical and Commercial Agriculture in Ado-Ekiti.

And talking about agriculture, a state that had nil agriculture-related enterprise at the commencement of the Fayemi administration can today boast of several which, put together, are valued in billions of naira with all the possibilities of employment, increased economic activity and additional IGR. These include the UNDP Ero/Itapaji Irrigation Scheme, a Cassava Processing Factory at Orin Ekiti, the Fount par Food Processing Company at Ikole Ekiti, Spectra’s Plantain Chips Company, Ikere Ekiti, the sprawling Tomato Farm at Iyamero- Ekiti owned by Datlex, the about-to-commence FMS Cassava Farm at Ako –Ekiti as well as Oke-Ako Ekiti Farms Ltd.

The following organisations have also made their highly valued entry into the state’s economic sector:

Metropolitan Motors Ltd, a Lagos-based indigenous private sector company which has established a modern Auto Mobile Service Centre as well as an Auto Mobile Training School and Genuine Spare Parts Mart, the Chinese Anli Plywood Company which established a Plywood/Doors/POP Industry at Iluomoba Ekiti already slated to be commissioned in March, 2014, the China Ocean Construction Company with its recently established Plywood/POP/Door Industry at Omuo – Ekiti and its Ceramic Tiles Industry at both Isan and Ijero -Ekiti which will soon take off. Also, Ceratec Ltd of Belgium has, in conjunction with ODUA Investment Ltd and the State Government, resuscitated the long moribund Ire Burnt Bricks Industry, now scheduled to be commissioned in April, 2014. A Croatian company is setting up an Aluminum Smelter company at Orin-Ekiti just as Shoprite (Ekiti Mall), by Topway Ltd, is about making an entry as it has done in Lagos and Ibadan but far ahead of its plans for other states in the Southwest.

To many in, say, Lagos, Abuja or Port Harcourt, these may look minuscule, but when you realise that the Fayemi administration inherited an industrial ‘tabula rasa’, these represent a giant move towards completely turning the state around economically.

Four more years will see Governor Kayode Fayemi do that and much more.

February 9, 2014
For a violence -free election in Ekiti

Fayemi has more than demonstrated his preference for peace and I have heard him say on more than one occasion that any violence in the state is an embarrassment to his government

In making public his decision to heed the yearnings of every strata of the Ekiti citizenry both at home and abroad, Dr Kayode Fayemi, the organisation’s man that he is, waited until the release of the election’s timetable by the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare as follows: “Following the groundswell of support by leaders and members of our party as well as the generality of Ekiti people from all the nooks and crannies of Ekiti State and in the Diaspora, it is with a profound sense of gratitude and responsibility that I today accept the calls by our people to seek re-election for a second term in office. You have made the calls, and today I have opted to act in deference to those sacred calls by throwing my hat into the ring for a free and fair contestation for the exalted office for a second term.” And justifying his decision further, he said “Our people can faithfully testify that together the Collective Rescue Mission we promised at the outset of our first term in office has crystallised. Indeed our people can testify to how we have rescued Ekiti State from the years of locusts and returned our dear state to the path of respectability, stability and development. Our people can affirm that we have kept faith with the Roadmap to Ekiti Recovery – our 8-points agenda. Every stratum of Ekiti State can see our footprints on those key sectors we promised to touch. My readiness to heed your calls today is therefore a demonstration of our collective commitment to continue the good work we have begun.”

In confirmation of the above, I could not continue my: ‘FAYEMI’S QUIET REVOLUTION IN EKITI’ series beyond the governor’s second anniversary because enumerating his diverse, multi-sectoral and state-wide accomplishments – of which every city, town, village and community in the state benefited – will take nothing less than a whole book; not even a whole edition of this newspaper will be adequate.

It will be recalled that aside the endorsement by the leadership of the APC in the geo-political zone, as represented by Chief Bisi Akande, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Akinrogun Segun Osoba and Otunba Niyi Adebayo, various interest groups, including women, youth, artisans as well as leaders and members of the party in all the 16 local government areas of the state have endorsed and called on Governor Fayemi to seek re-election for a second term so as to continue the recovery and restoration work he had begun in the state.

In addition to promising a ‘focused and edifying’ campaign, and as has become the norm with him, he pleaded with his co-contestants to eschew violence and make the campaign issues-based. That it could be issues-based, however, is hardly possible since the opposition have nothing to show; not even the PDP whose seven years in charge have been dubbed the LOCUST YEARS, not to talk of parties without a scintilla of governorship experience. Apart from guaranteeing peace and security for all, a peaceful campaign would enable the good people of the state vote judiciously for the candidate who, in their collective wisdom, best aggregates their interests. This emphasis on security by the governor could never have come as a surprise, given that he is a security scholar and expert; one who has served severally as consultant to not only regional organisations, but also to Heads of State. He demonstrated his concern for security of life and property to an extent that for the first three years of his administration, Ekiti State ranked, indisputably, amongst the most secure and peaceful states in the country. Those three years, however, coincided with when some of our politicians have not received their Abuja briefs. The minute that happened, it became common place to have pockets of violence, especially whenever Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele came calling. The Hon member, formerly of the A C N, is now of the Labour party on whose ticket, it would appear, Abuja has pencilled him down as the candidate.

Following former President Obasanjo’s letter to the president in which the latter was excoriated for his penchant for preferring other party’s candidates, it would appear that Abuja has scaled down its scheme of wanting to see Hon Bamidele emerge governor to that of his being a mere spoiler.

This article is essentially a plea for a peaceful conduct of the campaigns and election as canvassed by Governor Fayemi. On his part, Fayemi has more than demonstrated his preference for peace and I have heard him say on more than one occasion that any violence in the state is an embarrassment to his government. Between 2007 and 2010 when he was going from one tribunal to another, and Ekiti people were hurting terribly from the feral rigging and the shambolic treatment Obasanjo put them through and when they were, indeed, ready to fight, this governor’s ringing plea was that victory for him was not worth the life of a single Ekiti. That was at a time he had no constitutional responsibility, sworn to at his installation, for guaranteeing the security of lives and property in the state. Viewed from that background, it is crystal clear Fayemi can neither order nor encourage violence.

One can, therefore, reasonably narrow down possible sources of insecurity to the PDP and the Labour Party.

Traditionally boisterous, in the certitude that they are above the law since Abuja will always protect them, the PDP could very well be a reasonable suspect. But truth be told, the party has been reasonably quiescent in the state as their aspirants go about their individual campaigns. This is, however, no clean bill of health for a party we know has a history of real crudity. And we do know that Labour is nothing other than PDP with a coincidence of interest.

This, unfortunately, cannot be said of the Labour Party. If morning shows the day, then the state may have to expect some considerable level of violence. In the first place, Hon Bamidele has a lot to prove to both Akure and Abuja. Presumably, Akure was driven initially more by the need to have associates in the Southwest with which to tantalise and con Abuja than to ascertain his claims of popularity. Hon Bamidele is my House Rep, but apart from the fact that he cannot win an election in the constituency, federal or state, I do not know a singe local government area where he can boast 30 percent support. There were obviously no due diligence checks on Hon Bamidele’s claims of state -wide support and it mattered nothing to Akure and Abuja that at no time, and at no party level, did he indicate his ambition to contest before he shipped out. If this is a lie, Hon Bamidele should please publish for Nigerians to see, a facsimile copy of such communication. For any serious person to claim he left a party because he was disallowed from pursuing his legitimate ambition in the party, there should, at least, be an expression of such intent to a recognised party organ.

Given, therefore, the fact that the honourable member’s umbilical cord is domiciled in a state with contiguity to the Niger Delta, it will not be unreasonable to suggest that Ekiti State may, unwillingly, play the unhappy host to Niger-Delta militants, serving and rehabilitated, since the 2015 interests of both coincide. For the sake of the good people of Ekiti, Hon Bamidele should endeavour to prove me a lie by fighting back any enticement in this respect. There isn’t a single reason why we cannot have a peaceful election in Ekiti especially if we refuse to assist the diabolical plans of those who traditionally love to make Ekiti a hunting ground for the PDP and have, in fact, promised to make ‘an example’ of our dear motherland while protecting theirs hundreds of kilometres away from the burning inferno. Unfortunately, Ekiti PDP members will look askance since, according to ex-chairman Tukur, one of the arrowheads is the one to whom every hungry PDP leader in the Southwest runs.

In the meantime, the good people of Ekiti can only pray for a violence-free election and hope that the Abuja power mongers will fear God and let our votes count.

February 2, 2014
Chief Bisi Akande: Celebrating a worthy leader at 75

It is a thing of joy that we still have in Yoruba land today, a distinguished leader of the calibre of Chief Bisi Akande,

This column opens up today with a portion that was guillotined from last Sunday’s article due to space constraint. It is a thing of joy that we still have in Yoruba land today, a distinguished leader of the calibre of Chief Bisi Akande, the Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress to celebrate. In an age when all manner of characters are bandied about as leaders in the Southwest geo-political zone, and when ‘leaders’ are being trashed right and left in certain circles, no matter what high office they have held in the land, we of the APC, and millions of Omoluabi Yoruba and Nigerians in general, can truly celebrate one of our own. A man of impeccable integrity, variously tested and trusted, below is what I wrote about Chief Akande in the special publication for his birthday anniversary: ‘A dye-in-the- wool Awoist and an irrepressible student of the Uncle Bola Ige school of politics, Baba Akande has grown to become an indefatigable democrat. A tested leader in whom there is no guile, it is safe to say that with the likes of him leading the APC, it will yet be too early to declare Nigeria a failed state. Happy Birthday, Sir.

Fighting Executive Impunity In Nigeria: Dr Bashir Gwandu’s Example

“I see this case as part of my contribution towards strengthening of the rule of law and a decision meant to send message to investors that Nigeria has come of age and is a place where the law is applicable to everyone, including the president. The Nigerian telecom law is there and it contains adequate provisions to protect stakeholders and investment, all that investors need to do is to learn to stand and pursue their rights in defence of their investments. As for the young ones, never be discouraged, troubled, or get intimidated by powerful forces. There is an honour in public service, just do your part, and God is there to provide protection. Have faith in God and you will never be disappointed.’ – Dr Bashir Gwandu on his court victory.

Increasingly under the Jonathan administration, Nigeria and corruption are becoming Siamese twins. With executive impunity firmly in place, well-connected and high-profile fraudsters are guaranteed a safe passage, whatever their crime. By itself, the administration also routinely perpetrates corruption, as the case in which Dr Bashir Gwandu was unjustly punished eloquently demonstrates.

As reported severally in the media when the news broke in 2013, Dr Gwandu, former Executive Commissioner of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Chairman of the technical body of Radio communications Advisory Group (RAG), as well as Vice-Chairman Joint Task Group, JTG-4-5-6-7, of I.T.U, was summarily removed from office as Executive Commissioner of the NCC on 26th November 2012 for his principled stand against three major frauds committed in the commission by agents of the Jonathan government. Indeed, according to Femi Falana, SAN, who is Gwandu’s lawyer, Mrs Omobola Johnson, the Minister of Communications Technology, actually demanded, by a letter dated April 12, 2013, addressed to the Secretary-General of ITU, that Dr Gwandu be relieved of the positions he held at ITU. Such barefaced impunity will be hard to come by in any government that sets any stock by transparency and anti-corruption; two elements the Jonathan administration very sincerely abhors.

What then were Gwandu’s offences?

Of course, his sins against the innermost cravings of a corrupt government was that he spilled the bins on three main frauds committed in the commission, apparently on orders from above.

These, according to several news sources, are: selling of 450MHz Spectrum to an unlicensed company- OpenSkys Ltd reportedly owned by Mr Emeka Offor and some powerful associates who then connived to remove Gwandu, after paying only US $6 million for a licence that should have fetched the nation over $50 million. Second was reported to be the N1.029B waiver applied for by the Communications Minister ostensibly for three companies: Multilink’s, Starcomms and MTS, but was granted to only MTS – a company in which NCC’s Chief Executive Officer, Eugene Juwah, in two separate interviews admitted to having shares, at the expense of the federation account and those two other companies.

The third issue was Gwandu’s reported opposition to the sale of a 10MHz slot in the 800MHz spectrum-band without competitive bids, as required by law, to a South African company called Smile Communications Limited for about €13million while equivalent spectrums sold in Germany, Italy, France and UK for around €992million.

Till date, these weighty allegations have not been probed by the Jonathan administration.

But Nigerians must thank Dr Gwandu and his intrepid lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, who took his sack case to court as only this past week, the National Industrial Court, sitting at Abuja, declared Gwandu’s removal from office as Executive Commissioner illegal, unconstitutional, ultra vires, null and void and of no effect whatsoever. The court, therefore, ordered that Gwandu be paid his accrued salaries, benefits, allowances and entitlements up to 21st January 2014. The court further awarded him N100 million in damages.

Unless, and until Nigerians come to rise up to fight this thoroughly kleptomanic government, we as a country and people, will remain the butt of jokes the world over. Unfortunately, most of these frauds are perpetrated with the 2015 election in mind as the beneficiaries are all potential big election donors and for that alone, the Jonathan government will sacrifice anything.

It is the same amoral considerations that underpinned some of the names recently sent by the president to the senate for confirmation as ministers. While mercifully, Nigerians should see the back of Princess Oduah in the imminent cabinet reshuffle, some of these individuals should not be anywhere near a public office. It is extremely painful what messages President Jonathan is sending to Nigerians, as well as the outside world about how serious he is on fighting corruption. Even if the former PDP Chairman, recently forced out of office was not accused of any fraud, the fact that a man who could not manage a political party gets appointed to a very critical segment of the economy is also very uncomplimentary. One can understand jobs for the boys, but for a man of Alhaji’s Tukur’s age and accomplishments to have accepted his new job can only be a validation of his grovelling reluctance to leave the former. It equally says a lot about the PDP that it could appoint as its Chairman, a person who is not only wanted by the EFCC, but was adjudged by a seven-man panel set up by none other than Governor Yuguda who reportedly nominated him, to have misappropriated N20.4 billion while governor of Bauchi State.

Regarding Jonathan’s new ministers, Nigerians can only hope that this time around, the senate will truly serve the nation.

A hollow hope, many will say.

January 26, 2014
Hold Buruji Kashamu accountable for whatever mayhem in Ekiti, Osun

Buruji has shown clearly that he would not mind committing any horrendous act in his quest for an unimaginable PDP victory in Ekiti

I am ready to go if you will stand by me. If you are ready, let us start with EKITI governorship election and make it a sample to them” – Kashamu speaking at the southwest meeting of what Prof Wole Soyinka once dubbed a ‘nest of killers’

Former President Obasanjo called his own, ‘do or die’, and we know what we went through in Ekiti; Mama Iyabo came with her ‘conscienceless conscience’ and we would later have amputated legs, shown live at election tribunals.

Now, it is Buruji Kasamu requesting his PDP compatriots’ support so they can show us, again in Ekiti, what disdain these Ogun State elements have for Ekiti which they would like to turn to their hunting ground at every election cycle. I plead with Nigerians to help the good and humble people of Ekiti ask this total stranger what sample he intends to make of us this time around. The last I know, he is not a registered voter in Ekiti and so is not eligible to vote there for whichever of Labour or PDP contestant emerges their gubernatorial candidate, he is not a police officer so he could not, like Rivers’ State Police Commissioner, Mbu, turn Ekiti to a lawless state; nor is this man of the Electoral Commission, so he could scientifically rig the election as is their wont.

So how exactly is this man going to ‘make a sample of us?

My mind could only go to the snipers which their own ex- Chairman, Board of Trustees, and former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, alleged are being trained at the instance of no less a personality than the president. Seeing how vociferously both the president and the PDP Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, have defended Kashamu, heartily disparaging Obasanjo, it is not unreasonable to believe that Kashamu must be so strategic to their evil plans in Yoruba land, not to allocate to him a phalange of those snipers. Nor would the two powerful politicians be bothered whatever when Obasanjo told them how serially world leaders embarrass him on account of Buruji.

That the man is so important to Jonathan’s 2015 plans, and Ekiti and Osun especially, can also be seen in the ease with which they made him supersede not only Obasanjo himself, but the likes of Bode George, my friend, Seye Ogunlewe, Obanikoro and all those who were the PDP poster boys in the region when Kasamu was still going round his circuit of courts.

It is for his central role in Jonathan’s evil designs for the Southwest that Kashamu must bear full responsibility for the safety of all Ekiti citizens that can be regarded as being in opposition to the PDP, which will translate to no less than 70 per cent of our people.

Needless to say then that from this very moment, I must reckon as number one on his list but only God can save and enemies of the good people of Ekiti will certainly work in vain. Their evil counsel, like Ahitophel’s, will come to naught in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is the reason why every mother, every wife, even child in Ekiti must hold the controversial Ogun state politician, Buruji Kasamu, responsible for whatever befalls their bread winners in the run down to the 2014 election in the state as he has promised to completely over run the state.

It was my uncle, the highly regarded Chief Deji Fasuan, who first drew my attention to the inimical politics some persons of Ogun State extraction have historically played in Yoruba politics. I have searched in vain on my computer system for his exact quotes, in which he pointedly mentioned names and narrated what negative roles each surreptitiously played in the affairs of other Yoruba ethnic groups. Fortunately, I do not need to have those exact words since in the past few years, dating back to the 8-year strangle-hold of the PDP on our geo-political zone, some Ogun State elements have famously put their animus against Ekiti people at play, the latest being this new friend of Mr. President.

It had all begun with Obasanjo who, as president, spared no scurrilous word in describing Ekiti people. Beginning from how he mercilessly shredded Chief S.K Babalola, one of Ekiti’s most distinguished elders, on his way to inflicting a governor on the state in 2003, he later callously dismissed the entire Ekiti people as educated fools. He would later conjure an inchoate impeachment of his once’ darling son’, just so he could inflict an Ogun State retired general on the state in declaring a totally reckless emergency administration whose sole aim was to prepare the ground for a PDP victory in the following election. Obasanjo would then go on to show his complete disdain for Ekiti when he disregarded the results of his party’s governorship primary election and opted for the candidate who placed third as his anointed candidate.

For the next three years, Ekiti knew no peace.

Next was the conscienceless INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner who, against all expectations, abandoned her avowed Christian conscience, first went underground , surfaced in the presidency in Abuja only to come back to Ado-Ekiti to eat her words and throatily declare what she had previously adjured a rigged result.

Were Ekiti vicissitudes in the hands of Ogun State elements limited to these, we probably would have shouted Halleluiah. But then that would not satisfy our traducers who must not stop until they have seen the last of a people they proudly regard as inferior to them.

So here comes this money man who once claimed he would spend a billion on the Ekiti gubernatorial election. Nigerians must ask him how this is his business. Must Ekiti be roughened up to have an oil block? Anyway, if he likes he could quintuple that amount; we won’t be bothered in the least since in the first place, half that amount would be stolen by his party people and as to the rest, Ekiti will show him money is not our god. He, it is, who knows how he made his money and can therefore choose to burn it. Kashamu should go and ask how much those who preceded him have spent futilely in Lagos State these past 14 years but the wishes of the people have always prevailed. If some people worship money, we in Ekiti do not. He will therefore, equally profit nothing in Ekiti, no matter what nebulous billions he sank into their evil plans against the wishes of the people.

By declaring at their Ibadan meeting that if his historically unscrupulous party men will stand by him, he was ready to start with Ekiti and make an otherwise peaceful state ‘a sample’, (and this happens to be a man who had declared the APC leader, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu an enemy, not a political opponent) Buruji has shown clearly that he would not mind committing any horrendous act in his quest for an unimaginable PDP victory in Ekiti.

Kashamu should know, that with this his threats, the onus is squarely on him to prove that he does not pose a danger to the good people of Ekiti, come the next election.

Nigerians are waiting to hear from him.

January 19, 2014
Sesan Ogunro: The advertising guru bows out in a blaze of glory

If the advertising industry had been hard hit, I am at a loss for words as to what hit the Christ’s School family where we are all like uterine brothers and sisters

Not since we bade farewell to our late Deputy Governor in Ekiti, the late Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, have I seen anything like it: the overwhelming outpouring of grief, the massive turnouts at all the events and the compelling consensus about how our late brother positively impacted lives and the advertising industry, in particular. Uncountable were the testimonies – from school mates, especially from Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, which he attended from 1965-69, as well as from his colleagues in the advertising industry where he is rightly regarded as a pillar.

Without the least doubt, Sesan Ogunro was a colossus.

Until he was violently cut down, evening of Sunday, 23 December, 2013 at the Alausa Business District after attending a Christmas carol service at his church, Sesan, Managing Director of Eminent Communications, was everybody’s delight. Adroitly self-effacing, you would probably need to be told this is the man who had played such a huge role in putting advertising on its present pedestal in the country courtesy the several brands that emanated from his prodigious brain and his unstinting service in various committees, some of which he chaired. A Fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, he was one-time Chairman of APCON’s Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), Chairman of its Membership & Privileges Committee and Chairman of the Professional Practice Committee of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, a position easily recommended by his uncanny ‘expertise, enthusiasm and objectivity’, to quote Akinde, his successor as Chairman, Adverts Standards Panel.At the industry’s special valedictory session for him at the Protea Hotel, Maryland, Lagos on Wednesday, 9 January ,2014 at which was present all the leading lights of the industry, Sesan was generously referred to as ‘Mr Brand ‘ himself. Tributes poured in ceaselessly from all sectors of the industry.

If the advertising industry had been hard hit, I am at a loss for words as to what hit the Christ’s School family where we are all like uterine brothers and sisters. All of these two weeks had been hell on earth for us. There will be no words to describe what role Sesan played in revitalising The School. He has been a moving spirit and only a few weeks to his violent translation, he was being honoured by our Atlanta, U.S branch of the Alumni Association for his exemplary contribution to the school. You could call up Sesan at any time of the day or night for a Christ’s School matter. That we are seriously contemplating taking full responsibility for the running of the school owes largely to contributions by the likes of Sesan. Concerning The School, Sesan could very easily have been dubbed ‘Mr ever ready’. He was ever so unstinting in his support. And with him you knew exactly where you were. When my friend, a university Vice-Chancellor, intimated me with his university’s plan to set up an Advancement Committee and wanted a chair person, I hadn’t the slightest inhibition in recommending Sesan. I only asked my friend to let me consult him and his response was, ‘egbon, if you say so, who am I?’

He was that humble.

It will be appropriate at this point to hear the dirge from Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, as captured by Babatunde Faniran, a classmate of Sesan.

Wrote Tunde:

Our season and the two bullets

He was a man of the people

With his easy disarming smile and quick wit,

Humour that penetrates and festers long

His attributes all the way from The School on Agidimo Hills

His legacy fit to cherish from now till Eternity

He may agree or disagree with you

But a ready smile of Tolerant Understanding

He has for all on all occasions

That indeed was our Sesan.

Capable confident, a high- flier

Humble beyond description

A thoroughbred Product of Agidimo Hills

Genius out of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria

He rode the Advertising world like a colossus

He built up the Nigeria Airways of old

Just as he did Cowbell, “Our Milk”

Sesan crafted the “MKO, Our Man” singsong

The Award-Winning HOPE ’93 Slogan

Which catapulted MKO to Nationwide Victory

Nor can we forget “Pam Pam Pa Pa Pam Paam MILO!”

Which still rings true and alluring To-day

They all came out of his prodigious brain.

He dined with kings and royalty

His productive hands leaving indelible imprints

Alas! Our prolonged rapport was not to be!

Those wicked, soul-less miscreants from the very pit of Hell:

They came, pulled the trigger and fired the bullet!

With a bullet wound, our man sought medical Help

To stop the Life-blood that was ebbing away

But instead of Help, the Nation’s accursed Medical institution

“Pulled the trigger” and fired a second”bullet” into Our man!

It is finished!

MOTHER-land snuffs out the life of her Worthy offspring!

Alas, they knew NOT whom they have cut down

Wicked, soul-less miscreants prowling our streets

Products of an accursed, maladjusted Society

Agents of the Cursed Spirit

They will never escape eternal damnation.

None of us you left behind is safe from these scallywags

Even then we dare to say “SHAME on them!”

They shall never know the Peace you NOW enjoy

ADIEU! Sesan, Our Brother and Friend.

Till we meet at the Feet of JESUS

To part no more.

Although I straddle Sesan’s two worlds of advertising, being a registered practitioner, and being six years his senior at Christ’s School, meaning he did not meet me there, I saw him always as my own younger brother; forever charming and his ready smile ever so captivating.

When he was appointed Chairman of the Ekiti Sate Broadcasting Corporation the first thing I told him was that he had to put in place an aggressive training programme especially for the newscasters. Mindful of costs, I suggested he used one of our higher institutions’ Language Labs but Sesan’s uncompromising addiction to excellence would not permit paucity of funds stand between him and his determination to bring them to Lagos to have the very best from the best training school as well as get exposed to experienced practitioners as trainers.

Completely devastated at hearing the news of Sesan’s untimely translation, the governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was one of the earliest visitors to the family house to commiserate and give words of courage to Dupe, Sesan’s adorable wife, and the wonderful children . It was the worst end of year news for all of us from Christ’s School. And looking back now, how I wished Sesan had attended our own Lagos branch carol service which held at exactly the same time at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Cathedral Church, also in Ikeja bearing in mind he never misses any of the school’s events.

But who are we to question God?

I sincerely commiserate with Sesan’s family, the wife, the children and the siblings and do pray that the good Lord will comfort and strengthen them.

And so shall it be in Jesus name. Amen.

January 12, 2014
Southwest 2014 elections: Will President Jonathan allow history be his guide?

But whoever thinks these jejune tricks will result in successively rigging any of the coming elections in the Southwest must think again

Just in case our dear president does not know, or knows but has forgotten, the South-west, aka Wild, Wild West, has been the grave yard of many a federal government of Nigeria. It has serially posed questions, especially at elections, bordering on the very survival of this country as we saw in 1966, 1983 and ’93 and barely escaped asking same questions in ’03 and ’07 when, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerians witnessed the most rigged elections anywhere under the sun. This was no design of the West as its peoples, the Yoruba, did not sit down anywhere to plan mayhem. Rather they were a victim of what GBOGUN GBORO captured beautifully in his column in The Nation’s edition of Thursday, January 02, 2014.

We will quote him, mutatis mutandis, at some length.

In the article: YORUBA NATION: TIME TO STAND STRONG, he wrote: ‘We must also make it clear to Nigeria that we are now much more determined to uphold and show our rejection of electoral fraud – that heinous disease that has periodically brought disaster upon Nigeria since 1964. The source of this Nigerian disease is no more than those in control of the federal government who, since independence, assumed that it is their prerogative to dictate, through fraudulent means, the outcome of elections in any part of the country. In the context of this disruptive assumption, respective electoral commissions, electoral tribunals and Appeal courts, as well as the Nigeria Police – have usually operated like invading armies wherever the people show abhorrence to this fraud; Yoruba land being the foremost of such areas. The result is that thousands of our young men have needlessly been dispatched to their early graves as was the case in 1965 – 1966 when hundreds were killed by Nigerian law-enforcement agencies all over the Western Region. In Ondo State in 1983 when falsified results were announced by federal authorities in the gubernatorial election, scores of those who rose to resist the fraud were again mowed down by the police. Similar examples abound as in the rigged 2007 gubernatorial election in Osun State when tens piled up in the morgue for weeks. The lesson here is that the Yoruba, having been accustomed to choosing their own rulers for over a thousand years, are too culturally attached to free and fair elections to tolerate electoral fraud.’

In the full knowledge of this Yoruba resistance, our current tormentors have devised two ingenious ways of achieving the same result without noisily showing their hands: the first is to abandon their own party in the choice of a hireling as gubernatorial candidate; a practice recently condemned by former President Obasanjo. The ‘candidate’ is then maximally supported: money, tonnes of it –after all, some 10 billion dollars in oil money remain unaccounted for, police, soldiers, all. This, of course, is the second stage as much earlier, elements of the Electoral Commission, acting on orders from above, would have maliciously imported hundreds of thousands of fictitious names into the voters’ register. INEC then ensures there is no verification whatever, or allocates very insufficient time to the exercise.

In ‘THIS IS NO SCARE MONGERING’, Sunday, 3 November, 2013, I wrote as follows on this phenomenon: ‘A pattern of election rigging ahead of 2015 is emerging as any keen observer of recent elections in the country would readily affirm. And it is not by happenstance; rather, it is a well choreographed test run of what will be put into play in the 2014 elections in both Ekiti and Osun states. Of course, they will attempt the ‘Ondo template’ in Anambra where they will do everything to assist the candidate of Governor Peter Obi, the President’s good friend.

How perceptive!

In Anambra, where the voters’ register was heavily manipulated again, Professor Atahiru Jega, the INEC Chairman, personally undertook to ‘clean up’ the compromised register but, you believe that and you will believe anything. In the end, the election turned out worse than the Obasanjo elections.

But whoever thinks these jejune tricks will result in successively rigging any of the coming elections in the Southwest must think again. As in previous elections, we have over a thousand eagle eyes that will tear into INEC’s convoluted Voters’ registers to identify hurriedly imported, but fictitious names, just as a million soldiers cannot scare a determined people even in the unlikely event that the military high command succumbs to the army being used as ex-President Obasanjo already indicated in his letter to the President. We know there are enough men of honour in the Nigerian army to reject such evil plans even if, unfortunately, that cannot be said of a Nigeria Police that has largely become an armed wing of the ruling party. But they will meet the Yoruba doubly prepared for a government we know hates the majority of our people whilst eagerly romancing an insignificant minority. Apart from President Jonathan’s need for new friends, especially in an ‘electorally hostile’ geo-political zone like ours, we can never forget that he personally declared himself the overall campaign manager for the PDP candidate in the 2009 rerun election in Ekiti.

We are not unaware of the boast within PDP and its crony political parties in the state that the high command has charged them to do anything to rig Fayemi out of office following which the icing on the cake would be Mr President personally ensuring Aregbesola is equally rigged out. Talk we say, is cheap; but we warn and pray that those so minded would learn from our history, dating back to the Kiriji war and, especially, the fact that every wrong done to the Yoruba collective has brought down every offending government : Balewa’s, IBB’s, for instance.

The Yoruba will hate to be the leitmotif – the recurring theme -for a dismemberment of Nigeria but nobody should foolishly dare us. Governor Kayode Fayemi has very succinctly enunciated the Yoruba attitude to the coming elections. This he captured in his New Year message to his Ekiti compatriots when he said: ‘My dear honourable people of Ekiti, as you know, this year 2014 is a year of crucial decision in our State. Our still young republic grapples with the legacy of militarism, its violent imprint on our politics, and a generational perception of political competition as a form of warfare. It is unfortunate that politics is not widely seen as a contest of ideas for hearts and minds but a desperate means to get to power by all means possible. I take this opportunity to remind all and sundry, particularly those who would be interested in contesting the upcoming election, that the quality of power is defined by the nature of its pursuit. When we mortgage our consciences and values in the pursuit of power, no matter how dignified or admirable our intentions, it costs us bits of our humanity and deprives governance of the moral authority that is its true foundation. We should refrain from inciting our people to violence and other negative tendencies. Ultimately, an anarchic approach in which the contestants for power deploy all means, fair or foul, to win, de-legitimises and de-humanises politics. We cannot afford to lose the grounds we have gained in establishing peace and tranquility in Ekiti over the last few years’.

We can only hope that a word will be enough for the wise.

January 5, 2014
2014: What hope for a corruption-free Nigeria?

Corruption is, therefore, with considerable justification, the bane of Nigeria even as insecurity has become a major concern

The reasons for erstwhile President Obasanjo’s 18-page letter were weighty indeed, but there are many ways of communicating a message, however important. I think he chose a wrong one. As was suggested in this column last Sunday, Obasanjo’s vitriols were driven more by the obvious failure of his plan to install a third successive president than by love of country. Incidentally, his preferred candidate, Sule Lamido, is currently hedging his moves, in the hope that Jonathan would be harried off his 2015 ambition and a northern candidate, he in fact, emerge the PDP presidential candidate. That essentially is why only five of the G.7 governors finally made it to the APC. That hope, unfortunately, looks, every passing day, more like a forlorn one.

However acerbic that letter was, and whatever the selfishness that underpinned it, we must endeavour to separate the message from the messenger as most of the reasons adduced by Obasanjo are well known to Nigerians. If any one single word uncannily mirrors Nigeria today, that word must be corruption and unless the president rolls up his sleeves, and frontally confronts that canker-worm, it will most define his administration for history. In the words of Transparency International, Nigeria, under Jonathan, remains rooted to the bottom of the global corruption ranking. Corruption is, therefore, with considerable justification, the bane of Nigeria even as insecurity has become a major concern. Only this past week, a former Primate of the Anglican Communion was kidnapped in broad day light.

Not even the most irascible Jonathan hater would suggest that any of these originated under his watch. Obasanjo looked askance when Sharia over ran Northern Nigeria and ended up siring Boko Haram with all its attendant consequences. And, without a doubt, corruption predates insecurity by decades though, like Obasanjo said in his letter, it has since found a permanent abode in Nigeria. The reality of corruption in the country today is so shattering and its consequences so enervating, so destructive of our national vitality that we need not dwell on its history: whether of the political, bureaucratic or electoral corruption which reached its apogee during the Obasanjo years when election rigging in the country upstaged anything known anywhere else in the world, if former U.S President Jimmy Carter is to be believed.

So alarming has corruption become in our country today that only this past week, an alarmed Financial Times of London advised President Jonathan to order a forensic audit of oil and gas earnings in the country. This, the FT said, would either show the government as plugging the holes in the system or portray it as nothing but a patron and harbinger of monumental mismanagement. On a visit to Nigeria as U.S Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton had no qualms in saying that ‘Nigeria’s “lack of transparency and accountability has eroded even the legitimacy of the government and contributed to the rise of groups that embrace violence and reject the authority of the state.” In support, she cited a World Bank report which claimed Nigeria lost more than $300 billion to corruption over the past three decades, concluding that reform can only come by “fixing Nigeria’s flawed election system” ,which, unfortunately, has now gone worse under the Jonathan administration as we saw in Anambra.

When President Jonathan then sits, unperturbed, atop alarming cases of corruption, as in the case of Princess Oduah’s bullet-proof toys , is it that he just does not care a hoot what the world says of us or is being president the only thing that matters to him?

President Jonathan’s anti-corruption record is nothing but pathetic. It was, for instance, absolutely disingenuous of him to have responded to Obasanjo’s charges on corruption by claiming that most of the cases hanging on him started before his administration. Does he, by any means, see the Nigerian presidency as a sinecure, only to be enjoyed?

In this season of all-round goodwill to others, the intention here is certainly not contemplated in the Obasanjo mould. Rather, it is advisory, not adversarial. How then can President Jonathan seriously fight corruption, for once?

The starting point should be a complete disavowal of his aides’ high-sounding emptiness scoring his performance 60-65 per cent when ordinary Nigerians do not see him getting anything more above 30 percent overall. That done, he should, post haste, reconsider his loyalty to people around him, many of who, unfortunately, have serially been accused of being neck deep in corruption. Once he allows the anti-corruption agencies to deal with these individuals, his work would have been half done. He must start with those seemingly untouchable female members of his cabinet about whom Nigerians have heard so much, and who constitute not less than 70 percent of his headache.

Accusations hanging around these individuals have ranged from irregular oil deals to unconscionable hiring of airplanes for both local and international travels to un accounted oil revenues, even if we are talking here of 1billion dollars. The National Assembly is also currently raising issues on duty waivers and Nigerians no longer wish to be lectured on these and other financial irregularities at a centre which controls 52 percent of their national resources. It has been suggested that the president’s loyalty is, however, a quid pro quo since these persons were mostly responsible for raising those humongous 2011 presidential campaign funds and are expected to do no less, come 2015.

Since, I am not one of those asking the president not to exercise his constitutional right of contesting the next presidential election, in which case I would have merely suggested he does not contest, he should demonstrate seriousness in fighting corruption by unconditionally sacking Princess Oduah, the Aviation Minister, today. Her corruption case is too well known to delay us here and they revolve around her illegal approval of purchases far above her limit in contravention of extant laws. Unfortunately, she has been going all over the place trying to twist the National Assembly’s recommendation that her appointment be reviewed. She could not understand that to mean her appointment should be terminated. Mr. President has harboured her enough; it is time to let go or he risks losing it all.

Mr. President should then proceed to give orders for a thorough prosecution of accused persons in the Siemens, Halliburton and other cases in which those who bribed these individuals have, in fact, been since convicted and fined heavily abroad. There could hardly be any better evidence of romancing and shielding corruption than the state protection President Jonathan has offered them.

The president must bring into the open the reports of committees on corruption currently gathering cobwebs in the presidency so that Nigerians can be convinced that their president is not at home with corruption. This will obviously cost a few votes here and there, but he would have given himself a new breath of life. Winning the next election should not be all he cares about. After all, he is already a president, and by 2015, he would have been on that seat for six whole years.

But the greatest of all these will be for Mr. President to promise his God that under his watch, from the year of our Lord 2014, and henceforth, there will no longer be any election rigging. This promise he must make on the pain of eternal damnation if un-kept. With all these done, President Jonathan could see Nigerians, like members of the Janlokpal Movement in India, troop out on the streets, and, in their millions, to fight this indescribable evil in our country today.

Here‘s wishing us all, a happier, corruption-free 2014.

December 29, 2013
Is PDP dead or dying?

PDP has no redeeming feature

It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy; one that has long been expected, if the PDP does not come out of its current stupor alive. Without a scintilla of doubt, the party has been many times lucky because in decent societies, any party like it would long have become history. Nothing proves the veracity of its cluelessness more than the combination of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent, self- serving, 18- page letter to the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, and the legislative tsunami which hit the party when 37 of its members in the House of Representatives decamped to the rival All Progressives Congress, effectively putting the government party in opposition in that hallowed chamber. The move, according to the legislators was as a result of the division in the party, consequent upon the formation of the new PDP, the decampment of five governors from the ruling party and, in tandem with the provisions of the constitution. I described Obasanjo’s letter to President Jonathan as self- serving because it is nothing more than the result of frustrations arising from his seeming inability to install a third Nigerian president in the person of the Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido

The letter, bristling with rampant denunciations and allegations of, albeit undeniable, massive corruption, ineptitude and crass cronyism against the Jonathan government, could hardly have been improved upon by the opposition the way it hammered both Jonathan, and his government. Obasanjo was so unsparing, he had no qualms in alleging that the country may very soon go back to the murderous days of the goggled one and to bring this poignantly home to Nigerians, a smart Obasanjo posited a causal relationship between it, and the allegedly arranged discharge of Abacha’s former Chief Security Officer in a case of being an accessory to the assassination of Kudirat, wife of Chief M K O Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the historic June 12, 1993 election, adding that Mustapha was escorted back to his native North like a rock star.

For its un-redeemable woes on Nigeria, PDP’s death, long heralded, will be completely unsung as Nigeria would be much better without that monster, which its members forever deceive themselves describing as the largest party in Africa, clustering our political space. Under the PDP, elections in Nigeria became a ‘do or die’ affair, worse than any in any other part of the world, security of life and property became a chimera as full scale insurgency war erupted in its North-Eastern part, oil thefts increased exponentially in spite of the many sweet heart, multi-billion naira contracts to ex-militants, at least one of who had since established a university in a neighbouring country; ministers became untouchable champions of corruption just as Mr President increasingly became an ethnic jingoist with his rehabilitated Ijaw militants pouring invectives on distinguished Nigerians, at will, and unchecked.

Jon Campbell, a Senior Research Fellow at the American Council on Foreign Relations and Former Ambassador to Nigeria, wrote recently in his new book Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink that popular alienation and a fragmented establishment have contributed to Nigeria becoming one of the most violent countries in the world. –No thanks to the PDP, and in particular, its first President turned letter writer, Olusegun Obasanjo. PDP had, from the very beginning, been nothing but a curse on the developmental trajectory of the Nigerian state as it governed essentially through indescribable corruption which became highly accentuated by its rentier philosophy of government. For instance, one of its top chieftains, indeed a former Chairman of the party, whose son was fingered in the oil subsidy scam in an agency of government which he chaired, has since been gifted another high ranking appointment thus demonstrating the amoral nature of both party and government.

Under the PDP, flawed elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011 completely undermined government’s credibility and further aggravated Nigeria’s conflicts: social, political and economic such that today, not just Boko Haram, kidnappers, armed robbers but pirates operating in its territorial waters have all combined to ensure that’ the federal government has failed to provide basic security for its citizens as well as lost its monopoly on violence, two basic attributes of a sovereign state.”

Thus, a country that ordinarily should have been the lodestar of the African continent, facilitating continent –wide stability, fostering economic cooperation and leading the way in tackling Africa’s key health challenges, has itself become one of the continent’s most urgent challenges as PDP has landed it squarely on the edge of state failure.

But history teaches us that PDP will not like to die alone. Indeed, its leaders would rather wish that the entire country collapses with it. This is the clear and present danger the dying party presents each and every Nigerian, nay the entire world since the international community, as in other flashpoint areas, may have to pay a steep price for Nigerian state failure, and its consequent humanitarian calamity

Indeed, a comatose PDP will become lethal, and will do just about anything to rig the elections coming up in Ekiti and Osun states, since the dying party would like to pretend it is alive. This is why Nigerians have to be alive to the antics of not just the federal government, the PDP and its colony of client-parties like Labour, APGA, Accord and SDP, but in particular, the inappropriately named INEC, which recently showed its bloodied hands again in the Anambra governorship election. Even where you could still vouch for Prof Jega’s personal integrity, I have no doubt whatever that he has since been swallowed up by the humongous agency and has thereby lost control of its thousands of mostly temporary staff who could therefore do as they please at elections. This is the more reason why, to forestall the machinations of the PDP, especially in the South West, where it had long been dispatched to political Siberia, we must, with a fine tooth comb, peruse the voters’ register which INEC traditionally helps to sex up, padding it with hundreds of thousands of fictitious names.

PDP has, since 1999, been the dominant political party in Nigeria. Its failure therefore to emerge outside the cretinism of its respective leaders has had tremendous disadvantages for Nigeria. Since political parties are critical to democratic sustainability, the overall poverty of the PDP, either in its corporate form, or seen from the perspective of its self-seeking leaders, has meant that it has been a great minus for Nigeria. Though it may seem an exaggeration, PDP in my view, has no redeeming feature as everything Nigerians love to admire, adore and celebrate have been completely bastardised.

I have no doubt that the decampment of about 22 senators from it to the APC; will be the icing on the cake as it will serve as the final nail on the coffin the octopoidal, but effete, PDP.

December 22, 2013
Mandela: And the world stood still

Mandela was the leveller as we all became one huge humanity, under God

‘Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe – Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement – a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would – like Lincoln – hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. Like America’s founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations – a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.’ That was President Barak Obama, who, himself made history as America’s first-ever black President, about another man of history; indeed, unarguably one of the greatest men of history, the inimitable Nelson Mandela.

But President Obama did not stop there in his kaleidoscopic description of Mandela. Going further, he said: ‘It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection – because he could be so full of good humour, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried – that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood – a son and husband, a father and a friend. That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.’

How one hopes the world, especially its leaders, political, who rule the world, and the economic, either those in control of the stupendously rich North or those minding the beggarly South in its death throes, would truly learn from this quintessential human being that ‘we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.’

If only they will know, that, in the end, deprivations, even wars, will settle nothing.

While he laid there comatose in hospital those countless months, and members of his family quarrelled, even publicly, the world almost forgot. But here, indeed, was a man who had already become a saint while here on earth, one whose very passing, even the heavens will acknowledge as it opened up during those final hours; a sign that one truly great, passed through the African portals.

And has the world been literally on a positive binge?

From all corners of the earth, a hundred serving and former Heads of State, and still counting, it has been elegies, eulogies and testaments galore. The world rose up in one like never before; totally unmindful of statuses. Mandela was the leveller as we all became one huge humanity, under God.

When shall the world see the like again?

Mandela’s entire history, from his minor royalty background, to his education and activism, his imprisonment and stay in power as his country’s president, not to forget ‘the Mandela Option’ many a Head of state would rather instigate a civil war than emulate; Mandela’s total persona is a continuing study in how best to live life in the service of another. But he did not teach lessons only by his actions; he left behind words and worries, enough to torment Africa, especially Nigeria, for a whole century after his translation. In this respect, none of his admonitions would ever rank higher than his following message to Nigerians, excerpted from a 2007 interview granted Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed as recently published by saharareporters:

“YOU know I am not very happy with Nigeria. I have made that very clear on many occasions. Yes, Nigeria stood by us more than any nation, but you let yourselves down, and Africa and the black race very badly. Your leaders have no respect for their people. They believe that their personal interests are the interests of the people. They take people’s resources and turn it into personal wealth. There is a level of poverty in Nigeria that should be unacceptable. I cannot understand why Nigerians are not more angry than they are.

“What do young Nigerians think about your leaders and their country and Africa? Do you teach them history? Do you have lessons on how your past leaders stood by us and gave us large amounts of money? You know I hear from Angolans and Mozambicans and Zimbabweans how your people opened their hearts and their homes to them. I was in prison then, but we know how your leaders punished western companies who supported Apartheid.

“What about the corruption and the crimes? Your elections are like wars. Now we hear that you cannot be president in Nigeria unless you are Muslim or Christian. Some people tell me your country may break up. Please don’t let it happen.

“Let me tell you what I think you need to do. You should encourage leaders to emerge who will not confuse public office with sources of making personal wealth. Corrupt people do not make good leaders. Then you have to spend a lot of your resources for education.

“Educate children of the poor, so that they can get out of poverty. Poverty does not breed confidence. Only confident people can bring changes. Poor, uneducated people can also bring change, but it will be hijacked by the educated and the wealthy…give young Nigerians good education. Teach them the value of hard work and sacrifice, and discourage them from crimes which are destroying your image as a good people.”

There can hardly be a better way of concluding this article than with the following tribute to Mandela by Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State: ‘The passing of Nelson Mandela after his prolonged hospitalisation should not be a cause for sadness on any account. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and offer our prayers for them and for the people of South Africa. But we also recognise that his passing at the ripe old age of 95 is a fitting crown to the rich full life that Madiba lived, playing a starring role in what is surely the 20th century’s most compelling odyssey of human freedom from tyranny. Rather than mourning, Mandela’s transition into glory should be an occasion for celebration and reflection. Firstly, we celebrate the final consummation of a life well spent. The phrase “a life well spent” which is commonly used in obituaries has become an overworked cliché but in the case of Madiba it is not. Rather, it is more than worthily applied to describe a man who expended his energies in the service of humanity, risking everything, his life inclusive, to actualise the ideal of freedom. It is this exemplary life that we have much cause to celebrate.’

Even, as we revel in the honour and blessing of having lived to witness the life and times of one of history’s most iconic political figures, we must also ponder his luminous legacy. His death closes an epic story of the triumph of the human spirit over injustice and tyranny.

December 15, 2013
Corruption: One more reason Jonathan must not be re-elected

Mr. President has gone on a self-congratulatory tour, regarding how negligible corruption is in Nigeria

I am completely disillusioned being the citizen of a country permanently in the league of failed countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia, whenever the topic of discussion is corruption. It pains to the marrows to wake up each morning remembering you are a member of a country where the entire leadership of the ruling party celebrates each time an election has been successfully rigged as in the shambolic Anambra elections. These facts must have accounted for a presidential ultra loyalist like Asari Dokubo to , this past week, flagellate the president, claiming that he surrounds himself with incompetent and corrupt persons. Speaking further he was quoted as saying: ‘“We mainly speak out on issues that are very critical to the survival of the people of the South-South and the South-East. Jonathan is surrounded by very greedy people who are only in the Presidency to enrich themselves ’.And quoting voraciously from Ijaw proverbs, Dokubo could not hold back from pointedly saying: ‘“Everyday people die on the East-West Road. If Orubebe is incompetent as he has shown himself to be, he should be removed. Nobody voted for Orubebe’. Orubebe, the Niger-Delta minister is a man only a mere breath away from the President Jonathan.

Dokubo most probably spoke without an inkling of Transparency International’s latest report on Nigeria which is ranked 124th most corrupt country among the less than 170 studied. In my article: ‘Mr President When Is Corruption In Nigeria Enough?’ which appeared on this page on 26, May 2013, I wrote as follows: ‘You will not but pity Nigeria, and ordinary Nigerians when you read that the country ranks with the likes of Nepal, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan on the global corruption perception index. That was as at the Transparency International’s last report in December, 2012 which could actually be far worse now when you factor in the humongous oil subsidy and pension rackets. For moving up a measly 4 places on the T.I’s list, scoring 27 out of a possible 100, presidency officials are out on a binge gloating; attributing that miracle to President Jonathan’s muscular anti- corruption efforts even when the world knows much better. The entire world now daily reads us like a book. In spite of the fact that there is no more hiding place, Mr President has gone on a self-congratulatory tour, regarding how negligible corruption is in Nigeria. He has even told the U.S to mind her many problems and stop getting unnecessarily exuberant about corruption in Nigeria.

If Mr President cannot be persuaded to see Alamiesiagha, a fellow Ijaw’s state pardon, as a corruption of the process, then let us quickly remind him of other acts of putrefaction which have no other name besides corruption. Indeed, it needs be mentioned that Alamiesiagha’s pardon was so badly received by the outside world that the U.S could not hold back from issuing a statement to the following effect: ‘The US views this development as a setback for the fight against corruption, and also for our ability to play the strong role we’ve played in supporting rule of law and legal institution-building in Nigeria, which is very important for the future of the country’. Earlier in this presidential blitzkrieg he had said that “corruption is not the cause of our problems, claiming that Nigeria has more institutions that fight corruption. ‘Most of the issues we talk about, said the President, are not corruption. If we do things properly, if we change our attitude of doing things, most of the things we think are caused by corruption are not’. This is precisely what Nigerians are saying, Mr President. Change your compromising attitude to corruption, banish impunity, follow the due process and allow the anti-corruption agencies, the police and the courts do their work without interference’.

Now, a mere seven months on, things are far worse as eloquently attested to by the Transparency International’s latest report.

For elucidation, I shall skip the putrefying allegations against Stella Oduah, his Minister of Aviation, who is already back in business, inspecting airports and promising a billion jobs. I will choose, instead, to quote, mutatis mutandis, from Mohammed Haruna’s, article in The Nation of Wednesday, December 4, 2013. Deprecating the arrest of two sons of Governor Lamido of Jigawa by the EFCC for money laundering but which the author attributes more to political witch hunt, he cited the following examples of how President Jonathan protects, and encourages corruption in Nigeria.

Wrote Haruna: ‘Easily the most glaring of such cases is that of Malabu Oil and Gas, reportedly controlled by a Chief Dan Etete, a former Oil minister under General Abacha who was previously convicted in France. According to newspapers like The Economist (June 15) of London, two years ago, a consortium of Shell and Eni/Elf which had controversial stakes in the oil well, OPL 245, paid nearly $1.1 billion to Malabu, reportedly on orders of the president, as settlement of the ownership dispute of the lucrative oil well. According to Premium Times (September 30), an investigative online newspaper, the former minister, in turn shared the money paid to his company into several dubious accounts, some of them owned by close political associates of the president’s.

Clearly this payment (of N184 Billion, under the direction of a government which cannot adequately fund tertiary education), and which the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, tried to rationalise away during a public hearing of a House committee investigating the deal, as voluntary with government acting only as a “facilitator”, reeked to high heavens of the worst form of cronyism’, another name for corruption.

‘Second, he continued, was an earlier case of the president versus Spynet Magazine which in its maiden edition in August 2007, accused him of perjury in declaring his assets and liabilities during his tenure as deputy governor and governor of Bayelsa, and eventually as vice-president under Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, as demanded by the Constitution. Days after the publication its premises were ransacked by the State Security Services and its editors detained. To date nothing more has been heard of the case. Not even after the president angrily told Nigerians he doesn’t “give a damn” about whatever Nigerians thought of his refusal to publicly declare his assets as President’.

Finally, concluded Haruna, ‘ is the paradox of a worsening insecurity in the land, especially from Boko Haram insurgency, despite the huge budgetary allocations to our security forces since 2009. One glaring illustration of this, wrote Haruna, is the fact that the Army Chief, Lt-General Azubuike Ihejirika, has lately been complaining of an under armed and under equipped military confronting a rag tag Boko Haram’.

Nigerians are now fully satiated with stories of oil subsidy, pension, budget crude price benchmark bribes, and the lot, that they no longer mean a thing except that the Jonathan government continues to negatively serve the country as EFCC no longer diligently follow up on these crimes and where it does, at all, it comes up with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. In any decent country, increasing corruption should naturally send the government packing. Come the next elections Nigerians must do likewise.

LAST WORD

The above article was written long before I got to read about the following senseless and totally irrational statements allegedly made by two men who were integral to the ruination of Nigeria: Alhaji Lawal Kaita, quoted as saying:”a northerner must emerge President in 2015 or we will divide” and, the ever repulsive Dr Junaid Mohammed who was reported as saying: “there will be bloodshed if Jonathan runs in 2015”.

Who exactly do these people think they are; Nigerian overlords? Rotational presidency may be equitable. But this level of arrogance?

December 8, 2013