The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lekan Otufodunrin

  • RIP my father, my inspiration

    RIP my father, my inspiration

    Last Wednesday, August 11, I got an early call informing me of the sudden death of my dear father, Chief Adebisi Otufodunrin who among many other things inspired me to become a journalist.

    In this excerpt from my new book, Journalism of my life, I recalled my journey to becoming a journalist, thanks to my father.

    When I sat down on the three-seater in our family living room in my village, Imagbon, Ogun State, that Wednesday afternoon in December 2013, all I wanted to do was to relax.

    After the journey from Lagos with my wife and children for the New Year celebration, I was a bit tired and would have loved to fall asleep on the chair.

    However, as I saw the pile of newspapers and magazines on and under the centre table, I couldn’t resist the temptation of flipping through some of them. I was particularly attracted by copies of The Compass newspapers which I didn’t get to read regularly like other national newspapers. I reasoned that I might just find something interesting I had missed. I did.

    In a back-page column by the former Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, Biodun Oduwole, he lamented the lack of investigative reports by journalists in the country in recent years.

    He noted that journalists were easily satisfied with official statements and didn’t try enough to verify claims by those who issued them. He recalled a case of how some years ago he checked a police claim about someone said to be an armed robber only to find out that the accused person was innocent of the accusation levelled against him.

    I was very pleased by his counsel for journalists that I tried to call him immediately on the contact phone number on the column, but I couldn’t get through. I composed a long text message which I sent to the same number to let him know how valid I thought his observations were. Too didn’t go through and I gave up any efforts in that regard.

    A first time visitor to the living room in our country home would most likely have been surprised to find many old and current copies of newspapers and magazines – the village has no newspaper selling point.

    The visitor would have been more surprised that the main occupant of the house for most part of the year is a septuagenarian grandfather who relocated to the village some years ago from Lagos.

    But the visitor would probably not be surprised if only he knew that the old man, Chief Japheth Bisi Otufodunrin, my father, is so addicted to reading newspapers and magazines that living in a village about a few kilometres to Ijebu-Ode where newspapers are sold is not enough to prevent him from getting his regular supply of the publications through any means possible.

    Before leaving Lagos that morning, he had called to inform me not to forget to buy him copies of the day’s newspapers and bring along some copies of the weekly ones. Minutes after our arrival, he asked us for the papers he requested.

    I grew up to find my father reading newspapers with so much relish. When I became old enough to run major errands for him, buying newspapers was one of my assignments. The vendors usually stopped by our residence on Bale Street in Ajegunle, Lagos. Whenever they didn’t arrive early enough, I had to walk down to the main selling point in Boundary Bus-Stop to get the papers.

    With regular access to newspapers very early in life, my father soon infected me with his addiction which gradually stirred up my interest in becoming a journalist. I remember reading some fiery columnists in The Tribune newspaper, which was my father’s favourite paper then. Columnists like Seyi Awofeso of ‘Ink in my Blood’ column fame piqued my interest in the profession and I then began to look forward to being able to write like them someday.

    My father didn’t expose me to reading only newspapers; he also regularly gave me copies of literature books to read and summarise their contents during holidays. Reading the books, which I found out later were texts prescribed for students in higher institutions, reinforced my interest in writing which I started doing in any way I could.

    The authorities of Government College, Ibadan (GCI), which I attended for my Higher School Certificate, must have noticed my interest in reading and writing. I was appointed Library Prefect and Editor of ‘Swanston Echo’, the house magazine for Swanston House.

    By the time I was to choose the course to study in the university, Mass Communication was a natural choice to learn all I needed to know to fulfil my dream of becoming a journalist of note like the ones I had been reading about in those newspapers and magazines, thanks to my father.

    I probably wouldn’t have been patient enough to get admission to study Mass Communication in the university and would therefore have opted for another course which could have steered me off the terrain of journalism. My father insisted that, though he had no university education himself, he wanted all his children to be university graduates.

    When the result of my first West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), which I wrote in 1979 at Christ Apostolic Grammar School, Iperu-Remo, my father’s Alma Mata, was released, it was not good enough to get admitted into a university. My father took me back to the school the same week the result was released and got me re-enrolled in the final class as a regular student.

    It was not funny that I had to repeat the class with juniors who used to call me Senior Lekan. There was the option of coming back to write the exam as an external student, but my father would hear nothing of that.

    I returned to school, wearing the uniform again. Some of my classmates who came to check their results were shocked to see me and wondered why my father, as they put it then, subjected me to such humiliation. After all, as they reasoned and as I also had thought, I could have attended private lessons in Lagos and come back to write the examination. My father obviously knew better than we did and he saved me from taking a wrong decision early in life.

    Even when I could not get university admission with my second WASSCE result, my father refused to accede to the option of attending Advanced Teachers College at Ijebu-Ode, now College of Education. He wanted a university admission and nothing else. Not even a polytechnic, he insisted, if he was to pay the fees.

    In 1980, I got admitted for HSC at GCI to qualify for direct entry into the university. I again wrote the University Matriculation Examination (UME), conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), after my Lower Six, the first of the two-year HSC programme. Yet, I did not secure admission.

    Some of my classmates got the required marks for the courses they chose in the UME and got admitted. Some were so desperate to get admitted that any course was good enough for them.

    I tried to get admission into The Polytechnic, Ibadan, for Mass Communication with the hope that my father would change his mind about having university education or nothing but failed – I didn’t apply early enough.

    Realising that the HSC exam was my last chance of getting admission into the university, I was determined to give it my best shot. I enrolled for the external General Certificate of Education (GCE) exam ahead of the final HSC exam after the Upper Six class.

    I read for the GCE like my life depended on it and didn’t want to disappoint my father who was obviously not happy with my inability to get admitted into the university. I read every text I could lay my hands on for the three subjects – History, Literature, and Economics – that I registered for.

    I checked bookshops for every useful book I could find. I remember buying a book on A Level Economics past questions written by an author who had marked the subject for over 10 years. By the time I finished reading the book, I was so confident that I would score very high in at least Economics, no matter hard the questions might be.

    The author of that book gave detailed explanations on how to answer GCE questions, using sample questions from past examinations. While writing the Economics paper, I kept remembering everything I read in the book and by the time the paper was over, I knew I had done extremely well and expected nothing less than a ‘B’ grade.

    When the result was released, I scored ‘A’ in Economics, ‘C’ in History and, poor me, ‘F’ in Literature. Nonetheless, I became a star of a sort among my classmates and other students. With eight points, my result was good enough to get me admitted for Mass Communication, even before writing the final HSC exam. I eventually got admitted with the GCE result because my aggregate score in the HSC was seven points.

    When asked who inspired me to become a journalist, it’s usually not hard for me to respond. The answer is obvious – my father, the Balogun of Imagbon, whom God used to expose me early in life to newspapers, encouraged me to read and write, and ensured that I scaled the hurdle of university admission.

    While by God’s grace my father was my inspiration for journalism, my mother, Rachael Jolade Otufodunrin (nee Ekisanya), was my all-round guardian angel whose motherly care, love, discipline and prayers kept me going from birth.

    At crucial moments when I needed to pass the WASCE and HSC exams, Iya Lekan, as she is fondly called, never failed to encourage and assure me that I would make it and become what God wanted me to be.

  • Much ado about who to marry

    One of the pieces of advice on marriage I owe my three male children is that they must not marry a lazy lady. Lazy in the sense that she is not good or willing to learn how to perform basic household chores.

    She can’t wash, can’t clean, can’t cook and do any major home duties women are expected to do.

    Having been brought up by their mother who is a workaholic and most times I have to advise her to do less, I am too sure my boys  will find it hard to cope with a lazy wife.

    Young men are usually advised not to compare their wife with their mother, but it will be hard for them not to considering that some mothers, like my wife, are as eminently qualified and exposed, if not more, than some ladies of today who don’t understand what it is to be a wife or mother.

    My wife is usually the last to sleep in the house and the first to wake up. When you see her at work in the house, one cannot but feel guilty about leaving her to do so much.  When I ask how I can help, her response is usually, with what, cook?

    With the children away from home now, I sometimes have to insist on helping out, even if it is with the vegetables before being cooked.

    Agreed that there is more to being a wife than being able to ‘cook, wash and clean’, there are just some basic assignments a woman must be able to do even if she can afford to employ aides to do it.

    Too many cases of divorces these days and marital crises are somehow linked with the inability of some women to be in charge of their homes. When too many things are left to house helps to do, some husbands find it difficult to differentiate between the ‘madam’ of the house and the helper.

    The above narrative is informed by the controversy over the advice the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), Pastor E. A. Adeboye, recently gave on marriage.

    He was quoted to have said at the just-concluded Convention of the Church that men should not marry a lady who cannot cook, wash and pray for at least an hour. Ladies were also admonished no to marry a man who is jobless.

    Ordinarily, the advice should not have generated any controversy considering that Pastor Adeboye spoke at a closed session with ministers of the Church. The advice was meant for only members of the Church and not general members of the public who do not believe in the doctrine of the Church.

    However, in the present global village we live in, the private conversation with your wife in the bedroom can become a debate on social media.

    Pastor Adeboye is definitely not one of those men of God whose judgement cannot be trusted on an important issue like marriage. He sure knows what to say when offering advice on marriage being a successfully married man himself for decades and a revered shepherd of his flocks.

    Apart from the issue of being able to pray for an hour which should not be too much for a devoted Christian wife, Pastor Adeboye’s advice is not different from what many parents insist on as basis for their children to choose their wives.

    I asked a lady in our office if she can marry a man who has no job. Her reply was that she cannot even date a jobless man. A man without a job today can definitely find one later or become prosperous in future, but marriage should not be his priority until the issue of what to do to earn a living and be able to cater for his family is clearly resolved.

    Young men can always claim to be contemporary in their thinking but most of them end up expecting their wives to be the kind of ‘cooking, washing, prayerful’ their mothers is or was.

    It’s up to my boys to decide who they want to marry, but I know them too well to know that their wives will have a lot to learn from my super woman wife.

  • Ten years of exciting journalism experience

    Ten years of exciting journalism experience

    How time flies! Today marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of our soar-away newspaper which hit the newsstands with a bang on July 31,2006 and has remained a major force to reckon with in the media industry in the country.

    I count myself privileged to be among the pioneer staff who midwifed the launch of the newspaper at a time not many gave it a chance to survive. Understandably, the newspaper market back then (and even now) appeared saturated and it was risky and ambitious taking the plunge when we did.

    Before then, some national newspapers had shut down, while some others were struggling to sustain publication. Not many gave us a chance to make it past a few years notwithstanding the formidable team, made up of experienced journalists led by our Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, Victor Ifijeh.

    Even when we survived earlier projections of not lasting beyond two to three years, only few were convinced that The Nation was here to stay and become a major media player.

    There were justifiable concerns about the political leaning of the paper, but we are grateful and return all the glory to Almighty God for the grace to have made it this far.

    Our vision of being a quality paper of first choice among discerning readers has remained our guiding principle and it should not surprise anyone that our paper and staff have won virtually every available award in the industry.

    Working in The Nation in the last ten years has been a personally and professionally exciting experience for me in many ways. When I left The Punch in 1999, I thought I was through with working full-time in a newspaper house. Between 2000 and 2005, I was in and out of three newspapers; National Interest, Financial Standard and New Age. I later went for an overdue Masters degree in Mass Communication,  preparatory to seeking a teaching appointment in the university but took up the offer of being Sunday Editor of the defunct Comet. Comet was soon over and I joined The Nation for what has become a major chapter in my new book, Journalism of My life.

    We published many great stories during my tenure as Sunday Editor, but a particular one I can never forget was about a Nigerian studying in the United Kingdom whose family, back in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, lost contact with. He had died without their knowledge.

    I read about this incident in a report on a new television series by an intern published in a London paper. The Yoruba name among the list of people who had died and buried by the council without any trace of their families got me curious and we published the story from the Nigerian angle.

    Following the publication, his family members, for the first time, got information about his death and sent me a text message to thank us for helping to unravel the mystery of their son’s disappearance in the UK after completing his studies.

    My Assistant Editor then, Eni Akinsola, travelled to Ibadan to get the full details of the journey of the deceased to the UK, and correspondences and pictures he sent before he became incommunicado, and efforts by the family to trace his whereabouts for years were futile until the publication.

    For the successes of the last ten years and the glorious years ahead, I join the management and staff to appreciate our readers, advertisers and other well wishers.

    Thanks for the patronage and support. You can always rely on The Nation to remain faithful to our motto: Truth in Defence of Freedom.

  • The Akwa Ibom rape case

    For reasons hard to understand, incidents of rape have continued to be on the rise. I have read so many rape stories, including bizarre ones like fathers sleeping with their daughters and instances where men raped even toddlers that I never reckoned that I would be shocked by any other case.

    However, I have found it difficult to get over a report last week about a Police Inspector in Akwa Ibom who raped a secondary school girl at gun point.

    The 15-year-old girl, according to her account, was returning from a Church service when she was accosted by a police team. The Inspector reportedly pointed his gun at the girl and threatened to shoot her. He subsequently led the girl away from other team members to a dark area along the road and raped her.

    After being raped, the Inspector took the girl to the police station and detained her for some days before her uncle came from Abuja to bail her after paying N10,000.

    I know policemen are capable of all manners of abuses of the members of the public they are supposed to be protecting, but this incident beats my imagination considering the ease with which the Inspector committed the atrocity and his audacity to even detain the helpless girl until she was bailed.

    I have a daughter and can’t imagine her being subjected to the kind of dehumanisation the victim in this case has gone through. Without any inhibition, a police officer saw nothing wrong in raping a girl and detaining her.

    Chances are that the Inspector and other members of his team have been indulging in this criminal act for long and would have gotten away with this case but for the demand for justice by the girl’s uncle.

    As demanded by the uncle, the Inspector should be made to face the full wrath of the law to serve as a deterrent to other policemen who are not better than criminals they are supposed to apprehend.

    I would like to give the State Commissioner of Police, Muritala Mani, the benefit of the doubt that this case will be thoroughly investigated and the Inspector penalised.

    There have been instances where offending policemen got away with light punishment not commensurate with the offences they committed.

    Any punishment less than dismissal and prosecution will not be good enough for the irreparable damage the Inspector has done to the girl. He clearly abused his position and cannot be trusted to continue to perform the sacred duty of being a law enforcement officer in any capacity.

    The new Acting Inspector General of Police has a lot to do to redeem the image of the police in the country. Much as their condition of service may not be good enough, indulging in criminal acts will only continue to reinforce the already dented image of the police.

    Bail is supposed to be free according to police authorities and yet as much as N10,000 was collected to free a girl raped by a police officer. What kind of a friend is the police when many policemen cannot perform their duties without demanding bribes?

  • One killing too many

    My heart goes out to the Olawale family in Kubwa, Abuja, following the gruesome killing of Deaconess Eunice Olawale penultimate Saturday while on early morning evangelism.

    I share in the pain of the deceased’s eldest daughter, who was quoted as saying, “everybody is telling me it is well, but they don’t know how I feel.”

    He who feels it really knows it. When a man like the widower openly burst out crying, the depth of his pain can only be imagined.

    My prayer like that of other sympathisers is that the almighty God will grant the widower, the seven children and other family members the fortitude to bear the very painful and unwarranted loss of the hard working and faithful servant.

    I still find it hard to believe that in an urban area of the Federal Capital city and not during a religious clash, a harmless woman could be hacked to death by some faceless persons while propagating her faith.

    The picture of Mrs. Olawale lying dead on the ground, holding on to her megaphone which I saw on Facebook remains hatched in my mind as I write this piece and I can’t still understand the grouse of her killers.

    We have always had cases of religious intolerance resulting in killings like the recent instance in Kano where another woman was killed in broad day light for alleged blasphemy.

     But the Abuja incident is yet another worrisome dimension that threatens freedom of religious beliefs and practice guaranteed by the Constitution in any part of the country.

    Early morning outreach by Christians is not new and is still the practice even in Lagos and other major cities in the country. Essentially, it involves preaching of the gospel without any compulsion on any listener to accept the message.

    If Olawale has reportedly been involved in early morning preaching for years without complaints from any quarters, why did she suddenly become the target of people that killed her? The Muslims also have early call to worship which everyone, irrespective of religious beliefs, have had to live with even if you are not comfortable with the loud noise from loudspeakers.

    More than ever before, there is need for mutual respect for whatever anyone choses to believe or propagate.

    The police must thoroughly investigate this matter to ensure the culprits don’t get away unpunished like in other instances. There is no justification for anybody to take the laws into his or her hands for whatever reason.

    Unless those responsible for killing Mrs. Olawale are promptly arrested and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others who may be planning such heinous attacks, the safety of others who will continue to engage in early morning evangelism is not guaranteed.

    Too many miscreants have always hidden under the cover of religion to commit crimes and they cannot be allowed to continue to have a free reign in the interest of peaceful co-existence in the country.

    Security agents must rise up to the occasion and not force any religious group to resort to defending themselves against attacks.

    This is not a case that should be shoddily investigated if we don’t want reprisal attacks from any group that may feel its members are victims of persecution.

    Religious leaders must not be tired of educating their members on the need to tolerate others who don’t share their beliefs. There is also need for vigilance by all to preempt attacks in communities.

    The prompt visit to the family of the deceased by the wife of the Vice President, Dolapo Osinbajo and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, is commendable. The family needs all the support they can get in this moment of despair.

  • No tears for sacked journalists

    I’m not as heartless as the headline of this piece suggests. I was very sad when speculations of the sack of editorial and other staff of a national newspaper were officially confirmed on Wednesday with the announcement of new appointments in the company.

    With the economic situation in the country, this is one of the worst times to lose one’s job without commensurate financial entitlements and compensation.

    After investing years of working and helping to build the conglomerates their former media organisations have become, summary sacking is not the way to reward the affected journalists.

    No journalist who is still employed in any other media organisation should mock those who have been sacked. If the prevailing situation in the media industry persists, “sooner or later”, more journalists will be sacked.

    Like a Yoruba proverb states, the death of one’s contemporaries is a warning that it may soon be your turn.

    I’m sad that my “prophesy” of last February when I spoke at the Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ meeting has come to pass.

    “The retrenchment of many journalists will come sooner or later and there is nothing even the union can do about it,” I said, noting  that media organisations have to take painful business decisions if they are to continue to publish.

    As much as I’m pained by the sacking of journalists and wish I can reverse their “disengagement”, I suggest that their response should not be to indulge in any pity party or crying over spilled milk.

    I’m more concerned about how soon the sacked journalists can come to terms with their “hard luck” and start thinking and taking concrete steps to move on with their media career.

    It’s going to be tough finding new jobs as other media houses are barely managing to survive. Chances are that others may take a cue from the ones that have sacked their staff and throw more journalists into the labour market soon.

    Better late than never, this is the time for those sacked to take stock of their work experience and find out where their various media and non-media skills can be needed. You never know how much you can do until you find yourself in make or mar situations like this.

    Good luck if they are able to find another job soon, but if not, they should put on their thinking cap, think outside the box like it is usually said, and they may just be able to turn their situations around for good.

    This is the time to concretise some of those projects they have always had in mind but never had time to work on due to their former hectic job schedule. About a year before she was recently sacked, Kemi Ashefon formerly of The Punch had wanted to resign her job to run her Relationship blog but she hesitated.

    Her sack has forced her to take her professional destiny in her hands and she is grateful she was kicked out.

    When life kicks you, like when you suddenly get sacked, let it kick you forward.

    For those sacked and others still lucky to be employed, collaboration and partnership on project ideas may be necessary. We all have different skills and connections that are better harnessed instead of playing small alone when working together we can be major players in whatever we decide to do.

    I urge media associations to organise brainstorming sessions, training and retraining for members to be able to cope with changes in the industry which require new knowledge and skills more than what many of us have.

    I congratulate those who have been sacked. Why? They have the opportunity of starting earlier on a journey others who are still currently employed will embark on later.

  • The limits of intolerance

    Three recent incidents in Niger, Kaduna and Kano states are worrisome and should be taken seriously by all concerned to avoid a reoccurrence.

    In our supposedly secular country, a group of Muslim men stabbed a Carpenter in Kaduna state for not observing the Ramadan fast, while a 74 year old Christian woman was also killed in Kano for allegedly blasphemy.

    Earlier in May, one Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel was killed by a mob in Niger State over allegation of posting a blasphemous statement about Prophet Muhammad on the social media.

    If the incidents have not degenerated into religious clashes, it is not because they were not serious enough to warrant retaliation by the Christians in the affected communities or in other parts of the country.

    The criminal act in the name of a religious faith could have degenerated into a breakdown of law and order, but for prompt appeals from government and religious leaders who have condemned the unwarranted killings.

    It is unfortunate that any group of persons, in total disregard for the freedom of beliefs guaranteed by the country’s  Constitution and the rule of law, will take the law into their hands and commit such heinous crime.

    Irrespective of the religious configuration of any part of the country, nobody, as the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai rightly noted, can impose a tenet of his faith on another person. The decision to observe any religious activity is the prerogative of an individual.

    If for any reason, a religious group feels offended by comments about its faith, like in the case in Niger and Kano, the law of the country does not allow  anyone to kill, no matter the provocation.

    Such cases should be reported to law enforcement agencies or religious leaders for proper investigation and prosecution where necessary. It is criminal for anyone to invoke unproven allegation of blasphemy and kill the alleged offender.

    Even in core Islamic countries, killing for whatever violation of religious tenets  is not as  barbaric as some self- proclaimed defenders of their faith in Nigeria want us to believe.

    For too long, many offenders have gotten away with criminal acts on the excuse that they are defending their religious faith. Any case of murder, like in Kano and Kaduna should be treated as such to serve as a deterrent to others.

    I believe President Muhammmadu Buhari and the governors of the affected states that justice will be done regarding the recent incidents.

    Islamic groups, including the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), which have condemned the killings will need to intensify enlightenment programmes on interfaith and mutual co-existence and prevent miscreants which they say are responsible for the killings from reinforcing erroneous impression about Islam.

  • Genocide: Never again in Rwanda

    Genocide: Never again in Rwanda

    The first time I watched Sometimes in April, the historical drama of the television film on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda was some years ago when the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor E.A. Adeboye reportedly urged members of the Church to watch the film.

    He recommended the film against the background of fanning the embers of ethnic hatred in Nigeria by some groups to let them know what happened in another country where ethnic disagreement resulted in genocide.

    I remember watching with trepidation, some scenes of the  film that depicted the height of man’s inhumanity to man which left almost 800,000 Tutsis and their Hutu sympatisers dead.

    Penultimate Friday night, I watched the film again in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda where I am attended a seminar. Earlier in the day, I had joined my colleagues on the trip to visit the Genocide Memorial Museum where the the story of the genocide is documented in various forms for remembrance and learning.

    The shocking reality of what I and others saw and heard during the visit to the museum made me to watch Sometimes in April again to fully grasp and meditate on the import of what really happened in the battle for supremacy between the Hutus and Tutsis and what future awaits Rwanda.

    As I watched the film again, I was gripped with the fear that has been expressed by many observers that despite the tremendous progress Rwanda has made twenty-two years after the genocide and the peace that now reigns,  what obtains in the country is a delicate balance of forces.

    For some moments, I had a sneaky feeling of soldiers and militias storming the Kigali Serena Hotel I was staying as depicted in the film. I had to pull the curtains and look out to be sure my fear was unfounded, at least for now.

    Good enough, deliberate efforts are being made by the government and the people of Rwanda to ensure that the kind of senseless killings that happened in 1994 never happens again.

    Yearly, the commemoration of the genocide is marked with the  Kwibuka ceremony which is about remembering what happened, uniting and renewing in fight against the genocide ideology.

    A top Rwandan media executive spoke about two constitutional provisions which has helped in stabilising the ethnic and political situation in the country. They include power sharing formula that ensures that the ruling political party does not have more than 50 percent of political offices and consensus on major government policies for the good of all.

    While President Paul kigame can be faulted for his kind of ‘democracy’ sustained by heavy security presence all over the country, he and his countrymen and women deserves commendation for the massive development the country has witnessed since the genocide.

    Going across the the country, it is hard to believe that it once experienced any war. The major roads are well paved and clean without any noticeable potholes. The city centre in Kigali is a beauty to behold with various structures.

    Throughout my stay in Rwanda there was no power outage and no generator was in sight.

    The Rwandans have done well for themselves and should resist any temptation of a repeat of the 1994 incident. In the spirit of unity and ensuring continuous development that is making the small country a model for others in the continent, the interest of all groups should be accommodated as much as possible by the ruling government.

     

  • Visa: let’s change the narrative

    When last week, I wrote about the inability of organisers and participants from South Africa for a media fellowship seminar to get Nigeria Visa to attend the programme, I didn’t recon with anger of some Nigerians who have been denied or have harrowing experience getting South African Visa.

    The feedback I got from some readers was that the South Africans got what they deserved. ” The South Africans are mean. If you know how they treat Nigerians who apply for their Visa and continue to do till recently, you will not sympathise with them in anyway,” a top media executive said.

    Another reader noted that the inability of the South Africans to get the the visa for the trip could be a continuation of the “un-unending war” between the two countries.

    I understand the anger against South Africa over Visa. I once almost narrowly missed attending a conference in Cape Town due to delay in getting my Visa for the trip. For days, I kept going to the former South Africa embassy in Lagos to join the long queue of applicants left the sun unattended to for hours until the day before my travel.

    I have also been told of Nigerian students and other nationals who have been denied Visas after getting admission and fees some applicants have to pay as a guarantee that they will return.

    However, based on the ease with which I and other Nigerian fellows on the the fellowship programme got our visas to travel to South Africa, every indication is that the South Africans have upgraded their processing of visas as another lady noted in her own response to my piece.

    Unlike before, I don’t have to go the South African embassy to queue. All we did was submit our application through the VFS global Visa and Passport processing service and we got our visas in less than two weeks.

    Considering the status of the South African applicants and travel record in this case, I want to agree with another reader who said the problem could be more of incompetence and unnecessary bureaucracy by our officials and not retaliation for whatever South Africa must has done in the past. Why should the approval of the applications remain unattended to for weeks when other nations have adopted easier procedures for processing visas.

    If we are to make progress we simply have to upgrade our processing of visas and stop denying the country of hosting important programmes which Nigerians and the country have a lot to benefit from.

    Undoubtedly, Nigeria and South Africa still have to improve on their status among countries that allows liberal access through visa. Only eleven African countries, excluding Nigeria and South Africa offer liberal access to African countries according to Gender Agenda Council on Africa. Nigeria is no 65 on the table, while South Africa is 74.

    Instead of indulging in any retaliatory measures over visas, it’s time to change the narrative as one those unable to get the visa said and put pressure on the two countries and others to be true brothers and sisters in all ramifications.

    We can’t be be going through all kinds of hassles to get visas to Europe and America and be still be subjected to same experience in the continent.

  • What a shame

    By the last week of this month, I and some other Nigerian journalists should have played host to some colleagues from South Africa and Kenya at a media fellowship seminar.

    The Lagos seminar is supposed to be the class three of the programme following the first in South Africa and second in Kenya. The South Africa seminar was good, Kenya was better and Nigeria was supposed to be the best. Unfortunately, there will be no seminar in Lagos as earlier scheduled.

    Instead of the Lagos seminar, which our colleagues from Kenya and South Africa have looked forward to, we all are flying to Kigali, Rwanda, for no other reason than the inability of the organisers, based in South Africa and fellows from the country to get visas to travel to Nigeria.

    While the Kenyans can easily get visas ahead of their trip or on arrival in Nigeria, those from South Africa have applied for visas for months without approval earlier enough to ensure that the meeting holds in Nigeria.

    To ensure that the seminar holds in Nigeria like it did in South Africa and Kenya, everything possible have been done to get the officials that could hasten the issuance of the visa without success.

    I understand the need for necessary immigration procedures to be followed in issuance of visas, but I don’t know why it should be so difficult for South Africans to get Nigerian visas when two sets of Nigerian fellows on the programme got South Africa visas in less than two weeks.

    I submitted my application for visa to attend the seminar in South Africa in Lagos last year and got it within a week. I was not interviewed and was not asked for any extra ordinary document apart from the letter of invitation and basic papers.

    Considering the status of the South African applicants for the visas, there is no justifiable reason why processing of their applications should take so long that the organisers had no choice than to shift the venue of the seminar to Kigali.

    I should not have been surprised that applicants for Nigerian visas go through lots of unnecessary hassles and bureaucracy following my futile attempt to assist two American journalists based in South Africa and Kenya to obtain visas to attend the inauguration of the new administration, last May.

    After months of not getting response to their applications, they contacted me to help with contacting the officers at the Ministry of Information who they have been told needed to approve their request.

    I did my best and reached out to top government officials and despite their intervention the visas were not issued. One of them had to resort to applying for tourist visa to visit the country after the inauguration.

    Concerning the aborted Nigeria seminar, I can imagine the disappointment of the organisers and participants about our immigration policy and bureaucracy. The seminar is yet another lost opportunity, for no good reason, to showcase Nigeria.

    At the Kenya seminar, I remember the excitement of some participants about coming to Lagos. They were looking forward to seeing some of the places and people they have heard a lot about: The Lagoon, the clubs, Nollywood and many more. Our loss is Rwanda’s gain in many ways considering how much would have been spent by the organisers to host the seminar.

    I’m sure the country would have missed the opportunity to host other programmes due to immigration issues like in the case of the Lagos media fellowship seminar.

    It is high time we got our immigration service to improve on their operation to enhance efficient processing of visa applications like other countries.

    To enhance better unity on the continent, more bilateral agreements that allow for issuance of visas at points of entry should be signed. It is bad that in some cases, it is easier to get visas to some developed nations than within the continent.