The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Ni Soki

    Ni Soki

    Sharp

    orange rim

    tinged with

    aspects of grey

    trans

    lucent

    in ethereal distance.

     

    Aspects of

    a Sahara sunrise

     

    *

    Wild Saturday night

    wine-laced laughter

    moaning mattress

    tell-tale bed

    sleep-less tenant

     

    On the upper floor

    Of a wooden shack

    the landlord

    is fast at work

     

    *

    Soft as a sigh

    disarming as a charm

    your voice

    perfumes the path

    between

    dream and desire

     

    *

    Between

    the sea of sounds

    and

    the silence of the sands

    a whisper

    dives like a dolphin

    into the deep end

    of our patient pool

     

    Our direlogue

    floats on troubled waters

  • African Leadership: Blest or bruised? Are we cursed? (Part 1)

    African Leadership: Blest or bruised? Are we cursed? (Part 1)

    There was an African, in his middle age, that was exasperated about career development in his native country having read and qualified as a registered civil engineer. The year was 2005. There was a particular day that he was so depressed and alone after dropping off his wife at work and children at school. That memorable morning, he wept with no one to console or comfort him! He then made up his mind to exit his country of birth. Married with four children and one of them was already a teenager enrolled in a university. His disillusionment and disconnect with current happenings in his country, at that time, resulted in a dire desperation to set out on a mission to either a European or Asian country that offered better opportunities. Eventually, he landed on the shores of Singapore on 7th June 2005. The entrance was made possible through a visa application on arrival (such opportunity no longer exists presently). It was a two-week tourist visa that was subsequently extended. Ultimately, with a divine twist, he was connected with a Christian organization that offered him a job – the only African in the organization. This job gave this African the cherished access to Employment Pass – a working visa. This is just part of this columnist’s Singapore sojourn and story; full details of which are reserved for another day!

    Why starting on this lane and line in this edition? This columnist soon settled down to the hazzle-free life of Singapore with virtually everything working at the touch of a button! Of pertinent and salient significance was a particular encounter. There was a strong desire to study further in Singapore by this columnist. The cost was unbearable and unaffordable. The determination was unyielding and undying. Eventually, the offer came to study a master degree in Organizational Leadership in an Australian university while residing in Singapore. This columnist needed a Singaporean or Singapore Permanent Resident holder to stand in for him to obtain a loan that would facilitate his study. I got one. The day that I and my guarantor got to the bank to finalize the loan processing, was unforgettable. We were given an appointment and asked to come with necessary documents. We did not need to see any top manager, we completed necessary documents and our documents were screened and pronto, my loan was approved and within 24 hours, the institution has been credited with the amount equivalent to my school fees! This columnist’s mind immediately travelled to Nigeria, my country of birth!! How could one secure a loan of more than ten thousand dollars (US$10,000) within 24 hours? Just like that! It was a day that this columnist saw that creating an orderly environment could bring in progress and wealth for citizens and dwellers. The situation, even in the post-colonial era, in Africa, has not changed since Ayi Kwei Armah wrote his celebrated novel: “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Born”!

    Africa: Are we blest or bruised?

    Mallence Bart-Williams spoke so passionately, poignantly albeit pertinently about the pauperization of African countries by the Western nations. It was at a TEDxBerlinSalon; available on YouTube with almost one million views globally. She was a Sierra Leonean by birth and also a German by naturalization. Lending credence to Mallence’s pontification, the raw materials of the African continent were heavily depended upon and exploited to develop the Western countries. The West “took advantage” (in the cliché of Singaporeans) of Africa. It could be squarely and simply stated that Africa was bruised and bloodied from the colonial to the post-colonial era. Equally, many African countries were so blessed with human and natural resources. However, our misfortunes or undoing was the exploitation of natural resources with little or no attention paid to our human resource development. The continent is blessed with gold, diamond, bauxite, iron, tin, timber, palm oil, crude oil, animal skin, aluminum, columbite, rubber, cocoa, coffee, tea, cashew, etc.

    African Leaders: Need to reset their brains!

    There is no gainsaying the fact that leaders of countries from Ghana to Nigeria to Sierra Leone to Liberia to Egypt to Tunisia to Ethiopia to Sudan to Kenya to Tanzania to Zambia to Uganda to Zimbabwe to Namibia to Angola to South Africa should, in this post-colonial and digital age, rejig and rethink their countries’ developmental strategies like Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), etc. did. Nobody would do this for them! The Western nations would continue to “take advantage” hedged on by self-serving and avaricious leaders in the continent. However, followers, who seem to be powerless, especially in a democracy, should know that real power is in their hands when they conscientiously, collaboratively and courageously determine to change the narrative in tandem with the words of Ayi Kwei Armah:

    “Alone, I am nothing. I have nothing. We have power, but we will never know it; we will never see it work; unless we come together to make it work.” This has been the battle cry of this column to end bad leadership in Nigeria nay Africa: followers must come together; unbowed and jettison any venison in exchange for a better and bright future.

    African Leaders: Think and Act!

    This is my response to cerebral and celebrated Mallence Bart-Williams’ seeming vituperations against the Western nations:

    Our generation in Africa is akin to the biblical Esau generation that hunts for food today and forgets processing same for tomorrow. Have we ceased exporting RAW diamond, gold, iron, cocoa, cashew, coffee, crude palm oil, even crude oil, etc. to the Western countries even in this post-colonial and digital age? We are apparently the architects of our own misfortunes in Africa. Our brains are not shut down by the western world; our greed, anti-patriotism, corruption, ignorance and avarice have led us into this conundrum. No wonder, Prof Oyewale Tomori was weeping openly for Nigeria recently at a summit! There is no application of rocket science in strategically growing and developing our economy. Equally, there is no need to engage complex artificial intelligence to end our political nightmares. Needed are genuinely sincere, frank, determined and courageous African leaders.

    Singapore produces no oil; yet possesses up to four refineries, fully functional! Nigeria’s four refineries are non-functioning and the employees engaged at the refineries are fully earning their wages! Who does that in any sane clime and developed country? I was involved in a module of a course @ Harvard Business School tagged “Sustainable Business Strategy”, when I was piqued for some days because of a real case study of Unilever’s foray with her product, Lipton Tea, in Kenya and Tanzania. These two countries are the breeding ground of Lipton Tea’s success story of decades and recently applying sustainable practice in planning, planting, production, processing and packaging the product. Why citing this case?

    These two countries grow the plant from which the highly globally demanded tea (Lipton) is produced. Africa is the breeding ground from where the dried raw leaves are exported to the United Kingdom (UK)! This has been the practice for decades!! UK’s plant of Unilever processes and packages the Lipton and sells globally with profits running to billions annually. The core and cogent point: the tax paid to the UK government runs into billions of dollars even as Africans bore the brunt of the production. One wonders: cannot the governments of Kenya and Tanzania be smarter over the years in making decisive policy that will checkmate and curtail this subjugation of both human and natural resources of their nations? Or, perhaps, possibly waiting for the UK to help them make the appropriate and timely decision?

    Why go far? Nigeria is making loud noise on subsidy mainly because we are fully dependent on importing refined oil. If we are fully sourcing our refined oil locally, possibly the issue of subsidy removal would not have reared its ugly head again! What does it take to make a decision on non-functioning refineries for crying out loud? Supposing the refineries are owned personally by President Muhammad Buhari. What would he do? Or VP Osinbajo owns them, what would he do? Keep paying unproductive staff? Not likely! Where is the patriotic fervour? The peasants are growling and grumbling under the unending upward spiral of prices of commodities especially cooking gas and diesel. Should petrol prices go up in 2022, the socio-political effects on the citizenry should be better imagined than witnessed even as 2023 beckons!

    Conclusion

    All hope is not lost however. This is to give a clarion call to all followers that as we are nearing another election year, we need to put on our thinking caps. How? There is the dire need to look at the pedigree of those aspiring to be leaders at the legislature and executive levels particularly for the offices of Deputy Governor, Governor; Vice President and President. The followers need to go further in interrogating these aspirants to decipher their intelligence quotient and emotional intelligence. Nigerians, in harmony and symphony with the proverbial saying of Stephen King: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”, if you are fooled again, it is your fault because you are seemingly alienated or passive or indifferent. As 2023 beckons, there is no sitting on the fence for followers! We, acting, conscientiously, courageously and collaboratively should pull the rug off the feet of corrupt, incompetent, epileptic and clueless aspirants or leaders in the saddle, depending on the context.

     

    • John Ekundayo, Ph.D. – Harvard-Certified Organizational Strategist, and also a Leadership Development Consultant, can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com

     

  • Going back to the archives: is Buhari just plain unconcerned what becomes of Nigeria?

    Going back to the archives: is Buhari just plain unconcerned what becomes of Nigeria?

    I cannot  exactly remember where those  who now say that I criticise the Muhammadu Buhari government too often were, when a well known polemicist completely took me to the cleaners, arrogating to me things I am not, have never been, nor would ever be, for no other reason than my  solid support for this same government.

    They obviously need a teaching curve: they need to know that my angst with the President Buhari administration did not come easy, nor was it peremptory.

    First, let us see the scathing put down I received  for nothing other than the above stated reason. Wrote the critic:”As a Columnist in the Nation Newspaper Sir, you have a platform through which you consistently puke putrid partisanship devoid of balance, allergic to facts, dyspathetic to evidence, antagonistic to common sense, averse to integrity, immune to fairness, hostile to justice and intolerant of and to being called out for your glorified inanities, sour sophistry, mean montebanking, and intellectual somersaults. You twist obvious truths and marinated yourself in parlous propaganda without sparing a thought for the miseries on our streets, the hunger, need, want and pulverizing poverty permeating the nooks and crannies of this country as well as the tragedies of loss of lives occasioned by the ethnic cleansing of other nationalities by the Fulani tribesmen tacitly supported by President Buhari”.

    That was, in fact, the friendlier part.

    The gentleman was right about my rather uncritical support for the Buhari administration. However, less for this critic, and others like him, but far more for the President’s increasing somersaults, as will be shown in the article below, published almost a year to the day on 3 January, ’21, I became so disgusted my conscience could no longer afford any silence of the grave yard, regarding the President’s increasing misgovernance.

    Happy reading.

    “So much is wrong with Nigeria that I personally no longer  know  what to think or believe. Indeed, I no longer know what to write, having severally repeated myself on issues which, not only I, but even well known  friends, and sympathisers, of President Buhari, the likes of the Emir of Katsina and His Eminence, the Sultan, have had cause to  say of recent concerning where the President  has landed  Nigeria.

    Even as every organisation that has the flimsiest link to the North – Coalition of Northern Groups, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, NEF, ACF etc,  now equate the minutest criticism  of the Buhari government to regime change,  it cannot but be heartwarming  that  the usually forthright  NEF spokesperson,  Dr.  Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, could still permit hinself to say the  following before lauching into his withering criticism of Bishop Kukah: “There are many grounds to question the competence and sensitivity of President Buhari’s administration. Even his most ardent supporters, if he has any, that is, will wish he has shown greater respect for inclusion and accountability of those he chooses to trust with power. “The nation is paying a heavy price for mediocrity and ineffectiveness in key areas of decision-making under President Buhari”.

    With truisms like this, one would not mind  putting  up with the obsequiousness of Presidential spokespersons, and those other hangers on, ( as well as complete busy bodies) who are now so dim- witted they cannot offer the President some honest advice even as Nigeria regresses daily under his watch.

    I am presently so completely tanked out having written  a whole year too early, on the topic: Annus

    Horribilis on 29 December, 2019 , an article which would have been most appropriate today, pandemic aside.

    Readers will, therefore, please forgive me as I go back all the way to my archives to fetch an article that not only encapsulates the times, but generated as much heat, and trended on social media for well over two weeks, as now does the Bishop Kukah speech, when you take away his deliberately misinterpreted so – called call for army takeover.

    Published, 15 Decenber, 2019, ‘What Is Happening Mr President?, was also deliberately misterpreted by mischief makers  to look like I was doing a hatchet job. I had  no  option than to urge them to go read my column from inception which, incidentally, went back to COMET, (2006) and so debuted long before The Nation itself.

    That article is now edited for space.

    Happy reading.

    For those who may not know, I have more than established my bona fides as a supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari. When he was not even sure he would emerge the APC Presidential candidate, I  had written concerning  him, saying: “Nigeria, in its current dire straits, needs Buhari more than he needs Nigeria”.

    This was repeated in a book by the late Prof Tam David West, his very  good friend and, now of blessed memory, when he wrote in his book, “Buhari: The Politics Of Age   October 14, 2014: “Nigeria, in its current dire straits needs Buhari more than he needs Nigeria.” -Femi Orebe – “The Nation On Sunday” September 28, 2014 Page 18″.

    I write that now to show  not just where I stand on the Nigerian political spectrum, but to let President Buhari  know that in asking what are bound to be thoroughly uncomfortable questions herein, they are not coming from enemy territory, but from the tortured  soul of a supporter of his, who has been at the receiving end of  those Nigerians who say I was one of those who sold them ‘a pig in a poke’. In fairness to the critics, I have  often personally wondered  as to how the President still manages to sleep, that is, if he is able to, when he takes a hard look at how the North has come to so completely dominate the Nigerian public space under his watch  to the extent that one would be right to say Nigeria  is under a Northern stranglehold.

    Worse really, is the fact that this seeming internal colonialism shows no signs of remission as various stratagems are still ongoing; examples being the Water Bill as well as  the case of the Federal Commission on Nomadic Education, which though has failed, maximally,  in its core function, given the number of out- of -school children in the North, but is now trying, coyly,  to insinuate itself into  the contentious grazing reserves issue which is aimed at sexing up Nigeria’s demographics in favour of the Fulani.

    As I said earlier, these views of  the government are now being shared by core Northerners.

    Like  one time House of Reps member, Dr Junaid Mohammed,  U S- based, Farooq A. Kperogi, has in fact gone to the extent of describing your government as ‘Government Of Buhari’s Family, By His Family, And For His Family’.

    But before that, he had been  “so impressed by one of the  President’s  declaration that in his May 16, 2015 column titled “6 Reasons Why Incoming Buhari Government Fills Me with Hope,” he isolated it as one of the six reasons he thought Buhari’s administration would “represent a qualitative departure from the legalised banditry that has passed for governance in Nigeria for so long …”

    But all those soon  dramatically  changed that the First Lady had to cry out, protesting what she called a hijack of  the government.

    I never thought that possible.

    If the President  would  overlook the impertinence, could you please get the Presidency to  provide answers to the following  posers from  a younger friend of mine,  a retired Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    He taunted me as follows concerning:’our government’:

    “Finance, Customs, Immigration, FIRS, NPA, NNPC, AMCON, NDIC, Federal Mortgage Bank, are now firmly in the hands of Northerners. Executive, Legislature, the Judiciary, Police, DSS, Armed Forces, minus the CDS, Oil, Airports and Seaportslpp are  all in the hands of Northerners. Chief of Army Staff tenure is over. He is still in office. Chief of Air Staff tenure is over. He is still in office. The EFCC  acting Chairman is from the North. The terms of office of both the FIRS Chairman and DG NIMASA, both southerners’, are over and they were both replaced with Northerners. The rout is complete”.

    As I indicated above, I know that the First Lady  had once observed that you do not know many of  those working in your government,  but that notwithstanding, I think it is necessary  I remind  your Excellency, that Nigeria presently has no less than 250 ethnic groups’, divided into  6 geo – political zones . Under no circumstances should these things happen as they are  totally unconscionable, and a matter of great discomfort  for those of us still  supporting you in this part of the country. It is extremely nauseating  that a part can so  horribly dominate the rest when those others are no slaves.

    No genuine supporter of yours in the South can be happy, or roll out the drums for this state of affairs  as they are  not only unthinkable, but totally ungodly. It is  even worse, given Nigeria’s current realities of mass poverty and unremitting insecurity.

    Unfortunately, Nigerians are not hearing a word from APC leaders in other parts of the country, who toiled with you in forming the party, on which  you rode to power thus heedlessly, and selfishly, disappointing those they led to  the party.

    Whatever you can do to correct these ungodly acts will be of great  help not only to your party, but will  molify the people somewhat and secure a positive legacy for you. Otherwise all  your  contributions to Nigeria, at this extremely difficult times, may come to naught, which I pray, God forbid”.

    I obviously do not regret my latest stance on the government because the APC must be saved from perdition, and reject, by all means.

    At no point these past six years has President Buhari seriously taken  the party  as partner.  Worse is that the party merely looks on, no Board of Trustees nor a National  Executive Council, properly so called. Rather, he has  relied on his insular, Northern dominated Kitchen cabinet whose advice has so negatively impacted the Nigerian diversity that today, not a few ethnic groups, North and South, are waiting to serve the party a well – deserved payback unless, of course, it succeeds in taking ownership and insinuating itself into governance in the barely one year left for the government. Whether, or not, the party’s leaders and spokespersons know this, but are too afraid to talk, this – that is, mismanagement of the Nigerian diversity -is the greatest weapon PDP relies on when its leaders say they will send APC parking, come the next election  because the overall result has been that everything in the party has become knee jack, with a minority of mostly Northern governors always walking into the Villa, literally holding the President captive, and always getting all they want, whatever their longterm implications for the party, nationally.

    If APC does not want to be a two- term wonder, or like PDP,  wish to return to political Siberia come ’23, the President must now partner with the  party in a determined effort to mollify angry Nigerians.

    As the Holy book says, I can only hope that those who have ears will take heed.

    The following suggestions should be of some help, going forward in their symbiotic relationship, now that our increasingly improving electoral process could, very soon, render incumbency meaningless besides the fact that the President has promised open and transparent elections:

    1.The immediate appointment of an Igbo to a position which will,  ipso facto, make him/her, a member of the National security council;

    1. A reconfiguration of the headship of National security agencies to reflect the country’s diversity.

    3.Ditto, for headship of MDAs, parastatals and other state agencies;

    And,

    1. As previously suggested by Governor Fayemi: “put in motion, a political restructuring of the country through a national dialogue process before it is too late.

     

  • Reminiscing on the loss of a friend, dreams deferred, and bold new beginnings

    Reminiscing on the loss of a friend, dreams deferred, and bold new beginnings

    One evening some eight years ago, my good friend Steve Babaeko walked into a mutual friend’s office looking a little less than his usual uber-confident self.

    You won’t find many people who can claim to have seen Steve looking any less than assured: He consistently cuts the picture of a supremely confident man and his achievements are a testament to how that confidence has been well earned. But that evening in 2012, Steve had just put in his resignation as Creative Director of 141 Worldwide, the advertising agency he helped build from scratch and made a market leader. He would have to start all over again and the future held no guarantees. We broke out a bottle of cognac and toasted to new possibilities. As our mutual friend said that evening, “What’s the worst that can happen? You may fail, but at least you would have tried.”

    When Amaka Igwe passed on in 2014 just as we were about to launch the TV channel we had been working on for about four years, it soon became clear to me that if I was going to have any shot at realising the dream we shared, I would have to say goodbye to Amaka Igwe Studios. AIS was my home for eight years. I started out as an apprentice TV director and rose to become Chief Operating Officer. It was the place that built me. On the day I made the decision to leave, I stood in the building we had just furnished for the TV station, gazed at the transmission equipment we had installed and knew I was walking away to start all over again. Walking into a future with no guarantees.

    Like Steve that evening, I was a lot less assured.

    It’s been seven years since that decision and I have had an incredible run. It hasn’t been a sunset stroll in the park but I’m grateful for my contributions to the TV and film industry in Africa so far. While I worked for different TV networks, wrote, produced, directed and consulted on many film projects (and continue to do so), I started quietly building PinPoint Media. I knew what had to come next. I knew what I wanted to do with my life was to build a content delivery machinery that delivered excellence repeatedly.

    In September 2019 we cranked on the content machinery we had been working on for a year and hit the set to deliver the first product off our production line, season one of Man Pikin, a family comedy series. Man Pikin is my nod to Fuji House of Commotion, Nigeria’s longest running and highly popular family comedy series I was privileged to direct for five years.

    Man Pikin is the story of a man’s daily struggles with raising his kids after his wife’s passing. We shot 26 episodes for a first season and recently, IROKO TV acquired the rights for broadcast on their ROK Channels, as well as a french version for francophone Africa on NollywoodTV. It premieres on the 12th and 20th of December respectively.

    In Q3 2021, we shot season two, another 26 episodes, and that’s not all we’re working on. But for COVID-19 actually, we would have rounded off the first year of our PinPoint Content Fund execution with 104 episodes of TV series in the bag. That target will now be met in 2022, starting with season three of Man Pikin and season one of a new series. Three feature films will also be shot in 2022, and we will also deliver a digital TV channel. Yeah, we have been very busy!

    As I watched final edits of the episodes of Man Pikin before shipping off to our distributors in France recently, I reminisced on the loss of a friend and dreams deferred. This propels me forward as I focus on polishing and further knocking our content machinery into shape in order to deliver a five-year plan that culminates in the production of five thousand hours of content yearly from five production centres across Nigeria and Africa.

    Scary, right? Well, that was the dream I once shared with an amazing woman and now I must trudge on scared, but confident that we will deliver the reference point for TV/film content excellence, whatever the challenges we will face, because, like the original soundtrack for Man Pikin says “Everyday we keep moving forward ooh ooh ooh, ‘cos someday our dreams will come true ooh ohh ooh, man pikin go fall but will stand up ooh oooh ohhhh, for together we are strong and we’ll always have each other, ah ah.”

    See you on the next one!

    • Ihidero is the  Director of Fuji House of Commotion
  • Misplaced enthusiasm and anti-banditry war

    Misplaced enthusiasm and anti-banditry war

    It took Justice minister Abubakar Malami going to court to get a declaration against bandits before the federal government’s zeal against the menace got enlivened. Before securing the declaration which pronounced and categorised bandits as terrorists, the government’s war against banditry had been largely desultory and characterised by embarrassing losses, reverses, and occasional gains and triumphs. But on November 25, the government got the Federal High Court in Abuja to make the declaration, which according to Mr Malami, was needed by the government to energise its war against banditry in the Northwest. Well, if a declaration is all they need, let them have it, as long as it would stiffen their resolve to fight.

    There are indications that the court declaration will allow the government to deploy American-made Super Tucano aircraft against the bandits. The planes had been touted as the magic formula needed to incinerate the bandits. The government’s enthusiasm in welcoming the court declaration gave a hint of the enormous hope they reposed in the judicial intervention of late November. According to the Justice minister, “The government will gazette, publish and publicise the proscription order (against bandits),” adding that obtaining the proscription order will enable the Federal Government to take “bold steps to deal ruthlessly with all terrorists groups and their sponsors in effort to bring lasting solution to the myriad of security challenges in the country.”

    Months before, the country had been in an uproar over whether to declare bandits as terrorists or continue to fight them conventionally as they were accustomed to do. The National Assembly pressed for the declaration because bandit attacks became more daring, ruthless and bloody. Many opinion leaders in the North also asked for the declaration, hoping that it would have a dramatic and dissuasive impact on the bandits themselves. But there were a few, like Ahmad Gumi, a Kaduna-based Muslim cleric, who denounced the declaration, insisting that it would prove superfluous and ineffective. Eventually, through the courts, Nigerians got the declaration they hankered after. But since then both the government and the people have been in a quandary regarding how best to deploy their judicial and military advantage against the bandits.

    Other than the effect of altering and boosting the air component of the war against bandits, will the military tactics being deployed against the militants in the region change substantially? There are no guarantees. Most of the bandits and their leaders are ensconced in forest and cavernous hideouts that are inaccessible to ground troops. Meanwhile the air war can only achieve limited results, perhaps soften the ground and pound the militants for ground forces to take them out. But if after softening the bandits, there is insufficient ground troops to follow-up, of what use then are the Super Tucanos or any other star-spangled fighter aircraft?

    And perhaps to put in perspective the expectations of Nigerians who think that simply declaring bandits as terrorists and getting modern fighter jets screaming overhead would do the magic, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, told his audience at the closing of the COAS Annual Conference 2021 that they should expect more attacks in the coming year. He is being realistic. Bandit attacks will probably increase in the region, for those guys are so down and despondent that they no longer fear any fall. Said the army general last week: “Commanders must plan for possible increase in scope and dimension of the activities of violent non-state actors in the coming year. I expect that with the improved support we have in terms of logistics and other key combat enablers, we should strive to decisively defeat the adversaries in all theatres of operations.”

    So far, other than how the military would defeat these non-state actors, there are no concise and coherent programmes to address the grievances of the bandits and mediate between them and farmers. Reports suggest that many politicians and traditional rulers, some of them first-class rulers, have shown sympathies towards the bandits. This is probably more ethnic rather than pecuniary. Until the shrinking economic opportunities faced by bandits are addressed in a modern and non-disruptive way, perhaps not as expected by the bandits themselves who are still steeped in ancient livestock practices, little will be gained by killing or defeating them.

    The plunder and pillage the bandits are executing in the Northwest, not to say the large-scale connivance of their crimes by some top regional elites, must of course be checked decisively. There can be no mollifying the cruelty and bloodletting perpetrated by the bandits. But to achieve lasting peace, the federal government, which had at first embarrassingly excused the bandits’ rampage, must go beyond shooting the bandits to saving their livelihoods.

    Malami’s speculated intervention

    President Muhammadu Buhari has 30 days to sign the amended Electoral Bill or return it to the legislature. The date expires today, but the president travelled to Turkey without saying anything on the bill forwarded to him about a month ago. It is not clear what he will do, whether he will ask for some amendments on the direct primary provision or refuse assent altogether. Nor is it clear what the legislature will do also if the president withholds assent. The president had consulted widely. He had reached out to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which concluded that monitoring the direct primaries of parties would not be an issue, nor a costly one. And he had also asked for the input of the Justice minister Abubakar Malami.

    Mr Malami is reported to have said it was inappropriate for the National Assembly to legislate a particular mode of primary for all parties irrespective of the provisions of their constitutions. The Justice minister is a difficult man to agree with on many issues, for he is often carried away by legal and judicial exuberance, not to talk of his weak democratic credentials. But regarding his counsel to the president, it is difficult to disagree with him. It is anomalous for lawmakers dominated by a political party, and all lawmakers with an axe to grind against governors accused of being too controlling of the state chapters of their parties, to herd all parties in one direction by regulating and unifying their mode of primary.

    No one knows what the president will do. He will not want to offend the lawmakers who have been clearly and overwhelmingly supportive of his agenda, nor offend the governors nearly all of whom have supinely doted on him. But on this bill, it appears impossible for the president to sit on the fence. He will have to decide one way or the other. If he can lobby, he may get the lawmakers to back down, or get the governors to lower their opposition to the amendment. But one thing is near impossible: it is unlikely the legislature will override his decision should he be minded to spurn the amendment.

  • Sensitivity enhances good sex

    Sensitivity enhances good sex

    Human sexuality is the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses.

    It is also a way someone is sexually attracted to another person and there is no doubt that sex is good for married lovers, but sex in the atmosphere of love is even better. Husband should start off sex by stimulating his wife’s heart and stop focusing more on manual stimulation. Openness toward one partner leads to the most beneficial kind of sex that a couple can ever imagine.

    In marriage relationship, passionate sex  is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade when deep intimacy is lacking, because intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually while passion develops too fast.

    One important outcome of having intimate sex between married lovers is emotional safety. If you feel like your spouse understands you and you understand him or her, you are more prone to showing your true sexual feelings. And if you show your true feelings, closeness and intimacy on all levels will be very obvious in your relationship.

    But what is really intimacy? Most couples seem to define intimacy as two married lovers engaged in hot and passionate sex, or something very close to this. But the truth is the experience of physical connection between two married lovers is only the culmination of all that is intimate between them. Intimacy is much more than that.

    Intimacy is an attitude. It’s how you get along all the time, not only when you’re making love. It has to be continuous in order to be fulfilling, and if you truly want to enjoy great quality lovemaking, the hours outside the bedroom should be spent with the same degree of closeness. Fortunately, achieving that is not impossible. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I am willing to share with you. You can thank me later.

    Sensitivities, consideration, respect and affection should be a mutual give and take in marriage. I call this emotional workout for couples! What? Do you think that bonding happens just like that, without any external influence? No, sir! There are lots of things that you can do to strengthen your relationship. This mutual give and take will help you become relaxed in the presence of each other, and attuned to your heart rhythms. It involves a lot of touching, because due to the high level of stress a typical Nigerian couple face on a daily basis I think affectionate touching has a really calming and soothing effect on the psyche of the spouse. So on occasion when you both are home together or around each other lie on your sides with your legs bent so that you fit together like two spoons in a drawer. Once you are snuggled together, lie still, letting go of any tensions, and try not to talk or move too much. Breathe heavily and rhythmically and listen to your partner’s breathing at the same time. Close your eyes and let your imagination travel down memory lane when you both were still dating and confessing undying love for one another. You’ll feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You can choose to spoon either fully clothed or in the nude, but refrain from sexual intercourse. This type of affectionate display is just meant to bring the two of you closer together.

    On weekend days when you both are not under any pressure to go to work or attend occasions just lie together on the bed, or whatever feels comfortable for you, and look into each other’s eyes. Don’t talk; just watch each other in silence. It might feel uneasy at first, because according to a research, married couples hardly look into each other’s eyes as they used to while newly married, you might be shy about it, or feel exposed, out in the open, but it’s a great exercise for really bonding on a subconscious level also. Doing this, you and your partner will soon rediscover the richness of your unspoken communication and the way your eyes speak to each other without uttering one single word.

    There are varieties of this. Husband, you can sit with your back against the wall of your room or a garden chair and have your wife put her head on your chest and wrap her arms around you. Share this embrace for a few minutes. Close your eyes, listen to each other’s breathing, feel each other’s warmth, feel your heartbeat. She can pass her fingers up and down your back, while you can stroke her shoulders, neck, face and hair. This mutual embrace sends the message of being reciprocally taken care of, which is a great deal as far as intimacy is concerned.

    Please husbands, note that most times when your wives put their head on your chest or shoulder and rub your back or body they do not necessarily want sex but bonding closeness. They want to feel like you belong to them; they want to reassure themselves that such moments are exclusively for them and no one should share such moments with them.

    Another variation of this is for the husband to lie on his back on the bed and have your wife lower herself gradually on top of you, from head to toe. Don’t worry, it’s not uncomfortable, and it’s surprisingly efficient. Holding her whole body against yours, you like you are in control, and she’ll feel like she can depend on you no matter what. The benefits are not only psychological, but physical because this position is extremely relaxing for the spine this is not only a good roadmap to a splendid sex but eventually lead to good passionate sex.

    Active penetrative sex can also be done while amusing your wife, you don’t have to be too serious  just start by  gently pushing her against the wall, start kissing her quietly while placing your right hand on her thigh and slowly lifting it up till you could feel her soft inner genitals then start  massaging it slowly. Then move your hand right deeper into her genital area, placing your thumb and index finger on the clitoris making sure that the clitoris is in between them your thumb and index finger, and continue with the massaging and while massaging the clitoris your middle finger should be busy driving in and out of the inner genital in a smooth manner.

    While still kissing her, you can slowly move her closer to the bed and on getting to the bed gently push her on it, then pull away from her, go down a bit and pull her panties off, with your wet tongue start licking the inner genital, make her open her legs wide as your tongue kept massaging her clitoris simultaneously keep on rubbing her clitoris till she fell like pushing you off. While this is going on you can then insert your middle finger deeper into her inner genital and finger her in a slow but romantic manner while your other hand should be tapping on her erected nipples. Then lift her up in a sitting position making her hold on your own genital and caress it or suck it.

     

    QUESTION

    I love my husband but I sometimes feel he is choking me with his overly obsessive behavior. He behaves as if all he lives for is sex. As soon as he sees my naked body or breasts, he fusses all over me, I am not finding this funny at all, I need my space, and can’t he just leave me alone? Each time I say this, he says I am hurting him but I really want him off my back.

     

    ANSWER

    Hmmm, you sound so naïve. I am sure you do not know what you are enjoying. I wish you would be privileged to listen to some other wives tales of woes, rejection and loneliness. What you have on a platter of gold and taken for granted is what many women would give anything to have. Don’t you know that a man that is committed and devoted to his marriage and woman is excited by his wife’s presence and body?  But if you cause him to start feeling that you are not excited about him as he is about you, believe me; your husband is as good as dead. He will still be in that home with you but you will be married to his head and senses, his heart and soul will be out there lusting after the first female who can much as give him a luring glance, so be careful, don’t take for granted what you have, else, you will spend the next twenty (20) years working hard to get it back.

     

     

    QUESTION

    You are a God sent to today’s couples, thanks for the good job.

    Is it safe to shave the vagina hair completely? I noticed that each time I do I always have more vaginal infection than when I leave it trimmed, but my husband wants it shaved at all times. He said that is the only thing that arouses him exceptionally. What can I do?

     

    ANSWER

    Actually it is better to have pubic hair  trimmed than be completely shaved. It is not very safe to have intercourse with the vagina completely hairless, the pubic hair prevents friction and helps protect against bacteria by warding off some dirt. The pubic hair makes it harder for bacteria to get through to the vagina orifice. But when shaved the vagina has to work extra hard to fight bacteria. That’s why on the average some women generally have more discharge when shaven than when they are not. Nature has made the pubic hair for the purpose of protection.

    Explain to your husband that it’s advisable to trim rather than shave. You can trim it in such a creative manner that will still catch his attention.

     

    QUESTION

    I used to have a fairly big organ but over the years it has shrunk in size. Please, does masturbation cause the penis to shrink because I do masturbate almost on a daily basis? Also, can the taking of sugar excessively cause one’s manhood to shrink? I have poor erections and when my manhood goes down it shrinks badly. Besides I have suffered from piles for many years now could this be one of the reasons for this?

     

    ANSWER

    As much as masturbation is not healthy for the nerves of the penis, it is not directly linked to the shrinking of the penis. Rather the chronic pile disorder you have been suffering for a while could be the reason. It may also be that you have a pot belly that allows the heap of fat at the base of the penis or like you rightly said you have a poor eating lifestyle. Excess of synthetic diets and drinks are dangerous to the total wellbeing of the penis and its function ability.

  • Bisi Akande, Tinubu and their participations

    Bisi Akande, Tinubu and their participations

    This is not a review of Bisi Akande’s 559-page autobiography publicly presented last week in Lagos. The time for a comprehensive review may still come. But the book is so controversial and revelatory, holding nothing back, complete with names, dates and details, that it is impossible to ignore the snippets published so far by newspapers to critical and deafening applause. Chief Akande’s autobiography will probably achieve the status of the Nigerian book of the decade. It does not pretend to critical analysis or psychological portraiture of politicians and their actions; it simply recounts what they did and their motivations. It provides backgrounds to political actions and events, and empathetically reviews the reasons some Machiavellian politicians gained the ascendancy and honest others are left holding the short end of the stick. It tears reputations to pieces, exposes and damns many Teflon politicians and leaders, and squirms at the fecklessness and faithlessness of those who offered themselves for leadership in the past one decade or so.

    There has been no book like this in the past few decades; and it is doubtful whether there will be another like it, a book by a virtuous and maverick politician who was in the thick of political events since 1999, and one who was unafraid to mention names and dismiss them as callous, inept or indolent. Newspaper snippets cannot do justice to the copiousness and immense sagacity of the book. It has to be read to have a comprehensive grasp of the gates of Dante’s Inferno which Chief Akande has opened. Those excoriated by the book will first catch their breath before responding, and they will either refute Chief Akande’s assertions with facts and figures or hurl invectives at him for his daring and presumptions. The book will be enjoyed for a long time, and the controversies it has stirred will linger for far longer. Among others, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was apparently thought to be a man of his words, is not spared; ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s self-righteousness is exploded as a bacchanalian and diabolical myth; Afenifere chieftain Ayo Adebanjo is dismissed as ineffective, sanctimonious and insatiable; and leading progressives are humiliated as feckless, grasping and treacherous. Autobiographies like this are often published posthumously; Chief Akande boldly prefers to sail close to the wind in his lifetime, contemptuous of the contemporary tactics of hiding behind the grave to throw barbs.

    The book is just a few days old, and it is not certain yet what assertions will be successfully refuted or sustained. But Nigeria must thank God and the former Osun State governor, who was also the interim chairman of the APC at its founding, for summoning the willpower to write the book and the courage to publish it in his lifetime. The rest, the controversy and the fury, is left to the public to entertain themselves. Coming less than two years to the next general election, one involving a fracturing and fraying APC and an incorrigible and inept Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), there can be no better time and book to offer the country the right cautionary tale as to what political leaders get up to. Many books are read, and both the reader and those mentioned disapprovingly in the book, shrug it off. It is impossible to shrug this one off, no matter how hard anyone tries.

    From the snippets so far, it appears Chief Akande is nuanced in his treatment of his subjects. He does not set out to judge anyone by extraneous and theoretical standards; instead he uses his subjects’ statements and actions to assess their political behavior. Thus he gives a massive and revelatory background to how President Buhari as an aspirant broke his word to Bola Tinubu, former Lagos State governor and champion of the APC merger and birth, and even quibbled over the promise to make the latter his running mate, and then excused his behaviour on the grounds of pressures from some northern governors and opinion moulders. Somehow, and unflatteringly, the book presents to the public the essential President Buhari as a man and politician. The president is not dumb or irrational as some think, perhaps on account of whatever ails him in his dotage, but he is vulnerable and superficial. For a leader, that is dangerous. And for a president of a multiethnic and multireligious society, it can be catastrophic. Though the book does not say it, Nigerians will probably glean from the book why it was easy for a cabal to capture the Buhari presidency and lead it by the nose.

    President Buhari was the cynosure of all eyes at the book presentation last week. It is not clear whether he had read the book, though he discussed Chief Obasanjo’s kingmaker role in Nigeria with his idiosyncratic truculence. If the president read it before coming to Lagos and still chose not to say a word or two, nay many words, about the almost universal consensus by northern elite, monarchs and Chief Obasanjo to dissuade the APC from fielding him as their standard-bearer, then he is either as implacable as anyone can get or he is simply too contemptuous of his enemies to care a hoot what they felt or knew about him. Chief Akande describes in inspiring details the single-mindedness of Asiwaju Tinubu in enthroning Candidate Buhari, regardless of the general and national opposition to the former head of state’s candidature. It is curious that President Buhari does not feel the urge to say something about why so many key leaders were uninspired by his bid for the presidency. Surely it could not simply be because they embraced corruption. The leaders were simply too horrified to have him mount the throne a second time, after his first baleful sortie in 1983-1985. Events of the past few years, including insecurity to which there is clearly no answer, and the economic chaos afflicting the country to which there is also only shambolic response, may have justified their apprehensions.

    There will be many top politicians, ethnic champions and opinion leaders who will be responding to Chief Akande’s book in the coming weeks, once they catch their breath and can moderate their resentment. But they will have a hard time convincing the public that they have been mischaracterised in the book. For instance, Chief Akande suggests that Afenifere leaders were grasping and importuning; the nonagenarian Chief Adebanjo will respond on their behalf and try to put the lie to any suspicion that someone else other than himself built the house he is living in in Lekki, a Lagos suburb and new development area. He will, however, have no response to his being characterised as a middling, eternally flawed politician who could never hope to win an election even in his heyday.

    Since the book is not exactly analytical, it is unable to interrogate the manoeuvres around the repudiation of Asiwaju Tinubu as Candidate Buhari’s running mate. Given the intensity of the pressures brought to bear upon the APC standard-bearer, not to say the flattering character portrait of the former Lagos governor as a large-hearted, tactical, generous and hard working politician, Candidate Buhari probably succumbed to pressures that had nothing or little to do with the Muslim-Muslim bogeyman ticket sold by some politicians to the gullible. Those who finally convinced Candidate Buhari to eat his words painted for him a picture of a running mate who would dominate and drive the presidency with strategic and modernising thinking. Should he run with Candidate Buhari and win, no cabal could seize control of the presidency; but if they did, they would make life miserable for the former Lagos governor. The definitive manner Candidate Buhari repudiated the gentleman’s agreement he had with Asiwaju Tinubu had little to do with the religious colour of the ticket; it was bigger than that, more futuristic, and as the former Lagos governor himself said, had something to do with an agenda he could not at the time put his finger on. Four years into the Buhari presidency, there is now no illusion what that agenda was. Asiwaju Tinubu is fortunate to have been muscled out, and largely left alone. The alternative would have been too grim to contemplate.

    Chief Akande’s book will sell by the thousands. He has done posterity a good turn by documenting his experience and observations in politics. Many will hate him in his twilight years, but many more will be eternally grateful that he did not take his observations to the grave. In the grave, and without the book, he would have found it hard to rest without lifting the burdens off his chest. That he did so, regardless of the controversy and attacks the book will elicit, is a credit to his person, unique and incomparable character, and experience. Let him now sit back and wait for the barbs. They will more or less bounce off him like feathers. He does not need to say anything more; it is up to the offended to write their own books or doctor history with their characteristic reluctance to honour the truth.

     

    CJN spits fire on harassment

    CHIEF Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim Muhammad, is finally fed up with the intimidation and harassment of Nigeria’s judicial officers. It took the invasion of the Abuja residence of Supreme Court Justice Mary Peter-Odili on October 29 to infuriate the CJN. Speaking during the commencement of the 2021/2022 legal year of the Supreme Court and conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on 72 lawyers in Abuja last week, the CJN said virtually everything right about the necessity of protecting the dignity of judicial officers, and was even more convincing on the determination of Nigeria’s judicial authorities to safeguard the lives of judges. The October 2021 invasion was not the first; but perhaps the justices hope it will be the last. If they do not rise determinedly against this contortion, they are afraid it could become the norm, with the attendant vitiation of the powers of the judiciary and the prestige of judges.

    In October 2016, the Department of State Service (DSS) invaded the homes of some apex court justices, meeting muted reaction from stupefied judicial authorities and censorious Nigerians eternally distrustful of judges and any other public official accused of corruption. The tame response in 2016 encouraged the contrived invasion of last October. The CJN is right to be worried. But years of conspiring with the political elite and conniving at their subversion of judges and judgements, not to say years of colluding with the executive branch to influence appointments and promotion of undeserving judges, had robbed the judiciary of its dignity and integrity. These virtues will not be regained easily simply because the CJN is incensed. It is not even clear whether in the distorted atmosphere of Nigeria’s ethnic and religious morass, these virtues can be regained at all. The CJN can, however, try. If he does not meet with good success, he can at least meet with qualified success.

     

    Covid-19 Omicron and unending jabs

    IN addition to the many measures taken by the United Kingdom and Canada to halt the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in their countries, many of them unscientific and adopted in panic, other measures are in the pipeline. The other measures include a return to some form of restrictions such as wearing of face masks, intensification of vaccination, and limitations of large gatherings. But one other measure that beggars belief is the need for booster jabs, which is one more jab after the regular two jabs. Before the advent of Omicron, the global response to Covid-19 was already toying with booster jabs in the assumption that the full two-jab vaccination was wearing off and becoming less effective. Omicron has simply made booster shot urgent. But booster jab has also spawned accusations of big pharma conspiracy to profit from the misery of the people. The world may have moved from the religious conspiracy surrounding the jabs, but it is unlikely to move away from the conspiracy to derive commercial profit from unending jabs.

    The global response to the virus was flawed and hysterical ab initio. There was at first no consensus as to whether the virus was real; then with hundreds of thousands of deaths, that fact was put beyond dispute. Then no one was sure of its origin, whether it came from a Chinese ‘wet’ market or from a malevolent lab. But before its origin was established, the world moved on very quickly to how to deal with it. Panic lockdowns that spun the economies of many countries out of control were instituted. These were followed by a plethora of restrictions that took their toll on the health of millions of people, many of whom never recover. Finally, vaccinations were developed thereby triggering misgivings and scepticism as to why and how quickly the jabs were developed. There must be a conspiracy by governments and big pharmaceutical companies to monitor, harm and control whole populations, some sceptics argued. Two jabs would do the trick, the vaccine developers promised, with one of the big pharmas insisting that their one jab would do just fine. Now, after forced vaccinations, governments and pharmaceutical companies have begun equivocating about booster jabs to seal the hope of future mutations.

    Gradually, the world is waking up to the reality that nothing is as they assume. Social media waded into the fray by blacklisting those who questioned the Covid-19 orthodoxies as preached by big pharma and governments, and with the deaths of some popular vaccine skeptics preachers, no one appears eager to question the current orthodoxies and treatment regimen. Sceptics are being squeezed out of the argument. More and more, they have become insignificant, their voices crowded out by alarming stories of deaths and impending catastrophe. Today, the story is that after two jabs, one booster shot would do just fine, producing effective deterrence to the virus and eliciting the mythical herd immunity the original two jabs were earlier supposed to engender. Sadly, neither two jabs nor one booster jab is expected to produce the desired outcome. Though with each variant the virus appears to be weakening, as Canada and the UK have shown, every variant is alarming enough to elicit a slew of additional and panicky measures. As sure as day follows night, one extra variant apart from Omicron will lead to medical advice promoting another booster shot after the original booster jab, of course following the original two-jab menu.

    It is clear that there will be no end to the jabs and the boosters, until perhaps the world grows tired of their governments and begins to throw them out through bad-tempered elections. Big pharma and their governments have indemnified themselves against any damage, whether deaths or blood clots or any other side effects. That indemnification should be litigated, just as the treatment protocols for Covid-19 has been and is being questioned. The world was unhappily herded into virtually the same treatment protocol, when there were alternatives. The powers that be simply refused to consider any other treatment as hundreds of thousands died daily. Now, they wish to continue to pump their population with booster shots despite black Africa showing glaringly that the virus is obviously not as potent as it seems at first view nor as invincible as big pharma had painted it. But few in authority are listening, and social media giants are shutting down dissent on the subject. It won’t be long, however, before the scales fall off from the eyes of the global community ravaged by a mutating and weakening virus.

  • Ojuelegba: I know my story

    Ojuelegba: I know my story

    These days, I seem to pay more attention to the lyrics of some not -my-kind of music which I can’t avoid listening to as they are played repeatedly on radio stations and on the streets.

    As I listen to them and reflect more than before, I can easily relate with some. Their storylines are what I am familiar with and I can recollect my own experiences however widely different they are.

    My article titled ‘Let nothing kill your Journalism Vibes’ based on Bloody Samaritan by Ayra Starr shocked many who could swear I don’t listen to such songs and wondered how I knew all the lyrics.

    Nothing is really hard knowing these days with the Google search engine available to search for anything, including lyrics of any song.

    That was what I did and had a better understanding of what the singer was saying that made more sense to me than ever before even if I won’t be caught dancing to the song.

    Like the “I’m catching vibes on vibes” song, Ojuelegba by Whizkid is the latest I want to write on as the headline of this article indicates.

    Since I have been listening to the song and even tried to sing along once in a while because of the irresistible beat, it was until two weeks ago that it occurred to me that I also have an Ojuelegba story to tell like Whizkid.

    Here is the beginning of the song:

    It’s legendury beats

    Wizzy baba o

    Ni ojuelegba ( In Ojuelegba)

    They know my story

    From holdup studio

    I be hustle to work ee

    Ni ojuelegba o ( In Ojuelegba)

    Me and CD

    From holdup studio

    We been hustle to work ee

    I had nothing to do with holdup studio or CD, but the first place I was employed in 1986, after national youth service, out of desperation to get a job after months of waiting for the kind I wanted that never came, was a media company at  Ojuelegba by under the bridge where buses load passengers for Ijora – Ajegunle where I lived with my parents.

    I never liked the job with the magazine called, guess what? The Contractor from Day one. It was not the kind of the big ones we were told of back in the university.

    I was hired as a reporter, but I performed every role required, including buying drinks for guests of my publisher who felt I should be grateful for being employed when many of my mates were yet to get any job.

    As I write this piece I can recall the times I spent reading newspapers at bend-down vendors stands under the bridge and various eating joints I go to and stay back longer than I should just not to be in the office.

    While wandering from office to office for adverts for our not well-known magazine, I saw all the hustling by people trying to make a living in Ojuelegba and always looked forward to getting a better job soon.

    When I come up with any excuse not to go to work or resign, my mother offered prayers and words of encouragement about how first jobs may not be what one wants, but you must stick to it until there is a better one.

    Recalling those days of how my mum kept me going, these lines from the song are apt:

    E kira fun mummy mi o (Salute my mother)

    Ojojumo lo n s’adura ( She prayed every day)

    Kilodale ( Whatever the case may be)

    Aye o le to yen o (Life is not that hard)

    Aye o ni double ( Life is just once)

    Adura lo le se o ( Prayer is what you need)

    Call on daddy

    Adura a gba o ( Your prayers will be answered)

    Yes, my mum’s prayers and mine were eventually answered. I ran into a course mate who was already a manager in an advertising company when we were in school who gave me a note to someone who gave me another note and I eventually got the much-cherished job in The Punch where I worked for 14 years before I moved on.

    Don’t I have every cause to feel good and thank God for putting those Ojuelegba days of little beginnings behind me as Whizkid sang? I sure do.

    Join me in singing:

    I am feeling good tonight

    This thing gat me thanking God for life

    Oh I can’t explain eh eh eh

  • Omicron and the British ban: Why should any foreign country respect us?

    Omicron and the British ban: Why should any foreign country respect us?

    Wale Tomori, the highly regarded Professor of Virology, former University Vice Chancellor and my friend of several decades, who belongs in that generation of  Yorubas who are ‘banished’ to saying it as it is, not minding whose ox is gored, was in no mood to serve Nigerians any of his usual rib cracking wisecracks at a public forum the other day. Rather, his lacrymal glands failed him as he spoke about what has become of his Nigeria in reaction to Britain giving Nigeria the red card over Omicron, smack on the heels of Canada which had earlier announced a similar ban on Nigeria.

    The British action has since been severally condemned, including by the UN Secretary – General, Antonio Guterres, who described it as a ‘travel apatheid’. In like manner, but wisely  adopting a diplomatic language, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Sarafa Isola, simply called on the British authorities to review their decision, arguing that leadership is the ‘ability to reverse decisions made in error.”

    But not so the Nigerian minister of Information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who chose several expletives, rather than a word or two, to excoriate a country which did nothing more than proactively act in the interest of its citizenry. His words:”unjust, unfair, punitive, indefensible, discriminatory”, even as Britain herself has a history of being banned over Covid -19. For ease of reference, Switzerland has banned visitors from the UK, putting them on the quarantine list over Omicron.

    That said, however, it must be emphasised that for all that is decent, a country of 200million people, Africa’s leading economy and a major trading partner, Nigeria should never have been treated as nonchallantly, or as peremptorily as Britain just did, given the fact that Nigeria has very few cases,  has no hospitalisation, or death therefrom. Om Omicron Oo has reported any death resulting from Omicron. It is all the more infuriating that Britain could ex her  own citizens and reside  by .

    In view of all these, it is not unreasonable to conclude that putting Nigeria on the red list is nothing short of a slap on the faces of all 200 million of us, Nigerians.

    But this is precisely where we all must pause, sit down, and critically examine what the hell is the matter with Nigeria and Nigerians that we have so effortlessly become the butt of silly jokes everywhere? After all, as the Yoruba would say, the fact that you do not have money does not change one’s name.

    In pyschoanalysing ourselves, we must, as I never stopped saying on these pages, be honest to ourselves. And the starting point should be the realisation that we now live in a globalised world where the outside world sees us exactly as we are – no thanks to cable television.

    They not only see how short and brutish human life has become in our country, they see and, of course, deride us as security men descend on the National Assembly – the very bastion of our democracy – just as they watched, in awe, as some rogue security elements descend, on the home of a Supreme Court Judge, with the utmost possibility  of  a  murder or a kidnap for ransom.

    While these examples may  seem tangential to the issue at hand, that is, the British ban, let us critically examine the intervention by Professor Tomori to properly situate where we are in this country today.  Let us dig deeper into the factors that predispose others  to treat Nigeria,  and Nigerians,  as they choose, that is, like an international pariah, with Britain treating us in a manner it wont treat Ghana.

    Professor Wale Tomori aptly put his fingers on some of the factors when he said the following:”Our underdevelopment and backwardness rest on four pillars. They are the real enemies of our nation, and they are – Lack of patriotism, the main destroyer of our nation, self-interest, corruption, and shamelessness. I quote him:”I woke up today to hear that Canada no longer recognises my genuine vaccination card. And Britain has clamped a travel ban on us. A few days ago, I had to know there was Omicron in Nigeria from outside – (please note that Tomori is Chairman of the Expert Review Committee on COVID-19 in Nigeria).The same Canada was telling me that Nigerians who travelled out with negative COVID-19 lab result were omicronised, before my own CDC finally tells me that we had the variant detected in samples collected from people who recently travelled from South  Africa. Were they people on the entourage of President Ramaphosa? They did not tell. We painfully call the reactions of the UK and Canada racism, inequity. But I say we are paying for condoning errors of commission and overlooking our errors of omission.”

    Read Also: Tomori’s thoughts: Tantamount to throwing tantrums?

    Meanwhile, we do not know whether he also heard Health authorities in Fiji Island say that two of their citizens flying in from Nigeria tested positive to Omicron? Said the Fijians:”The two travellers are Fijian citizens who had travelled back into Fiji from Nigeria, arriving on Fiji Airways flight FJ1392 from Hong Kong on November 25 — the day the discovery of the omicron variant was announced internationally.”  Did he hear a word from our CDC anything about it? I doubt.

    Let us now examine his contribution at some depth: “I woke up today to hear that Canada no longer recognises my genuine vaccination card”. Why so? This, in essense, is because there’s hardly anything, or anybody you can, any longer, trust in Nigeria; governments in particular.

    Here I will have to  tell two short stories. In April or May this year, a young lady was about returning to the U.S when she visited us. Being solicitous of her welfare, I asked if she had perfected her Covid requirements for re entry. Without batting an eyelid, she simply  told me in words to this effect: Uncle, dont worry; I shall sort myself out before I leave”. Sort herself out, she did, but without troubling herself with any jab or a swap in any laboratory. The second is more serious as it has security implications. It is interestting that only this past week, in confirmation of the story, we heard a general of the Nigerian Army expressing doubts about the sincerity of the so- called repentant Boko Haram fighters who we are told are daily surrendering in droves. The general said they cannot be trusted but as we shall see below, that is only one side of the story. Let us yield to one one of such insurgents, Mohammed, who  as he disclosed to IRISH TIMES that hundreds of them are already rushing back to re join their Boko  Haram colleagues because the Buhari government has “reneged on  the promises of  education, shelter and employment  which.are  the main benefits the government offered them to desert the deadly group. Some of the Boko Haram terrorists that surrendered their arms are already rejoining  the terrorist group because government, according to him, has proved unworthy. Even though he  claims to hate killing, he has now promised to go back as about 200 of them have now been asked to vacate the camp where he lives in Maiduguri with his mother, two wives and 14 children.

    Back then to Professor Tomori:”The same Canada was telling me that Nigerians who travelled out with negative COVID-19 lab result were omicronised” – This speaks directly to the unreliability of test results from Nigeria and this will not be the first time the results are being so questioned. Even the CDC has oncr reported sealing  a health centre in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for issuing fake COVID-19 test results to unsuspecting individuals. just as the Lagos State Government had once raised alarm over sales of fake COVID-19 test result, warning that processes were being put in place to clamp down on both buyers and sellers.

    So who to blame for our corruption and  shamelessness if not ourselves?  He  went on: “But I say we are paying for condoning errors of commission and overlooking our errors of omission.”

    When last  was it you heard anybody was punished for any gross act of official corruption? Are reasonable Nigerians proud of all the shenanigans happening  daily at our entry points; the very gateways to our country?

    As recently as 6 November, 2021, an American blogger, Tommy El Forastero, wrote as follows on the Lagos International Airport, Ikeja:”I have been around the world and I have never seen anything like this. I mean, it’s extremely corrupt. The Lagos airport, is the very definition of corruption that would pop up in a dictionary. Literally”.Now  what would stop a Covid-19 or Omicron positive traveller passing through such an airport if he is ready to grease palms? But that pales into insignificance when you hear the case of  the 32 Nigerians deposited from Germany. Said one of them to a newspaper reporter:”We were marched into two coaster buses and driven to a hotel on Airport Road, Lagos, where we were lodged without anyone inquiring about our COVID-19 status.  Like regular hotel guests, we were allowed to freely mingle with other people in the hotel. While the tests were eventually carried out seven days after we arrived, the results were not released before we were checked out of the hotel  after only a week and departed to our various destinations”.The bitter deportee said: “Nigeria is making a very big mistake the way they are handling the coronavirus pandemic”. “I am disappointed in Nigeria. The country failed 100 per cent.”  “The CDC in its guidelines for self-isolation, said: “Passengers who have arrived in Nigeria must self-isolate for 14 days and remain in the city/state where the point of entry is located (i.e. Lagos or Abuja) throughout the duration of self-isolation. “All passengers will be tested within 72 hours of arrival based on appointment at a sample collection centre located in Lagos or Abuja for a repeat COVID-19 PCR test. “Persons who have completed the 14 days of self-isolation/quarantine will undergo an exit interview. Their details will be forwarded to the Nigeria Immigration Service for release of their passports”. “

    No such thing happened.

    Add to all these the detailed reports in diplomatic pouches sent home daily by the ever smiling diplomats here in Nigeria and you see why we are not given the respect we deserve and could be banned as they choose.

    KUDOS TO COMRADE ISSA AREMU

    Despite my seeming put down of Comrade Isa Salami’s perspective at a recent event, he called and was such a gentleman. We chatted heartily. When he had thought I wont return his call which I missed, he sent the message below:

    “Happy Sunday. Read your good reflection on my Abuja outing. Let the struggle for nation building continue. I appreciate your perspective but let many flowers bloom, according to Chairman Mao Zedong.

    Regards.

    Issa.

     

  • Army comes to terms with Boko Haram shenanigans

    Army comes to terms with Boko Haram shenanigans

    After many months of downplaying the complexity Boko Haram’s militant objectives, the Nigerian military may be gradually coming round to the reality of the insurgents’ shifty search for amnesty. Previously, the military gave the impression that it had come to terms with the continuing surrender of Boko Haram fighters and their families, some 20,000 in all so far, and was eager to press ahead with the government’s programme of rehabilitation and reintegration. The programme had hit a brick wall in the resistance of members of the public, particularly victims of the insurgency in the Northeast who had, everything considered, received less care than the so-called repentant fighters. But the military and the government appeared set to carry the programme through, insisting that there did not seem to be any other option.

    But given the recent hesitations of the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, Maj.-Gen. Christopher Musa, doubts may be surfacing as to what the military really thinks about the reintegration of the repentant fighters. Speaking on the sidelines of the Chief of Army Staff’s conference in Abuja last week, the general feared that while the programme could really not be questioned overall, some of the repentant fighters had manifested ulterior motives. In other words, some of the surrendered Boko Haram fighters could not be trusted. It is surprising that it has taken so long for the military to appreciate what the public had long feared. North-easterners have nothing against the fighters’ surrender, nor against whatever programmes the government might deploy to neutralise them as a fighting force.

    What they opposed was the special treatment given the fighters, a treatment that seemed five-star compared to the treatment given the victims of insurgency. They also opposed their reintegration into the society which they had brutalised and ‘cannibalised’ during insurgency. The north-easterners’ argument was simple and logical. Indeed, their position could not be controverted. They resented being forced to live side-by-side with their former tormentors so soon after the violence visited on the indigenes, the trauma of which had neither being dissipated nor placated. It was an impossible task. That the military and the government persisted, not to say devoted so much money and training into the project, was a testament to their insensitivity and poor policy formulation.

    Finally, however, it is hoped that after Maj.-Gen. Musa voiced the military’s suspicions and misgivings, both the security agencies and the government would reexamine the programme and see whether there are no better ways of achieving the same goals. Some of the repentant fighters reportedly found their way back into Boko Haram camps where the benefits in money, women and all sorts of sensuousness appear to be far more substantial than the strict regimentation of the reintegration camps and the censoriousness of a distrusting public. A few of the lawmakers representing Borno State had also warned of the limitations of the reintegration policy, insisting that it was hasty and poorly thought-out.

    The problem now is what to do with the genuinely repentant fighters and their families tired of fighting and living on the edge of existence at Boko Haram camps. To what extent can they really be rehabilitated and how feasible and practicable is the policy of reintegration? The government may in the end find out that they will have to create and fund and run a huge internment camp to house the fighters and their families, while taking care to keep them occupied in skills acquisition and other gainful tasks. The federal government will, however, face the dilemma of running the internment camps more efficiently – in order to make it successful and manageable – than the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps which they have run cavalierly on low budget and with characteristic ineptitude.

    The army general will be alarmed at the angle from which his comments on the sidelines have been interpreted, especially his view on the ulterior motives of repentant Boko Haram fighters. But he also made two other controversial points. One, he talked of money being the main ingredient reinforcing and expanding the insurgency in the Northeast. This may be true of Boko Haram foot soldiers, but it is unlikely to be true of ISWAP/Boko Haram sponsors. He should have differentiated the two. The foot soldiers are nothing more than mercenaries, hungry for loot, plunder and free women; but the sponsors harbour the political objective of gaining and running a caliphate. That objective is unlikely to be smothered by defeat or lengthy opposition. Two, the general denied that the military is overstretched. No one could overstretch the Nigerian military, he boasted. He is wrong, absolutely wrong. Not only is the military more than overstretched, even the country’s treasury is also hopelessly overstretched. A few weeks ago, the same military announced that it was involved in police operations in nearly all the 36 states of the federation, a task it was proud to do as far as orders are concerned, but nevertheless wearied that those operations were distracting it from its core responsibilities.

    The country empathises with the military. The military can do better, and perhaps more efficiently. But it is exerting itself under old and archaic paradigms and culture, leading to confusion in its ranks, avoidable clashes with civilians that create image problems for it, and dissipation of its strength and resolve. Rather than modernising, it is gradually receding in rank among global militaries. Worse, it has found itself operating under leprous public policies promulgated by incompetent political elite. This problem is even more stultifying than the distracting policies that have become a burden to it in the states. As long as the political elite will not promote a workable national and federal structure to engender stability and peace in the country, its institutions, including the military, will continue to atrophy.