The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

  • After Dariye, who next?

    Former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, must have wondered what struck him on Tuesday last week, when he was sentenced to 14 years behind bars, after being found guilty of the charges of criminal breach of trust and criminal appropriation of the state’s funds running to over N2bn. Justice Adebukola Banjoko, the judge that many of the remaining corrupt public officials must be afraid of by now, in a six-and-a-half hour judgment, convicted the ex-governor on 15 of the 23 counts preferred against him in July 2007. Many corrupt officials would be afraid of having their cases tried by her because Dariye is the second ex-governor she would be convicting in about two weeks. She had earlier imposed 14 years’ jail term on ex-Governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, on similar charges.

    Justice Banjoko said of the brazenness with which Dariye carried out the fraud: “I can’t imagine such a brazen act. Is it the transfer of as much as about half a billion naira from the state’s ecological fund into a personal venture account? Everybody is a victim here.” The judge added that from a random check of some documents tendered as exhibits, she discovered that “the defendant was, in fact, richer than his state.” How on earth can any sane person divert ecological funds, or any public funds for that matter? Everybody, as the judge noted, is a victim in this circumstance.

    One cannot but agree with Justice Banjoko that “there should be no compromise to corruption, by whatever shade or colour, or region, rich or poor; corruption will forever be corruption.” And it should be so treated. For every kobo that a public official steals, someone is being deprived of something; it could be education, it could be quality healthcare, good roads, jobs or even life. Moreover, investors run away from corrupt environments because it is antithetical to a good business climate.

    With these high profile convictions, those who have been accusing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of losing high profile cases to shoddy prosecution should begin to review their stance. So much waters pass underneath the proverbial bridge; it is beyond the argument of shoddy prosecution. Going by the impunity of many governors, who run their states as personal fiefdoms, especially their lack of regard for fiscal discipline, many of them deserve to be jailed even as incumbents, but for the immunity they enjoy.  As a matter of fact, to paraphrase a former chief of general staff, they should be jailed and thereafter prosecuted! Their recklessness is indescribable. They refer to public fund as if it is their personal money. “I don’t have money for this or that project”, they tell you with such arrogance. Does the money belong to them? As a matter of fact, one governor, in his heyday, was said to be telling the people of the state that he did this and that for them and that if they liked, they should not vote for him in the coming election, as if he was doing the people a favour.

    But it is heartwarming that our courts are waking up to the reality of the dangers we all face if people we put in positions of trust abuse such trust, and serving such persons their deserved comeuppance. We have ourselves to congratulate for this because, but for our strident calls for the needful in the judiciary, we probably would have been watching helplessly as people we all know as certified thieves would turn our judiciary to pawns, to our collective peril. But we all stood up against some of the so-called senior lawyers who, rather than use the law to get justice for the general good, would be fishing for technicalities to get their rich political thieves off the hook of the crime it is glaring they committed because of the hefty legal fees that such persons pay them. Our judges must be worried that criminals who committed crimes here in Nigeria get sentenced abroad when the case is still at preliminary stage back home here.

    Justice Kayode Eso of blessed memory it was who alerted us to the existence of ‘billionaire judges’ in our midst many years ago. Today, we have many billionaire lawyers who stumbled on their riches not necessarily because of their brilliance in law but because they are able to subvert the law through unnecessary interlocutory injunctions, with the connivance of some pliant judges. It is in this country that a governor who went into the state house yesterday in bathroom slippers can emerge today in golden shoes without anyone asking questions. The meteoric transformation of many public officials in the country calls into question the source of their sudden wealth. Unfortunately, our legal system puts the burden of proof on the prosecution and not on a public official whose salary all his lifetime, even without spending a dime of it, is not up to N50million but he can lay claim to property worth billions.

    We, the people will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot if we keep parroting and swallowing hook, line and sinker some of the arguments that our corrupt elite pass on to us without interrogating such positions. When they are haunted by their corrupt past and see they are about being brought to justice, they start shouting that the sitting government is victimising them due to political differences. I have always made this point; perhaps since the Obasanjo era when some people joined our ruling thieves in advancing this argument of political victimisation. I will not stop repeating myself because, until we go this way, we will be going in circles in the anti-corruption war. Let Obasanjo catch his own political enemies who are thieves. Let Goodluck Jonathan also catch his political opponents who have dipped their fingers into our collective pie. Just imagine the number of thieves that we would have taken out of circulation if this had been done. But we are waiting (thus playing into the hands of the big thieves) to catch all the thieves across parties before acknowledging that the anti-corruption war is working. The ordinary Nigerian must begin to reject this self-serving argument of the political elite. No doubt the best thing is for a true anti-corruption war not to have respect for religious, ethnic or political sentiments. But ours is still a fledgling democracy that runs on personalities and therefore should not be compared with places that run on structures. What should bother us is that the political opponents being arrested and tried are thieves; and not whether they belong to the opposition party or not.

    This is the way it should be in a country where big people engage in primitive stealing as if stealing is going out of fashion. For God’s sake, what does any sane person need N2.2billion that a former Chief of Air staff, Air Marshall Adesola Amosun, for instance, was asked to forfeit (temporarily) to the Federal Government? That is how sunk our country is. I keep having the feeling that the worst place in hell will be the final resting place of many of our elite rulers whose proclivity to dip their hands in the public till is without comparison. They are so heartless. Many Nigerians out there cannot afford a meal a day; yet these people who steal in billions are reluctant to review upward the paltry N18,000 minimum wage.

    It is because they are haunted by their dark deeds that they go about with security escorts that we, the oppressed, pay to keep. They know the harm they have done and they keep doing to the people and so cannot just be themselves in a crowd or in public without a retinue of security details. Yet, they claim to be democratically elected. What would they have done if we were in a military era?

    We must celebrate whenever any of these big thieves is convicted. The icing on the cake is that they are even not allowed an option of fine. Otherwise, their fellow thieves would rally round them to pay the fine, no matter how hefty because they expect the same treatment when their own convictions come. But, like a magnanimous judge once did, they could be allowed to pick and choose any prison of their choice to serve their terms upon conviction. That is magnanimous enough.

  • June 12 at last

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s replacement of May 29 with June 12 as Democracy Day confirms the aphorism that no matter how fast falsehood runs, truth will eventually catch up with it one day. For over 19 years, successive governments in the country had lived in denial by observing May 29 as Democracy Day. But we all know this was not the case; we know that June 12 is more significant in the country’s political history. That was a day that over 14 million Nigerians set aside all the primordial sentiments that hitherto had become ready tools in the hands of our ruling elite to polarise Nigerians. They went to the polls called by the then military junta, headed by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd), but which he, characteristically and ‘maradonically’ (permit me the use of that word) attempted to stop, through all means possible, including the judicial process.

    But for the courage of the chairman of the then National Electoral Commission (NEC), Prof Humphrey Nwosu, and the resoluteness of Nigerians who had come to realise that Babangida was merely playing chess with his very expensive transition programme designed to transit to nowhere, Babangida would have halted the electoral process, thus aborting an election that has come to be recognised worldwide as the freest and fairest in the country’s history. Thus, the election went ahead on June 12, 1993, in defiance of a kangaroo court order procured by the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), one of Babangida’s contraptions to scuttle the transition programme, asking NEC not to go ahead with the election.

    President Buhari captured the developments succinctly in a statement on Wednesday: “For the past 18 years, Nigerians have been celebrating May 29th, as Democracy Day. That was the date when for the second time in our history, an elected civilian administration took over from a military government. The first time this happened was on October 1st, 1979. But in the view of Nigerians, as shared by this Administration, June 12th, 1993, was far more symbolic of democracy in the Nigerian context than May 29th or even the October 1st.”

    Buhari did not stop here. He also bestowed the highest national honour in the land, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on the acclaimed winner of the election, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, popularly referred to as MKO. Abiola’s running mate, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe is also to be given the second highest honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). In the same vein, Chief Gani Fawehinmi was honoured for his heroic role in the struggle to revalidate the June 12 election result.  Although some people have argued that Kingibe does not merit the honour because he, rather than stay with Abiola to fight for the revalidation of the election result, decided to pitch his tent with the Sani Abacha government that succeeded the Interim National Government (ING) which Babangida hurriedly put in place to succeed him, after seeing that the seat of power was becoming too hot for comfort due to the protests that followed his annulment of the election.

    Babangida’s annulment of the election result was as dramatic as his final exit from power. Bouncing like an over-bloated tyre, and in a manner suggestive he was being propelled by something from within, Babangida, on June 23, 1993, announced the annulment of that election.

    Of course, for a few years after, the country was in political turmoil, with neither the bird that perched on a rope nor the rope itself feeling comfortable. The annulment led to a string of events in the country. As stated above, it was the beginning of the end of the Babangida regime which it finally consumed, with Babangida, contrary to his earlier boast not to be stampeded out of office, hurrying out of Aso Rock when he stepped aside on August 27, 1993. The ING, led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, was itself unable to take firm control of the country, such that it was only a matter of about three months for General Sani Abacha to sweep it aside. Abacha himself, again, like Abiola, died in mysterious circumstances on June 8, 1998. Abiola died precisely a month after, on July 7, 1998, while in detention.

    Suffice it to say that President Buhari’s decision on June 12 is not just the reversal of an injustice against Nigerians but the undoing of a grievous harm done the entire nation by a cabal that was determined to keep Babangida in power by other means, or, at best prevent Abiola from being sworn in as president because Abiola’s mandate, as freely given on June 12, 1993 was pan-Nigeria. It had no tribal colour; no religious fragrance. Abiola’s running mate, Kingibe,was also a Muslim, just like Abiola. But that did not deter the voters who, for once, ignored such primordial sentiments at the polling booths. Of course, when Nigerians decided to be orderly at the polls, it was because they had realised Babangida’s antics. They knew he was not prepared to leave office and that he was only looking for the slightest excuse to make a mess of the election. Babangida was so disappointed because all his calculations, either that the elections would not be peaceful, or that Abiola’s challenger, Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC), would defeat Abiola at the polls, fell flat on his face. Abiola contested on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). It is impossible to chronicle the course of the events that trailed that singular decision by the Babangida government in a few pages.

    Expectedly, some people have interpreted President Buhari’s gesture in many ways. Some say given the fact that Buhari has not been known as an advocate of June 12, his sudden reversal of Democracy Day to that date was a political palliative meant to woo the civil society groups and the southwestern part of the country. Some even say it is an attempt by the Buhari government to shore up what they call its waning influence and popularity due to its inability to deliver on its electoral promises. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion; for me, what is important is that the Buhari government has the courage to do what its predecessors could not do.

    It is heartwarming that the Senate and, by and large, the House of Representatives too have seen the good in the president’s gesture. This is the way it should be, devoid of undue politicking. Many of those in both houses were living witnesses to Babangida’s unending transition programme during which he banned and unbanned politicians from participating in the programme at will.

    We must say never again to the idea of some people waking up from the wrong side of the bed to toy with our future. The kind of impunity that made Babangida and his cohorts to annul the result of the election and still be walking our streets free should not be allowed again.

    However, without any attempt to ethnicise the matter, because that was one major thing that June 12 debunked about Nigerians, it is important to also honour the then electoral commission boss, Nwosu. If he had not ignored the court order procured in the night to stop the election, it would not have been possible to celebrate the mandate that we are celebrating today. There is no way we can talk of June 12 without talking of Nwosu. He braved the odds; at grave risks to his life and perhaps those of his close family members. He defied the court, even when it was obvious that cancellation of the poll was what Babangida and his co-travellers in infamy wanted.

    We do not have to forget the ordinary Nigerians who also died in the course of actualising the June 12 mandate, including those killed in Lagos and elsewhere by the  Abacha regime. They are part of the real heroes of the democracy that we enjoy today. Without them, it might have been impossible to send the soldiers to the barracks when we did in 1999. As I have said several times on this page, majority of those who have benefited from the return to democracy did not lift a finger to bring it into fruition. That is part of the reasons they do not know how to manage it. That is why they want to live like oil sheikhs even when the country is in dire economic crisis and minimum wage remains at a paltry N18,000 per month.

    President Buhari should begin the process of doing the needful to give legal teeth to his action where necessary to make the decision endure.  He should also initiate the process of paying the entitlements of those honoured. By looking away from June 12 all these years successive governments had only demonstrated the insincerity that has characterised governance and hobbled the country’s development. Without doubt, Buhari’s decision is significant one way or the other for all, irrespective of whether you stand or sit on June 12.

     

  • Wale Aboderin: a chip off the old block

    Like every other bad news, this one too came like thunderbolt: “have you heard that The Punch chairman is dead?” This looked straightforward enough, except that often, so many things run across one’s mind when confronted with such statement. Even when I thought I had pulled myself together, what came out of my mouth was yet another rhetorical question: “Which Punch chairman”? (As if The Punch has more than one chairman). Then there was silence at the other end; which compounded my consternation. Then came the confirmation; “Mr Gbadebowale Aboderin.” Again, I asked: what killed him? The person said he died after a heart surgery at First Cardiology Consultants, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    I was in Ilesa, Osun State, when the news was broken to me. I had only called this newspaper’s Legal Admin and Personnel Manager (LAPM), Folake Adeoye, who we jocularly refer to as ‘LAMP’ at about 13.35 p.m.to find out one or two things about the office, since I knew I would not be able to get there again on Thursday, when she dropped the bombshell. I left Lagos very early for Ilesa, so, I had not seen any of the papers then. It was one bad news too many. I had problem digesting it; to tell my wife who was only a few metres away when I got the news was equally not easy; and understandably so.

    She is also an ex-Puncher (a former member of the staff of The Punch). Indeed, she was secretary to Salewa, one of Wale Aboderin’s siblings in the company. As I commiserated with Salewa on Friday on phone, things appeared normal. But when I handed over the phone to my wife, Salewa could no longer control her emotions. I can understand; the relationship between the duo in those good old days was far beyond that of master and servant. Such was their closeness that my wife still calls her ‘auntie’, even till today. So, my wife knew fairly well the man who, until his death at about 6.05 a.m. on Wednesday was Chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd. After I managed to get a few details about how and where he died, the first question my wife asked was why he was not taken abroad for treatment. Naturally, that is the kind of question one asks when you know money is not the issue for the person in need of medical attention. Germane as that point might be, that is neither here nor there. In spite of the fact that many of our public hospitals have since become mere consulting clinics, we still have some good hospitals in the country, particularly the private ones. But, as I said earlier, there is no hospital where patients don’t die.

    My wife’s concern about the choice of hospital should be the concern of everybody who knew the departed chairman because money could not have been the reason Wale Aboderin was not flown abroad for medical attention. True, hardly would anyone pass through The Punch without knowing Wale . He was such a quiet, easy-going man that could hardly hurt a fly. He could disarm just anyone with his infectious smiles. I think I met him about four times in the last eight years or so. The first time was when The Punch Place, the company’s new ultra-modern head office complex was commissioned in Magboro, Ogun State, on June 29, 2010. I also met him when Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, the immediate past Chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd. turned 70. The third occasion was in late 2016 at the first anniversary of The Point Newspaper here in Lagos. We also met at one of the media award ceremonies also in Lagos here a few years back. On all occasions, you never missed his humility. My wife too testified that at the social functions of the Aboderins that she attended, Wale  would talk to you respectfully where other empty vessels would bark out orders.

    A chief correspondent with The Punch, Gbenga Adeniji, succinctly captured this humility and simplicity personified: “The other day I saw the chairman just coming out of his car, walking towards his office; I offered to carry a bag he was carrying. He politely declined the offer. When I pressed further, he said he would only do so on the condition that I too would allow him to help me carry the papers I was holding.” When has it become, that such a thing would happen? The reporter who must have been speechless added: “I could not thoroughly enjoy the laughter that ensued because I had to dash into the newsroom, leaving him to face the lift with his bag”.

    But Wale Aboderin was not only meek and simple; he was also compassionate to a fault. His compassionate mien was captured by yet another Punch employee in a chance meeting that seemed to have been divinely arranged, with the (then) vice chairman of The Punch, on July 12, 2010. According to Dayo Oketola, “I remember feeling disoriented and dazed after my car had somersaulted and landed on its roof with the four tyres rolling upside-down. I had struggled to disentangle myself from the seat belt that had kept me safe; I had also wriggled my way out of the wrecked car. Shivering and lost, I had to quickly crawl out of the car because I feared it might catch fire. On seeing the wreckage of the car, I painfully muttered to myself, ‘I’m finished’. Then there came a voice from behind me: ‘If you survive this kind of an accident, then you are not finished’.

    That was Wale Aboderin speaking. He just happened to be at the scene at that time; he did not even know the accident victim was one of the employees of The Punch at the time he stopped to help. Many people would simply zoom off rather than help the victim. He helped him to salvage what could be saved from the car, phoned the company’s managing director (after Oketola had told him he was an employee of The Punch) to confirm, and thereafter drove Oketola home in his own personal car!

    What manner of man is this? I did not meet his father, Chief James Olu Aboderin, the founding chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd when I joined The Punch as a sub-editor in 1985. He died in February 1984. But from all the accounts I heard about him, Wale Aboderin was just a chip off the old block in terms of his compassion, simplicity and generosity. I learnt Chief Aboderin demonstrated all these and even more. Without doubt, Wale would be missed by the so many people whose lives he had touched one way or the other. Although a pilot, he was also into entertainment, including music, fashion, film, visual arts, literature and all. His favourite in this area is his Rapture Band whose leader, Isaac Otokpa, found it difficult to believe that the man who had been taking good care of the band was no more.

    Born on April 17, 1958, Wale Aboderin was also a sport enthusiast, just like his father. As far back as 1997, he founded the first privately owned women’s club in the country, the Dolphins Basketball Club which he also nurtured to the top and is now a shining example to similar clubs in the country and beyond. His tenure as Chairman, Lagos State Basketball Association saw the emergence of future stars through his various grassroots initiatives.

    His philanthropy included his massive support for the Word of Life Rehabilitation Centre, a ministry formed to cater to the rehabilitation of drug addicts and substance abusers.

    It is to his eternal credit though that he proved critics who thought he could not sustain the gains made by Chief Ogunshola, the one I like to refer to as the ‘Father of Modern Punch’ (does that sound political?), wrong. But that is the truth. Wale Aboderin kept the newspaper’s flag flying since his take-over of the chairmanship more than seven years ago, precisely on May 1, 2011, following Chief Ogunshola’s retirement on April 30, 2011, after 24 years of meritorious and dedicated service. Perhaps what the critics did not realise was that he had been under Ogunshola’s tutelage, as it were, since May 21, 1984 when he was appointed a member of the Board of Directors and ultimately became vice-chairman of the company on July 2, 2010. He left the company in the hands of the professionals.

    At 60, Wale Aboderin was too young to die. But then, the question is not necessarily how long but how well. He came, he saw, he conquered and alighted when he got to his bus stop. It is also noteworthy that his end was far better than his beginning. It is painful though that he also could not live long to enjoy the fruits of his and his father’s labour.

    May his soul rest in peace.

  • Big relief

    People who have had cause to travel on the Ikorodu-Shagamu road in recent times must be excited by the Federal Government’s decision to rehabilitate the road. I had the misfortune of travelling on that road about two or three times in the last four years, and I swore never to take that route, no matter what. The experiences were not worth it at all. Even if you travel on the road in a brand new vehicle, no matter how rugged the vehicle is, or how carefully you drive, the vehicle can never remain the same after the trip. It must go to the mechanic workshop to get the bolts and nuts that would have given way in the course of the journey fixed. It is worse when you make the trip in the rainy season.

    It was that bad.

    That this road and indeed many other roads in the country were left to get as bad as they are is a reflection of the lack of vision and wickedness of successive governments that have been running this country. One must necessarily add the wicked aspect of the character flaw of many of the people who have ruled us at all levels because this is even more pronounced than their lack of vision. I can still live with lack of vision  if that is the only problem, at least we will still have our money intact when governments do not embark on any project, including infrastructural development. But a situation where you lose your money and still cannot have development to point at is cruel, to say the least.

    I have said it several times; that I do not know if there is any other country whose public officials travel outside their country to other places, like Nigeria. These Nigerian officials see what obtain in those other lands in terms of educational development; they see the roads, their hospitals, etc. and yet, when they return home, they behave as if it is the natural thing that those places must be the way they are and we remain in our backwater position because that is how God wants it.

    That is why, instead of fixing our public schools and bringing them to their standards of old, they ferry their own children outside the country to study. Instead of fixing power, they buy the best of the most powerful generators; instead of ensuring that our hospitals are well equipped, adequately staffed and stocked with the necessary medicaments, they rush out for medical attention over the slightest health challenge.

    Ordinarily, I would not have had cause to know what the Ikorodu-Shagamu road looked like but for the traffic gridlock on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on about three occasions that I was returning to Lagos from Oyo State. On one of such occasions, I saw many other vehicles making a detour to Ikorodu-Shagamu road and I joined them; because there was standstill on the expressway. As a matter of fact, many motorists took one way on the expressway and there was bedlam. Without knowing precisely where the road the other motorists followed led to, I joined them; the only confirmation I needed was that they were coming to Lagos from Ibadan.

    The first time I tried it, I swore never to take my car through such harrowing experience again. If vehicles could talk, many of them would have talked like Balaam’s donkey, wondering whether it was not better for their owners not to have bought them instead of making them undergo such punishment.

    But, just as a pregnant woman who would swear that the labour pain she is presently having would be the last but would soon return to bed to make another baby, I still had to pass through the Ikorodu-Shagamu road on another occasion when, again, there was a serious traffic jam on the expressway. I think it was after that experience that I really carried out my threat not to travel on that road again, no matter what. Of course, I once paid for that decision as I had to sleep overnight on the expressway the other time I was caught in a quagmire on the ever busy highway.

    But road travel need not be such a harrowing experience.

    The real reason one should be excited about the rehabilitation of the Ikorodu-Shagamu road is because it is an alternative that can relief, to some extent, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, of some traffic even in normal times. It is particularly heartwarming that the Federal Government has taken a similar decision concerning the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. I almost lost my exhaust pipe due to the bad state of that road, near Ewekoro Cement Factory on one occasion when I was passing through the road. Although the firm tried to do some palliative measures, they were not enough. Some people would say it ought to have done more, at least by way of corporate social responsibility, because their heavy duty vehicles take a lot of toll on the road; they may be right. But government has the greater responsibility of fixing the road since the company pays the requisite taxes.

    What I am saying is that the reconstruction of these two roads will provide viable alternatives for travellers on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. This is the way it should be. One road cannot lead to a market; the more, the merrier. I can choose to travel to Abeokuta on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway instead of going to congest the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The same applies to the Ikorodu-Shagamu road, if these roads are in good condition.

    This is something that should have occurred to the country’s ruling elites many years ago; they should have ensured that all these alternative roads are motorable, to lessen the burden on one and also reduce the pains of travellers. Unfortunately, they left these roads in terrible state, such that everyone going to places like Ibadan, Abeokuta and other axes there has no choice but face the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, thereby not only congesting the road but also helping to reduce its lifespan.

    What is happening now, especially concerning transportation on this axis, is what should have happened years back, if only successive governments at the centre had been proactive. There are essentially three modes of transportation: air, road and rail, and sea. With all the alternatives that are being rehabilitated to connect Ibadan, Abeokuta, etc. from Lagos by road, and the rail contracts that the Federal Government has awarded to link Ibadan with Lagos, travelling along this axis can only become more exciting.

    Interestingly, some mischief makers are now saying the Buhari government is repairing the Ikorodu-Shagamu Road because of next year’s general elections. This is neither here nor there; I mean it may be true and it may not. But, it is still instructive that Buhari is rehabilitating the road because elections will come and go, the rehabilitated roads remain for the benefit of the millions that would travel on them. For sure, the rehabilitation of the 36-kilometre Ikorodu-Sagamu Road at the cost of N20.845 billion is chicken change as against the incalculable losses the country had suffered while the road was in bad state. There are other benefits that cannot be calculated in Naira and Kobo: the projects would improve the socio-economic life of the people and generate employment opportunities as well as help in the fight against armed robbery and other forms of crime in the areas. These, apparently, are some of the things that those playing politics with the rehabilitation of these roads pretend not to realise.

    And, before you accuse me of being parochial, the Buhari administration has taken similar decisions regarding several roads nationwide. And, when I used roads in the south-west as examples, they are merely metaphors for the massive rehabilitation works going on across the country with regard to good road networks and even rail transportation. My personal experiences on the roads I have used as examples approximate those of every other Nigerian travelling on any of the country’s federal roads

    I cannot wait to see these projects materialise because they are going to redefine our perception of travels as pleasurable experiences rather than as the punishment they seem to be due to the present state of our roads and railway. But, what would make these projects last is for the Federal Government to rejuvenate the Federal Emergency Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to see to it that its roads are in top form all the time, otherwise, it is only a matter of time for us to return to square one. This is the least the Federal Government can do, especially since it still collects the lion’s share of the nation’s resources.

    But, how I wish the Muhammadu Buhari administration can devote the energy it is giving to transportation to other vital sectors of our economy, especially as it prepares to begin the last lap of its first four-year tenure.

  • Jibiti nbe ni Lagos

    About a month ago, one of my readers called to register his displeasure with the topics I have been writing on in recent times. Apparently, he is not happy with certain developments in the country, particularly with the Federal Government, and would have wanted me to devote more time and energy in that direction. I quite understood his point. But I also made him to realise that there are so many things happening outside of the government that are worthy of mention; and perhaps with wider ramifications than even what is happening in government. At that time, I had written about the power sector generally twice before narrowing it to my personal experience in the sector in the third article, within a month. I asked him if the power sector was undeserving of such focus. He agreed with me. I also explained the rationale in one or two other articles I had written and he agreed with me. Since then, I have had to write on what I called “Killer excise duties”, in response to the over 500 per cent rise in the excise duties payable on locally made spirits and wines and its likely implications on the economy, among others.

    One point must be made though; and it is that in Nigeria, writers can hardly be bereft of issues to comment on, at the rate at which things are happening by the minute. But there is life after government. As a matter of fact, if one narrows one’s write-ups to the government, there is the tendency of just repeating oneself because there is hardly anything new to say on any given issue. Notwithstanding, I agree there are times one cannot but get angry enough to pillory the government when one reviews the goings-on in the country, especially when it is realised that our lives depend so much on what government does or fails to do.

    You can therefore imagine the quagmire I was in on Thursday when searching for what to write on this week. Somehow, I eventually settled for what would pass for a minor issue to many, but which would be quite appreciated by those who had fallen victims to such scammers. This is part of what used to make Lagos tick in reverse some years back. I remember King Sunny Ade at least once sang about it. Jibiti nbe ni Lagos, to’nta ‘le kan feni mejo (there is fraud in Lagos where a house is sold to eight buyers). It is all about those who sell the same piece of land to several buyers.

    However, this present case is not about land selling, but about renting out eight apartments to about 133 persons. The figure could be more; it could just be that only the 133 of them came forward to ask for justice in the matter.  The man in the centre of it all; one Alhaji Ayobami Oseni, a property developer, was only last week sentenced to 2,670 years for duping the 133 prospective tenants. As a matter of fact, it was the headline that grabbed my attention: “Developer bags 2,670 years for duping 133 tenants of N25m”.  That was sensational and catchy enough.

    What happened was that the developer was arraigned by the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) on December 7, 2012. Prosecuting counsel, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abraham Fadipe, told the court that the one-storey building that Oseni was developing at 3, Church Street, Ajao Estate, Lagos, contained four mini-flats and two self-contained apartments. But Oseni posed as a landlord, erected vacancy signs around Ajao Estate when the building was under construction. As is usual in such circumstances in Lagos, it was only a matter of time for prospective tenants to start trooping in to make enquiries. Oseni began collecting rents, agency and agreement fees ranging from N160,000 to N300,000 from at least 133 of them, making a total of N25million and assured each of them that they would get an apartment in the building. The victims then petitioned the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD), an arm of the ministry of housing, which invited the police and held a watching brief during the nearly six-year trial.

    Chief Magistrate O.O. Olatunji who tried the case convicted Oseni after he pleaded guilty to 267 counts of conspiracy, obtaining  under false pretences, and stealing. Oseni bagged 10 years imprisonment on each of the 267 counts; there was no option of fine. However, since the sentences are to run concurrently, the developer would now spend about nine years in prison, having spent one year in prison custody.

    Someone who has not fallen victim to the antics of people like Oseni in Lagos or elsewhere might be wondering how that merits being commented on. But those who had been duped in the past would appreciate it even as the judgment would serve as deterrence to other prospective dupes who might want to toe Oseni’s path. Indeed, the case should also be of help to many people out there who might be looking for apartments, especially in Lagos, to look carefully before they leap.

    Cases like this simply remind us that Ejigbadero, the land-grabber-in chief in Lagos in the 1970s, is still very much around, even though he has since paid dearly for his crimes. His ‘descendants’ are still all over the place, prowling like some hungry lions, looking for the person to devour. But the good news is that much as the criminals have learnt to shoot without missing, the state government too has learnt to fly without perching, apologies to Chinua Achebe. Some people in the social circles would tell you that gonorrhea is a disease of the famous; land-grabbing or selling one plot of land to several buyers used to be a thing of pride in Lagos. Mercifully, all that is changing. There is hardly any crime that is committed that the Lagos State government does not have an answer to. If you are a man who cannot control your libido, you have the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) to contend with. The only regret here is that while this law protects only women against wife-beating, there is no such agency to take care of the men who are battered by their wives. Yet, the state government itself recently admitted that there is a growing incidence of wives beating their husbands to pulp. Then, just about two years ago, the state government came up with the anti-omo onile law or Properties Protection Law which is being enforced by the Special Task Force on Land Grabbers.

    In the Oseni matter, the victims took advantage of LASRETRAD. Although the case lasted six long years, the criminal got his comeuppance in the end. Like many other poor thieves, Oseni is not wasting anybody’s time by threatening to appeal the judgment.  The man simply accepted his fate. As a matter of fact, when Chief Magistrate Olatunji asked him for his allocution, Oseni merely asked for mercy. “Well, I plead for mercy from the court concerning the statement (sic) against me. I plead that the court should temper justice with mercy. I have learnt my lesson. I have been in detention for two years, 19 days. It will never happen again. I end my statement.” That was the end of the story. But our ‘ogbologbo’ (very important?) pen robbers would never accept even if they were caught with their hands right in the cookie jar. You will see all manner of legal luminaries propounding all manner of legal theories to prove that the judge was not learned in law or that his court was not even competent in the first place to try the matter. They will then threaten to appeal the judgment, knowing full well that their clients were guilty as charged. They will still be shopping for a corrupt judge through whom they could subvert the law to free their high influential clients.

    This is why the answer given by the acting chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu when Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka asked him (Magu) to show him the place reserved for our VIP suspects in the new ultra-modern EFCC headquarters in Abuja, excited me. Magu had told Soyinka (who apparently asked a leading question) that in the facility, all animals are equal. That is the way it should be. That is one sure way to put an end to corruption in the country.

     

  • A thoughtful NYSC

    At its inception in 1973, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was designed as a tool for national unity. The idea was that, posting young Nigerian graduates to places outside their states of origin would get them better acquainted with the ways of life of their host communities, and thus help in reducing, if not eradicating some of the prejudices Nigerians have about each other. But, a situation where the NYSC boss had to announce that corps members would not be posted to troubled spots would appear to be a minus for the scheme that was started with such lofty idea.

    But, is that necessarily so? Not exactly. As a matter of fact, the director-general of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, struck the right cord when he announced, on Tuesday at the Orientation Camp in Sagamu, Ogun State, while addressing Batch ‘A’ corps members that the NYSC would ensure that no corps member is posted to areas having security challenges in the country. A release by the director, press and public relations of the NYSC, Adenike Adeyemi, said “no corps member would be posted to an area with security breach within the country. The corps members must uphold the ideals of patriotism as responsible citizens in the discharge of their duties in their different places of primary assignment.”

    One should commend the NYSC boss for this initiative even though many parents had been using all manner of subterfuge to evade having their children posted to the troubled spots before now. So, Kazaure’s formal announcement must have been sweet music in the ears of parents whose children are serving or will still serve in the current service year. Many prospective or serving corps members too must have received the news with joy. Nothing less is expected from any man who has his own children and would therefore not want to put other people’s children in harm’s way.

    It is not Kazaure’s fault that some parts of the country are having security challenges, just as it is not the corps members’ fault. At any rate, one has to be alive to serve one’s fatherland. One has to be alive to foster unity, too. You can’t do either in the grave. And, as they say,” life has no duplicate.” While the rest of us may see the corps members who had died in the course of the national service as mere statistics, which should not be so in the first place, not so their parents and relatives as well as other loved ones. They are the ones that know the value of what they had lost. Even if we pretend to be touched by describing their loss as a national tragedy, we are still speaking in abstract terms. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.

    Another good thing from the NYSC is that this is not the only area where the it appears to have shown genuine concern for corps members’ safety and security. The organisation appears to have taken full advantage of information technology (IT) to ensure that corps members stay relatively secure, and in case they have any emergency. Kazaure said in an interview with a national daily that: “We provide them with a booklet on security tips as well as phone numbers that give them a direct access in their places of primary assignment to personnel of security agencies such as the police, the State Security Service and other agencies.

    “Apart from these, the scheme has established Distress Call Centres domiciled in the NYSC Directorate headquarters which function 24 hours. We also have the relevant details of all corps members nationwide and their locations are uploaded to the database of the centre.

    “If anyone of them puts in a distress call, the call will immediately reflect on the computer screen the details and location of that corps member.”

    Nothing of the sort was available when we did our national service in the mid-1980s. Of course there could not have been anything like that then because the level of IT was relatively low. Today, the world is a global village and so many technological innovations have somewhat revolutionised the way we live. I do not know whether it was Kazaure that brought about this innovation or whether he inherited it; the important thing is that the scheme is trying to keep pace with technological developments and is indeed taking advantage of them.

    But one should warn that having these technological devices is one thing, maximising their impact is another. Most of these gadgets, no matter how sophisticated would still be programmed by human beings. This is where the problem lies. There must be constant monitoring to ensure that human beings do not come in the way of the efficiency of these gadgets.

    One other area one should expect the NYSC to look into is the allowance of the corps members. What they currently get cannot take them home and we should not send our youths to far-flung places only to lead them into temptation. Our VIPs whose children participate in the scheme know what they augment their children’s stipend with. They should therefore realise that ‘what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.’

    As we prepare for next year’s General Elections, it is also necessary to remind the government thast if any of these children must be given electoral roles, he or she should be adequately protected. Politicians cannot keep their own children safe at home or abroad only to use other people’s children as cannon fodders.

    Above all, corps members themselves must hearken to the admonitions of the NYSC authorities, especially concerning unnecessary travels and keeping late nights. It saddens one whenever any corps member dies as a result of these avoidable circumstances.

     

    Take heart, Evans, such is life

    Evans Chukwudubem Onwuamadike, also known as Evans
    Chukwudubem Onwuamadike, also known as Evans

    Chukwudumeje Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, unarguably the most celebrated kidnap kingpin suspect (what a mouthful) of our times is sad, and angry. And, in fairness to him, he has every cause to be. How can a celebrated accused of his caliber be treated the way he said prison authorities have been treating him? Evans said for three consecutive days, he was not given food. They are not allowing him to have his bath even as they disallow him from changing his clothes. He is not even allowed to see visitors. Although the kidnap suspect did not say what kind of visitors, one can understand what he is probably talking about: after all man no be wood! We should sympathise with him because in his ‘heyday’, beautiful ladies would be tumbling over themselves to ensure Evans took their own sponge whenever he was having his bath at the stream.

    An aggrieved Evans therefore seized a golden opportunity to air his grievances when he appeared before a high court in Igbosere, Lagos, on May 7 to answer the charges of kidnap, murder and attempted murder brought against him by the Lagos State government. He caused a mild drama at the court premises, as he initially refused to alight from the vehicle which conveyed him from the prison to court. But the judge, Adedayo Akintoye, was not one to fall for such antics. He ordered that Evans should be bundled. When he was eventually forced inside the court, Evans signalled the judge that he needed to speak. When the judge allowed him, Evans said: “I have an explanation to make. Since I have been in the maximum prison, they have been maltreating me; no visit, they don’t feed me well, I have an eye problem and I cannot see afar.”

    And when the judge ordered prison authorities to take good care of him since he is still deemed innocent until he is convicted, if guilty, Evans broke down in tears. “What have I done to you people? They have been beating me; no good food; I have been locked up in one place since last year; why are they taking my case personal? Why do you people want to kill me,” he said.

    In fairness to Evans, he should not be going through this kind of ordeal. Is it not the same prisons where we hear all manner of stories of how well our Very Important Prisoners (VIPs) are spoilt with everything they want, everything under the sun? Have we forgotten that the media carried stories of how one of the oga at the top in the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who had a brief stop-over in Kirikiri Prison over contract-splitting had everything at his beck and call? So, could it be that our prisons have changed? Or is it a case of Evans being stingy?

    Anyway, whatever it is, Evans deserves better treatment in Kirikiri. Although I would want to admonish him that Nigeria is not the best of places to be suspected on the wrong side of the law. Life at that end is better in the United Kingdom or the United States of America. Or, in some other civilised places. Those are the places where one can get red carpet reception in prison.  His wife or girl-friend can even be visiting to satisfy him with ‘tibi’ right there in the prison. Such democracy ends at the entrance of our prisons in Nigeria. Once you are in, you are on your own. Except of course you are ready to play ball, or you know somebody who knows somebody that is close to somebody at the top, the very top! If Evans is not having anyone to help him in these high places, it is because they dread him. In his days ‘in government and in power’ in the kidnap world (that is if he was the one terrorising the rich then), if any of those big people heard his name, they would run for cover.

    The rich who could have saved him know how much they were shocked and awed whenever they heard he was in town.

    Even if it is seven years since a fowl died, which fox would say it wants to go there to feed its eyes?

     

  • Killer excise duties

    With effect from June 4, consumers of locally produced wines and spirits in the country may have to pay more for the products, unless the Federal Government changes its mind on the upward review of the excise duties on them. The review is sequel to the recommendation of the Tariff Technical Committee of the Federal Ministry of Finance which President Muhammadu Buhari has signed. Although the increase is to be effected in phases over a three-year period (from 2018 to 2020), the current excise at 20% for spirits amounts to N31 per litre while the new excise released by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, amounts to N200 per litre for spirits and N150 per litre for wines. This is over 500 per cent increase at a go; it is not good for any business.

    Quite expectedly, the producers of these products have cried foul, and urged the government to take a second look at the review. The producers reacted under the aegis of the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), a sub-sectoral group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). Of course they are not expected to keep quiet or fold their arms when a policy that threatens to destroy their over N420 billion installed capacity/investment has just been signed by the president. Even though their hair was shaved in their absence (as they claimed they were not consulted before the review was done), they are not completely averse to government’s intention to rake in more money from the subsector; all they want is for the percentage rise in duties to be reduced so that they can continue to be in business to contribute their quota to the nation’s economy as well as meet the social/entertainment requirements of their consumers.

    Ordinarily, one could say why shouldn’t government impose prohibitive duties on wines and spirits, if only to discourage people from taking them? But, irrespective of whatever anyone may say, the industry is contributing some money to the government’s coffers.  Not only that, many people take wines and spirits for relaxation. And really, they help in reducing stress and are indispensable at social functions. At any rate, there is nothing inherently bad in drinking either wines or spirits. It is only too much of it, just like anything else, which is bad. But more importantly, the issue is about a government policy that may inadvertently end up killing the subsector just like similar policies had done in the past.

    When excise duties are raised astronomically as in the present scenario, the logical consequence is for the producers to pass the increase to consumers. Definitely, when the cost becomes prohibitive, some of the consumers will have to forego the local distilled spirits and wines for the unregulated local alternatives. Because even nature itself abhors a vacuum, there will be an increase in the demand for paraga, ‘Sapele water’, and what have you, which are produced without consideration for hygiene or safety standards. Alternatively, the country will become a dumping ground for imported wines and spirits, some of which are even of inferior quality. Lest we forget, 78% of spirits consumption is driven by low price products typically consumed in the low-income market. Ultimately, some of the producers may close shop while others may have to drastically scale down their operations.

    Where does that leave a country just exiting recession and one which requires massive job creation? The wines and spirits industry alone has created about 250,000 direct and indirect jobs. Have we given a thought to the family cohesion, social stability and economic wellbeing of at least five million people that are likely to be jeopardised? We do not need to cut our nose to spite our face.

    What we should be looking for is a way of adding to the existing jobs and not formulating policies that will throw more otherwise engaged workers into the saturated unemployment market. Already, the devil has too many such hands to engage since they cannot be gainfully engaged. That explains the rising crime wave nationwide. We need not compound this.

    So many otherwise thriving firms have had to close shop or relocate to other countries either due to government’s policies or the general inclement business environment here. Companies like Dunlop Nigeria Plc, Michelin, among others, have had to take away their manufacturing arms out of the country due to these reasons, and that meant attendant job losses, and drop in revenue even for the government. Just as some of these companies invested heavily before being forced to leave, the local distillers too have in recent times made significant investments to grow capacity as well as achieve backward integration. For instance, Guinness Nigeria has since 2015 made capital investments worth over N3billion in low-cost production and packaging plants. Atlantic Distilleries too constructed Nigeria’s first ethanol plant with a production capacity of 10 million litres per annum, which consumes approximately 240 tons of cassava per day. Likewise Euro Global that invested in a N3 billion ethanol plant with a planned capacity of 120,000 litres of daily ethanol production. What happens to all of these in the event that the demand for their products fall?

    What the Nigerian government should be doing now is promoting policies and programmes that encourage local entrepreneurs and not one that compound their woes or discourage them. We need to remind ourselves that doing business in the country is unlike doing business in many other countries, including some of the African countries that we regard as backwater, but which have since settled a basic infrastructure such as power. Power supply is still epileptic in Nigeria; that the companies in the wines and spirits industry have survived in spite of the numerous challenges is a testimony to their resilience. There is no point overstretching that strength.

    We cannot be obedient to ECOWAS’ policy at the expense of our own struggling economy. This is much more so that the top 80%, excise duty rate parity for spirits and wines are x3.03 and x2.3 times the excise duty rate of beer, respectively, whereas the regional averages is x2.0 for wine and x1.7 for spirits across Africa. Why then would Nigeria’s case be different?

    It is unfortunate that one could not immediately tell the ministry/ministries that were represented on the Tariff Technical Committee of the Ministry of Finance because this is not a matter to be left in the hands of accountants alone. For accountants and finance people generally, what they are looking at is basically the bottom-line. This particular matter transcends the Federal Ministry of Finance. It should involve the ministries of labour and productivity, trade and investment, perhaps even agriculture, at least, so that the necessary cross-fertilisation of ideas that would have led to a more robust debate would have shaped the outcome. It is also not one to be left in the hands of religious bigots who are likely to see spirits and wines as forbidden fruits and would therefore dance themselves lame that fewer people will have access to the items now that the punitive excise duties have been imposed on them.

    If there had been a robust exchange of ideas, some issues might have been better thrashed out.  As things stand, it appears the overriding consideration that decided the new excise regime for locally produced spirits and wines is revenue drive. It needs not be so. Spirits and wines, unlike beer, are more elastic; therefore, any disproportionate price shocks will negatively impact consumption. Moreover, given our porous borders and the illicit market, price increase driven by higher excise duty may result in loss of government revenue (contrary to the fabulous projection that propelled the upward review); increase in illicit consumption and significant health risks, thus being counter-productive in the long run.

    The point being made is that the government has to do some balancing act in this matter to achieve its aims. As a matter of fact, it has to handle the issue with utmost caution to avoid unintended consequences.

    The way forward therefore is for the Federal Government to review downward the excise duties, irrespective of whether the president has signed the report that gave birth to them or not. That is the only logical thing to do, especially in the face of compelling arguments that have been advanced. There is no doubt that the government needs more revenue; but this should be done with a human face and not at the expense of legit businesses that are braving all odds to stay afloat in the country. There are many rich Nigerians out there who are not paying taxes; the government should further spread the nets to get them captured. VAIDS appears to be doing some of this magic; it should be more rigorously pursued.

    A review of the duties is even more compelling given that the wines and spirits’ producers were not taken into confidence in drafting the report. They deserve an opportunity to have their say even if the government ultimately has its way.

     

  • Abraham Adesanya lives on

    Although Pa Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya died 10 years ago, precisely on April 27, 2008, aged 85, his contributions to Nigeria’s political evolution remain evergreen. His death that fateful Sunday saddened not a few. Many were sad not because he was too young to die (as a matter of fact; he enjoyed the kind of longevity which must have confounded his enemies, particularly the country’s military oligarchy that wanted to dispatch him to the great beyond earlier than his appointed time in the Abacha years, because of what they might have considered his political radicalism), but because by his death, Yorubaland and indeed Nigeria had lost yet another quintessential leader and politician.

    Pa Adesanya was many things rolled into one: politician, lawyer, activist, welfarist, and liberal progressive; but he was renowned as a politician. All these explain why his 10th memorial anniversary is not an event for members of his immediate or extended families alone; he is being remembered from far and near by his political associates and mentees.

    Born in Ijebu-Igbo in the then Western Region (now Ogun State) on July 24, 1922, Adesanya attended St. John’s Anglican School, Oke-Agbo from 1933 to 1935; Ojowo United Primary School, Ijebu-Igbo 1936-38; Methodist School, Osogbo 1939 and Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, Ijebu-Ode (1941-1944). He was a teacher for some years before travelling to the United Kingdom to study law at the then Holborn College of Law, Greys Inn. Upon his return to the country as a qualified lawyer, he joined the then Action Group (AG) led by the sage, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo. He was nominated and elected to represent Ijebu-Igbo Constituency in the  Western House of Assembly in the December  12, 1959 House of Representatives Election.

    Adesanya was later to lead the team of lawyers that defended Chief Awolowo against the Federal Government’s charges of treason in 1962, a task which he performed demonstrably and creditably.

    An Awoist to the core, Pa Adesanya’s rising political stature later saw him elected into the Senate in the Second Republic under the ticket of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), a successor to the AG, in 1979. On principle, he had declined the governorship ticket offered him by the UPN, only to opt, instead, for a senatorial seat. He was a voice to reckon with in the Upper Chamber. Indeed, in retrospect, one can only recall, with nostalgia, the quality of the Senate then as against many of the jesters that now parade themselves as senators, especially in this eighth National Assembly.

    Pa Adesanya’s principles stood him out as a dogged fighter for democracy in the heady days of military rule. He was outspoken in his call on the Babangida regime to de-annul the result of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the election who was denied the mandate despite  testimonies that the election was the freest and fairest in the country’s history. General Ibrahim Babangida, the then self-styled president,  eventually fled the political scene when the heat of protests over his annulment of the polls became too scorching for him to bear. He hurriedly put a political contraption called the Interim National Government (ING) headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan in place, in the hope that that would douse the political tension in the land. It never did. Adesanya, as deputy leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a pro-democracy movement formed on May 15, 1994 with the sole aim of revalidating the presidential election and restoring the country to democratic rule, and others kept on the pressure. Two weeks after its founding, the then Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Coomasie, declared NADECO illegal, signalling government’s decision to clamp down on pro-democracy activists. Abacha’s government which had been carefully designed to supplant the ING, in search of legitimacy, descended on the critical press and began a mass arrest of political activists. It later turned out that those arrested were even lucky as some others were simply taken out of the way in cruel circumstances.

    Many of the coalition’s leaders,  including Chief Anthony Enahoro, fled the country and went into exile but Adesanya, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and a host of others remained behind to direct the affairs of the pro-democracy coalition which the military junta led by General Sani Abacha  detested with a passion. Pa Alfred Rewane, a major NADECO financier was killed by the Abacha government. Likewise, on June 4, 1996, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, one of the wives of Bashorun Abiola, was killed in Lagos by assassins. Abiola himself died in the custody of the Federal Government on July 7, 1998 in questionable circumstances in what some saw as reprisal killing to avenge the sudden death of Abacha himself on June 8, 1998. When we remember how some of the coalition’s leading lights were silenced by the Abacha regime, then we can better appreciate the great risk that Pa Adesanya took in leading the struggle to return the country to the path of democracy from within.

    It was not that Abacha’s goons did not try to add Adesanya to the growing list of pro-democracy activists that they murdered; it was just mother luck that made him and his driver escape unhurt. Indeed, Wikipedia put the assassination attempt  on Adesanya’s life succinctly: “On the 14th of January, 1997, Chief Adesanya’s uncompromising stance in regards to military misrule led to an attempt on his life at the behest of the then head of state, General Sani Abacha. Adesanya had just left his law chambers in his chauffeur-driven car when a team of would-be assailants (later revealed to be General Abacha’s hit squad) struck. By the time that they were done, the windscreens of the car were shattered and the seats were perforated by bullets. Both he and his driver weren’t injured. The car, a Mercedes-Benz, was ultimately transferred to the ownership of a Lagos museum.”

    After the death of Chief Awolowo and former Governor Adekunle Ajasin, who took over the mantle of leadership of the Yoruba nation from him, the lot fell on Adesanya to lead this race blessed with a rich cultural and ancestral past. Adesanya took over the leadership of the  pan-Yoruba socio-political  organisation, Afenifere  that is in the vanguard of championing the cause of the South West and also turn around the waning influence of Yorubaland in the country.

    The question to ask now is: where were the people in the National Assembly (who are now collecting millions as running costs monthly) in the days of the struggle to restore democracy in the country? The soldiers among them largely feathered their own nests while the civilians queued largely behind the ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ that, strangely, adopted the then head of state, General Abacha as their presidential hopeful in the chicanery of a transition programme that the general initiated.

    This is why, the topic: “Leadership and the Future of Nigeria” chosen for the lecture on this occasion of Pa Adesanya’s 10th memorial anniversary is apt. The lecture, which will hold at the Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, on Wednesday at 10.00 a.m. will be delivered by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary General while four other eminent Nigerians: John Nwodo, a former minister and the 9th President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo; Maj-Gen. Zamani Lekwot, a former Governor of Rivers State; Prof Banji Akintoye, academic, historian and writer and Dr (Mrs.) Doyinsola Abiola, pioneer female newspaper editor-in-chief in Nigeria and wife of the late business mogul, Bashorun Abiola, constitute the panel of discussants. It is also a veritable opportunity to examine the contemporary state of the Yoruba nation – where it is coming from, where it is and where it is going.

    The words on marble written at his demise in 2008 by various Nigerians captured the essence, life and times of the man, Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya. In his tribute when Pa Adesanya died, a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu described the late Adesanya as an advocate of the poor. He added: “As a lawyer he was a defender of the rule of law, a man of courage, a leader who meant so much to the people, not just the South-west but Nigeria as a whole, he also fought for national unity, we will surely miss his words of wisdom and good character.” Pa Adesanya was all of these and even more.

    That is why the late NADECO chieftain and Afenifere leader as well as other Nigerians who risked their lives to get the democracy that we have (I cannot say that we are enjoying because not many people will buy that) in Nigeria today must be surprised at the quality of leadership and the general turn of events in the country, leading to the sorry pass that we are now in.

  • A luta (dis)continua

    When we talk of parallel convention, our minds, as Nigerians, easily go to our politicians. They are the ones usually associated with the concept. Sadly, the concept has found its way into Labour and student unionism. Indeed, every negative aspect of the country’s politics has crept into the Labour unions and student unions. Labour and student leaders are guilty of the very things they accuse government of – mismanagement, embezzlement, impunity, etc. Labour cannot run any business profitably. Rather, people vie for leadership positions in the Labour unions with the aim of having access to the congress’ fat purse. Any side that loses out forms a splinter group.

    Our students too have joined the bandwagon. This issue has been brought to the fore, once again, by the planned unity rally that the two factions of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) want to hold on May 3. The factions are led by Chinonso Obasi and Aruna Kadiri.  Obasi was elected NANS President on July 19, 2016, at a convention held at Patani Stadium, Gombe, while Kadiri emerged President at a parallel convention held on Sept. 4, 2016 at Old Parade Ground, Abuja.

    Really, in any human relationship, there are bound to be differences and disagreements. It is not even good for everybody to sleep facing the same side all the time; ideas should be debated and issues thrashed out through rigorous and robust discussions. There should be cross-fertilisation of ideas to make room for meaningful progress. But the organisational or institutional goal should remain the focus around which the final decisions will be based. What I am saying is that, when there are differences, be it among politicians, Labour leaders or even student leaders, it should be based on principle or issues. But it is not usually so here. When our politicians disagree, or when Labour or student leaders disagree, it is usually over pecuniary gains, or bread and butter. The issue is: what’s in it for me? Splinter groups suddenly sprout from nowhere the moment the answer to the question is ‘nothing for you’.

    It is too early in the day to commend the planned unity rally because we are living witnesses to instances where people’s words have not been their bond. In the first place, the division should not have arisen; second, now that it has, we only have to wait for the words of unity to be matched with action if at all we are to commend the two factions for finally allowing sanity to prevail.

    The truth of the matter is that political leaders, whether in mufti or khaki, are never comfortable when Labour or students speak with one voice. Former self-styled President, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd), was a master in the business of polarizing such powerful groups. We have not forgotten how he used Pascal Bafyau to destabilise the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Unfortunately, at such juncture, both Labour and student leaders are ever too eager to trade off the aphorism “united we stand” for a pot of porridge. Well, I can hear you say ‘pot of porridge’? Pot of porridge in this case is simply an expression. It’s just like when (I think) Napoleon Bonaparte said ‘women are led by toys’. We know that Bonaparte was not referring to dolls with which children play. But then, that must be women in Bonaparte’s days. Today’s women have nothing to do with toys!

    And so are our Labour and student leaders. But Nigerian students must understand that they are the country’s future leaders. Ipso facto, they have a major stake in how the country is governed. There are a thousand and one things that are happening in the country today that the students ought to have been concerned about. As a matter of fact, Nigeria should have erupted the day we were told that for the simple task of making laws, our senators earn a princely N13.8million! It was not so in the past, when Nigerian students led protests with reasonable degrees of success over obnoxious government policies. Nigerian students poured to the streets several times in the Second Republic over sundry issues. This was after they had protested over several government programmes and policies even in the dreaded military era. Some of the protests were the Ali mun go riots of 1978 and others that claimed the lives of some students, including that of the martyr of student protests in Nigeria, Adekunle Adepeju, who was killed in February 1971. Adepeju, a student of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, was trying to help the wounded colleague when he was hit in the head by a stray bullet, wrote Ojo Aderemi in The Green Magazine, “Kunle Adepeju:  A Hero From The Green”.  The selflessness in Adepeju’s death is instructive. He probably would have lived longer if he simply ran away for his own dear life instead of trying to rescue colleagues injured during the 1971 struggle.

    Adepeju and other students who died in the course of the struggle would be turning in their graves seeing what has become of student unionism in the country today. Our student leaders would therefore do well to always remember their comrades who died at critical junctures in the struggles and their lives. That is the best way to ensure that they did not die in vain.

    So, all eyes are on the May 3 date that the two NANS factions have resolved to sheathe their sword. We can only hope they would be able to honour their word. Nigerian students must speak with one voice again. They should say no to politicians who exploit the divisions in their midst for selfish reasons. People who sent their own children abroad to study should not have the opportunity of messing up the lives of other people’s children. Our students should be in the vanguard of rescuing us from the claws of politicians and delivering us safely in the hands of statesmen. Freeman Clarke made a distinction between the two when he said that “a politician thinks about the next election while statesman thinks about the next generation.” That is very apt of the Nigerian situation. We can see and feel that already. Even before they settle down after their swearing in, to deliver democratic dividend, they are busy plotting for the next elections. The students’ voice has been palpably silent in the opposition role they are supposed to be playing.

    Let it be heard loud and clear again.

     

  • Ode to the youth corper

    It is high time the Federal Government made up its mind on whether it wants to continue with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme or not. This has become necessary in view of the many problems confronting the scheme, and by extension, the teeming Nigerian youths who are being sent to far-flung places that they only get to know courtesy of the youth service. I stumbled on a long list of what prospective corps members were asked to bring to the orientation camps and I started asking myself if parents are not being unnecessarily overburdened with what should be the government’s responsibility – round-necked white shirts, white shorts, plain white tennis shoes/white socks, mosquito nets, bed sheets, pillow cases, pillow/s, etc. As a matter of fact, some said the list include pain relief drugs, antibiotics, etc.

    I cannot remember if we took along some of these items when we did our national service in the 1980s. Almost everything we needed was provided free by the Federal Government. I even remember that at the then Gongola State Ministry of Information where I served in Yola, five of us were provided with a five-bedroom flat in the heart of the town.

    About two weeks ago, Brig-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, NYSC’s director-general, expressed concern over the dilapidated state of facilities in many orientation camps across the country. Kazaure, who spoke at the opening of the 2018 Batch ‘A’ Pre-orientation Workshop, held in Ibadan, said that facilities in many of the orientation camps were nothing to write home about. Yet, by virtue of the law establishing the NYSC, state governments are to provide and maintain orientation camps, where the corps members first report to upon arrival in their state of assignment for a three-week orientation. Listen to Kazaure: “Permit me to use this occasion to remind all stakeholders that the law establishing the NYSC scheme places the responsibility of provision and maintenance of orientation camps with the state governments … On this note, I wish to reiterate our call on them to live up to this statutory responsibility. This call has become necessary in view of the dilapidated state of the facilities in many orientation camps.”

    Without doubt, the idea of national youth service is laudable; its objectives noble. Although these are clearly spelt out in Decree No.24 of May 22, 1973, these could be summarised under two broad headings: fostering national unity and inculcating in the youths the idea of tolerance which exposure to places other than theirs is expected to bring to bear upon their lives. For a country just bouncing back from a debilitating civil war that claimed over two million lives, it was a worthy scheme that was expected to be part of the healing balm for whatever sores the civil war had created.

    But, if the government made national service mandatory, it should be its duty to provide the corps members with virtually everything they need. At least that was the way it was when many of those now asking the corps members to bring all manner of items after running the country aground did their own national service. Some people have always said that many of those in leadership positions in the country today remove the ladder after using it to get to the top.

    That would appear to be right. Or, how else do you explain a scheme that began 45 years ago to be suffering the kind of lack that is palpable in the national service today? Forty-five years down the line, one would expect that things should be looking up with the scheme, with many graduates looking forward enthusiastically to the time they would get their call-up letters. If that is happening today, it is not because of any excitement from the experience but more because there are no jobs for the graduates to do. So, they see the one year of national service as a temporary escape from the joblessness.

    Today, corps members are paid N19,500 stipend per month. We all know this cannot take any corps member home, even though the degree of the poverty in this stipend will vary from state to state. I remember in our own days, our stipend was about N96 per month, about what a school certificate holder earned then. But that, by the economic standards of the era was a lot of money. I remember out of the about 10 copies of Newswatch magazine that the vendor that supplied papers to us normally brought to the state capital, he would always reserve one for me every week. I also remember too that two of us then usually contributed to buy a carton of Peak Milk which was about N96. Even as corps members, we had choice; we had nothing to do with milk if it was not Peak. As a matter of fact, the carton had become expensive as at then, as it went for far less before our service year in 1984/’85. Those of us with parents who could add a little to the stipend were usually awash with cash, such that many things, I repeat, many things imaginable were at our beck and call.

    I am referring to an era when national service came with a lot of dignity. As a male youth corps member, any lady you pointed at then was almost yours with little or no effort, especially those of them willing to settle down. I am sure some of us narrowly missed marrying ladies that we met in the course of the national service. Definitely, if the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication phones and the internet that have come to revolutionise our world had existed then, the social calculations and equations in many homes would have been different today. In short, there was something irresistible or magnetic in the NYSC uniform – the white round-neck shirt, the trouser, the khaki shirt, the boots and the caps, not forgetting the belts to match, were hallmarks of success that many ladies wanted to identify with. As a youth corps member then, one could transport himself from a place like Lagos to, say Yola, by air! How much was Nigeria Airways flight then from Lagos to Yola? I remember my father (of blessed memory) gave me N49 for a return ticket from Lagos to Yola when I was going for youth service.  As a youth corps member, you were entitled to 50 percent rebate. Forty-nine Naira was about 50 percent of my stipend. Today, the N19,500 stipend cannot take a corps member through the same distance by air!

    In effect, the slogan: “Now Your Suffering Continues (NYSC), is much more relevant today than in our time. I pity today’s corps member when I see them on our roads because I know life is not easy for them. You even find situations where some establishments reject those posted to them on very flimsy grounds. Thus, you find cases where the corps members themselves begin the long treks in their stations in search of places where they can hide their heads at least for the next one year. We do not have to expose our youths to avoidable dangers and temptations in the name of national service.

    I was about concluding this piece when I stumbled on the information from the NYSC boss that corps members have to wait until minimum wage is reviewed before their stipend too could be raised. Kazaure may have spoken as a public official, but deep down in his heart, he knows that even the so-called minimum wage is a huge joke.  Some of the same people who are dilly-dallying over its upward review are earning stupendous emoluments illegally every month. As another batch of corps members is getting set to begin the national suffering, one can only hope that something would prick the conscience of those deciding our fate to do something about these vulnerable youths, particularly the ladies among them.

    On this score, one is forced, once again, to agree with the great Chinua Achebe: there, indeed, was a country!