The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

  • A jolly good fellow

    A jolly good fellow

    Let it be known that I did not set out to devote this entire column to Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora. Not that he does not merit it; but I just assumed I would not have enough material to fill the space. My initial intention therefore was to write a small piece on him as an adjunct to the main piece. But I soon discovered that my pen was still dripping with ink whenever I wanted to stop. I realised that there is indeed a lot to say about this man of exemplary character and exceptional talents.

    Although I had known him by reputation long before our meeting at the (now defunct) The Comet at Ijora, Lagos, it was at that newspaper that I met him in person for the first time, in 2001. He was an influential external member of the editorial board. Despite the vicissitudes at the company then, he stood by his friend who was managing director of the paper, Mr Lade Bonuola. I could not withstand the pangs of salary arrears so I had to leave when the company began owing up to three months’ salaries. That, as a rule, was the maximum I allowed any newspaper, especially when I had studied the situation and came to the conclusion that the paper was on its way to bed, never to wake up again. Those conversant with newspaper production know that the paper goes to bed daily (if it is a daily publication) with the hope of waking up the next day to undergo the same process.

    Anyway, as fate would have it, Amb. Fafowora and I met again at The Nation and we have been together since then until his voluntary retirement early this month. When towards the end of last year he indicated his intention to retire from the thankless job of consultant on the editorial board, he had cited as reasons his movement from his former Magodo residence to Lekki on the Lagos Island, his advancing age as well as his eyes that experts had cautioned against over-exposure to reading. These, no doubt are germane reasons. But, whether he would be able to stay away from his column which used to feature on the back page of this newspaper every fortnight forever is a matter for time to tell. I say this because it is usually difficult for columnists to ‘siddon look’, especially in our kind of country where nothing is under control; and everything is perpetually under alarm. The temptation to write on some issues, at least occasionally, will always be there.

    I have always admired Fafowora’s style of writing. He mesmerizes with his simple, sweet-flowing prose which makes one not wanting to stop reading his column until one had got to the end. He also has a great power of recall. There are perhaps a few events, historical, official or personal, that he would not vividly recall. It is indeed a pleasure and a privilege having the benefit of sitting with the likes of Fafowora at least once a week to discuss burning national or international issues on the editorial board of this newspaper. What many of us have learnt from such intimacy cannot be quantified; just as they cannot be read up in any book. When the Yoruba people say “if a child has clothes like the elders; he cannot have rags like them” (b’omode ba laso bi agba; ko le lakisa bi agba), they sure know what they are saying. Such reminiscences by Fafowora have been helpful to members of the editorial board who have the rare privilege of sipping from the fountain of knowledge and wisdom of Fafowora and other equally endowed elders on the board.  His interjections at the editorial board meetings have helped to calm frayed nerves when some topics or issues became highly contentious.

    I cannot remember any occasion when Fafowora ever lost his cool. He is ever calm no matter the circumstance; and highly witty too. With him, there can hardly be a dull moment. Although prematurely retired in his early 40s as ambassador, he hardly bears any grudge against anybody. Not many people can put such a cruel past behind them and move on in life. Fafowora comes across as a man who does not joke with his friends and relations. On occasions that he could not make it to the editorial board meeting, he would tell you he had to attend a friend’s wake-keep or a relation’s birthday, or some other social engagements. For him, punctuality was the soul of business whenever he attended the meeting. He is also a man who is finicky about things; no detail is too minute to be handled carelessly.

    As with many other columnists in this newspaper, Fafowora too at least on an occasion had a lady admirer who was deceived by the childlike face in the passport photograph on his column and requested to meet him in person. This is one thing many of us (columnists) at The Nation suffered at one time or the other. As a matter of fact, some of us have had encounters with people who introduced themselves as native doctors or  clairvoyants with claims they could solve any of our problems.  Those are some of the things you experience when your telephone number is in the public domain. However, back to the lady in love with ambassador (as Fafowora is fondly called), on the appointed date, she came to this newspaper and passed by him on the corridor without knowing that he was the one she had fallen in love with! One can only imagine how disappointed she would have been at that point. That was only a few years before. Fafowora is still as handsome as ever even at 76. One can only imagine how handsome he was as a young man. Little wonder he is married to an equally beautiful woman, an indication that both of them took their eyes to the market. It is not for fun that a young and sophisticated lady saw his passport photograph and started fantasizing!

    Dapo Fafowora, an Ijesha from Ilesha, Osun State, and an alumnus of University College, Ibadan, (now University of Ibadan) obtained his Masters Degree from the University of London in 1966 and the Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the Trinity College, Oxford University in 1972. Fafowora joined the Nigerian Diplomatic Services in 1964. Between 1966 and 1968, he served as Second Secretary, Nigeria High Commission, London. He was the Acting Nigerian High Commissioner in Uganda from 1973 to 1975; and between 1981 and 1984 the Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria at the United Nations. He also served as Chairman, United Nations Development Committee at the same time as well as Chairman of Africa Group at the United Nations. Ambassador Fafowora is also a former Director-General and Chief Executive of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. He was at a time a special adviser to the Osun State government. He had been a columnist in The Guardian and The Comet before moving over to The Nation where he had been for about 11 years.

    When you have enjoyed the kind of relationship that we had with a man like Fafowora, it is only fit and proper to organise a befitting send-off  for such a man when he is leaving the stage. That explained the little get-together this newspaper held in his honour in its now refurbished Board Room on Wednesday, where speaker after speaker extolled his virtues at the emotion-laden ceremony that he described as one of the most touching send-off he ever had. It is often said that there is no way one can walk without his head shaking. In other words, there is no one without his or her but. But not one person mentioned anything that could be taken as a minus for the ambassador at the occasion. I also scratched my head severally in my bid to recall what could be said to be one of his weaknesses but could hardly remember one. This, however, should not be taken to mean Fafowora is perfect. Perhaps it only tells us that he is not one that easily gets angry or keeps malice. No matter the situation, he is ever calm.

    I wish him a pleasant retirement (I wonder how many times he would retire, though)! But, ambassador should be rest assured that he is going nowhere until his generation has fixed this country that he always tells us he would long have been gone from whenever we talked about some things that may happen in the country in the future. Good or bad. But usually the bad. It is only after that that he can sing his Nunc Dimittis.

     

  • Just when is terror?

    Just when is terror?

    Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, struck the right chord on Wednesday, when he asked the rather apt question of “just when is terror.” Prof Soyinka might not have said anything new, but his view represented that of many Nigerians who have been wondering who the worst enemy is: Boko Haram, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or the killer herdsmen. Such view, when expressed, especially by someone of Soyinka’s caliber, usually makes the authorities quiver.

    The Nobel laureate made his views on the activities of the herdsmen known in a statement made available to newsmen. He asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the killing of innocent Nigerians by herdsmen. “In plain language, they have declared war against the nation and their weapon is undiluted terror. Why have they been permitted to become a menace to the rest of us? It is happening all over again. History is repeating itself and alas, within such an agonisingly short span of time”, Prof Soyinka noted.

    If there is any issue on which I have had cause to be on the same page with the Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, it is on these herdsmen. Fayose made history last year when he outlawed open grazing in the state. A few offenders  had been prosecuted for breaking that law. That is the way it should be. Someone asked to watch over a shop should not attempt to be the owner of the shop. In the same vein, herdsmen who should be grateful for the easy passage they have all over the country should not begin to feel it is their God-given right to do that with impunity.

    I have said it several times that we do not have to call cow brother simply because we want to eat beef. Even the people in civilised countries who eat more nutritious beef are not doing that. Studies have shown that our cows are the poorest in terms of their nutritional value as well as the quality and quantity of milk they produce per day. Indeed, studies have also shown that no Nigerian cow currently has the capacity of producing up to a litre of milk daily, whereas cows elsewhere produce an average of 12 litres per day. Moreover, Holland, with far less population compared to Nigeria has 350 million cows while Nigeria has only 19 million. The import is that we spend so much money importing milk. Sadder still, the milk is not even of a good quality. As the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, noted at a conference organised by his ministry in September, last year: “The sad thing is that the country is not spending this money on the best quality of milk, it is the lowest quality, powdered milk that is being imported into the country.” The long distance that our cows trek before getting to the point of consumption has not only drained the best of the nutrients in them; it also makes them vulnerable to all kinds of diseases, some of which they end up passing to human beings.

    These are the reasons why many people are saying it’s time for our herdsmen to  move away from their old ways and embrace ranching, which is what obtains in other places where cows give more value for money. Yet, these people are so attached to this antediluvian practice that they are not ready to consider the merits in ranching. They should not be allowed to get away with this nonsense. A country that wants to develop cannot leave its destiny in the hands of people who barely know their right from the left. Herdsmen, whether they are Fulani or whatever, cannot force the country to come down to their level; rather, they should aspire to come up by seeing the promise that ranching holds.

    Some people have said that the Benue killings were a function of the defects in the law made by the state house of assembly banning open grazing in the state. Even if this is correct, it could not have justified the senseless murder of innocent people by herdsmen wielding sophisticated weapons. The problem is that the state government lacks the capacity to enforce that law. I guess this was what informed the decision of Governor Fayose to put hunters in the state on red alert, because the state has a similar tough law on open grazing.

    What the Buhari presidency does not seem to realise is that if the Ekiti balance of terror is replicated in many states of the federation, the result can only be better imagined. Fayose, the street-wise person that he is, is merely taking a cue from the Yoruba saying that “nitori were ita la se nni were ni’le” (literally meaning that it is because of the crazy people outside that we also harbour crazy people within). This may not be a perfect translation of that Yoruba saying, but it at least gives an idea of what one is talking about. The most basic duty of government is protection of lives and property. When a government fails in this, its very essence is eroded. Naturally, there will be a resort to self-help, which is what Fayose is doing and this comes with calamitous consequences. Fulani herdsmen should not be allowed to continue to get away with the impression that they can always sneak into a place and senselessly kill as many people as they want, unchallenged. If only those Ekiti hunters can do like their forefathers, then, there will be casualties on both sides, instead of some rag-tag herdsmen all bolting away alive after killing innocent people, including women and children.

    The pictures that adorned the cover pages of our major newspapers last week did not portray the Buhari administration in good light; and rightly so. An array of caskets bearing the bodies of people murdered for no just cause is not a good emblem for any government; not in the least the Buhari government. Then when you see local hunters in their traditional attire, as if preparing to go to war in a country with a sitting government, one does not need anybody to tell him that all is not well. And indeed, there is fire on the mountain.

    Prof Soyinka has raised a poser which the Buhari administration has to answer. Just when is terror? Do the herdsmen have official cover for the sophisticated weapons they carry about? All the same, it is heartwarming that the Federal Government has deployed special forces in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, among others, where the herdsmen have been snuffing life out of people with reckless abandon. But it is one thing for such teams to be deployed; it is another for them to do their job professionally. They have no business reading the body language of the president or anybody for that matter in the course of their assignment. Many Nigerians want to see the president’s fury in tackling the herdsmen’s challenge. They refer to his handling of Boko Haram and even IPOB. And I think they are right. If IPOB is considered a terrorist organisation, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body of the herdsmen is even more so.  They do not have any right to tell a state government how to make laws or how not to make laws. That is beyond their ken.

     

  • Second wealthiest

    Second wealthiest

    If only a good report is enough to roll out the drums, Osun State would most probably be agog with celebrations now, with the report released on January 1, by the Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) in its “How States Performed in 2017”. The report, presented by the company’s managing director, Bismark Rewane, classifies Osun State as the second wealthiest state in the country. It also shows the state as the second best in terms of the measured ‘Misery Index’, with 16.37% inflation rate that also reflects in the rate of unemployment and underemployment in the state.

    The report might not make much sense to the average person in Osun State now for obvious reasons: There is nothing to say by way of consolation to someone whose mother was killed by a dangerous animal.Does one tell him that that was how one lost one’s own mother too? Again, as they say, to a carpenter, every object looks like a nail. To people facing basic challenges of life, this is understandable. But Osun State is not alone in this. As a matter of fact, it is not even one of the most delinquent states in salary arrears, despite its very low monthly receipts from the Federation Account. The state, on average, gets about N1.17billion from the Federation Account monthly, about the least in the country.

    Indeed, if the FDC’s Report is anything to go by, states most delinquent in salary arrears include Kogi, which is owing its workforce between 8-16 months salaries; Bayelsa, five to 10 months, and Ekiti and Benue, five to eight months’  arrears each.

    Interestingly, while some of these other states are still in dilemma over how to resolve the salary logjam, Osun State government and its workers seemed to have found a way round this concern with the intervention of veteran Labour leader Hassan Sunmonu, which eventually led to the workers and government striking an agreement under which civil servants’ salaries were modulated. Thus, some cadres of workers are on 50 percent pay, some 75 percent while the very junior ones still receive their salaries in full.When one considers a state like Bayelsa, which is one of the states with the highest federal allocation (aboutN10.10billion monthly) and yet owes about five-10 months’ salary arrears, one should begin to find sense in the conclusions of the FDC Report.

    The report is coming about six months after the United Nations’ Global Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index also ranked Osun State as the second richest state in Nigeria. This being the case, could it be that there are some things that some financial experts are seeing in the state government that can only manifest in the future? Indeed, in another United Nations publication, Osun State came second after Lagos in the result of a national assessment for 2014 on infant and maternal healthcare delivery. What all these tell us is that the Governor Rauf Aregbesola government’s six-point integral action plan is having salutary effects. These are:banishing poverty, banishing hunger, banishing unemployment, restoring healthy living, promoting functional education and enhancing communal peace and progress, all designed to lift the people from poverty to wealth. This is the dream of the United Nations’ Global Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index, too.

    Since its inception in November 2010, the government has embarked on quite a number of projects in line with this action plan.We have the Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme (O-YES) which even the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) identifies and acknowledges the capacity of the about N200 million monthly allowance paid to the cadets in reflating the state’s economy and shooting it up to the seventh largest GDP in Nigeria. O-YES has made possible the employment of over 40,000 cadets into public works within two years in the state, with the first batch securing jobs in teaching, various agriculture schemes and ICT. Little wonder the state now has one of the least unemployment figures in Nigeria. Little wonder too it is also among those with the lowest crime rates in the country.

    Similarly, education is on the government’s priority list. The governmentrecognises the importance of functional education as the panacea to poverty eradication, hence, its educational schemes are geared towards ensuring this. The government has built many elementary, middle and high schools, increased the number of teachers, renovated existing schools, provided teaching aids, increased subvention to schools even as it has been delivering computer tablets (Opon Imo) to its senior secondary school students. One cannot do justice to “Opon Imo’ with a scant mention. This was a project many did not give any chance concerning its sustainability and effectiveness in combating the low rate of student performance, especially for secondary school students writing their West African Senior School Certificate Examination, WASSCE when in 2013 the government launched the ‘Tablet of Knowledge’ This is the first stand alone e-learning system in sub-Saharan Africa and it has saved parents in Osun State about N8.2 billion worth of textbooks. Over 90,000 students have benefited from ‘Opon Imo’. Farmers’ children and other rural dwellers now have access to a computer device, a thing previously impossible for them.

    ‘Opon Imo’ contains e-textbooks, past questions (WAEC and JAMB) and virtual classroom for all approved subjects from SS1 to SS3. In spite of its criticisms, ‘Opon Imo’ won the e-learning and science category in World Summit Award, World Congress in Sri Lanka in 2013. What is more, it has helped to improve performance of students in the state, culminating in 46% pass rate in five subjects, including Mathematics and English. The best result in 10 years in the state. It is therefore not surprising that it has received the endorsement of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO as well as the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), which has indeed recommended it to other states in the country. And, talking about recommendation, even the state government’s free feeding for primary school pupils has been adopted by the Federal Government.

    On healthcare, the state government has renovated nine state hospitals, built nine trauma centres at the State Hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo, upgraded some primary healthcare centres and built new ones.Not only that, medical equipment, electrical appliances and furniture have been purchased to facilitate service delivery in these medical institutions.

    And, as the governor himself noted: “ambulances were purchased and are now in full operation under the Osun Ambulance Services (O-Ambulance), which is aimed at improving the quick-response capacity of the health system, in cases of accidents and emergencies.” Similar achievements have been recorded in road construction and rehabilitation, among others.

    All said, when we match resources against achievements,the Aregbesola government has done well. That is the import of the endorsements, as it were, first by the United Nations’ Global Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index Report ranking of Osun State under his watch, and then, the FDC’s.However, since perception plays quite a significant role in human assessments, the government has to work more on those things that tend to consign its achievements to the back stage, celebrated more by outsiders. This taken, it is hoped that someday, perhaps sooner than later, the people of Osun State will come to realise, assimilate, appreciate and properly situate the Aregbesola phenomenon in their hearts.

    Since there is nothing with a beginning without an end, the Aregbesola government must vacate the stage in November, by which time it would have successfully completed its constitutionally allowed two terms of four years each. Without doubt, the best could not have been possible for the state government, or any other government for that matter, no matter how well intentioned they might be, given the circumstances the country was thrown into by the fiscal indiscipline of the past, leading to the squandering of huge financial resources.

    November is so near even if it seems so far away. But there is still room for improvement and corrections, where necessary. It is possible

  • Papa Deceive Pikin (PDP) back?

    Papa Deceive Pikin (PDP) back?

    But how far they go depends on President Buhari

    Iwo la ri bawi,
    Iwo la ri bawi,
    Iwo to f’aya won too fe’y a won,
    Iwo la ri bawi! (it is you we blame, you that married their wife and not their mother; it’s you we blame).

    IN a sense, it is President Muhammadu Buhari that one blames for the resurrection of the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after wobbling and fumbling for more than two and a half years since the 2015 General Elections. The erstwhile ruling party had been enmeshed in one crisis or the other since losing power to the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) government headed by President Buhari in that historic election. Although PDP, once referred to by Reuben Abati, one of the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokespersons as “Papa Deceive Pikin”, has managed to conduct its convention where Uche Secondus got the big job of the party’s chairman, it is not clear whether that signals the end of the animosities that have dogged the party since its defeat at the polls.

    Without doubt, the country needs a vibrant opposition party to put the Buhari government on its toes. This is a sine qua non in a democratic dispensation. The lack of a vibrant opposition has not been in the country’s interest, even as it has not been in the incumbent government’s interest. It probably explains why it would take ages for the president to kick out someone like Babachir Lawal, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) despite the huge whiff of scandals surrounding him. Nigerians had thought the government was slow in firing him because of the ailment that took the president abroad for medical attention. But when the president returned and still retained him about three months after, Nigerians began to insinuate. Anyone would, especially so that the president had saddled his deputy with the task of investigating the former SGF as far back as April. Still, mum was the word from the president after returning from abroad until public outcry forced him to fire Babachir in November. I am deliberately silent on Ambassador Ayo Oke, the former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency that was investigated alongside Lawal because he was just seen as an attachment; Lawal was the reason why many Nigerians felt the president dilly-dallied on Oke’s case too.

    Again, President Buhari had promised to shake up his cabinet, with a view to reinvigorating governance. We had thought money was the reason why the government has not done this, but the president said this was not the case: “On the other hand, I am keenly aware that our supporters are very eager for these appointments to be announced. By the Grace of God, these appointments will be announced soon, especially now that the economy is improving, we will have the resources to cater for the appointees,” President BUhari said. More than six weeks after, we are still expecting that long overdue cabinet reshuffle.

    Even with regard to the constitution of the boards of some Federal Government parastatals, this is yet to happen more than two years after the government assumed office. President Buhari gave indication of this ‘go-slow’ approach to governance early in the day when for about six months after taking over, he could not form his cabinet.

    Then the issue of the criminally-minded herdsmen who are bestriding the nation as if it is their fiefdom. Not a few Nigerians feel they are being treated with kid gloves because they are of the same Fulani stock with the president.

    One needs to highlight these issues for the president and the government to know why some people now have the audacity to say they want to bring back the PDP from the dead. While it is true that these people are able to come together again because they have no shame, it is good to let the government too know that some of its actions have tended to give those now trying to revive the moribund ruling party the opportunity. Indeed, in a decent country, no one would want to identify with a party like PDP because of the grievous harm its members had caused this country in the 16 years they were in power. But here we are again; some of the party’s leading lights are even complaining that its chairmanship went to the highest bidder at the just concluded convention. Yet, these were the same people that more or less legitimised money-politics in the country. Now that they were beaten to their own game because their time is past, they are complaining.

    Then there is also the anti-corruption war which has not succeeded in jailing a significant number of our high profile thieves here at home despite the fact that we have a surfeit of them, whereas their colleagues who were unlucky to be tried abroad picked up jail terms as if they were picking cowries in the ocean.  This weak or corrupt (or both) nature of our judiciary is what Diezani Alison-Madueke, President Jonathan’s petroleum minister wanted to exploit by asking that she be brought back home from the United Kingdom to be tried for the alleged crimes she committed against her Fatherland here in Nigeria, instead of answering corruption charges in the UK. She knows that here, she will escape justice and all she needs to do is to hire a retinue of Senior Advocates of Nigeria who would look for all manner of subterfuge to ensure her trial lasts forever. So, chances of paying for her crimes may never arise.

    She is not alone.

    If former governors James Ibori and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had the option of deciding where they wanted to be tried too; they would have opted for trial in Nigeria. We would still be debating whether the Ibori that was arraigned was the same Ibori that committed the crime! These things should get our judicial officers pondering; but it is like many people at the helm of affairs in the country were simply in a hurry when coming to the world that they could not wait to get their own portion of that important element called shame.

    This country, no doubt is in a big mess. Those who have stolen the country’s coffers dry have made more than enough safety nets for themselves such that it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than it is for us to successfully convict these influential rogues holding our destinies to ransom.

    It is the dearth of shame in our shores that has led us to the current debate about immunity for our judges. We have found ourselves in the present mess because almost everybody that matters is enjoying one type of immunity or the other. Apart from the president and vice president as well as governors and their deputies who have immunity from prosecution, our National Assembly members too who are not covered by immunity want same. Many of us did not know it before; but we have now been told that even judges too have immunity because that is what it means when the anti-graft agencies cannot prosecute judges suspected to be corrupt until after the National Judicial Council (NJC) has given the nod. Yet, we know that the same NJC simply went to sleep until it was woken from its slumber before it started dealing with some of these erring judges.

    President Buhari may have been too slow in dealing with the country’s challenges. But that is not to say that he has not made some successes here and there, in spite of the cash crunch facing the country. His administration has recorded some progress in the agricultural sector, with food prices now coming down. Husbands whose wives have not reflected this in their house-keeping allowance should bring in the auditors. In terms of power supply, generation has increased substantially from the about 4,400MW that the Buhari government inherited to about 7,000MW today, even though we do not have the capacity to distribute all. Perhaps this explains the slight improvement noticed in power supply in recent times.

    All said, I still discharge President Buhari over his helplessness on some of these issues, including the anti-corruption efforts because the latter in particular is being complicated by the judiciary. But, to be acquitted, the president has to move fast to bring about effective changes in his style of governance in the remaining part of his tenure. No more ‘go slow’. He also has to eschew what many Nigerians see as nepotism.

    The Papa Deceive Pikin Party can only fly as high as the president makes it to.

  • Okorocha: From erections to happiness

    Okorocha: From erections to happiness

    With Owelle, Imo is working!

    Apparently, many people did not know that Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State was only bringing out a bird from the bag in October when he unveiled the statue of South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, that he erected in Owerri, the state capital. Rather than wait to see if the bird was black or white, they began to complain. In fact, hardly had the news of the very important event been made public than the self-appointed (and usually impatient critics who would never see anything good in the hardworking governor) started hauling all manner of abuses at His Excellency. Talks of Okorocha’s erection dominated the social media.

    But the undaunted governor must have realised that lack of policy sustenance is the bane of public policies in the country. He has therefore assured that more erections were in the pipeline. True to his threat,  Okorocha unveiled the statue of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia on November 9, despite the criticisms that trailed that of Zuma. The problem is that sometimes, people do not know what is good for them.

    With this second erection now followed with the creation of the brand new Imo State Ministry of Happiness and Couples Fulfillment (sorry Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment), the very first of its kind in the country, the picture of where the governor is going should be getting clearer to the people. After all, just as sweetness comes after eating bitter leaf, so does happiness after successful erection. But shouldn’t His Excellency find out if the typist’s error in the ministry’s initial appellation  (Ministry of Happiness and Couples Fulfillment) was not the wish of the gods of the land!

    Hear Okorocha on the new ministry: “The real essence of life is to be happy and to fulfill one’s purpose in life. Government officials are elected to address this. This is the very reason people elect their leaders to guarantee their happiness and purpose fulfillment.” He added: “There is no activity of mankind that is not geared towards providing happiness. Unfortunately, this vital element of our social lives has not been properly addressed. Governments at different levels have created several ministries and departments to achieve this, yet people are bitter, angry with hate speeches which lead to crisis, war and even terrorism.” Only mischievous persons will disagree with this raison detre of the ministry.

    Given the criticisms that have trailed the erection of the statues, it would seem to me that Imo people do not know how richly blessed they are to have a man like Okorocha as their governor. Okorocha had been a genius from childhood. He bought a television set when he was just nine years old in the primary school. Five years later, he bought a bus. How many of his colleagues were able to achieve this feat until they became public servants? It is because Imo people do not know Okorocha’s worth that they take his erections for granted. It is not their fault. It is those among them who are erection-challenged that can better appreciate the governor’s kind gesture. As I always say, a hunchback does not appreciate what people who stand upright undergo until he attempts to do same. The erection that the governor is doing with ease is what many men in other parts of the country spend a fortune to get. Some have resorted to opa eyin (pile medicine); some others, akpuru achia. Yet, some of our compatriots use a concoction I dare not mention its name.

    Even if His Excellency is a scientist, he could not have been more methodical in the way he has sequentially structured what he is doing on this aspect of governance that none of our governors – dead or alive- has given any serious thought to all these years. Naturally, copulation follows erection. Or, is it possible to copulate when there is no erection? If the answer is ‘no’, then, can we now see why His Excellency had to create a new ministry to coordinate all these matters that ultimately lead to happiness? Not even Okorocha’s soulmate, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State that we were all clapping for the other day when he launched his famous ‘stomach infrastructure’ project has been this imaginative. One can still be sad even after filling his stomach. With Okorocha’s new Ministry of Happiness, Fayose has to release the trophy for creative governance that he has been keeping since 2014 when he launched his ‘stomach infrastructure’ initiative. Okorocha should by this same token get set to contest the country’s vice presidency which we had thought was Fayose’s as of right by virtue of his ‘invention’.

    Nothing compares with happiness. This is where Governor Okorocha carries the trophy for creativity. So, I join all well-meaning Nigerians in welcoming the new Imo Ministry of Happiness & Purpose Fulfillment. I also congratulate the governor’s sister, Ogechi Ololo (Nee Okorocha), for her well deserved appointment as the ministry’s pioneer commissioner.

    The listening governor that Okorocha is, he has some words of advice for critics who thought that the ministry was not well thought-out: “We accept all the criticisms in good faith and commend the critics. That is what makes the society dynamic and our democracy juicy. The truth is that, the new ministry is not an accidental discharge but a well-thought out idea that will benefit Imo people in particular and all men and women of goodwill in general. We only ask the critics to give us time.” So, in other words, this ministry of happiness has nothing to do with accidental discharge! (emphasis mine). In fact, Okorocha is so upbeat that the ministry would confound critics: “At the end of the day, the achievements of the new Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment will be so amazing that the critics of the initiative will not only be shocked but will also regret to have drawn the curtain for the new ministry even before it takes off.”

    Of course when you create a ministry as vital as this, you cannot afford to put it in the hands of just anybody. It cannot be a job for the boys’ affair. That must have explained why Governor Okorocha saddled his sister with the responsibility of overseeing the new ministry. He needs a tested and trusted hand to steer the ministry’s affairs. Being his sister, he knows the stuff she is made of and I must confess the commissioner has not started badly. She has told critics who would not see anything good in the state government to shut up.

    I ndeed, I am just beginning to see what the governor meant when in August, he accused the state’s civil service of lack of creativity. How come none of the civil servants has thought of this kind of ministry all these years?

    I appeal to the Imo People’s Action for Democracy, IPAD, that has announced a week-long rally in Owerri, the state capital, to express dissatisfaction against the Okorocha-led government to sheathe their sword and give the ministry a chance. By the time the ministry swings into action and rolls out happiness in a manner never seen before, even the group’s members will forget their sorrow and begin to laugh as if they have inhaled laughing gas. Or, is there anything wrong with the mix: from erection to copulation, and finally to happiness. That is a natural sequence. It calls for optimism. We can only entertain fears of accidental discharge. Mercifully, the governor has assured that this too has been taken care of. So, only those who do not want happiness should cast the first stone at the governor or his amiable sister.

    I sympathise with Governor Okorocha who is Imo State’s governor tomorrow that has made the mistake of coming today. A prophet has no honour in his own home. That was why Zuma too who has some erection-related charges on his neck at home, and is hated with a passion, could only have found favour in Okorocha’s eyes. Governor Okorocha should ignore the arm-chair critics and go ahead with the good works he has started to continue to shock and awe his critics.

  • Force majeure?

    Force majeure?

    Let the DISCOs perish the thought

    Last month, we had two major developments that will shape the power sector for good or for ill in the next couple of weeks. The first was the decision of the Federal Government to reinstate the regulation that allows power consumers to purchase meters from approved vendors, and the second, the declaration by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) allowing eligible customers to purchase power directly from the generating companies (GENCOs).

    The scheme allowing customers to purchase meters was initiated by NERC in 2013 but was halted by it in November last year. For me, the government has no business reversing itself on this issue because it does not seem the electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) want to deploy meters. The country’s economic downturn has only presented them an excuse. Before the recession set in, how many meters did they deploy? Were they not giving excuses when asked to patronise local meter makers? Anyway, the only condition I will support the decision is if the government can ensure that this latest directive on meters will not be exploited by the DISCOs to slow down on what should be their primary obligation of providing meters for electricity consumers.

    Their present estimated billing cannot continue. I am a serial victim of it like millions of other Nigerians. I used to cite my personal experience on this so-called ‘crazy bill’ right from the days of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) to the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). And now the DISCOs.

    As usual, I have to use another personal example to illustrate my frustration with the current billing system, a thing which justifies my belief that the place to start getting it right in the power sector is in metering customers. This is the position of The Punch, as expressed in its editorial of November 22 titled “Let the consumers have meters please”.  This paper too has expressed similar sentiment several times.  There won’t be any incentive to provide consumers with meters for as long as the DISCOs can force people to pay bills that no one, not even those who issued them, can rationally defend.

    This time around, I will use my father’s flat somewhere at Mafoluku area of Oshodi as example. About two weeks ago, we had to go and clear about N71,000 debt said to have accumulated on his electricity bill, obviously over time, and the Ikeja Electric personnel have been bothering them alongside my dad’s tenants having issues with their bills/meters. Anyway, we decided to clear the backlog about two weeks ago in the hope that henceforth, they will only be paying current bills. But what we saw was that the very first bill that Ikeja Electric would bring after we had cleared the bill was the highest so far, about N16,000 for the flat and the shop sharing meter with it. I was told their highest bill before was about N14,000. So, how come the bill suddenly rose from the N14,000 to N16,000 in the very month that we decided to clear the arrears and start on a clean slate, despite the fact that they claim they did not have electricity sometimes for three days when other houses on the same street have? They say those people are on the ‘blue line’ and they are on red (or something). I immediately understood what could be happening given my own experience: the bills are being prepared from the transformers and people on one line of the transformer may have light perpetually and others on another line may not. Yet, they will be billed equally.

    We were warned against clearing the debt and that if we do, the next bill would be higher. People in this type of boat are not likely to keep paying everything that the DISCO brings as bill, especially when they know it does not reflect their power consumption. This was the way many estimated bills accumulated to the billions that the DISCOs are claiming today as debts. I had my reason for clearing the so-called debt and I can see I was proved right with the new estimate that we were given. We would now follow the laid-down process to get the right things done.

    This is a flat that Ikeja Electric officials had visited several times to take an inventory of the electrical gadgets there.  It was on the basis of the visits that they were bringing the previously (even questionable) monthly bill. The shop in question only has to be charged commercial rate because it is a shop and not necessarily because it has any especial gadget or appliance that consumes much electricity. As for the flat, there are no new electrical gadgets to warrant the rise in billing; just a moderate pensioner’s apartment. This is the reason many of us are opposed to the idea of raising tariff under the present arbitrary billing system because these rip-offs can only escalate when tariffs are increased without meters. It would look like another face of taxation without representation.

    I do not know how the DISCO would convince me otherwise on this because I had cited examples on this same page whereby we never had electricity supply in my area at Pleasure, Agege, Lagos, at a particular occasion for 24 consecutive days and our bill never reflected that, as we were slammed the usual amount. When some representatives of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) visited our office about two weeks ago, I told them this experience and their explanation even justified why Nigerians must be metered whatever the situation. The official who answered my question at the forum said that must have happened apparently because the marketer did not inform those in charge of billing about the problem! So, whose fault is that? Again, why are such bills always tilted in favour of the DISCOs and not the customers?

    It is interesting that the DISCOs threatened to declare force majeure when the government said that eligible customers can buy power direct from the GENCOs. Force majeure is a situation of unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract. I do not know the basis for that threat, granted that they (DISCOs) have not been able to move the nation a notch higher four years after taking over from PHCN. Do they expect the government to fold its arms and be supporting them in feeding the electorate with excuses? If they want to declare force majeure over this progressive decision, what do they expect Nigerians that they are billing arbitrarily, almost to the point of extortion, to declare? Let them tell the world in which other country electricity consumers are billed from their transformers. It is surprising that things that are taken for granted in other places are made a fetish of here in Nigeria. In the remotest parts of Ghana, there are prepaid meters. The DISCOs can say the electricity consumers are not as many as in Nigeria. But so is the revenue the electricity firms in that country gets, compared with Nigeria. One can only have headache the size of his head.

    We have about 2,000 MW of power that the DISCOs cannot absorb and which can be of immense use to the eligible customers. So, do the DISCOs want the government to leave the system as it is until the power sector grinds to a halt? The impression one gets now is that of DISCOs that are biting more than they can chew. So, what is wrong in the government saying no, bite only what you can chew and leave some other organisations to bite the rest, which, to me, is what the decision on eligible customers is all about?

    I crave your indulgence to end this piece with a quote from the said editorial: “We reject the DISCOs’ and government’s repeated accusations that Nigerians don’t want to pay for power: … DISCOs gripe constantly of wanting “realistic” tariff. Any new tariff increase, however, should be preceded by 100 per cent metering of customers.”

    This has always been my position and it has always been this paper’s position. I only had to cite another paper’s editorial today to show that there is no medium that would think otherwise in this country, unless that medium is just arriving from Mars or Jupiter.

  • Power is not sexually transmitted

    Power is not sexually transmitted

    So, so long, Mugabe 

    This time last week, many people still felt the then President of Zimbabwe, Mr Robert Mugabe, would survive the moves to remove him from power after leading the country for 37 years. Mr. Mugabe was the world’s oldest president until  he was removed. He is also a war veteran. By the way, when people start referring to you as a veteran, or as the ‘dean’ of anything apart from the dean of a faculty in a university, or that of a Diplomatic Corps,  you need to watch it. You are most probably on your way down. And usually with a bang!

    I do not know what Mugabe’s staying power was. Just as I do not know how his wife, Grace, managed to get the better part of his heart that he was even prepared to do the most unthinkable to keep her. But I have always believed that if it was mystical as some people suggested, then it is a question of time before it would expire. If Gucci Grace, as the wife is known, has been manipulating her husband by any supernatural means, that would have expired with her husband’s presidency, because that was the attraction for her in the first place. She had hoped to use Mugabe as stepping stone to the presidency. That is how far ambition, blind ambition, can go. Imagine a typist turned First Lady who was still not satisfied but wanted to be president. Let us watch developments between the two for the next one year. If jazz (as some people call it) had been at work all this while,  then we should see the scales fall from the eyes of Mugabe and the old man would see clearly now.

    But that is not where I am going today.

    I had said last week that the Mugabe era was gone and gone for good, in spite of what some people saw as the fluid nature of the state of affairs in Zimbabwe then. I was therefore not surprised when after grandstanding and pretending to still be in charge when it was clear, even to the blind, that he was only living on borrowed time as president, the old man of Zimbabwe finally threw in the towel. I also said last week that if you put a man destined to sleep on the floor on a waterbed, he would make sure he rolls to the floor from the waterbed. Mugabe belongs to that category. Nothing stopped him from quickly accepting to leave immediately the strange developments began to unfold. But Mugabe, like the proverbial tortoise that was going to his in-law’s house and when asked when he hoped to return, said he would return only after he had been thoroughly disgraced.

    I find it laughable when people keep rationalising why those in some positions do not want to leave by saying that they have stayed too long on the post and therefore do not know how to do anything else. Some used the same excuse for Mugabe. They said the man knew of life only in terms of the presidential lodge for the better part of his life and that was why he was reluctant to go. Apparently Mugabe himself could not conceive of life outside the presidential palace. That was why he was talking to himself on Sunday, last week, when many had thought he would graciously have turned in his resignation letter. They say they do not want you in a place, you now start singing. Where will you get the chorus to back you up?  Was Mugabe born in the presidential lodge?  Is he an indigene of the palace? Anyway, let us see if he would commit suicide now that the office has left him (since he was not ready to  leave the office).

    Irrespective of whatever criticisms Zimbabwe’s military might have been subjected to for handling Mugabe with ‘kid gloves’, I still give kudos to them for their maturity, patience and tenacity of purpose. They knew where they were going and they got there safely without shedding any blood.  The soldiers really handled the delicate matter with utmost care. You could not have handled a 93-year-old man differently without blaming yourself in the end, especially when dealing with a man like Mugabe and considering the ethnic tensions such humiliation would have engendered. He was too fragile to be handled anyhow as is usual in many other coups d’état. Perhaps Mugabe was even hoping that somewhere along the line, they would rough-handle him (and possibly fall in the process), thereby becoming the underdog, a thing that would ultimately have made some people to pity him and blame the soldiers for not being careful in the circumstance.

    As a matter of fact, it was because the Zimbabwe coup was not like the familiar ones we have always seen that made some people to conclude that what was playing out before his resignation on November 21 was a ruse. Elsewhere, blood would have flowed. Moreover, it was inconceivable that a president put under house arrest by soldiers would still have the presence of mind to attend a convocation ceremony and read an address there. But the soldiers and the other stakeholders knew what they wanted. They had their eyes on the ball and not the legs, and would not mind to take the longer route to their destination. They also probably understood the undercurrents of the issues; that it was not easy to shove aside a man that had been in the presidential palace for 37 years overnight. He needed time to begin to conceptualise what life would look like after leaving office. Mugabe even had the temerity to convene a ministerial council meeting last Monday! This tells you that the man must have been seeing all that was happening as improbable fiction. However, if giving him all the opportunities in the world to keep deluding himself that his presidency was still intact; or bidding for time to purge himself of the privileges of the Number One Citizen would make Mugabe happy, so be it.

    However, the military, the ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) and Mugabe might have ruined Zimbabwe together, his ouster just showed that even in such relationships, there is always a parting juncture; a time to say ‘so long’. The ousted president missed it the day he began scheming for his wife to succeed him. Even his fellow war veterans could not understand what that means. How could a woman, and one who never participated in their struggle for that matter, have taken over the reins of power? And to achieve that, Mugabe had to fire his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who himself was part and parcel of the struggle.  Well, as one of the placards carried by a Zimbabwean in the last days of the Mugabe presidency said: “Leadership is not sexually transmitted”. Mugabe realised that too late. Mugabe has reportedly been granted immunity despite all his sins against Zimbabweans. One can only hope that someday, Africa would be free from such encumbrances to make the guilty pay for their atrocities. This is the kind of thing the African Union (AU) should be aiming at in the Zimbabwean case rather than speaking tongue-in-cheek that it wanted a return to constitutional order in that country. Where was the AU all these years when Mugabe was manipulating elections and hounding opposition?  Its peer review mechanism has not proved useful in the Mugabe case perhaps because of the Mugabe in many of them.  Suffice it to say that the clinical manner in which Mugabe was removed is a model for peoples in other countries living with the same challenge. It does not have to be the Zimbabwean model 100 percent; but every nation may have to adapt it to suit its peculiar mess. It is gratifying for now that what Zimbabweans and the rest of the world wanted has happened in Zimbabwe.

    So long, Mugabe. Welcome Mnangagwa

    But, as Mnangagwa  takes over, he must realise that Zimbabweans place so much hope in him. It is true he belongs to the same ruling elite as Mugabe; in other words, it is still the war veterans’ show. But that does not mean Mnangagwa cannot make a difference. Mugabe himself was said to have started well; but he derailed somewhere along the line. This is one of the things that happen when one stays too long in power.  It is time to liberalise the democratic space to allow for cross-fertilisation of ideas in the country. That is what the economy that was destroyed by Mugabe requires right now. People of ideas, irrespective of their political leanings, should be invited to come into government to help rebuild Zimbabwe.

  • Not yet Mugabe the wife

    Love in Harare facilitates Mugabe’s descent into infamy and his ultimate ouster after 37 years in office and in power 

    That Robert Mugabe started well as Zimbabwean Prime Minister in 1980 may not be in doubt. Indeed, those familiar with the history of Zimbabwe will tell you about the way he started and the promise that held for his country. But all that has now become history. Mugabe might have started well; but he appears not destined to end well. Indeed, I doubt if history will ever be kind to him, given the way he mismanaged the country, abused his office and the subsequent inglorious manner that his 37-year rule was reportedly terminated by the country’s military on Wednesday.  That no single country berated the soldiers for their coup de grace is pointer to the fact that he had long become an irritant and pollutant to the outside world. And that the country has largely remained peaceful in spite of the military take-over is enough pointer that his popularity had waned, even at home. Unfortunately, he did not seem to realise this. He would have saved himself the embarrassment if only he had seen the handwriting on the wall. But how many African dictators in his mould do?

    That is the way it is usually for people who don’t know how to quit when the ovation is loudest. African leaders hardly learn from their colleagues who fell. If ever they did, Mugabe would not have ended his political career in such a shameful circumstance. It is sadder still that he had to go because of his intention to make his wife, Grace, succeed him. Here again, Mugabe only tried another version of what some of his colleagues had done. If Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma could succeed his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, as Togolese president when the latter died in 2005, why can’t Grace Mugabe succeed her husband? That was Mugabe’s wish; his befitting parting gift to a wife of 22 years.

    But Zimbabweans seemed not prepared to transit from Mugabe the husband to Mugabe the wife.  Indeed, that was the last straw that broke Mugabe’s back. He took romance with a woman that is infamous for her luxurious shopping habits, mercurial temper and unpopularity among ordinary Zimbabweans to embarrassing and intolerable heights.

    In my part of the world, people would be wondering what the wife could have cooked for Mugabe, or what could have transpired in ‘the other room’ between them for him to insist on her succeeding him. This, for sure, cannot be ordinary love, or ‘ordinary eye’ as my people say. I must confess though that given the pictures of Grace Mugabe that I have seen, she might not strike one as a paragon of beauty; she is not bad either. But at 93, what else could a man who had been president for 37 years be looking for again in a woman, to make him so lose his senses? Perhaps only Grace could answer the question. Perhaps we should ask her husband. But no one should blame Mugabe; it had always been like that for many ‘strong men’ from ages past.

    The same way no one should be surprised Mugabe fell the way he did. People destined for such shame will always do something that will take them to that destination. My father would always tell us in his lifetime that if you put someone who is destined to sleep on the floor on a waterbed, he would roll to the bare floor. When you stay too long in the lavatory, you are bound to play host to many maggots.

    Mugabe married Grace, now 52, in 1995, the same year his wife died. So, Gucci, as the new wife is known among Zimbabweans, moved from the presidential office where she was a typist (some dignified it by calling her a secretary), to what qualifies for meteoric promotion to Zimbabwe’s ‘First Room’ (otherwise known as ‘the other room here in Nigeria) as the country’s First Lady. Again, in this part of the world, Gucci would have had a lot of explanations to make on the death of Mugabe’s wife. She would have had to sweat and swear that she did not kill the first wife in order to clear the way for her own dream of marrying the president.

    By now, people with dirty minds would have been imagining the degree of ‘inappropriate relationships’ that would have transpired between the romantic pair of lovers while the lady was Mugabe’s secretary, right in the president’s office. Well, they may not need to grope in the dark for too long now that the old man is (on his way) out of office and power. It is not unlikely that whistle-blowers would now be coming out to say all they know about their president’s love life. Indeed, those who might have been wondering what a 93-year-old man could be doing in ‘the other room’ may be shocked when the details begin to filter out. Dis thing they call love, e get as e be o (apologies to King Sunny Ade and Onyeka Onwenu). But one thing is clear: Mugabe left no one in doubt that he is in love as he came down from his high horse to demonstrate his devotion to his somewhat taller, slim and light-complexioned love as recently as April, when he planted a kiss on her succulent lips on the occasion of the country’s Independence celebration in Harare, the country’s capital.

    What further evidence do we need to know that Zimbabwe is working? And, in fairness to Mugabe, could there have been any reasonable reason why such a woman whom the country must have polished with a fortune not to succeed her husband? Who else could have better understood her husband’s dreams for the country other than such a woman who had the rare privilege of intimacy in all material particular with him, such that even the president was so pleased? But there must be something special that other Zimbabweans have not seen in a typist who had held the president of about 17 million people spell-bound for about 22 years. Surely, one of the things we are learning again is that age is mere figure where love is concerned. If age counts, how could a 39-year-old President of France, Emmanuel Macron, have married a woman 25 years older than himself?

    However, irrespective of whatever has been happening to give the impression that Mugabe still has any chance of continuing as President of Zimbabwe after last week’s humiliation, the old man’s time is up, as far as I am concerned. The soldiers who announced his ouster must have known that this is not the time to beat a retreat, no matter who is brokering the truce between them and the embattled president. In Mugabe’s 37 years as president, he has never been this humiliated. So, if he knows what is good for him, he too should quietly pack his bag and baggage and leave the “Blue House” (the president’s official residence). And for the soldiers, it is simply too late to beat a retreat. Having succeeded in humiliating the president this far, it is simply too late to surrender. They must be ready to defend their patriotic action with the last drop of their blood.

    I am here referring to the convocation of the University of Zimbabwe that Mugabe attended on Friday morning (when he was supposed to be under house arrest). This should not be seen as evidence that he is still in control. Given the experiences in many other African countries, those who hold this view may be right. But we should also not forget the peculiar African situation where ethnicity plays a major role in the power equations. The Zimbabwean situation has to be delicately managed. I see what is playing out there as a possible paradigm shift in how soldiers handle such delicate situations on the continent. With his political party saying on Friday that it had given Mugabe up till today to relinquish power or get impeached on Tuesday, Mugabe’s removal after 37 years in the saddle would appear a done deal.

    Meanwhile, the soldiers are encouraged to continue to pick the rogues in the cabinet, with a view to handing them over to Mugabe’s successor for prosecution. But they should do so with a human face.

    All said, for me, the lesson of Mugabe’s fall is not for Robert Mugabe again. As they say, it is too late to cry when the head is (cut) off! The lesson is for the few remaining African dictators who cling to power, or those who might be aspiring to such, that they can never end well.

  • Elusive Golden Fleece

    Elusive Golden Fleece

    Too many candidates chasing too few slots: UNILAG as case study

    Considering the number of candidates seeking admission into universities in the country and the number subsequently admitted, it is obvious that it is easier for the camel to pass through the scriptural eye of the needle than it is to secure a place in the country’s Ivory Towers. I was touched to write this piece when on Friday, I read the report that of the 32,000 applicants who applied to further their studies at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), only about 8,000 will be offered admission. About 24,000 others will have to wait till another year, or try their luck elsewhere.

    This is pathetic, especially for those of the candidates who already have the requisite five credits in the school certificate examinations, including English Language and Mathematics. I say it is pathetic because the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) marks scored by those of the candidates who have the requisite papers are perishable; they cannot be carried or rolled over till another year. If they are not utilised in a particular year, they expire. Last year, the Senate took a positive step to extend the validity of the UTME result to three years; but this is yet to take-off. This will save the parents the unnecessary expenses of having to pay every time their children sit for the examination as well as save the candidates the unnecessary headache of sitting for the exams yearly. However, since this has not yet become law, candidates who failed to secure admission because they do not have the requisite qualification have to sit for UTME again, and there is no assurance that they will always scale the cut-off mark when they do. Indeed, I have seen so many such candidates who have made several attempts without success and have therefore had to stay at home doing nothing for years. This is because, as they say, examinations are not always a true test of one’s ability.

    Some candidates have been able to pick the pieces of their lives together again several years after their initial attempts, but there is no doubt that many others never recovered from the experience. This is why I have always asked myself if this is the way things are made difficult for the children of our elite who study abroad.

    A few weeks ago, my wife had to go to my daughter’s school over the so-called education policy that wants students to be categorised either as science or arts student in the secondary school. She went to tell them that we would not accept such two-caps-fit-all for our child. These are children who today would tell you they want to become journalists and tomorrow, doctor, or lawyer, or engineer, or artistes. Meanwhile, how many of these schools have guidance and counselling facilities to guide the children in taking informed decisions about their future? The point is; most of them are just too young to know what they want to be in future. I was well over 18 years when I sat for school certificate examinations. Today, you would be considered an ‘elder’ in the class at that age, as most of those who sit for the exams are between 14 and 16, despite the fact that they spend six years in the secondary school now as against five that we spent.

    The problem is that the moment such children are railroaded into either arts or science and they flunk school cert, they become stranded.  People whose children went abroad (after in most cases their parents destroyed our educational system) and had it so easy, studied at their own pace, are the ones now erecting all manner of barriers against hapless children whose parents cannot afford to send to school abroad. That was how the other time; one of the country’s presidents banned History in our schools. People just sleep and wake up on the wrong side of the bed only to begin to formulate policies that cannot work or are absolutely uncalled-for.

    Some of these wrong-headed policies are at the root of why many of the candidates who want admission into our universities find it extremely difficult to enter. Admission into the university should be highly competitive, no doubt. That is one of the things that make it a university. And that competitiveness did not start today. I remember in 1981 when I gained admission into UNILAG, about 10,000 students applied while only about 3,000 were offered admission. I hope I quoted the then vice-chancellor, Prof. Akin O. Adesola, right because he gave the figure during our matriculation, to let us know how lucky we were to have secured admission into one of the best universities in the country. That more than 32,000 candidates want to be there even now shows it is still a highly preferred university.

    Of course then, there were very few universities in the country. Unlike today, there were no private universities; unlike today when virtually all state governments have their universities, with some having more than one which they do not have the capacity to run. As at the last count, there are about 152 universities in the country today. In spite of the high cost, especially of the private ones, we continue to witness the establishment of more. Yet, many candidates cannot gain admission into any of the universities.  For instance, there are only about 850,000 spaces for the more than 1.8 million candidates who registered for the 2017 UTME. This means about 850,000 admission seekers will be left out.

    But, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has shed some light on the matter to correct the earlier impression. He said the same thing last year, and he has restated it this year that about 40 percent of candidates who annually write the UTME do not have the requisite qualification to do so, meaning they are mere wishful admission seekers. They are like people whose demand, according to economists, is not backed by the ability to pay. So, it is not effective. This is because they sat for UTME without obtaining necessary O’ Level requirement of credit passes in five subjects, including English and Mathematics.

    This has made some people to argue that candidates without the requisite qualifications should not be allowed to sit for UTME. This will save parents some money and the candidates’ time and energy. I naturally should oppose such suggestion because I was awaiting my Higher School Certificate result when I applied for direct entry into UNILAG. But that was then. With JAMB results now released within 24 hours after concluding the examinations, there may be some sense in this advocacy.

    It is true that there are about 152 universities in the country; 40 federal, 44 state-owned and the rest private universities. But it is not all of them that candidates see as universities properly so called. Here, we are talking of standards. That is why some universities have so many candidates ready to do anything to gain admission into them, and others are like Australia that many people are aware of its existence but a few are willing to go to. We may therefore have to expand some of the existing public universities or have multi-campus system to absorb some of the qualified admission seekers.

    Moreover, the National Universities Commission (NUC) should be more thorough in its assignment by insisting on the appropriate things being done before accrediting courses for universities. Too many Nigerians are hungry for the Golden Fleece, yet it would appear the opportunities are not enough.  There should be no basis to deny any qualified Nigerian the opportunity of acquiring university education. Not even financial difficulty because, ordinarily, there should be scholarship schemes to take care of indigent but brilliant students. This is the only fair thing to do since we have refused to accord technical education its due respect and our polytechnics’ graduates are still treated as third-class graduates.

  • Seraphic SERAP?

    Seraphic SERAP?

    SERAP, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project deserves commendation for filling a part of the void created by the fizzling out of almost all the human rights groups in the country. The other groups that participated actively during military rule, especially in the struggle to return the soldiers to their barracks, have since gone into oblivion. Many of them that were upright in those dark days have since been bitten by the corruption bug. As a matter of fact, it was such a pitiful situation hearing that one of them that was highly credible back then was in the middle of a N10million largesse from the authorities of the collapsed Synagogue building in Lagos.

    The emergence of SERAP, in 2004, has vindicated Aristotle’s position that ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’. SERAP, despite its relatively young age has been doing the little it can in making governments responsible and accountable. Its most recent battle is the case it instituted against the leadership of the National Assembly, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to make them account for N500billion that the country had spent to run the assembly from 2006 to 2016, as well as disclose the monthly allowances of each of their members. This is the same National Assembly that carries out oversight on other institutions. Yet, its accounts are rarely audited annually as public accounts are supposed to be.

    But Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, penultimate Friday, did justice to the matter as he said that, “I have looked at the papers filed by SERAP and I am satisfied that leave ought to be granted in this case for judicial review and an order of mandamus directing and compelling Saraki and Dogara to account for the spending of the running cost and disclose the monthly income and allowances of each senator and member.”

    The suit was filed in December, last year, sequel to the disclosure by Abdulmumin Jibrin that our senators and House of Representatives members have pocketed N500bilion out of the N1 trillion running cost provided for in the National Assembly budgets between 2006 and 2016; and the claim by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that each senator and House of Representatives member goes home with nothing less than N15m and N10million monthly, respectively.

    Ordinarily, there should be no controversy over such matters of public interest but for the opacity that has dominated the public space in the country. Indeed, the suit would have been unnecessary if the National Assembly had acceded to SERAP’s request for information on these claims. There is none of these items that is shrouded in secrecy in other democracies. They border on national interest, public concern, social justice, good governance, transparency and accountability and should be readily made available even without the Freedom of Information Act being invoked. Anyway, it would be interesting to hear why the National Assembly leadership is uncomfortable releasing such information when on December 12 they have their day in court.

    As pointed out earlier, the case against the National Assembly leadership is just the most recent of SERAP’s battles for transparency, accountability and good governance. The project only recently took the executive arm of government to court to stop payment of salaries to former governors-turned lawmakers or ministers. Lest we forget, it was SERAP that also raised the first objection about the composition of the Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial Monitoring Committee. The body, in a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Water Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, urged the CJN to “remove the risk of apparent and potential conflicts between the work of the committee and the private practice of some of its members, who are handling high-profile cases of corruption involving politically exposed persons (PEPs)”.

    It added that “for the Salami committee to perform its tasks effectively and with propriety, it should preferably be composed entirely of members of the judiciary, particularly drawn from available pool of brilliant and incorruptible retired judges”. This is commonsensical. Unfortunately, the CJN did not seem keen in buying this idea. It was apparent Justice Ayo Salami, who had been appointed as chairman of the committee would not agree to work with such members and he has done what was expected of him: politely turn down the offer. Much as it is true that no one is indispensible, it is only a matter of time to see the wisdom or otherwise in Justice Salami’s rejection of the offer and the CJN’s retention of the controversial members, without addressing the issue raised by SERAP and Justice Salami.

    In spite of its relatively young age, SERAP has a record of successes in its chosen mission. In a suit filed by Femi Falana (SAN), before the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja in 2007, the organisation argued that the massive corruption in the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) amounted to a denial of the right to a free, quality and compulsory education for Nigerian children. It won. In a landmark judgment delivered in November 2010, the ECOWAS Court upheld SERAP’s submission and declared that the Nigerian government had a legal responsibility to provide, as of right, free, quality and compulsory basic education to every Nigerian child. Indeed, according to SERAP, “This is the first time that a sub-regional human rights court would consider corruption as a violation of human rights.”

    The project also filed a suit in 2009 against the Federal Government of Nigeria and six oil companies over alleged violation of human rights and associated oil pollution in the Niger Delta at the ECOWAS Court of Justice. It also won. The court unanimously found the Nigerian government responsible for abuses by oil companies in a judgment delivered in December 2012, and made it clear that the government must hold the companies and other perpetrators to account.

    In a democracy, a virile opposition is sine qua non. But there is nothing that could be called opposition party in the real sense of the concept in the country today. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which could have served that purpose is still trying to find its feet more than two years after being defeated at the polls. Such vacuum is not good for democracy even as it is not good for the country. Opposition parties are supposed to put the government of the day on its toes. Even in advanced democracies where structures work normally, opposition parties still play great roles in shaping governance. Not to talk of our kind of country where individuals, rather than structures, are the issue.

    Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like SERAP have a great role to play in making government responsible, responsive, accountable and transparent in the country. This is much more so that NGOs are better respected because of their usual detachment from partisan politics unlike political parties. We should commend  SERAP for its contributions to the strengthening of democracy and good governance in the country. As a matter of fact, there is still room for quite a number of such organisations with credible people to drive their vision. It must be recognised though that it is difficult for organisations or even individuals to stay steadfast to the end in our kind of country. Many of our politicians are as wily as the biblical serpent. They are capable of luring anyone to eat the forbidden fruit. Anything they touch becomes tainted. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who knows them very well was alleged to have described one of them as capable of bribing God! SERAP parades the necessary influence that would make the politicians want to infiltrate it in order to break its ranks. One only hopes it will be seraphic to the end; and refuse to go the way of many of its progenitors that started well but ended badly.