The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

Kachikwu’s appeal to Dangote

Where then is the myth called ‘federal might’?

What many Nigerians feared was the Federal Government’s plan concerning self-sufficiency in fuel production would appear to have been confirmed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu’s appeal to Aliko Dangote, President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, to complete his 650,000 barrels/day refinery ahead of his planned December 2019 deadline. This has been the Federal Government’s body language on this issue, as it does not appear to have any coherent plan to let new refineries come on board or even sell off the moribund ones on which the country has spent huge resources on unending Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) without much result.

Kachikwu told Dangote during a visit to Dangote Oil Refinery at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, to inspect the progress of work on the plant that:”The challenge I give you as I leave here today will be one of time. I see your timing in terms of December 2019.

“But I am sure you will understand if I tell you that the refinery component should come earlier. I have made very frank commitment to Nigerians that I must exit importation of petroleum products by 2019, and I am going to keep to it. Please, continue to push the envelope and see how we can do this.”

To show how desperate the government is on the matter, the minister urged Dangote to tell his engineers to go back to the drawing board in order to make the refinery come on stream earlier than the end of 2019. To make this happen, he added that the government was ready to give incentives. According to Kachikwu, “Where do we come in as government? I think the first thing is that we must look seriously at whatever incentives this business needs. You cannot be investing $14bn in a country without sufficient incentives to drive the business.”

Indeed, perhaps it is this new thinking that has made some people to speculate that Dangote is being secretly considered for the country’s presidency. One may have dismissed this with a wave of the hand but for the fact that this is the way such stories start. I remember I was in Kwara Hotels in Ilorin for a workshop (I think, on sustainable democracy) sometime in 1998 where it was first speculated that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who had only just been freed from prison (or was even about to be freed) was being considered for president, to compensate the Yoruba whose son, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election who was denied power by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd). For me, that some people are tipping Dangote for the presidency may not be much of an issue if it is only about service delivery. The next question is: can Dangote deliver if elected president?

That would seem a rhetorical question. He seems to have demonstrated the capacity to handle complex industrial concerns. Whether this is enough to make him a complete president is a different matter altogether. But what we know is that people who do not have his kind of antecedents had attempted the presidency with some succeeding and others falling by the wayside. But again, whether Dangote is capable or not, there is the danger of conflict of interest and even that of over-reliance on an individual.

However, no sooner had Kachikwu made his appeal than some Nigerians began asking when the government would outsource the presidency so that the president and his entire cabinet members would simply go home, having handed over the country’s jugular to Dangote Refinery. Perhaps they are right.

Left to Kachikwu, he would have sold the refineries as early as yesterday but for his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, who prefers they be retained as public property. The president’s position is also understandable. But he is only being nostalgic about them. There is little the country can do right now about those refineries. The president’s case would have been strengthened if we had a working judicial system that can tame corruption because corruption is at the heart of why the four government-owned refineries are not working at any appreciable capacity. Unfortunately, the country has not got to the situation where it can successfully wage the type of anti-corruption war that can return sanity to the refineries. Our legal system is tilted too much in favour of the corrupt. This is why one is forced to agree with those who feel the government should sell off the refineries, painful as this might be.

Without doubt, Dangote Refinery is a thing of joy and pride to Nigeria. That a Nigerian, the richest man in Africa; is building such a gigantic refinery is something to celebrate. But when it now becomes the main plank on which the government relies to end the importation of petroleum products; it is a different matter entirely, indeed, at that point, it becomes a matter for regret. A nation should not put its eggs in one basket. Nigeria at this point is over-relying on Dangote and his group. No nation should put itself in a situation where it would catch cold when an individual sneezes. The way we are going, we will all have to shiver whenever Alhaji Dangote sneezes. We rely on him or his conglomerate for virtually everything under the sun; from food processing to cement, manufacturing, and freight. Sugar, flour and salt too are made by some of his companies. He is now also into rice cultivation; he is into fertiliser. His company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. Dangote has also diversified into telecommunications, among others. The company employs over 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.

So, Dangote has done so much for himself and even the country. Much as individual Nigerians can rely on him for almost everything under the sun, possibly for the air they breathe, not so the Nigerian government. When the government of some 150 million Nigerians begins to see an individual’s company as its alpha and omega, especially for the supply of fuel, it is ominous.

It is not too late for the Federal Government to begin to think of what to do with its refineries apart from keeping them to continue constituting a drain on public purse. I hope Minister Kachikwu is not saying he had no ‘Plan B’ when he was assuring Nigerians more than a year ago that we would stop fuel import by 2019? This is what his passionate appeal to Dangote to fast track the coming on stream of his refinery seems to suggest. The government had talked about modular refineries; it had talked about co-location of refineries, etc. What has happened to all that?

Now, the government is talking of incentives to facilitate the take-off of Dangote Refinery. This is one area many Nigerians have had to criticise the Dangote Group: that but for government’s waivers and other incentives, it would not have been whatever it is today. But now, Dangote Group is not the one lobbying the government; it is the other way round. One can only hope the critics of the group will bear this in mind when those incentives begin to come. But how these would make Dangote Refinery not to look the way of exportation if that is more lucrative than selling petroleum products in our regulated fuel market is yet to be seen because the refinery is first and foremost, a commercial venture. This is much more so when it is the supposedly stronger party that is begging a weaker one for a favour.

August 6, 2017
Tanker drivers’ blind rage

Why would anyone burn banks to settle scores?

After a relative quiet from their end these past months, Lagosians were jolted once again by irate tanker drivers who set two banks ablaze in the Apapa area on Wednesday. The banks – Diamond Bank and Sterling Bank – were burnt by the mob for failing to hand over a mobile policeman who had earlier killed one of the tanker drivers for allegedly refusing to give him bribe. An eye witness, Sunday Abiodun, gives an account of what happened: “”This morning, a police officer attached to Diamond Bank, asked one of the truck drivers operating here at Apapa port, to give him N1,000 and the man said he was not the owner of the vehicle parked in front of the bank, that he just came to pick his phone inside the truck. While asking the man to give him the money or move his vehicle, the next thing we had was a gun shot and the man died instantly in front of the bank.”

A policeman who witnessed the incident also recalled: “Those tanker drivers are very irrational. When the policemen attached to one of the banks shot at the tanker driver, they regrouped and stormed the bank in anger. They first demanded that the policeman who shot their colleague be released to them. When their demands proved abortive, they took the law into their hands. They contributed fuel from their tanks and set the bank ablaze. The entire situation caused a stampede as both workers and bankers scrambled to escape from the back of the bank to safety. The drivers were still on the rampage in the first bank when they heard that the policeman had taken refuge in the next bank. Armed with that information, they simply went over to the said bank and carried out same carnage, irrespective of the presence of innocent bystanders. They also attacked innocent policemen going about their own businesses. They stabbed no fewer than three policemen who didn’t know what was happening.”

This is unacceptable in any decent society. Without doubt, it was bad for the killer-cop to demand bribe from the driver. It was even very wrong for him to shoot the truck driver for not acceding to his illicit demand. On both scores, the mobile policeman was culpable. Even at that, it would have been wrong for the banks to release him to an angry mob because we know what the result would have been. He would have been skinned alive! We may say what is wrong with applying such Mosaic Law! But everything is wrong with it in this age and times. Two wrongs cannot make a right; indeed all the wrongs in the world would never make a right.

This is why the tanker drivers who participated in the arson should be fished out and prosecuted. No one, no matter how essential their services are to the nation, should take the laws into their hands. How has setting ablaze two banks helped their cause? If anything, it has compounded their woes because the law would now be applied in full force to serve as deterrence to other people who might want to be lawless. One might have been tempted to ask for leniency if setting ablaze the banks had succeeded in bringing back to life their ill-fated colleague.

When tankers were falling or catching fire almost daily on our roads, we called for enlightenment for tanker drivers. We asked that they be trained regularly so that they can imbibe the necessary road safety culture required for their operations. Mercifully, the Lagos State Drivers’ Institute (LASDRI) is there for them to hone their skills. They need to be trained on how to react to cases like the Apapa incident, too.

A time there was when tanker drivers played very patriotic role in the country’s affairs. One recalls with nostalgia the Frank Kokori years during the struggle to end military rule and entrench democracy. Then, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) with Kokori as general secretary then usually joined forces with other critical stakeholders like the National Union of Banks Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) and Labour generally to ground socio-economic activities, as part of efforts to send the military back to their barracks. I remember that no strike was complete in those days of the struggle until NUPENG’s participation had been confirmed. Even the governments then knew that NUPENG was the union to beat because with NUPENG on strike, movement would be grounded nationwide in a matter of days, and no government worth its salt wants that.

Unfortunately, it appears that the strike option by the tanker drivers which was then applied functionally later became dysfunctional. For, after the return to civil rule, oil workers continued to threaten to down tools at the slightest provocation. They were eager to withdraw their services over the most flimsy excuses. They fought the Lagos State government some years back when it ordered them not to park their trucks on bridges in the state. As far as they are concerned, they should be allowed to park anywhere because they lift petroleum products for the country.

It is needless asking the police to thoroughly investigate this incident with a view to serving the killer-cop his deserved comeuppance because this is not one incident that anyone should attempt to cover up. The damage done and those to whom it was done would simply not allow that. Policemen did not start to take bribe today; unscrupulous ones among them have been doing it for decades. The difference between bribe taking then and now is that, in the good old days, it was known, in Yorubaland for instance, as ‘owo eyin’ (money usually collected from/at the back). The back as in the policemen who wanted to collect it making sure they asked questions that would take the driver they wanted to extort to the back of the vehicle, away from the prying eyes of passengers, where they felt reasonably safe to collect the bribe. I remember as a child, I would use ‘corner eye’ to follow some of the drivers until they parted with the bribe and I would be chastised not to do so again. But that was then. These days, policemen who take bribes do not care whether anyone is watching; they take it right in the presence of passengers, with some even arguing that the money is too small and that the driver should ‘top it’!

As I said earlier, this is bad enough. But when a policeman would now pull the trigger simply because a driver refused to play ball is evidence that something is wrong somewhere. The Nigeria Police Force has to do some soul-searching about the people it allows to carry arms. More than anyone else, our policemen bearing arms need periodic psychiatric tests to determine their continued mental fitness to use the arms. The Apapa incident was not a case of accidental discharge from all the accounts. So, it is inexcusable.

Again, the spontaneous violence that followed the killing of the truck driver is symptomatic of the pent-up anger in many Nigerians. Things are tough and people are angry. That can be the main reason that would make them react the way they did on Wednesday. As for the tanker drivers in particular, they would not have been on that road if fuel haulage is done by rail or if our refineries are working well. Imagine people who had been on the queue for God-knows-when, already tensed up, now being approached by a policeman for bribe.

This case must be used to stress the point that tanker drivers, like other citizens, irrespective of how essential they think their services are to the nation, are not above the law. The same applies to the killer-cop.

July 23, 2017
The Ajekun Iya exponent

Melaye wins round one. Is another album in the offing to celebrate the court (even if temporary) victory?

For Senator Dina Melaye, these are certainly not the best of times. Melaye needs no introduction. He is the senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District of Kogi State. But he is more famously known as the Ajekun Iya exponent, following the successful release, on the social media a few weeks ago, of his debut album. The album, I must admit, was an instant hit. To date, there is no ‘owanbe’ in the southwest that is complete without people requesting for Melaye’s Ajekun Iya ni o je over and again even as no Deejay worth his salt would forget to play the album repeatedly in social circles in other parts of the country. As we know, music is a universal language. So, people do not have to understand the lyrics before taking to the dance floor. We must give honour to whom honour is due; Melaye is a musician that will make Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey green with envy. I salute the people of Kogi West for donating this maestro to Nigeria.

Oh, enough of Melaye’s sweet melody! Back to the now suspended recall process of the Kogi senator.

Kogi State, one must painfully admit, has been a victim of serial maladministration in years past. It has not been particularly lucky in terms of its leadership. If it is not being led by a tailor; a carpenter is in charge. So, that the state is suffering an acute infrastructure deficit is obvious. Yet, like most states in Nigeria, the state boasts a reasonable number of good men and women with ideas but they cannot make it to the top. This explains why a man like Melaye could emerge as senator of the Federal Republic.

Well, just like Kogi State, Nigeria too has many men and women of ideas and integrity but they either find the country’s political turf too messy to go into, or they do not have the wherewithal to pull through the expensive electoral processes. So, the country ends up having some of its worst characters making it to the top of both elective and appointive offices. So it is with the present National Assembly. Nigerians might not have been lucky with most of the people that have always found their way into the senate and indeed the National Assembly generally since the beginning of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, the current senate will definitely take the trophy for its infamy. I am yet to see a more shameless group of legislators. But it could not have been otherwise when we look at the profile of its leading ‘darkness’ (sorry lights)!

Please do not get me wrong. I am not saying that there are no good people in the senate; the problem is that these are either too few or they have allowed the nonentities in their midst to hijack the upper chamber, thus making Nigerians tar them all, (no exception) with the mud of corruption and everything negative that one can imagine. It is these vocal few that have made the senate aptly fit into the Yoruba’s wise saying that there are no firstborns among pigs; all of them play in the mud (ko s’ aremo ninu elede; gbogbo won lon yi’ra mere). The good people in the senate should please pardon my blanket generalisation. Again, as the Yoruba would say, it is one slave, just one slave, that makes us abuse many other slaves (eru kan lon’ mu nibu igba eru).

Democratic dispensations the world over get better when there is a virile opposition, strong civil society organisations as well as a critical press and an alert citizenry. None of these is present in today’s Nigeria. If we had any of these, this current senate would have been sacked long ago. Indeed, there is nothing to suggest that Nigerians would not occupy the National Assembly someday, given the way the members, particularly the leaders, serially show their disdain for sanity in our polity. This is one of the reasons why one must feel particularly sad that a civil society group like the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) would be enmeshed in the kind of scandal that afflicts other groups in the country. How could such an organisation that played ineradicable role in the struggle to entrench this democratic dispensation be caught in the web of alleged N10million donation and bags of rice from the least expected source at this point in time? The group’s founders would be wondering what has happened to their dream, even as the dead among them would be turning in their graves seeing the organisation that they laboured hard to found in the murky waters of ‘stomach infrastructure’.

For me, it is immaterial whether Melaye’s recall sails through or not, even if I must confess I would congratulate his constituents if they can get him out of the senate. He is one of the many misfits there. Mercifully, the man seems to have realised his shortcomings as he had graciously declared his intention to be a councillor after his fall from the exalted position that is obviously too big for his person. That is if he eventually falls, though.

Melaye can only end up like some of our musicians who say they are ‘rave of the moment’. Once the moment is gone; they too disappear into oblivion. I say this because since the release of his Ajekun Iya album, which is a hit that has continued to feature in many ‘owanbe’ parties in the southwest as well as other social circles across the country, he is yet to release another. In case Senator Melaye does not know, Nigerians – IPOB, Arewa – and all are earnestly waiting for his next hit. The senator of the Federal Republic should be rest assured that whatever he comes up with would be sweet music in the ears of his teeming fans, because he seems to be adding value to the music and entertainment industry than he is to the senate where the only value he is reputed for is his nuisance value.

But the embattled senator seems to have had a reprieve with the order by the Federal High Court, Abuja, that halted his recall process as prayed by his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, who had gone to court to challenge the exercise. While one may have nothing against the court’s decision to enforce Melaye’s fundamental right, the September 29 date for hearing the motion on notice appears too far. The Kogi senator had contended that his recall process was the handiwork of his many political detractors. He said dead and fictitious persons were among those who signed the petition purportedly being used as basis for his recall.

With the court’s order for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Melaye to maintain the status quo, the senator appeared to have found favour with the court. But, whether the favour will endure to the end, and the process would fail is a different matter entirely. But then, it was good that the man was rattled, at least for once. He had been moving from pillar to post in search of help. His comrades in the senate have also taken up the matter as a collective one that the upper chamber must be interested in. Apparently, they are scared that if Melaye could be successfully recalled, then some of them too might be on their way out. The death that strikes an associate is only a metaphor that the same death could be one’s fate. That is why his co-travellers (co-travellers in every material particular) in the senate have now seen Melaye’s recall as something they have to fight collectively to avert. In the process, they have forgotten the limits of their powers. They are beginning to see themselves as the ultimate decider of the fate of a senator that they had no power to make in the first place. If there is any take-away from the Melaye recall process, it is that it has opened the eyes of Nigerians to the possibility of bringing back home a misfit that has been erroneously voted into the National Assembly. This is about the first major attempt to recall a senator in this dispensation. People should not think that once they have been elected senator or House of Representatives member, they can do and undo. They must have as constant reminder the possibility of recall at the back of their minds.

July 16, 2017
Smart Evans

Not smart this time. But, will their comrades-in-crime at large ever learn?

This year’s string of successes by men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) against criminals vindicate the belief among Nigerians that the police would always perform when they want to, irrespective of their structural or operational deficiencies. This year alone, they have caught in their net some of the big fishes in the crime world who had been terrorising Nigerians across the country.

The most recent of the big fishes in the crime world arrested is Duneme Onwuamadike otherwise known as Evans. He was picked up in Magodo, Lagos, by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the police led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, on June 10, while preparing to travel out of the country. About 35 operatives from the IRT, 11 from the Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU) and one person from the Inspector-General of Police’s (IGP) monitoring section, who participated in the operation have been promoted. Twenty-nine sergeants were promoted to the rank of Inspector, while three Corporals were promoted to the rank of Sergeant with effect from June 16, 2017.

Evans had evaded arrest in the last seven years. May be that was why the police saw his arrest as something to celebrate such that some policemen were scrambling to have pictures with him. Who would not want to have pictures with a man described by the police as the most intelligent kidnapper in the ‘Giant of Africa’?

Uchennna, Evans’ wife

But we should ponder the haven of crime that Evans seemed to have made of Lagos, given that some of his priced victims were picked and kept in the state. Yes, the state government has done a lot in terms of investment in security. But the ease with which Evans trailed and caught his victims is indication that the security infrastructure has to be retooled. It is incredible that his victims were kept in dens in Ejigbo and Igando in Lagos; absolutely incredible!

It should not be surprising that some people are already campaigning for his release on compassionate grounds. But I wonder why some Nigerians are like this. This is a man that operated without mercy where money was concerned. He said it himself that he named the price and his victims’ relations must find it, or else, their loved ones would not be released from his captivity. And the price was no chicken feed; it was in millions, not of naira but usually dollars. Indeed, Evans himself is in the vanguard of the campaign for his release, saying that he is now born-again and has seen the vanity upon vanity that he had allowed to call the shots in his life these past years. He wants a second chance. But why do these dare-devil criminals always see the light late? Only a few of such hitherto thought to be tough criminals maintain their cool when the long arm of the law eventually catches up with them. I remember the celebrated robbery kingpin of the late ‘80s, Lawrence Anini, when he was caught. He too mumbled some mumbo-jumbo. At a point, I remember he said something like: “e be like say I wan run mental”!

Although it is true that some of these criminals truly repent when pardoned, the fact is, most of them do not. And one would think that, in line with our elders’ saying that ‘the person who falls into a pit should teach others a lesson’, people into crime or those contemplating going into it would pick one or two lessons from the arrest of their powerful colleagues that are thought to be invincible until they are demystified. But no. Even as Nigerians are still basking in the arrest of Evans, some other kidnappers were reported to have served notice that they would strike in another school in Lagos despite the fact that the six pupils of Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, who were abducted on May 24 were yet to be released, at least as at Friday.

One thing that is becoming obvious in all of this is that kidnapping is fast overtaking armed robbery as choice crime. Moreover, it is not just the urge to make ends meet that drive people into these crimes. If it was hunger, or lack of job, as Evans painted the picture, he should have stopped after making his initial million dollars which he was lucky to have escaped with. His Oliver twist disposition, like most criminals’, kept urging him on until he was eventually arrested. One wonders where these criminals put an age-long proverb that “every day for the thief; one day for the owner”.

The vanity that could have made Evans, just like any other criminal that is in the net weep is the fact that they would never have the privilege of entering the mansions they acquired with illegal wealth again; not in this world. So, as King Solomon said in the Bible: ‘vanity upon vanity, all is vanity’! Of what use are choice material attractions that someone has but cannot enjoy publicly? Evans said he had exotic cars but went about mostly on power bike. Now that he has been arrested, it is certain he can no longer use any of his mansions again.

Yet, if Evans had not been arrested and he was able to make enough money to contest election, he probably would want to be governor of his state or senator of the federal republic. We have some other variants of Evans in these offices today. But your guess is as good as mine as to the kind of governance the electorate who put such a person in any elected office would get. But that he could get to the point of contesting at all is symptomatic of the weakness in our legal system, as well as a thorough corrosion of social values in the country. It is the kind of result you get when the onus is on the person asserting to prove. As a matter of fact, the costly joke all over the place is that if Evans could get some senior advocates (I believe they are making representations to him already because that is the kind of case many of them want to handle) to defend him, chances are he would be freed in court! If you doubt this, take your mind down to some of the judgments delivered by our courts in recent times and see the’ judicial wonder’ that had led to some of our high-profile accused being discharged and acquitted on inexplicable and incomprehensible grounds. If Evans is eventually freed with the assistance of some top lawyers, we would be told that what he had was media trial which is not what the court needs to convict him!

Meanwhile, Evans’ wife, Uchenna Precious Onwuamadike, who also wants Nigerians to forgive her husband should realise that hers is an emotive plea. She said she did not know her husband was into crime and that the highest amount he ever gave her was N200,000. And she wants us to believe this? Although she told some stories to lend credibility to her claim, the fact is, she would need all the angels swearing that these are true for Nigerians to believe. Uchenna seems to have forgotten that her husband was unsparing when dealing with his victims. She is now talking about forgiveness. That is a tall order. One can only feel for Evans’ kids whose faces had been exposed and who may have to carry the shame and stigma of being children of the most intelligent kidnapper in the country for a long time to come. They are the only ones who can claim they did not know what their father was doing for a living.

But the most important lesson in all this is for those into similar crimes to know that everyday cannot be Christmas for them. One day,dem monkey go go market; dem no go return. This is one problem with criminals: they always think that their colleagues who were arrested were not smart enough or that they missed it somewhere. They never learn from their colleagues that fell into the ditch (got arrested).

June 25, 2017
Biafra in their minds

We must renegotiate the basis of our co-existence

But for the involvement of some elders from both sides, one would have dismissed the ultimatum given the Igbo in the north by some northern youths to quit (the north) on or before October 1, 2017, and the response by an Igbo group that they would only leave if the north could return their N43trillion investments in the region, as ranting of some ants. They have never seen war and are therefore beating the drums of war. The northern groups that issued the ultimatum said they did so because of the shut-down of major towns in the south eastern part of the country on May 30 by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and their sponsors, which denied other people in the region from pursuing their livelihood.

Such a threat is not new. The point though is; it is not only the east that is marginalised (to use our cliché here). Virtually all sections feel they are marginalised; all regions, including even the north that many of us see as over-pampered. But if the southeast or any other region has decided to go, there is little or nothing individuals can do about it. That is a job for the government. While not necessarily supporting the northern youths, I think all they did was put a deadine to the threat by what Igbo elders see as Igbo youths’ threat to leave Nigeria. This is what to expect when there is a dearth of good elders in a place.

For me, whoever wants to go can do so without offending the sensibilities of others. The Igbo have this impression that no one likes them in the country. It was obvious the southeast had been uncomfortable since the exit of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2015. In both the Olusegun Obasanjo and Jonathan years, the Igbo occupied some of what we term juicy cabinet positions. There were no secession threats then. Barely two years after losing some of these portfolios, some of their youths suddenly remembered Biafra.

I agree that our size is something that we should flaunt as a nation because of its immense possibilities. But this should not be a do-or-die affair, especially if successive governments are not ready to face the reality of letting us renegotiate the basis of our continued co-existence. I personally do not care about who wants to pull out or pull in. I do not think there is any part of this country that is not blessed; the problem is that many of the leaders have thrown away their thinking caps. If the military had not tampered with our federal arrangement, we probably would have been better for it because every part of the country would have continued to develop at its own pace.

But the point is; there is no way the Igbo can continue to claim that they developed every other section of the country without incurring the wrath of other Nigerians, because nothing can be more fallacious. That could be a major cause of their problem. Before now, the refrain had been, “we developed Lagos”. Now, we are being told that the Igbo developed the north. Or, how else does one interpret the statement that the Igbo would not leave the north until the northerners paid N43trillion that they (Ndigbo) invested there? How come it is only the Igbo that are able to move freely all over the country to develop other areas? How come they find it more convenient to develop other places even when the southeast itself is in dire need of investment and development? No one would think that with the accusations of selective hatred that the Igbo levelled against the other parts of Nigeria after the civil war in 1970, they would still go ahead to be ‘developing’ other places, to the detriment of their own largely undeveloped region. Has it not occurred to the southeast that something must be responsible for the ease with which they can thrive in other places and others cannot do same in Igboland? Has it not occurred to them that it is the large hearts of others that has made it possible for them to assimilate the Igbo, and vice versa? If many Igbo can follow the money to any part of the country and there a few people from other regions in Igboland, then there is a problem.

Fortunately, I have friends from the southeast who do not share the views of these ‘youths’. The new face of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, even went to the ridiculous extent of saying that the Igbo who worship in Pentecostal churches with Yoruba men as pastors are idiots, fools, imbeciles and worse than Boko Haram! Certainly, a good number of my friends from the east do not share this ‘I before others’ mentality that Nigerians, rightly or wrongly, perceive the Igbo have. Or that when you give the Igbo man an inch; he wants to claim a mile! It is the Igbo that want to have ‘Ezes’ (kings) in other parts of the country, with all the paraphernalia of an ‘Eze’ as obtains in the southeast. How many Obas and Emirs do we have in the southeast?

I remember the other time when the Babatunde Fashola administration banned ‘okada’ from some 475 of the over 9,200 roads in Lagos, many of those who criticised the policy happened to be from states where ‘okada’ was completely banned. I had issues understanding those of them from the southeast whose state governments did not restrict but actually banned ‘okada’ and they did not complain back home, now raising issues that the Lagos State government could not have restricted ‘okada’ the way it did. Naturally, I asked: how else could Lagos State have done it? Somehow, some of them just felt no, Lagos is different, and I was wondering what made Lagos different. Or what was it that should have made Lagos different in the contest they were using the word. If many other state governments had been responsible, Lagos would not have been this overpopulated because it is lack of opportunities in most other parts of the country that is largely responsible for the migration to the ‘city’.

Please permit me to cite this other example. I was in one of the new development areas in Lagos about three months ago and was astonished when I saw the mansions that are springing up there. Upon enquiries, I was told many of them belong to southeasterners. When I asked if those building there were aware that the place was under acquisition, the answer I got was astonishing. They said they knew but that by the time the government woke up (so it is sleeping now) to find the mansions there, it would be left with no choice but to ask them to pay some money for ratification, or something!

So, when the government eventually ‘wakes up from its slumber’ and, instead of asking for money for ratification, it brings in the bulldozers, they will start complaining that government is destroying mansions belonging to southeasterners. For how long are we going to live with this kind of cheap blackmail? Since when has ignorance become an excuse in law? And, to think that those breaking the law in this case are even aware of what they are doing? Are we saying people can just build houses in the southeast or any part of the country without first finding out the status of the land, or without getting the relevant government papers? Ha! If that happens, even in a ‘no man’s land’, it is only a matter of time for that place to become a huge jungle.

All said, I blame no one but successive governments in the country that have been glossing over the real issues agitating the minds of many Nigerians about the need to revisit the basis of our union. The point has been made over and again that unless this is done, we will keep having the kind of schisms that we are having. The Muhammadu Buhari administration must do something in this regard before it is too late.

Fatai Atere Way

When this campaign on the need to lighten the darkness of people at Fatai Atere Way (Ladipo) up to Ojekunle Street (Papa Ajao), Lagos, started in April, it was not meant to last this long. It was just to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to the need to fix the street lights in these areas, in line with the state government’s dream in its Light Up Lagos initiative. Some progress has been noted on Ojekunle Street. But Fatai Atere Way is still in total darkness. Some of the lights came on for a few days but darkness has returned there. At least this was the situation as at Friday when this material was turned in for publication. This is hoping the Lagos State Electricity Board would complete the repair job it has started.

June 18, 2017
Satanic levy

Good the senate has rejected fuel price hike for the National Roads Fund

Just as well that our senators rejected the satanic N5 levy on fuel pump price per litre proposed by the Senate Committee on Works in a Bill for an Act to Establish the National Roads Fund. The bill is in respect of “financing the maintenance and rehabilitation of national roads and for other matters connected therewith, 2017( S.B 218).” It was presented by the committee’s chairman, Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano South).

Senator Gaya had said the N5 levy would not affect the N145 per litre that petrol goes for in the country. “There was media report last week that we are increasing fuel (price) by N5. That is not true. We intend to remove the N5 from the current N145 per litre. If this bill is passed, the government will realise about N94 billion per annum into the National Roads Fund for road maintenance across the country,” Gaya said. It would appear the proposal did not enjoy majority support even at the committee level, if media reports that some of the members of the committee even voted against that aspect of the bill. Senate President Bukola Saraki seemed to see reason with Gaya. But it was good the majority of the senators vehemently rejected the proposal. It is satanic and should only be thrown into the trash can.

Almost everyone agrees that there is need for some form of toll/levy for the maintenance of the federal roads because it is obvious the Federal Government cannot shoulder the responsibility alone. Indeed, some people have suggested that some of our roads be tolled as a way out of the problem.

But we all know this is not the first time we would have toll gates on some of our roads. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which was commissioned in August 1978 by the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was tolled just to make money available for maintenance and probably to enable us construct more of such roads. As with most Nigerian laws, it was only a matter of time for all manner of persons to start refusing to pay toll at the toll gate. Military chiefs, police chiefs, influential Nigerians blaring one siren or the other soon exempted themselves from payment of the toll.

While this was bad enough, it was not what eventually killed the idea. Corruption, that cankerworm that is killing the country, no thanks to our judiciary, crept in big time and the toll gates soon became a cesspool of corruption. Concessioning them made little or no difference. This was what prompted then President Obasanjo to order the dismantling of the toll gates overnight in 2004. At the time, the tolls were only fetching the Federal Government about N800m annually, which could only scratch the problem of road maintenance on the surface. A lot much more was feared to have gone into private pockets. That is the usual way we solve problems.

Instead of taking out corruption and prosecuting those perpetrating it, we took out the toll gates. The corrupt big people involved smiled their way to the banks. We may have clapped for the government at that time for lessening our financial burden (did it really?) and depriving those stealing from the proceeds of further looting; but that has turned out to be pyrrhic. It must have dawned on us now that we have lost to bad roads much more than whatever we could have gained with the dismantling of the toll gates. Is it the losses to vehicle repairs as a result of bad roads; or valuable loss of time due to the same reason? Is it losses of lives and limbs that we cannot even quantify? What of the attendant social costs? These are losses we could have minimised if we had enough money to keep our roads in good condition always.

So, the terrible state of most of our roads, federal or state, is indication that we need to look beyond government funding to keep the roads in motorable condition. But it is not the fuel levy as envisaged by the senate committee. We know how we got to the point of buying fuel at N145 per litre, the troubles and struggles that went into the new price. Certainly, the Goodluck Jonathan government that the present government succeeded could not have raised fuel price to this level because of the perception of the government as corrupt. What went for the incumbent administration is the integrity, particularly of the president, Muhammadu Buhari. So, even if the Senate was able to pass the bill, implementation would have been difficult for the executive because of the backlash.

The way out is for government – the executive and legislature – to think out of the box without necessarily adding to the burden of Nigerians. Introduction of N5 levy is definitely not the way to go. Nigerians are not ready to make the kind of sacrifice that the levy portends. Indeed, it is the height of insensitivity for any democratically elected senator to even moot such an idea at this point in time. Just last week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said about 29 million Nigerians are jobless. Many of those who have jobs are not getting paid as at when due. Factories are groaning due to high cost of foreign exchange and a generally inclement business climate. So, asking Nigerians to part with N5 more for fuel is akin to asking them to donate their blood to fix the roads. Let the senate look elsewhere for money to keep Nigerians moving on good roads.

One would have been surprised if the senate could not see through that the bill cannot fly at this point in time. And if the senate could not, certainly the executive should have seen the bad faith in it because it is at its desk that the buck stops. Yes, Nigerians would have known the senate was responsible for the bill, but it is the president that would carry the can.

However, that the senate eventually rejected the bill shows it is beginning to take public opinion seriously. It is unlike the past when it defied public outcry to buy exotic cars for its members at a time the economy was in serious crisis. How far can the Nigerian be stretched on the way to the country’s economic recovery? Although it would not have succeeded in pushing the policy through even if it passed the bill, the senate would have succeeded in further alienating itself and confirming Nigerians’ perception that it is a senate whose members do not know what Nigerians are going through because they can get everything at the snap of a finger.

June 11, 2017
Obasanjo’s (not unfounded) fear

The ruling elite had better listen to the ex-president

Like the proverbial bad child that has his good day, I say it with all due respect, that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s warning that the country risked being consumed by fire if its leaders did not do something about our neglected youths is very well founded. One does not have to be a seer to know that. “We have the Boko Haram in the North, the MASSOB and IPOB in the South-East, the militants in the Niger Delta and the Oodua Peoples Congress in the South-West. All of these are the expression of anger and frustrations,” Obasanjo said at the Youth Governance Dialogue, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta. The lead speaker at the occasion was former Minister of Aviation and former Federal Road Safety Corps Marshall, Mr. Osita Chidoka, who spoke on the theme, ‘’Towards a Guiding Political Philosophy for a Democratic Nigeria.”

Listening to Obasanjo, who apparently was in his element at the occasion, one would think he never had the opportunity of leading the country before and that if given the chance, he would leave an indelible mark on the subject-matter. But, here we are, Chief Obasanjo had led this country twice; first as a military head of state, and then as a democratically elected president, the only Nigerian, living or dead, to so do. Cumulatively, Chief Obasanjo had served as Nigeria’s First Citizen for over 11 years (February 13, 1976 to October 1, 1979; and May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007). No other Nigerian has beaten that record. Chief Obasanjo is always nostalgic about his achievements as military head of state, particularly the number of ships his then government left in the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), the number of airplanes it left at the defunct Nigeria Airways, among others.

Therefore, the question to ask is: what did Chief Obasanjo do for the youths in his time? While this is not illegitimate, it is not enough to obliterate the fundamental point that he made about the country’s neglected youths. Indeed, to insist on an answer to the question of what Obasanjo did during his two shots at the presidency without reflecting on his message would amount to throwing away the baby with the birth water. In other words, it is Obasanjo’s message that we should preoccupy ourselves with because, if we focus on the messenger, the impact would be lost on us. And that will be disastrous.

As the former president noted, a time there was, when jobs waited for students, school certificate or degree holders: “During my own days, there was one university to attend when I finished from secondary school and I got five appointment letters when I finished. Now you have about 152 universities to attend but do you get any letter of appointment when you are done”? I still remember in the ‘80s when I was in the university, some blue chip companies used to come to the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, to recruit final year students.

So, if and when what Obasanjo feared eventually comes, there is no doubt that he would be consumed alongside his colleagues that Nigerians, particularly the youths, feel brought us to this sorry pass. “If we have youths’ explosion or anger because of lack of opportunity, it will consume all of us”, he said.

But, whether the youths share the former president’s belief that, they (youths) should not wish the leaders death is a different matter entirely. “Don’t wish us dead; don’t wish us to disappear because you will need us. You need us to mentor and prepare you for the future. You need our experience and the assistance of some of us to guide you through life. You should not lose hope, you should not feel frustrated”. The point is; when the youths needed the elite, they were not there for them. If they had been there for them, if they ever spared a thought for the youths, they would have left legacies that would be speaking long after they are out of power such that the youths would be the ones praying for God to grant them longevity. Leaders who did this when they had the opportunity do not have to be begging for relevance, or begging not to be wished dead. It is doubtful too if the youths would want to be guided or mentored by people who led a failed state.

Just as I also wonder how people who graduated and continued to roam the streets four, five years after can believe in themselves. The point is that the way our education curricular are programmed, there is little room for self or personal development. It is even doubtful if we take national needs into consideration when establishing universities or other tertiary institutions. Without doubt, a few graduates manage to lay their hands on something after searching for the non-existent jobs to no avail only to end up frustrated due to lack of adequate capital. Our economy leaves little or no room for such facilities and where there is a semblance of it, it is either politicised or bastardised. The programme either benefits politicians and their cronies or the funds are embezzled.

So, it is beyond merely advising the youths to believe in themselves; governments at all levels must facilitate that process. A ‘veteran’ jobless graduate is without self-esteem; he has no say at family meetings where they are discussing money matters. If at such meetings he says he has ideas, people would tell him to perish with his ideas; that it is money they are discussing and not ideas. So, he should only raise his hand to speak when he is in a position to monetise the ideas!

The truth is; the social upheaval that Obasanjo is fretting over may come now; it may come later. No one can say for sure when it will come. What can be said for sure is that it will certainly come if we do not change our ways. There is so much inequality, so much unfairness, so much ungodliness in the land, with a few haves and many have-nots in a country that is literally flowing with milk and honey. As a matter of fact, when the ruling mafia decided to allow General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) to come on board after three failed attempts at the presidency, something told me this was done for enlightened self-interest. It was better to allow change under a situation where looting of the public till was democratised. Unfortunately, things have not improved much since the Jonathan government was rejected at the poll in 2015. Although the Buhari administration has its own shortcomings, it cannot be blamed for the slow pace of recovery because what has been damaged in the years of the locust was quite huge; it can’t be mended in two years.

This is what is giving Obasanjo some apprehension, and rightly so. Students of history have to be concerned about the state of the nation, particularly the youth unemployment that is ravaging the land. It is a bomb waiting to explode. And when it comes, the ruling elite are about the first line to face the fire. The elite owe us explanations on how and why we are like this despite God’s kindness to us as a nation.

Indeed, those of them who might have died by the time the seed of the trouble they planted begins to germinate should count themselves lucky because those of them who are still around by then are not likely to live to regret it.

June 4, 2017
‘Fellow Nigerians’? Not again!

No soldier worth his uniform will try that now.

It was certain that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-General Tukur Buratai’s statement on May 16 to the effect that some soldiers in the Nigerian Army were hobnobbing with politicians, with the ultimate intention of staging a coup d’etat would elicit the kind of reactions it has generated since the statement was made. Two weeks after, like the proverbial pounded yam, it is still sizzling hot. Neither the citizens nor the army had rested ever since. As a matter of fact, even as at Wednesday last week, the Nigerian Army was still trying to calm frayed nerves over the statement.

Buratai, who spoke through the army spokesperson, Brigadier-General Sani Usman, had said that: “This is to inform the public that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Nigerian Army, has received information that some individuals have been approaching some officers and soldiers for undisclosed political reasons. On the basis of that, he has warned such persons to desist from these acts”. He added, for effect: “Any officer or soldier of Nigerian Army found to be hobnobbing with such elements or engaged in unprofessional conducts such as politicking would have himself or herself to blame.”

The first question that should agitate our minds on hearing this was: where were the soldiers who might be thinking coup is the next thing now when Nigeria was being raped left, right and centre by unconscionable and self-serving politicians and their cronies in the past? Where were they when our treasury was emptied in the desperate bid to return Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to power in 2015? Where were they when billions were being frittered or stolen from crude oil sales? Where? Any soldier who stages a coup now will only be wasting his time. Indeed, he is an enemy of the people and the country.

Hardly had Buratai spoken than Nigerians took him up. Many were of the opinion that instead of making such a ‘wild allegation’, the COAS should have named names, not only of the soldiers involved in such unholy collaborations with politicians, but those of the latter as well. They said if he was not ready to do that, he should not have come public with such statement. Maybe they were right; maybe not. But that is not my focus.

While I agree that the statement was weighty and pregnant with meanings, what for me should concern us is whether we still have some elements who think coup is fashionable these days in the Nigerian Army. Yes, the military has continued to deny that there was ever a coup bid against the Muhammadu Buhari administration, but should we swallow that hook, line and sinker? I do not think so.

Yes, today, coup has become anachronistic; but it still happened in some African countries, where some of the soldiers involved had been forced to return power to the ousted civilians. Some of Nigeria’s prominent generals, some of them coup majors in their own right, have affirmed that coup is no longer fashionable. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) and a host of others have said we have gone beyond the stage of bringing about change of government by force. But one thing that bothers me about our country is that when some of these things happen elsewhere, we dismiss them as improbable fiction here. But then, some things had happened in this country too that one would almost think or swear they could not happen.

Coming barely a few weeks after Chief Bisi Akande raised the alarm that Nigeria of today is not the same as that of 1993; such a coup can only throw the country into chaos. Although, as usual, some people have said whatever Chief Akande meant was no longer likely to happen again, no one can put anything beyond our elite crooks. You cannot put anything beyond them. We have been hearing all manner of stories about President Buhari’s health and that should he be unable to continue as president as a result, there is some scheming to prevent Vice President (now Acting President) Yemi Osinbajo from taking over as stipulated in the constitution. It is only if we had not seen this happen before that we can ask: what does that mean? It happened before and it took the ingenuity of the National Assembly to invoke the doctrine of necessity to make Dr Goodluck Jonathan Acting President then.

Moreover, coups in the past, the military have always told us, were usually at the instance of civilians. So, if the army chief said this was beginning to happen again, we should be sufficiently worried.

With these at the back of our minds, we can see why not a few Nigerians are concerned about the coup scare. Without doubt, the elite, particularly in the north, do not feel comfortable with Buhari’s presidency. The point is; there is nothing they can do about it. But we should also realise that it is possible that some people who cannot stand an Osinbajo taking over should the president not be able to continue in office, could be having their own plan and this may come in any form. The idea is not necessarily to oust the Buhari presidency but to ensure his deputy does not assume the office should there be the need for that. It is in this context that a coup may not be entirely ruled out. It then becomes a question of different folks, different strokes.

It happened in this country before. The statement through which the June 12, 1993 election was annulled was unsigned. If such had happened in some other places then, we would have said it can never happen in Nigeria. But it happened, and the idea was to stop Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola from becoming president. The election would not have been annulled if Abiola’s rival, Bashir Tofa, had won. If there is a coup, it could just be to stop Osinbajo from taking over. Once that is achieved, those behind it might be satisfied.

But it has become clear that even if there is no basis for the COAS’s alert, whoever might be contemplating a coup in the country would now think twice. Any coup now will fall flat on the faces of its planners and executors. Without doubt, mere contemplation of a coup in Nigeria at this point in time is the height of recklessness and misadventure that any soldier worth his uniform would dream of, not to talk of executing. We will no longer welcome the once familiar ‘Fellow Nigerians’.

Meanwhile, I wish the president speedy recovery.

Fatai Atere Way: still in darkness

When the Lagos State government started the Light Up Lagos Initiative, it was a thing many Lagosians applauded. Although some careless motorists have damaged some of the street lights in parts of the state, the lights have continued to serve as a reminder of what Lagos was like three/four decades back. On the night of April 30 when this material was first published, a journalist with this newspaper narrowly escaped death when his car almost ran under a truck at the MTN area of the road. We do not have to wait to record casualties before doing the rightful.
It is against this backdrop that the Lagos State agency responsible for the street lights should ensure that the stretch of Fatai Atere Way, including the Iseyin Garage up to Ojekunle Street in Papa Ajao area is illuminated again.
The place has been in darkness in the past few weeks. Fixing the lights will enhance security generally on the stretch, and save many young boys and girls on casual duties in the companies on Fatai Atere Way from hoodlums who might want to exploit the darkness for their nefarious activities. Some improvement is being noticed as some of the lights are coming on, but it could be better. Thanks for that.

May 28, 2017
“My pikin, is dis Abule-Egba?”

It is true, as the Yoruba people say, that tita riro lanko’la; to ba jina, a d’oge (the pain that comes with tribal incisions ultimately gives way to beauty when the wound heals). Perhaps nothing confirms this saying better than the Abule-Egba flyover commissioned by the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on May 17. Please pardon me if I over-celebrate the Abule-Egba flyover. That is my area and bringing development so close to my doorstep, especially concerning a road that many motorists and commuters used to dread, is something worth celebrating. That ugly sight has given way to the aesthetic beauty that now defines the Abule-Egba axis. Not even the traffic lights could stop the bedlam there in the past, especially when there were no traffic officials or policemen. Even when these were there, there were occasions that they were overwhelmed and would just abandon motorists to their fate.

Governor Ambode had earlier in the day commissioned other projects, including the Ajah flyover as well as Freedom and Admiralty roads in Lekki.

One must commend the governor for these wonderful gifts. Truly, Ambode is not just coming, he has come indeed. Lagosians must see themselves as blessed. I have always said it whenever I write on the developments in Lagos, that these things are possible not just because the state is rich but because it has had successive governments led by men with great ideas who are ready and willing to translate these into reality. Which of the other equally endowed states in the country comes near Lagos in terms of development? And to think that Lagos State has more than 17 million people to cater for. How many of the other rich states have a third of these? The question then is, what are they doing with their money? Unfortunately, most of the leaders from such states try to block what is rightfully due to Lagos as a result of its huge responsibility to tend to the needs of people who come to the ‘city’ from all over the country. Many of them never return after tasting the allures of the city life that Lagos provides. In fact, many never planned to.

Lagos has been one huge construction site since 1999 when we returned to civil rule. The transformation is simply amazing. Such was the dazzling speed with which the state is being transformed that a woman, in the Babatunde Raji Fashola years who was coming to Lagos from somewhere in the east refused to alight from the bus she travelled in when she was told she was at Oshodi. She could not believe the metamorphosis that has taken place there between when last she came and the time of her revisit. “My bikin, it is Oshodi?”, she asked in bemusement of what she was seeing, to confirm that she was not about being conned by some smart Lagos boys. Apparently, she had been told that’Eko o gba gbere’ (there is no room for nonsense in Lagos). Another person was said to have asked a similar question when she was told to get down at Ojodu/Berger Bus Stop where she was going the other day. She, like many others are still asking from where Governor Ambode got the idea of the kind of change he effected in the place. It is simply wonderful.

But one man whose name cannot be missing when the history of the new Lagos is written is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is the architect of the positive changes that we have been witnessing in Lagos since 1999. It was under him that the state began to expand its revenue base such that his government was able to call the bluff of the bully Olusegun Obasanjo presidency that withheld its local governments’ allocation for over a year. The state made a bold statement that it could survive without the money and it did. Many other states would have crumbled under Obasanjo’s jackboots. Apart from Tinubu’s laudable legacy on the state revenue base, he has also been the deciding factor of the helmsmen that have governed the state after him. Without doubt, Tinubu took his eyes to the market to shop for his successors. And, whatever it is that is making Ambode to be going at the speed he is going in fulfilling his campaign promises to Lagosians, the most important thing is that Lagos and Lagosians are the better for it.

But there is something that people in Abule-Egba would be missing now that the flyover has been commissioned. This is the entertainment provided by some cripples at the Iyana-Ipaja end of the flyover when it was under construction that played their own kind of football there, right on the asphalt. (I don’t know what to call what they were playing, even though it was football but they were not playing with their legs; they played the ball with their hands on the improvised mobile seats that they sat on). It was fun; as they attracted quite a substantial number of spectators on the Sundays that I watched them play.

Indeed, this was one of the things that fuelled my desire to visit the construction site on those Sundays. The place is only about 20 minutes trekking distance from my house, and the curious part of me never let go; always wishing for the day the flyover would be commissioned. I made up my mind to make what I saw a part of my piece whenever the flyover is commissioned. It was really inspiring that the cripples did not allow their disability to deny them of happiness in their own little way, or even stop them from entertaining others. The spectators either clapped in appreciation of a superlative pass or goal by the cripples; or jeered when they fumbled. Their audacity to play on asphalt without minding whether they could get injured in the process was something else. Even those of us who can stand upright would think twice before taking some of the risks they took playing on such a hard surface. The commissioning of the flyover automatically ended the fun provided by those wonderful people forever, as the road and flyover have been handed over to the real owners, the motorists. But the cripples will be sorely missed.

One can only continue to urge Ambode on. The plan to make Lagos a true megacity appears to be on course. By the time some of the things in the pipeline are actualised, even the culture of people will change. The ‘Danfo’ driver that had been used to rough life and fighting with knives or broken bottles will suddenly find out there is no room for such in the new Lagos. People who defecate just about anywhere would begin to see sense in doing it at the right places. Those who are expecting the people at the Abule-Egba axis to turn the fountain there to public convenience would be disappointed when that time comes. It is only a matter of time. We will surely get there.

All said, however, Governor Ambode should honour his promise to rehabilitate the roads that served as ‘beasts of burden’ while the Abule-Egba flyover was under construction. One is talking about the inner roads in the axis to where vehicles were diverted when construction of the flyover was ongoing. This is the only thing that can elongate the life of the flyover and also encourage other residents to cooperate with the state government on other such projects in their areas in the future.

One can only wish that the Federal Government would continue the modernisation of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway from wherever the Lagos State government stops so that the road can relieve the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway of the burden of accommodating virtually everyone leaving Lagos for Ibadan, or other places in the country. This will go a long way in decongesting the expressway, especially whenever there are impediments on the road.

May 21, 2017
Falomo’s randy finalists

Lagos State government deserves commendation for its prompt response to the post shared on the social media by one Michale Matthew concerning the final year secondary school students of Ireti Grammar School, Falomo, Lagos, who assaulted some female students of Falomo Senior High School ,also in Falomo, sexually, on their last day in school. The state government immediately tasked the state police command to fish out the perpetrators. Happily, five of the students have been arrested and they are already in court, juvenile court as it were, as they are mainly minors, which is all the same soul-lifting.

Perhaps it is good to have a graphic account of the ugly incident as told by Matthew. She said, “Their shouting overpowers any other sound and looking closely, I see the most unreal thing. It is actually a boy trying to force himself on a girl with his trousers partly down and the boys are cheering him on.

“People are looking and some persons, the security guards in the office near us are recording it. I open my car in disbelief and shout at the boys to break it up while shouting at my security and the second driver to assist me.

“I walk towards them and as I make my way towards them, I see another group and this time they have cornered one of the girls who fell while running from them.

“I see her kicked down, she bravely pushes herself up and another guy tries to clear her legs and she lunges at him and then a guy takes a pair of scissors in his hands and with one swoop tears her skirt from the bottom and also a part of the black spandex shorts she has on underneath.

“All this happens really in a few minutes and he proceeds to push himself into her through her back. His trousers is open too and another one tries to do same from the front. As this is going on, the crowd of boys is wild with frenzy, cheering the two boys on, while grabbing at her hair, breasts and she is fighting for dear life.

“This is not before I get the names of the boys as George and Abiodun as the main perpetrators; they are final year students of Ireti Grammar School SW Ikoyi.”

It is sad that such a nasty thing not only happens in Lagos, but has been on over the years. That it is happening is bad enough. That it is being perpetrated by secondary school students makes matters worse. These are people that we look forward to as the leaders of tomorrow.

While it is emblematic of the general decadence in the land, it also mirrors the extent to which morals has sunk in schools. The questions one would necessarily ask in all of these are: who and where are the parents of these boys? What has happened to family values? Where are the religious leaders? What kind of disciplinary measures do schools adopt these days? If it is true that this is an annual thing, has it always involved students of the same Ireti Grammar School? If yes, how had the school authorities treated the issue in the past? And if no, which school/s had been involved in the show of shame and what did their authorities do to curb it? If harsh measures had been applied against culprits in the past, we would have been talking about the matter in the past tense today. Perhaps what would have come out as news is that this year, there was no such incident apparently because of the way perpetrators were sanctioned in the past.

Falomo is not a secluded part of the state; it is indeed a busy part of the city, with people moving up and down the many offices and shops, attending to their customers. Again, this did not happen at night; it all took place in daytime. Yet, people who should rescue these girls merely recorded the incident (for whom and to what purpose, if I may ask?) It is in this context that one should commend the efforts of Matthew and the other man who took the risk of accosting the girls to safety.

One wonders what the students are celebrating. Finishing secondary education is only meaningful nowadays to the extent that one is able to follow it up with admission into a tertiary institution. They have not even known their fate, whether they would pass or fail. It was only in those days in Yorubaland that students who successfully completed this level of education are said to have completed ‘iwe mewa’ (literally meaning10 books). I do not know why they call it so because if it is by the number of years spent in both primary and secondary school then, it should be ‘iwe mokanla’(11 books, given that six years were spent in the primary school then and five in the secondary school.

Indeed, with your school certificate then, even if you were awaiting result, you would get a fairly good job and continue to enjoy life at your own level. As a friend of mine usually says, bi o ba se ni owo to ni o se ma gbadun Oyinbo mo (your pocket determines the extent to which you will enjoy the white man!) ‘Not anymore. ‘Iwe mewa’ cannot fetch you anything nowadays, not even in ilu oke (the hinterlands). The point I am making is that, after completing their secondary education, one would expect these students to have their eyes on the next level. Obviously, this is beyond the ken of the students who see rape or sexual assault as the best way to celebrate their exit from secondary school. Only their colleagues who are focused can reflect this deeply.

All said, society can tolerate youthful exuberance to a reasonable extent. But when secondary school students decide to pounce on defenceless girls and assault or rape them (if there is no help in sight for the victims), such unwholesome acts should be visited with very stiff penalties which should be well publicised, first to serve as a deterrent to other students who might be dreaming of repeating that nasty tradition in subsequent years, and also, to serve as signal that the state government would not tolerate such barbarity.

If students go about with knives and scissors after finishing their examinations, it means they have determined to harm whoever attempts to stop them from raping or assaulting their victims. But for the fact that they are mainly minors, one would have recommended that they be made to face the full wrath of the law. However, because the matter is now in court, it would be prejudicial to say it is the students who are now in court that committed the crime. But what cannot be denied is that a crime was committed by some of the students of Ireti Grammar School. These ‘baby’ criminals must be fished out and made to account for their indiscretion. If people in secondary school can go this far, what will they do when they find their way into the university? What will they do when they graduate?

The answer is better left to conjecture.

May 14, 2017