The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

  • 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.

  • Ports reform confab

    Ports reform confab

    Amaechi’s golden opportunity to speak to the country’s problems 

    Many of the participants at the Conference on Fast-Tracking Ports Reforms held on Thursday, last week, at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, may have thought that the Minister of Transportation, , Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was on the political podium when he was delivering his keynote address at the event.  The conference, with the theme: “Making Nigerian Seaports World-Class”, was organised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation and its agencies, in partnership with this newspaper. Although the minister came with a prepared text, he spoke extempore, dwelling for the better part of the time on corruption, values that have changed and the change promised by the Buhari administration. Indeed, such is the gulf between what the minister said and his prepared speech that a reporter who was not at the event and was only given the prepared text would miss the side comments that eventually made the keynote address juicy and illuminating.

    The way the minister defended the Muhammadu Buhari government at the event, one would think he is the information minister. The conference offered him the opportunity of articulating government’s position on several issues, particularly its change mantra, anti-corruption, and sundry issues. Amaechi said what the All Progressives Congress (APC) promised was change of values, not persons. The minister used a hypothetical example to show how corruption travels:

    Take a governor that one of his relatives came to visit, for example. The visitor goes into lamentation over his mounting bills that he cannot pick due to lack of money. He tells his host of how things are so hard that his children had been sent away from school because he could not pay their school fees; of how the landlord has been harassing his family because of unpaid rent and all that. After listening attentively to the story, the governor  tells him things are tight and gives him another appointment to come for money. Then the guest continues his lamentation: he says there is even nothing left for him and his family to eat now, not to talk of keeping them till the next appointment, probably adding, to boot, that he did not even have transport fare to take him back home!

    At this point, because the governor has human blood in his veins, he has no choice but to ‘shake body’ and drop something. He asks one of his aides to bring some money, say $50,000, which he gives to his guest. The man is happy; he thanks the governor profusely and takes his leave. To him, the governor is a good man. He gets home and gives his wife a fraction of the money to cook soup; she too sings the governor’s praise. Then the man sends some of the money to his mother in the village who does the same on being told the source of the money, and so on and so forth.

    All these people are happy with the governor but what they do not know (or pretend not to know) is that the money the governor gave them is public fund that should have been spent on some other things for the common good. When another person takes over as governor and he is not prepared to release money that way, he immediately becomes a bad man. That, apparently, is the situation the Buhari administration is facing.

    The minister also spoke on the government’s efforts to dredge the River Niger, using a different template. While past governments had always awarded contracts for this, the Buhari administration has decided to retrieve the government-owned dredger from those it was given to by the previous government for peanuts on lease, in order to use it for the dredging, thereby saving a lot of money for the government.

    Amaechi also told the participants what the government is doing about the security infrastructure, especially with regards to piracy. With the long list of sophisticated equipment he reeled out that are under way, pirates have to start redirecting their minds to something worthwhile. He told Nigerians to expect some new locomotives come May 29, to boost rail transportation.

    Indeed, it was a rare opportunity that was well utilised for the kind of positive publicity the government needs, especially at this point in time when stories about the president’s health is generating controversies.

    Of course, Amaechi did not allow the opportunity to slip by without commenting, once again on the allegation by his successor in Rivers, Nyesom Wike, that he (Amaechi) is the owner of the $43.4m, £27,800 and N23.2m found in a four-bedroom apartment at Osborne Towers located at 16, Osborne road Ikoyi, Lagos, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Wike had said it loud and clear that the money was part of what Amaechi stole from Rivers State coffers. Even after the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) had claimed ownership, this meant nothing to the governor who insisted that if Amaechi was held well, he would sing. To the extent that this was not done, he believed Amaechi was being shielded because the government did not want to embarrass itself. The minister wondered, and rightly so, that an NIA boss, who is now on suspension over the matter, must have been such a wonderful person to soil his hard-earned reputation for a man he has never met.

    As part of his alibi that he knew nothing about the money, Amaechi added, for effect, that he does not smoke and he does not drink, I do not know whether his silence on the third of the (tripartite) vices (women) was a deliberate omission or it was inadvertent.  But he left the audience to fill in the missing gaps when he said he neither drinks nor smokes immediately after saying someone accused him of being the owner of the money.

    Much as the minister knew that Nigerians do not like being told to be patient, he still solicited their support for the government because no student can obtain a first degree which takes four years in a year or two, no matter how hard the student tries.

    Amaechi is the immediate past governor of Rivers State. He had been speaker of the state house of assembly as well as chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum. So, he has seen it all and was therefore competent to make the comments he made.

    The minister may not have spoken directly to the theme of the conference, virtually everything of what seemed a digression that he made touched at the heart of our unending port reforms that have ended up reforming nothing over the years. When we talk of the many government agents scrambling to ‘partition’ the ports, it is not for any patriotic reason; it is to enable them feed fat on the decay there (corruption). A participant at the conference even suggested that those making the money for government at the ports should be given a certain percentage as bonus or commission to stop them from stealing. This, as the chairman of one of the sessions, Gabriel Amalu, a lawyer said, is corruption. The best way to motivate workers generally (and such workers in particular) is to pay them well. Giving them a percentage of what they realise can only fuel corruption.

    The summary is; we must move away from all the identified negative values if the country is to witness any meaningful change. In like manner, we must take corruption and other vices identified by Amaechi out if our ports are to become world-class ports, in line with the theme of the conference. This, as some of the speakers said, is not only about having conferences or seminars or workshops. It is all about making use of the recommendations and suggestions at the forum because port reforms will not come by mere wishful thinking. Rather, it will come by making those who break the rules there pay for them.

     

    Readers’ reactions last week

    ‘Jonathan needs political paracetamol’!

    If Jonathan has no job to do, let him look for a fishing boat and return to fish farming instead of making an allegation that does not hold water. Jonathan organised election against himself and defeated himself. Let him look for a political paracetamol and drink if the election fever is still in his body. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

    Re: angst of an ex-president. Goodluck Jonathan would have the guts to make comments because heads of state in Nigeria, military or civilian, are a ‘sacred club’. Who did not commit errors against Nigerians? Was it N2.8bn? Was it $12bn gulf oil windfall? Was it an election result that was annulled? Was it the death of MKO or Abacha? Was it unjustified fuel price increases? Was it election result manipulations? Was it ethnic-based skewed federal appointments? Was it the kitchen cabinet decisors, etc? Nigerians only murmur and grumble. That is why Jonathan believes in ‘expose me and I retaliate’. From Lanre O.

    From the way you and others, especially from The nation feast on Segun Adeniyi’s publication Against the Run of Play concerning former President Jonathan confirms indeed the conspiracy against him. While blaming him for Nigeria’s woes, remember also that your president left governance stagnant for seven good months after taking over. With the same zeal I want your reaction to Soyinka’s call for the president to declare his state of health.   Anonymous.

  • Angst of an ex-president

    Angst of an ex-president

    It is good to respond sharp sharp to some of the misinformation in book on Jonathan 

    Since comments are free, and only facts sacred, one would have allowed the comments in the book on the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan on the 2015 elections, and President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war go without response. However, the office that Dr Jonathan occupied before he was voted out in 2015 is not one to allow for any sweeping generalisations. As former president, Dr Jonathan should not begin to rewrite history too soon and before our very eyes. We have had all manner of accounts from different actors in the country’s evolution, including the civil war and some of their accounts are as laughable as they are spurious. But the civil war was some 50 years before; so, some of the writers might be pardoned for the time lag errors of misinformation. But not so for events that happened less than a decade ago.

    The former president shared his feelings in a book, “Against The Run of Play”, written by Olusegun Adeniyi, chairman, editorial board of ThisDay newspaper. Although presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina was right to have said he could not comment on the contents of a book he has not read because of his delicate position, the fact remains that extracts from the book as reported in the media were unambiguous that the only thing that would render them invalid is the repudiation of such views by Dr Jonathan. To the extent that the former president has not denied what was reported days after, it could be safely assumed that they represent his views; and this is tragic.

    Dr Jonathan, from the reports, appears visibly angry and uncomfortable with the Buhari administration. As human beings, we can understand, notwithstanding that the former president himself conceded defeat in the 2015 elections. But that was over two years ago. With the former president’s outburst, could one begin to feel that, looking back, he regretted conceding defeat in that election? On the 2015 poll, Dr Jonathan said: “I felt really betrayed by the result coming from some northern states. Perhaps for ethnic purposes, even security agents colluded with the opposition to come up with spurious results against me. You saw the way the Inspector- General of Police, a man I appointed, suddenly turned himself into the ADC to Buhari immediately after the election.” But one thing that should make us feel sad as Nigerians is the fact that the former president even thought of some places where they should not have lost in the election despite the inept and corrupt administration that he superintended.

    Hear him: “How could we have lost Ondo, Benue and Plateau states if our people were committed to the cause? If you examine the results, you will see a pattern: in places where ordinarily we were strong, our supporters did not show enough commitment to mobilise the voters.” Should this not tell the former president something: that what he did not see his foot soldiers saw, hence, their surrender to the superior political firepower of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) at the polls? Or, is it not well known that what a child cannot see even if standing on an Iroko tree, an elder would see sitting down? The point is, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo said, as far as Dr Jonathan was concerned, money was going to be the determinant at the polls. That is perhaps the basis for some of the money that we are now finding all over the place, some without owners. So much money was apparently warehoused for the elections which, but for God, the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could have bought. Again, as Obasanjo noted, Nigeria would have been looted out of the global map if that had happened.

    For God’s sake; what achievements did the Jonathan administration post that could have fetched it reelection? While one waits for the book to flood the streets, there are certain things that just cannot wait to be replied or debunked. For instance, we do not need any book to tell us that the Jonathan administration performed woefully. The government enjoyed some of the highest crude prices ever but either frittered or stole the proceeds. The mess that its successor has been battling to clean up, amidst low crude prices, is enough evidence of that. What sector of our economy did the Jonathan administration leave better than it met it? When the former president was in Osogbo for a political rally and saw an ancient locomotive pass by, he pointed to it as part of his government’s achievements!

    What the former president has succeeded in doing is to remind us of the better-forgotten troubles that his government put the nation through. In the absence of nothing to say, Dr Jonathan is accusing the Buhari administration of hounding his family. Perhaps the former president does not know what is going on in the minds of millions of Nigerians who are wondering why, up till now, the Buhari administration has not deemed it fit to pick up the former president to explain how it was so easy for people to keep billions of naira and millions of dollars of public funds, without the government knowing (to use the ex-president’s expression when it was alleged that $20billion was missing from the country’s coffers)!

    Dr Jonathan must have amused many Nigerians when he said that “His (Buhari’s) style of fighting corruption is different from mine and since most Nigerians apparently prefer his style, it is okay. There are steps you take that will help in retrieving ill-gotten wealth and punish offenders while restoring confidence in the system. But there are also things you can do to damage the system.” Pray, since when did Dr Jonathan admit that corruption thrived in his regime? Even when those who were detached from the madness of the era cried out that corruption was killing the country, did the then president not say what was being referred to as corruption was (mere) stealing? If what we are seeing now was (mere) stealing by Dr Jonathan’s definition, then what is corruption? How come the former president is now saying his (Buhari’s) “style of fighting corruption is different from mine?” How could Dr Jonathan have had any style to fight something that he did not believe existed?

    Honestly, Dr Jonathan should thank his stars that we are in this kind of country. His wife laid claim to about $5.8million; this was someone who was all her life a teacher, or civil servant. The closest she got to being in the banking sector was when she secured a job with the first community bank in Port Harcourt, Akpo Community Bank. So, howm come she is having $5.8million in account? In some saner climes, the onus of proof of ownership of that money would have fallen on her but here, we say he who asserts must proof. The government has not been able to pick the former president too apparently due to the political insinuations that would be read into it. Rather than ask whether the allegations and free looting in his era was true, people would now be saying he is being hounded because of where he comes from. If Dr Jonathan momentarily imagined he was president in China, he would have known what it is to be hounded.

    One wonders who and who are seeking asylum abroad that Dr Jonathan referred to when he said: “But a situation in which people go into exile for political reasons is not good for us.” It reminds me of a poster that I used last week playing a pun on the ‘ban’ of importation of whistles by our senate which is worried that whistle blowing is now killing more people than meningitis in the country! Which people are being killed by whistle blowing? That should be the high profile thieves in our midst. In the same vein, who are those going into exile for political reasons? I beg to submit that in saner climes, more people would have fled the country now due to the fact that they had soiled their hands enough for us to notice. If only Dr Jonathan is privileged to know how bad many Nigerians feel seeing the same people who looted our common patrimony still walking pompously on the streets, he would not have said people are going into exile. If only he knows the number of Nigerians who want him arrested and tried for the massive looting that happened in his time, he would have known he is being treated with kid gloves by the Buhari administrations.

  • In spite of everything …

    In spite of everything …

    There are times when words are not just enough to say whatever one wants to say. I know my classmates in the university would want to remind me that one of our lecturers told us in our undergraduate days that there is nothing one wants to say that words are not enough for. I have not forgotten that lesson. It is just that today, I want to break that ‘protocol’. Everything in Nigeria of today has been breaking ‘protocol’. What people in leadership positions steal nowadays has broken ‘protocol’. Even their choice of where to hide the loot has broken ‘protocol’. It is even feared that the highly connected thieves are not allowing our dead to rest in peace because they have deposited some of their ill-gotten wealth in cemeteries.The way very senior lawyers and the elite generally explain away the phenomenon defies ‘protocol’. The way some judges decide the cases is unprecedented. In fact, Nigeria of today is a wide world of difference from Nigeria of our undergraduate days.

    The closest we had then to the mind-boggling revelations now making the news today was that a prominent politician in the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had ordered some customised wine to celebrate his ‘hitting’ the one billion mark in his bank account! The man later denied this. Yet, all hell was let loose.

    The other thing close to that was the news that about N2.8billion was missing from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). So, no be today money don dey miss for NNPC. Indeed, the corporation is a ‘veteran’ (ogbologbo) where missing money is concerned. And those involved have hardly been prosecuted. They are only retired to go and enjoy their loot in peace.

    For sure, it is not in many countries that huge sums of money are being found in personal vaults instead of letting the money rest in peace in bank vaults. In times like these, that foreign currencies that the country craves are being found lying idle in desolate and highbrow apartments, in some backwater places and even in the megacity, protocol can go to blazes. That is why I had to draw inspiration from some of my Whatsapp posts today.

    I guess the pictures speak for themselves. But, as you laugh, please spare a thought for this country. For instance, when the ‘Breaking News’ picture says the Nigerian senate will ban importation of whistles into Nigeria because it is “killing more Nigerians than meningitis …”, we know the reason for such apprehension, especially from this eighth senate. We should also ask ourselves which Nigerians are being killed by the whistles that are being imported (blown).  Happy reading.

  • Dangote at 60

    Dangote at 60

    Time to celebrate an achiever

    It is immaterial whether you like the face of Aliko Dangote, founder of the Dangote Group, a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, or not. Indeed, I had restrained from writing on him for personal reasons. The last time I would have been tempted to do was when he made known his intention to start a refinery. Even then, I still told myself that I should wait till the 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery takes off in 2019. But now that his 60th birthday is here ahead of the 2019 date, and especially in the light of the unparalleled primitive accumulation in the land, the multi-million dollar gifts and all, I felt perhaps there is no better time than now to add voice to whatever story has been told about this man and his business conglomerate. Isn’t it better to say something positive about an acclaimed achiever than waste valuable time and effort on a man flaunting his third class degree in public, for instance?

    It is difficult, if not impossible not to notice a man like Dangote. Dangote Group is a manufacturer of everyday consumables commodities and more –  pasta, beverages, and real estate, telecommunications, fertilizer and steel. If you are not using Dangote cement, you are likely to be using his sugar. If you are not using his sugar, you must be buying his salt, or his flour. Kids love his noodles. And lately, he has joined the big ones in the Oil and Gas industry. That means, soon, very soon, we will be buying his petrol.

    How then can anyone say he does not know or does not care about such a man; the richest man in Africa, and the 23rd (Forbes list of billionaires) richest in the world as at 2014? His name rings a bell not just in Nigeria but across the African continent and even beyond. Unlike many Nigerian portfolio billionaires who claim they have million dollars as gifts, we know what Dangote does for a living. That is why the man would have his money in the banking system. He can give you a blow-by-blow account of how he made it.

    A man with the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest in Africa that generated revenue in excess of US$3 billion in 2015 cannot be shoved aside in any part of the world. One cannot pretend not to see a man whose companies employed directly over 26,000 workers as at 2015. At least we can see that his money is not the proceed of some gifts by some benevolent spirits. Indeed, if those who claimed they had millions of dollar as gifts did not know what to do with their gifts; they should have given the dollars to Dangote to create jobs for our teeming youths who are roaming the streets in search of non-existent jobs. If Dangote started his business empire with a mere $3,000 loan, one can imagine what he would do with $9million dollars in his companies’ coffers. Really, it is difficult to blame a man who had $9million gifts for not knowing what to do with it beyond tucking it away in some obscure building in a remote part of the country. Since it was not money earned, one can easily compare him with the man in the scriptures who had only one talent and hid it in the ground.

    Dangote deserves the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, the second highest honour in Nigeria, bestowed on him by the Goodluck Jonathan government on November 14, 2011 and much more. It was also a befitting honour that he beat the closing gong for the N17 trillion Nigerian stock market on April 10, to mark his diamond jubilee. He had served as second vice president, first vice president and president of the Council and is presently an ex-officio member.

    Of course a man like Dangote cannot be without criticisms. It is not easy to get to the top; and it is even easier getting there than staying there. So, Dangote and his conglomerate have been accused of sundry charges. The piece would be one-sided if I ignore these.

    Not a few see the comatose rail system in the country as the handiwork of Dangote and other people in the haulage business. The critics say a man like him cannot wish for an effective rail system in Nigeria, having invested heavily in trucks and trailers for his conglomerate. Isn’t this analogous to blaming waiters in restaurants for obesity?

    Another allegation is that Dangote uses his wide connections and influence to muzzle competitors. I wonder how that is the man’s business. Is it not the business of the government to put in place measures that would not make that happen? In the United States, for instance, there is the Antitrust Laws to check such excesses.

    Some even hold it against him that he had been unduly ‘favoured’ with waivers and other incentives by successive governments. But it is also true that some of those who got such ‘favours’ from successive governments have not utilised them well. At least, as for Dangote, we can see what he is doing with the ‘favours’. Some churches also got waivers (which one cannot understand why they were given in the first place, for all manner of things which have no bearing with their calling). What we see thereafter are schools and universities established by those churches that most of their members cannot afford.

    Again, one cannot but mention the menace that some of his truck drivers constitute to other road users. They are just like accidents waiting to happen. Just last Wednesday, on my way to Oyo, one of the radio stations reported the sentencing of one such driver by a court for killing two persons or so. Another reportedly killed three pedestrians at the Arepo area of Ogun State on Tuesday. Perhaps what can be said here is that the companies should continue to educate the drivers on the need to drive carefully and with the consideration for other road users. Those who still commit crimes have the law to contend with, as with the driver just sentenced. Considering the sheer number of trucks owned by the conglomerate, it is not unlikely that they will always be on the roads, with the attendant possibility of mishaps.

    In a country where those who had the best of education have excelled in nothing other than stealing of public funds which they rather keep in idle homes or bury underground, rather than put to productive use, one cannot but salute a man like Dangote. As the man sees opportunities, he goes for them. Part of what is going for him is his sound business acumen and his audacity. Dangote does not fear to tread where many dread. That can only be the explanation for his foray into refining of petroleum products. I have lost count of the number of people who applied for license to establish refineries in the country and were given but did nothing thereafter.

    However, from the body language of the Federal Government, it seems it has also abandoned its plan to get more people into the business. Now, it seems to be banking on modular refineries that it would run in conjunction with militants and others who had been doing illegal refining of petroleum products in the Niger Delta. Little is heard of co-location and other plans that the Federal Government used to harp on when fuel scarcity almost crippled the country last year. All eyes seem fixed on 2019 when Dangote Refinery would commence operation. Again, when that time comes and things do not go the way we had expected, particularly with pricing, people, including those who had got licenses to set up refineries but ran away would blame Dangote.

    Nothing I have said should be mistaken for unconditional admiration for Aliko Dangote and his conglomerate. Apart from some of the issues I already mentioned, it is not good for a country to put all its hopes in an individual. A country like Nigeria that is getting punished now for relying on a mono-cultural economy for decades should never wish for a repeat of such punishment in whatever form. Although Dangote has promised to spread prosperity, the Federal Government must also play its part to ensure both the success of Dangote’s initiatives as well as safeguard the national interest.

    Born on April 10, 1957, in Kano, Kano State, Dangote knew what he wanted and went for it after getting his degree in Business from Al-Alhar University, Cairo, Egypt. Even as a teenager, he was selling packs of sweets in his secondary school days. What has now become a business giant, the Dangote Group, started as a mini-trading business with a N500,000 loan that Dangote got from an uncle, Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata, when he (Dangote) was just 21 years old. Thirty-nine years after, Dangote can now look back and give thanks to his uncle and God Almighty for what is obviously more than little mercies.

    I wish Aliko Dangote long life and even more prosperity.

  • So, Big Ben is gone!

    So, Big Ben is gone!

    It is hard to believe that I was speaking for the last time with BenBayo Oyemade (Big Ben), a friend and colleague at The Punch when he called me about five weeks ago, to inform me of his impending trip to Lagos. I had thought it was one of such messages that he usually sent in advance whenever he was coming down to Lagos from Ibadan. It’s been quite some time that we saw. Indeed, I had lost contact with him until he called and I could only recognise him by his voice. I told him that I had lost his number with some of my previous handsets and quickly saved the number with which he called. We exchanged pleasantries and ended our conversation.

    Since he did not tell me specifically when his trip to Lagos would be, I forgot about the discussion until Saturday, April 1 when Dipo Onabanjo, another colleague at The Punch in those days sent me a text message informing me that Big Ben was seriously ill. I had no cause to suspect anything serious even though the tone of the message suggested it was. People fall sick and get well; Oyemade’s case would not be different. So I thought. Indeed, but for the seriousness of the tone of the message, I could have dismissed it as an April Fool joke. But Onabanjo is never so flippant, and if at all he would be, not with the health of a friend.

    I promised to forward the text message to Victor Ifijeh, the managing director/editor-in-chief of this newspaper who was also an acquaintance of Big Ben. Somehow, I slept off. I was indisposed myself and had as at that Saturday not been to work in the last four days. I managed to send the message on Sunday after returning from church. On Monday, I went to Ifijeh to discuss the matter and we agreed to help by publishing a story on him, having realised how serious his case was. We also discussed how we could assist with our widow’s mite. I immediately went to the newsroom to tell our health correspondent, Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustafa , who unfortunately did not come to work because she had an issue with one of her legs. She was the one to call me on Tuesday when she was informed that I asked after her the day before.

    Unfortunately, it was late, too too late. Big Ben had given up. It was a terse message from Onabanjo that announced the sad news: “Friend, just been told that Uncle Ben Oyemade passed on this morning. May his soul rest in peace, Amen.”

    So, Gbenga-Mustafa needed not bother again since the friend we wanted to help had died. Expectedly, she expressed her condolences.

    I met Big Ben at The Punch in the mid-eighties. He was for years, the head of the graphic art section of the paper in the days of ‘cut and paste’. That was before the advent of the computer in the newspaper industry in the country. Since newspaper production has, like many other businesses, been computerised, not many artists today would know what cow gum is. Big Ben and his colleagues could not work without the cow gum in those days. He was good at his job. He was a hard working member of the staff; but he also loved life. He designed two of the logos of The Punch. Indeed, as one of his former colleagues reminded me on Friday when putting this piece together, “He was the one that manually reconstructed the masthead of Punch twice before we redesigned the logo finally at the advent of computer software packages for designing. He did not know so much about software packages”.

    Although generally quiet and unassuming, Big Ben was an extrovert. His anger never lasted. His work brought him in contact with a few personalities. His jokes were rib-cracking.  Those close to him would remember his famous je namu namu jokes. I crave your indulgence not to ask for details.

    An occasion such as this brings back some sweet memories at The Punch. I mean those good days at the newspaper, when we went without salaries for some months. Yet, we were one another’s brother’s keeper. We ate whatever was available together, be it what we called ‘junk’ sold by the wife of one of the men at the company’s premises then at Onipetesi, Lagos; or the popular ‘ninety-ten’, that is guguru and epa (popcorn and groundnuts). ‘Ninety-ten’ simply meant 90 kobo popcorn and 10 kobo groundnut!) Yes, you heard me right: two packs of ‘90-10’ were more than enough for many of us to chew until we were tired of eating. I remember how Big Ben and the rest of us would laugh away our sorrows as we munched the ’90-10’ and momentarily forgot that we were going without salaries.

    As with many human beings, Big Ben’s life ran into stormy waters at some point. Time and again, he had cause to discuss some business proposals he wanted to present to some notable Nigerians. It is doubtful if he got over the storms but what is striking was his audacity to forge ahead in spite of the vicissitudes. He lost his wife about two decades ago and never remarried until he died on April 4, a day after his 69th birthday. I guess he said something to that effect when the wife was buried at Ikoyi Cemetery, Lagos. His concern was for his children. This makes sense, especially in our kind of environment where the woman in the house wants to lord it over the ones that came before her or her own children. That he could live up to that promise, despite entreaties from some friends to remarry is remarkable. I never thought he could.

    Without doubt, Big Ben would be sorely missed by those who knew and were close to him. I have no doubt that one thing he would have missed is the expected turn-around in Nigeria. A few years back when we discussed the national economy, things were still good, at least relatively. But the locusts and caterpillars have eaten up everything, leaving the country bare and prostrate. As one who ate of the plenty, someone who witnessed ’90-10’, Big Ben would have loved to also witness the return of Nigeria’s old glory. But, as they say, “man proposes, God disposes.”

    Whether you call him Baba B (as I used to call him, or Big Ben or, better still, Uncle Ben as others called him, we were all talking about one and the same person: Ben Oyemade. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

  • An appeal to Ikeja Electric

    An appeal to Ikeja Electric

    I want to believe that the ongoing blackout in my area at Pleasure, Okeodo, Agege, Lagos, is the fallout of the work that Ikeja Electric announced about four weeks ago that it would undertake at its Ayobo substation. If this is so, I hope the firm has taken cognisance of the perennial problem that throws many of its customers in that area (Otta Road, including the Orile Agege General Hospital; Olusegun Oshinkanlu Estate, etc.)  into darkness, sometimes for as long as 21 consecutive days years back. Although the duration of the blackout appears reduced these days, it is still there. We had it, for instance, for about two weeks in February. Hardly would a month pass without the light in the area having hitches that would warrant blackout for days. Now that the rains are approaching, we are always apprehensive because that compounds the problem.

    This is painful, especially when it is realised that the problem has always been there; and, two, when we continue to see electricity at our backyard. And, until recently, crazy bills used to be sent allocating N11,000 monthly electricity bills to many of us. That is why some of us laugh whenever the electricity companies say they are being owed some outrageous billions because the alleged debts include such crazy bills.

    Ikeja Electric would do well to address this perennial challenge in the afore-mentioned area in the interest of the general hospital, its numerous customers there, as well as its own interest. I used to lament whenever I saw the large areas in darkness in those days when we had no government and the then National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) brought whatever caught its fancy as bill. These days, it is someone in Ikeja Electric that should be losing sleep over the darkness in this area because it must mean a lot of revenue loss now that the firm is gradually moving towards getting paid only for services rendered.

  • Fake this, fake that

    Fake this, fake that

    From fake tyres to fake cosmetics. And now, fake diesel 

    One question that always comes to my mind whenever any negative news is reported about Nigeria is: how did we get to this sorry pass? In my undergraduate days, when we were discussing the new world information order, and we (Third World peoples) accused the developed countries’ media of concentrating only on negative things about us, I had always asked myself if we were not being unduly hypocritical. The reason is simple: even in our own media in Nigeria for example, as far back as that time, what dominated the media were negative stories. As a matter of fact, many editors would tell you that nothing sells like bad news. Today, if we do content analysis of our media, we discover that the top stories are the negative ones.

    Anyway, this piece is not about all that.

    Not many people were surprised to hear, last month, that two Chinese allegedly imported about N5billion worth of substandard tyres into Nigeria. We have always known that. What we have not always done is arrest the culprits. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) which made the disclosure said the tyres were stored in a warehouse near Navy Town in the Satellite area of Lagos State. As with other such products that find their way into the country, the importers of the tyres not only brought in the sub-standard products but adorn them with new labels and shiny linings to create the impression that they are new. The Chinese, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yao as well as their suspected Nigerian accomplice, Chinedu Madubuike, were arraigned last week alongside two companies, Sino Nigeria Limited and Nedeca International Limited. Madubuike was however arraigned in absentia as his counsel, Mr. Napoleon Nwachukwu, told the court that he was “seriously” sick.

    SON’s Director-General and Chief Executive, Osita Aboloma, said while conducting journalists round the warehouse that such tyres could jeopardise the lives of Nigerians, especially because as many as five tyres were stuffed into one. Not only that, they are crudely separated on arrival in the country. These, added to the fact that the quality of the tyres would have been compromised, given the long journey by sea from China to Nigeria make the integrity of the products suspect. Even when they arrive the country, the tyres are not properly stored. All of these have implications for the vehicles and lives of those who buy or travel using those tyres. As we all know, tyres are the only component that connect vehicles to roads. We can only imagine why some people would spend about five billion naira on such illicit and murderous trade.

    Perhaps the Chinese would not have found the substandard tyre business lucrative if we had not allowed the tyre manufacturers that were operating here (until they could no longer bear the inclement business climate) to leave our shores. Perhaps they would not have been in the multi-billion naira business if only those in government had played their part well. Having allowed Dunlop and Michelin to relocate, something must fill the space they left because nature abhors a vacuum. This is not to justify the killer instinct of those in the illicit trade, but we must also get to a point where we ask those who (sometimes) fought bitter struggles to get to leadership positions in this country as if they are interested in our welfare to account for their stewardship. Who could ever imagine that some people would want to identify with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at this point in time? But here we are, with people still fighting acrimoniously to hold on to whatever is left of the moribund party! A thing I find highly disgusting and contemptuous of Nigerians.

    Again, barely two weeks after the sub-standard tyre story broke, SON made another discovery involving an importer, Joseph Udeh, owner of Jouf Nigeria Limited, located at No. 10 Faith Street, off Comfort Oboh Street, Kirikiri Road, Apapa, Lagos, who allegedly deals in importation and selling of popular cosmetic products. SON has accused Udeh of allegedly changing the expired dates on the products to new ones. But he said he had been calling the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to come and destroy the products but they hardly turned up and when they did, they destroyed only some of the products.

    But NAFDAC has dismissed this as bunkum. Mrs Christy Obiazikwor of NAFDAC said: “What he is saying is not even logical. If he invited NAFDAC to destroy the products, why is he then changing label on them?” Aboloma asked the appropriate question when he said: “Imagine a product that should be used in wrapping up a baby in 2017 has expired in 2015, what will be the effect on the baby, of course it would be negative reaction on the baby.

    “We have baby powders that have expired since 2013 and four years after, the products are still going into the market. When they sell, they remove the expiry dates and put new dates to deceive the unsuspecting consumers and when you buy these products, you think they are products that can help you, not knowing that they are products that would cause you all sorts of diseases.”

    And this … Just last week, another company that allegedly specialises in the sale of adulterated diesel was uncovered, again, in Lagos. According to one of the arrested workers, they sell about N20million of the adulterated product daily and each of the workers get between N3,000 and N4,000 daily. Only God knows how many engines they would have damaged due to their own greed. But it is instructive that this business is taking place right close to the seat of power in Lagos, Alausa. Indeed, that the three incidents are all happening in Lagos shows the audacity of the people involved. It is also a pointer to what could be happening in the remote parts of the country. One should wonder why someone who could make N20million daily cannot do legit business.

    Apparently these people are cashing in on the high cost of diesel, if the allegation against them is true. And this might not have been necessary if government had done the rightful by ensuring that we produce petroleum products locally.

    However, what all these fake this, fake that tell us is that we need to strengthen the agencies responsible for their prevention and apprehension of those who want to make money, even at grave risks to the lives of their compatriots. Something must be wrong with us for people to find our country a haven for fake product makers. The merchants of death in our midst have sent many people to untimely graves. They are the ones responsible for drugs that won’t cure what they are made to cure. Then, we start blaming witches in the village. When the importers are not telling the manufacturers abroad to reduce the active ingredients to enable them make more profit, they fake the drugs outright, or change the labels of expired ones to give the impression that they have not expired.

    But all of these are symptoms of a larger sickness that has gripped the nation: the collapse of moral values. This is why people want to make money at all cost; not minding the consequence to themselves (if caught), and others if they succeed in pushing the products into the market. The larger society is not without blame as it also worships money without knowing the source or even caring about how it was made. Ultimately, it ends up the victim

    Government agencies responsible for checking these illicit trades have to redouble their efforts. The government must empower them if their effects are to be felt. Those already apprehended must be duly prosecuted even as the security agencies keep sniffing for other purveyors of death in the country.

  • Twice rejected

    Twice rejected

    No matter the number of times Magu’s name is forwarded, the senate will always refuse to confirm his appointment

    It is not for fun that Ibrahim Magu’s name had been sent to the senate for confirmation as chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) twice; and it is not for fun that the senate has rejected his nomination twice. In other words, the child that is crying knows why even as the mother pleading with him to stop crying also knows why.

    When the then General Muhammadu Buhari was elected as the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in December 2014, the party’s joker was to hinge its campaign for the country’s Number One position on his credibility and integrity, especially as an anti-corruption crusader. This was evident in the way and manner Buhari dealt with corruption in his first coming, after sacking the inept and corrupt Alhaji Shehu Shagari government on December 31, 1983. Many of the country’s politicians that he dealt with then would not forget how Buhari’s name instilled the fear of God in them. But true, many of them were corrupt through and through.

    So, when the APC chose Buhari as its presidential candidate, it did so bearing in mind that the most troubling of the country’s worries in the Goodluck Jonathan era was corruption, which could kill the country if the country did not kill it first. It was visible even to the blind that corruption reigned supreme in Jonathan’s seat of power, whether in the bedroom, the other room and even the corridors of power. How the then president could not see this baffled many people because it was an era that corruption was democratised such that it was possible even for clerical officers in government establishments to become multi-millionaires!

    Although the Olusegun Obasanjo administration  established the EFCC to fight corruption, it is the incumbent acting chair of the commission, Magu, that has really instilled fear in the minds of the corrupt, given the unwavering manner he has been dealing with the cankerworm. But when it was time to confirm his appointment, the senate refused to do that, ostensibly based on some report of the Department of State Services (DSS).

    It is not unlikely that Magu did not exercise enough discretion on some of the issues that have now become his albatross. Yet, no one should be deceived that his rejection was only on account of the DSS report. As a former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume reportedly said on Channel’s Television, since when has mere allegation become the basis to deny a Nigerian public office?  Hear Akume: “We have all been accused of some allegations at different times.  I have been accused of sponsoring Boko Haram, and the Senate President is still going to court on some allegations. It is the same as other members who have cases in court. Yet they occupy seats in the Senate. So, if you say because of the allegations he (Magu) should not be confirmed, then I should not be a sitting senator and Saraki should not be there as Senate President.

    “The issue at stake is an accusation. In the normal circumstance and by our constitution, accusation is not conviction. The Constitution of Nigeria is clear that every Nigerian is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt by a competent court of law.”

    Let no one get me wrong. Magu may not be the only Nigerian who can do the job. There are some other persons who would do well there if given the chance. But we still have to be worried about the motive of those who scuttled the confirmation of his appointment, particularly the senators. We knew ab inito that many of the senators never wanted him and many people said so when this matter started. And the senators have never hidden this.

    We should be worried for the government’s anti-corruption efforts because that was the mantra on which the government was elected. Indeed, if the senate succeeds in blocking Magu permanently, then it can get away with blue murder. Even if we are able to find a person who can match his record, or even beat it, that person would continue to be haunted by the way Magu was denied confirmation despite what we have all come to see as his sterling achievements. Chances are the person would now see the National Assembly as where the real power lies (a.k.a. the untouchables) and may not want to ruffle feathers there. This would be terrible because we know the antecedents of some of the senators, including the leadership.

    Again, the impression would have been created that hard work does not pay all of the time because, in terms of hard work, Magu has really tried, despite being in acting capacity. He happened to be the elixir that the anti-corruption war needed when he came on board and, in the line of duty, he has not disappointed.

    Probably what the senate wants is an anti-corruption czar that would see its members as the real force to fear and not one that does not care a hoot about whose horse is gored when the issue is fighting corruption. It would be tragic if this country allows that to happen, especially at this time when some members of the hallowed chambers are themselves carrying one baggage or the other like necklaces of stone.

    For sure, we are yet to know the details of the high-wire intrigues that have cost Magu the confirmation of his appointment. What we know today are mere snippets. Someday, the real story behind the story would be in the public domain. This is because the DSS is under the president and it is the latter that had pushed the commission’s chair for confirmation to the senate twice. So, was President Buhari not aware of the allegations made by the DSS against Magu? If the president said he had found nothing against Magu in spite of the allegations, is it possible for the security service to insist on their report? I know that is the ultimate that we should be heading for, but it is curious that we suddenly got there only now that Magu is the issue.

    Anyway, now that the nays seem to have had it on Magu, President Buhari should stretch his net wide in search of a replacement. This should not be seen as a volte face on my part, given my earlier position that the president should do everything possible to secure the ticket for him. Sometimes, a situation like this might even be a blessing in disguise for the country. Magu’s enemies might think anybody but Magu is good for them without knowing that the person who would come as his replacement may even be tougher. They may discover, to their chagrin, that Magu has only been whipping them with an ordinary cane; his successor may come with horsewhip. Then, we would see what would be their excuse not to confirm that one too. Then, Nigerians will know where the problem lies. They will then know the real reason why Magu was rejected twice and would be rejected for as many times as the president decides to send his name for confirmation to the senate as presently constituted.

    Suffice it to say that the senate’s refusal to confirm Magu is not politics. And the few honest members of the senate know this. It is a fight for survival, especially by those who have skeletons in their cupboards. By extension, it is a determined attempt to scuttle the Buhari government’s anti-corruption war. If the president has not seen it in this light; too bad.

  • Back on the beat

    Back on the beat

    We welcome the president back home and expect a faster pace of governance  

    Good news! President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country from London on Friday, about 50 days after leaving the country on vacation during which he also had some medical treatments. One thing his return has done is to put paid to speculations about his medical condition abroad. At least Nigerians now know that the president is not dead. He may not be enjoying the best of health yet, but there is nothing to suggest that he cannot return to his desk. He made this point himself shortly after arriving Abuja: “I am feeling much better now. There may, however, be need for further follow up within some weeks.’’ At  74, there is nothing unusual in the president needing constant medical attention. What is important is for him to still have the capacity to continue in office.

    But our presidents’ handlers, right from the time of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, usually gave the impression that because someone is president, he cannot fall sick. Leaders of the developed countries where our own presidents rush to for medical treatment do fall sick; so, what is the big deal if our own president falls sick? Is it not human to be indisposed? Or, are our leaders no more human simply because they are leaders?

    Anyway, there have been some lessons for the president’s handlers in handling such matters in the future. While one may not rule out the possibility of mischief makers on issues like this, especially for a president whose administration has decided to confront corruption headlong (because corruption will always fight back), the president is a public figure and his health should be of public concern. But the way the matter was handled ab initio led to some avoidable misgivings in the interpretation of what happened.

    The president, if we must remember, was to start his leave on Monday, January 23 but had to be rushed out of the country on Thursday, January 19. Yet, his aides presented the matter as if it was a scheduled travel, with some of them saying he was ‘hale and hearty’, when it was obvious he was not. As I said in an earlier piece, we could only have said the president was ‘hale and hearty’ then if we have changed the meaning of that expression. To be ‘hale and hearty’, especially concerning old people, is to be’ strong and healthy.’ The president would not have required an extension of his leave if he was ‘strong and healthy’.

    Even if I must reluctantly agree with some people who believe that our peculiar circumstances might not permit full disclosure of President Buhari’s state of health as it is in the developed countries (I guess so that witches and wizards who do not wish him well would not take advantage of the disclosure), I insist that the issue could have been better handled such that it would have generated much empathy and less controversy. Maybe I am being unfair to the handlers because I have not been in their shoes before. But that was the way some of them appeared to be unfair to then President Yar’Adua’s aides during Yar’Adua’s own travails.

    In President Buhari’s case, however, he did what was expected of him: he handed over to his deputy before jetting out as well as notified the National Assembly of his intention to proceed on leave. It was after these that the serial mistakes began, leading to doubts in the minds of some Nigerians as to the true nature of the president’s illness.

    I join millions of well-wishers who are happy that the president is back in welcoming him back home, in spite of the expectations of the evil doers who are afraid of the anti-corruption war. One major task the president should do is to ensure that Ibrahim Magu is confirmed as chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He cannot force his way through though; but then, he should do everything possible to get this done. Evil doers should not rub it on our faces the way they are doing with Magu and get away with it. If they do, then the anti-corruption war would have suffered a mortal blow.

    All said, since Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has complained of the difficulty in “going around in borrowed robes”, he should quickly hand the robes to the owner now that the owner is back. But not before thanking him on behalf of the president and millions of Nigerians for the creditable manner he steered the affairs of state while his principal was away. Unfortunately though, even if the acting president is in a hurry to hand over  the ‘borrowed robes’back to the president, he appears mistaken. President Buhari has said he is still in holiday mood and would be resting throughout the weekend before resuming duties tomorrow.

    I guess the president’s attention is dearly needed in ‘the other room’ and he would need the weekend to catch up with the actions he has been missing there since January 19 that he departed our shores. After that, he should be ready to hit the ground running.

     

    At last, ‘Apo Six’ killers to die

    It is difficult to believe that the ‘Apo Six’ were killed 12 years ago. The incident was well reported in the media, making it compelling for the authorities to be concerned. Perhaps it would have passed off as one of those extra-judicial killings by some of our trigger-happy policemen. One can be sad that it took 12 long years to bring closure to the matter; that justice is coming the way of the victims’ relatives is still something to cheer. Yes, as with all murder cases, killing the murderers cannot bring back the dead, but it will serve as a deterrent to others who might want to toe a similar path.

    If the truth must be told, some of our policemen behave as if they have a license to kill, even extra-judiciously. One has had encounters with some of them at either their stations or checkpoints where they tell you without qualms: “I will just waste you and nothing would happen”. To them, killing human beings like them, even if for no cause, is no issue. They talk of ‘wasting’ human beings as if they want to ‘waste animals’ (a thing which could earn them jail terms in some civilised parts of the world).

    One can never recount the full list of Nigerians who had been killed by the trigger-happy cops. And one sad aspect is that these policemen hardly shoot to injure or to immobilise; rather, they aim the head or chest; that is, they shoot to kill. Indeed, Nigeria Police Watch put it in perspective:” Nigeria has become one huge killing field of defenceless citizens. The killing machine is the Nigeria Police, who think it is no big deal shooting and killing the same people they are paid to protect. This absurd indulgence has existed for years without a serious attempt to bring it to an end. Every year, hundreds of citizens get killed by the police unlawfully. These killings usually go uninvestigated and unpunished.”  But not this one murder too many.

    It is against this background that one should welcome the sentencing of two policemen – Ezekiel Acheneje and Emmanuel Baba – to death on Thursday for their complicity in the killing of two of six Igbo traders in Abuja on June 8, 2005, by Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court. The trial lasted 12 years. Justice Bello found the two police officers culpable in the extra- judicial killings of Augustina Arebon and Anthony Nwokike.

    It is sad that policemen who are paid to protect innocent and law-abiding Nigerians turn round to kill the same people wantonly. But it is gladdening that the law is beginning to catch up with such police officers. Those who kill for the sake of it do not deserve to live.