The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Osuntokun

  • APC: Nigeria’s political Macedonia

    The coming of APC following the merger of ACN, CPC, ANPP and APGA to form a formidable political party is like the call to Paul of Tarsus to come to Macedonia and liberate it from paganism. I have always wondered who would liberate Nigeria from the death grip of the PDP after almost 14 years of non- performance. Fourteen years is a long time in the history of man and in the history of nations. A child of 14 years would be a strappling teenager who would not be oblivious of his or her environment. So it should be with a nation. The PDP appears to me tired and totally bereft of what to do to advance the interest of our country. Nigerians are generally not too demanding of their government. What they want are regular electricity, regular supply of water, security, good roads and good schools as well as other appurtenances of modern life. These are services some of which they are ready to pay for if available. When the PDP came to power in 1999, we were told that within six months there would be regular supply of electricity. We were also told that within four years of their administration, power generation will hit 10,000mega watts. We were also told that once we liquidated our foreign debts, whatever we were using to pay the debts annually will now be diverted to roads construction. None of these promises and commitments has been met. Our hospitals have remained consulting clinics, our roads have become death traps, our infrastructure generally have remained backward and almost non-existent. It will be very difficult for anybody to find an area in which we have made progress. Internal security has collapsed; we are still generating less than 4,000 mega watts of electricity for a population of more than 170 million compared to South Africa’s 35 million people who enjoy their country’s generation of close to 150,000mega watts.

    When I was young, our universities compared and competed with those of Canada, Australia and the UK. My B.A. Hons 2nd Class Upper Division of Ibadan gave me access to PhD programme without having to have a Masters degree. Today products of our universities have to do one make up year abroad before they can register for Masters Degree. All these have taken place under the PDP’s watch yet the PDP is hanging on our neck like an incubus against which we are helpless. Elections have been held three times since 1999 and all attempts to throw off this yoke have failed because elections in Nigeria are neither fair nor free. The poorer the party performs, the greater the votes they award themselves at election time. Who is therefore going to rescue us from this malevolent political party called the PDP? We have prayed, fasted and in some cases demonstrated against their policies to no avail. We are victims of the dictum that a country deserves the government it gets. In the meantime, corruption has become the second name of Nigeria and like a strong gale it is blowing everything before it and one is afraid that if there is no change it may destroy all of us.

    This is why the coming together of all progressive forces constitutes an answer to the call of patriotism and it behoves on all people of good conscience to rally round the party and deliver this country from the jaws of destruction and from political precipice and economic ruination brought on us by the PDP. I am sure the PDP itself would be relieved if it loses power in 2015 because it has run out of any idea of governance and it is too ashamed to surrender power unless this power is wrested from it.

    This is why the APC is a welcome development. At least we will have a chance to try another party that has a totally distinct idea of what to do in power rather than the present situation where most of the leaders of the ruling party are involved in primitive accumulation of money and a feeding frenzy on collective national resources. A party whose credo as exposed by one of their former leader was that service in government was a call to come and eat rather than to serve. This is the party that the APC has come to rescue from its own vomit. If all things go well and if the APC leadership is selfless, patriotic, self-abnegating, self-sacrificing and driven by the desire to rescue and salvage the nation, they should put aside all ethnic, personal, regional and religious consideration in selecting their leaders and in fielding the combination that will bring victory and succour to Nigeria in 2015. There is no dearth of leaders in the APC who can be president but emphasis must be on competence, incorruptibility and experience. The problems of this country are so many that we need energetic leaders; energetic leadership does not mean youthful leadership. The time to start preparation for 2015 is now. In this preparation, the APC must ensure that government facilities are not used against it and this will include the Police and the electoral commission as well as the armed forces. We must ensure that a non- performing political party is not returned to power by hook or crook.

    I want my children to inherit from my generation a country better than I met it. What presently exists is a travesty of governance and I am ashamed that this is all that this resourceful and cerebrally endowed country has. The fault is in us not in our stars. It will not matter where the president of the country comes from if he performs well. Our problem is that the routine performance of government duties by those in authority is a cause for celebration. Victory at recent football competition has been made the opium of the people and money left from the denuded coffers of government is being frittered away without budgetary provision on footballers. Governance has been shoved aside in parliament and in the executive to celebrate a mere football victory. This sterility of idea about what governance is will come to an end when APC comes to power in 2015.

  • Corruption Incorporated

    Corruption Incorporated

    I can now understand people who say they do not read newspapers in Nigeria because of the fear of reading something that would give them heart attacks. The level of corruption in our country is just mind boggling. Nigeria produces on daily basis anything from 2million – 2.5million barrels of crude oil. Authoritative sources say that 400,000 barrels is stolen everyday from these. This is 40million dollars every day and over 14.6billion dollars a year. The government knows about this but it is doing nothing either because of collusion, ineptitude or incompetence. These figures are just mind boggling in a country whose per capita income is less than $1000 a year. Imagine what the stolen money could do to transform this country and put us at par with other countries in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

    We have institutions that would reduce if not stop outright the corruption that is ruining every aspect of our lives in Nigeria. We have the Police, the security organisations, the armed forces and the courts of law. A retiring naval officer recently upbraided the courts for freeing bunkerers arrested by the Nigerian Navy after apparently taking money from the criminals. Somebody who knows very well what is going on in Nigeria once said “we have reached the stage of irredeemability in the criminal, and corrupt fraudulent shenanigan going on in our country”. Those of us who are optimistic about our country tend to dismiss this as alarmist effusion but recently, the case of the Police Pension fraud in which 32billion naira Police Pension was stolen by six or so Civil Servants led by one John Yakubu Yusufu shows glaringly that our country is in trouble. The EFCC took these rogues before the presiding judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Justice Abubakar Talba. In order not to prolong the case, Mr Yusufu allegedly confessed to stealing 23.8billion out of the total 32billion naira stolen. We are told he surrendered properties worth about 370million naira and then pleaded for leniency on the grounds that he has old parents and children whose school fees he had to pay. The Judge Abubakar Talba was merciful and magnanimous by sentencing him to two years imprisonment or an option of payment of 750,000 naira fine. Yusufu, full of smiles paid up the money immediately and walked out a free man to enjoy his loot of at least 32billion after the forfeiture of his property and payment of his paltry fine. Everybody was surprised except the judge but nobody is laughing. Even though there is separation of power in this country and the judiciary is an autonomous branch of government, President Goodluck Jonathan should have called in the judge and quietly ask him what offence he Jonathan has committed against the judge that he decided to ruin his administration. If this judgment stands as it is, it can undermine confidence in the President and his administration because not many people will remember the name of Justice Abubakar Talba; what people will remember is that this was done under the administration of President Jonathan. Mercifully the EFCC has re-arrested this felon and charged him to court not for stealing the original sum of 32billion naira but now for a lesser offence of false declaration of assets. The story is continuing. A lot of Nigerians have reacted vigorously to the unfairness of the justice system in this country. The same week this Abuja judgment was passed, the Provost and Registrar of the Cooperative College of Ibadan were jailed five years and three years respectively for embezzling three million naira. In the same country people’s hands have been chopped off for stealing a goat or a cow in northern part of Nigeria.

    The essence of punishment is deterrence. Punishment must not be wicked and unusual but it must be commensurate to the offence committed. In China and the Old Soviet Union, corruption is a capital offence punishable by death. It is interesting to note that 4,000 retired policemen are dying without pensions because the money has been stolen by Yusufu and his friends. It is even more surprising and galling that Civil Servants will steal Police Pensions. Is it that Police Officers are totally irrelevant? One can at least understand, if understand is the word, Teachers Pension been stolen, but it is beyond me to understand that Army and Police Pensions will be stolen by civilians. It is like a sheep taking food from the mouth of a lion.

    Whatever the eventuality of this case, one hopes that this is a challenge and wake –up call to the authorities to take the case of corruption much more seriously. The insecurity, violence and even the Boko Haram movement is not unconnected to poverty and hopelessness. The eradication of corruption and the money saved can certainly be used to lift people up from the degradation of poverty, helplessness and hopelessness in which 65% of the Nigerian population finds itself. Corruption therefore is not only a criminal offence, it is a developmental issue. The only way we can provide security in this country is to create jobs and to get people gainfully employed. If done, this will provide security for the Nigerian people. As long as close to 30% of national revenue is stolen, we will continue to vegetate in our state of arrested development, poverty and insecurity.

  • Obama’s second administration

    Obama’s second administration

    I have just returned from the United States precisely from New York and Atlanta Georgia. During my stay, I noticed the deep division among the people of the United States and particularly between Democrats and the Republicans. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the Republicans do not wish President Obama well. The divide between the Republicans and Democrats is partly ideological but unfortunately partly racial. Somebody as eminent as President Jimmy Carter has said that Republican opposition to President Obama is sometimes rooted in racism.

    The Democratic Party has no equivalent in Europe but it is probably close to the old Liberal or Social Democratic Party in England. It is a party that believes that the state has a role in the welfare of the poor and those that cannot make it in a highly competitive society. The party is also committed to making health affordable to as many people as possible. It also believes in the upward mobility provided by education. It is therefore committed to providing subsidy for students to acquire higher education. It is committed also to gun control because violence by gun-crazy Americans has become the bane of the society. In recent times, the party has been seen as the party of the young people, women, visible minorities i.e. Blacks and Latinos, labour and also of the gay community i.e. homosexuals and lesbians.

    In foreign policy, it is a party of environmentalism and international cooperation and peaceful co-existence. The party heroes are F. Delano Roosevelt, John. F. Kennedy, Lyndon .B. Johnson and Bill Clinton. In recent times, the party has become associated with big government and consequently huge government deficits.

    On the other hand, the Republican Party is increasingly identified as a party of professional associations such as those of lawyers, medical professionals, the big churches, elderly people, white male and the military industrial complex. It is the party of big business and Wall Street. It likes to see itself as the real American party that believes in individual success and enterprise. A party of survival of the fittest. In its foreign policy, it is the party of intervention in other country’s affairs in order to preserve America’s hegemony. Its heroes are Theodore Roosevelt the 26th President of the United States of America (1901-1909), Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The closest party in Europe to the Republican Party would be the Conservative Party in England. Incidentally, President Abraham Lincoln the abolitionist President was a Republican but he is more likely to be seen today by democrats as one of their heroes. The Republican Party is also opposed to non-white immigration into the United States because of wanting to preserve the United States as a White man’s country. The party’s support for small government and balanced budget is also because of its opposition to the welfare of the poor who are invariably non-white. The Republican Party is fighting for its very life because of the increasing number of non-white immigrants into the United States and it seems the Democratic Party of Obama wants the 11million illegal aliens in America to be given the chance of becoming legal immigrants and possibly citizens in the foreseeable future. This is the kernel of the ideological rift between Obama and the Republican Party.

    Unfortunately the debate between them is very acrimonious and bitter and the extreme wing of the Republican Party, the so called Tea Party is not averse to using racial epithet for Obama. Some of the party’s supporters while demonstrating against Obama’s policies carry placards with the caricature of Obama as a monkey and asking him to go back to Africa to feast on bananas. Some members of the Republican Party in Congress in a knee jack reaction to Obama’s policy always oppose him no matter how sensible his policies may be.

    As an outsider, one can see the point of the Republican Party in wanting balanced budget and small government and that no country can provide maximally for all its citizens. Since the rich in America do not want to pay high taxes, government will therefore have to cut back on expenditure. But taking care of the poor provides a safety valve for the American society. This simple logic does not seem to appeal to the Republicans because they think that poor people’s rebellion will be shot down by the Police and if necessary by the National Guard and perhaps individually armed Americans since the second amendment to their constitution allows individuals to carry weapons either openly or in concealed forms. This is why the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a staunch member of the Republican Party. The division in America is deep and sometimes troubling. But at the same time, one must praise America for being the only western country that would throw up a black man and a Mormon as presidential candidates of the two major parties.

    The immediate problems that would face Obama in his second term would be how to get confirmation for new members of his cabinet, how to raise the debt ceiling beyond the current 16.4trillion dollars and how to get his budget through congress and how to avoid automatic cut of defense spending and in other areas critical to the United States. If previous debates are something to go by, he is going to have a Herculean task in persuading the Republican dominated House of Representatives to go along with him. I had expected that his inauguration speech would be a unifying speech rather than a partisan speech. Unfortunately, this was not so and I think the President missed an opportunity to be conciliatory to the Republican Party. He probably felt that offence was the best strategy of defence. But I think this is wrong unless he bends over backwards to accommodate the Republican Party, he will not achieve much in his second administration. Yet he has plans to invest in education, infrastructure, environment and to make the United States self-sufficient in energy through support for appropriate technology and the development of Shale gas in continental North America. In his foreign policy agenda, he wants to wind down the war in Afghanistan and avoid getting into any war in the Middle East and elsewhere but the signs are not so good because of Iran and its nuclear programme and the determination of Israel to stop it as well as Korea and its missile programme and then the problem between Japan and China over disputed Islands in the South China Sea. All these problems may make nonsense of Obama’s pacific intentions. This is why he cannot afford to follow a policy of antagonism to the Republican Party. Because if there were to be a crisis outside the U.S in which vital American interests are at stake, he will need unity at home. Of course if history teaches us a lesson, nationalist fervour always manifest in times of crisis, particularly if it is not a long drawn out military entanglement.

  • The aviation industry in Nigeria

    The aviation industry in Nigeria

    I have just returned from a trip to the UN in New York and during one of the committee sessions on the annual budget, there was a discussion on budgetary support for UN officials travelling in West Africa. One thing that struck me was the comment of a delegate I believe from the United States who remarked that travelling in West Africa is hazardous and that flying was particularly dangerous in Nigeria. And just as we were about to reply him, there was a news flash about the helicopter crash in which the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Ibrahim Yakowa and the Former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi died. There was no need after that time to try and challenge those who felt that travelling in West Africa was hazardous.

    Since I arrived back home a few days ago, I have been reading a report by Accenture of the challenge before the aviation industry in our country. It is sometimes with trepidation that many of us travel by air within our country. When I was much younger, I used to enjoy driving long distances in Nigeria, because this is the only way to know our country. But now with the collapse of the road infrastructure, and the high incidence of highway robbery, travelling by roads is now very unattractive. This means that we must do everything to improve the safety of air travel in Nigeria as well as wholesale rehabilitation of our road network. For a country that wants to be by 2020, one of the most developed countries in the world, the aviation industry would have to play an important role. We have heard government make pronouncement about making Lagos the hub of the aviation industry in West Africa.

    This desire flows from the fact that the population of Nigeria is greater than the population of the remaining 14 countries in ECOWAS put together. The economy of Nigeria is about three times the economy of the rest of ECOWAS. If Nigeria is to realize its potentialities, we must put resources into the development of the aviation industry. I do not think starting a new national airline is the best approach. The history of the defunct Nigeria Airways should lead us into another direction. What our government should do is to assist major private airlines that have the capacity to consolidate and pull their resources together and also open credit lines to them as well as guaranteed purchase of new aircrafts. But while doing this, the present capacity of the airlines should be the deciding factor. There are only one or two airlines that meet these criteria. All the other one plane airlines should be allowed to die. It is a pity that the entrance of Virgin Atlantic into the domestic airline business in Nigeria did not succeed. Government should continue to make the aviation industry attractive for foreign investment. The kind of investment being suggested is not the type that we’ve seen before, where few Asians would use the local banks to set up airlines with disastrous consequences. It should be possible as part of our bilateral relations with countries like the USA and Germany to induce Lufthansa and Delta Airlines to engage major private sector operators in setting up airlines.

    On a final note, our current Minister of Aviation, Mrs Stella Oduah deserves some commendation and praise in her policy of transformation of Nigerian Airports, particularly the major ones in Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja. But I am sorry to say that the current expansion of the Lagos Airport leaves much to be desired. This expansion does not meet the volume of air traffic in our country. If our minister has not been to Atlanta, Georgia before, I will advise her to make a trip and do a study tour of that airport. The Lagos Airport is about one-fiftieth of the Atlanta International Airport, which is arguably the third largest Airport in the world and is a major hub of the aviation industry in the southern part of the U.S.

    What I am trying to say is that while the effort of the minister is commendable, it is not enough. We have to plan big and not just for the moment. After being away for four weeks, I arrived back in Nigeria on January 6, at Murtala Mohammed Airport and what I saw pleased me a little bit and at the same time displeased me to a great extent. After arrival, I was pleasantly surprised that the airport had been configured in such a way that we had to walk for maybe 10 minutes which is great compared with the previous dispensations. This is important to keep the blood flowing and our circulating system back to normal. But along the narrow passage through which we walked were broken down desk and tables which should have been removed, but are left blocking the pathway. But the master of all embarrassments was that we had to wait for three hours before we could get our luggage. On enquiry about what was responsible for this, we were told that the luggage is manually removed from the plane and manually put on the conveyor belt and there was only one that was working. After hours of flying nobody likes to face this kind of delay. I could see the feeling of derision in the faces of foreigners in our midst and many Nigerians were saying unprintable things about our country and its leadership. The challenge therefore for our hardworking minister of aviation is that she must be on her toes and move round, not just sitting in Abuja, to see what’s going on at the major entry points of our country. She’s doing well, but she can do better.

    Let me say as a form of advice, that there is no need to always reduce everything in this country to politics. Aviation is a technical matter and those who should run the industry should not be politicians, but people knowledgeable and au courant in aviation know-how. From the ladies announcing the arrival and departure of airlines to flight controllers and managers of the airport; professionalism should be the yardstick of recruitment and not politics or ethnicity. On a light note, the ladies making announcements at the airports need to be tutored possibly by those who speak English and French as their mother tongue. The one who was announcing arrival and departure of flights on the night of January 6, should be given a desk job while someone who can speak English and French properly without our heavy local accent should be recruited. If she wants the job of an announcer, she should wait until Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba become languages of international and aviation communication.

     

  • Adetiloye : Fare thee well

    Adetiloye : Fare thee well

    The death of Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye marks the end of an era in the Anglican Communion of Nigeria. Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye became a Bishop at an early age. He was in his late 30s, when he became a Bishop several decades ago. His meteoric rise in the church caught the envious eyes of many people including his clerical colleagues. He was a cerebral Bishop who applied his reasoning faculty to the work of the church. The church to him was not just the buildings or churches and cathedrals but the people. In this regard, he believed in Christian Evangelism all over the country and particularly to the Islamic North. He challenged the tradition established by the British colonialists that Christian evangelization of the Islamic North was forbidden. Archbishop Adetiloye was able to mobilise men and resources for the establishment of Anglican Missionary Dioceses in the North and in other parts of the South where the Christian religion was not being properly preached. He was an organisational man and he believed in structures. The creation of the office of the Primate as the head of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria was his making. He subsequently became the first Primate of Anglican Communion in Nigeria.

    He began as a liberal cleric when he was young but he later tightened up the doctrine of the church of Nigeria and frowned on sexual and moral laxity among communicants. He was intolerant of the Western practice of homosexuality and lesbianism and he believed in the old time religion and biblical doctrine against same sex unions. When he was Archbishop of Nigeria, he promoted young people into bishoprics and embraced the idea of graduate priests and even priests with higher degrees. At a point in time, he wanted this writer to become a Reverend gentleman. He was not totally against the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria as many Bishops are to today. He frowned on loud music during church worship and was rather committed to the old mode of songs and hymns rather than the loud music characteristic of the Pentecostal movement. I remember sometimes in the late 1980s when the Fountain of Faith of which I was a member in the Anglican Church on Montgomery road, Yaba donated a set of musical instruments and drums to our church in order to stem the tide of migration of young people into the Pentecostal churches. We called on Archbishop Adetiloye to commission the musical instruments. When the professionals we hired struck a loud note, the Archbishop nearly had a fit and instructed that the sound of the music be kept to the barest minimum.

    During his time, he encountered subterranean opposition of those who were uncomfortable with an upcountry man lording it over clerics in Lagos. Archbishop Adetiloye had a great social life and was very comfortable with people and he made friends easily with low and high in the society and was a patriotic Ekiti man who loved the rustic lives of his people and celebrated the immense educational attainment and achievements of his people. He epitomised the great qualities of the Ekiti man especially the commitment to transparency, excellence, honesty and courage. He spoke truth to power when it was necessary especially during the Babangida and Abacha days and he was earmarked for elimination during the Abacha days. He knew this but he still spoke the truth. He trusted the Lord for protection and the Lord protected him. In crisis he embraced the doctrine of liberation theology and like one of his younger colleagues, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi of Akure he was prepared if needs be to die as a tribune and champion of suffering humanity.

    He retired to Ekiti, his home state after he had served out his term as Primate of the Anglican Communion. He was recognized and celebrated by the state which named the events centre of Ado-Ekiti, Archbishop Adetiloye Hall. If there was any holy man in Nigeria, Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye was one. Being a Christian does not mean one will not have problems. Saint Paul of Tarsus had a thorn in his flesh. Adetiloye was not above having his own thorn but God was gracious to him and he was not overwhelmed by any problem. Our Lord Bishop will be highly missed by many especially those who are used to his advice, ministration and prayers. Our Lord Bishop has gone to join the saints triumphant and I have no doubt that our Lord Jesus Christ will reward him.

    I will never forget his homily during the burial of Professor D.F. Ojo, the famous Physicist from Igbole in Ido-osi Local Government. The atmosphere was sad and sombre even though Prof Ojo was not a young man. When the Archbishop saw the long drawn faces, he lightened up the atmosphere by telling us how he had advised the dead man to stop smoking to no avail. He said Prof Ojo told him man must die or be killed by something. The Archbishop then turned his gaze to the casket and said “Ojo; cigarette has killed you oh”. He said this in the Ekiti tongue and the whole church erupted into laughter. The Bishop was such a great preacher who knew what to say at the appropriate time. He touched the lives of many and whomsoever he touched changed for the better. It is apportioned for man to live for a certain period of time and afterwards the holy book said there will be judgement. Vox Populi Vox Dei says the Romans and because man has born witness to Adetiloye’s good deeds, God will receive the Lord Bishop into his glory.

     

     

  • Chief Emeka Anyaoku at 80

    Chief Emeka Anyaoku at 80

    It is a matter of joy for me to join the Anyaoku’s family to praise the Lord for his grace on the life of this distinguished and extraordinary gentleman. I first got close to Chief Emeka Anyaoku in 1978 when as Assistant Commonwealth Secretary-General, he came to deliver a public lecture in Ottawa Canada where I was then a Director of the Nigerian Universities Office, an office representing the interest of the National Universities Commission and that of all the Universities in Nigeria in Ottawa Canada. There were also sister offices of the office in Cairo, London and Washington DC. This was at a time the Nigerian Government had just established federal universities in Benin, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Kano and Ilorin and saw the need for staff recruitment, training and other ancillary services needed for the rapid take-off of their putative tertiary institutions. We used to call them the seven sisters. Chief Anyaoku then a dashing middle aged man gave a brilliant lecture I believe on “The Role of the Commonwealth in World Affairs” before hundreds of White faces. He discharged his responsibilities with distinction and aplomb. I introduced myself to him and he greeted me warmly and I as a black man was very proud of him particularly because of his confident mastery of the topic. Later I was at an audience when he gave another lecture in Lagos some years later on “The Racial Factor in World Politics”.

    One of the things he said was that for a Black man or a woman to distinguish himself or herself internationally, he or she would have to be twice as good as a White person. I did not need to be convinced about this and I believe that many of us who studied abroad went through this crucible of fire. As part of divine providence, I was in the team headed by General Ike Nwachukwu, then Minster of Foreign Affairs charged with the responsibility of campaigning for Chief Anyaoku’s election as Secretary General of the Commonwealth in 1988. I was then Special Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Needless to say that we had a candidate who was sellable and just like a good product needed no advertisement, so it was with Chief Anyaoku. However we had a formidable opponent in Hugh Fraser, the former Australian Prime Minister. But in spite of this and because of his sterling qualities, Chief Anyaoku was elected Secretary General of the Commonwealth in Kuala Lumpur in 1989.

    I was present during his election and the Nigerian delegation was led by the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu who was then Vice President and we were all filled with joy at this great stride by our fellow country man.

    Chief Anyaoku remains the only Nigerian to occupy the highest post in an international bureaucracy. The late Prof Adeoye Lambo and Dr Rilwan Lukman at one time or the other served respectively as Deputy Secretary-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Chief Anyaoku was Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in the 80s and 90s at a time of rapidly changing political situation on the Africa Continent. He was involved in negotiating the transfer of power in the then Southern Rhodesia from White settlers to Africans in independent Zimbabwe. He was then not even Secretary-General yet but his role was crucial in persuading Dr Robert Mugabe to accept a compromise of retaining reserved seats for White settlers after independence and later delaying redistribution of land to African farmers.

    His role in organising a Special Committee of Commonwealth foreign Ministers, including those of Nigeria, Canada, Zimbabwe, Australia, Zambia, Guyana and Tanzania to put economic and political pressure on the apartheid regime was quite significant in forcing the then government of South Africa to realise the futility of denying Africans political and economic rights in their own country. He was also the brain behind organising an eminent persons group in which Obasanjo was involved to put additional pressure on the apartheid regime in South Africa. The role of the Commonwealth in the emancipation of the people of South Africa from the slavery and oppression of apartheid remains to be fully studied. Suffice it to say, Chief Anyaoku was at the centre of all these.

    Nearer home in Nigeria, he did everything that was humanly possible to explain to the various Military leaders in Nigeria the need for transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule. His effort against even his personal safety to persuade General Sani Abacha to respect the wishes of the electorate and to release Moshood Abiola was one of his attempts to ensure the survival of democracy and indeed the stability of the country itself. Even as a young man, he had tried without success to persuade Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to seek accommodation with the Federal Government in spite of the wounds inflicted on the Igbo people during pogrom against them in Northern Nigeria. He risked his life during the Civil war to see how he could alleviate the conditions of suffering humanity in Biafra.

    In his public international career, Chief Anyaoku’s life is an epitome of integrity, discipline, fairness, equity, honesty and good up-bringing. Since his retirement, he continues to remain relevant serving as chairman of several international organisations, devoted to economic development and protection of global wildlife and environment. Since 1999, he has served as chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on international relations, a forum which allows him to share his experience and to advise all the Presidents from Obasanjo, to Yar’adua and Jonathan on Nigeria’s roles in the world. It has been my privilege to serve with him in the PAC and this is a service freely given and largely unrewarded. Chief Anyaoku is also chairman of Orient Petroleum, a position that he wants to use to prove that Africans can build and run a refinery so as to mitigate the sad situation in which an oil-producing country continues to import most of its refined petroleum.

    A titled chief in Obosi, he is the Adazie and a member of the royal indichie that chooses and advises the Obi of Obosi. It will be incomplete to write about his achievement without mentioning his wife Bunmi, the daughter of the famous Barrister Ladipo Sholanke of Abeokuta but who lived most of his life in England. He was the founder of the West African Student’s Union (WASU) in the 1920s, a Proto Nationalist organization that preceded the formation of ´political parties in Nigeria before independence. While Chief Anyaoku was at work in different parts of the world, his wife kept the home front and without peace at home he would not have been as great as he is today.

    Chief Emeka Anyaoku remains incredibly strong and mercifully healthy and I believe he will continue to be of relevance for years to come. It is with joy that I celebrate this great man, this distinguished International Civil Servant, this patriotic Nigerian, this man of sartorial taste and elegance, this iconic figure, symbol of excellence, a man worthy of emulation; this civilised man, this l’homme engage´.

     

  • Fire in Alaafin’s palace

    Fire in Alaafin’s palace

    The recent fire in the Alaafin’s palace presumably caused by electric power surge is a great tragedy for Yoruba people. This is because several historical artifacts, records and beaded crowns have been lost and cannot be recovered or replaced. The Palace of the Alaafin is a monument to Yoruba people because of the role the Alaafin institution has played in the history and culture of the Yoruba people. The institution of the Alaafin is about a thousand years old. Over this period, this institution has served as a repository of Yoruba history and culture. There are very few dynasties in the world that are older than that of the Alaafin. When the remains of such an institution is threatened by fire, there is need to look at how archival and historical materials are collected and preserved for the edification of the past and education of the present and future. From around the 12th to the 19th century, the old Oyo Empire existed with the sister Empire of the Benin to the East and the kingdom of the Nupe to the North and the subject nationality of Dahomey to the West. The reach of the empire extended to present day Togo and possibly eastern part of Ghana incorporating the Ga, the Ewe, and other Aja speaking people west and south-west of Metropolitan Oyo. At the height of its glory, the Oyo Empire was arguably the biggest and most sophisticated empire straddling the Savannah and the forest regions of West Africa. Of course by the time the British and French came to West Africa during the 19th century, this empire was in decline but later continued in a new form with the Ibadan forces dominating most of Yorubaland under the flag of the Alaafin. This is a period which a senior colleague of mine has described as Ibadan Imperialism in the 19th century.

    This preamble is necessary for our people to know the place of Oyo in the political history of Yoruba land. Oyo and Ife played different roles in Yoruba history. Ife is the spiritual home of all Yorubas. This is the place where, according to the myth of origin of the Yoruba, life started (Ife ode aye) and where the dispersal of Yoruba princes that established kingdoms all over Yorubaland and Benin took place. There is therefore no clash between the roles of Oyo and Ife in Yoruba history. European writers have sometimes suggested that the position of the Oni vis-à-vis that of the Alaafin is like that of the Pope and the Emperor in medieval Europe. This description may not be totally apt but it captures the essence of Oyo- Ife relations. In other words, the role of Ife and Oyo are distinct and also complementary. Unfortunately in recent times, this has not always been so because politicians have succeeded in knocking the crown heads of Ife and Oyo against each other.

    A people without a history are not complete. Historical and ancestral background are very important for any people and this is why civilized countries all over the world spend a lot of money and make effort to preserve as much as possible the past in the present. This is why museums are built, palaces are maintained, archives are preserved and past dynasties are celebrated as a part of a people’s cultural heritage. Any visit to any European country whether England, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Spain and other smaller European countries is not complete until one has been to the various museums and palaces. One could spend a whole week going to the Tuileries and Versailles in France and the various palaces in England from the Windsor and Buckingham Palace to the various estates and palaces in Scotland and Wales. Even in Germany, a visit to the country without going to the Sans Souci the winter Palace of the Hohenzollerns in Postdam is not complete. The palace in Berlin that was destroyed by Russian tanks during the 2nd World War is now being rebuilt as part of German heritage. If countries that have had the advantage of written documentation as a source of history are doing everything possible to preserve their past, African countries that have had to rely on oral tradition must do everything to preserve what is left of their cultural heritage. It follows from the above that our country particularly our states must have comprehensive policy on historical preservation. Our northern compatriots are doing much better than we in the southern part of this country. Yorubaland and Benin in particular must do everything it can to preserve the dynastic heritage of our people. In this regard, there should be a policy of palace development, renewal, refurbishment and replacement where necessary. The fire that has destroyed the palace in Oyo should be a signal for us to have a policy of palace development. A palace is not a building belonging to an individual; palaces all over Yorubaland belong to the people. It is true that kings are born, not made but these kings represent our collective African personality and culture.

    Cynics may argue that there is no place for monarchy in a democracy. A writer once described Nigeria as “a republic of a thousand kings”. This sounds rather contradictory and exaggerated but there is an element of truth in it. Not all Nigerian ethnicities have kings. Generally speaking, every Igbo man is a king in his own home and the title Eze and Igwes in modern day Igbo land should not be equated with real kings. So when I call for a palace development in the southern part of the country, I am referring only to the Yoruba and the Edo people and not to traders in the afternoon and kings in the night as most of the Igbo Ezes are!

    The palace of the Alaafin should be re built on a grandiose manner with the architecture reflecting the tradition and culture of the people based on what exists in the architecture of the old palace. In the same vein, all Yoruba states should have plans to build modern palaces at least for first class traditional rulers. This is long overdue and the fire in the Alaafin’s palace as tragic as it may be should be a call for action.

    The starting point should be a palace construction fund to which all lovers of Yoruba heritage should be encouraged to contribute. Secondly, all the local governments under the sovereignty of the Alaafin would have to contribute while the state government should provide the remaining resources needed to build a befitting edifice for a thousand year old throne. In doing this, we will be preserving the past in the present and for the future. This is what civilized people do and if we have any claim to any measure of civilization, this is what all Yorubas must join hands in doing.

  • Sanusi is right

    I have followed with interest the activities of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for quite a while right from the time he was in UBA, then First bank and now the CBN Governor. I have found him to be a man driven by the passion to see that Nigeria does not continue to punch below its weight locally and internationally. It is of course common knowledge that Sanusi is from the royal house of Kano where his grandfather Muhammad Ardo Sanusi was the imperious Emir of Kano who clashed with the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, the then Premier of Northern Nigeria and had to be removed as Emir and his younger brother Alhaji Bayero succeeded him. Emir Muhammad Ardo Sanusi produced excellent children and at a time, three of them were in the diplomatic service and Aminu Sanusi the father of Lamido rose to become the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after serving as an ambassador and High Commissioner in several places. He later became the Ciroma of Kano but unfortunately died rather prematurely. He was a highly respected diplomat with strong views and will and would not allow himself to be ordered around during the era of military dictatorship. It was in this circumstance that he angrily left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I met his younger brother in the late 80s when he was Ambassador to Indonesia with concurrent accreditation to Malaysia. He was an exceptionally gracious man, generous to a fault and with a sense of patriotic service not found nowadays anywhere in Nigeria. I knew Ambassador Aminu Sanusi, the former Permanent Secretary fairly well. I was a graduate student in Canada when he was High Commissioner in the late 1960s. Later on, I met him and told him I was fascinated by the life and times of Sir Muhammad Ardo Sanusi his father and I would like to write his biography. Ambassador Sanusi was excited about my project and promised to assist especially in provision of data but unfortunately he passed on soon afterwards. There was also another Sanusi who was Deputy High Commissioner in London and all of them had a sense of noblesse oblige of wanting to help the common man as part of their God given responsibility.

    The CBN Governor Sanusi is following the family’s tradition and footsteps especially in wanting to be a tribune of the common man and in speaking truth not only to power but also every time he has the opportunity to do so. It is in this light that one welcomes his search light on the Nigerian bureaucracy. He is right on the button by suggesting that our civil service in the centre and in the states and local government areas is over bloated and has become a drag on development. In some states and at the federal level personnel emolument and overhead constitutes sometimes close to 80% of the annual budget with little left for capital projects and development. The situation at the local level is the most pathetic. First of all, there is hardly any service that one could call civil at the local level. People merely gather themselves together at the end of every month to share federal allocation. Some of them do not have offices or desks. Where there are offices, sometimes six to 10 people are sharing the same office and the same desk. Most of the time they have nothing to do and it is common knowledge that some of them show up for work only twice a week. This is why I find it ridiculous that some politicians, who should know better, are talking about a three tiers of government in their so-called presentation before the constitution review panel. There is nowhere in the world where a federation is a federation of local governments and states. We must go back in this country to a federation of state and leave local government alone to the states to create and un-create as they like.

    The civil service at the state level is also a parasitic service with its innumerable Permanent Secretaries and Directors all earning fat salaries that should have been used to develop the states. This bureaucratic paraphernalia at the state level are simply unsustainable. This is why some of us believe that instead of creating states, we should go back either to the old regions and make the present zones regions in which existing states would be mere provincial administrations.

    At the federal level where all the money in Nigeria is, top civil servants, many of them with estates in Abuja are more corrupt than politicians. They formulate policies to suit themselves, share and buy civil servant quarters among themselves and teach politicians how to exploit the system and loot the treasuries. They build mansions at home and abroad and even Assistant Directors at the federal level have been known to appropriate huge resources to themselves, thus, becoming billionaires in a country where people are starving. In most cases and at every level, civil servants collect gratification before they perform routine jobs. It is also common knowledge that civil service is not only bloated but it is corrupt and stinks to the highest level. If we are to abolish the civil service in this country, nobody will miss it. This is what Lamido is talking about and he has the support of many Nigerians. Sometimes in order to reform the system, one has to dismantle it first. The situation in our country is getting to a point of irredeemability and that is the truth.

    What has been said about the civil service is probably true of every facet of our national life. The executive, legislature and the judiciary stink to high heavens. Of course there are a few odd ones who are clean the late Justice Kayode Eso of blessed memory was one of them. The political leadership has to demonstrate seriousness about confronting corruption. A situation where federal parliamentarians are paying themselves salaries and perquisites of office of over 25 million naira a month, a sum that is unthinkable in the United States, the richest country in the world is simply unthinkable, unacceptable and unsustainable. All of us in this country must speak up in order to save this country from imminent collapse and revolution. If we don’t do something now, both the guilty and the innocent, in the words of James Baldwin will face the fire. This is a bitter truth in a new year and it is my prayer that all of us who can do something about our plight will rise to the occasion. Happy New year to all my readers and God Bless Nigeria.

  • Infrastrucural decay in South Western Nigeria

    I have a feeling that what I am going to write about the South Western part of Nigeria would be true of the entire country. But for clarity, it is better to begin from the particular to the general. I live in Ibadan and in the Redemption Camp in Mowe, Ogun State and I commute between Lagos and Ibadan every week. I also travel regularly between Ibadan and Ado-Ekiti and between Akure and Ilesha. I have also had to travel for research purposes between Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomosho and Ilorin. The only major axis of the South-west routes which I do not frequent is Lagos-Abeokuta road and Abeokuta-Ibadan road. I had written in the past about the need to connect Sokoto with Badagry which was in the masterplan in road development in this country. If done, this would have relieved the Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin axis considerably. I am also of the opinion that the Maiduguri-Calabar road needs to be developed in order to ease the transportation of goods from the coast to the North-east. I am also an avid supporter of the coastal route from Lagos going through Warri, Port-Harcourt to Calabar. If done, this will have the effect of the opening up vast areas along the coast for exploitation and development. That belt would provide all the paddy field necessary for the production of rice for the entire country. In short, a comprehensive road development of the country remains a necessary condition for economic development. This is not rocket science; it is what anybody with some modicum of intelligence can understand. If done pari pasu with railway development, this country will be opened up for business. Until this is done, we are just wasting our time. It is a truism that a country that is not in permanent motion is stagnant. In advanced countries, there is usually an integration of all transportation grid involving air, sea, river, surface train, street train, underground train and road network. Anybody who has ever been to Western Europe and the United States would appreciate this point. This is why it is so sad that the only way we move around in Nigeria is by road transportation even though we have two major rivers, Benue and Niger, they are hardly used. Everybody is travelling by road and because of this, the rate of mortality and morbidity on our road is one of the highest in the world.

    This preambular statement is an important background against which my discourse on the South-west will be placed. Whether for good or for bad, the major entry points into Nigeria is Lagos whether by air or by sea. Because of this and as a former capital of the country, Lagos remains the hub of transportation network in Nigeria. It does not matter where you live in the country, Lagos plays an important role in the lives of our people. Most of the goods coming into the country come through Lagos and most of the agricultural products exported out of the country goes through Lagos. At least 60% of the air traffic to and from Nigeria has Lagos has its departure or arrival point. It follows therefore that any serious government must keep the transportation lines to Lagos free all the time because every gridlock in terms of movement of goods and people undermines the economy. This is why it is the height if idiocy that there is only one major road linking Lagos to the North and the East and this is the so called expressway from Lagos-Ibadan and Benin. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway built about 30years ago has collapsed because ab-initio this road was not built to carry the kind of loads it is carrying. Since 1999, this road has not been touched by the federal government. As if to rub salt into our injury the road was given to Bi-Courtney on concessionary basis. After three years, the concession has now been cancelled. We are not interested in the reasons for the cancellation, what interests this writer is the fact that thousands of souls have perished in the course of the three years the road was held hostage by Bi-Courtney. It is surprising that the most important road in the country was used as an experiment and a guinea pig in somebody’s fanciful theory of privatization as the mode of economic development. As far as I know, there was no advertisement and no competition before the road was concessioned to the company that has proved unable to do the job. Nigerians, not only from the South-western part of the country but from everywhere are now victims of this arbitrariness. One of the things that amaze one in this country is the lack of scientific basis of policy formulation. Thus we have a situation where the Lagos-Ibadan road linking the South-west to the North is put on the same pedestal as any other road in the country just for the sake of federal character and geographical balance. We forget that this axis of Lagos-Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomosho-Ilorin-Kaduna-Kano is where more than two-thirds of the Nigeria population lives. Development is about people, it is not about land. This is what our politicians and policy makers should understand. I am for equal and balanced development, for equitable share of development but it must be people based and people oriented. A situation where the money used in building 10 lane express road between Abuja Airport and Abuja city is freely allocated and disbursed while totally neglecting the centres of population calls into question whether planners in this country are sane or absolutely raving mad.

    Some have suggested that there is a deliberate policy of neglect, isolation and marginalization of the South-west by this present Federal Government. There is a plausible case that can be made but I will refuse to make it. This is because since 1999 well before this government came into power, the South-west has suffered total abandonment and neglect. The Ibadan-Ilorin expressway was awarded for construction and we were told that funds had been sourced from ADB (African Development Bank). The road itself is less than 150km in fact Ibadan is almost equidistant from Lagos as it is from Ilorin. In these 14 years, it is only a stretch of about 25km that has been constructed on this highway. The state of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway awarded at the same time leaves much to be desired and the road stopped in Abeokuta instead of continuing to Ibadan. The Ibadan-Ife road that was scheduled to continue to Akure, the center of Cocoa production in Nigeria stopped abruptly after Ilesha and even this shortened form of the express road has virtually been abandoned. The Akure Ado-Ekiti road, Akure-Ilesha road, and the Osogbo, Iwo, Ibadan road suffered the same neglect as other roads in South-west part of Nigeria that are federal roads. The policy of neglect if not the policy of President Jonathan must be the policy of the PDP, a policy that started under Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.

    As I stated, I would not want to blame President Jonathan for the neglect of the South-west even though the signs of marginalization are everywhere in road construction and in appointments. Whatever the case maybe, the cumulative decay of infrastructure in the South-west is on the watch of President Jonathan and he has to do something about it. We have a saying in my place that when a baby’s head is wrongly positioned on the back of his mother in the market, it is the duty of any old person to put the situation right. This is what I am doing. My credo is that; if any part of Nigeria is hurting, the whole country suffers greatly. What is good for the South-west would also be good for the South-east and for the much neglected North-east, a neglect that has bred the rebellion camouflaging under the rubric of Boko haram. A lot of injustice has been committed in this country and we need to start making things right for everybody. Redressing obvious neglect in one area, while abandonment and marginalizing other areas is not in the interest of the country. We should embrace the Jeremy Benthamite’s doctrine of ensuring the happiness of the greatest number of our people.

  • Justice Kayode Eso: A tribute

    The death of Justice Kayode Eso hit most of us who knew him like a thunderbolt. When a man of his stature dies in Yorubaland, the cry is ‘Erin wo, Ajanaku sun bi oke’ meaning something like an earthquake has struck. The name Eso carries some significance in Yorubaland. In the days of the old Oyo Empire, the guardian or military class was known as the Eso and anybody by such a name in Yorubaland comes from the military aristocracy.

    Kayode Eso was of course not an Oyo man but an Ijesha man and it is generally known that Ijesha people are fighters who would not easily surrender to any overbearing force. This was why they and the Ekitis in the Ekiti Parapo Confederacy fought the Oyo Empire under its Ibadan military leaders to a stalemate between 1873 and 1886 and finally until Pax Britannica was imposed on the country in the 1890s.

    Justice Kayode Eso trained as a lawyer and attended Trinity College Dublin where he imbibed deeply the Irish scholastic tradition particularly in the liberal arts before studying law. This was why Justice Eso was so well grounded in literature and in the use of the English language. He could have, if he had wanted, become an English teacher with specialization in Shakespeare. He was a product of Ilesha Grammar School and he was very proud of it. He was in Ilesha Grammar School with another great legal scholar, Dr Ajayi former Solicitor- General and Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Justice in western Nigeria. I remember interviewing him when Dr Ajayi gave me his huge and scholarly manuscript for editorial improvement one or two decades ago. There was a particular page in the manuscript that was very interesting to Justice Eso and he asked me in his characteristic way whether the author mentioned the fact that he could not wrestle him down during ijakadi (wrestling competition). The judge was referring to something young people did in their pre-teen and teenage years as a form of recreation and exercise in the villages and the small towns of Yorubaland. As sophisticated and highly educated as Justice Kayode Eso was, he still remembered his roots and against those whom he wrestled. He had his ears close to the ground throughout his life; he loved his native Ilesha and Ijesha land generally.

    I know that he was heavily involved in plans of industrialization of Ijesha land. I remember visiting him with my late friend, Professor Biola Ojo during which time he was discussing in details with Prof Biola Ojo who also was a man of means and who had the progress of Ijesha land in his heart about resuscitation of the International Breweries – the only industrial plant in Ilesha.

    Justice Kayode Eso, in spite of his devotion to his native land was a Nigerian patriot. In his life, there was no contradiction between a local patriot and a nationalist. He was a good Yoruba man as well as an excellent Nigerian. On returning from his legal studies in Ireland and the UK, he settled down in Jos where he commenced his legal practice before coming to Yorubaland. In other words, he cut his legal teeth in Jos. Jos in those days was a cosmopolitan town with a section called Anglo-Jos where the British Tin Mining Community resided. This may sound rather quaint to many readers but in actual fact, Jos was the only town in Nigeria that was close to English culture because of the presence of many English people who had settled there to make a living and it was among these people that Justice Kayode Eso felt at home. He practiced law in Jos with the likes of Mr Agbakoba, Olisa Agbakoba’s father. Jos in those days was also inhabited by large Ogbomosho community including the present Shoun of Ogbomosho, Oba Oyewunmi Ajagungbade the third. There were other Nigerian communities particularly Urhobo of present day Delta and many others in the business and legal community from Eastern Nigeria and present day Delta area. It was in Jos that Justice Kayode Eso developed his pan Nigerian outlook and orientation. His wife, Mrs. Aina Eso, a lady that has hugely complemented Justice Kayode Eso is from the Niger Delta. It is not difficult to understand why Justice Kayode Eso loved Nigeria so much and why he was hugely disappointed that Nigeria was punching both locally and internationally below its weight. I remember an incident which personally made the revered Justice wonder what was going on in this benighted country. He had a fish pond in his well appointed Villa in Ibadan and nursed the fishes for a long time checking them and feeding them every morning as a hobby. Against all pleading that the fishes were hefty enough for harvest, he kept saying his wife should tarry a little longer. But alas one morning he woke up and all the fishes were gone. Some miscreants had stolen into his compound in the night to harvest the work of his hand. The old man could not believe what had happened. He jokingly said, some people obviously needed the fish more than himself. The Judge felt this incident symbolizes and epitomize the collapse of the moral order in Nigeria.

    On a personal note, I want to pay a special tribute to Justice Kayode Eso’s sense of fairness as a judge especially in the turbulent days of political squabbles and recrimination in the old western region. I remember a case which went before Justice Kayode in the early 1966 in which my brother, the late Chief Joseph Oduola Osuntokun erstwhile Minister of Education in Western Nigeria was involved along with virtually the entire cabinet of the late Chief S.L. Akintola the premier who had just been assassinated. The crisis in the Action Group between 1961 and 1962 had been so destructive in Yorubaland to the extent that both Sir Adesoji Aderemi the Governor, Chief S.L. Akintola, the premier and Chief Obafemi Awolowo leader of Action Group and leader of opposition in the Federal House of Representative had suffered huge personal losses. This tragedy eventually ended with Chief Awolowo being incarcerated for treasonable felony. The crisis in the West eventually led to a military intervention in Nigerian politics. It was therefore natural for the supporters of Chief Awolowo to feel triumphant after the January 1966 coup and to use their influence to deal with their political enemies. It was in such circumstance that the entire cabinet of Chief Akintola was hurled before Justice Kayode Eso and many expected them to be dealt with ruthlessly. To many people’s surprise, Justice Eso decided the case rather fairly and freed those who were innocent even to the surprise of those who had expected the worst. I was an undergraduate student of the University of Ibadan at that time and my late brother was in the dock and we were all so surprised about the judicial integrity of Justice Kayode Eso. So when people talk about him in abstract, I can provide life experience of the integrity and humanity of this great Judge. Justice Kayode Eso in later years was very fond of my brother Prof Kayode Osuntokun. As far as I know, apart from the late Justice Olajide Olatawura and Justice Tayo Onalaja, he was the only legal dignitary who sometimes attended the annual lecture in honour of Kayode Osuntokun at the Kayode Osuntokun Auditorium at the University College Hospital Ibadan.

    In later years, I got to know Justice Kayode Eso very well and even to know his son Olumide and Olumide’s wife Ronke, Major General Henry Adefowope’s daughter who happens to be my in-law. The Yoruba say that life is like old man river, you never know when you will cross it. At 87, Justice Kayode Eso lived well and lived long. May God rest his soul, be with his wife, with his two children and grandchildren. He has lived an exemplary life and joined the saints in his old age. Even though the situation in Nigeria seems dire, but who knows what the future will bring. Whatever it brings, whether good or bad, Justice Kayode Eso’s contribution to the growth of this country will remain imperishable and his name will be written in gold. Adieu the Cesarus of the legal profession in Nigeria and an Icon of judicial erudition.