Yesterday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lifted the ban on campaigns, officially declaring open the 2023 race. Today, the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee will gather the parties and their candidates in Abuja to sign the first National Peace Accord ahead of the elections. The essence of the treaty is to ensure that the parties engage in issue-based campaigns.

The Abubakar panel has been in the forefront of promoting peaceful elections since 2015. Through its efforts, then President Goodluck Jonathan conceded victory to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 election before the final results were released, dousing the brewing tension over the poll following the show put up by a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain at the collation centre. At every election cycle or time, whether at the state or national level, the panel has been getting the candidates and their parties to commit to peace.

The main election next year is the presidential poll. It is also the election that will usher in the successor to Buhari, who is not on the ballot as he is serving his second and final term in office. The campaigns are kicking off on the eve of Nigeria’s 62nd independence anniversary, an event which provides opportunity for governments (now and in the past) to take stock of their performances. What does the present administration have to tell the people on this auspicious occasion?

What is confronting Nigeria right now is not different from the prevailing global economic downturn. The masses are confronted  with the daily challenges of living and how to overcome them. The basic necessities of life are difficult to get because of the high prices of goods and services. The poor are wailing and gnashing their teeth, praying for this cup to pass them. The harder they pray, it seems, the harder the problem. With the release of a new monetary policy rate of 15.5 percent by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday, things are not looking up at all.

With a take home pay that cannot take them home, many live on hope. Hope that things will be better. Hope that they will live long enough to see the end of these trying times. Hope that the prices of bread, rice, beans, gari, petrol, kerosine, and diesel, yes diesel, will crash so that they can become affordable again. The biggest hope of all is that the factories will open again so that the real sector can bring the needed succour of providing jobs for the millions of our youths who are wasting away at home after leaving school.

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For want of something good to do, many of them have taken to crime, becoming what is today known as Yahoo-Yahoo boys. Indeed, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. It is not their fault, but that of the government which has not met its obligations to the people. With only eight months left for it to go, the people cannot expect much from this administration again. What is uppermost in its mind today is to quit the stage, going by the President’s recent remark. So, whatever it does now will be perfunctory. It cannot take any profound decision that will shape or reshape the life of Nigerians.

A few days ago, it spoke about a pay rise because of the global economic downturn. It is a good thing to do, but can the deal be pulled off before its exit considering the issues that surround any pay rise? Will the private sector which is already hard hit by some of the government’s economic measures embrace the suggestion? Can the small and medium scale businesses increase the salaries of their   workers with what many of them are going through now?

Any pay rise that does not cut across every sector of the economy will not serve any purpose as all workers buy from the same market. So, increasing the salary of federal civil servants without a corresponding hike in the pay of employees in other sectors will be meaningless. It will cause a tumult which the government cannot handle on the eve of its exit. The first thing for the government to do is to get the buy in of other employers on how to increase salary before any public announcement. What about housing, transportation, power, insecurity, rural and urban infrastructure? These are other key issues which despite its efforts the government did not address fully as it is about winding down.

The next government will have its hands full. Whoever wins among the 18 presidential candidates should be ready to hit the ground running from day one. There will no room for excuses; no ‘I didn’t know that the rot was this much’ statement will be tolerated. They should do their findings now and know the extent of what the prospects and problems is. There are 18 gladiators but three of them have seized public consciousness in the past few months. They are Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP, and Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

Despite the results of some opinion polls being quoted here and there, I am yet to believe that it will be a three-horse race. Many people will be shocked by the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. The reality on the ground does not justify the confidence of Peter Obi’s supporters that he will win. Though the Obi-dient Movement is active in social media and the streets where it is holding marches with a few thousands of people, it has no significant presence in the small villages and towns and the big cities where elections are determined.

Who are its representatives in the nooks and crannies of Nigeria? Who will coordinate its candidate’s campaigns in the remotest parts of the country where people do not even know of social media? Here, all they know is a house or hut or open space designated as polling centre. Tinubu and Atiku can boast of footsoldiers and other related resources necessary for an election. Election goes beyond making noise on television and in social media and holding roadshows with scanty crowds. If this was the case, Atiku will not still be literally begging Nyesom Wike, despite all the annoying antics of the governor.

There is nothing that the antagonists of  Tinubu have not thrown at him, but the man is still standing. Calling a candidate names and accusing him falsely cannot detract from his capacity to do the job he has shown interest in. It goes without saying that he is the “best man” for the job as Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola explained in a television interview a few weeks ago. For somebody who worked with then Governor Tinubu in Lagos, Fashola should know what he is saying.

So, by the next independence anniversary, with Tinubu as president, Nigerians should expect from him an account of his great strides in office within 125 days. Nigeria deserves a leader like him so as to take its stand in the comity of viable nations. Happy 62nd independence anniversary, Nigeria.

Nothing is hidden again. Gone are those days that your right hand does things that the left would not know about. In this age of social media, even if you sneeze in your room, before you know it, it is all over the place. The only way out is not to do something that you do not want others to know about. But is that possible? Can we stop celebrating birthdays, the birth of a baby, promotion, graduation and stuffs like that.

It is not that celebrating on these occasions is bad. That is beside the point at a certain time. The mood may just not be right for such celebration. Can a household remember to mark, say a new year, birthday or graduation, if it is mourning the passage of the family’s heir? No true parents will roll out the drums on such occasions not because they are not worth celebrating, but for the fact that the mood is not auspicious.

There is no doubt that they will be happy but their happiness will be tamed by their grief. You cannot weep and be merry at the same time. This is why the scriptures draw a line between affliction, merriment and illness and proffer solution for each. Simply put, there is time to rejoice and there is time to not rejoice. Whether as a family, company or nation, we have our high and low moments. At high tide, we can celebrate as much as we like, but no sensible swimmer jumps into the water then. At low tide, we refrain from celebrating, but that is the right time for a good swimmer to jump into the water.

For over seven months, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike. The strike, which enters its 221st day today, is over the non-implementation of a 2020 Memorandum of Action (MoA) on funding for the revitalisation of public universities, non-payment of earned academic allowances, non-renegoatiation of a 2009 agreement and government’s refusal to deploy the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a platform for payment of ASUU members’ wages. The strike has grounded activities on campuses nationwide.

Students are bearing the brunt, as these two elephants fight. The students have always been at the receiving end. Most times, they suffer in silence as they return home to await when the strike will be called off. For months now, they have been waiting and praying that the strike will end. Instead, it is dragging, with fresh issues cropping up whenever old ones are resolved. Why is it so difficult to end the strike? Who is to blame: ASUU or the Federal Government? Each party is blaming the other. The public is tired of their dogfight. What they want is the resolution of the issues at stake and the return of the students to school.

The matter, we were told, was about being settled when the ‘no work, no pay’ issue was thrown into it. When should the ‘no work, no pay’ rule be enforced? Should it be enforced as punishment for going on strike? ‘No work, no pay’ is called to play when workers go on strike without following laid down trade dispute laws. The essence is to ensure that workers do not go on frivolous strike. They must give the mandatory notice and follow set rules before doing so. They cannot just wake up and say: ‘we are going on strike’. They will shoot themselves in the foot by doing so.

It was at this point of resolution that the government went to the National Industrial Court, praying for an interim order that ASUU should go back to work, pending resolution of the dispute. ASUU has joined issues with the government in court. Students too have taken their fate in their hands. They have moved to the streets in protest, claiming that government and ASUU are not fair to them. The students are right. What kind of government will stand by and watch while the future of its youths is being toyed with? The students have, among others, blocked the Sagamu axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Gbongan-Ikire-Ife road, the Lagos Airport road, subjecting motorists to anguish.

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The public feels the students’ pain. The students have a right to be annoyed, but they do not have a right to disrupt public life on the highway. But we have to tell them this in a way that will not ruffle their feathers. But from the same people that should show example in how the matter can be peacefully resolved has come a show of indifference. An unsettling attitude that can be put down to ‘I don’t care’. Why really should they care since their children are not caught in the strike web. Their children and in-laws school in the best universities in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Canada. When these kids complete their studies, their graduation is well celebrated in social media.

There is nothing bad in doing that. But the First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, should know better than to do that at a time like this. At a time when many parents who cannot send their children abroad to school are worried sick by the protracted ASUU strike, she is celebrating her daughter in-law, Zahra’s graduation from a UK university. It was insensitive of her. I am shocked because Mrs Buhari is not known to be such a person. She is motherly, fairminded and trustworthy. What happened? Pressure to recognise her daughter in-law’s feat? This is what you get when, as a leader, you surround yourself with only those who are only interested in telling you what you want to hear because of what they will get from it.

But when the shit hits the fan, they will not show their face. They will leave you to face the consequences alone. Celebrating Zahra’s graduation in social media was a big mistake at a time when her mates are protesting all over the country over the lingering ASUU strike. If only to show solidarity with the protesting students, the celebration should have been within the family, that is a private affair, which is a better way of marking events of this nature. After all, if things are rosy for you, as the Yoruba would say, you enjoy yourself quietly.

Slap me make I get money

In a tweet that went viral, police spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi, a chief superintendent (CSP), was said to have argued that an errant policeman should not be attacked for whatever reason. According to him, what should be done is to report the policeman, who slaps a civilian or does any other wrong, to the nearest police station. We know that it is wrong to attack any uniform person. His uniform is a symbol of authority. We do not need an Adejobi or any police, army, navy or air force officer to tell us this.

He should concentrate on educating his colleagues on the need to be civil in the line of duty. Carrying arms should not be a licence for them to be a threat to the very people that they should protect. As expected, Adejobi has denied making the statement, claiming that he was misquoted. Ha!

What else would he say, having realised the implications of his tweet. As the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang in the seventies, Gbami leti ki n’dolowo, ki n’ra moto (slap me make I get money, make I buy car). Until the court learns to sanction the police heavily for atrocities like this, Adejobi and his ilk will continue to rationalise the irrationalisable. Why should a policeman even slap anybody in the first place? Such an act calls to question his training. The authorities should work on that.

The story of Nigeria is sad and painful. A nation so much endowed by nature that naturally it should be rich and meeting the needs of its teeming population. As blessed as Nigeria is, its blessings are not well utilised. Nigeria is blessed in all ramifications and the world saw what it did with some of its resources in the 1960s when it was segmented in regions.

With cocoa, palm oil and groundnuts, the western, eastern and northern regions were developed beyond measures. There was no need to run to the centre for allocations, which today has become the norm. Each region stood on its own, leaving the national government to deal with issues of defence, external affairs, aviation and telecommunications.

The discovery of oil was expected to contribute to, and sustain the growth and development of the national economy. Unlike other resources, oil is a wasting mineral. Though it brings in more money than other resources, there is danger if it is not well managed. We are now facing that danger. The billions of dollars made from oil over the years were squandered; oh, sorry, stolen.

The stealing has not stopped. It has grown over the years. It is not only the cash that is being pilfered, but the product too. At a time that we should be talking of another windfall as we did during the 1990 Gulf War, we are losing billions in oil revenue. Yet other oil producing nations are making a killing from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. The invasion of Ukraine on February 24 by Russia has led to a shortfall in oil production by Moscow, opening doors of opportunity for other oil nations.

With the exception of Nigeria and Venezuela, other oil nations, especially Angola and Saudi Arabia, are making it big. They meet their production quota which was raised by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the wake of the war, and the resultant profit is best imagined after the refining of the crude for domestic use and exporting the rest to countries, particularly, in Europe which hitherto relied on Russia for their supplies. Nigeria should be in the same league with them, but unfortunately, it is not.

It has been reduced to an onlooker in a field in which it should be a major player, incurring heavy losses, where others like Angola and Saudi Arabia are making a fortune. The Economist, the London based magazine, captures Nigeria’s woes in an article entitled: How oil-rich Nigeria failed to profit from an oil boom, with the rider: Price controls, spluttering production and oil theft are to blame. The article spoke of the wonders that the oil boom brought about by the Russia-Ukraine war is doing for Angola and Saudi Arabia.

These countries are profiting from their foresightedness, planning and deft management of their public utilities, while Nigeria is stewing in its planlessness, mismanagement and the blind stealing of a product that would have brought in more money and energised our troubled economy. It is unspeakable that in the face of this oil boom, Nigeria’s economy remains prostate. Things cannot continue like this. Why should the government continue to pay subsidy on petrol that the people cannot even get?

Go round the retail outlets today, many of the major marketers are not dispensing petrol. You can only get the product from the independent marketers. The government claims that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been commercialised. May we remind them that commercialisation does not begin and end with altering the name of a corporate as we have seen in the case of NNPC. Changing its name to Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) under Mele Kyari’s leadership will not change anything if there is no change in attitude and sense of doing business.

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The truth is that there are too many shady characters in the system. Within the NNPC itself are people who believe that it is better to game the system for their own good than for the betterment of the country. They are worse than the oil thieves. We do not know these thieves but these NNPC chiefs (or is it thieves?) who are supposed to protect the nation’s oil interests but choose to collude with criminals to kill their country are known.

So, what is being done about them? Will they be allowed to continue to game the system and put the blame on oil thieves? Who is the real thief here? They or the faceless thousands of small fries used by them to steal this precious commodity? The way out is to fish out these top men so that the system  can work seamlessly.

Hiring a Tompolo to secure oil pipelines is scratching the surface of the matter. The real oil thieves are not the illegal bunkerers or small and big time smugglers, they are the top men and women in government and NNPC, who are beyond his reach. Giving Tompolo a mouthwatering N4 billion contract is another way of getting the ex-militant leader and his Niger Delta boys to look the other way while the stealing goes on. See how clever these thieves are!

Adieu, Double Chief

Tomorrow,  the remains of Chief Durojaiye Onabule will be buried in his Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State countryhome. His final home journey began yesterday, with an evening of songs and tributes at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos. Today, there will be a Christian Wake at the Grand Inn & Suites, Ijebu-Ode. Double Chief as he was popularly known, was a journalist of that long gone era when reporters were not appreciated. He and  his colleagues fought to give the profession a name and recognition.

He worked in the best outfits of his day: Daily Express,  Daily Sketch and Daily Times. He rose to become head of the popular Daily Times Investigations Desk and deputy editor of Headlines, a newspaper of historical account. He left Times for National Concord and rose to edit the paper.

When Gen Ibrahim Babangida became military president in 1985, he appointed Onabule his chief press secretary (CPS). Onabule held the position for eight years until the unfortunate June 12, 1993 incident. Onabule was a thoroughbred journalist and was a father-figure to many correspondents at Dodan Barracks who covered the IBB regime. He leaned politically towards Zik and not Awo, his kinsman, a preference which showed his force of character. He was a journalist till he died on August 17, at 83, as he ran a column in Daily Sun. Adieu, Double Chief.

Who is a boy? He is a male child yet to reach the age of puberty, that stage in life that he crosses into the world of men. Every boy desires to be a man and once he becomes one you can only refer to him as a boy, a minor at that, at your own risk. Calling a man a boy can be either complimentary or derogatory, depending in the context in which the word is used.

A war is raging in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  today because of this word. Boy, oh boy! The war is a big threat to the party, which is plotting how to win the 2023 elections. That precisely, is the issue. The problem started from the primary at which the party’s presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was picked.

His closest rival, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, was done in at the primary by a fellow governor, who chose to play the ethnic card. Ironically, the governor is Wike’s friend. Is Wike, as astute as he is, not aware that in politics there are no permanent friends, but permanent interests. At the end of the day, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal was hailed as the “hero of the convention” by party Chairman Dr Iyorchia Ayu.

Ayu’s statement ruffled not a few feathers. But his claim that those accusing him of manipulating the convention are “boys who were nowhere when we founded PDP in 1998” took the cake. There is a rich history behind the founding of the party. There is testament in their memory in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital. A former governor of the state, Sule Lamido, has a row of buildings dedicated to the 18 founding fathers of the party there. This same Lamido is caught in the Wike-Ayu fray. Lamido is not happy with what he perceives as Wike’s excesses.

Wike has since replied him in kind, wondering how he became Nigeria’s foreign minister, with his academic qualifications. He forgot that cerificates do not capabilites make. Wike’s grouse is with Atiku, who after the primary, bypassed him to pick Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as running mate. This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Ayu is a corollary victim. He had said he would resign if a northerner emerged the party’s presidential standard-bearer. When the time came for him to walk the talk, following Atiku’s emergence, he demurred.

Why? His statement, he said, was to the effect that he would quit, if the party won the election with a northern candidate. Wike and Co., picked holes in his claim, insisting that he must go for a southerner to take his place. But there is a snag here. The party’s constitution says that if the chairman quits, he shall be replaced with the deputy chairman from his zone. This means another northerner will come in, if Ayu goes. But what the Wike group wants is a special arrangement where a southerner will hold fort until after the election.

Unless something gives, neither group is ready to yield ground. Wike parades several other PDP governors in his group. They were in London recently to perfect their strategies. While there, they met with Atiku, his All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) counterparts Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi as well as former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Nothing concrete came out of the meetings to assure PDP of Wike’s much-needed support to win Rivers next year. Wike returned home still bristling. Right from the airport, he declared that PDP could only win Rivers with his support.

His loyalists are never tired of saying the same thing. Believed to be echoing their principal, they have said the main desideratum is for Ayu to go and anything short of that is unacceptable to them. Ayu fought back on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a popular programme listened to by many in the north. In the no-holds-barred interview, he took Wike and Co., to the cleaners, describing them as “children who do not know why we formed PDP”.

“When we started PDP, these children were not around. We will not allow any individual to destabilise our party. I was voted as PDP chairman for a four-year tenure and I am yet to complete a year. Atiku’s victory does not affect the chairman’s position. I won my election based on our party’s constitution… so I am not bothered by all these noises. I did not steal any money, so I see no reason for all these talks”, Ayu said. Children! That got Wike enraged. He fired back within 24 hours. As usual, he pulled no punches

He described Ayu as an ingrate, insinuating that the PDP chair has sinister plans for winning the election. “It is unfortunate today someone said where were you when we founded the party? That those of you who said the right thing must be done are boys, children. You can imagine what power can do. Ayu said we are children.

“Yes, the children brought you to be chairman of the party…You have no moral right to still claim that you founded that company after you left with your shares… you are a prodigal father. Haba! You said I am a boy, Seyi Makinde is a boy, Ortom, your brother, who signed on your behalf, is a boy. Abia is a boy. Enugu is a boy… Nigerians have seen how ungrateful you are”. The battle line is drawn. Wike, on one side, with Ayu and Atiku, on the other. Who wins? Your guess is as good as mine. There will not be a meeting point between them before the February 25, 2023 presidential election.

Wike knows that Atiku, Ayu and others want a reconciliation so as to use him to get Rivers’ vote to help PDP win the Presidency. Having been betrayed by an “ungrateful” Ayu, who he claimed the so-called “boys” made party chair, Wike is twice shy to reach an armistice with Atiku before the election, except on his own terms. The foremost condition is Ayu’s resignation. Will Atiku sacrifice Ayu, his long-time political ally for the votes of Rivers, which Wike believes are in his custody? Can Atiku call Wike’s bluff? Does he have what it takes to break the governor’s presumed stranglehold on Rivers?

Surely, what happens in Rivers during the presidential election will show us the difference between the men and the boys in PDP. The decider is just by the corner. For now, Wike, Atiku, Ayu and their loyalists can brag as much as they like.

For communities on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway axis, especially around the Long Bridge corridor, these are distressing times. The bridge is essential to their day-to-day existence. It is part of their life because they must use it to get to, and out of, their houses. Though called Long Bridge, it is short in length, no more than one to 1.5 kilometres at most.

You can drive through the bridge in less than three minutes, if all things are equal. When the bridge is free of traffic, the long stretch of articulated vehicles, which sadly has become one of its hallmarks, and broken down or burning vehicles, the ride is smooth and enjoyable. In a twinkling of an eye, you are at home or at work. With joy, you call family and friends that you just left that you are already at your destination.

The story has changed. Since the reconstruction of the road started under the present administration, it has been one tale of woe or another for residents of these communities and other commuters. The residents feel the pinch more because they must use the bridge everyday. The alternative is to stay at home for those who can afford it, while those who cannot, have taken up permanent residence at their places of work. These are, therefore, no alternatives in the real sense of it. They are signs of the times we are in.

They took these measures to ensure that their lives are not cut short before the completion of the road reconstruction. Why will a family man relocate to his office temporarily, abandoning his wife and children at home despite the inherent dangers? Why will people resort to packing a change of clothes in their vehicles for one week or more because of the ongoing work on the Long Bridge? The Long Bridge was constructed at that point to take care of the obstacle that could inhibit movement and ensure free flow of traffic.

It has become the opposite of that since June when portions of the road were narrowed again. Consequently, the road is congested everyday because of the slow pace of work and the lack of concern for motorists and other users by the contractor, the almighty Julius Berger. The firm does whatever it likes without taking into consideration the people’s feelings. Without prior notice, it narrows portions of the bridge, turning a four-lane road into two or one, leaving motorists to fight for space and right-of-way. The people are not saying that the road should not be rehabilitated, their argument is that it should not be done at the expense of their lives.

Many have died and are still dying because of what they passed, and are still passing, through on the road. What kind of work is Julius Berger doing that the Long Bridge will be jammed with traffic as early as 4.30 a.m., with the situation remaining that way for the whole day? The firm can do the work without causing people much stress. What will it cost Julius Berger to make the two side roads flanking the bridge motorable to reduce traffic while work is going on? What will it cost the firm to avail the residents of information at every stage of the work instead of either suddenly narrowing or blocking sections of the road overnight?

Julius Berger is working as if it is law unto itself. It acts as if it is not answerable to the Federal Ministry of Works, which is the supervisor of the project. Actually, the ministry’s conduct so far calls to question its handling of this vexed issue. How will the ministry’s officials’ feel if they are made to spend up to 10, 12 hours on the bridge almost every day, just like what the residents are experiencing?

Life is at stake here and this is the issue that the government must address. It cannot put the rehabilitation of the road above life. Of what use will it be if after the completion of the road, many motorists are no longer alive to use it. On August 27, some of the residents around the OPIC turning near the popular Kara market took to the street in protest over what they and others are going through on the road. What was the ministry’s reaction to this? It was a cheeky lecture on how motorists should behave!

‘Deterrent’ motorists, Mrs Forosola Oloyede, the Acting Federal Controller of Works, Lagos, said should desist from driving against traffic and comply with all dedicated road diversions. Not well said, Madam. If you must know, Julius Berger, not motorists, is the problem. The firm wants to do things its own way and the government is looking the other way. Why can the government not ask Julius Berger to grade and do the piling of the flood-prone portions of the side roads flanking the bridge?. Instead of its tacit rebuke of motorists, the government should be alive to its responsibility.

If the residents can wake up at 3a.m., or 4a.m., and other ungodly hours in order to beat traffic on the bridge, the ministry’s officials can rise at that time too in order to do their job, which is to ensure that Julius Berger does not put too much strain on the people as it is doing currently. The people know that they have to pay a price for infrastructure development, but it must be on give-and-take basis. Julius Berger cannot and should not always have its way at the expense of motorists whose tax is being used to remake the road. Yes, you cannot make omelette without breaking egg, but motorists should not all be dead before the job is completed.

Many have already lost their lives after being attacked by hoodlums on the bridge. For how long will this continue? For a bridge that never sleeps, it should have round-the-clock security and be well lit. Sadly, the bridge has no lights, leaving motorists at the mercy of hoodlums, who have shifted base there in full force since the return of the heavy traffic which lasts virtually the whole day, stretching from Kara to Redemption Camp, at times.

It does not require rocket science to correct this anomaly, if the government is really interested in its citizens’ welfare. To prioritise road rehabilitation over the citizens’ good is an act of cruelty. It is another way of the government saying its citizens can go and die; who cares! Governments in other climes with the love of their people at heart do not think that way.

They can go to the ends of the world to protect their people. Until we have such government, the likes of Julius Berger will continue to ride roughshod over Nigerians. Ironically, this is something the firm cannot do in its homecountry of Germany, where citizens get royal treatment.

It has been one long night for some families since the unfortunate March 29 Abuja-Kaduna train attack. The train was attacked by hoodlums a few metres to Kaduna. Some passengers were killed and some abducted. In the past few weeks, the abductors have released more passengers having earlier allowed some to go at intervals, after paying ransom.

These victims’ freedom did not come cheap. They paid hugely for it in millions of naira. How they or their families raised the ransom in these hard times did not matter to the hoodlums. All they wanted was money, tons of it. At the last count, they have collected up to N900 million, with the government clueless on how to end this saga, which  enters its 149th day today.

The government played into the hoodlums’ hands. It met almost all the hoodlums’ demands, including releasing some of their detained relatives and giving the best of medical care to the wife of the one who gave birth to twins. The government did not get anything in return. This is not our concern here today. This column is pained by what is happening to the remaining 23 victims and their families.

The fate of one of them, Azurfa Lois John, especially, hangs in the balance. Whether she will be released, even if ransom is paid, is uncertain going by the desire of a leader of the kidnap gang to marry her. This is not the first time that such a thing will be happening. It first happened to Leah Sharibu, one of the Dapchi, Yobe State schoolgirls, who were kidnapped in 2018.

Interestingly, the Dapchi kidnap happened under this administration, which as opposition party, made a song and dance over the 2014 Chibok, Borno State kidnap of over 250 schoolgirls under the Jonathan government. What does this tell us? It tells us that no matter the party in power, nothing has changed as far as security is concerned. To some analysts, things are even worse now than they were in 2015. As it was with Leah, so it seems it is going to be with Lois, if something urgent is not done to get her out of captivity.

The news of the kidnap gang leader’s intention to marry her was broken by Malam Tukur Mamu after the release of another set of kidnap victims last week. Mamu is the intermediary between the kidnappers and their victims’ families. Mamu warned that except something urgent was done, the unnamed gang leader will marry Lois. Lois is a simple girl who has found herself in this unfortunate situation which she never planned for. None of the victims ever planned for this.

Indeed, nobody ever makes such plan. We all pray to go out and come back safely. All those on board that illfated  train were on different missions that night. Some were returning to their Kaduna base, others were going to do one  business or the other. The last thing on their minds on March 29 was falling into kidnappers’ hands. But that day, the thing they feared most happened and now Lois risks being married off without her consent. The gang leader’s design on her means one and only one thing: the girl must become his wife. Is that how to marry a wife in our culture? No, it is not. In this instance, force or coercion and not culture is the word.

Can the man be stopped before he has his way? According to Mamu, it can. “This is to alert the Federal Government and especially, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that I can confirm through credible information at my disposal that if urgent action is not taking to immediately secure the release of the youngest victim of the train attack, 21-year-old Azurfa Lois John, the abductors, as they have done in the case of Leah Sharibu, are planning to marry her any moment from now. One of the top commanders is said to be in love with her”. The key words in his statement were “urgent action”. The safety of Lois should matter not only to her family, but also the government and the society.

The government should be the most concerned because it is its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. The society too must show concern as it cannot just watch and allow evil to be perpetrated because nobody knows who may be next. It can be anybody. The family is understandably worried. It needs the government and the society now more than ever before to get through this heartwrenching period.

Lois’ elder brother Bali Moses’ plaintive cry that the family cannot raise the ransom for her release should not go unheeded. Who knows the ransom may be what is standing between her release and her planned marriage to the gang leader. If the government and kindhearted Nigerians move in now, this orphan girl can be saved from becoming the wife of a man she never planned to marry. Hear Moses: “We received the news of the abductors’ plan with shock. One, our parents are late.

“The abductors had before now reached out to us demanding for ransom, and because we are orphans, we could not raise the money. They asked us to meet Malam Tukur Mamu for negotiation. Now our fear is that we don’t want our sister’s case to be like that of Leah Sharibu. We want her to live in freedom as a law abiding Nigerian and fulfil her dreams. We are appealing to the Federal Government to help us secure her release so that our sister can come back home as soon as possible”.

This touching appeal has not stopped ringing in my ears since I read it. It should also touch a chord in the heart of the affluent in the society to make them rally round this family of four orphaned siblings and save the only girl among them before her brothers lose her forever. The government has the biggest role to play in this matter because of its obligations to its citizens. It is in situations like this that we really know whether we have a government that cares for the people. With the Moses family’s plea, the ball is in the government’s court.

The ball had always been in the government’s court. But Lois’ case has made it more imperative for the government to go out of its way, do whatever must be done and ensure that she does not become a wife and mother against her will in captivity, just like Leah. There is no way every true parent’s heart will not sink at this girl’s travail. May the Lord uphold her.

One thing led to another. This has been the case since the March 28 trainjack in which scores of passengers were abducted. Over 100 days after the incident, 34 of the abductees are still in captivity. The abductors have been releasing their victims in phases after collecting ransom on them. It was said that they have collected over N900 million so far!

No business pays that much in just four months? Among the abductees were the aged, women and children, but the abductors do not give a hoot. There were also expectant mothers, who had since given birth in captivity. A doctor, perhaps a gynaecologist, was reportedly invited to take delivery of one of the women. The other was allowed to go and give birth at home.

The trainjackers have not ceased been in the news since their despicable act. They keep using their victims as baits to make demands on the government. The government’s response has not been encouraging. It has been all talks without action. With the government’s seeming impotence in the face of this development, the abductees’ families have been left with no choice than to negotiate with the abductors. Most of the negotiations are done on phone, the same device which Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card we were made to link with our National Identity Number (NIN) in order to curb cyber crime!

What do we make of that project, with the way criminals are carrying out transactions on phone? The terrorists have kept up their illicit activities since the train attack, coming out now and then, to commit other atrocities. With the aid of members of the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), they stormed Kuje Correctional Centre on July 6 and freed many inmates, including some commanders of Boko Haram. Twenty-four hours earlier, they attacked President Muhammadu Buhari’s advance team which was on its way to his Daura, Katsina State hometown, to await his arrival for the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations. A security agent was killed.

The President paid a brief visit to the Kuje facility, criticised the security agencies for not doing enough to stop the attack and jetted out to attend a summit in Dakar, Senegal. Many wondered if that was an auspicious time for the President to travel out, but his aides said there was nothing wrong with him going on the scheduled trip! After all, President Shehu Shagari left for India onJanuary 24, 1983, in similar circumstances after visiting the burning Nigeria External Telecommunications (NET) building in Marina, Lagos. The building is still lying in ruins, 39 years after. Buhari was aware of the trainjack, the Kuje facility invasion and the attack on his advance team. Yet, nothing has come out of his interventions.

If we are to believe Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, the President was unaware of the trainjackers’ threat to attack him and the Number One Citizen until they met on July 24! He claimed to have told the President about it. “What happened within this week is what made me to seek to see the President… I told him about the recent developments, particularly the video released by the terrorists. In fact, up till that moment, he was not even aware… the following day, that is on Monday (July 25), the Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, confirmed to him that he (Bello) even saw the video, so we need to take action”, El-Rufai said.

How can that be when the Presidency reacted to the video the same day it was released? In a statement entitled: Latest version of terror propaganda and military readiness, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said the security forces were not relenting in their efforts to defeat criminals.  The President, Shehu said, had done the needful for the armed forces and was, therefore, waiting on them to deliver victory to Nigerians. The terrorists, the statement noted, were using propaganda and violence to get the government’s attention. But, the statement did not take the terrorists up on their threat to attack the President and El-Rufai.

The Presidency probably felt that it was an empty threat not worth wasting time on. The Presidency has all it takes to secure itself. The power of state is at its disposal and can be deployed anywhere to protect the President and his family. But the state should spare a thought for the people, the suffering masses, who look up to the President for their safety and security. What we should be telling the President is how insecure the people feel. How the cost of living is skyrocketing. How inflation is affecting them and their families. How businesses are either dying or folding up and moving to countries with conducive environments to keep afloat.

He should also be told that university students have been at home in the last five months because of their lecturers’ strike which has been extended by four weeks. An extension which came after the expiration of his two-week ultimatum to his education minister to resolve the issue. Add to the mix, the threat by the minority senators led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the National Assembly to impeach the President, and we have a country buffeted from all sides. The senators are citing rising insecurity for their planned action.

The plot is a long shot in the dark. What is needed urgently is to free the remaining victims of the March 28 trainjack and end the agonies of their families who have been left alone to do all they can, including raising money in these hard times, to pay as ransom. No government worth its name leaves its citizens exposed to the intrigues of terrorists. Indeed, as the President said on Tuesday, “this madness must end”. But, when and how? That is the President’s remit.

Sterling v Sterling

Getting a Point-of-Sale (PoS) machine is simple. It costs nothing to get one, as long as the prospective merchant meets the requirements of his bank of choice. The simplicity of the process may be why PoS operators and their banks misbehave when issues arise as they will surely do once in a while. All you need to do to get a PoS machine is to approach a bank, fill an application form and within a week, it is ready. In a country like ours where anything goes, some underhand deals cannot be ruled out in the process.

As many customers prefer to use their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards on their banks’ platforms to avoid the payment of charges, so are they happy to carry out transactions on PoS machines linked with their banks, despite no known accruing benefits from it. From experience, it is better to use, as they call it, ‘other bank’s’ PoS. On June 1, I used my Sterling Bank ATM card on a Sterling Bank PoS. The N7000 transaction failed, but I was debited. All efforts to get back my money since then have failed. The PoS operator, according to Sterling Bank, Matori, Lagos Branch, has refused to yield to requests to send the receipt of the transaction for which I have since provided all the evidence. What else does the bank want? My blood?

Unknown now, but soon I will be UNFORGETTABLE…I will persist until I succeed – Tobi Amusan

The ‘nearly-woman’. What a moniker! That was what they called her. It was a moniker derived from Oluwatobiloba Amusan’s many medal misses, but which eventually served to propel her to become the best sprinter in the world. After failing to win medals in several competitions, getting to the edge of victory, only to take the fourth place, she was tagged a serial loser, which plainly speaking is the raw meaning of that moniker.

It can be frustrating to see victory right in front of you and yet unattainable. Not because you are not good enough, but for the fact that your resolve is being tested. Tobi Amusan went through a lot, but she remained focused. Her story is the stuff of which legends are made. She showed resilience, determination and sheer power in the face of her drawbacks.

Those drawbacks were not failures; they cannot be called that because she was no pushover in the event in which she finally created a new world record in the early hours of Monday in Eugene, Oregon, United States (US). She broke the fourth position jinx at the World Athletics Competition (WAC), becoming the first Nigerian to win a world gold medal as well as create a new world record in her event.

The spell was broken because she did not quit. At times when she felt like quitting, something stirred up in her and she listened to that still voice which warned: do not do that girl; your time will come. When her time came on Monday, it was on a double-quick note. She broke the world record in the 100 metres hurdles for women in quick succession under two hours.

She performed the first feat in the semifinals when she ran 12.12 seconds to break the existing record of 12.20 seconds. To tell the world that her performance was no fluke, she broke her own record in the final by running 12.06 seconds. That timing will, however, not stand because it was said to be wind-assisted. Wind-assisted or not, Tobi has made her mark and the world stood still for the Nigerian girl as she stared at the electronic timer in disbelief after she finished the race of her life.

Tobi was stunned. ‘So, I did it’, she seemed to say as she looked up into the sky after she left a pack of other runners behind her, while the stadium erupted in jubilation. Around the world, millions watching on television, especially in her home-country of Nigeria, could not contain their joy. They rose for the champion.

As Nigeria’s National Anthem blared out from the public address system, for the first time ever at a world athletics fiesta, with Tobi at the head of the winners’ podium, something would have given way in many of her compatriots back home and wherever else they were in the world.

Something good has come out of Nigeria in front of the entire world, they would have mused. Our compatriot, the best woman hurdler in the world, was not being paraded for any crime, but was being honoured for her feat in a track event by a world, which is always quick to condemn anything from Africa, especially Nigeria. At their airports and in their countries where some of us are making a living, they treat us like the jetsam and the flotsam of the earth. But on Monday, the world stood in awe as Tobi received her medal.

This girl of history has written her country’s name in gold by winning gold in a golden race in which on two occasions and within a spate of two hours she showed the world the can- do Nigerian spirit. She beat a different field of competitors twice to prove her mettle as a world-class champion. Back home, we are celebrating Tobi as a Nigerian, not as a Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Kanuri, Bini, Nupe, Ibibio or Fulani. Nor as a Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Animist or Traditionalist.

Tobi is yet another proof of what we can achieve as a country if we allow the best and the brightest to represent us. In the face of the gloom in the land, she has given us something to cheer. Congratulations, Tobi. Your prediction of becoming unforgettable has come to pass. As your name implies: God is indeed the greatest king. May your tribe increase.

What’s the worth of 7k?

There is this television jingle about the worth of N2000. “People dey make me laugh when dem say 2k nor be money; 2k, 2k…”, the narrator went on and on. The jingle is all about saving N2000 at your convenience to a point where you can win millions of naira in a bank promo. The essence of that jingle, in the estimation of that bank, is that 2k ‘na money’ if allowed to grow.

But to a so-called one-customer bank, 2k ‘nor be money’. If this is not so, Sterling Bank would have returned the 7k debited from my account in a failed point-of-sale transaction since June 1. Rather than do the needful, the bank keeps giving excuses for its tardiness. N7000 na money. If dem nor know make dem know now.