BudgIT, a social enterprise with special focus on accountability and transparency in governance, last week in a report titled, “State of states 2019,” confronted us with the disheartening truths Nigerian leaders have refused to acknowledge: Out of the nation’s 36 states, only Lagos, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states could finance their recurrent expenditure independent of federal allocation. The report also confirmed only 19 states could meet their expenditure with internally generated revenue and federal allocation. With these depressing facts, it is a question of time before the bubble bursts if we fail to address our crisis of nation building.
That many of the states and LGAs are not viable is no news to many informed Nigerians. But more intriguing however is the hypocrisy of our leaders who have continued to play the ostrich, giving an impression that the alternative to fiscal federal arrangement or restructuring of the country along the lines of sustainable development is through the current unfair and unjust sharing of confiscated federating groups’ resources by a dysfunctional centre that places low value on principle of derivation.
It is on record that in July 2015 President Buhari approved a $2.1bn (£1.4bn) intervention package through soft loans from the central bank, and dividends paid by the state-owned natural gas agency for about bankrupt 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states that owed their workers more than $550m in salaries and allowances. Similarly in July 2017, Yari as chairman of governor’s forum had led governors representing the South-south, Northwest, the North-Central, the Southeast; the Northeast; and the Southwest, to appeal to the president for the release of the 50 per cent of the Paris Club loan refund so that the funds could be built into the 2018 budgets of the state governments. In all, a total of N1.75tn was disbursed to states as extra-statutory ‘bailout’ fund between 2015 and 2017. That 33 states remain insolvent despite this government financial engineering is evidence enough that the 1999 constitution which many have described as a ‘military decree’ foisted on the nation in the last 20 years has not only failed but has further accentuated our crisis of nation building.
Unfortunately while those who love the nation have called for a restructured Nigeria with a new constitution that reflects our diversity as against the current one (with 68 items in the exclusive list, 30 in the concurrent and none in the residual) which is only federal in name, our successive leaders- presidents, governors and National Assembly lawmakers have since 1999 played the ostrich.
It is increasingly becoming clear that Nigerian current leaders like their predecessors since the run up to independence in 1960 have been responsible for the nightmare of Nigerians who naturally look up to their leaders for direction. It is part of our documented history that while our founding fathers were scheming to outwit one another in the run up to independence, it was the colonial masters who after reminding them of our diversity, promoted as parts of British policy thrust, a regional arrangement that “secured for each separate people, the right to maintain its identity, its individuality and its nationality and its own chosen form of government which have been evolved for it by the wisdom and by the accumulated experiences of generation of its forbearers”. The constitutional changes of 1954, 1957 and the 1958 Lancashire debate at which October 1, 1960 was chosen as the date for our independence were midwifed by them. The 1963 republican constitution we crafted on our own was rooted on the above stated British policy thrust.
The tragedy of 1966 and the civil war (1967-1970) were traceable to the recklessness of our political leaders. It was the deadly intrigue among the warring political leaders that brought in self-styled ‘custodian’ of our constitution who, overwhelmed by social problems they were ill-equipped to comprehend, subverted the 1963 republican constitution. And their legacy: the current unwieldy and unviable 36 states and 774 LGAs.
Leaders at other levels including governors and National Assembly lawmakers, the major beneficiaries of the present unviable structure have since the birth of the fourth republic in 1999 also continued to play the ostrich while major stakes-holders in the Nigeria project including Afenifere, Ohanaeze, the Middle Belt Forum, and representatives of other ethnic groups whose resources had been confiscated by a dysfunctional centre insisted on a return to a pre-independence federal arrangement.
Long before last week’s BudgIT report,, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, like many other concerned Nigerians had warned that ‘the present 36 federating units and the federal capital territory, each with its full paraphernalia of administration, spending disproportionate amount of its resources on recurrent expenditure’, is responsible for the collapse of education and health sectors and infrastructural decay’. The most appropriate structure of governance for Nigeria, according to him should be a return to a ‘true federation of six federating units with each developing at its own pace, and with the proceeds from “God-given” national resources.
It is not that concerned Nigerians underestimated the arduous task of nation building especially with the baleful legacies of some military adventurers and fortune seekers who fraudulently claimed they “sacrificed their present for our tomorrow”; successive governors without no vision beyond Abuja monthly allocation and security votes they don’t have to account for, a National Assembly populated by the highest paid lawmakers in the world and the economic parasites who cornered privatized public enterprises and rake in billons from their oil well allocations. Nigerians fully understand that for this parasitic Nigerians, there can be no incentive to change. But many had thought President Buhari was historically ordained to free Nigerian from the parasites holding the nation to ransom.
Sadly, even with restructuring prominently featured in APC manifesto and with the report of the party’s committee on restructuring presented to him with fanfare; President Buhari has continued to feign ignorance claiming tongue-in -cheek that “There are too many people talking lazily about restructuring in Nigeria. Unfortunately people are not asking them individually what they mean by restructuring…. They are just talking loosely about restructuring. Let them define it and then we see how we can peacefully do it in the interest of Nigerians.”
With last week BudgIT’s damning report on the state of our unviable and unwieldy structure however, President Buhari needs no further clarification on restructuring. Now that he has been told that despite his periodic financial intervention totalling N1.75tn as extra-statutory ‘bail-out’ funds between 2015-2017, 33 states cannot still finance their operations, it is hoped he understand that if he fails to undo what some of his fellow soldiers of fortune in ‘Nigerian Army of anything is possible’ did to Nigeria between 1985 and 1999 and the betrayal of Nigeria through privatization and monetization policies by ‘new breed’ military baked politicians that breed nothing but corruption between 1999 and 2018, it is him and the verdict of history.
Forget the grinding traffic jam, the ever-bustling bus stops, the noisy markets and all those discourteous motorcyclists, who are a big pain in the neck. And the street urchins. Forget them all for a while.
Let’s sing our own sweet song instead.
Africa’s largest city, home of financial and business giants, who won’t ever leave because their investments are flourishing here like those palm trees standing majestically on the beautiful beaches surrounding the city, and land of huge opportunities. Lagos keeps attracting people like bees to honey.
A burgeoning population of about 22million (many claim this estimate is not in tune with today’s reality), Nigeria’s smallest state sits on a land mass of about 3,577.28sq. km. Of this, 779.56sq km is wetland. About 6000 people enter the city daily, armed with only one thing – that intangible phenomenon called hope – and ready for the often tough battle to find the Lagos Dream.
There are over five million cars and 200,000 commercial vehicles on the roads every day; the national average is 11 vehicles per kilometre. Lagos crashes the scale at 227 vehicles per kilometre daily.
When many of the state’s 6000 roads fall into disrepair, there is bound to be some discomfort to residents. Unfortunately. But that is no reason for some sections of the foreign media to run down Lagos. Foreign businesses make so much money here. They are ever eager to invest their resources here because the return on investments is amazing.
When foreign reporters fly into Lagos and encounter a traffic jam, they write of their experience often in emotional and superficial terms. Sometimes, they do so with mischief on their minds. It all gets pesky when the local media parrot such views that are often based on questionable facts and figures.
A” US News” report (February 12,) titled “Cities with the world’s worst traffic congestion,” stated that Moscow commuters lose nearly nine days a year sitting in city traffic. Drivers spent an average of 210 hours in peak rush hour periods last year. Moscow snatched the trophy for the most traffic congested city in the world last year, according to a yearly scorecard prepared by INRIX, a data analytics company that delivers insight into how people move around the world.
London came in at number six, beaten by Istanbul, Bogota, Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Boston occupied the eighth place and Rome placed 10th.
The traffic situation in New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and some other cities is often at least as frustrating as that of Lagos. Why then do reporters from such places make a song and dance about the Lagos situation?
However, dear compatriots, the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration will not accept that as the standard by which Lagos should be judged. He was fully apprised of the enormity of the situation and the critical importance of free-flowing traffic in the megalopolis.
It comes as no reprise, then, the first item on the THEMES Agenda – the six pillars on which the administration’s development plan stands – is Traffic Management and Transportation.
The monstrous traffic will not be reined in overnight. But reined in, it will be. Technology, management expertise and other resources will be brought in and residents will be motivated to develop a new orientation that will bury the spirit of impunity that sets traffic laws at nought.
Sanwo-Olu figured in the headlines early this month when he rallied some construction giants to launch a frontal battle against potholes that have made driving on many roads a nightmare. Julius Berger. Arab Contractors. Hi-Tech. China Civil Engineering Construction. RCF. And others. The job is on. Soon, many roads will be smooth again. First a makeover. And then Operation 116 under which 116 roads will be fixed by some 60 teams working simultaneously will be in full swing.
Potholes slow down traffic and, sometimes, it all grinds to a halt. But we must not lose sight of those commercial bus drivers who are forever turning traffic laws on their heads. Motorists and motorcyclists drive and ride against the traffic. LASTMA, the traffic management agency, doesn’t have the legal muscle to punish traffic law breakers. The police do. Are they doing the job? Doubtful. Does the state have the power to tell them what to do? No. They are a federal institution that reports to Abuja.
Lately, nature has been so ferocious – globally. The effects of the climate crisis have come upon us all. Rains have been pounding Lagos relentlessly, flooding many parts of the city. The drains are struggling to cope with what has become the heaviest October downpour in years. The results of years of dumping refuse into drain channels are here, but several teams are working at the same time to free the clogged channels. In the end, it is the residents who bear the distressing and sometimes life-threatening consequences. They owe it to themselves not to dump refuse in drainage channels.
Many critics have latched onto the traffic situation and the bad roads to lash the Sanwo-Olu administration, accusing it of incompetence. I do not blame them. Who will spend hours in the traffic and not be angry? The road is a resident’s and a visitor’s first contact with the authority. It creates a vital impression in the mind.
Even as we vent our anger and frustration, some introspection seems pertinent. It is well to remember that an administration that rode into power on the wings of a huge mandate will not allow its goodwill to be buried in potholes.
The Sanwo-Olu administration has been working quietly in many other areas. It is determined to see that trains move in Lagos by completing the multi-billion naira Blue Line that has suffered some setback for financial and other reasons.
A revolution is on the way in primary education. The thinking is that once we get the foundation right the future of our children is assured. Teachers will be trained and re-trained and be made to love their job. Pupils will be exposed to the use of technology at that early stage to enhance learning and make it fun.
The health sector is already feeling the impact of the administration. A 110 -bed Maternal and Child Care Centre has been opened in Sangotedo. Residents are excited. Maternal and infant mortality is being tackled. But the more exciting news is that the centre will soon become a General Hospital.
A 140-bed facility was opened in sprawling Alimosho, a project delivered in conjunction with the Federal Government. More hospitals are on the way. More than 25,000 residents had free treatment and surgery, courtesy of the Healthy Bee Initiative.
A housing estate has been commissioned in Igando, named after the first civilian governor, the revered Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande. Another massive estate, long abandoned, will be finished in Sangotedo. Others are in the works in Ikorodu, Igbogbo and others. Work has started again on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
No bank vaults have been smashed by robbers since Sanwo-Olu mounted the saddle. Many things go on in the background to ensure that Lagosians sleep tight at night. The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) is being strengthened in a bid to take many youths out of unemployment. So popular was the N4b W-Initiative for women that, at its disbursement, Access Bank, the partners, raised the fund to N10b.
The 32metric tons per hour capacity Integrated Rice Mill in Imota start running in the first half of next year. This will, no doubt, ease the present scarcity of rice. Some 32,000 hectares will be acquired in seven states for rice cultivation. The 70,000 gallons per day Adiyan Waterworks is being revived as part of the moves to meet up with the Sustainable Development Goals. Nigeria is 15 places up in the Ease of Doing Business ladder – thanks mainly to developments in Lagos, Nigeria’s business and financial honey pot.
Some reporters have asked me to speak on the state’s finances. “Is Lagos broke? We hear the state can’t meet its obligations.” The state is meeting its financial obligations, but it can always do with more money, considering its gargantuan challenges.
”Why are you borrowing, despite your huge debt profile?”
“Borrowing isn’t bad, particularly when it is for specific projects that will enhance our people’s living condition and boost our economy. Besides, the state’s GDP-to- debt ratio is well within our capacity to manage.”
The Sanwo-Olu administration stands solidly by its promise of a Greater Lagos. It will deliver. I won’t join those who deride Lagos and scorn the city even as they make their fortune here and raise their families here. I’ll keep singing – and swinging – Lagos
It is all like building a house. After the drawing, the engineers will move in, clear the site and you start building. In clearing the site, some workers may get hurt. When it is all built up and bathed in seductive paints, many will start making inquiries. Who owns this palace? Is it for let? Is it for sale? How much? Questions and more questions. Everybody wants to live in a beautiful home.
This will, no doubt, be the story of Sanwo-Olu’s Lagos.
Omotoso is Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy
WE do not know how to create a heaven or sustain the like of it but we love to create gods by the dozen. I do not speak of divinity that manifests only in far-fetched miracles and dreams; I speak of individuals we deify as our vanities dictate.
For instance, a male cross-dresser has become hero and god to generations of Nigerian youths simply because he perverts nature, prostitutes for a living, and cruises around in a Range Rover. What’s not to ‘love’ about him? While he repulses this writer and this page by his debauchery, cowardice and attendant praise, he is idolised by various sections of modern society for hobnobbing with washed-out celebrities and being ‘brave.’
He is feted and championed as a cult hero, a carrier of charisma kept under quarantine. He personifies an eerie sexual iridescence, like a pathogen. Masculine and feminine dilate about him like a solar aureole. He is celebrated not because he is dignified or virile but because he is taboo.
Then we have the recently released inmates of the 2019 Big Brother Naija (BBN); it is noteworthy that male and female participants on the show attained fame, ‘wealth’ and ‘laudable’ notoriety by indecent exposure and having sex with random partners on impulse, like wannabe pornstars. The greater their infamy, the higher their acclaim.
Defiance, aberrant virtue, taboo, or whatever we may call that mysterious trait emitted by the tabooed person is conceived by the modern youth as the essence or substance by which degeneracy is charged – just as Frazer’s Leyden jar gets charged with electricity.
Our lust for heroes ends in double jeopardy: as reprobates soar in acclaim and society salts the ground they walk upon. Degeneracy abounds as a Nigerian plague by the primitiveness of minds. For instance, viewers comprising large segments of the electorate gifted the BBN porn show with 240 million votes in pitiful contrast to the paltry 27.3 million votes recorded at the 2019 general elections.
While the argument persists in sophists’ circuits that the circumstances and rules are different in both events, one can’t help but marvel at the studious discipline and vulgar alertness devoted by the citizenry to a porn show at the expense of their future.
Money is at the root of everything. The pursuit of it incites the worst monstrosities in reprobate groupies of porn idols and political celebrities. Being rich is certainly is the closest you get to being god in Nigeria. Add an impressive root and very intimidating academic record to the mix and you have yourself a 21st century hero or god.
But of what calibre are man-made gods? Who really is the Nigerian idol? Olusegun Obasanjo? Bobrisky? Atiku Abubakar? Diezani Allison-Maduekwe? President Goodluck Jonathan? Muhammadu Buhari? Wole Soyinka? Late Gani Fawehinmi?
Do their deeds make them worthy of hero-worship or blind deification? To what do they owe our reverence of them? Some would say it is their brilliance and achievements. Anyone could be brilliant or achieve feats from time to time but humaneness is what we have to affect all of the time.
How humane is our ruling class? How human are Nigeria’s industry titans – government-anointed and corruption-activated billionaires to be precise?
By their citizenship, do they provide pathways to empowering the Nigerian youth; the disillusioned jobless graduates and school drop outs of Umukegwu, Akokwa, Urualla, Apongbon, Idumota, Agege, Agbor, Doron Baga, and Sankwala, to mention a few?
Do they teach the youth to evolve beyond the greed, selfishness and idiosyncrasies of their generation? Do they teach us to make peace with our guilt and conquer our demons?
The answer lies as much in their utterances as their deeds. Transcendent moments and heroic acts are in truth, deeds of an exalted intelligence and unsullied mind, traits that the incumbent ruling class pitifully lacks.
Our lust for heroes and gods illustrates a fable; it is not of latent strength but disintegration. It reveals the weakness and shallowness of the Nigerian adult’s awfully preadolescent mind. Thus his predisposition to creating gods of impoverishment and war.
Some would say the random hero may pass as god. But the Nigerian hero is a human sound bite. He is essentially a half-formed mammal, animal to be precise. He is hardly humane. He has been flipped upside-down and inside-out; he has been scrambled, corrupted and fertilised by ghastly manifestations of self-love, tribalism, wantonness, sexual perversion and sense of worth.
“All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours,” says Aldous Huxley, English writer. The manner in which the Nigerian public worships celebrities and the ruling class, however, enables their descent the steep slopes of bestiality.
Having made super humans of public officers, for instance, they begin to see themselves as gods and the electorate by whose strength they attained their exalted positions as lesser creatures.
Suddenly the feel the urge to ‘protect’ themselves behind fortresses. It becomes abominable for their wives, daughters and cooks to visit the same grocer or shop in the same market as the masses.
They loot public coffers without inhibition and in response, we grovel at their feet for crumbs of what is rightfully ours. Whenever they intrude our world, they leave behind pungent memories and pains. Whenever they come to town, we must be kept in traffic for them to move freely. Whenever they are ‘guests of honour’ at our functions, we are treated with little or no honour, argues Kayode Oteniya.
The true quality of a true leader is the apparent sincerity in his manners. The speeches he makes are never mere platitudinous chant and his developmental programmes are never extraordinary elephant projects. His politics and humaneness are not only heard but felt.
There is prime merit in everything about him, and his life generally, radiates truth. His life is what we may call a great sober sincerity. A sort of temperate authenticity that is not only blunt but uncompromising.
His fervour is undomesticated, bordering on the wild and forever wrestling naked with the elements that be, for the love of the good and the truth of things. In that sense, there is something of the savage yet humane in him, like all great men.
He is one in whom one still finds human substance. He relishes no opportunity to tell any colourful story of himself anywhere; usually, he stands bare and grapples like a giant, face to face, heart to heart, with the naked truth of things. ‘That, after all,” says Carlyle “is the sort of man for one.”
And such is the type of man we should value above all others. He is the man who, as American writer, Norman Mailer, opines, would argue with gods and awaken devils to contest his vision. When he dies, his death would be felt nationwide as something more than a historic calamity; women would weep and men would fight back tears as if they had heard of the death of a very dear friend or Saint.
The creation of such a man and god would be Nigeria’s noblest work. Unhappy the land that has no heroes, says Andrea; No, unhappy the land that needs heroes, responds Galileo in Bertolt Brecht, late German playwright and poet’s “The Life of Galileo.”
To most people and in many cultures all over the world the death of relation or friend makes one to suddenly realize one’s own vulnerability and mortality. King Solomon in his Ecclesiastical discourses makes us realize that all our human exertions to acquire and accumulate wealth come to nothing at the point of death. Our mansions, money and fame will not prevent the cold hands of death from grabbing us when our time is up. Yet we foolishly behave as if we will live for ever. Even to those of us who are orphans and who have lost brothers, sisters and wives we know the death toll would sound for us one day, yet we refuse to reconcile with the fact of death and prepare for eternity. To all believers in the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and even to believers in a pantheon of gods, the message of David as contained in the book of Psalms is appropriate. Psalm 90:12 says “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”. One of the certainties of life which we mortals bluntly refuse to accept is the predictable winters of our lives and the inevitability of death. The longer we live the closer we are to the end of our lives. We always hope the older ones will pass on before the younger ones but it does not always follow our human mathematical logic. However, it is certain that death will come when it will. If we knew the end of our lives from the beginning, then we would not be men but God who knows the end from the beginning.
When I read about the death of Dele Agekameh, fellow columnist in The Nation, I was taken aback because unlike his friends, I did not know he had been on dialysis since some years ago. I had always seen him as robust and energetic man bubbling with energy and activism for politics and journalism. Our paths crossed during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan when he and Dr Steve Azaiki, former secretary to Bayelsa State Government approached me and others like Professor Bolaji Akinyemi about the desirability of setting up a national think-tank to function as a non-governmental intellectual body to discuss all issues that may come up in public life.
During the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, something like that existed in Nigeria but like all such institutions, it died with the regime that set it up. To a certain extent the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs functioned as a think tank for politics among nations and what Nigeria’s position should be on issues of importance in the global community. The NIIA was perhaps most influential during the Murtala Muhammed/ Olusegun Obasanjo regime when its Director – General, Bolaji Akinyemi was as influential in foreign policy formulation and execution as the foreign minister, Colonel Joe Garba. The NIIA was then the public face and platform for sounding out the views of the critical public on the direction of the government in its foreign policy.
I remember Joe Garba hosting at the NIIA a press conference addressed by Lopo do Nascimento, prime minister of Angola under president Augustino Neto during which time some South African white soldiers captured by the Angolan forces while fighting alongside UNITA against the MPLA recognized government in Luanda were presented to the public. This drew so much public attention and support for government that for once Nigeria was seen to be punching at the right weight in the international arena. Of course the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has always been hostile to or intolerant of the NIIA. The research body is today almost out of action since the coming of the Buhari government. The point I am making is that the idea of a national think tank was not absolutely new. But until Agekameh and Asaiki were driving a new move, the idea remained latent. I remember Professor Akinyemi asking me to prepare a lead paper to lay out the idea of a think tank when we held the first plenary in Lagos. I drew the attention of the assembled audience to the varieties of think tanks from government funded ones to those supported by corporate bodies and others funded by security or intelligence outfits. I drew the attention of the audience to the fact that funding in a sustainable way was critical to the performance of any think tank .The initial enthusiasm soon petered out sometimes afterwards. The reason for this was that some people felt the movement was sponsored by South-south vested interests or generally by politicians coming from the minority areas. The source of funding was opaque and tightly kept by those at the centre of it all especially those from the Niger-Delta. This really did not matter to me personally but I have learnt my lesson that well-meaning ideas do not usually fly because when funding runs out, the death of the ideas is almost inevitable. The moment the people behind the ideas are appointed into government jobs, they lose their interest either because of conflict of interest and because government appointments cannot be had while belonging to non-governmental research institutions especially when such bodies may criticize government.
Permit my wandering thought rather than focusing on the irreplaceable death of Agekameh. I always read his column on Wednesdays and I am sometimes amazed about the information at his command. Some of the information in his possession appears like classified information and that is the strength of his column. A good journalist should be able to ferret out information that would be useful to the public but which the government would naturally not want the public to know. As a columnist myself, I impose a gag rule on what I write so that I do not divulge government sources to which I was privy and which I had access to when I was in the ministry of foreign affairs or when I was ambassador of Nigeria to the Federal Republic of Germany. In the United Kingdom and in Europe generally and in the United States, government files were usually locked up for a period ranging from 30 to 100 years to protect people who gave confidential opinions and advice to government. The situation is however changing. I wonder what the rule is in Nigeria where we have no viable or well organized archives. Even when people write their memoirs, they still hold on to information which if publicly displayed may harm the interest of their countries. I remember advising the late Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle to write his memoirs. Adekunle was an unusual man who spoke Ijaw, Bachama, Hausa, Igbo, Fulfulde and Yoruba. He was of course the most flamboyant and adventurous war commander during the Nigerian civil war. I felt his story would not only have enlivened Nigerian history, it would also have removed some of the dark spots in the history of the army and its involvement in Nigerian politics. His response to my urge for him to write was his usual retort that he knew too much about Nigeria and that he had information that could destroy the country. I do not know whether General Akinrinade too has refused to write his memoirs because of the same consideration.
Perhaps a journalist like Dele Agekameh is not faced with the same problem. Of course the cardinal rule of journalism is protection of sources. Many Nigerian journalists have suffered for refusing to divulge the source of their information. The fact that our journalists are exposed to danger of state and government persecution with nobody to defend them is a major problem facing Nigerian journalists. They are poorly paid and salaries are irregular and infrequent.
It is no longer news. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is set for another strike, again. Its grouse with the federal government this time around is over what it called the ‘government’s planned imposition of Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPIS) on its members’. Last Sunday, the chairman of the University of Ibadan (UI) chapter of the union, Professor Deji Omole, said while ASUU was not against accountability and prepared to assist the federal government in designing the appropriate template to address the peculiarities of university lecturers in the IPPIS, ASUU members are not ready to accept the adoption of what he called “the World Bank-designed exploitative template” threatening to resist any attempt by the government to violate existing laws and autonomy of the university.
There is already an established pattern. ASUU for some strange reasons often claim equality with its employers. The body accuses government of inefficiency without admitting many of its members as undergraduates and graduate students were products of the said government inefficiency. ASUU also wants us to believe it loves university students more than government that spends millions of naira on each university graduate. And whenever it fails to get what it wants, ASUU goes on strike for weeks and sometimes months forgetting that the victim at the end is the quality of our university education.
Undoubtedly, government has failed the universities in terms of funding. But from our experience in the last few years, I am not sure Nigerians are deceived when ASUU claims it loves Nigerian university students than government. For instance, how can the current showdown which followed a reported directive of President Buhari that any worker not on the IPPIS would no longer get salary be said to be in the interest of Nigerian university students? Yet the first reaction of ASUU to the development was to summon an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting where it agreed that the union should begin mobilisation of members for an action against the government.
ASUU members more than anyone else know the processes government policy goes through and the role of actors especially experts/academics and technocrats in government policy formulation and implementation. Since lecturers are most likely involved in the policy formulation, it is not likely ‘the government template would enslave intellectuals just because “it does not make provisions for payment of arrears on promotion, study leave allowance, responsibility allowance, among others’ as ASUU alleged.
Blackmail and mischief are weapons ASUU freely deployed during its endless wars with government. The 70 years retirement age for professors has been in operation for a number of years. Now ASUU says part of its reasons for the planned strike is to prevent the federal government from using the new template “to phase out university lecturers above 60 years”. In the absence of any evidence, one cannot but read mischief to such claim by ASUU.
ASSU has also accused the federal government of hatred for university lecturers for “introducing what they called “illegal policies that negatively affect the smooth running of the universities”. Again, I think ASUU is overreaching itself. It is not in a position to declare the policy of the government, its employer illegal. ASUU also says while it is “not against accountability on the part of the university administrators, it insists government should not be allowed to destroy public universities in its purported claims of fighting corruption.” ASUU is also not in a position to tell government, its employer how to fight corruption. He who pays the piper after all, dictates the tune. In any case, federal institutions are generally known to be centres of corruption and if the federal universities are not part of the mess, it is not ASUU but government that will provide a clean bill of health.
ASUU is not any less guilty for the rot in our public universities. There is too much politics going on in our public universities. It was perhaps on account of mismanagement of our universities that the founder, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola during the 10th Founder’s Day and 7th convocation ceremonies of the university last week revealed he “purposely established his non-profit university to expose the rot in Nigeria education system and raise the bar of functional and quality education”, advising ‘university must be free to carry out research, look for funding, set criteria for admission, rather than depend on the government’s intervention.’
Many share the view that if ASUU for instance gets off the back of University of Lagos, the institution has everything to be more successful than ABUAD, today’s pacesetter. Unfortunately while fronting for their fellow political, economic, military elite that want their children by all means in University of Lagos, ASUU for instance falsely claims to be the vanguard of the masses insisting students of University of Lagos, the University of First Choice must not pay school fees. Meanwhile 80% of students of the institution are children of the elite. 50% of new intakes into the university who did not meet JAMB cut-off marks are brought in through pre-degree programme where their parents are made to cough out as much as N400, 000. But by ASUU logic, at 200 Level, these students join the league of children of the poor who pay just about N25,000 as school fees.
What the first generation universities need to run their institutions like ABUAD is federal grant which by the way should be extended to all state owned public institutions. And without the federal government and ASUU meddlesomeness, University of Lagos will not need more than a third of the current non-academic staff forced on it as a result of what Prof Temitope Alonge, the immediate past Chief Medical Director, University of Ibadan College Hospital (UCH), during ABUAD’s 7th convocation lecture entitled: ‘The Pearl in the Pack’ describes as “over bureaucratization of universities setting by the political elite which have reduced virtually all public universities to critical outposts for building political clients and extending tentacles”.
THERE was a glade in the bed of the crater where Bisi Sopeju broke her jaw and twisted her ankle on Adetola road, Ijaiye- Ojokoro, Lagos.
Few minutes after she nosedived into sludge and got buried in road filth, Sopeju was hauled out of the puddle, off the path of a Volkswagen LT 35 commercial bus as it skidded towards her along the deathly course of the Adetola bypass.
“The motorbike conveying me was bumped from behind by the commercial bus driver who had lost control on the dirt road. I screamed at my driver (motorcyclist) to get off his path but like me, he was paralysed by fear.
The bus hit us and at impact, I was flung off the bike and buried face-down in the flooded crater,” said Sopeju.
For a few minutes, Sopeju was “lifeless”, but when she came to, her jaw was broken, her ankle was swollen and her weave had tangled with moss and tufts of grass.
That was in November 2018. It’s 2019, and that dangerous tract along the dirt road blooms in real time. Call it an everglade if you like.
It’s a misnomer, no doubt, that a glade could sprout in the middle of the road in Lagos, Nigeria’s presumed “Centre of Excellence.” That has to be scary. It is.
Sopeju could neither walk nor eat solid meals for three weeks or thereabouts after her accident. She developed a phobia for motorcycles and bypasses and was forced to join millions of commuters as they “roast in the heat and the sun” or “soak in the dampness and leakage” of rickety buses plying Lagos’ bad roads through scorching sunlight and torrential downpours.
Speaking from her Akera neighbourhood, Sopeju said: “Travelling on Lagos roads is akin to taking a mud bath. You also get the feeling you might be journeying into untimely death. It’s like riding in a tomb. I lost my childhood friend three years ago. A steel container fell off an articulated truck and crushed him to death with two of his colleagues who were in the car with him. They were returning from the office. That is why I prefer travelling on an okada (commercial motorbike),” she said.
Like Sopeju, Francis Usoro bemoaned the “dangerous state of Lagos and Ogun roads.” The staff of a Lagos-based firm lives in Akute, amid a dusty expanse shouldering Ogun from the Lagos border.
For most of Usoro’s 46 years, he has lived on an unpaved strip of road in Akute on a street that has no drainage. During dry season, he travels the length and breadth of his street and adjoining dirt roads, with a nasal mask and a thick handkerchief.
“I also avoid wearing white or bright coloured clothes. The few times I tried it, I was covered in dust and read earth before I got to the bus stop. The roads in my area are very dusty and rough,” he said. In the rainy season, Itoro navigates the craters of sludge and mud in a rubber boot rather than ruin his shoes in ankledeep slush. He narrated how taxis and buses avoid his neighbourhood’s dirt roads to pick up passengers, even during medical emergencies. “A neighbour of mine lost his wife while she laboured. It was hell getting her to the bus stop.
When we finally got her to the bus stop, she died struggling with birth pangs in the traffic,” he said. “Only motorcycles and tricycles can venture into our area. It’s terrible if you have to change apartments.
You have to plead and plead with haulage drivers to venture into your road even after you cough up a fortune to contract them. Some simply move their belongings on foot and in tricycles to the bus stop from where they are loaded on to a truck. It’s never a tidy process,” Usoro lamented. Sopeju and Usoro represent a minute fraction of Lagos and Ogun residents imperilled by a nexus of bad roads and bypasses.
Despite successive attempts at road repairs, the situation persists as residents of the two states are forced to travel and live in horrendous conditions imposed by lack of functional drainage channels and good roads.
The Lagos-Ogun conundrum DESPITE its official claim to the “Centre of Excellence” moniker, one iconic symbol of Lagos rural poverty has been the city’s dirt roads. Despite decades of paving over these back roads in the name of progress, many are still dusty washboard surfaces. Many Lagosians, irrespective of their location, attest to the prevalence and horridness of Lagos’ dirt roads.
•Residents and commuters suffer through potholes on Lagos highways and inner city dirt roads.
Wale Alani, a resident of Ajah, argued that contrary to notions that the Lagos Island is home to beautiful road tarmacs and esplanades, the area is rapidly turning into a slum. “Save for a few private estates in Lekki and Victoria Island, this area is a glorified shanty settlement.
The roads are very bad. There are no drainage channels, thus we have to live with lingering stench and frequent bouts of septic tank spillage. “The town planning here is horrid. Many of the streets are dirt roads. Some of us park on the main road when it rains, pour streets get flooded for lack of drainages. We also have to avoid the quicksand and sludge that prevents our tyres from moving even in small residential clusters. I am seriously considering moving back to Agbado-Ijaiye, save the bad roads there, at least, the residents enjoy better urban planning,” he said.
While Alani moved to Ajah to assert his ascent the social ladder and stay closer to his workplace, many residents on the mainland have seen their lives drastically change, no thanks to bad roads. Sayo Lawal, for instance, missed what he considered a life-changing job interview due to the state’s bad road network. “I left home very early on the said day in order to beat traffic. The interview was slated for 11 am and I left my home in Magboro at 4.30 am. Sadly, I spent six hours in the traffic between my area and Lekki, where I was supposed to attend the interview.
They gave me no other chance,” he said. “Fortunately,” for the 32-year-old, he has found a “good job importing cars via a business arrangement with his cousin in the United States. It’s better. I do not have to worry about beating traffic to arrive at someone’s office. The only time I have to worry about that is when I have to visit the Apapa port to clear my vehicles,” he said. He said: “I almost gave up when I missed the interview but I have learnt that when there is life, there is hope.”
At least, Lawal enjoys the rare boon of a life filled with hope, the same can hardly be said of Kingsley Ejike, a resident of Magboro, who was swept away by flood resulting from a recent downpour. Ejike, a cooking gas supplier, drowned in a flood around Sparklight Estate axis of the Lagos-Ibadan highway in Ogun State.
The deceased owner of Kingsfield Gas at Magboro reportedly drowned on a trip to supply gas to some residents of Sparklight Estate, near the MFM church around 6.00 pm. Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), who confirmed the incident, said, “The person (Ejike) was riding a motorcycle and wanted to pass through Sparklight Estate, but didn’t know that the construction company, Julius Berger, while constructing the road, channelled water under the tunnel in the area. But because the area was flooded, he drove past the axis and the flood swept him and the motorcycle into the tunnel.
But local divers and the police recovered his body this morning around 9.30am and deposited it in the mortuary.” Then, there is the sad case of an unidentified 11-year-old boy who got swept away by flood along with one Wasiu, who was trying to rescue him, at Aboru in Alimosho Local Government Area of the state few days ago, in the aftermath of a down pour.
The deceased was one of two young boys who were reportedly sent by their parents to buy cooking gas but unknowingly fell into a drain through which water passed into the canal. “Three young men attempted rescuing the boys and succeeded in rescuing the older one, but one of the rescuers, popularly known as Wasiu Stubborn, was swept away while trying to rescue the other victim,” NAN quoted a source as saying. Lagos would also never forget in a hurry the tragic fate of the 12 casualties who got burnt to death in the June 28, 2018 petrol tanker explosion on the Otedola Link Bridge, on the Lagos- Ibadan highway.
According to the Lagos State government, 10 of the victims, including a minor, died at the scene of the accident, while two others died at the hospital. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) also announced that at least 54 vehicles were burnt with the tanker. Nevertheless, a number of eyewitnesses, nearby residents and public believe that the reports on the economic loss and casualties are distorted by government and media When flood kills THERE is no gainsaying incessant rain in Lagos and Ogun states in the past one week has wreaked havoc and exposed infrastructural deficit in the two neighbouring states. While commuters suffer excruciating spells in vehicular traffic, wasting precious hours on cratered and badly flooded roads, flooding, a consequence of non-existent and non-functional drainage channels and bad roads, have claimed lives and destroyed homes and property in the downpour.
For instance, the downpour on Saturday, killed Jumiah Utache and her three children, Faith (9 years), Domino (2) and Daniel (1) in Magodo area of Lagos. The Utaches died after a hilltop structure crashed on their home at 48, Orisa Street, Magodo Phase One, Isheri Waterfront, during the downpour. Neighbours said the hilltop structure on Otun Araromi Street collapsed and fell on the Utache family residence, crushing the woman and her children who were asleep. The head of the family, identified as Emmanuel Utache, was also injured in the mishap. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Dr. Femi Oke-Osayintolu confirmed the incidents. He said the agency had recommended full implementation of the existing law on collapsed building in the state which included seizure of the affected property.
He said: “Investigations revealed that aside the heavy downpour, the obviously old building constructed with mud bricks, had been seriously distressed over time with visible cracks on its other yet-to-collapse sides. “In order to avert danger to adjoining buildings and other users of the environment, LASEMA has recommended strongly that its remains be pulled down, the debris removed and the property forfeited to the Lagos State Government as stipulated by law.” Perilous traffic THE tragedy persists outside the bloodied neighbourhoods of Magodo and Alimosho as commercial transporters crush commuters to death, driving against the traffic to escape heavier snarl-up along their legitimate routes.
In May 2019, a trailer driver crushed an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Folashade Remilekun Arogundade, to death. The accident occurred on a Saturday in Apapa, around 5pm, when the deceased joined her colleagues and other agencies’ officials to clear the area of trucks and tankers, in a the wake of a presidential directive for the immediate clearance of Apapa Port to decongest the area and rid Apapa roads of gridlock. The trailer driver, it was learnt, accidentally hit Arogundade while reversing, dragging her back and forth against a wall and crushed her. The driver, The Nation learnt, ran away immediately he discovered that he had killed the LASTMA official. Subsequently, Arogundade was taken to the General Hospital, Apapa, by her colleagues. There, the doctor said she was “Brought in Dead” (BID).
The deceased left behind her mother, husband and two-year-old daughter. Due to bad roads, transporters hike bus fares with impunity not minding the impact on the purses of helpless commuters. A trip from NITEL Bus Stop in Agege to Abule Egba would cost N50 in a tricycle but since the rains, drivers charge as much as N200 citing bad roads and traffic. The bus fare from Oshodi to Sango is hiked from N300 to N800 by transporters leaving many passengers stranded through the night. Many of them cite traffic and bad roads, lamented Ifeanyi Dike, a steel fabricator. “But the high fares are not only the issue, travelling through bad roads and heavy traffic is bad on one’s health. I develop cramps just sitting for long hours in the bus.
The exhaust fumes from badly serviced cars make me sick too. I once had to hop off a bus bound for Obalende when I got nauseous and needed to vomit. “I feel sick from the fumes; hence when I have the money, I board okada, even in the rain,” said Dike. Living and cruising ondirt roads RESIDENTS and commuters passing through Ipaja-Ayobo, Agbado Kollington, Dalemo, Akera, Ijaye- Jankara, continually lament the deplorable state of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway linking their inner dirt roads. The Nation findings in the axis re- vealed dangerous gullies in Adetola, Olaniyi, Agbado-Crossing and other bypasses and streets spanning Abule-Egba, Ahmadiyya, Meiran, Ipaja and Ajasa- Command. The roads linking Ayobo with Itele, Iju-Ishaga, Ajuwon-Akute, Ojodu and Ajegunle, bordering Ogun State, are also pockmarked by gullies and potholes. And yet around the corner, at the point where the Lagos dirt havens mesh with Ogun State a different kind of ugliness subsists in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode, and several other communities along Itele road.
The roads are equally bad in Owode- Ota, Owode-Ijako, Agoro, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ijoko, Oju Ore, Ilo-Awela and Oke Aro. At Joju, Temidire and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in large craters even as chuckholes devastate Alagbole and Ajuwon roads thus making travel and habitation very difficult in the areas. “Because the roads in this area are broken at many places, there is no smooth ride for the motorists.
The buses, trucks, cars, three-wheelers and motorcycle have to halt after every fivesix minutes just to adjust with the road breaks and pot-holes all over. It has been repeatedly brought to the notice of the Local Government Office, but all efforts to get them to do something has been in vain, thus leading to using incessant traffic problem on the roads,” according to Adeogun Kafayat, a resident and commuter in the area. Residents of Abule-Iroko, Itoki and neighbouring border communities sharing borders with Lagos in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Council, Ogun State, are also afflicted road gullies and craters.
The road leading from Ajegunle to the Bible College junction, beside the moribund Gateway Hotel, Sango-Ota, and which ends at the new Railway terminus on Ijoko road, along the Ota-Ijoko- Alagbole Akute highway linking Berger on the Lagos-Ibadan highway, forces motorists to affect caution in dry season and is practically impassable when it rains, according to The Nation findings. Lagos and Ogun governors react OGUN governor, Dapo Abiodun, has assured the people of Ota, in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area that roads within the local government connecting the state with neighbouring states would be repaired to make room for connectivity and mobility within and outside the state.
Governor Abiodun who made this known while inspecting some roads in the local government that share close proximity with Lagos, said that the visit was in line with the campaign promises he made to lay emphasis on rural and township roads. “We appreciate the fact that one of the biggest advantages that we have is that we are able to provide services for neighbouring states, particularly Lagos State. A lot of people want to live in Ogun and work in Lagos and we promised that we are going to ensure that we do that so that our people can move between Lagos and Ogun with relative ease.
“So for us, connectivity and mobility is very important. We are starting with the connecting roads that connect us with Lagos state, and we have seen three of those critical roads,” he said. And at the backdrop of outrage over the deplorable state of Lagos roads, the state governor, Sanwo-Olu, has declared a state of emergency on dilapidated highways and carriage roads within the state. Governor Sanwo-Olu, who inherited the bulk of the near road collapse, gave the order that massive rehabilitation work on critical roads across the state must commence on Monday, October 14. Sanwo-Olu’s directive followed the conclusion of his series of meetings with eight multi-national engineering firms in respect of the road rehabilitation initiative. He said: “The contractors have been given the mandate to start mobilising to their respective sites without further delay.
Their activities must first give our people an immediate relief on the affected roads so that there can be free flow of traffic even during the rehabilitation work.” To complement the major construction work on the highways, Sanwo-Olu said Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) would be carrying out repairs of 116 inner roads across the State, in addition to over 200 roads already rehabilitated by the Corporation in the last three months.
Despite the governors’ spirited efforts, many residents of the two states are yet to benefit from their much hyped rehabilitation projects. Residents and commuters along the dirt roads of Owode-Ijako, Agoro Road, Iyaba Ilogbo, Ogba Ayo, Itele, Lafenwa, Ijoko, Bible College, Toll gate-Ilo Awela, Joju, Temidire among others still commute and live in dire circumstances as the areas are yet to benefit from Ogun governor, Abiodun’s rehabilitation scheme. Likewise, residents of the Adetola bypass in Ijaiye-Ojokoro and environs, Olaniyi in Abule Egba, Dalemo-Akera, Agbado Kollington, Agbado Crossing, Giwa, Oja Oba in Abule Egba, Moricas, Olukosi, Super, Orile, Mulero and Iju roads in Agege, Oshodi, Ibeju-Lekki, among others are yet to enjoy the reprieve of smooth roads and functioning drainages among other infrastructural improvements promised by Governor Sanwo-Olu.
“Let’s hope they (government) won’t come to fill our potholes with sharp sand, cement and gravel as they are wont to do. It has become the norm for the so-called task force to come around in the wake of the governor’s promises to fill gullies and craters on our roads with sand. That is a half measure that never works,” said Kola Bamidele, a retired civil servant and resident of Danjuma, Agege. Bad roads cost Nigeria N1trn – Senate DUE to poor state of the roads across the 36 states, Nigeria loses ₦1 trillion every year, according to the Nigerian Senate.
•Motorists drive through flood on Iju Road, Agege, after a downpour on Monday
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) also calculated the number of hours people loss annually in cost, when they are being delayed on the road because of traffic and bad roads, putting it at ₦1.02 trillion. Senate Committee Chairman of FERMA, Senator Gershom Bassey, revealed this at stakeholders meeting on road maintenance put together by the agency. He said: “I think the first thing is to obey the law.
Clearly, there is a FERMA Act and the key issue in road maintenance is funding. This issue was addressed in 2008 in the amendment of the FERMA Act, which provided for additional sources of funding for road maintenance. “But the problem we have now is that, that law has not been obeyed by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, as it is supposed to ensure that a portion of the tax on petrol and diesel is credited to FERMA for the maintenance of roads.”
The Senate believes that enacting prescribed laws would be of immersed help in the maintenance of Nigerian roads Tunde Lemo, Chairman of FERMA’s Governing Board, stated that the capital for the maintenance of roads across the states was less than 1% of Nigerian’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said it was less than three per cent of the GDP World Bank recommends as the least spending limit. Lemo added that more than 80 per cent of the trips made in Nigeria are by road, and 90 per cent of the travels are on Federal interstate roads. He went further to point out that the Federal roads in good condition are just 10, 0000 km while fair and bad roads are 13,300km and 11,600km respectively. According to him, it’s the reason why road density in the country is just 0.21 km/sq.km2. Photos: Olatunji OLOLADE & Biodun ADEYEWA
DELE Agekameh’s demise offers a glimpse of the Nigerian spectacle. Alive, the veteran journalist made living theatre of his turbulent world. He wrote of angels and monsters in private life and public service. He wrote of winners and sinners, bandits and law enforcers. He wrote of the criminal and the corrupt in epic narratives; it was always a delight to read his Tell Magazine Cover Stories.
“Bullets na groundnut for east” particularly comes to mind perhaps because he graciously shared byline with me in the cover story in twilight of the year, 2000.
Those of us who were opportune to work with him in the glory days of the foremost news magazine at Textile Labour House, Acme Road, attest to his resourcefulness, humaneness and astounding generosity.
But while generosity is often touted as a life-saver, and crusader journalism, the seed by which the journalist reaps bountifully from the universe’s orchard of recompense, for Agekameh, it offered too little rewards save some fortune and media merit awards.
At the time he needed recompense, fate denied him quittance. Did the universe fall asleep leaving him at the mercy of life’s cruel elements? Why shove him to the cruelty of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH)’s medical personnel, the state’s terrible roads, atrocious traffic and maladroit leadership?
For Agekameh, there was no reprieve between life and death; the grim reaper leapt through crevices of abstract dread into fatal visibility, killing him. Nobody knows what went through his mind as he breathed his last.
Was he oblivious to the irony of his fatal demise in Lagos, where he diligently served and established his practice? Did he flinch knowing that he was dying at the entrance to a tertiary hospital supposedly teeming with life-savers and caregivers?
His first son, Fabian, a lawyer, told Premium Times (PT) that his father was another victim of Nigeria’s dysfunctional health system.
Having discovered his kidney problem in 2010, Agekameh managed his health condition going to India in 2012 for a successful surgery to remove kidney stones. “However, he was advised that he might need a kidney transplant as a lasting solution,” said Fabian.
Later in 2012, Agekameh began dialysis, “which he did at least two times a week and three times when he could manage it. That routine became part of his life until he passed away by 9:05 pm on Friday, October 11.”
“On the morning of Friday the 11th, he proceeded to Kidney Solutions, off Adeniyi Jones in Ikeja as usual, but there was difficulty hooking him up to the dialysis machines again. A surgeon from Lagos University Teaching Hospital performed what was considered a minor procedure at the dialysis centre before he advised that dialysis must still take place. About one hour into the session, he became too weak and medication was administered, but his blood pressure remained low.
“According to his assistant who was with him, around 5 pm, the decision was taken to transfer him to a bigger hospital. Several calls were made for an ambulance to no avail until they decided to hook him up to oxygen and transport him with his personal car. After fighting traffic to get to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), there was another issue getting him into the emergency ward, as nurses who were finishing their shift refused to attend to him, based on the account of those with him.
“They reportedly claimed that the doctor that could attend to him was busy and they should wait. He was still in his personal car, clinging to life when a doctor went out there to pronounce him dead.
“His driver and personal assistant insist he was still responsive after their arrival at LASUTH. He has been deposited at LASUTH morgue awaiting an autopsy,” according to the Premium Times report.
No doubt, Agekameh’s sad end mirrors the ugliness of Nigeria’s health sector and the grotesqueness of LASUTH’s healthcare.
To LASUTH’s nurses, his gaunt frame was uninviting. He became to them, what the average citizen seems to the Lagos government, a negligible integer in the state and the hospital’s records of citizenry deaths.
Some commentator chose to mock those saddened by Agekameh’s death, stating that the real tragedy in his demise is the dearth of investigative journalism.
He is wrong. Investigative journalism is still very much in existence in Nigeria. It’s just not the forte of every journalist as neurosurgery is never the forte of every medical doctor.
Need I emphasise that not every lecturer can function as a super tutor cum visionary academic, and not every cop becomes a super detective.
Every profession has its vast array of middling practitioners and a few excellent breed. The latter constitutes the rarity that enriches our world by their scarce endowments.
It is ironic that PT published recently, “Why Lagos govt’s N5.6bn cardio-renal centre remains grounded, in terrible state” thus highlighting the factors responsible for the untimely demise of several Agekamehs across the state and Nigeria as a whole.
The commentator’s claim that the deceased was “too close to certain politicians” isn’t enough to dismiss the value he added to journalism; he was an excellent traditional native.
Investigative journalism is not dead in the country. Nigeria is blessed with the likes of Isioma Madike, Emmanuel Mayah, Adekunle Yusuf, Seun Akioye, Kunle Akinrinade, Fisayo Soyombo, Innocent Duru, Hannah Ojo, Oladeinde Olawoyin among others. Wherever they ply their art, they would always be revered as great ambassadors of Nigerian journalism as Agekameh was.
Agekameh’s death also imparts great lessons to journalists and editors across the country. If several news organisations would report uncompromisingly, policy failure, ailing health facilities, bad roads, corruption in the civil service among others, more lives could be saved and Nigeria would be better for it.
It’s always pitiful to see an editor or publisher condemn and “kill” a well-researched news report, simply because it “might offend” his “associates,” “clients” or “benefactors” in public office and private business sector. Such editor or reporter might be digging his own grave.
Agekameh, in his prime, was an award-winning journalist who at various times worked for Champion Newspaper, Newswatch Magazine and Tell Magazine. As the quaint outline of his life ebbed and he fell helplessly silent, what memories assailed him?
As death teased him gently into the proverbial long night, did he assert feeble will to contend the plague of truth that he was dying and would never, ever come back?
Did he “like a man,” stoically accept, the reality of his tired ardour and the impermanence of mortality as life fled him, weary and undone?
What were his thoughts as he frailly submitted to be hooked to oxygen in his personal vehicle, lacking essential health facilities because he could get no ambulance. Was he saddened by his disgraceful and shabby treatment by Lagos health workers at the threshold of death?
And to those who would speak ill of the dead, they forget that death’s circuitous dice is still rolling. Let’s hope it doesn’t catch up with you while you struggle through heavy traffic, on Lagos’ treacherous roads en route LASUTH’s hospital corridors of death.
Until the biggest masquerade dances the festival is not over. This is how the Yoruba people defer to people on account of age and experience. Americans say the show is not over until the fat lady sings. Anybody familiar with American night clubs will be familiar with fat ladies singing jazz in dimly lit club houses. Apparently when the show is about to end is when the best act is put on in the person of the best singer who is invariably a fat lady as a result of too much booze. I have been reading the many eulogies paid to General Alani Akinrinade, most of them by younger colleagues in the press and some by his military and political associates. Most of them have been excellent and well deserved.
I want to join others in singing the praise of this deep and profoundly thoughtful General by mentioning a few instances of my observation of him.
I first met him when he was a captain in the army in the house of a mutual friend Kehinde Alade. Kehinde joined the saints triumphant rather early in life. I met the then Captain Akinrinade, I believe in 1963 or 1964. I was in my first year in the University of Ibadan. In those days young students of the University of Ibadan always drifted to Lagos on weekends. Kehinde Alade lived in a house in Oyewunmi Close in Surulere. The place was full of mosquitoes. Right from about 6 p.m. Kehinde and I will sit on his bed with the mosquito net drawn down and gist for as long as possible before dozing off to sleep. Even with the mosquito net down, the crazy mosquitoes would still try to inject their poison into one’s body if it was near the net. It was in these circumstances that Captain Akinrinade would pop in and ask Kehinde to follow him to one party or the other. I never for once went out with them probably because I was too much of an Ibadan man and not a “Lagos lizard” as the Yoruba will say. Kehinde Alade was a younger brother to the famous architect Fola Alade who designed most of the famous architectural landmarks in Nigeria including the federal secretariat, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, military barracks to house the multitudes of soldiers after the Nigerian civil war. Chief Fola Alade, now very old, was my brother Kayode Osuntokun’s friend and our two families, that is, the Alades and the Osuntokuns became one. Around the time I am writing about, I had a brother, Captain Edward Abiodun Osuntokun of the NAEME (Nigerian Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) living in Ann Barack’s but I preferred to stay with Kehinde to enjoy absolute freedom. Unfortunately my army officer brother died prematurely due to botched appendix operation by apparently unqualified Pakistani army doctors on secondment to the Nigerian Army. This was a painful period for our family. This brought me closer to the Nigerian Army particularly to the then Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo, who though senior to my brother, was his close friend.
We did not know that the army would ever take over the government of the country. The army however struck in January 1966 when Alani Akinrinade was a Major. The killings of political leaders also decimated the higher echelons of the army in the persons of Brigadier Adesujo Ademulegun, Brigadier Zakiriyau Maimalari, Colonel Ralph Shodehinde, Lt-colonel Abogo Largema, Col. Kur Muhammad, Lt-colonel James Pam, Lt-colonel Arthur Unegbe and in the counter coup of July 1966, Major-General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi and Lieutenant-colonel Adekunle Fajuyi were killed; several Igbo officers who could not escape to the East fell to rebellious troops. Colonel Adebayo was out of the country on a course in England and Brigadier Olufemi Ogundipe the next man to Ironsi was rendered hors de combat after northern troops refused to obey his command.
At the time the civil war broke out, the number of Yoruba officers in the army could be counted in tens. The situation was worse in the number of troops or fighting men. The officer class was dominated by Igbo and Hausa/ Fulani and Kanuris. This was because the civilian government formed in 1954 in which the mainly Igbo NCNC and the NPC formed a coalition government deliberately pressed many young Igbo and Hausa boys from secondary schools in their region into the officer corps of the Nigerian army. I have a feeling that Akinrinade would not have joined the army if he had not gone to Offa Grammar School in the North. When the war broke out, the three divisions facing the rebellion in Biafra were commanded by Colonel Muhammad Shuwa in the northern operational area, Colonel Murtala Muhammad in the western sector and Colonel Benjamin Adekunle in the south. Major Akinrinade was one of the battalion commanders that swept the Biafran troops out of the Midwest. His opposition to repeated disastrous attempts to make a frontal attack on the concentrated Biafran troops in Onitsha from Asaba got him into trouble with Colonel Murtala Muhammad and he had to be deployed to Benjamin Adekunle’s Marine command division. This was the division hurriedly recruited and largely trained in action but bore the brunt of the fight against the Biafrans. Akinrinade and colleagues fought bravely under the mercurial but absolutely brilliant and fearless Adekunle until exhaustion set in and Adekunle had to be replaced by Col. Olusegun Obasanjo who finally received the surrender of the Biafran forces. From all indications by his colleagues, Akinrinade was an extraordinarily brilliant soldier.
After the civil war, he rose rapidly and never participated in any putsch until he left the army as a Lieutenant General at the age of 42. He had served as G.O.C 1st division of the army which in conventionally regarded as the teeth of the army. He rose to the position of Chief of Army Staff and became the first Chief of Defence Staff under the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. He left prematurely because he felt he was not trusted and he apparently did not like being kicked upwards from his position as Chief of Army Staff to Chief of Defence Staff apparently because of ethnic and religious reasons. From all colleagues of Akinrinade spoken to by this writer, they all said he is the best army officer the country has ever produced. It will be interesting to find out what his teachers at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst England thought of young Akinrinade.
Since leaving the military, Akinrinade served as minister of agriculture in the Babangida regime leaving when the ovation was loudest and when he felt he couldn’t remain in the government because of the way events were unfolding. I remember the late Navy Captain Michael Akhigbe dragging me and Brigadier Ola Oni to Akinrinade’s house in Ikoyi to prevail on him to support deregulation of the cocoa trade and abolishing the cocoa board. The cocoa board had been set up by the colonial government to guarantee cocoa price for the farmer. When there was a boom in price the excess was saved against a future when there was a collapse in cocoa price. Because of the money held by the board, the cocoa price to the farmer continued to be maintained without the farmers suffering sudden reduction in income. Michael Akhigbe as governor of the then cocoa-producing Ondo State felt the board had no place in a deregulated economy. Apparently Akinrinade felt otherwise. We followed Akhigbe, our well-meaning governor and a personal friend of mine to remonstrate with Akinrinade knowing if he was persuaded, he will influence Babangida who held him in great respect.
The upshot of the story was that the cocoa board was dissolved.
I also remembered a much larger delegation Akhigbe arranged for us to tell Babangida that Ondo State was not happy for having nobody in his government. Babangida had apparently told Akhigbe he was going to appoint an elderly retired civil servant from the west as Secretary to his government. Akhigbe said that was not what Ondo deserved. Eventually Babangida appointed Olu Falae to the satisfaction of everyone involved. May God bless Michael Akhigbe’s soul. Whatever he did, he committed all his energy and courage.
General Akinrinade‘s courage came to the fore when Babangida left the stage and his Khalifa Sani Abacha took over. In spite of the danger of being in opposition to Abacha, Akinrinade became a rallying point of the opposition particularly of the Yoruba to Abacha after Moshood Abiola was denied the presidency which he had clearly won. Akinrinade supported Abiola not because of ethnic solidarity but out of principle that the vote of the people should decide who to rule them. He suffered for his belief and narrowly escaped being killed by assassins sent after him by Abacha. His house in Ikeja was fire-bombed and his farm in his home town of Yakoyo where he had invested his life savings and borrowed funds was destroyed. He escaped into exile in the United States and only returned after the military left the scene. Since 1999, he has not been satisfied with the quality of governance in the country. Even with Obasanjo in power, he felt the structure of government would militate against performance by anybody in government. He committed his resources, intellect and organizational ability along with Bolaji Akinyemi and others like myself in forming an all embracing “Agbajo Yoruba Agbaye” a world-wide non political group to protect the interest of the Yoruba in Nigeria. He got all the governors in Yoruba land to support it with funding. The whole thing was planned in detail. Anthem, flag, constitution etc were made but perhaps because of personality clash, we didn’t get very far after the first outing in Ibadan in which Justice Kayode Esho took the chair and gave words of encouragement. We got moral and financial encouragement from the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuade Olubushe 11. Perhaps it is the curse of the Yoruba to always split like paramecium. Alani Akinrinade is as beautiful inside as outside; one sometimes wonders what led this man who would have done well in a university setting into the Nigerian Army.
Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team was in the news again last week. He is back to haunt Malami, the minister of justice who in spite of the scandal surrounding his surreptitious attempt to smuggle fugitive offender Maina back into Ministry of Internal Affairs fortuitously retained his position in President Buhari’s new cabinet. Now let us take a journey through memory.
Maina had been accused of fraud by EFCC and indicted by both House and Senate probes but remained invincible. While he attended public functions with President Jonathan, protected by police escorts, the then Inspector General of Police told the two houses Maina could not be found. Maina finally sneaked out of the country in 2013 with allegation of mismanagement of over N24billion pension funds hanging on his neck. He was declared a fugitive offender while 29 assets worth N1b he allegedly owned were seized by EFCC.
If Maina had powerful friends in high places during Jonathan presidency, he has proved to be no less influential under the Buhari government of change. An attempt was made to smuggle him back into the Ministry of Internal Affairs with all his entitlements reinstated. Both Winifred Eyo-Ita, the then Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF) and Joseph Oluremi, the acting chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), confirmed sighting the AGF letter directing Maina be reinstated.
On October 24, 2017, the senate mandated its committees on public service, internal affairs, anti-corruption, establishment and judiciary to probe the circumstances of Maina’s return to the country and the public service. Mallami, the justice Minister through a case (FHC/ABJ/CS/1206/2017 went to court to seek an interim injunction restraining the National Assembly and its agents, from holding a hearing session on the reinstatement of Maina. Justice Binta Nyako of the federal high court in Abuja however struck out the ex parte motion on Monday, January 8, 2018. Reacting to the judgment, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, chairman 8th Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs had wondered why Malami rushed to court, “if he had no skeleton in his cupboard”.
But as it later turned out, Malami had visited fugitive offender Maina in his Dubai hide-out shortly before the surreptitious attempt to reintegrate him back into the bureaucracy. The minister claimed he got clearance from security agencies and National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno before his meeting, arranged through a third party with Maina in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) where he was availed of further information on recovery drive and individuals involved.
Parts of the gains of his secret visit he said include his findings that: “pension fraud was beyond Maina”, involving ‘a syndicate that cuts across all sectors, including serving and retired public officers, including members of the National Assembly, involved in cornering N3.7b monthly from pension funds.’ Other gains according to him include the discovery of “over 116,000 ghost workers responsible for N829m monthly spread across 29 bank accounts” and the fact that ‘Maina was part of the syndicate until things fell apart between them’.
Malami also told Senator Emmanuel Paulker’s committee and the Aliyu Madaki-led House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigative hearing on the disappearance, reinstatement and promotion of Maina that “about 270 properties comprising of real estate and motor vehicles one of which is a mansion worth N1 billion situated at No 42 Gang Street Maitama Abuja under the custody of the EFCC were shared among top officials of the commission, friends and family members.”. Concluding, Malami had said with reckless finality “These properties are under the custody of the EFCC. The properties as we speak have been shared among top officials of the commission, friends and family members, including lawyers of the agency.”
But EFCC challenged the minister’s claims stating very clearly that “All the pension fraud assets that are in the recovered assets inventory of the commission were products of independent investigation by the EFCC, for which Maina and his cohorts had no clues. If Maina or any government official witnessed the sharing of any recovered pension assets by any official of the EFCC, they should be willing to name the official, the assets involved; when and where the ‘sharing’ took place”. And questioning Malami’s competence, EFCC stated: “in view of the consistent display of public ignorance about the profile of recovered assets by even those who should know, it is important to state that it is impossible for anybody to share such assets”.
As the war of attrition between EFCC, NIA and DSS apparently encouraged by Malami took a new dimension with contradictory DSS reports that helped Saraki’s led 8th senate to reject the candidacy of Magu as EFCC substantive chairman, Maina again disappeared without trace. And unfortunately, so were the celebrated gains of Malami’s Dubai’s secret trip at taxpayers’ expenses. Although we have no reason to doubt Malami’s claim that the trip was in ‘the larger interest of Nigerians’, I am not sure Nigerians were told of the outcome of “investigation into the pension fraud in some key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA)”, his claim of “of over 116,000 ghost workers responsible for N829m monthly spread across 29 bank accounts” and his assertion that “‘Maina was part of the syndicate until things fell apart between them” , which he claimed his office began. Is the syndicate still in business?
Minister Malami now has an opportunity to answer all the intriguing questions and with last week’s Maina’s arrest along with his son in an Abuja hotel by the Department of Security Services (DSS) after allegedly sneaking to the country from his ‘secret hide-out’ in Dubai where it is on record, the minister once held a meeting with him. And since Malami can no longer feign ignorance as to where Maina was hiding all along, he might wish to tell concerned Nigerians why seeking international help to bring Maina to Nigeria to face justice was never an option.
To ensure Malami provides answers to these troubling questions, providence has ensured he was, against all expectations, re-appointed Minister of Justice. And now providence has also ensured it was while well-connected Maina was in the custody of DSS, that the Nigerien Government alerted Nigeria’s Federal Government of the strange discovery of about $1.7million cash in his Niamey home. And preliminary investigation by the NIA and the EFCC, we are told ‘suggests that Maina knows about it because the apartment in question used to serve as one of his hideouts in Niger Republic.’
Nigerians might also wish to know why Malami who as minister of justice exploited the same apparatus to locate Maina in Dubai and attempted to smuggle him back to the bureaucracy could not use the same to locate Maina’s other hide-out in neigbouring Niger Republic.
Failure to provide answers to these questions might force Nigerians to agree with Junaid Mohammed, who in a New Telegraph interview of October 26, 2017 admonished Nigerians not to ‘allow the Maina matter be swept under the carpet’ that Malami’s secret visit to Maina in Dubai was informed by a secret agenda and that the then minister of internal affairs, and the DSS as an organization, were openly complicit in the Maina affair”.
AISHA Buhari talks a good game. She projects random imagery as a fearless, mettlesome woman and First Lady, who speaks truth to power no matter whose ox is gored.
But that is as interesting as she gets. Who is Aisha Buhari beyond the politics and entertainment of her advertised image?
Whether she desires visibility or not, politics yokes her to the brute, inflexible cosmos of its performance theatre. The interpretations are hazy. Yet an understanding of her politics may shed light on her being.
Aisha’s recent remarks on the BBC’s sex for marks investigative report is in tandem with the inherited character of her ‘office’ as Nigeria’s First Lady.
At the report’s première, Aisha, represented by namesake, Aisha Rimi, lamented the sexual harassment of women in the society and stressed her readiness to assist victims to get justice but also have a safe space to speak out.
Mrs. Buhari advised women that their dignity and self respect should outweigh whatever challenges they face, stressing her determination to ensure “a sexual abuse free society for women” – and therein subsists the sore point of Aisha’s activism.
Like previous First Ladies, is Aisha Buhari frantic to protect her gender alone from societal abuse?
Few months ago, she lent her voice to outrage over Busola Dakolo’s rape allegations against Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA).
Dakolo alleged that Fatoyinbo raped her when she was a teenager fresh out of secondary school.
Aisha, like a humane woman, mother and wife made a public and emphatic call for justice.
It is disconcerting, however, to understand First Lady Aisha and her junior First Ladies’ silence while the General Overseer (G.O) of Jesus Intervention Household Ministry, Reverend Ezuma Chizemdere, evaded arrest for allegedly ‘raping’ 15 teenage boys in Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb .
One of his victims, 16-year-old Anthony Shedach, was discovered to have been infected with HIV in the process.
The pastor, who was eventually arrested months after the police issued a warrant for his arrest, allegedly lured teenage boys between 15 and 16 years old to his apartment , where he “penetrated” them through the anus. At the end of the act, he reportedly gave each of his victims N2000.
The teenage boys’ ordeal, undoubtedly, pales in significance to Busola Dakolo’s travails with Pastor Fatoyinbo, on First Lady Aisha and peers’ logic of reproachable vice.
What’s Aisha’s excuse? Lackeys and underlings in severe fits of sycophancy, refer to her as the mother of the nation. Is she? If she is, she would quit showing flashes of interest to here and now issues. She wouldn’t cherry-pick injustices and disasters to respond to.
As First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria, she would understand why she can’t afford the luxury of silence while “her children” nationwide, live at risk of rape, kidnap, human trafficking, sex trafficking and untimely death.
The northeast portends disaster at immense proportions. Earlier, Mrs. Buhari showed flashes of interest in the plight of the region’s vulnerable divide. She seems to have tired out. Is she bored of the anguish of thousands of war-orphaned minors, trafficked boys, girls, women and Boko Haram’s sexual captives, among others.
It’s been a long time since we’d had a compelling First Lady mythos. Optimists idealised Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s messiah while Aisha was presented as his humane, brilliant, ravishing side-kick. Aisha’s tirade in a BBC interview further endeared her to the citizenry as a gorgeous moralist, whose presence at the Presidential Villa would challenge hypocrisies and corruption of her ruling class.
In the interview, Aisha suggested that her husband’s government had been hijacked by only a “few people,” who were behind presidential appointments.
“If it continues like this, I’m not going to be part of any re-election movement,” she said.
Of course, some opposition figures claimed Aisha’s comment was scripted to earn Buhari empathy, on the flipside, Aisha triggered a compulsive optimism in her husband’s leadership.
Since antiquity, the wives of certain monarchs and presidents have played significant roles in the politics of their time. Aisha may yet emerge as a powerful force, using her office to improve the lot of the citizenry via progressive, gender-blind programmes.
To do this, First Lady Aisha and her junior ‘First Ladies’ must humanise the system that augments their roles via unconstitutional structures and independent instruments. They must avoid what Amina Mama identifies as Femocracy.
Femocracy, argues Mama, is an anti-democratic female power structure, which exploits the commitment of the local and international movement towards greater gender equality in the interests of a small female elite. Femocrats assume that they should have power simply because their husbands are in power thus reinforcing patriarchal failings.
The basic institutional framework for femocracy, argues Ibrahim Jibrin, is usually the office of the First Lady. From Maryam Babangida, Maryam Abacha, Stella Obasanjo, Turai Yar’ Adua, Patience Jonathan, to wives of the 36 state governors, Nigeria has endured spells of intrigues and highjinks via the “Office of the First Lady.”
Most projects emanating from the office are philosophically inadequate. They focus only on the female gender. More evolved occupants of their office would understand that they aren’t supposed to trigger or aggravate needless gender wars and privileges in a society already ravaged by savage forms of misogyny and misandry.
Aisha Buhari must wield her influence to reorientate her junior ‘First Ladies.’ For instance, she could teach them to understand that the Awaawa, One Million Boys and other gangs of teenage miscreants prowling the streets of Lagos, Borno, Ogun, Benue, Jos, Adamawa, Taraba, Kano, Kaduna among others, are as much their problem as the girl-child.
They should stop ignoring these social elements in plain sight simply because their husbands find “good use” of them, deploying them as thugs, assassins, arsonists and canon fodder for mayhem against opponents in election season.
It’s futile trying to raise empowered, emancipated, model girls and women only for them to be thwarted and imperilled by boys and men in whom toxicity was left to fester.
Nigeria’s First Ladies may serve the citizenry and country’s interest in more useful capacities.
But first, they must evolve a truly humane, pro-citizenry intervention programmes that addresses the challenges faced by all social elements.
When properly executed, a First Lady’s life, argues Scherer, unfolds with the precision of manned space-flight — a job exquisitely planned and breathtaking to watch.
If the Nigerian First Lady’s life were a manned space-flight, how glorious has been the ride?
Previous First Ladies were showy and arrogant. Their disdain for the grassroots woman whose interest they claim to pursue, is continually cited as evidence against the duplicity of their struggle.
Some became obscenely rich, using their positions to amass wealth, illegitimately. They are often misled by aides and friends, who tirelessly ornament their misbehaviour with honeyed tongue.
Let Aisha and peers remember that the loyalty-acrobatics of such lackeys are driven by lust to justify their pay-check and butter their loafs.
Èrò ní wón nínú oko` ó…(They are mere passengers in the bus). They will hop off at the crossroads, where the curtain falls on her husband’s tenure.
