The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Till murder do them part!

    MARRIAGE is a sacred institution ordained by God. According to the story of Creation in the Bible, God formed woman so that man would not be alone. The Almighty saw the need for man and woman to live together as one from the outset. He knew that the world will be a better place if peopled by men and women. This was why He created everything in twos. God knew what is good for His creatures, but the good that the Lord meant for us as humans, we have turned  to something evil.

    Little wonder God felt bad after creating man. The scripture says : “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart”. After creating man, God’s heart became heavy. He rued what to do to remedy the situation. Destroy man! But the Lord changed His mind because of one man – Noah.

    We are living today because of the grace bestowed on Noah by God. It would not have cost God anything to wipe off man and beast from the face of earth as He initially contemplated before He changed His mind. God desires the best for us. Among all His creatures we hold the pride of place as humans. ‘’It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him’’, God said.

    The Lord kept His word when He took one of the ribs of Adam and from it formed a woman. According to the scripture, ‘’and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh’’.

    God decreed marriage as a good thing for man and woman, but unfortunately, we have with our own hands turned it into a sour and bitter institution. What has become of us that we have turned such a sacred institution to what some today refer to as a curse. Marriage is not and will never be a curse. But can we really blame those who tend to see the institution as a curse? They formed that opinion because of some of the things they see happening in some marriages today. Marriages where the couples have become sworn enemies.

    Ironically, the couples swore to be the best of friends; to keep and cherish themselves, no matter the circumstance. Sadly, they have broken that vow of for better, for worse. This is what we see happening around us these days. Love birds have suddenly become worst enemies, devouring one another in a fit of anger. What will make a man turn on his woman or vice versa? Infidelity? Jealousy? Hatred? Insecurity? Inferiority complex? Hardship? Whatever it may be, there is no reason good enough for couples to turn on one another overnight. How does it look for men and women who once professed love to one another to suddenly be the same ones turning guns, knives, cutlasses, swords and related weapons against one another.

    When the beast in these couples seizes them, the result is often sorrow, tears and blood. In the past few months, we have heard of wives killing husbands or the other way round. Yet, they took the vow of “to have and to hold…for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”. The implication of this vow is that couples will stand by one another come rain, come shine. In times of adversity, they will be there for one another and in times of prosperity, they will enjoy together.

    Couples should be ready to face the good and hard times with equanimity. By sticking together, they can weather any storm. They can never achieve anything by killing themselves. What will a man gain from killing his wife or what will a woman gain from killing her husband? When this madness seizes couples, it does not know class, religion or region. We have seen lawyers killing their husbands; we have seen bankers killing their wives; we have seen businessmen killing their wives; we have seen the rich killing their wives and we have seen the poor killing their wives. It goes on and on like that.

    What is the cause of this problem? Some say it is a societal thing. What has society got to do with it? Were they not in the same society before they got married. The fact of the matter is that the couples probably did not study themselves well before getting married. The man did not know what the woman was capable of doing nor the woman know the kind of person she was getting betrothed to before they walked down the aisle.

    Marriage is not a bed of roses. It is a give and take institution. The secret is for either of the couple to be ready to give more than to receive. That way,  marriages will work and we will have less of these killings. The  “until death do us part” that ends the marital vow is a prayer for  couples to remain together until they become old and are called home by their Maker. It is not for couples  to kill themselves before their time.

     The pussycat metaphor

    BEYOND their magisterial air, judges are still human. They laugh and crack jokes like any one of us. Even in their courts, you cannot beat the sense of humour of some of them.  Many, especially first timers, hold the court in awe. This courtroom aura rubs off on judges who litigants and the audience treat larger than life. The court and its judge are inseparable. The court is the judge and the judge is the court. If the judge wishes to make the court conducive, all he needs to do is to enlighten up the atmosphere. Some judges know this too well and so they do everything to make laymen feel at home in their courts. I have never been to the court of Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but from what I have read about her in this paper, she is not one of those stuffy judges. She lets down her hair in the courtroom no matter how serious the matter at hand may be. Take what she did while delivering judgment in the case of Senator Joshua Dariye, former Plateau State governor, for instance.

    While reviewing the facts of the case, she recalled the trip by some Plateau elders to the United Kingdom (UK) to protest against Dariye’s impeachment and the emergency rule imposed on the state in 2004. The trip, she noted, was uncalled for since Nigeria is no longer a colony of Britain. Nigeria, she declared, “is a sovereign  state”. They know Milord, but they need to be reminded as you did so that this practice of condoning corruption by showing ‘solidarity’ with those mismanaging our commonwealth will stop. And there is no better way to put it than the way your Lordship did with the nursery rhyme: “Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been? I have been to London to see the Queen…” Yes, they went to London to see former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but what did they come back with? Nothing. They just wasted public funds on frivolity. Shouldn’t they be made to refund the money spent? I leave that to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

  • June 12: Confronting other injustices

    President Buhari’s immortalisation  of MKO Abiola, the hero of the democracy we today enjoy is evidence enough that the labour of other warriors of democracy such as Pa Alfred Rewane (assassinated Oct 6, 1996) Pa Adekunle Ajasin, Tony Enahoro, Gani Fawehinmi, Frederick Fasehun, Balarabe Musa  Ayo Adebanjo, Bola Tinubu, Abraham Adesanya, Ibrahim Tahir, Wole Soyinka, Kayode Fayemi, Femi Falana, Bolaji Akinyemi, Frank Kokori, Ayo Opadokun (five years in detention). Ebitu Ukiwe, Ndubuisi Kanu, Arthur Nwankwo, Olisa Agbakoba etc and many others killed by soldiers have not been in vain. But as a nation haunted by a spectre of injustice since independence, President Buhari’s courageous effort is only one big step towards confronting our past. For us to succeed in the task of nation-building, we must first deal with our past demons since we only ignore history at our own peril.

    I suspect it was in the spirit of this that Professor Wole Soyinka, an elders statesman had during the investiture of conferment of a post-humous award on MKO Abiola last Tuesday, June 12, suggested the inauguration of   “our Hall of Shame, so that as we have our Hall of Heroes, on the one hand, we can also have our Hall of Shame as a lesson to the future generation.”

    This, in my view is important for two reasons. First, today’s ‘new breed’ politicians, robbed of any form of political socialisation, know nothing beyond the culture of impunity and opportunism of the military that bred them. That probably explains why, like soldiers of fortune, they have in the last 18 years treated Nigeria like a conquered territory, looting her resources and confiscating priceless and landmark properties they were expected to hold in trust for our children. About 18 of the 24 governors elected on the platform of PDP between 1999 and 2003 have been indicted or are still in court trying to defend their honour. It was an era when a newly elected Senate President blazingly announced to the public that he and his fellow senators who sold houses to contest elections had no apologies for trying to recoup their investments. It was an era our ruling political elite set up institutions and creatively put together government policy thrusts designed to shortchange the public.

    Secondly, with the ‘new breed’ politicians as the only known role models, our youths seem to have come to believe that it is not only possible to reap where they did not sow, but also that they don’t have to make a distinction between actions that are morally right or wrong because the end justifies the means. Indeed, treachery and opportunism are regarded as real politic. A senator who has never done any meaningful work after graduating from the university but clogged his Abuja mansion with all type of exotic cars attributed the source of his wealth to God when confronted by a journalist not too long ago. Unfortunately, youths that have been falling over each other to give him awards are also miracle seekers. A hall of honour and a hall of shame will not only assist our children to know where the rain started beating them, but also to make a distinction between our visionary leaders who as self-made individuals never asked for what Nigeria could do for them but went ahead to lay a foundation for a more egalitarian society and those who today steal state resources to build private empires.

    But the search for justice, the theme of Buhari’s speech during the commemoration and investiture, marking the formal official federal government recognition of June 12 as national Democracy Day he had described as a gesture to “assuage our feelings; recognize that a wrong has been committed and resolve Nigerians would no longer tolerate such perversion of justice” goes beyond building of monument for the saints and the villains. This is because election is only one of many other divisive issues of Nigerian politics and the annulment of MKO Abiola’s victory purportedly on behalf of those who view Nigeria as a conquered territory was but only one of many injustices that have continued to impede our efforts at nation-building since independence. For instance the handling of Census head-count, resource control and religious crises especially in the north by successive past leaders who are mainly of northern extraction since the end of the civil war, has continued to fuel the feeling of injustice among the federating states.

    Similarly, instability and crisis of legitimacy that have come to define successive military regimes and civilian administrations since the beginning of the second republic are closely linked to disenchantment of restive groups. They see injustice in the way resources of their states are being deployed to build bridges over land in Abuja and elsewhere in the country while they that need bridges over rivers and swampy land spend as much as seven hours on a journey that would have ordinarily taken less than one hour. This is besides the pollution of their environment especially farmlands and rivers, sources of their subsistence living. But it has not always been like this. Our founding fathers who placed much value of justice and fair play had settled for a revenue formula based on derivation.  The current unjust arrangement was the result of conspiracy of the military, their ‘new breed’ politicians especially those from the dominant ethnic groups-Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba.

    Many have also come to see census headcounts as sources of injustice in the country. Nigeria, where semi-arid north boasts of higher population than the mangrove south seem to have defied all demographic laws which often attribute higher population growth to the mangrove tropics than the semi-arid regions. For instance, Kano State in the north was said to have overshot  Lagos State, “arguably the most economically important state of the country, containing the nation’s largest urban area, a major financial centre and  the fifth largest economy in Africa” by a few thousands during the 2006 census exercise. Even after Jigawa State had been carved lout of old Kano State, the new Kano State is said to be more populated than Lagos. Most Nigerians especially Lagosians see such crooked logic as nothing but political corruption to justify 77 arbitrarily created Local Government Areas for Kano and Jigawa that receive monthly allocation from the federation account while Lagos that makes more contribution to the federation account than the two states combined, has only 20 LGAs. An attempt to create more LGAs for even development by Lagos led to the illegal seizure of federal allocation to her 20 LGAs for over a year by Obasanjo’s federal government.

    Religious intolerance especially in the predominantly Muslim north where Christians are sometimes denied the land to erect their own churches   is also considered a source of injustice. As victims of cultural imperialism, the northern political elite have continued to exploit religious sentiments among their poor even at a period Israel and Saudi Arabia that host the holiest places of Christianity and Islam are as great grandchildren of Abraham at peace with themselves.

    President Buhari is uniquely placed to address these other historic injustices through restructuring as advocated by many informed Nigerian patriots. The president, as an elected sovereign, as this column has argued in the last three years, can write his name in gold by bypassing  self-serving members of the  National Assembly, the major  beneficiaries of our present unworkable structure which promotes nothing but injustice. Having successfully redressed the June 12 injustice, to according to him “bury ill-feelings, hate, frustrations and agony and overcome our various divide and produce unity and National cohesion”, without input from the National Assembly that have for three years tried to sabotage his government policies but are today scrambling to share the glory of what by far is his government greatest legacy, all he needs to address other forms of injustice with or without the support of the national assembly is a political will.

  • Architecture and urbanization in Nigeria

    In Nigeria for example the story of urbanization is linked with its recent history. In Southwestern Nigeria, Lagos was the only city worth being called a town when the British Navy bombarded it in 1851 and occupied the city in 1861. Even though the population was just a few thousands, the potential for growth was there. Since its invasion and annexation, Lagos underwent some development to make British hold on the city worthwhile. By the nature of British imperialism in West Africa which took the form of minimal investment and maximum dividend of exporting raw materials to Europe, there was little interest in making the town beautiful through planning. When the British took over the whole of Nigeria by 1914 with the abrogation Of Egbaland’s independence, they then began to think of planned development of some of the Nigerian cities.

    The Yoruba people who lived in the southwestern part of the country had the unique feature of urbanization without industrialization.  This was because a century of warfare between1796 and 1896 forced people to see security in numbers and to therefore congregate in large cities. As a result of these wars, new settlements developed in Ibadan, New Oyo, Ogbomosho, Ile-Ife/Modakeke, Ilorin, Offa, Oshogbo, Ilesha and Abeokuta to mention the bigger ones. These settlements developed rather rapidly expanding outwards from the centre dominated by the palaces of the rulers.  Ibadan, the biggest of them had no palace and the town developed as some kind of expanded conurbation of villages intertwined together. Abeokuta was slightly different because of the presence of European missionaries and liberated African slaves from Freetown who attempted to run, without success, a modern municipal government in the town. The Ife, Igbomina, Ekiti, Ijesha, Owo and Akoko towns were much smaller and older than the new towns or expanded ones that grew up as a result of Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century. Apart from Benin and Ode Itshekiri (big Warri), there were no towns east of Yoruba land. The Igbo people lived in villages and little settlements based on lineages and clans. The same was true of the Urhobo, Ijaw,(Izon) and  Ibibio although some little Ijaw settlements grew up in the Niger Delta  in response to the slave and palm oil trade. In the Middle Belt of Nigeria, there were no big settlements except in small places like Bida, Idah, and Wukari. But in the Islamic north of Nigeria, there were many towns that grew up around trade with the southern parts like Ibadan and Oyo before the advent of the British. Kano and Katsina faced the Mediterranean coast of Morocco through the trans-Saharan trade routes. The evolution of kingdoms from about the 10th century in Kano, Katsina, Birnin Ngazargamu, Kukawa, Zaria and Gobir with Islam providing the cement that bound people together provided opportunities for urbanization in this part of Nigeria. What emerged therefore, before the coming of the British, were functional settlements with little or no thought about urban planning.

    Some thought about planning began with the amalgamation of southern and northern protectorates and the colony of Lagos in 1914 when serious work of administration began. This was however halted or delayed by the outbreak of the First World In 1914. Sir Fredrick Lugard, who hated what he called the “insalubrious environment” of Lagos and the seditious tendencies of its educated people decided to build a totally new capital around Kaduna River in the centre of the new country. He had his plans well laid out but the outbreak of the war hampered the progress of Lugard’s Kaduna. He also wanted a new port in the eastern part of the country to decongest the port of Lagos. Thus began the building of the port and to humour and get the support of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord William Harcourt, Lugard named the city, Port Harcourt after him. Because the war halted the importation of coal from Britain, the colliery in Udi Hill was developed and a new city of Enugu among the Wawa people began to grow as a planned city. Richmond Palmer the resident of Borno also decided on a new planned city in Maiduguri as the new capital of Borno after its previous capitals had become unsustainable due to the ravages of war and desert encroachment. With this development commenced the era of city planning in Nigeria. Where it was impossible to build new cities, so-called Government Reserved Areas (GRA) were developed adjacent but far removed from neighboring older settlements. In Lagos, the Ikoyi plains were opened up for planned development and adjacent virgin areas were annexed to several other cities like Kano, Zaria, Jos, Lokoja, Ibadan, Benin and even at provincial and districts headquarters for planned development. These GRAs were well laid out and planned among other reasons to separate the natives from the Europeans who were susceptible to African epidemics of diseases. Africans were barred from visiting the reservations except they were domestic workers in the employment of the Europeans. The houses there were adorned with beautiful flowers and the streets were  laid out as avenues lined with exotic trees sometimes imported from the south-Asian sub-continent. Sometimes farther away from the European quarters were built planned areas for junior workers in the employment of the colonial administration. The vast majority of the people continued to live in conditions prevailing before the coming of the British. Sometimes roads following the footpaths predating colonial rule were widened into roads and in major cities, the harshness of the environment was tempered by lining the streets with neem trees   imported from India which some believed could be used as prophylactic against malaria.

    Serious planning of urban centers in Nigeria only began on the eve of independence when by the 1950s Nigerians began to take control of government.

    Housing estates sprang up in places like Bodija in Ibadan and Ikeja, Ilupeju. Surulere was planned as “New Lagos” to decongest the native city of Lagos. A new town of Victoria Island was developed from the swamp of the lagoon to take advantage of the Bar Beach on Victoria Island. Housing estates sprang up in Kaduna, Kano, Jos, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Owerri.  The Anglo-Dutch oil company exploring and exploiting crude petroleum in the Niger Delta built a vast estate for its workers in the town. These estates were but little drops in the ocean of housing demand. Because of the pressure of population, the planning made very little aesthetic impact and value on the country as a whole. This lack of impact was most noticeable in Yorubaland because of its rapid and unplanned urbanization since the end of the 19th century. Kaduna, Enugu and Port Harcourt for a while remained good examples of planned development. The intense rural-urban migration all over the country complicated matters. In the case of Lagos which remained the federal capital till 1991, the city was simply overwhelmed by rural dwellers who brought their life style of garbage disposal, burning of refuse and open defecation into the city. Furthermore, the infrastructure of the city could just not cope with constant drift of the population to Lagos caused by its bright lights and those running away from persecution and civil strife up country. As chaotic as the place appears to be, it was seen by people up country, as a province of opportunity. The discovery of oil in Oloibiri in 1956 and its exploitation particularly since the end of the civil war  in 1970 has transformed the economy of Lagos from that of an administrative headquarters to that of a thriving commercial city with all its dire consequences. With the stupendous earnings from oil in the 1970s the federal government responded to the uncontrollable growth of Lagos by building two planned small towns at the outskirts of Lagos namely Festac and Satellite town. These were well planned and well laid out settlements with necessary infrastructure of roads, water, and electricity. When completed they appeared beautiful but this was for a while. Before long, the two towns became slums due to overcrowding, lack of maintenance and alterations in their master plans. They soon became indistinguishable from the overcrowded slums of Lagos.

    The chaos of Lagos was what compelled the military authorities in Nigeria to build a brand new town of Abuja between 1976 and 1991. Even before the movement to Abuja, some cities like Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano and Maiduguri witnessed their state governors uprooting the neem trees lining the city avenues to make room for bigger roads or city light. This was apparently done in the name of development. They forgot conservation could be part of development. What took the colonial administrations half a century to plant and nurture were simply uprooted on the orders of young military governors with no eyes for aesthetics or environmental enhancement. It did not appear that anybody prevailed on the military governors not to cut down trees that provided some shade in the blinding African sun. Certainly not the body of architects or those of them in the civil service who were too busy protecting their civil service appointments. Thus most of our cities became concrete jungles in an African environment which should have been known for its greenery

  • Your children will be slaves

    Nigeria is filled with beautiful boobs, human mass with luscious glands for politicians to suck.

    Ask the presidency, your state governor, legislator, the itinerant lobbyist and power broker, and they would oblige you the adventures of their souls atop thickset spoils.

    To this conniving band, the electorate is simply a mass of organs by which they nourish their lusts. Nigeria is their jungle, an eden of boobs and wildlife. In this degenerate nirvana they inhabit, they survive by preying on an electorate afflicted with mouths like the parrot’s and the will of a catfish.

    When brackish waters recede, the catfish burrows deep into mud earth but that hardly prevents the fisherman from yanking it out of its filthy haven. Picture the electorate as catfish and the fisherman as the country’s ruling class. Nigeria becomes brackish waters and she recedes.

    Nigerians love burrowing into proverbial mud earth to evade negativity. They scurry deep into unlikely havens – ethno-religious bigotry and other sentimental foolery – to evade the violence of governance, savagely doled out to them by the ruling class.

    In the crevices of mud earth, they immerse in filthy fluid. They soak in shameful rivulets like sanitary towel and hope to emerge sparkling clean.

    It’s a familiar scene, a Nigerian reality that often resounds like the fable of doomed Odysseus and the labouring ships.

    At the backdrop of this shameful proceedings, the argument persists in academia, social and political circuits, that the future is blurry and bleak because of the youth’s absence in politics. But I maintain that by Nigerian standards, ‘the youth’  are in politics.

    ‘Youthful men and women’ in their 60s, 70s and 80s control the country’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and major opposition platform, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    To sustain their legacies, their clannish pride covet incestuous bond with self – nurturing, dark, chthonian parts of their innate nature. Hence Nigeria’s youthful-senior oligarchs impose their wards as successors and the country’s administrators even as they molest boondocks young in a never-ending cycle of sleaze and ethical pedophilia. But the latter are hardly the preys they are thought to be.

    They are willing participants in a dehumanising ritual of violence, biological and mental retardation. From the hopeless to the vain, the presumptuous and credulous, the country pulsates with nourishing boobs. Unlike the literal, fleshy sacs, often the delight of old and young, the Nigerian boob is neither pouch nor sac but human youth.

    It’s 2018, and the image persists of the nation’s youth as human assertions imagined in degenerate stillness, by specific and random politicians. Unlike the artist’s immobile masterpiece, sculpted in bronze and stone, the youth evolve like plasticine, easily malleable and amenable to devious politicians’ plots.

    As 2019 approaches, the country’s ruling class once again perfects its grand plots and counter-plots to exploit the youth, and preserve its ill-gotten wealth and tyranny. The youth predictably become willing pawns in the designs of the criminal ruling class.

    From the herdsmen murders in Benue, Boko Haram’s terrorism, Niger Delta militancy to random political killings and rumblings in Rivers, Taraba, the youth become the nub of discord and deathly rally ripping the country apart.

    Many have attributed the afflictions of the youth to the dominance of a predatory ruling class and tiring recalcitrance of the younger generation, to engage in communal and national politics progressively. Many more readily diagnose and attribute the youth’s afflictions to structural banes, and the perverse culture of citizenship by which they are weaned and ushered into adulthood.

    In the wake of plausible and often farfetched analyses, too many ‘patriots’ conveniently absolve themselves of blame. Some propound the tragic theory of Nigerians as being innately incapable of self-determination and self-governance. Many have recommended the American example, the British palliative, the Chinese abracadabra and Malaysian ingenuity to mention a few, as the ultimate measures to resolve the nation’s ills. How?

    These arguments have overtime, attained a language of their own and thus evolved as a dialect of dissent and exaggerated self-abnegation. The nation’s academic elite, political and economic ruling classes frequently marshal clashing precepts as solutions and justifiable putdown of the ruling class and the lower working class as their politics dictate.

    A more damning view identifies the electorate’s persistent ‘claims to victimhood and sense of entitlement’ as whiny and symptomatic of a dense and irresponsible citizenry. Between the conflict of hyperboles and sentimental vituperation, Nigeria suffers the affliction of intellectual miscreants and promising youth-turned-foetal-adults.

    The coordinated tragedies afflicting our consciousness daily, append the only real structure to our lives as impoverished Nigerians. From burdensome realities of fast slipping youth, recurrent rites of bigotry to the ethical quandary of coping with strict moral codes of adulthood and ideal society, our lives obscure in purpose and meaning.

    Thus the scorning of ethics by the youth for fast, illicit riches even as ripples of their actions keep hundreds of millions more in binds of despair.

    Consequently, the revolutionary dissent that sprouts from oppression is pitiless and unbending. It radically splits our world into ‘insensitive ruling class’ and ‘clueless lower class,’ ‘elite’ and ‘downtrodden,’ ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ It fosters even more fragmented discord that continually pits Nigerian Christians against Muslims, Hausa against Igbo, Igbo against Yoruba, Yoruba against Ijaw.

    While this piece too may resound as hackneyed howl and lamentation, a regurgitation of towering monstrosities we have become, it need be said that our ultimate solution lies in our will to effect true change.

    None of the existing parties can foster a progressive nation. They are programmed to a recurring cycle of rebirth and self-destruct. In the vortex, they show occasional flashes of brilliance and daring against familiar odds. But it’s all smoke and mirrors.

    It’s about time the youth united to create and activate a party of true patriots, driven by men and women of unimpeachable character. The change Nigeria deserves is anathema to existent parties and ruling class. Real change requires neutering them in capacity and real time.

    To the youth, I say: “Failure to do this will sustain your status quo as slaves and your children as slaves to your oppressors’ children.”

     

  • Architecture and urban development

    Architecture is one of mankind’s most visible forms of expression. That is what architecture is right from the time of the pyramids in Ancient Egypt to the pantheon of Ancient Greece. Mankind has always expressed his culture through architecture.  Cheikh Anta Diop, the late Senegalese scholar in his monumental study of Egyptology has asserted that Ancient Egypt was a black African civilization. In any case, in the long history of human evolution, we know man became man on the African continent. This is to suggest that Africa has always been in the centre of architecture and any Nigerian architect is following the footsteps of those ancient architects who built edifices in Egypt and followed this up by building the Nubian pyramids, great Zimbabwe, the great mosque of Djenne in Mali, Saint George Church in Ethiopia, Al Azhar University in Cairo and Al-Qarawiyyin University Fez in Morocco which happens to be the two oldest universities in the world.

    Nearer home, we have the exquisitely designed Sankore University in Timbuktu. The pre-Fulani emir of Kano, Muhammadu Rumfa built a grand mosque in the 15th century and invited Muhammad Abd al Karim al Maghili from Tlemcen, now in Algeria, to worship there. Al Maghili was so impressed that he lived in Kano for some time and wrote a book on the obligations of princes and dedicated it to Sarkin Muhammadu Rumfa to advise him on governance. This was almost a century before Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his famous book The Prince.

    The point to make is that the history of architecture is intricately related to the politics, culture and the religion of a people. Religion here does not necessarily mean the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In fact, most of the architectural wonders of the world are associated with Greece, Roman, Persian .Babylonian, Moghul and other Asian monuments and artefacts which are not necessarily connected with the religions of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. In other words, the evolution of the urban environment is key to human civilization.  Politics, trade and conquest have however facilitated the spread of any unique civilization in time and space.

    Homo sapiens started as hunters and later food gatherers before they settled into lives of growing and domestication of their food and animals needed for civilized existence. Gradually, man moved from Stone Age to Iron Age where they could make iron tools for defence, offense and domestication and domination of their environment. Most societies evolved along monarchical institutions with the earliest settlers becoming first priests and later kings. Neighbouring settlements coalesced or were conquered to become larger settlements and eventually kingdoms. Some other societies evolved along segmentary or acephalous lines in which societies remained in little settlements. One thing that is clear is that whether societies developed monarchical institutions or republican institutions, no appreciable advancement in human civilization could be made until man evolved into urban settled life. In other words, without urbanization, there can hardly be any kind of civilization whether in the, Hellenic, Roman, Asian or African world. The great civilizations in the Ancient world, whether Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Chinese, Hellenic, Roman, and the Mogul empire in India flowered after cities emerged. Without cities there can be no Arts, civilized government, houses of worship, planned development, trade, politics and other forms of civilized institutions. The point to make is that villages and rudimentary lifestyles are not synonymous with civilization unless if one believes in the new wave of green politics where zero industries and rural communities and romanticized closeness to nature are the new-fangled dream of post-industrial societies. But in the real world, urban living has been fundamental to the civilized world and this urban life has also shaped man’s view of culture.

    Traditionally, the Greek Architect and town planner Hippodamus of Miletus (500 BC) is regarded as the first town planner and inventor of the orthogonal urban layout. This was the received wisdom until recently when Professor Ahmad Hassan Dani, one of the world’s leading archaeologists revealed interesting details about the ruins at Moenjodaro the 4500 year old city settlement north of Karachi, Pakistan and proclaimed it the oldest planned city in the world. It should be noted that architects in times past built or designed cities not just mere houses, official residences, palaces, chancelleries and offices. For a long time to come, modern town planning was dominated by Grecian-Roman concept of urban life. The iconic cities of Rome, Venice and particularly Paris (La ville Lumiere) bear testimony to this Grecian-Roman legacy. The beautiful cities of Modern Italy, France and the Iberian Peninsula generally bear the imprimatur of the Grecian-Roman legacy. Many of the great cities of Europe like London and Paris were founded by romans or rebuilt by them, thus leaving a legacy of urban planning for the future. It is commonly known that Paris is an excellent city. Paris was conquered in 52 BC by Julius Caesar’s forces building the new Roman city of Lutetia on the old site. But this city has undergone several metamorphoses in the hands of   architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant who so impressed the founding fathers of America that his services were requested for in 1791 to help design their new capital of Washington DC.

    Perhaps the person who had the greatest impact on Paris was the great architect, George- Eugene Haussmann who was hired by Napoleon the third to give the city a new make up between 1852 and 1858. This modernization of Paris has had ramifying effect on city and urban development all over the world since then. Cities were not just built for their functionality alone but for their aesthetics as well. The 19th century saw phenomenal growth in European population and power following the industrialization of Western Europe. This was followed by another age of European expansion overseas. This second wave was different from the earlier phase of peopling the Americas and Australasia. This second age of globalization involved carving out African and Asian countries as colonies and protectorates as markets for European products coming out of their industries. This age of imperialism abroad also saw tremendous growth of European cities. The rapidity of this growth made planning difficult if not haphazard. Most cities became degraded by slums where industrial workers lived in squalid circumstances. The history of urbanization since then has been dominated by what can be called tales of two cities of slums and planned cities side by side with all the consequences of crime and political divisions between  the  haves and have nots creating revolutionary situation in country after country.

    The story of urbanization in Africa and particularly in Nigeria is different from that of Asia and particularly that of the western capitalist world. The Asian story of whatever urban planning that existed until recent times is vitiated by its huge population and until recently technological backwardness.

  • June 12: A parley with MKO Abiola

    WHAT a glorious outing for the Abiola family and all those who identify with the magic of June 12!

    Millions watched on television as President Muhammadu Buhari, at a colourful ceremony and before a select audience of worthy compatriots, apologised for the injustice that saw a nation lose its sense and a great man his life. It was an emotional spectacle at the seat of power in Abuja on Tuesday. And what a day of reminiscences.

    Kola Abiola, the late Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola’s eldest son, yielded the podium for his sister Hafsat to speak for the family. She did not disappoint. We were touched as she spoke, carefully picking her words to strike the right chord and urging Buhari to forgive whatever wrong her father might have done him. Of course, she drew great applause.

    Abiola, she said, was already rehearsing his inaugural speech. Why not? The results were pouring in and victory was in sight.

    What a day of apologies and genuine actions to lay to rest the ghost of the June 12, 1993 election – Nigeria’s fairest and freest ever – which was annulled for no reason by the military, headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who went by the fraudulent title of “president”. He was not at the ceremony. Ernest Shonekan, a chief and head of the Interim National Government (ING), the emergency contraption the military deployed to subvert the popular will, but which collapsed like a pack of cards that it was, was also absent. So was former President Olusegun Obasanjo, arguably the biggest beneficiary of the June 12 crisis, who refused to recognise Abiola, obviously from sheer egoism.

    Nobody missed them.

    Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka shelved a foreign trip for the ceremony. He, as usual, lashed the dictators who abused Nigerians by their horrific actions and called for a “hall of shame” to ensure that history records their evil deeds for future generations.

    Asiwaju Bola Tinubu recalled the days of the struggle, praised the President for showing courage in honouring Abiola and assured him of support in his bid for a fresh term.

    If only the dead could talk. What could the man of the moment have said on all this? How would Abiola have reacted to the recollections of his heroism? A newspaper baron, he was fond of calling his editors to catch up on the news of the day and make some comments. Let us just imagine one of his numerous calls to the Concord newsroom. Here we go:

    Hello… this is MKO. How’re you?

    Ah! Fine; thank you sir (the reporter is shocked).

    Good. I trust all is well with you. What’s going on in town?

    It’s the 25th anniversary of your historic election as President. Now you have been officially recognised as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The highest honour in the land has been bestowed on you sir.

    “Ah! Thank you. I aaam…mmm .. I am grateful. Mo dupe pupo. But let me tell you, I knew this day would come. Nigerians, 14 million of them, voted in that election. From the east, west, north and south; everywhere. It was a sunny day; I remember. Even nature was behind us. No tribe; no religion. Then the military…no, a clique in the military annulled the election. They said if I was sworn in I would be killed. Did I look like a commander-in-chief who would be afraid to die?

    “And, young man, aburo, you may recall that I told them clearly that a student who has passed an exam does not need to repeat it. Yes. I said so. The people have spoken. Loud and clear. You cannot make the sun to rise twice in one day, even in Africa. No.

    “It was a colourful ceremony at the Villa sir. President Buhari apologised to your family and all Nigerians. All your June 12 activists were there. “

    “Really? That’s great and I thank them all. Mo dupe. And I praise Buhari for his courage; that is how it should be. Those who were trying to clap with one hand now know on which side of history they are. Men of no principles, no character and mere weaklings who were not worthy of the uniforms they wore. Shame.”

    “Unfortunately, Obasanjo could not attend. He was away in Norway, according to his letter to the Presidency.”

    “Obasanjo. Eh en; Obasanjo was invited? Was he not the one who said I wasn’t the messiah Nigeria needed? He’s a master of intrigues, full of foxy ideas and pure ego. After I had made the supreme sacrifice, he became the biggest beneficiary of it all. I was even told that he planned to stay on in power and all that. What’s Obasanjo doing in Norway? Is he selling stockfish now? I remember he used to be a chicken farmer.”

    “Babangida, your friend, was also not there sir – for some health reasons.”

    “Hmmmm. Ibrahim. I didn’t expect him to come. He caused it all by not behaving like a true General. His courage failed him (I doubt if he had any). He said his boys vowed to kill him if he handed over to me. And I asked him if he was ready to relinquish power before I contested the election; he swore with the Holy Koran that he was. That was why I told them when they mounted pressure on me to surrender my mandate: ‘The mandate belongs to 14million Nigerians. I am only the custodian of this sacred mandate. And you can’t shave a man’s head in his absence. Nigerians, 14million of them, will be here if I must give up. They didn’t find it funny. And remember that I once said ‘with a friend like Babangida, nobody needs an enemy. That is the truth.”

    “Chief, there are people who believe that if you had agreed to rerun the election, you would have been alive for your family and business today.”

    “Looook, my dear, doooooon’t, don’t talk like that. You can’t abort a pregnancy after the baby has been born and people are already congratulating the mother. No. It’s too late. And I…I… I …I told them so. How can you be running and at the same time you are looking backwards? “

    “Shonekan was also absent, chief. I don’t remember the reason he gave.”

    “Shonekan; why should he be there- to collect another Greek gift? He reminds me of the elephant’s story. They told the elephant that he was going to be king. They dug a big hole and covered it with a beautiful carpet and put a throne on it. On the day of the elephant’s inauguration, there was a huge party. Women were singing, A o merin j’oba…(We shall install the elephant as king). They put the elephant on the throne. He crashed into the deep pit. He was deceived. He was used. I won’t say more than that. I won’t – for now. What Chief Shonekan failed to realise is, ‘the bigger the head, the bigger the headache’ Yes.”

    “As for those who are saying that I should have surrendered to stay alive, I thank them. That is human. But you know me; I am a man of the people. I can die for anything I believe in. Besides, I stated clearly when the struggle began that on this matter, one of three things would happen. ‘I have never been president, I have never been dead before and I have never gone to jail. One will surely happen.’ No regrets at all. An Are Onakakanfo must be ready to die fighting; he must not run away. It is a taboo, eewo.” Only a bastard will say the fear of death would not let him claim his father’s title.

    “Tinubu is advocating that your manifesto should be adopted to fight  poverty.”

    “You see, aaah…aaaah (Abiola laughs),let them read Farewell to Poverty, my economic blueprint in which I said by the grace of God in five years, no Nigerian child will go to bed hungry. And that is the truth. We can do it. I have to go now, aburo.

    “Thank you and God bless.”

    “Thank you sir.”

    Joshua Dariye goes to jail

    FORMER Plateau State Governor Joshua Chibi Dariye chose a wrong day  to go to jail. Tuesday was full of activities to mark the 25th anniversary of the June 12,1993 election, which MKO Abiola won. It was Abiola’s day at the Villa. President Muhammadu Buhari  revalidated the election and conferred on Abiola the highest honour in  the land – the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).

    Editors were troubled. The front page, naturally, was Abiola’s. But here was a former governor bagging a big award – 14 years in jail for N1.162b fraud – which also deserved a front page splash. Dilemma. To his credit, Dariye still found space on some front pages. What a feat!

    Dariye
    Dariye

    He arrived in court in his official vehicle as a senator; he left in a pick-up van. Of the N1.162b ecological fund released to the state, Dariye surrendered N550m. He splashed part of the cash on his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    To his lawyer, Paul Erokor (SAN), there is no point appealing the verdict. “We are forced to fall on your mercy,” he told Justice Adebukola Banjoko, who insisted that corruption must not go unpunished.

    The Dariye case went on for 11 years. Now, justice is served – fresh  and hot. Just as it was in the case of former Taraba State  Governor Jolly. He was jailed on May30. Are public officials learning any lesson from these and similar cases?

  • Buhari, unexpected hero of June 12

    Nigerians owe President Muhammadu Buhari a debt of gratitude for lifting from all of us the burden of collective guilt. But for his last week’s bold intervention to redress an historic wrong and last Tuesday’s apology to Abiola’s family on behalf of all us, future generations would have been asking what manner of leaders and followers inhabited a geographical space called Nigeria during the Babangida/Abacha, Obasanjo/Jonathan and David Mark/Bukola Saraki years (1985-2018). Theirs were the era when a man had to die for winning an election; when custodians of our national patrimony turned out to be political fraudsters, narcissists, and common thieves and when parasitic lawmakers gave themselves obscene salaries, engaged in padding of budgets which were passed only after receiving bribes in billions. It was also an epoch Nigeria killed her shinning ‘suns’- Dele Giwa, Ken Saro Wiwa and MKO Abiola, among many others.

    It is worth reminding ourselves that MKO Abiola died protecting the mandate given to him by Nigerians in what has been described as the ‘freest and fairest election’ in our nation’s history. General Babangida, the chief villain of June 12 tragedy blamed everyone for the annulment except himself. It was from Professor Omo Omoruyi, his confidant and political adviser, we learnt he claimed to have annulled the historic election to pacify ‘northern leaders including the then Sultan who were opposed to an emergence of a southern leader especially a Yoruba as president of Nigeria’. Omoruyi also quoted Babangida as claiming that General Abacha was the rallying point for anti-Abiola arrogant northern leaders. The executioners, according to him, were from the middle belt region where historically, soldiers of fortune always fought like slaves in the service of their Fulani natural leaders. He was also quoted as naming Brigadiers General Dongo Yaro and David Mark who he said threatened to shoot MKO Abiola if he was proclaimed president by NEC.

    Other villains of June 12 include Arthur Nzeribe and his Association for Better Nigeria, Ernest Shonekan, the head of Babangida’s illegal contraption called Interim National Government and General Obasanjo who after declaring ‘MKO Abiola was not the messiah Nigeria was waiting for’,  went on to  become the military and northern leaders preferred substitute for MKO Abiola. In a display of political perfidy, Obasanjo declared May 29, the day he was sworn in as president as ‘democracy day’ and for eight years, danced on Abiola’s grave without once acknowledging his supreme sacrifice.

    After 25 years of living in denial, I think President Buhari deserves our appreciation for saving the nation from further embarrassment. It does not matter if his action was motivated by political considerations as alleged by the opposition PDP, Professor Ango Abdullahi, the spokesman for Northern Elders Forum and Umar Ardo, Secretary General of Northern Leaders and Stakeholders Assembly (NLSA). Most politicians, the world over, often take advantage of any opportunity that will extend their political influence. In fact most people believe if Buhari has failed as a politician, it was for refusing to have Niccolo Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ which expects every politician that wants to succeed to be cunning, amoral and opportunistic, as his bible.

    Whilst President Buhari’s courageous action at redressing an historic wrong must be applauded by Nigerians, it is however doubtful if Nigerians especially the Yoruba will see it a substitute for resolving the national question through renegotiation of our derailed federal arrangement in line with the dreams of our founding fathers. The first republic collapsed partly because of the lopsidedness of the federal structure which gave the north an advantage of holding on to power as long as they wanted since democracy, for many, is a game of number. The fourth republic is not much different. Today with the north controlling more states and LGAs, any change must be at the behest of the north. The implication of current structure therefore is that the federating states must operate at the pace dictated by the north. Besides just as it was in the first republic when with the control of security apparatus of state, the north was too quick to resort to coercion even when what was needed was dialogue. Nigerians are today not comfortable with the concentration of heads of all security formations in the hands of northerners.

    Some of Buhari’s political foes have also argued his action was designed to sway Yoruba votes in 2019. Such argument forecloses the fact that the Yoruba know what they want out of the federation. The Yoruba have remained consistent in their demand for a return to our pre-independence structure, derailed by Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, erstwhile advocates of a federal arrangement who after destroying the AG in 1962 started singing the virtues of a unitary system.

    The outcome of the 1979 election reinforced the Yoruba resolve to be the master of their own destiny. The Unity Party of Nigeria won all the southwest states at the onset of the second republic. The story was the same in 1999 with the Alliance for Democracy (AD) winning all the southwest states. President Obasanjo’s attempt to break this resolve by rigging elections in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states failed. It is not likely that Buhari’s last week acknowledgement of MKO Abiola’s struggle against military dictatorship and his sacrifice for the enthronement of democracy will suddenly change such deep-rooted resolve.

    Besides, Yoruba who read meanings to everything including greetings are no fools. They clearly understand the annulment of June 12 elections was a continuation of the war by Ahmadu Bello and the northern political elite against them. They can recall how Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Balewa turned the West to a killing field in 1965. They remember how Balewa boasted of doing to other recalcitrant regions what they did to the West following the creation of Mid-west in 1963. The Yoruba remember how Obasanjo was imposed by the military and the north on the West and the country. They remember how Obasanjo’s mainstreaming which destroyed past Yoruba visionary leaders’ drive towards a more egalitarian society, was a continuation of 1962 Ahmadu Bello’s failed attempt at mainstreaming – a euphemism for taking over of Yoruba nation.

    They have also not forgotten that but for the British and American wise counselling, Murtala Mohammed was set to bomb and sink Lagos with dynamite in 1966. They have not forgotten Shehu Shagari stopped the construction of the Third Mainland Bridge just as he derailed the metro line by refusing to authorize the disbursement of $70m mobilization Lagos already deposited with CBN even as he was approving foreign loans for NPN and NPP governors (coalition partners). Of course the Yoruba understand the ongoing wars through the introduction of JAMB, the takeover of federal institutions and introduction of quota system of admission, all designed to reduce standard of others instead of funding those who could not meet such standard, are targeted at the Yoruba.

    Even if Buhari has not just made Yoruba proud by upholding justice, all I have highlighted above will not determine his fate among Yoruba voters in 2019 just as they did not in 2015. Our revered father, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who argued otherwise know neither he nor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his son can decree who Yoruba will vote for in 2019. As Awo the sage himself warned back in the 1940s, the Yoruba will not vote for you because you are Yoruba if your agenda will not impact positively on their lives. Yoruba have been under a siege since Tony Enahoro’s ‘1953 motion for independence in 1956’. In 2019, it is the party that promises to lift that siege through restructuring that will most likely get their support.

  • The June 12 general

    IT WAS June 21, 1993, nine days after the June 12 presidential election, with results so far released,  showing that the late Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) had won. What was left was for the National Electoral Commission (NEC) headed by Prof Humphrey Nwosu to declare him the winner. But before Nwosu could do that, he got a contrived court order to suspend further announcement of the results. That day, the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna was to decide whether the remaining results should be released or not.

    Then began a long wait for the conclusion of the election in which the late Abiola’s opponent Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) stood no chance at all. Abiola was larger than life and he remains much more so even in death. He did not win the June 12 election because he was a politician; he won it because first and foremost, he was a humanist who put others first. He was an example of the biblical admonition of “love thy neighbour as thyself”. He reaped the reward of the good he did for many Nigerians across the country whether Muslim, Christian, Traditionalist or Atheist, voted for him in that election.

    Why would Nwosu stop announcing the results because of a court injunction when he did not comply with the late Justice Bassey Ikpeme’s order not to hold the election, many wondered. Nwosu conducted the election because he had the backing of the Babangida junta, but such support was lacking when it was time to declare the winner.

    The Justices of the Court of Appeal (JCAs) had barely begun sitting that day in Kaduna when one of their aides breezed in through the door behind them and whispered into the ears of the presiding justice. In a jiffy, the justices stood down the June 12 case and returned to their chambers. Those of us in the courtroom looked at one another, wondering what was amiss, while one-time presidential aspirant Sarah Jibrin, who was also around, engaged in theatrics of her own. Then news started flying  that the election had been annulled. What, some people shouted. Someone came with a transistor radio and we all crowded round him, eager to get the latest on the annulment. Finally, it came. It was a terse, unsigned statement, which was read to reporters at the Villa.

    We were still debating the propriety of the annulment when the court resumed sitting. We all trooped back inside. The case was called and after the lawyers introduced themselves, it was obvious that the matter would not go on. Can the appeal court hear an application to discharge the order stopping the announcement of the election results in view of the latest development? Being an era when the military trampled upon everything, including the right of courts to adjudicate on cases, the justices decided to err on the side of caution. The matter was adjourned for the dust over it to settle.

    The justice  Abiola was denied in court 25 years ago has now been given him politically, by the “least president”, according to foremost June 12 crusader Frank Kokori, ‘’that was expected to do so”. Through a stroke of the pen, President Muhammadu Buhari redrew the June 12 map to accord the business mogul his pride of place. Abiola is not alive today, but he will turn in his grave for the honour done  him. The President is today not the biggest fan of some people because of what he has done. But that is to be expected. Doing the right thing is never popular; some people will always find fault with it, whether legal, spiritual, moral or otherwise. But what is right is right, no matter from which angle people look at it.

    The President has done well by honouring Abiola with the highest national award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR)  and designating June 12, the date of the election he won resoundingly, Democracy Day. There can be no greater justice than this. The President did not stop at that. He also honoured Abiola’s running mate Alhaji Babagana Kingibe and foremost rights activist the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) with Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).

    It is good that Abiola has been honoured, but as a nation we should also not forget thousands of his supporters, who died in the struggle to actualise June 12. We do not know these thousands, but we know the cause they died for. The nation may not give them national honours, but it can erect a monument in their memory just like the cenotaph of the Unknown Soldier. If the nation can do that, it would go a long way to assuage the loss of many families.  Let us put up a cenotaph in Abuja with the epithet : June 12 : In memory of the Unknown Nigerian. Even Abiola will be happy in his grave if we do this.

     

    The world at their feet

    THE World Cup starts today, with the host nation, Russia taking on Saudi Arabia; and Egypt playing Uruguay, in the opening games. Nigeria is playing in Group D, where it is drawn against Iceland, Croatia and Argentina. What are our chances of qualifying for the Group of 16? This is the question many Nigerians have been asking since the draws were released. We play our first match on Saturday against Croatia in MSK Kaliningrad Stadium.

    If we beat the Croatians, we would have served others notice that we are in Russia for business. We have never gone past the Second Round since we started going to the mundial. We can better that record in Russia by beating Croatia and Iceland and drawing with Argentina to get to the Second Round. In the Second Round, we will take our chance against whoever emerges as our opponents.

    We can get to the quarter final. It all rests on the Mikel Obi – led team to be business-minded and shun distractions. With their footballing feet, they are set to rule the world. All the best, Super Eagles.

  • How racial discrimination cost me my husband, job, by plaintiff

    Former resourcing specialist at Tetra Pak West Africa Limited, Elo Ogodo, has accused the company of racial discrimination.

    She said after putting in eight years of meritorious service and overcoming several challenges in her quest to contribute to the company’s success, she was sacked for being the only black employee in her team despite her excellent performance.

    Ogodo said her  commitment to her job drew praises from her line manager who sent an email to congratulate her for a job well done.

    She said she got married in 2016, but due to the demands of her job, she never had time for her marriage due to her job at Tetra Pak.

    According to her, “she was overburdened with responsibilities by the defendant (Tetra Pak)”.

    Her erstwhile husband, she said, complained ceaselessly that her job was keeping her away from her marital responsibilities, yet she remained dedicated to the job.

    Ogodo said sometime in 2017, Tetra Pak sent her an urgent mail to travel to Kenya to fill an urgent position. Her husband refused to allow her travel.

    Out of loyalty to Tetra Pak, she travelled to Kenya. On her return, her angry husband became confrontational.

    “This belligerence culminated into the separation of the claimant and erstwhile husband,” Ogodo said.

    She said she was shocked and emotionally traumatised, when, despite sacrificing everything for her job, she was sacked without fair hearing.

    Through her lawyer Mr Chimaobi Onuigbo of Mike Ozekhome (SAN) Chambers, she has filed a suit at the National Industrial Court in Lagos, praying the court to hold that she was dismissed by the carton packaging and processing company on the basis of her race.

    She is seeking a declaration that the termination of her appointment based on false allegations concocted to tarnish her performance records for eight years amounts to unfair labour practice and violates the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Termination of Employment Convention of 1982.

    Ogodo is praying the court to hold that her sack was due to racial discrimination as she was never accused of any gross misconduct or criminality in the course of her job.

    She sought an order directing Tetra Pak to pay her N7million as her severance benefits, N100million as damages for unfair labour practices which resulted in her psychological trauma, shock, mental agony, embarrassment, inconveniences, odium and obloquy, and N100 million as punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages for unfair labour practices against her by Tetra Pak.

    The claimant said she was employed as a human resources and administrative officer on September 27, 2010, and in 2014 was promoted to a resourcing specialist role managing all white collar activities within the Greater Middle East & Africa (GME&A) cluster, namely Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Dubai, Turkey, Egypt as well as South, East and West Africa.

    She said despite not being able to speak Arabic and her inability to make phone or video calls to Arab countries due to restrictions imposed by Western countries, she met 93 per cent of her recruitment requirements and was rated the third best performer in the company.

    Ogodo said despite risking everything for her job, it came as a rude shock to her when she was asked to sign for the severance of her contract.

    She got a mail from her immediate boss Seema Dsouza accusing her of not filling a position in Iran and of giving a colleague, Mr Herman Botha, a feedback that was not resourcing related. She was informed that two managers, both Indians, requested that she be relieved of her duties.

    Ogodo, in her response to the allegations, explained that it was agreed that another recruiter be engaged in Iran to help fill the vacancy, which was yet to be done, and that the feedback she gave Botha when he sought her advice on team bonding activities was in the company’s overall interest.

    She said despite being given six French roles, she was stopped from taking French lessons along with her colleagues, who were allowed to continue with their classes.

    According to her, when she refused to append her signature on the termination letter based on the allegations, she got a termination notice with a threat that her entitlements would be reduced if she did not sign.

    Ogodo claimed she was not given a fair hearing, and that racial slurs directed at her, being the only black person in a team comprising Pakistani, white South Africans, Indians, Saudi, Tunisian and Turkish.

    “The termination of her contract is unconnected to the performance of her duty, which she discharged excellently well, but was occasioned by an ulterior motive precipitated by prejudice, bigotry and racial discrimination against the claimant by the defendant,” her statement of claim reads.

    The claimant said a Tunisian, Ben Dhouah, whom she was directed to help, had 42 per cent recruitment rate, while she had 93 per cent, yet Dhouah was retained.

    She urged the court not to allow the “sham reasons” given for her sack to stand, so as not to put her career in jeopardy.

    But, the defendant denied the allegations of racial discrimination, urging the court to dismiss the suit.

    Tetra Pak said Ogodo was placed on performance improvement plan and that she was relieved of her duties when she did not meet expectations.

    The matter was adjourned till September 13.

  • Nigeria’s embarrassments

    In model earth, the incumbent government would be a scar on Nigeria, a degeneration to coarse civilisation. But there is hardly anything ideal about our world thus we are stuck with a Hobson’s choice. While it may be true that we dodged devastation by voting out Goodluck Jonathan and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it need be understood that President Muhammadu Buhari’s presumed moralist, disciplinarian stance and the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s romanticised ‘Change’ has become urban legend, a whimsical narrative peddled by incurable optimists dreaming of a better tomorrow.

    Buhari may not be corrupt but his government is septic with worms; and his APC, contrary to its earlier posturing, manifests as you read, like a clean breath of fresh stench. Contemporary facts affirm this ugly reality: from embattled former pensions boss, Rasheed Maina’s – reinstatement while under scrutiny for fraud – to shameful shenanigans of an APC-controlled House of Assembly, where the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, currently grapples with scandalous allegations of wrongdoing by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

    Nonetheless, Buhari’s touted renouncement of corruption may not be childish or duplicitous after all; 2019 is a few months away and so much could happen before the next general elections. Will Buhari do better or will he do enough to get re-elected?

    His recent declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day and investiture of slain winner of June 12, 1993 presidential elections, Late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO), with Nigeria’s highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), smacks of desperation but the posthumous award is welcome all the same. Ask kinsmen of the deceased.

    Buhari, who said he reached the decisions after due consultations also intends to honour late MKO’s running mate, Babagana Kingibe, and late human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi, with the second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Niger (GCON).

    These among other measures in the offing, are expected to assuage presumably disgruntled segments of the southwest electorate en route 2019.

    Buhari’s fate and the APC’s chances should however, be the least of Nigeria’s worries, youthful Nigeria to be precise. What is the future of the youth in the coming dispensation? Will the youth continue to serve as thugs and errand boys for the incumbent ruling class? Will we bend and break to the lure of filthy lucre?

    This minute, an inordinate lust drives the Nigerian youth to self-destruct; having perverted the natural order that places man above money, the animate cowers to the inanimate. Nigeria submits to mammon, and science, technology, power, property and other bastions of materialism own and control us. The consequences are rampant and discernible for all to see.

    The lust for money has put paid to our staunch adherence to a cultural value system; that incontestable code of personal and societal ethics that supposedly humanises the average citizen and moulds him into a fuller, better breed.

    The current generation, the youth especially thus manifests a dissonance with future bliss and progressive leadership anticipated of it. I will not bother over the shortcomings and atrocities we inherited from preceding generations lest I tow the oft beaten path and glamourise our claims to victimhood and base sentimentality.

    If the Nigeria we inherited is truly shorn of values and promises of a brighter tomorrow, must we aggravate the circumstances that foist upon us such hopelessness?

    One of the most curious kinks of this generation is its sustenance and worship of the incumbent ruling class. Consider the former administration of President Jonathan for instance; men and women that erstwhile professed to champion the people’s rights united to defend Jonathan’s ‘honour’ and justify the unceasing ineptitude and mindlessness of his administration.

    They conveniently forgot that the administration’s insensitivity, clumsiness and gluttony cost Nigeria thousands of lives and public fund till date. Evidences of the government’s incompetence and tactlessness manifested in its appointment of men and women unfit to run a roast corn kiosk as managers of the nation’s finance, aviation, health, defense, foreign affairs, education, works and housing ministries to mention a few.

    The citizenry’s election of shady men and woman into the nation’s legislative chambers and their defiant justification of the emergence of such individuals in the country’s hallowed chambers was equally instructive in the nation’s descent the steep slope of institutional corruption and decadent culture.

    This anomaly incites harsh criticisms and disillusionment among the citizenry. However, as had always being the case, the leading critics take no part in the pursuit and actualisation of majority will beyond lip service. Ultimately, they proceed to court power and project it, irrespective of the nature of men and women that wield it.

    It is incontestable that many of such men, including the former president’s media aides attract to themselves, too much of every ill that lies on the threshold of psychosis and common crime. They cackle like a coven of crooked enthusiasts that see every shortcoming of the incumbent administration as cause for political theatrics and hysterical spinning.

    Such men are very useful to the ruling class; wobbly in intellect and infinitely handicapped by greed, they repeatedly parade themselves as pirates amenable to crimes and accessible to venal enterprise. They eventually shed their pretensions to heroism and honour to unite with the ruling class in its savage war against the citizenry.

    We have fought many wars in Nigeria. Wars for Biafra and the soul of the Niger Delta. The ongoing war for and against the soul of the northeast currently asphyxiating in the grip of terrorist sect, Boko Haram. And the never-ending war against thieving governors, legislators, and a corrupt judiciary.

    These wars are ultimately triggered by our failures with money and its innumerable material vestiges. But the wars of the underdog, Nigeria’s impoverished lot, has a greater significance than all of the others.

    This daily battle for the soul and survival of the struggling working class and barely existent middle class is merely an episode of the universal war that constitutes the true nature of humanity and history of the world—the war of good against evil, ruling class against working class, the haves against the have-nots.

    These wars however, are lost on all fronts even before the masses march on to the battle field every day. This is a consequence of the knavery of men, mostly in their youth, entrusted to serve as our moral sentinels, custodians of culture, value and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

    These men, contrary to their touted crusades in the interest of the citizenry, unconscionably mutate into more savage destroyers of hope and forms of life than the ruling class they were known to despise.

    But rather than call them out as the savages and murderers of hope that they have become, the Nigerian masses continually rationalise their betrayal arguing that they were only being smart. Perfidy and greed thus become noble enterprise in the Nigeria of our dreams.