The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • President’s admission and new challenges

    Speaking off the cuff during a pre-centenary national praise and thanksgiving service at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja  last Sunday, President Jonathan chose to part ways with some of his combative advisers and ministers who are also known to be confirmed government contractors. The tendency up to last Sunday was for the president and his advisers to blame everyone else except government for the state of insecurity in our nation and the inability of government with its awesome security apparatus which gobbles about N1trillion, a quarter of our annual budget, to crush the Boko Haram insurgency. Displaying an uncharacteristic deep sense of remorse, the president for the first time admitted our security forces were not just ill-prepared but merely idling away prior to the outbreak of hostilities. But for the challenge the insurgency poses, the nation’s security apparatus would have remained ‘obsolete and its security agents idle and static’. The internal insurrection according to him has exposed our lack of preparedness to contain external aggression. But now “Everyday, security chiefs now think of how to continue to improve on capacity building’ while his administration has been compelled ‘to boost the capacity and infrastructure of the security agencies, especially by enhancing adequate training of security operatives’.

    For the first time, the president in my view spoke like a statesman not through the jaundiced lenses of PDP. By his carriage and sober mien, he has demonstrated his deep commitment to the ongoing crusade to face our challenges which he said may be daunting but not insurmountable. And I also think by that single stroke, the president has succeeded in separating himself from PDP dirty politics of blaming others for their continued sabotage of the aspirations of Nigerians.

    But I think the new strategy of appealing to the resilience of Nigerians to overcome her challenges as distinct from a president with an image of buck passing through unpresidential utterances such as “I did not create all the problems bedevilling Nigeria’, ‘I am not Pharaoh, General or Nebuchadnezzar’, was a further admission that the president critics are no less committed to the well-being of Nigerians as himself.  It is therefore hoped this will encourage the president to also critically assess what is going on in other areas of our national life where we are currently facing serious challenges.

    He can start with the Ministry of Works where successive ministers  have shown more commitment to awarding new road contracts that were never implemented after mobilization had been paid, while paying scant attention to maintenance culture which is today responsible for the virtual collapse of the whole network of our road infrastructure, our embattled aviation sector  where our ill-equipped minister whose major selling point is said to be her capacity to raise presidential campaign funds  attribute frequent plane crashes to ‘an act of God’ and of course the agricultural  sector whose failure poses more danger to our survival than  Boko Haram insurgency or PDP  intra-party gang wars over sharing of our resources.

    Dr. Tony Marinho like many concerned Nigerians has continued to point to our lack of maintenance culture as the bane of our roads. He has in the last one year constituted himself into a one-man crusade to persuade government to mend pot holes infested federal roads spread across the country. Only last week he alerted Nigerians about the danger posed by what he described as ‘‘the imminent collapse and closure of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway with 15 kilometres of traffic five lane wide, 10,000 vehicles long with one million people, daily desperately struggling down that obstacle course… Nigerians are suffering maximally, stranded for seven hours daily in 2013 while RCC and Julius Berger warm up’. Marinho’s lamentation about the travails of motorists on Lagos-Ibadan collapsed express road can be said of other federal high ways all over the country.

    A few government interventions here and there were carried out in the typical PDP manner. A little over a year back, following incessant cries of agony of motorists who were spending hours because of the pot-holes located almost directly opposite the Redeemed Church, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) intervened. As at two weeks ago when I passed through that corridor of the express road, motorist were still subjected to about five hours of agony crawling through the same spot to Lagos. We can say the same of the perennial trouble spot opposite OPIC building on your way out of Lagos where many illustrious Nigerians including Dr. Ajayi of the famous Ajayi Memorial Hospital Apapa road, Ebute Metta and Rufus Giwa, a former Managing Director of Levers Brothers at different periods in the past

    lost their lives.  That big pot hole had been mended about three times this year with each attempt enduring for less than two weeks. Of course the bad portion out of Murtala Mohammed International Airport has been a source of nightmare to Nigerians motorists and a source of embarrassment to Nigerians and visiting foreign dignitaries since 1999 in spite of seasonal mending by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA}.

    The president should also be interested in what goes on in the aviation sector. Beside her lost war against international airlines, her much criticised jamboree abroad ostensibly to woo investors, the borrowing of $500m to build new airports while existing ones are poorly maintained and underutilized, the minister has been accused of being more interested in revenue generation rather than safety of the nation’s airspace.

    And lastly, the president in spite of the agriculture minister‘s flawless English can subject the sector to the same security sector’s treatment because as the minister has himself averred, “a nation that does not feed itself becomes a threat to its own sovereign existence”.

    The public for instance  need to know the specific irrigations sites we were told consumed  N62 billion of the World Bank’s N139 billion loan, and the specific infrastructure staple crop processing zones in the country supported with the N77,5 billion African Development Bank (AfDB) loan, and possibly the gestation period.

    Besides, in spite of rosy pictures of the agricultural sector painted by the minister, non-government experts are raising vital questions that require answers.  For instance it has been said that the minister now often refer to by his critics as ‘minister for fertilizer and cassava’ has not adequately addressed the situation where the whole of Nigeria can boast of not more than 34 functional tractors, where Bombay, in Punjab, India that is not up to Zaria or Kaduna, has got 34,000 functional tractors’. That government still gives waivers to their cronies to import rice from Taiwan and Cambodia where agriculture is heavily subsidized resulting in Nigerian spending N4billion every day on importation of rice.

    And as Shedrack Madlion  of Kaduna-based Admiral Environmental Care Limited, asked : Did the minister’s farm census  of farmers  gulping billions cover  farmers from such places like  ‘Saminaka, in Kaduna, where 29,000 metric tons of maize are grown’ or  Giroro, Sokoto, where 37,000 metric tons of onion are grown and 60 percent do not get to the market place’ or  producers of Ose Nsukka,  the sweetest peppers in the world located  between Opi, Ihealumona and Udi ?

  • A thought for our women

    A thought for our women

    LET’S just move away from it all for a while. The killings and kidnappings. Clashes and crashes; bombings and bumbling -the telltale signs of a huge asylum (never mind the hyperbole).

    It’s true we can’t just feign ignorance of the calamities that have shaken our claim to civilisation. But, amid the bedlam of bombs and bullets, it is fit to spare a thought for our women, their pains and gains, particularly in the last few days.

    My heart goes out to the Youth Corps girl who claimed to have been raped by a certain Oba Adebukola Alli, the Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesa in Osun State. The court said the 23-year old girl did not prove her case beyond reasonable doubt. The bed sheet was not produced. There was no medical report that the “victim” was forced and her underwear was not tendered. This being a family newspaper, dear reader, I will spare you further details of the verdict, including the fact that the victim did not show her private part to prove that she suffered injuries in the process of being raped.

    The beastly act of rape is hard to prove in court. The victims end up crying, nursing their physical and psychological injuries in secret. Many carry the pains for life and the accused gloat over their savagery. Dominique Strauss-Khan, the disgraced former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief accused of raping a New York hotel maid, has since moved on, becoming an economic adviser to the Serbian government.

    I am surprised that our women activists are yet to speak on the Osun court judgment, which has the potential of fuelling such reckless abuses against women by many champions of the jungle posing as human beings. Imagine the humiliation of being put in the dock, underpants and a doctor’s report held aloft, to answer questions on the invasion of one’s privacy in such a gory manner. Will His Lordship believe in just any doctor’s report? Can’t any of the other garments be evidence of the violence the victim may have suffered? Must the bruises be only on her private part? The law is the law, but isn’t it so protective of the accused to the disadvantage of the victim? But then, are all victims genuine? Complexities.

    Justice Oyejide Falola scolded Oba Alli, who claimed that Miss Helen Okpara had been his sexual partner long before the allegation, for sleeping with a Youth Corps member posted to his community. Wrong, my Lord; such acts of concupiscence have no respect for age or status. Take away the crowns, the beads and the horsetails, how are monarchs different from the rest of us? In fact, how many remember in their lasciviousness that even in the bedroom, there are rules of engagement?

    If women’s rights activists are not marching, swearing and cursing over the verdict, which is not just Ms Okpara’s personal loss but a collective assault on their psyche and wellbeing, not so with Ms Stella Oduah, the tempestuous Minister of Aviation. As the nation mourned the loss of lives in the Associated Aviation plane crash in Lagos, wondering why somebody couldn’t just ensure that aircraft are fit to fly our tempestuous airspace, Oduah was seized by a strange fit of anger. She launched into a rage that saw her calling critics of the aviation sector “drunk” and “drug addicts” who are ignorant of how the system works.

    Hold it, madam. Some decorum, please. A ministerial platform should never be a pulpit for infelicities and such motor park fulmination. No. Those who have questioned the propriety of spending billions on knocking down airport terminals that are taking years to rebuild are right. Aviation is not all about sparkling terminals and taxes. Then, when an accident occurs, we are told accidents are inevitable – in such a fatalistic manner that yields no space to skills and competence. Haba!

    Do we have all the safety equipment that we require? How dutiful are those who certify aircraft to fly? How foolproof are our preventive measures? How strong is our airports’ security? These are some of the questions that should be addressed in a sober manner; not with diatribes that portray the government as an intolerant headmaster whose actions must never be questioned.

    In Lagos, a driver’s wife has been delivered of a set of quadruplets. At first, her doctor told her she had fibroids, she said, adding that she was surprised to discover later that she was carrying four babies. “When I first learnt that I was carrying four babies, I became sad but my husband said we can’t question God,” the poor woman said at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

    Mrs Grace Tijani was thought to have had an In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). “I didn’t even know what IVF was, until I got to the hospital,” she said. Now, the Tijanis are worried; they do not know how they will cope with nursing the babies. The couple, who live in a one-room apartment in Ajangbadi on the outskirts of Lagos, had three kids. And now these. The wonders of nature in a world where many, rich and powerful, will give their all to have just one. Strange, indeed, are the ways of nature.

    And talking about strange pregnancies and such related matters; a probe is on in the prisons. This time, it is not about poor rations or indecent sanitary conditions. Nor are warders grumbling over their pay and the exertion of reining in VIP inmates who insist on having special diets and using mobile phones. Besides, there is no jail break; isn’t that becoming a routine? The Prisons Service is probing the rising incidence of pregnancy among inmates, according to a newspaper report.

    NPS spokesman Ope Fatinikun has denied that warders are putting women in the family way, saying male officials do not have access to the women section of the prisons. Besides, he explains that a pregnancy test is compulsory for new inmates within 24 hours of being admitted into a prison and cites some cases of women being delivered of babies. He says the women had been pregnant before coming into the prison in Owerri, Imo State. Interesting.

    Are more expectant mothers committing crime? Should expectant women be admitted into prisons, irrespective of the age of their pregnancies? When a woman is delivered of a baby in the prison, is the child to be raised there in confinement? What future for a kid raised in prison?

    When Joy Emordi lost her job as presidential adviser on National Assembly Matters, it was in circumstances that were hazy but surely unpleasant. She was said to have contributed to the failure of intelligence that culminated in the Kawu Baraje faction of the troubled ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), visiting the Assembly to address lawmakers – an action that infuriated the Presidency as if it had been stung by a swarm of bees. Another report said Mrs Emordi was asked to reach out–Sorry, prize for guessing what that means, dear reader–to the lawmakers in the PDP’s special way to prevent the high risk visit that could complicate the mess into which the largest party in Africa has plunged itself.

    The matter is neither here nor there. But where were the vocal backers of the affirmative action? I hope the lady will someday tell her story, which will surely be a prized companion of anybody willing to take up such risky jobs.

    It was not, however, all pains for our women. Mrs Folorunsho Alakija was named Africa’s wealthiest woman by Ventures Africa and African Business. The oil tycoon is said to be worth $7.3billion. Talk about beauty, brain and cash – all rolled into one.

    Even in far away South Korea, fortune smiled on our women – courtesy of the First Lady, Dame Patience Fakabelemi Jonathan. She won – sorry, a little mistake there – she was awarded a honorary doctorate degree in Social Welfare and Administration by Hansel University, Seoul. The recognition dazed her critics who have been so close, yet so undiscerning of her talents. A case of the prophetess not being without honour except in her own town? The other day when Her Excellency was awarded a permanent secretaryship in Bayelsa State, those arm-chair critics, the dem say dem say people against whom a law has been enacted in that state, scorned her for days on end. What will they say now?

  • The way the music dies (1)

    The music dies because we kill it; every second, every minute, every hour, every day. Shame. Shame being the appropriate tribute to those of us who diminish the music in order to find it and hear it. Shame being the fitting apparel to those of us who make smaller, the luxuriant tropes of the bight of the muse.

    Shame on all powerful and giant telecommunication networks spending a few millions to rip us off hundreds of hard earned millions in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)…in the name of the music. Shame on the producer, director, video-jockey (VJ), dancer, artiste and songwriter perpetually burying the essence of the music for the sake of a few desperate Naira, and more. Shame on you and me.

    And yet the greater shame on us for whom and what we have become to the music; we, the hideous trolls dishing discordant tunes to the sound of the music; we, the standard-bearers on whose watch the music skits and grinds to a stop.

    Thus we go nameless and artless in music; the music we make becomes the echo of something else, like nothingness and vile. The artistes we make and celebrate annoy us, disrespect us and confound us. And the music they make is hardly the work of genius. It’s simply deafening and hogwash. Bet you hear their crinkle and chirp like crickets gone nuts: Senge Menge…Wiskolowiska…Je ka collabo…Baby je ki’n sangolo, sangolo eee…I’m in love with two women; I don’t know which one to take; and you could still dance to it. Do you?

    At least, for the artistes, it foots the bills for the easy girls, flashy cars and bling-bling. More importantly, it provides the wads that fit into colourful envelopes of various shapes and sizes, the soul of entertainment journalism. Perhaps put more precisely, the life-boat of charlatans selling off news pages – that ought to be hard-earned – for as little as N10, 000 for two pages and N5, 000 or N3, 000 for a page, while passing themselves off as entertainment writers to the detriment of journalists who would remain true to journalism and music.

    Mad? I guess. How easy it is to dismiss this or at least dislike the import simply because it evokes that cheeky music critic cliché that makes you want to brick yourself, I do not know. How consolatory it might be to dismiss this too as some idle rant of that typical whiney, sanctimonious warhorse that fears change and hates everything novel to trade in nostalgia and jaded musings on the way things were and how they ought to be, I do not bother.

    Who knows, some sunny-minded reader and music enthusiast may bother to discern and see past the ominously-wrought rant, passionate jazz-vibes and end-is-nigh metaphors to appreciate this take, however discomforting, on the deplorable state of music and entertainment journalism in the country.

    Questionable awards and the obsession with being number one diva, lyricist and most sought-after entertainment writer cum artiste manager are killing the music. It’s completely true; blogs give rise to non-professionals, mediocrity blooms and cash rules us and everything around us in the music journalism parlance of the Fourth Estate. No? Of course it does.

    Between the music journalist and the artiste, there is ever an unasked question: unasked by most due to feelings of delicacy; by others due to the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter around it and avoid it.

    Thus we approach every upstart or wanna be music star belly-in-mouth, wit-disarmed – in a half-hesitant sort of way, eyeing them expectantly, patronizingly and then, instead of asking directly, “Why do you steal from foreign artistes?” “What is music?” “How would you define your music?” “What is the story behind the music?” “How does it feel to churn out confusing music or something like it?”

    “Do you not think you are a problem to music?” we ask: “Are you a sharp-dresser?” “How do you cope with female fans and admirers?” “What is your beauty routine?” “Are you a perfume freak?” “Who is your favourite designer?” And then we pick up the camera we hardly get to use, the tape recorder we hardly get to use and leave, comfortable in the realization that we have done nothing to jeopardize our “right” to “flava” (financial gratification) and other perks.

    Thus we snuff out the life of the proverbial classic music reviews which among other things, explores an artiste or band’s social context, their history, future and explains in glistening prose, their palette, pacing and lyrical nuances.

    Today, we murder the music to appreciate it. Today, we label every mediocre…every lyrical hopeful and wanna-be idol with a demo track, a star, just because we make it easier for them to get on the airwaves and dominate our entertainment pages albeit undeservedly.

    We can blame it on the internet as much as we like…reality is; we have boxed ourselves into the tightest of corners. We are hardly the music gate-keepers we were meant to become. You see, the average music enthusiast no longer needs you or me nor any other form of music gate-keeper or standard-bearer to explain why some piece of music is worthy, ever-green or life-changing when they can just form their own opinions – however mediocre or misleading – buy it, download it and dance to it.

    You see, writing about music is hardly the revered art of expose, trashing of mediocrity and vetting of musical masterpieces as it used to be. And we have painstakingly made it so.

    The readers whose interests we ought to serve and whose interests we continually compromise for the love of the “flava” have decided to jettison their loyalty and reverence of our approximation of how a particular song sounds or what emotions it evokes, however articulate it may be, ever since they discovered that it’s not just that we have sold out professionalism for the “flava” but that we have increasingly become shorn of the mandatory musical gen and artistry – while parading an army of bedazzled wanna-be music critics and bootlickers masquerading as entertainment reporters and writers.

    It’s so amazing, isn’t it…that a pioneer hip hop artiste once deemed his fellow artistes, “errand boys” – and so-called established artistes at that – and yet we who should serve as their conscience and nemesis painstakingly and merrily serve as their errand boys. Sublime, isn’t it?

    Truth is, our music suffers and flutters due to the dearth of competent music journalism, among other factors. The best that we have done and that we could ever possibly do is to serve as errand boys and publicists to every wanna be music star, acclaimed star and charlatan with N10, 000, N5, 000 and well slanted interview plants, prepared in question and answer formats by individual artistes’ in-house publicists and managers.

    Yet our talk is of respect while we serve as errand boys to the artiste, MTN, Globacom, Nigerian Breweries and every other musical show sponsor with the deep-pockets.

    Just recently, an esteemed reader and music enthusiast marvelled why seven national dailies would parade a struggling music star and music talent hunt finalist on their entertainment cover. The answer is simple: she got “flava.”

  • Why we must keep talking

    Why we must keep talking

    President Jonathan announced in his Independence anniversary day broadcast that he had decided to set up a committee, headed by former Senator Femi Okunrounmu, to prepare the ground and modalities for what he called a National Conference/Dialogue. His decision was totally unexpected and caught most observers napping. It has been received by the public with mixed feelings. The President of the Senate, David Mark, has also declared himself in support of a national conference Those, like Professor Nwabueze, leader of The Patriots, a group of elderly persons that had been calling for a sovereign national conference, and a member of the preparatory committee, feel that President Jonathan’s offer of a national conference did not go far enough. It is considered a kind of tokenism. Regrettably, he will not take part in the work of the preparatory committee due to illness for which he is presently receiving treatment abroad.

    Others like Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, have denounced the proposed conference/dialogue as illegal and fraudulent, insisting that only the National Assembly can review or amend our Constitution. But the National Assembly has not shown much resolution in this respect. It has been dragging its feet on the matter. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a leader of the APC, on returning to the country after three months abroad, has dismissed the proposed national conference as diversionary, a Greek gift, intended to cover up the failure of leadership in the PDP Federal Government. But he was careful enough to add that this was his personal opinion and not necessarily that of his party, the APC. There must be some members of the APC, who consider a national conference a good idea, worth supporting. So far, his co-leader in the APC, General Buhari, has not reacted publicly to the proposal for a national dialogue.

    Whatever his real intentions may have been in offering the nation the opportunity of a dialogue, I think President Jonathan should be commended for finally calling such a conference. In fact, the move came as a complete surprise to many as he had previously not shown any real interest in the idea of a national conference or dialogue to talk about the myriad of problems facing our nation at the moment. He says he is calling the conference in response to the yearnings of the people. His decision to call a conference now is courageous as it entails some political risks for his government. Once the conference starts he will be in no position to guide or control it. The tables may in fact be turned against him as it will provide his political opponents a platform for criticising the government for its failures. All the same it is better, as Winston Churchill, the British war-time leader remarked, to ‘jaw-jaw than war-war’. The alternative to talking is war which will not do our country any good at all.

    This is not going to be a sovereign national conference with full authority to take executive decisions on the future of our nation. No responsible government will make that kind of concession as it cannot be sure where such a conference would lead to. The issue here is not whether or not such a conference could end up calling for the dissolution of the nation. That would be a tragedy to be avoided at all cost. Rather, the point being made here is that once again the nation has been given an opportunity by the government to come together and discuss all the problems with which our nation is currently afflicted. Of course, we have in the past had similar conferences. Only as recently as 2007 we had Obasanjo’s National Political Reform Conference. Senator Okunrounmu and I participated as delegates at that conference which I think made some useful contribution to the resolution of some of Nigeria’s critical problems. Yes, it broke up on the third term agenda of President Obasanjo and the issue of true fiscal federalism, which the delegation from the Southsouth wanted reviewed, but which the northern delegation opposed. But there were other recommendations by the Conference that, if implemented, could have solved some of Nigeria’s urgent problems. The decisions of the Conference were referred for consideration to the National Assembly by the Obasannjo government. But nothing came out of it with the National Assembly insisting that any amendment to the Constitution has to emanate from the Legislature.

    Some will argue that nothing has come out of previous national conferences, and that the same fate will befall the proposed national conference. It is true that statistically Nigeria has held more national conferences than other countries. Virtually every Federal Government, military or civilian, has called a national conference in our country to try and resolve some of our problems as a nation. But then Nigeria is in so many ways unique and needs to keep talking to resolve its problems. In 1951, we started with three powerful regions, but now have 36 states instead. Some might consider this as too many and would argue that the Federal Government in the present dispensation has become too powerful, and the states too weak. Without a dialogue these constitutional anomalies will not be resolved. It is the only way to accommodate the fissiparous tendencies in our country. These are legitimate issues that can be discussed at the conference.

    We need to resolve so many issues such as the current incongruous political structure of the country, fiscal federalism, the creation of state police, terrorism, religious and ethnic conflicts, kidnapping, public corruption, the rule of law, mass poverty, and the poor infrastructure in the country. If necessary, the issue of secession may even be discussed fully, frankly, and openly. Reuben Abati, the President’s spokesman, has said there are no ‘no-go’ areas in the government’s programme. Every thing, including secession, is up for discussion. But it is doubtful that any delegate or state would openly call for secession at the conference. Despite our tribal differences and current difficulties, most sensible Nigerians feel it is better to keep Nigeria together than sponsor its break up. Our leaders may fan the embers of tribalism for political reasons, but I doubt if they would really like the country to break up. After all, they are the main beneficiaries of a united Nigeria with the vast economic and financial opportunities it offers them.

    The story has been told of how Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, then leader of the NCNC, advised the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, leader of the NPC, that Nigerians should forget their differences. The Sardauna replied rightly that we should not forget our differences, and must continue to discuss them. That is the spirit in which the proposed national conference should be approached. Nigeria’s problems will not be solved by one conference, one government, or even one generation. It is basically one of poor leadership and governance, not the Constitution, one of the most elaborate ever. Through the kind of dialogue now proposed we must continue to work on this failure of national leadership until a national consensus on values and ethic emerge in our country. If we talk, we can make some progress in solving our national problems. If we do not, then it will make things more difficult for us as a nation. The alternative to talking is another civil war which we may not survive as a nation. Despite fears on both sides of the political divide about its possible outcome, I urge the public to fully embrace the proposed national conference and give it all its support.

  • Sub-standard goods: Absence of consumer protection

    Oga, your two front tyres na China, if na the same you want for the back, na N8, 000.each”. This unsolicited advice was coming from one of the shop attendants that swooped on me as I drove into a tyre retail shop on Awolowo way last week. I had bought the two front tyres a week earlier from the Ladipo spare parts market at N15, 000 each with the shop owner swearing they were original. The two back tyres I was trying to replace cost about N24, 000 each from a once successful but now collapsed Nigerian tyre company that I was told imported them from South Africa.

    But noticing the doubts boldly written on my face, the young sales attendant who was trying to ensure a sale is made added “ But Oga instead of the ‘China’, buy ‘tokunbo’ for only N5,000, you will get better value because na from importers of tokunbo cars we buy from.”

    After the initial confusion, what came to mind was the last month’s acknowledgement by the Director General (DG) of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Ikemefuna Odumodu that “20% of road accidents in Nigeria are due to sub-standard tyres”. Then the reality of how vulnerable and helpless Nigerians that have been left at the mercy of the merchants of death, the importers of sub-standard goods and their street agents, increased the turmoil going on in my mind.

    Odumodu painted a grimmer picture. “Due to paucity of data, SON cannot give the exact figure of how many Nigerians are dying on account of fake products”; What was not  not in dispute is “that the country has become a dumping ground for substandard goods”.

    Testifying before the National Assembly joint Committees on Trade and investment earlier, Odumodu had disclosed that “N1 trillion is spent annually on importation of fake products, 80% of which come from Asian countries”.

    He said items seized in 2012 include N2billion worth of cables, N200 million worth of iron rod and tyres worth N5m. After destroying N2.7b worth of fake goods this year, SON premises is still littered with several trailers loaded with imported sub-standard goods, as well as huge cache of other assorted confiscated goods ranging from gas cylinders, clippers, electrical cables ferried from raided warehouses. But these efforts according to him represent only a tip of the ice bag. In fact one of Odumodu’s staff, Mrs. Chritabel Okoye claimed that “95% of goods in Abuja markets SON visited were fakes”.  The same picture or possibly worse scenarios play out in other Nigerian major cities where apart from substandard goods,  every corner is littered with imported used baby dresses, used baby school bags, used women underwear and assorted second clothes while president Jonathan’s ministers shed crocodile tears over the failure of the N100billion textile sector bail-out.

    Sub-standard goods are global phenomena and a threat to the health and socio-economic development of developing nations. But while other nations including India that recently banned mobile phones without IMEI number that could help authorities track users, along with toys and milk from China, are leaving no stones unturned to address the menace, our own government has continued to demonstrate its ineptitude and insensitivity to the well-being of Nigerians.

    Nigerians already know that a government that is prepared to visit hardship on its own poor as well as its middle class car owners for the theft of about N1.7trillion by members of the governing elite, slam double taxation of about N30, 000 on vehicle owners in the guise of new plate numbers, and allocate a disproportionate share of the national resources to sustain the greed and scandalous life styles of members at the expense of the poor cannot be trusted. But if Nigerians have come to terms with a PDP government that is ideologically committed to the exploitation of the poor, what they did not bargain for is PDP government becoming an accomplice to crimes of a few greedy Nigerians and godless foreigners against helpless Nigerians.

    For instance, the government’s misguided 2011 policy that led to the eviction of SON from the ports in the name of decongesting the ports has resulted in SON chasing symptoms rather than the disease. All they have succeeded in doing is apprehending trailers filled with sub-standard goods and their drivers while the brains behind crimes against Nigerians who cynics believe are government officials or their

    fronts with access to state free funds are shielded. The question has been how many genuine Nigerian business men who laboured for their money will abandon trailer-laden sub-standard goods worth billions of naira at the premises of SON or remain indifferent when impounded goods worth billions of naira are burnt.

    If it has been difficult to unmask the brains behind importation of sub-standard products, critics believe it must be because PDP whose leading members have been fingered as playing ignoble roles in the fuel subsidy and  pensions scheme scams, crude oil theft, banking sector collapse, betrayal of the privatization dream as conceived by the World Bank, etc is involved. Importers of all goods are licensed by government. The CBN has records of money transferred for specific purposes and the goods come in through our ports and borders manned by the customs. And in any case, government has the capacity to trace all imported goods to their source.  Yet for 14 years it has been a game of government hypocrisy.

    It is the same story of hypocrisy with crude oil theft until the ‘new PDP’, came out to confirm what we have always suspected- that government knows those behind the crime while PDP contractors like Doyin Okupe and Ijaw ethnic irredentist like papa Edwin Clark have diverted attention by justifying award of multimillion dollar contracts to government new allies, the repentant Niger Delta militants. And we have no reason to disbelieve the new PDP. Not too long ago, one of the ships apprehended with stolen fuel was traced to a fuel dump allegedly owned by a former minister. Like other scams involving high profile PDP members, their siblings or fronts, the case seems to have died a natural death.

    Perhaps this explains why the British Deputy High Commissioner tongue in cheek, told our government last week on Channels Television Programme that it should  do its job of  securing our borders and waterways instead of chasing stolen crude oil to London market just as SON  now chases imported sub-standard goods to warehouses and markets.

     

    Rip- off and conmen

    Many of the communication service providers are swindling Nigerians and smiling to the banks. Subscribers are debited between N10 and N100 naira for services they never requested for through unsolicited test messages. At between 10 and 50 naira, a service provider with 14million subscribers can rake in between N140m and N740m from only one unsolicited service dumped on unsuspecting helpless subscribers.

    Predictably, government has chosen to look the other way. It is inconceivable that a company driven by profit motive will fritter away millions ostensibly to thank customers for patronage. The Yoruba say “owo Abu ni a nfi se Abu lalejo’ literarily meaning we use Abu’s money to entertain Abu.

     

    SPECTRANET

    As if to put a lie to the above antics, SPECTRANET has demonstrated it is in Nigeria only for profit. Aping government, it has shamelessly adopted the template used by government to extract N30, 000 from its citizens with existing valid vehicle plate numbers, SPECTRANET has even gone beyond merely forcing its subscribers to cough out N18, 000 and three months compulsory subscription for a new modem on the excuse that they have upgraded their equipments even when there was nothing

    wrong with existing subscribers modem obtained less than two years ago. Now subscribers who have been on Spectranet’s  N8,500 ‘unlimited package’ for about two years who complained they are not getting joy in spite of this new rip-off were told by the shop attendants that their unlimited status had been scaled down to 10.GB by fiat ‘because of’ too many subscribers’. Meanwhile, the Indian owners have gone into hiding, while subscribers only moan.

    The irony is that experts have confirmed that the SPECTRANET’s N8, 500 ‘unlimited package’ rip-off, is about 500 times slower than a N1, 500 monthly package subscribers enjoy in Europe. But here those making outrageous profits attribute exploitation of Nigerians to the Nigerian factor-a euphemism for government connivance or ineptitude.

  • Come, let’s reason together

    On October 1 when Nigeria turned 53, President Goodluck Jonathan took a step which he had hitherto vowed not to take. He raised a 13 – man committee to prepare the blueprint for the convocation of a national conference. Not too long ago, the president told the world that there was no need for such a dialogue, with the National and state assemblies in place. As the representatives of their constituencies, these lawmakers, he said, were in a better position to hold such talks.

    For long, many Nigerians have canvassed for a national conference with constituent powers. A national conference that will not be subject to the whims and caprices of the government. Such a conference has its implications and that it seemed was why the president shied away from it. The conference he is now proposing may after all not be the kind of conference the advocates of a sovereign national conference have been clamouring for.

    The kind of conference the president has in mind will not have sovereign powers, I can bet my life on that. Never mind that he has raised a panel to midwife it, the president will still have a huge say in the shape and content of the national dialogue if it holds. I am not being sceptical, but I have this gut feeling whether the conference will hold considering the time left for it and the next general elections. We have about 16 months left to the 2015 elections. If we factor the time for the conference into it, we will find that there will be little or no time.

    The issue is that since the president is the brain behind the planned conference, the talks must hold during his tenure. This means that it must take place before the elections. As we all know, you just don’t jump into an election, you must plan for it, beginning from the electoral commission to the parties. The parties must hold their primaries to pick candidates, who are expected to campaign before the elections. All these must be done within the next 16 months and here we are talking about a national conference.

    It is good to talk no doubt, but this invitation to a jaw – jaw from the president weeks after Senate President David Mark flew the national conference kite looks a bit curious. How did they suddenly see the light that national conference is the way to go in order to resolve some burning issues? Are they sincere in their endorsement of a national conference? Or is it as some people are saying a ploy by them to douse tension over 2015? Really, it is curious that Jonathan and Mark have suddenly seen something good in having a national conference after all these years.

    They were strongly opposed to the conference, which they described in the past as uncalled for since we have a National Assembly, which should take up that task. Indeed, what are we looking for in a national conference that cannot be found in the National Assembly? Are they not both national in character as their names imply? To me, the planned national dialogue is dead on arrival. It will not achieve anything if it ever holds. Unknown to members of the Dr Femi Okurounmu – led national dialogue advisory committee, they may be on a wild goose chase.

    Many of them are upbeat about the assignment because they think that the president means well in bringing them together to plan the talk. This dialogue thing is all a gimmick to quieten the polity, while he digs in silently and systematically in achieving his plan of returning to power in 2015. While we are busy talking, he will be covertly plotting his return to office. Is there enough time left for convening this conference between now and the next elections? The Okurounmu panel has six weeks to complete its job, that is if it is not forced by ‘circumstances beyond its control’ to ask for an extension of time.

    Within these six weeks, it is expected to, among others :

    • consult expeditiously with all relevant stakeholders with a view to drawing up a feasible agenda for the proposed national dialogue/conference;

    • make recommendations to government on the structure and modalities for the proposed national dialogue/conference;

    • make recommendations to government on how representation of various interest groups at the national dialogue/conference will be determined;

    • advise on a time frame for the national dialogue/conference;

    • advise government on legal procedures and options for integrating decisions and outcomes of the national dialogue/conference into the Constitution and laws of the nation; and to

    • advise government on any other matters that may be related or incidental to the proposed national dialogue/conference.

    To discharge this mandate in

    just six weeks is not going

    to be easy and those close to the president, who advised him to take this step know that too well. I foresee that by December, the panel may still be sitting in order for it to, as they will tell us later, ‘’be able to do a good job’’. Let us assume that the panel suggests a time frame of six months for the conference, will it not eat into the period when the country will be preparing for the 2015 elections? Can the country afford to be holding a conference and also be preparing for elections at the same time?

    Won’t there be confusion? What about the cost? Is it advisable to embark on such a costly venture when it is not certain that we will see it to an end because of its likely clash with the election time table? Talk, as they say, is cheap, but the consequences are often unpredictable. Are these latter day converts of national conference ready for this? This should be food for thought for them.

     

    A woman’s burden

    The rape case between a monarch, Oba Adebukola Alli, the Alowa of Ilowa – Ijesa in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State, and a former Corps member, Helen Okpara, ended in an anti – climax of sorts on Tuesday. In our culture, we are reserved when it comes to man – woman relationship. By this, I mean that when a man and woman have aything to do together they keep it to themselves. Men don’t take to the rooftop, shouting that they have slept with this or that woman. That is kiss and tell and men, who are worthy of that name do not indulge in it. Some do to score cheap point or boost their image before friends. Men and women are God’s creatures. One cannot do without the other. This is why God said he created woman to be an helpmeet for man. ‘’For this reason’’, God emphasised, ‘’a man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife and they will become one’’.

    God created man and woman to live in harmony. Over the ages, this has been so, except once in a while when some men show the beast in them by forcefully sleeping with women. In recent times, cases of rape have been rampant. Even tots are raped by men old enough to be their grandfather. Of the lot, the Helen – Alli case stood out before it was concluded on Tuesday. The case generated public interest because of the calibre of the man involved. People wondered why a monarch would rape a woman. If they had their way, the monarch would not have had his day in court. He would have been found guilty as alleged by Helen and not as charged. Justice Jide Falola of the Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun discharged and acquitted him for want of evidence.

    To prove rape, the judge held, the following ingredients must be supplied : the used bedsheet, the victim’s torn underwear, a medical report showing forceful penetration and bruises on the victim’s private part. In a society where a woman risks being ostracised for admitting to have slept with a man, can she be that bold to provide all these requirements if raped in order to get justice? My heart aches for womanhood.

  • Deji Falae, what a terrible loss

    A left Nigeria on September 30, thinking all will be well with our country until I come back but on Thursday October 3, all hell broke out. I got a call from a friend of Deji asking me if I knew where he was. I told him he should know that he would be in Akure where, as a state commissioner, he normally resides. He again sent me a text that he was asking me this in connection with The Agagu burial. Later another mutual acquaintance called me and started crying that Deji was no more. At this point I called my nephew Akin about this strange news. Then the whole episode was made clear to me. I felt very bad about this terrible loss. Deji was like a son to me. He had been introduced to me by Akin my nephew and I later found out he was also a friend to my daughter. I of course know his highly cerebral father and his mother who was my classmate at Ibadan Grammar school higher school class in the 1960s. Deji was my lawyer and helped me with estate services. Over the years he became one of my sons. I would never have thought I will be writing about him in the past tense. I watched his political trajectory with admiration and support not knowing in retrospect that he should have stayed away from politics and public appointment. This is just crying over spilt milk because what will be will be.

    I have agonized over this air crash over and over and wonder why the frequency in Nigeria. Of course with the pervasive corruption in all aspects of our life in Nigeria who knows whether pilots in our country are properly certified? Some of them may be flying with forged certificates. Anything is possible in our country. Some of the planes flying in our country were once described by our minister of aviation during the Babangida regime as flying coffins. One wonders if anything has changed. After a while we would forget about this tragedy and move on as if nothing happened. The only people who will continue to suffer are the families of the bereaved, parents, wives and siblings of the departed souls to whom the tragedy will remain forever a cause of sorrow.

    I remember the last time I saw Deji was at Chief Dele Falegan’s book presentation in Ado-Ekiti. I was the reviewer of the book and he accompanied his dad and mom who are close friends of the Falegans. I could see the joy of the parents when we had to acknowledge the young Deji Falae before his father as protocol demanded. Apart from speaking to him once or twice since then, I hadn’t seen him for a while and never did I think I would not see him again. Nobody can imagine what the poor parents will be going through right now. I do not know what to say to them other than to continue to pray for them for submission to the will of the all-knowing God who alone can make this wrenching tragedy plain to them. To the young family he has left behind, I pray and commend them into the merciful hands of God for Gods care and protection.

    This is the second time I have mourned the departure of a young person well known to me. The Dana crash which is still fresh in our minds took away several young people including Ehime Aikhomu. We wailed and cried and we were told never again, but here we are again. The time is past when government should take a hard look at the aviation industry in Nigeria and allow professionals and experts to run the ministry rather than money seeking politicians sent there to raise money for the next election campaign. In many parts of the world, air travel is the safest means of transportation but unfortunately not in Nigeria. Let us wring from our government that something will be done to put an end to these string of sorrow bearing episodes in our national life. To those of us who have lost loved ones the October 3rd episode, will live for very long time in infamy, sorrow and tears. We have no alternative to making air travel safe in Nigeria if we are not to continue losing our bright and the best people who are very critical to our national development. Many people out of fear prefer to travel by road no matter how distant the journey may be, but this is not the solution because the hazards on the roads are not inconsiderable. If one is not killed by armed robbers and armed police, one could be killed by the craters on the roads. We as a country have gotten to a point when we have to decide to take all necessary measures to ensure that air accidents  do not become a recurring decimal. ADIEU DEJI FALAE

     

  • If his ‘Excellency’ were man on the street…

    If Governor Babatunde Fashola were man on the street, he would understand what it means for the leader of your dreams to be reduced to an ordinary human sound bite. He isn’t. Thus he does not know what monstrosity afflicts the world of the average Lagosian, in the region where his mega-city dreams are yet to birth.

    Now that I may have incited their wrath, this is probably the moment that men who would consider black to be white, and white to be off-white, would counsel Governor Babatunde Fashola to ignore this too as the impotent rant of some poor, desperate journalist pandering to the script of some enfant terrible worrywart.

    Yet such men, probably, are hardly around Governor Babatunde Fashola; the “maverick Governor,” I would love to believe, despises the guts of such sycophants and prostitutes to power. Thus hoping that such uprightness, understanding and humanity are positively inured in the glands of the Lagos State Governor, I make good to say that in Lagos, life is still hardly what it’s supposed to be in most parts, even as you read.

    Few nights ago, a Volkswagen truck lost its grip on a slippery slope, at the junction forking into Ogundele street off Alhaji Oladipupo street off Emmanuel street, Agege. It backed into a motorbike carrying a painter (the cyclist) and his wife. It ran over the painter’s left thigh crushing it in the spokes and probably fractured his wife’s hip because till I left the scene, she could neither sit not move.

    At the backdrop of the mishap, vehicles wreck their bumpers and shock absorbers in unavoidable potholes, craters and mud piles and the residents of the area played host, albeit hopelessly, to a maddening vehicular traffic hold-up at midnight.

    It’s a dangerous ride through Emmanuel, Alhaji Oladipupo and Ogundele streets, through Oja Oba bus stop, off old Lagos-Abeokuta highway. The madness gravitates from the road leading to Agege abattoir, through Abule Egba. On this increasingly cratered road stretch, motorists, apparently mentally disturbed, veer off the appropriate lane to face on-coming traffic from Abule Egba.

    It’s unnerving to see police officers and traffic wardens of the Police post stationed at the abattoir, watch unperturbedly as such disturbed motorists flout traffic rules in careless abandon to face oncoming traffic thus posing the greatest of dangers to other road users.

    It is even more maddening to watch these so-called law enforcers pass on such miscreants while they attempt to forcefully return to the appropriate lane, to the detriment of painstaking and law-abiding road users.

    In Ipaja, Baruwa, Ayobo, Ajasa-Command and environ, residents and road users still groan under the weight of very bad roads, heavy traffic, absence of drainages and insecurity. Save the random presence of a police patrol team at the border where Ayobo meshes with Aiyetoro and Itele road, Ogun State; road users and residents in these areas are frequently left at the mercy of constant street elements characterized by roving urchins and armed bandits.

    Orile-Agege, Tabon-Tabon, Agbado Kollington, Dalemo, Akera, Ijaye-Jankara, Meiran, Alakuko, Ajegunle, Iju-Ishaga among others, remain disgraceful eyesores. Dividends of citizenship of the fabled “City of Excellence” remain ever elusive to poor, helpless dwellers and travelers within these derelict habitats of Lagos.

    Some say it’s because these areas fall within the range of so-called slummy and negligible regions that they are left decrepit, in near collapse. Some say it’s because they are peopled by citizens who fall within the low-income bracket that they are abandoned. Some would joke that it’s because they possess such “hideous” and “local” names.

    If you could prove that these neglected areas are indeed, shorn of valuable and estimable citizenry, I would ascribe to you the unrivalled mastery of he who could gather fume into neatly tied bundles, with twine.

    Should it even matter, the value of citizenry inhabiting these regions before the Lagos State government accords them their constitutional rights to equity in provision and distribution of amenities, justice and security? Should not these regions be rehabilitated and improved upon as Victoria Island (V.I.), Lekki Peninsula, Ikeja Government Reservation Areas (GRA) et al?

    Picture a Lagos where the residents of Ayobo, Agege, Ijaiye, Ipaja, Abule-Egba enjoy the same perks and amenities that lures them all to V.I., Ikoyi, Lekki, Ikeja. Picture a Lagos where residents of Meiran, Alakuko, Agbado-Kollington, Ajegunle, enjoy very good roads and bypasses, along with the conveniences that come with such facilities – like flourishing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), well tended public parks, cinemas and other leisure and tourist attractions. Wouldn’t it be a wonder to behold and dwell in?

    There is need to develop other parts of Lagos as it is been done in the so-called choice neighbourhoods of V.I., Ikoyi, Lekki, Ikeja. The logic is to make the so-called “remote” and “very local” areas of Lagos habitable to all.

    This would no doubt check the desperation of most Lagosians itching to relocate to V.I., Ikeja, Lekki Peninsula, Banana Island as they appreciate in status and affluence. It would also reduce over-population of so-called highbrow area of the Lagos metropolis.

    Governor Fashola perhaps understands the lunacy and dangers inherent in the migration of every upstart, upwardly mobile, wealthy, class-conscious or order-loving citizen to the choicest parts of his mega-city dream – the latter would sooner than expected, become greater purlieus of squalor and dereliction than anyone could ever imagine.

    It wouldn’t hurt Governor Fashola to best his first term record and thus accord Ipaja-Ayobo, Ijaiye, Meiran, Alakuko, Ajegunle, Ajasa-Command among others, more than the passing tribute of a lifting platitude and a sigh. The benefits accruable from such venture are no doubt limitless which probably explains why Governor Ibikunle Amosu of Ogun State, recently visited the cratered terrains of Sango Ota. Moved by the wanton ruin and dereliction of the transit township, he promised to do something about it and true to his pledge, rehabilitation works commenced in the area at midnight. Perhaps Governor Amosu would ensure the rehabilitation would be more than ordinary road patches for the sand and gravel would wash away sooner than expected in the rains.

    Perhaps he would extend such conscientiousness and humanity to the state’s many derelict areas like the road linking Itele, Ogun State with Ipaja-Ayobo, Lagos; and then Owode-Ijako, Agoro road, Dalemo-Toll Gate, Ijoko, Ita Elega, Onikolobo, Ilepa, Ota, Ilo Awela road, to mention a few.

    And maybe Governor Fashola would affect even greater humanity than his Ogun State counterpart and thus transform Lagos into the city of everyone’s dream. This is not some veiled attack on Governor Fashola but an importunate plea that he hearkens, knowing that the true worth of a leader lies not in some of his deeds some of the time but in all of his deeds all of the time.

    Let’s hope his self-confessed loathing for the degenerate and verminous translates to more good roads, functional drainages, conscientious law enforcers, pedestrian foot bridges, law abiding citizenry, equity, justice and peace particularly in the oft abandoned parts of Lagos.

    If he could graciously make manifest such heartwarming and responsible leadership, eons from now, when generations of Lagosians remember Lagos State’s golden years, they will remember when Babatunde Fashola was Governor.

     

  • A bloody birthday

    A bloody birthday

    NOTHING shocks Nigerians. Just when you think you have seen it all, a more terrifying absurdity hits you right in the face and you start struggling to figure it out. But the events in the days leading up to the 53rd Independence Anniversary were really shocking, even by Nigeria’s standards.

    I doubt if there is any horror movie producer who will not be petrified. A bank manager left Nasarawa for Abuja. In the car with him were his driver and a colleague. The journey was smooth; no stress and no traffic snarls. Suddenly, some armed men jumped onto the road. They stopped the car, ordered the driver and his passengers out and shot them dead. No questions. Shocking? Not quite? Wait for this: the evil men set the vehicle on fire and dug a big pit in which they buried the car and the bodies. Days after, the police found the grave and exhumed the car and the bodies. It was all ascribed to the Ombatse cult members.

    Before anybody could make any sense of the savagery, another blood chilling event had occurred, this time in the heart of Abuja – the seat of the government and home of the rich and the powerful. Soldiers and Department of State Security Service (DSS) officers stormed an uncompleted building in the dead of the night while its occupants were fast asleep. They turned their rifles at the building, raising a huge smoke of horror. As the shots rang out, cries of agony shrilled through the night, according to neighbours. By the time the smoke subsided, no fewer than nine men lay dead. Another died later in the hospital.

    Neighbours were frightened. The DSS claimed that the dead were Boko Haram members who, according to the security agents, fired the first shot. Those who knew the victims said they were people eked out a living as tricycle riders and menials without any rifle to fire. But the DSS insisted that some of them confessed to being members of Boko Haram.

    There have been many questions since the incident occurred. Were weapons recovered from them? Where are the exhibits? If two suspects “confessed” to being Boko Haram members, is that good enough an indication that all the occupants were Boko Haram men? Did they resist arrest? How long was the investigation that led to the assault on the uncompleted building? Are we convinced that those were no extrajudicial killings, the type that provoked the blood guzzling monster that is Boko Haram insurgency?

    The rumour is strong that the woman who owns the building, in a desperate attempt to eject the illegal occupants, told security agents that she suspected that they were Boko Haram members. Where is this landlady? Will she live in the house, with the ocean of blood created in there by the rain of bullets? Could this be true? The military and the DSS may have explained the killings as a mere routine in the fight against terrorism, but it is clear that they have put themselves in an invidious position. The argument will go on for long.

    If the Abuja incident was contentious in its motive and the identities of those involved disputable, not so the massacre of students in Yobe. Students of the College of Agriculture, Gujba were in bed last Sunday when a group of armed men stormed their hostel, woke them up and lined them up outside where they were executed. Forty – the official figure – died immediately in the Boko Haram attack. One died the next day in the hospital.

    Poor Governor Geidam. He was all tears. So were many parents who couldn’t find any sane reason for the mass murder of the innocent students. President Goodluck Jonathan was angry. But the popular thinking is that we did not do enough to show that we felt the pains of the parents who lost their children in that insanity. The mood was rather defiant – perhaps to show the architects of the madness that we will never bow; should this stop us from mourning the dead? – instead of being truly sober. Should we have carried on with the events of the 53rd Anniversary as if all was well? I do not think so. Shouldn’t we have declared a national day of mourning? I believe we should have.

    But then, can you win such an argument in a country that is fast losing its humanity and the essence of life and living? A country where everything is reduced to politics and freedom as well as all the other ideals cherished by humanity are being curtailed by forces of evil.

    A dark cloud of gloom fell on Kenya after the mall attack in which 67 people died. The world grieved with Kenya in its moment of trial. What national calamity could be greater than the massacre of 41 students – some are still missing – right in their hostel?

    Before Gujba, there was Benisheik where scores of travellers were pulled out of vehicles and shot dead. The military retreated as the insurgents got the upper hand. Where is Boko Haram getting its weapons from? Who supplies the cash? Are the sect’s attacks planned in Nigeria? How helpful are our neighbours in confronting this wickedness? How strong is our intelligence network? For how long will Boko Haram reign?

    The other day in Kokori, Delta State, a young man staged what amounted to a village square meeting where he railed against the state and the Federal governments for, according to him, neglecting the oil producing community. He issued a 60-day ultimatum for the governments to mend their ways or get whipped. Furious, the government went after Kelvin Prosper Oniarah (aka Ibruvwe), who is popularly known as Kelvin, a suspected hardened criminal whose specialty is kidnapping. In a matter of days, he was captured in Port Harcourt where he had gone frolicking with women of easy virtue. If Kelvin crossed the red line and was swiftly haunted down, how about Abubakar Shekau; has he not done enough havoc? Is it beyond our security agents’ capacity to seize him?

    The Joint Task Force (JTF) once announced that Shekau had died after being injured in a gun duel. Then the man showed up in a video, mocking our military might. When will he sufficiently provoke the authorities to act? President Jonathan was reported as seeking United States President Barack Obama’s help in fighting Boko Haram; are we truly helpless – as it is thought in many informed circles?

    But it was not all about blood and bullets. Love found – it will always do, even in the most stifling of situations – its way. Frontline businessman Emmmanuel Iwuanyanwu turned a beau all over again. Decked in a pair of suit and a tie, his shirt’s collar flying on one side, the chief,72, married a 26-year old beaming belle. The ways of love are, indeed, strange.

    The All Progressives Congress(APC) said the economy had collapsed. States went to Abuja thrice to collect their monthly handout; thrice they came back empty handed. Some said there was really nothing to share; others claimed it was a mere row over disparities in figures. Asked on television to speak on the health of the economy, President Jonathan smiled and declared that all was well. His proof: he rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Can you beat that?

    Consider Jos, Ombatse, Boko Haram, kidnappers and robbers as well as the army of illiterates we are breeding – varsity teachers remain on strike for three months – and think about Nigeria’s future. What is life worth here?

    NCAA and Arik

    VIATION authorities NCAA have sanctioned Nigeria’s leading carrier, Arik, for the unruly behaviour of its passengers who seized the tarmac in Abuja after being flown to Calabar where the aircraft could not land because it was late. The pilot returned to Abuja where it had been delayed because of a VIP movement.

    It’s good to enforce the rules, but I think NCAA should temper justice with mercy. Arik would have had no business flying late if there had been no VIP movement in this country of VIPs who insist on getting first class treatment always. Besides, the airline couldn’t have been able to control its angry passengers. Some discretion, please.

  • The next century of Nigeria – 2

    The next 100 years would have to be different from this last century. The future is of course pregnant, nobody knows what it would bear. But as they say, the child is the father of the man. Unless we radically change the way of doing things, the next 100 years would be difficult. If we do not drastically control our population through appropriate demographic policy, our population would become a burden to us. The rate of growth of this population seemed to have stabilised somehow in the South-west perhaps because of education and the dwindling economy but in the South-east and in the North, the rate of population is still very high. In the North for example especially among our Muslim brothers, the fact that polygamy is tolerated by Islam makes it difficult to enforce any demographic policy unless the number of children is anchored on the woman rather than on the man. But in the South-east where polygamy is not too popular especially among the elite, it is still a matter of celebration when a single woman is able to have as many as 10 children. This sociological factor in population growth would have to be tackled. Religious differences will also have to be contained because it is not in our interest to have a clash of civilisations based on different religions. Religious and population bombs are going to be the greatest threat to Nigeria’s survival in the future. If we can deal with these two factors and rein in the rampant corruption and rapacity in the land and develop our economy away from the exportation of raw commodities, of minerals and farm produce and embark on an industrial economic development so that every Nigerian who wants to work can have work to do and also adopt a policy of careers open to talents and do away with any policy that smacks of affirmative action or discrimination, the next century should be a better century than this last one.

    With more and more Nigerians going to college and getting properly educated, and with the problems of the past being well known and being properly analysed, it should be possible for us to avoid the pitfalls of history if we learn the proper lessons from them. There are certain things that Nigeria must avoid. It is no use comparing Nigeria with America as some people glibly do. We are part of an old continent and we are not an immigrant society. Nigerians love their land and their soil. Different ethnic groups are associated with different parts of the country. The question of indegeneship and settlerism can tear this country apart if not well handled. This is not to suggest that the movement of Nigerians should be restricted to their home origins but the rights of autochthonous people must be respected and not circumscribed and overwhelmed by new arrivals from different parts of the country. It will not be right for people of different ethnic groups living with others to enjoy double privileges of enjoying rights of abode and rights of origin. This is what is the cause of the problem on the Plateau and several parts of the North and may yet pose a problem in the South particularly in Lagos where the question of indegeneship and settlerism is beginning to rear its ugly head. Ideally, all Nigerians should be able to live and work in any part of the country and enjoy the right of citizenship without hindrance but this has to be harmonised with the rights of native people and the successful balance of this in Malaysia should be the way forward.

    There is no country in the world that has no problems and Nigeria cannot be an exception. Our diversity was what necessitated our embrace of federalism as a system of government. Unfortunately, over the years, Nigeria has been moving towards a unitary system of government with consequent conflict. We should in the next century define state rights and find the appropriate economic structure that would preserve the rights of states to control their resources while contributing to a weak centre which would have then devolved powers to the states so that political competition would largely be at the state level rather than the do or die competition for control of the centre. If we do not go this way, we would not have learnt any lessons from the history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and nearer home, Ethiopia and Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau in our region. Even good old Great Britain has found it necessary to concede virtual independence to Scotland and Wales in order to maintain the appearance of the unity of Great Britain. If a country that is almost 1000 years old can do this, we should anticipate future political development that would have disastrous consequences in our country and put in process anticipatory policies to obviate disastrous consequences. The essence of knowing what is possible is to make sure that we avoid what is avoidable and this is particularly important in the life of our nation. Finally, there must be a divine hand in the fact that the largest concentration of black people is in the area of modern Nigeria. This is also the heart of Africa; this is the place of authentic African culture and if Nigeria cannot manage its diversity, then the future of the entire African continent would be in jeopardy. This is why we must embrace our destiny as a people, and deliberately through education, teach our people that we have a responsibility to generations of future Nigerians and the black race as a whole. In a rapidly globalizing world, where as a result of technology the world is shrinking, we cannot as a black race lag behind other races. If we do, our survival will be in doubt because we may be seen as freaks who are not fully human or some kind of intermenschen not ready or fit to compete with the rest of mankind. This may sound rather unfortunate mentioning the factor of race. But the point is that the racial factor has always been important in international relations and we cannot wish it away. The point to make is that we as Nigerians have a responsibility beyond our immediate frontiers. We owe it to the people of Africa at home and in the African Diaspora to be successful. The success of course will depend on how well we harmonise our differences at home and chart a way forward and take our rightful place in the comity of nations. This is our destiny; it should also be our charge and our bounden duty in the next one century.