The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Enugu death shrine

    Enugu death shrine

    The Ugwu Onyeama, a hilly section of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, few kilometres to Enugu once again harvested 18 souls, last Saturday. The grim reaper has been reaping bountifully on that axis for over a decade and unless relevant authorities intervene immediately, many more innocent souls will be sacrificed at that shrine on the highway. The roughly two kilometres stretch is ominous, with a steep hill on one side, like a sacrificial altar, and a deep gully, on the other side, turned into a refuse dump. Ugwu Onyeama is suffused in acrid odour, smog, smoke, carcasses, tragic memories and death traps.

    If an action in Tort of Negligence can successfully be maintained against the state, the abysmal neglect of the Ugwu Onyeama stretch of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway should provide a classic justification for the award of humongous damages in favour of those who have lost their lives, limbs and properties on that stretch. But the doctrine of state immunity and the non-justiciability of the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state may provide a duck for federal and state governments.

    But in some jurisdictions, state immunity is abolished, and I wish such a law can be unearthed, in Nigeria. One example is the Highway Defect Statute in Connecticut, USA: “Any person injured in person or property through the neglect or default of the state or any of its employees by means of any defective highway, bridge, or sidewalk which it is the duty of the commissioner of transportation to keep in repair … may bring a civil action.” 

    This columnist had written more than once, about the abandonment of the dilapidated Enugu-Onitsha federal highway, until the intervention of former works minister, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, during the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari. Before then, even when persons of southeast extraction were holding very important positions in the executive and legislative arms of the government, the highway rotted. The highway was abandoned by the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan, who campaigned as the new Nnamdi Azikiwe, with all the promises to the southeast, most of which were never kept.

    Fashola advanced the repairs of that road which seems to have stalled again under Minister Dave Umahi. It is ironical that despite years of political investment in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially at the federal level, the southeast never gained any significant infrastructural development during their 16 years in power. Interestingly, it was during the regime of Muhammadu Buhari, who did not gain the support of the region at the elections that the reconstruction of that highway, the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, and the second Niger Bridge were reinvigorated.

    Read Also: Nigerians will soon reap benefits of economic policies – Shettima assures

    Sadly, while one side of the Ugwu Onyeama axis has been substantially completed, the other side in use, yet to be repaired, has turned to a harvester for the death shrine. The anguish of those who lost their loved ones last Saturday, at that ignoble shrine pierces the soul. According to a media report, a wailing victim said that all his family members died in the fire. Another said, his in-law who just returned from overseas, got burnt inside a Lexus with five others at the scene.

    Bread winners, promising youngsters, children and all manner of loved ones, have been sacrificed by the inefficiency of the Nigerian system. What rankles is that several persons have died at the scene of last Saturday’s accident, and yet nothing had been done to abate the public nuisance that the dilapidated road construction has turned into. At a point, a military check point on that axis was contributing to the constant accidents, and appeals were made to the General Officer Commanding 82 Division, to get his men out of the place. 

    The Enugu-Onitsha expressway was started during the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, and significantly furthered during the civilian government of Shehu Shagari, but had never been fully completed. There are many who believe that the quality of construction was compromised from the beginning, especially with respect to the thickness of the asphalt laid on the road. That perhaps explains why driving along the failed portions, one can swear that asphalt was never laid on them. Those portions look bare and not different from rural roads that have never seen asphalt before.

    The tragedy of a developing nation like ours is that no one bears responsibility for the failure of a governmental responsibility, even when such failure has caused deep rooted pains to other citizens. Those who have compromised their responsibility over the years, whether as political office holders, civil servants or construction workers, which have resulted in the killing field that Ugwu Onyeama now constitute, would never be known, exposed, shamed and punished. They would dust their coats and go to work the next day after each mayhem as if nothing ever happened.  

    This writer has passed that road several times, and knows that if the two sides of the road were motor-able, the accident would not have happened, and should a tanker fall, there would be minor casualties, if any at all. But because only one side of the dual carriageway is functional, there is usually congestion, and anytime an articulated vehicle loses its balance, or control, the consequences are grave. As happened last Saturday, vehicles and their occupants were trapped, when the tanker fell and spilled its content, which became an Armageddon. 

    This writer’s relation who got to the accident scene shortly after the fire was put off, described how the charred bodies, burnt beyond recognition, looked no different from ordinary animals. President Obasanjo in his book, ‘This Animal Called Man’ pejoratively describes man as merely an elevated animal. Those who are responsible for the neglect of Enugu-Onitsha highway over the years should know that their negligence contributed to the deaths at Ugwu Onyeama, last Saturday. If they have any conscience, it should be pricked by the gruesome agony they have subjected the victims and their relations to, so early in the year.

    Hopefully, Governor Peter Mbah would take charge of that stretch of the road, and quickly complete whatever remains to be done. He must not succumb to the usual excuse that the state is waiting for the approval of the federal government, or the assurances that there would be a refund of the cost of repairs to the state. Having shown his competence with respect to state matters, he should assume immediate jurisdiction over that federal road, under the doctrine of necessity, while the details are worked out later.   

    Luckily, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu visited the state recently, he referred to Mbah as a friend. Also, the Minister of Works, Umahi, is a brother, from neighbouring Ebonyi State. Mbah, should tap into that friendship and brotherhood, and ensure that those who lost their lives, at Ugwu Onyeama shrine, did not die in vain.

  • Friends of Ripples

    Friends of Ripples

    December 2024 was exciting, very exciting — for both news and column writing.

    Kemi Badenoch, the British Tory Opposition Leader, who Sam Omatseye promptly re-named “Oyinbokemi”, was running her mouth to her heart’s content.

    Her native Nigeria was a dystopia beyond redemption.  Her new-found heaven, Britain, even with clear centuries of empire crimes, was a utopia without reproach. 

    Badenoch!  Ever saw an over-zealous neophyte, with a knocked silly psyche — so mixed-up she pissed on her heritage but felt hip, so long as her beloved, right-wing Brits cheered?  Oyinbokemi indeed!

    Teasy Vice President Kashim Shettima nettled Badnoch to junk her Nigerian — not Yoruba — name, but the hyper-educated Mrs. Badnoch unravelled in full emptiness: she was Yoruba, she wailed; and the Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, et al, of the “North” (where Shettima belonged) were her ancestral foes! 

    Who told her so?  The Yoruba Omoluabi ethos, of live and let live?  Or parental poison, buried deep in her child’s soul, now nurtured into a cross-racial gargoyle of self-hate?

    Did you ever see a hyper-educated woman manifest the basest of Plato’s allegory of the cave: that pit-black ignorance, before the naked lamp, then electricity, and finally glorious and dizzying sunlight, tore you from sweet dimness?

    Well, nature abhors a vacuum.  As Badenoch was throwing Nigeria under the bus, two other Brits — and both ethnic Yoruba — gave it a prime sheen, which politics could not.

    Ademola Lookman, 2024 African Footballer of the Year, heralded his win, in Morocco, with a greeting in Yoruba, to the distinguished gathering: “E kaale Nigeria, mo nki gbogbo yin, e se, mo dupe …”

    Mola’s accent was rather quaint. But it was quaint Yoruba that hugged all, repulsed none; which global TV beamed: “Good evening, Nigeria.  I greet you all. Thank you …”

    Read Also: FG assures Nigerians of economic recovery, growth

    It was Shettima’s cheeky challenge come again to haunt — and taunt — Kemi. She self-devalued as no more than a garnished Sunday Igboho — who must hate the Fulani to prove his Yoruba love. Lookman is the quintessential opposite: no need to hate to prove love!

    Every patriot latched onto that loving crow for motherland, in that moment of pan-Nigerian glory! 

    And before “Detty December” exited — that growing global tourism foray into Lagos, Nigeria — guess who fervently knocked, with high praise and love? Anthony Joshua!

    Crest or dale in his world heavyweight boxing odyssey, AJ aka “Sagamu boy”, had always identified with his roots, warts and all. 

    So, when he visited Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) boss, Abike Dabiri-Erewa and hubby, in their Lagos home, it was the Badenoch rebuke, all over again.  The original battle was drawn over Badenoch’s chill towards NIDCOM’s warmth.

    Still, don’t be too hard on Mrs. Badenoch. She has chosen her path — and she’ll float or sink by it. It galls because her cross-racial opportunism courts cheap political gains.

    Yet, Peter Obi manifests no less rank opportunism here — and his own forte is playing (and preying) on faith and ethnic — nay, clannish — divides, as emotive magnet.

    He’s not about to depart that pious cynicism. He knows no other way to sate his zombie Obidient base!

    But that high cynicism, without or within, which Badenoch and Obi epitomize, set the vacationing Ripples thinking of his column friends — across Nigeria’s geo-political zones, tongues and faiths.

    Indeed, all the Badenoch fireworks caught me in the Ilorin home of one of such elderly friends, Uncle Ray Yusuf, a retired NTA broadcaster of the purest crust. 

    But he’s only few of these friends that Ripples ever met — with Uncle Saliu Ojibara, an Ilorin native and chartered accountant of high repute. He is ex-NTA too.

    In his teenage years, he was a celebrated master-dribbler in the Lagos of mid-1960s and mid-1970s.  He was nicknamed “Stanley Matthews”, for his audacious ball skills.

    He rubbed shoulders with the great Haruna Ilerika (of blessed memory), as they set Lagos communal pitches on fire, with exciting  “felele” challenge football!  Uncle Ojii would buy The Nation, every Tuesday, only when Ripples is at work, not when on leave!

    Most other friends, Ripples has not met — and perhaps will never meet.  Yet, no week passes without each getting in touch, to share ideas on how to better Nigeria.

    Madam Pet Mmonu saw the Civil War (1967-1970), in Enugu, as a sub-teenage girl. So, she cringes from the neo-Biafra hot heads that crave blood and gore. Every Tuesday, after reading Republican Ripples, her abiding passion: how do we fix Nigeria?

    Col. Azubike Nass (retd) knows no clannish thinking. He applies his forensic mind to fixing Nigeria.  We met on this page — but have never seen.

    Prof. Ikenna Onyido, quintessential scientist, scholar and former vice-chancellor, calls me son. I call him dad. The one is Igbo. The other is Yoruba.  But that bond is so pure, so strong, it won’t ever end as Okonkwo, in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, killing Ikemefuna that called him father!  Such trust!  We met here!

    Elder Frank Ede left Delta, for Lagos, to present me three copies of his friend, Engr. Alex Neyin’s autobiography: one for Tatalo Alamu; one for Sam Omatseye; one for Ripples.  The magnet was again this column.

    Years earlier, Igwe Pius Ojonile Omachonu had despatched two of his books, for my reading pleasure; and from time to time, we cut and thrust, on WhatsApp, over the Nigerian question!  We’ve never met!

    Can I ever forget Boluwaji Faseyi, the Akure-based youth who dots upon Ripples’ weekly offerings that he’s more or less virtual family, though we’d never met?  Or Habibu Aminu Lawan, the teacher-broadcaster from Kano, who relates as if he’s kith-and-kin?

    These networks beggar Badenoch’s the-North-is-Yoruba-enemy cave mindset!

    But back to Uncle Ray.  In his Ilorin home, a pan-Nigerian family is solving a pan-Nigerian challenge: playing foster-parents to Henry, a Christian teen from Biridaji village, Kebbi State.

    The Yusufs — the patriarch, a Muslim; the matriarch, a Catholic, living happily ever-after! — are a loving rebuke to those who would war over faith and creed.

    Now, a Catholic network, looking out for vulnerable youth — from faith fundamentalism and sundry violence — plants them in safe Catholic homes, away from harm.  He, to help with house chores.  They, to send him to school; or make him learn a trade.

    That was how Henry — I call him King Henry for his winsome smiles and comely ways — ended up with the Yusufs. 

    Again, a pleasant irony: even if Henry was fleeing from faith tension, he has found peace, joy and comfort, with his future assured, in a faith-tolerant home!

    Here, these folks aren’t pointing fingers.  Or like Badenoch and Obi, scavenging for carcasses to foul the air. 

    They, instead, hanker down to dismantle as many challenges as they can, in their quiet homes — and they don’t even squeak about these breakthroughs.

    Committed Nigerians will solve the problems of Nigeria.  Political charlatans — home and abroad — will get what’s coming their way. 

    So, let Oyinbokemi, leaky mouth, et al, stick with her morbid fixation with Nigeria. Those are ripening seeds of her political self-destruction. But she’s too doomed to know.

    Happy new year!

    All too soon, rest is over and it’s time for work.  Happy new year, folks!

  • When outrage is not enough

    When outrage is not enough

    Unlike most Nigerians who, after seeing the short video clip showing the unfathomable ill-treatment of the three-year-old Abayomi Michael of Christ-Mitots School in Ikorodu, by her teacher, Stella Nwadigo, continue to voice their outrage at what they consider as a most egregious violation of a tot by a supposed minder, I still have a bit difficulties in actually resolving the question of which of the actors should be the legitimate target in the circumstance.

    I understand that most Nigerians would probably want to see the principal offender – Stella Nwadigo – hung and dried in the merciless sun, if not for those custom-made slaps that would, even, in normal circumstances, be too much for an adult to take, but for its artful delivery. I say this because of the ease and the practiced care with which she went about the slap business. It was akin to a lady eating the boli (roasted plantain) with palm oil. Given that the mother of the abused child is also a teacher in the same school, one can only imagine what other children with no such ‘privileges’ are made to go through under her watch.

    Clearly, if question of how the barely literate, ill-tempered individual could be put in charge of a classroom of pre-school children is one that the owners of the school are best placed to answer, what about those business it is to ensure that those who handle our children are qualified?

    What of the society that pretends that a child should at least be six years old before being herded into the icy, unfriendly classrooms but makes no provisions for pre-school kids whose parents have a duty to earn a living?

    Yet, there is still another side to the story – which is that someone, yet unknown, actually held the camera to record the cruelty, and then going as far as putting it on the internet for the rest of the world to see! For much as it is tempting to imagine humanity being in the debt of this particular individual for capturing the moment, the profound moral issues thrown up by merely watching the savagery go on, and this on a three year-old, with no indications that any challenge was actually put up by anyone in or out of sight, should be no less confounding.

    Read Also: Simi, Adekunle Gold mark sixth wedding anniversary

    Was the idea behind the photo to draw attention to the obnoxious practices, which although known to be at commonplace but which the larger society prefers to live in its denial? Could it have been a case of the photographer enjoying the moment while the teacher administered the rod of correction?

    At this point, suffice to state that there are simply too many questions on the individual’s motivations to which answers are unlikely to be found – which means that the questions are such that the particular individual will have to duel with his conscience to resolve.

    Here, interested Nigerians might find a good example in the story of Kevin Carter, the South African photojournalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic photograph in 1994 only to commit suicide three months later. To Carter, the image of a starving Sudanese girl who collapsed on her way to a feeding centre with a vulture in tow may have presented one aspect of the Southern Sudanese war that was impossible to ignore. Nonetheless, when The New York Times published the photograph, I believe in 1993, there were as would be expected, far less issues raised about the war as there were about the humanity of the story-teller.

    Did the child die? Why would Carter prefer taking pictures to saving a dying child? As more and more posers were raised by a clearly flummoxed public, things got to a point that questions turned into accusations. I believe the final blow must have been delivered by a newspaper – St Petersburg Times (Florida) in its editorial comment: “The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene.”

    Clearly, if his widely reported interview, moments after his Pulitzer win that after taking the photograph he “lit a cigarette, talked to God and cried”, were meant to salve his conscience, his suicide, weeks after would prove to be less than an atonement for what, admittedly, could only have been a tragic failure of his humanity at a critical time.

    So much for the Abayomi Michael case; the jury is yet out on what to make of the role of the individual behind the camera. At this time, Nigerians would seem beyond care. Most likely, the individual has moved on. Yet, there is just enough blame to go round if Nigerians are to be honest with themselves. Could the individual doing the recording have stepped in to stop the beastly act, or better still, prevent the commission of what now constitutes potential crime? While the other intervention mercifully paid off; would that, in the circumstance, suffice as consolation?

    The answer, in my view, cannot be that straightforward.  Imagine if the tot had died; would the individual have experienced the same current of vindication as he/she’s most likely doing at the moment? Wouldn’t that failure have made the individual an accomplice by default to the crime?

    Thanks to the power of the social media and Nigerians love for story-telling, the stories of Nigerians going for their camera phones at the sight of either tragedy or crimes are increasingly common-place; which is not necessarily a bad thing.

    I understand that there are exceptions when the citizens have little choice but to record an ongoing crime real time. What is unacceptable is when Nigerians begin to imagine the act alone as sufficient to relieve them of the psychological burden to either immediately activate the mechanisms for crime prevention or physically stop the criminal in their tracks. Imagine a Nigerian doing a video shoot of criminals removing manhole covers on Abuja in broad daylight when he or she could easily have called in the police or mobilise other Nigerians to challenge and then apprehend the criminals?

    To me, part of the reasons lawbreakers believe that they can get away with anything is their understanding of the Nigerian psychology, which appears to preclude the potential offender from suffering even the most minor of inconveniences while doing their dirty jobs.  I believe we are now at a point where some doses of active heroism on the part of citizens will do some good.

  • Mele Kyari as almajiri

    Mele Kyari as almajiri

    The revelation by Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer GCEO of the National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on his 60th birthday, last week, that he was formerly an almajiri, is an interesting information. That Kyari, a top Nigerian elite, well-educated, and perhaps one of the most powerful and influential Nigerian, by virtue of the lucrative office he occupies, was once like the starry eyed boys packed in that cargo bus, reportedly rescued from a trafficker, in Abuja, last week, is intriguing.

    In his message, Kyari said: “I am profoundly grateful to my country for giving me the opportunity to grow from an Almajiri (Tsangaya) school pupil to become the CEO of Africa’s largest energy company.” Whether by coincidence or design, as Mele Kyari, was proudly announcing his Almajiri pedigree, the police in Abuja, were parading children, rescued from an alleged child trafficker, who was hauling 59 children, like logs of wood, in a 15 seater bus, without windows, apparently designed to carry goods.

    The ‘trafficked children’, with some holding begging bowls, were packed like sardine, as they were being hauled by their guardian, who himself apparently needs a guardian, to only God knows where. According to the scruffy looking fellow, the children were allegedly being taken to their Almajiri school, in Nassarawa.  He claimed that the dirty, barefooted and hungry looking boys, were released to him by their parents, for them to undertake Almajiri education.

    Unlike the children of Kyari and other elites, the boys were returning to school, without mattresses and beddings, eating utensils and beverages, school and dormitory uniforms, books and writing materials, and similar items, for boarders. Unlike other children going to school, the address was not supplied, so that on school visiting day, their parents can go check out how they are faring with their studies. Apparently, there would be no Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meetings, to ensure that the teachers are teaching what they are supposed to teach.

    Read Also: 2026: Group kicks over alleged opposition to zoning governorship ticket to Osun West

    Under the tutelage of that guardian, there are no school facilities to be inspected and the inspectors of education would have no business checking out whether the school was habitable on not. Unlike the school where the children of Kyari and other elites attend, there is no question whether there are chairs and tables for the pupils, or whether the dormitories are habitable. The state of their residence, if any, may not be different from the airless bus that conveyed them. 

    Looking at their faces, I sought the power of clairvoyance, to know which of them could in future, become the chief executive of a company worth $153 billion, like the NNPCL, that Kyari, who was like them before, now occupies. Sadly, I couldn’t. Perhaps, Kyari went to a different kind of Almajiri school? For it is difficult to fathom how any of the abandoned children who loiter the streets of northern Nigeria, in the name of Almajiri education, can ever amount to what Kyari has become or anything worthwhile. 

    After the arrest of the alleged kidnappers with their victims, the senator representing Kano South senatorial district, Sumaila Kawu, of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) materialized before the cameras, to tell tales by moonlight, that it is their culture to allow children of the poor to loiter hungrily around town, begging for money to feed adults, who claim to be their guardian, while the children of senators, company chief executives and their likes, are enjoying cozy learning environments. A culture that practices class apartheid, to ensure that the children of the elite remain on top, while the children of poor, remains the dredges of the society is repugnant.

    What apparently amounts to irresponsible parenting, has metamorphosed and has been elevated into a culture, and a distinguished senator of the federal republic is proud to own and propagate such culture. To make matters worse, the elites, who have lost every sense of shame, seek to use religion to cover their sins. Yet, there are countries, like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, Syria, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and even Afghanistan, which are predominantly Islamic nations, but which do not engage in such odious practice of child abuse. 

    If the intention of the propagators of Almajiri is the teaching of Islamic education, what stops them from building schools predominately dedicated to such a cause? Both the teachers and the students, can do with clean school environments, uniforms, dormitories, teaching aides, computers, dining halls, and similar things that enhances the quality of life. Who says the Almajiri school system cannot have a curriculum that encompasses plumbing, electrical, plastering, flooring, tilling, roofing and similar skills, that would feed the graduated Almajiri? Why must the learners be so limited that they can only survive on benevolence?   

    Kyari, as an ex almajiri, can through a Foundation, start a model almajiri school, as a way of giving back to the system that laid the foundation for his very successful life. As a former almajiri, he has the credibility to lead a revolution to make the system amenable to modern day living. Senator Kawu and his colleagues, Honourable members, governors, business men and successful northerners, who believe the almajiri model of education is rewarding, as evidenced by Kyari, can sponsor Almajiri model schools, for the benefit of the teeming children roaming the streets of the state capitals and towns in northern states.

    If they succeed, the almajiri children would cease to be counted amongst the out of school children. According to the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), there are over 18 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, and about 69 percent of them are in northern Nigeria. Within that number, Bauchi State has the highest number of about 1,239,759 million, while Kano has about 989,234. At a conference in October last year, in the presidential villa, Vice President Kashim Shettima, reportedly said states like Kebbi, Zamfara, and Bauchi, have more than 60% of primary school-age children not in school. Kebbi has 64.8% of out-of-school children. For secondary education, Bauchi has 66.75%, Kebbi at 63.8%, and Jigawa at 62.6%.

    The Bauchi State governor, Bala Muhammed, who has been up and about threatening the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led federal government with sack in 2027, has not done much to alleviate the cataclysm that the out of school children pose to his state, and to the rest of Nigerians. While gearing to challenge the Tinubu-led administration, at the presidential polls, he has not shown capacity to deal with basic education in the Bauchi State he currently governs.

    The northern elite, particularly those holding political offices and controlling the common resources of the people must show themselves worthy of the leadership positions entrusted in their care. Modernizing almajiri education would help the region’s economy. It is not enough to be masters of political rhetoric, while the masses wallop in poverty and ignorance.

  • NNPCL and OBJ in the news

    NNPCL and OBJ in the news

    I understand why not a few Nigerians are rightly peeved by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s latest but unfathomable voyage of self-justification. Surely, if it seems entirely in the character of this particular individual who fancies himself as next only to the Biblical King Solomon in matters of wisdom and discretion to always court attention, it seems to yours truly, a new day that this very individual, famed for taking the credit for the labour of others, has only now a straw of baleful revision to latch on to.

    There’s no prize for guessing what truly ails the ‘patriarch’. Two of the nation’s refineries – those in Port Harcourt and Warri – long given up for being ‘unserviceable’ are, finally up and running. That this fundamentally undermines and renders flat, Obasanjo’s judgement would seem too much for Obasanjo to swallow.

    Never to give up a fight even in the face of defeat and against all evidence, it is interesting how he’s been going on and on…

    Never mind the crass revisionism, since his first word on the refineries way back in 1999 seems now unlikely to hit the target, he appears to have persuaded himself that only he, deserves the benefit of the last word:

    “Well, you know what I said about the Port Harcourt refinery? Do you remember? I will remind you. I said when I was president, I wanted to do something about the three refineries we have. Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. And Aliko Dangote got a team after I asked Shell to come and run them for us, and Shell said they wouldn’t.

    “I said, please come and take equity. They said no. All right, don’t take equity, come and run it. They said no. Later on I called them. I called the boss of Shell then. Come and tell me what it is. And he gave me four or five reasons.

    Read Also: Oke-Ogun Polytechnic management felicitates spokesman at 40

    “He said, well, first of all, we make our major profit from upstream, not from downstream. Downstream we run just to keep our head above water. Two, the refineries are too small, 60,000 barrels per day, 100,000 barrels and I think 120,000 barrels. He said at that time, the average refinery was going for 250,000 barrels per day. Three, he said our refineries are not well maintained.

    “Four, he said there was too much corruption around the activities of our refinery and they would not want to get involved in that. And when anybody tells you a thing like that, what will you do? And it was after that that Aliko got a team together and they paid $750 million to take part in PPP, running the refinery. My successor refunded their money” – if I may add, for good reasons?

    That is the account of the Wise One.

    If Obasanjo’s handling of the process is any revelation of how he sees himself, the rest of the citizens, and the state which he was privileged to lead, the sale few days to the end of his presidency in utter breach of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, qualifies for a study not just in the corruption of power but also the power of corruption.

    Imagine: the act of returning the $750 million cheque to the Dangote Consortium could only have amounted to the unforgiveable sin for which the late president, Umaru Yar’Adua stands perhaps eternally condemned in the courts of OBJ. Presumably, the only thing worse, at least to Obasanjo, is being reminded, some 17 years after, of how fatally flawed his judgment has turned out to be. Now imagine that this ‘impossible turnaround’ is being steadily delivered under the administration of his nemesis – President Bola Tinubu! That can only be akin to a blow to the solar plexus.    

    Surely, only in Nigeria will a man who had the whole of eight years to take a decision on the refineries but chose to do nothing until the very month of his exit from office (or maybe he needed the aborted third term to take the decision) gloat over nothing.  And if it seems ordinarily inconceivable that the individual would take to the lecture circuit to regale citizens on why the news of the successful revamp of the refineries should be treated as ‘hoax’, the limit to me must be the repulsive and the utterly self-serving anecdote of the farmer who lied about the volume of his crops during the planting season and then concluded that the truth will be soon revealed during the harvest season!

    I am here referring to Obasanjo’s allegory of ‘the man who plants 100 heaps of yams and says he has planted 200 heaps, they say after he has harvested 100 heaps of yam, he will also harvest 100 heaps of lies”! Seems to me the stuff that can only be found in Obasanjo’s strange school of leadership!

    The question is – who between Obasanjo and NNPCL is lying? Surely, it is for Nigerians to judge. However, whereas the institution accused of lying has dared to invite the accuser to verify the state of things at the refineries, the only response from the quarter of the accuser has been a heap of insults! So, where do we go from here?

    In any case, who is NNPCL or even Nigerians to complain about Obasanjo’s legendary obtrusiveness or even conceitedness?

    Should anyone ever need evidence, here is a character portrait from an individual who perhaps should know the man more than the average Nigerian: “You are one of those petty people who think the progress and success of another takes from you. You try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you. You are the prototypical “Mr. Know it all”. You’ve never said “I don’t know” on any topic, ever. Of course this means you surround yourself with idiots who will agree with you on anything and need you for financial gain and you need them for your insatiable ego. This your attitude is a reflection of the country. It is not certain which came first, your attitude seeping into the country’s psyche or the country accepting your irresponsible behaviour for so long… I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs”.

    I should add – a thunderous Amen. Enough said. Don’t ask me who it was that penned those lines. Just google it!

    Once again, happy new year!

  • Two ideas men

    Two ideas men

    The front page picture of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) and Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah (GPNM) of Enugu State, shaking hands, and a seemingly counter advertorial on page 28, titled: “You lied to our president: a reckoning of deception in Enugu State”, published on this paper, on Monday, inspired this piece. While I have no brief to write a rebuttal to that advertorial, I have written several essays, in the past 15 years, in this paper, urging Nigerian presidents to show knowledgeable interest in the affairs of the Southeast.

    Again, while I have had the privilege of meeting PBAT and listening to him for hours before he became president, I have not met GPNM, but have read his interviews and followed his developmental agenda, since he became the governor of Enugu State. My conclusion is that both men, are gifted radical thinkers. They are persons gifted with the capacity to see prosperity where others see adversity. Men gifted by God, like Moses, to strike a rock, and water will gush out, even in the wilderness.

    In Exodus 17:1-7, the Bible tells the story of the Israelites, in the wilderness of Sin, and their thirst for water, for which they were ready to stone Moses, who had brought them out of the Land of slavery, in Egypt. In their desperation, they had questioned Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” Seeing their desperation, Moses importuned God, who told him to take some elders of Israel, with him, and use the staff with which he parted the River Nile, to strike the rock at Horeb.

    When Moses obeyed, water gushed out of the rock, for the people to drink, and the people were happy, and the journey in the wilderness, continued in peace.

    Of course, this piece is not about theology, but about leadership and the challenges associated with it. PBAT and GPNM, like Moses, are leading their people at a very difficult period in their history. When I watched a few clips of the president’s visit, I was amused, at the convivial atmosphere surrounding the visit.

    Read Also: Segun Johnson expresses joy over recognition by Brampton Mayor

    I juxtaposed the friendly atmosphere with the war-like situation during the presidential campaign. Those who showed sympathy for a Tinubu presidency where treated as renegades and saboteurs. The argument that candidate Tinubu had history of performance on his sleeve, and should be given a chance to replicate same at the national level, was derided as a joke taken too far. But he had. The Eko Atlantic city, is one such Tinubu miracle. And there are several others which stood him out among other contenders, for the presidency.

    Until Tinubu, as Lagos State Governor, wrought ideas over strong arm tactics, the federal government was pouring billions of naira, as sand and gravel, to stop the ravaging Atlantic Ocean, that was eating away, the Ahmadu Bello Way, and the prime real estates that adorned that part of Lagos. Listening to Tinubu as a potential presidential candidate in company of the incomparable Segun Ayobolu, and one other fellow, for about five hours, talk about his grand vision for Nigeria, this writer was convinced that Tinubu would be a very capable president, if elected.

    Again, after reading the detailed interview GPNM granted a newspaper, and listening to his talks, this writer was again convinced that Mbah would make a great success of his tenure as governor. While not a man of grand ideas, this writer has the knack, to appreciate great ideas men, when he chances on them. Perhaps, because, though a lawyer, I had the privilege of mentoring under late Chief Charles Adebiyi, former President of Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors, in my formative years, in practice.

    Chief Adebiyi was an ideas man, and I always marveled at his ingenuity. GPNM has shown himself such a man of great ideas, since he became Enugu State governor. The water miracle, in Enugu, within 100 days in office, still beggars belief. The rise in state IGR, from N37.4bn in 2023; to N144.7bn, between January to September, 2024, is incomparable, by a long standard. The state Budget of N971bn for 2025 for a state that budgeted N521.56bn in 2024; N166.6 plus supplementary budget of N15BN in 2023, and N1N186.64 in 2022, again beggars belief.

    Some of the projects PBAT commissioned in Enugu, will be transformational, if followed to the letter. The most significant, is the SMART GREEN schools that the governor is building across the states. What was shown complements the governor’s mantra that tomorrow is here, for the people of the state. In 260 wards across the state, the government is building schools that would transform the learning trajectory in the state. The plan to infuse Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality and mechatronics, in primary schools in the rural and urban cities, would give unprecedented equal opportunity, to every child in the state.       

    So, when PBAT went to Enugu State, last Saturday, this writer was excited that a knowledgeable president was visiting a knowledgeable governor. Instead of a clash of ideas, there will be a synergy of ideas. While PBAT is pushing to deliver $1 trillion national economy, GPNM is working to move the state economy from N4.4bn to N30bn. Clearly, in terms of big ideas, the governor thinks like the president, and that may have influenced the decision of PBAT, to visit the state, first, in 2025.

    This writer has written essays on this page, urging the southeast governors to help the region track back to its accustomed giant developmental strides, which made the Eastern Nigeria, a beacon of development, before the Nigeria-Biafra civil war truncated everything. It is inconceivable that despite the huge national investments in gas infrastructure, there is currently no gas pipeline, in the southeast. Almost, similar to the railways. Happily, the president has made promises to revitalize the Imo River Basin authority, with its potentials for the region, and push forward the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri railway.

    Arguably, a rail line, linking the southeast to Lagos, would be the most economically viable, in the country, and there is no reason why it should not happen under a PBAT presidency that dreams big. This writer has urged the southeast, to support PBAT presidency and is excited that there are signs that the political leadership in the region appears to think similarly. The handshake across the Niger is desirable, even when the people, like the Israelites, complained against Moses, seek for their immediate needs.

    In Numbers 20:2-13, the people of Israel again quarreled with Moses and Aaron, when they could not provide them with water, or grain, or vines, or pomegranates. The Nigerian economy is tough, and life is difficult, and the people will legitimately complain. But with ideas, tomorrow is assured.

    Happy New Year, dear reader.

  • 2025: Who needs a crystal ball?

    2025: Who needs a crystal ball?

    With the clock slowly ticking as humanity makes the final approach into the new year, one can only imagine the bucket list of supplications that would be dumped in heaven’s gate in the year that one lone individual – Donald Trump – has promised will be defined, strictly, by himself alone. With his inauguration barely three weeks away, Trump, courtesy of his MAGA/America First doctrine, has sufficiently served notice that the year, either for good or for bad, will be like no other –in global trade, diplomacy or immigration for America and the world.

    Take this example: Trump in his ruffling showmanship thinks Panama Canal could well be America’s to be taken at his whim: “Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal,” the US president-elect had posted in his cryptic Christmas message – adding “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

    Not done, he actually thinks Canada should be America’s 51st state with its prime minister, Justin Trudeau as “governor” so he could better harvest the boundless prospects of his Greater America.

    And then his remaining nemesis, China, which he conceives as the beast; he insists that the Orientals need to be brought down by punitive tariffs so his America – his White America, could relive the once great dream. As for the rest of the world, they could as well stew in their juices at least to the extent they do nothing to imperil his empire’s grand ambitions. It is after all, Trump’s world.

    I wager that such far-flung issues will be the last thing in the mind of Nigerians as they troop to their religious houses as they are wont to do in the annual ritual of countdown.  Surely, there must be far more immediate things on their plate – from the monstrous principalities of hunger, the ravaging inflation, not least the engulfing atmosphere of insecurity, than the overblown anxieties over the now-familiar eccentricities of America’s wayward returnee-president.

    Read Also: Presidency blasts Bauchi governor over remarks on Tinubu

    However, if one understands those last minute sieges on religious houses by Nigerians as an intrinsic element of transition; the army of religious leaders of every shape and hue ever so available and so eager to cash out on the anxieties through hare-brained prophecies can only be part of troubling culture of citizens’ penchant to outsource their responsibilities.

    Nigerians had better watch out for them as things are already bad enough without the cheap, opportunistic zealots needlessly raising their hopes, (which is not necessarily a bad thing so long as these are grounded in plausibility and undergirded by the lessons on hard work), and stoking their fears.

    Hours into 2025, a section of Nigerians, ever so implacable, could easily write a book about the hardships in the 12 months and how the Tinubu reforms have compounded the pains of the people. If they have not succeeded in painting the past – the same past they only a while ago decried – in glowing colours solely on the grounds that the man running the show, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the one they would love to hate, it has not been for a lack of organised effort. In their efforts to de-market the administration and its policies, they have left little to imagination.

    For a Bola Tinubu administration that neither pretended that the pains of adjustment would be easy, nor that the problems that have endured for decades would lend to quick-fixes, what we have seen, largely from its army of critics, are the same wearisome fixations with tired orthodoxies that created the mess in the first place.  Even those who agree that the reforms being undertaken by the Tinubu administration was not only inevitable but necessary, merely argue that only they could do a good job of it.

    Take Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in the 2023 presidential elections. Asked on a television programme as to what he would do differently on the subsidy issue, the same individual, who had earlier depicted the oil subsidy as organised crime with a pledge not to allow it beyond the first day of his presidency, could only mouth some incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo of an ‘immediate-effect palliative pills’ to be administered on his first day in office to cushion its pains! Talk of political opportunism having no better name or description!

    The same with the ongoing tax reforms; the vocal few sworn to oppose the four bills have since told Nigerians that they couldn’t be bothered to read it! They would rather have the proposals killed before the benefits of appearance on the floors of the parliament.

    In the books of the man leading the charge, Senator Ali Ndume, the gadfly from Borno, leadership, a la democracy, is doing what the people want, simplicita!  In other words, it is not about doing what is good for the people!

    Summary: President Bola Tinubu should be leading from behind on a major pillar of his administration’s reform agenda if only to convince his ilk that he, the president is a democrat! Coming from an individual who has been in parliament in the entire life of the current republic, it is sadly a reflection of how unschooled he appears to be on the subject of leadership.

    This obviously takes us to the prognosis of the coming year. That the outgoing year has been a particularly difficult one is no exaggeration. In the same vein, it is neither useful nor does it make sense for anyone to understate the enormity of the challenges awaiting Nigerians in the coming year. Without any doubt, there is a lot to be concerned about. The revenue side, for instance, might seem encouraging but so also has the debt been growing. While it might well be the case that Nigeria has no debt but revenue problem, the managers of the economy will certainly will do well do pay attention to its management.

    The other is the monstrosity called inflation. Again, if I understand Yemi Cardoso and company at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) so well, it has to be fought ruthlessly. However, much as the CBN is already doing a yeoman’s job to tame the monster, the problem, particularly the food component of it, would appear far more than the monetary tools can effectively wrestle. This is where the federal government needs to do more. The current expectation of bumper harvests is no doubt a good testimonial to the efforts to stabilise the food inflation. Yet, one must hasten to add the other lacuna that has remained somewhat intractable is a reliable and efficient system of logistics on which our hordes of farmers can count on. Clearly, if Lord Frederick Lugard understood this imperative in the last century, one finds it hard to understand why successive governments could not understand its place in the scheme of things.

    Here’s my candid advice on the matter: our old, disused rail network might seem obsolete for moving people in this day and age; there can be no denying its utility in moving cattle and produce particularly in the circumstances that the country has found itself. With good thinking, right investment and proper management, Nigerians might yet discover the gold on those old tracks.

     Here’s wishing Nigerians a happy new year!

  • Samuel Ayodele Olowosulu (1941-2024)

    Samuel Ayodele Olowosulu (1941-2024)

    This is a day I had been dreading for some three years. 

    By his 80th birthday, on August 21, 2021, he had lost his sight. Thereafter he was frequently in and out of the clinic for emergency treatment.  But he fought on bravely, his body wracked by pain, but his sharp mind, his acute intelligence, and his engaging sense of humour unimpaired.

    To those who can only judge by appearance, the end seemed imminent.  But God works by a schedule that we cannot fathom.   And so, God kept Samuel Ayodele Olowosulu, my friend, counsellor, confidant, my brother from another mother, loving and dutiful husband, doting grandfather and great grandfather:  God kept him with and among us for another three years and three months.

    And then at the appointed time, God called him home, ending his pain and freeing him from the burden of memory.  Glory be to God.

    I knew and related with Samuel Olowosulu for much longer than most can claim – longer, I say with all due respect than even his grieving widow, Christiana.  We first met in 1957, as pupils in Class 7B, at St Andrew’s School, Kabba, under the tutelage of the late Mr J O Oluhaiyero.

    Some four months after we left school, fate brought us together under the same roof, he as a fresh employee with Rural Water Supplies in Kano, and I  as a vacationing student from secondary school in Zaria.

    Since then, we have been inseparable.  I spent my holidays with him, and he took good care of me from his slender resources, not minding that I was having the benefit of an education that he never had.  He was always a gracious, provident host.

    Read Also: Yusuf reinstates routine immunisation in Kano

    Samuel Olowosulu lived a life of purpose and lived it well.  He lived a life of honesty and decency.  He retired from the civil service as head of a vast network of government stores that maintained equipment supplying water to the towns and rural areas of Kano State.

    Everyone vouched for his honour and integrity.  Not the faintest whiff of scandal ever cottoned unto his name.

    Whenever expatriate Nigerians in the United States meet, they talk invariably about the situation back home, and about the projects they are undertaking in preparation for their return, or just to make their visits comfortable.

    Tales of deception and betrayal are usually the stable of such discussions.  One after another, they would recount how the funds they sent home for building a house in the village or running a farm or some cottage industry were appropriated by the recipients, who would then use the funds to execute their own projects or to finance a prodigal lifestyle. 

    Fake pictures would be sent to the remitter to show how faithfully his funds were being deployed and his instructions carried out. But it was a scam through and through.

    So, when I told some colleagues that a friend and former schoolmate was supervising my building project in Nigeria, they shook their heads in sorrow and pity.  They said, drawing on the many tales of woe they had heard, that I would regret it.

    “No, I won’t,” I would retort sharply.  “On the contrary, I am counting my blessings.  And I would cite just two examples of how beautifully things were working for me.

    When we finished the decking, we had 60 unused bags of cement left. I knew absolutely nothing about the surplus.  Samuel Olowosulu returned them to the supplier for credit, with the understanding that at the next phase of construction, the supplier would send us 60 bags of cement, regardless of whatever price fluctuations might have occurred.

    After the work crew had helped themselves to the detritus from the scaffolding, he sold what remained for N35,000 and lodged the proceeds in the project account.  He deployed his advanced skills in storekeeping and project supervision to keep the work flowing.  His bookkeeping was exceptional.  He accounted for every kobo, though I rarely asked him to.

    You would never know that his formal education terminated in primary school.  Yet among his children can be counted a professor of pharmacy, and a professor of mechanical engineering.  He took advantage of every opportunity to improve himself through study and reading and learning, to the point that he spoke the English Language far more fluently and competently than many of today’s university graduates.

    His written English was just as competent, enhanced by his exquisite handwriting.  His overall grooming was impeccable.

    That is the man whose beautiful soul we are commenting to our Maker today (December 13).  We mourn, for his was of us and his memory is priceless.  But we also rejoice and celebrate, for he lived a life of honour and dignity and love and decency; a life of service to country and community and to family and friends.

    Hail and farewell, Samuel Ayodele Olowosulu.  Friend, counsellor, confidant, brother.

  • In public interest?

    In public interest?

    Had Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development not been overtly consumed by his planned January trip to Dublin to meet his so-called major airline financiers supposedly to bail out his ailing aviation sector, he would most probably have sufficient time to pore the issues without his rather uncharitable, but quite frankly, characteristic exuberance of dubbing another agency of the same government as ‘careless’ on prime time television.  

    “It was a very careless statement by the agency, making such a pronouncement without consulting the NCAA,” he said of the tiff over which the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, and the local airline, Air Peace had, days before, been locked in combat.

    “The NCAA is responsible for regulating airlines and ensuring compliance with pricing structures. The FCCPC should have allowed us to provide the facts before issuing public statements”, he reportedly told Arise News with a tone of finality.

    Clearly, if for the most part of the interview, the minister chose to be oblivious of the fact that an agency like the FCCPC actually exists, what came out rather alarmingly is that a steward of state sworn to the performance of public duty would choose to play the mouthpiece of a private organisation that was supposed to be under investigation. Citing what he called the overriding challenges faced by Nigerian airlines, including Air Peace, which in his view, stem from capacity limitations and foreign exchange volatility, he made no pretences about which side his ministry’s interest lay in the context of the raging controversies over anti-competitive behaviours of that particular dominant airline operator.

    Nigerians already know how things came to be. Earlier in the month, FCCPC issued a public notice conveying its intentions to launch an inquiry into widespread consumer complaints against leading players in the banking, telecommunications and aviation sectors. The inquiry, it said, were intended to address issues of poor service delivery, exploitative practices and potential consumer rights violations. Specifically named were three entities –Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) for network failures hindering customers from accessing their funds or using their banking applications; the telecommunications giant, MTN, for persistent complaints about undelivered data services, unexplained depletion and inadequate customer care; and finally, Air Peace, for alleged exploitative ticket pricing, including significant price hikes for advance bookings on certain domestic routes. To leave no one in doubt as to the source of its powers, the notice cited the FCCPC Act 2018, particularly Sections 17, 18, 32, 33, 80,110,111, 112 and 113, which it says, empowers it to investigate and resolve practices that undermine consumer rights, disrupt markets or create unfair competition.

    Read Also: 2025 Budget: Fed govt to fund N13tn deficit through borrowing

    Of the three, Air Peace thought little of the inquiry. In fact, the conduct of the airline in the aftermath of the interaction with the FCCPC – and this is typical of the airline – would somehow betray the antics of an entity that somehow considers itself as being beyond regulation. For a supposed business – a serious one at that, it has been tantrums all the way! From claiming to have reported the allegation of exploitative fares by the FCCPC to the Presidency, to an alleged loss of a summer slot in another country to the damage occasioned by FCCPC allegation, to the ludicrous claim that it should actually be charging N500,000 to N700,000 for a one hour flight (coincidentally, this happened in the same week that another airline actually pegged a one-hour flight fare at N80,000), the airline, quite characteristically, has chosen to fall short of addressing the issues at the heart of its tango with the FCCPC! 

    The tragedy here is that the minister, rather than direct his agency, the NCAA to undertake its separate investigations, merely picked up the gauntlet, not on behalf of the public at whose behest he purports to serve, but in defence of the interests of the operator. Yes, if Minister Keyamo saw any substance in those complaints that have long become commonplace, he was neither prepared to acknowledge them let alone finding merits in them. Like the proverbial dog in a manger, he would rather have the foremost consumer protection body, FCCPC do nothing – while his beloved NCAA luxuriates in its Rip Van Winkle sleep!

    Read Also: Tinubu appoints eight new permanent secretaries

    So much for the jurisdictional and operational issues raised by the minister as highlighted in the interview, it must be surely amusing that the minister actually believes that the airlines problems, which he appears all too eager to inundate the public with, actually vitiate the right of the consumer to seek redress with the FCCPC or any other agency for that matter, within the ambits of the law.

    But even worse is the false assumption, again by the minister, that the NCAA’s statutes somehow convey on it the exclusive jurisdiction on matters bordering on consumer rights and protection in the aviation sector. Even in the United States where the Department of Transportation is often assumed to possess exclusive jurisdiction on such matters, we have seen how, not too long ago, a bipartisan group of 36 state attorneys general actually took an unprecedented bold move to ensure that the country’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is granted new powers to investigate airline passengers’ complaints – and this against a 1958 law, under which passenger airlines are exempt from FTC oversight and most state investigations for consumer complaints.

    Said the attorneys general: “Americans are justifiably frustrated that federal government agencies charged with overseeing airline consumer protection are unable or unwilling to hold the airline industry accountable and to swiftly investigate complaints”. 

    Familiar?

    The development, if it must count for anything, is obviously a measure of how the world has changed; an attestation to the primacy of consumer interest in the emerging global aviation eco-system. Applied strictly to the Nigerian situation, it shouldn’t be hard to locate the source of a number of the problems plaguing the aviation in the unwillingness and failure of the players and the regulators to adapt to change and to global best practices. For while it would ordinarily be bad enough that an airline operator would threaten to shut down operations upon being called upon to answer to consumer complaints, (under the patently vainglorious assumption that an entire country should be perpetually indebted to him), what could be worse than the sector’s minister going to a television house to put down an agency of the same federal government? Only in Minister Keyamo’s book!

    Last line:

    It’s been nearly six months since Keyamo’s Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) mounted its toll at the new Lagos international airport terminal requiring each passing motorists to pay N2,000 in cash only! A less distracted minister would obviously have recognised the arrangement for what it is – an infrastructure in service of Corruption Incorporated. Would that also require a trip to Spain to dismantle?

  • Christmas as oyster

    Christmas as oyster

    Christmas season is here again. Soon, the hustle and bustle associated with most major cities would dim and Nigerians would go on holidays. The major markets, after the jostle of buying and selling, would be still, and only hum, till after the New Year. Many senior level workers would take their holidays, and the junior ones would go to the offices perfunctorily. The civil servants would watch the backs of each other, and those who haven’t been to the office for days, would be excused, as having gone to the bank, upon any official enquiry.

    Even with the augury weather of the run-away inflation and the scarcity of the naira ravaging the economy, markets are bubbling and some nearly bursting. The children do not understand the economics of parents not having money, whether in their banks or in their pockets. They expect to breast the season with new clothes and shoes, even if it comes from bend-down boutique. The ingenuity of parents is tasked, on how to raise money to buy food and the accoutrements of the season of celebration.   

    When we were younger, we heard tales of how ingenious poor mothers, would put frying pans on the fire, and while still retaining some water in it, would pour oil to have the ‘jiiii’ impact, as if frying something, to ape the next door neighbour, actually frying a stew. As the Igbo adage says, ‘afo ada aka ihe oriri’ meaning the stomach does not tell tales of what it has eaten. Once it is full and slightly distended, the presumption is that it has been well fed. 

    For the sellers in the market, it is the windfall season. Despite the best efforts of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ((FCCPC), it is a season to exploit buyers. In the euphoria of the season, buyers like the lamb, submit themselves to the medicaments of sweet tongued sellers. When they get home, they wonder what came over them in the throes of the unequal haggling contest with the seller. Unfortunately, it used to be the buyer’s market, but now, it has become the seller’s market. The seller dictates at what price to sell, and the buyer nearly has no alternative.  And their gains would last, deep into the year, when economic activities would pick up again.

    With Christmas ashore, the roads would be empty of the long winding traffic that make life difficult in a city like Lagos, on bad days. Moving across the far-flung parts of any major city would become pleasurable, as the roads become unencumbered freeways. Those who drink and drive would, as my people would say, be pricing death cheaply with the freeways alluring and inviting the foolhardy for a speed contest. Party goers would zoom across the city centres, and touch all the clubs in town, without any stress.

    Day would grow into the night, and the night would bore the day, without a prolonged labour pain. It is a season to joist and jostle, as if the world is all about gain. Eating and drinking would become a contest that everybody wins, as no one remembers the amber of hunger and want that would become aglow again in January. In the ecstasy, school fees, rents and other bills pales far away. After all, we are in 2024, and the tumble for bills, is for 2025.

    The roads leading into the villages would stretch like a carnival parade, with cars and legs jutting and jostling for the distances, as in a parade. Children would walk without complaining. Happiness and festiveness becomes an analgesic, for dumbness and weariness. Piles of kilometres would be covered, to see a daughter married to a neighbouring town, or an aunty, who is like a mother in another village. In the days of yore, only one word was the happiness of the childhood, and that is to ask, uncle or aunty: ‘celebrate Christmas’ for me.

    And to ‘celebrate Christmas’ was to be given a kobo or two, back in the days. With inflation eating up the kobo and making mincemeat of the naira, a child given ten naira now, would wonder, for what purpose? Even the village masquerades are only in the recess of the mind, as the young ones would consider it beneath them, to gather to practice how to dance to funny sounding beats, from drums and gongs when the hot beats of Davido, et al, are there to prance at.

    Read Also: 2025 Budget: Fed govt to fund N13tn deficit through borrowing

    With technology at their palms and ears, entertainment can be privatized, and everyone according to his or her choice. Organizing music for parties does not require the rigor of the last century, or even the early 21st century. With a torch-like equipment, or a flash fixed on a laptop, music can start blaring, and the party is on. Drinks and other enablers have also metamorphosed and the young get on the groove with ease, holding just one bottle of a heavy intoxicant. Some looking deceptively like a soft drink.

    Parents of the old school are warned that when their children sip what looks like a soft drink, regularly, they may be actually getting high, on a dangerous substance. The social media has become another dangerous addictive, such that some may be in Nigeria, and be celebrating Christmas in Asia, Europe or America. For such, Christmas is intercontinental. Even worse, abuses also come from such extra-terrestrial sojourn. Decades back, it would have been unimaginable what a little object, like an android phone, can be used for.

    With an android phone and a few gigabytes of data, the young literally have the world at their feet. On holidays, they listen and watch whatever pleases them. They engage, make vows, take oaths and entangle behind closed doors, and appear outdoor looking very innocent. The happy side is that with such little devices, they can also conquer the world, and bring accolades home. They can learn, earn and grow big barns. With that device, they can trade, train and rain in huge income.

    The season of Christmas should not be for anything ugly, as the reason for the season is Jesus Christ. In the Catholic Christendom, it is preceded by Advent, a season of Hope, Faith, Joy and Peace. But even for non-Christians, they are partakers in the oyster of Christmas. Our country needs hope, that we would get out of the challenges of the present times. Interestingly, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, promotes the Renewed Hope Agenda. Nigerians, need to have faith in their leaders, but the leaders must inspire it.  

    Joy and peace are intertwined in the season of Christmas. And amidst the challenges facing Nigerians, this writer wishes his readers, Nigerians and all mankind, joy and peace. Hopefully I will see you, next year.