The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Common man, common woes, ticking bomb

    Common man, common woes, ticking bomb

    Why opponents of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), often shirk from engagement on ideas, could be gleaned from the March 29 colloquium in Lagos, meant to mark his 62nd birthday.

    It was tagged The Summit of the Common Man.

    On parade were some truly common, and not so common folks. But all were afflicted by the everyday problem in the Nigerian state that incorrigibly boasts the too common plague of shirking responsibility.

    It was the summit equivalent of Lagbaja, the musical persona. Lagbaja, the music man, is masked; the telling anonymity of the street folk that feels the pinch. At the Summit of the Common Man, the common man came well and truly unmasked!

    The roll call: Nasir Bala, Ron Mgbatogu, Bathsaida Home for the Blind — a struggling charity for the disadvantaged and rejected: the quintessential common man — Eric Dooh, Elizabeth Unah, Musa Ali, Adamu Baba, Yusuf Audu, and the unemployed chemical engineering graduate of Niger Delta University, Bayelsa, Sopriye Victor.

    This was a summit of telling symbolisms — how Nigeria has got it wrong; and more importantly, how Nigeria could get it right. It is like a well crafted novel or play: no overt preaching. But the message comes clear from its nuanced plot and rich imagery.

    Justice Isola Olorunnimbe said the opening prayers. He lunched off the Christian way, but with his cap on, after a hilarious joke about the imperative for brevity of prayers on such occasions. But in a jiffy, he made a seamless transition into Islamic prayers!

    That is a South West gift to Nigeria: why should adherents make enemies of themselves, when they pray to the same Almighty God, father of all humanity?

    Then Anglican Cleric, the Most Reverend Ephraim Ademowo, chaired the occasion. Yet, Tinubu is an APC chieftain, the party, by the propaganda of Olisa Metuh, spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is an “Islamic” party. A Christian priest schmoozing with rabid Islamists? A quiet answer to the hare-brained Islamist charge!

    Ironically, that same day, President Goodluck Jonathan was holding a PDP North East zonal rally in Bauchi. Now, the North East has borne the bestiality of Boko Haram and its blood-thirsty insurrection.

    In the neighbouring Buni Yadi, Yobe State, the crazed Islamists brutally slaughtered innocents in a Federal Government College. The president never visited: to commiserate with the slain; or in solidarity with the troops, as commander-in-chief.

    Yet, there was the president in Bauchi, passing the buck, trading blames with North East governors and boasting his party would sweep the North East in 2015!

    Now, was this the normal real-politik issuing from political braggadocio or absolute contempt for the local voters? Still, contrast the Bauchi show with the Lagos summit, and how the APC used the occasion to sell its road map, and it is clear the hustings for 2015 are here.

    The federal ruling party brags, despite its parlous performance. The foremost opposition reasons, despite a discernible pattern of brilliance by its governors. It promises, indeed, a campaign of contrasts!

    But back from political hubris to the common man, the ultimate victim of that hubris. It is also back to the Lagbaja (Yoruba for “somebody”) metaphor.

    All on parade at the summit were just somebody — mere statistics: united in impotence, from tragedies and discomfort, as a result of the omission or commission by the Nigerian state.

    One was a communication royal, even passing through the great portals of Lintas-Lagos, an advertising aristocracy, if ever there was one. But in his grey years, after giving his professional all to his country, the retiree has nothing to fall back on but the hospitality of a church. A country that neither cares for its youth nor its elders is criminal-minded to expect any iota of patriotism.

    Then another, an uncommon common man: a university graduate, a former banker turned farmer. Now, this citizen is no robber, either of the pen or bullet hue. He is irrevocably committed to clean business. But alas! His country trembles at the sight of fertilizer rings. Though he works hard making losses, the fertilizer ring reaps while lazing away — and he is impotent, doing anything about it.

    Yet another fisherman, in the Niger Delta creeks, must lose his means of livelihood because of the almighty crude that spills all over. Now, no thanks to those spills, he is unemployed and perhaps unemployable. Now that his goose is cooked, his country has moved on to more urgent matters, than the plaintive cry of a local fisherman with poisoned ponds.

    The next four are caught in the Boko Haram tragedy in Nigeria’s North East. One lost his uncle, aside from wife that bore him six children. He lectures at the University of Maiduguri and the Islamists wanted him, the very symbol of Boko Haram — Western education is sin — but killed his wife in his stead.

    Another is a teacher in a secondary school, who on two occasions lost his students to the murderous Islamists. The two times his school was attacked, the security forces of his country were caught napping. Though he escaped with his own kids, the trauma of the slain youngsters, under the school’s charge, would live with him for the rest of his days.

    The next two would just not fold their arms, while Boko Haram made a devilish feast of the cream of the local manpower. So, they banded together with others to form the famed Civilian JTF — JTF after the military Joint Task Force. This cadre of braves somewhat succeeded in running Boko Haram out of Maiduguri, into the adjourning rural areas and bushes.

    As confirmed by the victim university and secondary school teachers, Boko Haram’s audacious assassinations have greatly reduced in Maiduguri metropolis, thanks to the Civilian JTF. These braves appear to have heeded the John Kennedy injunction: ask what you can do for your country — and done it. But pray, what has their country done for them?

    The unemployed graduate is the all too grotesque face of the Nigerian youth — hurting, angry, scorned and rejected. But after, even against all odds, she managed to found a beauty salon, came the 2012 “floods of Noah” that sacked everything.

    Now, she is back to where she belongs: the ranks of the unemployed — or, as they of the comfort zone love to snap and leer: the ranks of the university unemployables!

    Still, the Bathsaida Home for the Blind emerged perhaps the most profound image from the summit: a struggling charity that rehabilitated a youth that lost his sight because of inability to pay for a glaucoma surgery that cost N200, 000! The proud beneficiary and no less proud proprietor spoke at the summit. But where was the government and the big charities at the youth’s crunch time?

    The Summit of the Common Man showcased the common man, with common woes, feeding a ticking bomb. The government must do the needful to defuse that bomb.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Policemen occupy Ibadan ‘forest of horror’

    Policemen occupy Ibadan ‘forest of horror’

    •Oyo to shelter mentally-ill

    Policemen from the Oyo State Police Command and the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Abuja, have taken over the Soka “forest of horror” in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    The FCID team, which includes forensic experts, arrived in the state last Friday.

    Residents are prevented from going near the crime scene to enable the police carry out their investigation undisturbed.

    When our reporter visited the scene yesterday, he was politely advised to keep a distance and was not allowed to speak with any personnel.

    Mechanics whose workshops are close to the scene were sacked by the policemen and the street was deserted, but for the security agents.

    The State Security Council met yesterday to discuss the discovery of the kidnappers’ den and how to curb crime.

    The meeting was presided over by Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

    The council assured residents that the operators of the “forest of horror” would be apprehended.

    Commissioner of Police Muhammed Ndabawa told reporters after the meeting that the kidnapper’s den had been in operation for over 10 years.

    Ndabawa said: “From the information available so far, that place has been there for a very long time, perhaps about 10 years. It was initially used by a construction company during the channelisation of the Ogunpa River. After then, the site was abandoned. The kidnappers’ den had been on for a long time but the government (past and present) was not aware of it.”

    He said the forest was discovered following the prompt response of the state anti-crime unit, Operation Burst, to a distress call.

    Besides revoking the Certificate of Occupancy of the land on which the kidnapper’s operated, Ndabawa said the council has told security agencies to identify uncompleted/abandoned buildings in the town to enable them respond promptly to distress calls in the future.

    He said the police had evacuated 42 mentally-ill persons from the streets after angry residents killed two of them, who were suspected to be ritualists.

    The police commissioner said: “After the discovery of the Soka forest, the police rescued 42 or presumed lunatics from the streets. So far, two have been killed. Investigations are ongoing and two of the so-called lunatics have confessed that they were looking for human body parts, but are not related to the Soka incident.”

    Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Affairs Toye Arulogun said the state government would create a temporary shelter with medical personnel and other facilities for the mentally-ill before they are re-united with their families.

    He said: “The Oyo State government has decided to establish a temporary site to accommodate the destitute that were rescued from the streets by the police. That will also go for others as time goes on. This is an invitation to Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and religious groups who have some expertise in this area to support the government.”

  • The making of a boondoggle

    The making of a boondoggle

    Nigeria is set to launch another bid to enter the ranks of the world’s wheat-producing states. Even before the effort gets underway, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Adewumi Adesina has projected that it would boost farm earnings by $42 million and create one million jobs

    The venture, he explained, is designed to curb the alarming rate and huge cost of wheat imports, currently 4 million metric tonnes a year and growing by 5 percent each year. If nothing was done, Nigeria would be spending $10 billion a year on importing the golden grain.

    To reach the projected target, production would be boosted 500 percent from the current 300 metric tonnes a year to 1.5 million tonnes over the next three years. Farmers would enjoy price supports, access to processing equipment, and protection against competition from imported wheat.

    “This is not a mirage,” Dr Adesina, easily the most focused of President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet-rank appointees, said three weeks ago at the Wheat Farmers Field Day in Kadawa, in Kano State. “A silent revolution is happening on farms across northern Nigeria. We have begun the massive distribution of hybrid wheat seeds which gives five to six tonnes per hectare to our farmers through the Growth Enhancement Support and the e-Wallet system.”

    With all due respect to Dr Adesina, the scheme is not new, much less revolutionary. A similar scheme undertaken for the same reason and given similar backing by the administration of military president Ibrahim Babangida some three decades ago was a disastrous failure.

    What follows is my epitaph, “The wheat game is up” (The Guardian, September 22, 1992) to that boondoggle.

    ***

    When the President stopped launching the wheat planting and harvesting seasons and the military governors stopped calling news conferences to proclaim yet another bumper harvest, I knew that the game was up. Confirmation came the other day when the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Abubakar Hashidu, hinted that the ban on the importation of wheat would be lifted. It was a game that should never have been started.

    On paper, the National Accelerated Wheat Production Programme looked great. That, remember, was the era when every product had to be “locally sourced,” in the spirit of “self-reliance.” The wheat import was costing $3oo million a year in scarce foreign exchange, and was catering to the degenerate taste of a parasitic elite who, instead of eating yams or beans or taking ogi for breakfast, or even doing away altogether with that repast in the spirit of belt-tightening, remorselessly stuffed themselves with bread and cake and assorted pastries.

    Away with the subversive grain and the pernicious taste it has fostered. Back to maize and cassava, our own versatile crops which we possess in superabundance, and from which bread can be manufactured for those who cannot live without it. Their addiction is vehemently to be deplored, of course, but even the degenerate are entitled to fundamental human rights that a compassionate government cannot ignore.

    The Federal Institute of Industrial Research at Oshodi came up with scientific proof that bread made from maize or cassava flour was in every respect superior to bread made from wheat flour, especially wheat flour of the imported variety. Moving rapidly from research to production, they manufactured a 100 percent locally -sourced loaf so delicious that the Armed Forces Ruling Council adopted it as an official snack.

    No less a connoisseur than Major-General Oladipo Diya, then a brigadier, endorsed it on national television on behalf of the AFRC. Another breakthrough had been achieved. My own specimen was as brittle as glass and tasted like sawdust, but no matter.

    The nation’s flour mills quickly modified their plants to produce flour from maize and cassava and from any other local source that our food scientists might discover.

    This costly exercise was in progress when the Federal Government announced that it had taken on the historic challenge of producing wheat for the domestic and export market, under the National Accelerated Wheat Production Programme.

    Where what was already being grown, as in Kano, Bauchi and Borno, production would be increased exponentially. And wherever it was demonstrated that wheat could be grown, production would be aided with generous financing.

    Suddenly, every state became a wheat producer. From the desiccated Sahel to the mangrove swamps of the coastal regions, every inch of territory was identified as exceptionally suited for growing wheat.

    Vast acres were cleared for wheat, dormant irrigation schemes were activated, abandoned grain silos were rehabilitated and combine harvesters procured, all in readiness for this new national challenge, and production began in earnest.

    At the end of the very first season, a bumper harvest was proclaimed. Who could doubt it, given the interminable wheat fields that Nigerians saw night after night on national television?

    The more forward-looking states invited President Babangida to come launch the harvest in person. Performed by a lesser person the launch would amount to a vulgar trivialization of an epochal achievement.

    And when the President obliged, what an inspiring event it was! In one state where he was kept away from the launch by pressing national duties, the military governor presided over the proceedings. As a giant combine harvester whirred and whooshed into action, the awe-struck governor was overheard saying, “Wallahi, this is historic.” And so it seemed, indeed.

    Going by the figures issuing from state capitals, Nigeria stood a good chance of being ranked with the United Stated, Canada and Australia as the world’s leading producers of wheat if only the level of production could be sustained for another year or so.

    In newspapers across the country, reporting on what was fast growing into a journalistic speacialism. Reporters covering the beat had begun organizing to launch a Wheat Correspondents Association. On the supply front and in the official news media, it was good news, good new and more good news.

    The only problem was that the flour millers who had meanwhile re-configured their plants to process wheat could hardly find any wheat to buy. Every year, the authorities proclaimed a bumper harvest much larger than the previous year’s bumper harvest. Yet, every bumper harvest resulted only in a more severe drought at the flour mills.

    Meanwhile, the country was awash in smuggled wheat flour, thus reducing the ban on the product to something worse than a legal fiction: a pathetic joke. The more imaginative of our compatriots simply set up bakeries on the border with Benin Republic and ferried bread loaves by the truckload into Lagos and environs daily, since the law did not prohibit the importation of bread. But bread became so expensive that even the parasitic elite could no longer sustain its degenerate preference for that alien product.

    Everyone except the smugglers and those who had cornered the wheat grants has been the poorer from what must now be seen as a very costly miscalculation. Self-reliance is good, but only up to a point. You cannot abolish the law of comparative advantage by decree, much less by slogans.

    When the final accounting is done, it will be found that the wheat game was a colossal blunder that drained the treasury, robbed the government of vital revenue you cannot collect duty on (contraband), filled a few well-protected pockets, enriched smugglers, and brought grief upon everyone else.

    ***

    This of course is not 1992 when the foregoing was written, and the scheme Dr Adesina has outlined is different from that of the Babangida era. But something tells me that the nation may be embarking on another boondoggle. The forces that warranted the recent policy somersault on rice are alive and well.

  • That Lamido’s threat to secede

    That Lamido’s threat to secede

    The ongoing Jonathan’s National Conference now in its third week is fast living up to expectation. As predicted by many, (if you like call them enemies of progress)the gathering is fast turning into a mere talk shop, an avenue to let off steam by delegates who most likely have a clearer vision of a better Nigeria but are left frustrated by lack of opportunities to actualize it.

    And their problem is compounded by the dos and don’ts of the Conference set by its convener: President Goodluck Jonathan. Nobody is expected or allowed to talk about Nigeria’s unity which the convener says is sacrosanct. All decisions must be reached by consensus or 75 per cent if the delegates had to vote to reach a decision.

    The Conference has been likened by some to the Biblical Tower of Babel as the delegates seem not to understand one another and in the ensuing bedlam at one of its sessions last week, the Lamido of Adamawa, one of several traditional rulers appointed as delegates, Alhaji Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha dropped a bombshell and suddenly the seeming chaos stopped.

    The Lamido told the Conference and anybody else who cared to listen that the he and his people in the troubled north eastern part of Nigeria would be prepared to move across the border to Cameroon to join their kiths and kin in the larger Adamawa kingdom at the slightest sign of Nigeria’s disintegration, reminding some of those present that they would probably have nowhere to go if Nigeria ceases to be.

    He probably has a point there. The ancient kingdom of Adamawa spreads across north eastern Nigeria into Cameroon. Though the Lamido as head of the kingdom sits in Yola the capital (in Nigeria) the bulk of his subjects are actually Cameroonians and he probably comes from there as well. So, like a one-time governor of (Nigeria’s) Adamawa State (in the 3rd Republic) Saleh Michika once boasted, Alhaji Mustapha could just walk across the desert into Cameroon at the slightest opportunity, leaving behind whatever was left of a ‘disintegrated’ Nigeria and life for him and his people would continue ‘as if nothing had happened’.

    Call this a threat to secession and you would not be wrong but I would rather see it as a reminder that some people have little at stake in this country and are probably here because of what they can get out of this geographical expression called Nigeria, or better put, this British contraption called Nigeria.

    In the same vein, the Lamido’s comments during debate on the proposed rules of the Conference should be seen in my view as a confirmation of the fact that we are yet to forge a nation out of the people inhabiting this vast country called Nigeria.

    The threat to walk out of Nigeria by the Lamido, speaking for and on behalf of his people as I said earlier is not new. Governor Michika had said so in the past during one of Nigeria’s trying periods as we have now and nothing came out of it. And nothing came out of it simply because no one of Nigeria’s numerous ethnic nationalities seriously wants to leave the country, not necessarily because they would have nowhere to go but out of fear of what a fragmented Nigeria could look like in the context of the scramble for partition that would follow.

    Where would the borders of the Yoruba nation be if Nigeria should break up, River Niger in the North? After all that was the northern border of the sprawling Oyo Empire before the Fulani Jihadists invasion and there are still Yoruba indigenous to Lokoja immediately under the Niger to the south. And to the east Alaafin’s writ extended far into what is today’s Port Novo or Ajase in Benin Republic. Oyo Empire even shared border with Ghana.

    The Hausa/Fulani in the north can claim territories tied to religious and cultural affinities far deep into Chad, Niger and even west wards into Senegal and Mali. So how far or deep would the partition be? Wouldn’t Cameroon want to annex such States as Cross River and Akwa Ibom? The Ijaw would want to annex exclusively the south-south region and its resources if their current disposition to resource control and the Nigeria ‘nation’ is anything to go by and one can imagine the kind of civil war that is likely to take place as the other non-Ijaw try to assert their equality or seek their own nation. And to think Ndigbo would stand by watching with arms folded would be deluding oneself.

    So, it pays everybody for Nigeria to remain as one, the empty threats of the Lamido and his ilk notwithstanding. Disintegration is not the solution to our problem and as the Yoruba would say, cutting off the head is not the solution to or cure for headache. Everybody, every ethnic nationality in Nigeria would have a homestead to return to in case of disintegration, if the Lamido of Adamawa needed to be reminded. Staying together as one is because it is in our best interest, but if we don’t want to stay together again, then let us talk about it and agree on how best to part, but not under any threat. Not from the Lamido or any other person or group in Nigeria, whether from the north, east, west or south.

    But rather than condemn Alhaji Mustapha for his outburst, we should take the bull by its horns and discuss our unity. Why would someone or an ethnic nationality want to leave this ‘nation’? By talking about it at this conference or any other forum would not necessarily translate into disintegration, it could help us to understand each other better and assist in laying a more solid foundation for Nigeria.

    We all know the causes of our problems in this country and the solution but we lack the courage to implement the solution. We have a federation that cannot work the way it is skewed in favour of the central government. But because it is beneficial to some interests, the leadership would not make the necessary change. That is the crux of our problem; self centred leadership. And until we think Nigeria in everything we do, we would not get anywhere near solving our problems not even with this Conference or any other one.

    As for Alhaji Mustapha, the Lamido of Adamawa (worldwide) we should thank him for reminding us of our inadequacies, but he should be reminded that people like him, the privileged class, have contributed immensely to our problems as a country and they should repent and make restitution before nemesis catches up with them. Their day of judgment is around the corner; the generation that would rescue Nigeria from them has come, their time would soon be up.

  • One nation, multiple destinies

    One nation, multiple destinies

    If anyone ever needed evidence of how complex and multi-layered the dimensions of the Nigerian pathology have become, the ruckus over the rules of proceedings at the on-going National Conference ought to provide some guide. The profession of multiple destinies apart, the zero-sum attitudes among the cream of the nation’s leadership would seem to have added a new impetus to the raging national question.

    Given the bitter recriminations and mutual suspicions that have characterised proceedings so far, even the most incurable of believers in the conference idea should be wondering whether the goals of the conference are any achievable. Even at that, it would seem that the battle over the rules of proceedings has only temporarily upstaged the earlier battle over representation over which the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar 111 had led a delegation of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan penultimate week. The same issue of unfair representation – or marginalisation – would equally prompt Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) to protest – with statistics for good measure- what the body called under-representation of Nigerian Muslims.

    Quite understandably, attention has shifted to the shocking outbursts from the Lamido of Adamawa, Mohammadu Barkindo Mustafa. And what did he say? Contrary to what many have reported him as saying, he didn’t quite say that the conference will flop but rather to warn of that possibility “if we are not careful” and the dire consequences should it ever happen.

    Of course, he also said that “if something happens and the country disintegrates – God forbid – many of those who are shouting their heads off will have nowhere to go” – unlike his kingdom of Adamawa which transcends Nigeria and Cameroon.

    The latter statement is certainly regrettable. The truth however is that we have heard worse from elders from other parts of the country without the heaven caving in on our heads.

    Howbeit, the issue for me isn’t really about what he said about his dual allegiances to Nigeria and the Cameroon which he is entitled to; or even his choice of a walkout weapon to deal with his hecklers which comes with the territory of such conferences; it is whether the Lamido as indeed the throng at the conference, truly appreciate how deeply troubled the nation is, and what leadership at such a critical time as the nation is passing through demands. And to imagine that this is coming from the rank of those called up to pull the nation’s chestnuts out of the raging fire!

    The Nation’s ace columnist Idowu Akinlotan in his ever perspicuous Palladium column on Sunday certainly did well to highlight what he calls the disturbing signals emanating from different sections of the polity in the wake of the conference, notably the deep-seated cleavages of religion and ethnicity and what these portend for the survival of the country. The good thing is that these feelings, long buried are at last coming into the open. And now, if it seems a feature of the interesting times we live in, it appears that not even the high-minded liberal ethos of the South-west is a match for the forces of religion and religiosity in what Akinlotan would describe as the complicating role of religion in the nation’s politics. Now at last, the Yoruba Muslim Ummah have not only jettisoned the seductions of the Yoruba culture as an integrating force that bound them with their kiths, they have signalled their preference a new identity defined strictly along the lines of their faith.

    That to me is one important revelation that those in the forefront of the agitation for the dismemberment of the federation should take into account in their clamour for their utopian republic. The lesson of course is that there can be no end to differences among nations.

    Having said that, it seems to me that there can be no understating the challenge posed by the intrusion of religion into our politics. Nigerians appears to have found a resolve to live and have their beings defined in it. Where that leads is a matter of conjecture. However, if current indications are anything to go by, it is a path that leads to a Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

    And the way out? Not until majority accepts the principle that the cleavages have been exacerbated by the hard reality of the dual economy that consigns more and more to the fringes, and the comprehensive meltdown of governance across the board that has become our lot, can we begin to talk of progress.

    Here, if I may borrow the analysis of Mustafa Chike-Obi, the Asset Management Corporation’s Managing Director as reported in Sunday Punch of March 30, to put a perspective to the challenge that the nation currently faces. Now, we know how bad the unemployment situation is. Indeed, it has since grown to the point of becoming an industry, so much so that one out of every two is out of our youth population is unemployed. Much as the situation is troubling enough, another dimension to the population is the population growth currently at 3.5 percent per year – translating to some roughly six million addition to the population per year – for an economy that has done far better to deliver paper rather than tangible economic growth.

    But by far the greatest tragedy is that majority of our idle youths are simply unemployable – lacking requisite skills needed in a modern economy.

    To these class of youths, the current squabble for the spoils of battle by the elite matters very little – at least not yet. Not until the current seductions to false religiosity begins to wane and the anatomy of the manipulators of the nation’s collective destinies stand revealed would the lasting change begin to come. When that time comes, there would be no stopping the mighty army.

    In the meantime, the conferees can continue to have their fun!

  • Unity, without conditions?

    Unity, without conditions?

    By the titling of his book, he nearly caught the bug too — Nigerian Political Parties and Politicians: A Call for National Unity.

    Now, what was this? A scholarly voyage into the daemons of Nigeria’s lack of nationhood? A campaign for Nigeria’s nationhood at whatever cost? Or simply a young patriot’s cry for his beloved country, a passionate plea for some magic, despite stark contradictions?

    After some initial critiquing, he somewhat relented and adjusted the title: Nigerian Political Parties and Politicians: Winding Road from Country to Nation.

    Though the author eventually agreed there ought to be some conditions precedent before a geographical space morphs into a nation, the “unity romantic” in him dies hard still! In his new “winding road” would appear a stubborn optimism that Nigeria would somewhat get it right, and become a nation founded on justice.

    These are the patriotic exertions of Bolaji Samson Aregbeshola, a young Nigerian graduate of Biological Sciences (BSc) and Public Health (MSc), both from the University of Lagos, Akoka.

    Those exertions were products of sorties to public libraries in Lagos to keep the mind occupied, in those anxiety-gripping seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and even years, after National Youth Service; but before nailing the ever elusive job.

    For the young Nigerian graduate, that is a season of immense anguish, great self-doubt, baleful impotence, resentment against a seeming cruel and unfeeling society and an aggressive questioning of the usefulness of the Nigerian government — and state.

    But what would make a youth — and a trained scientist, not social scientist — invest his hurting hours in tackling the Nigerian question?

    For one, Bolaji has had his own Nigeria experience. He spoke of his first-ever visit to Abuja, Nigeria’s “united” capital, with no place to stay. He approached some fellow Nigerians for help. They asked him where he came from. He told them Osun State.

    Then came the ugly epiphany: seek out your Yoruba people to house you! No malice. Just matter-of-fact. It was then the full impact of the question of his nativity dawned on him. In Nigeria’s federal capital, the proud symbol of Nigeria’s unity, it was probably not enough to be simply Nigerian!

    Though this experience cannot be generalised as routine, since a good many Nigerians have less clannish mindsets, that singular experience jolted the author to the not-too-pleasant side of the Nigerian experience.

    Then another, on the economic front, en route to a promising — or sedentary? — career in Nigeria’s federal civil service. He had sat and passed the necessary examinations and interviews; and was well-neigh assured, on merit, of the “slot” — slot because it appeared a thriving convention for active relations in service to secure “slots” for their own.

    Even then, a phone call from a “powerful” minister secured the “slot” for his own “people”! As in the George Orwell original, in the Nigerian Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others!

    But even that did not mellow down Bolaji’s Nigerianness. Even now, the author seems an incurable romantic of “national unity”; who believes (not unreasonably) it shouldn’t matter where you come from; and that your Nigerianness should be enough to corral fair opportunities, so long as you are native to the geographical area called Nigeria.

    Fine principle. But it is a moot point if, in reality, it really works that way.

    Did that trigger the literary odyssey into the past that resulted in Nigerian Political Parties and Politicians? Maybe. Maybe not.

    But the author’s findings did not support the glory often ascribed to the titanic past, of pre-independence and early independence era, even with the groundbreaking achievements of the original three regions.

    Immediate pre-independence and post-independence Nigeria indeed boasted brilliant policies — and development — that made many to put their bet on Nigeria as the country to watch among the denizens of the Black race.

    The titans also boasted remarkable personalities, in three pioneer regional premiers of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (West), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (East) and Sir Ahmadu Bello (North), even as the West set the policy and developmental pace.

    But the politics was as ugly as the policies were brilliant. That was where Nigeria got it wrong — and that is where, 54 years later, it continues to get it wrong.

    That is the notorious point this book emphasises, even with the author’s seeming patriotic fixation with “unity”. Yes, things have got progressively worse. But that is because everything stemmed from a flawed political foundation.

    The genesis, of course, was the British uncritical support for northern demands, in exchange for the region’s leaders’ perceived malleability, in contrast to southern leaders’ perceived difficulty.

    Match that with the South’s fatal mistake that, because the North was educationally disadvantaged, it would be a sitting duck for southern domination. What you get is the foundational recipe for Nigeria’s perennial crisis: a skewed federation ruled by the worst, but doomed to perennial challenge by the best.

    Even, the book’s lunch into political intrigues tends to support the Greek Parmenides’ stance that nothing ever changes.

    For instance, how does Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola’s vandalism of the Western arm of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), in building his Demo coalition against the rump of Awolowo’s Action Group (AG) in the sweepstakes for the West, different from President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cannibalisation of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in this present Fourth Republic?

    Then, the frantic Michael Opara NCNC coalition with Awo’s AG (hitherto sworn political enemies) to form the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), after the SLA masterstroke — how is it different from the defection and counter-defection between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto, Kwara, Kano and Adamawa states?

    And political histrionics: how is the Ahmadu Bello 1953 quip that “the mistake of 1914 has come to light”, in response to Chief Anthony Enahoro’s independence motion in the federal Parliament, different from the Lamido Adamawa walkout threat at the ongoing National Conference, in reply to which Sir Olaniwun Ajayi was absolutely spot on?

    As folks did not call the Sardauna’s bluff 61 years back, what stops another Lamido from playing the blackmail card in 61 years time, if the NC does not call the Lamido Adamawa’s bluff now, and erect an equitable base for sustainable unity?

    Bolaji Aregbesola’s book has reinforced the notorious fact that Nigeria’s politics and politicking have always been dirty. That accounts for the country’s eternal illness and perennial crisis.

    It is time to fix it, or it will fix us. Wish the NC delegates realised the danger we are all in!

  • The new Obasanjo (OBJ)

    The new Obasanjo (OBJ)

    There is a new Obasanjo (OBJ) in town.

    Don’t get me wrong. As far as I know, the former military Head of State and two-term elected President has not sired another offspring lately in or outside the curriculum. To be sure, his born-againism is not all encompassing, as he once, with a mirthful wink, cautioned a friend who expressed surprise that he had not reined in his roving eye. But, to be fair to OBJ, he has been minding his own business.

    If you can get close enough to ask how he is doing, he is unlikely to respond, “I dey like I no dey.” On a good day, he will rejoin rather expansively, “I dey kampe.” On a different kind of day, he will still give the same response, but perhaps with a hint of impatience. But all in all, what you will get is the unvarnished OBJ.

    Much to the relief of Aso Rock, he may not have fired off any missives lately. But that doesn’t mean that he has given up that line of penmanship entirely. Get him worked up, and you will get a dose of what he gave President Goodluck Jonathan the other day.

    Meanwhile, even as he rests that bracing pen, he has found other ways of registering his disdain. He never misses an opportunity to excoriate a certain person in high public office whose solemn word, given not once but twice, counts for nothing. The OBJ who is as blunt as a punch to the nose has not changed a whit.

    He rarely introduces himself these days in a self-deprecatory tone as a chicken farmer. Nor are you likely to find him holding court at his sprawling Ota Farm. But he still takes great pride in farming.

    True, he has stayed away from leadership selection and recruitment in the PDP. Having single-handedly made and un-made six party chairmen, he has earned his rest. Still whenever he sneezes, they catch cold at Wadata Plaza, all the way to Aso Rock. So, this is not about OBJ without clout.

    Nor has there been any indication of a change in his approach to conflict resolution. At one point, the chimurenga, or war of resistance, against the racist white minority regime, was not going well because of personality and ideological differences between the two protagonists, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. This conflict stood in the way of the support that Obasanjo was eager to provide, in keeping with Nigeria’s Afrocentric foreign policy.

    So, the story goes, Obasanjo invited them to Lagos, put them in a room, gave each of them a loaded pistol and said he would be back in 30 minutes to embrace whoever survives the shootout and mobilise Nigeria’s support behind him. Whereupon, he locked the door and departed.

    Thus was born the uneasy collaboration between Mugabe and Nkomo that led to the Lancaster House talks, and ultimately to Zimbabwe’s independence.

    Obasanjo has not changed to the point that you could count on him not to try that formula or a variation thereof between Salva Kiir Mayardit and his estranged vice president Riek Machar during his coming assignment as Africa Union Mediator in the South Sudan conflict.

    Nor is there any indication that the new OBJ will flinch from giving any person the Savimbi treatment if that is what the situation calls for. Savimbi, you will recall, was until his death in combat the leader of the South Africa-backed rebel UNITA army in Angola. I will never forget how, at a chance meeting over lunch with Togolese President Gnasssingbe Eyadema in Lomé, Obasanjo rounded on him.

    “Jonas,” Obasanjo said, calling the guerrilla chieftain by his first name, “I proceed from the principle that my enemy’s friend is my enemy. South Africa is Africa’s enemy. You are South Africa’s friend. Therefore, you are Africa’s enemy.”

    That Obasanjo is alive and well.

    What then does Obasanjo’s newness consist in?

    The newness is to be found in his wardrobe. To finally come right out with it, I am here calling attention to the new, sartorially improved Obasanjo.

    Time was when he went all over the place in nondescript clothes that seemed to have been made by a journeyman carpenter. Never crumpled, to be sure, but seldom remarkable. He would never have won a prize for excellent grooming even if he was the only candidate.

    That is no hyperbole, believe me. I was myself once sole candidate several decades ago for a technical position at a Lagos brewery, and had been assured that the job was mine for the taking. The interview was a formality, conducted to fulfill all righteousness. Yet I did not get the job.

    To return to Obasanjo: He cared passionately about policy and programmes and national unity and how to make Nigeria great, and still does. But about his tailoring, his personal grooming, he did not give a damn. Not even the stylish and delectable Stella Obasanjo, of fond memory, could move him to mend his unprepossessing tailoring.

    And he expected his children to be just as indifferent to matters sartorial. He was genuinely surprised that I was not scandalised when he told me of how one of his young sons had asked him in the time of structural adjustment for all of N25 to buy just a pair of underpants. “On what waist was he going to wear such finery?” he asked in astonishment.

    He was even more astonished when I told him that his son was probably settling for the cheapest stuff in the market and that the young man would be lucky it held together for three months.

    Today, going by his official age of 77years, Obasanjo has got rank among be the best-groomed men of his generation. If you add five years to that official age, as I have reason to do, you would have to bracket him with the venerable pioneer merchant banker Otunba Subomi Balogun and the senior attorney Lateef Olufemi Okunnu as leading exemplars of sartorial elegance in the ranks of the nation’s octogenarians.

    These days, you have to look very closely not to mistake Obasanjo for the younger, unfailingly dapper Aremo Olusegun Osoba. Gone from his wardrobe for the most part are the colourful adire ensembles with the perfunctory embroidery, the nondescript cap that sat jauntily on his head, and the reading glasses that seem to have been purchased from a street vendor at Anthony Bus Stop in Lagos.

    Now, you are more likely to see him decked out in fetching, made-to-measure, tastefully embroidered ensembles cut from the finest fabrics, matching caps that have character and designer eye-wear, all colour-coordinated to produce a visual delight. Everything about the new OBJ bespeaks superior grooming

    Look no farther than any of his recent pictures for the new, sartorially improved OBJ. See how he stands out resplendent in all his new elegance in the picture of former heads of state as they were being presented with the Nigeria Centenary Medal in Abuja the other day.

    The credit for this stunning turn-around belongs unquestionably to his consort Bola, herself a lady of great chic. How did she get Obasanjo who never gave a damn about such matters to submit to her Transformation Agenda?

     

  • New wine, old wineskins

    New wine, old wineskins

    Last week, something I consider as remarkable took place in Abuja. The National Economic Summit Group (NESG) held their 20th summit with the theme “Transforming Education through Partnerships for Global Competitiveness”. The focus was on galvanising a “national consensus on what is required to rebuild, revamp and reinforce the education sector to secure the nation’s future”.

    A conclave of different actors in the educational value chain, call it, an assembly of providers and consumers of products of the educational system as well as other important stakeholders, the common thread in the deliberations was the insistence by participants that challenges faced by the sector were such that demanded more than the ritual of endless dissections and bewailing of the sorry state of the sector.

    For me, the idea of bringing the demanders and suppliers of educational products to same table to forge a consensus on the way forward was remarkable. However, what I consider even more remarkable – beyond the customary resolve to chart a different paradigm to reclaim what is left of a sector in tatters – was the opportunity provided for the interment of the oversold lie that the government possesses all the answers to the problems of the sector.

    For sure, if the lessons of the critical interconnectedness between industry and business – as demanders of educational products which thrusts on them the responsibility of influencers of educational curriculum – and the educational system have been learnt at all, it would appear as coming late in the day.

    Beyond the singular revelation of the paradox of an educational system, steeped in old analogue ways but would rather pretend to be in steady course to the fast-paced digital future where competition and competitiveness rule, the shattering of the long-held illusion which insisted that a country of the future can be constructed on the old, ancient educational paradigm would be for me the defining moment.

    As was made clear from the deliberations, the choice facing Nigeria is either to accept the reality of that imperative to align with the requirement for competitiveness through multi-level investment in the infrastructure for nurturing tomorrow’s skills or in the alternative watch the rest of humanity leave her behind.

    Coincidentally, much as the Abuja conclave proved to be something of a landmark, another event of revolutionary import would be aborted in Edo State. I refer here to the competency test instituted for teachers by the Oshiomhole-led administration in the state. For months, Edo teachers, through the state chapter of their union, the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools had been locked in battle with the state government over the latter’s insistence on determining the continuing fitness of the teachers in its employ for their job. As it turned out, the test, slated for last Saturday was an anti-climax of sorts. Of the 13,000 strong teachers, only 200 – a figure representing less than two percent of those expected –showed up for the test – no thanks to a court order allegedly obtained by the teachers body stopping the exercise. In this, Edo teachers would appear to have borrowed a leaf from their counterparts in Ekiti State where a similar programme tagged Teachers Development Needs Assessment, TDNA ran into a stormy weather in 2012. If my memory serves me right, that exercise had to be aborted by the state government.

    For me, the two events merely underscore the difficult challenges ahead. For starters, I do not think that anyone denies that the debate on how we got to this point is legitimate. After all, the bureaucracy is supposed to have in-built fail-safe systems to sift qualified candidates from the unqualified and to ensure that the former not only makes it to the teachers’ nominal roll. The same goes for rewards which are supposed to be guided strictly by performance/competence. But then we are talking here of our bureaucratic institution – one so steeped in the culture of impunity, of bastardisation of process, in which subversion of rules of hiring are on such scale that would make Max Weber turn in his grave. While the remedial measures ordinarily appear drastic, they are best appreciated in the context of the highlighted problems.

    The issue, understandably, isn’t whether or not the labourer is worthy of his hire. The teachers, particularly in our public schools, obviously deserve far more than what is currently on offer. I say this borne of my profound understanding of their importance in the educational system, in the larger society and also in the shaping of the destinies of our young ones.

    The real problem is that the teachers are not even persuaded that the exercise which holds so much promise for upgrading their status as professionals amounts to anything. Instead, what they see are grand schemes to deny them of the comfort of permanent employment not minding whether the classrooms are empty or full. Not even government assurances that the test merely seeks to identify relevant skill-gaps to enable them take remedial measures. With just enough paranoia to go round about the real intentions of government, the needless scaremongering would seem inevitable. Lost on the teachers is the hefty price on both sides of the divide: the true professional forced to trade off the prospects of enhanced motivation for the morsel – if you like, the drudgery – of lifetime employment, and the society robbed of standards leading to empty schoolrooms.

    The truth of course is that the failure is as much of government and those of the Teachers Registration Council; the former for abdication, the latter for scorning the challenge of self-regulation. To the extent that no one argues these days for the retention of the stenographers of yore in the age of personal computers and tablets, by the same token, the requirements for progress in our world are such that demands modern, cutting-edge skills from those charged with imparting knowledge to our children. Once upon a time, it was possible to suggest that a half-baked teacher is better than nothing; today, most people would wager than an ill-equipped teacher is worse than sweet poison; worse than useless.

    Let me end on this note: the general debate on how to bring the fundamental changes in the educational sector is certainly not about to end. Surely, the debate on the vast range of issues of structure, funding, issue of access would remain open for a long time to come. Much as our teachers are entitled to our understanding, what is not right is their attempt to compel a foreclosure of the debate on quality assurance which the loathed test seeks to bring about. How about teaching us to make a meal of omelette without breaking an egg?

  • Menace of the herdsmen

    Driving at night in Lagos could be fun and pleasurable but it has its own flipside. While one is guaranteed a near traffic free situation on the road, one would also need all the senses to be at full alert because in this mega city anything could happen.

    For those who live around the abattoir at Oko-Oba, Agege or who have cause to drive along Agege Motor Road up to Abule Egba, driving at night requires the use of one’s sixth sense. And the reason is simple.

    From 11 pm or thereabout every day, tens of cattle are released in batches from the main abattoir on to the road and herded by two or three stick wielding herdsmen on their way to the smaller abattoirs scattered all over the metropolis. All you need to look out for are flashlights in the darkness and you know the herdsmen and their cows have taken over the road. You risk being attacked by the cows or their managers if you fail to dim or put off your headlamp. It could be a dangerous experience for a first timer some of whom had ran into the herd of cattle in the past with serious and at times fatal consequences.

    The menace posed to others by the herdsmen and their cows is not restricted to the rural area or farmland alone as city dwellers are also exposed to the danger. The issue of the herdsmen always wanting to have their way without minding the feelings, interests and safety of others is fast assuming a dangerous dimension that requires urgent government attention.

    The problem in the rural area is always grazing right. The herdsmen, mostly Fulani are always looking for green areas where their animals can feed, and in the absence of specially designated grazing zones or areas, farmlands are becoming attractive for this purpose. But the farmer who had toiled to prepare his farm waiting for a bumper harvest would have none of this and is ready to defend his investment even with his life. So, there is always a clash of interest and when the interest is economic you can expect a fierce battle.

    But of recent, the interest is becoming ethnic and political as can be seen from the recent gun attack on the convoy of Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam by some Fulani herdsmen as he was heading to Guma Local Government Area in the state where several Tiv farmers were wounded during clashes with the herdsmen. Since the attack which left many people shocked and alarmed at the dimension this perennial Fulani herdsmen/farmers conflict has taken, both parties have been pointing accusing fingers at each other’s direction, with the governor calling the attackers terrorists.

    The sophistication of the weapons used by the herdsmen in their attack on the farmers has led to speculation that interests other than mere grazing rights are behind the attacks which continued over the weekend at Gbajimba, headquarters of Guma Local government where no fewer than 25 farmers were killed and 50 others injured.

    With the present poor security situation in the country especially in the North East region, genuine fears are being expressed that if the Fulani herdsmen were not stopped by government, elements with interests other than those of the herdsmen could infiltrate their ranks and turn their ‘genuine’ agitation for grazing right for their cattle into another terrorist agitation the type which Boko Haram is championing in some parts in the north.

    Those who know say Boko Haram began with limited sporadic attacks like what the herdsmen are doing now and with no serious effort by government to stop them grew into the monster it is today. The question is who is arming these herdsmen and could their fight be just over grazing rights alone?

    When Boko Haram started we didn’t pay enough attention with the Federal Government treating it as a local problem of the Kanuri of the North East, but today the group has turned into a monster that is threatening not just the north but the security of the entire nation. The group also has the tendency to destabilize the ECOWAS sub region if West African leaders fail to act in unison to defeat this terror.

    When Biafra started then Head of State General Yakubu Gowon thought the police would be enough to contain it and treated it as a police action. What probably could have been nipped in the bud led to 30 months of civil war and loss of millions of lives on both sides.

    I hope the Goodluck Jonathan government would learn from our mistakes with Biafra and the current insurgency by Boko Haram and treat the Fulani herdsmen and farmers incessant clashes in different parts of the country with the seriousness it deserves.

    Ask the farmers in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State and they will tell you of their bitter experience in the hands of the rampaging herdsmen. Today there is a semblance of peace in the area between the two groups. How was this achieved? May be the government of Oyo State could teach its counterpart in Benue and indeed the Federal government one or two things on how to achieve peaceful co-existence between warring groups.

    May be as way of permanently settling this recurring conflict, dedicated grazing zones should be created by both federal and state governments to take care of cattle and other animals grazing. The herdsmen can then be restricted to those areas so created and be provided with infrastructure both for their personal convenience and their animals. The so called nomadic education programme of the federal government could be included in the scheme with schools built for the children of the herdsmen in the grazing zones.

    But more importantly, is it not time we change the way animals are brought from the north to the south? As was suggested sometime in the second republic by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, big abattoirs could be set up in cities in the north like Kano, connected to the railway system where these animals would be slaughtered and transported to the south by high speed train in specially refrigerated coaches. This would eliminate the need for herdsmen to bring their animals by foot or road to the lucrative market in the south and reduce the tendency to clash with farmers on their route over grazing right.

    For those of us in the cities while we thank our stars that we have no farm that the herdsmen could devour with their cattle, the long convoy of cows on the road at night poses danger to motorists who have no choice but drive at night. And to our children, stray cows are also dangerous. So, no one is immune to the menace posed by these herdsmen, but they also need our understanding. I think it is about time government intervenes to protect the interest of all the parties and stop further herdsmen/farmers bloodletting.

     

  • Between Fayemi and Mimiko

    Between Fayemi and Mimiko

    The Nation on Sunday is the only Nigerian newspaper that I have become so addicted to. This is because of its stable of highly cerebral columnists, who, in their high-octane narratives of various issuesforces me into deep thinking and reflection about this badly managed and highly traumatized country and one’s place, if any, in it. I always look forward to what virtually all these columnists would say about anything. In no particular order of importance, I am always in anticipation of what Idowu Akinlotan, Tatalo Alamu, Ropo Sekoni, Femi Orebe, Festus Eriye, Adekunle Ade-Adeleye; Biodun Jeyifo, Lekan Otufodunrin, Tunji Adegboyega, Briane Brown, to name just a few, would say about any of the contemporary socio-economic and political issues of the day in their columns.

    Although these guys are no doubt shouting themselves hoarse about the abject Nigerian condition, I have no doubt that this country and its people would be truly and better served if our political leaders simply heed these voices. Although Brian Brown’s writings are global in nature and outlook, but their effects on Africa and the black race never escapes me. With Brown, you cannot but wonder if our so-called leaders really understand what the global issues are and their impact on their own people. You wonder if they understood the question in the first place let alone havingthe mental acuity to proffer the right answer. Juxtaposing Brown’s analysis of how the Western and the European powers and their institutions are reshaping the global socio-economic order with the vacuous style and the primitive level of governance being displayed by our political leaders, you cannot but wonder if they ever realized how much of the global socio-economic cards are deliberately stacked against them and their people. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that they’re in a race with the rest of the world. And whoever does not know he’s in a race is bound to lose it, so says Brown himself in one of his many articles. But I digress.

    The well-respected Orebe’s column in The Nation on Sunday of February 9, titled “The place of visionary leadership in economic development” in which he chronicled the accomplishments of Governor Kayode Fayemi since he assumed office in 2010 till the present gladdened my heart just as much as it also depressed me. The list of employment-generating and wealth-creating socio-economic infrastructures by Fayemi enunciated by this ace columnist in his piece rekindled my hope that with the likes of Fayemi, my own little corner of the South-west, at least, is poised for better days in my generation. The piece also depressed and angered me when I realized how little has been accomplished by the governor of my own state, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State despite the fact that Ondo State collects probably 10 times more than the monthly federal allocation that Ekiti State receives.

    The innumerable socio-economic milestones that are geared towards the creation of jobs and wealth by the Fayemi administration within a short span of a little over three years in a state that comes second from the rear out of 36 states in terms of federal allocation speaks volume about a leader who knows what needs to be done for his people. This constellation of private business enterprises, not to talk of state-owned investment entities in Ekiti State obviously are poles apart from what obtains in a neighboring Sunshine State that has hardly seen any rays of sunshine, but rather some overcast darkness, both figuratively and spiritually speaking since Mimiko assumed office. It takes a political genius, a well-prepared leader, and a state custodian who takes the people as the centerpiece of development to accomplish what Fayemi has accomplished in office. I cannot regurgitate the developmental feats that Mr. Orebe chronicled in this column for lack of space for the benefit of those Ondo State indigenes who might have missed the piece. But the mother lode of them all, it seems to me (although not mentioned in the article), is the monthly social security benefit of about N5,000 for the state’s senior citizens.

    Even though it pales in comparison, it’s important to bring into the fore Mimiko’s idea of wealth and job creation of his government, in order to properly situate the man’s performance in his five years in office. Mimiko flagged off his administration by announcing the construction of a Dome in Akure about five years ago. This year, this Dome is still under construction even after its cost had been reviewed upward. Mimiko established a Tomato Processing factory somewhere in Akoko in his first term. But no sooner after this factory was commissioned than the place got converted into a pure water factory. Mimiko announced years ago that a cement factory will be built in the state, but the bush where the factory was to be sited is yet to be cleared. Mimiko announced during his first term that privatization of the state’s moribund industries is the way to go in order to spur economic growth and job creation. This is fine and dandy. But Oluwa Glass Factory, one of the industrial flagships of the late Papa Adekunle Ajasin administration which fell under his privatization sledgehammer is yet to produce a single piece of glass years after its privatization. The factory has remained moribund as ever. The state government decided to relinquish its controlling equity in the Okitipupa Oil Palm Processing Factory in accordance with this same privatization policy, but no sooner than this privatization was completed that several financial scandals started to rock the factory’s government-appointed Managing Director. The factory has once again become comatose. The Akure-Oba Ile airport road was started during the first term of the Mimiko administration at a cost of several billions of naira. Not completed, the state government recently announced that this mere eight-kilometre stretch had been awarded at another cost of several billions of naira. The Olokola Free Trade zone, an initiative of the late Agagu administration that could have been a major catalyst in spurring huge economic growth in the entire state was jettisoned by Mimiko because the politics of the Free Trade zone is more important to him than the economic and job-creation benefits of this trade zone would create for the people of the State. One can go on ad infinitum.

    For a state that places second to the last in federal allocations, Fayemi has proven right the time-tested adage that “it is not how much you make that matters but what you do with what you make.” Unless the people of Ondo State reopen their sealed lips and start asking some serious questions about their collective patrimony, we might as well ask Fayemi to annex Ondo State for prudent and intelligent management of the state’s resources. Every concerned indigenes of Ondo State must say NO to the reckless financial profligacy currently underway with the Mimiko administration.

     

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com