The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

Civil War 2012

I enjoyed your historical analysis you titled “Albert agonistes”. I think Prof. Achebe has forgotten Nigerian history so soon or must have been suffering from hangover or senility or amnesia. Please post this article on the website to educate those of his like minds. – Chief Ayo, Ilesa.

Achebe has long been writing in vain for the elusive Nobel Prize. His latest book showed he is filled with malicious rage and perhaps fractured mental balance. Thank you for dissecting his despondency and silly belly-aching. – Anonymous

Those of you hiding Achebe for There was a Country are Yoruba who think Awo is infallible. Achebe is eminently right to relive, as catharsis, his experience during that our dark episode ; just as Soyinka wrote hisThe Man Died, and he – and we – his compatriots are the better for it! This is neither bigotry nor anti-Yoruba outburst. Awo didn’t deny that he didn’t order food blockade but he gave his reasons why he had to do that (The Nation08-10-12). My advice, however, is for Achebe to let go. There was a Country should act as the ultimate catharsis. – +2347068194122

I read your piece and reaction to the ridiculous assertions of Pa Chinua Achebe about the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his new book. Your postulation and analysis are inviting, realistic and academically stimulating. I have some vital questions for Pa Achebe and his horde of blind supporters: what would have been the fate of Nigerians if the Igbo had won the war? –Dave Blankson, +2348058514944.

Re: “Albert agonistes”. Ojukwu could not take orders from Gen. Gowon and unlike Brig. Ogundipe who was the most senior military officer then, he declared a republic within Nigeria and dragged the Igbo and Nigerians into a war they were not prepared for. In war, there are casualties and collateral damages but Ojukwu should be blamed for this and not Awolowo. Prof. Achebe will end up doing himself more harm than good in his latest “tale by candlelight”! –Kayode A, Abeokuta, +2348073821313.

It is very unfortunate that you chose to attack the personality of Achebe, instead of intellectual analysis and constructive criticism. The issues raised: 1. Should starvation/deprivation be used as war tool, like Chief Awolowo did? 2. When you declare “no victor, no vanquished”, should the people (losers) be denied of their life savings in various banks, just like Awolowo did, giving 20 pounds to each Igbo family irrespective of the amount they had in the bank? How about the banning of used clothes – the only cheap ones the Igbo could afford at that time, etc. I hope you can direct your pen to a professional debate and not on personalities. – +2348035181866.

I think your piece was educative and analytical with reasonable facts. With all due respect to Prof. Achebe, his views are extreme, biased and lack analytical merit. Achebe should continue to enjoy his self-exile, instead of throwing “ethnic bazookas” that would continue to create needless tension at home. – +2348023185207.

I am worried about the approach and response of you guys in The Nation to issues that have bearing on the Yoruba. Achebe’s new book which is not even in the market yet is being dissected and you guys are taking part for a whole. How do you review a serious intellectual work from a mere excerpt meant to market the book? Please The Nation is a highly respected newspaper. Don’t destroy it – Dr. Sam Aghalino, Unilorin, +2348039435843.

Ripples: Thank you, Dr. Aghalino, but you, an academic of all people, should know that informed controversies do not destroy newspapers. Rather, they help build newspaper brands. As for your Yoruba/The Nation bother, my answer is simple: Nigeria is a federation and the media is federalised. So, let every shade of opinion fly.

The war came and went. But 42 years after, the atrocities and other issues of the war are still being discussed. You know why? Those things that led to the war are still with us. I may not want to discuss Achebe’s position on Awo. Even as a Biafra veteran who fought on the side of my people aged 15 in 1967, Pa Awo remains a man after my heart for his high level of discipline. But he was very wicked to the Igbos. Achebe has every right to write his memoirs anytime he feels it is right for him. – +2347052461117.

Well done comrade. I suggest people read the books, Brothers at Warby John de St. Jorre (Faber and Faber Ltd, 1972) and Biafra Story by Frederick Forsyth (Penguin London, 1969). The other voluminous book is Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria by AHM Kirk-Greene (a documentary source book, 1966-1970, 2 Vols, Oxford University Press, London 1971). The only solution to all is the convocation of a national conference. Thank you. – Col. Gabriel A. Ajayi, +2348037258268.

“Albert agonistes”, a breakfast well served. One wonders why some people are held in perpetual bondage because of their unforgiving spirit of their own past mistakes, and the mistake of others. ‘Let go’ should have been the rhythm Achebe is dancing to now in quarter-to-end of his life, as against creating more civil wars within a conquered nation. – Yinka Ayanleye, +2348023178156.

Please can you let Achebe and his ilk know that Col. Adekunle Fajuyi chose to die because of Ironsi, an Igbo man; that Soyinka risked his life going inside Biafra to persuade Ojukwu to recoil from war, and suffered solitary confinement for 22 months because of Igbos; that not a single Igbo was killed in Yorubaland and my Igbo lecturer at the University of Ibadan was most at home. Such a pity an 81-year old would choose to foul the air before departing. – +2348065475303.

The Yoruba intelligentsia got it wrong in your response to Achebe’s book. I am happy that you agreed that the Civil War was a gang-up against the Igbo but your allegation that the Igbo ganged up against Abiola remains pure fiction, even if a few of our leaders misbehaved. After all, we did not starve or reduce the Yoruba class to nothing with an equivalent amount of 20 pounds. Igbo too were part and parcel of the June 12 struggle, men like MCK Ajuluchukwu, Arthur Nwankwo, Joe Igbokwe, Udenta Udenta and others. – Arinze Igbueli, +2348058054767.

For those of you with the rare gift of intellectual pen power, the truth which hitherto has been kept from the public is out. What indeed triggered the pogroms was the provocative Igbo youths taunting northerners over the killing of the Sardauna. Can you please delve into the archives for the copy of Drum Magazine that featured on its pages the photograph of the body of Sarduana derisively (between February and March 1966) by the Igbo. Please ferret the Drum edition out, for the sake of posterity. – John Jimoh, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, +2347064370351.

October 23, 2012
Mellanby Hall at 60: Some reflections

How time flies! Mellanby Hall, the premier hall of residence in the permanent site of the Premier University in Nigeria, University of Ibadan, is 60 years already, and, as a great Mellanbite, who has always identified with members of that Great Hall since I graduated from that University 40 years ago, the Hall Master, Professor Agbede, the Hall Warden, Dr A. Fadoju and the Hall Executives invited me to deliver a speech, along with some other prominent Great Mellanbites on Saturday October 6. That event turned out to be an emotional occasion for both the present generation of Mellanbites being prepared for life in Nigeria and those Mellanbites who have long graduated into the world and impacted Nigeria with those virtues and culture with which they were equipped at Mellanby Hall. There are many reasons for us to celebrate that monument called Mellanby Hall, for, embedded in that celebration is the story and history of that great hall. Professor Kenneth Mellanby (seconded from Cambridge University) was the First Principal of the University of Ibadan and that perhaps explains the good sense in the University Council’s decision to name the great hall after him. Secondly, the National Universities Commission, in a recent country wide survey, adjudged Mellanby Hall as the cleanest and best kept hall, not only at the University of Ibadan but amongst all university halls of residence in Nigeria.

Angels don’t come down from above to keep our buildings and institutions. We should therefore single out all those officials, from hall porters, executives, wardens and hall masters from 1952 till date for a special praise and appreciation. Thirdly, we may celebrate those unique and fortunate people who have had the good luck to pass through Mellanby Hall and have therefore been passed through by the culture associated with that great hall. Where do we start from? How many do we want to count in “Adepele’s Dentition”?

Fellow Nigerians, please come along with me and let me share with you, a little bit of my own passage through Mellanby Hall. In our days, once your Higher School Certificate results were satisfactory, all you had to do was pick up an admissions form, fill it and send with your results to the admissions offices of the four existing universities at that time. Within eight weeks, your letter of admission would be sent to your house or postal address. You didn’t have to know any one in those offices, and you didn’t have to visit them either. A few weeks after your letter of admission, your Hall of Residence would be allocated and also sent to you by post, in addition to being pasted at the entrance of each hall. It was through this route and machinery of a superbly efficient university bureaucracy led by the Late Prof. Adeoye Lambo, the Vice Chancellor, and late Nathaniel Adamolekun, the Registrar, that providence and goodluck conspired together to “Jonathan” me into Mellanby Hall, from September 1969 to June 1972. Just like that British Constitution that is so uniquely famous for its being “unwritten”, each Mellanbite was expected, from day one, to adjust to a certain set of unwritten rules and regulations. You have to be a complete gentleman. If you talked too much or too loudly, you were quickly ostracized. You had to be serious and studious, otherwise, no one would identify with you. No matter how lowly and humble your background was, you had to dress well and neatly all the time. Having entered the university through the door of Loyola College, Ibadan, where, from Class 1, up to Higher School, we had been taught and brought up with the tradition that noise making belonged only to the jungle and that being loud and loud-mouthed was a manifestation of an inferiority complex, adjusting to those Mellanby’s unwritten rules was therefore a painless ritual for me.

My sojourn in Mellanby Hall was a turning point for me. It was in Mellanby Hall I discovered myself and how to relate and get along with all tribes in Nigeria. I met many good and outstanding people and cultivated friendships that are still enduring till today. It was from those Mellanbites I got my nickname “Sir Muye”, and, within a short time, “Sir Muye” spread throughout the University Campus! I met Dr Edwin Madunagu, our Hall Chairman in 1969. A quiet and gentle giant, who although didn’t talk too much, his body language sometimes emitted loud and threatening signals which the hall authorities could hardly ignore. I met Akin Famodimu, Yinka Bada, (Students Union President 1969), Tayo Okubote, Adewale Owoade, Dr Olukunle, The Okusami Twins, Tunde Jawando, Chichi Nwachukwu, Yinka Sogbesan etc.

I met Kingsley Adeseye Ogunlewe, the ebullient politician and former Federal Minister (he probably doesn’t know or remember me anymore, but me, I know and remember him very well!). In spite of all those political “shakara” and outpourings, associated with frontline politicians in Nigeria, Adeseye Ogunlewe remains a true, unique and valuable Mellanbite. I met Tonnie Iredia, (which one be Tonnie Iredia sef? Your name is Anthony Iredia and I should know, because you were my Loyola classmate. Maybe your Loyola nickname of “Tony-Ray” was too much of a sweet melody to your spirit, and you had to change to Tonnie after Mellanby Hall. Abi?) Mellanbite Anthony Iredia is a complete gentleman, a hard worker, a humour merchant, with a rare ability to make the likes of Idi Amin, laugh out loudly, and at the same cut him to size with intelligent but diplomatic and embarrassing questions. He ended up his distinguished career in the service of the nation as Director-General of NTA.

Have you ever heard of the name “Groove”? If you haven’t heard of “Groove”, have you heard of Prince Ladipo Sanmi Eludoyin? At times, he is fondly referred to as “O’sha”, but only a few inner circle of friends like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Pius Akinyelure, Afolabi Salami, Kayode Soyombo and some select members of the “Adeola Odeku Conclave” are licensed to call him by that acronym. Sanmi Eludoyin is the Enigmatic Boy Wonder, who, like the Glo Advert, is Ruling his World, with success that has touched many people and governments in many parts of the world. “Groove” Sanmi Eludoyin is very apolitical but ironically, most of the key decisions within South-west geopolitical zone and in some vital sections in the corridor of power in Abuja are never taken without his “for your information”. Ladies and Gentlemen, “Groove” is a distinguished Mellanbite, and I can tell you for free, that the management and students in Mellanby Hall are already making arrangements to honour him and some others with the Distinguished Mellanbite Award” within the next few weeks. Let “Groove” go and “sit down somewhere” for now.

I also met the late Yakubu Abdulazeez and the late Adekunle Adepeju. With due respect to the dead, Yakubu Abdulazeez had a dual personality. He was respected for his over-intelligence and over-brilliance, but because of his penchant for cigarettes smoking, we didn’t appreciate that part of him, so much so, that if he stood in front of you and asked for an obligation, you were most likely to turn him down but if he went back to his room and put the same request into writing and sent back to you, you would most likely and enthusiastically get up to oblige him unconditionally. His talent and ability to pull the crowd with his writings was on display during the 1971 students riot, when, as the Public Relations Officer in the “Chairman Mao” Agunbiade/Tayo Ogungbemile Presidency of the Students Union, he wrote his controversial “A Call To Arms” which moved and incensed most students to obey that call and confronted the Police in a peaceful “face-to-face”.

Unfortunately, a drunken and God-forsaken Policeman pulled the trigger and, who was the victim? That super-gentleman and easy-going Mellanbite, Adekunle Adepeju. That was the day the Nigerian Police lost its innocence and began to put on the garb of recklessness and impunity. May the souls of those two Great Mellanbites continue to rest in perfect peace, Amen.

Saturday October 6, was a day full of Joy and fond memories I will not forget in a hurry. Meeting the Hardworking and selfless Hall Warden DR A. Fadeju, Prof Adeloye, Chief Tunde Oshobi, Hon Rotimi Agunsoye, a former Hall Chairman in 1987 and former Commissioner in Lagos State and his retinue of friends from the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mellanbite Idowu Sowunmi, the rising star writer at Thisday, who, is presently on loan as Senior Special Adviser, and also those young Mellanbites and their Hall Executives, headed by Stephen Omotayo all put together, was a thrilling experience. Mellanby Hall, I am glad and proud that I passed through you and also that you passed through me. Happy Birthday Mellanbites! Let me seize this opportunity to appreciate the V.C, Professor Isaac Adewole, who has done so much within his short tenure to contribute to the stature of Mellanby Hall as an enduring monument.

• Runsewe wrote from Ogbogbo-Ijebu, Ogun State.

October 23, 2012
Welcome, dual society

In a society where dastardly occurences have virtually become daily menu, it is safe to bet that the current rage over the bestial killings of the four undegraduates of University of Port Harcourt in Omuokere-Aluu Community, Rivers State would fizzle out in no time. In other words, the rage would endure – only for as long as it takes the next cycle of horror of greater scale or dimension to occur – after which citizens so minded would again resort to taking stock of how far down the slope we have sunk on the human regression index.

After all, it was not even nearly 14 days after the nation endured a similar horror of gruesome murder of 40 students at Mubi Polytechnic, in Adamawa State. On that particular occassion, the names of victims were said to have been called out from a register only to be shot at point blank! It can hardly get more macabre. Coincidentally, the gory incident happened on a day regarded as sacred on the nation’s calendar – the 52nd Independence Anniversary!

Three weeks on, all manners of theories have popped up on the possible suspects and motives; the missing link is the suggestion that a breakthrough is near the corner. The police have neither found helpful clues nor the communities been helpful in tracking the killers. They may well have come from any of those mountainous tribes close to the Afghan border!

Of course, the case of 16 innocent worshipers mowed down by gunmen during their service on August 6 is still fresh. True, arrests were made; beyond that, nothing has been heard about whether those held are the real killers of the worshippers or not.

A lot has been said about the failing Nigerian state. But the murder of the lads stands apart in its savagery even in the worst of times. Last weekend, I finally summoned the courage to watch the video on You Tube. Let me confes: I regretted the experience. Of course, I detected something eerily disturbing – suggesting perhaps a new phase, if you like, in the nation’s descent into the abyss. Although the virus of impunity has been with us for some time now, what I saw “live” in the lynching of Messrs Biringa Chiadika Lordson, Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Mike Lloyd Toku and Tekena Erikena – the so-called Uniport Four – is a completely new malignancy, a madness that speaks to the final internmnent of the community as a normative order.

To begin with, how could I, for the life of me, imagine that a human being actually held that camera to record the gory spectacles of those young men being marched through the community after being stripped naked for alleged stealing a phone and laptop? All in the course of a job? Good heavens! Or, for the pleasure of filming an event for the world to see?

What about the emergency jury of young men, women and even children, conscripted in the course of the the rite of summary trial and death? Did anyone notice how they cheered the jury on, perhaps from the love of the spectacle of watching those young boys die a most agonising death in instalments? I could imagine among the mob – fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, aunties, nephews and nieces; did they get “high” watching their victims suffer pains?

And the final act: the roasting of those bodies after pulverising and reducing them to vegetative states? It is a measure of how sick a people, nay a nation can get.

There were reports that a detachment of the Nigeria Police actually stood by while the gory events lasted. True or false; it changes nothing. The Nigerian state failed the youths; it failed itself most shamefully. Neither the DPO covering the area or his men have any business remaining in the police force. They have earned their place among the vigilantes!

True, Aluu may well represent the final testament, the internment of the notion of the orderly society to which we pretend to aspire, the seal of our descent to the Hobbesian state of nature, it did not chance upon us. Our march to that jungle may have been slow and halting, it has been incremental and steady. It began a long time ago.

Today, the talk is that the Nigerian state is failing. It seems so given that we do not even pretend anymore about that. At least, not with evidences in the countless militias ruling our lives, the laws that have been rendered inoperable and unworkable; the impunity writ large that is now the order of the day; the public sphere that daily spew hate; a hopelesly inept government and a pathetic citizenry plus of course the thieving mob now running some government houses in the country.

Welcome to the dual society – a society of we versus them; indigene versus outsider (or settler); the rich versus the commoner; the faithful versus the unbelieving, etc.

Whereas the rich can afford to mock the law; the poor insists on his version of law. The rich can afford a battery of lawyers to twist and bend the process to save his skin; the poor has his therapy in summary justice. The rich has the police; the poor has the vigilante. Whereas the rich has the temperament to indulge in all manners of theatrics in the courtroom, the poor has a ready-made solution: instance justice.

Where do these lead? Your guess is as good as mine.

Feedback

I take interest in reading your Policy column every Tuesday. I’m happy that someone like you takes time to analyse the lip service paid to economic and social development by both the executive and those with oversight responsibility. We are over-governed in this country. The federating units in terms of the number of states are too many. Unless we can return to not more than six geo-political zones with each having control of the resources within her domain and contributing to the centre as in the First Republic, the groundwork for real economic development will not be laid.

Right now, the states are weak; rather than look inwards for internal revenue generation, they all look towards Abuja for monthly allocation that is largely shared or spent on recurrent expenditure. This leaves little or nothing for capital expenditure. Until we reduce the number of states that will become competitive again, development will continue to elude this country. Please find time to point attention to this. Sincerely, we need to move from Presidential to parliamentary where the ministers will be responsible both to their constituency and to parliament. We shall then have true federalism. Thank you.

Chief M.A. Olorunfemi

October 16, 2012
After the deluge

Despite the solemn warnings of the weather experts, I am hoping that the title of this comment is not a forlorn hope but an expression of actuality; that the deluge is well and truly over, and that the problem ahead is how to deal with the destructive aftermath and the discontinuities it has wrought on the lives of millions of Nigerians in its ravenous wake.

This column came down rather heavily on it what it saw as its lethargic response to a disaster foretold, the greatest natural disaster to have struck Nigeria in recent memory. Few Nigerians under 60 years of age can recall witnessing anything on the scale of the floods that have overtaken large swathes of 27 of the country’s 36 states.

Disaster struck well before President Goodluck Jonathan headed to New York to perform yet another ritual of addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, and to try, with help from Tony Blair (ha!) to cajole all those disobliging foreign investors into setting out without further delay to multiply their fortunes in Nigeria.

It was therefore understandable that he did not cancel his engagements and return home to take charge of the situation. Yes, take charge. He is the nation’s chief executive. And it is not for nothing that he is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a designation he takes quite seriously, never missing an opportunity to deck himself out in the ceremonial garb of the office.

But even after his return, Dr Jonathan did not swing into action. Government business continued at the usual slow tempo. It was as if the nation was not in a state of siege.

It would now seem that, in the deep recesses of the federal bureaucracy, far removed from the prying eyes of the usual meddlers, officials were busy fashioning out a robust and comprehensive response to the disaster. The plan, outlined last week in Jonathan’s national broadcast and later spelled out in detail, is a product of hard and imaginative thinking, for which the Administration deserves praise.

Even if the Federal Government were to commit one-half of its 2013 budget to rehabilitating the damaged infrastructure and re-settling the hundreds of thousands — more likely millions — of displaced persons, the task would still not be done. So, it was wise to co-opt the private sector, faith-based, and civil society organisations into the endeavor, and to charge those leading it to seek international assistance.

Nigeria’s private sector is no longer what it used to be. Military president Ibrahim Babangida’s Structural Adjustment Programme virtually de-industrialised Northern Nigeria. The flight of major manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries where steady electricity is guaranteed and there is a greater sense of personal safety has further denuded the ranks of major private sector players. So has an economy that seems sluggish if not stagnant, despite a reported growth of more than 7 percent for the second or third year running.

Still, what remains of the private sector should be expected to contribute handsomely to the effort.

International assistance for disaster relief, I gather, is less constrained by donor fatigue than is Official Development Assistance, or ODA, in the language of the business. Still, with the global recession that is threatening the very architecture of the European Union and convulsing the world’s major economies, expectations from that source should be tempered with realism.

In the final analysis, the judgment and the prudence that prominent political actors demonstrate in this crisis, and the sacrifices they are prepared to make, will to a significant extent determine the scale and content of international assistance. For that reason, the Federal Government should take another look at its 2013 budget proposals.

Consider, for a start, the “welfare package” in unspecified items of expenditure by the president, vice president and secretary to the government of the Federation that will cost the exchequer 1.5 billion in fiscal 2013.

What does each package consist in? Does any of these high officers whose basic needs and much more are supplied by the state really need a “welfare package” in a country where there is no social safety net for a growing army of the unemployed and those driven into destitution by sheer adversity?

Then there is the roughly one billion Naira provided in the budget proposals as stipend for food and ancillary expenses for the president and vice president over the same period, and this in a country where millions go to bed hungry each day. Does cassava bread and fish pepper-soup cost that much? In whatever case, can’t the president and the vice president pay for their food and catering from their welfare packages?

Then again, there is the N3.7 billion for overseas trips, a substantial increase over the figure for the current year that the President had promised to cut in the wake of the “subsidy” protests. How necessary are many of the trips usually undertaken under this rubric? Why do so many officials flying Business or First Class and drawing heavy estacodes withal undertake such trips at the slightest provocation, and oftentimes with no provocation at all? What benefits does the nation derive from these jamborees?

No less worthy of attention is the N2.8 billion for “upgrading “ and maintenance in the Presidential Villa, not forgetting the N120 million in small change earmarked for “modeling” the vice president’s guest house in Abuja.

And there are other expenditure items that add up to several billion of Naira for landscaping, upgrading or refurbishing structures that were landscaped, upgraded or rehabilitated the previous year.

Surely, given the disaster encircling the country and the general misery, these projected expenditures can be trimmed substantially, deferred, or even eliminated altogether? Surely, a great chunk of the vast sums set aside for “security” can be diverted to the rehabilitation and re-settlement effort without imperiling the existing security situation? What, in any case, can be a greater priority than the security of the people?

Members of the National Assembly will also have to make considerable sacrifices if the call for international disaster relief assistance is to win any sympathy abroad.

In financial matters, that body is as secretive as The Vatican. Nobody knows for sure how much the legislators earn, or rather, how much they choose to pay themselves.

At a time tens of thousands of beleaguered Nigerians have no clothes other than the ones on their backs, shouldn’t the legislators consider donating their “wardrobe allowance,” reportedly in the amount of N60, 000 a month, toward the rehabilitation of their displaced compatriots?

And as hundreds of thousands face grinding hardship daily with prospects of more of the same,

should the legislators not consider donating their “hardship allowance” — the hefty sums they pay themselves each month for subjecting themselves to the arduous task of rubberstamping proposals from the Executive Branch and passing vacuous resolutions and harassing state officials –should they not now donate their hardship allowance toward the resettlement of those to whom hardship has become a constant companion?

As it is with the Presidency and the National Assembly, so also should it be the state governors and members of state assemblies. There is no better time than now to trim to trim those allowance and commit the proceeds to the daunting task of rehabilitation and resettlement ahead.

Charity must be seen to begin at home.

October 16, 2012
Idle funds, idle minds

•Billions of education funds languish in Nigeria’s banks

IN a country where barely half of the population is literate, the news that N44 billion belonging to the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme has not been utilised is truly disheartening. The revelation was made recently by the Acting Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Professor Charles Onocha, when the House of Representatives Committee on Education visited the commission.

According to Onocha, the situation arose as an apparent result of the inability of state governments to provide the required counterpart funding that is essential to obtaining funds under the programme. In 2009, N1.3 billion was not accessed, a figure which rose to N3.5 billion in 2010. This year, about N22 billion has not been touched by states that are supposed to benefit from it.

This is just another of the many anomalies that continue to trouble Nigeria and hamper the attainment of national progress and development. Primary and secondary schools all across the country are in dire need of rehabilitation and facilities. Pupils and students are subject to all kinds of impositions levied upon them to defray the costs of providing chalk, dusters, furnishing and other inputs. In spite of this dire situation, the funds that could have helped to resolve these pressing difficulties are lying unutilised in banks.

The crux of the problem is the counterpart funding requirement. If a state wishes to access funds from the UBE, it has to provide funds which are either equivalent to the sum desired, or a specified percentage of such funds. While such intentions may be honourable, they do not appear to work effectively in practice, as the current UBE debacle shows. It is obvious that the emphasis on counterpart funding should have been replaced by an emphasis on transparency and efficient utilisation of funds.

This issue harks back to the skewed structural arrangement of the country. A federation in which the central government is overly powerful is a contradiction in terms. The UBE programme is clearly demonstrative of federal overreach; its involvement in basic education amounts to an unnecessary intervention in an aspect of national life that should have been left to states and local governments. Apart from the counterpart funding requirement, it is almost certain that federal bureaucratic bottlenecks also make it difficult for states to access UBE funds, thereby providing opportunities for corruption that the counterpart funding condition is supposed to prevent.

The tragedy is that problems like the UBE fiasco have become recurrent decimals running through all aspects of Nigerian life. The Federal Government holds tenaciously to the control of the nation’s police force when it is becoming increasingly clearer that the devolution of policing duties to the states is the way to go. Federal agencies insist on issuing vehicle licences and number plates, regardless of the fact that states are capable of doing it with greater efficiency.

Instead of taking an objective look at the question of fiscal federalism and related issues, the Federal Government and its ministries, agencies and parastatals persist in continuing with a thoroughly-discredited process riddled with inefficiency and corruption. In the UBE situation, it is obvious that government simply does not have the administrative capacity to effectively utilise the funds at its disposal. This inability is to be contrasted with the governments of states like Lagos, Osun, Edo, Delta, Ekiti and Anambra, all of whom have highly-innovative educational policies which have transformed their states.

If Nigeria is to move beyond the current situation of federal paralysis, its citizens must look again at the way in which their country is structured so that it can be run with greater efficiency and equity. It is only then that the UBE will cease to create idle minds the way it has generated idle funds.

October 16, 2012
History! What history?

History is often written by victors but losers could also have their own version, but then who listens to them. Wrong? I doubt if there is or there will ever be a universal agreement of the account of a particular event especially where there were winners and losers or merely a truce (no victor no vanquished) as in the case of a war or ordinary (armed) conflict.

History is more complicated where there was no clear cut winner as in the case of a war or where a truce was imposed by a superior but interested power. The warring but subdued parties tend to maintain their different positions, lie low and wait for the next available opportunity to restate their claim or strike again. And God helps such a society if there are recalcitrant elements who strongly believe in the cause.

Even where there were clear cut winners but the losers were not vanquished, the tendency is there for the die-hards on the losers’ side to either reject the history as presented by the victors and write their own version or see the majority account from a jaundiced perspective. Whichever side the historian was coming from, I am of the strong view that when history is written by a participant observer or an active participant facts are often presented from a subjective point of view. Don’t you think so? But then is it possible to have an unbiased observer present the story of an event as divisive as a war without compromising the truth/facts and fairness/justice?

I can not claim to know the rules of writing history as I am just a professional journalist, but then even as journalists, we are historians, only that we write history in a hurry. In our everyday reports we write about and document events of the day as they happen in the most objective manner prescribed by the ethics of journalism. In journalism facts are sacred just as objectivity and fairness are paramount. When facts are being presented as in the case of a news story, there is no room for personal opinion and the writer must be fair to all concerned and objective in his/her presentation. Even in interpreting the facts and commenting on the event, the writer has to be objective and fair taking in all the parameters and the circumstances.

Because whatever we write as journalists form part of the raw materials ‘real’ historians will use in future while reporting and analyzing the events of the present, care is always taken to include all the above stated elements in our everyday reports. I believe no less is expected of an historian, who, with the benefit of hindsight, time and access to other sources apart from media reports should be able to present a more balanced and objective view of history.

So when renowned Professor of Literature and world acclaimed novelist Professor Chinua Achebe decided to put pen to paper recently and write on his recollections of events as they happened between 1967 and 1970 when Nigeria fought a bitter 30-month civil war to remain one, one would have expected the literary giant to be fair to history, the participants in that unfortunate episode in the life of our country and the future generation of Nigerians by presenting events as they happened not just from his point of view but THE WAY THEY WERE without bias, especially as he was a participant observer (active participant?) in the failed project called Biafra.

To refresh our memory, Biafra was an attempt by the then South east region of Nigeria to secede from the country following wide spread killings of mainly Igbos and other South easterners in northern Nigeria by some elements in the north in the mid/late 60s, partly in retaliation for the murder of the mainstream political leadership in the north in the first military coup, believed to have been spear headed by military officers of Igbo extraction and which in execution, deliberately or inadvertently spared main stream Igbo political leaders including then Nigeria’s president Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Following the failure of the Igbos under their charismatic leader late Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu to break away from Nigeria, Ndigbo, both young and old, dead or alive have been made to believe that the failure of that project was due largely to Yoruba betrayal and in particular Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s refusal to make true his purported promise to Ojukwu that once the south east secedes Yoruba would also pull out western Nigeria. This is not only not true but Ojukwu also admitted before his death that there was no such pact between Awolowo and himself, but some mischief makers among Ndigbo would rather sustain this for whatever reason.

And as if this anti-Yoruba feeling among Nidigbo was not enough, some of the policies of the then Federal Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon that brought the war to an end and which were unpalatable to Biafra and Ndigbo both during and after the war were blamed on Chief Awolowo who served in that administration as vice chairman, Federal Executive Council and Federal Commissioner for Finance.

Two of such policies, stopping food delivery to Biafra and currency change/pegging the amount payable to bank depositors from the south east after the war affected Ndigbo badly both during and after the war. Awolowo being at the centre of implementation of the policies had been blamed severally for this setback by Ndigbo leaders then and even now, but we know that the man couldn’t have done it alone, at least not without the knowledge and support of Gowon as Head of State and Commader-In-Chief. But nobody is blaming Gowon.

And following the furore generated by the implementation of these policies and its adverse effect on his political career/fortune, especially in the run up to the second republic, Awolowo had repeatedly explained his role during the war and the government policies of that time as far as he was concerned both in one of his books as well as in media interviews. His position on this matter as well as other issues are well documented in different forms for any well meaning historian interested in truth, justice and fairness and most importantly in the unity and well being of this country to consult before putting pen to paper to write on such a sensitive topic as the Nigerian civil war.

Professor Achebe the great writer decided to follow the trend by blaming Chief Awolowo in his new book on the civil war, for the so called starvation policy of the Gowon administration that prevented food aid delivery to Biafra and thus ‘starved’ millions of Ndigbo to death during the war, without looking at the overall picture of the main objective of the Nigerian government then and most importantly Awolowo’s explanation.

Whether Awolowo was right or wrong is not even my position here, I am worried that as a writer/historian, Achebe had conveniently ignored some facts which he could have access to if he wanted or in fact had access to but chose not to use, to present history the way he wanted it and not necessarily the way it is. This is unfortunate and could end up creating more problems for us as a people and a nation than solve.

In a country with intense ethnic rivalry, reopening old wounds in the name of history or putting the record straight will do more damage than good. For the children of that period on both sides of the war who are now in their 40s and 50s trying to extend handshakes across the Niger, Achebe’s memoir will make such an effort difficult and if we ( I am in that generation) can’t do it then how do we convince our children to see Nigeria as one and be their brother’s keeper irrespective of where they found themselves.

If we continue to write this kind of history there would be no end to such and the division and bitterness will continue. There are serious questions that could be asked on both sides, especially Biafra even on this so called starvation policy. It is convenient to blame the other side always for our failure or problem without looking inward first. Why were the initial food convoys to Biafra hijacked and diverted by Ojukwu to feed his soldiers at the expense of the ordinary Biafrans? Why did Ojukwu and in general, Biafra go to war when they were either not ready or prepared for the consequences of failure. The atrocities of Biafra on Nigeria have been documented and nobody is talking about that. Shouldn’t Achebe spare a thought also for those who suffered under Biafra both in Nigeria and even inside Biafra? There are so many whys, ifs and whats that could be asked but they will lead us to no where and they are better forgotten.

History as I said here last week is good to the extent that it will serve as a useful guide to a better future. If the history will divide or destroy us why remind us? See what history has done and is doing to Israelis and Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East. The history of imperialist Japan is still causing trouble with China and the Koreans north and south. So as fathers of our nation Achebe and co should sow seeds of a united and prosperous Nigeria before they leave us. We wish them long live and prosperity. Awolowo is gone, let him rest in perfect peace. Enough of this kind of history.

October 16, 2012
Nothing is impossible

The last decade has marked Africa’s highest level of growth in history. Businesses have experienced increasing returns on their investments, proving that investing in Africa today can yield high returns compared to most regions around the world. Although foreign investment is still low, a collective decision by Africans to take advantage of this opportunity can stimulate the push required to bring the region into the forefront of the global economy. We have the knowledge, skills, know-how and capital to build a new future for Africa and by investing in our people, we can make large strides towards eradicating poverty and closing the development gap.

Creating a business climate that will attract investment also requires the creation of an environment where human capital can flourish. Businesses need people who are empowered, well-educated and can think critically in an environment that is stable, peaceful and values diversity. The continent needs healthy, curious children and youth who have the stimulation, education and training needed, starting at an early age, to become change agents and entrepreneurs capable of driving economic and social growth. For these reasons, I am a founding member of the Global Business Coalition for Education, which is focused on enabling businesses to support efforts to achieve education for all.

I first became interested in a career in business when I was still in primary school. I remember buying cartons of sugar and selling them to make a small profit. Even at that age, people told me I had a flair for business – but without the literacy, math and interpersonal skills I learned in school, I would not have been able to tap into this talent. It is therefore sad to see so many young children in my country, Nigeria,who are not able to gain these basic skills at an early age.

The current statistics paint a gloomy picture. According to UNESCO 2012 figures, over 10 million school-aged children are not attending primary school in Nigeria – and this number has increased over the past three years. The number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is approaching 20 percent of the world’s total and makes up over one-third of the 30 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who receive no education whatsoever. In Africa as a whole, another 21.6 million children are out of lower-secondary school.

While getting every child into school is vitally important, the quality of education they receive must also be addressed. In Nigeria, for example, we see children pass through school without learning the basic skills expected from primary level education. I recently read a study conducted by USAID in two states in Northern Nigeria last year indicating that nearly 70 percent of primary three students could not read a single word of simple text. This is yet another reminder that the potential of our country and region is in jeopardy if we fail to have every child in school and learning.

My company, Dangote Group, continues to address issues on education through our corporate social responsibility efforts and the Dangote Foundation. Dangote Academy, for example, has two programmes for vocational and management training. The vocational program provides a one-year scholarship for technical and vocational skills training for students from polytechnics around Nigeria. This year, we absorbed 87 percent of the students into our existing operations. But we know more needs to be done – singular efforts cannot change the trajectory of a nation, let alone a continent. Our governments need to make education and learning a priority. Educational budgets must exceed their current numbers. Civil society must continue to hold government accountable and as the private sector continues to drive growth, businesses need to support these efforts strongly. With the Global Business Coalition for Education, I am committed to bringing more national and global businesses together to support efforts to expand educational opportunities across Nigeria.

Without a global push to achieve universal education by 2015, supported by the Secretary-General and his newly-appointed Special Envoy, Gordon Brown, we will remain a continent that will fail to unlock our potential and instead continue to be bound to conflict, poverty and limited development. Repeating the growth of the previous decade will be impossible without ambitious investments in the people of Africa. Quality education is the right of every child and the obligation of every country. Businesses cannot be bystanders – we must do our part to be active, collaborative, and supportive participants.

On my desk I have a mounted quote that says, “Nothing is impossible.” That is how I feel about the future of the African continent. Nothing is impossible if we make sure every child – and adult – has the opportunity to unleash their potential through an inclusive, high-quality education that prepares each individual to succeed and propel Africa into the league of global economic champions.

• Dangote is the President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group

October 16, 2012
The harvest after

•After the flood, what does Nigeria do to ensure food security?

BEYOND the immediate sorrow and biting anguish of the flood that has plagued the country, the full impact of the disaster would dawn at the time to harvest crops. Is Nigeria then likely to face dire food shortage next year?

With farmlands washed away, and many farmers ruined in parts of the country mostly affected by the flood, that possibility is real; and the likely dire food situation daunting. But if Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture is to be believed, the Federal Government is already thinking of ways of tackling the problem; and he promises the damage would be reduced to the barest minimum.

What are the minister’s plans? During a tour of affected places in Kwara and Niger states, Dr. Akinwunmi said the government had decided to embark on irrigation-driven massive cultivation of crops during the coming dry season. This programme of accelerated production of food, he added, had as part of its components, giving farmers high-yielding varieties of rice, cassava and yam seedlings, as well as early-maturing maize seedlings, to be ready for harvesting within two months of planting. That is not all: the plan, which the minister dubbed “Flood Recovery Food Production Plan” is complete with fertiliser supply. Both the fertiliser and seedling would be given free to farmers.

This policy, if well implemented, is a good one. Aside from showing the Federal Government as caring, it has the potential of helping the victims rebuild their businesses; and getting over the acute pain of the present disaster. On the macro-level, it would help the country avert a very likely food crisis and, if the government can move from the template of an ad hoc response to tackle a disaster to deliberate and sustainable programming to massively improve agricultural yields, it would really be salutary for the Nigerian economy, particularly if storage and processing are factored into the mix.

It is in this distinction between ad hoc response to disaster and deliberate and sustainable policy that the minister’s plan is self-impeachable. Make no mistake: the minister’s plan – again, if well implemented – is commendable. Still, it need not be that only a sweeping disaster like this would bring forth such plan – except of course, the plan had always been there; and it took the disaster to publicise and market it. That however would push credibility beyond reasonable elasticity.

Still, it is better late than ever. The Federal Government would therefore do well to use the opportunity of this tragedy to institutionalise a vibrant agricultural policy, under which the emergency plan would be a subset. Otherwise, the experiment would be no better than a knee-jerk emergency response doomed to gradually fade as the anguish of the tragedy ebbs.

Then there is the implementation question. The Federal Government has no land of its own, except the parcel in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. So, for the rescue plan to succeed, the states must be fully integrated. It is not clear how well integrated the states are into the plan, but certainly the minister cannot say it is given. It is a programme like this that shows the inappropriateness of a central ministry of agriculture in a federal state. With the approving authorities so far away from implementers, it is no surprise the central agriculture ministry’s projects often end up as scams. This food rescue project must not end up that way.

The minister did not mention anything about dykes to keep flooding at bay. True, dykes are big capital projects. But if prevention is better than cure, the Federal Government, in concert with the states, should think along that line as possible antidotes to the floods next time. At least that would reduce the number of farmlands that will be washed away.

October 16, 2012
Ondo: now the crunch

Lionisation and demonization come with electioneering. You lionise your own and demonise your opponent; and vice-versa. It is all a show of emotions, as contestants cosh their opponents with a quick one, and hope to sucker in the electorate with a quick vote.

As in shooting wars – despite the Geneva Convention – all appears fair in electoral wars. And so it has been with the Ondo gubernatorial electioneering, with the election billed for October 20.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has “rushed” incumbent Olusegun Mimiko with a charge of Judas to South West integration; and a likely scapegrace to pan-Yoruba economic integrity and prosperity, in a troubled Nigeria not all sure of its future. They have also taunted Iroko with the paucity of his Labour Party (LP) platform: it is a small pond in which the Iroko loves to play as a big fish. In due time, the ACN insists, both dried pond and dead whale would be history.

But the Iroko has charged back waving the primordial card, claiming some indigenes of Ondo State are more indigene than others. He fingered Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ACN national leader, as head of “aliens” come to invade his native Ondo in political conquest; and dismissed Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, the ACN candidate, as no more than a colonial day District Officer (DO), come to underscore that conquest. All foul is fair in electoral war!

Why, even Lawyer/Cleric, Pastor Tunde Bakare who, were he making his argument in court would have been dismissed as a meddlesome interloper, has waded into the fray; consolidating his emerging notoriety of abusing his pulpit and insulting his congregation with brazen political yammering passing as activism, instead of preaching the gospel as his calling demands. The learned man of God is all scholarly, all articulate and appears to have mastered the devastating polemics of the political gospel. Yet, he appears to have totally lost the Christ message to the lowly and the humble: it is not what you eat that defiles you. It is rather what you say!

Even in the media, gladiators have weighed in on both sides. That is quite legitimate, for media endorsement or non-endorsement is part of a rich and robust legacy in a democracy; so long as such interventions help the voter to make reasonable choices.

Yet, many writers on the Ondo election are beginning to manifest the partisan conspiracy and media charlatanism that made many in 2011 glumly rationalise that grand folly: claiming to vote for Jonathan, not his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Now, one year after, there is mass lamentation and gnashing of teeth over the ill luck of Goodluck! Talk of the burden of bad choice!

That brings the discourse to the electoral crunch of October 20. But before then, a preface of the dramatis personae.

Two governors would qualify as among the most pivotal to the fortune of Lagos State: Alhaji Lateef Jakande (1979-1983) and Asiwaju Tinubu (1999-2007).

In plucking the proverbial low hanging fruits and boasting rapid fire responses and achievements, Alhaji Jakande is second to none. His progressive mass education policy and rapid, almost breath-taking delivery of housing stock, as landmarked by his numerous people-named “Jakande Estates” that dot the metropolis, not to talk of his futuristic Metroline fast rail mass transit that the military killed in 1984, are the stuff of which legends are made. But the Action Governor only built on traditional governance as he knew it.

Not so, Tinubu, who opted for governmental modernisation. That explains the exponential growth in internally generated revenue from N600 million monthly to some N23 billion now. True, Lagos had always been blessed with good administrators according to Gov. Fashola at an ICAN annual lecture. Perhaps too, Lagos had always been “rich”, compared to other states.

But the Tinubu era fiscal modernisation policy vaulted Lagos from its “rich” potentials to an active driver of its economy, independent of a bloated and arrogant central government, despite Nigeria’s flawed federal system. The immaculate Babatunde Fashola government is ample proof of this transformation.

Now, what have all these got to do with Ondo? Plenty! October 20 is an electoral clash between following a present routine; or upping the stakes with a new paradigm.

Those going berserk over Mimiko’s “achievements” are resigned to the present Ondo cosmetics of churning around fat Federation Account receipts (and Ondo earns highest in the South West, as an oil producing state) with mediocre vision and pedestrian projects as Mimiko has done for the past four years; or opting for a new paradigm to vault the state, ala Lagos, to start running its show, and deliver prosperity to its longsuffering people, in the context of an integrated South West, however Nigeria navigates it shark-infested pseudo-federal waters.

So, those who dismiss Akeredolu as just another DO from the Tinubu colonial army, would do well to vet the track record of previous DOs: Babatunde Fashola is first, and his record in Lagos is universally acclaimed. Many, in the passion of winning an argument at all cost, tend to separate his tenure from its Tinubu era nativity. But that is tantamount to separating an aircraft in full flight from its belaboured take-off. It is a most asinine and illogical distinction.

The second DO is Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti. Despite its universally acclaimed brain power, it has taken the coming of Dr. Fayemi to start a deliberate and consistent pattern of development, contrasted to the ruinous ad hoc methods of past years.

The third DO is Rauf Aregbesola. In less than two years in office, he has stamped his infrastructural genius on the State of Osun (as he before did in Lagos urban renewal, as Tinubu’s Works and Infrastructure commissioner); and proved that Osun need not be at the mercy of the visionless and the dim-witted.

Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) have barely scaled their first anniversary for any vigorous assessment. But whatever path they choose to tread, it won’t be for lack of directions, from party mates, heading older governments in the South West.

True, there are some quality governors, even in the PDP, which boasts no coherent post-election compass. Rivers’ Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is one. Niger’s Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu is another. But all these are scattered across the country.

No part of Nigeria, as at now, boasts a bevy of contiguous states under one party, which not only has a coherent and integrated plan but also a demonstrable prototype of implementing that plan. ACN, to be sure, commits avoidable hubris by preening it has the Yoruba integration franchise.

But it can claim legitimate bragging right that having demonstrated competence in other neighbouring states, the Ondo electorate has something novel to look forward to, en route to economic integration of the South West, if it wins on October 20.

That is the exciting prospect before Ondo voters. They should not allow anti-Tinubu bogey and allied fears to blight that prospect. It is time to think right and vote right; and in so doing, avoid sure future lamentation.

October 16, 2012
Rewriting history

World acclaimed literary giant and celebrated novelist Professor Chinua Achebe was at his controversial best last week. In his attempt to reopen the debate on the role of Nigeria’s war time leader, General Yakubu Gowon and his Finance Minister Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the 30-month civil war especially as directed towards Biafra, the literary icon let slip, once again, his hatred for those he perceived to be enemies of Biafra.

His selective perception of events of that unfortunate period in Nigeria’s history and the principal actors that helped shape them left one in no doubt that our dear Prof is more than ever prepared to not only drag us back to those bad and dark old days, but also sow the seed of discord and most likely hatred, between Yoruba and Ndigbo.

To continue to blame Awolowo for some of the policies, (economic and political) of the Gowon Federal Government during and after the war, as they affected Biafra, especially from a jaundiced point of view will do nothing to enhance the policy of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconsstruction that Nigeria introduced after the war.

History is good to the extent of serving as a useful guide to the future but when those who chose to write history decided to suppress some facts in order to justify their positions, then the generation reading that history will certainly be in trouble. That society, to the extent of relying on that history, is doomed.

It is not in my position to speak for Chief Awolowo. The late sage had answered all allegation relating to his role as a member of the Federal Executive Council during the war, at a town hall meeting he had in Abeokuta in 1983 so those who would like to blame the Yoruba or Chief Awolowo for the misfortune of Ndigbo in Nigeria should look in the mirror. Where else in Nigeria outside Biafra, were Ibos allowed to take back their properties after the war, apart from Yoruba land? Where else have Ibos prospered more outside the south east if not Yoruba land? Of all the ethnic crises that have been bedeviling Nigeria since after the civil war was there a time Ibos were targeted or sent out of Yoruba land? Those fanning the embers of ethnic division in this country or revisiting/rewriting history for selfish purpose had better be careful lest they get consumed in the inferno that could follow.

Pray, what purpose is this Achebe’s history of the Nigeria civil war so to speak, suppose to serve especially now that Ndigbo is trying to court Yoruba in their quest to assume Nigeria’a presidency in 2015. It is possible to want to explain Achebe’s position away as that of a maverick, but if indeed he is, he is one maverick with gravitas. It would be foolish and dangerous to ignore him. If only Biafran leader, Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had written that book on the civil war that we all expected from him before he died, may be the issue of who did what during the war would have been put to rest and we wouldn’t be having jaundiced history of the war. But come to think of it, would Ojukwu’s account of the war have settled the controversy? I don’t think so. May be is good he took his memoirs to his grave. Sadly, we will never know.

45 and above

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) is running against time to ensure that all Nigerian pilgrims for this year’s hajj in Saudi Arabia make it to the holy land before the closure of the Saudi airspace on October 20. The commission has 11 days from today to accomplish the airlift and the omen looks good for now following the resolution of the row between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia over the participation of some unaccompanied Nigeria female pilgrims in the hajj.

As you are probably aware the Saudis turned back some of our women from the hajj on the ground of not being accompanied by male guardian or Muharram as stipulated by Islam.

After much diplomatic verbal boxing between both countries, the matter has now been resolved but only those among the women that are above 45 years were given the green light to come for the hajj by the Saudis. Any one below that age will have to produce her Muharram which in this case could be NAHCON. As you read this, the airlift has resumed and normal services restored so to speak.

Following my position: ‘That hajj humiliation’ last week on this page, a lot of you readers out there have been sending your responses, they were quite interesting. While I fully support any effort aimed at sanitizing hajj operations in Nigeria, NAHCON should not be spared as the main body in charge of Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in Nigeria. There are so many sharp practices going on there, especially in the appointment of airlines and tour operators for international pilgrims. Some airlines are fond of abandoning their passengers in Jeddah after the hajj, leaving them at the mercy of the Saudis only to be evacuated by NAHCON or even the presidency using other more efficient airlines. The case of some of the tour operators is even worse, they often times leave their pilgrims to fend for themselves, providing no accommodation for them and yet have been paid for this. The federal government should look into issues like these including the kind accommodation the Saudis give to our pilgrims in Mina where all pilgrims are expected to spend a minimum of three nights under tent as part of the hajj rites. Some of these tents are horrible and their condition worsened by the dirty attitude of some of our pilgrims. Things like this tell negatively on our image over there. Nigeria should look into this.

Here are a few of your views.

Sanitize hajj operation

Salam. I read your sincere and frank opinion on the harsh treatment meted to Nigerian females on Holy Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Well, when I learnt about the incident I was happy because I felt, perhaps, the Saudi Authorities wanted to sanitize the system.

Since I went on Hajj in 1995, when I learnt that Muslim women on Hajj are expected to be accompanied by Muharram, I often wonder why our Muslim leaders are flouting this injunction. I became more disturbed when I experienced first hand, what these-so-called female pilgrims do while in the holy land.

Many marriages have been dissolved because of illicit affairs which have their roots in Saudi Arabia, just because the female went unaccompanied. The term ‘Alarafa Mi’ is one of the expressions commonly used by these pilgrims.

In order to avoid this kind of ‘humiliation’ in future, Aminu Tambuwal and other Nigerian Muslim leaders must sit down, guided by what the Quran and Hadith say, and sanitize the hajj operations in the country.

Those who have no duty performing hajj should henceforth not be allowed to even get near hajj camps not to talk of being in the holy land. They (Muslim leaders) must be prepared to leave the system better than they met it.

Thank you once again for your frank ‘talk’. More ink to your pen. From Sulaiman Olagunju.

Tell them

Salam, may Almighty ALLAH (SWT), grant you his mercies, protection, guidance and the wherewithal to continue telling the facts to those destined to hear and heed to them. Amen.

Expecting part 2 of “THAT HAJJ HUMILIATION”, GOD BLESS. From Shehu A. Hassan (Giginyu Quarters, Kano State).

Mistresses?

Could the humiliation have something to do with the fact that some of the women who go there end up becoming mistresses to Saudi men among other activities that make them not to return to Nigeria after the Hajj. I know of two of such cases, both of them married, one a pilgrim from Jos, another from Kebbi State.

It could be a moral thing. I am sure the Saudis need the money that genuine Nigerian pilgrims provide to the local economy during their stay.

Anonymous

Cheap sex

There is no humiliation in this matter of Hajj. The rules of the holy pilgrimage are clear and no breach must be tolerated. I know not a few who made quick money prostituting during hajj. Some Arab men have very little self control and would easily fall prey to relatively cheap sex. Anonymous

Good job

Nice column today, Waheed. Very enlightening. Good job. But what kind of ‘immoral’ activities are you talking about? Why didn’t you explain? Anonymous

October 9, 2012