The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • ‘Our Girls’; What country@54? The Great Greed’; ‘OBJECTION’ 40 years later

    ‘Our Girls’; What country@54? The Great Greed’; ‘OBJECTION’ 40 years later

    Our Girls’ are still unaccounted for since April 15. For them, what is there to celebrate today 1-10-2014, Independence Day? One of them has turned up or has one? Is she pregnant? Perhaps. The lives of so many brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and other family and also friends are in emotional tatters this 1-10-2014. The pain is unquantifiable and all so needless and spread around the areas of conflict in the North-east and the areas of the Fulani War across 10 states. Blood is dead and children women and men are dead. Does no one care? Are we just to say a prayer to a God who gives us everything we need and satisfies our need but not our greed but who we do not listen to or obey? Can no one with appropriate weapons and uniforms prevent this calculated murder and mayhem across Nigeria? Now there is rumour and counter rumour about who started and who is involved in Boko Haram funding as revealed by a foreign expert whom we have no real doubt about. There are additional questions about helicopter and jet plane crashes and cargoes and the fate of ejecting pilots.

    I received a tragic first-hand account of one of many citizens of towns captured temporarily by the Boko Haram. His family escaped into Cameroon before circling back into Nigeria. Thank God they are all safe but how many are not? In addition, his house was overrun and his magnificent library built up book by book of more than 2000 volumes over 40 years was burnt, reminiscent of Rome burning Alexandria, Egypt. And who will compensate for such a loss of home, history, memory and library? Nigerians deserve much better medical care for surviving Boko Haram and Fulani Wars. Just as Ebola has forced us to begin the update of our sanitary systems, these Wars should force us to upgrade our emergency facilities. He who buys weapons of war should cater for the casualties of that war. In a war zone in 2014, 54 years after Independence, good medical services must include a decent modern electronic artificial limb service suitable for human beings, not goats.

    What manner of country @54 is still at war with itself since October 1st 1960? Instead of another party and day off work, all 100+m of us should be forced to stand still for one hour and think deeply, and take stock of our sorry state as an LGA, state, country and consider if we are actually a nation. Once again, we have the opportunity to take stock and the result is not good. Have enough citizens not died? Have enough citizens not tried? Has enough blood not been shed? Have enough citizens been left for dead? Have enough true Nigerians not been born? Do our children not deserve better from those who have seized the ruler-ship? Why is our national fabric so torn and badly worn? God has given Nigeria more than its need. But still our political and contractor classes cannot satisfy ‘The Great Greed’.

    Why is power used to erect a malignant tower? When did politics become just another Master Class in ‘Budget Disappearing Tricks’, ‘Executive Lawlessness’, ‘Criminal Corruption’ and ‘Neglect’? It seems that too many politicians are boastfully vast in saying the right things 100% in manifestos but deliver only a fraction, 20-40% of the promises in spite of adequate funds. How can we live in a country that allows 40-75% of budgets disappearing in inflated salaries, mirage projects and hyper-inflated contracts?  Yes, of course there is corruption worldwide but it is unsustainable above double digit corruption percentage rates. Entire countries were built on the corruption of slavery, stolen raw materials from colonised countries and still today the Mafia and other similar organisations have infiltrated government organs which are often ‘Fountains Of Fraud’ and corruption on their own. The stories that came out of cash-cows like Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Football Federation, Pension funds and the most recent ‘unsolved’ and unsettled atrocities – Oil subsidy scam, the $600,000 oil bribery scandal, jets with $9.3m on board, etc.

    In my poetry collection OBJECTION written in 1989 there is a poem called ‘An Ode To An Adolescent Nation’ better known as ‘Objection’ about Nigeria being on trial at 28 years old for failing its people. The older ones among the readers will recall the incidences below. Unfortunately, the poem could have been written today with the items changed

    JUDGE: At 28 years old, You stand accused of / Pride in your nothingness/How do you plead?

    NIGERIA:            Guilty out of innocence/ I’m only 28, my Lord/ A minor in the league of nations/ Childish pranks/ Youthful exuberance. Objection!

    JUDGE:                Did you ‘Objection!’/  When 2/3 of 19 became 12 2/3 and 53 suitcases passed

    Through the eyes of the needle/ When $2.8 billion in oil money missed monitoring?/When health care eluded the common man?/And education cutoff points left goats in school/And the gifted at home?/ When railway rotted and rusted?/When your people dined from dustbins?/ And kwashiorkor came calling on the kid?

    NIGERIA  Stop! Stop

    JUDGE    Nigeria, you are sentenced to one year/ Of total goodness/Failure in this is fatal to your nationhood/                Will you fail?

    NIGERIA   I’m still young, inexperienced/I’ll only be 29 next year

    JUDGE  Excuses, excuses/  A fool at 28…

    Has anything changed since 1988? You be the JUDGE in 2014 for Nigeria@54! Have a Prayerful Anniversary.

  • Thinking about Nigeria @ 54

    Thinking about Nigeria @ 54

    Celebrating October 1 each year has become an annual ritual in Nigeria. That day in 1960 marked the end of colonial rule and the enthronement of indigenous leaders in the country. Today, exactly 54 years after, the country is still groping in the dark and tottering on the brink. The low key nature of the independence celebrations, since a few years back, is a confirmation of the bad times. It appears the older the country becomes, the farther it drifts from its promised land. Not even the advent of civilian governance in 1999 has brought anything significantly different. I say civilian governance because that is what we have in Nigeria today, not the democracy we all crave for.

    In essence, our claim to democracy is a ruse. The reasons are glaring for any discerning mind. More than 15 years of civilian governance and 54 years of independence have brought no tangible respite for the long suffering Nigerians. Just look around. More and more people are being sentenced to a life of dependency, want and penury on a daily basis in the country. As a result of this, crime and criminality have taken over on a frightening scale previously unknown in history.

    At the moment, the north-eastof the country is almost being excised from the rest of the country due to the activities of a few misguided individuals who have taken up arms against the country and their fellowmen. Not even the much-publicised killing of the real or fake Abubakar Shekau, the acclaimed leader of the notorious terror group known simply as Boko Haram, has brought much relief. More than 200 schoolgirls abducted from their school in Chibok community, Borno State, are still marooned in the evil forest of Sambissa, also in Borno State, where the hoodlums have turned into their operational headquarters. The other day, one of the innocent girls (if the reports are true), almost half dead, was abandoned in one of the villages in Borno State. By the last account of her health status, she was foundto be four months pregnant with visible evidence of depression and trauma metamorphosing as some mental illness. Her case is a signpost of the calamity that has befallen the innocent schoolgirls who have been denied the comfort of their parents and families to forcefully co-habit with criminals, drug-addicts, rapists and people on the brink of lunacy. For these girls, there is nothing like independence; what they need and crave for today, is freedom from the hands of their tormentors.

    As it is, not only the abducted girls desire freedom; those left behind in Chibok and other villages in the North-east that are currently ravaged by terrorists activities are all desperately looking forward to their emancipation from the hands of their torturers. Recently, the media reported that no fewer than 150 refugees from Nigeria, holed up in a border community in a neighbouring country, were feared dead as the terrorists descended on them and snuffed out their lives. For those ones too, there is nothing like independence celebration.

    So, in view of all these occurrences, do we deserve to celebrate the country’s independence at all this year? Certainly no. The day should have been converted into one huge prayer session all over the country in supplication to God Almighty to come and liberate the country from the current pains and anguish confronting it. But our leaders seem to be thinking in the opposite direction, perhaps, because they are comfortable anyway. Why do we pretend that things are normal at a time they are abysmally abnormal?

    On Monday, more than 300 people were conferred with national honours. While a good number of them could have merited it, some of them were mere misnomers. Among them is a former governor of an oil-rich state of the Niger Delta region of the country who, in a bid to avoid prosecution for corruption and other financial malfeasance while in office, approached a court and obtained a “perpetual injunction” from prosecution. Today, he has been rewarded with a national honour. And there are so many other shameless ones in the same boat with him who have been so honoured in the country. Nigeria we hail thee!

    In the past few years, particularly under the current democracy, the country has again and again demonstrated either unwillingness or lack of capacity to tackle corruption, the hydra-headed monster that has eaten deep into the fabric of the nation. The country is still enmeshed in the $9.3 million money laundering embarrassment that was discovered in far away South Africa. The government said the money was meant to purchase arms to fight the ongoing terrorists’ war in the country. If that excuse was meant to draw sympathy, it has failed and woefully too. The reason is that Nigerians do not trust their leaders because of their high propensity and proclivity to manufacture and tell lies. The same government enacted a law banning her citizens from travelling out of the country at anytime with an amount exceeding $10,000. Now, the government had the effrontery to pack $9.3 million in cash in three suitcases to go and shop for arms across the counter somewhere. Besides, those who ferried the money out are not government officials, while the vessel or the jet used belongs to a known government apologist and bootlicker in cassock.

    There is no amount of explanation that can erase the guilty verdict the people have passed on the government. The public deserve to know the identity of the two couriers involved in this illicit transfer of money that has gone awry. As for the funky man in cassock, it might be too late for him to retrace his steps since he appears to be easily swayed by filthy lucre, for which he makes no pretensions within and outside the country. At least, he is well known all over the place as a commercial ‘Man of God’ who will stop at nothing to smile to the banks to the detriment of his perceived faith. One thing is that he should not allow his greed and selfishness to pit the two major religions against each other in a war of attrition. Based on his antecedents, that is the danger his unguarded pursuit of worldly things could pose to the corporate existence of this country. After all, there is no need putting on a cassock and behaving more like a Boko Haram convert.

    That takes us to the Synagogue church. The building collapse, regrettable and painful as it may be, looks more like an end time thing. For many years, one man suddenly appeared on the scene from nowhere and started equating himself with the trinity and we were all clapping. Within a few years, he built a stupendous empire with many fairy tales of magical prowess. Now that it seems the chickens are gradually coming home to roost, the same man is crying foul and attempting, at least by his body language, to extract sympathy from the public. If people troop to his miracle city in droves, must he only corner the proceeds from such pilgrimages? Why not out-source, for instance, the lodging, accommodation and feeding of his teeming pilgrims to competent hands? Instead, the man embarked on what a Warri man will call “long throat”. Now see what he has caused for himself and the country. For lack of any serious thing to say, he said that the more than 115 people that perished were “martyrs of faith”. By the way, how many of these martyrs are his relations or offspring? And the man is still walking free all over the place. Anyway, that is a story for another day.

    On the political turf, the wave of endorsements and collation of millions of signatures, real and imagined, including the break dancing and the orchestra by our politicians on the threshold of the general elections scheduled for next year, does not give much cheer about the future of the country. Something is seriously wrong. That reminds me of that bespectacled tyrant, General Sani Abacha of blessed (or unblessed) memory. Nigeria we hail thee!

  • Don’t spill their blood

    Don’t spill their blood

    It has almost become a recurring decimal in our national history. Every now and then, there are upheavals in our security agencies, particularly the military and to a large extent, the army. During the military era, from 1966-1999, except for the brief interlude between 1979 and 1983, military uprisings in the form of coup d’états, were regular features of our political life in Nigeria as one group of military adventurers upstaged another in a rat race to control the levers of political power. In the political chess game, much blood was spilled.

    After the military handed over to a democratically elected civilian government in 1999, the spectre of coups seems to have receded. However, what we are now contending with are some forms of insurrection now and again. In 2009, the nation had to grapple with the revolt by returning soldiers from Liberia, who took to the streets in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, southwest Nigeria, accusing some of their commanders of short-changing them. During the subsequent trial, the soldiers alleged that many of them were arrested but some of them were let off the hook after paying $150 ‘ransom’ to a particular officer. They said the officer freed those who paid the bribe and refused to let go those of them who refused to cooperate. Besides, while the soldiers who protested injustice were jailed for life, the officers got away with light punishment, mostly demotion.

    Now, almost the same scenario is playing out once again exactly five years after. In the current one, 12 soldiers have been sentenced to death by firing squad by a military tribunal. Their sentence was the climax of a military court martial involving the arraignment of 18 soldiers on a six-count charge for their involvement in a mutiny on May 14. That day, some aggrieved troops opened fire at a car carrying Major-General Ahmadu Mohammed, the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 7 Division of the Army, based in Maiduguri, Borno State. The General Court Martial ended its sitting at the Mogadishu Barracks in Abuja last Monday. It sentenced 12 of the 18 soldiers to death by firing squad; one was sentenced to 28 days imprisonment with hard labour, while five others were set free.

    The soldiers had claimed that they were ambushed while on a special operation in Kalabalge Local Government Area near Chibok in Borno State, where over 200 girls were abducted from the Government Secondary School, a month earlier. They alleged that, after the operation, the soldiers, who arrived the location at night, were asked to return to Maiduguri by their Commanding Officer despite their plea to be allowed to return the next morning, as the night trip was considered too risky. Unfortunately, halfway through their journey, they ran into a Boko Haram ambush, resulting in the death of more than 10 of them while others suffered various degrees of injuries.

    This incident angered the soldiers, prompting them to rebel against their superiors while the GOC was shot at. The incident compelled the Nigerian Army to replace the GOC at the time. Alarmed by the development, the military authorities arrested the soldiers and instituted a military board of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding their conduct. The soldiers were slammed with six counts, including insubordinate behaviour, false accusation, mutiny, absence without leave (AWOL) and conduct prejudice to service discipline. The punishments for the offences under the Armed Forces Act (AFA) include death, imprisonment and dismissal with ignominy from the armed forces, among others.

    Since last week when the death sentence was passed, the fate of the 12 soldiers has become a source of worry to so many Nigerians. Many have viewed the sentence as capable of impacting negatively on the ongoing campaign against the Boko Haram terrorists as well as demoralise the rank and file of the military. They urged the military to put its house in order and fish out “all the Boko Haram apologists within its ranks and check the excesses of some security operatives who betray their oath of allegiance to the country through sabotage”, the type that led the soldiers’ revolt against their superiors. But some retired military officers have also insisted that the soldiers deserve to die in keeping with military discipline.

    Well, it is good for the military to retain its long tradition of discipline. Any right-thinking person will also not hesitate to condemn the high temperament exhibited by the soldiers in response to the avoidable calamity which befell their colleagues due to needless “orders from above”. It is a pity that some of those now talking about discipline at all cost have also infringed on the law at one time or another and were spared the bullets. However, the lesson from this episode is that the military should put its house in order so as to prevent this ugly thing from repeating itself. The issue of insider sabotage has become too pronounced in the military in recent times. The other day, some senior officers were court-martialled for selling weapons to the terrorists. This is a sad development for a military that wants people to take it seriously.

    What this implies is the fact that there are Boko Haram members in the security forces, particularly the military, which is why it has been pretty difficult to neutralise the terrorists all this while. In most cases, the terrorists appear to be ahead of the military in terms of weaponry and intelligence gathering. This is probably why the soldiers have often taken to their heels when confronted by the terrorists.

    There are rumours that some senior military officers who, before the Boko Haram crisis, were not that buoyant have now suddenly become rich overnight, with fat bank accounts, while the terrorists are daily making mincemeat of the innocent rank and file due to lack of adequate, up-to-date weapons. Few weeks back, a contingent of about 480 Nigerian soldiers had to run into neighbouring Cameroun for sanctuary when they were almost routed by the ragtag Boko Haram terrorists. The Defence Headquarters had to downplay this shameful conduct by describing it as a “tactical manoeuvre”. Tell me, which tactical manoeuvre will make a large contingent of a country’s army to stray into another country, with most of them looking half-naked, dirty and weary?

    In any case, this death sentence is like handing over a special commemorative trophy to the Boko Haram terrorists for a job well done in depleting the ranks of the country’s army as well as demystifying them through all forms of humiliation on the battlefield. Many a time, Nigerian troops complain about lack of adequate kits and equipment as well as inappropriate welfare to prosecute the campaign against Boko Haram. Spilling the blood of these soldiers will only be the surest way to completely demoralise the rank and file of the Nigerian soldiers, who, as it is, are the ones bearing the brunt of this war. This is why they may be aggrieved and ready to explode at the slightest prompting.

    This is the time for the federal government and the military leadership to look into the grievances of soldiers rather than dragging any of them to the stakes for execution. Prior to the incident which has now put the lives of at least 12 soldiers on the line, the soldiers at the Maimalari Cantonment had ceaselessly complained about insufficient ammunition, food and allowances. We cannot continue to lose our soldiers to official indiscretion, high-handedness and maltreatment by higher officers.

    It is clear that if the GOC had exercised his discretion properly, the ambush that led to the death of some soldiers that night would have been avoided. In that case, the soldiers would not have had any cause to confront him, not to talk of firing at him or his car. There is no doubt that mutiny in the military is a grievous offence which should not be encouraged because of the security implication, but we have shed too much blood in this country unnecessarily, than to continue to railroad our young ones to their untimely graves. This is why the circumstance and facts of the mutiny should be taken into consideration.

  •  ‘Our Girls’; Fulani War; CBN Gov: High Interest; Bank of Extended Family’; Ebola: NUT, Toilets; $9.3b jet

     ‘Our Girls’; Fulani War; CBN Gov: High Interest; Bank of Extended Family’; Ebola: NUT, Toilets; $9.3b jet

    Our Girls’ are still missing since April 15, and we have nothing to show for the investigation. Our neighbours have successfully released Nigerian hostages on more than two occasions with heavy casualties among the Boko Haram abductors. We wish our military escalating success in this war as it prepares to execute or reduce the sentences of 12 mutineers with reason. Government has more control over and should pay as much attention to the Fulani War especially as even soldiers have now been killed as government is indifferent to civilian murders. The government should act before Nigerians take it upon themselves to give up cow meat as part of fasting and praying to rid the country of this growing curse of marauders who daily grow more blood-thirsty.

    There is a high financial cost of political rallies and the many smiling, not sober-looking politicians, at this time of high civilian mortality and morbidity across towns and farmlands from the Fulani War and Boko Haram War and our lost Chibok Girls. The political situation shows little connection with the realities of suffering victims displaced and injured by the bombings and mayhem in farmlands and villages.

    There is still moral trouble at CBN after 100 days of Godwin Emefiele’s governorship. No new direction to bail Nigerians out of their misery at the ground floor of life. We know banks do not like to rock the boat except when it comes to suddenly worsening the exchange rate, a feat they manage to do without batting an eyelid. When they sit at meetings, do the Directors etc even ever consider what businesses will yield profits to accommodate 21-25% loans with power and taxes so high? Worldwide the stimulus to business is cheap power supply and cheap loans or low single digit interest rates. Even the Islamic Bank knows this. So why do Western trained bankers ignore the needs of the people? Unfortunately in the warped wisdom of the CBN, the MPR is maintained at 12%. But government has been forced by certain interested parties to see that the interest rate is too high for normal business and has therefore ‘granted’ interest rate reductions to single digit for aviation, Nollywood and most recently for some housing initiatives and Small and Medium Enterprises.

    Why have these groups been favoured thus abandoning the ‘rest of us’ in a high interest rate trap in what can only be described as ‘Bankers Fraud’ or ‘Bankers’ Interest Rate Conspiracy’ against the nation which has the highest interest rates in the world? Do we not have lobbyists for the common man? Why the government and CBN ignore the masses for similar ‘grants’ is obscured in the bowels of CBN monetary policy and federal myopia. Government was happy to boast about Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa. Well for the information of government financial gurus, the economy is even bigger. Government and all economists must know that there is an undiscovered bank, hidden in plain sight, with no walls and vault, which is why Nigeria survives the stress of 21-25% interest rates. This bank is everywhere and nowhere, at every level of society and it charges zero interest rates with no collateral and with good will as the only criterion. That bank is the Bank of The Extended Family, BEF. The BEF is the saving grace of millions of families, providing instant funds at the speed of an ATM almost in every home. These funds are often life and death funds for emergency medical attention, one year rent for junior workers, school fees, wholesale purchase of merchandise for small shops, car repairs, even for weddings and funerals. Government and CBN can easily bring this ‘Extended Family Support Economy’ into the main stream by the simple act of making available single interest loans to all Nigerians and not just the chosen few.

    The NUT may not be totally altruistic in its demands for a delay in the date of resumption of schools. After all, there is supposed to be serious money for Ebola monitoring. Ebola is the new cash-cow and a metaphor for the abysmal sanitation facilities in most public hospitals and schools. Ebola has exposed what we have been saying for years about the disgraceful sanitation status in our schools and hospitals. If there are 200 children in a school, expect them to need toilet facilities at least twice in eight hours, 400 times. Well 3000 pupil schools need facilities to cater for 6000 toilet visits and hand-washing of course and even sanitary disposal of sanitary towels in mixed and girls’ schools. These are the sanitary foundations of civilisation, a civilisation that we are still struggling to achieve even though we can afford to send a private jet with $9.3m in cash to but not toilets or running water but for gun-running. NUT is so very vocal today for hand thermometers and ‘training’ at a cost per head. Unfortunately I have never seen or heard that the NUT has even once complained about the absence of toilets and water in even one school. It is time the NUT rose to meet the challenges of deficits in schools. The $9.3m cash, N1.4b, N1,400/Nigerian, aboard a private jet, supposedly for sweet South African small and medium arms is a very dumb move. Such money could have gone up in smoke if there had been a phantom plane crash. Maybe the seizure is fake to ‘disappear’ the money.

  • ‘Our Girls’; Dr Ameyo Adadevoh Foundation, Brig Gen Adekunle, RIP

    ‘Our Girls’; Dr Ameyo Adadevoh Foundation, Brig Gen Adekunle, RIP

    Our Girls’ are still missing since April 15. This is unbelievable as is what the families are going through! The spat between government and the Bringbackourgirls campaign should be terminated immediately. The suggestion that a political party is responsible for Boko Haram is ridiculous even though it had some of its origins in political thuggery. Now thugs are politicians themselves having overthrown the hand that fed and led them by cutting out the ‘middle man’.

    Dr Ameyo Adadevoh has painfully been laid to rest and also her stance as a proud doctor of integrity has been reinforced by sympathisers at a Night of Tributes and a Funeral /Commendation service activities in Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana where the President of Ghana honoured her.  Of course we would all have preferred her to be with her husband, son, family, colleagues and Nigerians in general. However she has gone to face an interview to fill a vacancy in Heaven that we are sure she has already passed with flying colours and is her usually sparkling self even in Heaven. The Dr Ameyo Adadevoh Foundation set up to conduct research especially in viruses is a welcome contribution to research and a valuable way of perpetuating Ameyo’s good name.  We must also note that if six months ago, Ameyo or anyone in clinical or research medicine or veterinary medicine had applied for a research grant for ‘Awareness About Deadly Viruses’, ‘Availability Of Deadly Virus Preventive Clothing Kits’, ‘Viruses In Bush Meat Samples In Nigeria’,  or ‘Vaccination Status Against Deadly Viruses In Nigeria’ or applied for ‘More Media Outreach Education For Deadly Viruses’  we in medicine know that such a person, and even Adadevoh herself,  would have been sent packing as ‘dreaming’ or ‘unrealistic or planning to ‘waste scarce funds’.

    Do you know how much brilliant research has been reduced to nothingness by a near absence of research grants for over 30 years?  Be truthful, how many politicians think research grants are of any value? There are hardly any research grants anyway in spite of the efforts of the National Universities Commission and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in this regard, for which we are grateful. All research in Nigeria, arts or science, relevant or utopian, is chronically and seriously under-funded by both government and the private sector. Anyone asking what the budget for ‘Medical Research’ in Nigeria should be, would do well to Google South Africa’s Medical Research Council Grants’ for 2013 and 2014.  There will be found the sums spent by South Africa, not USA or UK or the EU. Research is research. It can never be ‘Nigerian factor’ with short cuts and fictitious results. The reader must be informed of how difficult good research can be in Nigeria where absence of power, libraries, funds and honesty make the truthful researcher an endangered species.  If Nigeria equals South Africa’s volume of medical research funding, that would be something but still not enough. Why? With being the very boastful ‘Largest Economy In Africa’ comes responsibility to deliver deliverables including research fund levels at percentage of budgets just as other countries fund their own medical and other research . This funding must be delivered as a routine, independent of tampering by authorities and politicians.  Remember to google South Africa, Nigeria’s, UK’s, USA’s Medical Research Council or equivalent grants. The supreme price paid by Ameyo, the matron, and others in the line of dedicated and distinguished medical duty was unnecessary. Perhaps it will make the authorities take research seriously for a few minutes? Can we expect more in this knee-jerk, fire-brigade society which always lacks a plan even for seasonal market fires? Remember we still are ravaged by the multiple murdering typhoid, malaria and maternal mortality, (TMM), but who cares? The anti-Ebola strategies are creating massive awareness of queuing and hand washing and improved sanitation, toilet provision, water supply in hospitals, schools, markets and homes. These preventive measures, considered ‘normal signs of civilisation’, must be taken seriously in buildings, approvals for schools, review of government schools, budget allocations and maintenance. Remember the mathematics. One hundred million + will use the toilet, if available 400,000,000+ times. They must be made to last forever, if Dr Adadevoh and other medical professionals are not to have died in vain. Stubborn Nigerians were forced learn the art of queuing from draconic Buhari-Idiagbon military regime. Now ‘NO CONTACT, QUEUE WITH A CONSCIENCE’ to leave ‘ANTI-VIRUS SPACE’ between each person as the manifestation of the fact that ‘’The fear of Ebola is the beginning of ‘NON-CONTACT QUEUES’ wisdom’’. The spin-off is that it may bring the improvement in personal hygiene with reduction in all the biological warfare diseases, TMM.  EMERGENCY RELEASE OF SUCH FUNDS AND EXECUTION OF PROJECTS IS STRATEGIC NATIONAL IMPORANCE.

    We salute another hero; a major war hero, untainted retired Brig- General Benjamin Adekunle, aka Black Scorpion, of the Third Marine Commando is dead. Long live his memory. He also cleared the port by dumping most of the unclaimed goods into the Apapa Marina.  The disrespect for soldiers past, especially in the south of Nigeria, laxity in payment of their pensions and refusal to recruit their experienced brains to fight the new security challenges, will be Nigeria’s downfall. We do not need Boko Haram to reach Ore or Ibadan before planning an exit or resistance strategy.

     

  • The ink dries for Dimgba

    The ink dries for Dimgba

    That lonesome evening of Saturday, September 6, I was alone, sitting on the sofa in my room, ensconced in thoughts. Suddenly, I looked up to the television set that was doing its own thing unnoticed for some time. Behold the news scroll on the AIT station: “Dimgba Igwe, Vice-Chairman, Sun Newspapers, dies at 58.” At first, it did not as much register in my consciousness as I stared blankly at the television set unable to comprehend whether what I had seen was true, could be true or was totally true. Immediately, I sat up, waiting for the news to come round again. Then it came again and again and again.

    By now, the journalistic instinct in me had woken up. I reached out to my cellphone. As I held it, trying to put a call through for more information about the shocking news, the first name that came to mind was Eric Osagie, whom I choose to call “Omonoba”, meaning “Prince”, in Edo language. I have known and bonded with Eric way back to his days of sojourn with the now rested Weekend Concord. Fate joined us together in 1986 and, since then, we have bonded till date. When Eric was with Concord, there was no time we met that his discussion will not veer off to Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe, the professional Siamese twins, who were his bosses and were and are still his bosses in the Sun newspapers. I know that Dimgba has transformed from the terrestrial world to the celestial clime, but he is still a boss. As they say, “once a boss is always a boss.” Even though Dimgba is no more, he will forever remain a boss to all those who passed through his tutelage.

    During the brief interregnum when Concord went off the streets, Eric still maintained his close contact with the duo of Mike and Dimgba, who had then produced their first book. I remember that Eric was involved in marketing the book as he moved all over the place soliciting for buyers. Soon after, the Sun newspapers hit the newsstands. Eric came on board. Each time we met, he never ceased to talk about Dimgba and Mike in glorious terms. It was through his many narrations that I got to know Mike and Dimgba more. Eric mirrored them. Though he never uttered the word “mentor”, but the innate passion with which he spoke about them with love and stylish fervour, they are, no doubt, his mentors and, by extension,  same to so many others.

    So that night, I put a call through to Eric. It rang endlessly without any response. That was quite unusual. My worse fear was confirmed when the 10’o clock news that night said Dimgba Igwe’s death was caused by a hit-and-run driver while he was jogging around his neighbourhood in Okota, a suburb of Lagos. I am quite familiar with that Okota axis of Lagos, which I explored in and out for three years, between 1989 and 1991, when I was working at Champion newspapers, located at Ilasamaja. I am also familiar with the Apata Memorial High School, around where the murderous driver decided to end it all for Dimgba. That area, at that time, was highly notorious, perhaps, because of the ethnic concentration in that place.

    Anyway, I couldn’t reach Eric that night as he did not return my call. Throughout the night, the thoughts of the life of someone of that status being extinguished in such a reckless and callous manner, punctured and punctuated my sleep all through. It was a sleepless night in which my mind kept wandering while I eagerly awaited the flash of daylight to signify another day. My hope was that the newspapers, which my vendor brings before 7a.m every day, will throw more light on the greatest puzzle of the year that Dimgba’s untimely death represents. The newspapers arrived, as usual, just a few minutes to 7a.m. As they were being handed over to me on the bed, my phone rang. The caller was Eric. Both of us were too much in haste to talk about Dimgba’s death, so much that we could not exchange greetings.

    “What happened to Dimgba?” I thundered. Eric answered: “My brother, na so we see am o”. “How did it happen?” I queried further. Eric replied, “You see, nobody really knows exactly what happened, but we heard that he was knocked down by a car while he was jogging early in the morning and somebody picked his phone and called his wife”. Eric and I then went into a long conversation over the incident. Eric blamed his death on the lack of appropriate and adequate medical facilities in the country. He narrated how they took the injured Dimgba to one or two hospitals where there were no surgeons to attend to him, until he was rushed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, where the surgeons there, tried unsuccessfully to stabilise him before he finally died.

    While Eric Osagie was agonising over the dearth of appropriate emergency medical care in the country, which might have hastened the death of Dimgba, I simply told him to look beyond that because it could be a simulated assassination. Let us look at it this way. Jogging around that spot where the incident occurred could have been or was a routine which he did religiously. In that case, he was vulnerable to any hit man or hit men lurking around to commit havoc. All they needed do was to lay ambush ahead of his appearance along that route that unholy morning. As he came around, quite oblivious of the satanic plot, he could have even unknowingly jogged past the vehicle bearing his killer or killers. As soon as the killers were sure of their target, the vehicle would rev into life, move quickly and dangerously crush the target in the usual, crazy manner of driving in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, to make it look like an accident.

    But what could be the motive for such heinous crime? Just anything! Anything that upsets another person could precipitate such criminal act. Here was a man so much married to his job and the gospel. Those close to him say he could not hurt a fly. But he was in business – the business of writing books and, perhaps, some other things along the line. For sure, he couldn’t have been involved in shady deals that might warrant settling scores with death. But then, you never can tell. Petty jealousy and inferiority complex, of which I was a victim in the recent past, could lead an aggrieved person to commit anything. Whatever it is, I believe we all must learn a lesson, or two, from this tragedy.

    Moreover, in this era of technological advancement, what has happened to our so-called policy on e-policing?  Is it too much to install CCTV at notorious crime scenes and very busy areas? This, I believe, would have solved the puzzle that Dimgba’s death has become. Or at least, keep murderers in check. It’s time we put on our thinking caps. It’s Dimgba’s turn today …

    Dimgba lived. Now, he is dead. Stone dead. Never to move either his limbs or fingers again to write the beautiful prose that stood him out in the firmament of journalism in Nigeria. How cruel death is, the monster that devour both the young and the old at will! The dead do not glorify death or tremble at its sight. They just walk away to eternity. It is the living that feels the pain, the anguish, the bereavement and sense of loss. More than a million cries or an ocean of tears can never retrieve the dead. As we weep and gnash our teeth in solemnity with the family, friends and acquaintances left behind by our brother and our comrade-in-arms in the fight against the buccaneers and the oppressors in our midst, we must face the stark reality that Dimgba Igwe has played his part and gone forever. He now sits with the Saints. Well, the police, must fish out whodunit!

  • Abia’s politics of mudslinging

    Abia’s politics of mudslinging

    Desperation for political positions in the next year’s general elections is leading many politicians across the country astray. Even those who have been voted into offices for several times, but have nothing to point at as empowerment and reward for the people are fighting to stage a comeback by all means. They are already throwing caution into the wind, while trying to drag peoples’ name into the mud. They are also engaging in self-contradiction and denial. These negative tendencies are taking toll in Abia State in recent times especially as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries draws closer. The target of these few cynical politicians behind the mudslinging and campaign of calumny are the Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Ahamefula Orji, his government, family members and PDP stakeholders. The development is not a surprise as it was expected especially as every aspirant appears to be desperate to emerge as Governor Orji’s successor.

    So disappointing and demeaning in the whole unfolding episode is the fact that some of those who had some months ago publicly acknowledged and thanked Governor Orji’s government for liberating the state and making positive impact through massive infrastructural developments have suddenly joined the bandwagon of ‘Pull Him Down’ (PHD) politicians in the state. Already made available for them to execute their futile political mudslinging were the two newspapers owned by the estranged ex-governor of the state who had also lost out in the state power equation since 2010, and is now desperately seeking for relevance at all costs ahead of 2015 polls.

    One of the episodes was recently captured in the macabre dance exhibited by the Senator representing Abia Central, Nkechi Nwogu who is nursing the ambition to succeed Governor Orji in office. Nwogu had alleged that the transition chairman of Isiala Ngwa North local government of the State, Chief Ginger Onwusibe had on alleged order of Governor Orji launched attack on her along Enugu-Port Harcourt warning her to stop campaigning for the office of the governor because it has been zoned to Abia South District. Nwaogu further claimed that she was a target of assassination attempt by the thugs. Onwusibe in his reply denied the accusation, saying that it was “an attempt by the Senator to blackmail and tell lies against him. He said it was the Senator’s security men and her aides that launched attack on him when his car was waiting to cross to the other side of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway at Uratta Amaekpu junction.

    Common sense demands that as a senator representing the governors’ zone and a member of PDP, the best bet if truly such incident happened was for the senator to relate it to the governor, teh state Commissioner of Police and wait for their actions or responses before taking further steps. Rushing to grant interview on the issue to two newspapers owned by the ex-governor of the state who has since launched media war against Orji’s government is quite suspicious. It is not out of place that such false alarm would be raised against Governor Orji, his government, the state party leadership before and after the party primaries in the state. This is because some aspirants who are not sure of themselves in the election contest would resort to blackmail, false allegations and facts-twisting to remain relevant in the politics of the state ahead of 2015 polls.

    It is on record that since Governor Orji assumed office as governor of the state in 2007, the state has not witnessed any politically motivated attacks. Even the sponsored kidnapping menace that pervaded the State in 2010 was tackled headlong by the government and had since become a thing of the past. The likes of Onyema Ugochukwu, Vincent Ogbulafor, Ojo Mmaduekwe, Adolphous Wabara, Enyinnaya Abaribe and others who were before now tagged Abuja politicians have since become home politicians courtesy of secure and friendly environment provided by the present government in the state. They are always in the state now without security aides or fear of molestation or attack. Dividends of the secure and peaceful atmosphere in the state abound, ranging from the ongoing massive infrastructural developments to the influx of investors and others. This has brought rapid economic development and job opportunities in the state.

    The governor as Chief Security Officer of the state has never at any point, even by proxy, used the security agents in the state to intimidate or harass anybody, not even his predecessor that has consistently attacked his personality. Nwogu’s allegation is the first of its kind in the state since Orji assumed office, and it may not be the last, especially as 2015 polls fast approaches. Since the PDP in the state zoned the governorship seat to Abia South district, neither the party leadership in the state nor Orji has stopped aspirants from other senatorial districts from campaigning for the seat. So why should any aspirant resort to blackmail and false alarm to whip up sentiment ahead of the party governorship primaries? The fate of all the aspirants would be decided at the ballot box during primaries. Governor Orji has repeatedly made it clear that he has not endorsed anybody, and will not do so in order to allow for a level playing ground for all the aspirants.

    With the party leadership and the state government’s position on the issue, the onus lies on the aspirants to flaunt their records and convince the party delegates to support them in the primaries. It will be left for the party delegates to assess every aspirant accordingly and take a decision in line with the party’s policy and the constitution. It will provide opportunity for stock taking of grassroots politicians who are always handy to partner with the people and emergency politicians who always remember the people whenever they are in dire need of their votes.

    Those who will lose, because (definitely there will be losers and winners) should as loyal party members, support whoever emerges to ensure that the party emerge victorious in the polls. This is because as it is in the state today, PDP holds the ace politically and enjoys a lot of advantages because of the state government’s numerous accomplishments so far. Other political parties in the state are featherweight as they lack followers and foundation. Those who are hoping to use them as last resort after losing out in the PDP primaries will end up losing out completely, because PDP is the best brand and the most acceptable party in the state today.

    • Dr. Uwa wrote from Aba, Abia State

     

     

  • For free, fair, credible elections in 2015

    For free, fair, credible elections in 2015

    For the last two days ASAA Pyramid Hotel, probably the biggest private hotel in Kaduna, hosted journalists from the seven states of the North West geo-political zone for a workshop on effective coverage of next year’s general elections organised by the Nigerian Press Council, the country’s regulator of the print media. It was the third in a series the press regulator, whose Acting Executive Director is Nnamdi Ejemanze, has been organising to help journalists build capacity for reporting the electoral process ahead of next year’s election.

    Three resource persons delivered papers on various aspects of the subject. I was one of them. The following is the edited version of my paper.

    The last time we had elections for choosing candidates for various posts or offices was over three and a half years ago and, as we all know, it wasn’t a happy story before, during and after. The violence that accompanied those elections, especially that for the presidency, was one of the worst in the country’s history. The question is, how do we avoid a repeat of 2011 and what role should the media play in doing so?

    The answers are at once simple and complex. Simple, in the sense that the only way to avoid violent elections is for politicians as the main actors in the electoral process to talk about issues and character and avoid whipping up emotions – ethnic, sectional or religious – and also allow elections to be free, fair and credible. The media, on their part, have the role of holding up politicians to their responsibilities for ensuring peace, harmony and progress in the society. It’s all as simple as that.

    However, it is also complex at the same time. Complex, in the sense that for both politicians and the media, the proper behaviour and conduct expected of them are easier said than done. But shying away from such proper behaviour and conduct is not an option, if we truly wish to establish genuine democracy in the country.

    In a way, the greater responsibility for ensuring free, fair and credible elections lies with the media than with politicians in the sense that most people learn about issues, events and people from the media, whether these media are newspapers and magazines, radio or television, or the so-called social media, the latest of them all. In other words, the media have immense power to set society’s agenda because they are arguably the most important sources of information and knowledge.

    Of course the media’s power to set society’s agenda is not unlimited and is often exaggerated. However, anyone who underestimates this power does so at his or her own peril.

    In talking about the media’s power to set society’s agenda, I would like to use the feline metaphors we as journalists are fond of. We all pride ourselves as society’s watchdogs. But we cannot deny that many at times we often allow ourselves to become someone’s or some group’s lapdogs or attack dogs. If we want to set society’s agenda in the best interest of society rather than only in the partisan interest of someone or some group, we must, obviously, never ever be anyone’s or any group’s lapdogs or attack dogs. Instead, we should even go beyond being society’s watchdog and be its guide dog.

    Playing the role of a guide dog or even the easier one of a watchdog entails being knowledgeable and well informed about the issues, events and personalities that we report about. It also entails keeping to the ethics and sensible laws governing our profession.

    As we approach next year’s general elections beginning in February, we as journalists must become well informed and knowledgeable about the variables whose interplay can foster or mar a free, fair and credible election, depending on how we handle them. These variables are structural, environmental and the resources available to the contestants.

    The structural variables include the Constitution and the laws of the land, especially on elections and media practice. What, for example, are the limits of free speech and freedom of association? These structural variables also include knowing the workings of the country’s political system which, since 1979, has been the presidential system, as opposed to the parliamentary system we inherited from our colonial masters in 1960 and practiced up to 1966 when the military staged its first coup.

    Not least of these structural variables, we must be well informed and knowledgeable about how our voting system works. What, for example, are the constitutional and legal requirements for being eligible to contest in and then win an election?

    The environmental variables we must inform ourselves well and be knowledgeable about are the big issues of the period. Right now these include insecurity, corruption, unemployment and poor infrastructure. As good journalists, we should not allow politicians to divert the public’s attention away from their records of performance on these and other issues relevant to the peace, harmony and progress of society.

    Finally, we must ask questions about the resources the political parties and their candidates possess that can enable them solve the country’s problems. Do they have competent leadership? How much internal democracy have they demonstrated? What is their level of integrity?

    These, of course, are not the only questions journalists must find answers to if they, in turn, are to inform and educate members of the public about the choices before them and this way effectively play their role as journalists of ensuring free, fair and credible elections next year. However, finding the answers to these questions is essential for the establishment of true democracy in the country. And so far, what we have had in this country since the end of military rule 15 years ago is civilian rule rather than true democracy.

    As I said in effect at the beginning of this short paper, finding the answers to the questions I have raised won’t be easy. But then, as the saying goes, nothing good comes easy. As the saying also goes, the price of democracy is eternal vigilance.

    Probably few of us here have heard of Paul Krugman. Well, he is an American professor of Economics and a celebrated columnist with The New York Times, Fortune magazine and Slate, an online journal. Six years ago he won the Nobel Prize in Economics. The author of several books on Economics, he reduced many of his columns on the subject into a book titled: The Great Unravelling: From Boom to Bust in Three Scandalous Years. The 2008 book was about how the economic and political policies of President George Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, drove the boom economy they inherited from President Bill Clinton in 2000 into bust within three years.

    In his introduction to the book, Krugman enunciated what he as a self-styled “part time journalist” called “Rules of Reporting.” He listed five of them. He meant them to serve as guides in reporting the politics and economics of Bush and Cheney. I believe they are pretty much applicable to the kind of politics we have experienced in Nigeria the last 15 years. Certainly they will serve as useful guides for effectively reporting next year’s elections to ensure they are free, fair and credible.

    Krugman’s rules of reporting in my own paraphrase are:-

    1. Never assume the Nigerian politician means what he says or says what he means. Always maintain a healthy scepticism and crosscheck the credibility of his words.

    2. Always do some homework to find out what his real objectives are.

    3. Expect him to break the rules of the game whenever he finds them inconvenient even in the slightest way.

    4. Expect him to respond to even the slightest criticisms by all means, mostly more foul than fair.

    5. Remember most politicians are Oliver Twists; the more you try to appease them, the more they want.

    Obeying these rules is a tough call but disregarding them is not an option if we as journalists want to effectively report next year’s election and thus begin to lay a sound foundation for true democracy in Nigeria.

     

    RE: For a better Customs Service

     

    Sir, What I was anxious to read from you last Wednesday was a tribute to a veteran journalist and prominent northern elder, Malam Magaji Danbatta, and not a PR for the Customs CG. Why the sudden departure from tradition?

    Babangida Mamman, Bauchi. +2348039098744

     

    Sir, I have been reading your write ups since your days in the New Nigerian through the Citizen magazine and elsewhere. In all, I am very disappointed in the views you expressed in your “For a better Customs Service”.

    I have tried painfully to suppress the feelings that you were induced to stress the views expressed in the write up without success. With the findings that arms have been imported by CAN through the ports with the obvious connivance of the Customs under the supervision of your hero to kill and maim innocent Nigerians, mostly in the North, do you think he justifies his PR as the legendary Mohammed Ali?

    I never knew you could descend this low. As a younger brother, I wish to advise that you consider your integrity first.

    Sule Labbo, Abuja. +2348035271677

     

  • For a better Customs Service

    For a better Customs Service

    As a reporter I am always suspicious of any public officer who likes publicity. This may sound illogical because by definition the words and deeds of public servants should be public. But then there is a difference between publicity as a matter of course and public relations. The one focuses on the deeds, the other on the person.

    The public officers I am always suspicious of are those who like to worship at the altar of the gods of public relations. Such public officers are invariably more concerned about their image than about their performance. Needless to say, they abound everywhere, including of course, in Nigeria.

    Until I met the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi, about a couple of years ago, I thought he was one of those publicity seeking public officers who are more image than substance; hardly a week passed without one story or another in the press about him receiving one award or other for supposedly excelling in his job.

    Indeed my first meeting with him, which was accidental, was in the course of his receiving one of those seemingly interminable awards, this time in the UK. I happened to be visiting our High Commissioner in the country, Senator Sarki Tafida, an elder friend, in his office in London, when he told me of his invitation to attend the award ceremony and extended his invitation to me. I was reluctant at first but in the end agreed to accompany him essentially because I really had little doing the evening of that day.

    Since then I had kept a fairly close tab on the Comptroller-General (CG) and have since come to the conclusion that he may like his publicity so much but he reminds me of the bombastic Muhammad Ali, the living boxing legend; like Ali, the man justifies his PR.

    When he took over as CG five years ago on August 26, the service was generating a comparatively paltry sum of N27 billion a month. He nearly doubled that to 50 in his first year in office. Since then its revenue has grown to about 100 billion a month, making it a total of over a trillion annually.

    As a good manager he has ensured that the increased productivity of his men and officers has reflected in their welfare by doubling their salaries and allowances, renovating and upgrading their offices and staff quarters and by investing heavily in their training and re-training at home and abroad and giving them the requisite hard- and soft-ware to do their jobs well.

    Exactly a year ago last month, the man completed his first four years in office as CG. This led to speculations that he would be retired and replaced by one of his six deputies. Thanks perhaps to the confidence which he seems to enjoy from President Goodluck Jonathan, he survived the speculations.

    This survival was child’s play compared to the threat he overcame in his first year in office following allegations by one, Olajide Oyewole Ibrahim, through his lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, that the CG entered the service with forged academic qualifications. President Jonathan, to whom Keyamo had addressed Ibrahim’s affidavit, seeking the CG’s sack, was said to have dismissed it as the malicious work of possibly disgruntled traducers.

    Apparently, the allegations did not distract the CG from getting on with his job as best as he could. So far he has more than proved his mettle. Indeed, all indications are that he could do even better, but for some problems he seems to have encountered from his parent ministry, the Ministry of Finance, under our super minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who doubles as the country’s co-ordinating minister.

    First, there is the scandal that has surrounded the duty waiver regime under the authority of the minister. Under this regime waivers of duties are supposed to provide incentives for investments in strategic and job creating sectors of the economy. Widespread suspicions that the waivers were instead being abused prompted the finance committee of the House of Representatives to ask the minister for figures and beneficiaries of such waivers between 2011 and 2013.

    She told the House in January that the figures came to 171 billion for the period. It turned out that they were 1.4 trillion!  At least those were the figures revealed by Customs and to date they have not been contradicted. What was more, over 60 per cent of the waivers were for items without any value added to the economy.

    Worse, so far no one has been brought to account for the criminal difference between the two figures. Worst of all, it seems the waiver abuse has only abated somewhat but is far from ended. As The Nation said in its editorial of two Mondays ago, “If Nigerians needed proof that the import duty racket was alive and well, the latest report showing the Federal Government as granting N25 billion in waivers over a five-month period this year should be proof enough.”

    Second, there is the issue of the Destination Inspection that had been under some private companies since government abolished pre-shipment inspection about eight years ago. Last December the contracts with the private companies were terminated and the job reverted back to Customs. Since then the service has faced a number of challenges in meeting expectations, not least of which is possible sabotage by elements outside the service who would be more than happy to see the new arrangement fail.

    However, in spite of such possible sabotage and the usual problems that go with changes from the old ways of doing things, Custom has managed to improve the clearing of goods from 24 hours to an average of six. And, of course, it has saved the nation the huge fees paid to the companies, heads or tails.

    Third, there is the delay the service has routinely encountered from its parent ministry in the release of seven per cent of the revenue it generates which it is authorised to retain as incentive for increased productivity.

    These are, of course, not the only obstacles standing in the way of the CG performing even better than he has so far in his five years in office. However, they are the biggest. With them out of the way, the service should be able to surpass even the N1.2 trillion it set for itself in January as its target for this year.

    And with such revenue from Customs alone, not to mention other revenue generating services of government, it is not difficult to see why the public was outraged by the presidency’s recent announcement that it would like to seek a loan of $1 billion dollars, or the equivalent of about one eighth of Custom’s annual revenue in Naira, to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.

     

    A most shocking death

     

    The death of Mr Dimgba Igwe, the vice-chairman of  The Sun Publishing Limited, came to me as a big shock. It came in the form of a text from Mr Raheem Adedoyin, the secretary of the Nigerian chapter of the International Press Institute of which Dimgba had been a very active member. I didn’t know when I screamed after reading Raheem’s text because Dimgba’s death was the last thing on my mind when we last met in Katsina penultimate weekend for this year’s annual conference of the country’s editors.

    He couldn’t look healthier and fitter than he was as we interacted throughout the conference in our hotel and at the venue of the conference. As usual, when I saw him alone I asked him where he had left his “twin brother,” as most of us call Mr Mike Awoyinfa with whom he had worked at both the defunct National Concord and Sun, turning both into two of the widest circulating newspapers in Nigeria.

    Mike, he said, couldn’t come because his son was graduating abroad, and he himself almost didn’t come because of fears based, of course, on media reports that the Boko Haram was all over the place in the North. In the end he came and he was, he said, glad that he did not miss the conference for the success it turned out to be and to see how Katsina had been transformed from the glorified village it was in 1991, when he first visited it, into a beautiful city, thanks in large measure to the current administration.

    You can then imagine my shock at realising that Dimgba, the affable gentleman, great reporter, editor, author and columnist, was no more.

    May God grant his wife, Oby, with whom he had always attended the IPI annual congress, his immediate family, his “twin brother” Mike, and his larger press family the fortitude to bear his great loss.

     

    RE: A professor’s lies with statistics

     

    Sir, It is very interesting and at the same time disheartening that a man of Professor Darah’s repute will be calling for a division (of this country). But I wish to inform you that he is a professor of oral literature and folklore not of mass communication.

    Okobi Colosus Philip,

    Federal Capital Territory, +2348122099757.

     

    I stand corrected. However, The Guardian, where he was a columnist for several years and whose editorial board he once chaired described him as “professor of communications” in the introduction of an interview with him it published on July 13.

    MH

    Sir, We know your style. Don’t demonize Darah/Chinweizu. You’ve been writing worse things about Southerners for a very long time. FOR EVERY MONSTER, THERE IS A MIRROR IMAGE.

    +2347018933332.

     

    Sir, I think the eggheads who decided that Darah deserved to be a professor‘ll be pinching themselves if he actually said those things you attributed to him. People like him also put the political future of minorities in jeopardy because he made it look like the size of your tribe also decides the size of your mind even as a professor!

    One other question is: what has Jona done for the Niger Delta apart from empowering ex-militants to steal more oil? All other projects are located in his small Otuoke. Most Nigerians know the (national) conference is nothing but ‘2015 @SURE-P’.

    Olu, +2348033013597.

     

     

     

     

    Sir, I read your write-up, “A professor’s lies with statistics.” Please, I want to ask, are you a professor?

    Osakwe E. O., Delta State,  +2348037032937.

     

    No, I am not a professor. I am not even a PhD.     MH

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘Our Girls’; Lessons from Ebola: Wanted- ‘A UN Declaration on Expanded Role Of Media In Ignorance Elimination?’

    ‘Our Girls’; Lessons from Ebola: Wanted- ‘A UN Declaration on Expanded Role Of Media In Ignorance Elimination?’

    Our Girls’ are still in captivity since April 15.

    Cholera has just killed 16 Nigerians, more than the ‘deadly’ Ebola. ‘Boko Haram, Typhoid and Delivery’, having a baby, each kill thousands annually. Fortunately, Cholera and Typhoid will be reduced by the hand washing and hygiene and reduced contact strategies against Ebola. As we look to ‘Life after Ebola’ as it winds down in Nigeria hopefully, we commemorate the dedicated and courageous Dr Ameyo Adadevoh and prayerfully remember all other professional victims.

    What is Nigeria’s ‘Post Ebola Preventive Medicine Policy/Strategy’ at government, ministry of information/health and media levels? Nigeria needs larger ‘Medical Research Council Funding’. Google South Africa’s Medical Research Council. If not, all will go quiet until the next crisis while the internationally donated money, $200m, disappears like the military budget. Language and Communication Arts and Social Science departments in universities must study the role of the media in the Ebola episode. The importance of the media has come to the fore. Nigerians swim in a sea of ‘IGNORANCE’ about things that will keep them alive while being overloaded with adverts ‘educating’ them about products they can survive without. Ebola taught us to share ‘Life Skill Information’.

    It has come to pass. What? The massive media participation in preventive medicine involving government and private sector corporate adverts along with the engagement of officials and celebrities. For me this is long awaited triumph and a vindication of the position of Educare Trust on the media! So much airtime is wasted daily. The media has been woken to its responsibility to ‘Educate and Inform’ and become unselfish, helping to keep Nigerians informed and alive through ‘Ebola Info’. Usually the media only ‘advertises’ prepaid products, not ‘unsponsored’ messages. The world needs a plan of action towards ‘Ignorance Elimination’ – a greater killer than Ebola!  What we have been preaching as a ‘Public And Private Media Policy And Strategy’ for 20 years has come to pass but it must not pass away with Ebola, only to be revived for ‘Alobe’. Education must be continuous to fight the contagious.

    Our people suffer from a disease ‘IGNORANCE’, ‘Ignorance About Life Skills’. Ignorance is not the preserve of the uneducated. The educated are also ignorant. These ‘Life Skills’ are not taught in schools or out of school. Only the media parts, the electronic, print and advertising, are equipped to ‘Eliminate Ignorance’ in our citizenry. Before Ebola, the media was negligent and selfish in executing that responsibility and ignorance has spread like Ebola. The media elements face a negligence charge for only doing things for money under the ‘increase internally generated revenue’ order. For example Cholera and Typhoid kills thousands more than Ebola but when last did you see or hear any message/ advert about preventing Cholera or Typhoid? We like the sensational or terrifying and ignore the routine. But dealing with the routine with strategies like hand washing and sanitation, should prevent the sensational, like Ebola.

    Just as for Ebola, so for the media. The media needs to be taught or ordered to use its power to eliminate the disease ignorance by allocating a specific quantity of airtime or page space for ‘free’  ‘LIFE SKILL MESSAGES’ to keep its customers alive to consume more. There is also a ‘secret message weapon’ that is little used but gets into every home and office, rich and poor. It is the $500 billion corporate advertising space on billions of items moved in packaging and adverts governed by advertising gurus. Criticise every empty space on a bottle, bag, and box as being wasted and can be used in the ‘Ignorance Elimination War’. That space can be offered by the corporate world to WHO, UNICEF for the top 100 life skill messages and to local advert needs, at no extra charge. Such messages can be on anything from bullying, sexual violence to healthy eating. This Ebola epidemic forces us to demand that the UN, WHO etcetera, partner with the corporate world for joint messaging through a ‘New World Order In The Media’. ‘Life Skill Messaging’ on corporate advertising on products and product packaging will prevent citizens dying from ignorance and keep them alive to buy products longer.

    We want A UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON THE EXPANDED ROLE OF THE MEDIA in the 21st Century as follows:

    ‘We the People of the World need

    A UN World Media Social Responsibility Law for every media outlet to ‘include in every 24 hours of broadcasting 15 minutes up to one FREE HOUR of 15-120  messages of 30-60 seconds each per day on chosen Social Life Skill Messages to bring about behavioural change in society’. The UN should recommend this LAW to the world

    A ‘PRINT MEDIA SOCIAL MESSAGE LAW’ mandating that every company should also ‘INCLUDE A SOCIAL/MEDICAL MESSAGE IN EVERY SINGLE ADVERT’ in the media –on air, in the press, posters and billboards, packaging.

    Competitive Awards For The Best Corporate/Media Social Life-skill Message Partnership under the slogan –‘Helping Keep Citizens Alive’ at all the different International and National Annual Media, Advertising and CSR Awards and film and TV and cartoon Awards worldwide.

    The UN should convene a Meeting of the Global Fund and include Corporate Giants and Advertising Agency Gurus to kick-start this new initiative that Ebola has exposed as necessary and present to the world the annual top 100 Life Saving Messages for the media and advertisers to use.