The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Victims Support Fund –Spend ‘’For, By and With the Victims’ Families, not chop chop’’; NNPC sack

    Victims Support Fund –Spend ‘’For, By and With the Victims’ Families, not chop chop’’; NNPC sack

    Be advised that the now well-funded N58.7billion Danjuma-led Terror Victim Support Fund will best be served by targeting for employment in management, administrative and outreach qualified victims only from the areas concerned who have been affected and are naturally desperately looking for jobs. This is not a job for the boys. This is not a time for the usual greedy suspects, vultures feeding fat on the victims’ funds. The Nigerian extended family is the best NGO in Nigeria and should be quickly identified as the unit of recovery, not the individual. Make the recovery a family matter. The VSF must be spent ‘For the Victims, By the Victims and With the Victims!’

    This is not the time for mega-contractors – one contractor delivering 5000 mattresses or 10,000 blankets or whatever and making billions for his family. Nigeria does not need more billionaires. It needs many thousands of half-a-millionaires. This fund will do better with multiple micro-finance contracts similar to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and touching millions. Every contractor, business or local professional or consultant empowered with a N1million or N5million or N10million contract or job for drugs, beddings, roofing sheets, cooking gas or physical and psychological caring will empower the recipients’ families with honest income. But more than money, it will bring morale and morals to the contractor, shop or merchant and instil the pride of the dignity of labour and a return from ruin to human respectability.

    There is no point in paying non-local consultants, accountants, drivers, purchasers, contractors, workers, companies and even NGOs from outside the area while the capable affected citizens, experienced in local business, transportation, administration, management are sitting in long separate rows of men, women and children to receive the ‘largess’ of the TVSF. All these must be registered by age, experience, qualification from paper to professional skills like food preparation to driving licence owner to plumber to farmer, jobs done, jobs desired, computer literacy-very important. Students studying should also be registered for assistance, holiday jobs and educational support. Ask for citizens from the area but residing elsewhere to offer themselves for technical service. Ultimately it is not about the money but integrity, not only of the leadership but of the funded care system.

    I suspect the sack of Mr Andrew Yakubu of the NNPC demonstrates little more than the absolute arrogance of political power refusing to accept good advice and professionalism. Could it be that government only wants ‘yes-men and yes-women’ willing to carry out wrong decisions as ‘orders from above’? Why are there such high attrition rates among the chosen leadership? In the armed forces, how many Generals have been retired prematurely in the last 15 years? Nigeria forgets that each prematurely retired high official has been trained at government expense and will receive full gratuity and pension for the remaining 30+ years of their life. So every premature retirement case is a blow to the finances of Nigeria because premature retirement means that Nigeria is paying for the person to live until the actual retirement day when the pensions should start. If government retires a GMD or a General at 55 instead of 65, Nigeria will lose years of usefulness. Whatever the real reason, one has doubts that Mr Yakubu, now suddenly ‘former GMD’, was sacked for something serious or treasonable like having links to Boko Haram funding or bombers or massive fraud and corruption at NNPC. Can the Presidency tell the nation if his crime was corruption, theft, contract inflation, mal-administration or a lack of ‘Yes Ma, Yes sir’? Government is powerful enough to tar anyone with a ‘criminal’ brush. In July, I watched part of the well-established Annual NNPC Youth Quiz Competition on TV and I wonder if that was why he was sacked. Perhaps for being ‘larger than life’ and offering to ‘increase the Quiz Prize money’? Perhaps for doing too much good in the public domain and standing too firmly against non-professionalism? Of course, perhaps we will never know the real ‘political’ reason for Diezani and Jonathan agreeing to the termination of such a senior government official. The NNPC has a track record of rapid turn-over of leadership. Are these ‘too quick changes of the guard at the oily palace’ for the good of Nigeria or for the good and preservation of the evil retrogressive status quo and the interests of the few? Some suggestions include that many importers are unhappy at the progress of the GMD in getting Nigeria’s refineries ready to replace the ridiculous dependence on imported fuel.

    But the most important announcement from the Minister of Petroleum is the devastating news that Nigeria will not see even 10,000Mw in the lifetime of many and certainly not before 2015 as the new goal by end 2014 is now revised down to –yes, you guessed right -5,000Mw. The same political authorities have been in total charge of petroleum and gas supplies since 1999. Yet they blame poor gas supplies in turn blamed on a refusal of contractors to supply gas because of non-payment of gas contractors. These contractors are strangely owed N25billion for previous gas supplies. What type of country do we live in that the government does not pay its own contractors for years and years while the nation groans in preventable darkness? And then Customs release 230+ containers containing electricity power equipment needed long ago. Is there no synergy between power, policies and agencies?

  • Apo killings reprise?

    Apo killings reprise?

    If it’s true, as President Goodluck Jonathan’s henchmen never tire of peddling, that Boko Haram is a weapon fashioned by the opposition to destabilise their principal and stop him from contesting next year’s election, never mind winning it, then the cold blooded murder of nearly three dozen members of the Shi’a community in Zaria last week by soldiers is a clear testimony that his army has not learnt, and is probably unwilling to learn, the lesson of the transmutation of Boko Haram from a mere irritant into the greatest threat to the country’s unity, peace and security in under five years.

    By now we are all familiar with what happened last Friday in Zaria during the annual procession of the members of the sect in support of victims of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This year’s procession coincided with the ongoing massive invasion of Gaza by the Israeli, ostensibly in retaliation for the kidnap and murder of three Israeli youths, which the Israeli hawkish Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, conveniently but wrongly, as it has since turned out, blamed on Hamas, the authority in Gaza.

    Several of those in the Zaria procession carried placards with unflattering inscriptions not only about the Israelis but also about our President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and his wife, Patience, accusing both of being the dark forces behind Boko Haram. Sources close to the Shi’a leadership believe this may have incensed the soldiers whose commander, like the president, is said to be Ijaw.

    The soldiers have since claimed that they shot at the procession in self defence. The number of casualties – 35 dead, including three sons of the Shi’a leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and many more injured – suggests otherwise, a scepticism apparently shared by the presidency, which has ordered investigations.

    The soldiers’ claim sounds familiar but rings hollow in the light of the similar killings on September 20 last year of eight, and the injuring of 11 more, tricycle riders living in an uncompleted building in the Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja. Then as now, the army said it killed the tricyclists in self-defence. Senate investigations of the case came to the self-contradictory conclusion that the squatters were unarmed and harmless, but cleared the security personnel, who said they had raided the building in search of a Boko Haram kingpin, of extra-judicial murder.

    An apparently more thorough investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (NHCR) reached the unequivocal conclusion that the security forces killed the squatters in cold blood and ordered the Federal Government to pay relatives of the victims N135million as compensation.

    What happened in Zaria last Friday shows that the lesson of NHRC’s embarrassing indictment of the security forces has not been learnt. But even more worrying is that the even more profound lesson of the genesis of Boko Haram as the greatest threat to the country’s unity, peace and security has also not been learnt, if not by the presidency itself at least by those in charge of its instruments of coercion.

    Until 2009, when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua sent in the troops to wipe out Boko Haram because of its repeated confrontations with security forces, it was essentially a mere irritant to the local authorities in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. The soldiers seemed to have succeeded at first. Its headquarters was razed to the ground and hundreds of its members killed and its leader, Muhammadu Yusuf, captured alive and well and handed over to the police.

    Instead of trying him, he was murdered in cold blood in police custody. Following public outrage, President Yar’adua set up a panel to investigate the case. This was in August 2009. Nearly five years on, nothing has been heard of the investigation.

    In between, even more cold-blooded murder of members of the sect was carried out by the security forces. In one particularly gruesome footage of the killings that was aired by Aljazeera months after the murder of Yusuf, one apparently blood-thirsty policeman was heard telling a colleague not to shoot one victim in the chest because he wanted the victim’s heart!

    Again, public outrage at the Aljazeera footage forced government to set up another enquiry and promised swift prosecution of those implicated in the killings. Again, as with the killing of Yusuf, nothing more was heard of the case. There was an attempt to prosecute a few suspects, but it all seemed so half-hearted.

    If the authorities calculated that with time, everything will fizzle out as usual, they apparently calculated wrongly; a little over a year after these incidents, Boko Haram returned with a vengeance. Since then, it has transmogrified into a hideous monster that government seems incapable of eliminating.

    It should worry the authorities that, unlike Boko Haram, the Shi’a in Nigeria, or Muslim Brothers as they choose to call themselves, are huge in number and are much more organised and disciplined. It is therefore important that the Federal Government conducts a thorough and satisfactory investigation of what happened in Zaria last Friday.

    Failure to do so will only further confirm many Nigerians in their suspicion that the authorities have found Boko Haram a convenient cover to destabilise the North as the greatest opposition to President Jonathan’s apparent determination to remain on his seat in next year’s election come what may.

    It is gladdening that he has ordered an investigation of the incident, but the way some of his henchmen have carried on about the June 23 twin-suicide bomb, but happily unsuccessful, attacks on a former head of state and leading opposition leader, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the Tijjaniya leader, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, one could be forgiven the conclusion that the president is only too glad to see the North stew in its own Boko Haram predicament.

    One such henchman, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, seemed to have surpassed even himself as the president’s self-chosen viral attack dog when he said the other day that Gen. Buhari staged the suicide bomb on his own convoy to draw public sympathy. Another, Mr. Olisa Metuh, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman, was not as disingenuous as the ex-militant when he said the bombing was the act of the general’s rivals within the opposition. Still his theory was disingenuous enough to have prompted a rebuke from both the party and the presidency.

    From past events it would be surprising if the authorities distanced themselves from any of the two.

    However, whether they distance themselves or not, it is, I must say again, important that what happened in Zaria last Friday does not go unpunished. We have enough problems dealing with Boko Haram we do not want to create another, and probably worse, monster. Unless, of course, the authorities, as many Nigerians believe, do not give a damn about the many innocent blood that have been shed as a result of Boko Haram insurrection because it is “they” and not “us”.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Nigeria: Terrorism without end

    Nigeria: Terrorism without end

    In January 27, 2000, that is, in the early days of the current democratic dispensation, a sitting state governor, now a Senator of the Federal Republic, introduced the Islamic Sharia law in the governance of his state. Of course that singular event set the ball rolling in the northern part of the country where the people are predominantly Muslims, as state governors fell over one another to establish Sharia law in their states to secure their ‘imperial thrones’.

    This brought all manners of religious preachers to the scene. Even if they were there before, the new regime of Sharia law was like a catalyst that invigorated them to go all out to win followers. As a bait to win more disciples, they introduced what is now derisively known as “stomach infrastructure”. This means attending to the needy constituted by the poor and those in the lower rung of the social ladder who were in need of the basic necessities of life – food, clothing and shelter. And because of the pervasive poverty in this part of the country, people came flocking in, in their hundreds and thousands. A time bomb was gathering.

    The time bomb exploded in July 2009, five years ago, when Mohammed Yusuf, who  founded the Islamist group, now popularly known and called Boko Haram, meaning “Western education is a sin”, in 2002 and his group of disciples engaged the Nigeria security forces in a bloody confrontation in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, North-east Nigeria. The group’s official name is “Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad”, which in Arabic means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”. Yusuf was killed on July 30, 2009, exactly five years ago today, in that sectarian violence. Since then, thousands of lives and property running into billions of Naira have been consumed by the orgy of killings and arson which has virtually enveloped the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in the north-east of the country. Also, the violence has led to collateral damages in human and material resources in the contiguous states of Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and Kano as well as Abuja, the seat of government, and other places.

    A recent report released by Bath, a United Kingdom, UK- based group said, while the global average in terrorists’ attacks is two deaths per attack, Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, suffers from the world’s deadliest terror attacks, with an average of 24 deaths per incident out of 146 recorded between January and June. During this period, it said, Nigeria recorded 3,477 deaths as violence by Boko Haram grew in scale and sophistication. According to the report, the latest figures represent a doubling of the 1,735 deaths recorded in the previous year through June 2013.

    In spite of promises by the federal government that the Boko Haram’s mindless killings and large-scale destruction of properties in the country will soon be a thing of the past, recent happenings indicate that the menace is far from being over. Perhaps, a better way to put it is that it is waxing stronger. While the whole world agonises over the forced abduction and continued incarceration of more than 200 innocent schoolgirls since April 15, by the Boko Haram terrorists, villages in the North-east are still daily being overrun and pillaged by the bandits. Their activities are not limited to the North-east alone as they make regular incursions to other northern states like Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano and others. Even Abuja is not immune from their rapacious killings and destructions.

    Only last week, the terrorists hit both Kaduna and Kano causing panic all over the place. There were twin explosions in Kaduna. The first explosion was targeted at Dahiru Bauchi, a popular Islamic cleric, while the second was targeted at Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a former Head of State and leader of the opposition political party, the All Peoples Congress, APC. Bauchi had just delivered a Ramadan lecture (tafsir) at the Murtala Square, Kaduna and was driving through the busy Alkali Road in the city centre when his attacker struck. Similarly, a suicide bomber hauled explosives at the convoy of the former Head of State near the 1 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army in the Kawo area of Kaduna. The Toyota Prado conveying him and one of the cars in the convoy were hit. Though scores of people were injured and several cars were damaged in the two incidents, both Buhari and Bauchi escaped unhurt.

    On the same day, Buhari and Bauchi convoys were attacked; a refrigerator that was being loaded into the luggage compartment of a luxury bus in Kano exploded killing no fewer than five people. The refrigerator was suspected to be bearing a time bomb. Again, last Sunday in the ancient city, five persons died when terrorists hurled explosives from the window of a school at church building as worshippers were leaving after a mass. Elsewhere in the city on that same day, a female bomber who had concealed explosives under her hijab was blown to shreds when the bomb suddenly exploded.

    By far, the Kaduna explosions have generated a lot of debate because of the personalities involved. Bauchi might have been targeted by the terrorists for speaking out against their satanic exploits in many of his preaching lately. Buhari too has spoken vehemently against the activities of Boko Haram at many fora and also recently criticised the government for not doing enough while the nation burns. But some people are saying that the attempt on Buhari was the handiwork of government agents. This may be due to some unsavory experiences we have had in this country. Nigerians have witnessed government-sponsored assassinations in the past in this country, especially in the dark days of military dictatorship, and will not wish for a reoccurrence of such barbaric and animalistic behaviour in a democratic setting like ours. The truth is that no Nigerian, whether prominent or poor, deserves to be killed for any reason by anybody, except if the law approves such. Life is precious and it must be treated as such. Let us eschew bitterness from our politics.

    Personally, I believe Buhari could have been a target of the terrorists because he spoke against them. This culture of silencing anybody that stands in their way has been an operational strategy employed by these hoodlums to drive fears into the people. On Friday, November 2, 2012, Muhammed Shuwa, a general and civil war veteran was murdered in his house in Gwange 1 area of Maiduguri metropolis. Less than three months after, an attempt was made on the life of Ado Bayero, the late Emir of Kano, who narrowly escaped being killed on the street of Kano by the whiskers on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Since then, many more prominent people, including Emirs, have been targeted and or killed by the terrorists simply because they regard them as standing in their way.

    However, we should not lose sight of the fact that these terrorists are criminally intelligent people whose ploy could have been to get Buhari out of the way and thereby precipitate widespread unrest in the polity. Naturally, the death of such a man under an unclear circumstance as that of last week cannot go without causing maximum commotion, especially given his role in the present political dispensation. We thank God that he is alive, hale and healthy. My only worry now is the obvious delay by the security agents in urgently addressing this new form of crime. This delay will further embolden these agents of lawlessness and messengers of death to inflict more harm on defenceless citizens.

    And so, the ominous wave of apprehension now hovering in the air will continue unabated as the dreaded merchants of death remain forever on the prowl, skillfully plucking their targets, waiting, watching and perfecting new strategies in the now thriving and grueling enterprise of systematic elimination of fellow men. But can the security agents ever rise up to the challenge? Time, certainly, is not on their side!

  • ‘Our Girls’; WS in Ibadan; FG/CBN/Bank fraud: All Nigerians are SMEs needing decreased interest rates

    ‘Our Girls’; WS in Ibadan; FG/CBN/Bank fraud: All Nigerians are SMEs needing decreased interest rates

    Our Girls’ are missing since April 15, and no sign of saving them except an unsavoury and unnecessary altercation between citizens’ groups and government. Government cannot throw every bomb, every kidnapping, and every complaint into the camp of other political parties and citizens’ groups. Every citizen, politician and non-politician, has a right and responsibility to use a non-political brain section to cry out for the return of ‘Our Girls’. The ‘Heroines of Chibok’ are already identified in ‘Our Girls’. There can be no new ones- Nigerians are raising a legitimate, non-political  ‘Clamour and Cacophony for Chibok Heroines’ lest we are silent until they become Chibok Martyrs, God Forbid!

    Why should the federal government create yet another corner-corner way to circumvent its own punishing interest rates by creating a N222 billion Small and Medium Enterprises – SME Development Fund? This is how the federal government gave preferential exchange rates to those who sold rice and cement and sugar eventually making enough money to become among the top richest Nigerians and men in the world. All Nigerian families are forced to be SMEs, NGOs and LGAs, lending to family members at zero interest. All Nigerians deserve an overall reduction in interest rate from 22-25% to a single tier 5-8% for all Nigeria citizens. Today preferential interest rates are for SMEs, yesterday it was Aviation, Textiles, Nollywood and Transporters. Meanwhile banks are suffering from an embarrassment of riches squeezed out of Nigerians as high interest rates. Enough is enough. Tomorrow federal government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should begin to reduce inter-bank interest rates for all transactions. This is syndicated corporate bankers crime, an organised bankers’ fraud manipulating the market and perpetrated on the citizens of Nigeria- pure and simple. NAME ONE COUNTRY WHERE THE INTERBANK RATE IS ‘12% AND BANKS CAN CHARGE 6-12% AS ‘HIDDEN ADMIN FEES’ ONE EVEN SME LOANS. In another country Nigeria’s banks would be fined billions of dollars for such fraud and our CBN would be blacklisted for anti-people activities. INSTEAD THEY MANAGE TO GET AWARDS WHILE THE PEOPLE GET POORER AND CANNOT BORROW KOBO! Shame.

    In Ibadan, Professor Wole Soyinka was celebrated and hosted at an evening of readings@80 led by Professor Ayo Banjo, 80 himself, performance of a Playlet around the songs of WS and the great Tunji Oyelana including the immortal lines ‘I love my Country, I no go Lie, Na inside Um I go Live and Die’ under the direction of Dr Tunde Awosanmi. This was followed by an interview/ interactive session between WS and interviewers Yomi Layinka and Ronke Giwa and members of the audience all under the superlative supervision as Chairperson of Lady SAN herself, Chief Folake Solanke, SAN who at 82 was a fantabulous role model for the entire distinguished audience ably put together by Niyi Ige and Bankole and Femi Olayebi of Bookkraft which was reissuing several of WS’s autobiographical book titles Ake, Isara, Ibadan, The Man Died. Time was against us as my own planned and rehearsed reading and those of Prof Akinwunmi Ishola and Dr Pat Oyelola had to be forfeited. However the readings by Governor Ajimobi and the Representative of Governor Aregbesola were well delivered as was their contribution. The message –everyone should own and read at least one Noble laureate WS book.

    The political parties have underserved Nigeria by using their political power to ram development through or subjecting it to ethnic and political domination. Even federal ‘might’ too often prevents the states’ right to develop. These are retrogressive political practices turned into festering federal-state and intrastate problems. Tell young Nigerians about the destruction of Jakande rail, with payment of $184million as penalty for a cancelled contract, and 50 year ‘ethnic economy’ driven murder of the rail countrywide to ensure the supremacy of trailer transport epitomised by the trailer lobby of ‘what will happen to us’ when Ogbemudia wanted to upgrade them. This federal ‘Stop Railways Agenda’ mischief destroyed us nationwide and especially at the Tin Can Island Port where gridlock backs up to Apapa and denies Lagos Port of international recognition as a ‘Container Port’ which demand a ’railway evacuation of containers’ and thus paralysing development in Lagos State.

    It is obvious that the voter has declared war of the species ‘politician’, and now demands ‘stomach infrastructure’ upfront as down-payment for voting. First note that the Nigeria has survived through the ‘survival strategies in the urban jungle’ of millions working hard to live ‘for daily bread’ and coping with one to two years rent in advance, daily harassment by uniforms with the tax often stolen. And now here come the ‘wole wole’ sanitary inspector. Do not trivialise ‘seizure of goods’. The ‘seizure of goods’ is to a petty trader is as the seizure of a taxi and okada or computer to other workers. Petty products to a trader are a day’s earnings lost, guaranteeing hunger. Is it not strange that after the 7am to 6pm ‘no petty trading’ curfew at Mokolas, Obalendes and Sabos across Nigeria there is mass movement of petty traders to the road-side causing more traffic? And they are patronised even by the same ‘wole wole’ on their way home. Millions of Fellow Nigerians wrongly think the empty schools are fine and have never used and do not desire to ever use a toilet or borrow a book from a library. Civilisation and intellectual development are not part of their self-development agenda because their school background was rubbish. [To be continued]

     

  • Boko Haram: We’re all victims now

    Boko Haram: We’re all victims now

    Boko Haram is Nigeria’s ultimate man-made disaster. Natural disasters often occur as one-off events, whereas the insurgency in the North East is becoming a never-ending horror flick.

    Unfortunately, this is not make-believe as lives are being lost and communities devastated. Speaking in France in May this year, President Goodluck Jonathan estimated that over 12,000 have been killed in the conflict since 2009.

    For many years Nigerians living far from the flashpoints could not really relate to the violence because the victims were mostly poor, faceless, nameless ‘nobodies.’ All that changed when the insurgents snatched close to 300 girls from Chibok over 100 days ago.

    By that singularly brutal act, Boko Haram landed foot first on global primetime TV. Today, Abubakar Shekau’s sorry visage is about as familiar to the average person as any pantomime bad guy in a Nollywood production.

    A few days ago, former military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, came within a whisker of being assassinated when suicide bombers took aim at his convoy. He was clearly the prize they were after, but his would-be assassins bungled the task. In the process over 40 innocent persons became collateral damage.

    In the nascent stage of Boko Haram atrocities, exasperated Southerners digesting their daily dose of gory headlines from the comfort of their sofas in Lagos, Yenagoa or Abakaliki, could afford to snort derisively that “these bloody Northerners can blow themselves to kingdom come if they like.”

    Today, the reality is that no matter how far we are from the epicenter of the conflict, we have all become victims in one way or another.

    We desperately need to come to terms with how Boko Haram is impacting our lives, and the way we live, to understand that if we don’t throw all we can muster at the monster, it will soon consume the entire country.

    Some years ago, statements credited to unofficial United States diplomatic or intelligence sources suggested that Nigeria could break up in 2015. Ever since that report came to light, Jonathan and several other former Nigerian leaders have vowed that the worst would not happen. They speak with such confidence thinking that a split would follow the old Biafran template.

    Truly, Nigeria may not break into tiny pieces in 2015, but what percentage of our sovereign territory would we be exerting control over when terrorists have started planting their flags in parts of Borno?

    Unless we radically review our approach and begin to take the fight to the insurgents, what Biafra couldn’t achieve in the 60’s could manifest through the war in the North East.

    So far, our best efforts rather than contain the terrorists have only pushed them to unprecedented levels of depravity. This is a group that does not operate by any known norms of civilized conduct and is not influenced or affected by international conventions that govern conduct in war. That is why they serve up fresh atrocities every new day.

    The question is how many more mindless blasts or slayings can this fragile country take before things spiral out of control? Many wars have been ignited by some stupid incident. World War 1 was sparked off by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo in 1914.

    Who could have predicted the fallout if Buhari had been killed in the deadly blasts a few days ago? Given the present foul political atmosphere in the country, conspiracy theories would have gone into overdrive – with unpredictable consequences.

    This government doesn’t understand the deadly phenomenon they are toying with. That is why its leading lights are still playing political games trying to tie the opposition to the insurgency. If the governments that have held power since 2009 had properly assessed the danger posed by Boko Haram, we won’t be where we are today.

    Five years ago when the sect’s members went on an orgy of violence across three North Eastern states, the then President Umaru Yar’Adua went ahead with a state visit to Brazil – despite the massive loss of lives and destruction of property.

    Back then, it was clear that this latest manifestation in a long line of extremist Northern Islamist groups was something special. But what did Yar’Adua do? From the safety of Brasilia, he sent preachy appeals to other Muslims not follow the ‘bad’ example of Boko Haram. On his return from the trip he didn’t even deign to visit the site of the mayhem, but retired to Aso Villa to business as usual.

    His successor has followed that same pattern – treating psychopathic killers as compatriots who can be reasoned with. The government even went as far as colluding with Hillary Clinton’s State Department two years ago to thwart efforts by the US government to designate Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO).

    While this tomfoolery was going on, Boko Haram got enough breathing space to beef up its fighting capacity. Now, they have acquired a fleet of pick-up vans, APCs and, according to some reports, even anti-aircraft guns which they still don’t have the knowhow to operate. In that time, too, they mastered the deployment of IEDs to deadly effect.

    What could have been contained three years ago within the budget now requires the country to go a borrowing $ 1 billion.

    In 2012 when Nigerian government officials and diplomats were strenuously resisting the FTO designation for their enemy, the argument was that it would make life difficult for privileged Nigerians who travel overseas as they would be subjected to intrusive searches. Today, we have much more to worry about.

    One of the inevitable consequences of wars is that they produce refugees who flee to neighbouring countries or internally displaced persons who run to other parts of the country for safety. Already, thousands have fled the theatre of conflict in Borno.

    Recently, over 400 Northerners were intercepted in several trucks headed for Port Harcourt in the dead of night. Although security agencies reportedly apprehended a wanted Boko Haram leader among the travelers, the vast majority have since been repatriated to the states from which they initiated their journeys.

    We should prepare for more of such mass movement as the areas of conflict broaden. Worryingly, the consequences of such movements go beyond security as they have ramifications that are beginning to threaten national unity.

    After steps were taken by the Imo government to track Northerners living in the state, reciprocal action has been initiated by several groups in Kano and Kaduna seeking registration of Southerners living in those states. Where will such tit-for-tat actions lead? No one knows.

    If things get worse in the North, people would drift South – it is only to be expected. As it is, many farmers in the North East cannot access their farms for fear of being killed. Those who manage to plant crops soon lose all to rampaging insurgents who harvest them to feed their hungry cadres.

    The economic impact is spreading beyond locals who have lost their means of livelihood. Boko Haram is affecting our pocket and impacting our dining tables. Much of the produce that used to come from Borno State and surrounding areas has been cut off leading to price increases because of diminishing supplies of everything from grains to livestock.

    On the political front the implications are equally troubling. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Attahiru Jega, keeps assuring us that election will hold all over the country next year. Unfortunately, security conditions in large swathes of the North undermine his words.

    Who is going to conduct polls in unprotected places like Damboa or Chibok? If the President could not visit such places for security reasons, which school teacher or NYSC member would put his life on the line to guarantee the success of those polls?

    If the conditions in many areas of the North are such that free and fair elections cannot be held, how does it affect our democratic transition? There are grave questions that need to be answered. Unfortunately, those to address them are still too giddy with a sense of their power to realise that their empire is shrinking dramatically by the day.

  • Beyond freedom for the Chibok girls

    Beyond freedom for the Chibok girls

    Attacks against the hapless Chibok community didn’t end with the abduction of the over 300 schoolgirls from the dormitory on the night of April 15. Since then Boko Haram has carried out several sorties into areas surrounding the town.

    It would appear, however, that pain and death have taken residence in the town. One recent report states that 11 parents of the kidnapped girls have died since their children went missing.

    Of that number, seven are among the dead from an attack in the nearby village of Kautakari this July. Four more parents are said to have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses that the community blames on trauma due to the mass abduction.

    We have the assurance of the authorities that not only do they know where the girls are, but that their freedom is imminent. That should offer a measure of comfort to the grieving families.

    Still you cannot help but wonder what kind of girls would be returning from Boko Haram captivity. What sorts of unspeakable experiences have they been subjected to? Will they ever be able to live normal lives again?

    The world owes it to these girls and their community to ensure that the one day leaders of Boko Haram, their financiers and collaborators pay for their crimes against humanity. Our duty doesn’t end with demanding their release; we should faithfully document the atrocities of this group for the day they would face justice.

  • Curbing the menace of land speculators in Abuja

    Curbing the menace of land speculators in Abuja

    In Nigeria today, there is no state or city where the menace of land speculation is as pronounced as the Federal Capital City. For want of a better expression, their activities have made land ownership a nightmare for potential investors in the nation’s capital city. The situation has become so bad to the extent that incidences of double or multiple land allocations  and wanton abuse of Abuja’s master plan has become the norm rather that the exception.

    That the disturbing incidence has persisted till date is not due to lack of attempts by the FCT administration to curb it. Far from it! Successive administrations in FCT have made several attempts to halt the menace with little success. Each time policies are rolled out to curb the activities of land speculators, the criminals involved would always evolve their own strategies to circumvent such government’s policies.

    If truth must be told and even orchestrated, thousands of Nigerians have fallen victims to the dangerous activities of land speculators in Abuja, with scores of them losing precious properties worth millions of naira, including lives in the process. Some became hypertensive, while others have become living corpses as a result of the rapacious greed of these elements.

    That the incidence of land speculation is still very much on in Abuja is not in doubt. And that it is being fuelled by the greed of some desperadoes is equally not in contention. But what is however disturbing in the entire saga is the cutting of corners or worse still, the flouting of laws to dubiously acquire lands for amorphous land development purposes.

    It would be recalled that the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed at the 34th Leadership Forum put together by Nigerian Pilot and its sister publication, Nigerian Newsworld magazine sometime this year, had expressed serious worry about the pernicious activities of land speculators, which he said had become a cog in the wheel of progress, especially in land administration in Abuja.

    According to the minister, when he took over the driver’s seat at FCTA in 2011, land speculators were seen as the real landlords of Abuja who were doing their illegal businesses with reckless impunity; he however stressed that worried by this development, his administration decided to frontally tackle the menace with the setting up of Senator Saidu Dansadau Committee with a view to breaking their vicious stranglehold on land administration in the territory. Thereafter, he digitalized the system, which led to the enthronement of accountability in land administration in the FCT.

    To further prove that he meant well for the FCT, the FCT Minister deliberately decided to empower all plot owners by granting them titles, a development that has gone a long way in boosting the confidence of investors in the territory’s land administration.

    The minister’s commendable efforts notwithstanding, some dubious smart alecs masquerading as land agents (read speculators) have been working assiduously to frustrate such laudable efforts, a development that has led to the avoidable friction between the FCDA and some estate developers like Minannuel Estate Developers and Saraha Estate in Galadima, along Kubwa Expressway in recent times, all of which fell under the weight of government’s bulldozers, a development that generated stormy criticisms of epic proportions from a segment of the society.

    That the FCT administration is favourably disposed to having private sector acquire lands for the purpose of providing houses for the people does not mean that when such developers breach the laws of the land with impunity, the authority should turn blind eyes to it. Because if such abuse of processes leading to land acquisition is allowed to persist, Nigerians may wake up to find out that Abuja has been turned into a jungle. May that not be the portion of our beloved capital city!

    To forestall such possibility and further reduce the fraud associated with land administration in the territory, the FCT minister has injected transparency and good governance into Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) as epitomized in the introduction of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). The transformation of the agency via computerization of ‘’spatially related work flows in selected departments and agencies and the build-up of AGIS Resource Centre’’ is a strategic effort geared towards this direction.

    It would be recalled that the minister’s determination to tackle the menace of land speculation was further manifested when some of his aides were caught in land malpractices. What did he do? He promptly fired them and handed them over to the security agencies for prosecution. That is a commendable act of seriousness on his part.

    Experts in land administration and other unbiased developers are of the opinion that whatever the minister and his aides have been doing in the area of land administration is hinged on the spectacular pillar of abiding fidelity to Abuja’s Original Master Plan. Judging from his body language thus far, the minister has shown that as far as sticking to Abuja’s master plan is concerned, he is not willing to compromise. And that explains his persistent nay rugged determination to give land speculators a bloody nose and to throw them out of business once and for all.

    Agreed, the administration has not totally succeeded in clinically eliminating this group of economic saboteurs from Abuja’s landscape, but it has taken the battle to their doorsteps with an all-round impressive transformation of land administration through AGIS under the directorship of Hajiya Jamila Tangaza.

    • Ochela, contributed this piece from Bwari Abuja

     

  • FRSC: Who succeeds Chidoka?

    FRSC: Who succeeds Chidoka?

    The race to succeed Osita Chidoka, the outgoing Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, (COMACE), of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, is on. Chidoka was recently nominated as a minister representing Anambra State in the Federal Cabinet. His nomination was ratified by the Senate last week and he may be sworn in today as the country’s Minister of Aviation. In that case, he will be replacing Stella Oduah, the former minister, who was relieved of her appointment a few months ago in controversial circumstances.

    Recent newspapers’ speculations say several people both within and outside the commission have thrown their hats into the ring to succeed Chidoka. Good. But my concern here is that the government should be mindful of whoever is chosen to step in as the new COMACE. The reason is that every programme of the FRSC since inception in 1988 has been on the recycling mode: drivers license, number plate etc without any new or significant idea being brought on the table. This may probably be one of the reasons why people are rooting for outsiders as those inside had not been able to guide outsiders that were brought in with new ideas or, perhaps, those inside too have no new ideas about how to remove deaths from our roads. This is why it has become exigent for the government to make a good choice of a new COMACE, somebody who will fit in perfectly well and be able to enhance the operational capabilities of the commission. This will leave a level of confidence in the minds of road safety professionals.

    I learnt that the government is actually under intense political pressure to outsource the next Corps Marshal. In this regard, the name of a retired general has continuously been bandied about. The truth is that the task of enforcing sanity on our roads is not a job for a military man either serving or retired. Not even for any other person outside the road safety professionals who are not in short supply in the country. That is why the government must consider merit to pick a suitable candidate for the job. It will be a great disservice to the current crop of tested, dedicated, hardworking and highly skilful road safety professionals in the country if the government succumbs to the frenetic pressure being mounted on it by fortune seekers to take over the operation of the FRSC. In the quest for merit, the government should also consider some of the pioneering officers who may have left the organisation but are still in the profession and have garnered more experience that could move the organisation to a higher level.

    For many years, the FRSC has been quite unfortunate in the choice of chief executives which seems to have been permanently brought under the vagaries of politics and politicians. If this trend is allowed to continue, it would be tantamount to the Biblical saying that “it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”. The interpretation of this is that it will be easier for a politician who has nothing particular to offer to head the commission, than for a thoroughbred professional in the road safety sector, to aspire to lead the FRSC. In other words, it would be professionally diminishing, suffocating and even suicidal for the FRSC to be constantly brought under the leadership of neophytes and non-starters in road safety matters. I believe the time has come for the government to insulate the commission from politics and political fortune seekers who have nothing tangible to offer than the quest for filthy lucre in the guise of political patronage.

    In my recent discussion with someone who is well groomed in road safety matters, he told me that there seems to be a dearth in the development of new ideas in FRSC. According to him, “FRSC has a purposeless leadership with a spineless and clueless followership”. If this is true, now is the time to reorder the operation of the commission. With a politician in charge, there is no way the activities of the FRSC would not be politicised one way or the other. If this happens, professionalism will become endangered, morale will be at the lowest ebb, while accountability will take flight. Yet a Corps Marshal is expected to lead a commission that is so richly endowed with a crop of dedicated, well-trained and hi-tech generation of young officers who are very prepared to give their outmost best in the discharge of their duties to their fatherland. It is, therefore, pertinent to allow merit to guide the choice of a new helmsman for the commission from the existing road safety professionals in the country rather than bringing just anybody out of mere political patronage.

    The first COMACE of the commission at inception in 1988 was Olu Agunloye, who held sway from 1988 to 1995. He laid the building blocks of the commission under a Governing Board headed by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, as chairman. It was under their stringent watch that the commission took off, and rapidly became a household name within a few years of its existence. In fact, some of the present crops of senior officers were the first set of officers in the commission at its establishment in 1988. There are also some of them who have left with good records but are still very active in the propagation of road safety ideas and ideals. All of them have gone through the evolution and metamorphosis which have seen the FRSC transform to a formidable government parastatal that it is today. These officers are well-trained and properly immersed in the rudiments and complexities of road safety so much that they can stand their own in the comity of road safety practitioners anywhere in the globe.

    Agunloye was succeeded by Gen. Haladu Hananiya, whose appointment was a form of political rehabilitation. It was under his watch that the commission was almost polarized along North-South divide, a situation that left a deep scar on the integrity of the commission. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why people are so worried and concerned about who takes over from Chidoka. It is true that Chidoka himself was an outsider when he was brought in as COMACE about seven years ago, but because of his enthusiasm coupled with his previous experience in government’s bureaucracy, he was able to learn the ropes fast. He may not have been perfect in the discharge of his duties as COMACE during his tenure, but by and large, he demonstrated an uncommon zeal and desire to excel.

    Those who are rooting for an outsider to be appointed as COMACE are drawing inspiration from a section in the existing FRSC’s Act.  Section 7(1) of the Federal Road Safety Commission (Establishment Act) 2007 says: “There shall be a Corps Marshal who shall be appointed by the President and who shall be a person possessing sound knowledge or ability in the organisation and administration of road traffic and road safety measures”. Though this may appear to make the choice of a new COMACE flexible, fluid and at the discretion of the President, nonetheless, emphasis should be on continuity and competence if the commission is not to be turned into a dumping ground for politicians and professional misfits. Such politicians will only come to sow the seed of acrimony, witch hunt and destabilise an otherwise well-focused, well-positioned and progressive government establishment that has so far made appreciable impact on safety on our roads.

    After more than 26 years of operation, during which time both the officers and men of the commission have acquainted themselves creditably well in the discharge of the onerous responsibility of keeping our roads safe or, at least, minimising carnage on our roads, it will be most appropriate for the government to appoint a professional as the next COMACE, of the commission. By doing this, the government would have done so well to sustain the gains of the commission over the years.

  • Victims’ Support Fund; Happiness Factor; RSVP: ‘Let them eat rice’ 

    Victims’ Support Fund; Happiness Factor; RSVP: ‘Let them eat rice’ 

    At last a Victims’/ Survivors Fund is a reality more two years late and as repeatedly recommended in this column. Too late for too many. The Red Cross and Blue Crescent must be made integral parts of the boardroom of this Danjuma- headed solution. The Red Cross, Blue Crescent and Victims’ Support Fund must recruit and employ only victims and survivors to help in quick restoration of the dignity of loss of limbs and loved ones and home and land-everything.  Remember the debacle of the Police Fund? Do not use smart people removed from the war. Register the first victims by work experience and place and use them to fully register all victims by job and use them for everything from record taking, evaluation,  purchase of products, transportation, distribution, storage, fuelling. Empower them, not pity them. They all had jobs before –just give them back those jobs and respectability through the Victims Support Fund.

    The political die is cast and the numbers do not add up to any good. True federalism is still the main bone of contention in the national plate at what unwittingly could easily become the last supper of Nigeria- the last Non Sovereign National Conference. I repeat that the northern delegates should all visit the wastelands of the oil-vomiting states and the southern delegates should visit the deserts and both Hausa and Fulani and the 100 other tribes including the teeming Christians of the North. There is a lot to blame greedy individuals for diverting the huge amounts of money actually allocates to both sides of the River Niger and the even larger sums stolen outright.

    There is enough for every Nigerians need but not for anyone’s greed. The warped federal structure has truncated many opportunities, mainly due to electoral malpractices and federal feudal money and might stamping on state rights. For the correct record, Nigeria needs a Conference of Federal Fault, Failures and Fraud to document fraudulent federalism at every level historically to prevent a future of state servitude to federal fraud.

    Bhutan is a country with under one million citizens bordered by giants India and China, and the Himalayas. Bhutan has given the world a gargantuan gift by measuring governance by the Gross National Happiness Index, GNHI, replacing the cold economic GDP, Gross National Product, which worships money and banking indices over the people’s joie de vive joy of life, the ultimate goal of selfless politics. Following the recommendation of Bhutan, March 20, is the Annual UN International Day of Happiness. Many countries have ‘Happiness Indices’ in their statistics. Happiness combats bullying, suicide and violence including cults and murder in curricula in many schools and universities. As part of a serious ‘Happiness Course’ there are ‘Happiness Classes’, ‘Positive classes’, ‘warm showers’ where students face away from classmates who say nice things about them, meditation, sharing respect for environment and interdependence. Check ‘UN International Day of Happiness’, Happiness Classes on the web and introduce them in Nigeria.  Bullying is a human rights crime against children. You may just save a life and make a bullied child happy. Nowadays youth even kill their parents ‘out of annoyance’. Meanwhile politicians play murder games for money and power.

    What does this tornado of impeachments add to our happiness? None. Nigeria’s citizens can also scheme, recall and initiate clear impeachment threats to assembly members. He who impeaches can also be impeached. The voter must assert the same right! In the light of the ‘loss of Ekiti, the citizens of the surviving APC states are ‘happy’ at the ‘side effect’ -an upsurge of democratic practices, not extraordinary ‘dividends of democracy’. Traditionally, all budgets and ‘emergency contract’ revenues are legally ‘disappeared’ and ‘diverted’ to ‘pre-election political electioneering’. This plunges Nigeria into a pre-election development abyss with unpaid salaries and pensions and looting all to create a political war-chest of up to N10billion to wage war in the forthcoming state elections or an illegal retirement fund. But after the shock stomach-politics of Ekiti, the political ‘hills are alive with the sound’ of money music and ‘re-strategising’ with roads being tarred, potholes filled, and rice trailer-loads reaching political party-friend and party-foe. The result has been ‘True UN Happiness’ for the masses –food for belly and brain. Even abandoned Bodija potholes are filled, one year late. The masses are rice-happy. Any stew for RSVP- Rice and Stew Very Plenty? Most non-progressive governments, with an exception of a Peter Obi or two, used the politics of destruction ignoring development. This involves relying on ‘the politics of the stomach, rice, rice, rice everywhere’ to ignore or quench ‘the thirst for development’. In the tiny mind of this political section, the ‘masses’ do not need development and they echo the ill-fated Queen of France, Marie-Antoinette, who is probably wrongly accused of recommending to the poor ‘let them [citizens] eat cake’ fuelling the French Revolution.  Now it is ‘Let them eat rice’ while politicians and civil servants steal their inheritance, though a Chinese Emperor said to peasants who did not even have rice ‘let them eat meat, according to Wikipedia.

    So-called ‘Progressive’ governments have quickly learnt this ‘stomach politics’ of the suspected ‘fingerprint disappearing and scientifically rigged’ Ekiti election. He who has not rigged, step forward. In fact these surviving progressive states can claim both developmental and stomach politics.

    • To be continued

     

    • PS: Nigerians must protest if the federal government delays revenue allocations to the non-ruling party states.

  • COMMENT

    COMMENT

    For Olatunji Dare

    Dare, “Once upon another commonwealth games” relieved me of pressure as I read it along because there are some funny bits, especially towards its tail end. For example, your feeling cheated by government for claiming that it triggered boycott of the games instead of The Guardian. It is funny because if the accolade was given to Guardian, it would still have been reported as championed by Nigeria. Another funny side is your bringing the issue to the general public exactly 30 years after. I thank God for sparing your life to tell us what confused us then. How I wish I were Jonathan, I would have given all the Guardian staff connected with the globe-stirring action next to the highest national honour immediately; for your achievement. Those were the days of true journalism unlike now that most mediamen are tied to aprong string of their corrupt political masters. God save us, Amen. From Lai Ashadele.

    If Nigerian Government actualy boycotted Common-Wealth Game consequent upon The Guardian editorial, it was still proper to be refered as d Nigeria-led boycott, and not The Guardian. The newspaper merely presented its well-argued case on why d country shouldnt participate in the game,and never forced the government to boycott. The decision to participate or not to was still on the government to decide.That it eventually opted to withdraw from participation  shouldn’t then mean that the credit should authomaticaly go to The Guardian newspapers, if the whole matter is logically followed – From Emmanuel Egwu

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

     

    An elegy for Brazil: it is not true that Brazilians did not walk out of the stadium.They did, the commentator mentioned it. You always look for the exit door when you face shame. It is natural, don’t make it look like a Nigerian spirit. From Emma, Lafia

    The introduction of armed forces into the politics of Nigeria of today has alter the political calculation in the country. Nigeria will remain in darkness as long as politics of stomach infrastructure  persist. Long live Federal Republic of order from above. Long live amala politics. From Hamza Ozi Momoh  Apapa Lagos.

    In your elegy you wrote and I quote “The Super Eagles went on strike to force the government to pay their appearance fees.” Bad leaders plus followers equals systems failure! Anonymous

    Re-2015: A Lexical analysis-The new method of rigging is Stomachstructure which is not strange in Nigeria Politics  starting from NPN ERA.It is unfor tunate that our power drunk politicians can never have a change of heart. It is a bad omen for the future of this country. From Past odunmbaku. 

    How can a country like Nigeria under the vicious grip of unrepentant and kleptomanic  cabals of election riggers and looters ever learn? Our leaders are demonic and thrive in impunity.They even dare God. Our  sitiuation appear hopeless especially with the type of masses we have as shown in Ekiti State. From Chief Solomon Egwuenu, Delta State

    Nigeria will learn when people like you the media show patriotism in your write up about her.when you learn to stand by our leaders and support them in times of nation trials irrespective of where he comes from. Anonymous

    Gbenga, your write up . Lexical analysis. On point of correction, Tom is not a short form for Thabo Mbeki to the best of my knowledge. Secondly, Thabo Mbeki was not rejected by African National Congress (ANC), Thabo Mbeki ran into trouble with ANC during the second term and that necessitated temporary replacement before the election that brought in Jacob Zuma. From Chief Olabode Majekodunmi. Abeokuta

    I enjoyed your lexical analysis of 2015. One little fox, however: you mentioned Barnabas (who was rather the “son of encouragement”) instead of “Barabas”! From Brother Ame A. Aba.

    The Brazilian/German encounter may be shocking to many, for me there is nothing spectacular about the result of that match. That is football for you! Talking about patriotism: an average Nigerian is a self-centred animal, the fault being in our nature. We have not yet arrived at nationhood-The Gods are to blame. From Moyosore Aladetohun, Iyana Ipaja.  

    Why were they crying as if winning is their birthright. There is nothing Nigeria should learn from then. We crashed out from round 16 we did our best.  From Patrick, Abuja 

    Having had about the passion of Ekiti people for education,I  thought free, qaulity education would have  earned governor Fayemi a second term in office, but he seems to be elite minded only to learn in a bitter way that the so-called poor are equally stakeholders in the state and are the majority he need to remain in the state house. He should be more realistic if the opportunity comes again just like it did to Fayose. From Uzoma, Owerri.

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    It is good to praise achievers so they can do more, instead of showering encomiums on never-do-well leaders. Ajibola Ogunshola deserves encomiums for lifting The Punch newspaper when it was about going under. Ogunshola demonstrated leadership worthy of emulation for making Punch readable worldwide. Happy birthday, Chief Ogunshola. Congratulations! From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    Re: Ajibola Ogunshola at 70. Why I admire Chief Ogunshola so much is because of his unassuming nature. He goes about unnoticed despite his societal stature. This is an example of a leader  Nigeria needs. An actuary could do a lot with mathematics to turn things around hence, extremely few people venture into specialising in the course. Not even many universities include Actuarial Science as a course. The thinking  level is equivalent of that for Geology, Medicine and Surgery! To have been able to turn The Punch around from the grave is consequent upon his actuary science and personal discipline qualities. I join millions of Nigerians in wishing Chief Ogunshola a happy 70th birthday. From Lanre Oseni.

    What makes a man a good leader is his integrity and straightforwardness. Chief Ogunshola has proved to the world that a leader without integrity has no business being a leader. Our leaders are stealing our money because of lack of integrity; politicians trying to differentiate stealing from corruption because of lack of integrity. Integrity makes a man; without it you become nothing. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

    Good day, Tunji. I read your article “Ajibola Ogunshola at 70: The actuary who brought The Punch ‘back from the dead’ joins the septuagenarian club tomorrow” (i.e. July 14). In the first place let me congratulate Chief Ogunshola for clocking three scores plus 10. Also, let me commend you for going down memory lane on progress so far made towards uplifting Punch by Chief Ogunshola. This is a man who knew every individual in the newsroom by his or her full names. He is a crisis manager of great dimension. I could recollect as a former Punch chief crime correspondent and later assistant editor, Chief Ogunshola would say “Musa, come and see me in my office in Lagos”. He would want to know what your individual problems were and how to enhance efficiency in the organisation. He however felt very sad when I resigned my appointment with the company in 1989. The Punch has produced great writers; Tunji, you are one of these. Others are Kunle Fagbemi,  Prince Dayo Adeyeye (now Minister of State for Works), Lateef Ibirogba, Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Innocent Adikwu, Demola Osinubi, the current managing director of Punch. I praise the magnanimity of Chief Ogunshola for making the late Chief James Olubunmi Aboderin realise his dreams, even if post-humously, as his eldest son Wale is now chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd. Congratulations, Chief Ogunshola and well done, Tunji. From Abubakar Musa Abuja.