Category: Tony Marinho

All governors are largely ‘kings within their kingdom’. However even kings must perform. We have a superbly qualified HRH Olubadan Balogun in Ibadan. The new governor in Anambra State is widely known with a value-added CV and his comprehensive inaugural day speech plans great things for the state. Of course, words in Nigeria seldom equal actions. This will not be the case with Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Amen, who takes over from a quite active Governor Willie Obiano. We await the outcome of Obiano’s interrogation. In fact, this routine post immunity interview for all political office holders may help sanitise the system. All governors and governors-to-be in 2023 should initiate study the methodology of the tech-driven progress coming to Anambra State 2022-2026.

Many who elect persons from any political party who then change party midstream should go back to confirm that the electorate want to follow him or her into a new ideology and political track record. This was ‘cross-carpeting’ and the voters called ‘carpet-bagging’ i.e. following power and the money trail. People vote party and the party ideology. When an elected politician changes party he is forcing his voters to also change ideology. Can it be right that the voters also want to change ideology even though their party political actions differ little sometimes?

The ‘slumping’ of family members of persons arraigned in court is Act 1 Scene 2 of a well-rehearsed political and financial crime trial. If it is genuine, my sympathy goes to the family but we have seen so many such tricks with the ‘slumper’ achieving the goal of accumulating sympathy from the gullible among the audience and also getting a further postponement of the day of judgement. Whatever the circumstances, we should soon expect other key players in the court drama to also take their turns to slump. Perhaps they should go to medical or art school to perfect the technique to be more convincing to the sometimes live social media press.

It is pity that in none of these cases did friends and family slump when the crimes were active and ongoing. No one ever slumps at millions of naira in a beer carton, briefcase or in the wardrobe or $600,000 under the hat or on receipt of bag of cut diamonds-ABCD, or those stuffing their agbadas with enough cash to make them potbellied.

Let us ask Nollywood-what next? Pretend suicide? That will need a lot more cooperation with doctors, although the spate of sicknesses requiring VIP hospitalisation, sick leave tenable most only abroad and usually arising only after being caught suggests some doctor collusion already. Of course stress of capture can cause hypertension and increase in pre-existing hypertension so perhaps some are actually medically correct.

The very light sentence and even lighter option of an immorally low fine given to the minister who received and passed illegally obtained money on to the owner is being questioned as no deterrent at all and an encouragement to political criminals to carry on as normal. There should be no difference between a ‘financial crime in political circumstances and a financial crime in non-political circumstances’. In addition, it is seen as a poor return on investigating time and such a difficult crime to track. It could also be seen as something that will seriously demoralise the financial crime investigators. Maybe there were mitigating circumstances like maximum cooperation of the minister with the investigation team. Perhaps the prosecution had appealed for leniency because of this and unknown to us. Certainly the judgement itself empowers many other potential victims to stand up and say ‘no’ when such political financial crimes are being forced on them by their political superiors and pressure groups. Quoting this case, future political appointees can stand and refuse to deliver or even take themselves and not risk being sacked or roped into some conspiracy against the party stealing the money.

I believe this is the essence of this judgement. It is one more stepping-stone to tightening the noose against politically motivated corruption. This ‘pass the corrupt parcel’ is sometimes used as a test requirement to demonstrate political loyalty by being roped in even as a mere unpaid conduit pipe for flow of corruption related funds is well known. This is a deliberate attempt to intimidate into silence some good persons among the bad ones because once they have been involved, they will be afraid of exposure and therefore keep quiet when even worse financial crimes are being committed for fear of someone bringing up their own case of ‘Did you also not take money to so and so on so-and-so date?’. It is called ‘I’ve got the goods on you’ in financial criminal parlance to make witnesses refuse to come forward and a guarantee of silence.

The minister would have been thoroughly investigated by the authorities and has probably not been found wanting. This is good. In future, political appointees can face politicians and say ‘No, did you not hear what happened to so-and-so. Hopefully this will end the use of such conduits, by force or as a favour do such wrong and encourage them when they get a bag of money to ‘forward to so-and-so’, to stand up and refuse. Those who are involved in the appointment and many not involved sometimes pretend that they are key to the political appointee keeping the job and mount pressure on them to do wrong. Learn the lesson.

National Assembly, (NASS) has had an emergency rethink, not voluntarily but following the tsunami of female gender-driven public opinion complaints against its selfish gender bill decisions.

Congratulations to the tsunami makers. Please keep this synergic momentum explosive as we insist on a political equal gender rights agenda. The battle is many years old. It is not yet won. Success has just begun.   

Women have refused to be legislated against. They shouted and the difference was clear. The NASS was speaking for its greedy self and not for maligned constituency members. NASS owes us all an apology. Victory may be in sight but it still not Uhuru but a taste of the long-overdue ‘Gender Justice’ that can be achieved by a collective will.

‘Electoral Education Information’, (EEI) strategies must be put in place now so that the female vote in 2023 will install every qualified woman seeking office even by voting across party lines by favouring the party with the most women candidates. Women massively failed to support women before -a grave political miscalculation and ignorance-driven mistake.  It is time to redress the wrongs.

With the terrible naira and security, Nigeria should say ‘NO’ to our stupidly expensive political machinery. Their self-inflicted ‘Salaries and Perks’ are a drain for inadequate return. Most of the NASS N125billion, spent through the budget would have done more than left with NASS membership ‘Salaries and Perks’ -among, or actually the highest world. All citizens must point out to NASS to also stop such humongous NASS emoluments as unjustifiable in a poor country with huge borrowing and fiscal challenges. We must stop ‘Political Palliative Parties’ in favour of parties that will in their manifesto and discussions legislate or get the appropriate organ to cut their NASS emoluments! Abroad where we are supposed to be taking democracy lessons from, the politicians’ work is ‘LEGISLATIVE NOT PALLIATIVE’. Why do we always put anti-people activities into everything we adapt from abroad?

The next battle is to get Nigerian politicians’ Salaries and Perks cut by 75% because they are ‘SAPping’ Nigeria dry.

If NASS members want to buy cars especially in a new parliament come 2023, they must be told now that Nigeria will not accept and they should not expect to burden the Nigerian masses with the bill for a ‘befitting jeep’ of N35-50m x 109 Senators +360Reps =469 NASS members =N16-20b. Let them, like their counterparts worldwide and the rest of us go to the bank to borrow. You will see that their car desire will quickly change like everyone to second hand and maybe even cancel jeep off their list. If they have to use the rail and the metro and the taxis and buses, Nigeria would have been a better place long ago.

NASS has been forced to ‘reconsider’ but will NASS change its mind-set for the better? So when will we visibly follow most of the world and many African countries which allow womanhood to flourish politically and not just as a decoration? The bills are not mutually exclusive but stepping-stones to equality. Though welcome, the morality around funding of any 111 extra seats, rather that the men giving up at least 35% of seats to women costing nothing extra to the citizen for the same gender gain, is selfish on the part of the NASS men. It is also a huge dilemma with Nigeria’s poverty at 75%, naira exchange rate in the gutter and the high price of oil, $139/barrel, precipitating a wartime scenario even on the food situation, with famine threatened, compounded by ‘Lost Generation’ -the loss and displacement of five+ million honest civilians and our gallant soldiers fighting Boko Haram, ISIS West Africa and murderous ‘independent’ terrorist/bandits. The 111 extra seats offer comes like a Greek Gift, a Trojan horse bringing more punishment than salvation. This conclusion is especially based on the local terrorism and poverty and loss of humanity, the unrest in West Africa and world warmongers. This new formula of ‘supernumerary but equal’ exposes NASS’s selfishness. The women are 49-51% of the population and must make their political presence felt.

We can support this struggle. Every woman, qualified morally, seeking election in 2023 should get elected.

The task is unchanged and remains to strategise to ‘MAKE THE FEMALE VOTE COUNT’ in 2023.

First: ‘GET ALL WOMEN TO VOTE’ with campaigns targeting those who will be 18 by 2023 with ‘Girl GO Vote’ songs and T shirts etc. included in Nollywood scripts, Music etc. by entertainment stars aimed at GETTING THE PVC.

Second: GET WOMEN TO VOTE FOR WOMEN’

Third: Get women TO VOTE FOR WOMEN ACROSS PARTY.

Fourth: MAKE ANTI-WOMEN PARTIES AND PERSONS UNCOMFORTABLE by withdrawing female support and directing support towards parties and persons which field women.

Fifth: GET YOUR PARTY TO ABOLISH ‘WOMEN’S WING’ UNLESS THERE IS ‘MEN’S WING’ IN THE PARTY

Women: What cannot be won by legislation can be won by a ‘WOMAN-SLIDE ELECTION’.

‘WOMEN: WHAT CANNOT BE LEGISLATED CAN AND MUST BE ELECTED!!’

This victory can mature into a new NASS with more moderate Salaries and Perks and more humility and humanity. The president could be on Grade Level 21, VP on GL 20, Senators on GL19, Reps on GL 18 etc. or some similar ladder.  The struggle continues.

When legislation says ‘NO’,

Election 2023 should say ‘YES’!

We must show NASS

That the voters know Best!!!

When legislation says ‘NO’, 

Election 2023 should say ‘YES’! 

We must show NASS

That the voters know Best!!!

Women must refuse to be legislated against. Their combined vote in 2023 can install most of the women seeking office even if it requires voting across party lines. Favour the party with women candidates. Even women failed to support women before. There was once a woman presidential candidate. At the primaries she had one vote.  It is time to redress the wrongs.

Apology: My article last week entitled ‘Evans; 25% female politicians inadequate in 2022’ assumed that the new bill for 111 Special seats for Nigerian women in National Assembly, (NASS) was a certainty. Sadly, my hopes and those of millions of females, 17yrs old+,[18 by 2023] and gender-equality males were dashed NASS. Indeed, NASS did some good legislative work devolving travel to states and empowering LGAs but it also legislated against women. It is the NASS male population which fears losing out and is fighting back, even though no NASS member would have lost his seat.

Feeble excuses of a lack of lobbying are pathetic mistruths and bad excuses for perpetuating a wrong. Someone even said the politicians had to vote according to the dictates of their constituencies as if they ever actually consult back home. They merely throw some palliative party sharing food bags, keke, generators, grinders, motorcycles and sewing machines in huge numbers. Nigeria has the only legislature worldwide so well-self-paid that its members can privately do such things costing multiples of millions and still have enough to live like kings and queens. Meanwhile the tax man chases us around. As if Obama, Trump, Johnson or Merkel even had access to such huge salaries for such ‘Political Palliative Parties’! There politicians’ work is ‘LEGISLATIVE NOT PALLIATIVE’; making laws easing the plight of the people not just providing for party hangers-on.

Cut Nigerian politicians’ ‘Salaries and Perks’ by 75% because they are ‘SAPping’ Nigeria dry before politicians also start distributing half-full four litres petrol as party palliative as someone disgracefully and dangerously did at a party.

So when will we follow most of the world and many African countries which allow womanhood to flourish politically and not just as a decoration? They did not change the constitution or increase the cost of governance to elevate women to political authority.

The bills seek a minimum of 35% for executive members for each party executive to be women, 10 women ministers per executive council and 111 extra seats in NASS. They are not mutually exclusive but stepping-stones to equality. The morality around funding of the 111 extra seats is a huge moral dilemma with poverty at 75%. This new formula of ‘supernumerary but equal’ actually exposes NASS to accusations of selfishness. The men won but no congratulations. They should go home shamefaced to their families for losing a monumental opportunity.

The women are 49-51% of the population. They must make their political presence felt. The world around realises how valuable good women are in governance. Nigeria is sadly wrong stepping! If the NASS had approved the 35% female number, we would be praising its members for achieving the results at zero monetary cost.

Let us not be sentimentally misguided about the proneness to law-breaking by one sex over the other when given the responsibility and opportunity to serve. Both sexes can be brilliant or brutal, helpful or harmful and have historically often chosen to serve themselves rather than serve. Nigeria has witnessed ruthless and mindless acquisition of bank, pension, customer, private sector and government public funds and unexplainable shocking decisions and judgements by both men and women trusted to hold the reins of private, public civil service, judicial, police or legislative power. On the domestic front, hired help, married partners and now even children of both sexes demonstrated the complete spectrum of devotion and deviation from goodness and honesty to lying, bullying, theft, abuse both verbal and physical and even murder.  However, for every criminal man or woman there are numerous good Nigerians willing and able to serve– hopefully? They are often left out because they will not permit illegality, play bad ball politically or turn a blind eye to illegality. The political and sometimes private sector moral problem is how to get the non-criminally minded, males and especially many more females who are untainted by corruption or a huge favour-laden burden hindering their potential competence. Sadly ‘Assistance’ must be paid back in cash and kind, always detrimentally to ‘Project Nigeria’.

We can support this struggle. Every woman, qualified morally, seeking election in 2023 should get elected.

The task is to strategise to ‘MAKE THE FEMALE VOTE COUNT’ in 2023.

First: ‘Get All Women To Vote’ with campaigns targeting those who will be 18 by 2023 with ‘Girl GO Vote’ songs and T shirts etc. included in Nollywood scripts, Music etc. by entertainment stars aimed at getting the PVC.

Second: ‘Get Most Women to Vote for Women’ even across party. Make any party which does not field some women uncomfortable by withdrawing female support and directing support towards parties which field women. Encourage women in one party to vote for a woman in another party to fight the greater battle for a greater Nigerian female political footprint.

Women: What cannot be won by legislation and selection can be won by a ‘woman-slide election’.

‘WOMEN: WHAT CANNOT BE LEGISLATED CAN AND MUST BE ELECTED!!’

As we mourn the passing of the late 41st Olubadan, Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, aged 93 years, and ruled from March 6, 2016 to January 2,, we prepare to joyfully welcome the enthronement of his successor-in-waiting and now approved by the Olubadan-in-Council and Governor Seyi Makinde, the Otun Olubadan, High Chief Lekan Balogun, 75 years as the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland. We have prayed for the peaceful transition to the installation of the next Olubadan. We pray for a long reign with peace and economic growth of the citizens and Ibadanland comprising, the huge City of Ibadan and environs, a city yearning for full transition to the 21st Century with an upgraded infrastructure.

We are grateful to the Ibadanland ancestors who institutionalised the 23 steps, and especially the last 10 steps, to pass through before becoming an Olubadan. We are grateful to the ancestors and some governors who took the pains to bring Ibadanland to where it is today.

No matter how good a city is, and no matter how dedicated the traditional and political authorities are, there is always room for improvement and new legacy projects. Ibadan has amazing historical legacy projects already, including the Olubadan palace which used to move with the Baale since the 16th Century but static now, Bower’s Tower [1936], Mapo Hall [1925], Taffy Highway [around 1936], and a raft of relatively new legacy projects like The Secretariat, the great University of Ibadan[1948], the University College Hospital [1957], Olubadan Stadium [1957] where the Ibadan Indigenes Amateur Football Association, IIAFA, held sway, the Polytechnic [1970] formerly the Ibadan Campus of University of Ife, Liberty Stadium [1960]- now Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture[1967], Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria [1964], Institute of Agricultural Research & Training – part of University of Ife[1969], Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria[1954], Cocoa House[1965],The National Museum, Adamasingba Stadium [1988] thankfully just shiny and Makinde-refurbished and Agbowo Shopping Complex[1983], the Agodi Gardens and the Technical University just outside Ibadan.

Please add your other favourites, not the Secretariat and Mokola flyovers, please. Many of these legacy projects need a makeover, complete with history plaques. To have legacy projects of one’s own, a true leader must look after the legacy projects of those who went before and be seen to prevent their decay and destruction.

What an amazing kingdom to traditionally rule over! Note the relative youthfulness of the elected/appointed/expected Olubadan-elect on the throne of his revered ancestors. Note his intellect demonstrated by his multipronged CV including higher educational achievements in administration and economics, a wide private and public sector management skills exposure and participation in short-, medium- and long-term development plans and his authorship of a biography and other relevant papers, quite apart from his political exposure to the ethos of the great Aminu Kano, who I admired tremendously and the Olubadan-elect’s current political choices. All this is a lifetime of preparation for Kabiyesi-ship and will make him a formidable progressive especially for the youth of Ibadanland. Advisors beware. Kabiyesi’s eye ‘de shine’ as he must already be bubbling with legacy projects. A New Olubadan’s Palace is slowly ongoing at N4.3b??.  No doubt the Olubadan-elect will carry this forward.

‘Beyond Buildings’ every city requires more ‘Brains than Brawn’. Violence reduces visitors who spend money. A 1–5-year Youth Brain Development Strategy diverting them from street crime. Parents will need to be involved. Perhaps the Olubadan-elect‘s reign will execute a youth legacy project to save youth falling out of school into the land of touts, ‘area boy-girl’, drugs and thugs around the palace area frightening visitors and citizens from visiting Mapo/ palace area. Imagine changing the youth psyche by initiating programmes which provide gainful ‘Tourist Guide’ and other youth employment.

We know that the Olubadan, a past senator and high political kingpin, will set aside ingrained political prejudices and welcome and pray for all, ‘support none’ and become father of all. Sadly, political disagreements and election debates often degenerate into violence, mayhem, murder and arson. This must be suppressed as the Olubadan-elect requires peace to champion investment.

We are truly grateful for the past leadership and followership in Ibadanland. Projects must convert the violent youth energy towards development by involving youth in development meetings and measures. Our Olubadan-elect leads as Nigeria faces another potential cycle of political adversity 2022-2023, He will promote peace, not violence, to make life worth living for the youth beyond profits of crime and political violence.

Sadly ‘town and gown’ rarely meet in Ibadan. Retired teachers need to be recruited to identify the needy youth in the area they live and be paid to uplift as many as will agree and put them back in the education system or confident enough to work honestly. There are few properly educated youth who are happy remaining thugs and beggars in traffic. Deprived of ‘brain-power’ they turn to ‘brawn power’ – violence. We have a whole of 365 days, one year to convert a violence-prone youth into a voting prone youth. No one died violently on election day in the USA the land of 393million guns where 159million voted. But in Nigeria in which 26 or so million voted we used fire, guns, sticks and machetes to kill 626 Fellow Nigerians. The difference is clear. ‘VOTER VIOLENCE, ELECTION VIOLENCE MUST BE STOPPED’ – A YEAR LONG LEGACY PROJECT THAT PREVENTS  SUCH VIOLENCE SUPPORTED by parents and grandparents and traditional rulers.

Kabiyesi-electooooo!!  Ade pe lori, Bata pe lese

The newspapers are filled with the upheavals of an unsettled irresponsible greedy, selfish politics which cannot learn lessons. There is no focus on serious problems militating against progress in poor education, poor power supply and security. We are told not to be doomsayers and be optimists. But must we be liars as well, denying the disastrous truth despite the wonderful Second Niger Bridge, new railways and never-ready Lagos Ibadan not-yet-Expressway? We have to be optimists for today’s children and tomorrow’s generations expecting to inherit our part of the earth, ‘Nigeria’, a geographical expression requiring true human federal character for success in the struggle to nationhood.

What is life without optimism – that tomorrow we will blossom? Most live in a Nigeria which we, by inheritance, residence, genetically and generationally, call ‘home’. Sadly, too many of us ‘Fellow Nigerians’ have been driven from our ‘home’ by the current prolonged eight-year terrorist violence which too, often appears beyond the capabilities of our armed forces many of whom have paid the supreme price in sacrifice. Zamfara has recently become victim following Kaduna. Also sadly, millions have faced tragedy inflicted by the carefully calculated ‘cow action’ violence requiring curtailing cow movements instead of them having a feeding frenzy destroying the hard work, farm produce and property of Fellow Nigerians.

No one should be killed just for being a Nigerian in the farm, road or office in the right place at the right time.

The upsurge in attacks  on Ogun-APC and Oyo-PDP roads, particularly the Lagos-Ibadan road should have been pre-empted but have caused a welcome meeting between the governors who have demonstrated exemplary political sagacity as the meeting was problem-solving and not scoring cheap opposing-party points.

Oyo State under Governor Makinde has inaugurated the school governing boards for 643 secondary schools. This is implementation and practicalisation of a long-standing suggestion from Educare Trust in 1994 first implemented under the Ajimobi governorship but already a fundamental of any private school. It is important that members of these school boards do not expect payment or honorarium from any interest group in the schools. Rather, they should set ‘Annual Infrastructure and Educational Goals’ and budgets and strategise and seek how to raise additional funds and equipment and contributions in cash and kind. Simple implementation of a regular weekly or monthly Role Model Entrepreneurial Talks for the schools will elevate the intellectual capacity and identify learning targets for the students and even the teachers. Schools are in communities, communities are made up of citizens and small and big businesses, and hospitals and clinics and pharmacies. All of these have professionals who can be put on the list for Role Model Talks in addition to the asking the Parents Teachers Association, PTA and Old Stents Association, OSA, to provide names. The two other school bodies, PTA and OSA, are essential members of the School Governing Board and the three bodies need to be on the same page for rapid progress necessary for the filling of the youth brain with bright ideas and practical steps to achieve such. The task is enormous as many schools do not fit the name ‘school’, falling short in many of the key areas that make a school a UN/MDG/SDG compliant ‘Teacher and Child Healthy and Happy Learning Environment’ available in many more private than public schools though we do hear of some states where the public schools are now so much better that teachers and students prefer the government schools because of better infrastructure and better remuneration. Just like happened in Rwanda.

The areas needing school governing boards’ urgent attention are not nuclear physics but simple things and minimum standards and should be tabulated. We mostly went to school here and know what a good school should have as aids to work properly. Every SGB should not be ashamed to ask members and students to contribute to a comprehensive ‘SCHOOL NEEDS LIST’ and then immediately create a 2022 ANNUAL SCHOOL NEEDS LIST’ as follows. Note the headings in capitals…

POSTERS, POSTERS, POSTERS. Are you not shamed, like I am, when Nigeria’s bare walled, unstimulating classrooms appear on CNN compared to other countries’ classrooms covered with stimulating posters and pictures? A picture is worth 1000 words except in Nigeria.

Library with 1-5 books/student for subject and story books and exam past questions. A short cut would be to invite parents to send in suitable books old and new into each class for a ‘CLASSROOM LIBRARY BOX’. They can take back the books at end of term and send different ones the following term. SPORTS AND GAMES to develop the body and the brain and teach teamwork and coping skills with winning and losing. Schools rarely have enough SPORTS EQUIPMENT from games balls, to javelins or EDUCATIONAL GAMES like scrabble, chess, knowledge games to develop the brain.

LABORATORIES- GENERAL SCIENCE, BIOLOGY, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY -shamefully Nigerian children lack the litmus paper, test tubes, bottle of simple chemicals, magnets, magnifying glasses,

The millions of children in Nigeria’s dilapidated schools, not fit for purpose, are Nigeria’s future. They deserve the same educational exposure and practical learning opportunity as other countries’ children in the schools of New York and London. Our oil is now selling at $95 and may reach $100. Let us not waste it on political palaver and adult greed.

Seeing our children in rubbish schools, we adults in every political party should be ashamed of ourselves.

 

What hope Nigeria? First the politicians increasingly tolerated bad eggs going mad for power at any cost by scheming and implementing criminal, undemocratic political strategies embracing and using ‘Any Means Necessary’ including blackmail, thugs, violence, mayhem, intimidation, bribery and billion-dollar budget, contract padding and theft. Politics has minimised such crimes as unpunishable and even amusing and laughable mere ‘political antics’.

What hope for Nigeria when the neglected youth, unsupported dropouts or misdirected unemployed youth, instead of being supported to become something in business, are abandoned for three years and picked up by politicians and political parties with questionable morals enticing youth into anti-democracy violent activities.

What hope for Nigeria when in-between elections the youth, already violence-prone and with party backing, are starved of a living and funds? They take to bank robbery and intimidation of traffic and local populations protected by their political and police godfathers in and out of power, feeding off the citizenry. This would have been avoided if there was a better safety net system to nurture school dropouts to pick themselves up and try again, increase school attendance and better small business opportunities. Today we have 6-12 months to correct this before the youth again fall victim to the temptation of the coming 2022 cycle of political money from the 2022 election war chests of politicians and political parties.

What hope for Nigeria after the economic catastrophe characterised by the continued fall of the naira in the midst of  plenty of income and plenty of mismanagement and plenty of theft at a time when plenty of banks made plenty of money while plenty of poverty exploded across the violence-scared land? Fifty to 100 Nigerian $ billionaires can save $1b each in CBN, $50-100b, show faith, and shore up our Naira. But will they??

What hope for Nigeria as the political landscape was bereft of morality, failing to pay salary and pensions ruining the banks and the ‘Extended Family’s moral and monetary authority and truncating prosperity and potential for the nuclear and extended family thus morally and monetarily pauperising entire generations? Our amoral commercial traditional get-rich-quick mechanisms including a sadly misdirected corporate driven ‘instant millionaire madness’ were held up by social media to the youth who misread it as inspiration to shun normal jobs.

What hope for Nigeria when the traditional but often unpunished heinous crime of ‘ritual killings’ for money rituals or political advantage has escalated with little government pushback to fight the scourge by campaigns against perpetrating traditional ‘healers’ and even pastors.

What hope for Nigeria against the ever-growing, increasingly violent and huge demands for unrealistic sums of money, under the name of kidnapping? So many innocents from grandparents to babies have even been murdered even when the ransom has been paid out of vindictiveness, hatred or because the victim knew the kidnappers of the contact person.

What hope for Nigeria with a new violence in town. A mother gets thugs to beat up a teacher who caned her child. Thankfully she is facing a court case. A child slit the throat of a junior. The terrors inflicted on the more than five million registered and unregistered IDPs, including rape by carers, who are also essentially kidnap victims as they are taken a place not of their choice. The murder of a five-year-old much-loved kidnapped child by a known face is a terrible crime and a terrible lesson for all families. Sadly, we must do what we were not taught by our grandparents. We have already but must reinforce, for family survival, a marked reduction in the level of responsibility, faith in and trust that we have in others. This is because there are too many examples in the media of brothers against brothers, friends selling out friends, workers exposing employers, boyfriends mutilating girlfriends and teachers kidnapping infants, many strangers waylaying passers-by, just because they were passing by.

Today, sadly from hunger, neglect, greed or natural hatred or just ‘I heard’ or  ‘I saw’ opportunistically, anyone can turn against you and your loved ones when you are just passing by or when you leave your loved ones in their care or near where the evil can hear of you and your loved ones.

In my many trips since 1967, it was a responsibility and patriotic duty to assist the police by stopping to pick a needy policeman going to Lagos to get his salary or to help stranded travellers. Now any of them could be a killer. I have also been victim of expressway stoning and murderous terrifying terrorists. Hopefully, the stories are real that the increasingly dangerous Ibadan-Lagos Road is being secured by Oyo and Ogun and Lagos Police Commands.

Every governor must fulfil his Oath of Office and work to their last day in office, a complete four-year contract with the citizens.

Governors’ good works will provide an ‘Election Chest of Good Deeds’. Nigeria must not stop working during election year. Citizenry will be swayed by Good Governance works.

Mr. Governor, work till election day. Invite parents and all concerned citizens to pre-emptively call out potential thugs and traditionalists with political-favour and money-making ritualists among their ranks to redirect them and retrain them away from crime. Upgrade the youth through programmes to truncate 2022 violence.

Good Governors and honest political parties can change Nigeria and bring civilised elections. The USA, land of millions of guns lost no life during election day. Why should we?

The fire in South Africa’s parliament has revealed that it was not insured. This is a common thread for government property especially in developing  countries where insurance is ‘nobody’s business’ though it is the routine responsibility of elected officials and civil servants to maintain infrastructure and hand it over intact to the succeeding political regime.

Perhaps because there are thousands of government buildings and the risk of fire is low, it is a risk worth taking…until a fire occurs. Of course, Nigeria lost many buildings to fires started in fraud-related suspicious or obvious riotous conditions- where insurers can wriggle out of liability.

‘To insure or not to insure public property?’ is a question for political assemblies. No one is immune from fire. Nigeria faces frequent fire incidents in buildings housing documents in corruption or election related matters.

Public markets are common victims around January-March’s harmattan. But we never learn and probably have no market insurance and inadequate market fire-fighting methodology.

State governors, during these current 2022 seasonal fires, should raise a ‘Fire Prevention Alarm!’ for market management committees on better ‘Emergency Harmattan Fire Prevention Measures’ for easier access for fire engines, more water points, more training. Governors should discuss insurance policy for markets. These measures will reduce the incidence, cost and severity of ‘Harmattan Market Fires’.

Many governors, like the presidency face coming elections. They will be judged on their performance to date and they will especially be judged by their performance in this ‘last lap’ year 2022. This year, the fourth year in the four-year political cycle and sometimes the 8th year in a two term governance cycle, is historically the ‘Year of Nothing Happen’ or ‘Year of Progress Paralysis’ because everything  ‘not considered  for political advantage’ is pushed forward and put on the back burner, ignored and abandoned till after the all-consuming elections. This has resulted in a crippling ‘three years work, one year election’ cycle with a one year, 25% of performance time ‘full stop’ to development, and paralysis of even normal servicing of needs in the state. Only a few exemplary governors have worked diligently to their last day in office, keeping their four-year contract with the citizens.

Governors are believed to acquire ‘Election War Chests’ in their last year in the billions abandoning their sworn oath to work to the last day for the citizens irrespective of their party affiliations.

If the governor is also a good person, he will realise that the last lap, the last year, is even more important than the previous three or seven years in office in the judgement of the citizens whether they are voters or not.

Governor you cannot bribe all the citizens with an ‘Election War Chest’ stolen from the same people. But you can bribe all with your Good Governance development till your handover date.

Every single governor has won or lost elections, through normal or rigging methods. But the wise governor has always paid attention to winning the minds and hearts of the citizens through good activities so that even if the election is lost by foul means or fair, his Good Governance reputation will be intact.

This 2022 is the time for the ‘Good Person Governor’ side to shine through with insistence on the continuation of Good Governance, the filling of every pothole, provision of and replenishment of medicines and medical machines for professionals and patients, the provision of text and non-text reading books for teachers and schoolchildren. Nigeria has been too slow at meeting SDGs and cannot afford to stop progress for one election year.

When such good governors eventually leave office and walk the streets and even when they die, as we all must, the citizens will sigh, some will cry, many will smile and say, ‘He was a GGG-Good Governance Governor, God Rest His Soul’. Let the citizens not think back to ‘your bad old days’ and then sneer, hiss, dismiss, spit, curse or even worse proclaim good riddance, arrogant, did nothing for the citizens, only serviced his party people, created more problems than solutions, roads he built lasted less than his tenure, had nothing to show, a negative tenure drawing the state backwards. All have been the voice of the people and said before but, pray, never again.

Those who witnessed the passing of past Nigerian presidents have heard all shades of opinions from the citizenry. From president to pauper, we will all leave the world at an accelerated rate due to the ravages of mostly politically precipitated crime, terrorism, covid and kidnapping. Surely all serving governors face their 2022 ‘Legacy Year’. Yes, fine buildings are popular exit strategies for governors. However, the hearts of soon-to-vote citizenry can be swayed easier by Good Governance works than by bribes-for-votes or even beautiful buildings amidst dirty hospitals and rubbish schools and potholed roads.

Mr Governor, work till election day as if to live in the hearts of citizens during 2022. It will be a better election strategy than amassing an ‘Election War Chest’ to employ constantly abandoned and drop-out youth  as thugs, who should have been trained and redirected during your four years in office and not incubated for the ‘2022 Election War’. Train and upgrade the youth to keep them away from 2022 violence and in peaceful voting queues at election time.

Good governors can change Nigeria by changing their ways. Let ‘Last Lap Good Governance’ win elections.