The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tony Marinho

  • The Death of two ‘Mikes’ –Olatawura and Akhigbe. Lagos Ibadan a disgrace to govt

    Everyone dead or retired in Nigeria is a colossus, iconoclastic, a great leader or a mega-professional or even a good politician. In spite of this epidemic of icons in politics, medicine, education, engineering and the civil service, why are we in this mess? Perhaps ‘the guilty are not yet dead’? The press should deny them airtime unless it is for an apology and restitution. Why do we ask yesterday’s political failures about solutions to problems today created by them yesterday?

    Certainly we know the sterling psychiatry, medical, administrative, social and family qualities of late Professor Mike Oludare Olatawura of the Olatawura dynasty, famous in many areas including judicial and medical circles as attested to by his family, students, colleagues and various governments and me who was a medical student back in those days in UCH. He was humility and efficiency personified and must have been very bemused, if good manners denied him comments, at the level to which security buffers, officiousness and even ‘official viciousness’ have built up in areas where when he was in-post as Chief Medical Director, UCH, he operated a ‘few guards, open door-come let us chat’ policy. Of course there were fewer threats by touts, NURTW members, Okada unions and Boko Haram members on hospital staff then. His brother was a very distinguished incorruptible jurist who in his early legal life joined Samuel Oladele Ige, Bola Ige and Omotayo Onalaja and Moronfolu Olakunrin in defending Soyinka against charges of ‘robbery-stealing two tapes, with violence’ and being ‘the mysterious gunman at National Broadcasting House, Ibadan’ before Mr Justice Kayode Eso in November 1965. Though young then, they all went on to become distinguished in professional and political circles.

    Then there is late Vice Admiral and Vice President Mike Akhigbe under Abdusalam Abubakar when Abiola was to be considered for release, or so we naively thought. One Sunday I was visiting Uncle Bola Ige, as usual with great men, minions like myself were happy to merely breathing the nearby air and being ‘recognised’ as acolyte material. I do not remember why I was there as I ran a pretty busy schedule. Anyway the phone rang. Uncle Bola spoke briefly and agreed to go to Lagos the following day. He hung up and said he had been talking to Akhigbe, Number 2 in the military government. He had no driver for the next day being a Sunday and it was pre-cellphone days. I immediately offered my services as Sunday was free for me also. I picked Uncle Bola up on Sunday and drove him to Lagos, discussing what the options and brainstorming on the possible outcomes. Imagine me in an endgame discussion with Uncle Bola. We were interrupted by a solitary FRSC man who flagged us down for ‘nothing in particulars’ and proceeded to check everything in the car including the resident cockroach –perhaps an illegal passenger. Tired of the game which should have been over in a minute and after the particulars had been checked, the FRSC man was asked or went voluntarily to the passenger side where his jaw dropped to see an Ex-Governor of Oyo State and a founding father of FRSC in the passenger seat of a middle-aged 504 station wagon. He leapt to attention, returned my particulars and motioned us off, but not until after Uncle Bola said ‘We did not initiate the FRSC for ‘particulars check’ but for safe driving. Were we driving unsafely?’ We drove off planning that Uncle Bola would ask for Abiola to first see his family members and then the politicians he also wished to see and the final release should be expedited and come within a day or two.

    Once at Flagstaff House, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, the gates were thrown open and we entered. Akhigbe came into the sitting room without escort and after I was introduced, Uncle Bola was led away by Akhigbe for private discussions. I, back in my role as designated driver, watched big screen TV till Uncle Bola came out and off we went. The Expressway still lived up to its name and we were back in Ibadan in a timely manner. Akhigbe got government to do as our discussions had recommended but things went one step further. Chief MKO Abiola who may have let his guard down in the euphoria of impending release, was apparently assassinated by methods unknown but suspected from eyewitness and newspaper quotes to involve a teacup, lipstick or skin-absorbed poison while among other things receiving a delegation of American friends including Pickering and a Rice. So much for democracy. Since then Uncle Bola has himself been murdered. Even the expressway has deteriorated to an endurance course track. God has provided him with answers to all the murders Uncle Bola would care to enquire about including his own and my first cousin Funso Williams, governorship candidate of Lagos State. People say ‘Better alive than a dead street named after them’. But ‘Thanks’ again to Governor Fashola for the important message and gesture in ‘Funso Williams Avenue’.

    As we leave their graves, imagine the conversation between Uncle Bola and the two Mikes – Akhigbe and Olatawura – on the other side of life. It would make Wikileaks headlines.

    Meanwhile we face the tragedy called the Lagos-Ibadan road-a testament to ministry and federal PDP government 1999-2013 so far. Who will stop impatient drivers overtaking on the sides?

  • We deserve better governance; preventable road crashes; Professor Iyayi-RIP

    The people of Nigeria have never had the government they deserve. Try the 30 kilometre Lagos bound five lane 10,000 vehicle traffic jam this past Sunday afternoon. Try the 2000-car traffic mayhem at the MM2 Airport car park and arrivals and departure areas on Friday November 15. Too many vehicles – No governance! The successive governments of Nigeria have had such malleable people to govern, a fact the governments took advantage of to bastardise the citizens and country such that corruption rose from 10% as reported by very distinguished late Princess Tejumade Alakija, Head of Service in the Western Region to 100% and even 300%. How many ID cards would we each have if all the multibillion dollar ID card megascams had been supervised for progress and service delivery and not you-chop-I-chop-for-the-boys? The problem from the ID scams to the still-in-court N26m -N34billion pension scams to the ‘hot in jail’ Oyo State pension scam or the N250m bullet proof scam point to bad governance.

    Of course the Mobutu Economic Solution (MES) applies equally to the Nigerian corrupt political and economic life. The MES revealed that if Mobutu asked for $1m, the Finance Minister asked the Zairean CBN for $2m and the ZCBN Governor signed out $3m. The ZCBN chopped $1m and sent $2m to the Finance Minister who took $1m and sent $1m to Mobutu. The whole country has for too long been at the mercy of unaudited agencies well exemplified by NNPC, NPA, NEPA alias PHCN and FERMA exclusively controlled by little people in Abuja with minds too small to grasp the significance of their abused power and responsibility to better the lives of Nigerians. Their failure to perform nationwide against the ‘Rise of the Nigerian darkness and Pothole’ has killed and injured too many ‘Fellow Nigerians’ and made millions suffer the loss of loved ones and their earning power from too costly and sometimes deadly alternative power from poisonous gases and explosions and murderous potholes. The result is often a failure to achieve full potential by offspring. Every accident deprives someone of an education and earning potential. This is why every pothole should be a top priority of normal government and not a special reward of favour to the citizenry.  They, government men and women, claim we will have power, electric power, soon. But all Nigerians should ask why did we not have electric power when Generals Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Abdusallam and General Obasanjo had ‘General’ totalitarian and ‘General’ democratic control and were ‘in total power’? Was their failure to add a simple 500 0r 1000Mw annually to the Nigerian national grid because of their myopia, misdemeanour, incompetence, greed and corruption?  The sale of failed government agencies like PHCN is actually a failure of leadership and supervision of bad employees. Remember schools were helped to fail when we stopped listening to, or failed to fund school inspectors and they in turn always expecting gifts like goats and cash to fill their car boots in exchange for a pass mark when they visited.

    The cost of travel remains far too high in Nigeria. Every day the media is filled with stories of road attacks, mislabelled ‘accidents’. If someone crashes into you at 100+kph that is an attack by another road user, not an accident. No death is acceptable or explainable as an act of God. God may know about it and allow it but God does not create the scenario. It is the free will of sometimes drunken men at the steering wheel who speed and crash into others. So many deaths and injuries for people merely going from A to B. The Okada Epidemic claims thousands maimed and murdered. Is that an Act of God? No! We have responsibility for our actions and our lives. When the little people die, no one cares beyond a static. May you should not die with someone more ‘VIP’ than you or your death will never be remembered. You will just be ‘VIP and 23 others died yesterday’. May that not be your portion! In the sight of God ‘VIP and 26 others’ must line up in order of death time for judgement, no queue jumping, though the VIP will probably be in the first queue he did not want to jump. Who wants to rush to Heaven?

    Professor Festus Iyayi, 66, former ASUU President, Winner of the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and writer of books including Violence, The Contract, Heroes and Awaiting Court Martial was not planning on joining the queue to heaven when he headed for the ASUU meeting on Tuesday November 12, having bid farewell to grandchildren and joined in the traditional prayer for a Safe Journey and ‘Travel Mercies’. He was struck down, not by an Act of God like lightening, an earthquake, a flood, but by man in form of a reckless governor Wada’s convoy-driver who must be breathalysed and prosecuted. Some may have wondered at the need for such senior citizens to travel to solve ASUU’s protracted strike with a recalcitrant government known for reversing agreements. Note that no matter how bad tertiary education is, it would have been primary school level without ASUU’s continuous struggle and intermittent strikes. The ASUU strike has yielded death. May this and other terrible deaths yield fruit for the students and staff, now dedicated to unnecessarily late Prof Iyayi. Governor Wada had demonstrated that he is a poor supervisor of man and machine.

     

  • Golden Eaglets; Books and budgets; Soyinka; Potholes, Politics and Lekki Bridge

    Congratulations to the Golden Eaglets who politicians feel have given us temporary unity. Nigerians are united in suffering from power failure and potholes and no books or sports equipment in schools.  We await true unity from the national conference.

    If you want children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want children to be more intelligent read them more fairy tales – Albert Einstein. There is a new giant library in Birmingham, UK. Is there a new non-Presidential library in Nigeria? Unlikely! Our schools are designed for failure. I had a delightful experience at the privately run Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Library on Awolowo Road Ikoyi Lagos run by Mrs. Ifeoma Esiri and her wonderful team. I discussed and read from my book The Laterite Road to SS2 students who had also read the book. The President will be presenting his budget this month for 2014. Is there a meaningful budget for books in schools?

    Next year we will go wild celebrating Professor Wole Soyinka@80 and his Nobel Laurels. Would it not be a fitting tribute if every Nigerian student in school had a copy of at least one Soyinka book? In fact why does every Nigerian single school not have a collection of selected Soyinka books available in their library? Probably because there are so few libraries and there is no budget for library books in most Nigerian education budgets. Even if we do not value books for our children, let us at least value our Nobel Laureate. The shame of the Nigerian government knows no shame. It now relies of corporate bodies to give books to its children, a secret responsibility of good governance while delighting in giving out exercise books with no knowledge content in them.

    Every room, home, office, taxi, danfo, bus space should be discussing their topic the Sovereign National Conference. It is a non-political topic. This is a non-political journey hijacked by politicians. The journey is not about politics, though it has a political component which has been overblown to take the lion’s share of the discussion. It is about life itself and the happiness and wellbeing of its citizens.

    It is only in Nigeria that bridges flood and it costs more manpower to make a hole in the bridge to drain the rainwater than exists in the coffers or the craniums of the collective engineering genius of FERMA.

    FERMA should face questions of ineptitude and threats of disbandment for forcing the additional and needless suffering of travellers.  In civilised countries, engineering teams mark and fill immediately all the major potholes. Here, only in reaction to extreme public pressure and blood on the roads we are finally marking potholes. It will still take months to fill them. Which part of ‘EMERGENCY MARK-AND-FILL POTHOLES’ does the multibillion organisation like FERMA and construction companies like Julius Berger and RCC not understand? The very idea that roads should be repaired only because holidays are approaching or a president is visiting is repugnant. Is going on holiday at Xmas/New year more important than getting to work for the rest of the year? How can government allow a government agency like FERMA to pretend to be Father Christmas, delivering a birthday present of pothole filled roads only for the same roads to be abandoned immediately after the festive period? Shame! Worldwide, work is made easy by providing mass transport, good roads. Holidays are a by-product but the main thing.   If this is the mind-set of FERMA and even the FRSC which works mainly during ‘EMBER Months’ then no wonder we remain the slowest moving nation on wheels, five to six hours to travel 127kilometers and with the East-West Road still a mirage. Heads should roll for neglecting their work during nine months of the year only to wake up when the outcry becomes thunderous or when ‘Jesus comes’ annually at Christmas. ‘The Nigerian Pothole’ should be enshrined in the forthcoming constitution as an eliminable goal. No Nigerian pothole should be given the freedom to grow for nine months or nine years in Nigeria before it is filled for a presidential visit or at one Ember Month or one Christmas or the other. Care and concern for citizens welfare is and must be a daily government concern. Governments which perform just before elections are failures even if they succeed in returning to power by any means necessary. We must install meaning to our lives and governments must realise that more selfishness by it and its agencies will destroy Nigeria.

    The newly created and carefully timed federal government –Lagos State stand-off over the new Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge is an interesting example of how little government at the centre is concerned with the suffering of the citizens in the states. Rules are more important to evil governments than people even when the rules are relics of colonial oppression and control. Is government supposed to be oppressive? The bridge is good, the waterways are local. Federal government would be wise to zero in on building a second and third Niger Bridge and completing the East-West road rumoured to be 65% complete, instead of disturbing a perfectly executed bridge project. Could it be that the current federal government is jealous of the success of the cooperative effort the government of late Yar’Adua and Lagos State? Or is this a disguised political petty attempt to discredit the Lagos government’s contribution to traffic control?

  • S-NC in 2014? Combat govt anarchy: Nigeriawhistleblowers.com; FERMA-a failure?

    Critics of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) emphasise that the federal government has misled us before. Indeed at every turn federal government, comprising small-minded petty people in uniform- military, babanriga, agbada -has serially abused its power and disenfranchised, disappointed and failed millions of Nigerians through subterfuge for sectional power and personal gain. These little people are as guilty of anarchy as gun-wielding terrorists. Once in power they mainly claim the power for themselves.

    Government anarchy is evidenced by unbridled mega-corruption and arrogance, viciousness and violence by officials. The disbandment of several agencies of state government for corruption, assault and battery is welcomed but we need prosecution of guilty officials, not discharge. Indeed their leaders should face prosecution for failing to supervise staff and unleashing staff to abuse the authority their uniforms. We need more staff for regular forensic financial and social auditing to prevent fraudulent financial and moral behaviour in government. Imagine a meeting hearing that a vehicle costs N70m, doubling the cost and taking a bank loan, unavailable to Nigerians, and paying three times the inflated cost over three years. Is that not corruption and money laundering? First Bank should face sanctions and a boycott threat from Nigerians. Investigation must dissect the minutes of aviation meetings and identify who took the crazy repayment decisions. Who were the final beneficiaries of the Aviationgate N255m? Was this just standard procedure and part of the ‘Secret Internally Generated Party Revenue Programme’- a large party cut from every contract done at state level as well- with funds to be funnelled to the party preparing for 2015 elections? We know it is the tip of the ‘Inflation of Contracts Iceberg’ by which governing parties get their money. We should have a Nigeriawhistleblowers.com website where Nigerian whistleblowers register all suspected cases for scrutiny, exposure and clearance.

    Since we have mass unemployment, why not increase staff auditing, supervising or monitoring corruption and incompetence in the public service, police, and parallel organisations like road and traffic control organisations? How many citizens have been killed by police –public encounters recently? In addition anarchical government is manifest by politically motivated demolitions of buildings, throwbacks to the civil war. Such activities are thinly disguised ‘Abuse of the Master Political Plan’.

    Is the end of any hope for good governance in sight or should we consider this sudden interest in NC by the presidency and the milito-democracy of the Senate President as an olive branch? Or is it a poisoned olive branch to affect all those who touch it or is it an olive branch coiled around a dagger to stab us with or to cut us as a two edged sword when it is withdrawn after we have grabbed it with both hands leaving us bloody and crippled yet again? Only time will reveal the true government agenda drawn up in secret by the little men hiding under the cloak of governance while millions of our children have no textbooks and potholes fill the roads.

    Whatever government’s agenda, the S-NC, a people’s forum beyond just politics, should go ahead immediately in early 2014. Already the first order of business has been suggested: Adopt and incorporate most of  past reports and summaries of political and social significance including the 118 clauses already proposed by the National Political Reform 2005 committee, the Belgore Committee and others highlighted by ex-Governor Bola Tinubu and other concerned Nigerians. Once in place that will not take a month let alone the whole of 2014.

    Who will be the delegates? The suggestion that existing LGAs should be the basis for the S-NC on the principle of one person /LGA sounds like a sound principle if you are ignorant of Nigeria’s politico-military history. These LGs are a main problem of true federalism needing solution and a deliberate mis-creation of the morally corrupt military and feudal federalism to always favour the North by giving them ‘sovereignty, senatorial and representational and therefore financial superiority’ as many revenue allocations and other fiscal advantages are based on LGAs. Such brazenly fraudulent illegalities in LGA creation were legalised in the 1999 constitution and the trademark of Nigeria’s military regimes waywardness. They remain un-reversed and irreversible even during the democracies of 1999-2013 because of the advantage in the NASS to the cheats. Which senator/representative will vote himself out of power? Suffice to say that Lagos has 20 federally recognised LGAs while Kano and Jigawa formerly one state Kano have 77 LGAs. The Census tribunal and Festus Odimegwu the executive whistleblower exposed the flaws in this corrupt distribution of LGAs. Is justice, emphasised by Professor Soyinka as the bedrock of decent society, served by cheating Lagos in 2013? It is such devious financial and political discrimination that created the animosity resulting in this festering feudal federalism in need of a S-National Conference.

    Meanwhile multibillions in salaries funding FERMA’s inactivity fail to translate into filling Nigeria’s potholes except at holidays like December or governor’s or president’s visits? So we can die January to November? Why should FERMA not be disbanded for failing Nigeria’s road challenges? Why did FERMA not predict, anticipate and avert the flood and subsequent three-hour traffic jam on Sunday afternoon at the lowest point of the bridge/road just before Otedola Estate on the Lagos Ibadan Road by maintaining functional drainage holes in the bridge walls? FERMA should defend itself against incompetence charges or is it so underfunded that it cannot fill potholes?

     

  • ‘We the People’ NC in 2014; Babangida; Abacha; Airport carpark vs cars; One student: one backpack

    ‘We the People’ NC in 2014; Babangida; Abacha; Airport carpark vs cars; One student: one backpack

    Politicians and military interventionists have failed over our 100 ‘Amalgamarriage’ or 53 post independence years. Will the politicians fail this amazing opportunity to ‘Resit’ and ‘restructure’ the future or will it succumb to more political mathematical futility like 12 2/3?

    The examiners, the citizens, the nation, want to adjust ‘The Syllabus’. So far the politicians have wasted fruitless selfish years since 1999 failing to achieve that. ‘The Syllabus’, The Constitution, review will allow all Nigerians a part and an input to replace the Abacha military constitution of 1999. We have an opportunity as sovereign people to actually have a ‘WE THE PEOPLE NATIONAL CONFERENCE in the auspicious year 2014, well before the 2015 elections.

    Why does the press disseminate the uncharacteristic ‘words of wisdom’ from failed rulers? So Babangida has just discovered what millions have known since 1980 – that ‘True Federalism or Fiscal Federalism’ and ‘more powers to state and LGAs’ are the solutions for Nigeria’s boiling troubles and lack of a feeling of citizenship and Nigerianship? Now we are forced by an ignorant press to listen to Babangida singing sweet democracy true federalism songs. So it is at last time for true federalism? The dance is complete. The masquerade is exhausted. Is that a conversion, paradox or a 419?

    It is sad that the Abachas, who arrogantly run for governor, punch Nigeria in the face for the $185m ‘Abacha Loot’ held in Lichtenstein.  Their lawsuit is an attempt to keep stolen property, property stolen from Nigeria –surely a criminal act. The Abachas can therefore be charged for being ‘Receivers of Stolen Goods’ and ‘Illegally Benefiting from the Financial Crime of Others At Large or Dead’. It is of note that $185m is as much as Buhari and Babangida paid to stop Lagos getting a rail line- ‘Jakande rail’ in 1983. Wow! How much hate they must have had to stop a railway which would have carried millions totalling 1+billion now? Of course Obasanjo’s too had a ‘Jakande rail’ moment with the cancellation of the then successfully on-going World Bank funded Lagos-Ibadan third lane in favour of Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney with disastrous results and death and time delays for millions daily. And how much was paid by the Obasanjo government as compensation to the contractor for that contract cancellation –perhaps the recurring number $184m?

    As we are forced to witness the nauseating scenario around the purchase of two bomb-proof cars with N250m we Fellow Nigerians get nothing. Angry users of rubbish FAAN international pot-holed car park at the MMAirport Lagos have to pay a parking fee. Why did the collective aviation agencies not tar that ‘rubbish FAAN car park’ area for ordinary Non-VIP travellers? Nigerians don’t ask for bomb-proof cars but we do expect a fraction of the N250m to be spent on making public airport car parks welcoming and usable.

    The company Julius Berger had students marching with JB blue logo plastic bags full of educational goodies. Now Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC is also donating educational kits. We live in a country that expects its private companies after paying education tax to still contribute to education while government irresponsibly misapplies the earnings of two million barrels of oil per day at $105/barrel and spends N250m on two vehicles while children lack books. Nigeria can easily kit all students with the 15 textbooks and novels and 12 exercise notebooks needed annually and placed in adire or other home-grown backpacks/satchels from the proceeds of one day’s oil earnings and still have change to steal. This systematic ‘ONE NIGERIAN STUDENT- ONE BACKPACK OF BOOKS METHOD’. Education and living basics are the sole responsibilities of government. Private companies and Corporate Social Responsibility funds should be the icing on the education cake- travel, exhibitions, scholarships, competitions and prizes –not toilets and running water. The 40million students deserve immediate books, this month before buildings and we do not need another 2013 Ladi Kwali Hall multibillion naira Education Summit. Books build brains. A book is the life saver and Gold Standard and goes further than a beautiful bookless classroom.

    Fires cause global warming. Massive fires burn millions of trees causing forest destruction and global warming. Is it not more environmentally friendly to try to save the forests from fires by making tree-free corridors between tree blocks? This would also provide tree trunks for the wood industry. Talking of global warming, what is the contribution of festive period fireworks displays ay New Year and Christmas global warming and smoke pollution? It is worth a study because major firework displays are entirely under the control of man. What is the carbon footprint of New Year fireworks worldwide?

    If Nigeria had been hit by the ‘Fires of Australia’ what would have been our fate from the emergency services? Already we have a new cholera outbreak officially claiming more than 60 lives caused by poor hygiene and water supply. Cholera in 2013?  Imagine the real figure of deaths.

    The very public suggestion that the whistleblowers for the N250m cars did wrong means that the Freedom of Information Bill is still not accepted by government agents. This was made clear by the ‘forced’ resignation of Odimegwu from the census Commission for ‘whistle-blowing’ by revealing the well-known truth about the last census figures. Remember Justice Salami and Professor Grange. Truth is the first casualty of war, civil or military, declared or not! It is obvious that we are still at war in Nigeria.

  • No clap for FERMA’s cruel joke;  Ipadeola; Sovereign citizen, Politician is paid servant

    Are we a nation lacking good parents? After unimaginable suffering with delays and death on the Lagos-Ibadan road, misnamed expressway, the FERMA dares to congratulate itself for ‘intervening to save road users’. An arrogant and cruel FERMA joke? Rubbish. Where was FERMA when potholes were begging to be filled? FERMA last did petty work on that road when the President visited Abeokuta 3+ years ago. We are all presidents and the S-NC will prove it! FERMA should be ashamed as it is responsible for the negligence turning roads into dirt tracks. Is this the road the Aviation Minister will drive her bomb-proof cars valued at N250m? It is too late for Nigerians to say ‘thank you’. What type of Nigerian government has FERMA and equipment but stands aside, witnessing more death, damage and suffering for years? Is that political, administrative, engineering or corruption failure? Shame on FERMA! Shamefully for Africa in 2013 and Nigeria and its 4th UN Security Council Non-Permanent Seat, government acts as if only foreigner contractors can fill potholes. Is FERMA a salary-for-nothing joke just ‘discovering’ the road like David Livingstone? If so, it is a deadly joke and Nigerian road users are maxi-angry! Once again government treats Nigerians like idiot children with negligent irresponsible parents. We will not clap for FERMA! Why are citizens allowed to feel bastards in a country which tars roads for presidents and visitors but makes potholes for its citizens? Mad priorities, abi?

    Congratulations and gbosas to the unassuming Tade Ipadeola LLB on winning the 2013 LNG Prize for Literature for The Sahara Testaments published by Hornbill African Poets after winning the Delphic Laurel in Poetry from South Korea recently which he showed me then. I also submitted my work The Laterite Road -an African Travel Odyssey published by Evans for the NLG Prize but did not even make the long list. I am therefore definitely jealous and envious in the nicest possible way. Tade’s book, which I am now reading, is an intellectual masterpiece, demonstrating rhyme and reason in and out of season. In some parts it requires a large dictionary or internet access to wikipedia and more while reading, for full comprehension. It is a living breathing look at our Africa….an excerpt…

    Listen, the desert is singing, singing, just singing.

    It is a duet, a duet with the breeze

    and

    Is taboo. They stay attached like Nigerian inflation

    Of which Fela sang with his tenor saxophone.

    An excerpt from my work The Laterite Road anticipates the recent over 500 deaths at Lampedusa

    Survivors of the desert sea storm

    Destined for Mediterranean thirst and drowning,

    In leaking boats bent on sinking.

    Forcing entry into Fortress Europe,

    Burning in the Sahara,

    Or drowning in the Mediterranean

    Destined for Melilla, Lampedusa,

    Sicily, Italy.

    Young bodies beaten black and blue,

    Crushed on Europe’s wet rocks.

    More lost young African building blocks

    Taken from the African Renaissance Building

    On the laterite road.

    You can celebrate this success. Buy Tade’s book and mine as a present for someone today, to improve the reading culture and make a new generation of Nigerians authors into household names.

    All those who have strangled Nigeria through ‘Nigeria’s 40 Years of the Locust’ and installed a ‘Paradise Lost’ have nothing to offer the new S-National Conference. There will be a S-NC but is S ‘Stupid or Sovereign’, ‘Silly or Serious’? Let the over-50s leave the stage with their ‘wisdom’ that left Nigeria waterless, powerless, education-less, health-less, train-less, road-less, naira-worthless and nearly futureless. The over-50s should ignore ‘overpowering desires to “serve”, yet again’.

    The people are sovereign, delegating authority to the political class. But the S-NC is much more than ‘politics’ and politicians do not have a moral track record of putting the nation above greed. The citizens suffer ‘A VIOLENT DEMOCRACY’ and ’DEMOCRATIC RAPE’. The politicians are the expensive employees of the people. So how dare politicians claim sovereignty? The statements from NASS on ‘final sovereignty’ are military and darkly dangerous. Parliaments which disregard people’s power ALWAYS fall. Politicians must ‘take a bow’ or face oblivion. Can they not see the great power of this ‘2013 MOVEMENT’? Get on board or be side-lined. Allowing the NASS final say is a denial of the Nigerian citizen’s sovereignty. How can a servant, paid to occupy a house by his master, claim that he owns the house and the master? WE DEMAND A REFERENDUM.

    Can Nigerian politicians be trusted to work for Nigeria? Can they abolish one house of the National Assembly, NASS and go British parliamentary in their ‘Eternal Retirement Home’. Can they implement needed salaries and perks cuts which SAP Nigeria dry and catalyse the impending economic destruction of Nigeria in the next five years? As merely another interest group in Nigeria numerically less than 0.01% but 100% noisy in the media, politicians and political parties should step aside and watch 99.99% of Nigerians take the stage. It is time to tame the politician made into a monster by himself, people and the press! The Guild of Editors, Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ and the media should meet to re-strategise for the S-NC and institute policy and interview strategies to give space to Nigerians and ignore politicians. It is the politicians past actions and their future employment terms and conditions that are for assessment and decisions by the ‘exam body’ comprising all Nigerians at the S-NC. Politicians should await the Nation’s Examination Result.

    To be continued.

  • Fashola: ‘Lagos Solar Generation’; Ibadan-Lagos-disgrace; RCC/ BJ emergency repairs pls;  Lifejackets pls

    Governor Fashola invites us to ‘Let’s talk power’ so let us talk ‘Solar Power’. Governor Fashola, if countries with minimal sunshine, like the UK and Germany, can have rooftop solar panels and solar energy powering cities like in Spain, the USA and Israel, ‘Can You Please Take Lagos Solar?’ The cost of solar equipment, under-education in solar potential and lack of solar planning laws hinder progress. The Lagos State Building Code should encourage new buildings to have a solar component and be more environmentally friendly.

    Recognise, Reward and Award excellence in solar companies. Increase plans and 2014 budgets  for major solar use in the secretariat and local authorities for security lighting in street lights, bus stops, market, motor parks, neighbourhoods, foreshore lighting, Bar beach, recreation areas, schools, tertiary institutions and hospitals all needing security and lighting all night and solar public buildings and lampposts at festive periods.  The equipment cost is a constraint but the cost of solar panels and batteries has gone down by 80% accompanied by a marked improvement in solar battery efficiency. Solar technology is evolving rapidly as demonstrated at 2013 Solar Energy Expo in Dubai. Nigerians including Engineer Yomi Bolarinwa were there and have 2013 cutting edge knowledge to be tapped –but no one will tap them. Talk to embassies.

    Nigeria should beware therefore of ‘Solar Dumping’, the delivery of old solar technology as ‘aid’ or by solar contractors seeking to drop obsolete solar equipment in Nigeria. Nowadays even two years is old technology. Solar equipment costs are high and it takes five-plus years to recoup the cost in savings from cut electricity bills. It behoves Lagos State, federal government, CBN to come up with a ‘Long Term Solar Loans Strategy’. A low interest, 2-4% multibillion Solar Loan Facility would instantly provide 10,000Mw off grid. Importation duties should be waved. Cleaning of solar panels is work for thousands. Creating ‘The Solar Generation’ would be the next big thing in Nigeria after DSTV, the ‘Generator Generation’ and the ‘Cell Phone Generation’. How the UK is planning 20,000Gw while we are still using the odd solar powered torch is a mystery and misery.

    Wanted: A Governor Fashola driven ‘Solar Lagos Project’. Where are Nigeria’s solar factories making solar panels, flat and curved, and solar batteries? We made glass and batteries at Triplex and Exide. Under Obasanjo we got a tobacco factory instead of cellphone factories so no phones Made In Nigeria. God gave us petroleum but we export it and re-import our needs at huge extra costs. God gave us the sun. We ignore it while countries with 10% sun power their people into the 21st Century. LASU should be given a Lagos State Solar Grant for research into solarising Lagos.

    We must encourage new great leaders. A Fashola led ‘Let’s Act Solar Power’ will place Lagos as a leading solar city in Africa. The reason why Nigerians were considered the ‘Happiest People on Earth’ is not our politics but the fact that the sun remained in our otherwise miserable lives. The politicians cannot yet give the sun only to party members -like allowing only party members to live on the sunny side of the street.  The sun brings a smile to the sick, the broke, oppressed and  miserable. Too much sun is not good but every day starts with that warm glow of hopeful rays.

    About leadership, who allowed the imminent collapse and closure of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway with 15 kilometres of traffic five lane wide, 10,000 vehicles long with one million people, daily desperately struggling down that obstacle course? NEMA, if that is not an emergency and disaster, what is? Do we require the death of all these people in a fireball on the expressway? Nigerians know that awarding a contract is never an end to suffering. Nigerians are suffering maximally, stranded for seven hours daily in 2013 while RCC and Julius Berger warm up. Contractors must please show the milk of human kindness. Nigerians expect ‘CONTRACTOR EMERGENCY MEASURES PLEASE’ for patching dangerous pothole and the worst areas within 24 hours pending reconstruction. Painting and deployment of pretty concrete barriers and clearing the median can come later. The main problem areas are Julius Berger areas – very rough/absent road surfaces at the Mountain Top University, Redeem Crossings, Hayday

    Petrol station, Takol, Asese. The road authority should create a Nigerian solution to the massive Nigerian problem of queue jumping– a major cause of prolonged driving time for those who stay in the lanes. The placement of barriers every 20 metres on the shoulders would make it impossible to queue jump.

    Breaking News: The human cannot swim without learning. When will we learn? A life jacket for everyone on the water will save lives. Why is no one listening? We have just lost 42 or 100 citizens and an additional 18 more citizens on the River Niger. Lampedusa, off Italy is the watery graveyard for Africans seeking backdoor entry into Fortress Europe and now over 300 more. None had lifejackets. Is anyone listening? A life jacket costs little compared to a life. A life jacket is reusable, recyclable and is less than a N1 per use if 1000 trips are made. A life jacket keeps the wearer alive. If you do not provide or use a life jacket for your wife, children, relatives or employees you are a murderer or a murdering government and should be tried as such.

  • Nigeria of nightmares or dreams; Biometrically over-captured; NEITI; NIMASA Life Jackets

    The Al Shabaab outrageous attack on the Westgate Mall, Kenya, claiming as many as 60 lives, is a duplication of what is happening daily in Nigeria with Boko Haram and the cattle/Fulani herders-wilful destruction of lives and properties- terrorism.   In addition in Nigeria, there is political devilry, death and destruction all around deconstructing the country. The fatally flawed 1999 constitution, the disastrous over-centralisation of the Federal Government and the underdevelopment arising from Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness, CINS, have led us to a serious crossroads- de-amalgamation and de-Nigerianisation. At last even David Mark, long-sitting senate president, has mentioned the words ‘National Conference’ without spitting but without the key word ‘Sovereign’. Nigerians need to be treated with more respect than to be thrown a political ‘bone’ when they demand their rights. The current political restlessness is consequent to an outrageously flamboyant anti-people lifestyle of politicians and top civil servants. It has unpredictable consequences. Over 40 years of political leadership failure created a desperate generation of callous cheats, killers and politicians with mostly dangerous democratic credentials- ‘Winning by buying power’.

    We suffer in ‘The Nigeria of Our Nightmares’ with governments robbing the citizens officially. Though many Nigerians of my generation have worked lifelong to help create the ‘Nigeria of Our Dreams’, it escapes us. We are urged to pay more taxes for less service. While Italian engineers are righting wronged giant Costa Concordia ships, Nigerians have deadly bumpy rides on potholed roads neglected by Nigeria’s political class.

    Nigerians are slapped and punched repeatedly by the many hands and fists of government. Nigerians have been slapped stupid by poor power supply, roads and services and greedy governance. Are we now to register and tax generators, boreholes, wells and overhead tanks – by which Nigerians ‘manage’ and survive the massive corruption and incompetence of government? This is a TAX ON SURVIVAL, A TAX ON EXISTENCE!

    Nigerians are denied simple fingerprint investigation for want of a computerised Nigerian fingerprint bank. Yet Nigerians have been ‘biometric over-captured’. We have computerised biometric data banks from ID cards x 3, INEC Voter’s Cards X 2, passport registration, phone SIM card registration X each number, bank registration, PIN number, TIN number, FRSC Driver’s Licence X2, FRSC Vehicle Plate Number 2 and the New Police Vehicle Registration?

    We are over-registered. The cost to government and citizens’ time and money, totals many billions. Billions will roll into the FRSC and Police but who will account for this money extorted ‘legally illegally’. If this is not 419, what is?  Who will unite all biometric data banks?

    Does some Nigerian actually say at a government meeting ‘Let us screw Nigerians with yet another scam? Any suggestions? The same again? Wow, how brilliant. And remember we must not share our registration data bank with any other organisations. Swear!’

    Not surprisingly, the NGO Good Governance Initiative Nigerians, GGI, confirms that Nigerians are forced to spend N2,700,000,000,000 /annum on fuelling generators. Which oil marketer will want PHCN to improve? Only a true nationalist presidential leadership will overcome corporate oil power to give us electric power, especially solar power. Rome’s Emperor Tiberius the Tyrant was followed by the even worse Emperor Caligula the Cruel. What hope for Nigeria where the leadership is self-serving? The crassness of corruption knows no bounds in Nigeria.

    But there is hope. Nigerians should send letters of encouragement to the iconic ‘People’s Lawyers’ including Femi Falana for, among other things, fighting for the rights of children to decent education and Akure-based lawyer, Morakinyo Ogele who is suing FRSC over the new number plate. They are fighting for us at their own expense.  Do something yourself like fundraising for legal battles.

    There is more hope. Under a ‘Safety at Sea Programme’, NIMASA’s distribution of life jackets Nembe Bonny Waterfront is a wonderful demonstration of ‘normal’. 25,000 still needed. The life jacket is to water what the Insecticide Treated Net, ITN, is to malaria.

    There is even more hope. A Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI’s retrospective audit has recovered $2billion. The fear of NEITI is the beginning of wisdom. Beyond recovery, NEITI has forced industry players to play it straighter in 2013. The deterrent effect of an independent NEITI, EFCC or ICPC Desk in all top organisation will prevent much corporate and MDA corruption. Yes, it may also promote EFCC and ICPC corruption but we hope not. We need to institute awards like GCON for NEITI- type organisations.

    Stowaway boy, Daniel Oikhena was heading for America. Unlike Zik of Africa, whose ‘humble beginnings’ led him to stow away on a ship, Daniel chose a ‘ landing gear seat’ and is due for psychiatric tests. Does anyone offer psychiatric tests to those poor youth escaping Nigeria crossing the murderous Sahara and the deadly Mediterranean to camps like Lampedusa, Italy? Does anyone offer psychiatric tests to National Assembly, NASS members voting  ‘Life Salaries’ for NASS principle officers, tax exemptions, or voting themselves the highest Salaries and Perks- SAP- and corruption-ridden constitutional projects? With many unemployed psychologists we should demand psychological and psychiatric tests on government ‘uniforms’ who to go berserk daily draining Nigeria’s morale and young life-blood. How many must die to make a nation? How many farmers have been killed by Fulani in Plateau and Iseyin? And we still eat cow meat! Are we a spineless people? Ask the dead ‘Was Nigeria worth dying for?’ Politicians should stop boasting about nothing; look around the world and deliver Nigeria into the 21st Century, mentally, morally and materially!

     

  • Lagos-Ibadan is a failed road; Dead Police; Air Force Museum; UNESCO Education; CBN

    Lagos-Ibadan is a failed road; Dead Police; Air Force Museum; UNESCO Education; CBN

    After five and half hours trying to get from Ibadan to Lagos on Saturday September 14, I can declare on behalf of travelling Nigerians that the LAGOS IBADAN ROAD IS A FAILED ROAD and deserves EMERGENCY ONE WEEK REHABILITATION. Even though most Presidency bigwigs and National Assembly (NASS) members use helicopters and planes, the millions of fellow citizens who use the Lagos-Ibadan road daily demand emergency repairs to their cars and the road. A powerful, good government can cause Julius Berger and RCC to employ thousands of unemployed Nigerians to fill the potholes on the road in one or two weeks if they have any love for Nigerians and sense of national pride and urgency. October 1, Nigeria@53 is around the corner. Government should make this an EMERGENCY GIFT to Nigeria. The Lagos-Ibadan former expressway is to be fully refurbished in 24-30 months with an Infrastructure Bank loan of N167b for the 127km road. Still too long, too slow.

    Intelligent advisers should advise the President that accolades come from opening the completed road. The President should further reduce this contract to six or 12 months to be completed in his present term to attract political kudos and paparazzi. After all, who knows tomorrow or 2015? Even politicians do not live forever and must act positively when they hold power. Already Governor Segun Agagu has sadly gone, may he Rest In Peace; who next? The President should care about the millions of citizens and 100,000 vehicles suffering on the former expressway daily?

    The celebrated release of human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome and the explanations of the motivation of the captors do not justify the execution of FOUR living souls from worth but not rich families, the police men! The released lawyer should attend the funerals of each dead policeman. He should then fight for better pay and conditions for police and better compensation for victims’ families. We, SAN lawyer and policemen are all equal in the sight of God.

    Life is serious. Twenty-three killed in bridge disaster. Who will investigate the contractor and the ministry to exonerate them of corruption and incompetence in design and planning for flooding –it is, after all, a bridge? Which body will pay compensation to the victims? Folajomo Agunbiade, a student of Adekunle Ajasin University was shot in the head, for praying to God in tongues during an armed robbery that was not being resisted in her family home in Ibadan.  Her mother is abroad trying to cater for her children. God knows that Folajomo is in heaven now but will that explanation comfort the family? A five-year old Nigerian had a limb amputated abroad because of bone cancer. I saw two children with sightless eyes from beatings in school and home.  Another 10 killed this week in the ongoing Plateau Tiv and Berom farm-Fulani herder war, and we all still eat cow meat. Meanwhile politics seems more important. Shame!

    The proposed Air Force museum is better late than never, good. Ditto for museums for all other areas e.g. transport, and academic subjects. What happened to the Army museum? We know about the Yar’Adua Museum.  Where is the Aviation Museum which we begged for as the aviation authorities destroyed old planes for teaspoons and petty cash instead of giving them to the top technology universities and polytechnics and to science and aeronautical support for education, people’s museums and exhibitions? The Air Force should involve ministries of education, technology and the sciences.

    So we need UNESCO and Gordon Brown to repeat what ASUU and all Education NGOs and unions and student bodies have been saying for 40 years, before government will listen at all levels? Gordon Brown offers more money to empower wayward corrupt governments; the same governments happily divert to corruption or other projects considered more important than children’s welfare and education. Again foreign money, like DFID’s, will help bail out corrupt Nigerian leadership. The less aid we get, the more Nigerian money will be spent correctly. Aid should be in the form of software, short stay, 1-3month scholarships and equipment.

    Another 23 killed at a collapsed bridge in Katsina. No different from the thousands killed in the North this year by cow-farm violence, ‘no western book’ violence, kidnap and vehicle violence etc. Sorry, as you grieve, but look at the picture of the bridge disaster. Increasingly in the North, when we see pictures of collapsed roads, railways and bridges we see red laterite earth sometimes 20 feet deep but we see no stones, boulders, cement or iron rods supporting the laterite road. So once again the contractor, the supervising engineers, the ministries of works and finance must answer questions of culpability in these and other deaths. Rains sweep away weak, un-reinforced infrastructure. Who under-planned, under-budgeted, under-built the bridge and under-built the coupling to the immediate access structures which were dislocated from the bridge? Who has the names on the signatures on the documents? The COREN and the Nigerian Society of Civil Engineers and NGO civil rights groups need to do evaluation and soil checks just as forensic investigation is done with an air crash. Was the bridge poorly constructed for the expected rainfall?

    CBN boasts that Nigeria has the second highest African reserves. This is being economical with the truth or using creative financial accounting procedures. Did he tell you the population to funds ratio in the other countries ahead of Nigeria? Nigerians are being slapped and punched repeatedly.

  • Boko Halal; Education and ‘Summer Renovation Budget’; Osun computers; Casualty painting

    Those who profess Boko Haram should identify as co-conspirators politicians, political terrorists, who ensured that too many Nigerians in schools graduate without knowledge and cheat. This has resulted in their needing retraining before employment. My friend Professor M Aken’Ova told me that in the old Zaria days the children sent to read book were called boko, a form of enculturation of the word ‘book’. Haram means ‘no’. Perhaps we should have ‘Boko Halal’ to counter the Boko Haram. The lack of educational activities of politicians in proportion to needs demonstrates that you do not have to blow up or ban schooling to get negative education. Schools, under political budget under-funding, have poured barely literate youths into the marketplace resulting in one of the solutions – entrepreneurship partly to cater for a poor employee: job availability ratio. But the entrepreneurial drive also addresses youths leaving schools as products of rubbish education neglected by education budgets. These youths are programmed to be ill-prepared and cannot get jobs so they are diverted into creating jobs for themselves and blamed if they fail –a win-win situation for the politician.

    We talk of system failure and that the system has failed the teachers and lecturers in need of staff space like staffrooms, books, equipment, skills, justifiable promotions and overburdening the teacher or lecturer with students. The gold standard is 30 students /class. Do staff also fail the system? Many blame teachers and lecturers for shirking their responsibilities by selling items on-duty and doing jobs in three universities at once. Even students are seen as being mediocre, too expectant of spoon-feeding and without ambition.

    Most Nigerian teachers, education politicians and students have failed the system in spite of 200 plus annual general meetings, AGMs, and education summits at Minister, commissioner, ASUU, NUT, STAN, NANS, and sub- group meetings like professional, ethnic, religious and subject levels. What little progress has been largely due to the unsung efforts of ASUU, the Old Students Associations and the high fees charged private students. The ASUU strike is on-going.    The ‘democratic’ period from 1999 is long enough for the 38 governments to put in place sufficient equipment and staff to achieve education equality across all states. The current abysmal performances in some states are due to fraudulent administration and abandonment of the youth. The education money has been misappropriated and lost to education middlemen, summits, consultants, retreats, hotel bills, honoraria, travel expenses and huge hall rental costs of Ladi Kwali Hall, with apologies to Ladi Kwali, the famous female Kwali potter who died in 1984. If that money had been spent on a ‘TEN BOOKS, ONE CHILD PROGRAMME’ and equipment, all Nigeria’s schools would be well equipped. It is this material that makes a school – books, library, equipment, laboratory, wall charts, sports opportunities, desks, chairs, toilets and sanitation. Leave one out and you have no school. This is why we are still talking of ‘disadvantaged states and students’, when we should be talking about disenfranchised students, disenfranchised by their political leadership – governments. Governments disadvantage their children. Most of the good students even in advantaged states had parents who spent up to 80% of income on education only to be checkmated at JAMB cut-off. States failed even with their own tertiary universities to rise above mediocrity. When Jesus said ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’, He did not mean that the children must ‘suffer’ but come unto Him without any suffering. ‘Suffer’ means ‘allow’, not ‘suffer-head’.

    Around the world, the long ‘summer holidays’ of July to September are the time for needs assessment for the next year and refurbishment, repairs and repainting in preparation the new year. In Nigeria these activities are zero. And that is where the problem of education lies. No preparation for the New School Year from anybody. This week some 30+million Nigerian students arrive in government-run unprepared schools and classrooms untouched for three months except by vandals and religious meeting participants.

    We all live near government education facilities. Name one that had a face-lift between July and September. Of course some governors are making tremendous efforts. Years ago I campaigned for schools to set up summer camps. Now summer camps are everywhere. Today, campaign for budgetary provision for ‘Summer Renovation of Educational Institutions’. This is part of job creation as upgrade requires artisans, science equipment marketers and publishers of books and educational posters. No doubt during the 2013 summer political recesses multi-billions are routinely spent to maintain the offices of political power in Abuja and all state capitals.

    Nigeria’s children deserve more now, before the reckless spending on 2014 elections and political posters. Governments must insert ‘Summer Recess Renovation of Schools and Institutions’ into budgets. Nigeria’s children are not animals to be sent to pigsties. The children deserve a decent ‘Child and Teacher Friendly Learning Environment’, CATFLE. The cost of refurbishing one airport would upgrade 1,000 schools with 500,000 beneficiaries. Governments should get its priorities right from the foundation.

    A ray of hope from Osun State’s student computer introduced by Ogbeni Aregbesola. It is as monumental as Awolowo’s ‘Free Education’. It hopefully will be adopted with improvements if necessary, across Nigeria as it frees the students and equalises levels from village to Osun villa. We anxiously await the results of comparative performance studies across states.

    Alert! Alert! Most government and private casualties, wards and toilets are dirty, disease ridden and needing emergency annual painting budgets. Anyone listening?