Category: Letters

SIR: There appears to be no let-up in the crave by former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili to get back into national consciousness, simply by randomly throwing pot shots anchored on misplaced aggression, in the ardent hope that such mudslinging would elevate her to the status of a moral crusader.

As an institution, we ought not to be responding to the tirades of Ezekwesili, especially as they are anchored on wrong deployment of figures, weird generalizations and outright falsehood.

But as elected representatives, we owe it a duty to Nigerian people to always seek to conduct our affairs in an atmosphere of openness, candour and a fidelity to the truth. Indeed, if there is any point we are agreed upon with Ezekwesili, or anyone else for that matter, it is the promotion of transparency in governance and ensuring that democratic institutions of state function optimally for the benefit of all.

On the basis of this shared vision, the 7th House of Representatives wholeheartedly welcome her request for a public hearing on the stated ideals. In doing so, however, the former Minister must be ready to comply with some basic ground rules, so that we may all not be fooled by the guerrilla tactics of someone plagued by an out-of- office syndrome.

Nigerians would remember that in the course of a similar misadventure, in January, Mrs Ezekwesili had made wild claims bordering on the alleged frittering of $45 billion of the country’s external reserves, and $22 billion in the excess crude account.

While she is yet to fully justify those allegations, the former minister is this time seeking a fresh sparring partner in the legislature.

If it were not so, why would an address which centred on a “cost of governance in Nigeria” be curiously limited to an inquest into the operations of the National Assembly, leaving out the other two arms and arriving at the rather simplistic suggestion of the introduction of a unicameral or part-time legislature as the panacea of all Nigeria’s problems?

What is the percentage of the National Assembly’s N150 billion allocation in a budget of N4.9 trillion? Is it right to insinuate that the budgetary allocation for the National Assembly is for “members salaries and allowances”, while deliberately leaving out capital projects component, salaries of legislative aides and the bureaucracy, as well as allied institutions such as Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS?

What is the total disbursement to the executive and the judiciary over the same eight-year period? If she was not mischievous, why would she elect to believe The Economist, rather than the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC over the issue of salaries of Nigerian public officials?

Indeed, answers to these posers are necessary in the build-up to Ezekwesili’s anticipated incarnation as an activist; else she would once again embark on spontaneous flight of fancy, whose major destination is mere ruffling of feathers.

• Hon. Victor Afam Ogene

Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs,

National Assembly, Abuja

SIR: Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s name has become synonymous with betrayal, subterfuge, corruption and above all, abuse of human rights.

Today, Obasanjo is at daggers drawn with all those who helped him become president in 1999 after spending their fortune. He betrayed Generals Danjuma and Babangida; ditto Solomon Lar, Lawal Kaita, Adamu Ciroma, Alex Ekwueme, Orji Uzor Kalu, late Bola Ige and Atiku Abubakar. In 2003, it was the turn of South-west governors who worked for his re-election as president even though they belonged to a different party from his. Bola Tinubu was the only man standing after the election. Obasanjo’s party rigged the gubernatorial election in all the six South-west states and installed his party men as governors.

He committed genocide at Odi and Zaki Ibiam in Bayelsa and Benue states respectively. Obasanjo caused to be destroyed entire families, communities, trees, plants, farms and animals.

Recently, Obasanjo caused to be sacked a Lagos community called Igbogbele in Badagry West Local Government Area. Indigenes of Igbogbele village in Badagry numbering about 200 were rendered homeless by thugs allegedly hired by Obasanjo’s Bells University of Technology. On June 16, the hoodlums in the presence of the police demolished all the houses, mosque, church, and pig pens at Igbogbele sea-beach and set everything ablaze including the personal effects and livestock of the villagers.

His Bells University-illegally acquired 255 hectares of land and gave some villagers and Badagry chiefs 400,000 naira as the purchase price. The owners of the land went to court in 2004 and sued both Bells University and Lagos State government at a Lagos High Court sitting in Badagry. The trial judge, Hon. Justice E.A. Adebanjo, ordered the parties to maintain the status quo ante-bellum.

In violation of the order of the court, Bells University of Technology in November 2012 erected fence walls round the 255 hectares of land. The claimants rather than take the laws into their hands went back to court and reported the new development. Hon. Justice O.H. Oshodi granted an interlocutory injunction on Monday, February 11, restraining the defendants/respondents from digging trenches and/or erecting fence walls or any structure whatsoever on the land or in any manner whatsoever commit any further acts of trespass or interfere with the subject-matter of the suit.

This injunction was not respected as the events of June 16, amply demonstrate.

What Obasanjo and the Nigeria police committed comes within the meaning of crimes against humanity.

• Naa Mensa

ADC-Law

Ghana.

I refer to the article on Good Homes Estates Limited published in your popular newspaper on Sunday, 4th of August, 2013 by one Mrs Jill Okeke. The writer asked the question, “Good or Bad Home Estate?” The answer is “Good Homes has good estates.”

The writer is the brother of a well known resident of our Estate in Isheri Olofin area of Lagos State, Mr Simon Ejike Okeke, who has been in the estate since 2001. Simon bought a 3-Bedroom detached house (12 years ago) and has a balance of N25,775.00 to pay. There are 270 houses in the estate and Good Homes Estates Limited is on good terms with the residents and their associations.

It is blatant falsehood for Jill Okeke to say that Good Homes Estates limited did not “deliver on its promises or abide by the details of agreements reached with the residents of our estate”. It is totally untrue to say that Good Homes Estates does not respect court orders or decisions of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

The Good Homes Estates Limited attaches the greatest importance to the welfare and comfort of the residents of its estates. Problems arise from time to time as in any community but it is the policy of our company to solve them amicably for the benefit of all concerned.

Yours sincerely,

For: Good Homes Estates Limited.

Soji Boluwaji

Managing Director.

From our own independent finding, Jill Okeke’s brother does not live in the estate. We stand by our story.

Had he lived, Soniran Oluwole Sowemimo would have been 71. But the way of man is not the way of God.72 hours before he turned that curve of his life, the end came most unexpectedly. It seems only yesterday when he rolled out the drums to celebrate his 70th birthday, many of us totally unaware that he was warning us his time was nigh. How I wish we had known then.

SOS, as he was fondly called by his professional colleagues and friends, was a jolly good fellow in the true sense of the word. And I should know. His path and mine first crossed 37 years ago, that was in 1976, in Lagos when I transferred my service to the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) from the defunct WNTV/WNBS. He had just returned from the United States of America (USA) and was a Senior Sub-editor at the NBC Headquarters in Lagos. It was just a matter of time before we struck a strong bond. He was a gentleman. Quick to make friends; full of wits. With SOS you could never be bored, be it in the Newsroom or outside of it.

However, I was posted back to Ibadan later that year. Even before I could settle down in Ibadan, SOS himself was transferred to Ibadan and our relationship could only get stronger. Following the re-organisation of broadcasting in Nigeria by the then military government, Chief Sowemimo opted to transfer his service to the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC), Abeokuta. And that served a double purpose: as a thorough Egbaman he was back home to live among his own people and help in the development of the community. He was also now well positioned to make his little contribution to the then young state.

On both fronts he did not disappoint. Appreciation of his worth in his profession of journalism and of his contribution to the Egba Community and Ogun State came in rapid succession. His colleagues elected him Chairman of the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in 1979 serving until 1981. Incidentally, this was also the period I served as Chairman of the old Oyo State Council of the NUJ. He rose to become the Director of News and Current Affairs in OGBC until 1982 when the first civilian governor of the state, the late Chief Victor Olabisi Onabanjo, himself a distinguished journalist of all time, appointed him his Chief Press Secretary. It was a case of the deep calling to the deep as the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo would say.

By the end of 1983, the military once more took over power in the country. But, the man who succeeded Chief Onabanjo as governor, the then Colonel Donaldson Oladipo Diya, could not resist retaining SOS as CPS, as did others that came after him –Col. Oladayo Popoola, Col Raji Rasaki, etc. That was the situation until he was made a Commissioner, serving at different times in the Ministries of Social Development, Youth and Sports; and Information and Culture.

The Egba Traditional Council had also taken note of Chief Sowemimo’s contribution to the community and aptly honoured him with a chieftaincy title. Ibadan, the town of his wife also honoured him with the title of Baarohin of Ibadanland.

His ability to break the barrier of prejudices knew no bounds. Little surprise that in the highly unpredictable political environment in our country, he kept friends across the political divide. He was very much at home with former Ogun State governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba as he was with the immediate past governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, both of whom spoke highly of him as a man of integrity.

Even after his retirement, he never gave up lending his assistance to the state such that he was, at different times, Chairman of the Gateway Radio and Chairman, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic.

Even until his death, he kept learning and imparting knowledge as his rich library and books authored by him can bear testimony.

My condolences to his wife, children, numerous colleagues, friends and admirers.

SOS, ara Oba, Omo Porowa, Omo tagbata, Omo olekole, May the good Lord rest your soul.

By Bode Oyewole,

Veteran journalist and media consultant,

Ibadan.

SIR: Reviewing the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s book Tactics and Strategy of People’s Republic in the New Nigerian some 40 years ago, the late Dr Ibrahim Tahir grandly declared the work “a welter of muddle and confusion.” I did not get to read the book then, so what I learnt of its contents came from the intense exchanges Dr Tahir’s irreverent conclusion set off among members of the country’s vibrant intellectual community. I have however perused The Nation’s In Touch column of Monday, August 22, and have no hesitation in applying Tahir’s pithy put-down, quoted above, to the viewpoint canvassed therein.

A lament on the absence of history in the current curriculum of Nigeria’s secondary schools became the occasion for another excursion into the “scatological details” of the Nigerian Civil War. The write-up, liberally spiced with quotations, neglected to make a case for the re-introduction of the teaching and study of history, but veered into familiar territory, tearing into the reputations of some of Nigeria’s finest soldiers – and statesmen.

The interview with Major Iluyomade ran by The Nation a fortnight ago was a mix of the tragic and the comical. The tragedy was in the brazen effort of the panel of interviewers to put words into Iluyomade’s mouth by asking leading questions. The comical part was in the follow-up answers the interviewee gave in response to further prodding. The old war-horse’s expatiation would negate the one-liner answer he gave to the original question.

Asked for his views on the killings of Igbos during the civil disturbances in the North in 1966, Iluyomade naturally condemned the tragic events. Pressed further by the interviewers, the Major questioned why such a reaction should not be expected from a people who had witnessed the decapitation of their political and military leadership. In not exact words Iluyomade conceded that January 15 was the original sin. It is appropriate here to ponder what the reaction would have been in the Western Region had Awolowo died in Calabar prison before his release by General Gowon in 1966.

The Battle of Ore was not won by the motley group of cooks and other tradesmen in the army mustered and flung into the fight. They had the decisive support of “Hausa troops” hurriedly withdrawn from already very short training into what must be seen as the Nigerian equivalent of the Battle of Britain in its impact on the course of the conflict.

What was the point of listing the battles in which Federal forces were defeated or suffered severe reverses? All great armies have had their fair share of reverses and defeats; the important thing is that they ultimately, mostly prevailed. The failed crossing at Asaba and the disaster at Abagana for the Nigerian Army had their earlier echoes in the British Army’s disastrous Gallipoli campaign and the string of defeats before El Alamein. Or even the American misadventure in Vietnam. The animus against the trio of Generals Gowon, Murtala Muhammed and Shuwa and the constant effort to rubbish their reputations are clearly the product of personal prejudice.

The last time out Gowon was portrayed as a bumbling commander – in chief, ignoring the maxim that one can’t argue with success. For the umpteenth time, Gowon was not a compromise Christian candidate for head of state. The indaba that convened impromptu at the Ikeja military barracks that fateful weekend of July 29, 1966 was not about the headship of the country but whether the North would remain part of Nigeria.

And those who took part in those pivotal discussions were, to re-phrase JFK, “all Northerners.”

Gowon exercised the same level of control over Murtala and Shuwa as he did over Col Adekunle. The negative fixation with the “strategy and tactics” of Shuwa’s 1 Division is simply ludicrous.

Like it or not, Gowon is Nigeria’s Abraham Lincoln. He fought a war to prevent the disintegration of his country and quashed attempted secession. He strove to achieve reconciliation and reconstruction. “Cunny” is not part of Gowon’s psyche. He is a Wusasa gentleman for goodness sake, their dominant character trait is earnestness.

The unwaning interest in history in the West is the product of the stock their societies place on their past, on what could be learnt from it and how it places them in the comity of nations. In the euphoric period before independence and shortly after, the study of the history of African societies was an urgent necessity in order to debunk Western theory about Africa’s lack of history before the arrival of the White Man. That was the era of prodigious output from the pioneers in the study of African history: Professors Adu Boahen, Kenneth Dike, J F Ade Ajayi, Tekena Tamuno, and Dr Robert Adeleye. Their successors were Professors Obaro Ikime, Osoba, Yusuf Bala Usman, Mahdi Adamu and many others.

Perhaps governments in Africa thought the work was done so they down-graded the study of both history and geography to general studies. The need for a return to old certainties in Nigeria’s education system is never more urgent than now, and a campaign in that direction is a worthy undertaking.

• Mohammed Tukur Usman <aboumahmud@yahoo.com>

SIR: I refer to Sanya Oni’s piece in The Nation of August 20. Why is that when you people write about poverty reduction, industrialisation and job creation in Nigeria your focus is always only on the federal government and Jonathan? You people give the impression that the federal government is the only tier of government that can and should do anything. But there are 36 states that collect fabulous amount of money monthly.

Do they not have roles to play in industrialisation, modern agriculture, job creation etc? The military centralized system of government we experienced for many years has produced the image of the big daddy in Abuja that should handle all problems.

When the street by your house is untarred, most Nigerians will blame Jonathan in Abuja but their state and local governments collect staggering amount of money from the federal on monthly basis for these problems.

ASUU is now on strike as a result of a so-called agreement reached with the federal government in 2009. This is supposed to be a federal affair, yet all state-owned universities whose financial responsibilities should be with the state governments have joined the strike and are all waiting for ASUU negotiation with the federal governments. Are they expecting the federal government to take over funding of even state universities too?

What are the states doing about the universities they established with all eyes now focused on the federal? People should stop all these endless criticisms of Jonathan and the federal government and also direct their searchlight on the states. Every body talks of PDP as if PDP is in control of every state in the country. Each state in Nigeria has certain area where it has comparative advantages, some can initiate an agricultural revolution, some have very good tourism potentials etc; all these silly overdependence on the federal should stop if Nigeria is to make progress.

Some states in Nigeria are bigger than some independent countries in the world! The State of California in the USA is richer than many countries put together. This is not necessarily because of Obama, but because of the aggressive foresightedness of its governors and private industrialists and businessmen, but in Nigeria every one talks of Jonathan and Abuja.

If the states are insignificant then let us abolish it and concentrate only on the federal government!

• Okobia Michael

Asabia

SIR: Olakunle Abimbola’s piece in The Nation of August 20 refers. Sadly, many of us prudent professionals and Lagos residents are saddened by the turn of events concerning the deportation of people to Onitsha. We are really reluctant to join the fray in the saga because it has to do with our urbane, learned, humble, cosmopolitan, able and listening Lagos State governor.

Politically, the deportation at this material time is unfortunate and unthoughtful act coming from otherwise brilliant minds.

How could they have forgotten that Dr. Chris Ngige is fighting a dicey political war presently in Anambra State? Have they forgotten the mob-like thinking of the electorates? Opposing parties can easily capitalize on this and make ‘Anambranians’ loose the second coming of this adroit, capable, bold and performing governor. Again such acts may really affect APC party generally.

Having said this, may I respectively appeal to my Igbo brothers not be unnecessarily emotional about this deportation and to tread carefully. If we, the Igbo people can pause a little, do we really have any major regrets with any new Yoruba leaders or their people in general? I do not mean domestic or pedestrian issues but issues fundamental? I do not think so. In Nigeria today, and considering everything, I believe that these people are generally and relatively more receptive, more reasonable in the interpersonal relationship with other tribes and more forgiving than others tribes in Nigeria.

Have our Igbo brothers forgotten about our abandoned properties somewhere in Nigeria? Have you forgotten our experiences with our Northern compatriots? What exactly is happening today in Northern Nigeria vis-a-vis Ndigbo? I am yet to hear of anybody since the creation of Nigeria whose property is regarded as abandoned or whose property is targeted or torched whenever there is a little dispute in Lagos State. But stories abound of people who collected their full property rents and regained their properties here in Lagos at the end of the war.

Does this show hard-heartedness in Yorubas?

Let us even go native and local: only two examples will be enough: In Old Anambra State in Igboland, have we forgotten the near fatal “Wawa/Ijekebe’s” saga that also nearly developed to seizure of the Ijekebe’s properties by the “Wawa” people- all in Igbo land?

More recently, did a governor in Igboland not send Igbos who were not from his state packing out of the state civil service?

Yet, while these happened, the heavens themselves did not fall. There were no threats, braggadocios or vituperations!

But realistically speaking, many people have no reason being in Lagos. Wouldn’t it be better for such people to be intelligently relocated to their states where things are cheaper and less chaotic? Such people will be more meaningfully employed as farmers; artisans etc. and hence contribute to nation building.

Again, my dear Ndigbo, wouldn’t we take this episode as a blessing in disguise? Why wouldn’t we begin to think ‘home’ and concentrate these markets, industries/factories in Igboland? Did Ikemba Nnewi not warn us many times of things like this? Nnewi town is verifiable example of such good thinking and a success story today! My brothers, the answers are blowing in the Nigerian winds!

Let the Igbos put on their thinking caps and see how they could open up their areas for international businesses. Fortunately, an international Airport is already taking shape in Igboland. What about international railway routes, what about canals linking Igboland to seas/oceans. Suez canal is powerful reference point.

Still yet, may I humbly ask my Igbo brothers to be a little bit more modest in their speeches, behaviors and on their so-called achievements? Unbridled aggrandisements breed envy and hatred in our compatriots.

Above-all, I think Nigerians may have to really define what indigene-ship really means in clear terms.

• Engr. Emeka Anike

Lagos.