The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Kunle Olasope: An icon exits world’s TV stage

    By Bayo Osiyemi

    Kunle Olasope, renown broadcaster and the first man to appear on television in all of Africa, has bowed out of the world stage to translate to immortality.

    No one can say the man died young, except to those who think his death was caused by “the wicked” at age 82 years, as if they were incapable of truncating his life when he was much younger and when he had merely achieved little!

    That said, death is really cruel to have taken Uncle K away at this time when the plan for the celebration of the WNBS-WNTV is far advanced. What a spectacular sight he would have cut on telly with Anike Agbaje-William at this celebration, 60 years after they first appeared on the tube in black Africa!

    I had only known Kunle Olasope from a distance and by reputation until 1979 when our paths crossed, he as press secretary to the first civilian governor of Ogun State, Chief Olabisi Onabanjo and I, as press secretary to the first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande.

    He was 40 years old at the time while I was only 29; but the age difference of 11 years paled to insignificance the way he bubbled enthusiastically along with us his younger colleagues anytime we met at the Progressive Governors meetings that brought together the then UPN governors of LOOBO states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo States) as well as those of NPP states of Imo and Anambra as well as the PRP states of Kano and Kaduna; and the GNPP states of Borno and Gongola.

    He was as professionally vibrant as he was socially bubbly and plain minded; and it was no wonder that he jelled well with myself and Dapo Aderinola (press secretary to Chief Bola Ige of Oyo) and taciturn Bola Aragbaiye (press secretary to Chief Adekunle Ajasin of Ondo).

    Kunle Olasope’s performance as press secretary belied his age and it made nonsense of the unverified postulation that age has anything to do with vibrancy and professional competence. Perhaps it needs being added that his experience had a cutting edge advantage over Dapo Aderinola and I, whose youthful and swashbuckling enthusiasm a few times in our career ran us into trouble with our own principals.

    He had a brother, Biola, who was at a time a big shot in NBC-TV, forerunner of today’s NBC and NTA, but Kunle was more outgoing and decidedly daring in several other areas. He taught we, his younger colleagues, a few things we would have downloaded to ourselves at the 60th founding anniversary of WNBS-WNTV but death has inevitably separated us and blighted that plan.

    May Chief Kunle Olasope, a high chief of Efon Alaye in Ekiti State, take his rightful place in the bosom of his Creator.

  • Of Tebas and data as sports driver

    By Micheal Adedayo

    While some sectors of the sports industry may have neglected the importance and power of data over the years, this hasn’t been the case in Spanish football. LaLiga President Javier Tebas has outlined the league’s strategy for using data to improve all aspects of the organisation and the enjoyment of the beautiful game.

    LaLiga has been working with data for several years already, something that Tebas explained is still uncommon in the sports industry during a speech at the World Football Summit in Madrid that was titled ‘LaLiga: The Pathway from Data to Artificial Intelligence in the Sports Industry’. “Data hasn’t been used much in the sports industry,” he told those in attendance. “Yet we have a timeline of four years working in the world of data.”

    The league’s efforts to overhaul the relationship with data and analytics took a major step forward in February of 2016 with a meeting with Microsoft. Later that year, in July of 2016, a memorandum of understanding was struck between LaLiga and Microsoft before a contract was signed in October.

    Since then, some of the top professionals in this field have been working to lead LaLiga into the future and the organisation has adopted data in every department. “The Department of Business Intelligence and Analytics works across departments,” Tebas explained. “There’s a need for data specialists in all of the departments of LaLiga. This is the most cross-sectional department that you need in a sporting organisation.”

    That’s because data can be used to give LaLiga an advantage in so many different ways. As Tebas told those at World Football Summit: “We have to get used to the change in using data. The data about our fans, the data about our users in the LaLiga Fantasy game and other games, the internal data about kick-off times, the data on stadium attendances, the data on our audience, the data focussed on economic control and more.”

    One example of LaLiga using such intelligence to optimise the running of Spanish football comes with the selection of kick-off times. On one hand, LaLiga uses data to define timeslots that make the most sense and it has become clear that having 10 different timeslots across a weekend is optimal. “The more your product can be watched, the more you can secure in the monetisation of audiovisual rights,” Tebas explained, and the fact that there has been an increase in audiovisual income from €840m in the 2013/14 season to €2,111m this season proves this.

    “We have a strategy of diversifying the slots,” the LaLiga President went on. “The key is ensuring we’re not overlapping matches. You can’t put one match on top of another one. All of this has led to the increase in international audiovisual rights because it has allowed us to offer live football.”

    He also spoke about Mondays and the data that tells LaLiga how profitable having fixtures at this time would be were it not for the objections of the Spanish federation. “Right now we don’t have the Monday slot, but have still created 10 slots,” he said. “The time in Europe and Africa when there are the most people sat in front of their televisions is on a Monday night. At weekends, people tend to do leisure activities and go out, although there are some who stay in too. But Monday night is when that number of people tuning in really goes up. It’s a shame that this isn’t understood.”

    In line with this, LaLiga uses data to decide which matches go into which slots. There is the Calendar Selector tool, for example, that processes over 70 variables to schedule certain matches at the slots that will boost stadium attendance and TV viewership for the teams involved.

    Discussing the different ways in which football is consumed, Tebas spoke about over-the-top media services (OTT) and the fact that there is so much more information to be gleamed from this medium than from TV figures, although data is of course still analysed for these viewers.

    On OTT, Tebas said: “You have a lot more data on the users in the world of OTT, such as the numbers of minutes they’re watching you, when they watch you, at what time they watch you, if they stop watching you, if they continue watching you, if they interact through multiple screens, etc. This world is a lot more complicated, but also a lot more accurate.”

    As Tebas stressed to the audience, these are just some of the examples of how data can be used to take Spanish football to the next level. It can also be used for data-driven marketing, programmatic advertising, financial responsibility and much more.

    In the future, there will logically be even more opportunities to use data and artificial intelligence in the day-to-day operations of LaLiga. One example of data leading to further profitability for LaLiga and for its clubs that Tebas reflected on is that of sponsorship and the desire for relevant and specialised data. “There will be a radical change when it comes to sponsors,” Tebas stated. “They won’t only ask to be showcased, as that’ll become less and less significant. Being on the shirt, on the television and on the advertising boards will lose value and what will have much more value will be your data.”

    “We’re still in the initial phase,” Tebas said of LaLiga’s relationship with data, before expressing his delight at what has already been achieved. “Sincerely, I think we’re on the right track.”

     

    • Adedayo, a sports analyst, lives in Abuja.

  • Church in nation building

    It was a gathering to deliberate on the role of the church in nation building, last Sunday. A thorny issue by any standard, considering the dire straits facing our country, Nigeria. By independent statistics, our country is in a perilous times, and exhibits many indices of a failed state. Quite a number also hold the view, that the church is under persecution by secular authorities, and indeed, the Catholic Church offers a daily prayer, for Nigeria in distress.

    So, it was fitting, that the Catholic Men Organisation of the Holy Family Catholic Church, Festac Town, choose to invite a legal avant-garde, an intellectual colossus, a constitutional lawyer, human rights activist, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a Knight of the Order of Saint Mulumba, Chief Mike Ozekhome, to speak truth to the ecclesiastical and the secular power, on: “The Role of the Church in Nation Building.” Of course he didn’t disappoint.

    Controversial as ever, Ozekhome did not mind the presence of clerics in the audience to speak on the ills of worshipping wealth by the clergy. He doubted the spirituality of pastors amassing wealth from their congregations to buy jets, live in obscene luxury, and build schools that their peasant members cannot afford to pay the entry fees. He took a swipe at pastors who receive huge donations from their members, who have no visible means of livelihood, without asking them how they made such humongous money they have donated.

    Ozekhome called such offerings blood money, and charged all clerics to stop such illicit behaviour. He warned that the church is in decline, and that congregations are daily deserting the church. On why some congregants are disconsolate with the state of affairs, he quoted William L. Edelen, Jr. who said: “The church today is… almost indistinguishable from an average corporation or political machine.” The learned silk, noted that the effort to allow popular fancies in the church to accommodate the young people is inappropriate and is backfiring.

    He again quoted an article tagged ‘Youth Attitudes’ wherein it said: “There’s an old saying that you don’t pull yourself up by dragging the other person down. Just the opposite should be the case. That’s why, in our opinion, the churches have erred in not standing firm behind high moral standards and in being equally firm in teaching what is morally right and wrong. Young people need and want guidance…. There is no compromise with what is morally wrong.”

    The guest lecturer taught his audience that to build the nation the youth must be properly guided, and instead of allowing their excesses, they should be brought up morally fortified. He took a swipe at the hypocrisy amongst the clerics, wondering why a pastor who preaches to his congregation that they are “covered by the blood of Jesus Christ” should drive about town in bullet-proof armoured vehicles. Thundering like the master Jesus, he said: “when you tell your church members to sow seeds with their pittance earnings, leaving the church hungry, and trekking home, while you fly over them in private jets… you are nothing but a hypocrite.”

    On the crucible of the foundation for national development, Ozekhome identified the troika of family, faith and education as indispensable. He posited that the first world countries rode on the tripod and still retain their pre-eminence position in the committee of nation on the same triumvirate principles. He identified the church as the biggest influencer in Nigeria. Unfortunately while acknowledging Christianity as a heavy influencer, he observed that many adherents of the Christian faith and even other major religions do not live by the teachings and tenets of their faith.

    Doing a historical excursion, the learned silk, recalled how Christianity became a redoubt to preserve civilization during the dark ages. In modern African societies, the guest lecturer acknowledged the church as a vehicle for ‘social and political development, good governance and human rights.’ There is no doubt that the Catholic Church has immensely contributed to the transformation of the society using various church organs to fight societal inequality and injustice.

    A few examples stand out. There is the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), St. Vincent the Paul Society, the Catholic Prison Ministry, and the even the National Association of Catholic Lawyers and the Knights in the church, who use their resources to fight for, and propagate social justice. But all that is not enough, as the downward swing in societal morals portray.

    So, taking a swipe against the churches in Nigeria, the avant-garde noted that while Christians constitute majority of any faith in the country, their moral strength is not reflected in the daily lives of government officials and the society in general. The learned SAN raised a poser: “How do you explain a nation that records millions of people flocking annual religious gatherings and yet, ills such as greed, corruption, nepotism, injustice, impunity etc. are rife both in high and low places?”

    Ozekhome charged the Church to live up to the admonition in the Holy Bible in Proverbs 31:8, which ordered her to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed… speak up for the poor and helpless and see that they get justice.” He charged religious leaders not to act like the Whitewashed sepulchre. They must desist from the profanity described in Titus 1:16 thus: “They publicly declare they know God, but they disown him by their words.”

    The guest lecturer encouraged the churches to wear the garment of social crusaders. He urged them to work hard to eradicate poverty in the society, noting that “it is the primary mission of the Church to preach the gospel, teach the saved, provide a spiritual atmosphere, reproduce the character of Christ, and bring joy to mankind.” While acknowledging as Jesus did that the poor would always be with us, he noted that it does not imply that the poor should not be cared for. He quoted copiously the Old Testament where the society is obligated to ensure better life for the poor.

    In conclusion, Chief Mike Ozekhome, argued that Christians must live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. He pointed to Luke 6:46 wherein Jesus asked: “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and yet you don’t do what I tell you?” And what did Jesus ask from his followers? To be socially responsible, by visiting prisoners, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, or the captives. Ozekhome urged for Christians to participate in government, but warned the church not to engage in partisan politics. He noted, the Church can only engage in prophetic ministry by speaking truth to power on behalf of humanity in general.

     

  • When life begins at 59

    Looking at the history of some modern countries, you discover that at 59, they had gone past the toddler and experimental stage of growth and development. They had worked out a nationhood credo steering their society and citizens along an ideological speedway, away from a route of potholes and mined shallow pits that slowed you down or that knocked you out completely when the treacherous explosives went off. You wouldn’t make any progress plying that road, even if you were guaranteed double the lifetime of Methuselah! It’s not how long you last that matters; it’s how you handle your time that counts. For great societies, life didn’t begin at 59. It got golden then. But these restless communities didn’t construct a comfort tent to announce they had arrived. They began to scale new heights. They sat atop mountains, looking beyond their gilded grounds, seeking new conquests to make them secure a digit in the statistics of history.

    As Nigeria tepidly marked the 59th milestone this month, nothing, I’m afraid, suggested that our country is engaged in any serious enterprise of building an adhesive and buoyant society. Life in the country is in the backwaters as I write. Our leaders are still a clique alienated from those they depend on to rule them. Our people are a conquered and dejected lot. The spell of wanderlust driving them from one fruitless venture to another in the vast length and breadth of Nigeria pushes some to elemental crimes putting us in the top bracket of the felonious league. A new onslaught of levies to further diminish our meagre income is coming our way, starting with increased VAT regime and the return of toll on federal highways. Other societies in the contemporary world had gotten past these stages at 59.

    At its 59th Independence in 2012, Cuba had arrived as a nation to be reckoned with globally. It wasn’t struggling with issues of cohesion, illiteracy, poverty, ignorance as Nigeria is doing close to six decades of ‘freedom’ from colonial rule. Part of the thrilling story of this small territory (pop.11.48m.2017) is that it sent its young men and women to fight in the struggle to liberate parts of Africa under white colonial and apartheid subjugation. It has a hero in a man called Fidel Castro who wasn’t known to live parasitically off the sweat of the masses. When the entire military might of the formidable US moved against Cuba, it was the believable war cry of Castro that brought the people of Cuba together to defeat the Americans. At 59 in Cuba, the citizens and their leaders were not going for medical treatment overseas. Fidel Castro was ill for years. He was treated by local doctors in Cuban till he passed on on November 26, 2016. At 59, Cuba’s medicare profile was one of the best in the world.

    India at 59 in 2006 was a military and economic titan. Its politics also flourished, boasting the largest democracy on planet earth. It has never experienced a military takeover, despite its boisterous politics and an election process involving hundreds of millions of eligible citizens over weeks of casting the vote. The year India turned 59, the country had US President George Bush visit India to sign a landmark nuclear deal. The same year, India launched the largest-ever rural job scheme to lift 60 million families out of poverty. It was also the year the nation gave birth to the Changing Innovation System that is today birthing India as the 8th Wonder of the World in Information Technology. India’s space exploits, culminating in the recent Moon Mission, is traced to its advances in Information Technology.

    Neighbouring Ghana was 59 in 2016. In its annals are episodes indexing a rich history in sports, culture and politics. The country had long arrived at the point of an opposition candidate toppling the incumbent before we secured that record in 2015. Ghanaian politics has done so three times, beginning in 2000. Current leader, Akuffo-Addo, himself defeated sitting President John Mahama. Before its 59th anniversary, Ghana had had a foremost Pan-Africanist leader, Kwame Nkrumah, whose advanced ideas on continental unity, dating back to the 50s and 60s, are now being hailed as the panacea for the troubles neocolonialism has brought upon Africa. When the gale of xenophobic attacks in South Africa broke upon the blacks, the world began to recollect the sayings of the Ghanaian leader that Africa’s power lies in unity. On Ghana’s Independence Day in 1957, he had declared that Ghanaians should not rejoice at their freedom until all Africa was also liberated. A nation’s greatness begins with the making of its heroes. Where are Nigeria’s national heroes on its 59th anniversary?

    The United States of America was 59 in 1835, with Andrew Jackson as its president. It was the year the heavily indebted nation paid off all it owed externally and internally, freeing the country to embark on projects to benefit the people. One of the first of such infrastructure the president undertook was a bridge, the longest in the US. Although that year also marked the first assassination attempt on a president, the period didn’t stop giant strides from taking place. For instance, the US’ 59th anniversary witnessed the first issue of the New York Herald newspaper. It was founded by the ‘inventive’ editor, James Gordon Bennett, whose work ‘’ultimately influenced the entire American press’’. Today’s ‘invasive’ nature of the press, with its ‘sensationalist’ accompaniment is often linked to the New York Herald.

    When The Peoples Republic of China struck 59 in 2008, Amazon.com published a book, China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, chronicling the communist nation’s remarkable achievements since its establishment in 1949. The three editors of the book said the period marked what they called the ‘’most tumultuous and traumatic since the uprising of 1989 in Tiananmen Square.’’ It was the year of the Beijing Olympics, when the best of the communists was on display. At 59, China was a world power needing no introduction as the successor to the US as the most powerful nation in the world. The prognoses are there for analysis.

    Nigeria’s own 59th anniversary hasn’t been eventful to propose that we have arrived where others were when they hit that milestone. Does it then indicate we are yet to start? If it’s a bit mischievous to conclude we’re toddlers at 59, might it be safe to ask if Nigeria’s own life begins at 59?

  • Bisi Yusuf: A case for national award

    IF a worthy event that is seven years old has been inadequately reported, it is the free health mission of a Lagos State legislator, Hon Abdul-rahaman Bisi Yussuf.

    This year’s edition got wound up on Monday, the eve of Nigeria’s 59th independence anniversary celebration; and how lucky I was to have been privileged to experience it. Thanks to my friend, Mukaila Bakare who hinted me of the goings-on at the free health mission and nudged me on to witness the closing day, somewhere in Ipaja town in Alimosho area of Lagos State.

    On that last day, I saw more than 200 people, men and women including children who had registered for sundry surgeries. Kelloid and hernia patients operated upon in a makeshift building in the expansive Fela field at Ipaja town, free of charge, courtesy of Bisi Yussuf, with no fatality record.

    I doubt if anything near the magnitude of what I saw has ever been undertaken by any other individual in public office at any level; and to imagine the enormous resources put in by this easy-going lawmaker in the last seven years is to be amazed by the humanitarian spirit embedded in Bisi Yussuf.

    In a clime where some of his other colleagues in the polity indulge in mind-boggling ostentatious lifestyles and other frivolities, the three-term legislator from Alimosho Constituency 1, has set aside his birthday month, year in, year out, for seven consecutive years now, to offer medical succour to the health-challenged in his constituency. Removal of kelloids and hernia alone cost hundreds of thousands of naira, and to imagine the number of the beneficiaries in the last seven years is to appreciate the financial inputs of this single individual to solving the huge health problems besetting the state and its citizens.

    These worthy efforts are best appreciated in well-ordered societies of the world, and our country should start emulating them. It brings to mind my experience in faraway Hampton in Virginia, USA some 10 years ago. I had gone from London to visit a Nigerian friend who had just overcome a huge health challenge, sponsored by his children. In appreciating my visit to that historic city, I was hosted to a dinner get-together by my friend’s family, at which I told my audience what contributions my friend had made to the Nigerian society through politics and religion that necessitated the need for me to visit him after overcoming the health scare.

    Unknown to me, one of the invitees to the dinner, a top official of the Virginia Department of Health, was moved by my testimony that he called for the huge bill incurred on the patriot and within a short period from that eventful night, got the bill slashed by 80 percent and organising a refund to my friend’s family.

    If such appreciation could come for a gesture I casually made reference to at a dinner, why can’t a bigger one by our own Bisi Yussuf attract a national award to be sponsored by the Lagos State government? It will be a well deserved honour, and it will help in galvanizing others to replicate what Bisi Yussuf is doing in his constituency, across the state and indeed the nation. The nation will be the healthier for it!

     

  • So, to which cabal does Pastor Bakare belong?

    PASTOR Tunde Bakare, head of the Latter Rain Assembly, is a loud voice in preaching the gospel according to the bible. He is intelligent; he is knowledgeable; he is articulate and he is deeply concerned about the rot in our society and ever always striving to find ways to end the rot.

    Apparently not satisfied that he has shouted himself hoarse on the pulpit for decades without much change in the situation, he is driven by a desire to put his hands on the plough of national governance and run for the presidency himself.

    He once paired with the Abraham Lincoln of Nigeria, General Muhammad Buhari, to run for the presidency, but luck did not smile on him and his principal at that time until Buhari changed his pair to Professor Yemi Osinbajo and got his efforts crowned with success.

    If by Bakare’s admission, as reported in The Punch of Monday, September 30, 2019, that he would succeed Buhari in office, what point is he trying to make that he had seen that he would succeed Buhari, one year and seven months ago, and that the situation had not changed.

    I quote the Punch report, the rebuttal of which is not yet of public knowledge:

    “He, however, denounced social media reports linking his presidential ambition to the alleged scheme by the “cabal” in the Presidency to strip Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo of powers and render him irrelevant.”

    The Punch report went further: “Bakare said it was mischievous for “cyberspace libertarians” to go and unearth the clip of his Sunday, February 18, 2018 sermon where he declared that he would be Nigeria’s 16th President, Buhari being 15th, and linked it to Osinbajo’s alleged current travails in the hands of the cabal. They need to understand that I am a one-man army. I don’t need to join anyone to do any evil and never will I; you will always know where I stand on issues. Those who pull others down in order to get up will never get up. We don’t play games here; we declare the word. And if there’s any cabal of evil anywhere doing anything to suppress the people of this nation, God will frustrate the thoughts of the enemies; he will turn the wisdom of their horsemen back, in the mighty name of Jesus.”

    Further dissociating himself from the alleged scheme against Osinbajo by the cabal, Bakare declared that the “VP Osinbajo will have the last laugh, – they think I’m stupid – except he has violated his oath,” added the Punch newspaper report under reference.

    Pastor Bakare, our father-in-the-Lord, is too deep in the Scripture not to know what a line in the Holy Book admonishes us about, that in too much talking, blunder abounds.

    This fascinating Pastor is telling us in one breath that he will succeed Buhari (when VP Osinbajo has not said he’s not interested in succeeding his boss). He is also saying he is not after Osinbajo like the cabal, because he made his own revelation over a year ago. Who told him the cabal began their game one month ago (if at all it is true a cabal wants to see Osinbajo’s back from government)?

    It is perfectly legitimate for Pastor Bakare or any qualified citizen for that matter, to aspire to the presidency of this nation. It is everyone’s privilege and right. If Bakare believes he is ordained to emerge after Buhari, it is evident he is interested in ousting Osinbajo. He is therefore no better than any cabal that has had enough of the VP at the Aso Villa seat of government, and therefore does not need to quibble about whether he is in the same company as any cabal.

    Conscience is an open wound; only the truth can heal it is a time-honoured statement.

    Whether Pasor Bakare is part of, or not part of, a cabal on Osinbajo, he should keep his gun-powder dry until the electoral law permits open electioneering. Then, beyond a press conference at which his amiable wife was present, he will need more explaining to do on why he is better than Osinbajo or any other South Westerner interested in the topmost position.

  • The role of Nigerian women in leadership

    By Okorie Joy

     

    The value placed on professional and personal life is crucial to effective leadership skills. Women lack the opportunity and support they need to compete with men in areas like politics. Voters also fail to understand the importance of having both men and women in government. This is evident in the 2015 Taraba state Gubernatorial election where Aisha Alhassan also known as ‘Mama Taraba’ the All Progressive Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate was elected as the first female governor of the state.

    The Appeal court later declared her election into the office as invalid by stating that the APC did not have jurisdiction over the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The federal government adopted a policy in 2000  known as ‘Nigeria Policy of Women’ to help ensure that women had equal opportunity as men to participate in government yet women are not given the opportunity to hold meaningful positions in government.

    Every organization needs a leader irrespective of the gender or age.  In working towards growth and development for a better Nigeria, women should be involved in leadership roles.  It is pertinent to note that leadership is not gender-specific, it is a set of qualities inherent or cultivated in people who develop themselves into great leaders and the ability to influence and persuade people to follow a particular course of action towards the realization of a goal.

    Over the years, women are not encouraged to take leadership roles as often as the male counterpart. However, they are gradually making their presence felt in health, education, administration, communication, engineering and entrepreneur to mention a few. These levels range from regional, national and global.

    Women are constantly evolving and reaching new millstones across a wide spectrum of human activities. Olajumoke Adenowo, Folake Solanke, Ire Aderinokun, Sarah Nnadzwa Jubril, Grace Alele Williama, Tara Fela Durotoye, Folorunsho Alakija, Folake Coker, Uche Eze Pedro, Kehinde Kamson, Chimamanda Adiche, Ndidi Okonkwo, and many others are examples of women who are making headway in leadership positions.

    It is no news that all qualities required for leadership in building a more sustainable future are feminine in nature. Women are flexible and empathetic. They are also good builders, good listeners, good communicators and emotionally intelligent. They encourage teamwork, lead by example and produce to reproduce the qualities for growth and development in any organisation. In all, women are all encompassing.  An organisation or society can not function effectively and efficiently without women participation.

    Women are weighty towards a better Nigeria. Their importance to the growth of any institution either society or organization can not be over emphasized. Many statistics show that organization led by women have better financial results.  Research shows that 65% of women in leadership positions are people who share their knowledge and connect with their colleagues to help the team and the business. Women may not always realize how poised for success they are in leadership roles but their potential and abilities are undeniable towards a better Nigeria.

    In today’s world, women are not so involved in leadership role and their impacts to some extent are trivial.  The role played by Nigerian women is all encompassing. Therefore, they should be encouraged to take up leadership roles to increase the pace of societal transformation at home and workplace thereby providing an integrated view of work and family. This will result in an engaging and promising personal and professional future for a better Nigeria.

  • Nigeria @ 59: The journey so far – Independence or in-dependence? 

    By Uche Okohu

    “To serve Nigeria with all my strength; to defend her unity; And uphold her honor and glory” These rhythmic words usually roll off the lips of many Nigerians whenever the annual celebration of Nigerian Independence Day is being held in memory of our past leaders or heroes who fought for the freedom of our great country from the British colonialists; a feat that was achieved on October 1, 1960 when Nigeria proclaimed her Independence from British rule.

    Many years before and after Nigeria gained her Independence and Republican status, our future seemed bright and promising with the likes of Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, and others at the helm of affairs, who had a good vision for this great country. Though there was a jostle for leadership position, our leaders back then believed they were laying a platform for the youths to be “leaders of tomorrow”.

    Nigeria have had different political leaders both in the immediate post-colonial era and the military era but since Nigeria independence to democracy till date, we have had no youth below the age of 40years in leadership positions instead it have been recycling of past leaders, men who are older than the country itself.

    Nigeria, a country with its population growing rate at 3.2% is presently estimated to have 190.8million people that are projected to increase to about 402 million in 2050; with the youths between the age grade of 18-40 years constituting the major percentage of Nigeria population.

    With this percentage of youth above, the country is expected to be very productive and be amongst the leaders of the world but we are ranked among the poor and developing countries despite our mocking status as ‘the giant of Africa’.

    With all these premises, the question of what the youths are doing readily comes to mind. The youths are the unemployed youngsters who are tagged as lazy by our president who is doing nothing or less to address the issue of unemployment that is increasing at an alarming rate.

    Even though the youths are lazy as they are branded, what is put in place for them to show their talents and skills. The youths complain about their unemployment, what giant efforts have the leaders made to address this problem, the people complain about the economy going from bad to worse, what has been done to alleviate it.

    Leadership is the inherent ability to rule, to manage the affairs of a particular place;It has to do with keeping abreast of the evolution of the world. Nigeria is not in tally with this evolution rather we are still revelling in the past with our ‘out dated, primeval and historic mentality’. We like to emulate the western world due to their advancements, but we do not emulate them well; especially their attitude towards leadership.

    Let us emulate the likes of France, New Zealand, Ireland or even Korea and the others in terms of quality leadership and bring our dear country to its supposed position globally. We ought to have achieved greater heights and grow past being regional giants to become at least close to being a giant of the world.

    59 years after the national flag was hoisted in celebration of Nigeria’s independence, we should evaluate the journey so far and ask ourselves these questions; what is our achievements, How much difference is there between now and then, Are there developments, if yes to what extent. Though, Nigeria celebrates her Independence annually, it is more of “In-dependence”; do we really have an independence from our colonial masters or are we in-dependence on our colonial masters, the Europeans.

    Co-existence is known to be a feature of a geographical entity which we possess as a country, but ours is slowly becoming dominance. We are influenced by the western world that it is seems like we are stylishly being sold into slavery again. Despite the fact that we are richly blessed with enough human and natural resources which are meant to be used for our growth and development as a country, the resources are not effectively and efficiently utilized while the development is stagnant.

    Instead, these resources are being controlled by a few who are using it to their interest and not public interest, while the country is in debt making it seem like we suffer from generational poverty.

    Where did it all go wrong, who is at fault; the leadership or those being led. Where are the youths who are believed to be the leaders of tomorrow, what is the interest of the youths in leadership positions, when would that “tomorrow” come? These questions should be answered if the country wants to experience the expected growth, let our tomorrow come by starting today.

    This is a clarion call for the evaluation of our achievements and progress.

  • Save Satellite Town

    After 59 years of existence as a country, Nigeria is supposed to be celebrating laudable legacies. But instead, she is bogged down by basic existential challenges. Unfortunately, some of these challenges are manmade, and unless we change the way we treat ourselves and our national assets, we may continue tottering on the brink, when our nation’s contemporaries are leapfrogging to conquer space.

    Last Saturday, while journeying to participate at the official visit of the Rotary District Governor of District 9110 Nigeria, Dr. Jide Akeredolu, to the Rotary Club of Satellite Town, a drive that should take less than twenty minutes from Festac Town to Satellite Town, in Lagos, turned into a nightmare, necessitating the abandonment of the vehicle I was driving at a filing station, after wasting hours behind trailers and articulated vehicles.

    As the Assistant District Governor, seconded to supervise the club, I had to ride a motorbike, to ensure my boss doesn’t get there before me. The District Governor on his part journeyed for hours trying to navigate his way to the venue. Without any notice, a major exit artery off the expressway into the Satellite Town was blocked by a caterpillar, forcing the governor to pass the exit-road leading to the venue of the event.

    While the service lane of the expressway from around Ojo barracks down to Festac 3rd gate, is a nightmare, the inner roads of Satellite Town is worse than a nightmare. It is hell on earth. All the inner roads are spectacles of craters and emergency ponds. Whether you are driving on the inner roads of the federal government owned estate or the nearby communities, you are bound to wonder whether that part of Lagos has been at war for decades.

    Embarrassingly, some of the nations that Nigeria rubbed shoulders with in the 1960s, after she gained independence from Great Britain have so much to show off each time they celebrate their independence anniversary. Whether in the economy, military, science or technology, many of them have made significant achievements, and some are rubbing shoulders with the first world countries in science and technology.

    If Nigeria cannot compete in science and technology, it should not be a laggard in maintaining motorable roads, which does not require much exertion. The present leaders should at least maintain the infrastructure developed when Nigeria had the resources from the oil boom, such as the Satellite Town. It should also worry about the public health challenges that come with motorist staying for hours on the traffic.

    If the federal government has abandoned the Satellite Town which it built, the Lagos state government and the local government that controls the area should not abandon the people in the estate and its environs. The level of neglect is so palpable that a visitor would think there is no government office within the estate. So, I was surprised that a local council area has its office within the estate, and yet the entire area is looking like a dungeon.

    But Satellite was not always like that. It was developed as an adjunct to the Festac Town built to host African Nations to the Festival of Arts and Culture in 1977, when our central bank was over flowing with foreign exchange. In a record time, the federal government built the famous Festac Town, where it quartered participants and treated them to a lavish party. Part of the benefit of the African party was arguably the best planned estate in Africa at a time.

    Since Nigeria was awash with petro dollars, the federal authorities decided to build an adjunct to that town. So, a smaller but equally well laid out town was built across the West African trans-highway leading to Benin Republic, which became known as the Satellite Town. That smaller town, though less sophisticated in planning and execution than Festac Town, hosts the Central Bank of Nigeria Estate and several other estates owned by major oil companies and other industries in the 1980s.

    It is inside these enormous housing estates and adjunct communities that the Rotary Club of Satellite Town is tucked in. As the District Governor Akeredolu noted during the club’s presentation of exercise books and grants to selected students of the Satellite senior secoundary and Navy Town senior secoundary schools last Saturday, the Satellite communities have the potential to host a large Rotary Club. But that is not the case, and there is no doubt that the decay of Satellite Town had affected the health of the club, founded in 1982.

    So, those who allowed the town to dilapidate have not only downgraded the quality of life in the estate, they are also denying the residents the benefits that could come from hosting a vibrant Rotary club with all the attendant benefits. To restore the lost glory, the federal government, owners of the major estate in the Satellite town must lead the way. They should be supported by the state and local council authorities, since the extensions have more or less interwoven with the original federal government estate.

    The local council authority should borrow a leaf from the Amuwo-Odofin local council, which maintains the inner roads in Festac Town, even though the estate is owned by the Federal Housing Authority, a federal government agency. A planned urban renewal program is an emergency that would do everybody a lot of good. Whether for the enhancement of the value of the huge investment in housing in the area, or the quality of life of the residents, or general public health, the three levels of government and the residents association should work together to renew Satellite Town.

    The Federal Ministry of Works, which behaves like an irresponsible landowner must mend its waywardness. While allowing the estate to become an eyesore, it still collects levies on transactions on properties it owns in the estate. It even collects development levy, yet there is no iota of development going on. Without equivocation, one can say that if those Africans who marveled at the   beauty of Festac and Satellite Towns when Nigeria showed off its economic prowess in 1977 and beyound should visit now, they will be ashamed at the level of decadence and backwardness of the estate.

    I urge all government authorities to emulate the Rotary Club of Satellite Town, led by Rotarian Vera Nwagu, who despite their environmental challenges, still find a place in their heart to engage in doing public good. Other public spirited individuals resident in Satellite Town and its environs must seek out where the club meets and join them. As one of the best managed international non-governmental organizations with enormous potentials, Rotary stands in good stead to show how to save Satellite Town.

  • Envisioning a new Nigeria at 59

    For those that witnessed our independence; their mind would be filled with crowded memories; memories of the projected destination envisaged. The memory of the attractive flowers of violet turned unattractive, the memory of kindness melting away, the memory of closely knitted cultures now faltering like a pack of cards…The memory of decorum turning delirium …

    Today the freedom we had has metamorphosed into distress; innocent people from the Northeast cannot sleep with one eye closed, the people in the Northwest are closely monitoring the activities of the bandits, the southern parts of Nigeria are beginning to witness the aftermath of lingering crisis in the north.

    Today the charming dinners we had is turning into harrowing dinners.

    Today what we have is the rich getting richer, the middle class are getting squeezed out and the poor are pregnant with triplet of anxiety, fear and hatred. These savage offspring are born daily and are dangling terror in most parts of the country.

    Today, the pattering rain of cash has dwindled and the glittering oil is shrinking yet the smoke of insecurity bellowed to every nook and cranny of the country.

    Today the descendants of the birds that squeaked on top of the treetops during our independence are howling for lack of food.

    Today, can our leaders look back and say they have fought a good fight without remorse for their past deeds? Today, can we sincerely say with confidence that our crop of youths are ready to take on the mantle of leadership?

    Today, the heir of the frogs that croaked are crying accent of mercy.

    Today we have the likes of typhoons, landslides and earthquakes that were once alien to us signaling the earth is changing. Today with the climate change, no one is sure of anything; it is a looming threat that we must be prepared for.

    Today the masses are clamoring for restructuring because of the present knotted structure.

    My eyes mist whenever I recite a phrase in our national anthem, the labor of our heroes past, shall never be in vain  and I pray that our fallen heroes’ effort shall not be in vain. On the other hand, I feel quite nostalgic for the recitation of O God of creation , Direct our noble Cause, Guide our leaders right , help our Youth the truth to know…but the questions is, are our youths dissecting the wheat from the chaff?

    How do the people living in the prone parts of the Northeast raise children when their environment is precarious and their future uncertain?

    It’s unfortunate to say that our preceding sailors who were supposed to sail us safely to our projected destination were struck by strong wind and we have since being sailing on turbulent waters.

    The probing question is, when did we get it all wrong? We cannot look back further than after the oil was discovered in Oloibiri in the now Bayelsa State. Like a pirouette dance, oil money started to flow and we forgot about streams of resources at our beck and call. Today, oil extraction remains the biggest divider among us yet a unifying factor. The rubber plantation was not in short supply, cocoa money performed wonders and groundnut pyramids reached the sky.  We should not forget at this period we had vegetables, lemons, cassava, cotton, coffee, papayas, and hibiscus, among others with a congenial weather to go with it. What other things could we have asked for?

    As we celebrate our independence today, it is a period of reflection where the affluence in our midst  who lives in an environment where they don’t have to think of electricity bill, they don’t have to think of what to eat, they don’t have to think of  what to wear, and don’t have to think of where to lay their heads think of the poor who are married to squalor living in a place they don’t want to live, a place surrounded by roaches, smells of urine billowing  from the backyards as if they are back-tracked to eight decades ago where all that were available were free range of toilets in the backyard. Some of them sleep on pallets and do not need repellant to keep rats away from romancing their toes at night… poverty.

    According to the Nigeria Economic Report released in July by the World Bank, poverty still remains significant at 33.1% in Nigeria as half of the population are now living in degrading poverty. There have been steps at poverty alleviation, for instance, in 1972, National Accelerated Food production programme and the Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank was created. In 1976, Operation Feed the Nation; it was to teach the farmers how to use modern farming tools. In 1979, Green Revolution Programme came on board where emphasis was laid on reducing food importation and increase local food production. In 1986, the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI)  was established by General Babangida administration  to tackle the issue of rural development and rural transformation. That same year, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) was created. In 1993, Family Support Programme  and the Family Economic Advancement Programme was established. The National Agricultural Land Development Agency (NALDA), the Rural Employment Programme (REP) were also established. Today the federal government has continued to roll out efforts at ameliorating poverty in the country with the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP),the N-Power programme designed to reduce youth unemployment with focus on young-graduates and non-graduates with skills, tools and livelihood to enable them advance from unemployment to employment, entrepreneurship and innovation. Despite all these efforts, there is still a lot of work to be done.

    What is the missing link?

    The developed world are talking about electric cars, artificial intelligence decentralization, Crptocurrencies, the semantic web linked data, block-chain technology, renewable energy, self-driving cars among others. A developing country like Nigeria is still talking about building good roads, provision of electricity, telephone and water supply. We are highly religious country waiting for God to solve all our problems. We are always gazing skyward to receive everything from Him. We seem helpless and hapless; frightened like chicken who heard the roar of the wind, flapped, squawked and hid under decrepit barnyard. We pile up debt for our children’s children instead of riches. It’s unfortunate that we don’t truly know what we are capable of achieving if we put our act together.

    Until we begin to harness our true potential, until we begin to design reality rather than merely reacting to it, until will do away with standards and structures that are absurdly ambiguous and riddled with loopholes, we will continue to dance around the question unanswered.

    It is my staunch belief that Nigerians are an incredibly talented people. Give them lemons and they will make lemonade. My question to you as we celebrate independence today is that when a story of Nigeria is being told, will yours be a tale of selflessness or selfishness?

    • Anjorin writes from Lagos.